RTHK: World leaders pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth World leaders paid homage to Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday, after she died aged 96 in her Scottish summer residence following nearly a year of ailing health. Here are some of the tributes to Britain's longest-serving monarch, who is also head of state in 14 Commonwealth countries around the world: - 'Grace, dignity, and dedication' - At the United Nations, the Security Council honored her passing Thursday with a minute of silence. Queen Elizabeth had been "widely admired for her grace, dignity and dedication around the world. She was a reassuring presence throughout decades of sweeping change," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. - 'Constant presence in our lives' - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Elizabeth, who was head of state of Canada, will "forever remain an important part" of the country's history. "She was a constant presence in our lives -- and her service to Canadians will forever remain an important part of our country's history," he said. In another key member of the British Commonwealth, Australia's Prime Minster Anthony Albanese -- an avowed republican -- paid tribute to her "timeless decency" and said her death marked the "end of an era." "Australian hearts go out to the people of the United Kingdom," Albanese said. "An historic reign and a long life devoted to duty, family, faith and service has come to an end." The smallest members of the Commonwealth also paid their respects. David Burt, premier of the tiny island of Bermuda, which is still a British overseas territory, hailed her "life of undimmed duty," adding that she was also "a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother and her family is now mourning that loss." - 'Unmatched dignity and constancy - US President Joe Biden called her the first British monarch to make a personal connection with people around the world, as he ordered flags at the White House and government buildings flown at half-staff in her honor. "Queen Elizabeth II was a stateswoman of unmatched dignity and constancy who deepened the bedrock alliance between the United Kingdom and the United States. She helped make our relationship special," he said. - The pope prays - In the Vatican, Pope Francis said he was "deeply saddened" by her death and would pray for the late queen as well as her son, the new King Charles III. - 'Elizabeth the Steadfast' - Leaders of the European Union expressed regret at the death of the queen, who was head of state throughout Britain's entire EU membership and eventual departure. "Once called 'Elizabeth the Steadfast', she never failed to show us the importance of lasting values in a modern world with her service and commitment," said EU council president Charles Michel. - Fellow monarchs - Philippe, King of the Belgians and who has a close family link to the British aristocracy, hailed the queen as "an extraordinary personality." "The United Kingdom has lost an exceptional monarch who left a deep mark on history," the Belgian palace said in a statement. King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, Queen Maxima and Princess Beatrix called her "steadfast and wise." "We feel a strong bond with the United Kingdom and its royal family, and we share their sorrow at this time. We are very grateful for our countries' close friendship, to which Queen Elizabeth made such an unforgettable contribution," they said. King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden called her "a good friend of my family and a link to our common family history." While Spanish King Felipe VI said she "wrote the most relevant chapters of history." - 'Remarkable friend' - Ireland's President Michael Higgins called Queen Elizabeth II "a remarkable friend" who had "great impact on the bonds of mutual understanding between our two peoples". "As we offer our condolences to all our neighbours in the United Kingdom, following the loss of a remarkable friend of Ireland, we remember the role Queen Elizabeth played in celebrating the warm and enduring friendship" between both countries, he said. Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon, who supports independence for Scotland from the rest of Britain, called her death "a profoundly sad moment for the UK, the Commonwealth and the world." "On behalf of the people of Scotland, I convey my deepest condolences to The King and the Royal Family," Sturgeon said. - 'Inspiring leadership' - Accolades also poured in from South Asia, where Britain was the colonial power up until just before Elizabeth's reign began. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was "pained" by her death. Queen Elizabeth "provided inspiring leadership to her nation and people", Modi tweeted, adding she "personified dignity and decency in public life". In Pakistan, President Arif Alvi hailed Queen Elizabeth as a "great and beneficent ruler." She "would be remembered in golden words in the annals of world history," he said. - 'Marked her century'- French President Emmanuel Macron hailed the queen as "a friend of France... who marked her country and her century as never before". "Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II embodied continuity and unity in the British nation for more than 70 years," the French leader tweeted. Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said she "guaranteed stability in moments of crisis and kept alive the value of tradition in a society in constant and profound evolution." (AFP) This story has been published on: 2022-09-08. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. 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 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. By Suchitra Mohanty NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to a journalist two years after he was arrested on accusations of incitement and terrorism while reporting on the alleged rape of a young woman whose death sparked nationwide protests. Siddique Kappan, a journalist from the southern state of Kerala, and three co-accused were arrested while on the way to report from the site of the alleged rape in Hathras district, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, in October 2020. Prosecution for the state of Uttar Pradesh said they were travelling with an intention to incite violence and were collecting funds to run a website full of misinformation. The top court granted bail to Kappan after observing that no formal charges were filed against him and a document named "Toolkit" recovered by the state police only propagated a call for justice in the rape case. Kappan's lawyers have said that no evidence was produced in support of the allegations made against him, according to media reports. A Supreme Court bench chaired by the Chief Justice of India observed during the hearing that every person had the freedom to express their views on the justice delivery system. "Sometimes protests are necessary as there are some deficiencies," Justice S Ravindra Bhat, one of the judges in the bench, said. The top court directed Kappan to remain in New Delhi for six weeks after which he can move to his home state Kerala. (Reporting by Suchitra Mohanty in New Delhi, writing by Shivam Patel, Editing by William Maclean) Intel is expected to announce that it has distributed nearly $18 million to colleges and universities in Ohio to start education and workforce development programs focused on semiconductors as part of President Bidens visit to the groundbreaking of a new factory on Friday, according to a senior White House official. The official said Intel will announce that $17.7 million has gone to colleges and universities as part of a planned $50 million grant program that will invest in education and research programs in Ohio. This includes partnering with community colleges across Ohio, the states oldest historically Black university, and other institutions to train thousands of workers to work in Ohios growing semiconductor industry, the senior White House official said. Biden is traveling to Ohio Friday to deliver remarks at the groundbreaking of a new Intel semiconductor manufacturing plant outside of Columbus and highlight the impact of a bipartisan law passed earlier this year that directs $52 billion to the domestic semiconductor industry. The groundbreaking of the factory had initially been planned for July, but Intel delayed it amid uncertainty over whether the chips legislation would pass. The Senate and House finally hammered out an agreement on the legislative text that passed both chambers over the summer and Biden signed it into law in August. The law, formally known as the CHIPS and Science Act, provides $52 billion in grants and other incentives for the domestic semiconductor industry. The bill also boosts funding for the National Science Foundation, which is matching a separate $50 million pledge from Intel for a national funding initiative for education and workforce programs. The chips law is one of a handful of accomplishments that Biden will promote in the coming weeks as he traverses the country ahead of the November midterm elections. In traveling to Ohio, Biden will visit a state that twice voted for former President Trump and looks increasingly red. But Democrats are focused on a number of important races in the state, not least of them is the contest to fill the Senate seat being vacated by outgoing GOP Sen. Rob Portman (Ohio). Polls show Democratic nominee Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) with an edge over Republican nominee J.D. Vance, but the race is expected to be tight. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland's deputy prime minister said on Friday that coalition leaders will shortly discuss how Dublin might remain as chair of the influential Eurogroup of euro zone finance ministers ahead of a cabinet reshuffle. The reshuffle could see current Eurogroup chief Paschal Donohoe moved from Ireland's finance ministry, complicating his hopes of a second term after a two-and-a-half year term at the helm of the European Union's most powerful economic policy-setting body. The Eurogroup played a key role coordinating policy during the financial crises of the last decade, ultimately helping to avoid the collapse of the common currency, and holding the chair has added to Ireland's influence in the bloc. Deputy Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said he would soon begin talking with coalition partners about how Ireland could keep leading the group. "I would be just stating a fact in saying the presidency of the Eurogroup is probably the most important position that any Irish man of woman holds at the moment in the world... I don't think there's a country in Europe that wouldn't like to get that role from us if they could," Varadkar told the Newstalk radio station. "I haven't had this conversation yet with the Taoiseach (prime minister) or the leader of the Green Party. I need to have that conversation with them (and) I will in due course," Varadkar said. The leader of Donohoe's Fine Gael party, Varadkar will become prime minister in December and although not part of the published rotation deal, current premier Micheal Martin's Fianna Fail party expects to take over the finance ministry. That would likely mean Donohoe switching roles with public expenditure minister Michael McGrath. Fine Gael and Fianna Fail were fierce rivals for decades before agreeing to go into government together for the first time in 2020, meaning the politics around sharing senior government portfolios is a delicate one. A Fianna Fail member of the upper house of parliament said last month that if the role of Eurogroup chair is "as important as Fine Gael seem to suggest", then they should scrap the rotation plan and let Martin continue as prime minister. (Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel) PANAMA CITY Though Eastern Shipbuilding was not awarded a massive U.S. Coast Guard contract earlier this year, officials say it still has enough future work to support a large new wave of workers. According to Joey D'Isernia, president of the company, the Panama City shipbuilder is gearing up to hire almost 300 new employees to fill 70 corporate positions and 226 craft positions. Eastern Shipbuilding President Joey D'Isernia, left, said his company is looking to hire almost 300 new employees to fill 70 corporate positions and 226 craft positions. "We currently have projects that extend for several years and will continue to add new projects to our docket," D'Isernia wrote in an email. "We are pursuing exciting opportunities in the commercial and government spaces that will enable us to continue to diversify and grow. "Eastern Shipbuilding Group as a small business is putting this community on the map for its excellence in manufacturing and defense." 'Extremely disappointed': Eastern Shipbuilding loses $3 billion Coast Guard contract Protest over decision: Eastern Shipbuilding lodges federal protest for $3 billion U.S. Coast Guard contract Future and ongoing work at Eastern Shipbuilding Ongoing work at the company includes a contract to build the first four ships in the Coast Guard's Offshore Patrol Cutters Program, a $10.5 billion project to construct 25 ships. OPCs are vessels designed to navigate deep waters for up to 60 days. D'Isernia noted Eastern's first OPC is about 75% complete, its second is about 50% complete and its third is 25% complete. Work has not yet started on the fourth ship. In June, Eastern lost the rights to the next 11 ships in the program to Austal USA, an Alabama shipbuilder that is a subsidiary of Australian-based Austal Limited. The more than $3 billion contract, which guarantees years of work, was to build ships five through 15 of the program. Eastern has appealed the Coast Guard's decision to select Austal USA, and the U.S. Government Accountability Office has until October to make a ruling. Eastern Shipbuilding in Panama City currently has the rights to build four offshore patrol cutters for the U.S. Coast Guard. New craftsmen could expect to earn up to $80,000 a year The majority of Eastern's new positions will help construct the company's already awarded OPCs, D'Isernia said. Others will be hired to support commercial projects at Eastern's Allanton and Port St. Joe Shipyards. This includes a 300-foot ferry that the local shipbuilder was contracted to construct for McAllister Towing and Transportation, a marine transportation company based in New York. Story continues Eastern is looking to fill craft positions with employees skilled in operations, engineering, welding, electrical, pipefitting and mechanics. It also is looking for candidates with administrative and project management experience for its corporate positions. While there are a variety of positions available, D'Isernia said new craftsmen could expect to earn up to $80,000 a year. The company also offers health, vision and dental insurance, along with retirement plans, paid time off and regular bonuses. Eastern has about 1,500 employees, making it the largest private employer in Bay and Gulf counties. "We are hiring as fast as we can find qualified candidates for both hourly and salaried positions," D'Isernia wrote. "These new positions will help us continue to successfully execute the OPC program for the U.S. Coast Guard and deliver shipbuilding excellence to our customers." This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Eastern Shipbuilding in Panama City to hire almost 300 new employees Jobbatical -- which specializes in relocating workers and whose business has seen an uplift in the post-pandemic work environments as so many workers become "digital nomads" -- has raised an 11.6 million funding round, led by Nordic VC Inventure. Additional investors included Union Square Ventures, Swiss Post Ventures, Karma VC, Metaplanet, Devotion Ventures, and angel investors Kristel Kruustuk, Indrek Prants, Andres Kull, and former head of Airbnb Experiences Joe Zadeh. As the world becomes fully paperless in terms of migration, Jobbatical is well placed to take advantage of a world previously dominated by the likes of Deloitte and others. Jobbatical manages employee relocations, in particular for high-growth tech and fintech companies like N26, TravelPerk and Personio. Around 1 in 30 people move internationally annually. The company says its experienced 8x ARR growth in the past 12 months and 19x MRR growth in Germany, while also getting to cash flow and EBITDA positive, it claims. Joe Zadeh, angel investor and former head of Airbnb Experiences, said in a statement: When my family was relocating internationally the process was confusing and required several months of administrative hurdles. When I learned about Jobbatical, I was compelled by their progress on making the whole process extremely simple. This will be great for companies since crossing country borders brings in new perspectives and gives employees far more flexibility. Founded by Estonian entrepreneurs and siblings Karoli and Ronald Hindriks, and Ankur Agarwal, Jobbatical pivoted from recruitment toward streamlining employee relocation and immigration processes. Karoli Hindriks told me via email: The exciting part about our market is that a lot of it is being created as we speak. On top of the traditional relocation, the number of digital nomad employees exploded post-pandemic. Never in human history have people moved as much as they do today and the needs are very different from traditional relocation. I call this new market borderless living technology and we are helping to create it. Within the three years since we pivoted, with just 2 million we have built by far the most scalable product in our industry and we can start a new country on the platform within a day with zero code. In addition, we have automated the most crucial steps of relocation from the automated case assessment to form filling and can seamlessly adapt that to every new country within days. That is why with this Series A we are able to expand to thirty new countries in the next 24 months, she added. The Daily Beast Chris Jackson/WPA Pool/GettyRoyalist is The Daily Beasts newsletter for all things royal and Royal Family. Subscribe here to get it in your inbox every Sunday.Ever since a distraught Prince Harry was photographed sweeping into the gates of Balmoral Castle, alone, several hours after the queen had died, and being driven out again at 8:30 a.m. the following morning, similarly alone, to catch a scheduled British Airways flight back to London, the question of what actually happened that night has l LAS CRUCES A judge dismissed a prosecutor's request to hold in a man in jail accused of burglary after his lawyer pointed out the motion was improperly served. Stephen Gregory Smith, 21, stands charged with two counts of burglary of a vehicle, three counts of auto burglary, two counts of burglary of a dwelling house, two counts of unlawful taking of a motor vehicle, and two counts of conspiracy to commit a fourth-degree felony. According to a criminal complaint and attached affidavit, police believe Smith burglarized cars at the same residence twice. In the petition requesting a judge hold Smith in jail, prosecutors said that the victims were "extremely fearful" that Smith might burglarize the residence a third time. Smith's case presented an abnormal situation. Typically, the 3rd Judicial District Attorney's Office requests a judge to hold a defendant only in the event of a violent crime. Accusations of rape, murder or assault typically lead prosecutors to file pretrial detention requests while things like property crimes do not. That's because prosecutors must prove to a judge that the defendant is dangerous to the community and the people involved in the case. Then, prosecutors must prove to the judge that no conditions of release such as cash bail or an ankle monitor could ensure the public's safety. It's not entirely clear what prosecutors planned to argue in Smith's case. In their petition, prosecutors said that Smith had picked up four separate felony cases in the last six months. However, court filings show that those cases involved allegations of non-violent crimes, including credit card theft, car burglary and shoplifting. Court records also show that prosecutors dismissed all those cases against Smith except for the shoplifting case. But prosecutors never got the chance to argue. Sarah Parker, a public defender representing Smith, told the judge that prosecutors incorrectly filed the petition. Then, Parker said that prosecutors incorrectly filed the petition a second time. Finally, Parker said that prosecutors failed to promptly provide her and her client with copies of the petition. Story continues George Harrison, an assistant district attorney, provided no argument to counter Parker, leading 3rd Judicial District Judge Douglas Driggers to dismiss the motion before any arguments on dangerousness and conditions of release could be heard. Once the case returns to the magistrate court, Smith will be granted release by a magistrate judge per New Mexico law. Justin Garcia is a public saftey reporter for the Las Cruces Sun-News. He can be reached at JEGarcia@LCsun-news.com This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Judge dismisses request to jail burglary suspect A federal judge has tossed a lawsuit Donald Trump filed against Hillary Clintonin March, accusing Clinton and other high-profile Democrats of orchestrating a malicious conspiracy by linking his 2016 presidential campaign to Russian meddling in the election. In a Thursday ruling, U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks ripped the suit as a legally deficient two-hundred-page political manifesto that Trumps lawyers couldnt even present in a concise and cohesive manner. Middlebrooks wrote: What the [lawsuit] lacks in substance and legal support it seeks to substitute with length, hyperbole, and the settling of scores and grievances. He added that the court is not the appropriate forum for Trumps complaint, which was rife with glaring problems and claims not warranted under existing law. Whats more, Middlebrooks found that many of Trumps claims were unsubstantiated at best. Many of the amended complaints characterizations of events are implausible, he wrote, because they lack any specific allegations which might provide factual support for the conclusions reached. Trump sought upwards of $21 million in damages, at one point asking for more than $72 million. Despite repeated denials of what he calls the Russia hoax, multiple investigations found that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election to hurt Clinton and aid Trump. At one point, Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort even shared internal Trump campaign polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian intelligence officer. Manafort was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison in 2019 after pleading guilty to conspiracy against the U.S. and another of conspiracy to obstruct justice. Trump pardoned him after he lost the 2020 election. Many of the accusations in Trumps 108-page lawsuit had already been debunked in a 2020 bipartisan report from the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee. Trump attorney Alina Habba told CNN they planned to appeal the ruling. Story continues We vehemently disagree with the opinion issued by the court today, Habba said in a statement. Not only is it rife with erroneous applications of the law, it disregards the numerous independent governmental investigations which substantiate our claim that the defendants conspired to falsely implicate our client and undermine the 2016 presidential election. This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. Related... Supreme Court Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch. Jabin Botsford - Pool/Getty Images Justice Neil Gorsuch condemned the leak of the Supreme Court draft abortion opinion. He said he hopes a report on the investigation will come "soon." "I very much hope we get to the bottom of this sooner or later," Gorsuch said. Associate Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, who was part of the conservative majority that overturned Roe v. Wade in June, said he's anticipating a report on the investigation into the leaked draft opinion on that abortion rights case. "The chief justice appointed an internal committee to oversee the investigation," Gorsuch told the 10th Circuit Bench and Bar Conference in Colorado on Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported. "That committee has been busy and we're looking forward to their report, I hope soon." The unprecedented leak of a draft Supreme Court majority opinion shocked the nation in May, roughly a month before the court was due to release its final ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. At the time, Chief Justice John Roberts condemned the leak and directed the court marshal to launch an investigation. Gorsuch similarly denounced the leak during his remarks on Thursday, calling efforts to influence decision-making a "threat" to the judicial process, per the WSJ. "I very much hope we get to the bottom of this sooner or later," Gorsuch said. Gorsuch did not say whether the report will be made public. The Supreme Court's public information office did not immediately return Insider's request for comment. The draft opinion showed the court was poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that established the constitutional right to abortion nearly 50 years ago. The court's conservative justices overturned it in the final decision handed down on June 24. Read the original article on Business Insider Sep. 8A Kalispell woman accused of wiring dirty money overseas during a roughly five year span pleaded guilty in federal court Sept. 7 to a charge of unlicensed money transmitting business. Theresa Anne Chabot, 57, was initially indicted on 30 charges, including conspiracy to commit money laundering, 17 counts of money laundering promotion and 11 counts of money laundering spending. In a press release announcing Chabot's plea change, officials said the remaining 29 charges were dismissed. Chabot, who struck a plea deal with prosecutors, faces up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release for running an unlicensed money transmitting business. Under the terms of the deal, Chabot also must pay $5.2 million in restitution and forfeit a 2021 Chevrolet Tahoe. Her sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 5. She has been released in the meantime, officials said. Starting in 2016 or 2017, Chabot allegedly began collecting money from wire fraud schemes across the country through her business, Avalanche Creek LLC, according to court documents. Those gambits included advance pay, investment and romance schemes as well as internet-enabled, lottery and Covid-19 funding frauds, authorities alleged. Using Avalanche Creek LLC, Chabot transferred the illicitly-earned money overseas in exchange for a commission, becoming what is known as a "money mule." Her commission at times reached 10 percent of the amount shipped outside of the U.S. During that period, she opened more than 50 bank accounts and continued doing so even as banks shut them down for fraudulent activity, officials said. The FBI investigated the case in cooperation with IRS Criminal Investigations. News Editor Derrick Perkins can be reached at 758-4430 or dperkins@dailyinterlake.com. SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has suggested that the isolated country could begin COVID-19 vaccinations in November, state media reported on Friday. In a speech on Thursday to the North Korean national assembly, Kim cited World Health Organization warnings that the winter could see a resurgence in coronavirus infections. Therefore, along with responsible vaccination, we should recommend that all residents wear masks to protect their health from November," he said, without elaborating. North Korea has not confirmed administering any COVID-19 vaccinations, although customs records show that it has imported some unspecified vaccines from China this year. Last month Kim declared victory over COVID-19 and ordered the lifting of maximum anti-epidemic measures imposed in May though adding that North Korea must maintain a steel-strong anti-epidemic barrier." North Korea has never confirmed how many people caught COVID, apparently because it lacks the means to conduct widespread testing. Instead, it has reported daily numbers of patients with fever, a tally that rose to some 4.77 million, out of an estimated population of about 25 million. But it has registered no new such cases since July 29, and says its death toll stands at 74. Experts, including the WHO, have cast doubt on those numbers, citing an apparent lack of testing capacity in North Korea. (Reporting by Josh Smith; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan) Kim Kardashian and North West at Paris Fashion Week July 2022. Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images Kim Kardashian said that her children were part of the reason that she decided to pursue law. Kardashian is studying to become a lawyer, and passed the California "baby bar" in December 2021. She said that her kids "don't have as good of a chance" if they were arrested, compared to white children. Kim Kardashian said that her children were part of the reason that she decided to pursue law because her kids didn't stand "as good of a chance" as white children if they were to ever be arrested. Speaking to Hillary and Chelsea Clinton on their Apple TV+ series "Gutsy," Kardashian explained why she decided to pursue her law studies. The entrepreneur said her four children whom she shares with Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, were part of that decision. "My kids were there every time I opened my results," Kardashian said, referencing the "baby bar" law exam that she failed three times before passing in December 2021. "They saw me cry the best tears of happiness that like, I did it. I mean, that is one of the reasons that I just fight so hard. Because my kids, if they were to get arrested, just don't have as good of a chance if I were to get arrested, if you were to get arrested." "Or my kids," Chelsea replied. "My white kids." Related video: The moment Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed to Supreme Court Kardashian shares four children with Ye: North, 9, Saint, 6, Chicago, 4, and Psalm, 3. In 2017, Kardashian told Janet Mock for Interview Magazine that she was "very conscious" of the fact that she was raising a biracial Black daughter, and speaks with her children and her family's children about race. Kardashian has also previously spoken about her children motivating her legal career. In 2020, per People, she said in the March 2020 issue of CR Fashion Book that "raising four Black kids in this society" was part of the reason that she was pursuing law. "Our system is so discriminatory against Black and brown people," Kardashian said. "I want to do as much as I can to make their lives easier." The "baby bar" that Kardashian passed in 2021 is the first of two exams that she needs to pass to become a lawyer, and she'll eventually have to take the California state bar exam, USA Today reported. Her legal advocacy has focused predominately on prison and criminal justice reform. Read the original article on Insider Climate Change. Get the latest. Outspoken about the "existential" threat posed by climate change when he was Prince of Wales, King Charles III on Friday seemed to signal an effective end to his decades-long public advocacy for lowering greenhouse gas emissions, which are warming global temperatures. In his first speech as king, Charles pledged to uphold the constitutional principles that kept the sovereign, including his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, from weighing in on what could be seen as political matters. "My life will of course change as I take up my new responsibilities," Charles said in his videotaped speech. "It will no longer be possible to give so much of my time and energies to the charities and issues for which I cared so deeply, but I know this important work will go on in the trusted hands of others." King Charles III delivers an address from Buckingham Palace, London, on Friday. (Yui Mok/Pool via Reuters) For more than 40 years, Charles had championed environmental causes, including the need to transition the global economy off of fossil fuels so as to avert a climate catastrophe. In November, at the start of COP 26, the United Nations climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland, Charles said climate change was an "existential threat to the extent that we have to put ourselves on what might be called a war-like footing" and called on world governments to begin "radically transforming our current fossil fuel based economy to one that is genuinely renewable and sustainable." Three months later, however, Russia launched its own war on Ukraine, disrupting oil and gas supplies for Europe and the U.K. in the process and throwing the British government's pledge of reaching net zero greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050 into doubt. With Russia cutting off deliveries of natural gas, the continent is bracing for an energy crisis that will send energy prices skyrocketing during the cold winter months and cause governments to resume oil exploration and using coal at a time when climate scientists have warned that mankind needs to immediately transition to renewable sources of energy or face dire consequences such as those witnessed this summer in places like Pakistan, the Horn of Africa, Europe and the American West. Story continues On Thursday, newly appointed Prime Minister Liz Truss announced measures to try to blunt the impact of skyrocketing energy prices over the coming months, including lifting a ban on hydraulic fracking and green-lighting new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea. She has also appointed Jacob Rees-Mogg, who environmental activists call a climate science denier, to oversee the country's energy sector. In 2020, Charles addressed the World Economic Forum, calling for "a shift in our economic model that places nature and the world's transition to net zero at the heart of how we operate." Needless to say, a continued reliance on oil was not exactly what Charles had in mind. The king, being a symbolic figure who is not elected, has no control over the government's policies, however. Truss also named Ranil Jayawardena, who has spoken out against the installation of solar farms on agricultural land, as environment secretary. Over the years, Charles has been a champion of solar power, winning approval in 2021 to install panels atop London's Clarence House, his former residence, and praising India's expansion of solar capacity. Charles had delivered countless speeches on addressing climate change, written books on the topic and had made the issue central to his role as Prince of Wales. That decision also earned him ample criticism from those who saw his activism as overstepping the bounds of the monarchy. In his Friday speech, the new king did not mention the words "climate change," and that, in and of itself, spoke volumes. Britain's King Charles III delivers his address to the nation and the Commonwealth from Buckingham Palace, London, Friday, Sept. 9, 2022, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday. Yui Mok/Pool Photo via AP King Charles III delivered his first speech as monarch on Friday. Placed next to him was a photo of his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, smiling. He paid tribute to the Queen and spoke about his new role as king. King Charles III delivered his first speech as the monarch of the United Kingdom Friday and by his side was a photo of his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, smiling in a bright blue outfit. The pre-recorded speech took place at Buckingham Palace less than a day after the death of the Queen and the end of her 70-year reign. "Queen Elizabeth's was a life well lived, a promise with destiny kept and she is mourned most deeply in her passing," Charles III, 73, said during the speech. "That promise of life-long service I renew to you all today." Charles III pledged himself "throughout the remaining time God grants me, to uphold the constitutional principles at the heart of our nation." Charles III was at Balmoral in Scotland on Thursday, where the Queen died after doctors expressed concerns over her health that morning. On Friday, he arrived in London for his first full day as monarch, shaking hands with those in the crowds that had gathered outside of Buckingham Palace. "To my darling mama, as you begin your last great journey to join my dear late papa, I want simply to say this: thank you," the king said at the end of his speech. "Thank you for your love and devotion to our family and to our family of nations you have served so diligently all these years. May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest." King Charles confirmed that his son, Prince William, will succeed him as Duke of Cornwall and said he is "proud to create him Prince of Wales." Kate has been named Princess of Wales, the same title used by William's mother, Diana. He also said he wants "to express my love for Harry and Meghan as they continue to build their lives overseas." Charles III's other son, Prince Harry, left the royal family along with Meghan Markle nearly two years ago. Read the original article on Insider King Charles III greets mourners when arriving at Buckingham Palace in London, Friday, Sept. 9, 2022. AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth King Charles III greeted mourners outside of Buckingham Palace when he arrived Friday. Many people in the crowd wanted to shake hands or take photos, but one woman gave the King a kiss and another gave him flowers. His mother, Queen Elizabeth II, died Thursday at 96 years old, making her eldest son the king effective immediately. King Charles III greeted mourners outside of Buckingham Palace as he returned to London following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. The Queen died Thursday at her residence in Balmoral at the age of 96. Hoards of mourners gathered outside of Buckingham Palace to greet the new King before his arrival Friday morning. Cheers erupted from the crowd as his car pulled up to the palace and some chanted "God Save the King" as Charles and Queen Consort Camilla got out of their vehicle. Charles then went straight to the public, shaking hands with and speaking to mourners who had gathered. While most people simply shook hands with or took photos and videos of the King, one woman leaned down and gave Charles a kiss on his hand. Another woman handed Charles a bouquet of flowers. One man tried to hand Charles a microphone for an interview, but his security team wouldn't allow it. Charles took time to have small conversations with some in the crowd. Camilla did not accompany the king during his walk along the crowd. She joined him again, though, when he reached the gates of the Palace, where they took in the hundreds of flowers and condolences laid at the gates. The pair then walked together into Buckingham Palace. Read the original article on Insider IRYNA BALACHUK FRIDAY, 9 SEPTEMBER 2022, 13:33 Dmitry Peskov, the press-secretary of the President of Russia, refused to comment on the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the occupied territories of Ukraine and re-addressed this question to Russias Ministry of Defence. Source: Russian Kremlin-aligned information agency RIA Novosti Quote by Peskov: "The progress of the special military operation is an issue my colleague [the official representative of the Ministry of Defence of Russia Igor] Konashenkov will comment on". Details: Peskov also ignored the question whether the Putin administration is concerned with the current situation and recommended the reporters to turn to the Ministry of Defence of Russia. Background: The Armed Forces of Ukraine started a counteroffensive in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine. On 8 September, it became known that the Defence Forces of Ukraine had already reclaimed more than 700 square kilometres on the Kharkiv and Pivdennyi Buh fronts. On 8 September, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the President of Ukraine, confirmed the information that army units liberated the city of Balakliia in Kharkiv Oblast. Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron. By Simon Lewis BRUSSELS (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Brussels on Friday after a visit to Kyiv, as Washington seeks to strengthen unity as Europe faces a winter of raised energy costs. Blinken met NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and ambassadors from the alliance, in part to report back from his trip, on which he pledged new military aid and was briefed on Ukraine's counteroffensive against Russian forces. A senior State Department official said ahead of the visit to Brussels that it was part of the "constant gardening" the Biden administration has been doing to maintain unity among European nations. Some analysts say the shortages and a surge in living costs as winter approaches risk sapping Western support for Kyiv as governments try to deal with disgruntled populations. "President Putin thought that he could divide and weaken NATO. Today, the alliance is stronger, more unified and better resourced that ever before," Blinken said at a news conference following the meetings. Stoltenberg said pressure on energy supplies and the soaring cost of living would test "our unity and solidarity." "But the price we pay is measured in money, while the price Ukrainians are paying is measured in lives, lost lives every day," he said. Moscow has cited Western sanctions and technical issues for the energy disruptions. European countries who have backed Kyiv with diplomatic and military support have accused Russia of weaponising energy supplies. European Union energy ministers were also meeting in Brussels on Friday over whether to cap Russian gas prices in hopes of shielding citizens and businesses from sky-high energy bills. Blinken, in Poland, said he was confident Europe would take decisive action to get rid of what he called the "chokehold that Russia has on Europe" through gas supplies. Standing up to Moscow over Ukraine "comes with costs, but the cost of inaction, of not doing anything, of allowing this to go forward, would be far greater," Blinken said earlier on Friday. (Reporting by Simon Lewis, Editing by Louise Heavens) A Japanese language school in Japan was decertified after one of its staff chained and padlocked a Vietnamese student for hours last year. The Nishinihon International Education Institute in the southwestern city of Fukuoka has been removed from the nations immigration agencys list of approved schools, the Immigration Services Agency announced on Wednesday. The agency noted that a staff member physically restrained a Vietnamese student in his 20s in a teachers room for several hours in October last year. The incident reportedly occurred when the student expressed his desire to transfer to another school. The teacher allegedly hooked a chain around his belt and the students before padlocking the chain. More from NextShark: Bay Area rising star athlete drowns after Fourth of July boating accident in Lake Tahoe When he was eventually allowed to return to his dormitory, the staff member also allegedly stood guard outside his room until the next morning to prevent him from escaping. The school has since admitted to the incident, and the staff member involved has already resigned. However, they described the behavior as a prank without bad intentions. The school is currently in the process of appealing the ruling. More from NextShark: North Carolina Cheerleader Killed by the Flu in Just 3 Days Without certification, the language school will be unable to admit foreign students for five years. The agency said the school has been instructed to assist 630 foreign students currently enrolled in transferring to other schools. Featured Image via FLY:D More from NextShark: Indian mother chops off boyfriends penis after catching him trying to sexually assault her daughter Enjoy this content? Read more from NextShark! Taiwan premier orders government investigation of Taiwanese Olympian who wore Chinese uniform The flag of Ukraine in Balaklia, August 8 Read also: Assessment of recently liberated Ukrainian settlements The posted footage shows Ukrainian service members standing against the background of the flag of Ukraine in Balakliya, with a Russian tricolor under their feet. "The city of Balakliya in Kharkiv Oblast is under (Ukrainian) control, a Ukrainian soldier says in the video. Read also: President Zelenskyy confirms liberation of multiple settlements The order has been executed. Russian troops have withdrawn. Zelenskyy, in turn, thanked the Ukrainian armed forces for their work. Earlier, the Armed Forces of Ukraine raised Ukrainian flags in a number of settlements of Kharkiv Oblast that were previously occupied by the Russian forces. The liberation of Balakliya clears the way to nearby Kupiansk, which, in turn, would allow Kyiv to threaten Russias major logistical node to Izyum, where for months Russian invasion forces have attempted to launch an attack into Donetsk Oblast. Read also: Ukrainian military releases video of entry into Vysokopillia In recent days, Ukraine has launched counter-offensive operations in Kherson and Kharkiv oblasts, recapturing at least 400 square kilometers of land in two days. Military experts agree that the pace of the Ukrainian advance has caught Russian forces in Kharkiv Oblast off-guard, prompting them to retreat in haste, abandoning much of their military equipment. Prior to that, a photo was released of the Ukrainian flag above the hospital in the village of Vysokopillia in Kherson Oblast, which had been occupied by the Russian invaders since March 13. Oleksiy Arestovych, the advisor to the Presidents Office, confirmed on Sept. 6 that the Armed Forces of Ukraine had also liberated the village of Olhyne in Kherson Oblast. Russian occupation authorities in Kherson Oblast recently announced they are putting a planned illegal annexation referendum on hold, due to the deteriorating security situation. Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine Hundreds of people gathered at a Memphis church Friday morning before dawn, huddling for a moment of silence in honor of Eliza Fletcher, the local teacher and mother of two who was abducted from her morning jog a week ago. "Were just here today to run in honor of Liza, and also to show that women in this city have a right to run at 4 o clock in the morning or 10 at night or any time of the day," organizer Danielle Heineman told the crowd just before things kicked off at 4:20 a.m. CT. "And we dont have to completely cover our bodies while we run. There should be no excuses." Fletcher was kidnapped and killed in the course of her morning run last week. The suspect, Cleotha Henderson, is being held without bail on charges that, if convicted, could make Henderson eligible for the death penalty. "Were out here today to honor Liza and to finish her run," Heineman told the gathering. ELIZA FLETCHER FUNERAL: SLAIN MEMPHIS JOGGER'S MEMORIAL SERVICES By 3:45 a.m., a group of an estimated 200 something people in running gear had gathered outside the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on Central Avenue, 4 miles down the road from where Fletcher was abducted. The crowd grew to roughly 1,000 before the run began just after 4:20 a.m. Another 1,000 or so gathered at the same time at the other end of the four-mile route. MEMPHIS JOGGER SUSPECT CLEOTHA HENDERSON'S LAWYER SEEKS GAG ORDER AS ELIZA FLETCHER'S FAMILY RELEASES OBITUARY Two women were talking about teaming up for the buddy system, worried about their safety even amid a throng of fellow runners. Police closed off several blocks to traffic and stood guard. Doug Christofferson told Fox News Digital he came down to support his wife, who took part in the run as he remained on the steps of the church. "This started as a movement a couple of days ago, with a couple of girls on Facebook, I believe, and the word got out," he said. "They were expecting a couple of hundred people to maybe come out and run, and word of mouthit looked like there was probably 700, 800 people, maybe even a little bit more. And it's fantastic." Story continues When his wife, a habitual runner, told him she wanted to go, he said he offered to drive from their home in Germantown. "We all have to go out and live our lives, and you've got to be aware of your surroundings," he said. "I'm sure Eliza was, too, the best that she could. [But] evil is going to happen -- and you just can't let that dictate what you do and what you don't do." A group of cyclists rode in, prompting a cheer from the gathered runners. They showed up in support of the runners. Many of them are friends with Fletchers husband, Richie, who was an avid cyclist and took part in an annual Ride 2 Rosemary trip from Memphis to Rosemary Beach, Florida, one of the riders, who gave his name as William, told Fox News Digital. ELIZA FLETCHER ABDUCTION: TIMELINE OF THE MEMPHIS TEACHER'S DISAPPEARANCE AND MURDER "Its a 500-mile bike ride over five days from here to Rosemary Beach in support of womens cancer research," he said. "Richie was a part of it. Thats how I got to know him." ELIZA FLETCHER MURDER: WHO IS MEMPHIS SUSPECT CLEOTHA ABSTON? Volunteers handed out yellow safety vests for the cyclists, who were expected to flank the runners on the edges of the route. Organizers of "Lets Finish Lizas Run" had asked many of the participants to refrain from speaking with the media, most of those who did asked for their names to be withheld, including a woman who said she turned out in solidarity with the Fletcher family because her own daughter had been murdered in Memphis. ELIZA FLETCHER MURDER SUSPECT CLEOTHA ABSTON'S VIOLENT HISTORY OF RAPE, ASSAULT AND KIDNAPPING EXPLAINED She was carrying a sign that read, "because she cant" made by her daughters high school friend. "This is not a memorial run," Heineman wrote on a Facebook post. "This is about finishing a run Liza couldnt." ELIZA FLETCHER'S SUSPECTED KILLER CLEOTHA HENDERSON SERVED 20 YEARS OF A 24-YEAR SENTENCE, HERE'S WHY Before the run, Heineman and another woman delivered remarks and asked the gathering to observe a moment of silence for Liza Fletcher. "I know you need this; I know Memphis needs this; I know were stronger together; I know none of us are alone, and whatever it is were grieving this morning, start your watches," one of them said. She continued, "Turn your lights on; get your GPS; get your buddy; if you didnt come with one, make one; respect our course marshals, the residents along the way. And for Gods sake, if you see a law enforcement officer, thank them." The run ended before sunrise, with many participants having run eight miles total, down the route and back to the starting point. They filed out in groups, ready to start a new day in Memphis. Fletcher, 34, will be laid to rest Saturday, Sept. 10, after a funeral at the Second Presbyterian Church in Memphis. Another bouquet left outside the British Consulate in Cambridge. This one with a message from Laurie Phillips Stanley and her family. We should just this day honor her and say thank you, said Laurie Phillips Stanley from Medford. She and her daughter took a moment to stop and remember Queen Elizabeth II who died at age 96 after more than seven decades on the throne.. She lived on her promise of serving the people and thats what she did and she just did a spectacular job at it, said Sam Stanley of Medford. The Consulate kept quiet most of the day but did post a banner in black across its website home page which read Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 21 April 1926 - 8 September 2022. The British Consulate didnt say much after the passing of Queen Elizabeth but did post this black banner with her name to honor her long life. #Boston25 pic.twitter.com/wQdsOWPrY4 John Monahan (@JohnMonahanTV) September 9, 2022 Outside the Embassy we met British national Peter Hirst, a Dean at MIT. He was honored by the Queen back in 2012 when she made him a Member of the Order of the British Empire. I received an award from the Queen a member of the British Empire and that was actually in part for work I do with the British American Business Council and my day job here at MIT, said Peter Hirst, a Dean at MIT. He believes that his fellow countrymen will come out en masse to pay their respects. I think shes really been such a great symbol of stability and togetherness and even for people who are not philosophically big fans of having a royal family, said Hirst. And its that steadfast sense of duty the queen embodied that Phillips Stanley and her family came to honor tonight. She gave her whole life to service, to honor, to country and thats something we dont see as much any more, said Phillips Stanley. Story continues The British Consulate told Boston 25 they provide details on where people can leave tributes to the queen in the coming days. The British consulate in Boston referring to statements from Buckingham Palace regarding the passing of Queen Elizabeth. Boston 25 spoke to the consulate who told us they will keep us posted on any local plans regarding the queens passing. #Boston25 pic.twitter.com/LYrsOQ9tvw John Monahan (@JohnMonahanTV) September 8, 2022 Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW Sep. 8GRAND FORKS Throughout the years, Herald columnist Marilyn Hagerty has written many letters Queen Elizabeth II, who died on Thursday, Sept. 8. Many of Marilyn's columns spoke about the pair's similar ages and what they might talk about if the Queen ever made her way to Grand Forks one day for a cup of coffee. "This may seem presumptuous, but I have been comparing my life to that of Queen Elizabeth," Marilyn wrote in a 2003 column on her birthday. "You see, we are the same age. I am celebrating my 77th birthday today. The queen's birthday will be celebrated officially in June, although she was born April 21, 1926." Her reign of 70 years and seven months, which began in February 1952, was the longest of any British monarch in history. She was born in Mayfair, London, as the first child of King George VI and Queen Elizabeht. She became the queen in 1952 following the death of her father. In 2010, Marilyn wrote about Queen Elizabeth II's upcoming visit to Winnipeg. "It makes me a little nervous to think of Queen Elizabeth coming to Winnipeg," Marilyn wrote in a July 2, 2010 column. "In the first place, she hasn't called. She never writes. And I am not sure she wants to see me. She hasn't suggested we meet for tea in Pembina, N.D. "That may be all right, though. She has all those matching hats for her outfits. I do not have any hats to match my summer wardrobe from J.C. Penney. ... "If I did meet up with the Queen, I would keep my hands to myself. I know from watching the news that you aren't supposed to touch her and fawn all over her." Read some more of Marilyn's recent letters to Queen Elizabeth: "There have been so many times when I wished you could come back again to the United States. I figured you could find your way to Winnipeg. Then you could take a bus down here to "the Forks." I think you would like to see the grounds of the University of North Dakota as well as our city parks," Marilyn wrote earlier this year. Story continues "When I was growing up here in America, we had the Great Depression. We learned how to put cardboard in our shoes when we had a hole in the soles. The wind blew and there was dust everywhere. We saw grasshoppers as big as clothespins. In those times, we went to Shirley Temple movies. Did you ever hear of her?" Marilyn inquired in 2018. She also wrote to the Queen in June 2018 . Marilyn Hagerty: Happy birthday, Elizabeth and Shakespeare Sep. 8GEORGETOWN A Maine man who drove to Georgetown to have sex with someone he thought was an underaged girl faces a minimum of 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges connected to traveling to have sex with a minor and possession of child pornography, according to federal officials. Patrick Plummer, 30, of Parsonsfield, Maine, pleaded guilty Sept. 1 in federal court in Boston to one count of attempted enticement of a minor, one count of intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a person under 18 years of age, and one count of transportation of child pornography. U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper scheduled sentencing for Dec. 20. Plummer was arrested and charged by criminal complaint in January 2021 and indicted in February 2021. The attempted enticement of a minor charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and up to life in prison. The charge of traveling with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor provides for a sentence of up to 30 years. The charge of transportation of child pornography provides for a mandatory minimum sentence of five years and up to 20 years. All three charges carry a minimum of five years and up to life of supervised release, along with a fine of up to $250,000. "Protecting the safety, innocence and well-being of our children is some of the most important work we do," United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins said in a statement. "As the United States attorney, and the guardian of my 13-year-old niece, this case is another heinous reminder of the real-life dangers of the internet and the predators that lurk online with the intention of targeting, exploiting and sexualizing our children. We will continue to hold predators like Mr. Plummer accountable and fight to keep them removed from our communities." Plummer communicated via various messaging applications with an undercover officer posing as a 13-year-old girl and devised a plan to meet the purported child in Georgetown to have sex. On Sept. 26, 2020, Plummer drove from Maine to a predetermined location in Georgetown. Officers arrested him on scene, and found four cell phones, a computer and a spring-release knife. Forensic analysis of the electronic evidence seized from Plummer's car revealed over 7,000 images and videos of child pornography on at least three of the devices. Story continues Plummer admitted that he had traveled from Maine to meet the purported 13-year-old girl; that he was talking to approximately 10 underage girls; and that child pornography would be found on his devices. Plummer further admitted that he shared these images with other individuals through Kik Messenger. "What Patrick Plummer admitted to is abhorrent. This child predator traveled here from Maine to sexually assault what he believed to be a 13-year-old girl, while in possession of over a hundred images and videos depicting other children, some toddlers, being sexually abused," said Joseph R. Bonavolonta, special agent in charge of the FBI Boston Division. "Sexual assaults against children remain an ongoing, pervasive problem, and we will continue to do everything we can to identify and apprehend the individuals responsible for these atrocious acts." Attorney Rollins, Bonavolonta and Georgetown police Chief Donald C. Cudmore made the announcement Tuesday. The Essex County District Attorney's Office and the Salisbury and Newbury police departments provided assistance with the investigation. "Detective Sgt. (Matthew) Carapellucci has been instrumental in solving several of these cases in the last year. The joint efforts between police departments has certainly made an impact in apprehending these predators," Cudmore stated. This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by the U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the DOJ's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit https://www.justice.gov/psc. Dave Rogers is the editor of the Daily News of Newburyport. Email him at: drogers@newburyportnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @drogers41008. Dave Rogers is the editor of the Daily News of Newburyport. Email him at: drogers@newburyportnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @drogers41008. A man charged after a homicide in East Pittsburgh in 2021 was arrested by state police on Thursday. PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Man killed, woman injured in shooting in East Pittsburgh The shooting took place on Sept. 12, 2021 in the area of Prospect Terrace. A 22-year-old man was killed in the shooting, and a woman was hospitalized for gunshot wounds. According to a release from police, investigators were notified on Sept. 1 that suspect Cecil Foreman was seen in multiple locations within East Pittsburgh. Foreman was taken into custody without incident. A search warrant was obtained for his residence. The investigation is ongoing. This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available. Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW TRENDING NOW: Scratch-off lottery ticket worth $3 million sold in Pittsburgh Controversial homecoming proposal in Pine-Richland School District circulating on social media Queen Elizabeth II dies at 96 VIDEO: State senator emphasizes intent of new Pennsylvania license plate rule DOWNLOAD the Channel 11 News app for breaking news alerts Cincinnati police are searching for the person who shot and killed a man in Over-the-Rhine overnight. Officers found the man's body on the sidewalk in the 2000 block of Elm Street just before midnight. He was pronounced dead at the scene and is believed to be in his 30s, police said. His name has not been released. Enquirer media partner Fox19 provided this report This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Man found shot to death in Over-the-Rhine Keatron L. Walls, 37, of Clarksville, Tennessee, has been sentenced to a total of 37 years in federal prison for four counts of kidnapping, one count of interstate stalking resulting in permanent disfigurement of a victim, and one count of using a firearm to commit interstate stalking, according to United States Attorney Joseph C. Murphy, Jr. According to information presented in court, on November 23, 2016, Walls drove from Clarksville to the house where his ex-girlfriend lived with several family members in DeSoto County, Mississippi. According to a press release, Walls fired at least ten shots from an AK-47 style automatic rifle from the front yard into a window. Four of the seven people inside the house were hit. One man lost his leg due to the shooting, and another person lost a finger. No one could see the shooter, and Walls left before law enforcement arrived. He gave a false alibi to law enforcement regarding his whereabouts, which they were able to disprove through further investigation. Less than 18 months later, on April 20, 2018, Walls kidnapped his ex-girlfriend, her five-year-old daughter, and her boyfriend at gunpoint from their apartment in Memphis. RELATED: Man kidnaps ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend at gunpoint, police say He forced her to drive them a short way before ordering the woman to go back to her apartment and lock her daughter inside alone. Then he made her drive the three of them to a relatives house in Marshall County, Miss. During the drive, Walls threatened to kill both his ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend. When they arrived, records show that Walls forced both victims out of the car, onto their knees, and fired three gunshots past their heads. After arguing with several family members about whether he should let the victims go, Walls directed the couple back into the car and forced them to drive into Shelby County, where officers were able to stop the vehicle and rescue the couple. According to investigators, testing showed that the AK-47 style rifle Walls had matched the spent shell casings recovered from the November 2016 shooting in DeSoto County. Story continues On September 8, 2022, United States District Judge John T. Fowlkes sentenced Walls to 37 years in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system. The DeSoto County Sheriffs Department recognized Detective Mundy Quinn for his tireless work on the case and for bringing it to the federal level. He also organized the investigation between jurisdictions. Download the FOX13 Memphis app to receive alerts from breaking news in your neighborhood. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD Trending stories: Associated Press A rape victim whose DNA from her sexual assault case was used by San Francisco police to arrest her in an unrelated property crime on Monday filed a lawsuit against the city. During a search of a San Francisco Police Department crime lab database, the woman's DNA was tied to a burglary in late 2021. This is government overreach of the highest order, using the most unique and personal thing we have our genetic code without our knowledge to try and connect us to crime, the woman's attorney, Adante Pointer, said in a statement. Members of the public are paying tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Balmoral Castle. Some mourners were tearful, while others wore black for mourning. Her Majesty died at Balmoral Castle on Thursday. Members of the British public are gathering at Balmoral Castle to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II. The monarch died on Thursday at the age of 96. Having served for 70 years, she was the longest-serving monarch in British history. The Queen had been spending the summer at Balmoral, her private summer residence in Scotland, during her final days. People began gathering outside the gates of the castle on Thursday evening and some arrived as early as 7 a.m. on Friday, a steward told Insider. The public will be welcome to pay their respects for the duration of the official mourning period, which will last until seven days after the Queen's funeral, Buckingham Palace said. Flower tributes for Queen Elizabeth II at Balmoral Castle. Mikhaila Friel/Insider Floral tributes and small gifts including teddy bears, balloons, pictures, and hand-written notes have been left so far. While some people were visibly tearful, others wore black as a sign of mourning. The UK public gathered outside Balmoral Castle on Friday. Mikhaila Friel/Insider Both local residents and people from across the UK were in attendance. One person told Insider that she was in the area for a vacation when she heard the news of the Queen's death. The monarch meant "everything" to her, she said. "She's given everything to this country," another person told Insider. "I think King Charles will be good, and I think he'll follow the footsteps of how his mother behaved." Meanwhile, one person who traveled from Dundee, Scotland, told Insider that they had always wanted to visit Balmoral, and felt that they had to visit after the sad news. "We're royalists, we're big royal fans. It's nice to be here, to be close to the royal family and to see all the tributes," they said. Read the original article on Insider By Diego Ore MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Friday defiantly dismissed criticism of his security policy by domestic adversaries and the United Nations after Congress voted to give the Army control over the civilian-led National Guard. By a margin of 71 to 51, senators early on Friday passed a bill ceding control of the National Guard to the Army, which has fed concerns about the militarization of public security. There were two abstentions, including the Senate leader of Lopez Obrador's leftist ruling National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), Ricardo Monreal. Mexico's lower house of Congress had approved the legislation last week. The National Guard began operating in early 2019 at the behest of Lopez Obrador, who campaigned for office on a pledge to return the military to barracks after the years it had spent combating violent drug gangs. This week he said he had changed his mind about using the Army to keep the peace. He argued the National Guard would end corruption under its predecessor, the Federal Police, and he has also extended the Army's remit into other areas of civilian life. Still, Acting United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al-Nashif said the National Guard legislation was a step backwards for public security and had raised additional concerns about human rights and accountability. "The security forces should be subordinated under civilian authorities," Al-Nashif said in a statement. Praising legislators for approving his initiative, Lopez Obrador lashed out at critics, including the United Nations. "When did the United Nations take a stand?" he told a regular news conference, questioning what the body had done to prevent war breaking out between Russia and Ukraine. "These organizations that supposedly defend human rights, almost all these organizations are made up of people on the right from different countries of the world ... because they earn a lot of money for simulating, for pretending, for being go-betweens for authoritarian governments," he said. Story continues Lopez Obrador's government has presided over record levels of violence, and opposition legislators and activists say the National Guard has also committed alleged abuses. The legislation, which now passes to Lopez Obrador to be signed into law, gives the Army operational, financial and administrative control of the National Guard, which currently answers to the civilian-led security ministry. The changes are almost certain to be challenged on the grounds they violate the constitution, and some senior legal experts say they are likely to be struck down in the Supreme Court. (Reporting by Diego Ore; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jonathan Oatis) A Miami woman who posed as a real estate agent was arrested Wednesday for her involvement in a Little Havana rental scam and another suspect remains at large, according to authorities. Valerie Valentina Meza-Faublack was charged with two counts of third-degree grand theft, organized scheme to defraud and doing real estate without a license, court records show. The 21-year-old is behind bars at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center as of Thursday night after pleading not guilty in court earlier that day. The fraud, first reported by WPLG Local 10 News, began when Miguel Cruz Perez saw an ad in late February in the Spanish-language newspaper Diario Las Americas for a one-bedroom apartment being rented at 1400 NW 3rd St. in Little Havana, according to Meza-Faublacks redacted arrest report. Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser records show the building where the unit is located is owned by 1400 At Marlins LLC, which in turn is registered to the real estate firm Metro Consulting & Management, Inc. Metro hadnt answered the Miami Heralds request for comment as of Wednesday night. Neither company is mentioned in the report. When Cruz Perez called the number in the ad, according to Miami police, a woman who said her name was Hamanda responded, setting up a meeting for three days later on Feb. 28. Police say she told Cruz Perez that she was a real estate agent, and to bring $4,050 for the security deposit, first and last months rent to an office building at 80 SW 8th St. #2000 in Brickell. There, Hamanda told Cruz Perez that he would get the apartment keys on March 1, police say. But when Cruz Perez arrived at the apartment, Hamanda wasnt there with the keys. Instead, police say, Maria Ramirez and an unnamed third person arrived saying the same apartment had been rented to them. The group went to the Brickell office to find out what was going on, according to the report. As they told each other what happened, police say they had similar stories: two Latina women were renting the same apartment and instructed each of them to pay $4,050 to get the keys. Story continues Ramirez said that a woman who identified herself as Natalia, a real estate agent, gave her a tour of the apartment, investigators said. Police say Hamanda showed the apartment to Cruz Perez, and even took a photo with him. During the showing of the apartment all parties were present (victims and defendants), police said on the report. However, when the funds were collected for the rent and the security deposit, the two victims hand-delivered their cash to both defendants on separate dates. Police noted in the report that an employee at the Brickell building told the group that the office is rented for meetings by people who have a membership. Neither a Hamanda nor a Natalia were listed as members, police say. Cruz Perez identified Meza-Faublack as Hamanda in a March 28 photo lineup, according to investigators. Three days later, Ramirez identified Natalia, police say. On Wednesday, police say Meza-Faublack arrived at a police station for a scheduled appointment with detectives, and agreed to speak with them without having an attorney present. What she told them, though, was redacted from the police report. She was then arrested and taken to the detention center. Natalia, whose real name is also redacted on the report, remains at large, according to Meza-Faublacks arrest report. NextShark Details from a video reviewed by authorities revealed Jin Shin, a business owner from Dallas, Texas, who was killed following a minor car crash last month, was surrounded by a group of eight people before the shooting. The incident occurred on South University Drive in Fort Worth, Texas, on Aug. 15, when Shin, who was described by his friends and family as a pillar of the Asian community in Dallas, was shot following a car incident involving his Jeep and a sedan driven by a woman with two female passengers. Two men then got out of the car, one of whom was identified as the suspected shooter, 28-year-old Markynn Dmorous West. A Jeep Cherokee driven by a woman who has been missing since June has been located, the Mariposa County Sheriffs Office announced Friday. Wendy Lee Pullins, a 57-year-old Ahwahnee woman, last spoke to her family June 15. She was last known to be driving the Jeep Cherokee when she vanished in Mariposa County. Detectives are processing the vehicle before its sent to the California Department of Justice Crime Lab for further processing. Due to the ongoing investigation, the vehicles location and any further information will not be released at this time, the Mariposa County Sheriffs Office announcement said. As of Friday, Pullins still hasnt been found. Pullins was last known to be on Stumpfield Mountain Road in Maripsoa County before she went missing, according to her family. She is 5-foot-4 with brown hair and eyes. Anyone with information concerning Pullins whereabouts is asked to contact the Mariposa County Sheriffs Office at 559-675-7770, or call 911 if they see her. MarketWatch The things to remember about dementia are that it is absolutely horrible for you and everyone around you; its a high probability; and when it comes to fighting it or avoiding it you are pretty much on your own. Alzheimers disease and related dementias are currently killing 6.5 million people in the United States and devastating the lives of many times that when you count the patients friends and family. The National Institutes of Health reckons this number is likely to double in the next four decades. WASHINGTON The U.S. Air Force and industry partners are ramping up efforts to add the newest electronic warfare gear into as many as 43 already-operational F-15E fighters. The Eagle Passive/Active Warning and Survivability System will let the F-15E monitor, jam and deceive threats in highly contested environments, according to manufacturer BAE Systems. It uses sensors, electronic countermeasures and algorithms to provide integrated radar warning, geolocation, situational awareness and self-defense technology. The system is a key feature of the F-15EX Eagle II fighters, the first of which were delivered in 2021. The Air Force, F-15 builder Boeing and EPAWSS maker BAE are expanding the system into operational F-15E fighters. On Wednesday, BAE said it won a contract from Boeing to produce the second lot of EPAWSS for F-15Es and F-15EXs. The low-rate initial production contract, awarded in March 2021, was for $58 million. The most recent award is for about $293 million, making the total EPAWWS production contract value $351 million. Under the contract, BAE will also provide spares and deliver units for test and development, the company said in a statement. In July, Boeing began adding EPAWSS to the first operational F-15Es at its San Antonio, Texas facility, Air Force Materiel Command said in a Wednesday release. AFMC said Boeing had previously installed EPAWSS on eight developmental test F-15s, as well as new F-15EXs at its St. Louis, Missouri facility. AFMC said that the EPAWSS program wanted to field the systems 16 months earlier than would occur under a normal acquisition, so it broke its Milestone C into two different decision points. That first decision point happened in December 2020, when EPAWSS entered the low-rate initial production phase while it was still continuing the developmental hardware qualification, software integration, and test activities, AFMC said. Those activities continued in 2021 and 2022, including the F-15EX testing out the EPAWSS capabilities in three open air events and exercises and flying 1,521 hours in tests, AFMC said. Meanwhile, Boeing stood up its modification line in San Antonio. Story continues In June, AFMC said, Andrew Hunter, the Air Forces assistant secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, signed off on the second decision point, launching the programs deployment phase and cleared the way for Boeing to install EPAWSS hardware into as many as 43 of the Air Forces roughly 218 F-15Es. EPAWSS production is growing as the Department of Defense signals the long-term importance of F-15s to the strategic fleet, Bridget McDermott, EPAWSS LRIP program director at BAE. These aircraft bring speed, maneuverability and payload to the fight, and now with EPAWSS, they can better detect and protect against modern threats. BAE also said it has recently delivered an updated software package for EPAWSS, showing it can refresh the system in the field and deliver new capabilities to counter threats as they emerge. Last month, the Air Force said airmen had recently carried out the live-fire missile shots from the F-15EX in developmental and operational tests in Florida. In the Weapons System Evaluation Program conducted by the 53rd Wing at Eglin Air Force Base, the F-15EX fired AIM-120D and AIM-120C3 missiles to verify that the fighter could shoot those missiles in combat. One of the main takeaways from these live fire shots is that the jet can clearly function as a long-range, standoff weapons system, Capt. Max Denbin, the lead test engineer from the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center, detachment 6, team that carried out the missile shots, said in the August release. The F-15EX can shoot from a significantly increased range, farther than any other fighter in the U.S. Air Force arsenal, and provides the unique capability of holding 12 AMRAAMs [AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile] or other large ordnance. The next round of operational test missions of the F-15EX, including tests of EPAWSS capabilities, will take place at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada this fall. Russian dictator Vladimir Putin will not be able to negotiate with Ukraine to get a pause in the war, diplomat Roman Bezsmertny is confident Bezsmertnyi told Radio NV that the attempts by Moscow to persuade Kyiv to negotiate have only one goal: "to create a pause, stretched in time so that the Kremlin can regain strength and continue to implement its plans." "In this case, such rhetoric is late by up to two months, objectively speaking," the Ukrainian diplomat said. Read also: Ukraines six key conditions for peace talks with Putins Russia It was on the verge of happening when the drama around the besieged Azov unit at the Azovstal plant in Mariupol was unfolding. Bezsmertnyi said the Russian authorities "have problems with objectivity is assessing situations." "On the one hand, they seem to determine the tactics absolutely correctly they escalate the situation to the highest degree using various information and psychological operations against Ukraine, but they cannot catch the moment when Kyiv, let's say, has weakened and might conduct some kind of dialogue." Bezsmertnyi said this is due to the fact that a totalitarian regime had difficulty in understanding a democratic society. Read also: War against Ukraine will likely end with Russia's political capitulation, says military expert President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sept. 2 that there is no chance of talks between Ukraine and Russia at this time, as the Kremlin had chosen to resolve everything by force. Recently, the Ukrainian leader ruled out the possibility of negotiations with the aggressor country. He said that there will be no dialogue until Russia stops shelling Ukrainian cities and killing Ukrainians. In late June, adviser to the head of the Presidential Office Mykhailo Podolyak said that a peace agreement with Russia would be possible when Ukraine restores its territorial integrity. The head of the negotiating delegation with Russia, David Arakhamia, said that Ukraine would be able to resume negotiations with Russia when Kyiv strengthens its forces through a counter-offensive and when the Russian military returns to the positions as of Feb. 23. Story continues Bezsmertnyi also said Russia's war against Ukraine could not be transformed into a frozen conflict. Read also: War to end when Ukraine regains 1991 borders, might happen next year intelligence chief "This war in terms of its characteristics cannot be frozen, he said. The pause we are talking about is aimed at accumulating strength, and the continuation of the war. On the other hand, if the pause is prolonged, a legal mechanism for bringing war criminals to justice namely by the Ukrainian side would be instantly activated. He said that the current situation "is impossible (for the Kremlin) in terms of the classical approach to freezing," as in Transnistria or Nagorno-Karabakh. He said talks might even result in an aggravation of the conflict. Even during the Minsk process they constantly resorted to disruptions, pauses, then raised the temperature. Some call it raising the stakes. This is a common tactic of the dictatorial machine to get a pause, exploiting the diplomatic theme, and then resort to aggravation. Back in May, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine would not accept a frozen conflict as a consequence of the war with Russia. Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine A dog rides with its owner through the Foresthill community in Placer County as the Mosquito fire burns Thursday. (Noah Berger / Associated Press) Cristina McMillan knew she didnt have much time the flames were encroaching, the smoke was choking, and the Mosquito fire had already torn through thousands of acres near her home in the Sierra foothills, east of Sacramento. Nevertheless, as they fled Georgetown on Thursday with as much as they could gather, McMillan and her husband took the winding road out slowly. They had no choice. They had demanding passengers. Ten cats. So much meowing, McMillan recalled. They dont like the turns. If I took a turn too fast, the cats [were] just screaming in the back. It was unclear how many people had fled the Mosquito fire by Friday, but at least 8,000 in Placer and El Dorado counties were under evacuation orders, with hundreds of thousands watching nervously to see if the blaze would roar their way. As of Saturday at 8:36 a.m., the fire had consumed 33,754 acres, and was slowly growing with no containment. Eventually, the McMillans, who bought their house during the COVID-19 pandemic, made it to an Airbnb in Placerville. The cats skulked in their kennel one big ball of fur and sad eyes, McMillan said. She and her husband, meanwhile, tried to figure out what would come next. We didnt really know what we were getting into when we moved to Georgetown, to be honest, she said of the ever-present fire danger and of meeting people in the community who have seen their homes incinerated. Its something that is supposed to happen to other people, but that is not how the world actually works. The Mosquito fire, which ignited Tuesday evening near Foresthill, quickly exploded to become one of the state's largest fires of the year. It was blazing with little restraint, fueled by record hot temperatures, dry timber and wind. "The fire spread significantly overnight due to extreme fire behavior, and heavy smoke limited visibility," California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection officials said Friday. About 1,700 firefighters were assigned to the blaze. Story continues Though the suppression effort was far from over, officials said, weather conditions took a favorable turn Friday. Speaking during a community meeting that night, fire behavior analyst Robert Scott said relative humidity was around 20%, winds were no more than 3 mph and the temperature over the Mosquito burn area was 88 degrees. "So what does that mean for today?" Scott said. "No large fire growth, no giant [smoke] column, no picture on Facebook at the end of the day [that] looked like a volcano going off." It stood in stark contrast to previous conditions that saw 21,000 acres of growth driven by 15% humidity, 95-degree temperatures and 6-mph winds, he said. On Thursday, the fire jumped a fork of the American River and produced a pyrocumulus cloud over the Sierra that could be seen from as far away as the Bay Area and orbiting satellites, prompting memes. A hand crew heads to battle the Mosquito fire along Mosquito Ridge Road near Foresthill in Placer County on Thursday. (Noah Berger / Associated Press) It could be mid-October before the blaze is contained, said Chris Vestal, the public information officer on the fire. Its very hot. Its dry, and its burning into areas where there are people, Vestal said. The No. 1 priority is to get people out of their homes and out of the area. One of the challenges is the terrain, he added. Because of the steep and rugged land, firefighters cant use bulldozers to build containment lines; in temperatures close to 100 degrees, they have to use shovels to create them by hand. Saturday is expected to be cooler; until then, Vestal said, the greatest danger is really dependent on which way the wind blows. The communities under the most imminent threat were Foresthill and Todd Valley, he said, but the greatest potential for spread is south, toward the community of Cool. No injuries to firefighters or residents have been reported, officials said, but air quality in much of the area was hazardous, and residents downwind including in Nevada were complaining. An unknown number of homes had burned. Officials said they hadnt been able to fully assess the damage, although there were reports of numerous structures destroyed in Volcanoville, an old mining town with a population of about 250. The cause of the blaze is under investigation, but Pacific Gas & Electric Co. on Thursday filed a report with the state disclosing electrical activity on one of its transmission lines near where the fire ignited. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who declared a state of emergency for El Dorado and Placer counties, announced that the state had obtained a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to bring more resources to fight the blaze. Evacuation centers were set up in Auburn and other towns, but many fleeing residents declined to go to them because they were traveling with pets. Linda Hance, who evacuated from her home near Foresthill, hugs her dog Amigo outside a shelter for Mosquito fire evacuees Friday in Auburn. (Noah Berger / Associated Press) Deanna Gray said she and her family slept Thursday night in a parking lot after evacuating, in part because she wanted to stay with a goat named Billy Bob. Gray said her home in Volcanoville burned down last year after a fire sparked in a wood shop, and they were in the process of rebuilding it when the Mosquito fire ignited. She and her husband and two children had been temporarily bunking with friends in Volcanoville. They decamped to her sisters house in Georgetown but were there only one night before that community was evacuated. After that, the extended family was camped out together. Her sister had an RV, and Gray and her husband, currently sleeping in their car, were looking to purchase one as well, on the theory that they would be living in it for a while. Ive always wanted to live in an RV after I retired from the military, so I guess God was looking out, Gray said with a mixture of hope and sadness, before adding that her 4-year-old daughter was having a traumatic experience. Another fleeing resident, Liz Bakken of Georgetown, said she and her husband had tried to make the evacuation fun for their children, ages 2 and 4, even making a stop in Vacaville so the kids could enjoy a train excursion. But its kind of rough, she said, noting that the children can tell their mother is upset. Bakken said when she got the warning to evacuate, she didnt immediately take it seriously living near fire zones, she has grown used to such alarms. But a short time later, she got an evacuation order, and a sheriffs deputy appeared and told the family to get out. It was then that Bakken had to make a decision about what to do with her two dogs, 10 cats, 14 chickens, 15 ducks, 15 guinea fowl, three peacocks and goats. It quickly became apparent that they couldn't all make the trip. So she packed up her children and dogs and went about trying to capture the cats to put then in kennels. Then she left ample water and open routes of escape for the other animals and drove down the mountain. We decided to bring the husband, her husband, Sam, joked. Beneath the humor, Bakken said she is consumed with fear and grief about what will happen to the animals, which she hopes will find a way to escape not to mention her worries about her beloved home on 10 acres, her neighbors and the wild, rugged canyons that surround them. Were thinking everything is probably already in flames, she said. Times staff writer Gregory Yee contributed to this report. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. A south Charlotte community is fired up about its proposed new neighbors: the Steele Creek Volunteer Fire Department. Residents say the station isnt a problem, but the street its on is a concern. Woody Point Road dead ends into Lake Wylie. One way in and one way out. READ MORE: West Charlotte residents fed up with dangerous driving; ask city for action Neighbors say its a quaint, tree-lined residential street. If youre on it, you probably live here or are visiting someone. The Steele Creek Volunteer Fire Department is looking to move in next door. They are considering knocking a house down to build a station. Neighbors like Davide Hannes say official street designations from the city make the addition illegal. Woody Point Road is a local street no matter what the city wants to call it, Hannes said. You really cant mistake it for any other type of street. >> In the video at the top of this page, Chanel 9s Joe Bruno reports on the zoning discrepancy and when the local board could make a decision. Full statement from the city of Charlotte Woody Point Road is currently classified as a minor collector on the Collector Streets Map, which was adopted by City Council on Nov. 27, 2000. The Charlotte Streets Map, which was adopted by City Council on Aug. 22, 2022, is consistent with the Collector Streets Map from 2000 and continues to identify Woody Point Road as a collector. Street Types (for example, Parkways, Boulevards, Collectors, etc.) are used to categorize streets by common attributes such as their network function and/or characteristics. Collectors serve an important role in the overall street network by collecting traffic from local streets and distributing it to the nearest arterial street. Collectors are also defined by the Zoning Ordinance as carrying low to moderate traffic volumes at low to moderate speeds. Woody Point Road meets all of these definitional criteria and has therefore been classified as a collector since 2000. Since 2000 Woody Point Road has been highlighted as a collector street. As the Streets Map was developed it was not highlighted as a collector street due to a clerical error. When the error was realized, it was corrected. The designation of Woody Point Road never changed. (WATCH BELOW: Expansion proposed at south Charlotte apartment brings concern over new cut-through road) North Korea has passed a law declaring itself to be a nuclear weapons state, according to state news agency KCNA. The country's leader Kim Jong-un called the decision "irreversible" and ruled out the possibility of any talks on denuclearisation, it said. The law also enshrines the country's right to use a pre-emptive nuclear strike to protect itself. Despite crippling sanctions, Pyongyang has conducted six nuclear tests between 2006 and 2017. It has continued to advance its military capability - in breach of United Nations Security Council resolutions - to threaten its neighbours and potentially even bring the US mainland within striking range. Mr Kim carried out long-range launches and nuclear tests in 2019 following two headline-grabbing but inconclusive summits with then US president Donald Trump. But talks between the countries have since stalled. Although the Biden administration has indicated it's willing to talk to Pyongyang, it hasn't said whether President Joe Biden would meet Mr Kim. The White House also said its attempts to contact Pyongyang and overtures of help over its Covid outbreak had gone unanswered so far. The US reviewed its North Korea policy last year and reiterated that "complete denuclearisation" of the Korean peninsula was the goal. Mr Biden said he would pursue it with a mix of diplomacy and "stern deterrence". Mr Kim responded by saying his country must prepare for both "dialogue and confrontation". Meanwhile, tensions on the Korean peninsula have spiked this year with Pyongyang firing a record number of ballistic missiles. South Korea and the US have responded with a volley of missiles and the largest joint military exercises on the peninsula in years. You might also be interested in: Mental health services for Ohios children have consistently needed improvements, according to experts. Areas across the state are still hurting for access, they say, and need help getting kids what they need to react to mental health issues, and prevent them before they happen. Ohio has an opportunity to invest in children, so that were promoting their well-being and preventing some of these (mental health issues) from happening, said Kim Eckhart, research manager for the Childrens Defense Fund of Ohio. Sign up here for The 74s daily newsletter. Donate here to support The 74's independent journalism. Research done by the CDF-Ohio showed that Ohio lacks a uniform system of care for behavioral health, despite the fact that 20% of a childs well-being can be impacted by clinical intervention, according to a 2021 report by the CDF and the Mental Health & Addiction Advocacy Coalition. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are part of the risks that can impact children and create mental health issues in need of intervention. ACEs, according to the CDF-Ohio, are strongly linked to the development of a wide range of health problems, and can include exposure to family dysfunction, violence, and financial hardship within the family. In 2021, Ohio ranked 46th in the nation for children having three or more ACEs, with minorities at higher risk. While Medicaid funds access to mental health services for children, transportation, and a lack of providers can create barriers to care. Robin Harris, executive director of the Alcohol, Drugs, and Mental Health Board of Gallia, Jackson, and Meigs counties, said all but four Appalachian counties in the state are designated as mental health professional shortage areas. Only one crisis stabilization facility exists in Appalachia, in Gallia County. Bringing that facility to fruition was an example of good old fashioned Appalachian determination, said Harris, speaking to the bipartisan Ohio Legislative Childrens Caucus. Story continues Still, children typically have to travel two hours or more to get to a mental health facility, with 14% of Appalachian families reporting they have no vehicle to do so. Stephanie Starcher, superintendent of Fort Frye Local School District, not only recognizes the struggles of mental health within her students, but also within her own family. Starchers daughter suffers from severe mental health issues, and her family has had to travel two hours to get to Cincinnati or Columbus for the proper care. Starcher said she, her daughter, and her husband have waited three days in a local emergency room awaiting transport to a facility. She and her husband have missed work and her daughter has missed school to travel to get care when telehealth services arent appropriate. I keep thinking to myself constantly, Starcher said. If I as an educatorare having to do this to get our child the kind of services that they need because (the services are) not in Appalachia, then what about the families that dont have the education to jump through the hoops that I have? Fort Frye has contracted with local behavioral health providers to staff social workers and counselors, who work with students after receiving parental permission. I kept hearing from the agencies that we worked with that it was very hard to recruit workers to the area, Starcher said. Even though we have the fundsto support clinical settings at schools, getting the workers here is a huge challenge. Appalachia has its share of issues, but Eckhart said the problem isnt exclusive to Appalachia. Across the state in those rural counties, you can have 20 providers in the entire county, Eckhart said. Advocates want to see regional investment focused on behavioral health improvements, including funding from the American Rescue Plan to get resources off the ground. Randy Leite, executive director of the Appalachian Children Coalition said the organization is conducting needs assessments in all 32 Appalachian counties. But use of federal ARPA funds to invest in mental health throughout the state, and promotion of the student wellness and success funds at schools for social and emotional learning something parents have said should be a priority in education are extremely important, according to Eckhart. In May of this year, Gov. Mike DeWine announced a pediatric behavioral health initiative, allocating $84 million in federal ARPA funds to increase access to care and expand capacity across the state so kids and their families can get services and supports for their behavioral health needs in or near their communities, according to an announcement about the initiative. The funding was approved by the General Assembly in House Bill 168. $25 million of the funds went to Dayton Childrens Hospital, $17 million went to ProMedica Russell J. Ebeid Childrens Hospital in Toledo, $15 million to University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Childrens, $10 million to Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center and $7 million to Akron Childrens Hospital. The Appalachian Childrens Coalitions Integrated Services for Behavioral Health was designated $6.45 million, and the coalitions Hopewell Health Centers received $3.55 million in allocations. Leite argued for multiple funding sources to cement the resources in the state. He estimated $20 million to $30 million would be needed in one-time funds to get the services truly up in the air. Because of the complexity, I think theres really a need to think about all the funding sources available, Leite said. Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David DeWitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com. Follow Ohio Capital Journal on Facebook and Twitter. Girl in restroom Three transgender students and their families are suing the state of Oklahoma over its anti-trans school restroom law. The suit, Bridge v. Oklahoma State Department of Education, was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma. It contends that the law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 by discriminating on the basis of sex, gender identity, and transgender status. Senate Bill 615, passed by the Oklahoma legislature and signed into law by Gov. Kevin Stitt in May, requires students in public schools and public charter schools to use the multiple-occupancy restrooms and other facilities designated for the gender they were assigned at birth. It further requires each school board and charter school governing board to create a policy to discipline those who violate the restriction and requires the Oklahoma State Department of Education to penalize schools that do not comply with the law with a 5 percent reduction in state funding. The students Andrew Bridge and two identified by pseudonyms, Mark Miles and Sarah Stiles and their families are represented by Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union. the ACLU of Oklahoma, and the law firm of Covington & Burling. The named defendants are the Oklahoma State Department of Education, members of the Oklahoma Board of Education, Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister, Oklahoma Attorney General John OConnor, and several school districts. The suit seeks to block the laws enforcement while the case is heard in addition to striking it down permanently. Oklahoma has launched another cruel and unconstitutional attack on a most-vulnerable population transgender school children, Nicholas Guillory, Lambda Legal staff attorney and Tyron Garner Memorial Law Fellow, said in a press release. This is not the first such attack on transgender schoolchildren, and sadly it will likely not be the last. It is sad that anti-transgender state legislators nationwide keep singling out transgender students for harmful, discriminatory treatment, notwithstanding that we and our allies have successfully quashed these efforts wherever they have popped up. Story continues There is no valid reason to prohibit transgender students from using the same facilities as their peers, added Jon Davidson, senior staff attorney at the ACLU. Doing so is stigmatizing and damaging. It interferes with their ability to learn at school and can lead to physical harms as well. No problems have arisen in schools that allow transgender students to use restrooms and other facilities consistent with their gender. It is time for politicians to stop using young people who are transgender as a wedge issue for political gain. Transgender students live and go to school in our state. They use public facilities just like everyone else, and their presence harms no one, said Hanna Roberts, ACLU of Oklahoma staff attorney. But this election year has been overrun with attacks on our youth and their ability to feel safe while receiving an inclusive education. Transgender people are part of our families, our workplaces, and our neighborhoods, and they, like everyone else, need to be able to safely access restrooms. Not only does promoting these baseless fears for political gain put our most vulnerable students at risk, but it also sends the message that they are not worthy of a full life. With this case, we hope to make clear that trans students belong. I am a boy, and while living authentically hasnt always been easy, its given me a sense of relief and happiness, plaintiff Andrew Bridge said in the release. Being able to use the boys restroom might seem like a small thing to others, but it is a vital step in my transition. Being barred from using it leaves me singled out and excluded from the rest of my friends and classmates, but also feeling like Im being told that Im not worthy of the same respect and dignity as everyone else. Associated Press A few days before middle school teacher Shaun Nielsen joined a work group to develop South Dakota's social studies standards, he got a thick package in the mail. Sent from Hillsdale, Michigan, home to a conservative private college enjoying outsize influence among top Republicans, it contained materials that would ultimately form what the state's public schools students could be expected to learn about American history and civics. Whoa -- these are already written, Nielsen remembers thinking as he opened the document this spring. ALONA MAZURENKO THURSDAY, 8 SEPTEMBER 2022, 21:44 The residents of Transnistria [a self-proclaimed breakaway state that is internationally recognised as part of Moldova] refuse to sign contracts with the Russian army, and there is mass desertion in the "operational group of [Russian] troops" [stationed there]. Source: The Main Intelligence Directorate Quote: "Attempts of the military command of the Russian Federation to launch a broad campaign to recruit professional soldiers in Transnistria are not yielding any actual results. The local population refuses to join the Russian army, even with the promise of high cash payments, social packages, and likely accommodation. The main reason is the reluctance to participate in hostilities on the territory of Ukraine, especially since many volunteers who decided to sign the contract at the beginning of the war either died or are missing. Additionally, against the background of the events in Ukraine, the Intelligence notes an increase in the number of desertion cases in the "operational group of Russian troops in Transnistria". Details: It is reported that due to the limited number of military contingents, the Russians cant mobilise enough people to search for and to return those missing. A massive dismissal from the military service is also being observed after the contracts expire. The "operational group" of Russian forces in Transnistria has recently intensified the training of personnel. Taking into account the course of events in Ukraine, significant adjustments were made in the training program. In particular, the number of classes with units of rear support and military medical aid has been increased. At the same time, the obsolete facilities do not let the Russian command improve the quality of logistics units. A similar situation is observed when it comes to the training of military medics; the number of classes has been increased, but the local military has been using outdated approaches to providing first aid on the battlefield, subsequent evacuation and provision of medical equipment. The military is provided with equipment, medicines, individual wound dressing bags and rubber tourniquets of Soviet design. Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron. Los Angeles filmmaker and photographer Alex Hyner has found a way to layer all his favorite sky views into a single stained glass-like image. The result is a stunning multi-planed skyscape in pastel glory. Breathtaking stained-glass like sky collage by artist Alex Hyner. Starting with an idea to produce images that made the sky look broken, the artist discovered that something which is normally considered an eyesore became the perfect grid for the project: utility wires and poles. Breathtaking stained-glass like sky collage by artist Alex Hyner. A week or two later, Hyner said in an interview with My Modern Met, I took a photo of an electrical pole in my neighborhood and knew instantly that I could fill the spaces with sky photos to achieve a stained glass look. Hyner filled each cross section of sky between wires with its own image, making a collage of the heavens containing morning and evening light, wildlife, and various clouds. Breathtaking stained-glass like sky collage by artist Alex Hyner. In the end, I might use anywhere between 15 to 30 different photos, he explains. That includes photos of moons, suns, birds, and jet streams that I later use to accent the piece. Some smaller sections of these images arent even skies at all, but rather textured gradients I make to fit the image. His process includes intensive selection and hours working with photo editing software. New sky selection tools in Adobe Photoshop help, but they dont get me all the way there, Hyner explained in an interview with PetaPixel. Once that step is completed, I comb through thousands of photos and pull the images that might go together. Then it takes maybe a week or two of trial and error, testing various skies, moving shots around, deleting the whole thing, starting again, going outside for a walk, and then finally finishing. It can be a brain-scramble, but I love seeing the puzzle come together. Breathtaking stained-glass like sky collage by artist Alex Hyner. Breathtaking stained-glass like sky collage by artist Alex Hyner. Fortunately, Hyner had plenty of his own material to draw on for his stained-glass creations, having taken sky shots around the world for almost a decade in his movie-making work. Since getting his first Canon camera in 2014, hes amassed thousands of atmospheric photos. Story continues I spent a few months in New Zealand and Fiji working on a film I wrote, so I had a lot of time to shoot the most stunning skies imaginable. They pop up in a lot of my work, he said. Hyners new series also helped him escape the stagnation of the COVID-19 shutdowns. When I start pulling in photos, I try to have some foundation to build upon, he adds. For instance, with Party Skies, which was made during the height of the pandemic, I was daydreaming about tropical climates, so I knew I wanted to bridge three island photos of mine at the bottom and work my way up to the sky. Nighttime sky collage by artist Alex Hyner. While his art has earned him a decent following on social media, Hyner tries not to take his work too seriously. Ultimately, I just make images that I want to see. I tend not to ascribe meaning to any of them, he says. His stained-glass sky art (as well as his other work) is available on his website and Instagram profile. The post Photographer Splits the Sky into Stained-Glass Masterpieces first appeared on Dornob. Police The home invader killed by a Keizer homeowner on Sunday has been identified as Aaron Scott Gage, 30, of Salem. Gage was shot after breaking into a home at Mayfield Place North, according to police. Keizer police officers were dispatched to the home around 2:20 a.m. to reports of a single gunshot wound. Police said the home was occupied by a single owner who woke up to Gage inside the residence. The owner fired his weapon, hitting Gage. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Gage pled guilty to driving with a suspended or revoked license, fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer and reckless driving in August 2019, according to court records. He was sentenced to 18 months of supervised probation and 90 days in county jail. Gage was conditionally released on July 20 but failed to appear at his probation hearing on Aug. 9. A warrant was issued for his arrest on Aug. 30. On Tuesday, a conditional release agreement was filed by the court and his next hearing was set for Sept. 14. Police say the investigation is ongoing. This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Police identify home invader shot by homeowner in Keizer American investor and fund manager Bill Gross is betting on the pound, saying that it will rally against the dollar. Photo: Dado Ruvic/Reuters The pound managed to make up some ground against the dollar (GBPUSD=X) on Friday, recovering from the 37-year low it hit earlier in the week. Sterling was more than 1.1% higher at $1.1632 at the time of writing, picking up a cent as the US greenback fell against other currencies. On Wednesday, the currency slumped as much as 0.9% to $1.1407, according to Refinitiv data, its lowest level since 1985. Despite the slight recovery since then, experts are still pointing to the fact that the pound may fall further as Liz Truss seeks to increase government borrowing to fund a new energy support package. This is believed to cost around 100bn. However, American investor and fund manager Bill Gross is betting on sterling, saying that it will rally against the dollar. "Despite fiscal and political problems, I am long the pound because of an overvaluation of the dollar against all major currencies, he told Bloomberg. "Continued large trade deficits and a ceiling on the Feds ability to raise rates to anticipated levels due to future recession will limit further depreciation of the pound and likely lead to future relative increases compared to the dollar." It comes as Liz Truss announced a limit on UK energy bills, with a cap at 2,500 a year starting from 1 October, amid soaring prices. In one of her first acts as prime minister, she said chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng will set out the expected costs of the two-year energy package in a fiscal statement later this month. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) condemned the move. Read more: This is what Liz Trusss energy bill plan means for you "This is a huge policy intervention which could easily cost over 100bn in the next year alone, with more to come in the following year. Given the scale of the package, the failure to provide any official sense of a costing was extraordinary, and deeply disappointing," IFS director Paul Johnson said. The energy cap, which limits the price suppliers can charge customers for units of gas, now means a typical household will save an average of 1,000 a year on their energy bills. Watch: Remembering the late HM Queen Elizabeth II 73-year-old Charles and his wife Camilla will stay at Balmoral Castle, where the Queen died Read also: Ukraine to identify perpetrators of UK volunteers death in Russian captivity, says FM Kuleba According to the official website of the Buckingham Palace, 73-year-old Charles and his wife Camilla will remain at Balmoral Castle, where the Queen died, and will return to London on Sept. 9. UK Prime Minister Liz Truss, as well as Clarence House (the new kings official residence) have announced that Charles will be known by the regnal name of King Charles III. Read also: UK Defense Minister Ben Wallace inspects training of Ukrainian military in Britain Under the protocol surrounding the accession of a new monarch, Charles succeeds to the throne immediately on the death of the monarch, the Reuters news agency reported. An Accession Council is convened as soon as possible, usually within 24 hours, and held at St Jamess Palace, the senior royal palace of the sovereign, though no longer their usual place of residence, to proclaim the successor. Read also: What Russia and Putin's power are built on NV interview with UK writer Peter Pomerantsev After the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Charles made a statement published on the Royal Familys Twitter account. The death of my beloved Mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family, Charles said. We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much-loved Mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world. During this period of mourning and change, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which The Queen was so widely held. Queen Elizabeth II died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on Sept. 8. Her 70-year reign is the longest in the history of the British monarchy. Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine Chris Jackson/Getty Images Royalist is The Daily Beasts newsletter for all things royal and Royal Family. Subscribe here to get it in your inbox every Sunday. Prince Harry was not at Balmoral Castle when the announcement of the queens death was made. Flight tracking data shows that the jet Harry was aboard touched down at Aberdeen airport at 6:46 p.m., more than 15 minutes after the formal announcement was made at 6:30 p.m. local time. An airplane carrying the Duke of Sussex arrives at Aberdeen Airport as Prince Harry travels to Balmoral Castle following the announcement of the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Paul Campbell - PA Images/Getty The Daily Mail reported that he was then whisked to Balmoral by private car, arriving shortly before 8 p.m. Prince Harry Races to Join Royal Family at Ailing Queens Bedside The palace declined to say why the announcement was not held for Harrys arrival, or why he was not able to travel with William, Edward, Sophie, and Andrew, who traveled to Scotland on a flight that arrived several hours earlier. Photographs of William driving the group to Balmoral were widely circulated. However, the late arrival of Harry will inevitably be interpreted in some quarters as a snub and further evidence of the ongoing bad blood between the Sussexes and the larger Windsor clan. The Duke of Sussex arrives at Balmoral in Scotland. Andrew Milligan - PA Images/Getty There had been no plans, until the death of the queen, for Harry and Meghan to spend any time with the rest of the royals, despite Harry and Meghan living so close to William and Kate Middleton during their stay in the U.K. The royals are said to be wary of spending time with Harry, especially with the publication of his memoir so imminent, and its contents still unknown. Duncan Larcombe, a former royal editor of British tabloid the Sun and a biographer of Prince Harry, told The Daily Beast, Earlier in the day it was announced by Omid Scobie, who seems to have become a quasi-spokesperson for Harry and Meghan, that Meghan would be traveling up to Balmoral with Harry. Then, a few hours later, there was a clarification from him that actually, Meghan wouldnt be making the trip after all. Its not clear why she didnt come. She may have made a very sensible decision not to intrude on the familys grief. But it is at least a possibility that Charles asked her not to. Story continues It does, admittedly, also look strange that no room could be found for Harry on the earlier flight. But it has been a chaotic day, and they do fly separately as a rule. For example, when I was on a joint royal tour of South Africa by both brothers, they always took different flights. But its not as strict a rule as it used to be, especially given George, Charlotte, and Louis have all displaced Harry in the order of succession. I would suspect that for Harry, getting off that plane and actually seeing the announcement had already been made was a very humbling experience. Harry was only in the U.K., rather than Montecito, California, where he now lives with his family, by sheer chance. He and Meghan had arranged to attend a number of charity events in the U.K. and Germany this week. They were supposed to be attending the WellChild Awards in London tonightan appearance that was inevitably canceled. 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. TOKYO (Reuters) - Queen Elizabeth made a "great contribution" towards strengthening Japan's ties with Britain, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Friday, adding that her death was a big loss for the international community. "I am deeply saddened by the news of the passing," Kishida told reporters. "The government of Japan expresses its heartfelt condolences to the British royal family, the British government and the British people." (Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Christian Schmollinger) DOMINIC LIPINSKI/POOL/AFP via Getty Images Royalist is The Daily Beasts newsletter for all things royal. Subscribe here to get it in your inbox every Sunday. Its hard to think of grimmer circumstances for the reunion of Prince Harry and the family he and wife Meghan Markle appear to have declared war on. But, Thursday afternoon, Harry was, like other family members, racing to get to Queen Elizabeth IIs bedside in Balmoral to say a final farewell to his grandmother. Unlike them, he was not at Balmoral when Queen Elizabeths death was announcedhe was on a plane in mid-air. Although it was reported that his team had initially said Harry would be accompanied by his wife Meghan Markle, it subsequently emerged that he was traveling solo. Photographs of him as he entered Balmoral by car, published by the Daily Mail, show a grim-faced Harry grieving for his grandmother no doubt, but perhaps also understandably angry at being so visibly detached from the rest of the royal family at the key moment of the announcement of her death. William Will Not Risk Seeing Harry or Meghan, Royal Source Says In what looked like a clear statement that bygones are not yet bygones, it was notable that while Prince William, Prince Andrew, Prince Edward and his wife Sophie flew to Scotland together in an RAF jet from London, Harry was not on board. Another dramatic set of images from the day showed William driving Andrew, Edward and Sophie into Balmoral. Where was Harry? The Sussexes are understood to have been at their house, Frogmore Cottage, which is just a few hundred yards from Williams house, Adelaide Cottage, and just a few miles from Andrews Windsor home. They have been in Britain as part of a quasi-royal tour the last few days, and notably not spending any time with other royals, despite such glaring geographical proximity. (L-R) Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Prince Andrew, Duke of York, Sophie, Countess of Wessex and Edward, Earl of Wessex arrive to see Queen Elizabeth at Balmoral Castle on September 8, 2022 in Aberdeen, Scotland. Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images It was initially reported that Meghan would be traveling north with Harry on Thursday. Then it was made known she would not be. No one yet knows why this change of plan took placewhether it was the choice of Harry and Meghan, or a palace diktat. Whatever the reason, Harry flew to Scotland alone. It should be noted Kate Middleton was also not in Scotlandshe stayed at home with her and Williams three children, likely because this was their first day at a new school. Story continues While there has been some wishful thinking amongst commentators that the death of their beloved grandmother might knock some sense into the feuding brothers, the fact that they couldnt even get it together to take the same plane suggests that insiders who doubt a reconciliation will happen any time soon are unfortunately correct. As one former royal staffer who used to work with the brothers told The Royalist: Im sure they will all put on a good show for the funeral, just as they did for Philips. But that occasion very much failed to bring the brothers together in any meaningful way. This wont be any different. On Wednesday, Harry and Meghans biographer Omid Scobie, who is widely understood to have excellent access to pro-Sussex sources, reported that Harry and Meghan made no effort to reach out to William ahead of their U.K. trip, and are refusing to do so until he shows accountability for his involvement in the dark times Harry and his wife endured before leaving the royal family. Scobie quoted a family friend as saying, People are desperate for steps to be made but behind the scenes there hasnt been movement What [Harry] is waiting for is accountability Many lines were crossed by William. He was at the center of a number of painful moments, be it the actions of his own staff or turning his back when support was needed. It was a dark time and one that, so far, William has been unprepared to unpack. Scobie said that the same friend told him William is still waiting for Harry to apologize for publicizing family secrets. On top of that, the royals are nervously awaiting the publication of Harrys memoirs. Sources have previously told The Daily Beast that William and Kate will not risk meeting Harry and Meghan for fear of giving them more ammunition to use against the family. Prince Charles was last said to be bewildered by Harrys targeting of him. While grief often brings families together, it remains to be seen whether any of the time Harry is now unexpectedly spending with his relations at Balmoral, and in future days perhaps back in London, will change anything. The queen herself would have dearly hoped it would. 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. USA TODAY My MIL refused to take me to the hospital during an emergency. She told my kid my spouse wasn't her real dad on Father's Day. It has to stop. Queen Elizabeth II spent more than 70 years on the British throne. (Photos via Getty Images) Queen Elizabeth II spent seven decades on the throne after becoming a British monarch at 25. On the throne for 70 years and 214 days, she holds the longest reign of any monarch in British history and the second longest of any monarch in the world. Having been in the public eye since a child, it's no doubt that fashion was important to the Queen. With Her Majesty's reign coming to an end with her death on Sept. 8, Yahoo Canada is taking a look at some of Queen Elizabeth II's most iconic fashion moments, including some of the best looks she wore on her several official visits to Canada. 1946: Official engagement announcement Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen Elizabeth II, in the state apartments at Buckingham Palace during her engagement to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh in July 1947. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) Despite getting secretly engaged in 1946, the future Queen Elizabeth II then known as Princess Elizabeth is pictured here during her official engagement announcement in July 1947. Standing in the state apartments at Buckingham Palace, Her Majesty wore a simple lilac dress that had several matching ribbons along with a double strand pearl necklace. 1947: Royal wedding The Queen, then Princess Elizabeth, and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, at Buckingham Palace after their wedding at Westminster Abbey in November 1947. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) The Queen (then Princess Elizabeth) and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, are captured here at Buckingham Palace after their wedding at Westminster Abbey in 1947. She wore a satin bridal dress designed by Norman Hartnell, which featured a heart-shaped neckline, long sleeves and a 4-metre fan-shaped train with intricate floral designs. 1951: Square dancing in Ottawa Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen Elizabeth II, visited Ottawa's Rideau Hall during her first official visit to Canada in October 1951. (Photo by Frank Royal/NFB/Getty Images) For her first royal visit to Canada in 1951, the Queen was still known as Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh. On Oct. 11 of that year, she took part in an old-fashioned square dance at Rideau Hall in Ottawa, where she wore a country dress featuring a gingham top and plain skirt decorated in branches, figures and hearts. 1957: Opening Parliament in Ottawa Queen Elizabeth II is pictured here in 1957 before attending the official ceremonies that would begin Canada's 23rd Parliament in Ottawa. (Photo via Getty Images) Queen Elizabeth II returned to Canada for a royal visit in 1957, where she opened the 23rd Canadian Parliament in Ottawa. During that ceremony on Oct. 14, she wore her white silk satin Coronation gown that featured short sleeves, a sweetheart neckline and intricate embroidery. The Queen paired her extravagant dress with a shiny tiara, teardrop-shaped earrings and long white gloves. Story continues 1957: Rideau Hall banquet Norman Hartnells Maple Leaf of Canada dress, with green velvet Canadian maples leaves mingled with white roses, was worn on this day in 1957 by Queen Elizabeth II to a state banquet at Rideau Hall in Ottawa. #cdnpoli #cdnhist #cdncrown pic.twitter.com/3ZzfdcG6IL Canadian Crown (@Canadian_Crown) October 14, 2021 That same day in 1957, Queen Elizabeth II wore a gown created by British fashion designer Norman Hartnell, called the "Maple Leaf of Canada" dress. Worn for a banquet at Ottawa's Rideau Hall, the simple white gown was decorated with green velvet Canadian maple leaves and white roses. 1976: Formal event with Pierre Trudeau Queen Elizabeth II attended a formal event on Aug. 1, 1976 with former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau during her royal visit. (Photo by Anwar Hussein/Getty Images) During her visit to Canada in 1976, Queen Elizabeth ll wore a tiara given to her by her grandmother, Queen Mary, for a formal event. Known as "Granny's Tiara," the Queen wore the headpiece with a green and white sleeveless gown that featured a scallop pattern, pairing the look with long white gloves and a shiny silver handbag. She also wore a matching emerald green and sparkling silver jewelry set. 1976: Montreal Olympics Opening Ceremony Queen Elizabeth II, pictured here at the opening ceremony at the Olympic Stadium, opened the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal on July 17. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) When the 1976 Olympics were held in Montreal, Queen Elizabeth II opened the summer games. In this photo, taken on July 17 at the city's Olympic Stadium, the Queen wore a long pink coat created by English fashion designer Hardy Amies. She paired it with a matching hat that featured a bundle of drooping pink tulips, along with short white gloves and her signature three-string pearl necklace. 1979: Trooping The Colour Queen Elizabeth II rode her horse, Burmese, during the 1979 Trooping the Colour ceremony in June in London, England. (Photo by Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images) The Trooping of the Colour ceremony was one of Queen Elizabeth II's favourites, and dressing up in the ceremonial outfit was part of the event. The traditional outfit requires soldiers wear a red tunic, dark pants and a bearskin hat. In June 1979, the Queen fit right in during the ceremony in London, England, where she's seen in this photo riding a Saskatchewan-born mare named Burmese, gifted to her by the RCMP in 1969. 2010: Nova Scotia visit Queen Elizabeth II kicked off her 2010 eight-day tour of Canada in Halifax, where she's pictured here attending a reception for "A Celebration of Nova Scotia" on June 29. (Photo by Chris Jackson - Pool/Getty Images) Queen Elizabeth II's final official tour of Canada took place in 2010, where she started her eight-day visit in Halifax. During a reception for "A Celebration of Nova Scotia," she wore a pastel yellow outfit consisting of a long ruffled skirt and a patterned buttoned jacket that featured beading by Mi'kmaq women. The Queen paired her outfit with white gloves, a black handbag, black short heels with ribbons and a brooch made of six red maple leaves. 2010: Canada Day in Ottawa Queen Elizabeth II attended Canada Day celebrations on Parliament Hill in Ottawa during her 2010 tour of Canada. (Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images) On her eight-day tour of Canada in 2010, Queen Elizabeth II wore a fitting red and white outfit during Canada Day celebrations on Ottawa's Parliament Hill. On the July 1 holiday, the Queen wore a long red buttoned jacket and a white hat featuring a large red flower on its brim. Her Majesty also added a pair of white gloves, a black handbag and a silver maple leaf brooch. 2010: Dinner with Canadian government officials in Toronto Queen Elizabeth II with former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper walking into the ballroom at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto, where the Canadian government hosted a dinner in her honour. (Photo by John Stillwell/PA Images via Getty Images) During an official dinner hosted by the Canadian government in her honour, Queen Elizabeth II wore a white recycled gown featuring intricate embroidery and Swarovski crystal maple leaves encrusted on the right shoulder and sleeve. On top of the elegant gown, the Queen wore her shining "Granny's Tiara," white gloves and a metallic silver handbag. 2010: Toronto City Hall Queen Elizabeth II wrapped up her eight-day tour of Canada in 2010 in Toronto, where she's pictured here waving to people after leaving City Hall. (Photo by John Stillwell/PA Images via Getty Images) Before heading to the United States, Queen Elizabeth II wrapped her 2010 visit to Canada in Toronto. Here, she's leaving City Hall wearing a pink and green floral dress paired with a matching pink hat that had a floral piece on its centre. She paired the look with a white handbag, white shoes and white gloves. 2012: Diamond Jubilee portrait unveiling Canadian artist Phil Richards (left) and former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper (2nd left) stood with Queen Elizabeth II as she unveiled a portrait of herself in the white drawing room at Buckingham Palace as former Governor General David Johnston (right) watches on June 6, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Sean Kilpatrick - WPA Pool /Getty Images) During her Diamond Jubilee in 2012, Queen Elizabeth II unveiled a new portrait Canada's third official commissioned portrait of Her Majesty at Buckingham Palace. For the event, Queen Elizabeth II wore a blue and white long-sleeve floral dress, along with black shoes, a black handbag and her three-string pearl necklace. In the portrait, painted by Canadian artist Phil Richards, the Queen wore a long white gown, a shining silver tiara and two Canadian insignia. 2020: Government of Canada official portrait Yesterday, the Government of Canada released a new official portrait of Her Majesty The Queen of Canada for use in public buildings. Taken at Windsor Castle, Her Majesty is wearing her Order of Canada & the Order of Military Merit insignia. https://t.co/8lm4obMsb6 #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/h5zdKbEAOF Canadian Crown (@Canadian_Crown) October 17, 2021 The Government of Canada released a new official portrait of Queen Elizabeth II on Oct. 16, 2020. In the shot, which was taken at Windsor Castle in March 2019, the Queen wore a simple white gown with floral detailing, along with a matching blue and silver tiara and necklace. To match, the Queen wore two Canadian insignia, the Order of Canada and the Order of Military Merit, as ribbons. 2022: Meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau At her first in-person audience two weeks after Buckingham Palace reported she had a positive COVID-19 diagnosis, Queen Elizabeth II received Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at Windsor Castle on March 7. (Photo by Steve Parsons - WPA Pool/Getty Images) Two weeks after Buckingham Palace reported Queen Elizabeth II had COVID-19, Her Majesty made her first in-person appearance at Windsor Castle on March 7, 2022 to receive Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Standing in front of a bouquet of yellow and blue flowers, the Queen also wore a blue, green, yellow and white dress, which some people believe was a subtle "message for Ukraine." 2022: Final appearance at Balmoral Pictured here, Queen Elizabeth II is inside Balmoral Castle's drawing room on Sept. 6, where she waits to meet with Liz Truss who was recently elected to form the United Kingdom's new government. (Photo by Jane Barlow - WPA Pool/Getty Images) In her final engagement ensemble on Sept. 6, Queen Elizabeth II wore a tartan skirt paying homage to Scotland while waiting in the drawing room of Balmoral Castle for the United Kingdom's newly elected leader, Liz Truss. The Queen paired the long pleated skirt with a coordinating blouse and knitted cardigan, along with her signature three-string pearl necklace. Let us know what you think by commenting below and tweeting @YahooStyleCA! Follow us on Twitter and Instagram. As people all over the globe mourn the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, all eyes are on the United Kingdom, which has officially entered a mourning period of at least 10 days. Over the next few days, her coffin will make a long journey across the U.K., and some wet weather is expected along the way. The first step in the journey came as the queen's coffin was moved from her place of death at Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, to the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, Scotland, on Sunday. Mourners gathered along the procession's five-hour travel route to pay respects. Mourners in Edinburgh hoping to pay respects on Monday may need rain gear for a time. "There are likely to be showers Monday morning in Edinburgh," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Tyler Roys said. The wet weather expected early this week across portions of Scotland and the United Kingdom is forecast to come as a result of what leftover moisture from Tropical Rainstorm Danielle. The heaviest downpours from former Danielle's surge of moisture are expected to remain largely out of the U.K., instead targeting southern Ireland, as well as portions of Spain and Portugal. The next leg of the queen's journey will come early this week when her coffin is expected to be flown to London. This can happen as early as Tuesday, according to The Scottish Daily Express. Once in London, the queen's coffin is expected to lie in state through the end of the week in Westminster Hall in the Palace of Westminster. GET THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP Over the course of several days this week, hundreds of thousands of mourners are expected to file past the coffin to pay respects. "There is a risk of a shower in London on Tuesday and dry conditions should return on Wednesday, so those waiting to pay respects at Westminster Hall should come prepared," Roys said. Forecasters say generally drier conditions are expected during the rest of the week and next weekend for London as high pressure pushes over much of the U.K., so mourners can leave their brollies and wellies behind. Story continues "At this time, Thursday to Monday, Sept. 19, looks to be rather dry," Roys said. Over the course of her seven decades of rule, Queen Elizabeth II was no stranger to adverse weather. Ahead of her Platinum Jubilee celebrations earlier this year, a plane carrying the queen had to divert course due to an intense thunderstorm. The plane ultimately landed safely. 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. JAMAICA-UK-PROTEST-ROYALS People calling for slavery reparations, protest outside the entrance of the British High Commission during the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in Kingston, Jamaica on March 22, 2022. Credit - Ricardo MakynAFP/Getty Images Queen Elizabeth IIs passing has sparked an outpouring of mourning across the world, but in many places, the end of her reign is also raising questions about what the future holds. Over a dozen countries recognized the late monarch as their head of state, including Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Belize, Jamaica, Tuvalu, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Her death is likely to ignite debate about whether her successor, King Charles III, should fulfill that role. Already, there have been calls for change. Adam Bandt, the leader of Australias Greens Party, posted condolences to the Queens family on Twitter. But he added Now Australia must move forward, saying We need [a] Treaty with First Nations people, and we need to become a Republic. Read More: Queen Elizabeth IIs Death at Balmoral Has Major Implications for Scotland Katie Pickles, a professor of history at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, says As the importance of the monarchy became less important in society, places like New Zealand hung on because they held the Queen personally in such high respect. She tells TIME: King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla will likely not have the same appeal. Cindy McCreery, a senior lecturer in history at the University of Sydney who specializes in monarchy and colonialism, agrees that republican sentiment will be given impetus. I do think that now that the Queen has passed on, that does give republicans in Australia and elsewhere more room to speak openly about the constitutional future and to kind of prepare the path for a republic, McCreery says. People calling for slavery reparations protest outside the entrance of the British High Commission during the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in Kingston, Jamaica on March 22, 2022. RICARDO MAKYN/AFP via Getty Images Anti-monarchist sentiment in the Caribbean In some countries anti-monarchist sentiment has grown in tandem with racial justice movements, bringing anti-colonialist thinking and conversations on Indigenous rights into the mainstream. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge faced a raft of protests on a trip through the Caribbean in March, with some groups demanding an apology and reparations for slavery. William and Kate cancelled a visit to a cacao farm, the first stop on their tour of Belize, because of protests. Ahead of their visit to Jamaica, an open letter released by the Advocates Network, and signed by more than 100 local leaders, said: During her 70 years on the throne, your grandmother has done nothing to redress and atone for the suffering of our ancestors that took place during her reign and/or during the entire period of British trafficking of Africans, enslavement, indentureship and colonization. Read More: How the World Is Responding to News of Queen Elizabeth IIs Death According to McCreery, Particularly countries in the Caribbean, which of course have that very painful legacy of British slavery in the past, I think they are more likely to be among the states that choose to become republics. In June, Jamaicas Minister of Legal and Constitutional Affairs, Marlene Malahoo Forte, said that the process of transitioning to a republic had formally commenced. Barbados, once called Little England for its tight British ties, became a republic in late 2021. Story continues A group of republicans protests outside the Town Hall before the arrival of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on April 12, 2014 in Hamilton, New Zealand. Phil Walter/Getty Images Republicanism in Australasia The Australian Republic Movement, which wants an Australian to replace the British King or Queen as the head of state, declined to provide a comment for this article. But in a statement issued after the Queens death, it hinted at a political opportunity. It is unlikely we will ever see a Monarch as respected or admired by the Australian people again, said Peter FitzSimons, chair of the movement. In June 2022, Australia appointed Matt Thistlethwaite, a former republican campaigner, as its first ever assistant minister for the republic, to help oversee the countrys potential transition. Weve got this unique opportunity with a Queen coming to the end of her reign, for us to now lay the groundwork so that when that does happen in the future, were ready to go with a campaign and a chance to really create a truly independent nation, he told the Sydney Morning Herald in an interview published on Sept. 3. Read More: See Colorized Photos of a Young Queen Elizabeth II In 2016, then leader of New Zealands Labour Party, Andrew Little, said that the end of the reign of the current monarch would be a good time to debate our constitutional arrangements. Do we still want to have our head of state living in London? Or do we want to do something else? Stand on our own two feet? New Zealands Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in 2021 that she thinks the country will become a republic in her lifetime. Rawiri Waititi, a member of New Zealands parliament and the co-leader of the Maori Party, said on Twitter on Friday that the huge vacuum left by the Queens death will cause debate. One New Zealand republican, who asked not to be named, told TIME that Theres that very strong feeling of nostalgia with the Queen that doesnt transfer to her son or grandchildren. I think this is very much a moment when the discussion about possible moves to become republics will open up, McCreery concludes. I think that there was a great sense of restraint during the Queens reign. By Marie-Louise Gumuchian LONDON (Reuters) - Queen Elizabeth was upbeat, recalled childhood memories, and shared her anguish over the war in Ukraine, says a Scottish clergyman who dined with the monarch just days before her death. As Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the Rt Rev Dr Iain Greenshields was invited last weekend to give a sermon at the local parish church Elizabeth usually attended while at Balmoral Castle. She did not attend the service, but Greenshields dined and lunched with the monarch while there. "She looked quite frail to begin with but she's 96 of course... but when she sat down and she started talking you knew you were in the presence of the queen," he told Reuters. "She just had a remarkable ability to put you at ease and she really had done her homework. She knew who she was talking to... and had a phenomenally good memory for somebody of her age." Those memories went back to dignitaries she had met, a horse she once owned and her childhood. "I'm a minister in Dunfermline and she recalled that she owned a horse that was called Dunfermline many years ago, I think it was nearly 40 years ago... that had won some races for her," Greenshields said. "She went back to her time when she was very young staying in Balmoral, spoke very warmly of her time with her father and her mother there... I remember asking her how many countries she had visited, she couldn't recall how many but she certainly then started talking about a wide range of people she had met across the world." Elizabeth, Britain's longest-reigning monarch and a towering presence on the world stage for 70 years, died peacefully on Thursday afternoon after her health deteriorated. Asked about the queen's mood during their meals, which were also attended by Princess Anne and others, Greenshields said: "Very upbeat, very engaged with everybody, asking everybody how they were doing... and making sure that everybody was being looked after and were at their ease." Story continues The conversation also turned to the war in Ukraine. "She spoke about how vexed she was about what was happening in Ukraine," Greenshields said. "Obviously somebody who lived through a war in Europe and to be seeing war in Europe again would be something that would be of huge concern to her." Greenshields said he was surprised to hear about the queen's death. "There was no indicator that there was anything really seriously wrong and she seemed, for her age, (to have) plenty of energy and she seemed very relaxed," he said. "So to hear the news... shocking I think is a bad word to use but something of that ilk." (Reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien) While the fall festivals continue to launch several high-profile Oscar hopefuls from the U.S., many international contenders are at the mercy of their countries. The Academy requires films to be submitted for the Best International Feature Film category by October 3, but outside of requiring a theatrical release and that the language is at least 50% non-English, the countries can make their own decisions. For some countries known for censoring artists, such as Russia and Iran, that means films critical of their governments or societies dont stand a chance at making the cut. Yet this year, several films about sexuality and queerness from the Middle East are on the cusp of overcoming legal and cultural barriers to become their countrys submissions, and theyre all traveling to the Toronto International Film Festival this week. In the past, films with LGBTQ characters in countries that outlaw homosexuality have faced a tough road in Oscar season, with the most notorious recent case being the 2018 lesbian romance Rafiki, from Kenya. Though director Wanuri Kahiu sued the government to gain permission to qualify the film in her country, it wasnt ultimately selected. More from IndieWire This year, the Pakistani drama Joyland stands a better shot. Arriving in Toronto for its North American premiere this week, director Saim Sadiqs first feature became the first Pakistani film to play in the Official Selection of Cannes, where it won the Queer Palme and became one of the crowdpleasing hits of the Un Certain Regard section. The movie stars Ali Junejo as a married Lahore man who falls in love with a trans performer (Alina Khan) after getting a job as her backup dancer. A sensitive and often sad portrait of repressed feelings, Joyland ultimately builds to an emotional catharsis as the character comes to terms with his desire. While homosexuality is illegal in Pakstan, the festival acclaim for Joyland has given it an elevated profile in the country and it is expected to be submitted within the next week. Story continues While the subject may seem radical given the setting, Columbia film school graduate Sadiq told IndieWire that he approached his story with an eye towards inviting more conservative viewers in. We wanted to talk about all these things without pointing a figure directly at anyone, he said. We had to be respectful to find a way to do what we wanted to do and not cause an unnecessary riffraff. Still, the production came with its fair share of anxiety and caution. One scene involving a sexual encounter in an alleyway was originally supposed to be shot on location until the actors admitted they felt unsafe and it was finished on a set instead. Thematically of course what the film tries to talk about was always a concern, but I had no interest in approaching the topic with a sensationalist tone, Sadiq said. I hoped the film had enough compassion and art in it to balance out the critical elements of it and the elements that are meant to make you feel uncomfortable. The movie secured a theatrical release in Pakistan over the summer in order to qualify as an Oscar submission, though it remained unclear whether the government would censor any aspects of it. Even if were able to show it to people even in a slightly mangled form, to me, thats better than not showing it to them, he said. He felt that his cautious approach enabled the government to celebrate the movie without endorsing its characters lifestyle. Queerness exists so openly within the same quarters as very right-wing morality in Pakistan, and that always fascinated me, he said. As long as you dont try to mingle the two worlds, everybodys OK with it. The Blue Caftan - Credit: Cannes Cannes A similar situation appears to be in the cards for The Blue Caftan, the frontrunner for Moroccos Oscar submission. Another Cannes entry heading to TIFF for its international premiere, the movie is the sophomore effort from director Maryam Touzani, whose debut Adam was the countrys submission in 2019. The Blue Caftan revolves around the experiences of a closeted, middle-aged tailor (Saleh Bakri) who hides his true feelings from his wife while developing a romantic bond with his young new apprentice (Ayoub Missioui). As with Pakistan, Morocco maintains a firm ban on all LGBTQ activity; however, the movie received financial support from the Moroccan Cinematographic Centre and its festival acclaim has positioned it as the most likely submission when the country settles on its choice later this month. I believe as a filmmaker its important to be able to make a statement like this one, because its going to be able to contribute opening a debate at least, Touzani said in an interview with Variety earlier this year. I think theres a big desire to move forward in our society and talk about certain things, but there are different forces in play. Both Pakistan and Morocco rely on small committees comprised of industry figures and government officials to vote on their selections. In the case of The Blue Caftan, the committee narrows down the list to five possibilities with a secret ballot before choosing one finalist. I cant speak for the committee, said Strand Releasings Marcus Hu, the distributor of The Blue Caftan in the U.S. The subject matter could be a bit sensitive for them. But I certainly hope based on all the critical acclaim the film has gotten on the circuit around the globe, and all the upcoming demand at domestic festivals that it resonates for them in a way that makes them see its a real contender. Hu, whose company has been at the forefront of distributing queer cinema for over 30 years, added that The Blue Caftan and Joyland could establish major precedents if their countries choose to submit them. Its not about challenging the culture so much as bringing those kinds of sensitive stories to their parts of the world, he said, and illuminating the culture thats there about these issues. Holy Spider Other countries in the Middle East wont even allow the production of movies that break their taboos, much less consider them as Oscar submissions. While Holy Spider doesnt have any queer characters, the Iran-set story also contains sexual content that would never have been allowed in the country where it takes place. The movie revolves around the real-life killing spree of a religious man intent on murdering prostitutes in the holy city of Mashhad, and the ensuing court case in which he was nearly exonerated. It doubles as a scathing look at the misogyny and repression of women that continues to dominate the country. In order to avoid pushback, director Ali Abbasi shot the movie in Jordan. The result, which premiered in Cannes competition and made its way to Telluride last weekend ahead of TIFF, provides a shocking contrast to sanitized views of sexuality found in Iranian cinema. Abbasi maintains Swedish citizenship, but the movie stands a good shot at becoming the Danish Oscar submission due to the nationality of its producers. (Its currently on a shortlist of possibilities with Forever and As in Heaven; the finalist will be announced on September 27.) Early on, Abbasi decided to make the movie under conditions that would allow him to avoid censorship. He said an interview with IndieWire earlier this year that he saw no path forward in tricking the Iranian government into letting him make his movie. I dont believe in fooling them into something, he said. That also legitimizes censorship in a strange way. Best of IndieWire Sign up for Indiewire's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. Diana Jenkins is the newest cast member on "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills." Tommy Garcia/Bravo Twitter bots attacked Garcelle Beauvais' 14-year-old son Jax with racist and sexist comments. Diana Jenkins was accused of being behind the attacks. She filed a lawsuit to find the culprit. The anonymous defendant in the lawsuit is referred to as John Doe. "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" star Diana Jenkins filed a lawsuit to unmask the party behind online attacks on costar Garcelle Beauvais' son Jax Nilon. The suit was filed in California's Superior Court against an anonymous defendant called John Doe. Its chief complaint is "invasion of privacy by false light." Jax, 14, received an onslaught of negative comments from a troop of bots amid scenes that showed Beauvais clashing with Jenkins and others in the latest season of "Housewives." One of the comments mentioned in the suit suggested that Jax would have his neck knelt on, similar to George Floyd, if not for his "white daddy" and threatened his life. Others cited the past drug use by his elder brother Oliver, 31, and called his mother a "D-list actress." In episode eight, Erika Jayne Girardi yelled at Jax after his mother's birthday party. Viewers saw Jax try to retrieve a floral centerpiece as the festivities were winding down, prompting Girardi to yell "get the fuck out." The incident led to Beauvais asking Girardi if she had a drinking problem. Girardi explained that she had been mixing her prescribed medications with alcohol and had not gotten a handle on how to balance her treatment and her drinking. She apologized to Beauvais for her actions in episode nine. Diana Jenkins joins Crystal Minkoff, Erika Girardi, Kyle Richards, Garcelle Beauvais, Dorit Kemsley, Lisa Rinna, and Sutton Stracke will be bringing the shade on season 12 of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills." Photo by: Tommy Garcia/Bravo Afterward, Girardi accused Beauvais of faking concern to make herself look better on camera. During the party where the incident occurred, Jenkins and Beauvais had a disagreement stemming from comments Jenkins made about Beauvais' close friend and costar Sutton Stracke. Some online assumed Jenkins was the source of the bot attacks on Jax. She issued a denial in an Instagram post on August 26. "I have been accused of instigating the hateful and inexcusable cyberbullying of Garcelle's son," wrote Jenkins. "Nothing could be further from the truth. I have stood for human rights my whole life. There is no place for hate in this world." Story continues The suit includes links to tweets expressing the theory that she was responsible. It also cites an article written by Jeroslyn Johnson for ScreenRant in which the author rounds up the arguments made by various fans arguing that Jenkins was the culprit of the attacks and a post by Avigail Landreneau at All About the Tea which lists allegations against Jenkins posted on Twitter. Sutton Stracke and Garcelle Beauvais are close off-camera and on-camera. Their friendship caused riffs this season. GP/Star Max/GC Images The suit argues that the person responsible intended to make it look as if Jenkins was behind the bots. Jenkins' attorneys stated that she filed the complaint to "unmask and hold accountable the morally bankrupt person who has attacked a child and placed blame for his/her actions on Ms. Jenkins." Bravo issued a statement renouncing the hateful comments made by the bots and several housewives from other franchises posted statements of support for Garcelle and her family. "I am heartbroken for @garcelle & her family to endure hateful and disgusting messages. I'm heartbroken for anyone who is on the receiving end of this hateful bullying. Stop this vile behavior," wrote "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" star Teresa Giudice on Instagram. "I feel terrible and helpless by what's happening to @garcelle and her family. And my thoughts and prayers are with them," added Giudice's costar Jennifer Adyin in her own Instagram post. "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" airs Wednesdays on Bravo and on Hayu in the UK. Read the original article on Insider (Bloomberg) -- Most Read from Bloomberg Rivian just added almost $3 billion to its market capitalization in a day, and all it took was a fairly bare-bones deal with a new frenemy. The upstart and Mercedes-Benz will join forces to build big electric vans in Europe in a few years, the two revealed Thursday, sending Rivian shares soaring 11%, their biggest jump in four months. Thin as the announcement was on detail, it sent an obvious signal. Yes, this young plug-in pickup maker is having trouble ramping up production, but one of the most storied manufacturers in the world still sees real potential. A friendship with a competitor is nothing new for Rivian. One of the reasons investors were so high on the company when it was preparing to go public a year ago was the way General Motors and Ford raced one another to strike a strategic partnership with the up-and-comer around the time it was in the process of securing major backing from Amazon. One of Fords senior-most executives at the time later bragged about stealing a promising investment from its Detroit-based nemesis at the 11th hour. Theres another blast from the past element to this from Mercedess perspective, as Baird analyst Ben Kallo put it in a note to clients Friday. Daimler played a critical role in helping Tesla get off the ground by acquiring a stake during the great financial crisis and buying drivetrains from the company to power Mercedes hatchbacks. Elon Musk has described that deal as fundamental to Tesla surviving its early struggles. Theres a lot left to unpack about this new tie-up how and why it came together, what it means and who wins and loses. Here are a few thoughts and questions to ponder: Story continues Conserving Cash In the months before and after its blockbuster initial public offering in November, Rivian was furiously hiring and building out its sales and service operations to support its growth ambitions. Those have been held up by the companys plant in Normal, Illinois, which isnt assembling nearly as many R1T trucks, R1S SUVs and Amazon delivery vehicles as hoped. Supply chain woes are plaguing all of the auto industry but hitting inexperienced companies particularly hard. While Rivian still had $15.5 billion in the bank at the end of June, management has made several moves lately to be more capital-efficient amid rising costs and concern about a global downturn. The joint venture with Mercedes will be a cheaper way to enter the European market and boost the companys credibility with suppliers and prospective customers that might otherwise have been skittish. A lot of Rivians cash is also already earmarked for other expensive projects. It has yet to break ground on a $5 billion factory near Atlanta, and executives have said the amount the company has on hand offers just enough runway to get to the start of production of the mid-price car to be built at that plant by 2025. Burden-sharing with Mercedes may also reflect how difficult its become for companies in the EV sector to raise capital, D.A. Davidson analyst Michael Shlisky wrote in an email. In a July memo to staff about cutting 6% of Rivians workforce, CEO RJ Scaringe noted that global capital markets were tightening. We need to be able to continue to grow and scale without additional financing in this macro environment, he wrote. Ford Ties After Ford worked so hard years ago to beat GM to the punch in linking up with Rivian, their relationship has taken many curious twists and turns. First, Joe Hinrichs, the former Ford president who played a leading role in brokering the partnership, abruptly retired and left Rivians board. Soon thereafter, the companies called off plans that had been announced three months earlier to jointly develop Lincolns first fully electric model. Alexandra Ford English, the great-great granddaughter of founder Henry Ford, replaced Hinrichs as a Rivian director, but didnt stay on for long. Yet another replacement stepped down leading up to Rivians IPO, leaving Ford without a board seat. Ford and Rivian have been relatively mum about their future together. Now the former, which still owns a 9.6% stake in the latter, may end up with more formidable competition in the commercial vehicle business that is a huge point of pride and emphasis for Ford CEO Jim Farley. The automaker announced plans just this week to start selling the electric version of its best-selling European delivery van, the E-Transit Custom, roughly a year from now. Upside for Amazon What Rivian, Mercedes and Ford all have in common is Amazon. The e-commerce giant has a contract with Rivian for 100,000 electric vans due to be delivered by the end of the decade. It also buys vans from Ford, Mercedes and others. Given the size of Amazons global fleet and its ambitious sustainability targets, it has to look beyond just Rivian for electric last-mile delivery options. Amazon has exclusive rights to Rivians delivery vehicles for four years after receiving its first one, as well as the right of first refusal to buy its vans for two years after that. Its surely hoping the Rivian-Mercedes deal will mean more electric van availability, and ideally at lower costs. Carry On Rivian seeking to establish production in Europe is not a surprise: executives have had their eye on the market for some time. The company scouted locations for a potential factory in locations including the UK, Germany and Hungary, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg in February last year. Rivian opting to set up shop with Mercedes somewhere in central or eastern Europe will be a letdown to those who courted the company. In one indication of just how eager leaders were to land the investment, then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson tried to woo Scaringe himself, Sky News reported late last year. Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2022 Bloomberg L.P. Senator Mitt Romney urged Joe Biden to run for president in 2020 to defeat Donald Trump on the night of the 2018 midterm elections, a new book claims. The call was reported in Gabriel Debenedettis forthcoming book The Long Alliance: The Imperfect Union of Joe Biden and Barack Obama, which will be released next week, The Guardian reports. Mr Romney lost to Mr Biden and Mr Obama in 2012 when he was the Republican presidential nominee with then-Representative Paul Ryan as his running mate. On election night in 2018, Mr Biden called numerous candidates, but also spoke to Mr Romney, who had won the Senate election in Utah. Despite the fact Mr Trump endorsed Mr Romney in 2012, Mr Romney emerged as the most prominent critic of the president within the Republican Party. At the same time, Mr Romney courted Mr Trump about being his Secretary of State. Still, Mr Romney urged the former vice president to run for president. At one point he connected with Mitt Romney, whod been easily elected to the Senate that night as a rare Trump-opposing Republican. They were warm as Biden cheered Romneys win, Mr Debenedetti reports. Then Obamas old rival got to the point: You have to run, Romney said. Mr Debenedetti says in the notes of his book When someones words are rendered in italics, that indicates an approximation based on the memories of sources who did not recall exact wordings. Mr Romney voted to convict Mr Trump during the former presidents first impeachment in 2020, making him the first Senator to convict a president of their own party. He later voted to convict Mr Trump for his second impeachment trial for his role inciting the January 6 riot. Since Mr Bidens election, Mr Romney has occasionally worked with Mr Biden, helping to negotiate the bipartisan infrastructure bill last year and voting to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court when Mr Biden nominated her. Reuters Videos STORY: A ceasefire around Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant may be in sight. The U.N. watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency said Monday that both Ukraine and Russia are interested in a proposed protection zone around the Russian-held nuclear plant.Speaking in Vienna, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said both sides were engaging with the agency as it races to protect the plant and avert potential disaster. "The situation is untenable. We are playing with fire. We can not continue in a situation, where we are one step away from a nuclear accident. The safety of the Zaporizhzhia power plant is hanging by a thread. And we see that one day we repair one line, only to see it go down the next day and to wonder what is going to happen?"Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for shelling at Europe's biggest nuclear power plant -- risking nuclear catastrophe by cutting power lines essential to cooling the reactors, even with all six shut down.The last operating reactor was put into a "cold shutdown" after an external power line was restored over the weekend.Russian forces have occupied Zaporizhzhia since March, while Ukrainian staff operate the plant under stressful conditions the IAEA has repeatedly warned are unsafe.Grossi has called both for an immediate stop to shelling and a more formal "nuclear safety and security protection zone" around the plant."Basically, it's a commitment that no military action will include or will imply aiming, of course, at the plant, or a radius that could be affecting its normal operation. This is what we expect.Two IAEA officials are stationed at Zaporizhzhia in what the agency calls a continuous presence at the plant. UKRAINSKA PRAVDA FRIDAY, 9 SEPTEMBER, 2022, 12:31 For almost four months now, Russian aviation has not flown over the territory controlled by the Ukrainian air defence. Source: Yurii Ihnat, spokesman of the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in an interview with RBC-Ukraine Quote from Ihnat: "For almost four months now, the enemy has not flown into our airspace he has changed his tactics. They realised they are suffering serious losses on the territory of our state. No matter what they say in their propaganda stories, there are air defence systems in Ukraine." Details: Ihnat said that Ukraines defences have been boosted with portable anti-aircraft missile systems of various types, both of Soviet and foreign production. These anti-aircraft defence systems have a range of 4.5-7 kilometres. According to him, Russia felt a threat to its aviation and decided not to fly into the territory controlled by Ukraines air defence. He added that the Russian Federation continues to use drones that can fly deep into Ukraines territory for reconnaissance. Journalists fight on their own frontline. Become our patron, support our work! on InsectWorld/Shutterstock A Russian Ilyushin Il-76TD cargo aircraft flew over Germany and the Czech Republic on a flight from Moscow to Brno. The jet received "special permission" to enter the restricted EU airspace, per local news outlet Czechia Posts English. A few other Russian aircraft have also received the allowance for special missions to Switzerland and Slovakia. While the European Union has closed its airspace to Russian aircraft, there are some exceptions to the rule. Last Thursday, a Russian Ilyushin Il-76TD cargo aircraft operated by Volga-Dnepr Airlines flew from Moscow to Brno, Czech Republic, via German airspace, according to FlightAware data. Volga-Dnepr Airlines' Ilyushin Il-76TD routing from Russia to Czechia. FlightAware The flight was given special permission from Germany and Czechia's Ministry of Transport, which "issued an exception for the Russian air carrier Volga Dnepr for flights to or from the Czech Republic for the purpose of transporting a specific commodity in the strategic interest of the Czech Republic and other EU member states, for the reason that currently at the moment there is no available alternative to air transport," Ministry spokesperson Frantisek Jemelka told local news outlet Czechia Post English. The fuel was received by the country's state-controlled energy company CEZ, with company spokesperson Ladislav Kriz saying, "we can confirm that these were fuel assemblies for the Temelin power plant based on a valid contract and last year's order." Another Russian Ilyushin cargo jet returned to Czechia via the same routing on Tuesday, per FlightRadar24. However, the reason for that flight is still unconfirmed, but it was likely a similar mission. Volga-Dnepr Airlines' special permission flight from Moscow to the Czech Republic. FlightRadar24 "In both of our nuclear power plants, we maintain sufficient stocks of fuel assemblies," Kriz said. "Dates, routes, and the size of deliveries are not public information." Despite the allowance from both countries, the Russian jet still had to fly a long route around several European countries and over the Baltic Sea to avoid closed airspace. The total flight time was three and a half hours. Story continues After Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the EU banned Russian planes from flying in its airspace. Russia retaliated with its own airspace restrictions soon after, forcing both sides to detour around each other. This resulted in passenger airlines adding hours of extra flight time and thousands in extra costs to circumvent closed airspace. For example, British Airways added one hour to its journey between New Delhi and London, while Finnair added a whopping four hours from Helsinki to Tokyo. Finnair routing from Helsinki to Tokyo on March 9, 2022. Courtesy of Flightaware.com Despite the restrictions, EU countries can give special permission to Russian planes to enter their airspace. In mid-March, another Ilyushin Il-76 from Volga-Dnepr Airlines flew from Moscow to Slovakia to deliver nuclear fuel, according to pan-European news outlet Euractiv. The jet traveled via Belarus and Poland, which is a different, yet shorter routing from its Tuesday flight over Germany. Slovakian Economy Minister Richard Sulik told Euractiv that he worked with the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to allow the overflight. A different Volga-Dnepr Airlines Ilyushin plane flew a similar routing on March 1, per FlightRadar24, which took two and a half hours one hour shorter than flying over Germany. While Slovakia recently resumed fuel shipments from Russia, the Czech Republic is trying to reduce its fuel dependency on the Kremlin. In April, CEZ announced it had signed an agreement with US-based Westinghouse Electric Company to supply fuel to its Temelin Nuclear Power Plant. Nuclear deliveries are not the only Russian overflight exceptions. In July, a Russian government plane flew nine hours from Moscow to Basel, Switzerland, to pick up diplomatic staff. The jet, which flew over France and Switzerland, was given a "diplomatic clearing" from both nations, the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs told BZ. Read the original article on Business Insider A homeless shelter expansion in the Chinatown-International District, SODO and Pioneer Square neighborhoods in Seattle has prompted community members to host an informational meeting to address King County councils neglect of the neighborhood. Seattles Chinatown International District community members expressed disappointment over the councils decision to expand the homeless shelter in a meeting held at Hing Hay Park on Thursday. The project, which will house nearly 500 people, was approved by the council back in May. However, many community members only heard about the project in July. They expressed their frustration at the county council, noting that they were left out of conversations. Its not the unhoused that are causing the problem. Its a contributing factor to how the city is neglecting this neighborhood, community member Matt Chan reportedly said. The deep community engagement thats needed doesnt take place. More from NextShark: Two Women Steal 85-Year-Old Grandmas $1,500 Necklace in New York The government is supposed to help people, not do things to people, he added. Theyre deciding whats best for our community with cursory community engagement, and thats just dead wrong. There are reportedly a total of 10 homeless shelters already in the neighborhood. The latest expansion will cost around $22 million to operate. It will also include a sobering center, a tiny house village, a mental health treatment facility and a parking space for RVs. Community members are upset that they were not consulted about the project before it was approved. More from NextShark: Issey Miyake, trailblazing Japanese designer renowned for pleats, dies of liver cancer at 84 They need to provide the structure to keep this neighborhood safe, Chan stated. They need to clear the encampments. The people living in encampments in this area should have first priority to this shelter. There are empty lots and empty buildings in white neighborhoods, and the fact that you do not schedule it is racist. Absolutely flat out racist, another community member reportedly said. Story continues In an email sent to KOMO last month, the King County Department of Community and Human Services said that the King County, City of Seattle, and KCRHA connected with more than a dozen community groups before the lease was transmitted to the King County Council. More from NextShark: Women in Taiwan Are Now Earning Up to $9,500 a Month as Gaming Partners We also conducted two community meetings after the lease was approved by Council, they claimed. SODO BIA hosted the first meeting and the CID Public Safety Council hosted the second meeting. King County continues to join monthly CID Public Safety Council meetings. KCRHA intends to hire a dedicated outreach person to work directly with the CID community as part of this project, and KCRHA Systems Advocates are on the ground in the CID making connections with people living unsheltered as part of Partnership for Zero. The homeless shelter expansion is proposed to be built before the end of the year and begin operating sometime in the late fall. More from NextShark: Chinese Professor Rants About Daughters Lower IQ Than His and His Wifes Featured Image via KING 5 The parties in a 2020 lawsuit from two parents who claimed Whitefield Academy, a private Christian school in Louisville, expelled their daughter for celebrating her birthday with a rainbow-themed cake recently reached a settlement agreement to close the case. Attorneys from each side either did not respond to requests for comment or declined to share the settlement amount along with other specifics about the conclusion of the case, which garnered some national attention after it came to light in 2020. Jefferson Circuit Judge Annie OConnell dismissed the case via an order entered Sept. 2 into online court records. Kimberly Alford and Mark Kenney filed the suit in January 2020 against Whitefield Academy, located at 7711 Fegenbush Lane, claiming the school did not follow its disciplinary procedures before it expelled their then-15-year-old daughter and outed her as gay. While not disclosing the settlement amount, Alford told The Courier Journal in a message "it was a joke ... [f]or what they put me and my daughter through." Other defendants included The American Conservative magazine and one of its writers, Rod Dreher; the American Ideas Institute, which publishes the magazine; and Bruce Jacobson, Whitefield Academys head of school. Claims made in a lawsuit represent one side of a case. The 2020 lawsuit and its various arguments eventually went to the Kentucky Court of Appeals before getting sent back to Jefferson Circuit Court. The lawsuit came after Alford told The Courier Journal and several other local news outlets that her daughter had been a freshman at Whitefield Academy, a prekindergarten-12th grade school affiliated with Highview Baptist Church, until Jan. 6, 2020, when the mother received an email from Jacobson saying her daughter was being expelled "immediately due to a post on social media." A 15-year-old student was expelled from Louisville's Whitefield Academy, a private pre-K-12 Christian school, after her family said this photo of her celebrating her birthday was posted to social media and shared with school leaders. A screenshot of the Facebook post, which Alford had uploaded to her Facebook page, was included in Jacobsons email. The post featured a photo Alford had taken of her daughter celebrating her birthday in late December 2019 at a Texas Roadhouse restaurant. In the photo, the girl was wearing a sweater featuring a rainbow design and was sitting by a rainbow-themed cake. Story continues The rainbow flag is often used as a symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer pride and support for LGBTQ rights. Kentucky bourbonism:How a single change kickstarted a new kind of bourbon tourism But the lawsuit said the receipt for the cake listed it as having "assorted colors" and included nothing about it being an LGBTQ "pride" cake. The girl's shirt also did not include the word "gay" or any abbreviations related to the LGBTQ movement, the lawsuit said. Alford said an unknown person later shared the photo with officials at Whitefield Academy. Jacobson wrote in his email to Alford that the picture "demonstrates a posture of morality and cultural acceptance contrary to that of Whitefield Academys beliefs and, alluding to allegations of bad behavior in school on the part of her daughter, said it followed two years of "lifestyle violations." Jacobson declined at the time to provide additional details on the violations or whether the photo featuring the rainbow cake led to the girl's expulsion but said students' families "know that they have expectations" to follow. Still, Alford told The Courier Journal that she and her daughter met with school officials in October 2019 to discuss concerns about the girl "pushing her sexuality on other students" and how a disciplinary officer had found Juul pods in her backpack. Whitefield Academy also later issued a statement saying "inaccurate media reports" were "circling" and "stating that the student in question was expelled from our school solely for a social media post. In fact, she has unfortunately violated our student code of conduct numerous times over the past two years, the school said. The suit said that after the girl was disciplined for the "e-cigarette" issue, the school required her to "begin counseling with a school administrator." However, the counseling did not relate to "e-cigarette use" but rather the girl's sexuality, according to the lawsuit. New analysis:More than 500 Kentuckians have joined Oath Keepers extremist group The suit says the counselor required that the girl read "Gay Girl, Good God," a book in which author Jackie Hill Perry shares her story of being gay before "finding wholeness." After the counseling began, the suit said, a Whitefield Academy teacher complained the girl had gotten an "undercut" by shaving a few inches of hair from her neckline. Nothing in Whitefield Academy's contract with parents prohibits the "undercut," according to the lawsuit. Besides the haircut complaint, the suit said the girl did not have any disciplinary issues after she began counseling. According to Whitefield Academy's parent/student handbook, high school students could face expulsion "when there is a serious departure from the school's guidelines" for student conduct. "On occasion, the atmosphere or conduct within a particular home may be counter or in opposition to the biblical lifestyle the school teaches, the handbook added. This includes, but is not limited to, sexual immorality, homosexual orientation or the inability to support Biblical standards of right and wrong. ...In such cases, the school reserves the right, within its sole discretion, to refuse admission of an applicant or to discontinue enrollment of a student. The lawsuit also claimed Whitefield Academy violated its handbook, which says high school students face numerous disciplinary options, including detention, disciplinary referrals and suspension, before expulsion. The school "effectively skipped" over other disciplinary steps by expelling the girl "because of a photograph implying she was gay, according to the complaint. Attorney Georgia Connally, who filed the suit on behalf of the parents, previously noted Whitefield Academys policies to expel students who may go against its religious beliefs are permitted under exemptions for faith-based schools in Louisville's Fairness Ordinance, which protects residents from discrimination based on their sexual orientation and gender identification. Connally said in 2020 the school can discriminate against her, but there are still steps that they didn't follow under the disciplinary process. The school and its defense team had argued in court that Whitefield Academy's arbitration clause that families agree to when enrolling students should have resulted in the lawsuit's dismissal. That clause, included in court documents, says "any claim or dispute arising out of or related to this agreement, including statutory claims, shall be settled by biblically based mediation." "If resolution of the dispute and reconciliation do not result from such effort, the matter shall then be submitted to a panel of three arbitrator for binding arbitration," the clause also says. The lawsuit also went after Dreher and his "Rainbow Cake Girl" story that published Jan. 17, 2020, in The American Conservative. More lawsuits:Half of Jenkins Eliason, the go-to designers for Kentucky's elite, likely headed to prison Dreher, a senior editor for the Washington, D.C.-based magazine, wrote that the mainstream media" had "sandbagged" the story on Whitefield Academy. Citing unnamed sources and including screenshots of Instagram posts from Alford's daughter that were later removed from the online article over "possible copyright concerns," Dreher alleged the girl had promoted "LGBT consciousness in the school" and committed other offenses such as bullying and "disrespecting teachers." But the lawsuit said the girl "does NOT have an extensive disciplinary history at Whitefield" and there is "no evidence she ever bullied or harassed another student. The article's initial use of photos from the girl's private social media account came without parental consent, the suit said. Dreher also wrote another story in January 2020, titled "Hating so Love Can Win," that the lawsuit said "falsely claimed the girl had sexually harassed another student." Alford said in 2020 that she unsuccessfully appealed her daughters expulsion and later enrolled her in a public school. Reach Billy Kobin at bkobin@courierjournal.com This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Settlement in Louisville Whitefield Academy rainbow cake photo lawsuit By Lucy Craymer and Jill Gralow WELLINGTON/SYDNEY (Reuters) - New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described the death of Queen Elizabeth as the end of a chapter in history, as leaders across the Pacific mourned the death of the 96-year-old monarch. Following Elizabeth's death on Thursday, her eldest son Charles became monarch of the United Kingdom and the head of state of 14 other realms including Australia, New Zealand, Tuvalu, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. "Young or old, there is no doubt that a chapter is closing today, and with that we share our thanks for an incredible woman who we were lucky enough to call our Queen," Ardern said in a news conference. "She was extraordinary." Ardern said she was woken early to be given the news. "I had a police officer shine a torch into my room at about 4.50am this morning. When that torch light came into my room I knew immediately what it meant," Ardern said. In Australia, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Queen's death was a loss felt deeply in Australia. "Through the noise and turbulence of the years she embodied and exhibited a timeless decency and an enduring calm," he said. Condolences were shared from across the Pacific. Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister James Marape said she was fondly known as "Mama Queen because she was the matriarch of our country as much as she was to her family and Sovereign realms." The Queen visited many of the Pacific nations she governed in the Pacific during her 70-year reign. "We were fortunate to have the Queen visit us ... and we recognise her incredible commitment to service," said Tuvalu's Acting Prime Minister Simon Kofe. The Royal Family's official website describes how on visiting Tuvalu in 1982 they were taken ashore in a fleet of local canoes and then borne aloft and carried ashore. MOURNING Flags were lowered across both New Zealand and Australia. Australia suspended parliament, while in New Zealand politicians were expected to gather next week to pay their respects. Story continues Both countries are constitutional monarchies, with the British monarch as head of state, although the role is largely ceremonial. But there has been debate in both countries for some time on whether to become a republic, with a citizen as the head of state. A 1999 referendum in Australia on becoming a republic was narrowly defeated. The accession of King Charles stirred calls in the Caribbean for the removal of the monarch as head of state, which were echoed in some quarters in Australia. "Now Australia must move forward. We need Treaty with First Nations people, and we need to become a Republic," Australian Greens Party leader Adam Bandt said on Twitter, although he was accused by some supporters of being disrespectful. The Australian Republic Movement noted the Queen had backed Australia's right to become a fully independent nation during the 1999 referendum, adding that it was "an issue for the Australian people and them alone to decide." Commenting on the accession of King Charles, Sydney resident Katherine said: "He's been bred to do this his entire life." "I think he'll do fine. I am a big fan of his son, William and his wife Catherine and their children ... I think that they have a place in our world, I really do." Asked in a radio interview if the Queen's death takes Australia closer to being a republic, Australian Premier Albanese said it was not the time to talk about it. "Today's a day for one issue and one issue only, which is to pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth II." (Additional reporting by Renju Jose in Sydney, writing by Praveen Menon; editing by Lincoln Feast and Richard Pullin) Support local journalism. Unlock unlimited digital access to floridatoday.com Click here and subscribe today. The last time Debi Peabody saw her granddaughter, Angela Pastorino, she spent the day helping her grandmother pull weeds in the yard. It was February, and the 18-year-old and her boyfriend, Alfredo Hernandez, also 18, had traveled from Oregon to Brevard where Pastorino grew up. Peabody said she was excited to meet Hernandez, who was from Bend, Oregon where Pastorino had lived for the past six years. The three of them went to Texas Roadhouse after a day spent cleaning up the yard. There, Peabody snapped the last pictures she would ever take of her granddaughter. Angela Pastorino, right, with her grandmother, Debi Peabody, left, at Texas Roadhouse in February of this year. A memorial for Pastorino will be held Saturday at Christ Central Church in Cocoa. Pastorino and Hernandez were killed Aug. 16 in Bend, Oregon. While police did not release any records relating to their deaths, citing an active investigation, they confirmed the case was being investigated as homicides. Local press reported that the bodies of the two teens were found Aug. 17 in a garage of a house where they had been doing work the previous day along with 41-year-old Wesley Abel Brady. The three were reportedly drinking that evening when Brady and Hernandez got into a fight. Brady has been arrested and faces multiple charges, including two counts of first-degree murder. Now, nearly a month later, Pastorinos mother, Jennifer Grigg, has brought her daughter's ashes back to her hometown. While a memorial service was held in Oregon, they wanted something in Brevard where more family could attend, Grigg said. The service will be held at 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 10th, in Cocoa at Christ Central Church. Angela Pastorino and Alfredo Hernandez were killed in Bend, Oregon Aug. 16. A memorial for Pastorino will be held in Cocoa Saturday. Teenager arrested: Rockledge boy, 16, attacks grandma in kitchen, fatally stabs her, police say Student arrested after lockdown at middle school: Student in sheriff's custody after report of gun at Central Middle School in West Melbourne While Pastorino spent the past six years in Bend, she spent most of her early childhood in Brevard. Born in Cape Canaveral, she attended Challenger 7 Elementary School in Port St. John. Peabody recalled the many activities she was involved in as a young child, including Girl Scouts, softball, playing violin, attending concerts, participating in a renaissance play at school, riding horses, painting and more. Story continues And she loved helping others. In 2015, she helped raise funds for BCSO Agent John Casey Smith, who had been shot during a sting operation. "She helped her friend with the lemonade stand that was raising money for (Agent) Casey when he got shot," Peabody said. "And I know Wayne Ivey came out there and took pictures with her, and she was excited." Angela Pastorino with her mother, Jennifer Grigg. Pastorino was killed in August, and a memorial service will be held in Cocoa Saturday. "That child always had a smile on her face and would give you the shirt off her back to help you," Grigg said. "Nothing could stop her or break her. She just was always smiling and just happy." She also had a heart for animals, both her mother and grandma said. Peabody recalled how Catherine Schweinsberg Rood Central Library in Cocoa used a program where kids could read aloud to dogs and how she, Pastorino and other young family members learning to read enjoyed it. "We used to go to the SPCA, and they would read to the dogs because Angela thought that was a good thing to want to do to help them learn how to read," she said. "She loved animals you couldn't walk past her with a dog without her yelling can she pet it," Grigg said. Pastorino's own dog followed her everywhere, Grigg said, even on the night she was killed. "He stayed outside the home (after they were killed) until somebody drove him home," she said. "He didn't leave her side." Saturday's memorial service was a chance to "bring her home," Grigg said. But it doesn't ease the pain of her passing. "I just want her back," she said. "She just she was something special, man. It didn't matter how bad your day was. She could just walk in the room, no matter who you were she could just brighten your day up." Peabody, who will speak at the memorial, echoed the sentiment. "There's a huge hole in our hearts that's never going to be filled (because of) the loss of her," she said. Finch Walker is a Breaking News Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Walker at 321-290-4744 or fwalker@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @_finchwalker Support local journalism. Subscribe today. This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Brevard memorial for Angela Pastorino, a local teen killed in Oregon (Shutterstock / Kathy Hutchins) An Ohio stalker who called himself Freddy Krueger has been sentenced to prison for a 12-year campaign of harassment against CSI: Miami star Eva LaRue and her daughter. James David Rogers, 58, was sentenced to 3 and a half years in federal prison on Thursday (8 September) in US District Court in Los Angeles. The sentencing follows nearly three years after his arrest for stalking LaRue (best known for her roles in CSI: Miami and All My Children) and her young daughter since March 2007. LaRues daughter was five years old when Rogers began violently threatening her. In a sentencing memorandum, as reported by Law & Crime, prosecutors noted that Rogers signed letters that he sent LaRue as Freddy Krueger, the fictional, supernatural serial killer from the horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street. An investigation found approximately 37 threatening letters that Rogers mailed LaRue and her daughter, including one in June 2015, which read: I am the man who has been stalking for the last seven years. Now I have my eye on you too. Prosecutors also said Rogers sent LaRues romantic partner at least two letters with murder threats, for which he has not been criminally charged. Rogers worked as a nursing assistant at a retirement and assisted living centre. He pleaded guilty in April to all charges: two counts of mailing threatening communications, one count of threats by interstate communications and two counts of stalking. An arrest warrant has been issued for the stepmother of Harmony Montgomery, the New Hampshire girl last seen in 2019 who investigators believe was murdered, after she failed to appear in court Thursday. Kayla Montgomery, 32, was due to appear in Hillsborough Superior Court Northern District in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Thursday at 10 a.m. for a dispositional conference. The meeting was to discuss charges, including an allegation that Montgomery lied to the states Department of Health and Human Services when she received welfare on Harmonys behalf when the child wasnt actually in Montgomery's care, according to the case docket. A spokesperson with the New Hampshire Judicial Branch confirmed that Montgomery failed to appear in court, and the State requested an arrest warrant and a judge granted it. Her failure to appear in court comes one week after the state filed a motion asking for proof of her compliance with conditions of her release, including not consuming excessive alcohol or using drugs. Prosecutors said in the motion that Montgomery had three interactions" with the Manchester police in August involving drugs that raised concerns about her compliance. NBC News has reached out to her attorney for comment. The case of the Harmony Montgomery has gripped New England for the past year. Officials previously said Harmony likely disappeared sometime between November 28 and December 10, 2019, but police only learned about her case in December 2021. In an update last month, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella said investigators believe Harmony was murdered in Manchester in December 2019, when she would have been 5 years old. Her case has turned into a homicide investigation and the search for her remains is ongoing, Formella said. Adam Montgomery, Harmony's father, and his wife Kayla, have both been both arrested and charged, but not in direct connection with the girls disappearance. Both have pleaded not guilty. Kayla Montgomery was arrested in January by Manchester police on a charge of welfare fraud, accused of obtaining $1,500 in food stamp benefits for Harmony, though she wasnt living with her and Adam at the time, from December 2019 to June 2021. Story continues Adam was charged with assault after he was alleged to have told an uncle that he had given Harmony a black eye in June 2019, according to court documents. Harmony Montgomery. (Manchester Police Dept.) Harmony was living with her father, Adam Montgomery, and his wife Kayla before she disappeared. The girl was born in Massachusetts and spent much of her life in the custody of the states Department of Children and Families, a state Office of the Child Advocate report said. Her mother, Crystal Sorey, and father had substance abuse issues, the agency said. A court awarded her father custody of her in February 2019. The New Hampshire General Attorneys Office said that in November 2019, Adam, Kayla, their two common children together and Harmony were evicted from the address 77 Gilford Street in Manchester. Witnesses reported seeing Harmony with the couple in the following days. But from December 6 to 10 of 2019, Adam and Kayla were seen only with their two children, without Harmony. According to court documents, Kayla Montgomery told investigators that Adam Montgomery informed her in late 2019 that Harmony was going to live with her mother. Adam Montgomery told police that Sorey picked the girl up in Manchester, according to a police affidavit filed in his case. Harmonys mother, Crystal Sorey, told police in November 2021 she last saw her daughter on a video call in April 2019 and Adam Montgomery had been blocking her attempts at communication, according to a police affidavit. This article was originally published on NBCNews.com Sep. 9PARISHVILLE A new menu greeted Parishville-Hopkinton Central School students when they arrived for the first day of class on Tuesday, and the response was positive. "The new menu looks amazing, great job!! Thank you!" one comment on the district's Facebook page read. "Definitely looks a lot better for sure and our son said he loved his lunch and it was actually filling and tasted awesome, great job staff keep bringing these great lunches to our children," another read. Other comments included: "I heard good things about today's meal from the kids"; "This looks amazing!!! Thanks to all!!!!"; and "This looks so much better!!! Thank you staff." The comments were left after district officials posted a photo of the lunch offerings on Tuesday. "Today's main lunch choice was Chicken Fajita Bowl with Cilantro Lime Brown Rice, Cheesy Refried Beans, Fresh Assorted Fruit, and Milk. If your child chose to take all they were offered, this is what their tray may have looked like. Kudos to Chefs Taylor and Cory and the rest of the kitchen staff for preparing healthy meals for our students and staff!" they wrote. They later posted, "School systems are a large part of food waste in the United States. We are trying very hard to reduce as much food waste as possible. We are working hard to implement a functional composting program and today we are doing an add on to our school lunch menu of chicken fajita soup that they can add to their buffalo chicken or cheese pizza." It was another step forward for a lunch program that drew criticism last school year after a parent, Christopher Vangellow, posted a photo on Facebook of a lunch that he said "might be lacking." The photo, posted on Jan. 12, went viral. It showed four chicken nuggets, one scoop of plain white rice, a handful of baby carrots and a carton of milk. Mr. Vangellow followed up his original Facebook post with additional photographs, including one with chicken balls, a bread stick and fruit "that I am told was completely frozen still so they couldn't eat it." Story continues That led to the formation of the Reimagining School Lunch Committee, which included parents, student representatives, board of education representatives, a Wellness Committee representative, the district superintendent and Arlis "Artie" M. Frego, the director of food service management for the St. Lawrence-Lewis Board of Cooperative Educational Services. Among the initial noticeable changes, new "Panther Red" trays were ordered to replace old, chipped, sand-colored trays, and plastic silverware was replaced with metal silverware. In addition, glass-front refrigerators were rotated to face students so they were able to see the available options before making a choice, and Superintendent Steven G. Coffin coordinated with members of the Reimagining School Lunch group and cafeteria staff to order new furniture. Following spring break, the courtyard reopened with six round picnic tables equipped with "Panther Red" umbrellas as an optional dining space for upperclassmen. Plans also called for the return of a salad bar. skynesher/Getty Images In the weeks after my positive pregnancy test, I was vomiting up to 20 times a day. I couldn't even keep water down. Everyone's suggestions were futile. It took me several doctor appointments to get a diagnosis of hyperemesis gravidarum. I'd been told morning sickness could be difficult, but mine seemed a bit more severe. Within three weeks of my positive pregnancy test I had lost 17% of my body weight and vomited anywhere from five to 20 times a day. Cheery suggestions from friends, coworkers, and family included nibbling on crackers in the morning, trying ginger chews, and eating protein when I felt nauseous. But I was way beyond keeping food down; I couldn't even keep water down. My symptoms were dismissed as morning sickness When I went to my first OB-GYN, a week after getting my positive pregnancy test and losing 10 pounds, I explained that my morning sickness seemed a little worrisome. "Oh, yes, morning sickness is a doozy, isn't it?" she casually quipped. In that dismissal, I understood it wasn't my dwindling health that was a problem but my pain tolerance. "This must be what all women endure," I thought, self-loathingly. "How can I be so fragile about such a ubiquitous experience of pain?" So I shut up, walked out of the office with my little plastic bag, and vomited on the drive home. Within two weeks I was bedridden. I started working from home between bouts of dizziness and restless sleep. My urine had turned orange. My husband, who had to work from home to take care of me, grew more worried. He brought me to urgent care, where the attending physician, slightly exasperated, waved alcohol swabs under my nose to stop me from vomiting in her office. She explained that morning sickness was nothing to worry about. I was sent out with a generous handful of alcohol swabs and a suggestion to "try ginger." The second I got out the door I started vomiting on the sidewalk. It was after my third visit with a new OB-GYN a third placating demeanor, and a third conciliatory instruction on where I could buy ginger chews that I started to feel like I was going mad. It was a true "Twilight Zone" experience. Story continues While most women I knew gained weight in pregnancy, I had lost 30 pounds by this point. I knew I was malnourished, but I feared most deeply that my baby would have some permanent repercussions. As the instinct to protect grew in me and I continually faced eerily dismissive doctors, I realized that if anyone was going to figure out what was wrong with me, it would have to be me. So I took to the internet. I read countless peer-reviewed medical journals spanning over a hundred years. I pored over Reddit feeds. And finally I found something that sounded like what I was experiencing: hyperemesis gravidarum, a debilitating disease thought to affect up to 2% of pregnancies that until the 1950s, when intravenous fluids became widely available, was a leading cause of maternal death. When I brought my research to my next OB-GYN, there was almost an eye roll. After four OB-GYNs had found my symptoms unremarkable, I became convinced that there was no recourse: I would have to keep going down the road, growing increasingly ill and risking my baby's health, while the medical community watched. Finally, a 5th doctor gave me a diagnosis On a visit to the ER, the attending physician listened to my symptoms and gave them uncharacteristic weight. "Why didn't you come in earlier?" she said. "You have hyperemesis gravidarum. Hasn't anyone told you that?" It was such a gratifying diagnosis that to her came easily through a urine test to measure my ketones and a brief look to chart my weight loss. While HG has no cure, mitigating measures include regular infusions, medication, and persistent fetal monitoring. While my symptoms changed only mildly after the diagnosis, my emotional health was rejuvenated. I was not weak. I was not dramatic, unintelligent, or hysterical. I was a very ill woman. But finally, I was going to be OK. Read the original article on Insider El Paso Independent School District Superintendent Diana Sayavedra on Friday, Dec. 17 EL PASO A Texas school district will move forward with the firing of a teacher accused of defending pedophiles during a class lesson. The El Paso Independent School District board of trustees on Tuesday unanimously voted to approve Superintendent Diana Sayavedra continuing with the proposed termination of Franklin High School teacher Amber Parker. Last week, Parker was recorded by a student during a lesson in which she allegedly told students to call pedophiles "Minor Attracted Persons," adding, "So, don't judge people because they want to have sex with 5-year-olds." In a message via Facebook, Parker told the El Paso Times, part of the USA TODAY Network, Im not legally allowed to comment at this time. The video went viral and parent groups on Facebook took to social media in response. In Oklahoma: This teacher helped students get banned books. An official wants her license revoked In a post from "Let the School Bells Ring" Facebook group leader Kendal Brown Jessup last week, multiple parents told Brown Jessup it was part of a class debate and that Parker made it clear she does not condone pedophilia. Brown Jessup also posted, "pedophilia is indefensible and should not be debated in our classrooms. I hope the school/district can get to the truth of it all." Norma De La Rosa, the El Paso Teachers Association president, said she is disappointed and angry that the decision to terminate Parker was approved so quickly. Voices: Debt relief will change the lives of some with student loans, but fall short for others. What's everyone talking about?: Sign up for our trending newsletter to get the latest news of the day The school board recommended suspension without pay or end-of-term termination of the 2022-2023 probationary employment contract. The process will continue in accordance with the Texas Education Code, EPISD officials said. This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Paso teacher accused of defending pedophiles in class to be fired Louisville and Boise State are looking to score their first wins of the season on Friday night. Both teams suffered big losses in Week 1. The Cardinals fell 31-7 at Syracuse, while Boise State lost 34-17 at Oregon State. Louisville is a 5.5-point underdog ahead of its game Friday night at UCF (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2). The Cardinals beat the Knights in 2021 in a game that ended up being the last in a UCF uniform for now-Oklahoma quarterback Dillon Gabriel. Former Ole Miss QB John Rhys Plumlee is now the QB for the Knights and they cruised in Week 1 over South Carolina State. Plumlee threw for 308 yards and 4 TDs while rushing for 100 yards and a score against the Knights FCS foe. The Cardinals offense was brutal in the loss to Syracuse. Malik Cunningham has shown he can be one of the better dual-threat quarterbacks in the country but threw two interceptions and rushed for just 34 yards against the Orange. Louisville lost 31-7 to Syracuse in Week 1. (Photo by Gregory Fisher/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) UCF is a better team than Syracuse as well and one of the favorites to be in the AAC title game. Were inclined to lay the points and take the Knights. While Louisvilles struggles in Week 1 may ultimately be an aberration, UCF could challenge for 10 wins this season. Boise State, meanwhile, heads to New Mexico after QB Hank Bachmeier was benched in the first half of the loss to the Beavers. Bachmeier had three turnovers across Boise States first six possessions and was replaced by redshirt freshman Taylen Green. Boise State could play both quarterbacks again on Friday night (9 p.m. ET, FS1) but the trip to New Mexico could be the perfect opportunity for Bachmeier to redeem himself. The Broncos are 17-point favorites over the Lobos. New Mexico is 1-0 but has just one win against Boise State in 12 games against the Broncos. That win came in 2015 when UNM beat Boise State 31-24. The last six games have all been decided by at least two touchdowns and Boise State has won the last two matchups between the teams by a combined 79-9. Story continues The Lobos inability to score points against Boise State in the last two games is a big reason why the total is just 44.5. We think New Mexico is better this season, however. And while a bowl game may be out of reach, they should get enough points to help the over cash. European soccer outside of England goes on The EPL announced Friday that all games had been postponed because of the death of Queen Elizabeth II at 96. But there are still games in Spains La Liga, Italys Serie A and Germanys Bundesliga. Barcelona (-400) and Real Madrid (-375) are both huge favorites over their opponents in La Liga, while RB Leipzig and Borussia Dortmund are in the biggest game of the weekend on the continent. Leipzig is a slight favorite at +135 while Dortmund is at +170 to win. Guardians and Twins in a huge series The race for the AL Central title is the best in baseball at the moment. The Cleveland Guardians are 1.5 games up on both the Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox and the Twins host the Guardians this weekend. Minnesota is -115 to win straight up Friday night while the Guardians are -105 and +165 as a 1.5-run favorite. Cal Quantrill starts Friday night for Cleveland while Dylan Bundy takes the mound for Minnesota. The White Sox are in Oakland for a three-game series and are -155 to win Friday night with Lucas Giolito on the mound. Who cashed tickets Thursday? Buffalo Bills bettors were thrilled with the teams big win over the defending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams to open the season. Under bettors were also happy with the 31-10 win as it comfortably went under the 52-point total. Yankees bettors finally saw the teams luck against the Twins run out as Minnesota got a 4-3 win. The Brewers also swept the Giants in a doubleheader. The royal family is different than it used to be. Samir Hussein/WireImage/Getty Images Queen Elizabeth died on September 8 after a 70-year rule; the monarchy has massively changed since she ascended the throne. It was once forbidden to marry someone who was divorced, but Meghan Markle married Prince Harry in 2018. Younger royals tend to be less strict about observing protocol. Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. Queen Elizabeth died on September 8 after 70 years of rule, and the monarchy looks markedly different than it did when came to power. Some strict rules have been relaxed or changed, and younger members of the royal family continue to challenge traditional rules and roles of royalty. Here's how royal life has changed over the years. The ceiling in the White Drawing Room in Buckingham Palace was designed by John Nash. The White Drawing Room in Buckingham Palace pictured in 1901. The Print Collector/Getty Images Nash redesigned much of Buckingham Palace in the 1800s. While some of the furniture has been swapped out, much of the room's original decor remains. The White Drawing Room today. Xinhua/Han Yan via Getty Images There's a hidden door disguised as a mirror and cabinet where the Queen enters to greet guests. Ray Bellisario, known as "Britain's first paparazzo," was one of the first photographers to take unofficial and informal photographs of the royal family. Ray Bellisario in 1962. Popperfoto/Getty Images Bellisario started following the royals in the 1950s, and according to the Guardian, the royal family was not fans of the photographer. Bellisario once tried to send the Queen a copy of his 1972 photography book "To Tread on Royal Toes," and the Queen sent it back with a note that said: "Her Majesty does not accept the book and it is therefore being returned herewith." Now hundreds of photographers follow the royals' every move. Photographers gathered outside the hospital after Kate Middleton gave birth to Princess Charlotte in 2015. Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images Chris Jackson serves as the royal family's photographer, but taking pictures of royals is a booming business. The Church of England used to forbid marriage after divorce. King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson. AP/Len Putnam King Edward VIII caused a scandal when he signed his abdication papers after less than a year on the throne so that he could marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee. The ban has since been lifted, paving the way for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's love story. Story continues Meghan Markle is divorced, but no one in the royal family took issue with their marriage. Aaron Chown/pool photo via AP The Church of England has allowed marrying after divorce since 2002. Queen Elizabeth's wedding was broadcast by BBC Radio in 1947. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip married at Westminster Abbey in 1947. AP Elizabeth had to use clothing ration coupons to pay for her wedding dress after World War II. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's royal wedding was broadcast by 15 different networks in the US alone. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle leave St George's Chapel. Ben STANSALL - WPA Pool/Getty Images Nielsen reported that 29.2 million people in the US watched Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding. There were also 6.9 million interactions on social media about the big day. The Queen gave birth to all of her children at home. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip with baby Princess Anne. PA Images via Getty Images Prince William was the first direct heir to the throne who was born in a hospital. Not only are royal babies now delivered in hospitals, royals greet photographers outside hours after giving birth. Prince William and Kate Middleton with Prince Louis. Jack Taylor/Getty Images Kate Middleton's stylist Natasha Archer met her at the hospital to help her get camera-ready following the birth of Prince Louis in 2018. Royal births used to be announced via a bulletin posted on the gates of Buckingham Palace. A bulletin announcing the birth of Prince Andrew is posted at Buckingham Palace in 1960. PA Images via Getty Images When Queen Elizabeth gave birth to Prince Andrew in 1960, the palace superintendent posted the bulletin as a crowd of 2,000 waited outside the gates for the news, according to Getty. These days, birth announcements are posted on the official Kensington Palace Twitter as well as the palace gates. Kensington Palace announces Prince Louis' birth on Twitter in 2018. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images According to the BBC, the post can only go up on social media after the formal announcement is displayed at Buckingham Palace. Sons used to take precedence over daughters in the line of succession. Then-Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip with their baby daughter Princess Anne and son Prince Charles in 1950. Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Succession to the throne is regulated by Parliament. The rule used to be that even if a daughter was older, boys were automatically higher in the line of succession. The Succession to the Crown Act came into effect in 2015 and changed the male primogeniture rules. Princess Charlotte gives younger brother Prince Louis a kiss. Kensington Palace Before this change, Prince William and Kate Middleton's youngest son Prince Louis would have been ahead of his older sister Princess Charlotte in the line of succession simply because he's male. Now, Princess Charlotte is third and Prince Louis is is fourth. Royals used to put on Christmas pantomimes for the holidays. Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret in costume in 1941. Lisa Sheridan/Studio Lisa/Getty Images In Queen Elizabeth's youth, she and her sister Princess Margaret put on Christmas productions at Windsor Castle. In "Cinderella," Queen Elizabeth played Prince Florizel and Princess Margaret played Cinderella. They produced the play for the benefit of the Royal Household Concert Wool Fund. Rumor has it that the royal family now exchanges hilarious gifts on Christmas Eve. Members of the royal family at Sandringham for Christmas 2018. From left: Prince Charles, Prince William, Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle, Prince Harry. Getty Images Members of the royal family are fond of getting each other gag gifts like shower caps and toilet seats, according to The Sun. They also play charades and pop open Christmas crackers. The Queen used to lead the Trooping the Colour parade on horseback. Queen Elizabeth in 1977. AP Trooping the Colour celebrates the Queen's official birthday in a tradition that goes back more than 260 years and involves over 1,400 parading soldiers, 200 horses, and 400 musicians marching from Buckingham Palace to Horse Guards Parade. In recent years, she sat in a horse-drawn carriage instead. Queen Elizabeth at Trooping the Colour in 2018. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Bowing or curtsying to royalty used to be necessary. Charlie Chaplin bows to Princess Margaret in 1952. Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images It was the proper greeting for members of the royal family, according to official royal protocol. While it remains the traditional greeting, royals today often opt for a less formal approach. Kate Middleton arriving at a royal engagement with a handshake. WPA Pool/Getty Images According to the royal family's official website, "There are no obligatory codes of behavior when meeting the Queen or a member of the Royal Family, but many people wish to observe the traditional forms." Royal expert Victoria Arbiter told Insider in 2017 that bowing or curtsying to royalty is not necessary. "Certainly with the Queen because she's the Queen and the older generation, you would most definitely want to curtsy," she said. "The younger generations are a lot more relaxed when it comes to curtsying, so it's certainly not a requirement, but it comes down to greeting someone with respect." Royals used to keep their distance from commoners. Queen Elizabeth visiting Toronto in 1973. Popperfoto/Getty Images They would wave, smile, and make pleasant conversation, but maintained a dignified distance. Younger royals aren't afraid to break protocol and go in for a hug. Meghan Markle is a hugger. KGC-107/STAR MAX/IPx 2018/AP When it comes to strict rules of royal protocol, even Queen Elizabeth once brushed them aside and called them "rubbish." Read the original article on Insider It was a February night in Washington D.C. nearly two decades ago when Rob Scheer says a chance encounter at a bar transformed his world. When I met Reece, it literally changed my life, said Scheer. He walked in and I saw him, and Ill never forget looking at my friend next to me and I said, Thats the guy Im going to spend the rest of my life with. It turned out that Scheer was right. That night was the start of a lasting and loving relationship now in its 18th year. The two were among the first 20 same-sex couples in Washington D.C. to get married in 2010 after it was legalized in the district. They are now a family of seven, with five adopted children ranging in ages from 13-21. They have two dads who love them unconditionally, said Scheer. We keep them safe. We provide for them. Reece Scheer is now a stay-at-home dad and Rob Scheer runs the nonprofit they both founded called Comfort Cases that helps foster care children. But they now worry about their familys future. After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, conservative-leaning Justice Clarence Thomas signaled he wants the high court to reconsider the ruling that legalized same-sex marriage, too. If the Supreme Court were ever to overturn the legalization of same-sex marriage, the impact on the Scheer family would be devastating. Im the breadwinner in the household and if something happened to me, all of those rights would just go out the door for my husband, said Scheer. Earlier this year, the House passed a bill to protect same-sex marriage rights in anticipation of a potential future Supreme Court reversal. Its now in the hands of the Senate. This week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) wrote on Twitter about the vote, saying: While MAGA Republicans escalate their rhetoric against marriage equality, weve heard Senate Republicans suggest that a vote isnt necessary. With the threat from the MAGA Supreme Court, we have a responsibility to act. This Senate will vote on the Respect For Marriage Act. Story continues We spoke with Senate Democrats who say the vote is urgent. Im very concerned that this court might take that right away, said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). Thats why our doing this is so very, very important. The Senators behind the bill say they expect to get enough Republican support to get it passed. Scroll down to continue reading More news from KIRO 7 DOWNLOAD OUR FREE NEWS APP At least 10 Republicans in addition to all Democrats are needed to vote in favor of it for the bill to be sent to President Joe Bidens desk to be signed into law. It is still facing opposition from some Republicans who say they have concerns about protecting religious freedoms. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said the bill would be an attack on religious liberties. We spoke with Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) who said he wants to see the language of the bill before making a decision. Lets make sure were not impacting freedom of religion, said Scott. Ill look at it when it comes to me. Once it does come to a vote, the Scheer family has this message for senators. People are going to look at themselves in the mirror the day of the vote and theyre going to realize that either we break up all these families, because that is what could happen, or they can do the right thing, which is be good humans, said Scheer. The 2022 Toronto International Film Festival has officially cancelled the world premiere of Ulrich Seidls film Sparta after misconduct allegations emerged against the director. Mere hours before the slated Sparta screening, TIFF withdrew the feature. German news outlet Der Spiegel previously published allegations of child exploitation against Seidl and the Sparta production on September 2. More from IndieWire A statement on the official TIFF festival page now reads: This film has been withdrawn from festival. We apologize for any inconvenience. Ticket holders will receive an email from TIFF Customer Relations with more information. IndieWire has reached out to the Toronto International Film Festival for comment. Sparta focuses on Ewald (Georg Friedrich), an Austrian judo teacher in Romania who is a non-offending pedophile. The film is a sequel to Seidls 2002 drama Rimini, focused on Ewalds brother. According to Seidl, the film is based on a true story. The Der Spiegel report alleged that Seidl was not forthcoming in the themes of pedophilia in Sparta and endangered child actors aged 9 through 16 on set. The actors were confronted with alcoholism, nudity and violence during the production without adequate preparation or support. The Der Spiegel expose was published following a six-month investigation into the production of Sparta across Germany, Austria, and Romania. Dozens of crew members and select actors were interviewed for the report. The Satu Mare police had received a tip in July 2019 that various acts of violence were being inflicted on children during a film shoot. The investigation concluded in February 2022, with testimonies from six minors stating they did not experience harassment on set. Story continues However, the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) and the General Directorate of Social Assistance and Child Protection (DGASPC) of Satu Mare County have since started investigations following the Der Spiegel article. Allegations for the Sparta set include a 10-year-old boy allegedly being told to consume alcohol while two men caressed him, leading the child star to vomit and cry during production. One crew member claimed director Seidl cast the unnamed 10-year-old knowing he was the son of an abusive alcoholic father. Another actor stated he was filmed in the shower with lead star Friedrich naked and shaving his genitals. Director Seidl has denied any sexual context, pornographic, or pedophilic scenes in the film. A statement from Seidls attorney denied that any child was filmed naked or in a sexualized situation, pose, or context for the feature. Seidl issued a statement on his website that Der Spiegel made serious accusations against me, my method of working, and my feature film Sparta' with incorrect descriptions, rumors, and events that were taken out of context. Seidl claimed the accusations show a distorted picture that in no way corresponds to the facts. The journalists, without bothering to take into account the film itself, vilify my method of working and ascribe to me intentions that could not be further from the truth. I can not allow this to go unanswered, Seidl wrote. Were the parents led to fear that the film might contain sex scenes involving pedophilia? It doesnt. No child was ever filmed naked or in a sexual situation, pose or context. Such scenes were never my intention and none were ever filmed. During shooting we never crossed the line of ethical and moral boundaries. Seidl concluded, In the summer of 2019, a few days after we wrapped shooting, I visited all the children and their parents at home to thank them for their participation in the film. None of them voiced any complaint, discomfort or criticism. I hope that SPARTA, when the film has opened in theaters, will dispel the objections that have only been leveled by outsiders in this article. While Sparta has since been removed from the TIFF lineup, the film is still expected to screen at the 70th San Sebastian International Film Festival in main competition. The 2022 Toronto International Film Festival kicked off September 8 with the opening night premiere of The Swimmers, as well as the debut of Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. Upcoming programming highlights also include Women Talking, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, and Steven Spielbergs The Fabelmans. Best of IndieWire Sign up for Indiewire's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan, the Democratic nominee for Senate in the state, suggested that it may be time for new leadership on both sides of the aisle ahead of President Bidens visit to the Buckeye State on Friday. My hunch is that we need new leadership across the board, Ryan told Ohio network WFMJ on Thursday, when asked whether Biden should seek a second term. Democrats, Republicans I think its time for a generational move. Ryan clarified his comments when asked about them on Friday, noting that Biden has said from the very beginning he was going to be a bridge to the next generation. Asked once more if Biden should run again, Ryan said, Thats up to him. Biden visited Ohio on Friday for the groundbreaking of a new Intel semiconductor manufacturing site. Ryan joined the president at the event, touting the bipartisan legislation meant to boost domestic semiconductor production that was passed in July. With a little more than two months to Novembers election, Ryan faces a tight race against his Republican opponent, J.D. Vance, who was leading him by three points in an Emerson College poll last month. Ryan holds a narrow lead in FiveThirtyEights polling average for the race, however, with 45.5 percent support compared to Vances 43.6 percent, and has significantly outraised Vance. Ryan, who mounted an unsuccessful bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, endorsed Biden in the primary late in 2019 after dropping out of the race. Updated at 5:04 p.m. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. A 13-year-old Shawnee County resident was arrested this week after a post was made on a Social Media platform about "bombing" the Kansas Statehouse, shown here. A 13-year-old Shawnee County resident was arrested this week after a post was made on a social media platform about "bombing" the Kansas Statehouse, the Shawnee County Sheriff's Office said. "The Capitol building was evacuated and bomb detection K9s were utilized to clear the building," that office said Thursday on its Facebook page. "No threats were found on the premises." The search occurred on Tuesday. The youth was booked into the Shawnee County Juvenile Detention Center in connection with a felony count of making an aggravated criminal threat, said the sheriff's office Facebook page. It wasn't clear whether formal charges had been filed. "Law enforcement takes threats to the safety of our citizens and community very seriously," the sheriff's office Facebook post said. "Please talk with your children and loved ones about the consequences associated with this type of conduct." Tim Hrenchir can be reached at threnchir@gannett.com or 785-213-5934. This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Topeka-area youth, 13, arrested after alleged threat to Kansas Capitol A tourist was jailed in a $2 taxi fair dispute after a court made a typo turning a misdemeanour into a felony. Angus McCoubrey and a friend were in Brookline in the Boston metropolitan area in April 2013 when they got out of a taxi because they thought the driver was taking a circuitous way to increase the fare. They exited the vehicle and left $5 on the front seat, which was $2 less than the price, according to The Boston Globe. The driver reported the incident to a nearby police officer, who brought a charge of taxi fare evasion against Mr McCoubrey three months later. The then 28-year-old Mr McCoubrey had left the area for New York at that point. He hadnt supplied a forwarding address. The charge over the $2 dispute came to a head nine years later, when the now 37-year-old was arrested in his swim trunks, flip flops, and a t-shirt after he was caught up in a minor vehicle collision in a beach parking lot on Marthas Vineyard. He was handcuffed and put in the back of a police car. He was arrested for ignoring a felony charge of tax evasion in Brookline District Court. Someone at the court appeared to have made a typo while writing up charging documents and taxi fare evasion had become tax evasion. The misdemeanour had become a felony. Im a fan of Franz Kafka, but I never thought I was going to be a character in a Kafka novel, Mr McCoubrey told The Boston Globe after his 21 August arrest. Angus McCoubrey was mistakenly arrested for tax evasion because of a court typo (Screenshot / CBS Boston) The advertising executive from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was stuck in jail for the next two days as he and his wife tried to tell the authorities that the arrest was based on a mistake. Mr McCoubrey had lived in Brookline for six weeks, and as such, wasnt liable for any taxes in the area, and the argument over the taxi fare was the only time that he encountered the criminal justice system. Mr McCoubrey was arrested in Chilmark, a town on Marthas Vineyard. The story was initially reported by The Vineyard Gazette. Chilmark Police Chief Jonathan Klaren told The Globe funny, sometimes people dont tell police the truth. But we dont know the particulars of a case ... And if theres a court saying, youre hereby commanded to bring this person in, you know, theres really not much we can do. Story continues Bail commissioner Melissa Lawry told the paper that I said it was non-bailable and they would have to hold onto him. And thats pretty much it, thats pretty much the gist of the story. It was listed as tax evasion, which obviously was an error, Ms Lawry added. I dont do research of any type. I get the call from the jail. They tell me what the warrant says. Its the default warrant protocol. And bail was not available. Mr McCoubrey was forced to spend a second night in jail as transport off the island of Marthas Vineyard to Brookline wasnt available until the next day. He said his hands and feet were shackled to his waist as if he was a murderer during the transport to the courthouse. When youre in that system, you literally get the wrong information so many times. I stopped believing anything, Mr McCoubrey told The Globe. I was pretty despairing ... I was honestly worried that I was going to go to jail in Brookline for tax evasion. A tax lawyer hired by the McCoubrey family told him that the charges would be dismissed. Clerk Magistrate Edward Savage told The Globe that notices about the court proceedings were sent to Mr McCoubreys Brookline address in 2013, but that no forwarding address had been provided. The court regrets that in preparing the criminal complaint and summons a clerical typographical error occurred and the charge listed on the criminal complaint was for the crime of tax evasion, Mr Savage told the paper. I did learn you know when youre when youre in a holding cell, you really rely on the support and kindness of your family and friends, because youre really powerless, Mr McCoubrey told The Globe about the ordeal. I know not everyones so lucky. After leaving the courthouse, he got an Uber to head back to the ferry to get back to Marthas Vineyard. A pair of deputies were ambushed and killed as they attempted to serve a warrant at a home in Georgia, police said. The Cobb County deputies arrived at the door of a Marietta-area residence on Thursday just after 7:45 p.m., Sheriff Craig D. Owens said in a press conference. The officers were there to present a warrant for failure to appear for theft by deception. The deputies knocked on the door and rang the doorbell several times, but didnt get a response. Owens said that just as they were getting inside their cruiser to leave, another vehicle pulled up to the home, which the deputies assumed belonged to the suspect. The minute they moved away from their own vehicle, gunfire erupted. What I can tell you in this moment is this in plain terms, its very simple, Owens said late Thursday. My two deputies were ambushed this evening and killed. Its not clear whether the deputies returned fire, but Owens said they did manage to radio in the violence. The names of the officers, who have both served for at least five years, wont be released until families are notified. It is a night of heartache for two families from the Cobb sheriffs office, two wives who have lost their amazing husbands, the sheriff said. These two deputies served Cobb County with dignity and honor. Two suspects were arrested in connection with the incident. One of them barricaded themselves after the shooting, but ultimately surrendered peacefully after several hours of negotiation, the sheriffs office said in a tweet. The suspects have not been identified. Sep. 8John Brannen, the newest member of Dayton Flyers head coach Anthony Grant's staff, won't have to wait until May to see what happens with his lawsuit against the University of Cincinnati. UC announced Thursday it reached a settlement agreement with Brannen. "John Brannen and the University of Cincinnati have reached an amicable resolution," a UC statement read. "Both parties look forward to putting this matter behind them and focusing on the future. UC Athletics will have no further comment on the agreement." Cincinnati fired Brannen in April 2021 after a 12-11 finish in his second season. Six players left the program in the days after the season ended. The Athletic cited a rift between Brannen and the players as the reason for the exodus. UC denied Brannen his $5.25 million contract buyout, claiming it fired him for cause. Brannen responded by filing a federal lawsuit. He dropped the federal suit last October and refiled it in the Ohio Court of Claims. It had been scheduled to be heard next May. Dayton announced the hiring of Brannen as program analyst and senior special assistant on Tuesday. The war in Ukraine has fallen from the headlines, and most analysts think the fighting will persist well into 2023, if not longer. But what if the war ends sooner? What if Ukrainian forces repel the Russian invaders and put an end to the fighting? That would be a major upside surprise for financial marketsand it might not be as fanciful as it once seemed. Ukrainian forces have gone on the offensive in at least two different places, and they seem to be routing Russian units that are even weaker than six months of botched operations would suggest. Near Kharkiv, in the northeast, Ukrainian troops have retaken more than 3,000 square kilometers of terrain, according to the Institute for the Study of War. That's an area larger than Rhode Island. Ukraine has seized the key logistical hubs of Kupyansk and Izyum and may keep going. These gains massively disrupt Russian supply lines in the northeast and will force a disorganized Russian force to withdraw and reset. Ukrainian forces broke through very fast," military analyst Michael Kofman of CNA said on a Sept. 10 Twitter podcast. "It's a very remarkable offensive. It is a collapse of an entire pocket that forced the retreat of the Russian military from the sector. It puts Russian forces on the defensive for the foreseeable future." Theres another offensive near Kherson, in the southeast, where Russia has massed forces in anticipation of a move Ukraine has been telegraphing for weeks. Russian resistance may be stronger there, yet Ukraine may still have trapped several thousand Russian troops on the west side of a river they cant retreat across, because of Ukrainian strikes on bridges and ferries. Ukraine ultimately aims to retake Kherson, which is a regional capital and crucial foothold for Russia in its effort to control Ukraines Black Sea access. The momentum shift could have big implications These advances dont mean Russia will be pulling out of Ukraine any time soon. Russia still has tens of thousands of troops dug in in eastern Ukraine, and its bloodthirsty leader, Vladimir Putin, wont easily give up his misbegotten claim on his neighbor. The Russians can still rain artillery down on Ukrainian cities and reach just about anywhere in the country with long-range missiles. Story continues Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy meets U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his visit in Kyiv, Ukraine September 8, 2022. Genya Savilov/Pool via REUTERS But the momentum shift, if it lasts, could have several weighty implications. The first is that is validates billions of dollars in military aid provided to Ukraine by the United States and other allies. President Biden and other world leaders who have been approving such aid had no idea, especially at the beginning of the war, if it would make a difference or merely delay an inevitable Russian takeover of Ukraine. US intelligence initially thought Russia would take the country in a matter of weeks. The situation now, with Ukraine retaking ground and Russia on the run, indicates that Western aid has been decisive and completely appropriate. [Follow Rick Newman on Twitter, sign up for his newsletter or send in your thoughts.] That will help keep the aid pipeline open, and maybe bring more effective weapons into Ukraine, if it might help beat the Russians for good. Theres still a lot Ukraine needs: tanks, fighter jets, more artillery and more precision munitions. The United States and other donors have been reluctant to send their best, most lethal gear, out of concern it might trigger some kind of grotesque retaliation from Putin, with nothing to show for it on the ground in Ukraine. But Ukraines over-performance on the ground makes the case for upping the ante: Russia remains the Wests most ominous adversary, and if Ukraines armed forces can tear its army apart, it makes sense to aid and abet them. The broader implication is a possible end to the war itself, sooner and on better terms than might have seemed possible just a month or two ago. Again, it would be foolish to infer that some quick Ukrainian victories against depleted front-line Russian units will continue to play out as Ukrainians drive deeper and meet stouter defenses. But its also true that many analysts didnt think Ukraine couldnt even pull off what its doing nowblowing through Russian units despite training, manpower and weaponry shortfalls of their own. The goals of economic sanctions The multi-nation sanction regime against Russia has two goals: One, punish Russia for its medieval behavior. Two, help Ukraine win by starving Russia of funds and technology it needs to prosecute the war. But the most effective way to accomplish that second goal, helping Ukraine win, is through military aid, and the more the better. If Ukraine beats Russia militarily, the need for sanctions diminishes. Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the plenary session of the 2022 Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok, Russia September 7, 2022. Sputnik/Sergey Bobylev/Pool via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. Some sanctions are relatively easy to impose, because they cause little or no collateral damage and dont generate political opposition at home. Limits on technology sales to Russia, for instance, dont have any effect on technology purchasers in the United States or Europe. The tougher sanctions are the ones that trigger Russian retaliation or require some sacrifice in the countries imposing the sanctions, which, as we have learned this year, mostly involve energy. Its easy for the United States to ban Russian energy imports, as Biden did earlier this year, because we have plenty of domestic energy and easy access to world markets. But its way harder for Europe, because of its deep reliance on Russian oil and natural gas. Europe is on the verge of an energy catastrophe, because Russia has shut down its main gas pipeline to Europe, and may stop gas sales altogether over the winter. A plan for Europe to boycott Russian oil goes into effect on Dec. 5 and could cause another spike in petrol and diesel prices. Putin is deliberately causing as much pain as possible for Europe, and that is roiling energy markets worldwide. Its possible that exorbitant energy prices in Europe this winter could cause a wave of bankruptcies and a kind of contagion from the energy sector into banking and other areas. The sooner Russia loses, the sooner global energy markets can get back to normal. If Russia withdrew tomorrow, some sanctions would remain in place, perhaps for a long time. One major question at the end of this war, assuming Ukraine prevails, is how Russia will pay reparations, which could total hundreds of billions of dollars, for all the destruction it has caused. Sanctions will probably be one way to divert energy revenue or other sources of cash from Russias coffers to Ukraines. But the United States and Europe could quietly end sanctions that impose costs at home. Europe should reduce its dependence on Russian energy no matter what happens, and almost certainly will. But a pathway back to some European purchases of Russian energy would bring down record-high prices and calm global markets. An end to the war might also obviate the need for a complicated US plan to impose price caps on Russian oil, to reduce the energy revenue Putin is using to fund his war. That plan may be the best way to keep oil markets stocked while throttling the revenue flowing to Russia. Of course, Russia will undoubtedly resist and enforcement could be a nightmare. The Russia-Ukraine war may be far from over. But it could be the beginning of the end for Russia. The sooner it ends on the battlefields, the sooner the stress will ease on just about everybody, including most Russians. Victory for Ukraine, whenever it comes, will be victory for everybody else bearing the cost of Russias hostility. Click here for politics news related to business and money Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance Download the Yahoo Finance app for Apple or Android Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, LinkedIn, and YouTube By Catarina Demony (Reuters) - Some people with disabilities in Ukraine remain trapped in life-threatening situations and must be evacuated to ensure they can access basic needs like food and heating as winter approaches, the U.N. disability rights committee said on Friday. The U.N. said in a special report that it was "gravely concerned" about the situation of people with disabilities in the country, which was invaded by Russia on Feb. 24. It said people with disabilities in residential institutions were reported to be at "severe risk", and urged both Ukraine and Russia to evacuate them immediately. "Their access to basic rights such as food and acceptable standard of living, including access to heating in the upcoming winter months, are jeopardised," Jonas Ruskus, vice-chair of the committee, told a news conference in Geneva that was broadcast online. Ruskus said the committee had information at least 12 people with disabilities had died in a residential institution in territory under Russian control. He said the committee was also aware of people with disabilities "kept in inhuman conditions, subjected to ill treatment and used as human shields by the Russian Federation armed forces". According to the committee, the evacuation of these people has not been prioritised. Around 2.7 million people lived with a disability in Ukraine before the conflict started. The European Disability Forum (EDF) said the latest information, from June, showed 143,600 people with disabilities were registered as displaced and, by July 2022, 13% of families who fled Ukraine included people with disabilities, according to official data. The EDF previously said tens of thousands of people with disabilities lived in institutions which were "cut off from their communities" and "risk being abandoned and forgotten". The International Disability Alliance said in March there was little evacuation support for them, and even those who manage to get to refugee centres or shelters inside or out of the country face obstacles: from simple steps on stairs to inaccessible information. (Reported by Catarina Demony in LISBON; editing by Philippa Fletcher) ISLAMABAD (AP) U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that the world owes impoverished Pakistan massive help in recovering from the summer's devastating floods because the country bears less blame than many other nations for climate change, which experts say contributed to the deluge. Months of heavy monsoon rains and flooding have killed 1,391 people and affected 3.3 million in this South Asian nation while half a million people have become homeless. Planeloads of aid from the United States, the United Arab Emirates and other countries have begun arriving, but Guterres said there's more to be done. Nature, the U.N. chief said in Islamabad, has attacked Pakistan, which contributes less than 1% of global emissions, according to multiple experts. Nations that are more responsible for climate change ... should have faced this challenge, said Guterres, sitting next to Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. We are heading into a disaster," Guterres added. We have waged war on nature and nature is tracking back and striking back in a devastating way. Today in Pakistan, tomorrow in any of your countries." The U.N. chief's trip comes less than two weeks after Guterres appealed for $160 million in emergency funding to help those affected by the monsoon rains and floods that Pakistan says have caused at least $10 billion in damages. I appeal for massive support from the international community as Pakistan responds to this climate catastrophe, Guterres tweeted after landing in Pakistan earlier Friday. He said other nations contributing to climate change are obligated to reduce emissions and help Pakistan. He assured Sharif that his voice was entirely at the service of the Pakistani government and the Pakistani people and that the entire U.N. system is at the service of Pakistan. Pakistan has not contributed in a meaningful way to climate change, the level of emissions in this country is relatively low," Guterres said. But Pakistan is one of the most dramatically impacted countries by climate change." Story continues On Friday, the first planeload arrived from the U.S. , which Washington says is part of an upcoming $30 million in assistance. More U.S. military planes are expected to arrive in the coming days as part of a humanitarian bridge set up by Washington to deliver much-need aid across the country. USAID announced an additional $20 million Friday in humanitarian assistance for Pakistan, further enhancing U.S. pledges. Later, Guterres directed his words at the international community, saying that by some estimates, Pakistan needs about $30 billion to recover from the floods. Even today, emissions are rising as people die in floods and famines. This is insanity. This is collective suicide," he said. From Pakistan, I am issuing a global appeal: Stop the madness; end the war with nature; invest in renewable energy now. So far, U.N. agencies and several countries have sent nearly 60 planeloads of aid, and authorities say the UAE has been one of the most generous contributors and sent so far 26 flights carrying aid for flood victims. Also Friday, Samantha Power, the administrator of USAID, met with Pakistans Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in Islamabad. She later told reporters she had visited flood-hit areas in Sindh province on Thursday, and she witnessed widespread destruction caused by floods. The floods have touched all of Pakistan, including heritage sites such as Mohenjo Daro, a UNESCO World Heritage Site considered one of the best-preserved ancient urban settlements in South Asia. The civilization that dates back 4,500 years, coinciding with those of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. The U.N. heritage agency on Thursday announced it would send $350,000 to help recover flood-damaged cultural heritage sites. Speaking at a press conference with Foreign Minister Bhutto Zardari, Guterres underscored the importance of combatting climate change. It is happening now all around us and I urge governments to address this issue, he said and added that what he has done so far as the U.N. chief is a drop in the ocean of the needs of the Pakistani people. He said a proposal for a donors conference for flood-hit Pakistan is under discussion. Since June, heavy rains and floods have added new burdens to cash-strapped Pakistan and highlighted the disproportionate effect of climate change on impoverished populations. Experts say Pakistan is responsible for only 0.4% of the worlds historic emissions that are blamed for climate change. The U.S. is responsible for 21.5%, China for 16.5% and the European Union for 15%. The floods in Pakistan have also injured 12,722 people, destroyed thousands of miles of roads, toppled bridges and damaged schools and hospitals, according to the National Disaster Management Agency. Even as they contend with the unprecedented flooding, Pakistani authorities are also struggling with militant attacks. Late Friday, suspected militants opened fire on a mayor's convoy in Tank, a town in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the police said. Tank has also been affected by the flooding. The mayor, Saddam Hussain, escaped unharmed, but the gunmen killed four policemen escorting his vehicle, said police officer Waqar Khan. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. ___ Associated Press writer Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this story. (Reuters) - Canadian clerical workers and telecom services provider Bell Canada reached a tentative agreement over pay and the right to work from home, the country's biggest private-sector labour union said on Friday. Unifor ACL, which represents the unionized workers at Bell Canada's Bell Aliant unit in four Atlantic provinces, declared an impasse in late July after talks broke down with the company after a week of negotiations. "Details of the collective agreement will only be released pending ratification by members of the bargaining unit," the labour union said on Friday. Workers have been seeking a pay increase, the right to keep working from home and an enforceable floor of employment in the bargaining unit, Unifor previously said, with talks ongoing since February. Bell Canada did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta) Carnegie Mellon University has condemned social media posts by one of its professors after Dr Uju Anya wished the Queen an excruciating death and tweeted that she hoped the Queen would die in agony. Dr Anya made the comments Thursday as reports emerged that the Queen was in her final hours at Balmoral. I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating, the professor wrote before it was announced the Queen had died. Twitter took down the tweet for violating its policy; it has not responded to The Independents request for comment. Dr Anya faced a serious Twitter backlash for the seeming insensitivity - even from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who then came in for criticism herself - but the professor responded by doubling down on the tweet. If anyone expects me to express anything but disdain for the monarch who supervised a government that sponsored the genocide that massacred and displaced half my family and the consequences of which those alive today are still trying to overcome, you can keep wishing upon a star, she tweeted. She also responded to Bezos, tweeting at him directly: Otoro gba gbue gi - which roughly translates to an Igbo insult wishing someone death - May everyone you and your merciless greed have harmed in this world remember you as fondly as I remember my colonizers. Dr Anyas employer, Carnegie Mellon - the prestigious Pennsylvania university where she is an associate professor of second language acquisition - quickly issued a statement on Thursday. We do not condone the offensive and objectionable messages posted by Uku Anya today on her personal social media account, the university tweeted. Free expression is core to the mission of higher education, however, the views she shared absolutely do not represent the values of the institution, nor the standards of discourse we seek to foster. Dr Anya, who describes herself on Twitter as an antiracist and feminist, was born in Nigeria to a Nigerian father and mother from Trinidad and Tobago. Both countries were colonised by the British. Story continues During her historic 70-year rule, Queen Elizabeth II presided over the country at a time of severe colonial turbulence and violence. Nigeria became independent in 1960, with Trinidad and Tobago following suit two years later. While many Twitter users, most hailing from former colonies or tracing their ancestry to British-occupied places, agreed with Dr Anyas mentions of historical genocide and violence, the majority disagreed with her delivery. One user, @Sumolaldowu, called the professor uncouth and mannerless and accused her of having hate in your heart. You speak of someone who just passed with such a vile and disdaining comment, the user commented. Another, @mariescully24, tweeted that, at the end of the day she was a mother, grandmother, a great grandmother its totally disgusting to speak the way she has. Dr Anya did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Independent. (Getty Images) Uvalde police say they have responded to a shooting with injured victims at a park near Robb Elementary School. Authorities say that two people were shot at the Texas Citys Memorial Park, which is a short distance from the school where a gunman murdered 19 students and two teachers in May. Uvalde Police Chief Daniel Rodriguez says that officers are looking for two unidentified suspects after the shooting happened on Thursday evening. Please AVOID the area of the Uvalde Memorial Park. The Uvalde Police Department is currently investigating a shooting with injured victims, the police department stated on Facebook. The latest crime scene is less than two miles from the elementary school. The Asian community in King County, Washington, recently celebrated the proclamation of Mazu Day in King County on Sept. 9 and the moving forward of the plan to build a park dedicated to the Chinese goddess in the county. Addressing a crowd of 110 people, mostly consisting of groups affiliated with China and Taiwan with strong ties to China, at the China Harbor Restaurant in Seattle on Aug. 30, Greater Seattle Chinese Chamber of Commerce Director Felicity Wang described the Chinese Goddess of the Sea as someone like Jesus. Among the attendees at the event were King County Executive Dow Constantine, Sen. Bob Hasegawa (D-WA), King County Council Chair Claudia Balducci, Bellevue Deputy Mayor Jared Nieuwenhuis and others. The signing of the agreement Besides the proclamation for Mazu day, the event also hosted the signing of the agreement between King County and the North American Mazu Cultural Exchange Association to build a park for Mazu. More from NextShark: Asian Democrats form multi-million-dollar super PAC to engage and win over AAPI voters Describing Mazu as a compassionate mother figure, Constantine said the agreement would explore the feasibility of creating the park in King County. As new Chinese immigrants traveled to new lands, they would erect structures to honor Mazu for bringing them across the sea safely, Constantine said before turning to Wang and adding, And many now appeal to Mazu for other blessings. Wang turned and prayed to Mazu when she went through chemotherapy earlier this year, Northwest Asian Weekly reported. More from NextShark: Hong Kong student sentenced to 5 years in jail for sending pro-independence messages on Telegram Mazu symbolizes the transcendence of earthly boundaries, protecting and helping people across cultures, Balducci said, adding, Were taking a big step in honoring our Chinese and Taiwanese communitiesand really, pan-Asian communities. During her opening remarks, Wang noted that the building of the park is not political, it would not belong to China or Taiwan or Japan, it is for the global community, everybody who believes in her will be there. Story continues Zhao Qiliang, president of the Shandong Mazu Cultural Exchange Association, said in Chinese that the goal of the association is to promote culture, travel, and other activities. More from NextShark: First Asian American curve model for SI Yumi Nu speaks out about fatphobia in Asian culture Who is Mazu, Goddess of the Sea? According to Wang, Mazu was originally a woman born on an island off the coast of Fujian Province, China. She is known by many names or epithets in Chinese mythology, such as Ma-Tsu, A-ma, Motherly Matriarch and Daughter of the Dragon, to name a few. Before becoming the Goddess of the Sea, Mazu was believed to be born Lin Mo Naing in the 10th century. Described as a very intelligent child with a photographic memory, Lin Naing learned the art of healing before her training as a Buddhist and later a Taoist monk. She also trained in martial arts. She was reportedly known for saving fishermen and died in the process of rescuing shipwreck survivors. More from NextShark: Meet Joseph Pierce, One of the Only Chinese Americans Who Fought in Bloodiest Battle in US History There are currently over 5,000 temples around the world dedicated to the Chinese goddess. People hold two celebrations every year in her honor. The first one is during her birthday on the 23rd day of the third lunar month, and another on her death anniversary, which lands on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month. Efforts to build the park The effort to build Mazu Park began when Andy Chin, the former director of Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Seattle, Taiwans unofficial representative office, started discussing the idea with King County in 2015, Wang recalled. After Chins term ended in 2016, Wang continued the drive and dedicated herself to the effort. Wang recalled the struggle she encountered when speaking with officials about the statue. Wang said an official resented how some local politicians supported the effort to build a Mazu statue in the county, asking her, Are you using these politicians to pressure us? Another challenge that Wang faced was the contention that she was trying to establish a religious site, which she countered with a 2009 United Nations document declaring Mazu was a cultural tradition and not religious. Wang recalled a park official telling her, If I approve this for you since its the first cultural park, then India will want one, Thailand will want one, after she protested that Mazu is not religious. The effort was put on hold when the COVID-19 pandemic began, and in 2021, Wang assumed the leadership role of the Mazu Association in Seattle. The Mazu Park, set to be called the Mazu Compassion with Wisdom Center," was initially intended to take a space in Marymoor Park in Bellevue and will contain a 29- and 32-foottall statue of the Chinese Goddess of the Sea, a pavilion with cultural information. Wang noted that if the space becomes unavailable, the association will find another one for the park. Besides the park, Wang also revealed plans that connect the Mazu Compassion with Wisdom Center with other tours in Mazu temples in Taiwan, other sites in India and the goddess birthplace. As for the building cost, the temple where Mazu was born would also help raise money for the construction. Right now, the United States is in a very difficult situation, we are losing our way. Peace has taken a back seat to fighting and boisterous arguments, Hasegawa said at the event. So I think its really timely that Mazu draws attention and blessings to the United States. We do need to find a pathway to peace. Featured Image via malinhett (CC BY 3.0) Kanye West answers questions during a service at Lakewood Church in Houston in 2019. (Michael Wyke / Associated Press) Watch the throne. Kanye West is a changed man again. The death of British monarch Queen Elizabeth II has prompted the combative "Yeezus" rapper to settle his ongoing public feuds following a tumultuous year. "LIFE IS PRECIOUS," Ye wrote early Friday. "RELEASING ALL GRUDGES TODAY LEANING INTO THE LIGHT" The Grammy Award winner and former U.S. presidential long-shot candidate posted the missive to his fleeting Instagram grid, along with a pair of uncredited regal portraits of the ruler, who died Thursday at age 96 after serving a record 70 years on the British throne. In recent weeks, Ye has mounted an unrelenting online offensive against his Yeezy footwear manufacturer, Adidas, and its executives as well as fashion giant Gap. He also had choice words all year for his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, her extended family and her ex-boyfriend comedian Pete Davidson, and friend-turned-punching bag rapper Kid Cudi, among several others. The recording artist and fashion designer gave few specifics about the grudges, but in a since-deleted post, he offered "BEST WISHES AND BLESSINGS TO PETE CUDI DANIEL CHEERY [sic]." That post also reportedly featured photos of Queen Elizabeth II in Yeezy sunglasses, TMZ reported. Earlier this week, Ye's tirade against Adidas was backed by Bad Boy CEO and rap mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs and Verzuz co-founder Swizz Beatz, who called for a boycott of Adidas. The 45-year-old Ye accused the German sportswear label of designing Yeezy products without his participation and releasing a series of sneakers that he didnt approve. He said that he wanted out of his deal with the label, even though hes under contract until 2026, claiming that Adidas breached their contract, according to Business of Fashion. (The Facts rappers creative partnership with Nike similarly devolved a decade ago with a contentious feud that ended once he struck a deal with Adidas in 2013.) Story continues The recording artist, who legally changed his name to Ye in October, followed up his queen post with a picture of embattled rapper Young Thug, which he also used as his own Instagram profile photo. "MY NAME IS YE It got changed to Ye West on my Facebook," Ye wrote in the caption. The backstory: In a previous post, Ye shared a screenshot of a text message about plans for his Donda University campus, alluding to acreage Young Thug offered him in Georgia while Young Thug is behind bars for RICO allegations. Young Thug earlier this month allegedly offered Ye more than 100 acres free of charge to use for his Yeezy retail expansion, Complex reported. Id rather move [to] the trees on Young Thug property, Ye said in the text messages featured on the Instagram post. I got 2 Chainz calling the mayor now. To launch build Donda University. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Several royal titles have already shifted following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, including those of Archie and Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor. The two children of Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex are now eligible to claim the titles of prince and princess, in keeping with a decree issued by King George V in 1917. Though questions remain as to whether the titles will be changing: While the website of the royal family has been updated to reflect other royal family members' new titles, Archie and Lilibet are still listed as Master and Miss Mountbatten-Windsor. According to that written order, known as Letters Patent, the children and grandchildren of a reigning monarch have the automatic right to the title His Royal Highness or Her Royal Highness and prince or princess, royal commentator and biographer Carolyn Durand told TODAY. Archie and Lilibet are now entitled to use Before the queens death on Sept. 8, Archie, 3, and Lilibet, 1, were great-grandchildren of the ruling monarch, and were thus not eligible to style their names with prince or princess titles, Durand explained. But now, with their grandfather ruling as King Charles III, they would be eligible to use these honorifics. Prince George, 9, has always been an exception to the rules outlined in the 1917 decree; as a direct successor to the British throne, he has been styled as a prince since birth. His siblings, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, would not normally have been given prince and princess titles but in 2012, the queen changed the rules for all the children of Prince William and the former Kate Middleton. (Prince George) is going to be king one day, Durand said. So he was entitled to be prince, but any other children that William and Kate had were not. So (the queen) intervened and issued Letters Patent, so any children of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and now Cornwall, would be prince or princess, so all of the children would be the same. Harry and Megan have not indicated whether they will use these titles, Durand said. They are entitled to be styled that way thats the terminology but we dont know whether they will elect to use them. Story continues Harry and Meghan stopped using their royal titles "His Royal Highness" and "Her Royal Highness" after they stepped back from their royal duties in 2020. Some royal children who could have used royal titles do not. For example, neither the children of Prince Edward nor Princess Anne, Elizabeth's youngest son and her daughter, do not use prince or princess titles, despite being eligible to use them. On the other hand, Prince Andrew, the late queens second son, chose to give HRH titles to his daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie. Its possible that in the future, King Charles could change the rules surrounding titles, but right now, its too early to say. Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, accompanied by their parents the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. (PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo / Alamy Live News.) We dont know in the future if he would change Letters Patent, in which case Archie and Lilibet could not necessarily use those titles in the future, Durand said. Theres no indication that he will or will not do that, but he has called for a slimmed-down monarchy in the past. While some questions remain about Archie and Lilibets future titles, some royal titles have already definitely changed since the queens death. The Prince of Wales became King Charles III, and his wife, the former Duchess of Cornwall, is now known as Her Majesty the Queen Consort. Prince William and the former Kate Middleton are also now known as the Prince and Princess of Wales. Meanwhile, Harry and the former Meghan Markle will remain the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Durand said. This article was originally published on TODAY.com A new ranking from the nonprofit organisation Campus Pride lists 193 college and university campuses in the United States that are deemed unsafe for LGBTQ+ students. The 193 schools listed are an increase over the 2021 ranking, which only included 180 schools. To appear on the list, a college or university must have a past history of discrimination against LGBTQ+ students, staff members, or faculty and also apply for an exemption from Title IX the federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex. Several of the colleges and universities listed in the ranking have more than 15,000 students. Those schools include Baylor University in Texas, Brigham Young University (BYU) in Utah, and Liberty University in Virginia. All of those schools, as well as the vast majority of schools on the list, have Christian religious affiliations. The majority of the schools in the ranking are small colleges and universities with religious affiliations ranging from the Catholic church to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to Baptist, Presbyterian, and Evangelical churches. Yeshiva University in New York, an Orthodox Jewish university, also made the list. The colleges and universities on the list span each geographic region of the country; the few states not represented by schools on the list include the New England states of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. The severity of the institutional discrimination LGBTQ+ students face differs at each school. Yeshiva University filed a request with the Supreme Court to block a lower court ruling requiring it to recognise an LGBTQ+ student group earlier this year, while BYU was briefly the subject of a Department of Education probe into a policy banning homosexual relationships at the school. Campus Pride also maintains an index of LGBTQ+ friendly colleges and universities across the country. The update to the list of hostile schools comes as LGBTQ+ students, particularly transgender students, have been under attack from Republican state governments this year. As of April, state governments were on track to set a new record for the number of anti-transgender bills passed in a single year. Four hundred years since the collapse of modern civilization, the world is dominated by the chaos of swords and sorcery. The Dark Rebel Army, which plans to resurrect the god of destruction Anthrasax, continues to expand its power in a bid to rule the world, led by the overwhelmingly powerful Four Divine Kings. The Kingdom of Meta-llicana on the Central Metallion Continent is assaulted by the sorcerer-led Dark Rebel Army. In order to save the kingdom, Tia Noto Yoko, daughter of the Great Priest, has a decision to make she must resurrect the ancient great wizard who once plotted to rule the world, and who is sealed within her childhood friend Lucien Renlen. The only thing that can undo the seal is a virgins maiden kiss. Facing imminent danger, Yoko puts her lips on Luciens, and in that moment, a dark and powerful energy fills the air. The strongest, wildest, and most beautiful protagonist, the legendary wizard Dark Schneider, is finally revived! Episodes 14-24 of the Netflix Series "BASTARD -Heavy Metal, Dark Fantasy-" start steaming from September 15, only on Netflix! Mt. Hope United Methodist Church Mt. Hope United Methodist Church, 290th and Highway 6, McClelland, would like to invite all to join us on Sunday mornings for our worship service at 9:30 a.m. Children are welcome for the regular worship service and childrens sermon during the worship service. Upcoming events: On Sunday, Sept. 25, from 4 to 7 p.m. will be our Soup Supper/Bake Sale at McClelland Town Hall. You do not have to be a member to participate in our church activities. Everyone is welcome. Underwood Lutheran Church Underwood Lutheran Church, 10 Third Ave., will hold Sunday activities. Education begins at 9 a.m., followed by in-person worship at 10:15. Pastor Scott Dalen will deliver a sermon based on Luke 15:1-10. The online video will be available later in the day. Gethsemane Presbyterian Church Gethsemane Presbyterian Church, 224 Wallace Ave., invites you to worship with us. Our service runs from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Children are invited to participate in Sunday School. Kim Brouse will deliver the sermon. Join us for refreshments following the service. Adult Bible study meets on Mondays and Thursdays from 9 to 10 a.m. Our Food Pantry is open on Mondays and Thursdays until 10:30 a.m. Our church is collecting Iowa 5 cent-refund cans/bottles for one of our mission projects, the Kanesville Honor Guard Society. Your donations help! Bags can be dropped off anytime at our front door. For more information, contact the church office at 712-366-2513 or visit us on Facebook at gethsemanepresbyterianchurch.org. Timothy Lutheran Church Timothy Lutheran Church, 3112 W. Broadway, offers services at 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. on Sundays. The church alternates between traditional services and praise services each week. Bible study and Sunday school at 9:15 a.m. If a month has a fifth Sunday, the church hosts a combined service at 9 a.m. Food and fellowship after service on fifth Sundays and there is no Bible study or Sunday school on those days. The church is handicap accessible. St. Pauls Evangelical Country Church St. Pauls Evangelical Country Church rings the church bell each Sunday at 10:30 a.m. to welcome people to worship at 11055 Dumfries Ave. There are directional signs from Wabash Avenue and Pioneer Trail leading to the church. We are a growing, friendly, Bible-teaching church led by Pastor Jason Kinney. Sunday School for all ages, including adults, begins at 9:15 a.m. This Sunday the scripture will be taken from James 1:2-11, and the sermon title is Why Do the Righteous Suffer? Each Sunday following worship we enjoy donuts and coffee in the Fellowship Hall. Greeters are Jan and Dave Clayton. The Ladies Bible Study and Youth Groups will resume Wednesdays at 7 p.m. Visit our website at www.stpaulsecc.org for more information. We are handicapped accessible. Compass Christian Church Compass Christian Church welcomes you to worship with us Sundays at 10:30 a.m. We are located at 2007 S. Seventh St., just west of the South Expressway. The church is handicap accessible. During worship, a cry room is available, along with childcare for children ages 1-4. Compass Kids grades K-5 meet downstairs for special Bible lessons. You may also worship with us at compasscb.online.church or on YouTube. Mens Bible Study and Womens Bible Study each meet on Mondays at 7:30 p.m. The Bridge young adults (ages 18-30) biweekly gathering at Compass Christian begins Tuesday, Sept. 13 at 6:30 p.m. Bring a friend and join us for supper, fellowship and Bible study. Prayer meetings are held each Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. For questions or more information, visit our Facebook page, Compass Christian Church CB, our website compasscb.org or call the church office at 712-366-9112. Broadway United Methodist Church Broadway United Methodist, First Street and Broadway, is seeking, growing and serving with unconditional love and acceptance. Broadway holds traditional worship at 8:30, followed by coffee and donuts in the DeLong Lounge. Contemporary worship is held at 10:30 a.m. on Sundays. Services are held in person and livestreamed to our Facebook page or broadwayunitedmethodist.com/live. Masks are optional. Activities include Student Life Breakthrough, Sundays at 6:30 p.m. On Mondays, Philips Cupboard is open 12-2 p.m.; Boy Scout Pack 40 meets at 6 p.m.; and Bibles @ Barleys is at 8:30 p.m. The Caring Congregation Team will meet Tuesday at noon. Mens Brown Bag: The Bible Year, Thursdays at noon. Philips Cupboard, a nonfood pantry, is open 12-2 p.m. on Fridays. September is Spirit Month at Broadway. Sept. 11 will be Rally Sunday, with the presentation of Bibles to third- and fourth-graders and commissioning of teachers and small group leaders. The Rev. Alexis Johnson will hold a meeting in Room 205 at 9:30 a.m. with those interested in becoming members. A Block Party will be held from 6-8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 14 with food trucks, games, a bounce house, balloon art, airbrushed temporary tattoo artist, music and bicycle drawings. Homecoming Sunday will be Sept. 18, with members wearing Broadway shirts or their favorite team colors, and members of 30 or more years will be recognized. Sept. 25 will be New Member Sunday. For more information, visit our website at broadwayunitedmethodist.com or call the office at 712-322-7741 (closed Fridays). Fifth Avenue United Methodist Church Fifth Avenue United Methodist Church, 1800 Fifth Ave., invites the public to participate in our live worship service at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday mornings. The Sunday worship service will be recorded live and can be viewed on our Facebook page: Fifth Avenue UMC, Council Bluffs. Face masks are optional. The church office can be reached at 712-323-7374 or through our email at fifthaveumchurch@gmail.com. Upcoming events: Meal & Message, 6 p.m., Sept. 14; Movie Night, 6 p.m., Sept. 23; Meal & Message, 6 p.m., Sept. 27. Bethany Presbyterian Church Bethany Presbyterian Church, 1900 S. Seventh St., will have worship at 10:30 a.m. followed by cake and punch in the fellowship hall. Pastor Nancy Ross-Hullingers message will be Time to Throw a Party, and the scripture is Luke 15:1-10. Liturgist is Vicki Hallberg, and greeters are Shari Dillehay and Linda Cody. The 115th Anniversary Celebration will run from noon to 2 p.m. Hotdogs and chips will be served. Yard games will be set up, and there will be drawings, tours of the church and historical memorabilia on display. The Helping Hand Pantry will also be open. We are a handicap accessible facility. Community of Christ Church Community of Christ Church, 140 W. Kanesville Blvd., invites people to attend Sunday worship at 10:15 a.m. Our theme this week is Rejoice! The Lost Is Found. Our scripture for this week is Luke 15:1-10, Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28; Psalm 14; 1 Timothy 1:12-17. Sunday school starts at 9:15. We also have prayer service Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. Please call our office at 712-323-4498 for any questions. There are virtual ministries out on our World Church Website under Ongoing Ministries at www.cofchrist.org. Epworth United Methodist Church Epworth United Methodist Church, 2447 Ave. B, worships on Sundays at 9:25 a.m. The people are friendly, the worship is meaningful and the building is handicap accessible. Masks and hand sanitizer are available. We also invite you to our Bible study on Thursdays at 9 a.m. We keep in prayer for the healing of our community and nation for God. If you want us to pray for you personally, let us know your prayer requests by phone or online at Friends of Epworth UMC Facebook. Office hours are 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Monday-Friday. Phone: 712-323-3124. Faith Lutheran Church Faith Lutheran Church, 2100 S. 11th St., invites you to join us for contemporary praise worship at the 9 a.m. Sunday service. The Faith Praise Team will lead the congregation in uplifting praise music. On Tuesday, there is a 9:30 a.m. adult Bible study that is open to everyone. The Elders will meet at 2:30. Please enter by the rear entrance. Youth Catechism classes are now forming, and anyone interested in enrolling a seventh- or eighth-grade student should contact Pastor Ron or the church office. Services are available on Faiths Facebook page and on YouTube by searching for Ron Rosenkaimer. For more information, contact the church office at 323-6445. New Horizon Presbyterian Church Sept. 11 is Rally Day at New Horizon Presbyterian Church! We will have one service at 9:30 a.m., followed by fellowship time. Rally Sunday gives us an opportunity to re-engage and re-energize in the life of the church. Its also a great time to bring a neighbor or friend. Sunday, Sept. 18, we will return to our usual three services, with traditional services at 8 and 11 a.m. and the praise service at 9. Adults Sunday school meets at 10 a.m. Sunday school will resume for kindergarten through eighth grade from 10 to 10:45 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 18. The Prayer Shawl Group will meet at 3 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 12. The Building and Grounds Committee will meet at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 14, followed by the Administration Committee. Westminster Presbyterian Church Westminster Presbyterian Church, 517 S. 32nd St., welcomes everyone to join us for worship on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. Guest pastor is the Rev. Jan Desterhaft. We are handicapped accessible through the northeast door of the church. Corpus Christi Catholic Parish The month of September is dedicated to The Seven Sorrows of Mary. Join us as we celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass every day of the week at Corpus Christi Queen of Apostles, 3304 Fourth Ave., Council Bluffs; and Corpus Christi Our Lady of Carter Lake, 3501 N. Ninth St., Carter Lake. Everyone is welcome. Our Weekend Mass in English is celebrated on Saturday at 4 p.m., on Sunday at 8 and 10 a.m. (Council Bluffs) and at 9:30 a.m. (Carter Lake). Our Sunday Spanish Mass is at noon (Council Bluffs). Daily Mass is celebrated as follows: In English Tuesday through Friday at 8 a.m. (Council Bluffs) and in Spanish on Monday and Thursday at 6 p.m. (Council Bluffs). Eucharistic Adoration is held every Monday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. at Corpus Christi Queen of Apostles. Bingo will be held Saturday, Sept. 10 at Corpus Christi Our Lady of Carter Lake. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. The Early Bird game starts at 6:30. An American Red Cross blood drive will be held Sunday, Oct. 9 from 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Corpus Christi Queen of Apostles. To schedule an appointment, call 1-800-RED-CROSS (1-800-733-2767)or visit RedCrossBlood.org and enter Corpus Christigives. For more information, call the parish office at 712-323-2916 or 712-323-4716 (Spanish) or visit our parish website at www.corpuschristiparishiowa.org. Emanuel Lutheran Church Emanuel Lutheran Church, 2444 N. Broadway, welcomes everyone to come as you are and be who you are! Our weekly worship service is at 9:30 a.m. each Sunday. Our worship service and weekly Sunday school show can be found on our YouTube channel or Facebook page. Visit us online at emanuelcb.org. Saint John Lutheran Church Saint John Lutheran Church, 633 Willow Ave., holds worship at 5:30 p.m. on Saturdays and 9:30 a.m. on Sundays. Worship is also available to watch on YouTube. Our website is www.SaintJohnELCA.org. Our Facebook page is Saint John Lutheran Church Council Bluffs IA. This weeks activities include Praise Team at 7 p.m. Tuesday, bell choir at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Adult Bible study at 9 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Wednesday and Acolyte training at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. The Mary group meets at 9 a.m. Thursday. The building is handicap accessible. Please call the church office with any questions, 712-323-7173. Broadway Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) The Rev. Carol Hall and members of our congregation invite you to join us for Sunday worship at 9 a.m. at Broadway Christian Church, 2658 Ave. A. This week, Pastor Hall will provide the message: Growing Christians. We celebrate communication weekly; communion is open to all. A hearing loop is installed for those who need it. Guests are invited to join us in fellowship after worship for coffee and donuts. Pieceful Hearts Quilters will hold its monthly meeting Tuesday, Sept. 13 at 9:30 a.m. Bible study will meet at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 14. Overeaters Anonymous meets Mondays at noon. Alcoholics Anonymous meets Tuesdays at 6 p.m. and Fridays at 7:30 p.m. The church is ADA-accessible. Masks are optional. To submit prayer requests or for more information, call the church office at 712-323-7741 or email us at office@bcccb.org. Visit us online at www.bcccb.org or on Facebook. First Congregational UCC Church Come and join us for worship at 10:30 a.m. Sunday at First Congregational Church (United Church of Christ), located at 611 First Ave. Coffee is available. Our service is also provided via Zoom. Please email the church for information on how to join the Zoom meeting: cbfirstcong@gmail.com. First Congregational offers a free Community Dinner the last Friday of each month. Everyone is welcome. The next dinner is Friday, Sept. 30 from 5 to 6:30. Come and enjoy a meal and fellowship! Our Saviors Lutheran Church Our Saviors Lutheran Church, 600 Bluff St., can be reached at 712-322-6655. Everyone is welcome. Worship services are Saturday at 5:30 p.m. and Sunday at 10:30 a.m. For more information, see our Facebook page under Our Saviors Lutheran Church of Council Bluffs or the website at oursaviorscb.org. Adult and youth Sunday school begins Sept. 18 at 9:30 a.m. Bell choir practice is at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, followed by choir practice at 7:30 p.m. Activities this week include Al-Anon meetings Monday and Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the Education Building. Thursday morning Bible Study meets at 9:30 a.m., and prayer time is at 11:15 a.m. Food and Pet Food Pantry is open Thursday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. To schedule an appointment, please call the pantry directly at 712-522-3522 between 9:30 and 11 a.m. on the day you plan to come. St. Pauls Episcopal Church St. Pauls Episcopal Church is located at 22 Dillman Drive in Council Buffs. Our services are held each Sunday morning beginning at 11 a.m., and we invite visitors to attend and share with us these very enjoyable and enlightening services. For additional information, please contact the church at 712-323-7188. American Girl dolls have been treasured play toys for kids since the mid-1980s, but their higher price point can make them inaccessible for some. A trio of Council Bluffs Girl Scouts are doing their part to help local library users have some fun with American Girl dolls. Sophia Danker and Faith Lindquist, both 12-year-old Kirn Middle School seventh-graders, as well as Abraham Lincoln High School freshman Jasmine Shields, 14, are members of Girl Scout Troop 40341. The three are Cadettes in their troop, and theyre working together to earn the Girl Scouts Silver Award. The Silver Award is the second-highest accomplishment a Girl Scout can achieve, and it is earned by coming up with and completing a project that will create lasting change in their community. The project can be a group or solo effort. Danker, Lindquist and Shields remember their days of growing up with dolls, and they wanted to make sure kids in the area can enjoy the same experiences. For the past few months, the three have been campaigning through Council Bluffs to raise money and resources to purchase 10 American Girl dolls, which will be donated to the Council Bluffs Public Library during a Council Bluffs Area Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting ceremony at 2 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 26. The trios Girl Scout cookie sales went to the cause. The Community Foundation for Western Iowa provided a $500 grant to the girls. One of the girls family members works for Goodwill Industries, and the company was able to donate four dolls for the project. And a special doll came from the Methodist Jennie Edmundson Hospital Cancer Center. Danker said Tara Slevin, vice president and chief philanthropy director for the Jennie Edmundson Foundation, is a family friend, and she reached out to see about acquiring a bald American Girl doll. She said some kids may be going through cancer treatments or used to, and they might find a representational doll to be comforting. Slevin thought that would be a perfect job for the hospitals cancer team, and she connected them with Danker. Michelle Kaufman, director of oncology service at Methodist Jennie Edmundson, said the Cancer Center team was inspired by the girls project. Quickly after learning about it, the entire team was onboard to donate to the cause. Every person on our team donated, she said. Once I shared this heartwarming story with just a couple people it spread to the entire Cancer Center. Immediately, people were stepping up to pitch in. Danker joined Kaufman and most of the Cancer Center team at the hospital last week to receive the donation. Along with the doll, the team also purchased accessories such as arm braces and a wheelchair. Kaufman said the Cancer Center works each day to assist their patients, and they were help out the community, as well. The American Girl dolls being donated to the library will be available to check out to be played with inside the librarys youth service department. The library staff will keep them on-site to keep them maintained and cleaned so that they last longer for the kids of Council Bluffs and beyond. When reporting for this weeks series of articles, it quickly became apparent that whats killing people in southwest Iowa is not only medical conditions like heart disease and cancer, but a lack of access to healthcare as well. When asked why mortality rates in southwestern Iowa are higher than the national average, each of the doctors interviewed for these articles named residents inability or unwillingness to seek medical care until symptoms become so troublesome that theyre often forced by concerned family or friends to finally schedule an appointment with a primary care physician or visit an emergency room. I see a lot of stoic people, said Dr. Robert Armbruster, a cardiologist at Methodist Jennie Edmundson Hospital. The man I just met here this afternoon, he never comes in, you know. Theyre just kind of a stoic crew sometimes. And its either the family that prompts them or the wife, the daughter, etc., grandchild even, that prompts them to seek attention. Unfortunately, by the time symptoms reach that stage, it is often too late for the doctors to do anything other than help their patients manage the disease instead of curing it, which might have been a possibility had the patient sought help sooner. High blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol, you dont really feel right, you just dont feel these things, Armbruster said. If you dont get checked, youre not gonna know if your blood pressure runs high, you wont know your cholesterol, you wont know if you have diabetes. We have a lot of rural patients who may not get checked, so they might live with high blood pressure and say, Hey, you know, I havent had to see my doctor, so thats not always good. In addition to a certain stoicism about medical issues, low household income is another notable factor in why people dont seek medical care when they need it. The per capita income for the 10 counties included in our research is a little more than $50,000, which is about $15,000 less than the national average. When we talk about heart disease, we talk about procedures, regular follow-ups, sending labs, said Dr. Toufik Mahfood Haddad, cardiologist at CHI Health Mercy Hospital. So number one, when you have lower income, you will have less visits to the doctor and less access to medications, especially, sometimes, with a newer, expensive medication. According to the most recent Metro area Community Health Needs Assessment which covers Douglas, Sarpy, and Cass counties in Nebraska, and Pottawattamie County in Iowa 9% of adults ages 18-64 dont have any sort of health insurance, so if they visit a doctor or need treatment, theyre paying for it out of pocket. More than 18% of metro area residents reported that if they required an unexpected $400 medical procedure, they wouldnt be able to afford it without going into debt. When you have higher income, you would have better health, and better seeking for health equipment and medications, Haddad said. Access to medical health is easier. Lack of access to healthcare plays a big role in health outcomes in the area, said Dr. Sumit Mukherjee, a pulmonologist at Methodist Jennie Edmundson Hospital. When you look at those CDC numbers regarding mortality in this region, I think that has a huge role in those numbers, he said. Historically, southwest Iowa has ranked toward the bottom in statewide health outcomes. In 2017, when Pottawattamie County created its public health department, the county ranked 98 out of the 99 counties in the state, according to a report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. According to the 2022 Iowa County Health Rankings, produced by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, the last five years has seen Pottawattamie County steadily rise in the rankings, currently sitting in 90th place. Most of the other counties that were researched also rank in the lower third, from Crawford County ranked 59 to Montgomery County at 99. The only county in the top third for healthy outcomes is Shelby County, at 27. Steps have been and continue to be taken to improve the physical and mental health of southwest Iowa residents. Pottawattamie County has partnered with Caring for Our Communities, a program based out of Jennie Edmundson that connects people in need throughout western Iowa with community health and behavioral health experts who help find appropriate health care, access existing community resources, obtain health-related education and affordable medications. And in 2018, Pottawattamie County partnered with the health departments of Douglas and Sarpy/Cass counties, and the Wellbeing Partners, to form a Regional Health Council. The RHC works to assess health priorities in the region, and develop programs to address them. For more information about how southwest Iowa is working to improve residents lives, visit publichealth.pottcounty-ia.gov and jehfoundation.org/greatest-needs/community-care/caring-our-communities. U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said he believes Republicans have good Senate candidates and will win enough seats to control the chamber in the November elections, as a dust-up between party leadership prompted questions over their chances in the midterms. I think weve got good candidates all over, Grassley told reporters Wednesday. And I believe that were going to take control of the United States Senate. The Republican, whos seeking his eighth term in the Senate, would be President Pro Tempore of the Senate and likely chair the judiciary committee if he wins and Republicans take back the chamber, putting him in a powerful position over President Joe Bidens court nominees. Disagreements between Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Rick Scott around the partys candidates and tactics have swelled as the Senate returns for its pre-election session. Speaking to reporters last month, McConnell said he thought Republicans had a better chance of winning the House than the Senate, pointing to quality of candidates as one apparent weakness, according to NBC News. I think theres probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate. Senate races are just different theyre statewide, candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome, he said. McConnell didnt refer to any candidates by name, but candidates like Herschel Walker in Georgia and Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania have faltered some in polling after starting the summer in a more competitive spot. The sentiment prompted blowback from Scott, who leads the GOPs Senate campaign arm. Last week, he wrote in an op-ed that Republicans trash-talking their partys candidates was treasonous, and went after what he called the D.C. crowd for doubting Republican voters. However, he told multiple media outlets this week the remarks were not directed at McConnell. Grassley said cohesion in the Republican party was necessary to win the chamber in the November election. Republicans, in order to win the United States Senate, all 50 of us have to work in a teamwork fashion, he said Wednesday. Perception of Republicans chances to win control of the Senate has waned in recent months, as a string of legislative victories from Democrats and reaction to the overturning of Roe v. Wade has pushed support for Democrats up. Elections news website FiveThirtyEight predicts Democrats have a 70 in 100 chance of holding onto control of the chamber, up from 50 in July. Republicans are favored to win the House. Grassley faces Democratic challenger Mike Franken, a retired U.S. Navy admiral. The seat is rated as Solid Republican by election rating agency Cook Political Report. In the most recent Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll in July, Grassley had an eight-point advantage over Franken, with 47% of support to 39% for Franken. It was Grassleys narrowest margin in the poll since winning his first Senate election in 1980. The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmed on Thursday Puneet Talwar as new American ambassador to Morocco in replacement of David Fischer. In his statement made before the Senate committee defending his nomination, Mr. Talwar described Morocco as a long-standing & valued partner and the first country to recognize American independence. With its strategic location, Morocco is a bridge between Europe, the Mediterranean, and Africa regions that are critical to American national security, he added, affirming that Morocco is a leader on key regional and global issues. It is at the forefront of efforts to combat terrorism. It has taken bold steps on the climate crisis, he stressed, saying the country is also dedicated to economic development in Africa and hosted the U.S.-Africa Business Summit. He also highlighted Moroccos leadership on peace with Israel, noting that the relationship between the two countries is blossoming. It now spans cooperation on investment, energy, aviation, and other areas. Morocco was the first Arab country to sign a defense cooperation agreement with Israel. Puneet Talwar is an Indian-American. He served as a senior adviser at the State Department, held senior national security and foreign policy positions at the White House, and the US Congress. Talwar is also a military and security expert. He is a DC-born veteran public servant with a close personal working relationship with US President Joe Biden for whom he served as a close advisor since the nineties. At least US$1 billion will be needed urgently to avert famine in Somalia in the coming months and early next year, the UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths predicted on Tuesday (6 September). Speaking from Somalias capital Mogadishu, he said that, according to a new report from an authoritative panel of independent experts, there will be a famine in the Horn of Africa nation between October and December, when two more dry seasons are expected to compound the historic drought that has hit region, if we dont manage to stave it off and avoid it as had been the case in 2016 and 2017. Griffiths added that more than $1 billion in new funds is now needed in addition to the UN appeal of about $1.4 billion. That appeal has been very well-funded, the undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs said, thanks to the US Agency for International Development, which announced a $476 million donation of humanitarian and development aid in July. Famine is at the door and today we are receiving a final warning, Griffiths warned, referring to the report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a tracking tool for global hunger. Somalia has been pushed to the brink by the unprecedented failure of four consecutive rainy seasons, which has forced several hundred thousand people from their homes and placed huge pressure on a country already weakened by decades of conflict. Griffiths compared the crisis to that of 2010-11, when famine claimed nearly 260,000 lives, half of them children. By the time the hunger and malnutrition levels had been officially recognized as a famine, prompting a scaling-up of aid, it is thought that more than 100,000 people had already died. Islamist militants in the Mozambiques northern Nampula province have killed six people, all by beheading, abducted three others and set dozens of houses on fire, Mozambiques president confirmed, warning that the Islamist militant movement is spreading to new territory despite efforts by government and regional forces to contain it. Speaking live on national radio Wednesday (7 September), President Filipe Jacinto Nyusi also said that the militants were attempting to bolster their numbers by trying to recruit new members in Nampula province but were unsuccessful.Hence, their nervousness, the president said in Portuguese. They are very nervous. This was the third terrorist attack within five days in the province, where the incidents are creating a new wave of displaced people, though authorities do not have exact numbers. In his speech, the Mozambique leader said his countrys defense and security forces, with the support of troops from Rwanda and the regional bloc SADC, are fighting the militants and they have recently recaptured a terrorist Katupha base in Cabo Delgado province. The terrorist base is where terrorists had taken refuge after being displaced in towns and villages now under the responsibility of government authorities. Nyusi added that finding the militants is difficult because many are hiding in a dense forest. With the worsening of the terrorist wave in Cabo Delgado in recent years, many residents have fled to Nampula, looking for a safe and peaceful place to live. Benin President Patrice Talon announced an increase of the minimum wage in November, the spokesperson of the government, Landre Hougbedji told 24 Au Benin Info reports. Trade unions have called on President Talon to stamp his April decision to bring the monthly minimum wage from 40,000 fr cfa (61 euros) to 52,000 fr cfa (79 euros). Hougbedji, after the first cabinet meeting on Wednesday following a government recess, indicated that President Talon had discussed the move with the state committee working on the pledge. Hougbedji, who also doubles as the deputy Secretary of the government, said the President will make announcements by the end of November and urged stakeholders to be patient. OMAHA Major freight railroads, in a bid to apply pressure on unions and Congress, say a strike that could come after a key deadline passes next week would cost the economy more than $2 billion a day and disrupt deliveries of all kinds of goods and passenger traffic nationwide. The Association of American Railroads trade group on Thursday issued a report estimating the dire consequences of a strike. Their report came a day after Labor Secretary Marty Walsh took part in talks in a bid to hammer out an agreement. A strike or lockout wont be allowed until next Friday at the soonest under the federal law that governs railroad negotiations. Five of the 12 unions involved that together represent some 115,000 workers have announced tentative agreements covering over 21,000 workers based on a set of recommendations that a special panel appointed by President Joe Biden made last month. But several key unions are holding out in the hope that the railroads will agree to go beyond those recommendations and address some of their concerns about working conditions. The Presidential Emergency Board recommended a five-year deal, retroactive to 2020, that includes 24% raises and $5,000 in bonuses. But it wants unions to take their concerns about attendance policies, paid leave and expenses to arbitration or to negotiate separately with the railroads. Unions say their workloads have become unbearable after railroads eliminated nearly one-third of their workforces over the past six years. The railroad trade group said a strike would idle some 7,000 freight trains a day run by CSX, Union Pacific, BNSF, Norfolk Southern, Kansas City Southern and other railroads and disrupt passenger operations nationwide because Amtrak and half of all commuter rail systems rely at least partly on tracks owned by the freight railroads. The AAR also said it would be impossible for trucks to pick up the slack if railroads shut down because roughly 467,000 additional trucks a day would be needed to handle all the freight railroads deliver, and there is already a shortage of trucks and drivers. AAR CEO Ian Jefferies said the unions should accept the recommendations of the Presidential Emergency Board because they would deliver the biggest raises in nearly 50 years and they represent a compromise. Should negotiations fail and result in a work stoppage, Congress must act to implement the PEB recommendations, Jefferies said. A Labor Department spokesman confirmed that Walsh took part in the talks Wednesday. If this contract dispute does fall to Congress to resolve, lawmakers might be forced to make some difficult decisions in an election year. A coalition of 31 large agricultural groups sent a letter to Congress Thursday urging lawmakers to be prepared to intervene and block a strike if the two sides cant reach an agreement before next Fridays deadline. They say they are already dealing with delayed deliveries because railroads are shorthanded, and the problems would get much worse in a strike even if it were brief. Most freight railroads currently lack extra capacity to make up for down time, the agricultural groups said in their letter. Thus, a sizable portion of freight backlogged due to a stoppage may never be made up leading to less production from rail-dependent businesses to the detriment of producers and consumers. Edward Jones analyst Jeff Windau said lawmakers decisions would be put under a magnifying glass with the midterm elections looming, but theyll definitely want to keep the economy moving smoothly if they do have to settle the contract dispute. But Windau said hes optimistic the two sides will reach an agreement over the next week. Independent railroad analyst Anthony Hatch said the unions are trying to take advantage of the current environment with Democrats in control of the White House and Congress and a tight job market, but ultimately he doesnt think a strike will happen. It makes sense for them to hold on until the last minute and try to get the best deal that they can. For the railroads, it makes perfect sense for them to say a disruption would be cataclysmic, Hatch said. Even if a strike were to happen, Hatch predicted it would last not weeks, not days, not hours but minutes because Congress would intervene. And the long-term cost of these deals may have a bigger impact on the railroads than the short-term crisis of a strike. Ultimately, ongoing local negotiations on the railroads proposals to reduce crew sizes from the current two down to one might prove more important to the industry than these wage deals because they will affect how competitive railroads can remain against trucking as autonomous trucks are developed, he said. That topic has been pushed out of the current national wage negotiations to talks at each individual railroad, although a proposed Federal Railroad Administration rule that would require two-person crews in most instances would make it difficult for railroads to cut crews. The unions have also vigorously opposed reducing crew size because of safety and job concerns. The heads of the two biggest rail unions the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers Transportation Division union that represents conductors, and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen union that represents engineers said in a joint statement last week that Congress should remain on the sidelines because that would put more pressure on the railroads and help them reach an agreement workers will approve.(tncms-asset)6edb3847-bdae-546f-bf36-6065cccfe50d[0](/tncms-asset) OMAHA The Nebraska Hospital Association is raising concerns on behalf of its members about recent cuts by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska to the amount it pays providers for medical telehealth visits. Jeremy Nordquist, the association's president, said Blue Cross now is paying providers of medical telehealth visits half of what the insurer pays for in-office medical visits. The reduction in payments came in some of the new agreements between the insurer and hospitals that went into effect July 1. "It's a devastating cut, it's a shortsighted cut that will really put an end to telehealth in Nebraska if that's the direction payers are going to go," he said Tuesday. Blue Cross officials said in a statement Tuesday that the new reimbursement rate still is at or above pre-pandemic reimbursement rates. Blue Cross is not the only carrier in the industry making such reimbursement adjustments now that the pandemic has eased, the officials said. In the early days of the pandemic, Blue Cross voluntarily expanded payment of telehealth services so people could get the care they needed. In March 2020, telehealth usage shot up more than 1,000% over February 2020 numbers. Although telehealth usage remains higher than pre-pandemic figures, it has continued to steadily decrease about 30% year over year since the peak in early 2020, according to the insurer's statement. As vaccines have become widely available and the number and severity of cases has decreased, most people have returned to pre-pandemic activities, including in-person visits with their providers. But Nordquist said many providers won't be able to afford to offer telehealth medical care at the lower rate. Analyses by organization staff and conversations with hospital officials indicate that the costs for providers with brick-and-mortar facilities to deliver telehealth visits aren't much different from the costs of offering in-person visits. Providers' time commitment is pretty much the same for both types of visits, he said. While some of the state's larger health systems have offered inexpensive telehealth visits, particularly during the pandemic, Nordquist said he is hearing that the cost equation may cause some to reconsider some of those offerings. Nebraska does have a law, adopted in 2021, that requires that reimbursements for behavioral health telehealth visits be the same as for in-person behavioral health visits. But a similar measure, LB314, that would have required parity in reimbursements for medical visits did not advance, Nordquist said. At that time, Blue Cross officials told legislators they had no plans to pull back from their telehealth payment parity position because they thought it met the needs of the market. In 1999, Nordquist said, the Nebraska Legislature adopted a law requiring payment parity within the state's Medicaid program. At the national level, Medicare still pays providers at the same rate for telehealth and in-person visits, although that is an administrative policy that is subject to change. Nordquist said the people who will suffer most if telehealth were limited in the state are rural residents who drive many hours to see specialists and people in urban settings who face transportation challenges. During the 2021 parity bill hearings, Omaha endocrinologists testified that they were successfully treating diabetes in patients around the state. "Really, telehealth is about convenience and getting people access to care when they need it," Nordquist said. On a recent call, he said, United HealthCare officials told him that they had no plans to move away from parity in payments. The hospital association, he said, will seek to persuade insurers to revisit medical telehealth parity during the next legislative session. Nordquist said he is confident new legislation will be introduced. He said he thinks the impetus will come from rural senators who have seen telehealth expand access to care in their districts. The Nebraska State Patrol is investigating the Wednesday shooting death of a man at a rural Wisner residence, where authorities also found a marijuana grow operation. The Wayne County Sheriff's Office initially responded to the incident at approximately 7:15 p.m. at a residence in the 300 block of Y Road, about 7 miles north of Wisner. The State Patrol said in a statement released Thursday that deputies found 65-year-old Gerald Ruskamp with a gunshot wound. Ruskamp was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. "At this time, there are no suspects in custody in relation to the shooting investigation. The investigation remains ongoing," the statement said. As troopers and deputies from Wayne and Cuming counties worked to secure the scene and surrounding area, a marijuana grow operation was discovered on the property, according to the statement. Carl Ruskamp, 30, and Duane Ruskamp, 64, were both arrested on charges related to the grow operation. Both men are being held at the Thurston County Jail. Editor's note: We have detected a technical issue that is preventing some users from being able to log in to comment. We are working to have the issue resolved shortly. Thank you for your patience. More than 200 Nebraskans are listed on the membership rolls of an anti-government extremist group accused of playing a key part in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, according to a report released Wednesday. The report, from the Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism, identified 234 Nebraskans among more than 38,000 names on leaked Oath Keepers membership lists, including some holding positions of public trust. Among Nebraskans, the center identified two in law enforcement, one in the military and four working as firefighters or first responders. One held elective office or was a candidate for public office as of Aug. 8. The report did not identify the eight by name, and the ADL did not respond to messages seeking comment. Nationally, the report identified 373 people in law enforcement who appeared on the Oath Keepers lists, a number far higher than previous reports about extremists within law enforcement. The report also found 117 current members of the military and 81 elected officials or candidates. Jonathan Greenblatt, the leagues CEO, said the report provides a warning about the reach of the groups anti-government ideology. The Center on Extremism found that the Oath Keepers drew its members from many walks of life, including religious figures, teachers, civil engineers and government employees. To know that members of this group have permeated key aspects of civil society should serve as a wake-up call to people of all political persuasions that extremists hell-bent on destroying our democratic norms are making in-roads across the country, Greenblatt said. The new report identified Oath Keeper members from each of Nebraskas neighboring states, with the largest number 969 in Colorado. However, a World-Herald analysis showed the groups deepest penetration was in Wyoming, where 3.3 of every 10,000 state residents appeared on the lists. The membership rate was 1.2 of every 10,000 residents in Nebraska and 1 of every 10,000 in Iowa. However, Iowas 330 members included two police chiefs: Anamosa Police Chief Jeremiah Hoyt and Oskaloosa Police Chief Benjamin Boeke. Boeke told the Associated Press that he recalled getting emails from the group years ago and believes a friend may have signed him up. But he said he never paid to become a member and doesnt know anything about the group. The report was based on an analysis of Oath Keeper membership lists that had been compiled into a database published by the transparency collective Distributed Denial of Secrets. The database includes full names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, membership type, and a space for comments of those who signed up. However, the report cautioned that simply appearing on the membership lists doesnt prove that a person was active with the group or shares its ideology. Some people on the list contacted by the Associated Press said they were briefly members years ago and are no longer affiliated with the group. Some said they were never dues-paying members. The Oath Keepers, founded in 2009 by Stewart Rhodes, asks its members to vow to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, promotes the belief that the federal government is out to strip citizens of their civil liberties and paints its followers as defenders against tyranny. More than two dozen people associated with the group including Rhodes have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack. Rhodes and four other Oath Keeper members or associates are heading to trial this month on seditious conspiracy charges for what prosecutors have described as a weekslong plot to keep then-President Donald Trump in power. Rhodes and the other Oath Keepers say that they are innocent and that there was no plan to attack the Capitol. This report includes material from the Associated Press. Gov. Pete Ricketts joined other state officials in an unannounced visit Tuesday to the area of the proposed Perkins County Canal. Joining him, from left, were Tom Riley, director of the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources, State Sen. Mike Hilgers, the Speaker of the Legislature, and Attorney General Doug Peterson. (Courtesy of the Nebraska Governor's Office) LINCOLN Gov. Pete Ricketts made an unannounced visit to possible routes of the proposed Perkins County Canal this week and said drought conditions in Nebraska make it even more essential that the controversial project be built. This visit reinforced the need for us to protect every drop of South Platte River water we can, Ricketts said in a press release. The Perkins County Canal is essential for this purpose. This spring, Ricketts proposed resurrecting the long-dormant Perkins County Canal project, estimated to cost $500 million, saying it was the only way Nebraska could claim non-irrigation period flows from the South Platte River guaranteed in a river compact with Colorado. Compact gives right to water The governor also said Nebraska needs to claim its rightful share of the rivers flows before Colorado, and its fast-growing Front Range, capture it instead. The project promises to expand irrigated cropland areas in southwest Nebraska, which is experiencing drought conditions this year. At one location visited on the South Platte River, east of Ogallala, there was zero flow in the river. Colorado officials have condemned the proposal, calling it a canal to nowhere and a waste of taxpayer money. Some Nebraska lawmakers have questioned how the canal project, which had been abandoned a century ago as too costly, had suddenly become a priority. And environmental groups have raised concerns about affecting flows that sustain fish and wildlife on the Platte River system. On Thursday, it was revealed that Ricketts had toured portions of the South Platte River Basin two days earlier. A press release from the governors office said the visit, which wasnt announced on the governors weekly public schedule, offered a first-hand look at drought conditions and included a windshield survey of possible routes and reservoir locations for the Perkins County Canal. Report due in December Also on the trip were Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson, Speaker of the Legislature Sen. Mike Hilgers and Tom Riley, the director of the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources. An independent report on the cost, benefits and water supply for the proposal is expected to be completed in December. The canal would begin in northeast Colorado and cross into Nebraska somewhere south of the South Platte, either into Perkins or Deuel Counties, before rejoining the river. A series of reservoirs would be part of the project, officials have said. Riley said his department is following the path laid out by the (Nebraska) Legislature in working toward a fully functional canal and reservoir system within a few years. Pursuing options on land This includes a study of the project, as well as preliminary design and building plans, Riley said. In the meantime, we are actively pursuing option agreements for properties along the general canal corridor. Nebraska would have the power of eminent domain, even in Colorado, to legally obtain land for the canal if a landowner refused to sell. Use of eminent domain often becomes controversial in rural areas and spawned lawsuits over its use for the now-abandoned Keystone XL pipeline. Riley added that Nebraska officials continue to dialog regularly with their Colorado counterparts about the project. The Lee County Sheriffs Office is seeking the publics help in identifying a man they say impersonated a police officer. On Aug. 24 at approximately 4:20 p.m., the sherrifs office received a 911 call from a woman who said she was pulled over by someone impersonating an officer, a press release said. When the man heard her talking on the phone with 911, he fled the scene. Deputies responded to the 1000 Block of Lee Road 183 and met with the woman. She told deputies that she had been pulled over on Lee Road 183 near Highway 280 east close to Dudley Lumber Company in the Salem area of Lee County, according to the release. The suspect was a white man driving a white Dodge Ram truck, which had flashing lights mounted in the grill and windshield of the truck. He was wearing a white T-shirt with the Sheriffs logo sewn in, with Officer Walters printed as the name, deputies said. A sketch was created to help identify the suspect in this case. If you know the identity of this person or have any information about this case, contact the Lee County Sheriffs Office at 334-749-5651 or Central Alabama Crime Stoppers at 334-215-STOP (7867). On Friday morning, the City of Auburn will hold a Blessing on the Corner prayer event at Toomers Corner. It's open to the public and will begin at 8 a.m. Cory Smith, senior pastor at Auburn United Methodist Church, and Wren Arron, pastor of Church of the Highlands Auburn West Campus, are both scheduled to speak. Both pastors are also chaplains for Auburn first responders and will pray over Auburn Police, Fire and EMS. We're going to pray that God blesses our city and protects our people, Aaron said. It really is just a time to unify our city. It's a time of unification and expectation. According to Smith, this is the first time the prayer event has been held in public since 2019. I think the last couple of years, due to COVID, we filmed a blessing, Smith said. But this year we're so blessed to actually gather and be with each other on Toomers Corner and just pray for our leaders. Smith, 52, has been a pastor for 28 years, and the pastor of Auburn United Methodist and the chaplain for the Auburn Fire Department for seven years, working alongside the Rev. Charles Cummings, also of Auburn United Methodist. Its very humbling, Smith said of working with the fire department. As a pastor, you always want to be there with people when they're going through their difficult days. Smith says he serves Auburns six fire stations through prayer, Sunday morning services and walking with first responders in their jobs and lives. We're also there when they go through difficult days or when they're having a remembrance service for a fallen person in the public safety realm, Smith said. So, it's been a blessing for us just to connect and to be there to walk alongside them and support them and their important calling in this community. Smith said being a firefighter is more than just dealing with house fires. He believes being a first responder is a ministry in its own right. They're there when people fall in their house, Smith said. They're there when there's a crisis, a life event that happens that they need medical attention. In so many ways, it's like we're able to walk alongside those who are giving attention and support them because what they're doing, I think at some deep level, is ministry. Aaron, 58, has been a pastor with Church of the Highlands for 10 years. He currently pastors the multi-site churchs Auburn West Campus, which meets downtown in The Hotel at Auburn University. Aaron said he is currently working on establishing the chaplaincy program with the Auburn Police Department. I honor everyone there that is taking part and that are wanting to do some things in that area to help their police force, he said. Aaron says part of what he does is connect officers with pastors and help them navigate a lot of the issues faced by first responders. They're an incredible group of men and women who are on the front line of a lot of things in our city, Aaron said. So, myself, along with some other pastors in town, really just try to speak life into them, pour into them, and be there for them. It's an honor to be with the people that are going to be downtown, praying for our city, Aaron said. We love our law enforcement and our first responders, and we want to do whatever we can to help them in every area of their life. Chambers County Sheriffs deputies gathered at the East Alabama Medical Center several weeks ago to celebrate the birth of Gianna, the daughter of fallen deputy JMar Abel and his fiancee Jasmine Gaddist. On Aug. 26, deputies, family members, friends and hospital staff lined the hallways from the room all the way to the parking lot as Gaddist and Gianna were wheeled out of the hospital, Everyone started clapping, and on the drive home Gaddist and Gianna received a police escort from all the deputies who came. Gaddist said she was surprised by all of the love and support. It was really bittersweet, she said. I got really emotional when I saw everything and saw everybody lined up, even the car ride home. It felt good because I felt like it honored him in a way that it was just amazing. I knew that he was probably smiling down at that moment because it was beautiful. Abel, a 24-year-old Chambers County deputy, was killed in the line of duty while engaged in a car chase pursuing a suspect on June 20. During the chase, Abels car overturned after he left the road at a sharp turn and struck a ditch, according to police. Bystanders helped get Abel out of the car and performed CPR. He was then taken to a hospital where he died from his injuries. The suspect was stopped near the Georgia state line. Three days before the car crash, Abel had the opportunity to see his unborn daughters face through a 4D ultrasound for the first time, after two previous tries. The morning of June 20, Abel and Gaddist admired the images at breakfast and laughed about how Gianna already looked so much like her father. Bittersweet Weeks before going into labor, Gaddist said the Chambers County deputies held a baby shower for her, and she asked Sgt. Derick Wright, who trained Abel, to be Giannas godfather. They were very close. They were just like brothers, Gaddist said of Wright and Abel. JMar would come home and tell me stories or tell me what they did. They really bonded. Wright, 42, from Lanett, has been with the sheriffs office for almost 10 years and is a sergeant in the patrol division. When Abel left his position at the jail to become a deputy, he was assigned to Wright for field training. Me and him, we shared a car for the better part of five months before he went to the academy, Wright said. On the day of the car crash, Wright was also involved in the pursuit and was responsible for deploying the spikes to stop the suspects vehicle at the Georgia state line. When dispatchers notified Wright that one of the county units had been in an accident, he did a headcount and realized Abel was missing. He traveled back down the road, rounded a corner and saw the smoke and three civilians doing chest compressions on Abel. Since the crash, Wright has become close with Gaddist and her family and even went with Major TJ Wood to drop Gaddists 4-year-old son, Bryson, off on his first day of school. Wright met Gaddist and her family for dinner at Cracker Barrel one night where he was presented with a gift, a card that said Will you be my godfather? and a shirt that said, Promoted to godfather. He said he was holding back tears. Its hard to describe it. It was very special, he said. I was very honored that they did that, and I was glad I was able to be a part of their lives. Wood, 42, of Valley, has been with the Chambers County Sheriffs Office for 20 years and was one of Abels supervisors. He was a one-in-a-million kind of guy, Wood said. He was definitely happy-go-lucky He was one that you can depend on, and he is definitely the one that you look for when you look to hire in law enforcement. He checked all the boxes. Like Wright, Wood has become close with Abels family, and both men were at the hospital at the time of Giannas birth. It was amazing, because it was like being there for my actual sister, Wood said. Gianna was born on Aug. 24 and was welcomed into the world by her grandparents and her fathers aunt and grandmother. Two days later, she was welcomed by the law enforcement community. Gaddist said she was not expecting the parade of people when she was leaving the hospital. Every corner I turned, every hallway I went down, it was people lined up, she said. Some had signs, they clapped and a lot of people whispered congratulations and said how beautiful she was. Wood isnt sure how many deputies came to the hospital, but he said that during the drive home he was the seventh car in line, and the cars stretched back behind him as far as he could see. It was amazing to watch how Auburn, Opelika and Lee County came together and just gave her the support and gave our department the support that they did, Wood said. Words really cant explain it. I dont even know how to explain the feeling that I had when I walked out there and saw it myself. When you have grown men trying to hold tears back, that says a lot. A crowd gathered at Toomers Corner on Friday morning to pray over the city of Auburn. It was the annual Blessing on the Corner event, and many city officials were on hand as Wren Aaron, pastor at Church of the Highlands Auburn West Campus, and Cory Smith, senior pastor at Auburn United Methodist Church, led the group in prayer. Aaron began the prayers by quoting Scripture and applying it to first responders and their duty to protect the community. We are blessed, we are fortunate, and we will stand with the people that protect our community, said Aaron, who is helping to establish a chaplaincy program at the Auburn Police Department. Galatians 6:2 says, Carry each others burdens, because when you do you fulfill the law of Christ. So, the people that protect us are taking care of us, but theyre actually fulfilling what God says to do. Smith, whos been chaplain for the Auburn Fire Department for seven years, began by explaining the Apostle Pauls words about the body of Christ and community. We all need each other, and we all need each others gifts, Smith said. We all need each other to be the best we can be. Thats where our strength comes from, from the place that we live, the people that we get to be a part of, and just relying on and loving the promise God gives all of us. Mayor Ron Anders opened the event, but joked that he would turn it over to the professionals, referring to Aaron and Smith. We certainly need Gods protection and blessing, Anders said. I hope all of you as you start your day and consider what you pray for, that you dont forget to pray for your community and those that are working hard to protect our community. I thank all of you for being here. The Blessing on the Corner event is put on each year by the Auburn Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by Machen McChesney CPA & Business Advisors. Its always been the start of the fall semester, knowing that a lot of people from the greater Auburn Family are coming back here, said Anna Hovey, CEO of the Auburn Chamber of Commerce. Its just a way to keep us all mindful. Because of COVID-19, the event hasnt been held publicly in two years. In its place, a video was released online of several local ministers praying. We offered the blessing virtually, Hovey said, but it cant replace the feeling of gathering people together, and so its great that we can be back in person. Blessing on the Corner started well over a decade ago when Nancy Davis had the idea to gather people on Toomers Corner to pray for blessings over the city, its businesses, visitors, and the university, Hovey said. Its a good place for us to kind of gather people together and be mindful of the many blessings in our community and encourage people as a group like this, Hovey said. Chaplains In his role as chaplain for the Auburn Fire Department, Smith works alongside the Rev. Charles Cummings, also of Auburn United Methodist. Its very humbling,said Smith, 52, of working with the fire department. As a pastor, you always want to be there with people when theyre going through their difficult days. He said he serves Auburns six fire stations through prayer, Sunday morning services and walking with first responders in their jobs and lives. Were also there when they go through difficult days or when theyre having a remembrance service for a fallen person in the public safety realm, Smith said. So, its been a blessing for us just to connect and to be there to walk alongside them and support them and their important calling in this community. Smith said being a firefighter is more than just dealing with house fires. He believes being a first responder is a ministry in its own right. Theyre there when people fall in their house, Smith said. Theyre there when theres a crisis, a life event that happens that they need medical attention. In so many ways, its like were able to walk alongside those who are giving attention and support them because what theyre doing, I think at some deep level, is ministry. Aaron, 58, said he was honored to help recognize first responders during the event. We love our law enforcement and our first responders, and we want to do whatever we can to help them in every area of their life, he said. Aaron said that part of what he does is connect officers with pastors and help them navigate a lot of the issues faced by first responders. Theyre an incredible group of men and women who are on the front line of a lot of things in our city, Aaron said. So, myself, along with some other pastors in town, really just try to speak life into them, pour into them, and be there for them. This is straight up surreal. I had a HUGE crush on Lee Jung Jae back when he was starting out in K drama. He was a highlight in the legendary "" (The Sand Glass) and super charming in "" (Feelings). He also went on to be successful in k-film. Seeing him hit it so big with Squid Game has felt a little like my worlds are colliding. Reply Thread Link Yes! Actually I first discovered him from seeing him in a Kim Min Hee pictorial and being surprised they were actually a couple and then loved him from Triple on. Happy for his success! It's always interesting which star breaks out in the US. I feel like Lee Byung Hun was trying for that but didn't really succeed. Reply Parent Thread Link Too bad he has assault charges and 2 DUIs, oh and how he exposed his gay friend after he died. Super homophobic too. Edited at 2022-09-09 06:23 am (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link I just searched and it was way worse than I thought. A while ago, Y left for heaven, Lee said in the interview. [Before he died,] I said to Y, You should stop being gay. Havent you been that way enough? But it was not easy. Does it ever dawn on him that he was the one who pushed his friend to commit suicide? What an asshole Reply Parent Thread Link I dont follow Star Wars enough to know what this show is going to be about but congrats to Lee JungJae on getting that Disney money! Reply Thread Link omg what a fantastic cast so far!! Reply Thread Link I can't believe he's becoming so famous now. I remember watching Il Mare constantly during my uni years and it made me soooo sad. Reply Thread Link This is great for him and for foreign actors who do not primarily work in english-language works!! Also yessss to ASIAN DOMINATION! Reply Thread Link me and a friend have spent hours fan casting foreign actors into big international roles. i'll etch it into my tombstone, but there's a lot of untapped talent coming out of asia right now and i know not every single actor i'm a fan of can get an opportunity, but it feels like it's a missed opportunity to completely ignore what's coming out from non english speaking countries. Reply Parent Thread Link won't be watching, but good for him and his glass skin Reply Thread Link I am so happy for his success Reply Thread Link Wtaf how is there a new star wars show or film every other week? What is happening?!!! I'm genuinely lost rn. Reply Thread Link ugh they really trying to reel me in with this one. if the whole main cast turned out to be POC, that'd be a serve. i'm waiting... lol Reply Thread Link Im not really even a Star Wars fan, but if all the leads are POC I have to tune in. Reply Parent Thread Link I love him because of watching an interview for him, I end up fallen for his bestie. Reply Thread Link Wow that's great good for him. Reply Thread Link I'm personally happy for this news, but I hope Lee Jung-Jae is as prepped for the inevitable incel rage as he can be. Reply Thread Link Here for the Amandlassance Reply Thread Link This homophobic trash? No thank you. Reply Thread Link Regardless of her character its COLOSSALLY shitty to out someone. Reply Thread Link ok but did we ever consider this article was planted/condoned by Swift Enterprises to reinforce her lgbtq-ally brand? the you need to calm down era felt less than authentic imo Reply Parent Thread Link hmm. maybe. but rolling stone has a history of playing fast and loose with a lot of journalistic ethics. Reply Parent Thread Link Shit like this always reminds me of what happened to Lee Pace. Reply Parent Thread Link This is not a good article topic. I don't expect much from Rolling Stone but somehow they failed to clear that very low bar. Reply Thread Link They're too busy gassing up Harry Styles. Reply Parent Thread Link I will never understand why people feel the need to speculate about someone's sexuality...and even less to publish a story on it in Rolling Stone wtf Reply Thread Link This is weird and really not OK Reply Thread Link Rolling Stone has truly fallen from the graces (been like that for at least a decade) if they're gonna speculate on someone's sexuality. Pretty shitty to do that to anyone. ETA: Even more messed up that the author themself is queer and non-binary. Edited at 2022-09-09 01:06 am (UTC) Reply Thread Link Even more messed up that the author themself is queer and non-binary. unfortunately solidarity is nonexistent in the entertainment industry (most pop culture journalists these days use it simply as an attempted backdoor to hollywood gigs/self promo) Reply Parent Thread Link Ultimately this article wasn't as bad as I was expecting but intially I kept thinking "oh they sunken to the levels of perez hilton" before I read it lol. Reply Parent Thread Link Rolling Stone has always been run by creepos, I remember when Angelina Jolie talked about how she had to do a cover shoot for them and the photographer made her cry and then they published the pictures of her crying Reply Parent Thread Link Oh hell, solidarity barely exists in the umbrella queer community itself. So many splintered groups wants different things. Lillian Faderman's book "Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers" really showed me how historically the wlw community has been divided for forever by race, class, gender identity and couples with similar gender presentations vs more traditional butch/femme couples. It's bananas how petty and exclusive and douchey people and groups can be. It seems like this goes for much of the queer male community, and I hear so much fear of judgment from friends who don't fit a very narrow mold. Years ago I wound up in a gay male AA meeting by mistake and it was just as gossipy, judgmental, and cruel as a high school cafeteria. It was also fully a cruising scene Edited at 2022-09-09 07:29 am (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link My other gay friends are the first to be all over this article and that weird tiktok of the guy fully trying to out her. It's so bizarre. Reply Parent Thread Link ETA: Even more messed up that the author themself is queer and non-binary. At first I was like "yeah" then I remembered that apparently Rebel Wilson was outed by a gay man? :/ Reply Parent Thread Link literally anyone can write for rolling stone these days huh brb submitting the fanfic i wrote in middle school about myself and joshua jackson as a blind item Reply Thread Link this certainly is a choice Reply Thread Link You better lawyer up asshole, she's coming back for everything. It will be TaylorStone soon. Reply Thread Link Rolling Stone (Taylors Version) Reply Parent Thread Link I would start stanning if she achieved this tbh Reply Parent Thread Link Okay I just read it and it's not as bad as I thought. It's mostly talking the fans obsession with speculating on her sexuality. This probably would be better suited for buzzfeed or truthfully it's blog-livejournal material at best. Reply Thread Link i did think it was funny that the subhed was they wont give up. like. they sure wont :| Reply Parent Thread Link I haven't read it, but it seems obvious just from the headline that this is an article about a fascinating pop culture phenomenon. I don't know why everyone here has a problem with that - there have been plenty of articles analysing the behaviour of larries or the people who think Cumberbatch is being held hostage by his wife. It IS an interesting and unsettling phenomenon and it should be analysed. Reply Parent Thread Link like if it was some random fan blog writing this that would be one thing but the fact that Rolling Stone is employing people to write shit like this is further proof that we need to put some kind of ethical wall between fandom activities and the people the fandom is creating about I miss when people were properly embarrassed by their fanfic omg Reply Parent Thread Link is the writer a secret Kaylor shipper? Reply Thread Link Itd be fine to have an article exploring this more fully, like a good piece of cultural criticism, but this article just doesnt do that I wouldnt say the article is validating or encouraging the theories, but it barely goes in depth into any idea that it raises, so its just this brief article that kind of touches on her fan culture, and so it just makes it this Her fans think shes gonna announce shes gay! thing that it shouldnt be. Reply Thread Link And by exploring this I mean exploring the fans obsession with this theory and their clues and how it connects to other fan conspiracies not her actual sexuality. Reply Parent Thread Link I do think she's maybe bi but I feel like it's one thing to say that in a comment on a celeb gossip site and another to publish a full-ass article in rolling stone about it lol. Reply Thread Link do you have Theories about her and other women, or does she just give you a vibe Reply Parent Thread Link The "proud" bracelet very obviously has the bi flag colors on both sides. The biggest piece of "evidence" for her being bi is a picture she posted in 2019:The "proud" bracelet very obviously has the bi flag colors on both sides. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I definitely think something went down with her and Karlie, whether it was just hooking up or something more serious, and I have no proof beyond that blurry video of them maybe-kissing which I think was them definitely drunk and kissing lol, but everything about their relationship at that time reminded me of my first same-sex relationship as a baby bi and their fallout was so intense that it seemed to me like it was more than a friendship. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Wasnt there a rumor that she was supposed to come out wearing a rainbow dress, but backed out last minute and then Billy Porter who looks amazing in whatever he wears, wore it instead? Then people were like that dress didnt fit him, whyyyyyyy did he wear it and apparently this was was the rumor? I mightve seen this on the deuxmoix subreddit? Reply Parent Thread Link I full on believe she had a thing with Karlie lol This woman talks way too much about cages and doomed relationships to be straight but at the same time, this could be simply Taylor being Taylor and pretending she's got it harder than everyone else for whatever reason her mind decided during music writing time. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link she gives me the vibe that she would hook up with women but romantically sees herself in the traditional marriage and kids relationship with a guy Reply Parent Thread Link Down so bad for engagement they're directly platforming CTs. Reply Thread Link taylor has a very close relationship to rolling stone i cant imagine them doing this out from under her Reply Thread Link taylor has a very close relationship to rolling stone i cant imagine them doing this out from under her Exactly. I have a timeline I think she may follow. Under the cut. [ Spoiler (click to open) ] First the YNTCD" video. She literally lives in a place that is only inhabited by the LGBT community. She knows what people would think and would establish that she was only an ally like how Ciara did as she was marrying a couple and Ryan Reynolds painting outside of the place. Anyway, The CMA awards are November 9. I think she will make a surprise appearance and may be with T.J.Osborne of the Osborne brothers who came out last year and kissed his boyfriend at last years CMAs with no fanfare. It would be nice to have K.D. Lang there since she was the 1st out country star. Taylor has not 1 but 2 Oscar campaigns this year and Oscar campaigns need a narrative to get an edge out.Also this can help with the potential backlash of that David O Russell movie she is in. First the YNTCD" video. She literally lives in a place that is only inhabited by the LGBT community. She knows what people would think and would establish that she was only an ally like how Ciara did as she was marrying a couple and Ryan Reynolds painting outside of the place.Anyway, The CMA awards are November 9. I think she will make a surprise appearance and may be with T.J.Osborne of the Osborne brothers who came out last year and kissed his boyfriend at last years CMAs with no fanfare.It would be nice to have K.D. Lang there since she was the 1st out country star.Taylor has not 1 but 2 Oscar campaigns this year and Oscar campaigns need a narrative to get an edge out.Also this can help with the potential backlash of that David O Russell movie she is in. Exactly. I have a timeline I think she may follow. Under the cut. Reply Parent Thread Link That David O Russell movie looks like incomprehensible trash. I have watched both trailers and I still don't get what's going on. Reply Parent Thread Link But where does Haunted Dancehall (Lullaby Remix) fit in??? Reply Thread Link gay clubs are gonna be playing the dance remix, y/y? Reply Parent Thread Link I think Liz is prob burning in hell but I love how schmaltzy reporters are about this. I am watching Today show and they showed the rainbow from yesterday and they were like 'it's a sign that she is...okay." Reply Thread Link 'Dead' is an interesting definition of okay. Reply Parent Thread Link Comment of the year I cant laugh this hard this early in the morning Reply Parent Thread Link yeah, i'm like, SHE DEAD lol Reply Parent Thread Link Astonishing moment a cloud resembling Queen Elizabeth floats over English town just hours after she died https://t.co/LLtvpYSKRb Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) September 9, 2022 I did laugh at this Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I don't believe in hell (or heaven for that matter) but I like your thinking lol Reply Parent Thread Link Maybe the rainbow was god saying "The gates are closed. Don't come back." Reply Parent Thread Link Her funeral being on Monday is bad timing. That's the first day of my annual leave. Now I need to faff with HR to get my bank holiday another time. So rude, Lizzie. So rude. Edited at 2022-09-09 01:06 pm (UTC) Reply Thread Link it's my birthday great now everything will be closed Reply Parent Thread Link Booooo. Hope you still have a good birthday though! Reply Parent Thread Link Lol I was appreciating how it was timed to provide a long weekend vs a random mid-week day off. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I have a bit of a morbid question I read the whole 10-day program and basically Liz is gonna be, um, decaying in a coffin the whole time before she gets lowered more than a week from now. Do they embalm the royals? Or do they just let nature run its course? Its a bit disturbing to think that her corpse is gonna be like 10 entire days old before she gets buried but idk royals gonna royal I guess Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I learned yesterday that Philip's corpse is chilling in a royal fridge because he can't be buried without the queen. That's so wild I still can't get over it Reply Thread Link tbh it's not much different that his state for the past 5 years before his death. Reply Parent Thread Link I think it's just interred in a vault under the church and can be moved, he's not in a morgue or anything. Reply Parent Thread Link i think it would freak me out real bad knowing a corpse was on ice waiting for me to die Reply Parent Thread Link Imagine having this much power as a wife. Reply Parent Thread Link WAIT WHAT SHUT UP so theyre gonna defreeze him to be buried Reply Parent Thread Link Hes not, hes in a vault and will be moved to his final location next to Liz when she finally gets buried Edit: did u just downvote me for stating the truth? The fragility lmaoo Edited at 2022-09-09 07:12 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Expand Link This is really confusing lol Reply Parent Thread Link it's so weird how harry and meghan's kids will be prince and princess when they're no longer part of the royal family lol Reply Parent Thread Link Grandchildren of a Monarch, but due to a law brought in by George V, only the grandchildren of a living monarch, with the exception of the eldest son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales. IIRC all of Williams children were made Prince/Princess upon birth because it would be rather strange to have siblings where one was a Prince, and the others just.. a child. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link The Queen's grandfather changed it so all the children and grandchildren of the monarch get the prince/princess title Reply Parent Thread Expand Link i thought their parents just weren't "working" royals anymore. afaik they're still in the line of succession just in case Reply Parent Thread Link Wiliam isn't Prince of Wales, yet. The title is currently vacant, and typically given to the heir apparent. Charles is also the Duke of Lancaster... which is a larger duchy than Cornwall and a massive source of private income. Reply Parent Thread Link im curious if the sussex kids are going to take the titles? because edward's kids are also entitled to them but dont use them it doesnt make a lot of sense to me if H&M dont have them using the titles for duke's kids that they would start calling them prince and princess Edited at 2022-09-09 01:33 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I knew Edward was left an Earl assuming he'd get his father's title. What I don't understand is Harry's children, I thought he & his family basically abdicated their place in the line of succession and didn't want the kids to be Prince/Princess Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Ive been calling him Prince Charles all day. I refuse to give that man the satisfaction. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I was very surprised that William and Kate didn't automatically become Prince/Princess of Wales. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link but surely H&M dont want this since they want nothing to do with the royal family Oh no when their kids get to be called prince its fine Reply Parent Thread Link why are will and Kate now dukes of c&c but their kids are only of Cornwall and no longer Cambridge Reply Parent Thread Expand Link how can you be a duke a of Edinburgh if its not a duchy Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Omg, this is so much pointless bullshit, it's not like they have any real power anyway Reply Parent Thread Expand Link So do royals just put "George Wales" on forms or what Reply Parent Thread Expand Link And none for Andrew, bye.. Reply Parent Thread Link its killing me that they put prince archie and princess lilibet mountbatten-windsor lmao it would be of sussex Reply Parent Thread Link So I'm guessing Harry and Meghan will say "Fuck it" and not bother with prince and princess titles. They live in the US after all. But if that implies that their kids will have some kind of responsibility or something, that's just fucked up. Reply Parent Thread Link So shes just hanging out in the fridge at Balmoral until Sunday? Reply Thread Link I have the same question... Neither Balmoral, Hollyroodhouse nor St Giles' strike me as great places to stay fresh, especially as it's not exactly cold outside yet. I seriously wonder if they have one of those refrigerated vehicles in the backyard, where they store her whenever she's not on display? Reply Parent Thread Link this is reminding me of that rapper who had his corpse in a club behind the turntables and people didn't know until they showed up Reply Parent Thread Link "stay fresh" is killing me Reply Parent Thread Expand Link The world is grieving Queen Elizabeth II. Well, not the entire world. https://t.co/PBtICEdyxn Slate (@Slate) September 9, 2022 Reminder that Queen Elizabeth is not a remnant of colonial times. She was an active participant in colonialism. She actively tried to stop independence movements & she tried to keep newly independent colonies from leaving the commonwealth. The evil she did was enough https://t.co/SDGi0boCzx Nsafoa's Feminist Duck (@YaaAsantewaaBa) September 8, 2022 Do not allow anyone to distort this history into claiming that she allowed for independence on the continent. Independence was WON despite her attempts to stop it. In fact, when her father died, she was on a tour of the colonies attempting to discourage independence movements Nsafoa's Feminist Duck (@YaaAsantewaaBa) September 8, 2022 Here is an incomplete list of imperialists who Elizabeth II bestowed with awards. Firstly pictured here is the ethnic cleanser of Palestine who orchestrated the massacre in Qana, Shimon Peres receiving his honorary knighthood. pic.twitter.com/gAFL2kzzo9 Friendly Neighborhood Comrade (@SpiritofLenin) September 8, 2022 Side-eying y'all that are grieving for real. May the family fall into disrepair and their jewels and wealth be taken. Amen Side-eying y'all that are grieving for real.May the family fall into disrepair and their jewels and wealth be taken. Amen Reply Thread Link Her colonial rule is living history and ppl try to pretend like "oh she was just a lil ol lady who served the UK" BITCH HOW, by sitting in a castle built off the blood, sweat and tears of colonized people? Wearing jewels stolen from colonized lands? SPARE ME I can't ESPECIALLY with Americans who are sad about this, like, GIRL WHY Reply Parent Thread Link right like "She served with dignity and strength" girl what did she do besides quash rebellions and disrupt growing republics in Africa. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link The Americans being sad is especially pathetic to me lol like what did you even know about her??? where is your sentiment even coming from. name one thing that you genuinely like about her as a person lol Reply Parent Thread Link Chris Colfer shares his shrine dedicated to the late Queen Elizabeth II: Thank you, Your Majesty, for your passionate devotion, unwavering stability, and unprecedented resilience. Your example had a profound effect on a boy eight-thousand miles away. pic.twitter.com/V3vE6gaW2y Pop Crave (@PopCrave) September 8, 2022 actually what is more bizarre is that according to wiki he is of irish ancestry ("I'm very Irish, my family is all Irish and Saint Patricks Day in my house is crazy.) speaking of weird americans...actually what is more bizarre is that according to wiki he is of irish ancestry ("I'm very Irish, my family is all Irish and Saint Patricks Day in my house is crazy.) Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Im confused as to what power she, and now Charles, really had/has. Cant an act of Parliament grant independence regardless of royal opinion? She aint shit for not supporting independence movements and being a racist bitch, and like, wtf, why doesnt Parliament and/or the PM advocate for supporting independence for nations that want to leave the Commonwealth? Is the monarchy really co-signing legislation? Reply Parent Thread Link This family is so fucking evil I am editing this because I am so angry at people on this site who tried to gaslight me into thinking I was unreasonable for hating this bitch with a fiery passion because shes just a cute old lady! She didnt actively participate in colonization! She just cuts ribbons! India gained her independence in 1947. 1947. Let that sink in. Her fucking uncle partitioned india and pakistan just to fuck with them, something they deal with to this day. She was a grown adult doing royal duties then and 5 years later she became queen. Fuck her. I hope there is a hell Edited at 2022-09-09 01:56 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Im trying to find the info regarding her squashing independence movements. Do you have any links? Reply Parent Thread Link Two things can be true at once. The tweets are true and People can be sad for her family and have their feelings. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link My mom was angry bc i was talking bad about the queen,, said that i shouldn't defend british and colonized people since i dont live there and i was?????? We just celebrated 200 years of independence, if Don Pedro was still alive and died we would party too. She sucked! Reply Parent Thread Link people act like colonisation happened soooo long ago when the colonisation of india was what like 2 generations ago for most of us? my grandparents were alive at the time and my parents were born shortly after independence. that's pretty fucking recent Reply Parent Thread Link Man, the amount of people and flowers outside the palace is NOTHING compared to when Diana died Reply Thread Link i think beyond the shock of diana's death, there was no other real outlet to feel part of a collective grieving when di died. now people can post on social media, no real need to go to the castle Reply Parent Thread Link I mean, Diana died young in a shocking and brutal manner. Lizzie was an ancient fuck three decades ago. Reply Parent Thread Link Probably a mish-mash of things happening here - people were expecting this one, and we have social media to yell/cry at each other on, and its a workday, and our public transport systems have been in shambles for a while with stripped down timetables, so its quite tricky to get to central London right now. Reply Parent Thread Link And people are poorer than they were 30 years ago Reply Parent Thread Link I think the flowers were also put there not just out of grief for Diana, but a desire to give some comfort/love to her little boys, to show that the public was with them. Reply Parent Thread Link She is fortunate to have those that will mourn her and miss her. Reply Thread Link god im so glad to be jewish where everything gets settled within 2 days. this is a nightmare to me Reply Thread Link lol right? All that lingers for us is passive-aggression . Reply Parent Thread Link I'm thinking the same thing. Put the person in the ground asap, cover your mirrors, let people bring you food. What more do you need? Reply Parent Thread Link Just saw a clip of Charles outside the palace, shaking hands and greeting people. What do they say to him, 'Congrats'? Reply Thread Link "Ew, Your Majesty, what's wrong with your fingers?" Reply Parent Thread Link There's pictures of people leaning over the baricade and kissing his hands today I-- Edited at 2022-09-09 02:33 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I mean probably Im sorry for your loss??? His mother just died. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I was watching it live! I'm sure he was told to somberly look at the flowers, but he couldn't help himself when people started cheering "Long Live the King." He looked giddy. I'm sure his people were cringing. Reply Parent Thread Link The radio stations here are only playing sad music and its hilarious (especially cause Im in Scotland and doubt anyone involved cares). Acceptable songs for national mourning apparently include: Leona Lewis covering Snow Patrols Run Charlie Puth See You Again Kelly Clarkson Because of You and Jar of Hearts The local Tesco also has an electronic board with her portrait outside Reply Thread Link Because Of You?! Aint that the song about an emotionally abusive parent?????!!! Reply Parent Thread Link Maybe Charles called that one in. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Well, if anything I'm glad Leona Lewis is getting some airplay out of this Reply Parent Thread Link i can't believe they just had philip on ice until she died. what if she made it another 10 years? Reply Thread Link Passengers and crew received news of Queen Elizabeth II's death from their pilot aboard a flight from New York City before landing in London. https://t.co/vrDhVF8AcS pic.twitter.com/JcA8aAXWSW ABC News (@ABC) September 8, 2022 Reply Thread Link The flight attendant crying omg lol Reply Parent Thread Link LMFAO this is dumb. Reply Parent Thread Link Ok now show me one of a plane from Dublin to London when it happens. Reply Parent Thread Link Irish twitter has been insane. Memes central :-D Reply Parent Thread Expand Link The flight attendant is crying? Good lord Reply Parent Thread Link is it really that serious omg Reply Parent Thread Expand Link That was good of him. The terminal might not have been just a normal departure and without knowing what was going on, it could have been scary. Reply Parent Thread Link Id start clapping Reply Parent Thread Link Lmao screaming at reflect, we have 40 minutes till landing. Also the way pilots get news from the ground, Im dying at the thought of that little receipt paper popping up going btw queen kicked it from soc. Edited at 2022-09-09 09:29 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Expand Link fuerte aplauso para satanas is my quote of the year. Reply Parent Thread Link iconic lmao Reply Parent Thread Link I don't know anything about this anime but holy shit LUPIN is amazing, and Omar Sy is so charming and lovely in it, I will watch anything he is in. Reply Thread Link He's France's best export. Edited at 2022-09-09 01:56 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link like a fine fine wine Reply Parent Thread Link He's just so effortlessly elegant! I love watching him. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link i really love him and lupin Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I thought the first half of the show, while pretty, was kind of goofy... Just so many things that made zero sense. I'll continue to watch for Omar's great performance and also French practice tho, still haven't seen the second half! Will there be another season? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link live action adaptations of anime have been pointless and disappointing Reply Thread Link Its a true story though, its not just an anime. Reply Parent Thread Link I'm hoping it's based on the history and NOT the anime. I loved the anime, but it is too surreal to adapt to live action. Also, S2 of the anime when!? Reply Parent Thread Link I love him on Lupin so I will definitely check this out Reply Thread Link I love him in Lupin and the story of Yasuke so I'll definitely be watching. Reply Thread Link * In early 2019, Chadwick Boseman was cast for the role of Yasuke in the live-action film. Reply Thread Link I had forgotten about that. Reply Parent Thread Link Still not over it. Reply Parent Thread Link Man, this guts me because I know he would have been fantastic. Reply Parent Thread Link Has anyone read the book? It was a good read Reply Thread Link If you're talking about African Samurai by Thomas Lockley & Geoffrey Girard, I did. I think I heard about here in the New Book Releases post. Reply Parent Thread Link Yes! I was working so I didnt have time to type the authors. I remember finding it scaling a history shelf in a bookstore and thinking wow, this is so cool. Oh dang, I need to go into those posts more! Reply Parent Thread Link don't know anything about the anime or the history but am down to watch. that animated still makes me think of those samurai Boondocks episodes Reply Thread Link If you're interested in the historical person, I suggest African Samurai by Thomas Lockley & Geoffrey Girard. Reply Parent Thread Link I love Omar and love all the attention and roles he's been getting Reply Thread Link My heart hurts just seeing his name. What a gift we had with him. Reply Parent Thread Link omar is so damn charming. i literally watched burnt bc he was in the trailer lmao. i ended up enjoying the movie which is good bc he's barely in it. Reply Thread Link this looks amazing I'm sold Reply Thread Link Im not familiar with this, but let me get educated because I will watch Omar Sy in anything. Hes so good! Reply Thread Link Watch Lupin! Reply Parent Thread Link Oh I have! Each season twice as well. Hes brilliant in it. Its a strangely comforting show considering its all about conning people, lol. Reply Parent Thread Link Hes so charismatic. I was watching The Takedown a couple of months ago and he reminded me of Will Smith with his on screen charisma and his flow and wholesome hotness. He has a very nice body too, like not super toned but YOU KNOW underneath those clothes theres a very well proportioned body. Lol. Reply Thread Link oh i think this could be VERY good tbh!! Reply Thread Link WTI was trading up $2.54 per barrel while the Brent benchmark was trading up $2.60 per barrel. Fridays price rise was precipitated not by bullish production or supply outages nor by any significant demand outlook increases. Crude oil prices rose on Friday by 3% despite fears of a global recession which has pervaded the oil price narrative in recent weeks, weighing on prices. Fridays price rise was precipitated not by bullish production or supply outages nor by any significant demand outlook increases. At 11:45 a.m. ET, WTI was trading up $2.54 per barrel (+3.04%) at $86.08. While more than 3% rise on the day, the U.S. benchmark was trading down nearly $2 per barrel from last week. The Brent benchmark was trading up $2.60 per barrel at that time (+2.92%) at $91.69a more than $2 decrease from last week. One supporting oil prices is the general market belief that OPEC+ will defend a particular price pointlikely near $90 Brent. For OPEC+, which has struggled to meet its production targets even as prices rose to uncomfortable levels, production cuts would be a logical solution to falling prices as recession fears persist and concerns linger regarding Chinas crude demand thanks to its restrictive zero-Covid policy. This zero-Covid policy could trigger Chinas fuel consumption to actually fall by 380,000 bpd this year compared to last year, according to a new prediction by Energy Aspects released on Friday. If realized, it would be Chinas first drop in fuel consumption in two decades. On Thursday, U.S. Secretary Jennifer Granholm suggested that the Biden Administration was considering further releases of the nations crude oil stockpiles (SPR) past October, although a Department of Energy official later denied this. The United States SPR inventories are the lowest theyve been in decades, and further draining of the SPRthe only way the United States can tap additional barrels on short noticewould continue to send oil into commercial inventories, sending a dangerous signal to U.S. frackers to ignore market calls for additional oil. By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Sudden Covid lockdowns will weigh on Chinas oil demand this year as people avoid mass travel around holidays, dragging fuel consumption in the worlds top crude importer down for 2022 for the first time in two decades, analysts say. Travel by car or plane during the local holidays in September and October is expected to remain low due to fear of being locked down in flash mobility restrictions under Chinas zero Covid policy. As a result, demand for gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel in China could drop by 380,000 barrels per day (bpd) this year compared to 2021, Energy Aspects analyst Sun Jianan told Reuters. Chinese consumption of those fuels increased by 5.6% - or 450,000 bpd - annually in 2021. But this year could see the first annual drop in demand in China since 2002, which would be a watershed moment for the oil market, according to the Energy Aspects analyst. Oil demand in China has been soft since the spring when lockdowns returned. The countrys economic activity is also showing signs of weaker growth while the property market continues to be a concern. Worries about Chinas oil demand, coupled with fears of a European recession, have been weighing on oil prices for most of the past few weeks. The latest provisional data out of China is not encouraging, either. Chinas crude oil imports in August were 1.1 million bpd lower than the year-ago period and its exports were lower than expected, the latest data suggests. China imported 9.35 million bpd of oil last month, according to energy analytics provider OilX. That is half a million barrels per day higher than imports in July but 1.1 million lower than imports in August 2021. For January to August, Chinas crude oil imports averaged 9.92 million bpd, which was down by 4.7% compared to the same period of 2021, per customs data from this week cited by Reuters. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: At least 10 EU member states, including Italy, Greece, and Poland, are opposed to the bloc slapping a price cap on Russian gas over concerns that Putin might retaliate with a complete halt of gas supply to the whole of Europe, officials told the Financial Times on Friday as EU energy ministers prepare for todays emergency meeting to discuss measures to ease the burden of the energy crisis on consumers. Earlier this week, the European Commission said it would propose a mandatory target for the EU to cut power consumption at peak hours, a revenue cap on electricity producers and fossil fuel companies, and a price cap on Russian gas as immediate measures to save the European gas and electricity markets and help vulnerable consumers. We will propose a cap on Russian gas. The objective here is very clear. We must cut Russia's revenues which Putin uses to finance this atrocious war against Ukraine, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday. Commenting for the Financial Times on the plan to cap the price of Russian gas, Nikos Tsafos, chief energy adviser to Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said: Quite frankly the Russians will probably retaliate on this. Italy, for its part, prefers a general cap on all the gas, its energy transition minister Roberto Cingolani told FT. According to the Italian daily La Stampa, the Netherlands and the eastern EU member states are opposed to von der Leyens proposal to impose a price cap on Russian gas. Germany, Europes biggest economy and the most affected EU member by the now-shut Nord Stream pipeline isnt supportive of the plan, either, La Stampa notes. On Wednesday, Vladimir Putin threatened Europe that Russia would stop supplying all energy products to Europe if the EU and its Western allies impose price caps on Russian oil and natural gas. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: European energy utilities might be facing a margin call bill of a trillion euros (~$1 trillion), according to a business consultancy. The companies, however, are in a strong enough position to survive the call as long as governments lend a hand in the form of state-backed loans, Baringa analysts said, as quoted by the Financial Times. A lot of the strain that were seeing are companies that need financing for trading but arent facing insolvency because actually, if theyre on the producing side of the market, theyre benefiting from high prices in the physical market, explained Nick Tallantyre, global head of Baringas energy and commodities trading division. He went on to say that once the power that a utility produces is indeed produced, the utility will get enough money to be able to repay any state-backed aid it may have received to cover its margin call right now. Its a short-term cash pinch and governments should issue loans but they should feel confident they will be repaid, Tallantyre told the Financial Times. The consultants estimate is substantially lower than the margin call estimate Norways Equinor released earlier this month. In its conservative scenario, Equinor said, European energy utilities faced a margin call bill of 1.5 trillion euro, equal to virtually the same amount in U.S. dollars. Several European governments are already providing billions in financial support for energy utilities but against the background of a trillion-euro bill, a few billion will be far from enough. EU energy ministers are meeting today to discuss ways to handle the energy crisis, with proposals made earlier this week by the European Commission including a cap on electricity prices. This, if approved, could interfere with utilities revenues, especially as a cap on revenues for certain utilities is also on the table as a crisis-coping potential measure. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Russias gas giant Gazprom is set to rake in 85% higher revenues this year, to around $100 billion, as natural gas prices surged following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the significant cut to Russian pipeline gas exports to Europe, an analyst told the Financial Times on Friday. By choking supply to Europe, Gazprom has driven natural gas prices three times higher than last years price, which more than offsets the lower volumes Russia is sending to Europe, Ron Smith, an oil and gas analyst at BCS Global Markets, told FT. You can make a solid case that Gazprom will earn more from supplying less gas, according to the analyst. After having gradually cut flows via the key route to Germany all summer, blaming gas turbine repair issues, Gazprom said last week that the Nord Stream gas pipeline would remain closed indefinitely. The Kremlin blamed on Monday the Western sanctions for this situation. When it went offline on 31 August, Nord Stream 1s 32mcm/day flows represented about 3% of total European supply. While a small amount, these molecules will need to be replaced by much more expensive methods either drawing additional LNG from the global market or by destroying demand in Europe, Thomas Rodgers, gas markets analyst at Independent Commodity Intelligence Services (ICIS), said on the day on which Gazprom said Nord Stream would halt supply indefinitely. As of September 2, remaining Russian flows to Europe accounted for about 7% of European supply, including LNG sendout, compared to more than a third of all supply to Europe coming from Russia at this time last year, ICIS notes. The EU is looking to limit Putins revenues from gas, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday the Commission would propose a price cap on Russian gas as We must cut Russia's revenues which Putin uses to finance this atrocious war against Ukraine. Also on Wednesday, Vladimir Putin threatened the West that Russia would stop supplying all energy products to Europe if the EU and its Western allies impose price caps on Russian oil and natural gas. Several EU member states are opposed to the Commissions plan on a price cap on Russian gas amid concerns that Putin would retaliate with a complete halt of all pipeline gas deliveries to Europe. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The European Central Bank will not give short-term financing to European energy firms struggling through the energy crisis, sky-high prices, and margin calls on the derivatives markets, ECB President Christine Lagarde said on Friday. As far as the ECB is concerned, and the national central banks of the Eurosystem, of course we stand ready to provide liquidity to banks, not to energy utility firms, Lagarde said at a news conference in Prague today, as carried by Bloomberg. In this current, very volatile environment, its important that fiscal measures be put in place to provide liquidity to solvent energy-market participants, in particular utility firms, the ECB chief added. Europes energy firms, for their part, are estimated to be facing margin calls of a total of $1.5 trillion in the derivatives market. Many of these firms will need policy support to cover those calls amid wild swings and skyrocketing gas and power prices. The $1.5-trillion estimate is even conservative, Helge Haugane, Equinors senior vice president for gas and power, told Bloomberg earlier this week. Liquidity at energy firms is drying up as many companies have struggled to meet their margin calls on the energy derivatives market. Some countries in the EU have already decided to set up funds to avoid a collapse of their energy derivatives markets. For example, Finland and Sweden have laid out plans to support their energy companies trading in the electricity derivatives markets, looking to avoid a Lehman Brothers event in their respective energy industries and financial systems. This has had the ingredients for a kind of a Lehman Brothers of energy industry, Finlands Minister of Economic Affairs, Mika Lintila, said on Sunday, as carried by Reuters, commenting on the energy crisis in Europe. The EU energy ministers are meeting today to discuss measures to help alleviate the crisis for households and businesses. The European Commission plans to propose a mandatory target for the EU to cut power consumption at peak hours. They are also planning a revenue cap for electricity producers and fossil fuel companies. By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The price for Russian crude oil under a cap discussed by the G7 should exclude a risk premium resulting from the war in Ukraine, the U.S. Treasury Department said today, adding that the cap should reflect a fair market value. The G7 agreed to impose a price cap on Russian crude oil exports last Friday, to be enforced by refusing insurance, funding, brokering, and other services for vessels carrying Russian crude unless its price is set at or below the cap that has yet to be finalized. According to the Treasury Department, the cap should be set above production costs for Russian oil, with historical prices taken into account as well. An assistant secretary told Reuters the providers of services listed above would not have to police compliance but could rely on information given by buyers and sellers. "There are several key data points we are considering and how the prices should ultimately be set and that includes the marginal cost of production for Russian oil," said Elizabeth Rosenberg, U.S. Treasury Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes at a media briefing for the caps. In response to the move, Russia said it would stop selling oil to countries enforcing the cap. "We will not supply gas, oil, coal, heating oil - we will not supply anything, President Vladimir Putin said this week. Despite the fact that Russia has made its position as clear as possible, talks on the oil price cap continue and the European Commission just proposed another cap: on Russian gas imports into the EU. Not everyone is on board with that particular proposal. Germany is skeptical of its success and Hungary outright warned today that it would lead to a cut-off in Russian gas deliveries to Europe. This would go against European interests, Hungarys Foreign Minister, Peter Szijjarto, said today, as quoted by Reuters, ahead of a meeting of European energy ministers to discuss ways out of the crisis. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed Wednesday while addressing the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok that he will soon meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, which will mark a significant first bilateral summit since Russia launched the Ukraine invasion on Feb.24. Putin told the forum in Russia's far east, "I hope to see Xi Jinping in Uzbekistan soon." As we described earlier, the Chinese delegation was the largest in attendance for the annual economic meeting. Kremlin officials also confirmed to the Associated Press that "Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping to meet next week at summit in Uzbekistan." The two large nuclear-armed nations also just wrapped up a week of joint war games, among multiple other nations represented, at Vostok 2022 in the same far eastern region of Russia. CNN notes that "On Wednesday, Chinas number three leader Li Zhanshu, a member of the Chinese Communist Partys Politburo Standing Committee, became the highest ranking official to leave China since 2020, when he arrived in Vladivostok to attend the Eastern Economic Forum. Li was expected to meet Putin on Wednesday, according to Tass." President Xi rarely leaves the country, and the Uzbekistan summit will be his first overseas trip since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Russia's ambassador to Beijing Andrey Denisov described the significance in state media: "This summit promises to be interesting, because it will be the first full-fledged summit since the pandemic," Denisov said, according to Tass. "I do not want to say that online summits are not full-fledged, but still, direct communication between leaders is a different quality of discussion We are planning a serious, full-fledged meeting of our leaders with a detailed agenda, which we are now, in fact, working on with our Chinese partners," the diplomat said. On Tuesday, the Kremlin had issued a statement underscoring the importance growing Chinese cooperation: "Russia-China relations of comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation are developing progressively," it said just ahead of Putin's address to the EEF. The statement further hailed "China's balanced approach to the Ukraine crisis" and its "understanding" of what's driving Moscow's 'special operation' in Ukraine. Just days before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Moscow and Beijing had declared a "no limits" partnership amid a growing standoff with the West, which has since included unprecedented sanctions and economic war against Russia as punishment for its military offensive. In October, Russia and China held joint naval drills in the Sea of Japan. Days later, Russian and Chinese warships held their first joint patrols in the western Pacific. The next month, South Korea's military said it had scrambled fighter jets after two Chinese and seven Russian warplanes intruded into its air defense identification zone during what Beijing called regular training. Thus it's clear that the past years have seen these two nuclear-armed superpowers grow in economic cooperation and military coordination. By Zerohedge.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Omaha Public School officials warned that the districts staffing shortage hasnt improved much since school started in August. Superintendent Cheryl Logan told the school board on Thursday that there has been a limited change from last months meeting about staff vacancies. We have hired a number of substitutes and secondary elementary and special education teachers. Our largest number of folks we have hired are 212 paraprofessionals and we still need bus drivers, bus drivers, bus drivers, Logan said. The lack of bus drivers all over the country is severely impacting the ability of school districts, including ours. The focus of hiring transportation employees has been part of the districts continuous push to hire classified staff. OPS uses a mix of its own drivers and an outside vendor to cover all of the districts bus routes. Logan said bus routes managed by the vendor, Student Transportation of America, are 84% staffed. That is a notable drop from when the vendor had 93% of its routes staffed in mid-August. This has been a huge area of challenge, in terms of our contractor, Logan said. We want to continue to work with them, but we have been disappointed by the level of service that we have received. Route coverage by OPS drivers has improved over the last few weeks. Logan said OPS routes are 86% covered by a permanent driver while 95% are still on time daily. OPS routes were 83% staffed in an Aug. 11 update from district officials. Logan said she is going to look into the 95% figure because she doesnt know if its accurate. That does not reflect the anecdotal things that I have heard, Logan said. The district is still continuing to meet with Student Transportation of America, but Logan stressed the bus driver shortage is a national problem. While it doesnt make me feel any better, it is not anything (local drivers) are doing, Logan said. Its the model of when people are going to work and when folks are available for that type of work. Those folks arent available anymore. Board member Tracy Casady said anyone contemplating becoming a bus driver should know the impact on students is incredible. The first thing my daughter does when she gets home is tell me about her bus ride, she said. Register for more free articles. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! Already a Subscriber? Already a Subscriber? Sign in Terms of Service Privacy Policy Cody Arnetts golden dog tags tell a story of redemption. Arnett, 37, of Bellevue, earned the symbolic tags for completing the five phases of Douglas Countys Veterans Treatment Court, a diversion program for criminal offenders who have served in the military. Each phase means completing specific tasks related to mental health, rehabilitation, employment and sobriety. Its done alongside other veterans. A big part of this program is that it targets the discipline factor that you should have picked up on in the service, said Arnett, an Iraq war veteran who earned his original dog tags serving in an Army field artillery unit from 2006 to 2010. I learned more than I thought I was going to. Arnett was one of five veterans to graduate from Veterans Treatment Court on Sept. 1 amid smiles, hugs, cheers and tears. They represent the seventh group to graduate from the program since it started in 2016 57 veterans in all. Another 35 are currently enrolled. This day is about you. You earned it, said Tom Riley, the Douglas County public defender, who works with the program. "Im sure it wasnt an easy path to get to where you are today. Judge Horacio Wheelock dismissed or reduced felony charges against all five graduates as part of the ceremony. State Sen. John McCollister sponsored legislation to launch the Veterans Treatment Court in Douglas County in 2016. Additional courts are now operating in Lancaster County and in Central Nebraska, said Rob Owens, Problem-Solving Court coordinator. Another is starting up in Sarpy County. The program focuses on treatment rather than punishment. Military veterans charged with crimes can avoid prison by sticking to a strict regimen of keeping a job, staying clean from drug or alcohol abuse, completing rehabilitation classes, paying restitution if required, and meeting frequently with a judge. The recommendation and approval of Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine, one of the programs founders, is required for a veteran to be admitted. They have to be screened to get in, said Owens, a Marine Corps combat veteran. They have to want it. At the same time, the program adds an element of support and forgiveness that is uncommon in the larger criminal justice system. If one of our participants fails, we are there to pick them up, Wheelock said. We are a court of second, third and fourth chances. Rod Armstead, another of Thursdays graduates, said the difference was stark. The 48-year-old Alabama native was an Army infantry soldier in the 1990s, including tours in South Korea, Cuba and Bosnia. He later worked as a nuclear field engineer. Youre being judged in a different court, he said. Over there, you're a mug-shot photo. Over here, they look at me as a prior service member. Armstead now runs a small electrical business in Omaha. Arnett has an auto repair shop in Bellevues Olde Towne. Arnett has already signed on to serve as one of the programs veteran mentors. Armstead hopes to help out, too. Rep. Don Bacon, a retired Air Force brigadier general and a guest speaker at the ceremony earlier this month, noted that the graduates are among only 6% of the population to serve in the military. I am proud just being here with you, as a fellow veteran, he said. To hear your intentions, to hear your heart it does warm my heart. Bacon challenged them to serve their families and communities, just as they once served their country. We all need redemption, he said. Todays your chance. Earn this. Make it good. Darlene Knapp testified that her husband punched her at least twice in the face when she brought some fresh water to him. Inside his bedroom, Tom knocked her down, then pulled her up onto the bed by her hair. LONDON (AP) Condolences poured in from around the world Thursday after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, who became a global icon of calmness and fortitude through decades of political upheaval and social changes at home and abroad. Elizabeth, who had been on the throne since 1952, when the nation was still rebuilding from the destruction of World War II, died Thursday afternoon at age 96 at Balmoral Castle, her summer residence in Scotland. Here are some reactions to her death: In India, once a British colony, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Elizabeth a stalwart of our times. She personified dignity and decency in public life, Modi tweeted. Royalty across Europe mourned Elizabeth's death. Her life set an example for all of us and will remain as a solid and valuable legacy for future generations, Spanish King Felipe VI said in a telegram sent to her eldest son, now known as King Charles III. We will miss Her dearly, he wrote, speaking for himself and his wife. King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden called her a constant presence, not only in British society but internationally." In Norway, King Harald said that for nearly a century, Her Majesty devoted her life to the service of the Commonwealth, following the British people through good days and bad, in times of happiness and sorrow." President Joe Biden was informed of her death by senior advisers during a meeting in the Oval Office. Elizabeth, who had met more than a dozen American presidents, "was a stateswoman of unmatched dignity and constancy who deepened the bedrock alliance between the United Kingdom and the United States, he and first lady Jill Biden said in a statement, saying she "she defined an era. They later went to the British Embassy to offer condolences. We mourn for all of you. She was a great lady," Biden could be heard telling embassy staff. France, Britains historic rival and contemporary ally, honored Elizabeth with flags at the presidential palace and public buildings ordered lowered to half-staff Friday. President Emmanuel Macron hailed her immutable moral authority and her intimate knowledge of French. He said no other foreign sovereign had visited the presidential palace more often than Elizabeth, who knew all eight presidents of contemporary France. The woman who stood alongside the giants of the 20th century on the path of history has left to join them, Macron said in a statement. Mourners also gathered at the British Embassy in Paris. She's been a constant in my life," said 70-year-old Robert Miller, a London resident in Paris for a conference. Whilst I know she was very old, she was still doing her work until yesterday," he said. Like anybodys mother, you know, even if you think things are going well, at some point the end of an era comes, and youre very sad. Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a telegram to King Charles III. For many decades, Elizabeth II rightfully enjoyed the love and respect of her subjects, as well as authority on the world stage. I wish you courage and perseverance in the face of this heavy, irreparable loss. At the United Nations, the Security Council stood in silent tribute at the start of a meeting on Ukraine. Frances U.N. Ambassador Nicolas De Riviere, the council president, sent condolences on behalf of its 15 members. Queen Elizabeth II presided over a period of historic changes both for her country and the world, he said. Her life was devoted to the service of her country. Elizabeth was mourned across the 54-nation Commonwealth, a group built around Britain and its former colonies. In Ghana, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo recalled Elizabeth's visits to his country and praised the friendliness, elegance, style and sheer joy she brought to the performance of her duties." We shall miss her inspiring presence, her calm, her steadiness, and, above all, her great love and belief in the higher purpose of the Commonwealth of Nations, and in its capacity to be a force for good in our world," he said in a statement. For most Canadians, we have known no other sovereign, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. He called her a constant presence in our lives and her service to Canadians will forever remain an important part of our countrys history. I'm having trouble believing that my last sit-down with her was my last," Trudeau said later. I will so miss those chats." Elizabeth, who was Canadas head of state, visited the country 22 times as monarch. The queens death comes as a growing number of British territories in the Caribbean seek to replace the monarch with their own heads of state amid demands that Britain apologize for its colonial-era abuses and award its former colonies slavery reparations. Still, Caribbean leaders from Jamaica to Bermuda and beyond mourned her death. Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness said that for many years she visited the island every decade. Undoubtedly, she formed a special bond with the people of Jamaica, he said. We are saddened that we will not see her light again, but we will remember her historic reign. Bermuda Premier David Burt noted that her reign has spanned decades of such immense change for the United Kingdom and the world. Elton John said in a tweet that she was an inspiring presence to be around, and lead the country through some of our greatest, and darkest, moments. The acclaimed musician reworked his hit Candle in the Wind as a tribute to Princess Diana when she died unexpectedly in 1997. All the living former U.S. presidents issued statements soon after Elizabeth's death. Donald Trump said on his social media platform that Elizabeth will always be remembered for her faithfulness to her country and her unwavering devotion to her fellow countrymen and women. Melania and I will always cherish our time together with the queen, and never forget Her Majestys generous friendship, great wisdom, and wonderful sense of humor. What a grand and beautiful lady she was - there was nobody like her! Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, said she made the role of Queen her own with a reign defined by grace, elegance, and a tireless work ethic, defying the odds and expectations placed on women of her generation. He said she welcomed him and his wife the first Black American president and first lady to the world stage with open arms and extraordinary generosity" and said they were struck by her ability to put people at ease. George W. Bush called her a woman of great intellect, charm, and wit. Spending time at Buckingham Palace, and having tea with Her Majesty and her Corgis is among our fondest memories of the presidency, he said in a statement. Bill Clinton said he and his wife, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, joined people around the world in giving thanks for her extraordinary life. Throughout her remarkable 70-year reign, she led Britain through great transformations with unfailing grace, dignity, and genuine care for the welfare of all its people. In sunshine or storm, she was a source of stability, serenity, and strength, he said in a statement on Twitter. Jimmy Carter said in a statement that Elizabeth's dignity, graciousness and sense of duty have been an inspiration and we join the millions around the world in mourning a remarkable leader." In Washington, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine recalled how Elizabeth had joked with him when she visited Virginia in 2007 while he was governor. He asked the queens security detail whether he should offer the queen his arm while going up a steep set of Capitol steps. They assured him shed be fine. But when she arrived a few weeks later, she looked at him and deadpanned, they expect me to go up this? Kaine was momentarily flustered. She was just pulling my leg. She just walked up just as fast as can be, Kaine said. The queens visit came not long after a gunman at a Virginia university, Virginia Tech, killed dozens of people. The queen met with people from the university and well as grieving family members. That really meant a lot, Kaine said. She lived history, she made history. And with her passing, she leaves a magnificent, inspirational legacy, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said. Praise even came from the fictional Paddington Bear, the beloved British children's book character. The bear shared tea with the queen in a video shown in June during her Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Thank you Maam, for everything," said a statement Thursday on the Paddington Bear Twitter feed. Follow all AP stories on the British royals at https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii. WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) Sending a murder suspect to face trial in China could end up costing New Zealand taxpayers millions of dollars because officials would need to post an extra diplomat to Shanghai to monitor his treatment, documents exclusively obtained by The Associated Press show. But the documents also show that New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta is confident Chinese authorities won't torture the suspect or give him an unfair trial because of the bad publicity it would bring the Communist government, in what would amount to a test case that would be closely watched worldwide. New Zealands Supreme Court in April ruled that Kyung Yup Kim could be extradited to China in a landmark judgment that goes against the trend set by most democratic nations, which have blocked extraditions to China due to concerns that prisoners are often tortured into making confessions, can't get fair trails and face undue hardships if found guilty and incarcerated. Following the 3-2 court decision, it remains up to Justice Minister Kiri Allan to decide whether to send Kim to China. In a statement to the AP, Allan said she is first taking legal advice on a complaint made by Kim's lawyers to the United Nations Human Rights Committee. In documents obtained by the AP through New Zealand's public records laws, officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade outlined the potential cost of sending Kim to China. They estimate that if convicted, Kim would likely spend more than a decade in prison and that for New Zealand officials to be able to visit him every two days during his trial and every 15 days thereafter would have long-term resource implications. They say they would need to post an extra senior consular official to Shanghai to monitor Kim, and estimate the cost for the first year at 377,000 New Zealand dollars ($234,000), which would cover relocation costs as well as a salary. After the investigative and trial phase, and if Mr. Kim is convicted, the secondment of a senior consular official may have to be made permanent in order to meet expectations around monitoring, one official wrote in an email. China's Foreign Ministry, in a written response to the AP, said it was not aware of New Zealand's plans to post someone to Shanghai for the case. The two countries have been cooperating on the case for more than 10 years based on the facts and the law, and Kim's extradition to stand trial would return justice to the victim and realize criminal justice, the Chinese response said. New Zealand Foreign Minister Mahuta sought to reassure previous Justice Minister Kris Faafoi that China would abide by its commitment to treat Kim fairly. In an October letter to Faafoi, Mahuta wrote that it was her clear view that China will uphold the assurances despite the concerns she had about the human rights situation in the Xinjiang region, the regressive" national security law enacted in Hong Kong, and China's three-year detention of Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig on spurious charges." This will be a test case for China one the international community is watching closely, Mahuta wrote in her letter to Faafoi. This means that China's incentives to abide by the assurances are strong. If China failed to comply with the assurances, we could disclose that information publicly, which would seriously jeopardize China's law enforcement cooperation with many countries and damage its broader interests," Mahuta wrote. Faafoi wrote back to Mahuta the following month saying he continued to find Kim's case difficult and finely balanced" and enclosed letters from three advocacy organizations opposed to the extradition. Mahuta wrote back to say the concerns about the human rights situation in China were well known. Mr. Kim's case is not a political case his case does not have any connection to Xinjiang or Hong Kong, nor is he a risk of being used as leverage in arbitrary detention for the reasons set out in my 6 October letter, Mahuta wrote back. But she also hedged by saying her role was limited to providing advice on whether New Zealand could rely on China's assurances. The question of whether New Zealand should rely on those assurances is a matter for you as minister of justice, she wrote, emphasizing the word should. The Chinese Foreign Ministry response said China's judicial system can fully protect the legal rights of the accused and that hundreds of suspects have been extradited from countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. "This fully demonstrates the confidence of the international society in Chinas judicial system, it said. In an interview, Kim's lawyer, Tony Ellis, said it made little sense that New Zealand was trying to say his client would be treated fairly in China but also saw the need to post an expensive minder to make sure. Ellis said it would be impossible for a minder to adequately monitor his client's treatment because Kim could, for instance, be unknowingly administered drugs to make him confess or be forced to deny torture was taking place. Ellis said Kim was in no fit state to travel to China because of numerous medical issues he was suffering, including severe depression, a small brain tumor, and liver and kidney disease. The case has already dragged on in New Zealand for 11 years, which Ellis said amounts to its own kind of torture for his client. Kim was first arrested in 2011 after China asked to extradite him on one count of intentional homicide. He was incarcerated in New Zealand jails for more than five years, and spent another three years on electronic monitoring, making him the longest-serving prisoner not to face a trial in modern New Zealand. According to court documents, Kim is a South Korean citizen who moved to New Zealand more than 30 years ago with his family when he was 14. He is accused of killing a 20-year-old waitress and sex worker, Chen Peiyun, in Shanghai after traveling to the city to visit a different woman who was his girlfriend at the time. Chen was found in a Shanghai wasteland on New Years Eve 2009. An autopsy concluded she had been strangled to death, and that she had also been hit in the head with a blunt object. Chinese police say they have forensic and circumstantial evidence linking Kim to the crime, including a quilt found with the body. Police say a distraught Kim told an acquaintance he may have beaten a prostitute to death. Kim says he is innocent. Ellis said his defense case would be that his former girlfriend, who has Communist Party connections, is responsible for the crime. Associated Press writer Ken Moritsugu in Beijing contributed to this report. LINCOLN A Nebraska woman who lost Medicaid coverage in the midst of cancer treatment is challenging the federal rule that required the state to cut her off. Mary Shaw of Norfolk joined four plaintiffs from Connecticut and Delaware in a class-action lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. They are seeking a temporary injunction to block the rule, which was issued in the waning days of President Donald Trumps administration and remains in place. The suit alleges that, because of the rule, Medicaid benefits have been terminated to hundreds of thousands of people nationwide in violation of the Coronavirus Response Act of 2020. The act provided additional federal Medicaid funding to states on the condition that they continue coverage for Medicaid patients throughout the COVID-19 public health emergency. The emergency was declared Jan. 27, 2020, and has been extended multiple times. It is expected to continue into next year. The requirement to keep people on Medicaid during the ongoing crisis was adopted precisely because Congress recognized the severe threat, not just to individuals but to public health, from ending health insurance to vulnerable, low-income people, said Sheldon Toubman, litigation attorney at Disability Rights Connecticut, one of the groups behind the suit. According to the lawsuit, Shaw originally qualified for Medicaid after Nebraska extended coverage to low-income single adults. The coverage, which began in October 2020, allowed her to see a dentist and get physical therapy so she could walk again following a previous hip surgery. Medicaid also covered the beginning of treatment on her right shoulder for a recurrence of squamous cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer, in December 2021. But, based on the interim final federal rule, Nebraska Medicaid officials terminated Shaws full Medicaid coverage in January, the month she turned 65 and got on Medicare. The rule, issued on Nov. 6, 2020, required states to reduce or eliminate Medicaid coverage for people who were deemed to have minimum essential coverage through special, limited Medicaid programs that help with some Medicare costs. Shaw now qualifies for such a program. It pays her Medicare Part B premiums but does not cover co-pays and deductibles or health needs not included under Medicare. Medicare is a federal health insurance program for people age 65 or older and some people with disabilities. Patients typically use supplemental insurance or Medicaid to help with out-of-pocket costs and to cover additional services. Medicaid is a state-federal program for low-income people. As a result, the suit said, Shaw, who lives on about $1,252 per month in Social Security, has had to forgo medical care for her emphysema and for post-surgical care of her shoulder. She also has not sought treatment for an apparent new cancer on her leg because she cannot afford treatment. Between all of the services that are covered under Medicaid but not covered at all under Medicare and the doctor visits which are covered by Medicare but now require coinsurance that she cannot afford, the loss of Medicaid has been devastating to her, the lawsuit said. Three Connecticut women filed the original case Aug. 3 in U.S. District Court in Connecticut. Shaw and a Delaware woman were added through an amended complaint, filed Aug. 26, along with the motion to pursue the case as a nationwide class action. A hearing on the request for temporary injunction is set for Sept. 27. Nebraska Appleseed has been working with the groups representing the plaintiffs, which include Disability Rights Connecticut, Justice in Aging, The National Health Law Program and the law firm Stinson LLP. After working to promote the film industry in the state for nearly three decades, Nebraska Film Officer Laurie Richards announced last week that she would be stepping down from her position. The Nebraska Film Office is part of the states economic development department that works to recruit filmmakers, producers and directors to do projects in Nebraska. From star-studded feature films to music videos and commercials, Richards has helped attract talent and money to the state through careful coordination and location scouting. Nebraska has been a well-kept secret for a long time, Richards said. As more people come here, filmmakers and crew start to talk about their experiences, and people start to realize that theres an opportunity for great locations and resources. Richards, who began her career with the department as a film liaison in 1994, has a long history of attracting high-profile talent in her 28-year career. She has worked with Alexander Payne, an Academy Award-winning director and Omaha native, on multiple projects filmed in the state including Citizen Ruth, Nebraska and Downsizing. Richards also helped scout locations for 2021 best picture Oscar winner Nomadland, some of which was filmed in Scottsbluff. Much of Richards job revolved around scouting the perfect location for a particular screenplay. Over the years, she has seen more interest in the beauty and gravitas that rural scenery can bring to a film. As the audience and consumer base grows, the variety of content changes, she said. It isnt just projects that are set in an urban environment all the time sometimes it can be a little more pristine, more relaxing, more visually stimulating. And sometimes that is out in the sea of grass that is most of Nebraska. In 2021, the film office got an extra boost in attracting talent: The Nebraska Legislature established a fund to offer incentives to filmmakers shooting in Nebraska. To entice creatives to spend money on local food, lodging and labor, the office offers grants of up to $400,000 for projects that spend a substantial amount of time and money in the state. Richards said three projects are in the works that will use money from the newly established fund. Richards will continue to work in the industry with her own production company, Flicka Films, which focuses on stories that center on Nebraska narratives. Gentri Shopp, who previously worked in marketing for the department, will take over as the Nebraska film officer. If Ive done anything to help put Nebraska on the map for film production, I am happy about that, Richards said. We have so much to offer here. Art Circle of Bloomington-Normal to host Dr. Robert Baller BLOOMINGTON Art Circle of Bloomington-Normal will have their meeting at 7 p.m. on Thursday with guest speaker Dr. Robert Baller, MD at Jacob's Well, 304 Jersey Ave., Normal. Baller will present "Picasso & Conversation," where he will share his point of view as an art collector of over 50 years, collecting mostly Picasso, Matisse, Dali, Erte, Chagall and more. After sharing some of the pieces from his collection, he will answer questions followed by an opportunity to mingle and visit before the end of the evening. Baller was born in Lincoln, NE and earned a BA, BSM and MD at University of Illinois at Chicago and completed his residency in eye surgery at the University of Iowa. He served as a LT. Commander, US Navy and US Marines. He worked in a private practice in eye surgery in Bloomington for 50 years. Baller's art collection has been exhibited in three museums and seen by over 30,000 people. He also has an upcoming exhibit in Ft. Collins, Colorado from Oct. through Jan. 6. The exhibit will raise the number of viewers to nearly 40,000. The event is free and open to the public. Art Circle will return to their regular meeting format in October. Visit artcirclebn.com for more information. Heartland Theatre to hold open auditions NORMAL Heartland Theatre Company will hold open auditions for their upcoming production of The Revolutionists Sept. 16-17. The auditions will be held from 6-9 p.m., Friday and 10 a.m.-1 p.m., Saturday at Heartland Theatre Company, 1110 Douglas St., in the Normal Community Activity Center. The play will be directed by Sanhawich Meateanuwat, a second-year directing student at Illinois State University's School of Theatre and Dance. Meateanuwat is originally from Thailand and a graduate of Bangkok University, he worked as a resident director for their theatre company. He won the 2022 SDC Fellowship Student Directing Award at the Region III Kennedy Center American Collegiate Theatre Festival. Heartland is looking to cast four women's roles. A complete description of characters, information, scenes and audition instructions can be found at heartlandtheatre.org/auditions. Performance dates will be Nov. 3-5, 10-13 and 17-19. Contact boxoffice@heartlandtheatre.org for more information. Alexander Heffner to visit Lincoln library and museum Sept. 8 SPRINGFIELD Alexander Heffner, a famous TV host, will appear at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum on Sept. 8. Heffner hosts "The Open Mind," the longest running show in the history of public television, which premiered in 1956 and was originally hosted by Richard Heffner, Alexander's grandfather; and Heffner is the co-author of "A Documentary History of the United States," a collection of speeches, letters, court rulings and even Tweets that have forged American history. Heffner will discuss keystone documents in American history and the future of democracy. His presentation is part of the library and museum's "For the People" series. Doors for the event will open at 6 p.m. and guests will be able to tour the exhibit "Stories of Survival: Object. Image. Memory," until the program starts at 7 p.m. Educators who attend the event and complete an evaluation survey will receive 1.5 professional development points. The "For the People" series features bold thinkers with unique insights into the people of yesterday, today and tomorrow. The final event in series will take place on Oct. 18 with Chicago White Sox broadcaster Jason Benetti, who will discuss his many accomplishments and his life with cerebral palsy. Visit President Lincoln.Illinois.gov for more information. BLOOMINGTON The Miller Park Zoological Society will host its 15th annual fundraising gala, the Zoo Do Zamboree, from 5-9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 17, at the zoo. The South America-inspired event will feature live and silent auctions, animal encounters, live music and dinner at the Miller Park Pavilion. Tickets can be purchased at mpzs.org/events or by calling 309-434-2816. This year's event will help fund three new South American exhibits, which will house the giant anteater, Chilean pudu and bush dog. The project will also provide a new home for the Galapagos tortoise. The initiative has already been partially funded by a grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the City of Bloomington, but the zoological society will raise the additional funds needed to meet the $1.2 million cost of the project. Contact Paula Pratt at 309-434-2243 or ppratt@mpzoologicalsociety.org for more information. BLOOMINGTON A Bloomington man is jailed on felony charges after dealing cocaine in a Bloomington Police Department investigation. Judge Scott Black found probable cause Thursday to detain Alvarez Rigoberto, 40, on two counts of delivery of 1-15 grams of cocaine, a Class 1 felony, and possession of less than 15 grams of a controlled substance, a Class 1 felony. Assistant State's Attorney Lewis Liu said a BPD Vice Unit, in conjunction with Illinois State Police Task Force 6, investigated cocaine sales in McLean County and recorded two controlled transactions with Rigoberto. Those deals happened in May and June, he said. The prosecutor said one purchase was made at the parking lot of the Kroger grocery on South Main Street and the other was at the Price Rite convenience store lot on North Clinton Street, both in Bloomington. Liu said Rigoberto twice sold 3.7 grams of cocaine for a price of $250 each. Rigoberto was arrested Wednesday following a traffic stop for driving on a revoked license, Liu said. He added a police search of a residence Rigoberto had stayed at recovered evidence of drug dealing, including scales, small "baggies" and cutting agents. Judge Black set Rigoberto's bond at $150,000, with 10% to apply to release. He also ordered him to file a written notice of bail fund source to bond out, to ensure those funds were legally obtained. Rigoberto's arraignment hearing was scheduled for 9 a.m. Sept. 30. EUREKA Eureka College grew by 84 students, or 17%, while welcoming its largest ever group of new traditional students this fall. The colleges 10th day census showed a total enrollment of 560 students, up from 476 last fall, President Jamel Wright said. Youre talking about nearly 100 students greater than this time last year, she said. Half of the current enrollment, 279 students, is freshman and transfer students. That is the largest cohort of new students the college has ever had. The balance is an interesting situation for the college, Wright said. It includes 150 freshmen students, which is also above average. Im not sure weve seen one where the incoming class rivals the size of the returning students, she said. There are also students starting Eurekas non-traditional programs, catered towards adult learners, such as its continuing education programs. Those students bring the total number of new students to 293, the second largest group the college has ever had, Wright said. The count of new traditional students includes 51 transfer students from Lincoln College, but the college would have still set a record for new students without those transfers, Wright said. Along with those transfer students, there are several more Lincoln College students who have joined Eurekas adult learning programs. Were so happy to welcome them; they have already added great value to our community, she said. Wright anticipates further growth in coming years, but said that growth is likely to be in different programs rather than an expansion of its main undergraduate offerings. That could include graduate programs or additional certificate offerings. The college already offers a certificate in cybersecurity. We want to increase, the question is how. We want to be smart, strategic and methodical about our growth, she said. () Were nowhere near where I think well be in the next three years. This fall brings the college above its fall 2020 and 2021 enrollments, which were 511 and 512 respectively. It is still more than 100 students lower than where the college was in 2017, when there were 672 students, Pantagraph archives say. The college has stayed about average in terms of diversity in its enrollment, she said. It is hovering around 50% low-income students, 54% first-generation students and 28% students of color, a slight increase from a few years ago. The college has tended to stay around 25% students of color but Wright said long-term plans call for looking at student and staff diversity. The growth this year was the result of specific efforts the college has taken in response to both COVID and anticipated changes in demographics that have been forecast since before the pandemic, Wright said. Illinois is a net exporter of college students and the number of college-aged people overall is expected to shrink in coming years. Eureka has traditionally received more than 90% of its students from Illinois. Recruitment from out of state is up, Wright said. The college has also been looking to expand its wrap-around services for students, going beyond classrooms to help students stay in school. Retention is starting to climb back up to where it was pre-COVID although the college does not yet have hard numbers for this year. One of the initiatives meant to attract more students is the Eureka Promise, which covers tuition for certain low-income students. Initially started with just high schools in the Peoria area, last year the college expanded the Promise to cover students from all Illinois high schools. Last fall there were 37 students at E.C. on the Promise. This fall there were 81. Wright sees the program as a twofold benefit for the school: It provides a needed service to low-income families in the state and brings in students who would not otherwise attend Eureka, along with the federal and state funds they receive. In 2018 when the program launched, the college did not have any students enrolled who would have qualified, she said. The students receive MAP grants and federal grants and loans that the college would otherwise have missed out on, with the college covering any gap between that and tuition. It actually is still a net positive for us on the financial side, she said. Correction: This article has been updated with the correct enrollment for fall 2021. 100 years ago Sept. 9, 1922: Hundreds of people who flocked to Havana, Illinois, famous for its summer resorts, together with citizens, were given thrill after thrill when an automobile filled with dry agents slipped in from Springfield and "mopped up" on several cafes. "Wet" places raided were cafes of Ed Roloff, Taylor House, Whitey Sewman, Charles Biehl, Ross Curliss, Pete Rudolph and Gus Kraft, Mazana beach. Proprieters were taken to Springfield for hearings before a U.S. commissioner. 75 years ago Sept. 9, 1947: Firetruck chasers came in for a lacing by Normal Fire Chief Ralph Rich, who cautioned the enthusiasts that the practice is against the law as well as dangerous. Rich said the drivers pursuing the first truck often get in the way of the second truck and hamper the department's arrival at fires in the shortest time possible. He reminded the truck chasers that a siren means an emergency and motorists should pull to the side of the street and stay out of the department's way. 50 years ago Sept. 9, 1972: Reasoning that they will have to spend money to make money, members of the McLean County Board's recreation committee voted to ask the board to budget $250,000 to begin recreational development at Evergreen Lake. For the past several years, the county's budget for recreation has been $40,000. Chairman F. Russell Glasener said the increased funding could be used to develop beach and camping facilities that would produce revenue. 25 years ago Sept. 9, 1997: The Twin Cities' emergency warning system will be revamped under a proposal the Bloomington City Council has approved. The council agreed to pay the city's share of a $42,000 contract for a new warning control system for the cities. The new system would be radio-operated, rather than electronically operated, which would allow the status of each to be monitored during tests. The cities now rely on resident reports to determine if a siren is not working. DWIGHT Although Queen Elizabeth II never made it to Central Illinois in her 96 years of life, her great-grandfather did spend time in Livingston County. King Edward VII, then the Prince of Wales, son of Queen Victoria, did spent time in Dwight during the fall of 1860, according to reports from the era and decades afterward. The prince, traveling under the name Baron Renfrew, visited the area upon the invitation of James Clinton Spencer to go hunting. According to an article from The Pantagraph on Sept. 20, 1919, the visit came about after Spencer met with the Earl of Spencer, a member of the queen's household, and bonded during a previous hunting season. When the earl returned to England, he was asked by Queen Victoria where Edward should go to see the sights of America and shoot game; he recommended Dwight as a destination. The hunting party that stepped off the train in Dwight on Sept. 25, 1860, included not only Edward but also Lord Lyons, the Duke of Newcastle, Edward's physician, several army officers, and a number of reporters from local newspapers. The farm home of James Clinton Spencer served as their quarters while they hunted game. "After traversing the prairie for several days," The Pantagraph reported in 1919, "the consensus of opinion of the distinguished visitors was that 'here nature seems to have bared her bosom and invited the human family to come and partake of her choicest blessings.'" The hunt was a success. Each day they were transported via carriage to different areas, returning with huge bags of partridges, hare and other prairieland animals. Edward also spent one Sunday at a Presbyterian church in town, now known as the Gothic Church Dwight Townhall, 201 N. Franklin St., and reportedly planted an elm tree in the yard of Spencer's property. According to the article, there was no special interest or crowds awaiting for him in Central Illinois, which was what the future king desired. He and his party spent a total of four days in the area before continuing across America. Hollard Insurance employee, Maa Korkor Nai, Head Technical Underwriting is the Professional Underwriter of the Year at the Chartered Insurance Institute of Ghana (CIIG) Awards held at the plush Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra. Organized under the theme: "Celebrating Excellence in Ghanas Insurance Industry." The prestigious industry awards sought to honour individuals, companies, and insurance reporters who had excelled in the practice over the year. Speaking at the event, the President of the CIIG, Tawiah Ben-Ahmed, said: CIIG Insurance Excellence Awards is to ensure that insurance practices and services in Ghana are of the highest possible standards. As well as conform to internationally accepted best practices to drive sustained growth of the insurance industry. Commenting on the recognition, Managing Director of Hollard Insurance, Daniel Boi Addo, described the win as a deserving honour. Our people mean everything to us so it's fulfilling to have one of our best Hollardites in the limelight for the second time, at the second edition of the CIIG Awards. Maa Korkor has been a phenomenal team member. Her competency and leadership have positively impacted our ability to deliver on our promises. We are thankful to the CIIGs jury for recognising her as the industrys best in technical underwriting and to our colleague Hollardites for constantly bringing their A game." "At Hollard Insurance, our purpose is to enable people to create and secure a better future. To this end, we actively invest in the professional development and expertise of our talent to their benefit, and for our customers, and the industry as a whole", he added. Maa Korkor's work experience spans over fourteen years in insurance, nine of which have been in management roles. She is the Head of Technical Underwriting with the added responsibility of leading the Global Accounts Unit and Reinsurance Team at Hollard Insurance. Before this, she worked within the Claims and Underwriting functions in various roles: including Head of Central Underwriting, Head of Direct & Global Accounts, Lead Underwriter for Specialized Risks, and the Travel Business Portfolio. Her experience involves taking on increasingly complex roles in the various technical and operational divisions of Hollard and working with clients of varied interests across a spectrum of international and local industries. This affords her a seamless blend of industry knowledge, capabilities, and expertise. About Hollard Insurance Hollard Insurance is a subsidiary of the insurance group, Hollard Ghana, which combines its deep local knowledge of the market with the world-class expertise of an international insurance brand. With feet firmly planted on Ghanaian soil but Headquartered in South Africa, Hollard delivers innovative insurance solutions customised to the unique risks Ghanaians face. Hollard was previously Metropolitan Insurance which operated in Ghana for over 25 years. Hollard Insurance offers various non-life products including travel, motor, personal accident, and home insurance, and more. Beyond various nationwide office branches and Hollard 2U franchise shops, Ghanaians can find Hollard at Shell Fuel Station Welcome Shops, Melcom stores and online at www.hollard.com.gh and www.jumia.com.gh for all their insurance needs. 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 Police have arrested (3) suspects who are currently assisting investigation into the murder of a 15-year-old girl at Konongo in the Ashanti Region. The body of the deceased, identified as Regina Sarfo, was found dumped in a bush at Ahenbrom, a suburb of Konongo on September 8, 2022. Crime scene experts conducted a forensic examination of the scene after which the body was conveyed to the Stewards Hospital morgue for preservation and autopsy. The Regional Command has met with the family and the Inspector-General of Police has also commiserated with them over the telephone and assured them of the necessary police support. Police clinical psychologists are also offering psychosocial support to the family whiles investigation continues. 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 National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Chief Executive, Dr. Okoe Boye left for Nigeria on Tuesday, September 6th, 2022, to participate in a two-day meeting, where he touched on leveraging technology to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC), the new NHIA. Dr. Okoe Boye gave an overview of the NHIS and explained that it was compulsory for all residents in Ghana to enroll onto the Scheme. Ghana was the first Sub-Saharan African country to introduce the NHIS in 2003 through an Act of Parliament (ACT 650) and full implementation started in 2004. Under the NHIS amended Act 852 (2012), every Ghanaian is required to enroll onto the Scheme. He said the NHIS had recorded over 16 million active membership likely to hit the 80 percent threshold of UHC before the year 2030. He posited that the government was far advanced with the digitalization agenda of delivering accessible and satisfactory health care systems. In collaboration with the National Identification Authority (NIA), he inferred that it was possible to use one card to access health care services and therefore entreated Ghanaians to merge their NHIS and Ghana cards. According to the NHIA Boss, electronic claims management had jumped to 60 and pledged a 100 percent uptake by the end of the year 2023. He further elaborated on the inclusion of the four main childhood cancer diseases in the NHIS Benefit Package as well as the upward adjustment of the medicine tariffs by 30 percent. He reiterated management's determination to help sustain licensed private health insurance companies whom he described as indispensable partners in the health sector. He recalled how the NHIS was conceived by former President John Agyekum Kufuor who then in opposition as Presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) promised to abolish the Cash and Carry system of health delivery in Ghana. Dr. Okoe Boye embarked on the journey with the Director of Private Health Insurance Schemes (PHIS) Directorate, Mr. Hudu Issah. NHIS @20 celebration The NHIA and its development partners as well as beneficiaries of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) are bracing up for the NHIS 20th Anniversary scheduled for the year 2023. Since its inception, there has been an exponential improvement in the health-seeking behavior of the population, as more people are seeking medical attention early and avoiding unnecessary deterioration in their medical conditions. The new financial reforms including prompt payments of Claims to healthcare providers have increased the publics confidence in the Scheme. The Schemes inclusive Benefit Package covers over 95 percent of health conditions in Ghana and the Benefit Package has successfully been expanded over the years. The NHIS is governed by the NHIA, headquartered in Accra, and has sixteen (16) administrative regional offices, 175 district offices and four (4) Claims Processing Centres (CPC). Over time, the NHIS has grown to become a major instrument for financing health care delivery in Ghana. As matter of fact, it is the financial mainstay of 4,600 credentialed healthcare service providers in the country accounting for more than 85% of funds that flow into healthcare facilities to cater for NHIS members. The NHIS is the vehicle and road on which Ghanas Universal Health Coverage (UHC) drives and management is committed to the agenda. 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 Queen Elizabeth, Britain's longest-reigning monarch and the nation's figurehead for seven decades, has died aged 96, Buckingham Palace said. Read below the statement from the British High Commission To Ghana Your browser does not support iframes. 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 President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has directed that all official flags in the country should fly at half-mast for seven days in honour of the late Queen of England. In a post on his Facebook page, President Akufo-Addo mourned the passing of Queen Elizabeth II saying: On behalf of the Government and people of Ghana, I extend deepest condolences to the new British monarch, King Charles III, the Royal Family, the Prime Minister, and the Government and people of Great Britain on the death, today, of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, late Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Head of the Commonwealth of Nations. The Ghanaian people have very fond memories of the two visits she made to Ghana during her reign, and, on both occasions, we remember the friendliness, elegance, style and sheer joy she brought to the performance of her duties. As Head of the Commonwealth of Nations, she superintended over the dramatic transformation of the Union, and steered it to pay greater attention to our shared values and better governance. She was the rock that kept the organisation sturdy and true to its positive beliefs. We shall miss her inspiring presence, her calm, her steadiness, and, above all, her great love and belief in the higher purpose of the Commonwealth of Nations, and in its capacity to be a force for good in our world. She was a cherished and revered monarch of the British people, the longest-serving in their history, who will be sorely missed. We are saddened by her departure. In honour of her memory, I have directed that all official flags in the nation fly at half-mast for seven (7) days, as from tomorrow, Friday, 9th September. May God bless her soul and give her peaceful rest in His Bosom until the Last Day of the Resurrection when we shall all meet again. Amen!! The Royal Family tweeted that Queen Elizabeth II died peacefully on Thursday, September 8. The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow, the Royal Family said. 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 There is growing public frustration over the impact of the punitive measures being implemented in line with the ongoing SIM re-registration exercise. As earlier announced by the Ministry of Communications, persons with unregistered SIM cards effective the beginning of the week have been restricted from some mobile network services such as outgoing and incoming calls. Some of these frustrated customers have reacted furiously to this development. In a video sighted by GhanaWeb, an aggrieved customer whose line was blocked is seen invoking curses in the middle of a highway. The furious customer is seen fully naked in the video which has since gone viral on social media, wielding a bottle of gin with which he recited incantations to invoke curses over his blocked SIM card. In a similar incident, another video shows a scene of pandemonium in the office of a service provider. An angry customer is seen in the video engaging in a heated confrontation with security officials at the office. On Friday, September 9, 2022, when GhanaWeb visited the Akweteyman and Kwame Nkrumah Circle branches of MTN where hordes of customers had massed up, some of these customers expressed displeasure about suffering the punitive measures despite successfully registering their SIM Cards. According to some of the frustrated customers who spoke to GhanaWeb, they started experiencing a cut in mobile services such as outgoing and incoming calls. This the customers said is having significant effects on their personal and working lives. I have had to leave my work just because of this. We are wasting productive hours for something that is due to no fault of ours, a customer at the Akweteyman MTN office said. Meanwhile, visiting the Kwame Nkrumah Circle branch of another service provider, Vodafone, there was relative calm with little number of customers present for their SIM registration. Some of these customers included those who had suffered the punitive actions for not registering their SIM cards. In the case of Vodafone customers, there were no incidents of registered users suffering the punitive measures. Meanwhile, the Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu in a Facebook post has stated that there will not be any extension to the September 30, 2022 deadline for the registration of SIM cards. I informed the media during my most recent meeting that the SIM registration exercise would not be extended past September 30. After evaluation at the end of August, it has been determined that starting the disciplinary steps outlined in the NCA press release is prudent. Additionally, any SIM that has not yet been completely registered will be unable to use voice and Internet services. Afterward, using unregistered SIMs will be more expensive. At a subsequent press conference in September, the full scope of the sanctions will be revealed. If you suffer that fate as a result of your own inaction, kindly do not blame your service provider. To be forewarned is to be forearmed, the minister said. 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 Electoral Commission of Ghana on September 6, 2022, presented Action Peoples Party with a Provisional Certificate of registration as a political party in partial fulfilment of the Political Parties Act,2000, Act 574 Section 8, Subsection 2. The Founder and Leader of the party, Kenneth Nana Kwame Asamoah is much grateful to the Electoral Commission for its professional work. According to him, APP as a political party will go by the rules and regulations governing elections in the Country. He, however, called on all party members to lace their boots for their upcoming Congresses, from the constituency, Regional then to National. He however called on all Ghanaians to hurry up and join APP to rescue Ghana from the current economic hardships. 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 Deputy Ashanti Regional Minister under the erstwhile NDC administration, Joseph Yamin, has cautioned the government to be transparent in handling the issue of Aisha Huang. He claimed the most talked about Chinese national is not only into illegal mining but a notorious criminal. Joseph Yamin who was discussing issues relating to Aisha Huang also made a wild allegation of her connection to high-profile New Patriotic Party (NPP) members. They know themselves, and I will name them, he said on NEAT FMs morning show, 'Ghana Montie'. According to Joseph Yamin, Aisha Huang is also a sponsor of the ruling NPP, a top-secret he said he will bring full details soon. She mobilized funds for the NPP. She is so connected to the NPP circles and has a special role she plays within the party, he emphatically said. The galamsey queen was found guilty of charges against her with her involvement in illegal mining, locally called 'galamsey', and expatriated to China, but the woman reportedly re-entered Ghana in January this year. She came through the Togo border under a new identity, and in February, 2022 had her Ghana Card (non-citizen) renewed in Tamale in the Northern Region, then proceeded to Kumasi in the Ashanti Region to continue her illegal activities. Aisha Huang has been re-arrested and remanded into Police custody following a court order. Her case is also being pursued by the Attorney-General (A-G) as a tweet from the A-G's office indicated that, "the Attorney-General has called for the new docket on En Huang a.k.a Aisha, regarding offences she is suspected to have recently committed. The A-G will also re-initiate prosecution in respect of the old offences for which she was standing trial before her deportation in 2018". 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 Kevin Rouwenhorst. Credit: University of Twente During his internship as a Chemical Technology student at Danish company Haldor Topse, UT Ph.D. researcher Kevin Rouwenhorst realized the many opportunities offered by ammonia. At the moment, it is principally used to manufacture artificial fertilizer and therefore has a bad name. But ammonia is also one of seven chemicals that form the basis of all chemical products, and it helps to feed around 50% of the world's population. AmmoniaNH 3 as a compound of hydrogen and nitrogen, is an ideal carrier of energy, particularly hydrogen. Rouwenhorst, under the supervision of Louis van der Ham, wanted to investigate this concept during his final research project in the town where he was born, Haaksbergen. Would the village in Twente be able to abandon fossil fuels and only use energy generated by wind turbines, solar panels and sustainably produced ammonia? The thesis gave him an appetite for more. He came across a Ph.D. position with the S&T research group Catalytic Processes and Materials. Over the past four years, he has specifically focused on plasma-enhanced catalytic ammonia synthesis under the supervision of Leon Lefferts. "Around 80% of our air is made up of nitrogen. This nitrogen has to be broken up during the process in order to create ammonia," explains Rouwenhorst. "To this end, you need a catalytic agent. But the connections are so strong that you need industrial temperatures of between 400 and 500 degrees Celsius. Plasma helps to realize the same process at temperatures of between 200 and 300 degrees Celsius." But, as is so often the case in science, the route to the final destination is anything but straightforward. This was soon realized by the Ph.D. candidate. "In practice, the process was not the best option for converting nitrogen to ammonia. But the plasma process did seem to be useful for other applications, such as the production of nitric acid, which is also used in the manufacturing of artificial fertilizer." These experiments on a small scale, in the laboratory, are one thing. But Rouwenhorst has found developments outside these walls to be far more interesting. Or, rather, it is the combination that really appeals to him. "I'm fascinated by the translation from fundamental science to the scale of enormous chemical factories. And also how people will respond to this type of development." That is why Rouwenhorst is not only a Ph.D. candidate; he is also working for the Ammonia Energy Association and is an Innovation Engineer for the company Proton Ventures. "It helps to view developments from various perspectives. I am energized by the combination of doing something that is useful and also realistic." And that is precisely what has been going on over the past few years. Rouwenhorst adds that there has been technology for producing renewable ammonia on an industrial scale since 1920. "But the focus diminished and more recently only a handful of scientists have maintained their faith in the concept." But the tide has turned in the past few years. "At the moment, factories on a gigawatt scale are being built to run on renewable ammonia at numerous locations around the world. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, ammonia is the cheapest option for transporting hydrogen across continents. Also, if you have hydrogen, you can make ammonia and vice versa. Ammonia can therefore function as a carrier of hydrogen. Moreover, the shipping industry views ammonia as the primary option for cleaner fuel." This would mean that the world would need far more ammonia. According to a recent report that Rouwenhorst wrote, we could need four times as much by 2050. And this must involve the lowest possible levels of CO 2 . If this succeeds, Rouwenhorst believeson the basis of a "scrap of paper" calculationthat global CO 2 emissions could be reduced by 5% simply as a result of the broader usage of ammonia. It then immediately becomes a trump card within the energy transition. Nevertheless, he hesitates to say that ammonia is a genuine holy grail. "You must focus on the added value for both mankind and nature. Within continents, for example, it may be more beneficial to use the existing gas network to produce hydrogen." His thesis demonstrated this too. In the end, Haaksbergen was not the ideal environment for a complete conversion to renewable ammonia. "But, during my Ph.D., I worked alongside Victor Sagel and Jimmy Faria on similar research in Curacao, where there is a lot more wind. There, it is potentially a useful solution. But, even with respect to the climate crisis, you have to be realistic and consider the local context. Otherwise, you might lose sight of your goal." Explore further Researchers develop new way to calculate environmental impact of ammonia production A helicopter drops water on the Fairview Fire burning on a hillside Thursday, Sept. 8, 2022, near Hemet, Calif. Scientists say a warming planet will lead to hotter, longer and more wildfire-plagued heat waves. Credit: AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu, File Californians tried to weather the extremes of a changing climate Friday, as a punishing heat wave that has helped fuel deadly wildfires had the state teetering on the edge of blackouts for a 10th consecutive day while a tropical storm barreled ashore with the promise of cooler temperatures but also possible flooding. The abrupt swing in conditions even whipsawed weather junkies. "This is perhaps the singularly most unusual and extreme weather week in quite some time in Californiaand that is saying something. Whew," Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, wrote on his western weather blog. While the rains may be welcome in the drought-plagued state and will bring relief with more normal temperatures, deluges and more brutal heat waves are forecast to become regular fixtures as climate change warms the planet and weather-related disasters become more extreme. "We'll see these heat waves continue to get hotter and hotter, longer and longer, more wildfire-plagued," said Jonathan Overpeck, dean of the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability. "The odds of really intense precipitation are going up. And so that's why we are worried about flooding associated with this remnant hurricane." California is just the latest casualty in a year of sometimes deadly heat waves that began in Pakistan and India this spring and swept across parts of the Northern Hemisphere, including China, Europe and others areas of the U.S. Climate change also has exacerbated droughts, dried up rivers, made wildfires more intense andconverselyled to massive flooding around the globe as moisture evaporating from land and water is held in the atmosphere and then redeposited by intense rains. Scientists are reluctant to attribute any specific weather event, such as Hurricane Kay, now downgraded to a tropical storm as it heads into California, to global warming. But they say heat waves are exactly the type of change that will become more common. The so-called heat dome that cooked California was stuck in place by an exceptional high pressure region over Greenland, of all places, that essentially created a meteorological traffic jam, said Paul Ullrich, a professor of regional climate modeling at the University of California, Davis. That prevented the high-pressure system that was forcing hot air over California from moving along. A marquee outside a former theater in LA's Chinatown said: "Satan called. He wants his weather back." Temperatures hit an all-time high in Sacramento of 116 degrees (46.7 C) on Tuesday. Many other locations hit record highs for September and even more set daily high marks. The heat that colored weather maps dark red for more than a week in California is only a preview of coming attractions. Sacramento, the state capital, has about 10 "extreme heat" days per year and that will double again by the middle of the century. In the 1970s, the city had five, Ullrich said. Sunrise is viewed between power lines in Sacramento, Calif., Thursday, Sept. 8, 2022. The record-breaking heat that has pushed the state's electrical grid to the brink of power outages for more than a week is almost over but it is a sign of things to come. Credit: AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File "That's pretty much going to be the story for much of the Central Valley and much of Southern California," Ullrich said. "This kind of exponential growth in the number of extreme heat days. If you tie those all together, then you end up with heat waves like we've experienced." For nine days through Thursday, the vast energy network that includes power plants, solar farms and a web of transmission lines strained under record-setting demand driven by air conditioners. "If we're going to build a statue to anybody in the West, it will be a Willis Carrier," said Bill Patzert, retired climatologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, about the inventor of the air conditioner. "Really large areas of Southern California would essentially be unlivable without air conditioning." Air conditioning puts the biggest strain on power sources during a heat wave and operators of the electrical grid called for conservation and warned of the threat of power outages as usage hit an all-time high Tuesday, surpassing a record set in 2006. The state may have averted a repeat of rolling outages two summers ago by sending a first-ever text alert that blared on 27 million phones urging Californians to "take action" and turn off nonessential power. Enough turned up thermostats, turned off lights or pulled the plug on appliances to avoid power cuts, though thousands of customers did lose power at various times for other reasons. The West is in the throes of a 23-year megadrought that has nearly drained reservoirs and put water supplies in jeopardy. That, in turn, led to a sharp decrease in hydropower that California relies on when power is in peak demand. "Part of the country that's getting hit worst is the Southwest and Western United States," Overpeck said. "It is a global poster child for the climate crisis. And this year, this summer, it's really the Northern Hemisphere has been just an unusually hot and wildfire-plagued hemisphere." The extreme heat helped fuel deadly wildfires at both ends of the state as flames fed on grass, brush and timber already "preconditioned to burn" by drought and then pushed over the edge by the heatwave, Overpeck said. Firefighters struggled to control major wildfires in Southern California and the Sierra Nevada that exploded in growth, forced thousands to evacuate and produced smoke that could interfere with solar power and further hamper electricity supplies. Two people were killed in the fire that erupted last Friday in the Northern California community of Weed at the base of Mount Shasta. Two others died trying to flee in their car from a fire in Riverside County that was threatening 18,000 homes. What remains of the hurricane is expected to bring heavy rains and even flash floods to Southern California from Friday night through Saturday. Strong winds could initially make it difficult and dangerous for firefighters trying to corral blazes, Patzert said. Heavy downpours could also unleash mudslides on mountainsides charred by recent fires. While several inches of rain could fall, much of it will run off the arid landscape and will not make a dent in the drought. "It comes at you like a firehose and you're trying to fill your champagne glass," Patzert said. "Everybody's sort of excited, but on Saturday night a lot of people will be saying, 'Yeah, we could have done without that.'" Explore further Two dead, thousands told to flee California wildfire 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. The Rappbode reservoir in the Harz region is surrounded by forests and is the largest drinking water reservoir in Germany. Credit: Andre Kunzelmann/UFZ Heat waves, drought, floods, forest firesthe consequences of climate change are increasing and are changing our environment. A prime example is the countryside in the catchment area for the Rappbode reservoir in the eastern Harz region. This is the largest drinking water reservoir in Germany and provides drinking water for roughly 1 million people. Long periods of drought over the years from 2015 to 2020 have so severely weakened the tree population in the Harz region that parasites such as bark beetles have been able to propagate. This further exacerbated the effect: The trees were further damaged and quickly died off. "Over the past four years, the Rappbode catchment area, characterized by conifers, primarily spruce, has lost over 50 percent of its forest," says UFZ hydrologist and last author Prof. Michael Rode. "This massive forest dieback is advancing rapidly and is dramatic. This will have consequences for the drinking water reservoir." Forests play a key role in the water cycle. They filter the water and bind nutrients and are therefore necessary for good water quality. The fewer nutrientsi.e. nitrogen or phosphorous compoundscontained in reservoir water, the better it is for drinking water treatment. "This makes it more difficult for algae to develop, making drinking water treatment in the waterworks more cost-effective and easier," explains UFZ lake researcher and co-author Dr. Karsten Rinke. "Nutrient management in water conservation areas is therefore very important. Over the past decades, long-term concepts with close cooperation between forest and water management have advanced the development of large areas of forest in the Rappbode reservoir catchment area." The rapid forest decline in the eastern Harz region is now a matter of grave concern for the reservoir and waterworks operators. Spurred by this development, the UFZ team has investigated the effects of climate-induced deforestation on reservoir water quality in their model study. This study was based on data from the TERENO (Terrestrial Environmental Observatories) environmental observatory network, in which the UFZ is a participant with the Harz/Central German Lowland Observatory. "We were able to access environmental data from a period of over ten years, providing us with a solid set of data," says Dr. Xiangzhen Kong, also a UFZ environmental scientist and lead author of the study. The team used data from the international ISIMIP project (Inter-sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project) to predict future climate changes. "We first fed these data into a model in order to estimate the climate-related effects on the nutrient balance in the catchment area," explains Kong. "The resulting data were then processed in a reservoir ecosystem model with which we were able to determine the effects of different deforestation scenarios on the predicted water quality for 2035. The Rappbode reservoir is supplied by three different catchment areas, two of which were included in the study. "The Hassel catchment area is characterized by agriculture, while that of the Rappbode is predominantly forestat least that was the case before the spruce forests died," says Kong. Before the water from the two catchment area flows into the large Rappbode reservoir, it is first retained by an upstream pre-dam. The agricultural influence results in a significantly higher nutrient content in the water in the Hassel pre-dam than that in the Rappbode pre-dam. "We were able to demonstrate that, for an anticipated deforestation of up to 80 percent, the Rappbode predam will experience an 85 percent increase in dissolved phosphorus concentration and a more than 120 percent increase in nitrogen concentration within only 15 years. The Rappbode pre-dam will thus reach nearly the same nutrient levels as the Hassel pre-dam," says Kong. This will result in a more than 80 percent increase in diatoms and more than 200 percent increase in green algae in the Rappbode pre-dam. These results highlight the coming necessity for a wide range of adaptations in drinking water management. "Nutrient input to reservoir catchment areas should be reduced even more than previously, reforestation projects with drought-resistant tree species should be further promoted and waterworks should be adapted to the impending developments with selective water removal strategies," says Rode. "And what remains important and must be further increased: extensive, granular environmental monitoring." The results for the Rappbode reservoir can be applied to other reservoir catchment areas in similar regions. "Forest dieback as an indirect consequence of climate change has a more pronounced effect on reservoir water quality than direct effects of climate change such as elevated water temperature. We were actually surprised by the extent of this effect," says Kong. The findings were published in Water Research. Explore further Climate change presents new challenges for the drinking water supply More information: Xiangzhen Kong et al, Reservoir water quality deterioration due to deforestation emphasizes the indirect effects of global change, Water Research (2022). Xiangzhen Kong et al, Reservoir water quality deterioration due to deforestation emphasizes the indirect effects of global change,(2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2022.118721 Global coral reef distribution (red dots). Credit: Millennium Coral Reef Mapping Project/World Atlas of Coral Reefs Coral reef islands and their reefsfound across in the Indo-Pacificnaturally grow and shrink due to complex biological and physical processes that have yet to be fully understood. Now, climate change is disrupting them further, leading to new uncertainties for legal maritime zones and small island states. But it may not be time to panic yet. A number of technologies and new approaches, coupled with expanded research into coral reef island behavior, may help dispel some of the uncertainties and solidify claims. A study by University of Sydney researchers, published in Environmental Research Letters, finds that the rules for atolls and coral reefs in international law of the seaalready murky and subject to interpretation due to their shifting naturewill be under greater stress as sea levels rise and ocean acidification disrupts reef integrity. "It's a perfect storm that is bringing instability and uncertainty to what are already difficult boundaries to determine with any great accuracy," said Dr. Thomas Fellowes, a postdoctoral research associate at the School of Geosciences of the University of Sydney and lead author of the paper. "There are geopolitical consequences too. Coral reef islands are the legal basis for many large maritime zones. Hence, the climate disruptions we're already seeingand will see in the decades aheadmay have substantial impact not only for small island states, but in hotly contested boundary disputes in places like the South China Sea." IPCC projections for 2081 to 2100 relative to 1995-2014 under best case scenario (1.5C rise, left) and worst case scenario (CO 2 emissions double by 2050, right). Credit: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change This treaty, signed by 167 nations and almost universally recognized, governs everything from territorial seasup to 12 nautical miles from a coast or low-water line of a reefto exclusive economic zones of up to 200 nautical miles. It codifies the rules for freedom of navigation, and allows nations to exploit, conserve and regulate resources in neighboring waters. "For coral islands, the outer 'low-water line' of the reef is used as the legal baseline to establish maritime zones," said Frances Anggadi, a Ph.D. student at the University of Sydney Law School. "The potential loss of maritime zones due to changes in reef baselines from climate change is a serious concern for nations like Kiribati, as well as for larger ones like Australia, who depend on reefs and islands to maintain their claims." But there is still no clear agreement whether changes to the structural integrity of coral reef islands due to climate will lead to legal vulnerabilities. "They may not, and that's what many Pacific island countries believe. What's clear is that a more detailed understanding of coral reef island behavior is needed, along with rethinking of the legal rules." Dr. Fellowes added that "coral reefs are vulnerable, only thriving within a specific range of biophysical, ocean and climate conditions. But changes in sedimentation due to climate change may support coral islands and strengthen some maritime claims. It's not entirely clear that there will only be losers." Coral reef island shorelines (red) and UNCLOS baselines (orange) at (a) Cocos Keeling Island, Australia (b) Kanton Reef, Kiribati, and (c) Wreck Reef, Australia. Credit: Geoscience Australia/Sentinel Hub The researchers argue that one way to buttress existing claims is by defining reef baselines with geographic coordinates like GPS, or remote sensing approaches like satellite bathymetry. Another is to better understand how climate change will affect island habitability, since sustaining human habitation or economic life in a location is another way to establish a viable claim under the treaty. But for these approaches to work, more data on each coral reef island system is needed in order to more accurately delineate the true scope of existing claims, how resilient those claims have been so far, and to better understand what aspects of climate change might affect them in the future. There are four ways in which climate change is disrupting coral reef systems in ways that may affect maritime boundaries: sea-level rise, warming oceans, ocean acidification and increased storminess. Each has an impact on the interconnected biophysical processes that allow the creation, retreat and overall structural stability of coral reefs and islands. Cross-section of coral reef geomorphic zones, showing wave energy gradients, sedimentary features (islands, sand aprons and lagoons) and UNCLOS baselines. Credit: Vila-Concejo and Kench For example, higher temperatures trigger the expulsion of algal symbionts in corals and other invertebrates (like giant clams), leading to coral bleaching, whichif enough coral organisms diecan result in reef collapse. In the decades ahead, this could lead to a shrinkage of the outer low-water line of the reef, reducing the basis for a maritime claim. Oceans acidify as they absorb more and more carbon dioxide, reducing their mineral saturation and making it harder for corals to form. Reef building species like Acroporaa small polyp that is common in tropical reefsbegin to change their skeletal structures to rely on less carbonate mineral, imperiling overall reef integrity. As the reefs grow and expand, they become either fringing, barrier or atoll reefs. Fringing reefs are the most common, projecting seaward from the shore, forming borders along shorelines and surrounding islands. Barrier reefs do this at greater distance, separated from land by a lagoon of often deep water. If a volcanic island sinks below sea level and its reef coral continues to grow, an atoll forms. Explore further Ningaloo corals are ill-equipped to handle future climate change More information: Thomas E Fellowes et al, Stability of coral reef islands and associated legal maritime zones in a changing ocean, Environmental Research Letters (2022). Journal information: Environmental Research Letters Thomas E Fellowes et al, Stability of coral reef islands and associated legal maritime zones in a changing ocean,(2022). DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ac8a60 Dr. Alberto Perez-Huerta uses atom probe tomography to study organic material. Credit: University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa Using a powerful microscope, researchers at The University of Alabama have shown a method that can provide strong data in determining the origin of life on Earth and whether life existed on other planets. Led by UA geologists specializing in using high-powered microscopes on biological material, researchers proved trace elements of early microbial life can be found in rocks and minerals, which could help in determining when life began on Earth, according to findings published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Certain bacteria create crystals, but it can be hard to decide whether an ancient tiny crystal in a rock was made by bacteria or through inorganic mineral formation. Using atom probe tomography in a study led Dr. Alberto Perez-Huerta, UA professor of geological sciences, researchers showed they can identify the nanoscale chemical imprints left by the bacteria that differentiate the crystals from those formed in a geological process. The method could be used on samples from other planets such as a meteorite or a specimen returned from Mars by spacecraft to judge whether there were once bacteria present in the sample, according to the findings. "Previous studies that have argued for a link between the origin of life and minerals have been based on circumstantial evidence," Perez-Huerta said. "Our approach provides the smoking gun that enables scientists to actually visualize direct evidence of that link. This can unlock a lot of valuable data about how life appeared millions of years ago on Earth and can raise questions about what constitutes life on other planets." For the study, UA researchers used the instruments available at the Alabama Analytical Research Center, a research facility dedicated to nanoscale characterizationstudying and manipulating materials that can be 1,000 times smaller than a human hair. It includes atom probes that reveal a detailed, 3D atomic map of a material. At that scale, though, it has been difficult to study organic materials, limiting answers to the question of when life emerged on Earth. Scientists date the earliest rocks to be about 3.8 billion years old with potential evidence of bacteria showing up in rocks about 3.5 billion years ago. However, it's not clear how or precisely when bacteria formed, nor is it clear what type of bacteria was the earliest to form. Crystal formation is the likeliest place to find these early microbes. A type of lifeform called magnetotactic bacteria form magnetic crystals inside themselves to align with the Earth's magnetic field, essentially creating a compass for navigation. When they die, the crystals are left behind, but, at that size, it has been hard to tell if a crystal came from the bacteria. Using samples known to have organic crystals, the UA-led project showed the magnetotactic bacteria leave behind nano-sized traces of the elements carbon and nitrogen, necessary for life on Earth. "We demonstrated that at this small scale we can find the key building blocks for life," Perez-Huerta said. "The ability to find these biosignatures allows us to understand the primitive life forms that began evolution." Explore further Evidence that giant meteorite impacts created the continents Dr. Bashir Abbas holds a free medical camp at the village Khuda Bux Mari on 31 August 2022, organised by Research and Development Foundation, in Tando Adam, Sanghar district. Ninety-nine patients were treated: 43 had diarrhoea, 21 fever and cough, 20 skin diseases, and 8 malaria. Seven people complained of minor health problems. Fourteen children were also vaccinated with routine immunisation. Credit: Research and Development Foundation Sindh Amid unprecedented floods which have affected 33 million people and damaged nearly 900 health facilities, Pakistan faces the risk of widespread outbreaks of diseases, including diarrhea, dengue, malaria, polio and COVID-19. The floods have killed more than 1,300 people since 14 June and injured more than 12,000, according to the country's National Disaster Management Authority. The provinces of Sindh and Balochistan are the worst affected with floodwaters engulfing entire villages and wiping out standing crops. Mirza Nasir-ud-Din Mashhood Ahmad, special secretary at the Ministry of National Health Services, told SciDev.Net that with most health facilities damaged in the worst-affected districts, outbreaks of vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue are "imminent in the next few weeks." Ahmad said Sindh is the worst affected as the waters here "will not dry for another three to four months," hampering rehabilitation work and the restoration of health facilities. The province faces a "health emergency," with the floods limiting access to a vulnerable population and worsening an already ailing health system, he added. National rainfall was 243% above average in August, according to the Pakistan Meteorological Department which is forecasting more rains in the month ahead. Indrika Ratwatte, director for Asia and the Pacific at the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), says this will likely worsen conditions for nearly half a million displaced people and force more to abandon their homes. "People are facing many challenges in the informal settlements, camped along roadsides to escape surrounding flood waters, setting up shelters with whatever resources they have," said Ratwatte, urging the international community to step up its support. The World Health Organization warned that ongoing disease outbreaks in Pakistan including diarrhea, dengue fever, malaria, polio and COVID-19 are being exacerbated, particularly in the camps and places where water and sanitation facilities have been damaged. Public health in Pakistan was already considered compromised before the flood. About 38% of children under five are stunted and the country has the world's second-highest global burden of hepatitis C. With 116 of Pakistan's 154 districts impacted by the floods and a third of the country submerged, many immunization programs have been disrupted. "Our vaccinators are working diligently to ensure that routine immunization continues in the flood-affected districts where health facilities have been damaged," said Muhammad Ahmed Kazi, director general of the Federal Directorate of Immunization. "Immunization is a priority and we must reach children in affected districts with vaccines, especially for diseases like rotavirus, typhoid and measles," he told SciDev.Net. "Relief and rehabilitation in displacement settlements will remain a challenge; already disease outbreaks are being reported from most affected areas," said Arif Jabbar Khan, country director of WaterAid Pakistan, adding that the risk of disease outbreaks will continue as long as people remain displaced. An estimated 500,000 people are currently sheltered in camps. Women and babies at risk Khan said when people return to their homes they are likely to encounter deteriorated conditions, including contaminated water sources. "It is important that the water sources at the household and institutional levels are restored and decontaminated on an urgent basis," he said. The camps set up to provide emergency shelter also face huge challenges. Maria Mushtaq who cooks and serves meals for internally displaced people in the Khairpur district of Sindh, said: "Even in the better organized camps functioning out of school buildings, the washrooms and latrines are not enough to cater to the huge numbers. Despite being cleaned every day, these camps are swarming with mosquitoes and flies." Of the 6.4 million people in need of humanitarian assistance in Sindh, more than 1.6 million are women of childbearing age, said Sindh Health Minister, Azra Pechuho. He told journalists that there were at least 47,000 displaced, pregnant women at different camps around the province. The UN Population Fund has estimated that there are 650,000 pregnant women in the flood-affected areas of Pakistan, in need of skilled birth attendants, newborn care and support. Of these, about 73,000 are due to deliver this month. With almost one million houses damaged, the UN agency warns that women and girls are at increased risk of gender-based violence. The floods were caused by heavy torrential rains since June. The Pakistan Meterological Department's monthly summary for August termed it the "wettest August since 1961." The monthly summary for July said that average rainfall in Balochistan was 450% above average and 307% above average in Sindh. Explore further Waterborne diseases spread among flood victims in Pakistan Provided by SciDev.Net A Mississippi National Guard soldier takes water to a person's car at the Mississippi State Fairgrounds in Jackson, Mississippi, Sept. 1, 2022. Nearly 600 Mississippi National Guardsmen were set up across seven sites through Jackson for people to collect bottled water and non-potable water from water buffalo trucks. Credit: U.S. Army National Guard, Staff Sgt. Connie Jones Extreme storms and intense floods have disrupted communities across the country this summer. Death Valley, Yellowstone, eastern Kentucky, St. Louis, Dallas and Denver have all experienced heavy rainfall and flooding, leading to damage, deaths and displacementand now in Jackson, Mississippi, a major water crisis is affecting hundreds of thousands of people. Is all of this flooding normal? And why doesn't our infrastructure seem to be up to the task? Paul Chinowsky, professor emeritus of civil, environmental and architectural engineering, studies how infrastructure in the U.S. is aging amid a changing climate. Keith Porter, adjoint professor in civil, environmental and architectural engineering, studies how natural hazards such as earthquakes, floods, windstorms and wildfire affect infrastructure, society and the economy. Porter is also the lead author on a 2011 report about the ARkStorm (named for Atmospheric River 1,000), a major meteorological event expected to hit California in the next 150 years that could cause catastrophic flooding. Here's what the two experts told CU Boulder Today about the effects of climate change on U.S. infrastructure. Infrastructure has been aging in the United States for decades The results are what we're seeing now in places like Jackson, Mississippiwhere aging pipes and pumps failed in the face of heavy rainfall, leading to pump failures and the shutdown of the entire local water system, according to Chinowsky. Water system failures like this can take days or weeks to repair and replace, and are much more challenging and expensive than maintaining a system in the first place, he said. And like Jackson, much of the nation's current infrastructure was built in the 1960s and 1970s, and only designed to last 40 or 50 years. "When you don't put the funds into maintaining your infrastructure on a regular basis, it starts to wear down just like anything, just like your car," said Chinoswky. And if we don't enter another golden age of building in the 2020s, "the news is going to be filled with the age of infrastructure failure." Wastewater treatment plants are particularly vulnerable to flooding but can be protected Wastewater treatment plantsintegral parts of water systemstend to be located in low-lying areas, because it's cheaper to let the wastewater run downhill. These are also the places most prone to flooding, but they can be protected, according to Porter. "We can build berms around these wastewater treatment plants that protect them, and it costs just a tiny fraction of what otherwise would be the repair costs, the life safety, the health impacts of having our wastewater systems overwhelmed," said Porter. For example: Two years after a water treatment plant in Greenville, North Carolina flooded in 1999's Hurricane Floyd, the Economic Development Administration gave the city $5 million to protect its facility with a new berm. When Hurricane Matthew struck in 2016, the water treatment plant survived and saved Greenville over $150 million30 times as much as the cost to protect it, according to Porter. A crisis like the one in Jackson, Mississippi, could happen anywhere Especially on the East Coast and in the South, where water systems are approaching 70 and 80 years oldway past their design lifespans, according to Chinowsky. Infrastructure failures such as those in Jackson, Mississippi, and even Flint, Michigan, are not anomalies but a prelude of what's to come if critical maintenance is not addressed. "Every person in the United States should be concerned about their water supply. This is something that can happen anywhere," said Chinowsky. And it's not only water systems, it's roads, bridges and sewer systemsall of these things are well past their design lifespan. But our infrastructure can be fixed if there is political will and the money to do so. A state of emergency was declared in eastern Kentucky on July 29, 2022. Credit: U.S. Army National Guard Photo by Sgt. Jesse Elbouab It's expensive to ignore needed infrastructure maintenance For decades, The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has raised concerns about deferred infrastructure maintenance, said Porter, who is a member. ASCE estimates that the deferred maintenance budget on American infrastructure is now $2.9 trillion40% of which was covered by last year's infrastructure bill. "For all that deferred maintenance, we pay daily. Because when we don't maintain our roads, our cars hit more potholes, and we're paying for those potholes by repairing our cars. And you can see with these Mississippi water treatment plants, all that deferred maintenance is costing a heck of a lot now," said Porter. Because of declining local tax revenues, most communities across the country don't have the money to pay the rising costs associated with fixing this aging infrastructure. "We're in an environment where people really don't want to see taxes raised. And that means we're going to see 'Jacksons' happen all over the place," said Chinowsky. Climate change is making flooding more likely or more intense Higher sea levels will increase both the severity and number of floods in coastal communities. Across the country, researchers expect to see more intense droughts followed by severe bursts of precipitation, due to a warmer atmosphere that can hold more moisturewhich could cause more flooding. In the West, year-round wildfire season will compound risks of flooding. When fires burn down homes and trees, they also remove what was holding the soil in place. "On top of the fire scars, we will have bigger storms dropping more water and producing more debris flowsmud that flows down like a river and can cause damage miles from the fire scar," Porter said. "Debris flows kill people in their homes and cause all kinds of infrastructure damage, like wiping out roads so that you can't get home and you can't get to the victims." A new study out this summer found that climate change will likely make the upcoming ARkStorm and its damaging impacts much more intense, especially considering landslides and debris flows as a result of burn scars. We canand shouldstart preparing today Chinowsky notes that building roads for the future is one of the easiest things we can do, due to their shorter lifespans. "We need to think about what environment our infrastructure is going to be in, in the future. What is it going to be 10 years from now? We need to design for hotter temperatures and more intense rainstorms," said Chinowsky. We have a responsibility to vulnerable communities The crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, is an example of how the most vulnerable communities often get hit the hardestand highlights the need to support these communities after a long history of environmental racism and injustice. "Traditionally disadvantaged groups in the United States live in neighborhoods that tend to be down by the river, right next to industrial facilities," Porter said. "They tend to be the ones where the least effort is put into stormwater protection. They've got the worst infrastructure. They get more heavily damaged, and they've got less resources to recover with." Porter blames public policy. "These are harms that we as a society have deliberately imposed on vulnerable populations and therefore are morally obligated to correct," he said. Explore further America's aging infrastructure sags under the pressure of climate change Graphical abstract. Credit: Nature Chemical Biology (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41589-022-01140-1 Like the Roadrunner outwitting Wile E. Coyote, SARS-CoV-2 (the infectious virus responsible for COVID-19) keeps mutating, generating new variants that can slip from the grip of a well-trained immune system or a well-aimed drug or vaccine. Now, Stanford Medicine scientists have found a way to imbue immune molecules once thought useless with the ability to put SARS-CoV-2 in a therapeutic headlock it can't wriggle out of. Their method is described in a paper published Sept. 8 in Nature Chemical Biology. The study was led by biologist and vaccinologist Peter Kim, Ph.D. Two things about the study stand out. First, although it's not ready yet for use in humans, it's a solid step toward the development of broadly effective drugs that don't stop working just because a nasty virus has thought up a new trick. And second, a key component of the new therapy was a molecule that had been routinely getting tossed in the trash. To fully appreciate Kim's team's discovery, let's step back to ask: What exactly happens when a virus infects our bodies? And what does the immune system do about it? The basics of infection To cause infection, a virus must first get inside a cell. Cells' outer membranes are normally tough to penetrate without a special pass. But these little safe-crackers have figured how to tease open a lock on the cell's surface, climb in, hijack the cell's replication machinery, make a bazillion copies of themselves and bust out to spread to other cells. The lock SARS-CoV-2 knows how to pick is ACE2, that appears on the surface of cells in the throat, lungs, heart, kidney, intestines and blood-vessel linings. ACE2 is famous for, among other things, helping keep our blood pressure low. But SARS-CoV-2 doesn't care what ACE2 does for a living. Any cell bearing ACE2 is vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Our immune system has ways of dealing with such intruders. Upon recognizing a pathogen's presence, B cells, which help make up our immune system, pump out a broad assortment of antibodies aimed at the invader. These are molecules uniquely suited to glom onto pathogens like matching jigsaw-puzzle pieces andwhen they glom onto just the right places and the fit is goodput them out of commission. Antibodies that excel at grabbing on to some feature crucial to the pathogen's cellular safe-cracking success are declared to be "neutralizing": They prevent the pathogen from infecting cells. The best of these neutralizing antibodies can then be made into drugs. For instance, patients hospitalized with COVID-19 often receive a dose of monoclonal antibodies: multiple copies of the same powerfully neutralizing antibody. The trouble is, SARS-CoV-2 is adept at tweaking the shapes of its vulnerable features by mutating, so a once-neutralizing monoclonal antibody loses its grip and can no longer squelch the new variant. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a parade of one immune-escape artist after another. Souped-up antibody "It's whack-a-mole," said Kim, who spent a chunk of his career working in the pharmaceutical industry. "You go to all that trouble of developing these monoclonal antibodies, shepherding them through clinical trials, setting up manufacturing operations and getting an emergency use authorization from the FDA. Then, months later, the virus morphs and the monoclonal antibody's no good anymore." Of the more than a half-dozen SARS-CoV-2-targeting monoclonal antibodies that have received an emergency use authorization, only one is still in use. But Kim's lab has a souped-up antibody that may take on all comers. All of the monoclonal antibodies the FDA has approved so far stick to SARS-CoV-2's receptor-binding domain, or RBD. That's the "business end" of the virus's infamous spike protein, the viral protuberance that fiddles with ACE2 to gain admittance to cells. By spinning off new variants with mutated RBDs, the virus keeps shaking off successive monoclonal antibodies' grip. But the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein contains other regions that are, for all practical purposes, unchanging. These regions are said to be highly evolutionarily conserved, meaning it hasn't changed over time even among viral strains that differ elsewhere. So, why not come up with a monoclonal antibody that goes after one of those conserved regions? Wouldn't that solve the escape artist problem? Yes, said Kim, who is the Virginia and D. K. Ludwig Professor in Biochemistry. "But so far, nobody has found an antibody to a conserved region on SARS-CoV-2 that's not a wimp." In other words, it seems none of these antibodies are potent neutralizing antibodiesthey glom on and just sit there, riding along with the virus but not stopping it from infecting cells. Wimp no longer Kim credits Payton Weidenbacher, Ph.D., a former graduate student in his lab, with a flash of ingenuity that sparked the advent of what they've called "ReconnAbs" (short for "receptor-blocking conserved non-neutralizing antibodies"). Weidenbacher's idea: Take another molecule that could neutralize SARS-CoV-2 and tie it to one of these wimpy-but-clingy antibodies that binds to a well-conserved site on the viral spike protein. "Lots of other researchers were just throwing these antibodies in the garbage pail, and so were we," said Weidenbacher. They found an antibody that targeted a part of SARS-CoV2's spike protein that never seems to change, no matter what new variant pops up. Using a flexible protein snippet as a leash, they tethered this antibody to the piece of ACE2 that sticks out from the cell surfacethe part the virus latches onto. "There's no way SARS-CoV-2 can mutate its way out of its dependence on ACE2," Weidenbacher said. In a lab dish, the tethered construct proved able to block SARS-CoV-2 infection of human cells normally susceptible to the virus. It's worked on all SARS-CoV-2 strains tested up through BA.2. The next step is to test ReconnAbs on animals. Looking beyond the current pandemic, Kim envisions ReconnAbs serving as a modular mix-and-match "parts kit" that could quickly be put into action when the next pandemic hits to stall off the virus from the get-go while awaiting the hoped-for development of even better drugs. Such a kit would contain three parts: antibodies known to cling tightly to strongly conserved regions of whatever well-studied virus (a coronavirus or influenza virus, for example) comes along; whatever cell-surface "lock" that virus knows how to pick to get inside our cells; and little leashes to hook them together. "It was a stroke of creativity," Kim said. "Payton figuratively reached into the garbage pail, pulled out these lemons and turned them into lemonade." Explore further Powerful new antibody neutralizes all known SARS-CoV-2 variants More information: Payton A.-B. Weidenbacher et al, Converting non-neutralizing SARS-CoV-2 antibodies into broad-spectrum inhibitors, Nature Chemical Biology (2022). Journal information: Nature Chemical Biology Payton A.-B. Weidenbacher et al, Converting non-neutralizing SARS-CoV-2 antibodies into broad-spectrum inhibitors,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41589-022-01140-1 (a) Johannes Vermeer, View of Delft, ca. 16601661, Oil on canvas, 96.5 cm 115.7 cm, Mauritshuis, The Hague, The Netherlands. (b) Micro-detail of the redtiled roofs showing whitish globules of lead soaps protruding through the paint surface. (c) A paint cross-section is taken at the left edge of the painting where the green (now blue) bush is painted of the red-tiled roof, showing the formation of large metal soap protrusions in the darkred paint layer that have erupted through the blue-green surface paint layer, image taken under normal light illumination. Credit: Gijs Eumelen A large number of historical oil paintings from museum collections worldwide show signs of deterioration due to metal soap formation. Metal soaps affect the structural integrity and visual appearance of these paintings. Understanding the influence of metal soap formation on the mechanical response of the paintings can help with the long-term conservation and preservation of these valuable works of art. For his Ph.D. research, Gijs Eumelen developed a numerical model to simulate the mechanical behavior of oil paintings due to the formation of metal soaps. Metal soap formation is mainly a problem in paintings that contain lead- or zinc-based pigment particles. Unfortunately, most oil paintings from the 15th century until the present day contain one or more of these pigments. Therefore, metal soap formation threatens a large portion of our cultural heritage. Metal soaps develop from a series of complex chemical reactions between the metal-based pigment particles and the oil binder. They may develop as crystalline aggregates and, over a time span of decades to centuries, may reach sizes up to several hundreds of micrometers. Accordingly, these crystals cause significant deformation of paint layers, and can protrude through the outer surface, leading to damage to the paintings. Volume change To understand the mechanical response of oil paintings due to the formation of metal soap crystals, Gijs Eumelen developed a numerical model that simulates their formation and growth. The formation of metal soaps is accompanied by a change in volume, which is accounted for in the model through a chemical growth strain. This provides a coupling between the chemical processes and the mechanical response. Crystal growth leads to the formation of cracks in the painting, which in turn affect the chemical processes. The predicted mechanical response of the system, in the form of the surface deformations, cracking and delamination patterns, appears to be in good agreement with observations from cross-sectional photographs of real paintings. Non-invasive testing Another issue in understanding the mechanical behavior of oil paintings is related to the uncertainty on the actual mechanical properties of the paint. These are affected by the age of the paint and the constituents used to create the paint in the first place. In general, the mechanical properties of paint materials can be assessed by performing tests on the actual paintings. However, this is not possible as such tests would most likely damage valuable, historical paintings. With this in mind, the mechanical properties of the paint can be obtained through non-invasive nanoindentation tests on very small samples from a painting. Non-invasive tests are relatively easy to perform, but difficult to interpret, also because the small paint sample during testing is embedded in a relatively stiff, supporting resin. To accurately account for the influence of the supporting resin on the indentation response of a paint sample, Eumelen derived an analytical indentation model that describes the elastic and plastic indentation behavior of embedded material samples. The practical applicability of the indentation model has been demonstrated by deducing the elastic properties of a paint sample as reported in the literature. Understanding the mechanical behavior of these paintings due to metal soap formation might ultimately be of assistance when formulating conservational treatments. The model developed by Eumelen during his Ph.D. can contribute to this, but it's just a first step. It will take several years before the model is at a level that it can be used for this purpose. Explore further Metal soaps critical in speed of deterioration of oil paintings The Vikings got to the Americas long before Columbus. Credit: vlastas/Shutterstock When Columbus landed in 1492, the Americas had been settled for tens of thousands of years. He wasn't the first person to discover the continent. Instead, his discovery was the last of many discoveries. In all, people found the Americas at least seven different times. For at least six of those, it wasn't so new after all. The discoverers came by sea and by land, bringing new genes, new languages, new technologies. Some stayed, explored, and built empires. Others went home, and left few hints they'd ever been there. From last to first, here's the story of how we discovered the Americas. 7. Christopher Columbus: AD 1492 In 1492, Europeans could reach Asia by the Silk Road, or by sailing the Cape Route around the southern tip of Africa. Sailing west from Europe was thought to be impossible. The ancient Greeks had accurately calculated that the circumference of the Earth was 40,000 km, which put Asia far to the west. But Columbus botched his calculations. An error in unit conversion gave him a circumference of just 30,000 km. This mistake, with other assumptions born of wishful thinking, gave a distance of just 4,500 km from Europe to Japan. The actual distance is almost 20,000 kilometers. So Columbus's ships set sail without enough supplies to reach Asia. Fortunately for him, he hit the Americas. Columbus, thinking he'd found the East Indies, called its people "Indios," or Indians. He ultimately died without realizing his mistake. It was the navigator Amerigo Vespucci who realized Columbus had found an unknown land and in 1507 the name America was applied in Vespucci's honor. Replicas of Columbuss ships sailed to the 1893 Worlds Fair in Chicago. E. Credit: Benjamin Andrews/wikimedia 6. Polynesians: AD 1,200 Around 2,500 BC, a seafaring people sailed from Taiwan to find new lands. They sailed south through the Philippines, east through Melanesia, then out into the vast South Pacific. These people, the Polynesians, were master navigators, reading wind, waves and stars to cross thousands of kilometers of open ocean. Using huge double canoes, the Polynesians settled Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, and the Cook Islands. Some went south to New Zealand, becoming the Maori. Others went east to Tahiti, Hawaii, Easter Island, and the Marquesas. From here, they at last hit South America. Then, having explored most of the Pacific, they gave up exploration and forgot South America entirely. But evidence of this remarkable voyage remained. The South Americans acquired chickens from Polynesians, while the Polynesians may have picked up South American sweet potatoes. And they shared more than food. Eastern Polynesians have Native American DNA. Polynesians didn't just meet Native Americans, they married them. 5. Norse: AD 1,021 According to Viking sagas, around AD 980, Eric the Red, fierce Viking and cunning salesman, named a vast, icy wasteland "Greenland" to entice people to move there. Then, in AD 986, a boat from Greenland spotted the coast of Canada. Around AD 1021, Erik's son Leif established a settlement in Newfoundland. The Vikings struggled with the harsh climate, before war with Native Americans ultimately forced them back to Greenland. These stories were long dismissed as myths, until 1960, when archaeologists dug up the remains of Viking settlements in Newfoundland. Doubled hulls gave Polynesian canoes more stability on the open ocean. Credit: NYPL/wikimedia 4. Inuit: AD 900 Just before the Vikings, the Inuit people traveled from Siberia to Alaska in skin boats. Hunting whales and seals, living in sod huts and igloos, they were well adapted to the cold Arctic Ocean, and skirted its shores all the way to Greenland. Curiously, their DNA is closest to native Alaskans, implying their ancestors colonized Asia from Alaska, then went back to discover the Americas again. 3. Eskimo-Aleut: 2,0002,500 BC The Inuit descend from an earlier migration: that of speakers of the Eskimo-Aleut languages. These are distinct from other Native American languages, and might even be distantly related to Uralic languages such as Finnish and Hungarian. This, with DNA evidence, suggests the Eskimo-Aleut was a distinct migration. They came across the Bering Sea from present-day Russia to Alaska, perhaps 4,0004,500 years ago, partly displacing and mixing with earlier migrants: the Na-Dene people. 2. Na-Dene: 3,0008,000 BC Another group, the Na-Dene, crossed the Bering Sea to Alaska around 5,000 years ago, although other studies suggest they settled the Americas as long as 10,000 years ago. DNA from their bones links them not to modern people in the Eskimo-Aleut group, but to Native Americans speaking the Na-Dene language family, such as the Navajo, Dene, Tlingit, and Apache people. Na-Dene languages are closest to languages spoken in Siberia, suggesting again that they represent a distinct migration. Osebergskipet, a viking ship constructed in AD 820. Credit: Petter Ulleland/wikimedia, CC BY-SA 1. First Americans: 16,00035,000 years ago Almost all Native American tribesSioux, Comanche, Iroquois, Cherokee, Aztec, Maya, Quechua, Yanomani, and dozens of othersspeak similar languages. That suggests their languages evolved from a common ancestor tongue, spoken by a single tribe entering the Americas long ago. Their descendants' low genetic diversity suggests this founding tribe was small, maybe less than 80 people. How did they get there? Before the last ice age ended 11,700 years ago, so much water was locked up in glaciers that sea levels fell. The bottom of the Bering Sea dried out, creating the Bering Land Bridge. America's first people just walked from Russia to Alaska. But the timing of their migration is controversial. Archaeologists once thought the Clovis people, living 13,000 years ago, were the first settlers of America. But evidence now suggests humans arrived in the Americas much earlier. Finds in Washington, Oregon, Texas, the east coast of the US, and Florida suggest people reached the Americas long before the Clovis people. Footprints in New Mexico date to 23,000 years ago. Stone tools in a Mexican cave may date to 32,000 years ago. A butchered mammoth from Colorado dates to 31,00038,000 years ago. And traces of fire put humans in Alaska 32,000 years ago. Some of these dates could be incorrect, but with each new discovery it seems increasingly unlikely that they're all wrong. An early migration would neatly solve a major mystery. 13,000 years ago, a vast glacier, the Laurentide Ice Sheet, buried Canada in ice up to three kilometers thick. If people arrived in North America then, how did they cross the ice? Southeast Alaska's rugged coast, full of glaciers and fjords, was likely impassible, and early Americans probably lacked boats. But 30,000 years ago, the ice sheet hadn't fully formed. Before the ice spread, people could have hunted mammoths and horses east from Alaska into the Northwest Territories, then south through Alberta and Saskatchewan into Montana. Remarkably, humans may have settled the Americas before western Europe. Yet that might make sense. Alaska's Arctic is harsh, but Europe had potentially hostile Neanderthals. Inuit boats were built from walrus or seal skins stretched over driftwood or whalebone. Credit: The Secret Museum of Mankind, CC BY-SA The end of discovery 1492 was the last discovery of the Americas. Following the voyages of Columbus, Magellan, and Cook, the scattered descendants of humanity's diaspora were finally reunited. Aside from a few uncontacted tribes, everywhere was known to everyone. Discovery was impossible. But the story of the Americas' settlement is still being written, and our understanding is evolving. The Eskimo-Aleut may have been two different migrations, not one. Genes hint at the possibility of other, early founding populations. And given how little evidence the Polynesians and Norse left of their visits, it's conceivable there were other migrations, ones of which we have little evidence. There's so much we don't know. No one can discover the Americas anymore, but there's a lot left to discover about their discovery. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. The Marburg male mummy macroscopic views of the whole mummy. Credit: A-M Begerock, R Loynes, OK Peschel, J Verano, R Bianucci, I Martinez Armijo, M Gonzalez, AG Nerlich How frequent was violence in prehistoric human societies? One way to measure this is to look for trauma in prehistoric human remains. For example, a recent review of pre-Columbian remains found evidence of trauma from violence in 21% of males. So far, most studies of this kind have focused on skulls and other parts of the skeleton, but a potentially richer source of information are mummies, with their preserved soft tissues. Now in a new study in Frontiers in Medicine, researchers use 3D computed tomography (3D CT) to examine three mummies from pre-Columbian South America, conserved since the late 19th century in European museums. "Here we show lethal trauma in two out of three South American mummies that we investigated with 3D CT. The types of trauma we found would not have been detectable if these human remains had been mere skeletons," said Dr. Andreas G Nerlich, a professor at the Department of Pathology of Munich Clinic Bogenhausen in Germany, the study's corresponding author. Nerlich and colleagues studied a male mummy at the Museum Anatomicum of the Philipps University Marburg, Germany, as well as a female and a male mummy at the Art and History Museum of Delemont, Switzerland. Mummies can form naturally when dry environments, for example in deserts, soak up fluids from a decomposing body faster than the decay can proceedconditions common in the southern zones of South America. Died between 740 and 1120 years ago The Marburg mummy belonged to the Arica culture in today's northern Chile, and judging from the grave goods found with him, must have lived in a fishing community. Buried squatting down, he had well-preserved but misaligned teeth with some abrasions, as is typical for pre-Columbian people who used maize as a staple food. His lungs showed scars from past severe tuberculosis. From the features of the bones, the authors estimated that he was a young man between 20 and 25 years old, approximately 1.72 meters tall. He died between 996 and 1147 CE, as the radiocarbon results showed. The Delemont mummies probably came from the region of Arequipa in today's southwestern Peru, based on the ceramics among the grave goods. Both were buried lying face up, which is unusual for mummies from the highlands of South America. Radiocarbon data showed that the man died between 902 and 994 CE, and the woman between 1224 and 1282 CE. They wore textiles woven from cotton and hairs of llamas or alpacas as well as vizcachas, rodents related to chinchillas. The state of the aorta and large arteries showed that the man suffered from calcifying arteriosclerosis in life. The Delemont man (right) and the Delemont woman (left) overview of the two mummies in their repository case. Credit: A-M Begerock, R Loynes, OK Peschel, J Verano, R Bianucci, I Martinez Armijo, M Gonzalez, AG Nerlich Two murder victims The results show that both male mummies had died on the spot from extreme intentional violence. The authors reconstructed that the Marburg mummy had died because either "one assaulter hit the victim with full force on the head and [a] second assaulter stab[bed] the victim (who still was standing or kneeling) in the back. Alternatively, the same or another assaulter standing on the right side of the victim struck the head and then turned to the back of the victim and stabbed him." Similarly, the male mummy from Delemont showed "massive trauma against the cervical spine which represent[s] most likely the cause of death. The significant dislocation of the two cervical vertebral bodies itself is lethal and may have led to immediate death." Only the female mummy had died of natural causes. She also showed extensive damage to the skeleton, but this occurred after death, probably during burial and not on purpose. 3D CT scan of the skull of the Delemont male mummy. (a-d): Features of perimortem skull trauma to the left side of the skull with a large perforating lesion at the left temporal region (arrow) and a fracture running into the skull. (d) shows the zygomas fracture of the left side (arrows). Credit: A-M Begerock, R Loynes, OK Peschel, J Verano, R Bianucci, I Martinez Armijo, M Gonzalez, AG Nerlich Nerlich said, "The availability of modern CT scans with the opportunity for 3D reconstructions offers unique insight into bodies that would otherwise not have been detected. Previous studies would have either destroyed the mummy, while X-rays or older CT scans without three-dimensional reconstruction functions could not have detected the diagnostic key features we found here. "Importantly, the study of human mummified material can reveal a much higher rate of trauma, especially intentional trauma, than the study of skeletons. There are dozens of South American mummies which might profit from a similar investigation as we did here." Explore further Mummy of the Mysterious Lady may have had nose or throat cancer More information: Trauma of Bone and Soft Tissues in South American MummiesNew Cases Provide Further Insight into Violence and Lethal Outcome, Frontiers in Medicine (2022). Trauma of Bone and Soft Tissues in South American MummiesNew Cases Provide Further Insight into Violence and Lethal Outcome,(2022). DOI: 10.3389/fmed.2022.962793 Campaigners believe more than a dozen blue whales have been killed in collisions with commercial ships in the last decade. Animal rights activists on Friday cheered a move by a shipping giant to alter course in Sri Lankan waters to avoid collisions with blue whales, the world's largest mammals. The island's southern coast has an unusually high density of blue whales, classed as endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, and is one of the world's busiest international shipping lanes. Campaigners believe more than a dozen of the gigantic animalsthe largest ever to have lived on Earth at up to 30 metres long and 150 tonneshave been killed in collisions with commercial ships in the last decade. There have also been occasional reports of fishermen dying when their boats were run down by container ships in the area, a rich fishing ground. International activists and local environmentalists have for years pressed authorities to shift the east-west shipping routes 15 nautical miles further offshore. The Geneva-based Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), one of the world's biggest container carriers, announced Thursday that it had voluntarily adjusted its routes around Sri Lanka by that distance to reduce the risk of accidents involving whales, dolphins and porpoises. The move could reduce the strike risk as much as 95 percent, the company said. It is also ordering its smaller feeder vessels in the area to slow to 10 knots in blue whale habitats. The International Fund for Animal Welfare welcomed the announcement, calling it "good news for both blue whales and for people". The presence of the mammals has spawned a lucrative tourist whale-watching industry. Sri Lankan animal rights activist and researcher Gehan Wijeratne said the topography of the ocean floor, currents and monsoons make the sea off southern Sri Lanka rich in nutrients and marine life. "This rich food web results in an area which is optimal for fishing," Wijeratne said. "Not surprisingly whales also gather in this area." Any move to improve the safety of fishermen and shipping will automatically have a positive impact on whales and whale watching, he added. Leading Sri Lankan environmentalist Jagath Gunawardena told AFP that MSC's unilateral action exposed Colombo's failure to protect marine life and fishermen. "We should be embarrassed that we failed, but an international shipping company had to take the initiative," he said. Explore further Sri Lanka's marine disaster worsens as environmental toll rises 2022 AFP A Milky-Way-like galaxy simulated by the supercomputer ATERUI II. Stars are clustered in a bar shape near the center of the galaxy. Credit: Junichi Baba, Hirotaka Nakayama, 4D2U Project, NAOJ A new simulation conducted on the world's most powerful supercomputer dedicated to astronomy has produced a testable scenario to explain the appearance of the bar of the Milky Way. Comparing this scenario to data from current and future space telescopes will help clarify the evolution of our home galaxy. Astronomy is revealing the structure of the Milky Way galaxy in increasing detail. Astronomers know that it is a disk galaxy, with two- or four- armed spirals, with a straight bar in the middle connecting the spirals. Now, they also know that the inner part of the bar has a peanut-shaped bulge, places where the bar is thicker, sticking out above and below the mid plane of the Milky Way galaxy and a nuclear bulge, which is disk-like and located in the central part of the Milky Way. Some other galaxies, but not all, exhibit similar two-type bulges. Astronomers asked the question, "How did the two-type bulges form?" To answer this question a team led by Junichi Baba at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) simulated one possible scenario for a Milky-Way-like galaxy on ATERUI II at NAOJ, the world's most powerful supercomputer dedicated to astronomy. The team's simulation is the most complete and accurate to date, including not only the stars in the galaxy, but also interstellar gas. It also incorporates the birth of new stars from the gas and the deaths of stars as supernovae. The formation of a bar helps to channel gas into the central part of the galaxy, where it triggers the formation of new stars. So it might be reasonable to assume that the nuclear bugle in the galaxy is created from new stars born there. But the simulations show that there are almost no new stars in the bar outside the nuclear bulge, because the bar is so effective at channeling gas towards the center. This means that pigging out on gas is not the reason that a peanut-shaped bulge develops in the bar. Instead, the team finds that gravitational interactions can drive some of the stars into orbits which take them above and below the mid plane. The most exciting part is that the simulation provides a testable scenario. Because the peanut-shaped bulge acquires no new stars, all of its stars must predate the formation of the bar. At the same time, the bar channels gas to the central region where it creates many new stars. So almost all of the stars in the nuclear bulge will have been born after the bar formed. This means that the stars in the peanut-shaped bulge will be older than the stars in the nuclear bulge, with a clear break between the ages. This break corresponds to the time when the bar formed. Data from the European Space Agency's Gaia probe and Japan's future JASMINE satellite will allow us to determine the motions and ages of the stars and test this scenario. If astronomers can detect a difference between the ages of the stars in peanut-shaped and nuclear bulges, it will not only prove that overeating is not to blame for the peanut-shaped bulge, it will tell us the age of the bar in the Milky Way galaxy. These results appeared as Baba et al. "Age distribution of stars in boxy/peanut/X-shaped bulges formed without bar buckling" in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on March 8, 2022. More information: Junichi Baba et al, Age distribution of stars in boxy/peanut/X-shaped bulges formed without bar buckling, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2022). Journal information: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Junichi Baba et al, Age distribution of stars in boxy/peanut/X-shaped bulges formed without bar buckling,(2022). DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stac598 Twice as nice: The two-headed garter snake is in the care of the Herpetology lab on East Campus. Credit: Craig Chandler University Communication The University of NebraskaLincoln's herpetology lab is seeing double after securing a two-headed garter snake. The newborn bicephalic garter snake was discovered by Joshua Marshall of Hastings while clearing brush in Clay Center on Sept. 4. "I lifted up a log and wasn't surprised to see two small snakes, but then I realized that they weren't making great progress because there were two heads," he said. Once Marshall realized it was a two-headed snake, he placed it in a jar and reached out to a local conservationist. The call led him to the University of NebraskaLincoln's Dennis Ferraro, assistant professor of practice in herpetology, who happened to be doing fieldwork at Cedar Point Station. Ferraro was able to retrieve the snake during the evening of Sept. 4. "The snake is as rare as about one in 100,000," Ferraro said. Ferraro said this is only the second time he's had a two-headed snake in his lab, which he's led for more than 20 years. What makes this snake even more unique is that the split heads extend down past the necks. "Usually when snakes have two heads one will take over," he said. "This one has two necks, which means that neither will become dominant. The two heads operate independently and eat independently. This would have made it difficult to survive in the wild." There is also at least a centimeter of spine connected to each head, before it merges into one. "I don't know what's controlling its back half," Ferraro said. That's just one question that Ferraro would like to answer as he studies the snake. While the newborn is still too small for X-rays, Ferraro plans to care for it until it's large enough for more advanced observational studies. According to Ferraro, genetic mutations are common with garter snakes, which most likely caused this phenomenon. By caring for the snake, Ferraro is supporting his lab's overarching goal of conserving amphibians, turtles and reptiles while learning more about it. He has questions such as how its neurology works, how it has survived this long, and if it can survive with both heads. Ferraro has pursued his passion for conservation in Nebraska for decades. He spends time traveling across Nebraska studying species and contributing to conservation efforts. He receives many calls from Nebraskans, and dedicates time to educating them on the animals-especially those that people may fear. His lab houses a pair of every amphibian, turtle and reptile that is native to Nebraska. This semester, he is educating more than 200 students through courses, some of which will get to observe the snake. "I'll definitely let students see it, especially when we're going over genetics and mutations," he said. To reduce the impacts of wildfire to cannabis businesses and human health, the researchers recommend managing vegetation, creating fire breaks, preventing worker exposure to smoke and providing crop insurance to licensed cannabis farmers. Credit: Hekia Bodwitch Wildfires are an increasing threat to people's lives, property and livelihoods, especially in rural California communities. Cannabis, one of California's newer and more lucrative commercial crops, may be at a higher risk of loss from wildfire because it is mostly confined to being grown in rural areas, according to new research by scientists in the Department of Environmental Science Policy and Management at UC Berkeley. "Our findings affirm that cannabis agriculture is geographically more threatened by wildfire than any other agricultural crop in California," said Christopher Dillis, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley's Cannabis Research Center. "This is an issue in almost all major cannabis-producing counties, not only those in Northern California." With licensing to grow commercially in the state only since 2018, the $3 billion cannabis industry is already one of California's top five grossing agricultural commodities (though not included in the California Agricultural Production Statistics because USDA doesn't recognize cannabis as an agricultural crop). In 2020, California tax revenues from legal cannabis sales amounted to over $780 million. To assess the risk of cannabis crops being burned by wildfire, the researchers analyzed licensed cannabis farms in 11 cannabis-producing counties. Dillis and his colleagues overlaid CAL FIRE maps of fire hazard severity zones, historic wildfire perimeters and areas likely to experience increased fire activity in the future with the locations of cannabis farms and other crops in Humboldt, Lake, Mendocino, Monterey, Nevada, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Sonoma, Trinity and Yolo counties. Legal cannabis cultivation is still prohibited in most other parts of the state. CAL FIRE classifies fire hazard based on vegetation, topography, climate, crown fire potential, ember production and movement and fire history. The researchers found cannabis fields were located in "high" and "very high" fire hazard zones and closer to wildfire perimeters more than any other crop. About 36% of the cannabis cultivation area, or 986 farms, were in high fire hazard zones and 24%, or 788 farms, were in very high fire hazard zones. Grapes had the next largest percentage of acreage in high (8.8%) or very high fire hazard zones (2.9%), followed by pasture at 4.3% and 1.7%, respectively. "This work only serves as a starting point for understanding how vulnerable cannabis farms may be to wildfire, as this analysis did not include indirect impacts, such as smoke and ash damage, which may be far-reaching," Dillis said. "However, we can confidently say that the places where cannabis continues to be grown are at greater risk now, and likely in the future as well." For cannabis farms already established in high-risk areas, the authors recommend fire-safety programs to reduce the impacts of wildfire to crops and human health. They suggest traditional wildfire-risk reduction activities, such as managing vegetation and creating fire breaks, but also measures to prevent exposure of farmworkers and crops to wildfire smoke. In addition, they recommend the state pursue options for providing crop insurance to licensed cannabis farmers, which are available for most other agricultural crops through federal programs, but not cannabis. "In light of the sector's growing economic importance in the state, the vulnerability of cannabis to wildfire should be considered in future cannabis and rural development policies," said co-author Ted Grantham, UC Cooperative Extension specialist and director of UC Berkeley's Cannabis Research Center. "The legal cannabis market in California is facing substantial headwinds from both market forces and a burdensome regulatory environment," Grantham said. "This study shows that cannabis agriculture is uniquely exposed to wildfire impacts, which presents yet another challenge for licensed cultivators in the state." The Cannabis Research Center is currently conducting a statewide survey of licensed cannabis cultivators to better understand the impacts of wildfire on crops, infrastructure and farmworkers. The study, "The threat of wildfire is unique to cannabis among agricultural sectors in California," is published in Ecosphere. Explore further E-cigarette use tied to future cannabis use in teens More information: Christopher Dillis et al, The threat of wildfire is unique to cannabis among agricultural sectors in California, Ecosphere (2022). Journal information: Ecosphere Christopher Dillis et al, The threat of wildfire is unique to cannabis among agricultural sectors in California,(2022). DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.4205 QUEENSBURY A Vermont man has been sentenced to 2 to 6 years in prison for driving while intoxicated in a stolen vehicle. Grover W.A. Pangburn, 47, of Rutland, pleaded guilty last month in Warren County Court to criminal possession of stolen property and DWI. Pangburn was arrested on Oct. 8, 2021, after an incident that began at about 2:30 p.m. Warren County dispatchers received reports of a woman appearing to be impaired and stumbling in a parking lot at the outlet plazas in Queensbury. Officers found the woman in a pickup truck and she appeared to be suffering from an altered mental state, police said. Authorities requested emergency medical services, but a man later identified as Pangburn, who was with the woman, got in the drivers seat and drove off with her. As he was leaving, the pickup nearly struck another patrol car that was responding, police said. Police attempted to stop the pickup, but ended the pursuit because of heavy traffic on the Northway. Officers, who continued to watch the pickup truck from a distance, learned that the pickup was a stolen vehicle. Pangburn continued to drive recklessly and police followed the vehicle into Washington County. It crashed in the village of Fort Edward. Pangburn and his passenger attempted to flee on foot but were caught a short time later. GLENS FALLS The first day of school at Glens Falls High School on Thursday was disrupted by a student who got into an altercation with a hall monitor and the principal and was found with a BB gun in his backpack. The incident started at about 11:20 a.m., when one student who was obtaining lunch in the cafeteria was twice directed to leave the building. While outside, the student damaged some music speakers and was asked to leave the campus, according to a statement posted on the districts website. The student then proceeded around the building to a different locked entrance and knocked on the door until another student, who did not know the suspect, opened the door. Once inside, the student put on a face mask and walked down the hallway, where he engaged in an altercation with the schools hall monitor and principal, according to the district. The high school immediately went into lockout and the adjoining middle school sheltered in place until the situation was resolved. During this altercation, a BB gun fell out of the students backpack and onto the floor. A Glens Falls school resource officer was nearby and called for additional assistance from the Glens Falls Police Department to remove the student from the school. Appropriate disciplinary actions for the student are already underway, in accordance with district policy. The district said most high school students were outside the building during the entire altercation. The lockout and shelter-in-place were lifted at 11:51 a.m. and students headed inside to their classrooms. Superintendent Krislynn Dengler said in a statement that the situation underscores the need for students and staff alike to maintain the security of external doors, which includes leaving them closed in their locked position at all times. She asked parents to speak with their children about keeping a secure environment at school. Dengler, in a Post-Star story earlier this week, talked about the efforts the district is taking to improve safety in the wake of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. One initiative is an educational campaign about stopping the propping open of doors, which is how the gunman in Texas accessed the building. ATLANTIC CITY A group working to crack down on repeat shoplifting and other offenses is now focused on getting numerous street lights repaired as an anti-crime and safety measure. At its bi-weekly meeting Friday morning, the Atlantic City Clean and Safe group heard a report from Atlantic County Prosecutor William Reynolds about what he found the evening of July 27 during a walk on both sides of Atlantic Avenue from Tanger Outlets The Walk to the county building at 1333 Atlantic Ave. He and more than 40 members of his office, as well as the Atlantic City police and public works staffs and AtlantiCare, found many nonfunctioning lights and four nonfunctioning crosswalk signals, Reynolds said. Many were in the area around Tanger Outlets, which attracts large numbers of visitors and has had a serious shoplifting problem. Reynolds said he looked at other areas of the city when he drove around Wednesday night and found dozens more nonfunctioning lights and crosswalk signs. I was at a homicide (recently) on Bellevue Avenue ... from 1:45 a.m. to 8 a.m., Reynolds said Friday at City Hall. One of the things I noticed ... the lights at Pacific and Bellevue were out. ... We should have spotlights there. Reynolds said the area is known for drug activity, and the darkness is a problem for safety. Assemblyman Don Guardian, R-Atlantic, said lights that are out in a neighborhood around Ocean Casino Resort belong to the city. Next meeting, we will have everybody involved in the light situation, said Council Vice President Kaleem Shabazz, who organizes the Clean and Safe meetings. Shabazz said he will invite representatives from Atlantic City Electric, Public Works and other departments. We need to put attention on that. If we cant, were in trouble, Shabazz said. We have the funding. Broken and nonworking street lighting has been the topic of complaints from residents for years. City officials have said the city owns some lights, and Atlantic City Electric owns others, and that Calvi Electric Company, of Egg Harbor Township, is under contract to fix broken lights. Crackdown on repeat offenders in Atlantic City yielding results ATLANTIC CITY A crackdown on repeat shoplifters and other criminal offenders, first announ Fridays meeting was the ninth for the group, which has addressed issues from arresting repeat shoplifters to finding ways of cracking down on all-terrain vehicles being driven illegally on public roads. Guardian and his chief of staff Joe Berg said they have drafted bills to help police statewide arrest those who are illegally using ATVs, and another to start a mental health court in New Jersey based on a California model. We will be giving police officers the opportunity to bring someone in, not arrest them but bring them in for services, determine what is needed and if they need long-term help, Guardian said of the mental health court bill. Berg said the ATV bill would create ATV law enforcement task forces in counties that want them, that would be multijurisdictional groups led by the county prosecutor and sheriff. Guardians office expects to have drafts of both bills to stakeholders next month, and to introduce them soon in the state Legislature, Berg said. Staff members from the Save A Lot store in Renaissance Plaza attended Friday morning to ask for help managing large numbers of people with substance abuse and mental health problems who hang out and panhandle in front of the grocery store. The liquor store next door attracts them, said Director of Retail Operations John Palmer. We have really good people shopping at Save A Lot, and we are doing out best, said General Manager Rajohn Odom. You cant walk in the door without somebody asking for something. The stuff going on outside the building is unbelievable. We plan as a store to be around for a long time but really need help with Plaza getting worse week by week. When our security guard is done at 3 p.m., its like a party outside. Acting Police Chief James Sarkos said the department is moving some officers from duty on the Boardwalk to Atlantic Avenue now that summer is over. But the city is struggling to keep its Class II officers from being lured to nearby municipalities for jobs, and is trying to increase their ranks to help with patrols. The challenge is getting the right amount of officers, Sarkos said. A program to hire civilian Atlantic Avenue ambassadors will also begin soon, he said. It will use civilians to help police keep an eye on the area and encourage people not to loiter. ATLANTIC CITY A 23-year-old city resident was arrested with a loaded handgun following an incident on Pacific Avenue on Thursday, police said. Shemar Hendricks was charged with unlawful possession of a weapon, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, possession of hollow-point ammunition, possession of a large-capacity magazine, possession of a ghost gun and endangering the welfare of a child. Officer Byron Zelaya-Chavez responded to Pennsylvania and Pacific avenues following a 911 call from a male saying he was just involved in a dispute with another male who was in possession of a handgun about 5:35 p.m., police said Friday in a news release. The caller also indicated the male suspect was in the company of a young juvenile and was last seen walking east on Pacific Avenue with the juvenile, police said. Zelaya-Chavez found Hendricks walking with the juvenile near New Jersey and Pacific avenues. With assistance from Detective Aaron Jones and Officer Latray Butcher, the officers stopped Hendricks and detained him, police said. During the investigative detention, Hendricks was found to be in possession of a handgun loaded with hollow-point ammunition and fitted with a high-capacity magazine, police said. Officers also determined the gun lacked a serial number, making it what is commonly known as a ghost gun. Hendricks was sent to the Atlantic County jail. 2022's full moons are stocked with two lunar eclipses and two supermoons as the New Jersey looks up to Earth's closest natural satellite. To David Hankins, bedtime stories are a scam. Rather than drifting off to sleep with a line about happily ever after, his daughter remained awake to demand another and eventually suss out inconsistencies in plot lines. "Kids are brutal when it comes to the accuracy of fairy tales," Hankins said. "So I had to start writing stuff down, and as I wrote it down it turned into two and a half novels." What began as an attempt to keep the Bettendorf resident's characters and conflicts straight turned into a passion for writing stories, a passion that has gained international recognition. Hankins' short story, titled "Death and the Taxman," won third place in the Writers of the Future contest a global science fiction and fantasy writing competition. The story will be included in "L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 39," out next spring. Dan Hankner, a Davenport resident, was a semifinalist in the competition, and two other Iowans received honorable mentions. "Death and the Taxman" explores what would happen if the Grim Reaper became human, for once losing at his rigged game. Hankins asked the question of whether Death would cling to life like humanity does with humor and wit, he said, taking inspiration from Terry Pratchett's writing style. Hankins had no knowledge of Writers of the Future before submitting his work. After getting rejections from publishers for his full-length novels the retired Army serviceman decided to turn to short fiction, submitting pieces to contests and anthologies. "I found them on a Google search for short story contests," Hankins said. "I pulled it up and went, 'Oh, hey, look at that, this has pretty good prize money. I'll write a story and win that no-problem.' I had no idea at the time that it was the largest writing contest of its type." His first submission to Writers of the Future was a sort of prequel to "Death and the Taxman," and garnered an honorable mention from judges. The fifth time was the charm, and in addition to a cash prize and having his story published, Hankins will also travel to Hollywood next year for a week to attend a writing conference and gala. His daughter will come along as a plus-one, he said. With the win under his belt and other stories getting published, Hankins said he'd like to return to writing full-length novels in the future and further his writing career. He's been able to explore the community surrounding Writers of the Future in the 18 months since he submitted his winning story, finding a new network to tap into. Thousands of people from 175 countries submit works for each quarterly competition, Galaxy Press President John Goodwin said. Galaxy Press handles publishing of the competition's anthologies and the works of L. Ron Hubbard. Judges include fantasy and science fiction icons Orson Scott Card, Brandon Sanderson and Todd McCaffrey. Having an accolade from Writers of the Future helps up-and-coming writers stand out from the crowd. "If someone puts in their pitch letter 'I won Writers of the Future,' their work is automatically taken out of a slush pile and read by an editor because they know that this person is past the trial by fire to win this contest," Goodwin said. United States Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Moline, switched out her role as a representative to work as an airport field inspector Thursday, Sept. 8, at the Quad Cities International Airport. Bustos worked with the airport's operations manager to inspect the runaways for debris or wildlife that could be a potential safety hazard. Runway inspections happen twice a day and more during inclement weather. "We did an inventory of anything that was loose on the runway or by the planes," Bustos said in phone call with the Dispatch-Argus/Quad-City Times. Bustos said they ended up picking up two rubber gloves and dislodged segments of concrete joints that sit in between concrete slabs. Public Relations and Marketing Manager for the airport, Ashleigh Davis, told the Dispatch-Argus/Quad-City Times that Bustos was also driven out to tour the construction site for a $10 million reconfiguration project in the airfield. Davis said the airport currently had three runways intersecting at a single point. "That obviously poses some safety hazards but it's also inefficient," Davis said. The project is required by the Federal Aviation Administration to address and fix the intersections of the three runways. It involves shortening the general aviation runaway by 1,500 feet and creating a new parallel taxiway to the airport's main 10,000-feet commercial runway. The project is expected to be completed in November 2022. The shift was Bustos' 118th "Cheri on Shifts" and part of her final heartland tour around northwest and central Illinois. Bustos has been shadowing jobs since being elected in Congress to learn more about jobs sustaining communities across the region. Bustos said she was able to get hands-on experience and learn how people worked to support their families and that there were many "unsung heroes" across the region who worked hard to help the community. "When I'm voting on legislation that impacts people's lives, I picture the people who are replacing these lead water pipes or I picture (those) who are overseeing all the airfield inspections," Bustos said. A man wanted for a July shooting in East Moline was in the Rock Island County Jail on Thursday, awaiting court proceedings in the case. The Rock Island County States Attorneys Office charged Stacy T. Smith, 37, Moline, with aggravated battery, alleging he shot a man in the groin on July 9 in East Moline, according to Rock Island County court records. A warrant for Smiths arrest was issued the day of the shooting, and he was arrested on Sept. 1, court records state. His first court appearance was Sept. 2, and his next is scheduled for Sept. 20. The shooting happened around 1:53 a.m. at Jims Domino Lounge, 1314 13th St., East Moline, according to a news release issued by the East Moline Police Department shortly after the shooting. Investigators think the shooting happened outside the front door. When police officers reached the business, people told them the wounded man was taken by private vehicle to Genesis Medical Center, Silvis, the news release states. The wound was not considered life-threatening. Smiths bail in the case is $250,000, and he would have to post a $25,000 bond before he could be released, according to court records. Smith has two other cases pending against him in Rock Island County, according to court records. In the most recent case, prosecutors charged him with aggravated driving with an alcohol concentration greater than 0.08, aggravated driving under the influence of alcohol and aggravated driving while license is revoked, according to court records. Those charges stem from Smiths alleged actions on April 28, 2021. He allegedly drove a vehicle while he had a blood-alcohol content of 0.08 or more and while his license was revoked, according to court records. In a 2019 case, the states attorneys office accuses Smith of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and driving while license revoked, court records state. Those charges are related to Smiths alleged actions on Dec. 18, 2019, court records state. Prosecutors allege he had between 1 and 15 grams of a substance containing cocaine and was driving a 2019 Nissan Pathfinder in Moline while his license was revoked. On July 9, Smith was free on a notice to appear in the 2021 case, and a $5,000 bond in the 2019 case, according to court records. Records for both cases state he was being held on the $250,000 bail for the shooting case. Court hearings are scheduled for Oct. 27 in both cases, according to court records. Child care is not only a concern for parents, but business leaders, too. In 2019, Illinois and Iowa alone lost $3 billion in productivity revenue due to parents not being able to work because of a lack of child care. The high cost of child care is preventing workers from entering the force. Roughly 80% of parents said they were likely to leave a job if better child care was offered at a different job. For every $1 invested in child care, $9 is returned to the economy. Sheri Penny with the Iowa Women's Foundation said there is a shortfall of 300,000 child care openings state wide. In Scott County, there is a shortfall of 19,000 child care openings. That translates to one opening for every three children needing care. "Iowa is currently one of the most expensive states in which to raise a child," she said. "Many Iowa families are not able to afford child care." An average two-parent Iowa family spends 11.9% of its income on child care, she said. A single-parent family in Iowa spends about 40% on child care. Nationally, 7% is considered an affordable rate. The Economic Policy Institute reported the average cost of infant care in Illinois is $13,802, or 20% of the annual household income. The average cost for one year at an in-state public college is only $168 more. In Iowa, the average cost of infant care is $10,378, or 15.3% of a families income. Still, that is $1,612 more per year than what it would cost to send the child to a public college in-state. Penny said this is the reason parents are not returning to the workforce. Furthermore, the average wage for a child care teacher is $22,000 a year one of the lowest paid professions in the state. "We typically pay people more to flip hamburgers than we do to take care of our children," she said. In the Quad-Cities alone, there are approximately 20,000 children younger than age five. Rene Gellerman, CEO of United Way Quad Cities, said children who attend preschool are twice as likely to succeed in Kindergarten and 65% more likely to go to college. "The first five years are critical to the workforce," she said. According to Iowa Child Care Resource and Referral data, the number of child care programs from 2011 to 2021 had dropped 56%. The number of centers that accept DHS child care assistance has dropped 60%. Thursday morning business leaders gathered at the Centre Station in Moline to discuss the crisis of child care in the area. The forum was hosted by Q2030, a regional action plan group that aims to improve the way of life in the Quad Cities by 2030. Executive Director Kate Jennings said child care is not the only current workforce issue. Providing quality care is also a concern. The round table on Thursday was designed to jump start the conversation around child care and why its crucial for business success. "We really wanted to poll the community and focus on the business community coming together to illustrate why it was important for them to be involved in the discussion," she said. "I think investing in child care for businesses and having family-friendly practices is a win-win. Jennings said those participating Thursday were of mostly two mindsets: employers who have talked to their employees and know child care is a problem, and those who did not realize it was a reason jobs were not being filled. During the forum, Gellerman said a child care crisis is brewing and its been happening for decades. In 1950, 12% of mothers with children younger than five were working. In 2019, 61% of mothers were working. "That's a huge 400% shift with no equivalent shift to public policy or attitudes," she said. "All the while, child care worker wages have stagnated, their schedules are unpredictable, there's more regulations on providers and education is becoming increasingly important for our kids." According to the Pew Research Center, child care is among the top five reasons employers cannot retain workers. Ready National Illinois is a non-profit that works to find solutions to workforce problems. Deputy Director Kate Buchanan said Thursday businesses from every sector rely on child care in order to maintain their workforce. Pre-pandemic in Illinois, the lack of child care for infants and toddlers alone cost families $1.6 billion and employers $559 million. Post-pandemic, Buchanan said roughly 60% of parents who quit their jobs said it was due to lack of child care. As a result, there are 1 million fewer women in the workforce. Less child care programs means less children ready for school. Buchanan said in 2019, three in every 10 students were prepared to enter Kindergarten. "High quality early childhood programs set them on a trajectory for academic success, career success and provide that foundation for the future," she said. But, the solution is not a simple one. Buchanan said the solution is not attainable by the business community alone. "The child care crisis is too big for any one entity to handle alone," she said. One reason is because some companies are not aware how big of a problem this is. child care is not typically named as a reason someone does not take a job, Jennings said. Instead, parents do not apply because the company is not a good fit. "We were hoping by illustrating these statistics ... It would open up the businesses to thinking about child care as a solution they should be considering," she said. WASHINGTON - In his prime-time address from outside Independence Hall last week, President Biden warned that "MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic." If Biden really believes that, then why is the Democratic Party he leads spending tens of millions of dollars to help MAGA Republicans win GOP primaries? The same week that Biden delivered his hyperbolic address, the Senate Majority PAC of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was buying TV ads in New Hampshire attacking mainstream Republican Chuck Morse as the choice of "Mitch McConnell's Washington establishment" in an effort to boost a pro-Trump candidate, retired Army Gen. Don Bolduc - because Democrats think Bolduc will be an easier general-election opponent for vulnerable Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H. But polls show that Hassan leads Bolduc by only four points - which means he is in striking distance of winning on Election Day. Democrats are doing the same thing in races across the country. In Maryland, the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) spent nearly $2 million on ads to boost Dan Cox, the Trump-backed candidate for governor, in an effort to block a more centrist candidate backed by outgoing Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, a Trump critic. Cox - who urged Donald Trump to seize voting machines in 2020 and tweeted that then-Vice President Mike Pence was a "traitor" - won the primary with the DGA's help. In Illinois, the DGA and Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker spent a whopping $35 million on ads to boost Trump-backed Illinois state Sen. Darren Bailey over centrist Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin - helping Bailey win the GOP gubernatorial nomination. In Pennsylvania, Democratic state Attorney General Josh Shapiro spent $840,000 on TV ads boosting MAGA Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano in the GOP gubernatorial primary, calling him one of "Trump's strongest supporters" and highlighting his 2020 election denial. Democrats spent more than double on ads promoting Mastriano than the MAGA Republican spent himself. ("I'm going to have to send him a thank-you card," Mastriano said.) A recent Emerson College poll shows Mastriano within three points of Shapiro in the gubernatorial general election. Democrats have also tried to help election deniers defeat Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. In Michigan, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) spent $425,000 on ads boosting Trump-endorsed John Gibbs over Rep. Peter Meijer, R-Mich., who voted to impeach Trump last year - labeling Gibbs as "too conservative" for Michigan. In California's 22nd Congressional District, a toss-up district, the House Majority PAC spent more than $110,000 on ads to elevate election denier Chris Mathys over Republican Rep. David Valadao, who also voted to impeach Trump. "David Valadao claims he's Republican - yet David Valadao voted to impeach President Trump," the Democratic ad declares. If they really believe that the MAGA movement represents a threat "to the very soul of this country," as Biden claims, why would House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and the Democratic Party's official campaign arm help MAGA candidates defeat Republicans who voted impeach Trump for his role in Jan. 6? That's not all. In Colorado, Democrats spent more than $4 million to boost election denier Rep. Ron Hanks - who attended the Jan. 6 rally that preceded the U.S. Capitol riot - in an effort to stop his more mainstream opponent Joe O'Dea from winning the nomination for the U.S. Senate. Despite millions in Democratic-funded ads, O'Dea won the GOP primary by nine percentage points. Pelosi's House Majority PAC and other Democratic PACs also spent nearly $300,000 to boost MAGA Republican Lori Saine in Colorado's 8th Congressional District in a failed effort to stop more moderate front-runner Barbara Kirkmeyer, a state senator. In all, the Colorado Sun reports, Democrats spent nearly $7 million to elevate MAGA Republican candidates for House, Senate and governor's races - about $4 million more than Republicans spent on their own primaries. This is sheer hypocrisy. In his speech, Biden ominously warned that MAGA Republicans are "working right now, as I speak, in state after state to give power to . . . election deniers to undermine democracy itself." Yet he failed to mention that, in state after state, Democrats are working to boost them as well. How can Biden tell us with a straight face that MAGA Republicans pose a "threat to our personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country" while his party spends tens of millions to help them win primaries - and thus, potentially, elected office? Biden's strategy of labeling the GOP as "extremists" is a cynical ploy to distract Americans from his serial failures in office. The lesson is clear: Biden and the Democrats don't care about protecting democracy; they only care about protecting their hold on political power. A two-day bass music festival will vibrate through Piedmont Friday for its third iteration. Synesthesia, hosted by the Stupid Happy Collective, will showcase about 43 artists from South Dakota, Colorado, Montana, Minnesota, Wyoming, Nebraska and North Dakota. Were doing our best to have a representation of the dance music scene in the Midwest and also diversify a little bit, said Lucian Bedard, one of three owners of the Stupid Happy Collective. Were not doing 100% dance music. Well have some local and regional bands playing too to get some different flavors in there. Owen Mechling, one of the other three owners, said synesthesia means the blending of the senses, so its the theme every year. Bedard said they dont try to take it too far in terms of decoration or presentation. Fridays headliners include The Unknown Knowns and Another Methodology while Saturdays are Black Carl! and Saka. Locals include the Cottonwood Boys, Cooper Timm, Modern Folklore and The Cosmonaut. Mechling said there are a lot of returning artists, including those in the Stupid Happy Collective. He said Denver artists will play for the first time in the festival. He said one new change to the festival was the application process for artists. Mechling said in addition to new bands, there will be a larger-than-life art installation of mushrooms. They will also have what they call the aquarium which includes a hanging crocheted jellyfish. The festival will have about 10 art and food vendors. Mechling said the festival and Stupid Happy Collective has only grown, and its crazy to watch it grow. Its really insane building something and watching people flock to it, he said. Its kind of the same idea as any of our other shows. We didnt expect this to get as big as it did and we probably didnt expect this for Synesthesia either. He said its the first time theyve sold more than 10 presale tickets. Who knows what that means for the actual festival itself, which is pretty exciting, he said. Mechling said if they had about 200 to 250 people this year, it would feel pretty full. He said last year they had around 150 people. Bedard said the festival will have two outdoor stages. Fridays shows will run until 1 a.m. Saturday, while Saturdays will go to 2 a.m. Sunday. The festival begins 10 a.m. Friday at the Elk Creek Resort, 15955 Deerview Road in Piedmont. Tickets are available online on the Stupid Happy Collective website at stupidhappycolelctive.com, and at the door. Bedard said the ticket price includes camping. Saturday-only tickets are available. For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the South Dakota Indian Education Summit is being hosted in-person in Rapid City through Saturday. The 19th annual summit's theme is Okolakicizel! Okolakiciyapi! or "Working together as one, for the betterment of all!" The event is being hosted at the Ramkota Convention Center in Rapid City by the South Dakota Department of Tribal Relations Office of Indian Education. Director Fred Osborn said educators, administrators and various directors will meet to discuss the latest advances in Native American education. He said keynote and breakout session speakers will address a holistic approach to teaching Native American children. He said speakers will be addressing trauma, especially generational trauma, and mental wellness. "Our breakouts give tools to teachers to take back with them to the classroom," Osborn said. He said it includes teaching Lakota star knowledge and entering a planetarium to teach it to students. "We want our educators to come away from the conference with hard and fast tools to use in the classroom," Osborn said. "We're not just focusing on academic achievement but holistic wellness to the Native student." He said the information is supplemented by vendors, which feature a variety of curriculum from the Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings to wellness programs. There are also post-high school representatives, all of which to provide as much information in one consolidated place. Although the summit began Thursday, it will continue Friday with a conversation on trauma from Dr. Darryl Tonemah and how to create sacred schooling from Dave Archambault Sr. and more. Saturday, however, is free for youth and families. It includes interactive sessions, cultural learning and traditional games, some of which will be led by Crow Creek Sioux Tribal Chairman Peter Lengkeek. "If people are thinking about coming to youth day, come visit, come try it out, come see what some of these Native educators have to offer," Osborn said. Registration for the summit is still available on-site or online at bit.ly/ies22info. National nonprofit organization Wreaths Across America encourages everyone to wave a flag on Sunday to commemorate the 21st anniversary of 9/11. Wreaths Across America staff and volunteers, Gold Star and Blue Star Families and veterans, and everyone who wants to participate, is invited to join in. The flag waving will start at 8:46 a.m. Eastern Time (6:46 a.m. Mountain Time), when on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, five hijackers took control of American Airlines Flight 11 and flew it into the heart of New York City and the northern facade of the World Trade Center's North Tower. The flag waving will conclude at 10:03 a.m. Eastern (8:03 a.m. Mountain), when four hijackers crashed United Airlines Flight 93 into a field in Stonycreek Township near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 11, 2001. Everyone who wants to participate can visit Wreaths Across America's official Facebook page, facebook.com/WAAHQ, to share pictures and videos from their own community flag waving. Participants are encouraged to take video and pictures of their effort in the national flag waving event and share them with WAA, their family and friends to help remember, honor and teach the generation born after 9/11 how hard times can strengthen us as a nation. Use the hashtag #FlagsAcrosstheCountry and #AmericaStrong when posting on social media and tag the Wreaths Across America official Facebook page. Wreaths Across America was founded to continue and expand the annual wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. The organizations mission Remember, Honor, Teach is carried out in part each year by coordinating wreath-laying ceremonies at Arlington and thousands of veterans cemeteries and other locations in all 50 states and beyond. U.S. House candidates Monica Tranel and John Lamb met for a debate-style campaign event at City Hall in Hamilton on Wednesday. The Tranel campaign organized and set up the event, inviting moderator Kimberly Richardson of the MSU Ravalli County Agriculture Extension office to moderate, and supplying questions for the first portion. Ryan Zinke was invited but did not participate. Tranel has challenged Zinke to debate in each county and two reservations in Montana for 18 debates total. The Zinke campaign has agreed to the three sanctioned debate events held by third parties, but has declined to participate in the events set up by the Tranel campaign. Libertarian Lamb grew up in Indiana and now lives in the Bozeman area where he works in farming and construction. Democrat Tranel is a lawyer and former Olympic rower who grew up on a ranch in eastern Montana. The first question for the candidates focused on affordable housing and availability. Lamb spoke about the importance of working toward solutions to the rising costs of housing, citing changes in the Bozeman area. Lamb said he supported local- and state-level action, but as a Libertarian he opposed any intervention on a federal level. I want to see our local communities get involved in these issues on a local level, state level, but not the federal government, because I don't think the federal government can fix our issues, said Lamb. It definitely needs fixed. Bozeman, where I live is seeing a housing shortage horribly, and I believe Gallatin County and our surrounding areas needs to help fix these issues on a local level. Tranel spoke of corporate consolidation driving up housing costs, building density options and suggested a housing task force to bring people in from all walks of life to address the issue. She also told of stories shes heard from people who are struggling with housing while shes been on the campaign trail. I've heard really heartbreaking stories of teachers who got an eviction notice and would lose their job, because that meant that they wouldn't have any place to live in there, Tranel said. Now, I've heard stories of Highway Patrol and law enforcement officers who don't have or who can't afford a place to live. So this is real. She also cited issues specific to Ravalli County. This valley has unique challenges, too, because you have a narrow corridor, and then lots of federal land on either side. I met with the county commissioners here, they've talked about their challenges here, in terms of expanding where you go, she said. But there are certainly opportunities, certainly ways to come at it ... I'm about getting things done about being pragmatic and about developing solutions. When the candidates were asked why they think they deserve to represent Montana, Lamb talked up his advocacy work on criminal justice issues citing cases of wrongful convictions in our judicial system. Tranel discussed the importance of having a rural Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives and talked about her rural farming and ranching background. The candidates were later asked to explain their positions on climate change and its impact on Montana. Lamb talked about his support for federal and state public lands and selective thinning of forests to help fight wildfires. I'm a big advocate for federal lands in state lands and having rights to use these lands and go on for many purposes, you know, fishing, hiking, hunting, and I see these fires and all this timber being burned, he said. "I don't like clear cutting at all it looks horrible. When I grew up in Indiana, I would see the logging companies come through and just cut all the trees down and leave nothing but it looks ugly. But selected cutting and thinning, I believe would help our national forests by cleaning them up. So these fires would not just rage through them and burn this fire that we've seen. Tranel called for a plan to address energy transition and talked about how Montana can be a leader in the process. It's time to embrace this, she said. Ravalli County is served mostly by Ravalli Electric Co-Op. In this new western district, 16 counties and two reservations are largely already fossil-fuel free, because they're largely served by co-ops, which are almost 100% hydro-powered." When asked about their Montana heroes Lamb struggled at first but went on to name Randy Weaver, a self-proclaimed white separatist and the central figure in the Ruby Ridge incident, saying that he felt Weaver had been treated unfairly by the federal government. The only hero that I can think of right now that lived in Montana, knew this guy personally, was Randy Weaver," Lamb said. "He was another guy that I felt the government did him wrong. He lived in Idaho, but he lived in Montana for the last 20 years. I visited Randy Weaver throughout the years, sat down and talked with him. I've done interviews with him. And he's probably the biggest hero that I have that has lived in Montana, the last 20 years. Tranel said that next to her dad, her Montana hero would be Lee Metcalf, who once held the western congressional seat in Montana, saying he was an incredible force for good, for change, for democracy, for inclusion. He was born here in Ravalli County and he was a steward, and I hold that true and dear to me." One of the final questions centered on abortion and reproductive rights for women. When asked about the Supreme Courts decision striking down Roe v. Wade, Lamb stated that he saw the decision a little different and saw it as the federal government taking itself out of it and pushing the issue to the states. He talked about his opposition to abortion and his value of life from conception but said he didnt feel the federal government had any place being involved that it was a state issue. I'm personally against abortion. I have 12 children. And I've got a long story I can tell you about each of them children as they was born. I was the midwife. We had almost every one of them at home. So I see them in each little life as they was developing from feeling them kick in my wife's belly, Lamb said. I'm against abortion personally. But I don't believe the federal government has any place involved in our lives, that it's up to the states. And that's my stance, it's the state issue. I believe that decision, the Supreme Court, removed the federal oversight of it and is leaving it up to the states." Tranel said the decision was about freedom and privacy. This is the first time in the United States in 250 years, where we have curtailed the freedom that we have as Americans," she said. "So we've gone back to 1868, which by the way, is before women could vote, before we could own property, before we can drive cars. That's where the Supreme Court has sent us. And they will continue down that path. It's about freedom. Freedom is on the ballot. And if you like freedom, then you better vote on it in this election." A former employee at the state-run psychiatric hospital used a different name on her job application, meaning a background check that should have raised a red flag on her employment history didn't, according to the state health department. The facility's "inadvertent" employment of Larissa Mack, a former psychiatric technician who spent five years at the facility, ultimately cost the Montana State Hospital nearly $90,000 in a settlement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General. A spokesperson for the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services said Thursday that Mack used a different last name on her application in 2016 than the one that identifies her on the List of Excluded Individuals and Entities kept by the Office of Inspector General. In 2021, Mack applied for a different job at the state hospital, this time with the name registered on the OIG's exclusion list, department spokesperson Jon Ebelt said. Ebelt said Montana State Hospital does check the OIG's exclusion list for all aliases, but relies on the candidate to disclose all aliases when they apply for a job. The exclusion list does allow employers to verify the individual's social security numbers, but Ebelt said the initial search is name-based, meaning someone could subvert the inquiry by applying with a different last name, or, for example, using their maiden name. Still, Ebelt said state hospital background check forms ask the candidates directly if they have been excluded by the OIG from working in a health care setting that receives federal funding. "We believe we are doing everything we can to prevent situations like this from occurring," Ebelt said Thursday. "We believe this to be an isolated incident." In January, the state health department checked all current Montana State Hospital employees against the exclusion list and confirmed no additional employees were on the list, Ebelt said. Records available online with the OIG show Mack's registered nursing license had been terminated in Washington State in 2009. Public licensing records with that state outline an incident in 2007 in which Mack appeared intoxicated at work and a blood test revealed several drugs in her system. The licensing commission there only revoked her nursing license after she failed to comply with a substance-use disorder program. Ebelt said Thursday Mack's listing with the OIG was the only reason for her termination from the state hospital and that the department took "immediate" action after uncovering her listing. Roughly a month after her employment ended, the state health department self-reported the finding to the OIG. It's unclear if Mack intentionally misled the state hospital on her application. Mack did not return a call Wednesday seeking comment. The Montana State News Bureau obtained the state hospital's settlement with the OIG through a Freedom of Information Act request. Of the $89,233.26 the state hospital agreed to pay the OIG, $59,488.84 is restitution for federal funds paid to the state hospital for services Mack provided. The remaining amount is a monetary penalty for employing someone on the exclusion list. The Montana State Hospital no longer receives federal reimbursement dollars for its services. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services pulled its agreement with the state hospital in April after deeming the facility had failed to maintain basic health and safety standards. The facility, which is considered a societal "safety net" for patients with severe mental illness who have nowhere else to go, had received roughly $7 million in federal reimbursement funding each year routed through the state general fund. The state hospital ended the latest fiscal year $17 million over budget, largely due to a heavy reliance on contract staff as compounding recruitment and retention issues persist. The state health department is currently working with a consulting firm to assess the state hospital and other state-run health care facilities, but has not committed to seeking reaccreditation for federal reimbursement funding. 5 shot to death in Md., including 3 children Two adults and three children were found shot to death Friday at a Maryland house after a man called 911 from the home to report a shooting, authorities said. Cecil County Sheriff Scott Adams said a man, a woman and three children in the 5th, 7th and 8th grade were found Friday morning in a large two-story home in Elk Mills. Authorities did not immediately release the identities of the victims but said there is no ongoing threat to the public. The sheriff declined to say what the motive might have been. He said his office has no records of deputies responding to calls at the house. Reorganization plan for BSA approved A bankruptcy judge in Delaware has approved a $2.46 billion Chapter 11 reorganization plan for the Boy Scouts of America, a decision that will directly impact more than 80,000 sexual abuse survivors. The ruling by Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein comes more than two years after BSA filed for bankruptcy protection amid a large number of sexual abuse lawsuits that had been filed by Scouts who had been sexually abused as children by the organizations leaders and volunteers. The Coalition of Abused Scouts for Justice celebrated the historic day for tens of thousands of survivors of childhood sexual assault. The decision means tens of thousands of people who were abused as children will be eligible for compensation within their lifetime, according to a statement from the group. Man killed by coworker after political quarrel A supporter of Brazils president used a knife and an axe to kill a backer of the main opposition leader after an argument about politics weeks ahead of presidential elections, police said. The 24-year-old suspect, who was not identified, killed Benedito Cardoso dos Santos, a 42-year-old farm worker who supports presidential candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, police said. Da Silva, a former president, is the main challenger to President Jair Bolsonaro ahead of a first round of voting on Oct. 2. The two men in Mato Grosso worked together and got into a fight over the candidates they supported, according to the suspects account. He alleged that dos Santos attacked him first and tried to stab him. 24 Malaysians rescued from traffickers Malaysias foreign minister on Friday brought 24 Malaysians back from Cambodia who were rescued from human traffickers, out of a total of 148 citizens he said have been reported missing in the country. Saifuddin Abdullah said 65 of the 148 missing Malaysians were rescued and brought home earlier, and 29 others are still at immigration centers. They will be sent home when their paperwork and investigations are completed. Another 30 remain missing, officials said. The Malaysians, mostly young people, were lured by fake offers of high-paid work in Cambodia, and ended up in the hands of human traffickers and were trapped, he said. Saifuddin didnt provide details on how the 24 people who returned Friday were tricked into going to Cambodia or how long they were trapped. Five days a week, hundreds of dogs in the Richmond area walk to their neighborhood bus stop and run to their seats on remodeled school buses. When the buses turn onto Lewis Road in eastern Henrico County, the dogs start to howl. They know theyre about to arrive at the Woofy Wellness Ranch. Jeff Kellogg, a former corporate business executive, founded the Woofy Wellness Ranch in 2016. Within the next three years, he plans to franchise five locations across the U.S. Twenty five years ago, if you told me I was going to start a dog care business I would laugh, Kellogg said. I was just lucky enough to accumulate all this experience that positioned me to do this the way were doing it. Its a classic example of following your nose during your career and taking on anything that comes your way if you can learn something. The 2-acre ranch in Varina is simple and utilitarian, with no fancy playscapes or toys. We dont want any of that, Kellogg said. We want the dogs to interact with each other and we want the dogs to interact with the ranch hands. The ranch hands teach the dogs proper behaviors: how to play, how to ask to play, how to say no the right way. When I was sitting in boardrooms six years ago, Id be laughing at this stuff. But it really works, Kellogg said. They get all the physical stuff that you see, the wrestling, the fresh air and all that. But because were constantly working with them, and theyre constantly engaging with each other, it really wipes them out mentally. Customers call it the woofy hangover. The ranch hands are trained by dog expert Bill Howard, who runs the safety and training side of the business. Howard says he is the first to apply the type of psychological training that he employs in a group setting. On the ranch, the dogs are split into four groups, based on personality. On one end of the spectrum are older dogs who want to sun themselves, and on the other end are puppies who want to wrestle all day. As dogs spend more time on the ranch, they tend to shift groups because of the psychological training, said Kellogg and Howard. Theres no playbook. Theres no training materials, Kellogg said. Weve actually had to step back and create training materials from scratch. Growth The 2-acre ranch sees between 100 and 150 dogs each day. Kellogg said there is enough land to increase capacity to accommodate 400 dogs at a time as the business grows. In the early years, bus stops were set up at a few businesses around town, which was convenient for people working in offices. In 2020, Kellogg set up more residential stops due to the increased demand. In March 2020 after Capital One announced a shutdown at the onset of the pandemic, Kellogg said the phones started ringing off the hook. Customers wanted to cancel their memberships. March and April were lost. But then the phones started ringing again, and people wanted back in. Business doubled by the end of the year. Kellogg said that people soon realized that working from home with a dog wasnt all it was cracked up to be. And many people adopted new pets during pandemic shutdowns. We were a good way for people to have the dog, have the companionship and care for something, but during the day come here so they can work, Kellogg said. The dog is also coming home better behaved, coming home mellow, because its been out playing all day and having fun. There are now 17 bus stops in the Richmond area. The largest concentration of customers are in the Wyndham area of western Henrico. The daily rate for day school including transportation on the woofy bus is $39.95. Most people opt for a two- or three-day a week monthly pass, which costs $300 or $440 a month. The business also offers a-la-carte services such as in-home training, grooming and boarding. While the goal is to become a national business, Kellogg said he wants to stay headquartered in Henrico with the centralized administration. Kellogg did not give specifics on revenue growth, but said the business has seen double-digit percentage growth each year. The goal is to expand. This will work in every city. Everybodys busy, everybody wants a dog, and everybody needs help, Kellogg said. We allow people who normally wouldnt be able to have a dog, we help them have a dog because we help them care for it. We help them give it a safe, good place to go and learn every day. When Angela Petruzzelli moved to Richmond, she fell in love with the city but missed the Southern Italian cuisine she enjoyed growing up. I grew up cooking, she said. It was how my family spent time together. After seeing the popularity of pop-up concepts, she launched Sprezza, a Southern-Italian pop-up concept, about a little over a year ago. As she hosted successful pop-up takeout dinners and event collaborations at The Broken Tulip and Pizza Bones, she started looking for a restaurant space. The pop-ups were super geared toward things that people could take home with them, Petruzzielli said, adding that most traditional Italian restaurants dont offer takeout, so she had to focus on certain menu items that could travel long distances and be reheated. In addition, being a one-woman show meant the quantities she could prepare and sell were very limited. When she saw the former location of Mortons The Steakhouse (111 Virginia St.), she fell in love. Anyone who has been to the old Mortons knows it was very dark and kind of felt like a man cave, Petruzzelli said. Im planning to make it bright and open, like restaurants in Southern Italy. Its going to feel airy, even without windows. The 7,000-plus square-foot restaurant has lots of space, and Petruzzelli is excited about the capacity to serve everyone who has supported her business. I want to give them something amazing and something Im proud of It will be elevated and beautiful, she said. The name Sprezza comes from the Italian word sprezzatura. Its the art of taking something complicated and making it look really simple, Petruzzelli said, and it perfectly fits her made-from-scratch dishes. For example, her traditional lasagna takes eight hours to make and features fresh pasta sauce and slow-simmered Bolognese. It sells out at every pop-up and will definitely be on the Sprezza menu. Other popular items are panini sandwiches served on freshly baked bread with imported ingredients as well as fresh pastries, like the frequently requested sporcamuss. To make them, Petruzzelli fills scratch-made puff pastries with Italian cream. They take forever to make, she said. The restaurant menu will feature elevated Southern Italian dishes, including seafood, steaks, fresh meat cuts, housemade pasta, freshly baked pastries and dessert. Petruzzelli is particularly excited about incorporating seafood into her homemade pastas something she just couldnt do with takeout pop-ups. Sprezza is targeting a mid-to-late November opening. The restaurant will launch with dinner service only, but Petruzzelli is hoping to add lunch and brunch soon after, and eventually coffee and pastries early in the day. In the meantime, follow @sprezzacucina on Instagram. Petruzzelli will continue to host pop-ups while overseeing the renovation process and will share details there. LE MARS, Iowa Darlene Knapp knew her husband was mad when he returned inside their home. Tom Knapp had noticed a birdbath knocked over in their yard that morning and went outside to set it back up. Darlene Knapp said raccoons probably knocked it over, but she knew Tom likely would blame her son, Kevin Juzek, who lived in their basement. "We was probably blaming both of us," Darlene Knapp said, testifying that her husband didn't like having Juzek in their home, but there had never been any physical confrontations between them. "I guess he just really never liked Kevin whatsoever." Minutes later, Juzek was dead on the living room floor, shot twice by Tom Knapp after Juzek had stepped in to stop him from assaulting Darlene. Knapp, 84, has pleaded not guilty in Plymouth County District Court of first-degree murder and willful injury for the May 11, 2020, shooting of Juzek, 51, who was his stepson. Knapp also is charged with willful injury and domestic assault for assaulting Darlene prior to the shooting. If found guilty of first-degree murder, Knapp would face a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole. Knapp is accused of shooting Juzek with a 20-gauge shotgun through his bedroom door, striking him in the abdomen, then shooting him a second time from point-blank range in the chest in the living room floor. Darlene Knapp testified that her husband punched her at least twice in the face when she brought some fresh water to him. Inside his bedroom, Tom knocked her down, then pulled her up onto the bed by her hair. He then struck her with a wooden exercise stick similar to a broomstick at least twice, one of the blows breaking fingers in Darlene's left hand as she tried to protect herself. Juzek came to the door, Darlene said, and she ducked under Tom to leave the bedroom. She said Juzek held the door shut so she could call 911. She didn't hear the first shot. "Kevin came out and told me Tom shot him in the stomach," she said. Juzek fell to the floor and was sitting up. "Then Tom came out and he kind of kicked Kevin in the foot and said 'you mean you aren't dead yet?' and then he shot him in the chest," Darlene said. "Kevin was absolutely petrified. When (Tom) pointed the gun at him, (Kevin) said 'oh, no,' and those were Kevin's last words. "I'll never forget it. It's in my heart." Darlene Knapp said Tom pursued her as she left the house, holding the gun against her. "I was scared I was going to get shot in the back," she said. Able to escape, Darlene called 911 a second time from outside, and officers soon arrived while Tom Knapp remained inside the house. Knapp's attorneys say his actions were justified and he shot Juzek in self-defense. In an audio recording of Knapp's interview with investigators played Thursday for the jury, Knapp said Darlene had threatened her with the stick, and he took it from her and hit her. He also told deputies Juzek was screaming at him from outside his bedroom. Plymouth County Sheriff Mike Van Otterloo, who has since retired, responded to the shooting and spoke with Tom Knapp, who was seated in the back seat of a patrol car. After Van Otterloo advised him of his right to remain silent, he asked Knapp why he shot his stepson. "Because he was attacking me," Knapp said in a video recording of the conversation played for jurors. "He was jerking on the door. He had a wood thing, he was going to hit me with it." On Thursday, jurors heard other recordings of Knapp telling investigators that Juzek purposely annoyed him, and even played some kind of electronic device that kept Knapp awake at night. Darlene Knapp testified she never heard the noise her husband -- the two are now divorced -- complained about. At the conclusion of her testimony, Plymouth County Attorney Darin Raymond rested his case after a day and a half of witness testimony and evidence. After speaking briefly with Knapp in private, public defender Wendy Samuelson then rested the defense case without calling Knapp or any other witnesses to testify. Jeffrey Legro, the provost, or chief academic officer, at University of Richmond, will leave his position at the end of the academic year, UR president Kevin Hallock announced. Legro, who came to UR in 2017, will continue working at UR as a professor of international relations. The University of Richmond is chock-full of students eager to learn and faculty and staff who are all in to help them do it, Legro said. For a provost, it does not get any better. Hallock credited Legro for helping recruit a strong, increasingly diverse faculty and two deans. He worked with faculty and administration on developing programs for Africana studies and health studies as well as the first major reform of the universitys general education in 30 years. At heart, Jeff remains a dedicated teacher and accomplished scholar, and I fully understand his desire to return to the role of faculty member and am glad he will do so at Richmond, Hallock said. As Virginia enters peak hurricane season Saturday, Richmonds Department of Emergency Communications is encouraging residents to be prepared for stormy weather as the summer months end. City officials on Thursday met at the Richmond Public Library on Franklin Street to remind residents about best practices before, during and after a storm. While we do not have control over whether or not we will be impacted by a storm, what we do have control over is ensuring that we are as fully prepared as possible for hurricane season, said city Chief Administrative Officer Lincoln Saunders. Last year, Virginia experienced the affects of several named storms, including hurricanes Ida and Larry and Tropical Storm Odette. The commonwealth also had an unexpected snow storm that shut down parts of Northern Virginia and stalled traffic on Interstate 95. In response, Saunders said, the city has been reviewing and revamping inclement weather response plans with the help of city partners from the American Red Cross, Dominion Energy, Richmond Ambulance Authority and others. Stephen Willoughby, director of the emergency communications department, said partnerships are crucial to the citys plan and the preparation leading up to peak hurricane season. For instance, the Richmond City Council recently adopted an updated emergency operations plan and this summer the city worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to test flood walls. Now a part of Richmond being a prepared city is not only preparation taken by your city government, but also personal preparedness of our residents, Willoughby said. Willoughby and Chief Deputy Coordinator Anthony McLean asked residents to stay informed, prepare a plan and have emergency supplies including: Three to five days of food and drinking water Paper products and cleaning supplies Battery-operated flashlights and radios First-aid kits, medicine and prescription drugs Specialty items such as oxygen tanks, baby supplies, walking aides and more Regardless of the number of storms we name, it just takes one to disrupt our daily lives, said McLean. McLean also encouraged residents to sign up for the citys CodeRED emergency notification. Richmond will also share emergency notifications on the citys website and on social media. A full list of best practices for hurricane preparedness is at rva.gov/emergency-management. Jamie Raskin on CBS: "Two of the hallmarks of a fascist political party are, one, they don't accept the results of elections that don't go their way, and two, they embrace political violence. And I think that's why President Biden was right to sound the alarm this week." pic.twitter.com/9S13L7ZG3D Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 4, 2022 In what is being reported as the most divisive presidential speech - September 1, 2022 - in modern American history, where over 74,000.000 people, many of whom are OUR greatest patriots, were named as fascists by inference or otherwise: Is Joe Biden clearly capable of governing all of the American People to the betterment of this Representative Republic? Yes, it is important that Haters are named. No, Joe Biden cannot accept criticism when the real truth is his cruelest taskmaster. I have no idea what is going on because I only consume Democratic Socialist Media. 92 total vote(s) What's your Opinion? poll#154 Inarguably, the policies of the Democrats in congress and Joe Biden as the Executive is plunging the United States into a recession, if we are not already there; a recession that was completely avoidable. Will abrupt changes in policies occur in time? Yes, the Democrats have a bold plan, yet to be revealed, to save us. No, there will have to be a complete undoing of the damage done by these Democrats. I can't do simple math, so how am I to understand the concept of basic economics. 541 total vote(s) What's your Opinion? Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD) defended President Joe Biden's recent remarks during a Sunday appearance on CBS'claiming that failure to accept the result of a free and fair election was one of theof a fascist party.Biden took some heat earlier in the week - for asserting that some Republicans had embracedand that so-calledwere a threat to American democracy - as critics argued that the president who ran on uniting the country was only dividing the American people further. Raskin doubled down on Biden's comments.WATCH:Raskin, responding to former President Donald Trump's repeated claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent, argued first that every case Trump's attorneys had put forth had failed.he added.But Raskin hasn't always been so accepting of election results himself. In January of 2017 - when it came time for Congress to certify the results of the 2016 election - Raskin was among those who argued that the votes cast by electors from the state of Florida should not stand.Then Vice President Joe Biden struck down the move, saying,Raskin dismissed criticism of his objection by saying that in 2017, no one had stormed the Capitol.Raskin also objected to the 2000 presidential election, stating in a video unearthed by the Republican National Committee that former President George W. Bush had effectively been appointed by the Supreme Court rather than elected by the American people.And Raskin was not the only one. Former Secretary of State - and failed presidential candidate - Hillary Clinton claimed that the 2016 election wasfrom her. President Joe Biden, after an audience member at a rally referred to Trump as anjokingly asked the person to be his vice presidential candidate. The Virginia Indigent Defense Commission has tapped the agencys deputy director as its new executive chief, following the recent retirement of the commissions longtime leader. Maria Jankowski, a former assistant public defender in Richmond and assistant federal public defender for the District of Columbia, was elevated this week from deputy executive director to executive director of the commission, whose 14 members are designated by state statute. The state agency is responsible for managing the 28 public defender offices across Virginia, which includes three offices in the Richmond-Petersburg region. Described by the commission as an experienced leader and indigent criminal defense advocate, Jankowski replaces David Johnson, who retired Sept. 1 after leading the agency since 2005. Jankowski is a graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Law. She was in private practice handling criminal cases in state and federal court before joining the commission. She could not immediately be reached for comment. Among other duties, the commission manages the certification of public defenders, as well as private attorneys that seek through court appointments to represent indigent defendants in criminal cases. The commission also provides training to all certified attorneys to improve criminal defense representation to Virginians unable to hire an attorney of their choice. The commission this week also announced that Timothy Coyne, chief public defender for the city of Winchester and five surrounding counties, will replace Jankowski as the agencys deputy executive director. A graduate of the T.C. Williams School of Law at the University of Richmond, Coyne first worked as the a law clerk for the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, handling civil rights actions and habeas corpus petitions filed by prisoners. He then worked as a litigation attorney for the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, prosecuting civil investment fraud cases. In 2004, he was appointed as the public defender for the Winchester office. He also served on the Winchester City Council from 2000 to 2008. When Liberation Church pastor Jay Patrick looks at the former shopping center thats home to his church, he sees more than a place for sermons and prayers. Were thinking of making this into a kindness mall, he told Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Friday before giving an update on the homeless veterans services Kaine was involved with decades ago, when Freedom House got going. That update is about the next big step in Liberation Churchs plans for the old mall on 5501 Midlothian Turnpike, where it runs a food pantry Tuesdays and Thursdays that regularly serves 600 to 700 people, as well as classes for people recovering from addiction. The churchs veterans services nonprofit plans to build transitional housing for homeless veterans at the western end of the old malls giant parking lot. Patricks got a track record here: He was in the administration at Freedom House when it dissolved itself in 2013, and he scrambled to dig up the funding to keep its 38-bed facility for homeless veterans open at its 12th and Hull streets site. Liberations veterans services nonprofit currently runs the Hull Street facility. Freedom Houses closing kind of sparked me to raise my hand and say hey, theres something we can do, he told Kaine. Now, with a $1.9 million grant from the Veterans Administration, he wants to build something better for homeless veterans the new one will have separate bedrooms and showers for residents. Its a matter of dignity, Patrick said. And while the plan is to move veterans from the old place on Hull Street, Patrick said the nonprofit is already seeing donors step up to fund an expansion. Theres a big need, he said. He is aiming for a 50-bed transitional facility and 26 units of permanent housing. Like the facility at Hull Street, the new one will have certified mental health and substance abuse staff on hand, with expertise in dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder. As with Hull Street, Liberation aims to serve some of the most challenging veterans, including those who have failed out of other VA programs. Most veterans Liberation works with stay for about six months, though they can have all the time they need to get on their feet, Patrick said. His follow-ups show that some 86% are still doing well 12 months after leaving the program. Theres a real priority on serving these veterans, Kaine said, as Patrick detailed his plans to start construction later this year. Meantime, Liberations kindness mall continues to take shape. Besides the food pantry and recovery classes, it runs a thrift shop next door, providing jobs and affordable critical family needs including furniture and clothing. It has set up a fitness center and laundromat and just signed a three-year agreement with the YMCA for child care services, which are to start shortly. It hosted the recent gun buy-back, getting more than 400 guns off the street, and held a back-to-school giveaway for 500 children. Patrick said he hopes to reach out to the community to hear what other services maybe a library, maybe a supermarket people feel most in need of. I dont lead with being a pastor, he told Kaine, as the two talked about their churches. I want to be a bridge between a faith community and a community of people who need help, who need support. On the day the queen died, Richmonders came downtown to Penny Lane Pub, owned and operated by Liverpool native Terry ONeill, to raise a glass in the queens honor. Inside the East Franklin Street bar, where portraits of Queen Elizabeth II grace the walls, was Jenna Anderson, a dual citizen whose mother is from Britain and whose father was a pilot in the U.S. Air Force. I have a great deal of respect for her because she did not choose to become a monarch, but no one can deny what an amazing job she did, said Anderson. I just have a lot of admiration for her and the role she played in my life Ill miss her. The bar opened at the location in 2003 after being at another location since 1978. On Thursday, its Facebook page featured photos of the monarch, who died at 96 after 70 years on the throne. Prince Charles, 73, automatically became king and will be known as King Charles III, it was announced. A funeral was to be held after 10 days of official mourning. ONeill said the death is a loss for all. Then-Gov. Tim Kaine invited ONeill to meet the queen during her visit to Virginia in 2007. The thing I remember most from talking to her is those bright, blue eyes, said ONeil. Theyre unbelievable Most of us dont remember a time when she wasnt the queen and Id say she was the last great royal. More coverage of Queen Elizabeth's death from The Times-Dispatch Attorney General Jason Miyares on Friday announced the formation of an Election Integrity Unit. Composed of more than 20 attorneys, investigators and paralegals, the unit will provide legal advice to the Department of Elections as well as investigate and prosecute violations of state election law. I pledged during the 2021 campaign to work to increase transparency and strengthen confidence in our state elections, Miyares said in a statement. It should be easy to vote, and hard to cheat. The Election Integrity Unit will work to help to restore confidence in our democratic process in the Commonwealth. The unit will also work with the election community throughout the year to ensure uniformity and legality in application of election laws, and work with law enforcement to ensure legality and purity in elections. Under Virginia law, the attorney general has authority to do whatever is necessary or appropriate to enforce election laws or prosecute violations thereof. The announcement comes after reports of law enforcement investigations into alleged misconduct in the Nottoway County election office and disputes between an electoral board member and registrar. Virginia has 133 local electoral boards and general registrars that operate in a nonpartisan manner. However, state law requires that two of the three electoral board seats are for people that belong to whichever political party is in control of the governors office. Election integrity has been a talking point for some Republicans following President Donald Trumps loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 election and false claims of widespread election fraud. Around the country, some Trump supporters belief in voter fraud sparked protests at polling precincts, legal challenges, and the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. In Virginia, the state Senate rejected a proposal by Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield, to spend $70 million in state tax funds on a forensic audit of the 2020 presidential election. State Sen. Jen Kiggans, R-Virginia Beach, was among six Senate Republicans who backed the audit. Kiggans is now the GOP nominee in a closely watched congressional contest with Rep. Elaine Luria, D-2nd. Rep. Bob Good, R-5th, whose district now includes part of Hanover County, voted against certification of the election results in January 2021. At a convention this summer where he secured the GOP nomination, attendees voted to have the 5th District Republican Committee send the General Assembly a resolution asking for an audit of the 2020 election. Additionally, the GOP in Campbell County where Good previously served as a local supervisor sent a resolution in a news release to area media. But no formal resolution requesting an audit by the committees has been sent to the General Assembly, according to Division of Legislative Services attorney Brooks Braun. Though election integrity has generally been a concern for Republicans, Jay Jones, who sought the 2021 Democratic nomination for attorney general, proposed a similar unit last year. It would have worked with the Department of Elections to investigate complaints ranging from voter harassment to alleged improper election administration. The unit would have also conducted outreach to communities around the state. This group would have been empowered to really go all over and sort of spread the gospel of free and fair elections, Jones said. These are your rights. This is how you get in touch with us if you see something that is abnormal. Jones said that he had the idea, in part, after watching footage of the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection and realizing how far mistrust in democracy had spread. Amid the fallout of the 2020 election, a wave of GOP-proposed laws surfaced around the country, including one signed by Georgia governor Brian Kemp last year that Democrats nationwide have called voter suppression. Jones is skeptical of Miyares unit, citing what he termed election interference by other Republican attorneys general around the country. Miyares spokesperson Victoria LaCivita said that members of the public should reach out to their local election officials or law enforcement with election-related concerns and that they can also reach out to the attorney generals office. A fellow Republicans legal reasoning 16 years ago affirming obstacles to equal rights for LGBTQ Virginians could complicate for Gov. Glenn Youngkin an unrelated matter that also makes him squeamish: protections for the environment. In February 2006, Attorney General Bob McDonnell, who would be elected governor three years later, issued a legal opinion in which he said then-Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, did not have the authority to put in place by executive order anti-discrimination safeguards for gay and lesbian state employees. McDonnell said that because the Virginia legislature had not, by statute, designated sexual orientation as a protected class as it had done with race, color, gender, religion, age and national origin Kaine was altering state policy without the required consent of the General Assembly. In 2020, Virginia its government then fully controlled by Democrats became the first Southern state to ban discrimination against LGBTQ people in employment, housing and public accommodation. Kaine, whose order extended one put in place by his predecessor, fellow Democrat Mark Warner, ignored McDonnells findings. McDonnell prepared the opinion for a Republican delegate long hostile to gay rights, Bob Marshall of Prince William County, who would be defeated in 2017 by Democrat Danica Roem, the nations first openly trans state legislator. But what does sex the topic of a largely forgotten treatise by a former attorney general have to do with the politically sexy issue of greenhouse gases and Virginias efforts to control them? The answer may come down to five words in parentheses in the first paragraph of the third page of McDonnells nine-page letter to Marshall. First, however, keep in mind the noisy fight between Youngkin and Democratic legislators over his announced plan to pull Virginia by the end of 2023 from an 11-state consortium to control carbon emissions through an exchange under which members pledge to put caps on emissions and require millions of dollars in payments to exceed agreed levels. That money is a defining and often-overlooked feature of the program, which generated for Virginia in its first year nearly $230 million, much of it to pay for the disruptive consequences of climate change, such as destructive floods that swept through Southwest Virginia, a Republican bulwark that Youngkin carried in 2021. Youngkin says the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative is needlessly driving up electric rates for Virginians because utilities are passing along to customers the higher-than-expected costs of breaching emission restrictions. Citing industry estimates, Youngkin says those higher bills could cost customers $1 billion to $1.2 billion over the next four years. His remedy: withdraw from the multistate compact. He signed an executive order the day he was sworn in this past January, directing the State Air Pollution Control Board to draft and approve an emergency rule under which Virginia would quit RGGI, which it joined in 2020, that year of one-party control when LGBTQ protections also became law. Democrats in the minority in the House of Delegates and who control the Virginia Senate by a single seat say the only way Virginia can legally and constitutionally get out of the collective is the same way it got in: by a vote of the legislature. The Democrats slender Senate majority means Virginia would likely remain in RGGI, forcing Youngkins disputed go-it-alone approach. Which brings us back to the McDonnell opinion on Kaine using executive authority to shield gay people from on-the-job discrimination. McDonnell told Marshall that executive action intended to unilaterally circumvent or override policy established by the General Assembly need not be limited to a written order signed by the governor, as was the case with Kaine and Warner, both of whom were carrying out campaign promises to equal-rights advocates. The attorney general wrote that, while the authority of the governor to issue executive orders is well established in the law and history of the commonwealth, the scope of that prerogative is limited. This is where McDonnells intriguing parenthetical language comes in. A governor may not use an executive order to (or by any other means) exercise any of the legislative power that is vested solely in the General Assembly, McDonnell said. The governor may not legislate by executive order. This is the essence of the separation-of-powers doctrine. In moving to extract Virginia from RGGI, Youngkin unlike Donald Trump, when he pulled the United States from the Paris climate agreement is not resorting to fiat. Instead, he is using to borrow McDonnells words other means, specifically, the governors control of the air board through the appointive process. The board has seven members, four of whom were installed by Youngkin, ensuring him a rubber stamp for his wishes. Could McDonnells little words have a big impact on Youngkins ploy, perhaps extending to Democrats and the environmental lobby another weapon for thwarting the governor? That this could end up in court a classic separation-of-powers dispute would not come as surprise to either side. Nate Benforado, a lawyer at the Southern Environmental Law Center, said the McDonnell findings are part of a long line of opinions that establish, under the Virginia Constitution, that the governor does not have the authority to ignore or circumvent the laws he disagrees with. Hope Cupit, of Bedford, a Democratic appointee to the air board, has said she has an opinion from the attorney general she hasnt said which one that concludes the governor is powerless to remove Virginia from the compact. She wont release it never mind that opinions are public records. The current attorney general, Republican Jason Miyares, is silent on it. And an environmental group is in court to force its release. Could it be an opinion by Democrat Mark Herring, issued shortly before he left office in January, that says Youngkin, alone, cant yank Virginia from RGGI? Could it be the McDonnell opinion with its open-to-interpretation flourish? But note: An attorney generals opinion carries the weight of law unless overridden by judicial edict, an act of the legislature or another opinion by the states top lawyer. And Miyares isnt talking about that possibility, either. Over a half-century, Queen Elizabeth II made three visits to Virginia, where her appearances marked pivotal points some of them wrenching for the British colony-turned-American state named more 400 years ago for her enthroned ancestor, Elizabeth I. The queen, who died Thursday at age 96, made her initial visit in 1957, marking the 350th anniversary of Jamestown, the first permanent English-speaking settlement in the New World. Her appearances at Jamestown and Williamsburg, the Colonial capital, were for the conservative machine that controlled Virginia a celebratory respite from growing tensions over a U.S. Supreme Court ruling three years earlier opening to Black students previously white-only public school classrooms. At the reconstructed Jamestown fort, the queen and Prince Philip, who died in 2021, noticed in its stocks, according to an account by Richmond Times-Dispatch columnist Charles McDowell, two unhappy-looking prisoners. Elizabeth wondered aloud whether such confinement was painful, with the prince asking if they had been pelted with rotten eggs. When one of the prisoners said hed been punished for spreading gossip to this day, the bane of Britains royal family Del. Lewis McMurrran. D-Newport News, an unapologetic Anglophile and chairman of Jamestown anniversary celebration, referred to the men in the stocks as her majestys loyal opposition. Elizabeth returned during the American bicentennial in 1976, as Virginias transition from rural backwater to suburban dynamo was accelerating. (She also would make a brief stop at Arlington National Cemetery during a visit to Washington in 1991.) Her visit to Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson, and the Jefferson-founded University of Virginia spotlighted Virginias role in shedding the British imperial yoke for representative democracy that, paradoxically, would perpetuate for more than 250 years Black slavery that the English established here in 1619. It was in 2007, on Elizabeths final visit to Virginia, that the monarch in an address to the state legislature at the freshly renovated state Capitol would note that the states long story, not unlike that of her realm, had failed to fully acknowledge the roles of the Indigenous peoples whose lands were seized by English colonists and whence sprang wealth achieved with the labor of enslaved Black people. That trip, too, would be something of a balm, easing the sting of a mass shooting at Virginia Tech several weeks earlier in which 33 people died, including the gunman. Speaking from the dais in the House of Delegates, Elizabeth expressed condolences for the dreadful events at Virginia Tech, offering on behalf of the people of the United Kingdom ... my deepest sympathies at this time of such grief and sorrow. She and Philip would include in their stop in Richmond a private meeting with students who had survived the mass slaying then the worst in U.S. history as well as families of students killed or wounded in the attack. She and Prince Philip couldnt have been more solicitous, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who was governor at the time, said in an interview Thursday with The Times-Dispatch, adding that the queen also visited with workers from the Capitol restoration many of them Hispanic in the Old Senate Chamber, where hangs a vast mural of the British defeat at Yorktown in October 1781. Behind the queen, at the Speakers rostrum, sat Republican House Speaker William Howell of Stafford and Senate President Pro Tempore John Chichester, R-Stafford. The pair, then estranged over policy, combined on a present for Elizabeth: a rare first-edition book by Jefferson they presented to her at a reception at the Executive Mansion. Recalling that moment, Howell said, She was quite the lady, noting, too, that the queen resembled his aunt Margaret, an English emigree known as Billie. In her remarks to the General Assembly, Elizabeth said that the Virginia colony named, apparently at the suggestion of explorer Sir Walter Raleigh, for Elizabeth I, known as the Virgin Queen would become the foundation of a great nation, founded on the eternal values of democracy and equality, based on the rule of law and the promotion of freedom. But Elizabeth said she had learned since her 1957 visit that ideals and reality were in conflict. Fifty years on, we are now in a position to reflect more candidly on the Jamestown legacy, she said. Human progress rarely comes without cost, she added. And those early years in Jamestown, when three great civilizations came together for the first time, Western European, Native American and African, released a train of events which continues to have a profound social impact, not only in the United States, but also in the United Kingdom and Europe. Noting Virginias quadricentennial and the bicentennial of the abolition of the British slave trade fell on the same year, the queen said, It is right that we continue to reassess the meaning of historical events in the changing context of the present. The remarks to the legislature did not go off seamlessly. Confusion over the timing and staging of the appearance prompted the House sergeant at arms to mistakenly announce several times Elizabeth was entering the chamber, jammed with lawmakers and guests, all of whom sprang to their feet to cheer and applaud, expecting to see the sovereign ply the center aisle. But alas. When the queen finally arrived, the boisterous welcome included former Gov. George Allen jokingly calling out, Sic semper tyrannis Thus always to tyrants the state motto. Elizabeths 1976 visit included remarks to 18,000 outside UVas Cabell Hall, where, accompanied by Gov. Mills E. Godwin Jr., she declared the long-standing partnership between Britain and America has its roots here in Virginia a reference to the Jamestown settlement in the swampy tidewater, more than 100 miles east of Charlottesville, she had visited in 1957, five years after assuming the British throne and to which she would return in 2007. The queen was not alone among royal visitors to modern-day Virginia. In 1981, two months before marrying Diana Spencer, Elizabeths son and successor, now King Charles III, appeared in Norfolk, touring NATO headquarters there and the giant aircraft carrier USS Nimitz before heading by helicopter to Williamsburg for stops at the restored colonial town site and the College of William & Mary. It is the only American university that still operates under its royal charter one issued in 1693 by William III, a Dutch-born member of the family that has reigned Great Britain for more than 1,200 years, including 70 under Elizabeth II that distinguished her as her nations longest-serving monarch. The 1972 Black History Week program at Charlottesvilles Lane High School had been tranquil. But during a medley of songs, including the James Weldon Johnson hymn Lift Every Voice and Sing, Esther Vassar noticed rows of white students walking out of the auditorium, and shed silent tears. Vassar, a young English teacher new to Lane, had organized the history observance. The same program had gone off the day before without a discordant note. Lift Every Voice and Sing is reverently known as the Black National Anthem, although Vassar says she did not refer to it as such on this occasion. The walkout by about 50 white students was followed by a counter-protest by Black students. Id go to my mailbox every day and Id have hate mail, simply for doing what the principal asked me to do, Vassar recalled. A committee was charged with investigating the white walkout and following Black counter-protest. Ultimately, no disciplinary action was taken against any of the students involved, according to a March 12, 1972, story in The Richmond Times-Dispatch. Vassar and two Black members of the Lane High class of 1972 James Bryant and Ronnie Johnson feel an estrangement from Lane that endures. Neither alum attended a Lane class reunion in August; judging from photos of the event, few Black alumni did. This weekend, Johnson and Bryant, a retired educator and vice chair of the Charlottesville School Board, will convene a program in the building that houses their former segregation-era elementary school. The Jefferson School Forever Reunion, 1960-72 will be held at what is now the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center. Vassar will be Saturdays keynote speaker. Jefferson Elementary closed in 1965 after Charlottesville desegregated its schools. We felt that going back to Jefferson, a lot of our classmates, they would feel safe, they would feel valued and they would feel wanted. They didnt feel that with the regular class, Bryant said during a recent interview that included Vassar and Johnson. If separate reunions strikes you as a sad denouement, consider this: Some Black people wax nostalgic for the segregation era because integration brought the continued trauma or racism without the supportive cocoon of community that segregation imposed. And yes, Ive experienced similar Black History Week assembly discord. That integration in 1966 was an eye opener because at that point in time, none of us had had white teachers, Bryant recalled. So it was a culture shock for us. And during that period from sixth grade on, we were almost treated like second-class citizens. He recalled a guidance counselor attempting to dissuade him from attending college, urging him to pursue a trade instead. Vassar would go on to teach college for 20 years. Shed head the Virginia Department of Minority Business Enterprise, chair the states Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority Board and serve as national ombudsman of the U.S. Small Business Administration before her retirement. At Lane, she was the mentor alienated Black students craved. When Mrs. Vassar arrived at Lane High School in 1971 with her turbans and her dashikis and her Afrocentric look, we said, Wow, this is what we have been waiting for, Bryant recalled. She introduced Black literature such as Ralph Ellisons Invisible Man and Richard Wrights Native Son, as well as the poetry of Nikki Giovanni. Despite receiving some very lovely notes from students amid the hostility, Vassar wanted no part of a School Board meeting to address the controversy. Black parents persuaded her to attend. People in the packed room made comments such as, This teacher ... made our students pledge allegiance to the Black national anthem, which wasnt true, she said. I was this 25-year-old girl who was this monster in their minds. Near the meetings conclusion, the Rev. Henry Mitchell, the School Boards lone Black member, read the words to Lift Every Voice and Sing, Vassar recalled. And he said, What is offensive about that? Not another word was spoken and the assembly was dismissed. Im so glad that we have had a chance to give her an opportunity to tell her story, a tearful Bryant said. Vassar and her husband had planned to make a permanent home in Charlottesville. But after the Lane incident, they decided they could not stay. She had long suppressed her memories of that tumultuous time. But this weekend will represent a kind of homecoming. Ive had a lot of honors in my career, said Vassar, who now lives in Florida. This one is the most important. Its a cleansing thats taking place here, its a healing, Johnson said of the reunion. On Saturday, I dont think theres going to be a dry eye in the place. Michael Paul Williams Follow Michael Paul Williams 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 Neo-Nazis have First Amendment rights, too. But you wouldnt want them populating local law enforcement. The Oath Keepers are an extremist anti-government militia group. Lest you think it out of bounds to mention them in the same breath as Nazis, lets revisit the testimony of Jason Van Tatenhove, former spokesman for the Oath Keepers, before the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol. Van Tatenhove said he decided to quit the group after happening upon a conversation of Oath Keepers and associates in a Montana grocery store, where they were talking about how the Holocaust was not real. And that was for me something I just could not abide. Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and four co-defendants from the group are facing seditious conspiracy charges related to the insurrection. Other members have pleaded guilty. More than two dozen people associated with the Oath Keepers have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack. Whatever the oath in that title suggests, its not to the Constitution or the rule of law. As of Aug. 8, the Center on Extremism had identified more than 370 individuals in the Oath Keepers database who it believes are currently working in law enforcement agencies across the country, including at least 10 chiefs of police and 11 sheriffs. The Chesterfield deputy, whose name was not released, was hired in 2018 and left on active-duty military orders overseas in September 2021, with a 2023 scheduled return date, Leonard said. In a statement, Leonard said that as a constitutional officer, I will always defend individual constitutional rights. Memberships in an organization such as Oath Keepers, as well as many other groups, is a protected First Amendment right, he said. However, if at any time the line is crossed to violence, any criminal act, or any actions discriminatory in any fashion, swift action will be taken as that behavior will never be acceptable or tolerated. All of which raises the question of exactly who else, from what group, is under his command? Perhaps Leonard is waiting for his unnamed deputy to participate in an insurrection, as was the case with two Rocky Mount police officers, before he takes action. According to the Center on Extremism report, some individuals offered to use their position to introduce fellow members of law enforcement to Oath Keepers ideology to ultimately recruit them. In this context, Leonard is potentially opening up his organization as an Oath Keepers recruiting ground. The Chesterfield NAACP is calling for the firing of the deputy. Demanding integrity in our law enforcement agencies is a core mission of the NAACP, the organization said in a statement Thursday. The public trust in such organizations is compromised when issues like these arise. Precedent challenges Leonards reasoning. The 1st Amendment did not preserve the job of Daniel Morley, a school resource officer in Chesterfield County who was fired in April 2019 after an investigation into his ties with a white nationalist organization. Nor did it protect former Sgt. Robert A. Stamm of the Virginia Division of Capitol Police, who was accused of having an affinity for white supremacy symbols. Sadly, law enforcement has long history as a haven for white supremacists and other extremists. The Oath Keepers are using the military and law enforcement agencies as a training ground, with dangerous national security implications. Its not as if were out of the woods as far as insurrections go. Jan. 6, 2021, looks more like a beginning than an end. When Van Tatenhove was asked what the Oath Keepers vision for America was, he said: It doesnt necessarily include the rule of law It includes violence. It includes trying to get their way through lies, through deceit, through intimidation, and through the perpetration of violence. The swaying of people who may not know better through lies and rhetoric and propaganda that can get swept up in these moments. Oath Keepers began making a name for itself at the 2014 Bundy Ranch standoff in Nevada. A year later, heavily armed members patrolled the streets of Ferguson, Mo., during unrest on the anniversary of the slaying of unarmed teenager Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer. Jon Belmar, then-chief of the St. Louis County Police Department, deemed their presence unnecessary and inflammatory. Which perfectly describes having an Oath Keeper in the Chesterfield Sheriffs Office. Over a half-century, Queen Elizabeth II made three visits to Virginia, where her appearances marked pivotal points some of them wrenching for the British colony-turned-American state named more 400 years ago for her enthroned ancestor, Elizabeth I. The queen, who died Thursday at age 96, made her initial visit in 1957, marking the 350th anniversary of Jamestown, the first permanent English-speaking settlement in the New World. Her appearances at Jamestown and Williamsburg, the Colonial capital, were for the conservative machine that controlled Virginia a celebratory respite from growing tensions over a U.S. Supreme Court ruling three years earlier opening to Black students previously white-only public school classrooms. At the reconstructed Jamestown fort, the queen and Prince Philip, who died in 2021, noticed in its stocks, according to an account by Richmond Times-Dispatch columnist Charles McDowell, two unhappy-looking prisoners. Elizabeth wondered aloud whether such confinement was painful, with the prince asking if they had been pelted with rotten eggs. When one of the prisoners said hed been punished for spreading gossip to this day, the bane of Britains royal family Del. Lewis McMurrran. D-Newport News, an unapologetic Anglophile and chairman of Jamestown anniversary celebration, referred to the men in the stocks as her majestys loyal opposition. Elizabeth returned during the American bicentennial in 1976, as Virginias transition from rural backwater to suburban dynamo was accelerating. (She also would make a brief stop at Arlington National Cemetery during a visit to Washington in 1991.) Her visit to Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson, and the Jefferson-founded University of Virginia spotlighted Virginias role in shedding the British imperial yoke for representative democracy that, paradoxically, would perpetuate for more than 250 years Black slavery that the English established here in 1619. It was in 2007, on Elizabeths final visit to Virginia, that the monarch in an address to the state legislature at the freshly renovated state Capitol would note that the states long story, not unlike that of her realm, had failed to fully acknowledge the roles of the indigenous peoples whose lands were seized by English colonists and whence sprang wealth achieved with the labor of enslaved Black people. That trip, too, would be something of a balm, easing the sting of a mass shooting at Virginia Tech several weeks earlier in which 33 people died, including the gunman. Speaking from the dais in the House of Delegates, Elizabeth expressed condolences for the dreadful events at Virginia Tech, offering on behalf of the people of the United Kingdom ... my deepest sympathies at this time of such grief and sorrow. She and her Philip would include in their stop in Richmond a private meeting with students who had survived the mass slaying then the worst in U.S. history as well as families of students killed or wounded in the attack. She and Prince Philip couldnt have been more solicitous, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who was governor at the time, said in an interview Thursday with The Times-Dispatch, adding that the queen also visited with workers from the Capitol restorationmany of them Hispanicin the Old Senate Chamber, where hangs of a vast mural of the British defeat at Yorktown in October 1781. Behind the queen, at the Speakers rostrum, sat the Republican House Speaker, William Howell of Stafford, and the Senate President Pro Tempore John Chichester, R-Stafford. The pair, then estranged over policy, combined on a present for Elizabeth: a rare first-edition book by Jefferson they presented to her at a reception at the Executive Mansion. Recalling that moment, Howell said she was quite the lady, noting, too, that the queen resembled his Aunt Margaret, an English emigree known as Billie. In her remarks to the General Assembly, Elizabeth said that the Virginia colonynamed, apparently at the suggestion of explorer Sir Walter Raleigh, for Elizabeth I, known as the Virgin Queenwould become the foundation of a great nation, founded on the eternal values of democracy and equality, based on the rule of law and the promotion of freedom. But Elizabeth said she had learned since her 1957 visit that ideals and reality were in conflict. Fifty years on we are now in a position to reflect more candidly on the Jamestown legacy, she said. Human progress rarely comes without cost. And those early years in Jamestown, when three great civilizations came together for the first time, Western European, Native American and African, released a train of events which continues to have a profound social impact, not only in the United States, but also in the United Kingdom and Europe. Noting that Virginias quadricentennial and the bicentennial of the abolition of the British slave trade fell on the same year, the queen said, It is right that we continue to reassess the meaning of historical events in the changing context of the present. The remarks to the legislature did not go off seamlessly. Confusion over the timing and staging of the appearance prompted the House sergeant at arms to mistakenly announce several times that Elizabeth was entering the chamber, jammed with lawmakers and guests, all of whom sprang to their feet to cheer and applaud, expecting to see the sovereign ply the center aisle. But alas not. When the queen finally arrived, the boisterous welcome included former Gov. George Allen jokingly calling out, Sic semper tyrannisThus always to tyrantsthe state motto. Elizabeths 1976 visit included remarks to 18,000 outside UVas Cabell Hall, where, accompanied by Gov. Mills E. Godwin Jr., she declared that the long-standing partnership between Britain and America has its roots here in Virginiaa reference to the Jamestown settlement in the swampy tidewater, more than 100 miles east of Charlottesville, she had visited in 1957, five years after assuming the British throne, and to which she would return in 2007. The queen was not alone among royal visitors to modern-day Virginia. In 1981, two months before marrying Diana Spencer, Elizabeths son and successor, now King Charles III, appeared in Norfolk, touring NATO headquarters there and the giant aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, before heading by helicopter to Williamsburg for stops at the restored Colonial town site and the College of William and Mary. It is the only American university that still operates under its royal charterone issued in 1693 by William III, a Dutch-born member of the family that has reigned Great Britain for more than 1,200 years, including 70 under Elizabeth II that distinguished her as her nations longest-serving monarch. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., recalling Thursday meeting the queen in Richmond in 2007, described her as an individual who literally committed her whole life to public service. CHARLOTTESVILLE A ticket to see Queen Elizabeth II was the hottest ticket in town in July 1976, when the monarch visited Charlottesville, a town named for another British queen, to mark the countrys bicentennial. Larry Sabato, founder and director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, says Sandy Gilliam, now retired protocol officer from the UVa, got him a ticket onto the Lawn, incidentally not far from where he now lives in Pavilion IV. I got to see everyone as they came down the steps of the Rotunda, said Sabato, listing the names of those in the entourage, which included the queens husband, Prince Philip; UVa President Frank Hereford and his wife Ann; and Governor Mills Godwin. She very graciously and very slowly walked all the way down the Lawn to Cabell Hall, Sabato said. People were just hushed. It was just amazing to see everyone fall silent in the presence of the queen. Sabato said that two Lawn residents, a male and a female, had been chosen to show the royal couple what kind of living quarters they had. Prince Philip who was very impish said, Oh, you two live together, do you? Everyone else laughed, but the queen shot him a look that would have killed the Swiss Guard. Sabato noted that President Gerald Ford had visited Charlottesville just a few days earlier to celebrate the American Bicentennial at the annual naturalization ceremony at Monticello. So it was a big week in Charlottesville. Gilliam remembers not only the big day but also the days leading up to it. Her handlers were very clear, Gilliam said, with one particular rule: Youre not supposed to touch the queen in any way. But UVa President Frank Hereford was fretting about safely escorting the queen up the marble stairs of the Rotunda and wondered how chivalry could possibly square with that strict rule. Frank asked, What if she falls? Let her fall, came the answer, recalls Gilliam. It was a pretty day, adds Gilliam. There were lots of dogs and small children. And then the Queens private secretary leaned in with a confession: I always thought Oxford was the most beautiful campus, Gilliam says the secretary said. Dont tell anybody, but UVA wins. Photographer Jim Carpenter photographed the queen in 1976. On Facebook, he remembered a moment when he captured an extraordinary photo of her. It was July 1976 when I was part of the press following Queen Elizabeths visit to Charlottesville. It was so much fun but so much protocol. In preparation of her visit, all the billboard signs from the airport to Charlottesville were either removed or covered. A section of Court Square, all the manhole covers were welded shut. Then we, the press photographers, were allowed to only be in front of the queen and never behind. Prince Phillip, the queens husband was required to walk behind her as per protocol. As she walked the UVA Lawn on that hot July afternoon with the University President Frank Hereford, I photographed the Prince and as I looked up realized I was behind the queen. I was too many steps away. She casually looked over her shoulder, smiled at my camera and I got the photo as one of the queens guards told me I had to move on. I did so very quickly, but will always remember that royal moment and that forgiving smile. To the Royal Family of England, our prayers are with you! May you forever Rest In Peace. Attorney General Jason Miyares is introduced in the Senate gallery. (Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury) Attorney General Jason Miyares is creating a new unit dedicated to ensuring legality and purity in elections, his office announced Friday. The 20-person team, the attorney generals office said, will investigate and prosecute potential violations of election law and be a legal resource for state and local election officials. I pledged during the 2021 campaign to work to increase transparency and strengthen confidence in our state elections, Miyares, a Republican who defeated former Democratic attorney general Mark Herring last year, said in a news release. It should be easy to vote, and hard to cheat. The Election Integrity Unit will work to help to restore confidence in our democratic process in the Commonwealth. The unit will not have its own budget, according to the attorney generals office, and most of the staffers will continue working on other topics in addition to election issues. The announcement comes as many Republicans in Virginia and elsewhere continue to echo baseless conspiracy theories about the 2020 election being stolen from former President Donald Trump. Earlier this year, Miyares parted ways with a top deputy he hired to oversee election issues, Monique Miles, after the Washington Post revealed Miles made social media posts that falsely claimed Trump won and praised the Jan. 6 rioters. At the time, Miyares office said it was unaware of the posts before the hire. The Attorney General has said countless times that Joe Biden won the 2020 election, Miyares spokeswoman Victoria LaCivita said Friday in response to emailed questions from the Mercury. In Virginia, Trump lost to President Joe Biden by about 10 percentage points, or more than 450,000 votes. A post-election audit of a small sample of ballots overwhelmingly confirmed the validity of that result. Miyares move drew swift condemnation from Democrats, who suggested the new election unit will be chasing flimsy voter fraud claims to appease the conservative base. With the creation of this unit, Attorney General Miyares has fully embraced Trumps Big Lie and the far-right fringes of the Republican party, said Democratic Party of Virginia spokesman Gianni Snidle. Some Democratic lawmakers reacted with mockery. On Twitter, Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, joked Miyares would next create a Ghost Busting Unit that will hunt for ghosts and ghouls across the Commonwealth. Just prior to 2020, Democrats made major changes to state election procedures designed to make voting easier, like allowing 45 days of excuse-free early voting and eliminating a mandatory photo ID rule. Virginia Republicans vigorously opposed those changes, claiming they would open the door to fraud and other voting shenanigans. But Miyares and other Republicans went on to surprising wins in a high-turnout 2021 election under those same laws, an outcome some saw as proof the states election system works and isnt susceptible to fraud. Republicans still tried to overturn many of those laws during this years General Assembly session, but the repeal efforts were blocked by the Democratic state Senate. Before losing power, Democrats also passed a state-level voting rights law meant to create new protections for minority voters and prevent race-based vote suppression. State law already gives the attorney generals office full authority to do whatever is necessary or appropriate to enforce the election laws or prosecute violations thereof, and its not uncommon for the office to investigate misconduct claims the states election bureaucracy is unequipped to handle. While praising the Miyares announcement, the Republican Party of Virginia pointed to the recent indictment of Michele White, a former top election official in Prince William County, on corruption charges. Details have been scarce in that case, which the attorney generals office announced Wednesday. Current Prince William County Registrar Eric Olsen told media outlets a small number of votes in the 2020 election may have been affected, but not enough to change any election outcomes. By prosecuting this individual, Attorney General Miyares is sending a strong message to election officials throughout the state to follow the law, because our election process must be held to a high standard, the Virginia GOP said in its statement. Todays announcement is a continuation of Virginia Republicans commitment to secure elections. Asked if Miyares believes there was fraud in the 2020 election, LaCivita pointed to the recent indictment in Prince William and said the office cannot comment on pending investigations. Though there have been no high-profile cases of fraudulent votes being cast in Virginia recently, there have been occasional complaints that some election-related laws, from campaign-finance rules to transparency requirements for political advertising, are too loosely enforced. The Virginia Department of Elections is often asked to adjudicate complaints, but it has little to no investigative powers. Under Virginias election oversight system, Republicans automatically gain majority control of the state elections board and all 133 local election boards due to Gov. Glenn Youngkins victory last year. The state board is already under Republican control due to the resignation of a Democratic member who became a judge. All local boards will flip to GOP majorities next year, which could mean more boards asking the attorney generals office to look into alleged election discrepancies. As our nation recovers from COVID, we mourn lost loved ones, jobs, businesses, and even our sense of security. Yet theres been another less visible but equally devastating impact: the loss of multiple years of learning for our children. Recent news accounts detail the federal Department of Educations first look at learning trends since the pandemic began. The data in the National Assessment of Educational Progress report, often called the Nations Report Card, is not pretty. It shows unprecedented drops in fourth grade reading and math scores. Virginia parents have good reason to worry. In my work with Parent Support for Online Learning, as I advocate for educational options across America, I hear from parents who are worried about this learning loss. They want to know why this happened, what they can do to correct it and ultimately how to protect their kids. The problem was not that schooling went online. When done right, online schools work well. The real trouble was the haphazard and quickly thrown together remote teaching done by traditional public schools with little or no experience in remote learning. Online schools have been doing it effectively for years, but traditional public schools were simply not ready for the sudden shift, and learning loss was the result. Unlike many traditional schools, kids in online schools didnt advance without knowing the material. Teachers at online schools are there because they love teaching in this way, and theyre good at it. Theyve trained specially to teach online, use course materials that are intentionally built for online delivery, and theyre supported by the most current technology. At online schools, students and families come first. The attention is on teaching reading, writing, science and objective, fact-based history not on politics and controversies. Online schools are run for the benefit of children, not to support the agendas of adults. Unlike the Texas school that recently charged parents $1,200 just to see the list of learning materials their children were using, online schools are transparent and they keep parents completely aware of what their kids are learning. Online schools respect parents primary responsibility to educate their children, and they involve parents closely as learning partners. Its not too late for parents in Virginia to get this kind of involvement and control in their kids learning. In fact, every Virginia family has the right to send their child to an online school, tuition free. These are public schools, funded by Virginia tax dollars. Heres how it works: students take courses at their own pace, learning at home under the watchful eye of mom or dad. Experienced, certified teachers guide students along at every step. Students have access to a college prep curriculum or specialized courses that focus on getting students ready for high-demand, well-paying careers, like health care, technology, and business. When children take classes that align with their interests and talents, they are happier and better motivated to learn. Students who attend online schools fulfill all the same requirements as students in traditional brick and mortar schools, but they do it without the hassles and risks of traditional public schools. In this flexible, modern learning system, theres no need to awaken children early, depriving them of sleep just so they can sit on a bus for an hour or more, then be trapped in a classroom all day. The traditional 8 to 3 schedule might be convenient for the teachers and staff, and may work for some kids, but it doesnt work for every child. Research shows that its a problem for developing youngsters. Kids learn better when they have opportunities for short breaks throughout the day, so that they can get up and move, have a snack, rest or interact with a parent or sibling, and that extra family time is priceless In an online school, kids are not captive to a rigorous school day schedule. As long as they get that days work done, students can start when it makes sense, and end when theyre finished. That leaves more time to play, to exercise, to be creative, and, importantly, to spend quality time with the family. Another important reason to consider an online charter school is safety. Kids can be cruel to each other. Teachers in traditional public schools, especially ones with scant resources, are so overworked, that no matter how well-intentioned they are, they simply cannot protect every child all the time. And sadly, when youngsters are picked on, they fear school. In an effort to stay safe, they may pretend to be sick or misbehave. They may even lose their natural love of learning, starting a failure chain that can become difficult to break. Online school students learn in a safe environment home. They wont be offered drugs on the school bus. They wont face playground bullies. I cant tell you the number of parents whove told me, in all seriousness, that online schools saved their kids life. School has started, but its not too late to choose a school thats right for your child. Parents can take back control. Enrollment for online schools is happening right now. Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. Restaurant owners are moving to at least temporarily block a nation-leading new California law giving more power to fast food workers by putting the question before voters " " This aerial view of the excavations in Iraq show how expansive the Bronze Age city that was submerged in the Mosul reservoir is. Universities of Freiburg and Tubingen, KAO Rising global temperatures fueled by climate change have caused catastrophic droughts from Arizona to Iraq. Lake Mead just outside Las Vegas, for instance, is the reservoir spanning the border between Arizona and Nevada, and the largest by volume in the U.S. According to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Lake Mead was just 28 percent full Sept 5. Lake Mead has landed in the headlines, not only because it is receding, but also because of what of what's been uncovered since: five sets of human remains. Experts believe there could be more remains still submerged, most of which are likely innocent drowning victims, but it's almost certain there are a fair number tied to crimes, as well. On a less nefarious note, officials also discovered an unapproved boat ramp in the lake in August. Lake Mead isn't the only body of water that's dried up and revealed some strange, hidden ruins and relics this summer. Take a look at some of the other surprises that were uncovered around the globe when the heat rose and the water receded. Advertisement 1. Dinosaur Tracks in Texas Dinosaur tracks are nothing new to Texas' Dinosaur Valley State Park. In fact, they're very, very old. But severe drought conditions on the Paluxy River uncovered quite a set of massive tracks in mid-August that are usually covered by water and mud. The tracks date back about 113 million years ago and prints likely belonged to Acrocanthosaurus, which was a huge theropod and probably stood 15 feet (4.5 meters) tall and weighed about 7 tons (6.3 metric tons). The tracks are in a limestone sediment that hardened. " " Everything really is bigger in Texas, even dinosaur tracks like these that were recently revealed when drought conditions caused the Paluxy River in Dinosaur Valley State Park to dry up. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department 2. Buddhist Statues in Yangtze River In August 2022, the drought in China caused water levels to drop across the southwestern part of the country. In the Yangtze River Basin, in fact, rainfall was 45 percent lower than it was in July, making conditions even worse. The plunging water levels exposed a formerly submerged island known as Foyeliang, which revealed three Buddhist statues estimated to about 600 years old. The statues are on the highest part of the island reef, thought to have been built during the Ming and Qing dynasties. At the time the discovery in mid-August, as many as 66 rivers in the region had dried up, but no other artifacts had made headlines. 3. Nero's Ancient Roman Bridge In July 2022, water levels in the Tiber River in Rome, Italy, dropped low enough to reveal the remains of an ancient stone bridge. The bridge isn't exactly a new discovery; in fact, it's been visible during previous droughts and was already known as the Pons Neronianus, or the Bridge of Nero. Some historians believe the bridge was built by Nero when he was emperor of Rome between 54 C.E. until his death in 68 C.E. However, other experts believe that the bridge may have been built even before then, and that Nero rebuilt it at a later point. " " The remains of the ancient Bridge of Nero, near Ponte Vittorio, resurfaced after the drought-stricken River Tiber all but dried up in Rome, Italy. Stefano Montesi/Corbis via Getty Images 4. Unexploded World War II Bomb in Po River Another river in Italy, the River Po, also dried up during the summer of 2022. And what it was hiding just beneath its waters was a 1,000-pound (450 kilogram) bomb dropped during World War II. If that's not scary enough that bomb, mercifully, failed to detonate. Fishermen found the bomb on the riverbank near the village of Borgo Virgilio. The discovery prompted officials to shut down nearby air and river traffic until the scene was safely contained. In August, the unexploded bomb which Italian military officials said had 530 pounds (240 kilograms) of explosives was safely detonated after about 3,000 nearby residents were evacuated. " " This unexploded bomb from World War II was found when waters on the Po River in Italy receded in August 2022. Ciancaphoto Studio/Getty Images Advertisement 5. Lost City of Zakhikuan German and Kurdish archaeologists found what they believe is a lost city estimated to be about 3,400 years old. The discovery was made in Iraq when water levels at the Mosul reservoir in the Kurdistan Region dropped because of extreme drought. The site described as "an extensive city with several large buildings" is believed to have been Zakhikuan, an ancient center in the Mittani Empire (ca. 1550-1350 B.C.E.). " " The German and Kurdish archaeologist teams excavated, measured and documented large buildings and artifacts from the Mittani period that they believe is the lost city of Zakhikuan. Universities of Freiburg and Tubingen, KAO 6. Spanish Stonehenge Water in the Valdecanas reservoir in Spain's province of Caceres dropped dramatically during one of the country's worst droughts in decades. And that delighted archaeologists because the receding waters exposed what's officially known as the Dolmen of Guadalperal, aka Spanish Stonehenge. The circle made of dozens of megalithic stones was first discovered by German archaeologist Hugo Obermaier in 1926, but the area where the monument is located was flooded in 1963. Since then, it's been visible due to drought just four times. Scholars believe the circle was erected sometime around 5000 B.C.E., though little is known about who built it or why. " " The Dolmen of Guadalperal, sometimes also known as Spanish Stonehenge, is seen above at the Valdecanas reservoir, in late July 2022 for just the fourth time ever. Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images Now That's Interesting You don't have to wait for a lake to dry up to find weird things; plenty of strange objects lie beneath bodies of water, too. For example, all sorts of weird objects are at the bottom of Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park, including a "graveyard" of yard tools. And at the bottom of Lake Michigan rests a huge marble crucifix that is visible from the surface when it's lit up by lights. " " If Planet Nine really is out there, it would be a profound historic discovery that would reshape our understanding of the system of planets that orbit our sun. So, what if it's not a planet at all, but a black hole? Illustration: Jason Koch/HowStuffWorks There's something big lurking in the frozen hinterlands of our solar system that appears to be tugging at the tiny worlds beyond the orbit of Neptune. The object is assumed to be a hypothetical world called "Planet Nine," which has an extremely far-flung orbit around the sun and causing all kinds of gravitational chaos in the dark. But as the search for Planet Nine wears on, and astronomers have yet to so much as get a glimpse at it, other researchers are pondering what else the object could be. Might it not be a planet at all? Could it be a primordial black hole? Advertisement The Mystery of the Mystery of Planet Nine The solar system is a big place and, while our astronomical techniques are rapidly advancing, many tiny worlds in the outer solar system have yet to be found. Planet Nine is thought to be a rather more substantial world, however, with a mass of around five to 10 Earth masses, scooting around the sun at an average distance of 400 to 800 astronomical units, or AUs. Since one AU is the average distance Earth orbits the sun, that's 10-20 times the orbital distance at which Pluto orbits the sun. If it exists, Planet Nine takes between 10,000 and 20,000 years to complete just one orbit! The possibility of a large world orbiting the sun at such a huge distance is captivating. Studies of other star systems reveal that exoplanets between the masses of Earth and Neptune are relatively common. Why our solar system doesn't contain a world within this mass range is a puzzle, but if Planet Nine really is out there, it would be a profound historic discovery that would reshape our understanding of the system of planets that orbit our sun. So, why do scientists think this extreme ninth planet is out there? In 2016, planet hunters Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown of California Institute of Technology (Caltech) announced their discovery of a group of very distant trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) that were all strangely clustered and moving with similar orbital alignments. Their orbital alignment was weirdly tilted, so it appeared they were all being corralled by the gravitational interactions with a larger planetary body. But no other large planetary body exists in that region, so Batygin and Brown hypothesized that an as-yet-to-be-discovered planet was out there. And so, the hunt began. Suffice to say, any planet with an orbit this extreme would be very difficult to spot, but astronomers are scouring infrared surveys with hopes of seeing a distant object slowly crawl across the sky. If it's out there, Planet Nine should be emitting infrared radiation energy leaking from the planet since its formation but so far, apart from the gravitational effects of something in the outer solar system, precious little direct evidence for Planet Nine's existence exists. Advertisement Enter the Black Hole Hypothesis On Sept. 24, astronomers Jakub Scholtz of Durham University and James Unwin of the University of Illinois at Chicago published a new study describing their alternative hypothesis that the gravitational weirdness in the outermost reaches of the solar system isn't being caused by a planet at all. Instead, they pointed to the presence of a primordial black hole, a theory that has caused a bit of a stir. No, this kind of black hole doesn't pose a danger to the rest of the solar system, as it would simply be too small, but in the distant regions of our solar system, its impact would be significant. The only evidence we have for Planet Nine's existence is the gravitational effects it's having on TNOs, and black holes are the most gravitationally endowed objects in the universe, after all. Primordial black holes are the most ancient kind of black hole that are hypothesized to have formed right after the Big Bang. Density fluctuations in the early universe would have rapidly formed black holes of all masses. These ancient objects would have been flung throughout the cosmos and, over time, they would have slowly evaporated via Hawking Radiation; smaller ones popping out of existence first. " " Artists impression of what Planet Nine might look like, if it is a planet, that is. Caltech/R. Hurt, IPAC While many theories of cosmic evolution suggest they should exist, we have yet to directly observe a primordial black hole, though some compelling indirect evidence exists. For example, analysis of microlensing events the transient brightening of stars caused by a massive object passing in front, causing a brief brightening via the curvature of spacetime creating a magnifying lens suggest that there's a population of small black holes out there with no other visible clues except for their gravitational impact on spacetime. Scholtz and Unwin took a fresh look at the TNO peculiarities and simulated what would happen if a black hole with a mass of between five and 10 Earth masses had an extreme orbit around the sun. Sure enough, their models suggest that a primordial black hole with a mass within this range would cause similar orbital perturbations in the population of TNOs. This could also explain why little optical or infrared observational evidence for Planet Nine; a primordial black hole would generate neither signal. In fact, if a black hole is nearby, it may also be dragging around a cloud of dark matter that could be annihilating, generating different types of radiation. The researchers therefore suggest, based on their findings that the experimental program needs to be expanded, motivating "dedicated searches for moving sources in x-rays, gamma rays and other high energy cosmic rays," they write in their paper. Advertisement Primordial Black Holes and Space Hamburgers While this is an interesting avenue of study, replacing a hypothetical planet with a hypothetical type of black hole may be overcomplicating the mystery of Planet Nine. "Could a black hole explain the gravitational effects we are seeing in the outer solar system? Absolutely!" Mike Brown says. "All we know is that there is a six Earth mass something out there, and we don't know what the something is." Brown points out that "a planet" would be the obvious "something," but as long as it has a mass of a few Earths, it could be anything. But the plausibility of it being anything other than a planet is extremely low to say the least. With tongue in cheek, Brown adds: "It might be a six-Earth-mass hamburger. Or a burrito ... but, yes, it also might be a six-Earth-mass black hole. The physics, of course, doesn't care one bit what the six-Earth-masses are made of. "You could equally well hypothesize that every exoplanet that we only detect via the radial velocity method is a black hole. Is it possible? Yes! Does it make any sense in the universe? No." While investigating other gravitational sources of what may be messing with TNOs (no matter how improbable they are) is good science, it's more likely that Planet Nine is a planet and not a primordial black hole. Astronomers just have to keep searching and there's a growing consensus that it will be discovered in the not-so-distant future. Now That's Interesting The first black hole ever found was Cygnus X-1, discovered during balloon flights in the 1960s, but not identified as a black hole for another several years. According to NASA, it is 10 times more massive than the sun. FLORENCE, S.C. Two partnerships will help improve the physical and mental health of Florence 1 Schools students. The Florence 1 Schools Board of Trustees unanimously approved a contract with HopeHealth to provide a school-based health center at Brockington Elementary School in Timmonsville. The board also unanimously approved a memorandum of understanding with the Medical University of South Carolina to provide an art therapy program that will be available to all Florence 1 Schools students. The Board of Trustees met Thursday night at the McClenaghan Administrative Building, 500 S. Dargan St. BROCKINGTON ELEMENTARY HEALTH CENTERHopeHealth will staff a school-based health center at Brockington Elementary School in Timmonsville. The elementary school is part of the Florence 4 School Districts consolidation with Florence 1 Schools, Superintendent Richard OMalley said. Students are attending classes in one of the elementary schools wings. The health center will be housed in the former administration offices. Students and staff will be able to access the health center from a door inside the building. The center only will serve students and staff, OMalley said. HopeHealth has a health-care facility in Timmonsville that is available to the community. Florence 1 Schools has a mental health therapist and nurse in every school, OMalley said. HopeHealth will provide a physicians assistant, who will provide physicals and assess health needs. It also will provide a dentist and vision care, OMalley said. Students can get their teeth cleaned twice a year. The appointments will be scheduled during the school day, which means parents wont have to miss work to take their children to a dentist appointment. Dental chairs are in place. Everything is ready, OMalley said. Dental hygiene is just as important a link to health as anything else. So, thats an important thing to build for their future, he said. HopeHealth also will have someone at Brockington Elementary School to check students vision annually, he said. HopeHealth will conduct vision screenings and provide glasses. We are grateful that HopeHealth has agreed to start this school-based health center, OMalley said. We think it will be a welcome addition to all the other things that we are doing there. The contract with HopeHealth runs through July 31, 2023. MUSC ART THERAPYFlorence 1 Schools has music therapy available to improve the mental health of students, OMalley said. The memorandum of understanding with the Medical University Hospital Authority will add art therapy. The agreement will be in effect for three years. This will provide a way for the district to tackle the mental health issues of our students in a different way, he said. A lot of our schools are either arts magnates or involved in the arts, and we would like to use this as a way to help our students. The art therapy program will start at Brockington Elementary School and expand to the other schools in the district. The hourly fee is $100 per session, which will be paid by the school district. A Medical University of South Carolina employee will conduct the sessions, he said. Art therapy sessions involve a group of students, OMalley said. MUSC would bill weekly, but the art therapy group session usually run for six weeks. Then, another six-week session starts for another group of students. Art therapy sessions usually run 45 minutes to an hour, OMalley said. Art therapy will be conducted in either an art classroom or another classroom at Brockington Elementary School, he said. Fascinating data and transparency project from Colorado district attorneys | Main | "Irrational Collateral Sanctions" September 9, 2022 Split Washington Supreme Court revisits its limits on long prison terms for juvenile offenders As explained in this AP article, a "year after saying virtual life sentences are unconstitutional for teenage killers, the Washington Supreme Court changed course Thursday in a split ruling that drew irate dissents from four justices. The 5-4 decision was a striking departure for a court that in recent years has steadily embraced research showing that juveniles brain development typically makes them less culpable than adults, and which has made significant efforts to undo the impact of racial bias in the criminal justice system." The majority opinion in Washington v. Anderson, No. 97890-5 (Wash. Sept. 8, 2028) (available here), starts this way: Tonelli Anderson is serving a 61-year sentence for two first degree murders he committed at age 17. Anderson asks us to hold that his sentence is unconstitutionally cruel in violation of article I, section 14 of Washingtons constitution. He argues that this courts recent decision in State v. Haag announced a bright line rule that no juvenile offender can ever receive a sentence of 46 years or longer no matter how serious or numerous their crimes may be and so his sentence is unconstitutional because it is longer than 46 years. We disagree with Andersons interpretation of Haag. Haag is properly understood as announcing that article I, section 14 of Washingtons constitution limits the category of juvenile offenders who can receive de facto life without parole (LWOP) sentences, the harshest punishments possible for juvenile offenders under Washington law. In Haag, we determined that a particular juvenile offender could not receive such a harsh punishment because his crime reflected youthful immaturity, impetuosity, and failure to appreciate risks and consequences. But when, as here, a juvenile offenders crimes do not reflect those mitigating qualities of youth, Washingtons constitution does not bar a de facto LWOP sentence. The King County Superior Court properly considered all of Andersons evidence regarding the mitigating qualities of his youth and his rehabilitation while in prison. In light of that evidence and the trial record, the court appropriately determined that Andersons crimes do not reflect youthful immaturity, impetuosity, or failure to appreciate risks and consequences. Article I, section 14 of Washingtons constitution therefore does not prohibit Andersons 61-year sentence. We affirm. A dissent by Chief Justice Gonzalez starts this way: Even if I could join the majoritys repudiation of our recent constitutional jurisprudence, I could not join it in affirming the trial courts resentencing decision here. The resentencing judge abused her discretion by failing to meaningfully consider how juveniles are different from adults, by failing to meaningfully consider how those differences applied to Tonelli Anderson, by failing to consider whether Andersons case was one of the few where a life without parole sentence is constitutionally permissible, by failing to give meaningful weight to the significant evidence that Tonelli Anderson had rehabilitated himself while in prison, and by improperly allocating the burden of proof to him at resentencing. For all these reasons, I respectfully dissent. Another dissent from Justice Yu starts this way: I agree with the dissent that Tonelli Anderson is entitled to resentencing pursuant to this courts precedent, which recognizes that life is more than just life expectancy and that a juvenile must have a meaningful opportunity to rejoin society after leaving prison. State v. Haag, 198 Wn.2d 309, 328, 495 P.3d 241 (2021). I write separately to elaborate on the ways in which the majority undermines our precedent, ignores fundamental principles of stare decisis, and disregards this courts own call to recognize the role we have played in devaluing [B]lack lives. Letter from Wash. State Sup. Ct. to Members of Judiciary & Legal Cmty. at 1 (June 4, 2020), https://www.courts.wa.gov/content/publicUpload/Supreme%20Court%20 News/Judiciary%20Legal%20Community%20SIGNED%20060420.pdf [https://perma.cc/QNT4-H5P7]. Todays decision is contrary to both longestablished principles of law and newly recognized principles of justice. I therefore respectfully concur in the dissent. September 9, 2022 at 03:23 PM | Permalink Comments Post a comment Shopee is leaving Argentina and closing most of its operations in Chile, Colombia and Mexico. (PHOTO: REUTERS/Edgar Su) By Yoolim Lee and Olivia Poh (Bloomberg) Sea Ltd.s e-commerce unit is leaving Argentina and closing most of its operations in Chile, Colombia and Mexico, retreating from much of Latin America to focus on profitability over growth. Shopee will close offices in Chile and Colombia and maintain just a small local presence in Mexico to support regional markets, according to a person with knowledge of the matter and an internal email seen by Bloomberg News. Shopee will continue to operate a cross-border e-commerce service in those markets. The decision should affect a few hundred jobs, said the person, who asked not to be named as the matter was private. Sea however will maintain its presence in Brazil, by far the largest market in the region, though a focus also for rivals like Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Shopee Chief Executive Officer Chris Feng cited elevated macro uncertainty for the pullout. This means focusing our resources on our core operations, he said in an internal email. Sea, which also runs fast-growing gaming firm Garena, has been scaling back its overseas footprint and peripheral businesses as rising competition curtailed its expansion abroad. Shopee pulled out of France, Spain as well as India months after launching operations in those markets. Reuters first reported Shopees downsizing in Latin America. Read more: Sea Cuts Jobs in Shopping, Food in First Major Downsizing Downsizing Seas pullback from Latin America was unsurprising, said Zennon Kapron, managing director of Singapore-based consulting firm Kapronasia. Were clearly in a risk-off environment with rising interest rates and increasing uncertainty around the direction of the global economy. Sea faces increasing pressure to cut costs after growth in its e-commerce business slowed from pandemic-era highs. Consumers are pulling back on spending online as rising interest rates and prices weigh on the economy. In line with our previously stated focus on efficiency and profitability, we will concentrate on a cross-border model for our early stage operations in Shopee Mexico, Colombia and Chile, and close our pilot operations in Argentina, Shopee said in a statement. These changes are to ensure that our resources are focused on key business priorities. Story continues Latin America is Seas most important region after Southeast Asia, accounting for almost 19% of its revenue in 2021. Shopee expanded into Mexico, Chile and Colombia just a year ago two year of going into Brazil banking on the regions rising population of young, mobile-savvy users. Shopees second-quarter revenue in Brazil, its core market in Latin America, rose more than 270% from a year earlier. The service also ranked first by average monthly active users in the shopping category in Brazil, Sea said in its quarterly earnings report, citing analysis from data.ai. 2022 Bloomberg L.P. SAN DIEGO (AP) Parts of Southern California were lashed by severe winds from a tropical storm Friday that brought high humidity, rain and possible flooding to the parched region but also the promise of cooler temperatures after a 10-day heat wave that nearly overwhelmed the states electrical grid. Firefighters had feared powerful winds that topped 100 mph (161 kph) could expand the massive Fairview Fire burning about 75 miles (121 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles but instead crews made significant progress and pegged Monday as a day when they should have full containment. More than 10,000 homes and other structures remained threatened and evacuation orders were still in place. Hurricane Kay made landfall near Mexicos Bahia Asuncion in Baja California Sur state Thursday, but it quickly weakened into a tropical storm by the time it reached Southern California. Still winds, were ferocious in places speeds reached 109 mph (175 kph) on San Diego Countys Cuyamaca Peak, the National Weather Service said. The tropical conditions added a swelter to the heat wave that saw temperatures soar past 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) in many parts of California this week. Even places like San Diego, renowned for its temperate climate, baked in the heat. By late morning Friday a steady rain pelted downtown San Diego as Charles Jenkins swept the accumulating puddles away from the tarps of his makeshift home. The heat was killer, so for now this feels good, Jenkins said. I just hope the water doesnt get too high. But I will rough it. Ive got pallets I can put underneath to keep out the rain. Around 1 p.m. as rain continued, a Navy-contracted, twin-engine plane carrying two civilian pilots slid off the end of a runway after it touched down at Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado and parked in a spit of sand. The planes nose was damaged but the pilots were able to depart on their own and were taken to a hospital for observation, Naval Base Coronado spokesperson Kevin Dixon said. Though rainfall generally was moderate across Southern California Friday there was a chance of isolated thunderstorms and heavy downpours into Saturday. With flooding possible, officials in coastal cities posted warning signs in low-lying areas and made sandbags available to the public. September already has produced one of the hottest and longest heat waves on record for California and some other Western states. Nearly 54 million people were under heat warnings and advisories across the region this week as temperature records were shattered in many areas. Californias state capital of Sacramento hit an all-time high Tuesday of 116 degrees (46.7 C), breaking a 97-year-old record. Salt Lake City tied its all-time high temperature Wednesday at 107 degrees (41.6 C). On Tuesday, as air conditioners whirred amid the stifling heat, California set a record for power consumption and authorities nearly instituted rolling blackouts when the electrical grid capacity was at its breaking point. Scientists say climate change has made the West warmer and drier over the last three decades and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive. In the last five years, California has experienced the largest and most destructive fires in state history. While firefighters made progress against the Fairview Fire, the fast-moving Mosquito Fire in the foothills east of Sacramento doubled in size Friday to at least 46 square miles (119 square kilometers) and threatened 3,600 homes in Placer and El Dorado counties, while blanketing the region in smoke. Flames jumped the American River, burning structures in the mountain hamlet of Volcanoville and moving closer to the towns of Foresthill, home to about 1,500 people, and Georgetown, population 3,000. More than 5,700 people in the area have been evacuated, said Placer County Sheriff's Office Lt. Josh Barnhart. David Hance slept on the porch of his mothers Foresthill mobile home when he woke up to a glowing red sky early Wednesday morning and was ordered to evacuate. It was actually fricking terrifying, cause they say, Oh yeah, its coming closer, he said. It was like sunset in the middle of the night. Hance left behind most of his electronic gear, all his clothing and family photos and fled to Auburn, where he found his mother, Linda Hance, who said the biggest stress is wondering: Is my house still there? Organizers of the Tour de Tahoe announced Friday they were canceling the annual 72-mile (115-km) bicycle ride scheduled Sunday around Lake Tahoe because of the heavy smoke from the blaze more than 50 miles (80 km) away and noted that cycling is a heavy cardio activity that does not pair well with terrible air quality. Last years ride was canceled due to smoke from another big fire south of Tahoe. The Mosquito Fires cause remained under investigation. Pacific Gas & Electric said unspecified electrical activity occurred close in time to the report of the fire on Tuesday. Dad's Belgian waffles St. John Lutheran Church, 2801 Jackson St., will host its Dad's Belgian Waffle breakfast from 8 to 11 a.m. Sept. 10. Tickets may be purchased online (www.stjohnlutheransiouxcity.org) or at the door for $10. The printed receipt/phone record is the ticket. Children 5 and under are free. Carry-outs are available. Fall schedule begins St. Mark Lutheran fall worship and learning schedules begin the week of Sept. 11. Sunday worship at 8:30 and 10:30 a.m. Sunday learning for all ages at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday evening worship is each week at 7 p.m. "SPLASH Middle School Ministry" begins at 6:15 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 14. Rally Day First Presbyterian Church will host a Rally Day Sept. 11. At 9:30 a.m. Sunday School will be upstairs and Adult Bible Study will be in the Vincent Lounge. Coffee and treats will be in the Dining Hall at 10 a.m. Worship in the Sanctuary will be at 10:30 a.m. At 11:30 a.m. there will be a Potluck lunch in the dining hall, an information fair in the Sheldon Jackson Hall, and a quilt raffle drawing. 'God's Work Our Hands' ELCA churches in Siouxland participate in the nation-wide "God's Work Our Hands" Sept. 11. Various service projects will take place throughout the area. Congregations will also be accepting gifts of paper products and personal products for local food pantries. Participating Lutheran churches in Siouxland include: Augustana, First, Riverside, St. John, St. Luke, St. Mark, Trinity and United. Sunday school classes Mayflower Congregational UCC, 1407 W. 18th St., will begin Sunday school classes Sept. 11 from 9:45-10:45 a.m. for children age 4 through grade 5. We call our program the Transformation Station. Middle and high school students will participate in special activities and mission projects throughout the year. Everyone is welcome! Call Linda at (712) 202-4861 for more information. Simon Pick organ recital Cathedral of the Epiphany in Sioux City will host Remsen native Simon Pick for a recital of organ music as part of the Cathedral Recital Series. The recital will be held at 3 p.m. Sept. 11 at the Cathedral free of charge. He will perform pieces composed by Bach, Bruhns, de Grigny, Rheinberger and others. Pick began his studies in organ at the age of 14 with Sister Arnold Staudt, OSF. He began his work in church music in Remsen as organist and choir director at Remsen St. Mary Church. Later he served as an organ scholar at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at the University of Notre Dame and organist at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Indianapolis. He is currently the director of music and liturgy at the historic Church of the Assumption in Saint Paul. Pick is completing coursework for his doctorate in organ performance at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University and is an active member of both the Organ Historical Society and the American Guild of Organists. Wednesday evening activities First Presbyterian Church will host Wednesday evening activities starting Sept. 14. Fellowship meal in the Dining Hall will be at 5:30 p.m. Handbell choir practice will be from 6 to 7 p.m. in the sanctuary. Adult Bible Study will be in the Vincent Lounge at 6:15 p.m. Choir practice will be in the sanctuary from 7 to 8 p.m. SIOUX CITY The Sioux City Art Center, 225 Nebraska St., will be hosting a new exhibit of large-scale collaged paintings by Lincoln, Neb.-based artist Nancy Friedemann-Sanchez. Entitled "Turn of the Sea," Friedemann-Sanchez's exhibition title comes from Volta do largo, a Portuguese navigational term that speaks to the 15th century Age of Discovery, historical trade routes and, more recently, currents of ocean pollution. Friedemann-Sanchez's intricate work is deeply rooted in her Colombian ancestry, as well as her knowledge of South America's indigenous cultures and their encounter with Spanish explorers. The exhibit opens on Thursday and is slated to run until March 5, 2023. It was organized by guest curator Karen Emenhiser Harris. A public reception is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday at the Art Center. Friedemann-Sanchez will speak about her art in the gallery and refreshments will be served. SIOUX CITY Sioux City Police arrested a man in connection with a handgun that was discharged in downtown Sioux City on Aug. 28. The dispute was over a love interest between the two men, according to the Sioux City Police Department. Rico M. Willis of Sioux City has been charged with going armed with intent, possession of a firearm by a felon, possession of a controlled substance and keeping a disorderly house, according to a SCPD press release. At 11:44 a.m. on Aug. 28, officers responded to a report of shots fired at 1013 Pierce St. Willis, 44, followed a male he knew back to his apartment build and confronted him, according to the release. He pointed the handgun at him and pulled the trigger. "The gun failed to fire and Willis reloaded the firearm and then struck the victim with it. When Willis struck the man, the gun discharged," according to the release. No one was injured by the gunfire. Originally, the encounter was investigated as a "road rage" incident. A search warrant on Willis' residence found the firearm used as well as marijuana and drug paraphernalia. Willis is a convicted felon and is prohibited from possessing firearms. SIOUX CITY On Thursday evening, the Sioux City Police Department arrested a man accused of impersonating a police officer. According to a social media post from the department, on Sept. 6 at 8:27 pm, Justin Dahlheimer approached a man at Dale Street Park and identified himself as a police officer. At the time, Dahlheimer was wearing black clothing, a tactical vest and a fake badge. He placed the man in handcuffs for a brief amount of time, according to police. Dahlheimer is facing charges of impersonating an officer and false imprisonment. In an updated post Thursday evening, the City of Sioux City Police Department said "Dahlheimer has been located and is on his way to jail. Thank you for your help." WISNER, Neb. The Nebraska State Patrol is investigating the Wednesday shooting death of a man at a rural Wisner residence, where authorities also found a marijuana grow operation. The Wayne County Sheriff's Office initially responded to the incident at approximately 7:15 p.m. at a residence in the 300 block of Y Road. The State Patrol said in a statement released Thursday that deputies found 65-year-old Gerald Ruskamp with a gunshot wound. Ruskamp was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. "At this time, there are no suspects in custody in relation to the shooting investigation. The investigation remains ongoing," the statement said. As troopers and deputies from Wayne and Cuming counties worked to secure the scene and surrounding area, a marijuana grow operation was discovered on the property, according to the statement. Carl Ruskamp, 30, and Duane Ruskamp, 64, were both arrested on charges related to the grow operation. Both men are being held at the Thurston County Jail. LE MARS, Iowa Darlene Knapp knew her husband was mad when he returned inside their home. Tom Knapp had noticed a birdbath knocked over in their yard that morning and went outside to set it back up. Darlene Knapp said raccoons probably knocked it over, but she knew Tom likely would blame her son, Kevin Juzek, who lived in their basement. "We was probably blaming both of us," Darlene Knapp said, testifying that her husband didn't like having Juzek in their home, but there had never been any physical confrontations between them. "I guess he just really never liked Kevin whatsoever." Minutes later, Juzek was dead on the living room floor, shot twice by Tom Knapp after Juzek had stepped in to stop him from assaulting Darlene. Knapp, 84, has pleaded not guilty in Plymouth County District Court of first-degree murder and willful injury for the May 11, 2020, shooting of Juzek, 51, who was his stepson. Knapp also is charged with willful injury and domestic assault for assaulting Darlene prior to the shooting. If found guilty of first-degree murder, Knapp would face a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole. Knapp is accused of shooting Juzek with a 20-gauge shotgun through his bedroom door, striking him in the abdomen, then shooting him a second time from point-blank range in the chest in the living room floor. Darlene Knapp testified that her husband punched her at least twice in the face when she brought some fresh water to him. Inside his bedroom, Tom knocked her down, then pulled her up onto the bed by her hair. He then struck her with a wooden exercise stick similar to a broomstick at least twice, one of the blows breaking fingers in Darlene's left hand as she tried to protect herself. Juzek came to the door, Darlene said, and she ducked under Tom to leave the bedroom. She said Juzek held the door shut so she could call 911. She didn't hear the first shot. "Kevin came out and told me Tom shot him in the stomach," she said. Juzek fell to the floor and was sitting up. "Then Tom came out and he kind of kicked Kevin in the foot and said 'you mean you aren't dead yet?' and then he shot him in the chest," Darlene said. "Kevin was absolutely petrified. When (Tom) pointed the gun at him, (Kevin) said 'oh, no,' and those were Kevin's last words. "I'll never forget it. It's in my heart." Darlene Knapp said Tom pursued her as she left the house, holding the gun against her. "I was scared I was going to get shot in the back," she said. Able to escape, Darlene called 911 a second time from outside, and officers soon arrived while Tom Knapp remained inside the house. Knapp's attorneys say his actions were justified and he shot Juzek in self-defense. In an audio recording of Knapp's interview with investigators played Thursday for the jury, Knapp said Darlene had threatened her with the stick, and he took it from her and hit her. He also told deputies Juzek was screaming at him from outside his bedroom. Plymouth County Sheriff Mike Van Otterloo, who has since retired, responded to the shooting and spoke with Tom Knapp, who was seated in the back seat of a patrol car. After Van Otterloo advised him of his right to remain silent, he asked Knapp why he shot his stepson. "Because he was attacking me," Knapp said in a video recording of the conversation played for jurors. "He was jerking on the door. He had a wood thing, he was going to hit me with it." On Thursday, jurors heard other recordings of Knapp telling investigators that Juzek purposely annoyed him, and even played some kind of electronic device that kept Knapp awake at night. Darlene Knapp testified she never heard the noise her husband -- the two are now divorced -- complained about. At the conclusion of her testimony, Plymouth County Attorney Darin Raymond rested his case after a day and a half of witness testimony and evidence. After speaking briefly with Knapp in private, public defender Wendy Samuelson then rested the defense case without calling Knapp or any other witnesses to testify. The trial will resume with the attorneys' closing arguments on Tuesday morning before the case is submitted to the jury. WAKEFIELD, Neb. -- Some northeast Nebraska schools briefly locked down Friday afternoon after authorities received a report of a "suspicious person'' standing by a vehicle with "what appeared to be a rifle," according to the Dixon County Sheriff's Office. The sheriff's office received a call at about 1:15 p.m. of the subject standing outside a white Chevrolet Impala near the intersection of Highways 35 and 9. "Local schools were contacted and put into lockdown," the Dixon County Sheriff's Office said in the press release. After locating the vehicle south of Wakefield, the Nebraska State Patrol initiated a traffic stop two miles east of Wayne on Highway 35. After speaking with the driver and the passenger and conducting a search of the vehicle, authorities determined there were no weapons in the vehicle. Both the driver and the passenger were released, and the lockdowns at the schools were lifted. The Dixon County Sheriff's Office, Wayne County Sheriff's Office, Cedar County Sheriff's Office, Dakota County Sheriff's Office and Nebraska Conservation Officer assisted on the call and traffic stop. King Charles III, in first address, vows 'lifelong service' LONDON (AP) King Charles III says he feels profound sorrow over the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, and vows to carry on her lifelong service to the nation. Charles is making his first address to the nation as monarch Friday. He became king on Thursday after the queens death. His speech was broadcast on television and streamed at St. Pauls Cathedral, where some 2,000 people were attending a service of remembrance for the queen. Mourners at the service included Prime Minister Liz Truss and members of her government. From Eisenhower to Biden, queen met every US president but 1 WASHINGTON (AP) She went horseback riding with Ronald Reagan. Yachting with Bill Clinton. And sipped tea with Joe Biden. Queen Elizabeth II, who died Thursday at age 96, had met every American president since Dwight Eisenhower, with the exception of Lyndon Johnson. Johnson did not visit Britain during his presidency. Biden was the 13th and final U.S. president to meet the woman whose reign spanned seven decades. Every living former U.S. president joined Biden in mourning her passing and sending condolences to her family. Biden said after his meeting with the queen last year that she reminded him of his mother. Ukraine claws back some territory; nuclear plant in peril KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Ukrainian forces are claiming new success in their counteroffensive against Russian forces in the east, taking control of a sizeable village and pushing toward an important transport junction. The United States top diplomat and the head of NATO noted the advances, but cautioned that the war is likely to drag on for months. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy commended the military for its gains, saying that more than 30 settlements in the Kharkiv region have been reclaimed. The head of the U.N. atomic watchdog, meanwhile, says conditions at Ukraines Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant are increasingly precarious. He says a safety zone needs to be established immediately around the plant to prevent a nuclear accident. US, Trump team propose names for arbiter in Mar-a-Lago probe WASHINGTON (AP) The Justice Department and Donald Trumps legal team have proposed candidates to serve as an independent arbiter in the investigation into top-secret information found in an FBI search of the former presidents Florida home. Lawyers for Trump say the so-called special master should review all documents seized by the FBI, but the Justice Department says it does not believe the arbiter should be permitted to inspect classified records or to take into account potential claims of executive privilege. The Justice Department submitted the names of two retired judges, Barbara Jones and Thomas Griffith. The Trump team proposed one retired judge, Raymond Dearie, and prominent Florida lawyer Paul Huck Jr. Politics in air as Biden visits future Intel plant in Ohio NEW ALBANY, Ohio (AP) President Joe Biden tried to set politics aside at the Ohio groundbreaking of a new Intel computer chip facility. But a tough Senate contest in the state and a Democratic candidate seeking to distance himself from the White House reflected the challenge of translating Biden's policy wins into political gains. The president, who championed the legislation that helped lure Intel, went to Ohio just as voters in the state are starting to tune in to a closely contested Senate race between Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan and Republican author and venture capital executive JD Vance. Intel had delayed groundbreaking on the $20 billion plant until Congress passed the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act. Judge tosses Trump's Russia probe suit against Clinton, FBI WASHINGTON (AP) A federal judge in Florida has dismissed Donald Trumps lawsuit against 2016 Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and former top FBI officials, rejecting the former presidents claims that they and others acted in concert to concoct the Russia investigation that shadowed much of his administration. U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks said in a sharply worded ruling on Thursday that Trumps lawsuit, filed in March, contained glaring structural deficiencies and that many of the characterizations of events are implausible. A lawyer for Trump said he would appeal the dismissal. Storm's fierce winds complicate California wildfire fight SAN DIEGO (AP) A tropical storm nearing Southern California has brought fierce mountain winds, high humidity, rain and the threat of flooding to a region already dealing with wildfires and an extraordinary heat wave. In a mix of bad and good, firefighters fear winds Friday could expand the massive Fairview Fire 70 miles north of San Diego, while forecasters say the system will finally end the state's long heat wave. Downgraded from hurricane status, Tropical Storm Kay is expected to continue north off Mexicos Baja California peninsula and veer west without making landfall in Southern California. Its moisture is expected surge farther north into the Central Valley and the Sierra Nevada, where the dangerous Mosquito Fire is burning. Slain Las Vegas reporter spent career chasing corruption LAS VEGAS (AP) Investigative reporter Jeff German took on the powerful in four decades of writing about the Las Vegas underworld and government corruption. But police say it was one of his latest targets, a county administrator, who fatally stabbed German last weekend. The killing came months after German had written about bullying, favoritism and an inappropriate relationship within an obscure public office. Authorities said Thursday that DNA at the crime scene linked Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles to the killing. Police arrested him Wednesday after a brief standoff at his home. Telles was the focus of Germans reporting in the Las Vegas Review-Journal as he sought reelection. US counts millionth organ transplant while pushing for more The U.S. has reached a medical milestone counting 1 million organ transplants since the first success back in 1954. Advocates marked Friday's announcement with a new campaign to speed the next million by encouraging more donations. The news comes as the nation's transplant system is at a crossroads. More people than ever are getting new organs every year. But more than 100,000 others are awaiting their turn, and critics point to policies and errors that waste organs and cost lives. Changes are underway including steps to improve fair access to kidney transplants. Alcaraz tops Tiafoe in 5 to reach final | US Open updates NEW YORK (AP) Carlos Alcaraz has advanced to the U.S. Open final by beating Frances Tiafoe 6-7 (6), 6-3, 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-3. The 19-year-old from Spain will try to join 1990 champion Pete Sampras, who was also 19, as the only teenagers to win the U.S. Open in the professional era that began in 1968. The No. 3 seed will play No. 5 seed Casper Ruud of Norway on Sunday in the final. The winner of that match will move up to No. 1 in the rankings on Monday. BERLIN (AP) German gas importer VNG is seeking help from the government after cuts to Russian gas supplies forced it to buy gas at far higher prices on the market to fulfill its supply contracts. Energy company EnBW, which has a majority stake in VNG, said Friday that its subsidiary was submitting an application for stabilization measures to the Economy Ministry to avert further damage and to enable the VNG Groups business operations as a whole to continue. Ministry spokesman Robert Saeverin said the application had been received but declined to comment on what measures might be considered. VNG supplies gas to about 400 municipal utilities and industrial operators and met about 20% of German gas requirements last year, according to EnBW. The move comes after the government in July announced that it would take a roughly 30% stake in Uniper, which has been Germany's biggest importer of Russian gas, as part of a rescue package prompted by surging prices for natural gas and reduced Russian deliveries. It also decided to introduce a new levy on natural gas that is aimed at rescuing importers slammed by the Russian cutbacks tied to the war in Ukraine. The government later moved to lower the value-added tax on gas from 19% to 7% until the end of March 2024 in an effort to make up for the effect of the surcharge. Russia's Gazprom started reducing energy deliveries to Germany through the main Nord Stream 1 pipeline in mid-June, citing alleged technical problems and the effect of Western sanctions. German officials have dismissed that explanation as an excuse for a political decision to create uncertainty and drive up prices. Russia, which before the reductions accounted for a bit more than a third of Germanys gas supplies, has since cut off deliveries through Nord Stream 1 altogether. Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Wednesday that Germany is well-placed to get through this winter with enough energy thanks to efforts to shore up supplies from elsewhere and ensure that storage facilities are filled. ELKTON, Md. (AP) Two adults and three children were found shot to death Friday at a Maryland house after a man called 911 from the home to report a shooting, authorities said. Cecil County Sheriff Scott Adams said a man, a woman and three children in the 5th, 7th and 8th grade were found Friday morning in a large two-story home in Elk Mills. Authorities did not immediately release the identities of the victims, but said there is no ongoing threat to the public. The shooting occurred on a cul-de-sac in an area of residential streets interspersed with wooded areas about 60 miles (97 kilometers) northeast of Baltimore and a few miles west of the Delaware state line. Its a horrific day, and I know everybodys prayers are appreciated. ... My phone hasnt stopped ringing from people concerned about this and upset about this, Adams said. Its grief is what it is at this point," Adams said. Anytime you have a loss to these levels. Any loss is terrible, but a loss to this level, which is not a common thing its certainly not a common thing here in Cecil County its tragic and terrible and it takes a long time for people to process. Deputies were called to the home just after 9 a.m. by a man who said three children and a woman had been shot and killed, Holmes said. Deputies made entry to the home and also found a man dead. A semi-automatic handgun was located near the dead man. The sheriff declined to say what the motive might have been. He said that his office has no records of deputies responding to calls at the house. The bodies were in different locations in the house. Video from the scene showed the home with cream siding and red shutters and a detached garage surrounded by police tape. Numerous law enforcement vehicles were at the scene. A neighbor, Tom Driscoll, who can see the residence where the shooting happened from his home, said that a couple with three children had lived there for at least five years. He said the parents kept to themselves, but the children once brought cookies at Christmas and would sometimes bring his dogs back to him if they wandered. He said the children were homeschooled, a detail that the sheriff had earlier confirmed. Driscoll said he would see the two girls and a boy playing on a swing set in their yard or on a trampoline. I dont know why anyone would want to hurt those children. I really dont, Driscoll said. Things must have been really bad somehow. As we collectively work towards a more prosperous economic future for all residents in our region and throughout the state, the role of partnerships within communities has never been more important. At Wells Enterprises, we take great pride in our ability to create jobs and opportunities for individuals as a top employer in Northwest Iowa while also engaging with the broader community. One of the ways we can all make a difference is through strategic and deliberate partnerships. As a member and former chairman of the Iowa Business Council (IBC), we were privileged to host the IBCs Vision to Vitality event in Le Mars this summer. This event brought together key community leaders, city officials, citizens and business leaders to discuss the issues facing our region and state. The IBCs mission is to enhance economic vitality throughout the entire state of Iowa. Growing the states population is among the IBCs top priorities. Over the last decade, Iowas population grew by approximately 14,000 people per year. This equates to only 4.7% growth, significantly low compared to the entire country, which grew by more than 7.5% during the same 10-year period. As Iowa continues to lag the country in population growth, we must do more to retain people and increase our talent pipelines. This is why the IBC and Wells Enterprises have put more effort into quality-of-life initiatives, placemaking, and gaining a better understanding around childcare and housing needs - just to name a few specific examples. These efforts, in partnership with community leaders and nonprofits like The Siouxland Initiative and Le Mars Chamber of Commerce, help to make Iowa and the region a more attractive place to live, work, and thrive. Recently, the Siouxland Regional Trail System was awarded $7 million through Gov. Kim Reynolds Destination Iowa program to develop five trail projects and connect the communities of Sioux City, Le Mars, Hinton, Merrill and Sergeant Bluff. The projects will provide over 100 miles of continuous trails in the area. This is a perfect example of the power found when communities come together and use their partnerships to offer a vision that make our region a better place to work and live. The Iowa Business Council will continue to travel the state and engage local communities through its Vision to Vitality forum series. Hearing directly from community leaders on the local challenges, and how they are tackling such problems, is incredibly insightful as we work to provide statewide solutions that enhance Iowas competitiveness. Creating and maintaining partnerships is the key to success. Collaborating at local, regional, and state levels will enable future growth and opportunity for all Iowans. Wells Enterprises and the Iowa Business Council look forward to forging new partnerships and strengthening existing ones as we all work to create a better and more prosperous Iowa. Mike Wells is CEO and Chief Engagement Officer of Le Mars-based Wells Enterprises and a member of the Iowa Business Council. KEARNEY Four suspects are in custody after a pursuit Wednesday morning led to the seizure of 8 pounds of suspected methamphetamine. Around 10 p.m. Tuesday, the Kearney Police Department notified the Nebraska State Patrol to be on the lookout on Interstate 80 for a black Buffalo County-licensed Chevrolet Impala believed to be headed to Kearney with a large amount of suspected meth. An NSP police report said the driver was believed to be Randall Lizer Jr., 49, of Kearney. A second vehicle, a silver Ford Edge, was believed to be traveling with Lizer and driven by Michael Dodrill, 38, of Elm Creek. Around 4 a.m. Wednesday, a trooper saw the Chevrolet and Ford exit I-80 at the Elm Creek interchange and head north on U.S. 183. A trooper attempted a traffic stop on the Chevrolet. The car came to a brief stop, then fled north at a high rate of speed, the report said. Dodrill stopped his vehicle and stayed at the scene. A trooper initiated a pursuit with the Chevrolet while another trooper ahead of the pursuit successfully deployed stop sticks, deflating the Chevrolet driver's side rear tire. The car continued north at 95 mph, although it progressively began to lose tire tread. The car continued north on U.S. 183 for about eight miles before slowing to turn west onto 145th Road, the report said. A trooper then performed a tactical maneuver with his vehicle to bring the Chevrolet to a stop. Lizer attempted to flee on foot and refused repeated commands to stop. Another trooper deployed a taser and took him into custody. Troopers searched the Chevrolet and found and seized the suspected meth and drug paraphernalia. KPD estimated the meth is valued at $100,000. Lizer was arrested and is charged in Buffalo County Court with distribution of meth more than 140 grams (4.9 ounces) and flight to avoid arrest, both felonies, and resisting arrest, obstructing an officer, willful reckless driving and crossing the centerline, all misdemeanors. When troopers contacted Dodrill in his vehicle, they detected a strong odor of marijuana coming from inside. Dodrill, along with his passengers, Hallie Deleon, 23, of Elm Creek and Minnie Donner, 46, of Kearney were all arrested. During a search of the Ford, troopers located two 9 mm handguns, three 9 mm magazines, a small amount of marijuana, a marijuana pipe and a vial of suspected THC. Troopers also located multiple pieces of paraphernalia and vials, unused plastic bags and a digital scale, records say. At the jail, corrections officers located 27.5 grams (less than one ounce) of suspected meth in Deleon's panties. Dodrill was arrested and charged with aiding and abetting distribution of meth more than 140 grams, two counts of possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony and two counts of carrying a concealed weapon, both misdemeanors. Deleon was arrested and charged with aiding and abetting distribution of meth more than 140 grams, distribution of amphetamine (not less than 10 grams but not more than 28 grams), two counts of possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony and two counts of carrying a concealed weapon, both misdemeanors. Donner was arrested and charged with aiding and abetting distribution of meth more than 140 grams and possession of meth, both felonies. All four suspects are being held at the Buffalo County Jail. Their arrests were part of the Tri-Cities Drug Enforcement Team (TRIDENT), which includes KPD and NSP. Iowa students are mostly testing at pre-pandemic levels of learning, however, 11th-graders have declined the most since last year in English, according to new data from the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress. Results show signs of recovery and progress with the majority of grades improving from the previous year. The test is taken by students in grades three through 11, once a year, to measure performance in English Language Arts, math and science. "This data reflects Iowa educators' commitment to addressing the individual needs of their students and how the use of evidence-based supports can help students grow and flourish," Iowa Department of Education Director Ann Lebo said in a news release Wednesday. "We are moving in the right direction in many areas, but there still is work to be done," Lebo said. "This crucial data will help schools with their improvement planning, target relief funds to address high-need areas and recapture the growth Iowa students experienced prior to the pandemic." State-level results from the 2021-22 Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress (ISASP) demonstrate proficiency gains in many grades with English language arts performance mainly returning to pre-pandemic levels in third through eighth grades. Eleventh grade results declined the most from last year, dropping four percentage points. Results in math increased in third through seventh grades. However, eight and 10th-graders experienced a one-percentage point decrease, while ninth-graders had a two-percentage point decrease in the percent of students scoring proficient when compared to last year. Eleventh grade results declined five percentage points. Science, which is assessed in grades 5, 8 and 10, exceeded pre-pandemic levels in all three grades. Statewide in math: Third-graders tested at 72 percent proficient, Eighth-graders tested at 66.5 percent proficient. And 11th-graders tested at 60.2 percent proficient. Statewide in English language arts: Third-graders tested at 65.1 percent proficient, Eighth-graders tested at 75.2 percent proficient, And 11th-graders tested at 69.9 percent proficient. Statewide in science, which is only taken by fifth, eighth and 10th-graders: Fifth-graders tested at 60.1 percent proficient, Eighth-graders tested at 66.6 percent proficient, And 10th-graders tested at 64.2 percent proficient. Statewide results are comparable to local Eastern Iowa school districts. Last month, district officials with the Cedar Rapids Community School District presented their data to the school board. The district like many across Iowa saw a drop in scores on standardized tests during the 2020-21 school year. School officials attribute this to a loss of instruction time because of the pandemic as teachers and students adapted to remote learning. Cedar Rapids students in math tested at 59.5 percent proficient in third grade, 58.2 percent proficient in eighth grade, and 52.6 percent proficient in 11th grade. In English, Cedar Rapids students tested at 54.5 percent proficient in third grade, 70.7 percent proficient in eighth grade, and 65 percent proficient in 11th grade. Cedar Rapids schools' grade scores in particular are slightly lower compared to other Eastern Iowa school districts, while eighth and 11th grade scores are comparable or better. Students in the College Community School District tested in math at 77.2 percent proficient in third grade, 60.9 percent proficient in eighth grade, and 56.7 percent proficient in 11th grade. In English, College Community students tested at 69.8 percent proficient in third grade, 70.4 percent proficient in eighth grade, and 66.6 percent proficient in 11th grade. Linn-Mar Community School District students tested in math at 79.7 percent proficient in third grade, 72.4 percent proficient in eighth grade, and 65.3 percent proficient in 11th grade. Linn-Mar English scores were 74.7 percent proficient in third grade, 81 percent proficient in eighth grade, and 63.1 percent proficient in 11th grade. In a school board meeting last month, Linn-Mar Associate Superintendent Nathan Wear said officials are proud of the data, although high school students are still catching up from a year of disrupted education during the pandemic. The assessment reflects what's being taught in Iowa classrooms and how students are progressing toward grade-level expectations outlined in Iowa's academic standards. It is one measure that helps teachers understand where students are succeeding and where they may need more help. Drought continued to worsen across Nebraska last week, especially in areas where it's most severe. According to the latest Drought Monitor released Thursday by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, more than 10% of the state is now in exceptional drought, up from just over 6% last week, and nearly 28% is in extreme drought, up from 20% last week. While southwest Nebraska continues to experience the worst drought conditions, drought expanded the most in northeast Nebraska. Last week, there was no exceptional drought anywhere in eastern Nebraska. This week, parts of more than a dozen northeastern counties are touched by exceptional drought, and it's now as far south as Dodge and Colfax counties. It's the first time in nearly 10 years there has been exceptional drought in the eastern part of the state, according to the National Weather Service. Parts of southern Lancaster County are now in severe drought; two weeks ago, the county was completely drought free. Lincoln has received less than one inch of rain over the past two months and had its fifth-driest August on record. The city of Hickman on Wednesday instituted a 10-day voluntary water restriction because of the increasing drought conditions. "The goal is to reduce peak demands by 50%, reduce overall consumption by 25%, and to protect the city's water supply for fire protection use," the city said in a notice on its website. The Weather Service said Omaha officials also have requested voluntary water restrictions. Lancaster County actually is in better shape than many places. According to the Weather Service, Norfolk experienced its fourth-driest June-August period, with a precipitation deficit of more than 6 inches, and the city is currently on pace to have its driest year on record. Kearney had its driest August on record, while McCook had its second-driest. The drought is making things tough for the state's farmers and ranchers. Dozens of the state's counties have been declared either primary or secondary disaster areas because of drought, and 84% of topsoil in the state is either short or very short of moisture, a percentage which is double the 10-year average. According to the Nebraska Farm Bureau, more than 60% of the state's corn crop and more than half the soybean crop is rated fair or worse, while nearly 80% of pasture land is in poor or very poor condition. UNL's Drought Mitigation Center said in its weekly analysis that drought impacts in Nebraska and other Plains states include "reduced crop yields, poor pasture conditions, and the need for supplemental feeding of livestock." The Weather Service said some areas of northeast Nebraska could see total crop losses. It also noted that the current drought situation was exacerbated by recent intense heat. Thursday was the fifth day this month with a high above 90 degrees in Lincoln, and it's been even hotter out west. Chadron, Scottsbluff and Valentine all topped 100 on three straight days, while Sidney topped triple digits on back-to-back days. The good news is there could be some relief on the way. A cold front moving through the state on Friday will bring cooler temperatures and chances for rain. Many areas of the state will see highs only in the 60s and 70s, and the National Weather Service says areas of northeast Nebraska could see 1 to 2 inches of rain. Lincoln's forecast calls for a high in the upper 80s on Friday, dropping into the upper 60s and lower 70s Saturday and Sunday. Up to an inch of rain is possible on Saturday. Five hours into a long drive through New England last week, I needed coffee. I pulled up to a Dunkin in Gorham, New Hampshire, parked, and got out of the car. Mistake. In the donut-scented interior, I learned that this Dunkin wasnt taking orders in the storeonly at the drive-thru and via the app. Reluctantly, I downloaded Dunkin, selected a large cold brew, tapped in my credit card number, and watched in silence as two workers prepared and placed the coffee on the largely obsolete counter. Advertisement Seven days later, I got an emailAre Your Cravings Calling?that left me unsure if Id signed up for DD or AA. I was part of the Dunkin digital universe now, which is right where the company, owned by Atlanta-based Inspire Brands, wants me. Certainly more than in the actual store. Last August, Dunkin opened its first digital location on Beacon Street in Boston. There are no cashiers, replaced by touchscreens and mobile ordering, and no seats or tables. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dunkin is far from alone. Name a fast-food restaurant and the odds are the company has recently developed a branch without any restaurant at all. Chipotles first Digital Kitchen, which opened in upstate New York in 2020, has no dining room. A branch that opened last year in the Cleveland suburbs doesnt even let customers inside the store. This summer, Taco Bell opened something it calls Taco Bell Defy, which is not a restaurant at all but a purple taco tollbooth powered by QR code readers and dumbwaiters that bring the food down from a second-story kitchen. The operation is, by most accounts, astoundingly efficient. Wingstops restaurant of the future doesnt have seats or take cash. Advertisement Advertisement Whats driving this trend? Partly savings on real estate and labor. But mostly its a response to consumer preference. Pushed by pandemic restrictions and pulled by the increasing ease of mobile transactions, customers have rushed into drive-thrus, delivery, and mobile ordering. Even with coronavirus fears in most Americans rear-view mirror, Chipotles in-restaurant sales now account for just a third of its business. At Panera, which opened its first to-go-only locations this summer, that figure is under 20 percent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its a way to cater to changing customer-order behaviors, explains Emma Beckett, an editor at Restaurant Dive, an industry publication. While smaller store footprints and radical new designs are mostly reserved for new locations, she says, the arms race is on to remodel older stores with drive-thru lanes. Everyone wants double or triple drive-thrus, so those parcels are becoming competitive, because there are only so many corner lots that can accommodate that. Everything is moving in the direction of Checkers and Rallys, two drive-thru chains that were early to this idea. Take Salad And Go, the nine-year-old budget salad chain that now has dozens of locations in Arizona and Texas. Salad And Go has no inside at all, nor does it usually bother with picnic benches or even parking spots, like Sonic. Founder Roushan Christofellis has said the stores microfootprints are the secret to their super-affordable salads. As a bonus, no public interior space means you dont need to build customer parking. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wherever Americans are eating, it isnt inside fast-food joints. To meet this shift, some chains, like Wendys and Qdoba, have embraced ghost kitchens, unmapped, closed-door facilities where food for delivery might be prepared for a dozen different brands at once. Increasingly, the logic behind ghost kitchens is finding its way into public-facing retail design too. Last year, I wrote about how the rise in digital ordering was messing up the fast-casual experience, as restaurant workers struggled under a workload that depended little on the number of customers in the store. The good news is they are working on solving the problem. The bad news is: I am the problem. Like the parallel remote-work phenomenon, the rise of what McDonalds calls the Three Dsdigital, drive-thru, and deliverymay reflect an ongoing social atomization as the shared spaces that emptied out during the pandemic are slow to fill back up, to the point that walk-up, dine-in customers like me are no longer the focus, and might even be a nuisance. Often lauded as a vital third space for seniors, teenagers, and families in communities that lack friendly public spaces, McDonalds unveiled a concept store in 2020 that has no seating at all. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It does, however, have algorithms inside the My McDonalds App. Imagine what can happen once we start to know, Oh, Brians coming to the restaurant, and what we can do, McDonalds digital engagement head Lucy Brady told Wired in 2020. Its like a 21st-century version of the waitress asking if youll have the usual. On the other hand, to-go orders might not be replacing meals with friends as much as theyre eating into grocery-store spending. In the 2010s, American restaurant spending surpassed grocery spending for the first time, a dramatic shift from the 1990s when U.S. consumers spent $3 at the grocery for every $2 at the restaurant. Breakfast spending is the fastest-growing daypart, one industry analyst observed, and thats the ultimate utility. No one is sitting down for breakfast. Advertisement Thats probably whats motivating coffee-centric chains, among which Panera isnt the only one scrambling to scrap seating areas. As Jonathan Maze wrote this summer in Restaurant Business Online, Dutch Bros, which went public last year, rocketed to become the third-largest coffee chain with a model that features no seating. The fifth largest is Scooters Coffee, which is also a drive-thru-only concept. The fourth largest, Minneapolis-based Caribou, is focusing all its attention on growing drive-thru-only locations. The occasion for Mazes piece was the first drive-thru-only Tim Hortons. Advertisement Advertisement Something similar is happening at Starbucks. Despite its roots as an urban gathering place whose comfy chairs, Wi-Fi, and bathrooms invite customers to linger, on-and-off closures related to COVID have helped accelerate a business shift toward mobile, delivery, and drive-thru, which now make up almost three quarters of the brands U.S. revenue. And thats just fine with Starbucks brass: Those customers make bigger purchases than the ones who walk in and order at the counter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Starbucks opened its first Starbucks Pickup store in 2019, in Manhattan, and the model has since expanded to cities across the country. These stores center on convenience and illustrate one way we can meet evolving customer behaviors in dense, urban locations, a spokesperson says. As for Starbucks role as social infrastructure, the company has said it is creating the digital third space. We plan to create a series of branded NFT collections, the ownership of which initiates community membership, and allows for access to exclusive experiences and perks, chief marketing officer Brady Brewer wrote in May. Your Viennese coffee house could never. You can see the zeitgeist in the rise of another coffee chain, Blank Street, whose New York locations rewards mobile pre-orders and often eschew seating altogether in favor of tiny, low-rent retail footprints. Most dont have bathrooms, but then Howard Schultz has said Starbucks may reverse its own open-bathroom policy, citing problematic customer behavior. After closing a store in Philadelphia due to safety issues, Starbucks new Center City location has neither seating nor restrooms. Advertisement Perhaps we shouldnt take these seatless concept stores too seriously. After all, they represent only a tiny experiment compared to the nations tens of thousands of existing fast-food restaurants, which, the Dunkin in Gorham, New Hampshire excepted, continue to offer old-fashioned thrills such as ordering with a human cashier and sitting at a table to eat. And lets be honest, fast foods appeal has always been the foodnot the human connection and certainly not the ambiance. Advertisement Advertisement Pre-pandemic, about 50 percent of food was consumed on premise and 50 percent was drive-thru and delivery, said Mark Landini, a retail designer who has worked with McDonalds and other brands. Because of the pandemic, thats now changed to 20-80. Advertisement Advertisement Landini specializes in eye-catching designs, and he suggested that further streamlining the fast-food experience might not be good for workers or, in the long run, brands. (Or, obviously, his firm.) I think ghost kitchens are a big mistake, he said. Youre effectively putting your business in someone elses hands and the less a brand can manifest its personality, the less youll experience it emotionally. If youre going to reduce that physical interaction for operational economics, or to reach a broader audience, the long-term effect is your product becomes a commodity on someone elses shelf. Advertisement Then again, the futuristic Taco Bell Defy and its ilkas well as these companies earnings reportsshow us where Americans are going, or more precisely, how. Its not just mobile apps that are making these changes attractive, but an older technology that also promised both freedom and a kind of anti-social isolation: the automobile. The pandemic-fueled rise of the drive-thru just isnt going away. Maybe its because remote work has pushed fast-food spending into suburban, car-dependent locations. Maybe its because sitting down at Chipotle only seemed like a good idea relative to returning to the office, but nothing beats the kitchen table. Maybe its because there are more fun things to do at home, online, than ever before. One way or another, vehicle miles traveled are back to where they were in 2020, even though many white-collar workers arent in the office five days a week. Theyre still going to the drive-thru, though. Among the many viral Tweets generated by the news of Queen Elizabeths illness on Thursday was writer Ashley Feinbergs joking interpretation of the Queens wish, reported in 2015, that she not survive any of her dogs. Feinberg stretched the idea to its logical extreme, creating an imaginary parallel universe in which the few remaining corgis in Elizabeths pack are regretfully dispatched by firing squad, and generating many inspired follow-up tweets. Now that the Queen has died, it really should go without saying that the corgis that remainthere are two (Muick and Sandy), as well as two other dogs, a dorgi (dachshund/corgi mix) named Candy, and Lissy the cocker spanielwere never in any danger. The British aristocracy has a long history of leaving their pets to trusted servants or friends, often with a handsome annuity to keep their animals in the manner to which they have become accustomed. Perhaps one of the other members of the Royal Family will adopt the dogsalthough none of her family have shown a similar passion for corgis to date. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But its no surprise that the international publics thoughts (and jokes) drifted immediately to the corgis. They are an integral part of the iconography of the Queens 70-year reign, and indelibly tied to her popular image. Shes had over 30 in total, many descending from Susan, who was given to her as an 18th birthday present in 1944. The corgis have had funny names, to American eyesMint, Pundit, Dagger, Mythas well as simple ones: Heather, Martin, Flora. They had starring roles in the short sketch, in which the Queen acted alongside Daniel Craig as James Bond, that screened during the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics. And in the course of the Queens 70th Jubilee celebrations this June, the UK was awash with a wave of corgi memorabiliaBrits could celebrate with Corgi Juice (actually Pale Ale), a Clarence the Corgi cake, or the ever-so-slightly Cronenbergian Platinum Corgi mincemeat balls. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 2022 sees the end not only of the corgi as royal mascot, but perhaps of a dog breed as a personal emblem for a monarchat least, for the time being. The Royal Family has long included dog lovers (most famously Queen Victoria, the Queens great-great grandmother), but no single breed has been so closely entwined with one of its personalities since the reign of Charles II and his toy spaniels in the seventeenth century. While the Queens heirs are, by all accounts, fond of animals, it is hard to imagine the cocker spaniel, for instance, becoming an icon of Prince Williams reign in the same way the corgis have been for his grandmother. Advertisement Advertisement The corgis relative obscurity outside of its native home in South Wales in the decades before it found favor with the Royal Family may have aided it in gaining this singular connection with the Queen. At the time of her birth in 1926, the corgi might not have seemed an entirely obvious choice for a princesss canine companion. Just a decade previously, the corgi was known as the cur dog, a name associated with dogs of uncertain or unknown breeding. In 1907, a Welsh magistrates court debated whether the corgi was a distinct dog breed at all, or just another name for an English cur or a sheepdog mix. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The corgis roots are far from well-establishedalthough there are lots of theories that date Welsh dogs bred for their small legs to prior to the 19th century, there are none with much in the way of supporting evidence, and lots of different proposed etymologies of the word corgi. However, we know the corgi gained a local reputation in Wales as a herding dog during the Victorian period. Although they were not particularly numerous, corgis were in demand as all-purpose farm dogs, respected not only for their ability to drive cattle (while dodging cows kicks), but also for going after rabbits and rats. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dog fanciers outside of Wales discovered the corgi during the boom in pedigree dog breeding which followed the end of the First World War. The Welsh Corgi was accepted into Britains Kennel Club in 1925, just a year before the birth of the Princess Elizabeth. (The dog was later split into two separate breeds: the Pembroke Welsh Corgis, beloved by the Queen, and the Cardigan Welsh Corgi). Advertisement Elder Welsh newspaper readers at the time observed that the corgis of the 1930s were noticeably changed from the dogs of their youthnot to mention shorter. In fact, wrote one J. Evans in 1934, very few of the old types of Corgi are to be seen today. (These changes in the breed have continuedcorgis today are shorter in the legs and longer in the body than they were when the queen first owned them.) While corgi had once been widely synonymous with cur dog, the new well-heeled corgi breeders began to distance themselves from that term. One of the Welsh Corgis greatest proponents in the interwar years was a breeder named Thelma Evans (later Gray), who lived in one of the most prosperous areas of southeast England. It was one of Evanss puppies, Rozavel Golden Eagle (a.k.a. Dookie), who was presented to the then-seven-year-old Princess Elizabeth in 1933 as a gift from her father, the Duke of York, and who got her interested in the breed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dookie was just the first in a very long list of Pembroke Welsh Corgis and dorgis kept by the Queen, who became an active breeder of corgis. Willow, the 12x great-grand daughter of Susan, the Queens 18th birthday present, only died in 2018. Why the Queen had such a specific love of the corgi is anyones guess. She may have been, as other corgi fans are, entranced by their foxy faces, little legs, and stubborn intelligence. And of course, people often remain loyal to the kinds of dogs they had as children out of familiarity and nostalgia. Whatever the reason, the Queen was in. Princess Diana is reported to have described the pack of corgis swarming around her as a moving carpet. Advertisement This extended royal patronage thrust the corgi into the spotlight and led to a sharp increase in popularity. Photographs of the royal corgis soon graced the pages of newspapers and magazines. While, as one royal canine observer noted, in 1933 hardly anyone outside of rural south Wales had even heard of a corgi, just 25 years later the Pembroke Welsh Corgi was the second most popular pedigree dog breed in the United Kingdom. Although they remain iconic of the British monarchy and the UK internationally, this corgi enthusiasm on the part of the British public has waned in recent decades. Almost 9,000 corgi puppies were registered with the British Kennel Club in 1960, compared to 1223 last yeara number thats up from a low of just 274 puppies in 2014. Advertisement Advertisement Although the Queens corgis are unusual today in the amount of media interest they generate, this is not the first time the eyes of the world have fallen on a royal dog dealing with the aftermath of losing his or her owner. In 1910, the funeral cortege of the Queens great-grandfather, Edward VII, included his beloved dog in a prominent role. Caesar, a wire fox terrier, followed the kings hearse at the widowed Alexandra of Denmarks suggestion. The days and weeks ahead will see some tasteless and mawkish tributes, but surely none of them will rival Wheres Master?, a childrens book which recounted the Kings illness and death from the perspective of the grieving terrier. The book ends with Caesar resolving to join the funeral procession for his last journey with Master: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Weve come to the end of the journey. They say I cant follow Master any further. They say there are no little dogs where Master has gone. But I know better. Were unlikely to see the corgis or dorgis joining any funeral procession, as the Queens pack is not known for its great behavior, but there are other ways to commemorate the Queens famous love of her loyal corgis. The Royal Family could, for instance, follow the lead of Bertram Mackennal, sculptor of Edward VIIs tomb in Windsor, which features the faithful Caesar lying at his masters feet. Eagle-eyed television viewers have already noticed the corgis on the silver vase Charles III had beside him in his first address to his subjects as king, on Friday. Advertisement Its not hard to see why the image of Caesar walking behind his masters funerary procession was so powerful. There is something accessible and deeply humanizing about peoples relationships with their petssuch stories give us a glimpse into the private inner life of a very public person. We recognize in them aspects of our own relationships (or that of our friends or family members) with pets. Perhaps this is why the corgis have figured so heavily in the images shared on social media over the last day. Advertisement Advertisement This humanizing aspect to the Queens relationship with the corgis is front-and-center in one of the most-shared anecdotes about the monarch following Elizabeth IIs death. In his 2020 memoirs of his work as a war trauma surgeon, David Nott recounts attending a lunch at Buckingham Palace, soon after returning from Aleppo, Syria. According to Nott, the Queen asked the doctor (who was grieving his mother and traumatized by his experiences) about his work in Syria. The Queen noticed his distress and asked for a silver box of dog biscuits to be brought forward. We fed the biscuits to the corgis under the table, and for the rest of lunch she took the lead and chatted about her dogs, how many she had, what their names were, how old they were, Nott wrote. All the while we were stroking and petting them, and my anxiety and distress drained away. There, the Queen said. Thats so much better than talking, isnt it? On Saturday, a longtime Las Vegas investigative journalist named Jeff Germanthe author of a book called Murder in Sin Citywas found dead outside his home in an apparent stabbing. On Wednesday, authorities arrested a local elected official named Robert Telles, whom German had covered extensively for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, on suspicion of having killed the reporter, who was 69. Below, we try to answer some of the most obvious questions about this tragic but undeniably intriguing situation. Advertisement Who is Robert Telles? Telles, a Democrat, has served as Clark County, Nevadas public administrator since winning election in 2018. The public administrators job is to supervise the disposal of the estates of individuals who die in Clark County. He was defeated in a June primary and, before being arrested for murder, was scheduled to finish his term in office at the end of the year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Was German killed because he had exposed, or was going to expose, some sort of allegedly corrupt activity that Telles was involved in? Hed written about Telles, but not in the way you might imagine if you are aware of the gambling industrys historic ties to the mob, the size of the estates that the public administrator likely deals with on a regular basis, and Germans history of writing about salacious crimes. (Murder in Sin City is about Ted Binion, a casino heir with drug problems who built an underground vault in the desert to bury part of his fortune and subsequently died whenwell, its a long story.) Somehow, this has nothing to do with dirty money, casinos, or the mob (yet?). German, rather, had written a series of pieces about accusations that Telles was involved in an inappropriate relationship with a female member of the public administrators office, that he had created turmoil and internal dissension by giving her privileges and authority over other employees that were not justified by her job description, and that he was in general an abusive boss. Advertisement Advertisement An inappropriate relationship? How inappropriate are we talking? Other members of the public administrators staff (!) went so far as to videotape Telles and the woman in question together in her Nissan Rogue at a nearby parking garage on multiple occasions. Germans first Review-Journal article, published in May, delicately and non-libelously describes one such taped encounter as a meeting between Telles and the woman and observes that the video appears to show two heads through the tinted back window joining together. (Afterward, each of them gets out of the vehicles back seat and leaves separately.) Advertisement Telles and the woman are married to other people and have denied having an affair. (Im actually infinitely in love with my wife, Telles told German.) He said that all the allegations against him were false and that they had been made by veteran employees who were upset that he had asked them to meet higher standards of efficiency and professional conduct. (In a letter he later posted online, Telles said that one of his requests for members of the office was that they not spend the majority of the workday chatting. Abusive indeed!) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Was Germans coverage the reason why Telles lost his primary? Potentially, although at the time the first Review-Journal article was published, an assistant public administrator named Rita Reid had already launched a primary campaign against him. (Its a small office; there are only eight full-time employees. Very awkward!) Fallout from the the Review-Journals article included a hostile Facebook exchange between Telles and his predecessor in office about Telles relationship with the subordinate, which the newspaper duly covered as well. Reid went on to win the three-way race by a narrow margin. How did Telles react to all this? Advertisement Advertisement By blaming Germans purported obsession with him: @JGermanRJ texted me to tell me article 3 is coming out. I'm sure article 4 will come out soon enough. Jeff, I know you are obsessed, but I'm over you. Rob Telles (@RobTellesLV) June 16, 2022 Advertisement Advertisement Sounds like we know now that he wasnt really as over the situation as his cry-laughing emoji would suggest. Allegedly. Why do police believe Telles was the one who killed German? In a chilling twist, the Review-Journal says that one break in the case occurred when some of its reporters went to Telles house on Tuesdaythey were presumably not the only ones who wondered what their late colleagues most high-profile recent subject was up toand realized that he owned a car fitting the description of one that police had said may have been used by Germans killer. The next morning, detectives interviewed Telles while his house was searched and his cars were towed. When he returned home, he was wearing a hazmat suit: Advertisement Advertisement Robert Telles just arrived at his house. Reporters asked him if he had any comment. I asked why police towed his vehicle. He had no comment. Story: https://t.co/3CSa7B4XeS pic.twitter.com/tgQ7JuI9BX Brett Clarkson (@BrettClarkson_) September 7, 2022 Youre telling me this guy finished a conversation with police officers who suspected him of murder, then returned to his home, which was surrounded by members of the press, wearing clothing that someone on television would wear if they were trying to dispose of evidence of a crime? Advertisement It was an interesting wardrobe choice. Per surveillance images released by police, Telles also (allegedly) killed German while wearing sneakers, a bright orange reflective jacket, and an enormous straw hat. What happened next? Later on Wednesday, police returned to Telles home and entered it when he did not answer the door. He was soon thereafter wheeled out on a stretcher with what police said were self-inflicted wounds. Authorities described the wounds as superficial cuts on his arms, the Review-Journals reporters noted, perhaps with the intention of emphasizing that Telles was not so tough when he wasnt (allegedly) stabbing their 69-year-old colleague. Further shade may have been implicit in authorities decision to release photos depicting a straw hat and sneakers, which they say were found on Telles property, and which had been ineptly cut into very large pieces: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Evidence seized by Las Vegas police in the arrest of Public Administrator Robert Telles https://t.co/9Q6ik0Xkup pic.twitter.com/76IHsxHzK0 Brett Clarkson (@BrettClarkson_) September 8, 2022 That is the most half-assed alleged destruction of evidence I have ever seen. Advertisement Yes, the large remaining chunk of shoe even still has (what appears to be) blood on it! How many days after he allegedly committed this crime was Telles property searched? Four. This was the best he could (allegedly) do in four days? The Review-Journals writeup of the evidence against Telles also seems to suggest that the entire murder took place in full view of a surveillance camera. Police additionally say that DNA found under Germans fingernails was consistent with Telles DNA. So this was all (allegedly) done in retaliation for Germans articles? Police have not commented on Telles motive, but Germans newspaper notes that he had recently filed public records requests for emails and text messages between Telles and three other county officials, including the woman with whom he was alleged to be having an affair. So further personally damaging reporting could have been forthcoming. Advertisement Does this whole situation remind you of the monologue that Frances McDormand, in character as Marge Gunderson, delivers at the conclusion of the film Fargo? It does. And for what? she asks a character whos killed several people. For a little bit of money? Theres more to life than a little money, you know. (Telles alleged motivations cant quite be reduced to money, but appear to have been just as petty and selfish.) Dontcha know that? And here ya are, and its a beautiful day, she continues. Well, says McDormand as Gunderson, after a pause. I just dont understand it. Judge Reed OConnors decision on Wednesday allowing religious employers to exclude HIV prevention drugs from their insurance plans is obscene. Not only because it rests on an offensive stereotype of gay men as promiscuous disease vectors, or because it elevates the rights of bigoted employers over the lives of their workers. These aspects of the ruling are so morally and intellectually repulsive that they obscure the other frightening facet of the decision: OConnor has taken direct aim at the federal laws that guarantee coverage for preventive care, including vaccines, cancer screenings, domestic violence counseling, maternal health, and childrens wellness. He is, in short, preparing to destroy crucial provisions of the Affordable Care Act that save lives every day. Advertisement Wednesdays ruling is not the first time that OConnor has attempted to shred the ACA. In 2018, he tried to abolish the entire law in a ludicrous decision that the Supreme Court reversed 72 in 2021. Whenever Republicans decide to attack the ACA, they know to file in OConnors court, where they are guaranteed to win. So when Jonathan Mitchell, the architect of Texas vigilante abortion ban, took aim at the law, he brought his lawsuit straight to OConnors Texas courtroom. Mitchell represented a group of plaintiffs who provide health insurance to their families and their employees. (One plaintiff, Steven Hotze, is a notorious anti-gay activist who once compared gay people to termites.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The plaintiffs contested, on religious grounds, the Trump administrations recent decision directing most insurers to cover PrEP, a drug that prevents HIV transmission. They also objected to federal regulations mandating coverage of STI counseling as well as the HPV vaccine, which reduces the risk of cervical and anal cancer. These services, the plaintiffs asserted, violate their rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or RFRA, because they facilitate and encourage homosexual behavior, intravenous drug use, and sexual activity outside of marriage between one man and one woman. They also argued that these federal mandates (along with a host of others) are unconstitutional, because the agencies that issue them are illegal. It was inevitable that OConnor would side with the plaintiffs on the RFRA claim against PrEP. He purported to follow the Supreme Courts decision in Hobby Lobby, which let employers exclude contraceptive coverage from workers health insurance due to religious objections. OConnor held that the PrEP mandatewhich simply allows workers to access HIV prevention medicine through their insuranceimposes a substantial burden on employers religious beliefs by facilitating gay sex. He then declared that protecting the plaintiffs employees against HIV transmission was not a compelling government interest as required by RFRA. In addition, he asserted, the mandate was not the least restrictive means to promote that interest, since the government can just pick up the tab. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theres a major difference between this case and Hobby Lobby that OConnor ignores, and which renders his analysis deeply suspect. In Hobby Lobby, the employer objected to contraception itself, because, they believed, it destroys an embryo. (It actually doesnt.) In this case, the employers do not object to the way PrEP works. They dont care that PrEP blocks the enzyme that HIV needs to replicate; they do not believe this mechanism is immoral. Rather, these employers think that letting their workers access PrEP will facilitate and encourage gay sex, and that complicity burdens their religion. Advertisement Advertisement This attenuated connection between the employer and the allegedly immoral conduct takes the case beyond Hobby Lobby. Religion and secular society routinely clash over life-saving medicine, a problem highlighted by faith-based objections to the COVID vaccine. By its nature, health care facilitates a range of activities that employers might find sinful. Could an employer refuse to cover emphysema treatment because it facilitates smoking, which they deem a sin? Could an employer deny coverage of type 2 diabetes treatment because it facilitates the sin of gluttony? These hypotheticals might sound extreme, but theyre no more outlandish than the PrEP example. Allowing a boss to veto their workers health care hands employers extraordinary control over employees lives. It strips patients of autonomy on the basis of the fiction that their employer is somehow complicit in their own decisions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In short, OConnors decision creates a roadmap for employers to shred their workers health insuranceand subvert the ACAby selectively excluding critical coverage on the basis of religious objections. That is a feature, not a bug: Four years after he tried and failed to kill the ACA, OConnor is launching another attack on the law. It includes these religious exemptions, but goes much further. Buried in OConnors decision are several bombs designed to blow up the governments authority to mandate almost any preventive care. First, he found that members of one key health agencythe Preventive Services Task Force (PSTF)were appointed illegally. Then he strongly suggested that two similarly important agenciesthe Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)are acting illegally. Advertisement Under the Affordable Care Act, these agencies force insurance companies to cover care that detects or prevents serious medical problems. The PSTF is a group of experts that recommends such treatments. Through the ACA, Congress directed most insurance companies to follow its guidance. These experts are unpaid volunteers who meet three times a year for two days. Yet OConnor ruled that they are constitutional officers who must be nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, like cabinet secretaries. (As legal expert Chris Geidner noted, this label is a huge stretch, because constitutional officers must hold a continuing position, and part-time volunteers do not seem to fit the bill.) OConnor called for further briefing on the remedy for this alleged flaw; based on his past extremism, its reasonable to assume that hell declare the agency and its work unlawful. Advertisement Advertisement OConnor then suggested that ACIP and HRSA are also unconstitutional because they violate the non-delegation doctrinean ahistorical theory that bars Congress from delegating policy decisions to executive agencies. Circuit precedent prevented OConnor from using the doctrine to limit these agencies power. But the judge noted, correctly, that the Supreme Court has suggested the HRSA exercises authority through an unconstitutional delegation of power. His decision gives SCOTUS the opportunity it craves to hobble the agency, potentially invalidating much of its work mandating preventive care for mothers and children. If the higher courts accept OConnors invitation to destroy these agencies, heres a partial list of the preventive care that insurers will no longer be required to cover: genetic testing for women with a family history of breast and ovarian cancer; medication to reduce risk of breast cancer; breast cancer screening; breastfeeding support; cervical cancer screenings; STI screening; colorectal cancer screening; HIV tests; domestic violence screening; medication for heart disease; a vast range of screenings for children and pregnant women; and, of course, PrEP. This case began with the kind of routine gay-bashing weve come to expect from the conservative legal movement. And it has the real potential to end with grievous harm to millions of Americans. Death in the electric chair is like being burned alive. The firing squad is like torture. Those were the conclusions of a truly unprecedented judicial two-for. On Wednesday, a South Carolina state judge, Jocelyn Newman, relying in large part on that states constitution, struck down two methods of execution at once. Unless it is reversed on appeal, her decision brings that states death penalty apparatus to a halt. Judge Newmans ruling is a welcome recognition of Americas current methods of execution mess and the folly of trying to solve it by resurrecting previously discredited ways of putting condemned inmates to death. The mess has been caused by drug shortages due to suppliers that dont want to be involved with capital punishment, and it has led to experimentation with new drugs and drug combinations. The mess has sometimes halted lethal injection executions entirely, or more often made this already unreliable method even more error-prone. It has also led to experimentation with previously abandoned methods of execution, like the ones that were struck down in South Carolina this week. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Judge Newmans ruling is also a clear break with a long history in which courts have, with a few notable exceptions, generally deferred to legislative decisions about execution methods. In fact, more than a century ago, the United States Supreme Court gave its blessing to both the firing squad and the electric chair. In 1878, the court reviewed the firing squads history and extensive use in military executions. It determined that, even though [c]ruel and unusual punishments are forbidden by the Constitution: the punishment of shooting as a mode of executing the death penalty for the crime of murder in the first degree is not included in that category within the meaning of the Eighth Amendment. Twelve years later, the court upheld New Yorks decision to replace hanging with the electric chair, calling the latter a humane method even though such an electrocution had never been carried out. Advertisement Advertisement In the more recent past, other courts have given the green light to hanging. Almost 30 years ago, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit found that hanging, the method then used in the state of Washington, did not violate the United States constitutional prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. The court concluded that hanging does not involve the wanton and unnecessary infliction of pain. Advertisement However, since the start of this century, the electric chair has not fared quite as well when it has had its day in court. Two state supreme courts, one in Georgia in 2001 and one in Nebraska seven years later, have declared it illegal in their states. The Georgia Supreme Court, hardly a citadel of judicial liberalism and activism, called attention to what it called the specter of excruciating pain and certainty of cooked brains and blistered bodies associated with electrocution. The Nebraska Supreme Court said that electrocution has proven itself to be a dinosaur more befitting the laboratory of Baron Frankenstein than the death chamber of state prisons. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That brings us back to South Carolina. In 2021 South Carolina, which has been unable to get the drugs needed for its lethal injection protocol for a long time, added electrocution and the firing squad to its roster of execution methods. Other death penalty states authorize them but still use lethal injection as the default method. South Carolina now requires death inmates to choose between being shot and electrocuted as their method of execution, but is the only state to use the electric chair if the condemned inmate refuses to make a choice. Advertisement Advertisement Responding to this legislative change, several death row inmates brought suit, and offered a long list of alleged violations of law. Key to their suit was their contention that both electrocution and the firing squad are prohibited by the South Carolina constitution and that their right to elect their manner of execution is rendered meaningless by the lack of constitutional choices. Advertisement Advertisement Judge Newman found in their favor on all counts. After undertaking a detailed and careful evaluation of the conflicting expert testimony about each execution method, she found both the firing squad and the electric chair to be wanting and, as applied by the South Carolina legislature, to violate the South Carolina and the U.S. constitutions. First, the firing squad: Being put to death by a firing squad is the rarest of all the methods of execution (the others being hanging, the electric chair, the gas chamber, lethal injection) used in the United States since 1900. During that period, it has only been the method of choice in 34 executions, all but one of which were in Utah. Judge Newman described the firing squad as a reversion to a historic method of execution that has never before been used by our State. She concluded that it would be unusual and for that reason unconstitutional. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But her indictment of the firing squad did not stop there. Someone subject to execution by firing squad, she added will feel excruciating pain resulting from the gunshot wounds and broken bones. The firing squad mutilates the human body. She likened it to torture. And, borrowing a phrase from the U.S. Supreme Courts definition of what would make an execution cruel, Judge Newman said that the firing squad causes pain beyond that necessary for the mere extinguishment of .(life). The judge was also unsparing in her treatment of the electric chair. Unlike the firing squad, South Carolina has had some experience with the electric chair. Since 1976, the state has electrocuted seven people. Judge Newman found from each of these cases that South Carolinas electric chair causes severe damage to the inmates body. Advertisement There is evidence, she continued, that inmates executed by electrocution continue to move, breathe and even scream after the shock is administered(and) would suffer the experience of being burned alive. Finally, noting the important role of social progress in constitutional interpretation, the judge concluded that using the electric chair is inconsistent with both the concepts of evolving standards of decency and the dignity of man. It is time, she said, to retire South Carolinas electric chair as a violation of the South Carolina Constitution. Advertisement Advertisement Judge Newmans unusual ruling punctures the long-held belief that this country could find a way of putting people to death that would be safe, reliable, and humane. Over the course of the last century and more, that belief has led us to try one method after another. Advertisement As each new method was rolled out, their proponents made the same claims, namely that the proposed methodwhether the firing squad, the electric chair, or most recently lethal injectionwould ensure that executions would neither be torturous nor be like being burned alive. None has filled the bill or lived up to the hype. Judge Newmans two-for-one ruling reminds us that turning back the clock to previously discredited methods is a sign of desperation not of progress. We would do well to heed her descriptions of these brutal means of carrying out executions, and better still to realize that there is no method that can make it acceptable for the state to kill its citizens. Photo: The Canadian Press FILE - Former President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Sept. 3, 2022. A key decision over whether Trumps social media platform Truth Social will merge with a cash-rich company and get $1.3 billion to take on Twitter has been put off for another month. The potential partner, Digital World Acquisition Corp., on Thursday, Sept. 8, 2022, postponed a shareholder vote to extend by a year a deadline to close its merger with Trumps company and release funds to pay its bills. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File) A key decision over whether Donald Trumps social media platform Truth Social will merge with a cash-rich company and get $1.3 billion to take on Twitter has been put off for another month. The potential partner, Digital World Acquisition Corp., on Thursday postponed a shareholder vote to extend by a year a deadline to close its merger with Trumps company and release funds to pay its bills. At least 65% of shareholders need to approve the extension, a threshold not reached in tallies earlier in the day. Shares of Miami-based Digital World, which have been generally falling after small-pocketed investors pushed them over $100 last year, closed Thursday up 1% to $23.35. If a new deal deadline isn't approved at a shareholder meeting on Oct. 10, Digital World can still play for time. It can delay the deadline by three months if sponsors backing its company pay nearly $3 million into a trust account, then delay again for another three months for the same payment. The company has said previously it would chose to delay three months if necessary. If the deal is not closed by the new deadlines, Digital World must liquidate and Truth Social's parent, Trump Media & Technology Group, will have to find other sources of cash. It could do that by borrowing, finding private investors, or having Trump himself contribute the money, something he has avoided in many of his business ventures but has hinted he might do. I dont need financing, Im really rich,'" Trump posted on Truth Social earlier this month. Private company anyone??? Digital World's deal with Trump's company was troubled almost from the start. In November, the Securities and Exchange Commission requested documents from Digital World following news reports that it had talked with Trump representatives about joining forces before selling its own stock to the public for the first time, a possible violation of security rules. Digital World and Trump's business have also been subpoenaed in a federal criminal probe. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is looking into violations of stock trading rules, too. The SEC probe in particular is a serious setback for the company because the agency needs to sign off on the Digital World-Trump merger for it to go through. Trump has called the investigations politically motivated witch hunts." A merger would release to Trump Media $290 million held by Digital World and another $1 billion that private investors had committed to the combined company. Until then, Trump's company is on its own, paying staff, leases and other expenses from $36 million raised from sales of promissory notes last year and earlier this year. Truth Social was launched as a free speech, big tent alternative to Twitter after Trump was banned by the platform following last year's Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. Trump rarely posted on the app in the weeks after it was launched in February, but now is regularly sending his version of tweets called truths to rally supporters following the FBI seizure of confidential government documents at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida last month. In the proposed merger, Trump is hoping to cash in on a recent investing trend involving risky shell companies called special purchase acquisition companies, or SPACs, that have no product or service to sell and are set up solely to merge with a business with one. Once wildly popular, stocks of many highflying SPACs have plunged in price and many others have been liquidated without completing mergers. SPACs, also called blank-check companies, are allowed a quick path to go public without many disclosures but only if they have not yet had substantial discussion with a possible merger partner, a possible focus of the Digital World investigations. The SEC has needlessly delayed its review of our proposed merger, causing real and unnecessary financial harm" to investors, said Trump Media in a statement. "The SEC needs to set aside any improper political considerations and bring its review to a swift conclusion. New legislation on Capitol Hill brings us closer than ever to having comprehensive data privacy protection and a civil right to intimate privacy. The American Data Privacy and Protection Act enjoys bipartisan support: It passed out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee with a vote of 53-2. And while its unclear how the bill will fare in the Senate, its bipartisan support gives reason for optimism. Theres just one obstacle to the House passing the ADPPA: California and its most powerful federal lawmaker, Rep. Nancy Pelosi. Advertisement Because the federal privacy act would preempt state lawsincluding Californias robust protections and its ability to continue to innovate with stronger lawsPelosi has yet to hold a vote on the bill in its current form. Pelosi noted that, as the California governor and top state leaders have underscored, the ADPPA does not guarantee the same essential consumer protections as Californias existing privacy laws. To be clear, thats not exactly true: The ADPPA arguably provides as strong or stronger protections than current California privacy law. Nevertheless, theres a way to overcome those objections and garner her and the states support by drawing on lessons from Californias historic role in creating environmental standards. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Though the proposed law is far from perfect, everyone in the United States would benefit from its mandates to minimize the collection and trafficking of personal data, especially intimate information, and hold data collectors accountable discrimination. Renowned privacy and civil rights groups support the bill. Unsurprisingly, data brokers and industry groups do not. Advertisement Advertisement The bill would do several important things, starting with imposing a baseline duty to refrain from collecting personal data unless companies reasonably need it to provide products or services to existing customers. (Right now, our online browsing, searches, purchases, and cellphone and app activities are there for the taking, so long as companies provide some notice about their data handling activities and dont lie to us.) The act would also make it much harder to collect and exploit our most intimate, sensitive personal information, including health, genetics, biometrics, geolocation, sexual behavior, intimate images, online activities over time, private communications, and minors data. The safeguards in the law promise to reduce the amount of personal data flowing into corporate digital reservoirs and the hands of law enforcement, which as of now can and do freely buy it. Importantly, the ADPPA would ban any data-handling practice that discriminates based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex or disability. The anti-discrimination mandate would cover practices that have a disparate impact on vulnerable communities, such as excluding marginalized people from employment opportunities or raising their insurance rates, with no showing of invidious intent required. Advertisement Advertisement But, as Pelosi has rightly noted, the bill would preclude states, including California, from continuing to innovate with stronger privacy laws, as it has done since its passage of the California Online Privacy Policy Protection Act of 2003. The bill also would limit the mandate of Californias new Privacy Protection Agency Board, whose members are among the smartest and most innovative privacy advocates in the country. Unsurprisingly and understandably, the board issued a memo opposing the ADPPA. Advertisement Advertisement In response to the stalemate, the president and executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Alan Butler, remarked that the impasse might be surmountable with modifications that would allow states to continue to experiment in the future as technology evolves. Drawing on lessons from the environmental field, there may indeed be a way forward just as Butler suggests, with California as our guide. Advertisement Advertisement As in the case of privacy protection, California has long been a leader in crafting environmental statutes that protect the public health, clean air and clean water. In fact, in 1947long before the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or the passage of the major federal environmental statutesCalifornia formed the first air pollution control board in Los Angeles. Researchers with that board helped craft and implement the nations first air pollution regulations. Advertisement Advertisement Later, the state passed the nations first tailpipe emissions standards for motor vehicles; and under the leadership of Gov. Ronald Reagan, California created the California Air Resources Board, the first statewide air pollution control agency in the country. When the federal government finally began regulating air pollution, it did so in a way that maintained Californias leadership in the field of air pollution regulation. In the federal Clean Air Act of 1967, in recognition of Californias unique environmental challenges and the states pioneering efforts in tackling those problems, California was granted a waiver that authorized the state to set its own vehicle emissions standards. This waiver authority expanded over time, as Congress strengthened Californias ability to set its own vehicle emissions program and authorized other states to adopt Californias emission standards. Advertisement That waiver provision has proven invaluable to California and the country. With its waiver, California has used its expertise to target harmful air pollutants (like nitrogen oxides) before they were even on the federal governments radar. It has set aggressive goals that have pushed our vehicle fleets to be cleaner and more efficient. It has encouraged the creation of new technologies like electric vehicles, which are crucial in our efforts to tackle climate change. And, in the process, California has built up an expert team of scientists and lawyers that represent the gold star of air pollution regulators. Advertisement Advertisement Congress should follow a similar path now. The federal bill can provide California with a waiver, which would recognize its unique position as the home of a critical mass of tech companies and a leader in regulating them. (The Department of Commerce or the Federal Trade Commission could be tasked with determining whether Californias innovations offer greater data privacy protections than the ADPPA to warrant the waiver.) The state could continue to create privacy protections that meet evolving problems, and the nation can avoid the confusion that would result if all 50 states made their own privacy laws. As speaker of the House, Pelosi could then introduce the ADPPA knowing that California can continue to forge innovative solutions that benefit her state and the country. Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. As the United Kingdom plunged into sorrowboth on the ground and onlineupon the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the diaspora of the British Empires current and former colonies reacted, well, a bit differently. Irish, Indian, Kenyan, Nigerian, South African, and Caribbean Twitter right now. pic.twitter.com/MEBJWZPyLZ uNgwane (@comradesipho) September 8, 2022 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Black people and other POC from British colonies right now: pic.twitter.com/wpGB05gXuy Nonhle (@NonhleBeryl) September 8, 2022 give us the diamonds back and i'll pretend to be sad!!!!!!!!!! scaachi (@Scaachi) September 8, 2022 Advertisement Advertisement Black Twitter is on fire today pic.twitter.com/zsK6aK3ldn Port Misery, Sasha Gilmores Private Security Team (@port_misery) September 8, 2022 Advertisement Advertisement You likely noticed this stark disparity in some regard if youre an internet user with connections to netizens who have origins in formerly colonized nationsplaces like Ireland, India/Pakistan/Bangladesh, Barbados, Zambia, and far too many others to list. Maybe, after a bunch of earnest messages from politicians and celebrities, you found a lengthy thread pointing out all the war criminals the queen honored during her lifetime. Or you learned about one of the many imperial atrocities she never apologized for. Or you realized the staggering amount of wealth that Britain ripped from various countries over the course of centuries, with little to no reparations paid in turn. Perhaps, most painfully, you saw a video of a revolutionary inviting the queen to confront the harms Kenyans faced when fighting for their countrys freedom from the crown. Or you saw plenty of invocations of the iconic RIP BOZO meme. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The vibe of such tweets shifted dramatically over the course of the day. At first, when news arrived of the queens medical care, simple and snarky tweets abounded, anticipating the official announcement and ensuing fallout. Those upset at the prospect of losing their queen began Thursday directing their ire toward Americans mocking British grief, but then the bereaved moved on to targeting the much more widespread colonial diaspora. When the acclaimed academic and author Uju Anya referred to Elizabeth II as the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire and wished that her pain be excruciating, none other than Jeff Bezos called her out for it, eventually leading to Twitter suspending her account. Then, as the clock hit 1:30 p.m. and the royal family officially declared the queens death, anti-monarchy tweeters adopted an even more serious tone. They doubled down on their lack of grief and highlighted not only the bloody history of British rule, but the queens own role in perpetuating itwhether through history-obscuring initiatives, direct orders for violent military crackdowns on colonial dissent in Yemen, and her other efforts at halting the mass independence movements that took place, and succeeded, under her reign. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Plenty of white Britons and Europeans, along with monarchists, were still quick to condemn such unfettered celebration over the queens death, pointing to the mass, destabilizing grief overwhelming the United Kingdom. As author Hari Kunzru fairly pointed out, the ubiquitous and anchoring presence the royals hold in the U.K.even for its anti-monarchistsis perhaps difficult for outsiders to understand. And when it comes to just basic etiquette, yes: It is insensitive to publicly gloat over any human beings death, and cruel to wish any form of suffering on anyone. But theres perhaps an exercise in perspective to be considered here. Imagine that you, like me, have familial origins in any one of the hundreds of countries subjected to the arbitrary cruelty of British rule. Most likely, you didnt grow up with the view of Buckingham Palace in the skyline, but you felt the presence of the British Crown in other, more insidious ways: the enduring injustices of the slave trade. Views of poverty and underdevelopment resulting from centuries-spanning exploitation. Displays of plundered objects from your own country as trinkets in museums. The very presence of an iconic Indian jewel on the crown Elizabeth donned (and that Camilla will now wear).* The whitewashed legacies of empire officials who were violent bigots. None of which was ever actually corrected, with apologies or trillion-dollar compensation or even basic acknowledgement. As the Kenyan cartoonist Patrick Gathara stated in June, referring to Elizabeth: To this day, she has never publicly admitted, let alone apologized, for the oppression, torture, dehumanization and dispossession visited upon people in the colony of Kenya before and after she acceded to the throne. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If Britons are feeling some sense of dislocation now regarding the queen, what do they think their former colonial subjects have felt all their lives? Especially after how the central palace freaked out when Prince Harry married Meghan Markle, a Black woman? Little wonder that residents of Barbados shunned William and Kate during their March visit, to the ire of royal subjects. Advertisement Advertisement Brits: Someone has died! How can you be so cruel? Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Jamaica, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, St Lucia, India, Botswana, Kenya, Gambia, Descendants of the TransAtlantic Slave Trade, Princess Diana Hive, etc.: pic.twitter.com/lYtAQObn3a Who Got Da Bawdy? (@IvoryTheJunior) September 8, 2022 Advertisement Perhaps its unfair to have expected one woman to make up for centuries of injustice. But the simple fact is that Queen Elizabeth II did less than nothing in that vein. In fact, she consistently papered over the crimes of the Commonwealth, through moves such as Operation Legacy, as she bathed in luxury afforded in large part by international theft. After 70 years of this, does anybody suspect that Britains succeeding monarchs will do any better? Advertisement At any rate, the memes, jokes, and gleeful tweets are not just a manifestation of the very contemporary desire to dunk on ones online enemies as viciously and virally as possible. That is part of whats fueling this response, sure; its a pillar of modern social media culture. But these reactions are also coming from a place of real, often deeply felt pain. If the queen, for many, was a symbol of grace, for many other people she was a symbol of something deeply ugly. The queen is dead; long live her former subjects. Let them have this one. Warm and largely settled weekend ahead: Spain weather September 9-11 The north of Spain will be overcast with a chance of rain but the rest of the country will have a pleasant weekend The National Hurricane Center in Miami has reported on September 8 that Hurricane Danielle has been downgraded and has already become a tropical storm, while maintaining its path towards Spain. Currently, it is sustaining winds of 112km/h and is moving northeast at a speed of 26km/h. Forecasts suggest that the remains of Danielle should reach Spain by the end of the coming weekend , bringing little more than the rain and winds associated with any deep autumn storm to the north. However, although the threat of a hurricane has been ruled out, Meteoreds Juanjo Villena warns that Danielle could affect Spain with its last tropical or subtropical connection in the form of an atmospheric river that would bring a lot of humidity and very intense rains. Friday September 9, particularly in the For now, very high temperatures are again expected in the south of Spain on, particularly in the Valencian Community , where a yellow alert for heat is in place. The north will remain cloudy with the chance of occasional rain and it could be an overcast morning along the Mediterranean coast. The mercury will rise in practically the entire country, exceeding 36C in the Guadalquivir valley, southern Valencia and parts of Murcia . Westerly breezes will predominate across most of Spain. Minimum and maximum temperatures on Friday: Alicante: min 21C; max 31C min 21C; max 31C Almeria: 20C; 29C 20C; 29C Malaga: 23C; 30C 23C; 30C Murcia: 22C; 37C A slightly cloudy or clear start to Saturday September 10, clearing through the day in the south, with scattered showers forecast for Mallorca and in the north of the Canary Islands. Daytime temperatures will be on the rise again, with the exception of the south and east coasts, where the mercury will remain more or less unchanged. Minimum and maximum temperatures on Saturday: Alicante: min 23C; max 31C min 23C; max 31C Almeria: 22C; 30C 22C; 30C Malaga: 22C; 29C 22C; 29C Murcia: 21C; 35C As the storm approaches, Sunday September 11 will be mostly cloudy in the northwest of the country with a high probability of rain in the later afternoon. The rest of Spain should be clear or slightly cloudy. The mercury will take a slight jump in the northeast, most noticeably in Cantabria, although there will be very little change in the rest of Spain. Temperatures of around 35C are again expected in large parts of central and southern Spain. Minimum and maximum temperatures on Sunday: Alicante: min 22C; max 31C min 22C; max 31C Almeria: 22C; 32C 22C; 32C Malaga: 21C; 29C 21C; 29C Murcia: 20C; 36C >>> Join our Facebook group for regular weather updates: Spain Weather Watch <<< Image: Aemet The design evokes motifs by important Slovak artists like Miroslav Cipar, Ludovit Fulla and Milan Dobes. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled Public and private developers are now able to use paving stones featuring an original design created just for Bratislava. The Metropolitan Institute of Bratislava (MIB), which describes itself as "a contributory organisation of Bratislava", will grant a free license to use the design to interested parties including on privately owned land under precisely defined conditions. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement For the city, this is an opportunity to extend this type of paving to as many streets as possible, thanks to which public spaces will be unified more quickly, the MIB wrote in its press release. In particular, the MIB is offering a free license to Bratislava boroughs and state institutions that make investments in the capitals public spaces. The paving license will be granted for projects located in the territory of Bratislava; at the same time, it will be a one-time grant of a license for a specific project, MIB explained. After obtaining the license, interested parties can produce the paving at their own expense. Inspired by European cities like London, Berlin and Barcelona, Bratislava has redesigned its paving. Its design refers to the work of the important Slovak artists Miroslav Cipar, Ludovit Fulla and Milan Dobes. It is expected to appear gradually as streets around the city are renovated. A sample can already be seen on Misikova Street, on Slavin hill, and on Krizna Street in the city. https://sputniknews.com/20220908/china-opens-record-breaking-hypersonic-wind-tunnel-able-to-reproduce-mach-33-speeds-1100567169.html China Opens Record-Breaking Hypersonic Wind Tunnel Able to Reproduce Mach 33 Speeds China Opens Record-Breaking Hypersonic Wind Tunnel Able to Reproduce Mach 33 Speeds Chinese scientists have opened a new high-powered wind tunnel in Sichuan thats capable of recreating the most extreme flight conditions of any such device on... 08.09.2022, Sputnik International 2022-09-08T22:58+0000 2022-09-08T22:58+0000 2022-09-08T22:58+0000 world china hypersonic wind tunnel /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/02/07/1092824246_0:66:858:549_1920x0_80_0_0_fe6a0dfa30464c9087a1aa5b1f14e3f8.jpg According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the wind tunnel can reach speeds of up to 2.5 to 11.5 kilometers per second (1.55-7.14 miles per second), or Mach 33. It is 80 centimeters across, which is twice the size of the previous largest high-speed wind tunnel.As such, the wind tunnel will be able to test not just hypersonic weapons and vehicles, which have a speed exceeding Mach 5, but also spacecraft designed for everything from returning to Earth to escaping Earths gravity and landing on other planets.The ultra-high-speed tunnel is described as a free-piston driven tunnel, a design invented by Australian space engineer Raymond Stalker in the 1960s as an alternative to the hydrogen-powered wind tunnels in use. Stalker proposed a design that used nitrogen instead, which is much cheaper, and which was propelled to extreme speeds by a rapid-firing piston.Since the 1980s, Stalkers designs have proliferated around the world, but the Chinese design is an improvement, according to Lyus team. This design reduces vibration, which increases the accuracy of measurement, and uses a much stronger piston that is reusable and cuts costs. However, their tube still suffers the primary problem of all Stalker wind tunnels: it only produces the effect for a few thousandths of a second.Beijing has invested heavily in hypersonic technology, fielding several hypersonic weapons that are able to evade almost every type of air defense system, but also investing in designs for cargo and passenger travel at speeds over Mach 5. The fastest such aircraft presently in use dont even reach Mach 1.Last week, Chinese researchers in Beijing announced they had successfully and repeatedly established ground communications with a hypersonic vehicle. The breakthrough could help ground control avoid the blackout period experienced by spacecraft during reentry, or allow the military to issue precision orders to hypersonic weapons in mid-flight, including a kill button to abort the mission at any time. china Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Fantine Gardinier Fantine Gardinier News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Fantine Gardinier china, hypersonic, wind tunnel https://sputniknews.com/20220908/director-of-british-monarchist-society-death-of-queen-elizabeth-marks-end-of-crown-before-family-1100564804.html Director of British Monarchist Society: Death of Queen Elizabeth Marks End of Crown Before Family' Director of British Monarchist Society: Death of Queen Elizabeth Marks End of Crown Before Family' Queen Elizabeth II, Britains longest reigning monarch, has died at the age of 96. The royal's eldest son is set to succeed, taking the name King Charles III. 08.09.2022, Sputnik International 2022-09-08T21:28+0000 2022-09-08T21:28+0000 2022-09-08T21:26+0000 world opinion king charles iii queen elizabeth ii uk /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/05/0a/1095398173_0:0:3072:1728_1920x0_80_0_0_eb3c1c56f0a2d1f095f865a90c0681f5.jpg Across the UK a period of national mourning has started, with Sky News reporting it will likely last for 10 days.World leaders have rushed to express their condolences, with US President Joe Biden, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and EU chief Charles Michel being among the first.Charles, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and her late husband Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, has become King. Queen Elizabeth II leaves behind four children, eight grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.Sputnik spoke with Thomas Mace-Archer-Mills, founder and director of the British Monarchists Society, president of the Centre for British Royal Studies and editor-in-chief of Crown & Country Magazine, about the role the monarch had on the nation and the legacy she leaves behind.Sputnik: What now? What does Queen Elizabeth's rule mean for Britain's sense of self? How important was the Queen's personality? What has she changed in the perception of the Royal family? What was so special about her?Thomas Mace-Archer-Mills: What now is that the Queen is dead, long live the King. This is the continuity. This is the crown and how it survives. So what we will see that we haven't seen in 69 years is a new coronation. But what we're seeing now that we haven't seen in 70 years is a change of monarch. The second Elizabethan era is now over. And what we can expect is King Charles, the new king, depending on how he wants to be known as he will have to now no longer be political and have political aspirations. He will have to step down from a lot of what he does with his charities because now he is the king, he is the crown, he is the figurehead of this nation. And the government will also now have to change as well because it will no longer be Her Majesty's Government. It is His Majesty's Government. And that's so important to remember.So we're watching the crowds gather in front of Buckingham Palace. People will start paying their respects, lighting candles, and laying flowers. The Queen's personality, for as much as people have said, well, the Queen, she never smiled, any of that - the biggest fallacy we've ever known. The Queen always showed her personality. She was always delighted with things. She was always very sympathetic to people. We knew that with the Queen, there was continuity. We had an example. She was able to carry the nation through times of deep sorrow and sadness and tragedy, but also celebrate in times of winning and saying, 'hey, we've won this' or 'the Olympics are here and this is great.' And we saw the funny side of the Queen many times, not only during the Olympic Games of 2012 when she jumped out of the helicopter, but also just a few months ago at the platinum jubilee where she sat and had tea with Paddington Bear. Sputnik: She was one of the longest-serving monarchs - what is her input into what the British nation is?Thomas Mace-Archer-Mills: The Queen, of course, is the nation's longest-serving monarch, but not only of the United Kingdom. She is the longest reigning sovereign of 15 nations in total. This is someone who built the Commonwealth.This country looks to her. Her nations look to her. Her people have always looked to her. The 2.6 billion people of the Commonwealth have looked to her, but also countries that are republics such as France, such as the United States. They've always had an affinity with Queen Elizabeth II because she's the only British monarch they have known as well. And people have always turned to her as an example. And this is what makes this loss so profound for the nation. There will never be another Elizabeth. They will never be another one like her because with her goes the era of service, of duty first, of crown before family, duty before self. And even though we want to say future monarchs will be the same, these future kings that will be coming down the line don't have that extra special sort of pizazz that Her Majesty had. A young princess when she became queen, someone who served in the armed forces during World War II, someone who knew what it was like to be rationed, to go without, to be in solidarity with her people in the early part of her reign, someone who's seen technological change, who has lived through seven decades of political strife, turmoil, anything you could throw at this woman, she handled with dignity. She handled it with confidence, and she had to because her people around the world were counting on her. She's been an example.Sputnik: How will her passing change the attitude towards monarchy?Thomas Mace-Archer-Mills: This country loves its monarchy. It always has. The lifeblood of Britain is the monarchy, the royal family, and the heart of this country. And her passing will, of course, change a lot of perceptions about the monarchy, because we're going to see a very different monarchy evolve now that King Charles has come to the throne. There will be lessons learnt that she provided, such as dealing with prime ministers, such as how she was able to handle the crisis during Diana Princess of Wales' death. But the attitude towards the monarchy will not falter. People love the monarchy and they will take to the new King just as much as they took to the Queen 70 years ago. And that's so important because the Queen left the crown better than when she received it. The monarchy is more stable than when she inherited it. And this is the importance, it is that over the course of her reign since Prince Charles has been Prince of Wales, he's had the best teacher. He's waited his entire life to undertake the duties of his new job description. And his being a good king will be the result of what the Queen has taught him. No one could be better prepared for the job of a monarch than Prince Charles, and that's down to the teachings, the style and the example left by his mother.Sputnik: Royal author Catherine Pepinster has said the tectonic plates are shifting and that the UK is on the cusp of a new era - what will this new era be like?Thomas Mace-Archer-Mills: Yes, the United Kingdom is on the dawn of a new era because the Elizabethan era is now over. We're going to see the changing face of the monarchy. We're going to see a slimmed-down version of the monarchy exactly as Prince Charles wants it. And now when we look at the line of succession, it is very male-dominated again. It will be decades and decades before we see possibly another queen. It depends on whether Prince George has a daughter first or a son. So the days of a queen on the throne are over. In the United Kingdom, it's no longer a woman's world, as it has been for the last 70 years, with the Queen at the head.Of course, we will now have a change with the Church of England. We will have a change of government because it's now His Majesty's government. There's a lot of changes that are coming, but a lot of people who are not still so accepting of Prince Charles, now King Charles, there will be a push amongst other countries for a republic. This is the perfect opportunity for republicans to really start piping up with their drivel and saying, now is the time for change because people don't like Charles, which is a fallacy. People love Prince Charles, King Charles, and they will do what they have to do to make sure that everything goes as smoothly as possible because we could never imagine the United Kingdom without the word kingdom. And that's so important. The four countries of this kingdom will always, always take to its crown. We tried a republic years ago under Oliver Cromwell, and we didn't wear it. It didn't take well. The people did not want it. And they reverted to monarchism with the return of Charles the second. So the republic didn't work very well for the United Kingdom. And I don't think it will ever work well because the crown is so deeply rooted in the everyday life of the British people.Sputnik: What kind of king will King Charles be? What events shaped him, in your view?Thomas Mace-Archer-Mills: King Charles III is going to be a king that will institute change. He's always liked change. He's always bucked the trend, if you will. He's going to change the monarchy from how we see a large family to now a more streamlined royal family. He's going to be a great king. He champions all the causes of the modern day. And he started doing that before it was even popular. People used to make fun of him when he was the prince of Wales with his organics and all of his flowers and biodiesel and all of that. Well, the King is having the last laugh now, because what he's been doing for decades before it was popular is what the world is now doing. So he was an original pioneer of a lot of the things that we're starting to turn to save our planet and save ourselves.Of course, one of the biggest events in his life was his divorce from Diana, Princess of Wales. But a lot shaped him. Even before Diana was on the scene, he was always someone who did his duty to crown and country, to Queen and country. The services shaped him. Being in the Air Force and all the branches of Her Majesty's Armed Forces at that time definitely impressed upon him. So when we look at other things that have transpired throughout history, even in his own personal life, when he was able to finally marry his true love - that shaped him, we're looking at a very happy person. Overall, he's lived a very happy life since he's been with the Queen Consort, his wife, Camilla. And with her by his side, he's going to continue to have the strength, the support and the happiness which he needs to make him the best king he can be.Effective, fun-loving. We get to see his personality. We know who he is. We know the king that we have now got on the throne. So there's so much in his life that has shaped him. There's so much good and bad. And one of the most important events of his life is when Lord Mountbatten of Burma was assassinated by the IRA, and his confidant, if you will, just was taken away from him, the person he could go to out of his entire family, no matter what, was taken away from him at such a young age. And that really does something to people. But he was able to come back from that. Of course, there was sorrow, but that is one of the main events in his young adult life that really shaped him because it showed him the dangers, the true danger of what being a member of the royal family was and is. So he's always going to remember that. He's always going to have examples throughout his life that have helped him grow for the better. https://sputniknews.com/20220908/truss-calls-queen-elizabeth-iis-death-shock-to-nation-and-the-world-1100558186.html https://sputniknews.com/20220908/a-look-back-at-the-life-of-longest-reigning-uk-monarch-queen-elizabeth-ii-1100542758.html https://sputniknews.com/20220908/operation-unicorn-what-happens-if-the-queen-dies-at-balmoral-1100548809.html Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International opinion, king charles iii, queen elizabeth ii, uk https://sputniknews.com/20220909/bizarre-comments-of-jharkhand-state-chiefs-brother-draws-ire-of-opposition-netizens-1100534424.html Bizarre Comments of Jharkhand State Chiefs Brother Draws Ire of Opposition, Netizens Bizarre Comments of Jharkhand State Chiefs Brother Draws Ire of Opposition, Netizens In a span of a week, two girls were found killed in separate incidents in Jharkhand. One of them was set on fire by her stalker while another was found hanging... 09.09.2022, Sputnik International 2022-09-09T02:32+0000 2022-09-09T02:32+0000 2022-09-09T02:30+0000 india jharkhand rape rape rape rape rape rape victim muslims muslims /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/107912/73/1079127384_0:257:2731:1793_1920x0_80_0_0_a63b2380c99527be45cf3106d0359191.jpg Days after the horrific deaths of two girls were reported in India's Jharkhand state, a bizarre statement by ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) lawmaker Basant Soren related to the murders has sparked widespread criticism amid tumultuous political developments. Basant, brother of State Chief Hemant Soren, is the state legislator from Dumka district, where the girls' killings in separate incidents have triggered protests.The lawmaker was back in the state after his visit to Delhi, which he took amid unrest in his home district. He then went to meet the victims' families. But when reporters asked him about the reason for his visit to Delhi, he said that he needed to buy "undergarments there."I had run out of undergarments, so I went to Delhi to purchase them. I get them from there," he said.Basant's comment, given as the reason for not being able to visit the families earlier amid the tumult, drew sharp reactions from Opposition politicians as well as netizens. Nishikant Dubey, BJP parliamentarian from Godda and the party's prominent face in Jharkhand, took a swipe at the JMM lawmaker. The son of Shibu Soren, leader of the poor and tribals, goes to Delhi to buy undergarments and this is why he couldnt meet the victims families."Slamming the politician over his bizarre remark, a senior journalist Rubika Liyaquat said in a tweet in Hindi: Ankita was burnt alive in Dumka on 23 August while lawmaker from Dumka and State Chief Hemant Sorens brother Basant Soren meets the family on 7 September.""The entire country was in pain and he was busy shopping for his undergarments in Delhi. He is not even ashamed of it.Furious over the legislator's statement, a number of netizens have called him shameless and arrogant.Earlier this week, State Chief Hemant Soren had also faced netizens as well as Opposition parties' criticism for saying: Incidents happen [everywhere]. Where do they not occur?His reply was in response to a reporter's question on 23 August, when a girl in Dumka district of the state was set on fire by her stalker. After suffering from her injuries for a few days, the girl died on 28 August. A few days after the horrific incident, a 14-year-old pregnant girl was found hanging from a tree in the district. Police said she was raped and then murdered. Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Rahul Trivedi https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/05/12/1082926121_0:-1:627:627_100x100_80_0_0_d882e1a63f627c25b7a534fb8b8234d7.jpg Rahul Trivedi https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/05/12/1082926121_0:-1:627:627_100x100_80_0_0_d882e1a63f627c25b7a534fb8b8234d7.jpg News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Rahul Trivedi https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/05/12/1082926121_0:-1:627:627_100x100_80_0_0_d882e1a63f627c25b7a534fb8b8234d7.jpg jharkhand, rape, rape, rape, rape, rape, rape victim, muslims, muslims, muslims, muslim, muslim, muslims, muslim, muslimban https://sputniknews.com/20220909/dprks-new-nuclear-doctrine-is-cheapest-fastest-way-to-get-deterrent-us-will-take-seriously-prof-1100602477.html DPRKs New Nuclear Doctrine is Cheapest, Fastest Way to Get Deterrent US Will Take Seriously: Prof DPRKs New Nuclear Doctrine is Cheapest, Fastest Way to Get Deterrent US Will Take Seriously: Prof The Peoples Democratic Republic of Korea, better known in the West as North Korea, passed a new law on Friday updating its military doctrine and officially... 09.09.2022, Sputnik International 2022-09-09T12:33+0000 2022-09-09T12:33+0000 2022-09-09T12:33+0000 opinion & analysis nuclear doctrine north korea /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/09/09/1100601286_71:0:1308:696_1920x0_80_0_0_47f840886fa6b1a47b625eef0e1c9f4b.png Observers say North Koreas new law On the Policy of Nuclear Force of the DPRK has two purposes: to demonstrate that Pyongyang is serious about a defense doctrine centered around its strategic deterrent, and to clarify to the Biden administration and Seoul what actions the socialist nation will take if threatened.The updated doctrine gives President Kim Jong-un the sole authority to use nuclear weapons, but allows for their automatic deployment to annihilate the hostile forces if an enemy attack threatens the nations command and control centers. The document characterizes the countrys strategic deterrent as a powerful means for defending the sovereignty, territorial integrity and fundamental interests of the state, and toward preventing a war in the Korean Peninsula and the northeast Asian region and ensuring the strategic stability of the world.The doctrine forbids the country from deploying its nuclear weapons on the territory of any other state, and prohibits the sharing of nuclear technology. In addition to automatic attack, the document allows Pyongyang to use its nukes if it judges that an attack with a nuclear weapon or a weapon of mass destruction was made or imminent, or if a fatal conventional military attack on important strategic objects of the state was made or imminent.The doctrine suggests that given the deteriorating strategic circumstances, the DPRK leadership might have decided to go ahead and acquire this upgrade as both a status and a stated defense policy in order to show its seriousness in pursuing a defense doctrine centered around their nuclear capabilities, says Dr. Victor Teo, a North Korea expert and political scientist specializing in Asia-Pacific affairs.Teo suggests Pyongyang made the decision to put all its eggs in the nuclear basket after analyzing the growing strength of the US, Japanese and South Korean militaries, and concluding that it would be nearly impossible to secure North Koreas security via conventional forces alone.At the same time, the IR specialist says the new doctrine is meant to serve as a message not only to the international audience (i.e. dont mess with North Korea) but to the domestic one as well. For the domestic audience it was [a message] of resolve, of how Kim would lead the North Korean people to continue [the] struggle with the US and the ROK in order to ensure the survival of their nation, Teo says.Message to 'Rabid Dogs'Dr. Zhang Baohui, director of the Center for Asian-Pacific Studies at Lingnan University in Hong Kong, believes the timing of the doctrinal update is significant, and highlights the cooling in relations with Pyongyang from both Washington and Seoul.Kim has never liked Biden, who used to criticize Trump for his diplomatic approach to the North Korea nuclear issue, the academic recalled.On the campaign trail in 2020, Biden referred to Kim as a thug and a tyrant, prompting Pyongyang to retaliate by calling the Democrat an imbecile and a rabid dog that should be beaten to death with a stick.Sanctions Baton All Used UpThe United States, its allies and the United Nations have heavily sanctioned North Korea over its nuclear ambitions, and theres little left the West can do to respond to the nuclear doctrine, particularly amid the recent escalation of global tensions, Zhang argues. They can do very little as North Korea is already severely sanctioned. China and Russia also would not support additional sanctions through the UN.Dr. Teo echoes this sentiment, suggesting that its unlikely that [the US] would react in a major way to rhetoric from North Korea because the focus of the administration is on China (much like Trump). Unless North Korea follows with additional nuclear tests, the response is likely to be political and diplomatic followed by more military preparations.Ultimately, Dr. Zhang thinks that the DPRKs nuclear doctrinal update should be truly irreversible, in the sense that it will demonstrate once and for all that the pathway to denuclearization in exchange for security guarantees is now closed. Becoming a nuclear weapon state is the end objective of North Koreas grand strategy. Its not something to be used to bargain for something else. https://sputniknews.com/20220908/north-korea-passes-law-giving-kim-jong-un-right-to-take-nuclear-actions-if-dprk-attacked-1100568178.html https://sputniknews.com/20220909/putin-congratulates-kim-jong-un-on-74th-founding-anniversary-of-north-korea-1100584313.html https://sputniknews.com/20220824/moscow-says-us-south-korean-drills-exacerbate-tensions-with-north-1099937416.html https://sputniknews.com/20220823/us--south-koreas-militaristic-approach-towards-dprk-pushing-region-to-brink-of-war-scholars-warn-1099909595.html Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Ilya Tsukanov Ilya Tsukanov News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Ilya Tsukanov nuclear, doctrine, north korea https://sputniknews.com/20220909/eu-council-adopts-full-suspension-of-visa-facilitation-with-russia-1100585205.html EU Council Adopts Full Suspension of Visa Facilitation With Russia EU Council Adopts Full Suspension of Visa Facilitation With Russia On Tuesday, the European Commission adopted a proposal to fully suspend the visa facilitation agreement with Moscow. 09.09.2022, Sputnik International 2022-09-09T08:31+0000 2022-09-09T08:31+0000 2022-09-09T09:01+0000 world european union (eu) russia visa regime /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/09/09/1100586039_0:156:3001:1844_1920x0_80_0_0_542337243ec95641d1a952e6d8eedf5f.jpg On Friday, the Council of the EU adopted a decision to suspend issuing visas between the EU and Russia, the council said in a statement. The general rules of the visa code will therefore apply to Russian citizens.The decision will enter into force on the day of its adoption and will apply as of 12 September 2022.On September 6, the European Commission adopted a proposal to fully suspend the visa facilitation agreement with Moscow. At the same time, the proposal does not provide for a total ban on the issuance of visas to the country's citizens, as requested by several EU member states. Brussels also explained that the agreement would be restored as soon as the circumstances that led to the suspension cease. Travel between Russia and the EU became much easier in 2007 when the agreement came into force. Under the document, visa fees were reduced, the rules for obtaining a multientry visa were simplified, the list of necessary documents was reduced and visas for diplomats were abolished. In late February, after the start of the special operation in Ukraine, the EU partially suspended the agreement, canceling preferences for Russian diplomats and other officials, as well as representatives of the Russian business community. Moscow said that it considers the proposal a manifestation of chauvinism and that such a decision will invite retaliatory measures.On February 24, Russia began a military operation in Ukraine, responding to calls for help from the republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The West and its allies have responded by imposing comprehensive sanctions against Russia, with the EU pledging to end its dependence on Russian energy supplies. The bloc has already approved seven packages of sanctions against Moscow, including gradual phase-out of Russian oil. The Ukraine crisis and sanctions have resulted in disruptions of supply chains and a spike in energy prices worldwide. https://sputniknews.com/20220831/suspension-of-eu-russia-visa-agreement-strikes-an-entire-people-indiscriminately-observer-says-1100243660.html russia Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International european union (eu), russia, visa regime Photo: The Canadian Press A sign for help wanted is pictured in a business window in Ottawa on Tuesday, July 12, 2022. Canada's unemployment rate was 5.4 per cent in August, ticking up for the first time in seven months. The economy lost 40,000 jobs last month, Statistics Canada reported in its latest labour force survey, with the losses concentrated in the public sector. In July, the unemployment rate was 4.9 per cent, the lowest rate since comparable data first became available in 1976. The report says employment gains in professional, scientific and technical services were offset by declines in education services and construction. The employment declines were primarily concentrated among young women aged 15 to 24 and people between the ages of 55 to 64. The labour force participation rate held steady overall. Average hourly wages in August rose 5.4 per cent compared with a year ago, up from 5.2 per cent in July. Statistics Canada warns employers are likely to continue facing recruitment challenges as many Canadians reach retirement age. In August, 307,000 Canadians had left their job to retire in the last year, compared with 233,000 a year ago. The report also looked at the unemployment among recent immigrants who arrived in Canada in the last five years. The unemployment rate for this demographic was 7.6 per cent, lower than any month of August since comparable data became available in 2006. Still, it remains higher than the overall unemployment rate in Canada. The report also found the percentage of workers looking to leave their job is on the rise. According to the federal agency, 11.9 per cent of permanent employees are planning to leave their jobs within the next twelve months, almost double the rate in January. For low-income earners, that rate was even higher. Among workers whose average hourly wages were in the bottom 20 per cent in August, nearly one in five say theyre planning on leaving their jobs. The labour force survey also asked workers about the job features they consider to be essential or very important. The No. 1 factor identified by respondents was salary and benefits, with 85.4 per cent of them ranking it the most important factor. As more people head to the office, Statistics Canada says working exclusively from home is declining while the proportion of people working hybrid is rising. Here are the jobless rates last month by city (numbers from the previous month in brackets): St. John's, N.L. 5.3 per cent (6.0) Halifax 5.4 per cent (4.9) Moncton, N.B. 5.2 per cent (4.6) Saint John, N.B. 7.2 per cent (7.8) Saguenay, Que. 3.4 per cent (3.3) Quebec City 2.8 per cent (2.9) Sherbrooke, Que. 3.0 per cent (3.6) Trois-Rivieres, Que. 3.4 per cent (3.2) Montreal 4.9 per cent (4.8) Gatineau, Que. 3.6 per cent (3.5) Ottawa 3.4 per cent (3.5) Kingston, Ont. 5.0 per cent (5.4) Peterborough, Ont. 5.9 per cent (6.1) Oshawa, Ont. 5.2 per cent (4.8) Toronto 5.9 per cent (5.9) Hamilton, Ont. 4.3 per cent (4.3) St. Catharines-Niagara, Ont. 5.8 per cent (4.9) Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo, Ont. 5.4 per cent (5.1) Brantford, Ont. 3.8 per cent (3.4) Guelph, Ont. 3.1 per cent (3.2) London, Ont. 6.6 per cent (6.1) Windsor, Ont. 7.5 per cent (6.5) Barrie, Ont. 5.0 per cent (5.4) Greater Sudbury, Ont. 4.0 per cent (4.5) Thunder Bay, Ont. 4.8 per cent (4.6) Winnipeg 4.3 per cent (4.2) Regina 4.4 per cent (3.9) Saskatoon 3.9 per cent (4.3) Calgary 4.9 per cent (5.0) Edmonton 4.9 per cent (5.1) Kelowna, B.C. 3.9 per cent (4.0) Abbotsford-Mission, B.C. 5.8 per cent (4.9) Vancouver 4.8 per cent (4.7) Victoria 4.9 per cent (4.3) Here are the jobless rates last month by province (numbers from the previous month in brackets): Newfoundland and Labrador 10.5 per cent (10.2) Prince Edward Island 7.3 per cent (5.7) Nova Scotia 7.6 per cent (5.9) New Brunswick 7.6 per cent (7.1) Quebec 4.5 per cent (4.1) Ontario 5.7 per cent (5.3) Manitoba 5.3 per cent (3.5) Saskatchewan 4.9 per cent (4.0) Alberta 5.4 per cent (4.8) British Columbia 4.8 per cent (4.7) https://sputniknews.com/20220909/eu-unity-reportedly-at-risk-over--price-cap-on-russian-gas-1100575379.html EU Unity Reportedly at Risk Over Price Cap on Russian Gas EU Unity Reportedly at Risk Over Price Cap on Russian Gas The G7 finance ministers confirmed their intention on 2 September to impose a price cap on Russian crude oil, to take effect on 5 December, and on 5 February... 09.09.2022, Sputnik International 2022-09-09T05:37+0000 2022-09-09T05:37+0000 2022-09-09T08:20+0000 eu commissioner energy crisis world russia gas ursula von der leyen energy crisis european union (eu) /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/04/1e/1082774064_0:126:3197:1924_1920x0_80_0_0_420a129eed41a52e7fe14e54b1ef01e2.jpg As European Union energy ministers gather in Brussels this Friday for informal talks to thrash out common measures to offset the raging energy crisis, the blocs unity is reportedly at risk over some of the radical measures pushed by the European Commission.Households and companies across the EU are struggling to cover the soaring costs of energy bills, and European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, unveiled five draft proposals earlier this week that ministers are expected to debate. Disagreements quickly emerged on a number of points contained in the proposed EU-wide plan.The emergency meeting in Brussels is to focus on:However, it is the issue of a price cap on Russian gas that is expected to draw particularly strong opposition from some quarters, testing the unity of the bloc.According to a senior diplomat cited by The Guardian, there was no majority in favor of capping Russian gas as EU member states have "different energy mixes" and "varying exposure" to a potential Russian gas shutdown."We do not consider this as an appropriate measure to alleviate the high energy prices, an unnamed official from one of these countries was cited as saying by Euronews.Gas Price CapThe G7 finance ministers on 2 September confirmed the groups intention to introduce a price cap on Russian oil and ban sea transportation of oil unless it is bought at a limited price. During the online meeting of the G7 finance ministers and the heads of their central banks, the group also promised to develop "targeted mitigation mechanisms" to ensure that vulnerable countries retain access to energy markets, including from Russia.The price ceiling is to take effect on 5 December for crude oil and on 5 February 2023, for refined products arriving from Russia. After the G7 decision, the European Commission said that it would also make efforts to impose a price cap on Russia's oil by December.Several EU member states, such as Hungary, Slovakia, Austria and the Czech Republic, remain highly dependent on Russian gas, despite the share of Russian pipeline crude in the EU's total imports plunging from 40 percent before the Ukraine crisis to 9 percent today.Hungary, which is highly dependent on gas from Russia, has asserted an independent policy in relation to the Ukrainian crisis, refusing to slap sanctions on Russian energy. It recently signed a contract with the Russian state energy firm Gazprom for extra supplies. Hungary imports approximately 65 percent of its oil and some 80 percent of its gas from Russia, and earlier rejected Brussels' unenforceable" and "unjustifiable" plan to cut gas consumption by 15 percent.Budapest reportedly argues that the price cap laid out in the European Commissions plan is a "sanction" and should only be decided by unanimity which signifies that it could wield a veto power over the controversial decision.Hungary's government is waiting for more details about the European Union's proposed price cap on Russian gas as it does not yet fully understand the proposal, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas, was cited as saying on Thursday.Meanwhile, France, Italy and Poland are some of the countries that not only support a cap, but insist it should apply to all imported forms of the fuel, including liquefied natural gas (LNG).The Netherlands has also reportedly voiced reluctance over any price cap, and Germany is undecided on the proposal.On 1 September, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak slammed the idea of imposing a price cap on Russian oil as absurd. Novak warned that Moscow would not deliver oil and oil products to countries that support the decision. Russias President Vladimir Putin branded the idea as "stupid" at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on Wednesday, adding it would lead to a rise in prices and that global demand for Russian energy was high. https://sputniknews.com/20220907/von-der-leyen-eu-commission-will-propose-price-cap-on-russian-gas-1100504838.html https://sputniknews.com/20220813/gazprom-starts-pumping-extra-gas-to-hungary-via-turkstream-1099553116.html https://sputniknews.com/20220902/us-claims-russia-willing-to-accept-bigger-discounts-for-oil-contracts-amid-g7-price-cap-deal-1100322274.html russia Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Svetlana Ekimenko Svetlana Ekimenko News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Svetlana Ekimenko eu commissioner, energy crisis, russia, gas, ursula von der leyen, energy crisis, european union (eu) https://sputniknews.com/20220909/ex-indian-diplomats-spell-out-new-delhis-core-priorities-for-sco-summit-in-uzbekistan-1100611972.html Ex-Indian Diplomats Spell Out New Delhis 'Core Priorities' For SCO Summit in Uzbekistan Ex-Indian Diplomats Spell Out New Delhis 'Core Priorities' For SCO Summit in Uzbekistan Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Russian President Vladimir Putin are all expected to attend the Shanghai Cooperation... 09.09.2022, Sputnik International 2022-09-09T19:01+0000 2022-09-09T19:01+0000 2022-09-09T19:01+0000 india shanghai cooperation organisation (sco) afghan war taliban pakistan narendra modi /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/103684/93/1036849373_0:0:4604:2591_1920x0_80_0_0_6e7cef0db44a66cfd234b50828a0874c.jpg Former Indian diplomats have said that the situation in Afghanistan, connectivity, and counter-terrorism cooperation should be the three core priorities for New Delhi when Prime Minister Narendra Modi attends the SCO leaders summit next week.Ashok Sajjanhar, a former Indian ambassador to Kazakhstan, Sweden, and Latvia, noted that all principal actors of the region will be involved in the summit, including Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. Iran is expected to be formally enrolled as the ninth member of the SCO during the summit.Sajjanhar strongly believes that the Indian side will try to convince other SCO states about the benefits of greater trade if the New Delhi-backed Chabahar port is connected to the 7,200-kilometre International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC). The multimodal transport corridor begins in Russia and is intended to connect it to India, passing through Central Asian countries.Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum last week, said that the INSTC will play an important role in the development of our relations in the future.Pankaj Saran, Indias former deputy National Security Advisor (NSA) and formerly an envoy to Moscow, also believes that it would be difficult to realize our ambitions of boosting trade through Central Asia unless New Delhi had the requisite connectivity.Major countries such as India and China have not only avoided Western sanctions against Moscow in the wake of Russias special military operation in Ukraine, but even expanded cooperation in areas such as energy.Indias Concerns in AfghanistanBoth former diplomats also agreed that working towards ensuring peace and security in Afghanistan was also a concern for India, which has also been stated by the Indian leadership on several occasions since the Taliban* stormed to power in Kabul last August.Sajjanhar said that the UN Security Council resolution on Afghanistan adopted last August under Indias rotating presidency would serve as a template for New Delhi. The UNSC resolution said that the territory of Afghanistan cant be used for sheltering, training, planning or financing terrorist acts," in line with the Talibans commitment during the Doha Peace negotiations.Russia and China abstained from voting on the resolution at the time.Former Indian diplomat Saran underlines that the SCO summit will be the first leadership-level meeting since the Taliban came to power.Saran said that the "Delhi Declaration" adopted after the first-ever India-Central Asia leaders' summit in New Delhi this January would serve as a reference point for Indian policy towards Afghanistan.The Delhi Declaration reaffirmed that Afghan territory shouldnt be used for plotting terror acts and urged the Taliban to crack down on terrorist groups. The governments of India and central Asian countries also called for urgent humanitarian aid to the Afghan population.Counter-Terror CooperationSaran also highlighted that expanded counter terror cooperation among the SCO member states is also one of the key priorities for New Delhi going into next weeks summit.There should be treatment of terrorist groups such as Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in Afghanistan, Saran said. The two terrorist groups have claimed responsibility for most of the major terrorist incidents in India in the recent past.Saran noted that the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), a permanent SCO sub-grouping, has emerged as a key discussion platform on terrorist threats from Afghanistan. RATS held its last meeting in New Delhi in May this year.The ex-ambassador notes that besides India-centric terrorist groups, global terror groups such as Daesh** and al-Qaeda** are also present in Afghanistan. He said the presence of Daesh should be a concern to all of Afghanistans neighbors.Saran noted that besides engaging with regional states within the SCO framework, New Delhi must also enhance counter-terrorism cooperation at a bilateral level.He said that the SCO will serve as a platform to engage with other leaders in the grouping on the sidelines.*The Taliban is under UN sanctions over terrorist activities**Terrorist organizations banned in Russia and many other countries https://sputniknews.com/20220729/irans-accession-to-sco-will-increase-groupings-influence-globally-indian-fm-says-1097938795.html https://sputniknews.com/20210831/jem-terror-activites-may-escalate-in-kashmir-after-meeting-with-taliban-indian-intel-report-says-1083759938.html pakistan Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Dhairya Maheshwari Dhairya Maheshwari News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Dhairya Maheshwari shanghai cooperation organisation (sco), afghan war, taliban, pakistan, narendra modi https://sputniknews.com/20220909/expert-explains-what-prompts-india--china-to-resolve-two-year-long-border-standoff-in-ladakh-1100603405.html Expert Explains What Prompts India & China to Resolve Two-Year-Long Border Standoff in Ladakh Expert Explains What Prompts India & China to Resolve Two-Year-Long Border Standoff in Ladakh The border standoff that erupted in May 2020 is likely to end by September 12, after the two sides agreed to withdraw troops and dismantle military... 09.09.2022, Sputnik International 2022-09-09T17:33+0000 2022-09-09T17:33+0000 2022-09-09T17:33+0000 sputnik explains ladakh standoff indian army pla chinese people's liberation army (pla) indian ocean narendra modi xi jinping shanghai cooperation organisation (sco) uzbekistan /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/06/1b/1096699816_394:0:4035:2048_1920x0_80_0_0_972c5a403607ae0105e6286be6b56f31.jpg Until last week, Indian officials appeared to be increasingly irritated over the border stalemate with China, with Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar accusing Beijing of violating the border agreement.Apart from Ladakh, India and China have been engaged in a spat over Sri Lanka, with Delhi accusing Beijing of putting Colombo in a "debt trap" and expressing concerns over an alleged spy vessel docking at Sri Lanka's Hambantota port.The Indian reactions came in response to an op-ed written by Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Qi Zhenhong, in which he slammed India for raising "groundless security concerns," eventually delayed the docking of the PLA ship in Hambantota.Following a verbal duel, India and China unexpectedly announced a disengagement agreement on Thursday, under which they are to pull back troops and other military assets from the Gogra-Hot Springs area in contested Ladakh by Monday. They also agreed to dismantle temporary military infrastructure in the area.Experts believe the agreement was actually a tactical move ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan."Gogra-Hot Springs or Patrol Point 15 disengagement was in the offing for last one year. PLA has been reluctant to disengage as it believes the positions have a tactical advantage. Now some political signal may have led to this move," Rahul Bhonsle, military veteran and director of the Delhi-based Security Risk Asia, told Sputnik.The two countries have yet to announce officially if a meeting between Modi and Xi will take place in Samarkand. On Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said he had "no information to offer at this moment."However, sources have not ruled out the possibility of a pull-aside between Modi and Xi, adding "we have to wait for the completion of the disengagement process."Amid the ongoing disengagement process, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson accused the Indian Army of "illegally trespassing" the disputed boundary in 2020.Nevertheless, both countries hope for positive results and seem ready to discuss the remaining issues along the Line of Actual Control (LAC)."India would not have budged from its firm and correct position unless China had agreed to the language that indicated readiness to discuss and resolve the rest of the issues in a cooperative framework. That, technically, keeps the likelihood of discussion on Depsang Plains open," Dahiya underlined.Among the pending issues in the Ladakh region is the dispute over the Depsang Plains, a 972 sq. km plateau. India accused the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of blocking patrols on the Depsang patrol route after April 2020.A large part of the 832 km LAC in the eastern Ladakh sector is not demarcated on the ground, resulting in overlapping claims by India and China. India wants to resume patrolling in these overlapping areas, which have been under suspension since June 2020. ladakh standoff indian ocean uzbekistan Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Rishikesh Kumar https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/04/1080055820_0:0:388:389_100x100_80_0_0_40018ee210946d65d49ffba4f4c008e1.jpg Rishikesh Kumar https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/04/1080055820_0:0:388:389_100x100_80_0_0_40018ee210946d65d49ffba4f4c008e1.jpg News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Rishikesh Kumar https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/04/1080055820_0:0:388:389_100x100_80_0_0_40018ee210946d65d49ffba4f4c008e1.jpg ladakh standoff, indian army, pla, chinese people's liberation army (pla), indian ocean, narendra modi, xi jinping, shanghai cooperation organisation (sco), uzbekistan, troops https://sputniknews.com/20220909/germanys-scholz-says-eu-not-ready-yet-to-put-cap-on-gas-prices-1100615820.html Germany's Scholz Says EU 'Not Ready' Yet to Put Cap on Gas Prices Germany's Scholz Says EU 'Not Ready' Yet to Put Cap on Gas Prices MOSCOW, September 9 (Sputnik) - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Friday that the European Union would not put cap on prices of imported gas before... 09.09.2022, Sputnik International 2022-09-09T17:47+0000 2022-09-09T17:47+0000 2022-09-09T17:47+0000 energy crisis in europe eu germany olaf scholz russia /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/09/02/1100322126_0:125:3199:1924_1920x0_80_0_0_10bda48c2b3e164a15ccd28902f8f94f.jpg "We should not put the cart before the horse. We aren't ready for that at all. We are discussing what the appropriate levels could be," he told a press conference in Berlin that was also attended by EU chief Charles Michel.Germany will assembly a high-ranking expert panel to hammer out a solution to the soaring energy prices. Scholz warned that was not as easy as it appeared because gas prices are "outside of the EU's jurisdiction."European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said last week that the EU's executive would seek to put a price ceiling on Russian gas imports. Some EU members are pushing for a broader cap on all gas supplies to the EU. https://sputniknews.com/20220909/lithuania-opposes-electricity-price-cap-energy-minister-1100599318.html germany russia Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International eu, germany, olaf scholz, russia https://sputniknews.com/20220909/indias-famous-mumbai-dabbawala-lunch-providers-mourn-british-queens-death-1100576586.html India's Famous 'Mumbai Dabbawala' Lunch Providers Mourn British Queen's Death India's Famous 'Mumbai Dabbawala' Lunch Providers Mourn British Queen's Death UK Queen Elizabeth II breathed her last on Thursday at Balmoral Castle, her summer residence in Scotland. The 96-year-old was Britain's longest reigning... 09.09.2022, Sputnik International 2022-09-09T11:58+0000 2022-09-09T11:58+0000 2022-09-09T11:58+0000 india mumbai queen elizabeth ii uk uk uk royal family /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/09/09/1100600462_0:0:3301:1858_1920x0_80_0_0_b2e0a0e6dbc53be35e2a325f0cdb9d42.jpg A pall of gloom has descended on the famous Mumbai Dabbawala, or lunch service providers, in India's Maharashtra state as they mourn the death of British Queen Elizabeth II.In 2003, when Prince Charles visited Mumbai, he met the Dabbawalas. He praised their flawless management skills in distributing meals to hundreds of thousands of people every day without a miss. He invited the Dabbawalas to his wedding with Camilla Parker Bowles in 2005. The Mumbai Dabbawalas ferry home cooked food to office-goers in the city. The century-old food providers dress up in traditional white "Kurta Pyjama" and Gandhi caps.Moments after the demise of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Droupadi Murmu led the nation in paying the tribute.Prime Minister Modi hailed the monarch for her "inspiring leadership."President Murmu said, "the world has lost a great personality," adding, "An era has passed since she steered her country and people for over 7 decades. I share the grief of the people of the UK and convey my heartfelt condolence to the family." mumbai Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Deexa Khanduri https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/0c/1e/1081607388_0:0:961:960_100x100_80_0_0_e9e931b8c1e18fb41f3074e2145d7a3a.jpg Deexa Khanduri https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/0c/1e/1081607388_0:0:961:960_100x100_80_0_0_e9e931b8c1e18fb41f3074e2145d7a3a.jpg News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Deexa Khanduri https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/0c/1e/1081607388_0:0:961:960_100x100_80_0_0_e9e931b8c1e18fb41f3074e2145d7a3a.jpg mumbai, queen elizabeth ii, uk, uk, uk royal family https://sputniknews.com/20220909/iran-blasts-albania-over-reports-of-heavily-armed-cops-bursting-into-embassy-amid-diplomatic-row-1100617300.html Iran Blasts Albania Over Reports of Heavily-armed Cops Bursting Into Embassy Amid Diplomatic Row Iran Blasts Albania Over Reports of Heavily-armed Cops Bursting Into Embassy Amid Diplomatic Row Albania broke off diplomatic relations with Iran on Wednesday after accusing the Islamic Republic of attempting to carry out a massive cyberattack meant to... 09.09.2022, Sputnik International 2022-09-09T18:51+0000 2022-09-09T18:51+0000 2022-09-09T18:55+0000 world iran albania diplomatic row /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/101615/79/1016157904_0:0:2501:1407_1920x0_80_0_0_7c311908aca805db3899fd6bffc6a709.jpg Irans Foreign Ministry expressed concern over media reports that Albanian law enforcement acted in contravention of an international convention on diplomatic rights by storming the Islamic Republics Embassy compound in Tirana.Earlier, media reported that Albanian police, including special forces cops wearing full body armor and helmets and armed with automatic weapons, illegally entered the Islamic Republics embassy building after two vehicles with diplomatic plates left.Kanaani warned that Tirana will be held responsible for any violations against the Embassy.Under international law, embassies are effectively considered a small piece of the country which they represent, meaning that law enforcement and other entities from the host government are not allowed to enter without special permissions.Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama ordered all Iranian diplomats and Embassy staff to leave the country in 24 hours on Wednesday after breaking off relations over an alleged attempted cyberattack plot by Tehran.Rama charged Iran with trying to paralyze public services, erase digital systems and hack into state records, steal government intranet electronic communication, and stir chaos and insecurity in the country.Kanaani called the decision to break off ties injudicious and said that the cyberattack claims were baseless.The spokesman accused the United States, Israel and the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) political-militant group of influencing Albanias decision. The MKO seeks to carry out a revolutionary overthrow of Irans Islamic republican form of government, and has been banned across the country as a terrorist organization since 1981. In the decades since, it has engaged in a series of terrorist bombings, assassinations, and mortar attacks, killing hundreds of people, including Iranian government officials, troops, members of law enforcement and civilians.The MKO made Albania its headquarters in 2016, fraying ties and sparking years of mutual animosity, recriminations, and allegations of criminal plots.Washington praised Tirana over its move to break off ties with Tehran, and slapped sanctions on Irans Ministry of Intelligence and Security over its alleged criminal cyber activities against the US, Albania and other US allies. https://sputniknews.com/20220907/albania-accuses-iran-of-cyberattack-and-breaks-off-diplomatic-relations-prime-minister-says-1100493676.html iran albania Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Ilya Tsukanov Ilya Tsukanov News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Ilya Tsukanov iran, albania, diplomatic row https://sputniknews.com/20220909/javelins-under-turkeys-nose-us-training-syrian-kurd-militias-amid-threats-of-turkish-op-report-1100597303.html Javelins Under Turkeys Nose: US Training Syrian Kurd Militias Amid Threats of Turkish Op: Report Javelins Under Turkeys Nose: US Training Syrian Kurd Militias Amid Threats of Turkish Op: Report The Turkish Army and US-backed Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters exchanged heavy fire in the northern Syrian border town of Kobane in August... 09.09.2022, Sputnik International 2022-09-09T10:41+0000 2022-09-09T10:41+0000 2022-09-09T10:42+0000 world turkey syria javelin drills training pkk recep tayyip erdogan /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/09/09/1100595008_0:0:3073:1728_1920x0_80_0_0_12d8df5c56c57839857f4091cdbb83b8.jpg The United States has been training SDF fighters and militants from the Turkish Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Syria, as little as a few kilometers from the border with Turkey, with the drills including maneuvers involving the use of Javelin anti-tank missiles, Milliyet has reported.The Turkish newspaper recalled that just three days after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to launch a new military operation in Syria in late May, AFP published photos of a US convoy patrolling in Rumeylan, an oil-rich region east of Hasakah, Syria, presumably as a message to Ankara not to intervene. Russia also called on Turkey to avoid an escalation at the time, while Syria warned that it could respond militarily.Turkey, according to the newspaper, wants to establish a security buffer in Syria stretching from Manbij to the west to Qamishli in the east, with the latter under the control of the SDF. Only the area between Ras al-Ayn and Tell Abyad are controlled by the Syrian opposition supported by Turkey, Milliyet noted (Syria considers those Syrian opposition forces terrorists).In July, Erdogan called on US forces to stop training the terrorist militias and demanded that Washington leave Syria. America has to leave areas east of the Euphrates now. This is an outcome that came out of the Astana process, Erdogan said, referring to the Astana Format peace negotiations headed up by Russia, Iran and Turkey.Weeks later, Milliyet recalled the US troops had once again been spotted operating along the Turkish border, this time in Qamishli, northeast Syria.The United States and Turkey have occupied vast areas of northern and northeastern Syria since 2016. While Ankara has justified its actions citing the fight against Daesh and Kurdish terrorists, Washington has justified its occupation via the battle against Daesh and the need to help Syrian Kurdish forces against the terrorist group. In 2019 and 2020, to the State Departments horror, President Trump admittedly repeated that the only reason he was keeping troops in Syria was to take and keep the oil. The Biden administration corrected this optics blunder after President Biden took office.Syrian President Bashar Assad and his Russian and Iranian allies have repeatedly called on all foreign countries and military forces operating in the country without Damascuss consent to leave the country immediately, in accordance with international law.Recent weeks have seen a series of reports on the inklings of a possible rapprochement between Syria and Turkey. Last month, Irans Tasnim News Agency reported that presidents Assad and Erdogan might meet at the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Uzbekistan which will take place next Thursday. This week, French media reported that Syrian intelligence chief Ali Mamlouk and his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan had held a meeting mediated by Russia. US Washington beltway press has also reported on the possible normalization of ties between Damascus and Ankara, explaining why it would be a bad idea for Turkey.* A terrorist group outlawed in Russia and many other countries. turkey Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Ilya Tsukanov Ilya Tsukanov News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Ilya Tsukanov turkey, syria, javelin, drills, training, pkk, recep tayyip erdogan https://sputniknews.com/20220909/kashmiri-politician-ghulam-nabi-azad-grills-congress-over-firing-missiles-at-him-1100580264.html Kashmiri Politician Ghulam Nabi Azad Grills Congress Over 'Firing Missiles' at Him Kashmiri Politician Ghulam Nabi Azad Grills Congress Over 'Firing Missiles' at Him Last month, Ghulam Nabi Azad, one of the key Congress politician and former Jammu and Kashmir state chief, quit the party after a five-decade stint. Since... 09.09.2022, Sputnik International 2022-09-09T14:10+0000 2022-09-09T14:10+0000 2022-09-09T14:10+0000 india kashmir jammu indian national congress congress congress opposition opposition politician sonia gandhi /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/09/09/1100607078_0:67:2962:1733_1920x0_80_0_0_01db48898fc47f579625ff76e22f28c8.jpg Days after quitting India's main opposition party, Ghulam Nabi Azad has blamed Congress for hurling several "missiles" at him in the aftermath of his deciding to leave, and criticized the party's top leadership, especially Rahul Gandhi. By "missiles" he was speaking metaphorically to several verbal attacks made on him by many of his former colleagues, including Congress Parliamentarian and General Secretary in-charge of the party's Communications, Jairam Ramesh.The 73-year-old politician also remarked that despite Congress' efforts to humiliate him, he "retaliated" and "destroyed" the party in the Jammu and Kashmir union territory.This seemed to be a subtle reference to the mass exodus from the Jammu and Kashmir branch of Congress where as many as 65 politicians, including former state deputy chief Tara Chand, have resigned and joined Azad.Although acknowledging that he was all set to launch his political party in Jammu and Kashmir, he added that he has yet to choose a name and flag for his party. On 26 August, Azad dropped a "bombshell" by announcing his resignation from Congress on Twitter. In a scathing letter to party chief Sonia Gandhi, the former MP blamed her son Rahul Gandhi for "comprehensively demolishing" Congress.He said that, despite being the chief of Congress, Sonia was only a figurehead and all the major decisions about the party were taken by Rahul or his personal assistants and security guards. kashmir Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Pawan Atri https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/05/12/1082926219_0:0:358:358_100x100_80_0_0_aca1d9bdccc7af990e49b4511ee80344.png Pawan Atri https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/05/12/1082926219_0:0:358:358_100x100_80_0_0_aca1d9bdccc7af990e49b4511ee80344.png News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Pawan Atri https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/05/12/1082926219_0:0:358:358_100x100_80_0_0_aca1d9bdccc7af990e49b4511ee80344.png kashmir, jammu, indian national congress, congress, congress, opposition, opposition, politician, sonia gandhi, rahul gandhi, ghulam nabi azad https://sputniknews.com/20220909/lawmaker-from-german-left-party-says-attempts-to-defeat-russia-will-lead-to-world-war-iii-1100609992.html Lawmaker From German Left Party Says Attempts to Defeat Russia Will Lead to World War III Lawmaker From German Left Party Says Attempts to Defeat Russia Will Lead to World War III BERLIN (Sputnik) - The lawmaker from the German Left party, Gregor Gysi, said on Friday that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine could be resolved through... 09.09.2022, Sputnik International 2022-09-09T14:54+0000 2022-09-09T14:54+0000 2022-09-09T14:54+0000 world russia germany ukraine war /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/09/09/1100609845_0:0:3157:1776_1920x0_80_0_0_6519884b9446fe118cc88dd2d2ce5987.jpg "Militarily, Russia cannot be defeated, if we try, it will lead to a third world war, we cannot allow it," Gysi told German newspaper Spiegel.Gysi noted that "Ukraine has the right to defense," but the parties should engage in negotiations.The Russian-Ukrainian negotiations began at the end of February when the delegations held meetings in Belarus. At the end of March, the delegations held another round of talks in Istanbul. Following the meeting, the Russian side announced that Ukraine had submitted its written proposals for a future peace treaty, which Moscow considered a step forward.Later, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Ukraine refused its own proposals and created numerous provocations in order to slow down the negotiation process. russia germany Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International russia, germany, ukraine, war https://sputniknews.com/20220909/leaders-of-african-countries-pay-tribute-to-queen-elizabeth-ii-1100581713.html Leaders of African Countries Pay Tribute to Queen Elizabeth II Leaders of African Countries Pay Tribute to Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II, the UK's longest-serving monarch, has died at the age of 96. This year, the UK celebrated the 70th anniversary of her reign and when she... 09.09.2022, Sputnik International 2022-09-09T08:02+0000 2022-09-09T08:02+0000 2022-09-09T09:18+0000 africa africa queen elizabeth ii condolences /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/09/09/1100581381_0:221:2857:1828_1920x0_80_0_0_2ea2bdfa8199aafffa063272af579104.jpg As tributes for Queen Elizabeth II continue to pour in from politicians around the world, African leaders were among the first to give voice to their sorrow.President Cyril Ramaphosa has, on behalf of the Government and people of South Africa, expressed his profound and sincere condolences.Ghanas President Nana Akufo-Addo tweeted: "May God bless her soul and give her peaceful rest in His Bosom until the Last Day of the Resurrection when we shall all meet again.Malawis President Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera joined world leaders in extending his condolences: "For us as a nation, her inimitable legacy as a friend of Malawi will forever be etched on our hearts and indelibly marked on the pages of our history, a history she positively shaped in more ways than we can put into words.Burundi's President Evariste Ndayishimiye mourned the death of the queen. "I am deeply saddened by the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, I extend my heartfelt condolences to the Royal family and the friendly people of United Kingdom. She has been an inspiration for generations around the world and will be remembered for her great leadership, he said.On Twitter, Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema wrote: "We are saddened to learn about the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Royal family and the people of the UK during this difficult period. May God comfort and give them peace, as they mourn Her Majesty. May her soul rest in peace.Kenyan President-elect William Ruto said the Queen was "a towering icon of selfless service". "We will miss the cordial ties she enjoyed with Kenya and may her memories continue to inspire us. We join the Commonwealth in mourning and offer our condolences to the Royal Family and the United Kingdom," the new president continued.Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari mourned the death of the Queen with following words: "My family and I, and the more than 200 million Nigerians have learned with immense sadness of the passing of the Queen and the end of her unique and wonderful 70-year reign. Her late Majesty was the only British Sovereign known to 90 percent of our population."Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud also tweeted: "I pass my deepest condolences & that of my nation to the government, people & Royal family of the UK on the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The Queen represented her nation & citizens with great honour & dignity at home & on the world stage throughout her reign."Cameroons President Paul Biya expressed his grief with the words: "The death of Her Majesty ELIZABETH II is felt painfully and affects the Commonwealth of Nations. She had a unique stature and played an emblematic role throughout history."Rwandan President Paul Kagame said: "I extend my deepest condolences to His Majesty the King, Her Majesty the Queen Consort, and the entire Royal Family, as well as the people of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth."Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe expressed his feelings by saying: "The sadness at the passing of Queen Elizabeth II today goes beyond Great Britain and expands to the whole world, as the late Queen was undoubtedly a universal figure of her country's influence and friendship towards peoples worlwide."Ali Bongo Ondimba, the president of Gabon stated: "The Commonwealth family is mourning Queen Elizabeth II. The Queen was a great friend of Africa and Africa [loved] her in return. I would like to extend my deepest condolences to the British people, to her son, my friend His Majesty King Charles III and family."The British Empire was one of the largest empires in the world's history, a significant part of it consisted of British colonies in Africa. Between 1880 and 1900, Britain took control or occupied the lands of contemporary states of Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Northwest Somalia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Nigeria, Ghana, and Malawi. This meant that the British ruled 30 percent of the African people at one time, according to Independent Turkce.In the early modern period, British traders brought products such as weapons to Africa in exchange for raw materials and slaves. These traders often were protected by the government through the creation of monopolies, which meant their trading company had exclusive rights to conduct commerce with a certain region or for a certain product.British colonialism started to come to an end only with the end of the Second World War because of changes in how people behaved. Sudan gained independence from Britain in 1956. Then, in 1957, Ghana became the first country in Africa to regain its independence from Britain. Nigeria and Somalia followed Ghana in 1960. In 1961 Tanzania achieved its independence from Britain. Kenya followed its neighbor's success in 1963 and Zambia and Malawi in 1964. Gambia gained its independence in 1965.Countries with settler communities took longer to secure their independence and establish majority rule. Zimbabwe achieved independence and majority rule in 1980, and South Africa was the last country to become free in 1994.Despite its colonial past, relations between England and its former colonies are at an advanced and harmonious level. https://sputniknews.com/20220908/queen-elizabeth-ii-presided-over-the-collapse-of-britains-brutal-colonization-of-africa-1100561359.html africa Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Olga Borodkina Olga Borodkina News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Olga Borodkina africa, queen elizabeth ii, condolences It was only last Tuesday (Sept. 6) that Queen Elizabeth II welcomed (new) Conservative Party leader Liz Truss to Balmoral, Scotland, and invited her to become her 15th prime minister and form a new government. Two days later, after hearing of the Queen's death at age 96, Truss paid tribute to her, describing Queen Elizabeth as the rock on which modern Britain was built, whose death is a huge shock to the country and the world. During (then) Princess Elizabeth's speech, broadcast to Commonwealth nations on her 21st birthday (April 21,1947), she said in part: I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and to the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong. But I shall not have strength to carry out this resolution alone, unless you join in it with me, as I now invite you to do. I know that your support will be unfailingly given. God help me to make good my vow, and God bless all of you who are willing to share in it." On the occasion of the Queen's 90th birthday in 2016, the 64-page tribute book, The Servant Queen and the King She Serves," by Mark Greene and Catherine Butcher, was published. It includes a foreword from Her Majesty, and draws on her own words to describe her faith in God. Aside from her annual Christmas messages broadcast on radio and television, the public didn't hear much about this deeply significant aspect of her life. What was the secret of the Queens remarkable consistency of character? Its a question she answered in 2002. "I know just how much I rely on my faith to guide me through the good times and the bad, she said. Each day is a new beginning. I know that the only way to live my life is to try to do what is right, to take the long view, to give of my best in all that the day brings, and to put my trust in God ... I draw strength from the message of hope in the Christian gospel." David Buckna, Kelowna Japanese PM Kishida Could Visit Queen Elizabeth II's Funeral - Reports Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida may attend the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in London, the Asahi broadcaster reported on Saturday. According to the report, Kishida is planning to visit the United States to attend the UN General Assembly in late September. The prime minister may attend the Queen's funeral on September 19 before his planned visit to the US. US Treasury Official: Those Evading Price Cap on Russian Oil Will Face 'Consequences' Under Domestic Law of Jurisdictions Implementing Caps "Those that evade the price cap by falsifying documentation or otherwise hiding the true origin or price of the oil would face consequences under the domestic law of the jurisdictions implementing price caps," US Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said during a virtual discussion organized by the Brookings Institution. He added that Washington and its allies intend to set a price cap on Russian oil that will be set above its cost of production. https://sputniknews.com/20220909/netizens-shook-after-ukraine-mod-quotes-pusha-t-lyric-in-tweet-on-alleged-russian-casualties-1100565367.html Netizens Shook After Ukraine MoD Quotes Pusha T Lyric in Tweet on Alleged Russian Casualties Netizens Shook After Ukraine MoD Quotes Pusha T Lyric in Tweet on Alleged Russian Casualties It is hardly news that in the struggle for Western hearts and minds amid the conflict, Ukrainian authorities have resorted to creating hype and memes to evoke... 09.09.2022, Sputnik International 2022-09-09T02:06+0000 2022-09-09T02:06+0000 2022-09-09T02:04+0000 viral ukraine ukraine crisis russia twitter twitter reaction military & intelligence military rap rapper /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/09/08/1100567908_0:0:2987:1680_1920x0_80_0_0_b9750097f5d7a280983982ef1f4f3f3b.jpg The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has again adopted an intriguing social media strategy, this time in their routine calculations of the alleged losses of the Russian military since the start of the special military operation.The ministry's social media managers announced the casualties in the area between February 24 and September 7 on Twitter on Wednesday, by using a line from US rapper Pusha T's 2013 hit "Numbers on the Board."However, many users of the social media platform did not appreciate the ministry's use of a humorous meme format for presenting official information on a topic as serious as combat casualties."'Pusha T is only known in America so explain why the Ukraine army is quoting him to share their war stats? Exactly, idk whats going on neither," wrote a netizen."Ukraine's ministry of defense twitter just quoted Pusha T while describing casualties it's inflicted - while actively at war. As @Chuckisdope says, glitching," another user said."Nothing and i mean NOTHING would've prepared me for this interaction between pusha t and Ukraine, we living in the f***ing matrix," a Twitterian complained.Meanwhile, Pusha T himself seemed to be pleased with the reference the Ukrainian military used. The person in charge of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense's Twitter account surely appears to take pleasure in posting the daily casualty updates. "I see dead people," a line from the 1999 movie "The Sixth Sense," was included in Tuesday's post.But even the army of trolls, including those from the North Atlantic Fellas Organization, who have a tendency of bombarding posts remotely related to the Ukraine crisis, have not been able to spare the official ministry account from difficult questions, like the actual losses suffered by the Ukrainian side.Kiev has not reported its losses in the course of hostilities since mid-April, which have allegedly amounted to around 3,000 dead and another 10,000 injured. In early June, the adviser to the head of the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mikhail Podolyak, said that on average, the Ukrainian forces lose from 100 to 200 fighters daily during the Russian special military operation. A similar figure on the same day was stated by Ukrainian Minister of Defense Alexei Reznikov.On August 22, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny announced that the irretrievable losses of the Ukrainian army amount to about 9,000 people. The Russian Ministry of Defense in April stated that 23,000 soldiers of the "Ukrainian army, the National Guard and foreign mercenaries" had died. Last week, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, Ukrainian soldiers attempted to resume their counteroffensive on the Nikolayev-Kryvoi Rog and other routes and lost 1,700 personnel in two days.The Russian ministry last reported on the losses of its own army on March 25. According to the Ministry of Defense, at that time there were 1,351 dead and 3,825 wounded. https://sputniknews.com/20220905/ukraines-envoy-to-kazakhstan-apologizes-for-kill-as-many-russian-as-possible-remarks---ministry-1100405268.html https://sputniknews.com/20220829/they-are-not-organic-ukraine-mod-called-out-after-giving-thanks-to-nafo-trolls-1100095875.html russia Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Kirill Kurevlev Kirill Kurevlev News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Kirill Kurevlev ukraine, ukraine crisis, russia, twitter, twitter reaction, military & intelligence, military, rap, rapper, pusha t https://sputniknews.com/20220909/nigerian-secret-service-searches-home-of-kaduna-train-hostage-negotiator-1100598412.html Nigerian Secret Service Searches Home of Kaduna Train Hostage Negotiator Nigerian Secret Service Searches Home of Kaduna Train Hostage Negotiator Activist and journalist Tukur Mamu, who mediated for the release of people abducted in a train attack in Nigeria's Kaduna state on March 28, was arrested on... 09.09.2022, Sputnik International 2022-09-09T14:11+0000 2022-09-09T14:11+0000 2022-09-09T15:38+0000 africa africa nigeria /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/09/09/1100597651_0:160:3073:1888_1920x0_80_0_0_3bfa886db4ac531a4cabc658c1c708b7.jpg According to Anadolu Agency, Nigeria's secret service has searched the office and home of Tukur Mamu, a former negotiator between terrorists who abducted train passengers in March and the victims families. Laptops, phones, and other documents from both locations were seized during the search.Spokesman for the Department of State Services (DSS) Peter Afunnaya said the agency is questioning Mamu about his supposed involvement in collecting ransom, security issues, and his alleged strong ties with a terror group in the Sinai area in Egypt.Mamu, was caught by Interpol in Cairo, the capital of Egypt, while he was traveling from Nigeria to Saudi Arabia allegedly for Umrah - an Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca that can be undertaken at any time of the year.Detained in Cairo for more than 24 hours, Mamu was sent back to Nigeria. At Nigerias Aminu Kano International Airport, Mamu was arrested along with his family.Previously, on the evening of March 28, gunmen attacked a passenger train at Rigasa train station, located in northern Nigeria's Kaduna state. As a result of a bomb attack, eight people were killed and 46 were injured.For a while, Mamu was mediating between members of the armed gang, the families of the hostages, and the government for the release of the abducted people. Claiming that he had received threats from unidentified people for this reason, Mamu announced that he would withdraw from mediation.The government has reported that 170 of the people who were abducted after the attack have been rescued, while 146 people are still missing.In a video released on July 24, the gunmen threatened that the hostages would be killed unless the ransom was paid. https://sputniknews.com/20220826/germany-to-return-hundreds-of-benin-bronzes-seized-during-colonial-times-to-nigeria-1100024771.html africa nigeria Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Olga Borodkina Olga Borodkina News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Olga Borodkina africa, nigeria https://sputniknews.com/20220909/parties-will-join-hands-to-defeat-bjp-west-bengal-state-chief-mamata-banerjee-on-opposition-unity-1100541679.html 'Parties Will Join Hands to Defeat BJP': West Bengal State Chief Mamata Banerjee on Opposition Unity 'Parties Will Join Hands to Defeat BJP': West Bengal State Chief Mamata Banerjee on Opposition Unity Ever since Bihar State Chief Nitish Kumar parted ways with the BJP last month, opposition leaders in India have ramped up their efforts to forge unity to stop... 09.09.2022, Sputnik International 2022-09-09T03:07+0000 2022-09-09T03:07+0000 2022-09-09T03:04+0000 india narendra modi narendra modi opposition opposition polls polls elections parliamentary elections general elections /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/107566/37/1075663768_0:0:6574:3698_1920x0_80_0_0_bfe2d7ad0d21b584fd4402da1dc138f1.jpg India's West Bengal State Chief and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee on Thursday expressed confidence that the opposition parties will join forces to prevent the federally ruling BJP's return to power in 2024. Banerjee, a fierce critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), stated that Nitish Kumar (of Janata Dal-United party), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) boss Hemant Soren and other leaders, including her, will fight the 2024 national polls in an alliance against the BJP. "I, Nitish Kumar, Hemant Soren, and many others will come together in 2024. All opposition parties will join hands to defeat the BJP. All of us will be on one side and the BJP on the other. The BJP's arrogance of 300 seats will be its nemesis," she said during a party program in the state capital Kolkata on Thursday. "The BJP thinks they can threaten us with (federal probe agencies) CBI and ED. The more they pursue such tricks, the more they will get closer to defeat in next year's Panchayat election and 2024 Lok Sabha polls."Mamata's statement comes amid several opposition leaders stepping up their meetings to strategize about the 2024 polls.Earlier this week, Nitish Kumar, the JD-U leader and Bihar state chief who broke with the BJP in his state, met several top leaders of parties opposed to the BJP, including Rahul Gandhi (Congress), and Sitaram Yechury (Communist Party of India of West Bengal).More meetings with leaders like Uddhav Thackeray (Shiv Sena of Maharashtra) and Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi Party of Uttar Pradesh) are lined up in the coming days.Coming back to Mamata Banerjee, she has long had an acrimonious relationship with the BJP, particularly after the TMC trumped the federally ruling party in a high-octane battle in the state polls last year.After handing the BJP one of its worst defeats in recent history, Banerjee started to pitch herself for a national role, but several top leaders of her party became embroiled in corruption cases, leading to their arrests by central investigative agencies.The most high-profile among them was Partha Chatterjee, who served as the minister of commerce and industries in her government.While Banerjee has termed the arrests of her party's leaders as a political vendetta, the BJP has accused her of shielding the corrupt. west bengal bihar Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Pawan Atri https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/05/12/1082926219_0:0:358:358_100x100_80_0_0_aca1d9bdccc7af990e49b4511ee80344.png Pawan Atri https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/05/12/1082926219_0:0:358:358_100x100_80_0_0_aca1d9bdccc7af990e49b4511ee80344.png News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Pawan Atri https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/05/12/1082926219_0:0:358:358_100x100_80_0_0_aca1d9bdccc7af990e49b4511ee80344.png narendra modi, narendra modi, opposition, opposition, polls, polls, elections, parliamentary elections, general elections, mamata banerjee, west bengal, bihar https://sputniknews.com/20220909/putin-congratulates-kim-jong-un-on-74th-founding-anniversary-of-north-korea-1100584313.html Putin Congratulates Kim Jong-un on 74th Founding Anniversary of North Korea Putin Congratulates Kim Jong-un on 74th Founding Anniversary of North Korea MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on the 74th anniversary of the formation of North Korea... 09.09.2022, Sputnik International 2022-09-09T08:13+0000 2022-09-09T08:13+0000 2022-09-09T08:13+0000 world democratic republic of north korea (dprk) kim jong-un vladimir putin /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/09/09/1100584166_0:0:2501:1407_1920x0_80_0_0_7a83907bcbad4db4a2c469e52e6b858a.jpg The Russian president expressed his sincere congratulations on the anniversary and noted that North Korea and Russia traditionally maintain friendly good-neighborly relations and have accumulated a considerable amount of experience of fruitful cooperation in various fields, according to the state Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Putin also wished Kim good health and success, and the citizens of North Korea peace and prosperity.Turkmenistan's President Serdar Berdimuhamedov also expressed his congratulations to Kim and wished the country and their leader peace, prosperity and security."President Serdar Berdimuhamedov has sent cordial congratulations and best wishes to the president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Kim Jong Un, on the occasion of the country's national holiday the formation of North Korea," Turkmenistan's state-run Neytralny Turkmenistan (Neutral Turkmenistan) newspaper reported.Kim also received congratulatory messages from Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith.All leaders praised the development achievements of North Korea and underscored the historically close relations between the countries that they hope will continue to develop in the future. democratic republic of north korea (dprk) Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International democratic republic of north korea (dprk), kim jong-un, vladimir putin https://sputniknews.com/20220909/secret-nato-docs-reportedly-leaked-to-dark-web-after-cyberattack-on-portugals-general-staff-1100578266.html Secret NATO Docs Reportedly Leaked to Dark Web After Cyberattack on Portugals General Staff Secret NATO Docs Reportedly Leaked to Dark Web After Cyberattack on Portugals General Staff American cyber-intelligence agents were reportedly the first to notice the sale of stolen documents on the dark web, alerting the US embassy in Lisbon... 09.09.2022, Sputnik International 2022-09-09T06:32+0000 2022-09-09T06:32+0000 2022-09-09T08:59+0000 world portugal nato hack attack cyber attack /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/106369/08/1063690823_0:100:1921:1180_1920x0_80_0_0_a3b8e8552a54fd03504a4cbc3d805aab.jpg Classified NATO documents were leaked to the dark web after a massive cyberattack on the Armed Forces General Staff agency of Portugal (EMGFA), local news organization Diario de Noticias reported.The sale on the dark web of hundreds of documents which had been sent to Portugals officials by NATO was noticed by US cyber-intelligence agents, who alerted the American embassy in Lisbon, according to sources cited by the publication. After that, the Portuguese government was informed of the "significant" data breach, with a notice on the discovery sent directly to Prime Minister Antonio Costa in August.A team of experts from the National Security Office (GNS) and Portugals national cybersecurity center were purportedly dispatched to EMGFA to carry out screening the bodys network. A comprehensive audit of internal systems allowed the General Staff to identify which computers the NATO documents were stolen from, the report added.Unsecured channels were used for transmission of classified documents when the Integrated System of Military Communications (SICOM) should have been resorted to, claimed the outlet.The US embassy in Lisbon neither confirmed nor denied the report, refusing to comment on intelligence matters.NATO will demand an explanation over the incident from the Portuguese government, added the outlet, though an unnamed Portuguese official was cited as saying that the government will work daily so that Portugal's credibility, as a founding member of the Atlantic Alliance, remains intact. https://sputniknews.com/20201206/suspects-arrested-in-brazen-hacking-attack-on-italian-cyber-defence-firm-with-links-to-nato-1081374382.html portugal Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Svetlana Ekimenko Svetlana Ekimenko News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Svetlana Ekimenko portugal, nato, hack attack, cyber attack https://sputniknews.com/20220909/south-africa-helping-to-reintroduce-endangered-species-to-india-1100607526.html South Africa Helping to Reintroduce Endangered Species to India South Africa Helping to Reintroduce Endangered Species to India The last known wild cheetah in India died in 1947 and the species was declared extinct five years later. Asiatic cheetahs, a species previously present in... 09.09.2022, Sputnik International 2022-09-09T18:29+0000 2022-09-09T18:29+0000 2022-09-09T18:29+0000 africa africa cheetah /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/09/09/1100607039_0:185:2983:1863_1920x0_80_0_0_04fa75aac83a2a3592cf815a63dfaabc.jpg 12 cheetahs will travel from South Africa in October in order to revive the spotted cats population in India. The return of these creatures will contribute to the restoration of the local ecosystem. According to The Guardian, some experts criticize using African cheetahs instead of the Asian subspecies for reintroduction, noting the differences between them and questioning the success of replacing one subspecies with another.In most regions of their range, Asiatic cheetahs had gone extinct by the middle of the 20th century due to hunting, shortages of prey, and habitat destruction. Under British colonial rule, cheetahs in India were considered deleterious and were deliberately targeted. Asian cheetahs survived only in Iran, but their population is currently only numbered at around 12, which may also disappear completely in the coming years.Early attempts to bring the Asian subspecies into the country from Iran were thwarted by the Iranian Revolution of 1979, which brought a new Iranian government to power. Nowadays, the Iranian cheetah population is so small that it is impossible to use them for reintroduction. Therefore, it is now planned to bring African cheetahs to India, not Asian. The idea was approved by the Indian Supreme Court in 2020.According to the Cheetah Conservation Fund, the creatures benefit the ecosystem by keeping the animals they hunt at healthy population sizes. When possible, cheetahs hunt the weak and slowest of numerous species of animals. If cheetahs no longer existed, there would be too many herbivores, a resulting loss of vegetation, more soil erosion, less water in the fields, and an overall negative impact on the health of the ecosystem.The cheetah is known as the fastest-running animal in the world. When chasing its prey, its speed can reaches 70 kilometer per hour in two seconds. At its fastest, the cheetah can reach a maximum speed of 100-127 kilometer per hour. However, cheetahs cant maintain this speed very long. It can chase its prey no longer than 500-600 meters. Cheetahs are usually active in the early mornings and late evenings, when the weather is less hot, and the animals usually roam alone. Sometimes males gather in small groups to hunt. Interestingly, in Namibia, group hunting has been observed to be more developed. https://sputniknews.com/20201030/meows-are-deceiving-wild-cheetah-purring-on-camera-will-melt-your-heart-1080923939.html africa Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Olga Borodkina Olga Borodkina News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Olga Borodkina africa, cheetah https://sputniknews.com/20220909/top-austrian-diplomat-considers-idea-of-total-visa-ban-for-russians-to-be-mistake-1100584509.html Top Austrian Diplomat Considers Idea of Total Visa Ban for Russians to Be Mistake Top Austrian Diplomat Considers Idea of Total Visa Ban for Russians to Be Mistake VIENNA (Sputnik) - Russia remains a part of the European culture and the idea of introducing a total ban on the issuance of visas to Russians is a mistake... 09.09.2022, Sputnik International 2022-09-09T08:17+0000 2022-09-09T08:17+0000 2022-09-09T08:17+0000 world european union (eu) visa russia /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/18127/27/181272722_0:103:2001:1228_1920x0_80_0_0_567c1b72247a2c132d059df1efc24c8d.jpg "It is important ... to follow a sense of proportion and not go too far. It would be a complete stop of entry for all 144 million Russians," Schallenberg said in an interview with the Wiener Zeitung newspaper.Austria with its history is well acquainted with Russian realities, the minister said, adding that "the geography does not change, Russia remains part of the history and European culture."On Tuesday, the European Commission adopted a proposal to fully suspend the visa facilitation agreement with Moscow. The decision will complicate visa application process for Russian citizens and impose more restrictions for multiple entry visas. At the same time, the proposal does not provide for a total ban on the issuance of visas to the country's citizens, as requested by several EU member states. The new visa regime may come into effect as soon as September 12. Brussels also explained that the agreement would be restored as soon as the circumstances that led to the suspension cease.Travel between Russia and the EU became much easier in 2007 when the agreement came into force. Under the document, visa fees were reduced, the rules for obtaining a multientry visa were simplified, the list of necessary documents was reduced and visas for diplomats were abolished. In late February, after the start of the special operation in Ukraine, the EU partially suspended the agreement, canceling preferences for Russian diplomats and other officials, as well as representatives of the Russian business community. Moscow said that it considers the proposal a manifestation of chauvinism and that such a decision will invite retaliatory measures. russia Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International european union (eu), visa, russia https://sputniknews.com/20220909/trump-calls-for-new-election-biden-wants-more-money-for-ukraine-erdogan-admonishes-west-1100567308.html Trump Calls for New Election; Biden Wants More Money for Ukraine; Erdogan Admonishes West Trump Calls for New Election; Biden Wants More Money for Ukraine; Erdogan Admonishes West Former president Donald Trump has called for a 2020 election rerun to make up for the suppression of the Hunter Biden corruption scandal. 09.09.2022, Sputnik International 2022-09-09T10:04+0000 2022-09-09T10:04+0000 2022-09-09T10:04+0000 hunter biden taiwan strait propaganda fbi the critical hour radio radio sputnik north korea donald trump /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/09/08/1100566996_0:0:1920:1080_1920x0_80_0_0_0d66d20cc97220bb71ce600f3a3c7928.png Trump Calls for New Election; Biden Wants More Money for Ukraine; Erdogan Admonishes West Former president Donald Trump has called for a 2020 election rerun to make up for the suppression of the Hunter Biden corruption scandal. Regis Tremblay, an American citizen, living in Crimea, joins us to discuss Ukraine. Some GOP members of Congress are questioning president Biden's latest aid package to Ukraine. Also, new evidence points to Western powers vetoing a negotiated settlement between Russia and Ukraine.Scott Ritter, former UN weapon inspector in Iraq, joins us to discuss foreign policy. The IAEA has falsely implied that Iran is working to create a nuclear weapon despite an opposite assessment from the US CIA. Also, Ukrainian troops paint a dire picture of the failed Kherson offensive.Steve Poikonen, national organizer for Action4Assange, joins us to discuss propaganda. Western media outlets are acting in a manner that is eerily similar to the propaganda operation run by the Third Reich. We discuss Patrick Lawrence's latest consortiumnews.com article.Niko House, political activist, independent journalist, and podcaster, joins us to discuss the FBI/Trump scandal. Former president Donald Trump has called for a 2020 election rerun to make up for the suppression of the Hunter Biden corruption scandal.Dr. Ken Hammond, writer and professor of East Asian and global history at New Mexico State University, joins us to discuss the Russia/China strategic alliance. North Korea is increasing its cooperation with Russia in hopes of returning to the world economic stage. Also, Russia and China have dramatically increased economic and military cooperation as Russia turns away from Western hegemony.Dr. David Oualaalou, author and international security analyst, joins us to discuss the Ukraine conflict. We review the current position of Russia's stated goals for the special military operation. Also, Turkish president Erdogan argues that the West should end its provocative policy toward Russia.Ajamu Baraka, 2016 US vice presidential candidate for the Green Party, joins us to discuss the Global South. There is much concern that Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro may use extra democratic means and help from the US empire to maintain Brazil's power. Also, The US may be behind the assassination attempt of the vice president of Argentina.Nicolas Davies, peace activist and author of "Blood on Our Hands: The American Invasion of Iraq, joins us to discuss the potential for peace negotiations regarding Ukraine. Nicolas Davies and Medea Benjamin have penned an article in which they articulate a path forward to resolve the Ukrainian conflict through a negotiated peace settlement.We'd love to get your feedback at radio@sputniknews.comThe views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of Sputnik taiwan strait Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Garland Nixon https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/02/13/1082125302_0:0:239:239_100x100_80_0_0_d5d43c970b0740f228597fbcdb4ffd66.jpg Garland Nixon https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/02/13/1082125302_0:0:239:239_100x100_80_0_0_d5d43c970b0740f228597fbcdb4ffd66.jpg News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Garland Nixon https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/02/13/1082125302_0:0:239:239_100x100_80_0_0_d5d43c970b0740f228597fbcdb4ffd66.jpg hunter biden, taiwan strait, propaganda, fbi, , radio, radio sputnik, north korea, donald trump Photo: The Canadian Press The sign at the Calgary Courts Centre in Calgary is shown on Jan. 5, 2018. An Alberta prosecutor says the mother of a baby girl discovered dead in a Calgary dumpster on Christmas Eve in 2017 should serve time in jail. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Bill Graveland An Alberta judge says he will not consider jail time for the mother of a baby found dead in a Calgary dumpster on Christmas Eve in 2017, despite the Crown's request that she serve up to six months. Nina Albright, who is now 24, entered a guilty plea in November to offering an indignity to a body. Court has heard that Albright gave birth in her parents' home but told police the infant stopped breathing after a couple of minutes. She said she tried to clear the baby's airway but didn't call for help. Albright has said she packaged the child up in plastic and cloth bags before getting her boyfriend to drive her to an area where she left the body. Three medical examiners determined the baby girl was born alive, but couldn't say when she died. Police officers who recovered the body named her Eve. Crown attorney Vicki Faulkner told a sentencing hearing Friday that Albright needs to pay for her crime and serve a sentence of between three and six months. But Judge John Bascom told the court that wasn't on the table. "I'm not considering putting Ms. Albright in jail. This still means that because of the position the Crown has taken, I have to consider a conditional sentence order as well," Bascom said. "I have concluded that actual jail is not appropriate." He set a sentencing date for Oct. 31. Faulkner told the court that Albright committed a "planned and deliberate" crime and didn't seek help, even though her adoptive parents were in the home when she gave birth. "Ms. Albright made no effort to determine if the baby was in fact deceased before discarding her in the garbage when it was well below zero," Faulkner said. Gavin Wolch, Albright's lawyer, told the court his Indigenous client was adopted by parents who were professors at Mount Royal University. He said she suffers from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and is in poor mental health. He said an absolute discharge is what the court should impose. "Nina Albright is being sentenced for a terrible decision she made five years ago that has been tormenting her ever since," Wolch said. "It's not a crime of violence, it's a crime of sadness. She has to live with her actions. She doesn't get an option for closure." Court heard a victim impact statement from the baby's father, Alfred Sonido, who said he was unaware Albright was pregnant. "I have lost a daughter that I never knew. It brought upon many emotions, all of which I endure and grapple with every day," Sonido said. "I feel broken. My tears and grief consumes me until I spiral down further into feeling lost, unable to cope, wishing every day that things had turned out differently." Albright also addressed the court. "When I held my baby girl, I loved her more than I have loved anything. The pain of bringing someone into the world and not being able to support her is overwhelming," she said choking back tears. "I hope someday I will have the chance to grieve and move forward with my life. This has changed me forever and I am truly sorry for everything." https://sputniknews.com/20220909/us-defense-secretary-lloyd-austin-czech-defense-minister-jana-cernochova-hold-press-conference-1100580445.html US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Czech Defense Minister Jana Cernochova Hold Press Conference US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Czech Defense Minister Jana Cernochova Hold Press Conference On 30 August, media reported that US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will visit the Czech Republic to begin negotiations on the possible sale of F-35 fighter... 09.09.2022, Sputnik International 2022-09-09T09:31+0000 2022-09-09T09:31+0000 2022-09-09T09:32+0000 world lloyd austin us czech republic /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/09/09/1100587668_0:0:1920:1080_1920x0_80_0_0_0b5e5f0f09d29a9cc71a670fbc1c3183.jpg US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III and Czech Republic Defense Minister Jana Cernochova will hold a briefing for the media after a meeting in Prague. Defense ministers are expected to discuss the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict and related security issues as well as bilateral cooperation.In July, the Czech government instructed Defense Minister Jana Cernochova to open talks with US partners on the acquisition of 24 F-35 Lightning combat aircraft.Follow Sputnik's Live Feed to Find Out More! czech republic Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Czech Defense Minister Jana Cernochova Hold Press Conference US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Czech Defense Minister Jana Cernochova Hold Press Conference 2022-09-09T09:31+0000 true PT30M17S 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International lloyd austin, us, czech republic, https://sputniknews.com/20220909/us-policy-unchanged-after-dprk-declares-itself-nuclear-weapons-state-white-house-says-1100610971.html US Policy Unchanged After DPRK Declares Itself Nuclear Weapons State, White House Says US Policy Unchanged After DPRK Declares Itself Nuclear Weapons State, White House Says WASHINGTON, (Sputnik) - The United States' policy toward North Korea has not changed after the latter declared itself a nuclear weapons state and Washington... 09.09.2022, Sputnik International 2022-09-09T15:37+0000 2022-09-09T15:37+0000 2022-09-09T15:37+0000 world dprk north korea denuclearization nuclear program white house us /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/03/13/1082387924_0:160:3073:1888_1920x0_80_0_0_7ffafb36210c6702ca53561d94b89053.jpg On Wednesday, North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly adopted a decree on Nuclear Weapons Policy that legitimizes the possession of nuclear weapons by the country's leader, who solely has the right to make any decision concerning the use of the nuclear arsenal. During the session, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un said no sanctions will make Pyongyang give up its nuclear weapons.Jean-Pierre also said that the United States has made clear it does not have a hostile intent toward North Korea and will "continue to seek diplomacy and are prepared to meet without preconditions."Jean-Pierre added that North Korea continues to not respond to the United States' requests for diplomatic dialogue, adding that Washington has been "very clear and upfront about that."The Yonhap news agency said, referring to the North Korea's decree, that the conditions for the use of nuclear weapons include an attack or imminent threat of an attack by an enemy country with the use of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction on North Korea; an attack by hostile nuclear or non-nuclear nations on the leadership and command of the nuclear forces of North Korea; and a destructive attack on the country's strategically important facilities. https://sputniknews.com/20220908/north-korea-passes-law-giving-kim-jong-un-right-to-take-nuclear-actions-if-dprk-attacked-1100568178.html white house Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International dprk, north korea, denuclearization, nuclear program, white house, us https://sputniknews.com/20220909/weak-us-workforce-risks-defense-industrys-ability-to-supply-arms-to-allies---reports-1100620286.html Weak US Workforce Risks Defense Industry's Ability to Supply Arms to Allies - Reports Weak US Workforce Risks Defense Industry's Ability to Supply Arms to Allies - Reports WASHINGTON(Sputnik) - A current weakness in the US workforce could jeopardize the United States' ability to replenish its stockpiles of arms and ammunition... 09.09.2022, Sputnik International 2022-09-09T22:21+0000 2022-09-09T22:21+0000 2022-09-09T22:19+0000 americas us work defense industry weapons allies /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/107891/05/1078910559_0:160:3073:1888_1920x0_80_0_0_c4fdd5ff8c86e5304835600bbdcbca92.jpg The United States currently has a weak workforce that could potentially pose a risk to US allies' ability to help Ukraine and delay efforts to resupply their own forces, the report said on Friday.US defense industry leaders warned lawmakers that the lack of a strong workforce in the United States may cause a yearslong delay for its ability to replace some of the weapons supplies that have been so depleted due to the supply being sent to Ukraine, the report said.The report added this situation has raised concerns that the readiness of US forces to deter Russia or China could ultimately suffer.Earlier this week, the Defense Department released a supply chain report warning that the US manufacturing sector will have 2.1 million unfilled jobs, including a shortage of 383,000 highly skilled workers, by 2030. Defense manufacturing will have to compete with all industry sectors for these increasingly scarce workers, the report added.The report added that it has become increasingly difficult for US defense supply chains to compete with the commercial industry for workers based on wages due to the "contractual environment and typically low-volume, high-variety work required by most defense contracts."Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine on February 24 after the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Lugansk requested help to defend them from intensifying attacks by Ukrainian troops. The countries of the collective West imposed comprehensive sanctions against Russia and have provided weapons supplies to Ukraine in the amount of multiple billions of dollars. americas Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International us, work, defense industry, weapons, allies https://sputniknews.com/20220909/what-will-take-place-in-the-next-10-days-as-funeral-preparations-unfold-for-queen-elizabeth-ii-1100573192.html What Will Take Place in the Next 10 Days as Funeral Preparations Unfold for Queen Elizabeth II? What Will Take Place in the Next 10 Days as Funeral Preparations Unfold for Queen Elizabeth II? Queen Elizabeth II, 96, died "peacefully" at Balmoral castle in Scotland on Thursday. On Friday, her oldest son will formally ascend to the throne. The... 09.09.2022, Sputnik International 2022-09-09T04:17+0000 2022-09-09T04:17+0000 2022-09-09T04:15+0000 world uk uk royal family queen queen elizabeth ii death funeral london london bridge mourning /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/09/09/1100573636_0:225:1946:1320_1920x0_80_0_0_4b4194c97a000753ebdea9b78a4e86a1.jpg The UK government and those close to the royal court for many years have had a similar action plan from monarch to monarch, worked out to the smallest detail. As soon as the Queen drew her last breath, the plan known as "Operation London Bridge" came into action.Prior to the official announcement from Buckingham Palace, there has been a "call cascade," in which the Queen's private secretary personally informed the prime minister of the news. The announcement was then relayed to the cabinet secretary and privy council office, which coordinates governmental work on behalf of the monarch, according to the Guardian, which previously explained the action plan in great detail five years ago.The public will only have received the "official notification" after that. Half-mast was soon observed for all flags at royal palaces, Whitehall, and other government buildings. The royal family's website was turned to a black holding page with a brief statement announcing the Queen's passing. A black banner has also been added to government websites.The first official in the administration to hear the news was the prime minister, newly appointed by the late monarch, Liz Truss.The formal death announcement is fixed to the railings at Buckingham Palace per tradition. Following the monarch's passing, the bells of Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral will ring at a predetermined time. Ceremonial gun salutes are anticipated at Hyde Park and Tower Hill on the first day of mourning, as well as a national minute of silence.The first meeting between the king, Charles III, and the prime minister is also scheduled to take place on Friday. The state burial of the late Queen is expected to be held in ten days, and the King will also meet with the Earl Marshal to formally approve the full funeral arrangements. Later this week, Charles will address the nation and the Commonwealth on television. The major proclamation of the new king is read out in public from a balcony of St. James's Palace, and the Accession Council, comprised of senior government officials and privy counsellors, is then anticipated to convene there on Saturday.In the City of London's Royal Exchange, another proclamation will be read. The opposition leader, the archbishop of Canterbury, the dean of Westminster, and the prime minister and cabinet are all scheduled to meet with the new monarch. The UK Parliament will then hold a memorial service. For the Accession Council, flags will fly at half-mast for 24 hours before returning to full mast on the day of the funeral. Following that, it is expected that the coffin will depart from Balmoral and travel by car to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Proclamations will be made in the devolved administrations of Edinburgh, Cardiff, and Belfast. Parliamentary tributes will likely also continue.Members of the royal family will attend a ceremony at St. Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland, after a ceremonial parade from Holyrood down the Royal Mile. After that service, St. Giles Cathedral will open to the public for 24 hours for a period of lying at rest, not lying in state, as that will take place in London. The coffin will presumably then be flown to London or be transported to Edinburgh's Waverly train station before being loaded on the Royal Train to ultimately be met by the prime minister, the cabinet, and other dignitaries.King Charles will go to Northern Ireland, where he will attend a memorial ceremony for Queen Elizabeth II at St. Anne's Cathedral in Belfast and receive a condolence message at Hillsborough Castle.The procession of the late Queen's casket from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall will be rehearsed during that time. Before the ceremony scheduled in London, the coffin is anticipated to arrive at Buckingham Palace, where it will remain for a few hours. The Queen will lie in the throne room of Buckingham Palace in London before being transferred to a gun carriage and transported to Westminster Hall.Then, the Queen's casket will be carried from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall to begin her five-day laying in state as part of the first major ceremony before the funeral. The coffin is anticipated to be transported on a gun carriage. There will also be a brief service when it arrives at the location.The general public will be invited to pay their respects during the lying in state at Westminster Hall. In the center of Westminster Hall, which will be accessible to the public twenty-three hours a day, the coffin will be placed atop a catafalque. Following a liturgy at Cardiff's Llandaff Cathedral, King Charles will visit the Welsh Senedd and accept a motion of condolence. He will meet with the first minister of Wales. Then, according to the plan, Commonwealth detachments will start arriving in London. Charles III will extend a warm invitation to visiting royal families from around the world on the eve of the burial.Westminster Abbey will host the state funeral on September 18. From Westminster Hall, the coffin will be carried in a procession to the abbey. There will then be two minutes of silence around the nation. A sizable ceremonial procession will follow the coffin to Hyde Park following the one-hour service, where it will change from a gun carriage to a state hearse and be driven to Windsor. The coffin will be lowered into the royal vault at a committal service performed at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, following a parade through Windsor.She will rest next to her late husband Prince Philip, whose body will be removed from the Royal Vault, where he was buried in April 2021. Both the Queen Mother and King George VI were interred in the same grave. The remains of her sister, Princess Margaret, who died in 2002 are also at the site. The Queen's coffin will be transported in a hearse to her final resting place along a 37-kilometer road lined with spectators. https://sputniknews.com/20220908/operation-unicorn-what-happens-if-the-queen-dies-at-balmoral-1100548809.html https://sputniknews.com/20220908/a-look-back-at-the-life-of-longest-reigning-uk-monarch-queen-elizabeth-ii-1100542758.html london london bridge Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 2022 Kirill Kurevlev Kirill Kurevlev News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rosiya Segodnya 252 60 Kirill Kurevlev uk, uk royal family, queen, queen elizabeth ii, death, funeral, london, london bridge, mourning Owner's Statement: Mare is qualified. I had to scratch her last start as I got lost going to Grand River. Mare was in the trainer for almost 3 hours and she washed out as it was a hot day and the trailer was hot. I asked the Judges to scratch her. Mare has 4 clean legs, paces clean. I just wear tendon boots for protection. She gets 50% allowance on price and earnings here in Ontario and Quebec. Mare kicked herself in trailer last race and cut back leg with a cork as I wear corks all year. It's healed now. Reason my fault, never wore shipping bandages that day. On September 2, 2022, the Horse Racing Alberta (HRA) Board of Directors held a Special Board Meeting to approve the 2023 budget allocations for Purse Support, Breed Improvement, and the Horse Population Incentive Program. This was done to provide the industry stakeholders timely information prior to the 2022 Yearling sales for Thoroughbreds/Quarter Horses and Standardbreds. The HRA Board approved the following program budget allocations: 1. Purse Support Program allocation: 2023 - $13,500,000 Approved Budget 2024 - $14,500,000 Approved Budget 2025 - $15,500,000 Projection 2026 - $16,000,000 Projection The overall projected Purse support increase between 2022 and 2026 is 28%. Purse support amounts for 2025 and 2026 are projections that are reviewed annually and may be subject to change. 2. Breed Improvement allocation: 2023 - $3,900,000 Approved Budget 2024 - $4,200,000 Approved Budget The overall increase between 2022 and 2024 is 23.5%. Projected Breed Improvement program amounts for 2025-2026 are currently under review. 3. Horse Population Incentive program is extended for 2023 The total program allocation of $500,000 will be split between Racing Associations/Tracks as follows: ASHA - $200,000 HBPA - $200,000 AQHRA - $50,000 ACTRA / B Tracks - $50,000 4. The HRA Board has reviewed and approved the 2023 Race Day Calendar The following schedule is subject to confirmation from Century Racetracks, ASHA and HBPA. A CIRCUIT SCHEDULE There will be a total of 54 Thoroughbred race days and 72 Standardbred race days as follows: Century Mile: Thoroughbreds will start training at Century Mile on March 1. The meet starts on May 6 and ends on September 2 (38 race days); and Standardbreds will race at Century Mile from January 7-28, 2023 and then again from September 8 and until December 31 (34 race days). Century Downs: Standardbreds will begin racing at Century Downs on March 11 and run until August 12 (34 race days); and Thoroughbreds will begin racing at Century Downs from September 9 to October 29 (16 race days). B CIRCUIT SCHEDULE There will be a total of 49 Thoroughbred race days and 17 Standardbred race days. Rocky Mountain Turf Club Thoroughbreds start training in March. The Spring meet starts on May 6 and ends on June 27 (16 race days); and Thoroughbreds return on September 3rd and the Fall meet ends on October 7 (16 race days). Millarville Thoroughbreds run on July 1, 2023 (1 race day). Evergreen Park Thoroughbreds run from July 8 until August 27 (16 race days). The Track On 2 Standardbreds race from July 2 to September 17 (17 race days). (HRA) The final leg of the Ohio Sires Stakes for two-year-old filly trotters was sweet smelling for Rose Run Yolanda and Rose Run Yanae. Rose Run Yolanda won a leg for the third time this year while Rose Run Yanae was a first-time winner. Three $40,000 divisions went to the post Thursday (Sept. 8) at Eldorado Scioto Downs. Rose Run Yolanda turned in the most dominant performance of the three winners as she won by six lengths in 1:58.4. The daughter of Triumphant Caviar with Trevor Smith driving sat patiently through the first half in fractions of :29.1 and 1:00.3. Heading up the back stretch, the 2-5 favourite started to make her move. Rose Run Yolanda grabbed the lead at the three-quarter pole in 1:29.4 and opened when she hit the top of the stretch for the easy win. Trained by Todd Luther and owned by Black Magic Racing, Rose Run Yolanda won for the fourth time in five starts. She has earned $111,000 this year. Shes Loveable was second while Rose Run Yancee finished third. While it was a return trip to the winners circle for Rose Run Yolanda, Rose Run Yanae made her first trip there. Ronnie Wrenn Jr. and Rose Run Yanae timed the gate perfectly and raced to the lead on the way to a gate-to-wire victory in 1:55.4. Rose Run Yanae fought off an early challenge from Truly Relentless and Chris Lems to take the lead covering the first quarter in :28. The Triumphant Caviar filly raced to the half in :58.1 and hit the three-quarter mark in 1:27.2. Around the final turn, Swinging Senorita swung wide to challenge while Truly Relentless looked to the passing lane, but neither was able to reel in the 8-1 Rose Run Yanae. Swinging Senorita was able to get up for second while Truly Relentless settled for third. Trained by Ron Burke and owned by the Burke Racing Stable, Hatfield Stable, Knox Services, and Weaver Bruscemi, Rose Run Yanae has earned $44,260 this year. In the other division, Global Girl made it look easy as she came home a winner by three lengths in 1:56.4 to win back-to-back legs in the Ohio Sires Stakes. Waddupgee with Aaron Merriman raced to the lead with a :27.3 first quarter. The lead didnt last long as Don Irvine Jr. and the even money favourite Global Girl moved right on by covering the half in :57.2. Frantastic L challenged up the back stretch and sat a half length off the lead at three-quarters in 1:27.2. As the field swung for home, Global Girl opened up and cruised home for the victory. A Long Dream finished second with Twish third. It was the second win in five starts for the Garry Martin trainee. Global Girl, the daughter of Global Republic S, has earned $62,300 this year for owner Sue Stockwell. Ohio Sires Stakes action continues a Saturday as the two-year-old colts trotters head to Eldorado Scioto Downs. First race post time is 3:15 p.m. (EDT). Alongside a rich program featuring both the $200,000 Charlie Hill Memorial Trot and $200,000 Jim Ewart Memorial Pace, Eldorado Scioto Downs has announced a record $92,000 Pick 8 carryover and a $10,000 Pick-5 guaranteed pool for Saturday. Eldorado Scioto Downs unique $1 Pick 8 will boast a carryover of $92,431. Starting in Race 2, the wager will have a 15 per cent takeout on new money. If no one selects all eight winners, 50 percent of the net pool will carryover into the following race day while the remaining 50 per cent will be paid out in consolation to best ticket. In 85 days of racing, the Pick 8 has been hit a total of eight times. Beginning in Race 5, the $10,000 guaranteed total pool for the 50-cent Pick 5 includes a $2,418 carryover. The wager will offer a reduced takeout rate of 14 per cent. (OHHA) Richard R. Mays of Hamburg, N.Y., passed away on September 7, 2022 after a fierce battle with cancer. Mr. Mays was a lifelong horseman who competed in western New York for 50 years. He was first licensed in 1973 at the age of 16 and has been competing at tracks across New York state ever since. He experienced great early career driving success with the Open pacing mare May O Neighs (2:01.1, $83,925) and Open pacing gelding Lyron Hanover (1:59.3, $127,242) along with a list of other top horses that he raced at Batavia Downs. Later in his career when he switched to training more than driving, Mr. Mays developed many solid race horses including the multiple stakes winner Two Twentytwo (1:51.3, $293,729). During his career, Mr. Mays drove 1,638 winners that earned $4,222,626. He trained another 321 winners that added $1,585,531 to his purse total. His total career efforts won him 1,959 races that benefited his horses connections $5,808,157. Mr. Mays was actively racing right up until the time of his passing. Mr. Mays was the beloved husband of Karen M. Mays (nee Babcock), loving father of Christopher (Frances) Mays, Jamie Simmons, and Scott Mays, dear grandpa of Tyler, Mayson, Maddie, and Hudson, dearest son of the late Frank and Marion Mays, loving brother of Frank Jr., Robert, Terry, Tom, and Joyce. Mr. Mays is also survived by a large loving family and many dear friends. The family will be present to receive relatives and friends on Thursday, Sept. 15 from 3-7 p.m. at the Hamburg Chapel of the John J. Kaczor Funeral Home, 5453 Southwestern Blvd. (corner of Rogers Rd.) where a closing prayer will be said at 7 p.m. Condolences can be shared at kaczorfunerals.com Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Richard Mays. (with files from Batavia) AN URGENT CALL has gone out to save Jamestown Island before its too late. Strong, wise action is needed now to protect this site thats so rich in history and central to the story of the commonwealth and the nation. The urgent call for help came this summer when Jamestown Island was named to the National Trust for Historic Preservations 2022 list of Americas 11 most endangered historic sites. As the National Trust said, the site is at a crucial turning point. The choices are stark. Those in the commonwealth and beyond who care about this valuable site and all that it tells us about ourselves and our nation can intensify efforts to preserve whats here. Or we can concede that the fight is lost and turn our efforts to documenting what we are about to lose. The Jamestown settlement is central to the countrys story. English settlers came in 1607, but indigenous people built and sustained communities there for thousands of years prior. Virginia recently celebrated the 400-year anniversaries of the first Africans arriving here in chains, the first women who came to the settlement and the first legislative assembly, all of which happened in Jamestown. When the colonial capital moved from Jamestown to Williamsburg, too little thought was given to preserving the remnants of the settlement for posterity. Over the years, farming, development, and erosion erased many traces of early Jamestown. Fortunately, Preservation Virginia/Historic Jamestowne and the National Park Service now control the islands historic sites. Tourists can visit the recreated fort, Native American village, and ships at Jamestown Settlement. They can see the site of the first structures settlers constructed at Historic Jamestowne, where archeologists continue to find artifacts that help tell the stories of the various peoples who have lived there. But all thats there now, and treasures that might yet be found, are increasingly in danger from the rising James River, frequent storms, and increased flooding. Erosion is eating away at the island, and whats left is becoming swamp and wetland. A seawall was built in 1902 and other measures have been implemented in recent years, but these are inadequate to handle the growing threats as climate change rapidly makes matters worse. The Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation has come up with a plan that could mitigate the effects of climate change through the rest of the century, including building berms, repairing the seawall, and elevating some areas. To make the plan a reality, the nonprofit foundation will need more partners and millions of dollars. That urgent call for help is asking others to join in the effort and to make donations. The importance of saving Jamestown should be apparent. Jamestown and the colonial, Native American, and Black history that converges there is essential to the story of America, one we collectively are, slowly, beginning to understand more fully. For those of us who live nearby, saving Jamestown Island is even more critically important. On a practical level, heritage tourism is a vital part of our economy. Beyond that, this is a place we treasure, a place that is central to the identity of Hampton Roads. What a terrible shame it would be to lose this treasured site from lack of interest or an unwillingness to do what it will take to save it. Lets help make possible the emergency measures needed to hold back the rising watersand lets stop postponing the actions needed to forcefully address the forces affecting the climate. Gov. Glenn Youngkin brought good news to retired military personnel and their families during a Friday morning visit to Stafford County. This is a day for us to reflect on service, Youngkin said. Its a day for us to reflect on heroes, but its also a day for us to, yes, celebrate progress and milestones. Well over 100 active-duty and retired military personnel and their families packed into a conference room at Patricio Enterprises at 525 Corporate Drive in Stafford on Friday at 9 a.m. They joined Youngkin for the ceremonial signing of two bills, including a Senate bill championed by state Sen. Bryce Reeves, RSpotsylvania, that will eventually give military retirees a tax break of up to $40,000 each year. You have elected servants who care about you, who want you to stay here in the commonwealth of Virginia, Youngkin said. We want to say thank you and recognize that Virginia is stronger because of our veterans. Reeves said he pushed for the tax break bill at least four times during the nearly 11 years hes been in public office. I knew if I could get it out of the House as whole and go to committee conference, wed eventually get it and work the money out, Reeves said. Ive consistently worked to get Virginia to be the most veteran-friendly state in the country, and today is a big step toward meeting that goal to attract and keep the best and the brightest that we produce here in the commonwealth so they dont go to Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina and some of the other states. During Fridays ceremony, the governor also signed a bill by Del. John McGuire, RGoochland, which was the companion measure to Reeves legislation. Im very proud to say that everyone on both side of the aisle, in the House and in the Senate, voted yes, McGuire said. Its a bipartisan effort, and these are always the best bills. Youngkin said his administration will continue an aggressive agenda on veterans affairs issues To make sure our veterans know we want them here and be part of the commonwealths future, because we want to be part of their future. Dan Nefferdorf, a retired Army sergeant major from Spotsylvania County, said the tax exemption is long overdue for military retirees living in Virginia. Weve been working with legislators to come up with some kind of bill to give some kind of tax relief, Nefferdorf said. This relief will help (veterans) with their bills with whats going on in the economy right now. The new legislation allows military retirees 55 and older to immediately deduct up to $10,000 of their retired military benefits for the 2022 tax year. The following year, the deduction increases to $20,000, then $30,000 the next year until it caps at $40,000 in 2025. In the campaign leading up to his election almost one year ago, Youngkin frequently spoke about an eventual tax cut coming for veterans. Near the top of the list of those commitments was a commitment to go to work on a bipartisan basis to make Virginia the most military and the most veteran-friendly state in American, Youngkin said. Bart Randall, a retired Navy master chief petty officer, said Youngkins military tax exemption means a lot to a community full of active-duty and retired military personnel. Randall said what Youngkin did Friday will help recognize some of the sacrifices made by those who chose the military as their lifelong career decades ago. It puts us in a position where were starting to be able to get benefits for the work that weve done, Randall said. A lot of states have done a full exemption, but I think this is a great start for Virginia. Military.com reports that 29 states offer full tax exemption of military retirement pay. While Virginia is now among 10 other states that offer military retirees a partial exemption, Youngkin said even more work needs to be done to compensate veterans for their service. Our goal is to be the best, not just be among the best, Youngkin said. I believe there are many steps to take in order to provide our veterans the kinds of overall retirement privileges that they have in other states. Under the new law in Virginia, deductions by military retirees can come from their armed forces retirement income, benefits paid out to surviving spouses, benefits paid out under the Survivor Benefit Program, and other certain military benefits defined in Internal Revenue Service code. Rick Oertel, state commander of the American Legion, said Youngkins measure will help keep retired military veterans in Virginia. That money thats being exempt from our taxes is going to be spent here anyway, so its a good deal all around, Oertel said. He also said the new benefit will be a big help to younger career military personnel who can retire as early as 38 after a 20-year military career. The majority of retirees when they get out, theyre going to have to work again. You cant rely on your retirement income, Oertel said. This will definitely help everybody. We need to lower the age so it impacts those folks that are getting out, and the lower ranking people. Although the current age for tax retirement pay exemption now begins at 55, Youngkin said he would like to lower that minimum age requirement even further. Its one of the things that we had lots of discussions around in balancing the overall budget, and we recognize that not everybody retires when theyre 55, Youngkin said. Were going to continue to work on bringing that age threshold down. Photo: RCMP. Tim Goerner was charged in relation to a crash that killed two UBC students, Evan Smith and Emily Selwood, last year. The 22-year-old driver charged in connection to a 2021 collision killing two UBC students has been released on conditions. Goerner appeared before Richmond Provincial Court in person on Friday accompanied by two lawyers to renew his release order. He appeared expressionless as one of his lawyers, Vincent Michaels, told Richmond provincial court Judge Glenn Lee that the investigation on the case started a year ago and the conditions upon which Goerner was released have now lapsed. Upon hearing from Michaels and Crown Counsel Michelle Merry, Lee decided to release Goerner without financial obligations with three conditions: he is not to leave B.C., he must go to Richmond RCMP next week for fingerprinting and he must surrender all his travel documents and not obtain any new ones. Goerner had surrendered his two passports to the clerk earlier in the morning. A statement released by RCMP on Wednesday Sept. 7 announced that Goerner was charged with two counts each of impaired driving causing death, dangerous driving causing death and impaired driving. The 18-year-old UBC students, Evan Smith and Emily Selwood, were walking on a sidewalk near Northwest Marine Drive at approximately 1:46 a.m. when they were struck and killed by a vehicle. For those that didnt know him, know that an intelligent, conscientious, sincere and caring human being was in the prime of his youth when he was killed, reads a statement by Debbie ODay-Smith and Adam Smith, Evans parents. Both students parents wrote that while they hoped that the individual responsible will be brought to justice on fact and evidence with a successful conviction, it would not bring Emily and Evan back and their hearts will forever be broken. Charges, court, and convictions of course do not tell the whole story, or the toll that impaired drivers take on victims and survivors. Emily was so much more than just a tragic statistic, and we want her to be remembered for what she accomplished in her short life, reads the statement by Laurie and Duncan Selwood. A UBC memorial fund was created in Emilys memory to help inspire students studying social sciences who want to make the world a better place. The matter has been adjourned until Nov. 2, 2022, when Goerner is expected to attend the Initial Appearance Court in Richmond. ONE of the oddities of the Jan. 6 insurrection involves an elected official from New Mexico, Couy Griffin, who used a bullhorn to exhort crowds outside the U.S. Capitol that day, then showed up in Roanoke less than 24 hours later. Griffin, a commissioner from Otero County and founder of Cowboys for Trump, was later convicted (by a Donald Trump-appointed judge) of trespassing on the U.S. Capitol grounds. The judge found him not guilty of disorderly and disruptive conduct. Griffin ended up with probation for his conviction. Its what he did the next day, Jan. 7, that endeared him to the hearts of Roanokers. From the balcony of the Hampton Inn & Suites on Market Street200 miles from Washington, D.C.Griffin launched a diatribe about the day before. An associate helpfully captured it on video. You want to say that was a mob? Griffin says, with downtown Roanoke landmarks evident in the background. You want to say that was violence? No sir. No maam. No, we could have a Second Amendment rally on those same steps that we had that rally yesterday. You know, if we do, then its going to be a sad day, because then theres going to be blood running out of that building. But at the end of the day, you mark my word, we will plant a flag on the desks of [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi and [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer and Donald J. Trump, if it boils down to it. Back in New Mexico, Griffin later bragged to his fellow commissioners (also on video) that he would return to Washingtonwith firearmsfor the inauguration of President Joe Biden. Wisely, he left those guns in Pennsylvania before entering the nations capital, where he was arrested. Griffin spent a while in (he says) bug-infested jails because he refused to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Subsequently, two fellow elected Otero County commissioners called for his resignationbut Griffin rebuffed them. A recall attempt failed miserably because organizers didnt gather enough signatures to petition it to the ballot, Griffin said. Probation by a federal judge in Washington was hardly the end of Griffins insurrection saga, however. Last Tuesday, a New Mexico state judge removed Griffin from his county commissioners office, following a trial on a civil lawsuit brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, aka CREW. The lawsuit was based on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S Constitution, which states: No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. Similar efforts to get Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., kicked off 2022s ballot on the same grounds failed in those respective states. Griffin, whos not a lawyer, represented himself and lost. They claimed I was pretty much one of the main instigators of Jan. 6, and I was a part of the insurrection, Griffin told me Tuesday. That seems like a big stretchthe alleged main instigators have yet to be tried. Theyre being held in jail without bond. But with the verdict, Griffin became a footnote in American history. Hes the first American public official removed from office for rebelling against the United States since 1869. The judges order also prevents Griffin from seeking any elective office again, even dogcatcher. Losing his office cost Griffin a $22,000 salary, which he told me was his only income. He also lost his health insurance, which he maintained through his elected office. Authorities also seized his work computer and changed the locks on his office door, he said. Griffin told me the county manager phoned him Tuesday morning, as Griffin was leaving his house, and told him not to bother coming in because he no longer was an Otero County commissioner. Our radical progressive Democrat governor (Michelle Lujuan Grisham) gets to choose his replacement, Griffin said. He argued the lawsuit was a conspiracy against him by high New Mexico officials. The [New Mexico] attorney general was calling for my resignation; the secretary of state had been after me, Griffin said. The trial, he added, was a bench trial before a Democrat judge in a liberal county 200 or so miles away from Otero County. Griffin said his next step is to file an appeal. Well find another court, he said. He chuckled when I suggested he should go to Florida and file an appeal before Judge Aileen Cannon, where his chances might be better. Shes the Trump-appointed federal jurist who short-circuitedat least temporarilyDepartment of Justice efforts to investigate Trump for failing to return government documents he took when he exited the White House almost two years ago. Griffin told me one basis of his appeal would be that the court in Santa Fe County lacked jurisdiction to hear the lawsuit against him. He argued such a motion pre-trial but the judge disagreed. Why did they file it there? he asked. Maybe because Santa Fe is the state capital, I replied. That would be the typical place to file it. Griffin told me another basis of his appeal would be that he was found not guilty of being disruptive or disorderly at the Capitol on Jan. 6, even if he did trespass on its grounds. I guess Im the first insurrectionist in history who was acquitted of disruptive behavior, he cracked. Well, you sure sounded like an insurrectionist on that hotel balcony here in Roanoke, I shot back. Dont forget the context, Griffin replied. He said he uttered that blood running out of the building line after he got all wound up watching video replays of the fatal shooting of insurrectionist Ashli Babbitt by a Washington, D.C., police officer. She was one of five people (including another police officer) who died in the Jan. 6 insurrection or shortly thereafter. At the time, Babbitt was trying to violently kick in a window on a heavily guarded door that led to the House of Representatives chamber. House memberssuch as Reps. Ben Cline, R-Botetourt, Morgan Griffith, R-Salem and Bob Good, R-Campbell, had been evacuated only minutes earlier. And I said it would be a sad day, Griffin said. That suggests he didnt want it to happen, he added. Theyre so foolish thinking by getting rid of Couy Griffin, theyre accomplishing anything, Griffin said. I feel like theyre trying to make an example out of me that nobody wants to follow. Thats exactly whats happening. And good. Its called deterrence. Its one of the ways our justice system is supposed to work, by making examples out of people who violate the law and the Constitution. Whether Couy Griffin likes it or not. The Dallas Brass performed in Scottsbluff in 2009 and will return to once again work with Scottsbluff band and choir students during a concert on Friday, Sept. 16 at 7 p.m. Bluffs Middle School Director of Bands Michael Koch first met members of the ensemble during a music teachers convention in Chicago. We had them come and do the same thing with us in 2009, he said. I made contact with them during the convention. I got my name put on their list of contacts when they were looking for places to go. Koch encouraged the ensemble to contact him if they ever returned to Nebraska. He received a call from them in June about their plans in September for a public performance. Michael Levine, a trombone player, founded the musical ensemble in 1983. The show performed by the ensemble, American Musical Journey, features a full complement of brass and percussion for a musical travelogue through American history, from the time of George Washington to present day. The show features music by Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, John Philip Sousa and bands like Tijuana Brass and Chicago. The musical styles feature Dixieland, swing, Broadway, folk, patriotic, pop and hip-hop. The ensemble appears with symphony orchestras nationwide and also has a strong dedication to working with young musicians. They have published two books of original small ensemble music for middle school and high school students called Brass Grooves and they also supported the launch of Harmony Bridge, a community outreach program for student musicians. SHS and BMS students will participate in a workshop at the SHS auditorium at Friday, Sept. 16 at 12:30 p.m. with the entire brass group. Theyre going to talk about the importance of practicing, what its like as a professional performer and theyve also started a new initiative called Harmony Bridge, Koch said. We have some students who volunteered to do a demonstration of some of the smaller group music at the clinic. The high school and middle school students will each perform a piece with the ensemble during Fridays concert. Koch said the students enjoyed performing in the community prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and he is hopeful those performances can resume. He also said it might be beneficial to purchase the Harmony Bridge music for public performances. Thats something that we might look into in the future and purchase those books to use as a way to get out into the community more and do more playing at the nursing homes and veterans homes in town, he told the Star-Herald. Koch said Dallas Brass is dedicated to working with young musicians across Nebraska, allowing local students the opportunity to perform. They will perform at Sidney High Schools Performing Arts Center on Saturday, Sept. 17 at 7 p.m. Tickets for the Sidney concert are $13 for adults, $7 for seniors and $5 for students. Tickets will be sold at the door. From having them perform here before I know that a lot of people in the community after our performance in 2009 were like You need to get these guys out here again. This was great. So I hope that the community members who come out and listen have an enjoyable experience and see what maybe you can do with music and how it can really connect the community together, Koch told the Star-Herald. Four hundred tickets have been sold for the performance so far. The auditorium can hold 900 people. What a great thing if they would walk in and have the entire auditorium full, Koch said. Then the Dallas Brass would know that in this community music is really important. I think it would be a really feather in the cap. Internationally acclaimed Dallas Brass will perform at the Scottsbluff High School auditorium. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for children ages 12 and under. To purchase tickets, contact Koch at mkoch@sbps.net or call 308-635-6287. Tickets may also be purchased at the door that evening, if available. If they want a great night of entertainment, this would be a great show to come to. Its going to be very entertaining and fun to watch, Koch added. They tailor the music to the entire family. Institutions of higher education should lean into the idea that they are an arena for political debate, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln faculty member argued in a lecture Tuesday, and in fact should serve as a crucible for the most intense of debates. Instead of trying to stay out of the political fray, Julia Schleck, an associate professor of English, said colleges and universities should accept their campuses are inherently political spaces. The university is not outside of society and the complications of its big debates, but is deeply divided and deeply invested in the question of what constitutes the right way forward for our world as anybody else, Schleck said. The lecture, titled Americas Uncertain Search for Truth and the Fate of Universities, was part of the 2022-23 Inquire lecture series sponsored by the UNL College of Arts and Sciences. Schleck, the winner of the 2022 National Intellectual Freedom Award from the National Council of Teachers of English, said institutions like UNL should not shy away from the political controversies in which it has found itself in recent years. Embracing political debates would also reframe the notion of the common good universities and higher education at large pursued as their mission for the last century as they have attempted to answer societys biggest questions, Schleck said. If theres one thing we know about the common good is that nobody agrees what it is, and they never have, she said. These days, debate over what is good for everyone has gotten more fractious, in part because everyone is a much more expansive group. The discovery of a new subatomic particle might fall within many peoples vague idea of common good, Schleck said, while research uncovering the multigenerational impact of redlining on Black families in America might be viewed as the common good by only a segment of the population, even as it furthers knowledge of the human condition. Because the definition of common good could fall on a range between what is too complex for most people to understand to something that agrees with an individuals politics, Schleck said the university where those ideas are furthered and promoted should also be engaged in the political debate. No one provides as long or as detailed a set of arguments as we do, she said. No one takes more seriously every little aspect of the topic or researches it more thoroughly. While Americans may be engaged in a constant fight over politics or other issues big and small, universities are more like a cage fight with hundreds of contenders in an all-against-all combat, Schleck said. Allowing debates to occur would embrace the letter and spirit of academic freedom, the idea that faculty members should have wide latitude to explore their fields of study without fear of reprisal that has been the bedrock of universities for a century. It would also provide spaces for students to explore ideas, discuss or argue them with others, and emerge with a better understanding of the issues and themselves, she said. Schleck noted that recent polling has shown a declining number of Americans have a positive view of higher education, as well as drops in the number of people who believe that colleges and universities are heading in the right direction. A survey by New America found that the view that higher education had a positive impact on society declined from 69% in 2020 to 55% in 2022, Schleck said, while a poll from the Pew Research Center in 2019 found that only 38% believed universities were going in the right direction. The fact that, at best, only slightly over half of Americans feel that universities contribute positively to society should give us serious pause, she said. If the goal of university work and our classroom and research programs is to serve the public good, the public is clearly not feeling it. Some of those shifting perceptions are the result of questions about the benefits of a college education, or the ever-growing cost of tuition, Schleck said, while others reflect a loss of trust in higher education and other institutions in American life. On Wednesday, for example, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education released its 2022-23 College Free Speech Rankings, which scored 208 public and private colleges and universities on several aspects of free speech and inquiry. UNL landed at 142nd overall, and 12th of the 14 schools in the Big Ten Conference based on students perceptions of their abilities to share ideas freely, their tolerance for speakers they disagree with, and their perceived support of the administrators in support of free speech. The states flagship campus ranked 37th in allowing controversial speakers on campus, but 139th in students comfort in expressing ideas that others may disagree with. The concerns come from both sides of the political aisle, according to the results shared by FIRE. If I say anything remotely Republican or Conservative, outside of those with my same views, I know I will be yelled at and ridiculed, one student wrote. Another student said they were constantly conscious of what views the majority of people on campus lean toward because of the universitys region and what consequences could come if you were to go against that majority. Schleck argued that universities could rebuild trust and foster more productive conversations by shedding the notion that they are apolitical and embracing the philosophy that campuses are places where ideas will be freely and fairly debated, even if they delve into the political realm. Even research into the best pesticide applications that will boost crop yields vs. studies showing their use results in a decline in certain insects and a negative impact on ecosystems are often political, she said. Lets stop pretending that any of this is somehow above and outside politics, Schleck said. Lets not only agree to disagree, but agree to have a damn good fight over these issues, to argue over them passionately and deeply, with all of our wit and intelligence and skill. Editor's note: We have detected a technical issue that is preventing some users from being able to log in to comment. We are working to have the issue resolved shortly. Thank you for your patience. Harriet Hageman is the environmental lawyer who defeated incumbent Rep. Liz Cheney by a landslide in Wyomings much-watched Republican House primary. Hageman, who will surely trounce token Democratic opposition in the general election, is now getting ready to take office. She was in Washington last week not for that preparation, but to argue in a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency over its disastrous actions causing the Gold King Mine disaster in Colorado in 2015. Thats the kind of thing she does in her life as a lawyer. While in Washington, Hageman sat down for an interview about the race against Cheney how she won, what it means, and what she plans to do when she takes office. How did she beat Cheney? Two reasons. One is, Im a good candidate, and Im going to be a good member of Congress, Hageman said. The other was: Hageman ran a race centered on Wyoming. She discussed her 30-plus years as an attorney working on water and natural resources issues, property rights, constitutional rights, representing the states ranchers, farmers, energy producers and more. I have been fighting for Wyoming, Hageman said. I wasnt just running against Liz Cheney, which I think is what some people, especially back in D.C., might think. I was running for Wyoming. I was running to address the issues that are important to us. Thats how to win in Wyoming. Cheneys biggest problem, as Hageman saw it, was that many voters believed she had become disconnected from Wyoming. Cheney was seldom in the state, Hageman said, and never answered for her votes, never answered for the decisions she made. Cheney, Hageman concluded, simply abandoned Wyoming, (and) I think what it exposed was that she had used Wyoming for the last six years as a mechanism to get power, but she didnt actually represent Wyomings interests. Thats how you lose races, when voters become convinced that you have gone Washington, that you are focused inside the Beltway, that you have forgotten the people who sent you there. So Hageman won. Now what? A conversation with her reveals the depths of her feelings about her home state, especially its natural resources, and a broad suspicion about the motives and competence of federal regulatory agencies that routinely tell Wyomingites how to use those resources. The state is the largest producer of coal in the nation more than three times as much as West Virginia and six times as much as Pennsylvania and one of the largest producers of oil and natural gas. It has huge deposits of uranium and is a major cattle producer. Hageman likes to say that Wyoming puts food on your table, gas in your car, a roof over your head, and it paves your highways, too. The problem is, a lot of people involved in those industries coal, oil and gas, mining, beef feel under attack from the Democratic administration and the liberal activist groups that support the administration. They feel that way, of course, because they are under attack. Wyoming is one of the largest targets of the Biden administration in terms of attempting to destroy our economy, Hageman says. So her goal in Congress is to stop that, or at least fight back. Ask her for specifics, and she goes into detail not just about coal and oil and gas, but about things like the Roadless Rule, by which the government bans timber cutting and most other uses of federal land. (Forty-eight percent of Wyomings land is owned by the federal government.) She speaks at length about BLM, by which she means not Black Lives Matter but the federal Bureau of Land Management. She can discuss in great detail the issue of RFID ear tags devices that federal regulators want to require for every head of cattle in Wyoming. These are not flashy, sexy issues that attract news coverage in Washington, which has instead been consumed by the made-for-TV episodes of Cheneys Jan. 6 committee. But they are issues about which many Wyomingites have strong feelings. For years, Hageman has given a speech she calls Regulation Without Representation. Congress has abdicated its lawmaking role to the federal regulatory agencies, she says. It is time to cut down and pull back those agencies power and reach, and have Congress return to its proper role of making laws that are then enforced by the executive branch. Its a classic conservative critique of the regulatory state and government overreach. And that is a very popular view in, among other places, Wyoming. Harriet Hageman talked about it a lot in the recent campaign. Liz Cheney talked about Jan. 6. As for Hageman and Donald Trump, she certainly benefited from the former presidents endorsement. The last time the two talked was the day after the election He was pretty happy, Hageman says. Asked if she wants Trump to run for president in 2024 remember that he won Wyoming with 70% of the vote in 2020 Hageman said, If he chooses to do that, I would support him. Asked again if she wants that to happen, she said, I miss President Trump. His policies were really incredible for the United States, and they were especially incredible for Wyoming. Those are obviously controversial comments outside the 70% of Wyomingites who voted for Trump. But Hageman saw, and sees, Trump in terms of issues, not controversy. She recalled that when she first met and talked to Trump when he was president, they talked about regulatory reform and energy independence. Those were, of course, two big priorities of the Trump administration, and they are two big priorities, probably the biggest priorities, of Harriet Hageman the lawyer, congressional candidate and, come next year, Wyomings next member of the House of Representatives. A variety of stories and experiences will be offered from 6 to 8 p.m. Sept. 13 at St. Stephens Episcopal Church, 1428 22nd Ave., Longview. The free WordFest event is open to the public. Caroline Kurtz will read from two of her memoirs. A Road Called Down on Both Sides is about her growing up in Ethiopia and Today Is Tomorrow is about returning to the area in the midst of a brutal war. A citizen of two cultures, Kurtz grew up absorbing the sights, sounds, smells and customs of Africa. She returned as an adult with her husband and three children where she taught, advocated for women and supported peacemaking efforts between Ethiopia and Sudan, according to a press release submitted to The Daily News. Fluent in Ethiopias Amharic language, Kurtz organized community-led projects for sheep banks, bee-keeping, apple orchards and raised funds for schools in Muslim villages. As a resident of Portland, she continues to work with community leaders to bring solar energy, clean water and womens empowerment to the region. Longview resident Steve Anderson will read from the third installment of his Book of Hours trilogy about the beautifully reconstructed 14th century Book of Hours presented to the Pope. The book is missing an incendiary letter Brother Alphaios found hidden in the books leather-and-wood cover. Having determined who wrote it and knowing how damaging the letter could be to the Vatican, Brother Alphaios steals the letter and invites a select group to help decide how to handle the historical but potentially explosive document. Marc Imlay, of Longview, has been a meditation instructor since 1974, a chiropractor since 1981, and an acupuncturist since 1988. He retired in 2014 from his private practice in Kent, Washington. Imlay has written poetry since high school. He recently published his first book of poetry, Pilgrimages to a Bullfrog Buddha. In the collection, the saviors, saints, and sages of all religions, times, and places reside in an unspoiled, natural setting as various native creatures, notes the release. With the poet, they consider the human predicament, finding ways to minimize suffering and optimize happiness amid the vicissitudes of life. Craig Allen Heath will read from his debut novel, Where You Will Die. The amateur-sleuth murder mystery follows unconventional minister Alan Wright as he struggles against external obstacles and his own inner demons to discover who killed his new best friend, Ruth MacKenzie, notes the press release. Wright cant fathom why anyone would harm one of the oldest and best-beloved citizens of Eden Ridge, a tiny foothill tourist town where he has found refuge from a broken heart. He and Ruths friends, five elderly women known as The Little Red Hens, join forces to reveal how even the admirable trait of loyalty can lead to evil acts. When he was 14 years old, Heath decided he wanted to become a novelist. Fifty years later, he is on the cusp of achieving his goal. Heath lives in Southwest Washington with his wife. He is working on Killing Buddhas, the sequel to his first story about Alan Wright in Eden Ridge. An open mic follows the presentations. Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to The Daily News. Because of COVID-19, it is recommended attendees be vaccinated and boosted if possible, and wear masks when not eating or drinking. For details on WordFest, which meets the second Tuesday of each month in the fellowship hall of St. Stephens Episcopal Church, contact Alan Rose via his website, www.alan-rose.com. A quick look at OpenSecrets.org reveals one of the major flaws of the U.S. election system. There we find at least 100 Americans have donated more than $1 million to indirect campaign groups for the 2022 election. Following the 2010 Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, there are no limits on what influencers may donate to outside super PACs, which then can assist with a candidates campaign. The result is a bastardization of democracy, with wealthy political activists wielding oversized clout on elections. All of which makes Seattles democracy vouchers worthy of consideration. In 2015, Seattle voters approved a system designed to give average citizens more of a say in how local campaigns are financed. The vote established a 10-year, $30 million property tax levy to fund the vouchers, and it remains the only such program in the nation. Under the plan, Seattle residents receive four $25 vouchers in the mail and may donate them to any candidate who agrees to participate in the program. The vouchers, like most political donations, are public record. The voucher program was implemented in 2017, meaning it has been in place for three off-year cycles that feature local elections. And it has drawn attention from political watchers throughout the country. We have a really deep interest in it, Brian J. McCabe, an associate professor at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., told The Seattle Times. It could revolutionize local elections. Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to The Daily News. McCabe is the co-author of a new study about the program. That study found residents are increasingly donating the vouchers and donations increasingly reflect the citys demographics. There are just more and more donors every year, he said, and one of the programs success stories is that more people are participating in local elections. The study shows the use of vouchers has increased among all groups, but particularly among Blacks, Hispanics and young voters. In the process, it enhances citizens sense of participation in the process. In 2016, Washington voters rejected a similar statewide program with 54 percent of the vote. Part of the problem with Initiative 1464 was it included an incongruous item that would have removed sales-tax exemptions for out-of-state shoppers in Washington. As The Columbian wrote editorially at the time: The idea of campaign-finance reform is one that is long overdue and would be worthy of consideration if not for the poison pill of removing the sales-tax exemption. Washington voters should be given an opportunity to rethink democracy vouchers and that chance should not include any extraneous items. Meanwhile, municipalities throughout the state should consider vouchers for local elections. As the past two years have shown, our democracy is fragile. A sitting president lied about election results and inspired supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to halt the transfer of power. There was an effort to install phony electors in the Electoral College. Several states have made it easier for election officials to ignore the will of the people. All of that is a function of a system that diminishes the influence of common people and elevates oligarchs. All of that is a reflection of weakness in our democracy. All of that is a threat to our nation. Democracy vouchers do not solve all of the issues with American elections. But they have played a small role in returning power to voters, at least at the local level in Seattle, and they warrant wider consideration. By J. Keeler Johnson ("Keelerman") Twitter: @J_Keelerman A rich afternoon of high-class racing is taking place on Saturday at Kentucky Downs. Five rich stakes are on the agenda, and rather than focus on just one, we're taking a quick look at all five: Race 8: Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf S. (G3) #1 Dalika (2-1) is the morning line favorite after springing a gate-to-wire upset victory in the Beverly D. S. (G1) at Churchill Downs last month. But the Churchill turf course was playing very fast and seemed kind to speed horses, so I'm tempted to oppose Dalika with #8 Princess Grace (3-1). Princess Grace tracked the pace in the Beverly D. and actually rallied to lead in midstretch before Dalika battled back to win by half a length. This was a solid try from Princess Grace (especially if the turf course wasn't doing her any favors) and a nice follow-up to her three-length score in the Dr. James Penny Memorial (G3) at Parx two starts back. Princess Grace defeated Dalika by half a length in the 2021 Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf, and I'm optimistic she can regain her superiority while returning to Kentucky Downs on Saturday. Race 9: FanDuel Turf Sprint S. (G2) The seemingly delicate #10 Totally Boss (12-1) won this race three years ago with a sharp pace-tracking performance, but he's only run seven times since in a career dotted with lengthy layoffs. The good news is, Totally Boss is showing signs of returning to form. His first start of 2022 came in a 5 1/2-furlong allowance optional claimer at Churchill Downs, in which he unleashed a powerful rally down the homestretch to score by 1 3/4 lengths. He also produced a sharp late charge in the Twin Spires Turf Sprint S. at Ellis Park last month, gaining 2 1/2 lengths in the final furlong to finish fourth by three-quarters of a length. Stretching out over six furlongs at Kentucky Downs should be a perfect fit for Totally Boss. If a fast pace unfolds, I can see the seven-year-old gelding rallying to an upset triumph over five-time stakes winner #12 Arrest Me Red (9-5), who looms as the favorite off a runner-up effort in the Jaipur S. (G1) at Belmont Park last time out. Race 10: Kentucky Turf Cup (G2) #4 Arklow (7-2) has won this race twice and finished second twice for good measure, so the eight-year-old veteran warrants respect in his fifth Kentucky Turf Cup appearance. #8 Gufo (7-5) is more of a question mark in his first Kentucky Downs foray, but he enters off a victory in the Sword Dancer S. (G1) at Saratoga and boasts three Grade 1 wins on his resume. Arklow and Gufo are logical contenders, but I'm tempted to think outside the box and play #9 Who's the Star (20-1). Conditioned by Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse, Who's the Star is 2-for-2 since switching from dirt to turf, winning a $50,000 allowance optional claimer racing 1 1/4 miles at Woodbine before coming back to nab the Niagara S. over the same course and distance. Both of those victories were achieved with powerful stretch rallies. Who's the Star scored his allowance win by rallying from dead last into extremely slow fractions of :27.78. :53.28, and 1:18.10; rough estimates suggest Who's the Star ran his final half-mile in less than 45 seconds. He was even more impressive in the Niagara (for which fractional times went unrecorded), gaining 4 1/4 lengths in the final furlong alone to prevail by half a length. I don't think we've seen the full measure of Who's the Star's ability yet. Sire Tonalist won the Belmont S. (G1) over 1 1/2 miles, so stretching out another quarter-mile in distance for the Kentucky Turf Cup may trigger an even stronger performance from Who's the Star. He has upside for an upset at 20-1. Race 11: Mint Ladies Sprint S. (G3) #10 Campanelle (9-5) is the filly to beat after finishing third by less than one length in the Platinum Jubilee S. (G1) at Royal Ascot, but she's never run at Kentucky Downs and has been defeated twice previously when making the Europe-to-U.S. transition. #6 Tobys Heart (15-1) is an intriguing alternative. She hasn't been in the best form lately, but she was a decisive 2 3/4-length winner of the Music City S. over this course and 6 1/2-furlong distance last year. Tobys Heart occasionally fires a strong shot against tough competition and may bounce back to her best at Kentucky Downs, where 6 1/2-furlong sprints tend to play favorably toward Tobys Heart's stretch-running style. Race 12: Franklin-Simpson S. (G2) We'll finally support a favorite in the final race of the day. #6 Big Invasion (8-5) has won six straight races by a minimum of two lengths, including the Quick Call S. (G3) and Mahony S. at Saratoga. The latter race saw Big Invasion sweep from seven lengths off the pace to dominate by three lengths, so Big Invasionlike Tobys Hearthas the running style shine sprinting 6 1/2 furlongs at Kentucky Downs. Throw in hot jockey Joel Rosario, and Big Invasion looks ready to conquer. Now it's your turn! Who do you like in the Saturday stakes at Kentucky Downs? ***** 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. Photo: . These buckets are understood to contain thousands of dollars' worth of sockeye salmon. They were found in and around Steveston Harbour The discovery at Steveston Harbour of large buckets of what appears to be rotting sockeye salmon has been reported to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). The Richmond News was made aware on Thursday of the finding of at least four large tote boxes of decomposing salmon, understood to be sockeye. Jamie Gusto, Steveston Harbours general manager, confirmed to the News that two of the buckets were found on a vessel after it received reports due to the smell. While another two were located on the compound of the harbour, after it received reports of the smell from members of the public. Gusto said the harbour has also received numerous reports of rotting fish on the water inside the harbour walls. "Heartbreaking" to see buckets of rotting fish She said the discoveries have been reported to the DFO. The News has reached out to the DFO for comment. This hasnt happened as far as I can remember, but we havent had many (sockeye) openings in the last few years, said Gusto. It is heartbreaking to see thousands of dollars worth of fish rotting away like this. Fishing for sockeye in the Lower Fraser River has been as contentious as ever this summer, with virtually zero openings for commercial fishers. This year, the sockeye count came in at about 5.5 million fish, as opposed to the 9.8 million that had been expected. As such, only First Nations in the Lower Fraser River are allowed to fish for food and ceremonial purposes. The News parent company, Glacier Media, published a story last week about a man calling for the DFO to get to the bottom of ongoing illegal poaching and sales of salmon from the Fraser River. Rodney Hsu, a member of the sport fishing advisory committee in the Fraser Valley, says its now an annual occurrence to hear reports of dead salmon tossed along roadsides nearby the river. Wildlife federation says poaching is rampant Meanwhile, the B.C. Wildlife Federation (BCWF) has hit out at the apparent discovery of rotting sockeye at Steveston Harbour. We are seeing evidence of illegal fish sales all over social media and Craigslist, said the federations executive director Jesse Zeman. The BCWF is seeing reports of dumping involving thousands, possibly tens of thousands of fish, which is a symptom of illegal sales on a massive scale, said Zeman. The fish have spoiled suggesting that there are far more fish on the black market than there are buyers. Widespread poaching, added Zeman, is harming us all as dwindling sockeye runs are being pillaged. Further, when an unknown number of fish are caught by poachers, we cant sustainably manage the fishery. Zeman claimed that the authorities, such as the DFO, are hopelessly overmatched to deal with the problem. NASA has issued asteroid warning for an absolutely colossal 310-foot asteroid that is coming dangerously close to Earth! Heres what the US space agency said. NASA has raised an asteroid warning for Asteroid 2008 RW. It seems that even the month of September is not safe from asteroid flybys. August was an eventful month where more than 40 asteroids passed closely by Earth. September has also seen nearly a dozen asteroids going into just the second week of the month. Now, NASA has issued yet another warning about an asteroid that is heading for Earth at dangerous speeds. To study asteroids that are not in the asteroid belt, NASA has the Lucy Space Mission. NASA launched its Lucy spacecraft on Oct. 16, 2021 from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Asteroid 2008 RW heading for Earth NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office has warned that a colossal 310-foot wide asteroid, named Asteroid 2022 RW is heading for Earth. It is expected to fly past the planet very closely on September 12. According to NASA, the asteroid is already hurtling towards Earth at a hair-raising speed of 36,720 kilometers per hour. It will make its closest approach to Earth on September 12 at a distance of nearly 6.7 million kilometers. Asteroid 2008 RW is not expected to impact with Earth but was still classified as a Potentially Hazardous Object due to the close proximity with which it will pass by Earth. Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) are classified as Potentially Hazardous Objects if they come within 8 million kilometers of the Earth. Swinburne University of Technology says, "If the orbit of a Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) is such that there is a (typically small) chance it will collide with the Earth and cause significant damage at some point in the future, it is also labelled a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA)." According to the-sky.org, the Asteroid 2008 RW was discovered on September 8, 2008 and belongs to the main Apollo group of asteroids. The asteroid orbit's farthest point from the Sun is 456 million kilometers, and the nearest point to the Sun is 139 million kilometers. Asteroid 2008 RW takes 1023 days to complete one orbit around the Sun. This is NASA's first space mission to study the Trojans, a group of asteroids which orbit the Sun in two groups. It is built to seek out trojan asteroids millions of miles from Earth. The James Webb space telescope has taken its first image of an exoplanet -- a planet outside our solar system -- as astronomers hail the device's performance since its launch last year. Images from the most powerful space telescope ever built have thrilled observers in recent months as it orbits the Sun a million miles (1.6 million kilometers) from Earth. Its latest pioneering pictures show the exoplanet, called HIP 65426 b, is a gas giant with no rocky surface and could not be habitable. "This is a transformative moment, not only for Webb but also for astronomy generally," said Sasha Hinkley, astronomy professor at the University of Exeter, who led the observation team. Webb's infrared gaze and coronagraphs -- telescopic attachments that block out starlight -- enable it to take direct images of exoplanets. "It was really impressive how well the Webb coronagraphs worked to suppress the light of the host star," Hinkley said in a NASA statement on Thursday. The HIP 65426 b exoplanet is six to 12 times the mass of Jupiter and young -- about 15 to 20 million years old, compared to the 4.5-billion-year-old Earth. The telescope, which only released its first images in July, has already revealed dazzling new detail of the Phantom Galaxy and of the planet Jupiter. The Hubble space telescope previously captured direct exoplanet images, but in far less detail. "I think what's most exciting is that we've only just begun," said Aarynn Carter, of the University of California. "We may even discover previously unknown planets." The $10-billion Webb telescope is a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. It is expected to operate for approximately 20 years. NASA's DART Mission spacecraft has got its first look at Didymos, the double-asteroid system that includes its target, the moonlet Dimorphos. Here is all you need to know. Amid the news of NASA conducting the world's 1st planetary defence test on September 26 with its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Mission, here is an update related to the spacecraft. The DART spacecraft recently got its first look at Didymos, the double-asteroid system that includes its target, Dimorphos. According to the information provided by NASA, "on September 26, DART will intentionally crash into Dimorphos, the asteroid moonlet of Didymos. While the asteroid poses no threat to Earth, this is the world's first test of the kinetic impact technique, using a spacecraft to deflect an asteroid for planetary defense." This image of the light from asteroid Didymos and its orbiting moonlet Dimorphos is a composite of 243 images taken by the Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical Navigation (DRACO) on July 27, 2022. NASA further informed that from this distanceabout 20 million miles away from DARTthe Didymos system is still very faint, and navigation camera experts were uncertain whether DRACO would be able to spot the asteroid yet. But once the 243 images DRACO took during this observation sequence were combined, the team was able to enhance it to reveal Didymos and pinpoint its location. This first set of images is being used as a test to prove our imaging techniques, said Elena Adams, the DART mission systems engineer at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. The quality of the image is similar to what we could obtain from ground-based telescopes, but it is important to show that DRACO is working properly and can see its target to make any adjustments needed before we begin using the images to guide the spacecraft into the asteroid autonomously, she added. Although the team has already conducted a number of navigation simulations using non-DRACO images of Didymos, DART will ultimately depend on its ability to see and process images of Didymos and Dimorphos, once it too can be seen, to guide the spacecraft toward the asteroid, especially in the final four hours before impact. At that point, DART will need to self-navigate to impact successfully with Dimorphos without any human intervention, NASA informed. Seeing the DRACO images of Didymos for the first time, we can iron out the best settings for DRACO and fine-tune the software, said Julie Bellerose, the DART navigation lead at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Using observations taken every five hours, the DART team will execute three trajectory correction maneuvers over the next three weeks, each of which will further reduce the margin of error for the spacecraft's required trajectory to impact. After the final maneuver on September 25, approximately 24 hours before impact, the navigation team will know the position of the target Dimorphos within 2 kilometers. From there, DART will be on its own to autonomously guide itself to its collision with the asteroid moonlet. It can be known that DRACO has subsequently observed Didymos during planned observations on August 12, August 13 and August 22. Astronomers found this alien planet via its unique star wobbles as it moves through space. Know in detail here. For the first time, an exoplanet around a star in a binary star system has been portrayed in three dimensions. The strange fact is that the planet orbits its star at a different angle and scientists suggest that the misalignment could offer clues about how planets form in a binary system. The exoplanet named GJ 896Ab is located 20.3 light-years away from Earth, a space.com report mentioned. With the aid of archived optical observations from 1941 to 2017 and additional data covering 2006 to 2011 collected by the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), a network of 10 radio telescopes expanded across the United States, astronomers were able to follow the motion of the binary star system through space. In 2020, the researchers used the VLBA to record fresh observations. The star GJ 896A appears to wobble along its course as it travels through space, according to the scientists, who were led by Salvador Curiel of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). An orbiting planet with 2.3 times the mass of Jupiter, which completes one orbit every 284.4 Earth days, is to account for this wobble. The star's wobble is the result of its motion around the barycenter, which is the shared centre of mass between the star and the planet. Astrometry is the process of identifying changes in a star's motion as it travels through space. Since astronomers can clearly see the wobble and direction of the orbits, a planetary system with more than one star can only have its orbits interpreted in three dimensions using astrometry. It's interesting to note that the plane of the planet's orbit is 148 degrees off from the plane of the orbits of the two stars. Did you know? Only 4 percent of known exoplanets have been found in binary star systems. This low percentage is partly due to the difficulty of finding planets in binary systems, but it's also because models indicate that the presence of a companion star can shorten and weaken a disk that forms planets. Allo Technology, a subsidiary of Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) is offering internet speed of up to 1Gbps for residential users and up to 10Gbps for enterprises in Malaysia thanks to its utilisation of fibre optic broadband. Available through the companys City Broadband brand, they are also competitively priced, with the 1Gbps residential plan priced at RM199 per month. Besides that, Allo City Broadband is also offering residential plans of 100Mbps for RM99/month and 500Mbps at RM139/month. Moreover, the company is also offering a limited-time Merdeka promotion of 300Mbps at RM109/month and the aforementioned 100Mbps plan at just RM89/month. All the residential plans include unlimited data, symmetrical speed and dynamic IP address. As reported by Bernama, Allo Technology chief network officer Muhammad Mohd Yunos said that fibre optic broadband provides faster and more reliable internet service. He also elaborated that fibre optic is not affected by any weather changes, electromagnetic interference or radio waves. Furthermore, its main advantage is speed, whereby it is significantly faster than wireless broadband that utilises fourth-generation (4G) technology. Muhammad further shared that Allo had successfully connected more than 180,000 premises in Melaka, Perak, Kedah, Penang, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Johor with the fibre optic broadband network under the initiative of the National Digital Network Plan (JENDELA). The company plans to connect up to 300,000 premises under JENDELA, with plans to expand its footprint to the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. For more information on Allos fibre optic broadband offerings, do visit its City Broadband brand official website here. As always, make sure to stay tuned to TechNave.com for the latest trending tech news in Malaysia and beyond! Credit: CC0 Public Domain Snap has decided to chop nearly 500 jobs in California, including scores of layoffs in the Bay Area, a brutal round of cost-cutting ushered in by a string of setbacks in the financial results for the Snapchat owner. In a series of official notices posted with state labor officials, Snap revealed it has cut 485 jobs in California, of which 84 were in the Bay Area, formal WARN filings showed. The camera and social media company cut 44 jobs in Palo Alto and 40 positions in San Francisco, according to official company filings with the state Employment Development Department. An estimated 401 job cuts occurred at the Snap offices in Santa Monica, the EDD filing shows. "We informed employees of an impending layoff at Snap Inc.'s location in Palo Alto at 395 Page Mill Road, third floor," Scott Withycombe, vice president of Talent with Snap, wrote in the WARN notice to the EDD. The Palo Alto notice was similar, other than the number of employees affected, to the WARN letters sent to the EDD regarding the cutbacks in Santa Monica and San Francisco. Snap, which owns the popular Snapchat platform, said that in all three instances, the layoffs would not affect everyone at the three respective locations. In 2021, Snap reached an agreement to sublease 45,000 square feet of space at 395 Page Mill Road from Cloudera, a creator of cloud-based data services and a tenant in the Palo Alto office building. The 45,000 square feet of Palo Alto office space is large enough to accommodate 225 workers. However, it wasn't clear how many workers Snap moved into the 395 Page Mill building or how many are located there now. The job cuts were effective on Sept. 1, the WARN notices state. "We expect the layoffs to be permanent," Snap stated in the WARN notice. Explore further Tech companies chop hundreds of Bay Area jobs as layoffs mount 2022 MediaNews Group, Inc. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Photo: The Canadian Press Queen Elizabeth poses with leaders for a family photo at the Commonwealths Heads of Government meeting, Friday Nov. 27, 2015 in Valletta, Malta. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld Some Canadians from diaspora communities called for the country's independence from the Crown on Friday, saying the death of the Queen is a chance to rethink its ties to the monarchy. More than 50 countries with historical links to Britain are part of the Commonwealth, which Queen Elizabeth II was head of throughout her reign. Her death Thursday came as a growing number of nations debate their relationship with the British Crown amid demands that the country apologize for its colonial-era abuses and award its former colonies slavery reparations. Parmod Chhabra, the president of the India Canada Association, said he respected the Queen as the sovereign of Canada but thinks it's time for the country to break ties with the Crown. I think it is the time for the monarchy to go away, said Chhabra, recalling atrocities committed against Indians when the British Empire ruled that country. We should start rethinking about it, and think about total freedom, instead of having the Queen as our head whom we dont elect," he added. That sentiment was shared by Monir Hossain, the president of the National Bangladeshi-Canadian Council, who said Canada should be a fully independent nation like other countries around the world. I think we all want independence these days," he said. "The world is moving forward. The Royal Family has faced multiple controversies this year surrounding the Crown's continuing role in Britain's former colonies as members travelled to celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, which marked her 70 years on the throne. In March, Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge were sharply criticized for being "tone deaf" and perpetuating images of Britain's colonial rule during a tour of Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas. Though many people welcomed the royals, they were also greeted by protesters demanding an apology for Britain's role in the enslavement of millions of Africans and reparations for the damage caused by slavery. The following month, the Earl and Countess of Wessex -- Edward, the youngest son of the Queen, and his wife Sophie -- postponed the Grenada leg of a Caribbean tour on the eve of the seven-day trip after consultations with the Grenadine government and the governor general, the Queen's representative on the island. They had been likely to face similar calls for a British apology during their planned visit to Grenada, where activists had requested an audience with the royal couple. Barbados cut ties to the monarchy in November and Jamaica has said it will follow suit. In Canada, the Queens death will likely fuel conversations about getting rid of the monarchy, as well as responses that the country's system works well and would be too hard to change, said Jonathan Malloy, a political science professor at Carleton University. The Queens longevity has allowed us to perhaps put off some conversations, and some will see her passing as an opportunity for change, he said Friday. The monarchy is anachronistic and represents values that no longer align with Canadas direction, but the system does actually work fairly well and it would be extremely hard to change, he said. For instance, the Crown is at the heart of our legal and political systems, and cutting ties with it would, among other things, undermine treaties with Indigenous nations, he said. Provinces probably also like the current system because it allows them to claim their own direct relationship with the Crown, and changing that would require them to overhaul their systems, Malloy said. There would also be issues related to how to select a new head of state, and the risk that removing the Crown would open the door to other attempts to change the Constitution, he said. No government wants to be consumed by constitutional talks and changes, he said, pointing to the constitutional crises of Meech Lake and Charlottetown several decades ago. Not everyone in the diaspora community criticized the Queen and the British monarchy on Friday. Reuben Wong, 73, who grew up in poverty in Hong Kong before immigrating to Canada in the 1970s, said he wouldnt be where he is today without the Queen and the British system. Hong Kong has not been a part of the Commonwealth since the 1997 handover to China, but some in its diaspora in Canada continue to embrace the monarchy. The Queens spirit lives in my blood, the Richmond, B.C., retiree said Friday. Wong said he grew up in a village with no water or electricity, and paid tribute to the free education provided by colonial British authorities that allowed him to immigrate and forge a career as a public servant. When I look back, I feel thankful to the British system in Hong Kong and the Queen," he added. Sunday is Sept. 11, 2022, the 21st calendar anniversary date of the terrorist attack against the United States by operatives of the Al Qaeda network. Nearly 3,000 people were killed, with countless others injured, many with long-term negative effects. Additionally, there are scores of family and friends who have since borne grief and additional responsibilities. The ripple effect of disastrous loss of life and injuries is immeasurable. How can life be better? is a question which best stays in the front of our minds every day, when life is more smooth sailing than not, and when life is storm-tossed, as was evident from those morning attacks 21 years ago. In the book of the prophet Jeremiah, chapter 29, exiles from Jerusalem, who were marched in captivity to Babylon as civilian prisoners of war, are yearning to be back home. God directs Jeremiah to communicate through a letter to the exiles that God does not anticipate their return for many years. God then instructs them to seek the well-being of the city where you are, because in its well-being will be your well-being (29:7). When the 9/11 attacks occurred in 2001, our family was living in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Tulsa had then and still has today a significant Muslim community. It was important for Tulsans along with US citizens everywhere to hear President George W. Bush say, in an address to Congress, We respect Muslim friends here and worldwide. The teachings of Islam are good and peaceful. The terrorists are traitors to their own faith. Our enemy here or anywhere is not Islam, but a radical network of terrorists. Just because the President said it, did not mean he was able to wave a magic wand to create goodwill among persons of different religious traditions. Yet the Presidents words of diplomacy, theology and community relations did encourage citizens across the nation and around the world to seek the well-being of the city where you are by continuing existing positive interfaith relationships and initiating new positive interfaith relationships. Some resisted his perspective then, while others took his words to heart. We can ask the evaluative question: Have we grown in this since 9/11? Some have recalled Queen Elizabeth IIs coronation speech to the British Commonwealth on June 2, 1953, when she said: Parliamentary [and other democratic] institutions, with their free speech and respect for the rights of minorities and the inspiration of broad tolerance in thought and expression all this we conceive to be a precious part of our way of life and outlook. If President George W. Bush in 2001 and Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 were echoing the prophet Jeremiah from 550 years before Jesus, it is likely beneficial for me, and perhaps you and others, to listen carefully and, still today, seek the well-being of all people wherever we are, similar and different as we can be. Johns Crazy Socks was born out of a lack of opportunities for co-founder John Cronin after high school, and led to a special relationship with President George H.W. Bush. John Cronin, now 26, has Down syndrome and did not see any job opportunities that interested him, but his dad, Mark X. Cronin, noted his son is a natural entrepreneur. During a presentation at the Bush School on Thursday, Mark described his son as a sock tycoon, a public speaker, a philanthropist, an athlete, a dancer, a good brother and a good friend, who happens to have Down syndrome. When you didnt see your job you wanted, what did you say? he asked. I want to create one; I want to make one, John said. I said Im going to go into business with my dad, and have a nice father-and-son business together. After nixing an idea to open a food truck due to the fact neither cooks, John said, he came up with the idea before Thanksgiving 2016 to make crazy socks like the kind he enjoyed wearing. He said they are fun, colorful and always let him be himself. Johns Crazy Socks officially opened for business on Dec. 9, 2016. Within one day, they had 42 orders, and in one month 152 orders. Now, a few months away from their sixth anniversary, Johns Crazy Socks has 4,000 different kinds of socks, has shipped 390,000 packages to 88 different countries, created 34 jobs 22 held by people with different abilities and raised more than $550,000 for their charity partners, including the Special Olympics. But most of all, were off spreading happiness, said Mark, who lives with his son in Huntington, New York. What weve done is create a slightly different type of business model. Its a social enterprise. We have a social mission and a business mission, and they feed off of each other. John, who serves as chief happiness officer, said their business is based on five pillars: inspiration and hope, giving back, fun products you can love, make it personal and make it a great place to work. All five contribute to their missions of spreading happiness. One of their most notable customers was President Bush, who shared Johns love of crazy, colorful socks. Mark described them as sock buddies. After seeing an article about Bushs love for the kind of socks Johns Crazy Socks was selling, John suggested they send the former president a pair of socks. The pair then received a call from someone connected with the president who said he loved them so much, he wanted to buy more and also sent John a pair of socks he liked. On World Down Syndrome Day March 21, 2018 Bush tweeted a picture of his pair of Down syndrome superhero socks that John had designed. After Barbara Bush died, the family asked if Johns Crazy Socks had socks to wear to honor the first ladys commitment to family literacy. Well, the day of her funeral, the only communication the president had with the outside world was to send out a tweet of him wearing these socks and talking about his wifes commitment to literacy, Mark said. To think that my son was able to connect with the president at a time of need is overwhelming. Weve gone on to sell thousands of pairs of those socks, and they raise money for the Barbara Bush Family Literacy Foundation. In December 2018 when the former president died, Mark said, John told him they needed to go to Washington, D.C., to pay their respects, traveling from their home in Huntington, New York. In the guestbook to the Bush family, John wrote a note saying it made him happy that Bush wore his socks, and he hoped the socks made the former president happy. He ended his note describing Bush as a very good guy and that he will miss him. He signed it John Cronin, Johns Crazy Socks. Mark said even greater than the connection John and Bush formed over their mutual love of crazy socks was the Americans with Disabilities Act that Bush signed into law. That changed the world for millions and millions of people, he said. Without that legislation, my son would not have had the life hes been able to enjoy, and there would be no Johns Crazy Socks. Mark said there have been great strides made in the medical arena and in the world of education through high school and programs such as the Aggie ACHIEVE program. The next step, he said, is in the area of jobs and housing, so people with different abilities can live a full life. Mark said his son is not defined by his Down syndrome, and John said his extra chromosome never holds him back. With each order is a note from John, candy just like the first orders were packed and the picture and name of the person who packed the box. The company has started a new initiative called JCS Champions where they want to encourage people with different abilities to start their own business by giving them microbusiness in a box. They will get the socks, selling stands, marketing material and six weeks of training to run their own business. They are starting with five, but over five years, they hope to have created 1,000 businesses. Its what I think former President Bush would have called 1,000 Points of Light. We want to give people that opportunity. We want to show the world look what people can do. Look what each of us can do. Look what the people we meet every day can do. Wheres this all leading? A better world awaits. Mark said he wants to live in a world when seeing people with different abilities in the workplace and in industry is not remarkable, but is just a normal occurrence. John left the crowd with four bits of advice: follow your heart; follow your dreams; work hard; and show what you can do. On Friday, John and Mark are meeting with students and staff of the Aggie ACHIEVE program, which began in 2019 to allow young adults with intellectual and development disabilities to pursue post-secondary education as a Texas A&M student. The inaugural class will graduate in the spring with four-year certificates in interdisciplinary studies from the School of Education and Human Development. Heather Dulas, Aggie ACHIEVE program director, said she hopes meeting with John and Mark gives the students the push they need to enter the world and know they are valued. She said John is a representative example of what they try to tell the students in the program that they can do anything and get the job they want. They dont walk into Starbucks and see that server that looks like them, so I think seeing John be successful and being able to talk to a group of people is really helpful, she said. Alexis Villarreal, a senior in the Aggie ACHIEVE program, agreed it was neat to see somebody with Down syndrome be so successful. After graduation, she said, she hopes to move to Sugar Land to go into business with her dad. After Thursdays presentation with the Bush School students, Dulas said, she hopes the students in attendance start to envision workplaces where hiring people with different abilities is not seen as extra or as a nice thing to do, but as just normal practice. She and Kelsey Gipson, job developer with the program, encouraged people who are interested in being hiring managers or owning a business to take part in their mock interview fair and interview students with disabilities. Something Ive come across working with employers is its not an I dont want to, its an I dont necessarily know how. Things like this and working with Aggie ACHIEVE, that gives them the tools to show that its possible, and I feel like that will spread and well see more of it in the future. Thats pretty cool. The comment that stuck with Joshua Carley, a first-year masters of public service and administration student at the Bush School, is the notion that it is not altruism to hire people with different abilities, but it is good business. He said that goes for more than just businesses, but is true for governments and nonprofits. Having the most people at the table and the best people in the tables is so important, he said, and I think its great that he was able to talk to government school people about that and not just business students. At the start of the program, Mark showed pictures of John as a baby, explaining the medical complications and procedures his son endured and survived, including open heart surgery. People wondered, he said, what a child like John could grow up to do. And the answer is, he could grow up to change the world, Mark said, showing a picture of John testifying for the second time before the U.S. Congress. If theres nothing else that you take from today, we want you to recognize whats possible. Whats possible in each of us, and all of the people we meet in our day-to-day. 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Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe More than $30 million worth of cryptocurrency plundered by the North Korea-linked Lazarus Group from online video game Axie Infinity has been recovered, marking the first time digital assets stolen by the threat actor have been seized. "The seizures represent approximately 10% of the total funds stolen from Axie Infinity (accounting for price differences between time stolen and seized), and demonstrate that it is becoming more difficult for bad actors to successfully cash out their ill-gotten crypto gains," Erin Plante, senior director of investigations at Chainalysis, said. The development arrives more than five months after the crypto hack resulted in the theft of $620 million from the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Ronin Network, with the attackers laundering a majority of the proceeds amounting to $455 million through the Ethereum-based cryptocurrency tumbler Tornado Cash. The March 2022 cryptocurrency heist resulted in losses totaling 173,600 ETH worth about $594 million at the time and $25.5 million in USDC stablecoin, making it the biggest cryptocurrency theft to date. Although Tornado Cash has emerged as a popular tool for anonymizing virtual currency transactions, its abuse by malicious actors such as the Lazarus Group to cash out the illicitly obtained assets has landed it in the crosshairs of the U.S. government, which imposed sanctions against the service last month. The blockchain analytics firm said that the blocklisting forced the adversary to move away from the mixer in favor of DeFi services such as crypto bridges to chain hop and move digital assets between chains in a bid to obscure the trail of funds. "The hacker bridged ETH from the Ethereum blockchain to the BNB chain and then swapped that ETH for USDD, which was then bridged to the BitTorrent chain," Plante said, detailing the switch between several different kinds of cryptocurrencies in a single transaction to launder the stolen funds. The Lazarus Group is a prolific advanced persistent threat (APT) that's driven by efforts to support North Korea's operational goals, which comprises espionage and generating revenue for the sanctions-hit nation by striking financial institutions. Most of the cyber operations are conducted by elements within the Reconnaissance General Bureau. The seizure also comes as six users of Tornado Cash, including Coinbase employees, filed a lawsuit this week against the U.S. Treasury Department, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and other officials over their decision to slap sanctions on the platform. The crypto recovery is also indicative of the headway U.S. authorities have made in their ability to track and seize illicit cryptocurrency funds from various cybercrimes. In late July, the Justice Department announced the seizure of $500,000 worth of Bitcoin from a North Korean hacking crew which extorted digital payments from healthcare facilities by using a new ransomware strain known as Maui. Two area high schools are getting a chance to delve into the world of mechatronics, boosted by Central Community College. Mechatronics, as summarized by Northwest High School teacher John Hadenfeldt , is utilized any time where machines are running through a process without a person there the entire time. Hadenfeldt is a science and robotics teacher at Northwest, teaching the schools mechatronics program, in its first year. The often-overlooked career path is being brought to six Nebraska high schools, including Northwest and Aurora Public High School, after Central Community College received a $1.3 million National Science Foundation grant for a career pathway dubbed The Independent Mechatronics Education Center Curriculum 2.0 project or, iMEC 2.0. Doug Pauley, CCC associate dean of training and development, is one of the leaders of the iMEC 2.0 program. The proposal we wrote is to introduce Mechatronics courses at a high school level, primarily junior and senior, Pauley said. Students at various levels learn how to use an electrical meter, build basic circuits and use a voltmeter. In Mechatronics, technicians work closely with others to install, maintain and repair automated equipment and component parts, ensuring a facility runs efficiently and effectively. (Manufacturers) have to maintain that equipment so that it continues to run. If it stops, they lose money, Pauley said. Kurtis Lathrop, who teaches Mechatronics at Aurora, said students are quick to catch on to the concept. Helping illustrate the concept of Mechatronics through hands-on work, electrical and computer processes and automation is the presentation of real life work examples and opportunities with the community and county. The demand for employees is so great, Pauley said, Central Community College has been conducting workshops at various businesses to help train employees. I talked to a lot of companies, and they keep saying we need to do this, he said. When Pauley wrote the concept paper, he made sure students would be exposed to what Mechatronics careers are and there are plenty. Regardless if they are going to be an engineer, regardless if they want to be a skilled person that works with their hands doing this, or it depends on even if they want to be a homeowner, he said. If they have to replace light switches or lights or ceiling fans, theyre going to learn some of the fundamentals about electricity in this class. Its a lifelong skill. Lathrop said while he was familiar with the automation process, it is a learning experience for him, too. We get continuous support and outside information from the CCC Mechatronics instructors. That support is directed to the students who benefit in a more positive way than just information being presented within the classroom setting. Aurora High School started its Mechatronics program three years ago, said Principal Doug Kittle. Central Community College contacted me wanting to know if we would be part of their pilot program, he said. Once facet of iMEC 2.0 that caught Kittles attention was that it would provide Auroras students with unique opportunities. Thats probably the biggest advantage, he said. The other piece is the job opportunities. Northwests Mechatronics program was inspired by Auroras, particularly after Hadenfeldt saw a friends Twitter posts. He was showing what the kids were doing in his program, and from what little I knew, I thought it would be a great program for students wanting a hands-on class, he said. Hadenfeldt pitched the idea to Northwests Director of Teaching and Learning, along with school administrators. I threw out the idea of this program as another draw for getting students some career/college experience in high school, Hadenfeldt said. They jumped on the chance and reached out to CCC to see if we could join the partnership. In Northwest Mechatronics first year, four students have enrolled the class, which will likely grow in the future, Hadenfeldt said. Auroras class has eight students. Kittle said after being approached by CCC, he was curious about Mechatronics, and did some more investigating during summer workshops. Once I dug into it, and saw the end result of what jobs students in these classes are going into, its pretty fascinating. Pauley gave an example: A system might be a conveyor system a robot that (is) beside a conveyor, where its picking up a part, bending it and then placing it on a conveyor so it can do the next step. We need technicians that can maintain and keep all of those pieces of equipment working. Mechatronics careers are H3 occupations high wage, high skill, and high demand. Our industry partners have been part of the discussion about the program, Pauley said. They are so excited about it. They say most of these high school kids dont know the careers even existso heres a way that we can introduce it to people. Central Community College already has a two-year Mechatronics degree hosted by its Columbus campus; there is also a one-year diploma option available in Kearney. According to the Nebraska Department of Labor website NEworks, in Nebraska entry-level pay for electro-mechanical and Mechatronics professionals in 2022 is $55,654 annually, or $26.76 an hour. An experienced Mechatronics worker in Nebraska can make almost $75,000 a year or $35.81 an hour. Lathrop and Kittle both said Aurora is exploring opportunities for students to learn from and get involved in local Mechatronics. Hadenfeldt said Northwests newer program is aiming to do the same. We are going to work with CCC to get in contact with local businesses that might employ in this field and try to set up some industry tours to highlight the opportunities available for their future. Central Community College is looking for business partners in these communities to help with equipment and mentoring students and teachers, Pauley said. In the concepts of electronics course, between the six schools participating in the iMEC 2.0, 125 students participated. Omaha police have arrested a 14-year-old boy on suspicion of manslaughter in connection with the slaying of a 28-year-old man near the Omaha Country Club. Police were called about 7:30 p.m. Monday to 72nd Street and Country Club Road to investigate a shooting, a police spokesman said Tuesday. Officers found Mister C. Parker suffering from a gunshot wound. Parker was taken to the Nebraska Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. The teenagers name has not yet been released. Officers found the 14-year-old near 78th and Weber streets. He later was booked into the Douglas County Youth Center on suspicion of manslaughter and use of a gun to commit a felony. The homicide is the 21st of the year in Omaha. That compares with 24 homicides at this time in 2021 and 32 in 2020. Anyone with information about this incident may contact Omaha Crime Stoppers at 402-444-STOP, at www.p3tips.com or by downloading the p3tips mobile app. Callers can remain anonymous and are eligible for a cash reward. Editor's note: We have detected a technical issue that is preventing some users from being able to log in to comment. We are working to have the issue resolved shortly. Thank you for your patience. President Joe Biden has decided to ban Russian oil imports, toughening the toll on Russia's economy in retaliation for its invasion of Ukraine. The United States generally imports about 100,000 barrels a day from Russia, only about 5% of Russia's crude oil exports, according to Rystad Energy. Last year, roughly 8% of U.S. imports of oil and petroleum products came from Russia. Gas prices have been rising for weeks due to the conflict and in anticipation of potential sanctions on the Russian energy sector. The U.S. national average for a gallon of gasoline soared 45 cents a gallon in the past week and topped $4.06 on Monday, according to auto club AAA. Should the US ban Russian oil imports over Ukraine war? You voted: A Union County business will be featured on Discovery Channels Dirty Jobs, after the popular television host spent a day this spring collecting, bottling and processing deer urine. Anna-based J & S Scents is a leading supplier of deer urine, sold to hunters looking to a bag a trophy. The product is used to mask human scents and to attract deer. Somehow, Rowes production team caught wind of the company earlier this year and reached out to owner Jeff Williamson about filming at the business. I was in a meeting when they called and it went to voicemail, Williamson recalled. I thought it all was a hoax. He said he continued to believe it was a hoax even when a pair of producers from the show turned up at Williamsons business to scout things out. Then, on April 14, a crew of 18, including Rowe, arrived to spend the day working with the team at J & S Scents. They stayed six or seven hours and they had at least six cameras that I know of, plus GoPros and lots of other equipment, Williamson said. The crew captured a typical day at the business, with one exception: on this day Williamsons job was to explain things to Rowe and to have the TV host do all of the work. We started out collecting the deer urine and did all of normal processes we do with it. We cleaned floors, cleaned the drain pits, filtered the urine and then he bottled the deer pee, Williamson said. He explained that Rowe also had the honor of filling the very first container of a new product called Squeeze-a-Pee, a deer attractant packaged in a tube. Deer have a tremendous sense of smell, Williamson said, in explaining his companys products. Hunters put deer urine around the area where they will be hunting, Williamson said, adding that hunters spray the scent around deer stand locations as well as their boots when walking to and from the deer stand. It masks other odors and makes deer think other deer are in the area. Rowe learned all about J & S products and processes during his visit, a stay he kept very quiet. They didnt want anybody but us there; just the people who actually work on the farm. We had to keep his visit quiet until he announced on social media that he had been here, Williamson explained. For Williamson, the opportunity to work with Mike Rowe and to be part of an episode of Dirty Jobs is something he will always remember. I've watched probably every episode and never dreamed I would ever get to meet the man, but I'll tell you one thing about him. What you see of Mike Rowe on TV is exactly how he is in real life. He is very intelligent, genuine and kind, Williamson said. He made it all very easy. In fact, as the crew was packing up, Rowe stopped them and took time to record a brief ad-hoc commercial for the company and its new product. Its one that J & S Scents will be able to use after the episode airs later this year. Williamson said producers cautioned him to be ready to fulfill lots of orders once the show is broadcast. He added that he appreciated the publicity and is grateful for the opportunity to be part of Dirty Jobs. Good stuff like this doesnt normally jump in our lap like this. This was a blessing from God. The episode of Dirty Jobs featuring J & S Scents is tentatively scheduled to air on the Discovery Channel in early December. Carbondales Carl and Linda Flowers represent a legacy of education born out of their parents belief that education has the power to unlock unlimited opportunities and overcome barriers. Living in challenging times in the projects of Chicagos South side in the 1960s, Lindas mother dreamed of a better life for her daughter and her ten siblings. Despite having never attended high school or college, she knew that education was going to be the key to unlock that better life for her children. Instead of toys, their house was filled with books. Instead of watching endless hours of television, Linda and her siblings played school (Linda was always the teacher a sign of a life to come). When it came time for Linda to attend high school, she was sent to a vocational school. Many in education at the time considered it best for this young black woman to learn a trade as it they believe it was unlikely she would make it to college. Today, Linda agrees that vocational school is a great fit for many students, but she was destined for college and would overcome the limitations imposed on her by others to see her mothers dream come true. Meanwhile, in Saint Louis, Carl Flowers was also learning the value of education from his parents. Carls parents, like Lindas, also had a limited education but wanted more for Carl and his two brothers. They were able to get Carl into a Catholic school where he worked hard in his studies in the predominantly white schools. After high school, Carl enrolled at Southern Illinois University Carbondale to gain his independence but still be close enough to go home on weekends for a home-cooked meal and clean laundry. Carl and Linda met at SIU during Lindas freshman year in 1973 and found in each other a kindred spirit and a passion for education. Linda worked on campus during as a freshman, but had to leave SIU the following year to help provide for her mother and siblings still living at home. She returned to Carbondale to complete her bachelors degree in special education, followed by a masters in early childhood education and a doctorate in curriculum and instruction. Carl studied journalism and was a news editor for the Daily Egyptian during his senior year. He went on to earn a masters and a doctorate in rehabilitation administration. Having received their education, attentions now turned to educating others. Linda went to work at Lincoln School teaching social studies and language arts. Then positions at Parrish, Winkler and Thomas Elementary Schools followed, where she served as principal. In all of these settings, Linda focused her attention on the youngest students and on those who were working to overcome learning difficulties. This was rewarding work that did not end with retirement. Linda still serves on the Carbondale Community High School District No. 165 Board of Education, and offers her services as a consultant in curriculum, classroom management and special education. After a management career with Sears, Carl returned to SIU as a rehabilitation counselor and went on to be the director of the Rehabilitation Institute until his retirement in 2018. Carl is active in the community and in his church and is a volunteer with the I Can Read program, helping children to overcome challenges as they start their education journey. The Flowers know that their parents would be proud to see how their dream of a better life has been realized in them and multiplied through the countless numbers of students they have taught throughout the years. They continue to fight for education equality, opportunity and the belief that a better life is always possible for anyone willing to learn. SPRINGFIELD A gun rights group is challenging the city of Highland Parks ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines like the ones used in a mass shooting there on July 4. The National Association for Gun Rights, based in Loveland, Colorado, filed the lawsuit Wednesday in federal district court in Chicago at the same time it filed lawsuits challenging a similar ordinance in Naperville as well as state laws in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Hawaii. The cases were filed in district courts that are part of five different federal appellate circuits. Illinois is part of the 7th Circuit. In a statement Thursday, the group said it is pushing for a national precedent to end all similar bans across the country. Our mission has always been to expand pro-gun precedents and defend gun owners, Hannah Hill, research and policy director for the National Foundation for Gun Rights, the associations legal defense fund, said in the statement. The brilliant decision from (U.S. Supreme Court) Justice (Clarence) Thomas this summer has provided us with the ammo to free millions of law-abiding Americans who are being unjustly denied their gun rights. In the lawsuits, the gun rights group rejects the use of the term assault weapon, calling it a charged political term meant to stir the emotions of the public and instead uses the term banned firearm. The lawsuits allege that the bans violate the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. They cite recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, including a 2008 decision overturning Washington D.C.s ban on handguns, a 2010 decision overturning similar handgun bans in Chicago and Oak Park, and a decision from June of this year overturning the state of New Yorks law requiring people to show proper cause for obtaining a firearm license. On July 4, Robert Crimo III, 21, allegedly took an assault-style weapon and three large-capacity magazines onto a rooftop in downtown Highland Park and fired into an Independence Day parade, killing seven people and wounding dozens of others. He is being held without bond on multiple counts of first-degree murder. Prior to that shooting, Highland Park had an ordinance dating back to 2013 banning the sale or rental of assault weapons or assault ammunition feeding devices, definitions of which are spelled out in the law. The city of Naperville adopted a substantially similar ordinance in August, specifically in response to the mass shooting in Highland Park and an earlier shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. Highland Parks ordinance, however, was previously challenged in federal court, and in 2015 a three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld the ordinance. In their opinion, the judges specifically cited the 2010 Supreme Court case from Washington, D.C., in which Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority, said the Second Amendment does not guarantee a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose, and noted that the court cautioned against interpreting the decision too broadly. We remain confident that the assault weapon ban that the city of Highland Park adopted in 2013 is lawful and constitutional, and that the affirmation of constitutionality by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals remains controlling precedent in our jurisdiction, the citys attorney, Steven M. Elrod, said in an email statement. A spokesperson for the city of Naperville did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Since the Highland Park shooting, Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker has called for both a state and national ban on assault weapons. A bill pending in the Illinois House by Rep. Maura Hirschauer, D-Batavia, that would impose a statewide ban has 56 cosponsors. On Thursday, while traveling in Scotland off a cruise ship with primarily British passengers, I received a text from my brother about the death of Queen Elizabeth II in Scotland. Though the text turned out to be correct, it was followed with another report claiming the death was unverified, so I didnt know. Then, on board the ship at supper while leaving port near Glasgow, the cruise director informed the passengers of the death of the queen. Shortly after, the Italian ship captain made that announcement with words honoring her and her impact on the world. Then the British national anthem was played. For probably the last time, the British used the refrain God Save The Queen, as it will be God Save The King for the new British monarch, King Charles III. The queen is dead, long live the king will be something most living UK citizens will never have experienced. Though American, I have had a lump in my throat since learning of Elizabeths death, and have experienced a profound sadness. It goes beyond the death of the truly amazing woman servant leader to what I and many see as the passing of an era. Let me explain. First, I thought back to when I felt this same emotion associated with the United Kingdom. After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when America was in shock and mourning, Queen Elizabeth ordered her famous Guards Band to play the American national anthem at Buckingham Palace. I can remember feeling that same lump in the throat, due to feelings of gratefulness to the British. My own life story is connected with the British. I grew up as a military dependent (aka brat) and spent five of my formative teenage years living at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE, the military arm of NATO). That being the case, I grew up around British officers and their children. Additionally, my grandfather was an Army officer during World War II and had been a Rhode Scholar after he graduated West Point before the war. Our family visited Oxford while overseas and we grew up in the shadow of that strong bond with the United Kingdom. A bond that had defeated Nazi Germany and then defeated the Soviet Union during the Cold War. In adulthood, I had the unique experience of serving directly with the British in Helmand, Afghanistan, from 2007-08, which included service with Prince Harry. As I have mentioned previously, though Harry was the grandson of Queen Elizabeth, he served in some of the most dangerous places in arguably the most dangerous province at the time and without special protection. We joked that the term an heir and a spare was beyond applicable to Harry, as far as that spare being dispensable in Helmand. His grandmother would have known the dangers her grandson faced, and yet did nothing to seek special treatment or protection for him. This was her same path when her son flew helicopters during the Falkland Islands war. She and her family showed the attribute and philosophy I saw of many officers from elite families in the British military of Nobless Oblige." To whom much has been given, much is expected. That is something I believe America showed much more during the world wars, but is being lost today. Queen Elizabeth put on a uniform before the end of World War II (Womans Auxiliary Corps) and throughout her life showed self-sacrifice for her nation. Ironically, while the British military revered the queen, they did not show special treatment to the royal family serving there. For the British around me, I see sincere and passionate yet reserved emotion about the death. As amazing as Elizabeth was to all, I believe the sadness goes beyond her person. She stood for something connecting current generations to a past we dont want to lose. Queen Elizabeth embodied the ethos of Nobless Oblige, and was unabashedly Christian in belief and life. She promoted Jesus Christ as not only her savior, but the example to follow in life. When taking the throne, Elizabeth passionately requested the prayers of her people that she could serve accountably to God and serve her people faithfully for the rest of her life. The queen took seriously her constitutional role of Defender of the Faith of the Christian religion. My favorite quote was from later in life when Elizabeth told the world what guided her as such a successful and long-serving monarch: "Throughout my life, the message and teachings of Christ have been my guide, and in them I find hope." We had seen Nobless Oblige of her era in other leaders, like Winston Churchill, Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, but they are gone. The passing of Queen Elizabeth seems to be the end of an era that most of us know we need to keep. We ask: Will other leaders live with Elizabeths belief and accountability to God in the service of those they lead? Will the concept of Nobless Oblige die with Elizabeth? This, even more than sadness over the passing of this great woman, is what has put that lump in my throat. I think its what many in the UK are feeling. On this day, I will stand with the British as they stood with us and proclaim God Save The King, and may he follow Queen Elizabeths example of Nobless Oblige and exampling Christ. (TBTCO) - Viec Ngan hang Nha nuoc a quyet inh noi han muc tin dung (room tin dung) cho mot so ngan hang a giai toa bot suc ep cho ca doanh nghiep va nguoi dan nhung chi giai quyet phan nao kho khan. The "Street View Car" will travel the roads of Luxembourg until the end of September to update the existing imagery of the country. Google is celebrating the 15th anniversary of its Google Street View platform this year. Fifteen years ago, the web giant tackled the incredible challenge of mapping and photographing the planet. And Google has succeeded. This revolutionary tool was launched in 2007, on the initiative of the co-founder of the American group, Larry Page. Google's Californian campus was the first place to be explored by a photo car, a security service van borrowed for the occasion. The service made its way to Luxembourg in 2009, and the last global update was in 2014. Today, almost all roads and paths in the Grand Duchy are available on Street View. But it was time to update the existing images as the landscape of the Grand Duchy is changing at a rapid pace. While the Street View Car itself is discreet, it is filled with high-tech. Seven high-resolution cameras film everything that comes into view. The recordings are then combined into a 360-degree image. Michiel Sallaets, head of communications at Google BeLux, says that the privacy of the people filmed will be respected. Using an algorithm, details such as faces, and car number plates are blurred out. People can also submit a request to blur the photo of their flat or house a decision which is, however, permanent. The most visited Street View locations in Luxembourg The five most clicked places on Street View in Luxembourg (between 24 April 2021 and 24 April 2022) are: The Grand Ducal Palace Luxembourg Airport Notre-Dame Cathedral Vianden Castle Adolphe Bridge In total, Google Street View claims to have stored 220 billion images and to have covered more than 16 million kilometres in a hundred different countries. The system of taking pictures, with cameras, Lidar (laser telemetry), GPS, and calculation tools has evolved over time. Google hopes to have a complete system next year that weighs less than seven kilos and can be carried by hand if necessary. After all, cars are not the only vehicles used by Google Street View cameras. Depending on the location, backpacks, boats, scooters, bicycles, snowmobiles, and even a camel have also been used. The trade unions are calling for "a large-scale demonstration" at the end of September to demand "an improvement of working conditions and remuneration" for Luxair employees. Three trade unions have called for a "major demonstration" to coincide with the Tripartite Aviation Monitoring Committee meeting on 26 September. In a joint statement, the Independent Luxembourg Trade Union Confederation (OGBL), the Luxembourg Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (LCGB), and the Luxembourg Neutral Trade Union (NGL-SNEP) demand "an improvement of working conditions and remuneration" for all Luxair employees. Shuttles will depart from the P&R Bouillon on 26 September from 7.15am. Demonstrators will gather on Glacis at 8am. The demonstration will leave 15 minutes later and head towards Place de l'Europe to protest in front of the Ministry of Mobility. Luxembourg's national airline is currently facing a difficult situation. In this context, the trade unions have launched an appeal to defend the "future" of Luxair and all its activities. The topic was also on the agenda of the Parliamentary Mobility Committee in August, ahead of the tripartite meeting that will take place at the end of September. The group's financial situation was at the centre of the discussions, and it will undoubtedly remain so when employers, government representatives, and trade unions meet. The former Prime Minister and EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has joined Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean Asselborn, and the Grand-Ducal couple in sharing their condolences following the passing of the late Queen Elizabeth II. Speaking to our colleagues from RTL Radio, Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean Asselborn declared that Queen Elizabeth II was "undoubtedly a strong political authority even if she had no formal power". Asselborn said he is "moved by the death of a great lady whose life was dedicated to the unity of her country, more so than all the Prime Ministers she saw throughout her reign". The former PM and one-time EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker had the opportunity to meet the Queen on several occasions throughout his career. On Friday, he said Great Britain would miss having such an important figure as their head of state. "The Queen almost belonged to our every day, as she had been around for so long. She was on the throne longer than I am old, and I am getting ever older. [She represented] an insight not only into the history of the English islands and of large parts of the Commonwealth, but also a figure we will not see the like of again, but who exercised a moral authority and possessed a great dignity that remains in my memory. I remember from the conversations I had with her that she had a great sense of humour." The former minister is confident that the Queen's successor will fill this void: "There is no longer a moment of solid stability. Whether King Charles can assume the same authority remains to be seen. I am optimistic, however. The Queen was a big part of England and an important part of England and England is no longer the same without the Queen." In countries where the monarchy has historically played a role, it is important to have a head of state with symbolic powers who does not interfere in everyday politics, but with whom everyone can talk, concluded Juncker. Messages of condolence came from all over the world, including one from Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel who expressed his deepest sympathy to the Royal Family and the British people. Prime Minister Xavier Bettel reacts Message by the Prime Minister, Minister of State, Xavier Bettel after the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (09.09.2022) After the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the Prime Minister, Minister of State, Xavier Bettel wishes to express, on behalf of the Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, his sincere condolences to the Royal Family and to the people of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. Her Majesty's reign has been marked as much by historic challenges as it has been marked by Her natural ability to navigate and manage those challenges with steadfast leadership and unique grace. For more than seventy years she shaped the course of history in the United Kingdom and around the world through her unwavering commitment to stability and peace and a boundless devotion to her people. While her passing saddens and moves the world, her legacy will continue to serve as a beacon for future generations. Queen Elizabeth II guided Great Britain over seven decades and through many challenges. Her steady leadership, her capacity to inspire hope and her dedication to stability and peace will be greatly missed. I extend my deepest sympathy to the Royal Family and the British people. Xavier Bettel (@Xavier_Bettel) September 8, 2022 Other reactions Minister for Family Affairs and Integration Corinne Cahen also expressed her sincere condolences, stressing that the Queen "was and remains for many generations a reference and for many of us, especially women, a role model". Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa stated that they have been "deeply moved and saddened" at the news of the death of Queen Elizabeth II, "a faithful friend of the Grand Ducal Family". Grand Duke Henri expressed his sadness at the news of the death of Queen Elizabeth II in a letter to King Charles III. The Grand Duke described the late Queen as an "exemplary monarch" whom the Grand Ducal family "profoundly admired". The day after the passing of Elizabeth II, Grand Duke Henri expressed his condolences to the British royal family in a moving message addressed to her successor Charles III. "The Grand Duchess and I have been deeply moved and saddened when we learned of the passing of Your dear mother, Her Majesty the Queen," the Luxembourgish head of state writes. The Grand Duke says he "profoundly admired Her moral strength and determination". He describes the late Queen as an "exemplary monarch, most loved and respected all over the world". He says Luxembourg has never forgotten "the extraordinary support" given by the UK to Grand Duchess Charlotte "and my father Jean" during the Second World War. "Their safe haven in London helped to preserve the very existence of my country in these dark times," the Grand Duke writes, before thanking the royal family for the "close ties" that have been forged over time. The Grand Duke concluded by assuring that "the people of Luxembourg join us in expressing to You and the Royal Family, as well as to the people of the United Kingdom, our most heartfelt condolences and warmest sympathies." Roland Bastian, general director of ArcelorMittal in Luxembourg, confirmed in an interview with RTL that five European blast furnaces will be subject to temporary closures - but Luxembourg will be spared, for now. The group said it had taken several factors into consideration, such as the war in Ukraine and rising energy costs, when making decisions regarding its European operations. In particular, Bastian noted the slowing economic activity on a global scale, leading to a drop in orders, but also mentioned the additional cost imposed on Europe-based energy-intensive companies on CO2 emissions. Given the rise in steel prices in Europe, the group has noted an increase in imports from outside the EU, which further complicates the situation. Given this drop in demand in Europe, the ArcelorMittal group has decided to temporarily close five sites: two in France, one in Poland, one in Germany and one in Spain. RTL Luxembourg, where steel activity mainly operates through electric arc furnaces, is more affected by the surge in electricity and natural gas prices. Speaking to RTL, Bastian underlined that the Luxembourg business was still taking sufficient orders to continue its activity, and confirmed that "for the moment, no prolonged closure is planned in the Grand Duchy". However, he followed up this confirmation with a warning that the situation was unpredictable and could change at any time. "We cannot afford to stop because of high energy prices, we must continue to produce and fulfil orders". In order to limit the damage to energy bills, the Luxembourg operation is suspending the use of industrial electric ovens during periods when the electricity prices are at an all-time high, mainly in the morning and in the evening. In this way, the Luxembourg sites can mitigate against sky-high energy costs and guarantee the continuity of their activities, said Bastian. The group claims to have reduced its gas consumption by 5-10%, due to measures taken for the various industrial processes, in particular thanks to a higher supply of oxygen for certain operations. In the event of a total cut to the supply, an internal reorganisation will take place following consultations with the authorities and other relevant bodies, in order to schedule production stoppages for each company concerned, Bastian added. Wyoming lawmakers are working on a bill that could increase criminal penalties for attacking health care workers. A similar bill was attempted in 2013, but failed after passing the senate. But health care workers who testified to the Joint Judiciary Committee in May said that attacks have become more frequent since then, and so have instances of verbal abuse and threats. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated that trend, said Josh Hannes, vice president of the Wyoming Hospital Association, during a committee meeting. Never has the violence been as escalated as it has been these last couple of years, said Tracy Garcia, chief nursing officer at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center. Between January 2021 and April of this year, Garcia said, the Cheyenne hospital has recorded 34 assaults. She said those include patients hitting, slapping, grabbing or kicking staff members, as well as sexual harassment, pulling hair and making threats to employees lives. In around a third of those cases, Garcia said, the patient was intoxicated or mentally ill. I strongly believe that its the right time to change the belief that its an expected part of our work, said Nicole Rooney, chief nursing officer at Laramies Ivinson Memorial Hospital, at the May committee meeting. The current draft of the bill, which is set to be discussed at a committee meeting next week in Casper, would make assault or battery against a health care worker doing their job a misdemeanor offense. Simple assault or threats would carry a penalty of up to $750, and battery would carry the same plus the potential of up to six months incarceration. Verbal assault, while nasty and mean is a far different thing than physical abuse, Sen. John Kolb, R-Rock Springs, said at the May meeting. Of course, assault and battery are already crimes, lawmakers pointed out. But health care workers are seeking a special carveout within those crimes, similar to those already in place for assaults against police or detention officers. Health care workers told the committee that cases of worker attacks are likely under reported, and are often only prosecuted when law enforcement officers responding to the scene are attacked themselves. Its already difficult to staff our facilities, Hannes said, and I think its important that as a state we stand up and we say that this behavior is not going to be tolerated ever. While hospitals around the state have increased security, adding officers or cameras to deter attacks, Hannes said funding is tight everywhere and often cant cover additional measures. Seven independents, seven Libertarians and three Constitution Party candidates will be on the ballot for the Legislature in Novembers general election the highest number of minor-party and unaffiliated candidates since at least 1998, according to secretary of state records. Those numbers align with recent election patterns, according to Jim King, a professor of political science at the University of Wyoming. Most of these candidates are running in districts lacking a two-party competition. Only one Senate race and two House races with both Republican and Democratic candidates also have an independent or minor-party candidate vying for the seat. Some candidates say their choice to run outside the two-party system is in response to the statehouses declining decorum and a fractured super-majority Republican party. Independents Brenda Lyttle is running as an independent for House District 8, a new district encompassing much of North Cheyenne. Her sole opponent is Republican and former legislator Dave Zwonitzer, who served as a state representative from 2006-2016. I dont have to worry about the party labels. I can just say, Heres me, heres what Im for, said Lyttle, who works as a private practice attorney. She previously worked for the Wyoming Department of Family Services, a job that introduced her to the Legislature. I saw a lot of work getting done and I saw Democrats and Republicans being able to work together, Lyttle said. But name calling, dissension and party infighting have since gotten in the way of productivity, Lyttle said. Lyttle is not the first to make this observation. Lawmakers expressed concern this spring that despite spending more time and money to meet, they are passing fewer committee bills into law. During the 2022 budget session, only 59% of introduced committee bills survived to become law a 23-year low, according to the Legislative Service Office. Lyttle acknowledged that other independents running for the Legislature may have different political views from her education funding and Medicaid expansion would be her top priorities but said shes encouraged by the fact that seven are running. It shows that its not just me who is saying we need to break through some of this party gridlock and get some things done, she said. Jim Roscoe (I-Wilson), the Legislatures sole independent member, is not seeking re-election this year, choosing instead to endorse another independent candidate Bob Strobel. Despite being a lifelong Republican, Strobel said hes running as an independent because of the political diversity of House District 22. Before redistricting, it included parts of Teton, Lincoln and Sublette counties. It now comprises parts of the first two. But as an independent, Strobel said hell be able to bring together progressive types from southern Teton County with Republicans closer to where he lives with his family in Etna. While he sees his governing approach as less about his own political opinions and more about the will of voters, Strobel said there are some issues he wont waiver on, like public lands. He does not support turning federal lands over to the state. Strobel will face Republican Andrew Byron in the general election. Other independent candidates include Dan Brecht in House District 4, Todd Peterson in House District 5, Bruce Jones in House District 6 and Jeff Martin in House District 54. After losing a Republican write-in campaign for Senate District 23, Patricia Junek will also run as an independent against Speaker of the House Eric Barlow (R-Gillette). Barlow earned 3,355 votes in the primary election, while 814 were Republican write-ins. How many of those were for Junek is unknown, according to the Campbell County Clerks office, since write-ins were not processed when they did not exceed the number of votes for the candidate on the ballot. Minor-party candidates The Constitution Party of Wyoming was first organized in 2010. The 2022 general election will mark the most legislative candidates the group has ever had on a Wyoming ballot one candidate running for the state Senate and two for the state House. All three candidates came to the party for the same reason, according to Chairman Jeff Haggit. They were disappointed, or upset or disillusioned, however you want to word it, with the Republican Party, Haggit said. What sets his party apart from the GOP is a deeper commitment to our God-given right of life, liberty and the ownership and control of property, according to Haggit. We dont try to test the winds of political change and maybe try to appease the general movement, said Haggit, who feels the GOP has moved to the left. Overall, the Constitution Partys numbers in the state have not changed significantly in the last couple of years, Haggit said, but he thinks this year marks the start of something. He also believes voters have grown more open to voting outside of the two major parties. The three Constitution candidates include Michael Ray Williams in Senate District 11, Matthew Freeman in House District 41 and Larry Williamson in House District 53. The Libertarian Party has made greater strides as a minor party in Wyoming in recent years. In 2020, voters elected the first minor-party legislator in more than a century when Rep. Marshall Burt (L-Green River) beat incumbent Democrat Stan Blake for House District 39. Burt was also the first Libertarian anywhere in the country to win a statehouse race since 2002. Even with one of the most fiscally conservative voting records in the statehouse, I have built relationships with legislators with all ideologies to explore better ways forward, Burt said in a July Facebook post. During his first term, Burt was lead sponsor of Wyomings first tri-partisan piece of legislation. House Bill 81 Operation of motorcycles-disabled persons, which is now law, updated motorcycle operation and equipment requirements to allow for use by persons with disabilities. Also a first, House Speaker Barlow allowed Burt to form a caucus for the Libertarian Party during the 2022 session, despite being the bodys only member. Burt will face Republican Cody Wylie in the general election. Neither Burt nor the Libertarian Party of Wyoming responded to WyoFiles requests for comment. Other Libertarian candidates include Patrick Gonzales in House District 15, Dennis Laughlin in House District 18, Misty Morris in House District 48, Carrie Satterwhite in House District 50, Bethany Baldes in House District 55 and Amanda Padilla in Senate District 17. Libertarian and Constitution Party candidates are also in the running for governor and Wyomings U.S. House seat. The general election is Nov. 8. TERM Finance (St Lucia) Ltd has obtained regulatory clearance to proceed with the acquisition of FastCash (St Lucia) Ltd. FastCash Ltd is a subsidiary of the FastCash Group which has grown to become one of the largest unsecured consumer lenders in the Eastern Caribbean. The Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) intends to place a heavier focus on dismantling organised crime in this country. Speaking with the Sunday Express last week, acting Commissioner of Police McDonald Jacob said that over the next few months, improvements will be brought to the TTPS investigative capacity, capabilities, and methodologies, all with the direct intent of pulling apart organised crime and making this country a safer place. 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. Dont get me wrong: the list of things Id rather not reprise from the pandemic lockdown is far longer than any pros that came out of it. One thing I actually miss? Presenters had rarely been so collaborative, pooling their creativity and resources in a swelling tide that lifted all ships, no matter how tempestuous the waters. As usual, fall promises an array of classical music events so varied that its practically impossible to identify a common denominator, much less select highlights. (Goodness knows we try.) But if theres one motif that recurred in our scan of fall events, its that calendars are looking fuller lets not use that normal word just yet while retaining the shutdowns team spirit. Cultural Goliaths (the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Joffrey Ballet) and smaller Davids (Access Contemporary Music and Chicago Fringe Opera) alike copresent performances this fall, bringing a double meaning to team player. Advertisement At the CSO, music director Riccardo Muti begins his final year. Below are our fall picks: Advertisement The Berlin Phil is back: The return of touring orchestras might be the surest harbinger of normalcy, or something like it, at Symphony Center. The Berlin Philharmonic, primus inter pares among the worlds top orchestras, visits Chicago for the first time since 2009, meaning its also new chief conductor Kirill Petrenkos first time leading the ensemble here. They play Gustav Mahlers offbeat Symphony No. 7, following the Petrenko/Philharmonic teams recording of the composers Sixth last year. That interpretation trades emotional torrents for the grandeur of a crystal-clear lake: One could see every crevice and trench below, the topography breathtaking and not a whit less terrifying. I cant wait to take the plunge again. 8 p.m. Nov. 16 at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave.; tickets $70-$399, cso.org Vicky Chow is the pianist for the Bang on a Can All-Stars. She'll be performing the work of Philip Glass at Constellation in Chicago. (Kaitlin Jane) Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday : Yes, Philip Glasss actual 85th birthday was way back in January. But, yknow, hes Philip Glass, so he kind of gets a pass for protracted festivities. The composers birthday year plows on courtesy of Third Coast Percussion and its American premiere of a lush new arrangement of Aguas da Amazonia, which the quartet also recorded on 2018s Paddle to the Sea. Then, Bang on a Can All-Star pianist Vicky Chow marks the occasion with a new album of the first book of Glass piano etudes (Cantaloupe Records), performed live in a record release show at Constellation. Aguas da Amazonia is 7 p.m. Sept. 13 at the Field Museum, 1400 S. DuSable Lake Shore Drive; tickets $25-$30 at thirdcoastpercussion.com Vicky Chow: Philip Glass Piano Etudes, 8:30 p.m. Oct. 1 at Constellation, 3111 N. Western Ave.; tickets $5-$15 at constellation-chicago.org A changing of the CSO guard: After helming the orchestra for 13 seasons, Muti steps down as CSO music director in the spring. His tails will have barely swept out the door when serious contenders to succeed him sweep through Orchestra Hall like distant possibility Christian Thielemann, of commensurate (if controversial) stature but not seen here since 1995, and Manfred Honeck, re-upped at the Pittsburgh Symphony through 2028 but fresh off a buzzy European tour with that orchestra. However, with a likely yearslong caesura between Mutis tenure and, well, whoevers, why get ahead of ourselves? Opening night features pianist Yefim Bronfman in Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 and Tchaikovskys Symphony No. 2 you see it frequently subtitled The Ukrainian these days as a sweat-free solidarity gesture, replacing the fraught Little Russian moniker thats tailed the symphony for generations. If reports of its recent re-premiere in the UK are to be believed, Coleridge-Taylors Solemn Prelude will be the highlight, the once-lost 1899 work now rediscovered and reconstructed after its orchestral parts were lost. Muti & Bronfman is Sept. 22-27, tickets $45-$299; Thielemann Conducts Bruckner 8 is Oct. 20-25; tickets $35-$250; Honeck, Capucon & Shostakovich 5 is Nov. 17-20; tickets $45-$275. All performances are at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave. at cso.org South Chicago Dance Theatre founder and artistic director Kia S. Smith, center, takes a break with the company's dancers during a rehearsal at Hyde Park School of Dance in Chicago on April 27, 2022. The company collaborates this fall with Music of the Baroque. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune) Double bills with dancers: Baroque music as we know it wouldnt exist without Baroque dance, yet todays bourees and chaconnes are almost always divorced from the footwork that inspired them. Two collaborations remedy that this fall: South Chicago Dance Theatre joins Music of the Baroque for a program centered around hero narratives, featuring a new work set to Michael Praetoriuss aptly named Terpsichore, then a month later, the CSO and Joffrey Ballet team up for premieres choreographed to Jean-Philippe Rameaus Platee and Richard Wagners Siegfried Idyll. Also on that program is Maurice Ravels Le tombeau de Couperin, the 20th century composers own throwback to Baroque sonics. Baroque Heroes abbreviated program 2 p.m. Oct. 8 at Hamilton Park, 513 W. 72nd St., free. Full program 3 p.m. Oct. 9, North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Boulevard, Skokie; tickets $35-$100; and 7:30 p.m. Oct. 11, Harris Theater, 205 E. Randolph St.; tickets $25-$100 at baroque.org CSO and the Joffrey Ballet, Nov. 10-12 at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave.; tickets $49-$275 at cso.org Each one, teach one: The benefits of appointing a single composer in residence at the CSO instead of the slightly awkward tandem approach of yesteryear became obvious during Missy Mazzolis recent tenure. Just one season into Jessie Montgomerys, its all but undeniable. Not only do the composers themselves get more stage time, but MusicNOW is at the top of its game in time for its 25th season, thanks to a unified curatorial vision. And this years theme is a heartwarmer: For each program, Montgomery pairs two composers one of whom cites the other as an influence in a cross-generational musical dialogue. First up are Alvin Singleton and Carlos Simon; later, its stringheads Xavier Foley and Mark OConnor. Perspectives is 7 p.m. Oct. 24; Common Ground is 7 p.m. Nov. 21 at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave.; tickets $30-$50 at cso.org Lyrics very Verdi autumn: Its the last season two eminent Verdians will helm the two biggest classical music institutions in the city at the same time. Enrique Mazzola, freshly minted as Lyrics music director, is wasting no time diving into Verdis oeuvre, starting with the composers early pillar Ernani; tenor Russell Thomas and soprano Tamara Wilson rekindle their crackling chemistry from Lyrics 2018 Il trovatore in the lead roles. After that, buckle up: For the first time in the companys history, Lyric presents Don Carlos in the original French version all five acts of it in a production borrowed from Oper Frankfurt of Germany. Tenor Joshua Guerrero, a standout in his Lyric debut last year as Macduff in Macbeth, sings the title role. Ernani through Oct. 1, and Don Carlos Nov. 9-25 at Lyric Opera House, 20 N. Upper Wacker Drive; tickets $40-$330 at lyricopera.org Theres no I in opera: After a cautious comeback, our small-to-midsize company scene roars back, thanks to some first-time collaborations. Teaming up with Chicago Fringe Opera, Access Contemporary Music builds ever more ambitiously from its cinephile inclinations with an operatic adaptation of the 1962 short film La Jetee, its post-apocalyptic storyline told only through still frames. The same month, Chicago Opera Theater gives the local premiere of King Roger, a too-dusty pearl by Polish composer Karol Szymanowski; theyre aided by the chamber chorus of the Lira Ensemble, the metro areas foremost exponents of Polish music and dance, here making their COT debut. La Jetee is 8:30 p.m. Nov. 8 and 10 at Constellation, 3111 N. Western. Ave.; tickets $5-$10 at constellation-chicago.com King Roger is 7:30 p.m. Nov. 18 and 3 p.m. Nov. 20 at Harris Theater, 205 E. Randolph St.; ticket pricing TBA at chicagooperatheater.org This story has been updated to correct information about the background of Don Carlos at Lyric Opera. Advertisement Hannah Edgar is a freelance writer. The Rubin Institute for Music Criticism helps fund our classical music coverage. The Chicago Tribune maintains editorial control over assignments and content. Queen Elizabeth II waves to the crowd during the Platinum Jubilee Pageant at the Buckingham Palace in London, Sunday, June 5, 2022, on the last of four days of celebrations to mark the Platinum Jubilee. Queen Elizabeth II, BritainAos longest-reigning monarch and a rock of stability across much of a turbulent century, has died. She was 96. Buckingham Palace made the announcement in a statement on Thursday Sept. 8, 2022. Photo: AP One man is in custody while police search for other suspects after two men were assaulted by A serious crime: Clinton White, right, Regional Representative, US Agency for International Development (USAID)/Eastern and Southern Caribbean, takes a group photo with, from left, Jewel Ali, head of Office, International Organisation for Migration, Gender and Child Affairs; Minister Ayanna Webster-Roy; US Embassy Charge dAffaires Shante Moore; and Social Development Minister Donna Cox during Wednesdays launch of the Heal, Empower, RiseCounter Trafficking in Persons project at The BRIX Autograph Collection, in St Anns. Photo: ROBERT TAYLOR There are good reasons the Worlds of Words Center at the University of Arizona is popularly known as WOW, and the acronym is only one of them. Last week, students from Paulo Freire Freedom School visited the center as part of an eighth-grade field trip. While there, they explored an exhibit featuring paper sons a generation of Chinese immigrants who came to the U.S. with false identifies. Many of those young men were of middle-school age, themselves, and upon hearing of their harrowing experience one young Tucsonan could think of only one thing to say: Wow! Opened in 2007, the Worlds of Words Center of Global Literacies and Literature is a research library and resource center at UAs College of Education. Most visibly, it is a collection of 40,000 books. Look closer, and you see they are all written for children and young adults and they introduce children from all over the world. But the Worlds of Words Center is more than a treasure trove of childrens books. The center offers a variety of programs and curriculums to help students learn about cultures other than our own. Credit UA Professor Kathy Short, who first presented her concept to Dean Ron Marx in 2005. As a professor here, I was in the Department of Language, Reading and Culture, said Short, still the program director today. My focus as an educator was on inquiry and curriculums, not just here in the U.S. but all around the world. When I traveled, I saw that kids elsewhere had a knowledge of the cultures around them that I didnt see here in the U.S. I wanted to start changing that. Her primary audience: schoolteachers. Their tools: books. We wanted to offer programs that would help educators teach children about other countries and other cultures, Short said. All kids everywhere love books. There were lots to choose from. WOW isnt a library books arent available for checkout but the center is open to the public six days a week at 1430 E. Second St. Students, teachers, parents and kids are invited to enjoy the collection in-person. The Worlds of Words website (wowlit.org) is the real treasure trove, especially for college students and teachers. Sample curriculums, lesson plans, book recommendations and other educational materials attract thousands of visitors a month from all over the world. Closer to home, the center loans nation-specific teaching kits to Tucson-area schools. We have global story boxes that teachers can use in their own classrooms, Short explained. For example, if youre teaching children about Russia you can pick up a box with 20-25 picture books about different aspects of Russian culture. There might be a few books written in Russian so the children can see what words in Russian look like. The box might also have flash cards, photos or a CD so kids can hear what a story sounds like there. Some of them have games that a Russian child might play in school. Kits are available from Mexico, Peru, Chile, Korea, China, Somalia, Kenya, Nepal and the Middle East. These boxes are intended for grades second through eighth, but WOW also has picture book boxes for ages 4-5. There is also a box to help a teacher talk about sign language for the deaf, Short said. One of WOWs newer programs is called Imagination Fridays, a series co-sponsored by the Tucson Festival of Books. Authors and illustrators are featured in online presentations that are available free on the centers website. For those visiting the collection in the College of Education, new exhibits are offered each semester. This fall, one of them features childrens books from Ukraine. Another spotlights the picture book Paper Son: Lees Journey to America, written by Helen Foster James and Virginia Shin-Mui Loh. It was illustrated with paintings by Wilson Ong, who will be at Worlds of Words for a reception on Oct. 27. Ongs father was a paper son who came to the U.S. with fraudulent papers during a time when Chinese immigration was essentially barred by the U.S. government. The father came to America on a ship called the Woodrow Wilson, which explains the artists first name. Its a fascinating story, Short said. During the Chinese Exclusion Act and for a time after that, Chinese people couldnt come to this country unless they had a parent already living here. So for the right fee, someone would attest that a Chinese child was theirs whether it was true or not and give the government specific information about their past. The children would be tested on these points, and if they failed the test they were shipped back home. Thousands of Chinese children came to the U.S. this way, most through Angel Island in San Francisco Bay. Angel Island was the West Coast equivalent of Ellis Island, and a small museum there honors these immigrants even today. Stories such as this one prove that kids arent the only ones whose eyes can be opened by visiting Worlds of Words. I dont think the community really knows how much were doing or how much wed like to do, Short said, but rest assured. The wow factor there is real. Footnotes Got books? A Community Book Drive benefitting Salpointe Catholic High School is winding down in the next few days. Salpointes English department library was lost during the campus fire there this summer. Local do-gooders have invited Tucson to help Salpointe restock its shelves. For more information, visit tucsonfestivalofbooks.org. Worlds of Words moved from the College of Education basement to the fourth floor in 2014, thanks to a $1.2 million renovation of an under-utilized college computer lab. The UA Poetry Center will present poet Lorna Dee Cervantes in a free, open-to-the-public reading Thursday at 7 p.m. Info: tucne.ws/1lay The Citizens Clean Elections Commission rejected a demand by Democratic candidate Katie Hobbs to scrap the traditional gubernatorial debate. The panel voted 3-1 Thursday to spurn a request by Hobbs to replace the 60-minute moderated head-to-head debate instead with a town hall. The town hall would have given each candidate 30 minutes alone, subject only to questions by Ted Simons, a host on the Phoenix PBS affiliate station. I dont support the town hall style, said commission Chairman Damien Meyer. Our mission is to have debates, not town halls, added Galen Paton. He said candidates are free to make such arrangements elsewhere. But the commission agreed Thursday to give Hobbs one week to decide whether there are any conditions under which she would agree to share the stage Oct. 12 with Republican Kari Lake in a debate. Plans are to have the event aired live not only on PBS but other stations throughout the state. The odds of that happening, though, appear slim, as Hobbs campaign manager, Nicole DeMont, told commissioners her candidate has no interest in participating in what has been the traditional back and forth moderated by Simons. DeMont said Lakes actions during the GOP primary debate show she would make the general election debate into a spectacle. You cant debate a conspiracy theorist, she said. She sidestepped a question from Meyer about whether there were any conditions under which Hobbs would appear for a debate. Im not going to answer a hypothetical question, DeMont responded. But if Hobbs ultimately wont participate, that doesnt kill the entire plan. Commissioners said they instead would give Lake, who already has agreed to a full debate format, 30 minutes on her own to answer questions from Simons with no input from or opportunity for Hobbs to respond. The commission has conducted debates every election since being created by voters in 1998. Strictly speaking, only candidates that get public funds for their campaigns, administered by the commission, are legally required to participate. And both Hobbs and Lake are using private donations. The record, however, shows every gubernatorial candidate has agreed not only to participate but also to the format, which consists of questions directed at them by the moderator but also provides the opportunity for them to interact with and question each other. It is that format that Hobbs finds unacceptable. She is willing and enthusiastic to participate in a substantive conversation that would allow Arizonans the chance to compare the ideas, policies and solutions of their candidates, DeMont told commissioners. However, we dont believe that is what Kari Lakes intention is here, she continued. Its pretty clear that she only wants to create another spectacle. She suggested that includes Lake resurrecting her theories that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump. So, when she decides to come back to reality, accept the results of our free and fair elections, then we can start to have a real policy debate, DeMont said. Attorney Timothy LaSota, who represents Lake, told commissioners they should not change the rules to protect Hobbs against uncomfortable questions. This is an unprecedented request by a gubernatorial candidate to alter the rules of the debate, he said. LaSota said theres no reason to believe Simons cannot keep the discussion fair, and called Hobbs excuses for not wanting to debate a cop out. The fact that Katie Hobbs tries to blame someone else because shes simply unwilling to show up on the same stage and debate her record, debate the issues, that is nobodys fault but Katie Hobbs, he said. LaSota, in saying Lake wants a debate on issues, also provided a hint of what his candidate is likely to say in a head-to-head with Hobbs. He told commissioners that Hobbs is blame shifting, reminiscent of when she was found to have racially and sexually discriminated against Talonya Adams. That is based on two separate civil trials in federal court where jurors concluded Adams, a Senate Democratic staffer who is Black, was the victim of retaliation for asking to be paid the same as white staffers. Hobbs was the Senate minority leader at the time. Commissioners, while ruling a town hall is off the table and insisting on the debate format, did acknowledge at least some of the concerns Hobbs has about a freewheeling event. They said they would consider some possible guardrails if she agrees to participate. I think that there is merit to trying to maybe give a little more structure and some minor modifications to this debate process, just so we have both candidates have a complete understanding of what the rules will be, what the consequences will be if those rules are broken, Meyer said. That could even could include turning off someones microphone, he said. A weird thing happened after the movie 2000 Mules made a big splash this spring, claiming to have documented fraud in the 2020 election in Arizona and other states. The makers have not provided their evidence to investigators, most recently in Arizona. Axios Phoenix reported that the movies makers, a group called True the Vote, refused multiple requests from the (Arizona) attorney generals office to provide evidence or data supporting the ballot-harvesting allegations it made in the movie. We have continually asked for information that has not been provided, Ryan Anderson, a spokesperson for the AGs office, told Axios. In response to the story, True the Votes Gregg Phillips told the Arizona Sun Times that the group had turned over the requested evidence, but that the Attorney Generals Office did nothing except send weird letters. And in the end it became clear, all they were ever trying to do is discredit us. The fiasco in Phoenix is the latest in a series of setbacks that have occurred when the movies allegations have been tested in real life, even by potentially sympathetic officials, like Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican. The movie, directed by Dinesh DSouza, uses cellphone geolocation data to argue that mules hired by Democrat-supporting nonprofit organizations dumped fraudulent ballots into drop boxes. It has been broadly criticized for making claims that far outstrip its evidence. In Georgia, a Republican-majority state elections board looked into an election-fraud claims made by True the Vote but dismissed them. They also asked to speak with a whistleblower whom DSouza claimed to have consulted, but that whistleblower was never made available. In May the Yuma County sheriff rejected DSouzas claim that his movie had led to an investigation in Yuma County. These ongoing investigations are not related to or inspired by any movie or celebrity figure, Sheriff Leon Wilmot said, as reported by the Arizona Mirror. In mid-August, Phillips, one of the leaders of True the Vote, claimed to have uploaded some of the groups materials to a new website. Within a few days it was attacked by Chinese hackers not just attacked but stripped, he claimed Aug. 16. At the same presentation, he and Catherine Engelbrecht of True the Vote also declared it was the end of Mules. End Scene, were done. Its time to move on, Engelbrecht said, adding that her focus is on the midterm elections this year. This month, the publisher of a book version of the movie recalled the book from stores citing an unspecified publishing error. Viva Coffee closes A Tucson coffee shop that became a hub of conservative gatherings in recent years is closing. Viva Coffee House, 9136 E. Valencia Road, hosted events in 2020 and 2021, in part in response to government mandates related to the COVID-19 pandemic. It came to prominence because of the activities of Kelly Walker, who became known around Tucson when he protested pandemic mandates at a September 2020 Pima County Board of Supervisors meeting. Walker was the shop's main promoter, but his in-laws, Cheryl and Rick Dunker, say he never owned it. Walker established a series of events called Freedom Talks that featured, among others, Dinesh DSouza and other nationally known speakers. In an email Thursday, Cheryl Dunker blamed Walker for the shops demise, saying they tried to keep it open but could not overcome unpaid debt. Unfortunately, our coffee house was used and abused by Kelly Walker to serve his needs, Dunker wrote. He left us with a mountain of debt, which he never disclosed to us, and a horrible reputation during his claim of ownership. We were looking forward to rebranding and serving our community properly without all the drama Kelly laid at our feet, she went on. Walker disputed the Dunkers' version of events on the Viva Coffee House Facebook page and on Instagram. He said he was an owner of the business from the beginning and had a plan to rescue it with a new partner "When the economy went south, this Biden economy, it was just too much," he said. "The combination of hyper inflation with the cost of goods going up and less profit, fuel prices, our numbers dropped and our expenses went up." Walker described a confrontation that took place in July, in which he said the Dunkers had the locks changed while he was out, and an armed security guard pushed him away. Walker is scheduled to go on trial Sept. 15 on misdemeanor trespassing charges for a Sept. 2, 2021, incident in which he and two other men went to Mesquite Elementary School in the Vail district to confront a principal over a quarantine requirement. They were carrying zip ties and Walker threatened to make a citizens arrest. Supervisors add Juneteenth holiday Pima County employees will now get an extra day off for Juneteenth. The Pima County Board of Supervisors added the holiday Tuesday in a 4-to-1 vote. Supervisor Steve Christy said during the meeting that he voted against the extra holiday because he wanted to wait until a compensation study being done by a firm the county hired in July is completed. It could take about eight months to complete. Theres been no cost analysis, Christy said during the meeting about adding another day off for about 6,400 people the county employs The Biden Administration approved Juneteenth as a federal holiday in June 2021. Like Cesar Chavez Remembrance Day, county employees can take a day off anytime during the month of the holiday. Juneteenth marks the date the last slaves were freed in Galveston, Texas, in 1865. I am proud that Pima County employees now will have the opportunity to honor and celebrate Juneteenth as a holiday in June every year, District 5 Supervisor Adelita Grijalva said in a news release. Pima County residents have celebrated Juneteenth for 52 years as a community and the passing of the Juneteenth holiday in Pima County is long overdue. Offensive relics are being wiped off the map by the Biden administration in Arizona and elsewhere. The U.S. Interior Department announced Thursday that 650 geographic features across the county have been relabeled to remove the derogatory and misogynistic word squaw from their names. As a result, 66 canyons, creeks, peaks, springs, valleys and other sites in Arizona now have new names. Words matter, particularly in our work to make our nations public lands and waters accessible and welcoming to people of all backgrounds, said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in February, when the department released a list of candidate names for the various sites. Consideration of these replacements is a big step forward in our efforts to remove derogatory terms whose expiration dates are long overdue. The new names were developed by a 13-member panel from eight federal agencies, in consultation with tribal representatives, local officials and others. It will take time for the changes to show up on maps and signs, but they became official with a recent vote by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, an executive branch office established in 1890 to track and regulate what things are called. Arizona had the third highest number of features that needed to be renamed, behind only California with 80 and Idaho with 71. No names were changed in Pima County. The closest sites to Tucson include a peak and a gulch at the southern end of the Santa Rita Mountains in Santa Cruz County; a creek, a reservoir and a saddle in the Galiuro Mountains in Graham County; and a peak at the edge of Sonoran Desert National Monument in Maricopa County west of Casa Grande. The 5,761-foot peak in the southern Santa Ritas, east of Tumacacori, will henceforth be known as Santa Rita Peak, and the watershed on its eastern slope will be known as Santa Rita Gulch. The Galiuro Mountains are now home to Santa Teresa Creek, Santa Teresa Tank and Rattlesnake Saddle. The aforementioned mountain west of Casa Grande was changed to Sand Tank Peak. A complete list of the new names along with an interactive map is available online through the U.S. Geological Survey, which works in partnership with the Board on Geographic Names. The nationwide renaming process began in November, when Haaland issued an order officially declaring squaw a derogatory term and directing the removal of the term from federal usage. Secretarial Order 3404 cites similar efforts in the 1960s and 1970s targeting pejorative terms for Black people and Japanese people. Arizona-born Interior Secretary Stewart Udall ordered the removal of the racial slur for Blacks in 1962, noting that unquestionably a great many people now consider it derogatory or worse. The same is true of the word at the center of the current action. The time has come to recognize that the term squaw is no less derogatory than others which have been identified and should also be erased from the National landscape and forever replaced, Haaland wrote in Order 3403. The Interior Department did not spell out the offending word in Thursdays news release announcing the name changes, referring to it instead as sq___. According to Interior officials, the term has historically been used as an offensive ethnic, racial and sexist slur, particularly for Indigenous women. To oversee the task of identifying and renaming offending sites across the country, Haaland established a Derogatory Geographic Names Task Force led by the Geological Survey and made up of representatives from the bureaus of Indian Affairs, Land Management, and Safety and Environmental Enforcement; the National Park Service; the U.S. Forest Service; the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and the Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Civil Rights. Almost 70 tribes participated in the process, which produced more than 1,000 name-change recommendations. Before this comprehensive effort to stamp out the word, local groups and individuals had to petition the federal naming board themselves to remove it from features in their areas. Over the past 20 years, the Board on Geographic Names has received some 261 piecemeal proposals to change the names of places because of the slur. In 2008, the board approved a petition to rename a prominent Phoenix mountain Piestewa Peak, after Army Spc. Lori Piestewa, the first American Indian woman to die in combat while serving in the U.S. military. In 2021, an Arizona group convinced the board to strip a particularly distasteful name from a pair of rock formations south of I-8 near Gila Bend, naming them instead after Isanaklesh, a female Apache deity whose name means Mother Earth. And, also last year, the owners of the historic Squaw Valley ski resort, which hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics on the California side of Lake Tahoe, announced they were dropping their racist and sexist slur of a name. The resort is now known as Palisades Tahoe a change that did not require the blessing of the federal naming board, which does not concern itself with so-called administrative features such as schools, churches, cemeteries, hospitals, airports and ski resorts. With her order last year, Haaland was hoping to significantly speed up and expand the name changing process nationwide. The nations 54th Interior secretary is a member of the Pueblo of Laguna tribe and traces her roots in New Mexico back 35 generations. She is the first Native American to lead the Interior Department or serve as a cabinet secretary. I feel a deep obligation to use my platform to ensure that our public lands and waters are accessible and welcoming. That starts with removing racist and derogatory names that have graced federal locations for far too long, Haaland said Thursday in a written statement. Together, we are showing why representation matters and charting a path for an inclusive America. From top to bottom, left to right: Leah Casey, Janet Ulrich Brooks, Larry Yando, Diana Coates, Peggy Roeder, Sean Blake, Karmann Bajuyo, Sam Boek, Ryan Imhoff and Sarah Lo in "Murder on the Orient Express" at Drury Lane Theatre. - Original Credit: (Brett Beiner Photo / HANDOUT) The late Brian Dennehy liked to tell a story about running into Lee J. Cobb just after the curtain had come down on the great actors depiction of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman. As Dennehy told it, it took Cobb many minutes to shake off his character; his encapsulation was so intense that his head remained stuck in the role even after the rest of his body headed to the bar. Larry Yando, the inimitably essential Chicago actor, looked very much that way at the opening night bows at the Drury Lane Theatre on Thursday night. Advertisement Yet more remarkably, that Cobb-like intensity was achieved not in a great American tragedy like Arthur Millers but in playing Hercule Poirot, the Agatha Christie detective, in Murder on the Orient Express. If you recall the plot of this thriller (and I wont spoil things if you have never seen or read it, or more likely have forgotten it), youll know that the Belgian detective, Christies most famous and enduring character, has a kind of Inspector Javert moment once he has figured out the perpetrator of the murder du jour, in this case taking place on the titular train, somewhere in the former Yugoslavia in the 1930s. Advertisement Diana Coates, Peggy Roeder and Larry Yando in "Murder on the Orient Express" at Drury Lane Theatre. (Brett Beiner Photo / HANDOUT) In the book, Poirot ponders whether he has occasioned justice to be served and truly punished the guilty. Most productions of this show blow that part off, reckoning that the audience for Ken Ludwigs adaptation is there to enjoy the whodunit. But here, director Jessica Fisch has far greater ambitions and Yando is ready to bare his soul, just as he does seasonally when his famous Scrooge decides to follow a new path. Truly, it is quite something to see. Yando turns Poirot into an everyman figure, not the usual idiosyncratic gotcha figure but a struggling soul lost in a sea of moral difficulty. And, yes, Im aware this is a review of Murder on the Orient Express. This is, overall, a very ambitious production from Fisch, attempting far more than your usual suburban thriller. Andrew Boyces design, which spins from hotel to station to train and then spins around the carriages to show you all sides, got at least three separate rounds of applause on opening night, all fully deserved. Anthony Churchill, the projections designer, has created a show all of his own; dont miss the opening sequence. Sean Blake and Larry Yando in "Murder on the Orient Express" at Drury Lane Theatre. (Brett Beiner Photo / HANDOUT) Not everything works. Not all of the supporting characters pop as they should (there appears to be some last-minute cast changes and some unevenness of style and pacing persists) and the emotional underpinning of all that is being attempted here doesnt yet feel entirely solid. Ideally, Fisch would have added more of the traditional moment-by-moment tension and menace to her larger ambitions, although, in fairness, this limited adaptation only supports so much of that. Still, Janet Ulrich Brooks, playing a loud, rich American (or is she?) is a hoot all night, and there is nuanced work to enjoy from Sean Blake, playing the worried maestro of the Orient Express, now in the hands of a man who now might steer it anywhere. The skilled likes of Peggy Roeder and Leah Morrow are also on hand. Above all, heres a courageous show that tries to do for Agatha Christie what the director Stephen Daldry did for J.B. Priestley in An Inspector Calls. Its well worth a look. Chris Jones is a Tribune critic. cjones5@chicagotribune.com Advertisement Review: Murder on the Orient Express (3 stars) When: Through Oct. 23 Where: Drury Lane Theatre, 100 Drury Lane, Oakbrook Terrace Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes Tickets: $69-$84 (dinner available separately) at 630-530-0111 or drurylanetheatre.com A new report says that the names of hundreds of U.S. law enforcement officers, elected officials and military members appear on the leaked membership rolls of a far-right extremist group thats accused of playing a key role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. The Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism pored over more than 38,000 names on leaked Oath Keepers membership lists to find more than 370 people it believes are currently working in law enforcement agencies. Several people told The Associated Press they were briefly members years ago and are no longer affiliated with the group. MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) Authorities charged a man with murder Friday in the killing of two sheriff's deputies serving an arrest warrant on another person outside a suburban home near Atlanta. Cobb County Police Chief Stuart VanHoozer told reporters at a news conference that the deputies were attempting to arrest a man wanted on theft charges in the driveway of his home Thursday night when another man inside confronted them with a gun. A shootout ensued when the armed man refused commands to drop his weapon, VanHoozer said, and both deputies were fatally wounded. The shooting suspect and the man with the outstanding warrant were both arrested following a standoff with officers who swarmed the neighborhood. The two slain deputies were identified Friday as 42-year-old Jonathan Koleski and 38-year-old Marshall Ervin. They were outstanding men, men of character and integrity, family men loved by their families and their kids, Cobb County Sheriff Craig Owens told a news conference. Both men arrested at the scene made initial court appearances Friday afternoon. Christopher Golden, 30, was charged with two counts of felony murder and two counts of aggravated assault against law enforcement officers. Christopher Cook, 32, wasn't charged in the killings. But he was booked on six outstanding theft charges. Both men were denied bond. It was not immediately known if they had attorneys. VanHoozer declined to give specifics of what happened during the standoff that ended with the two men arrested, the home's front door out of its frame and windows broken. He did say there was no more gunfire after the deputies were shot and no other officers were injured. The sheriff had previously told reporters his deputies had been ambushed." On Friday afternoon, he deferred questions about the shootings to the county police chief, whose agency is conducting the investigation. VanHoozer said police had tried to be forthcoming with what they knew during an unfolding investigation in which they still had limited information. Asked if he would call the shootings an ambush, VanHoozer said: What Ive just given you are facts. Im not going to label it." Sprawling Cobb County, with more than 760,000 people, is just northwest of Atlanta and one of Georgias most populous counties. DALLAS (AP) A Dallas-area man was sentenced to 60 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to filming himself raping a 7-year-old girl, authorities said Friday. Mark Allen Miller, of Rowlett, was sentenced Thursday by a federal judge in Dallas after pleading guilty to two counts of producing child pornography, the U.S. attorney's office for the northern district of Texas said in a statement. Miller, 35, was arrested on Jan. 12 after the girls father, with whom Miller was staying, said he walked in on Miller raping the girl, who was 9 years old at the time. Miller admitted to police that he had been molesting the girl for years, the prosecution statement said. The father told investigators that he and Miller had been friends for more than a decade and that Miller was staying overnight at their home. The father heard a noise and went to check on it. When he saw that Miller wasn't in the living room where hed been sleeping, the father rushed to his daughters room and found Miller raping her. The father held Miller at gunpoint until police arrived. A forensic analysis of Miller's electronic devices revealed that he had produced at least five videos and 132 images of child pornography involving the victim dating back two years, to when she was 7. During the sentencing hearing, a Rockwall Police Department forensic analyst testified that Millers electronic devices contained more than 8,000 sexually explicit images of other children. The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer: Angela sat in my office in the counseling area of Catalina High School crying unconsolably. As the result of my constant urging for all eligible seniors to complete the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) she had taken the form home to get the household info needed. Because of a combination of fear and embarrassment, Angelas parents had never told her that they had come to the U.S., bringing her as an infant, escaping terror and economic woes in their home country, without documentation. Both her parents went to work every day, paid withholding taxes and sales taxes, and had built a life for her that she was sure was leading to the college education and nursing career she had worked so hard in her high school classes to achieve. Now that was beyond reach. Not only would she not qualify for any federal or state tuition help, the cost of out-of-state tuition at Pima Community College and the University of Arizona was triple that of in-state students. The term dreamers is normally defined as students brought here as young children without documentation, including those who might or might not qualify for DACA status. These are young people who have grown up in our community and gone to school alongside our own children. They may or may not speak their native language fluently and many have never even visited their places of origin since immigrating to the U.S. The Arizona Legislature passed a bipartisan bill last year (introduced by Republican state Sen. Paul Boyer) that will let voters decide if the state should expand in-state tuition access to dreamers who live in, and graduated from, high school in the state (Proposition 308). If enacted, Arizona would join more than 20 states including Florida, Texas, and Kansas that recognize the financial hardship that out-of-state tuition imposes on them. Research shows that as many as 3,600 current Arizona high school students could benefit from this measure. That translates into $28 million in additional earnings for a workforce with two- or four-year degrees and certificates, $23 million in additional spending power, and $4.9 million in local, state and federal tax revenue, according to the American Immigration Council. If Arizona is to continue to innovate and embrace the future of work, it must ensure that its workforce is equipped to meet employer demands in technology and the skilled trades. Our own community is faced with an ever-deepening shortage of well-trained workers in these areas. Look at the help wanted signs and online job listings for every auto repair, HVAC repair, aviation technology, electronic technology and major employers like Caterpillar and Raytheon. The public service sector in our community especially struggles to find qualified first responders, including police, fire and EMT job candidates that could benefit from degrees and certificates earned at PCC if offered at affordable tuition rates currently prohibited by state law. Most concerning for older folks like myself, is the dire status of available certificate and degree holding medical technicians, patient care assistants and registered nurses. According to online job postings, the overall demand in Arizona for candidates with health-care certificates increased from 2017 to 2021 by 147%. So, this becomes much more than just about Angela (she is on her way now with help from organizations such as Scholarships A-Z with some limited resources to offer scholarships to nonresident students) and the other 3,600 dreamers. It is about us as a community that desperately needs educated, skilled, certificate and degree bearing workers to ensure and improve the quality of life for everyone. To deny these students that chance to help themselves, their families and our entire community obtain that goal is not only morally untenable, it doesnt help anyone, no matter what your political stance is. Please consider a yes vote on Proposition 308 this November for all of us! The Oklahoma Corporation Commission has unanimously approved a proposed settlement in an Oklahoma Gas & Electric rate case that reduces the utilitys original request from $163.5 million to $30 million. Under the pact supported and offered by a majority of the parties, OG&E will issue a refund to ratepayers for tax expense savings from the reduction in the state corporate income tax rate. The impact to the average residential customer is estimated to be $2.07 per month, and the discount to customers in the Low Income Assistance Program will be increased by $3 per month. OG&E says it requested the adjustment to provide a more reliable, resilient, secure and efficient electric service to customers. The agreement proposes continued improvements to the OG&E electric grid, subject to a $6 million annual cap. OG&Es return on equity will remain at current levels (9.5%). The parties supporting the settlement included the Oklahoma attorney general, who represents all ratepayers before the commission, the Public Utility Division of the OCC, The Sierra Club, OG&E, Oklahoma Industrial Energy Consumers, Oklahoma Sustainability Network, Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives and Federal Executive Agencies. Two parties to the case, AARP and Walmart, declined to sign the agreement but indicated they had no objection to it. More than 10,000 AARP Oklahoma members reached out to the corporation commission with a clear message, no more rate hikes, AARP Oklahoma State Director Sean Voskuhl said in a statement. Despite their pleas, skyrocketing costs and OG&Es reported $360 million annual profit, the commissioners unanimously approved yet another unwarranted rate increase. AARP Oklahoma members were able to fight on behalf of all older Oklahomans to ensure the fixed monthly customer charge will not increase, and additional help is offered for lower-income seniors. Consumers also won with the rejection of an attempt by OG&E to introduce a new process that would have allowed for annual rate increases Earlier this summer, OG&E ratepayer-backed bonds issued to pay for added costs from the February 2021 winter storm reached about about $1.4 billion for a 28-year securitization. Featured video: Employers offering jobs in everything from software engineering to manufacturing to law enforcement set up shop Thursday at the Tulsa County fairgrounds. The Tulsa World Media Co. hosted more than 50 organizations at the companys career fair at Central Park Hall at Expo Square. The labor gap is evident. Through the last business day of July, about 11.2 million jobs were open in the United States, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Were expanding so were definitely looking to increase our head count, said LaToya Gordon, a recruiter at AAON. Based in Tulsa, AAON manufacturers commercial heating and cooling equipment. The company is seeking to enlarge its entry level worker pool by at least 400. Ive been with the company 11 months, and in the short time Ive been there, there has been so much growth, Gordon said. Every day, there are more plans and what the next hires are going to look like. Sam Hale is vice president of human resources at John Christner Trucking, which he said has about four to five openings. A lot of people see us and think we only need truck drivers, but its more than truck drivers, he said. We have a corporate office in Sapulpa. Were just trying to find some people. Its been difficult for everybody. Hale is referring to what many have termed The Great Resignation or The Big Quit. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, a record number of people left their jobs after an extended period of working from home with no commute. About one in five workers across the world are planning to quit work in 2022, according to the firm PwC. COVID had the biggest impact on everyone because people were able to stay at home and get the free assistance and things like that, Gordon said. Now, after trying to come back, people have had the chance to step away from work and actually spend time with their families. They are looking for that work-life balance, and so a 10- to 12-hour shift may not be ideal for them if its a single-parent home or even with two parents in the home. The phenomenon has left Hale puzzled. Ive scratched my head now for two years, he said. We thought once COVID was over with, people would come back. Once the stimulus ended, people would come back. Were just not seeing people come back. Im not sure if people have permanently exited the workforce or what. All of us are trying to figure out what is it going to take. A 20-mile commute from Tulsa is among the hurdles for Sofidel, a tissue maker that began operations in 2020 inside the Port of Inola. Thats a disadvantage that were not going to overcome, said Larry Gray, a learning development specialist for the company. Were a 24-7 facility, so scheduling can be tough for some people. But our pay is very competitive. And really even from a scheduling perspective, they work whats called a 2-2-3 shift, so, they most they ever work is three days in a row. They work two. They are off for two. They work three. Its kind of a nice thing. It averages 14 to 16 days in a month. Sofidels 1.8-million-square-foot factory employs about 380 people, a company spokesman told the Tulsa World earlier this year. Over the course of the next couple of years, were looking to almost double in size, Gray said. So were looking to really be filling about every position in the facility. You can only have so much of an online presence. This (career fair) gives us an opportunity to speak to career growth and salary progressions. We have a built-in laddering system that allows people to do some of that. It allows us to differentiate ourselves in those places where we feel we have strengths. Featured video: OKLAHOMA CITY Michael Thompson on Thursday announced his retirement as deputy director of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation after a lengthy public service record. Oct. 1 will be his last day in the office. He started working for the agency in early 2022. Deputy Director Thompson has been a breath of fresh air for the OSBI as the deputy director, said Aungela Spurlock, OSBI director. The insight that came from his years in law enforcement, coupled with his forward-thinking view and his ability to identify unique opportunities, was invaluable. We wish him well in his well-earned and well-deserved retirement. Thompson, 59, joined the Oklahoma National Guard in 1983. He began his career with the state in 1984 as a correctional officer with the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. He joined the Oklahoma Highway Patrol in 1990, rising to the rank of commissioner and Cabinet secretary for safety and security under former Gov. Mary Fallin. He was the first African American to hold the posts. During an interview in 2010, Thompson said his motto was Do the right thing. Thompson left the OHP in 2017 to serve as adjutant general for the Oklahoma National Guard, a post he held until 2021. He then went to work for the Army in Washington, D.C., before returning to Oklahoma to help lead the OSBI. Thompson is a combat veteran who received the Bronze Star and Combat Infantry Badge during two tours of duty in Iraq. He received the Humanitarian Service Medal following his deployment to New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Thompson said the work done in New Orleans was the highlight of his career and his proudest moment in uniform. He said he plans to travel and spend more time with his grandchildren. He is married to Debbie Thompson. The couple have two grown sons. Thompson is a graduate of Purcell High School. He holds a bachelors in criminal justice from Langston University and a masters in applied science from Oklahoma State University. He also holds a masters in national security and strategic studies from the Army War College. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy and the Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center. Thompson was elected to the Oklahoma Law Enforcement Hall of Fame in 2019. He will be in the 2023 Alumni Hall of Fame class at Oklahoma State University. Featured video: Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, right, speaks as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump looks on during the final presidential debate at the Thomas & Mack Center on the campus of the University of Las Vegas in Las Vegas on October 19, 2016. (Mark Ralston/Getty Images North America/TNS) A federal judge in Florida has dismissed Donald Trumps lawsuit against 2016 Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and former top FBI officials, rejecting the former presidents claims that they and others acted in concert to concoct the Russia investigation that shadowed much of his administration. U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks said in a sharply worded ruling on Thursday that Trumps lawsuit, filed in March, contained glaring structural deficiencies and that many of the characterizations of events are implausible. Advertisement He dismissed the idea that Trump had sued to correct an actual legal harm, saying that instead, he is seeking to flaunt a two-hundred-page political manifesto outlining his grievances against those that have opposed him, and this Court is not the appropriate forum. The lawsuit had named as defendants Clinton and some of her top advisers, as well as former FBI Director James Comey and other FBI officials involved in the investigation into whether Trumps 2016 presidential campaign had coordinated with Russia to sway the outcome of the election. Advertisement Other defendants include the founders of a political research firm that hired a former British spy to investigate ties between Trump and Russia, and a well-connected Democratic lawyer who was recently acquitted on a charge of lying to the FBI during a 2016 meeting in which he presented the bureau with information he wanted it to investigate. But none of the claims, the judge wrote, supported Trumps claims of a conspiracy against him. What the Amended Complaint lacks in substance and legal support it seeks to substitute with length, hyperbole, and the settling of scores and grievances, Middlebrooks wrote. A 2019 Justice Department inspector general report did identify certain flaws by the FBI during the Russia investigation, but did not find evidence that the bureaus leaders were motivated by political bias in opening the probe and said the inquiry was started for a legitimate purpose. A separate investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller produced criminal charges against nearly three dozen people and entities and found pervasive Russian interference in the election, but did not establish a criminal conspiracy with the Trump campaign. Alina Habba, a lawyer for Trump, said Friday that Trump would appeal the dismissal. Ireland is trying to ship more dairy, pork, and seafood products to the Vietnamese market in the near future, Minister of State at the Irish Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine Martin Heydon told a press meeting in Hanoi on Wednesday. The European island country exported 30 billion (US$29.96 billion) worth of goods to Vietnam in 2021, with dairy products accounting for 25 million ($24.95 million), seafood 4 million ($3.99 million), and processed food 1 million ($998,900). Heydon assessed that there is great potential in the trade relationship between the two countries, given the implementation of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), which can open up many cooperation opportunities. In accordance with the terms of the EVFTA, Irish milk exports to Vietnam will enjoy a tax rate of zero percent starting January 1, 2023, instead of 15 percent as at present. The Irish minister said Ireland wants to export safe, high-quality products to Vietnam so that Vietnamese consumers can have more choices. Among that, the dairy sector will be Irelands focus for an export increase in the Vietnamese market, according to Heydon. In addition to dairy, Ireland expects to export more pork and seafood products, which the European country is supplying to 180 countries around the world, to Vietnam. Regarding imports, Michael Murphy, CEO of the semi-state agency responsible for the promotion, trade development, and marketing of Irish food, drink, and horticulture, said that Ireland and many European countries are importing textiles and footwear from Vietnam. Murphy also highly appreciates the quality of rice, coffee, and mango produced by Vietnam, affirming the countrys need to import these products from the Southeast Asian country. It also pledges to be an effective cooperation partner of Vietnam in general, the CEO added. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! The Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HoSE) has warned national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines of the brink of delisting if it continues reporting losses. HoSE recently sent a notice to the national flag carrier, whose stock code is HVN, about the delisting risk. According to the Law on Securities, shares of a public company may be delisted if the firm has loss-making operations for three consecutive years or the accumulated losses exceed the charter capital. Vietnam Airlines risks delisting after suffering losses worth nearly VND11 trillion (US$467.5 million) and VND13 trillion ($552.6 million) in 2020 and 2021, respectively. The reviewed semi-annual consolidated financial statement of 2022 also recorded a loss of more than VND5 trillion ($212.5 million). By the end of this years second quarter, the airline had had an accumulative loss of approximately VND29 trillion ($1.2 billion), as well as negative equity of nearly VND4.9 trillion ($208.2 million). It will be delisted if the audited consolidated financial statement for 2022 continues to show losses and/or negative equity, HoSE warned. At this years general meeting, Vietnam Airlines set a target revenue of more than VND45.25 trillion ($1.9 billion), about 2.3 times higher than the same period last year. However, the company also expects a deficit of over VND9.33 trillion ($396.6 million) in 2022. Audit firm Deloitte previously commented that the carriers future operations will largely depend on financial support from the Vietnamese government and the extension of loan payments from commercial banks and credit institutions. In order to deal with existing difficulties, Vietnam Airlines has come up with a restructuring plan for the 2021-25 period. The national carrier said it would focus on controlling the accumulated loss, restructuring assets and investment portfolios, and preparing for share issuance to raise its equity. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Students across Vietnam dread using school toilets due to a severe shortage of such facilities, with the Ministry of Education and Training reporting some schools are only able to offer one restroom to every 210 students. In some localities, particularly in Vietnams northern mountainous region, the construction of restrooms relies solely on charity and private funding, leading to a dearth of toilets in educational facilities. Hanoi: too few for too many At the beginning of the 2022-23 school year, which started earlier this month, Hanoi was home to over 2,800 schools and more than 2.2 million students. During rush hours, especially during five-minute break times, all the stalls are occupied, said the parent of a child enrolled at a school in Van Chuong Ward, Dong Da District, Hanoi. My child usually doesnt have time to wait for their turn to use the toilet. An educational facility should house one urinal, one toilet, and one sink for every 30 boys or 20 girls, according to Vietnamese standards. Despite such standards, many schools in Hanoi feature only one male restroom and one female restroom on each floor. Unfortunately, a typical floor in a Hanoi-based school is home to ten classrooms with 50-55 students each. This pales in comparison to other localities, where some schools admit 1,500-2,000 students but provide only six to seven restrooms. This averages out at about 210 students per restroom. Broken, squalid facilities About 30 percent of school restrooms in Vietnam are substandard and in a state of degradation. Even in Hanoi, Vietnams capital city, only about 80 percent of schools operate with restrooms that meet national standards. At those schools, having too few restrooms means that the facilities degrade quicker and, unfortunately, there is no budget for maintenance, repair, and regular cleaning. As a result, broken sinks and toilets are loathed by students across the city. The few students who are brave enough to relieve themselves at schools are often unable to flush because the toilets are broken and are also unable to wash their hands because there is no soap or tap water. Some schools only provide squat toilets which use open-air drainage and are consistently overflowing with trash, garbage, and feces. A teacher guides a student to a bathroom dedicated to female use during their menstrual periods at Le Dinh Chinh Elementary School in District 10, Ho Chi Minh City, September 7, 2022. Photo: My Dung / Tuoi Tre The biggest worry of parents who have daughters is related to them going to the restroom at school, a parent told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper. School toilets are dirty and always wet. "The children loath to use them. My child often tries to hold back until she gets home. Over the past two years, some districts of Hanoi such as Ha Dong, Thanh Xuan, and Cau Giay have used district funds to hire private services to manage school toilets. This approach has helped with maintenance, minor repairs, and hygiene, but still fails to solve the issue of overcrowding. An exemplary situation in Ho Chi Minh City In Ho Chi Minh City, most school toilets across the metropolis meet requirements, and students are typically not scared of using the restroom, according to the municipal education department. Le Dinh Chinh Elementary School in District 10, for example, provides students with high quality restrooms. The 15-year-old school, which accommodates 700 students, has two separate restrooms of 10 toilets and 10 sinks for boys and girls on each floor of its three-story building. Outside the restrooms, walls are decorated with paintings of animals while the inside facilities are odorless and clean. Ever since I began attending this school, I havent had to think twice before going to the restroom, said Bao Ngoc, a fifth grader. We also go to the restroom to wash our hands during break times and before and after having lunch. None of my friends are afraid of going to the toilet. Every year, the school renovates the toilets within its allowed budget, according to the schools principal Huynh Thi Thao. Thao also emphasized the importance of daily cleaning and teaching students to keep the toilets clean. In addition to the common toilets, Le Dinh Chinh Elementary School also built a bathroom exclusively for female students to use during their menstrual periods. This bathroom was built by converting two teachers restrooms. It includes a changing room and a toilet that are full of natural light. It is also fully equipped with pads and toilet paper. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! A days-long search for the second man suspected of carrying out a deadly stabbing spree in a remote western Canadian Indigenous community has ended, with the 32-year-old dying after being taken into custody, police said. Federal police Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore told a news conference that Myles Sanderson, suspected along with his brother of killing 10 people and wounding 18 on Sunday, went into medical distress shortly after being arrested on Wednesday in Saskatchewan province. She added that he was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead, but gave no other details of the circumstances. On Monday, his 31-year-old brother Damien Sanderson had been found dead in a grassy field in the Cree community. Authorities said he likely had been killed by his older sibling, who remained a fugitive until his arrest near the town of Rosthern in Saskatchewan about 100 kilometres west of where the stabbings occurred. Blackmore said that with both brothers now dead, we may never have an understanding of (their) motivation. The manhunt had stretched across three provinces, and gone from Regina, the provincisl capital 300km to the south, and then back to the James Smith Cree Nation in response to reported sightings. An AFP reporter at the scene near Rosthern on Wednesday saw several police cars surrounding a white pickup along the side of a highway. An hour before the arrest, police issued an alert about a man armed with a knife in a stolen white Chevrolet Avalanche nearby, making a link to the stabbing case and urging locals to shelter in place. Blackmore said police, after receiving an emergency call about the theft, spotted the speeding vehicle and directed (it) off the road and into a nearby ditch". He was arrested by police and taken into custody, she said. A knife was located inside the vehicle. It was a dramatic end to a four-day manhunt across the vast Prairies region. It also offered relief to a nation distressed by one of modern Canadas deadliest incidents of mass violence. Our province is breathing a collective sigh of relief as Miles Sanderson is no longer at large, Blackmore commented, adding that now the families of victims and the community will be able to start healing. 'Senseless act Myles Sanderson had a history of explosive violence that led to 59 past convictions, and was also wanted for breaching parole in May after serving part of a sentence for assault and robbery. But with no known motive for the latest attacks, relatives of victims spoke out earlier Wednesday about their nightmare and called for answers from authorities. Mark Arcand said the killings that claimed the lives of his sister Bonnie Burns, 48, and her son Gregory Burns, 28, were a horrible, senseless act. Were broken, he said, describing emotions of anger and sadness. It still feels like its a nightmare. It doesnt feel real. How did this happen to our family? Why did it happen? We have no answers, he told a press conference. We just know that our family members were killed in their own home, in their yard. Arcand recounted how his sister had rushed out of her house to help her son, who was bleeding out in their driveway after being stabbed several times. She was stabbed two times, and she died right beside him, he said. She was trying to protect her son. A neighbor ran over to try to stop the assailants, but she too was killed, he said. The family and the community, Arcand added, has a steep hill to climb, and were going to climb it together, united". The coroner has released the names of the deceased victims six men and four women aged 23 to 78 years old. All but one were members of the Cree community. The other was a widower who lived with his adult grandson in nearby Weldon. Seventeen adults and one young teen were also wounded in the attacks, police said. Among them was another son of Bonnie Burns who was slashed in the neck. Ten people remain in hospital, including two in critical condition, according to the Saskatchewan Health Authority. Seven others have been discharged. Police believe some of the victims were targeted and others were attacked randomly. The grisly attack followed several recent mass killings across Canada. A gunman masquerading as a policeman killed 22 people in Nova Scotia in April 2020, two years after a driver of a van killed 11 pedestrians in Toronto. Another shooter killed six worshippers at a Quebec City mosque in January 2017. BALMORAL, Scotland -- Queen Elizabeth, Britain's longest-reigning monarch, the nation's figurehead and a towering presence on the world stage for seven decades, died peacefully at her home in Scotland on Thursday aged 96. "The death of my beloved Mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family," the new king, her eldest son Charles, said. "We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much-loved mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world," the 73-year-old said in a statement. News that the queen's health was deteriorating emerged shortly after midday on Thursday when her doctors said she was under medical supervision, prompting her family to rush to Scotland to be by her side. Thousands gathered outside Buckingham Palace, in central London, and there was a stunned silence when the flag was lowered to half-mast. The crowd surged to the gates as the notice announcing the death of the only monarch most Britons have ever known was attached to the black iron gates. Royal officials said King Charles III Charles III and his wife Camilla and his wife Camilla, the Queen Consort, would remain at Balmoral Castle, where the queen died, before returning to London on Friday, when he is expected to address the nation and meet Prime Minister Liz Truss. Details of the funeral have not been confirmed. On Elizabeth's death, Charles automatically became monarch of the United Kingdom and the head of state of 14 other realms including Australia, Canada and New Zealand. He is expected to visit all the nations of the United Kingdom in the coming days. 'Huge shock to the nation' The queen, whose husband died last year, had been suffering from what Buckingham Palace had called "episodic mobility problems" since the end of last year, forcing her to withdraw from nearly all her public engagements. Her last official duty came only on Tuesday, when she appointed Truss prime minister - the 15th of her reign. "The death of Her Majesty the Queen is a huge shock to the nation and to the world," Truss said outside her Downing Street office where the flag, like those at royal palaces and government buildings across Britain, were lowered. "Through thick and thin, Queen Elizabeth II provided us with the stability and the strength that we needed. She was the very spirit of Great Britain and that spirit will endure," said Truss, who was informed of the death at 4:30 p.m. London time. The news stunned not only people in Britain, with condolences pouring in from leaders around the world. "Her legacy will loom large in the pages of British history, and in the story of our world," U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement. He ordered flags at the White House to be flown at half-mast In Paris, the mayor announced the lights of the Eiffel Tower would be turned off in honour of her passing; in Brazil, the government declared three days of mourning; and the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council both stood for a moment of silence. Even Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country's relations with Britain have plummeted over the war in Ukraine, extended his condolences, calling it an "irreparable loss". Queen Elizabeth II, who was also the world's oldest and longest-serving head of state, came to the throne following the death of her father King George VI on Feb. 6, 1952, when she was just 25. Pledged to serve She was crowned in June the following year. The first televised coronation was a foretaste of a new world in which the lives of the royals were to become increasingly scrutinised by the media. "I have in sincerity pledged myself to your service, as so many of you are pledged to mine. Throughout all my life and with all my heart I shall strive to be worthy of your trust," she said in a speech to her subjects on her coronation day. Despite reputedly only being about 5ft 3ins tall, she commanded any room she entered. Famed for her bright outfits, she is said to have quipped: "I have to be seen to be believed". Elizabeth became monarch at a time when Britain still retained much of its old empire. It was emerging from the ravages of World War Two, with food rationing still in force and class and privilege still dominant in society. Winston Churchill was Britain's prime minister at the time, Josef Stalin led the Soviet Union and the Korean War was raging. In the decades that followed, Elizabeth witnessed massive political change and social upheaval at home and abroad. Her own family's tribulations, most notably the divorce of Charles and his late first wife Diana, were played out in full public glare. While remaining an enduring symbol of stability and continuity for Britons at a time of relative national economic decline, Elizabeth also tried to adapt the ancient institution of monarchy to the demands of the modern era. "She has managed to modernise and evolve the monarchy like no other," her grandson Prince William, who is now heir to the throne, said in a 2012 documentary. Records Elizabeth was the 40th monarch in a royal line that followed Norman King William the Conqueror, who claimed the English throne in 1066 after defeating Anglo-Saxon ruler Harold II at the Battle of Hastings. Her long reign meant she repeatedly broke records for British rulers. When she surpassed the more than 63 years her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria spent on the throne, she said it was not a landmark to which she had ever aspired. "Inevitably a long life can pass by many milestones - my own is no exception," she said. Her marriage to Prince Philip lasted 73 years, until his death in April 2021, and they had four children, Charles, Anne, Andrew and Edward. She never gave a media interview and critics said she came across as distant and aloof. But for the vast majority of her subjects she was a figure who commanded respect and admiration. Her death marks the end of an era. "When people around the world spoke of 'the queen', they actually meant our queen," former Prime Minister John Major said. "That was the status she had in every part of the world. It was truly remarkable." Opinion polls have suggested that Charles does not enjoy anywhere near the same level of support and there is speculation that the loss of Elizabeth may see a rise in republican sentiment, particularly in the other realms. "We know that, in losing our beloved queen, we have lost the person whose steadfast loyalty, service and humility has helped us make sense of who we are through decades of extraordinary change in our world, nation and society," the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said. At her death the queen was head of state of not only the United Kingdom but also of Australia, the Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Tuvalu, the Solomon Islands, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Antigua and Barbuda. The Department of Public Security in Binh Duong Province, southern Vietnam has initiated its investigation into a fire that broke out at a local karaoke parlor and killed 32 people earlier this week. Colonel Luu Minh Hoang, an official at the Binh Duong Department of Public Security, on Thursday signed a decision to investigate the violations of fire prevention and fighting regulations at An Phu karaoke parlor in Thuan An City. An official at the provincial Peoples Procuracy told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that the agency had received the decision and began conducting an examination of the scene of the incident. Information released by police showed that An Phu karaoke parlor is a 500-square-meter venue consisting of three floors and 30 singing rooms. The owner of the venue, which began operations in 2016, is 42-year-old Le Xuan Anh from Binh Duong Province. He currently resides in Thu Duc, Ho Chi Minh City. The inferno started on the second floor of the facility at around 8:30 pm on Tuesday and quickly spread to other areas of the venue. After being notified of the incident, nearly 70 officers and over 10 specialized vehicles were dispatched to the scene. Twenty-two people were rescued from the flames while several others managed to escape on their own but were injured in the process. Authorities in Binh Duong confirmed on Thursday afternoon that 32 people were killed in the fire. Most news outlets previously reported that the death toll was 33 due to some confusion during the rescue process, according to a local official. About 20 of the deceased victims have been identified, said Huynh Minh Chin, deputy director of the provincial Department of Health. The identification process faces lots of difficulties as many of the bodies were badly burnt, Colonel Trinh Ngoc Quyen, director of the Binh Duong Department of Public Security, elaborated. The Binh Duong General Hospital is treating two injured victims, while several others with milder wounds are being monitored at An Phu General Hospital in Thuan An City. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Vietnams aviation authorities have imposed a nine-month ban on a Vietnamese man after he failed to pay a fine for smoking on a domestic flight last month. The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) said on Friday that Dao Duy Khuong, a 26-year-old resident of Hai Ba Trung District in Hanoi, has been banned from domestic and international flights for nine months, from September 15 through June 14, 2023. Khuong smoked on the plane before the departure of a flight operated by Vietravel Airlines from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City that was scheduled to take off at 4:35 pm on August 1. He was immediately escorted from the plane and handed over to the Northern Airports Authority, which issued an administrative fine against him a day later. Despite several reminders and warnings, he refused to pay the fine. The CAAV thus decided to impose the nine-month flight ban on Khuong and asked domestic and foreign airlines not to provide their services for the man during the ban. Airports are responsible for directing their units and departments to closely check documents and IDs of passengers. Smoking cigarettes, even electronic ones, is banned on all inbound and outbound flights in Vietnam. Administrative fines imposed on violators, which range from VND3 million (US$127) to VND5 million $212, must be paid within ten days after the punitive decision is made. Before departure, flight attendants always remind passengers not to smoke on board. Despite that, smoking is among the most popular violations reported on the countrys recent flights, with many violators ignoring the fine, leading to the flight ban. Last month, a 23-year-old man from northern Hai Duong Province was handed a nine-month flight ban for failure to pay a smoking fine. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! 7:30 political editor Laura Tingle has received high praise from an external editorial review conducted by legendary Laurie Oakes and former head of the Australian Industry Group Heather Ridout. The review, which looked at ABCs economic election coverage, gave passing praise to political reporter, James Glenday, former host Leigh Sales, and finance expert Alan Kohler. The importance of Laura Tingle to 7.30 was demonstrated in the campaign, Oakes and Ridout said. The way she used her knowledge, experience and authority in reporting, analysing and providing context for issues and events helped to solve what used to be a real difficulty for the program how to differentiate its coverage from what viewers had just seen on the news. Her economics expertise and Financial Review background were particularly valuable because of the dominance of economic issues in the campaign. But ABC political editor, Andrew Probyn, received a mild rebuke for his characterisation of Anthony Albaneses inability to recall the official cash rate and the national unemployment rate. Andrew Probyn, like many others in the media, drew too long a bow by suggesting the twin gaffes could derail Anthony Albaneses election, they said. News Breakfast was commended for crosses to David Speers (also noted for his Insiders commentary), Tom Lowrey and business reporter Nassim Khadem. Afternoon Briefing on ABC News became a must see when Fran Kelly joined Greg Jennett. Source: Guardian Australia Late night coverage of news from London pushed The Latest into the Top 20 on Thursday at 302,000 metro viewers (a figure that will probably need to be adjusted). Seven then switched their feed to CNN for ovenright viewers awaiting further updates. Thursday became the first night of the week won by Seven and the first in which 10 was not eclipsed by ABC. 7:30 drew 456,000 then RBT at 455,000 an extended Home & Away (425,000 / 384,000 from 7pm), Foreign Correspondent (399,000) and Shaun Micallefs Brain Eisteddfod (247,000). Gogglebox was 410,000, leading younger demos, then The Front Bar (351,000), Paramedics (295,000) and Q+A (225,000). Seven network won Thursday with 28.9% then Nine 27.2%, 10 18.4%, ABC 16.8% and SBS 8.6%. Seven News was #1 with 839,000 / 837,000 for Seven. The Chase won at 446,000 / 290,000. In various slots Crime Investigation Australia was 188,000. Nine News (742,000 / 736,000) was best for Nine then A Current Affair (571,000) and Hot Seat (346,000 / 234,000). New Amsterdam was 107,000. In a rare result 10 News First (289,000 / 174,000) outranked The Project, low at 278,000 / 207,000. A Cheap Seats replay was 171,000. ABC News was 554,000 for ABC. The Drum (154,000) and First on the Ground (103,000) followed. On SBS it was Inside Aldi (143,000), Worlds Most Scenic River Journeys (135,000), SBS World News (125,000 / 116,000) and Suspect (62,000). Peppa Pig led multichannels at 122,000. The Morning Show: 117,000 / 66,000 Today Extra: 92,000 / 56,000 Studio 10: 32,000 / In Total TV viewers last Thursday were: Gogglebox: 741,000 Home & Away: 671,000 Thursday Night NRL: 668,000 Shaun Micallefs Brain Eisteddfod: 364,000 OzTAM Overnights: Thursday 8 September 2022 Matilde Menendez relaxes with other migrants from Venezuela outside of the Hampton Inn & Suites in suburban Burr Ridge on Sept. 8, 2022. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune) Sitting under a tree on the grass next to a hotel in a southwest suburb of Chicago, several migrant families from Venezuela were talking, still wondering why they had been relocated so far from the city in which they arrived. Im grateful, but we feel stuck here, Matilde Menendez said in Spanish. Advertisement Her family one daughter and her husband arrived in Chicago more than a week ago in the first buses of migrants that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent to Chicago as a way to criticize the nations immigration policies and his promise to send asylum-seekers to sanctuary cities. Menendez and the rest of the families that sat under the tree were among the dozens of refugees transported from a shelter in Humboldt Park to a hotel in Burr Ridge on Wednesday. Advertisement Theyve treated us well, but theyre not telling us whats going on or where are we going next, said Eglee Velazquez, a mother of three. We need a home, my husband needs a job and my kids need to go to school. We are tired. Though grateful to have a comfortable bed, plenty of food and clean clothes to wear, the group is concerned they will face isolation from being far away from the city, and that the distance will make it harder to seek help and make connections on their own to find permanent housing and find work, they said. Migrants from Venezuela relax outside of the Hampton Inn & Suites in Burr Ridge on Sept. 8, 2022. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune) Other grassroots activists and elected officials have also voiced their concern that the steps the state and city are taking to not only welcome migrants, but to provide them with a comprehensive guide to establish themselves in the Chicago area, are not enough. After a journey of nearly three months from their native town in Venezuela, fleeing extreme poverty and an authoritarian regime, most are desperately looking for a final stop of their siege, Baltazar Enriquez from the Little Village Community Council said. Enriquez and several volunteers from the organization were at Union Station when the first buses from Texas arrived and have been in contact with some migrants despite not working with the city or the state officially. The group has connected some migrants to jobs and a permanent place to live. They also have given them clothes and activated several phones lines for them. Lets be honest, thats all they need and for that, they need to be near other immigrants that have done the same in the past. We help each other out, Enriquez said. But I dont know whats the plan that the state and local government have. The first group of migrants arrived at Chicagos Union Station on Aug. 31 in two buses carrying dozens each all seeking asylum. The migrants were transported from Texas with more expected to arrive in the coming weeks as part of Abbotts plans to send the migrants to sanctuary cities, including Washington and New York City, in response to President Joe Bidens immigration policies. Another bus of migrants arrived in Chicago over the weekend with more than 50 people looking for new beginnings. And more than 150 asylum-seekers arrived in three more buses on Wednesday afternoon. Also on Wednesday, 64 of those migrants were temporally placed in a Burr Ridge hotel, according to a statement from Mayor Gary Grasso. Village elected officials and staff were not consulted or contacted about the decision to move the migrants from the Salvation Army Shield of Hope shelter to the village, the statement said. Advertisement The families are expected to stay in the hotel over the next few weeks but ultimately no more than 30 days from when they first arrived, and staff members from the Illinois Department of Human Services are staying in town to assist with locating housing and employment, according to the statement. Some of the refugees have family in the area while others are being assisted by private agencies. But Menendez and Velazquez said that they are still waiting to follow up with the agencies and organizations they were connected to at the shelter they were welcomed in. Before a representative of the Illinois Department of Human Services approached them to prohibit them from speaking to reporters, the mothers shared their concern about not having better access to find schools for their children. Erendira Rendon, vice president of Immigrant Justice at The Resurrection Project, said that the city and state are working together to figure out what the next steps look like for all the families and individual asylum-seekers in Chicago. But it is complicated and it takes time. Like so many immigrants before us, with some help, we can help figure it out. Rendon has been at the forefront of the efforts to welcome the migrants since the first bus arrived and said that community organization are meeting to discuss a long-term plan of how to better assist and inform the families of their rights and their options upon arrival. Israel, 13, gives a kiss to his sister, Ana Isabel, 3 months, as the family relaxes with other migrants from Venezuela outside the Hampton Inn & Suites in Burr Ridge on Sept. 8, 2022. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune) Earlier this year, Burr Ridge was host to people seeking asylum from Afghanistan who have now found permanent housing and employment, the statement from the village said. Burr Ridge offers all persons from around the world a better in life in the United States, the statement said. We also want to assure our residents and businesses that the current situation will be handled in an orderly and safe manner for all. If you would like to donate materials to these refugees, please visit World Relief Chicagoland. Advertisement Grasso could not be reached for further comment. Alejandra Oliva, community engagement manager at National Immigrant Justice Center, said the organization had been in talks with the city upon news that migrants would be sent to Chicago, but it wasnt until a bus actually left Texas and was on the way to the city last week that the planning kicked into high gear. Oliva said staff with the National Immigrant Justice Center has been meeting with the migrants since their arrival to begin helping them from a legal standpoint. The first step for many, she said, is explaining to each person what paperwork was given to them at the border and giving everyone a brief overview as to what their next steps would be depending on individual circumstances. Were very much in the middle of figuring everything out, Oliva said. I mean considering that we got our first group of people a week ago, were still figuring out what ongoing involvement looks like or means and figuring out what people actually need as far as next steps of immigration. A vast majority of the people working with NIJC are attorneys who have practiced immigration law for several years, Oliva said, which is why the city tapped the organization to take on the legal aspect of the migrants arriving in Chicago. Despite working on very little notice, Oliva said the organization was able to spring into action and meet a lot of needs. You have to imagine that its a really disorienting experience to cross the border and then get whisked off into another part of the country that youre not totally sure of, Oliva said. Our biggest goal was to make sure everyone who arrived here understood where they were and what was going on. Advertisement Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez said that members of the Latino Caucus of the Chicago City Council havent been allowed to tour the shelter in Humboldt Park where the migrants were taken upon arrival despite making the requests. Sigcho-Lopez added that he is concerned that the city and state may not understand the type of infrastructure or capacity that is needed to welcome the migrants and help them find permanent housing. Afternoon Briefing Daily Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox each afternoon. > This is a human crisis, we need to all work together city and community members to provide help, Sigcho-Lopez said. The alderman also criticized the city and state government for not being more transparent about the plan they have for migrants after they leave the temporary housing. He added that Burr Ridge does not have the resources needed and that migrants are now isolated. Rendon said that the community organizations and agencies collaborating with the city and state are working to equip the migrants with the right information and the right connections so that they can transition into finding a permanent home. Migrants need to be in places where their language is understood, where their pain is understood, they need to be places or at least let them or provide them with access to immigrants like us, Enriquez said. Meanwhile, the migrants at the hotel under the care of the Illinois Department of Human Services, say they hope that their case manager can follow up with them soon. Advertisement We have a dream, we come here to work, Zaide Colorado, a mother of three said while sitting under a tree with the rest of the mothers. An earlier version of this story misstated the name of the National Immigrant Justice Center. Seven has also advised of further programming changes following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Sunday 11 September Updated: 6pm Seven News 7pm Farmer Wants A Wife 8:30pm Seven News Monday 12 September 7.00pm Home and Away 7.30pm Farmer Wants A Wife (Ep 4) 9.00pm The Young Elizabeth (Premiere) ITV documentary: From her birth to the resignation of her closest political confidante, Prime Minister Winston Churchill this is the story of the first three decades in the life of Elizabeth. From her early love of animals and the countryside to meeting her future husband when she was just 13, her time serving her country during World War Two to the crisis that brought her to the throne this documentary charts the early years of Elizabeth II a princess who never expected to be Queen. Tuesday 13 September 7.00pm Home and Away 7.30pm Farmer Wants A Wife (Ep 5) 9.00pm Age of Elizabeth (Premiere) ITV documentary: Queen Elizabeth is the longest reigning monarch in British history. Royal continuity marked by an understated resilience and service to her country. This documentary looks at just how radically that world changed in the Age of Elizabeth and how this quietly conservative woman with a profound sense of duty managed to become an international icon, staying relevant during decades of social, political, cultural and technological transformation. Wednesday 14 September 7.00pm Home and Away 7.30pm Farmer Wants A Wife (Ep 6) 9.00pm Queen and Country (Premiere) ITV documentary: The Queen may be the most travelled monarch in British history, having visited over a hundred different countries across seven decades. But this is the story of Elizabeths home her United Kingdom. In this documentary key locations are visited that have meant so much to Elizabeth II, you get to hear from people whose lives she crossed but whose love she shared for this part of her kingdom. From her childhood homes in London and Windsor to the solitude she found in Balmoral and Sandringhamwe will cross the country, combining rich archive with newly short sequences of some of the most famous and glorious locations in Britain. Updated. A Swedish JAS-39 Gripen fighter jet. US Air Force/Tech. Sgt. Corban Lundborg Sweden has applied to join NATO, and the alliance has largely welcomed its potential addition. NATO officials are especially interested in Sweden's air force, which has dozens of advanced jets. But Swedish pilots are frustrated with policy changes, and many are considering leaving service. Even as Sweden prepares to join NATO, Sweden's air force has a problem. Its most experienced fighter pilots are quitting. "In the fall, around half of the Swedish Armed Forces' fighter pilots may take leave or resign altogether," the Swedish broadcaster SVT reported in July. One problem is a change to the retirement system, according to the trade union representing the pilots. "In the past, pilots have been able to retire at the age of 55," Jesper Tengroth, a spokesman for the Swedish Association of Military Officers, told Insider. "But for those born in 1988 or later, the retirement age was raised a few years ago to 67, without any compensation." Swedish pilots on the flight line during an exercise with the US Air Force. Swedish Armed Forces Even Swedish leaders admit there is a problem. "Overnight, they all had their retirement age raised at once," Maj. Gen. Carl-Johan Edstrom, the chief of the Swedish Air Force, said. "The fact that a number of pilots are applying for leave is almost 100% linked to the new pension agreement." Many of those pilots feel betrayed. "There are a lot of people my age who have been trained and employed under certain premises which have since been removed," one pilot told SVT. Not surprisingly, media in Russia which is unhappy with formerly nonaligned Sweden joining NATO is playing up the story. "In recent years, the Swedish Armed Forces have been struggling to recruit new pilots and retain existing staff," the state-controlled outlet Sputnik News said. There are other reasons for the pilot exodus, Jan Kallberg, a nonresident senior fellow with the Center for European Policy Analysis, told Insider. "I think this has been ongoing for a long time regarding the pilots," said Kallberg, himself a former Swedish army officer. "I think it's the tip of the iceberg. They have felt mistreated for generations." Story continues A technician next to a Swedish C-130 Hercules cargo plane during a NATO exercise in Lithuania in 2014. PETRAS MALUKAS/AFP via Getty Images Air force pilots receive relatively low pay compared to the civilian sector, and commercial airlines are hungry for pilots and willing to pay high salaries. Post-Cold War defense cuts have also slashed the number of flying slots in the air force. "That means that instead of leaving as a pilot at 55, they're now stuck in a defense desk job" for years until they eligible to retire, Kallberg said. Sweden's government intends to ramp up defense spending in the coming years but is still debating how to do so. Unlike the US military, whose personnel receive a housing allowance, Swedish pilots pay for their own housing. Sweden's entry into NATO could result in some mothballed air bases being reactivated, which in turn would require pilots to pay for new accommodations when they transfer to the new facilities. Ironically, the question most likely to worry NATO leaders how a pilot shortage would affect Sweden's military capability may actually be the least difficult. Sweden has a potent air force, the core of which is six squadrons comprising 96 JAS 39C/D Gripen fighters. However, Sweden's main contribution to NATO isn't jet fighters but geography, Kallberg said. "Sweden gives operational depth in the high north. NATO will be able to operate air wings from multiple Swedish airfields." A Swedish pilot in a JAS-39C Gripen. US Air Force/Lawrence Crespo Previously, NATO had to rely on a few bases on the Norwegian coast to project power into the Barents Sea, which also borders sensitive military bases in northern Russia. Sweden is not only a larger nation with more strategic depth than Norway, but it also offers access to both the Barents and the Baltic seas, including bases on Baltic islands that could enable NATO to counter Russian naval and air power in the vital Baltic region. "If you want to conduct deterrence or support a fight in the Baltic, Sweden is a natural staging area," Kallberg said. Kallberg does see problems in the Swedish military that need to be fixed. While Sweden has a long tradition of contributing troops to UN peacekeeping missions, its army which uses conscripted troops is unaccustomed to operating in larger formations for the sort of big-unit combat that might characterize a NATO-Russia war. But Sweden is serious about meeting its NATO commitments, Kallberg said. "They know they will have to come up with the troops and assets." Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy Magazine, and other publications. He holds a master's degree in political science. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn. Read the original article on Business Insider (AFP/Getty Images) The 1990s were to prove the most testing of Her Majestys long and illustrious reign.The year 1992, in particular, was trying for the Queen as her childrens marriages unravelled. The year ended with Windsor Castle damaged by fire, threatening one of the worlds greatest collections of art. The Queen and the Duke of York helped to rescue priceless works as fire brigades from five counties fought the flames. It took 250 firefighters 15 hours and 1.5 million gallons of water to put the blaze out. One hundred rooms were damaged, which was started by a spotlight shining on to a curtain. An intense public debate was sparked about whether the taxpayer should foot the bill for repairs as the Government and not the Royal Family owns the castle. The Queen agreed to meet 70 per cent of the costs, and opened Buckingham Palace to the public to generate extra funds. The 40 million restoration was completed in November 1997. In a speech that Her Majesty delivered to mark the 40th anniversary of her accession at the Guildhall she acknowledged that some of the criticism levelled at her family and the institution should be heard. Magnanimously, the Queen conceded, No institution city, monarchy, whatever should expect to be free from the scrutiny of those who give it their loyalty and support. It was no wonder that the Queen dubbed 1992 as an annus horribilis. The Windsor Castle Fire, 1992 (Tim Graham/Getty Images) Her sons Charles and Andrew separated from their wives and Princess Anne divorced Mark Phillips. The Queen and Prince Philip met Charles and Diana for an intervention of sorts. Philip and Diana also exchanged letters that summer in which the duke expressed his disappointment at her and Charless extramarital affairs and asked her to see their slip-ups from the others point of view. At one point he seemed ready to give up, writing, I will always do my utmost to help you and Charles to the best of my ability. . . but I am quite ready to concede that I have no talent as a marriage counsellor. Story continues In December, Prime Minister John Major publicly announced the pairs amicable separation. The Queen reportedly wanted to let Diana continue to use her royal title HRH after her divorce but Charles insisted on removing it. The divorce was finalised on August 28, 1996. Years later, in a 2017 documentary to mark the 20th anniversary of Dianas death, her sons told how their parents acrimonious split left them devastated as it played out in front of a world audience. Princes William and Harry revealed that they felt as though they werent getting enough time with Charles or Diana and were bouncing between them. Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh arrive at Buckingham Palace to attend the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales (AFP/Getty Images) Dianas death, just a year after her divorce from Charles, would see Her Majesty show the world a side the public had never witnessed. The Queens instinct was to keep the teenage princes at Balmoral to comfort them. But for the first time in her reign she faced public serious criticism. She rescued the situation by returning to the Palace and delivering a heartfelt speech to the country. From that moment everyone saw a grandmother showing her concern, love and protection of her two grandsons, who had tragically just lost their mother in a car crash in Paris. It showed Her Majestys grasp of the magnitude of the situation. She had to act and she did so decisively. It was a watershed moment. The criticism subsided. Some of the happiest times of the Queens life had been spent on board HMY Britannia. But, in 1997, it was time for the Queen to say an emotional goodbye. At the ceremony at the end of the yachts 44-year service, the Queen wiped away a tear for the first time in public. Britannia had held a special place in the Queens heart since the day she christened it with a bottle of Empire wine on the Clyde, in 1953. Queen Elizabeth II wipes away a tear at the decommissioning of the Royal Yacht Britannia, 1997 (Rex Features) But 1997 was not entirely a year of sadness as Her Majesty and Prince Philip celebrated their golden wedding anniversary and their youngest son, Prince Edward, married Sophie Rhys-Jones. Namibia, South Africa, Poland and South Korea were included in the 22 state visits in this decade. On a visit to the United States in 1991, Her Majesty made the first address to the US Congress by a British monarch. That year, the Queen also met Nelson Mandela when he was representing the African National Congress as an observer of the Commonwealth conference in Zambia. Mr Mandela, who had recently been freed from prison, appeared at the summit ahead of the traditional banquet. The Queen immediately broke precedent and invited him to join them at the banquet. One of his first acts as president of South Africa was to return his country to the Commonwealth. The friendship between Mr Mandela and the Queen was an enduring one. He famously referred to Her Majesty as my friend Elizabeth. She returned the compliment and, in correspondence between the two, signed off, Your sincere friend, Elizabeth. (Queen Elizabeth and South African President Nelson Mandela) In 1994 the Queen also visited Russia, the first British monarch to set foot on the countrys soil. (In 1908, Edward VII got as far as sailing into Russian waters for lunch with the Tsar.) The Queen and Prince Philip returned to India again in 1997 in the Queens first major tour of the country since 1961. The trip marked the 50th anniversary of Indias independence, but there was no grand reconciliation between the country and its former colonial master. Instead, the Queens visit was overshadowed by her foreign secretary, Robin Cook, who was lambasted in the press for saying that the UK could mediate between India and Pakistan in the row over Kashmir. The headlines were of a new British imperialism. One part of the tour did, however, go well the visit to Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar. The Queen laid a wreath at the spot where, in April 1919, a platoon of British soldiers killed 379 people and injured 1,100. It was one of the worst atrocities in the history of British India. Not for the first time, the monarch had smoothed over potential hostility. Royals around the world have paid tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth credit:Bang Showbiz Kings and Queens from around the world have paid tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth. The British monarch passed away on Thursday (08.09.22) aged 96 and a number of fellow rulers have expressed their "sorrow" on behalf of their own countries and shared their "fond memories" of her. Queen Maxima and King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, along with the king's mother, Princess Beatrix, said in a statement: We feel a strong bond with the United Kingdom and its royal family, and we share their sorrow at this time. We are very grateful for our countries close friendship, to which Queen Elizabeth made such an unforgettable contribution." Belgium's King Philippe and Queen Mathilde remembered the queen as "exceptional" They said: We will always keep fond memories of this great lady, who throughout her reign, showed dignity, courage and devotion The United Kingdom has lost an exceptional monarch who left a deep mark on history. King Felipe of Spain sent a message to the new monarch, King Charles, in which he expressed his "heartfelt condolences" and "deep" sadness. He said: Deeply saddened by the sorrowful news of the passing away of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, your beloved Mother, I would like to offer Your Majesty and the British people, on my behalf and on behalf of the Spanish Government and people, our most heartfelt condolences. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth has undoubtedly witnessed, written and shaped many of the most relevant chapters in the history of our world during the last seven decades. "Her sense of duty, commitment and a whole life devoted to serving the people of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland set an example for all of us and will remain as a solid and valuable legacy for future generations. "Queen Letizia and I send Your Majesty and the whole Family our love and prayers. You are all in our hearts and thoughts. We will miss Her dearly. Sweden's King Carl Gustaf reflected on how the queen had been a "constant presence" in so many people's lives. Story continues He said: "My family and I are deeply saddened to learn of the death of my dear relative Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. "The Queen served her countries and the Commonwealth with outstanding dedication and duty. "She has been a constant presence, not only in British society but also internationally. "She has always been dear to my family and a precious link in our shared family history. "We offer our heartfelt condolences to Her Majestys family and her peoples." King Abdullah of Jordan remembered an "iconic leader" who was "a partner for Jordan and a dear family friend," He said in a statement: "Jordan mourns the passing of an iconic leader. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was a beacon of wisdom and principled leadership for seven decades... We stand with the people and leadership of the UK at this difficult time." His wife, Queen Rania, added: "With a heavy heart we bid farewell to an icon of selfless dedication and unwavering commitment, a queen who embodied the traits of a faithful and devoted sovereign. "The reign of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will forever be remembered. May her soul rest in eternal peace." Publications under a variety of names photographed on Sept. 8, 2022, that are all tied to conservative political operative Dan Proft have been mailed to thousands of homes throughout Chicago and the suburbs. The publications appear to be newspapers but the content they contain has become controversial for pushing right-wing talking points and material that some, including Gov. J.B. Pritzker, decry as racist. (Todd Panagopoulos / Chicago Tribune) A series of political mailings that resemble newspapers and excoriate Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker over crime issues has prompted the governor to claim theyre the work of racist political consultant and right-wing radio show host Dan Proft, who also is financially supporting Republican governor candidate Darren Bailey. The mailings, tailored to specific areas and sent to voters throughout Chicagoland under such labels as Chicago City Wire, DuPage Policy Journal, and Will County Gazette, are filled with purported news articles containing misinformation about the effects of criminal justice reforms enacted under Pritzker. The mailings contend the new law will free dangerous criminal suspects from jail and unleash them into the suburbs. Advertisement A recent two-page spread features photos of predominantly Black men the mailer states are suspects in violent crimes who could be released from local county jails and into neighborhoods under the states no-cash bail policy that goes into effect Jan. 1. Under the new law, judges are to consider pretrial release on an individual basis, including those charged with murder, based on whether suspects are a risk to the community or a flight risk. The mailings state the new law mandates murder suspects awaiting trial be released from jail and gave a list of charges that it said were non-detainable. Advertisement Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Aug. 24, 2022, at Schuler Farms in Lexington, Illinois, during the Illinois Agricultural Legislative Roundtable. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune) This is a messaging thats coming from a racist political consultant, who used to associate himself with Illinois, now lives in Florida. And hes sending messages that are, if you look at what hes printed, its clearly all about the idea that, again, what hes printing, that Black people are threatening your way of life. Thats essentially what hes putting in these publications, Pritzker said of Proft at an unrelated event in south suburban Harvey. Its a scare tactic. Its meant to have people (show) concern for their safety. And the truth of the matter is that what hes purveying here is complete hogwash. Im probably being polite when I say that. Its disgusting. Its a terrible thing to do, he said. And frankly, hes doing it on behalf of Darren Bailey. And that says as much as you need to know about Darren Bailey. In an email reacting to Pritzker calling him racist, Proft said, Its like being called ugly by a frog. In a Twitter post, Proft said Pritzker infuses race into every, single policy debate. He never deal on the merits, particularly on public safety. He signed the states death warrant with his no cash bail law. He challenged Pritzker to name one specific item in the newspaper you excoriate that is untrue or inaccurate. But in statements, supporters of the SAFE-T act and the Pretrial Fairness Act, as the cashless-bail portion is known, noted that any of those pictured as potential dangers to local communities could be released now if they posted bail. In the current system, the amount of money someone has determines whether they can be released not whether they pose a threat to someone else or are likely to free prosecution, the Illinois Network for Pretrial Justice said in a statement. Still, Profts use of the mailings was backed by Bailey, the downstate farmer and state senator from Xenia who has made crime the top issue in his Republican campaign for governor. These newspapers that are circulating the state that are full of facts and truth and Gov. Pritzker has the gall to call it a lie, to keep the people uninformed, Bailey said in an interview on Profts Chicagos Morning Answer show Thursday. Advertisement With the help of these newspapers that are circulating across the state, now theyve got these facts in them. And its awesome because every day when people are receiving this, theyre texting me this information, Bailey told Proft. I mean, Ive been trying to expel this and talk about this for two years, but its finally getting out and its finally resonating. The mailings represent the latest in a long line of controversies involving Proft, a radio host on WIND-AM 560 who now lives in Naples, Florida. GOP governor candidate Darren Bailey on Aug. 24, 2022, at Schuler Farms in Lexington, Illinois, during the Illinois Agricultural Legislative Roundtable. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune) Proft heads the People Who Play By the Rules political action committee, an independent expenditure fund supporting Bailey that is primarily funded by millions of dollars from wealthy conservative megadonor Richard Uihlein, who founded the Uline office packaging and supply business. Proft, who finished sixth out of seven candidates with less than 8% of the vote in a bid for the 2010 GOP governor nomination, has previously been cited by the State Board of Elections over similar newspaper-like mailers distributed by a previous PAC he ran. The state elections board found the Liberty Principles PAC wrongly coordinated with a candidate to spread favorable material and was required then to place a political advertising disclaimer on the materials. That PAC closed in 2019. He opened the latest PAC in March of this year. In 2018, Proft also was behind one of the most controversial political ads ever to air in Illinois on behalf of former state Rep. Jeanne Ives of Wheaton in a GOP primary challenge to one-term Gov. Bruce Rauner. The ad, formally denounced by the state Republican Party at the time, mocked transgender people, poor women seeking an abortion and unionized Chicago Public Schools teachers. Advertisement The mailers are the latest iteration of the Local Government Information Services, or LGIS, which publishes online and often during election season sends printed copies. Proft formed LGIS before the 2016 general election. His current relationship to the company is unclear, though he has often defended its product. Despite different names for the publications, all feature nearly identical stories that often showcase candidates or address issues that are supported by Profts political committee. LGIS online sites have run several stories built around culture-war themes that are also preceded or followed by stories featuring comments about those issues from conservative politicians, including Bailey. Some stories included a disparaging preview of Lake County PrideFest, a Machesney Park school districts decision to ban the book Gender Queer and the raising of an LGBTQ flag by River Forest schoolchildren. In the spring, the West Cook News used a presentation at an Oak Park and River Forest High School school board meeting to push a story that claimed the school was creating a race-based grading system that would require teachers to account for the skin color or ethnicity of its students. Advertisement Even though nothing in the presentation suggested such a policy, the story went viral online and gained a national audience through influencers and conservative media and forced school leaders to declare the story was false. Another person behind LGIS is Brian Timpone, a former spokesman for the Illinois House Republican minority leader in the 1990s who went on to own a company that provided hyperlocal news to the Tribune until the newspaper suspended the arrangement amid complaints of plagiarism and fake bylines. A 2018 Tribune investigation found many LGIS stories featured candidates supported by Profts political committee. On Wednesday, Pritzker said the mailings were an effort by this right-wing network of newspapers trying to take over where local real journalism, unfortunately, has receded. Advertisement If you get something in the mail and you dont know that its from the far-right wing and people who align themselves with the semi-fascists, as President Biden has called them, then you might think thats something real. its not, When you get one of these in the mail, you should know that that is not a real newspaper, he said. rap30@aol.com As the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival is drawing near, Henan Satellite TV will broadcast the cultural show 2022 Adventures on Mid-Autumn Festival on Sept 9, as a continuation of its "Chinese Festival" series program. This year's show will reinterpret "reunion" through various art forms covered by celebrities such as Leo Chen, Lu Hu, Tu Honggang and Wu Bixia. Among the planned programs, songs such as Wujiapo and dances like Missing You Like Seeing You narrate the longing and reunion between lovers, and the melodrama such as A Chance Encounter in Luoyang presents the meeting of historical figures transcending time and space by using modern technology. Beginning with the ancient Chinese mythology of "Chang'e flying to the moon", the adventures tour will lead viewers to overlook the earth from the palace of the moon. Tang Xiaozhu, the incubation IP for "Chinese Festival" series, will assist Chang'e and the jade rabbit to fulfill people's dreams at Mid-Autumn Festival as a volunteer, and the story will link different programs together. Continuing the Oriental esthetic style, the modern fashion elements are also innovatively fused into the show, creating a visual feast with a sense of technology and guochao trend. Watch it live: China Culture YouTube: https://youtu.be/6NPc2fmBiZQ China Culture Meta: https://www.facebook.com/events/3291098264437043 HA NOI More and more foreign-owned companies have been listed on stock exchanges over the past five years, but that's not the case for foreign-founded ones. Twenty years ago, the Government issued Decree 38, allowing adequate foreign direct investment (FDI) companies to transform from limited entities to joint stock entities and go public. The decree saw an exodus of foreign-founded companies to stock exchanges between 2003 and 2008. However, the exodus quickly abated afterward and the most recent newcomer was Siam Brothers Vietnam, which engaged in public offerings in 2017. Among those listed companies, just 11 remained on the exchanges by June 30, equivalent to a total market cap of over VN147 trillion. Everpia and Mirae were bright spots, faring relatively well after their initial public offerings (IPO). The others had to experience either founders' withdrawals or share delisting. For instance, Thanh Thanh Cong - Bien Hoa JSC saw its foreign founder Bourbon Corporation transfer its ownership to Vietnamese partners just two years after being listed on HOSE. Full Power had its shares delisted on grounds of three consecutive years of unprofitability, four years after IPO. Some FDI companies have talked about going public recently, but no action has been done so far to end the five-year period of foreign absence. Notably, a Japanese retail giant announced its plan to issue shares on Vietnamese exchanges in November 2021. Charoen Pokphand Foods, the parent company of C.P Vietnam, gave the latter the go-ahead to register for listing on HOSE in April. While no new foreign-founded companies floated their shares on stock markets in the past five years, some foreign investors found a new way to go public they undertook buyouts to transform domestically-owned listed companies into foreign-owned ones. The buyout cases are numerous. In July, SK Investment Vina III, the largest shareholder of Imexpharm, acquired Red Capital, another shareholder, to raise its ownership in Imexpharm to 53.94 per cent. SK Investment Vina III is continuing to buy into the pharmaceutical firm with the aim of achieving 55 per cent ownership. The offer to purchase shares at VN66,000 apiece was approved by Imexpharm's board in mid-August. Ngoc Nghia Industry - Service - Trading JSC changed hands in the same year as Indorama Netherlands B.V bought out 97.8 per cent of its shares in April and implemented board reorganisation in May. TCG Solutions Pte LTD, a company affiliated with SCG Group, took over Bien Hoa Packaging JSC in 2020. SCG Group also secured 54.39 per cent ownership of Binh Minh Plastic JSC in late 2019. According to the Central Economic Committee, FDI companies take up 20.13 per cent of GDP, 72 per cent of total exports and 50 per cent of total industrial output. Yet they account for roughly 2 per cent market-cap of the three exchanges - HOSE, HNX and UPCOM. VNS HA NOI National Assembly Chairman Vuong inh Hue said he hoped that the state audit agencies of Viet Nam and Laos will further enhance the exchange of delegations, training and experience sharing for their auditors. At a reception in Ha Noi on Wednesday for President of the State Audit Authority of Laos Viengthavisone Thephachanh, who is on a Viet Nam visit from September 6-10, Hue said the Vietnamese NA is ready to create favourable conditions for the two agencies to strengthen their cooperation and fulfill their assigned tasks. Viengthavisone, for his part, emphasised the importance of state audit activities to enhance discipline in the use of public finance and assets. After briefing the NA Chairman about the results of a working session with the State Audit Office of Vietnam (SAV) in the morning of the same day, the Lao official said that he would propose the Lao National Assembly consider and amend the Law on State Audit and build regulations for the Lao audit agency to operate more effectively. Concurring with the Lao officials suggestions, Hue affirmed that the NA and the SAV are willing to share experience with their Lao counterparts in reviewing and supplementing the Law on State Audit of Laos. On this occasion, the NA Chairman proposed the state audit agencies of the two countries continue to maintain the cooperation mechanism between the state audit agencies of Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia as well as bolster collaboration in organisations such as the Asian Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (ASOSAI) and the ASEAN Supreme Audit Institutions (ASEANSAI). VNS HA NOI Chairman of the National Assembly Vuong inh Hue received Chairman of the European Parliaments Committee on International Trade (INTA) Bernd Lange on Thursday in Ha Noi, highlighting his hope that Viet Nam-EU relations will be increasingly reinforced and substantive. The Vietnamese legislator said despite the serious impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and disrupted regional and global supply chains, economic and trade ties between Viet Nam and the EU were growing well thanks to the EU-Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA). Meanwhile, though the EU-Viet Nam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) had been ratified by just 12 EU members and yet to come into force, businesses and investors from the EU were showing interest in the Vietnamese market. Hue thanked INTA, the European Parliament, and Lange for their considerable contributions to the EVFTA negotiations, ratification, and implementation. Meanwhile, the INTA Chairman noted the EVFTA provided a solid foundation for new strides in Viet Nam-EU relations, and that statistics recorded in the two years since the agreements implementation showed its positive economic effects, especially boosting post-pandemic growth. Regarding the EVIPA, he said the ratification of this deal had been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. EU member states were now readier to promote the ratification, especially in the current context when they want stability and trustworthy partners. Chairman Hue affirmed that Viet Nam wished to intensify cooperation with the EU and each of the blocs members. He called on the EU to support Viet Nams candidacy for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council for 2023-25, continue enhancing ties with ASEAN, step up partnerships in energy and climate change to help the country realise its net zero commitments made at UN COP26, and cooperate with Viet Nam in digital transformation. He also recommended the two sides continue frequent information exchanges to deal with problems arising in bilateral trade, especially the export of Viet Nams agro-forestry-fishery products to the EU. Talking about Viet Nams efforts to eradicate illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, the NA Chairman expressed his hope that the EU would continue sending delegations to directly assess the countrys implementation of relevant recommendations and soon remove the yellow card warning issued by the European Commission. Viet Nam, including its parliament, was pushing ahead with realising international commitments in this regard, he stressed, adding this process also needed support from international partners, including the EU. Hue also asked for increased discussion about international issues of common concern, particularly the consolidation of global supply chains and the direct supply chain between Viet Nam and the EU to help with post-pandemic economic recovery, ensure food security, and stabilise energy prices. As important partners with mutual trust and respect, they could discuss differences openly via dialogue and cooperation mechanisms, the top legislator noted. Affirming Viet Nam is always a trustworthy partner of the EU, Lange said the country held an important role in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and that the EU would be ready to advocate Viet Nams role at other international organisations. In terms of CO2 emission reduction, he said he believed that with the same commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2050, the two sides would have numerous opportunities to cooperate in this field. He also suggested the two sides increase collaboration in digital transformation both bilaterally and within international cooperation frameworks like the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The INTA leader said that the EU recognised Viet Nams efforts to carry out recommendations against IUU fishing and hoped that the yellow card warning would be lifted soon. VNS HCM CITY As the new school year starts the risk of children catching and spreading infectious has also increased, leading to authorities and healthcare officials to call for action. Tran Thi Mai Trinh, a doctor from the Paediatrics Ward under the Tam Anh General Hospital in HCM City, said that due to the immature immune systems, children in preschool and primary school age are very sensitive to infectious diseases. When children go back to school, they often have to study and live in a crowded environment and classrooms often use air conditioners which lower air quality. Once children get sick, it is easy for small outbreaks to form. She said that children who go to school are often susceptible to dangerous diseases such as COVID-19, influenza, encephalitis, pneumonia, and chickenpox. Eye and skin diseases are also more contagious, especially in preschool and primary school age groups. The back-to-school season is also in the rainy season, so diseases such as dengue fever, viral infections and asthma are also quite common. When students go to school, they often do not drink enough water, which can lead to constipation. Equally, they might hold off going to the bathroom as the toilets are not clean, causing urinary tract infections. Doctor Bach Thi Chinh, medical director of the Viet Nam Vaccine Immunisation Centre System, said that the rise of COVID-19 alongside other infectious diseases such as influenza, encephalitis and meningitis was a "red warning with children's health. When children have respiratory diseases such as influenza, if they are not treated promptly, the disease may develop into pneumonia and respiratory failure, or lead to the onset of other diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, causing children to be absent from school for a long time. More dangerously, influenza can also develop, threatening childrens lives and futures. Encephalitis is also a dangerous disease that develops rapidly. If the patient survives, about 20 per cent suffer from sequelae such as cerebral palsy, psychomotor retardation, multi-organ failure and amputation. Prevention Doctor Chinh said that fortunately, dangerous diseases such as flu, chickenpox, meningitis and measles have effective preventive vaccines. Parents should give their children full vaccinations against diseases, especially seasonal flu and meningitis, before children return to school. The HCM City Department of Health (DoH)s statistics show that the rate of immunisation for children in the city is at a low level. The expanded vaccination programmes goals in HCM City this year need to reach 95 per cent of the total children. However, at the start of September the result is 76.6 per cent. The department said that the reason was a lack of supply of several kinds of vaccines since June this year, as well as the staff in charge of vaccination changing. Furthermore, parents have forgotten vaccination schedules or are not interested in vaccination. The municipal health sector is concerned that the failure to vaccinate children will create gaps in immunity in the community, putting children at risk. The health sector will soon find solutions to ensure parallel implementation of both the general vaccination campaign and the COVID-19 vaccination campaign. The DoH urges parents to protect their children's health so that their studies are not interrupted by a lack of vaccination leading to COVID-19. Parents should not listen to rumours without scientific basis, or refuse the COVID-19 vaccine. In addition to full vaccination, parents should pay attention to respiratory hygiene for children such as nasal drops, gargling with salt water and washing hands. Adults themselves need to maintain their personal level of hygiene. For instance, when coming home, it is necessary to wash and disinfect hands before holding children to avoid spreading germs to children. If abnormal health signs are seen, parents should take their children to reputable medical facilities for diagnosis and treatment. As the dengue season peaks, parents need to pay attention to preventing mosquitoes. Children should wear long-sleeved clothes and use mosquito repellent sprays. VNS HA NOI For the first time, the delicious Vietnamese rice ST25 was used to process dishes on the menu of the Japanese Cabinet Office, Minister of Agricultural and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan said at a recent government meeting. On September 2, fried rice using ST25 rice from Viet Nam became a "special lunch" at the Japanese Cabinet Office. At the meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh held that this was a good sign and a step forwards in the countrys strategy to bring Vietnamese rice to demanding markets. Viet Nams ST25 rice won the title "The best rice in the world" in 2019. In the brochure located at the Cabinet Office of Japan, the ST25 fragrant rice is the famous delicious rice from Viet Nam and fully introduced from planting, quality monitoring, harvesting, packaging and preservation. The production processes are strictly controlled to ensure the quality of fragrant and firm rice grains, and naturally sweet rice grains, it says. ST25 rice can be used in dishes such as grilled chicken rice and fried rice, a harmonious combination of Viet Nam's agricultural products and Japanese cuisine, according to Vietnamese Trade Counsellor in Japan Ta uc Minh. VNS On August 28, 1945, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was established with the birth of the provisional government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. President Ho Chi Minh was both the governments chairman and minister of foreign affairs. Bui Thanh Son, Minister of Foreign Affairs During the past 77 years, under the leadership of the Party, upholding the nations tradition of friendly and indomitable diplomacy and Ho Chi Minhs diplomatic thought, Vietnams diplomacy has continuously developed in a comprehensive and firm manner, making important contributions to the revolutionary cause of the nation. Under the leadership and training of the Party and President Ho Chi Minh, diplomacy was a strategic front in the two resistance wars and national construction. With strategic and clever decisions, diplomacy made an important contribution to protecting the revolutionary government and people after the August Revolution. Along with the political, military, economic, and cultural fronts, and the mottos of fighting while negotiating and befriending democratic countries and harbouring no grudges, the diplomatic front enlisted the great support and help of the advanced forces and the worlds people for the just and revolutionary cause of our people, creating victories that brightened the nations history from the negotiation and signing of the Geneva Agreement in 1954 to the Paris Agreement in 1973. After national reunification, diplomacy paved the way to help break the embargo step by step, removing obstructions in the relationship with many partners, and ushering in a new situation for national development. In more than 35 years of innovation, the diplomatic sector has inherited and applied the Ho Chi Minh diplomatic thought, while consistently implementing the foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, peace, friendship, cooperation and development, multilateralisation, diversification, proactive and active international integration, and being a reliable friend and partner, as well as an active and responsible member of the international community. Widening networks The diplomatic sector, together with other pillars, has taken the lead in creating and consolidating a peaceful, stable, and favourable environment in favour of national development and national protection, with the enhancement of the national status. At present, our country has diplomatic relations with 190 countries around the world, including strategic and comprehensive partnerships with 30 countries; has economic relations with over 230 countries and territories; and signed 15 free trade agreements including new generation ones. Vietnam is also an active member of more than 70 important multilateral organisations and forums. With an open and deepening network of foreign relations, and an increasingly strengthened environment of peace, stability, independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity, Vietnam has been able to expand its large network of many import-export markets, taking advantage of many sources of capital, technology, and external knowledge so as to serve the national industrialisation and modernisation. During the difficult period of the COVID-19 pandemic, health diplomacy and vaccine diplomacy have made important contributions to the successful implementation of the national vaccine strategy, creating a prerequisite for our country to shift to safe and flexible adaptation, with the effective control of the pandemic and the strong boost of socioeconomic recovery and development, and rising up after the pandemic. The fact that our country has taken on many international responsibilities such as the host of APEC 2017, chair of ASEAN 2020, and non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in 2020-2021 along with the nations correct, reasonable, and sympathetic behaviour in many multilateral forums have enhanced the image and reputation of Vietnam as an independent, self-reliant, innovative, and peace-loving nation which respects international law with its being trustworthy, sincere, and responsible to the international community. Cultural diplomacy and external information have contributed to strongly promoting the image of the country, people, innovation achievements, and cultural identity of Vietnam to the world. The overseas Vietnamese work has contributed to strengthening national unity, mobilising many resources of overseas Vietnamese for national development and national protection. We have been doing a good job in protecting our citizens abroad, especially when conflicts and pandemics occur. The above achievements are thanks to the sound foreign policy of the Party and the state; the concerted efforts of the entire Party, the people, and the whole political system; the close and effective coordination of the pillars, forces, sectors, and levels. Those achievements also mirrored the glorious tradition of Vietnams foreign affairs and diplomacy, and the persistent efforts and dedication of generations of diplomats. It is the nations revolutionary cause that has forged diplomacy to become more and more mature and developed, creating a distinctive and unique Vietnamese school of foreign affairs and diplomacy of the Ho Chi Minh era. A modern diplomatic sector In the light of the foreign policy of the 13th National Party Congress, our countrys foreign policy is entering a new stage of development, associated with the implementation of the policy of building comprehensive and modern diplomacy with three pillars: foreign affairs of the Party, the state diplomacy, and peoples foreign affairs. As the main force for the countrys foreign affairs front, the diplomatic sector continues to closely and skillfully coordinate with foreign affairs of the Party and people, national defence and security, economy, culture, and society in order to carry out external tasks in a synchronous, creative, and effective manner. In which, the focus is placed on maintaining a peaceful and stable environment along with resolutely and persistently defending independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity; at the same time, expanding and further deepening relations with neighbouring countries, important partners, and traditional friends, taking full advantage of favourable international factors. The diplomatic sector will also constantly innovate, and create new ways of doing things, new directions, and new fields to expand markets, mobilising external resources to realise aspirations, visions, and goals for national development; and promote Vietnams role in important multilateral mechanisms to further enhance the countrys international status and prestige. Faced with the demands of the situation and tasks in the new period, it is necessary to build a clean, strong, comprehensive, and modern diplomacy. As Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong noted at the National Conference on Foreign Affairs, a good diplomat and foreign affairs activist must first be a good politician, and the essential thing is building a contingent of diplomatic cadres who are always absolutely loyal to the Partys ideals, dedicated to serving the fatherland, and the people, and who are firm, strategic, professional, and internationally and regionally qualified. To do so, it is necessary to further strengthen the building and rectification of the Party, step up learning, and follow the ideology, morality, and style of Ho Chi Minh, and boost the training and fostering of diplomatic cadres both in terms of political steadfastness and qualifications. Looking back on the past 77 years, generations of diplomats expressed their infinite gratitude to great President Ho Chi Minh, who was the founder of the diplomatic sector. He provided our countrys diplomacy with a unique and invaluable legacy of diplomatic thought. Learning and applying creatively his diplomatic thought and promoting the glorious tradition of Vietnams revolutionary diplomacy, the entire diplomatic sector under the leadership of the Party is determined to build a clean, strong, comprehensive and modern Vietnamese diplomacy, making a worthy contribution to the realisation of the goal of prosperous people and a strong, democratic, equitable, and civilised nation. The WINLife ecosystem is Masans next breakthrough to enhance customer experience via its consumer tech platform. Masan plans to launch up to 100 WIN stores nationwide. During the past three years, besides restructuring WinMart/WinMart+ to become a profitable retail platform, Masan has taken steps to pioneer multi-utility retail models to meet the ever-evolving consumer demand. With the message "WIN is all you need", we are proud to launch the WINLife ecosystem, a destination of strong brands with outstanding quality made by Vietnamese to serve Vietnamese consumers, said a representative of Masan Group. Initially, Masan established a chain of 27 WIN stores at prime locations in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. WINLife serves essential daily use items, ranging from grocery (WinMart+), financial services (Techcombank), pharmacy (Dr. Win), F&B (Phuc Long) to telecommunication services (Reddi). In 2022, Masan plans to launch up to 100 WIN stores nationwide. WIN stores bring a modern and convenient shopping space with youthful and fresh colours. The store's design is inspired by Western European architectural style, consulted by French architects of Malherbe, the Paris-based architecture firm that has designed numerous showrooms for famous brands such as Dior, Louis Vuitton, and Huawei. With an impressive design and high-quality products and services, WIN stores offer international quality shopping experiences to Vietnamese consumers. The highlight of the WIN stores is one main counter that is designed 360 degrees and a central payment zone to make payments more convenient and quicker. Besides the traditional payment method at the counter, consumers can order and pay for Phuc Long items at the O-Zone, a cashless payment area, integrating offline and online to increase the convenient shopping experience for consumers. By serving multi-utility at only one destination, WIN stores will help consumers save time and enjoy high-quality products and services at a cheaper cost for daily essential consumption needs. At the first 27 WIN stores, Masan also introduces the WIN membership programme with exclusive benefits: After successful membership registration, WIN members will receive an immediate discount of 50 per cent, up to VND50000 ($2) on their first bill, a free welcome drink from Phuc Long, and up to 20 per cent off daily essential grocery. In addition, WIN members will be able to enjoy healthcare solutions from Dr. Win, such as essential family medical kits, health insurance packages based on spending at WIN, and a weekly health counselling programme. These unique features make Dr. Win stand out from other pharmacies in the market. The WIN Membership programme will soon be scaled up to more than 3,000 WinCommerce supermarkets and minimarkets and integrated with dual financial solutions and benefits provided by Masan and Techcombank. Domestic retail sector presenting bright picture The consequences of the pandemic seem to no longer haunt the domestic retail industry, as sales of consumer goods and services continuously record stellar growth. WinCommerce to open 720 more WinMart, WinMart+ stores WinCommerce, the retail arm of Masan Group, which operates WinMart/WinMart+ supermarkets and minimarts, has planned to open over 700 new WinMart+ stores and more than 20 WinMart supermarkets and hypermarkets in the remaining months of 2022. Nearly 150 people in Hoa Binh isolated by flooding rescued Nearly 150 people in the northern mountainous province of Hoa Binh have been rescued after being isolated by severe flooding. The people are from the communes of Nhuan Trach and Tan Vinh and Luong Son Town in Luong Son District. The rescue faced difficulties due to the heavy rain and swift-flowing Bui River Hoa Binh rescue services were informed about the situation in Luong Son District at around 4 pm on Thursday. Police sent 25 responders to help the residents, people were relocated away from dangerous areas the same evening. Luong Son has continued to experience torrential rains. Local authorities remain on standby for potential rescue operations. The northern region of Vietnam has been forecasted to see heavy rain until September 12. Beijing Dance Academy welcomes the latest member of its teaching faculty, the legendary ballet dancer, choreographer and modern icon of the genre, Vladimir Malakhov. When ballet students of Beijing Dance Academy returned to the campus for their new semester in September, they welcomed the arrival of a new teacher: Vladimir Malakhov. The legendary ballet dancer and choreographer is regarded as the "dancer of the century" by critics. As the former principal dancer of the Moscow Classical Ballet and the Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera), and former artistic director of the Staatsballett Berlin (Berlin State Ballet), Malakhov is known as one of the iconic figures in the contemporary dance scene. On Sept 2, Malakhov was greeted by leaders of Beijing Dance Academy and watched the training of students from both the university and the middle school affiliated to the academy. With a designated set of exercises, students displayed their classical ballet movements, which received warm applause from Malakhov. "I can see the potential here and I am looking forward to working with you," Malakhov told the students after the session. In the next three years, he is going to teach at the ballet department of Beijing Dance Academy and will live in China to explore the country, which, he says, is a longtime wish of his. "It took a very long time for me to finally get here. The school sent me the invitation over a year ago. It is a challenge I am willing to take on," says Malakhov in an interview with China Daily. Born in Ukraine, he began his dance training at the age of 4. He continued his training at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow under the guidance of Peter Pestov, and upon graduation in 1986, Malakhov joined the Moscow Classical Ballet as that company's youngest principal dancer. He later joined the Wiener Staatsoper in 1992 as a principal dancer and, in 1994, he joined the National Ballet of Canada. In 1995, he made his debut with the American Ballet Theatre in New York. His performances cover a wide range of styles from classical ballet to the works of today's contemporary choreographers. As a choreographer himself, Malakhov made his debut in 1999, when he presented his version of La Bayadere at the Wiener Staatsoper. In 2001, his production of The Masked Ball set to the music of Giuseppe Verdi premiered in Vienna. From 2004 to 2014, he directed the Staatsballett Berlin, during which time he oversaw ballet productions that included Cinderella, The Sleeping Beauty and La Peri. Malakhov says that lots of his colleagues were Chinese dancers who always told him that he should visit China. "However, I was busy with my international career. But now I have time to share my experience with these wonderful students in China," he says. "I would like to share with them what I learned in the past and I will help bring them up to an international level." According to Ba Tu, Party secretary of Beijing Dance Academy, the recognition of Malakhov's talent and unique international experience was the reason why he was invited to teach at the school. Malakhov will help students and teachers of the school to create original art, combining the skills of classical ballet. Forums, workshops and master classes revolving around the ballet master will be held at the school over the next three years. Malakhov will choose top students from the ballet department of the school and "prepare them for a big future", the dancer-choreographer says. "It's hard to describe what kind of qualities the dancers need to have to be called 'top talent' but I have a special eye for them," he says. In 2013, as the artistic director of the Staatsballett Berlin, Malakhov made his debut performance in China with the German company, performing a ballet gala and his new version of La Peri, adapted from an 1843 ballet choreographed by Jean Coralli, at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. In 2019, he returned to China along with eight world-renowned ballet stars, presenting two shows under the title of Malakhov and Friends at the NCPA in Beijing. The shows featured 15 pieces, including classic ballet selections such as La Esmeralda, Don Quixote and The Nutcracker, as well as modern ballet works in different styles. Malakhov performed two solo pieces: The Dying Swan and Lost, receiving warm feedback from the audience with his solid techniques and emotive movements. "I was amazed by the Chinese audiences during my trips to the country. In 2019, after the shows, I started to think about working in China. Now I am here," he says. "There's quite a difference between touring and living in a different country. When I toured here, it was very quick and I had no time to explore the cities, but now, after settling down, I will slowly feel the country and its culture," he adds. "I will create something just for China." Malakhov also notes that the COVID-19 pandemic has heavily affected the global dance scene. He was supposed to have a great year in 2020 with lots of projects, which were all canceled. He started to give online courses to young dancers during the pandemic. "You need to have hope, not to bring yourself down. Life continues and you need to have other challenges to fulfill your wishes, knowing what you need to do," Malakhov says. As a teacher, he describes himself as "very strict", because that was how he was trained by his teacher, Peter Pestov, one of the best classical ballet teachers in the world. "Talent must be treated differently. When you are a child, you don't think too much. But school is one thing and dancing with a company is another," he says. "It is all about hard work. Everything the audience sees is the final part. You don't see how many times I fell down in the studio, how many times I hurt myself, or how many times I cried. You have to be strong enough." One of the ways Malakhov relaxes is by cooking, which is a motivation and brings his energy back. He loves Chinese food, especially Peking roast duck, and he has already learned to cook Chinese dishes, he adds. Nguyen Canh Cuong - Trade counsellor Vietnamese Embassy to the UK The total turnover of Vietnamese goods exported to the United Kingdom was about $5 billion a year before the pandemic accounting for less than 1 per cent of market capacity. The biggest opportunity for Vietnamese businesses in the UK market has been since the UK-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement took effect in early 2021. However, Vietnamese enterprises still face some difficulties when exporting goods to the UK. Firstly, the shipping cost is very large, at about $12,000 for a 40-feet container, and transportation schedules are not regular. Secondly, many businesses are afraid or unable to attend fairs in the UK so as to introduce their products, meet potential customers, and grasp market trends or changes in consumer tastes. The lending rates for bank loans in Vietnam are also quite high, while importers want to pay after receiving goods from 30 to 60 days or longer. The payment tools and practices of Vietnamese enterprises have not kept pace with British counterparts. Meanwhile, Vietnamese enterprises do not fully understand the market approach and business practices in the UK. Vietnamese enterprises are often at a disadvantage when facing a dispute with British customers due to a lack of knowledge of UK business laws and a lack of risk prevention measures. Finally, the digitally technological skills of many Vietnamese businesses have not reached the level of British businesses and consumers, so the effectiveness of e-marketing is very low. To help Vietnamese businesses to overcome these obstructions, some solutions are proposed. The Ministry of Transport needs to have measures to reduce logistics costs for businesses. Moreover, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) should increase support for businesses to attend major international fairs in Europe. Furthermore, Vietnamese banks should expand cooperation with British banks and businesses to provide more export credit for Vietnamese businesses with more reasonable lending rates. It is necessary for the MoIT to cooperate with the Foreign Trade University to organise short-term training programmes for businesses on effective methods of market access, business culture, business law, and digital marketing in foreign targeted markets. In addition, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry needs to add a Vietnamese business database in English on its website so that foreign enterprises can easily verify their Vietnamese partners, and thereby boldly do business with Vietnamese companies. There are five key industrial sectors in the UK that Vietnamese businesses can seek partners and forge cooperation with. One is the production of high-grade steel using decarbonisation technology. This is a technology with lower power consumption and lower carbon emissions than traditional technology. Second is the production of engines for aeroplanes, ships, trains, and cars, and the third is ICT. This sector in the UK is being invested in with high-speed transmission lines and attracting talents from other countries. 5G internet will be common in the next two years in this nation, while 6G is being researched and has application prospects for the next 3-5 years. ICT is one of the important components of Industry 4.0, and can be considered a cornerstone for many other economic sectors. The next factor is to build AI-based robots. Along with the great advancement of ICT, manufacturing robots with AI is becoming a cornerstone industry for many other economic sectors and promoting unprecedented high labour productivity. Another crucial industrial sector in the UK is the production of wind power and its equipment. The UK is one of the pioneers in this field and is looking forward to helping Vietnam develop wind power to gradually replace coal power in order to achieve the goal of neutralising emissions by 2050. Vietnamese enterprises can approach partners from these aforementioned industrial sectors via different channels. They can do this via big banks such as HSBC, Standard Chartered, Lloyds, and NatWest to find investors or manufacturers wishing to move factories abroad. These banks have both financial and management capacity and the ability to find technology experts. Vietnamese businesses can also find British partners through the Association of Vietnamese Intellectuals in the UK or the Vietnam-UK Network to search for local experts to work for Vietnam. The Vietnamese government last week asked the Ministry of Transport (MoT) to urgently work with the Ministry of Planning and Investment to conduct analysis, comparisons, and selection of, and propose an optimal scheme on investing and constructing the railway project, especially in terms of speed and transportation mode, roadmap, and preparation time, implementation, and completion of this project. With the new proposed railway, the travel time from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City would be about six hours, Le Toan It is believed the government will seek out the National Assemblys (NA) approval of the major project in the legislatures 2021-2026 tenure. If approved, the 17-year fate of this project carrying both passengers and freight will be a big milestone, with the ultimate aim that it would take only six hours to travel from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City. The MoT will make a feasibility report, adopt a design, and conduct site clearance before officially commencing construction in 2028-2029 of a number of bidding packages for the two sections of Hanoi-Vinh and Nha Trang-Ho Chi Minh City. It has been proposed that the projects trains use technologies similar to the Shinkansen train in Japan. Shinkansen uses a range of advanced technologies, achieving not only high speed but also a high standard of safety and comfort. The biggest obstructions over the past decades making it hard for such a high-speed railway to be adopted have been the selection of speed, investment capital, and schemes on capital mobilisation, especially in the context of a limited state budget. The General Statistics Office reported that in the first seven months of this year, total state budget revenues were estimated at $47.54 billion, up 18.1 per cent on-year. Total state budget expenditures are estimated to sit at $36.64 billion, up 3.7 per cent on-year. This has resulted in a 7-month budget surplus of $10.9 billion. Last year, Vietnam saw a budget deficit of $12.46 billion, down by $2.48 billion against the initial estimates and equal to 3.41 per cent of realised GDP worth $365.21 billion. According to the MoTs pre-feasibility report on the project, the 1,435mm dual gauge railway will be about 1,545km long, running through 20 cities and provinces. It will start at Hanois Ngoc Hoi Station and end at Ho Chi Minh Citys Thu Thiem Station. The electric railway could allow for a speed of 320km per hour. It is estimated that the total capital for the whole project will be about $58.7 billion including nearly $2 billion for site clearance, $31.5 billion for construction, $15 billion for purchasing and installing equipment, $5.8 billion for project management and consultancy, and $4 billion for provisions. To ensure investment effectiveness and the state budgets capacity, the project is expected to be divided into two stages. Under the first stage, the investment will be conducted in the Hanoi-Vinh and Nha Trang-Ho Chi Minh City sections of 665km with total capital of an estimated $24.7 billion. This stage will be constructed during 2027-2031 and become operational in 2032. Under the second stage, the Vinh-Nha Trang section will be constructed with a total length of 894km and an estimated $34 billion. The Vinh-Danang and the Danang-Nha Trang sections will be open to traffic by 2040 and 2045-2050, respectively. The MoT has been conducting numerous studies on this project since 2005, with a consultancy with various ministries, central organisations, experts, and scientists to develop and revise the pre-feasibility report for the project. A state appraisal council was in 2019 set up by the government to assess the pre-feasibility report. In 2010, the $55.8 billion railway project was submitted by the government to the NA for consideration. However, the legislature turned down the project due to capital shortages and different views in the selection of technology. Under designs at the time, the express route would allow passenger trains to travel at 300km per hour and would have a total of 27 stations. The total time from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City would be about five and a half hours. Using 4,170 hectares of land and Japanese technology, the railway was then expected to be built between 2012-2035, with the first phase to be completed by 2020. The then Minister of Transport Ho Nghia Dung reported that each year, it would need to mobilise $4.37 billion from the state budget, official development assistance, and enterprises for the project. Dang Vu Minh, the then Chairman of the National Assembly Committee for Science, Technology and Environment (CSTE), said that on average, one kilometre of the railway would need $35.6 million of funding. Many said that the project also includes the construction of tunnels and assorted bridges. This means that total investment capital needed for the project would be far from the estimations, Minh said. Moreover, under government plans to develop Vietnams traffic networks before 2020, demand for investment capital for the traffic sector in the past decade would have been $160 billion, of which $70 billion would be for railways. This is a big challenge for the project, Minh said. A CSTE report on the project stated that the total capital for the projects first phase would be $21 billion, meaning that each year would need $2.63 billion which mainly depended on foreign loans. This project will be a burden for the governments debt, which has already been estimated to occupy 42 per cent of the GDP, while the countrys foreign currency stockpile remained low, the report said. Moreover, Vietnams GDP in 2010 sat at $110 billion. With an average growth rate of 6-7 per cent per year, the country will not be able to sufficiently supply investment capital for many sectors, while capital for this project is too big, the report added. Vietnam Railways sees recovery in first half of 2022 Vietnams railway industry saw growth in revenue and cargo transport in the first half of 2022, heralding a recovery ahead. 51.3 million USD invested in Vinh Nha Trang railway renovation, upgrade project The Ministry of Transport has approved the Vinh-Nha Trang railway renovation and upgrade project under the North-South railway with a total investment of over 1.2 trillion VND (51.3 million USD) from 2022 to 2025. The conference took place at the headquarters of the MPI on September 8 The conference was an opportunity for the two sides to share experiences and promote agricultural cooperation, focusing on the application of technology with the goal of building a modern, high-quality, productive agriculture with sustainability and good competitiveness. At the conference, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Duy Dong said that Vietnam and Ireland have a long and sustainable cooperation history. Agriculture and food processing are areas within the framework of cooperation under the Irish Development Experience Sharing Program for the period 2017-2020 between Vietnamese agencies and their Irish partners. Promoting further cooperation relations to develop the agricultural industry as well as promoting business links between the two countries is necessary, especially as each country considers development in association with high technologies and sustainability a top priority," said Dong. Despite many important achievements, Vietnam's agricultural sector still faces many challenges such as limitations on mechanisation, lack of breeds and livestock, an unsustainable consumption market, and poorly skilled human resources. Meanwhile, the Irish food and agricultural sector is nearly leading over the world. Therefore, the MPI wants Ireland to share information on agricultural development, especially in livestock, as well as enable Vietnamese agricultural enterprises to access modern Irish technologies and research, contributing to boosting the export of Vietnams agricultural products to regional and global markets. Martin Heydon, Irish Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine said that the two countries should explore the potential for cooperation and development in agriculture, food, and ready-made goods, especially since the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement came into effect. In the 10-year strategy to develop the agriculture and food industry, Ireland targets to become the leading food supplier in the world with top-quality products, ensuring the production process based on the value of food, health, nutrition, and the environment. To do this, research and innovation is a major key, playing an important role in solving challenges and unlocking new chances. This is also Ireland's top priority towards the sustainable development of the agricultural sector, said Heydon. He also reaffirmed that the Irish government and businesses are willing to promote investment and cooperate with Vietnam in the application of advanced technologies to build an agriculture that can adapt to climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Irish government and businesses are willing to promote investment and cooperate with Vietnam in the application of advanced technologies to build an agriculture that can adapt to climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Vietnam's livestock industry is very diverse in livestock species with a high scale and density of herds such as around 24 million pigs, 525,000 kinds of poultry, and nearly 6 million cows. In the livestock development strategy to 2030, the livestock industry aims to grow in both output and herd size. However, according to Nguyen Xuan Duong, standing vice chairman of the Vietnam Livestock Association, the livestock industry still faces many difficulties and challenges, such as that technology in the agriculture sector remains uneven and unsynchronised. Cattle production and milk processing have the most modern technology, which is the most advanced in Asia and derived largely from Europe and the US. Industrial pig and chicken farming of large enterprises and farms (accounting for about 30 per cent of the total) has modern automated technology from the EU, US, and Taiwan. However, slaughtering and processing technologies of livestock products are still limited. Currently, about 20 per cent of the market share is modern, emphasised Duong. To overcome shortcomings, Duong proposed to quickly restructure the organisation of livestock production according to value chains, bringing into full play the role of enterprises, associations, and cooperatives to encourage farmers to join the chains, as well as adjust the planning, reduce the scale of high-grain livestock, and develop intensive farming of feed crops. It is necessary to apply automatic and biotechnological technologies in animal husbandry following standards on biosafety, recirculation, and environmentally-friendly husbandry, added Duong. In the field of cow husbandry, Pham Van Gioi from the Institute of Livestock Production under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development proposed that the livestock industry should strengthen the supervision of livestock law enforcement, support the shift of small-scale livestock production to a centralised form, and improve the cow husbandry management system towards organic and biosecurity, among others. At the conference, the state management agencies, experts, and businesses of the two countries discussed, shared experiences, and proposed cooperation for the development of the two countries' agriculture sectors in the future. Languishing near the bottom of the list of localities a decade ago in overseas funding attraction, now Thai Nguyen in Vietnams northeast has carved a spot among the top destinations nationwide in foreign direct investment (FDI). Thai Nguyen is blessed with well-planned industrial zones with plenty of space for added production In the first seven months of 2022, the total FDI volume in the province touched $1.02 billion, ranking fourth in the country. As of July 20, the province was home to 198 foreign-invested projects valued at more than $10 billion in value, placing 11th out of all 63 localities. Over the years, Thai Nguyen has coaxed many major domestic and foreign businesses such as Samsung, Sunny Opotech, and TNG, among others. Earlier this year Samsung decided to inject $920 million more into its existing manufacturing complex in Thai Nguyen, raising the plants total investment sum from $1.35 billion to $2.27 billion. Major newly-licensed foreign-funded projects in Thai Nguyen in the year to date include a $275 million venture by Chinas Trina Solar Wafer at Yen Binh Industrial Zone (IZ) on high-power module production; a $30 million South Korean-backed Dowooinsys Vina project at Song Cong II IZ; and the $9.5 million Sunny Infrased Vietnam scheme at Yen Binh IZ, among others. Thai Nguyens success in luring FDI is attributed to the provinces smart job of building big IZs to welcome funding flow, as well as its policies and incentives to encourage firms to invest in the provinces IZs. Along with this, this year Thai Nguyen has accommodated 12 well-planned IZs with a total land area for industrial production reaching 4,245ha, ready to greet investors. Thus far, Thai Nguyen IZs have enticed over 270 projects, of which 134 are run by foreign investors with a total capital value surpassing $10.4 billion, and 137 are owned by domestic groups valued at more than $764.6 million. According to Thai Nguyen Peoples Committee, most of the provinces IZs are positioned south in the province and contiguous to key roads like the Hanoi-Thai Nguyen expressway, as well as being relatively close to Noi Bai International Airport and Haiphong port. Furthermore, the IZs have a modern and seamless infrastructure in particular, a centralised wastewater treatment system. Nguyen Linh, director of Thai Nguyen Department of Planning and Investment, noted that amid complexities in the past two years, Thai Nguyen has succeeded in wooing nearly 50 foreign-invested projects, particularly early this year. The total FDI value in Thai Nguyen now amounts to tens of billions of US dollars, which is truly a driving force to propel the provinces development, Linh said. Between January and the end of May, the rate of public capital disbursement in Thai Nguyen was at an average level compared to other localities. By the end of July, the province, however, witnessed a breakthrough in this regard when it reached 59.3 per cent of the set plan, making it among the top players nationwide in public investment disbursement. The total public investment volume assigned to Thai Nguyen approximated $254 million in 2022. By the end of July, the total disbursed sum amounted to $150.7 million. The figure is expected to reach $170 million by the end of August, equal to 67 per cent of the total volume. Taken that entanglements in land acquisition are the bottleneck for source disbursement, Thai Nguyen Peoples Committee has required authorised agencies to facilitate this work to be able to quickly hand over cleared space to contractors for project execution. Efforts are also geared towards accelerating construction pace and finalising relevant procedures to receive payment from Thai Nguyen State Treasury for complete work volume, from there quickening public investment disbursement pace. Nguyen Thi Bao Huong, director of Thai Nguyen State Treasury, noted that the unit has strictly obeyed administrative procedure reforms to shorten the time for transactions, quickly bringing the capital sources into serving the society efficiently. Last year, Thai Nguyen made it among the top three performers in public investment disbursement nationwide. Thai Nguyen ready to leapfrog in funding attraction While betting on ample competitive advantages and strong commitments to investment attraction through policy incentives, Thai Nguyen province in the north has left a strong impression on those attending a recent conference on investment promotion in Ho Chi Minh City. Thai Nguyen's master plan for 2021-2030 got greenlit All members of the Appraisal Council reached a consensus and approved Thai Nguyen's master plan for 2021-2030, with a vision towards 2050, at the recent conference at the Ministry of Planning and Investment's (MPI) headquarters. Thai Nguyen pushes IT creativity Leveraging experience, resources, and widespread IT application across the board, the northern province of Thai Nguyen has been harvesting inspiring achievements amid its digital transformation. Source: Ogj.com TOP will invest in the fields of oil refinery, lube oil, and high-value petrochemical products, according to the newswire Bangkok Post. The total investment capital for these projects has yet to be disclosed. The expansion of its operations overseas is to meet the growing demand for energy and petrochemical products. Wirat Uanarumit, president and CEO of TOP, stated that these three markets have the advantages of high rates of economic growth and large numbers of young people, thus these nations offer the best potential for investment throughout the Asian region. It is not its first investment in Vietnam. In 2009, TOP expanded its business network in Asia-Pacific by establishing the TOP Solvent (Vietnam) Co., Ltd in Ho Chi Minh City, which operates the business of distributing solvents and chemicals imported from Thailand and abroad. The main warehouse is located in Dong Nai in the south of Vietnam. In April 2019, TOP Solvent opened its 27,000-square metre integrated solvent facility in DEEP C Industrial Zone, gearing up to extend its reach not only in Vietnam but all across Southeast Asia. The facility has the total investment capital of $13 million. Gusto Thai Restaurant earns second Thai SELECT award For the second year in a row, Gusto Thai Restaurant has been honoured with the Thai SELECT award. This is a certificate from the Ministry of Commerce of the Thai government for restaurants that exhibit authentic Thai flavours. Cairo - A workshop aiming to promote trade connection between Vietnamese and Egyptian businesses was held in Cairo on September 8, attracting those specialising in agricultural products, seafood, construction material, household plastic, paper, packaging and fertiliser. Egyptian businesses are interested in Vietnamese goods. -Illustrative image (Photo: VNA) Ambassador Nguyen Huy Dung said there is great potential for enterprises of the two sides to further expand cooperation, suggesting they work closely to lift the bilateral trade to a higher level. He underlined the need to enhance the exchange of market information between the two countries business communities, affirming that the embassy is always ready to create all favourable conditions for information connection between Vietnamese and Egyptian firms. Representatives from Egyptian companies said they are especially interested in Vietnams agricultural and seafood products, and wish to promote business opportunities with Vietnamese partners. Meanwhile, Vietnamese businesses also have high expectations for business cooperation opportunities with Egyptian partners. The Egyptian side said they are willing to support Vietnamese businesses in finding investment and business opportunities in the Egyptian market through strengthening connection between the business communities of the two countries. Previously, a working delegation of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and Vietnamese enterprises had a meeting with the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce to learn about mechanisms and policies related to import and export, and share information about the need of the two markets. Lacy Lakeview Police on Wednesday arrested a woman covered in blood and charged her in the killing of her neighbor with a shotgun. Cynthia Ellen Ming, 50, of Lacy Lakeview, was arrested around 1 a.m. Wednesday in the street outside the scene of the shooting in the 400 block of Whispering Lane. She was charged with murder in the death of Angie Bush, also known as Angie Moore. Police reports describe Moores injuries as severe lacerations, possible internal injuries and other major injuries and list a shotgun as the murder weapon. Ming received treatment at an area hospital for non-life-threatening injuries while in custody. Lacy Lakeview police then took her to be booked into McLennan County Jail on a first-degree felony charge of murder. Moore called in to police just after midnight that her neighbor was breaking into her home, according to the police call log. Caller advised female subject is breaking into her house and she has a loaded gun and is getting ready to shoot her, the police report says. When police arrived three minutes later, they found Ming climbing out a window nude and covered in blood, police reports state. Entering the home, they found Moore on the floor with multiple wounds. Officers and American Medical Response personnel attempted lifesaving measures, but Moore was pronounced dead on the scene. While officers in the home began CPR for Moore, others outside pursued Ming, according to the arrest affidavit. One pursuer saw Ming running away naked from the house into the roadway, the affidavit says. Cynthias person was covered in a large amount of blood and she began to run from officers, the arrest affidavit states. The officer drew his stun gun and deployed it to get Ming to stop. The Taser was ineffective, the affidavit says. In cooperation with Bellmead and Texas State Technical College police officers, the Lacy Lakeview officer was then able to place Cynthia on the ground and place her in handcuffs. The officer saw Ming had a large amount of lacerations on her person, and put her in an ambulance for transport to an area hospital, the affidavit says. While AMR took Ming to an area hospital, the officer accompanied and placed her in custody for suspicion of murder, the affidavit says. At the hospital, Ming told medical personnel that she entered Moores home and Moore had a gun, the affidavit says. Cynthia stated she grabbed the gun from her, shot her in the head, the affidavit says. Cynthia then again stated that she murdered her due to her killing her dog. Ming told medical personnel her own wounds came from going into Moores house through a window, the affidavit says. Waco crime scene technicians arrived at the hospital to assist in processing Ming, the affidavit says. Cynthia informed the Waco Crime Scene technician that the blood on her hands was probably the murder victims, the affidavit says. After the hospital cleared Ming for incarceration, the officer took her to McLennan County Jail and booked her on the murder charge. Her arraignment judge set her bail at $1 million. She remained in custody Thursday. Moores relatives are setting up a fund for her son, age 13, a special-needs youth who survives her. Queen Elizabeth II, a monarch bound by duty, dies at 96 LONDON (AP) Buckingham Palace says Queen Elizabeth II, Britains longest-reigning monarch, has died at 96. Elizabeth spent seven decades on the throne since Feb. 6, 1952 as the U.K. rebuilt from war, lost an empire, transformed its economy and both entered and left the European Union. Upon the queens death, her 73-year-old son Charles automatically became monarch. He will be known as King Charles III, even though his coronation might not happen for months. Elizabeth was a constant presence, the only monarch most Britons have ever known. Her image, which adorned stamps, coins and bank notes, was among the most reproduced in the world. But her inner life and opinions remained largely an enigma. After a lifetime of preparation, Charles takes the throne LONDON (AP) Prince Charles has been preparing to be king his entire life. Now his moment has arrived. Following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, Charles is now the oldest person to take the British throne. No date has been set for the coronation of King Charles III. But Charles faces the enormous challenge of building the same sort of affection that characterized the relationship between his mother and the British public. Will Charles be loved by his subjects, like his mother was? Its a question that has overshadowed his entire life. Camilla becomes queen, but without the sovereigns powers LONDON (AP) After seven decades, the United Kingdom has a new woman to call queen. Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, will be known as Queen Consort, a title that came with Queen Elizabeth IIs blessing after many years of contention, dating back to the years before she even married Prince Charles. It wasnt always a given that Camilla would take the title, even though it gives her none of the sovereigns powers. While the wife of a king is traditionally crowned queen, the question of Camilla's title was a tricky one for years due to the sensitivity of her status as his second wife and the grief that followed Princess Dianas death in 1997. Trump documents probe: US ready to appeal judge's hold WASHINGTON (AP) The Justice Department is preparing to appeal a judges decision to name an independent arbiter to review records seized by the FBI from former President Donald Trumps Florida home. The department has also asked U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to put on hold her directive prohibiting it from using the seized records in its criminal investigation while it contests her ruling to a federal appeals court. Cannon's Monday order has the likely impact of slowing the pace of the investigation into the presence of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Law enforcement officials said in a filing Thursday that they would suffer irreparable harm if Cannons directive remained in place. Prosecutor: Official's DNA in slain reporter's fingernails LAS VEGAS (AP) Police and prosecutors say the DNA of a jailed elected official angered by past and upcoming newspaper stories was found beneath the fingernails of a Las Vegas investigative reporter who fought for his life while being stabbed to death outside his home last week. Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles stood handcuffed in court while a prosecutor told a judge Thursday that Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff Germans death was a planned attack by an assailant who waited in his vehicle outside the reporter's home. The prosecutor said German was stabbed seven times. The judge called a police report detailing the attack chilling and ordered the 45-year-old Telles to remain jailed without bail pending arraignment next Tuesday on a murder charge. Utah rep. told Mormon bishop not to report abuse, docs show A Utah lawmaker and prominent attorney for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints advised a church bishop not to report a confession of child sex abuse to authorities, a decision that allowed the abuse to continue for years, according to records filed in a lawsuit. The two pages of records from a log of calls fielded by a law firm representing the church and the deposition of a church official show that Utah Republican State Rep. Merrill F. Nelson took the initial call from a bishop reporting that church member Paul Adams had sexually abused his daughters. The records show that Nelson also had multiple conversations over a two-year span with two bishops who knew of the abuse. N. Korea says it will never give up nukes to counter US SEOUL, South Korea (AP) North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is stressing his country will never abandon the nuclear weapons and missiles it needs to counter hostilities from the United States. He accuses the U.S. of pushing a pressure campaign aimed at weakening the Norths defenses and eventually collapsing his government. State media said Friday that North Koreas rubber-stamp parliament also passed a law that requires North Koreas military to automatically execute nuclear strikes against enemy forces if its leadership comes under attack. Kim also addressed domestic issues in his speech, saying North Korea would begin its long-delayed rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in November. He didnt give specifics. Judge approves $2.46 billion Boy Scouts reorganization plan A Delaware bankruptcy judge has approved a $2.46 billion reorganization plan proposed by the Boy Scouts of America. The plan approved Thursday would allow the organization to continue operating while compensating tens of thousands of men who say they were sexually abused as children while involved in Scouting. The ruling by Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein marks an important milestone for the BSA. It had sought bankruptcy protection more than two years ago to stave off a flood of lawsuits alleging child sexual abuse by Scout leaders and volunteers. The Boy Scouts of America said it was pleased with the court's decision and grateful to abuse survivors who were instrumental in the plan's formation. Bannon pleads not guilty in 'We Build the Wall' scheme NEW YORK (AP) Former President Donald Trumps longtime ally Steve Bannon has pleaded not guilty to New York state charges of duping donors who gave money to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Defense lawyer David Schoen entered the plea for the 68-year-old Bannon at his arraignment Thursday on charges including money laundering, conspiracy and fraud related to the We Build the Wall campaign. An earlier federal prosecution on similar charges ended before trial when Trump pardoned Bannon. Bannon is the second person to be pardoned by Trump and later charged by the Manhattan district attorneys office for the same alleged conduct. Swiatek, Jabeur will meet in 1st US Open final for both NEW YORK (AP) No. 1-ranked Iga Swiatek has come back to beat No. 6 Aryna Sabalenka 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 in the U.S. Open semifinals to reach her first title match at Flushing Meadows. Swiatek will meet No. 5 Ons Jabeur for the championship. Swiatek already owns two trophies from the French Opens red clay but never had been past the fourth round on New Yorks hard courts. She kept coming back Thursday night against Sabalenka. After dropping the first set, she took the second. After falling behind 4-2 in the third, she grabbed the last four games. Jabeur beat Caroline Garcia 6-1, 6-3 in the other semifinal. A launch ceremony for 2022 China Tourism and Culture Week was held on Sept 6 in Beijing, officially starting a global event which runs until the end of this month. During the event, overseas Chinese culture centers and tourism offices along with international branches of people.com.cn will host a series of online and offline art exhibits, video shows, lectures, and forums, centered on five thematic parts -- intangible cultural heritage and poverty reduction, revitalization of rural China, urban development, Yellow River culture, and tourism and culture along the Silk Road. The aim of staging this global project is "to showcase a real, beautiful China -- its latest innovation, progress and achievement in tourism and cultural sectors, its rich tourism products and services, as well as its initiatives to promote international exchange and cooperation between China and the rest of the world", said Hu Heping, culture and tourism minister, in a keynote speech at the launch ceremony. An online learning platform for Chinese Tourism courses (https://course.chinaculture.org/) developed by the Bureau of International Exchange and Cooperation of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism for tourism agencies and tour guides worldwide was unveiled during the ceremony. Initiated in 2016 and co-sponsored by the Bureau of International Exchange and Cooperation and the Department of Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and people.com.cn, the annual overseas tourism and culture week is widely recognized as a key vehicle to promote Chinese culture and tourism worldwide. CEDAR FALLS Elsa Roberts tested positive for COVID-19 on a Tuesday. At 6:30 p.m. the next day, she video conferenced with her daughter, Rene Bronner. Bronner said her mother was short of breath, but otherwise seemed fine. At around 5 a.m. Thursday, she was dead. Im like, What? I just talked to her, Bronner said. I was just talking to her, and she was gone just like that. Less than 48 hours positive. Roberts immigrated to the United States from Germany when she was five, and after having three children she returned to school and became a nurse, a profession she worked at for two decades. She fell in August 2020, breaking her femur, resulting in a stint in rehab. Despite taking full precautions, she contracted the coronavirus in December. Knowing that her mother had underlying health conditions, Bronner insisted she be taken to the emergency room. After being cleared, Roberts was returned to the rehab facility. She died less than 48 hours later. Bronner was told by the facility that her mother struggled to breathe and pulled off her oxygen mask in her final hours. I thought of COVID as someone being on a ventilator. I thought that would be my moms process, Bronner said. I thought that she would end up getting really sick, shed end up on a ventilator and wouldnt make it. Thats what I thought she would end up like, not talking to me Wednesday. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID-19 was the 15th leading cause of death in the Cedar Valley between 1999 and 2020 despite only emerging in early 2020. In total, it claimed 409 lives in the region, a rate of 8.4 people per 100,000 above the national average by 3.2. That same data showed deaths in the region above the national average for heart disease, cancer, diabetes and respiratory diseases. In addition to being deadly in their own right, those diseases were identified as prime risk factors for COVID-19. Combined with an aging local population and an outbreak at a Waterloo-based Tyson meatpacking facility in April 2020, it was a perfect storm. When COVID hit the Tyson plant, it was still in the early stages of the pandemic in Black Hawk County. Thats when we started seeing patients trickle into the hospital, said Dr. Pradeep Ramesh. Ramesh, a hospitalist at UnityPoint Health in Waterloo, was on the front lines throughout the pandemic. In its early stages, health care workers struggled not only with waves of patients but with navigating the unknowns of a virus about which they still had limited information. Ramesh and colleagues feared not only for the lives of their patients and the community, but also for their own. Youre seeing all these patients, and there is this fear in you that you may get COVID from treating your patients. So that definitely was there, Ramesh said. It was felt by all members of the medical profession the nurses, the aides every person in the hospital. Overcrowded emergency rooms and intensive care units were a signature of the pandemic nationally, and the Cedar Valley was no exception. According to Ramesh, there was a lag between the surge in admissions nationally and locally. Seeing the rates go up filled the staff with dread but it also gave them time to prepare and to brace for each new wave of patients. It also gave them room to breathe. That helped the planning for the hospital also. As a system, UnityPoint had some analytic tools which said that we expect a peak in the next week, or a peak in four weeks and stuff like that, so we planned ahead, Ramesh said. Just bracing for the onslaught, if you will. Planning ahead often meant taking actions like postponing elective surgeries and other procedures to free up beds. But even with the preparations, the hospital was still overwhelmed. This continued into 2021, when the delta variant emerged. Hospitals filled up again, as delta was more transmissible. Susan Fox and her mother, Nancy Pratt, were part of that wave of patients in Waterloo. Both mother and daughter were admitted to the hospital at approximately the same time. A week later, Fox was released from the hospital but Pratt stayed. By the end of July, she was transferred to a nursing home. They thought she was getting better, Fox wrote in an email to The Courier. Unfortunately, less than 24 hours later, my mom was transferred back to the hospital and placed in ICU. Fox and her four siblings visited whenever they were permitted. When they couldnt, they communicated through an iPad. The nurses held the iPad up to Pratt, even when she was unresponsive. Pratt was intubated after a week in ICU, and became responsive for short periods after two weeks. However, her condition deteriorated. Pratt developed a blockage in her brachial artery and died Sept. 7, 2021. According Fox, Pratt had not been vaccinated. The delta wave brought new frustrations for Ramesh and other health care professionals. Before, there was little that could be done to prevent the contraction and worst symptoms of the virus. Now there was a vaccine, but many hadnt taken it and those people made up the bulk of hospitalized patients. This resulted in Ramesh seeing patients dying in their 30s and 40s, leaving young families behind. This, I would say, was the hardest part of working at the hospital at that time, was we know that there is an effective vaccine the vaccine works really well and a lot of people were hospitalized, were dying in the hospital, he said And there was this feeling that this could have been so preventable. This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Rene Bronner's name. LONDON (AP) Queen Elizabeth II, Britains longest-reigning monarch and a symbol of stability in a turbulent era that saw the decline of the British empire and disarray in her own family, died Thursday after 70 years on the throne. She was 96. The palace announced she died at Balmoral Castle, her summer residence in Scotland, where members of the royal family had rushed to her side after her health took a turn for the worse. A link to the almost-vanished generation that fought World War II, she was the only monarch most Britons have ever known. Her 73-year-old son Prince Charles automatically became king and will be known as King Charles III, it was announced. British monarchs in the past have selected new names upon taking the throne. Charles' second wife, Camilla, will be known as the Queen Consort. A funeral was to be held after 10 days of official mourning. The BBC played the national anthem, God Save the Queen, over a portrait of Elizabeth in full regalia as her death was announced, and the flag over Buckingham Palace was lowered to half-staff as the second Elizabethan age came to a close. The impact of her loss will be huge and unpredictable, both for the nation and for the monarchy, an institution she helped stabilize and modernize across decades of enormous social change and family scandals, but whose relevance in the 21st century has often been called into question. The public's abiding affection for the queen has helped sustain support for the monarchy during the scandals. Charles is nowhere near as popular. In a statement, Charles called his mothers death a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family, adding: I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world. The changing of the guard comes at a fraught moment for Britain, which has a brand-new prime minister and is grappling with an energy crisis, double-digit inflation, the war in Ukraine and the fallout from Brexit. Prime Minister Liz Truss, appointed by the queen just 48 hours earlier, pronounced the country devastated and called Elizabeth the rock on which modern Britain was built. British subjects outside Buckingham Palace wept when officials carried a notice confirming the queens death to the wrought-iron gates of the queen's London home. Hundreds soon gathered in the rain, and mourners laid dozens of colorful bouquets at the gates. As a young person, this is a really huge moment, said Romy McCarthy, 20. It marks the end of an era, particularly as a woman. We had a woman who was in power as someone to look up to. World leaders extended condolences and paid tribute to the queen. In Canada, where the British monarch is the country's head of state, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's eyes were red with emotion as he saluted her wisdom, compassion and warmth. In India, once the jewel in the crown of the British empire, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: She personified dignity and decency in public life. Pained by her demise. U.S. President Joe Biden called her a stateswoman of unmatched dignity and constancy who deepened the bedrock alliance between the United Kingdom and the United States. Since Feb. 6, 1952, Elizabeth reigned over a Britain that rebuilt from a destructive and financially exhausting war and lost its empire; joined the European Union and then left it; and made the painful transition into the 21st century. She endured through 15 prime ministers, from Winston Churchill to Truss, becoming an institution and an icon -- a reassuring presence even for those who ignored or loathed the monarchy. She became less visible in her final years as age and frailty curtailed many public appearances. But she remained firmly in control of the monarchy and at the center of national life as Britain celebrated her Platinum Jubilee with days of parties and pageants in June. That same month she became the second longest-reigning monarch in history, behind 17th-century French King Louis XIV, who took the throne at age 4. On Tuesday, she presided at a ceremony at Balmoral Castle to accept the resignation of Boris Johnson as prime minister and appoint Truss as his successor. When Elizabeth was 21, almost five years before she became queen, she promised the people of Britain and the Commonwealth that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service. It was a promise she kept across more than seven decades. Despite Britains complex and often fraught ties with its former colonies, Elizabeth was widely respected and remained head of state of more than a dozen countries, from Canada to Tuvalu. She headed the 54-nation Commonwealth, built around Britain and its former colonies. Married for more than 73 years to Prince Philip, who died in 2021 at age 99, Elizabeth was matriarch to a royal family whose troubles were a subject of global fascination -- amplified by fictionalized accounts such as the TV series The Crown. She is survived by four children, eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. Through countless public events, she probably met more people than anyone in history. Her image, which adorned stamps, coins and banknotes, was among the most reproduced in the world. But her inner life and opinions remained mostly an enigma. Of her personality, the public saw relatively little. A horse owner, she rarely seemed happier than during the Royal Ascot racing week. She never tired of the companionship of her beloved Welsh corgi dogs. Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was born in London on April 21, 1926, the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York. She was not born to be queen -- her fathers elder brother, Prince Edward, was destined for the crown, to be followed by any children he had. But in 1936, when she was 10, Edward VIII abdicated to marry twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson, and Elizabeths father became King George VI. Princess Margaret recalled asking her sister whether this meant that Elizabeth would one day be queen. Yes, I suppose it does, Margaret quoted Elizabeth as saying. She didnt mention it again. Elizabeth was barely in her teens when Britain went to war with Germany in 1939. While the king and queen stayed at Buckingham Palace during the Blitz and toured the bombed-out neighborhoods of London, Elizabeth and Margaret spent most of the war at Windsor Castle, west of the capital. Even there, 300 bombs fell in an adjacent park, and the princesses spent many nights in an underground shelter. She made her first public broadcast in 1940 when she was 14, sending a wartime message to children evacuated to the countryside or overseas. We children at home are full of cheerfulness and courage, she said with a blend of stoicism and hope that would echo throughout her reign. We are trying to do all we can to help out gallant soldiers, sailors and airmen. And we are trying, too, to bear our own share of the danger and sadness of war. We know, every one of us, that in the end all will be well. In 1945, after months of campaigning for her parents permission to do something for the war effort, the heir to the throne became Second Subaltern Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. She enthusiastically learned to drive and service heavy vehicles. On the night the war ended in Europe, May 8, 1945, she and Margaret managed to mingle, unrecognized, with celebrating crowds in London swept along on a tide of happiness and relief, as she told the BBC decades later, describing it as one of the most memorable nights of my life. At Westminster Abbey in November 1947 she married Royal Navy officer Philip Mountbatten, a prince of Greece and Denmark whom she had first met in 1939 when she was 13 and he 18. Postwar Britain was experiencing austerity and rationing, and so street decorations were limited and no public holiday was declared. But the bride was allowed 100 extra ration coupons for her trousseau. The couple lived for a time in Malta, where Philip was stationed, and Elizabeth enjoyed an almost-normal life as a navy wife. The first of their four children, Prince Charles, was born in 1948. He was followed by Princess Anne in 1950, Prince Andrew in 1960, and Prince Edward in 1964. In 1952, George VI died at 56 after years of ill health. Elizabeth, on a visit to Kenya, was told that she was now queen. Her private secretary, Martin Charteris, later recalled finding the new monarch at her desk, sitting erect, no tears, color up a little, fully accepting her destiny. In a way, I didnt have an apprenticeship, Elizabeth reflected in a BBC documentary in 1992 that opened a rare view into her emotions. My father died much too young, and so it was all a very sudden kind of taking on, and making the best job you can. Her coronation took place more than a year later, a grand spectacle at Westminster Abbey viewed by millions through the still-new medium of television. Prime Minister Winston Churchills first reaction to the kings death was to complain that the new queen was only a child, but he was won over within days and eventually became an ardent admirer. In Britains constitutional monarchy, the queen is head of state but has little direct power; in her official actions she does what the government orders. However, she was not without influence. The queen, officially the head of the Church of England, once reportedly commented that there was nothing she could do legally to block the appointment of a bishop, but I can always say that I should like more information. That is an indication that the prime minister will not miss. The extent of the monarchs political influence occasionally sparked speculation -- but not much criticism while Elizabeth was alive. The views of Charles, who has expressed strong opinions on everything from architecture to the environment, might prove more contentious. She was obliged to meet weekly with the prime minister, and they generally found her well-informed, inquisitive and up to date. The one possible exception was Margaret Thatcher, with whom her relations were said to be cool, if not frosty, though neither woman ever commented. The queens views in those private meetings became a subject of intense speculation and fertile ground for dramatists like Peter Morgan, author of the play The Audience and the hit TV series The Crown. Those semi-fictionalized accounts were the product of an era of declining deference and rising celebrity, when the royal familys troubles became public property. And there were plenty of troubles within the family, an institution known as The Firm. In Elizabeths first years on the throne, Princess Margaret provoked a national controversy through her romance with a divorced man. In what the queen called the annus horribilis of 1992, her daughter, Princess Anne, was divorced, Prince Charles and Princess Diana separated, and so did her son Prince Andrew and his wife, Sarah. That was also the year Windsor Castle, a residence she far preferred to Buckingham Palace, was seriously damaged by fire. The public split of Charles and Diana -- There were three of us in that marriage, Diana said of her husbands relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles -- was followed by the shock of Dianas death in a Paris car crash in 1997. For once, the queen appeared out of step with her people. Amid unprecedented public mourning, Elizabeths failure to make a public show of grief appeared to many to be unfeeling. After several days, she finally made a televised address to the nation. The dent in her popularity was brief. She was by now a sort of national grandmother, with a stern gaze and a twinkling smile. Despite being one of the worlds wealthiest people, Elizabeth had a reputation for frugality and common sense. She turned off lights in empty rooms, and didn't flinch from strangling pheasants. A newspaper reporter who went undercover to work as a palace footman reinforced that down-to-earth image, capturing pictures of the royal Tupperware on the breakfast table and a rubber duck in the bath. Her sangfroid was not dented when a young man aimed a pistol at her and fired six blanks as she rode by on a horse in 1981, nor when she discovered a disturbed intruder sitting on her bed in Buckingham Palace in 1982. The image of the queen as an exemplar of ordinary British decency was satirized by the magazine Private Eye, which called her Brenda, apparently because it sounded working-class. Anti-monarchists dubbed her Mrs. Windsor. But the republican cause gained limited traction while the queen was alive. On her Golden Jubilee in 2002, she said the country could look back with measured pride on the history of the last 50 years. It has been a pretty remarkable 50 years by any standards, she said in a speech. There have been ups and downs, but anyone who can remember what things were like after those six long years of war appreciates what immense changes have been achieved since then. A reassuring presence at home, she was also an emblem of Britain abroad a form of soft power, consistently respected whatever the vagaries of the countrys political leaders on the world stage. It felt only fitting that she attended the opening of the 2012 London Olympics alongside another icon, James Bond. Through some movie magic, she appeared to parachute into the Olympic Stadium. In 2015, she overtook her great-great-grandmother Queen Victorias reign of 63 years, seven months and two days to become the longest-serving monarch in British history. She kept working into her 10th decade, though Prince Charles and his elder son, Prince William, increasingly took over the visits, ribbon-cuttings and investitures that form the bulk of royal duties. The loss of Philip in 2021 was a heavy blow, as she poignantly sat alone at his funeral in the chapel at Windsor Castle because of coronavirus restrictions. And the family troubles continued. Her son Prince Andrew was entangled in the sordid tale of sex offender businessman Jeffrey Epstein, an American businessman who had been a friend. Andrew denied accusations that he had sex with one of the women who said she was trafficked by Epstein. The queens grandson Prince Harry walked away from Britain and his royal duties after marrying American TV actress Meghan Markle, who is biracial, in 2018. He alleged in an interview that some in the family - but pointedly not the queen - had been less than welcoming to his wife. She enjoyed robust health well into her 90s, although she used a cane in an appearance after Philips death. Months ago, she told guests at a reception as you can see, I cant move. The palace, tight-lipped about details, said the queen was experiencing episodic mobility issues. She held virtual meetings with diplomats and politicians from Windsor Castle, but public appearances grew rarer. Meanwhile, she took steps to prepare for the transition to come. In February, the queen announced that she wanted Camilla to be known as Queen Consort when in the fullness of time her son became king. It removed a question mark over the role of the woman some blamed for the breakup of Charles marriage to Princess Diana in the 1990s. May brought another symbolic moment, when she asked Charles to stand in for her and read the Queens Speech at the State Opening of Parliament, one of the monarchs most central constitutional duties. Seven decades after World War II, Elizabeth was again at the center of the national mood amid the uncertainty and loss of COVID 19 -- a disease she came through herself in February. In April 2020 -- with the country in lockdown and Prime Minister Boris Johnson hospitalized with the virus -- she made a rare video address, urging people to stick together. She summoned the spirit of World War II, that vital time in her life, and the nations, by echoing Vera Lynns wartime anthem Well Meet Again. We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return. We will be with our friends again. We will be with our families again. We will meet again, she said. The late Associated Press writers Gregory Katz and Robert Barr contributed material to this report. .___ Follow AP coverage of Queen Elizabeth II at https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) South Carolina senators rejected a ban on almost all abortions Thursday in a special session called in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade after five Republicans, including all the chamber's women, refused to support it. The 30 Republicans in the 46-member chamber had a majority to pass the ban, but did not have the extra votes to end a threatened filibuster by Republican Sen. Tom Davis. Davis, the chief of staff for former Gov. Mark Sanford before being elected to the Senate in 2009, was joined by the three Republican women in the Senate, a fifth GOP colleague and all Democratic senators to oppose the proposed ban. Davis said he promised his daughters he would not vote to make South Carolinas current six-week abortion ban stricter because women have rights, too. The moment we become pregnant we lost all control over what goes on with our bodies, Davis said, recalling what his daughters told him. Im here to tell you Im not going to let it happen. After a recess to work through their options, Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey conceded the abortion ban likely couldn't pass. We were never going to pass a total abortion ban," Massey said. We never had the votes to pass even what the House passed. Senators did pass a few changes to the six-week ban, including cutting the time that victims of rape and incest who become pregnant can seek an abortion from 20 weeks to about 12 weeks and requiring that DNA from the aborted fetus be collected for police. The bill goes back to the House, which passed a ban with exceptions for rape or incest. South Carolina's six-week ban is currently suspended as the state Supreme Court reviews whether it violates privacy rights. In the meantime, the states 2016 ban on abortions 20 weeks after conception is in effect. South Carolina's General Assembly was meeting in a special session to try to join more than a dozen other states with abortion bans. Most of them came through so-called trigger laws designed to outlaw most abortions when the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the constitutional right to end a pregnancy in June. Indiana's Legislature passed a new ban last month that has not taken effect. The debate started Wednesday with the three Republican women in the South Carolina Senate speaking back to back, saying they couldn't support the bill unless the rape or incest exceptions were restored. Sen. Katrina Shealy said the 41 men in the Senate would be better off listening to their wives, daughters, mothers, granddaughters and looking at the faces of the girls in Sunday School classes at their churches. You want to believe that God is wanting you to push a bill through with no exceptions that kill mothers and ruins the lives of children lets mothers bring home babies to bury them then I think youre miscommunicating with God. Or maybe you arent communicating with Him at all, Shealy said before senators added a proposal allowing abortions if a fetus cannot survive outside the womb. Massey helped broker the compromise among Republicans that briefly returned the exceptions to the bill. He pointed out state health officials recorded about 3,000 abortions in 2021 within the first six weeks of a pregnancy. Heartbeat is great, but this I think is better, Massey said. I dont think abortion should be used as birth control. Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto said Republican women stood up for all women in South Carolina, while Republican men let them down. He said Democrats didn't want any changes to current laws. There may be a sentiment that this is the same as what we already had. Its not. Its worse in many regards," Hutto said. Republican Gov. Henry McMaster, who has said before he would be happy if there were no abortions in the state, thought the Senate version struck an appropriate balance, governor's spokesman Brian Symmes said It is the governors hope that the House and Senate will soon come to an agreement and send a bill to his desk for signature, Symmes said. Republican Sen. Sandy Senn, who didn't vote for the six-week ban in 2021, said a total ban would be an invasion of the privacy against every woman in the state. If what is going on in my vagina isnt an unreasonable invasion of privacy for this legislature to get involved in, I dont know what is, Senn said. Associated Press writer James Pollard contributed to this report. WATERLOO A Waterloo man has pleaded to reduced charges that he broke into the home where his estranged wife was staying and found her dead inside. Authorities said Terry Tyrome Townsend, 57, was prohibited from contacting his wife because of a pending domestic assault case when he climbed through a window at the Sherman Avenue home May 30. Inside, he discovered his wife, 56-year-old Dianthe Townsend, deceased. He left with her purse and later told an acquaintance what he found. The acquaintance went to police, who then found the body. Terry Townsend pleaded guilty to misdemeanor trespass causing damage reduced from burglary and was sentenced to 60 days in jail with credit for time served and a $430 fine plus surcharges in an order filed Thursday. Prosecutors asked the court to throw out the domestic assault charge because the case couldnt proceed without Dianthe Townsend testifying. Before the plea, the defense had attempted to dismiss the burglary charge by arguing that because the wife had died before the husband entered the house, he wasnt breaking the law because the house would be marital property and any restraining order keeping him from contacting her would be moot with her passing. His valid concern for his wifes health and well-being also established a necessity to check on her when he suspected, and was unfortunately proven correct, that something may have happened to Mrs. Townsend, defense attorney Dustin Lies argued in court records. The wifes purse that he allegedly took from the house would also have legally passed to him at the time of her death, the defense said. The state challenged the defenses argument. Iowas intestate succession laws, however, require probate court proceedings to be completed before the surviving member of the couple is considered a surviving spouse. There is no proof that the defendant petitioned for administration of an intestate estate in this case before stealing the victims property, Assistant County Attorney Alisha Stach countered. A cause of death hasnt been determined. Court records indicate Dianthe Townsend had ongoing health issues she said she took medication for pass out spells and police said her death doesnt appear suspicious. Photos: Missing children in Iowa WATERLOO A Sumner man has pleaded not guilty to charges he set a fire that killed a Waterloo man in August. John Walter Spooner, 59, entered a written not guilty plea to one count of first-degree arson on Thursday. He also demanded a speedy trial. A tentative trial date was scheduled for November in Black Hawk County District Court in Waterloo. Authorities allege Spooner had been staying at Tony Griders home at 309 E. Second St. in Waterloo when he set fire to the residence on the morning of Aug. 18. Others in the house were able to flee, but Grider, 60, was apparently trapped inside. Firefighters found him while fighting the blaze, and he was pronounced dead at the hospital. CEDAR FALLS The University of Northern Iowa saw a 3.1% decline in fall enrollment in 2022. A total of 8,949 students enrolled in classes, a drop from last fall when UNI had 9,231 students and from 2020 when there were 9,522 students. The first reason is we had a record increase in the graduation rate, said Kristin Woods, senior associate vice president for enrollment management and student success. Besides students graduating earlier and not needing to enroll in additional classes, she said theres been a continuing decline in international students because of a difficulty in obtaining visas, among other reasons. The brisk economy has led less people to be interested in going into higher education, she said, as well as there being less high school graduates wanting to make the jump. Cost still challenges Iowa college students despite federal debt forgiveness While many Iowa college students and graduates will benefit from the national student loan f Additionally, the university welcomed 1,436 freshman students, versus 1,554 students last year a 7% decrease. Iowa residents make up 91% of the freshman class. Iowa State Universitys total fall enrollment of 29,969 fell 2.4% from 30,708 students last year. Enrollment at the University of Iowa is 30,015 students, close to last years 29,909 students. When including transfers, UNI welcomed a 2,200 new student cohort this fall. The 764 transfers, up 141 students or 23% over last year, is an encouraging sign, said Woods. Panther wrestler arrested for assault CEDAR FALLS A University of Northern Iowa wrestler has been arrested following an argument The new general education program allows students to get a degree in a shorter period of time and in degrees in higher demand fields, Woods said. Students get really excited, too, by the certificates embedded in the program. She added its also advantageous for students who want to try out a new major because of the more streamline system. The UNI at Iowa Community Colleges (UNI@IACC) program also has contributed 77 students to the overall uptick in transfers by lending more access to community college aged students through the online degree program after they graduate. Additionally, the university reported the graduation rate increased by 5% over last year and is nearly 20% above similar universities. One in 12 UNI students graduate in only three years. Thats an increase from 1 in 14 a year ago. The four-year and five-year graduation rates also rose and are now at 47% and 65%, respectively. We have the supports on campus, through academic advisors and faculty, and can also be attributed to our general education program, she said. Its that personalized, smaller classroom culture at UNI that is leading to our year-over-year increases. Additionally, UNI takes pride in having students from all 99 Iowa counties, 43 states and 51 countries across the globe. The fall 2022 incoming class reflects the increasing diversity of the state, with a 24% increase in students from ethnic and racial minority groups. Iowa residents comprise 92% of UNIs undergraduate enrollment and 91% of total enrollment. These statistics highlight UNIs continued commitment to student access and success, said UNI President Mark Nook in a statement. UNI has the lowest net cost for Iowa residents, and its graduates hold the lowest average student loan debt of all public universities in Iowa. Overall, four of five UNI graduates and nine of 10 UNI transfer student graduates stay in Iowa to live and work after degree completion. These strong student outcomes, paired with affordability, lead to exceptional value for UNI students and for the state of Iowa. The original version of this story stated inaccurately the number of transfers at UNI this year was 741 students, when in fact it was 764 students. The correction was made at 8:55 a.m. Friday. REINBECK The Gladbrook-Reinbeck Community School District is asking voters permission Tuesday to sell up to $23.6 million in general obligation bonds. The referendum would need 60% approval for the district of about 475 kids to move forward with taking on the debt for various projects at both its primary and secondary schools. The approval translates to $199.58 annually ($16.63 per month) in taxes on a home assessed at $100,000. For agricultural land, the impact would be anywhere from $5.36 to $6.62 per acre annually, depending on the location. $11.65 million bond issue on ballot for Hudson Schools HUDSON Hudson Community School District property taxes would increase if voters approve a Its believed to be the first time Gladbrook-Reinbeck Schools has made a significant bond request since the district consolidated. It was in the 1960s when the separate Gladbrook and Reinbeck school districts last took on bonds for expansion and building gymnasiums, according to Board of Education president Donovan Devore. Its been a long time since weve made a significant investment in our schools, said Devore. If the first question is approved, which authorizes the bond sales for the various projects, but not the second, the district will still be able to take on $15.3 million in debt, rather than the $23.6 million. Superintendent Erik Smith said the district is also planning on using its proceeds from the statewide 1% sales tax for schools, known as Secure an Advanced Vision for Education, to limit the impact on the tax rate. Our goal would be save on interest and pay back as quickly as possible. One of our big goals would be make everything handicapped accessible and to add HVAC, because without it our kids arent comfortable or in a good mood. A gym expansion at the Junior/Senior High School and classroom additions at the elementary school also would mean more space for programs, he said. Approval also brings a more secured entry to both buildings. Residents of Crystal Township, Spring Creek Township, the cities of Gladbrook, Reinbeck, and Lincoln, Grant Township, Lincoln Township, Buckingham Township, and in Marshall, Black Hawk, and Grundy counties will have access to the polls from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. People can vote at the Gladbrook Memorial Building, 421 Johnston St., Gladbrook; Amvets Post No. 10, 101 E. Main St., Lincoln; or Reinbeck Memorial Building, 208 Broad St., Reinbeck. They need updating, and we need to make sure they are 21st century learning environments and ready for the future said Smith. Fight over future of library that sparked civil rights ideas A library where Rosa Parks, John Lewis and other civil rights leaders forged strategies that would change the world is mired in controversy over who gets to tell its story. In addition to certain people always being hesitant to approve anything involving a tax hike, the boards decision to close the Gladbrook elementary and middle school building in 2015 may be one reason why people are hesitant to support the referendum. They feel theyre supporting Reinbeck at the expense of Gladbrook, said Devore. CEDAR FALLS Despite some reservations, the Cedar Falls City Council OKd being the smaller piece of a joint grant application with Waterloo that could bring funds to projects near and around the Cedar River. The Iowa Northland Regional Council of Governments and Grow Cedar Valley officials worked on the $14.09 million application for nearly six months. They emphasized Tuesday how the opportunity is good one, but does not come at the optimal time. The council later voted 6-1 in favor of the application. Thats because the larger placemaking vision for connecting the two downtowns through the shared waterway is still being developed and the possible projects, included within it, are not close to shovel ready. We couldnt really develop anything new just because of the timeframe, said Community Planner Isaiah Corbin. We were working with the constraints. When we had these conversations, we knew we needed to bring projects that had already been proposed, that already have some sort of design; otherwise, they just werent going to be valid within this application. If awarded the grant, the city of Cedar Falls would receive $226,478, or 40% of the estimated cost for decorative lighting for the bridges at Main, Center and West First streets as well other improvements to Olsen, Tourist, Washington and Island parks. The city would be on the hook for $339,716 in matching funds, or the remaining 60% of the cost. The goal of the grant is to bolster the quality of life in Iowas communities and attract visitors and new residents to the state through transformational projects. $11.65 million bond issue on ballot for Hudson Schools HUDSON Hudson Community School District property taxes would increase if voters approve a Additionally, the council was told Tuesday night to keep in mind the larger regional vision for the Cedar River and how planning for a slew of projects is ongoing and will set the cities up for future funding opportunities. The big pots of money that are going to be available for communities to access will have to include regionalism and regional collaboration theres been a lot of conversation that its about time (the Iowa Economic Development Authority) and Des Moines invest some money in the Cedar Valley, said Cary Darrah, president and chief executive officer of Grow Cedar Valley. Former Waterloo police chief will be paid unused vacation, sick time Waterloos former Police Chief will be paid out for unused vacation and sick time following his resignation. Councilor Susan deBuhr, the lone dissenting vote, as well as others, took issue with the lopsided nature of the application favoring Waterloo and specific projects in Cedar Falls being included in the application because they were not earmarked in the citys capital improvement program. It looks to me like were moving these projects up ahead of projects that we already discussed at goal setting, said deBuhr. Also, when we did a budget last year, we had to cut some things, so Im really concerned where youre going to get the funding because the $340,000 is going to have to undo some of the projects that we already approved. Additionally, arguments were made that the projects had not been discussed with the council at length. Developer 'for sure' to demolish church this month, make way for pocket neighborhood The old church was built in 1916, when it was the Evangelical United Brethren Church, and replaced a building at the time used by the parish and constructed on the same land in 1876. The initial $100,000 pool of Destination Iowa funding was made available through the federal American Rescue Plan Act, but only about $64 million remains after three rounds of grants were approved. A Waterloo downtown whitewater rafting course, between the Park Avenue and Sixth Street bridges, is a bulk of the application, $11,348,536 of the $14,094,050 in total project costs. Cedar Falls already received a $1.5 million grant through the U.S. Economic Development Administration for a river recreational improvement project, and is not eligible, according to Darrah. Lining up the funds for those projects, as well as evaluating where things stood environmentally, was largely what took the applications development through the summer, said Corbin. The Waterloo City Council unanimously supported the grant application last month. Theres probably some concern about dedicating $340,000, that we dont know where its going to come from yet and I personally hesitate to spend $340,000, said Councilor Dustin Ganfield. But I clearly see a return on investment whether its this year or by 2027. Were already doing some monetary contributions down there on the river, and this just adds to it, so I say lets get behind it. The application could be submitted later this month after the city councils receive a draft version and approve resolutions supporting it at their next meetings. The larger visioning plan could be finalized by the end of the year. I still think bettering our parks, connecting us with the Cedar Valley and moving forward with a vision like this is beneficial, said Councilor Simon Harding. If it helps Waterloo, its only going to help us because people are going to come over here and see our downtown as well, and commingle. With more than 12,000 votes from 1,421 media organizations, the 2022 Media Honors announced 15 awards to recognize the contribution of Chinese filmmakers, with the prize ceremony held in Beijing's Tongzhou district on Sept 3. While The Battle at Lake Changjin, an epic set in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea (1950-53), took home the jury's award, the anthology blockbuster My Country, My Parents received the award for the movie that has garnered the most attention from media outlets. A-list actress Zhang Ziyi won the best new director award with her directorial debut, Shi (Poem), one of the four stand-alone short tales of My Country, My Parents, also the first such prize throughout her glittering star path. The best actress and actor awards both marked in the acting category to receive most media attentions respectively went to Yuan Quan for her vivid portrayal of a medical expert in the pandemic-fight film Chinese Doctors and Zhang Songwei for his role as Li Dazhao, a co-founder of the Communist Party of China, in the movie The Pioneer. "Life is very meaningful. You will stumble upon a lot of unexpected things, making you to change your mind and take on the unprecedented challenge to conquer all the obstacles," said Zhang Ziyi. During the 12th Beijing International Film Festival last month, Zhang Ziyi revealed that she felt very stressful when assigned by China Film Administration to take the directorial job. Despite the huge pressure, she said she delved into the early history of Chinese scientists and engineers dedicated to the development of the first Long March rocket in the late 1960s. The award ceremony was hosted by China Movie Channel in cooperation with the Tongzhou district government. Iowa politicians joined leaders from around the world to offer condolences and pay tribute to Britains revered and longest-reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, who died Thursday at the age of 96. Queen Elizabeth II was a strong and graceful leader for the better part of a century, 88-year-old U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a statement. As queen, she was a tremendous source of stability and clearly loved the people she served. Shell forever be a symbol of decency and humanity for the whole world. Queen Elizabeth II leaves a remarkable legacy of duty, honor and service. Gov. Kim Reynolds, in a statement, called Queen Elizabeth a remarkable and steadfast woman who fought side by side with the United States through some of the Free Worlds most trying times. Ill always admire her fortitude, love of freedom, and tenacity that has inspired other women in leadership, Reynolds said. Kevin and I join with Iowans in sharing our condolences to the Royal Family. U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, paid tribute to the queen as a global stalwart and a resolute leader of the United Kingdom for seven decades. Queen Elizabeth II was the steady foundation of the flourishing special relationship between our two nations, promoting freedom and peace alongside American leaders throughout history, Ernst said in a statement. While we grieve her death, Queen Elizabeth II leaves behind an incredible, well-revered legacy. May she rest in peace. U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Ottumwa, in a statement, said the queen set the standard for leaders around the globe, and her service will be remembered for generations to come. Queen Elizabeth II devoted her life to serving her beloved nation with grace and humility for over 70 years, Miller-Meeks said. Through her tenure, the United Kingdom faced many triumphs and hardships, yet the Queen never wavered. ... My heart goes out to her family during this difficult time. Brothaz Barber Shop and the League of Women Voters of Black Hawk-Bremer Counties are hosting the second annual Voter Ready Rally block party from 4 to 8 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 11, at 829 E. Fourth St. There will be live music, guest speakers, and food vendors in a family friendly event. This is a wonderful opportunity for the community to come together. We want to reach out to those who were previously incarcerated and now qualify to have their voting rights restored. We also want to generate excitement about voting with our new Wheel of Voting, introduce some of the local candidates and elected officials, and recruit volunteers to help with voter registration events. Volunteers will be there from the League of Women Voters of Black Hawk-Bremer Counties to register voters, answer questions, and provide resources for voters. Today, dear BROTHER, Hero of Russia, Akhmat special forces commander Apty Alaudinov @sovbez95, got in touch not only with a report on the progress of the offensive, but also with an appeal to the Ukrainian people. But first things first. Our fighters, together with the allied forces, continue the offensive along the line of Soledar, Yakovlevka, Seversk. A large number of manpower and equipment of the enemy was destroyed. At the same time, according to Apta Alaudinov, he, as a person who is at the epicenter of events, is surprised by the policy of the leadership of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He notes that in the hope of recapturing the positions captured by our soldiers, the Ukrainian command sends detachments of military personnel almost to commit suicide. Seeing the situation on the spot, Apty says that only cruel, but at the same time hopelessly stupid idiots can throw their fighters into an open slaughter so cruelly, senselessly and blindly. This picture with the participation of soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine recklessly attacking our positions has been repeated several times for the 4th day. No matter how harsh it sounds, they are dying like flies, stupidly, at random and in vain. And with absolutely no advantage. Their commanders have no strategy or tactics. It takes brains. As a result, someones sons are killed and maimed literally in massive heaps. And even the well-worn combat general Apty Alaudinov honestly admits that from such an absurd sacrifice he involuntarily regrets the fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, he feels sorry for them. Even being on opposite sides of the barricades with them, he regrets that the Ukrainian people are losing so many men. This, if this continues, will lead to irreversible consequences for Ukrainians. We treat this people with respect, but it is bitter to see how, not understanding the essence of what is happening, some part of Ukrainians allows themselves to be used by the West. And Apta is right when he calls the mediocre actions of Zelensky and the entire command of their General Staff a humanitarian catastrophe for the demography of Ukraine. Better not to say. And there is. Kadyrov WtR On August 29, since the beginning of AFUs unsuccessful attempts to launch a counter-attack at Nikolayev-Krivoy Rog direction, the Italian journalist accompanied by two individuals wearing AFU military uniform headed to the forward positions of Ukrainian troops. The individuals who were wearing AFU military uniform promised to accompany the reporter Mattia Sorbi by taxi to the line of contact between Ukrainian and Russian troops. According to the journalist, once they approached to the operations area, the individuals suddenly asked to stop the car. Later on, they showed Mattia Sorbi his further way, concealing that the shown path had been mined by the AFU. The provocation of Ukrainian special services was aimed at waiting for the journalists death by fire from Russian defensive positions or explosion of the taxi by mine in order to accuse Russia of assessinating Mattia Sorbi and to produce a wide resonance in western mass media. The motor car with the journalist struck the Ukrainian mine. The driver died on the spot, while Mattia Sorbi was gravely injured. Russian servicemen saw the explosion of the civilian car and, despite intensive fire from Ukrainian positions, moved ahead and extracted Mattia Sorbi from the burning vehicle. The journalist was provided with first aid, taken to a safe place and transported to a healthcare facility. Mattia Sorbi, received to intensive care unit with various shrapnel injuries, is currently provided with necessary qualified medical attention. His health condition is stable. #MoD #Russia #Ukraine @mod_russia_en WtR Russian Defence Ministry report on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine (September 9, 2022) The Armed Forces of Ukraine made various unsuccessful attempts to attack, suffered losses and withdrew their forces at Nikolayev-Krivoy Rog direction. Manpower and military equipment of 46th Airmobile Brigade, 35th Marines Brigade and 61st Chaser Infantry Brigade have been neutralised near Bezymennoye, Novogrigoryevka (Nikolayev region) and Sukhoy Stavok (Kherson region). The enemy has lost a total of 3 tanks, 4 infantry combat vehicles and 7 other armoured vehicles, 2 pickups with large-calibre machine guns and over 270 servicemen at Nikolayev-Krivoy Rog direction. High-precision attacks of Russian Aerospace Forces have resulted in the neutralisation of the command posts of Kraken nationalist group deployed near Prishib (Kharkov region) and 93rd Mechanised Brigade near Artyomovsk (Donetsk Peoples Republic). Over 50 nationalists, as well as 16 units of special military equipment and motor vehicles have been eliminated. Attacks launched by high-precision ground-based armament at the provisional bases of the units from 127th Territorial Defence Brigade and 14th Mechanised Brigade deployed near Kharkov have resulted in the elimination of over 50 and wounding over 120 Ukrainian servicemen. Operational-tactical and army aviation, missile troops and artillery continue launching attacks at the military facilities in Ukraine. 8 AFU command posts have been neutralised near Lebyazhye, Chervony Yar, Gusarovka and Liman (Kharkov region), Maryinka and Ray-Aleksandrovka (Donetsk Peoples Republic), Krivoy Rog (Dnepropetrovsk region), Gulyay Pole (Zaporozhye region), as well as 52 artillery units, 153 AFU manpower and military equipment concentration areas. 3 AFU missile, artillery and munitions depots have been destroyed near Chuguyev (Kharkov region) and Radushnoye (Dnepropetrovsk region). 1 combat vehicle of U.S.-manufactured HIMARS multiple rocket-launching system has been destroyed near Chervony Donets (Kharkov region). 1 U.S.-manufactured M-777 howitzer has been destroyed near Rovnopolye (Zaporozhye region). Air defence means have shot down 6 unmanned aerial vehicles near Izyum (Kharkov region), Staromlinovka, Kirillovka, Slavnoye and Makeyevka (Donetsk Peoples Republic), as well as Sladkaya Balka (Zaporozhye region). 18 projectiles launched by HIMARS and Olkha MRLS have been destroyed in air near Novaya Kakhovka and Golaya Pristan (Kherson region), as well as near Kakhovka hydroelectric plant. In total, 293 airplanes and 152 helicopters, 1,916 unmanned aerial vehicles, 374 air defence missile systems, 4,870 tanks and other armoured combat vehicles, 827 combat vehicles equipped with MRLS, 3,371 field artillery cannons and mortars, as well as 5,417 units of special military equipment have been destroyed during the special military operation. Kiev regime continues its provocations aimed at creating a possible technological disaster at Zaporozhye nuclear power plant. 6 artillery attacks launched at Energodar have been recorder over the past 24 hours. A total of 27 projectiles have been launched from Marganets located at the opposite shore of Kakhovka reservoir. The attack launched at the power transmission line has resulted in leaving the city without electricity. Enemy firepower has been neutralised by Russian artillerys counter-attack. The personnel controls the technical condition of the nuclear power plant. #MoD #Russia #Ukraine #report @mod_russia_en WtR Weather Alert ...Showers and Thunderstorms Capable of Heavy Rain and Areas of Blowing Dust through This Afternoon... * Scattered showers and thunderstorms are developing this afternoon across the eastern Sierra and western Nevada. * While precipitation amounts will generally be around a quarter inch or less, stronger storms will be capable of heavier rain with rainfall rates up to 0.50" to 1.00"/hr. These stronger storms could yield a higher flash flooding potential for burn scar locations or in areas of steep terrain. * Strong outflow winds with gusts to 45 mph may produce blowing dust across western Nevada late this afternoon into the evening. Visibility could be reduced to less than 1 mile at times downwind of dry sinks. Frequent lightning is possible near storms. * Be sure to keep a close eye on the weather, have multiple ways to receive weather warnings and be prepared to take shelter if you are outdoors, including area lakes. China will step up policy support for employment and business start-ups to broaden the space of employment, help market entities emerge and grow, and foster new drivers of growth, according to a State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday. The meeting also decided to extend phased government interest discounts on loans for upgrading equipment in some fields, increase credit support for the service sector and introduce phased tax reduction policies to support enterprises to galvanize more investment in enhancing innovation capability. The meeting underscored the fundamental importance of employment to people's well-being. Starting businesses can increase market entities and boost employment. Stable growth is mainly about stable job creation. Local governments must earnestly fulfill their due responsibilities and step up support for employment and business start-ups. "The current employment situation is generally stable, but there are concerns as well. Local governments must earnestly fulfill their due responsibilities and take some special measures," Li said. Companies will be entitled to job creation subsidies for hiring college graduates unable to find jobs two years after graduation and the young registered as unemployed. Unemployment insurance benefits will be issued to the jobless in a timely manner. Skills training for migrant workers will be enhanced to help them stay employed. The platform economy will be supported in keeping employment stable. Social insurance subsidies will be provided to people engaged in platform-based flexible employment should they face difficulty and college graduates yet to find jobs two years after graduation. Financial institutions will be guided to extend special loan support to key platform companies. "Unemployment insurance and other support policies must be fully delivered to benefit all those eligible. The financial sector should support market entities in keeping employment stable and creating jobs by starting businesses," Li said. The repayment of guaranteed start-up loans could be extended for one year if the borrower is in COVID-19-induced distress. Banks will be guided toward offering more credit loans and loan renewals for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. Insurance funds, among others, will be encouraged to invest in venture capital funds in accordance with law. The lock-up period for shareholders of venture capital firms will be fine-tuned, to facilitate investors' fund recovery for reinvestment. Government-financed business incubation bases will provide venues for start-ups free of charge to the best of their ability. "We have sufficient reserves of pension and unemployment insurance funds, and have yet to tap into our strategic reserves. There is no problem with meeting people's basic needs," Li said. Secures $10 million to take Kat Gap to Production Perth, Sep 9, 2022 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Classic Minerals Limited ( ASX:CLZ ) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a binding terms sheet with Goldvalley Brown Stone Pty Ltd (Goldvalley), pursuant to which Goldvalley, a member of the Gold Valley group of companies, will provide funding for Classic's 100% owned Kat Gap gold project (Terms Sheet).Key termsThe key terms of the Terms Sheet are as follows:1. Classic will supply Kat Gap ore containing its current ~90,000 oz mineral resource (see CLZ announcement dated 20 April 2020 and confirmation below).2. Goldvalley will provide up to $10 million in non-recourse funding for the extraction and processing of Kat Gap ore.3. The parties will share the net profits from gold production (i.e. revenues less cost of production) on the basis of:(a) Classic - 70%; and(b) Goldvalley - 30%.4. The Terms Sheet is conditional on:(a) completion of satisfactory due diligence;(b) Goldvalley having entered into a binding agreement with the owner of a registered gold mill to toll-treat ore from Kat Gap, details of which will be announced to the market on execution of the agreement;(c) Classic obtaining any statutory approvals required; and(d) the parties entering into a formal financing agreement (Financing Agreement) within 120 days of signing the Terms Sheet.Either party may terminate the Terms Sheet in the event that its due diligence investigations are not satisfactory or if the Financing Agreement has not been executed within 120 days.ConfirmationFull details of the Kat Gap gold project Mineral Resource estimate are provided in the Company's ASX announcement dated 20 April 2020 and entitled "93,000 oz Inferred Mineral Resource at Kat Gap". The Company confirms that it is not aware of any new information or data that materially affects the information included in that original market announcement and the Company confirms that all material assumptions and technical parameters underpinning the mineral resource estimates in that market announcement continue to apply and have not materially changed.Funding arrangementsGoldvalley has agreed to provide funding for the extraction and processing of ore in sequential parcels of 100,000 tonnes, with the revenues generated from processing being available to fund each following parcel. The initial funding will be provided over a 12-month period and the orebody will be mined under this arrangement until a production cap of 500,000 tonnes (with a minimum average grade of 2.85 g/t) has been mined and processed. The funding will be provided by Goldvalley, and sourced from its other business operations, in a manageable and orderly manner.Classic's due diligence and detailed discussions with Goldvalley have confirmed that this arrangement will be one where both parties can meet their commitments. The Board considers that Goldvalley, being part of the Gold Valley group of companies which has a number of successful businesses, has the demonstrated capacity to meet its funding obligations. Classic notes that the funding is unsecured and non-recourse to the extent that Goldvalley's funding can only be repaid out of revenues derived from processing Kat Gap ore.Classic anticipates that the mining and processing operations contemplated under the Terms Sheet will be completed by mid-2024.Statutory approvalsOn 20 July 2022, the Company lodged its Project Management Plan with DMIRS. Approval of the plan, which is expected imminently, will allow for the commencement of mining operations at Kat Gap to be undertaken by contractors engaged and managed by Classic following execution of the Financing Agreement.Classic Chairman John Lester commented: "The Kat Gap project has reached an exciting stage with a clear path to mining and processing of gold now laid out, which will bring benefits to shareholders." He said: "We have begun the transition from Explorer to Producer and Shareholder patience will be rewarded". Mr Lester emphasised that with Goldvalley as a partner, funding the extraction and processing of ore, Classic is provided with a low capital way forward whilst retaining a solid proportion of the profits and avoiding dilution. He said it has always been the Company's strategy to retain control of the project and ensure greatest shareholder benefits "Classic's development finance strategy is to reach earliest possible production at a low Capex whilst minimising dilution and maximising shareholder value," he said. "This pathway provides revenue generation while final approvals for Classic's Gekko modular and scaleable gold processing plant is awaited," Mr Lester said.Commenting, Yuzheng Xie, managing director of Goldvalley said:"I look forward to working with Classic in an exciting West Australian gold project. The agreement with Classic fosters the advancement of an exciting project in progressing from the exploration phase through to mining and processing. Classic has carefully developed a very worthy gold project and coupled with Goldvalley's expertise in mining and marketing, the project now has the attributes to bring it to fruition.We have the demonstrated competencies to move Kat Gap forward and look to getting on with the job."*To view tables and figures, please visit:About Classic Minerals Limited Classic Minerals Limited (ASX:CLZ) is an exploration and development company focused on gold deposits in Western Australia's famous Goldfields region. In March 2017, Classic acquired the Forrestania Gold Project, with seven tenements stretching across 450km2. Strategically located in a very prospective region, the FGP is an underexplored package surrounded by multimillion ounce deposits such as Bounty (2Moz) and Yilgarn Star (1.5Moz). The state Attorney Generals Office has declined to prosecute three Bernalillo County Sheriffs deputies who shot and killed a woman suffering from a mental health crisis in front of her South Valley RV in July 2019. Lt. Alfonso Rodriguez and deputies Jonathan Aguilar and Ryan Schmidt shot 28-year-old Elisha Lucero as they said she ran at them, screaming and armed with a knife. She was struck 21 times and died at the scene. For her sister, Elaine Maestas, the Attorney Generals decision, made in mid-July, wasnt a surprise, but it was heartbreaking. At Maestass request, the AG had taken over the investigation from the 2nd Judicial District Attorneys Office in the summer of 2020. There are so many failures in the way the system is created right now, Maestas said in a phone interview Thursday. So I feel that the moment that BCSO was allowed to spearhead the investigation with the Multi-Agency Task Force, we were really robbed of any shot at justice. She said experience has spurred her to consider what other reforms need to be made to the system, and the next step she is working on will be asking legislators to create a state-wide independent agency that would investigate all shootings by law enforcement. A spokeswoman for the AGs office said the decision not to pursue a criminal prosecution was made after an extensive examination of the case. It was determined that not all the elements necessary for a successful conviction were met, spokeswoman Jerri Mares wrote in an email. However, our office is committed to working with Elishas family to support legislative efforts to ensure that no other family has to experience such a tragedy. In response to requests for comment on the issue, a BCSO spokeswoman said we will not be providing any further formal interviews on this case. BCSO, along with the Albuquerque Police Department and the New Mexico Department of Public Safety, have had a long-standing agreement to investigate each others shootings, serious uses of force and in-custody deaths. That means every time local law enforcement officers shoot someone, members of a Muli-Agency Task Force are called to investigate. But the Memorandum of Agreement states that the investigation is led by the agency that employs the officers who were involved. Maestas said this is essentially a conflict of interest and shed like to see it changed. The investigation was done poorly by the county, she said. And so these are just some examples on why an agency should never be allowed to lead an investigation into their deputy or officers use of force. The 2021 Annual Report from the Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office Advisory and Review Board also raised a concern about the agreement, saying that the county commission should consider what measures, if any, may be advisable to address the possible appearance to the public of a conflict of interest in the case of a law enforcement agency such as BCSO taking the lead in investigating itself in the case of officer-involved shootings. New Mexico routinely has the highest, or among the highest, rates of fatal shootings by law enforcement in the country, according to a database maintained by The Washington Post. Lucero had a brain tumor removed in 2018, and afterward became increasingly paranoid and began hallucinating, Maestas said. On the night Lucero was killed, deputies had responded to a misdemeanor-level call after she hit her uncle. She initially refused to leave her RV and then came out reportedly running, screaming and holding a knife and was shot to death. In early 2020, Maestas filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the county and received a $4 million settlement one of the largest involving use-of-force claims by local law enforcement in recent years less than two months later. She has also become a tireless advocate for police reform, pushing the Sheriffs Office to adopt body-worn cameras. Luceros death wasnt captured on video because at the time BCSO did not use them. In the summer of 2020, the state Legislature mandated that every law enforcement officer in the state be equipped with a body-worn camera. These days, Maestas works with the Community-Oriented Response & Assistance team in the Albuquerque Community Safety department. ACS was created by Mayor Tim Keller as a third option, beyond police and fire rescue, that can respond to calls regarding mental health issues and homelessness. She said she sees the new department as one part of a solution. I think that its important that we have an alternative response to behavioral health calls, Maestas said. It can be a life-saving measure and in Elishas case it would have been. A Sino-French wine institute was inaugurated on Thursday at the third Sino-French Wine Culture and Tourism Forum held in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Initiated by the Ningxia regional government, the Sino-French Culture and Art Research Center, and some other institutions, the Sino-French Wine Institute is aimed at deepening cooperation between French wine regions and the wine region of the eastern foothills of Helan Mountain in Ningxia, covering the fields of wine-making, cultural exchange and talent cultivation. The wine production base in Helan Mountain has become a rising star on the world's wine map in recent years. Christine Cayol, vice-president of the Sino-French Culture Forum and honorary president of the Sino-French wine institute, said the institute will not copy existing education models, but serve as a platform for exchanges in areas such as art, culture, design and tourism centered around wine. The institute started its first online training course on Thursday. The first stage of the training is expected to cultivate 50 promoters of Ningxia wine with 20 different courses, covering the wine culture and philosophy of the East and the West, matching wine with Chinese food, and wine promotion and sales. The lessons will be delivered by French winery owners, winemakers and university professors. Law enforcement officers went hunting for a tiger in Albuquerque but instead found a large cache of drugs and cash and an alligator. Officers with three agencies served a search warrant last month at a house in the 2500 block of Mountain NW for the illegal possession of a tiger, prosecutors wrote in a pretrial detention motion. They found 40 pounds of marijuana, 10 pounds of cocaine, and two pounds of heroin, prosecutors wrote. Agents also found approximately $40,000 in cash in the home. The cash and narcotics were all found in the attic of the house. Court records make no additional mention of a tiger. Two weeks after the Aug. 12 search, police arrested the homes resident, Carlos Giddings, 26, on charges including drug trafficking with intent to distribute cocaine, heroin and marijuana. A district court judge on Thursday released Giddings from custody pending trial warning him of zero tolerance for conditions of his release, including no communications with known gang members. Giddings attorney, Tom Clear, said no tiger was found at the house. They did not find a tiger but they found an alligator, Clear said. You cant make this stuff up. Officers apparently found a baby alligator about six inches in length at the residence, he said. Officers who searched the house asked Giddings if he had a tiger, and Giddings replied that he did not, Clear said. They apparently had some information that he had a tiger but obviously the reliability of that information is suspect, Clear said. The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish served the search warrant Aug. 12 with assistance from the Albuquerque Police Department and a New Mexico State Police SWAT team, according to a criminal complaint. Game and Fish spokesman Ryan Darr said the agency had no comment about the case, citing an ongoing investigation. State Police officers cleared Carlos Giddings residence, for safety before search for the tiger, an Albuquerque police officer wrote in a Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court criminal complaint. Assistant District Attorney Graham Conlon argued in a hearing Thursday that the quantity of narcotics found in Giddings home indicates that he is involved in drug trafficking and should remain in jail while he awaits trial. He also alleged that Giddings had firearms in his house, including an automatic weapon, and has affiliations with criminal gangs. Giddings has no prior felony convictions, Clear said. Second Judicial District Judge Cindy Leos rejected the request, noting that police did not seek a warrant for Giddingss arrest until Aug. 26 two weeks after the search at his home. Giddings knew he was in trouble when law enforcement came into his house and he didnt go anywhere, Leos said. Theres no indication that there was any sort of violence when law enforcement initially encountered him on Aug. 12, or any violence or attempt to flee by Mr. Giddings. Giddings told police that Gordo from California owned the narcotics and paid Giddings up to $4,000 each time he stored narcotics at the house, the criminal complaint said. Giddings told police that he communicated with Gordo by phone to know when the narcotics are going to be dropped off or where Carlos (Giddings) needed to take them to the picked up, the complaint said. Deputies arrested a man for shooting his disabled father after a confrontation at a South Valley home Sunday. Ernest A. Sena Jr., 38, is charged with murder in the death of Ernest Sena Sr. He is being held at the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center. It is unclear if he has an attorney. Deputies were called to a shooting at a home in the 4300 block of Sheldon SE, near Second and Rio Bravo, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court. Deputies found Sena Sr., 62, lying on the ground with a cane on top of him. A woman who had been living with Sena Sr. for about three months, called 911 after the shooting and also told them Sena Sr. had been using methamphetamine. Sena Jr. told deputies his fathers right arm and hand had been paralyzed after a car crash several years ago. Sena Sr. had limited mobility, the complaint states. Sena Jr. said he went to check up on his father at his residence, and waited for him there since Sena Sr. was out buying groceries. When Sena Sr. returned, his son helped him bring the groceries inside. Sena Jr. told deputies his father became angry and claimed that some of his things were missing. He said Sena Sr. yelled at three women who were at the scene, then armed himself with a knife. Sena Jr. told deputies his father threatened him with the knife, telling him to get the (expletive) out, according to the complaint. Sena Jr. said he had been stabbed by his father in the past, so he started to back away toward the doorway. He told deputies his father then put down the knife and grabbed his cane, which he used to close the door on Sena Jr. According to Sena Jr., his father said to him pull out your gun out and shoot me. Sena Jr. told deputies he took out his gun and pointed at his father with his finger on the trigger and safety disengaged, according to the complaint. Sena Jr. said he was shocked because he didnt expect the firearm to discharge and his father was shot in the chest. Sena Jr. told deputies this wasnt the first time he pointed a gun at his father, stating that similar confrontations had happened in the past, according to the complaint. Copyright 2022 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE Its September in New Mexico, which means the scent of roasting green chile in the air and political ads aplenty. With two months to go until Election Day, at least 14 outside groups have already launched TV ads in New Mexico since June, according to public filings, with most of them targeting the states gubernatorial and congressional races. That list includes political committees affiliated with national Democratic and Republican governors groups, along with the political arm of Planned Parenthood of New Mexico. University of New Mexico political science professor Gabriel Sanchez said the outside spending blitz could impact some close races, including the race for the southern New Mexico-based 2nd Congressional District seat currently held by Republican Yvette Herrell. But he also said some voters might be numb to the high volume spending on TV ads, mailers and other campaign activities. With record-breaking money spent just about each successive election, the impact of each individual ad diminishes a bit as voters become somewhat overwhelmed with all of the content coming at them, Sanchez told the Journal. The latest group to make a splash is the Washington, D.C.-based Save the Children Action Network, which announced Wednesday it plans to spend $500,000 to back Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishams reelection campaign. That includes a $400,000 digital ad buy, along with spending on voter postcards, phone banking and door-to-door campaigning. Save the Children Action Network also supported Lujan Grishams 2018 run for governor with a $400,000 ad buy on broadcast TV and online. Lacey Daniell-Miller, the groups New Mexico state manager, said Wednesday the planned political spending was intended to draw public awareness to early childhood education and child nutrition issues, such as the creation of a new Cabinet-level state early childhood department in 2020. We think were headed in the right direction under her leadership, Daniell-Miller said, referring to the incumbent Democratic governor. Most of what shes done, we really advocated for. While the early childhood ads launched by the group are likely to be welcomed by Lujan Grishams campaign, Sanchez said some attack ads from outside groups can create challenges for candidates intended to benefit from the advertising. Under state and federal election laws, outside groups are generally prohibited from coordinating with political candidates. If an attack ad is aggressive and personal, voters may be turned off by it which can hurt the campaign of the candidate not being targeted even if that candidate had no say in airing the advertisement, he said. Already, some outside groups have launched TV ads with dubious claims. An ad launched recently by Stronger New Mexico, a political committee affiliated with the Democratic Governors Association, accused Republican Mark Ronchetti of wanting to get rid of health care coverage for 300,000 New Mexico residents. The criticism was based on comments Ronchetti made in 2020, when he was running for an open U.S. Senate seat and said the federal Affordable Care Act should be replaced and that residents should have more say over how their health insurance dollars are spent. But Ronchetti has not said that New Mexicans who qualified for health care coverage after the state opted into Medicaid expansion in 2014 during the administration of former Gov. Susana Martinez should be removed from the joint federal-state health care program. Meanwhile, a recent RGA ad accused Lujan Grisham of being the only candidate in the race who had denied a funding request to add more police officers. But that claim dates back to 2012, when Lujan Grisham was a Bernalillo County commissioner. As governor, she signed a $8.5 billion budget bill this year that includes 16% salary increases for State Police officers and funding for law enforcement recruitment and retention efforts. The general election is set for Nov. 8, with absentee voting scheduled to get underway Oct. 11. LAS VEGAS In four decades of writing about the Las Vegas underworld and government corruption, investigative reporter Jeff German took on plenty of powerful and dangerous people. The hard-bitten newsman was once punched by an organized crime associate and received veiled threats from mobsters. Nothing seemed to faze him as he doggedly went about his work. So German (GEHR-man) characteristically didnt express concern when Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles, a virtually unknown politician in charge of an obscure and small government office, took to Twitter last spring to angrily denounce the reporter. German, who worked for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, had written about bullying and favoritism in the public administrators office and an inappropriate relationship by Telles with a female subordinate. Authorities say Germans initial investigation and follow-up stories were the motivation for Telles to fatally stab German last week at the reporters home. DNA at the scene linked Telles to the killing as did shoes and a distinctive straw hat found at his home that matched those worn by a suspect caught on video, investigators said Thursday. Police arrested Telles on Wednesday after a brief standoff at his home. Telles was hospitalized for what Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo described as non-life-threatening, self-inflicted wounds. Glenn Cook, executive editor of the Review-Journal, said there was talk within the newspaper about Telles being unhinged but he never made any physical threats against German and the reporter never said he was worried. The thought this was the story that would put Germans safety at risk seemed implausible, he said, remembering how the reporter recounted once being punched by an organized crime associate. He cut his teeth covering the mob, Cook said. Jeff spent over 40 years covering the worst of the worst of Las Vegas. This was a guy who ran down mobsters, wise guys and killers. Killings of journalists in the U.S. in retaliation for their work are extremely rare. Up until Germans death, eight journalists have been killed in the U.S. since 1992, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The deadliest attack came in 2018 when a shooting at the Capital Gazette in Maryland left five dead. Jeffs death is a sobering reminder of the inherent risks of investigative journalism, said Diana Fuentes, executive director of the organization Investigative Reporters & Editors. Journalists do their jobs every day, digging deep to find information the public needs to know and has a right to see. German joined the Review-Journal in 2010 after more than two decades at the Las Vegas Sun, where he was a columnist and reporter who covered courts, politics, labor, government and crime. He was 69, but never talked with his boss about retirement, Cook said. Former co-workers along with attorneys and government officials German counted on as sources called him a hard-nosed, tenacious journalist who could be gruff at times, especially if someone didnt know him or was holding back information. He was not someone who was easily intimidated, said Geoff Schumacher, who worked with German at the Sun until the late 1990s. Getting to the truth, that was more important to him than his own well-being or being popular. The pair recently worked together on a podcast called Mobbed Up. German talked about receiving veiled threats from mobsters in the early 1980s at a time when people were disappearing as law enforcement cracked down on organized crime. The warnings definitely got Germans attention, but he never went to police, said Schumacher, who now works at at The Mob Museum in Las Vegas Alan Feldman, a former executive with MGM Resorts International, said getting a call from German was like hearing from the CBS news show, 60 Minutes. He didnt talk tough or threaten anyone, Feldman said, but he never backed down. And he always followed the story even if it didnt go in the direction he expected, he said. The last thing I would say about Jeff is that anything scared him or that he was afraid, Feldman said. He was prepared to go after anyone who was doing something not in the public interest. Telles, a Democrat who apparently had never served in public office until he was elected in 2018, oversaw less than 10 people and was paid about $120,000 a year to run an office that deals with estates and the property of people after they die. Before that he was a lawyer practicing probate and estate law. In the weeks before the June primary, German bylined reports about an office mired in turmoil and internal dissension between longtime employees and new hires under Telles leadership. Following the stories, county officials hired a consultant to help oversee the office. Telles blamed old-timers for exaggerating the extent of his relationship with a female staffer and falsely claiming that he mistreated them. He posted complaints on Twitter about German, saying he was a bully who was obsessed with him. Telles ended up finishing last in the three-way primary and was serving out the remainder of his term at the time of the killing. The articles ruined his political career, likely his marriage, and this was him lashing out at the cause, Chief Deputy Clark County District Attorney Richard Scow said Thursday. Germans family called him a loving and loyal brother, uncle and friend who devoted his life to his work exposing wrongdoing in Las Vegas and beyond. Were shocked, saddened and angry about his death, they said in a statement. Jeff was committed to seeking justice for others and would appreciate the hard work by local police and journalists in pursuing his killer. We look forward to seeing justice done in this case. ___ Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. TALLINN, Estonia Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin may be in jail, but he refuses to be silenced. His social media accounts are regularly updated with anecdotes about his life in detention or video commentary criticizing President Vladimir Putins rule. He gives interviews to media outlets by providing written answers to questions through his lawyers from behind bars. He uses court appearances as an opportunity to speak out against the Kremlins devastating war in Ukraine which is exactly what he is being prosecuted for. So far the authorities have failed to shut me up, Yashin told The Associated Press in a lengthy handwritten letter from a pre-trial detention center in Moscow, passed on via his lawyers and associates last week. The opposition should speak the truth and stimulate a peaceful anti-war resistance It is very important to help people overcome their fear. But one can only truly motivate people with their own personal example, the politician added. Yashin, 39, is one of the few prominent opposition figures who has refused to leave Russia despite the unprecedented pressure the authorities have mounted on dissent in recent years. He says leaving Russia would have affected his authority and value as a politician. A sharp critic of the Kremlin, a vocal ally of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny and an uncompromising member of a Moscow municipal council, Yashin was arrested in June. The authorities charged him with spreading false information about the Russian military a new criminal offense for which he faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. The charges against Yashin reportedly relate to a YouTube livestream video in which he talked about Ukrainians being killed in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha. He rejects the charges as politically motivated. On Friday, a court in Moscow extended Yashins detention for two more months, until Nov. 12. Dont worry, everythings fine. Russia will be free, the politician said as he was being escorted out of the courtroom by police. Yashin wrote answers to the APs questions in his small cell in Moscows notorious Butyrskaya prison that he shares with several other people. His day there starts at 6 a.m. and ends at 10 p.m., he wrote, and consists of a walk, three meals, a couple of inspections and lots of free time. So he writes and reads a lot to make use of it. Last week, his parents visited him in detention. His mother, Tatyana, told the AP in a phone interview that he was holding up well and not regretting anything. She said the risk of her son getting arrested has been there for years since 2012, when arrests followed mass protests in Moscow over reports of widespread rigging at a parliamentary election. But you know how it is: You always hope for the best, Tatyana Yashina said. Nevertheless, we were, of course, prepared. Yashin said he, too, was ready for the arrest. After the authorities adopted a law that criminalized the spread of false information about the military, effectively outlawing all criticism of what the Kremlin calls a special military operation in Ukraine, it became obvious: The security forces will come after all public opponents of Putin who refuse to emigrate, Yashin said. So yes, I tried to prepare for prison as much as it was possible. I got my health in order, completed my dental treatments. Explained the situation, explained the risks to my family and loved ones. Prepared my home for a raid, gathered a team of lawyers in advance. And most importantly I mentally prepared to take the heat. What did surprise him, Yashin said, was how much respect law enforcement officers treated him with they called his lawyers for him and after the raid allowed him to pack personal belongings to take with him to jail. One expressed respect for his decision to stay in Russia despite the risk of arrest, while another one called him a worthy enemy. In detention, both the inmates and the guards are genuinely puzzled to hear that the politician is facing 10 years in prison for a few words against the war, Yashin wrote: In Russia, courts hand down shorter sentences for theft, assaults, rapes and sometimes even murders. With all protests suppressed by a brutal crackdown and most opposition leaders leaving the country, spreading the word has become the main effort for many. Even though Navalny is in jail, his team continues to post video exposes of corruption and regular livestreams on the politicians YouTube channels. The three most popular channels combined currently have more than 10 million subscribers. Yashins own YouTube channel, regularly updated even after his arrest with news analysis and political commentary, has nearly 1.4 million subscribers. Most of his videos over the past six months have been dedicated to the war and criticizing the Kremlin for it. Demand for an alternative point of view has appeared in society, Yashin told the AP. Denis Volkov, director of Russias top independent pollster Levada center, told the AP that the influence of independent sources of information in Russia has grown in recent years thanks to popular video blogs on YouTube as an alternative to state television. People read little, but watch a lot, Volkov said. Yashin urged ordinary Russians to help spread the word. Show your grandmother, who is used to watching TV, a couple of interesting channels on YouTube. Teach your relative from a small town to use VPN so that he can read the news on a blocked independent news site. Create a chat with friends and neighbors, share links, anti-corruption investigations and opinions there. Yashin said that both before his arrest and in detention, he has seen very little support for the war in Ukraine, despite the authorities vast effort to control the narrative and weed out any criticisms or dissenting voices. The Kremlin has insisted for months that there is overwhelming support for the invasion. Just this week, President Vladimir Putins spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated once again that the absolute majority of Russians were behind the decision to send troops into Ukraine. Behind bars, the war is widely and actively discussed, Yashin said, but there is either an understanding among those discussing it that Russia has been drawn into a major crisis, or disappointment at Moscows modest successes on the battlefield. Im convinced that by getting involved in the war, Putin has started the countdown of his time in power. He went all in, but miscalculated The final lines of his letter from prison offer his hope for the future. I am convinced that my country, after all, will become part of a free and civilized world, he says. But no one will win this battle for us. It is only our responsibility. The founder of the Hawaii Proud Boys chapter and a Texas man who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and posed for a picture in front of a door on which one of them had written Murder the Media each pleaded guilty Friday in federal court to a felony charge in connection with the riot. Nicholas Ochs, founder of the far-right extremist groups Hawaii chapter and a onetime Republican state House candidate, and Nicholas DeCarlo, of Fort Worth, Texas, admitted to obstructing the congressional certification of President Joe Bidens Electoral College victory. They shared a social media channel called Murder the Media and initially claimed to be working as journalists on Jan. 6, according to the government. Federal guidelines for Ochs, 36, and DeCarlo, 32, call for sentences between about 3 1/2 years and four years behind bars, although the judge can decide to go above or below that. In exchange for pleading guilty, prosecutors agreed to dismiss several other charges against them. They are to be sentenced in December. Edward MacMahon, a lawyer for Ochs, noted after the hearing that his client did not injure anyone at the Capitol and said he hopes Ochs is sentenced consistent with others who did not participate in any violence. A lawyer for DeCarlo did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment. Ochs and DeCarlo attended the Stop the Steal rally near the White House in support of then-President Donald Trump on the morning of Jan. 6 and then marched together to the Capitol. The men admitted to throwing smoke bombs at a line of police trying to keep the mob from the stage set up for Bidens inauguration. DeCarlo admitted to writing Murder The Media in permanent marker on a door in the Capitol building, prosecutors said. The men then posed in front of the door with a thumbs-up sign. DeCarlo also rummaged through a Capitol police officers bag and stole a pair of plastic handcuffs, prosecutors said. Ochs posted on Twitter a picture of the men smoking cigarettes inside the Capitol, and the caption said: Hello from the Capital lol, according to court papers. After leaving the building, they filmed a video together in which Ochs said they came to stop the steal and DeCarlo declared: We did it, the government said. Sorry we couldnt go live when we stormed the f-in U.S. Capitol and made Congress flee, Ochs said in a video with the Capitol visible in the background. Ochs told CNN that he was working as a professional journalist and that he did not have to break into the Capitol, but just walked in and filmed. Before his arrest, DeCarlo also told The Los Angeles Times that they were journalists. What I did was journalism: Follow the events and show people what happened, DeCarlo told the newspaper. Ochs was the Republican Partys candidate to represent Waikiki in the Hawaii House in the November 2020 election. Ochs lost to Democrat Adrian Tam. Ochs and DeCarlo are among dozens of members and associates of the Proud Boys who have been charged in the Capitol riot. The groups former chairman, Enrique Tarrio, and other leaders have been charged with seditious conspiracy the most serious charges brought so far in the insurrection. The leader and members of another far-right extremist group, the Oath Keepers, are heading to trial later this month on the charge of seditious conspiracy. The Oath Keepers are the first Jan. 6 defendants facing the rare and difficult-to-prove charge to go to trial. Also on Friday, a lawyer for the Oath Keepers, Kellye SoRelle, pleaded not guilty to a charge of conspiracy to obstruct the certification of the Electoral College vote. SoRelle, a close associate of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, was arrested this month in Texas. More than 870 people have been charged so far in the Capitol riot. Nearly 400 have pleaded guilty to charges ranging from low-level misdemeanors for illegally entering the building to felony seditious conspiracy. ___ For full coverage of the Capitol riot, go to https://www.apnews.com/capitol-siege DENVER Backers of a campaign targeting a Colorado lawmaker who left the GOP and joined the Democratic Party, citing the Republican Partys embrace of discredited 2020 election conspiracies, received the go-ahead Friday to collect voter signatures in their bid to trigger a recall election. Colorados secretary of states office said it had approved a recall petition targeting state Sen. Kevin Priola, whose term representing a suburban Denver district ends in 2025. Petitioners have until Nov. 8 to collect enough signatures to force an eventual recall vote. Priola infuriated Republicans when he announced his party switch in August, saying he was horrified by the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and had waited in vain for his party to repudiate it as well as former President Donald Trump, who continues to insist the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Numerous assertions that the presidential election was stolen have been proven false. Priola also rebuked what he called the GOPs refusal to take climate change seriously. Today, my Republican colleagues would rather deny the existence of human-caused climate change than take action, he wrote in a letter announcing his decision. Priolas move enhanced Democrats prospects for retaining a majority in Colorados senate in the November midterm elections. The party holds a comfortable majority in the House. But the recall drive is in a new district assigned to Priola that has become more conservative thanks to last years redistricting process. Signature-gatherers hit the streets Friday, and the recall campaign already has raised $130,000, said Michael Fields, who heads the recall committee and is president of the conservative group Advance Colorado Institute. Fields cited Priolas past votes with Democrats, especially on state tax policy, as well as what he called Priolas betrayal of the Republican voters who elected him to office. Conservative Republicans voted for him to be a conservative leader in the Senate, Fields said. Special interests with deep pockets filed this recall as personal and political retribution for my decision to put people over partisan politics, and I have confidence you will see through their deceptive tactics, Priola said in a statement released Friday. Ask yourself why these special interests are just now calling for my recall over votes I took over a year and a half ago, and in some cases four years ago. This is clearly not about my voting record. These hyper-partisan political insiders are wasting hundreds of thousands of your taxpayer money on a special election to punish me for serving you as an independent voice, the senator stated. Im proud to be one of the most bipartisan legislators in our state. Priola is in his second term as a state senator and is not up for reelection in November. The campaign needs signatures equal to at least 25% of the number of votes cast in the district in the last election to force a vote. Fields said any recall vote, if certified by the secretary of states office, could be held in January. The art of Mary Moore Bailey captures whimsical petroglyphs of her life and travels. The Placitas painter considers herself a storyteller, be it about her connection to the Earth, her Swedish lineage or her love for New Mexico. Albuquerques Sumner & Dene Gallery is showcasing her work in A Storytellers Dream through Sept. 24. Bailey spent 40 years working in advertising and marketing before retiring to New Mexico. She always painted. I was always making stuff. In kindergarten, I got in trouble for drawing a woman with big breasts, she said, giggling. It was like Youre not supposed to draw those, Mary. I think my parents probably laughed. A self-described military brat, Bailey was born in Grantsburg, Wisconsin before her parents hopscotched through Washington, D.C., Englands House Stanton by the Sea, Massachusetts and finally, Albuquerque. She graduated from Highland High School, where she studied with artist Frank McCulloch, who would leave a large imprint on her work. He was very present to who his students were, Bailey said. He really had a gift. He had a series of processes to build confidence in design. He didnt ask people to do what he did. McCulloch told his students to fold a piece of paper in half, repeating it 10 more times to produce a sense of composition, she said. Bailey also loved the work of the Russian abstractionist Wassily Kandinsky and the Swiss painter Paul Klee. Its their color, composition and playfulness, she said. Ive always seen these archetypal images, she added. I studied icons in college, particularly Russian. Travels of My Ancestors by Mary Moore Bailey. (Courtesy of Sumner & Dene) Ode to Bucky by Mary Moore Bailey. (Courtesy of Sumner & Dene) (Courtesy of Sumner & Dene) When the Heavens Open Up by Mary Moore Bailey. (Courtesy of Sumner & Dene) Another Afternoon in France by Mary Moore Bailey. (Courtesy of Sumner & Dene) Cycles of the Moon by Mary Moore Bailey. (Courtesy of Sumner & Dene) Prev 1 of 6 Next She and her husband moved to Placitas from Seattle in 2015. Ive always loved New Mexico, she said. Its my soul spot. Her current acrylic paintings incorporate her personal petroglyph style. Natural symbols of deer and fish abound, as do trees, the sun and the moon. Its really about our connection to each other and the planet and the fact that we are not separate beings, she said. Travels of My Ancestors traces her Swedish heritage. My grandfather came through Ellis Island, she said. Ive never been to Sweden. Curious as to whether rock art occurred in that country, she researched online and discovered tons. In 2006, she traveled to the Cave of Niaux archaeological site in France, with its galleries dating from the Magdalenian period, between 17,000 and 11,000 years ago. Theyre so sophisticated, Bailey said. There was a famine that was carved and painted on the wall that looked real. And there were images of bison. In Secret Road to the Falls, a moon and sun shine over buildings offering a sense of place, with ladders symbolizing spirituality. We all have our road, Bailey said. Ode to Bucky refers to the architect Buckminster Fuller, the founder of geodesic domes and the author of the Critical Path, one of Baileys favorite books. He predicted a lot of what is happening today, she said, the familiarization with technology, the speed of the world. He talked about the spaceship Earth and how we have the capability to feed everybody. Baileys own spaceship features houses, fences, birds and, of course, ladders. When looking at what I wanted my life/art to be about, I read an Einstein quote that said our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole (of) nature in its beauty, she wrote. My paintings have been and are an exploration of our connection to each other and the world in which we live. Bailey has shown her work across the U.S., in Carmel and Big Sur, California, Seattle and Colorado. Her next show is in Canon City, Colorado. The former boyfriend of a 59-year-old Navajo woman whose remains were found last year in Nevada pleaded guilty this week in her 2019 kidnapping and beating death. Jerry Jay, 51, pleaded guilty in a Farmington court Thursday to second-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping in the May 31, 2019, death of Cecelia Finona of Farmington. Jay faces up to 33 years in prison at a sentencing hearing scheduled Nov. 29 before 11th Judicial District Court Judge Karen Townsend. Jay struck Finona on the head with a blunt object after an argument, Attorney General Hector Balderas office said in a statement. Jay then put her in the back seat of her truck and fled New Mexico. Ms. Finona bled to death in her truck as Jay drove through Arizona, Nevada, and California, the statement said. Eventually, he returned to Nevada to dispose of Ms. Finonas body in a remote culvert outside Las Vegas. DNA testing identified the body as Finonas. As we continue to fight for justice and help bring closure to Cecelias family, New Mexico still has a long way to go in helping Indigenous families impacted by violent crime, Balderas said in the statement. Finonas disappearance made national news and was featured on Dateline NBCs Missing in America in July 2019. Days after her disappearance, Jay was arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada, on charges alleging he used Finonas debit card to withdraw more than $1,200. He was charged with Finonas killing in July 2021. A missing persons report was filed for Finona on June 1, 2019, when her mother told others Finona hadnt been home in two days. Her family later searched areas around Farmington and the nearby Navajo Nation, her daughter Julietta Finona said shortly after the disappearance. The daughter said the family found blood at Finonas home and reported it to police. She also said a dog led them to her mothers eyeglass lens on the property. Georgia OKeeffe is known for painting details of flower petals and the landscapes near her homes at Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch in northern New Mexico. But a new, unadorned biography for middle readers, Who Was Georgia OKeeffe? introduces the famous American artist in a different setting meeting with the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. In 1951, OKeeffe and a few friends drove to Mexico. She and Kahlo met at Kahlos home in Mexico City. The book explains that the two women had first met in 1931. Kahlo had hoped she would become as famous and successful as OKeeffe. Despite a 20-year age difference, the two women developed an enduring friendship. They had a lot in common, author Sarah Fabiny writes in the biography. Both had quite unique styles of painting, they were each married to men who were forces in the art world, and they both dressed uniquely to express their individuality. OKeeffe was married to New York-based photographer/gallery owner Alfred Stieglitz. Kahlos husband was the artist Diego Rivera. I was asked to pull Frida in to link these two iconic women who had struck up a friendship, Fabiny said in a phone interview from her home in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Its a nice way to put female artists to the front. Kahlo looked up to OKeeffe because she blazed a trail in a field dominated by men. Georgia painted what she wanted to paint, dressed the way she wanted to dress, and lived the way she wanted to live independently, Fabiny writes. Not only did OKeeffe inspire Kahlo, but she inspired and continues to inspire female artists worldwide, the book notes. OKeeffe grew up on a dairy farm in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. The book blends OKeeffes life as an art teacher, her professional and personal relationship with Stieglitz, and her life as an artist in New York and later in New Mexico. In an email, Fabiny explained how her book is different than the five other OKeeffe titles for young readers listed in the bibliography. I feel that this book really does a good job of making Georgia OKeeffe more relatable, human and approachable to readers, especially during her childhood years, she said. Indeed, all the books in the Who Was? series have that objective. I aimed to add details, obscure facts and interesting events and experiences that help a reader understand that even though Georgia OKeeffe is famous, she, too was once a child who experienced the same hopes and fears, ups and downs, obstacles and joy that todays readers experience, Fabiny said. I also think my book and again the entire series looks to draw comparisons and show how topics in a famous persons life are relevant today, so that even though they may have lived 100 or 1,000 years ago, there are some things in the world that are constants. Among the other subjects of her Who Was? books have been Frida Kahlo and artist/illustrator Norman Rockwell, and authors Jane Austen, Beatrix Potter and A.A. Milne. On the website whowasbookseries.com, Who Was? is billed as a high-interest nonfiction series of illustrated biographies for young readers featuring significant historical figures, including artists, scientists and world leaders. Fabiny said in her email the series gives readers the sense that they have the potential to make a mark on the world, just as any famous person in the series has. Fabiny, a freelance writer, has been in childrens book publishing for 35 years, most recently overseeing the Who Was? series; it was part of her job as editorial director for the Penguin Workshop imprint that publishes the Who Was? books at Penguin Random House. You are here: China China is considering building an oversight system for administrative law enforcement by cyberspace regulators. The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) Thursday released a set of rules concerning these law enforcement procedures of cyberspace administration departments to solicit public feedback. The rules aim to ensure the law-based performance of duties by cyberspace administration organs, protect the legitimate rights and interests of citizens, legal persons, and other organizations, and safeguard national security and public interests, the CAC said. Cyberspace administration departments shall observe the principles of fairness and openness and be subject to public supervision when they impose administrative penalties, according to the rules. Citizens, legal persons, and other organizations have the right to file complaints or reports against the administrative penalties imposed on them. Cyberspace regulators shall make corrections when errors occur in their enforcement, the rules said. With two major national holidays on the horizon, China is advising people not to travel, to minimize the risk of spreading COVID-19. Those who wish to visit other provincial-level regions must provide negative nucleic acid test results taken within 48 hours before using public transport and to be tested again upon arrival, health officials said on Thursday. The requirements were announced in the run-up to the three-day Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, which starts on Saturday, and the National Day holiday from Oct 1 to 7, as new cases have been reported this month in 29 provincial-level regions, the National Health Commission said. Wu Liangyou, deputy head of the commission's Bureau of Disease Prevention and Control, said that while the outbreaks in Hainan province and the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region are tailing off, the epidemic control situation in the Tibet autonomous region and Sichuan province remains severe despite dropping number of new cases. The Chinese mainland reported 241 confirmed infections and 1,093 asymptomatic cases on Wednesday. "Increasing population movement during the two major holidays will increase the risk of the spread of the virus and make the disease control situation more severe," he said. To ensure that no major outbreaks occur during the holiday periods and to minimize the impact on people's daily lives and production, he said several new rules will be in place from Saturday to Oct 31. People are encouraged to avoid cross-regional trips during the holidays, and those who need to travel must present negative nucleic acid test results before taking planes, trains, long-distance buses and ships, Wu said. Meanwhile, free and fast tests should be offered for cross-provincial travelers immediately upon their arrival. "Localities should gauge the number of people on the move and their arrival times, in order to equip sufficient testing stations and personnel at airports, train and bus stations, as well as expressway service areas and ports," he said. Key venues, such as hotels and tourist attractions, should also ensure that all health codes are checked and all visitors present nucleic acid test results taken within 72 hours. The number of large gatherings, such as exhibitions and performances, should be reduced, Wu added. Zhou Min, deputy head of the emergency response office of the Ministry of Transport, said that about 24 million passenger trips are expected to be made daily during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, down 32 percent from last year's holiday and 53 percent from 2019. Despite the recent complicated epidemic situation, he said, China's transport network has been functioning smoothly. Between mid-April and the end of August, the traffic volume of trucks on highways rose by 10.1 percent. During the same period, the air cargo volume at major international airports increased by 77.3 percent and the business volume of the parcel delivery sector rose by 31.9 percent. Meanwhile, the daily average throughput at Shanghai Port averaged at 135,000 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units), and reached a high of 150,000 TEU in August. Zhou said officials are strictly forbidden from shutting down transport infrastructure, restricting transport services or setting up checkpoints without authorization. "We will continue to coordinate the allocation of supplies in virus-affected and neighboring areas, and guide the establishment of transfer hubs to ensure supplies of antivirus materials, daily necessities and key production materials," he said. Gaurav Srivastava has joined NDTV India as North & East Head-Ad Sales. He would be now responsible for performance of all revenue-generating avenues, drive growth through strategic decisions, partner with key stakeholders and steer revenue acceleration through his leadership. In total he has around 21 years of experience working with channels like B4U Television as regional head sales for north region, Republic Bharat, and Adhikari Brothers before joining NDTV India. Srivastava said: It gives me great pleasure to join the enthusiastic and aggressive team of NDTV India. The brand is already well established, and I look forward to collaborating with all stakeholders to achieve long-term goals. Akasa Air, Indias newest airline today launched its first multimedia campaign dubbed Its Your Sky. The campaign brings alive the airlines tagline and builds on Akasas brand promise of offering a warm, efficient, dependable, and affordable travel experience to all travellers. Its Your Sky is a multi-touchpoint campaign that will reach audiences through print, out of home (OOH), digital, social media including Akasa Airs social media handles, website and app from 1st September 2022 for a period of four weeks. In line with the brands approach to focus on travellers across geographies where it currently operates, the print campaign will run in five languages, including Marathi, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and Gujarati. The creative concept of Its Your Sky, is based on the insight that air travel in India has so far been highly transactional as well as an intimidating experience for a large section of Indians. Through this campaign, Akasa Air has highlighted its vision and commitment to give every traveller a trustworthy and humane travel experience. Commenting on the launch of the campaign, Belson Coutinho, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing & Experience Officer, Akasa Air, said, As a customer-centric brand that is built to deliver a people-first experience, Akasa Air is committed to offering a warm service culture that is uniquely Indian, inclusivity that makes every experience comforting, and efficiency that puts our customers and employees at the centre of everything we do and we hope that our integrated and insight-led campaign will drive this message creatively. Akasas empathetic and reliable approach to service is delivered through our employees who are carefully selected based on a set of values and trained at the Akasa Air Learning Academy to inculcate this unique approach across the customer journey., he added. Inspired by elements of the sky, the brand had revealed its Rising A symbol in December last year symbolising the warmth of the sun, the effortless flight of a bird, and the dependability of an aircraft wing. Jovees Herbal, Indias leading 18-year-old brand, trusted for its herbal skin and hair care products, has released a new TVC featuring leading actress Parineeti Chopra. The TVC features the actress showcasing the brand's wide range of face washes and highlighting its all-natural ingredients. The quirky TVC highlights the need for your skin to feel fresh and flawless irrespective of your surroundings. The 20-second TVC is written and conceptualized by Puneet Chadha and Devaiah Bopanna, ex-senior writers at AIB and conceptualizers of the CRED advertisement. It begins with the actress stuck in a desert, thirsty and dehydrated. Then she comes across two people who are also in the desert and asks them for some water. As soon as she gets the water, she uses it to wash her face with Jovees Herbal face wash rather than quenching her thirst. The camera zooms out to reveal her entire face, which looks radiant and refreshed. This humorously exemplifies how essential Jovees Herbal is to her. In the TVC, Jovees Herbal is shown to be an absolute lifesaver for the protagonist. The film beautifully captures the importance of keeping the skin hydrated, moisturized, nourished, supple and soft. Apart from the television commercial, this new campaign will also be extended to the Outdoor, OTT, Print, and Digital Media. *Speaking about her association with Jovees, Parineeti Chopra said, I am very particular about using natural and herbal products on my skin, and Jovees Herbal is a brand that I identify with. The products have always worked wonders for my skin, and I am glad to be associated with them.* Rakhi Ahuja, CEO of Jovees Herbal, said, Parineeti is a fabulous actress and an incredible role model. Her natural beauty and fresh face make her the perfect choice to represent Jovees Herbals commitment to providing only the best to its customers. Moreover, her personality truly resonates with the brand, as her compassion towards marine life aligns with the cruelty-free nature of our brand. Yuvraj Ahuja, Directors, Jovees Herbal said, Parineeti has always been an advocate of natural and herbal products and we are thrilled to have her on board as our brand ambassador. With her strong following and influence, we are confident that she will help us reach a wider audience and strengthen our position as a leading player in the herbal skin & haircare market. We are aiming to increase our retail presence by 3X with the help of this campaign. Speaking on the collaboration, Ujjawal Ahuja, Director, Jovees Herbal said, With this collaboration, we aim to provide our customers with the highest quality products and services. We are planning to increase the marketing budget by 4X. This increase will allow the company to reach a wider audience through TV and other advertising channels. Parineeti Chopra has been chosen to help us achieve this goal and we are confident that she will be a great asset to the brand. Jovees Herbal is available on various leading e-commerce platforms and in over 35000+ store outlets. This campaign will allow the brand to reach a larger online and offline audience. The company also intends to further expand its presence in the international market. The brand is currently present in Sri Lanka, Middle East, France, Malaysia, Mauritius, and other countries. Redington Limited, a leading IT technology provider, today announced that it has partnered with MediBuddy, Indias largest and most trusted digital healthcare platform. This partnership will allow Redington to have access to an annual health check-up for their employees across the country. The pandemic has created a change in the mindset of people by making them realize how health and wellness are now considered more prominent than ever as the world strives to combat COVID-19. Redington has consistently been at the forefront of advancing digital healthcare and driving various initiatives that promote the value of good health. The collaboration with MediBuddy aims at making high-quality healthcare support accessible to all the employees of Redington across the country. Commenting on this partnership Sundar Rajan G, Vice President HR, Redington Limited said, At Redington, the health, safety and well-being of our employees is our topmost priority. Our collaboration with MediBuddy demonstrates our commitment of providing access to the best of healthcare facilities and assistance. Commenting on this partnership, Satish Kannan, Co-founder & CEO, MediBuddy, said, MediBuddy has been constantly striving to provide a billion Indians with access to high-quality healthcare. We are happy to have partnered with Redington India Limited to give its employees access to high-quality healthcare. Our goal is to provide our customers with healthcare support across all specialties at any time & anywhere. FleishmanHillard and its research practice, TRUE Global Intelligence, in partnership with Eleve Media, today released the Web 3.0 Influencer & Intelligence Report 2022, showcasing the ways that conversation and influence are quickly changing in India around the rising evolution of the metasphere. Both the creator economy and the topics driving discussion of Web 3.0 on social media have sharply increased over the past 12 months. The report research included a survey of over 500 influencers, content creators and select Web 3.0 players from March through April 2022, in addition to the analysis of more than 12 months of social conversations. The research confirms the massive excitement around Web 3.0, as well as specific areas of interest, including education, regulation and the need for re-imagined communities. Our report confirms the rapidly growing appetite for news and views about the metaverse and Web 3.0-related trends. These advancements are already setting a precedent for brands and content creators who can design highly engaging and differentiated campaigns that leverage this advantage. We hope this report will increase our understanding of the subject and contribute toward the adoption of Web 3.0 in a meaningful way for brands and creators, said Munavar Attari, managing director and partner, FleishmanHillard in India. The Web 3.0 Influencer & Intelligence Report 2022 also provides a detailed conversation analysis and overview of the Web 3.0 landscape in India. Our research inspected the developments in the Web 3.0 space over the past year and highlights just how dynamic the topic is, and how much open territory still exists for brand communications that satisfy this hunger, added Michael Rinaman, managing director of TRUE Global Intelligence in APAC and global head of analytics for FleishmanHillard. As brands adopt new technologies in Web 3.0, understanding the velocity and direction of the current conversation can be valuable to start from a place of intelligence and understanding in India. Major themes and findings are discussed in detail in the Web 3.0 Influencer & Intelligence Report 2022, including how: The popularity of Web 3.0 content reveals a dire need for better understanding about the new generation of web technologies. The evolving landscape requires close attention to shifting conversations to understand emergent trends, nuances and new risks. Most influencers want to create for community (Web 3.0) over algorithms (Web 2.0) in the metaverse. Influencers are on the lookout for next-gen tools to strengthen the creator economy. Creators and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have paved the way for the metaverse to become an accelerated reality. Creators vote for Discord, virtual influencers and social interactions as key Web 3.0 tools. Web 3.0 promises a more direct relationship between brands and consumers. And we would want brands to be equipped to experiment and explore Web 3.0 platforms and opportunities. The Web 3.0 Influencer & Intelligence Report 2022 is a joint effort with FleishmanHillard in India to help brands strategically leverage this societal shift, said Prince Khanna, CEO and co-founder of Eleve Media. From the Web 3.0 Influencer & Intelligence Report 2022, the research from FleishmanHillard in India and Eleve demonstrates a sense of urgency that brands need to start to develop Web 3.0 strategies now while there is still room for differentiation and partnership. As audiences become more familiar with Web 3.0 topics such as NFTs, cryptocurrencies, blockchains and tokens, there will be less opportunity to differentiate. Web 3.0 is set to change the influencer ecosystem and continue to drive conversation. In the report, brands can learn more about immediate opportunities to act from embracing the key trio with creators (creation, consumption and compensation) to crafting the right strategies and messaging to be considered relevant. China's anti-graft chief has called on discipline inspection and supervision organs to improve duty performance to advance full and rigorous Party governance, improve Party conduct, ensure clean government, and step up the fight against corruption to greet the convocation of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) later this year. Zhao Leji, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, made the remarks while addressing a commendation conference for the country's disciplinary inspection commissions and supervision agencies. Hailing the new progress in improving conduct, strengthening discipline, and combating corruption, Zhao called for efforts to encourage discipline inspection and supervision officials to learn from their model counterparts, thus promoting the high-quality development of discipline inspection and supervision in the new era. Zhao also stressed strengthening self-improvement and advancing self-reform of discipline inspection and supervision organs to build a team of discipline inspection and supervision officials who are loyal, responsible, amiable, credible, and honorable. The 2022 national conference on the development of specialized and sophisticated small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that produce novel and unique products opened in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province on the morning of September 8. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, president of the People's Republic of China and chairman of the Central Military Commission, sent a letter to extend warm congratulations. In his congratulatory letter, Xi pointed out that SMEs are important to each household and have been a vital force to advance innovation, facilitate employment and improve people's livelihood. He hoped the specialized and sophisticated SMEs that produce novel and unique products could focus on and refine their main business so as to play an even more important role in stabilizing the industrial and supply chains and promoting economic and social development. Xi also urged Party committees and governments at all levels to resolutely implement the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and create a favorable environment for the development of SMEs. He required more efforts to support SMEs' growth and boost their confidence. Solid steps should be taken to advance enterprises' innovation, strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights and nurture more specialized and sophisticated SMEs that could produce novel and unique products. Vice Premier Liu He, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, attended the opening ceremony via video link, and read aloud the congratulatory message. The conference, with the theme "strengthen the foundation and consolidate the chain," is co-hosted by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and Jiangsu Provincial People's Government. Leading officials of relevant departments of the central government and leading officials of Jiangsu provincial government, officials in charge of SMEs affairs from provincial-level bureaus, and representatives of specialized and sophisticated SMEs attended the meeting. "For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it." That's Thomas Jefferson, the Father of the University of Virginia, describing his beloved institution's creed to English historian William Roscoe. I think it is also a fitting description of the American Thinker community, who often tussle with difficult stories because that is where the truth takes us. Several members of the community recently focused my attention on the plight of J6 political prisoner Jonathan Mellis, who has already spent nineteen months in the American Gulag for the "crime" of protesting against his government. Mellis is one of hundreds who have endured the wrath of a wayward Washington politburo that has thrown Americans' Bill of Rights and founding principles right out the window. Dennis Prager actually managed to secure a fifteen-minute interview with the incarcerated Mellis on December 22, 2021, and has replayed the disturbing audio for his listeners several times. I encourage anyone who has not already come across it to find a few minutes to concentrate on their conversation. The thirty-five-year-old Mellis, whom Prager identifies as a native Tennessean, although he was arrested in Virginia, sounds remarkably calm and composed, considering that he had already endured nearly a full year in jail (with no end yet in sight) and was obviously communicating with Prager from behind enemy lines. His story is similar to those of other J6 political prisoners caught up in this abusive, Soviet-style purge, yet his descriptions are unnervingly poignant. Like so many of us who angrily watched as mass mail-in balloting and other pandemic-related voting shenanigans corrupted the 2020 election, Mellis hoped January 6 would stand as a historic day when civic-minded Americans engaging in political protest would successfully convince Congress and the courts to take a hard look at the suspicious irregularities tainting the election. He is undoubtedly a fiercely patriotic American who loves his country and would sacrifice anything for it. He speaks as a man committed to America's foundations in liberty. He does not sound as if malice has blighted his heart. He arrived in D.C. to defend America's standing as the "Land of the Free." He expected to rectify an electoral injustice. He wanted D.C.'s permanent bureaucracy to visually see the resolve of millions of Americans' moral conviction. He expected triumph. And he has received little but despair. Instead of delivering historic jubilation, January 6 has marked a hard turning point in his life and the beginning of an unrelenting nightmare. He's been in and out of solitary confinement, endured an onslaught of racist invective and other verbal abuse, witnessed beatings from guards, spit out contaminated food, been denied hygienic care, and suffered through an unsanitary hellscape of backed up toilets and filthy, fetid cells meant to break his will and coerce him into accepting some kind of plea deal. He describes the agony of surviving alone for days at a time, cut off from reality and forced to seek solace in the refuge of his mind. The last time he saw his father was when he was being dragged away with the kind of force one might expect to be used against a wanted terrorist. When his father, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, died a few months later, Judge Emmet Sullivan (yes, the same Sullivan who hounded General Michael Flynn and insisted on persecuting him long after the government sought to drop its politically-motivated criminal charges) summarily denied his request to attend the funeral, again equating him to a violent terrorist who must be made to suffer. In Mellis's words, you hear the story of a man who has been psychologically tortured and kept in a constant state of apprehension at what will befall him next. You hear a man whom the federal government wishes to drown in fear. Yet you also hear a man who refuses to break. "We sing the National Anthem every single night, at nine P.M., with our hands on our hearts," he tells Prager. Imagine that for one small moment. The U.S. government with its armies of prosecutors, FBI Gestapo squads, complicit judges, and corrupt news media propagandists who ask no questions while pushing the all-powerful State's lies has targeted Jonathan Mellis and nearly a thousand other Americans for being "insurrectionists" and "domestic terrorists" intent on "overthrowing" the United States. Yet it is Mellis and a few dozen other political prisoners who seek to lift each other's spirits by singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" each night. You know the poetic anthem that stirred in the mind and soul of Francis Scott Key as he watched a large American flag flying triumphantly over Fort McHenry while it sustained bombardment from Britain's Royal Navy during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812. So committed to "insurrection" and "overthrowing" the government of the United States are the federal government's "dangerous" political prisoners that they gather their strength when they're able and sing tribute to the very nation that inflicts upon them such grievous harm. These are the American patriots the D.C. Despots have decided to torment, torture, and betray. These are the lost Americans who have been mostly forgotten for now but who will one day serve as living testament to Washington's venality and as a breathing reminder of the horrendously ignoble American Gulag. These are the Americans the federal government wishes to break before all our eyes, so that no citizen anywhere will ever again consider electing an unapproved outsider candidate for president, calling out government corruption, or demanding justice from those who pretend to dispense it. How many denizens of D.C. could even accurately recite America's National Anthem? I wonder. It's as Prager said to Mellis upon hearing about the patriotic revelry: "That, my friend, is considered an extremist." Damn right. Because Mellis refuses to break, he will remain a target in the crosshairs of an immoral government dedicated to persecution, not principle. He is of particular focus because he was involved directly in the melee that resulted in Rosanne Boyland's death. She "died right in front of me," Mellis said on a recorded phone call from jail. "I still hear the blood curdling screams for help at night." Boyland's death was originally blamed on a drug overdose, but video footage shows her being repeatedly beaten by a D.C. police officer. Mellis is seen pushing back against police, while trying to defend Boyland from further injury. As further evidence of good character, Mellis is recorded earlier in the day assisting an officer who had fallen into the crowd. Normally, we would recognize that kind of pattern-or-practice evidence as demonstrating moral courage. The federal criminal justice system sees it as proof why Mellis should be held in jail without bail, trial, or prospect of release. None of this is right. We have gone so far beyond what is good and right or fair that the damage the Washington Establishment class continues to inflict will fester like an unhealed wound upon the nation's body politic, striking even the most complacent among us with its putrid stench. The Occupant of the White House, Joe Biden, insists that when Americans have the temerity to question election results or the sacred honor of their government bureaucrats, they threaten the U.S. Constitution itself. As with most utterances from Biden, his words are un-American and preposterous. We seek a renewal of the Constitution and a rejection of the Washington Deep State's casual disregard for its meaning and the intentional malice its bureaucratic servants dedicate to its degradation. Just as with Mellis and other J6 political prisoners, we stand with America. Image via Pxhere. A prosecutor who uses his or her authority to virtue signal to the public to advance his or her political career is more dangerous to society than all but the most violent criminals. Insurance will cover many forms of property crimes, and you can legally use deadly force against somebody who menaces you with death or serious bodily injury. A prosecutor, though, can bankrupt most people by filing unfounded criminal charges against them, ruin their lives with prison time and criminal records. Unless the case is particularly egregious like that of Mike Nifong (D-NC), or with crooked judges like Mark Ciavarella (D-PA, a.k.a., federal inmate #15008-067) or Mike Conahan (D-PA, home arrest), there is little or no recourse against these "jurists." To put this in perspective, Pennsylvania attorney Frank Fina was suspended from the practice of law for his role in convicting Penn State President Graham Spanier of putting children at risk. Pennsylvania's current Attorney General, and gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro (D-PA), worked hard to reinstate Spanier's conviction while tweeting that Spanier had been told that Jerry Sandusky was sexually assaulting children on the Penn State campus. The witness, Mike McQueary, testified, however, under oath, that he did not see Sandusky do anything he deemed reportable to police while his father and a family friend, both of whom are mandated by law to report abuse, did not encourage him to report to child protective authorities whatever he thought he might have possibly heard. I believe that Shapiro, like Scott Harshbarger (D-MA) and Martha Coakley (D-MA) who ruined the lives of the Amiraults, used his position to "virtue signal" his concern for the children prior to the election. The latter is my perception of Shapiro, Harshbarger, and Coakley rather than a statement of fact because I cannot read their minds. Kyle's Law Attorney Andrew Branca, whose opinions often appear on William Jacobson's blog Legal Insurrection, has proposed what he calls Kyle's Law due to what he and I both regard as a politically motivated prosecution of Kyle Rittenhouse for what was obviously self-defense. "Too often, rogue prosecutors bring felony criminal charges against people who were clearly doing nothing more than defending themselves, their families, or others from violent criminal attack. The only motivation of the prosecutor is personal aggrandizement and political capital." Kyle's Law would sanction not only the jurisdiction but also the prosecutor who brings a junk case, to be defined as one in which the prosecutor lacks even preponderance of evidence rather than beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant did anything wrong. The American Bar Association's Rules of Professional Conduct state meanwhile, "A lawyer shall not bring or defend a proceeding, or assert or controvert an issue therein, unless there is a basis in law and fact for doing so that is not frivolous" and also "The prosecutor in a criminal case shall: (a) refrain from prosecuting a charge that the prosecutor knows is not supported by probable cause" and probable cause requires a "reasonable belief" that the defendant has committed a crime. If, for example, a video of a self-defense shooting shows clearly that the person who was shot initiated a deadly confrontation, perpetuated it by not allowing the subject of their attack to retreat in complete safety, and menaced the shooter with immediate deadly force, as did all three of Rittenhouse's assailants, that's proof beyond a reasonable doubt in favor of the shooter that the shooting was justified. If we look within the four corners of the charges against Rittenhouse, the prosecutors did not contest this version of the events. Joseph Rosenbaum initiated a confrontation in which he attempted to strong-arm rob Rittenhouse (a violent felony by itself) of a firearm he could have turned against Rittenhouse on the spot and also one which, as a convicted felon, it was unlawful for Rosenbaum to handle. Anthony Huber the domestic abuser was a member of a mob (which constitutes disparity of force and therefore deadly force) that pursued Rittenhouse while yelling violent threats, thus putting Rittenhouse in reasonable fear for his life and denying him the opportunity to retreat in complete safety. He then menaced and struck Rittenhouse with a deadly contact weapon when Rittenhouse was on the ground. The third man, Gaige Grosskreutz, pursued Rittenhouse with a drawn handgun, which again constituted an implied threat, along with the immediate means of carrying it out. Another example would be, for example, if a politically ambitious prosecutor had tried to show his "woke" credentials by charging the officer who shot Hakim Littleton even though the latter was on bodycam video firing a handgun at the head of another officer at roughly three paces. It was fortunate that Littleton was a bad shot or it would have been "end of watch" for that officer or, as Black Lives Matter and Antifa would put it, he would have "oinked his last." This did not, however, happen because the local prosecutors saw the open and shut case of self-defense. Poster Children for Kyle's Law The Amiraults were convicted on the basis of "evidence" that included, among other things, accusations that one of them sexually assaulted a boy with a butcher knife that somehow left no injuries, along with a "secret room" and a "magic room" that were never found. Police officer Grant Snowden was railroaded to prison on the watch of Janet Reno (D-FL). Police officer Garrett Rolfe was charged with murder for shooting Rayshard Brooks after Brooks took an officer's Taser, which the prosecutor stipulated is a deadly weapon under Georgia law, and discharged it at the officers. The charges were finally dropped but should have never been filed. Nikolas Fernandez was charged with felony assault for shooting Daniel Gregory, who reached through the window of Fernandez's car to punch him. Gregory even admitted openly, "I catch him, I punch him in the face." He claims that he was trying to stop Fernandez from running over "demonstrators" but the video shows clearly that Fernandez had come to almost a complete stop by the time Gregory reached into his car. Note also the barrier that another "demonstrator" shoves in front of the car which a reasonable person would construe as a prelude to a carjacking or Reginald Denny-style beating. Here is a long list of wrongful convictions in the United States, some of which involved willful prosecutorial misconduct and/or misconduct by rogue police officers eager to get convictions no matter what. Prosecutors should not be afraid to do their jobs just as police officers should not be afraid to do their jobs. Kneeling on a helpless suspect's neck as Derek Chauvin was convicted of doing is not, however, a police officer's job, and Chauvin is now in prison as a result. Junk prosecutions whose sole identifiable purpose, at least from the perspective of a reasonable person, noting that nobody can read the prosecutor's mind, is to advance a prosecutor's legal and/or political career, should similarly bring the consequences recommended in Kyle's Law and maybe professional disciplinary action as well. Civis Americanus is the pen name of a contributor who remembers the lessons of history, and wants to ensure that our country never needs to learn those lessons again the hard way. He or she is remaining anonymous due to the likely prospect of being subjected to "cancel culture" for exposing the Big Lie behind Black Lives Matter. Image: Gage Skidmore, via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 2.0 Perhaps the only true benefit of the current European energy crisis is to make apparent to an economically motivated citizen population that wishing and hoping will not make the Green New Deal renewable energy dream a reality. Instead of doubling down on wind and solar power, the EU nations are reacting to Moscows natural gas shutdown with a scramble to find enough hydrocarbon fuels to keep Europeans warm this winter. On September 5, Russia announced that the shutdown of natural gas to Europe to make repairs Nord Stream 1 pipeline would not resume in full until the collective West lifts sanctions against Moscow over the Ukraine invasion. Since the EU appears determined to punish Moscow, the reality is that Europe may have seen the last of Russian gas for a very long time. The failure of renewables to fill a viable role in the energy grids needed to fuel an advanced industrial economy has forced European energy ministers to do what once was unthinkablereturn to nuclear power. German Economy Minister Robert Habeck won his push to keep nuclear power plants online. On September 5, Germany responded to Russias announcement by keeping two nuclear plants available this winter in a policy shift extending the legislative and regulatory deadlines that climate activists had demanded to phase-out nuclear power plants. Russias announcement also marked the death knell for US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellens encouragement to G7 finance heads this past June that they should cap the global price of Russian natural gas and oil. Since the Ukraine invasion began, Russia has earned 158 billion euros ($157.60 billion) exporting oil and natural gas, with Russia planning to increase oil shipments to Asia to compensate for cutting off oil and natural gas to Europe, all while the counterproductive G7 price cap remains in place. Image: Desperate Poles line up for coal before winter. YouTube screen grab. In July, the European Council got member states to agree that the only solution to Europes mounting energy crisis was voluntarily to reduce natural gas demand by 15 percent. Europe may ultimately have no choice but to acknowledge that it is folly to shut down existing hydrocarbon and nuclear energy sources until sufficiently robust, scalable, and reliable (i.e., not intermittently available) wind and solar technologies are up and running. Nonetheless, globalist heads of international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) continue to insist that the EU must stay on the decarbonizing course to avoid catastrophic climate change. On September 6, Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), rejected the narrative that the EU energy crisis is a massive setback to tackling global warming. In a Financial Times article, Birol urged readers not to believe all the negative narratives about the energy crisis. Instead, he argued for continued confidence that the energy crisis in the EU today will help speed up the shift to a cleaner and more secure energy future. EU citizens, however, seem more concerned about staying warm in the coming winter than achieving the Net Zero Emissions (NZE) goals set by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Policy Change (IPCC). In Germany, for the last couple of months, internet searches for Brennholz [in English, firewood] exploded as worried citizens prepare for imminent natural gas shortages. Deutsche Bank predicts that German households will be reduced to chopping wood for heating purposes where possible this winter. Despite the late summer heat in Poland, in whats a grim rerun of the communist era, dozens of cars and trucks lined up at Lubelski Wegiel Bogdanka to try to obtain coal to tide them over the winter. Around 3.8 million households in Poland rely on coal for heating, and they now fear shortages and price hikes. In response, state-owned mines are starting to ration distribution to power plants. Its also started trying to sell coal to individual customers online. In Great Britain, household gas and electric bills may almost double this winter because, at the end of August, the UK energy regulator Ofgem raised by 80 percent the price restriction on home energy bills. While the annual energy price cap for a household was 1,971 ($2,271), on October 1 it will increase to 3,549 ($4,090). Its certain now that UK households will increase in October from 1,971 ($2,271) to 3,549 ($4,090) for a typical household. In response, over 100,000 Britishers have taken the pledge that they will not pay their natural gas and electricity bills unless the government intervenes with meaningful household energy subsidy payments. How things have changed since July 2021, when EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyden put the EU on a policy to become climate neutral by 2050. At that time, she declared that the fossil fuel economy has reached its limit. But with 60 percent of British factories in danger as energy bills soar, pursuing the IPCCs renewable fuel NZE utopia has faded in importance. In her first speech upon taking office, Britains new prime minister Liz Truss did nothing to suppress rumors of a 100 billion ($113 billion) energy stimulus package to help stem the cost-of-living crisis. Having gone all in on green energy, Europe is facing the ugly reality of renewable fuels. It remains to be soon whether Europeans (or Americas Green New Deal proponents, for that matter) will learn from the experience. Since 2004, Jerome R. Corsi has published 25 books on economics, history, and politics, including two #1 New York Times bestsellers. In 1972, he received his Ph.D. from the Department of Government at Harvard University. He currently resides in New Jersey with his family. In June, Post Hill Press published his current book, The Truth About Energy, Global Warming, and Climate Change: Exposing Climate Lies in an Age of Disinformation. Things are getting stranger in Harlem. Well, actually, Haarlem a city in the Netherlands. The Dutch city of 160,000 people, located near Amsterdam, has agreed to outlaw ads for intensively farmed meat on public places such as buses, shelters, and screens...starting in 2024. The move was approved by the city council last fall, but a councilor only recently announced that he had officially notified advertising agencies of the ban. Ziggy Klazes, councilor for the GroenLinks (Green-Left) party, who drafted the motion, proudly told the Agence France-Presse (AFP): "It will be the first city in the Netherlands and in fact Europe and indeed the world to ban 'bad' meat ads in public places." Ms. Ziggy sniffed to the Trouw newspaper, "Meat is very harmful to the environment. We cannot tell people that there is a climate crisis and encourage them to buy products that are part of it." She has also stated that it goes against the city's politics to "earn money by renting the city's public space to products which accelerate global warming." And no one would wish to go against the city's politics! Land o' Goshen! As of this writing, Haarlem had not yet decided if the ban would include all "cheap meat from intensive farming," but Klazes added, "As far as I'm concerned that includes ads from fast food chains." So much for having it your way, Burger King. And you can bet McDonald's is not loving it. You won't be seeing this in Haarlem: YouTube screen grab, CC BY 3.0 license. Not surprisingly, the ban has been criticized by the Dutch meat industry and some political parties that see it as a form of censorship and stigmatization of meat-eaters. Joey Rademaker, a Haarlem councilor for the conservative BVNL party, simply noted: "Banning ads for political reasons is nearly dictatorial." Nearly? You think? Incredibly, Amsterdam (and The Hague) have already banned ads for air travel, gasoline-powered automobiles, and fossil fuels and now Haarlem is set to add meat to that list. What's next? (I find myself asking that question frequently of late.) Why not ban ads for hospitals? Doesn't GroenLinks know how much energy hospitals require? Talk about greenhouse gas emissions! Perhaps ads for government should be banned. No entity uses as much energy for so little benefit. Think of all the chauffeured limo rides and trips via airplanes and other conveyances that our entitled leaders and other politicians take, whether on "official duty" or vacation. And that's in addition to the staggering amount of hot air they spew into the atmosphere. And, of course, ads for corn, wheat, and other produce must be banned. Think of the excessive use of water the raising of crops requires! Grieve over the use of fertilizer. Ponder the deforestation, the fencing of Mother Earth, etc., etc. Why not ban ads altogether? For that matter, why not ban all human industry and endeavor? Truth be told, it is God the elites are after. Elites can't allow the existence of even the concept of any being greater than themselves. Conservatives are in their way. Fundamentalist Christians are anathema to them. As are the Judeo-Christian values on which our nation was founded. So they all must be canceled. Ultimately, our elites, leaders, and "experts" would like to ban us, the humans, created in God's image, who don't willingly conform to their every wish, desire, edict, and mandate. And they are well on the way to doing just that, via abortion, birth control, and the disastrous COVID-19 vaccination mandates. (Get a booster every three months!) Yes, they are essentially going to ban humans, at least those of us who don't come from elite stock. The repulsive beliefs of our modern-day elites, our authoritarian leaders, were perfectly summed up by a chapter title on overpopulation in a book* by the late P.J. O'Rourke: "Just Enough of Me, Way Too Much of You." We know that the elites won't abide by their own edicts and mandates. Rather than allowing them to ban ads for the things that sustain us and make our lives better, we should vote them out of office. And then go out and have a burger. (*All The Trouble In The World: The Lighter Side of Overpopulation, Famine, Ecological Disaster, Ethnic Hatred, Plague, and Poverty) When one of the most ardent proponents of the most extreme measures said to be necessary to "stop the spread" walks back what she said, you know that it is becoming impossible to shove the consequences of those extreme measures under the rug. Dr. Leana Wen was among the most strident CNN "voices" demanding that kids be forced to wear "masks" at school as well as adults everywhere else. "We are not out of the woods," she said. "We haven't reached the end of the pandemic ... it's counterproductive and truly infuriating these governors [referring to Governor Ron DeSantis] who are treating this as if the pandemic is over. It's not true." She now says her own child's development has been "stunted" by masking. This is not surprising, given that young children process the world visually, learning to read and respond to the faces of those around them. When a toddler cannot see his mother smiling, it is difficult for the child to learn what his mother or any other adult is thinking. Now Wen is realizing the damage her mask fanaticism has caused, but only because it's become personal. It was very personal for the millions of Americans subject to the extreme measures urged by "experts" such as Wen and even more infamously, Dr. Fauci whose "expertise" has been shown by the facts to have been on par with the "expertise" of phrenology, the study of bumps on people's heads as indicators of their intelligence. "I accept the risk that my kids will probably contract covid-19 this school year, just as they could contract the flu, respiratory syncytial virus and other contagious diseases," she told the Washington Post a week ago. "As for most Americans, covid in our family will almost certainly be mild." Isn't that magnanimous of her? Meanwhile, how many other children have had their development stunted as a result of the obdurate militancy of people such as Drs. Wen and Fauci? As it turns out, there's a metric for that. USA Today just reported the appalling news that reading and math scores for elementary-age schoolchildren have "declined across the board" since pandemic-induced "masking" mandates were imposed. It is the largest average score decline in more than 30 years (since 1990) according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Black children suffered the most precipitous developmental decline. According to USA Today, "Black students lost a lot of ground in math, far more than their white peers," citing what the data say is a "13 percent score decrease among black students compared to the five-point decrease among white students" and that this amounts to a "widening of the white-black score gap from 25 points in 2020 to 33 points in 2022." But all kids were negatively affected. "The big takeaway," says NCES commissioner Peggy Carr, "is that there are no increases in achievement in either of the subjects for any student group in this assessment. There were only declines or stagnant scores[.]" "These are some of the largest declines we have observed in a single assessment cycle in 50 years of the NAEP program," said acting NCES associate commissioner Daniel McGrath. Ironically, the NCES website carries photos of "masked" children above the story about their two-year-stunting...via all this "masking." At least Wen has come to understand what went wrong and has stopped doing it. To her children, at least. But how is this being corrected? The damage done is massive. Wen is on record advocating that it wasn't enough. She urged that life be made as difficult as necessary for people who didn't abide by the sickness theater she insisted was necessary to "stop the spread." As a doctor, she ought to have known better. The "masks" people were ordered to wear were anything at all that covered the face. A bandana over the face "stops the spread" of nothing except common sense. The same goes for the made-in-China disposable "masks" that came in boxes that said right there on the side of them that the "masks" within do not prevent the spread of airborne viruses. Yet so long as people wore a "mask," they were "showing respect" for the "science" and people like Doctors Wen and Fauci. And now the children suffer. Who will be held accountable? A.J. Rice is president & CEO of Publius PR, editor-in-chief of The Publius National Post, and author of the #1 Amazon bestseller, The Woking Dead: How Society's Vogue Virus Destroys Our Culture. Image: Pexels. After years of legal wrangling, Oberlin College has announced that, following the Ohio Supreme Court's decision not to hear its appeal, it is beginning the process of paying in full the judgment against it for libeling Gibson's Bakery and promoting a boycott. William A. Jacobson of Legal Insurrection, which has covered the case more closely than any other media outlet, announced the happy news: I just received the following email from Scott Wargo, Director of Communications at Oberlin College: Oberlin College initiates payment of awarded damages in Gibson's Bakery case Oberlin College and Conservatory has initiated payment in full of the $36.59 million judgment in the Gibson's Bakery case and is awaiting payment information from the plaintiffs. This amount represents awarded damages and accumulated interest, and therefore no further payments are required. On August 30, the Ohio Supreme Court issued its decision not to hear Oberlin's appeal. Oberlin's Board of Trustees has decided not to pursue the matter further. We are disappointed by the Court's decision. However, this does not diminish our respect for the law and the integrity of our legal system. This matter has been painful for everyone. We hope that the end of the litigation will begin the healing of our entire community. We value our relationship with the City of Oberlin, and we look forward to continuing our support of and partnership with local businesses as we work together to help our city thrive. Oberlin's core mission is to provide our students with a distinctive and outstanding undergraduate education. The size of this verdict is significant. However, our careful financial planning, which includes insurance coverage, means that we can satisfy our legal obligation without impacting our academic and student experience. It is our belief that the way forward is to continue to support and strengthen the quality of education for our students now and into the future. Notice what is not in the statement: An apology. Oberlin College still appears not to understand or accept what it did wrong. It considers itself the victim. The Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee on Friday held a meeting to deliberate documents to be submitted for discussion at the seventh plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee. The meeting, presided over by General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Xi Jinping, deliberated a draft report by the 19th CPC Central Committee to the 20th CPC National Congress, a draft amendment to the CPC Constitution, and a draft work report by the 19th CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection to the 20th CPC National Congress. The meeting heard reports on the previous work to solicit opinions on the three draft documents and decided to revise the documents in the light of the opinions discussed at Friday's meeting, and then submit the documents to the seventh plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, which is to be convened on Oct. 9, for discussion. The meeting demanded careful study and adoption of suggestions from various parties. Wisdom should be pooled to draw up a 20th CPC National Congress report that responds to the common aspirations of the Party and the people of all ethnic groups, conforms to the requirements of upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, and adapts to the goals and tasks of the Party and the state on the journey ahead in the new era, read a statement issued after the meeting. Meanwhile, the amendment to the CPC Constitution should adapt to the Party's innovative development in theory and practice as well as the need of advancing the great new project of Party building in the new era, it noted. The meeting demanded a scientific perspective on the development trends of China and of the world as a whole, as well as a thorough review of the CPC's practice and experience of leading the people in advancing reform, opening up, and socialist modernization. Efforts must be made to devise the strategic plans and arrangements for the cause of the Party and the country in accordance with new conditions, and open up new horizons for socialism with Chinese characteristics under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core. Appropriate amendments to the CPC Constitution under the new situation and tasks will help the whole Party better study, observe, implement, and safeguard the Constitution, as well as better advance the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the new project of Party building, the meeting noted. The meeting stressed that it is necessary to incorporate in the Party Constitution the major theoretical viewpoints and strategic thoughts to be established in the 20th CPC National Congress report. Thus, the amended Constitution would fully embody the latest achievements in adapting Marxism to the Chinese context and the needs of the times. It would also fully reflect the new ideas, thoughts, and strategies on national governance put forward by the CPC Central Committee since the 19th CPC National Congress. It would clarify the new requirements for upholding and strengthening Party leadership and promoting full and strict Party self-governance under the new situation. The meeting noted that it is imperative to firmly uphold the CPC Central Committee's authority and its centralized, unified leadership. It is also vital to unswervingly exercise full and strict Party self-governance, advance the great new project of Party building in the new era, further improve Party conduct, uphold integrity, and fight corruption. It was agreed at the meeting that the seventh plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection would convene on Oct. 7. Also reviewed at Friday's meeting were a report on the implementation of an eight-point decision on improving Party and government conduct by the Political Bureau of the 19th CPC Central Committee, and a report on the work of rectifying the practice of pointless formalities and reducing burdens at the grassroots since the 19th CPC National Congress. Since the 19th CPC National Congress in 2017, the Party's Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has amended and improved the rules for implementing the central Party leadership's eight-point decision on improving Party and government conduct. As a result, some deep-rooted problems and misconduct left unaddressed for a long period have been solved, according to the meeting. Pointless formalities and bureaucratism within the Party have been curbed to a certain extent, the meeting said. The meeting stressed adhering to the central Party leadership's eight-point decision over the long term. It urged efforts to improve the long-term mechanism designed to ease the burdens at the grassroots level and deliver more benefits to primary-level officials and the people. A collaborative research project headquartered in Switzerland which has long been the subject of controversy and conspiracy theorizing may be forced to shutter its high-profile particle collider due to the European energy crisis. Over the years, CERN has been in the headlines for varying reasons. On July 4, 2012, researchers discovered what they determined to be the "God Particle"; internet users frequently theorize about the official logo appearing to incorporate a "666"; and in August 2016, a viral video purported to show a ritual sacrifice at the foot of a statue that stands in an inner courtyard Shiva, the God of Destruction, no less but don't worry, nothing going on with the creepy globalists! According to a CERN spokesperson, it was just a prank by some mischievous scientists: CERN welcomes every year thousands of scientific users from all over the world and sometimes some of them let their humour [sic] go too far. However, this week, news that CERN may suspend research at its most well known endeavor is quite ironic, given the circumstances and parties involved. The World Economic Forum has long had intimate ties with the Swiss laboratory in 2018, CERN's director-general, Fabiola Gianotti, was the co-chair at the annual conference in Davos. In 2017, Gianotti published an article on the WEF website, making the argument that scientists but only those operating under agenda-based "science" ought to be at the "highest levels" of policy-making. According to Gianotti: We live at a time of tremendous opportunity generated by advances in science and technology, yet at the same time we face major societal challenges ranging from food supply to climate change [emphasis added], all of which require the contribution of science if they are to be overcome. Perhaps the greatest challenge of all is making sure that science is on the policy agenda in the first place. Any disconnect between science and policy has potentially negative implications for all of us because it undermines evidence-based decision making when we need it the most. If science is not fully engaged with policy-making, we are likely to see ill-informed decisions with global consequences for issues such as climate, and we may be hindered in seizing the opportunities that science and technology have to offer. Well, in the years since, the European Union and European heads of state adhered to the instruction of Gianotti and the WEF, leapt on the Greenie bandwagon, and destroyed energy independence and the reliability of the electric grid. Now Europe is in the middle of a crippling energy crisis. "Scientists" leading the decision-making process in government policy followed the same "climate change" alarmism that's been around for more than 50 years, and now citizens in first-world countries are facing catastrophic consequences quite the opposite of Gianotti's claim that forming policy on agenda-driven science would prevent "negative implications," right? In my humble opinion, widespread "energy poverty" is proof that hitching policy to climate science is an absolute and abject failure. What's most satisfying though, is the very venture which Gianotti directs and a jewel of the WEF is threatened by their own Green Agenda blueprint. You've got to love the irony. Image: Free image, Pixabay License, no attribution required. My ancestors left the United Kingdom for North America during the Great European migration of the 1600s and 1700s, and I am a passionate American. However, the passing of Queen Elizabeth II from this world and the closing of the "Second Elizabethan Era" demand that I pay my respects. I grew to love Queen Elizabeth over the years. I esteem her as a magnificent example of servant leadership and as an exemplary disciple of Jesus Christ. The words of Jesus in Matthew 23:11 tell why Queen Elizabeth II was a great monarch and leader. In the New King James Version, they read, "[h]e who is greatest among you must be your servant." Queen Elizabeth II was a servant to her subjects as well as to her husband and family for many decades. She served as monarch for 70 years, and she was also married for 70 years. Keeping her family on track seemed to be like herding cats for the queen, when you think of their stories. I'm not much of a royal-watcher, but I did watch the show The Crown and learned much from it about the drama she lived. The drama began when she was a child and she and her family were thrust into the position of serving because her uncle abdicated the throne to marry an American divorcee, making her father king. The burden of being a monarch fell upon her later, when her father died. She became queen as a twenty-something, newly married to the love of her life. (Ironically, Queen Elizabeth's grandson Harry married an American, too, one who has taken him away from the queen, the family, and the "family business" to Los Angeles.) I remember much about Queen Elizabeth II: her consistently charming appearance in hats and suits, often with a beautiful smile; her sweet but firm voice; her love story with Prince Phillip, who died recently at age 99; and her love of horses and Corgi dogs and the outdoors in Scotland. Speaking of Scotland, my husband Peter and I went to Scotland on our honeymoon in 1981. (We both have ancestral roots in the U.K.) One Sunday, we were at Balmoral, where the queen's beloved castle was. We drove around a corner and saw Crathie Church, where many, many ordinary people had gathered and were waiting. (Notably, she died the morning of September 8, 2022, at Balmoral.) We pulled in and parked, and Peter went to ask people what was happening. He learned that the royal family would be coming to church any time. We decided to wait with the people and see the royals come to church. The people were in a festive mood and very excited. Fathers and mothers with their children stood by along with grandparents and friends and neighbors. It was apparent that they really loved the royals and they especially loved Queen Elizabeth II. Eventually, fancy black vehicles arrived and drove up to the church past the people. Inside the vehicles we could see Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip in one vehicle and Prince Charles and Princess Diana in the other. The royals waved at the people and smiled. The people smiled and cheered and waved at their beloved queen and the others. (Prince Charles now King Charles III and Diana had been married only a short while before, a couple of weeks before we ourselves were married.) When my photos were processed as we returned home to the USA after the honeymoon, it was really fun to see that we had captured not just the royals, but the people, reflected in the windows of the vehicles, smiling and waving at Queen Elizabeth and her family members. Also, in the photos I could see a family that was exhausted by wedding festivities and just starting to adjust to real life after a marriage. Queen Elizabeth II seemed to be a mother and mother-in-law who was hopeful that things would work out well. Of course, we now know that things did not work out well for Charles and Diana. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip were probably disappointed and grieved in a deep way. However, they did get two grandsons out of the deal. The thing is, Queen Elizabeth persevered through that hard time as she had through many others, including World War II. All the while, Queen Elizabeth II served as a strong head of state for her nation. Hopefully, media will note the wonderful servant leadership of Queen Elizabeth II in the coming days. She should be called Queen Elizabeth the Great. Image: UK Home Office via Flickr, CC BY 2.0. In the wake of the Dobbs v. Jackson ruling, a scarlet C has been branded onto the backs of many Catholics (like myself) as the abortion lobby chooses to unleash its Roe reversal rage onto the Roman Catholic Church. From vulgar protests at Mass to the desecration of Catholic churches to the wide and wild accusation that the Supreme Court is establishing a state religion, the anti-Catholic response has been overwhelming and utterly irrelevant. Many abortion-supporters have wasted countless words railing on the Catholicism of the five SCOTUS justices who upheld Dobbs and focused their efforts on the supposed religious fanaticism of the pro-life movement. They have endlessly condemned my religion and harped on the friction between Church and State. Yet they still haven't made it to the heart of the discussion in which religious persuasion is beside the point: either abortion kills a valuable human life or it does not and if abortion kills, then it is wrong. The careful ducking and dodging of the real questions behind the abortion issue are too well calculated to be ignorance, and it would be wrong to say that the abortion lobby is stupid. On the contrary, the abortion industry has made a pretty penny by successfully manipulating women into paying to kill their own children for years. Clearly, this enemy is clever and just clever enough to know that avoiding pro-life arguments is better than confronting them. It is much easier to say that Catholics are "seeking to bring down American democracy" than fight the fact that abortion isn't a constitutional right, and Roe was an unconstitutional decision. After all, legal scholars on both sides of the aisle agree that Roe was poorly decided and "egregiously wrong from the start," as Justice Alito's majority opinion reads. While Justice Sotomayor, a Catholic, argued against reversing Roe by evoking stare decisis and the Court's legitimacy, the Court has a long history of reviewing and reversing its own precedents and has reversed many wrongful decisions on slavery, segregation, sexism, and more. Reversing Roe was an extension of this restorative constitutional justice and with such clear constitutional evidence, it's a tall task to attempt to say otherwise. Indeed, it's a much simpler thing to spout off about the rosary acquiring a "militaristic meaning" than it is to argue with the 96% of American biologists who agree that life begins at fertilization. By choosing to demonize Catholicism instead, the abortion lobby gets away from having to look at the scientific evidence of the miracle of life in the womb. These people can similarly avert their eyes from the reality of abortion, which starves, poisons, or dismembers our most vulnerable demographic. If the abortion lobby can busy our minds with the horrors of the "modern radical-traditionalist Catholic movement," Americans will have no time to realize that human rights abuses flourish when entire groups of human beings are seen as less than human. This is precisely what is happening now, as the wool of "crazy Catholics" is pulled over our nation's eyes to prevent them from understanding that the preborn have been stripped of the first human right: the right to life. Human beings deserve this most basic human right for no other reason than the mere fact that they are human. Any other arbitrary standard opens the door for discrimination based upon ethnicity, religion, circumstances of birth, viability, etc. At some point in time, human rights have been abused for all of these reasons, and the discriminatory "logic" behind each abuse is the same: in order to be treated as human, you must be human and something else. A human and this skin color. A human and this religion. With abortion, it's that you must be a human and a certain age. Human rights issues of which abortion is the foremost today go beyond individual religious or secular dogmas. They are a harsh reality that we as a society need to deal with, not run away from by substituting straw-man arguments or adopting an "ignorance is bliss" attitude. These are conversations our country needs to be having in earnest and that is why Students for Life of America (SFLA) has chosen to launch our Fall Campus Tour on this topic. Our Abortion Is Not Right Fall Campus Tour will focus on the rights surrounding the abortion issue: the fact that abortion is not a constitutional right, that life is a human right, and that abortion is not right for women's health. Our hope with this tour is to anchor conversations about abortion in legal understanding, science, and morality. We want to help college students across the nation recognize that protecting life is the duty of all mankind not just Catholics. Sarah Michalak is Students for Life of America's programs manager. She oversees SFLA programs and develops student resources, displays, training sessions, and campus tours, including the 2022 "Abortion Is Not Right" Fall Campus Tour. Image: Free image, Pixabay License, no attribution required. Jennifer Rubin has been confused for a long time as to how politicians should behave, a fact she made clear with the recent unveiling of the Obama portraits. (She probably also believes that Hillary never had classified documents.) She praised the Obamas and, once again, turned a blind eye to shameful political conduct. Obama continually lied to get Obamacare passed, and he used the big stimulus program from the taxpayers in 2009 to reward his contributors but the truth never mattered to media lackeys like Rubin. When Americans were under attack in Benghazi, Obama and Hillary didn't lift a finger to save them. Instead, they concocted a lie to protect their political power. Obama used the politicized IRS to target and silence Tea Party conservatives. For years, Obama and his wingman Holder hid documents from Congress on the gun-running operation Fast and Furious. Obama had a secretary of state who continually broke the nation's securities laws and lined the pockets of her family and her slush fund foundations. Even Vox knew that something was off: The idea that you have foreign governments, and the investment funds of foreign governments, heavily involved in financing an institution that's this tied to the secretary of state's family well, that appears to be something new. Obama also had a vice president, Biden, who loaded up his family with money from Ukraine, Russia, China, and who knows where else. The media seem uninterested in this pure graft. Obama saved Netflix and other big internet users huge amounts of money with "net neutrality," and in turn, the Obamas received huge payments in the form of "deals" after they left office despite having no product and no experience. Obama had slush funds at the Justice Department, CFPB, and EPA, where they shook down corporations and gave kickbacks to their supporters. The Obama administration illegally spied on Americans throughout its eight-year reign of terror. Newly declassified documents detail serious governmental abuses: The National Security Agency and FBI violated specific civil liberty protections during the Obama administration by improperly searching and disseminating raw intelligence on Americans or failing to promptly delete unauthorized intercepts, according to newly declassified memos that provide some of the richest detail to date on the spy agencies' ability to obey their own rules. They even spied on reporters. Why didn't we hear anything from Rubin then? Obama even dictatorially stopped a long investigation into drug-running by terrorists to appease Iran, which continues to pledge death to America. The terrorists were above the law, and as Politico reported: In its determination to secure a nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administration derailed an ambitious law enforcement campaign targeting drug trafficking by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, even as it was funneling cocaine into the United States, according to a POLITICO investigation. The corruption of the Obama administration, including the FBI and Justice Department as they colluded with the DNC, Hillary, and the media in 2016 to destroy Trump, dwarfed the scandal of Watergate. Obama operatives protected the corrupt, criminal Hillary from prosecution while she and her campaign used a fictional and financed dossier to target and illegally spy on Trump and his associates. They even lied to the FISA court many times, yet they are all "above the law." The interference in the 2016 election was much more dangerous to our Republic and survival than anything Russia or China has ever done. The media have targeted Trump for over six years while looking the other way at the blatant corruption of Biden, Hillary, and the Obama administration. It is no wonder the economy is in the toilet with the media being a willing accomplice. Anyone who believes that the politicized FBI wouldn't present a cooked up warrant to target Trump isn't paying attention. The FBI is leaking like a sieve to the WaPo and NYT, and their reporters just repeat what they are told, without any investigations, just as they did with the fraudulent "Russia collusion" story that they ran for years. The Obamas, Biden, and Hillary were the most corrupt I have ever seen, yet the media mostly cheer as they rewrite history. Image: Master Sgt. Cecilio Ricardo, U.S. Air Force, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. (ANSA) - ROME, SEP 9 - The centre-right coalition and the right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party held their significant leads in the opinion polls on Friday as the last surveys were released before the pre-vote embargo kicks in ahead of the September 25 general election. A quorum/youtrend poll for Skytg24 gave Giorgia Meloni's FdI the support of 25.3% of the electorate; with the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) second on 21.2%. The 5-Star Movement (M5S) was third with 13.8%, followed by FdI's centre-right allies, Matteo Salvini's League on 12.9% and Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia (FI) on 7.9%. The so-called Third Pole, which is made up of the Azione and Italia Viva and, like the M5S, is running independent of the big blocs, is on 5.5%. The PD's left-wing and Green allies, SI-Europa Verde, are on 3.4%, and another part of the alliance, +Europa, is on 2.2%. The Italexit group is on 2,4%. The poll puts the centre-right coalition as a whole on 47.2%, almost 20 points more than the centre left on 28%. A poll by Termometro Politico gave FdI 25,2%, the PD 22.2%, the League and M5S 13,3%. Forza Italia 7.2% and Azione/Italia Viva 5.1%. An Ipsos poll for Corriere della Sera put FdI on 25.1%, the PD on 20.5%, the M5S on 14.5%, the League on 12.5%, Forza Italia on 8% and the Third Pole on 6.7%. (ANSA). Estonia supports Russian gas price cap "It must be made acceptable" (ANSA) - BELGRADE, SEP 9 - "Estonia supports the lowest possible Russian gas price cap" said Riina Sikkut, Estonia's Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure, arriving at the Energy Council in Brussels. Compared to a price cap on all gas, "we have to think that an intervention can be a price cap" but "it must be made acceptable". (ANSA). Copyright ANSA - All rights reserved Vietnam named among worlds budget-friendly destinations by The Travel Vietnam has recently been listed in the world's 10 most incredible destinations which are surprisingly cheap to visit by Canadian travel magazine The Travel, along with Laos and Indonesia. Golden Bridge in Da Nang city (Photo: VNA) It is one of the cheapest countries to visit, and among the most underrated, the magazine said. Eating local dishes will only cost you a few dollars per meal, and a cup of iced coffee is less than a dollar. Ca phe da, iced coffee, has become an indispensable part of Vietnamese daily life in recent years with millions starting their day with a cup in the morning. A cup of the drink costs 10,000-15,000 VND (0.42-0.64 USD). The Travel also recommended tourists to explore Vietnam by bus or train with cheap fares. It added that if visitors don't mind slow and long-distance travel, then buses and trains around Vietnam are among the most affordable in the world, making it easy to explore all of this beautiful country./. Flash The UN General Assembly on Thursday adopted a resolution to establish the United Nations Youth Office. The resolution, which was adopted without a vote, decides that the Youth Office will lead engagement and advocacy for the advancement of youth issues across the United Nations, in the areas of peace and security, sustainable development and human rights; and promote meaningful, inclusive and effective engagement of youth and youth-led and youth-focused organizations in the work of the world body. The Youth Office is also tasked to encourage greater UN system-wide collaboration, coordination and accountability on the advancement of youth issues, including UN support to member states in promoting the effective and meaningful engagement, participation and empowerment of youth. Italy alongside N. Macedonia on its way to EU: Mattarella After Albania, the Italian President visits Skopje (ANSA) - BELGRADE, SEP 9 - "I am delighted to be here 23 years after the last visit of an Italian head of state; we have very strong relations with North Macedonia based on mutual respect and trust, and we hope for a speedy accession of Macedonia to the EU," Italian President Sergio Mattarella said today in Skopje. Mattarella arrived in North Macedonia after visiting Albania yesterday. "We greatly appreciate North Macedonia's patience and efforts, even for more relaxed relations with neighboring countries; the EU is our common future; our conviction is that the European Union will not be complete without the entry of the Western Balkans; and Italy will be alongside Macedonia on its path," Mattarella added. (ANSA). Copyright ANSA - All rights reserved MADRID - The shooting of the Netflix series 'The Crown' has been suspended for Friday and Saturday, reported the Spanish radio station Cadena Ser. The station said that a scene had been planned for Friday on the death of Lady D, which was to have been filmed in the Spanish city. On Thursday, the creator of the series, Peter Morgan, had told sector media that the shooting underway of the series was likely to be suspended out of respect for the death of Queen Elizabeth II of England. TUNIS - Tunisian sugar reserves have run out, according to the secretary general of the Ben Arous regional office of the tourism, trade and industry federation of the UGTT trade union Souhail Boukhris. He noted that there had no longer been any in the warehouses of the country since Sept. 7. Boukhris added that Tunisia had recently signed agreements for the importing of 20,000 tons of sugar from Algeria and that another 30,000 tons would arrive at the Bizerte port from India on September 18. The trade unionist told local radio Mosaique FM that production facilities for food products like biscuits, juices, and drinks had suspended their activities at the end of August due to a lack of sugar. ALGIERS - The Algerian authorities have detained a journalist from the Echorouk daily after the publication of an article on an alleged halt to date exports from the country, ANSA was told by a source from the family of the journalist. The journalist, Belkacem Haouam, was questioned on Thursday by the Hussein Dey court in Algiers - the source stated - and was taken into custody. The source noted that Haouam had published an article on Wednesday in Echorouk in which he reported "an immediate halt to Algerian date exports after the discovery of a banned pesticide in exports heading for France". The Algerian trade ministry later denied in a statement the claims made in the article, saying that they had been based on "baseless and unjustified information damaging to the national economy". The statement went on to say that it had "decided to adopt all necessary measures against the author of the article and the daily, including legal actions". Echorouk, the newspaper with the highest readership in Algeria, has removed the article from its website and no copies of the paper were found at newsstands on Thursday. BEIRUT - Anger among the families of the victims of devastating explosions at the Beirut port in 2020 was seen clearly once again on Friday morning. The blasts killed 250 people when 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate exploded on Aug. 4, 2020. Dozens of people, family members of the victims of the explosions, on Friday protested at the Lebanese justice ministry in Beirut after a sit-in began on Thursday. The police, in anti-riot gear, on Friday morning evacuated the protestors from the ministry. Tension had risen in the afternoon after the Supreme Judicial Council approved the appointment - following pressure from the political class - of a second judge for the investigation into the port explosions. The investigation, led since January 2021 by Judge Tareq Bitar, has been stalled for months due to official and political tie-ups created by a series of ministers, former ministers, and MPs that the judge had included on a list of people involved in the crime. The decision by the Supreme Judicial Council to appoint a second judge to flank Bitar angered the families of the victims, who see the move as a yet another attempt by the political class to put an end to the inquiry. Dozens of people gathered on Thursday outside the house of outgoing justice minister Henri Khouri. Lebanese media reported that the Supreme Judicial Council is in reality responding to a request by the party under President Michel Aoun to appoint a judge tasked solely with getting former customs agency director Badri Daher out of jail as soon as possible. Badri is seen as close to Aoun's political faction and has been in prison for two years alongside about 20 other people, all of whom low and mid-ranking port officials. They were taken into custody in the days following the Aug. 4, 2020 explosions. Charles III is the first King Charles since the 1600s and shares the official name with monarchs who reigned during one of the most turbulent periods in British history. The new monarch chose to use his Christian name as his official name, as his mother did, breaking from royal tradition. The reigns of father and son Charles I and Charles II spanned from 1625 to 1685 and saw the overthrow and restoration of the monarchy, the Great Fire of London, and the plague. (PA Graphics) Charles I was the only British monarch to have been publicly tried and executed for treason, while Charles II known as the Merry Monarch spent many years in exile, fathering a dozen illegitimate children by numerous mistresses. Charles IIs reign also featured the plague and the Great Fire of London. A rediscovered portrait of Bonnie Prince Charlie, painted in 1737 by Venetian artist Rosalba Carriera, unveiled at the National Museum of Scotland (Jane Barlow/PA) Although Charles is Charles III, Bonnie Prince Charlie The Young Pretender was known to his supporters as Charles III. Charles I was an unpopular king whose reign saw the temporary downfall of the monarchy and the establishment of an English republic before it was restored 11 years later. Born in November 1660, Charles I moved to England from Scotland when his father, King James VI of Scotland, inherited the English throne in 1603. He became heir apparent when his brother, Henry Frederick Prince of Wales, died at the age of 18 in 1612. Charles I married Bourbon Princess Henrietta Maria of France in 1625 angered protestant religious groups. He also argued with parliament, which wanted to curb his powers, while many subjects opposed his policies which included levying taxes without parliamentary consent. Attempts to force the church of Scotland to adopt Anglican practices also led to religious conflicts, which in turn resulted in the strengthening of English and Scottish parliaments, helping to pave the way for his eventual downfall. Charles I fought the armies of the English and Scottish parliaments but was defeated in 1645 and captured. After a brief period of escape, he was re-captured and executed in Whitehall in 1649 after being tried and convicted of high treason. His son, Charles II was proclaimed King of Scotland upon the execution and attempted to reclaim England but was defeated by Oliver Cromwell at the Battle of Worcester in 1651 before fleeing to mainland Europe where he spent nine years in exile. Following Oliver Cromwells death in 1658 and the resignation of his son, Richard, the following year, parliament proclaimed Charles II king and invited him to the return to England in 1660. Five years later, Charles II fled London for Salisbury as the plague hit London, killing thousands. The following year, in 1666, Charles II and his brother James joined and directed the firefighting effort during the Great Fire of London. Charles had no legitimate children, but had 12 children by seven mistresses, leading to the nickname Old Rowley, the name of his favourite racehorse stallion. The present Dukes of Buccleuch, Richmond, Grafton and St Albans descend from Charles, while Diana, Princess of Wales, was a descendent of two of Charless illegitimate sons the Dukes of Grafton and Richmond. Dianas son, Prince William, Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge and heir to the British throne, could be the first British monarch descended from Charles II. King Charles III will be formally proclaimed monarch during an Accession Council ceremony televised for the first time. Charles automatically became King on the death of his mother, but the Accession Council, attended by Privy Councillors, will confirm his role on Saturday morning. The new monarch will not attend the ceremony, held at the State Apartments of St Jamess Palace, only joining after he has been proclaimed monarch, at 10am, to hold his first Privy Council meeting. The historic event comes after Charles gave a landmark address to the nation on Friday and paid a poignant and moving tribute to his darling Mama the Queen who died on Thursday afternoon at Balmoral. Charles said of his beloved mother the late Elizabeth II: We owe her the most heartfelt debt any family can owe to their mother; for her love, affection, guidance, understanding and example. The King pledged his whole life as service as the new sovereign just as the Queen did, saying: That promise of lifelong service I renew to you all today. On Friday King Charles III and the Queen viewed tributes to the Queen left outside Buckingham Palace (Yui Mok/PA) And he used his speech to announce that he had created his son William the Prince of Wales, with Kate the Princess of Wales, and expressed his love for Harry and Meghan as they continue to build their lives overseas, a symbol of his bid for reconciliation amid past troubles with the Sussexes. He also paid tribute to his darling wife Camilla, calling her my Queen Consort, saying he can count on her loving help and praising her by saying: I know she will bring to the demands of her new role the steadfast devotion to duty on which I have come to rely so much. Charles has held his first audience with Prime Minister Liz Truss (Yui Mok/PA) The King also set out his changing role, as he steps away from his considerable charity work which shaped his life as the heir to the throne. The Proclamation ceremony will feature a platform party, made up of Camilla, William, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor, the Archbishop of York, the Prime Minister, the Lord Privy Seal, the Lord Great Chamberlain, the Earl Marshal and the Lord President, who will sign the Proclamation. During the event the Lord President will announce the death of the sovereign and call upon the Clerk of the Council to read aloud the text of the Accession Proclamation. It will include Charless chosen title as King, already known to be King Charles III. At 11am a Principal Proclamation will be read in public for the first time by the Garter King of Arms in the open air from the balcony overlooking Friary Court at St Jamess. It will be followed by a flurry of Proclamations around the country, with the second one at City of London at the Royal Exchange at midday on Saturday, and further Proclamations in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales at midday on Sunday. In recognition of the new Sovereign, union flags will be flown at full-mast from the time of the Principal Proclamation at St Jamess Palace until one hour after the Proclamations in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, after which flags will return to half-mast in mourning for the death of the late Queen. The ceremony is being staged a day later for King Charles III then normal practice because the announcement of the Queens death did not come until early evening on Thursday, meaning there was not enough time to set the plans in motion for Friday morning. The Palace said: His Majesty The King will be proclaimed at the Accession Council at 10.00hrs (on Saturday) in the State Apartments of St Jamess Palace, London. The Accession Council, attended by Privy Councillors, is divided into two parts. In Part I, the Privy Council, without The King present, will proclaim the Sovereign, and formally approve various consequential Orders, including the arrangements for the Proclamation. Part II, is the holding by The King of His Majestys first Privy Council. The King will make his Declaration and read and sign an oath to uphold the security of the Church in Scotland and approve Orders in Council which facilitate continuity of government. More than 5,000 miles away from home, expats and Americans alike came together in California to honour the Queen in true British-style at the pub. At Ye Olde Kings Head, in Santa Monica, a shrine dedicated to the monarch featuring candles, roses and pictures was placed outside. Passers-by stopped to take pictures and conversations between strangers invariably turned to the Queen, her long and historic reign and legacy. At Ye Olde Kings Head, in Santa Monica, a shrine dedicated to the monarch, featuring candles, roses and pictures was placed outside (Mike Bedigan/PA) Among those parked up at the pub were young British actresses Tatiana Ashborn and Lydia Williams, who ordered cups of tea and full English breakfasts to mark the occasion. The pair, who recently moved state-side, described the news as a big British moment for British people and said that hearing it while being in America had made them feel homesick. Ms Ashborn, 19, said receiving news of the monarchs death had been devastating. This morning, as British people we woke up with a massive hangover in bed and we heard the news and were getting messages constantly that the Queen had passed away which is devastating, she told the PA news agency. We both cried, we were both so sad. Passers-by stopped to take pictures and conversations between strangers invariably turned to the Queen and her long reign (Jae C. Hong/AP) Ms Williams, 24, added: Its a strange feeling being away from home because its such a big British moment for British people to feel together. I feel kind of homesick. Its odd and we knew it was coming sadly, but its strange, change is coming for the UK, and its exciting for the UK but it would be nice to be at home. Ms Ashborn added: Thats why we came to a British pub and had English breakfasts. She continued: Its a big thing because even though we didnt personally know her, its the whole idea that she did a lot for our country and the fact that she is still a grandma to people. Gregg Donovan, a US actor and self-styled Hollywood ambassador, said he had seen British tourists crying on the streets of Los Angeles following the news (Jae C. Hong) Shes a mum to people, and I think sometimes people just forget that. Fellow British expats Sophie Weguelin and Fiona Fan, who both live in the Netherlands, praised the Queen as a strong woman deserving of admiration. It was quite emotional this morning, more emotional than we thought it was going to be, Ms Weguelin told PA. As a female as well, she was such a strong woman and somebody we really look up to (even though) were not royalists but the Queen is somebody you set apart. Ms Fan added: Shes really empowering and its really important. She is amazing and considered a legend. It was not just British patrons who lamented the loss of the monarch. Gregg Donovan, a US actor and self-styled Hollywood ambassador, said he had seen British tourists crying on the streets of Los Angeles, and praised the Queen as a kind and gracious woman. Ye Olde Kings Head previously hosted a full programme events to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee weekend, which included bunting, afternoon tea and a Queen Elizabeth impersonator (Lisa Powers/PA) Its a sad day around the world, said Mr Donovan, 62, who has previously met the monarch. America loves the Queen and where I work in Hollywood people were shocked, the British tourists were crying on the streets. Mr Donovan said that King Charles III is a great and modern monarch who will do an excellent and wonderful job. He added that he intended to spend the rest of the day outside the pub, like the Queens guards to pay his respects. Ye Olde Kings Head previously hosted a full programme events to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee weekend, which included bunting, afternoon tea and a Queen Elizabeth impersonator. The funeral of three siblings who were killed in a violent attack at their home has taken place in Dublin. Lisa Cash, 18, and her eight-year-old twin brother and sister Christy and Chelsea Cawley died in the incident in Tallaght in the early hours of Sunday. Following the funeral mass at St Aidans Church in Brookfield, Tallaght, the three siblings were taken on horse-drawn carriage for burial at Bohernabreena Cemetery. Hundreds of people attended the requiem mass on Friday morning. The siblings died at their home on Rossfield Avenue in Tallaght in the early hours of Sunday. Their older brother Andy Cash, 24, of the same address, appeared in court earlier in the week charged with their murders. The coffins of Lisa Cash, 18, and her eight-year-old twin siblings, Christy and Chelsea Cawley, arrive at St Aidans Church, Brookfield, Tallaght (Brian Lawless/PA) A large crowd of mourners had gathered at the church on Thursday evening as the sisters and brothers remains were carried in. A death notice posted online said the children were the beloved and cherished son and daughters of Margaret and the late Andy Cash and Billy Cawley and the much-loved brother and sisters of Margaret and Mikey. Lisa, Chelsea and Christy will be forever loved and very sadly missed by their heartbroken family, grandparents Martin McDonagh, Martin and Mag, aunts, uncles, cousins, brother-in-law Michael, nephew Baby David, extended family and all their many friends, the notice read. You are here: World Flash A U.S. federal grand jury is investigating former President Donald Trump's Save America fundraising group, reported the New York Times on Thursday, citing subpoenas. The Times reported that the leadership of the political action committee received subpoenas, as the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) looks into the group's spending. Mid- and low-level aids who had been employed in the White House during Trump's presidency were subpoenaed earlier this week, the Times reported. Trump's office did not respond immediately to requests for any comment on the matter. The former president founded Save America just days after the 2020 elections, in which Trump was defeated by Joe Biden in a tight race. The political action group has since collected more than 100 million U.S. dollars. The investigation comes just a month after Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents raided Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. Earlier this week, a federal judge in Florida ordered a so-called "special master" to be appointed, in order to examine over 11,000 documents taken from Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence. The search and seizure were part of a DOJ investigation into whether the former president illegally retained documents on national defense at Mar-a-Lago, and whether he obstructed government moves to get hold of the documents. Taking to social media, Trump said the FBI raid had turned the United States into a "banana republic," rather than a rule-of-law nation. The FBI claimed it had "probable cause" that warranted a raid, as the bureau believed it would find "evidence of obstruction" -- a crime in the United States -- at Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence. The first official rendition of God Save the King will be sung at St Pauls Cathedral at the end of a memorial service for the Queen. The lyrics to the national anthem will change from Queen to King and her victorious to him victorious to mark that King Charles III has now taken over as monarch. It comes after crowds spontaneously sang the version of the song outside of Buckingham Palace on Friday as the King arrived with the Queen. King Charles III looks at flowers outside Buckingham Palace, London after travelling from Balmoral (Dominic Lipinski/PA) The anthem is also expected to be sung at the Kia Oval on Saturday as the England v South Africa Third Test Match resumes. It was paused on Friday following the Queens death. Members of the royal family are not expected to attend the 6pm service at St Pauls, which is open to the public and is being broadcast live by the BBC. Audio of the Kings televised address to the nation will be played inside the cathedral if it coincides with the service. A total of 2,000 seats have been allocated to the public on a first-come-first-served basis, with all of the wristbands for the evening service being distributed within three hours, a cathedral spokeswoman said. A spokeswoman for the cathedral said Prime Minister Liz Truss, who will deliver a reading at the service, is expected to be joined by Lord Mayor Vincent Keaveny. Irelands president Michael D Higgins has remembered the extraordinary warmth and charm of the Queen as gifts from the late monarch to the Irish state were put on display at his official residence. Speaking to reporters at Aras an Uachtarain in Dublin, he said the Queens words during her historic 2011 visit to Ireland that past actions should have been done differently or not at all had been a powerful statement. That was a fairly straightforward statement about let us not be trapped in categories, he said, adding that this was coupled with a deep, sustained interest in Ireland. Mr Higgins said they had discussed how empires leave, and commented that its not just about the armies leaving, its about mindsets as well, and its about new arrangements. Statement by President Michael D. Higgins on the death of Queen Elizabeth II: https://t.co/ih16da84QA pic.twitter.com/rH5zfmSQ0t President of Ireland (@PresidentIRL) September 8, 2022 I think in my statement yesterday I mentioned the particular interest her majesty had in matters Irish and the incredible importance of her visit in 2011, but also the great warmth with which she and Prince Philip received Sabina and I when we returned to visit in 2014. He said that her warmth was incredible and real, and that he was impressed by her commitment to the continuity of Anglo-Irish relations. The warmth was real, (as were) the questions that she asked me, including questions which we discussed about Irish history, he said. That I have been emphasising today: the ability to be able as it were for 70 years to engage with 14 prime ministers, now 15, and at the same time to be able to do so not only with great dignity and with very well informed knowledge of the complex nature of things that were going on but to be able to do so and at the same time retain all of the charm and extraordinary warmth which I think she showed not only to us but she showed to her people and which I think is reflected very very much in the reaction not only in Britain but abroad. The original letter and gift sent by the Queen to President Higgins inviting him on the State Visit which took place in 2014, on show at Aras an Uachtarain in Dublin (Brian Lawless/PA) Mr Higgins gave the statement on Friday evening, next to a table where gifts and letters from the late monarch were laid out on a table. These included a copy of the Dubliners given to Mr Higgins during his 2014 visit to Windsor Castle, where the president gave the Queen a statue of the Irish racehorse Arkle. The letter from the Queen, inviting Mr Higgins and his wife to visit Windsor Castle was also on display, as well as Mr Higginss reply. A silver baluster jug engraved with the Irish harp on one side and the British royal cypher on the other was also on show; gifted by the Queen to then-Irish president Mary McAleese during her 2011 visit. Gifts presented to former president Mary McAleese by the Queen during a state visit to Ireland in May 2011 (Brian Lawless/PA) Earlier, Irish premier Micheal Martin said that this visit had been the crowing moment of the peace process and the development of Anglo-Irish relations. The Taoiseach said that the Queen had been a constant in the world political order and expressed Irelands understanding of the enormous change her passing represented. Tributes have poured in from across the world upon the death on Thursday of Britains longest-reigning monarch, who served as the UKs head of state for more than 70 years. Speaking to reporters in Bray, Co Wicklow, Mr Martin said that the Queens most enduring legacy in an Irish context would unquestionably be her visit to Ireland in 2011. Taoiseach Micheal Martin said the Queens 2011 visit had closed one chapter and opened up a new chapter (Grainne Ni Aodha/PA) He said that her trip to Cork as part of that visit would be a visit that will never be forgotten. Political leaders in Ireland have noted how the Queens 2011 visit, the first by a British monarch to Ireland since it gained independence, set a new tone for Anglo-Irish relations in the following years. Mr Martin said: In the context of all that has gone on between Britain and Ireland over the centuries, (the visit) definitely closed one chapter and opened up a new chapter, and it was the culmination really of all the work that went into the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement. The head of state of the UK coming to Ireland represented the crowning moment, if you like, for all that had gone before in terms of peacebuilding and in terms of creating a new political order on the island of Ireland. Floral tributes left outside the British embassy in Dublin (Michelle Devane/PA) Mr Martin said of the new British monarch: I think King Charles is very familiar with Ireland, he has a keen interest in Irish affairs and I met him on a number of occasions during his visits to Ireland, with the Queen Consort, and I have no doubt that he will continue that interest in Ireland. Particularly, he has an interest in climate change, biodiversity, wildlife, and I do foresee opportunities to dovetail with that interest that he has, with some of the initiatives we are taking in terms of preserving biodiversity into the future. Hes also obviously committed to doing what he can in the role that he now will have, to underpin good relations between Ireland and Britain and between the different traditions on the island of Ireland. He said that inviting the King to Ireland would be a matter for the president. Later on Friday, Mr Martin joined people travelling to Dublins British embassy on Merrion Road to sign a book of condolence. It is one of a number of books that have been opened across the island. Outside the gates of the embassy, flowers and messages of sympathy had been left by members of the public. Baitriz Sousa, from Brazil, was among those who stopped to look at the flowers. The homecare assistant, who lives in Dublin, told the PA news agency: I just stopped by and saw these very beautiful flowers. Mr Martin, right, with Paul Johnston, British Ambassador to Ireland, after signing a book of condolence for the Queen in the British Embassy in Dublin (Government Information Service in Ireland/PA) Its really beautiful how people show their kindness for the Queen. In Brazil, we always saw the Queen as a symbol. Its really important to see a woman Queen and for so many years, so respectful. Now we wont have a Queen for a long time because now the line to the throne is all men. Pensioners Roisin and Josephine Gavigan said they had come to sign the book of condolence and pay their respects to a wonderful woman. They said the Queens graciousness was her best trait, and that they would remember her as always smiling. Josephine said: We came out of respect for her. Her sister Roisin added: Shes our own vintage and we both worked in England for a while. We always admired her. I was very sorry to hear of her death. She certainly did great work for Irish relations, the time she came over to visit. With the death of the Queen, the Duke of Yorks exile from the working monarchy looks certain to be permanent. Charles is now the new King and any decision about Andrew, disgraced after paying out millions over a civil sexual assault case, will fall to him, no doubt in consultation with his eldest son and heir, the Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge. Royal author Robert Jobson wrote that William had, unlike Charles, cut off all contact with his uncle. The Prince of Wales, the Duke of York and the Duke of Cambridge at the Duke of Edinburghs funeral (Leon Neal/PA) There will be no public role or comeback for York, if the Duke of Cambridge has any input on the matter and let me assure you, he does, a source told Jobson. He should be banished, as far as Prince William is concerned. But Andrews place in the family remains as the royals grieve for their matriarch. The duke rushed to his mothers bedside at Balmoral on Thursday, joining Charles, the Princess Royal, the Earl and Countess of Wessex and Camilla, now Queen. It was William who drove Andrew, who sat in the front passenger seat, with Edward and Sophie in the back, to the Queens Scottish home after their RAF flight landed in Aberdeen, The Duke of Cambridge drives a car carrying the Duke of York, and the Earl and Countess of Wessex to Balmoral (Andrew Milligan/PA) Charles will have to decide whether to fund his brothers lifestyle, as the Queen did. Andrew is believed to have received an annual salary from the Queens 21 million a year private Duchy of Lancaster income. The Duchys assets are held in trust for the sovereign, so are now under Charless control. Questions will also be raised about Andrews home, Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park, which is a Crown Estate property, and also houses his ex-wife Sarah, Duchess of York. Sarah, Duchess of York and the Duke of York (Adam Davy/PA) The duke signed a 75-year lease on the mansion in 2003, but could potentially receive millions in compensation for refurbishment costs he carried out if he gives up the 31-bedroom home. There are also likely to be further calls for Andrew to be stripped of his dukedom, severing his connection to the city of York. But peerages can only be removed by an act of parliament although there are also limited circumstances in which hereditary peerages can be renounced by the holder. Andrew also remains in the line of succession, and is still a Counsellor of State. The Duke of York, the Prince of Wales and the royal family at Trooping the Colour celebrations (Yui Mok/PA) In the event a monarch cannot undertake their official duties as sovereign on a temporary basis due to illness or absence abroad, two or more Counsellors of State are appointed by Letters Patent to act in their place. The role is undertaken by any spouse of the monarch, Camilla, now Queen, and the next four adults in the line of succession, currently William, Harry, Andrew and the newly added Princess Beatrice. The arrangements can only be changed with legislation, but the fresh inclusion of Camilla and Beatrice could mean it is less likely this route is explored. Andrew, grieving for his mother, will make an appearance at the Queens funeral, and is likely to process behind her coffin and join a vigil around it with his siblings while it lies in state. He is likely to want to pay a public on-camera tribute to the Queen, just as he did for his father, the Duke of Edinburgh. Andrew during a television interview at the Royal Chapel of All Saints, Windsor, following the announcement of the death of his father (Steve Parsons/PA) But Charles and William are expected to want the aftermath of the Queens funeral to signal the end of Andrews public appearances. The scenes in Westminster Abbey in March 2022 at Philips memorial service left commentators aghast at the dukes prominent role after his public controversies. As Andrew walked alongside his mother, the Queen held on to his elbow for support as she moved carefully and slowly to her seat. Even the Earl of Snowdon, the Queens nephew, appeared to do a double take as he turned to look. Princess Beatrice burst into tears and it was unclear whether it was the sight of her now frail grandmother or her father restored to such an elevated duty that left her overcome with emotion. The pre-printed Order of Service showed Andrew had actually been due to arrive with his daughters, but he ended up accompanying the Queen in her car to the Abbey. The Queen and Andrew at the service (Richard Pohle/The Times/PA) Even as the arrangements altered, the last-minute plan had been for Andrew to walk behind the Queen, who would be accompanied by the Dean of Westminster. This led to claims the duke had strong-armed his mother into letting him take centre stage and that she could not say no to her so-called favourite son. Just weeks before, the duke had paid millions out of court to Virginia Giuffre, a woman he claimed had never met, who was suing him for allegedly sexually assaulting her when she was 17 and had been trafficked by billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew had already stepped down from public duties after his disastrous Newsnight interview in 2019, in which he failed to show remorse for his friendship with Epstein and display any sympathy for the financiers victims. As Ms Giuffres lawsuit gathered pace, the Queen finally moved, at the urging of William and Charles, to strip her second son in January 2022 of his honorary military titles and forbid him from using his birthright HRH style. The Duke of York speaking about his links to Jeffrey Epstein in an interview with BBC Newsnights Emily Maitlis (Mark Harrison/BBC/PA) Andrew had been booted out of the monarchy. But his key role at his fathers memorial service showed that at family occasions, even major televised ones, he was, as far as the Queen was concerned, welcome. This was said to be met with dismay from Charles and William, and there was concern that Andrew was moving to wrangle a return to national life, particularly at the Platinum Jubilee celebrations. He stayed behind closed doors for the Jubilee in the end, having contracted Covid. His bid to join the public royal procession on Garter Day soon after in 2022 was scuppered when Charles and William lobbied the Queen, insisting he only attended the private service and lunch. The Queen was a staunch supporter of her son, but with the loss of his mother, Andrew looks set to remain in the royal wilderness. The minister at the Scottish church where the Queens body is expected to lie in rest has told how the congregation there gives thanks for her life of service. Reverend Calum MacLeod, of St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh added they were now praying for the new King, and the rest of the royal family in these days of loss The historic church is situated on the citys Royal Mile, halfway between Edinburgh Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse. A statement from The Reverend Calum MacLeod: pic.twitter.com/jlDZSXHSgP St Giles' Cathedral (@StGilesHighKirk) September 9, 2022 It is expected that members of the public will be allowed into the church to file past the coffin when it resides there in about three days time. Preparations have begun for the arrival of the Queens coffin, with roads surrounding the Royal Mile starting to be closed on Friday morning. Barriers have been put in place on the street, with a large space in the middle to allow the procession through. Outside of the cathedral, two police officers and two security guards were guarding the entrance while a sign outside of the cathedral reads: St Giles will be closed for the foreseeable. Camera crews could also be seen loading kit inside the cathedral on Friday. Members of the royal family are also expected to attend the church, to hold a poignant vigil known as the Vigil of the Princess around the Queens coffin. In a statement released on Twitter on Friday evening, Rev MacLeod told how the congregation of St Giles Cathedral, the High Kirk of Edinburgh, cherishes its long and historic relationship with the Queen and the royal family He added: As the nation mourns a beloved sovereign, the congregation gives thanks for her life of service rooted in her abiding faith. We pray for the King and members of the royal family in these days of loss and look forward to continuing our relationship with them into a bright future, giving thanks to God. His statement also told how the Queen and her late husband were always warmly welcomed by the congregation. He said: St Giles houses the Thistle Chapel, home to Scotlands highest chivalry order, The Order of the Thistle. The Queen, as Sovereign of the Order, would be in attendance to install new Knights as they were appointed. Dressed in the long, flowing green robes and plumed hat of the Order she and Prince Philip were always warmly welcomed by the congregation. Youve heard the expression, There are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy. Well, The Grab makes the case that society had best brace itself for disorder, since certain parties are gobbling up the worlds food and water resources while the rest of us are distracted by other things. Produced in association with the Center for Investigative Reporting, Blackfish director Gabriela Cowperthwaites astonishing, eye-opening doc hits us with the idea that the next world war wont be fought over ideology, oil or border disputes, but basic resources like meat, wheat and water, none of which should be taken for granted. Experts call this field food security, and the entire system is more fragile than it looks. World populations are climbing while water resources are dwindling, which has led countries such as Saudi Arabia and China to seek farmland on other continents. Among its myriad examples, The Grab focuses on a 15-square-mile expanse in La Paz, Ariz., an arid desert locale where theres no limit to the amount of water landowners can pump from the aquifers. Arizonas policy of unrestricted access means Saudi investors can legally tap into the water table to grow fields of hay, which will be shipped home to feed their cattle, even if it means draining the wells of local farmers in the process. More from Variety Its the same principle described at the end of There Will Be Blood, when a triumphant Daniel Day-Lewis crows, I drink your milkshake! Only now, its H2O, not oil, thats at stake. Versions of the same thing are already happening all over the world (not that Americans should pretend for a second that theyre not among the culprits of the global resource snatch). A good part of what makes The Grab so alarming is the reminder of whats being done to satisfy your own consumer comfort. For years, the West had a virtual monopoly on this phenomenon: Colonialism has historically been less about taking care of foreign peoples than about taking control of their resources. And now, other countries like fast-growing China are looking for a piece of the proverbial pie. The Grab points to the Great Chinese Famine and the Arab Spring as examples of shortfalls that reshaped nations, and suggests that world leaders must anticipate their peoples food and water needs if they hope to stay in power. Want to understand the reason Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine? Look no further than the besieged countrys status as supplier of 29% of the global wheat trade. Russia already took a big bite of the country in 2014, to which Ukraine responded by cutting off water to Crimea. Its no coincidence that Russian forces occupied the canal on day one of their latest offensive, destroying the dam blocking water from the Dnieper River. (Not upset enough about Putin? Just waitll you hear why global warming is a good thing to a country that sees usable ranch land under areas of ice.) Simply repeating the films points makes one sound like some kind of conspiracy nut, and yet, the truth is outrageous like the way Blackwater founder Erik Prince turned his attention to a new venture, Frontier Resources Group. Operating like mercenaries, FRG reps have been gobbling up fields and forests in Zambia, driving poor villagers out of their homes, so their land can be used to feed distant regions. The big picture here is so elusive and vast that it helps Cowperthwaite to have a few intrepid investigators to follow, letting their research drive the shape of the film (which, when you unpack it, must have been one hell of a task to structure). Her main character is CIR sleuth Nate Halverson, a tenacious journalist who broke enough of these stories that he now understands how they connect. Halverson explains how looking into the acquisition of Smithfield Foods (a livestock company responsible for one in four American pigs) by a state-funded Chinese company led straight back to President Xi Jinpings national strategy. All these revelations sound sinister, playing on audiences fears of the other without seriously challenging the degree to which their own governments do the same. Its not fair, but those with money have always been in a position to buy mines, fields and whatever means they need to transport those resources away from where theyre harvested. So whats new here? On one hand, all this harvesting is being done in plain sight; on the other, theres enormous secrecy about how companies (many of them private-looking fronts for government interests, deceptively hidden behind layers of offshore accounts) are going about the actual pillaging and the public deserves to know. Untangling those arrangements is what Halverson and fellow investigators Mallory Newman and Emma C. Schwartz have been focused on, playing cloak and dagger as the paranoia mounts (as when they disable the camera and internet functions on a computer terminal before accessing the trove, a massive leak of damning insider data). Theres so much at stake in this arena that one half expects these journalist heroes to be silenced along the way. For that reason, The Grab unspools like a thriller in one sense and a dystopian science fiction movie in another. The entire situation might be incredibly depressing were it not for a few heroes Halverson identifies along the way, like Brigadier Siachitema, or Brig, a Zambian human rights lawyer who takes the case of those displaced by FRG. Accountability is the first step, and to that end, The Grab doesnt entirely let its audience off the hook. We are what we eat, after all, and the more responsibly sourced our food, the better we can all feel about ourselves. The Grab unspools like a thriller on one level and a dystopian science fiction movie on another. The entire situation might be incredibly depressing were it not for a few heroes Halverson identifies along the way, like Brigadier Siachitema, or Brig, a Zambian human rights lawyer who takes the case of those displaced by FRG. Accountability is the first step, and to that end, The Grab doesnt entirely let its audience off the hook. We are what we eat, after all, and the more responsibly sourced our food, the better we can all feel about ourselves. Best of Variety Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. The Queen has died and King Charles III is the new monarch. Here is the day-by-day account of what is expected to happen next, leading up to the Queens funeral in around 11 days time. Day of Death Thursday would traditionally have been D-Day or D+0 in the plans for the aftermath of the Queens death, codenamed London Bridge. But the announcement came late in the day at around 6.30pm on Thursday September 8 meaning plans have been shifted a day to allow the complex arrangements to be put in place, meaning D+0 will be considered Friday. The new King had dashed to the Queens bedside. Charles was joined by the monarchs other children the Princess Royal, the Duke of York and the Earl of Wessex, with the Duke of Cambridge, now heir to the throne, and the Duke of Sussex also travelling there. Also at Balmoral are Camilla the new Queen and the Countess of Wessex. The new King will pay his respects to his mother Queen Elizabeth II (Steve Parsons/PA) The King and Camilla now the Queen remained at Balmoral overnight and will return to London on Friday. The following is expected to take place on Friday D+0. But concrete plans are yet to be confirmed by Buckingham Palace. D+0 Friday September 9 The King and Queen return to London Charles and Camilla stayed at Balmoral overnight on Thursday, but return to London on Friday. Audience with the PM Despite his grief, duty calls for new sovereign Charles who will have his first audience as monarch with Prime Minister Liz Truss. Confirming funeral plans Charles is likely to meet the Earl Marshal the Duke of Norfolk who is in charge of the accession and the Queens funeral, to approve the carefully choreographed schedule for the coming days. The London Bridge arrangements have long been planned in consultation with the Government. Plans for the aftermath of the Queens death are codenamed London Bridge (Anthony Devlin/PA) They will incorporate Operation Unicorn, the contingency plans for the death of the Queen in Scotland. During the coronavirus pandemic, the Government and the Royal Household prepared a London minus version of the London Bridge plans in case it was needed which is now unlikely with all the elements but with the involvement of fewer people. Court mourning Charles will decide on the length of court or royal mourning for members of the royal family and royal households. It is expected to last a month. National mourning The Government will confirm the length of national mourning, which is likely to be around 12 days, from now up to the day after the Queens funeral. They will also announce that the funeral day will be a public holiday in the form of a Day of National Mourning. Flags Union flags on royal buildings are flying at half-mast. The Royal Standard never flies half-mast. It represents the Sovereign and the United Kingdom, and is a symbol of the continuation of the monarchy. The Royal Standard always flies full mast (Victoria Jones/PA) If the new King is in residence at a royal palace or castle, the Royal Standard will fly there full-mast as is the tradition. The Union flag does not fly there at the same time. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is in charge of arrangements for lowering flags on government buildings. Downing Street reportedly expressed concern in the past that the Government would face a wave of public anger if it did not lower its flags within 10 minutes of the announcement of the Queens death. Bells and gun salutes Bells will toll at Westminster Abbey, St Pauls Cathedral and Windsor Castle. Churches are being urged to toll their bells across England at noon. Gun salutes one round for every year of the Queens life will be fired in Hyde Park and at other stations. The public has already begun to leave flowers as tributes from around the world pour in. The sea of flowers outside the gates of Kensington Palace for Diana, Princess of Wales (David Giles/PA) Charless televised address The King will make a televised address to the nation, which he is due to pre-record, in the early evening. He will pay tribute to the Queen and pledge his duty to his service as the new sovereign. Service at St Pauls Cathedral The Prime Minister and senior ministers will attend a public service of remembrance at St Pauls in central London. D+1 Saturday September 10 The Accession Council meets, traditionally at 10am, at St Jamess Palace in London to formally proclaim Charles as the new sovereign. First, the Privy Council gathers without the King to proclaim the new monarch and arrange business relating to the proclamation. Then Charles holds his first Privy Council, accompanied by Camilla the new Queen and William who are also Privy Counsellors, and makes his personal declaration and oath. The Garter King of Arms reads the first public proclamation of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II, at Friary Court, St Jamess Palace (PA) The first public proclamation of the new sovereign is read in the open air from the Friary Court balcony at St Jamess Palace by the Garter King of Arms. Proclamations are made around the city and across the country. Union flags go back up to full-mast at 1pm and remain there for 24 hours to coincide with the proclamations before returning to half-mast. Charles will also hold audiences with the Prime Minister and the Cabinet. D+2 Sunday September 11 The Queens coffin is expected to be taken by road to the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. Proclamations will be read in the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland devolved parliaments in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast. D+3 Monday September 12 Procession is expected along Royal Mile to St Giles Cathedral. Service and the Vigil of the Princes by members of the royal family. The public may get the chance to file past the Queens coffin at a mini lying in state in St Giles. The House of Commons and the House of Lords are expected to come together in Westminster for a Motion of Condolence, which the King could attend. MPs will gather to pay tribute to the Queen (PA) After leaving England and visiting Scotland, Charles will at some stage travel to the other countries of the UK Wales and Northern Ireland known as Operation Spring Tide. D+4 Tuesday September 13 Coffin expected to be flown to London. Expected to be at rest at Buckingham Palace. A rehearsal for the procession of the coffin from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster takes place. D+5 Wednesday September 14 The Queens lying in state is expected to begin in Westminster Hall Operation Marquee following a ceremonial procession through London. It will last four full days. The Archbishop of Canterbury will conduct a short service following the coffins arrival. Hundreds of thousands of people will file past the coffin on its catafalque and pay their respects, just as they did for the Queen Mothers lying in state in 2002. The management of the queues outside is Operation Feather. People file past the coffin of the Queen Mother as it lies in state in Westminster Hall (PA) During the Covid-19 crisis, plans included the possibility of the introduction of timed ticketing for those wanting to attend. Senior royals are also expected to pay their own moving tribute, standing guard at some stage around the coffin the tradition known as the Vigil of the Princes. D+6 Thursday September 15 Lying in state continues and a rehearsal is likely to take place for the state funeral procession. D+7 Friday September 16 Sunday September 18 Lying in state continues, ending on D+9. Heads of state begin to arrive for the funeral. D+10 Monday September 19 The Queens state funeral is expected take place at Westminster Abbey in central London. Westminster Abbey in London (PA) The original plans are for the Queens coffin to process on a gun carriage to the abbey, pulled by naval ratings sailors using ropes rather than horses. Senior members of the family are expected to poignantly follow behind just like they did for the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales and the Duke of Edinburgh. The military will line the streets and also join the procession. Heads of state, prime ministers and presidents, European royals and key figures from public life will be invited to gather in the abbey, which can hold a congregation of 2,000. Prince William, Earl Spencer, Prince Harry and the Prince of Wales walk behind Diana, Princess of Waless coffin (Adam Butler/PA) The service will be televised, and a national two minutes silence is expected to be held. The same day as the funeral, the Queens coffin will be taken to St Georges Chapel at Windsor Castle for a televised committal service. Later in the evening, there will be a private interment service with senior members of the royal family. The Queens committal service will take place at St Georges Chapel at Windsor Castle in Berkshire (PA) The Queens final resting place will be the King George VI memorial chapel, an annex to the main chapel where her mother and father were buried, along with the ashes of her sister, Princess Margaret. Philips coffin will move from the Royal Vault to the memorial chapel to join the Queens. Hundreds of people gathered at Cardiff Castle on Friday to honour the Queen, who died at Balmoral on Thursday. A queue of mourners hoping to get inside the castle grounds for a 96-gun salute stretched around the castle, which stands in the heart of Wales capital city. The salute was performed by the 104th Regiment Royal Artillery with each shot representing a year of the Queens life. Beginning at 1pm, the salute was timed to coincide with similar events taking place in each of the UKs four nations, including at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland, Hyde Park in London and Edinburgh Castle in Scotland, as well as in York, Portsmouth and Gibraltar. Members of the 104 Regiment Royal Artillery during the Gun Salute at Cardiff Castle to mark the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday (Ben Birchall/PA) The salute lasted around 12 minutes, and the final shot was followed by applause from members of the public. Also in attendance were the First Minister of Wales Mark Drakeford and Cardiff Council Leader Huw Thomas. Church bells across Wales rang between midday and 1pm, and flags remained at half mast as the nation entered a 12-day period of mourning. Meanwhile, a two-minute silence was held for the Queen on Castle Square in Caernarfon, North Wales. People look at a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II on Queen Street, in Cardiff (Ben Birchall/PA) A book of condolence was opened at Cardiff City Hall at 2pm, with people encouraged to leave floral tributes outside the building. One of the messages left with the flowers read: Thank you for a lifetime of dedication. You will always be in our hearts. Another said: Lilies for our beautiful Queen Lilibet. We will mourn you forever. Inside City Hall, Cardiffs Lord Mayor, councillor Graham Hinchey, said: Queen Elizabeth II dedicated her entire life to the service of this country, and has been a reassuring and steadfast presence at times of war, social and political unrest, and throughout the recent pandemic. Flowers with a message are laid at Cardiff City Hall (Ben Birchall/PA) Before becoming Queen in 1952 she was awarded a freeman of the city of Cardiff in 1948. And this city has been honoured to welcome her on many occasions during her reign, most recently to the official opening of the Senedd in October last year. It is with great sadness that the capital city of Wales will now join the rest of the nation in mourning the ending of a remarkable life and reign. Cardiff resident Kathryn Hudson, 56, said she thought it was important to mark this historic moment and pay respect and love to the Queen. Lord Mayor of Cardiff and councillor Graham Hinchey with Lady Mayoress Anne Hinchey sign a book of condolence at Cardiff City Hall (Ben Birchall/PA) My first memory was actually of my mum taking me to Cardiff Castle to see the Queen and Prince Charles when I was three in 1969 when Charles was made the Prince of Wales, she said. So when I heard that there was going to be a gun salute at the castle, I decided I was going to come along and also sign the book of condolences. I thanked her for her strength and service. For her care and compassion. And for quietly standing up for the well being of her citizens, which is what I believe she has done over the years. She added: I think its early days but its an unsettling time. Were in turmoil in this country and I think she has always been the strength. First Minister of Wales Mark Drakeford will attend the Accession Council on Saturday when Charles will be officially proclaimed King (Ben Birchall/PA) I personally hope she had a quiet word on Tuesday and perhaps suggested it is important to look after the people in this country. On Saturday, Mr Drakeford will attend a meeting of the Accession Council as a Privy Councillor at St Jamess Palace when the new King will be formally proclaimed monarch. The following day the Senedd, Welsh Parliament, will be recalled to pay tribute to the Queen. A motion of condolence will be broadcast to the nation at 2pm. On the same day, September 11, King Charles III will be proclaimed King at a ceremony in Cardiff Castle at midday. Proclamations of Charles succession to the throne will be held in areas throughout Wales, and in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Two out of five people do not feel part of their local community with many planning to move out of the area, a new study suggests. A survey by the Co-op of more than 2,100 adults found those living in the West Midlands, London and Scotland were least likely to feel part of their community. Northern Ireland topped the list as the area with the most engaged communities, followed by the East of England and the East Midlands. The Co-op said one reason for the lack of community spirit was that communities can be seen as a revolving door, with one in four of those polled saying they will probably move away in a few years time. For those who plan on moving out of their area in the next five years, over a quarter said it was because they dont feel a strong connection to their community, a fifth said they wanted to live closer to their friends and family and a similar number said they were renting and so have no housing security. Other reasons included expensive housing or a lack of jobs, while issues such as a lack of shops or doctors surgeries were identified. In response to the findings, the Co-op announced plans to introduce a further 150 Member Pioneers aimed at bringing people and local causes together. Rebecca Birkbeck, director of community and membership at the Co-op said: Its concerning that so many people feel disconnected from their local community. Our study shows that when people come together good things happen, which is crucial during these challenging times. BALMORAL, Scotland (Reuters) - Britain's King Charles will address a nation in mourning on Friday following the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth, the only monarch most Britons ever knew. Charles, who raced to be by the side of the queen at her Scottish home on Thursday, was due to travel back to London with his wife Camilla, now Queen Consort, before meeting the prime minister and making a televised statement. The death of the queen, Britain's longest-reigning monarch and a towering presence on the world stage for seven decades, has drawn condolences from around the world. Waking to their first day without a woman once described by her grandson Harry as "the nation's grandmother", members of the public began gathering again outside Buckingham Palace to lay flowers and take photos of the growing memorial there. Billboards across the city displayed messages of condolence and newspapers ran front-page photo tributes to the queen. At the remote Balmoral Castle in Scotland where she died on Thursday and where her family are gathered, people also arrived to pay their respects. Then Prince Charles, with other family members, follow the coffin during a procession arriving at St George's Chapel for the April 17, 2021, funeral of his father, Prince Philip, inside Windsor Castle in England. (Paul Edwards/Pool) "She was more than just a British icon, she was a global icon," said Toni Guffrey, a 55-year-old government employee from Tennessee, who was on holiday nearby. She and her daughters brought flowers to the castle gates. "All Americans loved the queen. She will be remembered for a life of selfless public service and her dedication to this country." Elizabeth was head of state of the United Kingdom and 14 other realms including Australia, Canada, Jamaica, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. Charles, who automatically succeeded her, said the death was a moment of great sadness for himself and his family. "We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much-loved mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world," the 73-year-old said in a statement. He is expected to meet Prime Minister Liz Truss on Friday before later addressing the country. There will also be gun salutes. Family members rushed to Scotland after doctors issued a statement Regular business in parliament was scrapped and replaced with a special session for lawmakers to pay tribute to the queen, due to start at 1100 GMT. Parliament will also convene on Saturday, something it rarely does, and will approve a formal message of condolence to the king. News that the queen's health was deteriorating emerged shortly after midday on Thursday when her doctors said in a statement that she was under medical supervision, prompting her family to rush to Scotland. The queen had been suffering from what Buckingham Palace had called "episodic mobility problems" since the end of last year, forcing her to withdraw from nearly all her public engagements. Her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, died in 2021. Her last public duty came only on Tuesday, when she appointed Truss prime minister - the 15th of her reign. "The death of Her Majesty the Queen is a huge shock to the nation and to the world," Truss said outside her Downing Street office where the flag, like those at royal palaces and government buildings across Britain, were lowered. "Through thick and thin, Queen Elizabeth II provided us with the stability and the strength that we needed. She was the very spirit of Great Britain and that spirit will endure." Trade unions cancelled planned strikes and the BBC national broadcaster said that "as a mark of respect" it had called off its remaining 'Proms' concerts - whose patriotic, flag-waving finale was due to take place on Saturday. The news stunned not only people in Britain, with condolences pouring in from leaders around the world. "Her legacy will loom large in the pages of British history, and in the story of our world," President Biden said in a statement. Queen Elizabeth II, who was also the world's oldest and longest-serving head of state, came to the throne following the death of her father King George VI on Feb. 6, 1952, when she was just 25. She was crowned in June the following year. The first televised coronation was a foretaste of a new world in which the lives of the royals were to become increasingly scrutinised by the media. "I have in sincerity pledged myself to your service, as so many of you are pledged to mine. Throughout all my life and with all my heart I shall strive to be worthy of your trust," she said in a speech to her subjects on her coronation day. Elizabeth became monarch at a time when Britain still retained much of its old empire with Winston Churchill her prime minister, while Josef Stalin led the Soviet Union and the Korean War was raging. Bereft of its symbol of continuity and resilience, Britain begins its new era in grave economic crisis, marked by ructions with Europe and a populace disaffected by years of political strife and scandal. Residents of a shantytown in a coastal area near Havana clashed last week with police officers who were looking for makeshift rafts, one of two recent violent confrontations involving the countrys security forces as authorities appear to be ramping up efforts to curb the number of Cubans fleeing to the United States by sea. In a separate incident, the Cuban coast guard reportedly detained two U.S. residents who attempted to pick up Cuban nationals on a speed boat near La Coloma in Pinar del Rio province on Monday. Citing some town residents, activists said Cuban officers opened fire at the boat, but two Facebook accounts linked to the government denied the confrontation. The Miami Herald could not independently confirm the events. The number of Cubans attempting to reach U.S. shores has dramatically increased in recent weeks as the population struggles with a devalued peso, food shortages and daily blackouts. Since Aug. 27, 219 Cubans have landed in Florida and were taken into custody, according to information provided by Walter N. Slosar, the U.S. Border Patrols Miami Sector chief agent, on Twitter. The U.S. Coast Guard returned another 85 to Cuba on Wednesday. The number of those halted at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard since October 5,421 has already surpassed those sent back in 2016 5,396 the highest number so far in the past six years. Responding to the increase in migration from Cuba and Haiti, the Task Force Southeast, an inter-agency group led by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, announced last week it was increasing patrols and enforcement by land, air and sea in the Caribbean. The task force, comprising several agencies, including the Defense Department and the Coast Guard, was created in 2003 to respond to large numbers of migrants trying to reach U.S. shores. The U.S. Border Patrol Miami Sector is committed to working alongside our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners in a whole-of-government effort to prepare for and address any potential increases in irregular maritime migration or border security threats in Florida, said Slosar, who is also the task forces deputy director. Many more Cubans are arriving by land through the U.S.-Mexico border 177,848 between last October and July making this the largest migration from Cuba since the early 1960s. Experts and activists suspect the islands authorities cut a deal with the government of Nicaragua to let Cuban nationals travel to the Central American country without visas, effectively turning Nicaragua into a launching pad for mass migration to the U.S., said Kelly M. Greenhill, an associate professor of political science in Tufts University in an event organized by the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University last month. Greenhill, the author of the book Weapons of Mass Migration: Forced Displacement, Coercion, and Foreign Policy, argues that the Cuban government has a well established pattern of using migration to coerce the United States into the negotiating table and force changes in U.S. foreign policy. But Greenhill says that unlike other migration crises during the time Fidel Castro was in power, this time the Biden administration is paying attention and has already engaged in talks with Cuban authorities, so Cubas incentives to engage in outright strategic crisis generation by weaponizing migration might be diminished. While state media has largely ignored the current exodus, Cuban authorities have recently been looking to stop what they called illegal departures. | Imagenes de la brutal represion policial contra hombres y mujeres de Cepem, un asentamiento irregular ubicado en la Playa de Baracoa. pic.twitter.com/0nR27rQxzv Yannis Estrada (@YannisEst) August 30, 2022 Several videos published on social media show police and special troops officers beating and trying to arrest residents of Cepen, a shantytown in Baracoa beach, east of Havana. According to accounts by residents and independent media reports, the police broke into several homes looking for makeshift vessels. Residents said women and children were hurt, and the agents used dogs to crack down on those trying to leave. The repression being experienced in this area is already something that we cannot live with, one of the residents told independent news outlet ADN Cuba. Videos also show the moment a resident tried to appeal to police, Communist Party and military officials who were present, desperately pleading to be allowed to leave the island, stating many of the reasons Cubans are fleeing the impoverished country. If you dont want us... if we dont fit in this country because our salary is not enough to buy in stores in hard currency, if there is no oil for the power plants to work, we decide with our lives what we want, the man said to the officials, prompting a round of applause from the crowd of residents gathered. We do not have a way to buy a glass of milk because it is sold in hard currency; we do not have a way to buy a pair of shoes. We dont care if we leave on a sail [boat], on a tank or an inner tire tube, he said. You should build a monument to the balseros. Flash General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday sent a message of congratulations to Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on the 74th anniversary of the DPRK's founding. Xi pointed out that over the past 74 years, the people of the DPRK have closely united around the WPK and forged ahead, having made important achievements in promoting socialist construction. He also said that in recent years, guided by the principles and policies set at the eighth WPK Congress, the DPRK people have constantly scored new outcomes in developing the economy and improving people's livelihood, and fought a successful battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, about which China, as a good comrade, good neighbor and good friend of the DPRK, is sincerely happy. It is believed that under the leadership of Comrade General Secretary Kim and the WPK, the brotherly DPRK people will surely advance the socialist cause of the country for new development and lift it to a new level, Xi added. Xi pointed out that China and the DPRK, linked by mountains and rivers, have enjoyed a traditional friendship that grows stronger with time. Xi said he has reached a series of important consensuses with Comrade General Secretary on drawing a blueprint for the development of relations between the two parties and states, as well as enriching the China-DPRK friendship. The friendship between China and the DPRK has become more deeply rooted in the hearts of the two people, he said, adding that the exchanges and cooperation between the two countries have continued to advance, and the two sides have supported each other on issues of major concern, demonstrating the vitality of the traditional friendship between China and the DPRK. Xi stressed that the world has entered a new period of turbulence and transformation as profound changes unseen in a century are evolving rapidly. He said China is willing to maintain strategic communication with the DPRK, strengthen coordination and cooperation, jointly safeguard, consolidate and develop China-DPRK relations so as to better benefit the two countries and their people, and contribute to peace, stability, development and prosperity in the region and the wider world. The Biden administration on Thursday announced $2 billion in aid to Ukraine as it continues to fend off Russias invasion. Well break down the latest package. Plus, well talk about House Republicans grave concerns regarding President Bidens use of Marines during his speech in Philadelphia last week. This is Defense & National Security, your nightly guide to the latest developments at the Pentagon, on Capitol Hill and beyond. For The Hill, Im Jordan Williams. A friend forward this newsletter to you? Subscribe here. US sending assistance countries at risk from Russia The United States intends to send another $2 billion in military support to Ukraine and 18 nearby countries at risk of Russian attack, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Thursday during a visit to Kyiv. A new weapons package: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also on Thursday announced another package of weapons to Ukraine worth up to $675 million, a pledge made as he met with allies working to keep Ukraine equipped over the long haul amid the Russian invasion. A list released by the Pentagon detailed the contents of the package, including: Four 105mm Howitzers and 36,000 accompanying artillery rounds ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) additional High-speed Anti-radiation missiles (HARM) 100 Humvees 50 armored ambulances Anti-tank systems Small arms The further $2.2 billion: Both the Pentagon and State Department also announced that the Biden administration has informed Congress of its intent to make a further $2.2 billion available in long-term investments under Foreign Military Financing to bolster the security of Ukraine and 18 of its neighbors; including many of our NATO Allies, as well as other regional security partners potentially at risk of future Russian aggression. Roughly half of that money will go toward Ukrainian security and the other half split between Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. State of war: Ukrainian forces are working to push Russian troops from the northeast part of the country around Kharkiv and in the south near Kherson, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday highlighting good news about recapturing unnamed settlements from the Kharkiv region. But Russia is showing no sign of backing down, with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday defiantly claiming his country has not lost a thing from the war in Ukraine and the tight sanctions it has triggered. U.S. officials, meanwhile, estimated in August that Russia has suffered around 70,000 to 80,000 casualties in under six months. Read the full story here. GOP concerned about Bidens use of Marines House Republicans told the Department of Defense that they are gravely concerned about President Biden using Marines as political props during his Sept. 1 speech in Philadelphia. In a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the lawmakers said it appeared that the Marines participated in a political event that jeopardizes their compliance with Pentagon regulations against participating in political activities while in uniform. Who wrote the letter? The letter was signed by House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), House Armed Services Committee ranking member Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) and House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense ranking member Ken Calvert (R-Calif.). A point of debate: Bidens use of the Marines during his speech sparked debate, with many who liked the presidents remarks criticizing the positioning of Marines behind him during a speech that was largely seen as political. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre later insisted that Biden had the Marines there out of respect for the military and its role in defending democracy. The demands: In their letter, the lawmakers asked Austin to respond to questions regarding his knowledge of Bidens use of the Marines during the speech. They asked if anyone in the Defense Department knew of the contents of Bidens speech before he gave it, if the agency knew that two active-duty service members would be involved and what guidance was given to the White House regarding their participation in the event, among other things. Youve expressed your concern about politicization of the military and have insisted the military will not become a political instrument under your watch. Unfortunately, that is exactly what happened with the participation of the Marines at this political event, the lawmakers wrote. PENTAGON EXPEDITES TIMELINE FOR RED HILL DEFUELING The Department of Defense submitted a new plan to Hawaii state officials for defueling the bulk fuel storage facility at Red Hill in Hawaii, expediting the timeline by several months. In a statement released late Wednesday, the Navy said it now projects completion of defueling by July 2024, several months faster than its December 2024 estimate released in June. The Navy said that the new timeline condensed repair time, determined that certain activities could be done in parallel, and reduced the duration of the final phase of defueling from eight months to roughly five months. Watchdog evaluating claims about Afghan evacuees The Department of Defenses watchdog told two Republican senators that it will evaluate claims that hundreds of Afghan evacuees were allowed to enter the U.S. despite being on the departments watchlist. As part of our ongoing body of work on Afghan evacuees, we are initiating an evaluation, to commence in the first quarter of [fiscal year] 2023, to address your questions pertaining to the DoDs role in reviewing DoD databases for information on Afghan evacuees when requested by other agencies, acting Pentagon Inspector General Sean ODonnell wrote in a letter to Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) obtained by The Hill. The evaluation will also look into claims that officials at the National Security Council and Department of Defense did not follow proper procedures when processing evacuees in Afghanistan and at staging basis. Backstory: ODonnell was responding to an Aug. 4 letter from the two senators regarding allegations they received from a Pentagon whistleblower. The senators said the whistleblower had told them that the administration evacuated 324 individuals from Afghanistan who appeared on the agencys watchlist. The whistleblower claimed that those evacuated included known suspected terrorists. The senators also said the person claimed that White House and Defense Department officials directed agency personnel to not conduct fingerprint tests of Afghan evacuees and that Department of Homeland Security staff were authorized to delete old biometric data regardless of whether staff believed the data was out of date. This information may show the Biden Administrations failure to vet those evacuated from Afghanistan was even worse than the public was led to believe. The following allegations demand an immediate investigation by your office, the senators said at the time. What the watchdog has done: ODonnells letter only addressed the concern about the evacuees entering the U.S. despite being on the Pentagons watchlist, and he referred their other questions to other agencies. The agencys evaluation will come as part of its ongoing body of work on evacuees. It released two reports regarding Afghan evacuees this year one evaluation on the screening of Afghan evacuees in February and another audit on the Pentagons support for relocating Afghan nationals. ODonnell noted that the agency is also evaluating security and life support practices for Afghan evacuees at Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo. Read the full story here. ON TAP FOR TOMORROW The third day of the 2022 Billings CyberSecurity Summit will begin at 9 a.m. The Hudson Institute will host a discussion on Chinese Economic Decoupling Strategy against the United States at `0 am. The Brookings Institute will hold a discussion on The role of veterans in strengthening our democracy at 4 p.m. WHAT WERE READING DOJ appeals special master ruling in Trump documents probe Milley: Russian strategic objectives in Ukraine have been defeated Biden sparks debate with Marine backdrop to combative address Thats it for today! Check out The Hills Defense and National Security pages for the latest coverage. See you tomorrow! VIEW FULL VERSION HERE For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. FALMOUTH In 2020, during the pandemic, husband and wife, Deon Wills and Veronika Spevakova Wills started their own company importing and wholesaling a diverse range of wines from the Moravian region of the Czech Republic. Wills International, which started as a passion project, in collaboration with Spevak Winery in the Czech Republic, is gradually on its way to becoming a statewide distributor of quality Moravian wine. More: How Cape Cod restaurant workers defeat the heat and keep cool amid rising temperatures Starting its business in Falmouth, Wills International has expanded to other states including New York, Pennsylvania and California. The Spevak Estate Vineyard in Moravia, Czech Republic Wine was the family business For Veronika, wine has always been a subject of passion. Born and brought up in the Czech Republic, she traveled to the United States at the age of 26. She met her husband Deon in Louisiana and with their two daughters, settled in Cape Cod, nearly 15 years ago. Veronika spent the first 26 years of her life, learning the ins and outs of viticulture and viniculture at her family's wine estate in Moravia, Czech Republic. Back in 2005, Veronika and Deon wanted to start their own journey as wine distributors, in collaboration with the Spevak family winery. Starting a family and both their professional careers though took priority over business. During Christmas 2019, Veronikas father, Frantisek Spevak, founder of Spevak Winery, visited Cape Cod and hosted wine tastings for several friends and their families. More: Best mousetrap in town: Recliners, full bar coming to Cape movie theaters to draw fans He (my father) observed American wine lovers' taste buds, preferences and then back in the Czech Republic, started curating special wine according to that, Veronika said. One day, we got a phone call from the Czech Republic and my father was telling us to come to get our wine, so started our business. Veronika and Deon decided to establish Wills International, LLC to import and distribute wine in the United States. Veronika Spevakova Wills and Deon Wills at their residence in Falmouth. Our first shipment arrived during the summer of 2021 and it was accepted immediately, Deon said. We had seven customers right away. The first shipment included a customized and special edition of Moravian White, Moravian Rose and Moravian Red brands by Spevak Winery. More: Cape & Islands Distillers opens tasting room to feature 'Made on Cape Cod' spirits We could have been importers, but since the Czech region is not well known for their wine, we needed to create a demand for the product first, Deon said. We became distributors ourselves. Though Veronika completed WSET (The Wine & Spirit Education) L3 sommelier certification after the start of their company, neither Deon nor Veronika had any idea about running a business. Introducing the Cape to Czech wines Despite growing up in the vineyards, Veronika chose science as a career path. After completing her masters in microbiology and biochemistry, she moved to the United States to pursue her higher education. Currently working as a technical manager for the Associates of Cape Cod, a global biotechnology company, over the years she became a public speaker, an educator and an ambassador for novel technologies. On the other hand, Deon was born and raised in Louisiana and currently works as a chemical and beverage manager for a major food distributor. According to Veronika, Deon serves as a one-man army when it comes to managing logistics. I am familiar with working in management and working with teams; but I had no prior experience in logistics and for me, it was like learning a new industry overnight, Deon said. While Veronika hosts wine tastings, does promotion and other activities, Deon is responsible for running everything in the background, starting from contacting the suppliers and distributors and expanding their business in other states. More: Looking to go on a picnic? Here are 5 Cape Cod places to get food (and ideas on where to eat it) Since the Czech Republic isn't known for its wines, restaurants on Cape Cod were skeptical at first. According to Veronika, customers are demanding more once they tasted the wine. They are distributing the wine in various local businesses around the Cape including Barnstable Market, Fenway Beer Shop, Craft Beer Cellar, Cotuit Liquors, Urban Grape, and more. This summer, Veronika organized a private tasting for friends and Czech compatriots in Temecula in Southern California. Wills International works directly with the Czech embassy in Washington D.C., the Czech Consulate in New York and the Czech Consulate in Los Angeles. We attend different annual and monthly events; anytime they host Christmas markets, concerts, or other events at the consulate, we attend the events, promoting our wines, Veronika said. More: 'A story of hope, longing and sacrifice': 'My Dearest Darling' takes readers back in time Starting a business in the middle of a global pandemic in collaboration with another country was no easy feat. According to Veronika, the timing was not great, but her family, along with her family in the Czech Republic, are patient and passionate about the work. When youre doing this for yourself, it doesnt feel like work anymore, Deon said. Collaboration with Spevak Winery Frantisek Spevak, Veronikas father, started Spevak Winery in 1993. Frantisek is a fourth-generation winemaker, however, he was the only one from the family to take winemaking to a commercial level. A combined 10 hectares of vineyard fall under the Spevak Winery estate. The estate is not a large one, our focus has always been quality; for my father, quality over quantity is the most important aspect, she said. Since Spevak Winery also has a customer base in the Czech Republic, there are limits to how much wine they can produce for US customers. More: 'Heartbroken': 338-year-old Veranda House sustains $12M of damage from fire According to Veronika, bringing in more suppliers and producers for collaboration is now the goal. Ensuring the quality is the most important aspect, so we have been talking to other producers, tasting their products to find a potential match with ours, she said. We are also thinking about producing low-cost wines as well as specific high-quality wines, catering to the needs of different customers, aiming to offer something for everyone. According to Frantisek Spevak, there are many indigenous varieties of wine that are coming from the Czech Republic that have yet to be introduced on the world stage. Frantisek Spevak working in the Spevak Estate, Moravia, Czech Republic; captured in the lens of son-in-law Deon Wills Veronika and Deons venture of expanding their family business in the United States is a matter of great pride for Frantisek. I could not be happier with the fact that my lifes work is now being presented in the United States, Frantisek said, over a Zoom call from the Czech Republic. Veronika, the eldest daughter of Frantisek and Marie, was expected to be involved with the family business from the beginning. Despite choosing science, wine has always been her passion and love. More: Mud to table: Wellfleet oyster farms grow shellfish for your plate. Heres how. I wanted her to be involved with the business but that did not happen then; now, it is all coming together and my dreams are in fruition, said Frantisek. The wine is already winning new customers in the States and I couldnt be prouder. Finding the right type of wine to meet the expectations of an American audience remains a challenge for Frantisek. We are also interested in getting them excited about trying new and different varieties of wine, Frantisek said. Preserving the wine and culture For Veronika, distributing the wine that tastes like home to others and across the state, is a way of holding onto the Czech identity. Im away from home, but working to promote and share Czech wine with others makes me feel like I'm doing something valuable for my country, she said. The local community in Falmouth also includes several Czech businesses. Wills International aims to reach the American communities with the help of Czech customers. For Veronika, it is not just about promoting the wine. The Czech Republic has been politically isolated for a long time, our wine gets people interested in the country; customers start asking questions about the culture, the country, and our way of life, she said. Veronika wants her daughters, Kristyna and Elisabeth to have a powerful connection with both Deons African American heritage and her Czech heritage. Being away from home. I still hold onto my Czech identity; I want my daughters to have that as well, Veronika said. I dont want them to be alienated from either of those sides, I expect them to be close to both. Deon and Veronika are hopeful about the future, with a clear aim of expanding their business in the coming years. For more information on Wills International, visit the website: https://www.willsinternational.com/ Get the Cape Cod news that matters delivered to your inbox. Sign up for our free newsletters. This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Falmouth couple's business imports wine from Czech Republic WASHINGTON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge has dismissed Donald Trump's lawsuit against his 2016 rival Hillary Clinton, saying the former Republican president's allegations that Democrats tried to rig that election by linking his campaign to Russia was an attempt to "flaunt" political grievances that did not belong in court. In throwing out Trump's lawsuit Thursday night, Judge Donald Middlebrooks of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida said the lawsuit was not seeking "redress for any legal harm" and that the court was "not the appropriate forum" for the former president's complaints. "He is seeking to flaunt a two-hundred-page political manifesto outlining his grievances against those that have opposed him," Middlebrooks said in his ruling. Trump in March had sued Clinton, who was the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, and several other Democrats alleging "racketeering," a "conspiracy to commit injurious falsehood" and other claims in a 108-page lawsuit that echoed the long list of grievances he repeatedly aired during his four years in the White House after beating Clinton. He had sought compensatory and punitive damages, saying he had incurred more than $24 million in "defense costs, legal fees, and related expenses." In his ruling, Middlebrooks said Trump had waited too long to file his complaint by exceeding the legal statute of limitations for his claims and that he failed to make his case that he was harmed by any falsehoods, noting that many of the statements made by the defendants were "plainly protected by the First Amendment" of the U.S. Constitution. Representatives for Clinton and Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling. Other defendants included Democratic Representative Adam Schiff, who led one of the U.S. House of Representatives' impeachments against Trump, and Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer who wrote a dossier circulated to the FBI and media outlets before the 2016 election. U.S. intelligence officials and others in the U.S. government have accused Russia of meddling in that election. Moscow has denied that it interfered in the campaign. (Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Paul Simao) Seafood Watch, which rates the sustainability of different seafoods, said this week it has added the American and Canadian lobster fisheries to its red list of species to avoid. PORTLAND, Maine (AP) Some retailers are taking lobster off the menu after an assessment from an influential conservation group that the harvest of the seafood poses too much of a risk to rare whales and should be avoided. Whales can suffer injuries and fatalities when they become entangled in the gear that connects to lobster traps on the ocean floor. Seafood Watch, which rates the sustainability of different seafoods, said this week it has added the American and Canadian lobster fisheries to its red list of species to avoid. The organization, based at Monterey Bay Aquarium in California, said in a report that the fishing industry is a danger to North Atlantic right whales because current management measures do not go far enough to mitigate entanglement risks and promote recovery of the species. Lobster fishermen are already at work as the sun rises over the Atlantic Ocean, Thursday, Sept. 8, 2022, off of Kennebunkport, Maine. (AP Phot6o/Robert F. Bukaty) Thousands of businesses use Seafood Watchs recommendations to inform seafood buying decisions, and many have pledged to avoid any items that appear on the red list. A spokesperson for Blue Apron, the New York meal kit retailer, said the company stopped offering a seasonal lobster box prior to the report, and all of the seafood it is currently using follows Seafood Watchs guidelines. HelloFresh, the Germany-based meal kit company that is the largest such company operating in the U.S., also pledged shortly after the announcement to stop selling lobster. HelloFresh is committed to responsible sourcing and follows guidelines from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program, said Saskia Leisewitz, a spokesperson for HelloFresh. Seafood Watch assigns ratings of best choice, good alternative and avoid to more than 2,000 seafood items based on how sustainably they are managed. The organizations recommendations have been influential in the past, such as when it red-listed the Louisiana shrimp fishery, prompting efforts to better protect sea turtles. The fishery was later removed from the red list. The lobster fishing industry has come under scrutiny from Seafood Watch because of the threat of entanglement in fishing gear. The North Atlantic right whales number less than 340 and entanglement is one of the two biggest threats they face, along with collisions with ships, scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other groups have said. The population of the giant animals, which were decimated during the commercial whaling era generations ago, has fallen in recent years. Members of the lobster fishing industry, which is also coping with increased federal fishing restrictions to protect the whales, pushed back against the Seafood Watch rating. The lobster industry in Maine, where most of the U.S.s lobster comes to land, has not had a documented interaction with a right whale in almost two decades, said Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermens Association. A lobster fisherman hauls a trap, Thursday, Sept. 8, 2022, off of Kennebunkport, Maine. The conservation group, Seafood Watch, has added lobster to its red list as a species to avoid. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) Lobster is one of the most sustainable fisheries in the world due to the effective stewardship practices handed down through generations of lobstermen. These include strict protections for both the lobster resource and right whales, McCarron said. American and Canadian lobster fishermen target the same species, the American lobster, which is popular as live seafood and in processed products such as lobster rolls and lobster ravioli. The vast majority of the worlds American lobster comes to the shore in New England and eastern Canada, and the crustaceans are both a key piece of the economy and a cultural marker in both places. The U.S. lobster fishery is also one of the most lucrative in the country and was worth more than $900 million at the docks in 2021, when fishermen caught more than 130 million pounds (59 million kilograms) of the crustaceans. Seafood Watch partners with numerous major seafood buyers on its recommendations. Some of the buyers, such as Compass Group and Cheesecake Factory, did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press. A spokesperson for one, Mars Petcare, said the company doesnt have lobster in its supply chain. Environmental groups said Seafood Watchs decision places a spotlight on the fishery and the need to do more to protect whales. Fishery managers must increase protections to save North Atlantic right whales so seafood retailers, consumers, and restaurants can put American lobster and crab back on the menu, Oceana campaign director Gib Brogan said. TheGrio is FREE on your TV via Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, and Android TV. Please download theGrio mobile apps today! The post Lobster removed from some menus because catching the delicacy harms whales, report says appeared first on TheGrio. MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's Senate early on Friday approved legislation giving the Army control over the civilian-led National Guard despite fierce opposition from critics who argue the step is unconstitutional and will militarize public security. The National Guard began operating in early 2019 at the behest of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who campaigned for office on a pledge to return the military to barracks after the years it had spent combating violent drug gangs. He argued the National Guard would end corruption under its predecessor, the Federal Police, and he has also extended the Army's remit into other areas of civilian life. However, his government has presided over record levels of violence, and opposition legislators and activists say the National Guard has also committed alleged abuses. Senators voted by a margin of 71 in favor of the bill, with 51 against. There were two abstentions. The lower house of Congress approved the changes last week. The legislation, which now passes to Lopez Obrador to be signed into law, gives the Army operational, financial and administrative control of the National Guard, which currently answers to the civilian-led security ministry. The changes are almost certain to be challenged on the grounds they violate the constitution, and some senior legal experts say they are likely to be struck down in the Supreme Court. (Reporting by Diego Ore; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) LONDON (Reuters) - During Queen Elizabeth's 70-year reign, republican rumblings surfaced on occasion, but the affection and respect she enjoyed meant that the movement to do away with the monarchy struggled to make a lasting impression. Now, with her death and the accession of her less popular son Charles, republicans believe that the end of the 1,000-year-old institution could be a step closer. "The queen is the monarchy for most people. After she dies the future of the institution is in serious jeopardy," Graham Smith, chief executive of campaign group Republic, said earlier this year. "Charles may inherit the throne, but he won't inherit the deference and respect afforded the queen." Smith and like-minded anti-monarchists argue that the royal family has no place in a modern democracy, and is staggeringly expensive to maintain. Royal officials say the institution costs each Briton less than 1 pound ($1.15) annually, but Republic says its true cost to the nation each year is about 350 million pounds. People lay flowers outside the gate of Balmoral Castle, following the passing of Britain's Queen Elizabeth, in Balmoral, Scotland, Britain, September 9, 2022. REUTERS/Hannah McKay The overall wealth of the family is also hard to gauge due to the opaque nature of its finances and what it directly owns. A Reuters analysis in 2015 suggested it had nominal assets worth almost 23 billion pounds at the time. Polls have consistently shown that the vast majority of Britons back the monarchy, with support for the queen herself running at similar or higher levels. Republicans accepted they had no chance of changing the system while she was alive. But surveys have also shown support is slipping, especially among younger Britons, and that Charles is less popular. Backing for the 73-year-old taking the throne has also fluctuated, with some polls suggesting that many people believed the throne should pass to his eldest son Prince William instead. GENERATION GAME? The new king's second wife Camilla also remains a divisive figure, surveys show, and the greater popularity of William and his wife Kate could help counter moves towards abolishing the monarchy in Britain and abroad. Britain's mass-market newspapers have largely embraced the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who are a regular feature on the front pages as they carry out royal and charitable duties across the country. One former senior royal aide told Reuters the younger royals were more media savvy than the older generation, and that an enormous amount of planning and care went into ensuring their work and personality shone through. In a rapidly changing world, the stability of an ancient institution like the monarchy was also something on which people could rely. The aide said the royal family provided "sort of a ballast" to the country, especially in difficult times. Yet even William and Kate are not immune to criticism, with a recent tour of the Caribbean overshadowed by protests over Britain's imperial past. 'BIG DIFFERENCE' In the last few years, Republic has stepped up campaigning on social media and with billboards. Smith and other republicans have long argued that when Britons face up to the reality of Charles as king then support for the monarchy as a whole will dwindle. He has said that following the queen's funeral and before the coronation, he and other activists would vociferously push for there to be a referendum on the future of the institution. "It is an opportunity to campaign, but it is not going to be an easy campaign," he said. "We are going have to work hard to get that referendum." There is no clear path to removing the monarchy in Britain, which does not have a codified constitution that lays out the steps. Its opponents argue that if public opinion turns overwhelmingly against it, the royal family could not continue. The only time the royal line was interrupted was in 1649, when King Charles I was tried for high treason, convicted and executed, ushering in a brief period of an English republic. It ended in 1660 with the restoration of the monarchy, presaging the establishment of an institution with vastly reduced powers from what came before. REBELLIOUS REALMS It is not just in Britain that the monarchy's status could come under threat. Despite most of Britain's empire dissipating during Elizabeth's reign, Charles still becomes head of state of 14 other realms including Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The popularity and admiration for the queen had mostly kept a lid on republicanism, but the issue is now likely to reignite with renewed energy. The decision of Barbados to ditch the queen as head of state in November, 2021 was seen as a boost for the republican cause, and others realms such as Jamaica and Belize have indicated they wanted to follow suit, with the royals saying they would not stand in their way. "I want to say clearly, as I have said before, that each member's Constitutional arrangement, as republic or monarchy, is purely a matter for each member country to decide," Charles said at a Commonwealth summit in June this year. "The benefit of long life brings me the experience that arrangements such as these can change, calmly and without rancour." In Australia, 55 percent of voters backed keeping the monarchy in a referendum in 1999, but recent polls have given a contradictory picture on where sentiment currently lies. A 2020 survey suggested 62% wanted an Australian head of state, with the accession of Charles considered key, while a poll in January 2021 found only 34% wanted a republic. "I've got a lot of respect for the constitutional monarchy, and if it ain't broke, I don't see the need to fix it," former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said when Charles's second son Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, visited in 2018. Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attend the opening ceremony of the One Young World summit, in Manchester, Britain September 5, 2022. REUTERS/Molly Darlington However, the decision of Harry and Meghan to quit royal duties in 2020, and later to criticise Buckingham Palace and accuse one unnamed royal of racism, could work against the royals. Australia's centre-left Labor government named the country's first "assistant minister for the republic" when it came to power this June. The Australian Republic Movement offered condolences on the queen's death but noted that she herself had backed Australia's right to become a fully independent nation during the 1999 referendum. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has spoken in support of moving toward a republic. But on Friday he said: "Today's a day for one issue and one issue only, which is to pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth II." In Canada, recent polls suggest about half of Canadians believe the country should end its ties to the monarchy with the death of Elizabeth. However, experts say removing the monarchy from the Canadian constitution could prove difficult, perhaps stymieing any imminent moves towards a republic. In New Zealand, where voters in a 2016 referendum rejected changing their national flag to remove the Union Jack - the flag of the United Kingdom - polls indicate a divided public, with younger people leaning towards a republic. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in March 2018 that she expected New Zealand would become a republic within her lifetime but it was not a matter that the government was prioritising. Reacting to the queen's death on Thursday, Ardern said: "There is no doubt that a chapter is closing today...she was extraordinary." The U.S. Treasury Department has sanctioned Iranian "persons" involved with supplying Russia Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) amid its deadly war in Ukraine. The Department said Thursday that an air transportation service provider, three companies and one individual involved in "research, development, production, and procurement of Iranian UAVs and UAV components" were designated by the U.S. for aiding Moscow as it scrambles to resupply its war effort. "Russia is making increasingly desperate choices to continue its unprovoked war against Ukraine, particularly in the face of our unprecedented sanctions and export controls," Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian Nelson said. Russian soldiers pose by a T-80 tank in a position close to the Azovstal frontline in the besieged port city of Mariupol. Maximilian Clarke/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images IRAN'S ROLE IN 9/11 PLANNING REQUIRES 'FURTHER INVESTIGATION': NO PROBLEM 'CROSSING IDEOLOGICAL BOUNDARIES' Nelson said the U.S. would "not hesitate" to slap sanctions on any entity or individual found to be aiding Russia in continuing its war effort. The U.S. and its international allies warned at the onslaught of the war that not only would Russia become the target of severe international sanctions, but any nation or entity found to be assisting Moscow during its war in Ukraine. Safiran Airport Services have been accused of coordinating with Russias military and shipping personnel, UAVs and related equipment from Iran to Russia. Paravar Pars Company, Design and Manufacturing of Aircraft Engines, the Baharestan Kish Company and its managing director Rehmatollah Heidari have been designated by the U.S. for the production of Shahed-series UAVs along with related components for Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is deemed a terrorist organization by the U.S. A member of the Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, poses for a photograph with Shahed-171 (Simorgh) Drone during the Defensive Achievements Exhibition of the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Imam Khomeini Grand Mosque in central Tehran on the second day of ten-day celebration of Islamic Revolution anniversary, February 2, 2019. Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images RUSSIA IS ALREADY EXPERIENCING TECHNICAL FAILURES WITH IRANIAN DRONES The Thursday sanctions mean the companies or people affiliated with them are no longer allowed to enter the U.S. or transact with anyone in the U.S. The designation comes roughly two months after the U.S. first accused Iran of "gifting" hundreds of drones to Russia to aid its flagging supplies in Ukraine. The Biden administration announced earlier this week that Russia is also looking to North Korea to purchase rockets and artillery shells for its war effort. "The United States will hold those who support Russias unprovoked war against Ukraine to account," the State Department said late Thursday. "We will also use all available tools, including sanctions, to prevent, deter, and dismantle the procurement networks that supply UAV-related material and technology to Iran." The U.S. Treasury noted in its announcement that sanctions are not intended to "punish" but to encourage a "positive change in behavior." The new King will be formally proclaimed monarch at a historic Accession Council in the State Apartments of St Jamess Palace at 10am on Saturday as the ceremony is televised for the first time. A Principal Proclamation will be read in public for the first time by the Garter King of Arms in the open air from the balcony overlooking Friary Court at St Jamess an hour later at 11am. It will be followed by a flurry of Proclamations around the country, with the second one at City of London at the Royal Exchange at midday on Saturday, and further Proclamations in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales at midday on Sunday. Buckingham Palace issued details of the arrangements, considered the first official orders of business of a new reign, on Friday. Charles, the new King (Adam Davy/PA) It was confirmed cameras will be allowed inside the State Apartments to capture the proceedings for the first time in history. In recognition of the new Sovereign, union flags will be flown at full-mast from the time of the Principal Proclamation at St Jamess Palace until one hour after the Proclamations in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, after which flags will return to half-mast in mourning for the death of Her Majesty The Queen. Charles has automatically become King on the death of his mother, but the Accession Council is usually convened at St Jamess in London within 24 hours of the death of a sovereign. It is being staged a day later for King Charles III because the announcement of the Queens death did not come until early evening on Thursday, meaning there was not enough time to set the plans in motion for Friday morning. The Palace said: His Majesty The King will be proclaimed at the Accession Council at 10.00hrs tomorrow morning 10th September in the State Apartments of St Jamess Palace, London. The Accession Council, attended by Privy Councillors, is divided into two parts. In Part I, the Privy Council, without The King present, will proclaim the Sovereign, and formally approve various consequential Orders, including the arrangements for the Proclamation. Part II, is the holding by The King of His Majestys first Privy Council. The King will make his Declaration and read and sign an oath to uphold the security of the Church in Scotland and approve Orders in Council which facilitate continuity of government. Historically, the entire Privy Council is summoned to the Accession Council to oversee the formal proclamation of a new monarch. (PA Graphics) But with the number of privy counsellors who are lifetime members and mostly past and present politicians now standing at more than 700, restrictions have been put in place. Just 200 will be summoned, and those cut will be asked to enter an annual ballot for a few remaining seats, with the decision prompting a row over the lack of consultation and the loss of the key duty. This does not affect the constitutional process. The Accession Council must take place before Parliament meets, and Parliament should meet as soon as practicable after the death of a sovereign. The Accession Council is divided into two parts, and is presided over by the Lord President of the Council, who has ministerial responsibility for the Privy Council Office. Penny Mordaunt was appointed Lord President of the Council, and Leader of the House of Commons, on September 6 in Liz Trusss new Cabinet, in place of Mark Spencer, with the Queen officially approving the appointment. Ms Mordaunt is yet to be declared Lord President at a Privy Council meeting because the event was postponed on Wednesday when the Queen was urged to rest. Part l The Proclamation The chosen privy counsellors without the King will gather at St Jamess Palace to proclaim the new sovereign, joined by Great Officers of State, the Lord Mayor and City Civic party, Realm High Commissioners and some senior civil servants. If any of the counsellors summoned are not able to attend at short notice, the Council can still take place. Friary Court at St Jamess Palace, in central London, where the public proclamation will take place (Nick Ansell/PA) Camilla the new Queen and the Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge are already privy counsellors so will be present. When the meeting begins, the Lord President announces the death of the sovereign and calls upon the Clerk of the Council to read aloud the text of the Accession Proclamation. It will include Charless chosen title as King already known to be King Charles III. The platform party made up of Camilla and William, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor, the Archbishop of York, the Prime Minister, the Lord Privy Seal, the Lord Great Chamberlain, the Earl Marshal and the Lord President sign the Proclamation. The Lord President then calls for silence and reads the remaining items of business, which deal with the dissemination of the Proclamation and various orders giving directions for firing guns at Hyde Park and the Tower of London. Part II The Kings First Privy Council Charles then enters and holds his first Council, which is only attended by privy counsellors. He will first make a personal declaration about the death of the Queen. Then one of his next acts will be to take the oath to preserve the Church of Scotland because in Scotland there is a division of powers between Church and State. He will read it out loud and sign two identical Instruments recording the taking of the oath, with his signature witnessed by Camilla, the new Queen, and the Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge, and others including the Secretary of State for Scotland and the Scottish First Minister. Another oath, the Accession Declaration, to maintain the protestant succession, is normally made several months later at the State Opening of Parliament. Other business will be dealt with, including the use of the Seals, to facilitate the continuity of government. Privy counsellors will sign the Proclamation as they leave. The signed Proclamation of Accession of Queen Elizabeth II in 1952 (PA) The official record of proceedings will be published in a special supplement to the London Gazette. The first public proclamation After the Accession Council, the first public proclamation of the new sovereign is read in the open air from the Friary Court balcony by the Garter King of Arms at St Jamess Palace at 11am in the presence of the Earl Marshal and two of the sovereigns Serjeants at Arms. Amid great ceremony, trumpeters usually play a fanfare from the balcony and gun salutes are fired in Hyde Park and at the Tower of London at the same time. The Proclamation will then be read at the Royal Exchange in the City of London at midday. The Garter King of Arms, Sir George Bellew, reads the first public proclamation of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II in 1952 (PA) It will also be read out publicly in other cities including Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast at midday on Sunday and usually at Windsor and in York, where the mayor traditionally drinks to the new sovereigns health from a golden goblet. The Privy Council the oldest form of legislative assembly still functioning in the UK dates from the time of the Norman kings when the monarch met in private hence the description Privy with a group of trusted counsellors who fulfilled the role the cabinet performs today. The sovereign is its head and the body advises the monarch as they carry out duties as head of state. The council also provides administrative support for the leaders of the Commons and Lords and has responsibility for the affairs of 400 institutions, charities and companies incorporated by royal charter. It has a judicial role as the court of final appeal for UK overseas territories and crown dependencies and for a number of Commonwealth countries. Meetings take place with members standing up throughout. Queen Victoria is believed to have started the convention in 1861 following the death of her beloved consort Prince Albert when she wished to reduce her public duties to the minimum necessary. The Queen saw the Commonwealth as a family and took great pride in its success. Although she was its symbolic head, she had no formal powers over the 56 countries and the 2.4 billion citizens which make up the voluntary association. The Duke of Edinburgh once described his wife as the Commonwealth psychotherapist, a nod to her informal talks with heads of government at the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh are carried shoulder high in canoes on their visit to Tuvalu during a Commonwealth tour (PA) She was said to have brought a calmness to the Commonwealth and inspired loyalty among its members. The Queen firmly believed that the Commonwealths role was to act as a force for good in the world. She summed up her views in her Commonwealth Day speech of 2003. It is a unique global grouping, spanning every region of the world and including in its membership countries of all sizes and stages of development, she said. It is an association of peoples as well as governments and it is a body which values the richness of its diversity. Professor Ben Pimlott, her biographer, once summarised the Queens thoughts on the Commonwealth: Though the Commonwealth has changed greatly from the empire to which she had dedicated her life in Cape Town in 1947, it remains, in her imagination, a family. The modern Commonwealth was established by the London Declaration of 1949, just two years after India and Pakistan were granted independence. From Britains Empire evolved a voluntary association of countries, bound together by ties of friendship as well as tradition. Many newly-independent states chose to drop her as Queen, but she undertook the titular role of head of the Commonwealth and attached great importance to its work. The Queen receives flowers in Central Park, Bourke, Australia, in 2000 (Fiona Hanson/PA) In all, she was Queen of 15 of the 56 Commonwealth member countries, including the UK. In 2021 after years of signalling its intention, Barbados became a republic, replacing the Queen with a president, with Charles travelling to the Caribbean island to witness the historic transition. The Queen described the change as a momentous day and sent the people of Barbados her warmest good wishes for your happiness, peace and prosperity in the future. In 1999, Australia held a referendum on proposals to become a republic and replace the Queen with a president. The idea was rejected, with about 54% of the population voting No. The Queen was credited with playing a vital role in ensuring that divisions over South African sanctions in the 1980s did not lead to the organisations break-up. The Queen shares a joke with then South African president Thabo Mbeki during the opening of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Durban (Fiona Hanson/PA) She visited every single Commonwealth country during her lifetime, apart from Cameroon, which only joined in 1995, and Rwanda, which joined in 2009. Although the Queen was head of the Commonwealth, it was previously thought that the Prince of Wales would not automatically take on the role when king. However in early 2013, Australias then-prime minister, Julia Gillard, spoke out in support of Britains next monarch becoming the Commonwealths head. Charles formally opened the Chogm summit in Sri Lanka in 2013, representing his mother for the first time, a significant step for him as a king-in-waiting. It was the first time in 40 years that the Queen had missed the summit and came as part of a review of her long-haul travel. It was ultimately up to the countries leaders to decide what they wanted to do with the symbolic post, and in 2018, following the Chogm summit in London, they confirmed Charles as the future head. The Prince of Wales speaks at CHOGM in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in 2013 (Chris Jackson/PA) The endorsement came after a public appeal from the Queen in her summit opening ceremony speech at Buckingham Palace in which she said it was her sincere wish that her son would be the next head of the Commonwealth. With the Queen held in such high esteem by the family of nations, it was no surprise that Charless future position was secured. The Queen has been held up in newspapers around the world as a unifying force who symbolised stability during decades of rapid change. Some mastheads praised the royals fortitude and loyalty throughout her reign, while there was also space to reflect on her personality. News Corp ran a 24-page commemorative magazine tribute to the Queen of all our hearts across its stable of mastheads, which includes Sydneys The Daily Telegraph, the Herald Sun in Melbourne and Brisbanes The Courier Mail. The world is in mourning after Queen Elizabeth II died aged 96. Read our special commemorative edition https://t.co/heSGsEQLOn pic.twitter.com/GLDJ8uxjxk The Daily Telegraph (@dailytelegraph) September 9, 2022 Pages of photographs were paired with praise for a steadfast monarch who never wavered as wars, pandemics and prime ministers came and went around her. Nine, which oversees the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, looked at how Australia will mark the Queens death. Chief political correspondent David Crowe said parliament in Canberra will be suspended for 14 days while governor-general David Hurley and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese travel to the UK for the Queens funeral. Across the ditch, the Queen was praised for being the first reigning monarch to visit New Zealand. Ex-New Zealand Womans Weekly editor Jenny Lynch recalled the young Queens smile in 1953 during a trip with her husband to a country desperate to demonstrate our love and loyalty. She had extraordinary resolve. She never deviated in her devotion to duty, Ms Lynch wrote for Stuff, which prints Wellingtons The Dominion Post and The Press in Christchurch. We respected and admired her. And we never stopped loving that wonderful smile. (PA Graphics) The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal in the US said the Queen provided steady, self-effacing leadership in her exemplary reign during an era that tested British unity and fortitude. The Queen was, it added, that rarest of things in the modern world: A widely beloved national figure also respected around the world. Her unique charisma tended to obscure the anachronism that is any hereditary monarchy, which leaves to fate the question of whether a country will get the leader it needs at the right time, the paper said. The corresponding group at The Washington Post said distilling her reign to statistics misses her larger contribution to British society and our cultural consciousness. It added: Steady as her ubiquitous profile on stamps and coins, the Queen embodied the British stiff upper lip. The Queens popularity and longevity have acted as a unifying force, even as Brexit has unravelled Britains ties to Europe and the links binding the UK countries to each other have loosened. Minneord: Dronning Elizabeth 2.s dd avslutter en kvinnes unike skjebne og liv som strekker seg over nesten et arhundre. Hun formet sitt kongelige kall med pliktflelse og kjrlighet og ble bade britenes og hele verdens dronning. pic.twitter.com/Gpf9Idhbf9 Aftenposten (@Aftenposten) September 8, 2022 For more than 70 years, Elizabeth II symbolised stability, and Britain was the better for it. Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten praised the Queen, who adorns its front page, for her sense of duty and love, adding in a Twitter post she had become Queen of both the British and the entire world. Germanys Bild said from now everything is different. A new era begins while the liveblog of The Times of India, the worlds highest-circulating English-language newspaper, carried a photograph of the Union Jack at half mast at the British High Commission in Delhi. There should be more dry weather than wet weather across the UK on Saturday as well-wishers pay their respects to the Queen, the Met Office has said. The weather should be better than it was on Friday, with relatively warm temperatures for the country all round. England and Wales are likely to have some showers throughout the day, with temperatures between 20 and 23C. Met Office spokesman Craig Snell told the PA news agency: For England and Wales, its going to be another day of sunny spells and scattered showers. But unlike recent days, where some of the showers have been really torrential, they should be a bit lighter. Here is the forecast for the rest of the day pic.twitter.com/qI1rJp5FBF Met Office (@metoffice) September 9, 2022 There could still be the odd rumble of thunder, kind of across East Anglia into Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. For a lot of people, there should be more dry weather than wet weather whereas in the last couple of days the balance has probably been the other way. For people paying their respects at Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle, Mr Snell recommended bringing an umbrella. He said: There will probably be a few showers around the London area. Hopefully itll be more in the way of dry weather than wet weather. Anything that does pass over London possibly wont be too heavy at all. But I would recommend maybe keeping a brolly handy. Northern Ireland and Scotland should experience dry weather on Saturday, with temperatures reaching roughly 18 or 19C. Mr Snell said: After some very wet weather across Scotland, it is generally going to be a dry day with some sunny spells. The most frequent sunny spells will be kind of across the north-western half of Scotland, but it will be generally dry across Northern Ireland and Scotland. For those visiting Balmoral Castle, there could be some sunshine, as the north east of Scotland is generally looking OK and dry. He added: Some sunshine will come out as the day goes on so it should be a fair day up there. He said Edinburgh should be fairly similar, with daylight hours on Saturday and Sunday looking dry. It will be a bit sunnier in Balmoral than across Edinburgh but even as we go into the afternoon in Edinburgh on Saturday, we should see some sunshine. A royal gun salute is set to sound as people in Northern Ireland continue to pay tribute following the passing of the Queen. With the UK entering a period of official mourning, much of the focus in Northern Ireland will be on the small village of Hillsborough in Co Down, which will be the centre of ceremonial activities. At Hillsborough Castle a royal gun salute will sound at lunchtime, with 96 rounds fired, one to mark every year of the Queens life. A major security operation is under way in the village, with traffic restricted ahead of what is expected to be a large number of visitors paying tribute over the coming days. Royal Hillsborough last year became the first place in Northern Ireland to be granted royal status. Floral tributes are laid at the gates of Hillsborough Castle in County Down (Jonathan McCambridge/PA) Already a large number of floral tributes have been left at the gates of the castle, with people travelling from across Northern Ireland to pay their respects. Away from the Co Down village, people were gathering at a mural of the Queen on the Shankill Road in Belfast on Friday morning to leave floral tributes. Church bells are expected to ring out at a number of locations and books of condolence will be opened in Belfast, Londonderry and at other locations. Lord Mayor of Belfast Christina Black said: Queen Elizabeth made a valuable contribution to building peace and strengthening reconciliation between people on these islands. As a mark of respect, I will open books of condolence at City Hall for the people of the city to sign and extend sympathies to her family at this sad time. Stormont speaker Alex Maskey has already stated that he is liaising with officials to ensure that the Stormont Assembly is able to pay tribute. Sir Elton John has continued his tributes to the Queen at his concert in Toronto on Thursday night, during which he praised the monarch and her inspiring presence. The singer-songwriter told his audience the Queen had led Britain through some of our greatest and darkest moments saying she deserved her final rest. Reflecting on the 96-year-olds death on Thursday in Scotland, Sir Elton then gave a rendition of his 1974 track Dont Let the Sun Go Down on Me, while images of the smiling monarch, wearing a bright purple coat and hat, were displayed on the screens. She was an inspiring presence to be around she was fantastic, he said. She led the country through some of our greatest and darkest moments with grace and decency and a genuine caring warmth. Im 75 and shes been with me all my life and I feel very sad that she wont be with me anymore, but Im glad shes at peace, and Im glad shes at rest and she deserves it. She worked bloody hard. I send my love to her family. Shell be missed but well celebrate her life tonight with you, OK? Sir Elton was knighted by the Queen in 1998. Sir Elton was knighted by the queen in 1998 (PA) The King invested the musician and charity patron as a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour at a ceremony at Windsor Castle last year. Sir Elton sang at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997. Immediately following the announcement of the Queens death on Thursday, the musical megastar shared a statement in which he said the Queen been a huge part of his life from childhood to this day. Along with the rest of the nation, I am deeply saddened to hear the news of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeths passing, Sir Elton wrote. Queen Elizabeth has been a huge part of my life from childhood to this day, and I will miss her dearly. Johns concert in Canada was the second of two nights at Torontos Rogers Centre and part of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, billed as his final tour. YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Vahagn Khachaturyan sent a letter of condolences to King Charles III of the United Kingdom, the Presidential Office said. The letter reads: I express my deepest condolences to You, the Royal Family and the good British people over the death of Queen Elizabeth II. During the seven decades of her reign, Queen Elizabeth II has been an exemplary monarch, by always serving her life and activity to the welfare of her own country and people. In the contemporary world Her Majesty became an unequivocal guarantor of the legal state, acting in favor of universal and civilizational values, the rule of law and the protection of human rights. Queen Elizabeth was a strong individual concerned about the fate of her nation, who was enjoying an unconditional and deep respect in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth of Nations. The death of Her Majesty Elizabeth II is a great loss not only for the British people, but also for the international community. YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan sent a congratulatory message to the President of the Republic of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon on the occasion of Independence Day, the PMs Office said. The message reads as follows, "Your Excellency, Please accept my warm congratulations on the Independence Day of the Republic of Tajikistan. Armenia attaches great importance to the development of mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries, based on friendship, trust and mutual respect. I am confident that the historically formed friendly relations between our peoples are a reliable basis for the further expansion and deepening of Armenian-Tajik interstate relations. I wish Your Excellency good health and success, and peace and prosperity to the friendly people of Tajikistan." YEREVAN, 9 SEPTEMBER, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 9 September, USD exchange rate up by 0.21 drams to 405.32 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 2.85 drams to 408.32 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.05 drams to 6.72 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 3.04 drams to 470.66 drams. The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals. Gold price up by 98.81 drams to 22275.12 drams. Silver price up by 6.05 drams to 242.71 drams. Platinum price stood at 16414.1 drams. YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. Many of the guests who participated in STARMUS VI claimed that STARMUS in Armenia was the best one in the history of the Festival, STARMUS Founding Director Garik Israelian said during the closing ceremony of the Festival. The Festival was held very well. I didnt believe it will be held so good because of many reasons - the coronavirus pandemic, war and etc. All these problems could have been reflected on the achievements of the Festival, but I am happy to see that these problems didnt affect us at all. STARMUS was so powerful and strong that nothing affected the festival, he said. He expressed hope that similar festivals will be held in Armenia in the future. There is no future in Armenia without science and education, he added. Israelian said that the best cooperation between public structures and STARMUS and the most active participation of students have been in Norway and Armenia. Chief of Staff at the Office of the Prime Minister of Armenia Arayik Harutyunyan delivered remarks at the closing ceremony of the Festival, stating that the government of Armenia will make all efforts to develop these directions. He called this festival an additional impetus to the development of science and education. Education and science do not exist without art anymore. And STARMUS is the best combination of it, he said. President of Armenia Vahagn Khachaturyan also participated in the closing ceremony of the Festival. He highly appreciated the holding of the Festival and thanked its organizers for holding the event at the highest level. Its sad that this event is over. I am convinced that it will not only give a new breath, but also will bring a new enthusiasm in Armenia, he said. The Festival closed with the premiere of a film Alexei Leonov: Space Inside. The film is based on the last interview of Alexei Leonovs daughter, Oksana Leonova. On 18 March, 1965, Alexei Leonov became the first human to conduct a space walk. This historic event occurred on the Voskhod 2 flight. He was outside the spacecraft for 12 minutes and nine seconds connected to the craft by a 5.35 meter tether. At the end of the spacewalk, his spacesuit had inflated in the vacuum of space to the point where he could not re-enter the airlock. He opened a valve to allow some of the suits pressure to bleed off and was barely able to get back inside the capsule. Armenia hosted STARMUS VI: 50 Years on Mars international festival from September 5 to 10. YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. During his working in the United States the Defense Minister of Armenia Suren Papikyan visited the National Defense University in Washington D.C. where he met with the University President , Lt. Gen Michael Plehn, the Defense Ministry of Armenia said in a news release. A number of issues relating to the cooperation in the field of military education were discussed during the meeting. Minister Papikyan highlighted the development of cooperation between the National Defense Research University of the Armenian Defense Ministry and the National Defense University of the United States. Lt. Gen Michael Plehn has expressed readiness to contribute to the strengthening of ties and expanding the partnership between the two universities in the field of military education. The IAF chief undertook the sortie while visiting the 101 Squadron, which is the second hub of Rafale fighter jets IAF chief Air Chief Marshal V R Chaudhari and his son, Squadron Leader Mihir V Chaudhari, flew a Rafale aircraft in a combat training mission sortie from Hasimara Air Force Station in West Bengal. (Photo by arrangement) Kolkata: In a rare feat, Indian Air Force (IAF) chief Air Chief Marshal V R Chaudhari and his son, Squadron Leader Mihir V Chaudhari, flew a Rafale aircraft in a combat training mission sortie from Hasimara Air Force Station in West Bengal. The IAF chief undertook the sortie while visiting the 101 Squadron, which is the second hub of Rafale fighter jets, at the airbase on Thursday during the annual Eastern Air Command (EAC) Commanders Conference which he chaired at the EAC headquarters in Shillong from September 7-9. The IAF tweeted on Friday, "Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari, #CAS was on a visit to IAF's Eastern AOR. During the visit, CAS flew a sortie on #Rafale aircraft as part of three aircraft combat training mission at Air Force Station Hasimara with his son, Sqn Ldr Mihir V Chaudhari." It added, "The sortie flown by #CAS and his son is a continuation of the finest traditions of the #IAF and underlines the importance accorded to grooming and preparing our young leaders for the challenges of the future. #CAS reviewed and appreciated the operational preparedness of the airbase and interacted with the personnel stationed there. He urged the personnel to continue their efforts in safeguarding the Nation's skies at all times." The IAF chief, who was received by EAC Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Air Marshal DK Patnaik, emphasised the need for critical analysis and measures to enhance operational preparedness in his address to the commanders. Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari also apprised the IAF commanders of the current security scenario, geopolitical situation and the role of IAF in dealing with various contingencies. He further highlighted the need for maintaining high operational readiness round the clock and retaining focus on capability enhancement and awarded trophies to stations for achieving excellence in the fields of operations, maintenance and administration. There is still the issue of stand-off at Demchock and Chinese PLA Army forces blocking Indian troops from the patrolling at Depsang plains The beginning of the disengagement process was an outcome of the 16th round of high-level military talks in July, according to a joint statement by the two armies. (PTI file image) NEW DELHI: In a major breakthrough, Indian and Chinese troops on Thursday began disengagement from the Gogra-Hotsprings general area (Patrolling Point-15) in the Ladakh sector "in a coordinated and planned way" after nearly 28 months of military stand-off, joint statement issued by both the countries said on Thursday. The statement came before the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Uzbekistan next week which Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to attend. There is speculation over whether the event will see a bilateral meeting between Modi and Jinping. If it comes through, it will be the first such talks between the two after the military stand-off between the two countries broke in April 2020. The breakthrough on Thursday cames nearly one year after both sides had disengaged from another standoff Patrolling Point 17A in Gogra in the same sector. Since the stand-off began, disengagement has been achieved in Galwan, Pangong Tso, Gogra (PP-17A) and now Gogra-Hotsprings general area (Patrolling Point-15). There is still the issue of stand-off at Demchock and the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army forces blocking Indian troops from the patrolling at Depsang plains. "On 8th September 2022, according to the consensus reached in the 16th round of India China Corps Commander Level Meeting, the Indian and Chinese troops in the area of Gogra-Hotsprings (PP-15) have begun to disengage in a coordinated and planned way, which is conducive to the peace and tranquility in the border areas," said the joint statement issued on Thursday. It is likely that a buffer zone will be set up which will put a freeze on patrolling by troops from both sides in the area. The 16th round of Corps Commanders meeting between India and China was held in July at the Chushul-Moldo meeting point in Ladakh. However, a large number of troops along with tanks, artillery and air defence missile systems from the Chinese side are said to be deployed at frontline positions at the Line of Actual Control (LAC). China has also built massive military infrastructure all along the LAC. The tensions between the two sides will persist till China pulls back massive number of troops it brought to frontline at LAC in April 2020. "It is a positive development but we can't say that we have achieved the status of pre-April 2020," said sources in the defence establishment. After the disengagement from Gogra Post in August 2021 during the 12th round of Corps Commanders, it was believed that Hot Springs issued will be resolved quickly as it had in 2020 witnessed a partial roll-back of troops. However, Chinese dragged their feet on further disengagement from the Hot-Springs for more than a year. In February 2021, Indian and Chinese troops had completed their disengagement from the most contentious friction point Pangong Tso in the Eastern Ladakh after nearly nine months of eyeball to eyeball military stand-off. Last week India replaced the United Kingdom as the world's fifth-largest economy, but its per capita GDP is still very low. During her reign, Elizabeth II presided over decolonisation, but anti-British sentiment in India has evolved over time. Today it is driven by the BJP. While the balance of power is changing, economic and military ties between the two countries remain close. Milan (AsiaNews) When Elizabeth ascended the throne in 1952, Winston Churchill was British Prime Minister; three days ago she appointed the 15th head of government of her long reign, Conservative Liz Truss. When she was born in 1926, the British colonial empire was still intact, but began to crumble in the following 20 years, transforming itself into the Commonwealth of Nations. Elizabeth, who was on tour in Kenya when she received news of her father's death, became in spite of herself the queen who saw the independence movement sweep Africa and Asia. This long process culminated last week with India overtaking the United Kingdom as the fifth-largest economy. The former British Raj, the Jewel in the Crown, had overtaken the former colonial master. The Queens death marks the end of an era but opens a new one, full of new turbulent times, with more wars and unprecedented upheavals. Some are torn by regrets while others are rejoicing. In a tweet following the announcement of the monarchs death, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, before he ordered a day of national mourning, wrote: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will be remembered as a stalwart of our times. She provided inspiring leadership to her nation and people. She personified dignity and decency in public life. Pained by her demise. My thoughts are with her family and people of [thet] UK in this sad hour. Yet, only a few hours earlier, with ironic timing, the Indian leader attended a ceremony renaming New Delhis Rajpath (one of the capitals main boulevards) as Kartavya (Duty) Path, in order to remove the traces of [the] colonial mindset. Known as Kingsway during the British Raj, the road was renamed after independence Rajpath, a quasi-literal translation of the original English name. In Hindi and various Indian languages, raj means kingdom, realm, or empire. The shifting names reflect the ebb and flow of history that India has gone and is still going through at great speed. According to Sarwan Singh, professor of international relations at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi and president of the Association of ASIA Scholars, the anticolonial discourse has evolved over time in India. The hyper-nationalism promoted by Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is a relatively recent phenomenon linked to the great strides made by the country in a few years. Just 10 years ago, India was the eleventh-largest economy in the world. Now its GDP is greater than that of the United Kingdom; this has had a major emotional impact since the former colonial power dominated India for over two centuries. Even though the Indian economy is projected to surpass that of Germany and Japan by 2030, just knowing that it has surpassed that of the United Kingdom, an imperialist power, has generated a certain confidence and a great sense of pride, Singh said. What remains of British rule in India today? Some infrastructure and institutions, the educational system, but also inequalities. According to some studies, the United Kingdom extracted some US$ 45 trillion dollars from India between 1765 and 1938, starting with the East India Company. India's GDP today exceeds US$ 854 billion dollars or about US$ 2,300 compared to US$ 47,000 for the United Kingdom. Poverty levels remain very high, with 400 million people, just over 20 per cent of the population, earning less than US$ 2 a day. For Prof Singh, relations between India and the UK nowadays are mostly personal and business. "Most Indian elites have studied at British universities, but this is also changing; many people stay or prefer other English-speaking destinations, such as Canada and Australia because of more welcoming immigration policies." Before Brexit, the number of Indian students in the United Kingdom fell by 25 per cent between 2012 and 2013 after new immigration legislation came into effect. Still, ties between India and the United Kingdom are strong, especially in trade and defence. In April, then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Delhi to boost cooperation in both areas, perhaps also trying to reduce Indias reliance on Russia for weapons and boost the Indo-Pacific containment of China. Last year the two countries established a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership that included, among other things, a roadmap to improve bilateral relations by 2030, while in January of this year, they concluded the first round of free trade negotiations. The balance of power between the two countries could change over time, but in the medium term, the fate of India and the United Kingdom will remain intertwined even under the new king, Charles III, and the newly appointed prime minister, Liz Truss. by Melani Manel Perera The country is on its knees from the collapse of its currency and foreign debt; yet, it spends 19 per cent of its budget on the military 13 years after the end of the countrys civil war in order to keep a heavy military presence in the north of the country. The government and President Wickremesinghe need the military because they do not have the support of public opinion, says Tamil lawmaker. Colombo (AsiaNews) Sri Lanka's reforms should apply to the military as well, this according to a Tamil MP. Planned reforms resulting from the ongoing economic crisis should also be applicable to Sri Lankas military, which should be downsized, said opposition MP Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, speaking before parliament. Gajendrakumar, leader of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress, raised the issue during the budget debate, coming out against increasing the military budget at a time when the country is on its knees and restructuring its foreign debt to cope with the ongoing crisis. The government and President Wickremesinghe need the military because they do not have the support of public opinion, explained the Tamil lawmaker, who noted that military spending constitutes 19 per cent of the state budget. "In the former war zone in northern Sri Lanka, a massive military structure is maintained even during the period of economic crisis to oppress the general public. The government has allocated more money for the maintenance of the armed forces at a time when the rupee is devaluing and even if the country has no enemies. Most opposition MPs from the north have raised concerns about the heavy military presence in the region, even though 13 years have lapsed since the end of the long civil war. The latter ended with the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a terrorist group that called for an independent state for the Tamil minority in northern and eastern Sri Lanka. by Vladimir Rozanskij Belarus is in the grips of an economic crisis, hit by Western sanctions for its support of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In the first half of 2022 Belarusian GDP fell by 6%. The Kremlin's economic aid is deemed insufficient. Belarusian expert: we have gone back 10 years. Moscow (AsiaNews) - Belarus has lost over 50,000 jobs since the beginning of the year. In July, the number of active workers fell to just over 4 million, the lowest ever for the country, partly due to the strong migration of those who do not want to live in war-like conditions behind the gates, and the early retirement demanded by many others. These are the figures released by Satio, a centre specialising in economic planning. In the first half of 2022 Belarusian GDP dropped by 6%, and is expected to hit -10% by the end of the year, never so bad in the last 25 years. The main cause of the decline is the Western sanctions, the first wave of which came after the repression of the 2020 street protests against the forgeries that led to the re-election of President Lukasenko; they were joined by those for the Russian war in Ukraine, actively supported by Minsk, which granted the Russians a line of invasion through its territory. The EU then placed an embargo on Belarusian oil supplies, refining products, metal and agricultural production. Exports to Europe have been reduced by more than half, whereas previously they accounted for 24%, compared to 41% of trade to Russia. Vice-Premier Petr Parkhomcik said that exports to Russia had increased 1.3 times in this period, but due to sanctions -18 billion worth of products, one third of last year's exports, are blocked. The increase in consumer prices coupled with the reduced spending power of wages, are leading to a severe impoverishment of the population. According to Satio, for more than half of Belarusians, savings are at most enough for one month, in case of loss of income, and even the most miserable jobs are held with great fear of losing everything. The unemployment benefit in Belarus is around USD 10 per month. The economies of Russia and Belarus suffer differently, as Moscow starts from a much higher base than Minsk. Economist Lev Lvovsky, a contributor to the Beroc analytical centre, believes that the sanctions policy makes Belarusians suffer much more than their 'big brothers'. In his opinion, 'only in appearance are the sanctions against Belarus less severe, because our economy is smaller in size, but much more open than Russia's'. Lvovsky points out that Belarus does not have a large domestic market: 'It is crucial for us to remain tied to international ties; moreover, we have been suffering from the sanctions for a year before those imposed on Russia, with cumulative effect, and Moscow still continues to export gas and oil'. An important item was the sale of potash, which used to be transported through the Lithuanian port of Klajpeda, but now Lithuania has refused the Belarusians transit through its territory; it is now partly routed through China by long rail transports. Trade with Ukraine, which was one of Minsk's main trading partners even after 2014, when Russia had blocked relations with Kiev instead, has been completely cancelled. All of Lukasenko's hopes of not sinking into an irreversible crisis are therefore pinned on the generosity of Moscow, a partner of the 'Unitary State' that has been in the making for more than two decades, from which the Belarusian 'batka' (father of the homeland) himself has repeatedly tried to escape. Russia has recently granted over a billion dollars in funding to support exports from Belarus, and partially compensate for losses to Europe and Ukraine. Mutual visits by the two countries' leaders and senior officials are increasingly frequent, and almost all of them concern the terms of Moscow's credits to Minsk, which still considers them insufficient. According to Lvovsky "we have already gone back 10 years, and everyone is trying to prepare for even tougher times". Today's headlines: Lockdown extended in China's megacity Chengdu; India and Japan strengthen military cooperation; Vietnam: five-year jail term for dissident blogger; Iran has uranium to build nuclear bomb in weeks; Catholic activist arrested in Russia. KOREA The South Korean Ministry of Unification today proposed to North Korea discussions on the problem of families separated after the 1950-53 war . There are nearly 44,000 South Koreans who have relatives in the North, two-thirds of whom are 70 or older. The last round of negotiations on the issue took place in 2018. CHINA The megacity of Chengdu (Sichuan) extends the lockdown for Covid-19 in 16 out of 23 city districts. Millions of inhabitants are quarantined in several of the country's peers due to Xi Jinping's zero-Covid policy. Official infection numbers, however, remain low nationwide: 1,439 cases yesterday, with no deaths. INDIA-JAPAN Delhi and Tokyo will strengthen military cooperation, with the Indians demanding more Japanese industrial investment in their defence. The two sides also plan more joint military exercises. The announcement came today at the end of a meeting in the Indian capital between the respective foreign and defence ministers. VIETNAM Sentenced to five years in prison a dissident blogger accused of "abusing democratic freedoms to violate the interests of the State". The sentence for Le Anh Hung came on 30 August, but his family was not informed until a week later. The trial allegedly took place without a defence lawyer. IRAN Tehran has enough uranium to build a nuclear bomb in 3-4 weeks, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, pointing out that the Iranians are increasing their stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which is needed to make an atomic bomb. RUSSIA Catholic activist Dmitry Dunko was arrested and imprisoned for eight days. He had denounced the interference of politicians from United Russia - Putin's party - in the activities of Moscow's Catholic parishes. From his cell he managed to send a message of hope, before his mobile phone was confiscated: "The rosary and the Gospel are with me, see you soon". GEORGIA Members of the opposition 'National Movement' party protested against the celebration of a Divine Liturgy in Church Slavonic, the liturgical language of the Russian Orthodox Church, in the Svetiskhoveli Cathedral in the ancient capital of Mtskhet. The parish priest, Archimandrite Ilja (Kavsadze) justified himself by saying that he was celebrating for Russian, Belarusian and Bulgarian faithful. by Steve Suwannarat Businesses are regularly using defamation laws against those who report abuse. In the latest case, three women face up to two years in prison. They are expected to appear in court next week to be indicted. Bangkok (AsiaNews) A Thai court is set to rule on a defamation lawsuit filed by Thammakaset, a poultry and dairy company. Following a preliminary hearing on 31 May, the Criminal Court of Bangkok South will decide next Monday to indict or not the three women. This is not the first time that companies have taken legal action against individuals and organisations defending the rights of workers, consumers, and immigrants and opposed unsafe or illegal working conditions and practices. The lawsuit stems from online messages and videos that the three activists posted on Twitter expressing solidarity with human rights defenders criticised or attacked by the company. The company has filed 28 defamation suits, citing Articles 326 and 328 of the Criminal Code. Two are against Angkana Neelapaijit, a former member of the National Human Rights Commission and a member of the United Nations Operational Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances. Another 21 cases involve Puttanee Kangkun, senior human rights specialist at Fortify Rights, a human rights group, while the last five others target Thanaporn Saleephol, a former communications associate of the same NGO. The charges are based on a video release by Fortify Rights that other courts have already ruled non-defamatory. If the three women are found guilty, each faces up to two years in prison and a US$ 5,700 fine. The Community Resources Centre Foundation, which provides legal information, resources and aid, has called for the charges to be dropped in accordance with Article 161/1 of the Thai Code of Criminal Procedure. Angkana Neelapaijit is already on trial in another a lawsuit brought by Thammakaset, with the first hearing scheduled for 14 March 2023. Since 2016, the company has filed at least 37 lawsuits against 22 human rights advocates, but in most cases, the courts have either dismissed the case or ruled against the plaintiff. This shows once again the constant tug-of-war between business interests seeking to protect their image and the laws designed to protect freedom of information and expression in accordance with Thailands international commitments. As Amy Smith, executive director of Fortify Rights, notes, Decriminalising defamation in Thailand is one measure that would significantly reduce unwarranted attacks on human rights defenders and demonstrate Thailands genuine commitment to uphold its human rights obligations. The visit is also an indication that the Chinese president feels confident enough about his status at home on the eve of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China. Bilateral deals are set to be signed. Kazakhstanis look to China to counter Russia's influence. Beijing is courting a major provider of raw materials and energy, but bilateral relations are not free from tensions. Beijing (AsiaNews) Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to visit Kazakhstan on 14 September. For experts, two factors explain the timing, namely Xis desire to boost Chinas position in Central Asia and to show that his leadership at home is firm and undisputed at a time when the country is affected by an economic crisis. For Xi, this will be his first trip abroad since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. After Kazakhstan, the Chinese leader will attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Uzbekistan. Between 13 and 15 September, Pope Francis will also be in Kazakhstan on an apostolic mission, with the Catholic News Agency not ruling out a meeting between the two, however unlikely it might seem. Back in China, ordinary Chinese also hope that Xi's Central Asian tour will be the first step towards easing the country's draconian COVID-19 health restrictions. However, this is unlikely to happen before the end of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China, which opens on 16 October. According to several analysts, the visits to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan on the eve of the party congress are also a sign that Xis power is safe. During his stay in Nur-Sultan, Xi will sign a series of bilateral agreements with Kazakhstani President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, a Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesperson said. China is the main economic player in Central Asia, even though Russia remains the dominant military player. Thus, Xi's trip is seen as an opportunity to reaffirm China's growing hegemony in the region at a time that Russia grapples with the political and economic fallout from its aggression against Ukraine. At the SCO summit, China's supreme leader is expected to meet Vladimir Putin. By stopping first in Kazakhstan, Xi may want to send a message to his Russian counterpart that China recognises the sovereignty of Central Asian countries. In 2014 Putin had said that Kazakhstan was an artificial creation of its first president, Nursultan Nazarbayev. Ethnic Kazakhs, who live with a large Russian community, fear that after Ukraine the Kremlin could also threaten their independence. For China, Kazakhstan is a major supplier of minerals, metals and energy, as well as a key transit point for Chinese goods on their way to Europe, and a major link in the Belt and Road Initiative, the huge infrastructure project Xi announced in 2013 during a visit to Kazakhstan. Since then, Chinese investments in Central Asia have surpassed Russias. What is more, the pipeline that delivers Turkmen gas to Xinjiang, north-western China, also runs through Kazakhstan. Turkmenistan is Chinas main supplier of natural gas. Following street protests in Kazakhstan at the start of the year over the rising cost of living, China expressed veiled concerns about the countrys stability; however, during the turmoil, energy facilities were not affected. Observers on the ground note that any group seeking power in Kazakhstan would not sabotage gas and oil pipelines, which are the bases of the countrys wealth. Not everything is smooth between two countries either. Chinese nationalist groups claim that China traditionally ruled Kazakhstani territory, while over the past few years, some Kazakhstanis have protested against the growing presence of Chinese companies, considered major polluters. Kazakhstanis are also unhappy about the way China treats their "cousins" in Xinjiang where China is accused by many parties of placing more than a million Turkic-speaking Muslims, including ethnic Kazakhs, in concentration camps. Aspen School District buses navigate the roundabout at the base of Maroon Creek Road on Thursday afternoon. The choke point resulted in 45-minute delays for the drop off of some students the day earlier, on Wednesday, because of the Castle Creek Bridge construction project. Bloomberg found documents suggesting Tesla applied for tax breaks with the Texas Comptrollers Office. The public documents show Tesla isnt just considering refining lithium hydroxide; it is also looking into constructing facilities that support other battery materials processing, refining and manufacturing, as well as ancillary manufacturing operations. Tesla explained its battery-grade lithium hydroxide refining facility would process raw ore material into a usable state for battery production. The company seems to have developed an innovative refining process that consumes less hazardous reagents than conventional methods. Tesla is eyeing an area in Nueces County, TX, for its lithium refining facility. If it chooses the site, Tesla plans to begin construction on its refining facility in Q4 2022. The company forecasts the facility will reach commercial operations by Q4 2024. The EV manufacturer added its lithium hydroxide refining facility could theoretically be located anywhere with access to the Gulf Coast shipping channel. However, as of this writing, it is looking at sites in Texas and Louisiana. CEO Elon Musk has urged young entrepreneurs to invest in the lithium business. During the Q1 2022 live Q&A webcast, Musk said lithium is responsible for quite a bit of cost growth in battery cells and therefore the single biggest cost growth factor for Tesla at the moment. Were looking carefully at all of the raw materials and trying to figure out how we can accelerate the total amount of raw materials needed to transition the world to sustainability, Musk said. So, we think were going to need to help the industry on this front, but the---I mean, the industry is very fast. And I certainly encourage entrepreneurs out there who are looking for opportunities to get into the lithium business. The lithium margins right now are practically software margins. We thank Teslarati for reprint permission. EV National Highway Traffic Safety Administration NHTSA @elonmusk @Tesla the only response i get from your team is that they need to investigate but tesla insurance picked up the vehicle 2 days after incident. Nishanth Vallapu (@nishanthvallapu) September 9, 2022 Vallapu tweeted about the event and tagged Musk to try to get an answer for what happened. He said he bought the car one month before the blaze, which took place on June 22. According to the unfortunate Tesla owner, his car was charging when the fire started. The Model S and the Triumph bike completely melted, and the roof of his garage collapsed. That was not the only issue he had with his house. According to Vallapu, the fire made him lose his home. In a picture he shared, it seems the fire also affected the kitchen.The Tesla owner said that he had Tesla Insurance and that the companys investigators picked up the electric sedan on June 24. Almost three months later, all he heard back was that they need to investigate. Were trying to contact him to learn if Tesla Insurance is paying for his family to stay somewhere else or if the house can still be used.Although Tesla investors are constantly repeating thatfires are less frequent than those with combustion-engined cars, blazes involving Tesla vehicles are almost as common as those that affected the Chevrolet Bolt EV. In that case, GM issued a massive recall and replaced the defective battery packs. They usually caught fire while the car was driving or when charging.After a Model S caught fire in Shanghai in April 2019, Tesla made an over-the-air (OTA) update that capped the voltage of Model S and Model X units. Lawsuits ensued, and Tesla decided to settle the one in the U.S. That was the occasion on which Elon Musk said that Teslas policy was never to give in to false claims, even if we would lose, and never to fight true claims, even if we would win. In this case, the Tesla CEO said the company was wrong.Curiously, Tesla was convicted to pay 136,000 Norwegian kroner ($13,677 at the current exchange rate) to around 30 customers in Norway who complained about the same thing. Tesla appealed the decision.Settling the dispute allowed the EV maker to avoid going to court and dismissing what the customers were accusing it of doing. The main charge was that Tesla was concealing issues with the battery packs that could lead to fires. In court, Tesla would have to prove that was not the case.Apart from Vallapus case, there are many more we have already written about. On November 24, 2020, Usmaan Ahmads 2015 Model S started making noises and ignited while being driven in Frisco, Texas. A while later, on December 30, 2020, Yogi Vindum faced more than $1 million in damages to his house in San Ramon, California, when one of his Model Ss caught fire in the garage.On June 29, 2021, in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, a Model S Plaid burst into flames. On August 22, 2021, at around 2 PM local time, another Model S burst into flames in Guangzhou, China. The same happened to a Model S in Marietta, Georgia, on September 27, 2021. It was on a Tesla Service Center. These are just some examples of similar cases to the one Vallapu has faced. With the same model.It is time Tesla tells Vallapu, Vindum, Ahmad, and all other customers that saw their cars catch fire what is behind these blazes. On September 28, 2021, the) denied a petition to investigate why these fires were happening. Perhaps it is time to ask the safety regulator to explore the subject again. FWD AWD SUV The Republic of India drives on the other side of the road, better known as the correct side by those peeps whose ancestors lived under the British yoke. As a result, Ranjangaon has been selected to produce the Commander for Japan. Jeep Japan has a landing page for the newcomer, listing fall 2022 as the debut date and three major attractions that arent remotely interesting.In addition to seating for seven souls, the American automaker waxes lyrical about a four-cylinder 2.0L turbo diesel. The third major attraction comes in the guise of standard advanced safety and driver-assist systems, which include adaptive cruise control with stop & go, active lane management, highway assist, surround view camera, blind spot monitoring, and so on.Similar to the Brazilian Commander, the Indian Meridian on which the Japanese Commander is based comes with both manual and automatic transmissions. Front- and all-wheel drive also need to be mentioned, withmodels boasting the C635 manual andmodels rocking the 948TE auto. The Multijet II of the Meridian packs 172 ps (168 horsepower) and 350 Nm (258 pound-foot), which is good enough for anof this footprint.Japans new Commander is a very different animal from the Commander that was sold in the Land of the Rising Sun from 2006 to 2009. Internally referred to as the XK and XH for the diesel-engined export model, the original is based on the WK Grand Cherokee developed with the help of the Daimler Group.Although not a body-on-frame design, the unibody Commander is more than capable off the beaten path thanks to the Quadra-Trac II and Quadra-Trac III four-wheel-drive systems that feature a two-speed transfer case. Airbus started assembling the first A321XLR prototype in 2021. Earlier this year, it successfully conducted its maiden flight, in Hamburg. Two more aircraft are almost completed and will soon join it. The fourth and final flight-test aircraft is actually a regular A321neo thats been upgraded with the XLR s feature. Once all of them have started flying, Airbus will kick off the global flight testing campaign.This is all part of the certification process, aiming to deliver the first extra-long-range aircraft in 2024. The next-generation A321XLR is expected to open new routes, such as India-Europe or China-Australia, thanks to its 4,700 nautical-mile (5,408 miles/8,704 km) range. And it will do so while burning 30% less fuel per seat, compared to the previous generation aircraft.The A321XLR is based on the A321 that was designed back in the 90s, and it required certain modifications that would enable its long range. The main thing is an increased fuel capacity, which is why it was fitted with a permanent Rear Center Tank (RCT) that can hold more fuel, while taking less space. But this increased capacity also implies several other changes to the landing gear, braking systems, and cabin design.All of these changes required complex testing. The first two prototypes will focus on the technical systems, flight controls, and handling, while the third one will focus on the thermal comfort and noise levels inside the cabin. Also, for the first time in its history, Airbus is certifying two engine types at the same time, instead of one after the other. To do that, the first prototype was fitted with CFM LEAP-1As engines, while the second one is powered by P&W GTF engines.This complex testing campaign is still at the beginning, but its paving the way for an airliner that promises to be revolutionary. Back in June 2022, NASA announced it had selected Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace for an indefinite delivery and indefinite quantity contract valued at $3.5 billion and targeting the production of spacesuits for Artemis astronauts.Artemis III is the mission thatll place American boots on the lunar surface once more, and for that one Axiom will be making the suits, as revealed this week by the space agency. Described as a moonwalking system, the suits developed by Axiom will cost NASA $228.5 million (base value), and will be followed by recurring spacesuit services.No exact details on the suit were provided, but itll probably be based on the already presented Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit ( xEMU ) announced since 2019. NASA says it was in charge with coming up with the technical and safety requirements, and Axiom will handle design, development, qualification, certification, and production.The company will have to find the means to test the suits in a spacelike environment before the Artemis III deployment. If successful, the suit will be adopted for the mission, and its use might also be expanded to other projects, including subsequent lunar landings, low-orbit missions on the International Space Station (ISS), and special studies.NASA is proud to partner with commercial industry on this historic mission that will kickstart the United States building a lasting presence on the surface of the Moon, said in a statement Lara Kearney, manager of NASAs Extravehicular Activity and Human Surface Mobility program.What we learn on Artemis III and future missions on and around the Moon will pave the way for missions to Mars. Spacesuits enable us to literally take that next step. EV That makes this new round cell as BMW calls it precisely the same format Tesla adopted with its 4680 batteries . When themaker revealed these cells, it said they would present five times more energy, six times more power, and 16% more range than the 2170 batteries. BMW compares it to the prismatic cells it currently uses, which makes it impossible to properly match these figures with those presented by the German carmaker.According to BMW , the new format allowed it to increase energy density by more than 20%. That happens because the cells can have more nickel and silicon and less cobalt. The new cylindrical cells will allow the German company to improve the range by up to 30% in its vehicles with the highest range nowadays. Besides these gains, cost seems to be king in BMWs decision to adopt cylindrical cells.The German automaker said that the cost of the battery pack can be slashed in half thanks to the new battery cell and new integration concept for battery technology. BMW is probably talking about cell-to-pack (CTP) or even cell-to-body (CTB), something that at least one of its future suppliers can help it with. CATL and EVE Energy were selected to make these new cells and assist BMW in building six new battery factories, each of which able to produce 20 GWh annually. Thats a 120-GWh capacity for the Neue Klasse vehicles that will arrive in 2025. These plants will be evenly distributed in China, Europe, and the USMCA region: two in each of them. That should help BMW meet the new federal tax credit requirements for local battery production.The new cells will have a percentage of recycled material. Their raw materials should come only from certified mines, meaning they comply with environmental and social standards for raw material extraction.BMW also shared that it is studying LFP cells and developing all-solid-state batteries (ASSBs). The German carmaker intends to present a prototype running on these new cells well before 2025. The new battery packs will work at 800V and resist a current of up to 500 A. In other words, the new EVs will offer much lower charging times than the current ones. EV BYD bought a 237-acre plot from WHA Industrial Development PLC in the WHA Rayong 36 Industrial Estate. It is located in Rayong, around 150 kilometers (93 miles) from Bangkok. It is also close to Rayong's Highways 36 and 3375, only 25 km from Map Ta Phut Deep Sea Port, 31 km from Laem Chabang Deep Sea Port, and 23 km to U-Tapao Airport. In other words, it is ideally located to be an export platform, which is the idea for the new facility. BYD expects the new factory to produce 150,000 EVs per year. There is no information on how much money the Chinese automaker will invest in the new plant, how many employees it should have, or if this plant will also produce the Blade Batteries these vehicles will need which is quite likely. BYD is known for promoting verticalization in the right way.According to the WHA Group, the land purchase confirms that Thailand will become anproduction hub in Asia. By 2030, electric cars should represent 30% of all vehicles produced in the country, which means 700,000 units by that year. Thailand's Board of Investment (BOI) has so far approved 26 EV projects from 17 companies that represent a production capacity of 830,000 EVs. Perhaps the forecasts for the production of electric cars in the country are being conservative.As for BYD, it should produce in the country all vehicles based on the e-platform 3.0 . So far, we know the Dolphin, Seal, and Frigate 07. Soon we will also know the Seagull, the most affordable vehicle built over this platform. It should start at RMB60,000 ($8,662 at the current exchange rate) and cost up to RMB100,000 ($14,437). It would be a great fit for the new Thai facility not only for exports but also for the local market. Six days ago, we wrote about a limited-edition Ducati Streetfighter V4 motorcycle, which also bears the Lamborghini name. At the time, the Borgo Panigale marque only had 630 plus 63 bikes available, and now, the company has announced that all the available units have been allocated in just a few hours. We don't know about you, but we call that a success. 12 photos It was a Paris-New York non-stop air trip that marked a crucial milestone in the history of aviation and automotive alike. While airplanes taking off from Europe had reached the North American continent before that date, none of them landed on US soil.The Hispano Suiza engine safely put the Breguet 19 TF SuperBidon at the top of the list of brave aviators that bridged the Old and New Worlds by air. Coincidentally, 92 years after that impressive display of impeccable engineering , Hispano Suiza returns to New York.Not by air, this time, although the avionics influences are strong with the exotic carmaker. On September 17 of this year, the Spanish brand will be the primary sponsor of The New York City Concours in Manhattan.The event is an exhibition of fine classic cars in the Big Apple, and Hispano Suiza will present the Carmen Boulogne on 72nd Street between Madison and Fifth Avenue. The location is no more random than the Spanish luxury supercar brand.In plain new-yorker parlance, Madison Avenue is roughly translated as U.S. Luxury Capital, with the most prominent fashion and jewelry boutiques on the ground, right across the street from an array of world-renowned hotels and restaurants.So Hispano Suiza fits the bill to the tee. The New York City Concours is home to some 30 classic and exotic automobiles and 12 motorcycles. The brand's own Carmen Boulogne will show itself for the first time in the Big Apple. With the US targeted as a "strategic market" for Hispano Suiza, it's natural to have a market launch in the country's most luxurious spot. Check the photo gallery to have a look at past editions of the NYCC."I can't imagine a better venue than this revamped edition of The New York City Concours on Madison Avenue," says Sergio Martinez Campos, CEO of Hispano Suiza. "We continue to challenge the concept of luxury and break the mold of the automotive industry."New York will warmly welcome the electric Carmen of Hispano Suiza, "an automotive brand known for their exquisitely luxurious and meticulously engineered automobiles. Their heritage is an important part of automotive history, and they have infused their dynamic culture into the creation of cutting-edge electric cars", is what Maria Jannace, founder of the NYCC, says about the Hispano Suiza-sponsored exhibition.Open to the public from noon till five in the evening of September 17, the 2022 edition of the New York City Concours will herald the People's Choice Award to the most iconic vehicle, attributed by the event guests themselves. EV Youre right, we should credit Tesla owners $100 if we change appointments with less than 24 hours notice. Should be reciprocal. @Tesla Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 8, 2022 Around two months ago, Elon Musk repeated himself and said Tesla needs F1-like service . To make sure it happens, the man promised hed personally oversee the entire process and get involved when necessary.Things havent changed in any meaningful way since that statement was made. Owners have not reported important improvements. But Tesla introduced a $100 fee or penalty for customers that wanted to change a service appointment less than 24 hours before the scheduled meeting with technicians. This was a way for Tesla to make sure that as many service appointments as possible are same-day or, at the most, two-day repairs. The automaker didnt want to have many free slots because it would unnecessarily increase waiting times for other owners.This rescheduling fee has been met with some opposition online, even though some customers said they were told about the $100 charge but didnt see it anywhere in their accounts yet.However, a customer from Missouri took to Twitter to complain about Tesla Service rescheduling a two-week-old appointment with less than 24 hours notice for free. If he were to reschedule as the automaker did, then he wouldve been charged $100. The man argued this wasn't fair and that it needed to be addressed. Elon Musk read the mans message and said he was right, it should be reciprocal. Teslas CEO said the company should credit owners $100 if the service center reschedules appointments.The executive also added that hes putting a lot of time personally into advancing Tesla service to make it awesome. Tesla was tagged in Musks Twitter post, which might mean a change will be implemented soon. Usually, when the CEO asks for something publicly, management doesnt waste any time to make it happen.Its not yet clear how the $100 credit could be used by customers that have to accept sudden service appointment changes, but Tesla will most likely explain everything once things are sorted out. It would be great for customers if themaker turns this sum into separate Supercharging vouchers. kW One of the latest to have been captured on camera and shared on YouTube comes from the New World, which is where a yellow copy of the Ferrari SF90 Stradale tried putting the bad Nissan GT-R in its corner. Did it succeed? Thats for you to find out by hitting the play button on the video embedded at the bottom of this story.However, before doing so, we will remind you which of the two holds the upper ground in terms of power and performance, and that would be the SF90 . It is an electrified supercar that combines a V8, with 4.0 liters in displacement and twin-turbocharging, with three electric motors. The total output is rated at 986 hp (1,000 ps / 735), enough to deal with the 0 to 62 mph (0-100 kph) sprint in just 2.5 seconds.The official spec sheet of Maranellos exotic reveals 6.3 seconds required to hit 124 mph (200 kph) from a standstill, an impressive achievement for a vehicle that tips the scales at 3,460 lbs (1,570 kg) dry. The fuel consumption is of little interest to anyone who can afford to blow a small fortune on such a machine, yet Ferrari says that it returns the equivalent of 38.6 mpg US (6.1 l/100 km). Flat-out, it will do 211 mph (340 kph).Depending on the specification, and when it was built, the Nissan GT-R can have anywhere between under 500 hp and just a little over 600 hp in the range-topping Nismo, produced by the twin-turbo 3.8-liter V6. That may not sound like much, yet the Godzilla is still capable of giving modern supercars a run for their money. But can this one handle an SF90 Stradale? You know what to do to find out. You could easily make the same argument about many different internal combustion cars and the engines therein. But losing the American icon Chrysler/Mopar HEMI engine to the battery-powered menace has to be one of the biggest tear-jerkers. Why is that? The answer is rooted in a particularly visceral and passionate period in American automotive history.If nothing else, this is a perfect opportunity to explain the profound cultural reach of the HEMI engine and the moniker therein has on Americans that people who live elsewhere may not fully appreciate. Looking at the first generation HEMI engine especially, we can see how a seemingly mundane upgrade in engine technology led to a cultural renaissance for Chrysler. One that it's all too happy to boast about even as it's now just another brand under the new Stellantis umbrella.On the face of it, the hemispherical combustion chamber for which the HEMI derives its name was nothing new, even when Chrysler first applied the design to their FirePower line of overhead-valve V8 engines in 1950. Records indicate that hemispherical combustion chambers have been in use since at least 1905 by the Belgian Pipe car company, and likely even earlier. So then, Chrysler was not the first company to build "Hemi" engines as we would identify them.Instead, they were simply the best at building them. Indeed, the first Chrysler-produced HEMI engine wasn't even an automobile engine. Instead, the Chrysler IV-2220, a 2,220 cubic inch (36.4-liter) liquid-cooled V-16 leviathan, was manufactured for the United States Army Air Corps as an engine intended to be fitted to fighter airplanes in the mid-1940s. Its first test run came while mounted in a Republic P-47 Thunderbolt. It was later mounted in the ill-fated Curtiss-Wright P-60, the spiritual successor to the iconic P-40 Warhawk . This never left the prototype phase.What does this have to do with the modern HEMI mythos? Well, in a country that wears its patriotism on its sleeve, coming from a military background only ingratiated itself to the American identity even more. By the time Chrysler managed to scale their hemispherical combustion chamber engines down to automotive proportions, it was ready to send shockwaves through the industry that, in many ways, helped lead to the muscle car renaissance of the 60s.At a time when Ford was still using side-valve, flathead designs for their V8 engines, the HEMI was an altogether different animal. Oldsmobile and Cadillac may have also transitioned to overhead valves by this stage, but a hemispherical combustion chamber became an ace in the hole of sorts on the Chrysler side of things. There's some debate as to if a hemispherical combustion chamber still has the same tangible benefits in the modern day as it claimed to have back in the 50s and 60s. Or, so to say, a good deal of the marketing mythos around modern Mopar HEMIs is, well, just that, all marketing.It'd be a fair assessment that switching from side valves to overhead valves was a much more pivotal evolution. But even so, the advantages of hemispherical heads instead of flat heads did make a difference 60 years ago. The initial 331-cubic inch (5.4-liter) iterations of these early FirePower V8s jetted in the neighborhood of 180 horsepower. But by 1955, that had increased to 300 horsepower in the 392-cubic inch (6.4-liter) HEMI engine found in the Chrysler 300C. For the middle of the 1950s, this was ludicrously powerful. In everything from Dodge trucks to De Soto coupes and sedans, and the top-of-the-line Chrysler luxury cars, these first-gen HEMI engines proved durable, happy to rev, and provided an ever so slight advantage over V8s with traditional flat heads. Under the De Soto brand, the HEMI V8 assumed the name FireDome. The Firedome Sedan, which derives its name from the engine underneath, proved to be one of the most memorable and sought-after De Soto vehicles in the brand's comparatively short history.The largest De Soto HEMI V8 was a 344.6-cubic inch (5.6 L) unit rocking twin Carter WCFB four-barrel carburetors from the factory. Good for peak horsepower ratings of 345 hp in the Adventurer coupe and sedan built between 1956 and 1960.On the Dodge pickup side of things, the first-gen HEMI V8 ranged in size from 241.3-cubic inches (4.0 L) and 325-cubic inch (5.3 L), the latter of which very rarely came equipped with two four-barrel carburetors, something of a Ram TRX engine of its day. A 270-cubic inch (4.4 L) HEMI also found its way onto the Dodge Royal Sedan.There was a six-year gap between the first and second-generation HEMI engines between 1958 and 1964. During that time, the design was refined and, of course, gained further cubic inches in the process. From there, the now 426-cubic inch (7.0-liter) HEMI V8 would go on to light up the NASCAR scene and the quarter-mile crushing muscle car wars of the 60s and early 70s.The 426 HEMI forever sealed its lineage's reputation as an all-time great American engine. But let it be known. None of it would have been possible without the groundwork laid by the lesser known, lesser appreciated first generation.Check back real soon as we delve further into the fascinating history of the HEMI engine here on V8 Mont h on autoevolution. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration DCT ECU According to documents filed with the, the Japanese company received the first report of an engine stalling while riding in the Japanese market in July 2020. The second followed suit in September 2020 in Italy, and three months later, Honda received the third report from Germany.The European division repurchased the German motorcycle in March 2021 with the intention of analyzing the issue, yet Honda couldnt recreate the symptom. Come November 2021, the company investigated the issue with the possibility of abnormal data production when OBD (on-board diagnostics) data was recorded.The first U.S. market report, with two vehicles stalling while riding, was received in August 2022. A few weeks later, Honda determined that a defect related to motor vehicle safety existed. On the upside, no crashes or injuries related to this software error were reported.Supplied by American Honda Motor Co. , the engine control unit features improper settings in the on-board diagnostics data management program. The programming issue produces abnormal data that resets the engine control unit, causing the controller area network (CAN) communication to disconnect and the clutch to be released on-equipped models. No fewer than four different engine control units are listed in the attached report: 38770-MKS-A51, 38770-MKS-AV1, 38770-MKS-A52, and 38770-MKS-AV2.Known owners of the 2020 to 2021 Honda CRF1100 Africa Twin will be contacted by first-class mail with instructions to take their bikes to a Honda Powersports dealer for anreflash. The condition has been corrected with proper OBD data management for all 2022 model year Africa Twins for the North American market.Called as such after its two-cylinder engine, the dual-sport motorcycle carries an MSRP of $14,399 for the 2021 model year. The 2022 model is presently listed on Hondas website at $14,499. AMG The team at McLaren Racing mourn the sad passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, whilst also remembering her incredible reign. Our thoughts are with The Royal Family and people around the world during this terribly sad time. pic.twitter.com/IqCQKpLVdC McLaren (@McLarenF1) September 8, 2022 After dedicating most of her life to the service of the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth, and other countries that had her as head of state, Queen Elizabeth II passed away peacefully, leaving behind a legacy thats going to be hard to match. Her seven-decade-long reign will forever be remembered.British automakers and motorsport representatives expressed their first thoughts online and published different messages. Heres who said what, in chronological order. Theres also a notable absence from this list.Just six minutes after the death of the Queen has been publicly confirmed, Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali published a short statement in which he said the motorsport mourn the passing of Her Majesty () and sends its deepest condolences to the Royal Family and to the people of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.Red Bull, Mercedes-, and Alfa Romeo quickly followed with their own carefully selected words. "The impact she made in the UK and around the world will be felt for generations to come and the values she stood for are the best of all human values: dignity, respect and compassion," reads a statement by Mercedes-AMG Petronas Team Principal Toto Wolff.McLaren was the first British automaker to publish a black and white photo of Elizabeth II, indicating her time as monarch has come to an end. It followed afterward with a message in which the carmaker said it mourns the sad passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, whilst also remembering her incredible reign.Aston Martin reminded everyone of a visit the Queen made to the companys headquarters in 1966. The brand called her a passionate champion for British culture, enterprise, and innovation.Bentley also sent its condolences and added its going to pause, reflect, and show heartfelt gratitude for the historic reign of the Queen.Lotus, Land Rover, Jaguar, and Caterham also expressed their sympathies, respect, and regrets. Their full messages can be read by accessing the photo gallery.General Motors CEO Mary Barra also took to Twitter to express her condolences to the British Royal Family. Her leadership, grace, and devotion to service touched the lives of millions. She will be greatly missed, said Barra.A notable absence from this long list is Rolls-Royce and MINI. Both brands are owned by BMW and have not posted any message by the time this article was published.9.9.2022, 7:03 UTC- Rolls-Royce published a message regarding the Queen's passing. "Today, we unite with the people of Great Britain, the Commonwealth and people of the world to mourn the death of Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth II. Dedicated to the nation and devoted to her family, she represented the highest ideals of service and humanity," said the brand on LinkedIn . MINI remains the only British automaker that hasn't yet said anything on the matter.Queen Elizabeth II has been seen driving on numerous occasions, even if she never had a driving license. But she learned how to drive while serving as a mechanic in the Women's Auxiliary Territorial Service in 1945 during World War II. Thats when she became the first woman member of the royal family to serve in the military. She was known to have a passion for off-road vehicles and the royal car collection is made of many interesting or unique cars, SUVs, and trucks.Now that the London Bridge is down, the UK prepares for a difficult period from which it will have to reemerge as a nation with a new monarch, more specifically - a King. Some of those people work for the U.S. military, in something called United States Transportation Command ( USTRANSCOM ). Thats the organization tasked with coordinating transport missions in accordance with the militarys needs.This week, two companies announced theyve been tapped by USTRANSCOM for creating something that can only be described as a new global delivery network for military gear: Rocket Lab and Sierra Space.More to the point, these guys are thinking of using civilian-developed spacecraft to move cargo and gear between locations on Earth, but also to orbital depots from where they could easily and rapidly be sent to where theyre needed.USTRANSCOM is looking at using the Rocket Lab Neutron and Electron launch vehicles, and Sierra Spaces Dream Chaser spaceplane and Shooting Star cargo modules.Each company is now involved in a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with USTRANSCOM, so its unclear at this point if or when something tanglible will come of it.If successful and implemented though, such a solution could change the way military (and not only) logistics happen. Think about it: would it be great for the military to have stockpiles of supplies in orbit, ready to be sent down to where theyre needed in a blink of an eye? Or, alternatively, dispatch these supplies quickly, by means of suborbital flights, from American bases to anywhere on Earth?Point-to-point space transportation offers a new ability to move equipment quickly around the world in hours, enabling a faster response to global emergencies and natural disasters, said in a statement Rocket Lab CEO, Peter Beck. Robert Bollinger must have thought that it was better to own 40% of something with more chances of delivering its products than 100% of a company that could not do everything it wanted for lack of funds. As he stresses in the video below, automotive is expensive.This is why his company put B1 and B2 in pajamas at the beginning of the year. According to Bollinger, the electric chassis his team developed had high demand. The company founder was putting his own money into the development process, and the electric chassis would turn a profit more quickly than the EVs.It was a pity for the more than 50,000 people Bollinger said reserved the B1 and B2 . The capability to carry long objects through a system of liftgates made them unique vehicles. Belonging to the Class 3 market segment came with less rigorous homologation requirements, turning the process into something more feasible for a startup.Mullen stated it injected $148.2 million in cash and stock into Bollinger but did not disclose how much money that company actually received. It must be enough to complete the B1 and B2 development, of which David Michery, Mullens CEO, is a great fan.It is not clear if Michery will become the CEO of both companies or if Bollinger will keep running the company that bears his name while reporting to Michery. What Marc Tarpenning and Martin Eberhard went through at Tesla is definitely something we would not like to see happening with Bollinger Michery said Mullen would manufacture a Class 1 utility truck. We are not sure if that is a reference to the Mullen 5, a gorgeous electric crossover. Although Mullen said its production will start in 2023 at the Advanced Manufacturing Engineering Center (AMEC) in Tunica, Mississippi, deliveries should begin only in Q2 2024. The facility has the ability for light vehicle assembly. Next year, Bollinger should start delivering the B4, the companys Class 4 commercial truck. Roush is Bollinger's manufacturing partner, but we don't know if the deal with Mullen changes anything. Well probably hear more about that soon. If you thought that developing eVTOLs that are actually good is hard, the complex task of building the infrastructure comes with bigger challenges.When speaking of AAM (Advanced Air Mobility) most of us tend to focus on the aircraft, because thats the most interesting part usually. But this concept is very complex, including things like regulations, financial aspects, vertiports, and the delicate issue of making all of that work together with conventional flight operations.There are a few companies on their way to building vertiports in different parts of the world, but one that has recently joined the club is ready for a bold step. Simply called Vports, this Quebec-based startup wants to develop AAM corridors between the U.S. and Canada. This would be a first in the industry.This pioneering infrastructure would be used for international cargo transportation with eVTOLs. It would also act as a sort of experiment for the different players involved in these operations, because it would allow them to test different aspects of AAM. And there are plenty of things that need to be tested, from aircraft charging to safety protocols and urban integration.VPorts is one of the members of the larger consortium that signed an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) for the design, construction, and operation of these corridors. The consortium includes big players, such as Aero Montreal, Innovitech, and the Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance (NUAIR). Of course, they will also work together with the aviation authorities in both states.The future corridors will mainly be used by the members of the consortium, but according to VPorts, they are open to all the manufacturers that want to conduct flight tests for their eVTOLs. The first test flights on these AAM corridors are set to take place as soon as next year. J. Roy Hunt was a multi-skilled man, despite the fact that he never even finished third grade. He got his start in Hollywood as a cameraman and worked hard to a position of cinematographer and finally director. In his spare time, he would race cars and motorcycles, go hunting and... build RVs . That last hobby seems to bear no connection to his day job, but was directly inspired by his desire, if not need, to have the perfect home away from home, with all the creature comforts of one, even on the most isolated production set.Hunts efforts culminated with the 1937 Hunt Housecar, which is widely regarded by RV historians as the first private RV with a functional shower. Were talking about an era in which RVs housecars, as they were called were still an oddity, so to have one that integrated a functional shower and a separate bathroom was even more of one.Hunt built an estimated 50 Housecars over a period of 10 years, but this one is the most famous, both because it was the first one and because it remains in impeccable condition. The predecessor of the Housecar was a Willys delivery sedan, to which Hunt added a bed, a folding table, a 110-volt generator, and a short-distance radio. The successor was a wilder interpretation of the Housecar, which he created in 1941, one year before his death: it had an aluminum body and a two-cylinder steam engine mounted at the rear. Neither vehicle exists today.The 1937 Hunt Housecar, which is shown in the video below and in the gallery attached to this story, comes from the David Woodworth collection. Woodworth is considered the worlds premier authority on historic RVs, and he found it in a junkyard, where it had been abandoned after it was converted into a hippie-mobile. He restored it and offered it to the Recreational Vehicle / Motor Home (RV/MH) Hall of Fame Museum in Elkhart, Indiana. Thats Al Hesselbart from the Museum in the video.The Hunt Housecar is based on the chassis of a 1937 Ford pickup truck, with bodywork by a specialist auto shop from Southern California. Hunt drew inspiration from the Stout Scarab and the Buckminster Fuller Dymaxion car in designing the bubble-shaped RV, which he clad with a fuselage-type skin made from 16-gauge steel. At a time when aerodynamics meant inspired by airplanes, its no wonder Hunt opted to infuse the Housecar with aircraft-inspired elements such as the multi-panel windshield and a flush-fitting hatch.Inside, the Housecar had a small kitchen right off the entrance, where the front passenger would have sat. It was small , but it had an oven, a toaster, a small fridge, and a pantry and even an electric razor, which Hunt, always the practical man, offered as a standard feature.Behind the driver was the bathroom, which was a dry one another major innovation. Hunt achieved this by having the chamber pot toilet tuck away inside the wall, so youd have enough room to shower. The sink, which was from a Pullman railroad car, also folded up to drain and to hide from sight.The rest of the Housecar was occupied by the bedroom and a small dinette. As Mr. Hesselbart explains, the interior was cramped, almost as cramped as one of todays vans , but it was comfortable and, more importantly, it had all the creature comforts of an actual home. The birch and oak paneling on the interior helped create the impression of an airer space.Driving the Housecar was a challenge, and it had nothing to do with the poor infrastructure of the time. In order to create space inside for all the features, Hunt moved the steering wheel and the drivers seat forward, but he left the gearshift behind. Mr. Hesselbart says shifting gears was an acrobatic feat, and you can tell by looking at the photos in the gallery.But pulling a muscle from reaching behind you to switch gears mustve been worth it once at camp On September 8, 2022, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, passed away at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, at the age of 96. She was the longest-reigning monarch and the last monarch to have served in World War II, a public figure beloved both in the UK and internationally, a role model and a notable example of serving with grace, a matriarch and an outstanding diplomat. She was also a pioneer auto enthusiast. French builder Baluchon is renowned for its rich portfolio of custom tiny houses. Each of them comes with its own unique touches, depending on what the customer asked for, but you can recognize the rustic, cozy, Baluchon style in all of these creations. The Sauvage makes no exception.Now embellishing a piece of land in Mayenne, northwestern France, the Sauvage is 20 ft (6 m) long and is based on a double-axle trailer, just like most of Baluchons builds. The manufacturer went for a more contemporary look with this build, with the Sauvage boasting a Scandinavian-inspired design with sharp edges, large openings, and a bright interior.This tiny house is flooded with natural light thanks to the glass door at the entrance and numerous, large windows. Wood elements surround you throughout the house , with most of the furniture being made from light, three-ply ash panels.The Sauvage has an open layout, with the living room/kitchen and bathroom being located on the ground floor and a bedroom on the top level, accessed by an angled staircase with built-in storage.Theres a table with a solid ash top with natural edges, which can be moved around and placed in various spots inside the living room. A wood stove heats the tiny house when it is cold outside.The kitchen is equipped with a two-burner stove, an oven, a fridge, a large sink, an electric hot water tank, and furniture for storing various kitchen items.Sauvages bathroom in the back is accessible via a custom-made ash door and comes with an 80x80 cm (31.5 x 31.5) shower, washbasin and wardrobe cabinets, and a composting toilet.A 140 x 190 cm (55 x 75) bed takes up most of the space in the low-ceiling bedroom. Theres also a desk in the room and a narrow but long window in front of it.Baluchon doesnt mention the price of the custom-made Sauvage tiny home, but its houses usually start at approximately $80,500. New York street artist Alec Monopoly, whose real name is Alec Andon, is all about the lavish lifestyle and high-end things. He loves expensive cars , watches, and trips. And his latest adventure in Venice, Italy was no different.The Venice AmfAR Gala took place on September 7 and, as usual, it was a star-studded affair. It included names like Marisa Tomei, Jodie Turner-Smith, Ellie Goulding, Rachel Brosnahan, Heather Graham, and more.And Alec Monopoly was also a guest, and he was there to live it up. He revealed via his Instagram Stories, on September 8, that his ride there was a "1969 Riva boat," which he called "pure class, baby." The model was an Aquarama Special, according to the boat's inscription, which was actually built between 1972 and 1996. The famous shipyard built only such 277 units.The Aquarama line had been dubbed as "the Queen of Italian powerboats," providing luxury and comfort, with quite a performance. It included several variants, the standard, the Lungo (built in 1972), the Super Aquarama (between 1963-1971), the Aquarama Special, and a one-off Riva Lamborghini.The Aquarama Special had a length of 28.9 ft (8.8 m) and a beam of 8'5 ft (2.6 m), giving it enough space for eight passengers. It was powered by two Riva V8 engines that put out 350 horsepower each, taking it to a maximum speed of 46 knots (53 mph / 85 kph).Alec Monopoly is known for traveling in style when he attends an event. Not long ago, he attended the Jacob & Co event at Billionaire Porto Cervo in Sardinia, Italy, and had rented a luxurious ride to take him there. His option was a Rolls-Royce Ghost from the previous generation . While thats surely a guarantee of a comfortable ride, theres nothing like arriving on a luxury boat, right? Full Self-Driving FSD Tesla is in the middle of a smear campaign targeting its safety assist systems, Autopilot and. The Dawn Project Founder Dan ODowd is the spearhead of this campaign after claiming that Tesladoesnt recognize children. Ralph Nader, the author of the book Unsafe at any speed, is also among those that urged NHTSA to ban Tesla FSD from cars. Interestingly, several of these campaigns started around the same time, pointing to concerted efforts to block Teslas automated driving system.In one of the latest developments, Dan ODowd challenged Elon Musk to a public FSD test. Its time to bet your product, your technology, your reputation, your credibility, your engineering prowess against mine, wrote ODowd in his challenge letter. He names himself the Creator of Nuclear Weapons Software that Never Fails and Cant be Hacked. This bold statement shows he forgets that everything can be hacked, given enough effort and time poured into it.Well, with the release of Euro NCAP results , Dan ODowd couldnt have gotten a more public reply to his challenge. The answer was so powerful and widespread that even the Australian safety assessment body ANCAP shared the results. According to Euro NCAP, Tesla Model Y made at Giga Berlin was the safest vehicle ever tested bar none. In the Safety Assist department, the Model Y with camera-only Tesla Vision blew away the charts, with a near-perfect 98% score.But you dont have to take our words for granted, just head below and watch the video. Starting at 02:33, youll see the Tesla Model Y expertly avoiding whatever the testers threw its way, from moving dummies to other vehicles. Not once the safety assist software showed a weakness, which explains why the safety score was the highest ever achieved by any car.Although not related to this matter, we can see in the video that the Tesla Model Y made in Germany features a central airbag. This helps with far-side excursion in the case of a lateral impact. The feature was introduced earlier this year to the cars built at Giga Shanghai, but it is yet to get to U.S.-built vehicles. Uber partnered with the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture's National Research and Restoration Center (NRRC) to locate, restore and protect the Ukrainian cultural identity.They have done so through a custom-built version of the app, Uber Restore. The NRRC can request 12-passenger vehicles that will offer conservationists and specialist equipment on-demand, safe, and free access to transportation across Ukraine.Oleksandr Tkachenko, the Ukrainian Minister of Culture, said, "Uber's collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy combined aspects of culture and logistics technology very effectively. From our side, we are putting effort into ensuring that our collaboration is as beneficial and optimized as possible."Since May, Uber Restore has reached over 100 locations throughout Ukraine and has covered more than 20,000 km. Through this effort, many irreplaceable artworks and artifacts have been relocated from museums , religious buildings, and historic sites and saved from the devastating impact of the war.The tech giant has undergone several initiatives to help Ukraine throughout the war. In June, it partnered with the UN's World Food Programme to help the United Nations deliver food and water to war-torn areas. Using a "private-label" version of the app, it coordinated a fleet of small vehicles to distribute supplies.Towards the beginning of the Russian invasion, the company offered unlimited free rides between the Ukraine-Poland border and two Polish cities. It also added an in-app donation button for its U.S. riders and worked with NGOs to provide war relief efforts.It's always nice to see that people work together to help those in need, with Uber being just one of the many companies that have provided aid in these trying times. Let's hope that initiatives won't be necessary in the near future. In other words, the Android Auto beta program is now playing a much more important role in the development of new app features, and fresh builds go live for the registered testers every few weeks.But earlier this week, however, users ended up being offered a totally unexpected Android Auto update through the Google Play Store.While some people noticed a lot of changes, including a new Engineering settings menu within the app, this isnt by any means a major overhaul of Android Auto. What users actually received was a dogfood daily build accidentally released by Google through the Google Play Store.These builds are only supposed to be used by the Mountain View-based search giant internally, so they are compiled for testing even before the beta updates go live for public testers. This means they shouldnt be published on the Google Play Store anyway, so someone at Google clearly pressed the go-ahead button too early.Most likely, the company will resolve the blunder with a new update in the coming days.To answer the question on everybodys lips, no, Coolwalk isnt included in the internal build. The Mountain View-based search giant is still tight-lipped on the ETA of this highly anticipated feature, so for the time being, nobody knows for sure when it is supposed to go live.Google originally planned to release the Coolwalk update in the summer of this year, but this deadline has clearly been missed, so now Android Auto users are eagerly waiting for a new ETA from the company.A new Android Auto update should go live later this month, but as said before, the Coolwalk debut isnt tied to a specific app version , as it all comes down to a server-side switch to enable the feature. Bakersfield, CA (93308) Today Partly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 71F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 71F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. The mood was electric inside the Bayou Music Center. Hundreds of Houston fans descended on the venue Sept. 1 to witness South Korean co-ed group KARD conclude their month-long North American tour in the Bayou City, promoting the release of their latest album "Re:." The audience of English-speaking fans perfectly recited the Korean lyrics to each one of their songs, reenacted the K-pop groups iconic dances, and cheered at the top of their lungs. While the room wasnt filled to capacity, the amount of noise emanating from the audience would make you think it was, a reflection of K-pops current stronghold on pop culture. In fact, it was so loud that the group ran a decibel test and Houston won by a mile, out-screaming every other stop on their tour, including one in San Jose, California. Throughout the show, member B.M. repeatedly called Houston "one of the livest cities in the world." Ariana Garcia Ariana Garcia "Our Houston fans are incredible," B.M. said in an interview with the group conducted over email. "I felt incredibly lucky to be able to have finished our tour in such an energetic city. The reaction and reciprocation of energy was more than enough for me and my members to take back so much love and inspiration to spill out on our upcoming album preparation. Needless to say, Houston, Texas was a city that we, without a doubt, need to return to for the next American tour." The last time KARD performed in Houston was in 2019, a few years after the quartets formation in 2016, which was the same time some of the biggest names in K-pop today (Blackpink, NCT) were already planting the seeds for their takeover. But in contrast to the more formulaic approach of their K-pop contemporaries, KARD came on to the scene with a more experimental, albeit risky, concept. For one, KARD is one of the few co-ed K-pop groups in existenceit's a rarity even outside of the genre. The four-member group consists of two men, J.seph and B.M., and two women, Jiwoo and Somin. "As a co-ed group, I think you will definitely be able to listen to hear how our music is different from other artists," Jiwoo says. "In particular, KARD is very free compared to other groups, and we are working passionately for our respective musical achievements." Ariana Garcia Ariana Garcia However, the group is still "thirsting for success," J.Seph adds, laughing. "The reason KARD has been able to get a positive response so far is probably because of the variety of attractions we have being a co-ed group." Each letter of the groups name represents a member and a playing card. "K" stands for the king card that represents BM, while "A" stands for the ace card that represents J.seph. "R" refers to the black joker representing Somin and the colored joker card represents Jiwoo. "D" stands for a hidden member, which has various meanings, including their fanbase's name, a surprise feature, or the release of an alternate version of a track or music video, a concept that has intrigued fans and kept them on their toes. Additionally, KARDs sound tests the boundaries of the genre; the group is known for its upbeat mix of dancehall and EDM with a clear Latin influence. While English lyrics are commonly interspersed throughout K-pop songs, KARD has gone outside of the box, frequently featuring Spanish phrases. Songs like their debut single "Hola Hola," "Dimelo," and "Red Moon" are just a few examples of why the group has been able to build such a strong international fanbase, especially in Latin American countries such as Brazil and Mexico. Their latest project "Re:" is a continuation of their experimentation with Latin sounds, led by the summery dance track "Ring the Alarm." Somin says their six-track comeback EP reflects KARD's versatility and growth. "What we have shown our fans up until now is only a fraction of what we will show them in the future," says Somin. "This type of mentality that I pursue helped me develop more maturely. I think this mature image is well reflected in this album." Ariana Garcia Ariana Garcia After a two-year hiatus due to J.Seph's military service, the idols were eager to get back to making music. During his time away, J.Seph says he only imagined the moment he would be able to return to the big stage. "It was a meaningful tour," he says. "It was a tour that had become a 'dream,' but I was happy to finally be able to finish the tour with success." Somin says she was moved to tears after seeing how loyal their fans remained after two years. "After a long hiatus, I was only imagining when I could do a tour," she says. "I was so happy that it came true. There were days when I was a bit exhausted because of all the traveling, but as soon as I step onto the stage, I forget everything and enjoy every moment with the fans." KARD is also known for its service to its fans. During an encore performance at their recent Houston concert, the group snapped selfies with the crowd, rocked cowboy hats fans gifted them with and handed out free tour merchandise. One fan held up a sign that read "Big Matthew King of the Big Tiddie Committee," a reference to a popular meme about B.M., prompting him to bounce his pecs in response. The group says they definitely plan on making a comeback to Houston for their next tour. "For this tour, I was simply just happy to meet my fans in America and share the positive energy together," Jiwoo says. "The best thing for me, too, is meeting the fans," J.seph adds. "If we meet this time, we don't know when the next one will be, so we try our best to capture them in every moment." Ariana Garcia Ariana Garcia With K-pop growing in popularity, it certainly wont be the last we hear of KARD. B.M. says he's not surprised by the global phenomenon the genre has become, adding "it was just a matter of time." "The amount of discipline you need to be a K-pop artist is immense," B.M. says. "From sleepless nights of practicing and training to the production of music, performance, and visuals is so detailed and well organized, and I feel like thats something the world is gradually being very entertained by." The K-pop foursome is currently back in their homeland working on their next album. B.M. says that while doing so, "we all individually are working on our self-development as artists and pushing our own respective lanes to the best of our abilities as well." NASA is helping the earthbound set enjoy recently unveiled images of deep space in a new, immersive way, releasing a series of audio tracks that translate photos and data captured by the James Webb Telescope into beautiful and haunting music. Through a process called sonification, scientists captured imagery and dataincluding photos of the cosmic cliffs of the Milky Way's Carina Nebula and a dying star in the Southern Ring Nebula, which were revealed in Julyand turned the results into complex soundscapes. The data was interpreted by a team of musicians and scientists who worked with members of the blind and visually impaired community. "Music taps into our emotional centers," said musician Matt Russo, a physics professor at the University of Toronto who worked on the project, in a NASA release. "Our goal is to make Webb's images and data understandable through soundhelping listeners create their own mental images." Images of the Carina Nebula, a large cloud of gas and dust where stars are born, was transformed into a sparkling, melodic track, which NASA team members described as "vibrant and full, representing the detail in this gigantic, gaseous captivity that has the appearance of a mountain range." The projects scientists explained in the release that "the gas and dust in the top half of the image are represented in blue hues and windy, drone-like sounds. The bottom half of the images, represented in ruddy shades of orange and red, has a clearer, more melodic composition." Sonification of the Southern Ring Nebula created a more eerie track featuring wind-like whooshs accompanied by plucking noises. The track is separated into two parts to represent the the two different infrared views of the Southern Ring Nebula captured by Webb. The colors in the images "were mapped to pitches of soundfrequencies of light converted directly to frequencies of sound," NASA team members wrote. "Near-infrared light is represented by a higher range of frequencies at the beginning of the track. Mid-way through, the notes change, becoming lower overall to reflect that mid-infrared includes longer wavelengths of light." Webb's data on the atmosphere of hot gas giant exoplanet WASP-96 b, which is located 1,150 light-years away from Earth, was also interpreted into an audio track that featured the sounds of water droplets falling to represent the water signatures discovered in the planet's atmosphere. "These sounds simplify the datawater is detected as a signature that has multiple data points," team members wrote. "The sounds align only to the highest points in the data." Scientists say the compositions provides a different way to experience detailed information in Webb's data, and also makes its discoveries more accessible to blind and low-vision space enthusiasts."When I first heard a sonification, it struck me in a visceral, emotional way that I imagine sighted people experience when they look up at the night sky," Christine Malec, a member of the blind and low vision community who worked on the project. This isn't the first time NASA has explored recent images of space through sound. Last month, NASA shared an audio clip that captured eerie sounds emitted from a supermassive black hole more than 250 million light years away from Earth. A teen accused of murder likely will remain in jail. The 16-year-old is one of three people indicted in connection with the shooting death of Richard Shillow, 31, on March 27, 2022. Five people two adults and three children were arrested following the fatal shooting at the Virginia Estates apartment building. The group was allegedly traveling in a stolen car. Kaylon Johnson, who will turn 17 in October, along with 23-year-old Port Arthur resident Ronald Babino Jr. and 19-year-old Beaumont resident Charles Verdine Jr. were charged with murder. Two 14-year-old boys were also charged with unlawfully carrying a weapon and evading on foot. The three children were taken to Minnie Rogers Juvenile Detention Center, police previously said. In Johnsons case, a motion was recently filed by his defense lawyer to reduce the bond, which is currently set at $250,000. At this time, based on the nature of the offense, charge and the information that I have also taken into consideration the probable cause affidavit just to have a little information about the offense, I am going to deny the motion for bond reduction, West said. Before the judge denied his request, Johnson and his defense lawyer provided their rationale to the judge. Johnson informed the court that he lived with his grandmother for about four years and was going to school before the offense occurred. He said he had never had any prior convictions or legal trouble before, and he made good grades in school -- at least 70s, he said. to make sure I was smart and to make sure I could write, he said. If the court reduced the bond to $10,000 or set it for getting a personal recognizance bond, Johnson said he planned to get a "good job" with an interest in getting trained or certified to work at the port or the plant. Johnson, a lifelong Jefferson County resident, confirmed to his lawyer in court that he had not always hung out with the individuals or engaged in such behavior prior to the offense. He shared he has other family members in Jefferson County, including his mother, that he could live with if he was released. He also promised to follow any conditions that were set by the court, including for court appearances and wearing a GPS device. However, State Prosecutor Ashley Molfino informed the judge that at $250,000 the bond was already set lower than what the court typically sets for the type of offense. Recent hearings have included bonds for a murder charge set at $500,000, $750,000 and $1 million, Molfino said. The same court previously reduced Babinos bond from $1 million to $500,000, while Verdines bond remains at $1 million, according to West and Jefferson County jail records. Related: Police: Five arrested in stolen vehicle for Beaumont homicide I think the bond as it is set is sufficient and I would ask the court not to lower it, Molfino said. According to court documents, Beaumont police officers found Shillow lying on his back next to a red Cadillac car with gunshot wounds shortly before 7:30 p.m. at the apartment building located at 2250 West Virginia St. He later died at the hospital. Based on witness testimony, photographs and video surveillance, police determined two people walked up to the red car and began shooting. One of the two people were described as having a long gun with a curved magazine on his side after the shooting. The two then entered a grey two-door Infinity vehicle with an already-open door. While reviewing surveillance video footage from the apartment complex, I was able to view two people walk up to the red Cadillac, police said. They walked to the drivers side and then the passenger side. The passenger door was open by them and moments later you see both subjects walking away. You then see Shillow open the drivers door and fall to the ground. meagan.ellsworth@beaumontenterprise.com twitter.com/megzmagpie This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate CANBERRA, Australia (AP) The Chinese navys unusual behavior in shadowing Australian warships in the South China Sea had not deterred operations in the contested waters, Australias navy chief said. Vice Admiral Mark Hammond said the odd Chinese tactics had not escalated in recent years, which left him reasonably comfortable that Australian crews were safe. Hammond was speaking to reporters ahead of a multination naval drill Exercise Kakadu starting from the northern Australian port of Darwin on Monday for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began. His comments on Australian naval operations in the South China Sea follow an Australian Defense Department complaint that a Chinese navy ship fired a laser at one of its surveillance aircraft in February, endangering the crew. Hammond said the behavior of the Chinese navy, a branch of the Peoples Liberation Army, had changed toward Australian warships in the South China Sea in recent years. Our interactions between our ships ... have been professional and safe. Routinely whenever we have a ship up there, theres a PLA navy vessel within sight quite often following us around, Hammond said. Thats unusual behavior. I dont know another navy that does that. Its a departure from what we would call normal maritime behavior. But it hasnt stopped us from conducting our operations, he added. Hammond said the Chinese behavior had not changed in the past six or seven years. So that gives me some confidence that theres a degree of status quo around what were doing at the moment, Hammond said. From a ship-to-ship perspective, ... Im still reasonably comfortable, he said. The behaviors odd that they want to know where were going and they want to follow us around. But its not impeding our safe passage, he added. Exercise Kakadu involves 22 nations including the United States and from as far away as Germany. The exercise involves up 17 ships, an Australian submarine, 34 aircraft and 3,000 personnel. When Exercise Kakadu was last held in 2018, a Chinese frigate took part. Bilateral relations have since soured, with China imposing a series of official and unofficial trade sanctions on Australian exports. Hammond said whether China is ever again invited to participate was a question for the Australian government, which changed at elections in May. If the political relationship returns to that position we were in in 2018, then I can see that we might be in that space again, Hammond said. Ive yet to see an Australian ship invited to an PLA naval exercise. So theres probably some distance to go, he added. Hammond said he was prepared for possible surveillance of the exercise by the Chinese navy. The exercise will happen in international waters outside our territorial seas and its not unusual to see ships from many different nations in that environment, Hammond said. We prepare accordingly and well scale and manage the exercise accordingly, as we have in the past, he added. Photo courtesy of Orange County Sheriff's Office Police are asking for the public's help in identifying two men who were allegedly seen on camera stealing diesel fuel in Southeast Texas on Sept. 3. The Orange County Sheriff's Office announced its Criminal Investigation Division is investigating the theft that occurred at about 7:20 a.m. in the 3100 block of South Terry Road in the South Vidor area. Given, er, recent events, its hard not to feel like planes are absolutely teeming with imperceptible germs, despite what airlines would have you believe. Its why I now board every plane palms up, ready to receive communion in the form of a fresh airline-branded sanitizing wipe for which to cleanse my seat and seatback tray table with. Usually thats enough to temper my unease, until, of course, I go to stash said (used) wipe in the seatback pocket and its filled with other used sanitizing wipes from other flights. And sometimes the grime is more perceptible than even that. Such was the case on a recent Ryanair flight from the Canary Islands to London. In a viral TikTok, which has since garnered 2.3 million views and north of 2,000 comments, passengers are met with a (not even fine) layer of potato chips coating both the floor and, somehow, several rows of seats upon boarding. We boarded the dirtiest Ryanair flight ever todayCabin crew told us they dont clean between flights, user @scottandsals wrote. Unsurprisingly, the clip ignited a lively and moderately chaotic debate surrounding who is responsible for cleaning up between flights if not the cabin crew. Similarly, in another recent clip from a domestic Qantas flight, a passenger named Ross Matthews can be seen thumping the seat next to him several times, causing a thick cloud of what appears to be dust to erupt. [I]n 2022 i have taken 23 flights all with virgin (domestic) and jetstar (international) until last week, when i flew to perth and back with qantas, these flights were both the most expensive flights (more than hawaii and thailand) but also the worst flights i have ever been on, staff were rude, food was crap and the plane was an absolute disgrace as you can see here honestly what is going on with Qantas its gone from national treasure to national embarrassment, Matthews captioned the video Im sure youre wondering how this could be true when the plane is allegedly cleaned between every flight because same. Unsurprisingly, it comes down to a shortage of time. So as not to slow down the process and invariably cause delays, the crew is likely to focus on the other more obviously dirty areas like the bathrooms, as opposed to seatback tray tables and windows or, apparently, potato chip massacres. But if its not the cabin crews job, then whose is it? According to a new report from The New York Times, most major airlines have done away with the professional cleaning crews that were being deployed between flights in an effort to combat the spread of COVID mostly because its been proven that the rate of transmission from surfaces is extremely low. Further, most cleaning policies vary from airline to airline. American Airlines reportedly still brings in cleaning crews between flights, while JetBlue only does so for international flights. Southwest flight attendants are expected to complete light tidying between flights. That said, in almost every scenario, flight attendants are not expected to perform any manner of deep cleaning. Rather, the job should fall on separate cleaning crews how often that happens, or whether or not it happens, is another story. To me, however, there is an obvious lesson to be gleaned here, which is this: passengers need to take more accountability where plane cleanliness is involved. There is literally no reason for anyone to be throwing garbage on the floor of the aircraft, let alone an entire potato chip bags worth of crumbs. Grow up. For more travel news, tips and inspo, sign up for InsideHook's weekly travel newsletter, The Journey. The post An Answer to the Age-Old Question: Whose Job Is It to Clean the Plane? appeared first on InsideHook. Shutterstock.com The biblical definition of a miracle is an extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known understanding that is considered Gods work. When Christians think about miracles, they talk about a supernatural occurrence that defies natures laws. The Bible mentions 35 miracles that Jess performed. These include stories about Jesus healing the sick, casting out demons, bring people from the dead back to life, among other events. Then, there are miraculous occurrences where we see Jesus power over things, like when He turned water into wine, he fed thousands with a small amount of food and walked on water. Miracles didnt just occur in biblical times. They are still occurring now. If youre a believer wondering how to pray for a miracle, here are five good places to start. Begin by asking for healing. When we want the miraculous to occur in our lives, we must pray for healing to happen. There are tons of examples of Jesus healing in Scripture, so we know that that same power can transfer in our own lives. We just must call on Jesus to place healing in our lives. If you want to start asking God for healing, here is a great place to start: Dear Lord, I call on You for healing today. Heal me in whatever way You see that I need healing. I call on You to heal me from whatever is separating me from You. I ask that You heal my memory, my emotions, and my heart. I also desire that You heal my body and my soul. Wrap Your mighty arms around me and heal me through Your mighty love, Lord. Amen. Ask for miracle power. Miracle power is real. It testifies that Gods touch is close to us and that He is always working to transform our lives. We must be conscious that God is doing the miraculous in the world each day. Miracle power occurs when you have faith and trust in Gods incredible power. You just have to call on God and receive it. This prayer can guide you.: Dear God, I call on Your miracle power today. Please allow this miracle power to penetrate and transform my life from the inside out. I know that Your miracles have the power to transform not only my life but the lives of those around me. For that, I am forever thankful, Father. Amen. Have faith. To understand the miraculous, we have to also understand that we are miraculous beings. There is no way we would e on this earth if we werent miraculous beings who were part of Gods greater plan. We have to believe in the power, that all things are possible. Have faith that miracles do exist, and Jesus is a living example of this. Pray daily for the faith to always believe: Dear Lord, please grant me the ability to see Your power working in my life daily. Help me to see all the supernatural miracles. Youre working in my life, even when I cant see them taking place. I know that miracles are an example of Your excellence being glorified. Thank You for blessing me with this miracle of life. Amen. Know that there are things only God can do. As believers, we should make it a habit to pray for the big things that only God can do in our lives. One of the ways we can do this is by seeing the bigger vision for our lives. For example, you can pray for more than just getting through your workday. You can pray to see the bigger vision of your vocation and the ability to fulfill the call. God may answer this prayer by shifting you to a new career. Sometimes, were not ready to receive this change, but this can be transformative. Call on God to make the powerful happen in the bright situations He sets before You. Here is a good prayer to begin with: Dear Lord, I am calling on You to do what only You can do. I am asking You for a miracle in my life. I know You are the true source of it. When I am confused, guide me through my situation. When I am lost, please send me a sign. Touch me in a way I havent been before. If You are willing, please help me receive my miracle today! Amen. Know that God is greater than any spiritual battle you face. God is bigger than any spiritual battle we face. We can never lose a battle when we have Gods strength running through us. Too often, we rely on our own strength, which is limited. We have to have God working with us to unleash our miracle. If you want God to conquer the enemy, here is a great prayer to begin with: Dear Lord, I come to You today asking You to conquer any spiritual attacks and demonic influences that are taking place in my life and the lives of those around me. I believe You have the miraculous strength and power to overcome satan and his temporary forces. Today, I claim victory over the enemy in Your holy name. Amen. If you are ready for miracles to begin taking place in your life, call on God, and stay persistent about whatever situation you face. You can see and do the miraculous when you believe God is working in your life. The more you trust in Gods power, the more you will see the miracles working through your life. Lesli White is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth with a Bachelors degree in Mass Communications and a concentration in print and online journalism. In college, she took a number of religious studies courses and harnessed her talent for storytelling. White has a rich faith background. Her father, a Lutheran pastor and life coach was a big influence in her faith life, helping her to see the value of sharing the message of Christ with others. She has served in the church from an early age. Some of these roles include assisting ministry, mutual ministry, worship and music ministry and church council. The Indonesian government is investigating reports that top officials in a city near Jakarta had signed a declaration opposing the construction of churches in their jurisdiction, an official said Friday. On the same day, an umbrella organization for Protestant churches in Indonesia called the opposition to church building politicization of identity, and warned that it threatened diversity in the Muslim-majority country that has 25 million Christians. A video circulating online appears to show the mayor and deputy mayor of Cilegon, a city in Banten province, signing a banner brought by local Muslim protesters who objected to construction of churches there. We want to know what really happened, said Mualimin Abdi, director general of human rights at the Law and Human Rights Ministry. I have asked the local office of the ministry to find out, he told BenarNews. On Wednesday, a group calling itself the Local Wisdom Rescue Committee of Cilegon City rallied in front of town hall and asked Mayor Helldy Agustian and his deputy Sanuji Pentamarta to sign their petition, TVOne reported. In the video, it appears that Helldy and Sanuji signed the petition. BenarNews could not immediately reach either of them for comment, but Helldy told local media that he was listening to the voice of the local communities. What I did was to fulfil the wish of the communities in Cilegon City, including religious leaders, community leaders, youth leaders and other organizations, CNN Indonesia quoted him as saying. Politicization of identity The Indonesian Communion of Churches (PGI), an umbrella organization for Protestant churches, condemned the episode. This incident proves that the politicization of identity is increasingly worrying and is threatening the fabric of diversity which we must be grateful for as Gods gift to this nation, PGI spokesman Jeirry Sumampow said in a statement on Friday. He said the Indonesian constitution guaranteed the right for all citizens to practice their religion. Jeirry also urged Christians to act with compassion in response to intolerance. We must never tire of seeking dialogue and cooperation as a dignified way to manage differences and promote national harmony, he said. There are no churches in Cilegon, which is located about 100 kilometers west of Jakarta. Christians here have to drive 45 minutes to the neighboring city of Serang to attend services. Human rights groups have cited opposition to church construction as an example of growing intolerance in Indonesia, home to about 270 million people, 11 percent of whom are Christian. For instance, Christians in Bogor, a city just south of Jakarta, have for years sought to have their church reopened after authorities shuttered it in 2008 because locals opposed it. Indonesian Christian Pastor Torang Simanjuntak delivers an Easter Sunday mass next to the ruins of the Taman Sari Batak Christian Protestant Church in Bekasi, on the outskirts of Jakarta, March 31, 2013, as minority Christians mark Easter amid rising cases of religious intolerance. On March 21, the local government demolished the half constructed church. [Adek Berry/AFP] Alissa Wahid, a member of the Religious Moderation Working Group at the Religious Affairs Ministry, criticized officials who capitulate to intolerant groups who see other groups as enemies and nuisances. These things often happen under the pretext of communal unity and social harmony, Alissa told BenarNews. Human rights groups have blamed a 2006 joint ministerial degree for growing intolerance in Southeast Asias most populous country. Under the decree, the construction of houses of worship must meet several requirements, including the signatures and identification of at least 90 worshipers, the signed approval of at least 60 members of the local community and a written government recommendation. Rights activists had said the decree was passed due to some Muslims concern about alleged Christian missionary activities and what they perceived as a growing number of churches in Muslim areas. Religious Affairs Minister Yaqut Cholil Qoumas defended the decree in an interview with BenarNews last year, saying that while it may need some amendments, it was necessary to maintain communal harmony in a religiously diverse nation like Indonesia. The ministrys head of the Center for Religious Harmony, Wawan Djunaedi, urged local leaders to respect constitutional rights of all citizens. There is no reason whatsoever for regional heads not to facilitate the construction of houses of worship when the number of potential users has reached 90 people, Wawan said on the ministrys website on Thursday. Nazarudin Latif in Jakarta contributed to this report. Labour minister visits Vietnamese trainee nurses in Japan Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) Dao Ngoc Dung on Thursday visited Osaka Healthcare Association and Vietnamese nursing staff during his ongoing visit to Japan. Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung visits Vietnamese nursing staff in Japan on September 8. Minister Dung met with the Chairman of the Osaka Healthcare Association, Takeshima Tenmi, directors of some local enterprises, and 14 Vietnamese trainee nurses. Speaking at the meeting, Takeshima Tenmi highlighted the achievements made after three years of co-operation between the Osaka Healthcare Association and the Vietnamese Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs. "The programme has sent the first Vietnamese nurse trainees to work here, who are doing their work well," he said. "To receive more in the coming time, we have just built a hostel and created various facilities to help Vietnamese trainees adapt better to Japanese life and culture." At the meeting, Minister Dung said he highly appreciated the co-operation with the Japanese partner in welcoming Vietnamese staff to Japan. "Despite the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, we tried to send the first 14 trainee nurses to Japan early this year," Minister Dung said. "This is a non-profit progamme that only recruits female workers and we will try to ensure that it will bring good opportunities to improve their lives." The Vietnamese delegation also visited a nursing home in Osaka City. The ministry delegation visited Japan from September 4-8. The delegation had a working session with Japanese Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare Katsunobu Kato in Tokyo on September 5, suggesting that the Japanese side consider the exemption of residence tax and income tax for Vietnamese interns. On September 6, they had a working session with Japanese Minister of Justice Hanashi Yasuhiro to discuss measures to further increase the number of Vietnamese workers in Japan, improve their working conditions and minimise illegal overstaying by Vietnamese nationals. Zhang Qiang has been working as a courier since being deported back to China. In 2021, Chinese migrant worker Zhang Qiang signed on to a Belt and Road project in Indonesia, drawn by what he believed would be higher wages than he could make at home. Happily married for nine years, with two daughters, Zhang promised his youngest that he would buy her a princess-style bed for her bedroom with the extra money, then left his hometown of Anyang city, in the central province of Henan to take the job. At that time, I had just put a down payment on a home in China, and taken out a mortgage, Zhang, 32, told Radio Free Asia (RFA), an online news service affiliated with BenarNews. My youngest told me when we were settled in the new place that she wanted a princess bed. I told her yes. I said I would definitely get her one when I have earned this money overseas, he said. [I told her] I was introduced by a friend, and was going to Indonesia to work for six months at 500 yuan (U.S. $72) a day. That after working... I can come back to China. Zhang signed up for the job with Rongcheng Environmental Protection, alongside more than 20 other workers recruited at the same time, but the company said the contract-signing would have to wait, citing COVID-19 restrictions in Nanjing at the time, and the lack of access to a printer. They found an excuse after I got to Nanjing for why we couldnt sign the contract ... then, after a week of quarantine, we flew out to Indonesia, he said. The reality was far from what he had been promised. On arrival in Indonesia, Zhangs passport was taken from him, and he was pressured to sign a contract for lower wages than advertised, locking him in for a longer period than had been promised. As soon as we got off the plane, they arranged for us to take a COVID-19 test, and then they had us throw our passports into a box, Zhang said. Zhangs group was taken to work on the Delong Industrial Park project in Sulawesi, part of a Chinese-invested nickel-mining project under the Belt and Road infrastructure initiative. They had told us before we left that wed be working nine hours a day, he said. Once we got there, that became nine-and-a-half hours, as well as overtime in the evenings. They would dock your wages if you refused to do overtime. Once inside the migrant workers camp, Zhang also found that escape was no easy matter, as the place was patrolled by armed guards. You basically couldnt leave the site, and they had security guards with guns guarding it, Zhang said. There were people with guns at the dormitory area too. There were other changes made to the terms of the contract, too. They said it would be for six months, but the boss told us we wouldnt be going home in six months, he said. Before we left, they told us wed have to leave a months wages as a deposit, and that the rest of our wages would be paid monthly, as normal. Once we got there, they didnt give us any money in the first month, and after that, they just handed out 10,000 yuan (U.S. $1,450) for living expenses, Zhang said. The rest of our wages would have to wait until several months after wed gone home. Two undated photos show the conditions workers faced at the Delong Industrial Park project in Sulawesi, Indonesia. [Zhang Qiang] Brutal work conditions Once work was under way, Zhang and the other workers were denied breaks and forced to work nonstop in high temperatures doing physically grueling labor. Stopping for a rest or a cigarette would also result in docked wages. They started to hear reports of frequent worker suicides at the site. In desperation, Zhang and some of the relatives of other workers at the site appealed to the Chinese embassy in Jakarta for help. But the call only resulted in a backlash for the workers from their gang boss. The lower-ranking boss [Lu Jun] came to us and said ... have you been watching too many movies? Trying to complain isnt going to work here, Zhang said. When the contracts finally appeared, they stipulated monthly living expenses of 1,000 yuan (U.S. $145), with the full wages only paid six months after the workers return to China. It was one of those overlord contracts, so we didnt sign it, Zhang said. The workers insisted on going back to China, whereupon they were told that they would have to stump up 75,000 yuan (U.S. $10,830) each. After a period of stalemate, even that offer was withdrawn. When asked to comment by RFA, Lu Jun said the workers were in breach of contract. Originally the deal was that they would work for a year, but two months after they got here, they said they wanted to go back to China, Lu said. They would have to pay the cost of that themselves. So then five of them ran away before theyd paid what they owed me. But the five workers werent out of the woods yet. They managed to find another gang boss, Liu Peiming, and paid him 250,000 yuan (U.S. $36,100) after he said he would have them home within a week. But he secretly arranged to have them sent to Phase II of the Delong project instead. We kept telling them that we wanted to go home, but he didnt care anymore, and just said there was no way we were getting home for 50,000 yuan (U.S. $7,220) [apiece], and that hed need another 20,000 to 30,000 yuan (U.S. $2,890 to $4,330), Zhang said. Eventually, Zhang and his colleagues got the story out via the media, and higher-ups and Delong got involved. We have said they should first refund the 250,000 yuan to us and give us back our passports, because this is illegal detention, Zhang said. Liu eventually did return the money, but Delong still has their passports. Repeated attempts to contact Liu Peimings assistant and Delong for comment had resulted in no reply at the time of writing. Undated photos show the conditions workers faced at the Delong Industrial Park project in Sulawesi, Indonesia. [Zhang Qiang] Smuggled to Malaysia Eventually, the group fell in with the proprietor of the Peony Hotel near Phase II, who promised to smuggle them into Malaysia, for which they had to pay 13,000 yuan (U.S. $1,875) each. We had to take an eight- or nine-meter (26- or 29-foot) speedboat used for fishing and make a two-hour crossing at sea, making us jump down when the water was shallow enough to stand in, Zhang said. As soon as we reached the Malaysian border, the coastguard caught us. The Peony Hotels proprietor denied taking money from the group when contacted by RFA. I recommended an interpreter who could arrange for people to go that route, and put them in touch so they could sort it out between them, she said. I also recommended someone in Jakarta who could change their money. Dont come asking me about it; I never made money out of it. Zhang and his four companions eventually made it home to Henan in February 2022 after being deported by the Malaysian authorities. They are now heavily in debt, leaving them with no choice but to get straight back to work again. I wanted to sue them, but there were various debts hanging over me when I got back, so I went back to work, Zhang said. Life is so stressful. He now works as a courier, and feels he had a relatively lucky escape. These sites are completely closed off ... which puts you under a very intense kind of psychological pressure, Zhang said. Two people committed suicide during our two months at Phase III, and I read about several more online after I got home, too. Since 2010, an estimated 10 million Chinese nationals have taken jobs overseas, with 570,000 believed to still be working overseas as of the end of May 2022, according to the New York-based rights group China Labor Watch. Many travel on tourist or business visas and work without a contract, however, meaning that the true figure may be far higher. Even where contracts do exist, breaches of their terms are very common, the group said. An electronic billboard on a building in Manila pays tribute to Queen Elizabeth II of Britain, who died Thursday at age 96, Sept. 9, 2022. Leaders of Asian and Pacific nations conveyed their condolences and tributes to Britains royal family and its new king on Friday following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, who reigned for 70 years. Britains longest-serving monarch died at age 96 on Thursday, months after she celebrated her platinum jubilee on the throne. Elizabeth II was a perennial figure on the post-war international stage, as the globe transitioned away from colonialism and into the Cold War and a multipolar world. In Malaysia on Friday, the countrys king and queen reminisced about visiting Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace in 2019, while Bangladesh began three days of mourning in her memory. Leaders in the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand also posted messages of condolence. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will be remembered by their Majesties, the government and people of Malaysia for her unwavering commitment to the Commonwealth of which Malaysia is a proud member and her efforts to promote stronger ties between the United Kingdom and Malaysia, the Malaysian king, Al-Sultan Abdullah, and queen, Tunku Azizah, said in a statement. Elizabeth, who ascended the throne in 1952, presided over the sunset of the British Empire but remained head of the Commonwealth of mostly former colonies. Her son, King Charles III, succeeds her not only as Britains head of state but as head of the Commonwealth which, in Asia, also includes Singapore and Bangladesh. The grouping of 56 independent nations across the globe includes Australia and New Zealand, where Elizabeth also reigned as head of state. Bangladeshs national flag flies at half-staff at the Parliament House in Dhaka in tribute to Britains Queen Elizabeth II, Sept. 9, 2022. [Munir Uz Zaman/AFP] In Dhaka on Friday, Bangladeshs government announced that during the three-day period of mourning, the national flag will be kept at half-mast at all government, semi-government, autonomous bodies, non-government offices, educational Institutions and Bangladesh missions abroad. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said the Bangladesh people pray for the eternal peace and salvation of Her Majestys departed soul. Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi signs a condolence book for Queen Elizabeth II at the British Embassy in Jakarta, Sept. 9, 2022. [Retno Marsudi Twitter] In Manila, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. noted that the British monarch, during her seven decades on the throne, exemplified to the world a true monarchs great dignity. We, together with many Filipinos living and working in England, though not subjects of the Queen, have found ourselves having developed a great sense of affection for her as a Queen, as mother, and as a grandmother, Marcos said in a statement. In Jakarta, Indonesian President Joko Jokowi Widodo also joined other world leaders in expressing deepest sympathies for the British Royals. Acting Thai Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan (second from left) looks at a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II while visiting the British Embassy in Bangkok to sign a condolence book, Sept. 9, 2022. [Royal Thai Government handout/AFP] In Bangkok, the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth and the close ties between the two nations. We share with the British people and the international community in mourning this great and irreparable loss, the ministry said in a statement. In October 1996, Elizabeth II visited the kingdom and met with then- King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) as he marked his 50th anniversary on Thailands throne. When he died in October 2016, the Thai king had reigned for 70 years and 126 days. At the time of his death, Bhumibol was the worlds longest serving monarch, but, in the end, Elizabeth overtook him for longevity on the throne. As of late Friday (Bangkok time), the Thai royal palace had yet to issue a statement marking Elizabeths death. Grief is the price we pay for love In Singapore, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said parliament would observe one minute of silence at the beginning of Mondays session for Queen Elizabeth. As a mark of respect, state flags at all government buildings will be flown at half-mast on the day of the funeral, he said in a statement. Meanwhile in Australia, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese praised Queen Elizabeth for her service to the Commonwealth, saying, Her life of faithful service will be remembered for centuries to come. Australian hearts go out to the people of the United Kingdom who mourn today, knowing they will feel they have lost part of what makes their nation whole, he said in a statement. There is comfort to be found in Her Majestys own words: Grief is the price we pay for love. In New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Cindy Kiro, the countrys governor-general, each issued statements of condolence as well. I know I speak for all New Zealanders in conveying our deepest sympathy to members of the royal family, and condolences to King Charles III, on behalf of the government and New Zealanders, at this time of enormous loss, Ardern said in a statement. Britains Queen Elizabeth II appears on a screen via video link from Windsor Castle during a virtual audience to receive Zakri Jaafar, the Ambassador of Malaysia, at Buckingham Palace, London, Nov. 25, 2021. [Dominic Lipinski/pool/AFP] Kiro, the governor-general, represents the British monarch and was appointed by the prime minister. I have written to the new King on behalf of all New Zealanders, expressing the condolences of the nation, Kiro said in her statement. As Queen of New Zealand for 70 years, Her Majesty was an honored monarch and an enduring presence through times of great change. The Queen will be remembered for her dedication to all her Realms and her commitment to play a unifying role in the Commonwealth, Kiro said. New Zealand shares with the people of Her Majestys Realms profound grief at the loss of a cherished monarch and honored leader. Her Majesty The Queen was much loved and respected in New Zealand, and will be long remembered for her lifetime of dedicated service. Ahammad Foyez in Dhaka, Wilawan Watcharasakwet in Bangkok and Tengku Noor Shamsiah Tengku Abdullah in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report. 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. Bennington, VT (05201) Today Cloudy this evening with thunderstorms developing after midnight. Low around 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%.. Tonight Cloudy this evening with thunderstorms developing after midnight. Low around 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%. Bennington, VT (05201) Today A few showers in the evening with thunderstorms developing overnight. Low around 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%.. Tonight A few showers in the evening with thunderstorms developing overnight. Low around 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%. Bennington, VT (05201) Today Cloudy this evening with thunderstorms developing after midnight. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%.. Tonight Cloudy this evening with thunderstorms developing after midnight. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%. On Friday, The Associated Press reported on stories circulating online incorrectly claiming a federal court order in the legal dispute over government documents held by former President Donald Trump shows President Joe Biden ordered the FBI search at Trumps Florida home. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File) In this Sept. 10, 2021, file photo, a syringe of of ivermectin a drug used to kill worms and other parasites intended for use in horses only, rests on the box it was packaged in, in Olympia, Wash. On Friday, The Associated Press reported on stories circulating online incorrectly claiming the National Institutes of Health recently added ivermectin to a list of COVID-19 treatments. Bernard Shaw, CNNs chief anchor for two decades and a pioneering Black broadcast journalist best remembered for calmly reporting the beginning of the Gulf War in 1991 as missiles flew around him in Baghdad, has died King Charles III says he feels profound sorrow over the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, and vows to carry on her lifelong service to the nation PITTSFIELD On Sunday, organizers from local cooperative groups aim to transform The Common into a cornucopia where visitors can find food, fun and hope. The Our Harvest of Hope/Nuestro Cosecha De Esperanza festival will take place Sunday from 1 to 6 p.m. at The Common, 100 1st St. in Pittsfield. The festival is hosted by Manos Unidas, the RE-FORMation Academy and Roots & Dreams and Mustard Seeds Inc. It began about 10 years ago, said Anaelisa Jacobsen, founder of Manos Unidas, as a way to enact ecological integrity as it is laid out in the Earth Charter, an international declaration of values for global sustainability. This years festival is focused on food insecurity in Berkshire County. Organizers hope the event will raise awareness about the struggle many face to find affordable food. Jacobsen linked the event to her organizations program Mercado de Vida, which provides fresh produce for those in need. Sinead OBrien, director of the Racial Fairness Project, said it is important to recognize that food insecurity is more prevalent than people think. You can see an open wound, but you cant see an empty belly, OBrien said. OBrien said awareness needs to extend beyond the event itself. The organizers hope to raise money to continue efforts to support community food banks. This is a problem every day of the year, OBrien said. Were hoping people leave here saying, How can I help feed someone on Sept. 12? Quote If we know our cultures, were more likely to be enamored with them." Leslie Gabriel, Manos Unidas The festival will feature Latin and Irish dance, musical performances, puppet shows and spoken word artists. Local artists and makers will show their work. The harvest doubles as a multicultural showcase and a way to bring people together, said Leslie Gabriel, capital development and marketing director for Manos Unidas. If we know our cultures, were more likely to be enamored with them, Gabriel said. Jacobsen said the festival will culminate with a large banquet featuring food from Latin American cultures, including Puerto Rico and Colombia. She said the meal celebrates a community of sustenance and share lovingly prepared food among all who attend. You know those elegant feasts that people do out in a field? This is our urban version of that, Jacobsen said. OBrien said the harvest festival will allow Pittsfield residents to be family for a day, and come together in support of a good cause. Its coming together and its breaking bread, OBrien said. Were going to fill our stomachs and our souls. NORTH ADAMS A plane rumbled down the runway at Harriman-and-West Airport midday Thursday, but theres was a catch. A rope stretched behind the plane to a glider that it tugged down the runway and into the sky as they both took off. Thousands of feet off the ground, the glider a motorless plane disconnected from the rope and its pilot, and Jon Goodman, was able to soar. If you go ... This weekend, the club is celebrating its anniversary by inviting other glider clubs to fly at the Harriman-and-West Airport. The airport will be open to the public from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday for people to watch flights and learn more about gliding. About 20 minutes later, the glider sailed back to the airport and landed gracefully on a long strip of grass next to the runway. Welcome to a normal day with the Mohawk Soaring Club, a group that meets at the citys airport about twice a week. Under favorable weather conditions, which we have often in North Adams, we can fly for fairly long periods of time. Just like the hawks, said Goodman, president of the club. Several weeks ago, Goodman said, he flew at 8,000 feet for more than two hours. This weekend at the airport, the Mohawk Soaring Club is celebrating its 70th anniversary. The group started in 1952 and was originally based in Schenectady, N.Y., and moved to North Adams 50 years ago, Goodman said. Tucked between Mount Greylock, the Taconic range, and Pine Cobble, Harriman-and-West Airport has good soaring conditions. Wind blowing on to a mountain, ridge line, or other slope gets pushed upward, creating ridge lift and helping gliders soar, the Soaring Society of America writes on its website. Sailplanes can fly back and forth for hours on the narrow band of rising air on the upwind side of the ridge, it reads. Skilled pilots are able to take advantage of that and other sources of lift to soar for longer periods of time. The good gliding conditions help draw pilots far from North Adams. The club has 27 members from the Berkshires, Albany, parts of Connecticut and the Connecticut River Valley. Don Chamberlain lives in Simsbury, Conn., and commuting to the airport in his plane a motorized one takes about 30 minutes; driving takes two hours. There is a spot where Chamberlain could glide closer to home in Connecticut, but the conditions are not as good. They dont have a ridge like this, he said, pointing to the ridge along Mount Williams at Mount Greylock State Reservation. Chamberlain started gliding about five years ago after flying planes for decades. Its a real kick to stay in the air without an engine, he said. Basically, were addicted to airplanes, he added, explaining what drives the clubs members. After Doug Herrick recently moved to Williamstown, he was shopping at the nearby Stop and Shop. I looked and saw the airport was being used for gliders and joined [the club], he said. Anyone flying is licensed through the Federal Aviation Administration, Goodman said. We are airplanes, we just dont have motors. We have a program with certified flight instructors where you gain the skills and the decision making abilities to fly quite safety, Goodman said. Hal Weeks, a student glider who lives in Easthampton, flies with an instructor and isnt yet able to go up alone. As a glider landed on the grass at the airport, he grabbed a clipboard and recorded the time in the clubs flight log. After the pandemic, he said, I was looking for a new challenge that didnt involve webinars or web courses. New York students lead a May 10, 2021, rally at Stuyvesant High School to protest the lack of diversity in the citys specialized high schools. Letter: Property tax is a regressive tax, but it doesn't have to be Information from the Boston Globe and the Washington Post was included in this report. The Outlook is today's look ahead at the weather this weekend and next week, including its impact on the Berkshires and beyond. Clarence Fanto can be reached at cfanto@yahoo.com or on Twitter at @BE_cfanto. CHONGQING, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- This summer, foodies in Singapore for the first time savored crisp plums harvested deep in the mountains of southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. Known for its crisp, juicy and tender flesh, the crisp plum is one of three major fruits grown in Wushan County. In 2022, the total planting area of the crisp plum in Wushan reached about 20,000 hectares, which played a vital role in boosting rural revitalization in the Three Gorges Reservoir area. Yet the popular fruit had been unable to go global for a long period of time. "On the one hand, we had little understanding of overseas markets. On the other, Wushan crisp plum is vulnerable and therefore more difficult to transport," said Wang Chenyu, general manager of a cold chain logistics company in Chongqing. According to Wang, Wushan crisp plums must be transported at 4 to 8 degrees Celsius, and the transport duration had to be kept within 5 to 7 days. A turning point came this year. Just prior to its harvest season, a team was established with the support of local authorities and various departments under the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity to facilitate the export of crisp plums. Launched in 2015, the initiative is an inter-governmental cooperation project between China and Singapore and mainly targets financial services, air transportation, logistics, and information communication. Simplified clearance procedures, a customized courier service and strict quality control under the initiative have combined to substantially jack up the export prospects of this dainty fruit. In late July, the first batch of 300 kg of Wushan crisp plums finally took a direct flight from Chongqing to Singapore. The whole trip took about four hours. "This summer we exported two batches of crisp plums to Singapore," noted Wang. Wang added that a new land-sea transport route is under discussion, which should result in the fresh fruit being sent via Beibu Gulf in southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region or Shenzhen in Guangdong Province by cold chain truck, and then to Singapore by sea. "The logistics cost will be greatly reduced compared with the current land-air transport," Wang said. The new route is feasible thanks to new fresh-keeping equipment developed by the School of Electrical Engineering at Chongqing University, which can significantly prolong the freshness of crisp plums. "The new fresh-keeping technology can extend the period in storage from just 4 to 5 days to two weeks," said Wang, who believes the new technology lays a solid foundation for the sale of Wushan crisp plums to more overseas markets. "After the two shipments, we have received several new orders from dealers in Singapore, which shows that Wushan crisp plums are well received and gives us confidence to enlarge its exportation," said Zhou Yangchun, director of the commission of commerce in Wushan County. What Is This Verse Actually Saying? To begin with, it helps to understand what Micah 6:8 means. One thing that is clear and true about this verse is the language. God is literally saying I have shown you what is good to do. This leaves no room for conjecture or excuses. However, the real challenge of this verse lies in what he says after that. The instruction is to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. I challenge you to take a moment and meditate on what this verse means. When you let the truth of this verse sink into your heart, you will see this is no casual command. Lets break it down to see what each one of these things mean. To act justly means you will do what is morally right or fair. This is not just something you talk about, because it goes beyond mere words. This is also not something you can only require of others. To act justly is something you must commit to doing yourself. The challenge in this is committing to doing what is morally right and fair in every circumstance, even when it is not popular. While many may say yes with their mouth to this, I think we have seen the actions dont always follow. To love mercy implies a joint loyalty and faithfulness to the love of God, which is demonstrated in a commitment to love others. The word mercy is from the Hebrew word hesed which implies a loyal commitment that flows out of love. This is what motivates Gods faithfulness to you and should be the reason you are faithful to him. One way this is demonstrated is how you love others. To walk humbly is to walk carefully before God, being mindful of how you live before him. The one who walks humbly with the Lord does so modestly and without arrogance. When you sum up this verse, it is a call to an active faith that is lived out with actions and interactions with others and not just with words. Here is how one Bible commentator, Kenneth L. Barker, summed up this verse: Thus this saying is not an invitation, in lieu of the gospel, to save oneself by kindly acts of equity and fairnessIt was instead a call for the natural consequence of truly forgiven men and women to demonstrate the reality of their faith by living it out in the marketplace. Such living would be accompanied with acts and deeds of mercy, justice and giving of oneself for the orphan, the widow and the poor. Photo credit: SWN/Sarah Martin HARVARD - Officials said Monday morning that that Prospect Fire is completely contained. Firefighters will continue to patrol the area and complete the fireline rehabilitation process over the next couple of weeks. The public can except to see smoke as internal fuels smolder, say officials. On Sunday, in addition to their work on the fire, crews were able to assist the local fire district as a new fire was reported outside of Potlatch. The fire was contained, and the cause is under investigation. The North Idaho Type 3 Incident Management Team 2 transferred command of the fire back to the Idaho Department of Lands as of 6:00 a.m. Monday morning. **Fire Update (9/11/22) at 8:30 a.m.** Officials say the Prospect Fire has remained at 291 acres and is now 75% contained. Firefighters made progress toward full containment yesterday and are expected to have the fire fully contained by end of shift Sunday, say officials. Fire crews and engines will be released from the incident as mop up completes. The North Idaho Type 3 Incident Management Team 2 would thanked all the fire crews, cooperators, and contractors for their commitment to fighting fire aggressively and safely throughout the incident. They also acknowledged the support from the local community. **Fire Update (9/10/22) at 7:00 a.m.** HARVARD - The Prospect Fire had some help to focus the days efforts yesterday. In the early morning hours, fire managers from the Idaho Department of Lands deployed an unmanned aerial system (UAS) equipped with an infrared camera to fly over the fire area and record heat signatures. The data gathered helped operations focus firefighter efforts on areas with the highest concentration of heat along the fireline. It also validated areas along the fireline declared contained and determined a more precise geo referenced fire perimeter. The fire is now 15% contained and 291 acres. The acreage increase reflects this new information - the fire did not grow. Fire behavior has been minimal. Today firefighters will continue their hard work to increase containment. Working in a grid pattern to make sure no heat is left behind that could smolder and reignite in the future, they dig out hot spots and douse with water that they carry on their backs or pipe to the location with hose lays. The fire will continue to creep and smolder through internal islands of green fuels and logging slash. Weather today will be favorable to achieving the goals of containment with good overnight humidity recovery, lower temperatures, and light winds. There are no road or area closures; caution when driving near the fire area is strongly advised. Roads are narrow and winding with blind curves and steep drop offs. Logging and fire equipment are very large, very heavy, and have less maneuverability than standard vehicles. Please use alternative routes to avoid the area if possible. **Fire Update (9/9/22) at 8:00 a.m.** HARVARD - The Prospect Fire remains at 286 acres with five percent containment. Officials say firefighters have worked "incredibly hard" to keep the fire within the constructed lines to protect high value industrial timber on both public and private lands. The fire is burning near the junction of Meadow Creek and Prospect Creek, north of Harvard, and about 10 miles to the northeast of Potlatch. On Thursday crews continued the arduous process of mopping up into the fires interior, locating and extinguishing hot spots. This work will continue until a mop up standard of 100 feet into the interior is achieved. Containment is declared when fire managers are 100% confident that burning internal fuels cannot ignite any fuel source outside the fireline. Given this seasons hot and dry conditions, with limited precipitation, and erratic winds, fire managers are cautious to announce containment percentages. While fire behavior has been minimal with creeping and smoldering over the past several days, a wind shift has been forecasted to come out of the east, the opposite of all wind direction over the fire so far, with associated wind gusts of 30 m.p.h. which may increase fire behavior and test control lines on the west side of the fire for the first time, according to officials. Preemptively, fire managers have brought in fire crews and resources to support any additional efforts that may be required. 90% of the firefighting resources on the Prospect Fire are State of Idaho contracted resources. Having contractors at the ready allows the Idaho Department of Lands to quicken the pace of mop up and aggressively fight fire with the equipment and personnel needed to do so. Currently there are no road or area closures; caution when driving near the fire area is strongly advised. Roads are narrow and winding with blind curves and steep drop offs. Logging and fire equipment are very large, very heavy, and have less maneuverability than standard vehicles. Please use alternative routes to avoid the area if possible. **Fire Update (9/8/22) at 8:00 a.m.** HARVARD - Officials say the hard work of firefighters over the past several days paid off as they successfully held the Prospect Fire without any new fire growth. The Prospect Fire remains at 286 acres with five percent containment. The predicted weather event did not materialize as anticipated, and while it was windy and extremely dry, a cloud cover kept fire activity low on Wednesday. Firefighters were able to get hose lays and water delivery systems around the entire fire perimeter. Firelines were strengthened, and where they could, crews began the arduous process of mopping up into the fires interior; extinguishing any hot spots that could reignite and cross over the fireline into unburned fuels. Excess heavy equipment was released from the incident yesterday to be available for other emerging incidents in need. On Thursday fire crews will work to increase containment by reinforcing the constructed line. Mop up will continue along the perimeter 25 feet into the interior of the fire. Like recreational campfires, firefighters check with bare hands for residual heat and drown, stir, and repeat until cold. Aviation resources are available if needed. Currently there are no road or area closures, however this is continually re-assessed, and the public will be informed as changes occur. **Fire Update (9/7/22) at 8:00 a.m.** HARVARD - The Prospect Fire experienced limited fire growth yesterday and, as of Wednesday morning, was estimated at 286 acres in size with five percent containment. The Idaho Department of Lands says the fire is burning near the junction of Meadow Creek and Prospect Creek, north of Harvard, and about 10 miles to the northeast of Potlatch. Officials say recent fire behavior included short-range spotting and single tree torching. However, firefighters were successful in keeping the fire checked within the established perimeter along the north edge and out of Forest Service lands. Crews have made excellent progress tying together a combination of mechanical line, roads, and handlines around the fires perimeter, say officials. Aviation resources assisted ground forces with bucket water drops allowing for direct engagement of the fire. On Wednesday, officials say fire crews will again work to construct indirect fire lines, strengthening and reinforcing the constructed fireline with hose lays, pumps, and sprinklers to bring water to the fire edge, and in some areas, begin the mop up process along firelines where containment has been achieved. Patrolling for spot fires in efforts to quickly extinguish and mop up will continue as expected windy conditions push embers toward the east. Aviation resources will be available to deliver water if needed. Critical fire weather conditions with Red Flag warnings are in effect for Wednesday. Currently there are no road or area closures, however this is continually re-assessed, and the public will be informed as changes occur. **Fire Update (9/6/22) at 8:00 a.m.** MOSCOW - According to a Tuesday morning update from officials, the Prospect Fire is now estimated at 250 acres with zero percent containment. The fire continues to burn exclusively on industrial timber land. The Idaho Department of Lands says the fire is burning near the junction of Meadow Creek and Prospect Creek, northeast of Moscow. Officials say retardant drops have successfully kept the northern edge of the fire perimeter from expanding into Forest Service ownership. Dozer operators completed mechanical line along the western edge as ground crews tracked down and extinguished spot fires created by strong westerly winds. The fire continues to back down the Prospect Creek drainage toward the fire scar of the 2019 Prospect Fire. On Tuesday fire crews will work to complete indirect fire lines around the fire perimeter, say officials. These indirect firelines are often referred to as the big box. As firefighter and public safety are always the number one priority when determining fire suppression strategies, this tactic allows for the removal of fuels ahead of the fires advancement while providing for the safety of the crew. As fuels change, so too does fire behavior. Firefighters have been successful in controlling fire growth in areas where the fuel type changes from logging slash to standing timber. The live trees coupled with retardant lowers the intensity of the fire and allows firefighters access to construct handlines and directly engage the fire. Critical fire weather conditions are forecast to occur Tuesday evening through Wednesday evening resulting in poor humidity recovery overnight. This may cause high elevation fires to burn actively through the night. Gusty winds during the daytime could cause current fire behavior to increase in intensity. Currently there are no road or area closures, however this is continually re-assessed, and the public will be informed as changes occur. **Fire Update (9/5/22) at 9:00 a.m.** Monday at 6:00 a.m. the North Idaho Type 3 Incident Management Team 2 assumed command of the Prospect Fire. Idaho Department of Lands resources were able to locate and determine the cause of the fire to be a single tree lightning strike from the storm that passed through the area late Saturday afternoon. The Idaho Department of Lands says the fire is burning near the junction of Meadow Creek and Prospect Creek, northeast of Moscow. The fire is estimated to be 200 acres, and at this time, is zero percent contained. The fire is burning on industrial timber land in an area where a completed forest operation had occurred, and heavy logging slash was collected and waiting for the fall burning season in accordance with Idahos Forest Practices Act. The fire grew on Sunday as slash piles and heavy fuels continued to ignite. The intensity of the burning did not allow for direct ground engagement by fire crews, however fixed wing aviation resources were very successful in providing support to ground forces with both retardant and water drops. This allowed firefighters to begin construction of mechanical line with heavy equipment and scouting opportunities for direct engagement of the fire. Fire crews remained on scene throughout the night to monitor the fires behavior and take action as necessary. As of Monday morning, there were communities or structures threatened. The public is asked to stay clear of the area to provide for the safety of fire crews and the large heavy equipment required to successfully fight this fire. Currently there are no road or area closures, however officials say this is continually re-assessed, and the public will be informed as changes occur. **Fire Update (9/4/22) at 11:30 a.m.** MOSCOW - On Sunday morning, the Idaho Department of Lands provided an update on the Prospect Fire, burning near the junction of Meadow Creek and Prospect Creek, northeast of Moscow. According to the IDL, the fire grew overnight to an estimated 75-100 acres, up from the initial fire size of 10-20 acres. No structures are threatened at this time. The fire is burning in private industrial timberlands and logging slash. Fire officials say the fire is expected to remain extremely active throughout the day on Sunday as it is burning heavy logging slash. Note: Slash is the term used for branches and debris generated during logging operations that remain after trees are harvested. As of 11:30 a.m. Sunday morning, there are approximately 100 people assigned to the fire. Aircraft are also on scene assisting with support operations. A Type 3 Incident Management Team led by Incident Commander Mike McManus has been ordered and will take over the fire at 6:00a.m. Monday morning. The official cause of the fire, which was first reported around 4:00 p.m. Saturday afternoon, remains under investigation. Original Story (9/3/22) MOSCOW - On Saturday afternoon, multiple fire units responded to a wildland fire burning private industrial timberlands and logging slash near the Junction of Meadow Creek and Prospect Creek northeast of Moscow, ID. According to a report from the Idaho Department of Lands, the Prospect Fire was last estimated to be 10-20 acres in size. The fire was first reported around 4:00 p.m. Saturday afternoon. As of 6:30 p.m. Saturday evening, six engines, two hand crews, two dozers and a helicopter were working to suppress the fire with an aggressive attack. No structures are at risk, however there is active logging in the area and valuable timber is at risk. There are no evacuations in place. The IDL asks that the public stay out of the area for safety. The IDL says that lightning storms did come through the area around the time of the fire, but the official cause remains under investigation. No evacuations. Please stay out of the area for safety. Fire is burning in private industrial timberlands and logging slash. The devices powered by next-generation AI algorithms track vital parameters of patients undergoing cancer treatment NATCO Cancer Centre, Government General Hospital, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh state governments flagship cancer hospital, announced the installation of Dozees Contactless Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) and Early Warning System (EWS) at the hospital. The devices powered by next-generation AI algorithms track vital parameters of patients undergoing cancer treatment and help HCPs identify early clinical deterioration of the patients for timely medical intervention. The solution is provided to the hospital under the MillionICU initiative of Dozee for transforming public healthcare in India. Upgrading hospital beds to connected beds with such next-generation sensors coupled with cloud-enabled AI-powered algorithms is one of the most preferred methods to automate patient monitoring in non-ICU wards. Further, Dozee can be integrated into the hospitals central command system and HMIS. Necessity is the mother of invention, and for Dr Carolyn Chinsinga, medical director of operations at Quro Medical this most certainly was the driving factor behind joining Africa's first tech-driven hospital at home. Source: Dr Carolyn Chinsinga. Chinsinga has worked as a senior doctor in emergency rooms across South Africa and Malawi, and she has lectured family nurse practitioners in Botswana. Her decade-long experience working as a medical doctor in some of SADC's best - and worst - hospitals, has developed in her a passion for inculcating a culture of excellence in patient care for her clinical team. "I worked as a trauma doctor for about 10 years, and during the height of Covid it was particularly brutal. I saw all the deaths and the devastation, and we couldn't fit patients anywhere. "The casualty departments were full the entire time. We turned our parking lots into ICUs, and still we'd send somebody home because there was a sicker person waiting to take up that space," Chisinga said. It was during this time, while pregnant with her second child, that Chinsinga launched her own GP practice and started doing home visits. "I could treat patients who got mild to moderate symptoms of Covid in the comfort of their own home, and if their symptoms escalated we could take them through to the hospital." It's within this space that Chinsinga met the Quro team and referred some of her patients to them for the hospital at home service, and the remote patient monitoring and clinical oversight solution. Keeping families together Quro's service lessened the burden on, and the congestion experienced in hospitals, and furthermore kept families together and in touch with their loved ones, some of whom were sick for up to weeks on end. "One huge success story was a husband who worked in the Phillippines whose wife lived in SA. She contracted Covid, but she didn't want to go to the hospital because she had no one to look after her two young children. "Quro was called in and the husband had the peace of mind knowing his wife's health was being taken care of, while his children still had their mother at home," Chinsinga said. Today, Quro treats patients at home instead of in a general hospital ward. It includes patients needing post-surgical care and suffering from conditions such as pneumonia, bladder and kidney infections, asthma and heart failure, across the socio-economic scale. And it saves lives. But how exactly does Quro work? At its heart, it uses health technology to analyse real-time data to monitor patients' health, explains Chinsinga. "The service utilises easy-to-use devices that currently include a chest patch that enables continuous vital-sign monitoring, and additional hardware for real-time, intermittent monitoring of patients oxygen and sugar levels. "The chest patch is a discreet biosensor that monitors your heart rate, ECG, respiratory rate and core body temperature the same as in hospital but also measures patient movements, like steps taken, body position and includes fall detection." It sounds simple right? But to truly understand how remarkable this is, let's benchmark this against the degree of monitoring patients receive in hospital. "If you are admitted in a hospital, the general ward sister will come around to measure your vital signs every four hours. Yes, that's correct. Every four hours. With Quro your vital signs are monitored 24/7." A central command centre All the data is relayed to a central command centre and that is backed by an ever-growing community of more than 350 signed-up doctors as well as a team of medical professionals and nurses. When there is a sudden change in health data such as heart rate or temperature, or a change in body position such as when a patient has fallen, it is picked up by the patch, the system alerts us and the command centre immediately informs the in-care clinical team to follow up on your wellbeing," says Chinsinga. Chinsinga adds that not only does the monitoring system capture your minute-by-minute vitals around the clock but that it has already been able to pick up emergency medical conditions - such as a heart attack - hours before a patient experiences symptoms. The vitals data we receive enables us to see trends that help inform the management of patients' chronic diseases, which is truly revolutionary, she says. "The patient's doctor will always be in the know and has access to this monitoring platform so that he or she can easily manage the treatment plan." All medication is delivered directly to the patient's door, and if a medical condition escalates, contingency plans are made to immediately transport patients to the hospital. One can't underestimate the hugely transformative nature of looking after a patient at home. "The impact of being at home, eating the food that you're used to, having your pets there, and having your children encourage you to get better, makes a big difference. "In addition, recovering at home lowers the risk of secondary infections. In hospitals you get superbugs - these are bugs that move from one patient to the next and they change as they go from patient to patient. By the time the bug has moved to the sixth person, it's mutated and changed so much that none of the antibiotics on the market work to get rid of it and that is what kills patients, especially in your ICUs which is where you find your critically ill patients. "In a home setting you can never ever get a superbug." Furthermore, with clinicians able to care for patients at home, they are able to see the impact the patient's personal ecosystem has on their health. "In the case of a diabetic, for example, they're able to pick up that a fridge setting at home may be too low and may be impacting how they store their insulin and hence its efficacy. They're also able to see what the patient is and isn't eating which could be impacting their blood-sugar levels and they're able to see the level and quality care from family members at home. "The end result is that the holistic care of the patient is taken into account - all of which impacts on a reduction of repeat emergency hospital admissions and his or her overall wellbeing. "This cuts hospital-level care costs for consumers by up to half compared to regular hospital admission costs. "We see a 60% reduction in the length of stay in hospital." Already Quro has averted over 700 hospital beds, managed over 20 medical conditions and managed over 2,000 virtual beds. Quro offers its services in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town and East London. More recently Bloemfontein's service went live a month ago. Adds Chinsinga: "Our aim is to build the largest virtual hospital on the continent offering world-class healthcare at much lower costs." Chinsinga has studied a BSc-pre-med at the University of Namibia and completed her medical degree at the University of Pretoria in 2010. Chinsinga is an MBA candidate at the University of East London. . People visit an alternative energy exhibition in Beirut, Lebanon, on Sept. 9, 2022. (Xinhua/Bilal Jawich) by Dana Halawi BEIRUT, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- While the use of solar energy is growing in Lebanon, industry experts are concerned with several challenges that may impede the sector's continuous growth. One of the challenges is posed by the non-professionals in the sector. Ali Khalife, senior manager at Khalife for oil&lub, told Xinhua that some people working in Lebanon's solar industry are not experts in the field, whose work has caused technical problems, discouraging clients from using these systems. "For Instance, in some cases, those non-professionals used the wrong electrical connectors, which do not match the system's requirements," Khalife said. Khalife's remarks came on the sidelines of the Middle East Clean Energy Conference held at le Yacht Club in Beirut Downtown. The conference, which runs from Sept. 7-9, along with an exhibition for experts in the field, aims to increase awareness of clean energy solutions to the public and provide an industry platform for enterprises to accelerate business cooperation and market penetration. Hussein Fakih, manager at Takom Energy Co, agreed with Khalife. He has witnessed incidents of batteries and inverters explosion as they were installed incorrectly. "This is why solar energy work must only be done by experts who can also provide maintenance for clients and after-purchase services," Fakih said. Another obstacle, according to Maroun Charabati, owner of Manalco, a company dealing with clean energy solutions, is that some people still have a conservative mentality when it comes to solar. "This necessitates awareness of its benefits for individuals, businesses, and the environment," he said. Diana Fawaz, manager at CW Enerji, told Xinhua that one significant obstacle facing people in Lebanon is the lack of financial capability to install solar energy amid a drop in purchasing power due to the economic crisis. Lebanon has been suffering from a chronic electricity problem, exacerbated by the lack of U.S. dollars which limits the country's capacity to import fuel for power stations. As a result, Lebanese households bear intermittent daily blackouts that last for as long as 20 hours a day. An increasing number of Lebanese have resorted to solar energy amid fears of further power cuts as Lebanon's central bank reserves stand at less than 11 billion dollars, which means the import of fuel products might come to a complete halt. Khalife told Xinhua that before the country's economic crisis in 2019, household demand for solar systems was nearly zero. The increase in the supply of solar systems led to a drop in their prices compared to the past. "An average system for a household used to cost no less than 10,000 dollars," said Fakih, adding that now the price has dropped to around 4,000 dollars. People visit an alternative energy exhibition in Beirut, Lebanon, on Sept. 9, 2022. (Xinhua/Bilal Jawich) The winners of the 13th Most Awards were announced during a hybrid awards ceremony on 8 September 2022. The Most Awards celebrate excellence in the media industry from media owners across print, digital, cinema, broadcast and out-of-home (OOH) platforms, through to specialist and full-service media agencies encouraging exceptional service delivery and healthy professional competition. Category winners were determined by their peers, with 2022 being marked by record industry voting. Freshly Ground Insights (FGI) conducted the industry-wide Most survey, with results reviewed by an independent auditor, BDO. Media24 Lifestyle Magazines was named Media Owner of the Year, while Fame Media claimed Media Agency of the Year Award. The Media Owner of the Year and Media Agency of the Year awards are sponsored by Mediology and Jacaranda FM respectively. Individual and special award winners Nominations for the individual awards were made via an online survey, where respondents put forward their favourites. An adjudication panel of 12 industry professionals judged the nominations against specific criteria, for the prestigious individual Bell, Shepherd, Legend and Rising Star awards. The Bell Award honours an individual who, though not working for a media owner or agency, has made an exceptional contribution to the betterment of the media sector. This year, the recipient of the Bell Award is researcher, Peter Langschmidt. The Shepherd Award is awarded to someone who not only has a significant presence in the media industry but also selflessly gives back to it. The recipient of this years Shepherd Award is Chris Botha, group managing director of Park Advertising. Head of advertising sales at Arena Holdings, Eben Gewers, received the Media Owner Legend Award. The Media Agency Legend Award went to Gwen Bezuidenhout, group media account director at FCB JHB. The Media Owner Rising Star Award was awarded to Refiloe Nteso of DStv Media Sales, while Clare Trafankowska of iProspect received the Media Agency Rising Star Award. Brad Aigner, managing director of FGI, says, The quality of nominations for the Legend and Rising Star awards was phenomenal. It was very encouraging to see so many new names of up-and-coming young people in our industry being put forward. The Marketing Services Award which recognises trade marketing excellence from media owners also received record industry support in 2022. The winner of this years award is Mediamark. For the second year in a row, DStv Media Sales also received the special Virtually Perfect Service Award in recognition of the changing media sales environment. Category award winners Media Owners Media Owner of the Year Award: Media24 Lifestyle Magazines. Second and third places went to ECR Radio Sales and Digital Turbine respectively. Radio Award: ECR Radio Sales Audiovisual Award: Ster-Kinekor Sales Out Of Home Award: Primedia Outdoor Digital Award: Digital Turbine, formerly AdColony Print Award: Media24 Lifestyle Magazines Multimedia Award: Media24 Media Sales Consultants Award: Whisper Media Media Owner Lamb Award: Reveel Media Agencies Media Agency of the Year Award: Fame Media. Second and third places went to PHD and The MediaShop - Johannesburg respectively. Specialist Media Agency Award: Fame Media Full-Service Media Agency Award: PHD Media Agency Lamb Award: IntiMedia Sponsors of the 2022 Most Awards are Jacaranda FM, Primedia Broadcasting, GH Media, Gagasi FM, Dstv Media Sales, Spark Media, Paramount Africa, Mediamark, The Mediashop, Arena Holdings, Carat, YFM, Nalesa Media, Torque Media, Ebony+Ivory, Digtial Turbine - formerly AdColony, Kaya FM, Mediology, Cape Talk, 702, 947, EWN, Kfm and the Media Online. The Media Most Awards special edition, featuring all the winners, is available here. The 9th edition of the Fak'ugesi Festival is a celebration of pan-African talent in the digital sphere. With the announcement of the #FromNowOn theme and the release of this years programme - award applicants and attendees are ready for the festival that will commence on 13 October 2022. The #FromNowOn theme aims to showcase the creative climate of a new age after the positive (and negative effects) of the pandemic and how it has shaped our youth. The theme calls for a moment to pause and reflect on where we are today and takes a look into Africas digital future. Lesley Williams, Tshimologong CEO, said, The intersection between creativity and technology provides an innovative lens of understanding the world and crafting new solutions to problems. As the home of Fakugesi, we curate an innovation ecosystem where the convergence of hardware, software and content takes place. We proudly convene Africas leading talent in creative innovation each year and look forward to seeing what their imaginations will construct this year #FromNowOn Eduardo Cachucho, the new Fakugesi creative director, said, Fakugesi has been the place to find rising African creatives working in digital from across the continent since 2014, in 2022 we welcome you back in person and online to meet trailblazing creatives, innovative organisations and brilliant makers. The public is invited to hear from and engage with trailblazing creatives, their work, and the future of creativity: Virtual and in-person Conference (14-15 October) for anyone with a passion for digital innovation - from beginners to experts. Expo (14-16 October) stands for organisations at the cutting edge of digital innovation and exhibitions showcasing Africas leading digital innovation. A family-friendly interactive Maker Day (16 October) filled with collaborative creative activity for makers to meet artists and learn from them during walkabouts and screenings. The much-anticipated pan-African Fakugesi Awards (21 October) will round off the festival in high spirits. To kick it off, the exciting poster launch encapsulates the #FromNowOn theme with a Utopian-take on the future of the digital realm and showcases the talents of competition winner Samuel B. Gillham and his modern caricature. In its first-ever edition of the Fakuzine, Gillham introduces us to Maya '', a bona fide internet explorer and the new festival mascot. Callout for pan-African Fakugesi Awards applications Fakugesi Awards for Digital Creativity calls for applicants to conclude their submissions by 21 September. The Awards have aimed to applaud African creativity in the digital space for nine years and they will continue to support this growth in 2022 by awarding the best works across five categories which include: Arts (visual and performance), Animation, Music, Video Games and Extended Reality (AR and VR). The jury board includes Tegan Bristow (chairperson), Isaac Mogajane (Animation), Jepchumba (Digital Arts), Hugo Obi (Gaming), Ingrid Kopp (XR), Nonku Phiri (Music). For more information and to apply, go here. Lastly, attendees are able to enter the Jamz competition. Jamz is a combination of an animation jam and a video game hackathon for South African SMMEs. Where the jam and hackathon run in parallel with their own prizes Fakugesi also offer additional incentives for innovation in working across video games and animation. The competition calls for emerging video game and animation studios to develop their craft in a short period of time assisted by professional coordinators. Prizes include: Prize for Video Games: 1 Year Incubation worth R600,000 Prize Animation: R50,000 Project Development Prize For more information and to apply before 25 September, go here. To see the festival programme and buy tickets, go here. The most crucial factor in any efficient pan-African PR strategy is the consideration of language. Nicolas Pompigne-Mognard, founder, chairman and owner of APO Group People like to generalise about Africa. Commentators often try to simplify things for international audiences by implying that there is one giant African population. One culture. One media landscape. But, as any public relations professional looking to engage African audiences soon discovers: Africa is not a country. The African media landscape is as diverse as the 54 countries who comprise the continent, and to be an efficient pan-African communicator is to understand how media is consumed in each one. The shape of each countrys media landscape actually depends on multiple factors including internet penetration, internet data cost, electrification, literacy, and government regimes. Similarly, the breakdown of online, print and broadcast media varies significantly from country to country. In many parts of Africa, literacy is much lower than the global average, meaning radio and television can be far more effective than newspapers in reaching the majority of people. But the most crucial factor in any efficient pan-African PR strategy is the consideration of language. More than 2,000 languages are spoken in Africa. There are, of course, the four official languages of the African Union English, French, Arabic, and Portuguese but to assume every African speaks and reads one of these languages is to miss the nuance and variation of thousands of communities across the continent. Put simply, if you want to reach 100% of the media in a particular country, it is essential to know which languages to use. Some interesting examples: Ghana: About 80% of the Ghanaian population speaks Twi as a first or second language. Twi is noteworthy from a media perspective as it is rarely written down. Hence, Twi is the language used by much of the broadcast media in Ghana, while newspapers are almost all printed in English. About 80% of the Ghanaian population speaks Twi as a first or second language. Twi is noteworthy from a media perspective as it is rarely written down. Hence, Twi is the language used by much of the broadcast media in Ghana, while newspapers are almost all printed in English. Uganda: Many assume that English will be all you need to target the entire country. But for half the population, Luganda is the working language. Miss that out, and you are missing half of the Ugandan media landscape. Many assume that English will be all you need to target the entire country. But for half the population, Luganda is the working language. Miss that out, and you are missing half of the Ugandan media landscape. Ethiopia: The main language of business is English, but more than 55 million people (almost half the population) speak Amharic, which is also the working language of the federal government and the language used by much of the broadcast media. The main language of business is English, but more than 55 million people (almost half the population) speak Amharic, which is also the working language of the federal government and the language used by much of the broadcast media. Senegal: Wolof is the most widely spoken language in Senegal, spoken natively by the Wolof people (40% of the population) but also by most other Senegalese as a second language. With so many people living in rural areas, radio stations broadcasting in the Wolof language form a crucial part of the Senegalese media landscape. Wolof is the most widely spoken language in Senegal, spoken natively by the Wolof people (40% of the population) but also by most other Senegalese as a second language. With so many people living in rural areas, radio stations broadcasting in the Wolof language form a crucial part of the Senegalese media landscape. Morocco: Arabic is the most widely-spoken language, but French is often used as the language of business, and there are several francophone media outlets. These are just a few examples. It is a similar story across Africa, and, in some countries, the languages used by the media are evolving. For example, two former French colonies Togo and Gabon which for generations have had a mainly francophone media landscape, are to join the Commonwealth. The move will open them up to greater trading opportunities, and follows a new 'craze for English' in the two countries. For the last year, the national news in Togo has been broadcast in French and English. In Gabon, there is a TV channel broadcasting in English to cater for these new audiences for the first time. At APO Group, our PR tools are made available for free to help PR professionals better understand the media landscape of the countries they are targeting. Simply inputting the countries they want to reach will tell them the languages they need. We also provide a calendar with all the national holidays for every African country, so they can plan their PR activity accordingly. As for our team, we speak a total of 33 languages (English + French + Arabic + Portuguese + 19 African dialects + 10 international), so are always available to offer a helping hand! Distributed by APO Group on behalf of APO Group. A podium performance is only worthy if there are many competitors. And in the global automotive sales rankings, with about a dozen conglomerates controlling more than 60 brands, Hyundai's had a terrific first half of 2022, during which it finished third overall. The Korean automotive multinational, which clusters the Hyundai car brand with its Kia and Genesis stablemates, trails only Toyota and Volkswagen but is ahead of all American car companies. With global electronics and semiconductor supply chains remaining fractured, no company had a great first half of 2022. It was a case of Hyundais decline being less than those of its rivals. But industry analysts and car fans wont be surprised to learn that Hyundai is now the worlds third-most powerful automotive entity. There are good reasons for Hyundais lofty ranking, many of which are related to Koreas industrial policy and high-level technical education. But Hyundais success also challenges the notion of what makes a great car company and which products are perceived to guarantee success. The best technical assets are human Technical excellence and an obsession with industrial design have become intrinsically Korean. It has given rise to concepts such as this Hyundais third place in the global sales rankings didnt happen by accident its symbolic of Koreas broader industrial success. And technical expertise. During the early 1990s, when Japanese car companies were at their most powerful, and European brands were in decline, Korea quietly reinforced its car industry. It prioritised engineering- and English literacy, allowing technical experts to travel globally and absorb the latest trends without misinterpretation. You cant build a great car without inspired designers and engineers and, with Korea producing a flood of brilliant engineering and industrial design graduates annually (for decades), Hyundai has benefitted from outstanding human resources. With technical excellence in automotive engineering, there is no such thing as coincidence. Tesla dominates because it recruited the best people from the worlds greatest concentration of software and electronic engineering excellence, near its headquarters, in Northern California. Much the same is true for Mercedes-Benz and Porsche. Both are domiciled in Stuttgart, which is also the location of Bosch for decades, the worlds automotive technology supplier of choice. Hyundai can leverage the impressive Korean domestic supply of electronics and battery design specialists. It can access the same networks that LG and Samsung do, which affords it an enormous advantage in aspects of automotive engineering (areas where many legacy car companies are struggling) powertrain electrification, software integration, general digitisation and user interfacing. Need battery tech for your EV? Korea has it all Hyundai has quietly and confidently deployed Ioniq as a global electric vehicle sub-brand Of all the global car companies, Hyundai has a great advantage by virtue of geography. Koreas LG is the worlds third-largest battery supplier. Whereas European and American car companies are desperately trying to negotiate battery supply agreements with LG, powertrain teams at Hyundai can use their university networks to schedule a meeting and get the business done without language or cultural barriers. Asia controls the global supply of sophisticated high-energy batteries and, for Hyundai, its comparatively easy to link into that source of energy packs for its electric vehicles. Established technical relationships and partnerships between Korean companies also make it easier for Hyundai to plan and futureproof its electric vehicle strategy. And its not only core battery chemistry. Hyundais executive and risk management consultants have been terrifically mindful of future technologies. Korea is one of the worlds most technologically advanced societies. Throughout the countrys population, people are thoroughly versed in the latest digital technologies. Being an early adopter in Korea is not a thing, because it seems everyone in that country is a tech geek. And that shows in the way that Hyundai senior managers, who are in their late 50s, view technology as an opportunity, not a threat. Boston Dynamics and bakkies This is the image that should send shivers across European car company boardrooms Boston Dynamics is a renowned American robotics company famed for its amazingly capable robots (Atlas and Sport) that can perform superhuman and canine-like movements. In June, Hyundai announced that it had acquired Boston Dynamics. This purchase secured the Korean car company some of the worlds best mechatronic engineers, crucial in designing and perfecting production lines that create batteries and electric motors. Toyota has the most balanced product portfolio of the top three global car companies, with many SUVs and bakkies. VWs bakkie business is negligible and Hyundais is marginal at the moment, with only the Santa Fe-based Santa Cruz. The promise is that Hyundai will expand its bakkie business with a ladder-frame double-cab, and that should entrench its market position. Toyota cannot gain too much more market share with its bakkie business. Why? The diminishing return curve of being a global bakkie leader, which is already present in virtually all markets. VWs Amarok volumes will probably be similar to what they have been when the new version arrives. Hyundai has the most potential for organic growth. How? It can introduce more bakkie models and conquer customers from rival brands, without cannibalising within its own product portfolio It is amazing that Hyundai has achieved such tremendous success without a scaled bakkie or ultra-luxury car business. Genesis is Hyundais attempt to create a Lexus-like luxury sub-brand, and it trades fairly well in North America, but it has hardly been a focus for the Korean automotive giant. Korea is the brand Hyundai produces the cars For astute car industry observers, the Genesis Coupe (2008) signalled Hyundais arrival as a technically excellent car company If you take a longitudinal view of the global car business, Hyundai is unique. Many of the traditional risks and constraints that bedevil the evolution of most car companies are absent with Hyundai. It doesnt have the history of European legacy car companies, which renders it less constrained by tradition regarding design and brand positioning. It also never became dependent on the large-capacity engine profits that American brands rely on with their pick-up truck and SUVs. And then there is the question of Korean cool. By association, Hyundai benefits from the global cachet of anything Korean (consider how K-pop has become a global phenomenon). Much as all German car companies have, for decades, leveraged the reputation of German technical excellence in their product marketing, Korea could do the same. Or perhaps it already is, using the subconscious bias that is soft-wired to buyers who either have a Korean smartphone in their hand or a Korean appliance in their home. This article was originally published on Cars.co.za... The 30th PG Bison 1.618 Education Initiative will be judged by a panel of seven industry experts including two new judges. The competition aims to showcase the work of up-and-coming third-year architecture and interior design students, offering them the opportunity to tackle a real-world brief. Entrants will compete for a cash prize of R50,000 for the winner and their lecturer. Carla Soudien, project architect and urban planner for studioMAS Architects and Urban Designer Reaching 30 years is a major milestone, and we have increased our judging panel from five industry experts to seven this year, says Lian Markham, communications manager at PG Bison. We believe that its important for the educational institutions who partner with us to have feedback on their students work, and we deliver this to them in our lecturers debriefing session after the competition awards ceremony. The judges also have the opportunity to be exposed to emerging talents, while the students particularly the top 10 finalists enjoy industry exposure as they prepare to embark on their professional careers. New judges Joining the panel in 2022 are Carla Soudien and Nelson Kubheka. Soudien is a project architect and urban planner for studioMAS Architects and Urban Designers, based in the companys Johannesburg office. She completed her architecture degrees at UCT (in 2003 and 2006 respectively) and in 2019 completed her Masters in Urban and Regional Planning. Nelson Kubheka, founder of Ommni Design Nelson Kubheka obtained his National Diploma in Interior Design in 2008 at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology and began working as a junior designer at Source Interior Brand Architects (Source IBA), with projects including high-end hospitality and workplaces. He worked his way up to becoming an associate and then partner at Source IBA, working on key hospitality and office projects locally and across Africa. After eight years, he founded his own company, Ommni Design, in 2016. Returning judges Returning to help judge the winning entries are: The delivery of quality education remains the single most critical factor in the attainment of true individual freedom and the improvement in the quality of living for all. Despite massive government investments and wave after wave of curriculum reform there has been scant progress made in the provision of quality teaching and learning in South Africa. The enduring poor performance of the country's learners in national and international standardised tests attests to insufficient improvement of actual skills and knowledge, and an education system that falls short of being transformative. This is in no small part impacted by South Africas drastic shortage of experienced educators, which is compounded by a high rate of attrition due to retirement, emigration and career changes. Government has made repeated calls for the private tertiary education sector to join forces in addressing the need for intensifying the training of educators to facilitate a curriculum relevant to todays world. Sacap (The South African College of Applied Psychology), one of the countrys top private tertiary institutions, is rising to this challenge. Sacap has announced the launch of its first postgraduate certificate in Education in Senior and Further Education and Training Teaching (PGCE) aimed at student teachers who are interested in qualifying as Senior Phase (SP) and Further Education and Training (FET) Life Orientation and Guidance, Counselling and Specialised Learner Support Educators. According to Dr Rajandran Naidoo, who is the programme head for Sacap's new PGCE, schools in South Africa are faced with severe resource limitations, particularly in terms of psychosocial support and counselling. He says: Based on the current staffing of specialised learner and educator support (SLES) at district level, it is not uncommon to find only one psychologist and one social worker carrying responsibilities for the psychosocial and emotional needs of approximately 20,000 children across fifteen to twenty-five schools. This means that teachers working in schools where communities are challenged by poverty, crime, violence and gangsterism have to deal with considerable trauma and mental health issues every day without access to psychosocial support in the school community. "However, this scenario is not limited to communities where poverty is prevalent. Learners from the more affluent schools also experience social and emotional challenges. Children are children, irrespective of where they come from, and are all vulnerable to the significant trials of contemporary life. Without appropriate support, these social and emotional stress tests could be highly debilitating and devastating to the psyche of learners and impact on their learning capabilities. Therefore, teachers holding qualifications in Life Orientation and Guidance, Counselling and Specialised Learner Support are critical to ensuring the physical, emotional and mental wellbeing of learners across all our school communities. Sacaps PGCE programme with its focus on Life Orientation and Guidance, Counselling and Specialised Learner Support will be available at both its Johannesburg and Cape Town campuses. The PGCE is a NQF 7 vocational training programme and extends over 12 months full-time. Registration is open to holders of undergraduate degrees with a psychology major who aim to develop focused knowledge and skills as classroom teachers. Graduates of Sacaps PGCE will be eligible to register with the South African Council of Educators (SACE) as teachers. Dr Naidoo says: While many public tertiary institutions do offer both the bachelor of education (BEd.) degree as well as the PGCE, Sacap believes that given the critical role education plays in building a nation and the magnanimity of the task of educating our youth to equip them with skills, knowledge and values requisite for todays fast-paced world, there is a critical need for teacher training programmes that focus not only on content-based subjects but also on the social and emotional development of the learner. In fact, a focus on the social and emotional development of the learner ought to be a prerequisite to all other learning, in order to ensure the learner is free of all impediments that might hinder learning, engages fully with the lesson content and is thereby able to maximise their potential. With its institutional focus rooted in applied psychology, Sacaps PGCE will build teaching skills in the subject area of life orientation as well as core guidance and counselling skills for specialised learning support educators. Graduates of this programme will develop the ability to provide psychoeducation as well as offer transformative counselling support to learners. The educational programme is also designed so that students actively develop an enhanced personal ability to manage trauma and stress more effectively. Dr Jaclyn Lotter, academic dean of Sacap, highlights the practical component of the PGCE. Sacaps PGCE offers intellectual enrichment as well as intensive, focused and applied specialisation, which meets the requirements of a specific niche in education, she says. Our programme includes a relevant, structured and supervised work integrated learning (WIL) component that is formally assessed. WIL provides exposure to concrete experiences of the varied and contrasting contexts of schooling in South Africa and enables student teachers to put theory into professional practice. Sacap is focused on training competent teachers dedicated to providing quality education, with high levels of performance as well as ethical and professional standards of conduct that are in line with the needs of the country. Sacap PGCE graduates will be well-prepared to not only deliver high quality education but also embark on further studies such as honours or masters degrees, thereby enhancing their knowledge and professional skills while becoming eligible for further career prospects. To register for Sacaps postgraduate certificate in Education in Senior and Further Education and Training Teaching, visit www.sacap.edu.za. OFM is a proud to announce that it is the official media partner of the Nampo Alfa Livestock, Hunting and Outdoor Expo. The two biggest role players in the livestock industry, Grain SA and Alfa, will host Nampo Alfa Livestock, Hunting and Outdoor Expo for the very first time at Nampo Park, just outside Bothaville, from 29 September to 1 October 2022. This hunting and outdoor lifestyle expo will incorporate experiences. Visitors will be able to enjoy a fully-fledged shooting range with demonstrations, drive 4x4 vehicles on a practical route, and watch the national off-road race with famous off-road racers in action. Anchen Lintvelt, OFM sales manager, says, OFM is proud to be part of the first Nampo Alfa at Nampo Park. It is a privilege to be able to take hands once again and as a media partner, OFM will ensure our listeners are informed of everything that will take place at this expo. The organisers have also stated that, as responsible players in the livestock industry, they will comply with all rules and regulations as promulgated by the minister of agriculture, Thoko Didiza. They note that all bio-security protocols are already in place and will just be applied even more stringently to manage the risk as best as possible. These protocols have already been successfully applied during the Bloem Show and Nampo Harvest Day. Currently, Nampo Alfa takes place outside the 21-day ban period. "We are excited to present the new Nampo Alfa expo and there will be something for everyone to look forward to. There is a large selection of high quality hunting and outdoor exhibitors," says Dirk Strydom, Grain SA's Nampo, marketing and research coordination lead. "The aim of the expo is above all to offer every visitor a practical experience. Finally, a highlight is the national off-road race, where many famous racers can be seen in action," Strydom concludes. The livestock industry in Central South Africa is growing and forms an important part of the local economy. This growth is evident in the fact that Alfa has into the best livestock expo in the country grown over a period of four years. The next logical step for Alfa was to expand further, and with years of successful shows behind its name, Nampo Park is the ideal place for Alfa to spread its wings. Tickets are available at ticketpro.co.za. For further information contact: az.oc.mfo@gnitekram. South Africa has lifted its nationwide ban on the movement of cattle imposed for 21 days in a bid to limit the spread of foot and mouth disease (FMD). The announcement was made in the government gazette 11486 dated 8 September 2022. The ban prohibited farmers from moving cattle after an outbreak of foot and mouth disease. FMD was most prevalent in farms, feedlots and communal areas in various provinces in the country. Agriculture minister, Thoko Didiza said that the cooperation of traditional leaders, communities and the police assisted in limiting the spread, and said that it was encouraging that the Eastern Cape, Western Cape and Northern Cape provinces have not had a case before and during the 21 days. In Gauteng and North West, there had been suspected cases around quarantined farms. In Mpumalanga, no new cases were picked up in the past week. Disease management area Reggie Ngcobo, spokesperson for the department, said that the decision to lift the ban was based on the progress that the state veterinary services made over the past 21 days, saying that the department will continue surveillance and vaccination in affected areas that still have active infections. Ngcobo said that in Limpopo the department plans to retain the disease management area in the protected zone and around and that in the Free State departments disease management area will cover those areas where no improvement has been observed, such as Marquad, Viljoen Skroon and Harrismith. In KwaZulu-Natal, he said the disease management area would be retained in KwaNongoma, Ulundi, KwaHlabisa, eHluhluwe and eMtubatuba. Ngcobo added that to limit the negative effects of the disease as much as possible, the minister has decided to repeal the control measures relating to foot and mouth disease as prescribed in the Government Notice No 2075 of 10 May 2022 and Government Notice No 2391 of 18 August 2022, and allow movements under certain conditions in the rest of the country except the new disease management areas in Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and Free State. All movements must be accompanied by the owners declaration; the recipient undertaking to isolate the animals for at least 28 days before introducing them to the main herd; and all stock theft documents. Didiza said her department would continue with surveillance and vaccination in the areas that still had active infections, calling pon farmers and communities to observe the health protocols that have been put in place and refrain from the illegal movement of cattle or animals. Welcoming the lifting of the ban, Beefmaster Group said it also welcomes the stricter measures regarding the movement of animals meant for direct slaughter, and that red cross permits will only be issued for transportation if certain conditions are met. The RPO also noted with gratitude the minister's decision to lift the ban on the movement of cattle due to foot-and-mouth disease, with immediate effect. . The organisation also thanks to the minister for taking into account all the representations of role players in the value chain due to the ban and its impact on the red meat value chain. Adding that the cooperation of DALRRD in this regard is appreciated. Capital Legacy is South Africa's undisputed champion in the financial services industry for integrated wills and estates with insurance cover to indemnify the legal fees associated with passing away. Baby steps The company made its first imprint in the industry with a humble beginning in September 2012. Capital Legacy originally had a headcount of only four staff members. Founders, CEO Alex Simeonides and Director, Eduann Vorster, themselves took this new offering to the market introducing the Capital Legacy approach of drafting a free will, indemnifying the legal costs of ones demise with insurance cover and then administering the Deceaseds Estate inhouse. Alex sold the newly registered companys first policy in the launch month of September of 2012 and the team went on to draft 984 wills and sell 190 Legacy Protection PlanTM policies in the remainder of their first year. Staff members increased to 18. 2013 marked the companys first Claim being approved. That same year they sold 2093 Plans, drafted 3,552 wills, and administered 38 Estates. Big steps 2019 was a watershed year for the company. In this year businessman Patrice Motsepes African Rainbow Capital Investments bought a 25% stake in the business and then, just a few months later in early 2020, South Africa saw the outbreak of Covid-19. People started thinking of their mortality and of drafting their last will and testament. Capital Legacy, as the leader in this sector, was a logical first choice and the company was inundated with calls from people looking for assistance with their wills. During the Covid period, Capital Legacy had to drastically increase its head count to keep up with their growth, whilst other companies were downsizing. The company now has approximately 1,000 employees and is growing at a rate of around 35 new staff members per month. In the 10 years since their launch, Capital Legacy has grown into a mature, industry-leading company and keeps on evolving. But it continues to stay true to its mission of making the loss of a loved one easier. The company uses the experience gained from drafting over 500,000 wills and administering over 5,000 Estates, to keep bringing new solutions to the market. This ranges from the core Legacy Protection PlanTM to its Life Cover offering, to its latest education protection cover called EduCareTM. Problem-solving An example of how the company stays attuned to the needs of its clients is how it has addressed the matter of procrastination. Research has shown that procrastination is the main reason for South Africans not signing their wills. And a will without a wet signature (signed in ink) is invalid. This issue really puzzled the company because South Africans do not hesitate to get life cover, medical aid or insurance for their motor vehicles. A person dying without a will dies intestate and his estate will be bequeathed according to South African law and not his wishes. Even more research was done which showed that a major reason for people procrastinating in signing their wills is that they do not have printers available to print their wills. Two independent witnesses are also not always available. Capital Legacys solution was to make printers available in their offices countrywide to customers. They can come in, print their wills, and have two independent witnesses sign it. For clients not in a position to drive to an office, the company has set up a fleet of will-signing teams countrywide with two consultants in each vehicle. They print the will, take it to the client, and sign as witnesses. They then take the will to Capital Legacys offices, scan it in for safekeeping and mail the signed will back to the client. Rebrand The company realised last year that it had outgrown the start-up branding from 2012, and it was time to create a new brand that not only represents the business that it has become but also helps define its aspirations for the next 10 years. It wanted to create a strong brand that was recognisable, and as with everything it does, category defining. In its DNA is still the cheeky start-up, the agile company which gives personal attention to one client at a time. But, 10 years and more than 500,000 wills later, the brand needed a level of refinement that would allow it to stand on the world stage of financial services brands. Yellow and life The company decided on yellow as its new corporate colour, because it celebrates life, and in contrast to what most people might think, wills are not about death, but about life the life that comes after. Yes, a will is the last wishes of a person passing away, but the bequeathment goes to the living, the surviving spouse, children, and family. The new brand galvanises Capital Legacy as a business behind the commitment to continuing to lead its category over the next ten years and beyond, both locally and soon globally. From Wills Week to Wills Month September is a massive month for Capital Legacy. The company officially launches its new brand, and it is also their 10-year birthday month. And of course, because it is part of its DNA, September is Wills Month at Capital Legacy. The fact that the company made September Wills Month instead of Wills Week (National Wills Week takes place from 12-16 September) bears Testament to its commitment to the mission of making the loss of a loved one easier. Following the success of the UK effort, which has recently concluded, Wesgro has selected the US as the next target market, with the United States ranking as the Western Cape's top export market in 2022. The team has identified New York as an important market with strong buying power, and a familiarity with South Africa. Over the past decade, trade between the Western Cape and the US has increased by 11.4% on average, with total trade valued at R23.59 billion in 2021. "Made in the Cape US", a collaboration between the Western Cape Government, the City of Cape Town and Wesgro, is set to go live in the market at the end of September 2022. The targeted digital campaign showcases a unified brand for proudly Western Cape products and services - driving international buyers to the CapeTradePortal.com. The Cape Trade Portal acts as a virtual matchmaking tool, connecting buyers across the globe to local sellers of products and services. In particular, the platform is accelerating access to goods and services in the Western Cape opening up greater opportunities for those in the province registered on the portal. To date, the portal boasts over 600 registered exporters, listing over 3,000 products. Driving further inclusion, 119 of the businesses listed on the platform are 100% women-owned. The previous "Made in the Cape UK" effort successfully resulted in 16 million unique users reached, with over 200,000 clicks to the trade portal from over 112,000 users. Increase marketing support Wrenelle Stander, Wesgro CEO, goes on to explain: "The campaign was born out of the need from local exporters for increased marketing support internationally. The Cape Trade Portal works efficiently to facilitate trade in new ways and acts as the catalyst for important conversations and connections. We are proudly pioneering new ways to promote the destination as a sought-after source market for goods and services, driving potential buyers directly to sellers visible via the portal." "The launch of this campaign, targeting the US market is well timed following the recent announcements that US airlines United and Delta will start their direct routes to Cape Town from Newark and Washington, and Atlanta, respectively. There is a demand for proudly Western Cape goods, which is why now is the perfect time for a targeted push to boost exports to the US further. Increasing connections to other markets is a strategic priority for the Western Cape Government so that we can increase tourism and trade and attract the investment we need to grow the economy and create jobs." says Mireille Wenger, provincial minister of finance and economic opportunities. Boosting visibility of local exports The campaign also aims to strengthen the identity of Western Cape exports by ensuring the Cape is synonymous with quality across six 'hero' products including rooibos (natural products), citrus (agriculture), wine (wine and spirits), software development (tech innovation), design (creative industries), and yacht manufacturing (boat building). Re-purposing content created to maximise spend on media partnerships, Made in the Cape US is set significantly boost the visibility of local exporters by driving buyers to the Cape Trade Portal. Alderman James Vos, the City of Cape Towns mayoral committee member for economic growth, concludes: "Our goal is to build a stronger, more resilient, and inclusive economy. Towards this end, the City proudly funds the portal. This fulfils our commitment to ensuring that our producers access markets, which leads to business growth and greater job opportunities." TEHRAN, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Iran announced on Friday that all six land border crossings with Iraq are temporarily closed until further notice due to congestion, hot weather, and lack of facilities to ensure passengers' health and security, according to the official news agency IRNA. The closure was announced by Majid Mir-Ahmadi, head of Iran's Arbaeen Central Headquarter, as the land border crossings have been jammed by millions of Iranians heading to neighboring Iraq for the annual Arbaeen pilgrimage. The border crossings are Mehran, Khosravi, Shalamcheh, Chazzabeh, Tamarchin and Bashmaq. Iranian senior officials, including President Ebrahim Raisi, are following up on the reopening of the border crossings. During Arbaeen ceremonies, millions of people from across the world travel to Iraq to walk by foot between the Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala, among whom, Iranians constitute a vast majority. This year's Arbaeen pilgrimage comes after two years of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. According to estimates, around 5 million Iranians are heading to Iraq for the pilgrimage, resulting in traffic jams and chaos at the border crossings in Iran's western provinces of Ilam and Khuzestan. Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon was charged Thursday in New York with defrauding donors who were giving money to build a wall at the southern U.S. border. Bannon, 68, was indicted on charges including money laundering, scheming to defraud, and conspiracy in what prosecutors described as a yearlong scheme. He pleaded not guilty in a brief arraignment before acting Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan and agreed to surrender his passports as a condition of his bail. Supreme Court is the name of New Yorks principal criminal court. Hes not going anywhere. He intends to fight these charges all the way, Bannon's attorney David Schoen told the judge. The six-count indictment also names the group WeBuildTheWall.Inc, which it says worked with Bannon on the scheme in 2019. Bannon was chair of the "advisory board" for the group, which prosecutors say duped thousands of donors by maintaining that all the money raised would go to build a wall along the southern border and not to the people running the effort. The group's president, Brian Kolfage, who is not named in the indictment, pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars from the scheme, the filing alleges. Some of the money was routed to him by Bannon, who had money from the campaign transferred to a nonprofit group under Bannon's control and then used the cash to pay Kolfage $140,000, the indictment alleges. Charles is a king for our times, in the worst way imaginable. With the death of Queen Elizabeth II, humanity, and in particular, western civilization, has lost an absolute giant. She was a remarkable person from a remarkable era. She will be missed. Her successor, on the other hand, can best be understood as the WEF (World Economic Forum) king. King Charles is truly a king for our times, in the worst possible way imaginable. He is a perfect representation of the western ruling class and its pernicious agenda. Charles, to put it bluntly, is an anti-human reprobate, who has lived a life of disgrace, hypocrisy, and corruption. But his lifestyle is the least of the issues at hand. Charles is a king who has embraced and promoted the most destructive causes of our times. Most notably, Charles is both a climate catastrophist and an advocate for the depopulation agenda. Last year, he demanded a war-like footing, in calling for the sabotage of reliable energy resources to tackle the so-called climate crisis. Charless initiatives, and his promotion of the destructive Paris Climate Accords and the U.N.s Climate Change Conference objectives, has helped position the U.K. on the precipice of energy disaster. Prince Charles opens Paris climate talks and calls on world leaders to act now https://t.co/cTIhkQDxUC via @guardian pic.twitter.com/qfj81MdQ3e EIT Climate-KIC (@ClimateKIC) November 30, 2015 The newly minted king is also an avowed proponent of depopulation, having on multiple occasions called for population control of broader civilization. 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. UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Deadly fighting between armed groups in South Sudan's Upper Nile state has routed thousands from their homes and triggered violence in displacement camps, a UN spokesman said on Friday. "This latest fighting has led to the deaths of civilians, injuries and further displacement," said Stephane Dujarric, the chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. "Up to 5,000 civilians had fled to (Adidiang) last month, following the fighting between rival armed groups." Several civilians fleeing the violence on boats and canoes reportedly drowned, Dujarric said. UN peacekeepers raced to rescue drowning civilians and protect the affected population. He said the UN peacekeeping mission, known as UNMISS, reported that the latest attack also triggered intercommunal fighting among some internally displaced people of different groups within the UN site set up to protect civilians. The spokesman said that the UN humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan, Sara Beysolow Nyanti, reported that "the United Nations and our partners will continue supporting people in need to the best of their ability, but we need an immediate end to the fighting and a resolution to the conflict." In Sudan, the UN special adviser on genocide prevention, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, and the special adviser on the responsibility to protect, George Okoth-Obbo, welcomed the recent visit by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, who met with survivors and communities affected by violence in Darfur 20 years ago, Dujarric said. NAIROBI, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's tourist arrivals surged 91 percent between January and August compared to a similar period last year, a senior government official said Friday. Najib Balala, the cabinet secretary of the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife, told journalists in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, that the country received 924,812 international visitors in the first eight months compared to 483,240 arrivals in the same period in 2021. "Kenya's tourism sector is experiencing a recovery as the COVID-19 pandemic has been contained in most of our key source markets and international travelers are now fully confident to travel," Balala said. Kenya's tourism sector is one of the leading sources of foreign exchange earnings alongside tea, horticulture, and diaspora remittances. Balala revealed that Kenya rolled out innovative products and marketing efforts to ensure that its offerings remained competitive among both domestic and international visitors. He said that the East African nation also hosted several international sporting events that played a major role in rebuilding the confidence of visitors to Kenya. Data from the ministry showed that inbound tourism earnings between January and August grew to 167 billion shillings (about 1.39 billion U.S. dollars) compared to 691 million dollars during the same period in 2021. Out of the 924,812 international arrivals, 313,466 were on holiday, 274,722 traveled to visit families or friends, 258,889 for business and meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE), and 43,883 on transit, with the rest coming in for other purposes including education, religion, and sports. Balala observed that the top sources of the country's foreign visitors were the United States, Uganda, Britain, Tanzania, and India. Balala also launched multi-lingual destination videos on Kenya's cultures, cuisine, vibrant cities, adventure, and other experiences that highlight the destination's diversity. He noted that the videos target potential tourists from China, France, Spain, Italy, Germany as well as Arabic-speaking countries. Phil Whickham- Behold (ft. Anne Wilson) | Merge PR NASHVILLE, TENN. (SEPTEMBER 08, 2022) Worship leader Phil Wickham has released a brand new Christmas song for the church that is available now. The song, "BEHOLD (ft. Anne Wilson)," will bring worship into the holiday season. "What a joy it is to release my new Christmas single 'BEHOLD,'" shares Phil Wickham. "I love how this song balances both new and familiar Christmas lyrics, and I cant wait to sing this one with the church. Wickham is known not only for his countless songs sung in churches around the world including his RIAA Platinum-certified song, "This Is Amazing Grace," but for his inspiring Christmas music. He's released several Christmas projects including the most recent releases: Christmas: Acoustic Sessions (2020) and Christmas (2019). Celebrating Christ's birth this season, Wickham will head out on a special holiday tour in December. BEHOLD Christmas Nights features special guest Anne Wilson and Brandon Lake (on December 10th). The west coast tour will be held in Sacramento, Las Vegas, Anaheim, and San Diego, which sold out within 72 hours of being on sale, for a special night of seasonal celebration. Presented by Transparent Productions, tickets are currently on sale at the links below. Wickham continues, "I wrote 'BEHOLD' last Christmas season, and I knew that I wanted someone to join me in singing it. When I heard her song on the radio, "My Jesus," I knew I had to have Anne sing with me. Thanks to the very talented Anne Wilson for joining me on it. It is going to be so special to do these Christmas shows with her. They are going to be powerful!" Australia faces a skills crisis. Workforce shortages have been reported across a wide range of industries. Strong projected employment growth suggests these shortages are likely to be a feature of Australias labour market into the future. There has been much debate over how best to address Australias skills and workforce needs. This was a key focus of the recent Jobs and Skills Summit, with the Australian government calling for the creation of an effective skills and education system that better reflects the needs of the economy and is supported by industry investment in training and a responsive migration system. Treasurer Jim Chalmers makes his closing remarks at the Jobs and Skills Summit. Credit:James Brickwood Misalignment between current labour market policies threatens Australias skills base. Training, immigration and industrial relations policies all have important roles to play, but their design means they are at cross-purposes. One example of this is the Temporary Skill Shortage visa, which despite having the objective of addressing skills shortages, is designed to address individual employers recruitment difficulties. What does The Magic Pudding have in common with pirates? Quite a lot, as it turns out. This week, the Art Gallery of Ballarat opened its new exhibition, Under The Black Flag, which uses art from the gallerys existing collection of more than 11,000 works to tell the story of piracy in a comprehensive and unexpected new way. A work by contemporary artist Sally Smart on display at Under the Black Flag at The Art Gallery of Ballarat. Credit:Ben Cox When we think about pirates, we think about the pirates of the 17th and 18th century things like Pirates of the Caribbean. But piracy is still a very contemporary issue, says gallery director Louise Tegart, who curated the exhibition. The spark of the idea for the exhibition came when Tegart was looking through the gallerys collection of works by Norman and Lionel Lindsay. The brothers part of the well-known Lindsay family which is filled with artists and writers grew up in Creswick, not far from Ballarat, and shared an early fascination with pirates something which was reflected in their artistic pursuits. Norman would go on to have a long career as an artist, critic and writer, perhaps best known for authoring and illustrating The Magic Pudding, while Lionel became a painter and engraver. Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size The long years that the late Queen Elizabeth II reigned the longest in British history and the varied and various events of her family and public life have ensured that she is probably the most written about monarch ever. And now that her reign is over, you would be right to assume there will be more books to come. People may well open up more about her life and personality, but there are bound to be more assessments of her remarkable reign. The question is where to start now? Here is a selection of the many books about the life of the late Queen Elizabeth II. Some are more recent, including a couple from this year, while others were first published years ago. Credit: The Queen, Matthew Dennison Head of Zeus One of the most recent extensive biographies, published in June last year, says the royal rhetoric in Elizabeths lifetime has celebrated the idea of a reigning family of ordinary people in extraordinary positions. Dennison describes her as a cautious innovator, a still point in the vortex of change, someone who has outlived national habits of deference and ignored the culture of celebrity, evanescent and meretricious. Advertisement Dennison has written several other royal biographies, including a short one of Elizabeths great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, and an acclaimed life of writer Vita Sackville-West. He negotiates the hybrid nature of Elizabeths life public and private deftly and concludes, like others, that her reign was grounded in hope, service, reassurance and selflessness. Credit: The Queen, Ben Pimlott HarperCollins For many years, this book has been regarded as one of the best and most perceptive of biographies of the monarch. Had Ben Pimlott not died in his 50s in 2004, he would surely have produced another updated edition. Pimlott was a political scientist and historian who had dabbled with a political career, written lives of British Labour figures, and in 1996 this whopper, to which he added five chapters for the Golden Jubilee in 2002. It was immediately acclaimed on publication and in his foreword to a 2012 Diamond Jubilee edition, historian Peter Hennessy said it was the product of what happened when a leading political biographer and a top-flight historian of the 20th century ... took a long and serious look at the formation, the functions, the style and the adaptability of the lady whom we Brits of the post-war era were, and are, so fortunate to have as our Head of State. So, its as much a history of British political life, society and international relations as it is about the woman who had presided over a quiet revolution in the nations international standing, economy, and values and was strong, but passive. In her public life, she listened to what she was told. In her domestic life, she remained affectionate but remote. In both, she did not like or expect to have to take the initiative. Advertisement Credit: A Queen for All Seasons, Joanna Lumley Hodder & Stoughton Published to mark Queen Elizabeths Platinum Jubilee, this is really a collection of observational writings from an array of people such as Margaret Thatcher, Sebastian Coe, Cecil Beaton, Eleanor Roosevelt, Cliff Richard, Nicola Sturgeon and Margaret Whitlam about their personal encounters with or views of the Queen. Joanna Lumley, an out-and-out fan, knits it all together and says she wanted the book to be a discovery of her (Elizabeth) through the eyes of other people ... this book is as if I had been let loose with my microphone and wandered about among people I met at random, asking What do you remember of the Queen? The tone is always deeply affectionate even if at times a wee bit gushing. But there are some gems to be found. Surgeon David Notts account of being overwhelmed with anxiety at a private lunch at Buckingham Palace not long after his return from treating the wounded in Aleppo is a wonderful illustration of how the Queen can respond in delicate situations. Credit: Advertisement The Little Princesses, Marion Crawford Orion The former governess of Elizabeth and her sister Margaret, who started working for their family in the 1930s well before the abdication that propelled their father, George VI, to the throne, takes the reader back to their childhood and training for public duty in a controversial 1953 book that shattered the authors relationship with the royal family they never spoke to her again and cost her her home in the grounds of Kensington palace. It began as articles for an American magazine, The Ladies Home Journal. The Queen Mother was horrified at the prospect, telling Crawfie she must say No No No to offers of dollars for articles about something as private & precious as our family. Of course, Crawfie wasnt the last royal employee to reveal the secrets of the family, but what she wrote now seems mild. How things have changed. But if you want to read an intimate account of the childhood of the devoted sisters, this could be the place to start. Credit: Philip and Elizabeth, Gyles Brandreth Century Advertisement This account of the 70-year marriage that ended only with Philips death in 2021 is written by British broadcaster and former Conservative politician Gyles Brandreth, whose writings include a life of John Gielgud, books about words, and an account of Prince Charles relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles. Following Philips death, the book was revised and updated as Philip: The Final Portrait (Coronet). Elizabeth is said to have fallen in love with Philip when she met him at the age of 13. After Philips death, Philip and Elizabeth was revised to include more material about him, his influence and his legacy. Brandreth certainly interviewed Philip on occasions and noted that while the Duke of Edinburgh showed him friendliness, he did not offer friendship. When the book was published, it was described as ludicrously lubricious in Britains Observer newspaper and in his review Oxford-based Australian academic Peter Conrad said Brandreths entire biography of the pair can best be read as the product of a sweatily over-heated imagination. Its the kind of imagination a snob possesses, elated by a dizzy dream of high society and of his own exclusive access to it. Credit: Monarch, Robert Lacey Free Press Lacey is the historical consultant to The Crown and although the Netflix series has been criticised for its many inaccuracies, which he cant really be blamed for, his books seem to be a different matter. His first life of Elizabeth, Majesty, was written for her Silver Jubilee. Monarch (Royal was the title in Britain) came out in 2002 in time for the 50-year celebrations, and A Brief Life of the Queen 10 years later. Advertisement Flags were lowered, cranes stopped still, and flowers were laid at Government House as Queenslanders marked their first day in 70 years without the Queen. Queen Elizabeth II made eight trips to Queensland - her last in 2011 - during her 70-year reign, meeting elected officials, disaster victims and everyday Queenslanders. Queensland Governor Dr Jeannette Young and Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk lay wreaths at Government House in Paddington to mark the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. Credit:Tony Moore After her passing, Queensland Governor Dr Jeannette Young and Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk laid wreaths at the base of a life-size statue of Elizabeth at Government House while a piper from the Royal Australian Regiment played. The statue honours a younger Queen, in formal evening dress and tiara, and is one of the few sculptures where she holds a clutch purse. Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size In Stephen Frears 2006 film The Queen, there is something truly uncanny about Helen Mirrens performance as Queen Elizabeth II. Something in the way she clasps her hands. Something in the way she walks. And something in the way she peers through her spectacles, an unnerving combination of regal authority and gentle maternal disapproval. While the Queen herself was no doubt one of the most photographed and filmed personalities of the 20th and 21st centuries, depictions of her in popular culture have been as varied as they have been surprising. Some brilliant. Some truly dreadful. There are the brilliant performances: Mirren, along with Claire Foy and Olivia Colman in The Crown. Some actors, such as Jeannette Charles, Carolyn Sadowska and Anne Stallybrass seem to have made a career out of playing the Queen in small roles in big films, thanks largely to their uncanny resemblance to the real-life counterpart. Other roles are played for comedy, such as Joanna Lumley in Gangsta Granny (2013) and Jennifer Saunders in Minions (2015). And others, such as Neve Campbell in 2004s Churchill: The Hollywood Years, are so bad they defy belief. It is a peculiar honour roll, elevated by the fact that some actors have delivered truly luminous performances. It would not be until the late 1990s that substantial explorations of Queen Elizabeth IIs life made it onto the screen and for much of the first half of the 20th century, the notion of fictionalising her was simply taboo. That is, until the 1970s when many things, not just royal etiquette, seemed to unravel. Then there are the performances which stand out, either because they were simply brilliant or memorably satirical, such as Gerry Connollys dry and delicious take in Fast Forward (and elsewhere), and Frances de la Tour in The Prince. Jeannette Charles, various (1978 and later) Jeannette Charles, second from right, as the Queen in National Lampoons European Vacation (1985). Advertisement Charles was not the first; that honour seems to go to Steven Walden, performing in drag in the short film Tricias Wedding (1971), which is reportedly the first portrayal of the Queen on film. And to historys discredit, you wont even know Charles name, but you will recognise her face, which bears an uncanny resemblance to Queen Elizabeth II. So much in fact that Charles was regularly recruited to play the Queen on screen, though not in anything of too much substance, and not in anything longer than a few scenes. Those performances range from Queen Kong (1976) and The Rutles (1978) to National Lampoons European Vacation (1985), The Naked Gun (1988) and Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002). Carolyn Sadowska, The Women of Windsor (1992) Carolyn Sadowska (centre) as the Queen in The Women of Windsor (1992). A made-for-television movie from Canada which, as these things do, seemed to gain its biggest traction in Australia, Germany and the United States. This was pure schmaltz with a few redeeming production notes. Directed by Steven Hilliard Stern, Sadowskas Queen Elizabeth II teeters momentarily on the precipice of satire - as perhaps every portrayal of a truly ubiquitous figure does - but is held in check by solid casting all round: Nicola Formbys Diana, Sallyanne Laws Duchess of York and Jim Piddocks slightly cheek-chewing Prince Charles. Honourable mention in the telemovie category: Anne Stallybrass, who played Queen Elizabeth II in the 1993 miniseries Diana: Her True Story. Gerry Connolly, Fast Forward (1992 and since) Gerry Connolly as The Queen on The Gerry Connolly Show in 1988. Credit:ABC Its a little unfair to compare a performance on a sketch comedy show with, say, The Crown or The Queen. But to be fair to Connolly, he has made something of a career out of playing the Queen, particularly in Australia. Initially known for his brilliant impersonation of former Queensland premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, Connollys Queen is as nailed-down in the detail as it is brilliantly camp and testament to his versatility as a performer. Advertisement Prunella Scales, A Question of Attribution (1992) Prunella Scales (right) as the Queen in A Question of Attribution (1992). As Australias Fast Forward mined the royal soap opera for comedy, the BBC produced a TV adaptation of Alan Bennetts acclaimed stage play about the British art expert and former Soviet spy, Sir Anthony Blunt. In both the stage version and its television adaptation (as well as a later adaptation for radio) the role of Queen Elizabeth II was played by Scales, best known to audiences as Sybil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers. Her Queen Elizabeth II is formidable and complex, an unsung but easy rival to the later performances of Foy, Colman and Mirren. Helen Mirren, The Queen (2006) Helen Mirren in The Queen. Credit:Canal+ This is arguably the finest of the more brilliant recent impersonations of the Queen ever filmed. Peter Morgans dramatisation of the week following the death of Princess Diana in 1997 was perhaps the first project to push such portrayals out of the bottom drawer of television potboilers and into legitimate art. And Mirrens Queen Elizabeth II is perhaps unrivalled, though The Crown would later give it a red-hot go. Caught between her duty as a grandmother and the expectation that she should lead the nation in mourning, Mirrens Queen is a woman at an uncertain crossroads, beautifully building layer upon layer and drawing the audiences approbation and adoration in equal breaths. Claire Foy, The Crown (2016) Advertisement Claire Foy won multiple awards for her performance as Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown. Credit:Netflix A truly luminous performance, aided enormously by the fact that Foy was playing Queen Elizabeth II during what was essentially her earliest public incarnation, first as a newly married princess and later as she ascended to the throne. In many ways, at least to a younger audience, this is the queen we knew the least about, gifting Foy the opportunity to craft a figure who was both wholly familiar, but also shrouded in mystery. This was Queen Elizabeth II the postage stamp brought to life, and enhanced by Peter Morgans stunning writing. Unsurprisingly, Foy went on to win two Primetime Emmys and two Screen Actors Guild awards for her work. Olivia Colman, The Crown (2018) Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown. Credit:Netflix When The Crown advanced the story to the 1970s and early 1980s, it was an ambitious step into a more familiar space in recent memory. That made Colmans dice-roll on Queen Elizabeth II a real risk. This was Queen Elizabeth II at the giddy height of the royal familys pre-Diana popularity and, after her arrival, its elevation to the centre of the celebrity maelstrom - something perhaps not seen since the giddy days of Princess Margarets social life in the 1960s. But Colman pulled it off, bringing a new dimension to her portrayal, and lending both gravity and humanity to the character. Samantha Bond, The Queen and I (2018) Samantha Bond in The Queen and I (2018). Advertisement Bond was one of several actresses to play the monarch in the 2009 documentary-drama The Queen and returned to the role for this adaptation of Sue Townsends hilarious 1993 novel. After a nightmarish electoral outcome in which the royal family is de-commissioned by a radical Labor government, the Queen (along with Prince Philip, the Queen Mother, Charles, Diana, William and Harry) is demoted to plain old Mrs Mountbatten-Windsor and relocated to a council estate. Frances de la Tour, The Prince (2021) Frances de la Tour voices the Queen in The Prince (2021). Animated in broad and terrifying brushstrokes, this Queen Elizabeth II is not the star of the show, although she comes terribly close to stealing it. This darkly brilliant satire of the British royal family focuses on William and Kates son, Prince George, recast here as a Stewie Griffin-like evil princeling determined to shape his destiny and destroy anyone in his way. De la Tours voice, in screeching but terribly grand British notes, just adds more calculated brilliance to an already knockout show. Imelda Staunton, The Crown (2022) Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth II in the fifth season of The Crown, which will air in 2022. Credit:Netflix To date, weve only been able to glimpse Stauntons performance in the few fragments of film released ahead of the shows fifth season. This is Netflixs flagship royal drama - its platform stablemate, Diana: The Musical, is as horrific as it sounds - and Stauntons Queen is expected to step smoothly into the shoes left behind by Foy and Colman, enormous though they are. Staunton will be joined by a solid supporting cast, including Dominic West as Prince Charles, Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana and Claudia Harrison as Princess Anne. Advertisement PHNOM PENH, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia on Friday decided to cancel the annual Water Festival, scheduled from Nov. 7 to 9 in the capital Phnom Penh, according to a government's press statement. This was the third consecutive year that the kingdom called off the premier event in Phnom Penh. However, provincial authorities could organize boat races in their respective localities on that occasion, the statement added. Water Festival is one of the largest festivals in the Southeast Asian nation, attracting hundreds of thousands of people to the capital to enjoy a regatta along a stretch of the Tonle Sap River in front of the Royal Palace. Cambodia reported a daily record of seven new local COVID-19 cases on Friday, bringing the national case tally to 137,696, with 134,557 recoveries and 3,056 deaths, the health ministry said, adding that no new deaths have been reported since April. Across workplaces right now, theres a struggle between bosses and employees. Returning to the office vs. working from home. Cost of living increases vs. stagnant wages. Is it any surprise we are seeing concepts like quiet quitting and quiet firing emerge? After nearly three years of COVID-19 disruption, employers keen to regain control over their workforce are monitoring employees in ways never seen. Employees, now used to flexibility, are pushing back. Monitoring of workers doesnt help morale. Credit:Adobe Employee monitoring is not new. Foremen, with a keen eye for discipline and a clipboard, have been ready to pounce since the Industrial Revolution. Two centuries on, it is delusional to believe micro-monitoring every keystroke, reading instant messages or recording screens in real time will prompt an employee to give their full, focused commitment to a role. Remarkably, Australia ranks first in the world in its use of technology to monitor employees. A separating couple needs to approach negotiation not as a bitter ex-partner, but as a parent, if there are children involved, says Professor Jennifer McIntosh, a family trauma expert at La Trobe University. Credit:iStock My friends former step-brother learned this the hard way. We really looked up to him, says my friend, now in her early 40s, of the step-brother she gained when her mother remarried. My friend was 10 at the time. He was just the most beautiful, warm person, she says of her former step-brother. Hed come and sit with his guitar and play us music. But after her mother divorced his father, one year into their marriage, he was whisked out of her life. Neither her mother nor her step-father thought to keep their kids in touch. Then, eight years later, my friends former step-brother called her out of the blue. He wanted to speak to my sister and I and proceeded to say how much he felt like there was something missing in his life, she says. And how we were such a huge part of his life, and he misses us. He wants us in his life. I dont think people realise how bad things can get [for kids]. [Some] basically go off and do their own thing, and they dont want anything to do with anyone. Professor Bruce Smyth, the Australian National University McIntosh is far from surprised. Theyre forged in fire, she says about step-sibling relationships. And theres quite a devastation when the loss is not explained and not justified and not justifiable. So why do so many parents and step-parents either actively or passively block their children from maintaining these valuable relationships? Step-parents are often confused about what theyre entitled to ask for after theyve separated from their partner, says Elisabeth Shaw, CEO of Relationships Australia (NSW). Theyre saying, Well, Im not a blood relation, do I have any rights here to even want a relationship [with the kids]? And if I do argue for that, am I going to be supported, or is it kind of weird? she says. Sometimes even friends and family say, Well youre done with that relationship, walk away. And parents and step-parents are often too blinded by their own rage and sadness over their break-up to consider the childrens needs. Its kind of well, Youve left, so to hell with you and you dont deserve time now with the kids, says Shaw. One of the first problems for children in this scenario is that they blame themselves for being left behind. Children of all ages frequently carry a fantasy that they deserve to be rejected or werent good enough for the former step-parent or step-siblings to continue nurturing an ongoing relationship, says McIntosh. Its developmental, she explains. Children under seven, she says, are naturally narcissistic and self-focused, so if they see their parents arguing, they assume its about themselves. And older kids far more often than not attribute the blame of their parents conflict to themselves, too. Children who continue to blame themselves do very poorly, says McIntosh. Particularly [with] the development of internalising disorders, like depression and anxiety. And children whose parents rope them into sharing their view that the other parent is bad or at fault for the break-up are at risk of low self-esteem and a warped emotional development. We just see how torn up and shredded they [the children] are by the whole recruitment campaign, says McIntosh of children who become alienated from a parent who is demonised. Oh, its shocking. Its a double-whammy. The kid often loses both their relationship and their self-esteem. Because the scenario often puts children into freeze mode, a deeply internalised reluctance to get in touch with how they feel. Because youve actually got to defend against what you really feel for instance, love or fondness for the demonised parent in order to keep in the good graces of the parent youre living with, she says. This often leaves children constantly second-guessing themselves, and without the faith that others will help them, when they have a problem. I dont think people realise how bad things can get [for the kids], says Professor Bruce Smyth, a professor of family studies at the Australian National University who has researched high-conflict divorces and shared parenting after separation for 30 years. Ive seen some horrible situations; children basically end up without anyone because theyre so conflicted between one parent and one step-parent. They basically go off and do their own thing, and they dont want anything to do with anyone. Some kids are lucky. They manage to continue relationships with family members theyve lost touch with, even when parental, or step-parental, sabotage abounds. Its a bit like, Well, bloods thicker than your bullshit, says one woman I know in her early 40s, of what happened to her after her father cheated on her mother with a woman he ended up marrying. So she was always the villain in my mothers family, says my friend of her new step-mother. My grandmother would call her names. My friend was caught in the middle. She had half-siblings when her step-mother and her father had two children. But her stepmother treated her biological children as her real children, she says. I felt like, What have I done wrong? All I did was be born. When I went over to my dads house, I had to walk on eggshells. I didnt want to do the wrong thing, or say the wrong thing. Having to censor yourself as an 8-year-old is really hard work. Her step-mother forbid her kids, my friends half-siblings, to attend my friends wedding reception. The fact that our relationships have deepened since their mum and my dad have split up is a testament to the fact that bloods thicker than vitriol, says my friend, who relishes that, in adulthood, she has been able to fill something of a big sister role to her younger half-sister. But not all children are in a mental space to fight to fulfil their emotional needs. So what do therapists wish divorcing parents knew, when it comes to what their children need? Loading What I tell parents is, All the relationships that have held your child so far, [they] need to continue to hold them, says McIntosh, who has developed child-inclusive therapeutic resources that parents can easily access to enable them to do this. Im forever advising parents, OK, its true, youre really pissed off with him, but you must hold a semi-compassionate view for the children in endorsing their view of the other parent. She always guides parents that they need to approach separation or divorce negotiation not as bitter ex-partners, but as parents. The principles are really about remembering that your children have separate attachments and relationships to you, and those should be respected and valued, says Shaw. For the first time in her 10-year legal career, she considered leaving her homeland, but decided against it, still hopeful the security situation would improve. Seven months later, with the Taliban back in power, that optimism had vanished when she came face-to-face with a rapist shed sent to prison for 18 years. He was carrying an AK-47. Nellab, one of about 270 female judges in Afghanistan at the time and five months pregnant with her third child, asked her superiors if she could travel to work in an armoured car. Instead, she was given a pistol and 13 bullets. Zakia Herawi, whom Nellab had known since university, was one of two female judges killed in an attack. Recalling the death, Nellab becomes so upset she needs a few moments to compose herself. It was very shocking news for us. Everyone was so scared, we didnt go to her funeral, she recalls. Killing those two ladies, it became clear that the Taliban did not have mercy on women. Before, it was mostly male judges around Afghanistan [who were targeted by assassins] but after that, we were shocked that they could harm us, too. As she fielded a raft of calls from terrified family and friends, Nellab was shocked to discover one of the victims in the attack was Zakia Herawi, a Supreme Court judge shed known since university. News reports said the 47-year-old had been shot in the face, neck and chest. They had good reason to fear the worst. Nellab had been receiving death threats for years. Shed sent hundreds of men, including Taliban members, to prison for violent crimes against women, and there had been a recent spate of attacks targeting politicians, journalists and activists. Just a month earlier, a female reporter, Malala Maiwand , and her driver had been shot dead on their way to work in Nangarhar Province in the countrys east. O n a January morning last year, Nellab Hotaki Talash had just arrived at her office in the centre of the Afghan capital of Kabul when her mobile phone rang. First her husband called, then her mother. Both were panicking. Theyd just heard that two female judges had been shot dead by gunmen on a motorbike five minutes drive from her apartment. When the Taliban first assumed power in 1996, Nellab was an eight-year-old schoolgirl. Conflict was a constant backdrop to her early years, but she has happy childhood memories playing in her Kabul home with her six siblings. Hers was a family that valued education for both boys and girls her father was a headmaster at a boys school, her mother a teacher. But after the Taliban takeover, they were left with little choice. The couple shut the door on the four-bedroom unit theyd bought just two years earlier, gathered up their young children and two backpacks of belongings, and embarked on a perilous journey with an unknown destination. We just wanted to get out of Afghanistan, she says. That was the only hope we had. Despite the constant stream of trauma and intimidation, she never wanted to quit or leave Kabul. Even when relatives offered to help them move to the UK years ago, the couple declined. Nellab and Malyar, an engineer, felt the need to give back to their war-torn nation. We had all the opportunities of life in our country. I had a job, he had a job, we had an apartment, a car, she says. Obviously, it was my responsibility: I had studied my whole life there, I needed to serve my country. One of 17 female judges to settle in Australia with their families after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan last year, the 33-year-old describes a life scarcely imaginable amid this ordinary domesticity. With her husband, Malyar, translating, she describes how each morning after dropping her daughters at preschool, she would preside over a daily roll call of the worst things men can do to women violent rapes, vicious murders, burnings, stabbings, often at the hands of husbands and fathers. Its difficult to reconcile these scenes of gun-toting criminals and street assassinations with the quietly-spoken woman I meet on a sunny Saturday in the NSW city of Newcastle. In her small living room, Nellab is calmly trying to soothe her wailing one-year-old son after he has bumped his head. Three small coffee tables are laden with morning tea fluffy muffins, cake, glass bowls of sultanas, almonds, pistachios and Kit Kats. She pours green tea and tries to convince her two daughters to take their baby brother to the next room to play. Hers is not a story for children to hear. In her graduation photo, the then 23-year-old stands in the front row the only row of women in front of 110 male counterparts (there were 24 female graduates). Theyre all dressed in black judges robes trimmed with green and gold. After completing a bachelors degree of Islamic law at Kabul University, she had to sit the notoriously tough entrance exam for the two-year judiciary studies program. Only 150 of the 1800 students who sat the exam passed. I studied so hard my hair started to fall out, Nellab recalls. Her hard work paid off she achieved the fourth-highest mark. Nellab on her graduation day after completing the judiciary studies program at Kabul University. To secure a coveted place in the competitive course, she says, I studied so hard my hair started to fall out. Nellab seized the new opportunities available for a generation of Afghan girls who came of age in the post-Taliban years, albeit mostly for those from relatively well-off, urban families. Women began joining the police force and army, and becoming lawyers and politicians. Nellab was still a teenager when she decided to follow in the footsteps of her grandfather and two uncles, all judges. I would see their law books, and I was inspired to be a judge, she says. She liked that judges were well-respected, and recalls how her uncle began writing her name as Judge Nellab when she was still at school. I liked the sound of it. For Nellab, then in year 2, the closure of girls schools was devastating. She couldnt understand why her older brother continued going to class while she had to stay home. By the time the US ousted the Taliban and her school reopened five years later, she was 12. While other girls her age were put in lower classes to make up for the learning theyd missed, she went straight into year 8 alongside much older kids shed spent the intervening period studying at home with her parents. I was the smallest in the room, she says, smiling broadly as she recalls her first day back. I was so happy. I had the dream to be an educated woman, to go to university. She recalls how her uncle began writing her name as Judge Nellab when she was still at school. I liked the sound of it. But after the Taliban began its assault on womens rights, most females were barred from going to work or travelling without a male guardian, and were required to cover their faces and bodies. The authorities would become notorious for brutal punishments, such as stoning women accused of adultery. The specialist courts and the shelters and legal services set up alongside them represented a massive social change, according to Heather Barr, associate womens rights director at Human Rights Watch (HRW). The system was imperfect, of course, but it was gradually changing the view that women and girls are the property of male family members who could treat them as they saw fit. After working for three years as a judges associate, Nellab was appointed to various courts, including those trying alleged terrorists. When she wasnt wearing her robes, some men assumed she was part of the administrative staff. Not long after she gave birth to her first daughter in 2015, a friend asked her to join the Primary Court of Elimination of Violence Against Women in Kabul. There was no special feeling on my behalf, Nellab admits. In Afghanistan, you have to marry first and then fall in love. Did they? Yes, she replies, laughing with Malyar. A winter wedding with 400 people took place in 2013, a time they remember as relatively peaceful. Id started a new life, got married and was continuing my job. I was so hopeful, she says. Nellab may have been smashing through gender barriers, but her marriage was a thoroughly traditional affair, arranged by their families after Malyar asked his sister to get her phone number. The couple didnt meet until 12 days after they were officially engaged. It was okay, she says, when asked if she was happy to let her family choose her husband. She explains she was looking to marry an educated man, have a good family and for him to be a good boy. Not long before this day, the man who would become her husband spotted her on campus. I dont remember him because there were many boys, she says, making Malyar laugh. He never asked his wife to quit, but after the two female judges were assassinated in January 2021, he wanted her to switch to a more innocuous area of the law. I was telling her to change to a different court, to civil crimes, traffic crimes. But she said, If I want to be a judge, I have to be involved in such cases. After Nellab joined the womens court, the threatening phone calls and letters escalated. Malyar feared that his wife could be murdered. It was very easy, he says. If you give someone $1000, he can kill anybody. When the murder trial began a month later, authorities confirmed her fears. I was afraid, but it was my job, she says. My head was telling me, This is your responsibility, you have to do this, and you have to not be afraid. Nellab and two other judges found the 19-year-old man guilty and sentenced him to 27 years in prison. I was afraid, but it was my job, she says. My head was telling me, This is your responsibility, you have to do this, and you have to not be afraid. When Nellab headed home that afternoon, she had to walk around the crime scene, which was cordoned off with police tape. The womans body had been removed, but her blood still stained the cement. I was so shocked, Nellab says. I knew that this case would come to my court I was thinking, He could be linked to the Taliban. One case in particular still stands out. Nellab was in her office one lunchtime in 2019 when she heard a commotion outside. Everyone was shouting that a murder had happened, she remembers. A woman in her late teens, who had fled to a shelter in Kabul to escape her abusive husband, had just been granted a divorce. When the couple walked out of the courthouse, he took a knife from his shoe and stabbed her in the neck. Hearing how the courts were helping women attain justice made Nellab excited to start her new role. An added bonus was that the court had a creche where she could leave her daughter. The couple had already moved house three times in 10 years, in search of safer neighbourhoods, but they began taking extra precautions. They wouldnt go out at night; Nellab would swap her black court attire for colourful clothes before returning home; and wearing a mask became more about hiding her identity than warding off COVID-19. If I want to be a judge, I have to be involved in such cases, Nellab said to her husband after he urged her to switch to a less dangerous court. Credit:Tim Bauer When I ask her to describe that hot summers day when Taliban fighters rolled into Kabul unopposed, Nellab begins to cry. She apologises for being upset. Her husband sits quietly beside her, tears welling up in his eyes. Just days earlier, shed cooked an array of traditional dishes to celebrate their sons 40th day, an important milestone in Afghan culture. We were feeling it would get worse but had no idea that Afghanistan would collapse, she says. We had trust in our government that they would not leave the achievements of 20 years this easily. Nellab was at home with the children. While at work, Malyar heard the news that the Taliban had reached the city gates. He tried to get home in a taxi, but the roads were blocked, so he began walking. Afghan security forces, normally a familiar presence on the streets of the capital, were nowhere to be seen. Theyd abandoned their gear: kids were playing with the discarded machine guns, civilians were driving armoured tanks. [But] once they realised the Taliban were there, everything stopped, he says. Loading Meanwhile, Nellab began destroying anything that revealed her identity. She tore up handwritten copies of court decisions and wrapped a cloth around the gun her superiors had given her. Later, shed ask a relative to return it to the court. At about 2pm came a phone call from a contact who lived near Kabuls biggest prison. They could see prisoners walking freely out of the front gates. There were many murderers there, many people who raped, who stole, now they are free, completely free, Nellab says. When the Taliban released the prisoners, my husband and I were scared. No one knows who will come for revenge. She received a message to leave home via a WhatsApp group set up by the International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ) and its Afghan branch. The couple packed clothes, jewellery and a laptop into two backpacks and headed to Nellabs parents home with their daughters and baby boy the same day. I also bought Snickers chocolate, adds Malyar. We were thinking we might get to a place where we would have no [other] food and just have to hide. This guard, who was armed security belonging to the Taliban, was a criminal I had sent to jail for 18 years for rape. During the ensuing days, they shuttled among relatives homes and hotels. She was told by the IAWJ, which was trying to place female judges and their families on military flights out of Kabul, that they would need to get to the airport at a moments notice. As scenes from the chaotic evacuation were broadcast around the world, showing Afghans clinging to the underbelly of hulking, taxiing planes, Nellab and Malyar waited. Expecting their turn to come at any moment, the couple left their children with her parents one morning about five days after leaving their home and headed to a bank, hoping to withdraw cash. They handed over their bank cards to a staff member and joined the long queue of people waiting to go inside. When Nellabs name was called, a man carrying an AK-47 stopped her from entering and demanded she take off her mask. When she refused, he grew angry. It wasnt until the bank manager came out to see what the problem was that a shocking realisation dawned. This guard, who was armed security belonging to the Taliban, was a criminal I had sent to jail for 18 years for rape, Nellab says. She believes he recognised her uncommon surname Hotaki Talash on her bank card. It was unusual for Afghan women to combine their own family name with that of their husband. While the manager argued with the man, the couple quietly slipped away through the crowd and escaped in a taxi. I cant express that feeling when I was in front of him, Nellab says. That could have been a terrible moment. Afterwards, she tried to transfer money online, but her accounts had been blocked. Days later, the last military flights took off from Kabul. We had this feeling we were stuck, she says. Judge Robyn Tupman (left), who is helping evacuate female judges from Afghanistan, with Nellab (at right) and her husband, Malyar, at an afternoon tea with NSW Governor Margaret Beazley. More than 11,000 kilometres away in Sydney, Robyn Tupman was studying maps of Kabul airport, tracking international flight radars and filling out visa applications vastly outside her remit as a judge in the NSW District Court. The International Association of Women Judges Tupman is its secretary had provided training courses and support to its Afghan members for years. But now that support was taking on a whole new dimension. They were receiving reports that Taliban members were entering the homes of female judges, sometimes beating family members when they couldnt find them. A Talib shot one judges dog in frustration. Tupman and other IAWJ members began trying to evacuate them on military flights out of Afghanistan, and arrange visas for countries including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the US and various European states. She was one of seven judges around the world who took turns monitoring a 24-hour Zoom link that the Afghans could contact. Due to the time difference with Kabul, Tupman and New Zealand Supreme Court Justice Susan Glazebrook, the associations president, pulled the night shift. Sometimes wed still be there at three and four oclock in the morning, says Tupman, a 71-year-old who has worked as a judge for the last 26 years. Wed be sort of looking rather bleary-eyed; we probably had our PJs on. Early on, Tupman was able to secure Australian visas for three judges and find them places on military flights. But first she had to help them pierce the chaos surrounding the airport. I mean, how we knew what we were doing, goodness only knows, she says, because Ive never been to Kabul. She recalls hearing gunshots one night over the Zoom link as a judge tried to fight her way through the crowds to the gates. It was a nightmare. Shed track the evacuees journey online, from take-off to landing. After the last military planes departed, the IAWJ enlisted the help of agencies such as the International Bar Association, which was funding its own evacuation efforts. It was one of these flights that would eventually carry Nellab and her family to safety. August had turned to October by the time Nellab left the city shed called home her entire life. She was told to board a bus heading north-west to Mazar-i-Sharif, the fourth-largest city in Afghanistan. They were given Greek visas and booked on a flight to Athens. Loading They had sold their furniture, their car, and some of Nellabs jewellery to raise cash to take with them. On the day we meet, shes wearing fine gold earrings and a matching necklace a wedding gift from her mother, which she couldnt bring herself to sell. It was so difficult to leave our parents but I had no choice but to take care of my children. My mother said, Be happy wherever you are. After passing through two checkpoints, they spent a couple of nights in Mazar-i-Sharif before boarding their plane to Greece. It was strange, she recalls, because I was sad that I left my homeland, I left my career, I left my house. On the other hand, she was happy that I was with my family and have the hope to get somewhere where I can have a bright future. And I have survived, so I can help the rest of my family get out of Afghanistan. Explaining what was happening to their young daughters four and five at the time was difficult. There were many questions, Nellab says. My older daughter was asking, Why are we leaving? Where is my room? My toys? I want my friends. They asked many questions, but I had no proper answers for them about why we had left Afghanistan and what we were going to do. After arriving in Greece, they applied for temporary protection visas for Australia because Nellab had heard it was a land of opportunities. It wasnt until they arrived in Melbourne in January that she felt she could finally relax. It was a very good feeling, she says. I had a good sleep that night. Two months later, they were on the move again. Malyar landed an engineering job in a suburb of greater Newcastle. They found a two-bedroom house to rent within walking distance of his office and the local public school. As morning turns to afternoon, Nellab suggests we take a break on the back verandah to eat the lunch shes prepared. Refusing all offers of help, she places plates heaped with food onto the red-and-white-check tablecloth. There is a mountain of rice dotted with chunks of lamb, carrot and raisins, which is a traditional Afghan dish called Qabuli palow, beef kofta with lentils, and salad. As we eat under the winter sun, her two girls tell me in English how much they love their kindergarten teacher. Nellab with her family in Sydney, It was so difficult to leave our parents (in Kabul), she says, but I had no choice but to take care of my children. My mother said, Be happy wherever you are. Nellab, who lacks confidence speaking English, says there have been some lonely days in recent months, which shes mostly spent at home with her young son. Shes watched on in sadness as the Talibans crackdown on womens rights escalates in scenes eerily reminiscent of her childhood. Despite the Talibans early pledge to respect their rights, most women are now prevented from going to work; secondary schools for girls are closed; and women have been beaten for not covering their faces and protesting in public. With the specialist womens courts no longer operating, those most in need of help now have nowhere to turn. HRWs Heather Barr says anecdotal evidence suggests gender-based violence has increased since the return of the Taliban, and that girls are at greater risk of child marriage. The system to protect women and girls is almost entirely gone, she says. Women and girls are more trapped in their homes than ever, most women who were wage-earners have lost that status and the respect that that might have earned them within their families. Its a perfect storm on an almost unimaginable level for violence against women and girls. While scores of female Afghan judges are scattered around the world, from New Zealand to Poland, Nellab fears the world is forgetting about the 70 who remain behind. She says theyre in hiding, terrified that their pasts will be exposed, and need to be evacuated. If your friends are back in your homeland, even if youre somewhere safe, its terrible, you cant relax. Tupman is in daily contact with those in Afghanistan. We still get security briefings telling us that theres likely to be a raid in a particular part of Kabul, and we try to pass that on when we can, she says. Shes calling on the Australian government to grant more humanitarian visas. The judges left there are very frightened What we have said to them is, We wont forget you, and we wont give up until everybody who wants to leave has left. A spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs says that the government remains committed to supporting the Afghan community and will offer 31,500 places to its nationals over the next four years. The government acknowledges the work women judges and other prominent women do on the ground to promote human rights and assist those in need in Afghanistan, the spokesperson adds. After the Taliban returned, these women saw everything they had fought and sacrificed for vanish overnight. To help the likes of Nellab adjust to their new lives here, the Australian Association of Women Judges has set up a buddy program that provides practical help. That includes arranging English classes, driving and swimming lessons, providing references for rental properties, and friendship. It is also exploring how the refugees can use their skills here. Tupman has met with university law schools to discuss whether retraining is possible. Working as mediators, particularly in Australias Afghan communities, may be an option. But for many of the judges, studying English is the first step. Nellab would like to pursue a career in the law here, but expects it will be difficult to become a judge. Tupman describes Nellab, whom she finally met at an afternoon tea at Government House in Sydney in June after months of exchanging messages, as extraordinarily resilient. She adds, Shes very committed to succeeding. But she says all the Afghan judges shes met feel a great sense of loss. HRWs Heather Barr echoes this sentiment, saying they required great determination and courage to succeed. Many had had to fight within their own families to gain an education and to avoid their careers being shut down through marriage and motherhood, and threats and attacks against women judges, including by the Taliban, were all too common, she says. After the Taliban returned, these women saw everything they had fought and sacrificed for vanish overnight. Loading After working so hard to achieve her dream, Nellab could be forgiven for being angry or bitter about having it ripped away. But instead, this generous woman seems sadly resigned. I had a good position in society back in Afghanistan, but here it is nothing. We will see what will happen. It will take me more time to learn the language and study and get a career back. I will be old! she laughs. But shes grateful she can start a new life in Australia, and is looking forward to moving to Sydney the week after we meet, to be closer to her and Malyars parents. They followed them to Australia several months later Nellabs job made it too dangerous for them to stay in Afghanistan. Malyar has found a new job in Sydney. Nellab plans to start English classes and to learn to drive. When I ask how she will help her young kids remember their roots, Nellab returns to her conviction that a persons life should be of service. We will try to teach them where they have come from and where they originally belong to, she says, but where they are working, where they receive an education, they need to serve there. To read more from Good Weekend magazine, visit our page at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times. Aunt Pat had a particularly glorious voice, a mezzo-contralto capable of powering from a low rumble clear to the high register of a soprano, filled with colour and character. Often, as the family parties moved towards late-night sentimentality, cigarettes burning alongside the pianos keyboard, Pat launched into a song that lodged into the heart. It was written by an Irish musician, Percy French, early last century. It became a standard for the diaspora everywhere, crafted as a letter from a homesick Irishman to his love Mary, who had remained in Ireland while he moved away to London in vain search of fortune. It spoke of the bittersweet emigrant experience for millions. Oh, Mary, this Londons a wonderful sight, With people all working by day and by night. Sure, they dont sow potatoes, nor barley, nor wheat, But theres gangs of them digging for gold in the street. At least when I asked them thats what I was told, So I just took a hand at this digging for gold, But for all that I found there I might as well be Where the Mountains o Mourne sweep down to the sea. And so, as I rode my motorbike down to the sea at the town of Newcastle in County Down those many years later, I could not help but think of my aunt, and those family gatherings. The dark hills at my shoulder were the Mountains of Mourne, which gave the old song its name, and they did sweep down to the sea. I sent Pat a postcard. She will never see those mountains, and we will never hear her sing of them again, for she died, aged 92, three weeks ago. She was the last of five sisters and a brother who gave such life to the family festivities of my youth. We had taken to the ritual in recent years of speaking on the phone most weeks, Pat with a glass of whiskey in hand at one end and me a long way distant with questions about the family history that I had neglected to ask of her sister, my late mother. Thus, I rode a bit bleakly to a writers festival a couple of weeks ago in Dunkeld, the town where Pat had lived beneath Mt Abrupt and Mt Sturgeon, the commanding southern sentinels of the Grampians/Gariwerd mountain range. No one of that generation, it sank in, was left to tell the old family stories, or to be asked to fill in missing details. It is the way of things. This country in which we live is a great patchwork of diasporas, far beyond the old Irish and British and European memory banks that once dominated our cultural landscape. The Australian Bureau of Statistics has counted no less than 278 cultural and ethnic groups currently in Australia; as many as, or more than, any other nation on Earth. What characterises an ethnicity? The bureau spells out the major requirements. A long shared history, the memory of which is kept alive. A cultural tradition, including family and social customs, sometimes religiously based. A common geographic origin. A common language (but not necessarily limited to that group). A common literature (written or oral). We might add a common retention of music. Is there a cultural festival anywhere that is not held together by the music that lodges in the enduring memories of those whose ancestors created it? Now, with the federal government about to increase immigration numbers to 195,000 a year, here is a question prompted by the passing of a favourite aunt. How many generations beyond the lifespans of these new arrivals will keep alight the received memories that define who they are and what they have packed away and brought to their new nation through music and stories and even blurred pictures in the mind of places they might never see? The family of a Brisbane mother whose remains were dumped at the bottom of Kangaroo Point cliffs has hurled abuse at two key witnesses after they were scrutinised at a coronial inquest. The last person to see the victim alive responded to almost every question asked of him with I dont remember or I dont know, leading to frustrated jeers from the victims family in the courtroom. Left to right: The Kangaroo Point unit linked to Constance Watcho being searched by police; witness Sam Sobczak; the grassed area where Watchos remains were found; and witness Dallas Bandman. Credit:File Images Constance May Watcho, a 36-year-old mother-of-10, was last seen leaving her Kangaroo Point unit on November 27, 2017, with her boyfriend. She accessed her bank account for the final time that day, but neither her nor her boyfriend owned mobile phones. They did not have a fixed address at the time and were couch-surfing. The private owners of the Preston Market want to modernise its stalls with night markets and rooftop gatherings alongside apartment buildings up to 19 storeys high, in a newly released vision for the site expected to attract hostility from local campaigners. However, Darebin City Council has made a competing proposal, arguing the site could be developed with flats and the market stalls left in place, following a heated campaign to preserve the market in its current form. Artists impression of the renewed Preston Market, as proposed by the site owners. The joint owners Salta Properties and Medich Corporation want to renew the stalls with $75 million through the proceeds they would make by building apartments, shops and offices alongside the market. The owners, council and residents will make their respective cases at public hearings next month in an attempt to break an impasse on planning rules for the development of site. The driving force behind an alleged international sham roofing syndicate has been denied bail after being accused of swindling Tania Hird out of almost $33,000 for a simple gutter repair on the Toorak mansion she shares with her husband, AFL great James Hird. British national Mark Burton, 23, appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday charged with 11 counts of obtaining property by deception. Tania Hird, pictured last year with husband James, has allegedly been swindled in a roofing scam. Credit:David Caird The accused established a roofing and guttering business called Top-Rated Roofing and Guttering Pty Ltd five days after he arrived in Australia on a tourist visa in March, magistrate Peter Reardon said during the bail application. Prosecutors allege the Hirds roof repairs in June which cost more than $32,900 should have cost about $350. Police allege 11 victims were stung with bills totalling more than $640,000 during a five-week period of offending. Australia will hold a national day of mourning to mark the death of Queen Elizabeth as part of a 14-day observance that will see parliament suspended and ministers called to a special meeting on Sunday to proclaim King Charles the new sovereign. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will assemble the full ministry to recommend that Governor-General David Hurley issue a formal proclamation at Parliament House at noon on Sunday in a public event to mark the transition to the new monarch. A gun salute on the forecourt of Parliament House fired one round every 10 seconds for each of the 96 years of the Queens life. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen With leaders from across public life praising the Queen for her 70 years of service, a gun salute on the forecourt of Parliament House fired one round every 10 seconds for each of the 96 years of her life. Hurley, who was informed of the Queens death at 2.08am AEST on Friday, said her example was as relevant today as when she took the throne in 1952. King Charles III will become only the second monarch to feature on Australias decimal currency when his effigy is etched on coins, but new $5 notes with his face on them could be some years away. New $2, $1, 50, 20, 10 and 5 coins with a portrait of the King are expected to start entering circulation from 2023, with the design to come from The Royal Mint in Great Britain. The Queen has featured on all Australian coins in the decimal currency age, including this $2 coin held by Royal Australian Mint CEO Leigh Gordon in 2021. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Queen Elizabeth II has been the only monarch to feature on Australias decimal currency, which was introduced in 1966. Produced by the Royal Australian Mint, coins featuring the Queen will remain legal tender, so there will be a mix of coins with either monarch in circulation for some time. The Royal Australian Mint and the Department of Treasury did not respond to requests to comment on the process. Drink-driving Liberal MP Tim Smith has accused his former friend, Opposition Leader Matthew Guy, of misleading the public by telling the media he wanted him gone while secretly promising Smith he could stay in parliament. Smith, who took contemporaneous notes of conversations with Guy, revealed for the first time details of discussions that took place after he crashed his Jaguar into the fence of a family home in Hawthorn following a drinking session in October last year. Tim Smith says he was promised a seat in the upper house. Credit:Justin McManus I ... got completely screwed over by one person I trusted implicitly, Smith said in an interview with state political editor Annika Smethurst as part of The Ages Lunch With series. He said that after the crash, the opposition leader had told him privately to recontest his seat of Kew, and added, I cant win an election without you. But to the media Guy said he had told Smith it was his unequivocal view the MP should quit at the November election. BISHKEK, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Kyrgyzstan detained seven members of the Hizb ut-Tahrir extremist organization in a southern part of the country, State Committee for National Security said on Thursday. Special services found that the detainees were disseminating extremist materials. Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami is recognized as an extremist organization and its activities are prohibited in Kyrgyzstan, according to a decision of the country's Supreme Court. The statistics tell the story: a billion users now spend on average 52 minutes a day scrolling through addictive content hosted by a company more valuable than Coca-Cola. TikTok, the $200 billion app that began in 2017 by fusing videos with lip-syncing teens, is now the worlds most valuable start-up and fast becoming its most scrutinised digital empire. TikTok now has a billion users Credit:AP On Thursday, Mathias Dopfner, the chief executive of global publishing giant Axel Springer, called for the Chinese-owned app to be banned by all democratic governments. It is, of course, a tool of espionage ... And I think that we should just have this kind of self-respect, and that is why I concretely think TikTok should be banned in every democracy, he said. I just think that it is insane not to do that. Delhi: Indian and Chinese troops have begun disengaging from the Gogra-Hotsprings border area in the western Himalayas, both sides said, two years after clashes at the frontier strained diplomatic ties. The disengagement comes ahead of a meeting in Uzbekistan next week that Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are expected to attend. An Indian army convoy moves near the de facto border called the Line of Actual Control in the Ladakh region. Credit:AP Both sides said disengagement was taking place in a coordinated and planned way that would help to keep peace on the border. The eyeball-to-eyeball contact has ended, an Indian defence source said on Thursday, although both countries still had thousands of soldiers lined up along the de factor border, known as the Line of Actual Control (LAC). At the recent COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, the then-European correspondent of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, Bevan Shields, witnessed the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, answering a mobile phone while walking in to his hotel. Hello your royal highness, how are you? he said warmly. The future king was clearly ensuring his voice was in the ear of the most powerful climate decision-makers. Charles himself uses electric vehicles on his estates, has placed solar panels on his residences, heats one of his homes with biomass from fallen timber, has installed heat pumps at others and has had a hydroelectric turbine placed in the river that runs beside Birkhall, his home on the Balmoral estate in Scotland. His favourite vehicle, an old Aston Martin, has been modified to run on 85 per cent bioethanol derived from surplus English white wine and [fermented] whey from the cheese process. Less enthusiastic about King Charles will be modernist architects. Charles has made known for decades his disdain for much contemporary architecture. In 1985, he killed a plan for an extension to the National Gallery in London, describing it as a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend. Later he dismissed a proposed redevelopment of a square next to St Pauls Cathedral by saying you have to give this much to the Luftwaffe, when it knocked down our buildings, it didnt replace them with anything more offensive than rubble. In return, some modernist architects have poured scorn on Charles own housing development: a village called Poundbury in Dorset, that design critic Stephen Bayley once likened to the furniture floor of a provincial department store. Charles, however, appears immune from derision about his ideas for sustainable housing. He is also believed to have planned what might be called a sustainable monarchy: one that is slimmed down for a time when many Britons are facing a period of austerity. Filling out a new-look firm of working royals, beyond King Charles III and his queen and his heir and his wife, would be Charles brother Edward and wife Sophie (the Duchess of Wessex) and the Kings sister Anne, the Princess Royal. Notably absent would be Charles second son, Harry, and wife Meghan, who have essentially resigned from royal duties and moved to the US, and the Kings other brother, Andrew, who is in disgrace after allegations he was a beneficiary of Jeffrey Epsteins sex trafficking of underage girls. Minor royals the so-called hangers-on could find themselves looking for new careers and homes as Charles seeks to reduce the financial call on the royal estate. Princess Diana, Prince Charles and Prince William in Alice Springs in March 1983. Credit:Gerrit Fokkema Charles is far from hard up, of course. He is independently wealthy, drawing as Duke of Cornwall many millions of pounds each year for his family and his projects from the immense Duchy of Cornwall, a private estate established by Edward III in 1337. Now that Charles is King, Prince William becomes Duke of Cornwall. The Duchy spreads over 52,789 hectares across 21 counties, and comprises farms, residential and commercial properties, forests, rivers, quarries and coastline. Little wonder that in the 1970s Charles was regularly described as the worlds most eligible bachelor. And yet, though he has been heir apparent since his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, ascended the throne in 1952, Charles life and achievements to date have been overshadowed by her long and overwhelmingly popular reign. His efforts to forge independence started poorly when, aged 14 on a school excursion to the Scottish Isle of Lewis, he ordered a cherry brandy in a pub, observed by a reporter. The moment became a worldwide sensation. His monumental effort to please the royal family by marrying, at age 32, a beautiful young woman named Diana, 13 years his junior, ended in worse disaster. Charles, Diana revealed publicly, had maintained an affair with a married woman, Camilla Parker-Bowles. Divorce ensued and Diana, forever the publics sweetheart, was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997. Charles and Camilla have been married since April 2005. Over the long years of their post-Diana relationship, the reputation of both has undergone significant renovation. Indeed, in the years after Dianas death, Charles employed public relations expert Mark Bolland as his deputy private secretary to help rehabilitate his public image. Subsequently, Bolland was credited with having improved the public acceptance of the relationship between Charles and Camilla. King Charles formerly known as the Prince of Wales and Duke of Edinburgh since the death in April 2021 of his father, Prince Philip and Queen Consort Camilla, who was previously given the title of Duchess of Cornwall to avoid any unfortunate overlap with Diana, the Princess of Wales now enjoy a form of broad approval in Britain that once seemed impossible. Even Australians appeared to thaw when Camilla made her first visit with Charles in 2012. This was quite a step, for Diana had established enormous and lasting popularity when in 1983, accompanied by Charles and their baby William, she made her first official visit to Australia. Two decades later, Camillas quick wit and easy-going nature earned surprised plaudits wherever she went in Australia, and the Palace is said to have breathed sighs of relief. Loading That she had passed muster in Australia was important because Charles as king takes over from his mother as the head of the Commonwealth, an association of 56 nations, almost all of which are former territories or colonies of the British Empire. Australia, among the most developed of those nations, has an influential voice in the Commonwealths sometimes turbulent affairs. The new king and his consort will look to Australia as a reliable pillar when things become complicated. It was thought until recently it would be unlikely that Camilla would be given the title of queen. Instead, under an agreement struck at the time of Charles and Camillas somewhat controversial marriage, Camilla was to be known as princess consort. Loading However, the intervention of Queen Elizabeth II on the 70th anniversary of her ascension to the throne has changed all that. In her official message to mark her platinum jubilee on February 6, 2022, the Queen declared: When, in the fullness of time, my son Charles becomes king, I know you will give him and his wife Camilla the same support that you have given me. And it is my sincere wish that, when that time comes, Camilla will be known as Queen Consort as she continues her own loyal service. Given that her majesty was the only person who could define such royal titles, it settled the matter: Camilla would be Queen. The message appeared to shift public opinion in Britain, where support for Camilla as queen had been no more than lukewarm since her marriage to Charles in 2005. A survey of 1054 adults by JL Partners for The Daily Mail on February 8 found 55 per cent of people wanted Camilla to be known as queen consort compared with 28 per cent who said she should not and 17 per cent who did not know. Loading Meanwhile, Charles, having chosen to be known as King Charles III, will rise above any association with the two previous kings of that name. Charles I, who believed in the divine right of kings, was executed by beheading in 1649, having been found guilty of treason. His son, Charles II, who took the throne in 1660, became known as the merry monarch for the abandoned behaviour of his court. He is thought to have fathered 11 illegitimate children, although he left no legitimate heir to the throne. London: King Charles III has paid a heartfelt tribute to his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, vowing to serve his subjects with loyalty, respect and love as she had done for her 70 years on the throne. In a historic first address to the nation on television, Charles thanked the Queen for her devotion to her family and to the 2.5 billion people out of 7.9 billion globally who live in the Commonwealths 56 countries. Britains longest-reigning monarch died on Thursday at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, aged 96, triggering an outpouring of emotion throughout Britain and around the world. Charles was officially proclaimed as Britains new monarch on Saturday at a ceremony in St Jamess Palace in front of former prime ministers, bishops and a host of politicians. While he succeeded his mother immediately on Thursday an Accession Council met to proclaim his succession, with his son and heir William, wife Camilla and Britains new prime minister, Liz Truss, among those to sign the proclamation. Queen Elizabeth II met with 14 US presidents Were sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. Were working to restore it. Please try again later. Dismiss Queenslanders reflect fondly on Queens visit to Queensland Were sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. Were working to restore it. Please try again later. Dismiss Buenos Aires: A judge in Argentina indicted 19 people for their alleged involvement in a yoga school in Buenos Aires that operated like a sect and coerced female members to have sex with rich and powerful men in order to obtain money and other benefits. Judge Ariel Lijo formally charged 19 people on crimes including criminal conspiracy, human trafficking with the purpose of sexual exploitation, money laundering and smuggling. Police escort Juan Percowicz to serve pre-trial detention at his home, in Buenos Aires, Argentina in August. Credit:AP The Buenos Aires Yoga School, which operated for more than 30 years in Argentinas capital under the leadership of 84-year-old Juan Percowicz, did not actually offer yoga classes. Instead, it lured in people with promises of eternal happiness before it exploited them sexually and financially, prosecutors say. The investigation into the group revealed that opera star Placido Domingo had contact with the organisations leaders for more than two decades. Sydney brokerage Simplicity Loans & Advisory has celebrated its fifth birthday at a fun-filled event on August 31. The party took place in Sydney CBDs Employees Only Bar, with the team at the award-winning commercial brokerage taking the opportunity to thank an esteemed list of invitees who have supported the company over the years. Simplicity Loans & Advisory is a boutique brokerage and property advisory firm which assists clients with commercial and construction finance, SMSF lending and risk insurance. Launched in 2017 by executive director - lending Jean-Pierre Gortan (pictured above left) and executive director Matthew Johnson (pictured above right), their aim was to build a full-service commercial-only brokerage servicing the commercial needs of its clients. Read next: Commercial lending market flourishing Matt and I are delighted to share the milestone with the staff, customers, lenders and referral partners that have helped us get here, Gortan said. Johnson added: Many of the attendees have become great friends and supported us not only at Simplicity, but throughout our entire careers. Over 150 of the industrys leading figures partied into the early hours of Thursday morning to celebrate Simplicitys milestone. The fifth anniversary coincided with Simplicity writing $3bn in loans and an annual settlement growth of 193% for FY22. Simplicity Loans & Advisory general manager - sales Ryan Nelson said without its dedicated staff, none of it would be possible. We are immensely proud of what we have achieved together and are particularly excited for what the future holds, Nelson said. We have written over $3 billion in loans since inception, have won a number of awards as a team and are delighted to have our wonderful staff also being recognised for their individual achievements. Read next: Finance leaders help raise over $9 million for charity Recent highlights include Simplicity associate director - sales Isabella Constantinou being recognised as Mortgage Professional Australias Top Commercial Broker. In June, Gortan also took part in Vinnies CEO Sleepout which involves business and community leaders sleeping without shelter on one of the longest nights of the year, with the aim of raising funds and changing the lives of Australians experiencing homelessness. Gortan raised more than $35,000 for the cause. Domestic sales of passenger vehicles (PVs) increased by 21.1 per cent in August to 281,210 units, body said on Friday, adding that good monsoon and the upcoming festive season were likely to increase the demand in the coming months. In August 2021, a total of 232,224 PVs were sold, according to the data released by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam). Three-wheelers domestic sales jumped from 23,606 units in August last year to 38,369 units in August this year, noted. It said 1.55 million units of two-wheelers, including scooters, motorcycles and mopeds, were sold in India in August, showing a 16.33 per cent increase when compared to the corresponding month a year ago. Units dispatched to dealers are counted as sales by the auto companies. Rajesh Menon, director general, Siam, said, While good monsoon and the upcoming festive season are likely to increase demand, is keeping a close watch on the dynamic supply-side challenges. High CNG prices are a big challenge for the auto industry and Siam is keenly looking forward to the kind interventions and support from the government, he added. Siam said the exports of passenger vehicles increased by 6.9 per cent to 54,733 units in August 2022. Passenger cars, utility vehicles and vans are included under the category of passenger vehicles. Exports of three-wheelers, which include passenger carrier, goods carrier, e-rickshaw and e-cart, increased to 44,166 units, showing a jump of 19.64 per cent, Siam stated. After working on key government projects like Digital India and COWIN, (AWS) today announced that it has joined the government of to transform its citizen service delivery by advancing its cloud adoption framework. AWS also plans to launch a new AWS region a physical location where AWS clusters its data centres -- in the Hyderabad region by the end of this year. The company today announced that it has invested $3.71 billion in local infrastructure and jobs across India since the launch of the (AWS) Asia Pacific (Mumbai) Region in 2016. Rahul Sharma, Regional Head Public Sector - Amazon Internet Services Private Limited, said, We are at an inflection point, where the needs of a population are coming together with the capabilities that India has and the scale it offers. The AWS region in Hyderabad will have three availability zones and under each zone, AWS will set up at least two data centres to start with. The state government has decided to migrate its information technology (IT) workloads to the cloud to accelerate its eGovernance plans, and deliver faster and more reliable citizen services through its 33 departments and 289 organizations, while achieving high-operational efficiency and reduced IT costs. The Aarogyasri Health Care Trust (Aarogyasri), the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), and the State Department of Information Technology, Electronics, and Communications (ITE&C) are the first state organizations to migrate workloads from on-premises to AWS powered cloud system. Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Industries & Commerce (I&C) and Information Technology (IT), Telangana said, As the demand for eGovernance services grows, we can easily migrate and scale our workloads reliably and securely on AWS to help districts across Telangana respond to citizen needs faster. Looking ahead, the government of Telangana aims to double down on digital transformation, improving the citizen experience by providing faster and more reliable access to services, like property tax payments. Max Peterson, Vice President, Worldwide Public Sector, AWS said this would be critical to allow businesses, governments, and non-profits to keep up the customer-centric innovations. "We remain committed to this ongoing investment in the region. We are well prepared to help the Indian government, enterprises, and startups with their Cloud journey in the post-Covid era, as Cloud becomes an integral part of every organisation, big or small," Peterson said. The company said, by using AWS solutions for computing, storage, management, and governance capabilities, Telangana would empower its civil servants to enhance the delivery of citizen services, such as hospital care and property tax paymentsall while reducing compute costs by 33%. The growing demand for digital services has increased the volume of public service operational data managed by Telangana. For instance, the Aarogyasri Scheme, a free health care program serving approximately 29 million people living below the poverty line in Telangana, experienced quadruple growth in usage year over year for the past decade. The co-located space in the Telangana State Data Center could not keep pace with the demand lacking the capacity to support the programs growth, forcing the government to undergo digital transformation. US DOC delays final verdict on Vietnamese steel for the 5th time The US Department of Commerce (DOC) has delayed a final verdict on Vietnamese stainless steel plates (belt and strip) for the fifth time, according to the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade. Stainless steel strips in a factory in northern Vietnam. Photo MoF The DOC launched an anti-dumping, anti-subsidy tax evasion investigation and anti-circumvention on the Vietnamese steel products back in May 2020. A conclusion has been delayed four times in the last 2 years with the last deadline set on September 6. This time the DOC has set a new one on January 4, 2023. The main focus of the investigation was to determine whether the Vietnamese products, which according to the DOC, originated from China before being outsourced to Vietnam, should be subject to tax or anti-circumvention regulations. Meanwhile, 75.60 per cent to 190.71 per cent of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties have been imposed on the products (HS codes 7219 and 7220) since February 2017. The US import duty for Vietnam's stainless steel otherwise is set at zero. The ministry advised Vietnamese steel businesses to stay up-to-date with the latest development of the investigation and conduct comprehensive studies on the US' anti-dumping, anti-subsidy and anti-circumvention laws to minimise potential damage. Vietnamese businesses have also been told to fully cooperate with the US and Vietnamese authorities when asked and to stay in close contact with the ministry during the process. MANILA, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines reported 2,313 new COVID-19 infections on Friday, bringing the number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 3,901,033. The department of health said the number of active cases rose to 24,300, while 43 more patients died from COVID-19 complications, pushing the country's death toll to 62,249. Metro Manila, the capital region with over 13 million people, tallied 765 new cases. Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told a press conference that areas across the country are "at the low downward trend," except for the Mindanao region in the southern Philippines, where infections are on a plateau. She added that intensive care units and severe and critical hospital admissions show "a continuous decline over the past weeks but also shows signs of plateauing." The Philippines reported its highest COVID-19 single-day tally of 39,004 new cases on Jan. 15. The country, with a population of around 110 million, has fully vaccinated over 72.7 million people. However, only 18.4 million people have received their first booster shots, and over 2.4 million have received their second booster shots. continue to expect higher transparency regarding their viability and a fair business policy from vehicle manufacturers, Federation of Associations said on Friday. Among the major expectations of dealers from vehicle manufacturers are their involvement in the policy-making of the automotive and openness to direct inputs, Federation of Associations (FADA) said while releasing its Dealer Satisfaction Study 2022. "While we welcome the efforts shown by OEMs in improving key issues related to sales, delivery and after-sales, dealers continue to expect higher transparency in matters related to Dealership viability and a fair and balanced business policy," FADA President, Manish Raj Singhania said in a statement. In the four-wheeler mass market segment, the study found that sharing training costs with the OEMs is an area of concern along with the involvement of dealers in policy making. The dealers are happy with product reliability and the range to offer to customers. Kia India topped the list of most satisfied dealers in the segment, followed by Hyundai Motor India and MG Motor India in second and third positions. Car market leader India was ranked eighth. In the four-wheeler luxury segment, FADA said dealers raised concerns over parts delivery and turnaround time as well as OEM's ability to meet orders for vehicles as per specifications and requirements. Volvo Cars India topped the segment followed by Mercedes Benz India. As for two-wheelers, the study found that the buyback/deadstock policy of vehicle manufacturers and margins on sales were areas of concern, which need to be attended to as these impact dealer viability directly. According to the study, dealers of Honda Motorcycle & Scooter were the most satisfied followed by Hero Motocorp and Royal Enfield. In the commercial vehicles segment, FADA said dealers were concerned about ensuring viability and dealing with deadstock and inventory buyback by the OEMs. Dealers of Volvo Eicher Commercial Vehicles were the most satisfied in the category, followed by Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland, as per the FADA study conducted in association with PremonAsia, a consumer-insight-led consulting and advisory firm. As post-COVID business normalisation sets in, dealers are showing a shift in expectations with aspects related to sales and delivery and after-sales, particularly warranty issues, assuming greater importance than in 2021, PremonAsia Founder and CEO, Rajeev Lochan said. "While the improvements made by OEMs in these factors are encouraging, the expectations on dealer's business viability and the role of regional sales and service teams in representing the dealer's voice back to the head office will be vital in the foreseeable future," 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.) Luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz has submitted its interim report on the fatal accident of industrialist to the Palghar police, which mentions that the brakes of the vehicle were pressed five seconds before it crashed into the road divider, a senior official said on Friday. He also said that a team of experts from Mercedes-Benz is scheduled to visit Mumbai on Monday from Hong Kong to carry out an inspection of the car. Mistry (54) and his friend Jahangir Pandole were killed on Sunday afternoon when their car hit a road divider in Palghar district. Two other car occupants, Anahita Pandole (55), who was at the wheel, and her husband Darius Pandole (60) suffered injuries and were admitted to a private hospital in Mumbai. The accident had occurred on the Surya river bridge when they were on their way to Mumbai from Gujarat. "Mercedes-Benz has submitted its interim report to the police. It says that the car was running at a speed of 100 kmph a few seconds before the accident, while its speed was 89 kmph when it hit the divider on the bridge," Palghar Superintendent of Police Balasaheb Patil said. The report says that the car's brakes were applied five seconds before the crash, he said. Patil added that the Regional Transport Office (RTO) has also submitted its report, which mentioned that four air bags in the car had opened after the crash - three at the driver's seat and one at the adjoining seat. "A team of experts from Benz is coming to Mumbai from Hong Kong on September 12 for inspection of the car," he said. Till that time, the car will be kept at showroom at Hiranandani in Thane, he said. "After the inspection, the luxury carmaker will give its final report," he said. Mercedes-Benz had sent to Germany the Electronic Control Module (ECM) of the car in which the former Tata Sons chairman was killed, for analysis. Most high-end cars have the Electronic Control Module which can later help identify technical issues like brake failure or low brake fluid. (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.) Devika Bulchandani, who will replace Andy Main as global chief executive officer (CEO) of Ogilvy, will be the first woman to occupy the corner office at one of the worlds top advertising agencies. Indian men, on the other hand, have seen quicker elevations. This includes India chairman Piyush Pandey, who is chairman of global creative at Ogilvy, since last year. He was earlier global chief creative officer at before making way for Liz Taylor to take up the role last year. Prasoon Joshi is chairman of McCann World Group India as well as Asia Pacific chairman of the agency. He became APAC chairman in 2014. Yet, the tide is slowly turning, with women in general now helming some of the worlds leading ad agencies. Wendy Clark, for instance, is the global of ad agency Dentsu. Solange Claudio is the president and COO of media agency Zenith | Moxie | MRY, while Cara Scharf is the president of US-based Fearless Media. In India, Anupriya Acharya is the of Publicis Groupe in South Asia, the only woman to have a holding company mandate from India in the region. Publicis flagship agency, Publicis Worldwide India, appointed Oindrila Roy as managing director last month. While Priti Murthy joined as president, GroupM Services India, last year. And Pooja Jauhari took over as group of ad agency VMLY&R in May. Bulchandani, who will join the WPP executive committee, was with McCann group for 26 years before moving to in November 2020, shortly after Main took over as global CEO of the agency. She was president of the North America business of Ogilvy and was responsible for spearheading iconic campaigns such as Mastercards Priceless at the agency. Bulchandani will now be responsible for all aspects of Ogilvys businesses across 131 offices in 93 countries, which look at advertising, public relations, consulting, and health units. Born and brought up in Amritsar, Bulchandani is one of four siblings. She studied at Welham Girls School in Dehradun, followed by St Xaviers in Mumbai. She also did a Masters in Communications from the University of Southern California in 1991. She moved to the US after marriage and has worked there since. Bulchandani also played a key role in WPP being named as Coca-Cola Cos global marketing network partner. Recently, it earned the position of Network of the Year at the 2022 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity for the first time since 2016 and secured the same honour from The One Show and Campaign magazine. Additionally, it also became the only agency network to secure top rankings on both WARCs Creative 100 and Effective 100 lists, the company said in a statement. Devika is a champion of creativity who brings passion, purpose, and an uncompromising focus on generating impact to everything she does. In partnership with Andy and Liz Taylor, she has been instrumental in Ogilvys recent growth and development, said Mark Read, CEO of WPP. .s pays billions of dollars each year to ., Co. and other telecom giants to illegally maintain its spot as the No. 1 search engine, the US Justice Department told a federal judge Thursday. DOJ attorney Kenneth Dintzer didnt disclose how much spends to be the default search engine on most browsers and all US mobile phones, but described the payments as enormous numbers. invests billions in defaults, knowing people wont change them, Dintzer told Judge Amit Mehta during a hearing in Washington that marked the first major face-off in the case and drew top DOJ antitrust officials and Nebraskas attorney general among the spectators. They are buying default exclusivity because defaults matter a lot. Googles contracts form the basis of the DOJs landmark antitrust lawsuit, which alleges the company has sought to maintain its online search monopoly in violation of antitrust laws. State attorneys general are pursuing a parallel antitrust suit against the search giant, also pending before Mehta. A trial isnt expected to start formally until next year, but Thursdays hearing was the first substantive one in the case -- a daylong tutorial where each side laid out its views on Googles business. The Google antitrust suit, filed in the waning days of the Trump administration, was the federal governments first major effort to rein in the power of the tech giants, which continues under President Joe Biden. The White House Thursday hosted a roundtable with experts to explore the harm major tech platforms can wreak on the economy and childrens health. Googles attorney John Schmidtlein said the DOJ and states misunderstand the market and focus too narrowly on smaller search engine rivals like Microsoft Corp.s Bing and DuckDuckGo. Instead, Google faces competition from dozens of other companies, he said, including ByteDance Ltd.s TikTok, Meta Platforms Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Grubhub Inc. and additional sites sites where consumers go to search for information. You dont have to go to Google to shop on Amazon. You dont have to go to Google to buy plane tickets on Expedia, he said. The fact that Google doesnt face the same competition on every query doesnt mean the company doesnt face tough competition. Having fresh data on user search queries is key to a search engines success, lawyers for DOJ, the states and Google all agreed. Google controls the most popular browser, Chrome, and the second-most popular mobile operating system, Android. In his presentation, DOJs Dintzer focused on the mechanics of Googles search engine and how its default contracts have hemmed in potential rivals. On mobile, Google contracts with Apple, smartphone makers like Samsung and Motorola Solutions Inc., most browsers and the three US telecom carriers -- AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and T-Mobile US Inc. -- to ensure its search engine is set as the default and comes preinstalled on new phones, Dintzer said. Microsofts search engine, Bing, is the default on the companys Edge browser and Amazons Fire tablets, he said. Googles contracts make it the gateway by which most people find websites on the internet, which has allowed it to prevent rivals from gaining the scale that would be needed to challenge its search engine, Dintzer said. Default exclusivity allows Google to systemically deny rivals data, he said. The reason they partner with Google isnt because they had to; its because they want to, Schmidtlein said. The company had extraordinary success and was doing something incredibly valuable. Competition on the merits is not unlawful. The case is US v. Google, 20-cv-3010, US District Court, District of Columbia (Washington). Moto Business Service India (MBSI), a vehicle leasing subsidiary of Yamaha Motors, is planning to invest about Rs 5,000 crore by 2025-end to build an inventory of about 300,000 units, its Managing Director Shoji Shiraishi said on Friday. MBSI has 3,300 units in its fleet and it expects to grow up to 9,500 units by the end of this year, Shiraishi told Business Standard in an interview. To date, MBSI has partnered with 12 companies, including Rapido, Rentelo, Zypp Electric and Fullfily, and leased its units to them or their drivers. For MBSI, one unit is equivalent to one two-wheeler. A four-wheeler is equivalent to 10 two-wheeler units and a three-wheeler is equivalent to three two-wheeler units for the company. While MBSI is a subsidiary of Yamaha Motors, it procures vehicles from various auto in India. MBSI was established in March 2021 and signed its first partner bike rental company Royal Brothers in December 2021. MBSI has invested Rs 50 crore in the market and in order to grow 100 times by 2025-end, we need 100 times the investment, Shiraishi said. Shiraishi said about 25 per cent of this will be equity inflow while the remaining 75 per cent will be raised through loans either from local banks or from international institutions. We would like to bring this kind of massive because the demand is there, he stated. By the end of this year, the number of MBSIs partners that have taken its vehicles on lease will double to approximately 25, Shiraishi said. After that, the expansion in the number of partners will depend on how the consolidation happens in the logistics start-up industry and employee transportation industry, he added. The requirements are different if you go from city to city, especially in the local service arena. In India, there are many strong local players and very few pan-Indian players, he said. He said MBSI is present in six cities right now and it expected to expand to 10 cities by 2022-end. Around 80 per cent of MBSIs units have been leased in Bengaluru. The company is starting operations in Chennai, Delhi and Hyderabad. One is geographic expansion. Another is expansion in the number of partners. Even within Bengaluru, we are negotiating with many more companies, Shiraishi said, while talking about expansion. He said MBSI was likely to have 60 per cent two-wheeler EVs, 100 per cent three-wheeler EVs and 50 per cent four-wheeler EVs in its vehicle inventory by the end of 2025. Why 100 per cent three-wheeler EVs? Three-wheeler EVs are really fast. Our partners also request three-wheeler EVs, he said. While most of the units leased by MBSI are new, the company has also started leasing out old ICE to the partners according to their demand, he said. Old ICE are understandably cheaper, he added. The company has signed up various workshops to do regular maintenance of its inventory. Eventually, MBSI might have its own maintenance department in a city where it has a large inventory, he stated. Imaging products major is expecting to clock a revenue of Rs 900 crore this fiscal, riding on a robust recovery with the waning COVID-19 pandemic, a company official said. It is hoping to cross the Rs 1,000-crore mark by the 2023-24 financial year (FY24), he said. In a bid to retain festive months' buoyant, the company has not hiked prices of its products despite pressure on margin and supply chain with rising costs, managing director Sajjan Kumar said. The festive season spreading from Onam to Diwali contributes 32-35 per cent of its total annual revenue, he said. "With the robust recovery, we are going to surpass the pre-COVID level sales this year. We expect Rs 900 crore turnover in FY'23 and will exceed the Rs 1,000-crore mark in FY'24," Kumar said in an interview. The camera market is estimated at Rs 3,000 crore per annum, he said, adding that products for social media content creators and professionals are the growth drivers. The product that caters to content creators for social media and bloggers is growing at 45 per cent in the entry-to-mid-range segment, the company official said. This segment accounts for around 25 per cent of the imaging sector in value terms. We have a strong product for this category with Nikon Z 30, which is a game-changing camera," Kumar said. Speaking on the professional camera segment, he said it is also growing at a rate of 20 per cent. There are some challenges in the supply chain but that is easing out gradually, he said. The company imports its products mostly from Bangkok and Japan. The camera maker said it will continue to expand its footprint deeper into India. Currently, it has 145 experience zones and shop-in-shops, across the country. The eastern region of the country contributes around 18 per cent of its sales. Nikon is coming up with a Durga Puja-centric campaign to boost sales, 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.) Germany's Healthineers on Friday announced strategic partnerships with Enterprises, and the Indian Institute of Science as part of its strategy to make India an innovation centre for its global operations. The medical technology company said the partnerships will focus on fighting the most threatening diseases, enabling efficient operations and expanding access to patient care. In a virtual press conference, Healthineers Chief Technology Officer Peter Schardt said the partnership with Enterprises Ltd (HCG) will focus on advancing cancer care with patient-centric solutions for the entire clinical pathway. It will also look to enhance research on diagnostic imaging technologies, artificial intelligence and precision therapy based on intelligent and image-guided treatment. With (NH), Schardt said the focus will be on improving cardiovascular care and the usage of interdisciplinary solutions to optimise patient pathways. With the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Healthineers Development Center head Dileep Mangsuli said the company has already been working with the institute and under the new partnership, it will look to develop the next level of technological solutions, bringing academia and healthcare providers even closer. HCG Executive Chairman, Radiation & Medical Oncologist Ajaikumar BS said HCG has a long association with Siemens Healthineers and "with this partnership, we will work towards further enhancing the quality and impact of cancer care for the community at large, as well as developing fellowship programs to advance research and academics in the oncology space". Similarly, NH Chairman and Senior Consultant Cardiac Surgeon Devi Prasad Shetty said through the collaboration with Siemens Healthineers, is looking forward to advance the digitalisation of healthcare and expanding access to care, especially for cardiac patients. IISc Director Govindan Rangarajan said, "As IISc is opening up a new frontier of clinical research with the establishment of the IISc Medical School and Bagchi-Parathasarathy Hospital, this partnership with Siemens Healthineers will strengthen our focus on integrating science, engineering and medicine". This partnership will also enable the institute's researchers to invent technologies for better and affordable healthcare outcomes, he added. In choosing India for such partnerships, Schardt said the ability of the company's Indian team to ramp up technology is at par with global standards. The innovation capability of the country has increased dramatically and the speed of developing new technology is also equal to the best globally. Besides, he said, the ecosystem in India and Bengaluru in particular is conducive for such partnerships and opportunities for doing research in the sector. "We believe India is the place to be in," Schardt said, adding the country is a strategic market for Siemens Healthineers, playing an important role in global innovation and technology expansion to achieve the future of healthcare. When asked about the tenure of the partnerships, Mangsuli said it will range from three to five years which can be extended further on how these pan out in future. The company -- which in 2020 announced an investment of Rs 1,300 crore in five years to set up a new campus that will have R&D, manufacturing and sales, and an innovation centre in Bengaluru -- further said it will also bolster digital healthcare at its innovation centre. When asked about its plans to hire 1,800 people to expand its digital capabilities, Mangsuli said the process is on and considering the plans Siemens Healthineers has for India, the number may go up further without disclosing details. (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 in talks with a Taiwanese supplier to . to establish an electronics manufacturing joint venture in India, seeking to assemble in the South Asian country. The discussions with Wistron Corp. are aimed at making Tata a force in technology manufacturing, and the Indian salt-to-software conglomerate wants to tap the Taiwanese companys expertise in product development, supply chain and assembly, people with knowledge of the matter said. If successful, the pact could make Tata the first Indian company to build iPhones, which are currently mainly assembled by Taiwanese manufacturing giants like Wistron and Technology Group in and India. An Indian company making would be a massive boost for the countrys effort to challenge China, whose dominance in electronics manufacturing has been jeopardized by rolling Covid lockdowns and political tensions with the US. It could also persuade other global electronics brands to consider assembly in India to reduce their reliance on at a time of increasing geopolitical risks. The structure of the deal and details such as shareholdings are yet to be finalized, and talks are ongoing, the people said, declining to be named as the conversations are private. The plan could entail Tata buying equity in Wistrons India operations or the could build a new assembly plant, one of the people said. They could also execute both those moves, the person said. It wasnt immediately clear if Apple was aware of the talks, which come at a time the US tech giant is looking to diversify more production away from and deepen its supply chain in India. Apple is known to work with local in regions where it sets up manufacturing bases -- but assembling is a complicated task that entails meeting the US companys tight deadlines and quality controls. Apples New IPhone to Show India Closing Tech Gap With China A Wistron representative declined to comment. Tata and Apple didnt respond to requests for comment. The new venture aims to eventually increase the number of iPhones assembled by as much as five times from what Wistron currently builds in India, one of the people said. A partnership would also likely result in Mumbai-based Tata obtaining a share of Wistrons manufacturing business beyond smartphones, the people said. Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran has said electronics and high-tech manufacturing are key focus areas for the company, Indias top conglomerate with revenue of about $128 billion. Industries such as software, steel and cars account for much of Tatas business, but it has taken early steps in the smartphone supply chain by starting to manufacture iPhone chassis components in southern India. For Wistrons Indian business, struggling with losses, a pact with Tata would give it a formidable local partner with deep pockets. Tatas reach also spans automobiles including electric vehicles, an area many of the worlds tech giants are eager to expand in. Wistron began making iPhones in India in 2017, after years of efforts by Apple to add manufacturing capabilities in the country. The Taipei-based company currently assembles iPhones at its plant in the state of Karnataka in southern India. The promise of Indias 1.4 billion-strong consumer market and Prime Minister Narendra Modis financial incentives for tech production have driven Apples other key contract manufacturers and Pegatron Corp. to also expand in the country. Still, Indias workforce and factories havent easily adopted the highly controlled practices that Apple requires from suppliers: Since iPhone assembly began in India five years ago, workers have revolted over salaries and substandard living and working conditions in two prominent incidents. The Tatas have had preliminary talks with Taipei-headquartered to establish a joint venture to manufacture in India, according to a Bloomberg report. The salt-to-software conglomerate could possibly acquire a stake in the Indian unit of the Taiwanese OEM (original equipment manufacturer). already has an India plant and contract manufactures for Apple Inc. While the Tatas did not comment, sources close to Cupertino-based Apple said they were unaware and not part of any such talks. They pointed out that their vendors were free to talk to other and come to them if something was in the offing. There was no official comment from Apple. Both Tatas and have been looking at a larger play in the electronics and mobile devices space in the country. Tata Electronics Pvt Ltd, which has a manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu, has been working with Apple to design and manufacture mechanical parts for iPhone for nearly two years, according to people in the know. The work in progress is significant and experts in the business say that manufacturing of mechanical parts in the country could help Apple increase the value addition of iPhone by around 5 to 6 per cent. Currently, the value addition with respect to iPhone is 18 to 20 per cent. The government is expecting the PLI-eligible to hit a value addition of 35 per cent by the end of the fifth year of the scheme. Once the experiment is successful, Tatas could become a part of the large global supply chain of Apple. At present, the supply chain is concentrated in China. Due to closure of factories in China during the pandemic, India is looking attractive as an alternative manufacturing centre, according to analysts. ALSO READ: How China has added to its influence over the iPhone Tata Electronics is also venturing into the semi conductor space-a key element in building mobile devices. Tata Electronics is planning to set up an outsourced semi conductor assembly and test (OSAT). Thats typically a step ahead of getting into a fab plant for a company. The game plan Tata Electronics working with Apple to design and manufacture mechanical parts, to help add value to iPhones Tatas could extend this relationship and be a key player in Apples global supply chain, which is concentrated in China Tatas are making quiet forays into the semiconductor space A bigger play in India for Wistron, battling players like Foxconn and Pegatron in the EMS market, is part of its global strategy For Wistron, India is yet another battle ground where it faces rivals such as Foxconn and Pegatron. As contract manufacturers for Apple, they are covered under the PLI incentive scheme. Foxconn has two in the country. One is exclusively for Apple (Hon Hai ) and the second (Rising Star) manufactures for non-Apple mobile device companies including Xiaomi. Wistron has charted out a similar strategy. While it has a plant exclusively for Apple, it also tied up in a strategic alliance late last year with Delhi-based Optiemus (which is eligible for PLI scheme for mobile devices, IT products and telecom products) to manufacture mobile devices for non-Apple customers, contract manufacture IT hardware and telecom products. Electric vehicle space could be another common area, where the Tatas are the biggest players in the passenger car segment. Foxconn chairman Liu Young said last year that the company was open to set up a manufacturing plant for EVs in the country. Wistron also announced an entry into the space along with a partner. Through the alliance with Optiemus (where it had a financial minority stake earlier but sold it back to the Indian promoter), Wistron is looking at contract manufacturing a range of other products including wearables, laptops and smart meters. Ltd on Friday said it has acquired rights to market MonoFerric (iron isomaltoside) injection, used to treat iron deficiency in adult patients, in and Nepal from Denmark-based Pharmacosmos A/S. MonoFerric is indicated for the treatment of iron deficiency in adult patients when oral iron preparations are ineffective or cannot be used or where there is a clinical need to deliver iron rapidly, the company said in a regulatory filing. did not disclose the financial details of the transaction. Iron Deficiency is a severe healthcare challenge and also impacts the quality of life more so in CKD (chronic kidney disease) patients, Managing Director Dr Sharvil Patel said. With this introduction, he said these patients will get access to this critical therapy which will be enhanced by the company's "strong last-mile delivery". The MonoFerric iron isomaltoside 1,000 solution for injection/infusion, is a rapid, single dose IV iron (up to 20 mg/kg bodyweight) developed to reduce the number of infusions required to achieve iron correction. The company said MonoFerric is available in over 30 countries including the US and Europe and over 28 million doses have been administered since launch. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) PHNOM PENH, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) will expand its work supporting the Cambodian government to tackle the problem of child wasting across six provinces, with a donation of over 3.4 million U.S. dollars from the Children's Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), according to its press statement on Friday. The project is expected to save an additional 5,200 lives over three years, the statement said. Wasting, sometimes known as acute malnutrition, afflicts one in 10 Cambodian children under five and is characterized by a low weight to height ratio, it said, adding that the preliminary results of the 2021 Cambodia Demographic Health Survey showed that while childhood stunting decreased from 34 percent to 22 percent between 2014 and 2021, childhood wasting has remained unchanged at 10 percent. "The new funding will allow UNICEF to support the Ministry of Health to scale-up the prevention and treatment of wasting by improving essential primary health care services in Takeo, Kampong Thom, Siem Reap, Pursat, Kampong Chhnang and Oddar Meanchey provinces," the statement said. Wasting is usually related to the socioeconomic status of households, food insecurity, suboptimal child feeding practices, lack of access to safe water, or poor sanitation or hygiene, it said. "Currently, less than 10 percent of the estimated 60,000 children suffering from wasting in Cambodia have access to treatment," the statement said. The Southeast Asian nation set a target of reducing the number of children with symptoms of wasting from 10 percent to 5 percent by 2025. has ranked Indias most unsafe metro city for women for the third consecutive year, according to the National Crime Records Bureaus (NCRBs) latest report, " 2021". The report revealed that on an average, two minors were raped every day in the national capital and overall, 1,250 were reported in 2021. The data for crime against women comes at a crucial time for two reasons. One, it was released days after Prime Minister Narendra Modis address on Independence Day, wherein he urged the citizens to respect women. Two, 2022 marks ten years of the . The gruesome rape in a moving bus on the night of December 16, 2012, in and the subsequent death of the young woman who came to be called (Fearless) had triggered massive protests across the country. A year after the incident, Indias rape law was amended and a tougher anti-rape law the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 was enacted. It provided for rigorous life imprisonment, and even death penalty, for rape convicts. It also included stringent punishments for offences such as stalking and acid attacks. In 2013, a Fund was also created to enhance womens safety and security in the country. However, earlier this year, the government informed Parliament that of the Rs 6,000-odd crore allocated under the Nirbhaya Fund, only two-thirds had been disbursed to the ministries and departments concerned. According to a Business Standard analysis, less than half of the funds had been utilised. A wide disparity was also witnessed in the utilisation of funds when a state-wise comparison was done. So, has anything changed for women in Or is the city just as unsafe as it was 10 years ago? According to Colin Gonsalves, senior advocate, Supreme Court, and founder of Human Rights Law Network, What has changed is that the police are probably recording the crimes a little bit more accurately than before. It is possible that the crimes are increasing but the contribution to this increase would be that the police are recording crimes a bit more faithfully today than before. Delhi has a unique situation where the police report to the rather than the state government. In the event of a crime that draws public attention, Delhi governments have over the years taken the plea that since the police report to the Centre, specifically the Union home ministry, there is little they can do. The did not respond to a request from Business Standard for an interview for this article. Delhi Police Public Relations Officer Suman Nalwa, meanwhile, says, "The Nirbhaya case was a landmark, in the sense that it has given us very progressive laws, which protect women in India against any crime committed against them. No country in the world has such stringent laws. She adds, The case has also brought to the forefront the need for women in police. So, most of the police organisations are upping that; they are in the process of having more and more women police officers in the force and the field." The Nirbhaya Fund was also used to install CCTV cameras, ensure the safety of women in public transport and create One Stop Centres. These centres aim to facilitate women affected by violence with a range of integrated services under one roof such as police facilitation, medical aid, providing legal and psycho-social counselling and temporary shelter, according to a press statement by the Ministry of Women and Child Development on the Nirbhaya Scheme. But how helpful can all of this be, especially when the accused are often known to the women and children? Says Jagdeep S Chhokar, founder member, Association for Democratic Reforms, "Delhi cannot be made safe for women by changing the laws, by putting lights all over the place or by installing CCTV cameras. Thats because a very large proportion of rape is committed inside the homes by people known to the women. This cannot be prevented by doing things in the public arena." He adds, "What needs to be done is to change the mindset of the people so that they start respecting women, which will happen when there is a movement to reflect women in reality, not by putting stickers on the back of the auto-rickshaws." Auto dealers across the country will soon run a Buckle Up India campaign, with either a Bollywood personality or a senior politician onboard. This is being done to encourage customers to buckle up (seat belts) before starting their cars and wear their helmets before riding their two-wheelers. For four-wheelers, the focus of the campaign would be to motivate passengers to wear on the front and the rear seats, Sai Giridhar, secretary, Federation of Associations (FADA), told Business Standard. After the unfortunate accident of Cyrus Mistry, we have seen that if you are not wearing the seat belt on the front or the rear seat, it can be life-threatening, he said. Mistry, Tata Sons former chairman, was killed in a car accident in Maharashtras Palghar on September 4. Though he was in the rear seat of the ill-fated Mercedes SUV, according to the police, he wasnt wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident. FADA represents over 15,000 having 26,500 dealerships across India. We will be roping in some prominent personalities either from Bollywood or political circles. Generally, we have seen that if there is a video message, it gets circulated and people actually listen to it and adherence (to the rules) is more among them, Giridhar noted. At a Business Standard event on September 7, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari had said that the government will soon announce penalties for those who are found not wearing while sitting on the rear seats. Gadkari had said there will soon be a mandatory alarm-beeping feature in all vehicles if the rear-seat passenger does not buckle up. This alarm-beeping feature has already been implemented for front seats. FADA president Manish Raj Singhania said that for two-wheelers, the Buckle Up India campaign will encourage the passengers to buckle up their helmets. Wearing helmet is your only safety mode in a two-wheeler. It can be very critical, he said. According to government rules, people must wear in front seats as well as in rear seats while driving their cars. Similarly, the rules state that people must wear helmets when driving their two-wheelers.FADA is planning to develop some animation videos and creatives for the campaign, Singhania said. These (videos) will be played across dealerships in India when the vehicle is being delivered. This will help the customer understand the importance of seat belts and helmets, he added. FADA will also ensure that the salesman delivering the vehicle or the two-wheeler makes the customer aware about the importance of buckling up, he said. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) on Thursday performed Bhumi Pujan (ground breaking ceremony) rituals to remove sand from the 'garbhagriha' (sanctum sanatorium) of the Sun temple in Odisha's Konark. After doing proper study, detailed documentation and holding discussions with various experts and engineers for the last two years, a safe system has been prepared to remove sand from the temple so that people can enter into the 13th century shrine, said Arun Mallick, superintendent of ASI. "Keeping in view the direction of the Orissa High Court and assurance of the Union minister to Parliament, we have initiated the process today," he said. After penetrating into the sanctum sanatorium by dragging a hole, the inside condition of the temple will be examined and accordingly, the sand will be removed through an automatic mechanical working platform, informed the ASI official. A reputed private construction company will provide technical support for the work while ASI officials will be deployed for the removal of sand, he added. The ASI aims to remove the sand in three years in a scientific way by using latest technology. The decision to remove the sand was taken at a conference organised by ASI at Konark in 2020. Several experts from around the world participated in the conference and suggested the removal of sand from the 'Jagmohanm' of the Sun Temple to further strengthen the structure. Experts believe that the removal of sand will increase the lifespan of the temple by several hundred years. Built by King Narasimhadeva I of the Eastern Ganga dynasty, the 13th century late-style Kalingan temple forms part of the golden triangle of Odisha, along with Puri and Bhubaneswar, and attracts tourists, pilgrims, and history and art lovers. The sand was filled inside the Jagmohan of the temple during British time in 1903 to protect and conserve the Sun Temple. --IANS bbm/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 Chinese military on Friday confirmed that the troops of China and India have begun the process of disengagement from the Patrolling Point 15 in the Gogra-Hotsprings area of eastern in a "coordinated and planned way." Marking a significant forward movement to end the standoff in eastern that has lasted for over two years, the Indian and Chinese armies on Thursday announced that they have begun to disengage from the Patrolling Point 15 in the Gogra-Hotsprings area. India has been consistently maintaining that peace and tranquillity along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) were important for the overall development of bilateral ties. The two militaries held 16 rounds of Corps Commander-level talks to resolve the standoff. "On 8th September, 2022, according to the consensus reached in the 16th Round of China-India Corps Commander Level Meeting, the Chinese and Indian troops in the area of Jianan Daban have begun to disengage in a coordinated and planned way, which is conducive to the peace and tranquility in the border areas, a Chinese defence ministry press release issued here on Friday said. Indian officials here confirmed that Jianan Daban area referred to by the China's military press release is the same as Patrolling Point 15 in the Gogra-Hotsprings area referred to by the Indian press release issued on Thursday. Though it is a Joint Statement, the two sides referred to the area with different names. The joint statement released by the Press Information Bureau, (PIB) in Delhi on Thursday night said "On 8th September 2022, according to the consensus reached in the 16th round of India China Corps Commander Level Meeting, the Indian and Chinese troops in the area of Gogra-Hotsprings (PP-15) have begun to disengage in a coordinated and planned way, which is conducive to the peace and tranquility in the border areas." The announcement came around a week ahead of the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Uzbekistan which is expected to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping among other leaders of the grouping. There is speculation about a possible meeting between Modi and Xi on the sidelines of the summit though there is no official word on it from either side. The beginning of the disengagement process in the Gogra-Hotsprings area is an outcome of the 16th round of high-level military talks in July, the two armies said in a statement. Official sources told PTI in Delhi that the withdrawal of troops from Patrolling Point 15 (PP-15) began on Thursday morning and the local commanders from both sides are working out the modalities for the subsequent measures. Following the 16th round of Corps Commander-level talks, ground commanders of both sides held a series of negotiations on the nitty-gritty of the disengagement process. The sources said India will keep pressing for the resolution of pending issues in the remaining friction points of Depsang and Demchok. As a result of a series of military and diplomatic talks, the two sides completed the disengagement process last year on the north and south banks of the Pangong lake and in the Gogra area. The disengagement in the Pangong Lake area had taken place in February last year while the withdrawal of troops and equipment in Patrolling Point 17 (A) in Gogra took place in August last year. The 16th round of military talks was held 10 days after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Bali, Indonesia. The eastern border standoff 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. Each side currently has around 50,000 to 60,000 troops along the 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.) President on Friday urged citizens to work collectively towards the elimination of from the country by 2025 on a war footing, as she virtually launched the Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyan. Lauding the government's initiative to provide community support to TB patients through the 'Ni-kshay 2.0' portal under which TB patients can be adopted and cared for by an individual, elected representatives or institutions, she urged everyone to make the campaign a people's movement. "When a welfare scheme is made in the interest of people, its chances of success increase manifold," she said in her address. Murmu said of all the infectious diseases, the maximum number of people die in India due to and of the total TB patients in the world, more than 25 per cent are in India, calling it a matter of concern. The President also launched the 'Ni-kshay Mitra' initiative to ensure additional diagnostic, nutritional, and vocational support to those on TB treatment, and encouraged elected representatives, corporates, NGOs, and individuals to come forward as donors to help the patients complete their journey towards recovery. The Ni-kshay portal will facilitate in providing additional patient support to improve treatment outcomes of TB patients, augmenting community involvement in meeting India's commitment to end TB by 2025 and leveraging Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) opportunities. Referring to a video shown at the event, Murmu said the video showed how under the active guidance of the UP Governor, the efforts to treat and curb the incidence of TB gained momentum in the most populous state of the country. The Governor has provided a vision towards extending government's reach and support among TB patients of all ages, she said. Seeking support of the LGs and Lt Governors, she said their guidance in state and union territories will inspire the local administration and health departments in their efforts to eradicate the disease. Besides, NGOs and industrial bodies will also be encouraged. "I firmly believe that with the involvement of public representation the campaign will gain strength," she said while highlighting the need to collectively fight the stigma attached to the disease. Speaking on the occasion, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya stated that the Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyan is an extension of the Prime Minister's citizen-centric policies. He attributed the success of the TB programme to key indicators such as TB case notifications and consistent efforts that led to monthly notification reporting to reach pre-pandemic levels by end of 2021. Mandaviya informed that there are roughly 13.5 lakh TB patients registered in the Ni-kshay portal, out of which 8.9 lakh active TB patients have given their consent for adoption. The Ni-kshay digital portal will provide a platform for community support for persons with TB. He urged all citizens, NGOs, corporate houses, elected representatives etc, to support the movement by becoming Ni-kshay Mitras and convene gatherings to discuss the initiative, so no one with TB is left behind. (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.) will take decisions on different aspects of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) based on its national interest, Commerce and Industry Minister has said. Earlier, he attended the first in-person ministerial meeting of the IPEF here. Interacting with media on the sidelines of the meeting, he said that there have been useful engagements with the 14 members of the IPEF and the officials from member nations had worked hard to prepare a ground for such fruitful interactions. He expressed hope that in a day's time, IPEF would finalize a framework within which member nations could interact on different areas of mutual interest. The minister assured that " will take decisions on different aspects of the frameworks of IPEF based on our national interest". The IPEF was launched jointly by the US and other partner countries of the Indo-Pacific region on May 23 in Tokyo. It seeks to strengthen economic partnership among participating countries with the objective of enhancing resilience, sustainability, inclusiveness, economic growth, fairness and competitiveness in the region. The 14 members of the IPEF are -- Australia, Brunei, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the US. The framework is structured around four pillars relating to Trade (Pillar I); Supply Chains (Pillar II); Clean Economy (Pillar III); and Fair Economy (Pillar IV). (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 and the United States (US) will soon hold the next ministerial-level meeting of the Trade Policy Forum (TPF) in America discuss ways for promoting trade and investment between the countries, commerce and industry minister said. During a media interaction in Los Angeles at the TPF meet, both nations will come up with more deliverables and newer areas of engagements for which the teams on either side have been tasked to start engaging with each other, an official statement from the commerce and industry ministry said on Friday. Last November, Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai and Goyal chaired the first meeting of the revived Forum in the national capital after a four-year gap. Both nations had hoped to reach some kind of an understanding to resolve issues pertaining to agriculture, non-agriculture goods, services, investments and intellectual property rights. Goyal is currently on a six-day visit to San Francisco and Los Angeles where he will be attending the India-US Strategic Partnership Forum conference in San Francisco and the first in-person Indo Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) ministerial in Los Angeles on 8-9 September. IPEF is the first plurilateral deal that India has agreed to join after exiting Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) deal at the last minute in 2019. The minister also held a bilateral meeting with USTR Katherine Tai and US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. On the topic of digital economy, Goyal said that he had informed his counterparts in the US that India was looking to have very contemporary and modern laws in the digital space while maintaining high levels of data privacy, particularly of Indian citizens personal data. Currently, India is working on a robust data protection law that will be presented to the Parliament soon. India is a big provider of technology services and we have a shared interest to have a very good understanding of the laws because we have a great interest in export services also, he added. When asked about restoring the trade benefits under the (Generalised System of Preferences) programme of the US, the Indian minister said :"I don't think that's an issue anymore. None of our exports have been affected by the . So I think that's not an issue; that we have even discussed in recent times, including today." Goyal also discussed ways to increase trade and economic relations with his counterparts from Vietnam and Japan. With inputs from PTI A US legislation promoting domestic production of semiconductors may be beneficial India and others over the years, said a media report on Friday. The CHIPS Act aims provides incentives to companies for setting up and advanced technology factories in the US. It also prohibits companies receiving funding from the US government from setting up such factories in for the next 10 years, Mint newspaper reported. "The $50 billion plus incentives from the US may be utilized by then, and firms will look to expand globally, and India would be a good choice. By then, markets like India, too, will have evolved to a stage where these global firms will see benefit in setting up advanced manufacturing here," Satya Gupta, chief executive and founder of Electronic Products Innovation Consortium (EPIC) Foundation, told Mint. The act has a total outlay of $53 billion, five times India's production linked incentive scheme (PLI) scheme for semiconductors which amounts to $10 billion. Samsung, Intel, SK Hynix, Micron, Qualcomm, Broadcom, MediaTek, Texas Instruments, Nvidia and AMD are the top ten companies that led production in 2021, Mint states. Out of these, seven are American firms. India does not have an ecosystem in place for advanced semiconductor manufacturing. However, companies like the and Vedanta have expressed interest in setting up chip facilities. The government has also received interest from some global firms. "India has already introduced a production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme to attract global clients. Alongside this, its not like India has no existing ecosystem of the semiconductor industrythe semiconductor laboratory (SCL) in Mohali, Punjab, manufactures semiconductor chips in partnership with local and Israeli suppliers," Vivek Tyagi, chairman of industry body Indian Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) told Mint. The on Friday sought a response from the to a plea alleging arbitrary internet shutdowns in Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and West Bengal, saying it wants to know whether there exists any protocol on the issue. A bench comprising Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit and Justices S Ravindra Bhat and P S Narasimha said instead of issuing notices to the four states, which have been made parties to the petition, it would rather issue notice to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). We issue a notice only to the (MeitY), the Union to indicate whether there are standard protocols with respect to grievance raised, said the bench. It was alleged in the PIL, filed by Software Law Center, that internet services have been shut down even for preventing cheating in some competitive examinations. Lawyer Vrinda Grover told the bench that petitions were filed in high courts in Calcutta and Rajasthan. Why can't you move the High Courts? You have already done so, the bench said, adding the high courts can be urged to follow the apex court judgment in the Anuradha Bhasin case. In the Anuradha Bhasin Vs Union of India case, the apex court had ruled that an undefined restriction of internet services is illegal and orders for must satisfy the tests of necessity and proportionality. "The Rajasthan government had told the High court that there will be no internet shut down, she said, adding that after some time, they imposed the ban. The lawyer said even a parliamentary committee had said such a measure should not be taken to prevent cheating in examinations. "They say it is to prevent cheating. But would proportionality permit this... today, when we are doing everything digitally, the lawyer said. The PIL petitioner also referred to recent internet shutdowns in Rajasthan during a communal flare-up. (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 will visit from September 11-18 to attract investments and strategic tie-ups. This will be Mann's first foreign visit after he took oath as the chief minister in March. "In order to give a major push to the of the state, Chief Minister will be undertaking a tour of from September 11-18," an official statement said here on Friday evening. During the tour, the chief minister will be meeting business delegations and prominent companies to rope in investments and strategic tie-ups in key sectors like renewable energy, car manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and advanced agriculture practices, among others, it said. Mann will hold a meeting with companies like BMW, BayWa and others during his stay in Munich, Frankfort and Berlin. "This crucial visit of the Chief Minister is likely to immensely benefit the state in getting huge investments, technical know-how and expertise from German companies," said the statement. The chief minister while reiterating his commitment to make the state emerge as an industrial hub said that the state government will leave no stone unturned for it. He also said that every effort is being made to put the state in the orbit of the high growth trajectory of industrial development. Mann envisioned that his tour of will propel the of the state on one hand and open new vistas of employment for youth on the other. The chief minister said that he will personally showcase as a land of opportunities and growth to the entrepreneurs in Germany. Punjab is already the most preferred investment destination in the country, he said, adding that every effort will be made to rope in new investments in the state. "This tour will prove to be a milestone towards giving a major fillip to the of the state," he 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.) by Dames Alexander Sinaga JAKARTA, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia is beefing up COVID-19 pandemic control and tightening security against terrorists on the island of Bali in preparation for the Group of 20 (G20) summit slated for November. The number of newly-confirmed COVID-19 infections keeps rising in the Southeast Asian country, largely due to the emergence of the more transmissible Omicron sub-variants BA.4 and BA.5. On Friday, health authorities confirmed 2,804 new cases across the country with 12 related deaths. Bali reported 36 new cases. The country's health ministry has been improving its COVID-19 contact tracing application PeduliLindungi, which is generally used to gain access to public sites, such as airports, hospitals and supermarkets. Deputy Health Minister Dante Saksono Harbuwono has told media that the ministry was in the process of adding 14 foreign languages to the app to meet the needs of delegates participating in the upcoming international event. All delegates, he said, have to be fully vaccinated and registered on PeduliLindungi prior to their departures. "Delegates are expected to have their health insurances or travel insurances that guarantee healthcare in hospitals, including COVID-19 treatment," Harbuwono said. He also said that the ministry had arranged COVID-19 preventative measures and will provide access for delegates to health services. At the airport in Bali, authorities will check the delegates' COVID-19 vaccine verification and conduct screening for the virus. Those with body temperatures of over 37.5 degrees centigrade will have to perform a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. Delegates who pass the screening will be given rapid antigen tests. In the area of the conference, makeshift ICUs, clinics and mobile response teams will be made available with doctors, nurses and ambulances standing by. The health ministry has appointed seven internationally acclaimed hospitals in Bali as referral hospitals to meet the needs of the event. Meanwhile, Indonesia has been continuing to accelerate its national vaccination program, as more than 200 million people across the country have received their first dose of vaccines, while over 170 million have taken the second dose. Home to some 270 million people, Indonesia has administered over 430 million doses, including the third and the fourth booster jabs, since January last year. TIGHTENED SECURITY AGAINST INFILTRATION OF TERRORISTS Bali, one of the world's best tourist destinations, experienced devastating terrorist suicide bombing attacks in 2002 and 2005, which were all carried out by Southeast Asian militant network Jemaah Islamiyah. More than 200 people, mostly foreign tourists, were killed in the 2002 attack, and more than 20 deaths were logged in the 2005 attack. The upcoming G20 summit, which will take place in Bali's resort town of Nusa Dua in November, will be guarded by joint security forces consisting of the police and military. A Bali police spokesman told Xinhua that more than 2,500 personnel from the Bali police were to be assigned for the G20 event with the assistance of personnel of police from nearby provinces. "We are also cooperating with the elite Detachment 88 counter-terrorism taskforce to track down suspected terrorists," said Stefanus Satake Bayu Setianto, the spokesman. In June, the Indonesian army conducted counter-terrorism simulations in Bali, where soldiers performed unarmed fighting skills and the rescue of hostages. The recommended vaccinia virus (VACV)-based vaccines will mount a robust immune response against the virus observed in the current outbreak, according to a study. Vaccinia virus is a large, complex, enveloped virus belonging to the poxvirus family. Since the new virus was first observed in early May, over 52,000 cases have been confirmed in more than 90 countries and regions, the researchers said. The team undertook genomic research to find out if the genetic mutations observed in virus observed in the current outbreak (MPXV-2022) may affect vaccine-induced immune responses against the disease. "Specific VACV-based vaccines have demonstrated high efficacy against viruses in the past and are considered an important outbreak control measure," said Matthew McKay, from the University of Melbourne, Australia. "However, given this is a novel monkeypox virus, we still lack scientific data on how well human immune responses triggered by VACV-based vaccines will recognise MPXV-2022 and provide protection against disease," McKay said. The study, published recently in the journal Viruses, evaluated the genetic similarities and differences between VACV and MPXV-2022, specifically within the protein regions that are targeted by vaccine-induced neutralising antibodies or T cells. "While we identified a small number of distinct mutations in MPXV-2022, our study more broadly demonstrates that VACV and MPXV-2022 are highly genetically similar in the regions targeted by the immune system through vaccination," McKay explained. "Based on our analysis, we anticipate that the immune responses generated by VACV-based vaccines would continue to do a good job of recognising and responding to MPXV-2022, as was the case for monkeypox viruses in the past," said Professor Ahmed Abdul Quadeer, from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). "Our data lends further support to the use of vaccines being recommended globally for combating MPXV-2022, Quadeer said. The World Health Organization has recommended primary preventive vaccination against the new monkeypox virus, which is also known as pre-exposure prophylaxis, for individuals at high risk of exposure. "While bringing together sequencing and immunological data provides evidence to anticipate a strong immune response, clinical studies are required to determine the exact efficacy of these vaccines against MPXV-2022," McKay 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 new building will have a special gallery dedicated to workers engaged in its construction, Prime Minister announced on Thursday after inaugurating 'Kartavya Path' stretching from Rasthrapati Bhavan to India Gate. "Workers working on the new building will get a place of honour in one of the galleries," he said. At the event, Modi also met a group of sixteen workers, who were engaged in the redevelopment of the entire stretch, and invited them along with their families as special guests on the 2023 Republic Day Parade. "The Shramjeevis of Central Vista and their families will be my special guests on the next Republic Day Parade," the prime minister said. Modi expressed "special gratitude" to the workers not just for their physical contribution to the redevelopment of Kartavya Path but also for being a living and breathing example of "Kartavya" (duty) towards the nation. Talking about his meeting with the workers, the prime minister praised them for carrying a dream for the nation's glory in their hearts. Modi said that today there is a tradition of respect for Shram (labour) and Shramjeevi (workers) in the country, and with the emphasis on sensitivity in policies, there has now come a sensitivity in decisions, and Shramev Jayate' is becoming a mantra for the nation. Speaking at the event, he recalled instances of his interactions with workers in Kashi Vishwanath Dham, INS Vikrant, and Prayagraj Kumbh. Infrastructure firm Tata Projects Ltd is constructing a new building as part of the Modi government's ambitious Central Vista redevelopment project. The government plans to hold the Winter Session of Parliament in the new building. Modi had laid the foundation stone of the new building in December 2020. Last month, he unveiled the emblem cast on the roof of the building. The new Parliament building will have a grand Constitution Hall to showcase India's democratic heritage, a lounge for MPs, a library, multiple committee rooms, dining areas and ample parking space. The redevelopment of the Central Vista, the nation's power corridor, also envisages a common central secretariat, revamping of the 3-km Rajpath from the Rashtrapati Bhavan to the India Gate, a new office and residence of the prime minister, and a new vice-president enclave. (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 three-day 'Akhil Bharatiya Samanvay Baithak' or annual coordination meet of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) will be held from Saturday in Raipur in Chhattisgarh, a functionary of the outfit said. The meeting, to be held in Jainam Manas Bhavan near the airport here, would be attended by 36 outfits inspired by the RSS, among them the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, he said. The 'Akhil Bharatiya Samanvay Baithak' will be attended by chief Mohan Bhagwat, its 'sarkaryawah' (general secretary) Dattatreya Hosbole and office-bearers of these 36 outfits, said Sunil Ambekar, the RSS' 'Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh'. "All these organisations are actively working for social causes and nationalism, and they will share their experiences, works done and achievements in the last one year. Besides, discussion will be held on the coordinated efforts on key issues like environment, family awareness and social harmony," Ambekar said. A press conference will be held on September 12, the last day of the meet, to provide information on the activities and deliberations that took place, he added. Queried if the meeting is being held in view of Assembly polls to be held in Congress-ruled next year, Ambekar said the schedule of meetings is planned much in advance and are held in different places. Asked about the role of the in elections in Chhattisgarh, he said the Sangh's work was expanding in every state and focus would on expanding it further in view of its centenary year in 2025. president JP Nadda, who reached the state on Friday, will take part in the meet. (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.) External Affairs Minister and Defence Minister on Friday called on Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and underlined the importance of closer coordination of policies and interests of the two nations to ensure peace and stability in the region. Singh and Jaishankar attended the 2+2 Dialogue along with their counterparts from -- Foreign Affairs Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa and Defence Minister Hamada Yasukazu -- on Thursday. "Pleased to call on PM Fumio Kishida at the conclusion of our 2+2 meeting. Underlined the importance of closer coordination of policies and interests of India and at this time," Jaishankar tweeted. "Expressed confidence that the vision which he and PM @narendramodi have articulated will be realised early," he said. Singh in his tweet said the India- partnership will have a defining role to play in ensuring peace and stability in the region. Singh during the meeting also extended his heartfelt condolences on the "sad demise" of former prime minister Shinzo Abe. Abe died on July 8 after he was shot at a political campaign event. During the second 2+2 Dialogue, India and Japan on Thursday agreed to further enhance their security and defence cooperation, including holding the first Air Force fighter exercise. They also reaffirmed their commitment to a rules-based global order that respects sovereignty and territorial integrity of nations. India also extended its support to Japan's plans of expanding and modernising its defence forces, including "counterstrike capabilities", in an apparent bid to deter an aggressive China. Japan also expressed "its resolve to examine all options necessary for national defence, including so-called 'counterstrike capabilities', the statement said without naming any country. Japan and India are members of the Quad - which includes the US and Australia a strategic grouping considered by some as a counter to China's growing influence in the Indo-Pacific region. China claims nearly all of the disputed South China Sea, while Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam claim parts of it. Beijing has built artificial islands and military installations in the South China Sea. (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.) Observing that every person has a right to free expression, the on Friday granted bail to Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan, who is in jail for almost two years after he was arrested while proceeding to Hathras in where a Dalit woman was allegedly gang-raped and later died. "Till now you have not shown anything provocative," a bench headed by Chief Justice UU Lalit and also comprising Justices S Ravindra Bhat and P S Narasimha told the UP government. The court also took note of the submissions of the UP government and laid down several conditions for bail, including that he will have to remain in Delhi for the next six weeks after release from a prison in Mathura and report to Nizamuddin police station in Delhi on Monday every week. Kappan's wife Reaiheanath said she is very happy to hear the news of him getting bail and thanked everyone who supported the family. "For the past two years, we have been physically, mentally and economically affected. But, now, the has given bail understanding the facts and circumstances. He is a mediaperson and not someone they accuse him of being. I strongly believe that. I stand by that and now it has been proved. I just want to thank everyone who supported us," Reaiheanath told reporters. Opposition parties and journalist bodies also welcomed the order. They claimed Kappan was made a "soft target" by the UP government and hoped he will also be granted bail in another case filed against him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act(PMLA). "A fresh wind is blowing across the Legal and Judicial system. A Sun that has set must rise again. There will be a new dawn," senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said in a tweet. Chidambaram's party colleague Shashi Tharoor echoed the sentiment. "Glad the Supreme Court has stood against indefinite detention at last," he tweeted. The Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) said the bail order was historic in the context of the continuing attacks against the freedom of press and independent journalism. Kappan's lawyer Haris Beeran told reporters he would approach the trial court seeking bail in the case registered against the journalist by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The apex court also granted Kappan the liberty to avail the right to get bail in the money laundering case. Kappan, the secretary of Delhi unit of KUWJ, and three other alleged Popular Front of India (PFI) activists were booked by the UP police on sedition and other charges in Mathura on October 5, 2020 while they were heading to a village in Hathras where a 19-year-old Dalit woman was allegedly gang-raped by four upper-caste men. Every person has the right to free expression. He is trying to show that victims need justice and raise a common voice. Is that a crime in the eyes of law? CJI Lalit asked referring to widespread protests against the incident that had sparked massive outrage. "Similar protests (in Nirbhaya case) were there in 2012 at India Gate, which led to a change of law. Till now you have not shown anything provocative," the bench said. In its order, the apex court said Kappan shall be taken to the trial court within three days and released on bail on conditions as deemed fit by the trial court. It shall be the condition of bail that the appellant shall stay within the jurisdiction of Nizamuddin area here in Delhi. The trial court is in Mathura. Elaborating further, the court said that after a period of six months he may travel to his native place Malappuram in Kerala and there also he will have to report to the local police station in similar fashion, that is every Monday, and mark his presence in the register kept on that behalf. The appellant shall not leave the jurisdiction of Delhi without the express consent of the trial court, it said, adding, The appellant shall either in person or through lawyer shall attend the trial court on every single day. The appellant shall deposit his passport with the investigative machinery. After perusing the records, the bench said it would refrain from dealing with the progress of investigation and the material collected by the probe agency as the case is at the stage of framing of charges. The appellant shall not misuse the liberty and shall not get in touch with any of the persons connected with the controversy, the judges said and disposed of the bail plea. At the outset, the bench inquired about the alleged incriminating evidence found against Kappan by the UP police. Senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, appearing for the state government, claimed Kappan has links with the PFI, which is a banned organisation in Jharkhand, and there was evidence of him having met certain people belonging to the group with the motive of inciting riots in sensitive areas. The senior lawyer also referred to the amount of Rs 45,000 allegedly received by Kappan from PFI for inciting riots as a little bit like what happened in Bombay in 1990." He said some literature was also recovered to create propaganda and stir the feeling of Dalit community. Opposing the bail plea, the state government counsel referred to the the recovery of a tool kit from the accused which also contained instructions about how to tackle tear gas. So this appears to be somewhere from foreign country.., the bench said when Jethmalani submitted that it was in English. Mr.Jethmalani, we will grant him bail. Which are the conditions you want to impose, the bench said before dictating the order. The top court had on August 29 sought response from the UP government on the bail plea of Kappan after senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the journalist, highlighted he was in jail since October, 2020. The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court had earlier this month rejected the bail application of Kappan, who was also booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in the alleged Hathras conspiracy case. A Mathura court had earlier junked Kappan's bail application. The FIR was filed under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the UAPA against four people having alleged links with the PFI. The PFI had been accused in the past of funding protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act across the country. The police had earlier claimed the accused were trying to disturb law and order in Hathras. The Dalit woman had died at a Delhi hospital a fortnight after the alleged gang-rape on September 14, 2020. She was cremated in the middle of the night in her village. (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 for Road Transport and Highways on Friday said the Centre would study introducing skybuses and build flyovers to decongest roads in . It is difficult to widen the existing roads in . So, we have taken two decisions. We will not acquire land but we will build three-deck or grade separators as was done in Chennai, Gadkari told reporters. He has been here for the last two days attending a programme Manthan', a session on improving road infrastructure and mobility. Ministers and government officials of the Centre and the State attended the session. We are working on public transport on electricity. Technology has changed a lot. It's difficult to acquire land in . So, I suggested the use of skybus like in the Philippines and other countries, the Union Minister said. Gadkari said he has directed the officials of the Highway Authority of India to consult experts in the world to study the condition in Bengaluru and find one such solution for the city. He said his Ministry financially supports the project. Since this is our department's mandate, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai discussed with me. We are studying it (skybus) and we want to do it. If lakhs of people travel in the sky then the problem below will be solved, he said. Elaborating on his discussion with Bommai on improving Bengaluru's connectivity with other cities, Gadkari said a Bengaluru-Chennai greenfield expressway at a length of 262 km at an estimated cost of Rs 17,000 crore has been approved. Another project is the 1,600- km long Surat-Sholapur-Kurnool-Chennai, which connects Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Delhi. This road runs 177 km into certain underdeveloped regions of Karnataka such as Akkalkot, Kalaburagi, Yadgir and Raichur. The project would reduce the travel distance between north and south, Gadkari said. The Bengaluru-Kadapa-Vijayawada Highway is another prominent project, which would be 342-km long at a cost of Rs 20,000 crore. The land acquisition is on, the Minister said. According to him, the 288-km long Bengaluru satellite ring road at a cost of Rs 17,000 crore would solving the problems Bengaluru faces. Gadkari said Ministry is also making 700-km long greenfield express highway from Pune to Bengaluru at a cost of Rs 45,000 crore. The peripheral ring road of Bengaluru would be connected with other cities. The Pune-Bengaluru alignment was finalised, he added. We have made a small change in the Pune-Bengaluru Highway. We are now making it Mumbai-Bengaluru Highway. The journey time from Pune to Bengaluru via expressway will be 4-and-a-half hours. We are taking efforts in this direction, the Minister said. The journey time from Mumbai to Bengaluru would only be six hours, Gadkari said. This greenfield (Mumbai-Bengaluru) is a new alignment which is different from Pune-Sholapur, Pune-Kolhapur. The cost of this project is Rs 45,000 crore. The project would be completed by 2026, the Minister said. Speaking about the Satellite Ring Road around Bengaluru, he said it is 288-km long at a cost of Rs 16,000 crore. There are 10 packages in it. The contract for the five packages has been awarded out of which work is in progress in three projects and 60 per cent work is completed. The remaining five projects would be awarded in three or four months, Gadkari said. He said another corridor is the Bengaluru, Chittoor, Vellore, Kanchipuram, Tiruvallur, and Chennai. Talking about the two-day session, Gadkari said the road safety Bill was recently passed by Parliament. On the basis of it, lots of reforms have happened in this sector. Six States have implemented it 100 per cent while 14 States have implemented it by 80 per cent, the Minister said. According to him, the two-day session was aimed at establishing cooperation, coordination and communication between the States. In this Manthan under the Bharatmala series, 80 Ministers and 140 officials including principal secretaries and chief engineers from the Centre and the States from the public works departments, transport and industry participated, Gadkari 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.) Union Minister of Ayush on Friday laid the foundation stone of the new complex of the National Institute of Sowa Rigpa here on Friday and said the new infrastructure will give a boost to the traditional system of medicine. "This will also provide a much-needed modern platform for propagating the rich India medicinal heritage Sowa-Rigpa through quality research and education," the minister said. Sonowal also inaugurated the administrative block of the NISR and interacted with its students. He said the Ministry of Ayush will provide full support for the preservation and promotion of Sowa-Rigpa. The National Institute of Sowa Rigpa also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Ambrosia Food Farm, Uttarakhand. (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 Ranil Wickremesinghe on Friday advised officials to act immediately and amend government circulars if they impede projects in the cash-strapped island nation. Wickremesinghe at a meeting attended by Vinod K Jacob, the Deputy Indian High Commissioner, examined the progress of several development projects in the country based on cooperation, an official statement said. Wickremesinghe advised the office to amend the relevant government circulars immediately if they impeded the development projects. New Delhi at different times had raised the slow progress in implementing the Indian projects in the country. In the ongoing economic crisis, India has provided with credit lines for fuel, fertiliser and essential commodities worth USD 3.5 billion. Additionally, three credit lines were provided to the tune of USD 1.5 billion and foreign exchange crisis support of USD 2 billion, the Indian High Commission said. The government of Tamil Nadu had separately sent humanitarian relief assistance to help in the crisis that soon turned into political unrest, leading to the resignation of then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Ranil Wickremesinghe, the then prime minister, was appointed the president soon after Rajapaksa fled to the Maldives and later to Singapore. From Singapore, he flew to Thailand before returning to the country last week. (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.) Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's longest-reigning monarch and the nation's figurehead for seven decades, died at her home in Scotland aged 96 on Thursday. is close to finalising its contract with telecom gear maker to roll out its in Mumbai and Maharashtra and Kolkata and West Bengal in the first phase of its launch in October. Read more on these in our top headlines Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's longest-serving monarch, dies at 96 Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's longest-reigning monarch and the nation's figurehead for seven decades, died at her home in Scotland aged 96 on Thursday. "The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon," Buckingham Palace said in a statement. "The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow." Read more going with Nokia, to roll out in October is close to finalising its contract with telecom gear maker to roll out its in Mumbai and Maharashtra and Kolkata and West Bengal in the first phase of its launch in October. And it is going with for the lucrative Delhi circle, and Chennai, which includes Tamil Nadu, say sources aware of the development. This is the first time that Jio is opting for multiple vendors. During its 4G rollout, it had signed up with South Korean giant Samsung for the entire network, despite tough competition from European and Chinese vendors. Read more Railways eyes Rs 30,000-crore revenue with new land licensing fee policy With its new land licensing fee (LLF) policy, the Ministry of Railways has identified a revenue potential of Rs 30,000 crore over the next five years, senior officials in charge of estimation said on Thursday. The revenue will be realised through augmented freight volume brought through GatiShakti cargo terminals. Read more EY plans to spin off audit, consulting units to ease regulatory concerns Professional services firm said on Thursday it was planning to split its audit and consulting units into two companies, as it looks to ease regulatory concerns over potential conflicts of interest. This is something that will change the industry, Carmine Di Sibio, EYs global chairman and chief executive, said in an interview. Read more Banks jump on the ONDC bandwagon to draw synergy from the network The Centres efforts to democratise online commerce by creating an indigenous network for buyers and sellers is receiving significant interest from the banking sector, with several lenders picking up stake in the network. Indian lenders are also looking to set up buyer platforms to draw synergy and create opportunities for the network to be successful. Read more New may focus on non-fiscal measures to boost exports The new (FTP) is likely to spell out guidelines to make competitive through non-fiscal measures, marking a significant change from the existing policy that focused on incentive-driven schemes. Ahead of the unveiling of the new FTP a comprehensive policy strategy to promote export of goods and services exporters said it should be flexible enough to deal with various uncertainties and geopolitical challenges that the world has been witnessing over more than two years. Read more The trial run for the 5.9 km-long corridor in Madhya Pradesh's Indore city will be conducted by September 2023, a senior official said. Corporation Limited (MPMRCL) managing director Nikunj Shrivastava held a meeting with public representatives and local administration. The progress of the Indore project is good. We are confident that we will conduct the trial run on the 5.9 high-priority corridor by September next year, Shrivastava told reporters on Thursday. During the meeting it was decided that the work will be expedited, and only two out of 29 metro stations will be constructed underground as per the need, he said. It was earlier proposed that six stations out 29 be constructed underground. The foundation stone for the first phase of the metro rail project was laid on September 14, 2019. The metro rail project on the 31.55 km-long route is being constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 7,500.84 crore. (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.) DUISBURG, Germany, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- The "Chinafest" in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) opened on Friday in Duisburg, Germany. At the city center, traditional Chinese culture, music, art, sports, workshops and culinary delights are drawing visitors on the stage and in red tents during the three-day festival. An important platform for Sino-German cultural exchanges, the "Chinafest" in NRW, which alternates between the three cities of Duisburg, Dusseldorf and Cologne from year to year, was suspended for two consecutive years due to the impact of the COVID-19. Chinese Consul General in Dusseldorf Du Chunguo, together with Soeren Link, mayor of Duisburg, Josef Hinkel, first mayor of Dusseldorf and Ralf Heinen, mayor of Cologne, announced the opening of this year's "Chinafest" in NRW. "Chinafest" provides a broad platform for the German public to experience and understand Chinese culture in a very up-close and personal way, said Du in his speech. Franz Schwartz, a retired German bus driver who has persisted in learning Chinese for more than 16 years, told Xinhua in fluent Chinese that the "Chinafest" was very interesting with wonderful activities and booths, offering opportunities to closely encounter with Chinese culture. After imposing 20 per cent export duty on select rice varieties on Thursday, the Centre in a late night order banned the exports of all forms of broken rice with immediate effect in attempt to cool prices. The decision to ban exports of broken rice is expected to stop overseas shipment of around 4 million tonnes (MT) of rice largely to countries such as China, where demand has grown exponentially in the last few months due to drought in their main growing areas. Between April and June, around 1.8 MT of broken rice was exported. Trade and market sources said in total around 10 MT of rice exported (5.9 MT under export duty and 4 MT fully banned) out of the average annual exports of 21-22 MT will now be under some sort of restriction. Also Read: As India makes headway in exports to the US, can it be the next China? The ban on broken rice has come into effect from September 9, but the notification says that between September 9 and 15, consignments and shipments for which loading began in the ports and shipping bills have been filed of vessels berthed or where broken rice consignments have been handed over to the Customs before the ban will be allowed to be exported. This exemption has been granted to ensure that in-transit shipments and goods that have already left the hinterland do not pile up in the ports as was the case when wheat exports were banned on May 14. Last evening the government imposed a 20 per cent export duty on select rice varieties, but kept items like basmati and parboiled rice out of its purview. Trade sources said that with a 20 per cent export duty several Indian rice varieties will get priced out in the world markets as prices will immediately go up by $60-80 per tonne. Cheapest in the world Before the export duty, some India rice varieties were quoting at around $380-400 per tonne (FOB), while the price of nearest competitor was higher than this, making Indian rice amongst the cheapest available in the world markets, boosting its demand. This was also resulting in some pilferage and allegations that rice meant for distribution through the PDS and also under the Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Ann Yojana (PMGKAY) was getting diverted towards exports due to low price in the international markets and high demand, a senior industry official said. In fact, the quick succession in which both the decisions of first imposing the export tax and following it up with a total ban on broken rice exports has fuelled talk that Centre might be coming around to a decision on further extending the free foodgrain distribution scheme (PMGKAY) beyond September. The scheme to distribute 5 kg of rice or wheat per person per month to the almost 80 crore beneficiaries of the National Food Security Act over and above their regular monthly quota was started during the COVID-19 as a welfare measure. Since then, the scheme has been extended six times, the latest one being in April for six months. So far, most rice varieties did not attract any export duty. Meanwhile, market sources said that global rice markets might not remain in the current range for long as rice crop in China, which is one of the major consumers, is under severe stress due to drought in many of its major growing regions. Drought in the main growing areas here in India has also pulled up the price of rice in the domestic markets and across different varieties rates have risen by almost 6-20 per cent since June. The fear is of a 6-10 million tonnes fall in kharif production this year as compared to last year due to drop in acreage. In 2021, India produced around 111 MT of rice in the kharif season. Rahul Chauhan, commodity analyst at iGrain India, said domestic rice prices wont drop by much for long as global markets are tight and cereals supply is short domestically as well. On the sowing front, the acreage of paddy was around 6 per cent less than the acreage during the same period last year as on September 2 and so far around 96.5 per cent of the normal area has been already covered. Normal area is the average acreage of the last five years, which in case of paddy in the kharif season is 39.70 million hectares. But, given the fact that much of sowing has happened outside the ideal window and monsoon continues to play truant over eastern Indian states of Jharkhand, Bihar, UP and West Bengal there is lots of uncertainty over the final output. In some states like Jharkhand, the sowing is still woefully down and has reached just 50 per cent of normal area till September 2. Rice stock in the central pool as on August 16 was around 26.35 MT, while the buffer on October 1 should have been around 10.25 MT. These stocks do not require 12.24 MT of unmilled paddy lying with the millers. By Rajendra Jadhav MUMBAI (Reuters) -India banned exports of broken rice and imposed a 20% duty on exports of various grades of rice on Thursday as the world's biggest exporter of the grain tries to augment supplies and calm local prices after below-average monsoon rainfall curtailed planting. India exports rice to more than 150 countries, and any reduction in its shipments would increase upward pressure on food prices, which are already rising because of drought, heat-waves and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The new duty is likely to discourage buyers from making purchases from India and prompt them to shift towards rivals Thailand and Vietnam, which have been struggling to increase shipments and raise prices. The government has excluded parboiled and basmati rice from the export duty, which will come into effect from Sept. 9. New Delhi also banned exports of 100% broken rice, which a few poor African countries import for human consumption, though that variety is mainly used for feed purposes. The duty will affect white and brown rice, which account for more than 60% of India's exports, said B.V. Krishna Rao, president of the All India Rice Exporters Association. "With this duty, Indian rice shipments will become uncompetitive in the world market. Buyers will shift to Thailand and Vietnam," Rao said. India accounts for more than 40% of global rice shipments and competes with Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan and Myanmar in the world market. Below-average rainfall in key rice-producing states such as West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh has raised concerns over India's rice production. The country has already banned wheat exports and restricted sugar shipments this year. Indian exports would fall by at least 25% in coming months because of the duty, said Himanshu Agarwal, executive director at Satyam Balajee, India's biggest rice exporter. Exporters want the government to provide some relief for export contracts that have already been signed, with vessels loading at the ports. "Buyers can't pay 20% more over agreed price and even sellers can't afford to pay the levy. The government should exempt already signed contracts from the levy," Agarwal said. India's rice exports touched a record 21.5 million tonnes in 2021, more than the combined shipments of the world's next four biggest exporters of the grain: Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan and the United States. India has been cheapest supplier of rice by huge margin and that shielded African countries such as Nigeria, Benin and Cameroon to an extent from a rally in wheat and corn prices, said a Mumbai-based dealer with a global trading firm. "Except rice, prices of all food crops were rising. Rice is joining the rally now," he said. The ban on broken rice shipments could badly affect China's purchases for feed purpose, he said. China was the biggest buyer of broken rice, with purchases of 1.1 million tonnes in 2021, while African countries such as Senegal and Djibouti bought brokens for human consumption. (Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; Editing by Jonathan Oatis, Jane Merriman and Josie Kao) (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.) Prices of rice exported from India held firm near their highest level in more than a year this week as demand from neighbouring remained strong, while supply concerns and an uptick in demand buoyed rates in Thailand. Top exporter India's 5% broken parboiled variety was quoted at $379 to $387 per tonne, unchanged from the last week. "Parboiled rice got boost from Bangladesh's buying. In white rice, demand is mainly for 100% and 25% broken rice," said an exporter based at Kakinada in southern state of Andhra Pradesh. Robust demand from has underpinned rice prices in recent weeks as Dhaka plans to import around 1.2 million tonnes over the next few months to shore up reserves and cool high domestic prices. A senior Bangladeshi food ministry official said the country has finalised imports of 530,000 tonnes of rice from India, Vietnam and Myanmar under government-to-government deals and is in talks to buy more. Meanwhile, India is considering whether to restrict exports of 100% broken rice, after the paddy area has been reduced by scanty rainfall. Thailand's 5% broken rice prices increased slightly to $416 to $420 per tonne, from $415-$416 per tonne. "There is strong domestic demand ... an order to Iraq is gradually being delivered," said one Bangkok-based trader. However, there have been some issues with supply and transportation due to flooding from heavy rainfall, said another trader. Vietnam's 5% broken rice were offered at $390-$393 per tonne, unchanged from two weeks ago as markets were closed last week on the National Day holiday. "We expect demand for Vietnamese rice will increase during the rest of the year as bad weather conditions are hurting rice production in China and India," a trader based in Ho Chi Minh City said. The trader added China's demand for Vietnam's glutinous rice traditionally rise towards the end of the year. (Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav in Mumbai, Khanh Vu in Hanoi, Chayut Setboonsarng in Bangkok and Ruma Paul in Dhaka; Editing by Maju Samuel) (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.) and the US will "very soon" hold the next ministerial-level meeting of the Trade Policy Forum (TPF) in America to discuss ways for promoting trade and investment between the countries. and the US held the 12th TPF in New Delhi on November 23 last year. The forum is an inter-agency collaboration led by the US Trade Representative (USTR). It is the principal trade dialogue between the two countries. It has five focus groups: Agriculture, Investment, Innovation and Creativity (intellectual property rights), Services, and Tariff and Non-Tariff Barriers. "We will be having the next trade policy forum very soon in the US and in the TPF we are hoping to add further deliverables and newer areas of engagement being discussed, for which both teams have been tasked to start engaging with each other," Goyal told reporters here. The minister held a bilateral meeting here with USTR Katherine Tai and US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. When asked about restoring the trade benefits under GSP(Generalized System of Preferences) programme of the US, the Indian minister said :"I don't think that's an issue anymore. None of our exports have been affected by the GSP. So I think that's not an issue; that we have even discussed in recent times, including today". Talking about other meetings, the minister said he discussed ways to increase trade and economic relations with his counterparts from Vietnam and Japan. "Areas of mutual interest were discussed, particularly with the view to expanding our exports to both these countries," Goyal said adding there is a huge potential, particularly with Japan to further expand bilateral trade. (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.) Aiming to reduce import-dependence, the railways ministry is set to procure nearly 80,000 forged train at a cost of Rs 600 crore per year. Union Minister announced on Friday the ministry floated a tender inviting the industry to set up a facility to produce these wheels, which will primarily be used for semi-high speed trains (Vande Bharat) and high-speed trains (bullet train). An official said the estimated cost of setting up a production unit is close to Rs 1,000 crore, and that the tender is only open to Indian companies. The ministry earlier relied on imports from Europe for these specialised . The issue came to fore after the national transporter recently placed an order for 39,000 semi-forged with a Chinese company, citing disrupted European supply chains on account of the Russia-Ukraine war. Vaishnaw said the ministry had tried hard to ensure supply from Europe but had to end up awarding the contract to a Chinese firm. The ministry suffered a setback caused by a disruption at the plant in Raebareli. As of now, has sorted out a lot of its issues at the plant, Vaishnaw said. He said a condition in the forged-wheels tender is that the bidder must also be able to export these wheels, adding that potential markets such as Europe are currently being identified. Forged wheels are specially-designed wheels, built at high-pressure for trains running at higher speeds than regular trains. The minister said there is no established forged wheels player in India currently, hence the technical qualifications have been set in a way that only companies with extensive experience in manufacturing forged metals can qualify. Vaishnaw also announced that the next step is for the ministry to develop better railway track infrastructure conducive for high-speed and semi-high-speed trains, and a tender for the same will be floated soon. The ministry also completed testing of the light-weight trains (VB-2), which are roughly 38 tonnes lighter than the first version, currently operational in the country. Vaishnaw had earlier shared a video of the VB-1 running at a speed of 180 kilometres/hour (km/h), 20 km/h higher than VB-1. He announced that the VB-2 will come equipped with in-built air purifiers, content-on-demand, and recliner seats in both executive and non-executive classes. Regular production of these trains will begin from October, and we aim to have 75 of these operating by the end of the financial year, the minister said. The cost of manufacturing one train set comes around Rs 110 crore, seeing an increase of 10 per cent from the initial estimates. Various states, including Rajasthan, Odisha, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu, have introduced job schemes in urban areas or are in the process of doing so. However, these are very small schemes, and to make any fruitful dent on urban poverty, a national-level programme is required to be launched. For instance, Rajasthans is the biggest scheme among these states with an annual budget expenditure of Rs 800 crore. In fact, a report, The State of Inequality in India, commissioned by the to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) and prepared by the Institute for Competitiveness, had recommended in May that such a scheme be launched. It should be on the basis of its assessment that a gap between the labour force participation rate (LFPF) in rural and urban areas is widening. LFPR is the percentage of persons in the labour force (working or seeking jobs) in the population. The LFPR was slightly lower in urban areas at 36.8 per cent, compared with 37 per cent in in 2017-18, according to the annual Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS). However, this gap widened over the next few years. The LFPR was 36.9 per cent in urban areas and 37.7 per cent in the following year. It rose to 38.6 per cent in urban areas in 2019-20, but the rise was faster in rural areas, at 40.8 per cent. The following year, 2020-21, when the first Covid wave struck and nationwide lockdowns were announced for months, the LFPR rose to 42.7 per cent in and 38.9 per cent in urban areas. Also Read | Urban job scheme: How 6 states do it, what is needed to make it work However, launching a job-guarantee scheme for urban areas at the national level or urban will face the crucial issue of financial burden. The Centre may have to bear it alone or with the help of states. The financial burden depends on the design of the scheme. There would be around 471 million workers in India in 2021, according to World Bank data. Extrapolating from an earlier NSS report that says 20 per cent of the labour force is in the unorganised sector in urban India, around 94.2 million persons were in this sector in 2021. However, urban may not target the unorganised sector entirely. Earlier, Azim Premji University came out with a report on a job-guarantee programme for urban India, in 2019. That report had proposed Rs 500 a day as wages for casual workers and Rs 13,000 a month as stipend for persons with some education. It proposed providing 100 days of guaranteed work to casual workers. It also proposed 150 contiguous days of training and apprenticeship for the educated youth in urban clusters. About 4,000 urban local bodies, accounting for about 50 per cent of the population (Census 2011 data), could be covered under the scheme through an Act, it suggested. According to that report, the total budgetary requirement will have three components labour, material, and administrative cost. It proposed a 60:40 ratio. That is, 60 per cent of the total budgetary allocation would be labour cost and 40 per cent would be a combination of material and administrative cost. Labour costs should be split between the Centre and states in an 80:20 ratio, it said. Also, non-labour costs would be shared among the Centre, states and urban local bodies (ULBs), the report suggested. The report proposed two options for the programme. Option-1 will give work of 100 days in a year to one person in a household and Option-2 gives it to every adult. The first option would, under certain assumptions, cost a total of Rs 2.8 trillion or 1.7 per cent of GDP at that point of time. The second option would cost Rs 4.5 trillion or 2.7 per cent of GDP. The issue is from where such funds would come, given that the Centre and states are grappling with rising expenditure and scarce resources. This is even as goods and services tax (GST) is providing them some buffer. Former chief statistician Pronab Sen said funds could be reallocated from the Budget. Moreover, Rs 500 a day to a casual worker is a big amount and it should rather be minimum wages for unskilled workers. Besides, all casual workers will not turn up for these works as they also have to be available for contractors. Otherwise, they will lose those jobs, he said. Moreover, Rs 13,000 a month as stipend for persons with some education is not an urban job scheme but more of an dole and needs to be separated. Sen said more than the funds, a bigger problematic area in the way of such a scheme is identifying the kinds of work that would be provided. The works such as road maintenance, bridge maintenance, park maintenance are done by any decent municipalities. "If you provide these works also under the urban job scheme, you will only be replacing one set of workers with others," he said. C P Chandrasekhar, former professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, said the point is whether you have willingness to introduce such a scheme. If you have the willingness, you will mobilise resources for such a programme. This is crucial not only from the point of view of providing to the people but also to stimulate the economy through demand multipliers, he said. Currently, the economy has a low tax-GDP ratio. "It (an urban job scheme) is not only feasible, it is a very good idea. You need to have some kind of wealth tax and inheritance tax, besides higher taxes on upper income groups to have a decent tax-GDP ratio," Chandrasekhar said. When asked if more taxes could be imposed on the upper income group when there is already as high as 37 per cent for those earning over Rs 5 crore in a year, he said given the level of inequality this is not only feasible but necessary too. India's forex reserves fall $8 billion in a week as defends rupee The Reserve Bank of Indias (RBIs) headline declined by $7.9 billion to $553.11 billion in the week ended September 2, the latest central bank data showed. The reserves are at their lowest since October 9, 2020, the data showed. Read more here Kharif production might slip by 10 mn tonnes due to drought: Food Secretary Indias production this kharif season could reduce by 10-12 million tonnes due to a drought in four states and a shift towards other crops elsewhere, said food secretary Sudhanshu Pandey on Friday. The preliminary estimateit might change later due to good late rainsis the first official number on monsoons impact on kharif production in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal. In the 2021-22 crop year, India produced over 111.7 million tonnes of rice in the kharif season. Read more here Govt makes first disbursement under PLI scheme, Delhi firm to get Rs 52 crore The government has cleared the first disbursement under its production led incentive (PLI) scheme across all sectors , moving to allot a Delhi-based company around Rs 52 crore for October-December 2021. Read more here in talks with Apple's Taiwanese supplier for assembling iPhones is in talks with a Taiwanese supplier to Inc. to establish an electronics manufacturing joint venture in India, seeking to assemble iPhones in the South Asian country. The discussions with Wistron Corp. are aimed at making Tata a force in technology manufacturing, and the Indian salt-to-software conglomerate wants to tap the Taiwanese companys expertise in product development, supply chain and assembly, people with knowledge of the matter said. Read more here India considers further imports as concern over energy supply grows Energy officials in India are considering whether further imports may be needed to avoid any fresh squeeze on the nations power supply. Stockpiles of the fossil fuel at power plants have fallen about 11% since mid-August, meaning utilities have an average of 10 days supply, well below required levels of more than three weeks. helps produce about 70% of Indias electricity. Read more here Amidst the chaos of boycotting mainstream content, over-the-top (OTT) is thriving with exciting web series and movies releasing every week. After Ranbir Kapoor and Alia's Brahamastra in theatres, fans are excited about romantics like Sita Ramam and superhero movies like Thor: Love and Thunder on OTT platforms like Disney Plus Hotstar, Voot Select, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Zee5 and others. Also read | Cinemas rest on Ranbir-Alia starrer Brahmastra to tip scales for Bollywood Here is the list of the or web series, which have released recently on the OTT platforms: Thor: Love and Thunder Chris Hemsworth starrer Thor: Love and Thunder will be available on the Disney Plus Hostar platform. The much-loved superhero will return in the fourth movie of the series, where he will be seen with Natalie Portman who will portray Jane Foster. She was also in "Thor "(2011) and "Thor: The Dark World" (2013). Sita Ramam Dulquer Salman and Mrunal Thakur will be seen romancing in "Sita Ramam" , which is now premiering on Amazon Prime Video. The film was originally released in Telugu. Later on, it was dubbed Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi for more viewers. The film is set in 1964 and tells the story of Lieutenant Ram, an army officer who gets anonymous love letters from Sita Mahalakshmi. Eventually, he falls for her and goes on the quest of finding her. Directed by Hanu Raghavapudi, the movie also stars Rashmika Mandanna, and is based on the theme of "how humanity matters more than war, boundaries and religion". Narco-Saints South Korean web series, Narco-Saints will be available on Netflix today. The upcoming Korean action-thriller series by Yoon Jong-bin is based on real incidents. The series is based on the city name "Suriname" in South America. The series tells that the city is under the grip of Korean druglord Jeon Yo-hwan. A regular businessman is forced by fate to join the National Intelligence Service's effort to arrest the drug lord. The series revolves around his quest to kill Jeon Yo-hwan. Park Hae-soo, Hwang Jung-min and some other actors will also be seen in the key roles in Narco-Saints. Indian Predator: The Diary Of A Serial Killer Directed by Ayesha Sood, the Indian Predator is documentary series that is based on true events from Delhi. The series unfolds the Delhi Police's investigation into a case of a serial killer who murdered people and scattered their body parts around the city. The documentary series will be available on Netflix and was launched on September 7, 2022. Cobra Kai: Season 5 The fifth season of Cobra Kai is released on Netflix.With William Zabka, Ralph Macchio, Xolo Mariduena and other actors, it is a sequel to the Karate Kid franchise and focuses on Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso's characters. Also read | How OTT platforms are becoming a getaway for flop Bollywood movies Ek Villain Returns Released on July 29, Mohit Suri's action-thriller has Tara Sutaria, Disha Patani, John Abraham and Arjun Kapoor as the lead actors. It is a follow-up to the 2014 original eponymous movie, which was also directed by Mohit Suri. The movie will be available on Netflix India from September 9 onwards (Written by Zuhair Zaidi) State-owned (BoI) on Friday reported divergence in its asset classification for FY22, resulting in lowering of net profit for the year to Rs 2,221 crore. The lender had reported a net profit of Rs 3,404.70 crore for 2021-22. According to a regulatory filing, there was divergence of Rs 105 crore in bank's gross non-performing assets (NPAs) with the bank reporting it to be at Rs 45,605.40 crore. However, as per Reserve (RBI) assessment, it came at a higher value of Rs 45,710.40 crore. On the flip side, in case of the net NPAs the bad loans fell by Rs 87 crore as the RBI assessed it at a lower Rs 9,764.93 crore as against Rs 9,851.93 crore reported by the bank. The divergence in provisioning came in at Rs 1,819 crore. said the adjusted net profit of the bank before considering the impact of tax on divergence in provisioning for FY22 was at Rs 1,585.70 crore. However, the net profit was further boosted to Rs 2,221.33 crore for the year ended March 2022 upon adding Rs 635.63 crore as an impact of tax on divergence in provisioning, showed the data. (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.) Sept 9 (Reuters) - Indian banks' rose 15.5% in the two weeks to Aug. 26 from a year earlier, while deposits rose 9.5%, the Reserve Bank of India's weekly statistical supplement showed on Friday. Outstanding rose 321.58 billion rupees ($4.04 billion) to 124.58 trillion rupees in the two weeks to Aug. 26. Non-food credit rose 364.95 billion rupees to 124.30 trillion rupees, while food credit fell 43.36 billion rupees to 277.61 billion rupees. Bank deposits rose 455.09 billion rupees to 169.94 trillion rupees in the two weeks to Aug. 26. ($1 = 79.5520 Indian rupees) ((India Headline News Team; +91 80 6749 1310)) (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.) Solar panels are placed on the roofs of buildings in Haarlem, the Netherlands, Sept. 10, 2022. Companies and consumers in the Netherlands are using less natural gas and turning to coal and renewable energy sources as the country, like many other European countries, suffers from declining natural gas supplies from Russia. (Photo by Sylvia Lederer/Xinhua) THE HAGUE, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Companies and consumers in the Netherlands are using less natural gas and turning to coal and renewable energy sources as the country, like many other European countries, suffers from declining natural gas supplies from Russia. Prices are sky-rocketing and the authorities are searching for storage sites and alternatives. "Gas consumption has decreased across the society, from companies to consumers," Peter Hein van Mulligen, chief economist at Statistics Netherlands, told Xinhua. "This will undoubtedly continue for a while, which also has to do with the rising price. Everyone needs gas, so the price goes up and companies are looking for alternatives." Natural gas consumption in the Netherlands amounted to 17.6 billion cubic meters (bcm) over the first six months of 2022, which is 25 percent less than in the same period last year, according to Statistics Netherlands. Manufacturing and power plants in particular used less natural gas, falling by 30 percent and 28 percent, respectively. The drop in gas consumption coincides with changes in electricity generation. In the second quarter (Q2) of 2022, electricity generation from coal increased by 40 percent and from renewable sources by 25 percent year on year. At the same time, 19 percent less electricity was generated from natural gas. Solar and wind power also showed strong increases, by 40 percent and 25 percent, respectively, in Q2. The sunny weather and the increased installed solar panel capacity have both resulted in an increase in electricity generation by solar. Wind farms also increased their output due to both greater installed capacity of onshore turbines and favorable weather conditions. The Dutch government has recently managed to fill the country's gas storages to around 80 percent of capacity, achieving the European Union (EU) target. "It is good news that, despite the difficult circumstances, we have succeeded in filling our gas storages to more than 80 percent almost two months ahead of the European deadline," Minister for Climate and Energy Policy Rob Jetten said. Filling continues ahead of winter to avoid supply bottlenecks. Earlier this week, the Eemshaven port in the northern province of Groningen inaugurated a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal comprising two floating units operated by Dutch energy network operator Gasunie. The new terminal, together with an older LNG terminal in the port of Rotterdam, which has been expanded, has doubled the country's LNG import capacity. The Eemshaven floating terminal will convert LNG into gaseous form, which then can be fed into the national natural gas network or transported abroad. This way the country can import an additional 8 bcm of gas. "We can see an acceleration of the phasing out of natural gas to new sources," van Mulligen said. "That also helps us become less dependent on imports. It just can't be done in a few months. It could take a long time. How long is hard to predict." Solar panels are placed on the roofs of buildings in Haarlem, the Netherlands, Sept. 10, 2022. Companies and consumers in the Netherlands are using less natural gas and turning to coal and renewable energy sources as the country, like many other European countries, suffers from declining natural gas supplies from Russia. (Photo by Sylvia Lederer/Xinhua) Photo taken on Sept. 10, 2022 shows a household gas stove in Haarlem, the Netherlands. Companies and consumers in the Netherlands are using less natural gas and turning to coal and renewable energy sources as the country, like many other European countries, suffers from declining natural gas supplies from Russia. (Photo by Sylvia Lederer/Xinhua) Asset Reconstruction Company (India) Ltd (Arcil) & Cerberus Capital, which was planning to challenge JC Flowers Rs 11,183-crore bid for non-performing asset (NPA) portfolio under Swiss Challenge method, has decided not to submit bids, sources aware of the development said. This could pave the way for JC Flower to buy the private lenders bad loans. The NPA sale of Rs 48,000 crore was key for the bank to clean up the books of and would reduce its gross non-performing loans significantly. The banks gross NPA, as a percentage of gross advances, was 13.4 per cent as on June 30. Of the Rs 11,183 crore, will get 15 per cent as cash for the NPA sale, while 85 per cent will be by way of security receipts. A Swiss Challenge auction was launched with JC Flowers base bid of Rs 11,183 crore, which is roughly 135 per cent of carrying value on the balance sheet as of March 31, the bank had said earlier. The deal is set to be the largest sale of stressed assets in domestic markets. In July, YES Bank signed a binding term sheet with JCF ARC LLC and JC Flowers ARC for a strategic partnership for the sale of identified stressed loans of the bank. After postponing the Artemis I mission last Saturday, once again has two new dates in mind, September 23 or September 27, for the next attempt to launch its massive moon rocket on an uncrewed mission. But there are still several things that could stand in the way of getting the Artemis I mission off the ground, any of which could push the launch date back further, CNN reported. Earlier, postponed the launch of the mission during the last launch attempt at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on September 3, after an issue was found related to a leak in the hardware transferring fuel into the rocket. The rocket sprung a big leak as it was being fueled up with super-chilled liquid hydrogen. is trying to work through the leaky fuel problem with the rocket, called the Space Launch System or SLS. And while the rocket is still on the pad, NASA is looking to troubleshoot that issue by repairing and replacing some seals before running tests to make sure all the leaks are plugged, NASA officials said at a Thursday press conference. It's not yet clear how long that will take. Then, there's the issue with certification. The US Space Force, an arm of the military, still oversees all rocket launches from the United States East Coast, including NASA's Florida launch site, and that area is known as the "Eastern Range." CNN reported. The officials at the range are tasked with making sure there's no risk to people or property with any launch attempt. And that means the Eastern Range also must give NASA the thumbs up that the rocket's Flight Termination System -- a system that will essentially destroy the rocket mid-air if it veers off course and starts heading in a populated direction -- is ready to fly. That system relies on batteries, however, that, under current rules, must be recharged at a nearby indoor facility before the newly proposed launch dates arrive. NASA is hoping to get a waiver on that rule. But it's not yet clear when or if that request will be granted. If NASA does not get that waiver approval, the SLS rocket will have to be rolled off the pad and back into the nearby Vehicle Assembly Building, triggering more delays. At the Press conference, Associate Administrator for NASA's Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, Jim Free said, "If they decide that is not the right thing to do, we obviously will support that and stand down and look for our next launch attempt." "But we still will press with the tanking test," he said, referring to the tests NASA plans to run to fix the hydrogen leaks while the rocket is still on the pad. The Artemis I flight test is an uncrewed mission around the Moon that will pave the way for a crewed flight test and future human lunar exploration as part of Artemis. "Managers waved off the first launch attempt on August 29 when launch controllers were unable to chill down the four RS-25 engines, with one engine showing higher temperatures than the other engines," NASA said in an earlier statement. NASA had called off a planned test flight of the Artemis rocket around the moon after a series of setbacks including an engine issue, a hydrogen leak, and stormy weather off the coast of Florida. "The launch of Artemis I is no longer happening today as teams work through an issue with an engine bleed. Teams will continue to gather data, and we will keep you posted on the timing of the next launch attempt," NASA said in an earlier tweet. It's the first mission in NASA's Artemis lunar program, which is expected to land the agency's astronauts on the moon by its third mission in 2025. NASA plans to fly Orion as close as 60 miles above the moon's surface, before moving into a wide orbit around the lunar body. To return, Orion will use the moon's gravity to assist it in setting a trajectory back into Earth's orbit. Orion is expected to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, California where a team of NASA and Department of Defence personnel will recover the capsule. (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.) US President and the First Lady drove down to the British Embassy here to sign the condolence book and pay their respect after the death of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. We mourn for all of you. She was a great lady, I'm so delighted I got to meet her, Biden said on Thursday as he walked over to the embassy staff. According to a White House pool report, Biden and First Lady Jill Biden were greeted by the British ambassador and her husband. Biden walked over to the condolence book and asked if he could write a message, taking a card with notes out of his jacket pocket. The ambassador said, If you would like to, Sir. He wrote for a few minutes, while the First Lady watched over and the ambassador stood to the side, behind him. ALSO READ: Indira Rajaraman - Queen Elizabeth's finest hour The First Lady then sat down in the chair and appeared to sign her name. Our hearts are with you, she said. As my mother would say, God love you, Biden said, and thanked the staff. He then walked out of the room, holding hands with the First Lady. A photograph of the Queen sat on the table with the condolence book and a bouquet of flowers on the other side of the table. A projector showed a photo of the Queen to the left of the table. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in his condolence message, said as the United Kingdom's head of state, she was a steady and comforting presence to generations. On the global stage, Queen Elizabeth II was a source of calm and strength over decades of change for the country and the world. She helped to fortify the alliance between our two great democracies, and with her steady leadership, the United Kingdom helped to build and maintain the rules-based order, rooted in cooperation and democratic values, Austin said. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Americans join the people of the United Kingdom in mourning the sad passing of Queen Elizabeth II. Over her seven decades on the throne, Her Majesty was a pillar of leadership in the global arena and a devoted friend of freedom. On behalf of the United States Congress, I extend our deepest and most sincere condolences to the Royal Family during this sad time, she said. Under history's brightest spotlight, Queen Elizabeth offered a masterclass in grace and strength, power and poise. Her extraordinary life and leadership will continue to inspire young women and girls in public service, now and for generations to come, she said. Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentlemen Douglas Emhoff in a joint statement said, Queen Elizabeth II lived an incredible life of service and had a profound impact on countless lives and historic events. We send our condolences to the Royal Family and join the people of the United Kingdom and all those around the world who mourn her loss. Queen Elizabeth II, the UK's longest-serving monarch, died Thursday at Balmoral Castle in Scotland after reigning for 70 years. She was 96. Her death brings to an end the longest reign in the history of the United Kingdom, and one of the longest reigns by any head of 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.) A deadly wildfire in Southern that killed two people has tripled in size in just 24 hours, exploding from about 5,000 acres to over 18,600 acres, authorities said. The fast-moving Fairview Fire started on Monday afternoon near the city of Hemet in Riverside County amid a brutal heatwave, reports Xinhua news agency. Only 5 per cent of the blaze has been contained so far, according to the Riverside County Fire Department. The fire has forced a series of evacuation orders and road closures in the area. Around 2,500 structures are still under threat as over 1,100 firefighters, with aircraft support, are continuing their efforts against the wildfire. Officials said that at least seven structures have been destroyed and several more have been damaged by the blaze. The two victims of the fire have not been identified, but Riverside County fire officials believe they were trying to escape the flames in a canyon. Their bodies were found in a burned car, and authorities believe they were related, local media reported. "That area is a one way in, one way out. So if you don't leave in time, or if you get trapped by fire, there's no other way to go," Department of Forestry and Fire Protection captain Richard Cordova was quoted as saying. Due to the blaze, the Hemet Unified School District announced that all schools will remain closed through the rest of the week. --IANS ksk/ (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 on Friday refused to comment on a possible meeting between Prime Minister and Chinese President on the sidelines of the in next week, but said the disengagement troops in the Gogra-Hotsprings area of eastern Ladakh will send a "positive signal" to improve the strained bilateral ties. "I have no information to offer at this moment," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a briefing here when asked whether India and China are in communication about a possible Modi-Xi meeting on the side-lines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit to be held in Samarkand on September 15 to 16. China and India are important members of SCO. Both support as rotating chair for this year's summit. "We hope for the greater development of the organisation," she said. Speculation is rife about the meeting between Modi and Xi as India and China on Thursday announced the disengagement of their troops from the Patrolling Point 15 in the Gogra-Hotsprings area of eastern Ladakh in a "coordinated and planned way." The Beijing-headquartered SCO is an eight-member economic and security bloc consisting of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan. The Chinese military on Friday confirmed that the troops of China and India have begun the process of disengagement from the Patrolling Point 15 in the Gogra-Hotsprings area of eastern Ladakh in a "coordinated and planned way." Commenting on the disengagement announcement by both sides Mao said the agreement was the outcome of multiple rounds of talks between both military and diplomatic levels and is conducive to peace and tranquillity along border areas. "We believe the disengagement will be a positive progress and is conducive to peace and tranquility in the border areas, and China also hopes to work with India to uphold peace and stability," she said. India has been consistently maintaining that peace and tranquillity along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) were important for the overall development of bilateral ties. The eastern Ladakh border standoff erupted on May 5, 2020, following a violent clash in the Pangong lake areas. (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.) Frantic civilians are drowning as they flee a new eruption in fighting in and perhaps hundreds have died in the attacks, the said on Thursday. Initial reports describe unimaginable scenes of Adidiang (town) set ablaze, humanitarian structures established as recent as two weeks ago destroyed and civilians fleeing the fighting by canoes and boats, leading to several people drowning, the UN peacekeeping mission said in a statement. has struggled with violence between armed groups in the years since civil war ended in 2018. Thousands of people have been displaced since mid-August by fighting in and around the town of Tonga in Upper Nile state. On Wednesday, fighting broke out near Adidiang, where thousands of displaced people had taken refuge. According to unconfirmed reports nearly 300 people have been killed in the attacks, the UN said. This kind of violence, in an area hosting displaced civilians, is unconscionable, said the UN humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan, Sara Beysolow Nyanti. According to an internal UN report seen by The Associated Press, the field office in the city of Malakal on Wednesday afternoon received a report that the White Army, an armed group, had attacked the camp for displaced people at Adidiang and fighting was ongoing. It was not clear what led to the attack. A rescue mission was immediately sent," the UN report said. But it said more than 100 people had drowned. All partners are engaged in a race against time to save those at risk of drowning in their haste to flee the violence, the UN's public statement said. The Danish Refugee Council said it tried to reach the scene but could not. Yesterday, on the way to Adidiang to assess the situation and verify the numbers of people there, our team was advised to return back to Malakal, country director Alana Mascoll told the AP in an email. They reported heavy civilian movement on the river towards Malakal. There were canoes and larger boats with people heading toward the camp. She said concerns are especially high for unaccompanied children, the elderly and people with disabilities since the journey of up to three days is especially difficult for them. As traumatized civilians start arriving in Malakal, humanitarian partners estimate that up to 5,000 people could arrive in the coming hours and days," the UN said. But fighting occurred even within the camp for displaced people in Malakal on Wednesday night, it added, saying the violence was contained but concerns remained about the spreading tensions. The White Army is loyal to Gen. Gatwich Dual, the leader of the SPLM-IO Kitgwang armed group and a former army chief of staff for former opposition fighter and current Vice President Riek Machar. The White Army is thought to be fighting Agwelek forces loyal to Gen. Johnson Olony, a former senior army officer under Machar. Upper Nile state's minister of information, Luke Sadallah, blamed the fighting on SPLM-IO Kitgwang splinter groups and called on them to stop their confrontation and stop harming civilians. There is no benefit in this battle, Sadallah told the AP by phone. (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.) has ratified a complex deal for the return, over coming decades, of 161 striking ancient Greek artifacts from a US billionaire's collection after Athens conceded it had no evidence they'd been illegally excavated and exported. The mostly marble works date from 5300-2200 BC, and the bulk of them are from the Early Bronze Age Cycladic civilisation whose elegantly abstract but enigmatic marble figurines inspired artists from Pablo Picasso to Constantin Brancusi. Such pieces are highly prized by collectors and museums, which has spawned a wave of illegal excavations in and countless forgeries. Greece's parliament on Thursday approved the agreement with New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, a top Athens museum and a Delaware-based cultural institution to which they are being transferred. The works will return to gradually from 2033-2048, after being displayed at the Met from 2023-2048. Culture Minister Lina Mendoni described them as masterpieces ... of unique archaeological and scientific value that Greece is getting without a messy court battle. Before going on display at the Met, 15 of the works will travel to Athens for a year-long exhibition starting November. They won't return tomorrow ... but they will (gradually) return, Mendoni said during a parliamentary debate Thursday. This collection was completely unknown to the ministry. But opposition lawmakers, and many archaeologists, charged that the agreement would whitewash the global trade in undocumented and potentially illegally excavated antiquities. They argued that the government should have fought a legal battle for their immediate return. Little is known on the provenance of the 161 works from the collection of Leonard N. Stern, an 84-year-old pet supplies and real estate businessman and philanthropist. That means archaeologists can glean minimal useful information on their original use and significance. And a Greek Culture Ministry official told The Associated Press that the ministry has not yet examined the works' authenticity. The official was not authorised to discuss the matter with the press, and spoke on condition of anonymity. Most of the pieces are the typical, broad-faced, flat white marble statuettes depicting nude women with folded arms although there are some unusual types too. There are also marble bowls and vases, a terracotta frying-pan shaped dish and a pair of bracelets. Mendoni said the ministry had no evidence that they were illegally exported from Greece. We may understand that, we may sense it. We can't prove it, she told Parliament. A legal effort to claim the collection was estimated to have minimal chances of success, and would not have secured the return of all 161 antiquities, she added. And we want them all repatriated. The Cycladic civilization flourished in the Cyclades islands in the Aegean Sea during the 3rd millennium BC. Its marble artifacts are admired for their abstraction, strong lines and white form. Originally, however, they were coloured. The government says a model similar to that employed for the Stern collection could be used for other significant Greek antiquities abroad. We want to attract the attention of other collectors, and secure more returns, Mendoni said. All antiquities found in Greece are by law public property, and officials regularly monitor auction houses and collections abroad for potentially plundered artifacts. Athens has also long and fruitlessly lobbied to get back large sections of the 5th Century BC sculptures that originally decorated the Parthenon Temple on the Acropolis and are now in the British Museum in London. (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 stronger India- partnership is good for each other as well as for the Indo-Pacific region and the global order, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said. Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh attended the along with their counterparts from -- Foreign Affairs Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa and Defence Minister Hamada Yasukazu -- on Thursday. "Noted the progress in various facets of bilateral cooperation. Discussed current regional and global issues. Agreed to expand and intensify our consultations," Jaishankar tweeted Thursday after concluding a "strategic dialogue" with his Japanese counterpart Yoshimasa. "A stronger India- partnership is good for each other, for Indo-Pacific and the global order," he added. Japan and are members of the Quad - which includes the US and Australia - a strategic grouping considered by some as a counter to China's growing influence in the Indo-Pacific region. China claims nearly all of the disputed South China Sea, while Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam claim parts of it. Beijing has built artificial islands and military installations in the South China Sea. (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.) King Charles III, Britain's new monarch who ascended to the throne on the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II, has a strong connection with and its age-old traditions of and . The 73-year-old King, who has made several visits to as the Prince of Wales over the years, has focussed many of his charitable efforts on through his British Asian Trust founded by him in 2007 to tackle poverty and hardship in South Asia. The royal spoke of his great love for India when he launched an emergency Covid appeal last year and helped raise millions during India's severe pandemic wave. Like many others, I have a great love for India and have enjoyed many wonderful visits to the country. Indian aid and ingenuity has been a support to other countries throughout this immensely difficult time. As India has helped others, so now must we help India, he said at the time. Back in April 2018, he hosted Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Science Museum in London to launch a new Ayurvedic Centre of Excellence, aimed at creating a first-of-its-kind global network for evidence-based research on and . His wife Camilla, now the Queen Consort, is also believed to practice . As the Prince of Wales, Charles has been a very vocal supporter of causes related to the environment and has been an ardent voice against the ravages of climate change. He has spoken regularly about India's important role in meeting the global climate action targets. The royal is also focussed on natural farming techniques and has campaigned for a clear set of "global farm metrics" to create sustainable supply chains. With his accession to the throne, Charles has also become Head of the Commonwealth, an association of 56 independent countries including India and 2.4 billion people. For 14 of these countries, as well as the UK, the King is the Head of State. For the first time since 1952, the national anthem will be played with the words God Save the King and new coinage will now bear his insignia. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) King Charles III, previously known as Charles, is the new monarch of the United Kingdom and 14 other Commonwealth nations. He ascended to the throne after his mother, II's, demise on September 8. King Charles III is the oldest person to become a new monarch. He has been preparing for the Crown since he was four years old when his mother ascended the Crown in 1953. The British monarch is a ceremonial figurehead who generally is expected not to intervene in political matters. However, as head of state, they have retained some constitutional powers. His ascension is likely to fuel a debate about monarchy's future, still seen as a symbol of national unity by some and as an obsolete relic of feudal history by . King Charles III will inherit his mother's private fortune, which was said to be $426 million this year, and the monarch will not have to pay the . Apart from the throne and II's private fortune, the new King will take on the roles and responsibilities of his mother, including some unusual perks, which include two birthdays, no voting, no license or passport. Role in parliament Parliament is the UK's highest legislative authority and comprises the House of Commons, House of Lords, and Crown, another name for monarchy. The Crown is the oldest part of Britain's government system. However, its powers have withered away over time and are now broadly ritualistic. Opening, dissolving parliament The monarch opens parliament yearly at the tradition-heavy State Opening and reads the government's plans for the upcoming year. This event usually begins with the monarch's procession from Buckingham Palace to Westminster. Before a general election, the Crown also formally dissolves the parliament. Prime ministerial confidant II held weekly meetings with all of her prime ministers, where she would find out their plans and concerns. Britain's long-reigning monarch also tried to help the prime ministers in any way she could. Constitutional crisis In times of grave constitutional crisis, the monarch is allowed to exercise their prerogative powers when they are allowed to go against ministerial advice. Royal assent After the House of Commons and House of Lords approve a Bill, it is sent to the monarch for approval, which is then turned into a law. Creating lords and knights The monarch has the power to appoint lords who can sit in parliament. However, it is only exercised on the advice of government ministers. The monarch also confers knighthoods, which are given to those who have made a notable contribution to British society. A list of nominees is provided to the monarch by the government each year, for approval of public honours Appointing government The day after general elections are concluded, the monarch invites the leader of the party, who secured most seats, to become prime minister and form a government. Head of Church Britain's monarch has the power to appoint archbishops and bishops, but it is only exercised only on the advice of a Church Commission. turned down in early trade on Friday after a slight rebound in the previous session, leaving them set to fall for a second straight week on worries that central banks' aggressive rate hikes and China's COVID-19 curbs will hurt demand. Brent crude futures slipped 12 cents, or 0.1%, to $89.03 a barrel at 0051 GMT, after rising 1.3% on Thursday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 19 cents, or 0.2%, to $83.35 a barrel, after climbing 2% in the previous session. Both benchmarks were down about 4% for the week, with the market sliding at one point to its lowest level since January. The drop has come despite a small output cut by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies, together called OPEC+, Russia's threat to cut oil flows to any country that backs a price cap on its crude, and a weaker outlook for U.S. oil production growth. The U.S. Energy Information Administration on Thursday said it expected U.S. crude output to rise by 540,000 barrels per day to 11.79 million bpd in 2022, down from an earlier forecast for a 610,000 bpd increase. Analysts said in light of the supply outlook, the sell-off, which sent the 50-day moving average below the 200-day moving average mid-week in what's referred to as a 'death cross', may have been overdone, as demand in China, the world's biggest oil importer, could recover swiftly. "China demand is more difficult to predict, but a post-COVID reopening has previously seen a snap back rather than a gradual rise in demand. In that context the fundamentals appear skewed against the latest technical signals," National Australia Bank analysts said in a note. For now, curbs are tightening in China. The city of Chengdu on Thursday extended a lockdown for most of its more than 21 million residents, while millions more in other parts of China were urged not to travel during upcoming holidays. (Reporting by Sonali Paul in Melbourne; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell) (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 government has approved 3 billion PKR ($13 millions) in funds for providing assistance to people affected by the catastrophic . The Finance Ministry said that at a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet, it was decided that the government will provide the money to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) for relief supplies, rescue operations, and rehabilitation of the flood-affected people, reports Xinhua news agency. The government will also provide 540 million PKR to utility stores in the flood-hit areas to ensure a smooth supply of essential commodities to the affected people. The country's state news agency Associated Press of reported that the utility stores have taken an active part in the relief operations of supplying essential food items in flood-affected areas in collaboration with provincial governments. Due to the emergency situation and based on the preliminary need assessment, 113,700 ration bags amounting to 540 million PKR will be disbursed to the flood-affected families, the report said. The death toll in the deadly which were triggered by incessant monsoon since mid-June stood at 1,391 as of Friday, with 12,722 injured, according to the latest NDMA update. Additionally, 1,739,166 houses have been destroyed, while an estimated 754,708 livestock have perished. The NDMA update further revealed that 177,265 people have been rescued and 663,869 are currently living in camps. Rescue and relief operations are currently underway in the flood-hit areas. --IANS ksk/ (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.) Any price cap EU countries might set on gas from problably won't make a large difference on the supply of it to Europe, Estonia's energy minister said on Friday. "Very little that does depends on our decisions. If wants to limit the energy resources gets, Putin will do it", minister Riina Sikkut said before an emergency meeting with other energy ministers from the EU bloc. "Russia has said if you want our gas, take down the sanctions. It is blackmail. We cannot back down, we have to be united, we have to have the political will to help Ukraine win." (Reporting by Bart Meijer, editing by Marine Strauss) (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Britain's newly-elected Prime Minister Liz Truss has paid tribute to the Queen as the rock on which modern Britain was built, soon after announced the death of in Scotland. Truss, who had been anointed by the 96-year-old monarch just days before on Tuesday at Balmoral Castle, stepped out at 10 Downing Street in London on Thursday to reflect upon the legacy of Britain's longest-reigning monarch. She described her as a champion of the Commonwealth and a source of stability and strength over the course of 70 years of her reign. She was the very spirit of Great Britain and that spirit will endure, said Truss. was the rock on which modern Britain was built. Our country has grown and flourished under her reign. Britain is the great country it is today because of her, she said. She has been our longest-ever reigning monarch. It is an extraordinary achievement to have presided with such dignity and grace for 70 years. Her life of service stretched beyond most of our living memories. In return, she was loved and admired by the people in the United Kingdom and all around the world, she added. ALSO READ: Indira Rajaraman - Queen Elizabeth's finest hour Describing her as a personal inspiration, Truss praised her devotion to duty as an example to all and recalled her own first and last meeting as Prime Minister. Earlier this week, at 96, she remained determined to carry out her duties as she appointed me as her 15th Prime Minister. Throughout her life, she has visited more than 100 countries and she has touched the lives of millions around the world, she said. Looking ahead to the future, she added: It is a day of great loss, but leaves a great legacy. Today the Crown passes as it is has done for more than a thousand years to our new monarch, our new head of state: His Majesty King Charles III. With the King's family, we mourn the loss of his mother And with the passing of the second Elizabethan age, we usher in a new era in the magnificent history of our great country, exactly as Her Majesty would have wished by saying the words God save the King. The Leader of the Opposition, Labour's Sir Keir Starmer, also paid tribute to a remarkable sovereign. Queen Elizabeth II created a special, personal relationship with us all. A relationship based on service and devotion to her country, said Starmer. Nobody under the age of 70 has known anything other than Queen Elizabeth II on the throne. For the vast majority of us, the late Queen has been simply the Queen. The only Queen. Above all else, our Queen, he 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 head of Ukraine's atomic energy operator accused Russia on Thursday of trying to steal Europe's largest nuclear plant by cutting it off from the Ukrainian electricity grid and leaving it on the brink of a radiation disaster. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant has been without an outside source of electricity since Monday and receives power for its own safety systems from the only one of its six reactors that remains operational, Enerhoatom chief Petro Kotin told The Associated Press. We are trying to keep this unit running as much as possible, but eventually it will have to be shut down and then the station will switch to diesel generators, he said, adding that such generators are "the station's last defense before a radiation accident. Ukraine and Russia have traded blame for shelling that has damaged parts of the plant as well as the transmission lines that connect it to Ukraine's electricity network and provide power for the crucial cooling systems that are needed to prevent a meltdown. The head of the UN's Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, warned the UN Security Council this week that something very, very catastrophic could take place at the plant and urged Russia and Ukraine to establish a nuclear safety and security protection zone around it. Kotin said the Russians have a crazy idea to switch the ZNPP to the Russian power system; in fact they are trying to steal the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant of Ukraine and steal all the electricity it produces. He said the Russians gave the plant management a 10-page plan about three or four weeks ago to connect the plant to the electricity grid in Crimea, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014. On the same day, the Russians started shelling the power lines that connect the plant to the Ukrainian grid, and on Monday, the last line was cut, Kotin said. This left the plant in island mode, meaning it receives power from its only operational reactor, a highly unusual and unstable way of operating a nuclear plant that he said shouldn't last for more than two hours but has now been in effect for more than three days. At any moment, the unit can be stopped completely, and after that, the only power source for the entire nuclear plant will be a diesel generator, he said. While there are 20 generators on site, if one of these diesel generators fails, the consequences can be very deplorable and bad for the radiation danger of the ZNPP. Kotin said the plant has enough diesel fuel for 10 days. After that, about 200 tons of diesel fuel would need to be brought in daily for the generators, which he said was impossible while the plant was occupied by Russian forces. He said connecting the plant to the Russian grid also was practically impossible given the hostilities in the area. There is no other solution than the de-occupation of the ZNPP, the transfer of the plant to the control of the Ukrainian side or security organisations, Kotin told AP. The ZNPP was seized by Russian forces early in the war but is still run by Ukrainian engineers, who Kotin said are working under heavy psychological pressures. I can say that most of the people who work there are pro-Ukrainian. Anyone who openly expressed this pro-Ukrainian position was grabbed, abused, beaten, he said. Meanwhile, fighting continued near the plant as the towns of Nikopol and Marhanets, which face the plant across the Dnieper River, came under Russian shelling overnight that left apartment buildings, a school, some industrial facilities and power lines damaged, Dnipropetrovsk province Gov. Valentyn Reznichenko said. The nuclear threat isn't abating because of Russia's mad actions and we need to consider all possible scenarios, including the worst one, Reznichenko said in televised remarks. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk urged residents of Russian-occupied areas near the power plant to evacuate, adding that Ukrainian authorities have urged the Russians to set up humanitarian corridors to evacuate residents but received no response. In the northeastern Kharkiv region, Ukrainian forces retook portions of Russian-held territory there as a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the south drained some of Moscow's resources in the area, according to a report released on Wednesday. Ukrainian forces in the Kharkiv region are likely exploiting Russian force reallocation to areas near the occupied city of Kherson in the south to conduct an opportunistic yet highly effective counteroffensive in the province, the Washington-based think tank Institute for the Study of War said. Ukrainian forces likely used tactical surprise to advance at least 12 miles (20 kilometres) into Russian-held territory in the Kharkiv region on Wednesday, recapturing approximately 155 square miles (400 square kilometres), the report said. Brig. Gen. Oleksiy Gromov, the head of the main operational department of the Ukrainian military's General Staff, said at a briefing on Thursday that Ukrainian troops had reclaimed control of over 20 settlements in the Kharkiv region and forged up to 30 miles (50 kilometers) deep into Russian-occupied areas this week. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday said Balakliya, a city of 25,000 and an important railroad junction, was one of the communities Ukrainian forces have recaptured. Everything is in its place. The flag of Ukraine in a free Ukrainian city under a free Ukrainian sky!, he said on the Telegram messaging app. The gains came as Ukraine continued to mount a counteroffensive in the southern Kherson region. (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 state television broadcast an interview on Friday acknowledging that Kyiv had achieved a substantial victory, after Ukrainian forces burst through the frontline in a lightning advance. The Ukrainian breakthrough near Kharkiv was the fastest advance reported by either side for months, and one of the biggest shifts in the wars momentum. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said troops had liberated dozens of settlements and reclaimed more than 1,000 square km (385 square miles) of territory in Kharkiv region in the east as well as Kherson in the south in the past week. finance ministers backed a $5 billion loan for Ukraine to help its keep schools and hospitals running. The loan is part of an overall 9 billion euro package announced in May. EU ministers float idea of broad cap to stem energy crisis EU energy ministers are discussing the idea of capping the price of all imported gas not just Russian fuel as a way of stemming the crisis. Member states are reluctant to move to cap the price of Russian gas only. There are concerns Moscow would retaliate by cutting off the remaining gas its still sending to Europe, particularly at a time the bloc is trying to secure new supplies of gas to replace Russian fuel. Ministers also support skimming off energy companies excess profits, and moving to provide liquidity for traders caught with ballooning margin calls. Gas prices, almost nine times higher than their average levels for this time of the year, have been volatile this week as traders assess deep supply concerns against government efforts to contain the crisis. Natural gas prices dropped. Benchmark futures fell as much as 8.2 per cent. Bloomberg (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A US federal grand jury is investigating former President Donald Trump's Save America group, a media report said, citing subpoenas. The Times reported that the leadership of the political action committee received subpoenas, as the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) looks into the group's spending, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the New York Times. Mid- and low-level aids who had been employed in the White House during Trump's presidency were subpoenaed earlier this week. Trump's office did not respond immediately to requests for any comment on the matter. The former president founded 'Save America' just days after the 2020 elections, in which Trump was defeated by Joe Biden. The political action group has since collected more than $100 million. The investigation comes just a month after Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents raided Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. Earlier, a federal judge in Florida ordered a so-called "special master" to be appointed, in order to examine over 11,000 documents taken from Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence. The search and seizure were part of a DOJ investigation into whether the former president illegally retained documents on national defense at Mar-a-Lago, and whether he obstructed government moves to get hold of the documents. Taking to social media, Trump said the FBI raid had turned the US into a "banana republic", rather than a rule-of-law nation. The FBI claimed it had "probable cause" that warranted a raid, as the bureau believed it would find "evidence of obstruction" -- a crime in the US -- at Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence. --IANS int/shs (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.) UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrived before dawn Friday on a two-day visit aimed at expressing his solidarity with Pakistan's government and people over climate-induced floods that have killed 1,391 people since mid-June. Upon his arrival at an airport near Islamabad, Guterres was received by senior officials. During the visit, the UN chief will travel to flood-hit areas, and he will meet with Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and other government and military officials. Guterres' trip comes less than two weeks after he issued an appeal for USD 160 million in emergency funding to help millions affected by record-breaking floods that have caused at least USD 10 billion in damages. Last week, the UN chief issued a stern warning about the effects of climate change. Let us stop sleepwalking toward the destruction of our planet by climate change, he said in a video message to a ceremony in Islamabad at the time. Today, it's . Tomorrow, it could be your country. So far, UN agencies and several countries have sent dozens of plane loads of aid to Pakistani flood victims. Washington has announced the United States will provide USD 30 million in assistance to help flood victims. On Thursday, Sharif told a visiting American diplomat that the world should step up its fight against climate change to avoid more deadly flooding in the impoverished Islamic nation, the government said. Sharif made the comment in a meeting with Derek Chollet, a senior State Department official visiting Islamabad to assess damages and arrange for aid in the wake of floods that have killed 1,391 people, affected 3.3 million people and made more than half a million homeless. According to the statement, Chollet affirmed that the US would stand by in the wake of this immense challenge, extend vital support, and help affected people rebuild their lives and communities. The meeting came a day ahead of the first American planeload expected to bring supplies to. Chollet on Thursday also met with Pakistan's powerful army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, according to a military statement, as the Biden administration approved the resumption of a USD 450 million sale to of equipment for F-16 aircraft maintenance a sale that had been on hold for years. Chollet told reporters in Islamabad it was a step forward in security relations between the United States and Islamabad. Earlier, Chollet said that he discussed in meetings with Sharif and other officials how Washington could assist in Pakistan's rescue and relief operations, adding that there will soon be more announcements of US aid. Washington was the largest donor to Pakistani flood victims, Chollet said and added that the Biden administration was also talking to other countries to ask them to help Pakistan and was committed to doing its part to address climate change. The devastations have added new burdens to cash-strapped Pakistan and highlighted the disproportionate effect of climate change on impoverished populations. Experts say Pakistan is responsible for only 0.4 per cent of the world's historic emissions blamed for climate change. The US is responsible for 21.5 per cent, China for 16.5 per cent and the EU 15 per cent. The floods in Pakistan, which began in mid-June, have also injured 12,722 people, according to the National Disaster Management Agency. (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 Treasury Department has announced that it is levying sanctions against four Iranian companies that it says were involved in sending drones to last month for use in Moscow's war against Ukraine. Tehran-based Safiran Airport Services, Paravar Pars Company, Design and Manufacturing of Aircraft Engines, and Baharestan Kish Company were all hit with the new sanctions. is making increasingly desperate choices to continue its unprovoked war against Ukraine, particularly in the face of our unprecedented sanctions and export controls, said Brian Nelson, under secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence on Thursday. The United States is committed to strictly enforcing our sanctions against both and and holding accountable and those supporting Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine." Safiran coordinates Russian military flights between and Russia, including those that US intelligence officials say transported Iranian unmanned aerial vehicles, personnel, and related equipment from Iran to Russia, over several days last month. Paravar Pars Company is closely associated with Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps-controlled Imam Hossein University, and has been involved in the research, development, and production of the Iranian Shahed-171 UAV. Design and Manufacturing of Aircraft Engines is an Iranian company involved in the research, development, and production of the Iranian Shahed-171 UAV. Baharestan Kish Company oversees various defense-related projects in Iran, including the manufacturing of UAVs. The Biden administration said last week that Russia has faced technical problems with Iranian-made drones that were acquired from Tehran in August. The White House says Russian officials picked up Mohajer-6 and Shahed-series unmanned aerial vehicles over several days last month. The Biden administration says US intelligence officials have determined that Russia is looking to acquire hundreds of Iranian UAVs for use in Ukraine. Earlier this week, the Pentagon confirmed that the U.S. intelligence community has determined that Russia is also in the process of purchasing rockets and artillery shells from North Korea for its ongoing fight in Ukraine. The US has frequently downgraded and made public intelligence findings over the course of the grinding war in Ukraine to highlight Moscow's difficulties in prosecuting the war. Ukraine's smaller military has put up a stiff resistance against the militarily superior Russian forces. (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 Biden administration has officially undone a Trump-era rule that barred immigrants from gaining legal residency if they had utilized certain government benefits, allowing for a return to a previous policy with a narrower scope. The Department of Homeland Security on Thursday said a new regulation for the public charge rule would go into effect in late December, although the Biden administration had already stopped applying the previous version last year. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement that the shift ensures fair and humane treatment. Consistent with America's bedrock values, we will not penalize individuals for choosing to access the health benefits and other supplemental government services available to them, he said. The public charge regulation bars people from getting green cards if they would be burdens to the United States. For years prior to the Trump administration, that was interpreted as being primarily dependent on cash assistance, income maintenance or government support for long-term institutionalisation. But the Trump administration expanded the benefits to include non-cash assistance including food stamps and Medicaid. There were numerous legal challenges, but it was allowed to be implemented in 2020. Legal challenges went on, and in 2021, the Biden administration said it would not continue defending the rule. Thursday's announcement was welcomed by immigrant advocates, who said the Trump administration's expanded rule had created a hard atmosphere for those seeking legal residency. The public charge regulation caused such fear among immigrants who sought to legally apply for a green card that many chose to forego health care and vital economic support, American Immigration Lawyers Association President Jeremy McKinney said in a statement. These changes to simplify and de-mystify the rule will truly change lives across our nation. (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 Spiritual Legacy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II Greeting NASA employees at the Goddard Space Flight Center, Maryland, May 2007 (Courtesy: NASA/Bill Ingalls). NEWS PROVIDED BY Military Bible Association Sept. 9, 2022 WASHINGTON, DC. Sept. 9, 2022 /Christian Newswire/ -- The passing away of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II leaves a void in the world that will not be soon filled, perhaps not at all until the Second Coming of Christ. Not since the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603) has the world had such an ardent Defender of the Faith until Elizabeth II reigned. Not since the reign of James I (1603-1625), who commissioned the Authorized Version (King James Version), has the British Monarchy endorsed a Bible translation until Elizabeth II allowed the translators of the Modern English Version (update of the Authorized Version) to dedicate this work to her in 2014, which is tantamount to a royal endorsement. Just as the Authorized Version will continue to be the lasting spiritual legacy of James I, so the Modern English Version will be the lasting spiritual legacy of Elizabeth II. Elizabeth II was born in Mayfair, London as Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor on April 21, 1926, and passed away in Balmoral Castle, United Kingdom, on September 8, 2022. On February 6, 1952, upon the passing away of her father, George VI, she assumed the title: Her Majesty Elizabeth II, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her Other Realms and Territories, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith. She reigned longer than any previous British Monarch and was the second longest reigning monarch of a sovereign nation in world history. She reigned for 70 years, 214 days over the United Kingdom and 14 additional commonwealths, realms, and territories. She celebrated her Silver Jubilee in 1977, Golden Jubilee in 2002, Diamond Jubilee in 2012, and Platinum Jubilee in 2022. Elizabeth II is survived by her children: King Charles III; Prince Andrew, Duke of York; Anne, Princess Royal; and Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex; and grandchildren: Peter Philips; Zara Tindall, MBE; Prince William, Duke of Cambridge; Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex; Princess Beatrice; Princess Eugenie; Lady Louise Windsor; and James, Viscount Severn; and numerous great grandchildren. Her late husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, passed away in 2021. In commemoration of the passing away of Elizabeth II, who allowed the Modern English Version Bible translation to be dedicated to her, I would like to share this prayer, penned by one of the translators of the Modern English Version, Verna Hall Linzey, who was given the titles "United States Navy Mother of the Fleet," and "Honorary Admiral," by the late Admiral Frederick C. Johnson, USN (Ret.). A PRAYER FOR HER ROYAL MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II On Becoming the Longest Reigning Monarch in British History (The 9th of September 2015) Almighty and Most Gracious Father, for our security, Thou hast given long life to Her Royal Majesty, ELIZABETH II, and placed her as the longest reigning monarch in world history. Grant peace and prosperity to Her Majesty's Realms, Territories, and Commonwealth. We petition Thee to keep Her Majesty, your humble daughter, in the palms of Thy gentle hands all the days of Her Majesty's life. Illuminate Her Majesty's mind, continually, granting Her Majesty wisdom to lead Thy people well; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Verna M. Linzey, D.D. Honorary Admiral, United States Navy Mother of the Fleet James F. Linzey is the chief editor of the Modern English Version Bible translation. He has a BA degree in Biblical Studies from Southern California College, and an MDIV degree from Fuller Theological Seminary. He is the author of numerous articles and books, speaker, and recording artist. He served as a military chaplain for nearly 24 years, attaining the rank of Major. He conducts a weekly podcast on The Baptism with the Holy Spirit on the Charisma Podcast Network. SOURCE Military Bible Association CONTACT: James F. Linzey, 307-218-9032, militarybibleassociation@gmail.com The U.S. government on Friday imposed sanctions on Iran's intelligence agency and its leadership in response to malicious cyberattacks on Albanian government computer systems in July. The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security and Esmail Khatib, who heads the ministry, for what it said were cyber-related activities against the U.S. and its allies. Albania, a NATO member, cut diplomatic ties with Iran and expelled its embassy staff this week over the cyberattack. It was the first known case of a country cutting diplomatic relations over a cyberattack. The Albanian government has accused Iran of carrying out the July 15 attack, which temporarily shut down numerous Albanian government digital services and websites. Microsoft, which assisted Albania in investigating the cyberattack, said in a blog post Thursday that it was moderately confident the hackers belong to a group that has been publicly linked to Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security. It said the attackers were observed operating out of Iran, used tools previously used by known Iranian attackers and had previously targeted other sectors and countries consistent with Iranian interests. The destructive malware deployed was also previously used by a known Iranian actor, it said. Iran's cyber attack against Albania disregards norms of responsible peacetime State behaviour in cyberspace, Brian Nelson, Treasury's under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement. We will not tolerate Iran's increasingly aggressive cyber activities targeting the or our allies and partners," he said. Since at least 2007, Iran's intelligence agency and its proxies have been accused of conducting cyber operations targeting public and private entities around the world. Treasury, which uses an Obama-era executive order that targets people and entities that engage in malicious cyber activities as an authority to impose the sanctions, has been ratcheting up its financial penalties on Iran this year. This comes as President Joe Biden's administration has been working to renew the tattered Iran nuclear deal, which placed curbs on Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for billions of dollars in sanctions relief, which Iran insists it has never received. (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 World Health Organisation on Thursday said it is launching a USD 1.5 billion campaign, hopefully including a new vaccine, to eliminate outbreaks of bacterial meningitis across by 2030. Meningitis vaccinations for more than 50 million children in have been delayed amid the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting fears of a resurgence of the deadly disease. In a race against time", regional director for Matshidiso Moeti said that a next generation vaccine against meningitis will be rolled out in 26 African countries most affected by the disease. She said hopes to authorize the vaccine by the first quarter of 2023, which would then enable donors to buy it for Africa. Moeti said the vaccine, has shown in clinical trials to be safe and effective against multiple forms of meningitis. The vaccine could be rolled out next year and administered in widespread drives until 2030, when the hopes to have stopped bacterial meningitis outbreaks in the continent of 54 countries and 1.3 billion people, she said. WHO estimated the plan could save more than 140,000 people every year but that depends on the shot's availability and health officials being able to administer it. Although no new cases of meningitis A have been recorded in the past five years on the continent due to a robust vaccination program, the outbreak of the COVID -19 pandemic and attendant restrictions has left hundreds of millions of Africans at risk, said Moeti. Meningitis had somewhat dropped off the radar but could now take an enormous toll on our countries, with COVID-19 threatening some of the extensive gains that had been made in the past, she said during a weekly briefing. WHO says its reports show that meningitis control activities were reduced by 50 per cent in 2020 compared to 2019 before the COVID-19 outbreak in Africa, although a slight improvement was recorded in 2021. Children are most threatened according to WHO data that shows about half of meningitis cases and deaths occur in children under 5 years of age. More than 350 million people in 24 high-risk African countries received jabs of the vaccine since 2010, until the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic slowed down progress. Meningitis is a serious infection of the membranes protecting the brain and spinal cord, according to WHO. It is caused by many different pathogens that include fungi, viruses and bacteria. Bacterial meningitis is the most deadly, according to the WHO. Carriers can spread the disease through respiratory or throat fluids via close and prolonged contact like kissing, sneezing or coughing or living close to an infected person. Meningitis has the potential to cause epidemics and it can lead to death within 24 hours, while one in five patients are left with lifelong disability after infection, according to the WHO. Symptoms include headache, a stiff neck, sudden onset of fever, nausea or vomiting, feeling drowsy or confused, or developing a sudden dislike of bright light, according to the WHO. (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.) Aluminium majors - Hindalco and National Aluminium (Nalco) jumped over 2 per cent each to a high of Rs 430.6 and Rs 81.65, respectively, in Friday's intra-day trades tracking gains in the base metals on the London Metal Exchange (LME). Overnight, benchmark aluminium on the London Metal Exchange was up 1.6 per cent at $ 2,271 a tonne, while copper added 2.5 per cent to $ 7,811 by 1600 GMT on Thursday amid worries that stoppages due to high energy prices or other disruptions will spur shortages. According to a Reuters report, Gianclaudio Torlizzi partner at consultancy T-Commodity in Milan said LME aluminium was getting an added boost because a physical arbitrage window from the LME to China had opened for the first time in many months. Back home as of 09:40 AM; Hindalco was up 2 per cent at Rs 429 on the back of 1.85 lakh share volume on the BSE. was up 1.6 per cent at Rs 80.90, with more than 5.13 lakh shares traded at the counter. Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex stood 0.4 per cent higher at 59,927. Meanwhile, among other metals and mining stocks, surged 2.5 per cent to Rs 269. NMDC, JSW Steel, Jindal Steel, and SAIL were also up 1-2 per cent each. The BSE Metal index was the top gainer, up 1.4 per cent at 19,306. For the quarter ended June 2022, Hindalco reported its highest ever quarterly profit in at Rs 4,119 crore, up 48 per cent on a YoY basis. Sales too rose by 40 per cent to Rs 58,020 crore, underpinned by strong US sales and higher revenue that cushioned the impact of pricier raw materials. However, analysts warn that the global industrial metals scenario has been extremely confused since the Russia-Ukraine war. We have seen both cuts in supply and also falling demand. The new equations are not yet clear. READ ANALYSIS That apart, in August 2022, Adani conglomerate led by Gautam Adani had announced its plan to invest Rs 57,575 crore in setting up an alumina refinery in Odisha. "The High-Level Clearance Authority (HLCA) of the government of Odisha, headed by chief minister Naveen Patnaik, approved the Adani Group's proposal to set up two projects - a 4 MT p.a. integrated alumina refinery and a 30 MT iron ore (value addition) project" the report stated. Shares of climbed nearly 6 per cent to Rs 304 per share in Fridays intra-day trade, after the company bagged an order worth Rs 1,458 crore from National Authority of India (NHAI) on Thursday, September 8. At 1:55 pm, shares of traded at Rs 293 apiece, up 2 per cent on the BSE. In comparison, the BSE S&P Sensex was up 0.2 per cent at 59,832 levels. In the past three months, the stock has rallied over 15 percent, as against a 7 per cent surge in the S&P BSE Sensex. The construction and engineering company signed a concession agreement between NHAI and Sonauli Gorakhpur Highways, a Special Purpose Vehicle incorporated by the company to implement the Hybrid Annuity Mode (HAM) project. The 1,458 crore Uttar Pradesh highway construction project is around 79 kilometers in length and is estimated to be constructed in 24 months, upon an appointed date and operated for 15 years, post construction. CLICK HERE Earlier, in the April-June quarter of financial year FY23 (Q1FY23), the company clocked Rs 1,758 crore revenue from operations, up 40.5 per cent from Rs 1,251 crore, in the corresponding quarter of previous fiscal (Q1FY22). Profit-after-tax (PAT), on the other hand, climbed nearly 79 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 166 crore in Q1FY23 from Rs 93 crore in Q1FY22. The management has retained their revenue growth guidance at 15 per cent for FY23 on the back of a healthy pace of execution and hopes of higher supply orders from Uttar Pradesh. Besides, the company foresees margins in the range of 13 to 13.5 per cent in FY23 post moderation of key input prices. Meanwhile, analysts at Anand Rathi remain bullish on the stock, retaining a buy stance on the counter, with a target price of Rs 383 per share. The companys steady ongoing pace of execution enabled its promising start to the year. We expect the momentum to continue as project execution proceeds and recently added orders will contribute in the year. PNC Infratechs steady core-EPC margin in a high-cost context indicates the companys efficiently-managed value chain, the brokerage firm said in a recent note. The Securities Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has asked several to submit the details on the public disclosures that influence the stock prices. This comes as several have seen sharp movements and wants to check if all the price-sensitive information was timely provided to the investors or not, according to a report by Economic Times (ET). The details that need to be disclosed are new drugs, pending patents, source of raw materials, and new partnerships, among others. In several cases, has reportedly found that no disclosures were made at all. "In one case, the queries were about a collaboration signed by a leading pharma company for distribution of - the drug that was used by doctors worldwide to treat the symptoms of Covid-19," the ET report quoted a person aware of the matter as saying. Experts have argued that in pharma companies, a small disclosure has the potential to influence wide movements in stock prices. These developments may include getting approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA). In the case of life-saving drugs, the company must provide every detail like licensing or clinical trials, to the investors, the report quoted a legal expert as saying. For companies, these may not have a major impact on the financials but they may impact share prices. However, the report also stated that the disclosures may at time conflict with the confidentiality clauses of the companies. It was in 2017 that started to be tougher about disclosures with the companies. Some companies were found to be not disclosing details about the US FDA approvals. The exercise has been made swifter after the Covid-19 pandemic. Company Date Agenda Aegis Logistics 13-09-2022 AEGIS LOGISTICS LTD.has informed BSE that the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company is scheduled on 13/09/2022 inter alia to consider and approve We hereby inform you that pursuant to regulations 29 & 42 of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations 2015 a meeting of Board of Directors of the Company is scheduled to be held on Tuesday September 13 2022 to consider and declare 2nd Interim Dividend during the financial year 2022-2023. The Record Date for the purpose of determining the entitlement of the shareholders for the 2nd Interim Dividend if declared at the Board Meeting will be September 23 2022.Further the Company confirms that the trading window for dealing in the securities of the Company which is closed for the Companys Directors/designated persons associated with the Company with immediate effect till the close of business hours on Thursday September 15 2022.This is for your information and records. Bajaj Holdings 13-09-2022 BAJAJ HOLDINGS & INVESTMENT LTD.has informed BSE that the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company is scheduled on 13/09/2022 inter alia to consider and approve declaration of interim dividend if any for the financial year ending 31 March 2023.Further the trading window for dealing in the securities of the Company will remain closed from 3 September 2022 till 15 September 2022 (both days inclusive) for specified designated persons as per the Companys Code of Conduct framed pursuant to SEBI (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations 2015 as amended. The said designated persons of the Company have been informed of the same. Fedders Electric 13-09-2022 Fedders Electric And Engineering Ltdhas informed BSE that the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company is scheduled on 05/09/2022 inter alia to consider and approve Pursuant to the Regulation 29(1) (a) of SEBI(LODR) Regulations 2015 notice is hereby given that meeting of the Board of Directors of Fedders Electric and Engineering Limited will be held on Monday 05.09.2022 at 6 and 6/1 UPSIDC Industrial Area Sikandrabad Bulandshahr 203205 at 03:00 P.M. inter-alia to consider and approve the following-The un-audited Financial Results (standalone and consolidated) of the Company for the quarter ended on 30th June 2020 30th September 2020 and 31st December 2020 along with Limited review report.-The un-audited Financial Results (standalone and consolidated) of the Company for the quarter ended on 30th June 2021 30th September 2021 and 31st December 2021 along with Limited review report. The audited Financial Results (Standalone and Consolidated) of the Company for the quarter and financial year ended March 31 2021 & March 31 2022 along with auditors report. You are requested to take the above information on records.Fedders Electric And Engineering Ltdhas informed BSE that the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company is scheduled on 13/09/2022 ,inter alia, to consider and approve and take on record the unaudited Financial Results (standalone and consolidated) for the quarter ended 30 th June 2021, 30 Sept, 2021 and December, 2021 along with LLR thereon and Audited Financial Results for the year ended 31 st March 2022 along with Audit Report. We now wish to inform you that the Board Meeting held on the 05th September, 2022 stands adjourned as the financial results for the quarter & year ended 31 st March, 2022 were not approved by the Audit Committee and the meeting of Audit Committee is adjourned and to be held on Sept 13 2022. Therefore the Board Meeting is also adjourned till the later day i.e. on 13 th Sept, 2022 at 6/1, UPSIDC Industrial Area, Sikandrabad Bulandshahr, UP 203205 inter-alia to consider, the following: To approve and take on record the unaudited Financial Results for the quarter ended along with limited review report thereon and Audited Financial Results for the 31 st March 2022 along with Audit Report.(As Per BSE Announcement Dated 06/09/2022) JTL Infra 13-09-2022 Inter alia, to consider & approve issue and allot equity shares by conversion of warrants issued on preferential basis in terms of SEBI (ICDR) Regulations, 2018 on March 17, 2021 to Non Promoters, Public Category, entitling the warrant holders to get their warrants converted into equal number of equity shares within 18 months of warrant allotment, including benefits of corporate action, if any. soared to a new high of Rs 2,755 in Friday's intra-day trades on the BSE on the back of optimism over the future growth prospects. The stock has rallied nearly 22 per cent in the last six straight trading sessions, while the NSE Nifty was up 2.2 per cent during the same period. So far in the September quarter, the stock has surged almost 50 per cent so far in the September quarter. In comparison, the NSE benchmark index has rallied 13.5 per cent during the same period. As of 11:20 AM, Tube Investments was up 3.8 per cent at Rs 2,724, with trades of around 4.05 lakh shares so far on the NSE. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty stood 0.4 per cent higher at 17,870. On Tuesday September 06, TI Clean Mobility (TCM), a subsidiary of Tube Investments of India, a Murugappa Group company, marked its entry into the electric vehicle segment with the launch of Montra Electric 3W Auto in Chennai. The launch was part of the group's strategy to focus aggressively on by introducing e-three-wheeler products under the brand Montra Electric, electric tractors under the Cellestial Egat brand, and electric heavy commercial vehicles through the Rhino 5536. The company said products in each of these categories will be launched within six months. Further, the company in August said it would be investing about Rs 1,000 crore to create at least four platforms in the EV segment. The price of the Montra electric 3W range was pegged to start at Rs 3,02,000 (ex-showroom post-subsidy). READ MORE For the quarter ended June 2022, Tube Investments reported a 38.5 per cent jump in Q1 net profit at Rs 13.43 crore when compared with Rs 9.70 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago. Total income rose 55.3 per cent to Rs 196.90 crore from Rs 126.76 crore. Bank of Maharashtra is quoting at Rs 18.85, up 0.8% on the day as on 12:44 IST on the NSE. The stock is up 4.43% in last one year as compared to a 2.9% spurt in NIFTY and a 34.83% spurt in the Nifty Pharma. Bank of Maharashtra gained for a fifth straight session today. The stock is quoting at Rs 18.85, up 0.8% on the day as on 12:44 IST on the NSE. The benchmark NIFTY is up around 0.34% on the day, quoting at 17859.1. The Sensex is at 59847.71, up 0.27%. Bank of Maharashtra has risen around 11.21% in last one month. Meanwhile, Nifty Pharma index of which Bank of Maharashtra is a constituent, has risen around 12.55% in last one month and is currently quoting at 3119.65, up 1.15% on the day. The volume in the stock stood at 30.48 lakh shares today, compared to the daily average of 30.36 lakh shares in last one month. The PE of the stock is 9.03 based on TTM earnings ending June 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.) Infosys Ltd is quoting at Rs 1491.9, up 1.08% on the day as on 12:49 IST on the NSE. The stock is down 11.82% in last one year as compared to a 2.85% spurt in NIFTY and a 19.21% spurt in the Nifty FMCG index. Infosys Ltd is up for a third straight session today. The stock is quoting at Rs 1491.9, up 1.08% on the day as on 12:49 IST on the NSE. The benchmark NIFTY is up around 0.29% on the day, quoting at 17850.55. The Sensex is at 59833.1, up 0.24%. Infosys Ltd has slipped around 6.9% in last one month. Meanwhile, Nifty FMCG index of which Infosys Ltd is a constituent, has slipped around 4.44% in last one month and is currently quoting at 28102.4, up 0.99% on the day. The volume in the stock stood at 18.05 lakh shares today, compared to the daily average of 45.29 lakh shares in last one month. The benchmark September futures contract for the stock is quoting at Rs 1496, up 1.26% on the day. Infosys Ltd is down 11.82% in last one year as compared to a 2.85% spurt in NIFTY and a 19.21% spurt in the Nifty FMCG index. The PE of the stock is 29.07 based on TTM earnings ending June 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.) Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M): M&M took the wraps off the fun and fast XUV400 electric SUV on the eve of World EV Day, for personal car buyers looking to embrace the future. Test drives will begin from December 2022 and bookings will commence from first week of January 2023 at both Mahindra dealerships as well as online. Deliveries of the XUV400 are scheduled to begin from end of January 2023. PNC Infratech: PNC Infratech informed signing of concession agreement between National Highways Authority of India and the Special Purpose Vehicle incorporated by the company for implementation of the following Hybrid Annuity Mode (HAM) Project Package. Capital India Finance: Capital India Finance approved providing corporate guarantee for an amount not exceeding Rs 30 crore in favour of National Housing Bank ('NHB') for securing the refinance facility to be availed by Capital India Home Loans, a material subsidiary of the company. GMR Power and Urban Infra: GMR Warora Energy Limited ('GWEL'), a stepdown subsidiary of GMR Power and Urban Infra Limited ('GPUIL'), has entered into definitive agreements with its lenders to restructure its debt by way of Resolution Plan (RP). 3i Infotech: 3i Infotech announced the launch of NuRe 3i+ powered by Oracle, a first-ever Zero Trust Sovereign Cloud in Malaysia, which is slated to be a gamechanger in the way SMBs and enterprises embrace transformation. SBC Exports: SBC Exports informed that a work order for providing office support, project management support and rollout services has been awarded to us by National Informatics Centre Services Incorporated (NICSI), New Delhi. The purchase order cost of the work order is Rs. 57.88 lakh. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Shares of two rice producers fell by 0.77% to 2.99% after the government on Thursday imposed a 20% export duty on non-Basmati rice except for parboiled rice. LT Foods (down 2.99%) and KRBL (down 0.77%) declined. As per a release by the Department of Revenue, under the Ministry of Finance, 20% levy will be imposed on export of rice in the husk (paddy or rough), husked brown rice, semi-milled or wholly-milled rice, whether or not polished or gazed (other than parboiled rice and Basmati rice). The notification shall come into force from 9th September 2022. Further, the government has banned the export of broken rice with an aim to increase domestic availability. "Export Policy of broken rice under HS code 1006 40 00 is amended from 'Free' to 'Prohibited'," the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said in a notification dated 8 September 2022. India is the world's second-largest rice producer after China and commands a 40% share in the global trade. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Utilties stocks were trading in red, with the S&P BSE Utilities index falling 18.59 points or 0.43% at 4265.46 at 13:47 IST. Among the components of the S&P BSE Utilities index, Reliance Power Ltd (down 9.86%), Reliance Infrastructure Ltd (down 9.01%),Jaiprakash Power Ventures Ltd (down 3.8%),NLC India Ltd (down 2.83%),Rattanindia Power Ltd (down 1.93%), were the top losers. Among the other losers were NHPC Ltd (down 1.73%), BF Utilities Ltd (down 1.7%), Torrent Power Ltd (down 1.32%), Va Tech Wabag Ltd (down 1.27%), and Tata Power Company Ltd (down 1.1%). On the other hand, Gujarat State Petronet Ltd (up 5.2%), Gujarat Industries Power Co Ltd (up 0.64%), and SJVN Ltd (up 0.64%) moved up. At 13:47 IST, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 87.8 or 0.15% at 59776.02. The Nifty 50 index was up 20.55 points or 0.12% at 17819.3. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 68.64 points or 0.23% at 29543.27. The S&P BSE 150 Midcap Index index was up 45.51 points or 0.5% at 9143.83. On BSE,1632 shares were trading in green, 1765 were trading in red and 132 were unchanged. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Zomato rose 2.85% to Rs 63.15 after a foreign broker reportedly maintained an outperform rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 90. The brokerage reportedly said that Zomato can turn EBITDA breakeven as guided. Current estimates could drive a valuation shift to EV/EBITDA. Zomato already has a contribution positive model in the top 120 cities, it added. The broker sees a substantial scope for increased take rates in smaller cities. Zomato connects customers, restaurant partners and delivery partners. Customers use Zomato to search and discover restaurants, read and write customer generated reviews and view and upload photos, order food delivery, book a table and make payments while dining-out at restaurants. On the other hand, it provides restaurant partners with industry-specific marketing tools which enable them to engage and acquire customers to grow their business while also providing a reliable and efficient last mile delivery service. The company also operates a one-stop procurement solution, Hyperpure, which supplies high quality ingredients and kitchen products to restaurant partners. The online food delivery platform reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 186 crore in Q1 June 2022, as against net loss of Rs 360.70 crore in Q1 June 2021. Revenue from operations stood at Rs 1,413.9 crore in Q1 June 2022, up 67.44% from Rs 844.4 crore reported in Q1 June 2021. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The scale of devastation caused by in is so huge that the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has flown in personally to express his solidarity. Soon after his arrival, he tweeted an appeal for massive support from the international community as responds to this climate catastrophe. It is clear that all eyes are on India to take the lead, given the geographical proximity, the historical ties, and its ability to help. 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 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 Taking a pot shot at the leader Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra, Union Minister on Friday said that India is already united under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. " is going on Bharat Jodo yatra nowadays. But India is already united under the leadership of PM Modi," said at the inauguration event of various development schemes in Himachal Pradesh's Hamirpur. "There is not even a Rs 1 scam allegation on Modi government. The double-engine (BJP) government in both the Centre and State has worked together to take the state and country forward. We can't let the country get divided and must work with unity to take it forward,' he added. Thakur's remarks came a day after PM Modi blow the poll bugle in the hill state on Thursday. The 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' is being held to combat the divisive of the BJP-led Centre, and to awaken the people of the country to the dangers of economic inequalities, social polarisation and political centralisation. A 3,500-km march from Kanyakumari to Kashmir is undertaken by andwill be completed in 150 days and cover as many as 12 states. After reaching Kerala on September 11, the Yatra will traverse through the state for the next 18 days, reaching Karnataka on September 30. It will be in Karnataka for 21 days before moving north. Meanwhile, Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Thursday took a swipe at over the ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra and said that their motive of "unification of India" would have been believed in if the party had abrogated Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir. Taking a dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma on Wednesday said there is no need for 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' and the Wayanad MP can instead work for 'Akhand Bharat'. "From Kashmir to Kanyakumari and Silchar to Saurashtra, India is united. We are one nation. Congress disintegrated India in 1947. If has any regret or apology that his grandfather made a mistake, then there is no use for the Bharat Jodo Yatra in India. Try to integrate Pakistan and Bangladesh (with India) and work for Akhand Bharat," he said. Union Minister Ramdas Athawale said on Wednesday that the Congress leader should undertake a journey to unite his party instead. The Union minister of state for social justice and empowerment said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was doing the work for uniting the nation. "I think that instead of doing the Bharat Jodo Yatra, Rahul Gandhi ji should do a 'Congress Jodo Yatra'. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is working to connect the country. I think Rahul Gandhi is travelling to break the country not to unite the country," Athawale told ANI on Wednesday. However, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi said that the tricolour belongs to every religion, state and language, but it is under attack today by the and the RSS that are dividing India on lines of religion and language. Speaking at the launch of the Bharat Jodo Yatra at a rally on September 7, he said every single institution of the country is under attack as he sought the support of the people to help keep the country united. Notably, all the party MPs, leaders and workers along with Rahul Gandhi will stay in the container for the next 150 days. Sleeping beds, toilets and AC are also installed in some of the containers. During the journey, the temperature and environment will differ in many areas. The arrangements have been made keeping in view the intense heat and humidity with the change of places. The 148-day march will culminate in Kashmir. The five-month Yatra is scheduled to cover a distance of 3,500 kilometres and more than 12 states. The Padyatra (march) will cover a distance of 25 km every day. The Yatra will include Padayatras, rallies, and public meetings which will be attended by the senior Congress leaders including Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. The Congress suffered a debacle in the assembly polls held earlier this year and the Yatra is seen as an attempt to rally the party rank and file for the upcoming electoral battles. (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 BJP's Delhi unit led a protest of slum-dwellers, auto drivers, and senior citizens near the residences of Chief Minister and his ministers, demanding Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia's dismissal over the alleged liquor scam. Adesh Gupta, president of the BJP's Delhi unit, said people were with the party as the "excise scam" that benefitted the liquor mafia at the cost of public money had been exposed. Gupta led the protest near Sisodia's Mathura Road residence. He added that the Kejriwal government was trying to evade answers, but the would not rest till Sisodia was removed. Leader of Opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri and Delhi unit general secretary Dinesh Pratap Singh led the protest outside the chief minister's residence. Various cells of the BJP's Delhi unit, including those representing slum-dwellers, auto rickshaw drivers, senior citizens, apart from party workers from Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and the southern states, protested outside the residences of AAP ministers. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is investigating alleged irregularities in the implementation of the Delhi government's Excise Policy 2021-22, has named Sisodia as an accused in its FIR. AAP leaders, including Kejriwal and Sisodia, have denied the allegations. They have alleged that the BJP, "rattled" by Kejriwal's rise as a challenger to Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of the General Elections in 2024, was trying to topple the government in Delhi. (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.) Bharatiya Janata Party Avadh unit will be holding a meeting in today, as the eyes on making strategies for the upcoming municipal polls, party sources said. State President Bhupendra Chaudhary will chair the meeting. is focussing on the upcoming municipal elections. Meetings will also be held in Varanasi and Gorakhpur in the coming days. The focus will be on strategies for Purvanchal as the party targets to register a win in maximum seats in the upcoming polls. The 'Seva Saptah' will be a 15-day event to be held from September 17 to October 2. Under this event which will begin on the occasion of PM Narendra Modi's birthday, BJP ministers, officials and party workers will reach out to people through various programmes. The party has also taken a decision that no tickets will be given to the children or any other relative of a politician, holding any political post. The politicians' relatives will not be permitted to run even as independent candidates. (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.) Bharatiya Janata Party president JP Nadda on Friday dubbed regional outfits as "family parties" and said his party will fight against dynastic in the country with its ideology. Addressing a convention of booth level party workers at Science College ground in Chhattisgarh's capital Raipur, Nadda also accused Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel of looting people of the state and making it an "ATM of the Congress party". Nadda, who is on his maiden visit to the Congress-ruled state after assuming charge as president, asked party workers to take the messages of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the booth level and apprise people with works being done under the latter's leadership. Asserting the is the only party which has an ideology to serve people, he said, Our fight is against the of 'vanshwad' (dynasty). Right from Jammu and Kashmir to Tamil Nadu, we are battling against it." "In Jammu and Kashmir, the fight is against Conference (NC) and PDP, in Punjab it is SAD, Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, Rashtriya Janata Dal Bihar, Biju Janata Dal in Odisha, Trinamool Congress West Bengal, which is the party of 'aunt-nephew' Mamata Benerjee and Abhishek Banerjee." Similarly, the battle is against Jagan Mohan Reddy's party in Andhra Pradesh, TRS in Telangana and MK Stalin's party in Tamil Nadu, he said, adding that "all these parties are family parties". Referring to the political developments in neighbouring Maharashtra that started with the rebellion in the Shiv Sena in June, Nadda said Uddhav Thackeray's party broke up because of family. Attacking Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, the chief said the former was running the party of the "brother and sister", a swipe at Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi. "The BJP will fight against dynasty with its ideological background. There is no longer any party with ideology except BJP," Nadda claimed. Mocking the Congress' 'Bharat Jodo Yatra', Nadda said those who had failed to keep their own house in order had launched such a march. He told the Congress leadership to understand why "those who were associated with you for the last 50 years have quit the party". Alleging that the Baghel government was stalling ongoing works in the state, Nadda said, "The Bagel government has made Chhattisgarh an ATM for the Congress party and has indulged in looting people of the state. It is engaged in serving one family (referring to Gandhi family)". "The state Congress government does not provide its share under Ayushman Bharat scheme but it does not forget to send instalments of money to Delhi (a reference to the Congress central Congress leadership)," he alleged. Nadda is on a four day visit to Raipur from Friday. Earlier in the day, he was part of a road show from Deendayal Chowk Telibandha to Ekatman Parisar, the BJP's Raipur district office. (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 Congress on Friday said its 'Bharat Yatris' were staying in containers which have very "basic and minimal" facilities, and claimed that the was trying to "defame" its 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' as it was rattled by it. The Opposition party alleged that the IT cell was spreading falsehoods about the facilities at its Yatra campsites and in containers. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh also took a dig at the BJP, saying this is not like the 1990 "Rath Yatra" a Toyota Yatra or an Innova Yatra ours is a Padyatra. The attack by the Opposition party came after it gave access to the media to its campsite in Nagercoil where the 60 containers were parked. About 230 people, including 119 Bharat Yatris who will walk the full 3,570 km from Kanyakumari to Kashmir will spend their nights in 60 containers mounted on trucks that will be moved daily from one place to another. is staying in a one-bed container that has a small sofa, an air conditioner, a small refrigerator and an attached toilet. A pictorial representation of one of Mahatma Gandhi's marches with his quote, "Be the change that you wish to see in the world", is also put up in the former Congress chief's container. Leaders such as Congress general secretaries K C Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh and Digvijaya Singh are staying in two-bed containers. There are also four-bed, six-bed, eight-bed and 12-bed containers. While some have attached toilets, others do not. Mobile toilets and showers, mounted on trucks, are also parked at the campsites. The site visited by the media was Scott Christian College, Nagercoil, where the Yatris spent Thursday night. "We have 60 containers here. These containers move from one site to another. There is a one-bed container which Mr. uses. There is a two-bed container which Mr. Digvijaya Singh, Mr K C Venugopal and I use, there is a four-bed, six bed, eight-bed and 12 bed containers," Ramesh told reporters. He said his container has two bunks and is like a second AC train compartment. There is an area for having meals at the campsite and a conference room container which can accommodate 10 people, Ramesh said. Hitting out at the BJP, Ramesh said they only have "propaganda" to peddle. "The allegations that have been made by the IT cell with the encouragement of the prime minister (Narendra Modi) to defame the Bharat Jodo Yatra show that the BJP is rattled," Ramesh said. The BJP is making these allegations in its nervousness, he claimed. "They should come and see what the reality is. We are not hiding anything, there is complete transparency. Look at the way we are staying, it would take about 160 days (to complete the Yatra)," he said. This is "very basic" and "very minimal", Ramesh said. "I wish both Amit Shah and Amit Malviya see these containers and then they will know what it is to live in a container. This is not like the Rath Yatra. It is not a Toyota Yatra or an Innova Yatra. Ours is a Padyatra," Ramesh said. The containers are not Made in China, he added. The facilities are very basic. It is like what you would expect while travelling in a second AC rail compartment, he said. "By 8 AM these containers move to the next locations. We need two acres to accommodate these containers. We end up setting up camps in schools and colleges," he said. He said the camp sites are mostly for the 119 'Bharat Yatris', support staff and people managing the camps. Ramesh said the food for the Yatris is being managed by the party's state units. On the second day of the actual Padyatra, which was launched at a rally on Wednesday, Gandhi along with other Bharat Yatris and party leaders began walking from the Nagercoil school after a flag hoisting ceremony which the party has said would be a daily routine. "Day 2 of the padayatra started with flag hoisting at 7 am in Nagercoil. Bharat Yatris were joined by 89-year-old freedom fighter Kodikal Sheikh Abdullah. He inspired everyone by highlighting the need to stand up, unite and fight for the soul of our nation," Ramesh said in a tweet. Rahul Gandhi, along with several of his party colleagues, embarked on the 3,570-km "Bharat Jodo Yatra" from here on Thursday. Amid sounds of drum beats, a sea of tricolour and slogans of "Bharat Jodo", the march began from Vivekananda College Road, Agasteeswaram here on Thursday. Walking briskly, Gandhi, along with several top Congress leaders, covered 13 km in the morning session of the yatra on Thursday. He walked about seven km in the evening when there was mass mobilisation and thousands walked along with the former Congress chief. The march would cover 12 states and two Union Territories in about five months. The march is moving in two batches from 7 am to 10:30 am and from 3:30 pm to 6:30 pm. While the morning session includes fewer participants, the evening session sees mass mobilisation. The participants plan to walk around 22-23 km daily. About 30 per cent of 'Bharat Yatris' are women. The average age of Bharat Yatris is 38. About 50,000 citizens have also registered to participate in the Yatra. After reaching Kerala on September 11, the Yatra will traverse through the state for the next 19 days, reaching Karnataka on October 1. It will be in Karnataka for 21 days before moving north. It will pass through Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Nilambur, Mysuru, Bellary, Raichur, Vikarabad, Nanded, Jalgaon, Indore, Kota, Dausa, Alwar, Bulandshahr, Delhi, Ambala, Pathankot, Jammu, and end in Srinagar. (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 J&K Chief Minister on Thursday attacked Congress' Rahul and saying he had maintained a dignified silence since his departure from the party but their continued attack forced him to retaliate. Azad said this while holding a rally in his home town in Jammu and Kashmir's Doda district. He said that despite repeated attacks on him by the Gandhis, he maintained a dignified silence for a long time but his single retaliation has now grounded them. Azad, who is on his maiden political campaign as a non-Congress leader ahead of announcing his own party in Jammu and Kashmir, addressed a rally at a jam packed Bhalla market in Doda's Bhadarwah. "After my resignation letter, I maintained a dignified silence for four days but when and Rahul kept attacking at me, I was left with no other option but to make my point, as my religion and ethics of give you the right to protect yourself, when you are attacked," Azad said. "They tried to defame me by firing missiles at me but when I retaliated, they got grounded with a single shot of 303 rifle. "If I had used a ballistic missile, then they would have vanished from the forever," he said. Azad said that he will fight to restore the statehood of Jammu & Kashmir and the rights of its people. "The first right on the land of Jammu and Kashmir and jobs is that of our people and it's my foremost priority to fight to give my people their right," Azad said. He added that his party will focus on the restoration of full statehood, and right to land and employment to those with native domicile. In another rally in Udhampur, Azad said that he will now start on the unfinished work which he could not do as chief minister of Jammu & Kashmir, when some people withdrew support from his (Congress-PDP) government. He further said had he known about the heart and mind of the people earlier, he would have left the Congress long ago. (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 on Friday promised to create 6 lakh government jobs in and pay Rs 3,000 per month as unemployment allowance to jobless youth till they find work if the party is voted to power in assembly polls scheduled to be held later this year. The party said a consultation board would be formed for traders and tourism industry to end inspector raj and political corruption in the state. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia made the announcements during a public meeting in Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur's home district Mandi. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also promised free pilgrimage for senior citizens to their choice of religious place. The party said would be made corruption-free on the lines of Delhi. The leaders also promised to provide every panchayat Rs 10 lakh as grant for development and a monthly salary of Rs 10,000 for panchayat presidents. The leaders said minimum support price (MSP) to farmers and orchardists on their produce and subsidy on pesticides, fertilisers and seeds will be guaranteed. As part of its poll guarantees, the has already promised free and quality education and medical treatment for Himachal residents. The AAP, which is trying to make a foray into the state's political landscape, is currently ruling the neighbouring Punjab and Delhi. (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 JD(U) on Friday lashed out at Bihar chief Sanjay Jaiswal for coming up with misleading data on growth rate in two districts of the state, alleging that he was trying to incite communal hatred among people. Jaiswal had on Wednesday claimed that growth rate in Kishanganj and Araria districts was the "highest in the world", partly due to the alleged high rate of influx of Bangladeshi infiltrators. All leaders, including Jaiswal, are engaged in inciting communal hatred among people in the state to derive political mileage They (BJP) are doing this as Union Home Minister Amit Shah is scheduled to visit Bihar on September 24, JD(U) leaders Neeraj Kumar and Arvind Nishad said in a statement. Jaiswal is giving wrong and misleading information. The growth rate in several other districts in India is much higher than Araria and Kishanganj, they claimed. According to the 2011 census, Kishanganj has a 67 per cent Muslim population, the highest in any Bihar district, followed by adjoining Araria, where the figure is 43 per cent. Jaiswal had made the remarks in Araria, where he was galvanising support for Shah's rally at nearby Purnea later this month. (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 on Friday met Lt. Governor V.K. Saxena for the first time since the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had conducted raids at Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia's residence in August. This was the first weekly meeting -- that takes place every Friday between the Chief Minister and the Lt. Governor, after the raids. Addressing the media after the meeting, CM Kejriwal said that the meeting concluded in a "happy environment", and both discussed several issues related to the capital city in the meeting. "We have weekly meeting with Lt governor. But for last some weeks, the meeting was not held as I was out of town. Today, the meeting concluded in conducive environment and we both discussed several issues of the city," said Kejriwal. "I have made request to him that we together will work for the issues pertaining to the Municipal corporation," the Chief Minister added. The issues of 'garbage mountains', and fixing the sanitation system in the city were also discussed during the meeting, Kejriwal told the media. Responding to the question of ongoing tussle over several issues with L-G after the raids at Sisodia's house, the Chief Minister said: "Whatever happened was unfortunate. I hope the situation will improve now. Today, there was a very good atmosphere between the two of us." --IANS avr/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.) Extending support to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's demolition of three madrasas in the state, Chief Minister N on Thursday said that the BJP is not against the legal madrasas but only the illegal ones. Singh said that he would have taken the same action if he had been the chief minister of Assam. Speaking to ANI, he said, "What the Chief Minister is doing in Assam in connection with the madrassa is right. Those who have to approach the courts can do it, it is a democracy. But he is doing the right thing. If I had been at Himanta Biswa Sarma's place as a chief minister, I would have taken the same action." Standing in support of Sarma who was criticised by Congress for his action against the madrasas which the Assam CM alleged were the offices of Al-Qaeda, Singh said that Sarma understands the political demography of the state and is working accordingly. "Sarma is an experienced politician who is connected to the grassroots. He understands the political demography there. He is working according to that only. We have instructed earlier to the madrassas in to impart a general education," he said. The CM said that there is a need to crack down on those indulging in "unconstitutional activities". "Unrecognized and unauthorized Madrasas need to be recognized. An undue advantage of India's democracy was taken. The BJP governments are not against the legal madrassas but are against the illegal ones. There is a need to crackdown on those who do unconstitutional activities," he said. Meanwhile, Chief Minister on Wednesday said all demolished madrasas were not madrasas but Al-Qaeda offices. Speaking to mediapersons here, Sarma said, "All demolished madrasas were not madrasas but Al Qaeda offices. We demolished 2-3 and now the public is coming to demolish others. The Muslim community is coming to demolish, saying that they do not want a madrasa where the work of Al-Qaeda is done. That changes madrasa's character." The Chief Minister's statement came after local residents of Pakhuria Char in Assam's Goalpara district demolished a madrasa on Tuesday after a cleric associated with it was held for alleged anti-national activities. "Locals took the initiative to demolish a madrassa. The government was not involved in it. They were surprised that the jihadi who was arrested was a teacher in the madrassa. People have given a strong message that they do not support jihadi activities," Goalpara Superintendent of Police VV Rakesh Reddy told ANI. "Today, the locals of Darogar Alga, Pakhiura Char in Goalpara district voluntarily demolished the madrassa & the residence adjacent to the madrassa which was previously used by two suspected Bangladeshi nationals as a strong resentment towards the Jihadi activities," said the Assam Police CPRO. In the last few weeks, four madrasas have been demolished, with the first three being pulled down by government authorities. Earlier on August 4, the government authorities demolished Madrasa Jamiul Huda Madrasa at Moirabari in Morigaon district. Notably, on 30 August, the Uttar Pradesh government had asked the DMs of all the districts to conduct a survey of unrecognized madrassas and inform the government about it. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) After the three day visit to Delhi, Bihar Chief Minister on Thursday returned to Patna and went straight away to Rabri Devi's residence to meet former Chief Minister . Kumar believes that his visit was successful. He also said that the BJP is trying to destroy the country. "I am doing my job to unite the opposition leaders and my efforts will continue. I firmly believe that the opposition leaders will be united soon and every one will contribute in fighting against the BJP. The decision on the Prime Ministerial candidate will be final in two to three months. At present, I am not the Prime Ministerial candidate of the opposition parties," Kumar said. "We believe in work and are doing the development works in Bihar. The fertility rate of Bihar was 4.3 in the beginning when I took charge of Bihar, and now it has reached to 2.9 due to the education of girls. We will also work for the country. We work, we do not do publicity," Kumar said. "BJP is now a changed party. It is not the BJP, which it used to be during Atal Ji's day. The policies and narratives of BJP has changed now," he said. After returning to Patna, Kumar apprised Lalu Yadav about the outcome of meetings with different opposition leaders in . --IANS ajk/shs (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.) About 230 "padyatris" participating in the party's ambitious "Bharat Jodo Yatra" will spend their nights in 60 containers mounted on trucks that will be moved daily from one place to another, party general secretary Jairam Ramesh said on Thursday. As former president and scores of party workers began the 3,570-km campaign from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, Ramesh told reporters after the morning session of the yatra that in the containers, which will be stationed every night at temporary campsites of about two acres, there is no facility for having food or meetings. There is no TV inside, there is a fan, he said. The 119 "Bharat Yatris", including Rahul Gandhi, who will walk the entire distance of 3,570 km, along with some "Atithi Yatris" , will be staying in the containers, Ramesh said. "We are staying in the containers since yesterday. There are 60 containers in which about 230 people stay. Every day the containers will move to a new site mounted on trucks. Some are one-bed, some two-bed, some four-bed and some 12-bed containers," Ramesh said. is also staying in the container since Wednesday night, he said. Bharat Jodo Yatra organising panel chief Digvijaya Singh said the containers are like railway sleeper compartments. Asked if there were air conditioners in the containers, Singh said there was no need for using the AC in such weather. Late in the night, the party released videos of the containers. sources said the videos were of the campsite where all "Bharat Yatris" are being put up every night. The videos were of containers with 12 beds, four beds, two beds and one bed. The party also shared a video of a toilet container and the dining hall at the campsite. Some containers had attached toilets and washrooms. Some containers were seen fitted with air conditioners, as per the videos. This should debunk the "absolute lies" being peddled by the IT cell of the BJP and its surrogates, the party sources said. Elaborating on the containers, Ramesh earlier said they are mounted on TATA trucks that are from Mumbai. They are from a private company that is not undertaken by Adani, he said, adding there will be mobile toilets for the yatris at the campsites. Singh also said it has been decided that from places where the yatra is not passing, water and soil will be brought and 5-10 saplings will be planted by at various places where the yatra halts. On Thursday, Gandhi planted saplings at the 101-year-old SMSM Higher Secondary School, where the Congress yatris halted between the morning and evening session. Incidentally, Mahatma Gandhi and C Rajagopalachari had also visited the school in 1937. Mahatma Gandhi had also signed the visitors' book in Hindi and Tamil. After the evening session of the yatra, Ramesh tweeted, "We have just completed Day 1 of Bharat Jodo Yatra. Bharat Yatris walked about 20 kms. It's a great beginning for the first day. The crowds have been huge and their enthusiasm is visible. 'Headlinejeevi' will do a lot to distract attention but only those who walk the talk count! he said. At the school, Rahul Gandhi had three interactions with civil society after the 13-km padayatra this morning. First was with women activists, second with Dalit groups and third with environmentalists. During the interactions, representations were handed over. This pattern will continue every day of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, Ramesh said. He said the yatris will halt in Scott Christian College on Thursday night. Singh said the food at the camp sites and during the "padyatra" is being arranged by the party's state units. He said that on every day of the yatra the flag will be saluted and there will be a rendition of Vande Matram and anthem. The yatra formation would include a Seva Dal flag contingent in front, then "Bharat Yatris" and followed by state and other yatris as well as civil society members. Ramesh also alleged that the party's state level coordinator who wanted to visit Lakshadweep was not allowed to do so by Administrator Praful Patel, who was a BJP minister in Gujarat earlier. The "Bharat Yatris" have also been issued standard khadi bags, which have a water bottle, an umbrella and a pair of T-shirts. The march will cover 12 states and two union territories in 150 days. (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 on Friday granted bail to Kerala-based journalist Siddique Kappan, arrested in October 2020 while on his way to Hathras in Uttar Pradesh where a Dalit woman had died after allegedly being gang-raped. A bench headed by Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit directed Kappan to remain in Delhi for the next six weeks after the release from an Uttar Pradesh prison. The bench imposed certain conditions on him including asking him to surrender his passport and report to the police station on every Monday. (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.) Secretary-General on Friday appealed to the world to help which is reeling from devastating floods that have killed thousands and affected more than 33 million people. Secretary-General Guterres arrived in on Friday for a 2-day solidarity visit amidst the catastrophic situation caused by floods in . The visit comes less than two weeks after he appealed for USD 160 million in emergency funding to help those affected by unprecedented rains and floods that have killed nearly 1,350 people in the country and inundated about a third of Pakistan since early June. The Flash Appeal for USD 160 million to support the response, led by the Government of Pakistan, will provide 5.2 million people with food, water, sanitation, emergency education, protection and health support. I have arrived in Pakistan to express my deep solidarity with the Pakistani people after the devastating floods here, he tweeted after his arrival in the country. I appeal for massive support from the community as Pakistan responds to this climate catastrophe. Guterres tweeted. Guterres was received on his arrival by Deputy Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and he will meet Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. He will also visit the National Flood Response and Coordination Centre (NFRCC), have a joint presser with the Prime Minister, and hold talks with the foreign minister followed by a joint press stakeout at the Foreign Office, besides other engagements, all related to the floods response, according to Foreign Office Spokesperson Asim Iftikhar. Guterres will also visit areas most affected by flooding, including Balochistan and Sindh, where he will meet first responders and interact with people displaced by the floods. Huge areas of the country are inundated and hundreds of thousands of people have been forced from their homes. The government says more than 33 million people have been affected by the floods. The Pakistani government, Iftikhar said, wanted to utilise the visit to promote global awareness about the massive challenge of reconstruction and rehabilitation facing the country. In this context, the secretary general will also raise awareness about the linkages of such mega-disasters with the frightening impact of climate change, he further said. The visit comes as Pakistan battles the floods and their aftermath. Officials estimated more than 10 billion dollars of economic losses. According to the WHO, over 1,460 health centres have been damaged due to floods across the country, of which 432 have been fully wrecked, mostly in Sindh. The Pakistan cabinet has enhanced the cumulative compensation amount for flood-affected families under the Benazir Income Support Programme from Rs 28 billion to Rs 70 billion, while the UN has issued a flash appeal for USD 160 million to tackle the flood disaster. (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 recent arrest of -- the former chief of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) -- for alleged money laundering is a stark reminder that governance structures still need nurturing. Markets have seen quite a few fallen heroes, and they offer lessons to investors and regulators. Let us have a brief look at some of them How can we talk of market mishaps and not start with Shantilal Harshad Mehta. In the second quarter of 1992, the securities scandal roiled the markets. Till the broke, Mehta epitomised rags to riches story -- someone who started as an outsider to Mumbai to become one of leading market brokers in BSE. The Rs 4,000 involved Mehta taking advantage of the loopholes in the banking system to manipulate the Bombay Stock Exchange. From a wave of followers flocking to his investment choices, Mehtas fall was stark. He was charged with over 70 criminal offences. The securities scandal brought about many changes in the financial regulatory system. Investors look up to market leaders for investment choices. But not all of them live up to the expectations in terms of conduct. Ketan Parekh was one such figure. A protege of Harshad Mehta, he had learned trading from him. Ketan was revered as the Bombay Bull and was famous for picking stocks that turned to gold. Like Harshad Mehta, Parekh exploited the loopholes in the market and faced allegations of insider trading and manipulating stock prices. He was also accused of misrepresentation of facts to borrow from the banks. After Harshad Mehta, Ketan Parekh had markets on the boil and took regulations for a toss. Another billionaire market leader whose enviable rise was jaw-dropping and eventually fell prey to his own ambition was Jignesh Shah. Shah revolutionised commodities trading in India when he set up Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX). He later launched the National Spot Exchange Limited (NSEL), the countrys first electronic spot exchange for commodities, which eventually led to his downfall. Shah was arrested in a Rs 5,600 crore payments scam, where contracts were sold without collateral, at NSEL. This marked the beginning of the fall of his empire and Shah was forced to move out of everything that he had built. From market stakeholders, let us move on to the regulators themselves. Chitra Ramakrishna was part of a core team that built the tech-driven National Stock Exchange, now a favourite for retail investors. Chitra Ramakrishna brought with her an understanding of debt markets to NSE. When she was appointed head of NSE in 2013, Chitra Ramakrishna was one of the rare women CEOs leading a bourse. But in 2015, reports emerged about the co-location where select traders were allegedly given preferential access to data and trading systems through the co-location facility at the exchange. There were also allegations of money laundering. This has severely hurt the credibility of the exchange. Ramkrishna resigned from the NSE in late 2016 and earlier this year, the CBI took her into custody. Even as the Chitra Ramakrishna continues to dominate headlines, the enforcement directorate has arrested former boss of NSE, in a money laundering case. Narain was the longest serving chief of the NSE, from 1994-2013. Under Narain, NSE established an edge over BSE and facilitated large volumes of derivatives trading. But then, the shadows of the co-location case haunted him. Earlier this year, Narain was questioned by CBI for his role in the co-location scandal and regulator Sebi had also imposed a penalty. Allegations of governance lapses during his tenure as NSE chief marred his image. Deven Choksey, MD, KR Choksey Investment Managers says regulations have always been in place, but individuals always found a way to overstep these norms. The systems and frameworks should be more simple With strict regulations in place, the governance standards have improved leaps and bounds over the years. Effectiveness of these norms should be evaluated on a periodic basis to ensure that there is no other Harshad Mehta . Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday evening inaugurated the revamped 3-km-long Central Vista Avenue, which extends from Rashtrapati Bhawan to the India Gate. The tree-lined space flanked by green spaces and water channels is one of the most visited tourist places in Delhi and is best known for the annual parade. PM Modi also unveiled the 28-feet black granite statue of Subhas Chandra Bose, which is placed under the India Gate canopy. The statue is hand-sculpted by a team led by renowned sculptor Arun Yogiraj from a single block of granite stone weighing 280 metric tonne. The block of stone was brought to Delhi from Telangana and it took two months to carve the statue of Bose from it. The avenue was named Kingsway by the British after King George V, who visited Delhi during the Delhi Durbar of 1911 and shifted the capital from Calcutta to the city. Post-Independence, it was renamed Rajpath. A road bisecting the Kingsway was named Queensway. It is now known as Janpath. Now Rajpath has once again been renamed as Kartavya Path, which translates to path of duty. This is the first project that has been completed under the Modi governments larger ambitious Central Vista redevelopment plan. The redevelopment project of the nations power corridor envisages a new triangular Parliament building, 10 buildings of the Common Central Secretariat, revamping the Rajpath, a new prime ministers residence and office, a new vice-presidents enclave, Central Conference Centre, Additional Buildings for National Archives, among others. Conceived in September 2019, the planned redevelopment is estimated to cost Rs 20,000 crore and involves projects spread over 6 years till 2026. The project for the New Parliament Building was awarded at an estimated cost of Rs 862 crore to Tata Projects. The project for rejuvenation of Central Vista Avenue was awarded at an estimated cost of Rs 477 crore to Shapoorji Pallonji Group. Larsen & Toubro bagged the contract for the construction and maintenance of the first three of the 10 buildings of the Common Central Secretariat. In October 2019, architect Bimal Patels Gujarat-based firm HCP Design had won the consultancy bid for the Central Vista redevelopment. The consultancy services include master plan, building designs, cost estimation, landscape and traffic integration plans and parking facilities. HCP has developed several projects including Sabarmati Riverfront Development, Central Vista and state secretariat in Gandhinagar, Mumbai Port Complex, redevelopment of Varanasi temple complex, IIM Ahmedabads new campus and CII-SN Centre of Excellence Kolkata etc. Recently, Hyderabad-based DEC Infrastructure emerged as the lowest bidder for building the Executive Enclave that will house the PMO, the Cabinet Secretariat, the India House and the National Security Council Secretariat. It had quoted an amount of around Rs 1,189 crore. The government in August said that 70% of work on the new Parliament building project has been achieved and the targeted date of completion is November 2022. The new Rajya Sabha hall is being built with a capacity of 384 seats while the new Lok Sabha hall will have 770 seats, with an additional capacity of up to 1134 seats for hosting joint sessions. The Vice Presidents enclave is expected to be completed by January 2023. What was the deal? In 2005, Antrix, a commercial and marketing arm of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had signed a satellite deal with Devas Multimedia. According to the contract, Antrix was to build and operate two satellites and using the transponder capacity of those two satellites, Devas was to provide multimedia services to mobile subscribers in India. What went wrong? The Manmohan Singh government in 2011 terminated the contract after allegations emerged that the deal included quid pro quo between Antrix officials and Devas. Miffed by the termination of the contract, Devas foreign investors initiated the long-drawn battle that was fought at multiple forums. The company approached the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and in 2015, an arbitral tribunal found that the termination of the contract was wrong. The tribunal directed Antrix to pay $562.2 million to Devas, along with interest. But India held its ground. It maintained that the deal was cancelled in view of increasing demand for the S-band satellite spectrum for national security purposes. Apart from ICC, Devas also initiated claims against India under Bilateral Investment Treaties, where both the DT Tribunal and India-Mauritius BIT tribunal ruled in the favour of Devas investors and ordered them to pay fines. The fightback Last year, Antrix moved the National Company Law Tribunal seeking winding up of Devas on grounds that the company was set up on "fraudulent motives". The NCLT ruled in favour of Antrix and ordered the liquidation of Devas. The verdict was challenged at NCLAT, which upheld the NCLT order. The battle then moved to the Supreme Court. Earlier this year, the apex court upheld the NCLAT verdict, ordering the liquidation of Devas. Antrix also challenged the ICC verdict in Delhi high court. Setting aside the tribunal's order recently, the Delhi high court observed that the reasoning of the tribunal is self-contradictory and the award "suffers from patent illegalities and fraud and is in conflict with the public policy of India. You are receiving the free biweekly version of China Green Bulletin. Sign up here for our email to keep up to date on green, energy and ESG news out of China. Sichuan electricity shortage exposes a major challenge as China pushes to develop wind, solar and hydro to offset greenhouse gas-emitting coal In Depth This summers catastrophic electricity shortfall in Southwest Chinas Sichuan province exposed the biggest weakness in the countrys strategy for decarbonizing power generation: the weather. Click here to read how extreme weather became the weak link in the countrys new-energy power plan. Top News Items Vice Premier highlights the need for security in energy transition Vice Premier Han Zheng told an energy forum that China will build a low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system to increase the stability, security, and sustainability of Chinas energy supply. On one hand, the country will accelerate green transition in the energy sector by boosting new energy and clean energy development. On the other hand, energy security is the bottom line, said Han. Climate investment and financing to help dual carbon goals Li Gao, director of the Ministry of Ecology and Environments Climate Change Department, stated in an article that the climate investment and financing (CIF) pilot program should focus on the country's dual carbon targets and support both high-quality development and carbon reduction. According to Li, China needs to design high-level CIF guidelines, increase the involvement of financial institutions in climate change initiatives, and strengthen the strategic cooperation between authorities and enterprises, in an effort to push forward the CIF pilot program effectively. Building materials sectors green transition The China Building Materials Federation, an official industry association, issued guidelines () on achieving peak carbon and carbon neutrality goals for the sector during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. According to the guidelines, the sector will accelerate green and low-carbon development, promote national economic growth, and meet the demand for high-quality building materials, ensuring the cement industry takes the lead in peaking carbon emissions before 2023 and peak emissions sector-wide by 2025. Beijing to accelerate green finance reforms A work plan () on carrying out more green financial reforms was published by the Local Financial Regulation and Supervision of Beijing. Under the work plan, Beijing will increase international cooperation on green finance, support the growth of green industries and the construction of green cities, improve green finance market mechanisms, and expand the infrastructure for green finance, strengthening the citys role as the global center for green and sustainable finance. Shandong pushes development of new-energy storage technologies The Energy Administration of Shandong, a populous eastern province, released the first provincial circular () to encourage the development of new-energy storage technologies through the spot market. In order to promote new-energy storage technologies, Shandong will encourage new-energy projects to actively adopt storage facilities, support the development of large independent energy storage power stations and offer preferential rates on electricity in the spot market. You can update your newsletter preferences here. Download our app to receive breaking news alerts and read the news on the go. Get our weekly free Must-Read newsletter. YBO - Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan joined students of an ethnic minority boarding school in the northern mountainous province of Yen Bai at a mid-autumn festival on September 8 night. Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan joined students of an ethnic minority boarding school in the northern mountainous province of Yen Bai at a mid-autumn festival on September 8 night. Xuan, who is also Chairwoman of the National Fund for Vietnamese Children (NFVC) Sponsorship Council, presented gifts worth 400 million VND (16,983 USD) to disadvantaged children in the province, and 20 scholarships to students of the Van Yen district ethnic minority boarding school. The fund also presented 100 scholarships and 30 bikes to the students. Gifts from the Association for the Support of Vietnamese Handicapped and Orphans were also handed to 50 local students. The school accommodates 300 students, all ethnic minorities, from 11 remote and extremely underprivileged communes of Van Yen district, and Hong Ca and Luong Thinh communes of Tran Yen district. Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan and Secretary of the Yen Bai Provincial Party Committee Do Duc Duy experience "Children's cultural space" at the festival. On the occasion of the new school year 2022-2023, agencies in VanYen earmarked nearly 300 million VND to support over 700 students. Meanwhile, over 2,600 local children have received gifts worth nearly 1 billion VND from different sources to celebrate the festival. AFRIQUE :: Tobacco Harm Reduction: That Africa is not left behind There is unanimity across the world on the need to reduce smoking rates among people. Whether it is the ubiquitous cigarettes, or cigars or water pipes known locally as shisha in Cameroon, every concerned stakeholder wants a drop, indeed a continuous drop in smoking rates. While cigarettes have always received the most attention, people are beginning to also realise the danger that shisha portends especially to young people among whom it is increasingly popular. However, the manner of achieving the desired drop in smoking rates has continued to breed contention among different parties. The popular African adage there are different routes to a destination was a subtle way our forebears chose to remind us all that the destination was the ultimate objective. It stands to reason that rather than foible over routes, it is all fair and good, so long as one arrives at the desired destination or achieves the set objective. Indeed, never has this adage been as relevant as it is today in Africas quest to achieve a reduction in smoking rates. As the arguments continue over the route to this destination, prohibitionists, the school of thought that believes that smoking rates will be achieved only by getting smokers to quit altogether, continue to vilify tobacco harm reduction advocates and simultaneously deny the success of tobacco harm reduction programmes. Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR) is a public health strategy aimed at lowering the health risks to individuals and the wider society associated with combustible tobacco products. It is based on the understanding that most of the harm associated with combustible tobacco results from the mix of chemicals that are released and subsequently inhaled when tobacco is burned (smoked), but if you take the smoking/burning element away, the risk from tobacco consumption is reduced. THR also takes into cognisance, the fact that many adults who smoke, and wish to stop smoking, find it difficult or are unable to quit, while several others wish to continue enjoying nicotine without the harmful effect it poses. Consequently, THR advocates posit that such smokers should switch to alternative products, which will still deliver nicotine without the combustion of tobacco. For THR advocates, switching is the operative word. Hence, the freedom to switch; the availability of options to switch to; and access to information on alternative or reduced risk products to enable adult consumers make informed choices are key drivers of an effective THR strategy. Lately, proponents of THR have increased their advocacy for its adoption across Africa arguing for its efficacy by explaining the science behind the concept and citing successes recorded in countries that have accepted the ideology of Tobacco Harm Reduction. Notably, THR advocates also agree that quitting remains the best option and regularly underscore this fact. But they have chosen a pragmatic approach with the understanding that quitting and switching will both achieve the objective of reducing smoking rates. Science and evidence from more advanced economies supports the position of THR advocates that smoking rates can significantly reduce through the adoption and effective implementation of tobacco harm reduction strategies. The United Kingdom for instance, has recognised the efficacy of tobacco harm reduction or alternative tobacco products in driving down smoking rates such that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which issues evidence-based guidance on the most effective methods of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases and ill health, published guidance on tobacco harm reduction. The guidance recognizes that quitting smoking is always the best option for smokers but it supports the use of licensed nicotine containing products (NCPs) to help smokers not currently able to quit to switch to a less harmful option. The United States of Americas (USA) food and drug administration (FDA) has begun to license alternative products as modified risk tobacco products. This is a clear indicator that the country is relying on its science and empirical evidence to provide guidance on tobacco harm reduction. Smoking rates are reported to have reduced by 34% in Japan, chiefly on the back of the introduction of alternative products in the country; products that avail the citizens the opportunity to switch to less risky options and not straight jacketing them to quitting only. This was detailed in a December 2020 report by Frost & Sullivan, a world-renowned consulting firm who noted that the establishment of effective regulation was vital. In Canada, the government through Health Canada has issued science backed statements such as Completely replacing cigarette smoking with vaping will reduce your exposure to harmful chemicals andVaping products and e-cigarettes deliver nicotine in a less harmful way than smoking cigarettes among several others as advise to adult smokers in a bid to move them away from combustible tobacco products. The Canadian Public Health Association also recognises the efficacy of alternative products and has since 2018 issued statements that acknowledge that alternative nicotine delivery products are less risky than combustible tobacco. Also, the ministry of health of New Zealand launched a website called Vaping Facts, in 2019 to educate citizens on the facts about vaping with the objective to help smokers quit. The website encourages smokers to vape as a means to quit and has widely published content that indicates that vaping is less risky than smoking. This is another clear example of a country with a science and facts-based approach to tobacco harm reduction. African countries need to independently assess every route that can lead to the desired destination of reduced smoking rates. Their ministries of health and other health agencies, including members of the academia, must begin to commission independent studies not just on tobacco harm reduction but on myriad public health issues that affect their citizens. This is what would enable the development of optimal policies and regulatory frameworks that will effectively drive concurrent cessation and tobacco harm reduction programmes. Who is bold enough to take the lead on Tobacco Harm Reduction among the African nations? Basically, there are two reasons why automakers would design and build a car. Either theyre doing it for the sheer passion of it, or becaus... The call for removal of the offending content came from the Gulf Cooperation Council, a group which includes Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar. Both Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. also released their own statements directed towards the streamer. In a statement, the organization said: [The content] violates Islamic and societal values and principles. As such, the platform was contacted to remove this content, including content directed at children, and to ensure adherence to the laws In the event that the violating content continues to be available, the necessary legal measures will be taken. Netflix is hardly the first Western media giant to run into content problems in the Middle East. Earlier this year, several countries in the region, and elsewhere, refused to let Disney screen Lightyear if the company didnt remove a same-sex kiss in that film. Disney declined, and the film didnt play in Saudi Arabia and the other countries making similar demands. Meanwhile, in China, media censors got creative and added a new ending to Minions: The Rise of Gru to promote the governments values and principles. The longest-serving monarch of the UK, Queen Elizabeth-II, took her last breath at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on Thursday. Born on April 21, 1926, at 17 Bruton Street in Mayfair, London as Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, Queen was the oldest child of the Duke and Duchess of York - who later became King George VI - and Queen Elizabeth. At that time Princess Elizabeth and her family did not expect that she would one day become the monarch. Then Princess Elizabeth and her only sibling, Princess Margaret, born in 1930 were educated at home under the supervision of their mother and their governess, Marion Crawford. Since childhood, Elizabeth showed a sense of responsibility and orderliness. She loved horses and dogs. The Queen's cousin Margaret Rhodes described her as "a jolly little girl, but fundamentally sensible and well-behaved" for her attitude. Her Royal Highness was expected to live a relatively normal, if privileged, life with her close-knit and loving family. Life changed in 1936 She was having a perfect life, but everything changed in December 1936 when her uncle - King Edward VIII - abdicated, leaving her father as King, and her as the next in line to the throne. Later, Elizabeth ascended the throne on February 6, 1952, when her father, King George VI died. Joined army, stayed with people In 1939, when Britain entered World War II, Elizabeth chose to stay in England and joined the Army rather than sailing away to Canada. She served in the Auxiliary Territorial Service during her training as a driver and mechanic when she was still a teenager. The 14-year-old Elizabeth, in 1940, addressed other children who had been evacuated from the cities. "We are trying to do all we can to help our gallant sailors, soldiers, and airmen, and we are trying, too, to bear our own share of the danger and sadness of war. We know, every one of us, that in the end, all will be well," she said. While still a teenager, Elizabeth fell in love with Prince Philip Mountbatten of Greece and Denmark, whom she had met in 1939. Marriage In November 1947, the 21 years old, Elizabeth married Prince Philip, who was serving as a young officer in the Royal Navy. The wedding took place at Westminster Abbey in London, United Kingdom. The couple then had four children, Prince Charles, who was born in 1948, Princess Anne (1950), Prince Andrew (1960) and Prince Edward (1964). Elizabeth ascends throne Elizabeth's normal life suddenly changed when in 1952, her father, King George VI died of cancer and consequently Elizabeth ascended to the throne with immediate effect. Her coronation took place in 1953, after which served as the head of the Commonwealth for seven decades. On her twenty-first birthday, in a speech broadcast on the radio from Cape Town, The Queen (then Princess Elizabeth) dedicated her life to the service of the Commonwealth. 'I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service,' she said. Queen, then, made hundreds of overseas visits during her reign and became the most widely travelled head of multiple independent states. In 1953, the Queen and her husband embarked on a seven-month round-the-world tour. The couple visited 13 countries and covered more than 40,000 miles by land, sea and air. She became the first reigning monarch of Australia and New Zealand to visit those nations. She visited the United States in 1957, where she addressed the United Nations General Assembly on behalf of the Commonwealth. In 1961, she toured Cyprus, India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Iran. In 1961 she made the first royal British tour of the Indian subcontinent in 50 years. The queen visited Cyprus, India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Iran, and became the first reigning British monarch to visit South America (in 1968) and the Persian Gulf countries (in 1979). The reign of the Queen saw the greatest changes in many spheres, including technological and industrial development, and economic and social life across the world. (With ANI inputs) Cemtech Live Webinar: Quality control from quarry to kiln Date: 12 October 2022 Time: 14.00 UK Time (GMT+1) Venue: Virtual event held online Free to register: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_6kzolvqORT2oF7kQXOrpKg This Cemtech Live Webinar will cover quality control throughout the cement manufacturing process, from quarry and kiln through to finished cement. A key theme will be the use of innovative quality control technologies and techniques to minimise environmental impact and support carbon reduction measures. Presentations will review the application of advanced technologies, including on-line analysers such as PGNAA, PFTNA, NIRA, and XRF/XRD spectrometers, for elemental analysis and the optimisation of cement production process to ensure consistent product quality. Case studies will show how plants can deploy automatic proportioning systems for raw mills, increasing usage of raw materials and reducing the consumption of costly correctives. Others will show how real-time measurement and automatic laboratory measurements can be used to optimise quarry operations and kiln fuel consumption, including maximising alternative raw materials or alternative fuels. Join this webinar to hear from leading companies in the field of quality control, including Online Control Sarl (Switzerland), Malvern Panalytical BV (The Netherlands) and Rigaku (Germany). Confirmed presentations: Armenia reduces import duty for cement ICR Newsroom By 09 September 2022 Armenias parliamentary committee on economic affairs has given the green light on a bill by ruling Civil Contract Party MP Babken Tunyan on the lowering of import duty on cement and abolishing import duties on clinker. If passed by parliament, the cement import duty will fall from AZD14,000 to AZD9000 while clinker import duties will no longer be levied. The new bill is expected to address the shortage of cement in the market. Published under Moroccan cement deliveries see 5% dip in August ICR Newsroom By 09 September 2022 Cement deliveries in Morocco declined 5.4 per cent to 1,071,990t in August 2022 when compared with August 2021, when 1,132,900t was dispatched, according to the countrys cement association, APC. The data includes shipments by APC members Asment Temara, Ciments de lAtlas, Ciments du Maroc and LafargeHolcim Maroc. In the first eight months of 2022, shipments reached 8,208,743t, a drop of 7.2 per cent when compared with 8,841,025t in the year-ago period. Published under Cherat Cement greenfield project likely to be delayed ICR Newsroom By 09 September 2022 The management of Cherat Cement Ltd informed that a letter of credit for the 8000-9000tpd greenfield project at Dera Ismail Khan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, has not been opened yet and may be delayed. It added that new letters of credit cannot be opened currently due to State Bank of Pakistan restrictions and economic instability. The cost of the project will be decided once the PKR-US$ partity stabilises, but it is estimated at US$40m. To date, the project has seen ground works such as levelling land being carried out. The 13.05MW captive solar power project was launched in the 4QFY21-22 with its full impact expected to be visible in the FY22-23. Published under Page not found Please try the following step instead: - Check your network connection and refresh the page - Check if the URL is correct - Try other interesting CGTN content Chino, CA (91710) Today Some clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 69F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Some clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 69F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has declared Queen Elizabeth "never lost hope" even in the darkest moments of her life. The monarch passed away on Thursday (08.09.22) aged 96 at her Balmoral estate in Scotland sparking an outpouring of grief across the world, and now the Most Revd Justin Welby has opened up about his relationship with the queen and attempted to give some solace to all those mourning her loss. Speaking on 'BBC Breakfast' on Friday (09.09.22), he said of the queen's death: "It feels as though, I think for so many people around world - especially in the UK - that a part of our lives that was taken for granted as being permanent is no longer there and in that sense there is an enormous shift in the world around us. In how we see it and how we understand ourselves and I think many people will be finding that sense of not just grief but also uncertainly and to some extent a wondering about what is permanent." He went on to talk about the queen's Christian faith and how it helped her during her reign, adding: "I had this huge privilege of meeting the queen on numerous occasions ... I think in the queen we saw overflowing life that wasn't just because she was Queen. "It was because her feet were on an even solider (sic) rock than being Queen and that was the rock of her faith ... The queen's sense of endurance and permanence did not depend on her and she knew that very well. It depended on God and she knew that very well." Archbishop Welby also insisted the queen lived a "full" life and never "lost hope" even in the year of 1992 - which she described as her "annus horribilis" and involved several royal scandals, collapsed marriages and a fire at Windsor Castle. He said: "The queen constantly showed us the meaning of life. She was joyful, she was humorous ... life was full. Even in the annus horribilis as she summed up possibly the most difficult year of her reign. Her life was full but she never - even in bad moments - lost hope." He concluded by saying that even she never gave up even after the death of her husband Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh last year. He added: "I obviously spoke to her after the death of the Duke of Edinburgh and spent some time with her and there was just a solidarity of hope in her life ... Abundance and hope they are still there." Fifty years ago (Sept. 25, 1972) Chattanooga was rocked by one of its biggest explosion fires in the citys history. The Jersey Pike Fuel Terminal, in a sparsely populated area of Hamilton County, exploded creating a huge inferno that left three people dead and several injured. Mayor Robert Kirk Walker closed the airport and passenger planes were diverted to Knoxville and Atlanta. Sheriff H.Q. Evatt and Fire and Police Commissioner Gene Roberts ordered police to begin evacuating nearby businesses and residents. At that time, Tri Community Fire Department was responsible for the Jersey Pike area. John Odom remembers being called to the scene and of his harrowing role there. He said, "My partner and I were employed by Conoco to swim in gasoline below the fire, locating and turning off valves so the fire could be controlled by injection of sub-surface foam. It was one of the toughest and most dangerous jobs of my life. When this took place, we normally charged $50/ hour for our time. For this job, because of the danger, they agreed to $1,000/ hour. "The tanks were owned by Southern Facilities, a subsidiary of Colonial Pipeline. The fuel was owned by Conoco. I don't remember the total amount of fuel at risk, but 3.5 million gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel were lost. "This was one of the most dangerous jobs of my career." Lt. Charlie Thomason made pictures that are posted on the Chattanooga Fire Department Facebook Page. TCFD Chief Duane Pitts was the first to arrive at the scene and he immediately radioed for help. All available firefighting units in the Hamilton County area responded to battle the raging fire. Chief Pitts said special foam had to be shipped in to contain the inferno that burned for over 28 hours.WDEF TVs Mort Lloyd owned a plane and got the mayors permission to fly over the inferno while photographer Tommy Eason did the filming.CBS, NBC and ABC all led with the disaster on their evening newscasts. Radio networks did hourly reports on the Southeast Tennessee disaster.The Associated Press said four huge tanks containing gasoline, diesel and kerosene were on fire and special substance chemical foam had to be flown in from Georgia and Pennsylvania. The AP reported the fire was believed to have started from an electric pump. The wire service said it became uncontrollable so Civil Defense advised officials to evacuate nearby structures.Several who lived in the area remembered that fall morning. Jeff Gibbs resided in the Bonny Oaks community and said it knocked him out of his bed. I remember looking out my window and the sky was red,"' he said.David Jones said the shockwave threw him out of his top bunk. He said he thought at first the Volunteer Ammunition Plant had blown up.Resident Richard Lee Cox said the heat was so intense you could hardly touch the bricks on his Holiday Hills home.I was stationed at the American Forces Network in Frankfurt, West Germany when news anchor Jan Wood called me to the newsroom to read Associated Press and United Press International wire reports.Wood said, You are from Chattanooga, look at these stories. Wood proceeded to ask me about what was around the tanks and background of the area. The AP had transmitted several pictures of the petroleum tanks in flames.A few days later we received Chattanooga Times and News Free Press newspaper accounts.Firefighters had their work cut out for them because of the type of fire they were battling. Retired Chattanooga Fire Chief Joe Knowles remembers that day well. He said, We were very fortunate there wasnt more loss of life. Cleveland State Community College participated in the annual State of Freight Forum in which Thrive Regional Partnership unveiled its latest research project. Partnering with Georgia Institute of Technology and CSCC, Thrive has created the Greater Chattanooga Freight Hub, a collection of dashboards which can be used to access transportation data throughout the tri-state region of Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee. This collaboration is concurrent with the development of a Logistics and Supply Chain Management degree program at Cleveland State Community College, designed to connect students of the region to career opportunities in the transportation industry. Under the project leadership of Thrive and Georgia Tech, William Fulford from Cleveland State Community College supported the creation of the Greater Chattanooga Freight Hub. The GCFH platform will be a foundational resource to the degree program, providing practical opportunities for CSCC students to explore and learn data analysis and visualization in an environment that supports regional communities and industries in real time. Dr. Ty Stone, Cleveland State president, said, Once again, Cleveland State is on the forefront of using technology to serve our businesses and communities. This resource will be used by industry, government officials, planning agencies, and higher education institutions throughout the region. We are very proud to be a part of this project, which will serve as a resource for decades to come. Dr. John Squires, CSCCs executive director of Advancement and Planning, added, This was a unique opportunity for Cleveland State to partner with Thrive and Georgia Tech to address a real-world issue in the logistics arena by applying data analysis and visualization. It will be a valuable tool for students in our new Logistics and Supply Chain Management program. Potential applications of the Greater Chattanooga Freight Hub include locating key corridors for projects that could optimize state and federal funding; research support for long range transportation plans by area Metropolitan Planning Organizations in Chattanooga and Cleveland, as well as Dalton; and curriculum development for colleges and universities in the tri-state to meet the talent demands of the manufacturing and logistics industries in greater Chattanooga. Additionally, this research will parallel environmental priorities determined in Thrives Cradle of Southern Appalachia regional conservation blueprint. By layering transportation needs and projections alongside environmental priority areas, planners and leaders can make decisions that support an array of stakeholders, officials said. The Greater Chattanooga Freight Hub can be found online at https://greater-chattanooga-freight-hub-thrive-geohub.hub.arcgis.com/. A woman on Lynnstone Drive reported a suspicious person. She told police a white male came to her door a week ago and rang her doorbell. She said today another white male came to her door and rang the doorbell, but she did not answer the door either time. The woman wanted police to document the incidents in case it happens again. * * * Police observed a Honda Accord that was parked in the grass on the south side of Wilcox Boulevard that had been there for a few days. Police placed an unattended vehicle sticker on it, giving the owner 48 hours to move it before being towed by the city of Chattanooga. * * * A woman on W. Bell Avenue told police that sometime overnight someone cut the triangle window of the soft top of her 2015 Jeep Wrangler, trying to gain entry. She said it appears that the person first tried to melt the window somehow, then cut it. She said the person also tried to pull the soft top loose by pulling on the base of it. She said she is not sure if the window can be replaced or if the top will have to be replaced. She said it is unknown if there are any security cameras at this location. The woman said as best as she can tell, there was nothing stolen from her vehicle. * * * Police responded to Wilcox Boulevard on a possible abandoned silver Nissan Xterra parked near an intersection with an unknown vehicle parked next to it, and it is unknown if the vehicle runs. Police approached the vehicle and saw no people in or near it, no signs of forced entry or any signs of it being possibly stolen. Police ran the vehicle in NCIC and it was not reported stolen. Police placed a 48-hour warning sticker on the rear windshield so that it is easily viewed as well. Police will tow the vehicle away after the 48-hour warning has ended if vehicle is still there. * * * An employee at the Tivoli Theatre, 701 Broad St., told police someone broke one of the glass doors at the theatre. * * * A woman on Canal Street told police someone opened a Chase Bank account in his name without his permission. * * * The manager of Academy Sports, 2220 Hamilton Place Blvd., told police that two white females came into the store and walked around for an hour. He said the women waited at the exit and then ran out of the store, setting off the alarms. The man said they got into a small silver vehicle with a GA tag and fled the scene. He said he does not know what was stolen and will have to do an inventory. He said once he finds what is stolen, he will call police and use the complaint card number to add it to the report. * * * A man told police while he was exiting his parking spot at the Publix, 3535 Broad St., he struck a white Tesla. He said he stopped and spoke with the driver, a black female, and gave her all his information. He said when he asked the driver for her information, she stated she didn't have to give him her information. He said the woman then drove off in a hurry. The man gave police what he believed to be last four digits of the woman's license plate. The man wished to make a report in case any thing came from the event. * * * A man on Clio Avenue told police that overnight someone stole the catalytic converter from his Toyota Tundra. There is no suspect information. * * * A woman on 12th Avenue told police when she got home there was a man with a purple shirt, black pants and a green bike on her porch. She said he had their dog, but dropped him and took off when he noticed them. She said he didn't take anything, but she wanted to make a report. * * * The clerk at the Shell station, 305 Frazier Ave., told police she wanted a black female with black dreadlocks trespassed from the property because she was panhandling. Police spoke to the woman, who refused to identify herself, and told her to leave the premises, which she did. * * * An employee at Duffy's Radiator, 3424 Rossville Blvd., told police he had his tool box (3-bay) towed there around 10:30 a.m. He said it was then accidentally damaged while the tow truck driver was unloading it and it fell over backwards off the tow truck onto the lot. He said it was completely destroyed by the fall and it is worth around $20,000. The City of Chattanooga is hosting its second purchasing expo to help area businesses to bid on city contracts, amid ongoing efforts to simplify and streamline the experience of doing business with the city. Mayor Tim Kelly has directed city officials to streamline processes and procedures for vendors in an effort to attract more local businesses to perform services for the city, and bring back those who may have stepped away in previous years. As a part of this overhaul, Chief Procurement Officer Kevin Bartenfield has modernized the citys vendor portal and transitioned to processing vendor invoices and payments through a single electronic system, significantly reducing the amount of time it takes vendors to get paid. Additionally, in July, Chattanooga City Council approved an increase in the citys small purchase threshold from $5,000 to $20,000, which allows departments to make purchases of up to $20,000 with one formal quote as opposed to three. Chattanoogas local businesses bring a wealth of talent and innovation to our community, and we are excited to introduce them to our revamped processes and discuss opportunities, said Mr. Bartenfield. I particularly want to thank the City Council for their partnership in updating our purchasing thresholds, which has made it significantly easier for our small, local, and minority-owned companies to do business with the city. The fall purchasing expo will be held on Thursday, September 22 from 9 a.m. to noon at the Hixson Community Center, 5401 School Drive. Businesses can register to attend here. Expo attendees will be able to meet with city purchasing decision-makers, learn more about the citys efforts to build a more equitable and diverse vendor ecosystem, as well as sign up and register as potential suppliers and receive training to begin receiving opportunities to sell goods and services to the city. By removing barriers to working with the city, we are enabling our communitys small and minority-owned businesses to get plugged into the city purchasing process and add their services and talent to city operations, said Tamara Steward, chief equity officer. This represents one more way that we can help close opportunity gaps across Chattanooga and create a more prosperous future for all residents. Purchasing representatives from Hamilton County Government, Hamilton County Schools, and EPB will also be present at the event, along with small-business support agencies such as Urban League of Greater Chattanooga, Bright Bridge, CoLab, Score, TN Small Business Development Center, UTC Procurement Technical Assistance Center, and Pathway Lending. Tennessee State Parks will partner with Tennessee First Lady Maria Lees initiative, Tennessee Serves, to offer volunteer opportunities to the public throughout the month of September. These workdays will also coincide with National Public Lands Day. This is an excellent chance for volunteers to provide service to the parks as part of both the First Ladys initiative and an outstanding national event, said David Salyers, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. We welcome everyone who wants to be a part of this special day to serve. Tennessee Serves activities at the parks include trash pickup, trail work, cabin repairs, painting, removal of invasive plant species, and more. For information on Tennessee Serves events at each park please go to the link here. This year, 52 of the 56 Tennessee State Parks are participating. Rock Island State Park in Warren County has two Tennessee Serves events, Sept. 17 and Sept. 24. Booker T. Washington State Park in Chattanooga will host a large cleanup event on Oct. 1 as part of the Tennessee River Rescue. The First Lady launched Tennessee Serves in 2019 to encourage Tennesseans to serve one another and volunteer in their communities. The three-part initiative includes serving Tennesseans across the state with a special focus on distressed counties; highlighting people and organizations already making a difference; and mobilizing Tennesseans to meet community needs. For more on Tennessee Serves go to the link here. National Public Lands Day, established in 1994 and held each year on the fourth Saturday in September, is the nations largest single-day volunteer event for public lands. The program restores and improves public lands throughout the country. For more information on National Public Lands Day go to the link here. University of Tennessee System President Randy Boyd is traveling the highways and byways of Tennessee to increase awareness about the UT Promise scholarship program. Mr. Boyd will visit high schools in the Chattanooga area and Lenoir City on Tuesday as he makes his final stops throughout the state. The UT Promise tour has spanned eight days and 3,715.9 miles, with Mr. Boyd visiting a total of 25 high schools since the tour began on Aug. 23. UT Promise is a last-dollar scholarship program that guarantees free tuition and fees after other financial aid is received (such as Pell Grants, HOPE Scholarship or other institutional scholarships) for undergraduate, Tennessee residents. Last fall, the UT System extended the household income level for UT Promise scholarship recipients from $50,000 to $60,000. When UT Promise was launched two years ago, we traveled the state to educate high school students and educators about how UT is working to make it easier for working- and middle-class families to achieve a college degree, Mr. Boyd said. With the change in UT Promises household income threshold, we are eager to travel the state again to make sure our communities know about the extra help that is available. Tuesday: 8-8:30 a.m. Cleveland High School (850 Raider Dr., Cleveland) 9:15-9:45 a.m. Central High School* (5728 Hwy. 58, Harrison) *During the tour stop at Central High School, a $1.2 million gift to the UT Promise endowment will be announced on behalf of the Summers, Rufolo and Rodgers law firm. 10:45 a.m.-11:15 a.m. Rhea County High School (885 Eagle Ln., Evansville) 12:45-1:15 p.m. EDT Lenoir City High School (1485 Old Hwy. 95, Lenoir City) For more information about UT Promise, please visit https://tennessee.edu/ut-promise/. George W. Bush said that the United States of America was a country awakened to danger and called to defend freedom. He was talking about the events of Sept. 11, 2001. He then added, Our grief has turned to anger, and anger to resolution. Those Americans cannot be forgotten. Has our resolve disappeared? Are we just bitter, angry people who have let those events become a faded memory? I dont believe so. The unity of our nation is clearly frayed. If we wish to pass the torch of freedom, we must dedicate ourselves to the vigilance to safeguarding the liberty so many have fought and died for. That is why we should observe watershed events in our nations history, such as September 11, 2001. We must remember Sept. 11 in our homes and our classrooms and engage in this important dialogue. Never let it be said that the flame of freedom was extinguished on our watch. If you were a classroom teacher, how would you address the events of Sept. 11, 2001, with students? Who are we as Americans? Who do we choose to be? Can we overcome a political divide created by conflicts of cultures and different worldviews? That is a heavy topic that most adults cannot grapple with, let alone children. President John F. Kennedy told the Canadian Parliament, "That which unites us is greater than that which divides us." I still believe that to be true. Then there is the ugly. Political campaigns often show the worst parts of us. Even the word politics brings division because it is based on arguing different points of view. Those political positions and differences do not stop after a political campaign. George Bush pointed out why terrorists hated our country. He said, They hate our freedoms -- our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other. I happen to believe President Bush was correct. Bush then added, This is the fight of all who believe in progress and pluralism, tolerance, and freedom. Can we agree that pluralism, tolerance, and freedom are worthy goals we must pass on to the next generation? Are we defining our times today, or being defined by them? We talk about our founding fathers, as worthy of respect, and indeed they still are. Thomas Jefferson, as the primary author, gave an example of the American mind when he penned the words found in our Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness. The Declaration of Independence has been called Americas mission statement. George Washington believed that religion, morality, and brotherhood were the essential pillars of society. As a nation, have we permanently accepted that partisanship and ideology? Or do we believe, like our founders, that it is strength, not weakness, to be able to work with others who do not share our worldview for the common good? Every Sept. 11, our heritage, and our history will be on display to our nation and the world. George Bush concluded his speech by saying that freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them. If we can set aside our differences for one day, let us believe it is possible for other days as well. Our children need to see us practice what our country professes to believe in, as a people, and as a nation. Author Bill Crawford points out that no nation survives the breakdown of civil society. Then he describes a society where disagreements are peaceably resolved through dialogue or the ballot box, where people disagree but get along, and where free individuals respect the rights of others. That ideology is worthy of being taught to all students. JC Bowman Executive Director of Professional Educators of Tennessee The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency will preview sportfishing and commercial fishing changes among other agenda items at the Tennessee Fish and Wildlife Commissions September meeting at Fall Creek Falls State Park. The meeting is scheduled Sept. 15-16. Committee meetings start at 1 p.m. Thursday and the full TFWC meeting begins at 9 a.m. Friday. In addition to fishing regulations, an update on the Bill Dance Signature Lakes project will be given by Dennis Tumlin from the Tennessee Department of Tourism. Both above and below the water, improvements will be made at 18 lakes which bear fishing legend Dances stamp of approval. Tennesseans will benefit from increased stocking, habitat, and fisheries management, as well as improved access for fishing and boating. Joe Benedict, TWRA Chief of Wildlife and Forestry, will also give a preliminary report on the harvest from the late August deer hunt. A three-day archery only hunt for antlered deer on private lands was held, with the exception of Unit CWD where guns and muzzleloaders were allowed. A rule hearing will also be held to establish a new CWD Management Unit. TWRA Assistant Chief of Game Species Stephanie Karns will make the presentation. Outstanding staff will also be recognized when the Wildlife and Forestry Division announces its Biologist and Technician of the Year, and when Boating and Law Enforcement introduces the Boating Officer of the Year. TL;DR: Alaskan Bush People Season 14 premieres October 2. The new season of the Discovery show takes place after the death of Brown family patriarch Billy Brown. After the loss of their father, Billys children forge ahead in an attempt to keep his legacy alive, with some making plans to return to their home state of Alaska. The Wolfpack faces a new era. #AlaskanBushPeople returns Sunday, Oct. 2 at 8p on @Discovery and @discoveryplus pic.twitter.com/QGTXNBnn92 Alaskan Bush People (@AlaskanBushPPL) September 9, 2022 The Brown family is returning to Discovery and discovery+. A new season of Alaskan Bush People premieres Sunday, October 2. It will follow the Brown family as they move forward following the devastating loss of family patriarch Billy Brown. Alaskan Bush People returns in October 2022 When fans last checked in with the Browns, they were coping in the immediate aftermath of Billys death. The 68-year-old died in February 2021 after experiencing a seizure. The 13th season of Alaskan Bush People, which aired in the fall of 2021, followed the surviving Browns as they lay their father to rest and reflected on his impact on their lives. The new season picks up roughly a year after Billys death. His family is navigating changes in their personal lives while also fighting to keep their fathers dream of off-the-grid living alive. Theyre also dealing with the after-effects of a devastating wildfire that displaced them from their home in Washington State. Alaskan Bush People Season 14 premieres Sunday, October 2, 2022, at 8 p.m. ET on Discovery. Episodes will also be available to stream on discovery+. Life is precious and uncertain, Ami Brown says in a teaser for the new season RELATED: Street Outlaws Team Heartbroken After Tragic Death of Ryan Fellows The loss of Billy has given the rest of the Brown family a fresh perspective on life and a renewed commitment to embracing their unique way of living. This last year has taught us life is precious and uncertain, Billys widow Ami says in a teaser for the new episodes. Its like a new chapter, she adds. Actually, its more like a new book. Following Billys death and the wildfire, the Browns are more determined than ever to get back to their roots. But doing so wont be without its challenges. The teaser shows the family battling various obstacles as they embark on the next phase of their lives. For some family members, that involves a return to their home state of Alaska. Noah makes plans to move his family back to Americas last frontier, but finding the right place to settle is more difficult and dangerous than you might expect. Noahs sister Bird also wants to return to Alaska, but an unexpected health crisis forces her to rethink her plans to relocate, as well as reconsider her plans to start a family. Meanwhile, Bear moves his city-born wife Raiven and their young son to the mountain. His brother Gabe is also trying to build his family a home on the mountain before winter sets in. And back at the ranch, Ami and her son Bam are struggling to keep the property profitable in the face of various setbacks. Are the Browns welcome back in Alaska? Noah Brown in Alaskan Buh People | Discovery via YouTube The Browns attempted return to Alaska is a storyline in Alaskan Bush People Season 14. But it sounds like they might not receive a warm welcome, at least in some corners of the state. When some family members showed up in the small community of Peterburg looking to buy property, locals werent impressed, according to a report from KTOO. One local Realtor declined to work with the Browns. And some residents deliberately shunned them. That one kid, I think they call him Gabe, introduced himself and stuck out his hand, a man named Mark Hofstad said. I looked at him, I aint shaking your hand. He just looked at me and walked away. I mean, look what the show is, Hofstad added. Its non-residents portraying themselves as Alaskans that basically make us all look like a bunch of frickin morons. For more on the entertainment world and exclusive interviews, subscribe to Showbiz Cheat Sheets YouTube channel. RELATED: 10 Other Survival Shows to Watch If You Love Alone Charles III Will Have All the Perks and Responsibilities of Being a King Except One King Charles III immediately ascended to the highest rank of the British royal family upon the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. He assumes all of the late queens prior responsibilities and will enjoy many of the positions perks, except for one. What is the one thing the newly minted King Charles II will have to wait for now that hes King of the United Kingdom? King Charles III | Jane Barlow/WPA Pool/Getty Images Charles has prepared for this role since the age of 3 Charles, 73, has waited decades to become king. He was the longest-serving heir in British history and the eldest of four children born to the queen and her late husband, Prince Philip. When his mother assumed the throne at age 25, he became Britains heir apparent at age 3. Queen Elizabeth reigned for 70 years. Therefore, Charles had decades to prepare for this new role as king. As Britains new monarch, Charles could have selected any of his four given names as the one he would reign under, Charles Philip Arthur George. However, he chose to simplify matters and use the name known best by the British people and those around the world: Charles. Charles III immediately assumes all the responsibilities and perks of being the king of the United Kingdom, except for one A statement from His Majesty The King: pic.twitter.com/AnBiyZCher The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) September 8, 2022 King Charles III is now the head of the British state and the highest representative of the United Kingdom. The monarch is the Head of the Commonwealth, which has at least one member on every continent worldwide. These include North America (Canada), South America (Guyana), and Oceania (Australia). The United Kingdom is part of the Commonwealth, as well as some Asian countries and most southern African nations. With his accession upon the death of his mother, Charles immediately assumes all the responsibilities and perks of being the King of England, except for one. He will not be allowed to publicly wear a crown until his coronation, which will likely occur after a period of mourning for the late queen. He will be crowned probably in a year, Kate Williams, a history professor at Englands Reading University and author of Young Elizabeth: The Making of the Queen, explained to People Magazine. The coronation ceremony usually takes a year. Its seen as unseemly to have a coronation ceremony straight after someones death. Its a long period of mourning. Who is next in line after King Charles III to reign? Prince George, Kate Middleton, Prince Louis, Prince William, and Princess Charlotte | Jonathan Brady /POOL/AFP via Getty Images The royal line of succession has changed since a 2013 law allowing the crown to pass on in order of birth regardless of gender. According to the royal familys website, the Succession to the Crown Act ended a former rule that a younger son could displace an elder daughter in the line of succession. The act applies to those born after Oct. 28, 2011. Therefore, immediately following Prince Charles is his son, Prince William, now the heir apparent. Following William are his children with the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton: Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis. They are followed by Prince Harry and his children, Archie and Lillibet. The line continues with Prince Andrew, his daughter Princess Beatrice, her daughter Sienna, Andrews daughter Eugenie and her son, August. Other royals, including Prince Edward, his children, Princess Anne, and her children, follow the aforementioned royals in the succession line. RELATED: How Much Power Will Camilla Parker Bowles Have as Queen Consort? Ringo Starr spent nearly all of the 1960s working closely with his bandmates in The Beatles. Ringo, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison were practically inseparable. They gigged locally and then toured Europe before becoming international stars. The band still shared hotel rooms even after they made it big, but at least they had solved one intra-band issue by then. Ringo said the Beatles farting habits caused terrible trouble in the band until they developed their own etiquette when someone let one slip. Ringo Starr | Michael Putland/Getty Images Ringo Starr was never far from his fellow Beatles The Beatles entered the music business before streaming was anything but water, which means they did things the old-fashioned way they built their audience by playing live as much as they could. They honed their chops with a residency in Hamburg, Germany, in the early 1960s. When they werent entertaining the Germans, they played shows across the U.K. Soon, they started playing across Europe, and the rest of the world became their stage before too long. The Fab Four were never far apart from each other. They shared hotel rooms two Beatles to a room while on tour. The quartet even vacationed together, though manager Brian Epstein split up the band to avoid clashes during the downtime (of which there was very little). Ringo once said the Beatles farting caused terrible trouble in the early days, but the band quickly learned how to deal with members playing the butt trumpet. Ringo said the Beatles farting caused terrible trouble in the early days before they learned how to handle it RELATED: Ringo Starr Said the Ultimate 1960s Record Wasnt by The Beatles The Beatles spent the better part of three years, from 1961 through 1963, constantly playing live. If they werent playing Hamburg, they were criss-crossing the U.K. for concerts. The group honed its live act while also learning how to handle things when someone had a bottom burp. While promoting his book Lifted on Jimmy Kimmel Live (via YouTube), Ringo said the band would often drive through the night to make it home after U.K. shows. That meant a lot of time cooped up in a van going to and from live performances. The Beatles farting habits caused terrible trouble until they learned how to handle things, per Ringo: We learned when we were in a van when we started out that if anybody let a silent one go, they would try and get away with it, and it caused terrible trouble. It wasnt me! It was you! So anyway, we realized, OK, it was me, or it was him. It didnt matter. You just said it, and everything calmed down. Ringo Starr describes the Beatles farting etiquette When the whoever denied it supplied it routine didnt work for the Beatles, Ringo said theyd just admit to their musical toots and move on. The Beatles traded vans for jets when the band started traveling the world, but their touring days didnt last long. Why did the Beatles stop touring? RELATED: George Harrison Said The Beatles Performance at Shea Stadium Was Impersonal: We Really Didnt Care Anymore Aside from their famous rooftop concert in 1969, the Beatles stopped playing live in 1966. The group played massive stadiums when it hit North America in August 1966. The shows were immense and impersonal. They struggled to hear each other playing, despite having custom-made 100-watt amplifiers. The group traveled to show in armored cars to ensure their safety. The hassle of a live show was only part of why the Beatles stopped touring years ahead of their split. Their intricate studio compositions became too difficult to replicate on tour. The strings driving Revolvers Eleanor Rigby or the sonic swirls of Tomorrow Never Knows would be completely lost at a stadium show, to say nothing of all of Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. If the tours had continued, at least passing gas wouldnt have been such an issue for Ringo Starr and the Beatles. For more on the entertainment world and exclusive interviews, subscribe to Showbiz Cheat Sheets YouTube channel. RELATED: Why The Beatles 1966 Tour Turned Out to Be Their Last Seeking Sister Wife: Garrick and Dannielle Already Went to Mexico To Meet Their New Brazillian Sister Wife After being dumped by Roberta Pache, Darrick and Dannielle Merrifield appear to be wasting no time meeting their next potential sister wife. Seeking Sister Wife Season 4 couple appear to have already gone to Mexico to meet the new Brazillian woman theyre currently dating. Heres what we know. Dannielle and Garrick Merrifield, Seeking Sister Wife Season 4 | TLC Roberta dumps Dannielle and Garrick Merrifield on Seeking Sister Wife Season 4 In the Seeking Sister Wife Season 4 finale, Garrick and Dannielle Merrifields potential sister wife, Roberta Pache, broke up with them on the day of her supposed arrival to the US. This caused Dannielle to have a nervous breakdown. Roberta sent a long message explaining why she changed her mind about moving to Colorado to be with them. She tells the Merrifields that finding out that Garrick kissed Lea was too much for her. She said she couldnt feel the same as before. So she ended her three and a half years of a long-distance relationship with Garrick. Dannielle and Garrick move on from Roberta with another Brazillian woman The Merrifields were devastated by Roberta changing her mind. They believe that she may have been scamming them. Right before Roberta broke up with them, Dannielle and Garrick sent her a $9,800 payment. This isnt the first time Dannielle and Garrick have sent money to Roberta in Brazil. The couple has been sending thousands and thousands of dollars each month to Roberta to help with her living expenses. The Merrifields feel betrayed but intend to keep seeking plural marriage. However, they vowed to be more careful about who they let into their lives. I just pray this next time that its a sincere, faithful, trustworthy person, Garrick tells the cameras. The Merrifields have already found a new Brazillian woman to replace Roberta. The card at the end of the Seeking Sister Wife Season 4 finale revealed: The Merrifields have not spoken to Roberta since the breakup text. They are currently dating a new woman and plan to meet her in Mexico later this year. Shes from Brazil. Have the Merrifields gone to Mexico to meet their new girlfriend already? It appears Garrick and Dannielle have already gone to Mexico in June 2022 for the 15th year anniversary. We made it to Mexico! I am so blessed to share this life with you, my handsome King. I look forward to all that God has ahead of us. He has kept us strong through all the trials and shown us his true love. Check out the post below: Did they meet their new potential sister wife on this trip? Garricks Instagram provides some clues. He posted a photo of Dannielle and himself lying beachside in Mexico on the same anniversary trip, pictured below: He wrote in the caption: Enjoying some quality time with one of my queens. So thankful for all the good and bad as it is all beautiful. We all have ups and downs and struggles in life. Marriage is no exception but there is a key to it all to stay faithful and committed through it all as this is how God is. Was this the trip that Dannielle and Garrick met their new potential sister wife? Fans speculate that it would be unlikely since its his 15th wedding anniversary with Dannielle. But maybe its the perfect opportunity to celebrate his anniversary and meet his new girlfriend for the first time. Perhaps the Merrifields will return to Seeking Sister Wife Season 5 and document their new Brazilian girlfriend. RELATED: Seeking Sister Wife Spoilers: The Epps Family Allegedly Dating the Snowdens Ex-Wife Chrissy The Rings of Power Galadriel Actor Morfydd Clark Reveals What She Did for the Series That Was Forbidden for Her as a Child Acting can often require actors to do stunts they might not be familiar with. In Amazons Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Morfydd Clark, who plays Galadriel, says she rode a horse many times while filming the series. While riding horseback isnt too dangerous an activity, Clark says she was forbidden from doing it as a child. Morfydd Clark didnt know she was playing Galadriel until she arrived in New Zealand Morfydd Clark as Galadriel and Lloyd Owen as Elendil | Ben Rothstein/ Prime Video Morfydd Clark is a Welsh actor who may be best known for her recent roles in Saint Maud and The Personal History of David Copperfield. She also had roles in Netflixs Dracula and HBOs His Dark Materials. The Rings of Power is her most prolific role yet, and she was primarily kept in the dark before being cast as Galadriel. In an interview with AnOther, Clark says she did not know she was auditioning for Lord of the Rings before she got there. Then, when she was cast in the series, she didnt find out she was Galadriel until she arrived in New Zealand. I didnt know who I was playing at that point, Clark says. It wasnt till I got to New Zealand that I found out. So that was strange. I got on a plane to the other side of the world, knowing very little. Clark rides a horse while playing Galadriel in The Rings of Power Since there are no cars or planes in Middle Earth, the only modes of transportation are wagons or horses. Clark had to practice riding horseback to play Galadriel in The Rings of Power, and the actor says it was a new experience for her because she wasnt allowed to do it as a kid. Id never ridden before. My mum did her back in falling off a horse when she was around 21, so I was never allowed near them, Clark told AnOther. And I got to New Zealand and was like Im riding horses! And then Covid happened, and we had to stop filming and we had time that we didnt expect to have, and I spent a lot of that time on Titan, my horse. In terms of playing Galadriel, it was amazing to be able to start to feel so comfortable on a horse and really get to know this horse who was so beautiful. If I ride again, Im going to realize Im not as good as I thought I was because Titan is a golden boy. But also I was just riding being like, oh, this is what my mum used to do. This is what she used to love doing. So I felt a connection to her that Id never experienced before. Clark had a beautiful moment with her horse Galadriel actor Morfydd Clark defends her warrior version of the iconic LOTR character in #RingsOfPower "I would say that her serenity is hard earned. I dont think you get to that level of wisdom without going through things."https://t.co/flbGGobzzN pic.twitter.com/1AeaO31peE Screen Rant (@screenrant) September 3, 2022 When asked what her favorite part of filming The Rings of Power was, Clark shared a moment when she rode her horse and butterflies began flying around her. The actor was amazed by the beauty she was witnessing. Riding Titan was one of them, Clark recalls. I remember there was one time when some sort of butterflies had just hatched. There was just loads of them around me while I was riding him. And I was just like, This cant be real. Surely life cant be this beautiful. Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is streaming on Amazon Prime Video. RELATED: Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Director on What Will Surprise People About the Series You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close The Good Samaritan shows up in the Gospels as an apparent exception to his people, since hes the good one. Then he exits the stage, presumably to go back to life with the rest of the Samaritans, with little explanation of what a Samaritan is or why that might have mattered to Jesus and his first followers. A new exhibit at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, opening on September 15, promises to expand our understanding of these biblical people. CT spoke to Steven Fine, a Jewish scholar at Yeshiva University, about the history of the Samaritans, their relationship to Jews and Christians, and how they can help us better understand the Bible. If a regular churchgoer knows one thing about Samaritans, they know there was one good one. When Jesus tells that story, why does it matter that the Samaritan is a Samaritan? What Jesus does in the story is miscast the part. The Samaritan should have been stereotypical bad guy in the first century, and here he is, he stops to help. The story takes place in a horrible dry place in the Judean desert. Its very uninviting. The priest has a reason for not stopping. Then the Levite, who helps in the temple, walks by and doesnt help. You would expect the next stage of the story to be an Israelite. But it doesnt go that way. Its the Samaritan. Hes the guy who is least likely to do the right thing, in the popular imagination. But he stops to help! Thats completely unexpected. That breaks the story. Thats why its such an interesting story. Now I got to tell you, in Jewish literature not too long after, there is a rapprochement between Jews and Samaritans. How do they come together? What does that look like? After the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70, we find Samaritans moving into Jewish regions, and in the texts you find things like rabbis saying, Oh yeah, you can eat Samaritan matzah for Passover. No problem. It didnt last a long time. The division comes and it goes and it comes and it comes and it goes. In the Middle Ages, they often live together. They dont intermarry, but they live together. When we get to more recent history, its the British and American Protestants and then the Zionist movement that saved Samaritans from destruction in the 19th and 20th century. Providing food. Providing political support. Real practical help. A lot of people dont know that the Samaritans are still around, that theres a contemporary community. How many are there and where are they? There are more than 800 of them today. About half of them live in Nablus, in the West Bank near Mount Gerizim, and half live in a Tel Aviv suburb. American Protestants and early Zionist leaders saw them as Israelites who never left the land. They embraced them and supported them, and theres been this conscious interest from people of goodwill to get them the resources they need to stay alive. In the 1840s, they were almost completely wiped out when Muslim authorities said, Well youre not Jews, which we tolerate as people of the book, but youre not Muslim, so you have to convert or be killed. They had been destroyed in Damascus and they werent doing well in Cairo, and this was sort of the Alamo for these people. This was the last stand. The Samaritans in Nablus went to the British consulate for help, and the consulate influenced the chief rabbi of Jerusalem to write essentially a letter of recommendationThey are Israelites who believe in the Torah of Moses. That was enough to save them. In 1900 there were 119 or something. Now there are enough Samaritans to fill two 747 airplanes. Article continues below Youre a Jewish scholar at a Jewish university. CT is an evangelical magazine, and I dont know that we have any Samaritan readers. Why should Jews and Christians be interested in this pretty obscure group of people? The Samaritans are a great place for us to deal with complexity. Theyre not Jews and theyre not Christians. Theyre not Israelis and theyre not Palestinians. All of the questions of identity and place come up. The Samaritans show us all the sites of complexity. There has been so much scholarship on Jews and Christians, especially since the 1990s. If you walk through the book tables at the Society of Biblical Literature, its like Jews and Christians, Jews and Christians, Jews and Christians. But with the Samaritans involved, we see its not just those two, a twosome; its a threesome. When you see that, you see how all the issues that come up in the relationship between Jews and Christianslike how do you read the Bible or who is God or what is the importance of worshiping the right wayget more complicated with the third group included, and thats the Samaritans. To back up a little bit, can you give me a brief history of the Samaritans? Let me give you two different timelines. The Samaritan timeline is that Moses took the children of Israel out of Egypt and Joshua crossed the river and went to Mount Gerizim. So far so good, right? The tabernacle was set up on the top of Mount Gerizim and life was good. They consider it a period of blessings. Now the Samaritans have the Torah, but besides that they have oral traditionsthey dont have the prophets and the histories. Everything went well until the priest Eli decided to abscond with the tabernacle and go to Shiloh, and then David did the ultimate abomination of going to Jerusalem. Solomon built a temple there, and from the Samaritan point of view, those people left the true religion behind. Now the Jewish timeline is that everyone was together and the northern tribes went bad and the southern stayed good and there was a split, which continues to this day. Thats the one we know from the Bible. After the Assyrian exile, theres also all these non-Israelites who are brought in and they intermarry with the Samaritans, and for the Jews, that lowers their status. How much of the division should we think of as theologicala dispute over the proper place to worshipand how much of it is division over ethnic purity and who is married to whom? No, no, thats too Protestant. This is Judaism! You cant differentiate the two. You hear what Im saying? Thats where this issue lives. There has been 2,000 years of literaturewhether its the woman at the well asking Jesus, What are you doing here? or in rabbinic literature, the rabbis walking through Nabulus and Samaritans saying, Why are you going to Jerusalem? The holy mountain is right here! This is a long conversation. Was that encounter common, where someone is walking by the Samaritans on the way to Jerusalem and gets these questions, like when the woman at the well asks Jesus about worshiping on the mountain versus in the temple? Yes! Remember, all these people were walking to Jerusalem. It was the only way to get there. So for the Samaritans, all these Jews are walking by their mountain and theyre like, Are you out of your mind? Youre going to walk another day and a half? We have the mountain. And by the way, folks, we have the water. In the rabbinic literature, there are all these stories about Samaritans heckling people going to worship in Jerusalem. Its all on that same road that Jesus was walking. Article continues below What did worship at Mount Gerizim look like at the time Jesus was asking that woman for water? Well, the problem is, there was no Samaritan Josephus. Remember, we wouldnt know much about first-century Jerusalem if it wasnt for Josephus, writing stuff down, trying to explain things to the Romans. And there wasnt a Samaritan doing the same thing for Mount Gerizim. But my guess is its pretty close to worship in Jerusalem. Theres pilgrimage to the holy site and when they get there, theres a sacrifice, and theyre reading Torah scrolls together. Image: Museum of the Bible After the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, the Jews are exiled, so thats how we end up with a diaspora. What happened to the Samaritans? The Samaritans had a horrible situation under Rome. When it would have helped them to be seen as Jews, they werent. When it didnt help, they were. They werent part of the revolt, but they got implicated in that, and Pontus Pilate killed a bunch of them. But when Jews had an exemption that said they didnt have to sacrifice to the emperor, Samaritans didnt, so they were punished if they didnt assimilate to the Roman state religion. Occasionally the situation is so horrible that the Jews help them. And other times its divide and conquer, and the Romans or other rulers pit them against each other. All the time, in all the literature on both sides, you see them working out this relationship: Were the same. No, were different. No, were all children of Israel. Yes, but youre wrong. Let me give you an example. In the 16th century, this rabbi in Constantinople gets a question: We got a Samaritan Torah curtain. Somebody came to town and said we couldnt use it. Can we use it? So what does this rabbi do? He does what rabbis do and thinks it through, right-side up to upside down, to show that Samaritans are not idolaters, and if theyre not idolaters, then they can use it. At the end of the text he says, Theyre not idolators. They have images of doves on this curtain but theyre not praying to doves. Its fine. But you know what, dont use it! Add the Samaritans to the story, and it complicates things! Thats why its so interesting. What will people see in this exhibit at the Museum of the Bible? We have artifacts from Samaritans from all over the world. We have a film where we collected stories from Samaritans. We called it Tales of the Samaritan Elders, where we asked them, What is important to you to share? What do you want your grandchildren to know? So the Samaritans tell the story of the Samaritans. Another part of the exhibition is what Jews, Christians, and Muslims have said and done with the Samaritans. Theres that version of the story and the history of the interpretation of the Samaritans and the political questions about their existence. It will open the evening of September 15, and you can see it through the end of the year. Then it goes to Bibel Haus in Frankfurt, Germany, from March through July. After that Im hoping we can package it for smaller venues, Jewish community centers and Christian colleges, and maybe it can come to where you are! I hope everyone gets a chance to see it. Correction: The Museum of the Bible exhibit will run through January 1, 2023. Montell Fish is a Christian musician whose songs took off with tens of millions of streams. But unlike artists who have risen through the ranks of CCM, his main platform isn't a worship stage. The 24-year-old artist went viral on TikTok from his bedroom, where he recorded himself, wearing a T-shirt and black bandana, playing the guitar, and singing in falsetto, Why dont you talk to me like you used to? His calming, lo-fi (low-fidelity) music stands in stark contrast with the high production value of todays top worship bands. In a world that increasingly defies labels and genre, Fish represents a slew of indie faith-based artists who are finding success on platforms like TikTok and skipping the format and industry contemporary Christian music CCM was long built upon. For these artists, independence from the traditional constraints of the music industry means greater freedom to exploreand redefinewhat it means to be a successful Christian artist. With this freedom, though, comes greater responsibility for artists over their career direction and renders other essential parts like financial sustainability more unstable. Previously known as one of the artists behind the music project Lords Child and a YouTuber who uploaded videos like 3 Ways to keep your focus on Christ, Fish began uploading TikToks in October 2019. On September 7, 2021, he uploaded a clip of himself sitting in his bedroom, with a sound titled fall in love with you playing in the background. The song snippet stands out for its tranquility; it seems content to takes its time, a contrast to TikToks fast pace. The video accrued over 3.3 million views, a consecutive YouTube video of Fish playing the song accumulated more than double the originals views, and listeners have streamed the subsequent Spotify release 92 million times. Yet Fish released these tracks on his own and didnt put any paid promotion behind it, according to his manager, Patrick Bradley. The music industry has shifted rapidly over the past few years, largely because of platforms like Spotify and TikTok. The advent of streaming has made it harder for artists to generate revenueplatforms like Spotify pay about $.004 per stream, whereas in prestreaming days, consumers had to buy entire albums. In a world that places increasing emphasis on the playlist versus the album, record labels have consolidated. With 60,000 new songs are uploaded to Spotify every day, its harder than ever for music artists to gain traction on a widespread scale. Even more, the demise of the traditional structure of the music industry has led to the demise of traditional genre categories. Gone are the days of pop, rock, hip-hop, R&B, and CCM; music genres have increasingly split further and further apart into various tiny microtrends. Initially popularized in the 1960s and 1970s during the Jesus People movement, Christian contemporary musicdefined by Andrew Mall in God Rock, Inc., as less by its musical characteristics than by its lyrical content, representing a biblically grounded Christian worldviewpeaked in popularity in the 90s and has been on the decline over the past decade due to a changing market and cultural climate. The traditional modes of engaging with CCM have been in decline for a long time, said Leah Payne, a professor at Portland Seminary who is writing a book on Christian contemporary music for Oxford University Press. For as long as CCM has existed, mainly white evangelical artists have dominated Christian radio charts. Article continues below New platforms like TikTok that sit outside that model make it possible for different kinds of artists to thrive, Payne said. I think the question I have is: How will these artists sustain themselves and how will they continue to connect with their audiences? Indie Christian artist Antoine Bradford sees platforms like Spotify and TikTok as a means by which hes been able to build a full-time music career. After becoming a Christian, he began writing music as a means of expressing how his faith shaped his life. I saw that there was a need for Christians to be vulnerable and talk about mental health and just the struggles of what it means to be a Christian, he said. In 2017, he independently released Safe, a love song to his wife based on Ephesians 5; its since accrued over 6 million Spotify streams. The success of the first song inspired and enabled him to release EPs like Dear Struggling Christian and Even in the Dark, plus an album, Light Will Find You, in 2021. It also allowed him to embark on tours with other independent Christian artists, such as Lovkns One Big Family Tour. Bradford is a full-time musician now; he appreciates the flexibility that not being signed to a label affords him, but that means he handles everything in his career, from fundraising to designing merchandise and album artwork. While Bradford supports himself by doing music, other artists like John Jin Han and Sarah Juers dont consider making music full time as essential to their long-term plans. To them, creative freedom in their spiritual expression is a larger priority than financial subsistence solely from their music. Juers sees her music as ministry. An independent artist who works a full-time customer service job, Juers prefers not to rely on her creative work as a means of economic survival, but instead sees it as a way for her to connect with people and glorify God. My biggest goal in life is to be authentically myself and to walk humbly with God, she said. If I try to be too much of a brand or some sort of figure, I think it just takes away the authenticity and the ability for people to really connect. Beyond that, she adds, For me, my soul is the most important thing in this world. How many people listen to me and follow me doesnt matter. My relationship with God is the most important thing. Han, an independent Christian musician affiliated with Southern Californiabased Isla Vista Worship, describes his music as on a spectrum between secular and Christian. He submitted his dissertation for his PsyD in clinical psychology this year with the goal of becoming a psychologist and pursuing music in tandem with that career. Creativity was definitely always a value for Isla Vista Worship, but more importantly than that was that we wanted to host the presence of God and really write songs for our community, he said. After he moved away from Isla Vista, however, he realized that he wanted to keep creating music: It started with a couple worship releases, indie worship, indie Christian. The more and more I wrote these songs, the more I realized I wanted to write other songs about my story as well. Hans experience writing worship music made him want to branch out and write faith-based music outside of the worship genre. He writes songs for young adults struggling with their faith and for Asian Americans who feel out of place in white spaces. Faith informs different Christian artists definitions of success, with platforms like TikTok and Spotify enabling them to pursue their creative vision independently. But the attention theyve found organically suggests theres an audience that cares deeply about Christian art outside the constraints of the Christian contemporary music machine or even the booming worship music industry. Article continues below For artists like Fish, TikTok virality has opened the door to cross over into the mainstream market without ever having been fully under the umbrella of Christian music, which is perhaps indicative of a wider audience hungry for music woven with religious themes. Im still very much a faith-centered person, and I love Jesus, he said in a recent interview with Billboard. But I think a lot of my art has taken a different way of telling those stories. Fish released his album JAMIE on July 22, the first installment of what he says is a three project trilogy on Instagram. His manager announced on Instagram earlier this year that the two had started an independent record label and signed a deal with Virgin Music Label and Artist Services, an offshoot of Virgin Records for independent record labels. Fish is touring this fall following his festival performance at Pharrells Something in the Water festival in June, and he appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on August 11. He sang his song Darling while sitting on a bed onstagea callback to his origins on TikTok as well as a reminder of just how far hes come. Im finally letting you go, he sings. Letting my control. Rachel Seo is the social media coordinator at Variety. Pastor Pan Yongguang and nearly all of the 61 members of his Chinese house church have arrived in Thailand. The congregation left the southeastern city of Shenzhen for South Korea between 2019 and 2020, trying unsuccessfully for months to gain refugee status. Last month, the group left Jeju Island for Bangkok, hoping to appeal to the UN refugee office. Their search for a home continues as they hope to make one more move in the near future, this time to the United States. Its a search that has come at a significant cost. The congregants of Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church (SHRC) left their professional jobs, their homes in Shenzhen, and elderly parentsjust before the start of the pandemic. Pan has shouldered the responsibility of not just the spiritual care of his congregants, but the logistics of everyday lifeincluding work, housing, medical care, safety, and travelin foreign countries. Hes also faced pushback from some Chinese churches who believe he should stay and face persecution rather than run away. But he believes hes following Gods call to lead his church to greater freedom, like the Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower: For the flocks spiritual blessing Ive invested more and paid a higher price, Pan said. Nobody flees like this with kids and women from one county to another. This isnt fleeing. This is leaving Egypt. After quietly leaving the South Korean island of Jeju in late August, Pan announced his congregations latest whereabouts to the world through a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article on Monday. That same day, congregants applied for refugee status at Bangkoks UN refugee office. Their hope to resettle in the United States has the backing of US officials including former Representative Frank Wolf, head of the US Commission on Religious Freedom. In the meantime, the group faces dangers in Thailand. Not only do many in the party need extensions on their tourist visas or risk being in the country illegally, they say they are being monitored by Chinese operatives and fear repatriation to the Mainland. One family is still stuck in Jeju as the Chinese consulate wont give their newborn daughter a passport, rendering her stateless. This stress is pushing the members of the Mayflower church to the brink. I often pray and ask God for more grace and strength, said Pan. These past two years were difficult to bear. Theyve been the hardest time in my pastoral ministry. Leaving the homeland Nie Yunfeng began attending SHRC in 2012 and for several years taught at the Christian school started by the church. She remembers law enforcement pressuring the landlord to evict the school and church, causing them to constantly move locations. Police would barge into worship services or classes, telling them to break up their meetings. The pressure increased after the implementation of the revised religious regulation in 2018, with church leaders facing increased monitoring and interrogations. Police insisted Pan shut down the school, disband the church, and stop contact with churches in the West (SHRC is tied to the Presbyterian Church of America). So when Pan concluded the only option was to leave China, Nie was convinced, especially as she considered her childrens future. In the fall of 2019, she and her two children arrived in South Korea, where Pan and her initially uncertain husband had been scouting out a place for the church to go. In China we are unable to see the true information, she said of her husbands change of heart. When my husband investigated things in Korea, he could see the truth and [leaving] became more urgent. About 60 congregants, half of them children, joined them on Jeju Island, a tourist destination off the southern tip of the Korean peninsula. Once in Jeju, they were surprised to find the Korean government typically rejects nearly all asylum claims from Chinese nationals. Without legal status, many of the formerly middle-class congregants worked menial jobs including washing dishes and harvesting vegetables. Pan said many people were exhausted from the labor-intensive work that paid meager wages. Jeju winters were cold and snowy, unlike steamy Shenzhen where winter lows are temperate. Some received calls from people claiming to work at the Chinese consulate asking them to come pick up packages, which they feared was a trap. Back in China, police harassed church members who stayed behind and questioned the family members of those who left. Nie said she doesnt regret leaving China, but things became more difficult when her father-in-law was diagnosed with liver cancer. Her husband, who is the only son in the family, wanted to be there to care for his father, but they realized that if they returned, they would face repercussions and never have another chance to leave. Despite the challenges, the church was able to worship together freely each Sunday, first at a rented space, then in a Korean church that allowed them to use their building, and finally at a hotel dining room. Nie said she could finally worship in peace, no longer fearful if theyd be raided or jumping at the sound of a knock on the door. She is grateful her children have been able to securely attend the church schoolin China, many of these schools have been closed and parents forced to send their children to government schools. Nie gave birth to a baby while in Jeju in 2020 and now is 34 weeks pregnant with their fourth child. Journey to Thailand This February, SHRC lost the final appeal of their original asylum case. In order to avoid deportation, the entire congregation refiled their asylum claims, which cost $1,000 per person. After Korean and US officials informed the church members they were unlikely to receive refugee status in Korea, Texas-based persecution advocacy group ChinaAid suggested a possible pathway out: getting the whole group to Thailand, where they could appeal to the UN refugee office. Unlike Korea, Thailand is not party to UN refugee treaties, and so the agencyrather than the governmentcan directly process and determine refugee cases. In a vote, church members decided their best move would be to go to Thailand. So in August, the group moved to yet another new place where they didnt speak the language or understand the culture. With Nies due date fast approaching, she and her family arrived in Thailand first to receive medical care due to complications in her pregnancy. Once in Thailand, the church faced increased dangers they didnt experience in Jeju: People they understood to be Chinese operatives tailed the group, taking photos and videos everywhere they went, according to Pan and other sources. When they dropped off their applications at the UN refugee office on Monday Monday, Pan noticed a car parked across the street with a man inside videotaping them. Later, two strangers sat nearby and videotaped them as Associated Press journalists interviewed Pan and the church members. After arriving in Thailand, I truly felt the danger, Pan said. Even though in Korea I knew Thailand would be more dangerous, these past few days Ive seen that its much more dangerous than I imagined. Church members worry the Chinese government could take them and repatriate them back to China, where they would likely face severe punishment, a not-unfounded fear. Theyre also concerned about the family who is unable to leave Jeju. After a WSJ reporter reached out to the Chinese consulate in Korea inquiring about its refusal to grant the baby a passport, an officer called the family warning they were harming national security, according to ChinaAids Bob Fu. The officer then urged them to write a confession admitting that they were wrong for leaving China and that the church forced them to go to Jeju. In exchange, the consulate would give them the babys passport, Fu said. Meanwhile in Washington, DC, Fu and US officials are advocating for the Biden administration to resettle the group in the United States. Churches in Texas have already agreed to sponsor the congregation after their arrival, providing housing, living expenses, and help settling in. The US has often provided resettlement or humanitarian parole for people facing persecution from the Chinese government, including formerly detained Uyghurs, human rights activists, and house church Christians (including a family from Early Rain Covenant Church.) In response to CTs inquiry, the US State Department said it did not comment on individual cases but was committed to helping victims of religious persecution around the world. Pan said his rapidly thinning hair is a sign of the stress hes been under leading the church in the wilderness these past few years. At times, he said, he felt so weak that he didnt think he could carry this responsibility. Hed take walks with his wife, talking and praying about his troubles. Reading and meditating on Psalms has also brought Pan solace, he said. The church typically sings psalms every Sunday and at the beginning of each school day, so the laments and worship of David and the psalmists are well worn on their lips. As the church members all lived in the same building in Jeju, he would hear different families singing the psalms through the walls, a beautiful sound of praise. When congregants come to him homesick and longing for their family in China, Pan reminds them of their true home: On earth, Christians are sojourners. We can keep moving forward, but Thailand isnt my destination; neither is the United States. We are walking toward our heavenly home. [ This article is also available in and . ] FIRE ranks best and worst colleges for free speech: report A new report has ranked America's colleges based on their openness to free speech, particularly for students and speakers who espouse conservative views at illiberal universities. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, formerly known as the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), released the 2022-2023 college free speech rankings Wednesday. The rankings, which FIRE compiled in conjunction with College Pulse, are based on the results of a survey of nearly 45,000 college students from more than 200 of the largest and most prestigious colleges and universities in the U.S. The third annual survey asked students about the climate for free speech and expression on their college campuses, taking into consideration the institutions written policies regarding free speech. Specifically, FIRE asked students for their views on whether it was acceptable to engage in disruptive conduct in an attempt to prevent a speaker from sharing their opinions such as by shouting down a speaker or trying to prevent them from speaking on campus, blocking other students from attending a campus speech or using violence to stop a campus speech. The survey examined students level of tolerance for both conservative and progressive speakers and their level of comfort in expressing their ideas in various locations on campus. The survey also asked students about the views of campus administrators regarding free speech and the difficulty of having open conversations about contentious issues on campus. Along with analyzing free speech climates at individual colleges, FIRE studied the views of American students as a whole pertaining to free speech. According to FIRE, 63% of students expressed concern about suffering reputational damage if they spoke their minds. While 42% of conservative students said they often feel uncomfortable sharing their beliefs openly, just 13% of liberal students said the same. Likewise, 40% of students described themselves as uncomfortable disagreeing with a professor, either in public or in a written assignment. College students demonstrated particular hostility toward conservative viewpoints. A supermajority of students (74%) said they believe those who view transgenderism as a mental disorder shouldn't have the right to speak on campus, and 60% want to ban speakers who think abortion should be outlawed. Similarly, 74% of students also expressed opposition to allowing speakers who characterize Black Lives Matter as a hate group, and 69% wanted to prevent speakers who contest the results of the 2020 presidential election. Along with the student survey, FIRE took into account administrative behavior when calculating an overall score to determine a college or universitys support for free speech. When compiling the rankings of U.S. colleges, FIRE also used information previously compiled in several of its databases documenting how often campus administrators either supported or sanctioned scholars embroiled in a free expression controversy over the past three years. The rankings also took into account the number of speakers who were disinvited from campus over the past three years, as well as the FIRE Speech Code Rating given to each campus in the form of a red light, yellow light or green light based on its restrictions on freedom of speech. That so many students are self-silencing and silencing each other is an indictment of campus culture, said FIRE Senior Research Fellow Sean Stevens. How can students develop their distinct voices and ideas in college if theyre too afraid to engage with each other? The survey found that The University of Chicago has the best climate for free speech in the U.S., while Columbia University in New York City had the worst. The University of Chicago had an overall score of 77.92, indicating a good speech climate, while Columbia Universitys overall score of 9.91 illustrated an abysmal climate for free speech on campus. In addition to the University of Chicago, the top five schools for free speech in the U.S. consisted of Kansas State University, Purdue University in Indiana, Mississippi State University and Oklahoma State University. All five schools had overall scores of at least 74.35. Claremont McKenna College in California was the only other school to receive an overall score higher than 70. Columbia University had the abysmal category to itself, but the University of Pennsylvania, the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and Skidmore College in New York rounded out the bottom five. The overall scores at these schools ranged from 14.32 to 21.51, which reflected speech climates classified as either very poor or poor. FIRE included five additional private colleges surveyed on a separate list of warning schools. These schools have policies that clearly and consistently state that it prioritizes other values over a commitment to freedom of speech. The list of warning schools consisted entirely of prominent faith-based private schools: Hillsdale College in Michigan, Pepperdine University in California, Brigham Young University in Utah, Baylor University in Texas and St. Louis University in Missouri. Besides Hillsdale, which had a slightly above average overall score of 57.51, the other four schools had below average overall scores ranging from 32.19 to 37.59. Overall, 91 schools had overall scores of slightly below average or worse, while just 39 received overall scores of slightly above average or better. The remaining 83 schools had average overall scores ranging from 45 to 55. Each individual college included in the survey has its own page featuring comments from students describing their experiences on campus in regard to free speech. The release of the FIRE survey comes as colleges across the U.S. have attracted national attention for their hostility to speakers with conservative viewpoints. Earlier this year, Jeff Younger, who lost custody of his trans-identified son after objecting to his ex-wifes efforts put their child on puberty blockers, was invited to speak at the University of North Texas in Denton by the Young Conservatives of Texas. Protesters descended on the event, seeking to prevent Younger from speaking by pounding on the table, setting off noisemakers and clapping their hands and chanting F*** you, fascist. The protests against Younger extended outside the classroom where his speech took place, with hundreds of student demonstrators gathered outside the building. The University of North Texas ranked 166th out of the 203 colleges surveyed in the FIRE free speech rankings by achieving an overall score of 35.83, reflecting a below average environment for free speech. 5 Christian evangelists traveling to plant new church thrown off boat and drowned in Uganda NAIROBI, Kenya Muslim extremists killed five Christian workers by throwing them off a boat into central Ugandas Lake Kyoga, sources said. The evangelists from End Time Word Ministry church were traveling on Aug. 10 from Nakasongola District to Apac District on a commercial transport boat with plans to plant a church in the Aduku area, a Christian survivor of the attack told Morning Star News. The survivor, Amos Kyakulaga, a deacon at a church in Namutumba who was acting as a guide, said the five evangelists began proclaiming Christ to a group of 10 Muslims in Islamic attire aboard the boat. On our way, Tonny Ankunda started preaching to the people on the boat, which resulted in a huge argument between Muslims and the missionaries concerning the Sonship of our Lord Jesus Christ, Kyakulaga told Morning Star News. He said one of the Muslims, identified only as Bashir, began threatening the Christians, saying, If you continue insisting that Jesus is the Son of God, then Allah will kill all of you. Citing Scripture, the evangelists continued affirming the sonship of Christ and, according to Kyakulaga, Bashir told them, We are giving you one last minute to stop your blasphemy and to convert by confessing the shahada (Islamic creed), or else your lives are at risk. When the five evangelists refused to renounce Christ, the Muslims seized them and pushed them off the boat one by one, Kyakulaga said. While the lake is only 4 to 5.7 meters deep, they were 200 meters from shore, and all five Christians drowned. The 10 Muslims aboard were in agreement that the Christians should be killed, and neither they nor the boats pilot did anything to intervene, Kyakulaga said. The Muslims asked him if he was one of the missionaries, sparing him when he said he was not part of the church-planting team, he said. When the boat docked, he took a motorcycle to the church in Aduku that had invited them, where an elder obtained help from local officials and a fishing group to find and remove the bodies from the lake. Morning Star News has obtained photos of the bodies of the five victims: Ankunda, 44; Peter Agaba, 28; Juliet Ashaba, 39; Johnson Karungi, 27; and Julius Lweere, 52. Police have contacted officials in Nakasongola District and leaders of the sending church of the Christians, a church source in Aduku said. Along with Bashir, two other suspects were identified as Jamil Budde and Juma of Nakasongola. The attack was the latest of many instances of persecution of Christians in Uganda that Morning Star News has documented. Ugandas constitution and other laws provide for religious freedom, including the right to propagate ones faith and convert from one faith to another. Muslims make up no more than 12% of Ugandas population, with high concentrations in eastern areas of the country. Boris Johnson: Christianity is a superb ethical system ... I would count myself a very bad Christian British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who recently got married in Westminster Cathedral and quoted from the Psalms in a media interview weeks later, hailed Christianity as a superb ethical system but added that he would count himself as a kind of very, very bad Christian. In a lengthy biographical piece published in The Times on Saturday, British writer Tom McTague prodded him further on his faith. A friend of the prime minister reportedly told several news outlets that he suspected that Johnson believed in a pre-Christian morality system with a multitude of gods and no clear set of rules. So when The Times put this to Johnson, he responded, Christianity is a superb ethical system and I would count myself as a kind of very, very bad Christian. No disrespect to any other religions, but Christianity makes a lot of sense to me. McTague also noted that the prime ministers ability to invite underestimation seems to shield him from the usual rules of politics. Theres a magic to Boris that allows him to escape some of the political challenges that hes had since he became prime minister, the writer quotes Frank Luntz, an American pollster who was friends with Johnson at Oxford, as saying. People are more patient with him, they are more forgiving of him, because hes not a typical politician. Last month during the G7 summit in England when ITVs Robert Peston asked Johnson whether he was now a practicing Roman Catholic, the prime minister initially sought not to respond by saying, I dont discuss these deep issues, certainly not with you. The reporter then told Johnson that Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer had said he didnt believe in God. The prime minister then quickly quoted Psalm 14: The foolish man has said in his heart there is no God. While the prime minister was baptized a Catholic, he twice married as an Anglican before his third marriage with Carrie Symonds in May. The question of his faith as Britains first Catholic prime minister (while in office) became a serious issue last month because, as a Catholic, Johnson can no longer send the names of Church of England bishops to Queen Elizabeth. Instead, Lord Chancellor Robert Buckland will send the names of new Church of England bishops to the queen, after a warning that the prime minister could be banished from office if he keeps doing so himself, The Telegraph reported. An unnamed source at No. 10 told the publication that the rule is incredibly anachronistic because a Jewish or Muslim prime minister could nominate a bishop but not a Catholic. In response to questions about Johnsons Christian faith and conversion to Catholicism, one senior Tory reportedly said earlier that the prime minister does not have a religious bone in his body. Johnsons great-grandfather, Ali Kemal, was a Turkish Muslim journalist and politician who was brutally murdered by a mob that supported Ataturk. He knew England well, and when the British occupied Constantinople for four years at the end of World War I, he collaborated with them. In the BBC series Who Do Think You Are, Johnson talked about his great-grandfather having memorized the entire Quran as a young boy. And it was in that interview that Johnson also mentioned that, as a student, he had won a Scripture knowledge prize. As part of a Bible reading project for the King James Bible Trust, in which a reading of the entire Bible was posted on YouTube, Johnson read from Isaiah Chapter 11. He called the King James version the single most beautiful and influential work of English literature. Michigan judge's reversal of criminal abortion law is 'Roe 2.0' A Michigan judge has declared a 1931 state law banning most abortions unconstitutional, months after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide. In a Wednesday ruling, Michigan Court of Claims Judge Elizabeth Gleicher issued a permanent injunction barring enforcement of the ban by the states Attorney General and county prosecutors. The law, which had been dormant before the Supreme Court returned the abortion issue to the states in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization, makes it a crime to commit abortions unless the mothers life is at risk in a medical emergency. Gleicher ruled that the law compels motherhood and deprives only women of their ability to thrive as contributing participating in world outside the home and as parents of wanted children. "Manifestly, criminalizing abortion will eliminate access to a mainstay healthcare service. For 50 years, Michiganders have freely exercised the right to safely control their health and their reproductive destinies by deciding when and whether to carry a pregnancy to term," Gleicher wrote in the opinion, in part, according to the Detroit Free Press. Alexandra Snyder, CEO of Life Legal Defense Foundation, a pro-life nonprofit law firm, said in an interview with The Christian Post that Gleichers ruling was Roe 2.0 for Michigan. Her arguments about the right to privacy, the right to bodily integrity, and then calling pregnancy a bodily intrusion just reveals her own bias toward abortion and against children, he said. Snyder also found it ironic that the provision of Michigans Constitution that Gleicher relied upon in her ruling states: No person shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law. And the Supreme Court has already said, in terms of the U.S. Constitution, that there is no liberty interest under the 14th Amendment that would grant the right to abortion, Snyder said. He further noted that Gleicher is a Planned Parenthood donor. The judges potential conflict of interest was cited in a complaint filed by multiple pro-life groups, including the Alliance Defending Freedom and Right to Life Michigan, requesting that Gleicher recuse herself from the case. The complaint further added that Gleicher received an advocate award from Planned Parenthood and had represented them in a previous lawsuit. As The National Review reported in May, Gleicher refused to recuse herself from the case. Gleichers decision states that criminalizing all abortions, barring those performed to safeguard the mother's health, violates the bodily integrity and right to equal protection afforded to pregnant individuals under the Michigan constitution. In contrast to the Supreme Courts ruling in June, stating that the U.S. Constitution does not confer a right to abortion, the Michigan judge determined there was enough evidence to conclude that her states constitution bestows protections on those seeking to terminate a pregnancy. Our Constitution does not permit the Legislature to impose unjustifiable burdens on different classes of pregnant women, she wrote. It also forbids treating pregnant women as unequal to men in terms of their ability to make personal decisions about when and whether to be a parent. According to the Detroit Free Press, the order is not final, as opponents can still appeal to a higher court. However, it is the first time that a Michigan judge has weighed in on the constitutionality of abortion in the absence of Roe. The recent ruling comes in response to a lawsuit filed against Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel by Planned Parenthood of Michigan and Michigan abortionist Sarah Wallett in April. The lawsuit argued that the law was unconstitutionally vague and violated Michganders rights under the state constitution and civil laws. On May 17, the Court of Claims granted a preliminary injunction temporarily blocking the ban and upheld abortion access in the state after the Supreme Court reversed Roe the following month. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, according to the Detroit Free Press, thanked Gleicher for her recent ruling, although she noted it was likely to be contested. We know that theres a group of extremists who will stop at nothing to ban abortion even in cases of rape and incest. With our rights still hanging by a thread, the Michigan Supreme Court needs to provide certainty and rule on my lawsuit to protect the right to abortion in the state constitution," Whitmer said in a statement. While other states and even some politicians in Lansing take steps to control womens bodies by defending extreme restrictions on abortion and health care, I will fight like hell for reproductive freedom." The Guttmacher Institute, Planned Parenthoods former research arm, noted that 13 states have trigger laws on the books that banned abortion after Roes reversal: Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming. Queen Elizabeth II, rest in peace In my life experience, I can only remember one British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. She reigned as Queen from 1952-2022, having celebrated her Platinum Jubilee (70 years as Queen) earlier this year. I was five years old when she ascended to the throne in 1952. During her reign, she had 15 prime ministers, her first being Sir. Winston Churchill. When she became Queen, Joseph Stalin ruled the Soviet Union (which doesnt even exist anymore) and Harry Truman was President of the United States. When Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne, Great Britain was in the doldrums economically, having emerged as a victorious nation in World War II, but basically bankrupt financially, exacerbated by having elected a Socialist Labour Government in 1945. At the time of her ascension to the throne, few would have predicted the comparatively prosperous nation Britain became during her 70-year reign. Winston Churchill, prime minister at the beginning of her reign, speculated that she might birth a second Elizabethan Age, referring to Elizabeth I or Elizabeth the Great, the Tudor monarch who presided over Britains rise to being a great power. Queen Elizabeth IIs life was one of duty and service to her country. Even before her father's death, she had promised Britain and the Commonwealth that my whole life, be it long or short, will be devoted to your service. That is a promise she kept faithfully and well. The Queen was a serious and dedicated Christian and her faith guided her life. Her life became an inspiring example of a life lived in service to her countrymen and the British Commonwealth. Great Britain was indeed fortunate to have Elizabeth II as its monarch for these past seven decades. She had an excellent example to follow in the service of her father, King George VI (1936-1952), and her mother, Queen Elizabeth, in contrast to the puerile selfishness of her uncle, the abdicated King Edward VIII (January 1936-December 1936). During the height of the Blitz when London was being bombed nightly by German bombers and Buckingham Palace itself had been hit, Queen Elizabeth IIs mother was asked if Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret were going to be evacuated to a safer location. She famously replied, the Princesses will not leave without me, and I wont leave without the king, and the king will never leave! Winston Churchill said that statement alone was worth five divisions of infantry in what it did for British morale at a critical time in World War II. Elizabeth II was very close to her parents, and she learned her extraordinary sense of duty and service from them. As a father of daughters, I was particularly touched by a letter her father, King George VI, wrote to his daughter upon her marriage to Prince Philip: I was so proud and thrilled at having you so close to me on our long walk in Westminster Abbey. But when I handed your hand to the Archbishop, I felt I had lost something very precious.I have watched you grow up all these years with pride under the skillful direction of Mummy, who, as you know, is the most marvelous person in the world in my eyes, and I can, I know, always count on you, and now Philip, to help us in our workI can see that you are sublimely happy with Philip, which is right, but dont forget us, is the wish of your ever-loving and devotedPapa. I lived in Oxford, England, for three years (1972-1975) and that experience gave me a new appreciation for how the British people felt about their Queen. I pastored a small British Baptist church during my tenure at Oxford University, and the membership of the church consisted literally of butchers and bakers and candlestick makers. These salt-of-the-earth common folk loved their Queen as you would love a favorite aunt or grandmother. As head of state, but not the head of government (which belonged to the prime minister), she was above politics and was seen as the symbol of the country for all her subjects. This is a strength of the monarchy system. The unsolvable problem, with hereditary monarchies, even constitutional ones, is that if you get a bad monarch, the system fails badly. A really bad monarch (George III) is what impelled our forefathers to declare their independence from the British Crown, issuing a lengthy Bill of Indictment explaining: The History of the present King of Great Britain is a History of repeated injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. The British people and freedom-loving people around the world were indeed fortunate to have had such a dedicated and beneficent monarch as Queen Elizabeth II for these past 70 years. Seldom has a nation been better or more self-sacrificially served than they were by the second Elizabeth the Great. As the new British Prime Minister Elizabeth Truss puts it, the Queen was the rock upon which modern Britain was built. Amen to that! Court blocks NY from punishing Christian adoption agency for rejecting unmarried, gay couples A court in New York state has ruled that a Christian adoption agency cannot be shut down because it refused to place children with same-sex couples and unmarried cohabitating heterosexual couples. U.S. District Judge Mae D'Agostino issued a decision and order on Tuesday permanently stopping state officials from closing down New Hope Family Services, Inc. The New York Office of Children and Family Services was enjoined from forcing New Hope to process applications from, or place children for adoption with, same-sex couples or unmarried cohabitating couples, and insofar as it would prevent New Hope from referring such couples to other agencies. New Hope has demonstrated that it is entitled to a permanent injunction prohibiting the State of New York from requiring New Hope to provide adoption services to unmarried or same-sex couples, ruled D'Agostino. New Hope is being represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a law firm that has successfully argued First Amendment cases before the United States Supreme Court. ADF Senior Counsel Roger Brooks said in a statement released Wednesday that he considered the decision great news for children waiting to be adopted and for the parents partnering with New Hope Family Services to provide loving, stable homes. New Hopes faith-guided services dont coerce anyone and do nothing to interfere with other adoption providers who have different beliefs about family and the best interests of children, stated Brooks. The decision from the court simply allows New Hope to continue serving the community so that more kids find permanent homes, more adoptive parents welcome a new child, and more birth parents enjoy the exceptional support that New Hope has offered for decades. In 2018, OCFS claimed that New Hope violated a 2013 state law prohibiting discrimination against adoption applicants on the basis of sexual orientation and marital status. New Hope sued OCFS in response, accusing the government office of violating the First Amendment and 14th Amendment rights of the Christian charity. A three judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled in July 2020 to send the case back down to the district court, ruling in favor of the Christian charity. Circuit Judge Reena Raggi wrote the panel opinion, concluding that New Hope had a valid suspicion of religious animosity given how the law was being used against them. It is plainly a serious step to order an authorized adoption agency such as New Hope operating without complaint for 50 years, taking no government funding, successfully placing approximately 1,000 children, and with adoptions pending or being supervised to close all its adoption operations, Raggi said. All the more serious when, as just discussed, the agency has, for five years and without objection by OCFS, used recusal and referral to avoid rejecting applicants on the basis of its religious beliefs. In October 2020, D'Agostino issued a preliminary injunction on behalf of New Hope, concluding that the OCFS treatment of New Hope demonstrates some animosity towards particular religious beliefs. DOJ official garners backlash for labeling Alliance Defending Freedom hate group on social media A Justice Department official has been accused of violating an official policy by publicly labeling Alliance Defending Freedom, a prominent religious freedom advocacy organization, as a hate group in a social media post. Last month, Jason Weida, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Massachusetts, said in a Linkedin post that he had been honored to be part of an Alliance Defending Freedom event. Eric P. Bruskin, assistant director of the commercial litigation branch in the DOJs Civil Division, who formerly worked for the American Civil Liberties Union, a progressive organization, commented on the post, saying: Jason, this is a hate group. Youre speaking at a conference for a hate group. Are these the beliefs you hold? If so, then its time we end our professional association. Bruskin garnered backlash, with a couple of commenters arguing that Bruskin had violated DOJ's employee policy when it came to how federal government employees should use social media. According to the DOJ employee manual, under the category of Personal Use of Social Media, department employees should not make comments that can be perceived as showing prejudice based on race, gender, sexual orientation, or any other protected basis. Department employees are required at all times to adhere to certain government-wide standards of conduct that apply to online communications, regardless of whether the employees are at work, off duty, or using government equipment, added the policy. ADF has won several religious freedom cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, many cases defending the rights of Christian conservatives to uphold their beliefs in the public square. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a far-Left advocacy group that has garnered multiple controversies in recent years, classifies the ADF and ADF International as a hate group. ADFs longstanding antipathy toward LGBTQ people has become public through its work on lawsuits, various statements its leaders have made and materials it has offered on its website over the years, the SPLC claims. For its part, the ADF has refuted the SPLC's accusation that it's a hate group, noting that the SPLC frequently uses the term to silence dissent and to bully religious conservatives. If the price of holding our traditional religious beliefs and speaking on them in public discourse is to earn a place on the Hate Map, then well view SPLCs slander as a badge of honor, stated the ADF. But the people who use such tactics should know they wont work forever. They will not succeed in trampling conscience or stopping civil discourse by name calling. Thats the tactic of the bully on the playground. Woman says pro-life pregnancy center saved her life: 'I would either be dead or in prison' As Democratic politicians continue to claim that crisis pregnancy centers harm women through lies and coercion, one woman has credited such an organization with saving her life. Pro-life pregnancy centers have received the ire of Democratic politicians following the U.S. Supreme Court's June 24 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization that overruled the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide, with one senator even pushing for such organizations to be shut down. The targeting of pregnancy centers does not sit well with Gina Marie, a mother who has been helped greatly by a pro-life pregnancy center. She came across a blog post stating that pregnancy centers are "fake" and encouraged people to vandalize them, as many have been vandalized in the months leading up to and after the Supreme Court's ruling. Crisis pregnancy centers outnumber legitimate abortion care providers 3 to 1 in Massachusetts. @MassAGO Healey is sounding the alarm about their deceptive practices. We must do everything we can to protect Americans seeking reproductive care. https://t.co/Xi408800It Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) July 6, 2022 In October 2019, Marie received help from Aid for Women, a pro-life pregnancy center with several locations in the suburbs surrounding Chicago, Illinois. After all that the organization had done for her, Marie told The Christian Post in an interview that she just "lost it" after seeing the blog post. The post prompted her to take to Facebook to share her experience. "I was like 'Anyone and everyone who thinks that pregnancy centers are not real, they are very real. Me and my children would not be here today, literally would not be here today. I would either be dead or in prison if it wasn't for Aid for Women,'" she wrote in the post. "I took that super personally because they met me in a spot in my life where I was kind of willing to just literally give up," she said. "And now that I got where I'm at today, it's just like, 'Oh, my gosh, oh, my gosh,'" she said. Marie first discovered Aid for Women after learning she was pregnant in her late 20s. In the months before reaching out to the group, Marie was homeless and living out of hotels, unable to afford the one where she was staying when she found out about the pregnancy. She met the baby's father at a bar. When she told him about their child, he threatened to tell the police that she raped him if she didn't have an abortion. At the time, Marie struggled with an addiction to drugs and alcohol and had spent time in jail, which caused her family to distance themselves from her. She got in touch with her mom, who asked to meet her at Denny's. After meeting Marie at the restaurant, her mother provided her with Aid for Women's phone number. "When I found out I was pregnant, it was a huge life change," Marie said. "My whole entire life was about to change. I thought that it was going to end, but it turns out that was exactly what God wanted." At first, the expectant mother was skeptical about what the organization could do for her, thinking it was just a phone number. But she called them, and within a week, she moved into Heather's House, one of the center's maternity homes for women. In addition to providing Marie with housing, the Aid for Women staff drove her to and from job interviews, which she had started applying for immediately after moving into the home. She got a job at an animal hospital within a week of living at the home, and the staff continued to drive her to work. "They also drove me back and forth to the grocery store, the doctors. They even paid for me to go back to school for a couple of semesters," she recalled. Marie gave birth to her daughter in February 2020. But she also has a son born in December 2010. While at Heather's House, Aid for Women drove Marie to visit her son, who has been living with his grandparents for around four years. "They paid for my therapy. They paid for some dental work," she said. "Pretty much whenever there was a need, they met it and took care of it." Marie says that even now, the staff continues to help her. She has remained friends with the organization's director, who she talks with regularly about paying for her therapy. "They have given me diapers or gas cards if I needed it," Marie said. "They're still super involved in my life." Marie is going to school full-time and studying sonography while working part-time at her daughter's daycare. She will graduate from school in two years. Additionally, Marie expects her son to live with her and her daughter within three months as she and her parents work on a transition plan. According to a 2020 report released by the national pro-life lobbying group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and its research arm, the Charlotte Lozier Institute, 2,700 pregnancy centers nationwide provided almost 2 million people with free resources at an estimated value of nearly $270 million in 2019. A 2017 CLI report estimated that the free resources pregnancy centers offered clients saved communities nearly $161 million annually. Despite the benefits these groups provide pregnant women and their families, there is in Congress to crack down on what Democrat lawmakers call the "deceptive tactics" of pro-life pregnancy organizations that dissuade women from having abortions. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., introduced the Stop Anti-Abortion Disinformation Act, which claims that pregnancy centers advertise themselves as "providers of comprehensive health care" to prevent abortions. If passed, the bill would "direct the Federal Trade Commission to prescribe rules prohibiting disinformation in the advertising of abortion services." Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a cosponsor of the bill, went as far as to claim that pregnancy centers "torture" women and should be shut down. In a July 6 Twitter post, Warren expressed concern that pregnancy centers outnumber abortion facilities "3 to 1" in Massachusetts. "We must do everything to protect Americans seeking reproductive care," Warren wrote. Democrat members of Congress also called on Google to make it more difficult for users to find pro-life pregnancy centers online. The politician's efforts against pro-life centers come as several pro-life organizations nationwide have been targeted with firebombings and other acts of vandalism after a draft opinion was released in May showing that the Supreme Court was poised to overturn Roe v. Wade. The CompassCare pro-life pregnancy center in Amherst, New York, was firebombed on June 7. The act was alleged to have been carried out by activists affiliated with Jane's Revenge. This group also claimed responsibility for other acts of vandalism, including the firebombing of a pro-life lobbying group's office in Madison, Wisconsin. CompassCare re-opened about two months later in August. After the firebombing, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a law asking the New York State Department of Health to conduct a study and issue a report "examining the unmet health and resource needs facing pregnant people in New York and the impact of limited service pregnancy centers" that don't refer patients for abortion. CompasCare CEO Jim Harden told CP that the bill essentially was the state government's way of saying that it will not be "investigating the arsonists but investigating the victims." "[It's] not just a physical attack but a legislative attack and a PR attack as well as leveraging ... chief law enforcement officers and attorneys general to attack pro-life pregnancy centers," Harden said. "We haven't done anything wrong and the only thing we've done is provide ethical medical care and comprehensive community support to women in need for free without any state or federal money being invested in us." Bishop Lamor Whitehead claims he lost income, members due to defamation by internet personalities: lawsuit Brooklyn Bishop Lamor Whitehead, who was robbed of some $400,000 or more in jewelry while delivering a sermon at Leaders of Tomorrow International Churches in New York City in July, has slapped two popular online personalities with $20 million defamation lawsuits each following the loss of church members and income after they allegedly painted him as a scammer and drug dealer. Brooklyn Bishop Lamor Whitehead, who was robbed of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry while delivering a sermon at his Leaders of Tomorrow International Churches in New York City in July, has slapped two popular online personalities with $20 million defamation lawsuits each for loss of church members and income after they allegedly painted him as a scammer and drug dealer. In one of the lawsuits, Whitehead names Larry Reid, whose "Larry Reid Live" show has a following of more than 200,000 people on Facebook alone. Reid, among other things, is also the founder of The MBN Network and the senior spiritual leader of Reformation Church of Atlanta. Whitehead, who has been hitting out at critics since the robbery at his church made international headlines, also goes after DeMario Jives of the "King Jives Show" in a similar lawsuit. As a result of (the defendants) conduct, Plaintiff lost business deals, church members and income, Whiteheads lawsuit claims, according to the New York Daily News. (Defendants) are liable to Plaintiff for defamation, libel per se and slander per se. Jives, according to the lawsuit filed in Kings County court on Friday, claimed on his YouTube channel last month that Whitehead is wearing the same jewelry that [he] got robbed in. Jives also allegedly said Whitehead was drug dealing and collaborating with the Bloods and Crypts. Reid is accused of writing online that Whitehead scammed people out of money and that he will be locked up in about three months. The brazen attack on Whitehead's church caught on video on July 24, made international headlines after multiple gunmen were shown robbing the bishop and his congregants of jewelry he claims was worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Information from the New York City Police Department cited by The New York Post said three masked gunmen burst into Whiteheads church at around 11:14 a.m. on the day of the robbery. The video of the incident shows Whitehead quickly surrendering to the gunmen as they relieved him, his wife and the congregants of their precious stones. While police sources cited by The New York Times said the stolen jewelry was worth more than $1 million, other reports pegged the value at about $400,000. Included in the jewelry stolen from Whitehead and his congregation are a $75,000 Rolex watch, a $75,000 Cavalier watch and several crosses worth tens of thousands of dollars each, the New York Post reported. Responding to the lawsuit Wednesday, Reid who initially posted the video of the robbery, told The Christian Post in a statement that he is yet to see a copy of the lawsuit. He added that the filing feels personal. Bishop Whitehead filing this lawsuit against me feels personal. His ego has been injured and he wants to hit back. The robbery video became viral as a result of me posting it. I believe Whitehead resents the response hes received from the media and feels its my fault. His outburst on my IG Live where he emotionally exploded and recent findings alleging he had stolen from others likely turned all media even the more against him, Reid said in the statement. This filing is his way of hitting back. He said in a post that the filing was his turn now.' The complaint is his temper tantrum and an attempt to stay in the media and change the medias view of him. This will not work. He has to sit with that. Just days after the robbery in July, Whitehead exploded in a Facebook Live interview with Reid and Genesis Warren and told them both to "kiss my a**" after they poked fun at the robbery and raised questions about how it happened. Before the interview with Whitehead, Reid and Warren, who leads Geneses Warren Ministries, speculated that the robbery could have been a set-up, echoing the sentiments of many others online. Warren and Reid also poked fun at the shabby appearance of Whitehead's church, pointing to, for example, a sheet stuck to a wall with "thumb tacks." "Baby, I was screaming," Warren said. Reid also alluded to Whitehead's criminal history. The Brooklyn bishop was arrested in 2006 for a $2 million identity-theft scam. He served some five years in prison but was released in 2013. He claims he was "falsely convicted and arrested for a crime I did not commit." Jives did not immediately respond to CPs request for comment on Wednesday but he told the New York Post that he was merely poking fun at Whitehead. Im a commentator, Jives told the New York City publication. I give commentary on religion, politics, public figures, everything. We make a lot of jokes, especially about this particular situation, because this guy really is a joke. Judge blocks California law forcing doctors to participate in assisted suicide process A judge has temporarily blocked California from enforcing a law that a Christian medical organization claims would force its members to participate in the process of assisted suicide despite its moral objections. U.S. District Judge Fernando Aenlle-Rocha granted a preliminary injunction last Friday halting enforcement of a provision of the state's Health & Safety Code. The 19,000-member Christian Medical & Dental Associations and Dr. Leslee Cochrane sued California over a bill that they say removed conscience protections for medical professionals morally opposed to any form of participation with assisted suicide. While Aenlle-Rocha disputed the plaintiffs' religious discrimination claims, he believes "they are likely to succeed on their Free Speech claim." "The ultimate outcome of this requirement is that non-participating providers are compelled to participate in the Act through this documentation requirement, despite their objections to assisted suicide," wrote Aenlle-Rocha, an appointee of former President Donald Trump. The judge's order blocks the state from enforcing the provision requiring a healthcare provider unwilling or unable to participate to "document the individual's date of request and provider's notice to the individual of their objection in the medical record." While the provision in question still allows doctors not to perform physician-assisted suicide, the policy requires doctors to document the date of the patient's request for lethal drugs in the patient's medical record and "transfer the records of that first oral request to a second physician upon the patient's request." Plaintiffs argued that the provision requires objecting healthcare professionals "to discuss, refer for, or otherwise participate in assisted suicide." The Alliance Defending Freedom, a nonprofit religious freedom advocacy organization representing the plaintiffs, celebrated the temporary block in a statement Tuesday. "Our clients seek to live out their faith in their medical practice, and that includes valuing every human life entrusted to their care. Participating in physician-assisted suicide very clearly would violate their consciences," said ADF Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot. "We're pleased the court followed the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in NIFLA v. Becerra that clarified First Amendment protections extend to religious medical professionals." In 2015, then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed the End of Life Option Act, which took effect in 2016 and made California the fifth state to allow residents to end their lives with doctor-prescribed drugs. Last October, California passed Senate Bill 380, which opponents said reduced the level of conscience protections for medical professionals opposed to physician-assisted suicide. In February, CMDA and Cochrane sued California on grounds the new law forces a physician with a patient who requests an assisted suicide to "document the request in that patient's medical record, even if the physician objects to participating in assisted suicide in any way." "In sum, the original End of Life Options Act provided broad protection for conscientiously objecting physicians, but SB 380 eliminates or limits that protection," read the suit. "Plaintiffs desire not to participate in assisted suicide in any way, but they fear penalization under SB 380 and action against their medical licenses if they do not." Fire chief fired after attending megachurch leadership summit continues yearslong legal battle A California fire chief who claims he was terminated from his job after attending a megachurch leadership conference has filed an appeal after a federal court ruled earlier this year that he was rightfully let go. The First Liberty Institute filed the appeal with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of Ron Hittle, who was dismissed as fire chief of the Stockton Fire Department over a decade ago. The appeal, filed Aug. 31, comes after District Court Judge Troy Nunley, an Obama appointee, sided with the city in March. "The city of Stockton, California ... ordered Fire Chief Ronald Hittle to attend a leadership training and then fired him because he attended a religious, rather than secular, leadership conference while on the clock," the brief reads. "It is undisputed that the City lists his attendance at this conference as a reason for his termination." Hittle and his attorneys claim that the court should grant summary judgment based on claims the city violated his rights under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act "because religion was a motivating factor in his termination." In an interview with The Christian Post, First Liberty Senior Counsel Stephanie Taub said that the city's decision to fire Hittle demonstrated "religious intolerance and discrimination." Hittle served the department for over 20 years, eventually becoming the fire chief in 2005. In July 2010, Deputy City Manager Laurie Montes instructed Hittle to attend leadership training. The former fire chief learned that a former pastor he met while serving on a church school board, George Liepart, had four tickets to the Global Leadership Summit, held at the Willow Creek Community Church in Illinois and broadcast to sites around the world. Hittle attended the conference with three other staff members. According to Taub, the conference doesn't only feature speakers representing Christian values but also figures such as former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, as well as former Secretary of State Colin Powell. The attorney maintains that Hittle was following instructions by attending leadership training. "But it didn't matter that it was a quality leadership conference," Taub told CP. "If they had concerns, maybe they could have talked about it with him or maybe charged it to PTO, like they did for a few other members of the fire department. But instead, they just fired him." In May 2010, the fire department received an anonymous letter calling for Hittle's termination for being a "religious fanatic." Montes allegedly accused the former fire chief of being part of a "Christian Coalition." The brief claims she used a "pejorative tone" and said that Hittle should refrain from being part of such activities as the fire chief. Other decision-makers involved in the termination process also reportedly made disparaging remarks about Hittle's faith. The city issued a notice of investigation to Hittle in November 2010, listing five issues, such as the effectiveness of his leadership and the use of city time and vehicle to attend a religious event, according to the district court's initial decision. Other issues included the endorsement of a private business, potentially conflicting loyalties and Hittle's compliance with directions concerning the budget. Hittle was placed on administrative leave in March 2011. In August 2011, an additional investigation sustained several allegations against the plaintiff. The report listed the inappropriate use of city time and a city vehicle to attend a religious event as one of the "most serious acts of misconduct." Hittle was accused of favoring employees who attended the event by granting time off for "inappropriate attendance" at the event and a financial conflict of interest with the pastor who had bought the tickets. The report claimed that Hittle failed to disclose to the city manager his financial relationship with the President of the Firefighters Local 456, which "occurred before, during, and after the Union President was the subject of an Internal Affairs investigation by the department into potential misconduct." A final notice of separation was sent to Hittle in September 2011, notifying him that he would be removed from his position as fire chief effective October 2011. After reviewing the case, the district court ruled that the city had grounds to dismiss the plaintiff due to his "multiple acts of misconduct." "[T]here is overwhelming evidence that Defendants had legitimate, nonretaliatory reasons for Plaintiff's termination," the March ruling states. "In the context of Plaintiff's association with Liepart, the notice of removal indicates Plaintiff failed to disclose his personal and business relationship with Liepart, who provided consulting services to the City." Taub told CP that an appeals process could take a few months. 'Defender of the faith': Calvin Robinson extolls Queen Elizabeth's servant leadership Paying tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II, Calvin Robinson extolled the Christian virtues of Britains longest-serving monarch to a largely American audience who have long been fascinated by the British royal family. During an interview with Fox News opinion host Tucker Carlson, Robinson, who serves as an Anglican deacon at Christ Church in London, recapped moments in the life of the former head of the Church of England that exemplified her deep faith and reliance on God. Carlson, who presumed that many Americans might be unaware of the queen's public professions of faith, asked if the British public viewed her as a Christian leader. She was a thorough Christian, Robinson declared. The queen wrote her own speeches every Christmas and she always managed to get in there that the person who inspired her was Jesus Christ. And that, I think, is why she led a life of service and duty and obligation a servant-leader, if you will. She put Him at the heart of everything. And I think thats important for someone whos a global leader because they have to be accountable to someone. And for the queen that was Christ." Defender of the faith. pic.twitter.com/7oKSsumBKv Fr Calvin Robinson (@calvinrobinson) September 9, 2022 Speaking about reactions to the queen's death in the U.K., which will remain in a period of national mourning until seven days after the state funeral, Robinson said, Right now, as a nation and as a Commonwealth, we are grieving. He added: I think we have to acknowledge that thats a good thing, too, because Jesus grieved at the graveside of Lazarus, and its something that helps us get past our emotions and it comforts us through this terrible time of loss. Once we move past that, we have to remember there is always hope. The hope of the resurrection through Christ. He (Jesus) told us that I am the resurrection and the life and all who believe in me even if they die will live. Reading from part of the queens first Christmas radio broadcast in 1952 at age 25, a mere 10 months after her father, King George VI, had died at Sandringham, Robinson noted that, from the beginning, she asked her subjects to pray for her: Pray for me that God may give me wisdom and strength to carry out the solemn promises I shall be making. And that I may be faithfully serving Him and you all the days of my life. The beautiful thing is that that is exactly what she did, Robinson said. She served us her people, her subjects and she served Christ, her God, all of her life to the very last day. Highlighting the queens sense of duty, he added that, despite being frail, on Tuesday the monarch met with both Boris Johnson, who tendered his resignation, and his successor Prime Minister Liz Truss at Balmoral where she was photographed with the 15th PM to serve during her 70-year reign. Even though she was incredibly frail, incredibly old and obviously ill, duty was the most important thing to her, duty to us, Robinson said. Carlson then asked whether the next reigning monarch, King Charles III, will carry out his mothers same devotion to her Christian faith. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was the defender of the faith. King Charles III has been on record before saying he will be defender of the faiths. I hope that was a slip of the tongue because we do need a Christian monarch to maintain Christian values in a Christian country, said Robinson, acknowledging that its yet unknown how the king will reign. Its OK to have tolerance of people of other faiths and none thats a British value, he continued. But Britain and England is a Christian country first and foremost. That is where we get a moral compass from, thats where we get our guidance from, thats where we get our values from, and that's where get our family structure from. So its important we maintain that throughout, and Im hoping that he will do. In 2015, Queen Elizabeth overtook Queen Victoria as Britains longest-reigning monarch. Back in June, the world celebrated the sovereigns Platinum Jubilee, commemorating her 70 years of service. In the U.S., the eyes of many royal watchers have been on the Sussexes who some had expected to travel together to Scotland to join other members of the royal family. Prince Harry traveled to Balmoral alone, however. He arrived over an hour after Buckingham Palace announced that his grandmother had died Thursday at age 96, The Telegraph reported. The queens family is expected to remain at Balmoral over the next three days to mourn privately. Afterward, the queen will lie in state in Edinburgh and London before her funeral, followed by burial at her final resting place next to Prince Philip at Windsor. 11 signs you are a functional atheist Although the definition of an "atheist" is one that denies the existence of God, in this article, I use the word to depict those identified as Christians who live as though there is no God they are accountable to. Unfortunately, in my estimation, a considerable percentage of Christians live as functional atheists. The following are eleven signs that you are a functional atheist: 1. You make important decisions about your career without consulting Scripture or praying. I can't tell you how many Christians I know choose a career based on how much money they will make. They do not consider how God internally wired them, how it would impact their ability to mature as a believer in the context of a local church, and how it will affect their key relationships; when a person does this, they behave like a functional atheist. 2. You choose a church solely on emotional connections. As a pastor since 1984, I have seen more people leave a church because their friends left than because they genuinely heard from God. Consequently, people are led by their emotions more than by the Holy Spirit when it comes to this all-important matter regarding their church family. That being said, it is normal for a person to come to Christ and attend a church because a friend invited them. However, once they mature in the faith, God expects them to go from carnal reasoning to a spiritually informed process regarding the choice of a church, among other things. 1 Corinthians 4:15 shows a mature believer will choose a church based on the will of God, where they are growing spiritually, and who God has placed in their life to be their spiritual parent. 3. You choose a mate solely on mutual attraction. Based on my pastoral observation, I have seen countless numbers of Christians marry a person merely because of an emotional or physical attraction. Romans 8:28 teaches us that although God can work through any marital situation, deciding this is no different than an atheist who will also choose a mate merely on emotional and physical attraction (Romans 8:28). I believe God uses the way He has wired us emotionally, physically, and spiritually (I would never counsel a person to marry a person they were not physically attracted to). At the end of the day, God has a specific spouse that matches your calling and destiny, which comes from being led by the Spirit and hearing from God. (To be fair, I have seen many married couples come to Christ whom God brought together even though they were not believers, but after they are saved, much more is required regarding decision making.) 4. You have no consistent communion with God. Any believer who does not seek the Lord regularly, aiming to be in continual communion with Him, is living like a functional atheist. In Exodus 33:15, Moses said to the Lord, If your presence doesn't go with us, then don't send us. Romans 8:14 and Ephesians 5:15-18 explains that being in communion with the Spirit and being led by Him continually is a staple of normal Christianity. Believers who constantly fill their lives with activities bereft of seeking Him, behave like functional atheists. 5. Scripture does not inform your worldview. Every election season, it amazes me the unbiblical policies and candidates some believers support. Obviously, they are primarily informed by secular humanism and don't understand how to integrate their personal faith with public policy. Those who are not informed by Scripture regarding their world and life view are functional atheists in this area. 6. You casually speak negatively about churches and spiritual leaders. The Bible teaches us in Proverbs 1:7 that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. When a person casually speaks evil of other people, especially Christian leaders and churches, it demonstrates that they lack the fear of the Lord. Proverbs 6:19 and Ephesians 4:29-31 teaches that the Lord hates discord among His people. Slanderers and gossipers in the church live like functional atheists. 7. You determine how many children you will have. One of God's original commands from Genesis 1:28 was to bear fruit and multiply (which means to have children). Biological children are a heritage from the Lord (Psalm 127:3-5). Having children is one of our primary callings because we partner with God to expand His eternal family. Those who cannot have children or are called to be single should focus on having spiritual children. With something as important as this, married couples should pray over Genesis 1:28 and ask God how many children He wants them to have. Those who determine family planning without God act like functional atheists. 8. You choose to divorce your spouse for unbiblical reasons. I have known spiritual leaders who glibly divorce their spouses merely because they do not get along. In Matthew 5 and 19, Jesus did not make divorce that easy. Those whose primary plumb line for divorce is happiness, break the covenant with God and their spouse and act like functional atheists. To be clear, 1 Corinthians 7:15 explains that if a believer chooses to divorce their spouse, the other person in the marriage is not responsible or in bondage. 9. Your walk with God is based on blessing and convenience. Those who only serve God when it is convenient or require a minimal sacrifice live as functional atheists. 10. You live independently of His Body. 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 lets us know that once we come to Christ, He places us in His Body. Conversely, lone rangers who continually church hop and live without being in covenant or accountability with spiritual leadership live as functional atheists. Through studying the New Testament, I have learned that I cannot walk out my calling apart from a local church. 11. You make a geographical move without hearing from God. I am amazed at how many Christians I have known since my conversion in 1978 who have moved away from the church God planted them in, only to waste years of their life floundering in a stagnant spiritual state. Before a geographical move impacts a life-giving church connection, I suggest you do the following: make sure you have heard from God in conjunction with the independent witness of other mature believers. Consult with your spiritual leaders. Make sure you are not being driven merely by money or convenience. Make sure there is another church in that new community that you have visited and sense a connection to. Make sure you do not burn any bridges if you make a mistake and must return those who superficially make a huge geographical move act as a functional atheist. The Kingdom of God isnt waiting for Sunday to advance The Kingdom of God isn't waiting for Sunday to advance when everyone meets at church. In what might be an inconvenience for many, the spirit realm and the Kingdom of God do not work like that. The war between the Kingdom of God and the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6) does not cease fire six days of the week. The church model, generally speaking, in its current Sunday-centric model is stuck in routine linear time instead of being directed by what is taking place in the spiritual realms, where the Holy Spirit is leading. To illustrate my point, imagine two armies on Earth warring with each other and one side says to itself: "We are just going to fight and advance on Sundays." The other army observes this and says to itself: "Our opposing army who is far more powerful than us, who could destroy us quickly if it was to fight us seven days a week, has made a stupid and illogical decision. Let's fight and advance while we can until they figure out how unwise they have been." I believe this is how Christians and the church are viewed in the spiritual realms because of the Sunday-centric nature of the church. I also believe that God is calling us to mobilize and get our act together collectively to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit into battle as an army that is available seven days of the week instead of just Sunday. We must also put to use the entire arsenal He has given us through Jesus and His Word. Practically during the week, church members need to assemble in groups in response to the Holy Spirit's leading for prayer. This requires the establishment of appropriate communication channels to share with other members during the week how the Holy Spirit is leading so they can respond in obedience and advance the Kingdom. This communication system also needs to be a way for members of the church to rate the level of spiritual resistance they are experiencing at any given time from the enemy so that a group prayer response can be initiated. When several members of the church report a high intensity of resistance from the enemy, I believe a "war room" type response needs to be initiated regardless of what day of the week it is to respond collectively in prayer. Church as a structured event and routine that compromises the Holy Spirits ability to instruct the advancement of the Kingdom of God into the world is not helping it to expand. God is answering the prayers of committed believers who know that being a true disciple of Jesus is a full-time commitment by bringing the church model into alignment with that reality consistent with the truth of two warring kingdoms that wont stop until Jesus has won. Teacher suspended for not using trans pronouns jailed after violating court order An Evangelical teacher at a church-run boarding school in Ireland who refused to use gender-neutral pronouns to address a trans-identified student was arrested for continuing to show up to work despite his suspension. Enoch Burke, who teaches German, history and politics at Wilson's Hospital School in County Westmeath, Ireland, was arrested Monday for breaching a court order barring him from returning to the Church of Ireland-affiliated secondary school while on paid leave. Burke was detained at Mountjoy Prison in Dublin, Ireland. The teacher was suspended on Aug. 24 pending the outcome of a disciplinary process after he refused the request of the principal and the school's board for teachers to use the pronoun "they" instead of "he" for a trans-identified student. According to The Independent, Burke continued showing up for work, leading the school to seek an interlocutory injunction last Wednesday that barred him from going to the school until Sept. 7. Despite the order, Burke's continued presence at the school led Justice Miriam O'Reagan to order Burke's arrest last Friday. In response to Burke's arrest, LifePetitions launched a petition calling for Burke's release. As of Wednesday afternoon, the petition has garnered more than 7,200 signatures. "I am here today because I said I would not call a boy a girl," Burke proclaimed before the High Court Monday, according to the petition. "Were I to obey the order of the board of management and the order of the court, I would have to accept that sticking by my belief in male and female is wrong." "It is not something I will do. It is in violation of my conscience," Burke added. "Were I to go into the school and bow to something I know to be manifestly wrong, it would be a shame and a disgrace on my part." According to Monday's court order, Burke must remain in custody "until he purges his contempt or until further order of this court." "I cannot purge my contempt if it means holding my Christian beliefs in contempt," Burke said. "It is insanity that I will be led from this courtroom to a place of incarceration, but I will not give up my Christian beliefs," he added, according to The Daily Mail. "Transgenderism is against my Christian belief. It is contrary to the scriptures, contrary to the ethos of the Church of Ireland and my school." Burke believes that its "reprehensible that someone's religious beliefs on this matter could ever be taken for grounds as an allegation of misconduct." He said his religious beliefs "are not misconduct" nor "gross misconduct" and declared that he will "never deny them and betray them, and I will never bow to an order that would require me to do so." "It's just not possible for me to do that," Burke insisted, saying his suspension is "unreasonable, unjust and unfair." "There has been a dumbing down of the seriousness of suspension," he said, adding that it has left "a stain" on an "unblemished teaching record." "[The suspension has] tarnished my good character and my good name, particularly in the profession of a teacher, where one is so close to a large number of members of the local community," Burke asserted. Rosemary Mallon, the counsel representing Wilson's Hospital School, defended her client's request to ask the court to send Burke to prison. "We are simply seeking to have Mr. Burke comply with the order," she stated. "Mr. Burke is knowingly in breach of this order, he is therefore in contempt, and he has made it clear that if he is not committed to prison he will attend at the school [today], and the concerns of the school regarding the ongoing disruption of the students remain." Burke is not the first teacher to face punishment for refusing to use a trans-identified student's preferred pronouns. In the United States, Peter Vlaming, who taught French in Williamsburg, Virginia, lost his job in 2018 over his refusal to use male pronouns to address a trans-identified female student. Like Burke, Vlaming cited his religious faith as the reason why he could not do so. In Kansas, teacher Pamela Ricard recently won a $95,000 settlement from the school district that she taught in until her recent retirement. Ricard was suspended for declining to address a trans-identified student by their preferred name, which reflected their new gender identity. In Loudoun County, Virginia, physical education teacher Tanner Cross was suspended last year for speaking at a school board meeting in opposition to a proposed policy that has since passed requiring teachers to use the preferred names and pronouns of trans-identified students. Cross was reinstated after the courts intervened. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate LOS ANGELES (AP) California avoided rolling outages during extreme heat, as operators of the states electricity grid continued to warn that unprecedented demand on energy supplies could force them to periodically cut power to some customers. The California Independent System Operator on Wednesday thanked residents and businesses for heeding another flex alert, a request to reduce electricity consumption during peak evening hours. With your help, we made it through another day without rotating #poweroutages, Cal-ISO said on Twitter. Another flex alert was issued for Thursday from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. as temperatures were expected to spike again. Targeted blackouts were avoided a day after miscommunication led utilities to mistakenly cut power to customers in several California cities. The confusion occurred Tuesday afternoon between a dispatcher at the Northern California Power Agency, which owns and operates power generating facilities for 16 members including a dozen cities, and the California Independent System Operator as the grid it manages was perilously close to running out of energy amid record-breaking temperatures. That is certainly concerning to me, Elliot Mainzer, president and CEO of Cal-ISO, said Wednesday. There was a lot happening on the grid for everybody last night. And so well double down on the communication to make sure that doesnt happen again. With record demand on power supplies across the West, California snapped its record energy use around 5 p.m. Tuesday with 52,061 megawatts, far above the previous high of 50,270 megawatts set July 24, 2006. As residents and businesses cranked air-conditioning to escape withering heat across the West and solar power supplies began to wane, Cal-ISO issued a stage 3 energy emergency alert to prepare utilities to initiate outages if demand didnt decrease. The states legal marijuana regulatory agency also urged businesses to turn off lights and reduce power or use backup generators. The Northern California Power Agency said its dispatcher misinterpreted Cal-ISOs order to prepare to cut power and immediately undertook the process to cut 46 megawatts enough to serve about 35,000 customers in the cities of Alameda, Lodi, Santa Clara, Palo Alto, Healdsburg, and Ukiah. It wasnt clear how many customers lost power, though the agency said no outage lasted more than an hour. Once the outages had been initiated, our dispatcher contacted (Cal-ISO) to inform them that the curtailment action had been undertaken, and was then notified there had been a misunderstanding of the initial order, NCPA said. With the state on the brink of outages, Gov. Gavin Newsom for the first time triggered a wireless emergency alert system at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday that sent messages to 27 million cellphones urging them to turn off or reduce non-essential power. Within moments, there was a reduction of more than 2,000 megawatts, bringing the state back from the edge, Mainzer said. It took a very loud signal, Mainzer said. I think they now recognize that were not messing around. This is a real issue. And we need real response. Newsom, speaking Wednesday in Beverly Hills, said he had debated pushing that button for the past four to five days. He ultimately decided to test it and concluded it was a game- changer, though hes reluctant to use it too often because he fears weakening its effectiveness. The emergency alert was not repeated Wednesday. Western states are struggling through one of the hottest and longest September heat waves on record. Temperatures began soaring last week, and the National Weather Service warned that dangerous heat could continue through Friday, despite some slight moderation. Nearly 54 million people were under heat warnings and advisories across the West as temperature records were shattered in many areas. Californias state capital of Sacramento hit an all-time high Tuesday of 116 degrees (46.7 C), breaking a 97-year-old record. Salt Lake City tied its all-time high temperature Wednesday at 107 degrees (41.6 C). The heat wave was expected to last until Saturday. Reno, which sits just across the Nevada line along the Sierras eastern front at an elevation of 4,500 feet (1,372 meters), topped the century mark for the ninth day in a row on Wednesday with its seventh consecutive daily record-high reaching 104 degrees (40 C) after recording its hottest September day ever on Tuesday at 106 degrees (41.1 C), according to weather service records dating to 1893. Scientists say climate change has made the West warmer and drier over the last three decades and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive. In the last five years, California has experienced the largest and most destructive fires in state history. On the Northern Plains, the unusually late heat wave peaked Wednesday following a prolonged string of scorching days. Along a main thoroughfare in downtown Billings, where the temperature set a daily record at 102 degrees (39 C), Gale Spotted Bear, native of the Blackfeet Reservation, sought shelter from the punishing heat in the shade of a vacant building. This year has been hotter than hell, said Spotted Bear, adding that homeless people can be hit the hardest if they have nowhere to go. Its hard out here. ___ Associated Press writers Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; Michael R. Blood in Beverly Hills; Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada; and Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, contributed to this report. SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) An oil company on Thursday pleaded guilty in federal court to negligently discharging crude off the Southern California coast when its underwater pipeline ruptured last year, a spill that closed miles of shoreline and shuttered fisheries. Meanwhile, Houston-based Amplify Energy and two of its subsidiaries agreed to enter no contest pleas to killing birds and water pollution in court on Friday in a settlement with the county and state officials stemming from the same October 2021 oil spill. Amplifys pipeline broke off the Orange County coast, spilling about 25,000 gallons (94,600 liters) of oil into the Pacific Ocean. The rupture closed beaches for a week and fisheries for more than a month, oiled birds and threatened local wetlands. Amplify unequivocally hit the snooze button. They knew they had a leak. Their leak detection system detected a leak, said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. Over and over, they kept ignoring it. That is criminal and that is why theyve been charged. Spitzer and state Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the filing of six misdemeanor state charges against the company and two of its subsidiaries from the spill. The company will plead no contest to all six charges and pay $4.9 million in penalties and fines as part of a settlement, Spitzer said. Bonta called the penalty historic, believed to be the largest state misdemeanor criminal fine ever in Orange County. Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP The company will also be placed on 12 months of probation and make changes designed to avoid future spills, including increased inspections and technology to detect leaks, Bonta said. Martyn Willsher, Amplifys president and chief executive officer, said in a statement that the company's agreement with state and federal officials further reflects the commitments we made immediately following the incident to the communities and environment impacted by the release. He said the company "remains committed to safely operating in a way that ensures the protection of the environment and the surrounding communities. In state court, the criminal charges include discharging oil into state waters, failing to immediately report it to state officials, and four counts of killing birds. The companys failure to properly sound the alarm led to the expansive spill that shut down beaches and led to the recovery of 116 live and dead birds soiled by oil, Bonta said, and the full economic impact of the oil spill is still emerging. In federal court in Santa Ana, Amplify and its subsidiaries each pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor charge on Thursday, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorneys office in Los Angeles. The plea came after the companies agreed with federal prosecutors to pay a $7 million fine and nearly $6 million in expenses incurred by agencies including the U.S. Coast Guard. Amy Taxin/AP In the federal agreement, Amplify also agreed to install a new leak detection system for the pipeline that ferried crude from offshore platforms to the coast. They also said they'd train employees to identify and respond to potential leaks. Federal authorities said the company and its subsidiaries failed to respond to eight leak detection alarms over a 13-hour period that should have alerted workers to the October 2021 spill. Federal, state and local officials have said the plea agreements and fines will help hold companies accountable. But Miyoko Sakashita, director of the Center for Biological Diversity's oceans program, said steeper criminal penalties should have been imposed and called for a halt to offshore oil drilling altogether. The penalties against the company are relatively modest, given the absolutely unacceptable harm this spill did to Californias coast, Sakashita said in a statement. Amplify contends that two ships dragged their anchors across the pipeline and damaged it during a January 2021 storm, but the company wasn't notified about the dragging until after the spill. Without this damage, Amplify has argued that the spill would not have happened. The announcement of the state deal led to unusual and unexpected praise between Bonta, a progressive Democrat running to retain his office, and Spitzer, a Republican who has faced significant controversy in recent months. Bonta called Spitzer a true fighter and champion for Orange County," while Spitzer was effusive in his praise for Bonta, who faces a Republican opponent in November. To have an attorney general who is so deeply committed to protecting the community and our environment is a very, very big blessing to me as a district attorney, Spitzer said. ___ Thompson reported from Sacramento. Diary of a Misfit: A Memoir and a Mystery By Casey Parks Knopf. 368 pp. $29 - - - By the third page of Casey Parks's memoir, "Diary of a Misfit: A Memoir and a Mystery," she's shown how and where she doesn't belong. Unable to console her mother about how her gayness jeopardizes her family's fate in small-town Louisiana, the teenager retreats: "The rest of the day passed in a blur. I ate banana pudding alone in the carport. I read Beowulf in the backyard." The day may have felt foggy, but Parks recounts it with acutely vivid details that will resonate with anyone who's felt that they don't fit in. Parks's facility as a vivid storyteller comes as no surprise. Readers familiar with her work in the New Yorker and the New York Times Magazine know her as a thoughtful, precise journalist who communicates her characters' humanity and the stakes of a story through evocative details. In her debut book, she focuses on her complicated relationship with the family members who passed on to her their skill with storytelling - and the challenging character who first made her want to use it. While both narratives are compelling, Parks's writing shines in the story that she can meticulously report: her own. Despite its title, "Diary of a Misfit" is about two misfits: Parks herself and Roy Hudgins, an enigmatic character who lived in the town of Delhi (pronounced "Dell-HIGH"), La. In the 1950s, the story goes, a neighbor made a deathbed confession to Parks's great-grandmother: Her son, Roy, was "a woman who lived as a man." Hudgins was a self-described town misfit, mowing lawns, playing music on his porch, living and dying alone. (Throughout the book, Parks questions how to gender Hudgins; following her lead, this review uses male pronouns.) When Parks's grandmother first tells her about Hudgins as a response to her sexuality, the story fascinates the young aspiring reporter, now a staff writer at The Washington Post. Over the next decade, she returns again and again to Hudgins's story as a proxy for her own fears: Did his family love him? Was he happy? How can you preserve faith and community in an unaccepting church? Is home where we always belong? Parks is an exceptional chronicler of her family and experience. She leans into the beats of stories she's expertly honed over the years, like the indelible image of her mother, a pregnant bride, throwing up on the preacher at her wedding. She manages the rare feat of writing about her family with both an awareness of its flaws and a respect for privacy. She chooses revealing anecdotes carefully, alluding to family challenges that aren't hers to share. A self-described listener, she chronicles her pain at a remove; when she writes about being whipped as a kid, it's as a detached reporter. Some scenes feel straight out of Mary Karr, but without the raw rancor. She ends a chapter on her engagement with a quietly devastating kicker: "All I remember about what I'd imagined would be the biggest day of my life is dialing my mom's number over and over again, listening to a robot tell me she had no space available." To find the details that make her story such a compelling read, Parks relies on her extensive journals, audio recordings and videos. She shares her obsession with self-documentation with Hudgins, who kept meticulous journals for decades. These spiral-bound journals are the white whale of "Diary of a Misfit," the key to unlocking Hudgins's story and, ostensibly, to providing answers to the questions Parks asks herself. Early on, she learns that Hudgins left his notebooks to his former neighbors, Mark and Cheryl. When she approaches them, they refuse to show the writing to her out of respect for his privacy. Over a decade of visits to Delhi, Parks earns their trust. These return trips are ostensibly about Hudgins, but in her painstaking work to build relationships with largely suspicious Delhi residents, Parks shares her own evolution, as a reporter and a person comfortable with her sexuality and in her own skin. She shares her discomfort with pushing sources; her position as a local turned outsider; her gradual, earned confidence. On her trips from Portland, Ore., to Delhi, Parks often visits her family in nearby West Monroe, and she weaves together her reporting efforts and her evolving relationship with her mother with grace. Parks struggles to bring that grace to Hudgins's story. Some of it is the challenging source material - there are scant memories or details of his life to work with. Yet although she conducts ample historical research, combing through census records and newspaper microfiche, she isn't comfortable conjuring the setting and conditions of Hudgins's life. As a reader, I longed for a sense of what his life would have been like. When Parks finally does get hold of the journals, the reveal is anticlimactic. After years of withholding them, Mark and Cheryl let her read them for a few hours, and she reckons with the quotidian sadness of Hudgins's life. Clearly she hoped for more. After such a prolonged buildup, I wanted more, too: reflection not from Hudgins but from Parks, who occasionally seems like the reluctant subject of her own memoir. "People write, I think, because they want to be understood and remembered," Parks writes. At the end of "Diary of a Misfit," despite the reveal of his journals, Hudgins's life remains an incomplete contour. When it comes to his story, Parks raises questions that she ultimately shies away from. But while her commitment to reported detail leaves Hudgins's story a mystery, it makes Parks's memoir a compelling triumph. - - - Charley Locke is a writer who often covers elders and kids. The Godmother: Murder, Vengeance, and the Bloody Struggle of Mafia Women By Barbie Latza Nadeau Penguin. 256 pp. $16.99 - - - The term "mafia" evokes specific images: men wearing nice suits and hats wielding guns. These associations arise mostly from popular culture, including "The Godfather," "The Sopranos" and, for true fans, the Italian series "Gomorrah." Women, though, are never front and center in these depictions and, as journalist Barbie Latza Nadeau explains in her new book, "The Godmother," they are rarely discussed by those who study the mafia. And yet, as Nadeau demonstrates, these women exist and act within the various crime syndicates that the Italian government considers to be mafias, including the "only one true Mafia . . . the Cosa Nostra in Sicily." The other major crime groups are the 'Ndrangheta in Calabria and the Neapolitan Camorra in Campania. The character meant to tie Nadeau's book together is Assunta "Pupetta" Maresca, who was 18 years old and six months pregnant in the summer of 1955, when she shot and killed the man who had ordered her husband's murder. This act of revenge, of a type usually carried out by men, won her "icon status among the Neapolitan criminal elite," Nadeau writes, "earning her the nickname Lady Camorra and giving her incomparable stature as an original madrina - a godmother." Before Maresca's death in 2021, Nadeau interviewed her, and she certainly does make for an interesting main character. Well into her 80s, Maresca is still entirely comfortable with the murder she committed while also downplaying her agency within the Camorra. Another woman, whom Nadeau calls Sophia, grew up in Castellammare di Stabia, which has a long history with the Camorra and which the church considered so morally decayed that in 2015 a local priest sprinkled holy water from a helicopter above the town to exorcise the evil within. (It didn't work.) Much of the town's business, according to Nadeau, involves money laundering and the sale of drugs and other contraband. To support herself, Sophia started running drugs for a friend's dad and was eventually caught and sentenced to prison. Both Sophia and Maresca describe the hierarchal power that exists inside prisons: The former needed to work for other incarcerated women while the latter was so well respected that she and her infant son, who was born in prison and allowed to live with her until he was 4, were given special treatment by guards and by other imprisoned women. Nadeau describes well the culture of normalized misogyny in Italy, as well as how "the mafia and the malavita, 'dishonest lifestyle,' it produces are just another facet of the culture." The trouble is that the book's tone is all over the place, going from a kind of girl bossification of mafia women to a celebration of anti-mafia prosecutors for imprisoning them - sometimes on the same page. In her acknowledgments, Nadeau writes that she believes Italian organized crime has been romanticized by pop culture, "which has normalized a phenomenon that ruins lives and local economies every single day." Her book, she continues, "does not seek to glamorize such criminality even as it explores the stories of women who have had no choice but to stay in crime families." But "The Godmother" reads like an overcorrection, and Nadeau - who clearly likes her subjects - still seems invested in the dichotomy between the capital "B" Bad mafia and capital "G" Good anti-mafia police and prosecutors. This is especially strange as Nadeau admits several times that the various syndicates continue to operate successfully precisely because they're involved in the highest echelons of legitimate state power. The Italian state - which, Nadeau acknowledges, fails to support its struggling citizens - and the parallel state that encompasses the mafia don't seem that separate. This makes it all the more troubling that Nadeau relies far more heavily on the opinions and speculations of those most interested in punishing mafia women than on the women's testimonies, which she often concludes are full of lies and omissions anyway. Confusingly, Nadeau stoops to the very contempt toward women that she's criticizing, often describing a women's physical appearance as if it's noteworthy. Antonietta Bagarella, for example, is described as "a once-slender, dark-eyed beauty" who "surely should have known what she was getting into" when she married a high-tier Cosa Nostra boss because she was raised by a mid-tier one. A couple of pages later, Bagarella has "faded into a dowdy Sicilian nonna." Bagarella, who spent years in hiding with her fugitive husband, was brought in by police a few times but always wriggled away from imprisonment, in part, by playing the part of a weak woman. That she got away seems to rankle Nadeau, who concludes that Bagarella might have been more involved than police thought. Not that there's clear proof, only conjecture. Elsewhere, Nadeau declares that the Italian prisons are essentially "crime schools," leading this reader to wonder why, in that case, she's so invested in the mafiosa being sent there. Similarly, she implies that women don't have a choice when they remain inside the mafia social circles they're born into, but she also implies that they are to blame for staying when they could turn to the state for help - and then describes children being tortured to punish mothers who betray their families. The nuance is there to be gleaned in "The Godmother" if one goes looking for it. But because Nadeau's wrestling with the complexity of her material reads more accidental than intentional, it may leave readers confused as to her sweeping conclusions and assumptions. - - - Ilana Masad is a critic and the author of "All My Mother's Lovers." If you're a filthy Midwestern transplant like myself, you know the panicked joy of seeing a sign for Portillo's at a highway exit and sweeping two lanes of traffic for an impromptu second lunch. The Chicago-based restaurant chain specializing in Italian beef and hot dogs continues to branch out into new areas, extending its reach into such exotic locales as "Indiana" and "near the Indiana border" (I know there are also a few in California and Florida, relax). For its latest conquest, however, the beef chain has set its sights on North Texas as a possible point of mass expansion, beginning with the opening of a brick-and-mortar location at Dallas-area township The Colony in late 2022. As first reported by The Dallas Morning News' Sarah Blaskovich, Portillo's first Texas location will be situated in The Colony's Grandscape development on State Highway 121. Ahead of this opening, the franchise will send in its mobile Beef Bus to conduct a series of pop-up appearances at venues and events in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, effectively serving as an au-jus-powered advance force for a larger, meatier invasion to come. The run of events begins next week and includes seven scheduled pop-up appearances featuring the Beef Bus over the month of September, according to Blaskovich. The following stops are slated for the Portillo's Does Dallas 2022 Tour: Dallas Arboretum (September 13 and 14): Lunchtime pop-up beginning at 10:30 am. Visitors are asked to park at Gate 4 and non-Arboretum members will have to fork over $10 for access to the area. (September 13 and 14): Lunchtime pop-up beginning at 10:30 am. Visitors are asked to park at Gate 4 and non-Arboretum members will have to fork over $10 for access to the area. Harvest House (September 16): Service begins at 2 p.m. and will run until "dinnertime." (September 16): Service begins at 2 p.m. and will run until "dinnertime." Taste of Oak Cliff (September 17 and 18): Service runs from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Access to the festival is $20. (September 17 and 18): Service runs from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Access to the festival is $20. Nebraska Furniture Mart (September 20): Service begins at 4 p.m. and runs through "dinnertime." (September 20): Service begins at 4 p.m. and runs through "dinnertime." Truck Yard in Dallas (September 21): Service begins 11 a.m. and runs through "dinnertime." (September 21): Service begins 11 a.m. and runs through "dinnertime." Truck Yard in The Colony (September 22 and 23): Service begins 11 a.m. and runs through "dinnertime." (September 22 and 23): Service begins 11 a.m. and runs through "dinnertime." Texas Live! in Arlington (September 24): Service begins 11 a.m. and runs through "dinnertime." It should be noted that all of these appearances come with the caveat of "while supplies last," so arriving early to ensure there's beef to be had is your best bet for a day un-ruined. The bus will sell a limited menu of four items, including its Italian beef sandwich (get it dunked, you cowards), a classic Chicago dog and two varietals of Polish sausage (one will be Chicago-style with all the fixings, the other a Maxwell Street Polish featuring yellow mustard and grilled onions). The opening date for the location in The Colony has yet to be finalized, but representatives with the company told Blaskovich that the franchise hopes to open between 18 and 20 restaurants in the Dallas area over the next five years. When reached for comment, a spokesperson from Portillo's said a Houston-area location is not imminently in the works but could be in play sometime in the future. "Texas is the number one state Portillos ships our Shop and Ship offerings to, and weve long had our sights set on entering the Lone Star State," the spokesperson said. "We are excited to enter the Dallas-Fort Worth market this year, with more restaurants planned in the area within the next few years. We dont have additional information to share at this time, but we are looking forward to bringing our delicious food to Texans and are open to future expansion opportunities." Alas, one can hold out hope. Just because Philadelphia's Lefty's Cheesesteaks floundered in Houston, doesn't mean the city's not ready for an armored division of Beef Buses to roll through town. Abraham Lincolns first Inaugural Address was a 3,600-word olive branch to a South on the eve of the Civil War. His second promised malice toward none after the war left 620,000 dead. Americans have long revered both speeches because they offered a measure of redemption, and a means of reconciliation, to those who deserved it least. Joe Bidens speech in Philadelphia last week bears no resemblance to either address, except that, in his own inaugural, he staked his presidency on ending this uncivil war that pits red against blue. So much for that. Like the predecessor he denounces, Biden has decided the best way to seek partisan advantage is to treat tens of millions of Americans as the enemy within. How can an American president go wrong in identifying threats to democracy? Biden offered a master class. Start with the MAGA Republicans, who, Biden said, represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic. Who are they? The president allowed that they are not even the majority of Republicans. Then, in describing their goals, he cast a net so wide it included everyone from those who cheered the attack on the Capitol and the efforts to overturn the 2020 election, to those who oppose abortion rights and gay marriage. As categories go, this one is capacious. It includes violent Oath Keepers and Proud Boys as well as every faithful Catholic or evangelical Christian whose deeply held moral convictions bring them to oppose legalized abortion. It takes in the antisemites who marched at Charlottesville as well as socially conservative Americans with traditional beliefs about marriage, which would have included Barack Obama during his 2008 run for president. It encompasses undoubted election deniers like lawyers Sidney Powell and John Eastman along with ordinary Americans who have been bamboozled into harboring misguided but sincere doubts about the integrity of the last election. In other words, Biden claimed to distinguish MAGA Republicans from mainstream ones and then proceeded to conflate them. That may resonate with partisan Democrats who have never seen a conservative they didnt consider a bigot or a fool. But it gives the lie to the idea that dismantling MAGA Republicanism is the prime objective of the president or his party. Then there were the transparently partisan purposes of Bidens speech. For this election cycle, pro-Democratic groups have spent north of $40 million in ad buys to help nominate the Trumpiest candidates in Republican primaries, on the theory that they will be easier to beat in November. That included a successful effort to defeat Michigan Rep. Peter Meijer one of just 10 House Republicans who voted for Donald Trumps impeachment last year in last months GOP primary. Is that smart as hardball politics? Maybe. But Biden could have spared us the pieties about timeless American values. As far as I can tell, he has yet to say a word in public against the ad buys, much less tried to stop them. Instead, his speech makes a neat bookend to a strategy of promoting MAGA extremists so they can be denounced as MAGA extremists. Some liberals took a similar approach in 2016, all but rooting for Trump to win the nomination on the theory that hed be Hillary Rodham Clintons weakest opponent. Look how that worked out. And then there was the crassest part of Bidens speech, in which an ostensible presidential address became a campaign rally for Democratic priorities such as prescription-drug benefits and the clean energy future. When a president makes the implicit claim that to be a small-d democrat one must today be a big-D Democrat he advances the interests of neither his party nor the country. He only gratuitously insults millions of voters as deplorables while again branding Democrats as the party of sanctimony and condescension. I write this as someone who has long thought that Trump represents a unique threat to democracy. He is the only president in American history who has refused to concede an election, who has schemed with conspiracy theorists to remain in power, who has sought to bully state officials into finding him votes, who has egged on a mob, who has cheered an assault on Congress, who has put the life of his vice president in jeopardy, who has flouted the demands of the Justice Department to return classified documents, who has violated every norm of American politics and every form of democratic decency. He is the tribune of the mobocratic spirit that Lincoln warned against in his first major address, and to which he devoted his life to stopping. The gravest threat American democracy faces today isnt the Republican Party, MAGA or otherwise. Its Trump. Hes one man, sinister but also buffoonish. To defeat him, the core task is to make him seem small, very small. Bidens misbegotten speech did precisely the opposite. The next time Biden talks about democracy, he should remember Lincolns other exhortation: charity for all. Bret Stephens is a columnist for the New York Times. Bezoss Blue Origin rocket suffers failure seconds into launch The New Shepard rocket appeared to suffer an engine problem and veer off course. Eds: This story was supplied by The Conversation for AP customers. The Associated Press does not guarantee the content. Dimitris Xygalatas, University of Connecticut (THE CONVERSATION) At the end of each summer, hordes of people flock to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada to erect a makeshift city the size of the Italian town of Pisa. They call it Black Rock City. A few days later, they will burn it to the ground, leaving no trace. During their time together, they partake in an extravaganza of unique experiences. Wearing wild costumes and riding carnivalesque vehicles, they attend colorful parades, spectacular light displays and interactive art installations. Since its inception in 1986, attendance has increased from a few dozens of individuals to over 70,000 and hundreds of thousands in various regional versions around the world. In surveys, Burners, as they call themselves, report experiencing strong feelings of connection during the event. Over three-quarters say that their experience was transformative, over 90% say that these transformative effects lasted beyond their stay, and over 80% say that they made a permanent impact on their lives. The great majority return again, many of them every year. What makes this bizarre event so meaningful to so many people? The ceremonial experience The overwhelming majority of Burners identify as nonreligious, yet the deeply spiritual experiences they report resemble those of religious groups. Indeed, the similarities with religion are no accident. Burning Man, as the event became known, started as a solstice get-together by a handful of friends on Baker Beach in San Francisco. In 1986, they decided to build a wooden effigy and then torch it. Co-founder Larry Harvey called this a spontaneous act of radical self-expression. As people started gathering to watch, they realized they had created a ritual. The next year, they put up fliers and drew a bigger crowd. It has been growing ever since. Harvey was an avid reader of anthropological theories of religion. He was particularly interested in the role of ritual in creating meaningful experiences. These experiences, he argued, address a primordial human need: The desire to belong to a place, to belong to a time, to belong to one another, and to belong to something that is greater than ourselves, even in the midst of impermanence. As an anthropologist of ritual myself, I can see that ceremony is at the essence of Burning Man. It begins as soon as Burners walk through the gate. Upon entering, people signal their arrival by ringing a bell. They hug and greet each other by saying Welcome home! That home is treated as sacred, symbolically demarcated and protected from the polluting influence of the default world, as they call the outside. Upon their departure, they will perform a purification rite, removing all matter out of place anything that doesnt belong to the desert, from plastic bottles to specs of glitter. Leaving their default name behind them, they use their playa name. It is a name gifted to them by another Burner and used to signify their new identity in the playa (the desert basin). They also abandon many of the comforts of the outside world. Monetary transactions are not allowed, and neither is bartering. Instead, they practice a gift economy, modeled on traditional ceremonial customs. Anthropologists have noted that such ceremonial exchange systems can have important social utility. Unlike economic exchanges that produce equivalent outcomes, each act of donation creates feelings of gratitude, obligation and community, increasing both personal satisfaction and social solidarity. The Burning Man Temple is yet another testament to the power of ritual. When sculptor David Best was invited to build an installation in 2000, he erected a wooden structure without any use in mind. But when a crew member died in a motorcycle accident, visitors started bringing mementos of people they had lost, and later gathered to watch it burn at the end of the event. Since then, the temple has become a symbol of mourning and resilience. Its walls are covered with thousands of notes, photographs and memorabilia. They are reminders of things people wish to leave behind: a personal loss, a divorce, an abusive relationship. It is all consumed by the fire on the final night as onlookers gather to watch silently, many of them in tears. Such a simple symbolic act seems to have surprisingly powerful cathartic effects. The weeklong event culminates with the ceremonial destruction of the two largest structures looming at the center of the ephemeral city. On the penultimate night, a wooden effigy known as the Man is reduced to ashes. And in the final act, everyone gathers to watch the burning of the temple. The human thirst for ritual The oldest known ceremonial structures, such as Gobekli Tepe in Turkey, predate agriculture and permanent settlement. Although they took enormous effort to build, they too, like Black Rock City, were only used by ephemeral communities: groups of hunter-gatherers who traveled long distances to visit them. It is not until hundreds of years later that evidence of settlement in those areas was found. This led archaeologist Klaus Schmidt to propose that it was the thirst for ritual that led those hunter-gatherers to permanent settlement, paving the way for civilization. Whether this radical hypothesis is historically true is hard to know. But phenomena like Burning Man could confirm the view that the human need for ritual is primeval. It both predates and extends beyond organized religion. Burning Man defies a strict definition. When I asked Burners to describe it, they used term such as movement, community, pilgrimage or social experiment. Whatever it might be, Burning Mans unprecedented success, I believe, is due to its ability to create meaningful experiences for its members, which reflect a greater human yearning for spirituality. The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. The Conversation is wholly responsible for the content. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh received Chairman of the European Parliament (EP)s Committee on International Trade (INTA) Bernd Lange in Hanoi on September 9, affirming that trade - investment cooperation is an important pillar in the Vietnam - EU relations. The meeting between PM Pham Minh Chinh (R) and Chairman of the EPs Committee on International Trade Bernd Lange in Hanoi on September 9. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh received Chairman of the European Parliament (EP)s Committee on International Trade (INTA) Bernd Lange in Hanoi on September 9, affirming that trade - investment cooperation is an important pillar in the Vietnam - EU relations. The host leader highlighted Vietnams foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, and diversification and multilateralisation of international relations, of which the EU is an important partner of the country. He applauded strides in the Vietnam - EU comprehensive partnership and cooperation, noting that after two years of enforcing the EU - Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), bilateral trade has grown continually while the EUs investment into the Southeast Asian nation has also been on the rise. PM Chinh asked the EU to continue creating favourable conditions for Vietnamese goods to enter its market, and urged its member states to soon finalise the ratification of the EU - Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) so as to further promote bilateral economic ties. He called on the bloc to soon lift the "yellow card warning and continue providing technical assistance for the country to eradicate illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. The Vietnamese Government always creates a fair and stable investment environment and is ready to listen to opinions to improve administrative procedures and legal regulations in order to provide optimal conditions for foreign investors, including those from the EU, he affirmed, adding that the country will continue seriously and fully implementing the commitments in the EVFTA, including the ones on sustainable development. The PM recommended the two sides to increase mutual visits and meetings at all levels while maintaining and effectively bringing into play cooperation and dialogue mechanisms to enhance mutual understanding and identify cooperation orientations for the time ahead. He also asked the EU to strengthen ties with Vietnam in climate change response, sustainable development, green transition, and renewable energy. On this occasion, the government leader underlined Vietnams support for the reinforcement of the ASEAN - EU strategic partnership. For his part, Lange noted Vietnam is one of the EUs important partners in the region, and the EP always supports stronger bilateral cooperation in all spheres, especially when the EU is carrying out many policies oriented towards the Indo-Pacific region, including Vietnam. He highly valued the countrys efforts to seriously implement the commitments in the EVFTA, thus helping to effectively carry out the deal and create momentum for bilateral trade and investment ties in the time ahead. The official held that Vietnam has an attractive investment climate amid global uncertainties, and agreed to coordinate with the country to promote EU members ratification of the EVIPA. Lange also spoke highly the prospect of cooperation with Vietnam in climate change response, environmental protection, green growth, and energy transition. The EU is implementing many green transition strategies and initiatives, he noted, voicing his belief that the two sides will have many successful cooperation projects in this regard. In terms of the energy transition partnership between Vietnam and the Group of Seven (G7), he said the EU is actively working with the UK to step up the establishment of this mechanism. DENVER (AP) Backers of a campaign targeting a Colorado lawmaker who left the GOP and joined the Democratic Party, citing the Republican Party's embrace of discredited 2020 election conspiracies, received the go-ahead Friday to collect voter signatures in their bid to trigger a recall election. Colorado's secretary of state's office said it had approved a recall petition targeting state Sen. Kevin Priola, whose term representing a suburban Denver district ends in 2025. Petitioners have until Nov. 8 to collect enough signatures to force an eventual recall vote. Priola infuriated Republicans when he announced his party switch in August, saying he was horrified by the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and had waited in vain for his party to repudiate it as well as former President Donald Trump, who continues to insist the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Numerous assertions that the presidential election was stolen have been proven false. Priola also rebuked what he called the GOPs refusal to take climate change seriously. Today, my Republican colleagues would rather deny the existence of human-caused climate change than take action, he wrote in a letter announcing his decision. Priola's move enhanced Democrats' prospects for retaining a majority in Colorado's senate in the November midterm elections. The party holds a comfortable majority in the House. But the recall drive is in a new district assigned to Priola that has become more conservative thanks to last year's redistricting process. Signature-gatherers hit the streets Friday, and the recall campaign already has raised $130,000, said Michael Fields, who heads the recall committee and is president of the conservative group Advance Colorado Institute. Fields cited Priola's past votes with Democrats, especially on state tax policy, as well as what he called Priola's betrayal of the Republican voters who elected him to office. Conservative Republicans voted for him to be a conservative leader in the Senate, Fields said. Special interests with deep pockets filed this recall as personal and political retribution for my decision to put people over partisan politics, and I have confidence you will see through their deceptive tactics, Priola said in a statement released Friday. Ask yourself why these special interests are just now calling for my recall over votes I took over a year and a half ago, and in some cases four years ago. This is clearly not about my voting record. These hyper-partisan political insiders are wasting hundreds of thousands of your taxpayer money on a special election to punish me for serving you as an independent voice, the senator stated. Im proud to be one of the most bipartisan legislators in our state. Priola is in his second term as a state senator and is not up for reelection in November. The campaign needs signatures equal to at least 25% of the number of votes cast in the district in the last election to force a vote. Fields said any recall vote, if certified by the secretary of state's office, could be held in January. COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) A Dutch coaster sank in the North Sea off western Denmark after colliding with another vessel early Friday. The Danish Navy said that seven crewmembers from the Helge who had jumped into the sea, were rescued by helicopter and there are no reports of injuries. Details were sketchy about the collision between the 89-meter (292-foot) -long Helge and the larger, Bahamas-flagged Wild Cosmos, which occurred some 37 kilometers (23 miles) off Ringkjoebing on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula, were sketchy. The Danish Navy said it sent several ships and two helicopters to the site and the rescued crew members were flown to a hospital in Esbjerg, western Denmark, for medical examination. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate GRONINGEN, Netherlands - Earthquakes in this velvety green patch of the Dutch countryside cracked homes, made businesses uninhabitable, even broke up marriages. After billions of euros' worth of damage, and protests that included local farmers rolling into The Hague on tractors, the Dutch government finally agreed to phase out the natural gas drilling that had triggered more than 1,000 temblors since the 1980s. But now, as Russia cuts gas flows and energy prices remain high, Europe is resting a covetous eye on this corner of the Netherlands - where 12th-century churches, rustic farmhouses and storybook villages sit atop the continent's mother lode, a gas field harboring the equivalent of three years of Russian imports. The United States and Germany in particular have raised a fraught question: Could the Dutch keep drilling in Groningen for Europe's greater good? "It should be forbidden to ask us this question," said Jan Wigboldus, chairman of the local activist group Groninger Gasberaad. "But they do." And so this enclave of nearly a half-million people, with 26,000 severely damaged homes, is emerging as a stark test of how far governments are willing to go, and how much people are willing to put up with, in the interest of supporting Ukraine and isolating Russia. European leaders accuse the Kremlin of weaponizing energy exports in retaliation for the money and weapons the European Union has provided to Ukraine and the sanctions it has imposed on Russia. Russia's threats to shut off the gas to Europe entirely this winter, and the E.U.'s desire to limit Kremlin leverage, have European governments scrambling - and rethinking the once unthinkable. The use of coal, a fossil fuel disparaged in green Europe for its high carbon emissions, is surging. Talk of fracking is resurfacing in countries including Germany and Britain that had banned the earth-slamming, ground-contaminating extraction of shale gas. Germany - the continent's largest economy by far - is also weighing a controversial extension of the life of its nuclear power plants. "Everything is on the table now," said Olga Khakova, a European energy expert with the Atlantic Council. "Ideas that seemed extreme or insane in the past are now being considered." Nowhere in Europe would the sacrifice be greater than here in Groningen, a province on the North Sea. On a recent afternoon in the quake-battered hamlet of Woltersum, Laurens Mengerink, a 64-year-old electrical engineer, effortlessly plucked loose a red brick from an outside wall of his dangerously warped home. "See?" he said, laughing darkly. "It comes apart." Further tremors could critically weaken his house - and ruin his neighbor's newly completed restorations. Yet Mengerink is among those who support renewed drilling. "I think we need to reopen the gas tap," he said. "We need the gas because of the war in Ukraine, because of Russia," he said. "We need our own solutions, our own energy, not theirs." Other residents strongly dissent - some of them openly questioning the European sanctions against Russia. "Restarting the gas would kills us," said Ate Kuipers, a dairy farmer whose business has sustained nearly $800,000 worth of quake damage. Asked if the gas shortages were worth it to punish Russian aggression, Kuipers paused, then said: "I don't think so. It's not realistic. We need the gas from Russia. We need the oil from Russia. We can't handle everything here with just renewables. . . . And [Europe] can't have Groningen." Dutch officials have sought a middle ground, backtracking on plans to shut down wells this year, while maintaining that drilling will only ramp up in the event of worst-case shortages that cause hospitals, schools and homes to go dark. Extraction from the sprawling field that once harbored more than 2,700 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas started in the 1960s. Since the late 1980s, residents have complained of rumblings in the earth that spooked cattle, startled pets and caused what often began as hairline cracks on walls. They say they were told by the Dutch government and the commercial partnership of companies that extracts the gas that there was little to fear from drilling. At least as far back as the 1990s, official reports documented a relationship between temblors and extraction from the soft, boggy earth of Groningen - which is breached by faults that shudder when withdrawn gas causes the ground to contract like a squeezed sponge. "But the common opinion at the time was that the impact and maximum magnitudes were relatively low," said Tom van der Lee, head of a parliamentary committee that is now probing the official response to decades of quakes. "It wasn't taken very seriously." That changed 10 years ago, after a 3.6-magnitude quake that felt stronger because of its shallowness in the soft earth. Another relatively strong quake rattled the province in 2018 - the year Groningen farmers, their stables and homes cracking, rolled into The Hague on tractors in protest. That same year, the national government agreed to a phased shutdown. The main street in Loppersum - a village of 2,500 - is now a grim tableau of the quake years, including small tremors that continue today despite much-reduced extraction. The Lopster Kroon cafe, where locals once nursed mugs of Dutch beer, was forced to close, its brick building marred by cracks that made it unsafe. The bike shop and butcher shut, too, along with a bevy of other businesses, some temporarily, others for good. The Peter and Paul Church - built in 1217 - is covered in massive scaffolding. Some residents have been relocated to clusters of temporary housing. Many locals are still waiting for the Dutch government - in charge of who gets damage and reinforcement aid, and how much - to definitively agree to claims, a process that for most residents has dragged on for years. The struggle has taken its toll. Studies by the University of Groningen found that at least 10,000 adults in the region exhibit stress-related health problems due to quake damage. Ger Warink, a 60-year-old guitar store owner on Loppersum's main street, said he suffered a heart arrhythmia last year while dealing with an official over restoration plans for his damaged showroom and home. He's been forced to temporarily move his wares and living quarters to a sturdier structure across the street. He said he doesn't want more gas extraction, but believes a restart is inevitable given Europe's energy crisis. Part of him, he said, would understand. "Who am I to say it's not okay to extract the gas because people are dying in Ukraine and the price of gas is exploding," he said. "It's horrible. It's really horrible." There are calls for the Dutch to step up. "Groningen . . . has the potential to weaken Russia's energy grip over Europe," Alice Stollmeyer, executive director of The Hague-based Defend Democracy think tank, and Lukas Trakimavicius, an expert at the NATO Energy Security Center of Excellence, co-wrote in an op-ed last month. "The Dutch could come to the rescue," they wrote. Just how much Groningen could ease Europe's energy crisis is another question. At the peak of extraction, Groningen supplied Europe with roughly 10 percent of its gas. Nearly 450 bcm remains underground, enough to power the E.U. for an entire year, according Jilles van den Beukel, energy analyst with the Hague Center for Strategic Studies, a Dutch think tank. He estimates the maximum ramp-up technically possible at Groningen is 40 bcm per year - or about a quarter of the gas the E.U. purchased from Russia last year. But Dutch officials call those levels seismically dangerous. Beukel said a ramp-up to 10 or 20 bcm was politically "more realistic," predicting such a move could lower the benchmark price in Europe by 10 to 20 percent. "You could say that as Groningen has reduced production in recent years [for its phase-down], Europe's dependence on Russian gas has grown, as has Putin's leverage and ability to use gas as weapon," he said. "I get the feeling the Dutch government is reluctant to increase Groningen production, because they see it as a political nightmare. But as a citizen, I say, they should do it." In January, as fears of a Russian invasion built, German suppliers stoked the ire of Dutch officials by seeking to buy more Groningen gas. That same month, U.S. officials sought to discuss energy options with Dutch officials, including what role Groningen could play in easing the region's gas crisis. In responses to The Washington Post, U.S. and German officials denied any "pressure" on the Netherlands to restart production, portraying conversations as exploratory. In recent months, the German government has asked the Netherlands to explore more gas extraction in Groningen, said Hans Vijlbrief, the Netherlands' state secretary for the extractive industries. "They indeed mentioned Groningen," he said. "But basically, we explained to them what I'm saying now. Yes, you can ask for solidarity. But it's dangerous" to extract gas there. Vijlbrief said there were technical limitations to how much gas could be sent to Germany, but standing agreements could still compel a ramp-up in production in the event of an "emergency": "If in Germany people are freezing to death because of a lack of gas, and the Germans have taken all other measures like shutting down industry, and we can solve that by transporting gas from Groningen." But he called such an event "unlikely." If a Groningen ramp-up did happen, he said, it would be limited and temporary - with the aim of still sealing wells by 2024. If emergency drilling did restart, residents in favor say it should be done with new technologies that can stabilize the earth and limit the potential scope of future quakes - and with revenue diverted to aiding the damaged community. But more extraction is a non-starter for residents like Annette Sins, a 65-year-old nurse whose Loppersum house is cracked from quakes. She is deeply sympathetic to Ukraine's plight - and has joined weekly community meetings to gather donations and aid. But she is also certain that more gas extraction here will not help Ukraine, or European consumers. The Dutch government - which gets the lion's share of gas profits - as well as the partnership between Shell and ExxonMobil that does the drilling, she said, would surely reap any rewards. "We are still having earthquakes, and they cannot predict what will happen if they take more out," she said. " 'Oh, it might mean a little bit of damage,' they say. But there's still a chance of a big earthquake, and then our houses will collapse." - - - The Washington Post's Michael Birnbaum in Washington contributed to this report. OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) A suburban Kansas City police officer who shot and killed a 17-year-old four years ago will not face civil rights charges, federal prosecutors announced Friday. John Albers was shot by officer Clayton Jenison after he backed a minivan out of his family's garage in Overland Park, Kansas, in January 2018. Officers went to the home to check reports that Albers was posting threats to harm himself on social media. Albers' parents were not home at the time. The Justice Department said its two-year investigation into the shooting found no evidence to contradict an earlier finding in a civil court that Jenison used unreasonable force in shooting Albers. However, federal law requires that investigators prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer willfully used unreasonable force, federal prosecutors said. Evidence gathered during the the investigation does not clear the high bar that the Supreme Court has set for meeting this standard, and the department has therefore closed its investigation into this matter, federal prosecutors said in a news release. Jenison shot twice at Albers as he backed the minivan past him and out of the driveway, investigators said. When the van spun around so it was facing the street and began slowly backing toward the house, Jenison fired 11 more shots. Albers was hit by six bullets and died at the scene. Jenison has said he fired at the teenager because he believed he was going to be hit by the van. The Johnson County District Attorney had previously ruled that the shooting was justified because Jenison feared for his life. Jenison later received a $70,000 payment as part of a severance package when he agreed to resign. Albers family settled a wrongful death lawsuit against the city for $2.3 million. Justice Department officials, who met with the Albers family to discuss their findings, said the decision does not alter the fact that his loss was an unnecessary tragedy and should not be read as anything more than a determination that the department cannot prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, every element of the federal criminal statute, to include willfulness. (The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Anya Free, University of California, Davis (THE CONVERSATION) As Ukraine prepared to celebrate its independence day even while its military forces battled a monthslong Russian invasion, government officials assembled a grandiose, yet gruesome, display on Khreshchatyk, the main street of Ukraines capital city, Kyiv. Wrecked and burned-out tanks, military trucks and other equipment lined the street as an intentional mockery of Russian President Vladimir Putins failed plan of a victorious Russian army parade in Kyiv. This display, in August 2022, wasnt a first for Ukraine, and it echoes an ancient tradition of displaying the looted weapons of a military adversary. On the sites of battles they won, the ancient Greeks typically erected what they called tropaions triumphal monuments made from trees and decorated with captured armor, weapons and helmets to commemorate the victory and pay homage to a god. The classic Greek epic the Iliad contains references to Odysseus stripping the dead enemy of his armor for a subsequent ritual offering to Athena, the goddess of war and his divine patroness. Ancient Romans continued the practice, and also developed a tradition of military triumphs, parades through the imperial city of Rome to show off the spoils of war, including slaves, art, bullion and weapons. Rich benefactors then often bought the loot and donated it to the Roman public for stationary displays that symbolized Roman imperial power. Trophy displays in the Modern Era The practice continued into the modern Western world. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when Napoleon led French forces to conquer and pillage other countries,including Italy, he brought back stolen art along with the enemys weapons. His triumphal processions in Paris deliberately evoked Roman tradition. The objects were then displayed in the Louvre. The pillaging of cultural property became a feature of colonial violence, filling Western museums with looted art and valuables belonging to the colonized nations. The practice is currently prohibited by international humanitarian law, though that does not actually stop the pillaging. Seizing the enemys weapons, however, is customarily accepted as war booty. Various nations have used displays of captured enemy arms to invoke patriotism and boost morale. As the wars and the weapons became bigger, so did the trophy exhibitions. In 1918, Londons Trafalgar Square was turned into a wrecked village filled with German weapons. It was a part of the promotional campaign to sell bonds to continue to pay for the ongoing conflict, later known to history as World War I. Battle trophies were one of the biggest sources of exhibition material for the British Imperial War Museum in its early days. As I have shown in my doctoral dissertation, during World War II, the Soviet Union extensively used exhibitions of trophy weapons as a propaganda tool. When the Red Army won the monthslong Battle of Moscow in January 1942 and began a counteroffensive, the retreating Nazi army left behind a large amount of weapons. The trophies then became an important feature of war-themed exhibitions across the USSR. The biggest Soviet exhibition of captured German weapons opened in Moscows Gorky Park on June 22, 1943, the second anniversary of Germanys invasion of Russia. The grandiose outdoor display featured German tanks, planes, cannons and other large equipment. The exhibition conveyed two messages. First, the enemy was powerful, as evidenced by its innovative and strong equipment, and victory would require everyones full effort. Second, though, the fact the weapons were captured demonstrated that the Red Army and the Soviet people were able to overcome and defeat the invaders. Similar exhibitions opened in many other Soviet cities, including Leningrad, Minsk and Kyiv. The displays were dismantled by the end of the 1940s; the weapons were recycled as scrap. Mocking the enemy Since Russia first invaded the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine in 2014, Ukrainians have embraced the practice of displaying captured weapons as trophies. In July 2014, the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War in Kyiv presented a temporary exhibition of heavy equipment captured from Russia-sponsored separatist groups. After the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Ukraine continued to use the trophy exhibitions of newly captured Russian weaponry as propaganda, seeking both domestic and international support. In May 2022, the National Military History Museum of Ukraine opened an exhibition of recently destroyed Russian military equipment on Mykhailivska Square in the Kyiv city center. The exhibition of the wreckage was meant to boost the morale of the Ukrainian people by celebrating the strength of the Ukrainian army, and to humiliate the enemy by demonstrating the incompetence and moral inferiority of the Russian army and its weaponry. A month later, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to visit the exhibition, along with other sights of Kyiv. Gathering international support Ukraine has used captured weapons to seek support from other former Soviet-bloc countries, sending Russian trophy weapons for display in Poland and the Czech Republic. In Prague, Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs Denys Monastyrsky opened the exhibition of the defeated Russian tanks and other weapons on July 11, 2022. In his speech, Monastyrsky referred to the August 1968 Soviet invasion that crushed the anti-communist Prague Spring demonstrations, saying, Russian tanks are back in Prague, but this time broken, burned out by the hands of the Ukrainian warriors. With this ancient practice, Ukraine is showing off its might and resolve, and demonstrating its opponents weaknesses boosting morale within Ukraine and bolstering support from the international community. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/how-ukraine-is-adapting-the-ancient-practice-of-trophy-displays-for-modern-propaganda-189920. (The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Melissa K. Ochoa, Saint Louis University (THE CONVERSATION) Most of the debates on the usage of Latinx pronounced la-teen-ex have taken place in the U.S. But the word has begun to spread into Spanish-speaking countries where it hasnt exactly been embraced. In July 2022, Argentina and Spain released public statements banning the use of Latinx, or any gender-neutral variant. Both governments reasoned that these new terms are violations of the rules of the Spanish language. Latinx is used as an individual identity for those who are gender-nonconforming, and it can also describe an entire population without using Latinos, which is currently the default in Spanish for a group of men and women. As a Mexican-born, U.S.-raised scholar, I agree with the official Argentine and Spanish stance on banning Latinx from the Spanish language English, too. When I first heard Latinx in 2017, I thought it was progressive and inclusive, but I quickly realized how problematic it was. Five years later, Latinx is not commonly used in Spanish-speaking countries, nor is it used by the majority of those identifying as Hispanic or Latino in the U.S. In fact, theres a gender-inclusive term thats already being used by Spanish-speaking activists that works as a far more natural replacement. Low usage Though the exact origins of Latinx are unclear, it emerged sometime around 2004 and gained popularity around 2014. Merriam-Webster added it to its dictionary in 2018. However, a 2019 Pew research study and 2021 Gallup poll indicated that less than 5% of the U.S. population used Latinx as a racial or ethnic identity. Nonetheless, Latinx is becoming commonplace among academics; its used at conferences, in communication and especially in publications. But is it inclusive to use Latinx when most of the population does not? Perpetuating elitism The distinct demographic differences of those who are aware of or use Latinx calls into question whether the term is inclusive or just elitist. Individuals who self-identiy as Latinx or are aware of the term are most likely to be U.S.-born, young adults from 18 to 29 years old. They are predominately English-speakers and have some college education. In other words, the most marginalized communities do not use Latinx. Scholars, in my view, should never impose social identities onto groups that do not self-identify that way. I once had a reviewer for an academic journal article I submitted about womens experiences with catcalling tell me to replace my use of Latino and Latina with Latinx. However, they had no issue with me using man or woman when it came to my white participants. I was annoyed at the audacity of this reviewer. The goal of the study was to show catcalling, a gendered interaction, as an everyday form of sexism. How was I supposed to differentiate my participants sexism experiences by gender and race if I labeled them all as Latinx? The x factor If a term is truly inclusive, it gives equitable weight to vastly diverse experiences and knowledge; it is not meant to be a blanket identity. Women of color, in general, are severely underrepresented in leadership positions and STEM fields. Using Latinx for women further obscures their contributions and identity. I have even seen some academics try to get around the nebulous nature of Latinx by writing Latinx mothers or Latinx women instead of Latinas. Furthermore, if the goal is to be inclusive, the x would be easily pronounceable and naturally applied to other parts of the Spanish language. Some Spanish speakers would rather identify by nationality say, Mexicano or Argentino instead of using umbrella terms like Hispanic or Latino. But the x cant be easily applied to nationalities. Like Latinx, Mexicanx and Argentinx dont exactly roll off the tongue in any language. Meanwhile, gendered articles in Spanish los and las for the plural the become lxs, while gendered pronouns el and ella becomes ellx. The utility and logic of it quickly falls apart. Latine as an alternative Many academics might feel compelled to continue to use Latinx because they fought hard to have it recognized by their institutions or have already published the term in an academic journal. But there is a much better gender-inclusive alternative, one thats been largely overlooked by the U.S. academic community and is already being used in Spanish-speaking parts of Latin America, especially among young social activists in those countries. Its Latine pronounced lah-teen-eh and its far more adaptable to the Spanish language. It can be implemented as articles les instead of los or las, the words for the. When it comes to pronouns, elle can become a singular form of they and used in place of the masculine el or feminine ella, which translate to he and she. It can also be readily applied to most nationalities, such as Mexicane or Argentine. Because language shapes the way we think, its important to note that gendered languages like Spanish, German and French do facilitate gender stereotypes and discrimination. For example, in German, the word for bridge is feminine, and in Spanish, the word for bridge is masculine. Cognitive scientist Lera Boroditsky had German speakers and Spanish speakers describe a bridge. The German speakers were more likely to describe it using adjectives like beautiful or elegant, while the Spanish speakers were more likely to describe it in masculine ways tall and strong. Moreover, the existing gender rules in Spanish are not perfect. Usually words ending in -o are masculine and those ending in -a are feminine, but there are many common words that break those gender rules, like la mano, the word for hand. And, of course, Spanish already uses an e for gender-neutral words, such as estudiante, or student. I believe Latine accomplishes what Latinx originally meant to and more. Similarly, it eliminates the gender binary in its singular and plural form. However, Latine is not confined to an elite, English-speaking population within the U.S. It is inclusive. Nevertheless, problems can still arise when the word Latine is imposed onto others. Latina and Latino may still be preferable for many individuals. I dont think the -e should eliminate the existing -o and the -a. Instead, it could be a grammatically acceptable addition to the Spanish language. Yes, Argentina and Spains ban of Latinx also included a ban on the use of Latine. Here is where I diverge from their directive. To me, the idea that language can be purist is nonsensical; language always evolves, whether its through technology think emojis and textspeak or increased social awareness, such as the evolution from wife beating to intimate partner violence. Linguistic theory posits that language shapes reality, so cultures and communities can create words that shape the inclusive world they want to inhabit. Language matters. Latine embodies that inclusivity across socioeconomic status, citizenship, education, gender identity, age groups and nations, while honoring the Spanish language in the process. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/stop-using-latinx-if-you-really-want-to-be-inclusive-189358. (The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Arianne Chernock, Boston University (THE CONVERSATION) In the spring of 1953, women from across the United States traveled to Britain for many, it was their first time abroad. The impetus for the trip was Queen Elizabeth IIs coronation, held in Westminster Abbey on a rainy June 2 of that year. Among those making the journey were Peggy Webber, who traveled all the way from Iowa, and Geneva Valentine from Washington, D.C. For both women, whom I learned of while researching the monarchy and gender, the coronation provided an unprecedented opportunity to be part of a momentous occasion in which a woman was at the center of the story. For almost 70 years, there has been a long-standing affection for Elizabeth from across the Atlantic, especially among women. It may be of a less showy variety than the attention lavished on other, potentially more glamorous female members of the royal family, such as Princess Diana or the Duchesses of Cambridge and Sussex. But it endured. A Febuary 2022 poll found that more than 60% of American women held a favorable opinion of Elizabeth. The survey found her to be the most popular of all living royals, with women generally holding the royals in greater esteem than men do. In her own way, the queen quietly captured the imaginations of American women from the very beginning of her reign. As a historian of the British monarchy, I know part of the interest stemmed from Americans abiding affection for the royal family something that transcended Elizabeths reign. But for many American women, Elizabeth also represented something else. At a time when women were, in many cases, expected to conform to traditional roles of a housewife and homemaker, Elizabeth was ascending the throne of a powerful country. In the words of one psychologist interviewed for a 1953 Los Angeles Times article, for the first time the women of America have found a heroine who makes them feel superior to men. Long-standing affection Just as American women in the 20th century followed Elizabeths evolution, from dutiful daughter to young bride and mother to conscientious sovereign, so did earlier generations take interest in Queen Victorias coronation, marriage and jubilee celebrations in the 19th century. For even though Americans chose a different path with independence in 1776, the British royal family has always exerted a strong pull on the American psyche. In fact, that pull is perhaps even greater because it is uncomplicated by politics. It is not U.S. tax dollars at work, so Americans can take pleasure in the ceremonial and the romantic without being burdened by questions of what it costs and means to have a monarchy. There is a specifically gendered aspect to Americas love affair with the royals, too. When women traveled to London in 1953 or, as second best, turned on their newly purchased television sets to tune into the coronation coverage they were not just interested in what the queen was wearing or the dashing figure cut by Prince Philip. They were also fixated on the fact that so much fuss was being made over a woman at all, and a powerful one at that. As U.S. ambassador to Italy Clare Boothe Luce explained at the time, this was an assignment made to order for a woman. Luce used this logic to convince President Dwight Eisenhower to send the journalist Fleur Cowles to the coronation as one of his official representatives. Indeed, as Luce alluded to, there was something deliciously disruptive about Elizabeths reign. Against a postwar backdrop, when many American women were being urged to return to the home and take pride in the efficiency of their kitchens, here was a 25-year-old princess being elevated to a position of head of state, her every step reported and discussed. This was anomalous, and in ways that seemed to augur well for others of her sex. Reporter John Kord Lagemann, writing in the Los Angeles Times in 1953, captured this sentiment in a piece on Americas Queen-Crazy Women. Elizabeth, Lagemann noted, posed a challenge to patriarchy. Case in point was her marriage. Here, he wrote, the situation is reversed and the woman commands. Elizabeth did not need to play according to a mans rules by acting demure and helpless. Rather, she could be as imperious as she pleases. Lagemanns observations provide some clues to Elizabeths hold on American women. Even as the womens liberation movement helped shift certain conversations, the queen continued to model an alternative path forward one in which women could travel without their children, demonstrate their command of policy, be at the center of the photograph, take responsibility and even grow old in the public eye. Elizabeth II will be mourned by many around the world, including the daughters and granddaughters of those Queen-Crazy Americans who traveled to London in 1953 for her coronation but have yet to see a female head of state installed in their own country. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/in-1953-queen-crazy-american-women-looked-to-elizabeth-ii-as-a-source-of-inspiration-that-sentiment-never-faded-190289. WASHINGTON - Aileen M. Cannon was not yet 40 years old when the federal prosecutor won decisive bipartisan support in a bitterly divided U.S. Senate to claim her seat on the district court in South Florida, in what would be President Donald Trump's final push to fill the federal bench with young conservative lawyers before leaving the White House. Her profile soared this week after she intervened in the Justice Department investigation into Trump's possible mishandling of classified information and agreed to grant his request for an independent review of the material that FBI agents have seized. Trump sought the appointment of what's known as a special master to assess whether the government took anything from his Florida residence that may be protected by attorney-client privilege or his status as a former president. Cannon's controversial ruling, which she called necessary to "ensure at least the appearance of fairness and integrity under the extraordinary circumstances," temporarily bars investigators from using the documents removed last month from his Mar-a-Lago residence. The order has been criticized by legal experts for seeming to extend special treatment to Trump and for disrupting the probe before anyone has been charged with a crime. On Thursday, the government said it would appeal Cannon's decision. With less than two years on the bench, she does not have an extensive record to review. The Trump dispute has put a spotlight on her while presenting untested questions about the extent to which assertions of executive privilege - usually invoked by sitting presidents to shield sensitive communications from disclosure - may be applied to past occupants of the White House in conflict with their successors. Cannon did not respond to a request for comment. Former senator Russ Feingold - who leads the liberal American Constitution Society, which closely tracks judicial nominations - said Trump and his Republican allies in the Senate sought out judicial nominees like Cannon, showing an "overwhelming preference" for individuals often lacking the experience "previously considered necessary to sit on the bench." "We're now seeing the impact of this, with an alarming disregard of the rule of law by some," he said in a statement. Sen. Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican whose office asked Cannon to apply for the position in 2019, rejected any suggestion that her decision in the classified-documents case was politically motivated and noted the support Cannon received from Senate Democrats. Twelve voted in favor of her confirmation. "Judge Cannon is a great judge who I am very proud to have enthusiastically supported," Rubio said in a statement. "The attacks against her are just the latest example of hypocrisy from leftists and their media enablers who believe the only time it is acceptable to attack a judge is if that judge rules against what they want." Cannon's confirmation hearing took place six months into the coronavirus pandemic, in July 2020, and she appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee by Zoom. She had the backing of the Cuban American Bar Association, which praised her "temperament and academic credentials" and pointed to her "legal mind and demeanor." By choosing Cannon, the group told lawmakers, "you enhance the diversity on the bench and help appoint a great candidate for the position." In follow-up questions, Democrats pressed Cannon about her record as a prosecutor, her judicial philosophy and her membership in the Federalist Society, the conservative organization that played a major role in advising Trump on his judicial picks. In response to Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., Cannon said she considers herself an "originalist" and a "textualist," referring to methods of legal interpretation that look to the general understanding of the Constitution at the time it was written, an approach most often associated with the late conservative Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia. Cannon quoted Elena Kagan, the liberal justice who quipped at her confirmation hearing, "We are all originalists." Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., asked Cannon specifically whether she had any discussions during the nomination process about "loyalty to President Trump." "No," Cannon responded in writing. She was one of 14 nominees confirmed after the November 2020 election, amid the tumultuous aftermath of Trump's defeat, an appointment that will now stand as a notable part of his legacy. Over four years in the White House, he installed more than 200 federal judges, including three Supreme Court justices. Until last week, one of Cannon's most high-profile cases in 20 months on the bench involved sentencing a man who pleaded guilty to making death threats against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. In a separate case in April, one of Cannon's new judicial colleagues accused Trump of judge-shopping for Cannon by filing a lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and former FBI agents in the court's Fort Pierce division, where Cannon is the only federal judge. Trump's lawsuit instead landed with a judge nominated by Bill Clinton. The judge, who dismissed the case this week, rejected Trump's move to disqualify him from the case, writing in a filing that when Trump is in court "before a judge that he himself appointed, he does not tend to advance these same sorts of bias concerns." The Mar-a-Lago search case was randomly assigned to Cannon, consistent with court procedures, after Trump filed suit in West Palm Beach. Cannon, now 41, was born in Colombia, the daughter of a Cuban immigrant mother, and grew up in Miami. She spoke at her confirmation hearing about the lasting influence of her mother, who at age 7 "had to flee the repressive Castro regime in search of freedom and security." "Thank you for teaching me about the blessings of this country and the importance of security and the rule of law for generations to come," Cannon said. As an undergraduate at Duke University, she worked one summer for the Spanish-language newspaper Nuevo Herald, writing on diverse topics including Flamenco and prenatal yoga. At the University of Michigan Law School, she joined the Federalist Society, because, as she explained in response to Senate questions, she appreciated the "diversity of legal viewpoints" and discussion of the "limited role of the judiciary to say what the law is - not to make the law." Before joining the bench, Cannon spent much of her career in the courtroom as a litigator. She was a law clerk for appeals court judge Steven M. Colloton, who was on Trump's list of potential Supreme Court picks, and an associate for three years in D.C. at the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. In 2013, as a new prosecutor in the U.S. attorney's office in South Florida, Cannon handled major crimes, including drug, firearm, and immigration cases. Soon after she moved to the appellate division, Cannon was assigned to defend the government's conviction in a large-scale, complex fraud case. She was up against an experienced appellate lawyer and appearing before a three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. Richard Klugh, the veteran lawyer on the other side, was impressed. "She was coming in against an old hand with a tremendously complicated record in an important case, but she seemed to handle it with ease," Klugh said in an interview. "She's quick, talented and bright. There's no getting around it. She's very effective." Cannon prevailed, sustaining the conviction of a Florida lawyer in the life insurance scheme that affected thousands of investors. Howard Srebnick, an attorney in Miami who attended the same high school as the judge, also was on the opposing side during Cannon's tenure as a prosecutor and now has a case pending before her. In court, Cannon is polite and process-oriented, he said, asking a lot of questions while making sure litigants can fully air their views. Srebnick submitted a letter to the Senate in support of Cannon's nomination, signed by more than a dozen alumni of the private Ransom Everglades High School who also are attorneys. She has "strength of character," the letter said, characterizing Cannon as "personable and trustworthy, a genuinely caring person who treats others as she would want to be treated herself." In June, Cannon ruled against Srebnick's client, upholding the government's decision to freeze the defendant's bank account in a Medicare fraud case. "She clearly spent considerable time and thought in deciding the question presented," Srebnick said. "We just disagree." Srebnick, however, said that he agrees with Cannon's decision to appoint a special master in the Trump case even though the Justice Department has claimed to have already set aside potentially privileged records. "She is spot-on correct that a special master, not a government-led filter team, should be handling those materials," Srebnick said. "No one from the government should be looking at a client's communications with counsel." Cannon's ruling may not be the final word. The Justice Department on Thursday asked the judge to reconsider and temporarily suspend part of her order before it formally asks the appeals court to step in. - - - The Washington Post's Magda Jean-Louis contributed to this report. BUENOS AIRES (AP) A judge in Argentina indicted 19 people on Thursday for their alleged involvement in a yoga school in Buenos Aires that operated like a sect and coerced female members to have sex with rich and powerful men in order to obtain money and other benefits. Judge Ariel Lijo formally charged 19 people on crimes including criminal conspiracy, human trafficking with the purpose of sexual exploitation, money laundering and smuggling. The Buenos Aires Yoga School, which operated for more than 30 years in Argentinas capital under the leadership of 84-year-old Juan Percowicz, did not actually offer yoga classes. Instead, it lured in people with promises of eternal happiness before it exploited them sexually and financially, prosecutors say. The investigation into the group revealed that opera star Placido Domingo had contact with the organizations leaders for more than two decades. Lijo ruled that 14 of the 19 people indicted will be remanded in custody and an embargo has been placed on their assets. Prosecutors had requested indictments of 20 people. Law enforcement officials continue to search for six suspects believed to be in the United States, where the school had offices in New York, Las Vegas and Chicago In his resolution, Lijo says the school tricked vulnerable people to join, noting leaders preyed particularly on those who were underage or had serious health problems, including addictions. People were wooed to join with promises of healing and support, but were later exploited, often sexually, for the benefit of the organizations leaders. The group operated by cutting students off from the outside world by giving them living quarters, work within the organization and making sure they started socializing exclusively with people who were part of the organization. Students were used and exploited, both sexually and financially, to obtain economic benefit for Percowicz and other top leaders of the organization, Lijo said. Members were often forced to have sex with wealthy or powerful men in order to build a commercial relationship with the men deemed their boyfriends. Female students were forced to determine what they could get from each person and they had to do everything possible to obtain it, Lijo said. Percowicz claimed to have great wisdom and even divine powers as a way to indoctrinate students and explained his beliefs on a mixture of classic literature as well as religious and spiritual texts. It was up to Percowicz to decide how students moved up the seven levels of the schools strict hierarchy that had the leader at the top, a system that amounts to psychological coercion, according to Lijo. Even though the leaders of the group promised students they would receive teachings in philosophy and they would be healed, the only goal of the groups leaders was to make money, Lijo said. KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) Authorities evacuated several homes in a Kalamazoo neighborhood for more than two hours Thursday night after a ruptured gas line caught fire. The fire was extinguished around 8:10 p.m. and residents were being allowed to return to their homes. Utilities to some residences were temporarily shut off. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate LONDON (AP) As the United Kingdom mourns a beloved queen, the nation is already wondering how King Charles III will reign and whether his monarchy will depart from the traditions of his mother. If his first full day on the throne is any indication, Charles seemed ready to chart at least a slightly different course. When Charles traveled to Buckingham Palace for the first time as the new king Friday, his limousine snaked through a sea of spectators then stopped short of the palace gates before he got out and shook hands with well-wishers. Charles looked more like a U.S. president on the campaign trail than the latest steward of a 1,000-year-old hereditary monarchy. Its not that Queen Elizabeth II didnt meet her subjects. She did, often. But this felt different a bit less formal, a bit more relaxed and personal. Charles spent almost 10 minutes greeting people pressed up against the crowd-control barriers, smiling, waving, accepting condolences and the occasional bouquet of flowers as the audience broke out in a chorus of God Save the King. After inspecting the tributes to his mother lined up outside the palace, he waved once more and walked through the gates with Camilla, the Queen Consort. It was impressive, touching, a good move to come out to the crowds, said Ammar Al-Baldawi, 64, a retiree from Hertfordshire who was among the throngs outside the palace. I think thats where the royal family needs to communicate with the people now." Charles' efforts to engage with the public more intimately reflect the fact that he needs their support. There are difficult issues ahead, most pressingly how the 73-year-old king will carry out his role as head of state. The laws and traditions that govern Britains constitutional monarchy dictate that the sovereign must stay out of partisan politics, but Charles has spent much of his adult life speaking out on issues that are important to him, particularly the environment. His words have caused friction with politicians and business leaders who accused the then-Prince of Wales of meddling in issues on which he should have remained silent. The question is whether Charles will follow his mothers example and muffle his personal opinions now that he is king, or use his new platform to reach a broader audience. In his first speech as monarch, Charles sought to put his critics at ease. My life will of course change as I take up my new responsibilities,'' he said. It will no longer be possible for me to give so much of my time and energies to the charities and issues for which I care so deeply. But I know this important work will go on in the trusted hands of others." Ed Owens, a historian and author of The Family Firm: Monarchy, Mass Media and the British Public, 1932-53, said that while Charles will tread a careful path, its unlikely he will suddenly stop talking about climate change and the environment issues where there is a broad consensus about the urgent need for action. To not do so would not be true to the image that he has until this moment developed, Owens said. John Kerry, the U.S. special envoy for climate, said he hopes Charles will continue speaking out about climate change because it is a universal issue that doesnt involve ideology. Kerry was in Scotland to meet with the Prince of Wales this week, but the session was canceled when the queen died. It doesnt mean hes involved in the daily broil of politics or speaking for a specific piece of legislation, Kerry told the BBC. But I cant imagine him not feeling compelled to use the important role of the monarch, with all the knowledge he has about it, to speak out and urge the world to do the things the world needs to do. Constitutional lawyers have debated for years whether Charles has pushed the boundaries of conventions designed to keep the monarchy out of the political fray. His so-called Black Spider Memos named for his spidery handwriting to government ministers have been cited as evidence that he wouldnt be neutral in his dealings with Parliament. The debate has also spilled over into fiction. In the 2014 play King Charles III, playwright Mike Bartlett imagines the new king, uncertain of his powers and moved by his conscience, causing a constitutional crisis by refusing to sign a new law restricting press freedom. It is an illustration of the tensions inherent in a system that evolved from an absolute monarchy to one in which the sovereign plays a largely ceremonial role. While Britains unwritten constitution requires that legislation must receive royal assent before it becomes law, this is considered a formality that the monarch cannot refuse. In an interview for a 2018 documentary broadcast on his 70th birthday, Charles said he would behave differently when he became king because the monarch has a different role than the Prince of Wales. Even so, he questioned the criticism he has received over the years. Ive always been intrigued if its meddling to worry about the inner cities, as I did 40 years ago, and what was happening or not happening there, the conditions in which people were living, he wondered. If thats meddling, Im very proud of it. On another issue facing the new king, Charles has said clearly that he intends to reduce the number of working royals and cut expenses as he seeks to ensure the monarchy better represents modern Britain. Robert Lacey, a royal historian and adviser on the Netflix series The Crown, said this initiative underscores the important role of Prince William, who is now heir to the throne. William has already made the environment one of his primary issues, and he is likely to take an even more prominent role in this area now that his father is king, Lacey told the BBC. But there is another clue to the new kings plans for his reign, and thats his choice of a name. Before Elizabeths time, there was a tradition that British monarchs would choose a new name when they ascended the throne. Charles grandfather, for instance was known as Bertie before he became King George VI. There was some thought Charles would choose to be known as King George VII in honor of his grandfather. But Charles rejected the idea and kept his own name. Thats a clear message that the king will continue to champion the causes he backed as Prince of Wales, Lacey said. It was his father, Prince Philip, who identified ways in which the neutral monarchy could advocate for youth development and the environment "really important causes that they could push forward without being accused of partisanship, he said. (The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Rebecca Trout Fryxell, University of Tennessee (THE CONVERSATION) For the Laudick family of Greensburg, Indiana, life forever changed on Aug. 5, 2013. That was the day 4-year-old Leah Laudick told her mom, Shelly, that she had a bad headache. Two days later, Leah was hospitalized nearby with worsening headaches and a slightly elevated white blood cell count. She slept for most of the day and by Aug. 9 was largely unresponsive. That day, during her transfer to Peyton Manning Childrens Hospital in Indianapolis, Leah had her first of several seizures. Doctors were unable to identify her illness tests for diseases like meningitis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever and herpes simplex all came back negative. One day later, on Aug. 10, Leahs brain activity stopped. That evening she passed away in the arms of her grieving parents. A few months later, the Laudicks learned from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that an illness called La Crosse disease, contracted from the bite of a mosquito, had caused Leahs death. I am an entomologist at the University of Tennessee who studies how La Crosse disease spreads in the environment. I met the Laudicks they have given me permission to tell their story when Leahs father, Andy, emailed me asking how he could help with my work. Such emails from parents of La Crosse-infected children are why I continue to study the virus. Together with other researchers at the University of Tennessee and Western Carolina University, Im working to provide people and communities with effective solutions to preventing this illness. Through my research and community engagement activities, I am helping to increase awareness of what La Crosse virus is and how people catch it and can avoid catching it. What is La Crosse disease? La Crosse disease is the nations second-most prevalent mosquito-borne virus. According to the CDC, West Nile virus makes up more than 90% of annual viral infections from mosquito or tick bites, with La Crosse the next-most prevalent at about 2% of mosquito or tickborne viral infections a year or 50 to 150 cases a year. Both children and adults can be infected with La Crosse virus. La Crosse was first identified in the U.S. in 1960, and historically, most cases have occurred in Upper Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states. Leahs case was the only one reported in Indiana in 2013. The majority now occur in the southern Appalachia region, which stretches from northern Alabama and Georgia, across eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina, and north to parts of Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia. We still do not know why this is the case, but there are many hypotheses centered around climate, land use and invasive mosquito species. How do people catch La Crosse? La Crosse virus is carried and transmitted primarily by the eastern tree-hole mosquito, Aedes triseriatus, a native species found throughout most of the Eastern U.S. This mosquitos preferred habitat is places with obvious tree holes for female mosquitoes to deposit their eggs, such as hardwood forests. However, the virus may also be transmitted, although not as well by two exotic and invasive mosquito species: the tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, and the bush mosquito, Aedes japonicus. Tiger and bush mosquitoes are spreading throughout the U.S. in response to changes in landscape and climate, and also by hitchhiking inside water-filled containers. Our team has found them together in the same habitats as eastern tree-hole mosquitoes, in places with hardwood trees like parks, cemeteries and residential backyards. Our team has also found these mosquitoes in close proximity to confirmed La Crosse cases. All three mosquito species develop in the same water sources and feed on mammals, including humans. Some scientists speculate that these factors have been key to the distribution of La Crosse in the Appalachian region, although there is still a lot to learn about these mosquito species and their role in spreading the virus. Diagnosing La Crosse is difficult La Crosse disease is easy to misdiagnose, in part because its symptoms can be easily confused with those of other illnesses, such as the flu. Moreover, the only way to test for La Crosse involves sending samples of blood and cerebrospinal fluid to the CDC. However, La Crosse infections tend to cluster in local communities from year to year. For example, of the 115 cases reported in Tennessee since 2011, most occurred in less than 20% of the states 95 counties. So even a few successfully diagnosed cases can tip off local doctors and officials that the disease is present in their area. Symptoms of La Crosse Symptomatic cases of La Crosse begin with a mild illness involving fever, fatigue, vomiting and headache. This lasts for nearly two weeks. Most infected individuals recover fully. However, like West Nile, La Crosse disease is neuroinvasive, meaning it can invade and affect the central nervous system. Research suggests that age, the development of the immune system and the strain of the virus are key factors in whether someone develops neuroinvasive La Crosse, while delays in seeking medical help also influence its severity. The most susceptible are immunocompromised individuals and children more than 60 children a year are diagnosed with neuroinvasive La Crosse. Severe cases are usually discovered in the hospital after the patient experiences a seizure, coma, partial paralysis of one side or altered mental state. Severe La Crosse can result in long-term neurological damage. Deaths caused by infection are rare, but neurological and behavioral effects can occur after infection, including cognitive disorders, diagnoses of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and reduced IQ scores. Can La Crosse disease be prevented? Until the scientific community understands more about the ecology and epidemiology of La Crosse, my colleagues and I will continue to recommend preventing the mosquito bite in the first place to avoid infections. One tactic is to reduce local opportunities for the mosquitoes that carry La Crosse to breed. This includes getting rid of objects outdoors that can catch and contain water like empty plant pots, cans or toys because these can emulate the conditions of a mosquito-friendly forest. Mosquitoes carrying La Crosse virus are also found developing in tires containing water, so its a good idea to drill drainage holes in tire swings. Another strategy is to try to avoid mosquitoes, perhaps by staying inside during peak mosquito hours, which are typically in the early evening. Using area repellents such as mosquito coils, wearing light-colored clothing and applying mosquito repellent can also help prevent bites. The Environmental Protection Agencys guide to the active ingredients in insect repellents describes which are most effective at repelling mosquitoes and how many hours they last. Like sunscreen, insect repellents may need to be reapplied while spending time outdoors. Leah Laudick adored her six siblings and enjoyed collecting rocks, chasing butterflies and picking flowers for her mom, in the words of her father. As officials and the public learn more about La Crosse, both avoiding and diagnosing the infection could become easier, and more lives like Leahs could be saved. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/la-crosse-virus-is-the-second-most-common-virus-in-the-us-spread-by-mosquitoes-and-can-cause-severe-neurological-damage-in-rare-cases-184412. JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) Lawyers for a Missouri woman suing to block a recreational marijuana ballot measure panned the top state election official's involvement and claimed the proposal is unconstitutionally broad during Thursday court arguments. At issue is a proposal to allow those age 21 and older to buy and grow marijuana for personal consumption and automatically erase records of some past marijuana-related crimes. In Missouri, proponents of constitutional amendment need to gather a certain number of signatures from registered voters to get initiatives on the ballot. Local election authorities typically check to make sure signees are registered voters and report signature counts to the Secretary of State's Office. This year the Secretary of State's Office also reviewed signatures following complaints from the pro-recreational-marijuana campaign, Legal Missouri 2022, that some voters were wrongly discounted as unregistered by local authorities. Attorneys for the plaintiff, Jefferson City woman Joy Sweeney, told Cole County Circuit Judge Cotton Walker that local election authorities are better trained and equipped to review signatures for accuracy. They said the Secretary of State's Office should have trusted the local review and not interfered by double checking signatures and said the proposal should not go on the ballot. Lawyers for the recreational marijuana campaign and the secretary of state said theres no proof that the Secretary of State counted invalid signatures, so the measure should go to a public vote as planned. Sweeney's lawyers also said the measure deals with too many policies in violation of the state constitution. Aside from legalizing recreational marijuana and expunging non-violent marijuana-related convictions, the proposed amendment includes policies to tax recreational marijuana. Marc Ellinger, a Legal Missouri 2022 attorney, said the proposal only deals with one subject because all of the provisions, though sweeping, deal with marijuana. Ellinger and the Secretary of State's attorney asked the judge to toss the case completely, arguing that the case is meritless and that Sweeney does not have the right to sue because she's not a Missouri resident. Sweeney said she has a home in Jefferson City and is registered to vote in Missouri, although she also has a home in Alexandria, Virginia and testified remotely from there Thursday. Walker said he plans to rule on whether the proposal will be on the Nov. 8 ballot shortly after attorneys file a final set of briefs Friday. JACKSON, Miss. (AP) Mississippis only burn center will close Oct. 14, hospital officials said Thursday. The JMS Burn and Reconstruction Center, located at Merit Health Central in South Jackson, includes 13 burn intensive care patient rooms, 20 burn step down unit patient rooms and a 12-room outpatient clinic. The center cares for both adult and pediatric burn patients on an inpatient and outpatient basis. After Oct. 14, burn patients will be redirected to Doctors Hospital in Augusta, Georgia, Firefighters Burn Center - Regional One Health in Memphis, Tennessee or USA Health in Mobile, Alabama, the Clarion Ledger reported. The complex medical needs of burn patients require support from a broad range of specialists ones you typically associate with burn programs, such as plastic surgery, and others you may not typically think of, like gastroenterology, ophthalmology, and urology, according to a hospital statement. The COVID-19 pandemic and the challenging staffing and recruitment environment have made it increasingly difficult for us to recruit the breadth of specialists needed to maintain the burn program, which is the primary reason why weve made the difficult decision to close. The hospital said the Burn & Hand Rehabilitative Services Clinic will continue to provide care to those current patients until they are transitioned to other appropriate physician practices," the hospital said. The hospital said it has been in discussions with other regional providers to explore the possibility of them establishing a burn program. We are grateful to have been able to meet the burn and reconstructive needs of patients from our state and from across the region for the past 14 years, the hospital said. SEOUL, South Korea (AP) North Korean leader Kim Jong Un stressed his country will never abandon the nuclear weapons it needs to counter the United States, which he accused of pushing to weaken the Norths defenses and eventually collapse his government, state media said Friday. Kim made the comments during a speech Thursday at North Koreas rubber-stamp parliament, where members passed legislation governing the use of nuclear weapons, which Kim described as a step to cement the countrys nuclear status and make clear such weapons will not be bargained. The law spells out conditions where North would be inclined to use its nuclear weapons, including when it determines that its leadership is facing an imminent nuclear or non-nuclear attack by hostile forces. The law requires North Koreas military to automatically execute nuclear strikes against enemy forces, including their starting point of provocation and the command, if Pyongyangs leadership comes under attack. The law also says North Korea could use nukes to prevent an unspecified catastrophic crisis to its government and people, a loose definition that experts say reflect an escalatory nuclear doctrine that could create greater concerns for neighbors. Kim also criticized South Korea over its plans to expand its conventional strike capabilities and revive large-scale military exercises with the United States to counter the Norths growing threats, describing them as a dangerous military action that raises tensions. Kim has made increasingly provocative threats of nuclear conflict toward the United States and its allies in Asia, also warning that the North would proactively use its nuclear weapons when threatened. His latest comments underscored the growing animosity in the region as he accelerates the expansion of his nuclear weapons and missiles program. The purpose of the United States is not only to remove our nuclear might itself, but eventually forcing us to surrender or weaken our rights to self-defense through giving up our nukes, so that they could collapse our government at any time, Kim said in the speech published by the Norths official Korean Central News Agency. Let them sanction us for 100 days, 1,000 days, 10 years or 100 years, Kim said. We will never give up our rights to self-defense that preserves our countrys existence and the safety of our people just to temporarily ease the difficulties we are experiencing now. Kim also addressed domestic issues, saying North Korea would begin its long-delayed rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in November. He didnt specify how many doses it would have, where they would come from, or how they would be administered across his population of 26 million people. GAVI, the nonprofit that runs the U.N.-backed COVAX distribution program, said in June it understood North Korea had accepted an offer of vaccines from China. GAVI said at the time the specifics of the offer were unclear. North Korea rejected previous offers by COVAX, likely because of international monitoring requirements, and has also ignored U.S. and South Korean offers of vaccines and other COVID-19 aid. Kim last month declared victory over COVID-19 and ordered preventive measures eased just three months after his government for the first time acknowledged an outbreak. Experts believe the North's disclosures on its outbreak are manipulated to help Kim maintain absolute control. The North Korean report about Kims speech came a day after South Korea extended its latest olive branch, proposing a meeting with North Korea to resume temporary reunions of aging relatives separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, which were last held in 2018. Experts say its highly unlikely North Korea would accept the Souths offer considering the stark deterioration in inter-Korean ties amid the stalemate in larger nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang. The U.S.-North Korean diplomacy derailed in 2019 over disagreements in exchanging the release of crippling sanctions against the North and the Norths denuclearization steps. Kim was combative toward South Korea in Thursdays speech and urged his country to expand the operational roles of its tactical nuclear weapons and accelerate their deployment to strengthen the countrys war deterrent. Those comments appeared to align with a ruling party decision in June to approve unspecified new operational duties for front-line troops, which analysts say likely include plans to deploy battlefield nuclear weapons targeting rival South Korea along their tense border. Cheong Seong Chang, a senior analyst at South Koreas Sejong Institute, said Kims comments and the new North Korean law amount to a warning that it would launch immediate nuclear strikes on the United States and South Korea if they ever attempt to decapacitate Pyongyangs leadership. The North is also communicating a threat that it could use its nuclear weapons during conflicts with South Koreas conventional forces, which would raise the risk of accidental clashes escalating into a nuclear crisis, Cheong said. North Korea has been speeding its development of nuclear-capable, short-range missiles that can target South Korea since 2019. Experts say its rhetoric around those missiles communicates a threat to proactively use them in warfare to blunt the stronger conventional forces of South Korea and the United States. About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in the South to deter aggression from the North. The U.S.-led diplomatic push to defuse the nuclear standoff has been further complicated by an intensifying U.S.-China rivalry and Russias war on Ukraine, which deepened the divide in the U.N. Security Council, where Beijing and Moscow have blocked U.S. efforts to tighten sanctions on Pyongyang over its revived long-range missile tests this year. Kim has dialed up weapons tests to a record pace in 2020, launching more than 30 ballistic weapons, including the first demonstrations of his intercontinental ballistic missiles since 2017. U.S. and South Korean officials say Kim may up the ante soon by ordering the Norths first nuclear test in five years as he pushes a brinkmanship aimed at forcing Washington to accept the idea of the North as a nuclear power and negotiating concessions from a position of strength. Experts say Kim is also trying to strengthen his leverage by strengthening his cooperation with China and Russia in an emerging partnership aimed at undercutting U.S. influence. North Korea has repeatedly blamed the United States for the crisis in Ukraine, saying the Wests hegemonic policy justified Russian military actions in Ukraine to protect itself. U.S. officials said this week the Russians are in the process of purchasing North Korean ammunition, including artillery shells and rockets, to ease their supply shortages in the war against Ukraine. North Korea also has joined Russia and Syria as the only nations to recognize the independence of two pro-Russia breakaway territories in eastern Ukraine and has discussed send its construction workers to those regions to work on rebuilding. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate ELKTON, Md. (AP) Two adults and three children were found shot to death Friday at a Maryland house after a man called 911 from the home to report a shooting, authorities said. Cecil County Sheriff Scott Adams said a man, a woman and three children in the 5th, 7th and 8th grade were found Friday morning in a large two-story home in Elk Mills. Authorities did not immediately release the identities of the victims, but said there is no ongoing threat to the public. The shooting occurred on a cul-de-sac in an area of residential streets interspersed with wooded areas about 60 miles (97 kilometers) northeast of Baltimore and a few miles west of the Delaware state line. Its a horrific day, and I know everybodys prayers are appreciated. ... My phone hasnt stopped ringing from people concerned about this and upset about this, Adams said. Its grief is what it is at this point," Adams said. Anytime you have a loss to these levels. Any loss is terrible, but a loss to this level, which is not a common thing its certainly not a common thing here in Cecil County its tragic and terrible and it takes a long time for people to process. Deputies were called to the home just after 9 a.m. by a man who said three children and a woman had been shot and killed, Holmes said. Deputies made entry to the home and also found a man dead. A semi-automatic handgun was located near the dead man. The sheriff declined to say what the motive might have been. He said that his office has no records of deputies responding to calls at the house. The bodies were in different locations in the house. Video from the scene showed the home with cream siding and red shutters and a detached garage surrounded by police tape. Numerous law enforcement vehicles were at the scene. A neighbor, Tom Driscoll, who can see the residence where the shooting happened from his home, said that a couple with three children had lived there for at least five years. He said the parents kept to themselves, but the children once brought cookies at Christmas and would sometimes bring his dogs back to him if they wandered. He said the children were homeschooled, a detail that the sheriff had earlier confirmed. Driscoll said he would see the two girls and a boy playing on a swing set in their yard or on a trampoline. I dont know why anyone would want to hurt those children. I really dont, Driscoll said. Things must have been really bad somehow. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) Oregon utilities shut down power to tens of thousands of customers on Friday as dry easterly winds swept into the region in the hopes that it would lessen the risk of wildfires in extremely dry and hot conditions. Power shut-offs due to extreme fire weather, common in California, are relatively new to the Pacific Northwest. The plans, which were part of permanent rules approved in May to manage wildfire danger in high-risk areas, mark the new reality in a region better known for its rain and temperate rainforests. Portland General Electric halted power to about 30,000 customers in 12 service areas including the posh West Hills neighborhood of Portland and Pacific Power shut down service to more than 7,000 customers in a small community on the Pacific Coast, where a wildfire burned two years ago, and in pockets southeast of the state capitol of Salem. Schools in the areas with planned power outages canceled classes and authorities urged residents to charge cellphones and be ready to evacuate at a moment's notice. The winds were whipping up a wildfire southeast of Eugene, Oregon, that had been burning in the wilderness for a month but was now making a run toward the small community of Oakridge, where residents were ordered to evacuate. Gov. Kate Brown declared a fire emergency late Friday for the Cedar Creek Fire as it encroached on the 3,200-person town. Climate change is bringing drier conditions to the Pacific Northwest and that requires strategies that have been common in fire-prone California for the past decade or more, said Erica Fleishman, director of the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute at Oregon State University. Wind patterns haven't changed, but those winds are now coinciding more frequently with drier vegetation and hotter temperatures a toxic mix for fire ignition, rapid spread and extreme fire behavior, she said. I dont know whether this is the solution, but its an interim effort to manage wildfire risk, Fleishman said. People are going, Oh my gosh!' The areas we thought were safe, theyre realizing those are not immune to fire anymore. The fire likelihood is changing. The proactive power shutoffs were just the second for Portland General Electric ever. The utility shut down power to 5,000 customers in 2020 near Mount Hood during firestorms that ravaged the state. Extreme winds over Labor Day weekend led to wildfires that burned more than 1 million acres (405,000 hectares), destroyed 4,000 homes and killed at least 11 people and utilities were blamed for some of those fire starts. Pacific Power, another major utility in Oregon, said the shutoffs Friday were the first the company has ever done. The company put a wildfire mitigation plan in place in Oregon in 2018 that includes studying wind and weather patterns to predict high-risk areas. The utility was sued last year by residents in two towns that burned to ashes in the 2020 wildfires who blamed the company for not shutting down power in advance of the devastating wind storm. Pacific Power has since hired a team of meteorologists to make fire weather forecasts and is spending more than $500 million to harden its electric grid in high-risk areas by replacing wooden poles with carbonized ones and encasing power lines and conductor boxes to reduce the chances of a spark, said Drew Hanson, a Pacific Power spokesman. You can look at the West in general and climate change has impacted areas from Southern California, and then Northern California and now up into this region as well, we're seeing those same conditions, he said. Its something we are taking very seriously. We realize the changing landscape. Weve been changing and evolving along with it. A number of blazes are burning in Oregon and Washington state. Just south of Salem, firefighters using at least two planes and a helicopter tried to douse the flames of a wildfire that spread from grass to stands of trees, blanketing parts of the Willamette Valley in smoke. The largest in Oregon is the Double Creek Fire burning in northeastern Oregon near the Idaho border. The fire grew by nearly 47 square miles (122 square kilometers) Wednesday because of wind gusts up to 50 mph (80 kph) and as of Friday had burned a total of nearly 214 square miles (554 square kilometers). It's threatening about 100 homes near the community of Imnaha. In Central Oregon, the Cedar Creek Fire east of Oakridge has burned nearly 52 square miles (135 square kilometers). On Friday, officials ordered a level 3 go now evacuation for residents of greater Oakridge, Westfir and High Prairie areas due to increased fire activity. The Van Meter Fire, which started Wednesday, is burning on Stukel Mountain about 13 miles (21 kilometers) southeast of Klamath Falls. One home and four structures have been destroyed and about 260 structures are threatened by that blaze, officials said. The Rum Creek Fire was also burning in southwest Oregon and was almost halfway contained at about 33 square miles (82 square kilometers). ___ Associated Press reporter Andrew Selsky in Salem, Oregon contributed to this report. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate LONDON - On the morning of her father's death, on the day she would become queen, 25-year-old Elizabeth was perched in a treehouse in Kenya watching a herd of elephants at a watering hole. Because of the distance and difficulty of communication, it took hours for her to get the news. On Thursday, in just one marker of how much the world changed during her 70-year reign, the news of her own sudden illness and death spread in milliseconds, via the royal family's Twitter account. Flight tracking data revealed the paths of her children rushing to her bedside at Balmoral Castle. By the time the royal household staff posted the black-bordered death notice on the gates of Buckingham Palace, everybody knew. The BBC news anchors were already dressed in black. It was still a shock, in its stunning, mortal rapidity. As the only queen the vast majority of Britons have ever known, she has been a constant in people's lives - her profile on the currency, on the stamps. She was there in times of celebration and sorrow and fear. As she aged, she became more and more a grandmotherly figure of warm and fuzzy affection, even for those who don't especially like the institution. Her son Charles, Britain's longest-serving monarch-in-waiting, is now finally King Charles III. His wife, Camila, will be known as "queen consort." The 73-year-old, ruddy-cheeked Charles, who has spent his life advocating for organic farming and railing against modern architecture, while wearing immaculately tailored pinstripes, will now become the 21st century's most high-profile environmental activist, raising his voice against climate change and species devastation, if past is prologue to his reign. This is a moment that Britain has been bracing for, with an elaborate plan for "Operation London Bridge" mapping out what happens over the next 10 days, included the solemnity and pageantry, the real emotion and choreographed kitsch, of a royal funeral and the ascension of a new monarch. These coming days will see Elizabeth's coffin lie in rest in Scotland and then make its way to London, where it will be processed from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall. It will lie on a raised box known as a catafalque, and members of the public, as well as VIPs, will be allowed to visit and pay their respects, ahead of a state funeral expected between Sept. 17 and 19. Meanwhile, the Accession Council will meet. A proclamation announcing Charles as the new king will be read from a balcony at St. James's Palace. Charles will travel to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to console his subjects. And for the first time since 1952, the national anthem will be played with the words "God Save the King." Hopefully, the people will like him. But that is far from certain. Elizabeth was the head of state not only of the United Kingdom but of 14 other countries, including Australia, Canada and Jamaica, as well as a religious figure, as "Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governor of the Church of England." Charles is more spiritual than devout. Her majesty led a remarkably robust life, mostly free of illness, attending official engagements, serving as a patron of charities and projecting British power in trips around the world. She spent considerable time outdoors. She was a lifelong lover - and rider and breeder - of horses. She surrounded herself with dogs, including her famous corgis. She enjoyed shooting birds and stags. By age 96, after the death of her husband, Prince Philip, and health and mobility issues that followed a brief hospitalization last fall, the queen was delegating more while receding from public life. But she was still around, still there - if sometimes via Zoom. Just on Tuesday, two afternoons earlier, she accepted in person the resignation of Boris Johnson and ceremonially appointed Liz Truss - her 15th, now last, prime minister. In one of her earliest public speeches, to mark her 21st birthday in 1947, then Princess Elizabeth declared "my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service." At the queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977, marking 25 years on the throne, she reaffirmed that pledge. "Although that vow was made in my salad days, when I was green in judgment, I do not regret nor retract one word of it," she said. In her later years, the queen told a close confidant, she would never, ever abdicate the throne, unless she suffered from severe dementia or a massive stroke. She was true to her word. When Buckingham Palace announced to the media via email at 12:32 p.m. London time on Thursday that the queen required "medical supervision" and her doctors were "concerned," the busy aides and huffy politicians in the Palace of Westminster briefly hushed, staring at their smartphones. In minutes, Truss was tweeting, "The whole country will be deeply concerned by the news from Buckingham Palace this lunchtime." Quickly to Balmoral Castle - via airplane and then speeding Range Rovers - came her children, the princes and princess Charles, Andrew, Edward and Anne. So, too, her grandchildren, Prince William, 40, now heir to the throne, followed later by Prince Harry. By nightfall, as rain poured down in Scotland, came the second announcement from the palace, as brief as a telegraph from long ago: "The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow." The new king issued a statement, saying, "We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much-loved Mother." He said Britain would be entering a period of "mourning and change." Charles acknowledged the grief, this "moment of greatest sadness" for him and his family, and said her loss would be "deeply felt" in Britain, the Commonwealth, "and by countless people around the world." Messages of condolence - and celebration of her life - came in waves. Johnson said something right when he observed, "there is an ache at the passing of our Queen, a deep and personal sense of loss - far more intense, perhaps, than we expected." President Biden ordered flags flown at half-staff. The Pope praised her "devotion to duty, her steadfast witness of faith in Jesus Christ and her firm hope in his promises." British Horseracing Authority hailed the queen a great and influential supporter. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said "under history's brightest spotlight," the queen "offered a masterclass in grace and strength, power and poise." She said Elizabeth's life and leadership "will continue to inspire young women and girls in public service, now and for generations to come." Former President Donald Trump said, "What a grand and beautiful lady she was - there was nobody like her!" The British Kennel Club hailed her as "one of the most dog loving monarchs in history." Former president Barack Obama said she "captivated the world." The royal biographers joined in. Hugo Vickers said the queen "bestowed an atmosphere of calm over a very fast-changing world" and was an "extraordinary conciliator." He recalled the moment when, in 2012, she shook hands with Martin McGuinness, a former IRA commander who had become deputy first minister of Northern Ireland. The queen's cousin, Louis Mountbatten, had been killed by the IRA in 1979. In the last living public image of the queen, from the prime minister transition on Tuesday, she is shown standing before a roaring fire at Balmoral in a no-nonsense gray cardigan and practical plaid skirt, gripping her deceased husband's cane in one hand and beaming a smile toward the camera. She looked old, bent, frail, yes, but still standing, still ready do her job. Once the queen said, "I have to be seen to be believed." As it began, it ended. - - - The Washington Post's Adam Taylor in Washington contributed to this report. WASHINGTON - If the Senate ultimately decides not to join the House to codify a right to same-sex marriage in America, Sen. Ron Johnson's (R-Wis.) new comments might be viewed, in retrospect, as the turning point. In a newly reported video of Johnson's comments to supporters last week, the senator from Wisconsin said that he would not support the bill "in its current state," after previously saying he saw "no reason to oppose" it. The reversal not only deprives the effort of one of the few Republicans who had suggested they were leaning in favor of the bill - Democrats need the votes of 10 Republicans to clear a filibuster - but it also comes from someone who seemingly had plenty of reason to vote for it, as Johnson's own previous comments make clear. Johnson is seeking reelection in a competitive race - the most competitive of any GOP incumbent, in fact. In addition, he won't face GOP primary voters again until at least 2028 (if ever, given that he wasn't certain about seeking another term this year). He has also struck a pragmatic tone in his past comments, saying in 2014, even before the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage that, "if the voters decide that they want same-sex marriage, I'm not going to oppose it." Americans have decided they want same-sex marriage, with 71 percent supporting it in the most recent Gallup poll. But Johnson still says he won't support this bill. (Johnson blamed his previous comment on a desire "to get [the media] off my back.") The House passed the bill in July, and at the time it seemed to have fair to good prospects in the Senate. Fully 47 House Republicans crossed over to vote with Democrats, even as their votes weren't required to pass the bill. They also did so even as their colleagues decried the vote as unnecessary, since the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in 2015. Democrats argue that the vote is necessary and wise because the Supreme Court recently overturned an even longer-standing precedent: the right to an abortion. The 23 percent of House Republicans voting for it, if replicated in the Senate, would be sufficient to clear the filibuster. And the comments of GOP leadership back in July - particularly the party's Senate No. 2, Sen. John Thune (S.D.) - suggested that the bill might ultimately pass without much fuss. "As you saw, there was a fairly significant vote - bipartisan vote - last night in the House of Representatives," Thune said at the time. "And I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case in the Senate." Precisely where those votes might come from is another matter - as are the political calculations involved. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) have said they'll vote for the bill; Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) have indicated they'll probably support it, too. Some had assumed Johnson would be a fifth yes vote, based upon his past comments. And that quintet made sense. Collins and Murkowski are moderates, Portman is retiring (and has a personal connection to the issue), Tillis comes from a competitive state, and Johnson is the most vulnerable incumbent Republican. But others who might seem to have latitude to get to yes have been reluctant. Retiring Sens. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.) haven't weighed in definitively. (Burr did clarify that he's leaning against it, after it was previously reported he would oppose it.) The second-most vulnerable Republican, Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), has mostly focused on how allegedly unnecessary the bill is, at one point labeling it "a stupid waste of time." Some Republicans like Sen. Bill Cassidy (La.) have indicated they could vote for the bill if it adds a religious liberty amendment. Sens. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Todd C. Young (R-Ind.) haven't ruled out supporting the final product. Others could also be in play, up to and including Thune and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), if you believe their public comments. Those last two are notable. We shouldn't expect senators from Kentucky and South Dakota to support the bill. But just as 47 House Republicans saw this vote as the right thing to do or at least politically advantageous, GOP leadership might ultimately decide that killing a bill codifying something 7 in 10 Americans support is a bad look for the party. They might also see what has happened to their party's political fortunes after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade and decide that, however unlikely the court might be to reverse itself on same-sex marriage too, it's better to take that off the table as even a perceived prospect. The trajectory on this issue - support has increased sharply in recent years, at a faster rate of change than almost any social or political issue in modern political history - is such that there's an argument for putting it to bed and not having to keep reliving this debate. On the flip side, the GOP as a whole is still very much split on same-sex marriage. Some polls have shown a majority of Republicans support it, but that's not where the loudest voices in the party are. The party might also worry about being perceived as legitimizing a vote they've cast as wholly unnecessary, and perhaps encouraging Democrats to line up similarly fraught votes on issues such as contraception (which the House also forced a vote on, but with very few GOP crossovers). If Republicans think they can explain these votes by convincing people that same-sex marriage isn't in any way threatened - rather than that they necessarily oppose same-sex marriage itself - they might prefer that, given the number of issues (such as contraception and interracial marriage) that could similarly back them into a corner. A case in point: Johnson, for one, said Thursday that Obergefell v. Hodges would never be overturned, due to the doctrine known as stare decisis that stands by precedent - and that Democrats "can't let sleeping dogs lie." But ultimately, whatever leadership truly desires to come out of this vote isn't the only factor; it's also what those who have to cast the votes and own them are comfortable with. Most of them have more to fear from GOP primary voters than anything else. And the fact that even those who are retiring, or who in 2022 will need the support of moderate voters who back same-sex marriage, aren't on board shows the math could be as difficult as the politics. CANDO, N.D. (AP) A dispute between two brothers led to a triple murder and suicide last month in a North Dakota wheat field, authorities said Friday. Towner County Sheriff Andrew Hillier said autopsy results and evidence at the scene suggested Robert Bracken, 59, killed his brother, his son and a third man before shooting himself on Aug. 29. PHOENIX (AP) Phoenix police have finished a sweep of a high school on lockdown and are bringing students to reunite with parents. Authorities announced around 12:30 p.m. Friday that Central High School was on lockdown after a fight and possible popping sounds" were reported. BEIRUT (AP) Syria's international airport in Aleppo is to resume business on Friday after the facility was put out of commission by an Israeli missile attack, the country's transport ministry said. The ministry said in a statement carried by state media that the damage has been fixed and called on airline companies to resume their flights to the city in northern Syria. Israel launched a missile attack on Tuesday night targeting Aleppos airport for the second time in a week and all flights were diverted to the capital Damascus. The Israeli strike tore large craters in three spots on the facilitys runway, satellite images analyzed Thursday by The Associated Press show. The satellite images from Planet Labs PBC taken Wednesday show the airports single east-west runway bore three new craters. Vehicles and workers surrounded the two of the craters while the one furthest east had no traffic near it. Israel also launched airstrikes at Aleppo airport last week, damaging its runway and, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, a warehouse that likely stored a shipment of Iranian rockets. Last weeks strike tore a hole in the runway and also damaged a structure close to the military side of the airfield, satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press showed. The airport will be working at full capacity to serve passengers and airline companies around the clock, said the Transport Ministry adding that work will resume at noon Friday (0900 GMT). On June 10, Israeli airstrikes that struck Damascus International Airport caused significant damage to infrastructure and runways and rendered the main runway unserviceable. The airport opened two weeks later following renovation work. Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years, but rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations. Israel has acknowledged, however, that it targets bases of Iran-allied militant groups, such as Lebanons Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar Assads forces. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate BRUSSELS (AP) Ukraine's armed forces have made significant early gains in their counter-offensive against Russian troops in southern and eastern Ukraine but fighting appears set to drag on for months, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the head of NATO said Friday. Blinken, who was at NATO headquarters to brief the 29 U.S. allies after a trip to Kyiv on Thursday, said the six-month war in Ukraine is entering a critical period. He urged the conflict-torn countrys Western backers to maintain their support through the winter. The initial signs are positive, and we see Ukraine making real, demonstrable progress in a deliberate way, Blinken said, referring to the Ukrainian military's recent push into Russian-occupied areas in southern Ukraine and the eastern Donbas region. But this is likely to go on for some significant period of time, he said. There are a huge number of Russian forces that are in Ukraine, and unfortunately, tragically, horrifically, President (Vladimir) Putin has demonstrated that he will throw a lot of people into this at huge cost to Russia. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the invasion launched by Putin in February is entering a critical phase." Ukrainian forces have been able to stall Moscows offensive in Donbas, strike back behind Russian lines and retake territory, he said. But Stoltenberg warned that allied unity will be tested in coming months, with pressure on energy supplies and the soaring cost of living caused by Russias war. He renewed calls for allies to supply special uniforms, generators, tents and equipment to help Ukraines army weather the winter. Blinken appeared moved by his visit to Ukraine as he railed against what he said were Russian war crimes and the price of indiscriminate violence inflicted on civilians. I saw the costs in my visit to a childrens hospital in Kyiv, where I met kids who will spend the rest of their lives without limbs, or with enduring brain injuries, or with other trauma that may be invisible to the eye, because of atrocities committed by Russian forces, he said. The one-day visit was Blinkens second to Ukraines capital since the war began, and his fifth into Ukraine since becoming secretary of state. On his last trip, in April, he traveled on the same overnight train with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin but did not have the opportunity to see much of the damage in and around the city caused by Russian shelling. At the hospital, Blinken met with, among other children wounded in aerial and artillery attacks, a six-year old girl named Maryna who lost a leg after a rocket struck her house in the city of Kherson. He also toured the town of Irpin, much of it devastated by repeated Russian air strikes. You see just miles from downtown Kyiv these bombed-out buildings, civilian dwellings, he said after his return. The only thing you can say when you see it is, at best at best, these were indiscriminate attacks on civilian buildings, and at worst, intentional, deliberate, designed to terrorize the population. There has to be accountability for those who committed atrocities, Blinken said. At NATO on Friday, Blinken said Putin is using every weapon he has, including energy, to try to break the will of the allies, but that there is a growing recognition around the world that while the costs of standing up to the Kremlins aggression are high, the costs of standing down would be even higher. ___ Follow all AP stories on the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine. People who live in large urban areas may be less likely to take prescribed medications for high blood pressure and less likely to have a primary care provider than those living in smaller rural communities, new research suggests. The findings also suggest there are regional differences, with those living in the western part of the U.S. least likely to take medication prescribed for high blood pressure. The research was presented this week at the American Heart Association's Hypertension Scientific Sessions in San Diego and is considered preliminary until the full results are published in a peer-reviewed journal. "You might think people living in very rural areas, because they have less access to care and a lack of public transportation, would have lower adherence rates," said lead researcher Samantha Schoenl, a fourth-year medical student at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. "And in urban environments, you'd think having more transportation options would help, but that's not what the data showed." Nearly half of all U.S. adults have high blood pressure, also called hypertension. It often has no obvious symptoms, but left untreated it can damage the cardiovascular system, contributing to the risk for a heart attack, stroke and other chronic health conditions. Such problems might not show up for years, so "it's hard to see the effects of taking a drug every day," Schoenl said. "But it's important for patients and their outcomes, and it's important for our health care system as a whole," she said, noting prior research that shows if just 25% of Medicare patients who didn't take their blood pressure medication started doing so, the U.S. would save $13.7 billion annually and avoid more than 100,000 emergency department visits. Schoenl and her colleagues analyzed data from more than 11,000 people in the 2020 National Health Interview Survey, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those people were a representative sample of more than 71 million people across the U.S. diagnosed with high blood pressure. The researchers found that nearly 76% of people in large urban populations took the blood pressure medications prescribed to them, with adherence growing as population density decreased. In large fringe urban areas and medium urban areas, nearly 82% of people took their blood pressure medication. In smaller non-metro areas, 83% of people were adherent. Researchers found regional differences as well. People living in the Northeast were most likely to take the medications prescribed to them, with about 83% being adherent. In the South, more than 81% of people took their medications, and 79% of people in the Midwest did so. The West had the lowest rate of medication adherence, at about 77%. The data showed a correlation between medication adherence and access to primary care, suggesting those who had less access to health care were more likely to stop taking their prescribed medications, Schoenl said. She expected to see less access to physicians in rural areas than in urban ones, but that was not the case. About 14% of the U.S. population lives in a rural area, but only one-tenth of primary care physicians practice there. Yet 97% of rural residents in this study reported having access to regular care if they needed it, compared to less than 95% of people in large urban areas. Schoenl said access to care also can be affected by income, a variable the researchers didn't factor in. Another issue could be that people in cities tend to move more than those who live in rural areas and might have less continuity of care, she said. "The cause of non-adherence is very complex," said Dr. Khurram Nasir, chief of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at Houston Methodist Hospital in Texas. Nasir, who was not involved in the new research, said he'd like to see the study replicated, with the findings adjusted for income and education, another variable not considered in the study. Schoenl said the researchers plan to update their analysis with such data in the final manuscript. Nasir said, "We need more studies, but if the data hold true, I think this will have important health policy planning and patient care implications." If you have questions or comments about this American Heart Association News story, please email editor@heart.org. Copyright is owned or held by the American Heart Association, Inc., and all rights are reserved. Permission is granted, at no cost and without need for further request, for individuals, media outlets, and non-commercial education and awareness efforts to link to, quote, excerpt or reprint from these stories in any medium as long as no text is altered and proper attribution is made to American Heart Association News. Other uses, including educational products or services sold for profit, must comply with the American Heart Associations Copyright Permission Guidelines. See full terms of use. These stories may not be used to promote or endorse a commercial product or service. 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WFO LOS ANGELES Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Thursday, September 8, 2022 _____ EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE National Weather Service Los Angeles/Oxnard CA 814 PM PDT Thu Sep 8 2022 ...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM PDT FRIDAY... * WHAT...Dangerously hot conditions with temperatures up to 99. * WHERE...Cuyama Valley and Santa Barbara County Interior Mountains. * WHEN...Until 8 PM PDT Friday. * IMPACTS...Extreme heat will significantly increase the potential for heat related illnesses, particularly for those working or participating in outdoor activities. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. Young children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles under any circumstances. Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location. Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1. ...HEAT ADVISORY REPLACES EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING..NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM PDT FRIDAY... * WHAT...Temperatures up to 104. * WHERE...Santa Lucia Mountains, Southern Salinas Valley, San Luis Obispo County Interior Valleys and San Luis Obispo County * IMPACTS...Hot temperatures may cause heat illnesses to occur. ...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING HAS EXPIRED... Cloud coverage will increase and temperatures are forecast to cool. ...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM PDT FRIDAY... * WHAT...Dangerously hot conditions with temperatures up to 102. Overnight low temperatures will offer little relief with temperatures falling to the 70s to lower 80s. * WHERE...Ventura County Inland Coast. * WHAT...Dangerously hot conditions with widespread temperatures of 100 to 110. Overnight low temperatures will offer little relief with temperatures falling to the mid 70s to mid 80s. * WHERE...Santa Clarita Valley, Lake Casitas, Ojai Valley, Central Ventura County Valleys, Southeastern Ventura County Valleys, Santa Monica Mountains, Los Angeles County San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles County San Gabriel Valley. * WHAT...Dangerously hot conditions with temperatures up to 104. Hottest across interior areas to Downtown Los Angeles. * WHERE...Los Angeles County Inland Coast including Downtown Los Angeles. ...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM PDT FRIDAY... ...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM TO 8 PM PDT FRIDAY... * WHAT...For the Excessive Heat Warning, dangerously hot conditions with temperatures in the 90s to around 103 are expected. For the Heat Advisory, temperatures in the mid 80s to mid 90s expected. Overnight low temperatures will offer little relief with temperatures falling to the 70s to lower 80s. * WHERE...Ventura County Beaches, Malibu Coast and Los Angeles County Beaches. * WHEN...For the Excessive Heat Warning, from 10 AM to 8 PM PDT Friday. For the Heat Advisory, until 10 AM PDT Friday. * WHAT...Dangerously hot conditions with temperatures up to 105 expected. Warmest Santa Ynez Valley. * WHERE...San Luis Obispo County Inland Central Coast, Santa Barbara County Inland Central Coast and Santa Ynez Valley. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather WFO PHOENIX Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Friday, September 9, 2022 _____ FLASH FLOOD WARNING The National Weather Service in Phoenix has issued a * Flash Flood Warning for... West Central Imperial County in southeastern California... * Until 715 PM PDT. * At 217 PM PDT, Doppler radar indicated thunderstorms producing heavy rain in Carrizo Wash. Between 1 and 1.5 inches of rain have fallen. Flash flooding is ongoing or expected to begin shortly. HAZARD...Life threatening flash flooding. Thunderstorms producing flash flooding. SOURCE...Radar. IMPACT...Life threatening flash flooding of creeks and streams, urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses. * Some locations that will experience flash flooding include... mainly rural areas of West Central Imperial County PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather WFO PHOENIX Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Friday, September 9, 2022 _____ FLASH FLOOD WARNING The National Weather Service in Phoenix has issued a * Flash Flood Warning for... Northwestern Imperial County in southeastern California... * Until 715 PM PDT. * At 307 PM PDT, trained weather spotters reported washes running several feet deep near Salton City. Between 0.5 and 1.5 inches of rain have fallen. Flash flooding is ongoing or expected to begin shortly. HAZARD...Life threatening flash flooding. Thunderstorms producing flash flooding. SOURCE...Trained spotters reported. IMPACT...Life threatening flash flooding of creeks and streams, urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses. * Some locations that will experience flash flooding include... Salton City, Salton Sea Beach and Winona. This includes the following streams and drainages... Tarantula Wash, Tule Wash, Salton Sea, Coral Wash, Wonderstone Wash, South Fork Palm Wash, San Felipe Creek and Fish Creek Wash. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather WFO CORPUS CHRISTI Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Thursday, September 8, 2022 _____ SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING The National Weather Service in Corpus Christi has issued a * Severe Thunderstorm Warning for... Central Nueces County in south central Texas... Southeastern San Patricio County in south central Texas... * Until 700 PM CDT. * At 629 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located near Taft, moving south at 15 mph. HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and quarter size hail. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage to roofs, siding, and trees. * Locations impacted include... Corpus Christi, Portland, Taft, Corpus Christi International Airport, Gregory, Del Mar College Windward Campus, Corpus Christi North Beach, Cole Park, Driscoll Childrens Hospital, Del Mar College Heritage Campus, Clarkwood, Downtown Corpus Christi, Taft Southwest and Tuloso. This includes the following highways... Interstate 37 between mile markers 1 and 9. US Highway 181 between mile markers 628 and 648. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather WFO CORPUS CHRISTI Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Friday, September 9, 2022 _____ SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING Severe Weather Statement National Weather Service Corpus Christi TX 457 PM CDT Fri Sep 9 2022 ...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 530 PM CDT FOR WESTERN NUECES AND CENTRAL SAN PATRICIO COUNTIES... At 457 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located near Edroy, or 7 miles north of Robstown, moving southwest at 15 mph. HAZARD...Quarter size hail. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Damage to vehicles is expected. Locations impacted include... Robstown, Sinton, Odem, San Patricio, Edroy, Bluntzer, Banquete, West Sinton, Annaville, Calallen, Agua Dulce, Petronila and North San Pedro. This includes the following highways... Interstate 37 between mile markers 10 and 27. US Highway 77 between mile markers 648 and 676. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building. To report severe weather contact your nearest law enforcement agency. They will send your report to the National Weather Service office in Corpus Christi. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather The summers final Live on the Waterfront concert was held Wednesday evening at Prince Arthurs Landing. The popular series in Thunder Bay has completed nine weekly shows that began on July 13. Wednesdays concert was unique as it was held one hour later in the evening to mesh with the 10 p. Sorry, no valid subscriptions were found for this Publication. Please select from an option below to start a subscription. SUBSCRIBE TODAY! 24 Hour Access Many people complain about American universities, but almost nobody does anything about them. Anyone interested in the subject knows that American colleges and universities increasingly prefer promoting leftist social change to seeking objective truth in their research and teaching. Professors, students, outside speakers, and any others with opinions that contradict a consensus that moves ever-leftward are ostracized for their supposed racism, sexism, heteronormativity, binarism (believing that people are either male or female), ableism (regarding disabled people as disabled), species- ism (valuing people more than animals), and other prejudices thought so noxious that many students, professors, and administrators refuse them even a hearing. Rigor and objectivity in teaching and research have steadily given way to indoctrination. Writing from my own perspective as a professor of ancient and medieval history and literaturefields to which leftist ideology might once have been thought irrelevantI recently published a book, The University We Need, describing the long slide of American universities into intolerance and academic mediocrity. My books approach to the problem is mainly tactical, analyzing the situation and making specific proposals to improve it. This essay will deal more with strategy than with tactics, showing how my proposals could offer some hope of reversing the decline of quality and tolerance in American higher education. Some proposed solutions have already been tried, without success. The most popular and aggressively pursued measure has been for state and federal governments to cut funding for higher education drastically. So far, the principal results of those cuts have been further declines in educational quality, big increases in tuition, and correspondingly large increases in student debt. Another tactic, attacking professors tenureprimarily by hiring temporary and low-paid adjunct professors in place of tenured or tenure-track professorshas resulted in more decline in the quality of teaching and the dismissal of adjuncts who showed signs of lacking commitment to leftist policies. Neither cutting funding nor hiring adjuncts has even slightly slowed the spread of intolerant campus leftism. Sometimes donors and state legislatures have tried to attach conditions to their money that would encourage or force universities to appoint academically rigorous professors and create better academic programs. Occasionally, the universities refuse the money along with the conditions, as when Yale declined $20 million offered by the philanthropist Lee Bass for a program in Western civilization. More often, the universities accept the money but subvert the conditionsfor example, by appointing a Classics professor who condemns the Classics as elitist or creating a conservative-studies program that condemns conservatives as bigots. When professors and students denounced efforts by the Charles Koch Foundation to promote conservative and libertarian ideas at George Mason University, including naming its law school for Antonin Scalia, the universitys administrators promised not to be influenced by donors in hiring and teaching. Even when donors do establish substantive professorships and programs, these can hardly be more than small ghettos of dissenters from leftist academic dominance. Several members of Congress have considered a federal law to force the wealthiest universities to spend larger percentages of their huge endowments, which they make a fetish of increasing and hoarding as emblems of their prestige. Yet since no one has proposed dictating how the universities should spend the money that they would be forced to withdraw from their endowments, such a law would probably just lead them to boost their already-large spending on fund-raising and administrative staff, without bringing any reductions in tuition or improvements in education. Largely as a punitive gesture, the 2017 tax-reform act included an excise tax of 1.4 percent on investment income from university endowments that average more than $500,000 per student. Though this tax annoyed administrators of the best-endowed universities, the small amount of money involved made no real difference to them. In my book, I propose legislation that could have a major impact on higher education, such as capping academic administrative spending and creating a board to investigate fraudulent or plagiarized academic research. Unfortunately, passing such laws has ceased to be feasible for at least two years, now that Democrats control the House. An optimist might think that as things get steadily worse in universities, more professors will speak up; but so far, professors have brought about little, if any, change for the better. In 2015, some professors, alarmed by the growing dominance and intolerance of leftism on campuses, founded an informal association, Heterodox Academy, which now has more than 2,500 members (including me). But this number, which includes graduate students and members from outside the U.S., is tiny compared with the 1.5 million or so professors in the United States. Significantly, only 15 members of Heterodox Academy are tenured professors in the humanities and social sciences at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, and Berkeleythe universities that really count in American higher education. Worse yet, every year more of the dwindling number of professors who are conservatives, moderates, or liberal critics of leftism retire or die, and practically no new conservative, moderate, or critical professors replace them. Led by state universities in California, colleges and universities increasingly demand of applicants for professorshipsand of assistant professors being considered for tenurea commitment to diversity or social justice, which (as everyone in the profession knows) means commitment to excluding opinions that differ from leftist orthodoxy. Few applicants for academic jobs are conservatives or moderates, anyway, since few conservatives or moderates go to graduate school or get doctorates. Most dissenters from leftism learn as undergraduates that they are unwelcome in universities and would have almost no hope of getting academic jobs or tenure. As long as practically all new professors are committed to leftism, critics will remain heavily outnumbered in universities. Americas roughly 4,600 colleges and universities do include a handful not dominated by leftists, like Liberty and Ave Maria Universities and Hillsdale and Wheaton Colleges. Most are small and emphasize teaching, rather than research. None grants degrees that carry anything like the prestige of those from elite universities, but some offer good educations to a few thousand students (out of some 20 million now in higher education). As leftists have come to dominate graduate teaching and academic publications, the belief has taken hold that the only intellectually respectable positions are leftist. While some academic books and articles, especially those in the natural sciences, are not explicitly ideological, very few oppose this orthodoxy. The elite universities with real influence have established leftist norms that no prudent professor or administrator can ignore. Every year more professors who are conservatives, moderates, or liberal critics of leftism retire. Nonetheless, in some important ways, leftist academic dominance is vulnerable. It has no true leaders, anddespite much talk of theoryno coherent ideology. One of its basic tenets today is postmodernism, the belief that nothing is objectively true and that alleged facts are merely constructs used to oppose or support social justice. Most professors are careerists who joined the leftist herd reflexively because they wanted to get hired in a bad academic job market. Most professors also consider themselves underpaid and undervalued, especially by administrators who determine faculty salaries and overall spending and policies. Many campus leftists are lazy thinkers who rely not on arguments but on assertion, indignation, and intimidation. They know what they opposecapitalism, religion, Republicans, moderate Democrats, and the rest of traditional American societybut not really what they favor, since they can find no satisfactory models in Russia, China, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, or anywhere else. The intolerance of todays campus leftists is a sign of their fear that they cannot prevail in a free exchange of ideas without stigmatizing their critics as oppressors and critical arguments as oppressive. Since they have mostly succeeded in eliminating opposition on todays campuses, any effective challenge will need to come from outside. The most promising and viable proposal is to found a new private university designed to rival Americas most influential and prestigious institutions. This project, which, if carefully planned, could largely pay for itself, would be feasible if donors who care about academic excellence and free speech in education would give the new school as much money as they currently give other universities that misuse their contributions. (In 2017, donors gave American colleges and universities a record $43.6 billion, more than Harvards endowment of $36 billion.) The new university could also attract donors who now give little or nothing to education because they realize that their money will probably be misspent. Only founding a new university can solve the problem that faces all reformers of American higher education: getting administrators and professors to do things that they are unwilling to do. A new university could select its administrators and faculty to ensure that they were committed to the goals that the university was founded to pursue. While avoiding the intolerance and leftism of many leading universities, the new school should adopt some features that have made them influential. Like Oxford and Cambridge in Britain, the most important American universities are located in university towns, within easy reach of a politically and culturally important metropolis but not so near that they are overshadowed by it. Oxford and Cambridge are near London but not in it; in the U.S., Harvard is near Boston, Stanford and Berkeley are near San Francisco, and Princeton and Yale are within reach of New York City. The most culturally and politically important American metropolitan area that lacks a leading university is Washington, DC. Its outer suburbs would be the ideal location for a new leading university, which could influence the federal government, attract the attention of the national media, and exploit the capitals many cultural resources, including the Library of Congress and government archives. The school could be part of a newly planned university town, which would be such an attractive real-estate venture that it could cover much of the universitys costs. (The Washington metro area already includes the successful planned towns of Reston, Virginia; and Columbia, Maryland.) The modest size of the university and town of Princeton shows that a new university could be influential without being big. The town of Princeton has a population of about 29,000, and the university has about 1,000 professors, 5,000 undergraduates, and 2,500 graduate students. (Like most other universities, Princeton has far too many academic administratorsroughly 1,000who consume some 30 percent of its budget.) A school of this size is big enough to offer a full range of departments, professors, and courses but small enough to foster a sense of intellectual community. A new university of similar size could limit its hiring to truly excellent professors and restrict its admissions to truly excellent students who want to study a rigorous curriculum. At first, the university would not need a law or medical school (Princeton has neither) or a large endowment. Writing in the Winter 2019 issue of National Affairs, Frederick M. Hess and Brendan Bell of the American Enterprise Institute advocate founding an elite conservative university that strikingly resembles what I proposed in my book, though we arrived at our ideas independently. They propose a university with about 4,200 undergraduates, 2,400 graduate students, and 500 professors, at an estimated cost of some $3.4 billion. We basically agree on the schools size, though I favor a somewhat larger faculty to assure the universitys excellence and elite status. The cost they estimate, which could be offset by profits from selling real estate in a new university town, would be well within the means of many wealthy donors. Hess and Bell leave the universitys location open, suggesting, however, that it be on the periphery of a metropolitan center. Metropolitan Washington is the location most likely to attract potential students, faculty, and residents and to give a new university a central place in American political and cultural life. Do the 1.5 million professors in America include 1,000 who are distinguished, opposed to leftism, and ready to join a new elite university? Around a tenth of American professors still identify as conservatives in confidential polling, even if most have learned not to voice their opinions publicly. Most would be delighted to join a new university that valued excellence and rejected leftism, if it offered them tenure and salaries set on a meritocratic pay scale, which few schools now use, and on or above the pay scale of elite institutions, as Hess, Bell, and I agree that it should. Tenure would be essential, because most accomplished professors already have it and consider it necessary to their independence and prestige. Formally dedicating the new university to traditional Christianity and Judaism would also be vital because many professors and students are now being accused of bigotry for defending traditional Christian and Jewish beliefs, though the university should also welcome professors and students of other faiths (or none). The new universitys administrators, including the chairmen of each academic department, should be distinguished professors already known for their opposition to assaults on academic freedom. The best way to choose the rest of the faculty would be through general advertisements for all ranks and fields. Hiring should include scholars from outside the U.S. and thinkers from beyond academia. Few leftists would apply, and since most leftist academics openly reject the idea of academic merit as elitist and the idea of objective truth as oppressive, they would seldom, if ever, deserve to be hired on their merits. A new university that hired on merit should be able to recruit faculty significantly better than those of older elite universities, most of which now give overwhelming preference to leftists. For donors, financing a major new university is the most promising way to change American higher educationand American history. Donors have already learned how little influence on universities they can gain by paying for outside speakers, who are often shouted down, and are defended (if at all) only with the argument that they should be heard in order to learn how to refute them. Nor has it proved effective to pay to attach the names of donors (or those whom they admire) to buildings, professorships, or programs at universities that take the money while insisting that the donors views cannot affect hiring or teaching. Giving grants to excellent traditional professors isolated in dozens of colleges and universities can have only a limited impact, since those scholars will either need to mute their opinions in a hostile environment or see their work dismissed because their schools have a mediocre reputation. Many Americans today have more money than Senator Leland Stanford had in 1891 when he founded Stanford University (and the town of Palo Alto). What has been missing for over a century is not the means but the vision and will to found a new leading university committed to excellence and traditional education. Such an institution would have a powerful effect not only on American colleges and universities but also on the country as a wholean effect at least as great as that of the founding of National Review on journals of opinion, the founding of the Heritage Foundation on think tanks, the founding of Fox News on media, or the founding of the Federalist Society on the judiciary. Universities created by donors named Harvard, Yale, and Stanford exert vast influence over American culture. Higher education shapes the beliefs of the majority of young Americans, at an age when most are poorly informed but beginning to take some interest in culture and politics. Professors also make up the majority of the countrys researchers, thinkers, writers, and opinion leaders; by teaching that America is neither great nor good, they are steadily degrading our culture. Changing the outlook of American youth and the direction of American culture without help from universities is practically impossible. One institution, of course, cannot change everything, but the influence of a community of hundreds of carefully chosen professors and their students, concentrated in one elite university, would be multiplied not just by their freedom to speak and write but also by their association with one another. What makes a civilization great is in many ways mysterious, but it indisputably depends on small groups of brilliant people who exchange ideas in specific places. Such groups formed in Periclean Athens, Augustan Rome, and Medicean Florencenone a large town by modern standards, and all with only small minorities who were educated. Other examples of small but influential groups include Isaac Newtons Royal Society in science, Samuel Johnsons Literary Club, and the Chicago School in economics. In computer technology, Silicon Valley, which includes Stanford, began with another small group. We can glimpse how the process worked at Athens in Platos Symposium, which describes a circle of talented men who gathered together often, exchanged ideas, and challenged and improved one anothers thinking. A handful of the right people in the right place can change the world. Simply the news that a new elite university was being founded would shake American universities to their foundations. Just by existing, the new school would allow an important group of professors to speak, write, and associate freely, would encourage many of the best students to pursue academic careers now practically closed to them, and would offer an excellent traditional education to talented undergraduate and graduate students. The university would take some time to reach its full size and would, at first, likely hire many professors near retirement, but it should soon have jobs available for its best graduate students when they received their doctorates. Its undergraduates would find internships, and its graduates would find jobs at all levels of government and in politics, think tanks, the media, the law, business, and at least some other colleges and universities. The universitys influence on government and politics, and on conservative and moderate political thinking, would likely be rapid, powerful, and lasting. The impact of the new university on other universities might be more gradual; but eventually, it, too, would be profound. Professors who criticize leftisma small, embattled, and diminishing minority todaywould grow in numbers and confidence as professors at the new university spoke out freely and as some at other universities joined them. Outside speakers critical of leftism would cease to be isolated among professors who condemn them or decline to defend them. Foundations opposed to leftism would find vocal allies in the new university, who could be called upon to defend their colleagues at other schools. Professors at the new university and elsewhere could develop ideas for federal and state legislation based on their own experience, such as laws creating government agencies to punish academic dishonesty, to evaluate doctoral dissertations, and to measure academic effectiveness, and could provide personnel to staff such agencies. In such ways, a new university could provide the leadership, guidance, and coordination missing from current efforts to reform American higher education. Optimism about higher education would once again become justified. What stands in the way of such a strategy? Probably the most important obstacle is the widespread but unexamined assumption that universities, like the weather, are a force of nature that cannot be changed. Many private donors have the means to found a new leading university; collectively, they have more than enough money to make such a university a success. Most have probably never considered founding a new university because they have yet to grasp just how bad the academic crisis has become. This is understandable; many people inside universities (including me) have come to this realization only in recent years. Something needs to be done quickly to prevent leftists from consolidating their dominance over universities for years to come. Any solution must be part of a large-scale and long-term strategy. A new leading university in the United States should be the linchpin of such a strategy. Photo: Those looking for a new direction in higher education need to muster the will and determination of men like Leland Stanford, who founded Stanford University in 1891. (GRANGER / GRANGER ALL RIGHTS RESERVED) Primeste notificari pe email Nota bene: Adresele email cu extensia .ru nu sunt acceptate. Contractare si Achizitie Bunuri Anunturi de Angajare Granturi - Finantari Burse de studiu Stagii Profesionale Oportunitati de voluntariat Toate Articolele The salaries of Colorado teachers are not increasing at the same rate as the budgets for school districts, according to a report released Wednesday. The annual Dollars and Data Report from the Common Sense Institute found that, over the last 14 years, Colorados funding per student has increased by 47% while the average teacher salary has only risen by 27%. Jason Gaulden, the reports author, said this is because a greater proportion of school district spending is taking place outside of classrooms. The share of funding being spent on instruction, including teacher salaries, decreased statewide from 45.4% in 2011 to 39.1% in 2021, while the share going toward operations and administration has increased. Since 2000, the number of school administrators in Colorado increased by 132% and the number of principals increased by 73%, while the number of teachers increased by only 36%. Meanwhile, the number of public school students increased by only 25%, according to the report. Gaulden said failing to allocate increasing district budgets to teachers hurts schools abilities to recruit and retain educators. In 2021-22, Colorados average teacher salary stood at $60,234, ranging from $62,700 in the Denver metro region to $41,365 in the Southeast region. The report found that school districts with higher salaries were less likely to experience turnover. Littleton, for example, offered an average salary of $73,196 and experienced a teacher turnover rate of 9.3%, compared to Clear Creek with an average salary of $50,510 and a 21.9% turnover rate. This analysis provides the facts about funding and achievement that should ground every education policy conversation and debate in which we engage, Gaulden said. Getting our K-12 education on track must be a priority. Without a quality education system, our students suffer, our workforce is unprepared and our economy is at risk. The report also found that the COVID-19 pandemic is continuing to damper student enrollment, with Colorados K-12 enrollment falling by 1,174 students in the 2021-22 school year. The year before saw a plunge of almost 22,000 students. Before 2021, K-12 enrollment had increased every year since 2012. Preschool enrollment increased by 4,500 students in 2021-22 after falling by 8,000 students the previous year. Student achievement, meanwhile, is similarly lagging, according to the report. This year, 40.7% of third grade students are proficient in reading and 39.4% are proficient in math. The figures are down from 41.3% and 41.0%, respectively, in 2019, but slightly above 2018 proficiency rates. CSI is a nonpartisan organization, but its posture doesn't mean value free. The group's work is guided by several principles, notably free market and economic vitality. 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. Some retailers are taking lobster off the menu after an assessment from an influential conservation group that the harvest of the seafood poses too much of a risk to rare whales and should be avoided 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. RTHK: New N Korea law outlines nuclear weapons use North Korea has officially enshrined the right to use preemptive nuclear strikes to protect itself in a new law that leader Kim Jong Un said makes its nuclear status "irreversible" and bars denuclearisation talks, state media reported on Friday. The move comes as observers say North Korea appears to be preparing to resume nuclear testing for the first time since 2017, after historic summits with then-US President Donald Trump and other world leaders in 2018 failed to persuade Kim to abandon his weapons development. The North's rubber-stamp parliament, the Supreme People's Assembly, passed the legislation on Thursday as a replacement to a 2013 law that first outlined the country's nuclear status, according to state news agency KCNA. "The utmost significance of legislating nuclear weapons policy is to draw an irretrievable line so that there can be no bargaining over our nuclear weapons," Kim said in a speech to the assembly, adding that he would never surrender the weapons even if the country faced 100 years of sanctions. Among the scenarios that could trigger a nuclear attack would be the threat of an imminent nuclear strike; if the country's leadership, people or existence were under threat; or to gain the upper hand during a war, among other reasons. A deputy at the assembly said the law would serve as a powerful legal guarantee for consolidating North Korea's position as a nuclear weapons state and ensuring the "transparent, consistent and standard character" of its nuclear policy, KCNA reported. (Reuters) This story has been published on: 2022-09-09. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Chinese consul general in San Francisco attends launch ceremony for Flying Tigers Youth Leadership Programs 17:14, September 08, 2022 By Jie Zhou ( People's Daily Online Zhang Jianmin, consul general of the People's Republic of China in San Francisco, attended a ceremony to honor the Flying Tigers as heroes and to launch the "Flying Tigers Youth Leadership Programs" hosted by the Sino-America Aviation Heritage Foundation at Schofield Middle School in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Sept. 1, 2022. Zhang said in his speech that the Flying Tigers testify to the power of friendship and cooperation between the Chinese and American people. Citing the motto of Schofield Middle School, Zhang said, "Today's choices will make us tomorrow." At present, China-US relations are at a critical juncture. Therefore, the two sides should uphold the spirit of the Flying Tigers, develop bilateral relations with an aim to mutual respect and work toward peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation. Zhang emphasized that the spirit of the Flying Tigers makes clear our shared responsibility for a better future for the people of the two countries and the world community. Today's world is faced with many global challenges, such as climate change, COVID-19, economic recovery, and geopolitical tensions. Peace and security are not to be taken for granted, and the question of how to create a peaceful and prosperous world for future generations remains a common task for both nations. During the event, Zhang and other speakers jointly announced the launch of the "Flying Tigers Youth Leadership Programs." He also presented a letter of commendation to Schofield Middle School and watched a video honoring the Flying Tigers alongside the schools faculty and students. The event was attended by Jeff Greene, chairman of the SAAHF, Linda Cavazos, trustee of the Clark County School District in Nevada, and Terri Knepp, principal of Schofield Middle School. Altogether, around 1,000 students and their teachers attended the event in person. (Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji) By Dr Arpita Hazarika* Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who completed her India visit recently, attended a closed-door meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Hyderabad House in New Delhi on September 6. After the meeting, the two Prime Ministers attended a press conference. Sheikh Hasina termed the bilateral relations between Bangladesh and India as a role model of 'neighbourhood diplomacy'. At the meeting, representatives from Bangladesh and India reaffirmed their commitment to improving interactions between their armed forces and discussed the development of bilateral defense cooperation programmes. For in-depth conversations, various facets of defense industrial and capability-building cooperation came up. Both nations looked at the possibility of working together on joint production, co-development, and commerce in the defense sector. The Indian side reaffirmed its demand for the 2019 MoU's provision of a coastal radar system for increased marine security to be implemented as soon as possible. The relationship between Bangladesh and India is long-standing. One can hope that this relationship will become closer in future. But it is also true, even though the two countries have maintained good relations, some issues have not been resolved. These include the Teesta water sharing agreement, border management and trade deficit. It may be mentioned that all the formalities of signing an agreement on Teesta was completed but it was not implemented at the last moment. Indian authorities should consider to resolve the matter expeditiously. Bangladesh also felt, Indian government should be sincere in stopping border killings. Reducing the trade deficit between the two countries was also of particular importance during the talks. Trade and cooperation between the two neighbours have grown as a result of their special friendship relationship, promising advantages for both nations. To advance their relationship even further, Bangladesh and India signed seven agreements. These agreements covered important topics like water withdrawal from a shared river, railroad development assistance, judicial officer training in Bangladesh, science and technology cooperation, and broadcasting cooperation. These agreements portend a strengthening of the bonds that unite the two nations. Compared to 2010, India's loan assistance to Bangladesh has now increased tenfold. About 25 percent of India's total foreign aid is allocated to Bangladesh. In the meantime, the country has handed over a billion dollars to Bangladesh, that too at less than one percent interest, a generosity that no other friendly country has shown to Bangladesh. India's provision of tariff-free transit facilities to Bangladesh for exports to Nepal and Bhutan is considered a major step in bilateral cooperation. Also, since India can use the Chittagong seaport, not only the Seven Sisters of India will benefit from it, Dhaka will also benefit from it. Because, due to this, the South Block of Delhi expects that the export of Bangladesh to Northeast India will increase significantly. The visit also made it clear where India wants to take its relationship with Bangladesh in the days ahead. Modi announced the signing of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, or CEPA for short, with Bangladesh. As a result, the products of both countries will get duty-free access. It is expected that the volume of trade between the two countries will increase from the current 1.4 billion dollars to 15 billion dollars in the next ten years. India was also requested to implement CEPA with Japan and China. But it chose Bangladesh. --- *Researcher at Gauhati University, Assam Regarding the Teesta water distribution agreement, Sheikh Hasina expressed optimism and said that the agreement will be signed very soon. Earlier, India and Bangladesh finalised the Teesta water-sharing deal in 2010 and it was likely to be signed in 2011. But it could not be inked due to opposition from West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banarjee.It may be mentioned that all the formalities of signing an agreement on Teesta was completed but it was not implemented at the last moment. Indian authorities should consider to resolve the matter expeditiously.Bangladesh also felt, Indian government should be sincere in stopping border killings. Reducing the trade deficit between the two countries was also of particular importance during the talks.Trade and cooperation between the two neighbours have grown as a result of their special friendship relationship, promising advantages for both nations. To advance their relationship even further, Bangladesh and India signed seven agreements. These agreements covered important topics like water withdrawal from a shared river, railroad development assistance, judicial officer training in Bangladesh, science and technology cooperation, and broadcasting cooperation. These agreements portend a strengthening of the bonds that unite the two nations.Compared to 2010, India's loan assistance to Bangladesh has now increased tenfold. About 25 percent of India's total foreign aid is allocated to Bangladesh. In the meantime, the country has handed over a billion dollars to Bangladesh, that too at less than one percent interest, a generosity that no other friendly country has shown to Bangladesh.India's provision of tariff-free transit facilities to Bangladesh for exports to Nepal and Bhutan is considered a major step in bilateral cooperation. Also, since India can use the Chittagong seaport, not only the Seven Sisters of India will benefit from it, Dhaka will also benefit from it. Because, due to this, the South Block of Delhi expects that the export of Bangladesh to Northeast India will increase significantly.The visit also made it clear where India wants to take its relationship with Bangladesh in the days ahead. Modi announced the signing of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, or CEPA for short, with Bangladesh. As a result, the products of both countries will get duty-free access.It is expected that the volume of trade between the two countries will increase from the current 1.4 billion dollars to 15 billion dollars in the next ten years. India was also requested to implement CEPA with Japan and China. But it chose Bangladesh.--- She also said that she agreed with Modi to work on various bilateral issues. She added, they had agreed to carry out cooperative efforts to maintain our economic growth and regional peace, security and stability. If Bangladesh and India can work together as partners, it will bring peace and prosperity not only for the two countries but also for the region.On the other hand, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, We have emphasized on cooperation against terrorism and radicalism, underlining the need to identify those who want to hurt our mutual trust.Security cooperation, investment, enhanced trade relations, Rohingya issue, water resource management, border management, cooperation in power and energy sector, common river water sharing, prevention of drug smuggling and human trafficking were discussed in the meeting of the two Prime Ministers.Despite the delayed progress on the line of credit extension in 2018, different types of equipment are being considered at various stages. According to media reports, Bangladesh's capital Dhaka recently shared a wish list of military platforms and systems that its armed forces would like to purchase from India, marking some progress on the delayed implementation of the $500 million defense Line of Credit (LoC) extended by India to Bangladesh. This contains a wide variety of tools, such as an oil tanker for the Bangladesh Navy, a logistics ship, and a floating dock.India considers the signing of the first contract between Bangladesh and India under the $500 Line of Credit (LoC) to be an "important first step" in bolstering bilateral defense cooperation."This week, I believe the first contract under the defense line of credit was signed. You have undoubtedly been paying close attention to this. Despite being small, it was an essential first step", said Vinay Kwatra, the foreign secretary of India, in New Delhi.According to its "Forces Goal 2030," Bangladesh is modernizing its military by introducing new weaponry and enhancing infrastructure. A large portion of these requirements can be met by India, which will also boost defence cooperation between the two countries.China has sold Bangladesh weapons, including two traditional diesel electric submarines. China has become one of the world's leading suppliers of weapons, particularly to nations in India's immediate neighbourhood.India recently greatly increased its military support for capacity building and capabilities development for nations in the Indian Ocean region in an effort to counter this. The "intensification" of bilateral defense ties was welcomed by Sheikh Hasina and Modi.According to the joint statement released following the bilateral talks between the two leaders, they agreed on the early completion of projects under the Line of Credit for Defense, which would be advantageous for both nations. India looks forward to strengthening bilateral defense ties and welcomed the completion of "first purchase plans" for vehicles for the Bangladesh Armed Forces, it says.Both parties stressed on the importance of cooperating closely to implement the $500 million Line of Credit offered by India for defense items at the 4th Bangladesh-India annual defense dialogue held in New Delhi in August. Connectivity The visit will act as catalyst for closer coordination and cooperation in resolving the Teesta river water sharing issue An announcement was also made that India would supply road construction equipment and machinery in 25 packages to the road and highways department of the Bangladeshi government. The Khulna-Darshana railway line link project was also announced to upgrade the existing (doubling of broad gauge) infrastructure, linking the current cross-border rail link at Gede-Darshana to Khulna and thereby augmenting the rail connections between the two countries, especially to Dhaka, but also in future, to Mongla Port. The project cost is estimated to be USD 312.48 million. Another project, Parbatipur-Kaunia railway line, will see the conversion of the existing metre-gauge line to dual-gauge line at an estimated cost of USD 120.41 million. The project will connect to the existing cross-border rail at Birol (Bangladesh)-Radhikapur (West Bengal) and enhance bilateral rail connectivity. The connectivity initiatives are part of the ongoing projects in Bangladesh that are aimed at converting the country into a major connectivity hub of South and Southeast Asia. It is mentionable that, India has provided concessional loans worth $9.5 billion for development projects in Bangladesh, especially connectivity initiatives. These initiatives include improving rail connectivity between Khulna and Dhaka, Chilahati and Rajshahi and connecting Mongla port with Darshana-Gede at a cost of $312million, the Parbatipur-Kaunia rail project to facilitate the transportation of fuel that is being built at a cost of $120million, and the supply of road construction equipment and machinery worth $41million to repair and maintain Bangladeshs road network. With the expansion of connectivity between our two countries, and the development of trade infrastructure on the border, the two economies will be able to connect more with each other. Trade prospects It is true that while India is Bangladesh's largest trade partner in South Asia, with bilateral trade reaching a record $18 billion in the last financial year, there has been a significant trade imbalance between the two countries. To narrow the trade gap and to further accelerate this growth, two sides agreed to begin negotiations on a comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA) this year. When the CEPA is operationalised, bilateral trade potential would be USD 40 billion. Moreover, the CEPA will boost bilateral and sub-regional connectivity that Bangladesh is championing in its policy initiatives. During this trip, PM Hasina met with Indian industrialist Gautam Adani, who recently became the worlds third-richest person, according to Bloombergs Billionaire Index. Adani Power, a subsidiary of Adani Group, will supply power to Bangladesh from its upcoming 1,600 MW thermal power plant in the Godda area of Jharkhand. The project is significant as Bangladesh has been recognised as an important partner under India's "Neighbourhood First" policy. Finally, it is observed that the cooperation during the visit extended to all fields, including trade and commerce, power and energy, transport and connectivity, science and technology, rivers, and maritime affairs. The visit will act as a catalyst for closer coordination and cooperation in resolving all issues, including Teesta river water sharing. It is also expected that Indo-Bangladesh ties will touch new heights and will continue to add more depth and momentum in the coming days. --- *Security and strategic affairs analyst, Dhaka On September 5, India welcomed one of the closest friends in the neighborhood, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who visited India on a four-day visit. During the course of her trip, she hold a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as interacted with President Droupadi Murmu.The immediate outcome of the visit was the signing of the seven memorandums of understanding (MoUs) in various fields, including the withdrawal of water from the cross-border Kushiyara river, cooperation in space technology, collaboration on IT systems used by railways in areas such as movement of freight, science and technology cooperation, training of Bangladesh Railway personnel and Bangladeshi judicial officers in India, and cooperation in broadcasting between Prasar Bharati and Bangladesh Television, aimed at boosting ties between the two countries.Among the seven pacts signed on September 6, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on withdrawal of 153 cusecs (cubic feet per second) of water from the Kushiyara by Bangladesh is most welcomed by Dhaka. It is the first such deal the two countries have inked after the Ganges River water-sharing agreement in 1996 and is seen as a breakthrough in addressing an issue that has cast a shadow on their otherwise close ties. The deal came to the Sylhet region as blessings that are expected to help alleviate some of Dhakas concerns.A pact to share water resources from trans-boundary rivers that run downstream from the Himalayas from India into Bangladesh has long been a priority for Bangladesh, a lower riparian state that suffers from crippling water shortages. Earlier, India and Bangladesh finalised the Teesta water-sharing deal in 2010 and it was likely to be signed in 2011. But it could not be inked due to opposition from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banarjee.The agreement will benefit southern parts of Assam state in India and the Sylhet region in Bangladesh. According to the agreement, the withdrawal of 153 cusecs of water from Kushiara river through Rahimpur canal will bring major changes in dry season farming in Jokiganj upazila bordering Bangladesh. At the same time, the farmers of Kanighat and some parts of Biyanibazar Upazila will benefit.The two leaders engaged in talks on connectivity, trade, flood management, counter-terrorism, food security, and nuclear energy partnerships. In a bid to help Bangladesh deal with the energy crisis, the two leaders unveiled the first unit of the Maitree Thermal Power Plant, a 1320 MW supercritical coal-fired thermal power plant at Rampal in the Khulna division of Bangladesh.The project is being set up at an approximate budget of $2 billion out of which $1.6 billion was Indian Development Assistance that will enhance Bangladeshs power generation capacities. Experts believe that the Maitree Power Plant will give citizens of Bangladesh access to affordable electricity, boosting Bangladesh face the difficulties that the country is facing in because of the growing energy prices worldwide.Both leaders also discussed the issue of counterterrorism. Today we also stressed on cooperation against terrorism and fundamentalism. To keep the spirit of 1971 alive, it is also very necessary that we face such forces together, who want to attack our mutual trust, Modi said. In flood management, India has extended the period of sharing flood water-related information in real-time which will help Bangladesh counter the annual floods.An important project that was inaugurated was the Rupsha bridge. The 5.13 km Rupsha rail bridge is a key part of the 64.7 km Khulna-Mongla Port single-track Broad Gauge rail project, connecting for the first time Mongla Port (Bangladeshs second largest port) with Khulna by rail, and thereafter to Central and North Bangladesh and also to the India border at Petrapole and Gede in West Bengal."The inauguration of the railway bridge over the Rupsha river is a remarkable step towards enhancing connectivity. This bridge is an important part of the new railway line being built between Khulna and Mongla Port under India's Line of Credit", Modi said in a statement during a joint media appearance with Hasina. Currently Reading Alert: Prime Minister Liz Truss says whole of the UK 'deeply concerned' by news about health of Queen Elizabeth II. Currently Reading Alert: UK Prime Minister Liz Truss lifts ban on fracking, approves more oil drilling in moves to boost energy supplies This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate DUBLIN, Calif. (AP) The husband and wife allegedly killed by a sheriffs deputy in Northern California were a retired civil engineer and a nurse, their relatives and former co-workers said Thursday. Benison Tran, 57, and his wife, Maria Tran, 42, were fatally shot inside their Dublin home Wednesday. Four other relatives who were in the home, including their child, were unharmed, Lt. Ray Kelly, a spokesperson with the Alameda County Sheriffs Office, said. A relative of the Trans who witnessed the slayings called police and identified Devin Williams Jr., a deputy with the Alameda County Sheriffs Office, as the gunman, Kelly said. Williams, 24, turned himself in to law enforcement hours after he was accused in the fatal slayings. Williams is scheduled to be arraigned in the killings on Friday. It was not immediately known if he has retained an attorney who can speak on his behalf. His mother, Anitra Williams, told KTVU-TV that her son had been in a romantic relationship with Maria Tran and he believed she was unmarried. Anitra Williams said she had warned her son against being with Tran, whom he had met at John George Psychiatric Hospital in San Leandro, where Tran worked as a nurse. She said the couple had been together since January and her son was blinded by love. She told him she loved him, they were on a 10-day trip, Anitra Williams said. Maria Tran worked as a nurse and helped financially support her extended family after they immigrated from Vietnam in 2004, Diem Thuy Le, Maria Trans cousin, told the San Francisco Chronicle. Le described her cousin as a generous, hardworking person. She was always there for me, Le, choking back sobs, told the newspaper. How can I accept this? She said she didnt know Williams. Benison Tran retired last year after working nearly 29 years as a civil engineer for the city of Santa Clara, said Michelle Templeton, a city spokeswoman. We are shocked and deeply saddened to hear about the loss of our long-time friend and former colleague, Benison Tran, and his wife yesterday, Templeton said in a statement. Williams knew the couple, and investigators are still trying to determine the motive, Kelly said. He made it 160 miles (258 kilometers) south of the crime scene to the city of Coalinga where he called police in Dublin to say he wanted to surrender, Kelly said. Williams had been with the sheriffs office since September 2021 and was still on probation. He had been assigned to the Oakland courthouse, and there were no concerns about his job performance, Kelly said. WESTPORT Officials, first responders, families and friends of those killed on Sept. 11, 2001, gathered at Sherwood Island State Park on Thursday evening to honor those who died in the terrorist attacks. I want to thank our 9/11 families who have come today to honor your family members, Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz said. We so admire your strength and perseverance throughout this time. And we admire your family members. They were our teachers, they were our friends, our coaches, mentors, people who enriched our beautiful communities. The ceremony included the reading of the names of the 161 victims with ties to Connecticut. The states annual ceremony is held at Connecticuts official memorial honoring the victims, called the 911 Living Memorial, inside Sherwood Island State Park. Christian Abraham/Hearst Connecticut Media On a clear day, the Manhattan skyline can be viewed here across Long Island Sound. In the hours following the attacks, many gathered at the park to observe, which is why it was chosen as the memorial location. The park was also used by the Connecticut National Guard as a staging area for Connecticuts relief efforts to New York City in the following days. The event opened with remarks from Brian Mattiello, former director of the Office of Family Support. Losing a loved one is never easy, Mattiello said. If that can be changed for you, I wish that for you a thousand times over, Mattiello said. To this very day, your loss makes me sad for you, but this gift that they have left behind in their memory makes me smile for you, too, he said. A prayer by Rabbi Michael Friedman of the Temple Israel of Westport followed. Brad Bullis, the brother of Dianne Bullis Snyder, who was a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 1, led the group in the Pledge of Allegiance, with a performance of the Star Spangled Banner by Tony Harrington. Beginning the reflections, Bysiewicz took the podium, saying that 21 years ago, it was a bright, sunny day, much like it was during the ceremony. The fear that we felt to be remembered today, the uncertainty of what was to come, we remember the threat to our safety as a country, our emotions we all feel until this day, she said. Gov. Ned Lamont recalled the day and pointed out some members of the audience, including a Vietnam War veteran and State Police troopers. Thats why we keep coming back, he said about those in the audience, Thats why were here 21 years later. Christian Abraham/Hearst Connecticut Media After the reading of the victims names, a moment of silence and taps, performed by Navy veteran Jonathan Worley, and a benediction from the Rev. Alison Patton of Saugatuck Church followed. To conclude the ceremony, spectators headed outside and walked toward the memorial, as the sun set in the distance. As they exited, they received white flowers to be placed on the names of their loved ones. Fifteen people in Connecticut identified as law enforcement, military or first responders may be connected to the far-right extremist group the Oath Keepers, according to an analysis of leaked data released by the Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism. An analysis released by the ADL this week revealed 476 state residents and 38,000 people nationwide were part of the Oath Keepers membership database. The list included elected officials and military members, according to the report. The Oath Keepers are accused of playing a key role in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. ADL is not, however, releasing the names of the individuals or the departments and agencies for which they work. We cannot provide the names of individual law enforcement officers or military personnel as this report is not meant to unmask or dox rank-and-file personnel, spokesman Jake Hyman said. ADL has been in contact with each law enforcement agency affected by our report and we continue to work with them in addressing the challenges of extremism within their ranks. The data was obtained in 2021 by the non-profit journalist collective known as Distributed Denial of Secrets. The Oath Keepers, which the Southern Poverty Law Center calls one of the largest far-right anti-government groups in the U.S. today, was founded by Yale Law School graduate and former U.S. Army paratrooper Elmer Stewart Rhodes. ADLs analysis of that data showed 373 active duty law enforcement personnel nationwide, including at least eight sheriffs, four constables and multiple chiefs of police, the organization said. The data raises fresh concerns about the presence of extremists in law enforcement and the military who are tasked with enforcing laws and protecting the U.S. Its especially problematic for public servants to be associated with extremists at a time when lies about the 2020 election are fueling threats of violence against lawmakers and institutions. Even for those who claimed to have left the organization when it began to employ more aggressive tactics in 2014, it is important to remember that the Oath Keepers have espoused extremism since their founding, and this fact was not enough to deter these individuals from signing up, the report says. Appearing in the Oath Keepers database doesnt prove that a person was ever an active member of the group or shares its ideology. In addition, there were 81 individuals identified who are currently holding or running for public office in 2022, according to the ADL. The ADL also said it identified 117 current military service members, 11 in the reserves, 31 civilian or military contractors, 86 active fire fighters, 19 active paramedics and 31 emergency technicians, five of whom are presumably in Connecticut. So far, 26 Oath Keepers have been arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, including Rhodes, who has been charged with seditious conspiracy along with 11 others. This story has been updated to correct the total number of Connecticut residents and the number of military, first responders and law enforcement on the list. An Associated Press report was used in this story. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) Catie Grusin didn't know Eliza Fletcher, but she woke up at 3:20 a.m. and put on a pink top before attending a vigil and running event honoring the slain kindergarten teacher who was kidnapped during a pre-dawn jog in Memphis, Tennessee. Thousands of people like Grusin, in cities across the U.S., finished Elizas run on Friday morning. Holding a candle in the early-morning Memphis darkness, Grusin gathered with others and sang This Little Light of Mine" the tune associated with Fletcher, who softly sang it to her students in a video posted on the internet. Grusin then stood along Central Avenue to cheer on hundreds of runners as they set out to complete the 8-mile (13-kilometer) run Fletcher started exactly one week earlier. Grusin didn't participate in the 4:20 a.m. run but felt compelled to do something in the wake of a tragedy that hit home with runners across the nation. In the moment, it's just beautiful and you're thinking about the people around you that are maybe in a different circle of grief than you are, Grusin said during an afternoon interview with The Associated Press. Wearing a pink top and purple shorts, Fletcher was forced into a vehicle after a struggle last Friday, and her body was later found Monday behind a vacant duplex after a massive police search lasting more than three days. A suspect was swiftly identified and has been charged with her kidnapping and murder. The killing of the 34-year-old mother of two and avid runner shocked people nationwide, and was particularly upsetting to women runners. An obituary described Fletcher as a born athlete who enjoyed spending time outside with her husband and children. As a tribute to Fletcher, groups of runners decided to Finish Elizas Run on Friday morning. Groups also ran in Dallas, Nashville, Chattanooga, Tupelo, Mississippi, and many other cities and towns around the country. Hundreds logged their runs on a website dedicated to the event. Fletcher was taken while running on the University of Memphis campus. Grusin, a 21-year-old advertising and social media marketing student at the school, lives near the spot where Fletcher was attacked. The university sent out a safety alert to students, and media seized on the story and the resulting search for Fletcher. Seeing the news story that morning, with it being so random, and so violent, and so close to home, was terrifying, said Grusin, a Memphis native. Many female athletes fear working out alone, at night or in secluded places, and while crime statistics show such killings are exceedingly rare, many report being harassed or worse, even in well-populated areas. In a way, a lot of the women that were there relate to her story, Grusin said. Looking back, that is the most emotional part for me, as a woman. We do have to watch our back, and my head is on a swivel. It's just a terrible feeling. Emotions have run high this week in Memphis, a city reeling from Fletcher's killing and a shooting rampage on Wednesday that forced people to shelter in place and led to a city-wide manhunt for a man who shot seven people, apparently at random. Four people were killed. Like other U.S. cities, Memphis has a problem with violent crime. In recent weeks, the city also has seen other kidnappings, as well as the non-fatal shooting of a Memphis police officer who was looking for stolen cars, the fatal shooting of a church pastor in her driveway during a daytime carjacking, and the shooting death of a community activist during an argument about money. But most people in the city and surrounding Shelby County are neither victims of crime, nor perpetrators of it. They see Friday's scene of compassion, unity, and hope as a beacon of good in the city. The incredible turnout at this morning's event shows that there are good people in Memphis, and that these incidents are not representative of Memphis, Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy said. In a tweet, county Mayor Lee Harris added: We will not recede into the shadows. Were going to let it shine. ___ Associated Press writer Rebecca Reynolds contributed to this report from Louisville, Kentucky. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A force of about 800 M&T Bank customer service employees struggled to keep pace with the demand for their services this week as the Buffalo-based bank absorbed the accounts of former Peoples United Bank customers over the weekend. M&T acquired Peoples earlier this year in an $8.3 billion purchase. The bank had warned customers that online banking would be unavailable for up to 36 hours as the company converted Peoples accounts. On Tuesday, an online thread about service restoration generated more than 800 comments from customers, including those who said they still had issues. Luis Malave, 30, of Bridgeport, stopped by an M&T branch on Boston Avenue Wednesday to clear up an online banking issue with a deposit, only to encounter long lines of customers. Malave ended up using an ATM inside the branch just to save myself some time. Today its really long, Malave said, estimating that there were 15 people in line ahead of him. Despite the long line and service interruption, though, Malave said he liked M&Ts banking app and the tap-to-pay feature on the new credit cards he and other customers received. Other customers, who used the banks telephone help line, had less success. Mike Keegan, M&T Banks executive vice president and head of community banking, said the company prepared almost 800 employees to answer questions from consumers. He said he is aware of customers experiencing long call wait times, which he called unacceptable. Its not the customer service level we want to have or will have, but were getting there, Keegan said. Its just unprecedented volume because change is happening and people want to make sure that they're comfortable with whats going on. Naugatuck resident Mark Gillis, 66, told Hearst Connecticut Media that he is unable to log into his new personal and business M&T accounts. When he tried to log into his personal account, the system said that the username he typed didnt match the Social Security number for his account, he said. I called the number that they had listed as if youre having a problem with the personal accounts, Gillis said. I was told that it was a wait time of 25 minutes, or I could hold or I could ask for a callback, which I did. Over 30 hours later, he still hadnt received that callback as of Wednesday evening. It was a big undertaking, I understand it. There were gonna be problems, Gillis said. It should have been anticipated, and they should have had a full-out force that were available to answer questions. Keegan said over 40 percent of Peoples customers have accessed their new M&T accounts online. He said some customers have tried logging into accounts multiple times, causing them to be restricted. Other customers have described issues with new credit and debit cards, he said, but those cases have included a customer mistakenly using an old credit card and another providing an outdated address for a new debit card. As for the long wait times at banks, Keegan said thats expected after system changes. You can expect that lots of people are going to want to interact with us, Keegan said. People are going through this integration and they have questions. So theyre coming to a place where they get their questions answered. So the volumes are much heavier. andy.field@hearstmediact.com SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem asked a state ethics board to dismiss a complaint against her without a public hearing and to seal off certain records, documents released Friday by the states Government Accountability Board show. The Republican governor, who is widely seen as eyeing a 2024 White House bid, argued in an April motion that the state's attorney general, a fellow Republican who filed the complaint, was out for political retribution and should be removed from the complaint. Noem had pushed former Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg to resign and later for his impeachment over his involvement in a fatal car crash. The attorney general's complaint was sparked by a report from The Associated Press last year that Noem had taken a hands-on role in a state agency. Shortly after the agency moved to deny her daughter, Kassidy Peters, a real estate appraiser license in July of 2020, Noem held a meeting with Peters and key decision-makers in her licensure. Days after the meeting, Peters signed an agreement that gave her another opportunity to meet the licensing requirements. The South Dakota Legislature's audit committee, controlled by Republicans, unanimously approved a report in May that found Noem's daughter got preferential treatment. The records released Friday provided some new insight into an inquiry that the Government Accountability Board has conducted mostly in secret for nearly a year. The three retired judges who evaluated the ethics complaint unanimously found last month that there was enough evidence for them to believe that Noem engaged in misconduct" by committing malfeasance and a conflict of interest. The board has said appropriate action would be taken against Noem, though it didnt specify the action. It's also not clear whether Noem will request a contested case hearing before the board to publicly defend herself against the allegations. Neither her office nor her campaign said Friday whether she will proceed to a public hearing. She has continued to publicly insist that she did nothing wrong. The records show that Noem, in a 29-page motion to the board, launched a range of arguments for dismissing the complaint. Her attorney, Lisa Prostrollo, mocked Ravnsborg's allegations as nonsensical," a political attack and based on far-fetched conspiracy theories. The motion argues Noem's daughter joined the July 2020 meeting to provide her perspective as an applicant and attempts to defend how that was appropriate while she was facing a denial of her license. Government ethics experts have said the timing and circumstances of the meeting created a clear conflict of interest for the governor. Noem's attorney argued that the Government Accountability Board did not have the constitutional power to act against the governor or evaluate the complaint against her. And the lawyer suggested that Ravnsborg, who had been forced from office, be removed from the complaint and replaced with the deputy attorney general who was overseeing the office at the time. The board in August denied Noem's motion. However, it did appear to later pay some heed to Noem's requests. It dismissed two of Ravnsborg's allegations that she misused public funds, and sealed off certain records from being released. Ravnbsorg suggested that the board launch a full investigation into the episode by hiring a Minneapolis law firm. However, the board appears ready to settle the matter. It closed the complaint and has so far kept it a secret what action it may take against the governor, though it has suggested the complaint could be reopened later. The secrecy of the board's potential action against the governor has prompted some criticism from government ethics experts who say the board should be transparent. I would hope that they would make public their plan of action as soon as possible, Karen Soli, a former Democratic state lawmaker who helped create the board, told the AP last month. Noem also made a motion to strike certain documents from the record, but it is not clear what those records were because the board did not release that motion. The board's attorney, Mark Haigh, said the motion was not released because it contained the list of redacted records. The board previously voted to redact records that contain privileged information related to a state fund for paying litigation. The agency's former director, Sherry Bren, received a $200,000 payment from the fund to settle an age discrimination complaint she filed after Labor Secretary Marcia Hultman pressured her to retire in December of 2020. Meanwhile, the board has sent a separate complaint to Mark Vargo, the attorney general who Noem appointed to replace Ravnsborg, to investigate her use of state airplanes. Ravnsborg alleged that her use of the state-owned plane to fly to political events and escort family members around the state violated a state law that only allows the aircraft to be used for state business. Vargo's office said Friday that, to avoid even the appearance of impropriety, he has requested Hughes County State's Attorney Jessica LaMie to oversee the Division of Criminal Investigation's work and make any charging decisions. ___ This story has corrected the spelling of the name of attorney Lisa Prostrollo. FAIRFIELD Officials from Fairfield Woods Middle School say a video was circulated among students that involved racist language. In a letter to families of students at Woods obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media, Principal Colleen Banick said officials had identified the Fairfield Woods students involved and have addressed the situation. Her letter added those involved would be held accountable for their actions. It is heartening for me to share with our community that several students who observed the video responded appropriately by sharing it with trusted adults at home and in school, she said in the letter. Racially offensive expressions are not tolerated here at Fairfield Woods Middle School or anywhere within the Fairfield Public Schools. In a statement, Interim Superintendent of Schools Stephen Tracy said police were not involved in the matter, adding the students involved in the video are being held accountable through the school disciplinary process. He said the district wouldnt discuss the details of those proceedings. Banick said the school is asking parents to monitor their childrens online presence and social media posts as a preventative measure. Racist language has no place here or anywhere in our society, she said. We are working to support those who have been affected by this event. As a school community, we must continue to take a stand against intolerance and treat each other with respect and dignity. Banick said families of children who came across this video and are in need of support can contact the school directly if officials have not already reached out. Banick did not immediately return requests for comment. The police did not immediately return requests for comment on whether they were investigating or if any charges had been filed. This is not the first time this year that Fairfield officials have had to tackle an incident involving racism. In February, graffiti of a racist and sexual nature was found in a boys bathroom at the school. Banick addressed the issue in a letter similar to the one sent out to families on Wednesday. Last September, a racist email was sent to Fairfield Woods Middle School staff members. The person who sent the email was not affiliated with the school, district or town, Banick said in an email at the time, but noted school officials had identified those involved and have addressed the situation. In May 2021, officials confirmed high school students from Fairfield Warde and Fairfield Ludlowe were targets of two racist incidents. One of those involved a racist caption on a social media post, officials said. One student was charged with second-degree breach of peace and ridicule on account of creed, religion, color, denomination, nationality or race in connection with the social media post. School officials said the other incident was handled internally and did not lead to criminal charges. At the time, Greater Bridgeport NAACP officials met with school officials after these incidents to implement a diversity training plan. There were plans for college students affiliated with their colleges NAACP chapters will meet with high school students to discuss racial insensitivity and bias. joshua.labella@hearstmediact.com NEW YORK (AP) In a new book, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan for half of Donald Trumps presidency says he was repeatedly pressured by Justice Department officials to use his office to aid them politically, including by investigating former Secretary of State John Kerry. Former U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman wrote in his upcoming book, Holding the Line, due to be published Tuesday, that he mostly resisted the pressure from Washington, according to the The New York Times, which obtained an advance copy. Throughout my tenure as U.S. attorney, Trumps Justice Department kept demanding that I use my office to aid them politically, and I kept declining in ways just tactful enough to keep me from being fired, the book said. Berman, a Republican and Trump-administration appointee, said he walked that tightrope for 2 1/2 years before the rope snapped, the newspaper reported. Trump fired Berman as U.S. attorney in June 2020 after he refused a request to resign. In the book, Berman revealed that Justice Department officials ordered an investigation of Kerry in 2018 after Trump withdrew the U.S. from a nuclear accord with Iran, a deal that Kerry had helped negotiate as President Barack Obama's secretary of state. Trump was among several Republicans who publicly demanded an investigation, claiming that Kerry, as a private citizen, wasn't allowed to have conversations with Iranian officials about the nuclear deal. Berman wrote that after a year-long probe, he declined to prosecute Kerry. The case was then referred by the Justice Department to a U.S. attorney's office in Maryland which reached the same result. A spokesperson for Kerry reached by The Associated Press had no comment. Kerry's representatives have previously said that Trump's claims that Kerry was illegally trying to undercut the administration on its dealings with Iran were false. In another revelation, Berman disclosed that his office had to fight to keep its prosecution going against Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, the Times said. Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to campaign finance fraud and other crimes after admitting his role in hush payments made to two women shortly before the 2016 presidential election to prevent them from disclosing affairs they claimed to have had with Trump. Berman wrote that before the plea, a Justice Department official tried to get Berman's deputy to remove all references to Trump, who was identified in the charging document as Individual-1, the newspaper said. After William Barr became U.S. attorney general in 2019, he paused investigations into whether other others in Trump's orbit committed campaign finance violations, and suggested that Cohen's conviction on those charges be reversed. Berman said his top deputy was able to persuade Barr that the conviction should stand and that the investigations should go ahead. In the book, Berman also recounted how a Justice Department then led by Attorney General Jeff Sessions referred an investigation of former Obama counsel Greg Craig to his office in March 2018. The probe was aimed at learning whether Craig had concealed work he did years earlier for the government of Ukraine in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act and whether he lied to the Justice Department about it, the Times said. Berman disclosed in the book that he concluded that Craig was innocent of the potential charge and a jury would be unlikely to convict him of a false statement charge, the newspaper said. Craig was eventually indicted in Washington D.C. and tried on a charge that he made false statement. A jury acquitted him in September 2019. PORTLAND, Maine (AP) A federal judge has denied a request from fishing groups that sought to challenge new fishing rules designed to protect rare whales. The lobster fishing groups wanted a federal judge to stop regulators from placing new restrictions on the harvest of the crustaceans. The rules are intended to protect North Atlantic right whales, which number less than 340 and are vulnerable to entanglement in fishing gear. MILFORD The city will soon be home to units that combine workspace with living quarters. The Planning and Zoning Board, at its meeting Tuesday, approved creation of 14 live-work units at 14 Oxford Road, giving the developer the go-ahead to start the modifications of the office space after fulfilling conditions applied by the board to the project. The applicant has worked with the project team, inland wetlands, the city engineers office to come up with acceptable site plans, said attorney Kevin Curseaden, who represents developer David Marasow. Curseaden said the city engineer and wetlands put forth conditions for the approval. The city engineer wants to see a revised drainage report that centers around pre-existing detention pond when this development was first constructed, and the vegetation is growing in it and whether that detention pond functions as originally intended, Curseaden said. The second part of that is inland wetlands would like to ensure the drain pipe is still a viable drain pipe and they want a video camera to be sent down that to confirm its not cracked and still working, he added. Curseaden said Marasow had agreed to both of the conditions. The live-work units will feature an office in the front and an open space in the back, according to Marasow. Some of them had garage doors in the back, so you can have this as a commercial space and have an electrician, carpenter or somebody that has a small business to bring clients and talk or manufacture small things, Marasow said. We thought if someone can have an office in the front and workspace in the back, wouldnt it be great if someone could sleep on site. The plan to convert five obsolete and semi-vacant office suites into 14 live-work units started on November of 2021 when Marasow went before the P&Z board to propose a special exception to the zoning regulation for the location. The board tabled the vote during the Nov. 3 meeting. Later in the month, the board approved the special exception for the citys first live work units. At 14 Oxford Road, four units in Building C and 10 units in Building D of the marsh Hill Business Park will be converted into a live-work community where empty nesters, young professionals and established service providers would be able to run small businesses form home. Commercial use can be more than 50 percent of the unit. Marasow said the city had a hard time understanding how they were going to split the live and work aspect of the units. We decided if we added another floor it creates a great divide, he said. You have living quarters upstairs. You have a kitchen that gets closed off with pocket doors, and you can have any business in this footprint, it can be a yoga studio, manicure studio or a lawyer office or an accountant office, anything can be done in this footprint. Currently, there are two offices in Building C and Five in Building D. Curseaden said the conversion of the 14 units to live-work properties will take place over time because there are tenants in some of the units and they have leases that extend over several years. Theres already 10 or 15 other towns that have done this concept, and its a great add on for Milford because I think its going to help a lot of people, said Marasow. A big problem we are seeing in Milford and other towns is all the new development is geared to high-end very expensive rents, and our goal is to keep something for the average small business that is trying to get by. With a nice two-bedroom with a nice workspace we are looking at $1800 to $2,000 rents, which I think is very fair especially with the size of the unit. BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) The North Dakota attorney generals office asked a judge Thursday to lift his stay on a trigger law banning abortion, arguing he failed to make the states lone abortion clinic show a likelihood of winning its challenge of the law. Burleigh County District Judge Bruce Romanick last month granted the request for a preliminary injunction as part of a lawsuit brought by the Red River Womens Clinic in Fargo. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) An oil company on Thursday pleaded guilty in federal court to negligently discharging crude off the Southern California coast when its underwater pipeline ruptured last year, a spill that closed miles of shoreline and shuttered fisheries. Meanwhile, Houston-based Amplify Energy and two of its subsidiaries agreed to enter no contest pleas to killing birds and water pollution in court on Friday in a settlement with the county and state officials stemming from the same October 2021 oil spill. Amplifys pipeline broke off the Orange County coast, spilling about 25,000 gallons (94,600 liters) of oil into the Pacific Ocean. The rupture closed beaches for a week and fisheries for more than a month, oiled birds and threatened local wetlands. Amplify unequivocally hit the snooze button. They knew they had a leak. Their leak detection system detected a leak, said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. Over and over, they kept ignoring it. That is criminal and that is why theyve been charged. Spitzer and state Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the filing of six misdemeanor state charges against the company and two of its subsidiaries from the spill. The company will plead no contest to all six charges and pay $4.9 million in penalties and fines as part of a settlement, Spitzer said. Bonta called the penalty historic, believed to be the largest state misdemeanor criminal fine ever in Orange County. The company will also be placed on 12 months of probation and make changes designed to avoid future spills, including increased inspections and technology to detect leaks, Bonta said. Martyn Willsher, Amplifys president and chief executive officer, said in a statement that the company's agreement with state and federal officials further reflects the commitments we made immediately following the incident to the communities and environment impacted by the release. He said the company "remains committed to safely operating in a way that ensures the protection of the environment and the surrounding communities. In state court, the criminal charges include discharging oil into state waters, failing to immediately report it to state officials, and four counts of killing birds. The companys failure to properly sound the alarm led to the expansive spill that shut down beaches and led to the recovery of 116 live and dead birds soiled by oil, Bonta said, and the full economic impact of the oil spill is still emerging. In federal court in Santa Ana, Amplify and its subsidiaries each pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor charge on Thursday, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorneys office in Los Angeles. The plea came after the companies agreed with federal prosecutors to pay a $7 million fine and nearly $6 million in expenses incurred by agencies including the U.S. Coast Guard. In the federal agreement, Amplify also agreed to install a new leak detection system for the pipeline that ferried crude from offshore platforms to the coast. They also said they'd train employees to identify and respond to potential leaks. Federal authorities said the company and its subsidiaries failed to respond to eight leak detection alarms over a 13-hour period that should have alerted workers to the October 2021 spill. Federal, state and local officials have said the plea agreements and fines will help hold companies accountable. But Miyoko Sakashita, director of the Center for Biological Diversity's oceans program, said steeper criminal penalties should have been imposed and called for a halt to offshore oil drilling altogether. The penalties against the company are relatively modest, given the absolutely unacceptable harm this spill did to Californias coast, Sakashita said in a statement. Amplify contends that two ships dragged their anchors across the pipeline and damaged it during a January 2021 storm, but the company wasn't notified about the dragging until after the spill. Without this damage, Amplify has argued that the spill would not have happened. The announcement of the state deal led to unusual and unexpected praise between Bonta, a progressive Democrat running to retain his office, and Spitzer, a Republican who has faced significant controversy in recent months. Bonta called Spitzer a true fighter and champion for Orange County," while Spitzer was effusive in his praise for Bonta, who faces a Republican opponent in November. To have an attorney general who is so deeply committed to protecting the community and our environment is a very, very big blessing to me as a district attorney, Spitzer said. ___ Thompson reported from Sacramento. PORT CHESTER, N.Y. New York State Police said one of their troopers was struck and injured by a hit-and-run driver after picking up debris on southbound Interstate 95 near the Connecticut border Thursday night. The trooper was treated at Westchester Medical Center and had been released as of Friday afternoon, New York state police said. No arrests have been made in the incident, which occurred near the Greenwich border, state police said. The collision occurred just after 8:45 p.m. Thursday, according to state police. The trooper, whose identity was not disclosed, had parked on the shoulder of I-95 south near miler marker 14.9. The trooper had removed debris from the highway and was walking back to the patrol car when they were struck by a southbound vehicle, state police said. The vehicle failed to stop and continued south on I-95, state police said. The trooper was injured and transported to the hospital, New York state police said, but did not reveal the troopers condition at the time. The crash closed the right and center lanes of the highway between Exit 21 and the Connecticut state line late Thursday for the crash investigation. All lanes of the highway reopened by 5:30 a.m. Friday. Connecticut State Police said its assistance in the investigation has not been requested. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) The sequence of shootings on Wednesday in Tennessee, provided by Memphis Police Director Cerelyn CJ Davis. Crime scenes were scattered throughout the city. Four people were killed, and three others were wounded. Ezekiel Kelly has been charged with first-degree murder. 12:56 a.m. Officers responded to a shooting in east Memphis. A dead man was located in a driveway with multiple gunshot wounds. The suspect was eventually identified as Ezekiel Kelly. 4:38 p.m. Officers responded to a shooting in south Memphis. Man was found in his vehicle with multiple gunshot wounds. Pronounced dead on scene. Video surveillance from a business shows a Black male pulled up next to the victim in a sedan. The suspect fired multiple shots and fled. 4:40 p.m. Officers responded to a shooting close by. A woman was found with a gunshot wound to the leg. Woman was taken to a hospital in noncritical. Suspect fled in sedan. 5:59 p.m. Officers responded to shooting in east Memphis. Kelly was on Facebook Live when he opened fire inside the AutoZone, Davis said. Officers located a male with a gunshot wound, taken to hospital in critical condition. 6:12 p.m. Officers received information that suspect was on Zeke Honchos Facebook Live stating that he was threatening to cause harm to citizens. At this time, the Memphis Police Department launched a citywide search for the assailant. We deployed additional manpower and asked for assistance from partner agencies to locate Ezekiel Kelly. We began to utilize our social media platforms to alert citizens and contact our local media agencies to alert our citizens of the impending danger. At that time we also recommended that they shelter in place. 7:23 p.m. Officers responded to a shooting in the Evergreen area. A woman who had been shot was located dead on the scene. Suspect took womans vehicle, a grey SUV, and fled the scene. 7:24 p.m. Officers responded to shooting in the Midtown area. A man who had been shot was taken to a hospital in noncritical condition. 8:55 p.m. Officers responded to a shooting in South Memphis. One woman was found dead from gunshot wounds. 8:56 p.m. Police in Southaven, Mississippi, just across the state line, responded to a carjacking. Suspect carjacked victim at gunpoint and took a grey Dodge Challenger, leaving behind the grey SUV. Victim was not injured. 8:58 p.m. Officers spotted the Challenger northbound on Interstate 55. High speed pursuit ended in south Memphis. Male driver identified as Kelly was taken into custody by Memphis police and the Shelby County Sheriff's Office. Two weapons were visible inside the vehicle where Kelly was. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate LA CHAPELLE-SAINT-MESMIN, France (AP) For the glassmakers at iconic French tableware brand Duralex, the mornings have become a horror show. Daily updates from energy traders drop into their email inboxes, showing the asphyxiating upward climb of prices for the natural gas and electricity that power their energy-devouring business. Before Europe's energy crisis which took off after the COVID-19 pandemic and became a full-blown economic threat with Russia's war in Ukraine the price charts were reassuringly stable. They have since become a terrifying succession of peaks and troughs, with Russia choking off cheap natural gas deliveries in a battle of wills with European leaders over their support for Ukraine. For Duralex, each price spike represents another bite from the bottom line of the 77-year-old company that counts generations of French families, Mongolian yak herders, Afghan diners and African tea drinkers among worldwide users of its glasses, bowls and plates. Actor Daniel Craig drank from one its Picardie tumblers, with a scorpion on his wrist, when playing James Bond in Skyfall. With energy costs burning through the firm's cash reserves and viability, Duralex President Jose-Luis Llacuna is taking radical but, he hopes, business-saving action: He's stopping production. The thunderous machines that turn incandescent blobs of molten glass into hundreds of thousands of tableware items each day will fall silent for a few months on Nov. 1. Duralex will join a growing array of European firms that have reduced and halted production because they're hemorrhaging money on the energy needed to keep running. The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is look at the daily change in electricity and gas prices, Llacuna said in an interview at the plant outside Orleans in central France. Needless to say, theres an incredible amount of volatility," he added. "It's truly a rollercoaster, and the outlook for the future is a complete unknown. Facing the risks of power shortages, rationing and blackouts when demand surges this winter and of an expected recession as businesses shut down, Europe is scrambling for energy alternatives, stockpiling gas and urging consumers to save. European Union energy ministers struggled to find consensus at emergency talks Friday on the bloc's latest proposals for alleviating the crisis. At Duralex, the costs of heating the furnace to above 1,400 degrees Celsius (above 2,500 Fahrenheit) with roaring torrents of flaming gas and of transforming the molten glass into tableware on the production lines manned by sweating workers are set to burn through 40% of the company's revenue if it keeps producing, which is untenable, Llacuna said. The production shutdown will last at least four months. The glass furnace cant be switched off entirely because that could destroy it. Instead, it will be maintained in a hot slumber, slashing the firms energy use by half. The aim is to then fire it back up by the spring. In the meantime, the 250 employees will work fewer days, with drops in pay just as inflation is gnawing at household budgets. It's very hard to stomach, said Michel Carvalho, a production line crew chief who has been with the company for 17 years. Around the world, everyone is suffering from this war, he said. We're hostages. Absolutely. We're being used. Because being asked to stop work is hard. And we're not responsible for what is happening. Duralex will fall back on its stockpiles to keep customers supplied during the stoppage. But competitors are circling, using the production halt as an argument to try to lure away the company's customers, Llacuna said. He is knocking on government doors for financial help, speaking by phone to the French economy minister last week. A prolonged energy crisis, Llacuna warned, could be grim. It must not last three years," he said. "Because then European industry will die, and that will be dramatic. ___ Follow the APs coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate MALMO, Sweden (AP) With election day in Sweden approaching, Joakim Sandell, the leader of the Social Democratic Party in the city of Malmo, pulled on a jacket with his partys rose emblem and headed out to ring doorbells and urge people to vote. Many people in the Mollevangen district, an ethnically diverse neighborhood with roots in the labor movement, support Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson's Social Democrats. But Sunday's election is expected to be very close and the center-left party is fighting for every last vote as it faces a strong challenge from the right. Sandell, who is running for reelection to the national parliament, the 349-seat Riksdag, began his campaign thinking voters would want to discuss health care after the COVID-19 pandemic, which took a heavy toll among the elderly. He also expected them to bring up NATO, after the historically non-aligned Scandinavian nation -- which hasnt fought a war since the Napoleonic era -- decided to join the alliance after Russias invasion of Ukraine in February. But Swedish voters are mostly focused on rising energy costs in the wake of the war in Ukraine and violent crime at home. Andersson, who became Swedens first female prime minister less than a year ago, enjoys high approval ratings. Her party is a defender of Swedens generous welfare state but its support has been declining for years. We lost many, many votes in the last 20 years. Weve been struggling on our way down," said Ines Pentmo, a 62-year-old nurse who was canvasing with Sandell this week in Malmo. She was welcomed in Sweden after fleeing Chiles dictatorship with her family in the 1970s and doesnt want Sweden to abandon its traditional openness to refugees. The threat is very strong from the right," she said. The Sweden Democrats, a right-wing populist party that takes a hard line against immigration and crime, is on the rise as other parties move closer to its approach. The prime minister herself campaigned on promises to increase the police force. The Sweden Democratic party was founded by people from the neo-Nazi movement decades ago. They party has sought a more moderate course but many Swedes remain wary of that shift. When the party first won seats in parliament in 2010, other parties refused to work with them. But polls now suggest that the party could get its best result yet with around 20% of the vote, which gives it a chance to overtake the Moderates, a traditional center-right party, to become the dominant party on the right. If a right-wing bloc of four parties emerges ahead of the left-wing bloc of four parties, the Sweden Democrats would gain unprecedented power. Recent polls show the race as too close to predict. The Sweden Democrats are now considered a possible party to cooperate with when it comes to government formation. This was not the case in previous elections, but things have changed, said Anders Sannerstedt, a political scientist at Lund University in southern Sweden. The catalyst for this shift came in 2015, when large numbers of migrants and asylum-seekers from Syria and Afghanistan overwhelmed the countys resources, Sannerstedt argued. The country of 10 million people took in a record 163,000 refugees that year. The Sweden Democrats accuse Andersson and her left-wing allies of not doing enough to stop the shootings and explosions that have taken place largely in underprivileged neighborhoods that have many people from immigrant backgrounds who have not assimilated into Swedish society. The violence has lately been spreading. In one high-profile case, a 15-year-old boy fatally shot a gang member inside an upscale shopping center in Malmo in August. A woman nearby was injured. Mattias Sigfridsson, Malmo's deputy police chief, said there's actually been a decrease in violent crimes in recent years. But of course ... when the crimes are very spectacular, when you shoot somebody in a shopping center in the middle of day or when there are detonations, it creates feeling of insecurity for everyone, he said. Even in the nearby town of Lund, a peaceful cobblestoned university town near Malmo, safety is a key concern. Victoria Tiblom of the Sweden Democrats in Lund, who was out meeting voters at a town square, was pleased that other parties are now speaking more openly about crime in immigrant neighborhoods, something long viewed as a taboo. You can only solve the problems in a no-go zone if you talk about them. And we feel like a lot of the other parties, they have just neglected the problems. Same thing with immigration, she said. So we have brought a lot of problems to the surface so we can talk about them and also solve them. Despite the Sweden Democrats' attempts to clean up their image, party members sometimes still are accused of racism. One lawmaker recently tweeted a photo of a Stockholm metro train along with the message: Welcome to the return train. You hold a one-way ticket. Next stop, Kabul! In a separate incident, a party employee sent an email encouraging people to celebrate the Nazi invasion of Poland 83 years ago on Sept. 1. Karolin Lunden, a 40-year-old surgeon, said she always voted conservative. But as she visited the campaign stands in Lund with her 8-year-old daughter, she said she was voting for the left this year due to the willingness of other conservative parties to work with the Sweden Democrats. I dont want them to have any influence," she said. This past week, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski rolled out what his campaign is calling a parental bill of rights. According to his thin proposal, parents should decide whether transgender athletes should compete, if public school children should be vaccinated against infectious diseases, and when reproductive health should be taught. While education is certainly on the ballot this fall, Stefanowskis far-right, divisive campaign agenda does not represent the concerns and priorities of the vast majority of voters and parents. Are Democrats prepared to offer a narrative about the alternative? Top-of-mind priorities for families are academic recovery from the pandemic, emotional health and safety for their kids, and how the significant federal recovery resources are being allocated to support them. Connecticut Democrats have a proven record of leading on these issues. Lets start with learning. After the early months of the COVID pandemic, Gov. Ned Lamont was one of the first state leaders to publish a plan for a return to in-person learning in June of 2020. The guidance required districts to allow for a safe return to school for most Connecticut students, well ahead of other blue states. Both national and state standardized assessments have confirmed that the pandemic has caused an academic backslide, with a dramatic decline in the percentages of students meeting or exceeding grade-level expectations in language arts and math. However, Democrats in Connecticut acknowledged the potential for pandemic learning loss early, and invested in the 2021Right to Read bill, which will devote tens of millions over the next several years to research-based approaches to early literacy in every public school district in the state. The Lamont administration has also organized and funded a summer enrichment program over the last two years that served more than 100,000 students in 2021 and invested $8 million in summer programs again this year. On health and safety, Democrats have likewise been consistently strong for students. The majority of parents nearly 95 percent here in Connecticut vaccinate their children against long-established illnesses like polio and measles. When a rise in some of these preventable diseases threatened the herd immunity of children in Connecticut public schools, Democrats in the General Assembly took action to protect immunocompromised children by ending religious exemptions to established vaccines. Prioritizing students well-being yet again, they also made childrens emotional health their top priority this legislative session, passing three complementary bills that invested in financial assistance to families seeking mental health support, mobile crisis centers, grant programs for schools to deliver mental health services and more. Further, it was Democrats who led Connecticut to adopt some of the most stringent gun control legislation in the nation, to prevent a tragedy like the one in Sandy Hook from happening again in our state. Democrats have backed up their priorities with historic investments, showing their values in their state and local budgets. At the federal level, the American Rescue Plan offered by President Biden was the largest allocation in public education the country has ever seen. We can question the details on transparency and accountability for these dollars, for instance but the fact remains that Democratic leaders have made important expenditures for students and schools. Connecticut leaders have upgraded facilities and school infrastructure, increased funding for district, magnet and charter schools, invested in recruiting and retaining our excellent teachers, and become the first in the nation to provide one-to-one access to devices for all pupils. While there is a sobering amount of work to do in schools when it comes to realizing a true pandemic recovery, and no party has successfully tackled how to best serve students with high needs, address systemic racism, or prepare our workforce for the future, we certainly will not get there by shouting down school board members, banning books or discriminating against students. Democrats, you have a record to stand on, the plans in place, and the resources to innovate and accelerate learning. Now, let parents know. Its just smart politics. Amy Dowell is the state director of Democrats for Education Reform CT . Number of traders net-short has increased by 50.89% from last week. SYMBOL TRADING BIAS NET-LONG% NET-SHORT% CHANGE IN LONGS CHANGE IN SHORTS CHANGE IN OI Germany 40 BULLISH 48.13% 51.87% -13.39% Daily -16.40% Weekly 20.10% Daily 50.89% Weekly 1.26% Daily 8.76% Weekly Germany 40: Retail trader data shows 48.13% of traders are net-long with the ratio of traders short to long at 1.08 to 1. In fact, traders have remained net-short since Aug 30 when Germany 40 traded near 12,931.20, price has moved 0.91% higher since then. The number of traders net-long is 13.39% lower than yesterday and 16.40% lower from last week, while the number of traders net-short is 20.10% higher than yesterday and 50.89% higher from last week. We typically take a contrarian view to crowd sentiment, and the fact traders are net-short suggests Germany 40 prices may continue to rise. Our data shows traders are now net-short Germany 40 for the first time since Aug 30, 2022 15:00 GMT when Germany 40 traded near 12,931.20. Traders are further net-short than yesterday and last week, and the combination of current sentiment and recent changes gives us a stronger Germany 40-bullish contrarian trading bias. Number of traders net-short has increased by 55.68% from last week. SYMBOL TRADING BIAS NET-LONG% NET-SHORT% CHANGE IN LONGS CHANGE IN SHORTS CHANGE IN OI France 40 BULLISH 46.96% 53.04% -12.26% Daily -22.56% Weekly 28.30% Daily 55.68% Weekly 5.42% Daily 5.59% Weekly France 40: Retail trader data shows 46.96% of traders are net-long with the ratio of traders short to long at 1.13 to 1. In fact, traders have remained net-short since Aug 30 when France 40 traded near 6,189.30, price has moved 0.51% higher since then. The number of traders net-long is 12.26% lower than yesterday and 22.56% lower from last week, while the number of traders net-short is 28.30% higher than yesterday and 55.68% higher from last week. We typically take a contrarian view to crowd sentiment, and the fact traders are net-short suggests France 40 prices may continue to rise. Our data shows traders are now net-short France 40 for the first time since Aug 30, 2022 15:00 GMT when France 40 traded near 6,189.30. Traders are further net-short than yesterday and last week, and the combination of current sentiment and recent changes gives us a stronger France 40-bullish contrarian trading bias. Advertisement She was the glue that held our nation together for as long as most of us can remember. Through war and peace, social revolution and consolidation, separatist challenges and national unity, here-today, gone-tomorrow politicians (including her 15 prime ministers), from Empire to Commonwealth. From class-bound, dowdy post-war decline to increasingly fluid diversity and dynamism. She was the rock when all around us was changing and in perplexing flux: a familiar, reassuring, permanent presence as the country's leaders, celebrities, friends and enemies came and went. With her gone, the risk of becoming unstuck and falling apart on so many fronts is all the greater. It was not ordained that she would end her days so universally revered. As our young Queen in the 1950s, thrown on to the throne by the premature death, at only 56, of her beloved father, George VI, she was adored. But in middle age she was somewhat ignored, seen as behind the times and overshadowed by the glamour and high jinks of younger royals, whose shenanigans commandeered the limelight. ANDREW NEIL: She was the glue that held our nation together for as long as most of us can remember. Through war and peace, social revolution and consolidation, separatist challenges and national unity, here-today, gone-tomorrow politicians (including her 15 prime ministers), from Empire to Commonwealth. The Queen is pictured here with Nicola Sturgeon at Buckingham Palace in 2014 The Scottish Nationalists were never sure how to handle the Queen in their bid to break up the Union. Pictured: First Minister Nicola Sturgeon reads a statement at Bute House, Edinburgh, following the announcement of the death of Queen Elizabeth II In old age, however, she became loved as never before. She has passed away with her reputation never higher, not just in the UK but across the globe. Perhaps that's because the stability and reassurance she represented became more appreciated the longer she was on the throne, especially in a world of often bewildering change. But it was also because the longer she lived the more her undying, lifelong commitment to Christian public service became apparent and could not be gainsaid. Indeed, the longer she lived, the more necessary to our national wellbeing she seemed to become. 'We'll meet again,' she assured us only two years ago when the pandemic was at its most scary, echoing words from Vera Lynn's iconic ballad, which helped shepherd the Queen's generation through World War II. The Nationalists will never forgive her for warning just before the 2014 vote that people should 'think very carefully' before casting their ballots. The Scots did think very carefully and voted to remain in the Union It was oddly reassuring more so than anything the politicians or experts had to tell us at the time. She had spoken as the nation's grandmother. It was no surprise that her words were soon being broadcast around the world. She lived a life of immense privilege, of course. But it was also a life of simplicity and service, of unglamorous charities, dull public duties and flattering tedious jobsworths. She was the world's most famous monarch, head of a grand dynasty. But she also kept her cornflakes in Tupperware and sat in front of a small two-bar electric fire. The Queen waits in the Drawing Room before receiving Liz Truss for an audience at Balmoral, Scotland on Tuesday Not for her holidays on billionaires' yachts or lifts to exotic places on celebrities' private jets, to which the younger royals have fallen prey. She much preferred the solitude and drizzle of beautiful Balmoral to any of that. Republicans could attack the institution of monarchy, often with some justification. But few were foolhardy enough to attack the Queen. There was no mileage in that. Some will think that, with her gone, their time might yet come. Her touch was not always certain. She misjudged the national mood in the days after Princess Diana's death, remaining invisible in her Balmoral bolthole as the nation was consumed with grief and wanted to hear from their Queen. I broadcasted regularly from outside Buckingham Palace in the days after Diana's death and I can testify that the mood at the gates was bordering on the incendiary, with mounting anger not just because the Queen was invisible at a time of national morning, but because the Palace would not fly the flag at half-mast. She was the world's most famous monarch, head of a grand dynasty. But she also kept her cornflakes in Tupperware and sat in front of a small two-bar electric fire. Pictured: The death of The Queen was announced at 6.30pm today via the Royal Family's official Twitter account It is one of the ironies of the time that it was Prime Minister Tony Blair and his senior aides, republican-minded all, who persuaded her that she had to return to London and address the country in words they skilfully helped to craft. It saved the monarchy from a very dangerous moment. There was perhaps too much Germanic aloofness in her parenting. On one occasion, after returning from a long tour of the Commonwealth, she appeared to greet toddler Charles with a handshake on the platform at a London station. If she was our rock, Prince Philip was hers. In family matters and matters of state, she always listened to what he had to say and invariably followed his advice. It is no coincidence that her health began visibly to deteriorate in the aftermath of his death. Princess Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh during their honeymoon in Malta in 1947 In a long lifetime of achievements, I would single out two in particular: her symbolic role in keeping the four nations of the United Kingdom together when so much was conspiring to tear it apart; and her essential role in transforming the Empire into the Commonwealth 'Why didn't she give him a hug?' I remember my mother shouting at the TV. Clearly we were still some way off the more tactile Age of Diana. Whatever her shortcomings as a parent, she did not deserve the grief her offspring and their spouses regularly caused her. There were times when she must have been baffled by their self-centred, preening, destructive behaviour. But she never let it show. If she was our rock, Prince Philip was hers. In family matters and matters of state, she always listened to what he had to say and invariably followed his advice. It is no coincidence that her health began visibly to deteriorate in the aftermath of his death. In a long lifetime of achievements, I would single out two in particular: her symbolic role in keeping the four nations of the United Kingdom together when so much was conspiring to tear it apart; and her essential role in transforming the Empire into the Commonwealth. The Queen evolved with the country through her long reign. She was our incalculable national asset, even if at times we did not appreciate it. The Queen is seen on the balcony of Buckingham Palace at the end of the Platinum Jubilee pageant in June with her son Prince Charles, Camilla, Prince William, the Duchess of Cambridge and Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis The Scottish Nationalists were never sure how to handle the Queen in their bid to break up the Union. They eventually affected to ditch their republicanism and settled on giving her the title Queen of Scots, implying that she would remain Scotland's head of state even after independence. Anybody who knew the rabidly republican SNP realised this was just a subterfuge to get through the 2014 independence referendum and that, if Scotland did vote to separate, the Queen would not long remain head of state north of the border. The Nationalists will never forgive her for warning just before the 2014 vote that people should 'think very carefully' before casting their ballots. The Scots did think very carefully and voted to remain in the Union. The Queen is more Scottish than English. It is fitting that she has died in her beloved Balmoral. It is concerning that the Union is probably in more jeopardy now she is gone. King Charles will love Scotland just as much as the Queen. But he simply doesn't have her authority. As so much conspires to tear us apart with the stupidities of social media enhancing what divides rather than unites us we will miss the Queen's unifying and calming presence. Her death sparked an immediate and huge outpouring of emotion, with thousands of mourners gathering outside the gates of Buckingham Palace this evening (pictured) The Commonwealth has suffered a great loss, too. It's no exaggeration to say it might well have withered and died but for the Queen's constant care and attention. No other empire in world history has ever transformed itself into a voluntary alliance of free nations. But thanks to the Queen, the British Empire did. She lavished care and attention on the leaders of newly independent nations, making them feel wanted and important, when Britain's politicians blew hot and cold on the Commonwealth, more interested in America and Europe. She made them feel like equals in the post-colonial age. The fact it developed into the world's greatest multi-ethnic gathering of nations is largely down to the Queen. Without her it could all have dissipated in post-colonial wrangling. Instead even countries that were not part of the British Empire Namibia, Mozambique, Rwanda queued up to join. Indeed, the longer she lived, the more necessary to our national wellbeing she seemed to become. Pictured: First Minister of Wales Mark Drakeford reads a statement following the death of the Queen It will be harder though not impossible to keep it together with the Queen gone. Again, King Charles will work hard to keep the Commonwealth vibrant and relevant. But he lacks the Queen's authority or hinterland. The Queen was only the Commonwealth's figurehead but without her we will discover just how important a figurehead she was. Some Commonwealth leaders will conclude it no longer matters as much. Others will see an opportunity for change. My republican friends in Australia knew it was pointless to call another referendum on a republic (they lost the last one) as long as the Queen was still on the throne. They will now feel emboldened to try again. That the Queen has been pivotal in creating the multi-racial Commonwealth is, I believe, a major reason why she seemed very much at peace with modern Britain, which has changed beyond recognition in the 96 years since she was born. In many ways she has been ahead of her time. We are not alone. It is a measure of the Queen's global significance that, as we grieve our great loss, the rest of the world grieves with us. Pictured: Her Majesty's coronation in Westminster Abbey, June 1953 She has rolled with the changes and been comfortable with them, as we evolved from being an overwhelmingly white country into a nation so diverse that not one white man occupies any of the most important offices of state in Liz Truss's government a Conservative one at that. I rather suspect the Queen approved. The Queen evolved with the country through her long reign. She was our incalculable national asset, even if at times we did not appreciate it. As so much conspires to tear us apart with the stupidities of social media enhancing what divides rather than unites us we will miss the Queen's unifying and calming presence. We are not alone. It is a measure of the Queen's global significance that, as we grieve our great loss, the rest of the world grieves with us. The person tasked with sorting out our ailing NHS is a plain-speaking hard-working woman who's a proud Liverpool supporter and loves a spot of karaoke (along with a drink and a smoke). But it's going to take more than an uplifting singalong to reboot an organisation which seems to lurch from one terminal diagnosis to another. Can Therese Coffey - the third Health Secretary in three months - come up with a life-saving plan where so many previous incumbents have failed? She was rewarded with a top job by her pal of the past 25 years, 'Fizzy Lizzy', after successfully running our new Prime Minister's leadership election campaign. The pair have been friends since student days with 'Fizzy Lizzy' dubbing her bosom buddy 'Tiz'. Incredibly, we're not talking about a couple of puppets on Play School but the two most powerful women in the country. While 'Fiz' acknowledges she is a pretty unexciting public speaker, robotically repeating her 'deliver' mantra over and over again this week in her acceptance speech, 'Tiz' seems a bit more feisty . Can Therese Coffey (pictured outside Downing Street on Wednesday) - the third Health Secretary in three months - come up with a life-saving plan where so many previous incumbents have failed? The other big W problem 'Tiz' might like to fast track is WAITING TIMES - currently 6.8 million people are waiting for routine operations like hip and knee replacements and cataract surgery, the highest number since records began (file photo of a busy hospital ward) After only 24 hours in the job, the new Health Secretary had revealed to the world her master plan- and, like Boris, she seems to assume we are toddlers who need to be spoken to as if we are stupid. She announced her first priorities are A, B, C and D - Ambulances, backlogs, care and dentists. That catchy soundbite might have sounded brilliant at 10pm after a twirl around the living room clutching a pitcher of brandy, singing along to Gloria Gaynor's I will Survive - but it could prove to be her downfall. According to Pulse Magazine the new minister doesn't seem to understand one of the biggest problems affecting the NHS - the astonishing challenge the public faces when trying to secure a face-to-face appointment with a real GP as opposed to a nurse or a chatbot. To be fair, 'Tiz' hasn't had much time to understand the complicated and confusing way the NHS works. But if she took two minutes and walked down any high street and asked the public what bugs them the most the answer is pretty simple. It's impossible to see a doctor when you're feeling ill. If Therese Coffey wants to sort out the NHS she needs to start her jolly little jingle at the other end of the alphabet - with the letter W for workforce. One in ten NHS posts are currently vacant, the highest level ever. By the end of June there were over 132,000 jobs waiting to be filled. Nurses are threatening to go on strike over pay, with the Royal College of Nursing balloting their members. Junior doctors have refused to accept the 2% pay rise they were offered and are considering strike action. In some hospitals nurses are being asked to undertake extra work like cleaning as poorly paid jobs in support roles remain unfilled. The NHS is a top-heavy organisation with too many managers, too much paperwork and form filling, beset by political correctness. The bosses seem to suffer from a desire to splash money on rubbish like 'wellness awaydays' for their long-suffering staff, who would rather earn extra dosh than attend a course where they are encouraged to consider statements like 'what if you were a salmon' - in order to learn resilience. The pair [Ms Truss and Ms Coffey] have been friends since student days with 'Fizzy Lizzy' dubbing her bosom buddy 'Tiz'. Incredibly, we're not talking about a couple of puppets on Play School but the two most powerful women in the country. Pictured: Prime Minister Liz Truss, (centre) flanked by Health Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister Therese Coffey (right) and Leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt (left), during her first PMQs on Wednesday All over the country, money is being wasted on airy-fairy courses to placate overworked staff post-covid featuring 'dynamic breath work' and 'safe spaces' for male employees to find out more about the menopause. The only way for the NHS to offer a better service would be to reduce management by a third and pay the staff properly. The group of workers who are not complaining about their pay are GPs who now earn more than ever - their average salary in England for 2020/21 was a record 112,000 - over three times what a nurse earns and an increase of 11,000 on the previous year. Most GPs now only work part time - they can afford to. Their practices increasingly rely on patients using the internet to access service - to make appointments, renew prescriptions or seek routine tests. That is simply not good enough with an ageing population, when the majority of their customers are pensioners, many of whom can barely use a mobile phone and certainly can't be relied on to input their NHS number, username and password in order to get a few precious minutes in person with their GP. Before Covid 80% of GP appointments were face to face, but currently two out of three patient requests result in actually seeing a real doctor. My local medical centre has a website that even I - a woman who edited a national newspaper, who uses technology every day at work - cannot understand. I usually end up filling in a box revealing my intimate medical details (which will be read by the receptionist) because there is no other way to gain access to a GP. When I last visited, the surgery was like the Marie Celeste. Covid has receded, but GPs seem to be treating it like an imminent threat. A computer on the wall told me to log in to let the doctor know I had arrived - as it wasn't working, I had to queue behind a woman forced to discuss her need for STOMA bags within the hearing of other visitors. My partner was told 'you can't make appointments in person' - you have to use the computer or sit on the phone at 8am hoping that you get to the top of the queue before every precious slot is taken. You can't help feeling that seeing sick people in person is an inconvenience GPs would like make as difficult as possible. Most GPs now only work part time - they can afford to. Their practices increasingly rely on patients using the internet to access service - to make appointments, renew prescriptions or seek routine tests That is simply not good enough with an ageing population, when the majority of their customers are pensioners, many of whom can barely use a mobile phone and certainly can't be relied on to input their NHS number, username and password in order to get a few precious minutes in person with their GP (file photo of GP talking to senior man at a surgery) The other big W problem 'Tiz' might like to fast track is WAITING TIMES - currently 6.8 million people are waiting for routine operations like hip and knee replacements and cataract surgery, the highest number since records began. Cataract surgery is utterly crucial if old people are going to retain a decent quality of life. Without it they can't read, watch TV and are cut off and lonely. It takes a few minutes and is life-changing - and yet the NHS has been rationing one eye at a time and receiving this simple procedure has become a postcode lottery. Waiting times in A&E are at a record high because bed-blockers (usually elderly folk who should be in care homes) remain on wards because councils have nowhere to send them and relatives aren't willing to step in. Over 29,000 people waited 12 hours before they saw a doctor in A&E last July, up a third on June. If you are unlucky enough to suffer a heart attack or a stroke, you will be waiting over three times as long as the government promised for your ambulance to arrive - an hour on average and three hours in the worse parts of the country. In that time, your health will deteriorate, and you'll end up a bigger burden on the NHS, through no fault of your own. Therese Coffey is known in Westminster as a W person - a workhorse - someone who is good at studying detail, willing to put in long hours on the job. She's also been saddled with the title Deputy Prime Minister - when fulfilling her real job would be more than enough for a pack of workhorses. If she can sort out the NHS workforce and the waiting times, not to mention the Waste and the Waffle, she'll be worth her pay. Of all the tributes that have poured in for our greatest ever monarch Queen Elizabeth II the past 24 hours, it was a heartfelt Instagram post by her former daughter-in-law that stuck with me the most. Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, was, as we all know, exiled from official royal life following her divorce from Prince Andrew and a series of mortifying indiscretions better left in tabloid history. But, even as her beloved husband Prince Philip refused to be in the same room as Fergie, the Queen remained steadfastly loyal on a personal level. To her, once a Windsor, always a Windsor. Grief-stricken Fergie confirmed as much last night, as she wrote following a more formal tribute: 'To me, she was the most incredible mother-in-law and friend. I will always be grateful to her for the generosity she showed me in remaining close to me even after my divorce. I will miss her more than words can express.' If the life of Elizabeth II has taught us one thing it is that blood is thicker than water. For that reason, this death of a public figure, has brought us closer to our own families in so many ways, as we memorialise lost loved ones who somehow seemed to share an intrinsic connection to the Queen. That's why I can't shake the sadness I feel that she leaves a divided family, with those open wounds exposed to the entire world as she passed away at Balmoral yesterday afternoon. Harry was mid-air, still approaching Aberdeen Airport, when Buckingham Palace announced the news of the Queen's death to a heartbroken nation I am certain that Charles needs both his sons to become his security blankets at this dark and overwhelming moment in history There's only one person who can understand the torment of those memories colliding with this new wave of grief: His brother, William Surely now, with a nation united in grief, Prince Harry will be able to put his differences with his blood relatives aside for the good of the institution for which his grandmother gave so much. Indeed, the greatest tribute the Duke of Sussex could pay to the late Queen is to reconcile with King Charles and Prince William. Sadly, the signs are not good. Harry was the last to arrive at Balmoral yesterday and the first to leave. He travelled alone, not on the RAF plane shared by his brother and the Queen's sons Prince Andrew and Edward, even though there were 12 empty seats on the Dassault Falcon jet, and Harry was waiting for news at Frogmore Cottage, just a short drive away from his relatives. Then, even as the Queen was close to the end, there was another unseemly family row. A spokesperson for the Sussexes had announced that both Harry and Meghan 'will be travelling to Scotland'. But after senior royals intervened, pointing out that even Kate would be remaining in London, he eventually agreed to make the trip alone on a Cessna private jet, having unsuccessfully attempted to book a helicopter, according to reports. That unfortunate delay meant that Harry was mid-air, still approaching Aberdeen Airport, when Buckingham Palace announced the news of the Queen's death to a heartbroken nation. He eventually joined his family members on the Balmoral Estate at 7.52pm, before being the first to depart this morning at 8.28am, leaving just over 12 hours to grieve with his closest relatives. King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla arrived at Buckingham Palace this afternoon The greatest tribute the Duke of Sussex could pay to the late Queen is to reconcile with King Charles and Prince William Mourners lay flowers, cards and candles on the Long Walk outside Windsor Castle today I realise I'm probably being naive but, in my heart, I hope those few hours were enough for Harry to feel the wave of love for his family that I know is there, under all the unnecessary bitterness about leaks, tiara rows and security. Just imagine if the Duke, in the ultimate sign of respect to his grandmother, publicly pledged to move on from the acrimony that has defined the past two years to declare his unwavering support for the King, who will need all the help he can get to transition the monarchy out of the Elizabethan era. The British public would be overjoyed if the Sussexes announced a new era of royal harmony by cancelling publication of Harry's multi-million pound autobiography expected to include damning criticism of the Royal Family which caused Charles much anguish over the past few months. When I think with my head, however, Harry's swift exit this morning Balmoral again on his own makes me fear we could be about to enter a period of even more royal disharmony. After all, as the Queen's health faltered earlier this week, Meghan's mouthpiece Omid Scobie was publishing an incendiary column making it clear that Harry had refused to meet up with his relatives on their Netflix trip to the UK, not the other way around. But God intervened and I pray the Queen's death will change the priorities of the Sussexes. Harry will understandably feel utterly heartbroken at the loss of his grandmother, a woman who risked her own popularity to stay with him and his brother at Balmoral following the death of their mother Princess Diana in 1997 as the public demanded she return to publicly grieve at Buckingham Palace. There's only one person who can understand the torment of those memories colliding with this new wave of grief: His brother. Diana would be devastated at the idea of her two sons mourning the Queen without the support of one another. She'd also be horrified at William taking on the great burden of becoming heir to the throne without Harry to lean on; she always imagined they would become a double act. As did we. My heart is aching at the loss of the Queen, a woman who felt like a security blanket to all of us, so I can only imagine the interminable grief facing the new king and his two sons. The death of Prince Philip caused Charles to enter a period of deep reflection, with the loss of his father hitting him far harder than the public ever understood. I am certain that Charles needs both his sons to become his security blankets at this dark and overwhelming moment in history. And the country needs to see these three senior members of the Royal Family reunited and unbreakable once more. For the memory of the Queen and the future survival of the monarchy, I pray they can put their divide to one side and make that happen. We knew the Queens death was going to be a heavy blow but I dont think many people foresaw how deeply it would affect the soul of the nation, and unleash so many waves of grief. That final picture of her at Balmoral, taken only four days ago, says it all. The Queen had just seen off Boris Johnson, and was welcoming her 15th Prime Minister, Liz Truss. She cant have been feeling well. Her poor right hand is partly black. And yet she is smiling, as she so often was throughout her long reign. In her state of health, she must have struggled, but she went on. It was her duty. We ordinary self-indulgent mortals can scarcely comprehend what it entailed for this exceptional woman to sacrifice herself in this way to smile when she may not have felt like smiling, to be polite when perhaps she did not feel so well-disposed towards every member of humanity. And throughout it all she kept her own feelings to herself in an extraordinary act of self-denial. In a confessional age she kept her counsel. She bore in silence a mothers excruciating anxiety of having a son, Andrew, risk his life in the Falklands War. She could not share her grief with her people at her husbands death. Few of us end up having lived our lives as we set out to do. Queen Elizabeth triumphantly succeeded in fulfilling her pledge to serve her nation, which she made in Cape Town on her 21st birthday in 1947. We knew the Queens death was going to be a heavy blow but I dont think many people foresaw how deeply it would affect the soul of the nation, and unleash so many waves of grief Her sense of duty really was awe-inspiring. She reminded us that brave human beings can achieve great things. I am certain it would not have been possible for her if she had not believed that she was an anointed daughter of God, serving His purposes. I believe she was, and did. Many who do not or cannot share this view will nonetheless accept that she was a very remarkable person who cared for this old country of ours with love and endurance. We know she was unique, and that is why it is so hard for us to accept that she is no longer here. So King Charles III how odd those words are to write! steps into a void. He is by some margin the oldest monarch ever to accede to the throne. As a son, his grief is infinitely more painful than ours, as was evident in his eloquent and moving broadcast address last night. I have little doubt that he is full of trepidation. He certainly should be. How do you follow a woman like the Queen? It is immensely challenging because of what she has achieved. And it is also difficult we must be frank, as so much is at stake because the new King comes to the throne carrying some heavy baggage. When Elizabeth became a young Queen in February 1952, relatively little was known about her, and what was known was good. It was, in any case, a much more deferential age in which public criticism of the monarchy was almost inconceivable. King Charles is an elderly man, whose eventful private life has been picked over by the media, and whose openly expressed views about all manner of things from architecture to global warming to farming to conservation are well known. It is a strange reflection that we know far more about the inner man than we ever did about his mother. We ordinary self-indulgent mortals can scarcely comprehend what it entailed for this exceptional woman to sacrifice herself in this way to smile when she may not have felt like smiling, to be polite when perhaps she did not feel so well-disposed towards every member of humanity I believe most of us have forgiven him for his undoubted mistreatment of Diana, Princess of Wales, and those few who havent probably never will. There is anyway nothing he can do about what is in the past. But there is much he can do in other ways and must do in order to secure the future of an institution which his mother has passed on to him in a strong condition, respected as it is by the majority of the British people. In a television interview in 2018, Charles was adamant that he wouldnt be a meddling king. It is imperative that he lives up to his promise to follow his mothers example, rather than emit contentious opinions that are bound to divide his subjects. That he has done so in the past is beyond dispute. I happen to agree with quite a lot of what he has said on the ugliness of most modern architecture, for instance. On the other hand, his apocalyptic statements about climate change have, to my mind, occasionally verged on the hysterical. In 2009, for example, he warned that we had 100 months to act before the damage caused by global warming became irreversible. Thirteen years later, even climate change zealots concede that we still have time to save the planet. Of course, many will agree with Charless opinions about the importance of tackling climate change while they may scorn his utterances about architecture. That is my point. An outspoken monarch is bound to be divisive, and weaken the institution. That final picture of her at Balmoral, taken only four days ago, says it all. The Queen had just seen off Boris Johnson, and was welcoming her 15th Prime Minister, Liz Truss There is also a danger in becoming involved in politics, which he has sometimes done. I dont think many will object to his expressing concerns in a personal letter to Tony Blair about Lynx helicopters performing poorly in high temperatures in Iraq. He had private information which he acted upon in a public-spirited way. But he was well out of bounds when, as recently as June, he reportedly described the Governments policy of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda as appalling. That is a perfectly reasonable point of view, but it shouldnt have been expressed by the heir to the throne about elected politicians. The Queen was a highly intelligent and very well-informed woman, yet she was able to keep her thoughts about culture and politics to herself to the great benefit of the monarchy and her people. Dearest to her heart were the Commonwealth and the continued existence of the United Kingdom viewpoints that are hardly controversial except, in the latter instance, to Scottish and Welsh nationalists. There is perhaps an edge of arrogance in Charles which encourages him to open his mouth when he shouldnt, and sometimes to act in a way that is unwise in a future sovereign. It has been recently reported that in 2013 he accepted 1 million for his charity from the family of Osama bin Laden, the most destructive terrorist who has ever lived. Prince Charless courtiers claim the decision was taken by the trustees. When Elizabeth became a young Queen in February 1952, relatively little was known about her, and what was known was good. It was, in any case, a much more deferential age in which public criticism of the monarchy was almost inconceivable On another occasion around the same time, Charles is reported to have accepted a holdall containing one million euros from Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, a former prime minister of Qatar, during a one-to-one meeting in Clarence House. This money was also intended for good causes. In both instances, Charless conduct wasnt what one would expect in an heir to the throne. It would be considered practically scandalous in a British monarch. We must hope that Queen Consort Camilla, who seems a sensible woman, will offer her husband firm advice. In last nights address, King Charles sensibly undertook to step back from his charities, and declared that he would count on the loving help of my darling wife, Camilla. Our new King would be wise to remember that there are still many republicans in this country who have stayed their hand, and kept quiet in recent years on account of the Queens great popularity. If Charless standing with the public should slump as a result of silly, self-inflicted wounds, these republicans will be quick to pounce, and their numbers could quickly swell. Despite all this, I believe our new King to be a decent, cultured and well-intentioned man far to be preferred over his indulgent great-great grandfather, Edward VII, or his spineless great uncle, Edward VIII, who gave up the throne. King Charles is an elderly man, whose eventful private life has been picked over by the media, and whose openly expressed views about all manner of things from architecture to global warming to farming to conservation are well known If he can emulate his mother by remaining silent about public issues while avoiding confrontation with politicians, and if he behaves in a circumspect and kingly way, he will be doing himself, and the precious office he holds, a great service. Somehow he looked the part in his appearances yesterday. Perhaps he has already been touched by the mystique of monarchy. There are, it must be said, also problems within the Royal Family that are not of his making. One is the position of his brother Andrew, who has effectively been deprived of his royal role as a consequence of allegations that he sexually abused Virginia Giuffre more than two decades ago when she was 17. Although he continues strenuously to deny these allegations, in February Prince Andrew reached an out-of-court settlement with his accuser said to be worth 7.5 million. Is this the end of the matter? Andrew may be a smouldering piece of potentially lethal ordnance. And then there is Prince Harry, who unfortunately for him arrived too late on Thursday to be at his grandmothers bedside. He is dramatically at odds with his father, Charles, and with his brother, William. In fact, he is estranged from most of the Royal Family. Perhaps, at least in the short-term, the Queens death will induce Harry to build bridges with those who still plainly love him but from whom he has emotionally separated himself. But I fear that, as long as he remains married to Meghan, these two self-absorbed and not entirely straightforward iconoclasts will continue to detonate bomblets that are liable to hurt the King. I believe most of us have forgiven him for his undoubted mistreatment of Diana, Princess of Wales, and those few who havent probably never will Im afraid to say that, unless they desist, the only solution will be to deprive them of their royal titles so that their barbs, already tiresome to a growing number of people, will be rendered less damaging. King Charles III is not without his problems and challenges thats for sure. I havent even mentioned the possibility that Australia and New Zealand may react to the death of the Queen, who was popular in those countries, by declaring republics, and jettisoning the monarch as head of state. And then there is Scotland. It is possible that affection for the Queen north of the border helped to keep the glue in place as the United Kingdom threatens to fall apart. Her demise could be cited by nationalists as a reason to break up our country. Yet despite all these storm clouds, I remain hopeful that the reign of King Charles will be a fruitful one, and that he will in due course hand over an institution to Prince William which is in as good a state as it is today. The reason for my optimism lies in what has happened since the Queen died. Not even two full days yet, though it seems like an age. I feel as though I have learnt a lot about my country, and its greatness. When a considerable former president dies in the United States or France, there is of course much grief and mourning. Tears are shed and eloquent speeches are delivered. But it is not the same. It is not the same because, much more than any alternative system, monarchy has deep roots in peoples hearts, as we have witnessed since Thursday, and will see until long after the Queen has been laid to rest in St Georges Chapel, Windsor, beside her husband. She was the best of monarchs, of course. She became a wise older woman who gave us stability and reassurance in a way a younger woman, or perhaps any man, could never quite do. She was a unifier of classes and nations. A healer. This rare woman was woven into the life of our country. Our parents and grandparents and even their parents have known her as we have. I was born a month before she became Queen. The span of her reign is the span of my life. I write these words from Italy, which got rid of its monarch in 1946. I think many Italians are probably a little envious of our institution. I suspect they think that the Queen was a sweet elderly woman, whereas we know that she was much, much more. None of her immediate successors is likely to have her special gifts since she was unique. But unless they are fools and I dont think King Charles is a fool the monarchy will endure because it symbolises our sense of nationhood, and heals many of our divisions. Elizabeth II showed us as perfectly as is possible the benefits of monarchy. Therell be trouble ahead. Of course there will. There always is. But well be all right if we remember what our dear Queen has done for us. Advertisement An emotional-looking Camilla, elevated to Queen Consort following the death of the Queen at Balmoral on Thursday afternoon, was pictured looking deep in thought as she left the Scottish royal residence this morning. Following yesterday's historic announcement that the Queen had died at the age of 96, King Charles III ascended to the throne with immediate effect, with the former Duchess of Cornwall taking a role that the late Queen gave her official backing to during a historic Platinum Jubilee statement earlier this year. Around 11am today, seated in the front passenger seat of a chauffeur-driven Audi, the Queen Consort, 75, looked pensive as she departed Balmoral following the death of the Queen yesterday afternoon - clearly aware of the responsibility her new role carries. The new King, formerly the Prince of Wales, was seated in the back seat of the royal car, as part of a motorcade pictured driving through the village of Ballater, close to Balmoral, en route to Aberdeen Airport. Camilla, wearing a black suit and a simple string of pearls with matching earrings, looked straight ahead as the new King and Queen Consort began their journey back to London on the first day of mourning. Scroll down for video New dawn: An emotional-looking Camilla, now Queen's Consort, following the Queen's death at Balmoral on Thursday afternoon, pictured leaving the Scottish royal residence this morning United in grief: The new King and Queen Consort pictured looking emotional as they make the journey from the late Queen's Scottish residence ahead of a flight back to London Seated in the front passenger seat of an Audi, the Queen Consort, 75, looked deep in thought as she departed Balmoral following the death of the Queen yesterday afternoon Queen Consort Camilla pictured being driven through the village of Ballater after leaving the Balmoral Estate en route to Aberdeen Airport The new King looked solemn as he was seated in the back of the royal vehicle leaving Balmoral on Friday, just hours after the death of the Queen was announced late on Thursday afternoon Grief: Following yesterday's historic announcement that the Queen had died, King Charles ascended to the throne with immediate effect, Wearing a black suit and a simple string of pearls with matching earrings, the Queen Consort is pictured in a chauffeur-driven vehicle, with King Charles seated in the back, as part of a motorcade leaving Balmoral on Friday morning It's thought the 75-year-old royal will look to the role the late Duke of Edinburgh played in public life as a blueprint for her new title; the late Prince offered constant support to Her Majesty while never taking the limelight from her. After years, decades even, of uncertainty over what Camilla's official title would be when King Charles finally took the throne, the late Queen took matters into her own hands by making a surprise announcement in February 2022. It is a remarkable transformation for Camilla, who was once branded the 'third person' in Charles' stricken marriage to Diana, and received a lukewarm reception from the royal family when the then Prince announced his intention to make Camilla the Duchess of Cornwall. In recent years though, Camilla has grown into life as a senior royal and ahead of the Coronation, the new Queen Consort will undoubtedly be a great support to King Charles in a time of grief and long-anticipated change. In a few short hours, life has changed dramatically for the former Duchess of Cornwall as she is elevated to a new role following the Queen's death Camilla looked straight ahead as the King and Queen Consort begin their journey back to London on the first day of mourning The motorcade followed roads the royal family have driven along for decades; but no such journey will match this morning's for poignancy The senior royal, approaching her late seventies, is now Queen Consort, signaling a dramatic transformation in public and royal perceptions since she first fell in love with Charles during her twenties The famous photo that branded the new Queen Consort a marriage wrecker; the couple pictured in 1975 before Charles was betrothed to marry Diana, who would famously accuse Camilla of being the 'third person' in her marriage to then Prince in a Panorama interview with Martin Bashir in 1995 The late Monarch's backing: the official recommendation that the Queen supported Camilla becoming Queen Consort, which was published in February 2022 After 'coming out' with their renewed love on a night out at the Ritz in London in 1999, the couple wed, with the royal family's blessing in 2005 - and the new Queen Consort began her re-brand into senior royal who has a natural affiliation with people The late Queen gave her approval for Camilla to be crowned alongside Charles' in an official role before her death on September 8th (pictured together at the Jubilee in 2022) The Queen, pictured leaving Windsor Castle in July, died on Thursday at her Scottish residence of Balmoral The treasured Monarch declared it was her 'sincere wish' for her daughter-in-law to be fully acknowledged when Charles succeeded her - and the wish made in the twilight of her life has now come to fruition. At the time, the statement also quashed speculation that the then 95-year-old Monarch might abdicate, as she reiterated her Coronation pledge. She told her subjects 'my life will always be devoted to your service' and that she would continue to honour that 'with all my heart'. After a tentative start to royal life, Camilla has excelled in recent years regularly standing in for the late Queen when she could no longer entertain due to failing health and stamina (The couple at a gala dinner in 2000 for the Princes Foundation) After an initially lukewarm reception to the news Prince Charles would marry Camilla, she has grown into life as a senior royal in recent years (pictured left, with the Prince of Wales in 2007, and right, together in 2010) From down-to-earth Sussex girl to royal mistress and now Queen Consort: Camilla's royal family journey The Duchess of Cornwall is the former royal mistress who will now stand shoulder to shoulder as Queen Consort to King Charles. Camilla's public image has been transformed dramatically after she was initially cast as the 'third' person in the Prince and Diana, Princess of Wales' marriage, before becoming a campaigning member of the monarchy prepared to serve the nation. Underneath, she was the down-to-earth Sussex girl who grew up with a love of horses and happened to fall in love with a prince. Charles and Camilla are pictured together in 1979, two years before his wedding to Princess Diana During the nearly two decades she has been married to Charles, Camilla has grown into her role and is an assured royal host when staging events at Clarence House and has confidently represented the Queen when invited to foreign lands. She is patron or supporter of a number of literacy charities, speaks out in support of victims of domestic violence and champions several animal welfare organisations. But her most significant role is supporting Charles and being the comforting presence at home that has enabled him to take on the role of heir to the throne - and now the King. How different it all was on that cold Thursday night outside The Ritz more than 20 years ago in 1999. It was Charles and Camilla's coming out, a fleeting but scrupulously choreographed appearance before the world's press After Charles and Camilla both divorced - and Diana died in 1997 - the then duchess' emergence as the prince's long-term partner was part of a carefully planned PR campaign masterminded by the heir to the throne's spin doctor Mark Bolland. Their first public appearance together was outside the Ritz hotel in London in 1999, dubbed Operation Ritz, where the mass of waiting photographers had been tipped off. The culmination of the romance was a marriage between the long-time lovers who wed in a civil ceremony at Windsor Guildhall on April 9, 2005. With Camilla by his side, Charles appears more relaxed and many times during royal events she has cajoled and encouraged him to try something new or have some fun. Now the late Queen's wishes have bestowed upon Camilla the ultimate accolade in recognition of her importance to Charles and the monarchy. When the late Queen announced the news that Camilla would become the future Queen Consort in 2022, a Clarence House spokesperson said Charles and Camilla were 'touched and honoured' by the gesture, which ended years of uncertainty over the Duchess of Cornwall's role in the future of the monarchy Advertisement The late Queen wrote at the time: 'When, in the fullness of time, my son Charles becomes King, I know you will give him and his wife Camilla the same support that you have given me; and it is my sincere wish that, when that time comes, Camilla will be known as Queen Consort as she continues her own loyal service.' Charles and Camilla were 'touched and honoured' by the Queen's gesture, Clarence House said when the statement was made public. It marked a public acceptance of a marriage that had its first embers of lust in youth and was officially confirmed on a night out at The Ritz in 1999, when the then Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles, in middle age, enjoyed a night out together. With a flash of cameras signaling their relationship would be front page news the next morning, Camilla looked more than a little hesitant - but over the decades that have followed, she has proved a constant support to the new King, and won over the royal family including the Queen. Example: The new Queen Consort is likely to look to the way the late Duke of Edinburgh conducted himself in supporting the Queen during her lengthy reign (Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall on Commonwealth Day at Westminster Abbey in 2017) The close couple have grown ever more united as they face the biggest roles of their lives (Pictured in April 2019) The pomp and ceremony of official engagements are something that Queen Camilla has adapted to with aplomb (Pictured during an international tour of Egypt) A blueprint for consort life: The late Duke of Edinburgh offered a masterclass in supporting the Queen without taking the limelight away from her, something the new Queen Consort will look to emulate (Prince Philip and Camilla at the Queen's 90th birthday celebrations in 2016) Increasingly confident, Camilla has become an assured royal host when staging events at Clarence House and confidently represented the late Queen when invited to foreign lands in recent decades. Now, she will likely look to the way the Duke of Edinburgh provided support to Queen Elizabeth II as guidance for the new role she's taking on as she approaches her late Seventies. Prince Philip offered a blueprint for consort life, offering a masterclass in supporting the Queen without ever taking the spotlight from her, something the new Queen Consort will now look to emulate. Increasingly confident, Camilla has been a supportive confidante to Prince Charles (left and right, at their home of Birkhall in 2020 and 2021) A recent college graduate has detailed her experience of getting scammed by a LinkedIn job posting that promised her the social media management job she had always dreamed of - only for her to discover it was actually a con to steal her money. Callie Heim, 22, from Baltimore, Maryland, graduated from Towson University last May and was excited to begin her job search, but was quickly disheartened when her 'perfect' job turned out to be a nightmare. In a series of TikTok videos, which have garnered over 200,000 views collectively, Callie detailed how she was swindled through the fake job listing while offering advice to others so that they can avoid the same fate. Callie Heim, 22, from Baltimore, Maryland, took to TikTok to reveal she was scammed by a fraud LinkedIn job posing as a real company She explained in a series of viral videos that she applied to the job through easy apply because it seemed like the perfect job but was 'too good to be true' The scammers were posing as driving tech company Waymo and used messaging platform Wire to conduct a fake interview and offer Callie a job The 22-year-old began by applying to an array of different jobs through LinkedIn's easy apply option and was ecstatic when she finally received an interview from what she believed to be driving technology company Waymo. In the beginning of video, Callie admitted: 'It was humbling and really embarrassing. 'I've been wanting to make a video about it for a whileI've decided I want to do that now to spread awareness and so this doesn't happen to somebody else.' She then explains that while applying to jobs, she came across what she thought was the perfect job. She noted it had great benefits, flexible hours and wonderful pay. Callie applied through easy apply and received an interview request a few days later. To conduct the interview, the recent college graduate explained that the company asked her to download the messaging app Wire. While reflecting back to the experience in her video, she admitted that it was the first of many red flags. Callie didn't pay much attention to the odd request at the time because the company claimed they were a 'futuristic' company, so they were straying away from the cookie-cutter ways of conducting interviews. During the interview, Callie noted the company promised her a phone, printer and laptop for work and even asked her specific questions about social media management. 'I'm excited. They pretty much gave me the job after a day of talking to them further which, again, is a red flag, but at the time I didn't realize,' she said in her video. In her first follow-up video, she explained that her boyfriend helped her realize it was a scam since she was blinded by her excitement. Callie admitted: 'It was humbling and really embarrassing. 'I've been wanting to make a video about it for a whileI've decided I want to do that now to spread awareness' To conduct the interview, the recent college graduate explained that the company asked her to download the messaging app Wire, which she said should've been the first red flag During the interview, Callie noted the company promised her a phone, printer and laptop for work and even asked her specific questions about social media management She explained: 'It's not LinkedIn's fault. 'Somebody was impersonating an HR person from a company that already had a job posting on LinkedIn so they literally made their account look exactly like that one so it looked very legit.' She added that the job 'seemed too good to be true,' but was naive. After formally being offered the job, the company requested Callie send over her bank information such as her routing number and account number as well as her personal identification forms. Once she sent over her private information, the company requested she purchase a laptop, promising to reimburse her after the fact. 'Immediately the alarm bells started going off. However, I was so excited about this job that I was like ''hmmm, let me see it through''.' Although Callie had yet to purchase the laptop, the company sent her the check promising to reimburse her for her purchase, a check which she said was clearly 'photoshopped.' After receiving the check, Callie alerted her boyfriend Tommy Gould, 24, who works in cybersecurity. Tommy took a closer look at the job listing and after a bit of research, he found out that Callie wasn't the first to have been fooled by the fraud job listing, adding that it was a well-known scam. The Wire site even gives a warning of the scam, the warning reads: 'The most frequent scam we are aware of that involves Wire is a job applications scam. 'Fraudsters impersonate large organizations and offer jobs or interviews over messaging platforms such as Wire. 'Most often the victim is someone who would become a remote working employee. However, once the company asked the 22-year-old to purchase a laptop and promised to reimburse her by sending her a check, she alerted her boyfriend who found out it was a scam The Wire site even gives a warning of the scam, the warning reads: 'The most frequent scam we are aware of that involves Wire is a job applications scam' Callie ended the viral series by noting that not only did the experience dishearten her, but it was also embarrassing as she had already told her friends and family about her new job 'They get offered the job and are then asked to buy a laptop and mobile through a portal that is setup by the fraudster under the promise that they will be reimbursed when joining the company. 'The reality is that there is no job, the interviewee never receives the laptop or mobile, and the fraudster has collected the money and closed their Wire account.' Callie ended the viral series by noting that not only did the experience dishearten her, but it was also embarrassing as she had already told her friends, family and LinkedIn connections about her new job. 'It was definitely humbling because I had already posted on LinkedIn and was like ''oh, this is my new job.'' All my old coworkers and everyone was like ''oh congrats!'' she said. 'Yeah. It was very embarrassing.' She added: 'They definitely didn't financially scam me but they did emotionally scam me. 'The way I was so excited for that jobThe best thing that could've happened to me is I get a job fresh out of college.' She then explained that she had closed her bank account after realizing the job was a fraud and luckily hadn't sent over her social security number,. Users were quick to rush to the 22-year-old's side as they offered their support and advice as she continues her job search. Users were quick to rush to the 22-year-old's side as they offered their support and advice as she continues her job search One user said: 'Job process is stressful enough - and now we have to worry about scammers?! Im so sorry' Another added: 'You need to freeze your credit. In case they try to open up accounts under your name.' 'They cant access your money just from having your account info, but make sure you freeze your credit or sign up for Norton or other ID protection,' said another user. One user wrote: 'I had a crazy job situation happen to me about 4 years ago - a much better one came along and I've been there since. Don't worry its coming love.' 'No Im so sorry. Thank you for sharing this it helps more than you know,' added one user. Jenna Bush Hager was overcome with emotion as she revealed on the Today show Thursday that her scheduled interview with Camilla, now Queen Consort, was postponed just hours before the announcement of Queen Elizabeth II's death. The host, 40, filmed the live segment outside of Dumfries House in Scotland, where she was supposed to speak with the former Duchess of Cornwall about her online book club, The Reading Room. Bush Hager said they were 'about 30 minutes away from sitting down together' when she was told that Camilla and Prince Charles who is now King Charles III had flown to Balmoral Castle to be with his mother, Queen Elizabeth, after doctors became concerned about her health. Jenna Bush Hager, 40, was overcome with emotion as she revealed on the Today show Thursday that her interview with Camilla, now Queen Consort, was postponed The host said they were 'about 30 minutes away from sitting down together' when she was told Camilla and Prince Charles - now King Charles III - had flown to Balmoral Castle to be with his mother, Queen Elizabeth 'Our hearts are with not only their family but also all of those that have loved this Queen for decades and decades,' she said. 'As you all know, she is a beloved figure. She's worked with 15 prime ministers. She's just been this cornerstone of steadiness, not only for this country but for her family.' The announcement of Queen Elizabeth II's death was made just hours after Bush Hager's interview was canceled 'My heart breaks, too,' she added. 'In so many ways, we see her as this incredible political figure, but she's a mother, she's a grandmother, she's a great-grandmother, and now she has her family by her bedside.' All of Queen Elizabeth's children had rushed to Balmoral to be with her on Thursday. Hours later she died, surrounded by her family. The monarch's death was confirmed at 6:30 p.m. UK time. 'The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow,' a Buckingham Palace spokesman said. Bush Hager stressed during the segment that the royals have 'packed' schedules, and it is incredibly rare for them to drop everything like they did that day. 'For them to clear their schedules completely, it is something they do not do lightly. It's disappointing, and now you see the rain coming down here in Scotland,' she said. 'As you witness the public walking around here, there is a very somber tone.' Reporting live from Dumfries House in Scotland, @JennaBushHager provided updates on the "very somber tone" in the U.K. pic.twitter.com/yXdJbRtWnc TODAY (@TODAYshow) September 8, 2022 Charles, the former Prince of Whales, was seen leaving Dumfries House and heading to Balmoral as he and his siblings raced to be by their mother's side in her final moments Bush Hager shared that she did get to spend time with Charles at Dumfries House the night before. She explained that Camilla was supposed to be with them, but her flight was delayed. 'We had a terrific conversation, which I'm going to keep to myself,' she said. 'He loves his parents, both of them, and has spoken in great admiration of his family and his mother and his father. Queen Elizabeth's husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, died of old age on April 9, 2021, at the age of 99. 'Public grieving is a really difficult thing. The whole UK's heart is breaking for this family,' Bush Hager said. 'I think so many times we see them as this institution, you know, as the royals, but as I spent time with Prince Charles, he's much more. He's a man who I'm sure is hurting terrifically today.' Bush Hager shared that she had a 'terrific conversation' with Charles the night before. 'He's a man who I'm sure is hurting terrifically today,' she said 'Public grieving is a really difficult thing. The whole UK's heart is breaking for this family,' Bush Hager,' Bush Hager explained King Charles is pictured with his mother, Queen Elizabeth, at Westminster Abbey in 2020 The Queen's death will see Britain and her Commonwealth realms enter into a ten-day period of mourning as millions of her subjects in the UK and abroad come to terms with her passing. Her coffin will be moved to London on the royal train via Edinburgh before she lies in state in Westminster Hall in the Houses of Parliament for four days. Hundreds of thousands of people will be able to pay their respects. The state funeral is expected to take place at Westminster Abbey in central London on Monday, September 19, which will be attended by her bereft family, as well as 2,000 heads of state, prime ministers, presidents, European royals, and key public figures from around the globe. A Buckingham Palace spokesman said Queen Elizabeth 'died peacefully at Balmoral' on Thursday, September 8 King Charles III released this poignant statement reacting to the death of his 'beloved mother' as he took the throne today Queen Elizabeth's death was announced at 6:30 p.m. UK time on Thursday via the Royal Family's official Twitter account As King Charles, the former Prince of Wales, accedes the throne, there will also be a celebration of Queen Elizabeth's historic 70-year reign. Earlier this year, she celebrated her Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years of service, a landmark unlikely to be reached again by a British monarch. 'The death of my beloved mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family,' King Charles said on Thursday. 'We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished sovereign and a much-loved mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world. 'During this period of mourning and change, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which the Queen was so widely held.' But while Her Majesty kept the door to reconciliation firmly propped open, even in the final weeks of her life, will the other royals have the same unwavering patience now that she has passed? Advertisement The Queen's first transatlantic 'special relationship' was when, as a 25-year-old princess, she met President Harry S Truman in 1951. In the 71 years since then she forged cordial relations with no fewer than 13 US Presidents going horse riding with Ronald Reagan, and sending Dwight Eisenhower her recipe for drop scones. When Michelle Obama felt moved, against protocol, to put an arm around the Queen's shoulder, she wrote that the Monarch, unoffended 'pulled closer, resting a gloved hand lightly on the small of my back.' Even Donald Trump's own breach of protocol walking ahead of the Queen didn't ruffle her in the slightest. If she was ever offended, or annoyed, she most certainly never showed it. But surely the most difficult, the most testing, of all her transatlantic dealings were the last, troubled years with Prince Harry and his wife Meghan who, as of 2020, have set up a home in a $14.65 million mansion in Montecito, California, thousands of miles away from the royal family. A lesser stateswoman, a lesser person, might have taken offence at their extraordinary interview with Oprah, given that her husband was gravely ill in hospital and a few weeks from death at the time - but not the Queen. During her 70-year reign, the Queen forged cordial relations with no fewer than 13 US Presidents, however it was her relationship with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle that would turn out to be her toughest transatlantic tussle At first, it seemed as though Meghan, now 41, might enjoy the same cordial relationship with Her Majesty as Prince Harry - who was known to share a wicked sense of humor with the Queen. They are seen together left in 2005, while Meghan is pictured right with the Monarch in 2018 Instead she formulated the devastatingly fair rejoinder, 'recollections may vary', after an unnamed family member was sensationally accused of being racist, while it was alleged others had deprived Meghan of her voice, of making her cry, and of failing to help her when she was suicidal. Even as her health faded this summer, and in the shadow of Prince Harry's forthcoming memoir, Her Majesty reportedly extended an invitation to the couple to visit her in Balmoral. It was not taken up. At the Platinum Jubilee in June she appeared to be determined not to allow the fractious relations between Prince Harry and his brother Prince William to play any part, receiving Harry at Windsor and meeting for the first time her great-granddaughter and namesake Lilibet. However it later emerged that tensions had arisen between the Sussexes and the rest of the royal family ahead of their May 2018 wedding, when Harry is reported to have had an unedifying squabble with Angela Kelly, the Queen's dresser and close confidante, over which tiara was to be offered to his bride She is also thought to have been the one who decided that at the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral in 2021, the men should wear lounge suits rather than military uniforms, in order not to wound Harry, who would otherwise have been the only senior royal not in uniform, having been stripped of his military titles following his exit from the royal family. A woman of deep Christian faith, she endured numerous public slights without ever being roused to anger. The Sussexes famously once sniped, 'We can all live a life of service service is universal,' after the decision was taken to remove their royal patronages. There could hardly have been a more direct insult to the Queen's lifetime of duty and yet she made no response. Silence and kindness were her way. Initially, the omens for Her Majesty's relationship with Harry and Meghan were promising. It appeared that the Queen was welcoming Meghan into the family warmly. A few weeks after their wedding, Meghan joined the Queen for an engagement in Cheshire. They spent the night on the royal train together beforehand. It was clear that they got on both were animated and laughing all day. It had been a full year after Prince William's wedding before the Queen did her first engagement with a solo Kate Middleton, but then Meghan was different older, and certainly more confident that Kate. As a successful actress, she conducted herself with aplomb at all times. It later emerged, though, that there had been tensions behind the scenes before that point. Prince Harry was said to have had an unedifying squabble with Angela Kelly, the Queen's dresser and close confidante, over which tiara was to be offered to his bride before their 2018 wedding. Her Majesty's delight upon the arrival of baby Archie in May 2019 was plain, as was her warmth towards Meghan's mother Doria, present at that photo call in Windsor A lesser stateswoman, a lesser person, might have taken offence at the Sussexes' extraordinary interview with Oprah in March 2021, given that her husband was gravely ill in hospital and a few weeks from death at the time - but not the Queen The Queen (seen left with Harry in 2013) is thought to have been the one who decided that at the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral in 2021, the men should wear lounge suits rather than military uniforms, in order not to wound Harry In an interview, Finding Freedom author - and Harry and Meghan's unofficial media mouthpiece - Omid Scobie claimed that Harry had called his grandmother and said: 'I don't know what the hell is going on. This woman needs to make this work for my future wife.' Sources close to Harry claimed that this was not true, and denied that Harry had raised his voice, although Scobie remains the Sussexes' number one media cheerleader. For her part, the Queen was said to have coolly told Harry: 'She gets what she is given.' History may judge that the Queen struggled to understand Meghan, who wanted to represent a new generation and to work in new ways, espousing causes that mattered to her. Her Majesty was probably unfitted to that task, both by inclination and upbringing. While Meghan carries out her good works via the public exercise of empathy, the Queen's approach is entirely opposite. It's often said that the Queen 'adored' Harry and no doubt she did. They are pictured together in 2003 Her delight upon the arrival of baby Archie in May 2019 was plain, though, as was her warmth towards Meghan's mother Doria, present at that photo call in Windsor. It was reported that the Queen offered the title of the Earl of Dumbarton for the baby, but that it was turned down by the Sussexes on the grounds that it might lead to him being bullied. The inclusion of the word 'dumb' in it apparently sat poorly with them both. In a statement at the time the couple said that he would not have a courtesy title and would be known simply as Archie Mountbatten-Windsor. This was later weaponized when Meghan told Oprah: 'They didn't want him to be a prince...' which would be different from protocol, and that he wasn't going to receive security. She added: 'We have in tandem the conversation of, "He won't be given security. He's not going to be given a title." And also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he's born.' The Queen could have pointed out that only the oldest children of the Prince of Wales are princes and princesses which is the case. Archie would never have been a prince. But the misapprehension was allowed generously to stand, and the Queen absorbed the flack. Why? It's often said that the Queen 'adored' Harry and no doubt she did. That said, her favorite grandson is reliably said to be Princess Anne's son Peter Phillips a rugby-, dog- and horse-loving young man, who is very straightforward where Harry is complex, and easy-going where Harry is angry. He, of course, hasn't emerged like Harry through the terrible trauma of his mother's early death, and dealings with Harry always seem to have been conducted through the prism of guilt over the family's failings during this period. At the Platinum Jubilee in June the Queen appeared to be determined not to allow the fractious relations between Harry and his brother William to play any part, receiving Harry at Windsor and meeting for the first time her great-granddaughter and namesake Lilibet It had been suggested that the Queen's passing might help to mend the rift between Harry and the rest of his family, however early signs indicate that this may never happen; the Duke traveled alone to Balmoral Castle on Thursday - and arrived in Scotland 15 minutes after the news of Her Majesty's passing was announced. He departed just 12 hours later Prince Harry was beyond a doubt traumatized by being asked to walk behind his mother's coffin. The Queen's husband, Prince Philip, offered to walk too in order to bolster the boys, but history may judge that it was the wrong decision. Could it be that the Queen recognized the part that the royal family played in damaging Harry, and sought to heal those wounds; to be wrong but right? We will never know for sure. And what of Megxit? Faced with the reality of her grandson determined to forge a new life outside the family, free to earn his own money, how well did the Queen play her cards? She met him personally, quietly, before the Sandringham summit and what came out was a compromise which would delight the finest diplomat. Harry got his freedom, and she insisted that he couldn't use the word Royal, and had to give up his patronages. He was, she insisted a 'much loved' member of the family and always would be. Now that she has gone, though, the family may dread all the more what will follow. It had been suggested, even hoped perhaps, by several royal insiders that the Queen's passing might help to mend the rift between Harry and the rest of his family, however early signs indicate that this may never happen. The Duke of Sussex traveled alone to Balmoral Castle on Thursday - and arrived in Scotland 15 minutes after the news of Her Majesty's passing was announced to the world. It is understood he was still in the air and by himself when the announcement was made. His grief over the news was etched across his face when he stepped off his Cessna plane and into a waiting car. However, on Friday morning, he also became the first member of the family to leave Scotland, having departed his late grandmother's beloved summer retreat approximately 12 hours after he arrived in order to return to London, where he is expected to reunite with his wife Meghan - who made an eleventh-hour decision not to join her husband on the trip to Balmoral. The question that now lingers in the wake of the Queen's death is whether the door will be forever shut to Harry and Meghan - having been propped open by Her Majesty for so long, even in the final weeks of her life. It remains unclear whether the members of King Charles III's so-called 'slimmed-down' Monarchy - which includes Harry's brother Prince William, his wife Kate Middleton, and the Queen's long-time confidante Sophie Wessex - and will have the same unwavering patience, despite Charles' thoughtful olive branch to his youngest son and Meghan as he expressed 'my love for Harry and Meghan as they continue to build their lives overseas' in his first address to the nation. Fans of the Broadway musical Funny Girl are in an uproar over Lea Michele being given a sexier finale costume after she replaced Beanie Feldstein as Fanny Brice in the revival show. When Michele, 36, took the stage at the end of her first performance on Tuesday, she was modeling a slinky red beaded dress that bared her arms. The design was completely different than the modest billowy-sleeved version worn by Feldstein, 29. TikTok user Alaina Noelle compared the two looks in a viral video, prompting viewers to accuse the show's producers of 'fatphobia' in the comments. 'It took no more than three seconds to remove the sleeves for Fannys final dress after Beanie left,' she said. 'And you can say whatever you want about it, but as a bigger-bodied person, it was noticed, felt, and noted.' Fans of the Broadway musical Funny Girl were quick to notice that Lea Michele (left) was given a sexier Fanny Brice costume after she replaced Beanie Feldstein (right) Feldstein, who left the production in July, wore a billowy-sleeved dress for the finale At the end of Michele's first performance on Tuesday, she stepped on stage wearing a skimpier, sleeveless version of the look Alaina's video has been viewed more than 270,000 times since it was posted on Wednesday, and a number of commenters agreed with her. 'Holy... I went back and looked at Beanie's dress and it isn't even in the same concept. That's a whole other dress. Oh my god,' one person wrote. 'OKAY THIS I WAS WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO BRING THIS UP. Beanie deserves so much and deserved SO MUCH BETTER,' someone else shared. '[Producers] immediately changed the wardrobe after she left to make it more [conventionally] pretty. Might as well tweeted out that they need to cover plus size people,' Alaina responded. TikTok user Alaina Noelle pointed out the difference in a viral video, saying: 'It took no more than three seconds to remove the sleeves for Fannys final dress' Other critics have accused the show's producers of 'fatphobia' over the costume change Feldstein left the production in July, and her understudy July Benko took over until Michele's return to Broadway this week. Some people pointed out that the sleeves of Benko's dress were also removed. 'My heart goes out to you. As a costume professional I noticed immediately and was livid,' one person noted. 'They removed the sleeves a week ago for Julie and I knew....' Others argued that it was possible Michele and Feldstein has requested their specific costumes, but not everyone was buying that theory. Another TikTok user named Lily went viral after duetting Alaina's video about Michele's costume upgrade. Another TikTok user named Lily went viral after duetting Alaina's video. 'Shorten the sleeves, shorten the dress, because bodies are meant to be celebrated, right?' she captioned the clip The conversation continued on Twitter where critics slammed production over the noticeable difference in costumes 'Shorten the sleeves, shorten the dress, because bodies are meant to be celebrated, right?' she captioned the clip, which has been viewed more than 1.6 million times. The conversation continued on Twitter where critics shared their outrage over the noticeable difference in costumes. 'I know theres a lot of talk about Funny Girl, but theres something that I think might be seen as a small detail to some but is an important discussion; Fannys finale dress,' Los Angeles Times journalist Carolyn Burt tweeted. 'After Beanie left the production, so did the sleeves. And with Leas debut comes a new cut as well.' 'Its fatphobic to me that Leas version of the final costume is so much better than Beanies,' another griped. Someone else had a message for the show's costume designers, writing: 'I see you putting sleeves on a plus size Fanny and removing them for a straight size Fanny...we see what you're doing.' She added she was so 'generous' in 'remaining close' even after her divorce Fergie thanked Queen for being the most 'incredible mother-in-law and friend' The Duchess of York was married to the Queen's 'favourite son' for 10 years Sarah Ferguson has paid tribute to her former mother-in-law the Queen Sarah Ferguson has paid tribute to her former mother-in-law the Queen following her death aged 96. Sarah, who was married to the Queen's 'favourite son' Prince Andrew for 10 years, praised the Queen as a 'fantastic example of duty and service and steadfastness.' On a personal note, she thanked the Queen for being 'the most incredible mother-in-law and friend', adding: 'I will always be grateful to her for the generosity she showed me in remaining close to me even after my divorce.' Sarah Ferguson has paid tribute to her former mother-in-law the Queen following her death aged 96 Sarah, who was married to the Queen's 'favourite son' Prince Andrew for 10 years, praised the Queen as a 'fantastic example of duty and service and steadfastness.' Pictured, at the Braemar Highland Games in 1990 The Duchess of York looked serious as she left Venice yesterday, following a glitzy appearance at the film festival Andrew, Edward, his wife Sophie, and William all flew in from Berkshire via private jet to Aberdeen yesterday as they dashed to Balmoral to see her. But it is understood that they did not make it in time Sarah Ferguson continues to live at the Royal Lodge in Windsor with her estranged husband Prince Andrew. The Duke of York was among the senior royals who rushed to Balmoral yesterday after receiving word the Queen's health was deteriorating. Following news of the Queen's death, Fergie wrote: 'I am heartbroken by the passing of Her Majesty the Queen. 'She leaves behind an extraordinary legacy: the most fantastic example of duty and service and steadfastness, and a constant steadying presence as our head of state for more than 70 years. 'She has given her whole life selflessly to the people of the UK and the Commonwealth. 'To me, she was the most incredible mother-in-law and friend. I will always be grateful to her for the generosity she showed me in remaining close to me even after my divorce. I will miss her more than words can express.' The Duchess of York who divorced the Duke of York in 1996, has sparked a raft of royal scandals over the years, but said the monarch was her 'greatest mentor' and had always believed in her. The Queen has suffered from mobility issues in recent times and was pictured using a cane on Tuesday as she welcomed the new prime minister, Liz Truss, to Balmoral to formally ask her to form a government Speaking on the Tea with Twiggy podcast as she promoted her Mills & Boon romance novel Her Heart For A Compass, the duchess paid tribute to the Queen for being 'modern, flexible and forgiving.' Sarah compared their relationship to the one she had with her own mother Susan Barrantes, who passed away in September 1998, saying: 'I think to myself that honestly my mother-in-law has been more of a mother to me than my mother.' She continued: 'My greatest mentor and... person who believes in me is the Queen - and has never faltered. 'I absolutely admire the incredible way Her Majesty is so modern... and how flexible, and how understanding, and how forgiving and how generous.' Sarah Ferguson, 61, has described the Queen, 95, as more of a mother to her than her own was while speaking on a podcast Yesterday Buckingham Palace released a statement confirming the Queen was under medical supervision after doctors became concerned for her health. The statement added Her Majesty was 'comfortable' and would remain at Balmoral. Following the announcement Prince Charles and Camilla travelled to the estate in the Scottish Highlands, followed by Prince William. The Queen's younger children Prince Andrew and Prince Edward also travelled to Balmoral, while Princess Anne was already there. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who are visiting the UK this week, pulled out of an appearance at the WellChild Awards in London this evening as the Duke of Sussex also travels to Balmoral. The 96-year-old monarch, who celebrated 70 years on the throne this year in the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, has suffered with mobility problems. In recent appearances she has been pictured walking with a cane and was pictured using the mobility aid on Tuesday, when new prime minister Liz Truss travelled to 'kiss hands' - a process in which the Monarch formally invites the new leader of the country to form a government. Advertisement Members of the royal family are seeing a title change following the death of Britain's longest reigning monarch, The Queen. Britain is today mourning the death of its beloved Monarch, the Queen. After a remarkable 70 years on the throne, the country's longest-reigning royal yesterday died 'peacefully', aged 96, at Balmoral in Scotland. Her death sparked an immediate and huge outpouring of emotion, with thousands of heartbroken mourners gathering outside the gates of Buckingham Palace and other royal buildings yesterday evening. But her death has also sparked a change in title for a number of royal family members, including the former Prince of Wales, now King Charles III, and the Duke of Cambridge, now Duke of Cornwall and Prince of Wales. Some titles were automatically altered upon the death of the Queen due to the changing in the line of succession, such as Prince Charles becoming King and Archie Mountbatten-Windsor becoming a prince. However other titles were only be inherited once bestowed by Prince Charles. Although King Charles announced a title change for Prince William, Prince Edward may yet still become Duke of Edinburgh. Here is how the royal familys titles have changed following the death of the Queen: Members of the royal family are seeing a title change following the death of Britain's longest reigning monarch, The Queen Charles WAS: Prince of Wales NOW: King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Members of the royal family are seeing a title change following the death of Britain's longest reigning monarch, the Queen. Formerly Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, has become King Charles III Charles, who was the Prince of Wales, is now King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. He is also King of other Commonwealth realms. His style is His Majesty rather than His Royal Highness. He is now king, and will be known by the regnal name of King Charles III, Clarence House has confirmed. As his full name is Charles Philip Arthur George there was a chance that he could have opted to use one of these names instead. Charles is also Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governor of the Church of England. Charles is now the Duke of Lancaster. As the new King, Charles will be front-and-centre of the new-look monarchy. Alongside his reported desire to slim-down the size of the family, the biggest immediate change will be his residence. The former Prince of Wales's official residence has been Clarence House, on The Mall in the City of Westminster, since 2003. While the Queen's official residence has been Buckingham Palace, she spent much of her time at her favoured Windsor Castle following the death of her beloved Prince Philip. According to royal biographer Penny Junor in her book 'The Firm', the Queen wanted to remain living at Clarence House after her father's death, but was convinced by Winston Churchill to move to Buckingham Palace - because of its significance as the home of the monarch. It is believed Kings Charles will follow in his mother's footsteps and move into Buckingham Palace. Camilla WAS: Duchess of Cornwall and Princess of Wales NOW: Queen Consort Camilla is, as the wife of the King, the Queen. Her style is now Her Majesty rather than Her Royal Highness (pictured, earlier this week in Scotland) Camilla is, as the wife of the King, the Queen. Her style is now Her Majesty rather than Her Royal Highness. Camilla will now become Queen Consort after the Queen gave this approval. It is the title used by the Queen Mother, rather than a Queen Regnant who rules in her own right, such as Elizabeth II. Technically, Charles's wife, Camilla Parker-Bowles, has been the Princess of Wales until now, but she has used the feminine equivalent of Charles's Duke of Cornwall title, the Duchess of Cornwall. The Duchess of Cornwall is thought to not use the Princess of Wales title out of respect for Charles's ex-wife Princess Diana, who died in Paris in August 1997. William WAS: Duke of Cambridge NOW: Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge. He will also become Prince of Wales The Duke of Cambridge, as heir to the throne, is now the Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge. As Charless eldest son, he has inherited the title the Duke of Cornwall (pictured) The Duke of Cambridge, as heir to the throne, is now the Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge. As Charless eldest son, he has inherited the title the Duke of Cornwall. William will, at some stage, be given the title the Prince of Wales - which is traditionally used for the male heir to the throne. Since the Prince of Wales title isn't Charles's per se, but rather given to the heir apparent, he will vacate it the moment he ascends to the throne. However, there is no automatic succession to the Prince of Wales title - the heir apparent has to be created Prince of Wales by the monarch. The title is only 'merged in the crown' and renewed at the Sovereign's pleasure - which is why Charles became the 21st Prince of Wales not on the day of his birth, but rather aged nine in 1958. He was only 'invested' - in the ceremony acknowledging the creation of a new Prince of Wales - 11 years later in 1969. The same stands for the Earl of Chester. William has also inherited the Scottish titles the Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland. Kate WAS: Duchess of Cambridge NOW: The Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge. She will also become Princess of Wales The Duchess of Cambridge is now the Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge. When William becomes the Prince of Wales as expected, she will become Princess of Wales The Duchess of Cambridge is now the Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge. When William becomes the Prince of Wales as expected, Kate will become the Princess of Wales - last used by Williams mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, when she was married to Charles. Camilla was also technically the Princess of Wales but never used the title because of its association with Diana. Kate will also hold the title the Countess of Chester, if William becomes the Earl of Chester. She is also now the Duchess of Rothesay in Scotland - also previously Camillas title. George, Charlotte & Louis WERE: Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis NOW: Prince George of Cornwall and Cambridge, Princess Charlotte of Cornwall and Cambridge, and Prince Louis of Cornwall and Cambridge. WILL BECOME: Prince George of Wales, Princess Charlotte of Wales and Prince Louis of Wales William and Kates children have become Prince George of Cornwall and Cambridge, Princess Charlotte of Cornwall and Cambridge, and Prince Louis of Cornwall and Cambridge William and Kates children have become Prince George of Cornwall and Cambridge, Princess Charlotte of Cornwall and Cambridge, and Prince Louis of Cornwall and Cambridge. They will eventually become of Wales when William is the Prince of Wales. Looking further ahead to when Prince William is on the throne, Prince George will become the 28th Prince of Wales. Meanwhile, Princess Charlotte will become Princess Royal. Archie WAS: Archie Mountbatten-Windsor NOW: Prince Archie Mountbatten-Windsor The Duke and Duchess of Sussexs children Archie and Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor are now technically a prince and princess due to rules set out by King George V in 1917 The Duke and Duchess of Sussexs son Archie Mountbatten-Windsor is now technically a prince due to rules set out by King George V in 1917. Archie is technically history's first Prince of Sussex. When Archie was born he was too far down the line of succession for such a title according to George Vs restrictions, but now, as the son of a son of a sovereign, he can be an HRH and a prince. Archie was allowed to become Earl of Dumbarton, one of the dukes subsidiary titles, when he was born, or could have been known as Lord Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, but Buckingham Palace said his parents had decided he should be plain Master Archie instead. During the explosive Oprah Winfrey interview, Meghan Markle described her 'pain' as she claimed officials had denied Archie the title of prince and accused Buckingham Palace of failing to protect him by denying him 24/7 security. When asked if it was 'important' for Meghan that Archie be called a prince, she said she doesn't have any attachment to the 'grandeur' of official titles. But she said it was about 'the idea of our son not being safe, and also the idea of the first member of colour in this family not being titled in the same way that other grandchildren would be.' In 2021, it was suggested Charles - in a bid to limit the number of key royals - intended, when he became king, to prevent Archie becoming a prince. To do so, he will have to issue a Letters Patent amending Archies right to be a prince. What is the George V convention? In 1917, the Queen's grandfather issued new letters patent that limited the number of royal family members with an HRH title. These stated that 'the children of any Sovereign of these Realms and the children of the sons of any such Sovereign and the eldest living son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales shall have and at all times hold and enjoy the style, title or attribute of Royal Highness with their titular dignity of Prince or Princess prefixed to their respective Christian names or with their other titles of honour'. In 1917, the Queen's grandfather issued new letters patent that limited the number of royal family members with an HRH title This means that when Prince Charles became King, his grandchildren - including Archie - automatically became princes or princesses. It was also decreed that 'grandchildren of the sons of any such Sovereign in the direct male line ... shall have and enjoy in all occasions the style and title enjoyed by the children of Dukes of these Our Realms' (i.e., Lord or Lady before their Christian name).' In addition the letters stated 'save as aforesaid the style title or attribute of Royal Highness, Highness or Serene Highness and the titular dignity of Prince or Princess shall not henceforth be assumed or borne by any descendant of any Sovereign of these Realms. Advertisement Until that potentially happens, Archie remains a prince, whether his parents choose to use the title or not. If it does not happen, Archie continues to technically be HRH Prince Archie of Sussex. Meghan argued in the Sussexes' bombshell interview with US talk show host Oprah Winfrey that Archie was not given the title of prince because of his race. Meghan said she and Harry wanted Archie to be a prince so he would have security and be protected. But being a prince or princess does not automatically mean royals have police bodyguards paid for by the taxpayer, and the Sussexes have chosen to live in the US. However, when Archie was born seventh in line to the throne in May 2019, he was too far down the line of succession. Although he was a great-grandchild of the monarch, he was not a first-born son of a future king, so was not automatically a prince. He could have previously used the courtesy title Earl of Dumbarton, or been Lord Archie Mountbatten-Windsor. But Buckingham Palace said the duke and duchess made a personal decision that he should be plain Master Archie Mountbatten-Windsor instead. A royal source said following Archie's arrival that the couple had chosen not to give him a courtesy title 'at this time'. Meghan told Oprah that, when she was pregnant with Archie, an unnamed member of the royal family had raised 'concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he's born'. The Sussexes stopped using their own HRH styles after stepping down as senior working royals for a life in Los Angeles, and there were later calls for their duke and duchess titles to be removed. If Harry and Meghan decide that Archie and Lili will be known as a prince and a princess, this will stand in direct contrast to how Harry has always spoken about the burden of having a title. He repeatedly stressed the importance of wanting to be seen as normal and confessed in 2017 that he once 'wanted out' of the royal family - a wish that became a reality in 2020. The former soldier said the time he spent in the Army, when he was 'just Harry', was 'the best escape I've ever had' and he had considered giving up his title. Royal author Penny Junor said: 'He would have dearly liked to have been a normal boy growing up, and found his title very difficult.' Lilibet WAS: Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor NOW: Princess Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor Archies younger sister Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor is now technically a princess. If she uses the title, she will be HRH Princess Lili of Sussex. She is the first Princess of Sussex. Like Archie, Charles would have to issue a Letters Patent to remove this. The Duke and Duchess of Sussexs titles will not change. The couple have stopped using their HRH styles, but they still retain them. Edward WAS: Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex COULD BECOME: Prince Edward, the Duke of Edinburgh Prince Edward has been Earl of Wessex up till now. However, he could become Duke of Edinburgh following the Queen's death - if Prince Charles chooses to bestow the title on his youngest brother Prince Edward has been Earl of Wessex up till now. However, he could become Duke of Edinburgh following the Queen's death. The royals whose titles WON'T change after the death of the Queen Princess Anne, also known as Princess Royal Prince Andrew, also known as Duke of York The Duke and Duchess of Sussex Princess Eugenie Princess Beatrice It is currently unclear whether the titles for Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor and James Mountbatten-Windsor, Viscount Severn will change. It may depend on whether their father, Prince Edward, is given the title of Duke of Edinburgh. In 2021, it was reported Prince Charles was considering whether to grant the title to Edward, or leave it in abeyance. If Edward did inherit the Edinburgh title, it would then pass to his own son, James, Viscount Severn, who is being raised to expect a life outside the Royal Family. Advertisement The dukedom was expected to be passed to Edward after Buckingham Palace announced in 1999 that he would succeed his father 'in due course' with both his parents' blessing. He was instead granted the Earl of Wessex title by the Queen after his marriage to Sophie Rhys-Jones that same year. But upon Prince Philip's death in April this year at age 99 the title immediately reverted to Philip's eldest son, Charles, in line with royal tradition set out in the Letters Patent issued when George VI gave Philip the title in 1947. It was reported last year that Charles was deciding whether to grant the title to Edward, another member of his family, or leave it in abeyance. He was said to be considering breaking the 1999 pledge as he assessed his own future, The Sunday Times said. A source told the publication: 'The prince is the Duke of Edinburgh as it stands, and it is up to him what happens to the title. It will not go to Edward.' And another said: 'Edinburgh won't go to them (the Wessexes) as far as the prince is concerned.' The Duke of Edinburgh title will merge with the crown upon Charles' eventual accession to the throne meaning that it can be regranted anew to Edward. The initial decision to give Edward the title was taken in recognition of his work with, and commitment to, the Duke of Edinburgh's Award - of which he is a trustee, as well as chairman of The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award. Philip was the sixth person - including two Dukes of Gloucester and Edinburgh - to bear the title the Duke of Edinburgh. If Edward did inherit the Edinburgh title, it would then pass to his own son, James, Viscount Severn, who is being raised to expect a life outside the Royal Family. Sophie WAS: Countess Sophie of Wessex COULD BECOME: Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh Sophie Wessex, wife of Prince Edward, has been Countess of Wessex up until the Queen's death. However if Prince Edward is granted the title of Duke of Edinburgh by Prince Charles, Sophie would become Duchess of Edinburgh Sophie Wessex, wife of Prince Edward, has been Countess of Wessex up until the Queen's death. However if Prince Edward is granted the title of Duke of Edinburgh by Prince Charles, Sophie would become Duchess of Edinburgh. It was a courtesy title which was held by the Queen following her marriage. Prince William and Kate have updated their social media profiles to reflect their new titles, the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge. As Charless eldest son, William, 40, has inherited the title the Duke of Cornwall upon the death of the Queen. William will, at some stage, be given the title the Prince of Wales - which is traditionally used for the male heir to the throne. The prince, whose father Charles is now King Charles III, was among the senior royals who rushed to Balmoral upon hearing the Queen's health was deteriorating. Prince William and Kate have updated their social media profiles to reflect their new titles, the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge William, 40, is expected to become the Prince of Wales, although this title will be conferred at a later date But this is not automatic and William needs to be created so by his father. The same stands for the Earl of Chester. William has also inherited the Scottish titles the Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland. The couple also swapped their smiling social media profile photos to their official coats of arms today in a mark of respect to the Queen. Kensington Royal, the handle of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge changed its image - which had shown the couple beaming at one another to their official royal coat of arms. Andrew, Edward, his wife Sophie, and William all flew in from Berkshire via private jet to Aberdeen yesterday as they dashed to Balmoral to see her. But it is understood that they did not make it in time The Instagram account also shared the black and white image of the Queen released by the Palace today. Meanwhile the royal family's website was updated with a statement this evening. Prince Andrew, Prince Edward, his wife Sophie, and Prince William all flew in from Berkshire via private jet to Aberdeen yesterday as they dashed to Balmoral to see her. But it is understood that they did not reach the estate before she passed. Only her eldest children, Prince Charles and Princess Anne, who were already in Scotland at the time of the Monarch's sudden turn for the worse, were able to make it to the royal estate before her death, sources said last night. The Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge remained in Windsor with her children, who had their first day at their new school. William will, at some stage, be given the title the Prince of Wales - which is traditionally used for the male heir to the throne (pictured, King Charles III, formerly Prince of Wales) Prince Harry, who was due to attend a charity event with wife Meghan in London last night, also attempted to reach Balmoral in time. But he arrived at 8pm, nearly an hour-and-a-half after the public were informed of the Queen's death. It comes as Britain is today mourning the death of its beloved Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. After a remarkable 70 years on the throne, the country's longest-reigning royal yesterday died 'peacefully', aged 96, at Balmoral in Scotland. Her death sparked an immediate and huge outpouring of emotion, with thousands of heartbroken mourners gathering outside the gates of Buckingham Palace and other royal buildings yesterday evening. At one point, a rendition of 'God Save The Queen' rang out among the mourners, followed by cheers of 'Long Live The King'. The Instagram account also shared the black and white image of the Queen released by the Palace today Others laid flowers outside Windsor Castle - where The Queen had spent much of her time following the death of her beloved husband, Prince Philip, in April last year. And in a sign of the Queen's considerable worldwide influence and appeal, royal fans laid flowers outside British embassies including in Washington, Berlin and Oslo. Even the royal household's staff were in tears yesterday, coming to terms with the loss of their much-loved boss, as well as the head of state. One said: 'However much you try to prepare yourself for this moment, it just hits you like a ton of bricks. She is irreplaceable. I just can't believe we won't see that impish smile again. There is a deep sense of shock.' The vice president of the Sandringham Women's Institute has remembered the Queen, their longest-serving member, as 'funny and kind' and recalled how she would 'take tea and cake with the ladies'. The Women's Institute(WI) was formed in 1915, designed to bring together women in rural communities and encourage women to become more involved in producing food during the First World War. Since then the organisation's aims have broadened and the WI is now the largest voluntary organisation in the UK. The Queen would travel by train to King's Lynn, Norfolk each year and would attend the winter WI meeting. Queen Elizabeth II cuts a Women's Institute Celebrating 100 Years cake at the Centenary Annual Meeting of The National Federation Of Women's Institute at the Royal Albert Hall in London Yvonne Brown, Vice Chair of the Sandringham Women's Institute reflects on the Queen - their longest serving member It was well known in the area that the Queen and Prince Phillip wouldn't take advantage of their senior discount on the train. Yvonne Brown spoke about the Queen on GMB today, saying that she was 'simply one of us'. Yvonne said of their president the Queen: 'Our condolences to their family she will be greatly missed, we are deeply saddened and shocked by the news. 'She was with us for 79 years and in January that would have been 80 years she was our longest serving member.' Yvonne recalls the Queen from their yearly meetings in Norfolk as funny, kind and caring. She said: 'I recall her coming this year for the 100th anniversary of the WI - she cut the cake and every year she would have tea and cake with the ladies.' Ben asked: 'Would she judge the cakes, say on which ones would be better? Would she comment on a Victoria sponge?' Yvonne said: 'She would look at everything on the table and say "well I would have picked that one instead" but always very humorous.' : Queen Elizabeth II leaves Sandringham House after a reception with representatives from local community groups to celebrate the start of the Platinum Jubilee, on February 5, 2022 in King's Lynn near West Necton where the WI meetings took place Queen Elizabeth II (right) leaves after attending a Sandringham Women's Institute (WI) meeting at West Newton Village Hall, Norfolk in 2019, pictured with Yvonne Brown in 2019, January 24 Queen Elizabeth II (front right) leaves after attending a Sandringham Women's Institute (WI) meeting at West Newton Village Hall, Norfolk pictured above with Vice President Yvonne Brown in 2019 Queen Elizabeth II, beside Dame Kiri Tekawana attends the St. Mary Magdalene Church Sunday morning service in Sandringham in 2020, her visits to the Norfolk estate would be where the WI meetings would take place Queen Elizabeth II arrives at West Newton Village Hall to attend a meeting of the Sandringham branch of the Women's Institute, at which Dame Penelope Keith is the guest speaker on January 22, 2015 near King's Lynn, England Yvonne said the WI 'are saddened and shocked by the news' and recall their favorite moments with the Queen in Norfolk The Queen was a huge figure for the WI, and was often pictured at meetings each year, with Yvonne describing the monarch as 'one of us'. She said: 'We always enjoyed the meetings with her in January, she was simply one of us and will be greatly missed. She would take tea with the ladies in rotation.' The Queen said of the WI during her reign: 'Women have been granted the vote, British women have climbed Everest for the first time and the country has elected its first female prime minister. 'The Women's Institute has been a constant throughout, gathering women together, encouraging them to acquire new skills and nurturing unique talents.' Prince Charles' goddaughter India Hicks has lead members of Britain's high society in paying tribute to the Queen following her death yesterday. India, who posted a number of personal photographs of her family with the Queen, wrote: '"To have known her is to have admired her," my mother told me.' She is the daughter of celebrated interior designer David Hicks and Lady Pamela Mountbatten, Prince Philip's cousin and the daughter of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma. Meanwhile Earl Spencer, 57, who lives at his family seat, Althorp House, in the Northamptonshire countryside, tweeted a snap of the Queen following the announcement of her death, having previously reposted a pray for the monarch's health. A host of other socialites went on to share tributes to the monarch, including Prince Harry's ex-girlfriend Cressida Bonas, who is believed to have met the Queen when she visited Balmoral with Harry in 2014. Prince Harry's ex-girlfriend Cressida Bonas was among those members of high society who paid tribute to the Queen on Instagram following the monarch's death yesterday She posted a snap of the royal in the grounds of her Scottish estate, writing: 'We were so blessed to have you as our Queen. Thank you.' Princess Olympia of Greece, who grew up in Chelsea and is another of Prince Charles' goddaughter, also shared a tribute online. Alongside a photograph of the Queen laughing with Prince Philip, she wrote: 'Our beautiful Queen.' The Duchess of Rutland shared a statement on behalf of her and her family, the Manners sisters, who went on to post it. Meanwhile Prince Charles' goddaughter India Hicks posted a photograph of her mother alongside the Queen in an online tribute Charles Spencer posted a simple photograph of the Queen on his Twitter page following the news of her death Meanwhile Princess Olympia of Greece posted a snap of the Queen and Prince Philip, calling the late monarch 'beautiful She shared a snap of the Queen from earlier this year, writing: 'The Duke & Duchess of Rutland and family extend their deepest condolences to The Royal Family on the death of her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. 'The life of the late Queen was remarkable and the country owes her a great debt of gratitude for her service and duty to the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.' She finished by writing: 'God Save The King.' As well as resharing her mother's post, Violet Manners went on to post a number of snaps of the Queen. The Duchess of Rutland shared a statement on behalf of her and her family, the Manners sisters, who went on to repost it She wrote; I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong. Queen Elizabeth II.' The post continued: 'That you did Your Majesty. I saw rain, sunshine and the most beautiful rainbow today and I had an inkling, along with the country it was you saluting us all goodbye. 'What a constant youve been. Im forever grateful to have lived through your reign. A remarkable example, Monarch and matriarch to us all. 'Thank you for your service is all I can say, but it doesnt sound as though it goes far enough in recognising all you accomplished, did and represented to your country and the 54 common wealth countries around the world. As well as resharing her mother's post, Lady Violet Manners went on to post a number of snaps of the Queen 'May you rest in peace and be reunited.' Others to share brief tributes included Tatiana, who is the daughter of the Queen's cousin the Marquess of Milford Haven, and Ella Mountbatten, Lord Ivar Mountbatten's daughter. Meanwhile the aristocratic beauty, Countess Alexandra Tolstoy, who descends from a long line of Russian nobility, shared a snap of the Queen, writing: 'In loving memory of our dear, dear, Queen Elizabeth II. Society hostess Alice Naylor-Leyland shared a post of the monarch, writing: 'I am so deeply saddened by the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth ll. Society hostess Alice Naylor-Leyland shared a post of the monarch, writing the Queen was 'all the country could have wished for and more' 'She was everything our country could have wished for and more. 'You were and still are a true inspiration to us all, not just today but forever more. Love Alice.' Prince Andrew, Prince Edward, his wife Sophie, and Prince William all flew in from Berkshire via private jet to Aberdeen yesterday as they dashed to Balmoral to see her. But it is understood that they did not reach the estate before she passed. Only her eldest children, Prince Charles and Princess Anne, who were already in Scotland at the time of the Monarch's sudden turn for the worse, were able to make it to the royal estate before her death, sources said last night. Meanwhile the aristocratic beauty, Countess Alexandra Tolstoy, who descends from a long line of Russian nobility, shared a snap of the Queen, writing: 'In loving memory of our dear, dear, Queen Elizabeth II Others to share brief tributes included Tatiana, who is the daughter of the Queen's cousin the Marquess of Milford Haven, and Ella Mountbatten, Lord Ivar Mountbatten's daughter (left and right) The Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge remained in Windsor with her children, who had their first day at their new school. Prince Harry, who was due to attend a charity event with wife Meghan in London last night, also attempted to reach Balmoral in time. But he arrived at 8pm, nearly an hour-and-a-half after the public were informed of the Queen's death. It comes as Britain is today mourning the death of its beloved Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. After a remarkable 70 years on the throne, the country's longest-reigning royal yesterday died 'peacefully', aged 96, at Balmoral in Scotland. Her death sparked an immediate and huge outpouring of emotion, with thousands of heartbroken mourners gathering outside the gates of Buckingham Palace and other royal buildings yesterday evening. At one point, a rendition of 'God Save The Queen' rang out among the mourners, followed by cheers of 'Long Live The King'. The Instagram account also shared the black and white image of the Queen released by the Palace today Others laid flowers outside Windsor Castle - where The Queen had spent much of her time following the death of her beloved husband, Prince Philip, in April last year. And in a sign of the Queen's considerable worldwide influence and appeal, royal fans laid flowers outside British embassies including in Washington, Berlin and Oslo. Even the royal household's staff were in tears yesterday, coming to terms with the loss of their much-loved boss, as well as the head of state. One said: 'However much you try to prepare yourself for this moment, it just hits you like a ton of bricks. She is irreplaceable. I just can't believe we won't see that impish smile again. There is a deep sense of shock.' The former Prince of Wales has officially chosen the name King Charles III following the death of his mother, the Queen, yesterday. It was announced last night that the Queen had died at Balmoral at the age of 96, following her historic 70 year reign. According to The Telegraph, the new King is understood to have considered choosing the name George VII instead of Charles, due to the very colourful legacies of Charles I and Charles II. Charles I, who became the nation's king at the tender age of 24 following the death of his brother Henry and reigned between 1625 and 1649. The former Prince of Wales has adopted the officially chosen the name King Charles following the death of his mother, the Queen, yesterday. He is the third King to take the name - and the first two were notorious for their antics while reigning He was put on trial for treason by MPs, including the Parliamentarian general Oliver Cromwell, after they claimed he had committed 'wicked' abuses of power'. Meanwhile King Charles II, who was King of Scotland from 1649 until 1651, and King of England, Scotland and Ireland from the 1660 Restoration of the monarchy until his death in 1685, was so notorious he was known as the 'Merry Monarch'. Here FEMAIL reveals the fateful lives of the first two King Charles... KING CHARLES I King Charles I was born in Fife, Scotland, in 1600 and became king in 1625 following the death of his older brother Henry King Charles I was born in Fife, Scotland, in 1600 and became king in 1625 following the death of his older brother Henry. The new monarch favoured a High Anglican form of worship and his wife, Henrietta Maria of France, was Catholic. After his succession, Charles quarrelled with Parliament, which sought to curb his royal prerogative. The King believed in the divine right of kings and thought he could govern according to his own conscience. Many of his subjects opposed his policies, particularly the levying of taxes without parliamentary consent, and perceived his actions as those of a tyrannical monarch. He went on to dissolve parliament three times from 1625 to 1629 and decided to rule alone. He went on to dissolve parliament three times from 1625 to 1629 and decided to rule alone (pictured) This meant the king was left to try and raise funds by non-parliamentary means, which made him unpopular with the British public. He also tried to force a new prayer book on the country. King Charles visited Bramsill House in 1630, while under pressure from his subjects following his repeated clashes with Parliament. The King, on January 4, 1642, tried personally to arrest five MPs for treason. he entered the Commons accompanied by armed men and the Speaker of the time, William Lenthal, vacated the chair for the monarch. However, he refused to give up the MPs and famously remarked 'May it please your majesty, I have neither eyes to see not tongue to speak in this place, but as the House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here'. The MPs fled, Charles declared 'all my birds have flown', and he retreated. He was to be the last monarch to ever enter the chamber. The result, was the outbreak of civil war after more than 150 years. In 1646 the Royalists were defeated and Charles subsequently surrendered to the Scots and he later escaped to the Isle of Wight a year later. Charles was put on trial for treason by a number of MPs, including Parliamentarian general Oliver Cromwell. He was convicted and later executed outside the Banqueting House on Whitehall in London. KING CHARLES II Charles II was born at St James's Palace on 29 May 1630, eldest surviving son of Charles I, king of England, Scotland and Ireland, and his wife Henrietta Maria, sister of Louis XIII of France Charles II was born at St James's Palace on 29 May 1630, eldest surviving son of Charles I, king of England, Scotland and Ireland, and his wife Henrietta Maria, sister of Louis XIII of France. Charles was brought up by strong women his French mother Henrietta Maria and his pretty nanny-cum-governess Christabella Wyndham, who was rumoured to have educated the teenage prince in more ways than one. As a result, he was always attracted to feisty females. In August 1642, the long-running dispute between his father and Parliament culminated in the outbreak of the First English Civil War. Promiscuous: Barbara Palmer, painted by Peter Lely. Born Barbara Villiers, she once enjoyed a menage-a-trois with the Earl of Chesterfield In October, Charles and his younger brother James were present at the Battle of Edgehill and spent the next two years based in the Royalist capital of Oxford. His father was surrendered into captivity in May 1646. Escaping from England in 1646 after the Civil War, Charles spent his 14-year exile in the Netherlands and France, where he observed the louche court of his cousin Louis XIV. And when Charles was not planning how to win back his crown, he passed the time in pleasure-seeking. His first significant mistress was Lucy Walter, a beautiful strumpet who had joined the court in exile in The Hague in 1648 and seduced the 18-year-old Charles. She swiftly bore him an illegitimate son, James, later the Duke of Monmouth. Neither she nor Charles were faithful, and when her promiscuity became obvious and embarrassing, he paid her off. She died of syphilis in 1658. The Execution of Charles I took place in January 1649, with England becoming a republic. On 5 February, the Covenanter Parliament of Scotland proclaimed Charles II "King of Great Britain, France and Ireland" at the Mercat Cross, Edinburgh. However he was refused entrance to the country unless he agreed to establish Presbyterianism as the state religion in all three of his kingdoms. Upon his arrival in Scotland on 23 June 1650, he formally agreed to the Covenant; his abandonment of Episcopal church governance, although winning him support in Scotland, left him unpopular in England. His coronation led to the Anglo-Scottish war (16501652). Charles II was invited to restore the monarchy in 1660 after 11 years of the Commonwealth. When he returned from exile in 1660, 11 years after the beheading of his father, Charles I, his primary intention was simple: he wanted to restore the glamour, splendour and power of the monarchy When he returned from exile in 1660, 11 years after the beheading of his father, Charles I, his primary intention was simple: he wanted to restore the glamour, splendour and power of the monarchy. England was fed up with Puritan regulations, and Charless style proved instantly popular. His court became one of the most hedonistic in history, and he became known as The Merry Monarch. The stunning theatre of his return was followed by the most extravagant coronation within memory. The King was immensely tall, and he took care to make still more of an impression with sumptuous cloth, jewels and gold. Charles continued moving through a succession of lovers until he met the alluring Barbara Palmer in 1660. Born Barbara Villiers, as a teenager she had taken the Earl of Chesterfield as her lover and once enjoyed a menage-a-trois with him and another girl. The King was not used to rejection most women were only too happy to share the royal bed if so requested. And although the court was full of beautiful and willing women, Charles often ventured beyond the royal palace to satisfy his desires. A coterie of debauched rakes, known as the Merry Gang, helped him on this quest. These men, who included the Duke of Buckingham, Charles Sackville, the Earl of Dorset, Charles Sedley and John Wilmot, the Duke of Rochester, delighted in outdoing each other in depravity. Rochester once took Charles, in disguise, on a visit to a brothel. For a joke, he then stole the Kings clothes and money while he was engaged in the act, leaving Charles with no option but to pay with his royal ring. Despite his promiscuity, however, Charles always treated women with respect. Indeed it was his willingness to listen to their demands for money, titles and power and habit of treating them almost as equals that worried his courtiers. Another of Charles mistresses, the French heiress Hortense Mancini, arrived at court in 1676 with a reputation for love affairs with both men and women. Charles was pleased when Hortense became firm friends with Anne, his 15-year-old daughter by Barbara Villiers. He was less happy when he learned that Hortense and Anne, who was married and pregnant with her first child, were conducting an affair. Anne was hastily sent to the country. When Charles died in 1685, almost the last words he spoke were of the women who he had loved longest and best. He urged his brother to look after Barbara and Louise and let not poor Nelly starve. Like his father, Charles fell out with Parliament and dissolved it in 1681. He ruled without it until his death four years later. For all his vices, Charles managed to hold together a deeply divided country over his 25-year reign. He had promoted tolerance, the theatre and arts. It was not a bad legacy for a man who had spent so much of his time revelling, drinking and whoring. A mother has shared how a shock cancer diagnosis left her fearing she would never have children - after doctors told her at just 26 that she may not ever be able to conceive. Rhianna McKenna, 28, from Welling, in Kent, was given the devastating diagnosis on 13 May 2020 - at the start of the first lockdown - just six days after starting treatment for suspected tonsillitis, which actually turned out to be symptoms of cancer. The nursery worker had experienced painful headaches and swollen lymph nodes for a month but had no idea that these were signs of aggressive acute promyelocytic leukemia, which is cancer of the blood and bone marrow, taking over her body. Kent nursery worker Rhianna McKenna with her husband Aiden and 'miracle' daughter Olivia in August this year Rhianna pictured in June 2020 on her first day back home following treatment for aggressive acute promyelocytic leukemia, which is cancer of the blood and bone marrow A sample of the bone marrow from Rhianna's biopsy, showing the cell changes caused by cancer Rhianna and her husband Aiden pictured in September 2020 on their first date night after her devastating cancer diagnosis Soon, her sight also became impaired and she was told by medics she would never be a mother, new that devastated her. She said: 'My heart broke instantly. I remember feeling scared and alone and my biggest fear was dying and leaving behind my partner and family. 'I also feared that I would never regain any eyesight and would be blind. 'I became angry at the world. 'Why me? Why us?' I hated the word cancer and I couldn't believe this was happening to me. 'I always knew that having chemotherapy could potentially affect our chances of having a child but when we were hit with the reality of it, our hearts broke. 'Aidan and I so desperately wanted to be parents and the thought of that never happening really affected us emotionally. 'He was so supportive and promised me we would find a way.' In the months following her diagnosis Rhianna had to undergo five grueling rounds of chemotherapy, which left her suffering both mentally and physically with constant pain. Alongside suffering with the side effects of her chemo, Rhianna was also haunted by the knowledge the treatment saving her life was the same one that could prevent her from potentially having children. Rhianna completed her treatment in January 2021, on her 27th birthday and was finally declared cancer-free. With treatment behind her, she was finally able to focus on her recovery and began to try for a baby. Pictured a few weeks after the cancer diagnosis; the couple were determined to have a child when Rhianna got the all clear but feared they wouldn't be successful Rhianna prior to her cancer diagnosis on a night out in 2019, she went to the doctor with symptoms of tonsillitis but was told the situation was much more serious Happier days: The couple on holiday in October 2019 before her cancer diagnosis Rhianna in June 2020, seen with husband Aiden. She says she needed a lot of care during chemotherapy and was unable to do a lot of things for herself Just 10 months later, despite fighting against very low odds and with doctors having said it wouldn't happen the now mother of one found out she was pregnant. She said: 'The chemotherapy took a huge toll on my body, I was always exhausted, sore and aching. 'Of course I had heard about cancer and how awful it is but never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine that it would be me suffering with it. 'It took a huge toll on my physical health also, I had to get help to do the simplest of things like going to the toilet, walking a few steps or getting dressed.' She said: 'In 'normal' circumstances, when being diagnosed with a form of cancer, you would be given the choice of freezing your eggs in order to preserve your eggs for future use. 'Unfortunately given my circumstances and it being crucial to get me started on chemotherapy straight away in order to save my life I didn't get that choice. I was devastated.' The couple started trying for a baby straightaway, as they thought they has 'nothing to lose'. Rhianna and her husband Aiden (second couple from the left) with Rhianna's siblings and their partners all celebrating after finding out her cancer had gone Rhianna McKenna ringing the bell in hospital at the end of her cancer treatment The now mother of one and her husband Aiden whilst Rhianna was pregnant, after they went to Florida for their honeymoon the couple managed to conceive Every pregnancy test would be negative, leaving the couple 'crushed' so after their wedding last year they decided to enjoy some time as a couple and head to Florida for their honeymoon as 'trying for a baby was taking over their lives.' Rhianna said: 'Aidan and I pretty much started trying straight away, we thought we had nothing to lose. 'I became obsessed with tracking my ovulation and was taking a pregnancy test every day, praying for the two lines to come up. 'We were crushed every time the result was negative and decided to take a break before our wedding in September last year. 'Trying to have a baby was taking over our lives. 'We booked a honeymoon to Florida and decided to just enjoy some time as newlyweds. 'Lo and behold, eight weeks later we found out we were three weeks pregnant and we hadn't even been trying!' Miracle baby Olivia pictured the day she was born, she was then sent to the baby unit to be put in an incubator as she had jaundice Olivia in the special care unit after it was discovered she had jaundice - her parents said this was the most troubling time for the family Rhianna proudly holds her newborn daughter, after she was told by doctors she wouldn't be able to conceive 'I always knew that having chemotherapy could potentially affect our chances of having a child but when we were hit with the reality of it, our hearts broke... Rhianna McKenna On July 8, the couple welcomed their baby daughter, naming her Olivia. Rhianna added: 'When Olivia was born I was so overwhelmed but also full of love. 'The moment I looked at her I had never felt a love like it. She was so perfect. 'She was taken to special care the day after being born as she had jaundice and had to be in an incubator under the phototherapy lights. 'It was one of the hardest times of our lives harder than fighting cancer we felt so helpless. 'She spent two days there and then was allowed back into the ward with us and we could enjoy being a family properly. 'Olivia is now eight weeks old and is the most happiest, content little girl. 'I've always looked for a reason as to why these things happen to people and I can't help that think if my life had gone any differently, we may not have had our beautiful baby girl.' King Charles III is a 'supporter of diversity' and is planning to 'celebrate the pioneers of the Windrush generation, Baroness Floella Benjamin claimed today. The Former Play School presenter, 72, appeared on ITV today where she spoke about working with the new monarch. The Baroness said Charles is 'different' than his mother the Queen, adding: 'People shouldn't compare Charles with his mother that would be a mistake. 'I am working with him at the moment with the Windrush. He wants to celebrate the Windrush pioneers because next year is the 75th anniversary. King Charles III is a 'supporter of diversity' and is planning to 'celebrate the pioneers of the Windrush generation, Baroness Floella Benjamin claimed today The Baroness, who has met the royal on a number of occasions, said Charles is 'different' than his mother the Queen (pictured together in June) 'He wanted to have 10 portraits of Windrush elders painted. This is something he's been thinking about for the past five years. 'He did it for the Holocaust, and then he thinks, "Who else in the community hasn't been served? What else can we do to make them feel part of this Great Britain?"' She said: 'Hopefully they will listen to him in Parliament. He is a visionary, he's spoken about the environment, diversity and getting more representation for people of color. 'I really hope that won't be lost during his reign.' The Baroness said the King is a 'visionary' and said she hopes his focus on 'environment and diversity' isn't 'lost during his reign' The Windrush generation was named after the ship that brought over one of the first groups of West Indian migrants invited to the UK in 1948 to help rebuild post-war Britain. Over the next 25 years thousands followed, taking jobs to fill shortages, particularly in the nascent NHS. In 2020, the then-Prince of Wales has spoken of the 'debt of gratitude' the nation owes the Windrush generation. Speaking from his home office in a video message marking Windrush Day, Charles paid tribute to the 'invaluable contribution of black people in Britain'. The Baroness Benjamin from London is made a Dame Commander of the British Empire by the Prince of Wales during an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace in March 2020 The royal also thanked all the frontline workers from Afro-Caribbean communities for their contribution during the coronavirus pandemic. Putting on a smart appearance in a navy suit and blue shirt, Charles said: 'Today offers an opportunity to express the debt of gratitude we owe to that first Windrush generation for accepting the invitation to come to Britain and, above all, to recognise the immeasurable difference that they, their children and their grandchildren, have made to so many aspects of our public life, to our culture and to every sector of our economy.' Charles went on to describe Britain's diversity as its 'greatest strength'. And last month, he was praised for his guest editing at The Voice, one of the UK's most prominent black newspapers. The King took on the editorship of the newspaper to mark its 40th anniversary, with the edition also including interviews with Baroness Doreen Lawrence and Idris Elba. Earlier this year, he was praised for his guest editing at The Voice, one of the UK's most prominent black newspapers in August The Princes guest editorship celebrated many achievements of the black community over those four decades and, Clarence House said, records HRHs long-standing collaboration with black leaders, which has led to The Princes charities providing continued support for the community in many areas. Charles himself was so touched to be asked to edit the newspaper, saying he had always found Britains black communities a great source of inspiration. In his editor's letter, Charles wrote about his aim to tackle racial injustice in society. He wrote: 'You have welcomed me into your communities with wonderful enthusiasm and I am grateful that you have always been candid with me about the issues you continually face and how I might help.' He added: 'The black community is a source of inspiration to me.' It comes after the Duke and Duchess of Sussexes explosive Oprah Winfrey interview last March, in which Meghan Markle claimed there were several conversations between herself, Harry and members within the royal family about how dark their baby could be before son Archie was born. Following the interview, Prince William insisted the royals were very much not a racist family. Princess Beatrice's husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi has shared a never-before-seen photo of the Queen at his nuptials. Edo, 38, paid his respects to the Queen in a heartfelt Instagram message this morning, saying it has been 'incredibly hard to process the last 24 hours'. He revealed his children Wolfie, six, whom he shares with his ex Dara Huang, and daughter Sienna, who turns one this month, spent time with the monarch in Balmoral this summer. Edo wrote that he and his wife Beatrice were 'brokenhearted' by the news, adding: 'Incredibly hard to process the last 24 hours. What an incredible woman and extraordinary mark shes left on the entire world. She was the rock on which modern Britain was built. 'Feeling very lucky that our little ones got to spend time with her this summer. Rest is Peace Your Majesty. We will miss you so much.' Princess Beatrice's husband Edo Mapelli Mozzi has shared a never-before-seen pictures of the Queen at his nuptials at Royal Lodge on July 2020 In the new photo, the late Monarch could be seen smiling warmly as she and her husband Prince Philip watched Edo and Beatrice tie the knot in Windsor in July 2020. The unseen picture showed the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh standing side by side during the ceremony, which took place at The Royal Chapel of All Saints at Royal Lodge in Windsor. Dressed in a pastel blue dress and matching jacket, with a matching hat adorned with flowers, the Queen was positively beaming as she watched her granddaughter get married to her Italian bow. She was accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, who looked in good spirits in a black suit. The Italian property developer has shared a pictures of the late Queen and Duke of Edinburgh at his wedding to Princess Beatrice on July 17 2020 in Windsor in an intimate ceremony (pictured together at the inaugural summer party & fundraiser for the National Gallery's in late June in London) Edo shared a heartfelt message on Instagram where he praised the Queen's 'extraordinary mark' The Monarch, who was looking at the young couple standing out of shot, was also clutching the wedding's programme in her hands. The presence of the Queen and Prince Philip at the event had made the ceremony even more special, because it was socially distanced due to Covid-19 restrictions in place at the time. He also shared a black image with the Queen's insignia and her year of birth and death. Elsewhere, he shared rare archive pictures of the Queen with a young Charles and Princess Anne, a portrait of her with Prince Phillip, and a sweet snap of the monarch walking her corgis. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, left, were among the only guests who were allowed to attend Beatrice's nuptials, due to covid-19 restrictions in place at the time Edo also shared the Queen's insignia with her year of birth and her year of death in Black on Instagram Edo also shared a picture of the Queen walking her Corgi and Dorgis during some royal down time in Balmoral in 1974 The Italian property tycoon also shared a picture of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh taken in 1953, a year into her reign One sweet snap showed the Queen driving her children King Charles and Princess Anne during a royal visit in Windsor in 1957 Princess Beatrice with Princess Eugenie, Edo Mapelli Mozzi and his son Wolfie on day Four of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee in June One picture showed a young Queen, wearing sunglasses and sat behind the wheel of a black car in Windsor with a young King Charles and Princess Royal sat by her side, with royal fans snapping their pictures in the back, in 1957. Another photograph, shot in black and white, showed the Sovereign looking regal in a gown and wearing her royal sash and tiara, sat next to the Duke of Edinburgh in his navy uniform. This picture was taken a year into her year in 1953. A fourth, sweet image showed the Monarch dressed in a stylish teal ensemble walking one Corgi and two Dorgis on the grounds of Balmoral in 1974. Edo's sweet homage comes as the world is still reeling for the news of the Queen's passing, with many royal fans having traveled to Buckingham Palace in London to pay their respect. 'My incredible mother-in-law and friend': Sarah Ferguson shares a deeply personal tribute to the Queen and thanks her for her 'generosity' in 'remaining close to her even after her divorce Sarah Ferguson has paid tribute to her former mother-in-law the Queen following her death aged 96. Sarah, who was married to the Queen's 'favourite son' Prince Andrew for 10 years, praised the Queen as a 'fantastic example of duty and service and steadfastness.' On a personal note, she thanked the Queen for being 'the most incredible mother-in-law and friend', adding: 'I will always be grateful to her for the generosity she showed me in remaining close to me even after my divorce.' Sarah Ferguson has paid tribute to her former mother-in-law the Queen following her death aged 96 Sarah, who was married to the Queen's 'favourite son' Prince Andrew for 10 years, praised the Queen as a 'fantastic example of duty and service and steadfastness.' Pictured, at the Braemar Highland Games in 1990 The Duchess of York looked serious as she left Venice yesterday, following a glitzy appearance at the film festival Andrew, Edward, his wife Sophie, and William all flew in from Berkshire via private jet to Aberdeen yesterday as they dashed to Balmoral to see her. But it is understood that they did not make it in time Sarah Ferguson continues to live at the Royal Lodge in Windsor with her estranged husband Prince Andrew. The Duke of York was among the senior royals who rushed to Balmoral yesterday after receiving word the Queen's health was deteriorating. Following news of the Queen's death, Fergie wrote: 'I am heartbroken by the passing of Her Majesty the Queen. 'She leaves behind an extraordinary legacy: the most fantastic example of duty and service and steadfastness, and a constant steadying presence as our head of state for more than 70 years. 'She has given her whole life selflessly to the people of the UK and the Commonwealth. 'To me, she was the most incredible mother-in-law and friend. I will always be grateful to her for the generosity she showed me in remaining close to me even after my divorce. I will miss her more than words can express.' The Duchess of York who divorced the Duke of York in 1996, has sparked a raft of royal scandals over the years, but said the monarch was her 'greatest mentor' and had always believed in her. The Queen has suffered from mobility issues in recent times and was pictured using a cane on Tuesday as she welcomed the new prime minister, Liz Truss, to Balmoral to formally ask her to form a government Speaking on the Tea with Twiggy podcast as she promoted her Mills & Boon romance novel Her Heart For A Compass, the duchess paid tribute to the Queen for being 'modern, flexible and forgiving.' Sarah compared their relationship to the one she had with her own mother Susan Barrantes, who passed away in September 1998, saying: 'I think to myself that honestly my mother-in-law has been more of a mother to me than my mother.' She continued: 'My greatest mentor and... person who believes in me is the Queen - and has never faltered. 'I absolutely admire the incredible way Her Majesty is so modern... and how flexible, and how understanding, and how forgiving and how generous.' Sarah Ferguson, 61, has described the Queen, 95, as more of a mother to her than her own was while speaking on a podcast Yesterday Buckingham Palace released a statement confirming the Queen was under medical supervision after doctors became concerned for her health. The statement added Her Majesty was 'comfortable' and would remain at Balmoral. Following the announcement Prince Charles and Camilla travelled to the estate in the Scottish Highlands, followed by Prince William. The Queen's younger children Prince Andrew and Prince Edward also travelled to Balmoral, while Princess Anne was already there. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who are visiting the UK this week, pulled out of an appearance at the WellChild Awards in London this evening as the Duke of Sussex also travels to Balmoral. The 96-year-old monarch, who celebrated 70 years on the throne this year in the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, has suffered with mobility problems. In recent appearances she has been pictured walking with a cane and was pictured using the mobility aid on Tuesday, when new prime minister Liz Truss travelled to 'kiss hands' - a process in which the Monarch formally invites the new leader of the country to form a government. Her Majesty sought comfort in the story of Christ after Prince Philip's death She was a devout Christian who attended church every Sunday from a child The Queen was head of the Church of England for more than 70 years Religious leaders around the world have paid tribute to the Queen, who was the head of the Church of England, after she died at the age of 96 on Thursday. Throughout her life, Queen Elizabeth II held her Christian faith dear after first attending church with her parents, the Queen Mother and King George VI, as a child - and she once said her religion was 'an inspiration and anchor' during her reign. The Archbishop of Canterbury led tributes from religious leaders to the Monarch, whom he described as a 'faithful Christian disciple'. The Duke and Duchess of York (later to become King George VI and the Queen Mother) attend a church service in Eastbourne, Sussex in March 1936 with Princess Elizabeth (back right) and Princess Margaret (forefront right) The Queen has met with several religious leaders around the world during her historic 70-year reign (pictured with Pope John Paul II in 1982) Following news of her death, the Archbishop of Canterbury released a statement paying tribute to the Queen as a 'faithful Christian disciple' The Monarch's dedication to her religion no doubt helped her through some of the most difficult times in her life - particularly after the loss of her husband Prince Philip in April last year. During her Christmas Day address to the nation in 2021, Her Majesty paid tribute to her late husband for his devotion to her and dedication to public service throughout his life. Later in the speech, she spoke of how the story of Christ helped her, and many others around the world, appreciate new beginnings. The Queen said: '[Children] teach us all a lesson, just as the Christmas story does, that in the birth of a child, there is a new dawn with endless potential. 'It is this simplicity of the Christmas story that makes it so universally appealing... 'Simple happenings that form the starting point of the life of Jesus, a man whose teachings have been handed down from generation to generation, and have been the bedrock of my faith.' Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II Pope Francis (right) said he was praying for Her Majesty's 'eternal rest' (pictured with the Queen in 2014 at the Vatican) During 70 years of her reign, the Queen's Christmas Day speeches invoked Biblical references to the story of the birth of Christ, as well as other stories including the Good Samaritan. When she acceded the throne in 1952 following her father's death, the then 25-year-old Queen vowed to be guided by her Christian faith throughout her reign and asked her subjects to pray for her ahead of her coronation the following summer. In her first Christmas Day address to the nation that same year, which was broadcast on the radio, the Monarch said: 'Pray for me that God may give me wisdom and strength to carry out the solemn promises I shall be making, and that I may faithfully serve Him and you, all the days of my life.' In 1989, she referenced the story and used it to ask people to reflect on how they could help their friends and neighbours who 'need a helping hand'. She said: 'It would be splendid to think that in the last years of the twentieth century Christ's message about loving our neighbours as ourselves might at last be heeded.' As the world prepared to ring in the new Millennium in the year 2000, the Monarch used her Christmas Day address to honour the birth of Christ once more. She said: 'Today we are celebrating the fact that Jesus Christ was born 2,000 years ago; this is the true millennium anniversary.' The monarch added: 'For me, the teachings of Christ and my own personal accountability before God provide a framework in which I try to lead my life. 'I, like so many of you, have drawn great comfort in difficult times from Christs words and example.' The Queen paid a moving tribute to her 'beloved' Prince Philip in the 2021 Christmas Day message and spoke of how the story of Christ gave her solace during times of grief The Queen attended church every Sunday from when she was an infant with her parents and sister, Princess Margaret. Elizabeth II's faith is thought to have been influenced and inspired by her grandfather, King George V, who was known to read a chapter of The Bible every night. As religious leaders around the world paid tribute to the Queen they acknowledged the late Monarch's devotion to her faith and how it influenced her reign. The Archbishop of Canterbury said in a statement: 'Her trust in God and profound love for God was foundational in how she led her life hour by hour, day by day. 'In The Late Queens life, we saw what it means to receive the gift of life we have been given by God and through patient, humble, selfless service share it as a gift to others. 'Her Late Majesty found great joy and fulfilment in the service of her people and her God, whose service is perfect freedom (BCP). 'For giving her whole life to us, and allowing her life of service to be an instrument of Gods peace among us, we owe her a debt of gratitude beyond measure.' The Chief Rabbi also paid his respects, calling the Monarch a 'rock of stability and a champion of timeless value'. He said: 'We extend our deepest sympathies to Her Majestys Son and Heir and all the members of the Royal Family. 'We pray that our nation will benefit from the strength and understanding of our new Sovereign for many years to come.' The Chief Rabbi added: 'She never let us down'. Pope Francis also sent his condolences to King Charles III, and added he was praying for the late Queen's 'eternal rest'. He told the new King: 'I assure Your Majesty of my prayers that Almighty God will sustain you with his unfailing grace as you now take up your high responsibilities as King.' When she became Queen, Her Majesty was automatically given the role of defender of the faith and supreme governor of the Church of England - a responsibility she took incredibly seriously. Her duties included appointing archbishops, bishops, and deans of the Church of England on instruction of the prime minister. A cafe has been accused of encouraging sexual harassment after naming a cocktail 'Get Your T**'s Out'. Eleto Chocolate Cafe, in Canterbury, Kent, promoted the 4 drink on social media - describing it as their new 'house special' ahead of university freshers' week. The post was quickly slammed by a string of disapproving customers, who said the drink's name promoted sexual harassment. Despite the wave of complaints, the cafe has defended the slogan, saying the phrase merely implies 'letting your hair down'. The cafe posted an advert to highlight its new cocktail, which it controversially called Get Ya T**ts Out The cafe apologised that the name of the cocktail upset some customers, but said it was not trying to make a political statement and advised customers to not visit the cafe for the two weeks that it was running if they felt that strongly about it The saga began on Tuesday, when regular customer Evie Wells, 27, from Canterbury, spotted it, branding it 'very poor taste' ahead of Freshers Week. She said: 'I saw this first on Facebook. It came up on my feed as I follow them and was a loyal customer for years. 'I am not a student, however working in a student city I felt disgusted that they would ever think this is okay. 'This is a phrase specifically aimed at women as sexual harassment.' After Evie contacted Eleto's Facebook page, she claims she was told they weren't trying to make 'a political statement' and even suggested she simply not visit until the promotion had ended. She added: 'I tried to be calm and give them the chance to rectify. '[When I got the response] my first word was wow. I was in shock and really disappointed that they clearly didn't care at all.' And she was not the only one horrified. Get Ya T**s Out: The divisively-named cocktail is made up of pink lemonade, Ribena and pink gin, with a strawberry sweet garnish Another regular customer Naomi Pettman, 28, a marketing student, said she 'heartbroken' by the beverage's name and claims it was an example of 'what not to do' from a marketing sense. Naomi, from Ramsgate, Kent, said: 'I thought "are you trying to be funny right now" because there is spiking going on around students and young adults. 'The fact they're calling it a freshers special and promoting it at Freshers' [week] when young girls who probably haven't gone out before in that kind of way could be quite naive. 'It was quite heartbreaking. I did message them myself but they didn't get back to me.' Customer Evie Wells spotted the social media post from Eleto Chocolate Cafe in Canterbury, Kent and contacted the cafe to complain The advert - designed to run for two weeks during Freshers' Week - provoked a host of complaints and comments from women She said the name was definitely encouraging sexual harassment. She said: 'Picture this, you're a young girl who orders it at the table and a group of lads shout "get your t**ts out then". It's sexual harassment. 'Do they not understand? This [suggests] that it's someone who hasn't had to deal with sexual harassment. 'Sex on the Beach is not the same. 'I'm studying marketing at university. From a marketing point of view this isn't good marketing, it's what not to do.' Her view was backed up by others on social media. The cafe did eventually edit their advertising post, removing the name of the cocktail but still promoting it Evie's post comments on the cocktail created by Eleto Chocolate Cafe, saying how disgusted she was as a regular customer One wrote: 'Shocking! I too will take my money somewhere else after reading this!' Another said: Where's the 'Get Your Ba**s Out' cocktail? Haven't seen this sort of sexism since the 70s.' And a third wrote : 'What! Can't believe they called it this, well done for standing up for women!' But, despite the backlash, the cafe has defended the name, insisting they were trying to 'take the phrase back' for women and that others have supported them. A cafe spokesman said: 'To say we were shocked by the backlash created is an understatement, however we'd like to add some context to this situation. 'The name "Get Ya T*ts out" was created by a female employee of ours. We believe the situation would be entirely different if a male had constructed this cocktail name. 'We chose this name as an opportunity to challenge the adversity that women face on the daily in an attempt to almost take the phrase back and add a positive spin to it. ' They added that the female employee invented the cocktail and chose the name thinking it would be taken as encouragement to 'let your hair down' and 'just enjoy yourself'. The spokesman also said many other cocktails had outrageous names. They said: 'We offer a Sex on the Beach, we offer a P*rnstar Martini, but this doesn't mean we're advocating for sex on public places or porn stars. 'We never intended to cause this much uproar. However, the discussion had to be had and it was a discussion that provided mixed opinions. 'Our most important point that we want to raise among all of this, is that we're just a small cafe, we make food and drinks as well as cocktails in an attempt to put smiles on people's faces.' The statement - and the fact the cafe did eventually delete the cocktail name from their Facebook post - was not enough to placate regular user Naomi however. She added: 'I've been to this cafe many times. It's a really nice cafe, the staff are lovely. 'It's the fact they didn't even try to rectify it and said it's "not a political statement". 'What do they mean that sexual harassment isn't a political statement? 'This was the name of the cocktail, they said it was a freshers' special. 'I was 100 percent disappointed to see it. They just need to apologise and change the name.' Boris Johnson's wife Carrie has paid an emotional tribute to the Queen - as she revealed the monarch offered her comfort when the PM nearly died in ICU during the Covid-19 pandemic. Sharing a post on Instagram earlier today, the 34-year-old mother-of-two shared a number of pictures of the monarch, who died yesterday at the age of 96 at Balmoral. Carrie, who travelled to Balmoral with Boris as he resigned as Prime Minister a mere two days ago, posted a personal tribute to the 'warm and kind' Queen, writing: 'I will always remember her comforting words when Boris was very ill in ICU and I was sick with worry.' In April 2020, when Carrie was heavily pregnant with their first child Wilfred, Boris was hospitalised with coronavirus and doctors prepared to announce his death in case he lost his battle with the disease. Elsewhere, Carrie revealed the Queen had given her son Wilfred some of the royal family's old toys to play with during a trip to Balmoral last year. Boris Johnson's wife Carrie has paid an emotional tribute to the Queen - as she revealed the monarch offered her comfort when the PM nearly died in ICU during the Covid-19 pandemic In the tribute post, Carrie commented: 'Waking up this morning feeling so sad and with such a huge sense of loss. We were so lucky that she was our Queen. 'She was so warm and kind and funny.' She continued: 'She would immediately put you at ease. Last year, when Boris and I visited Balmoral, she kindly produced old family toys for our son Wilfred to play with. He was so delighted.' She added: 'Spending time with her was such an enormous privilege. She was the wisest, kindest and most steadfast woman. We will all miss her so much. Sharing a post on Instagram earlier today, the 34-year-old mother-of-two shared a number of pictures of the monarch, who died yesterday at the age of 96 at Balmoral 'My thoughts and prayers are with the Royal Family. God Save The King.' Meanwhile the mother-of-two went on to post a number of photographs of the Queen from her childhood, including one of the royal cuddling up with a corgi. In the second photograph, the Queen could be seen at Balmoral, where she was snapped playing with some dogs on the lawn of the castle. Carrie's tribute comes hours after her hhusband Boris said Britain is enduring its 'saddest day' following the death of 'Elizabeth the Great'. Elsewhere, Carrie revealed the Queen had given her son Wilfred some of the royal family's old toys to play with during a trip to Balmoral last year (pictured) The former PM was among the six living former prime ministers of Elizabeth's reign to pay tribute, only two days after he met the monarch at Balmoral to resign. He says the Queen spread 'magic around her kingdom' for an 'unrivalled' 70 years and she possessed a 'simple power to make us happy'. Mr Johnson said: 'This is our country's saddest day. In the hearts of every one of us there is an ache at the passing of our Queen, a deep and personal sense of loss - far more intense, perhaps, than we expected. 'In these first grim moments since the news, I know that millions and millions of people have been pausing whatever they have been doing, to think about Queen Elizabeth, about the bright and shining light that has finally gone out. Meanwhile the mother-of-two went on to post a number of photographs of the Queen (left), including one from her childhood showing the royal cuddling up with a corgi (right) 'She seemed so timeless and so wonderful that I am afraid we had come to believe, like children, that she would just go on and on. 'Wave after wave of grief is rolling across the world, from Balmoral - where our thoughts are with all the Royal Family - and breaking far beyond this country and throughout that great Commonwealth of nations that she so cherished and which cherished her in return. 'As is so natural with human beings, it is only when we face the reality of our loss that we truly understand what has gone. It is only really now that we grasp how much she meant for us, how much she did for us, how much she loved us. 'As we think of the void she leaves, we understand the vital role she played, selflessly and calmly embodying the continuity and unity of our country.' Carrie travelled to Balmoral with Boris as he handed in his resignation to the Queen as Prime Minister a mere two days ago The former PM was among the six living former prime ministers of Elizabeth's reign to pay tribute Mr Johnson praised the Queen's 'deep wisdom' and her 'seemingly inexhaustible but understated sense of duty'. He added: 'This is our country's saddest day because she had a unique and simple power to make us happy. That is why we loved her. That is why we grieve for Elizabeth the Great, the longest-serving and in many ways the finest monarch in our history.' Mr Johnson said he believes the new King will 'amply do justice to her legacy'. Advertisement As King Charles ascended to the throne immediately following the death of the Queen at the age of 96 at Balmoral yesterday, ending his role as England's longest serving heir, so a new title was also bestowed upon Camilla. The former Duchess of Cornwall, 75, becomes Queen's Consort, a role that may once have seemed unlikely - where Charles has known his regal fate since birth - but received the late Queen's seal of approval earlier this year. After years, decades even, of uncertainty over what Camilla's official title would be when King Charles finally took the throne, the late Queen took matters into her own hands by making a surprise announcement in February 2022. An official memo published by Buckingham Palace spoke of the late Queen's 'sincere wish' for her daughter-in-law to be fully acknowledged when Charles succeeded her, a day that has now come. Scroll down for video The death of the Queen was announced yesterday at the age of 96, with King Charles immediately inheriting the role of Monarch and Camilla now Queen Consort; no longer using the title the Duchess of Cornwall Camilla, 75, looked deep in thought as she was driven away from Balmoral on Friday morning Charles and Camilla on their wedding day in 2005: The inherited nature of the British monarchy means that the former Duchess of Cornwall could never be Queen to Charles' King via marriage alone, instead becoming Queen Consort The late Queen publicly gave Camilla her backing to be Queen Consort in 2022, when she issued an historic Platinum Jubilee statement ending years of uncertainty over the issue The late Monarch's backing: the official recommendation that the Queen supported Camilla becoming Queen Consort, which was published in February 2022 WHAT IS QUEEN CONSORT? Camilla is, as of the Queen's death on September 8th 2022, Queen Consort, which essentially means 'the wife of a reigning king'. Centuries of history dictates the consort role; each of England's kings have taken to the throne with a Queen Consort by their side. In February, in her message to the nation signed 'Your Servant, Elizabeth R' the late Queen dictated her support for Camilla taking on the role. Her Majesty said at the time: 'When, in the fullness of time, my son Charles becomes King, I know you will give him and his wife Camilla the same support that you have given me; and it is my sincere wish that, when that time comes, Camilla will be known as Queen Consort as she continues her own loyal service.' Camilla and Charles wed in 2005 but the inherited nature of the British monarchy means that the former Duchess of Cornwall could never be Queen to Charles' King via marriage alone, just as Prince Philip remained the Duke of Edinburgh, rather than becoming King Philip, when he married the late Queen in November 1947. At the time of Charles and Camilla's wedding, Camilla's now title seemed less than assured; she was given the role of Princess Consort first, thought to be a more gentle introduction to a public still very much grieving for the late Princess of Wales, Charles' first wife, killed tragically in 1997. HOW IS QUEEN CONSORT DIFFERENT TO THE ROLE PRINCE PHILIP HAD? It's the same, although the Queen's late husband was rarely referred to using it, with the Duke of Edinburgh and Prince Philip his more commonly used titles. Indeed, it's thought Camilla will look to the role the late Duke of Edinburgh played in public life as a blueprint for her new title; the late Prince offered constant support to Her Majesty while never taking the limelight from her. The consort role is to support the monarch in public life, a role which Camilla is already well accustomed with. As with all royals, there's an expectation that Camilla won't comment on the politics of the nation. A blueprint for consort life: The late Duke of Edinburgh offered a masterclass in supporting the Queen without taking the limelight away from her, something the new Queen Consort will look to emulate (Prince Philip and Camilla at the Queen's 90th birthday celebrations in 2016) Will the former Prince of Wales and former Duchess of Cornwall now take on a more formal approach to duties? The couple pictured visiting Cornwall in July 2022 on the first day of their annual visit to the South West WHAT TITLES WILL WILLIAM AND KATE NOW BE GIVEN? The changes in title continue down the throne line, with new heir, William, and Kate updating their social media profiles to reflect their new titles, the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge. As Charless eldest son, William, 40, has inherited the title the Duke of Cornwall upon the death of the Queen. William will, at some stage, be given the title the Prince of Wales - which is traditionally used for the male heir to the throne. But this is not automatic and William needs to be created so by his father. The same stands for the Earl of Chester. William has also inherited the Scottish titles the Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland. Further down the throne line, William, 40, is expected to become the Prince of Wales, although this title will be conferred at a later date. Right: William and Kate have updated their social media profiles to reflect their new titles, the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge How Prince William and Kate Middleton's titles will change following the Queen's death William WAS: Duke of Cambridge NOW: Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge. He will also become Prince of Wales The Duke of Cambridge, as heir to the throne, is now the Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge. As Charless eldest son, he has inherited the title the Duke of Cornwall (pictured) The Duke of Cambridge, as heir to the throne, is now the Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge. As Charless eldest son, he has inherited the title the Duke of Cornwall. William will, at some stage, be given the title the Prince of Wales - which is traditionally used for the male heir to the throne. Since the Prince of Wales title isn't Charles's per se, but rather given to the heir apparent, he will vacate it the moment he ascends to the throne. However, there is no automatic succession to the Prince of Wales title - the heir apparent has to be created Prince of Wales by the monarch. The title is only 'merged in the crown' and renewed at the Sovereign's pleasure - which is why Charles became the 21st Prince of Wales not on the day of his birth, but rather aged nine in 1958. He was only 'invested' - in the ceremony acknowledging the creation of a new Prince of Wales - 11 years later in 1969. The same stands for the Earl of Chester. William has also inherited the Scottish titles the Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland. Kate WAS: Duchess of Cambridge NOW: The Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge. She will also become Princess of Wales The Duchess of Cambridge is now the Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge. When William becomes the Prince of Wales as expected, she will become Princess of Wales The Duchess of Cambridge is now the Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge. When William becomes the Prince of Wales as expected, Kate will become the Princess of Wales - last used by Williams mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, when she was married to Charles. Camilla was also technically the Princess of Wales but never used the title because of its association with Diana. Kate will also hold the title the Countess of Chester, if William becomes the Earl of Chester. She is also now the Duchess of Rothesay in Scotland - also previously Camillas title. Advertisement Emotional Camilla is seen for the first time since becoming Queen Consort as she rises to the moment to support her husband King Charles III - after the Queen endorsed her use of the title in the final months of her life An emotional-looking Camilla, elevated to Queen Consort following the death of the Queen at Balmoral on Thursday afternoon, was pictured looking deep in thought as she left the Scottish royal residence this morning. Following yesterday's historic announcement that the Queen had died at the age of 96, King Charles III ascended to the throne with immediate effect, with the former Duchess of Cornwall taking a role that the late Queen gave her official backing to during a historic Platinum Jubilee statement earlier this year. Around 11am today, seated in the front passenger seat of a chauffeur-driven Audi, the Queen Consort, 75, looked pensive as she departed Balmoral following the death of the Queen yesterday afternoon - clearly aware of the responsibility her new role carries. The new King, formerly the Prince of Wales, was seated in the back seat of the royal car, as part of a motorcade pictured driving through the village of Ballater, close to Balmoral, en route to Aberdeen Airport. Camilla, wearing a black suit and a simple string of pearls with matching earrings, looked straight ahead as the new King and Queen Consort began their journey back to London on the first day of mourning. New dawn: An emotional-looking Camilla, now Queen's Consort, following the Queen's death at Balmoral on Thursday afternoon, pictured leaving the Scottish royal residence this morning United in grief: The new King and Queen Consort pictured looking emotional as they make the journey from the late Queen's Scottish residence ahead of a flight back to London Seated in the front passenger seat of an Audi, the Queen Consort, 75, looked deep in thought as she departed Balmoral following the death of the Queen yesterday afternoon Queen Consort Camilla pictured being driven through the village of Ballater after leaving the Balmoral Estate en route to Aberdeen Airport The new King looked solemn as he was seated in the back of the royal vehicle leaving Balmoral on Friday, just hours after the death of the Queen was announced late on Thursday afternoon Grief: Following yesterday's historic announcement that the Queen had died, King Charles ascended to the throne with immediate effect, Wearing a black suit and a simple string of pearls with matching earrings, the Queen Consort is pictured in a chauffeur-driven vehicle, with King Charles seated in the back, as part of a motorcade leaving Balmoral on Friday morning It's thought the 75-year-old royal will look to the role the late Duke of Edinburgh played in public life as a blueprint for her new title; the late Prince offered constant support to Her Majesty while never taking the limelight from her. After years, decades even, of uncertainty over what Camilla's official title would be when King Charles finally took the throne, the late Queen took matters into her own hands by making a surprise announcement in February 2022. It is a remarkable transformation for Camilla, who was once branded the 'third person' in Charles' stricken marriage to Diana, and received a lukewarm reception from the royal family when the then Prince announced his intention to make Camilla the Duchess of Cornwall. In recent years though, Camilla has grown into life as a senior royal and ahead of the Coronation, the new Queen will undoubtedly be a great support to King Charles in a time of grief and long-anticipated change. In a few short hours, life has changed dramatically for the former Duchess of Cornwall as she is elevated to a new role following the Queen's death Camilla looked straight ahead as the King and Queen Consort begin their journey back to London on the first day of mourning The motorcade followed roads the royal family have driven along for decades; but no such journey will match this morning's for poignancy The senior royal, approaching her late seventies, is now Queen Consort, signaling a dramatic transformation in public and royal perceptions since she first fell in love with Charles during her twenties The famous photo that branded the new Queen Consort a marriage wrecker; the couple pictured in 1975 before Charles was betrothed to marry Diana, who would famously accuse Camilla of being the 'third person' in her marriage to then Prince in a Panorama interview with Martin Bashir in 1995 After 'coming out' with their renewed love on a night out at the Ritz in London in 1999, the couple wed, with the royal family's blessing in 2005 - and the new Queen Consort began her re-brand into senior royal who has a natural affiliation with people The late Queen gave her approval for Camilla to be crowned alongside Charles' in an official role before her death on September 8th (pictured together at the Jubilee in 2022) The Queen, pictured leaving Windsor Castle in July, died on Thursday at her Scottish residence of Balmoral The treasured Monarch declared it was her 'sincere wish' for her daughter-in-law to be fully acknowledged when Charles succeeded her - and the wish made in the twilight of her life has now come to fruition. At the time, the statement also quashed speculation that the then 95-year-old Monarch might abdicate, as she reiterated her Coronation pledge. She told her subjects 'my life will always be devoted to your service' and that she would continue to honour that 'with all my heart'. After a tentative start to royal life, Camilla has excelled in recent years regularly standing in for the late Queen when she could no longer entertain due to failing health and stamina (The couple at a gala dinner in 2000 for the Princes Foundation) After an initially lukewarm reception to the news Prince Charles would marry Camilla, she has grown into life as a senior royal in recent years (pictured left, with the Prince of Wales in 2007, and right, together in 2010) From down-to-earth Sussex girl to royal mistress and now Queen Consort: Camilla's royal family journey The Duchess of Cornwall is the former royal mistress who will now stand shoulder to shoulder as Queen Consort to King Charles. Camilla's public image has been transformed dramatically after she was initially cast as the 'third' person in the Prince and Diana, Princess of Wales' marriage, before becoming a campaigning member of the monarchy prepared to serve the nation. Underneath, she was the down-to-earth Sussex girl who grew up with a love of horses and happened to fall in love with a prince. Charles and Camilla are pictured together in 1979, two years before his wedding to Princess Diana During the nearly two decades she has been married to Charles, Camilla has grown into her role and is an assured royal host when staging events at Clarence House and has confidently represented the Queen when invited to foreign lands. She is patron or supporter of a number of literacy charities, speaks out in support of victims of domestic violence and champions several animal welfare organisations. But her most significant role is supporting Charles and being the comforting presence at home that has enabled him to take on the role of heir to the throne - and now the King. How different it all was on that cold Thursday night outside The Ritz more than 20 years ago in 1999. It was Charles and Camilla's coming out, a fleeting but scrupulously choreographed appearance before the world's press After Charles and Camilla both divorced - and Diana died in 1997 - the then duchess' emergence as the prince's long-term partner was part of a carefully planned PR campaign masterminded by the heir to the throne's spin doctor Mark Bolland. Their first public appearance together was outside the Ritz hotel in London in 1999, dubbed Operation Ritz, where the mass of waiting photographers had been tipped off. The culmination of the romance was a marriage between the long-time lovers who wed in a civil ceremony at Windsor Guildhall on April 9, 2005. With Camilla by his side, Charles appears more relaxed and many times during royal events she has cajoled and encouraged him to try something new or have some fun. Now the late Queen's wishes have bestowed upon Camilla the ultimate accolade in recognition of her importance to Charles and the monarchy. When the late Queen announced the news that Camilla would become the future Queen Consort in 2022, a Clarence House spokesperson said Charles and Camilla were 'touched and honoured' by the gesture, which ended years of uncertainty over the Duchess of Cornwall's role in the future of the monarchy Advertisement The late Queen wrote at the time: 'When, in the fullness of time, my son Charles becomes King, I know you will give him and his wife Camilla the same support that you have given me; and it is my sincere wish that, when that time comes, Camilla will be known as Queen Consort as she continues her own loyal service.' Charles and Camilla were 'touched and honoured' by the Queen's gesture, Clarence House said when the statement was made public. It marked a public acceptance of a marriage that had its first embers of lust in youth and was officially confirmed on a night out at The Ritz in 1999, when the then Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles, in middle age, enjoyed a night out together. With a flash of cameras signaling their relationship would be front page news the next morning, Camilla looked more than a little hesitant - but over the decades that have followed, she has proved a constant support to the new King, and won over the royal family including the Queen. Example: The new Queen Consort is likely to look to the way the late Duke of Edinburgh conducted himself in supporting the Queen during her lengthy reign (Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall on Commonwealth Day at Westminster Abbey in 2017) The close couple have grown ever more united as they face the biggest roles of their lives (Pictured in April 2019) The pomp and ceremony of official engagements are something that Queen Camilla has adapted to with aplomb (Pictured during an international tour of Egypt) A blueprint for consort life: The late Duke of Edinburgh offered a masterclass in supporting the Queen without taking the limelight away from her, something the new Queen Consort will look to emulate (Prince Philip and Camilla at the Queen's 90th birthday celebrations in 2016) Increasingly confident, Camilla has become an assured royal host when staging events at Clarence House and confidently represented the late Queen when invited to foreign lands in recent decades. Now, she will likely look to the way the Duke of Edinburgh provided support to Queen Elizabeth II as guidance for the new role she's taking on as she approaches her late Seventies. Prince Philip offered a blueprint for consort life, offering a masterclass in supporting the Queen without ever taking the spotlight from her, something the new Queen Consort will now look to emulate. Hillary Clinton was in for a shock when she visited Andy Cohen's Watch What Happens Live on Thursday night - as the talk show host revealed he once had a 'wonderful liaison' with one of her Secret Service agents. The politician, 74, was joined by her daughter, Chelsea Clinton, 42, for the appearance, as they discussed their brand new Apple TV+ docuseries, Gutsy, which premiered today. However, during the interview, host Andy dropped a bombshell revelation on the former Secretary of State - he once had a fling with one of the men who was assigned to protect her when she served as First Lady, which she admitted was a little too much information for her liking. Hillary Clinton was shocked when she visited Watch What Happens Live on Thursday - and Andy Cohen revealed he once had a 'wonderful liaison' with one of her Secret Service agents The politician, 74, was joined by her daughter, Chelsea Clinton, 42, for the appearance, as they discussed their brand new Apple TV+ docuseries, Gutsy, which premiered today During the interview, Andy dropped a bombshell revelation - he once had a fling with one of the men who was assigned to protect Hillary when she served as First Lady Hillary was First Lady when her husband, Bill Clinton, now 76, was President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. The family is seen with Secret Service in 1997 Hillary was First Lady when her husband, Bill Clinton, now 76, was President of the United States from 1993 to 2001; and Andy admitted that seeing her on his show all these years later was bringing back memories of the 'wonderful' hookup he previously had. The former Senator appeared astonished by Andy's secret, opening her mouth wide with shock, before admitting that it was a little too much information for her liking 'I do have to tell you, every time I see you, Secretary Clinton, I think I had a wonderful liaison with one of your Secret Service agents in the 90's,' he confessed. 'While you were First Lady.' 'TMI,' Hillary replied, appearing astonished. 'TMI.' The former Senator opened her mouth wide with shock, as Chelsea asked, 'You did?' Andy insisted that the agent 'had wonderful things to say about the entire family,' but didn't share any further details. The former Presidential candidate was relieved, letting out an 'awe,' before Andy added, 'And I have wonderful things to say about him,' while giving a smirk towards the camera. Chelsea, on the other hand, seemed to be entertained, laughing and asking the host, 'You did?' Andy insisted that the agent 'had wonderful things to say about the entire family,' but didn't share any further details The former Presidential candidate was relieved, letting out an 'awe,' before Andy added, 'And I have wonderful things to say about him,' while giving a smirk towards the camera While it is unclear who Andy's romance was with, Hillary and Bill are seen during his presidency alongside a Secret Service member During Bill's presidency, he sparked controversy for his own liaison - as it came to light in 1998 that he had an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky from 1995-1997, which began when she was just 22 and he was 48. Lying about the clandestine romance famously led to his political demise - the House impeached him in 1998; and despite denying it at first, he eventually confirmed he had an 'inappropriate relationship' with Monica on national television. While Hillary later admitted that she was 'beside herself with anger and disappointment' privately when she learned of his infidelity, she publicly stood by her husband's side. Andy's shocking secret comes just days after Hillary shared one of her own - that she and Bill once accidentally left their daughter at the Kremlin in Russia after a state visit years ago. During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday night, Hillary was asked to share her 'craziest family vacation memory,' and she reminisced about the 'traumatic' time she and Bill mistakenly headed to the airport without their then-young daughter. Andy's shocking secret comes just days after Hillary (seen with Secret Service in 1992) shared one of her own - that she and Bill once accidentally left their daughter at the Kremlin in Russia During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday night, Hillary was asked to share her 'craziest family vacation memory' She reminisced about the 'traumatic' time she and Bill mistakenly headed to the airport without their then-young daughter. The family is seen leaving Russia in 1994 'I hope she [Chelsea] doesn't remember this because it was pretty traumatic,' she said. 'We took her to Russia when we went on a state visit when Bill was president, and there were the formal goodbyes so Bill and I were ushered into the Beast, the big limousine, to head to the airport, not knowing that we had left her behind. 'I mean, can you imagine leaving my only child in the Kremlin? Especially with everything that has happened?' While it's unclear how old Chelsea was when the mistake happened, she was age 12 when her father became President and age 20 when his presidency ended. Hillary and Chelsea are promoting their new eight-episode series Gutsy, which follows the mother-daughter duo as they 'embark on a thought-provoking road trip to meet and have intimate conversations with pioneering women they both admire,' according to WhatToWatch.com. Xi presents order to promote military officer to rank of general Xinhua) 08:12, September 09, 2022 Xi Jinping, chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), presents a certificate of order at a ceremony to promote Wang Qiang, commander of the Northern Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army, to the rank of general, in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 8, 2022. The ceremony was held by the CMC in Beijing. (Xinhua/Li Gang) BEIJING, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), on Thursday presented a certificate of order at a ceremony to promote Wang Qiang, commander of the Northern Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army, to the rank of general. The ceremony was held by the CMC in Beijing. General is the highest rank for officers in active service in China. Xi extended his congratulations to Wang, who saluted Xi and all the attendees of the event. Xu Qiliang, CMC vice chairman, announced the order of promotion at the ceremony, which was presided over by CMC vice chairman Zhang Youxia. (Web editor: Liang Jun, Bianji) Sophie Wessex 'dashed' out of a royal visit with retirees in Surrey yesterday morning after hearing of the Queen's declining health mid-engagement. The mother-of-two, 57, left Woodhouse Centre in Oxted, where she had been completing a royal engagement in the early afternoon, as soon as she heard about the Queen's declining health, Hello! Magazine reported. Sophie began the day by visiting to Sunnydown School in Caterham and then headed to Woodhouse Centre in Oxted in the afternoon. This event took place at the same time as The Royal Family published a statement on the queen's health. She was meant to attend a third event later in the afternoon, however, a source told Hello! she 'dashed' out of the second event and travelled to meet Prince Edward, 58, directly in order to go be by the Queen's side in Balmoral. Pictures showed Sophie, who was known as one of the Queen's closet confidantes, being driven to the royal estate by her nephew Prince William around 5pm. The royal mother-of-two appeared deep in thought and was sombre as she rode in the back of the car alongside her fellow royals. The Queen's death was announced at 6:30pm yesterday, after her four children and Prince William made their way to Balmoral. Sophie Wessex, 57, 'dashed' out of a royal event she was attending in order to rush to the Queen's side yesterday (pictured, visiting Surrey yesterday) Pictures showed Sophie, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward being driven to the royal estate by her nephew Prince William around 5pm Sophie appeared to be in good spirits during the Oxted event, where she greeted royal fans and signed the guest book. The Countess of Wessex, who had opted for a green and white flower number for the occasion, signed the guest book and chatted with members of staff at the event. The royal showed her dedication to her family with a special necklace with pendants that read 'E,' 'L' and 'J', the initials of Prince Edward, their daughter Lady Louise Windsor, 18 and their son James Viscount Severn, 14. However she appeared to leave the workshop, which offers lessons for retired and people with disabilities, in Surrey swiftly and didn't complete her third scheduled appearance of the day. Sophie began the day with a visit to Sunnydown School in Caterham and then headed to Woodhouse Centre in Oxted in the afternoon. This event took place at the same time as The Royal Family published a statement on the queen's health Sophie spoke to some of the residents in attendance at the centre. Her visit happened around the time that it was announced doctors were concerned about the Queen's health Instead, she swiftly left Oxted to catch Royal Air Force flight KRF23R with her husband and Prince William and Prince Andrew. After landing in Aberdeen just after 4pm, Sophie, Edward and Andrew were driven to Balmoral by Prince William as they raced to be at the Queen's bedside to join a vigil led by Prince Charles and Princess Anne yesterday. Sophie lives at Bagshot Park in Surrey, with Edward and their two children James, Viscount Severn, 12, and Lady Louise Windsor, 16. She was recognised to be the Queen's favourite royal. She ran her own PR company before marrying Prince Edward and earned the Queens trust by throwing herself into Royal life. She was known as one of the Queen's closest confidantes, and she appeared deeply emotional as she was driven to Balmoral, hours before the monarch's death was announced. Her Majesty's daughter-in-law has often been noted as the monarch's 'favourite' family member after she married Prince Edward, and her 'rock' after the death of Prince Phil last year. The royal showed her dedication to her family with a special necklace with pendants that read 'E,' 'L' and 'J', the initials of Prince Edward, their daughter Lady Louise Windsor, 18 and their son James Viscount Severn, 14 Sophie's current royal reputation is a far cry from the turmoil that followed the countess early on in her marriage, when she was still running her own public relations consultancy. A 'royals for hire' storm was sparked after she posed beside a Rover 75 at the Frankfurt Motor Show, having secured a 250,000 contract to publicise it. However in recent years, former aides have previously described the Queens relationship with Sophie who lost her own mother, Mary, in 2005 as like mother and daughter, adding: There is a great deal of love and mutual respect between them. And in 2021, a tearful Countess described the queen as amazing as she and her husband Prince Edward comforted Her Majesty at Windsor Castle following the death of her husband Prince Philip. The Countess of Wessex, who had opted for a green and white flower number for the occasion, signed the guest book before swiftly leaving Oxted to catch Royal Air Force flight KRF23R with her husband and Prince William and Prince Andrew It was often Sophie who's picked to travel with the Queen when she was attending church services at either Sandringham or Balmoral. She won the coveted spot because the monarch found her presence soothing and liked to be completely calm before church. It was believed that the mother was seen by the Queen as the Royal Familys safest pair of hands, because her marriage to Prince Edward has lasted, while Charles, Anne and Andrew have all been divorced. The Queen and Sophie's close bond was said to be down to their similar interests, with the pair often spending Saturday or Sunday evenings together at Windsor, watching old war films and historical documentaries. Sophie, who was brought up in Kent by a tyre company executive father and a secretary mother, was even thought to have convinced the Queen to watch The Crown - suggesting she might enjoy the Netflix series which is based on her reign. Sophie was known as one of the Queen's closest confidantes, and she appeared deeply emotional as she was driven to Balmoral, hours before the monarch's death was announced She is patron of more than 70 organizations, focusing largely on the rights of women and girls across the world. Writing for Town and Country, royal journalist and author Victoria Murphy pointed out, that on International Womens Day 2019 Sophie stood up in Buckingham Palace and vowed to devote herself to championing and supporting women peace-builders and the victims of sexual violence in conflict. 'Her work does not regularly receive the kind of media attention that the younger royals command, but Sophie, now 55, has become a stalwart member of the "firm",' Murphy wrote, adding: 'The spotlight on Sophie has intensified in the vacuum left as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle step back.' Meanwhile people who have worked with the Countess of Wessex on a professional level told Murphy that they admired her ability to say what she thinks while still remaining polite. Foreign royal families have flown their flags half-mast in honour of the Queen, following the news of her death yesterday. The Kingdoms of Spain, Sweden and Norway have all paid tribute to the Queen after it was announced has died aged 96. King Felipe VI of Spain has been leading the royal foreign tributes to the Monarch with a heartfelt statement where he said he would 'dearly' miss his Aunt Lilibet. In Madrid, the flag of the Royal Family was seen flying at half-mast next to Zarzuela Palace as a mark of respect. In Stockholm, the royal palace also flew the Swedish flag in the same fashion, as did Norway in Oslo. Foreign royal families have flown their flags half-mast in honour of the Queen, following the news of her death yesterday. Pictured: The Norwegian flag in Oslo Flowers were also left by royal fans in front of the British embassy in Stockholm, where the Union Jack also flew half-mast. In the Netherlands, bouquets, cards and flowers were let in front of the British embassy in The Hague. It comes as King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain have joined other European royals in paying tribute to their distant relative, the Queen, who has died at the age of 96. The Spanish Royal Family echoed sentiments from the Dutch and Swedish royals in praising the Queen's sense of duty to her country throughout her historic 70-year reign. The Swedish flag can also be seen flying at half-mast atop the Royal Palace in Stockholm today in a mark of respect In Madrid, the royal family is flying their flag half-mast next to Zarzuela Palace, pictured. King Felipe VBI led the foreign royals' homage to the Queen this morning Posting a letter to King Charles III on the Casa Real Twitter account, King Felipe said he would 'dearly' miss his Aunt Lilibet, a figure he held close. The familiarity between the British and Spanish royal households are thanks to Felipe's maternal great-grandfather, King Constantine I of Greece (1868 - 1923), also being uncle to the Duke of Edinburgh. In his statement, King Felipe sent his condolences to the new King and said the British Family were 'in our hearts and thoughts'. He wrote: 'Your Majesty, dearest Charles, 'Deeply saddened by the sorrowful news of the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, your beloved mother. 'I would like to offer Your Majesty and the British people, on my behalf and on the behalf of the Spanish government and people, our most heartfelt condolences.' He continued: 'Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth has undoubtedly witnessed, written and shaped many of the most relevant chapters in the history of our world during the last seven decades. Flowers were also left by royal fans in front of the British embassy in Stockholm, where the Union Jack also flew half-mast 'Her sense of duty, commitment and a whole life devoted to serving the people of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland set an example for all of us and will remain as a solid and valuable legacy for future generations. 'Queen Letizia and I send Your Majesty and the whole family our love and prayers. 'You are all in our hearts and thoughts. We will miss her dearly.' The King and Queen of Spain, who always referred to Queen Elizabeth II as 'Aunt Lilibet', wrote the late monarch a similar letter of sympathy last year after the death of Prince Philip. In a letter to the Queen, Felipe and Letizia wrote: 'We were deeply saddened to hear of the passing of our dear uncle Philip.' King Felipe VI posted a letter to King Charles III on Twitter to send his sincere condolences after the death of Queen Elizabeth II The Spanish royals' tribute to Queen Elizabeth II followed messages of condolence from Dutch and Swedish royals after news of her death was reported around the world. King Willem-Alexander, who is the fifth cousin twice-removed of Queen Elizabeth II, and Queen Maxima of The Netherlands led the tributes with a post on Instagram recalling their state visit to London in October 2018 when they were hosted at Buckingham Palace by the Queen and Prince Philip. Their statement read: 'We remember Queen Elizabeth II with deep respect and great affection. 'Steadfast and wise, she dedicated her long life to serving the British people. We feel a strong bond with the United Kingdom and its royal family, and we share their sorrow at this time. 'We are very grateful for our countries close friendship, to which Queen Elizabeth made such an unforgettable contribution.' The Swedish Royal Family also paid tribute to the Queen after news of her death was announced. In the Netherlands, bouquets, cards and flowers were let in front of the British embassy in The Hague In a statement also posted on the Royal Family's official Instagram page, King Carl Gustaf Folke Hubertus said: 'My family and I are deeply saddened to learn of the death of my dear relative Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. 'The Queen served her countries and the Commonwealth with outstanding dedication and duty. 'She has been a constant presence, not only in British society but also internationally. 'She has always been dear to my family and a precious link in our shared family history. 'We offer our heartfelt condolences to Her Majestys family and her peoples.' King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, like Her Majesty and Prince Philip, is descended from 'Europe's grandmother' Queen Victoria. Following an announcement early yesterday afternoon that doctors were concerned about the Queen's health, her children, including the new King Charles III, travelled to Balmoral. Buckingham Palace released a statement on Thursday 8 September to confirm Queen Elizabeth II had passed away peacefully. It's likely that the former Duchess of Cornwall will use the late Duke of Edinburgh as a model on how to carry out a supportive consort role The late Queen publicly gave Camilla her backing to be Queen Consort in 2022, when she issued an historic Platinum Jubilee statement ending years of uncertainty over the issue Crowds of royal fans praised her as 'down to earth' after she appeared emotional during the walkabout Appearance marked the royal couples first since the death of the Queen yesterday at the age of 96 Sombre Camilla supported her husband King Charles III as they arrived at Buckingham Palace yesterday Advertisement An emotional Camilla was praised as 'down-to-earth' by crowds who had gathered outside Buckingham Palace today as she supported King Charles during their first public appearance since the Queen's death on Thursday. Following the historic announcement that the Queen had died at the age of 96, King Charles III ascended to the throne with immediate effect, with the former Duchess of Cornwall taking the role of Queen Consort, which the late Queen gave her official backing to during a historic Platinum Jubilee statement earlier this year. Around 11am yesterday, seated in the front passenger seat of a chauffeur-driven Audi, the Queen Consort, 75, looked pensive as she departed Balmoral following the death of the Queen - clearly aware of the responsibility her new role carries. Camilla, wearing a black suit and a simple string of pearls with matching earrings, looked straight ahead as the new King and Queen Consort began their journey back to London on the first day of mourning. Upon arrival, the couple received a warm reception from the crowd gathered outside Buckingham Palace, many of whom said they were 'happy' Camilla had become Queen. At one stage, King Charles and Camilla appeared emotional, with the new monarch placing a reassuring hand on the Queen Consort's back as they took in the floral tributes left outside the gates. An emotional Camilla was praised as 'down-to-earth' by crowds who had gathered outside Buckingham Palace yesterday as she supported King Charles during their first public appearance since the Queen's death yesterday Camilla, dressed in mourning black, walked alongside the new King as they looked at floral tributes left at Buckingham Palace by members of the public Upon arrival, the couple received a warm reception from the crowd gathered outside Buckingham Palace, many of whom said they were 'happy' Camilla had become Queen She seems very down to earth whenever I have seen her on the television and is obviously good for Charles, said Julie Williams,44, from Bournemouth. I am quite happy to have her as our Queen. I know there are people who are not big fans because of what happened with Diana but that is all in the past. Adam Ellenden said: We are now in a new reign, and she will be by King Charles side and I am quite happy about that. I think everyone loved Diana but that is all in the past, and you cant dwell in the past. Camilla, dressed in mourning black, walked a few paces behind Charles as he met well-wishers. Many of those stood behind barriers draped in black were as enthusiastic to speak with her as the new King. New dawn: An emotional-looking Camilla, now Queen's Consort, following the Queen's death at Balmoral on Thursday afternoon, pictured leaving the Scottish royal residence yesterday United in grief: The new King and Queen Consort pictured looking emotional as they make the journey from the late Queen's Scottish residence ahead of a flight back to London Seated in the front passenger seat of an Audi, the Queen Consort, 75, looked deep in thought as she departed Balmoral following the death of the Queen yesterday afternoon Queen Consort Camilla pictured being driven through the village of Ballater after leaving the Balmoral Estate en route to Aberdeen Airport The new King looked solemn as he was seated in the back of the royal vehicle leaving Balmoral on Friday, just hours after the death of the Queen was announced late on Thursday afternoon Grief: Following Thursday's historic announcement that the Queen had died, King Charles ascended to the throne with immediate effect, Wearing a black suit and a simple string of pearls with matching earrings, the Queen Consort is pictured in a chauffeur-driven vehicle, with King Charles seated in the back, as part of a motorcade leaving Balmoral on Friday morning It's thought the 75-year-old royal will look to the role the late Duke of Edinburgh played in public life as a blueprint for her new title; the late Prince offered constant support to Her Majesty while never taking the limelight from her. After years, decades even, of uncertainty over what Camilla's official title would be when King Charles finally took the throne, the late Queen took matters into her own hands by making a surprise announcement in February 2022. It is a remarkable transformation for Camilla, who was once branded the 'third person' in Charles' stricken marriage to Diana, and received a lukewarm reception from the royal family when the then Prince announced his intention to make Camilla the Duchess of Cornwall. In recent years though, Camilla has grown into life as a senior royal and ahead of the Coronation, the new Queen Consort will undoubtedly be a great support to King Charles in a time of grief and long-anticipated change. In a few short hours, life has changed dramatically for the former Duchess of Cornwall as she is elevated to a new role following the Queen's death Camilla looked straight ahead as the King and Queen Consort begin their journey back to London on the first day of mourning The motorcade followed roads the royal family have driven along for decades; but no such journey will match this morning's for poignancy The senior royal, approaching her late seventies, is now Queen Consort, signaling a dramatic transformation in public and royal perceptions since she first fell in love with Charles during her twenties The famous photo that branded the new Queen Consort a marriage wrecker; the couple pictured in 1975 before Charles was betrothed to marry Diana, who would famously accuse Camilla of being the 'third person' in her marriage to then Prince in a Panorama interview with Martin Bashir in 1995 The late Monarch's backing: the official recommendation that the Queen supported Camilla becoming Queen Consort, which was published in February 2022 After 'coming out' with their renewed love on a night out at the Ritz in London in 1999, the couple wed, with the royal family's blessing in 2005 - and the new Queen Consort began her re-brand into senior royal who has a natural affiliation with people The late Queen gave her approval for Camilla to be crowned alongside Charles' in an official role before her death on September 8th (pictured together at the Jubilee in 2022) The Queen, pictured leaving Windsor Castle in July, died on Thursday at her Scottish residence of Balmoral The treasured Monarch declared it was her 'sincere wish' for her daughter-in-law to be fully acknowledged when Charles succeeded her - and the wish made in the twilight of her life has now come to fruition. At the time, the statement also quashed speculation that the then 95-year-old Monarch might abdicate, as she reiterated her Coronation pledge. She told her subjects 'my life will always be devoted to your service' and that she would continue to honour that 'with all my heart'. After a tentative start to royal life, Camilla has excelled in recent years regularly standing in for the late Queen when she could no longer entertain due to failing health and stamina (The couple at a gala dinner in 2000 for the Princes Foundation) After an initially lukewarm reception to the news Prince Charles would marry Camilla, she has grown into life as a senior royal in recent years (pictured left, with the Prince of Wales in 2007, and right, together in 2010) From down-to-earth Sussex girl to royal mistress and now Queen Consort: Camilla's royal family journey The Duchess of Cornwall is the former royal mistress who will now stand shoulder to shoulder as Queen Consort to King Charles. Camilla's public image has been transformed dramatically after she was initially cast as the 'third' person in the Prince and Diana, Princess of Wales' marriage, before becoming a campaigning member of the monarchy prepared to serve the nation. Underneath, she was the down-to-earth Sussex girl who grew up with a love of horses and happened to fall in love with a prince. Charles and Camilla are pictured together in 1979, two years before his wedding to Princess Diana During the nearly two decades she has been married to Charles, Camilla has grown into her role and is an assured royal host when staging events at Clarence House and has confidently represented the Queen when invited to foreign lands. She is patron or supporter of a number of literacy charities, speaks out in support of victims of domestic violence and champions several animal welfare organisations. But her most significant role is supporting Charles and being the comforting presence at home that has enabled him to take on the role of heir to the throne - and now the King. How different it all was on that cold Thursday night outside The Ritz more than 20 years ago in 1999. It was Charles and Camilla's coming out, a fleeting but scrupulously choreographed appearance before the world's press After Charles and Camilla both divorced - and Diana died in 1997 - the then duchess' emergence as the prince's long-term partner was part of a carefully planned PR campaign masterminded by the heir to the throne's spin doctor Mark Bolland. Their first public appearance together was outside the Ritz hotel in London in 1999, dubbed Operation Ritz, where the mass of waiting photographers had been tipped off. The culmination of the romance was a marriage between the long-time lovers who wed in a civil ceremony at Windsor Guildhall on April 9, 2005. With Camilla by his side, Charles appears more relaxed and many times during royal events she has cajoled and encouraged him to try something new or have some fun. Now the late Queen's wishes have bestowed upon Camilla the ultimate accolade in recognition of her importance to Charles and the monarchy. When the late Queen announced the news that Camilla would become the future Queen Consort in 2022, a Clarence House spokesperson said Charles and Camilla were 'touched and honoured' by the gesture, which ended years of uncertainty over the Duchess of Cornwall's role in the future of the monarchy Advertisement The late Queen wrote at the time: 'When, in the fullness of time, my son Charles becomes King, I know you will give him and his wife Camilla the same support that you have given me; and it is my sincere wish that, when that time comes, Camilla will be known as Queen Consort as she continues her own loyal service.' Charles and Camilla were 'touched and honoured' by the Queen's gesture, Clarence House said when the statement was made public. It marked a public acceptance of a marriage that had its first embers of lust in youth and was officially confirmed on a night out at The Ritz in 1999, when the then Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles, in middle age, enjoyed a night out together. With a flash of cameras signaling their relationship would be front page news the next morning, Camilla looked more than a little hesitant - but over the decades that have followed, she has proved a constant support to the new King, and won over the royal family including the Queen. Example: The new Queen Consort is likely to look to the way the late Duke of Edinburgh conducted himself in supporting the Queen during her lengthy reign (Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall on Commonwealth Day at Westminster Abbey in 2017) The close couple have grown ever more united as they face the biggest roles of their lives (Pictured in April 2019) The pomp and ceremony of official engagements are something that Queen Camilla has adapted to with aplomb (Pictured during an international tour of Egypt) A blueprint for consort life: The late Duke of Edinburgh offered a masterclass in supporting the Queen without taking the limelight away from her, something the new Queen Consort will look to emulate (Prince Philip and Camilla at the Queen's 90th birthday celebrations in 2016) Increasingly confident, Camilla has become an assured royal host when staging events at Clarence House and confidently represented the late Queen when invited to foreign lands in recent decades. Now, she will likely look to the way the Duke of Edinburgh provided support to Queen Elizabeth II as guidance for the new role she's taking on as she approaches her late Seventies. Prince Philip offered a blueprint for consort life, offering a masterclass in supporting the Queen without ever taking the spotlight from her, something the new Queen Consort will now look to emulate. Increasingly confident, Camilla has been a supportive confidante to Prince Charles (left and right, at their home of Birkhall in 2020 and 2021) Fashion houses Burberry and Raf Simons have cancelled their shows at London Fashion Week as a mark of respect following the death of the Queen. The British and Belgian designers each issued statements announcing they would pull out of the event as the country enters a period of mourning for Queen Elizabeth II, who passed away on Thursday at the age of 96. For now, the British Fashion Council has said London Fashion Week will still go ahead and will open in the capital on Friday, 16 September - but celebrations would be muted. The Queen attended London Fashion Week in 2018 and sat in the front row with Vogue US editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour A statement from the BFC said: 'London Fashion Week is a business-to-business event, and an important moment for designers to show their collections at a specific moment in the fashion calendar, we recognise the work that goes into this moment. 'Therefore, shows and presentations of collections can continue, but we are asking that designers respect the mood of the nation and period of national mourning by considering the timing of their image release.' While many fashion houses have not yet commented on whether they will proceed with their LFW shows, Burberry and Raf Simons were quick to announce they were pulling out. A spokesperson for Raf Simons told FEMAIL: 'Following the devastating news of the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, we have decided to cancel the Raf Simons catwalk show on the 16th of September. British fashion house Burberry has announced it will not be going ahead with its London Fashion Week show (pictured: A catwalk model during the Burberry A/W 2023 Womenswear Collection Presentation in March 2022) 'As the country enters a period of official mourning, we will pause during this time of great sadness. We will take this time to respect the legacy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and her 70 years on the throne. 'Our thoughts are with the Royal Family and the people of the Commonwealth.' They added updates would be issued on the designer's Spring/Summer collection at a later date. Burberry also confirmed its show, initially scheduled to take place on Saturday 17 September, would not go ahead. In 2018 the Queen made a surprise appearance at London Fashion Week where she sat in the front row next to editor-in-chief of Vogue US, Anna Wintour. The then-91-year-old was pictured sharing a joke with the long-standing editor as the pair watched Richard Quinn's show. Her Majesty then presented him with the inaugural Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design. Queen Elizabeth II passed away at the age of 96 at Balmoral on Thursday afternoon. Buckingham Palace issued a statement confirming the death of Her Majesty at around 6.30pm. It read: 'The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. 'The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.' The sketch writer charged with giving comedy lines to the Queen has revealed the late monarch had a natural love of acting - and brilliant comic timing. Frank Cottrell Boyce appeared on BBC Breakfast from his home in Liverpool this morning to pay tribute to the late Queen, who died at Balmoral yesterday afternoon at the age of 96. The comic writer co-wrote both the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony, which saw the Queen apparently on a secret mission with then Bond actor Daniel Craig, and this year's Paddington Bear sketch, in which the Monarch and Michael Bond's marmalade-sandwich munching character shared afternoon tea to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee. Scroll down for video Speaking to BBC Breakfast News hosts Charlie Stayt and Naga Munchetty this morning, Frank Cottrell Boyce paid tribute, saying the late Queen had 'real acting talent' Sketch writer Cottrell Boyce co-penned both the Paddington Bear and the Daniel Craig 2012 Olympics sketches In 2012, the Queen made a cameo ahead of the Olympics in London, starring alongside then James Bond actor Daniel Craig Cottrell Boyce described how the Paddington scene, a highlight of the 70-year celebration of the Queen's extraordinary reign in June, brought out the best in her. He said: 'Shes absolutely glowing in that moment. And youve got to remember that thats real acting thats going on there. Paddington isnt really in the room. 'Shes acting with an eye-line and with someone pretending to be Paddington. Thats proper acting going on. But I also think its true happiness.' He elaborated: 'Thats technically an amazing performance, actually. Its a brilliantly timed comic performance.' The Queen had delighted millions of viewers after appearing in the comic sketch with the bear to kick-start the Party in The Palace Jubilee Concert on Saturday, June 4. From his home in Liverpool, Frank Cottrell Boyce, left, told BBC Breakfast's Charlie Stayt and Naga Munchetty that the Queen had impressed him with her acting skills The late Queen delighted millions of viewers after appearing in a hilarious sketch with Paddington Bear for the Platinum Jubilee celebrations back in June In a pre-recorded segment, Paddington and Her Majesty were pictured sharing a marmalade sandwich at Buckingham Palace The sketch was shown in the lead-up to the Platinum Party At The Palace concert outside Buckingham Palace The much loved British institutions tapped out the beat of Queens We Will Rock You anthem together on china teacups using silver spoons as a unique way of getting the celebrations under way. The sketch, which the Queen spent half a day filming, was hailed by Britons as better than her Olympic opening show cameo with James Bond. Moments after the news broke on Thursday that Her Majesty had died at the age of 96, Paddington joined millions of others in paying tribute. The bear said in a simple, yet heartfelt message: Thank you Maam, for everything. Gang rape survivor Jessica Knoll used the horrific trauma of her past to inspire a best-selling novel, which is now set to be retold in an upcoming Netflix movie starring Mila Kunis. American author Knoll, 39, who hails from Pennsylvania, released her first novel, Luckiest Girl Alive, in May 2015 - which followed a young woman and sexual assault victim named Ani, who struggled to come to terms with her troubled childhood. The book was an instant success spent four months on the New York Times Best Seller list, propelling Knoll into the spotlight practically over night. While at first, Knoll told the public that she drew from stories she had heard from others while writing Ani's tale, she later revealed that she herself was the victim of a horrifying gang rape at age 15, which ultimately inspired the book. Gang rape survivor Jessica Knoll used the horrific trauma of her past to inspire a best-selling novel, which is now set to be retold in an upcoming Netflix movie. She is seen with the script Knoll, 39, who hails from Pennsylvania, released her first novel, Luckiest Girl Alive, in May 2015, which followed a young woman and sexual assault victim named Ani Knoll (seen as a child) first said she drew from stories she had heard from others while writing Ani's tale, but later revealed that she herself was the victim of a horrifying gang rape at age 15 In an emotional essay written for Lena Dunham's newsletter posted in March 2016, almost a year after the book's release, Knoll said that while the novel 'is a work of fiction, its inspiration was not.' 'I know what its like to not belong,' she wrote. 'I know what its like to shut down and power through, to have no other choice than to pretend to be OK. I am a savant of survivor mode.' Knoll revealed that she once got drunk at a party and awoke to three different guys sexually assaulting her - when she was just 15 years old. She said she drank so much alcohol that she 'slipped away from the waking world,' and came to 'on the floor of a bedroom' horrified to find a boy's head 'between her legs.' She soon fell asleep again, but was awoken by an 'excruciating pain.' 'The pain is what woke me next,' she explained. 'I was moaning, "Ow," over and over, before even opening my eyes. 'This time [another boy] was there, his shoulders rising and falling above me in an excruciating rhythm.' Knoll said she passed out again, and woke up for a third time in the bathroom surrounded by blood. She said: 'I went under again, coming to on my knees in the bathroom, staring into a toilet full of blood. I know I was too young to understand. I thought I must have cut myself.' In an emotional essay written in March 2016, almost a year after the book's release, Knoll (seen with the novel) said that while it 'is a work of fiction, its inspiration was not' Knoll (seen this year) revealed that she once got drunk at a party and awoke to three different guys sexually assaulting her - when she was just 15 years old She said she came to 'on the floor' to find a boy's head 'between her legs.' She fell asleep again, but awoke to find a different guy's 'shoulders rising and falling in an excruciating rhythm' Knoll explained that she must have lost consciousness again, because the next thing she remembered was waking up the next morning in bed with a third boy. 'There was a nauseating moment where I had no idea where I was and whom I was with,' she recalled. Luckiest Girl Alive was an instant success spent four months on the New York Times Best Seller list, and as of 2019, the Cut reported that it had sold 450,000 copies 'He laughed about how hungover he was, how crazy the party had been, how the reason I couldnt find my underwear was because it was downstairs.' The guy told her she had cut her hand on a broken bottle the night before and that she was 'stumbling around in front of everyone wearing nothing from the waist down,' while calling her 'a party animal.' 'I laughed, because laughing was easier than tending to my heart, which felt like a hot coal in my chest, on fire with shame,' she wrote. Knoll said she went to a clinic to get Plan B afterwards, and recalled 'aching for guidance and protection.' The writer said she described what happened to her to a doctor and asked if it would be considered rape, but was told that the medical professional 'wasn't qualified to answer that question.' Knoll said her classmates called her a 'slut' in the aftermath of the incident, and that after she confronted one of the boys about what happened, she became terrified that they were going to 'come after her' - so she ultimately called him to say she was sorry. The writer said she kept it a secret years, but decided to share her story with the world in an attempt to finally heal, and to help other victims to feel less alone Before becoming a highly acclaimed author, Knoll worked as an editor at Cosmopolitan magazine. She wed a man named Gregory Cortese in 2013, and together She went on to release a second novel, called The Favorite Sister, in 2018, and the TV rights for the book were snagged by the producer of hit series Big Little Lies 'I apologized to my rapist for calling him a rapist. What a thing to live with,' she added. 'From then on, I submitted to my assigned narrative. What was the point in raising my voice when all it got me was my own lonely echo? 'Like Ani, the only way I knew to survive was to laugh loudly at my rapists jokes, speak softly to the mean girls, and focus on chiseling my tunnel out of there.' After graduating high school, Knoll said she became 'obsessed with reinventing herself.' 'Not because I didnt want anyone from my past to find me, just the opposite, in fact,' she explained. 'I was sure that with the right wardrobe, a glamorous job, and a ring on my finger before the age of 28, I could transcend my reputation. 'That if everyone from my past could see me so put together, so accomplished in New York City, so settled down, my voice would finally be worth hearing.' Before becoming a highly acclaimed author, Knoll worked as an editor at Cosmopolitan magazine. She wed a man named Gregory Cortese in 2013, and together. The author admitted at the time that she was hesitant to speak out because she was 'scared' that people might not 'call what happened to her rape' - since 'for a long time, no one did.' She wrote the screenplay for the upcoming Netflix adaptation of Luckiest Girl Alive, which is set to star Mila Kunis (seen), and she also served as the executive producer for the flick It premieres on September 30, and also stars Connie Britton, Jennifer Beals, Justine Lupe, Scoot McNairy, and Finn Wittrock. Knoll is pictured above with the cast This is just the beginning for Knoll, who is currently working on her third book. 'In my mind, I'm not rich enough,' she told the Cut. 'To me, rich enough is not a number. Its a lifestyle' But she added: 'Theres no reason to cover my head. Theres no reason I shouldnt say what I know.' She also said she was still 'very, very angry' about what happened. 'My anger is odorless, colorless, and tasteless. Its completely toxic,' she wrote. 'My anger is carbon monoxide, binding to pain, humiliation, and hurt, rendering them powerless.' She added that she was sharing her story with the world in an attempt to finally heal, and to help other victims to feel less alone. Knoll went on to release a second novel, called The Favorite Sister, in 2018, and the TV rights for the book were snagged by the producer of hit series Big Little Lies. As of 2019, the Cut reported that Luckiest Girl Alive had sold 450,000 copies. And she told the outlet at the time that she had received a 'high six figures' profit from publishing company Simon & Schuster for the book. She added that 'royalties' have made her even more money, explaining, 'You get those checks twice a year. Every time my agency tells me the amount thats going into my checking account, the woman is like, You go, girl."' Knoll wrote the screenplay for the upcoming Netflix adaptation of Luckiest Girl Alive, and is serving as the executive producer for the flick. It premieres on September 30, and also stars Connie Britton, Jennifer Beals, Justine Lupe, Scoot McNairy, and Finn Wittrock. And this is just the beginning for Knoll, who is currently working on her third book. 'In my mind, I'm not rich enough,' she told the Cut. 'To me, rich enough is not a number. Its a lifestyle. 'Bi-coastal living is the big goal for me. Of course, if I ever get there, the bar will keep rising. Ill find another thing to aspire to. Thats just how my mind works.' King Charles made a poignant reference to a song performed at Princess Diana's funeral as he paid tribute to his mother the Queen on Friday evening. The monarch recorded an address tonight in the Blue Drawing Room of Buckingham Palace, where Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II recorded some of her Christmas messages. Ending his address, King Charles III said: 'May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest'. It was a reference to lyrics from Song for Athene, which was performed at the funeral of Princess Diana as her cortege departed from Westminster Abbey on September 6, 1997. King Charles referenced lyrics from Song for Athene, which was performed at the funeral of Princess Diana as her cortege departed from Westminster Abbey on September 6, 1997 Although the King did not mention his late ex-wife by name in his first address as monarch to the nation, he referenced lyrics from a song performed at her funeral Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II died on Thursday aged 96, at Balmoral Castle, leaving a nation to mourn the adored monarch The coffin bearing Diana, Princess of Wales, is carried by Welsh Guardsmen through Westminster Abbey during her funeral service in London. Song for Athene includes the line 'May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest', which the King said in tribute to his mother at the end of his address The lyrics themselves borrowed the line from Shakespeare's Hamlet. Song for Athene was composed by Britain's John Tavener with lyrics by Orthodox nun Mother Thekla. Addressing the nation for the first time as King, the monarch said: 'I speak to you today with feelings of profound sorrow. 'Throughout her life, Her Majesty The Queen my beloved Mother was an inspiration and example to me and to all my family, and we owe her the most heartfelt debt any family can owe to their mother; for her love, affection, guidance, understanding and example. 'Queen Elizabeth was a life well lived; a promise with destiny kept and she is mourned most deeply in her passing. That promise of lifelong service I renew to you all today.' He added: 'In a little over a week's time we will come together as a nation, as a Commonwealth and indeed a global community, to lay my beloved mother to rest. 'In our sorrow, let us remember and draw strength from the light of her example. 'On behalf of all my family, I can only offer the most sincere and heartfelt thanks for your condolences and support. Members of the public in St Paul's Cathedral listened to the pre-recorded address by King Charles III He said: 'To my darling Mama, as you begin your last great journey to join my dear late Papa, I want simply to say this: thank you' Prince Philip, Prince William, Earl Althorp, Prince Harry and King Charles (then Prince of Wales) walk behind Diana, the Princess of Wales's funeral cortege on September 6 'They mean more to me than I can ever possibly express. 'And to my darling Mama, as you begin your last great journey to join my dear late Papa, I want simply to say this: thank you. 'Thank you for your love and devotion to our family and to the family of nations you have served so diligently all these years. 'May "flights of Angels sing thee to thy rest".' As Charles said his speech this evening, he sat behind a desk with a posy of sweet peas mixed with rosemary, which represents remembrance. The vase on the table had three corgis at the base and was in the Queen's audience room. During the speech, the King also announced the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had taken the title of 'Cornwall' at the same moment he became the monarch. As of 6pm this evening, The Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge are also known as Prince and Princess of Wales. King Charles III paid a sweet tribute to his late mother the Queen during his first address to the nation. The monarch, 73, shared the address from the Blue Drawing Room of Buckingham Palace, the same room where Queen Elizabeth II recorded some of her Christmas messages. On his desk, viewers could see a picture of the Queen smiling and dressed in a blue jacket and hat, taken on the balcony of Buckingham Palace at Trooping the Colour in 2009. Also on the desk was a vase holding a posy of sweet peas mixed with Rosemary which represents remembrance. King Charles III paid a sweet tribute to his late mother the Queen by keeping a picture of her, right, as he addressed the nation as King for the first time King's Charles III's four attention to the Queen: 1. posy and Rosemary flowers. 2. A vase adorned with Corgis she used to keep in her audience room. 3. A picture of her taken at Trooping the Colour 2009 on his desk; 4. He also recorded the message in the Blue Drawing Room of Buckingham Palace, where Her Majesty recorded some of her Christmas messages The picture on King Charles III's desk was taken on the balcony of Buckingham Palace in 2009, during Trooping the Colour Charles also paid tribute to the 'loving help of my darling wife Camilla', and said her loyalty meant she had been given the title of Queen Consort The vase itself, which used to adorn the Queen's audience room, offered another sweet nod to his mother, a design featuring corgis, famously her favourite type of dog. The location of this room itself was also significant, as the King's message was recorded in the Blue Drawing Room of Buckingham Palace, where Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II recorded some of Her Christmas speeches. Charles III's speech in full 'I speak to you today with feelings of profound sorrow. Throughout her life, Her Majesty The Queen - my beloved Mother - was an inspiration and example to me and to all my family, and we owe her the most heartfelt debt any family can owe to their mother; for her love, affection, guidance, understanding and example. 'Queen Elizabeth was a life well lived; a promise with destiny kept and she is mourned most deeply in her passing. That promise of lifelong service I renew to you all today. 'Alongside the personal grief that all my family are feeling, we also share with so many of you in the United Kingdom, in all the countries where The Queen was Head of State, in the Commonwealth and across the world, a deep sense of gratitude for the more than 70 years in which my Mother, as Queen, served the people of so many nations. 'In 1947, on her 21st birthday, she pledged in a broadcast from Cape Town to the Commonwealth to devote her life, whether it be short or long, to the service of her peoples. That was more than a promise: it was a profound personal commitment which defined her whole life. She made sacrifices for duty. 'Her dedication and devotion as Sovereign never waivered, through times of change and progress, through times of joy and celebration, and through times of sadness and loss. 'In her life of service we saw that abiding love of tradition, together with that fearless embrace of progress, which make us great as Nations. The affection, admiration and respect she inspired became the hallmark of her reign. 'And, as every member of my family can testify, she combined these qualities with warmth, humour and an unerring ability always to see the best in people. 'I pay tribute to my Mother's memory and I honour her life of service. I know that her death brings great sadness to so many of you and I share that sense of loss, beyond measure, with you all. 'When The Queen came to the throne, Britain and the world were still coping with the privations and aftermath of the Second World War, and still living by the conventions of earlier times. In the course of the last 70 years we have seen our society become one of many cultures and many faiths. 'The institutions of the State have changed in turn. But, through all changes and challenges, our nation and the wider family of Realms - of whose talents, traditions and achievements I am so inexpressibly proud - have prospered and flourished. Our values have remained, and must remain, constant. 'The role and the duties of Monarchy also remain, as does the Sovereign's particular relationship and responsibility towards the Church of England - the Church in which my own faith is so deeply rooted. 'In that faith, and the values it inspires, I have been brought up to cherish a sense of duty to others, and to hold in the greatest respect the precious traditions, freedoms and responsibilities of our unique history and our system of parliamentary government. 'As The Queen herself did with such unswerving devotion, I too now solemnly pledge myself, throughout the remaining time God grants me, to uphold the Constitutional principles at the heart of our nation. 'And wherever you may live in the United Kingdom, or in the Realms and territories across the world, and whatever may be your background or beliefs, I shall endeavour to serve you with loyalty, respect and love, as I have throughout my life. My life will of course change as I take up my new responsibilities. 'It will no longer be possible for me to give so much of my time and energies to the charities and issues for which I care so deeply. But I know this important work will go on in the trusted hands of others. 'This is also a time of change for my family. I count on the loving help of my darling wife, Camilla. In recognition of her own loyal public service since our marriage 17 years ago, she becomes my Queen Consort. 'I know she will bring to the demands of her new role the steadfast devotion to duty on which I have come to rely so much. As my Heir, William now assumes the Scottish titles which have meant so much to me. 'He succeeds me as Duke of Cornwall and takes on the responsibilities for the Duchy of Cornwall which I have undertaken for more than five decades. Today, I am proud to create him Prince of Wales, Tywysog Cymru, the country whose title I have been so greatly privileged to bear during so much of my life and duty. 'With Catherine beside him, our new Prince and Princess of Wales will, I know, continue to inspire and lead our national conversations, helping to bring the marginal to the centre ground where vital help can be given. I want also to express my love for Harry and Meghan as they continue to build their lives overseas. 'In a little over a week's time we will come together as a nation, as a Commonwealth and indeed a global community, to lay my beloved mother to rest. In our sorrow, let us remember and draw strength from the light of her example. 'On behalf of all my family, I can only offer the most sincere and heartfelt thanks for your condolences and support. They mean more to me than I can ever possibly express. 'And to my darling Mama, as you begin your last great journey to join my dear late Papa, I want simply to say this: thank you. 'Thank you for your love and devotion to our family and to the family of nations you have served so diligently all these years. May 'flights of Angels sing thee to thy rest'.' Advertisement As well as paying tribute to his mother via the decorative touches, Charles also made moving references to the Queen through his words during the address. He called her his 'darling mama' and vowed to 'renew' her 'promise of a life of service' as he gave the speech. The new monarch, holding back tears, hailed Elizabeth II as an 'inspiration and an example to me and to all my family' as he spoke of his 'profound sorrow' at her death aged 96 at Balmoral Castle yesterday. In a speech that was screened at a service of prayer and reflection at St Paul's Cathedral, the King extended an olive branch to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, saying he wished to 'express my love for Harry and Meghan as they continue to build their lives overseas'. Charles, 72, also paid tribute to the 'loving help of my darling wife Camilla', and said her loyalty meant she had been given the title of Queen Consort. The King began his address by telling the nation: 'I speak to you today with feelings of profound sorrow. 'Throughout her life, Her Majesty The Queen - my beloved Mother - was an inspiration and example to me and to all my family, and we owe her the most heartfelt debt any family can owe to their mother; for her love, affection, guidance, understanding and example. 'As the Queen herself did with such unswerving devotion, I too now solemnly pledge myself, throughout the remaining time God grants me, to uphold the Constitutional principles at the heart of our nation.' The King said he was creating his son and heir, William, Prince of Wales adding: 'With Catherine beside him, our new Prince and Princess of Wales will, I know, continue to inspire and lead our national conversations, helping to bring the marginal to the centre ground where vital help can be given.' Charles said that he life 'will of course change as I take up my new responsibilities.' He added: 'It will no longer be possible for me to give so much of my time and energies to the charities and issues for which I care so deeply. 'But I know this important work will go on in the trusted hands of others.' The King ended his address by saying: 'To my darling Mama, as you begin your last great journey to join my dear late Papa, I want simply to say this: thank you. 'Thank you for your love and devotion to our family and to the family of nations you have served so diligently all these years. 'May 'flights of angels sing thee to thy rest'.' MPs applauded the King's address after they watched it in silence in the Commons chamber. Some could be seen wiping away tears during the speech. The Commons had been suspended for a short period to allow MPs to watch the speech on televisions in the chamber. This evening's service at St Paul's is being attended by 2,000 members of the public who were handed tickets on a first-come-first-served basis. Prime Minister Liz Truss will give a reading at the service, having met Charles, 73, earlier today at their first in-person meeting at Buckingham Palace. London Mayor Sadiq Khan, Labour leader Keir Starmer, Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and Foreign Secretary James Cleverly were all in attendance at the service and sat together. They could be seen chatting together ahead of the service. In a separate area, the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Lord Speaker are sat together while Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Nadhim Zahawi is sat with Lord High Chancellor Brandon Lewis. The rest of the congregation looked solemn as they listen to the music playing at the start of the service. Earlier, huge crowds cheered the new monarch as he arrived at Buckingham Palace in a vintage Rolls-Royce alongside Camilla, the Queen Consort, before he got out and began shaking hands with countless well-wishers. In moving scenes, shouts of God Save the King broke out before an impromptu rendition of the National Anthem, with the words changed to reflect the new monarch. As the sun shone on an otherwise dull, damp day, the Royal Standard was raised above Buckingham Palace for the first time of his reign. Onlookers shouted three cheers for Charles at Buckingham Palace as one woman leaned over to kiss him on the hand and another asked 'Can I kiss you?' before pecking him on the cheek. The King's historic Accession Council will be held on Saturday at 10am in St James's Palace. It will be televised for the first time in its history, showing the King being formally proclaimed monarch and Charles making his declaration and oath. A Principal Proclamation will be read in public for the first time by the Garter King of Arms in the open air from the balcony overlooking Friary Court at St James's an hour later at 11am. It will be followed by a flurry of proclamations around the country, with the second one in the City of London at the Royal Exchange at midday on Saturday, and further proclamations in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales at midday on Sunday. At Buckingham Palace yesterday, onlookers held out red roses for the King as the Queen Consort followed behind at a distance before joining her husband at his side to view the floral tributes left outside the gates. The King was heard telling well-wishers, 'Thank you so much, it's so kind, it really is', 'God bless you' and 'I've really dreaded this day' during the 15-minute walkabout. One woman shouted to him, 'We love you King Charles and we loved your mum'. As a bugle sounded, Charles, dressed in mourning black suit and tie, walked side by side with Camilla - who seemed close to tears - through the main entrance of Buckingham Palace. The new King was openly emotional in 'a way that the Crown has never been seen before,' during his first address to the nation tonight, according to a body language expert. Judi James told MailOnline how Charles, 73, did away with the traditional 'stiff upper lip' during the speech, in order to allow himself to share his grief with the nation during the address, which was screened at a service of prayer and reflection at St Paul's Cathedral. According to Judi, the monarch 'radiated pride and confidence' during the emotional speech, which was recorded from the Buckingham Palace Blue Drawing Room. She added that Charles spoke with both the vulnerability of a loving son when he addressed his late mother during the speech, but also the poise of a new King when speaking to the nation. 'The new Kings body language was openly emotional in a way that the crown never has never been seen before,' Judi said, adding it was was departure from Charles' previous body language. Judi James told MailOnline how Charles, 73, gave up the 'stiff upper lip' in order to allow himself to share his grief with the nation The body language expert added he was openly emotional in 'a way that the crown has never seen before' 'Gone was the traditional stiff upper lip, stoicism and suppressed emotions, and in their place were words and non-verbal signals of personal love and extreme sadness,' she added. Judi James added that this show of emotions echoed Charles' tearful demeanour during the funeral of his father the Duke of Edinburgh, in April 2021. 'Charles had never been an expressive man until we saw his tears at his fathers funeral,' she explained. 'That day it was Kate comforting him. 'Here, he shared his grief with the nation but with loving references to his "darling wife Camilla",'. She noted that he displayed one of the only warm smiles during the otherwise deeply sad address when he spoke of Camilla being the one he has relied on 'so much'. Judi also highlighted the parts of Charles' speech in which he mentioned his sons as being very expressive. 'There was an expression of pride and confidence as he referenced William and Catherine,' she noted. 'Then he spoke of his "love for" Harry and Meghan. This comment brought a long pause, and his eyes dropped in a sad, regretful-looking cut-off ritual, as he seemed to allow a small sigh before continuing to speak.' The body language expert said Charles grew most emotional towards the end of his speech, when he appeared to 'be on the brink of tears. 'As he spoke of his "darling Mama" and addressed her directly, his eyes appeared to dampen, his voice began to falter and he needed a glance to the side before speaking of a "flight of angels to sing thee",' she added. She noted that the new King was 'hunched and partly hidden behind the table', noting a postural change when he changed direction in the speech. Charles' traditional 'stiff upper lip, stoicism and suppressed emotions' were all gone during the speech, according to Judi James, who said they were replaced by 'words and non-verbal signals of personal love and extreme sadness' According to body language expert Judi James, during his speech (pictured) King Charles 'spoke as a son but he also addressed the nation as the new king' 'He spoke as a son but he also addressed the nation as the new king,' Judi explained. 'And it was here he seemed to flex his shoulders as his chin jutted slightly, to suggest some determination to move forward in the post.' But this was 'only after he had shown a very intimate and revealing display of love to the woman [the Queen] who had held it before', she revealed. Addressing his mother at the end of the speech, King Charles said: 'To my darling Mama, as you begin your last great journey to join my dear late Papa, I want simply to say this: thank you. 'Thank you for your love and devotion to our family and to the family of nations you have served so diligently all these years. 'May 'flights of angels sing thee to thy rest'.' This evening's service at St Paul's was attended by 2,000 members of the public who were handed tickets on a first-come-first-served basis. Prime Minister Liz Truss gave reading at the service, having met Charles, 73, earlier today at their first in-person meeting at Buckingham Palace. London Mayor Sadiq Khan, Labour leader Keir Starmer, Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and Foreign Secretary James Cleverly were all in attendance at the service and were seated together. Earlier in the day, huge crowds had cheered the new monarch as he arrived at Buckingham Palace in a vintage Rolls-Royce alongside Camilla, the Queen Consort, before he got out and began shaking hands with countless well-wishers. In moving scenes, shouts of God Save the King broke out before an impromptu rendition of the National Anthem, with the words changed to reflect the new monarch. As the sun shone on an otherwise dull, damp day, the Royal Standard was raised above Buckingham Palace for the first time of his reign. A doctor has pointed to the Queen's frail appearance at her final royal appointment as a sign that she was going to die within days. Dr Deb Cohen-Jones, who lives in Perth, Western Australia, said photos of Queen Elizabeth II's hands as she posed alongside the UK's new Prime Minister Liz Truss at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on Tuesday was possibly a sign of declining health. 'It looks like there is possibly evidence of peripheral vascular disease. It's a blood circulation disorder that causes the blood vessels outside of your heart and brain to narrow, block, or spasm,' she told FEMAIL. 'It can sometimes result in heart failure. If your peripheral circulation is that poor, organs aren't receiving a good blood supply. It can be a sign of multi organ failure.' Scroll down for video An Australian doctor has pointed to the Queen's frail appearance at her final royal appointment as a sign she was going to die within days Dr Deb Cohen-Jones said photos of Queen Elizabeth II's purple-tinted hands (pictured) as she posed alongside the UK's new Prime Minister Liz Truss two days ago is a sign of declining health What is peripheral vascular disease? Peripheral vascular disease is a slow and progressive circulation disorder. Narrowing, blockage, or spasms in a blood vessel can cause PVD. PVD may affect any blood vessel outside of the heart including the arteries, veins, or lymphatic vessels. Organs supplied by these vessels, such as the brain, and legs, may not get enough blood flow for proper function. However, the legs and feet are most commonly affected. Peripheral vascular disease is also called peripheral arterial disease. Advertisement Some of the well-known symptoms include intermittent pain, which may present as cramps or muscle fatigue, 'coldness' of the affected body part, numbness and pins and needles. The late Queen's hands were 'mottled' which usually occurs when the heart is no longer able to pump blood effectively. The blood pressure slowly drops and blood flow throughout the body slows, causing extremities to begin to feel cold to the touch, Crossroads Hospice reported. Sadly, Dr Deb confirmed that Queen Elizabeth II 'would have been in a lot of pain' if she suffered from the chronic disease because 'it looks quite severe'. There is no way of knowing for sure how long the 'mottling' has been there, as the monarch hadn't been seen in public for some time and often wore gloves. Sadly, Dr Deb confirmed that Queen Elizabeth II 'would have been in a lot of pain' if she suffered from the chronic disease because 'it looks quite severe' This official announcement from Buckingham Palace recorded that the Queen has carried out the historic audience 'The slightly hunched appearance would have been her age and more than likely osteoporosis,' Dr Deb (pictured) said Queen Elizabeth II smiling as she arrives using a stick to view a display of artefacts from British craftwork company, Halcyon Days, to commemorate the company's 70th anniversary in the White Drawing Room at Windsor Castle, Berkshire So it was more than likely her incredibly strong disposition and will to complete the royal engagement that saw her beaming at Liz Truss on Tuesday. 'The slightly hunched appearance would have been her age and more than likely osteoporosis,' Dr Deb said. Buckingham Palace declared the passing of Britain's longest-serving monarch aged 96 at 6.30pm on Thursday evening. The Queen used the aide of a walking stick as she welcomed Liz Truss at an audience at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, where she invited the newly-elected leader of the Conservative Party to become prime minister. The historic audience was the first time that the 96-year-old monarch, who has faced ongoing mobility issues, has carried out the key duty at her retreat in Aberdeenshire, rather than at Buckingham Palace. It was also the first time she has been pictured since she was seen arriving at the estate on July 21 for her summer holiday. The Queen had been suffering from episodic mobility problems since last autumn, and the decision was taken last week to ask the outgoing and incoming premiers to make the 1,000-mile round-trip to see her. A statement from Buckingham Palace issued at 1pm on Tuesday said: 'The Queen received in Audience The Right Honourable Elizabeth Truss MP today and requested her to form a new Administration. Ms Truss accepted Her Majesty's offer and kissed hands upon her appointment as Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury.' The Court Circular normally records that 'the Prime Minister kissed hands on appointment'. However, this is not literally the case, and it is usually a handshake - as it was with Miss Truss today. The meeting took place in Balmoral's green-carpeted Drawing Room, which has matching green sofas, a leaf-patterned fabric chair, an open fire and a number of equine-themed antique paintings on the walls. The Queen normally spends the months of August and September at her Highlands retreat, where she is joined by other family members at various stages. Prince William and Kate and their children, Prince George, nine, Princess Charlotte, seven, and Prince Louis, four, are among those who have already been to see her at Balmoral this year. Hyderabad: Living up to its cosmopolitan tag, Hyderabad as a city provides a unique oneness to people of any state who are based here either for their livelihood or studies. One year down the line, most of them who come to stay here lose their initial days of homesickness. This applies to all those coming all the way from Kerala. In fact many Keralites have made Hyderabad their home for generations together. Onam presents the best occasion where one gets to see Keralites in their traditional attire while they celebrate the festival as they would do back in their native place-women clad in the traditional white sari and the men in white Mundu, including the hosts and guests. Thursdays Onam celebrations were made livelier with the artistic flower arrangements and the native culinary spread with spells of rain completing the Gods own country feeling for thousands of Malayalee families living in the city. The Kerala community in Mettuguda celebrated their biggest festival at the Ayyappa Swamy temple. Over five hundred Keralites took the celebration to a new high with the whole place bearing a mini-Kerala look with songs adding to the tempo, said Kunnath Sunil Kumar, treasurer of the local association. Pookalam (flower decoration) is the highlight of the day. After the programmes were over, we went home to have Onasadhya, he said. Philip Joshua and his family, who were born here, said my parents migrated some decades ago. Every year we celebrate the festival on a grand note. The family gathering and our traditions reinvigorate us, he said Around four hundred nurses from Kerala celebrated Onam in Jubilee Hills Apollo hospital campus. Special delicacies from their state were offered to guests while there was good applause for the cultural events, according to Bala Krishan, who resides in the campus. Ansha Shaji, a student, who was celebrating the festival for the first time here, said The celebrations were wonderful. I was homesick before the festival. Today, interacting with the charming people made it look like I was celebrating Onam in my native place. An etiquette expert has outlined how Australians should mourn Queen Elizabeth II after her death at 96 by reflecting on her incredible qualities as a mother, grandmother and monarch - and what shouldn't be said about the royals. Julie Lamberg-Burnet, from the Sydney School of Protocol, woke up to the tragic news on September 9 alongside millions of other Australians who had watched the world's longest reigning monarch exemplify grace and stability for seven decades. The Queen's death will see Britain and her Commonwealth realms enter into a ten-day period of mourning as millions of her subjects in the UK and abroad come to terms with her passing. Her son Charles, the former Prince of Wales, is now King Charles III, while Prince William has inherited his father's title and is now, along with his wife, styled The Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge. William is also now the 'heir apparent' to the British throne. But on a more personal level, Ms Lamberg-Burnet says there are a number of ways her constituents Down Under can reflect on her incredible life. The Queen's death will see Britain and her Commonwealth realms enter into a ten-day period of mourning as millions of her subjects in the UK and abroad come to terms with her passing (pictured visiting Australia in 2011, her final visit to the country) But on a more personal level, Ms Lamberg-Burnet says there are a number of ways her constituents Down Under can reflect on her incredible life The modern rules for mourning: WHAT TO WEAR It is no longer necessary to exclusively wear black. Gray, navy, or any other dark colour will do. But one thing is for sure - your outfit should be somber and clean. If you have not worn those clothes for some time, be sure to freshen them up and to iron them. Ms Lamberg-Burnet believes it is a sign of respect for authority figures in particular to wear dark colours. WHAT TO SAY Warning: We do not offer our sympathies. We offer our condolences with sympathy. One offers his condolences with deep sympathy. Condolence is a name while sympathy is an emotion; an expression of benevolence. Now is the time to remember and reflect on the Queen's remarkable life as the reigning monarch for 70 years and it is a sign of respect to remember her close family remembers will be mourning her loss. Source: EtiquetteJulie Advertisement 'She just related to everyone. She oozed grace, presence and warmth. She's a great example of etiquette. It was critical that she maintained that etiquette for the sake of world peace,' she told FEMAIL. It's entirely appropriate to dress in black today, both in Britain and Australia, and is considered a sign of respect, particularly from authority figures. Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has already been pictured wearing a black tie and matching suit on Friday morning to give his official address. But ultimately if wearing colour will help you 'remember the Queen' and her remarkable life, Ms Lamberg-Burnet encourages Australians to do so. 'It doesn't matter what colours we wear today, it is the respect we feel internally for such a remarkable person and life,' she said. Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has already been pictured wearing a black tie and matching suit on Friday morning to give his official address Queen Elizabeth II reviewing the Guard of Honour on arrival at Brisbane International Airport on October 6, 1982, in Brisbane 'It is entirely appropriate that everyone remembers her in their own way, in their own culture and with respect for a grand figure of our lives.' When speaking about the Queen it's appropriate to remember she is both a mother and grandmother, and should be afforded the respect her reign, title and livelihood deserves. 'Pay our respects as monarch of Australia, a mother, grandmother and great admirer of Australia and all Australians,' she said. 'She and Prince Philip visited Australia many times and enjoyed the companionship of all Australians, including being the patron of organisations that contributed immensely to our lives.' With King Charles III taking his rightful place at the helm now is not the right time to speak ill of the royal family or the structure of the monarchy. 'I think it's definitely essential to pause for a moment and remember her stability. Many of us have travelled to the UK and many more have made their first port of call Buckingham Palace,' she said. When speaking about the Queen it's appropriate to remember she is both a mother and grandmother, and should be afforded the respect her reign, title and livelihood deserves (pictured: Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke at the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games on October 9, 1982, in Brisbane) 'Australia and New Zealand has such an affinity to the UK. I think it will be deeply felt by her family in the Commonwealth. Can you think how many thousands she has greeted?' Etiquette is usually described as 'putting people at ease', something the Queen did with aplomb throughout both her public and personal life. The Queen has visited Australia on 16 occasions: 1954, 1963, 1970, 1973, 1974, 1977, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1986, 1988, 1992, 2000, 2002, 2006 and 2011. 'Perhaps as we gather as families over the coming days we can talk about her wonderful life and how it is has impacted on us all. Queen Elizabeth had grace and presence but who took great delight to talking to everyone no matter who they were and where they were from,' Ms Lamberg-Burnet said. 'She showed the same interest and kindness in everyone which is wonderful example of how we can remember her in our daily lives.' Queen Elizabeth's former footman of 11 years Paul Burrell has shared his grief over her death and reflected on some of his most memorable moments in the palace. Speaking with Australian radio show Kyle and Jackie O, Paul, who also served as Princess Diana's personal butler until her death, said he was extremely saddened by the 'unexpected' news of the Queen's passing after joining her as her personal footman when he was just a boy at 18. Paul said Her Majesty was 'so thoughtful' with a 'great sense of humour' and told of the amusing moment he was in the middle of serving her dinner when the police informed him his wife was giving birth. 'She said "oh go, go you must go straight away" and I said "who is going to clean up all the dishes" and she said "oh don't worry you can do that in the morning",' the 64-year-old recalled, laughing through tears. Queen Elizabeth's former footman Paul Burrell of 11 years has shared his grief over her death and reflected on some of his most memorable moments in the palace 'She said "when your baby arrives please ring me and let me know it's here".' When his son had arrived, Paul phoned the Queen to tell her they had a baby boy and she requested to see him immediately. 'At two days old we took him into her sitting room and she put her finger in my son's hand and he grasped it,' he said. 'I told him that today and we both cried because that was a moment in history and she was a wonderful lady. I have nothing but admiration and respect for her.' The last photo taken of Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's longest serving monarch, who died at 6:30pm GMT Paul claimed the Queen had given up alcohol and no longer had her evening gin and tonics or martinis following her husband Prince Philip's death in April. 'Since Prince Philip died she hasn't had a drink at all, she's been drinking apple juice and tomato juice on doctor's orders,' Paul said. 'Before that she loved a gin and tonic and she could drink several in an evening and a martini. She loved a drink!' Another of the Queen's favourite treats, Paul said, was jam sandwiches and that she loved which she would eat on picnic's with her sister Princess Margaret who died in 2002. Paul, who was Princess Diana's person butler until her untimely death in 1997, shared a heart-warming and amusing anecdote about the Queen meeting his son at just two days old 'The Queen loved to go picnicking on the hillside and with princess Margaret they'd go and pick wild strawberries and blueberries and the chef would make jam and they'd have it at tea time,' he said. Paul said the Queen has been 'sorely and desperately' missing Philip since his passing and called him the 'CEO of the firm' behind the scenes. Paul Burrell reveals the first thing Queen Elizabeth would do every morning Each morning she had a basket [of a couple of thousand letters a day] with foreign and commonwealth letters in the back and English letters in the front She'd always look through them and she would open a selection from both sections. The rest went to the lady in waiting and she answered them. Every letter that was written to the palace the Queen insisted they be answered. She said if people could take the time and trouble to write to her, the least she could do was reply. Advertisement 'The queen wore the trousers in public and he wore the trousers behind closed doors. She let him be master of the household so he ran all the palaces and he ran the royal business,' Paul said. 'He's waiting for her in St George's chapel Windsor and she will be beside him very soon. She will go to the other side and meet her parents and her sister. There are more people on the other side than there are on this.' Paul, who 'stood beside' the monarch for 11 years, said he was 'very sad' to lose someone 'so inspirational and selfless and caring' and said he was concerned for her health when he saw her with new British prime minster, Liz Truss, just days ago. 'I knew the queen was unwell but I didn't think she was this unwell. I saw her with the PM yesterday and I thought oh my goodness you don't look very good,' he said. 'She was an inspiration to me when I joined her at 18. I was her personal footman so I was with her on a daily basis to make sure she got her mail and her telephone calls. I was her boy. I was the contact between her and the outside world.' As for the royal family's future, Paul said the Queen was often training Prince William while he was in the palace. 'She took a great interest in William and she was training him to do the red boxes and to be monarch. I think the future of the royal family depends on William and Kate,' he said. Tasteless claims peddled by Covid-restriction enthusiasts that the virus's after-effects killed the Queen sparked outrage today. Voices critical of No10's response to the pandemic jumped on Her Majesty's passing, insisting the beloved 96-year-old would 'definitely' have lived longer had she not got infected in February. An NHS medic even backed the theory, which is rife on social media. Commentators argued she 'never fully recovered' following her brief illness. Advocates of stricter coronavirus curbs have used the threat of long Covid as a way of pushing the Government to change course from its current hands-off approach. Leading experts today said that anyone spewing the 'unethical' speculation should 'reflect on their own behaviour'. The monarch's official cause of death won't be revealed anytime soon. Medics took three weeks to confirm her 'rock' Prince Philip died of old age when he passed away in April 2021. The Queen was last pictured in the Drawing Room before receiving Liz Truss for an audience at Balmoral, Scotland on Tuesday Charles has released a statement about the death of Queen Elizabeth, describing her as a 'cherished Sovereign and a much-loved Mother' Medical world mourns Queen and praises her 'unwavering support' of NHS during remarkable 70-year reign NHS chiefs and other health leaders today praised the Queen for her 'unwavering support' during her remarkable 70-year reign. Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of the health service in England, led tributes to the monarch, saying the entire health service was 'incredibly saddened' by the 96-year-old's death last night. Queen Elizabeth II, who ascended the throne four years after the NHS was created, was hailed for 'tirelessly' championing the system, particularly through Covid. Her Majesty collectively awarded the health service the prestigious George Cross at a Windsor Castle ceremony in July, in recognition of the seven decades of 'courage, compassion and dedication' shown by staff. Doctors and nurses across Britain also paid tribute to the Queen's 'long connection' to Britain's health community. She was patron of the Royal College of Nursing, as well as charities including Cancer Research UK and the British Red Cross. Advertisement The Queen tested positive for the virus on February 20, in news which sparked alarm across the nation. Buckingham Palace revealed the monarch, then triple-vaccinated, had suffered mild cold-like symptoms. She carried on with light duties while self-isolating at Windsor Castle, but cancelled some virtual audiences. Just weeks after winning the fight against the deadly virus, she told NHS staff in a virtual call that it had left her 'very tired and exhausted'. Dr Kelly Fearnley, a hospital doctor based in Leeds who continues to call for masks to be worn in public spaces, said that after enjoying 'decades of good health' the Queen was 'never the same' following her bout of Covid. Public pictures of the Queen taken during her meeting with new Prime Minister Liz Truss on Tuesday showed bruising on her hand. Dr Fearnley, who has shared posts criticising the UK's lack of restrictions, claimed this was a 'tell-tale' sign of post-Covid vasculitis, inflammation of the blood vessels. However, the Queen was pictured numerous times with bruised hands years before she contracted Covid. When pictures first surfaced in 2019, medics explained that it is normal for the skin to become thin and fragile with age, leaving it more vulnerable to bruising. In a comment that was shared dozens of times, Dr Fearnley added: 'No doubt her death was hastened by Covid.' Dr Claire Taylor, a GP in Stirling who is already calling for Covid curbs this winter, said: 'She [the Queen] had Covid in April and said it made her tired and exhausted. 'She doesn't appear to have been back to normal since. This is what I see in my elderly patients, a decline. They are not counted. 'And of course, [her death] may be non-Covid related, but I've been worried about her since her Covid infection in April. She just didn't look like she recovered to me.' Laura Miers, a long Covid sufferer in New York who has shared Zero Covid views on social media, claimed the Queen 'definitely' would have lived longer if she had not caught Covid. She added: 'There's no way anyone can convince me Covid didn't hasten her demise.' However, Professor Robert Dingwall, a sociologist at Nottingham Trent University who advised the Government on the pandemic when it kicked off, said it is 'cheap and tasteless to portray the Queen as a victim of long Covid'. He told MailOnline: 'There are too many uncertainties about the condition and her cause of death to make any connection. 'Psychiatrists have long thought it unethical to comment on the mental health of politicians they have not clinically examined in order to make a political point. 'These statements about long Covid are equally unethical and their authors should reflect on their own behaviour.' And Professor Paul Hunter, an epidemiologist at the University of East Anglia, hit out at the speculation, warning it is wrong to guess why the Queen died. He told MailOnline: 'In my view it is unethical for a medical doctor to publicly speculate on the cause of an individual's death whether it is the queen or their next-door neighbour. 'Without full knowledge of the individual's medical history, you can rarely know the cause of death for certain. 'And if you did have full knowledge by being that patient's doctor or by accessing their medical records inappropriately, such speculation would be a highly unethical breach of medical confidentiality.' Long Covid is recognised by the NHS as virus symptoms that last beyond three months, such as fatigue, shortness of breath and muscle aches. Low levels of the stress hormone cortisol, damage to the vital vagus nerve and micro blood clots have all been suggested as potential mechanisms behind the condition. However, some experts have cast doubt over the prevalence of long Covid which latest surveillance data suggests is affecting 2million Britons or one in 32 people because tiredness and aches are linked to a variety of conditions. Some experts who have been critical of No10's approach to the pandemic have used long Covid to call for extra curbs. Worshipped as our guiding light in the darkest of nights, the Queen was thought of by millions as Britain's grandmother. It is, for this very reason, psychologists believe her death has devastated the hearts of the nation and left many battling an overwhelming sense of grief. Her death may have also brought back memories of losing loved ones, experts told MailOnline. Jade Thomas, a psychotherapist at the Private Therapy Clinic in London's Harley Street, said her death can bring back memories of losing loved ones. She said: 'People may be experiencing personal reactions to the passing of the Queen as collective grief can trigger personal bereavement experiences of loved ones, for example parents or grandparents. A woman appears emotional as members of the public leave flowers and tributes outside Buckingham Palace this morning A police officer reacts as he stands guard in front of Buckingham Palace, following the passing of Britain's Queen Elizabeth How to cope with grief Take your time It is important to allow time to take in what has happened, talk about the person who has died and feel the pain and loneliness of their loss. Time on your own can also help process the grief in the first few days. Do it your way There is no right or wrong way to handle grief and everyone does it differently. You should feel free to react naturally and not feel pressured to respond in ways that others suggest. Take care of yourself It can be easy to forget to eat or start drinking too much alcohol after a loss. But it is important to make sure you take care of yourself and try to maintain normal routines. Getting support You dont have to go through bereavement alone. There are lots of ways to get support, whether you prefer to talk to someone in person or join an online community. Sharon Jenkins, Marie Curie bereavement counsellor, said: 'If you're grieving, we're here to help. Call our Support Line on 0800 090 2309 to speak to a trained member of the team, or book to speak to one later. 'Or visit Mariecurie.org.uk/support.' Sources: NHS Inform and Marie Curie Advertisement 'Individuals have shared that the Queen felt like a mother or grandmother figure to the country and British public.' Ms Thomas added: 'We often feel protective over our elderly loved ones and look up to them as they share their knowledge and wisdom of life. 'This mirrors many feelings individuals may share of Queen Elizabeth II and why her death will trigger so many personal emotions.' Sharon Jenkins, a bereavement counsellor at Marie Curie, said the collective grief being felt across the country should not come as a surprise. She told MailOnline: 'Although not many of us had met Her Majesty, millions of us will be feeling sad today. 'Grief is not exclusive to those who knew the deceased personally, and everyone reacts to bereavement in different ways. 'For some, the Queen was a maternal figure so I imagine that millions of people across the world will be mourning the loss of our matriarch and thinking of their mothers today.' Mourners have broken down in tears outside the gates of Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, as they flocked to pay their tribute to the 96-year-old monarch. Well-wishers also took to social media to express their grief, admitting they were surprised by the depths of their emotion. One said: 'Why am I so affected by the Queen's death? Honestly cannot stop crying. RIP to the nations grandmother.' Another wrote: 'Why am I so emotional over the Queen. Like I'm crying into my coffee.' Tributes were also paid in the House of Commons, which convened at around midday. Ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who met the Queen just three days ago, said 'millions are trying to understand why we are feeling this deep and personal sense of loss'. Buckingham Palace today announced a period of royal mourning will be observed from now until seven days after the Queen's funeral. The Queen's sudden loss can trigger feelings of a lack of control, anxiety and fear of the unknown, Ms Thomas said. She said: 'Remember that grief takes time, grief is often a period of adjustment and as a collective we will be adjusting to a new King. 'Acknowledge and allow yourself feelings of uncertainty. 'It can help to share your grief with others, talk with a friend, family member or therapist about how this grief is making you feel. 'Finally, loss of any kind can provide a different perspective on life and lead us to revaluate whats important to us. Allow for a time of reflection.' Ms Jenkins said: 'On days like today it is important to be kind to yourself. Feeling anxious about change and loss is also part of the normal grief response and eventually it will pass. 'We are now in a period of national mourning, and some of us will be experiencing collective grief. 'Remember, it is okay to be sad when someone you dont know dies and remember everyone experiences grief differently. 'Some people may want to grieve openly, show their emotions and talk about their losses, and others may not. 'It may feel like yesterdays news about the Queens death is impossible to escape, all over the news and social media, with the language of loss and visual reminders about death very present. 'If this is triggering than feel free to disconnect from the news cycle, turn off the tv and log out of social media, opt for a walk to a special place, an afternoon of journaling or an open conversation with friends and family instead.' As the sunlight recedes, social gatherings start to wind down, and peak travel season comes to an end, Americans may feel depressive symptoms in the coming months. Experts tell DailyMail.com that the transition period from summer into fall and winter can be rough for some, causing a phenomena some describe as the winter blues. As we get later in the year, sunlight will become more rare as well, disrupting a person's circadian rhythm - a risk factor for the development of depression. School-aged children are at the most risk in early September. After a summer full of structureless play with friends and family with little responsibility, the sudden change to a structured school day and having to complete assignments can be jarring. In most serious cases, these late-year blues could be a result of a condition called seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a surprisingly common condition that affects around one-in-20 U.S. adults. It usually begins to show in late fall, when the days become especially short. Dr Amit Etkin (left), a professor at Stanford University, said that many summer activities that distract people from their mental health issues disappear as fall begins. Dr Gary Maslow (right), said that the end of summer blues a person may feel are likely related to stressors because of the transitions in day-to-day life Dr Amit Etkin, a psychiatry professor at Stanford University and founder and CEO of Alto Neuroscience, told DailyMail.com that many of the activities that could distract a person from their depression or other issues in their life seem to dry up in the fall. 'In the summer, people might end up being more social, they are out more, traveling more, going on vacation more, which can help alleviate depression or distract them from challenges they may be experiencing,' he explained. 'The transition in seasons with respect to our activity, not just the the environment around us, can lead to greater risk for depression.' Summer months are often filled with get-together for many. Weddings are more common over summer, holidays like July 4 and Memorial Day come with large family get togethers for events like barbecues. A survey by Chinet in 2019 found that the average American is 31 percent more social over summer than they are during winter months - going to more gatherings with more people - with half of the population planning some sort of summer event each year. Dr Gary Maslow, an associate professor of psychiatry at Duke University, said that the key behind these sudden shifts in emotion is understanding how the body deaths with transition. All transitions periods in a person's life are relatively stressful. Stress is one of the leading causes of depressive symptoms - and often is itself both a cause and symptom of the condition. Experts tie the change in mood that comes with cold weather months to the way that a lack f sunlight impacts a person's circadian rhythms, and as a result will harm their bodily cycles 'It is disruptive for people. Getting those new routines, you know, shifting, you know, shifting timelines... transitions are stressful for people,' he explained. This is especially true for younger children. Going back to school, and suddenly having the responsibility that entails suddenly thrust onto them can be hard for them to cope with at first. Maslow notes that rates of emergency room visits for mental health issues among children are known to surge in the fall months after a relatively tame summer season. Students as old as college aged - typically in their early 20s - can suffer from the transition, though. College students will often have to move for school, and in the process leave their family and friends behind to go to a new environment. It can be a jarring, stressful, experience even for a college senior going through it for the fourth time. 'If you think of a student who may have had relatively limited structure in the summer, going back to school, with the structure of classes, the demand of a test, the pace has picked up a lot,' Etkin said. Seasonal affective disorder - also known as the winter blues - affects 5% of Americans Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a mental health condition triggered by the change in seasons It causes a person to feel 'down' and sadder than usual. The symptoms are similar to that of year-round clinical depression It usually starts in September for many people, and its symptoms peak in December The condition affects around 5% of U.S. adults, and nearly one-in-five Americans 18 and older report mood changes during colder weather months People who already suffer from a mental health condition are most at risk It is also more commonly reported among young people, women and those that live in areas that receive little-to-no sunlight during parts of the winter Advertisement 'They're in a very different social environment.' As the year goes on, and fall begins to transition into winter, many will begin to experience SAD. The Cleveland Clinic reports that around five percent of people will experience clinical SAD, while around 10 to 20 percent of U.S. adults will experience some form of the winter blues. It is most common in women, younger people and those that are already suffering from a mood disorder. Maslow also notes that it is more common in regions of the world like Alaska, where during the winter days may go by where the state us engulfed in 24 hours straight of darkness. Etkin explains that the reason people feel sadder when it is dark outside is tied to the body's circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm is a 24-hour cycle that a person's natural body processes operate on. While many associate it with sleep alone, its impact on the body go much deeper. 'The light in our environment affects our circadian rhythms,' Etkin explains. 'Your body at all levels, brain and an outside the brain, responds to circadian rhythms. Even at the level of single cell genes whose activity is turned on and off in a circadian pattern. 'There's a very strong entrainment across multiple levels in your body and as the the timing of the world around you shifts with respect to the amount of light and when things get darker and so forth.' He says that some people may be more sensitive to changes in circadian rhythms than others, and those people are more likely to suffer from SAD during colder weather months where there is less sunlight. 'There's a portion of people who have you know, really altered circadian rhythms are either delayed the rhythm is delayed relative to what it should be or for advanced too far,' he continued. 'That alters their sleep that alters their mood, sleep and mood in turn impact cognition. So you see all of the pieces that come into play.' While there is no exact solution to SAD or other end of summer blues, people can take steps to manage and reduce the impact. For children, parents should note sudden changes in behavior. If a child seems moody or withdrawn for an extended period of time at the start of the school year, then a parent may want to seek out medical attention. For adults who suffer the blues later in fall and winter, investing in a SAD lamp - a device which can imitate sunlight indoors - could help readjust their circadian rhythm and alleviate issues. A person suffering from severe SAD should seek out medical attention, though. A second person in the U.S. has died while being infected with monkeypox, health officials in Los Angeles confirmed on Thursday night. An autopsy is now underway to determine the cause of death, but if it is found to be monkeypox it could be the first fatality from the virus in America. Last month an adult died in Harris County, Texas, after being diagnosed with monkeypox. An investigation is still underway to determine whether the virus was the cause of death. Globally, 18 people have died from the virus to date, including two in Spain and one in Belgium. America currently has the largest monkeypox outbreak in the world with 21,504 cases now confirmed, but the outbreak appears to have peaked as the seven-day average for daily cases continues to fall. The virus native to West Africa has spread to more than 50 countries so far, with nearly 57,000 cases confirmed. Pictured above is Dr Rita Singhal, the director of the Disease Control Center for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. She revealed that they had recorded a fatality in a person diagnosed with monkeypox late yesterday at a media briefing The above graph shows the number of monkeypox cases reported in the US every day (yellow bars) and the seven-day average for new infections (white line). The number of cases detected has been falling since late last month The above map shows countries reporting confirmed monkeypox deaths. The U.S. is shown in yellow because it has reported two fatalities, but neither has been confirmed as monkeypox Los Angeles County Department of Public Health revealed its first suspected fatality from monkeypox during a media briefing late Thursday. Health officials have not revealed the patient's age, sex or whether they were immunocompromised, however, citing privacy concerns. Dr Rita Singhal, chief medical officer of the county's Disease Control Bureau, said: 'We are currently investigating a death of a person with monkeypox in Los Angeles county. Timeline of monkeypox in the United States 1958: Monkeypox is discovered when an outbreak of pox-like disease occurred in monkeys kept for research. 1970: First human case of the disease is recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was later detected in a number of other central and western African countries. 2003: U.S. detects monkeypox on its soil for the first time. A total of 47 people are infected after having contact with pet prairie dogs that picked up the disease at a farm. July, 2021: Monkeypox case detected in the U.S. in a citizen who had recently returned from Nigeria. November, 2021: Monkeypox is detected in another U.S. resident who recently returned from Nigeria. May, 2022: Current U.S. monkeypox outbreak and largest to date begins. The first case is diagnosed in a man in Massachusetts who had recently returned from Canada. There are now more than 18,000 cases confirmed in the country. July, 2022: First cases are confirmed in children and a pregnant woman, who are thought to be more at risk from the virus. August 4, 2022: America declares a public health emergency over the virus. August 30, 2022: Patient who died is diagnosed with monkeypox in what could be America's first ever death from the virus. Autopsy launched to determine cause of death. September 8, 2022: Second death in a person diagnosed with monkeypox is reported in Los Angeles, California. Advertisement 'We are early in the investigation and do not have additional details available at this time. 'As soon as details become available we will share them while maintaining confidentiality and privacy. 'This is one of two deaths in the United States that are currently under investigation to determine whether monkeypox was a contributing cause of death.' Last month health officials in Texas also reported an immunocompromised adult diagnosed with monkeypox had died. They did not name the individual, but said they had been treated in Harris County which encompasses the state's largest city, Houston. The patient also had 'various severe illnesses' besides monkeypox. An autopsy was started to confirm the person's cause of death, the results of which are expected to be announced in the coming weeks. At the time local health commissioner Dr John Hellerstedt said: 'Monkeypox is a serious disease, particularly for those with weakened immune systems. 'We continue to urge people to seek treatment if they have been exposed to monkeypox or have symptoms consistent with the disease.' California currently has the largest monkeypox outbreak in America at 4,140 cases diagnosed. Almost half of infections are in Los Angeles 1,805 recorded to date. Health officials in the state say nearly all are in men, and more than 95 percent of them were gay or bisexual. The average age of patients is 35 years. In recent weeks, however, America's monkeypox outbreak has appeared to peak in line with that in other nations as health officials finally get on top of the virus. At the height of the outbreak at the end of August 491 cases were being recorded every day on average. But this has since more than halved to 242 cases on September 7, the latest date that data is available. Experts have credited the downturn on a combination of the vaccination drive for the most at risk groups, raised awareness of the illness and successful contact tracing efforts that stopped the virus from spreading to yet more patients. Many patients have experienced a mild illness during the outbreak, that has not seen them hospitalized although often left suffering severe pain. This map shows the number of monkeypox cases reported by state. California is the hotspot at present with more than 4,000 cases confirmed They have also been required to isolate at home for weeks, and were not able to leave the house until rashes scabbed over and the scabs fell off. Monkeypox is spread primarily via physical touch with rashes that appear on infected patients, or through contact with scabs left on bedding, clothing or towels. It is not a sexually transmitted infection, only requiring physical contact to be transmitted between people. But patients can only spread the disease when they are showing symptoms, unlike with Covid where it could be passed on by someone before they realized they had it. The illness typically starts with flu-like symptoms, before a rash appears and spreads across the entire body. But in the current outbreak many patients have reported suffering rashes first before any flu symptoms appear. New York state officials have declared a disaster over the states polio outbreak where there has been one confirmed case and dozens of positive wastewater samples dating back as far as April. The move was announced by Gov Kathy Hochul's office on Friday. In a release, officials say that move allows 'necessary State agencies to take appropriate action to assist local governments and individuals in containing, preparing for, responding to and recovering from this State disaster emergency.' The Empire state first detected a case of the devastating virus in Rockland County - just outside of New York City's Bronx borough - on July 21. In the time since, wastewater surveillance has also detected the virus within the city itself and in nearby Orange and Sullivan counties. On Friday, officials revealed that Nassau County, also just outside of the Big Apple, had detected the virus in its wastewater surveillance as well. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed in August that further investigation found at least 21 positive samples of the virus in New York. One of the samples was gathered as far back as April, meaning the devastating virus could have been circulating for months before its detection. Last month, a local Rockland County official warned that while only one case had been detected so far, the true number of infected New Yorkers could be in the thousands. Only around one-in-every-1,900 polio infections in unvaccinated persons will result in paralysis, according to the CDC. Officials assure the public that a vaccinated person has little to worry about with the current outbreak. More than 90 percent of Americans are vaccinated by their second birthday - and many had to receive the shot to attend public school. There is no polio vaccine booster and vaccination in infancy provides protection for a person's entire life. Both Rockland and Orange county have vaccination rates in the 60s, significantly lower than the 95 percent mark set by the World Health Organization (WHO) to control the virus 'On polio, we simply cannot roll the dice,' Dr Mary Basset, the state's health commissioner, said in a statement on the Nassau county findings. 'If you or your child are unvaccinated or not up to date with vaccinations, the risk of paralytic disease is real. I urge New Yorkers to not accept any risk at all.' The move from Hochul's office will allow for additional funding and supplies to be dedicated towards boosting the state's polio vaccination rate. According to official data, 78 percent of New Yorkers have received at least three polio jabs by age two - the standard schedule for the shots. Nassau has a vaccination rate slightly better than the state average at 79 percent. Sullivan (62 percent vaccination rate), Rockland (60 percent) and Orange (58 percent) are all among the parts of the state with the lowest jab rates. All of these figures are well below the 95 percent rate believed to be needed to actually control the virus in case of an outbreak. While only one case has been confirmed so far - in an unvaccinated Rockland County man in his 20s - officials are worried that a massive outbreak is quietly going unnoticed. 'There isn't just one case of polio if you see a paralytic case. The incidence of paralytic polio is less than one percent,' Dr. Patricia Schnabel Ruppert, health commissioner for Rockland County, told the BBC. 'Most cases are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, and those symptoms are often missed. 'So there are hundreds, perhaps even thousands of cases that have occurred in order for us to see a paralytic case.' The CDC says that for every 1,900 cases of polio in an unvaccinated person, only one person will show symptoms of paralysis (illustration of polio virus) Common symptoms of polio include high temperatures, extreme fatigue, headaches, vomiting, stiff neck and muscle pain The infected Rockland County man initially experienced a fever, neck stiffness, stomach issues and limb weakness. He was hospitalized, and a stool sample later confirmed that he had a case of vaccine-derived polio. This form of the virus comes as a result of the oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV). The vaccine delivers a person a live version of the virus. While the body will usually kill the virus - generating antibodies - on some rare occasions the recipient will be infected. The OPV is no longer used in the U.S., instead having been replaced with the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) which is delivered via injection. Some developing nations still use the OPV because it is easier to access and activates antibodies faster than the IPV. Officials have not yet determined how this man was exposed to vaccine-induced polio. The CDC reports that a Rockland County man who was confirmed to be infected with polio did not travel outside of the U.S. during the seven to 21 day window where symptoms usually appear. He did attend a local gathering eight days before symptom onset Paralytic polio often takes between seven to 21 days for an infected person to feel symptoms. The man had no travel outside of the country during that period, however he did attend a large gathering of some sort eight days before symptom onset, which officials speculate could be where the exposure occurred. 'Based on earlier polio outbreaks, New Yorkers should know that for every one case of paralytic polio observed, there may be hundreds of other people infected,' Basset warned in August. In a report revealed by the CDC last month, 260 samples from Rockland and Orange counties were tested. Of that group, 13 samples from Rockland and eight from Orange were found to have traces of the virus. One Orange county sample from as far back as April had an incomplete sequence of the virus. This means that it may, or may not, be linked to the Rockland County case. In the time since the conclusion of the report on August 10, New York City, Sullivan and Nassau officials also confirmed the discovery of polio in wastewater surveillance. A woman who was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer just six months after a lump on her right breast was given the all clear says doctors refusing her a mammogram led to the wrong diagnosis. Kristine Stone was 29 years old when she first noticed the lump, according to Insider. She was initially told she had no cancer after receiving an ultrasound. Further tests half a year later revealed that, in fact, she had the most aggressive form of breast cancer which had already spread to her circulatory system and bone. Later it was also found to have spread to her brain. Stone, who is now 38 and lives in Renton, Washington, blames doctors refusing her a mammogram for losing precious weeks when treatment could have been started. She says she even tried another hospital for the scans but was also denied. Medics say, however, that although mammograms are typically used for women aged 40 years and older they struggle to penetrate the denser breast tissue found in younger women making it likely the further scan would not have helped. They suggest, however, that an ultrasound which can penetrate denser tissue would be more helpful. But the image it makes can be difficult to interpret, meaning those worried they have the wrong diagnosis should seek a second opinion. Stone told the Insider that immediately after her diagnosis she faced nine months of chemotherapy and an operation. Nine years on, however, she still has the cancer and is receiving immunotherapy every three weeks. Doctors say it could be withdrawn this year, however, if they stop detecting cancerous cells. Kristine Stone was 29 years old was initially told she had no cancer after going for an ultrasound at an unnamed hospital when she became concerned by the lump. Six months later other scans diagnosed her with stage 4 breast cancer. She is pictured above during chemotherapy treatment, and now lives in Renton, Washington, in a flat beneath her parents Stone says she is no longer able to work because of the diagnosis, or read properly. Nine years on she is still receiving treatment for the cancer diagnosis Stone rushed to get the lump checked nine years ago because at the time her grandmother had also just been diagnosed with breast cancer. But after the ultrasound, the former senior business analyst said doctors told her there was 'nothing to worry about' and denied her request for a mammogram. She demanded a mammogram, but was denied the request. Then she went to a second hospital but, again, her request was denied. Within six months, however, she was back after the lump grew, her right arm went numb and the armpit became very sore. This time tests revealed that she had stage 4 breast cancer the most aggressive type. She did not reveal which test she received, although it was likely an ultrasound as this is recommended for younger women. Straight after the diagnosis Stone was offered nine months chemotherapy. But testing then revealed the cancer had reached her brain, leading to an operation to remove an area of it. The operation was successful, but she now suffers from short term memory loss. Stone said successive rounds of chemotherapy left her feeling exhausted, unable to work, has arthritis, struggling to read and meant she has not had a holiday in years. To date she still has the cancer, but hopes to be taken off medication this year if doctors stop detecting the cells. Stone is pictured above with her father. She blames doctors refusing her a mammogram for the cancer not being detected earlier, but doctors say it is unlikely a mammogram could help A mammogram is a scan where low dose X-ray waves are fired through breast tissue, with the resulting image checked for cancer. They can commonly detect cancers early or when it is still small and in some cases even before a lump has developed. It is recommended for women over the age of 40 years for screening tests for the cancer. But for those in younger age groups they are told to get ultrasounds because this can penetrate through the 'denser' breast tissue younger women have. The American College of Radiology Appropriateness backs this advice, saying it is 'usually not appropriate' to offer mammograms to younger women. Ultrasounds are also often done to find out if a problem picked up by a mammogram or physical exam may be a solid tumor. The image created by the scan would then be examined by doctors, to determine whether there may be any cancerous cells present. Dr Laurie Margolies, the chief of Mount Sinai Health System's breast imaging center, told Insider that while mammograms are useful it was likely it 'would not have added anything' to the ultrasound Stone received. But she said what could make a difference was how the image generated by the scan was interpreted by medics. 'Breast ultrasound is extremely nuanced and extremely operator-dependent,' she said. 'It's not always so easy to determine if something is a simple cyst versus, for example, a breast cancer. It can be extremely difficult to make that distinction.' She encouraged any women concerned by the results from their ultrasound to get another doctor to study the same images. The American Cancer Society encourages women over 40 years old to regularly get screened for breast cancer, up to once a year. But once they are over 55 this can switch to once every other year. It says women in their 20s and 30s should keep an eye on their breasts and come forward for tests if they spot unusual changes. About X women in America are diagnosed with breast cancer every year, typically in the ages which is the biggest killer. But X percent are spotted in the under 30s. THE MADNESS OF GRIEF by The Revd Richard Coles (W&N 9.99, 192 pp) MUST READS THE MADNESS OF GRIEF by The Revd Richard Coles (W&N 9.99, 192 pp) On Friday December 13, 2019, Rev Richard Coles returned home from a speaking engagement in his role as a borderline national trinket, as his partner, David, mischievously described him, to find David collapsed, aged just 42. As a priest, Richard had attended innumerable deathbeds and funerals. But none could prepare him for the disintegration of his own world: When your partner dies, they take with them your future. David died of internal bleeding the underlying cause was alcoholism, which had undermined every aspect of their relationship. This humane, loving (and often bracingly funny) memoir records the chaos of widowhood; the overwhelming sadmin, the kindness of friends (and the cruelty of some strangers). Amid the grief, it celebrates love: In spite of what we suffered, he made my life lovely. THE CHRISTIE AFFAIR by Nina de Gramont (Pan 8.99, 368 pp) THE CHRISTIE AFFAIR by Nina de Gramont (Pan 8.99, 368 pp) On the evening of December 3, 1926, Agatha Christie disappeared from her home in Sunningdale after a quarrel with her husband, Archie. He had asked her for a divorce in order to marry his lover. The next day, Agathas car was found abandoned in Surrey. A nationwide search ensued, involving the police, the Press, and even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes. Eleven days later, Christie was found staying in a Yorkshire hotel, where she had registered under the surname of her husbands lover. This strange incident inspires Nina de Gramonts novel, which presents the story from an unexpected perspective that of Archie Christies lover, Nan. Chosen for Reese Witherspoons book club, The Christie Affair combines an intriguing tale of love and tragedy with a plot as ingenious as one of Agathas own mysteries. MY BODY by Emily Ratajkowski (Quercus 9.99, 256 pp) MY BODY by Emily Ratajkowski (Quercus 9.99, 256 pp) In 2013, Emily Ratajkowski, then 21, became an overnight celebrity when she appeared in the music video for Robin Thickes hit song, Blurred Lines. The contrast between the video, featuring near-naked young women, and the lyrics, which were accused of celebrating rape culture, sparked controversy, much of which centred on Ratajkowski: The politics of my body were suddenly being discussed and dissected across the globe by feminist thinkers and teenage boys alike. In her thoughtful essay collection, Ratajkowski discusses the power and vulnerability of beauty, her relationship with her mother, and her experience of sexual violence and having her image exploited by men. LESSONS by Ian McEwan (Vintage 20, 496 pp) LESSONS by Ian McEwan (Vintage 20, 496 pp) This ambitious novel follows the life of Roland Baines, born in 1948 and sent by ex-pat parents from colonial Libya to a rural boarding school (as was McEwan, one of many plot-line parallels) where, aged 11, a sexually predatory piano teacher, Miriam, touches him. Three years later, as the Cuban missile crisis threatens and he fears dying a virgin, he succumbs to her controlling passion, which will sabotage his future. Abandoning his musical talent, he travels aimlessly until he meets a German woman, Alissa, who (as so many male writers have done) later brutally leaves him and their baby son to become a bestselling author. As the backdrop of world events, from Chernobyl to the pandemic, poses questions about what determines our fate, Roland confronts secrets, loves and betrayals that have haunted him. As ever, it is the precision of McEwans prose that propels this absorbing epic. But the overwhelming scale leaves a sense of unfulfilled emotional potential in many strands Miriams abusive love and Alissas maternal rejection in particular could, as so often with McEwans female characters, justify a novel in themselves. THE SEVEN MOONS OF MAALI ALMEIDA by Shehan Karunatilaka (Sort Of Books 16.99, 400 pp) THE SEVEN MOONS OF MAALI ALMEIDA by Shehan Karunatilaka (Sort Of Books 16.99, 400 pp) Its 1990, and when photographer, gambler and promiscuously gay Maali Almeida wakes up, he discovers hes dead and dismembered in what would be Gods waiting room if only he believed in God. Instead, spirits with clipboards tell him he has just seven moons (days) to wander the In Between before he forgets everything; seven moons in which, unseen and unheard, he must show his best friend Jaki and his lover where he has hidden photographs exposing the horrors of Sri Lankas 1980s civil war. Forgetting, he realises, is a political weapon, so his pictures will be his legacy. Meanwhile, he must battle demons both living and dead who lay bare the violence, corruption and absurdity of a country at war with itself. Blackly funny and darkly serious, this Booker-shortlisted biting satire detonates a babble of voices, colours and moving relationships that leave images as vivid as any camera could capture. THE FURROWS by Namwali Serpell (Chatto 16.99, 288 pp) THE FURROWS by Namwali Serpell (Chatto 16.99, 288 pp) Cassandra Williams, 12, is in charge of her seven-year-old brother, Wayne, when hes killed in an accident but his body disappears. Cassandra, known as C, is tortured by guilt and, despite years of therapy, replays the tragedy on a loop; did he drown, fall from a carousel or get run over and does it matter? As C says: I dont want to tell you what happened. I want to tell you how it felt. Her white middle-class mother (Cs father is black) refuses to accept that Wayne is dead and establishes a high-profile charity for lost children, while the father leaves and remarries. As a study in dysfunctional grief it is mesmerising. Then suddenly we are in another story, that of black petty criminal Wayne Williams, who is also searching for a missing boy of the same name. As his and Cs paths cross, a complicated narrative of race, class, fantasy and reality intertwine, but the promise of the first half sadly isnt quite fulfilled in the second. HYDERABAD: Thousands of devotees immersed Ganesh idols at various designated locations across the twin cities on Friday, amid fanfare, rain, and tight security. The annual ritual, which has now grown into a massive event, saw an estimated 75,000 idols of various sizes immersed in various waterbodies. The 50-foot clay idol of Khairatabad was immersed at Crane No 4 at 7.07 pm, while the Balapur idol, which had travelled approximately 20 kilometres to the Hussainsagar, was immersed at Crane No 6 at 10.32 pm. The immersion of other idols is expected to last until Saturday morning. Over 50,000 officials from various departments, including the GHMC, the HMDA, the HMBW&SB, the Hyderabad and Cyberabad police, the fire brigade, and the SRPF (State Reserve Police Force) collaborated to ensure a peaceful immersion. Despite some violations, such as granting permission for DJs after four years and allowing Plaster of Paris (PoP) idols into teh Hussainsagar despite Supreme Court orders, the immersion went on peacefully. The showers welcomed the crowds, who joyfully celebrated the immersion process. The most rain fell in the old city. On Friday, Rajendernagar received 86 mm of rain, Shivarampally received 65 mm, and Golconda 49.8 mm. Over 2,000 police officers had been deployed to ensure a smooth immersion procession, while the water board had set up 196 camps at immersion sites. The roads and building department's electrical wing deployed 75 generators at various locations to ensure proper lighting, HMDA deployed 1,000 workers to remove idol remains immediately after immersion, and the entire Tank Bund, Necklace Road, NTR Marg, and all other immersion spots were decked out with 34,926 temporary lights arranged by the electricity department. To deal with any emergency situation, two National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams, 38 fire tenders, 12 boats, and 10 swimmers were deployed. A total of 35,000 police officers have been deployed within the jurisdictions of three police commissionerates: Hyderabad, Cyberabad, and Rachakonda. From state police headquarters, Director General of Police Mahendar Reddy closely monitored and reviewed the procession in Hyderabad and other parts of the state. Monitoring was carried out across the state using 10 lakh CCTV cameras. In addition to the CCTV network, 739 cameras have been installed along Hyderabad's main procession route. The massive monitoring system includes ten drones, four camera-mounted vehicles, and two mobile command control centres. Earlier in the day, ministers Talasani Srinivas Yadav and Mohammad Mahmood Ali, along with the DGP and city police commissioner C.V. Anand, conducted an aerial survey. Idols were immersed in 35 major water bonds including, Kapra Cheruvu, Saroornagar Lake, Rajanna Bavi, Mir Alam Tank, Palle Cheruvu, Pattikunta Cheruvu, Durgam Cheruvu, Malkam Cheruvu, Gopinagar Cheruvu, Pedda Cheruvu, Gangaram, Gurunatham Cheruvu, JP Nagar, Kaidamma Kunta in Hafizpet, Erla Cheruvu, Manjeera Road, Vinayaka Nagar Rayasamudram Lake, RC Puram, Sakicheruvu, Patancheruvu, IDL Tank, Pragathinagar Cheruvu, Hasmathpet Cheruvu, Sunnam Cheruvu, Pariki Cheruvu, Venellagadda Cheruvu, Suraram Cheruvu, Kotha Cheruvu (Alwal lake) and Safilguda lake and 74 baby ponds. Essex Dogs by Dan Jones (Head of Zeus 16.99, 464 pp) Historian Joness first foray into fiction is battle-bloody, brutal and perfectly pitched. The book opens in 1346, on the beaches of Normandy, as The Essex Dogs a raggle-taggle, rough-and-ready bunch of ten mavericks, led by scarred, war-weary Loveday FitzTalbot join an invading English force. Its nine years into the Hundred Years War. Lovedays motley crew, including young Romford, nursing a drug addiction and on the run from his past, and Father, a ruined and dangerously unpredictable priest, are caught up in the increasingly violent conflict as they head to the hellish killing fields of Crecy. Meticulously researched and vibrantly told, Jones captures the fear and frenzy of the fight and the loyalty and kinship of the Dogs. Its a slaughterous, sweary, swaggering debut. The Essex Dogs a raggle-taggle, rough-and-ready bunch of ten mavericks were led by scarred, war-weary Loveday FitzTalbo Babel by R. F. Kuang (Harper Voyager 16.99, 560 pp) Magical silver, the tricky art of translation, a secret society and the corrupting, insatiable greed of Western Imperialism collide in this wonderfully immersive, decidedly smart fourth novel from Kuang. At the centre of this heart-quickening, heart-breaking historical fantasy is Robin Swift, a Chinese orphan who is whisked away to England in 1829 by the mysterious, merciless Professor Richard Lovell. Linguistically gifted, Robin heads to the Royal Institution of Translation at Oxford University, at Lovells behest. Robin and his three close friends are entranced by their enchanting work in the elite world of Oxfords dreaming spires, but its this precious work that underpins the nightmarish ambitions of The Establishment. Swift finds his loyalty tested in this dazzling drama of dark academia. Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes (Mantle 18.99, 384 pp) What makes a monster is the central question in Natalie Haynes wry, spry feminist take on the Medusa myth. With a cast of pernickety immortals, intemperate, rapacious gods, jealous, unreasonable goddesses, a chorus of olives from a Greek grove and the commentary of the bickering snakes heads that make up Medusas serpentine tresses, Haynes story is an earthy, playful yet rage-filled upending of the Greek hero trope. Haynes is gunning for problematic Perseus from the start. Here realistically cast as a petulant, arrogant, fearful teenager, rather than an all-conquering champion and the painfully self-aware, all-too-human Medusa cursed by Athena who is vengeful and cruel, always blaming women for what men do to them is his innocent victim. Stone Blind is brilliantly brimful of these very neat reversals. The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith (Sphere 25, 1,024pp) The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith (Sphere 25, 1,024pp) There can be no denying J. K. Rowlings formidable talents as a crime writer. This is her sixth outing under the pseudonym of Robert Galbraith and it underlines just how magnificent a storyteller she is, and one with a sharp eye for the zeitgeist. This time her disabled war veteran private eye Cormoran Strike, and his partner Robin Ellacott are asked to investigate the murder of the creator of an online cartoon called The Ink Black Heart, who has been trolled by a sinister figure known as Anomie. Rowling has suffered a similar fate herself online in recent years and she brings all her passion to the revelation of how Strike and Ellacott set out to find the troll. But it opens gently with Robins 30th birthday drinks at The Ritz with Strike, and reveals the tenderness that exists between them before both are swallowed by the darkness of the web investigation. At more than 1,000 pages it casts a pervasive, enveloping spell. The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman (Viking 20, 432pp) The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman (Viking 20, 432pp) This third outing for the four intrepid members of the best-selling Thursday Murder Club at Coopers Chase retirement village sees Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim take on a threatening ex-KGB colonel, who is determined to have someone assassinated and wants Elizabeth to do it. If she fails or refuses, he announces that he will kill Joyce in retribution. At the same time, the group are looking into the murder of a local television news presenter. Add to these ingredients a woman who is running a multi-million-pound drugs ring from her prison cell and you have a characteristically insouciant Osman story packed with wit and nuance. This is the epitome of what has come to be called cosy crime and it works beautifully. But if you have a taste for crime that is stronger it can be a little irritating. There is none of the muscular threat of Ian Rankin, or the subtle menace of Agatha Christie. Instead, it is just the book to take to bed with a cup of cocoa. The Butcher and the Wren by Alaina Urquhart (Michael Joseph 18.99, 256pp) The Butcher and the Wren by Alaina Urquhart (Michael Joseph 18.99, 256pp) Written by the co-host of a hugely successful true crime podcast called Morbid, the author also happens to be an autopsy technician, and this story of a serial killer working in the bayous of Louisiana is certainly not for the squeamish. The killer has a taste for medical experiments, many of which end up on the steel table in the morgue where forensic pathologist Dr Wren Muller works. Impressively detailed in its analysis, as you might expect from someone who spends their life conducting autopsies, it leaves little to the imagination, but is captivating, with lacings of the occult amid the deaths. There may be moments when the reader might want to shut their eyes, but the joust between the killer and the pathologist makes that impossible. After weeks of rumour and speculation, one of Liz Truss' first acts as Prime Minister was to give the go ahead to fracking in the UK after a three-year moratorium. Unsurprisingly, this lit the blue touch paper under stocks in those junior companies with onshore projects that might contribute to gas self-sufficiency. Union Jack, up 38 per cent, was the week's biggest mover, followed by Egdon Resources (+31 per cent), UK Oil & Gas (+28 per cent) Reabold Resources (+27 per cent) and IGas (+27 per cent). New policy: After weeks of rumour and speculation, one of Liz Truss' first acts as Prime Minister was to give the go ahead to fracking in the UK after a three-year moratorium Speculation about a potential return of fracking prompted a stampede into selected stocks ahead of Thursday's announcement. So, Egdon, for example, has advanced 540 per cent in the year to date, while IGas has soared 666 per cent, meaning a decent payback for the hedge fund owned by the multi-millionaire investor Crispin Odey. The end of the fracking ban comes with a caveat that the controversial technique that uses long horizontal bore holes will only be allowed where there is local community support. Reports suggests the protest groups are ready to reform in a bid to kibosh plans. However, IGas chief executive Stephen Bowler believes the mood in towns and villages close to these onshore gas projects may be changing. 'Recent polling by YouGov has shown that, as the cost-of-living crisis bites, local people support shale development where it can bring real benefit to their community in reducing bills,' he said. 'We will work together with local communities to deliver this much needed resource in the near term and demonstrate that it can be done safely.' Turning to the wider market, if the City was in mourning for the passing of Queen Elizabeth II it wasn't immediately apparent. It was more a case of business as usual as the AIM All Share rose 0.8 per cent Friday, capping a solid performance for the small-cap tracker, which was up 1.3 per cent over the week. Discussed last week in the column was the rapid devaluation of stocks on the junior market, which are down a collective 27 per cent in the year to date. Cenkos Securities, which raises money for London's growth companies, has its ear to the ground. In an interview with Proactive this week after the group's interim results, boss Julian Morse said he thought the sell-off had been overdone. 'I think small-cap equities are incredibly oversold,' he said. 'But sentiment is a powerful thing. Once the market can get through and digest how long it thinks any recession will last sentiment will start to improve.' It was back to earth with a bump for investors in Clontarf Energy (down 37 per cent) after the lithium, oil and gas explorer said there was no new news to support last week's spike in the share price (it jumped from 0.5p to 1.2p). It did, however, disclose it is in discussions with lithium extraction processing experts and has agreed in joint venture in-principle to test the brines at its Bolivian salt-lakes project. It was a rough week for investors in Inland Homes (down 19 per cent) as it launched a strategic review after saying it was on track to lose 37.7million in the year to September 30. It is hoping to push through a sale of land that should bring down the full-year deficit to a marginally more palatable 12.1million at the pre-tax level. Chief executive Stephen Wicks will retire at the end of the month. Finally, had you invested in Wishbone Gold six months ago, you would have been sitting on a 66 per cent profit on the back of exploration success in Australia. This week the group did what any small-cap does when its making progress and adding value it tapped the market for more funds to bankroll further work on its projects. It owns the Red Setter gold-copper project in Western Australia and Halo asset in Queensland. Issuing modestly discounted stock it raised just a shade under 2.4million. The shares fell around 18 per cent over the week though this was a technical adjustment rather than being sentiment driven. Cineworld Group has been granted access to a financing facility, offering the embattled cinema chain the capacity to meet its obligations. The UK stock market-listed firm, which earlier this week filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US, told investors on Friday it had received approval for first day relief, thereby authorising it to use cash collateral and to obtain secured financing on an interim basis. The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas has granted the group immediate access to up to approximately $785million (675million) of an approximate $1.94billion debtor-in-possession financing facility. Cineworld filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a US court earlier in the week Cineworld said that together with the group's available cash reserves and cash provided by operations, is expected to provide sufficient liquidity for Cineworld to meet its ongoing obligations. This includes post-petition obligations to vendors and suppliers, as well as employee wages, salaries and benefits programs, it added. The remainder of the DIP facility will become available upon Court approval on a final basis. Cineworld shares were up 19.6 per cent in morning trading to 4.95p. However, their value has fluctuated wildly over recent weeks as news of its problems emerged. The shares remain 90.69 per cent off their 2022 peak of 44.45p and 98.6 per cent off their 2017 all-time peak of 324.6p. On Tuesday, the troubled cinema chain announced it had applied for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which will allow it to keep operating and protect it from lenders while it attempts to restructure the business. The British group had pinned its hopes on blockbusters such as Top Gun: Maverick, The Batman, featuring Robert Pattinson and Zoe Kravitz, and Thor: Love And Thunder to aid its recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, but audience numbers have been well below expectations. As a result, the firm which employs around 28,000 people worldwide and operates 751 cinemas in ten countries, 127 of which are in the UK is seeking to significantly reduce its massive debt pile of 7.5billion. But it warned any transaction was likely to result in a very significant dilution for its investors, who could see many of their positions completely wiped out. On Thursday, Cineworld said it intends to pay vendors and suppliers in full and on normal terms for valid goods and services received during the Chapter 11 process. It added: Cineworld and its brands around the world - including Regal, Cinema City, Picture House and yes Planet - are continuing to welcome moviegoers to cinemas as usual, which will not change during the Chapter 11 cases. The Group will continue to honour the terms of all existing customer membership programs, including Regal Unlimited and Regal Crown Club in the United States and Cineworld Unlimited in the United Kingdom. CEO Mooky Greidinger said: Today's approval of our requested first day relief is a positive step forward for the Group and our restructuring efforts. As we position Cineworld for long-term growth, through this Chapter 11 process and beyond, we remain steadfast in our commitment to providing our guests with the most memorable moviegoing experiences and maintaining our long-standing relationships with our business partners. The push to make Australia a republic is likely to be reignited in the wake of the Queen's death - with the movement taking just 24 minutes to issue a pointed statement following her death. The campaign chaired by prominent author and columnist Peter FitzSimons paid tribute to the 'significant contribution' made to the country throughout her 70-year reign - while saying the Queen 'backed the right of Australians to become a fully independent nation' at the previous republic referendum in November 1999. That poll failed by a landslide with no majority in any Australian state, with campaign, led by future prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, almost over before it began because of division within the movement. 'We are deeply saddened by the news of Queen Elizabeth's passing and express deep gratitude and thanks for her service to the Commonwealth,' The Australian Republican Movement said in a statement. A visiting school class looks at a portrait of Her Majesty The Queen at Parliament House in Canberra on Friday Australia's Governor-General has suggested the country could become a republic after the Queen dies Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese arrives to sign a condolence book for the passing of Her Majesty The Queen at Parliament House in Canberra 'During her reign, Australia has grown into a mature and independent nation. It is unlikely we will ever see a monarch as respected or admired by the Australian people again.' But the statement also noted 'many of the remaining opportunities for UK interference in Australian government' were removed during her reign in 1986. The republican movement has been rejuvenated by Anthony Albanese appointing Matt Thistlethwaite as assistant minister for the republic after Labor winning the May election. Just a month later, in June, the Governor-General David Hurley was widely criticised for a comment ahead of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee when he crassly declared the matter of Australia becoming a republic 'will be up for discussion' once she dies. 'I think at the moment people centre on the Queen, and then when she goes, when she passes, then the succession comes in, there's a new discussion in Australia,' he said. Just last week, Matt Thistlethwaite said he planned to have a campaign ready to roll when the Queen's reign ends. Whenever that campaign gets moving, it certainly won't be in the near future. On Friday, Mr Albanese was quick to bat away republic questions. 'Today is a day for one issue, and one issue only, which is to pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and to give our thanks for her service to our country, to the commonwealth, to her family and her extraordinary contribution to our nation,' he said. Prince Charles today at a roundtable with attendees of the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation yesterday. Today Charles, who will become King, is at Balmoral The republican movement aims to overhaul Australia's system of government, from a constitutional monarchy, with the British Monarch as head of state, to a republic with a president at the helm. But not everyone is so sure the monarchy is done for Down Under with the passing of the Queen. Poll Do you think Australia should become a republic? Yes No Do you think Australia should become a republic? Yes 88 votes No 207 votes Now share your opinion One unlikely theory is that the popular Netflix drama The Crown could prove an wildcard in a desire to stick with the British royal family. In July, shadow defence minister Andrew Hastie claimed the popular Netflix drama The Crown has revived interest in the monarchy with Australians. Four seasons of the highly-rated series have aired and the eagerly awaited fifth season is due in November. Speaking in London in July, Mr Hastie claimed: 'The Crown has mainstreamed the monarchy again in a way that people can engage with. 'We can call into question the historicity [the historical accuracy] of The Crown, but nonetheless I think that the first series penetrated the popular [Australian] culture in a way that monarchists' arguments, in a political sense, could never do.' While Mr Albanese is undoubtedly a supporter of Australia becoming a republic, in June, to mark the queen's 70 years on the throne, he renamed an island on Canberra's Lake Burley Griffin 'Queen Elizabeth II Island'. 'She has stood with Australia as a true and steadfast friend,' Mr Albanese said on the Queen. 'We give her name to this place in the heart of our capital a place where history and progress meet. 'It is a fitting salute to Her Majesty, and celebrates her long life and 70 years of service to Australia and the Commonwealth, including her 16 visits to our shores.' Mr Albanese said Australians 'will determine the future themselves'. 'Today is not the day for those discussions, today's a day to pay tribute to Her Majesty and her service to Australia.' But those discussions are coming; with the Labor Government promising Australians another republican referendum vote if their government wins a second term in 2025. Australians rejected the constitutional change in a referendum held in 1999. Mr Thistlethwaite was appointed new assistant minister for the republic after Labor won government and just before the Queen's platinum jubilee. The new role was welcomed by the Australian Republic Movement, which campaigns for an Australian head of state. But others called the timing 'sad and reckless'. Exactly what the Sydney MP will actually do in the role remain unclear, although his personal position is not. At the opening to the new parliament, Mr Thistlethwaite claimed swearing allegiance to the Queen was 'ridiculous and archaic'. In June he congratulated the Queen on her jubilee and her reign, telling Sky News Australia she was 'a fantastic monarch and leader of the commonwealth.' Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (pictured, left) lauded Her Majesty the Queen in a speech on Saturday, unveiling a monument in her honour during her jubilee 'But as she comes to the twilight of her reign I think Australians are naturally beginning to ask themselves what comes next for Australia. 'Do we want King Charles or are we mature enough or independent enough to look to appoint one of our own as our head of state?' Mr Thistlethwaite claimed even as a republic Australia would remain in the Commonwealth, continue to participate in the Commonwealth Games and be respectful and welcoming towards the British royal family. ENDEARING: The Crown's depiction of Charles, Diana and William on tour 'When you think about it, the average Australian's relationship with the royal family won't change. They will still be invited here. They'll still come here and be on the front pages of our and magazines and newspapers.' The Queen was best known for her stoic manner and reassuring voice of calm in moments of crisis. But Her Majesty also had a wicked sense of humor, which only those closest to her got to witness first-hand. In one of the best examples, one of her former protection officers revealed a hilarious prank she played on two American tourists. Richard Griffin told how the monarch had been hiking near the grounds of her estate in Balmoral, Scotland, wearing her tweeds and a headscarf. She walked by a group of American tourists, but they failed to recognize her and asked if she lived nearby, to which she said she did. Yet when asked if she had met the Queen, the monarch playfully hit back: 'No, but he has', pointing to her protection officer. They then asked Her Majesty to take a photograph of them with the policeman, before they also took one with her. Richard Griffin told how the monarch had been hiking near the grounds of her estate in Balmoral (pictured, on the land), Scotland, wearing her tweeds and a headscarf Griffin, who worked for the royals for over 30 years, retold the story to Sky News during the Platinum Jubilee celebrations across Britain in June. He said: 'Normally on these picnic sites you'll meet nobody. But there were two hikers coming towards us and the Queen would always stop and say hello. 'And it was two Americans on a walking holiday. And it was clear from the moment we first stopped they hadn't recognized the Queen, which is fine. 'The American gentleman was telling the Queen where he came from, where they were going to next and where they'd been to in Britain. 'And I could see it coming and sure enough he said to Her Majesty, and where do you live? 'And she said well I live in London but I've got a holiday home just the other side of the hills. Margaret Rhodes is pictured with the Queen at the sprawling Balmoral estate in Scotland The Prince of Wales and Queen are pictured together in front of some horses at the estate last year 'He said how often have you been coming here? Oh, she said, I've been coming up here ever since I was a little girl, so over 80 years. 'He said well if you've been coming up here for 80 years you must have met the Queen. 'As quick as a flash she said: 'Well I haven't, but Dickie here meets here regularly. The guy says to me, you've met the Queen? What's she like? Griffin, who worked for the royals for over 30 years, retold the story to Sky News during the Platinum Jubilee celebrations across Britain in June 'I said well she can be very cantankerous at times but she's got a lovely sense of humor. 'The next thing I knew this guy comes around put his arm around my shoulder and before I see what was happening he gets his camera, gives it to the Queen and says can you take a picture? 'Anyway we swapped places and I took a picture of them with the Queen, we never let on, and we waved goodbye and Her Majesty said to me ''I'd love to be a fly on the wall when he shows that to his friends in America.' Although it was not a recent encounter, the Queen did often enjoy a more low-key lifestyle when staying at Balmoral. She usually swaps her signature eye-catching coloured dresses that she wears to royal engagements for pared-back clothes and wellington boots. Balmoral Castle has been a residency of the British royal family since 1852. It sits on extensive grounds that cover an area of around 50,000 acres. As a working estate, it includes forestry and farmland as well as managed herds of deer, Highland cattle and ponies. Balmoral Castle: The Queen's summer home in Scotland that holds years of royal memories Balmoral has long been one of the Queen's favorite places and she is said to never be happier than when staying there. She travels to the estate in Aberdeenshire each summer, with members of her family invited to spend time with her while she is there. Balmoral Castle was handed down to her through generations of royals after being bought for Queen Victoria by Prince Albert in 1852. The Queen's traditional annual stay at the main property after a break at Craigowan Lodge on the estate in July usually stretches through August and September and into October. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh during a visit to a farm on the Balmoral estate in 1972 (PA) This year she travelled to Balmoral on July 21 and remained at the estate to appoint a new prime minister there for the first time in her reign on Tuesday. The 96-year-old monarch, who has faced ongoing mobility issues, traditionally holds audiences with outgoing and incoming premiers at Buckingham Palace but this year stayed in Scotland. Outgoing prime minister Boris Johnson and his successor Liz Truss made the 1,000-mile round trip to Aberdeenshire for the key audiences this week. It came after the Queen broke with convention earlier this summer when inspecting a guard of honour to officially mark taking up residence at her Scottish home. Traditionally she inspects the guard of honour at the gates of Balmoral but this year she held the event privately within the estate's grounds for her 'comfort', sources said. The Queen inspecting a guard of honour at the castle gates last summer (Jane Barlow/PA) Balmoral, like Sandringham, is a private residence of the Queen rather than a royal residence belonging to the Crown. Princess Eugenie, the Queen's granddaughter, once described Balmoral as the most beautiful place on the planet. 'Walks, picnics, dogs a lot of dogs, there's always dogs and people coming in and out all the time,' she said. 'It's a lovely base for Granny and Grandpa, for us to come and see them up there; where you just have room to breathe and run.' Years of royal memories have been forged at Balmoral, including family barbecues where the Duke of Edinburgh did the cooking and the Queen the washing-up. After Philip and Princess Elizabeth married in 1947, they spent part of their honeymoon at Birkhall a grand hunting lodge on the Balmoral estate. The Queen was staying with her grandsons William and Harry at Balmoral when their mother Diana, Princess of Wales died in a car crash in Paris in 1997. Advertisement It was when she was aged just 25 that the then Princess Elizabeth received the worst possible news. She and her husband Prince Philip were in Kenya, staying at the Sagana game-viewing Lodge, when they were told on February 6, 1952, that her father, King George VI, had died. He had been suffering from lung cancer. The couple had been married for just five years, and their lives were now changed irrevocably. The official announcement from Sandringham, where he died, read: 'The King, who retired to rest last night in his usual health, passed peacefully away in his sleep early this morning.' The royal couple arrived home on February 7 and were photographed being greeted at what was then the London Airport by the Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Queen Mary was first to pay formal homage, kissing her granddaughter's hand that afternoon. The next day, February 8, Princess Elizabeth was formally proclaimed Queen. Preparations quickly began for his funeral. The King's coffin was taken by train from Sandringham to London on February 11, and was met by the Queen, the Queen Mother and Queen Mary, the King's mother, who had traveled by car. In just three days of the coffin lying in Westminster Hall, more than 300,000 mourners came to pay their respects to the monarch who had led Britain through the Second World War. BBC presenter Richard Dimbleby said during the broadcast of the Westminster Hall proceedings, said: 'Never safer, better guarded, lay a sleeping king than this, with a golden candlelight to warm his resting place, and the muffled footsteps of his devoted subjects to keep him company.' On the day of the funeral, February 15, George's coffin was draped in the royal standard, with a crown, orb and sceptre lain on top. It then made its way in a formal televised procession to Paddington Station. It was carried on a gun carriage that was hauled by Royal Navy seamen as the Queen, the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret were among those who followed. As it made it way through London, the bells of Big Ben rang out 56 times, with each chime representing a year of the late King's life. Once at Paddington, the coffin was taken to Windsor, where a simple service was held for the King in St George's Chapel, where successive monarchs have been buried for centuries. When the funeral got underway at 2pm, the nation fell silent, with even passengers on a transatlantic flight to New York rising from their seats to bow their heads. The service, in which television cameras were banned, was presided over by the then Archbishop of Canterbury Geoffrey Fisher and the Archbishop of York Cyril Garbett. Once the service was over, George was buried in the Royal Vault of St George's Chapel. Elizabeth's final tribute to her father was to drop a handful of earth that she had collected from Frogmore at Windsor on his coffin. King George VI's funeral was held in St George's Chapel at Windsor on February 15, 1952. Above: The new Queen stands by after her father's coffin has been lowered into the royal vault In just three days of the coffin lying in Westminster Hall, more than 300,000 mourners came to pay their respects in scenes that were televised on the BBC The queue to file past the coffin stretched for miles. Above: Part of the enormous queue of people is seen on London's Embankment The King had been on the throne since December 1936 and had only become King when his brother, Edward VIII, abdicated so he could marry divorcee Wallis Simpson. Above: The King in 1937 (left) and May 1951, eight months before his death Princess Elizabeth and Philip's visit to Kenya was part of a long-planned international tour that had been supposed to be carried out by the King. Because he was too ill to travel, the young couple went on his behalf. The King had been on the throne since December 1936 and had only become King when his brother, Edward VIII, abdicated so he could marry divorcee Wallis Simpson. The couple had been staying at Sagana Lodge after it was gifted to them as a wedding present by the people of Kenya. The day before the King's death, they had been staying at the the Treetops Hotel, in Aberdare Forest. Back in the UK, the King was discovered by his valet at around 7.30am, with news of his death conveyed to Buckingham Palace by phone, using the code name 'Hyde Park Corner'. Due to their remote location, it took some time for the news to reach the princess. It was first recounted by a senior courtier to the princess's private secretary, Martin Charteris. He then phoned Prince Philip's aide, and then Philip told Elizabeth. As he heard the news of the King's death, Philip looked as if 'you'd dropped half the world on him', according to one close aide. But Elizabeth was composed even at a time of such grief. Lord Charteris, her then private secretary, recalled seeing the new Queen seated at her desk in the Lodge shortly after being told the news. Her cheeks were slightly flushed, but there were no tears. She was ready to fulfil the role for which she had been carefully prepared. The Queen arrived home from Kenya on February 7 and was photographed looking crestfallen as she walked down the steps of her plane at London Airport. Once on the tarmac, she was greeted by Prime Minister Winston Churchill Queen Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, widow of King George VI, and Queen Mary at London King's Cross railway station for the arrival of the special train bringing the coffin of King George VI from Sandringham, February 11, 1952 The King's body lies in state in Westminster Hall, guarded by beefeaters and horse guards. The coffin lay there for three days Her Majesty was named as the new monarch by the Accession Council before Elizabeth had arrived back in London. After returning home the following day, Princess Elizabeth formally proclaimed herself Queen and Head of the Commonwealth and Defender of the Faith on at St James's Palace. Her official proclamation read: ' By the sudden death of my dear father I am called to assume the duties and responsibilities of sovereignty. 'My heart is too full for me to say more to you today than I shall always work, as my father did throughout his reign, to advance the happiness and prosperity of my peoples, spread as they are all the world over.' The King's funeral procession from Westminster Hall was televised by the BBC, although there were only around 1.5million television sets in a population of around 50million. Most people who were not able to line the streets in person would have listened to the proceedings on the radio. A total of 305,806 people filed past his coffin in Westminster Hall. The queues for people to pay their respects stretched for miles. On the day of his funeral, the Royal Family gathered in Westminster Hall, while millions waited on the streets outside. The gun carriage that carried his body had also held his father, King George V, on the day of his funeral. The King's coffin was taken by train from Sandringham to London on February 11, and was met by the Queen, the Queen Mother and Queen Mary, the King's mother Duke of Edinburgh, Duke of Gloucester, Duke of Windsor, and the Duke of Kent in the procession as the King's coffin moves from the Palace Yard, Westminster, on its way to Paddington station Guns are seen being fired in tribute to the King on February 7. A salute of 56 guns were fired, the number of guns to the number of years he lived The Coffin of his Majesty seen on the gun carriage as it passed through the streets of Windsor, to its last resting place. On the coffin are the Queen Mother's wreath, the Imperial state Crown and the Sceptre and Orb, symbols of Majesty The body of King George VI (1895 - 1952) lying in state in Westminster Hall, London, before being taken to St George's Chapel, Windsor, for burial. The coffin is guarded by beefeaters and horse guards Thousands of mourners are seen standing solemnly as the King's coffin makes its way through London to Paddington station Hundreds of mourners line the streets as the King's funeral procession nears Paddington station, where it made the journey to Windsor The coffin of King George VI passes through Marble Arch as it is flanked by dozens of sailors. The Queen followed the procession as it made it way to Paddington Thousands are seen lining the streets as the King's funeral procession passes by after lying in state in Westminster Hall The funeral procession turns into Edgward Road, near Marble Arch. Thousands of mourners stand in silence Queen Elizabeth II leaving the funeral train after its arrival at Kings Cross Station from Sandringham he funeral cortege of King George VI makes its way through Parliament Square, London. The king's coffin is carried on a gun carriage, on top of which rests the Crown on the Royal Standard Members of the Royal Family entering St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle in the company of the King's Company Grenadier Guards The Queen was then among the royals and courtiers who followed the procession as it made its way to Paddington. The Daily Mail reported at the time: 'The mile-long procession wound along Whitehall and across the Horse Guards Parade. 'There were sadness and pomp in plenty - the measured tread of the Guards, the mournful lament of the pipers, the ultimate pity and loneliness of the coffin with its single white wreath. 'Many wept as the Queen came by, a pale face shrouded by black veils.' The final service at St George's Chapel was also described in intricate detail by the paper. It read: 'One moment it seemed that the King was with us, and the next that he had gone. Slowly his draped coffin sank upon its purple-shrouded bier beneath the chancel floor of St George's Chapel, Windsor. 'Slowly, almost imperceptibly, it faded from our sight. The Daily Mail's coverage of the King's death was delved into intricate detail of the monarch's final journey from Westminster Hall to Windsor's St George's Chapel, via Paddington station 'But a moment before and our new Sovereign, Queen Elizabeth, had taken the Colour of the King's Company, the Grenadier Guards, and had placed it on the end of the coffin. 'Then, as all that is mortal of her father sank into its purple sepulchre,, she stepped forward and sprinkled earth on to the coffin.' It added: 'In that moment it seemed that this slim slight figure who has borne the intense nervous strains of the past ten days with magnificent composure was dedicated and set apart. 'In that moment the young Queen, bidding mute farewell to her father and predecessor on the Throne, had taken her place in the long and glorious roll of those who have worn the Crown.' After the funeral at Windsor, around 2,000 people were allowed in to see the wreaths which covered the lawns. Liz Truss has officially been Prime Minister for barely three full days. She was installed by the Queen at Balmoral on Tuesday afternoon in the traditional ritual of 'kissing hands' - the last of 15 premiers during her 70-year reign. But new as she is to the role, Ms Truss must now rise to the occasion and try to carry the grief of a nation. The daunting task will inevitably be compared to Tony Blair responding to the death of Princess Diana in August 1997 - although the tragic circumstances were very different and he had been in post for several months by then. Mr Blair - now Sir Tony - coined the phrase 'People's Princess' to describe Diana in a tribute delivered outside a church in his Sedgefield constituency. He was widely praised for summing up the emotions of the country, contrasting with the muted statements that were coming out of the Royal Family. Speaking in Downing Street this evening after the worst was confirmed, Liz Truss described the Queen as the 'rock on which modern Britain was built' Ms Truss was installed by the Queen at Balmoral on Tuesday afternoon in the traditional ritual of 'kissing hands' - the last of 15 premiers sworn in during her 70-year reign Ms Truss had already made one enormous intervention that could define her political life today, announcing an unprecedented 150billion bailout to freeze energy bills for two years. That was interrupted by news - conveyed to her in a note as she sat on the Commons benches - that the monarch was seriously ill and her family were travelling to Balmoral. Speaking in Downing Street this evening after the worst was confirmed, Ms Truss described the Queen as the 'rock on which modern Britain was built'. Dressed all in black and behind a podium outside the famous black door of No10, Ms Truss said the former monarch had been 'determined to do her duty' by appointing her personally at Balmoral this week. She struck a sombre note and spoke of the 'great legacy' from the Queen's 20 years of service. The address had none of the glitz of Sir Tony's supposedly impromptu words in Sedgefield 25 years ago. But it was delivered from the heart. Ms Truss will now undoubtedly put politics on hold, and join the nation in focusing on the debt owed to the Queen. Twitter agreed two months ago to pay $7million in a settlement to a whistleblower whose allegations will be part of Elon Musk's lawsuit against the social media giant. Whistleblower Peiter 'Mudge' Zatko, who was fired by Twitter in January and was the company's security head, last month accused the social media firm of falsely claiming it had a solid security plan and making misleading statements about its defenses against hackers and spam accounts. Zatko will meet with the US Senate Judiciary committee on September 13 to discuss the allegations. The whistleblower filed a damning complaint last month alleging the social media giant was not forthcoming to the public and Musk about its security practices. He accused Twitter of years of 'material misrepresentation and omissions' about security and privacy protections, claiming company executives have 'lied' about the number of spam or bot accounts. Whistleblower Peiter 'Mudge' Zatko, who was fired by Twitter in January and was the company's security head, last month accused the social media firm of falsely claiming it had a solid security plan and making misleading statements about its defenses against hackers and spam accounts The whistleblower filed a damning complaint last month alleging the social media giant were not forthcoming to the public and Elon Musk about its security practices Zatko went on to explain that while employees are encouraged not to count spam accounts as 'monetizable active users' a metric Twitter provides to advertisers they have little incentive to detect spam accounts among the large number of accounts that do not count as mDAUs. By 2021, Zatko wrote, he asked Twitter's head of site integrity roughly how many accounts were spam and was told 'We don't really know.' 'Deliberate ignorance was the norm among the executive leadership team,' Zatko claims in the whistleblower complaint. He added that Twitter deployed 'moistly outdated, unmonitored simple scripts plus overworked, inefficient, understaffed and reactive human teams' to detect bot accounts. He also took aim at a tweet Agrawal posted back in May that said Twitter was 'strongly incentivized to detect and remove as much spam as we possibly can.' The complaint says 'Agrawal's tweet was a lie,' and added: 'Agrawal knows very well that Twitter executives are not incentivized to accurately 'detect' or report total spam bots on the platform.' Zatko, who goes by the nickname Mudge, accused Twitter of years of 'material misrepresentation and omissions' about security and privacy protections, claiming company executives have 'lied' about the number of spam or bot accounts.= Musk is set to face off against Twitter executives in a federal trial at the Delaware Chancery Court (pictured) in October The company has strongly denied these claims, but Musk's legal team asked Zatko to appear for a deposition this week. Lawyers have also requester further information on any reports about privacy vulnerabilities that Zatko may have sent to Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal or other top employees and are asking the company to provide more information about the section of Twitter's annual report that discusses fake accounts. He has argued for weeks that company executives misled him about the number of fake accounts on the platform which he relied upon when he agreed to the acquisition. Wednesday's ruling is yet another win for Musk after McCormick ruled last week that Twitter executives have to surrender more data to the Tesla CEO about its fake accounts. She ordered Twitter to hand over data on 9,000 accounts the firm audited at the end of 2021, which opens the door for that information to be used in Musk's effort to quit the $44 billion deal. 'Deliberate ignorance was the norm among the executive leadership team,' Zatko claims in the whistleblower complaint 'Some additional data from plaintiff (Twitter) seems warranted,' McCormick wrote, without elaborating, in her four-page ruling. Details of Zatko's settlement will soon be made public in the court filings in Twitter's legal battle with Musk, who has claimed he can walk away from his $44billion agreement to buy the social media company. It was ruled Wednesday that Musk could use Zatko's statements in the trial. The settlement resolved a dispute about unpaid compensation and did not prevent him from filing a whistleblower complaint, which he did soon after reaching the agreement with Twitter, according to the source. Twitter said previously Zatko was fired 'for ineffective leadership and poor performance' and that his whistleblower complaint 'is riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies and lacks important context.' Zatko's attorney said Zatko cannot comment on the existence of a settlement with Twitter. Lawyers have also requester further information on any reports about privacy vulnerabilities that Zatko may have sent to Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal or other top employees and are asking the company to provide more information about the section of Twitter's annual report that discusses fake accounts The Twitter logo is seen outside their headquarters in downtown San Francisco, California His settlement was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, which said he agreed to a nondisclosure agreement that forbids him from speaking publicly about his time at Twitter or disparaging the company. Musk has alleged the company misled him about the number of bots or fake accounts on the platform and about the proper way to measure active users. Twitter has sued Musk, asking the Delaware court to force him to go through with the deal he made in April to buy the company. Musk has countersued and a trial is set to start the week of October 17. In a statement over the recent court ruling, Musk's attorney, Alex Spiro, said in a statement: 'We are hopeful that winning the motion to amend takes us one step closer to the truth coming out in that courtroom.' Musk's legal team has argued that the allegations made by Zatko to U.S. officials may help bolster Musk's claims that Twitter misled him and the public about the company's problem with fake and 'spam' accounts. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Comic John Bishop is suing an Irish entrepreneur for allegedly defrauding a software firm he helped set up with son Comic John Bishop is suing an Irish entrepreneur for allegedly defrauding a software firm he helped set up with son Joseph. The comedian, plus fellow shareholder U2 drummer Larry Mullen, 60, have accused Brendan Morrissey and Maltese-registered BAK Holdings Limited of stealing over 865,000 from their company Hears, which was launched to assist people with hearing problems. He claims Hears paid BAK more than 866,000 for software development services, before discovering they were actually worth just 200,000. The company also claims that a 474,000 credit for software services allegedly made available to Hears by BAK in consideration for shares in their company was never actually provided. Claims of fraud, misrepresentation, breach of contract and negligence are denied by Mr Morrissey, a known tech investor. The Scouse star, 55, currently sits on the board of Hears supporting his son and co-founder Joseph who conceived the app in 2019 which allows people to take a hearing test on their smartphone, facilitating the purchase of bespoke hearing aids. Joseph, 28, is partially deaf and is set to star alongside his famous father in an ITV documentary about his loss of hearing, which he first experienced at the age of 15, while also learning more about the deaf community. Bishop is pictured here with his wife Melanie. Their son Joseph, 28, is partially deaf and helps his famous father run their firm to help people with hearing problems In an affidavit heard in court, Mr Bishop told how the board removed Mr Morrissey's wife Karen as company secretary earlier this year and cancelled a bank mandate after a series of payments were made to BAK. They also removed him as director, removing their access to a company bank account to prevent them taking more unauthorised payments. The Bishops, who were introduced to Mr Morrissey by a mutual friend and had the original idea, set up the company alongside the Irishman who they felt could help build the firm by becoming a partner. Mr Bishop said: 'He held himself out to be greatly interested in the idea of our app and in bringing it to fruition. 'He claimed that he had many relevant contacts globally across the various spheres of technology that he was involved in.' Mr Bishop alleged a breakdown of the relationship with Mr Morrissey occurred towards the end of last year after he sought and was refused details regarding delays in the project and costs. Last February, he said he discovered a 500,000 payment, the precise value of his own investment, had been made to BAK without the knowledge or approval of him or other directors two years earlier. Mr Bishop claimed Mr and Mrs Morrissey were the only people with access to the company's bank account at the time. BAK and Mr Morrissey deny the allegations and claim BAK provided 1.4million in services to Hears. In a sworn affidavit to the court, Mr Morrissey said the claims against the defendants are 'without substance'. The matter stands adjourned and the hearing of the dispute is expected to take place early next year. The organisers immediately dragged him away from Sarma, even before security personnel and police could react. This led to commotion among the crowd and some people charged towards the entrance of the dais from where the TRS leader was being escorted away. DC Image Hyderabad: In a major security breach, a TRS leader dashed on to the stage where Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, a Z+ category protectee, was waiting to address the Ganesh idol immersion procession here on Friday. The TRS leader, later identified as Nandu Kumar Vyas of Goshamahal, snatched the mike from Bhagwant Rao of the Bhagyanagar Ganesh Utsav Samiti, who was addressing the crowd. Sarma was the chief guest of the immersion procession and was standing next to Bhagwant Rao when the incident occurred on the dais set up at MJ Market. There was tension in the area for some time. When Bhagwant Rao started his speech and began criticising Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, the TRS leader dressed in white and wearing a pink kanduva barged on to the dias and snatched the mike. The organisers immediately dragged him away from Sarma, even before security personnel and police could react. This led to commotion among the crowd and some people charged towards the entrance of the dais from where the TRS leader was being escorted away. While the area filled was with slogans demanding action against the intruder, Vyas accompanied by a few women shouted Jai KCR as even as the police whisked him away. Only after this incident were security personnel and local police seen on the dais. Sarma later addressed the crowd. Abids police took Vyas into preventive custody before releasing him. Assam Chief Minister Hemant Sarma Biswa on the occasion of Ganesh festival is not supposed to talk about politics and insult Chief Minister K. Chandrashakar Rao. I along with other TRS activists lost our patience and grabbed the mike and stopped him from disrupting the peace by giving provocative speeches. Vyas said upon his release. If BJP leaders once again make inappropriate comments on KCR and KTR, we wont tolerate it, he said. It was a preventive arrest and no case was booked on Vyas who was detained for two hours, said Abds inspector B. Prasad. The new King Charles III has a long and storied relationship with Australia, having visited the country 16 times and gone to school in Victoria. Charles spent two terms at the prestigious Geelong Grammar School in Victoria as a teenager. Later, he was joined by then-wife Princess Diana and a 10-month-old Prince William on a memorable visit in 1983 that attracted huge crowds and media coverage. In between, he represented the Queen at state funerals, stole a kiss from an Aussie model and even enjoyed a dip at Bondi Beach. However, in recent years, he has been central to the argument of Australia becoming a republic, with a survey in May finding that 53 per cent of Aussies disapprove of him becoming king of the country. Prince Charles pictured on a guided tour of Timbertop, the rural outpost campus of Geelong Grammar School during his stay at the establishment in Melbourne, Australia in February 1966 Charles and Diana with a baby Prince William as they arrive at Alice Springs Airport at the start of their tour of Australia on March 20, 1983 Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall walk on Broadbeach at the Gold Coast, Australia on April 5, 2018 Prince Charles enjoys a swim in the sea at Bondi Beach during his tour of Australia on April 15, 1981 In 1994, a 23-year-old man was arrested after firing a starter pistol at Charles as he prepared to hand out Australia Day awards in Sydney. David Kang stormed a stage and fired two blank shots at Charles during the royal tour. The incident proved to be something of a turning point for Charles in Australia, as his visits tailed off afterwards. After his first visit to go to school in 1966, he also came to Oz in 1967, 1970, 1974, 1977, 1978 and 1979. He carried on visiting in the 1980s, coming down here in 1981, 1983, 1985 and 1988. However, the Kang incident in 1994 was his only trip in the 90s and he only came four times after that, in 2005, 2012, 2015 and 2018. The Australian Republic Movement wasted little time in renewing its calls for Australia to split from the crown following the Queen's death. It took just 24 minutes for the ARM to release a statement with the movement's chair, prominent author and columnist Peter FitzSimons, paying tribute to the 'significant contribution' she made to Australia throughout her 70-year reign. The ARM said the Queen backed the right of Australians to become 'a fully independent nation' at the previous republic referendum in 1998. In its statement released 19 minutes before Prime Minister Anthony Albanese issued his own, Mr FitzSimons said: 'Queen Elizabeth respected the self-determination of the Australian people. Prince Charles is kissed by Jane Priest, a model, as he emerges from the water at Cottesloe beach in Perth, during his 1979 tour of Australia Charles has a long and storied relationship with Australia, having visited the country 16 times and gone to school in Victoria Diana and Prince Charles at their official welcome ceremony in Alice Springs, Australia, March 1983 Charles in Melbourne with Princess Diana in 1983, the couple enjoying a dance together Prince Charles, now King, and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, now Queen Consort, were greeted by school children during a visit to Kilkenny Primary School on November 7, 2012 in Adelaide 'During her reign the Australia Act 1986 was passed eliminating many of the remaining opportunities for UK interference in Australian government. Appeals from Australian courts to British courts were abolished.' Republicans believe the Queen's passing will reignite a campaign to achieve Australia's constitutional independence, but monarchists maintain they have 'absolutely no hope'. The Australian Monarchist League released a statement throwing their full support behind Charles after the Queen's death. They said he has 'trained his whole life' to take the reigns of the royal family and that he has always served Australia 'selflessly'. Philip Benwell, national chair of the Australian Monarchist League, said: 'Australia, the Commonwealth of Nations and indeed the whole world will now deeply mourn the longest-serving, oldest and most revered monarch of modern times.' 'As the only Sovereign the majority of Australians have ever known, Her Majesty The Queen visited this country on 16 occasions and served as Queen of Australia for seventy years and 215 days. Prince Charles pictured observing a woodwork demonstration at Timbertop, the rural outpost campus of Geelong Grammar School in 1966 Prince Charles poses in front of an artwork by Australian artist Sir Sidney Nolan, on January 28, 1988 in Adelaide, during the Australian Bicentenary Prince Charles enjoying the sea at Bondi Beach on a visit to Sydney as part of his 1981 Australian tour 'The Queen's selfless sense of service, her warm character, devotion to her family, and endearing smile will remain in the hearts of Australians for generations. 'Like the Queen, her son and heir Charles has served Australians selflessly, dutifully and with distinction, visiting Australia on 16 occasions himself, including a part of his education at Geelong Grammar. 'Australia's new King, who has trained for this role his entire life, was heir apparent for seventy years the longest in Australian history. 'Australians can take comfort in the knowledge that their new King will unequivocally continue the longstanding traditions, dutiful service and vital constitutional role which epitomised our late Queen. 'Therefore, may we state that ancient chant which has echoed throughout the world for over a millennium: 'The Queen is dead, long live the King!' A Buckingham Palace spokesman released a statement at 3.30am confirming her passing saying, 'The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow'. American teens can swap their cap and gown for construction hats, high-visibility vests, and a whopping six figure salary straight out of high school, with one New York company offering students full time jobs without a college degree. Harrison & Burrowes, a construction company founded more than 40 years ago, is offering full time positions, paying up to $47 an hour after completing its summer apprenticeship. The company's Chief Operations Officer, Chris DiStefano encouraged teenagers to look at the alternative in an interview with Fox & Friends. Harrison & Burrowes is offering full time jobs to high school seniors, paying up to $47 an hour, after completing its summer apprenticeship says company COO Chris DiStefano (pictured) High school seniors will be given the opportunity to work up to 200 hours and complete the summer apprenticeship DiStefano says 'college isn't for everybody' taking note that this could provide options for kids who don't have the funds for higher education 'College isn't for everybody and with the rising cost of tuition, we can provide a great opportunity for those folks that the path to college might not be the best path for them,' he said. High school seniors will be given the opportunity to work up to 200 hours and complete the summer apprenticeship and will be offered a full-time position pending graduation. 'When they come on, they can come on at 18 years old and make a steady wage and have a sustainable career going forward,' said DiStefano. The company has a long history in construction with roots in the heavy highway industry dating back to the 1920s. Founded in February 1980, Harrison & Burrowes has been at the helm of constructing and rehabilitating 400 bridges employing a workforce of 150 people. It focuses on building, maintaining, and repairing bridges at a competitive rate. While the family-owned business boasts 150 years combined worth of experience on its website, DiStefano said finding qualified people is a challenge in today's climate. Founded in February 1980 the Harrison & Burrowes (pictured) has been at the helm of constructing and rehabilitating 400 bridges employing a workforce of 150 people U.S. Census Bureau data says tertiary education can pay off with those going into the workforce with degrees earning higher salaries in the long term Some students have commented getting an apprenticeship and seeing their work at the end of the day is more fulfilling than sitting in a classroom 'We're taking it very seriously and doing all the things on our end to make a sustainable future,' he said. While DiStefano believes the pathway will give students more options coming out of High school, the U.S. Census Bureau's back-to-school report found that 'education pays off.' 'In 2020, all workers aged 18 and older with earnings made different average yearly salaries based on their education level' the report said. People with a bachelor's degree made approximately $73,000, while high school graduates and GED recipients made about $39,000. Those with an education below ninth grade made $32,000, according to the report. Mark Johnson, of Degraff Bloom Custom Builders in Round Lake, who hired an apprentice last year, told the Times Union that choosing this path doesn't have to mean never getting a college degree. 'It's not just 'Hey, don't go to college,' if you're going to go to college, go to college with a purpose,' he said. In 2020, about 43 percent of high school completers immediately enrolled in 4-year institutions and 20 percent immediately enrolled in 2-year institutions DiStefano also said finding qualified people is a challenge in today's climate and thinks this pathway can help Johnson hired Riston Jones as an apprentice, who went on to work full-time a week after finishing high school and said he's allowing Jones the flexibility to find 'his niche.' The 18-year-old chose full-time work over a college degree despite his parents' wishes. 'My dad used to be an electrician, way before I was born. He wanted me to go to college so I didn't have to work hard my whole life,' he told Times Union. But Jones didn't feel like higher education was for him. 'I can't sit in a classroom and feel like I'm learning anything. I don't get the same joy from doing that. I get my feelings of accomplished from finishing framing a house. It's a feeling of accomplishment.' According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in 2020, about 43 percent of high school completers immediately enrolled in 4-year institutions and 20 percent immediately enrolled in 2-year institutions. The immediate college enrollment rate for 4-year institutions in 2020 was not measurably different from the rate in 2010. However, the rate for 2-year institutions decreased by 27 percent between 2010 and 2020. Scott Morrison has thanked God for the gift of Queen Elizabeth II in a heartfelt tribute to the monarch who has died at her castle in Balmoral at the age of 96. The former Prime Minister joined Australia's leaders in paying tribute to Her Majesty in a statement posted to his Facebook page just before 8 am on Friday. Mr Morrison said the Queen had praised the 'resilience' of the Australian people during their last conversation at Windsor Castle in June of last year. 'In our last conversation at Windsor Castle last year, Her Majesty spoke of her great admiration for the strength and resilience of Australians in the face of the many challenges we had faced,' he said. 'And she had a special place in her heart for our rural and regional communities, knowing the many hardships they had faced, not just recently, but over the many decades of her reign. 'For generations, we have proclaimed God Save the Queen, and now she had entered her eternal rest with Him and joined again with her beloved Phillip.' Like Morrison, throughout the course of her leadership, Queen Elizabeth II spoke frequently about her personal Christian faith. Scott Morrison has thanked God for the gift of Queen Elizabeth II in a heartfelt tribute to the monarch who has died at her castle in Balmoral at the age of 96 (pictured, their last meeting) The Queen's place in the hearts of millions of Australians was as abiding as her lifelong relationship with the one-time colony. She is pictured receiving flowers from waiting school children waving flags after a Commonwealth Day Service in Sydney The devout Christian went on to say he and Jenny sent their deepest condolences to King Charles III, Prince William and all the Royal Family. 'But above all, we give thanks to God for the gift of Queen Elizabeth II and say well done, good and faithful servant,' he said. 'God save the King. Advance Australia Fair.' Alongside the statement, Mr Morrison shared a photo of him and the Queen in yellow floral dress engaged in an animated conversation at Windsor Castle. He told the Kyle and Jackie O Show on Friday that meeting the Queen had been his 'greatest honour' as Australia's leader, adding he and Jenny had been lucky to meet with Her Majesty at Buckingham Palace. 'It's a moment of terrible sadness for the whole world, not just Australians,' he said. 'There was a fondness for Her Majesty the world over because of the special person that she was. I'm grateful for her life of amazing service.' Scott Morrison said meeting the Queen (pictured on September 6) had been his 'greatest honour', adding he and Jenny had been lucky to meet with Her Majesty at Buckingham Palace Mr Morrison said one of the enduring images he remembered of the Queen was her sitting alone at Prince Phillip's funeral (pictured, the Queen is seen arriving at the funeral) He said while he had been advised he only had 20 minutes, the Queen had been up for a 'big chat' in which they discussed the drought and the mice plague. Mr Morrison said he and Jenny had gifted her a book about Winks, a champion Australian race horse, after former PM John Howard told him she loves racing. 'While she had familiarity with you, and she engaged with you, at the same time you always knew you were talking to the Queen,' he said. 'She always seemed to get that balance right, being a monarch and also being a compassionate person, and a very interested person.' The former prime minister said one of the enduring images he remembered of the Queen was her sitting alone at Prince Phillip's funeral last April. In his statement, Mr Morrison described her as the 'rock' of the Commonwealth and said over her 70-year reign she had lived with a 'deep passion, warmth, interest and kind fondness to all of the nations and peoples she served as our Majesty'. It came several hours after his successor, Anthony Albanese, paid tribute to the Queen's dedication to duty and service, and comfort to Australia in times of crisis. Australian Prime Minister offered his condolences to the Royal Family, the British people, and all his own citizens who held Her Majesty in the highest regard The Australian leader was told news of the Queen's death an hour before the rest of the world was informed via an official announcement. Mr Albanese leader offered his condolences to the Royal Family, the British people, and his own country, which held Her Majesty in the highest regard. His lengthy statement, issued in the early hours of Friday morning, paid tribute to her many achievements and incredible strength of character over 214 day reign. Mr Albanese followed up with a televised address to the nation about 6.30am in which he read a longer version of his early-morning statement while wearing a black tie kept for the occasion. His staff carried the ceremonial tie for the PM to put on immediately after he was given the news. 'With the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, an historic reign and a long life devoted to duty, family, faith and service has come to an end,' he said. 'The government and the people of Australia offer our deepest condolences to the Royal Family, who are grieving for a beloved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother - the person whom for so long was their greatest inner strength. The Queen first visited Australia with Prince Philip in 1954, arriving on the SS Gothic which steamed into Sydney Harbour after almost six weeks at sea. She is pictured with Prince Philip at Parliament House in Canberra during that tour Scott Morrison said in his last conversation with Queen Elizabeth II (pictured here in Canberra in 2006) she spoke of her great admiration for the resilience of the Australian people 'Australian hearts go out to the people of the UK who mourn today, knowing they will feel they have lost part of what makes their nation whole. 'There is comfort to be found in Her Majesty's own words: "Grief is the price we pay for love".' Mr Albanese, a republican who will likely begin the push to end the monarchy after a respectful time, said many Australians would feel a strong sense of loss when they awoke to the news on Friday. 'This is a loss we all feel, for few have known a world without Queen Elizabeth II. In her seven remarkable decades on the throne, Her Majesty was a rare and reassuring constant amidst rapid change,' he said. 'Through the noise and tumult of the years, she embodied and exhibited a timeless decency and an enduring calm. 'From the moment the young princess became Queen, shouldering the mighty weight of the institution into which she was born, Her Majesty made dedication to duty and service above self the hallmark of her reign. The Queen's last visit to Australia came in 2011 when then Labor prime minister Julia Gillard described her as 'a vital constitutional part of Australian democracy'. She is pictured in Perth during that trip 'We saw those qualities each time she visited our shores, and she graced us on 16 occasions during her reign.' Mr Albanese cancelled next week's sitting of parliament and will instead travel to London with Governor General David Hurley to meet the new King Charles III. Parliament will not return for 15 days with the flag at Parliament House lowered to half mast on Friday morning. With next week's scheduled sitting cancelled, Parliament is not due until the last week of October when the Labor government will unveil its first budget. But Mr Albanese said politicians may be recalled earlier for a memorial sitting. public paid their respects at St. Andrews Cathedral in Sydney Flags will fly at half mast across the country to mark the passing of Queen Elizabeth II aged 96. The news of Her Majesty's death on Friday has left the millions of people in mourning, as tributes flow in to remember the world's longest reigning monarch of seven decades. Flags across Australia will be flown at half mask across iconic landmarks including the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Parliament House, Canberra. The world is in mourning following the shock death of Queen Elizabeth II, with Australians flocking to sign condolence books and flags to fly at half mast The Australian and Indigenous flags on top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge were both brought to half mast on Friday Workers in the rain outside of Parliament House in Canberra, bringing the flags to half mast Australian flags at Parliament House in Canberra are at half mast as the nation mourns the Queen's passing Parliament House in Canberra flying the Australian flags at half mast Workers were captured out in the rain as they lowered multiple flags to half mast out the front of Parliament House in Canberra. Special tributes took place at Sydney's St Andrews Cathedral in Sydney, where the Australian flag was also lowered. Members of the public could be seen paying their respects, laying down flowers and photos of the Queen outside the front doors of the building. St. Andrew's Cathedral in Sydney marked the passing of the Queen with flags at half mast and people laying floral tributes Members of the public arrived at St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney to pay their respects One man is seen placing a photo of The Queen in front of flowers left outside St Andrew's Cathedral A condolence book opened at St Andrew's Cathedral for people to leave messages for the Queen A visiting school class observed at a portrait of Her Majesty the Queen at parliament house in Canberra on Friday Bruce Hemsworth, a member of the public, seen reacting to the statue of Queen Elizabeth II at Government House in Brisbane, Australia A condolence book was also available at the Cathedral for people to leave special messages. A visiting school class observed at a portrait of Her Majesty the Queen at parliament house in Canberra on Friday. Bruce Hemsworth, a member of the public, was seen reacting to the statue of Queen Elizabeth II at Government House in Brisbane, Australia. Australian Prime Minster Anthony Albanese issued a touching tribute to The Queen, noting her many achievements and incredible strength of character over her 70-year reign. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese issued a touching tribute to the Queen, noting her many achievements and incredible strength of character over her 70-year reign 'With the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, an historic reign and a long life devoted to duty, family, faith and service has come to an end. 'The government and the people of Australia offer our deepest condolences to the Royal Family, who are grieving for a beloved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother - the person whom for so long was their greatest inner strength. 'Australian hearts go out to the people of the UK who mourn today, knowing they will feel they have lost part of what makes their nation whole. 'There is comfort to be found in Her Majesty's own words: "Grief is the price we pay for love". 'This is a loss we all feel, for few have known a world without Queen Elizabeth II. In her seven remarkable decades on the throne, Her Majesty was a rare and reassuring constant amidst rapid change,' he said. The Queen's place in the hearts of millions of Australians was as abiding as her lifelong relationship with the one-time colony. She is pictured receiving flowers from waiting school children waving flags after a Commonwealth Day Service in Sydney in March 2006 Mr Albanese said Her Majesty was a source of strength for many Australians, a singular constant no matter the circumstance. 'Queen Elizabeth II has been a wise and encouraging guide, always wanting the best for our nation and greeting each change with understanding, good grace and an abiding faith in the Australian people's judgement. 'Throughout it all, she was a monarch who let her humanity show, performing her duty with fidelity, integrity and humour. 'In this, she was supported so long and so lovingly by the late Prince Philip, her "strength and stay" for 73 years.' Across the weekend, a proclamation ceremony will be held at Parliament House in Canberra. The event is open to the public, subject to any public health restrictions in force at the time. The governor-general will read the proclamation on the forecourt of parliament house, followed by a 21-gun salute. The salute will take place at dusk and consist of one round for each year of the Queen's life at 10-second intervals. The Queen visited Australia in 1954, 1963, 1970, 1973, 1974, 1977, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1986, 1988, 1992, 2000, 2002, 2006 and 2011 - her last time on these shores. She is pictured in 1981 Across the country, there will not be an official mourning period. Instead, Australia will enter a 14-day observance during which parliament will be suspended. The Australian national flag should be flown at half-mast until after the day of the funeral in the UK. Direction will be provided to raise the flag for the proclamation. Condolence books will be available at Parliament House and Government House in Canberra. Books of condolence will also be open at Government houses in each state. An online condolence form will also been established on the governor-general and Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet websites. In Canberra, floral tributes may be left at the forecourt of Parliament House and Government House. Each state and territory will make local arrangements for floral tributes. The royal family have noted that instead of leaving floral tributes, Australians may wish to consider making a donation to a charity of their choice. Jacinda Ardern has expressed her country's condolences to the 'extraordinary' Queen Elizabeth II as she shares a touching story between the pair, which she says encapsulated who she was as a leader. Queen Elizabeth II died at the age of 96, ending the longest reign of any British monarch with Charles, the former Prince of Wales, is now King Charles III. Ms Ardern said she was woken by 'a police officer shining a torch into my room' to be told the news the longest serving British monarch had passed. Speaking in Wellington alongside a framed picture of Her Majesty shortly after, the prime minister said New Zealand was experiencing 'a time of deep sadness'. 'I know I speak for all New Zealanders in conveying our deepest sympathy to members of the Royal family and condolences to King Charles III at this time of enormous loss,' she said. Jacinda Ardern has expressed her countries condolences to the 'extraordinary' Queen Elizabeth II as she shares a touching story between the pair where she was gifted a picture of her laughing and recalled to the PM exactly what made her laugh decades later 'A chapter is closing today. With that, we remember an incredible woman that we were lucky to call our Queen. 'She was extraordinary. 'She was a woman who worked into her 90s. 'The last days of the Queen's life captures who she was in so many ways, working to the very end on behalf of the people she loved.' Ms Ardern recalled her first meeting with the Queen, when she gifted a picture of Her Majesty laughing on an early visit to New Zealand, decades ago. 'Not only did she remember the visit, she could remember what was making her laugh,' she said. 'That speaks to me of someone who gave a life of service but who also enjoyed the role that she played a difficult I'm sure as it was.' New Zealand's official mourning will continue until a State Memorial Service, held after the Queen's funeral, which is expected in around ten days' time. Flags will be flown at half-mast until the funeral, except on Proclamation Day, when King Charles III is officially announced as the new King. New Zealand's official mourning will continue until a State Memorial Service, held after the Queen's funeral which is expected in around 10 days time. Flags will be flown at half-mast until the funeral, except on Proclamation Day, when King Charles III is officially announced as the new King Kiwis will be invited to sign condolence books at parliament and the National Library, and offered sites to leave flowers. New Zealanders are supportive of the monarchy with the most recent substantive poll on the a potential separation from the Commonwealth last November on the occassion of the Queen's death showing 50 per cent opposed compared to 44 per cent in favour. Ms Ardern has said she has 'never sensed urgency' from Kiwis to move to a republic. New Zealand's most popular broadcaster Mike Hosking cried on air, saying 'I don't know that I can do this, just give me a couple of minutes'. Opposition leader Chris Luxon also paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth's 'unflinching dignity, compassion, and selflessness'. 'The strength and stability of Her Majesty's leadership of the Commonwealth was a reassuring anchor for New Zealand and New Zealanders in uncertain and changing times,' he said. Queen Elizabeth II visited New Zealand 10 times, last travelling to the country in 2002. President Joe Biden paid a second tribute to Queen Elizabeth Thursday night at the Democratic National Committee's summer retreat, before again ripping into the 'MAGA Republicans' and calling out former President Donald Trump for saying he'd pardon January 6 participants. 'I had the opportunity to meet her before she passed and she was an incredibly decent and gracious woman,' Biden said. 'And the thoughts and prayers of the American people are with the people of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth in their grief.' He then quickly turned to the job at hand: 'Sixty days, sixty days until the midterm elections!' the president said. 'Folks you can't be pro-insurrection and pro-democracy,' he said. 'You can't support law enforcement and call the mob that attacked the police on January 6 in the United States Capitol patriots.' 'And you heard what he recently said? He said if he got elected again he'll pardon them all, he'll pay their legal fees,' Biden continued. 'How can you call yourself a democrat, with a small-d?' Biden was the headliner of the first day of the retreat, being held at the tony Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, formerly the venue for the Conservative Political Action Conference, one of the places Trump got his political start. During his remarks, Biden pretended he forget Trump's name, while also casually mentioning new poll numbers that show him ahead of the former president in a 2024 rematch. 'Folks, they tried over 20 times in the last time, when the last guy was there - what was his name, I can't remember? - this guy never stops,' Biden said, pointing to GOP efforts during Trump's tenure to kill off Obamacare. President Joe Biden paid a second tribute to Queen Elizabeth Thursday night at the Democratic National Committee's summer retreat, before again ripping into the 'MAGA Republicans' Biden then went after the 'MAGA Republicans' especially former President Donald Trump who recently said if re-elected he would pardon the January 6 MAGA mob members He used the recent transition of power in the United Kingdom to serve as an example of how the world might be viewing the ex-president's election denying antics. 'Extreme MAGA Republicans just don't threaten our personal and economic rights. They embrace political violence,' Biden said. 'Imagine if we leave here tonight and you turn on the television and you found out that whether it's the Bundestag in Germany or the parliament in Great Britain, couple people stormed those buildings, broke down the doors of the parliament, killed some cops, beat the hell out of people to try to change the outcome of the election of the woman who just got picked to be prime minister,' Biden said. 'Think about what you'd think. What kind of confidence you'd have in our European friends.' 'And look what they see on television in their country every single day - what Trump is doing or the Trumpers are doing,' the president continued. He was then interrupted by a single male voice calling out from the audience: 'Lock him up!' 'Well let me tell you something, they're looking and wondering,' Biden said, ignoring the comment. 'We have to win this off-year election for more reasons, for more reason than just being able to move our agenda forward. We have to.' 'And it doesn't do a whole lot to show the new polls showing me beating six or eight or whatever the hell the numbers are,' he said, illiciting cheers from the audience. Prior to the DNC gathering Biden made a stop at the British embassy, also to pay his respects. 'We mourn for all of you,' said Biden after the signing, with Dr. Biden at his side. 'She was a great lady. We're so delighted to get to meet her.' The president ripped up his schedule after the death of the 96-year-old British head of state. He canceled a speech on COVID-19 vaccines and ordered flags to half staff. In a statement he paid tribute to the Queen, saluting the stability and constancy she brought to Britain and to an uncertain world. And he said was ready to build on his relationship with King Charles, who will now take up the British throne. 'In a world of constant change, she was a steadying presence and a source of comfort and pride for generations of Britons, including many who have never known their country without her,' said Biden. 'An enduring admiration for Queen Elizabeth II united people across the Commonwealth. President Joe Biden and the first lady made an unannounced visit to the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., on Thursday evening, hours after the Queen's death was announced Biden signed the book of condolence, flanked by Dame Karen Pierce, British ambassador to the U.S., and the first lady. 'We're so delighted to get to meet her,' he said afterwards The White House said President Joe Biden had met the Queen three times, most recently for tea with first lady Jilly Biden at Windsor Castle in 2021, where they inspected a guard of honor Biden paid tribute to the Queen after her death was announced on Thursday, saying: 'In a world of constant change, she was a steadying presence and a source of comfort and pride for generations of Britons including many who have never known their country without her' The president issued a proclamation on Thursday afternoon, paying tribute to the Queen and ordering the US flag to be flown at half staff at the White House and other public buildings Biden, who met the Queen for the first time as a senator in 1982, was told of her death during a meeting in the Oval Office. 'Queen Elizabeth II was a stateswoman of unmatched dignity and constancy who deepened the bedrock alliance between the United Kingdom and the United States. 'She helped make our relationship special,' he said. Biden had been scheduled to deliver remarks on COVID-19 vaccines at the White House. But the event was canceled minutes after Buckingham Palace announced the Queen's death. Instead he and the first lady changed their plans to make the short trip to the embassy. Dr. Biden wore black and carried a bouquet of flowers as they arrived to be greeted by Dame Karen Pierce, the British ambassador. The condolence book was sat between a photo of the Queen and a vase of flowers. Biden took out some notes as he sat down to write his entry. After signing the book, the Bidens spoke briefly to British diplomatic staff. 'Our hearts are with you,' said the first lady. And the president could be heard to say: 'As my mother would say, God love you.' They then headed on to a political event. During that trip to the UK, the Bidens also met the Queen in Cornwall during a reception for the G7 world leaders. The president said he first met the Queen in 1982 as a senator Prince Charles met Biden last year at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland. 'In the years ahead, we look forward to continuing a close friendship with The King and The Queen Consort,' said Biden in his statement paying tribute to the Queen The full text of President Joe Biden's proclamation on the death of Queen Elizabeth II Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was more than a monarch. She defined an era. In a world of constant change, she was a steadying presence and a source of comfort and pride for generations of Britons, including many who have never known their country without her. Queen Elizabeth II led always with grace, an unwavering commitment to duty, and the incomparable power of her example. She was a stateswoman of unmatched dignity and constancy who deepened the bedrock Alliance between the United Kingdom and the United States. The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral on Thursday afternoon, according to Buckingham Palace She helped make our relationship special. The seven decades of her history-making reign bore witness to an age of unprecedented human advancement and the forward march of human dignity. Her legacy will loom large in the pages of British history, and in the story of our world. As a mark of respect for the memory of Queen Elizabeth II, by the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, on the day of interment. I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same length of time at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this eighth day of September, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-seventh. Advertisement It now means Biden will renew his relationship with Charles, whom me met last year in Glasgow, on the sidelines of a major United Nations climate conference. Reports said they bonded on their shared concern for the environment. 'In the years ahead, we look forward to continuing a close friendship with The King and The Queen Consort,' said Biden. 'Today, the thoughts and prayers of people all across the United States are with the people of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth in their grief. 'We send our deepest condolences to the Royal Family, who are not only mourning their Queen, but their dear mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. 'Her legacy will loom large in the pages of British history, and in the story of our world.' Biden's most recent meeting with the Queen was last year, during a visit to the UK for a G7 summit of world leaders. When the summit ended the Bidens flew to Windsor Castle for a one-on-one meeting with the Queen, complete with inspecting a guard of honor and afternoon tea. The president just managed to avoid breaking royal protocol. At one point, as he joined the Queen on a dais to observe the Royal salute he appeared to reach out his hand to take her arm - before reining himself in at the last moment. Afterward Biden compared the Queen to his mother, Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden. 'I don't think she'd be insulted but she reminded me of my mother, the look of her and just the generosity,' he said. On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was on the podium during her daily news briefing as news broke. 'Is that confirmed,' she asked as journalists shouted details. When she was told the news came from official sources she paid tribute to the strong relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States. 'Our hearts go to the people of the United Kingdom to the Queen and to to her family,' she said. Her briefing had been dominated by questions about the monarch, her health and Biden's response. She said the president was being kept updated throughout the day, and had offered warm words to Prime Minister Liz Truss on a video call with other world leaders. 'His and the first lady's thoughts are with the Queen and her family today,' she said at the start of the briefing. 'The president also conveyed to Prime Minister Truss during a previously scheduled video conference this morning that he and Dr. Biden are thinking of the Queen, her family and the people of the United Kingdom.' She added that the president had last spoken to the Queen in June of last year, when the Bidens travelled to Britain for a G7 summit. Biden's tribute was one of dozens from world leaders as news spread. Former President Donald Trump, who met her twice during his time in office, said: 'Our thoughts and prayers will remain with the great people of the United Kingdom as you honor her most meaningful life and exceptional service to the people. 'May God bless the Queen, may she reign forever in our hearts.' The Stars and Stripes was also lowered over the U.S. Capitol Building French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted that the Queen 'embodied continuity and the unity of the British nation over 70 years. I retain the memory of a friend of France, a queen of hearts who marked as never before her country and her century.' Germany's foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, expressed sadness at the news 'Germany remains forever grateful that she stretched out her hand to us in reconciliation after the terror of World War II,' she tweeted. Britain's new prime minister, Liz Truss, said: 'Queen Elizabeth II was the rock on which modern Britain was built. Our country has grown and flourished under her reign. 'Britain is the great country it is today because of her.' Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described the Queen as 'a constant presence in our lives'. 'Her service to Canadians will forever remain an important part of our country's history,' he wrote. From her face on stamps, coins and bank notes, to portraits in schools, the Christmas message and swearing in ceremonies, the Queen has been part of Australians everyday lives since becoming monarch in 1952. Her portrait is hung in Parliament and emblazoned across government imagery, featuring most prominently in daily life on the Australian $5 note. Politicians, governors general and governors swear allegiance to her, and as the longest serving monarch to Britain and the Commonwealth, she is a constant in the everyday workings of our nation. She features on our passports, on which it is printed that 'the Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia being the representative in Australia of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second' requests for all citizens to be allowed 'to pass freely without let or hindrance'. Many Australians have known no other royal ruler, and every new Australian gaining citizenship is legally entitled to a special portrait of Her Majesty after becoming a constituent. In it, Queen Elizabeth II wears the 'wattle spray' brooch then prime minister Robert Menzies gave her on her first royal visit to Australia in 1954, and which she has worn since to Australian and Commonwealth events. Each year we get a day off in honour of her birthday and on December 25 it is an Australian tradition to watch the Queen's Christmas message, in which she makes observations about the past year and the trials and tribulations of her subjects in the Commonwealth's 54 countries. But now that Queen Elizabeth II has died aged 96, bringing to an end the 70-year reign of Britain and the Commonwealth's longest serving monarch, that will all now change. It's an Australian tradition to sit down on the evening of December 25 and watch the Queen's televised Christmas message and this year King Charles III's first message will no doubt reflect on his mother's death and her extraordinary reign Australia Post marked the Queen's platinum Jubilee with stamps (above) and will do so with her passing and to mark the succession of King Charles III The Queen's face has endured through redesigns of the $5 note and although these notes will remain legal tender they will be gradually phased and replaced with King Charles III image Some of the changes will be immediate, some will happen after a 28-day period of mourning, with other things changing more gradually. With the immediate proclamation of Charles as the king on the Queen's death, new coins and bank notes will be minted bearing his face. The new cash will be minted and distributed into general circulation, with the old money bearing the Queen's image still legal tender but gradually being phased out. New passports issued will bear the words 'His Majesty King Charles the Third', but existing passports will remain legal until their expiry. All swearing in ceremonies will have to be altered to acknowledge allegiance to King Charles III. To this day, NSW Police Force officers have sworn to 'well and truly serve our Sovereign Lady the Queen as a police officer without favour or affection, malice or ill-will until I am legally discharged, that I will cause Her Majesty's peace to be kept and preserved'. Each Australian passport bearing the words 'Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second' will remain valid until expiry but new passports will have 'His Majesty King Charles the Third' The Queen's image on the obverse of Australian coins has aged with her and though the coins will remain in use they will gradually be replaced with coins bearing her son's face An estimation of an Australian 20 cent coin with King Charles II's face on the obverse side One immediate change will be in court documents, although the 'R v' initials won't change they will represent in full 'Rex versus (the defendant)' rather than 'Regina', both Latin names for male or female monarchs In court rooms across Australia cases have been mounted against offenders using the Latin name for the Queen, 'Regina' versus the defendant. The lettering will remain 'R v', but the initial will now stand for the Latin word for king, which is 'Rex'. Older barristers who took 'silk' around 20 years ago, becoming Queen's Counsels or QCs, will now be King' Counsels' or KCs, requiring a change in stationery. One of the major changes in Australia - along with other sovereign nations - will be that Queen's birthday public holiday vacated in favour of what will now be called the King's birthday long weekend. The date - which is currently the second Saturday of June, except in Queensland and Western Australia, and was moved from the Queen's April birthday back in 1959 - could also be revised as November-born King Charles III ascends the throne. When prime ministers are sworn in by governors-general (above Anthony Albanese with Australia C-G David Hurley in May) they will swear allegiance to 'His Majesty King Charles III' from now on The Queen, above at the microphone at Sandringham House as she delivered her first Christmas message in 1952, which has become a tradition televised through the Commonwealth that Charles will continue Every new Australian citizen has a legal right to a portrait of the monarch and the photo of the Queen (above wearing the wattle brooch given her on her first Australian tour) will be replaced by an image of Charles III Although Charles has the choice of selecting the date, he may continue with the same date nominated by his mother. Whatever the monarch decides it will impinge on more than a long weekend, as each year the monarch's birthday honours list is announced to award exceptional Australians and in some Commonwealth nations, appointing individuals into national or dynastic orders. Australia Post, which issued a special stamp for the Queen's platinum Jubilee, is expected to produce a stamp honouring her passing, and one to mark the succession of of her son Charles. Australian military uniforms, which have borne the crowns or cyphers of British monarchs including Queen Victoria and King George V, and his daughter - Queen Elizabeth II - will now be decorated with a new symbol fashioned specially for King Charles III. The changes to Australian currency and customs have been in planning stages for some time, and the Federal Government and its agencies will announce them once the formal period of mourning for Queen Elizabeth II comes to an end. And this year, we will hear King Charles III's first Christmas message in which he will no doubt reflect on his mother's death and her extraordinary reign. Charles will next tour Australia as the king, with his Queen Consort Camilla and when Prince William next tours he will do so in his father's inherited title, as Duke of Cornwall. So passes the figurehead, matriarch and defining symbol of Britains greatest generation. Through war and peace, blitz and reconstruction, strife and social change, the Queen has been a constant presence. A source of strength, continuity and reassurance. With her death, a light which helped guide this nation through 70 momentous years has faded out. At Balmoral yesterday, surrounded by her close family, she slipped peacefully away. And though she was 96, her death still comes as a huge emotional jolt. Just three days ago, she was saying farewell to her 14th prime minister and welcoming her 15th into office, clearly frailer than she once was but smiling and chatting animatedly. Through war and peace, blitz and reconstruction, strife and social change, the Queen has been a constant presence. A source of strength, continuity and reassurance Today she is gone and her subjects and countless friends across the globe join her family in their mourning. From Europe to the US, across the Commonwealth and beyond, tributes and good wishes pour in, demonstrating that she truly was, in Mail royal expert Robert Hardmans phrase, Queen of the World. In this country, Elizabeth II was more than simply a sovereign. Loved and admired in equal measure, she was both role model and friend to her people. She felt their sorrows, she shared in their joys. Millions of subjects will feel her loss as keenly as if she were close family. And the most momentous chapter of our island story comes to a close. The sheer longevity of the Queens reign is remarkable in itself the longest of any British monarch. Indeed no-one under 75 can really remember anyone else on the throne. She witnessed the Great Depression as a child, served in the struggle against Nazism and came to the throne during the Korean War. At the start of her reign the British Empire still comprised more than 70 countries and territories. Food was still rationed and national service compulsory. Computers were the size of houses, independent television didnt exist and mobile phones were the stuff of science fiction. The sheer longevity of the Queens reign is remarkable in itself the longest of any British monarch. Indeed no-one under 75 can really remember anyone else on the throne The Queen presided over some of the most seismic changes this country has ever known. And through it all she has been the embodiment of duty and public service. At Buckingham Palace, she hosted heroes and tyrants from Nelson Mandela to Romanias Nicolae Ceausescu all received with the same unfailing good grace. Her personal life was not always easy. The family suffered multiple shocks during her reign, some of them apparently existential and none of them her fault. But every time she managed to steady the listing ship. In all her endeavours, she was blessed in her choice of life partner. Prince Philip, her strength and stay, stood resolutely by her at all times. Confidant, adviser, husband and comforter, he was her anchor through the storms of life. His death last year was a grievous loss which clearly affected Her Majesty profoundly. She was never quite the same afterwards. With the Queens death, the Royal Family reaches a watershed. So universally respected was she that republicans had little option but to hold their fire. They will soon be out of their foxholes and in these days of howling social media, speculation about the future of the monarchy will inevitably be turbocharged. There will be the usual stale arguments about whether a modern democracy should be headed by someone who is there only by accident of birth, while class warriors will point at their privilege and their palaces. The Queen presided over some of the most seismic changes this country has ever known. And through it all she has been the embodiment of duty and public service. People are pictured above paying their respects outside Buckingham Palace But we have heard it all before and the family has come a long way since the death of Diana, Princess of Wales the last time it seemed to be in mortal danger. It has modernised and slimmed down and despite the best efforts of Andrew, Harry and Meghan to drag it into the gutter, the important members are doing an excellent job. After a distinctly rocky period following Dianas death, Prince Charles has grown into his role of king-in-waiting and proved to be right on many important issues of the day not least the environment. Camilla, once less than popular, has become the perfect consort. Her calm demeanour, easy charm and formidable charity work have won over the doubters and she will make a good queen. In the next generation, the monarchy has some serious star quality. Kate has been a revelation, looking and acting every inch the princess and bringing her naturally shy husband out of his shell. Clearly besotted with each other and their three children, one feels that when the time comes the monarchy will be safe in their hands. The rift between William and his brother is a tragedy but it is all of Harry and Meghans making. They want the privileges and trappings of royal life without any of the obligations. But even America is becoming sick of their preposterous witterings and relentless attention seeking. They do not pose any lasting threat. We must also applaud the part of Princess Anne in upholding the Queens dedication to duty. Invariably the most hardworking royal, she has been a true credit to her parents and her country. Britain has been ruled by a constitutional monarchy since 1688. While other nations have succumbed to revolution and political extremism, Britain has been a beacon of democratic stability. The role of the sovereign in government may be largely symbolic but it is of crucial importance. Our head of state is above the fray of petty politics yet ensures the smooth transfer of power between governments. An elected president would inevitably have a political bias and agenda. Consider the Queen and then think of some alternatives President Blair or, God forbid, President Corbyn. One of the Queens greatest legacies is that she shaped and cherished the Commonwealth. From the acrimony and tumult that marked the end of empire, a brotherhood of nations emerged. Even countries which were never British colonies have joined, showing its appeal as a mutually supportive commercial and political union. It is here the new king will need to emulate his mothers seemingly effortless diplomacy if the organisation is to survive in its present form. Although he becomes head of state in 14 Commonwealth countries including Canada, Jamaica, Australia and New Zealand, there is rising republican sentiment in most. While his mother was alive it was muted. Now shes gone it will certainly be louder. But that is for the future. For now he and the rest of the family, though bereaved, will no doubt be reflecting on her remarkable life and the new Elizabethan age she ushered in. Its hard to believe shes really gone, such has been her unique and lasting place in our national life. Not born to be queen but propelled into the role of heir presumptive after the abdication of her uncle, Edward VIII, and sovereign at just 25 on the untimely death of her father, she evolved into the consummate monarch. In her first major speech, delivered in Cape Town on her 21st birthday, the then Princess Elizabeth made this pledge to her people: I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong. It is a promise she kept faithfully to the end. As always, she was as good as her word. Parliament is set to be suspended while the nation mourns the Queen. But ministers are in urgent talks with the Commons Speaker about whether they can pass legislation to shield households and businesses from soaring energy bills during this time. Prime Minister Liz Truss yesterday announced plans to limit the price suppliers can charge customers for units of gas amid the global energy crisis. But the intervention requires legislation, and the Government's plans have been thrown into disarray by the death of the Queen. Parliament is set to be suspended while the nation mourns the Queen. But ministers are in urgent talks with the Commons Speaker about whether they can pass legislation to shield households and businesses from soaring energy bills during this time MPs will sit today for tributes, which are due to be opened by the Prime Minister, from noon until 10pm. The Commons will, unusually, sit again tomorrow for further tributes from 2pm and a small number of senior MPs will also take an oath of allegiance to the King. By convention, Parliament is then expected to be suspended for the duration of the national period of mourning. However, the urgency of the energy crisis and challenges faced by families is such that ministers are now in talks to see whether the legislation required to enact the Government's proposals should be brought before MPs during the mourning period. It is understood that the Government will continue to work through the details of the energy price guarantee but it will be communicated to the public in a non-political way. Miss Truss had also been planning for Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng to deliver a mini-Budget to the Commons to set out the expected costs of the energy support plan, but the timing for this has not been confirmed. Government press releases, announcements and ministerial visits will pause during the mourning period, though important information will still be communicated to the public. The intervention requires legislation, and the Government's plans have been thrown into disarray by the death of the Queen Regular statistics will continue to be published, however. Guidance on how the national mourning should be conducted will also be issued. Questions remain about other political events which are due to take place over the coming weeks. The Liberal Democrats' annual party conference, which is due to start in Brighton on September 17, falls within the official mourning period. A party source said: 'We've suspended all campaigning. It is just too soon to even consider that issue [conference] while the nation mourns. We will update everyone on that as soon as we can.' Labour and the Conservative Party are scheduled to hold their own gatherings later in September and at the start of October. It remains unclear whether these will go ahead. Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said yesterday that the Queen's death is a 'terrible loss for us all', adding: 'We will miss her beyond measure.' In a statement, Sir Lindsay said: 'For all of us, the Queen has been a constant presence in our lives as familiar as a member of the family, yet one who has exercised a calm and steadying influence over our country. Most of us have never known a time when she was not there. Her death is not only a tragedy for the Royal Family, but a terrible loss for us all.' Sir Lindsay added: 'During her 70 years on the throne and even before that, as a teenager, reassuring and engaging with children and families disrupted by the Second World War she has given our lives a sense of equilibrium. 'While her reign has been marked by dramatic changes in the world, Her Majesty has maintained her unwavering devotion to the UK, the British Overseas' Territories and the Commonwealth of Nations and her gentle authority and sound reason have been felt throughout. 'She has travelled the world extensively, modernised the Royal Family and is credited with inventing the royal 'walkabout', which enabled her to meet people from all walks of life during her visits. As head of state, she has provided advice and the benefit of long experience to 15 prime ministers during her reign and met more than a quarter of all the American presidents in the history of the US. 'The Queen has been involved in everything that is important to us and which makes us who we are from state occasions to royal weddings, and especially at Christmas, with her wise words and reflective annual message.' Sir Lindsay concluded: 'She has been a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother but she has been our Queen, and we will miss her beyond measure.' It's the moment an Australian prime minister made Queen Elizabeth II blush by expressing his love on one of her earliest tours of Australia after ascending to the throne. Even now, nearly 60 years later, the moment Robert Menzies gushed his affection for the Queen by reciting part of a poem by 17th century poet Thomas Ford in her presence during the 1963 royal tour, is loved by some Australians and loathed by others. 'I did but see her passing by, and yet I love her till I die,' the 12th prime minister of Australia ended his speech during a function to start the royal tour at parliament house on February 18, 1963. Queen Elizabeth II with Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies during her first tour of Australia and New Zealand as monarch in 1954 Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip seen in Australia during the royal tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1963, when Prime Minister Menzies made his famous tribute speech Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip leave London for their extensive tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1963 The tribute by Australia's longest serving prime minister, who loved the monarchy like no other, not only took the Queen by surprise but caused a stir at the time and long afterwards. The open declaration of 'love' from a then 68-year-old man to the then 36-year-old monarch caused some to cringe, not only because it showed Menzies was clearly besotted by the young queen, but by showing Australia remained tied to England's apron strings. One reviewer of a book on Menzies that included his tribute described him as 'a ludicrous anachronism' for making the remark. The famous line came at the very end of Menzies' speech, after he had wished the Queen well as she embarked on a 14,500km trip around Australia, one of the most extensive tours she did of this country. 'You today begin your journey around Australia. It is a journey you have made before,' Menzies addressed her. 'You will be seen in the next few weeks by hundreds of thousands and, I hope, by millions of your Australian subjects. Mothers will hold their children up to have a look at you as you go by, and they themselves, and their husbands will have a look at you as you go by. 'This must be to you now something that is almost a task. All I ask you to remember, in this country of yours, is that every man, woman and child who even sees you with a passing glimpse as you go by, will remember it with joy, remember it in the words of the old seventeenth-century poet who wrote those famous words, 'I did but see her passing by. And yet I love her till I die'.' In the grainy black-and-white footage of the speech Queen Elizabeth smiles broadly in response, caught between being flattered and embarrassed, before she's seen looking down and make a small gulping motion as if to say, 'that was a bit much'. Queen Elizabeth II and the Guard Commander inspect a Guard of Honor at Prince's Wharf, Hobart during her first tour of Australia on February 20th 1954, less than a year after her coronation Queen Elizabeth II greets a large crowd in Federation Square, Melbourne during her last Australian visit in 2011 Menzies had also welcomed the Queen on her very first tour of Australia in 1954 a decade before, and just a year after her coronation. He even asked Australians to 'dress up' to meet her during the tour. 'When we meet our Queen, let us wear our best,' Menzies advised. 'She won't complain at what we wear, but she will be pleased to know we are wearing our best.' He had first met Elizabeth before World War II and attended her coronation as one of the British Commonwealth prime ministers in 1953. In 1963, she conferred a knighthood on him. When Menzies died after a heart attack in his study in 1978, aged 83, the new King Charles III flew from Britain to attend the state funeral in Melbourne as the Queen's representative. HYDERABAD: BJP state president on Friday questioned how the police had allowed a TRS leader to reach close to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma at the venue of an event related to the Ganesh immersion procession. Is this the way to provide security to a Chief Minister, Sanjay asked. He demanded that a case of attempt to murder be registered against TRS leader Nandu Kumar Vyas. Sanjay also condemned the attack on BJP Khammam district leader Erneni Rama Rao allegedly by TRS leaders. Sanjay asked how it would be if the Centre did not provide security to Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao when he visited other states. He said that ministers and TRS MLAs would not be able to move freely if the BJP activists confronted them. Sanjay said that Chandrasekhar Rao and his family did not participate in the Ganesh immersion celebrations. BJP vice president D.K. Aruna strongly condemned the incident at MJ Market and said the TRS government that claimed the state police was great had failed to provide security to the Assam CM. Amerie Jo Garza, 10 Amerie Jo Garza (right) Amerie Jo Garza, a fourth grader at Robb Elementary, was one of 19 students confirmed to be killed Tuesday morning by Ramos, who cops say was carrying a handgun and an AR-15 during the attack that also killed two teachers in the classroom. Her grandmother, Berlinda Irene Arreola, said the 10-year-old was killed as she tried to phone 911 while sitting next to her best friend, who ended up 'covered in her blood.' Arreola said Ramos told the students and staffers inside the room, 'You're going to die,' before opening fire - shooting her granddaughter dead as she tried to phone for help. 'So the gunman went in and he told the children, 'You're going to die,' Berlinda told The Daily Beast. 'And [Amerie] had her phone and she called 911. And instead of grabbing it and breaking it or taking it from her, he shot her. She was sitting right next to her best friend. Her best friend was covered in her blood.' Uziyah Garcia Uziyah Garcia, 8 Uziyah Garcia, the youngest victim at age eight, was also killed in the attack. The child's family announced he was killed hours after announcing he was among the many children unaccounted for following the tragedy. The boy's grandfather, Manny Renfro, broke the news early Wednesday after being notified by authorities. '[He was] the sweetest little boy that I've ever known,' Renfro said. 'I'm not just saying that because he was my grandkid.' Renfro recalled how Uziyah last visited him in San Angelo over spring break. 'We started throwing the football together and I was teaching him pass patterns. 'Such a fast little boy and he could catch a ball so good,' the grieving grandad said. 'There were certain plays that I would call that he would remember and he would do it exactly like we practiced.' Makenna Elrod, 10 Makenna Lee Elrod Makenna Elrod, 10, had also been among the missing in the chaos that followed the massacre, with her father, Brandon Elrod telling reporters at the time he feared 'she may not be alive.' Her death was eventually confirmed by a family friend on Wednesday. 'It's pretty sad what this world's coming to,' the girl's father told local outlet KTRK after the shooting. A mother of one of Makenna's friends lamented the loss in a post to Facebook. 'Sweet Makenna Rest in Paradise!! My heart is shattered as my daughter Chloe loved her so much!!' the mom wrote. A relative Wednesday confirmed that the girl had been among the victims. Xavier Lopez, 10 Xavier Lopez Xavier Lopez, 10, was the first student victim to be identified as one of Ramos' victims. The child's mother, Felicha Martinez, told the Washington Post Tuesday that just hours before the massacre, the mom had been at the school to see her son participate an honor roll ceremony. She took a picture showing her son showing off his certificate. In the last exchange she had with the child, the mom heartbreakingly told the boy that she was proud of him and that she loved him, giving him a hug goodbye - not knowing it would be the last time she would see him alive. 'He was funny, never serious and his smile that smile I will never forget,' she recalled after learning of his death from police. 'It would always cheer anyone up.' The boy's cousin, Lisa Garza, 54, of Arlington, said Xavier enjoyed swimming and had been looking forward to the summer. 'He was just a loving 10-year-old little boy, just enjoying life, not knowing that this tragedy was going to happen today,' she said. 'He was very bubbly, loved to dance with his brothers, his mom. This has just taken a toll on all of us.' Amelia Sandoval, Lopez's grandmother, said: 'It's just so hard... you send your kids to school thinking they are going to make it back home but they're not.' Eliahana Torres, 10 Eliahana Cruz Torres Eliahana Cruz Torres, 10, had also been missing for hours until she was confirmed to be among the dead. Adolfo Cruz, her great-grandfather, said she didn't want to attend school the day of the shooting - but was told by her family that she had to attend. He said he remained outside the school gates throughout the night until he leanrned of her fate from local authorities. 'I hope she is alive,' he said at the time. Torres was an avid baseball player and played the sport in a local little league. Ellie Lugo, 10 Ellie Lugo Ellie Lugo was named as a victim of Tuesday's attack by her parents, with Steven Garcia and Jennifer Lugo confirming her death several hours after she was listed among the missing. 'It's hard to issue out a statement on anything right now my mind is going at 1000 miles per hour but I do wanna send our thoughts and prayers to those who also didn't make it home tonight!!! Our Ellie was a doll and was the happiest ever,' Steven Lugo said Wednesday. 'Mom and Dad love you never forget that and please try and stay by our side.' Nevaeh Bravo, 10 Nevaeh Bravo Nevaeh Bravo was confirmed to be among the dead late Tuesday, after her cousin posted on social media following the shooting to ask for helping the girl. Around 9 pm, she broke the news on Twitter. 'Unfortunately my beautiful Nevaeh was one of the many victims from todays tragedy,' she wrote. Sje said the schoolchild was 'flying high' and asked for the family to be kept in people's prayers 'Our Nevaeh has been found. She is flying with the angels above. We love you Navaeh very much princess.' 'Thank you for the support and help,' she wrote. 'Rest in peace my sweet girl, you didn't deserve this.' Bravo's age could not immediately be confirmed. Tess Marie Mata Tess Marie Mata Tess Marie Mata was also among those to perish in the attack, her sister, Faith Mata, revealed in a post to Facebook Wednesday. 'I honestly have no words just sadness, confusion, and anger,' she wrote. 'I'm sad because we will never get to tag team on mom and dad again and tell each other how much we mean to each other, I'm confused because how can something like this happen to my sweet, caring, and beautiful sister, and I'm angry because a coward took you from us.' Photos shared with the post showed Tess smiling in a baby photo, snuggling with a cat, doing gymnastics, flashing a peace sign, and posing in front of a large heart mural. 'Sissy I miss you so much, I just want to hold you and tell you how pretty you are, I want to take you outside and practice softball, I want to go on one last family vacation, I want to hear your contagious laugh, and I want you to hear me tell you how much I love you,' she wrote. Her age could not immediately be confirmed. Rojelio Torres, 10 Rojelio Torres Rojelio Torres, 10, was initially reported missing by his father, but on Wednesday was confirmed dead by his family. A person who said she was the boy's cousin wrote on Twitter: 'It breaks my heart to say my rojelio is now with the angels I'll forever miss you and love you my angel.' The child's father , Federico Torres, told Houston reporters that he was at work when he learned about the shooting and immediately raced to the school. 'They sent us to the hospital, to the civic center, to the hospital and here again, nothing, not even in San Antonio,' he said. 'They don't tell us anything, only a photo, wait, hope that everything is well.' Nearly half a day later, cops broke the news to the boy's family. 'Our entire family waited almost 12 hours since the shooting to find out Rojelio Torres, my 10-year-old nephew, was killed in this tragedy,' Torres' aunt, Precious Perez, told KSAT. 'We are devastated and heartbroken. Rojer was a very intelligent, hard-working and helpful person. He will be missed and never forgotten.' Jayce Carmelo Luevanos, 10 Jayce Luevanos Jayce Luevanos, 10, died in the shooting along with his ten-year-old cousin, Jailah, the child's mother said Wednesday. In a Facebook post, uncle Unberto Gonzalez shared photos of both kids while offering a touching tribute. 'My babies going to miss them like crazy!!!,' Gonzalez wrote. 'We luv y'all so much!!! I'm just lost right now!!! Fly high my beautiful Angels!!' Jailah Nicole Silguero, 10 Jailah Nicole Silguero Ten-year-old Jailah Nicole Silguero was also killed in the shooting, her mother, Veronica Luevanos, tearfully revealed to Univision Wednesday. She also lost her 10-year-old nephew Jayce to the tragedy. She said Jailah loved to dance and film videos on TikTok. The child reportedly also asked her mom the morning of the shooting if she could stay home from school - a request the now mourning mom rebuffed. 'I took her to school, but she didn't want to go. She told her father, 'Can I stay home?'' Luevanos said, noting that it was not a common occurrence for her daughter to make such a request. 'I think she knew something would happen.' Luevanos' mom confirmed the loss on Facebook Wednesday. 'Fly high my angels. We're going to miss yall so much,' wrote Veronica Luevanos - whose dad had died just a week earlier. 'I'm so heart broken,' she wrote with a photo of her daughter and nephew. 'My baby I love u so much fly high baby girl.' Alithia Ramirez, 10 Alithia Ramirez Fourth grader Alithia Ramirez was confirmed dead early Wednesday by her father, Ryan Ramirez, who shared a post to Facebook showing the 10-year-old with angel's wings. He had used the same photo the previous day as he pleaded for help finding her after the massacre He had heartbreakingly used the same photo the previous day as he desperately pleaded for help finding her after the massacre. 'Trying to find my daughter Alithia. I called all the hospitals and nothing,' he wrote at the time. He also reporters during his frantic search, 'I'm trying to find out where my baby's at.' Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez, 10 Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez, 10, was another killed by Ramos Tuesday - along with her cousin, who has yet to be identified. Annabell's father spent the afternoon after the shooting in frantic search for his daughter. Speaking to KHOU11 Tuesday, he lamented at how he was at a loss as to what do, having little success with the search. 'They're not letting us in at the hospital right now so we don't know where to go.' She has since been declared to be among the dead. Miranda Mathis, 11 Miranda Mathis Miranda Mathis, 11, was also confirmed as another casualty from the mass shooting early Wednesday, in a Facebook post by an older cousin who earlier that day had posted a desperate plea for help in locating the child. 'My sweet baby cousin we loved u dearly,' Deanna Miller wrote alongside a photo of the child with angel wings. 'I'm so sorry this happen to u baby please keep my family in your prayers,' she grieved. Miller's kids had also been at the school at the time of the shooting, but survived the attack. One of her sons told her that they were ushered out of a window by staffers during the attack and subsequently ran to a nearby funeral home after 'he heard the shooter say he was gonna kill all the kids.' Alexandria 'Lexi' Aniyah Rubio, 10 Alexandria Aniyah Rubio Alexandria Aniyah Rubio - who was better known to friends as 'Lexi' - was confirmed dead just before midnight on Tuesday. The ten-year-old was shot dead just hours after posing for a photo with her parents at the school's honor roll ceremony. Kimberly Mata-Rubio, the girl's mother, wrote of the loss: 'My beautiful, smart, Alexandria Aniyah Rubio was recognized today for All-A honor roll. She also received the good citizen award. We told her we loved her and would pick her up after school. We had no idea this was goodbye.' Maite Yuleana Maite Yuleana Maite Yuleana was another student to die in the attack that had attended the honor roll ceremony just hours before. A cousin of the girl's mother, Ana Rodriguez, announced the loss Wednesday. 'It is with a heavy heart I come on here on behalf of my cousin Ana who lost her sweet baby girl in yesterday's senseless shooting. 'We are deeply saddened by the lose [sic] of this sweet smart little girl. God bless and may she R.I.P Maite Rodriguez we love you.' Another relative shared a photo of Maite with her honor roll certificate. Her age could not immediately be confirmed. Jose Flores Jr, 10 Jose Flores Jose Flores, 10, was also killed in the shooting after attending the honor roll ceremony, where he was pictured triumphantly clutching a certificate celebrating the accomplishment. Uncle Christopher Salazar confirmed to the Washington Post Wednesday that his 10-year-old nephew was among the dead, after sharing a tribute to the child on Facebook. 'I love you and I miss you,' Salazar wrote in the post. The boy's father described Jose to CNN as an amazing boy and big brother to his two younger siblings. 'He was always fill of energy,' Jose Flores Sr. said. 'Ready to play till the night.' He said the boy loved playing baseball and video games. Jackie Cazares Jackie Cazares, 10 Jackie Cazares, 10, was another to be killed during the vicious attack at the elementary school. Her father Jacinto confirmed she lost her life inside her fourth-grade classroom. 'My baby girl has been taken away from my family and I,' the grieving father said in an online post. 'We're devastated in ways I hope no one ever goes through. ... It hurts us to our souls.' Cazares said his daughter, who was with her cousin, Annabell Rodriguez, when she died, was 'full of life and love'. Layla Salazar, 10 The 10-year-old student was the last of the slaying victims to be identified. Vincent Salazar told the Philadelphia Inquirer his young daughter was among those killed. He said she was 'a lot of fun' and recalled how they sang along to 'Sweet Child O' Mine' by Guns 'n' Roses whenever he drove her to school. Layla Salazar Irma Garcia, 46 - fourth grade teacher Irma Garcia Irma Garcia, who co-taught with Mireles for the last five year, had been at Robb Elementary for 23 years. Married to Joe for 24 years, she was a mother of four - Cristian, completing Marine boot camp; Jose, attending Texas State university University; Lyliana, a sophomore in high school; and Alysandra, a 7th grader. 'My tia did not make it, she sacrificed herself protecting the kids in her classroom, i beg of you to keep my family including all of her family in y'all's prayers , IRMA GARCIA IS HER NAME and she died a HERO,' tweeted her nephew John. 'She was loved by many and will truly be missed.' She was nominated as teacher of the year for the 2018-19 awards, organized by Trinity University. Eva Mireles, 44 - fourth grade teacher Eva Mireles Eva Mireles, a fourth grade teacher, was identified by her family as being one of the staff members shot dead. She had worked in education for 17 years. Her husband Ruben Ruiz, a veteran detective and SWAT team member currently serving as a police officer with the school district, held regular active shooter drills for the schools - most recently at the end of March. Advertisement The final years were not how they were meant to be, so very different from the slowing down and gentle decline together that the Queen had always envisaged. Philip, she accepted, might go before her. She would have to cope, and how well she did when he finally died just two months short of his 100th birthday. Even that haunting image of the Queen, masked, frail and so alone at Philips Windsor Castle funeral only told part of the story. For she still possessed great reserves of resilience. And how she would need them. But never did the Queen envisage the calamity that would envelop the family and make it a talking point she found distressing and disruptive. Celebrations both public and private could never be the same without Philip, always the focus of fun as well as being treasured for his wisdom and common sense. How she longed for him to have been alongside her with his paternal dynamism throughout the Prince Harry saga. The final years were not how they were meant to be, so very different from the slowing down and gentle decline together that the Queen had always envisaged. Elizabeth and Philip are pictured at Buckingham Palace after their engagement is announced She wore the crown but in family matters, Philip had always worn the trousers. Philip, she knew, would never have allowed a situation to develop in which their grandson in self-imposed exile in California had failed to arrange for them to meet their great-granddaughter so graciously permitted to have the Queens pet name, Lilibet for a full year after her birth. So much worse was the catastrophe of Prince Andrew, dismissed from royal life in the wake of his closeness to the U.S. billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and having to pay millions of pounds in damages to a woman whod claimed she was trafficked by Epstein to have under-age sex with him. Philip, she accepted, might go before her. She would have to cope, and how well she did when he finally died just two months short of his 100th birthday But now, finally, the last chapter in their great love story is over. Only her death could end it. Philip had never been far from her thoughts. She always understood him so well. In those final years of his life, after he retired from official duties in 2017 and they lived virtually apart, she recognised that the Old Salt needed calmer waters and had to get away from the suffocating officialdom of palace life. In that decision one could feel the strength of their relationship. It didnt mean their love for each other was any less. Far from it. Only the deepest love could have been so understanding. She and Philip had always complemented each other so well he sharp, decisive and bold; she ever cautious before making up her mind. They really admired each others very different qualities. This very distinction was what made them fit together. It really was love. Even that haunting image of the Queen, masked, frail and so alone at Philips Windsor Castle funeral only told part of the story For she still possessed great reserves of resilience. And how she would need them (pictured here arriving at her husband Prince Philip's funeral in Windsor Castle on April 17, 2021 So even when he withdrew into retirement at Wood Farm on the Sandringham estate, and she was still immersed in official duties at Windsor, she remained devoted to the jaunty, handsome young naval officer who, five years her senior, inevitably had a past when they married. She simply adored him. She never looked at anyone else, said her first cousin and close childhood friend, Margaret Rhodes, who died in 2016. She was smitten from the start a one-man woman. That famous first meeting came when Elizabeth was just 13 and on a visit with her parents to Dartmouth Naval College. While the King and Queen were taken on an official tour, Philip was the blond, handsome young cadet deputed to entertain her and her little sister, Princess Margaret. He exuded a brash confidence that made her almost breathless. Years later, as Queen, it was his same certainty about everything that made her feel secure. She and Philip enjoyed 73 happy years as man and wife until his death on April 9, 2021, a marital triumph that had certainly not been forecast by courtiers and some members of the Royal Family. Their views were succinctly summed up by George VIs private secretary, Sir Alan Tommy Lascelles. Celebrations both public and private could never be the same without Philip, always the focus of fun as well as being treasured for his wisdom and common sense As he wrote: They felt he was rough, uneducated and would probably not be faithful. One can see why they felt this way about him. Philip was, after all, the penniless son of a gambling reprobate, the exiled Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, whod spent the final years of his life in the fleshpots of Monte Carlo. He was perceived as simply not good enough for the princess. According the late Lord Brabourne, the film producer who married Earl Mountbattens daughter, Patricia: [The courtiers] were bloody to him. We were at Balmoral one summer [in 1946, the year before they were married] and they were being absolutely awful to him. They didnt like him, they didnt trust him, and it showed. Indeed, even Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother) insisted on referring waspishly to Philip in private conversations as the Hun, an ungracious dig at his German family links. In later years, when she saw how crucial he was to her daughters happiness, she grew very fond of him. It is hard to believe these serious doubts in official quarters never reached Elizabeths ears, but if they did she ignored them. Her mind was made up. And as the decades rolled by, who would say that her judgment was not absolutely right? Even the doubters in the family were won over. As millions of people came to adore Elizabeth, they admired him. They had only to use their eyes to see not merely a Queen, but a contented and fulfilled wife. Dispensing with one royal tradition, she and Philip shared a double bed for most of their married lives a routine interrupted only when one of them had to be up and away particularly early. But now, finally, the last chapter in their great love story is over. Only her death could end it. Philip had never been far from her thoughts. She always understood him so well (pictured together during a walk on their honeymoon) I remember watching them just before their Diamond Wedding anniversary [in 2007] teasing each other and giggling almost like newlyweds, says a former lady-in-waiting. And I thought how lucky they are to . . . have had so many years together. In his memoirs, Vice-Admiral Harold Tom Baillie-Grohman, who commanded HMS Ramillies in which Philip served as a midshipman, recalled a conversation he had with the young officer. Philip was telling him he had ambitions to make the Royal Navy his career, but then, he added: My uncle Dickie (Lord Mountbatten) has ideas for me; he thinks I should marry Princess Elizabeth. This startling revelation meant there were immediate repercussions for Philip when the Ramillies put into Sydney. Baillie-Grohman, concerned that the Kings potential son-in-law might be led astray in the stews of Sydney docks, arranged for him to be included in a hastily organised trip to a sheep station 500 miles away from trouble. It was, of course, the great regret of Philips life that marrying Elizabeth meant that, when she became Queen, he had to give up his Royal Navy career so that he could be counsel, sounding board and support at her side throughout her reign. She and Philip enjoyed 73 happy years as man and wife until his death on April 9, 2021, a marital triumph that had certainly not been forecast by courtiers and some members of the Royal Family He glumly told his batman to put away his naval uniform as I wont be needing that any more. Had he remained a sailor few doubt that he could have gone to the very top. For her part, the Queen was able to show her eternal gratitude to him for sacrificing a career he loved in order to support hers. That day arrived on his 90th birthday in 2011. With an almost child-like joy, Prince Philip found that his wife had given him a unique birthday gift bestowing on him one of her own titles, Lord High Admiral of the Fleet. How his mind must have gone back to those joyous early marital days when he was based in Malta and she was with him. It was just him, Lilibet, toddler Charles and baby Anne. Within a year of marriage, the couple had produced an heir to the throne as Charles Philip Arthur George, was born on November 14, 1948. Their second child, Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise, on August 15 1950. They are pictured at Balmoral in 1951 These were days of family outings and rowdy officers mess parties, when Philip would hoist his petite wife on to the grand piano to avoid her being struck by stray missiles as things got a little out of hand and cutlery was thrown around. These happy times were all too short before King George VI died from lung cancer at the unexpectedly young age of 56 and the carefree naval wife found herself on the throne. Years later that early boisterous relationship, which was hidden almost entirely from public view, was privately still in full swing. One weekend at Broadlands as guests of Lord Mountbatten, Philip flew in from a trip to Italy to nearby Eastleigh airport and was driven to join the Queen at the Hampshire house party. On arrival he announced he had brought some specially large dessert apples, and put them on the sideboard. After dinner he brought the apples to the table at the other end of which the Queens eyes widened at the sight of them. What have you got there? she asked. Apples, said Philip. Dyou want a piece? Without waiting for her reply, he chopped off a chunk and tossed it down the length of the table to his wife. The Queen caught it deftly. Then she caught his eye and they both burst out laughing. Queen Elizabeth II and Philip wave from the balcony to the crowds at Buckingham Palace after the Coronation in June 1953 A friend who was at the table recalled the incident. It was typical of them, she said. There was always a special glint in her eye when she looked at Philip, whether he was barbecuing duck on the terrace at Windsor, accompanying her to a memorial service at Westminster Abbey, or receiving a wifely reprimand with her habitual Oh really, Philip. One day Philip was driving on the Sandringham estate, with the Queen next to him and an aide in the back. The Duke was in a mood and driving rather fast. The aide was worried by the speed but couldnt think of a tactful way of saying so. Eventually, the Queen asked Philip to slow down. He snapped back: One more peep out of you and you can walk the rest of the way. The journey continued in silence, and at the same speed. On the balcony at Buckingham Palace are (from left) King George VI, Princess Margaret, Lady Mary Cambridge, Princess Elizabeth, the Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary, at the wedding of Elizabeth and Philip in November 1947 Later, the aide was bold enough to ask the Queen why she wasnt more insistent with Philip. You heard what he said, and he meant it, she replied. He would have made me walk. If this incident tells us anything, it is that the Queens marriage was remarkably normal. But then, it would have to be for this couple, whose marriage at Westminster Abbey in 1947 had been aglitter with post-war excitement and extravagance. In succeeding years, they would preside over an extraordinary period of social change. No one really knew how well the marriage would work. Philip was an odd mix of Greek royal family privilege and the common touch blunt speaking with spiky opinions. This deep, unwavering love between the young Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark formed the foundation of a marriage that lasted 73 years and was at the heart of the modern British monarchy. It only ended with the death of the Duke of Edinburgh in April 2021, at the age of 99. Pictured, on their wedding day in 1947 (left) and in June 2020 But if he was a bit of a devil, it is clear the Queen, herself outwardly so placid, cherished him for it. While he admired his wife for having tolerance in abundance, she commended him for the way he, as one courtier put it, managed to remain himself, the same charismatic, engaging man she had married. From him, she always got the unvarnished truth. He was probably the only person on earth who ever treated her as a normal human being. More than once he was overheard calling her a bloody fool. How revealing of the young Queen to be heard squealing and shrieking Stop it, Philip, stop it as he hurried her up the stairs pinching her bottom on another weekend away at Broadlands. Giggling and cries could still be heard as they reached their room at the top and the click of the door closing. Then silence. At the time theyd been married for 15 years. For his part, walking one pace behind his wife on official occasions never bothered Philip as it might other men. All the same, it was still surprising when, on their golden wedding anniversary in 1997, the Queen spoke with rare personal emotion about the man with whom shed had shared all the vicissitudes of life. He was, she said simply, her strength and stay. She added that she, her family and the country owned him a debt greater than he would ever claim or we shall ever know. Such touching candour seemed a remote prospect back in the 1940s when those prophets of doom such as Tommy Lascelles, who had predicted that rough Philip could never be reliable in his marriage? Together once more: One of the last photographs taken of the Queen as she invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative party, Liz Truss, to become Prime Minister and form a new government, at Balmoral Castle on September 6th 2022 He was certainly rough, in the sense that he wasnt a refined royal. And there was always talk about other women. But then, he was a naval officer who had fought a good war and been mentioned in despatches. His education was hardly classical, and this is what lay behind him making the appalling mistake of sending the sensitive Prince Charles to the tough and unforgiving environment of his own old school, Gordonstoun, with its regime of cold baths and physical exercise one decision over which his mother-in-law, the Queen Mother, profoundly disagreed. For her part, the Queen accepted her husbands resolve over Charless schooling but must have suffered as a mother to see how unhappy her son was. She had gone along with Philip, proving the oft-repeated observation that she was head of state but Philip was head of the family. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh travelled the world together, taking in sights many can only dream of. Pictured, the royal couple are honoured at a special ceremony on a visit to Tuvalu in the South Pacific in 1982 As for those early fears that he would be unfaithful, women did find him attractive and this remained the one area of their marriage which, privately, upset the Queen. Not because of what Philip may have done, but because of the gossip that constantly attached itself to his private life. Women certainly played a major role in Philips life. This simple fact was at the heart of the one major public crisis over the state of the royal marriage. The couple had been married for nearly nine years when Philip embarked on a world tour on the Royal Yacht Britannia. He was accompanied by his old naval pal and equerry Mike Parker. They sailed first to Australia, where Philip opened the Olympic Games at Melbourne in November 1956. Doubtless, he was promoting Britains image, but as the weeks went by and he and the Queen were still apart, fears began to be expressed that the extended trip looked increasingly like a junket. Their prolonged separation produced a flood of speculation about a possible rift in the royal marriage. American newspapers were the first to ask questions. All round the world, others followed. Questions were even asked in the House of Commons. Faced with a clamour for answers, the Queen upset that the state of her marriage had become a public issue authorised an official palace denial which said: It is quite untrue that there is any rift between the Queen and the Duke. The Queen and Philip had been apart for 124 days when, to dampen down gossip, the Queen flew out to join him on the homeward-bound yacht as it reached Portugal. She chose their reunion to turn her husband until then a mere Duke into Prince Philip, a significant gesture of her confidence in him, even though he continued to have no defined constitutional role as the Queens husband. The crisis was over. Yet once tongues started to wag they never really stopped. But there was never a shred of firm evidence. For her part, the Queen always accepted that she had married a man who takes a lot of amusing. The Duke of Edinburgh always made the Queen laugh, including on this visit to the Braemar Gathering in Scotland in 2013 As one of her oldest friends put it: Whatever the gossips said, she always felt loved by Philip. Above all, of course, she relied on him to shore her up in times of crisis and fortify her in moments of personal doubt. There were engagements when she could never totally overcome her shyness at meeting groups of staring strangers, and she relied on Philip to break the ice. After his death, and in the final years of her own life, she so missed his jovial manner and sure hand that masked her own insecurities. She managed, just the ever-glamorous, wise-cracking consort who had always been there to pave the way lost to her. Even after Prince Philip's death, the monarch never removed her engagement ring - she was seen wearing it on one of her final day It seems almost unreal now that in those long-ago days when they were merely betrothed, an uneasy Queen Mother had written to her future son-in-law seeking assurance from him that he would cherish her daughter. The young Philip, then 26, had replied: Cherish Lilibet? I wonder if that word is enough to express what is in me. He said he had fallen in love completely and unreservedly, adding: The only thing in this world which is absolutely real to me and my ambition is to weld the two of us into a new combined existence that will not only be able to withstand the shocks directed at us, but will also have positive existence for the good. For Elizabeth, her love was most easily expressed in music. As a newly married couple, she and Philip went to see the musical Oklahoma! in the West End, and the Queen emerged with its songs buzzing in her head, especially People Will Say Were In Love. Throughout their long married life, the pair - a love match - remained close confidants, at ease in each other's company. The success of their relationship was put down to their compatibility of character and their shared love of horses and the outdoor life. Pictured the couple during a visit to a farm on the Balmoral estate in 1972 More than half a century later, when her friend Lady Penn combined her own 80th birthday party at Bellamys restaurant off Berkeley Square with a celebration to mark the Queens 80th, she engaged 1960s crooner Kenny Lynch. Lynch performed with pianist Laurie Holloway, and Lady Penn specially asked the pair to include the songs from Oklahoma! in their repertoire. The restaurant went dutifully quiet at the opening bars of the Queens favourite song from the musical. Later, when Lynch began singing another of the royal couples favourites, Jerome Kerns The Way You Look Tonight, there was Philip giving him the thumbs up. He had arranged it. Australia has been plunged into mourning following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. The protocols for how the Queen's death will be marked by Commonwealth leaders have been long-established, with Canberra suspending parliament for 15 days, meaning MPs and senators will miss four days of sitting. Flags have been lowered to half-mast and Anthony Albanese and the governor-general are set to travel to London in the coming days to meet King Charles and offer their condolences. There will be no official period of mourning in Australia, but the prime minister will declare the day of the memorial service a National Day of Mourning, meaning it will likely be a public holiday. The Australian memorial service will be held at a yet-to-be confirmed Anglican cathedral after the state funeral in Britain. Anthony Albanese (pictured with Jodie Haydon) and the governor-general will depart for the UK with their partners for the Queen's funeral The Australian memorial service will be held at a yet-to-be confirmed Anglican cathedral after the state funeral in Britain. A 96-gun salute will be held at Parliament at dusk and wreaths will be laid at the Queen's Terrace at Parliament House tomorrow The PM and governor-general will have an audience with Charles before attending the Lying in State at Westminster Hall A 96-gun salute will be held at Parliament at dusk and wreaths will be laid at the Queen's Terrace at Parliament House tomorrow. In Australia, the same proclamation will be made at Parliament House by the governor-general, before a 21 gun salute. After the proclamation, Mr Albanese and the governor-general will depart for the UK with their partners. Two days later, the PM and governor-general will have an audience with King Charles III before attending the Lying in State at Westminster Hall. After that there'll be an evening reception with the King and other international heads of state. On the next day, the Queen's funeral will be held, followed by a reception. Speaker Milton Dick, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and President Sue Lines sign the condolence book at Parliament House in Canberra The state funeral is expected take place at Westminster Abbey in central London on Monday, September 19, which will be attended by her bereft family as well as 2,000 heads of state, prime ministers and presidents, European royals and key figures from public life around the globe. Her funeral will take place 10 days after her death, with a procession to Westminster Abbey at 11am, a committal at 3.55pm at Windsor Castle and a private burial at the castle at 7pm. The Queen's death comes after a historic 70-year reign There will be four official Australian mourners - the Prime Minister, his partner, the governor-general David Hurley and his wife Linda Hurley. A further 10 to 12 notable Australians will be invited to attend the Queen's funeral. They are expected to include Indigenous Australians, representatives from charitable, religious, sporting and community organisations. A day later, the flags will go back up and the PM and governor-general will return to Australia. The national service will then take place, attended by all of Parliament, as well as former ministers, former PMs and governor-generals and ambassadors. Mr Albanese said the 15-day suspension of federal parliament is 'out of respect' for the Queen but the business of government will continue to function. Charles, who will reign as King Charles III, said after the Queen's death was announced: 'The death of my beloved mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family. 'We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished sovereign and a much-loved mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world. 'During this period of mourning and change, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which the Queen was so widely held.' A British woman shared an image of a cloud formation resembling Queen Elizabeth floating over an English town, captured just an hour after the monarch passed away. Leanne Bethell, who lives in Telford in England's west Midlands, shared the photo on Facebook, pointing out that it looked remarkably similar to the Queen wearing her signature hat. 'Driving home and Lacey starts shouting OMG! I panicked. Then she pointed this image out in the clouds,' Ms Bethell said on Facebook. Leanne Bethell, who lives in Telford in England's west Midlands, shared a photo to Facebook of a cloud formation resembling Queen Elizabeth just an hour after her death A Buckingham Palace spokesman released a statement at 3.30am AEST confirming her passing, saying: 'The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow' Brits weighed in on the oddly shaped cloud formation. 'You only see it if you look for it. Maybe it is a sign or maybe we are just looking for a sign from above, who really knows,' one wrote. 'All I do know is this lady devoted her life to us so with the utmost respect. R.I.P Queen Elizabeth II,' one user commented. 'My girly Liz always watching over us,' wrote another. A double rainbow also appeared over Buckingham Palace alongside another one at Windsor Castle this afternoon, with many saying the Queen 'sent us a sign' and that she has 'really left us'. 'You only see it if you look for it...Maybe it is a sign or maybe we are just looking for a sign from above, who really knows? All I do know is this lady devoted her life to us so with the utmost respect. R.I.P Queen Elizabeth II,' one user commented One twitter user said: 'The rainbow at Windsor Castle made me cry. The rainbow Queen sent us a sign.' Another said: 'A rainbow breaks out, as the Union Jack is lowered to half-mast at Windsor tonight. A remarkable image. Farewell, Ma'am.' Others took it as a sign that the Queen has 'really left us' as the rainbows appeared shortly as the news of the monarch's death was announced. The Queen's death will see Britain and her Commonwealth realms enter into a ten-day period of mourning as millions of her subjects in the UK and abroad come to terms with her passing A double rainbow even appeared over the Victoria memorial, prompting some to say it is 'Queen Elizabeth with Prince Phillip' In the hours prior to Queen Elizabeth's passing, members of the royal family rushed to Balmoral to say their goodbyes. A Buckingham Palace spokesman released a statement at 3.30am AEST confirming her passing, saying: 'The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.' Britain and her Commonwealth realms will now enter into a ten-day period of mourning. The Queen's coffin will be moved to London on the royal train before she lies in state in Westminster Hall in the Houses of Parliament for four days where hundreds of thousands of people will be able to pay their respects. The state funeral is expected take place at Westminster Abbey in central London on Monday, September 19, which will be attended by her family as well as 2,000 heads of state, prime ministers and presidents, European royals and key figures from public life around the globe. Charles, who will reign as King Charles III, today said: 'The death of my beloved mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family. 'We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished sovereign and a much-loved mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world. 'During this period of mourning and change, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which the Queen was so widely held.' An Indigenous professor has described the Queen as an 'architect' of colonialism who built her wealth on 'pain and suffering' in the wake of her death aged 96. Sandy O'Sullivan, of the Department of Indigenous Studies at Macquarie University in Sydney, posted a Twitter thread on Friday morning to say that expecting Aboriginal people to react respectfully to the news is 'outrageous'. Queen Elizabeth was born 138 years after Australia was colonised by Britain in 1788 - however, Professor O'Sullivan claimed she failed to intervene to protect Aboriginal people from harm in the 20th century. Queen Elizabeth visited Australia 16 times in her 70-year reign. In 2002 (above) she famously watched a cultural show at the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park in Cairns Professor O'Sullivan, who is Wiradjuri and identifies as transgender and non-binary, tweeted: 'For those saying we should be magnanimous about the passing of the queen, a reminder that the queen inserted herself into the lives of Indigenous people here multiple times. 'She wasn't a bystander to the effects of colonisation and colonialism, she was an architect of it. 'Demanding Indigenous people be respectful about the passing of someone who intentionally made our lives worse is outrageous. It's worth considering what she *could* have done - and didn't - to effect change. 'At so many times across the 20th century, she could have intervened and reset the relationship between Indigenous people and 'the crown', because she had more than ceremonial power to do so. She did nothing.' Sandy O'Sullivan (pictured), of the Department of Indigenous Studies at Macquarie University in Sydney, posted a twitter thread (above) on Friday morning to say expecting Aboriginal people to react respectfully to the news is 'outrageous' Queen Elizabeth visited Australia 16 times in her 70-year reign. In 2002 she famously watched a cultural show at the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park in Cairns. Professor O'Sullivan went on to accuse the Queen of participating in land theft, arguing that she could have ordered the Australian government to hand back land to Aboriginal people. 'What she did 'do' was be an active participant in stealing our land,' the professor wrote. Queen Elizabeth II waves goodbye to Australia in 2011 The professor claimed the dismissal of prime minister Gough Whitlam in 1975 showed the Queen had influence over Australian politics. 'Instead of handing back, making reparations from her enormous wealth, her agents (that she had explicit control of, see 'The Dismissal') continued to steal land and when they had it all, they stole our children,' she wrote, in reference to the Stolen Generations. 'She had influence over the 'commonwealth'. Her wealth is not just ceremonial, and it was not acquired passively. 'It was built on the pain and suffering of Indigenous people. That was the plan all along and that's the plan that she was an agent of her whole career.' However, recently unsealed documents proved John Kerr, the Governor-General at the time of The Dismissal, sacked then-prime minister Gough Whitlam unilaterally without the direction, or knowledge, of The Queen. Professor O'Sullivan's comments were blasted by other social media users, with many noting the Queen was not personally responsible for colonialism. One wrote: 'Another university professor with an absolutely terrible take. Just goes to show our universities are a joke.' Another added: 'Many millions are mourning her loss and you come out with this rant. There's a time in the place - read the room'. A third commenter said: 'This is why the Australian government should not pay a cent to universities.' Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has led Australian tributes to Queen Elizabeth who died overnight in Balmoral, Scotland. He said: 'With the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, an historic reign and a long life devoted to duty, family, faith and service has come to an end. 'The government and the people of Australia offer our deepest condolences to the Royal Family, who are grieving for a beloved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother - the person whom for so long was their greatest inner strength.' The flag at Parliament House has been lowered to half mast. A clergyman who spent last weekend with the Queen said Her Majesty was 'full of fun' and the 'life and soul of things'. The Rt Rev Dr Iain Greenshields, 68, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, stayed with the Queen at Balmoral after performing a sermon at Braemar and Crathie Parish Church. Greenshields had dinner on Saturday and lunch on Sunday with the 96-year-old, the Prince of Wales and the Princess Royal. 'It was a fantastic visit. Her memory was absolutely amazing and she was really full of fun,' he told The Times. 'It came as a great shock to me when I heard she was gravely ill because she was in amazingly good form over the weekend. 'She was the life and soul of things. She was speaking very personally to me about her time there way back when she was a child, she was talking about her horses from the past, naming them from 40 years ago, peoples names and places. She was quite remarkable.' Greenshields yesterday paid tribute to the 'faith, service and dedication of Her Majesty the Queen', saying this had been 'the hallmark of her long reign'. The Rt Rev Dr Iain Greenshields, 68, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, stayed with the Queen at Balmoral after performing a sermon at Braemar and Crathie Parish Church Greenshields had dinner on Saturday and lunch on Sunday with the 96-year-old, the Prince of Wales and the Princess Royal He added: 'She has been the steady constant in the life of our nation for over seven decades and most of us will have grown up knowing only her as our monarch.' He continued: 'Tireless in her duty, the Queen has demonstrated a life of selfless dedication. 'Her love for her family was mirrored in her love for our nation and the wider Commonwealth.' Meanwhile, the Reverend Kenneth MacKenzie, of Crathie Kirk - the church the royals attend while at Balmoral - said locals in the area had learned of her death with 'great sadness'. The minister of the parish of Braemar and Crathie and domestic chaplain to the Queen, said she had had a long life 'shaped by faith, infused with grace, and characterised by selfless service'. He added: 'With people all across this nation and Commonwealth, most of whom have never known life without the Queen, we share an uncommon yet communal sense of loss. 'More specifically perhaps, we who live in this beautiful part of God's creation - a place and a community beloved by the late Queen - have been granted a degree of insight into just how deeply her death will affect each and every member of her family and household.' It comes as Nicola Sturgeon praised the Queen's 'dedication' and 'devotion' after she died at Balmoral in the Scottish Highlands. Meanwhile, the Reverend Kenneth MacKenzie, of Crathie Kirk - the church the royals attend while at Balmoral - said locals in the area had learned of her death with 'great sadness' It comes as Nicola Sturgeon praised the Queen's 'dedication' and 'devotion' after she died at Balmoral in the Scottish Highlands The death of the 96-year-old monarch was announced on Thursday evening, with the Scottish First Minister sending her condolences to the royal family The death of the 96-year-old monarch was announced on Thursday evening, with the Scottish First Minister sending her condolences to the royal family. Ms Sturgeon told how the Queen had given 'decades of her life in service' and had 'died today here in Scotland as our longest-serving monarch'. After her death was announced, flags at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh were lowered to half mast, along with those at the Scottish Parliament and at Scottish Government buildings. Ms Sturgeon sent her condolences to Charles, who is now King, and to the rest of the royal family. 'Millions around the world will share their grief but only they will feel the loss of a mother and grandmother,' she said. Ms Sturgeon continued: 'The Queen was unflinching in her dedication to duty, unwavering in her commitment to public service and unmatched in her devotion to the people of this country and the wider Commonwealth. 'We are all saddened by today's news and will come together in the days ahead to mourn. 'But it is right and proper that we celebrate the unparalleled contribution she made in her 70 years as Sovereign. After her death was announced, flags at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh were lowered to half mast, along with those at the Scottish Parliament and at Scottish Government buildings Ms Sturgeon sent her condolences to Charles, who is now King, and to the rest of the royal family 'The Queen came to the throne following the Second World War, reigned through decades of social change and lived to be the monarch who opened our Scottish Parliament in the age of devolution.' She added: 'Scotland was special to her and she was special to Scotland. Throughout her life, she had a particular fondness for Aberdeenshire and her home there at Balmoral, where she spent her final days.' Business at the Scottish Parliament has now been suspended, on what Presiding Officer Alison Johnstone said was a 'day of great sadness for the whole country and a time of deeply personal grief for the royal family'. Scottish Secretary Alister Jack meanwhile said the Queen's reign had been 'defined by hard work and dedicated public service, earning her the respect and devotion of her citizens the length and breadth of the UK, and throughout the Commonwealth'. He added: 'Her Majesty had a genuine love of Scotland, and a very special relationship with us Scots. Her Majesty was held dear by people in Scotland, and she will be very much missed.' Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross described the Queen as 'a national treasure' whose 'dedication and commitment' to the country was 'unmatched'. Mr Ross said: 'For 70 years, the Queen led the country through good times and bad, an unwavering presence of strength in each and every national moment of adversity. Business at the Scottish Parliament has now been suspended, on what Presiding Officer Alison Johnstone said was a 'day of great sadness for the whole country and a time of deeply personal grief for the royal family' 'There was nobody else like Her Majesty. This loss will be felt dearly across Scotland, the United Kingdom and around the world. Everyone will remember Her Majesty as a warm, loving and caring mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and monarch.' Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said: 'This is a sad day for the whole country, but especially for the royal family who have lost a mother, a grandmother and a great-grandmother. 'The entire nation joins them in mourning the death of Her Majesty, the Queen.' Paying tribute to her long reign, Mr Sarwar said: 'From the Blitz to the pandemic, she brought our nation together at times of crisis - providing hope and light in our darkest moments.' Scottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater said: 'All of us have shared in the pain of losing a loved one in our lives, and at this difficult time for so many, we offer our condolences following the Queen's passing.' Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said the Queen 'represented perhaps the greatest life of public service in the history of our country'. He stated: 'For seven decades she has been our country's most recognisable ambassador. Whether it be her wartime service, her patronage of more than 600 charities or her Covid-19 broadcast to the nation, she has been a beacon for so many people. The Queen was loved and touched lives the world over.' Australians have been asked to donate to a charity of their choice rather than leave flowers in tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II. The Royal Family has encouraged mourners to make the donation to remember the Queen who spent her life dedicated to her royal duties and helping others. Elizabeth II was known for her charitable deeds with the Queen frequently lending a helping hand to Australia during the country's times of need. Australians have been asked to donate to a charity of their choice rather than leave flowers in tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II (pictured, Queen Elizabeth visiting Australia in 2011) In 2009, she made a private donation following the Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria. The blaze is considered to be the deadliest in the country after it destroyed 2,029 homes and killed 173 people. In 2011, the Queen donated money to help with the recovery effort after major floods battered Queensland. Some 90 towns were inundated while 200,000 people were evacuated while 33 people died. The Queen said she had been closely following the reports at the time with great concern before extending her sympathies to families. She visited the country months later in October praising the 'resilience' of Australians. 'We are here to pay tribute to the resilience and courage of Queenslanders who bravely picked up their lives and rebuilt them after a period of great adversity,' she said. 'This morning we travelled along the Brisbane River listening to the stories of when the river broke its banks, and seeing the vast impact of the natural disaster.' In 2018, the Queen made a private donation to support farmers who were battling through one of the worst droughts in living memory. Elizabeth II was known for her charitable deeds with the Queen frequently lending a helping hand to Australia during the country's times of need (pictured, Queen Elizabeth interacts with locals in Australia during her visit in 2011) In 2009, the Queen made a private donation following the Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria (pictured, Country Fire Authority volunteer during 2009 bushfire) 'I know Australia as a land where extremes of weather, floods and droughts are taken in their stride, and life goes on with a stoic and determined spirit,' she said. 'My thoughts and prayers are with the many individuals, families, communities and businesses who have been affected, and I send my sincere thanks to all those who stand shoulder-to-shoulder in their support'. The request from the Royal Family for donations comes as states and territories around the country make arrangements for residents to pay tribute to the Queen. A condolence book will be open at St Andrews Cathedral in the Sydney CBD while mourners can leave flowers at the door on the side of the building on George Street. Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said residents can leave their thoughts and prayers online or they can visit Government House. 'Her Majesty was dearly loved and will be greatly missed,' Palaszczuk wrote on Twitter. In 2011, the Queen donated money to help with the recovery effort after major floods battered Queensland (pictured) 'Government House will open to the public as an official place of mourning between 8am and 4pm on Friday, 9 September, and Saturday, 10 September, with additional dates and times to be advised in due course.' South Australia premier Peter Malinauskas said a tribute site will be set up and a condolence book opened at Government House and Playford, in Adelaide's north. 'Her Majesty served South Australia dutifully, with dignity and through significant eras of social change,' Mr Malinauskas said. Condolence books will also be open at Parliament House and Government House in Canberra and available on the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet website. The Grenadier Guards will lead the Armys contribution to the state funeral of Her Majesty the Queen. Elizabeth II was the regiments Colonel-in-Chief and its senior company is called the Queens Company. However, as the Queens Company is currently deployed on force protection duties in Iraq, a company made up of newly qualified guardsmen is expected to step in. Last night, guardsmen were put on six hours notice to take part in events to mark her reign, which are known to the troops as Operation Bridge. They were ordered to have haircuts and prepare their ceremonial tunics. Coffin bearers, known as the Bearer Party, have been selected from Nijmegen Company, 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards. The Grenadier Guards will lead the Armys contribution in memorial events for Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip prior to The Queen's Company Grenadier Guards ceremonial review in 2003 Queen Elizabeth II, then a princess, during a visit to carry out an annual inspection of the 14th company, Grenadier Guards in 1949 Queen Elizabeth II, Colonel-in-Chief, Grenadier Guards, having her photo taken with the Guards after inspecting them in 2013 The Grenadier Guards who carry the coffin will wear special rubber boots to reduce the chance of slipping The six coffin bearers, all of whom stand at least 6ft tall, will be issued with rubber boots so they are less likely to slip while carrying Her Majesty. A Guards source said: The soles of normal guard boots are made of wood and steel and are very slippery. So it is much safer to wear rubber. But the rubber boots are only issued for special occasions so there is a rush on to get everyone involved fitted. In the absence of Queens Company, Nijmegen Company will lead the funeral party and provide guards as and when Her Majesty is lying in state. Yesterday afternoon the Grenadier Guards drill sergeant who is responsible for ceremonial duties summoned senior soldiers for a briefing at Lille Barracks in Aldershot. Troops from regiments that traditionally take part in such occasions, including the Royal Artillery who perform gun salutes, were put on stand-by. The Grenadier Guards is the most senior regular Army regiment and dates back to 1656 it was raised as Lord Wentworths Regiment to protect the exiled Charles II. State events to mark the passing of Her Majesty will include personnel from the Army, the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. President Joe Biden told DailyMail.com that 'yes, probably,' he'd attend Queen Elizabeth's funeral as he departed a Democratic National Committee event Thursday night. Biden twice paid homage to the Queen Thursday evening, first stopping at the British embassy in Washington to sign a book of condolence, hours after Buckingham Palace announced the death of the long-serving British monarch. 'We mourn for all of you,' said Biden after the signing, with first lady Jill at his side. 'She was a great lady. We're so delighted to get to meet her.' Later, he opened up his remarks at the DNC summer meeting by speaking about the Queen. 'I had the opportunity to meet her before she passed and she was an incredibly decent and gracious woman,' Biden said. 'And the thoughts and prayers of the American people are with the people of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth in their grief.' He spoke to DailyMail.com after nearly an hour of chatting with DNC members and taking selfies. President Joe Biden told DailyMail.com that 'yes, probably,' he'd attend Queen Elizabeth's funeral as he departed a Democratic National Committee event Thursday night President Joe Biden and the first lady made an unannounced visit to the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., on Thursday evening, hours after the Queen's death was announced Biden signed the book of condolence, flanked by Dame Karen Pierce, British ambassador to the U.S., and the first lady. 'We're so delighted to get to meet her,' he said afterwards The Bidens put their name to a message praising the way Elizabeth 'led with enduring strength and dignity,' before heading on to a political event The White House said President Joe Biden had met the Queen three times, most recently for tea with first lady Jilly Biden at Windsor Castle in 2021, where they inspected a guard of honor Biden paid tribute to the Queen after her death was announced on Thursday, saying: 'In a world of constant change, she was a steadying presence and a source of comfort and pride for generations of Britons including many who have never known their country without her' The president issued a proclamation on Thursday afternoon, paying tribute to the Queen and ordering the US flag to be flown at half staff at the White House and other public buildings At the embassy, Dr. Biden wore black and carried a bouquet of flowers as they arrived to be greeted by Dame Karen Pierce, the British ambassador. The condolence book was sat between a photo of the Queen and a vase of flowers. Biden took out some notes as he sat down to write his entry. 'The American people mourn today with people in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth,' wrote Biden. 'She led with enduring strength and dignity.' After signing the book, the Bidens spoke briefly to British diplomatic staff. 'Our hearts are with you,' said the first lady. And the president could be heard to say: 'As my mother would say, God love you.' It came amid a welter of tributes to Britain's longest reigning monarch. Earlier Biden paid tribute the stability and constancy she brought to Britain and to an uncertain world. And he said was ready to build on his relationship with King Charles, who will now take up the British throne. 'In a world of constant change, she was a steadying presence and a source of comfort and pride for generations of Britons, including many who have never known their country without her,' said Biden. 'An enduring admiration for Queen Elizabeth II united people across the Commonwealth. Biden, who met the Queen for the first time as a senator in 1982 and for the final time last year, was told of her death during a meeting in the Oval Office. He had been scheduled to deliver remarks on COVID-19 vaccines at the White House. But the event was hurriedly canceled. During that trip to the UK, the Bidens also met the Queen in Cornwall during a reception for the G7 world leaders. The president said he first met the Queen in 1982 as a senator Prince Charles met Biden last year at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland. 'In the years ahead, we look forward to continuing a close friendship with The King and The Queen Consort,' said Biden in his statement paying tribute to the Queen The full text of President Joe Biden's proclamation on the death of Queen Elizabeth II Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was more than a monarch. She defined an era. In a world of constant change, she was a steadying presence and a source of comfort and pride for generations of Britons, including many who have never known their country without her. Queen Elizabeth II led always with grace, an unwavering commitment to duty, and the incomparable power of her example. She was a stateswoman of unmatched dignity and constancy who deepened the bedrock Alliance between the United Kingdom and the United States. The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral on Thursday afternoon, according to Buckingham Palace She helped make our relationship special. The seven decades of her history-making reign bore witness to an age of unprecedented human advancement and the forward march of human dignity. Her legacy will loom large in the pages of British history, and in the story of our world. As a mark of respect for the memory of Queen Elizabeth II, by the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, on the day of interment. I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same length of time at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this eighth day of September, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-seventh. Advertisement Instead he issued a statement as officials conferred with British diplomats about the embassy visit. 'Queen Elizabeth II was a stateswoman of unmatched dignity and constancy who deepened the bedrock alliance between the United Kingdom and the United States,' said Biden in the statement. 'She helped make our relationship special.' It now means Biden will renew his relationship with Charles, whom me met last year in Glasgow, on the sidelines of a major United Nations climate conference. Reports said they bonded on their shared concern for the environment. 'In the years ahead, we look forward to continuing a close friendship with The King and The Queen Consort,' said Biden. 'Today, the thoughts and prayers of people all across the United States are with the people of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth in their grief. 'We send our deepest condolences to the Royal Family, who are not only mourning their Queen, but their dear mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. 'Her legacy will loom large in the pages of British history, and in the story of our world.' Biden's most recent meeting with the Queen was last year, during a visit to the UK for a G7 summit of world leaders. When the summit ended the Bidens flew to Windsor Castle for a one-on-one meeting with the Queen, complete with inspecting a guard of honor and afternoon tea. The president just managed to avoid breaking royal protocol. At one point, as he joined the Queen on a dais to observe the Royal salute he appeared to reach out his hand to take her arm - before reining himself in at the last moment. Afterward Biden compared the Queen to his mother, Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden. 'I don't think she'd be insulted but she reminded me of my mother, the look of her and just the generosity,' he said. On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was on the podium during her daily news briefing as news broke. 'Is that confirmed,' she asked as journalists shouted details. When she was told the news came from official sources she paid tribute to the strong relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States. 'Our hearts go to the people of the United Kingdom to the Queen and to to her family,' she said. Her briefing had been dominated by questions about the monarch, her health and Biden's response. She said the president was being kept updated throughout the day, and had offered warm words to Prime Minister Liz Truss on a video call with other world leaders. 'His and the first lady's thoughts are with the Queen and her family today,' she said at the start of the briefing. 'The president also conveyed to Prime Minister Truss during a previously scheduled video conference this morning that he and Dr. Biden are thinking of the Queen, her family and the people of the United Kingdom.' She added that the president had last spoken to the Queen in June of last year, when the Bidens travelled to Britain for a G7 summit. Biden's tribute was one of dozens from world leaders as news spread. Former President Donald Trump, who met her twice during his time in office, said: 'Our thoughts and prayers will remain with the great people of the United Kingdom as you honor her most meaningful life and exceptional service to the people. 'May God bless the Queen, may she reign forever in our hearts.' The Stars and Stripes was also lowered over the U.S. Capitol Building Germany's foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, expressed sadness at the news 'Germany remains forever grateful that she stretched out her hand to us in reconciliation after the terror of World War II,' she tweeted. Britain's new prime minister, Liz Truss, said: 'Queen Elizabeth II was the rock on which modern Britain was built. Our country has grown and flourished under her reign. 'Britain is the great country it is today because of her.' Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described the Queen as 'a constant presence in our lives'. 'Her service to Canadians will forever remain an important part of our country's history,' he wrote. Camilla has completed an extraordinary transformation from royal mistress to Her Majesty the Queen. Charles automatically became King on his mother's death and his dutiful second wife is now Queen Consort. There was a time when honouring Camilla with the ultimate royal title would have been controversial with some. Camilla was blamed in some quarters for the breakdown of Charles's marriage to Diana, Princess of Wales. And, when news of their affair first came to light, Camilla faced vitriolic criticism. It took time for the public to accept her following Diana's death in 1997 and when she married Charles in 2005 the subject of her future title was a cause of controversy. At the time, royal aides said Camilla did not want to be known as Queen Consort even though she was entitled to be. She 'intended' instead, when the time came, to be known as Princess Consort a title never before used in British history. But so stunning has her transformation been that she is now one of the most popular members of the Royal Family and a fully fledged member of 'The Firm'. Camilla has completed an extraordinary transformation from royal mistress to Her Majesty the Queen Charles and Camilla at a polo match, circa 1972 In February, Queen Elizabeth II publicly announced her endorsement of her daughter-in-law taking the title of Queen Consort when the time came. In her Platinum Jubilee message to the nation, the monarch said it was her 'sincere wish' she should take the title. The Daily Mail revealed Queen Elizabeth gave her blessing to crown Camilla as Queen Consort years ago and that Charles came close to announcing it in 2019. The Queen chose the 70th anniversary of her accession to the throne to make the highly significant announcement and express her desire for Camilla to be fully acknowledged when Charles became King. She told the nation: 'When, in the fullness of time, my son Charles becomes King, I know you will give him and his wife Camilla the same support that you have given me, and it is my sincere wish that, when the time comes, Camilla will be known as Queen Consort as she continues her own loyal service.' Diana and Camilla at Ludlow Races in 1980 The Duchess of Cornwall, seated next to France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, and close to Queen Elizabeth II, at the start of a state banquet at Windsor Castle in March 2008 The Duchess of Cornwall, the Prince of Wales, Prince George, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Harry are pictured on the balcony of London's Buckingham Palace following the Trooping the Colour ceremony in September Camilla later said she felt 'very honoured and very touched' by the public seal of approval. Her gradual progression within the Royal Family over recent years has seen her attend the State Opening of Parliament. She was made a Privy Counsellor in 2016, meaning she will be beside Charles when he is formally proclaimed monarch at the Accession Council. Through charity work championing literacy, and highlighting the problem of domestic abuse and sexual violence, Camilla has carved out her own royal role. And she has even won over the media with her sense of humour and devotion to her husband and public duty. Camilla will be crowned at Charles's side at his coronation, just as the last Queen Consort, the Queen Mother, was. She is expected to wear the Queen Mother's 1937 coronation crown: A Queen by the side of the new King. The CM started talking about national politics in public meetings that he has been addressing in districts in the last two months and also in the recent Munugode byelection campaign meeting. Twitter Hyderabad: TRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao is gearing up for a major announcement on his entry into national politics and launching a national party to take on the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. He is reportedly timing the momentous announcement for Dasara. He is likely to give clarity on the issue on Sunday after meeting JDS leader H.D. Kumaraswamy, former Karnataka chief minister, in Pragathi Bhavan. Party sources said that Rao is likely to launch the national party in the city on October 5 on Dasara. However, it is not clear whether he will launch a national party or convert the TRS into a national party and name it Bharatiya Rashtra Samiti (BRS). This is not the first time that there is a buzz around Rao launching a national party. He gave the first such indication at the TRS plenary on April 27 where he hinted at converting the TRS into the BRS to play a major role in national politics. Later, Rao talked about holding a TRS state executive meeting in the third week of June to pass a resolution to convert the TRS into the BRS. However, with the issue not making any headway, speculation was rife that he had put the BRS proposal to the backburner, all over again. Meanwhile, the Chief Minister started talking about national politics in public meetings that he has been addressing in districts in the last two months and also in the recent Munugode byelection campaign meeting. Party sources said that after launching the national party on Dasara, Rao will tour various states to form party committees and start political activities. He will also meet leaders of non-BJP parties in order to bring them together ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. He is likely to strike pre-poll alliances with non-BJP parties in states. The plan is to field his national party candidates in the ensuing Assembly elections in Gujarat, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh in alliance with non-BJP parties. Leaders from the farming community, Dalits and OBC sections will be identified to contest the elections in those states while showcasing the Telangana model of welfare schemes and development programmes with an assurance to implement them across India if a non-BJP government comes to power at the Centre. The world is home to almost eight billion people. And it's hard to think of any who lived a life like Queen Elizabeth II. She is the longest-reigning monarch in British history. And today - her 70 years of service have come to an end. Her Majesty has sadly passed away at the age of 96. What a life. She was first seen on the balcony of Buckingham Palace as a baby in 1927. At the age of 2 - she made an impression on UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill. He said 'she has an air of authority and reflectiveness that is astonishing in an infant.' That was a sign of what was to come. 'Ive always been a super fan and unofficial leader of her fan club down under,' radio host Ben Fordham told Daily Mail Australia of Queen Elizabeth II (pictured) following her death 'Whenever we talked about her health on radio, wed always play God Save The Queen', said Mr Fordham, pictured with wife Jodie Yes, she was born into privilege. But she's someone with a remarkable sense of responsibility. When Britain was under attack during World War II - thousands of children were sent to the countryside to escape the German raids. Princess Elizabeth broadcast a message to them via BBC radio. She was only 14 years old. 'When peace comes - remember - it will be for us - the children of today.' 'I sent her a letter when she marked her Platinum Jubilee and received a lovely note back,' Mr Fordham told Daily Mail Australia. Pictured is the note the radio host received from the Queen The envelope, bearing the Queen's mark, which carried the note sent to Mr Fordham Elizabeth was not expected to be Queen. But her uncle - King Edward - left the Royal Family because he wanted to remarry. Her father- King George VI - then died suddenly in 1952. Elizabeth was next in line to the Throne. She became Queen Elizabeth at the age of 25. That day she said: 'My whole life - whether it will be long or short - will be devoted to your service.' And since becoming Queen she's kept that promise. She's visited more than 100 countries. Attended more than 21,000 formal engagements. She was the patron of 500 charities and organisations. Her face has been on the currencies of 33 countries. She has sent over 300,000 cards - celebrating 100th birthdays. And she's been a survivor and solid as a rock. Queen Elizabeth has survived 14 US Presidents and 15 British Prime Ministers. She consulted with 16 Australian Prime Ministers. She has been to our country 16 times. Then Princess Elizabeth (right) is pictured with her sister Princess Margaret sending a message on radio to children being evacuated during World War II. Mr Fordam said of the late Queen: 'Shes one of the most extraordinary human beings to ever walk planet earth' She's seen a World War and the Great Depression. She's outlived plagues and pandemics. Her Majesty has dealt with all manner of scandals and setbacks. She's done so with a stiff upper lip. She lost the love of life last year - Prince Phillip - after 73 years of marriage. With Covid circulating in the community, she sat alone at the funeral. She's had four children, eight grand-children and 12 great grandchildren. A fine woman. A leader with class and courage. And a wicked sense of humour. Thank her for service. Two deputies were shot dead on Thursday evening as they served a warrant in Cobb County, northwest of Atlanta. The two suspects who fired the fatal shots are also now in custody following an hours-long standoff with police. Few details were immediately released, but the incident happened along Hampton Glen Drive, an upmarket suburb of the city, west of Marietta. The two deputies were serving a warrant when the suspect opened fire. It's not known if the deputies were able to return fire. The deputies are the first in Cobb County to be killed in the line of duty in more than 30 years. Two Cobb County deputies were killed in the line of duty while serving a warrant Two suspects who fired the fatal shots are also now in custody following an hours-long standoff with police A SWAT vehicle entering the Hampton Glen subdivision where suspects barricaded themselves in a home after killing two deputies Pictured: A SWAT vehicle entering the Hampton Glen subdivision where suspects have barricaded themselves in a home after killing two deputies A family being escorted by law enforcement into the Hampton Glen subdivision on Thursday A GBI Crime Scene vehicle was seen arriving on the scene Few details were immediately released, but the incident happened along Hampton Glen Drive, an upmarket suburb of the city, west of Marietta Various law enforcement agencies were seen close to where the standoff was occurring 'It is a night of heartache for two families. I am saddened to report the Cobb County Sheriff's Department have lost two young bright deputies killed in the line of duty while serving a warrant. They served with dignity and honor,' said Sheriff Owens at a late-night press conference. 'My two deputies were ambushed and killed. The two perpetrators are now in custody and now being held for questioning. They were talking with the suspect and that's when shots were fired.' One of the deputies was rushed to a local trauma center but later died. Meanwhile, the suspect is said to be barricaded while the Cobb SWAT team is still at the scene. Law enforcement officers are hugging one other as news broke of the two fallen deputies Pictured law enforcement officers in front of the Hampton Glen subdivision A family could be seen being escorted by police officers Two deputies were shot and killed while in the line of duty serving a warrant at a Marietta home Thursday, according to the Cobb County Sheriff Two Cobb County deputies were killed in the line of duty while serving a warrant Witnesses told Channel 2 Action News several shots had been heard just after 7.45pm. Law enforcement is on the PA system attempting to persuade the suspect to leave his home. At least three SWAT teams are on-scene reports 11 Alive. 'We will release additional information, including the names of the fallen deputies, as it becomes available,' the Cobb County Sheriff said. Law enforcement vehicles could be seen lining Irwin and John Ward roads at the roundabout just southeast of Cheatham Hill Elementary School. 'Our condolences go out to Cobb County Sheriff Craig Owens and the Cobb County Sheriff's Office after the loss of two deputies tonight in the line of duty,' the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said in a statement. The two deputies are the fourth and fifth law enforcement officers to killed in the line of duty in Georgia this year. Eight officers were killed while serving in 2021 according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She led her people for longer than most of us have been alive. She was the voice and face of our nation and many others; our anchor and indefatigable constant through seven decades of triumph and adversity. As of last night, we must now confront both the unthinkable and the inevitable: life without Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-reigning, longest-lived monarch in our history. The end of the second Elizabethan age and the 40th reign since the Norman Conquest was announced at half-past six in a brief, black-bordered statement from Buckingham Palace. 'The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon,' it stated. 'The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.' Large and, in many cases, tearful crowds quickly started forming outside Buckingham Palace last night as the new King announced his regnal name Charles III. The tragic news was announced at half-past six in a brief, black-bordered statement from Buckingham Palace All four of the Queen's children were at Balmoral, together with the Duke of Cambridge. The Duke of Sussex arrived later. The King led the nation in mourning with a written tribute minutes afterwards. 'We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much-loved Mother,' he said. 'During this period of mourning and change, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which The Queen was so widely held.' Prime Minister Liz Truss echoed his words: 'Her life of service stretched beyond most of our living memories She's touched the lives of millions around the world.' She concluded with the first public utterance of the words last proclaimed by a wartime generation: 'God save The King.' From every palace and state residence around the world came properly heartfelt tributes. These were no mere formalities. Many were from nations which did not even exist in their present form when she came to the throne in 1952. Germany was two nations back then, Ukraine a province of the Soviet Union. The country's longest reigning Monarch died 'peacefully today, aged 96, at the Balmoral Estate, surrounded by her family. Her death sparked an immediate and huge outpouring of emotion, with thousands of mourners gathering outside the gates of Buckingham Palace this evening (pictured) President Biden saluted 'the first British monarch to whom people all around the world could feel a personal and immediate connection whether they heard her on the radio as a young princess or gathered around their televisions for her coronation.' Mr Biden was the 14th U.S. president whom she had met and known. No one else, in America or anywhere else, has ever known 14 presidents. It is unlikely that anyone else ever will. The speed of the Queen's decline took her family and the nation by surprise, following her animated appearance at Tuesday's meeting to appoint her new Prime Minister. However, the monarch had been unable to attend Wednesday's virtual Privy Council meeting, one of just a handful of duties that she had not delegated to the former Prince of Wales in recent months. The very last act of the Queen's grandfather, George V, had been to hold a Privy Council meeting from his deathbed at Sandringham in January 1936. That the Queen was unable to do the same, via video link, on Wednesday was a cause for great concern. Yesterday morning brought an alarming and unprecedented medical bulletin from Buckingham Palace reporting that 'concerned' doctors had placed the Queen under 'medical supervision'. This was followed by a steady stream of royal arrivals at the family's Highland residence. It was very clear that the Royal Family had been urged to hurry to the Queen's bedside. On her rare trips to hospital in the past, family members would be pointedly urged to keep visits to a minimum. Not on this occasion. People react as they gather outside Buckingham Palace in central London after it was announced that Queen Elizabeth II has died Similarly, royal officials had always erred on the side of caution, playing down unwarranted speculation about any worsening development. Within hours, however, the new Prime Minister, the last person outside the Royal Family and Royal Household to see the Queen, issued a statement which underlined the gravity of the situation: 'My thoughts and the thoughts of people across our United Kingdom are with Her Majesty The Queen and her family at this time.' As religious leaders of all denominations urged those of any faith to pray for the monarch, world leaders inundated the airwaves with messages of support. There was, at least, one positive to be drawn from the Palace statement. 'The Queen remains comfortable and at Balmoral,' it said. Certainly, there was no place where she would have felt more comfortable than in her Highland home. We will all remember where we were when we heard last night's news. For we have lost one of the greats. Most of us have known no other. President Joe Biden led tributes from across the world to Queen Elizabeth II, praising her life and reign for 'elevating the cause of liberty'. The leader of Britain's closest ally praised Her Majesty's 'unwavering commitment to duty', as tributes poured in from presidents and prime ministers across the globe. 'Her legacy will loom large in the pages of British history and in the story of our world,' the President said. Mr Biden, who first met the Queen in 1982, praised the 96-year-old monarch for guiding 14 American presidents through turbulent times. 'She defined an era,' he continued. 'In a world of constant change, she was a steadying presence and a source of comfort and pride for generations of Britons, including many who have never known their country without her. Joe Biden and US First Lady Jill Biden with the Queen last year 'An enduring admiration for Queen Elizabeth II united people across the Commonwealth. The seven decades of her history-making reign bore witness to an age of unprecedented human advancement and the forward march of human dignity. 'She was the first British monarch to whom people all around the world could feel a personal and immediate connection. And she, in turn, dedicated her whole life to their service.' Mr Biden also thanked her for her support during the country's 'darkest days after 9/11'. 'She poignantly reminded us that 'Grief is the price we pay for love',' he said, quoting one of the Queen's most famous sentiments. Mr Biden was one of many world leaders who praised the Queen and her 70-year reign. Leaders of the Commonwealth remembered a Queen who was 'loved by all'. Sending Australia's condolences to the British people, prime minister Anthony Albanese paid tribute to her 'rare and reassuring reign'. 'From the moment the young princess became Queen... Her Majesty made dedication to duty and service above self the hallmark of her reign,' he said. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese paid tribute to the Queen's 'rare and reassuring reign' In Ghana, flags will fly at half-mast for seven days as president Nana Akufo-Addo prayed for her to 'rest in perfect peace'. In Europe, Ukraine's president Zelensky and Pope Francis led the charge of tributes. 'On behalf of the Ukrainian people, we extend sincere condolences to the Royal Family, the entire United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. Our thoughts and prayers are with you,' president Zelensky said. From the Vatican, Pope Francis sent a telegram to King Charles III offering his 'heartfelt condolences'. 'I assure Your Majesty of my prayers that Almighty God will sustain you with his unfailing grace as you now take up your high responsibilities as King. Upon you and all who cherish the memory of your late mother, I invoke an abundance of divine blessings as a pledge of comfort and strength in the Lord,' the Pope said. Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo prayed for Her Majesty to 'rest in perfect peace' Across the continent, prime ministers and presidents remembered a 'kind-hearted' Queen and the impact she had on the world. German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the late Queen 'shaped a century', while French president Emmanuel Macron remembered 'a friend of France'. Italian prime minister Mario Draghi said the Queen was 'a key figure in world history over the last seventy years'. Commonwealth leaders also sent their condolences, including Canada's prime minister Justin Trudeau and prime minister of India, Narendra Modi. Mr Trudeau described the Queen as 'a constant presence in our lives', adding: 'Her service to Canadians will forever remain an important part of our country's history.' Mr Modi wrote: 'Her Majesty will be remembered as a stalwart of our times. She provided inspiring leadership to her nation and people. She personified dignity and decency in public life.' The Queen had a genuinely deep interest in Aboriginal advancement that might seem to stand in contrast with Australia's past as a British colony. Her death aged 96 has been met with sorrow by some First Nations leaders as well as reflections on her royal predecessors' roles in expanding the British empire into the Antipodes. Northern Territory Senator Jacinta Price and federal MP Linda Burney were among Indigenous politicians to pay their respects to the late monarch on Friday. 'Thank you Your Majesty Queen Elizabeth II may you now Rest In Peace,' Price wrote on Facebook. The Queen had a genuinely deep interest in Aboriginal advancement that might seem to stand in contrast with Australia's past as a British colony. She is pictured with husband Prince Philip watching a 'culture show' near Cairns in Queensland in 2002 on one of her 16 Australian visits The Queen's death aged 96 has been met with sorrow by some First Nations leaders as well as reflections on her royal predecessors' roles in expanding the British empire into the Antipodes. She is pictured at Perth's Clontarf Aboriginal College on her last Australian visit in 2011 Former Labor Party national president and elder Nyunggai Warren Mundine wrote simply on Twitter: 'Sad news. RIP.' The Queen's affection for Australia was well known - she visited these shores 16 times over 57 years. And while her early tours featured demonstrations of boomerang and spear throwing, as the years progressed her interactions with Indigenous people became more meaningful. Journalist and author Juliet Rieden described the Queen's affinity with this country and its original inhabitants in her 2015 book The Royals in Australia. Rieden found that many Indigenous Australians held the monarch in higher regard than they did local politicians. 'It may sound surprising, counter-intuitive, but I think when the Queen meets Indigenous Australians it is elders meeting elders,' she wrote. Northern Territory Senator Jacinta Price was among Indigenous politicians to pay their respects to the late monarch on Friday. 'Thank you Your Majesty Queen Elizabeth II may you now Rest In Peace,' Price wrote on Facebook While the Queen's early tours featured demonstrations of boomerang and spear throwing, as the years progressed her interactions with Indigenous people became more meaningful. She is pictured meeting Indigenous artists in Melbourne in 2011 'And back at Buckingham Palace, the Queen welcomes delegations and is willing to receive them and listen to their grievances. 'It's not something that is reported on, but it happens and the Royal family also has a huge collection of Aboriginal art. 'It is a quiet connection without much fanfare, but the first Australians are very much part of the realm.' That connection was of course not wanted by all Aboriginal Australians. Indigenous rapper, writer, comedian and actor Adam Briggs offered his thoughts upon the Queen's death in a post on social media. 'It's amazing; the amount of wealth you can accumulate when your family steals and enslaves half the world,' he wrote on Twitter, where he calls himself Senator Briggs. Indigenous rapper, writer, comedian and actor Adam Briggs offered his thoughts upon the Queen's death in a post on social media The Queen came to Australia in 1954, 1963, 1970, 1973, 1974, 1977, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1986, 1988, 1992, 2000, 2002, 2006 and 2011 - her last time on these shores. On one early tour she witnessed a dance by white performers with blackened faces presented by the Arts Council Ballet and titled Corroboree. The Queen saw first-hand discrimination against Aboriginal people while in Broome in the Kimberley district of Western Australia in 1963. There she was introduced to Paddy Djiagween who danced for her then asked why he was not allowed to drink in the local hotel like white residents of Broome. The Queen agreed with Djiagween and with the help of her equerry he went to the hotel and got his drink. That was four years before Indigenous Australians had full rights to citizenship. Former Labor Party national president and elder Nyunggai Warren Mundine wrote simply on Twitter: 'Sad news. RIP' In 1970 the Queen watched a re-enactment of Captain James Cook's landing at Botany Bay 200 years earlier in which the explorer used muskets to meet 'the resistance of the Aborigines'. Three years later at the opening of the Sydney Opera House a young David Gulpilil danced as part of a ceremony which included an official welcome by one of early Aboriginal leader Bennelong's descendants, Ben Blakeney. There were always picture opportunities staged on these occasions but the Queen also did much work away from the cameras and behind the scenes. On a visit to coincide with her golden wedding anniversary to Prince Phillip in 1997 the Queen acknowledged the need to 'listen' more to Aboriginal people. In 1999 five prominent Indigenous Australians - Pat Dodson, Lowitja O'Donoghue, Marcia Langton , Gatjil Djerrkura and Peter Yu - travelled to Buckingham Palace to meet the Queen. Among the gifts they gave the monarch was a photograph of Dodson's grandfather, Paddy Djiagween, at their 1963 meeting. The delegation and their host the shared recent history of Australia and Britain and how Aboriginal people had suffered since European settlement. Dodson, now a Senator for Western Australia, later described the group's long audience with the Queen as 'extraordinarily beneficial from our point of view'. During her 2000 trip to Sydney the Queen referred directly to the problems facing Aboriginal communities in what was seen as her first public contribution to reconciliation. 'I know that the fairness and decency for which this country is rightly renowned will mean that continued efforts are made to ensure that this prosperity touches all Australians,' she said in a speech. In 1992 the Queen had a private half-hour meeting with Evelyn Scott, then chairwoman of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, before a Government House dinner (pictured) 'It remains a sad fact of life that many Indigenous Australians face a legacy of economic and social disadvantage. 'Others, particularly from rural areas, feel left behind. 'The country's response in trying to find ways of helping all Australians to share in the country's growing wealth will require patience, determination and goodwill from all members of the community.' During the same visit the Queen had a private half-hour meeting with Evelyn Scott, then chairwoman of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, before a Government House dinner. Last month new Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe raised her fist in a Black Power salute and called the Queen a coloniser as she mockingly recited the parliamentary oath of allegiance In a 2002 speech at Adelaide Festival hall the Queen referred to the changes she had noticed since she first came to Australia in 1954. 'There has been a growing confidence, an increasingly global outlook, a recognition of the distinctive contribution of indigenous Australians,' she said. 'And the natural realisation that Australians can take on the best in the world and excel.' Ten years later new Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe called the Queen a coloniser as she mockingly recited the parliamentary oath of allegiance. The Aboriginal politician marched into the floor of federal parliament last month and gave a Black Power salute then said: 'I will be faithful and I bear true allegiance to the colonising Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second.' The Queen was the only reigning British monarch to have ever visited Australia and made 16 tours starting in 1954 when she was just 27, spanning a long era that included the birth of six Australian prime ministers. Her affection with the Australian people was cemented a year after her coronation when she set foot at Farm Cove in Sydney on February 3, 1954. With her husband Prince Philip by her side, she toured every capital city except Darwin and 40 country towns over two months as their son Prince Charles and daughter Princess Anne stayed in England. An estimated 75 per cent of the Australian population - numbering just 8.8million people 68 years ago - turned out to see her. Millions of young baby boomer children gathered at parks and along the main streets of town for a glimpse of our young head of state - the only one their children and grandchildren have since known. Scroll down for video The Queen was the only reigning British monarch to have ever visited Australia and made 16 tours starting in 1954 (Sydney visit pictured) when she was just 27 - during a reign that coincided with the birth of six prime ministers During those numerous visits to Australia, prime ministers have been criticised for breaching royal etiquette. Some Australians, including several former PMs on both sides of politics, have campaigned for a republic. Queen Elizabeth II made 16 trips to Australia from February 1954 to October 2011. On that final tour Australia's first female prime minister Julia Gillard hosted a reception for her at Parliament House in Canberra and caused controversy when she declined to curtsy. Gillard was one of six prime ministers born during the Queen's reign, including fellow Labor incumbent Anthony Albanese. The Queen's reign covered the terms of 16 Australian prime ministers, starting with Sir Robert Menzies - Australia's longest-serving PM. That is one more than the 15 UK prime ministers who governed during her time on the throne, starting with Sir Winston Churchill and finishing this week with Great Britain's third female leader Liz Truss. Queen Elizabeth II made 16 trips to Australia from February 1954 to October 2011, when Australia's first female prime minister Julia Gillard hosted a reception for her at Parliament House in Canberra, causing controversy during that visit when she declined to curtsy (pictured at Fairbairn air base) The Queen was hosted by eight Australian prime ministers during those visits in 1954, 1963, 1970, 1973, 1974, 1977, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1986, 1988, 1992, 2000, 2002, 2006 and 2011. Australian prime ministers born during Queen's reign KEVIN RUDD (Labor, republican): Born September 21, 1957 JULIA GILLARD (Labor, republican): Born September 29, 1961 TONY ABBOTT (Liberal, monarchist): Born November 4, 1957 MALCOLM TURNBULL (Liberal, republican): Born October 24, 1954 SCOTT MORRISON (Liberal, monarchist): Born May 13, 1968 ANTHONY ALBANESE (Labor, republican): Born March 2, 1963 Advertisement Sir Robert Menzies hosted her first two visits, in 1954 and 1963. During her second visit to Australia on February 18, 1963, the Liberal Party's 68-year-old founder memorably hosted a reception for the Queen at old Parliament House in Canberra. Sir Robert famously quoted a line from 17th century poet Thomas Ford. 'I did but see her passing by and yet I love her till I die,' Sir Robert said to a blushing monarch. Deference and protocol have been hallmarks of her visits to Australia, one of 14 Commonwealth nations that had the Queen as the head of state. The Queen's February 1992 Ruby Jubilee visit, to mark her 40 years as monarch, coincided with Paul Keating's first two months as prime minister - and it stirred outrage. The British press dubbed the new Labor PM the 'Lizard of Oz' after he had put his left hand on her back as he introduced her to dignitaries at Parliament House in Canberra. Making matters more delicate Mr Keating, an Irish Catholic, was an ardent republican who as PM spoke of his wish to cut ties with the British monarchy. One UK newspaper headline said: 'Hands orf, cobber.' Almost two decades later, Gillard stirred anger on talkback radio when she declined to curtsy to the Queen at Canberra's Fairbairn air base in October 2011, instead choosing to bow. Sir Robert hosted her first two visits, in 1954 and 1963. During her second visit to Australia on February 18, 1963, the Liberal Party's 68-year-old founder, memorably hosted a reception for the Queen at old Parliament House in Canberra By contrast Governor-General Quentin Bryce, later knighted as a dame, chose to curtsy to mark the start of the Queen and Prince Philip's 10-day tour. The late June Dally-Watkins, an etiquette expert who established a finishing school, criticised Gillard's 'wobble'. 'I saw the prime minister kind of wobble and I didn't know, did she try to curtsy? I didn't know what she was doing. I just laughed,' she told ABC Radio at the time. 'I was laughing out loud because I thought it was really hilarious and of course very rude. 'But I just couldn't understand what that movement was. What was she doing?' Of the eight Australian PMs who hosted the Queen, four of them were avowed monarchists. The Queen's 1992 Ruby Jubilee visit coincided with Paul Keating's first two months as prime minister - and it stirred outrage. The British press dubbed the new Labor PM the 'Lizard of Oz' after he put his left hand on her back as he introduced her to dignitaries at Parliament House in Canberra Liberal leaders Sir Robert, John Gorton, Malcolm Fraser and John Howard were in favour of retaining the constitutional monarchy. Fraser later changed his mind and in 1999 campaigned for a republic ahead of the November referendum that year, along with the Labors PMs who had hosted the Queen, Gough Whitlam, Bob Hawke and Keating. Future Liberal PM Malcolm Turnbull, a former leader of the Australian Republican Movement, headed the yes case and met the Queen at Buckingham Palace in 2017, although he didn't host her in Australia. Former Labor prime minister Bob Hawke hosted the Queen in May 1988, Australia's bicentennial year, when she visited to open the new Australian Parliament House. Hawke campaigned for a republic 11 years later Of the eight Australian PMs who hosted the Queen, four of them were monarchists. Liberal leaders Sir Robert, John Gorton, Malcolm Fraser and John Howard (pictured in Adelaide in 2002) were in favour of retaining the constitutional monarchy His predecessor Tony Abbott, a former leader of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy, had headed the no case against a republic as a junior minister, and met the Queen as opposition leader in 2011. Albanese was born during the Queen's reign as was fellow Labor PMs Kevin Rudd and Gillard, along with Liberal leaders Abbott, Turnbull and recently departed PM Scott Morrison. During her 70 years on the throne, the Queen's reign overlapped with 16 prime ministers including Menzies, Holt, McEwen, Gorton, Whitlam, Fraser, Hawke, Keating, Howard, Rudd, Gillard, Abbott, Turnbull, Morrison and Albanese. The death of Queen Elizabeth II has rocked the world and now Australian lovers of the Monarch are flooding the internet in a bid to grab any memorabilia they can to honour her. Her majesty died overnight aged 96 after 70 years as Queen, leading to a wave of supporters heading to the Royal Australia Mint website to seek out official commemorative coins and memorabilia. Queen Elizabeth II memorabilia is expected to skyrocket in value following her passing Thanks to high demand for the recently released limited-edition 50-cent commemorative coin to celebrate the Australian Signals Directorate's (ASD) 75th anniversary, visitors to the website have been faced with delays to even access the online shop. Predictably, online auction and sales website eBay is lighting up with new listings featuring Queen Elizabeth memorabilia, collectables and commemorative items - but they come at premium prices. Visitors had to wait in a queue for the Royal Australian Mint online shop today due to very high demand in the wake of her majesty's death Items up for auction are attracting enormous interest while set-price items are fetching eye-watering prices, like an Australia 2022 50c Cent Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Proof Silver Coin listed for $649. If you are looking for a bargain, Facebook Marketplace might be your best bet. There are still hundreds of items listed with many more being added following the news of the monarch's passing. You can grab items like the Woman's Day Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II souvenir issue for as low as $2, while many items are priced between $10 and $20. However, if you are looking for commemorative coins, you'll need to refresh your page constantly because most of the existing items for sale have been snapped up. Queen Elizabeth commemorative coins on eBay today had high price tags, low availability and plenty of interested parties watching on It is a similar story at online classifieds website Gumtree, with a host of affordable collectables flooding the website by the hour because of the sad news. A handful of commemorative coins are available - but none of the really valuable Australia Mint versions, just options that have sat in the classifieds queue for up to two years. Facebook Marketplace is the best place for affordable collectables, although commemorative coins are hard to come across and have large price tags Prices had already soared on many commemorative items prior to the Queen's passing because of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, which honoured her 70 years of wearing the crown this year. For those looking for a collectors piece to remember her majesty by, antiques trader and royal memorabilia collector Ann Parker told the Mail that coins might not be your best bet. 'Mugs and cups tend to be the most sought-after items because of their aesthetic appeal. However, only pieces kept in pristine condition are collectable,' she said. Online classifieds site Gumtree has a wide range of collectables but coins are in short supply She said the Spode limited edition loving cup made to celebrate the Queen's silver wedding anniversary in 1972 was one of the most sought-after items of its kind on the market. 'The loving cup is a traditional favourite due its elegant design but over time many break because the two handles that stick out from it are so fragile,' she said. Australia's legal community is mourning Queen Elizabeth II, as senior barristers previously appointed Queen's Counsel automatically become King's Counsel. In Victoria's Court of Appeal on Friday, the clerk called 'Saverio Zirilli against The King for judgment' in a drug importation case and court president Justice Karin Emerton acknowledged the Queen's passing. As Helen Rosamond's fraud trial resumed in the NSW District Court, Judge Robert Sutherland said: 'Her Majesty may have passed away but the Crown continues'. And before Joseph Winters was sentenced in the District Court at Parramatta for causing a fatal accident, the judge called for a minute's silence as a mark of respect for the late monarch. Australia's legal community is mourning Queen Elizabeth II (pictured in 2021) as senior barristers previously appointed Queen's Counsel automatically become King's Counsel In Victoria's Court of Appeal on Friday, the clerk called 'Saverio Zirilli against The King for judgment' in a drug importation case (pictured, Victoria's Supreme Court) Australian Bar Association president Matt Collins KC said the Queen had served the people of Australia, the United Kingdom and Commonwealth with unfailing dignity, compassion, intelligence and grace over seven remarkable decades. 'Throughout that period, Australia has been very well served by, and owes much of its stability and prosperity to, the institutions and Westminster traditions of which Her Majesty has been a vital and wise custodian,' he said in a statement. Since 1993 senior barristers in NSW have been appointed to the Senior Counsel title. But some states and territories have retained or restored the QC title and those barristers have instead become KCs. Law Institute of Victoria president Tania Wolff paid tribute on behalf of the state's solicitors. 'Through her 70-year reign, the Queen has been a constant figure in our lives. Her life's work exemplifies the qualities of dedication, commitment, compassion, dignity and an extraordinary work ethic,' she said. The news of the much-loved monarch's passing has shocked millions across Australia despite reports the Queen's health had been deteriorating (pictured, the Queen in Edmonton in 2005) The news of the much-loved monarch's passing has saddened millions across Australia despite earlier reports the Queen's health was deteriorating. After a remarkable 70 years on the throne, the country's longest-reigning royal yesterday died 'peacefully', aged 96, at her castle in Balmoral in Scotland. Australia's leaders, including former Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his successor Anthony Albanese have led the stream of tributes for Her Majesty on Friday. Mr Morrison said the Queen had praised the 'resilience' of the Australian people during their last conversation at Windsor Castle in June of last year. After 70 years on the throne, the country's longest-reigning royal yesterday died 'peacefully', aged 96, at her castle in Balmoral in Scotland (pictured, the Queen in Perth in 2011) 'In our last conversation at Windsor Castle last year, Her Majesty spoke of her great admiration for the strength and resilience of Australians in the face of the many challenges we had faced,' he said. 'And she had a special place in her heart for our rural and regional communities, knowing the many hardships they had faced, not just recently, but over the many decades of her reign. 'For generations, we have proclaimed God Save the Queen, and now she had entered her eternal rest with Him and joined again with her beloved Phillip.' Mr Morrison said one of the enduring images he remembered of the Queen was her sitting alone at Prince Phillip's funeral last April, adding meeting with her at Windsor and Buckingham Palace had been his 'greatest honour'. It came several hours after Mr Albanese paid tribute to the Queen's dedication to duty and service, and comfort to Australia in times of crisis. Mr Morrison said the Queen had praised the 'resilience' of the Australian people during their last conversation at Windsor Castle in June of last year (pictured) The Australian leader, who has donned a black tie since hearing the news, was told an hour before the rest of the world was informed via an official announcement. Mr Albanese leader offered his condolences to the Royal Family, the British people, and his own country, which held Her Majesty in the highest regard. His lengthy statement, issued in the early hours of Friday morning, paid tribute to her many achievements and incredible strength of character over 214 day reign. In London, the Queen's death has sparked an immediate and huge outpouring of emotion, with thousands of heartbroken mourners gathering outside the gates of Bucking Palace and other royal buildings. The Queen's son Charles, the former Prince of Wales, is now King Charles III, while Prince William has inherited his father's title and is now, along with his wife, styled The Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge. William is also now the 'heir apparent' to the British throne. Residents of Portland, Oregon with physical disabilities have filed a lawsuit accusing the city of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to clear homeless encampments from city sidewalks. The federal class-action lawsuit filed on Tuesday says that Portland has failed to keep the sidewalks accessible to people with mobility issues by allowing encampments to proliferate unchecked. The 55-page lawsuit slams city officials for leaving sidewalks 'inaccessible, dangerous, and unsanitary' because they are 'blocked by tent encampments and attendant debris.' 'The City has failed and continues to fail to maintain its sidewalks clear of debris and tent encampments, which is necessary to make its sidewalks readily accessible to people with mobility disabilities,' the lawsuit states. The lead plaintiff in the suit, 54-year-old Tiana Tozer, is a former humanitarian aid worker and two-time Paralympic medalist. A federal class-action lawsuit filed on Tuesday says that Portland has failed to keep the sidewalks accessible to people with mobility issues by allowing encampments to proliferate The lead plaintiff in the suit, 54-year-old Tiana Tozer (left, and right in 1996), is a former humanitarian aid worker and two-time Paralympic medalist Mayor Ted Wheeler has faced growing backlash over the issue of sprawling tent encampments, and has attempted to crack down on areas where street camping is allowed At the age of 20, Tozer was struck by a drunk driver, and has a permanent disability which makes it difficult for her to walk. She went on to bring home bronze and silver in the 1992 Barcelona and 1996 Atlanta Paralympic Games. Tozer was also a congressional intern in the early 1990s and helped push for the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act -- which requires public facilities to be accessible, and is the same law under which the new lawsuit was brought. The suit alleges that Tozer 'frequently finds herself having to alter her routes to maneuver around tent encampments in the Lloyd District and in Downtown Portland.' It adds: 'at times, Ms. Tozer has had to maneuver in the street because the sidewalks are completely blocked by tent encampments.' The suit's other nine named plaintiffs also have various disabilities, such as conditions that require them to use a wheelchair or electric scooter, or vision impairment that necessitates the use of a cane. 'The Citys failure to curb and reasonably control the proliferation of tent encampments has had a particularly harmful impact on persons with mobility disabilities,' the lawsuit alleges. A spokesperson for Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler did not immediately respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com on Thursday night. Tents are lined up along a residential street in Portland, with belongings strewn about and piles of trash in the roadway Tents crowd the sidewalk that is littered with trash from homeless communities setting up camp in areas spread from downtown Portland now out through the suburbs The lawsuit includes photos of sidewalks in Portland that are completely obstructed by tents and detritus, and notes that while some of them have been cleared, others quickly spring up in their place. Portland has experienced an explosion in its unsheltered population in recent years, starting with the downturn during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In January, a survey found that 5,228 people in Multnomah County were homeless, including 3,057 who were sleeping on the street. Wheeler has faced growing backlash over the issue, and has attempted to crack down on areas where street camping is allowed. Under an emergency order, Wheeler banned encampments near dangerous roadways or the city-sanctioned tiny home villages that have been erected in a bid to solve the issue. Last month the order expanded to ban sidewalk tents on key walking routes to the city's schools. But many Portland residents say they have seen little change, and that after every sweep to clear encampments, they quickly spring back up. A photo included in the suit shows encampments blocking sidewalks adjacent to the Pacific Northwest College of Arts on SW Broadway and Hoyt Street Portland has experienced an explosion in its unsheltered population in recent years. Above, tents are seen lining SW Clay Street in December 2020 Late last month, Portland residents Bruce and Rebecca 'Becky' Philip told DailyMail.com that they're 'done with Portland' due to the increasing number of homeless camps that have trickled into the suburbs from downtown. 'I've been here 65 years but I'm done,' Bruce Philip said. 'I'm done with Portland.' 'What's there to say, they move in, take over the neighborhood, do their drugs, play their loud music, and make a mess,' he said, adding that the homeless crisis has ruined not just a few neighborhoods, but all of Portland. The couple also pointed out that the sweeps of the homeless camps fail to solve the issue and have not changed their minds about moving. 'The city comes in and cleans it up and then two weeks later, they come back,' Bruce Philip said. 'It's a vicious cycle, and I'm done.' Local realtor George Patterson told DailyMail.com that the homeless encampments encroaching on residents' front lawns is a topic that comes up with his clients 'every day', and that deals are falling through homes for sale in the area. In one case, an early offer for a three-bedroom home asking close to $700,000 near a sanctioned homeless encampment, called Multnomah Village. 'We had early offer on a home, but it fell through and there was some concern there with the Multnomah village site,' Patterson said. 'I can say [homeless encampments] are definitely affecting the property values.' The Treasury Department wants the cost of a barrel of oil to drop back to a 'fair market value' in order to cut the profits that are funding Russian President Vladimir Putin's war in the Ukraine. The United States is leading the push among G7 countries to set a price cap on Russian oil. The Group of Seven is trying to find ways to limit Russia's lucrative oil export revenue, which is the main source of revenue for Putin's government. Several different countries have banned imports of Russian crude and fuel, but Moscow has managed to maintain its revenues through increased crude sales to Asia, particularly China and India. The price cap's level is unclear, and U.S. and EU officials have not specified a numeric range. However, extrapolating from recent U.S. guidance suggests that it could be set at around $60 a barrel. On Friday, oil was selling at about $85 a barrel. President Joe Biden and western allies are trying to use financial pressure to end Putin's invasion of the Ukraine, which began in February and has shown no signs of letting up. Ukrainian forces were seizing an expanding area of previously Russian-held territory in the east in a 'very sharp and rapid' advance, a Russian-installed regional official said on Friday, in a breakthrough that may mark a turning point in the war. The Treasury Department wants the cost of a barrel of oil to drop back to a 'fair market value' in order to cut the profits that are funding Russian President Vladimir Putin's war in the Ukraine Western allies see cutting off Putin's oil money as a way to close the financial noose around his neck. The price of a barrel of oiil should be set above the marginal production cost of Russia's oil and take into consideration historical prices, said Elizabeth Rosenberg, U.S. Treasury Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes. 'There are several key data points we are considering and how the prices should ultimately be set and that includes the marginal cost of production for Russian oil,' Rosenberg told a briefing call held for media in Asia. 'The price cap price should be ... in line or consistent with historical prices accepted by the Russian market.' The G7 price cap plan agreed last week calls for participating countries to deny insurance, finance, brokering and other services to oil cargoes priced above a yet to be set price cap on crude and two oil products. That could imply a potential cap of around $60 a barrel, experts say, as Russian Urals crude, based off benchmark Brent futures, sold for $50 to $70 a barrel in 2019. Russia exports roughly 8 million barrels of crude and fuel per day, making it the largest oil exporter in the world. Russian government documents identified a marginal crude production cost of $44 per barrel, although some Western officials believe it may be somewhat lower. The Group of Seven is trying to find ways to limit Russia's lucrative oil export revenue, which is the main source of revenue for Putin's government - above Russian oil pumping jacks at work A building that serves as a residential apartment and business hub has been hit recently by Russian strikes in Kharkiv, Ukraine Rescuers workers dismantle emergency structures damaged as a result of Russian missile attacks in downtown Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and other Biden administration officials have been travelling to oil consuming countries to promote a mechanism that seeks to cut Russia's oil export revenues, the lifeblood of its war machine, without reducing volumes of Russian shipments to global markets. The strength of any price cap may turn on participation from China and India, which have stepped up their purchases of discounted Russian crude as others have banned Russian barrels. The G7 countries are trying to recruit more nations for their price cap efforts. 'The coalition has to be broader, and this is the diplomatic phase [negotiators] are entering into,' one European official told CNBC. Key importers of Russian oil China, India, and Turkey have not yet said whether they will join in the coordinated price cap or negotiate their own side deals with Russia. Their participation could determine how much leverage Western nations have to set prices. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo on Thursday told Yahoo! News that India had agreed to continue talks about whether to join, and Washington hoped China would also consider it. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Moscow would halt shipments to countries that impose the price cap. The Brookings Institution has said there was 'plenty of well-justified skepticism' about the plan, noting that it was unclear if China would cooperate and that Russia could still refuse to expert oil at the lower price. Rosenberg said the G7 countries - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States - would work together in coming weeks to determine the capped price and other key implementation details. She said services providers would not have to police price cap compliance themselves but could rely on the attestations of buyers and sellers, leaving enforcement to participating jurisdictions. A European official said G7 members had not begun formal discussions about the price cap, although officials had 'notions' about what was possible. 'The idea is that you still incentivize Russian oil producers to export by guaranteeing a price in line with their cost of production with a small incentive,' the official said. Putin says Russia is conducting a 'special military operation' in Ukraine to protect his country's security against expansion of the Western military alliance NATO. The death of Queen Elizabeth II brings to an end the Second Elizabethan Era, a momentous time in the history of the world when it was just recovering from the ravages of World War II up to the present day when it is again in great economic strife. Her sense of commitment to her people as Britains longest-reigning monarch was unwavering through all the triumphs, tragedies and crises of the personal, family, national and global kinds. Her image and the values she stood for had resonated far beyond a shrinking British Empire. She occupied the throne with a dignity and decency in public life, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi applauded as her greatest quality. The sense of loss in many people across the world is itself a fine tribute to Queen Elizabeth II of Britain, who held a place in billions of hearts, across boundaries and cultures. At a time when huge scepticism prevails about hereditary rule in emerging generations of people who have no experience or knowledge of being ruled by a monarch, she represented a rock-like, even stoic, presence. She was the ceremonial head of an old colonising power fast losing its relevance in the modern world, that has seen huge changes in the seven decades she was the Queen, but as an empathetic figure, she was much respected. Her final year may have been dominated by personal grief at her steadfast husbands passing but she shirked no responsibility or duty right down to her very last days. Just 48 hours before a peaceful end to a life lived in the public eye, she formally appointed Liz Truss as the fifteenth Prime Minister of the UK during her 70-year reign at an audience at her beloved home Balmoral Castle in Scotland. Elizabeth II had played her role in rallying Britain during the Covid-19 pandemic and, after the Duke of Edinburghs death had returned to public life again to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee year. It was said of her that she could walk into a room full of people but everyone she spoke to was made to feel that he/she was the only person there. Seen in a wider context, she was the ceremonial head of state not just in Britain but in several dominions which are a part of the Commonwealth notably Canada, Australia and New Zealand, among others. In Britain, she was the great unifier who had kept things together in most difficult times after the war when the Empire had just lost India, its crown jewel, and post-war economic privation could have led to social upheavals. In a country without a written constitution, she was the voice of reason and she could deal with politics and politicians as the conscience keeper, and give her advice in a firm voice even to the likes of Winston Churchill. Her son now King Charles III at a sprightly 73 has much to live up to if he aspires to be the same minimalist monarch with non-partisan views on politics in changing times when a world, in disarray now, is unlikely to be swayed by old-world qualities of grace and understated elegance. These are difficult times indeed that call for Elizabethan wisdom but the world is unlikely to ever see a monarch of her calibre again. Some Aussies are calling for late national icon Steve Irwin to be impressed on the $5 note instead of King Charles III in the wake of Queen Elizabeth II's death. Her Royal Highness died aged 96 on Thursday, sparking a wave of mourning worldwide as Commonwealth nations honour Britain's longest-serving monarch. Her death after 70 years on the throne heralds a raft of changes that will come into place in Australia, including the introduction of bank notes and coins bearing the new king's face. But some Aussies have flocked online to demand other famous Australians instead be memorialised on the country's legal tender when the printing press kicks into gear. 'Time to replace Queen Elizabeth's face on cash with Steve Irwin or Heath Ledger, I reckon,' one woman Tweeted. King Charles III will be printed on Australia's $5 note and on the nation's coins as he ascends the throne Some Aussies want Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin to be inscribed on the $5 note instead of the new king. Pictured is a mock up of a $5 note with Steve Irwin's face on it Another said: 'Can we get a petition to get Steve Irwin's face on money in place of the queen going? It's what we all want.' 'Steve Irwin deserves our highest form of currency,' someone else chimed. 'The $5 note will explode in value if we put him on that note.' However, other Aussies have offered alternative proposals, ranging from fictional characters to native animals, and even classic foods. In a post on Reddit titled 'RIP Queen Betty', one man asked fellow Aussies for nominees to replace her Majesty on the $5 note, generating a flood of suggestions. 'Alright.... now for the important s***,' he said. 'Who we gonna put on all our money? Because I can't see that Charles on there. 'Maybe Steve Irwin, or Russell Coight? Throw us some ideas.' One person put forth celebrated Australian sitcom characters Kath & Kim while one social media user advocated for Neighbours soap opera alum Alf Stewart. Another proposed it should be inscribed with an Ibis, a native bird known as the 'bin chicken'. 'Just wanna see our nation's proudest bird on our coins. The Bin Chicken,' one person wrote. Steve Irwin, known as the Crocodile Hunter, died in September 2006 after being struck in the chest by a stingray barb. Steve Irwin, known as the Crocodile Hunter, died in September 2006 after being struck in the chest by a stingray barb Another replied: 'Considering the cultural history of Straya taking the p*** out of itself I completely support putting bin chickens on coins.' Someone else put forth comedian Hamish Blake while another recommended TV personality Daryl Sommers. Other suggestions included a 'pavlova', 'lamington', 'Bunnings snag' or the State of Origin 'maroons jersey'. However, Australians will be waiting a while for new $5 banknotes showing an image of King Charles III, with the central bank noting that there will be 'no immediate change to Australian banknotes'. The Reserve Bank of Australia has confirmed King Charles III is expected to feature on a new $5 note. 'The reigning monarch has traditionally appeared on the lowest denomination of Australian banknote,' the RBA said. However, the $5 banknotes featuring Queen Elizabeth II will also remain in circulation and will not be withdrawn. The central bank, which manages the Australian currency and monetary policy said there would be further updates on currency changes to come. The Australian coins of the future are likely to feature the head of King Charles III facing the opposite way to his late mother's. They will circulate alongside each other in a sort of mother-and-son currency double act. A west-facing Charles III would continue a royal tradition, said to have started under Charles II from 1660, where the new monarch faces the opposite direction to their predecessor in their profile portrait on coins. Since her coronation in 1953, six likenesses of Queen Elizabeth II have appeared on the obverse side of Australian coins, the last of them struck in 2018 and all facing right. The Reserve Bank of Australia has confirmed King Charles III is expected to feature on a new $5 note but said Queen Elizabeth II bank notes will not be withdrawn The only exception to the 'about face' convention was the coinage of Edward VIII, who insisted on his profile facing left. 'It is not clear whether this was an expression of rebellion against convention, or vanity, to show what he regarded as his better profile, containing his hair parting,' according to John Richardson, of Britain's Open University. Those involved in the lengthy and complex processes of producing Australia's currency won't say how quickly the image of King Charles might appear. While the Australian Mint produces the nation's coins, responsibility for all aspects of the production and issue of Australian banknotes rests with the Reserve Bank of Australia. The Queen made the transition to decimal currency in 1966, when she first graced the now-discontinued $1 paper note, and has long featured on the $5 polymer note. If Charles III does appear on notes any time soon, it's a fair bet the planning started many moons ago because making money costs a lot of money - and time. The RBA's latest suite of polymer notes - called the NGB (Next Generation of Banknotes) program - took 10 years and $37 million to complete, ending with the $100 bill in 2020. The notes are printed in Melbourne by the RBA's wholly-owned subsidiary Note Printing Australia, and undergo no fewer than 13 production processes. New $5 notes featuring King Charles' head are likely to continue to bear some of the complex security traits of existing notes, including 3D and moving imagery, a tactile feature for the visually-impaired, colour changes, micro-printed lines from the constitution and fluorescence under UV light. Coins are the responsibility of the Treasurer and are manufactured by the Royal Australian Mint. It has produced more than 15 billion coins since being opened by the new monarch's late father, Prince Philip, in 1965. Australia won't be the only nation in the Commonwealth facing the prospect of introducing new designs on its coins and notes. Queen Elizabeth II has appeared on the currency of more than 30 countries, the first being Canada's $20 note in 1935, when she was only nine years old. She is still likely to be in circulation somewhere, a century later, and well after her death which was announced on Friday at the age of 96. Isolation rules have also cut to five days if the traveller has no symptoms Masks are no longer compulsory on international flights to Australia as Covid-19 rules relax across the country. The mandate ended at 12.01am on Friday but travellers are still encouraged to consider wearing them for their own safety. Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said the change was endorsed by the chief medical officer. 'I encourage everyone travelling overseas to be mindful of the continuing risk of Covid-19 and to take personal precautions to stop the spread and stay safe,' he said. Face coverings are also no longer required on domestic flights under previously flagged changes also in effect from Friday. Masks are no longer compulsory on international flights to Australia as Covid-19 rules relax across the country The mandate ended at 12.01am on Friday but travellers are still encouraged to consider wearing them for their own safety Isolation has been reduced to a minimum of five days for people with no symptoms. Workers in high-risk settings like aged care, disability and home care must still isolate for seven days. Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment rules have changed to reflect the minimum isolation period for anyone applying. It comes as Australian states and territories will from Saturday no longer provide daily case figures. The federal government will instead issue weekly data on new cases, deaths, hospitalisations and ICU admissions. There were 9176 new cases and 74 deaths reported across Australia on Thursday. Jacinda Ardern paid Queen Elizabeth a touching Maori tribute in a condolence book at parliament house in New Zealand. The prime minister wrote: 'With our deepest gratitude for your love for the people of Aotearoa New Zealand, and for your life of service.' She followed the English message with the Maori proverb 'he kotuku rerenga tahi', which translates to 'a white heron's flight is seen but once'. The use of the message, which refers to a rare event, is considered an honour. The NZ PM also revealed how she had learned of the Queen's death when a 'police officer shone a torch into my room at around ten to five this morning'. Ms Ardern said she had read accounts of the Queen's ill health before sleeping and so 'immediately' knew what being woken up in the middle of the night meant. Jacinda Ardern, watched by the Governor-General's husband Dr Richard Davies, marks the death of Queen Elizabeth II by signing the official condolence book at parliament She followed the English message with the Maori proverb 'he kotuku rerenga tahi', which translates to 'a white heron's flight is seen but once' It was also revealed that Ms Ardern and Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro are planning to leave for the UK on Thursday ahead of the Queen's funeral. Earlier, Ms Ardern expressed her country's condolences to the 'extraordinary' Queen and shared a touching story between the pair, which she says encapsulated who she was as a leader. 'Over her reign, she has come to define notions of service, charity and consistency,' Ardern told reporters at parliament in Wellington on Friday. 'She has also demonstrated courage, compassion and humour.' Speaking alongside a framed picture of Her Majesty, the prime minister said New Zealand was experiencing 'a time of deep sadness'. 'I know I speak for all New Zealanders in conveying our deepest sympathy to members of the Royal family and condolences to King Charles III at this time of enormous loss,' she said. 'A chapter is closing today. With that, we remember an incredible woman that we were lucky to call our Queen. 'She was extraordinary. She was a woman who worked into her 90s. Jacinda Ardern has expressed her country's condolences to the 'extraordinary' Queen Elizabeth II as she shared a touching story between the pair where she was gifted a picture of her laughing and recalled to the PM exactly what made her laugh decades later 'The last days of the Queen's life captures who she was in so many ways, working to the very end on behalf of the people she loved.' Ms Ardern recalled her first meeting with the Queen, when she gifted a picture of Her Majesty laughing on an early visit to New Zealand, decades ago. 'Not only did she remember the visit, she could remember what was making her laugh,' she said. 'That speaks to me of someone who gave a life of service but who also enjoyed the role that she played as difficult I'm sure as it was.' New Zealand's official mourning will continue until a State Memorial Service, held after the Queen's funeral, which is expected in around 10 days' time. Flags will be flown at half-mast until the funeral, except on Proclamation Day, when King Charles III is officially announced as the new King. New Zealand's official mourning will continue until a State Memorial Service, held after the Queen's funeral which is expected in around 10 days time. Flags will be flown at half-mast until the funeral, except on Proclamation Day, when King Charles III is officially announced as the new King. The Queen is pictured during her visit to New Zealand in 1977 Kiwis will be invited to sign condolence books at parliament and the National Library, and offered sites to leave flowers. New Zealanders are supportive of the monarchy with the most recent substantive poll on the a potential separation from the Commonwealth last November on the occasion of the Queen's death showing 50 per cent opposed compared to 44 per cent in favour. Ms Ardern has said she has 'never sensed urgency' from Kiwis to move to a republic. New Zealand's most popular broadcaster Mike Hosking cried on air, saying 'I don't know that I can do this, just give me a couple of minutes'. Opposition leader Chris Luxon also paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth's 'unflinching dignity, compassion, and selflessness'. 'The strength and stability of Her Majesty's leadership of the Commonwealth was a reassuring anchor for New Zealand and New Zealanders in uncertain and changing times,' he said. Queen Elizabeth II visited New Zealand 10 times, last travelling to the country in 2002. Millions of Australians have welcomed a new King as Charles, the former Prince of Wales, officially becomes the oldest King to assume the British throne. King Charles III automatically took his late mother's place after the much-loved monarch died 'peacefully' at her castle at Balmoral at age 96 on Thursday. The Queen's eldest son will be proclaimed King following a meeting of the Ascension Council at St James's Palace in London due to take place as soon as possible. In Australia, the same proclamation will be made at Parliament House by the monarch's representative here, the governor-general. King Charles III automatically took his late mother's place after the much-loved monarch died 'peacefully' at her castle at Balmoral at age 96 on Thursday (pictured, the par in 2016) Charles's wife Camilla, 74, will be crowned Queen Consort when her husband assumes the throne and is expected to have a major role in his new 'slimmed-down' monarchy Leaders of the Commonwealth, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, will fly to London to speak in the Queen's honour and welcome Charles III as King. His wife Camilla, 74, will be crowned Queen Consort when her husband assumes the throne and is expected to have a major role in his new 'slimmed-down' monarchy. The Queen assured the Queen Consort's future status in an historic Platinum Jubilee statement issued late in February 2022, ending years of uncertainty over the issue. She declared it was her 'sincere wish' for her daughter-in-law to be fully acknowledged when Charles begins his reign over the Commonwealth countries. The pair have been married since 2005, and as the wife of the Prince for the last 17 years, Camilla has already been doing what a Queen Consort would do. She is a royal patron to scores of charities and good causes, accompanies her husband on royal tours and meets thousands of people every year. Down Under, Australians can anticipate an overhaul of the Queen's Birthday public holiday and will likely receive a new public holiday in lieu of Her Majesty's passing. Prince Charles will become Charles III, proclaimed at St James's Palace and in Australia by the governor-general Down Under, Australians can anticipate an overhaul of the Queen's Birthday public holiday and will likely receive a new public holiday in lieu of Her Majesty's passing (pictured, Bondi Beach) Tradition grants the new King the power to choose the official date of his birthday, which will be called King's Birthday long weekend, rather than the Queen's. Since 1748, when King George II was in power, British monarchs have had two birthdays - the day they were born and a second date on which their birthday is officially celebrated in the United Kingdom and in most Commonwealth nations. All monarchs since have been granted the option to select their 'official birthday', with Queen Elizabeth initially setting it to fall on the second Thursday of June. What are the Commonwealth realms? Australia New Zealand Canada Belize Grenada The Bahamas Jamaica Papua New Guinea Tuvalu St Christopher & Nevis St Lucia Advertisement This was the same day as her father King George IV had selected - when she came into power in 1952. This official birthday - which is currently the second Saturday of June - could also be revised as November-born King Charles III ascends the throne. Most Australian states and territories - NSW, Victoria, Tasmania, Northern Territory, the Australian Capital Territory, and South Australia - observe the Queen's Birthday public holiday on the second Monday in June. However, Queensland celebrates the Queen's birthday on the first Monday of October, while Western Australia fluctuates each year - nominating a date either in late September or early October. A brand-new public holiday could also be in the works for Australians. A memorial service for the Queen following a state funeral in Britain has been included in Australia's commemoration plans, with that day likely be named a national public holiday. But fittingly, news of the holiday will have to wait at least 11 days until the Queen has been farewelled. Her funeral will take place ten days after her death, with a procession to Westminster Abbey at 11am, a committal at 3.55pm at Windsor Castle and a private burial at the castle at 7pm. There will be four official Australian mourners - the Prime Minister, his partner, the governor-general David Hurley and his wife Linda Hurley. The body of her husband, Prince Phillip, who died in April 2021, will be moved from the Royal Vault so the two can lie together. Tradition grants the new King (pictured in 2018) the power to choose the official date of his birthday, which will be called King's Birthday long weekend, rather than the Queen's Before this, the British public will be invited to pay their respects to the Queen whose body will lay in Westminster Hall for four days. King Charles III will take the oath that unites the churches of England and Scotland, known as the accession declaration. In Australia, Parliament has been cancelled for 15 days as a mark of respect to the Queen - a move which has angered some Australians who themselves only receive two days of 'bereavement leave'. 'Get back to work! The country is facing multiple crises,' one wrote on Twitter. 'What? How can we afford that? Why do they need 15 days off, fully paid? No employee in the country would ever get that,' another added. 'Ordinary Aussies get two days of bereavement leave when an actual loved one dies,' a third person wrote. The Queen's place in the hearts of millions of Australians was as abiding as her lifelong relationship with the one-time colony. She is pictured receiving flowers from waiting school children waving flags after a Commonwealth Day Service in Sydney in March 2006 It comes amid speculation the King will introduce a radical overhaul of the monarchy which could see Princes Harry and Andrew dropped by the palace forever. Royal watchers believe the former Prince of Wales is keen to ensure there are 'no hangers-on' in the Firm, with each member being expected to pull their weight in a new and more streamlined monarchy. According to experts, to replace Prince Andrew, who has been outcast since his US lawsuit with Virginia Giuffre and Prince Harry, who has quit front line royal duties, will be Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, and Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, Countess of Wessex. Royal biographer Angela Levin told TalkRadio in May 2021 that the new King has wanted to cut back the core of the working royals 'for a very long time' in order to 'save costs and make people be worth the money that they get from the taxpayer'. Australia's legal community is mourning Queen Elizabeth II, as senior barristers previously appointed Queen's Counsel automatically become King's Counsel. In Victoria's Court of Appeal on Friday, the clerk called 'Saverio Zirilli against The King for judgment' in a drug importation case and court president Justice Karin Emerton acknowledged the Queen's passing. As Helen Rosamond's fraud trial resumed in the NSW District Court, Judge Robert Sutherland said: 'Her Majesty may have passed away but the Crown continues.' Australia's legal community is mourning Queen Elizabeth II as barristers who go by the title Queen's Counsel now become King's Counsel Since 1993 senior barristers in NSW have been appointed to the Senior Counsel (SC) title. But some states and territories have retained or restored the QC title and those barristers have instead become KCs (pictured, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles) And before Joseph Winters was sentenced in the District Court at Parramatta for causing a fatal accident, the judge called for a minute's silence as a mark of respect for the late monarch. Australian Bar Association president Matt Collins KC said the Queen had served the people of Australia, the United Kingdom and Commonwealth with unfailing dignity, compassion, intelligence and grace over seven remarkable decades. 'Throughout that period, Australia has been very well served by, and owes much of its stability and prosperity to, the institutions and Westminster traditions of which Her Majesty has been a vital and wise custodian,' he said in a statement. NSW Bar President put out a Tweet on Friday about the change of Queen's Counsel to King's Counsel Barrister Stephen McDonald SC Tweeted: 'Today Jonathan Wells QC will become the first King's Counsel to appear in the High Court of Australia in more than 70 years' Since 1993 senior barristers in NSW have been appointed to the Senior Counsel (SC) title. But some states and territories have retained or restored the QC title and those barristers have instead become KCs. Law Institute of Victoria president Tania Wolff paid tribute on behalf of the state's solicitors. 'Through her 70-year reign, the Queen has been a constant figure in our lives. Her life's work exemplifies the qualities of dedication, commitment, compassion, dignity and an extraordinary work ethic,' she said. Australians could be given a public holiday to mourn the death of Queen Elizabeth II. The country is set to hold a memorial service for the late Queen with the event to be held on the National Day of Mourning. Speculation has been raised that residents could be given the day off work to mark the occasion. Prime minister Anthony Albanese will wait until Buckingham Palace confirms when the state funeral will be held for the Queen in the UK before he sets a date for a National Day of Mourning. At this stage, there is no confirmation whether Aussies will be given the day off work to mark the memorial service. Australians could be given a public holiday to mourn the death of Queen Elizabeth II Speculation has been raised residents could be given the day off work to mark the occasion though there has been no confirmation (pictured, beachgoers at Bondi) Queen Elizabeth II died peacefully at Balmoral on Thursday aged 96, bringing an end to the 70-year reign of Britain's longest-serving monarch. Mr Albanese will travel with the Governor-General to London in the coming days to meet King Charles III and pay his respects at the funeral. The pair will then return to Australia for the memorial service which will be held at a yet-to-be-confirmed Anglican cathedral and include a minute silence at 11am. The state funeral is expected take place at Westminster Abbey in central London on September 19. It will be attended by the Queen's family family and 2,000 heads of state, prime ministers and presidents, European royals and key international figures. The funeral will involve a procession to Westminster Abbey at 11am, a committal at 3.55pm at Windsor Castle and a private burial at the castle at 7pm. There will be four official Australian mourners - the Prime Minister, his partner, the governor-general David Hurley and his wife Linda Hurley. A further 10 to 12 notable Australians will be invited to attend the Queen's funeral. The country is set to hold a memorial service for the late Queen with the event to be held on the National Day of Mourning, which could be a public holiday (pictured, beachgoers at Bondi) They are expected to include Indigenous Australians, representatives from charitable, religious, sporting and community organisations. Canberra has suspended parliament for 15 days 'out of respect' meaning MPs and senators will miss out on four days of sitting. With next week's sitting cancelled, Parliament is not due until the last week of October when the Labor government will unveil its first budget. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese defended the hiatus, saying: 'These protocols have been in place for some time. 'This is a moment in our history. Of course, for the whole of my life, I've only known one monarch, which is quite extraordinary.' Queen Elizabeth II died peacefully at Balmoral on Thursday aged 96, bringing an end to the 70-year reign of Britain's longest-serving monarch. A two-year-old girl was left fighting for her life after a startled horse kicked her in the head on a rural property. Charlotte Footner was airlifted to the Royal Melbourne Children's Hospital after the 'freak accident' in the Macedon Ranges north of Melbourne last month. It is understood the energetic and 'very intelligent' toddler was kicked after the animal, which the family own, reacted to a wheelbarrow falling over. Charlotte Footner's (pictured) uncle says the girl was a bright and bubbly toddler who now faces a difficult path as she recovers from head and brain injuries Her uncle Shannon Briggs said the girl is a bright and bubbly toddler, who faces a difficult path as she recovers from a fractured skull and brain injuries. Charlotte recently said her first words since the accident on August 24, and is regaining movement on the side of her body that was left paralysed from the accident. She was in placed in an induced coma for four days. 'In the early stages we didn't even know if she would survive,' Mr Briggs told Daily Mail Australia. Charlotte Footner was airlifted to the Royal Melbourne Children's Hospital after the 'freak accident' in the Macedon Ranges north of Melbourne last month 'The doctors have told us she is likely to be in hospital for months.' Mr Briggs added the little girl has remembered who her parents are and is 'doing as well as can be expected'. Her parents Brett and Rachel Footner are both staying by Charlotte's side, and have been able to stay at the Ronald McDonald house, taking it in turns to be with their daughter. For Charlotte, while it is still too soon to tell, it's possible she may not make a full recovery. Charlotte will remain in hospital for a few months and will have to undergo more surgeries on her skull Her uncle said she will also undergo more surgeries on her skull and will require years of medical treatment such as speech therapy and specialist physiotherapy. 'The doctors have said this isn't something where she wakes up and is back to normal, it's very slow and she has a long way to go,' Mr Briggs said. 'It's hard, we're trying to be strong for her family. 'Charlotte's the youngest member of the family and has so much ahead of her so it's really tough news to take but we're just trying to stay strong.' The family from Gisborne, Victoria have a GoFundMe page set up to cover ongoing costs that so far raised $40,000 in donations. The funds will cover her recuperation and emergency transport the family used - including an air ambulance. Mr Briggs said the hospital staff have been giving 'world-class' support through the family's ordeal. Republican PM Paul Keating was once outrageously dubbed the 'Lizard of Oz' by the British press for putting his arm around Queen Elizabeth II as he introduced her to dignitaries during a visit to Australia. And with the death of the Queen some 30 years later, the legendary Australian prime minister was in no mood to discuss the faux-outrage generated by the incident when he was approached for his memories on Friday in Sydney's Potts Point. Mr Keating, 78, became a figure of notoriety in Britain during Her Majesty's visit to Australia in February 1992, when he not only made a republican speech in front of her, but for seemingly breaking Royal protocol by placing his arm around the monarch. His actions earned him front-page treatment in British newspapers, with rabid headlines such as 'HANDS ORF!' and 'LIZARD OF OZ'. But when he was quizzed about the incident Friday in Sydney, the quick-witted politician famous for his savage use of the English language appeared almost lost for words. He ignored questions from Daily Mail Australia before snapping: 'I'd prefer you to disappear as quickly as you can... 'Public life means I have to deal with flogs like you, mate - that's the problem,' he added with a wry smile: Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating snapped on Friday when he was grilled about the 'Lizard of Oz' incident with the Queen Royal watchers were outraged when Keating put his hand on the Queen's back to steer the monarch through a crowd. The disregard of Palace protocol - which prohibits that kind of intimate touching - was seen by some as a ploy by the staunch republican to diminish the Queen's standing and to further his anti-monarchist agenda in Australia. His wife Annita added to the furore when she twice greeted the Queen without the customary curtsy during the Royal tour of Australia. The Labor leader then doubled down on the diplomatic incident with a pro-republic style speech to Parliament, which was said to have left the Queen 'dismayed'. Mr Keating paved the way for a referendum in November 1999 for Australia to become a republic which was soundly defeated after opposition from his successor John Howard. Mr Keating sealed his place in Royal infamy when he put his hand on the Queen's back as he steered the monarch through a crowd On Friday, just hours after the monarch's death at the age of 96, Mr Keating marked her passing with a lunch at the ritzy Macleay St Bistro in Sydney's Potts Point. He released an official statement on the Queen's demise around 1.30pm before immediately leaving his nearby office with his daughter Caroline. But in bizarre scenes as he walked the short distance to the restaurant, his daughter waved her arms wildly and the ex-PM tried to hide his face behind his hands. He then disappeared inside the busy bistro where he and Caroline enjoyed a leisurely hour-long meal. Paul Keating walked the short distance to a restaurant in Potts Points, with his daughter Caroline not happy to see Daily Mail Australia As he left the restaurant to return to his office, he shrugged off questions about his feelings on the Queen's passing and his role in the 1992 row. Mr Keating was Australia's prime minister between 1991 and 1996, before being defeated at the ballot box by Mr Howard. He issued a lengthy statement which hinted at his belief that the Queen rejected the right-wing politics of the UK in the 1980s and 90s under then-PM Margaret Thatcher. The former Labor firebrand said he was in favour of more socially-aware and supportive policies. But on Friday he refused to expand on his comments about the Queen's political views. 'In the 20th century, the self became privatised, while the public realm, the realm of the public good, was broadly neglected,' he wrote on Friday in response to the Queen's death. Former quick-witted politician Paul Keating once famous for his savage tongue was almost lost for words when quizzed about the 1992 incident 'Queen Elizabeth understood this and instinctively attached herself to the public good against what she recognised as a tidal wave of private interest and private reward. And she did this for a lifetime. Never deviating. 'She was an exemplar of public leadership, married for a lifetime to political restraint, remaining always, the constitutional monarch.' He didn't mention the 'Lizard' incident with the monarch or the way the row had been portrayed in his statement. But he paid tribute to her years of selfless service, and said she embodied all that was good about Britain. 'To the extent that an hereditary monarch can ever reflect the will or conscience of a people, in the case of Britain, Queen Elizabeth assimilated a national consciousness reflecting every good instinct and custom the British people possessed and held to their heart,' he added. Paul Keating finally offered a classic slap down to questions about the Queen: 'I'd prefer you to disappear as quickly as you can' 'In a 70-year reign, she was required to meet literally hundreds of thousands of officials - presidents, prime ministers, ministers, premiers, mayors and municipal personalities. 'It was more than one person should ever have been asked to do. 'But Elizabeth II's stoicism and moralism welded her to the task and with it, the idea of monarchy.' Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has been given a 15 per cent pay rise this year despite the huge problems plaguing the airline. Mr Joyce's pay cheque rose from $1.98m to $2.27m this year, according to Qantas' annual report. The pay rise came despite the airline apologising to customers for severe delays, cancellations and poor service. Mr Joyce earned $10m in 2019 before the company deferred executive short-term bonuses in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. He also later delayed the vesting of long term bonuses worth $3.3m, meaning he is in for a monster payout if he retires at the end of 2023. Transport Workers Union national secretary Michael Kaine slammed the news of Mr Joyce's windfall. Alan Joyce's pay cheque rose from $1.98m to $2.27m this year, according to Qantas' annual report The pay rise came despite the airline apologising to customers for severe delays, cancellations and poor service. 'His strategy to gut the airline of its essential workforce, drive down pay and conditions to the bottom of the barrel, and leave passengers stranded by grounding flights to show his workers who's boss has crucified the spirit of Australia and left us with a decimated airline,' Mr Kaine said. Among Qantas execs, domestic and international chief executive Andrew David made $1.45m and chief financial officer Vanessa Hudson earned $1.44m, up 20 per cent on 2021. More bonuses are on the way next year, worth between $900,000 and $1.2m, if Qantas' Covid-19 recovery plan is achieved. Meanwhile, Jetstar chief executive Gareth Evans was the second highest earner after Mr Joyce, taking home $1.58m, The Australian reported. His windfall came despite the airline slumping to a $796m loss in the 2022 financial year. Qantas chairman Richard Goyder said the pay packets were key to keeping the considerable talent in the executive team. He insisted the payouts would depend on 'delivering the recovery in full'. 'Managing an airline through a pandemic is incredibly difficult and few have emerged with the underlying strength that Qantas has,' Mr Goyder said. 'That's an absolute credit to Alan Joyce and his team, though the full impact of what's been achieved will be best judged a few years from now when new aircraft are arriving, new routes are opening up and (there are) lots of opportunities for our people.' However, Mr Goyder admitted 2022 had been another tough year for the airline. Qantas chairman Richard Goyder said the pay packets were key to keeping the considerable talent in the executive team Transport Workers' Union National Secretary Michael Kaine criticised Qantas' management team and also blasted CEO Alan Joyce for the chaos at Australia's airports 'This annual report hopefully represents the last chapter of the terrible impact that the Covid crisis had on Qantas,' he said. 'The restart has been bumpy which reflects how difficult it is to bring an airline out of hibernation at the same time as dealing with record rates of Covid in the community.' He also extended a 'sincere apology' to customers after a wave of criticism. The ongoing problems prompted commentator Phillip Adams, who coined the airline's famous The Spirit of Australia slogan in the 1980s, to ask Alan Joyce to remove the tagline from branding. A Qantas insider recently warned systematic cost-cutting means it's only a matter of time before the airline suffers a 'devastating incident'. Other Qantas employees said poorly trained outsourced ground crew are the main reason for many ongoing issues. One groundsman who did not wish to be identified said about 50 per cent of all delayed flights have been caused by luggage problems - either planes taking off before its cargo has been loaded or with the previous flight's still onboard. Advertisement Britain's national newspapers today mourn the passing and celebrate the life of Queen Elizabeth II with front page tributes. Reflecting the public's profound sense of loss, 12 papers are dedicated to Britain's longest-serving monarch and her lifetime of public service after she passed away peacefully at Balmoral Castle yesterday at the age of 96. King Charles III led the tributes to his 'beloved Mother' and said 'her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country'. Members of the Royal Family rushed to The Queen's bedside yesterday. King Charles and Princess Anne were with her when she passed yesterday afternoon, and were later joined by Prince William, Prince Edward, Prince Andrew and Prince Harry. The King has spent the night at Balmoral and will travel to London today where he will hold an audience with Prime Minister Liz Truss at midday before addressing the nation in a broadcast this evening. Crowds gathered outside Buckingham Palace and Balmoral Castle throughout the night to mourn The Queen's passing after 70 years on the throne. Today is the first of 10 days of mourning as the country reflects on the life of Queen Elizabeth II and the end of her reign. The Daily Mail The Daily Mail leads the tributes to Hey Majesty Queen Elizabeth II with a striking image of the monarch in the early years of her reign with the headline 'Our hearts are broken'. The historic edition of the paper celebrates the life of the country's longest-serving monarch who ruled for over 70 years. The Times The Times front page is covered with The Queen's official portrait on her coronation in 1953 in full royal regalia, honouring 'a life of service' she devoted to her country. It adds a heartwarming quote from her 1957 Christmas broadcast, in which she offered 'my heart and my devotion to these old islands, and to all the peoples of our brotherhood of nations.' The Daily Express Today's edition of The Daily Express fades to black and white to mourn the monarch, with the stark headline 'Our beloved Queen is dead'. The newspaper joins in the outpouring of tributes as it says the 'world mourns the loss of a truly great and inspirational monarch.' The Sun The Sun newspaper pays its respects to Elizabeth II as it says 'We loved you Ma'am' on its black and white tribute edition. The front cover includes King Charles' tribute to his 'beloved mother' as he joined the nation in mourning 'the passing of a cherished sovereign.' The Metro The Metro newspaper dedicates its front page to The Queen with a simple tribute featuring a colour photo from the early years of her reign. Its headline says only: 'Elizabeth II 1926-2022'. The Daily Star The front page of The Daily Star thanks The Queen for her long decades of service with the country by saying: 'You did your duty Ma'am.' The paper's cover also shows the official portrait of Elizabeth II's coronation and dedicates a pullout tribute to the monarch. The Mirror The Mirror leads with The Queen's famous profile which has adorned the nation's stamps and currency for more than half a century. The front cover shows The Queen on a black background and adds a simple 'Thank you' as its headline for Her Majesty's 70 years on the throne. The Daily Telegraph The front page of The Daily Telegraph quotes The Queen's words 'Grief is the price we pay for love' as the nation mourns her passing. A black and white cover shows the monarch towards the end of her life ahead of a 28-page pictorial tribute inside the paper. The Guardian The Guardian also leads with a striking image of The Queen at her coronation in 1953, just over a year after she ascended to the throne following the passing of her father King George VI. The accompanying headline reads simply: 'Queen Elizabeth II 1926-2022' as the newspaper pays tribute to her life of service. The Financial Times The pink pages of The Financial Times remember the life of Queen Elisabeth II with a photo of the monarch in her carriage as she attends the state opening of Parliament in 1971. The paper adds: 'The country was in mourning at the ending of a reign that spanned 70 years. The Prince of Wales, The Queen's eldest son, has become the new head of state, King Charles III.' The i The i newspaper also covers its front page with the iconic portrait of Elizabeth II in her royal garments on her coronation with the headline 'Queen Elizabeth II 1926-2022'. The paper notes that Britain gained a new King and new Prime Minister within 48 hours and says Charles III is 'set to address the nation, after tribute to his 'beloved mother'. The government must now stop playing the coy patriarch and start the process of scrapping a patently unjust legal provision which is an affront to civilisation instead. (Representational Image/ DC) The split verdict of the Delhi high court on the question of criminalisation of marital rape points to the reality that India, an aspiring democratic republic with modern values, is facing. The legal question before the court was whether Exception 2 in Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code, which defines rape, is against the Constitution. Exception 2 says sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his wife are not rape. One of the two judges on the bench thought it fit to strike it down holding it contravenes some of the fundamental rights guaranteed, under Article 14 (right to equality), Article 19 (freedom of speech and expression) and Article 21 (life with dignity), of the Constitution. He felt that the exception protected men who have forced non-consensual intercourse with their wives from criminal prosecution. The other judge held that the exception was based on marriage as an intelligible criteria and it was not unconstitutional and was based on an intelligible differentia. Those who wanted the exception to be removed contended that it discriminated against one category of rape victims the wives. They also refused to subscribe to the logic behind holding domestic violence as a crime but not marital rape. That a woman has got married by no extension of logic would strip her of her rights on her own body and that her consent would be of no value, they contend. Those who backed the exception, which included the Central government, said criminalising marital rape may destabilise the institution of marriage, apart from being an easy tool for harassing the husbands. They also cited the instances of misuse of Section 498A IPC, which deals with cruelty by husband or husbands relatives against a woman to buttress their argument. It is interesting to note that even the backers of the exception do not claim that marital rape does not happen in this country, nor that it is not an offence. They are worried about the impact the absence of the exception can create in society and the potential misuse of the resultant legal position. This takes the ball from the judiciarys court and puts it firmly in the court of the political establishment. The affidavit the Union government submitted before the Supreme Court makes it clear that it knows what is happening is not right but stopping it could have some repercussions. In short, the government was fighting shy of doing what was right, fearing the response of the prevailing social realities. No country can be ruled by decrees which have no popular support; its the job of the executive branch of the government to persuade society to improve itself, own a better sense of justice and create laws which reflect and firm up such a sense. The government has as of now shown no spine to do the job; the court had to make a tough talk to solicit an opinion of the government which sought endless time to make up its mind. The government must now stop playing the coy patriarch and start the process of scrapping a patently unjust legal provision which is an affront to civilisation instead. None will fault it if it wants a piece of legislation that criminalises marital rape to have a soft landing. But land it must. Homesick Brits living in Australia have united to share their grief as they struggle with being far from England after the death of Queen Elizabeth II. British expats flocked to a Facebook group on Friday to pay their respects to Her Royal Highness, after she died at Balmoral on Thursday aged 96. Dozens admitted missing home and feeling isolated as they mourn Her Majesty - who, for many, was the only sovereign they have known during their lifetime. 'Feeling so emotional at the Queens passing,' one woman wrote in a group dedicated to Brits in Australia and NZ. 'Wish I was in England to process & collectively share these feelings. Always find it hard being away on days of significance like these.' Many empathised with her emotions, saying they wished they could be back in their homeland to be with loved ones as they come to terms with Her Majesty's death. Brits living overseas are struggling with homesickness after waking to the news of Queen Elizabeth II's death. Pictured: People gather outside Buckingham Palace to pay tribute to Her Royal Highness Brits living in Australia have united to share their grief as they long to be home with 'their people' Another said: 'I agree totally, feel a very long way from home at the moment, also feel the need to be with our own.' 'Same for me,' someone else chimed. 'I couldnt articulate to someone earlier why I felt I should be in the UK. I think it was about feeling at home, with my own people.' Another expat said they were 'feeling very homesick today', while someone else said 'I want to be with "my people" in England so much right now.' One man said he 'couldnt articulate to someone' he spoke to on Friday why he felt he should be in the UK. 'I think it was about feeling at home, with my own people,' he said. One woman responded: 'In our hearts we are still British no matter how long we are away.' Queen Elizabeth II died aged 96 at Balmoral Castle on Thursday, with her son now ascending the throne as King Charles III The outpouring of grief Down Under comes as thousands of Brits braved the rain to gather at Buckingham Palace in London on Friday to pay their respects to the Queen. Around 100,000 people are expected to line the streets outside Buckingham Palace this evening, with crowds already stretch for more than a kilometre to Trafalgar Square. The sad news of Queen Elizabeth II death was officially announced just after 6.30pm on Thursday, shortly after a Union flag atop Buckingham Palace was lowered. Some people in the crowd wept as others gave an impromptu rendition of God Save The Queen, with black London taxis lining up along grand Mall boulevard leading to the palace in tribute. Royal super fan John Loughrey, 67, fought back tears and said: I cant believe the news, Im devastated. I didnt think she was going to die today, I knew she was ill but I hoped she would survive a few more months. She deteriorated when her husband Prince Philip passed away. They were soul mates. They were like swans, together forever. I met her twice and I thought she was marvellous. The news hasnt really sunk in. Im going to miss her so much. Do you know the airport worker Harry comforted? Email tips@dailymail.com Advertisement Prince Harry has landed at Heathrow after jumping on an early morning BA flight where he comforted an airport worker with a reassuring hand on her shoulder after she gave him her condolences about the death of the Queen. He is heading back to Windsor to be with Meghan Markle having left Balmoral after 12 hours mourning his grandmother with his father, King Charles III, and brother Prince William - as it was claimed the Sussexes will stay in Britain for ten days until the state funeral. The Duke of Sussex was the last royal to arrive at the Aberdeenshire castle last night and the first to leave this morning after losing a race against time to get to the Queen's bedside before she died yesterday. Today the world mourns the death of Britain's longest-reigning monarch as her son accedes to the throne. The Queens coffin draped in the Royal Standard with a wreath of her favourite flowers on top is believed to be at rest in the ballroom of Balmoral, where she spent every summer with her beloved Prince Philip. The King and the Queen Consort, Camilla, have left for London where the monarch will meet the Prime Minister before addressing the nation. His siblings and his eldest son Prince William remain at Balmoral. A Buckingham Palace source told MailOnline: King Charles must return to London to attend to matters of state. But the other senior royal will spend a day of quiet reflection at Balmoral Castle. King Charles III will be proclaimed at the Accession Council at 10am tomorrow in the State Apartments of St James's Palace. Harry headed back to Meghan at 8.28am, where he was sat alone in the rear of a Range Rover as he was driven out of the Royal Family's Scottish home, where he had arrived at 7.52pm last night. He was swept into Aberdeen airport at 9.20am, led by five police outriders, and boarded a flight to London leaving at 10am. Harry wore a black suit and carried a shoulder bag as he walked towards the steps of the plane. An airport worker offered her sympathies as the Prince was about to walk up the steps of a British Airways aircraft. The woman, who was dressed in a high- visibility yellow jacket, addressed Prince Harry. The royal smiled and patted her gently in the shoulder before boarding the aircraft for Londons Heathrow Airport. Grief was written on the Duke of Sussex's face after he landed in Scotland yesterday - 15 minutes after Her Majesty's death was announced to the world. He had his head bowed and partially covered his face as he was driven out of Aberdeen airport, arriving at Balmoral after dark. He left 12 hours later. Prince Harry's convoy leaves the VIP suite of Heathrow after he landed from Aberdeen this morning King Charles III leaves Aberdeen Airport as he travels to London following Thursday's death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II Prince Harry put his hand on the shoulder of an Aberdeen airport worker as he head back to London following the death of his grandmother. The Duke of Sussex is reported to be staying in the UK King Charles III leaves Balmoral for London where he will meet the Prime Minister and address the nation The Queen Consort, Camilla, looks sad as she leaves for Aberdeen airport with her husband the King The woman is said to have offered her condolences to Harry after losing his grandmother Prince Harry boards a British Airways plane at Aberdeen International Airport this morning after a 12 hour stay at Balmoral where the Queen died yesterday The Duke of Sussex, seen texting on his phone, will be reunited with his wife, who may return to the US while he stays in the UK Prince Harry is swept out of Balmoral by security in the back seat of this Range Rover this morning following the death of the Queen The Duke of Sussex joined other members of the Royal Family in mourning the Queen's death Harry is swept into Aberdeen International Airport as he returns to London where he will be reunited with Meghan The Duke of Sussex was at his grandmother's Aberdeenshire home for just over 12 hours The plane that will carry Britain's King Charles III and The Queen Consort, Camilla, to London is being refuelled at Aberdeen International Airport this morning Prince Harry landed in Aberdeen - shortly after the death of his grandmother, the Queen, was announced Harry headed to the Scottish estate alone, without his wife Meghan, having previously been due to attend the WellChild Awards in London last night Prince Charles boarded a helicopter from Dumfries House as all the Queen's children gathered at her bedside after a warning from doctors about her health. Hours later he would be king Prince William drove Prince Andrew, Sophie, Countess of Wessex and Prince Edward into Balmoral Queen Elizabeth's 70-year reign is unlikely to ever be surpassed by another king or queen of England A police officer appears overwhelmed as flowers and tributes grow outside Buckingham Palace today London Bridge is down Buckingham Palaces behind-the-scenes code for Queen Elizabeth IIs death triggers a period of mourning in which normal life in the UK will dramatically slow for the next ten days The death of Queen Elizabeth: A timeline of how today's sad news was announced 12.35pm: A statement is released by Buckingham Palace, announcing that the Queen is under medical supervision at Balmoral after doctors became 'concerned for her health'. A Palace spokesperson said: 'Following further evaluation this morning, the Queen's doctors are concerned for Her Majesty's health and have recommended she remain under medical supervision. The Queen remains comfortable and at Balmoral.' 12.47pm: A statement is released by Clarence House, confirming that Prince Charles and his wife Camilla would travel to Balmoral. It said: 'The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall have travelled to Balmoral'. 12.48pm: A minute later, Kensington Palace announces that Price William will be travelling to Balmoral. The statement read: 'The Duke of Cambridge is also travelling to Balmoral.' 1.37pm: It is reported that Prince Andrew has travelled to Balmoral Castle in Scotland following news that doctors were concerned for The Queen's health. 1.38pm: Sources confirm to the Press Association (PA) that The Princess Royal is at Balmoral, and the Duke of York and the Earl and Countess of Wessex are on their way to the Queen's Scottish home. 1.55pm: A spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex confirms that the couple will be 'travelling to Scotland'. While the initial statement mentioned 'Scotland', it did not make directly make mention of Balmoral. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were due to attend the WellChild Awards ceremony in London on Thursday evening, but changed their plans to travel to see the Queen. 4.14pm: A news alert by the Press Association (PA) said that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were believed to be travelling to Balmoral 'separately' from other royals. 4.39pm: Less than 30 minutes later, PA issue another news alert, quoting an unnamed source, saying that that the Duchess of Sussex would not travel to Balmoral with the Duke of Sussex. The source said that Prince Harry would be making the trip by himself. A source said the Duchess could potentially join Harry in Scotland at a later date, following what PA described as a 'change of plan'. 4.44pm: Minutes later, Omid Scobie, a journalist considered to be 'friendly' towards the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and who often quotes unnamed sources close to the couple, writes a post on social media network, Twitter about the situation. He write: A source has shared an update stating that only Prince Harry has made the trip up to Balmoral. Like the Duchess of Cambridge (who is in Windsor with their three children), the Duchess of Sussex is staying back in England (but still not attending tonight's WellChild Awards).' The post mentions Kate, who earlier in the day it was revealed would not travel to Balmoral. 6.30pm: The Royal Family announces via social media site Twitter that Queen has died 'peacefully' at Balmoral at the age of 96. 8pm: Prince Harry arrives at Balmoral following the public announcement Advertisement The Sussexes, whose comments since Megxit has caused a rift with the royals, especially William, were not expected to see any members of the Royal Family - despite staying yards from the Cambridges during their pseudo-royal tour of Europe - until yesterday's tragedy. Prince William had flown up on a RAF jet with Prince Andrew, Prince Edward and his wife Sophie. But it is understood that they did not reach the estate before she passed. Initial reports had said his younger brother would also be on board. But instead Harry was in mid air when Buckingham Palace announced the death of his beloved grandmother. He flew by private jet from Luton Airport, arriving at Balmoral an hour and a half after the historic statement. Courtiers issued the declaration at 6.30pm - just over an hour after Prince William and other senior royals had arrived to join Prince Charles at the Queen's residence. Liz Truss was told at around 4.30pm, Downing Street said. But when the world was being told the saddest of news, Harry's Cessna was still in the air, making its approach to Aberdeen Airport. The Duke of Sussex's flight had been due to land at 6.29pm, a minute before the statement. But it was 20 minutes late taking off from London's Luton Airport - with flight data showing it departed at 5.35pm. It took one hour and 11 minutes to reach Aberdeen. By the time he landed, at 6.46pm, it was 16 minutes after the palace had made the announcement. Harry then faced a lonely drive to the castle, finally arriving at 7.52pm where he joined other members of the Royal Family in mourning the Queen's death. He looked ashen-faced on the back seat of the Range Rover as it swept into the Balmoral estate. As well as losing a beloved grandmother, he may have been reflecting on his future without her as monarch. She remained fond of him, in spite of recent challenges, and he was said to have retained an ability to make her laugh. By the time he arrived, his and Meghan's Archewell website homepage had been replaced with a respectful blackedout page with the words: 'In loving memory of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 1926-2022.' Earlier in the day there had been confusion over whether Meghan was also on her way to Scotland. In the morning, it appeared they were both intending to visit Her Majesty's residence - until changing the plan so that Harry went alone. As senior royals dashed to the bedside, a spokesman for the Sussexes was widely reported to have announced that Meghan and Harry were on their way. The possibility raised eyebrows behind palace doors, given the recent strained relations between the Sussexes and senior royals. Meghan's well-publicised accusations about racism in the Royal Family and alleging it did not support her in palace life overshadowed the Queen's final days. In contrast to the Sussexes, there was never any suggestion that the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge would go together. While William hastened north, Kate remained in London, where she was seen taking their children to their first full day at their new school. Senior royals including William are said to have been avoiding his brother and wife amid concerns any encounters could provide material for the Duke of Sussex's forthcoming book. Although they live in California, the Sussexes have been in Europe this week on a mini 'royal'-style tour, including an event in Germany for the duke's forthcoming Invictus Games. Last night they had been due to attend the WellChild Awards in London, which honours the brave deeds of seriously ill children. They were not scheduled to see the Queen at all during their trip to the UK, but decided to go to Balmoral on hearing about Her Majesty's health, it was reported yesterday morning. However by the afternoon, the plan suddenly experienced a dramatic U-turn, with Meghan apparently no longer coming. A spokesman for the couple was widely reported as saying Meghan would now remain in London, although would not attend the WellChild awards. It was said the duchess could potentially join Harry in Scotland at a later date. Harry and Meghan's children Archie and Lilibet - named after the Queen - have stayed behind in the United States, and the couple were expected to return to them by the end of the week. Earlier this week, one of the Sussexes' favoured journalists claimed that Meghan and Harry still had not spoken to William and Kate, despite enjoying a day off from their tour, at Frogmore Cottage just 700 yards away from the latter pair's Adelaide Cottage. It was claimed this week that William had resolved not to speak to Harry until after his memoirs are released, fearing their conversation would appear on its pages. Flight data shows the Duke of Sussex 's jet was still in the air at the time, not touching down at the airport until nearly 15 minutes later The brothers now face seeing a lot of each other as they prepare for the Queen's funeral. The last time the Sussexes saw The Queen was in June amid the celebrations for the Platinum Jubilee, when they introduced her to their daughter Lilibet - named in honour of Her Majesty's childhood nickname - for the first time. King Charles, seen carrying a briefcase, took a royal helicopter to Balmoral from Dumfries House with his wife this morning. Princess Anne was already at Balmoral after an engagement this week. A flight carrying Prince William, Prince Andrew, Prince Edward and the Countess of Wessex - flew from RAF Northolt in London and landed at Aberdeen at 4pm. The Duke of Cambridge took to the wheel of his Range Rover with his uncles and aunt on board amid deep concerns about Her Majesty's health earlier today. It was confirmed that Her Majesty had died 'peacefully' at Balmoral this afternoon, at the age of 96. A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: 'The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow'. The Queen's death will see Britain and her Commonwealth realms enter into a ten-day period of mourning as millions of her subjects in the UK and abroad come to terms with her passing. And as her son accedes to the throne, there will also be a celebration of her historic 70-year reign that saw her reach her Platinum Jubilee this year - a landmark unlikely to be reached again by a British monarch. Charles, the King, said: 'The death of my beloved mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family. 'We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished sovereign and a much-loved mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world. 'During this period of mourning and change, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which the Queen was so widely held.' The Queen's coffin will be moved to London on the royal train via Edinburgh before she lies in state in Westminster Hall in the Houses of Parliament for four days. Hundreds of thousands of people will be able to pay their respects. The state funeral is expected take place at Westminster Abbey in central London on Monday, September 19, which will be attended by her bereft family as well as 2,000 heads of state, prime ministers and presidents, European royals and key figures from public life around the globe. Flags will fly at half mast on UK Government buildings in tribute to the Queen from now until the morning after her funeral. Guidance was issued by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on the flying of official flags. All such flags, which include Union Flags and any national flag, are to be 'half masted on all UK government buildings as soon as possible today until 0800 the day following the Queen's state funeral', the department said. It advises that any non-official flags, which include for example the rainbow flag or Armed Forces flag, should be taken down and replaced with a Union Flag flying at half mast. The Union flag on Buckingham Palace was at half mast on Thursday while a framed plaque announcing the Queen's death was placed on the front gates by royal household staff. Similarly, flags at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh were lowered to half mast, along with those at the Scottish Parliament and at Scottish Government buildings. Half mast means that flags are flown a third of the way down the flagpole, with at least the height of the flag between the top of the flag and the top of the pole. The Royal Standard is never flown at half mast, even after the Queen's death, as there is always a monarch on the throne - with the role passing to her son the King. Liz Truss stepped out of No 10 and to the podium on Downing Street at 7.07pm, dressed in black, to address the nation following the Queen's death. Ms Truss was appointed as Prime Minister by the Queen at Balmoral only two days ago. Liz Truss hailed the Queen, who appointed her as the 15th Prime Minister of her reign on Tuesday, said: 'Queen Elizabeth II was the rock on which modern Britain was built. Our country has grown and flourished under her reign. Britain is the great country it is today because of her.' The Queen posed for a photograph in the drawing room at Balmoral shortly before her meeting with Ms Truss, whom she appointed as her Prime Minister this week A photo of the Queen dated 1961. Today she was described by the Prime Minister as 'the rock on which modern Britain was built' Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh in an official wedding photograph taken on their wedding day in 1947 Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip with their two children Prince Charles and Princess Anne in 1951 The Queen posing with her son Charles and grandson William in a photo showing the generations of the royal family The Queen with Prince Edward pictured in 1995 during a visit to the Royal Windsor Horse Show Queen Elizabeth II and her husband the Duke of Edinburgh walk at Broadlands in this picture released on November 18, 2007 The Queen and Prince Philip wave as they leave Westminster Abbey after Prince William and Kate's wedding in April 2011 April 17, 2021: Queen Elizabeth II during the funeral of her husband the Duke of Edinburgh at St George's Chapel in Windsor Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer described the Queen as a 'remarkable sovereign', adding: 'It is a deep, private loss for the royal family and all our thoughts are with them at this time. The nation shares in their grief. 'We will always treasure Queen Elizabeth II's life of service and devotion to our nation and the Commonwealth; our longest-serving and greatest monarch. 'Above the clashes of politics, she stood not for what the nation fought over, but what it agreed upon. As Britain changed rapidly around her, this dedication became the still point of our turning world. 'So as our great Elizabethan era comes to an end, we will honour the late Queen's memory by keeping alive the values of public service she embodied. 'For 70 years, Queen Elizabeth II stood as the head of our country. But, in spirit, she stood amongst us.' US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden said the Queen was 'more than a monarch' and that she 'defined an era'. A White House statement said: 'In a world of constant change, she was a steadying presence and a source of comfort and pride for generations of Britons, including many who have never known their country without her. She, in turn, dedicated her whole life to their service'. The Queen's passing came more than a year after that of her beloved husband Philip, her 'strength and guide', who died aged 99 in April 2021. Since his funeral, where she poignantly sat alone because of lockdown restrictions, her own health faltered, and she was forced to miss an increasing number of events mainly due to 'mobility problems' and tiredness. The Queen and Prince Charles during the state opening of Parliament at the Palace of Westminster in 2019 The Queen welcomes Liz Truss during an audience where she invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative party to become Prime Minister and form a new government on Tuesday. It would be the final photo of the monarch, who did her duty to the end Through such longevity Elizabeth inevitably experienced personal lows as well as great national highs, but won deeper admiration for the stoicism she showed in the face of adversity and her ability to remain untainted by scandals that occasionally engulfed her family. She famously declared 1992 her 'annus horribilis', after it saw a devastating fire gut Windsor Castle and the marriages of her children Anne, Charles and Andrew all falter. Five years later she steered the Crown through its gravest crisis since the abdication of her uncle, Edward VIII, when Princess Diana was killed in a Paris car crash. And in the last years of her life she faced her grandson Harry exiting royal life and entering into a war of words with 'The Firm' after moving to California with wife Meghan rather than continue living in Frogmore Cottage in Windsor. The Sussexes also carried out a bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021, and Harry is planning to release a tell-all book. In January 2020 the Duke and Duchess of Sussex shocked the world by announcing their intention to step down as senior royals. Buckingham Palace said all were 'saddened' by their decision to permanently step down as working royals, but they remained 'much loved members of the family'. A statement added that the Queen had 'written confirming that in stepping away from the work of the Royal Family it is not possible to continue with the responsibilities and duties that come with a life of public service'. But the Sussexes hit back with a statement of their own, saying: 'We can all live a life of service. Service is universal.' The official announcement of the death of the Queen placed on the gates of Buckingham Palace King Charles III released this poignant statement reacting to the death of his 'beloved mother' as he took the throne today A statement about the Queen's health is exceptionally rare and raises major concerns. She died hours later Thousands of mourners have gathered outside Buckingham Palace evening to pay respect to The Queen, following her death at the age of 96 Prince William, 40, is now heir to the throne of the United Kingdom after Prince Charles's accession and is expected to become the new Prince of Wales, with his wife Kate Middleton taking on the new title of the Princess of Wales. William is the oldest royals among the top eight in line, and is followed by his three children Prince George, nine, Princess Charlotte, seven, and Prince Louis, four. Following the Cambridges are Prince Harry, his children Archie and Lilibet, and then Prince Andrew and his two daughters Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie of York. William has become a hugely popular member of the Royal Family in recent years, with his wedding to Kate in April 2011 watched by an estimated two billion people. Technically, Charles's wife, Camilla Parker-Bowles, has been the Princess of Wales until now, but she has used the feminine equivalent of Charles's Duke of Cornwall title, the Duchess of Cornwall. The Duchess of Cornwall is thought to not use the Princess of Wales title out of respect for Charles's ex-wife Princess Diana, who died in Paris in August 1997. Camilla will now become Queen Consort after the Queen gave this approval. Following the Queen's death, Charles also becomes head of the Commonwealth - and it has been claimed Harry will take a more active role in this. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's son, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, is now technically a prince following the death of the Queen - a title which Meghan controversially claimed was previously denied to him because of his race. During the explosive Oprah Winfrey interview, Meghan Markle described her 'pain' that officials had denied Archie the title of prince and accused Buckingham Palace of failing to protect him by denying him 24/7 security The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were not thought to be visiting the Queen during their European tour this week His younger sister, Lilibet 'Lili' Mountbatten-Windsor, is also entitled to be a princess following the death of the Queen and with her grandfather, the Prince of Wales, becoming King. The rules set out by King George V in 1917 mean Archie and Lili - as the children of a son of a sovereign - also now have an HRH style if they choose to use it. During the explosive Oprah Winfrey interview, Meghan Markle described her 'pain' as she claimed officials had denied Archie the title of prince and accused Buckingham Palace of failing to protect him by denying him 24/7 security. When asked if it was 'important' for Meghan that Archie be called a prince, she said she doesn't have any attachment to the 'grandeur' of official titles. But she said it was about 'the idea of our son not being safe, and also the idea of the first member of colour in this family not being titled in the same way that other grandchildren would be.' Meghan argued in the Sussexes' bombshell interview with US talk show host Oprah Winfrey that Archie was not given the title of prince because of his race. However, when Archie was born seventh in line to the throne in May 2019, he was too far down the line of succession. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were not thought to be visiting the Queen during their European tour this month. On Tuesday they were in Dusseldorf, Germany, to mark a year before the next Invictus Games, where they were greeted by rapturous crowds of royalist enthusiasts, while today's schedule was intended to be focused on the Wellchild Awards. The duke has served as a patron of Wellchild since 2007. The couple's tour was the subject of mounting speculation about whether they would see other members of the Royal Family, in particular Harry's father Prince Charles and brother Prince William. A royal insider said the two brothers had seen each other just twice in 12 months. How Britain will mourn Queen's death: King Charles to address the nation within hours before thousands will pay their respects to Her Majesty as she lies in state before funeral which is expected on Monday, September 19 By Mark Duell The Queen died aged 96 yesterday and King Charles III is now the new monarch. Here is the day-by-day account of what is expected to happen next, leading up to the Queen's funeral expected on September 19: Day of Death Yesterday would traditionally have been D-Day or D+0 in the plans for the aftermath of the Queen's death, codenamed London Bridge. But the announcement came late in the day - at around 6.30pm yesterday - meaning plans have been shifted a day to allow the complex arrangements to be put in place, meaning D+0 will be considered today. The new King had dashed to the Queen's bedside. Charles was joined by the monarch's other children the Princess Royal, the Duke of York and the Earl of Wessex, with the Duke of Cambridge, now heir to the throne. The Duke of Sussex also travelled there but left alone this morning. Also at Balmoral are Camilla - the new Queen - and the Countess of Wessex. The King and Camilla will return to London today. The following is expected to take place in the coming days, but Buckingham Palace has yet to confirm plans: D+0 - Friday September 9 - The King and Queen to return to London - Charles and Camilla stayed at Balmoral overnight last night, but return to London today. - 12pm: Church bells expected to ring across the country in commemoration of the Queen. Bells will toll at Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral and Windsor Castle - but the timing of that has not been confirmed. -12pm: Tributes to the Queen will be paid by MPs in the House of Commons, led by Prime Minister Liz Truss and Speaker of the House Lindsay Hoyle. - 1pm: Gun salutes - one round for every year of the Queen's life - will be fired in London's Hyde Park and at other stations. - Audience with the PM - despite his grief, duty calls for new sovereign Charles who will have his first audience as monarch with Prime Minister Liz Truss this afternoon. - Confirming funeral plans - Charles is likely to meet the Earl Marshal - the Duke of Norfolk - who is in charge of the accession and the Queen's funeral, to approve the carefully choreographed schedule for the coming days. The London Bridge arrangements have long been planned in consultation with the Government. They will incorporate Operation Unicorn, the contingency plans for the death of the Queen in Scotland. During the coronavirus pandemic, the Government and the Royal Household prepared a 'London minus' version of the London Bridge plans in case it was needed - which is now unlikely - with all the elements but with the involvement of fewer people. - Court mourning - A period of royal mourning for members of the royal family and royal households will be observed until seven days after the Queen's funeral, the date of which is to be confirmed by Buckingham Palace. - National mourning - The Government will confirm the length of national mourning, which is likely to be around 12 days, from now up to the day after the Queen's funeral. They will also announce that the funeral day will be a public holiday in the form of a Day of National Mourning. - 6pm: Televised address by King Charles III - The King will make a televised address to the nation, which he is due to pre-record. He will pay tribute to the Queen and pledge his duty to his service as the new sovereign. - 6pm: Service at St Paul's Cathedral - The Prime Minister and senior ministers will attend a public service of remembrance at St Paul's in central London. - Flags - Union flags on royal buildings are flying at half-mast. The Royal Standard never flies half-mast. It represents the Sovereign and the United Kingdom, and is a symbol of the continuation of the monarchy. If the new King is in residence at a royal palace or castle, the Royal Standard will fly there full-mast as is the tradition. The Union flag does not fly there at the same time. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is in charge of arrangements for lowering flags on government buildings. Downing Street reportedly expressed concern in the past that the Government would face a wave of public anger if it did not lower its flags within 10 minutes of the announcement of the Queen's death. - Sports events - A decision is likely to be made later today on whether sports bodies such as the Premier League will cancel matches this weekend. Official Government guidance recommends sports bodies should consider cancelling events on the day of the funeral, but there is no obligation for other days. D+1 - Saturday, September 10 The Accession Council meets, traditionally at 10am, at St James's Palace in London to formally proclaim Charles as the new sovereign. First, the Privy Council gathers without the King to proclaim the new monarch and arrange business relating to the proclamation. Then Charles holds his first Privy Council, accompanied by Camilla - the new Queen - and William who are also Privy Counsellors, and makes his personal declaration and oath. The first public proclamation of the new sovereign is read in the open air from the Friary Court balcony at St James's Palace by the Garter King of Arms. Proclamations are made around the city and across the country. Union flags go back up to full-mast at 1pm and remain there for 24 hours to coincide with the proclamations before returning to half-mast. Charles will also hold audiences with the Prime Minister and the Cabinet. D+2 - Sunday, September 11 The Queen's coffin is expected to be taken by road to the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. Proclamations will be read in the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland devolved parliaments in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast. D+3 - Monday, September 12 Procession is expected along Royal Mile to St Giles' Cathedral. Service and the Vigil of the Princes by members of the royal family. The public may get the chance to file past the Queen's coffin at a mini lying in state in St Giles'. The House of Commons and the House of Lords are expected to come together in Westminster for a Motion of Condolence, which the King could attend. After leaving England and visiting Scotland, Charles will at some stage travel to the other countries of the UK - Wales and Northern Ireland - known as Operation Spring Tide. D+4 - Tuesday, September 13 Coffin expected to be flown to London. Expected to be at rest at Buckingham Palace. A rehearsal for the procession of the coffin from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster takes place. D+5 - Wednesday, September 14 The Queen's lying in state is expected to begin in Westminster Hall - Operation Marquee - following a ceremonial procession through London. It will last four full days. The Archbishop of Canterbury will conduct a short service following the coffin's arrival. Hundreds of thousands of people will file past the coffin on its catafalque and pay their respects, just as they did for the Queen Mother's lying in state in 2002. The management of the queues outside is Operation Feather. During the Covid-19 crisis, plans included the possibility of the introduction of timed ticketing for those wanting to attend. Senior royals are also expected to pay their own moving tribute, standing guard at some stage around the coffin - the tradition known as the Vigil of the Princes. D+6 - Thursday, September 15 Lying in state continues and a rehearsal is likely to take place for the state funeral procession. D+7 - Friday, September 16 - Sunday, September 18 Lying in state continues, ending on D+9. Heads of state begin to arrive for the funeral. D+10 - Monday, September 19 The Queen's state funeral is expected take place at Westminster Abbey in central London. The original plans are for the Queen's coffin to process on a gun carriage to the abbey, pulled by naval ratings - sailors - using ropes rather than horses. Senior members of the family are expected to poignantly follow behind - just like they did for the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales and the Duke of Edinburgh. The military will line the streets and also join the procession. Heads of state, prime ministers and presidents, European royals and key figures from public life will be invited to gather in the abbey, which can hold a congregation of 2,000. The service will be televised, and a national two minutes' silence is expected to be held. The same day as the funeral, the Queen's coffin will be taken to St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle for a televised committal service. Later in the evening, there will be a private interment service with senior members of the royal family. The Queen's final resting place will be the King George VI memorial chapel, an annex to the main chapel - where her mother and father were buried, along with the ashes of her sister, Princess Margaret. Philip's coffin will move from the Royal Vault to the memorial chapel to join the Queen's. Where to see the Queen's coffin: How you can pay your respects to Her Majesty in Edinburgh and London as late monarch lies in state The Australian engineer who believes he is the lovechild of King Charles III and Queen consort Camilla has broken his silence over the death of his 'grandmother'. British-born Simon Charles Dorante-Day has shared a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II on Facebook after she passed away at Balmoral Castle on Thursday. The 56-year-old, who is based in Queensland, said his daughter Meriam told him Her Majesty had died when he woke up on Friday. 'Like everyone on the planet it would be hard not to be affected and saddened by her passing,' he wrote. 'Since finding out about the loss of my grandmother aka Lilibet, I've been inundated with messages of condolence for the loss. Thank you all for your kind words, thoughts, and concern.' Mr Dorante-Day, who has been fighting for King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla to provide a DNA sample since 2018, said the death of the monarch also marked the loss of him 'pleasantly' being able to get to the bottom of his biological heritage. Simon Charles Dorante-Day (pictured) has issued a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II as he thanks supporters for sending their condolences as he mourns 'his grandmother' However, he vowed to continue his efforts to try and determine conclusively that the new sovereign and his wife are his true parents. 'As many of you have expressed my family and I are mourning not just the loss of Her Majesty but the loss of another opportunity to resolve this issue pleasantly, the right way,' he said. 'So, despite the lost opportunity of getting to personally hear her version of events, and the great sadness we all feel at her passing, on a personal and public scale it will be business as usual.' The father-of-nine said he feels the Queen is now 'free' to do what she wishes in the afterlife without any judgement 'like she had her entire reign' and that she has now been 'reunited with her greatest love and closest friend', the late Duke of Edinburgh. He said that he does not think she would want anyone to feel sad for her, and instead 'she would rather we all celebrate and remember her for what she stood for and the changes that she was able to make during her reign'. As they mourn, Mr Dorante-Day, whose wife Elvianna and children are Indigenous Australians, said his family would be partaking in sacred Aboriginal cultural practices. 'Together we are all entering a period of what First Nations Australians would define as 'Sorry Business' as we all experience this loss!' he said. Mr Dorante-Day believes King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla are his biological parents after he was adopted out at eight-months old 'No matter what your feelings, political alignments, religious belief, or convictions - she has been a part of all of our lives for a lifetime. Elizabeth touched each and every one of us.' 'Dr. Elvianna, the family, and I would appreciate people's understanding and respect that we too are experiencing Sorry Business, for our own reasons, in our own way. 'Rest in peace Aka, you are in God's hands now, I know in me I will always carry a piece of you.' Mr Dorante-Day was born in Portsmouth, UK, on April 5 1966 and was adopted at eight months old before his family later settled in Australia. Both of Mr Dorante-Day's adoptive grandparents had worked for the Queen and Prince Philip in one of their royal households and he claims his adoptive grandmother repeatedly and directly told him he was the son of Charles and Camilla. Mr Dorante-Day's case alleges King Charles and Queen consort Camilla began their close relationship in 1965, a year before his birth certificate says he was born. He claims in the nine months before he was born Queen consort Camilla was absent from the British social scene and King Charles was sent on a trip to Australia. Mr Dorante-Day's case alleges Queen consort Camilla kept him until he was eight months old, hiding him from the world with the help of the royal family and protection officers. However by eight months he was growing too big to hide and it was arranged the daughter of a royal household staff member - Mr Dorante-Day's adoptive grandmother - would adopt him. The Queen passed away aged 96 at Balmoral Castle on Thursday - ending a 70-year reign on the British throne Mr Dorante-Day shared a photo of him next to the Queen during her younger years Mr Dorante-Day believes inconsistencies on his birth certificate and his name also prove he is of royal blood. However his timeline contradicts official records that say the couple met five years later. Mr Dorante-Day claimed his research suggests King Charles and Queen consort Camilla first became close in 1965, with one report alleging he said they met at Winston Churchill's funeral in January of that year. He claims to have been told it was a condition of the adoption that his names Simon and Charles were not changed. However, Charles and Camilla are widely reported to have met at a polo match in Windsor Great Park in 1970. Legend has it that she introduced herself with the line: 'You know, sir, my great-grandmother was the mistress of your great-great-grandfather - so how about it?' - a reference to Edward VII and his mistress, Alice Keppel. She eventually married Charles in 2005, 10 years after her divorce from Andrew Parker Bowles in 1995. Mr Dorante-Day has spent the past few years engaged in court battles to have the royals commit to paternity and maternity tests. In that time, he has gone viral by frequently posting images comparing photos of himself and his children alongside members of the British royal family. Advertisement They came from the length and breadth of the country, and around the world, today to pay personal tributes to The Queen at royal residences across Britain. Many left handwritten messages addressed to 'Your Majesty' and 'Our Queen' thanking her for her dedication and selfless service during her extraordinary 70 years on the throne. Young children on their way to school with their parents clutched brightly coloured flowers before carefully placing them at the gates of Windsor Castle. Others brought their teddy bears to leave as gifts for the much-loved monarch. Throughout the day a growing sea of floral tributes were lovingly placed at the state entrance of the Castle which sits at the end of the tree-lined Long Walk. Carefully written cards and letters were also placed by families along with Union Flags and candles. One message said simply: 'Rest is peace Ma'am. Thank you for your dedication and your service to your people for 70 years. You have been my most beloved Queen throughout my life in the Commonwealth and now In England.' Another paid tribute to 'the one and only true legend of this country'. Meanwhile, Buckingham Palace today asked emotional well-wishers to redirect floral tributes to Green Park and Hyde Park instead, while local florists sold out of bouquets as tens of thousands flocked to pay their respects. Tearful mourners, many dressed all in black, congregated beside hundreds of colourful bouquets and messages at the central London palace, which had been left overnight and early in the morning. A large Union flag in tones of black and grey has been pinned to the right flank of the gates, while police officers kept a crowd back from the main gates further to the left. The Palace said this morning any more visitors who wish to leave floral tributes will be guided to lay them at dedicated sites in Green Park or Hyde Park. Flowers left outside the Palace gates will be moved to the Green Park Floral Tribute Garden by The Royal Parks later today, a sign told visitors today. Bouquets are now being sold by charity staff in the park after several nearby shops sold out due to rocketing demand in the area. People arrive to place flowers outside of Buckingham Palace in London, a day after Queen Elizabeth II died at the age of 96 18-month-old George Tate from London is shown flowers and tributes by his mother as they visit Buckingham Palace A man reacts near floral tributes placed at Buckingham Palace, following the passing of Queen Elizabeth One adorable young well-wisher - dressed accordingly in Union Jack Minnie Mouse ears - laid flowers at the palace today Overcome with emotion, people wept outside the gates of the palace this morning Mourners came to lay flowers and leave messages of sympathy on the Long Walk outside Windsor Castle today A woman sheds tears after laying down floral tributes at Buckingham Palace to the Queen, who died yesterday aged 96 A woman appears emotional as members of the public leave flowers and tributes outside Buckingham Palace this morning A woman wipes away a tear as she stands with a boquet of flowers outside Buckingham Palace, London, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday Mourners gather at Buckingham Palace in Central London today to pay respects to Queen Elizabeth II who died yesterday Huge crowds walk through Green Park, where Palace staff have now asked well-wishers to leave floral tributes instead Mourners gather at Balmoral Castle this morning where the Queen died yesterday at the age of 96 A police officer places flowers at Buckingham Palace this morning, following the passing of Britain's Queen Elizabeth People gather to pay their respects outside Buckingham Palace in London on September 9, 2022, a day after Queen Elizabeth II died at the age of 96 A person carries floral tribute in front of Buckingham Palace this morning, following the passing of Queen Elizabeth yesterday People hug each other as they gather to pay their respects outside Buckingham Palace in London this morning People gather outside Buckingham Palace in the early hours of this morning, after the Queen's death was announced yesterday A woman appears emotional as members of the public leave flowers and tributes outside Buckingham Palace this morning A man pauses next to flowers and tributes to Queen Elizabeth II outside Buckingham Palace this morning Mourners gather at Buckingham Palace in Central London today to pay respects to Queen Elizabeth II who died yesterday People leave flowers outside Buckingham Palace a day after the passing of Queen Elizabeth II Floral tributes to Queen Elizabeth II are seen on the gates of Buckingham Palace this morning after her death yesterday Flowers and messages of condolence are laid outside Nottingham Council House, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday Floral tributes and a corgi are left outside Balmoral following the death of the Queen, which was announced yesterday Floral tributes from across the world have been left in memory of the Queen, following her death yesterday Mourners came to lay flowers and leave messages of sympathy on the Long Walk outside Windsor Castle from early this morning Flowers and messages of condolence are laid underneath a tree, planted by Queen Elizabeth II for the Golden Jubilee, at the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas Mourners paying their respects for Queen Elizabeth II leaving flowers at Windsor Castle gates by the Long Walk in Windsor A note is placed on flowers at Buckingham Palace, following the passing of Britain's Queen Elizabeth Mourners lay flowers at the gates of Buckingham Palace this morning following the death of the Queen yesterday A message left on flowers laid outside Buckingham Palace, London, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday A cyclist leaves flowers outside Buckingham Palace this morning following the death of the Queen yesterday Flowers with a message left outside Buckingham Palace, London, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday Flowers left outside Buckingham Palace in London this morning after the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II yesterday in Balmoral Flowers are left by the official communication of the Queen's death yesterday at Buckingham Palace Floral tributes to Queen Elizabeth II are seen on the gate of Buckingham Palace this morning following her death yesterday In a handwritten letter at Windsor, one family said: 'Nanny Lorraine believes you are the greatest lady of her lifetime and thank you for your devotion and service. You were a truly remarkable lady who touched the hearts of millions around the world.' The words were echoed by many who had come from near and far to make a personal pilgrimage. Susan Clover, 82, decided to stop overnight at Windsor as she and her partner were driving from their home in Norwich to Somerset when the Queen's death was announced. She said: 'We were driving in the pouring rain when we heard. My daughter phoned me. It was one of those moments that will live with you for the rest of your life. 'Even at my age, like most people who are alive today, the Queen has always been such a big part of our lives. She has always been there. 'We were one of those families who bought our first television to watch the Queen's Coronation in 1953. 'It was a black and white set. I was 13 and I will never forget that as it was the first programme I ever watched on television. I can see it now as clear as anything. It was my sister's birthday and as a present she got a souvenir spoon!' Sam Buck, 24, told how she had driven from Weston-Super-Mare in Somerset with her cousin Kenzi Barwood, 26, after getting up at 4am. Sam, who works as cabin crew for an airline, said: 'It's really sad. You can really feel the emotion of everyone here. We really wanted to come. It's a huge part of history. 'The Queen lived at Windsor Castle. It was her home and we felt this was the place we wanted to be. It's amazing how many people are coming here and putting flowers down. 'It just doesn't seem real that the Queen is no longer with us because she's always been there and she's always been such an important part of our lives. 'I have so many fond memories. Every Christmas if our dinner ran over my grandfather would make us stop dinner and everyone had to go into the living room and watch the Queen's Speech. We weren't allowed to miss a second. 'It was always a moment which brought everyone together and I think that was the same everywhere.' Kenzi, who is from Canada, said: 'She really was a one off and she will never be replaced. Things will never be the same again. It feels like the end of an era. The Queen was loved as much in Canada as she is here. 'She was so sweet with her horses and her Corgis. How could you not love her? She was always a part of our lives. We would wake up at three and four in the morning to have jubilee parties and on special occasions. 'I spoke to my Grandma. She was crying - she was very upset. She's 87 and she grew up with the Queen. She would always use the Queen as an example of someone to look up to. 'If you were misbehaving or if she heard someone swear she would say 'You wouldn't speak like that if you were having tea with The Queen'. 'For her the Queen was the person you set your standards by. And you can see why - she was a truly remarkable woman.' Sharon Stephens, 57, who works for the Royal Meteorological Society, from 'Yesterday was just awful. You knew something bad was coming. 'It became clear that something serious was wrong with the Queen. We were watching TV and when they cut away to prepare an announcement I thought 'Oh My God' and knew straight away before they said anything. 'It's the finality of it which is so hard to absorb. It's such sad, sad news but at the same time she was such a remarkable woman and we now have an opportunity to reflect on that. One of my friends who is not a Royalist said she felt like she had lost a grandma. There was a unifying quality about her. There was something very stabilising about the Queen.' Mrs Stephens, from Bracknell, Berks, was visiting with her daughter Kelly, 25, added: 'It was remarkable that there was a rainbow over Windsor Castle after the news was announced. In many ways that sums it all up.' Amanda Bartlett, from Wraysbury, Berkshire, who laid flowers with her 14-month-old daughter Ayla, said: 'It's a massive part of history and Ayla is not going to remember it so I wanted to do something for her so we can tell her when she is older. 'It's really sad but it's lovely in terms that everyone has come out and I can't believe how many flowers there are.' Reverend Jill Kells, of the Bursledon Church of England parish near, Southampton, Hampshire, said: 'I have always admired the Queen, I think she's an exceptional lady and has served us so well and for so long and I just wanted to be here. 'You can spend time watching TV but it's not the same as being in a corporate place in mourning and there's such a quietness and sombreness but also a community feeling at the same time.' Dawn McCrudden, 51, a former private in the Royal Corps of Signals and husband, Andrew, 63, a former corporal in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) from Camberley, Surrey, also paid their respects. Mrs McCrudden, who was visibly upset as she lay flowers at Cambridge Gate, said: 'I feel absolutely heartbroken, there are no words to describe how I feel. 'I have known no other Queen, she has been my Queen my whole life, she is so dignified, so regal, she has always been there, especially for the military being our commander in chief, she has put so much into the country, she is such an amazing person. 'When I took my oath (to join the armed forces) it was the proudest day of my life.' Mr McCrudden added: 'You take the oath to her. It's a massive loss to the whole country.' Erin Sweetman-Clarke, 40, from Egham, Surrey, brought her daughter Imogen Clarke, three, to pay her respects. She said: 'I felt like I should come and have a little moment, it's a nice atmosphere, it's not sad, it's grateful for all the years.' Sylvia Booth, 68, and Sandra Riley, 63, came to lay flowers and pay their respects. Ms Riley said: 'She served the country and looked after everyone, she loved everyone. My birthday was the same as her so I sent her a birthday card every year.' Ms Booth added: 'We wanted to pay our final respects.' Julie Laycock, 64, from Runnymede, Surrey, said she felt had a personal connection to the Queen and said: 'My children went to both the Royal School and and sang in the Royal Chapel Choir. 'The Queen was so lovely, she would always ask my boys about their fishing and what lourdes they were using and she was just so friendly and nice to us as a family. 'I remember her giving my son a special clap when he had really messed up a reading at Christmas, she was just lovely.' She added: 'I do feel like it's a solemn collection of people who are all going to miss their beloved Queen.' A person reacts near floral tributes placed at Buckingham Palace, following the passing of Queen Elizabeth yesterday People leave flowers at Windsor Castle, following the passing of Britain's Queen Elizabeth yesterday Mourners, many dressed all in black, congregated beside hundreds of colourful bouquets and messages at the central London palace, which had been left overnight and early in the morning A police officer reacts as he stands guard in front of Buckingham Palace, following the passing of Britain's Queen Elizabeth A woman salutes after laying flowers at the gates of Balmoral in Scotland following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday By lunchtime today, metal barriers were put up around one large section of grass beside Cambridge Gate at Windsor Castle as so many floral tributes had been laid there. Visitors to the Castle were encouraged to leave flowers in a different section which was rapidly filling up. As more and more members of the public flooded into the town, a St John's Ambulance mobile treatment unit was set up nearby as a precaution. Some local schools broke off from their daily routine as whole classes visited the scene to pay their respects. Among them was Upton House School where Prince Andrew's daughters Beatrice and Eugenie were former pupils. Some visitors clung on to loved ones as they paid their respects to the Queen while others wiped away tears. Despite the sadness of the occasion, many visitors recounted happy memories of how the Queen had touched their lives from chance meetings to fleeting glimpses and happy occasions. Ian Wheeler, 79, told how he chatted to the Queen after his daughter took part in a charity roller skating event in the 1980's which finished near Windsor Castle. The retired heating engineer who visited the Castle with his wife Mary, 71, said: 'When we got to the fields at the back we happened to be standing there and the Queen came up. 'She asked my daughter what she had done and was so impressed when she told her she had skated all the way over from Camberley. It was totally unexpected and she was delightful. She was genuinely interested in people's lives.' Mr Watkins said he was 'devastated' when he heard the Queen had died. He said: 'Mary and I Both cried when we heard the news. It was like somebody punching you in the guts. I was gobsmacked. One minute we were watching the telly and they said all the princes were going up there and she was resting and the next minute it dropped out and they announced she had died. It was so quick. 'We were sitting there one minute saying 'I hope she's alright' and the next minute she was gone. I thought it was so sad that the final photograph we saw of her was after she met the new Prime Minister. She looked so frail and lonely by the fireplace. I thought she looked quite sad. 'But in some ways it summed her up. It must have been very difficult for her but there she was doing her duty right to the very end. She was an extraordinary woman.' Geraldine Impey, 77, who travelled to Windsor with her daughters Emma and Clare, told how the Queen had been a part of her life since her earliest memory. She said: 'I was just three years old when the Queen married Prince Philip in 1947 and I remember watching it on television. 'We didn't have a television set but we had a neighbour who did. We all packed into the front room and sat around this tiny little box. I had just turned three. 'By the time the Coronation came round I was eight years old and we had a television by then. I remember sitting around eating sausage rolls that my mother had made. There are so many memories stretching throughout my lifetime. The Queen has always been there. That's what makes it so hard to take in. 'It was a shock when I heard the news. I think she must have died quite suddenly. It is such a loss. She was the centre of the country - a rock for the nation. She was elegant and sincere. She genuinely seemed to be interested in people. I know it was her job but there was no acting involved. She knew what her role was and she carried it out with great style. There will never be another like her.' Barbara Martinez, 41, from Mexico, who was with her sister Lorena, 39, told how the Queen was 'irreplacable'. She said: 'Even though she had no connection with our country as far as we are concerned she was THE Queen. There wasn't another one and there never will be in our lifetime. She was irreplaceable. Things will never be the same again. 'She was a very popular figure in Mexico. People looked at her as the Queen because she reigned so long and because of the things she did for the UK and in other parts of the world. 'My daughter showed me her Instagram and her friends in Mexico were all posting pictures of the Queen after her death and talking about her fondly. When I heard she had died I was so sad. It sent a shiver through me. I had goosebumps. It was a shock.' Lorena said: 'King Charles now has a lot of work to do. In Mexico we say 'The shoes are very big'. The Queen was so great that it would be a very difficult job for somebody to have to follow in her footsteps. 'For King Charles it was a job he was born to do but he has to start it at the age when most people are retired. It's difficult for him.' Tributes are placed outside Buckingham Palace this morning following the death of the Queen on Thursday A child stands near the floral tributes placed at Buckingham Palace, following the passing of Queen Elizabeth Boquets of flowers are left on the gate at Buckingham Palace, London, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday A woman leaves after laying flowers at the gates of Balmoral in Scotland following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday People leave flowers at Windsor Castle, following the passing of Britain's Queen Elizabeth yesterday Police officers rearrange flowers, candles and flags laid outside the gates of Buckingham Palace in London this morning People look at flowers at the gates of Balmoral in Scotland following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday A person holds a floral tribute in front of Buckingham Palace, following the passing of Queen Elizabeth yesterday Mourners gather at Buckingham Palace in Central London today to pay respects to Queen Elizabeth II who died Mourners gather at Buckingham Palace in Central London today to pay respects to Queen Elizabeth II who died on Thursday A Ukrainian flag is placed among other tributes to Queen Elizabeth II outside Buckingham Palace this morning Mourners gather at Buckingham Palace in Central London today to pay respects to Queen Elizabeth II who died yesterday A woman lays flowers by the railings at Buckingham Palace, London, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday Raindrops are seen on a photograph left at the gates of Buckingham Palace by a mourner in London this morning A woman lays flowers by the railings at Buckingham Palace, London, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday A person reacts near Buckingham Palace, following the passing of Queen Elizabeth, in London yesterday Floral tributes for Queen Elizabeth are left at the gates of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh this morning following her death yesterday A woman lays flowers by the railings at Buckingham Palace, London, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday A message left on flowers laid at the gates of Hillsborough Castle in County Down, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday People gather in front of the Buckingham Palace, following the passing of Queen Elizabeth on Thursday evening A message left on flowers at the gates of Hillsborough Castle in County Down, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday Leo Cheung, 37, who has lived in London for 20 years after moving from Hong Kong, was one of hundreds of mourners to lay flowers at Buckingham Palace. He said: 'We have a very strong connection to the Queen. We are quite neutral towards the royal family but the Queen has been there since we were born. She was part of our lives and it's sad to see someone we know pass away.' Norman Ashley, who was carrying an Australian flag outside Buckingham Palace, said the 'new era' of the British monarchy could act as a 'uniting force' for the world amid the war in Ukraine. When asked what the Queen meant to him, he said: 'We've had a feeling of dread for the last week or two because of her deteriorating health. It means a lot to us because she was the Queen of Australia, there's a Union Jack on our flag and our connection couldn't have been any closer.' He added: 'Perhaps also during this time of world conflict, we can all focus on something else - this emergence into a new era, a uniting force.' Christine Ashley, 68, from Canberra in Australia, said she landed in the UK for a holiday with her husband Norman Ashley, 71, on Thursday - the day the Queen died - and felt like she had 'walked into history'. Speaking outside Buckingham Palace, Mrs Ashley, a dual British-Australian national, said: 'It's very sad, very, very sad. Like everyone's been saying, she's been part of our lives.' Mrs Ashley added: 'I'm a dual citizen, I grew up in the UK, and it's a time of uncertainty and the Queen was one of those stabilising factors around the world in these troubling times. 'So I guess there's a sense of dread about what the future holds.' One visitor, a nine-year-old a girl called Sally clutching her father's hand summed up the mood of the nation as she said: 'We will miss you so much.' The steady stream of mourners walked silently towards the Palace railings where they were able to lay their flowers. Traffic around the Queen Victoria Memorial had been blocked off allowing visitors easy access to the Palace. The main entrance gates were kept clear as the Prime Minister is due to meet King Charles later today before he gives a televised address to the nation. Many of those arriving at the Palace, with the Union Jack flag lowered to half mast, seemed lost in thought as they struggled to come to terms with the longest serving Monarch. 'The Queen has been there all my life, and now it seems so strange that she is not. And that makes our country a sadder place, said Jenny Blake, 54, from Bromley, south-east London. 'She has done so much for our country I wanted to come here to pay my respects.' A large number of those dropping bouquet of flowers were commuters on their way to work. Stuart Allen brought flowers from his two young daughters and placed them on the railings before heading g into his office in nearby Victoria He said: 'It was the right thing to do. As long as I have been alive the Queen has been a constant. This is a huge occasion for the country with the passing of one Monarch and now we have a King.' Many tourists stood outside the gates taking photos on their mobile phones. Among the written tributes were a child's drawing of the Queen. Another note written in pencil read 'You will always reign in our heart.' Gus Aledrea, from Minneapolis, said: 'It does remind me a lot of when Princess Di died. We did not leave our TV sets for days. The Queen was just magnificent, and we are never going to see the likes of her again' Meanwhile, well-wishers braved pouring rain to lay flowers at the gates of Balmoral Castle this morning. A steady stream of mourners crossed the bridge over the River Dee to offer their condolences to the royal family. Among them were friends Kay McClennan and Sarah McCoshim who had driven through the Highlands to pay their respects . Kay, 55, said: 'We came to pay our respects to the Queen and the royal family. It's the least we can do. It doesn't seem real. We only saw her two days ago smiling.' Sarah, 56, added: 'I was in London when Princess Diana died. I went to Kensington Palace with some girlfriends from the office to lay flowers. So when I heard the news about the Queen last night I knew I had to come here and do the same.' The friends both thrive in Blargowerie about 30-minute drive from the castle. Mourners also left poignant messages with their floral tributes. One read: 'A mother, a grandmother, a great-grandmother, your work here is done.' It was signed Charlotte, Adam, Harriet and Tilly. Another read: 'throughout the years thank you for your service'. Charlotte Trudley, 29, from Richmond, South West London, and works in Formula One sponsorship was outside the palace clutching a bunch of flowers. Holding back tears she said: 'I'm here to remember a great lady. She was the last great figure and gave it all to the nation. She focused on duty and action her whole life and was so important to so many people. 'She radiated warmth, humour, dignity and grace. I never thought this day would come but here it is. And I'm paying my respect, she touched everyone and made me proud to be British.' A family arrive to leave flowers at Balmoral in Scotland following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday Floral tributes for Queen Elizabeth are left at the gates of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh this morning after her death yesterday A family arrive to leave flowers at Balmoral in Scotland following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday Security teams arrange floral tributes for Queen Elizabeth are left at the gates of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh today A sign outside Buckingham Palace reads: 'Floral tributes in this area will be removed after 12 hours and placed in the tribute area in Green Park' A woman lays flowers among tributes to Queen Elizabeth II outside Buckingham Palace this morning Flowers and tributes outside of Windsor Castle this morning after the death of the Queen was announced yesterday Kim Tattersall (left) with her mother Erica (right) outside Buckingham Palace today following the death of the Queen A police officer holds his head in his hands as he stands beside thousands of floral tributes for the Queen Mourners came to lay flowers and leave messages of sympathy on the Long Walk outside Windsor Castle from early this morning Roman Diasamidze holds flowers outside Buckingham Palace following the death of the Queen yesterday A child leaves a flower outside the gate to Buckingham Palace a day after the passing of Queen Elizabeth II Mourners came to lay flowers and leave messages of sympathy on the Long Walk outside Windsor Castle from early this morning Meanwhile, the number of floral tributes left for the Queen at her Sandringham Estate is continuing to grow, with a constant flow of people wanting to pay their respects to the longest-serving monarch. A mass of flowers already lines the walls beneath railings either side of the Norwich Gates to Sandringham House in Norfolk, with a downpour on Friday morning no barrier for the crowds. Arrangements have been made to accommodate large numbers of people, with the road beside the gates closed to traffic and floodlights put along it, and police controlling roads into the estate with a one-way system. Teddy bears and tealights have been laid by the iron gates, as well as hundreds of carefully place bouquets of flowers, many of them with handwritten messages attached. Two-year-old Phoenix Child clutched a Paddington Bear toy as he laid a bouquet of flowers at the gates, encouraged by his grandmother Dolores McKenna. Teaching assistant Ms McKenna, 58, from the nearby town of King's Lynn, said: 'The Queen is part of our heritage and she's just such a lovely woman. We've followed her all our lives and (Phoenix) has all of his life. She's just a wonderful person.' She said she felt 'saddened' and 'overwhelmed' by news of the Queen's death. 'We knew it was imminent but not this quick,' said Ms McKenna. 'She's died with dignity, which is so lovely, and her faith has sustained her through this journey as well to the very end. That's a quality I admire in her as well.' Food technologist Lisa Meyer, also from King's Lynn, said the news 'sort of hit me' when she heard, adding she was 'absolutely devastated'. The 50-year-old said: 'The Queen's been around all of my life.' She said the news particularly affected her as it was 'losing someone who's always been around' and also because her 'paternal grandmother looked very like her' and would get mistaken for the Queen. 'She would come for walks around Sandringham when she was alive and people would say 'morning ma'am' as she used to dress a little bit like her,' said Ms Meyer. 'It was always a running joke in our family that we had the Queen in our family as well. I think it was a mixture of that bringing back memories as well. I was absolutely devastated. The first thing I did was I went to see my mum and dad and said we need to pay our respects. It was a little bit too late to come last night so first thing this morning before I started work we had a drive up here. Just to do something to get those feelings out.' She said she will visit again at the weekend with her children. Gardener Hilary-Fay Mellor, who laid a bouquet of flowers, said: 'She was such a remarkable woman and she was the same age as my mum. That generation were just quite extraordinary. There'll never be people, I don't think, with that strength again. She was sort of glue that held people together. I think she was a very strong, devoted sovereign.' She said she decided to lay a floral tribute as 'it just feels like when everyone's at a bit of a loss it's something that people can all come together to do'. 'It's something you can do when everybody's perhaps feeling a bit wobbly,' said the 63-year-old, from the village of Heacham. Her son Seth Mellor, 23, recalled the Queen visiting his school when he was a child. 'Someone who's that important to the country, them coming just to a primary school or high school, it sort of shows what sort of a person she was,' he said. 'To take that time just to come to a primary school and shake hands with an 11-year-old, that shows she was a woman of the people, definitely. 'In a sort of sad way in a time when a lot of us are sort of divided in a lot of different ways, it has brought our country together.' Johnathan Cadge holds flowers outside Buckingham Palace following the death of the Queen yesterday A police officer looks at flowers laid outside Buckingham Palace, London, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday Mourners came to lay flowers and leave messages of sympathy on the Long Walk outside Windsor Castle from early this morning People lay flowers at Windsor Castle, following the passing of Britain's Queen Elizabeth at the age of 96 on Thursday Flowers are laid outside of Windsor Castle, Berkshire, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday Members of the public gather outside Buckingham palace following the announcement of the death of Queen Elizabeth II At Windsor, floral tributes left at Cambridge Gate on the Long Walk will be brought inside the castle each evening and placed on the castle chapter grass on the south side of St George's Chapel and Cambridge Drive. Meanwhile, at the Sandringham Estate, people are encouraged to leave floral tributes at the Norwich Gates. At Balmoral Castle, floral tributes can be left at the main gate. At the Palace of Holyroodhouse, people are encouraged to give floral tributes to the wardens at the entrance to The Queen's Gallery. Those flowers will be laid on the forecourt grass in front of the Palace's north turret. And at Hillsborough Castle, floral tributes may be laid on the castle forecourt in front of the main gates. Thousands of well-wishers flocked to the iconic royal landmarks last night as news broke of the monarch's passing. A Union flag atop Buckingham Palace lowered at 6.30pm. It drew gasps from the crowd who knew what the symbolic gesture meant. The sad news of the Queen's death was then announced officially. Some people in the crowd wept as others gave an impromptu rendition of God Save The Queen. As the sun broke through the clouds this morning, many more emotional faces were seen arriving to pay their own personal respects to Her Majesty, as the country is plunged into a period of official mourning. At midday today, bells are set to toll at St Paul's and Westminster Abbey and other churches across the country to honour her. It comes after senior royals dashed to be at the Queen's bedside yesterday, but are said to have tragically not reached Balmoral in time before she passed. Only her eldest children, Prince Charles and Princess Anne, who were already in Scotland at the time of the Monarch's sudden turn for the worse, were able to make it to the royal estate before her death, sources said last night. All Her Majesty's children, as well as grandson Prince William, had rushed to Balmoral on Thursday after doctors became 'concerned' for her health. Buckingham Palace released a statement at 12.32pm saying the Queen's doctors were 'concerned' for her health and recommended she remain under medical supervision while family members were informed. Charles was already at his mother's side at her beloved Highland home after senior aides, fearing the worst, sent the Queen's burgundy-liveried helicopter up from Windsor at 6.48am to collect him from Dumfries House in Ayrshire, where he had stayed the night after conducting several official engagements. He made it to Balmoral by 10.27am. His wife, the Duchess of Cornwall now Queen Consort, as Elizabeth II requested earlier this year was already at Birkhall, the couple's Scottish retreat, and was driven over by car to join him. It is understood that the Queen's daughter, Princess Anne, was already with her mother as she had been undertaking engagements in the area. Staff hurriedly arranged for a jet to collect the Queen's other children Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex, and Prince Andrew, the Duke of York as well as the Countess of Wessex, whom the Queen adores and treats like a second daughter and bring them up to Aberdeen. Her grandson, Prince William joined them. His wife Kate remained with their three children, who have recently started a new school. The sombre family group arrived in Scotland at 4pm, sweeping through the gates at Balmoral in a Range Rover driven by William at 5.06pm. Although Buckingham Palace has not confirmed the time of death, it is thought that they were unable to see their much-loved matriarch before she died. By coincidence the Duke and Duchess of Sussex now sadly estranged from most family members were in Britain from their home in California and due to undertake a charity engagement in London before flying back home to their children. There was confusion when their spokesman initially said that both Harry and Meghan would fly up to Balmoral to join the family, which caused surprise as spouses would normally be unlikely to join close relatives at a time of personal grief. But it was later confirmed that Harry would travel alone and he finally arrived at his grandmother's home at 7.52pm. He was still in the air when the death was confirmed. A man lays flowers outside Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh this morning after the death of the Queen was announced yesterday Flowers and tributes outside of Windsor Castle this morning after the death of the Queen was announced yesterday People place flowers at Buckingham Palace, following the passing of Britain's Queen Elizabeth in London yesterday A person reacts near Buckingham Palace, following the passing of Queen Elizabeth, in London yesterday Flowers and tributes outside of Windsor Castle this morning after the death of the Queen was announced yesterday A woman looks emotional as she leaves after laying flowers at the gates of Balmoral in Scotland following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday Flowers at the gates of Balmoral in Scotland following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday A woman sheds tears as she arrives to pay tribute to the Queen outside Buckingham Palace in London this morning Mourners lay flowers at the gates of Balmoral Castle this morning following the death of the Queen yesterday Floral tributes hang from the railings of Buckingham Palace a day after the passing of Queen Elizabeth II A woman lays flowers outside the railings of Buckingham Palace to mourn the passing of Queen Elizabeth II yesterday A woman sheds tears as she arrives to pay tribute to the Queen outside Buckingham Palace in London this morning Mourners gather at Buckingham Palace in Central London today to pay respects to Queen Elizabeth II who died yesterday A man with a young child lays flowers outside Buckingham Palace, London, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II Mourners gather at Buckingham Palace in Central London today to pay respects to Queen Elizabeth II who died yesterday Mourners lay flowers at the gates of Balmoral Castle this morning after the death of the Queen was announced yesterday A woman lights a candle outside Buckingham Palace, London, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday Mourners gather at Buckingham Palace in Central London today to pay respects to Queen Elizabeth II who died yesterday Messages of condolence are left along with flowers on the Long Walk outside Windsor Castle this morning Mourners gather at Buckingham Palace in Central London today to pay respects to Queen Elizabeth II who died yesterday Mourners came to lay flowers and leave messages of sympathy on the Long Walk outside Windsor Castle from early this morning Flowers are laid outside of Windsor Castle, Berkshire, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday Mourners gather at Buckingham Palace in Central London today to pay respects to Queen Elizabeth II who died yesterday Young mourners lay flowers at the gates of Balmoral Castle following the death of the Queen yesterday A mourners is overcome with emotion as he pays his respect at the gates of Buckingham Palace in London The Queen's death was finally announced at 6.32pm in a short black-edged statement from Buckingham Palace which read simply: 'The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.' Today Operation London Bridge will swing into action, the period of ten days between the Queen's death and her state funeral, which is expected to take place on Monday September 19, as the country is plunged into a period of official mourning. The Queen's coffin is expected to remain at Balmoral for at least the next two days before being flown back down to London next week. But the pendulum to introduce His Majesty to his people will also begin to swing, with Charles and Camilla returning to London as King and Queen Consort today. He is expected to hold his Accession Council tomorrow. Last night Miss Truss hosted a meeting of ministers, police and royal officials to discuss arrangements for the period of mourning leading up to the Queen's funeral. The Union flag on Buckingham Palace was poignantly lowered to half-mast yesterday, while a framed plaque of the statement announcing the Queen's death was placed on the front gates by royal household staff. The Royal Standard is never flown at half-mast, even after the Queen's death, as there is always a monarch on the throne. Flags will fly at half-mast on UK Government buildings in tribute to the Queen from now until the morning after her funeral. The Queen's death will see Britain and her Commonwealth realms enter into a ten-day period of mourning as millions of her subjects in the UK and abroad come to terms with her passing. A number of big events have already been cancelled, including the BBC's Proms and its famous crescendo, Last Night of the Proms, which were due to take place on Friday and Saturday. King Charles III will return to London today with Camilla, the Queen Consort Harry departed Aberdeen this morning at around 9am, barely 13 hours after he arrived In the end, he landed at 6.46pm - around 15 minutes after the Queen's death was announced Harry's commercially rented jet didn't take off from Luton Airport until 5.35pm - 90 minutes after William and other senior royals touched down at Aberdeen Airport At 4.44pm, Omid Scobie, a journalist and friend of Meghan, then tweeted that 'like Kate', Meghan would stay in Windsor and not fly to Scotland after all By then, Prince William was already on his way to Balmoral on an RAF plane with other senior royals At 3.12pm, Kate was photographed driving to collect her children from school They were not scheduled to visit the Queen during their trip until yesterday's announcements The couple were in the UK to attend the WellChild Awards Ceremony and had been staying at Windsor At 2pm, a spokesman for Harry and Meghan said they'd fly together to Balmoral to be with the Queen Advertisement Amid the flurry of hurried flights, announcements and messages of grief that were triggered by the death of Queen Elizabeth II yesterday was confusion surrounding Prince Harry, his wife Meghan Markle and why their plans to fly together to Scotland suddenly changed. The Queen's deteriorating health was first announced by the Palace yesterday at 12.34pm, sparking a rush of senior royals to Scotland. Prince William flew to Aberdeen with uncles Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, along with Sophie Countess of Wessex. Their RAF flight landed at Aberdeen airport shortly before 4pm after taking off from RAF Northolt in South Ruislip, west London, at 2.39pm. At 2pm, Harry and Meghan announced that they too would be flying to Scotland to be with the Queen. The couple, who live in Montecito, California, and who famously disavowed royal life, were in the UK to attend the WellChild Awards Ceremony. They had no plans to visit the Queen until yesterday. But it took another three hours for Harry to leave London. Prince Harry flies out of Aberdeen Airport in Scotland on Friday morning alone, around 12 hours after arriving at Balmoral Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (pictured together in Germany on Tuesday) announced on Thursday that they would fly together to Balmoral - but they promptly changed their plans and Harry flew alone In the end, he flew alone, arriving at Aberdeen Airport after his beloved grandmother's death had been publicly announced, and while the rest of the family mourned together at Balmoral. Why exactly Meghan changed her plans to stay in London remains unconfirmed but all signs point to Kate and her decision to stay in Windsor with her three children. Kate was photographed driving to collect George, Charlotte and Louis from Lambrook School, a 15-minute drive from Adelaide Cottage, the family's new home, at 3.12pm - after Harry and Meghan's announcement but before Harry's plane took off. After photos of her emerged, Omid Scobie, Meghan's friend and the author of the controversial biography Finding Freedom, tweeted that her plans had changed and that 'like the Duchess of Cambridge', she too would be staying behind. Behind palace doors, Meghan's plan to fly to Balmoral raised eyebrows given her frosty relationship with the Royal Family, who she has publicly criticized and accused of racism. In recent weeks, she has renewed her outspoken criticism of royal protocols in her Spotify podcast, Archetypes, claiming to have been vilified for her ambition. On Wednesday, Scobie published a column for Yahoo which claimed Harry was 'waiting for an apology' from his brother. The column suggested that tensions between the Sussexes and the Cambridges remained high. 'Theres a laughable effort to suggest the [Sussexes] have been shunned...the true story is, they never reached out to the Cambridges,' said a source described by Scobie as 'someone familiar with the current family dynamics'. He then quoted a 'family friend' as saying: 'What [Harry] is waiting for is accountability Many lines were crossed by William. He was at the centre of a number of painful moments, be it the actions of his own staff or turning his back when support was needed. 'It was a dark time and one that, so far, William has been unprepared to unpack.' The BBC's royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell speculated on air: 'She might not be terribly warmly welcomed, to be perfectly candid about it.' Flight data shows that his plane, a Cessna 560XLS owned by the commercial jet leasing company Luxeaviation UK, departed from Luton Airport at 5.35pm with Harry on-board. 3.12pm: Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, was seen driving to collect her three children from school in Windsor after Harry and Meghan announced their plans to travel to Scotland. There was never any suggestion that she would fly to Scotland 4pm: At around 3.50pm, an RAF plane carrying Prince William, Prince Andrew, Prince Edward and Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, arrived in Aberdeen At 4.44pm, Omid Scobie, a journalist widely considered to be one of Meghan's friends, tweeted that the couple's plans had changed and that she now would be staying in Windsor, 'like the Duchess of Cambridge' 5.20pm: Shortly before 5.30pm, before Harry's plane had taken off from Luton Airport, Prince William and other senior royals arrived at Balmoral 7.52pm: Harry arrives at Balmoral at 7.52pm, more than an hour after arriving at Aberdeen Airport and hours after the rest of the family The plane landed in Aberdeen at 6.46pm, 15 minutes after the announcement of The Queen's death. It took another hour for his chauffer-driven car to reach Balmoral Estate, where his brother and the rest of the family were in already in mourning. Meghan is understood to have stayed at Frogmore Cottage on the grounds of Windsor Castle, yards from where William, Kate and their three children live. She and Harry had been due to fly back to the US, where their children remain, later this week but those plans are now predictably uncertain. Today, King Charles III and Camilla, the Queen Consort, are expected to return to London. The King will meet Prime Minister Liz Truss and he is expected to address the nation. The Queen's funeral is expected to take place on Monday September 19th. Until then, the country will observe 10 days of mourning while arrangements are made to bring Her Majesty's coffin from Scotland to London. The Queen's coffin will remain in Scotland, at Balmoral, today and tomorrow for staff to pay their respects. It will the be driven from the highlands to Edinburgh temporarily, before being brought back to London for her funeral on September 19. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II died yesterday on Thursday September 8 at the age of 96 after a 70 year reign Heartwarming footage has captured a group of aged care residents boarding a bus to pay their respects to the Queen at Victoria's Government House. The elderly residents, many of whom need walkers to get around, chose to personally leave flowers and write their own messages of condolences to Her Majesty in Melbourne on Friday. James, an 102-year-old, insisted on making the trip and used the aid of his walking stick to drop off a bouquet of flowers, while his fellow aged care residents left behind their own tributes. Queen Elizabeth II passed away at Balmoral early on Friday morning AEST, with two of her children, Prince Charles and Princess Anne, at her bedside. She was 96. How cute is thisAged Care residents bus into Government house in Melbs to lay flowers for the Queen. James at the front is 102yo @TheTodayShow pic.twitter.com/8limtgOjkA Christine Ahern (@ChristineAhern) September 9, 2022 Heartwarming footage has captured a group of aged care residents boarding a bus to pay their respects to the Queen at Victoria's Government House Australians took to the streets to pay their respects to the Queen, including some tenacious aged care residents older than the late monarch (Pictured, 102-year-old James leaves a bunch of flowers at Melbourne's Government House) Thousands of Australians loyal to the Queen spent the day leaving flowers and signing condolence books at several sites, including Government House in each state, where flags were also flown at half-mast to observe official protocol. At Government House in Sydney local protocols allowed mourners to lay freshly-cut flowers or 'artificial plants without soil' but no candles or living plants were permitted. The NSW Government also noted that the British royal family said 'Australians may wish to consider making a donation to a charity of choice' instead of leaving flowers. The Queen passed away at Balmoral early on Friday morning Australian time, with two of her children, Prince Charles and Princess Anne, at her bedside A condolence book left for members of the public to sign personal messages in tribute to the Queen at NZ House in Canberra on Friday Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews joined Victoria's Governor, Linda Dessau, in signing the condolence book and laying a large wreath in tribute in his state's Government House on Friday morning. Many landmarks in Melbourne have been lit up in a regal purple to honour Her Majesty. Flinders Street Station, Federation Square, the Shrine of Remembrance and the MCG are just some that will be illuminated on Friday night. A photo of the Queen and Prince Philip was also projected on a building in Federation Square. Mr Andrews released a statement following her death on Friday morning, saying many didn't know a world without the monarch. 'Her presence spanned countries, cultures, language, and continents her reign transcended decades and generations,' he said. 'And like no monarch before her, she captured our hearts and our affection.' Victorian premier Daniel Andrews (seated) signs a condolence book at Government House in Melbourne A close up of the wreath left in memory of Queen Elizabeth by Victoria's Governor Linda Dessau on Friday Sydney's Opera House was lit up with an image of the Queen's face on Friday night, and will again project the photo on Saturday evening. The British High Commission in Canberra and consulates across the country will open their doors for Australians to sign in person from 10am on Monday. Mourners wishing to leave their condolences can also leave messages online via the Prime Minister's office and the Royal Family website. The Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah became the world's longest serving monarch yesterday with the passing of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. Bolkiah, who took the throne in 1967, has reigned for 54 years and 339 days (as of Friday) - more than four years longer than Margrethe II of Denmark, now the second-longest reigning monarch. Before her death, Her Majesty was far-and-away the longest serving monarch in the world, marking the 70th anniversary of her coronation earlier this year. But while The Queen - who came to the throne aged just 25 in 1952 in the aftermath of World War II - has ensured that she has kept her distance from politics in the United Kingdom, the opposite can be said of Bolkiah in his home country. In addition to being the country's Sultan and absolute monarch, 76-year-old Hassanal Bolkiah ibni Omar Ali Saifuddien III has also been the Prime Minister of Brunei since the country gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1984. His reign has also been mired in controversy. He has faced criticism of his country's human rights record, and questions have been raised over business dealings. Despite this, Bolkiah has appeared to have enjoyed a close relationship with The Queen. Like his father before him, he was knighted by Her Majesty, and the pair met on several occasions during their reigns - in both London and Bandar Seri Begawan. The Sultan of Brunei Darussalam Hassanal Bolkiah (pictured) became the world's longest serving monarch yesterday with the passing of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II Unlike the United Kingdom's head of state, Bolkiah enjoys absolute power in Brunei. Under the country's 1959 constitution, the head has full executive authority - including emergency powers. In 2006, he was reported to have amended the country's constitution to make himself infallible under the law. As Prime Minister, he is also the head of government - and currently holds the positions of Minister of Defence, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Finance. He also controls the country's police force. To top it all off, he is also Head of Religion, and Islam is the official religion of the country. In 2014, he advocated for the adoption of Islamic sharia penalties - that includes death by stoning, the severing of limbs and flogging for some crimes. Such crimes include abortions, adultery and same-sex sexual acts. His push in 2014 raised alarm bells among human rights advocates, and celebrities - including George Clooney and Elton John - called to boycott hotels associated with the sultan, notably the Dorchester Collection that has hotels in the US and Europe. Educational institution with connections to the Sultan, such as Oxford and King's College London, were called upon to strip him of honorary degrees. As Prime Minister, the Sultan has spear-headed anti-LGBT legislation. As of April 2019, homosexuality and adultery is punishable by death by stoning. The rule outlawed gay sex, which had to be independently witnessed in order to secure a conviction. Bolkiah said at the time that the law was part of a drive for 'stronger' Islamic teachings in his tiny Australasian nation, located on the island of Borneo. Pictured: Queen Elizabeth II, and Haji Hassanal Bolkiah, The Sultan of Brunei, attend a Banquet, during The State visit of Queen Elizabeth ii, and Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh to Brunei, at The Istana Nurul Iman, in Brunei on September 18, 1998 in Brunei World's top-five longest serving monarchs On Thursday, The Sultan of Brunei Darussalam Hassanal Bolkiah became the world's longest serving monarch. Here are the top five: 1. Hassanal Bolkiah, Brunei Acceded: October 5, 1967 Years reigned: 54 years, 339 days Age: 76 2. Margrethe II, Denmark Acceded: 14 January 1972 Years reigned: 50 years, 238 days Age: 82 3. Sultan bin Mohamed Al-Qassimi III, Sharjah (United Arab Emirates) Acceded: 25 January 1972 Years reigned: 50 years, 227 days Age: 83 4. Carl XVI Gustaf, Sweden Acceded: 15 September 1973 Years reigned: 48 years, 359 days Age: 76 5. Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi, Fujairah (United Arab Emirates) Acceded: 18 September 1974 Years reigned: 47 years, 356 days Age: 73 Advertisement But following international outcry, Bolkiah ruled that a moratorium on the death penalty in Brunei should be extended to the new law. It means that, while the penalty for gay sex is still officially death by stoning, the Sultan has agreed not to use it. Brunei has not hosted a public execution since 1957. Issues surrounding human rights in the country are not the only controversies the Sultan has faced during his reign. In 1997, his younger brother Jefri Bolkiah, Prince of Brunei, was sued by a woman who claimed she was held as a 'virtual prisoner', drugged and sexually abused. Hassanal also had open disagreements with Jefri over business dealings, when in July 1998 a network of companies and investment vehicles he owned under the name 'Amedeo' collapsed underneath $10billion of debt. The Prince was accused of misappropriating state funds, and after years of legal battles - including in Britain - he will be arrested if he ever sets foot in the UK. Thanks to Brunei's oil reserves, Bolkiah and the royal family are known to be extremely wealthy. When the country gained independence in 1984, it had one of the highest per-capita incomes of any nation - almost $50,000 a year. In 2008, he was believed to be worth around $20billion, and has often displayed his exorbitant wealth. He is reported to have purchased his own Boeing 747 aircraft for $400million, which is adorned with luxuries such as a golden wash baisin. He also owns a fleet of 7,000 luxury cars - which includes 600 Rolls Royce cars - and reportedly spends $20,000 on a single haircut. Prince Jefri is believed to have purchased the collection - worth billions of dollars - for himself, which landed the royal family in trouble. The Sultan sued Jefri over his spending sprees. Queen Elizabeth II meets the Sultan of Brunei during a private audience at Buckingham Palace on December 14, 2017 in London As for his personal life, Bolkiah was born July 15, 1946. He went to high school in Juala Lumbar, and later attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in the United Kingdom, graduating in 1967. His father Omar Ali Saifuddien III abdicated from the throne in 1967, at which point Bolkiah acceded on October 5 that year. His first wife is also his first cousin - Princess Pengiran Anak Saleha, who later became the Raja Isteri (meaning Queen). He took a second wife - a a former flight attendant for the national carrier, Royal Brunei Airlines - but he divorced her in 2003, stripping her of all royal titles. Her place as second wife was taken in 2005 by a former Malaysian television presenter, Azrinaz Mazhar Hakim, who is 33 years younger than the sultan. They divorced in 2010, and he also stripped her of all titles. In October 2020, party-loving Prince Azim - the Sultan's sixth child and fourth in line to the throne - died in the capital of Bandar Seri Begawan. A moving gun salute marking the life of Queen Elizabeth II has rang out over Canberra, with 96 rounds of ammunition fired in the late monarch's honour. The nation's Federation Guard commemorated Her Majesty with six M2A2 105mm Howitzer Ceremonial Guns at Parliament House in Canberra on Friday afternoon. The dusk ceremony follows the British tradition of firing one round for each year of the Queen's life. A moving gun salute marking the life of Queen Elizabeth II has rang out over Canberra, with 96 rounds of ammunition fired in the late monarch's honour The nation's Federation Guard commemorated Her Majesty with six M2A2 105mm Howitzer Ceremonial Guns at Parliament House in Canberra on Friday afternoon The moving ceremony was held at dusk outside Parliament House on Friday The dusk ceremony follows the British tradition of firing one round for each year of The Queen's life (pictured) Crowds watched the sombre ceremony that saw six ADF ceremonial guns fire 96 rounds (pictured) The moving ceremony (pictured) comes as the country reels from the shock of The Queen's death, after she died on Thursday evening Hundreds of people turned up to watch the ceremony unfold as members of the RAAF, Royal Australian Navy and Australian Army fired the shots at 10-second intervals. Each of the 54 Commonwealth countries have been invited to participate in the same ceremony. Defence Minister Richard Marles said it was an 'honour' for the force to contribute to marking her passing. 'During her reign, the Queen exemplified a life of duty and sacrifice, ever resilient in the face of adversity, and dedicated to the peace and prosperity of the Commonwealth,' he said. Australians and many around the world are still reeling from the news the Queen had passed on Thursday evening UK time. She passed away peacefully at her castle in Balmoral, Scotland, with Buckingham Palace issuing a statement from King Charles III at 4.04am on Friday AEST. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described it as a day of 'profound sadness'. 'Australian hearts go out to the people of the United Kingdom who mourn today, knowing they will feel they have lost part of what makes their nation whole,' he said. 'It is a time of mourning for the people in Britain, across the Commonwealth and, indeed, around the world. Crowds watch on as the 96-gun salute rings out over Canberra Six M2A2 105mm Howitzer Ceremonial Guns were used at Parliament House in Canberra to salute The Queen (pictured) Prime Minister Anthony Albanese paid tribute on Friday: 'There is comfort to be found in Her Majesty's own words: Grief is the price we pay for love. This is a loss we feel deeply in Australia' 'There is comfort to be found in Her Majesty's own words: Grief is the price we pay for love. This is a loss we feel deeply in Australia.' Governor-General David Hurley described her as a 'remarkable' person who served with 'distinction' for more than 70 years. 'Up when I reflect on my own memories, and she was my queen for my entire life, I think of Her Majesty's dignity and her compassion, her dedication and her compassion, her dedication and her work ethic,' he said. 'And her selfless and unwavering commitment to those to whom she served. To us. Her death will sadden all Australians and be felt around the world. 'As we mourn, we should also take inspiration and give thanks to the remarkable contribution Her Majesty has made. May she rest in peace. God save the king.' The sad occasion comes after all Commonwealth countries were invited to remember Her Majesty through the salute (pictured, ADF members in Canberra on Friday) Liz Truss is expected to hold her first meeting with King Charles today as MPs prepare to spend days paying tribute to the late queen. The Prime Minister spoke to the new monarch yesterday after the death of his mother at the age of 96. Ms Truss's meeting with the Queen at Balmoral on Tuesday, where she was officially appointed PM, was her last face-to-face political action before her 70-year reign came to an end. Parliament has swept aside its business for today and normal politics is largely on hold for the 10-day mourning period. Instead Ms Truss will at lunchtime kick off a mammoth session allowing MPs in the Common and Lords in the upper chamber to pay their respects. The tributes are due to last until 10pm tonight and there will also be a rare Saturday sitting. Tomorrow some senior MPs will take an oath of allegiance to the King from 2pm, with condolences continuing again until 10pm. The latter session will end with a 'formal humble address' to the King, 'expressing the deep sympathy of the House' following his mother's death at Balmoral on Thursday, the House of Commons said in a statement. The Prime Minister spoke to the new monarch (pictured at the State Opening of Parliament earlier this year) yesterday after the death of his mother at the age of 96 Instead Ms Truss will at lunchtime kick off a mammoth session allowing MPs in the Common and Lords in the upper chamber to pay their respects. Ms Truss's meeting with the Queen at Balmoral on Tuesday, where she was officially appointed PM, was her last face-to-face political action before her 70-year reign came to an end. Every MP will have the option of taking an oath to the King when the House returns but are not obliged to. Former prime minister Theresa May said today that audiences with the 'immensely knowledgeable' Queen were the only meetings as leader where everything that was said would remain private. She told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that the meetings involved 'talking about the affairs of the day, in a sense tapping into her wisdom and that knowledge that she had from her great experience'. Mrs May told the broadcaster the Queen would pass on 'the knowledge that she had of the people, a lot of the people that the prime minister, that I, was dealing with.' She added: 'She was a very acute judge of people and was able often to give those little, if you like, pen portraits of people that she knew, that she'd met. 'And sometimes it was a case of not just the individual but actually a sort of history of that individual, of her experiences of particular countries, particular issues.' Paying tribute to the Queen's warm nature, Mrs May said: 'There was often that twinkle in the eye, and that magnificent smile that would break out and that calmed so many people's nerves and made so many people feel at ease.' Sombre ministers arrived in Downing Street for a Cabinet meeting this morning Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg arriving at 10 Downing Street Tomorrow some senior MPs will take an oath of allegiance to the King from 2pm, with condolences continuing again until 10pm. Parliament's tributes will follow an outpouring of grief from across the political spectrum as the world digested news of the Queen's death at the age of 96. Ms Truss hailed the country's longest-serving monarch as the 'rock on which modern Britain was built', while Sir Keir Starmer, the leader of the Opposition, said she was 'a symbol of the best of us'. Boris Johnson was among the six living former prime ministers of the Queen's reign to pay his respects, two days after he met her at Balmoral to resign from office. He said the Queen spread 'magic around her kingdom' for an 'unrivalled' 70 years and had a 'simple power to make us happy'. Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle will determine the timetable in the House for the following days, but it is expected to be significantly reduced until after the state funeral as Parliament adjourns. This means new laws cannot be passed until Parliament returns, though it could be recalled for pressing matters. 'London Bridge is down' Buckingham Palace's behind-the-scenes code for Queen Elizabeth II's death triggers a period of mourning in which normal life in the UK will dramatically slow for the next ten days 'London Bridge is down' Buckingham Palace's behind-the-scenes code for Queen Elizabeth II's death triggers a period of mourning in which normal life in the UK will dramatically slow for the next ten days. The bereft nation is in shock at the loss of the only monarch many of us have ever known. But the Palace and the Queen herself have been preparing for the aftermath of this inevitable moment since the 1960s. Behind the scenes, the detailed plan Operation London Bridge has already been put into action. It ushers in an official period of mourning that will have an effect on daily life for millions. The strategy, a major undertaking on an unprecedented stage, for the final farewell to Elizabeth II will be formally set in motion once approved by King Charles III. The finer details of Operation London Bridge have changed and been updated over the years but the broad brushstrokes have remained constant. It begins with what is described as D-Day, or day of death, although for practical reasons the Palace has deemed today is D-Day, to allow the complex arrangements to be put in place. Bells will toll at Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral and Windsor Castle, and gun salutes one round for every year of the 96-year-old Queen's life will be fired in Hyde Park and at other stations. Floodlighting at royal residences will be turned off, and the public will begin to leave flowers as tributes from around the world pour in. As Her Majesty's death occurred in Scotland, a contingency plan known as Operation Unicorn has been triggered. The mythical creature is Scotland's national animal. With the monarch spending several months a year at her beloved home in the Highlands, the plans for a Scottish element have been organised for some time. Part of the long-held London Bridge arrangements, Unicorn sets in motion additional ceremonial events in Edinburgh ahead of the logistics of bringing the Queen back to London. Advertisement King Charles III returned to Buckingham Palace to huge cheers today ahead of his first address to the nation as the new monarch this evening. There were chants of 'God Save the King' as Charles, along with his Queen Consort Camilla, stepped out of a car outside the Palace gates to shake hands with well-wishers. The King appeared in good spirits as he greeted members of the public, less than 24 hours after the death of his beloved mother. Earlier, both he and his wife were visibly upset as they left Balmoral - where they stayed overnight after racing up to be at the bedside of the Queen yesterday - just before 11.30am this morning. Dressed in his mourning clothes of a black suit and tie, looking sombre, the grief-stricken King Charles boarded a plane from Aberdeen Airport to the capital, which took off at 12.30pm. He landed at RAF Northolt just over an hour later and was back in central London - where police had moved crowds back in anticipation of the first visit by the King - just after 2pm. What time will Prince Charles' televised speech be today? He will meet Prime Minister Liz Truss this afternoon, before making a televised speech to the nation at 6pm, which will be shown across all major channels and television networks. Charles has already turned his hand to his duties as monarch despite his grief. He gave the order that a period of 'Royal Mourning' for the Queen will be observed from now until seven days after her funeral. Royal Mourning will be observed by members of the royal family, royal household staff and representatives of the royal Household on official duties, together with troops committed to ceremonial duties. Meanwhile, Buckingham Palace said today that the King will be proclaimed at the Accession Council at 10am on Saturday in the State Apartments of St James's Palace. It will be televised for the first time in history. Members of the royal family had made the urgent dash to be with the frail monarch as her health failed yesterday. Prince William - now using the title of the Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge - left Balmoral just before 1pm and is travelling back to Windsor to be with his family ahead of the Accession Council, Kensington Palace said. Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, still remain at the estate. King Charles III returned to Buckingham Palace to huge cheers today ahead of his first address to the nation as the new monarch this evening Britain's King Charles III, left, and Camilla, the Queen Consort, look at floral tributes left outside Buckingham Palace following Thursday's death of Queen Elizabeth II King Charles III is greeted by well-wishers during a walkabout to view tributes left outside Buckingham Palace King Charles III has landed in London as he prepares to make his first address to the nation as the new monarch this evening A limousine carrying Britain's King Charles and Queen Camilla leaves RAF Northolt, near London this afternoon King Charles leaves RAF Northolt in London after visiting Balmoral, following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II yesterday An aerial camera tracks the poignant journey of the vehicle taking King Charles from RAF Northolt to Buckingham Palace King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort leave RAF Northolt after arriving from Aberdeen this afternoon The plane carrying Britain's King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla arrives at RAF Northolt, near London this afternoon The plane carrying King Charles III and the Queen arrives at RAF Northolt in London as they travel from Balmoral to London following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday An emotional King Charles III left Balmoral this morning alongside his Queen Consort Camilla to travel down to London ahead of his first speech to the nation as monarch Queen Consort Camilla also appeared to have teary eyes as she sat in the front seat en route to Aberdeen Airport King Charles III arrives at Aberdeen Airport after leaving Balmoral, following the death of his mother last night The monarch shook hands at the airport before boarding a flight to London, where he will address the nation this evening King Charles III at Aberdeen Airport as he travels to London with the Queen Consort following the death of his mother A Buckingham Palace source told MailOnline: 'King Charles must return to London to attend to matters of state. But the other senior royal will spend a day of quiet reflection at Balmoral Castle.' Charles and Camilla were driven away from the estate this morning in a grey Audi saloon and followed by their protection team in a Land Rover. He yesterday paid tribute to the Queen, describing her as a 'cherished Sovereign and much-loved Mother' as he was confirmed as Britain's new monarch. He will now be known by the regnal name of King Charles III, Clarence House has confirmed. As his full name is Charles Philip Arthur George there was a chance that he could have opted to use one of these names instead. His statement read: 'The death of my beloved Mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family. 'We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much-loved Mother. 'I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world. 'During this period of mourning and change, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which The Queen was so widely held.' Charles was by his mother's side for much of the day after catching the royal helicopter from Dumfries House in Ayrshire with his wife Camilla. His younger sister Princess Anne was already at Balmoral after royal duties also took her to Scotland. They were joined by other senior members of the Royal Family including Her Majesty's other two children, Andrew and Edward, and Prince William. The family rushed to the Queen's Scottish residence after an unprecedented statement from her doctors revealed they were 'concerned' about her health and were keeping her under medical supervision. A vehicle carrying Britain's King Charles leaves Balmoral Castle, following the passing of Britain's Queen Elizabeth King Charles III and the Queen Consort leave Birkhall in Scotland as they travel to London following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday The King (pictured looking emotional on his way out of Balmoral this morning) has also instructed a period of royal mourning from now until seven days after his mother's funeral - a date yet to be confirmed King Charles III and the Queen arrive at Aberdeen Airport as they travel to London following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday Handout issued by Buckingham Palace of the notice for the Accession Council and Principal Proclamation of King Charles III Charles has released a statement about the death of Queen Elizabeth, describing her as a 'cherished Sovereign and a much-loved Mother' Prince Charles left Dumfries House in Ayrshire earlier to travel to Balmoral Charles is becoming monarch at 73 years old, nearly half a decade older than the Queen was when she found herself in the same position. He is likely to launch a radical overhaul of the monarchy in the wake of his mother's death, having frequently spoken about a slimmed-down front-line. Royal watchers believe the former Prince of Wales is keen to ensure there are 'no hangers-on' in the Firm, with each member being expected to pull their weight in a new and more streamlined monarchy. The concept of the 'slimmed-down monarch' was clear to see during the Platinum Jubilee in June when the Queen restricted those appearing on the Buckingham Palace balcony to working members of the Royal Family. But King Charles' original model, which reportedly involved a tight core of just seven people, including himself, has been thrown into doubt following a series of external events. The plan, put in motion before the Queen's death, originally included the long-reigning monarch along with Prince Philip, King Charles and Camilla, Prince William and Kate and Prince Harry. Philip died aged 99 in 2021, while Harry's future in the slimmed-down monarchy seems hugely doubtful following his decision to quit front line royal duties and move to America with his wife Meghan Markle. Meanwhile, Prince Andrew, who would likely have featured in a slimmed-down monarchy as a son of the Queen and King Charles' brother, has been outcast since his US sex assault lawsuit with Virginia Giuffre. But that has pushed Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, and Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, Countess of Wessex, into the fray as 'key' parts of Prince Charles' future monarchy, according to royal watchers. As Charles becomes King, Prince William is to become the new Prince of Wales, with his wife Kate Middleton taking on the new title of the Princess of Wales. As the new King, Charles will be front-and-centre of the new-look monarchy. Alongside his reported desire to slim-down the size of the family, the biggest immediate change will be his residence. The former Prince of Wales's official residence has been Clarence House, on The Mall in the City of Westminster, since 2003. While the Queen's official residence has been Buckingham Palace, she spent much of her time at her favoured Windsor Castle following the death of her beloved Prince Philip. According to royal biographer Penny Junor in her book 'The Firm', the Queen wanted to remain living at Clarence House after her father's death, but was convinced by Winston Churchill to move to Buckingham Palace - because of its significance as the home of the monarch. It is believed Kings Charles will follow in his mother's footsteps and move into Buckingham Palace. One of the Royal Family's helicopters landed at Balmoral yesterday morning, believed to be carrying Prince Charles and Camilla. All the Queen's children rushed to be there One royal source told the Mail on Sunday in February 2022: 'There is no question about it. HRH's view is that you need a monarch at monarchy HQ. This has never been in doubt. 'The Prince of Wales will not move into Buckingham Palace before he is king. But when he is, he absolutely will. 'Just like the Queen, it will effectively be in the 'flat above the shop'. He feels it is right, just as the Queen does, to work out of Buckingham Palace. 'The Palace will still be a working and entertaining hub and will also still be open to visitors. It is a hugely important tourist attraction. 'But the prince can still live there at the same time, much like he does at Highgrove, which is also open to the public.' Advertisement Buckingham Palace today announced a period of royal mourning will be observed from now until seven days after the Queen's funeral as the slowing of everyday life in Britain begins to mark the extraordinary reign of Elizabeth II. The new King confirmed his wish to hold an extended period of royal mourning, lasting a week until after his mother's funeral, the full details of which have yet to be announced. Black cloth or crepe bands will be worn on the left arms of all members, while civilian dress is expected to be dark with black ties for men and black dress for women. Black-edged notepaper will also be used in all Royal Households during this period Meanwhile, flags at all royal residences will remain at half-mast until 8am on the morning after the period of royal mourning officially ends. The period will be observed by all members of the royal family, household staff and representatives of the royal household on official duties. Troops committed to ceremonial duties are also expected to observe. Charles and his wife remained at Balmoral overnight after racing up to Scotland to be at the bedside of the Queen, whose death was announced to the nation yesterday evening. Amid the grief and confusion he will return to the capital today, before meeting Prime Minister Liz Truss and making a televised statement to the nation as monarch at 6pm. The death of The Queen was announced at 6.30pm yesterday via the Royal Family's official Twitter account Buckingham Palace today announced a period of royal mourning will be observed from now until seven days after the Queen 's funeral as the slowing of everyday life in Britain begins to mark the extraordinary reign of Elizabeth II The new King confirmed his wish to hold an extended period of royal mourning, lasting a week until after his mother's funeral, the full details of which have yet to be announced The Queen is seen with her eldest son King Charles on the balcony of Buckingham Palace during the Platinum Jubilee celebrations Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II attends an audience with the President of Switzerland at Windsor Castle on April 28, 2022 London Bridge is down Buckingham Palaces behind-the-scenes code for Queen Elizabeth IIs death triggers a period of mourning in which normal life in the UK will dramatically slow for the next ten days London Bridge is down Buckingham Palaces behind-the-scenes code for Queen Elizabeth IIs death triggers a period of mourning in which normal life in the UK will dramatically slow for the next ten days. Due to the announcement coming so late in the day, at 6.30pm, the meticulously-planned programme of events for the aftermath of the Queen's death has now moved back a day - meaning D-Day or D+0 begins today. The complex strategy, a major undertaking on an unprecedented stage, for the final farewell to Elizabeth II will be formally set in motion once approved by King Charles III. As Her Majestys death occurred in Scotland, a contingency plan known as Operation Unicorn has been triggered. The mythical creature is Scotlands national animal. Part of the long-held London Bridge arrangements, Unicorn sets in motion additional ceremonial events in Edinburgh ahead of the logistics of bringing the Queen back to London. With the monarch spending several months a year at her beloved home in the Highlands, the plans for a Scottish element have been organised for some time. The Queens coffin draped in the Royal Standard with a wreath of her favourite flowers on top is expected to be at rest in the ballroom of her beloved Balmoral Castle for two days while arrangements are made. MailOnline details below how Britain will begin to mark the life of our longest-reigning monarch on D+0: EARLY MORNING: Buckingham Palace announced this morning the length of royal mourning for members of the royal family and households will last from now until seven days after the Queen's funeral, with a date for that yet to be set. Union flags on all royal buildings will fly at half-mast until 8am the day after the period of royal mourning ends as a mark of respect, while flags in Londons Parliament Square and the Mall will today be dressed in black. The new King and the Queen Consort are set to fly out of Aberdeen International Airport and return to London today after staying with family, advisors and aides overnight in Balmoral. He will then turn his attention to approve the carefully approved funeral plans for his mother, and will meet the Earl Marshal who leads on the accession process and remembrance services. At 10.00am, the Government also confirmed the period of national mourning began, running until the end of the day of the State Funeral for Queen Elizabeth II - the date of which is yet to be confirmed by the Palace. The Queen with her eldest son Prince Charles and his wife the Duchess of Cornwall ahead of the annual Order of the Garter service at St George's Chapel on June 13, 2022 The Queen and Prince Charles during the state opening of Parliament at the Palace of Westminster in 2019 The Queen and the then Prince Charles are seen out walking in Balmoral in October 2021. It was one of the last times the mother and son were pictured together The Queen and the now King Charles, dressed in full military uniform, welcomed a small number of healthcare professionals to the ornate confines of Windsor Castle on July 12 2020 MIDDAY: The solemn rings from Westminster Abbey's tenor bell and Great Tom, the state bell at St Paul's Cathedral, will peal over the capital from midday for an hour. Churches across the country are also being urged to toll their bells at noon in a show of support. Duty still calls amid the grief and outpouring of emotion, so Charles will begin by holding his first audience with the Prime Minister as monarch this afternoon. Tributes to the Queen will be paid by MPs in the House of Commons, led by Prime Minister Liz Truss and Speaker of the House Lindsay Hoyle. The House may also sit on Saturday, a highly unusual move, to pay further tribute. Peers will also convene for an extraordinary session in the House of Lords, lasting for 10 hours. The Cabinet Office has said that further details of the Queen's funeral and ceremonial and commemorative events will be announced in 'due course'. 1PM: Gun salutes from the Honourable Artillery Company at the Tower of London and the The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery at Hyde Park will sound out an hour later - with one every 10 seconds for each year of Elizabeth's life. 96 rounds are also expected to be fired in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast as the home nations also pay lasting tribute to the United Kingdom's longest-serving monarch. Ships at sea will also take part in the commemorations, the Ministry of Defence announced on Friday. Royal residences - including The Queen's gallery and Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace, will close until after the Queen's funeral. Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland and Balmoral Castle and Sandringham House, the Queen's private estates, will also close for this period The Queen posed for a photograph in the drawing room at Balmoral shortly before her meeting with Ms Truss, whom she appointed as her Prime Minister this week March 9, 2020: The Queen and Charles attend the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey on Commonwealth Day Queen Elizabeth II and her husband the Duke of Edinburgh walk at Broadlands in this picture released on November 18, 2007 April 17, 2021: Queen Elizabeth II during the funeral of her husband the Duke of Edinburgh at St George's Chapel in Windsor EARLY EVENING: Later in the day the King's pre-recorded address, where he will vow to pledge his service to the nation as a new sovereign, and is expected to be broadcast at 6pm. At around the same time the Prime Minister and senior ministers will attend a public service of prayer and remembrance at St Paul's Cathedral to celebrate the wonderful life of Queen Elizabeth II. Members of the royal family are not expected to attend the 6pm service which will be open to the public and broadcast live by the BBC. Audio of the King's televised address to the nation will be played inside the cathedral if it coincides with the service. The cathedral said a total of 2,000 seats will be allocated to the public on a first-come-first-served basis. A spokeswoman for the cathedral said Liz Truss, who will deliver a reading at the service, is expected to be joined by Lord Mayor Vincent Keaveny. Those wishing to attend must visit in person to the City of London tourism office on Carter Lane to collect a wristband from 11am. Advertisement People are sharing fond memories of meeting the Queen following her death - including the son of actress Liza Goddard who helped push her stuck Range Rover out of the mud. Writer Thom Goddard, 46, was walking on Holkham Beach, Norfolk with his mum Liza, 72, and stepfather, late TV producer and director David Cobham. Did you meet the queen? Send your stories to danya.bazaraa@mailonline.co.uk Advertisement On their walk in Easter 1994, they came across an enormous Range Rover and a 'tiny lady' behind the wheel stuck in the mud. She wound down her window and Thom was stunned to see it was Queen Elizabeth. The Queen shook her car phone and said: 'I have no connection. Can one give one a push?' Thom, who was 17 at the time, and his stepfather were stunned. 'All I remember was this tiny woman behind this enormous car,' he said. 'When she wound the window down to reveal her face, I thought 'oh my god'.' 'We gave her a push and helped her out of the mud and then she drove away without saying thank you.' It was quite amazing.' The Queen loved Holkham beach and had a beach hut there hidden amongst the trees. Thom Goddard recalls helping the Queen when she got her horse box and Range Rover stuck in the mud and she asked: 'Can one give one a push?' The Queen and Charles walking at the Balmoral Estate - Scotland was a special place for the Monarch over the decades He added: 'The most surprising thing was she was on her own. I assume she must have been out riding at Sandringham.' The executive added he likes to remember people with funny and nice things that happened. He has met the Queen on four other occasions at garden parties and said she was always lovely and polite. Liza Goddard, who was once married to pop star Alvin Stardust, is a television and stage actress, best known for her work in the 1970s and 1980s and had a recurring role as Philippa Vale in crime drama Bergerac between 1984 and 1989. Another story of how Queen Elizabeth handled an encounter with American hikers who had no idea who she was, recounted by a former bodyguard who was with her that day, revealed the fun-loving side of her personality the public rarely saw. The monarch was out in the hills near her Scottish castle at Balmoral when two U.S. tourists on a walking holiday approached them and engaged in conversation. 'There were two hikers coming towards us - and the Queen would always stop and say hello. And it was two Americans on a walking holiday,' Royal Protection Officer Richard Griffin told Sky News during celebrations of Elizabeth's 70 years on the throne earlier this year. 'It was clear from the moment that we stopped that they hadn't recognised the Queen - which is fine. Former Royal Protection Officer Richard Griffin told an amusing tale of two American tourists who did not recognise the Queen The monarch was out in the hills near her Scottish castle at Balmoral when two U.S. tourists on a walking holiday approached them and engaged in conversation - but they did not know she was the Monarch Millie Robson, from County Durham was visited by the Queen in hospital when she was 15. She said she was 'grateful and honoured' by the visit Di Bellis sent in a collage of pictures from meeting the Queen at Waddesdon in Buckinghamshire - many have recalled historical encouters with the Monarch The Queen in a photograph in the drawing room at Balmoral shortly before her meeting with Ms Truss, whom she appointed as her Prime Minister, on Tuesday 'The American gent was telling the Queen where they came from, where they were going to next, and where they'd been to in Britain. 'I could see it coming and sure enough, he said to Her Majesty 'and where do you live?' And she said 'well I live in London but I have got a holiday home just the other side of the hills.' She did not say she was referring to Balmoral. Aware that the castle was in the vicinity, the hiker then asked her if she had ever met the queen, Mr Griffin said. 'Quick as a flash she said: 'I haven't, but Dick here meets her regularly''. The hiker than asked Griffin what the monarch was like in person. People have been tweeting about their fond memories of meeting the Queen - showing she always gave people the time of day 'Because I was with her a long time and I knew I could pull her leg, I said 'oh, she can be very cantankerous at times, but she's got a lovely sense of humour,'' Mr Griffin said. Delighted, the hiker then put his arm around the officer's shoulder and asked if he could have a picture of the two of them together. 'Before I could see what was happening, he gets his camera and gives it to the queen and says 'can you take a picture of us?'' The queen obliged, and then Griffin took the camera and took a picture of her with the pair of hikers. Later, Mr Griffin said the queen told him: 'I'd love to be a fly on the wall when he shows those photographs to friends in America and hopefully someone tells him who I am.' Andrew Peden, from Farnborough, told the MailOnline about how met the Queen in 1999 - when he served her at the Chelsea Flower Show. 'I was at catering college in 1990. We did some work experience at the Chelsea Flower Show. 'My friend and I were chosen to serve drinks and canapes at the top table on the royal's ladies day. I felt very honoured. 'The Queen was very pleasant. I only spoke to her once 'More tea, ma'am', and she said 'No thank you' - short, but sweet conversation!' Tina Nicholls met the Queen when was asked to volunteer at Buckingham Palace - she said she was quite nervous beforehand Harry Dymond, who lives near Southampton, in Hampshire, was lucky enough to have seen the Queen twice in his life Millie Robson was visited by the Queen at Royal Manchester Children's Hospital after the Manchester Arena attack in 2017. She was 15 at the time and posted on Twitter to honour Her Majesty following her death, saying: 'This moment meant so much to me.' A Royal super-fan who met the Queen more times than any other member of the public says he will miss HRH - who used to call him 'Union Jack Man'. Terry Hutt, 87, has a home crammed with royal memorabilia and says he is 'heartbroken'. The devoted fan has spent decades travelling to Buckingham Palace and other royal residences to wait outside and meet the Windsors. Terry said: 'I've been very fortunate enough to meet the Queen and the family for many years now. 'Elizabeth always made a point to walk over to me, nod her head, say hello. 'Her Majesty even called me Union Jack Man! Terry said: 'I've been very fortunate enough to meet the Queen and the family for many years now. 'Elizabeth always made a point to walk over to me, nod her head, say hello.' Terry Hutt, 87, is a royal superfan and has a home crammed with royal memorabilia - he says he is heartbroken Terry, 87, says he has been receiving calls from people all over the world to reflect upon Her Majesty's memory, and it has only reaffirmed how many were touched by her grace 'She has done such a wonderful job, and I was even lucky enough to meet her when she was a youngster. I'll miss her.' A mother whose two children 'gate-crashed' royal security to meet the Queen has spoken of the 'magical moment' during the Monarch's visit to their home city, 20 years ago. Farmer's wife and medical secretary Lesley Smith took her children Garry, 10, and Emma-Rose, seven, to Glasgow in May 2002 where the Queen was due to meet dignitaries in George Square as part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations. 'The children both had flowers and there were some military veterans in wheelchairs at the front who let them stand in front for a better view as we waited for her to arrive,' recalled Lesley, 50. 'When her limousine came into sight, the crowd all cheered and I think Emma-Rose just went with the flow and stepped forward a few paces and beckoned her brother to follow her. 'They were stopped by a security guard and then the crowd started chanting 'Let the children through!'. 'The Queen wondered what the noise was about and turned round, then beckoned to the children to come forward with their flowers. 'She took the bouquets and thanked them and spoke to them for a couple of minutes. As they were eventually ushered back to us in the crowd, Garry turned around and waved at her and she waved back.' 'It was a really magical moment which has stayed with them all their lives,' added Lesley, from Strathaven near East Kilbride, south-east of Glasgow. A mother whose two children 'gate-crashed' royal security to meet the Queen has spoken of the 'magical moment' during the Monarch's visit to their home city, 20 years ago Lesley Smith took her children Garry, 10, and Emma-Rose, seven, to Glasgow in May 2002 where the Queen was due to meet dignitaries in George Square as part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations 'The Queen wondered what the noise was about and turned round, then beckoned to the children to come forward with their flowers,' Lesley Smith said An influencer whose 'hilarious' meeting with the Queen aged six made newspaper headlines 20 years ago has said the 'wholesome and wonderful experience' showed her she 'can do anything'. Katie Meehan, now 26, was chosen to represent St Joseph's Primary School when the Queen visited Jarrow, Tyne and Wear, in 2002 to mark her Golden Jubilee - and stepped up to offer the monarch a bouquet of flowers. In an awkward moment photographed by the PA news agency, Ms Meehan stepped the wrong way, causing the head of state to laugh and landing a prime spot in the Shields Gazette about her 'dance with the Queen'. Ms Meehan, who was born with a cystic hygroma, said the moment has always been a 'wonderful thing' as it 'wasn't centred around the fact that I have a facial disfigurement'. 'I had months of curtseying lessons before that,' Ms Meehan, who is now a beauty and fashion influencer based in south-east London, said. 'But you know when you walk past someone in the street and you try to get past them, but you both go the wrong way? I did that with the Queen. Katie Meehan, now 26, was chosen to represent St Joseph's Primary School when the Queen visited Jarrow, Tyne and Wear, in 2002 to mark her Golden Jubilee - in an awkward moment, she went the wrong way She said she had been practicing her curtsy and landed a prime spot in the Shields Gazette about her 'dance with the Queen' Ms Meehan, who was born with a cystic hygroma, said the moment has always been a 'wonderful thing' as it 'wasn't centred around the fact that I have a facial disfigurement' 'I managed to give her the flowers and she found it hilarious, she was laughing at me. 'And the headline the next day in the newspaper was something like 'Our Katie Dances with The Queen'.' Ms Meehan said meeting the Queen is a 'fond memory'. 'It's always been such a wonderful thing to have been able to do,' she said. 'It wasn't centred around the fact that I have a facial disfigurement. 'I think that was the most important thing, it wasn't (out of) pity. 'It was such a wholesome and wonderful experience. 'When things like that happen to you at a young age - being able to do things like meet the Queen, it makes you realise that you truly can do anything.' Ms Meehan said meeting the Queen is a 'fond memory' and described it as a 'wholesome' and 'wonderful' experience Dr Ian Griffin shared a photo on Twitter of an invitation to attend a reception hosted by the Queen and Prince Philip for representatives of the British scientific community on October 24, 2006. He said: 'The day I met the Queen and via an odd set of circumstances ended up having a discussion with her about light pollution around Sandringham. 'She was so wise & will be missed. The world has lost an icon. Thank you for everything.' @MsScarletBlade tweeted her story saying, 'As a girl, I met and spoke with The Queen. 'A woman pushed in front of me, Her Majesty didn't let her get away with it. I remember it word for word. 'She took the orchids I gave her, and we had a conversation around Mum and I growing them. She made me feel special. That's rare.' A writer and freelance teacher recalled the Queen visiting a school he was working in and said she seemed genuinely interested in the kids. 'I met the Queen once. She visited an infant school I was working in,' he tweeted. 'We shook hands and it seemed she was genuinely interested in what the children were doing. 'Most of all, she was present. She must have done things like that a million times, but it didn't feel like it.' Ian Griffin tweeted about meeting the Queen at a reception given at Buckingham Palace by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh Steven Mclauchlan tweeted: 'I met the the Queen once and only spoke to her for maybe 20 seconds, she didn't have to stop and speak to everyone but did, which said so much about her, 20 seconds out of her day was a lifetime memory and career highlight for me.' Harry Dymond, who lives near Southampton, Hampshire, told the BBC he had seen the Queen twice - the first time as a 13-year-old when he was chosen as a St John's Ambulance cadet to attend the Queen's coronation. 'I was so pleased and honoured to think that I would be at the coronation and could possibly see the Queen. I had no thought at that time, of course, that I might ever see her again,' he said. He then met her again 62 years later when he received an MBE for his services to St John's Ambulance and the community. 'For that very little time you are with her, you feel like you are the only person in the world,' Mr Dymond said. 'She's got a marvellous ability just to make you so relaxed and able to talk to her freely and simply.' Tina Nicholls also met the Queen when she was asked to volunteer at Buckingham Palace. 'She came down the line and she spoke to each of us in turn. We had a short chat and then she moved on,' Ms Nicholls said. 'It was the most wonderful and surreal moment of my life. I do cherish that one, it's very special to me. She is a special woman.' Beverley Bowman met the Queen in 2019 when she opened the Haig Housing Estate in Morden, south London. Beverley said: 'She came into our house and she spoke with our family. 'She was a lovely woman and made us feel at ease. She knew about our daughter who we lost at birth. 'She was genuinely interested which was lovely and interacted with our sons. Nothing but good words for her, she entranced everyone when she was here.' Writer Catrina McHugh, who founded the Open Clasp Theatre Company, recalled when she was awarded her MBE. 'When I met the Queen I wanted to hug her, I felt overwhelmed and she reminded me of my aunty Maggie. She was kind.' One Twitter user wrote: 'I met the Queen in 2011. I expected someone regal but she was just a delightful little grandma. I got so tongue tied with Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness and Ma'am that in the end she laughed and told me not to be daft. My greatest achievement, making the Queen laugh. Bill.' Noona Hora recalled meeting the Queen when she was younger. She said: 'When I was a child, I was invited to a Xmas party at the Royal Mews, I met the Queen in the stables and offered her one of my roasted chestnuts she said 'no thank you my dear I've already eaten,' she was very nice.' Helen McLean's father Wing Commander R W Guy was Station Commander and RAF Kemble and received the Queen when she used the base to fly in and out of the area. Helen said: 'Dad was very taken with her and remarked how she showed genuine interest in the people she met and what she was shown, taking the time to listen and look at things.' Di Bellis also shared pictures of meeting the Queen and Prince Philip in Waddesdon, Buckinghamshire, including one of Robert Bellis handing the monarch some flowers. Annette German, who attended the Queen's coronation, said the Queen 'could not better have dedicated her life' to her people. Former government worker Michael Myers, 63, recalled meeting the Queen in 1985 when he was a civilian attached to British Forces in the jungles of Belize, Central America. Only a month before, the troops he was with had taken emergency supplies to Mexico City after a huge earthquake there killed more than 5,000 people. Recalled Mr Myers, now a retired grandfather-of-three from Newcastle-upon-Tyne: 'The Queen's visit was a marvellous occasion and a great morale booster. 'I was working for the Department of the Environment and it was my first and as it turned out, last -- posting abroad, so the whole experience is still very vivid for me.' After his year in Belize, managing facilities for the troops stationed there, a subsequent posting to Hong Kong was scrapped because of defence cuts and the rest of his government career was spent in the UK. But meeting the Queen was a highlight: 'I had lunch just a few feet away from her in the Officers' Mess, which was where I was living, and I will never forget her poise, grace and smile. 'Hearing about her death yesterday was very sad, but I just wanted to send this in to remember a very happy occasion. RIP, Ma'am.' Former government worker Michael Myers, 63, recalled meeting the Queen in 1985 when he was a civilian attached to British Forces in the jungles of Belize, Central America Susan Cousins said she met the Queen in 1968 and said she made 'an isolated and vulnerable nine-year-old brown girl feel six foot tall' Susan Cousins was nine when she met the Queen on the steps of a local library in around 1968 in Northamptonshire. She told MailOnline: 'For one moment my awkwardness and shyness just disappeared and I was filled with reassuring confidence and a strong sense of self. She made an isolated and vulnerable nine-year-old brown girl feel six foot tall, it was a very special experience. And I felt a sense of belonging to the country I love.' Susan, an author, from Northampton, the Midlands, said: 'It was a complete coincidence, I was loitering around the library as I always was. 'I was starstruck, I did know the Queen was coming, I did sort of recognise her.' Retired sapper Mark Stanton told MailOnline his story of meeting the Queen in 1996. 'I had the privilege of meeting Her Majesty the Queen at the Windsor horse show in 1996,' he said. 'Fresh out of training at Gibraltar barracks, Camberley, we had been sent to work as Security and Maintenance for the event. 'She walked in to our mess area as we were eating lunch and asked how we were and did we get time to enjoy the event. 'After being slightly star stuck, and also realising we needed to jump up to attention we were allowed to speak freely to a truly lovely lady who had time for us young soldiers fresh out of training.' Dr Linda Yueh, executive chairwoman of the Royal Commonwealth Society, said the Queen offered a 'personal touch' to all those she met. The Queen was patron of the charity, which works to improve the lives of people living in Commonwealth countries. 'She had an incredible smile that lit up the room,' she told BBC Breakfast. 'It doesn't matter how many times you meet her, it's always special. 'I think I was always very struck by her interest and how involved she was in some of the projects that we delivered in her name. 'And you just know the Queen would have had a question for you and listened intently to your answer. 'I think her personal touch, I think, is what most of us will be reflecting on.' Speaking outside Buckingham Palace yesterday, Ms German, 84, a retired teacher from south London, said: 'I was with my grandmother at the coronation and when I heard the news she was unwell, I thought I must be there and I got on a train and got the news as I was just round the corner. 'I share a birthday with the Queen and I've listened to the national anthem every birthday. 'I'm from a left-wing family but massively in favour, the Queen could not have better-dedicated her life to her country.' Speaking of her shared birthday with the Queen, she said: 'It's a very special. I've had that link all that life.' A US couple who received a touching letter from The Queen say they're considering their unborn child 'Elizabeth' after hearing news of her death. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip with their baby son, Prince Edward on the balcony at Buckingham Palace on June 13, 1964 Elizabeth II is pictured here next to husband Prince Philip and other royals at Buckingham Palace on December 8, 2016 Katelyn Sutherland, 31, and her husband Aaron, 34, received the royal message after they sent The Queen a picture of their daughter, Jalayne, now two, dressed just like her. And now Katelyn is pregnant with her second child, she says Elizabeth is 'in the running' to be the name they call their new baby, who is due in late October. The married couple, from suburban Kentucky, said they never expected to get a return letter from the palace and had sent the original letter on a whim last year. So they were 'amazed' when the 'heartwarming' note arrived in the post from Her Majesty a few months later, thanking them for the 'splendid' photo of their daughter. Katelyn said she was 'really sad' to learn about The Queen's death yesterday adding that she had been a 'role model' for people around the world. She said: 'We were really sad to hear that news, and although we don't know her personally, we do feel connected to her, with everything that has happened with my daughter and the letter. 'Although she's not our queen, given that we're in the United States, she is definitely a role model to me and my daughter. 'Now I'm pregnant, and we don't know if it's a boy or a girl, but my husband's grandma is also named Elizabeth, so it is in the running as one of the names if it's a girl.' Hundreds of people have gathered at Buckingham Palace gates to pay tribute to the Queen the day after her death. Mourners, many dressed all in black, congregated beside hundreds of colourful bouquets and messages which had been left overnight and early in the morning. A large Union flag in tones of black and grey has been pinned to the right flank of the gates, while police officers kept a crowd back from the main gates further to the left. *Did you meet the queen? Send your stories to danya.bazaraa@mailonline.co.uk Advertisement Following her death yesterday, Her Majesty's plans for her funeral in around 11 days' time are being set in motion. Her son, the new King Charles III, is likely to meet the Earl Marshal - the Duke of Norfolk - who is in charge of the accession and the Queen's funeral, to approve the carefully choreographed schedule for the coming days. The arrangements - part of Operation London Bridge - were first laid out in the 1960s and have been regularly updated since then. The Government will also announce that the funeral day will be a public holiday in the form of a Day of National Mourning. The period of Her Majesty's coffin lying in state in Westminster Hall - where her father's body lay for three days after his death in 1952 - is expected to begin on September 14. The Queen's state funeral is expected take place at Westminster Abbey in central London on September 19. The original plans are for the Queen's coffin to process on a gun carriage to the Abbey, pulled by naval ratings - sailors - using ropes rather than horses. Senior members of the family are expected to poignantly follow behind - just like they did for the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales and the Duke of Edinburgh. The military will line the streets and also join the procession. Heads of state, prime ministers and presidents, European royals and key figures from public life will be invited to gather in the Abbey, which can hold a congregation of 2,000. The service will be televised, and a national two minutes' silence is expected to be held. The same day as the funeral, the Queen's coffin will be taken to St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle for a televised committal service. Later in the evening, there will be a private interment service with senior members of the royal family. The Queen's final resting place will be the King George VI memorial chapel, an annex to the main chapel - where her mother and father were buried, along with the ashes of her sister, Princess Margaret. Her husband Prince Philip's coffin will move from the Royal Vault to the memorial chapel to join the Queen's. Below, MailOnline answers all your key questions about the funeral, and how you can pay your respects to Her Majesty. When will the Queen's coffin arrive in London? Her Majesty is expected to remain at Balmoral until Sunday, when her coffin will be taken by road to the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. Proclamations will be read in the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland devolved parliaments in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast. On Monday, September 12, an emotional procession is expected along the Royal Mile in Edinburgh's old town to St Giles' Cathedral. It will remain there for at least 24 hours. On Tuesday, Her Majesty's coffin is expected to be flown to London, where it will first be taken to Buckingham Palace. Above: The scene at King's Cross Station in London in 1952 when the new Queen watched her father's coffin being carried from the Royal Train A view down The Mall in London of the procession carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, from the Queen's Chapel to Westminster Hall, where she lay in state until her funeral at Westminster Abbey Members of the Royal Family will hold a vigil around the coffin in the cathedral. The public may also get the chance to file past the Queen's coffin at a mini lying in state in St Giles'. On Tuesday, Her Majesty's coffin is expected to be flown to London, where it will first be taken to Buckingham Palace. A rehearsal for the procession of the coffin from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster then takes place. How can I go to pay my respects? A four-day period of the Queen lying-in-state in Westminster Hall will begin on Wednesday, following a ceremonial procession through London. The Archbishop of Canterbury will conduct a service, before hundreds of thousands of people file past the coffin - resting on its catafalque - to pay their respects. The scenes will echo those that took place when the Queen's father King George VI died in February 1952. More than 300,000 people queued to file past the coffin. The management of queues outside is known as Operation Feather. Senior royals are also expected to pay their own moving tributes and will stand guard around the coffin in a ceremony known as the Vigil of the Princes. A four-day period of the Queen lying-in-state in Westminster Hall will begin on Wednesday, following a ceremonial procession through London. Above: King George VI lying in sate in Westminster Hall in February 1952 Mourners filing past the coffin of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, in Westminster Hall, where she was lying-in-state until her funeral at Westminster Abbey in 2002 Crowds of mourners queue to file past the coffin of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, in Westminster Hall in April 2002 The Queen Mother lying in state in Westminster Hall in 2002. The scenes will be echoed when her Majesty lies in state from next week What happens on the day of the Queen's funeral? Her Majesty's state funeral at Westminster Abbey is expected to take place on Monday, September 19. The last watch of the vigil in Westminster Hall will start at 6am, with the lying in state coming to an end at 8.30am. At around 10.30am, the Queen's coffin is expected to process from Westminster Hall to the nearby Abbey on a gun carriage pulled by Royal Navy sailors - using ropes rather than horses. Senior members of the Royal Family will poignantly follow behind, just as they did for the funerals of Princess Diana and the Duke of Edinburgh. Heads of state, prime ministers and presidents, as well as European royals and other key figures from public life will gather in the Abbey, which can hold a congregation of 2,000. The British Royal family watch as the coffin of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother is prepared to be carried from Westminster Abbey at the end of her funeral service Queen Elizabeth II during the funeral service of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother at Westminster Abbey in April 2002 The Royal Family including the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince William, the Duke of York and Prince Harry follow the Queen Mother's coffin on the day of her funeral at Westminster Abbey On the day of the funeral, heads of state, prime ministers and presidents, European royals and key figures from public life will be invited to gather in the Abbey, which can hold a congregation of 2,000. Above: The then Prime Minister Tony Blair arriving with his wife Cherie at the funeral of the Queen Mother in 2002 (left); former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at the service The Earl Spencer, Prince William, Prince Harry and the Prince of Wales waiting as the hearse carrying the coffin of Diana, Princess of Wales prepares to leave Westminster Abbey following her funeral service The coffin of Diana, Princess of Wales, is carried inside Westminster Abbey for her funeral service following her tragic death What can I see on TV? The service at Westminster Abbey will be televised on the BBC in the UK and on other channels around the world. A national two minutes' silence is also expected to be held during the service. Her Majesty's coffin will then be loaded onto the green gun carriage that was used for the Queen's father, his father and his father's father, and 138 junior sailors will drop their heads to their chests and pull. This is a tradition that began at Victoria's funeral in 1901 when the horses threatened to bolt at Windsor Station and a waiting contingent of ratings stepped in to pull the coffin instead. The procession will then swing on to The Mall and go past Victoria Monument, Constitution Hall and Wellington Arch. From Hyde Park Corner, the hearse will go 23 miles by road to Windsor Castle. Once in Windsor, Her Majesty's coffin will be taken to St George's Chapel. Above: The funeral procession of her father, King George VI, as it moved through the grounds of Windsor Castle Once there, Her Majesty's coffin will be taken to St George's Chapel, where a televised committal service will take place. Later in the evening, a private internment service will take place with senior members of the Royal Family. Her Majesty's final resting place will be the King George VI memorial chapel, which is an annex to St George's. Her mother and father are buried there, as are the ashes of her sister Princess Margaret. Prince Philip's coffin will also be moved from the Royal Vault to the memorial chapel to join the Queen. The Cabinet Office said today that further details of the Queen's funeral would be confirmed 'in due course'. The department also warned of crowding and delays on some public transport as people seek to pay their respects. The Queen sits alone inside St George's Chapel at Windsor during the funeral of her husband Prince Philip in April last year. The service took place during the coronavirus pandemic The Prince of Wales (bottom left), The Duke of York (centre) and The Duke of Cambridge (top centre) walk behind The Duke of Edinburgh's coffin, covered with His Royal Highness's Personal Standard, outside St George's Chapel Queen Elizabeth II watches as pallbearers carry the coffin of the Duke of Edinburgh during his funeral at St George's Chapel It said: 'We recognise that many people will travel to Buckingham Palace and other royal residences as a mark of their respect. 'We expect large crowds, which can pose risks to public safety. Those who do travel are asked to follow any instructions given to them by stewards and the police. We expect significant crowding and delays on some public transport. The public should check ahead and plan accordingly. 'As you would expect, a number of organisations will now be making practical preparations including contingency planning for the state funeral and related events. 'Access to some areas, especially in central London, will be restricted, with road closures and diversions that will cause delays to vehicles and pedestrians. 'Those who wish to lay floral tributes near royal residences in London, Windsor, Edinburgh, Balmoral and Sandringham are asked to do so only in designated areas, as directed by stewards. Further details will be made available shortly.' NHS chiefs and other health leaders today praised the Queen for her 'unwavering support' during her remarkable 70-year reign. Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of the health service in England, led tributes to the monarch, saying the entire health service was 'incredibly saddened' by the 96-year-old's death last night. Queen Elizabeth II, who ascended the throne four years after the NHS was created, was hailed for 'tirelessly' championing the system, particularly through Covid. Her Majesty collectively awarded the health service the prestigious George Cross at a Windsor Castle ceremony in July, in recognition of the seven decades of 'courage, compassion and dedication' shown by staff. Doctors and nurses across Britain also paid tribute to the Queen's 'long connection' to Britain's health community. She was patron of the Royal College of Nursing, as well as charities including Cancer Research UK and the British Red Cross. Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of the health service in England (pictured second from left, top row, after the NHS was the George Cross at a ceremony in Windsor Castle in July this year), said the entire health service was 'incredibly saddened' as she led tributes to the monarch Medical unions also paid tribute to the Queen, with the British Medical Association commending her 'stewardship of her nation'. Pictured: The BMA building's flag at half mast Buckingham Palace announces period of mourning begins now Buckingham Palace today announced a period of royal mourning will be observed from now until seven days after the Queen's funeral as the slowing of everyday life in Britain begins to mark the extraordinary reign of Elizabeth II. The new King confirmed his wish to hold an extended period of royal mourning, lasting a week until after his mother's funeral, the full details of which have yet to be announced. Black cloth or crepe bands will be worn on the left arms of all members, while civilian dress is expected to be dark with black ties for men and black dress for women. Black-edged notepaper will also be used in all Royal Households during this period Meanwhile, flags at all royal residences will remain at half-mast until 8am on the morning after the period of royal mourning officially ends. The period will be observed by all members of the royal family, household staff and representatives of the royal household on official duties. Troops committed to ceremonial duties are also expected to observe. Charles and his wife remained at Balmoral overnight after racing up to Scotland to be at the bedside of the Queen, whose death was announced to the nation yesterday evening. Amid the grief and confusion he will return to the capital today, before meeting Prime Minister Liz Truss and making a televised statement to the nation as monarch at 6pm. Advertisement Ms Pritchard said: 'I know I speak on behalf of the whole NHS when I say how incredibly saddened we are by the news Her Majesty The Queen has passed away. 'The Queen dedicated her life to public service and it was our proudest moment when she awarded NHS staff the George Cross earlier this year, for their compassion and courage over the last 74 years but particularly during the pandemic.' Ms Pritchard added on Twitter: 'We remember her decades of dedication and service, and unwavering support of the NHS. 'On behalf of colleagues across the NHS, I send my heartfelt condolences to the royal family.' Caroline Lamb, chief executive of NHS Scotland, described the Queen as a 'truly remarkable woman'. She said: 'I am joined by the whole of NHS Scotland in being incredibly sad to hear to hear the news of the death of Her Majesty The Queen. 'A woman who tirelessly championed for our NHS. 'To meet her only a matter of weeks ago will always be such an honour, I will hold dear to my heart.' Matthew Taylor, chief executive of NHS Confederation, said: 'Our deepest condolences go out to the Royal Family and to the nation following the passing of Her Majesty The Queen. 'As our longest reigning monarch, The Queen has been a constant presence and source of stability for much of the population, including supporting the NHS for the majority of its 74 years. 'As she did in life, The Queen's death will leave a lasting impression on the country.' Interim chief executive of NHS Providers, Saffron Cordery, added: 'Trust leaders will be deeply saddened to hear the news that Her Majesty The Queen has passed away.' The Queen was patron of University College Hospital, which she opened in October 2005, and the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine. One of her last public engagements before the pandemic was to open the Royal National ENT and Eastman Dental Hospitals in February 2020. University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust chief executive said: 'I am deeply saddened to learn of the death of Her Majesty The Queen. 'I know colleagues across UCLH will join me in offering our condolences to the Royal Family during this time of immense grief. 'At UCLH, we were honoured to have welcomed The Queen to our Trust when she opened two of our hospitals these were joyful occasions which will remain in the memories of our patients and staff who were present. 'We were also privileged to have Her Majesty as patron of two of our hospitals. 'The Queen, like so many people in the NHS, dedicated her life to service and I know staff across our hospitals will want to join me in paying their respects, as the nation enters a period of mourning.' Queen Elizabeth II presents the George Cross to Amanda Pritchard, Chief Executive of NHS England, and May Parsons, Modern Matron at University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire Ms Pritchard says: 'I know I speak on behalf of the whole NHS when I say how incredibly saddened we are by the news Her Majesty The Queen has passed away' Clergyman who spent last weekend with the Queen says the 96-year-old was 'full of fun' A clergyman who spent last weekend with the Queen said Her Majesty was 'full of fun' and the 'life and soul of things'. The Rt Rev Dr Iain Greenshields, 68, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, stayed with the Queen at Balmoral after performing a sermon at Braemar and Crathie Parish Church. Greenshields had dinner on Saturday and lunch on Sunday with the 96-year-old, the Prince of Wales and the Princess Royal. 'It was a fantastic visit. Her memory was absolutely amazing and she was really full of fun,' he told The Times. 'It came as a great shock to me when I heard she was gravely ill because she was in amazingly good form over the weekend. 'She was the life and soul of things. She was speaking very personally to me about her time there way back when she was a child, she was talking about her horses from the past, naming them from 40 years ago, peoples names and places. She was quite remarkable.' Greenshields yesterday paid tribute to the 'faith, service and dedication of Her Majesty the Queen', saying this had been 'the hallmark of her long reign'. Advertisement Deputy Prime Minister Therese Coffey also joined Britain's previous health secretaries in mourning. She said: 'Today, I mourn the death of Queen Elizabeth II RIP. Earlier this year the nation celebrated her Platinum Jubilee with much love and joy, recognising her decades of service. 'My thoughts and prayers are with His Majesty King Charles III and all the Royal Family.' Her predecessor in the Department of Health and Social Care Steve Barclay said: A life of the most remarkable service and duty. 'On behalf of constituents across North East Cambridgeshire I know there will be the most profound sadness and sense of loss as we mourn an extraordinary monarch and send our deepest condolences to the Royal Family.' Sajid Javid, whose resignation saw Mr Barclay take over the department, said: 'After a lifetime of service, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II now rests. A lifetime of devotion and extraordinary service which will forever be remembered. May she rest in peace.' Jeremy Hunt Tweeted: 'In an age when [people] constantly question their well-being, the Queen stood for something different. 'Not self-absorption but service to others. Knowing the path to happiness is through the happiness of others. 'The best of our history and inspiration for our future. RIP Your Majesty.' Medical unions also paid tribute to the Queen, with the British Medical Association commending her 'stewardship of her nation'. Professor Philip Banfield, BMA council chair said: 'The BMA offers its deepest and most sincere condolences to the Royal Family on the death of Her Majesty the Queen. 'Many will not have known life without Her Majesty as our Head of State and during her 70-year reign she was a dedicated public servant and much respected figure. 'During her stewardship of her nation there has been substantial social and political change around the world. Her role in this will never be forgotten.' Leading nurses also paid tribute to the Queen. Pat Cullen, chief executive and general secretary of the college, said: 'We are deeply saddened by the death of Queen Elizabeth II. 'She was a dedicated patron of the Royal College of Nursing with a long connection to the nursing community. 'The Queen visited many nursing staff during her reign and will be fondly remembered by those who had the chance to meet and share their experiences with her. 'Our thoughts are with Her Majesty's family during this difficult time. She will be missed by nursing staff across the UK.' The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) said the Queen had brought 'joy' to NHS staff fortunate enough to meet her. College president, Sir Andrew Goddard, said: 'This is a time of great sadness for the RCP and our members all over the world. 'We have been honoured to have Her Majesty The Queen as our visitor for more than 70 years. 'Many of our members' work in hospitals the Queen visited during her long reign, some of which bear her name, and they will no doubt reflect on the interest she showed in their work, the support she gave to our NHS and the joy she brought to those colleagues and patients fortunate enough to meet her. Deputy Prime Minister Therese Coffey (left) also joined Britain's previous health secretaries in mourning. Jeremy Hunt (right) described the Queen as 'best of our history and inspiration for our future' 'She was much loved by many in the RCP and will be greatly missed.' Meanwhile, ambulance trusts offered condolences to the Royal Family. Richard Henderson, chief executive of East Midlands Ambulance Service said: 'On behalf of the whole of East Midlands Ambulance Service, I would like to offer my sincere condolences to the Royal Family at this time of national mourning. 'A number of colleagues at EMAS have had the privilege to meet Her Majesty for the exemplary work and commitment they have shown to the ambulance service, through being recognised on the New Year's Honours List, specifically being awarded the Queen's Ambulance Service Medal. 'Colleagues and volunteers wear the crown on their uniform with pride, and we will stand together in sadness and remembrance for you, our Queen.' West Midlands Ambulance Service chair Professor Ian Cumming said: 'Her Majesty The Queen has been a part of all of our lives during her reign spanning 70 years and has had an enormous impact on our country for the past seven decades. 'For our staff, this is indeed a sad day and one that will make us all reflect on the extraordinary life that she has led.' And health charities the Queen was patron of also paid tribute. The British Red Cross said: 'We are deeply saddened by the news that Her Majesty The Queen has died. 'As our Patron for seventy years, Her Majesty showed enduring support for the work of the Red Cross here in the UK and around the world. Our deepest sympathies are with the Royal Family.' Cancer Research UK said: 'We're saddened to hear about the death of Her Majesty the Queen. 'As our Patron, she kindly supported us over the years, opening our laboratories and institutes which are an integral part of the charity's pioneering work into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer.' Advertisement Emotional mourners who gathered outside of Buckingham Palace yesterday evening described the Queen as a 'noble and remarkable woman' who was 'the rock of what modern Britain was built on'. Tributes from Brits came flooding in as the death of Her Majesty was announced, with many tearfully telling the Mail Online what the monarch meant to them. Many have been crying, praying, and laying colourful flowers at the wrought iron gates yesterday evening and this morning. William, 30, said: 'She represented continuity and all four parts of our country, and she was the rock of what modern Britain was built on. 'It's just such a shock to think about how we are going to carry on. 'But keep calm and carry on I guess.' Those gathered outside of Buckingham Palace were seen emotionally paying tribute to the Queen following the announcement of her death yesterday Joshua, 24, tearfully said, 'She's above politics, she's above parties, she's a constant and she was dutiful. She was a very noble and remarkable woman' Louise (right), 50, who had to stop mid-sentence as she became increasingly upset, described Her Majesty as 'a part of our community, a part of us, and she was us'. Pictured with her husband Paul, 60 (left) The sad news of the Queen's death was announced officially yesterday evening, with some people in the crowd wept as others gave an impromptu rendition of God Save The Queen Louise, 50, who had to stop mid-sentence as she became increasingly upset, described Her Majesty as 'a part of our community, a part of us, and she was us'. Others also mentioned what the Queen meant to UK politics, saying that she was 'above' political divisions. Joshua, 24, said: 'She represents perhaps what it means to British in a day and age where it's quite hard to find that. 'She's above politics, she's above parties, she's a constant and she was dutiful. 'Those are all aspects that everyone can admire and look to and use in their own life.' He tearfully added: 'She was a very noble and remarkable woman.' The sad news of the Queen's death was announced officially yesterday evening. Nearby florists had sold out due to rocketing demand, and charity staff were selling white flowers in Green Park for those streaming down the pathways that lead to the Palace. At the announcement of her death one woman said that she felt 'honoured' she was able to pay her respects. She said: 'I am so privileged and honoured to have known her from birth right the way through to me being able to give my respects at her passing. 'If she was in pain I'm just glad that she in a better place. 'Her duty for me was beyond reproach, she sacrificed so much for her people, and we all love her because she was our matriarch. 'It's hard to know she won't be in our tomorrows but she will be in the history books.' Some people in the crowd wept as others gave an impromptu rendition of God Save The Queen. One little boy, Noah Sharp, 8, said the Queen was a 'very good person' and was 'very helpful'. He said: 'The Queen means a lot to me because she was a very good person in life and she was always helpful and she had inspiration for everything she did. Today Operation London Bridge will swing into action, the period of ten days between the Queen's death and her state funeral, which is expected to take place on Monday September 19 One little boy, Noah Sharp, 8, said the Queen was a 'very good person' and was 'very helpful' William, 30, quoting the famous British saying, said: 'It's just such a shock to think about how we are going to carry on. But keep calm and carry on I guess' Daniel, 19, who is from Spain, described Her Majesty as a 'cultural icon' 'She was a good Queen.' Some people interviewed could not find the words to express their sadness, with Yuan Jiao, 24, saying: 'There are only two words, and that's very sad. It's just one feeling now.' Some people interviewed who were visiting the UK from abroad described Her Majesty as a 'cultural icon'. Daniel, 19, from Spain, said: 'You can see here that there are a lot of people who are actually very said and mourning her death. 'The Queen was a cultural icon. 'Where we are from, the death of a member of our royal family would definitely not be as much of a thing.' Cristina, 29, also from Spain, added: 'I've only lived here for two years, but I feel like I'm from here and I'm feeling incredibly sad.' Some people thought of their own family whilst mourning the death of Her Majesty, with Dolores, 75, tearfully saying she was 'sad' because she 'remembers her mum' who was the same age. At midday today, bells are set to toll at St Paul's and Westminster Abbey and other churches across the country to honour her. It comes after senior royals dashed to be at the Queen's bedside yesterday, but are said to have tragically not reached Balmoral in time before she passed. Leo Cheung, 37, who has lived in London for 20 years after moving from Hong Kong, was one of hundreds of mourners to lay flowers at Buckingham Palace. He said: 'We have a very strong connection to the Queen, we are quite neutral towards the royal family but the Queen has been there since we were born. 'She was part of our lives and its sad to see someone we know pass away.' One woman (pictured) said he felt 'honoured' she was able to pay her respects Dolores, 75, from Cuba, has lived in London for 18 years and said the Queen's death has reminded her of her mother Yuan Jiao, 24, from China, said the only two words that can describe his feelings are 'very sad' Ana (left), 31, and Cristina (right), 29, both from Spain, said that although they have only lived in the UK for a short time they feel a deep sense of sadness Norman Ashley, who was carrying an Australian flag outside Buckingham Palace, said the 'new era' of the British monarchy could act as a 'uniting force' for the world amid the war in Ukraine. He said: 'It means a lot to us because she was the Queen of Australia, theres a Union Jack on our flag and our connection couldnt have been any closer. 'Weve had a feeling of dread for the last week or two because of her deteriorating health.' Christine Ashley, 68, from Canberra in Australia, said she landed in the UK for a holiday with her husband yesterday and felt like she had 'walked into history'. She said: 'Im a dual citizen, I grew up in the UK, and its a time of uncertainty and the Queen was one of those stabilising factors around the world in these troubling times. 'Like everyones been saying, shes been part of our lives. 'So I guess theres a sense of dread about what the future holds.' Kwok-kit Ngan, 37, a dentist from Bromley, said he felt 'great sadness' when the Queen died but it was 'heart-warming' to see hundreds of tributes at Buckingham Palace early on Friday morning. After laying a bouquet of sunflowers, the last in a nearby supermarket, Mr Ngan said: 'She's been leading the country for the last 70 years and I think she really has led by example through the good times and the bad times.' Many have been crying, praying, and laying colourful flowers at the wrought iron gates yesterday evening and this morning This tribute read 'God bless the Queen. R.I.P. Long live the King' Other messaged left touched upon the Queen's passions, including horse riding, with this stuffed toy left amongst the flowers Asked how it felt to see so many people paying tribute at the Palace, he said: 'It's quite heart-warming. Not many events would draw people together. 'I think what happened yesterday has really got people to reflect and appreciate what she's really done for us over the past 70 years. 'I think although it's a sad event, some good will come out of it. 'If you look at Prince Charles and Prince William over the past few years and the good they've done for the country, I think we're in safe hands.' Laura Huff, who moved to London three-and-a-half years ago from the US, was in tears as she paid her respects at Buckingham Palace. 'We always knew this day would come but it just seemed to happen quite quickly when it did. 'She was like a grandmother to the nation. 'As someone who wanted to move here my entire life, she was someone you always hear about and read about. 'I think she had a really strong sense of responsibility and you could really see that.' Natalie Grimston, a cafe manager in her 40s who held a Platinum Jubilee party at her business earlier this year, described the atmosphere at Buckingham Palace as 'surreal'. After laying flowers with her dog Bailey, Ms Grimston said: 'You can hear the noise from the Palace, but when you're over there (laying flowers) it's deathly silent, it's just not real.' A mourner is overcome with emotion as he pays his respect at the gates of Buckingham Palace in London A woman sheds tears as she arrives to pay tribute to the Queen outside Buckingham Palace in London this morning A person reacts near Buckingham Palace, following the passing of Queen Elizabeth, in London yesterday Charlotte Trudley, 29, was outside the palace clutching a bunch of flowers. Holding back tears she said: 'I'm here to remember a great lady. 'She was the last great figure and gave it all to the nation. 'She focused on duty and action her whole life and was so important to so many people. 'She radiated warmth, humour, dignity and grace. 'I never thought this day would come but here it is. 'And I'm paying my respect, she touched everyone and made me proud to be British.' The Queen's death was finally announced at 6.32pm in a short black-edged statement from Buckingham Palace which read simply: 'The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.' Today Operation London Bridge will swing into action, the period of ten days between the Queen's death and her state funeral, which is expected to take place on Monday September 19, as the country is plunged into a period of official mourning. A number of big events have already been cancelled, including the BBC's Proms and its famous crescendo, Last Night of the Proms, which were due to take place on Friday and Saturday. Hundreds of floral tributes have been laid at the gates of the palace in central London. Messages read: 'Queen Elizabeth II rest with God.' Another said: 'R.I.P unparalleled Queen and everyone's grandma.' A hiker who disappeared on Sunday while searching for water for his parched girlfriend in California's Gaviota state park has been found dead by authorities. The body of Tim Sgrignoli, 29, was found Thursday morning after a four-day search and rescue operation off a trail near Santa Barbara, a sheriff's spokeswoman said. Sgrignoli, a Ventura resident and software engineer, had been hiking the Gariota Hot Springs trail in the Ynez mountains with his girlfriend on the weekend when she began to suffer mild heat exhaustion on account of the blistering temperatures. The hiker's girlfriend, whose identity has not been released, was rescued by authorities on Sunday afternoon but Sgrignoli never returned. Sgrignoli, a 29-year-old Ventura resident, had been hiking the Gariota Hot Springs trail in the Ynez mountains on Sunday The body of Tim Sgrignoli was found Thursday morning after a four-day search and rescue operation off a trail near Santa Barbara, a sheriff's spokeswoman said His cause of death has not yet been established but no foul play is suspected and it is thought he likely died of heat exhaustion, dehydration and exposure. It comes as a blistering heat wave continues to bake the western United States, particularly California, Nevada and Arizona. Temperatures in Sacramento tipped 116F on Tuesday - the hottest day ever registered in the California state capital. Santa Barbara Country Fire Department officers said they received a call around 2pm on Sunday afternoon about a couple who were in need of aid on the Gaviota Hot Springs Trail. Spokesperson Scott Safechuck said Sgrignoli remained with his ailing partner until authorities confirmed a rescue helicopter had been dispatched, at which point he decided to go looking for water. Sgrignoli, 29, was a software engineer living in Ventura, California. He attended the University of Florida and graduated in 2016 with a degree in statistics with minors in actuarial and computer science 'This morning one of the mutual Search and Rescue teams from San Mateo County made the discovery of Mr. Sgrignoli, unfortunately deceased,' Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Commander Erik Raney told News Channel 3-12 yesterday. 'The heat, as far as complications to this search, was the number one issue. The first several days, as you know we had record breaking temperatures.' By Wednesday morning, Sgrignoli's family and friends were expressing grave concern on social media at his disappearance and a large group of civilian volunteers hit the trails in a desperate attempt to find the missing hiker. His older sister, Kym Sgrignoli, wrote on Facebook Wednesday, one day before he was located, that 'a huge group of family and friends' were headed to Gaviota Peak and Trespas trails to search, adding that they were 'still hopeful' to find him.' Search and rescue operatives found the body at around 9am on Thursday, just 20ft away from Highway 101 north of the Gaviota tunnel close to the Hot Springs trail. Santa Barbara Country Fire Department officers said they received a call around 2pm on Sunday afternoon about a couple who were in need of aid on the Gaviota Hot Springs Trail Sgrignoli disappeared after leaving the Gariota Hot Springs trail (pictured) to look for water for his exhausted girlfriend Sgrignoli's family members shared many desperate pleas on social media in the days leading up to the discovery of his body. His older sister Kym Sgrignoli wrote on Facebook Wednesday, one day before he was located: 'We are all still hopeful we will find him. Please continue to pray for us and send positive vibes!' Sgrignoli's death comes as a 'gifted' doctor who had recently become a first-time father died after running out of water and getting lost while hiking in Arizona with five others in heat excess of 109F. Authorities confirmed that 32-year-old Dr. Evan Dishion died while hiking near Cave Creek on Monday afternoon. Six people were rescued after Maricopa County sheriff's deputies received a call at 1:25pm about hikers in trouble at Spur Cross Trailhead Mountain, approximately 40 miles north of Phoenix. The hikers had continued on the trail after running out of water before getting lost, said the Scottsdale Fire Department. Dishion was among those rescued from the trail, but he later died in hospital from heat exhaustion. Dr. Evan Dishion, who had recently become a father, died while hiking near Cave Creek on Monday afternoon after his group ran out of water and got lost while hiking in Arizona under triple-digit heat Six hikers, including Dr. Evan Dishion, had to be rescued after running out of water at Spur Cross Trailhead Mountain, approximately 40 miles north of Phoenix The doctor leaves behind a three-month-old daughter called Chloe and his wife, Amy Dishion. The couple moved all over the country before settling in Phoenix, where they had their first child. 'He was really thoughtful and self-reflective and intelligent and just wanted to help people,' said his wife, who he met a dozen years ago at a community college in Oregon. 'One day he looked at me and said: "I think I want to be a doctor."' Since the arrival of his daughter, he hadn't had much time with his friends and wanted to spend time hiking with them. He promised his wife he would turn back if the weather got too hot, with Amy only learning what had happened when she received a phone call from the hospital. A group of young New Zealand Defence Force trainees have broken out into a moving haka to commemorate the life of Queen Elizabeth II. Members of Limited Service Volunteer, a program ran by the NZDF for youths at risk, led the traditional Maori ceremonial dance outside the Auckland Museum on Friday. Dressed in camouflage military gear, the group of both men and women gave an impassioned performance following the news of Her Majesty's death, while flags flew at half-mast behind them. The Queen's death at the age of 96 has sent shockwaves around the world, with many in New Zealand grieving the loss of the monarch who ventured to the country ten times. Members of Limited Service Volunteer, a program ran by the NZDF for youths at risk, led the traditional Maori ceremonial dance outside the Auckland Museum on Friday The moving performance was seen in Auckland on Friday Dressed in camouflage military gear, the group of both men and women gave an impassioned performance following the news of Her Majesty's death Flags were flown at half mast as the group of trainees performed the traditional dance Some of the country's high ranking officials paid respect to the strong ties the Queen held with the nation. On her first trip to NZ in 1953 she presented the Royal Navy with the Queen's Colour. Chief of Defence Force Air Marshal Kevin Short said Her Majesty's ongoing dedication to her duties was an inspiration to members of the defence force. Pictured: the late Queen, wearing a kiwi feather cloak given to her at her coronation in 1953 (right), and Maori tribal head Rick Te-Tau (left) in Christchurch, New Zealand on her Golden Jubilee tour 'Her dedication and commitment resonated with us all as it is the ultimate example of service which underpins everything we do as members of the New Zealand Defence Force,' he said. 'While there will be a sombre mood acknowledging Her Majesty's death, it is also a time to appropriately celebrate her more than 70 years as our Monarch and her contribution to all walks of life and to the Armed Forces.' As head of state, the Queen headed the NZDF and its three Services, Royal New Zealand Navy, New Zealand Army and Royal New Zealand Air Force. Queen Elizabeth, pictured with the Duke of Edinburgh, made ten trips to New Zealand during her lifetime and headed the NZDF as New Zealand's sovereign head of state Queen Elizabeth II visited New Zealand 10 times, last travelling to the country in 2002. Jacinda Ardern paid the monarch a touching tribute earlier on Friday in a condolence book at parliament house in New Zealand. The prime minister wrote: 'With our deepest gratitude for your love for the people of Aotearoa New Zealand, and for your life of service.' She followed the English message with the Maori proverb 'he kotuku rerenga tahi', which translates to 'a white heron's flight is seen but once'. The use of the message, which refers to a rare event, is considered an honour. The NZ PM also revealed how she had learned of the Queen's death when a 'police officer shone a torch into my room at around ten to five this morning'. Ms Ardern said she had read accounts of the Queen's ill health before sleeping and so 'immediately' knew what being woken up in the middle of the night meant. Jacinda Ardern has expressed her country's condolences to the 'extraordinary' Queen Elizabeth II as she shared a touching story between the pair where she was gifted a picture of her laughing and recalled to the PM exactly what made her laugh decades later The PM earlier recalled her first meeting with the Queen, when she was gifted a picture of Her Majesty laughing on an early visit to New Zealand, decades ago. 'Not only did she remember the visit, she could remember what was making her laugh,' she said. 'That speaks to me of someone who gave a life of service but who also enjoyed the role that she played as difficult I'm sure as it was.' New Zealand's official mourning will continue until a State Memorial Service, held after the Queen's funeral, which is expected in around 10 days' time. New Zealanders are supportive of the monarchy with the most recent substantive poll on the a potential separation from the Commonwealth last November on the occasion of the Queen's death showing 50 per cent opposed compared to 44 per cent in favour. Emotional social media users today shared poignant tributes showing the Queen reuniting with her beloved Prince Philip and corgis, and walking into the sunset with Paddington Bear. One particularly touching sketch shows the Queen and Prince Philip with their arms around each other looking into the distance. Her Majesty is flanked by her late husband and one of her corgis as they sit on a blanket together. An inscription underneath the cartoon reads: 'Hello again Lilibet', alluding to the after-life reunion of the pair, married for more than 70 years. Last night, Paddington Bear paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth II just a few months after they warmed the nation's hearts with a hilarious afternoon tea sketch at 'Buckingham Palace'. The image, shared by Instagram user 'murphy's sketches' was flooded with comments under the post, including 'this is just beautiful' and 'this has set me off again'. Another cartoon shared widely on Twitter shows the back of the Queen, dressed in her familiar emerald green coat and hat holding hands with Paddington bear. Alongside them, again one of the Queen's corgis follows, wrapped around loose British bunting and a train of fallen marmalade sandwiches. The widely shared cartoon was also edited by various different users to include different inscriptions on the image. On one, it read in the voice of the Queen: 'I've done my duties Paddington, please take me to my husband'. Another, from the perspective of the bear, said: 'Don't be frightened Ma'am... the world will be holding your hand.' The cartoon tributes follows the famous sketch the pair did to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee earlier this year. In the video, the monarch and the bear sat down over a cup of tea in Buckingham Palace to enjoy their favourite marmalade sandwiches, as Paddington thanked the Queen for everything she had done. Last night, Paddington bear shared a tribute of his own on Twitter to mark the Queen's passing. To echo his word's in their famous sketch, he said: 'Thank you Ma'am, for everything'. Additional Paddington bear memes were shared on Twitter in similar tone, with one sketch showing the bear tipping his hat in respect. The inscription read: 'Farewell Ma'am'. Kim Jong Un had declared he is ready to launch preventive nuclear strikes in a new law passed this week, state media said on Friday. Such 'preventative' strikes could be made even in the face of conventional attacks against the isolated country, the law states. The move effectively eliminates the possibility of denuclearisation talks, with the dictator saying the country's status as a nuclear state was now 'irreversible'. Kim Jong Un (pictured in a photograph released by North Korean state media on Thursday) had declared he is ready to launch preventive nuclear strikes in a new law passed this week, state media said on Friday The announcement comes at a time of heightened tension between North and South, with Pyongyang blaming Seoul for the outbreak of Covid-19 in its territory and conducting a record number of weapons tests this year. The newly enacted law says North Korea can carry out a preventive nuclear strike 'automatically' and 'immediately to destroy the hostile forces' when a foreign country poses an imminent threat to Pyongyang, the Korean Central News Agency said. The law specifically states the North can use nuclear weapons 'in case of a nuclear or non-nuclear attack by hostile forces on the state leadership and the command organization of the state's nuclear forces', among other situations, state media said. 'The status of our country as a nuclear weapons state has become irreversible', Kim Jong Un said, KCNA reported. The law 'publicly justifies Pyongyang's use of its nuclear power' in the event of any military clash, Cheong Seong-chang of the Center for North Korea Studies at the Sejong Institute told AFP news agency. As the North's dictator, 'Kim Jong Un does not need laws to launch a nuclear strike', but the new law serves as a way to 'vindicate Kim's use of nuclear weapons in case of emergency by disclosing the principles of nuclear use at home and abroad in advance,' he added. The announcement comes at a time of heightened tension between North and South, with Pyongyang blaming Seoul for the outbreak of Covid-19 in its territory and conducting a record number of weapons tests this year. Pictured: A weapons test in North Korea is picture in March Kim in July said his country was 'ready to mobilise' its nuclear capability in any war with the United States and the South. He reiterated that Pyongyang would never give up the nuclear weapons it needed to counter hostilities from Washington, claiming the United States was seeking to 'collapse' his regime. Nuclear talks and diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang have been derailed since 2019 over sanctions relief and what Pyongyang would be willing to give up in return. 'There is absolutely no such thing as giving up nuclear weapons first, and there is no denuclearisation and no negotiation for it,' Kim said during a speech at North Korea's rubber-stamp parliament on Thursday, KCNA reported. In his speech, Mr Kim also criticised South Korea over its plans to expand its conventional strike capabilities and revive large-scale military exercises with the United States to counter the North's growing threats, describing them as a 'dangerous' military action that raises tensions. Mr Kim has made increasingly provocative threats of nuclear conflict towards the United States and its allies in Asia, also warning that the North would proactively use its nuclear weapons when threatened. People watch a television screen showing a file image of a North Korean missile launch at the Seoul Railway Station on August 17, 2022 in Seoul, South Korea His latest comments underlined the growing animosity in the region as he accelerates the expansion of his nuclear weapons and missiles programme. 'The purpose of the United States is not only to remove our nuclear might itself, but eventually forcing us to surrender or weaken our rights to self-defence through giving up our nukes, so that they could collapse our government at any time,' Mr Kim said in the speech published by the North's official Korean Central News Agency. 'Let them sanction us for 100 days, 1,000 days, 10 years or 100 years,' Mr Kim said. 'We will never give up our rights to self-defence that preserves our country's existence and the safety of our people just to temporarily ease the difficulties we are experiencing now.' A blitz of North Korean weapons tests since January included the firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile at full range for the first time since 2017. Washington and South Korean officials have repeatedly warned that the North is preparing to carry out what would be its seventh nuclear test. Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, said the North's latest announcement clearly reaffirmed Pyongyang's stance - that nuclear negotiations are no longer on the table. 'Pyongyang is likely to form closer ties with China and Russia against Washington, and ... launch its seventh nuclear test in the near future,' he told AFP. Pictured: North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un attends an event celebrating the 74th anniversary of North Korea's founding, in Pyongyang Mr Kim also addressed domestic issues in his speech, saying North Korea would begin its long-delayed rollout of Covid-19 vaccines in November. He did not specify how many doses it would have, where they would come from, or how they would be administered across his population of 26 million people. GAVI, the non-profit that runs the UN-backed Covax distribution program, said in June it understood North Korea had accepted an offer of vaccines from China. The organisation said at the time the specifics of the offer were unclear. North Korea rejected previous offers by Covax, likely because of international monitoring requirements, and has also ignored US and South Korean offers of vaccines and other Covid-19 aid. Last month, Mr Kim declared victory over Covid-19 and ordered preventive measures eased just three months after his government for the first time acknowledged an outbreak. Experts believe the North's disclosures on its outbreak are manipulated to help Mr Kim maintain absolute control. The North Korean report about Mr Kim's speech came a day after South Korea extended its latest olive branch, proposing a meeting with North Korea to resume temporary reunions of aging relatives separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, which were last held in 2018. Experts say it is highly unlikely North Korea would accept the South's offer considering the stark deterioration in inter-Korean ties amid the stalemate in larger nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang. But Pyongyang ridiculed the offer, calling it the 'height of absurdity' and a deal the North would never accept. South Korea's hawkish President Yoon Suk-yeol said last month that his administration had no plans to pursue its own nuclear deterrent. Advertisement The Queen died aged 96 yesterday and King Charles III is now the new monarch. Here is the day-by-day account of what is expected to happen next, leading up to the Queen's funeral expected on September 19: Day of Death Yesterday would traditionally have been D-Day or D+0 in the plans for the aftermath of the Queen's death, codenamed London Bridge. But the announcement came late in the day - at around 6.30pm yesterday - meaning plans have been shifted a day to allow the complex arrangements to be put in place, meaning D+0 will be considered today. The new King had dashed to the Queen's bedside. Charles was joined by the monarch's other children the Princess Royal, the Duke of York and the Earl of Wessex, with the Duke of Cambridge, now heir to the throne. The Duke of Sussex also travelled there but left alone this morning. Also at Balmoral are Camilla - the new Queen - and the Countess of Wessex. The King and Camilla will return to London today. The following is expected to take place in the coming days, but Buckingham Palace has yet to confirm plans: D+0 - Friday September 9 - The King and Queen to return to London - Charles and Camilla stayed at Balmoral overnight last night, but return to London today. - 12pm: Church bells expected to ring across the country in commemoration of the Queen. Bells will toll at Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral and Windsor Castle - but the timing of that has not been confirmed. -12pm: Tributes to the Queen will be paid by MPs in the House of Commons, led by Prime Minister Liz Truss and Speaker of the House Lindsay Hoyle. - 1pm: Gun salutes - one round for every year of the Queen's life - will be fired in London's Hyde Park and at other stations. - Audience with the PM - despite his grief, duty calls for new sovereign Charles who will have his first audience as monarch with Prime Minister Liz Truss this afternoon. - Confirming funeral plans - Charles is likely to meet the Earl Marshal - the Duke of Norfolk - who is in charge of the accession and the Queen's funeral, to approve the carefully choreographed schedule for the coming days. The London Bridge arrangements have long been planned in consultation with the Government. They will incorporate Operation Unicorn, the contingency plans for the death of the Queen in Scotland. During the coronavirus pandemic, the Government and the Royal Household prepared a 'London minus' version of the London Bridge plans in case it was needed - which is now unlikely - with all the elements but with the involvement of fewer people. - Court mourning - A period of royal mourning for members of the royal family and royal households will be observed until seven days after the Queen's funeral, the date of which is to be confirmed by Buckingham Palace. - National mourning - The Government will confirm the length of national mourning, which is likely to be around 12 days, from now up to the day after the Queen's funeral. They will also announce that the funeral day will be a public holiday in the form of a Day of National Mourning. - 6pm: Televised address by King Charles III - The King will make a televised address to the nation, which he is due to pre-record. He will pay tribute to the Queen and pledge his duty to his service as the new sovereign. - 6pm: Service at St Paul's Cathedral - The Prime Minister and senior ministers will attend a public service of remembrance at St Paul's in central London. - Flags - Union flags on royal buildings are flying at half-mast. The Royal Standard never flies half-mast. It represents the Sovereign and the United Kingdom, and is a symbol of the continuation of the monarchy. If the new King is in residence at a royal palace or castle, the Royal Standard will fly there full-mast as is the tradition. The Union flag does not fly there at the same time. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is in charge of arrangements for lowering flags on government buildings. Downing Street reportedly expressed concern in the past that the Government would face a wave of public anger if it did not lower its flags within 10 minutes of the announcement of the Queen's death. - Sports events - A decision is likely to be made later today on whether sports bodies such as the Premier League will cancel matches this weekend. Official Government guidance recommends sports bodies should consider cancelling events on the day of the funeral, but there is no obligation for other days. D+1 - Saturday, September 10 The Accession Council meets, traditionally at 10am, at St James's Palace in London to formally proclaim Charles as the new sovereign. First, the Privy Council gathers without the King to proclaim the new monarch and arrange business relating to the proclamation. Then Charles holds his first Privy Council, accompanied by Camilla - the new Queen - and William who are also Privy Counsellors, and makes his personal declaration and oath. The first public proclamation of the new sovereign is read in the open air from the Friary Court balcony at St James's Palace by the Garter King of Arms. Proclamations are made around the city and across the country. Union flags go back up to full-mast at 1pm and remain there for 24 hours to coincide with the proclamations before returning to half-mast. Charles will also hold audiences with the Prime Minister and the Cabinet. D+2 - Sunday, September 11 The Queen's coffin is expected to be taken by road to the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. Proclamations will be read in the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland devolved parliaments in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast. D+3 - Monday, September 12 Procession is expected along Royal Mile to St Giles' Cathedral. Service and the Vigil of the Princes by members of the royal family. The public may get the chance to file past the Queen's coffin at a mini lying in state in St Giles'. The House of Commons and the House of Lords are expected to come together in Westminster for a Motion of Condolence, which the King could attend. After leaving England and visiting Scotland, Charles will at some stage travel to the other countries of the UK - Wales and Northern Ireland - known as Operation Spring Tide. D+4 - Tuesday, September 13 Coffin expected to be flown to London. Expected to be at rest at Buckingham Palace. A rehearsal for the procession of the coffin from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster takes place. D+5 - Wednesday, September 14 The Queen's lying in state is expected to begin in Westminster Hall - Operation Marquee - following a ceremonial procession through London. It will last four full days. The Archbishop of Canterbury will conduct a short service following the coffin's arrival. Hundreds of thousands of people will file past the coffin on its catafalque and pay their respects, just as they did for the Queen Mother's lying in state in 2002. The management of the queues outside is Operation Feather. During the Covid-19 crisis, plans included the possibility of the introduction of timed ticketing for those wanting to attend. Senior royals are also expected to pay their own moving tribute, standing guard at some stage around the coffin - the tradition known as the Vigil of the Princes. D+6 - Thursday, September 15 Lying in state continues and a rehearsal is likely to take place for the state funeral procession. D+7 - Friday, September 16 - Sunday, September 18 Lying in state continues, ending on D+9. Heads of state begin to arrive for the funeral. D+10 - Monday, September 19 The Queen's state funeral is expected take place at Westminster Abbey in central London. The original plans are for the Queen's coffin to process on a gun carriage to the abbey, pulled by naval ratings - sailors - using ropes rather than horses. Senior members of the family are expected to poignantly follow behind - just like they did for the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales and the Duke of Edinburgh. The military will line the streets and also join the procession. Heads of state, prime ministers and presidents, European royals and key figures from public life will be invited to gather in the abbey, which can hold a congregation of 2,000. The service will be televised, and a national two minutes' silence is expected to be held. The same day as the funeral, the Queen's coffin will be taken to St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle for a televised committal service. Later in the evening, there will be a private interment service with senior members of the royal family. The Queen's final resting place will be the King George VI memorial chapel, an annex to the main chapel - where her mother and father were buried, along with the ashes of her sister, Princess Margaret. Philip's coffin will move from the Royal Vault to the memorial chapel to join the Queen's. Australia's Governor-General has spoken of the early morning phone call he 'desperately' did not want to receive, telling him Queen Elizabeth II had died. A sombre David Hurley, dressed in a black suit and tie, spoke to the nation on Friday evening and described the dreaded call that came from Buckingham Palace at 1.38am Adelaide time. 'I had a sense it was news that I desperately did not want to hear,' Mr Hurley said. Governor-General David Hurley said the Queen's influence over Australia is based on a 'special bond' and values that will continue to be relevant to all Australians Mr Hurley, who will now travel for the Queen's funeral which is expected to take place at Westminster Abbey in London, already officially represents her son and heir, King Charles III, in Australia. Although the tragic call began a 'very sad period for us', the Queen's influence in Australia will continue, Mr Hurley said. That influence is based on a 'special bond' with Australia. From her 16 visits, the Queen 'admired our easy going approach to life and sense of humour.' 'What is clear is that even though her life has ended, her example to us all has not,' Mr Hurley said. Mr Hurley said that on several occasions the Queen demonstrated compassion and selflessness and a love for Australia and understood that we want to 'control our own destiny' A sombre David Hurley, dressed in a black suit and tie, spoke to the nation on Friday evening and described the dreaded call that came from Buckingham House at 1.38am Adelaide time He said apart from being 'a symbol of stability', the Queen demonstrated values and dedication to others that should inspire all Australians Mr Hurley also shared two conversations he had with Her Majesty before her death that illustrated the her remarkable character. One came just after her beloved husband, Prince Phillip, died in April 2021. 'When Linda and I spoke with Her Majesty following the death of Prince Philip, first she inquired about was the welfare of Australians, particularly Western Australians impacted by a tropical cyclone,' he said. 'She was mourning the death of her husband of 73 years, yet her first question was to know how Australians in need were faring. 'Her care and compassion was sincere.' On April 11 2021 Tropical Cyclone Seroja slammed into the coast of Western Australia leaving 20,000 homes without power and damaging homes in Kalbarri and Geraldton. Another call, the last Mr Hurley would have with the Queen, demonstrated her warmth. Mr Hurley's wife, Linda Hurley, Anthony Albanese and the prime minister's partner, Jodie Haydon will accompany him to attend the funeral, due to take place 10 days after her death 'I will always treasure ... my last call with Her Majesty,' Mr Hurley said. That came just before he introduced the four Australians of the Year for 2022, in January. 'She was warm, funny and sincere in her interest in their work and our country,' Mr Hurley said. On top of all that, the Queen also understood and accepted that Australians want to 'control our destiny' as a nation, the Governor-General added. Mr Hurley said her respect, selfless service, devotion to duty and compassion for others are values that remain relevant for all Australians. 'They are as relevant today as they were 70 years ago. They will be as relevant in 70 years time as they are today,' he said. 'That is her legacy and that is her enduring gift to us all.' Mr Hurley's wife, Linda Hurley, Anthony Albanese and the prime minister's partner, Jodie Haydon will accompany him to attend the funeral, due to take place 10 days after her death. The family of a mother killed in a horror crash have slammed the justice system after the former taxi driver responsible for her death was jailed for just over four years. David Day, who is diabetic, was spotted repeatedly drifting across lanes on a main road in Dumfries, Scotland on the day of the tragedy, prompting a concerned motorist to call 999. The 54-year-old from Dumfries swerved onto the wrong side of the A75 near Eastriggs hitting Esme Henderson's Nissan Qashqai in August 2020. Mrs Henderson, 55 from Annan, died after suffering a fatal neck injury in the crash. Her devastated husband Bruce Henderson hit out against the short sentence as it left him feeling 'no real relief' and just a 'sense of deep disappointment'. Day had pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving at a previous court hearing and was sentenced to four months and four years at Lanark Crown Court on Wednesday. Mrs Henderson's devastated husband Bruce said on social media: 'I feel no real relief from the court's decision, just sense of deep disappointment.' 'It's been just over two years since Esme was killed on her way to work by David Day. David Day, 54 from Dumfries, swerved onto the wrong side of the A75 near Eastriggs hitting Esme Henderson's (pictured), 55 from Annan, car on August 5 2020, who later died. Mrs Henderson's devastated husband Bruce Henderson hit out against the short sentence as it left him feeling 'no real relief' and just a 'sense of deep disappointment'. Pictured: Esme Henderson (left) with husband Bruce Henderson (right) at the wedding of her daughter Joanne Anderson (centre) 'Today in Lanark High Court he was sentenced to five years seven months but with reductions will serve four years four months,' Mr Henderson added. 'No amount of jail time will fix what he has done. 'The shock and pain which this insignificant little man has caused and admitted to will be felt by me and my family, and her friends for a lifetime.' Mrs Henderson's daughter Joanne Anderson said she was left 'absolutely gutted' by the sentence. She described it as 'an insult' to her mother's life and added: 'Another blow and kick in the teeth for my family in this hellish two years.' It happened after Day was spotted 'weaving all over the motorway' to the alarm of other drivers. Day, of Dalskairth, Dumfries, had been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2016. But, it emerged 'concerns' were later raised by medics about how he managed his condition. The crash occurred on the A75 near Eastriggs after Day had been seen swerving between lanes (file photo of the A75) An expert called to complete a report on Day suggested 'on balance of probabilities' he had been suffering from low blood sugar levels at the time of the crash. In addition to the jail sentence, the former taxi driver was banned from the road for seven years and 10 months. Prosecutor Leanne McQuillan told the hearing last month how a number of motorists were alarmed by Day's driving that afternoon. One witness who saw him driving on the M6 northbound told police: 'I don't know if he is drunk, half asleep or having medical issues.' Other drivers then noticed Day as he went onto the A75 including one who had to dodge being struck. Another motorist, Niall Anderson, followed Day and watched him swerve onto the opposite side of the road. Miss McQuillan said: 'He collided head on with the oncoming car. This was the Nissan Qashqai driven by Esme Henderson.' Day was said to have shown 'no reactions whatsoever' to avoid the smash. Mrs Henderson died having suffered multiple injuries. Day was also hurt and had to be airlifted to hospital. Mrs Henderson's daughter Joanne Anderson (pictured left with her mother) said she was left 'absolutely gutted' by the sentence Mrs Anderson described it as 'an insult' to her mother's (pictured) life and added: 'Another blow and kick in the teeth for my family in this hellish two years' He was quizzed by police in February 2021 and stated: 'I am aware I was involved in a fatal road traffic collision. 'I have no recollection of this or the journey preceding.' Miss McQullian told Lord Beckett about Day's medical history. This included a number of hypoglycaemic (low blood sugar) episodes being reported in the past. But Miss McQuillan added Day's 'compliance' with managing his diabetes was 'variable'. However, it was not possible to say what his blood sugar level was at the time of the crash as it had not been checked. Day's QC said the driver had 'genuine sorrow and remorse' for what happened. In his Facebook post this week, Mrs Henderson's husband thanked those who had been there for him and his family over the last two years. He wrote: 'It was much appreciated and will not be forgotten. 'Please spare a thought for Esme and remember the good times she brought to our lives. 'Rest in peace my beautiful girl.' Marvin Magallanes, 31, pictured, has schizophrenia and believed that he was in a relationship with Kylie Jenner. He said that she told him someone was 'trying to steal his life' and he had to end someone else's to prevent it A schizophrenic triple killer who was obsessed with Kylie Jenner has been jailed for life for stabbing two sleeping homeless men to death and strangling his cellmate after claiming he was dating the star and she 'told him to do it.' Marvin Magallanes, 31, said that she told him someone was 'trying to steal his life' and he had to end someone else's to prevent it. Magallanes stabbed Onosai Tavita, 52, and Sabah Alsaad, 49, to death and strangled 27-year-old Danny Pham. According to Hey So Cal, Tavita was stabbed to death in October 2016 when he was sleeping behind a restaurant at 990 S. Euclid St at around 2am. Alsaad was killed at around 2.15am on January 27 2017 when he was sleeping on a bus bench on 1200 S.Magnolia St. Magallanes had told police that he was driving home and saw Alsaad sleeping so went to get a kitchen knife and then drove back to attack the victim. According to The Orange County Register, Magallanes confessed to killing Alsaad in May 2017, when he walked into the Anaheim Police Department. At the time, detectives had linked the killing through DNA to the earlier death of Tavita. Weeks after his arrest, Magallanes strangled Pham, his cellmate who was about to be released from jail on a joyriding conviction. The brutal murder was caught on CCTV, with Pham attempting to push the panic button. For the attacks, Magallanes was last month convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and one of second-degree murder. He was yesterday sentenced to consecutive terms of life without the possibility of parole for the murder of the two homeless people and 15 years to life for killing Pham. Magallanes was sentenced by Orange County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Menninger. Magallanes, pictured, stabbed Onosai Tavita, 52, and Sabah Alsaad, 49, to death and strangled 27-year-old Danny Pham Magallanes, pictured in court, stabbed Onosai Tavita, 52, and Sabah Alsaad, 49, to death and strangled 27-year-old Danny Pham Magallanes was pursuing a 'not guilty by reason of insanity' defense. But the prosecution argued that Magallanes was aware of what he did and knew that it was wrong when he murdered the men. Judge Menninger denied motions filed by Michael Hill, the defendant's attorney. He had filed motions to dismiss and for a new trial, which she called 'novel and interesting'. However, she said that these did not conform with state law. Mr Hill had also argued before sentencing that sending Magallanes to prison for the rest of his life was 'cruel' and 'unusual' due to the condition he was in. Menninger said that all three of those killed were 'randomly attacked for no apparent reason.' The judge said that Magallanes, pictured in court, was pursuing a 'not guilty by reason of insanity' defense Pham's older sister said in court that the family are living a life of 'fear, stress and anxiety' after her brother's violent death. She told the court: 'I have been scarred with a deep wound that will last the rest of my life. 'Every day is a struggle and constant reminder of his absence As I sat in court and listened to the evidence shown against Marvin Magallanes, I cannot believe how he did not show any sign of remorse.' The prosecution argued that Magallanes was aware of what he did and knew that it was wrong when he murdered the men. Pictured: Judge Kimberly K. Menninger in court It was also noted at yesterday's hearing by Deputy District Attorney Christopher Alex that Magallanes chose to kill his two homeless victims as they were easy to find and he did not have any animosity towards the homeless community. His trial had come after four years of deliberations on whether he was fit to stand trial, as he was moved between Patton State Hospital and Orange County jails. He was described as a 'split personality' by a jail guard with other family members saying the same. They said that he had sudden mood changes and erratic behaviour. A 2019 report claimed that Magallanes rammed his head at the wall of his cell for no reason. During the hearing, Magallanes, pictured, did not speak. He was asked by the judge if he had any questions or anything he wanted to say but shook his head His psychiatric issues started when he split with his high school girlfriend, who was the mother of his child. During the hearing, Magallanes did not speak. He was asked by the judge if he had any questions or anything he wanted to say but shook his head. Obsessed fan Magallanes had previously driven to Kylie Jenner's home in Calabasas in 2016 and tried to evade guards to go in and see her twice. His desperation led to him trying to drive through a security gate, which cracked it. He was sentenced to 10 days in county jail and placed on summary probation for a year, pleading no contest to misdemeanor vandalism. Vladimir Putin will not attend the Queen's state funeral amid the fractured relationship between Russia and the West, it has been confirmed. A Kremlin spokesman said a decision will be made on who will represent Russia at the service which is expected to take place on September 19 at Westminster Abbey. Yesterday, Putin paid tribute to the monarch despite the tyrant's aggression in Ukraine which has caused relations between Russia and Britain to plummet to their lowest levels since the Cold War. Vladimir Putin will not attend the Queen's state funeral amid the fractured relationship between Russia and the West People gather to pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth on her death outside the British Embassy in Moscow The leader said: 'The most important events in the recent history of the United Kingdom are inextricably linked with the name of Her Majesty. 'For many decades, Elizabeth II rightfully enjoyed the love and respect of her subjects, as well as authority on the world stage. 'I wish you courage and perseverance in the face of this heavy, irreparable loss. I ask you to convey the words of sincere sympathy and support to the members of the royal family and all the people of Great Britain.' In Moscow, some have gathered to offer floral tributes to the Queen outside the British embassy despite the wave of anti-Western rhetoric. The embassy flag flew at half mast and people stood outside in prayer to offer their condolences to the long-serving monarch. Putin paid tribute to the monarch despite the tyrant's aggression in Ukraine which has caused relations between Russia and Britain to plummet to their lowest levels since the Cold War The British Union flag flies at half mast near the British Embassy in Moscow in the wake of her death Mourners bring flowers to the British Embassy to pay tribute to the Queen today The Queen made a subtle dig at Putin in 2003 during his state visit to the UK - the first by a Russian leader since the reign of Queen Victoria, when Alexander II visited in 1874. Under the Labour government of Tony Blair, then-Home Secretary David Blunkett's guide dog reacted defensively at the presence of the Russian president. Mr Blunkett told the BBC : 'The only time I met Vladimir Putin was back in 2003 on an official visit and my then dog barked very loudly. 'I did apologise to the Queen who was obviously hosting. I don't think I am giving anything away when I said, 'Sorry your Majesty about the dog barking.' She said: 'Dogs have interesting instincts, don't they?'' Putin - notorious for his lax punctuality - had kept the Queen waiting 14 minutes prior to their meeting. The Queen and Putin were to meet again in June 2014 during a D-Day commemoration event in France. The event had come just months after Charles was alleged to have presciently compared Putin's regime to that of Nazi Germany, which seemed to have soured relations considerably. After a group photo with world leaders, the Queen was helped down a set of steps by then US President Barack Obama (left of the Queen) and New Zealand's Governor-General Jerry Mateparae (right of the Queen). But Putin (right), who was standing next to her and in a position to help merely looked away In Moscow, some have gathered to offer floral tributes to the Queen outside the British embassy despite the wave of anti-Western rhetoric A mourner lights a candle and others have laid flowers to pay tribute to the Queen After a group photo with world leaders, the Queen was helped down a set of steps by then US President Barack Obama and New Zealand's Governor-General Jerry Mateparae. But Putin, who was standing next to her and in a position to help looked away. But regardless of their leader's antipathy to Her Majesty, ordinary Russians have been laying flowers in remembrance of the Queen outside the British embassy in Moscow. In the pre-Putin, the Queen paid a visit to the Russian capital on the invitation of Boris Yeltsin in 1994 in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union. The visit passed off without controversy as both countries were keen to improve bilateral relations and points of contention had yet to fester. When the Queen and Prince Phillip landed, they were then taken to the Kremlin where they were greeted by Yeltsin and his wife, Naina. The Royal pair were also treated to a special performance of the Bolshoi Ballet. The Queen came to the throne during the final days of the rule of Josef Stalin and saw 11 Russian and Soviet leaders come and go during her reign. Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has extended his condolences on the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. Pictured: A carriage carrying Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Russian President Vladimir Putin is escorted by royal guards to Buckingham Palace in central London, Britain, June 24, 2003 Meanwhile, a top Putin media chief has acted to block coverage of the Queen's death on her Kremlin broadcasting network. Margarita Simonyan, head of sanctioned RT, posted on her Telegram channel: 'Enough Queen news already, team. 'So she died. Well, RIP. We all die. This is not our pain.' Putin's favourite TV propagandist Vladimir Solovyov used the sovereign's death to deepen the Russian onslaught against new premier Liz Truss, while also claiming that Putin's war was hastening the end of the old order symbolised by the late Queen. 'Sadly one mystery finished tragically - Queen Elizabeth II has died aged 96 at Balmoral Castle in Scotland,' he told viewers. 'I think this is indeed an awful tragedy for Britain, because a page in history finished before our eyes. 'The Queen who reigned from Churchill to Liz Truss - what level of Britain's degradation is this?' A pundit on his show was heard saying Charles also represented a 'degradation'. Solovyov sent on: 'As for Prince Charles let's see what he will be like. 'Either way this is the end of an epoch. 'It's interesting how with the start of the special military operation we suddenly see the foundations of the old world go. 'The Queen, she seemed to be invincible.' A main Channel 1 state TV news bulletin went on the same theme. 'The first prime minister whom Elizabeth II confirmed in office was Winston Churchill and the last was Liz Truss, who has cast aspersions on her name,' said a newsreader. 'The new resident of Downing Street will probably yet be reminded of what she said in the past about it being time to do away with the monarchy. 'But she will certainly not be the one who remains in Britons' memory.' This is the poignant moment a former Army veteran shares a powerful personal tribute as he announced the death of Queen Elizabeth II to stunned commuters. The driver, who said he had the privilege of serving the monarch as a British Army soldier, shared the devastating news as it broke at around 6.30pm yesterday. With the nation gripped by tragedy, he said: 'I'm sure you will all join me in a moment of remembrance for an amazing lady and Queen. 'Also join with me in a personal note, for me to say, that it was an honour to serve my Queen for nine years in the British Army. 'It will be an honour working on the Elizabeth Line until the day I retire. Thank you.' The commuter rail line opened as a lasting namesake to Her Majesty in May, with the monarch surprising all in attendance as she officially opened the 18.9bn project. The driver, who said he had the privilege of serving the monarch as a British Army soldier, shared the devastating news as it broke at around 6.30pm yesterday Tube driver gives an emotional tribute to the Queen, saying 'he had been proud to serve as army officer for her' to announce to passengers the news The commuter rail line opened as a lasting namesake to Her Majesty in May, with the monarch surprising all in attendance as she officially opened the 18.9bn project Leading an impromptu emotional tribute to Her Majesty, the driver then said 'that he had been proud to serve as an army officer for her and will serve as an Elizabeth line driver until the day he retires'. Dozens of commenters took to TikTok and lavished praise on the man's 'respectful' and 'heartwaming' comments in the wake of tragedy. Joseph Thompson wrote: 'This is the most heartwarming thing Ive seen since I found out shed gone.' Another user added: 'Protect that guy at all costs, very respectful and heartfelt.' Another said: 'Respect. Wish we could thank him for his service too.' The Queen died yesterday afternoon at Balmoral with Charles and Princess Anne by her bedside. She was 96 years old and had reigned for 70 years - the longest of any British monarch. The news of her death sparked a wave of tributes both at home and abroad, led by the Prime Minister, who hailed the Queen as the rock on which modern Britain was built and described her death as the end of the second Elizabethan age. Even the royal household's staff were in tears yesterday, coming to terms with the loss of their much-loved head of state. Today, a national and royal period of mourning begins. Thousands flocked to Buckingham Palace yesterday to lay flowers and send messages of condolence. All Her Majesty's children, as well as grandson Prince William, had rushed to Balmoral on Thursday after doctors became 'concerned' for her health. The country's longest reigning Monarch died 'peacefully' yesterday, aged 96, at the Balmoral Estate, surrounded by her family. Her death sparked an immediate and huge outpouring of emotion, with thousands of mourners gathering outside the gates of Buckingham Palace this evening (pictured) Taxies lined up on The Mall in central London, following the announcement of the death of Queen Elizabeth II Police officers guard a notice announcing the death of Queen Elizabeth II, pictured on the railings outside of Buckingham Palace after the announcement of her death Buckingham Palace released a statement at 12.32pm saying the Queens doctors were concerned for her health and recommended she remain under medical supervision while family members were informed. Charles was already at his mothers side at her beloved Highland home after senior aides, fearing the worst, sent the Queens burgundy-liveried helicopter up from Windsor at 6.48am to collect him from Dumfries House in Ayrshire, where he had stayed the night after conducting several official engagements. He made it to Balmoral by 10.27am. Tonight he will give his first televised address to the country and Commonwealth as King, which he will have recorded earlier in the day. Yesterday, staff hurriedly arranged for a jet to collect the Queens other children Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex, and Prince Andrew, the Duke of York as well as the Countess of Wessex, whom the Queen adores and treats like a second daughter and bring them up to Aberdeen. Boris Johnson, who until this week was the Queens 14th prime minister, said Britain was enduring its saddest day following the death of Elizabeth the Great. Pictured, the Queen on Tuesday Princes William, Andrew and Edward arrive at Balmoral along with Sophie, Countess of Wessex, as they rush to be at the Queen's bedside after news of her deteriorating health was announced Her grandson, Prince William who, until the King bestows the title of Prince and Princess of Wales on him and his wife, will be known as the Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge joined them. His wife Kate remained with their three children, who have recently started a new school. Prince Harry, travelling alone, raced north of the border from Scotland but was still mid-air by the time her death was officially confirmed by the palace. He would finally arrive at his grandmother's favoured retreat at 7.52pm. Today, Operation London Bridge will swing into action, a period of ten days between the Queens death and her state funeral, which is expected to take place on Monday September 19, as the country is plunged into a period of official mourning. The Queens coffin is expected to remain at Balmoral for at least the next two days before being flown back down to London next week. But the pendulum to introduce His Majesty to his people will also begin to swing, with Charles and Camilla returning to London as King and Queen Consort today. He is expected to hold his Accession Council tomorrow. Ukraine may have captured a Russian general in what would be the highest-ranking of Moscow's officers to be taken prisoner since the Second World War. Video published Wednesday revealed a group of Russian POWs detained by Ukraine amid a surprise counter-attack near the city of Kharkiv, among them a man wearing the uniform of a mid-ranking Lieutenant-Colonel. But Ukrainian media now claims the man is 'likely' to be Andrei Sychevoi, who is actually a high-ranking Lieutenant-General and commander of Russia's Group of Forces West. Ukrainian media claims a Russian officer filmed being captured earlier this week (left) is in fact Lieutenant-General Andrei Sychevoi (right) The Kyiv Post was among Ukrainian outlets to report the news, claiming General Sychevoi had been dressed in a uniform of a lower rank in a hurried attempt to hide his identity before being captured. The paper, which has been a reliable source of information throughout the war, reports Sychevoi's capture as 'likely, but not confirmed'. However, some have noted discrepancies between the man pictured in the video and Sychevoi - leaving doubt over the capture. Julian Ropcke, a respected writer for German newspaper Bild, tweeted a pair of such images along with the caption: 'You are welcome to disagree, but to me, those are two different persons.' If the news is confirmed, then it would make Sychevoi the highest-ranking Russian officer to be captured since the Second World War and mark another humiliating blow for Putin's army. The Nazis captured dozens of Russian generals in fighting between 1941 and 1945, most of whom met gruesome deaths in torture chambers or concentration camps. If Lt-General Sychevoi's capture is confirmed, it would make him the highest-ranking Russian officer taken prisoner since WW2 Ukraine claims to have killed at least 12 Russian generals, most of whom are said to have died as the result of artillery or missile strikes on command posts. But this would mark the first time that Kyiv's men have managed to capture one alive, if the reports are confirmed. So far, neither the Ukrainian nor Russian military has spoken out to either confirm or deny Sychevoi's capture. The reports emerged amid a lightning-fast counter-attack launched by Ukraine to the east of Kharkiv on Wednesday. Taking the Russians completely by surprise, Kyiv's commanders burst through frontlines that had been left thinly defended after thousands of troops were moved south to help defend Kherson - where another Ukrainian attack is underway. Troops advanced more than 12 miles in a single day as Putin's forces fled, liberating the town of Balakliya which had previously housed an important Russian base. Experts and observers speculate their objective is likely the city of Kup'yans'k, which spans the Oksil River and contains a key railway hub through which nearly all Russian supplies heading into Donbas pass. If Ukraine can pull off the move, then it will leave the city of Izyum - staging post for its assault on Donbas - cut off, with troops at risk of being surrounded. More broadly, it will leave troops in the wider region badly short of supplies - particularly artillery ammunition - that they need to support their attacks. That means Russia's entire Donbas offensive could grind to a halt, opening the door to further Ukrainian counter-attacks. Russia has come under heavy attack in Kharkiv after Ukraine launched a surprise counter-attack and punched through their thinly-defended frontline The photographer who took the last picture of the Queen at Balmoral said Her Majesty 'seemed very happy' and recalled her 'unposed' moment alone with the late monarch. Jane Barlow, a Press Association photographer, had been sent to photograph the Queen receiving Liz Truss as the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party and prime minister on Tuesday. The photo now has become far more poignant as it captured the Queen for the final time before her death on Thursday, just two days after the photo was taken. In an interview Barlow spoke about the moment she took the photo, describing her few moments alone with Her Majesty. The photo was 'unposed' and taken just before Liz Truss arrived to meet the Queen after being elected the new leader of the Conservative Party and prime minister Barlow said: 'I was sent to Balmoral to cover the royal rota. I was there to photograph the Queen receiving the new prime minister, and just prior to the new prime minister arriving in the room, I had a few moments with Her Majesty and that's when I got that picture. 'When I came into the room with the Queen's press secretary she was very smiley and then moved across the room into position and there was a wee while while we had to wait for Lizz Truss to be announced, so during that short time she did comment on the weather. 'She did comment on how dark it was outside because the weather had closed in and she seemed in very good spirits. 'Obviously she was very frail but she was very smiley and I got lots of smiles from her. 'She seemed very happy, very smiley. Jane Barlow (pictured) is the photographer responsible for capturing the last photo of the Queen before her death 'So then Liz Truss gets formally announced as she enters the room and she approaches Her Majesty for the handshake and obviously I was there to photograph that. 'Obviously she greeted Liz Truss with another big smile and at that point I then move out of the room and that was just my very brief few minutes with Her Majesty on Tuesday.' 'It was just a lovely moment while we were waiting for those few minutes. 'It wasn't posed at all, it was just a nice natural moment where she just looked up and smiled and now also all the more poignant because it is one of the last pictures that was taken of her.' Jane Barlow posted the final image of the Queen on her Instagram just two days before she died Fergus Mutch praised Jane Barlow on Twitter for taking the 'perfect historic capture of the Queen's final day of public duties' Barlow posted the image on her Instagram two days ago with the caption: 'The Queen waits in the Drawing Room before receiving Liz Truss for an audience at Balmoral, Scotland, where she invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government.' Jane Barlow has 15 years' experience photographing the royals as well as politicians. Fergus Mutch, the SNP candidate in Aberdeenshire West for the Scottish Parliament election back in 2021, took to Twitter to praise Barlow for capturing the moment. He said: 'Saw @belperbarlow in Braemar last Saturday. She was a bit nervous about Tuesday: The Queen, incoming PM & herself in the room, taking the photo for the whole world. Turned out to be a perfect historic capture of The Queen's final day of public duties in her beloved Balmoral home.' Local politicians in Russia who dared call for Vladimir Putin to be charged with treason and forced out of office were today summoned for police interrogations. The councillors in Smolninskoye, a district of St Petersburg, could face fines or even jail under draconian laws which punish criticism of the armed forces and the Russian authorities. They had complained that Putin's war with Ukraine was leading to young soldiers dying or being maimed, and causing huge economic and political damage to Russia. The politicians say they petitioned the Russia parliament to find Putin guilty of 'high treason' and to oust him. Local politicians in Russia (pictured) who dared call for Vladimir Putin to be charged with treason and forced out of office were today summoned for police interrogations One of those summoned by police, Nikita Yuferev, 34, said he and six other councillors had been told to appear for questioning. Another councillor Dmitry Palyuga, 35, had said Putin's war 'harms the security of Russia and its citizens'. The anti-war councillors claimed they had a quorum at a special session. But Grigory Rankov, head of the Smolninskoye administration, claimed today that the group acted illegally in petitioning the state duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament. The demand to charge Putin was a 'provocation' and an 'attempt to discredit' the council, he said. The councillors attended the police station today, represented by a lawyer. It was not immediately clear what action would be taken against them. 'We want to show people that there are [democratic representatives] who don't agree with the current course and think Putin is harming Russia,' said Palyuga. 'We want to show people that we are not afraid to talk about it.' Among others calling Putin a 'traitor' were Radislav Poluykov and Dmitry Baltrukov. The group of councillors in Smolninskoye, a municipality in St Petersburg where Putin (pictured Wednesday) was born, made the extraordinary appeal to the Russian parliament yesterday. Today, it was reported that they were called in by police for interrogation Since Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine six months ago, his forces have suffered heavy losses in men and equipment while being fought to a virtual standstill after occupying around a fifth of the country. Precision strikes conducted by Ukrainian forces using high-tech Western weapons are undermining Russia's ability to fight and Moscow is turning to outdated arms as its stocks of more modern gear run down. And on Friday, swiftly advancing Ukrainian troops were bearing down on the main railway supplying Vladimir Putin's forces in the east, after the sudden collapse of a section of Moscow's front-line - caused the most dramatic shift in the war's momentum since its early weeks. Yesterday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke of 'good news' on the battlefields of eastern Ukraine, saying his army had retaken some towns and villages from Russia - and as much as 385 square miles of territory. 'One of the Russian president's declared goals is to demilitarise Ukraine, and we see exactly the opposite happening,' Palyuga told The Insider this week, before he and his fellow councillors were summoned for interrogation. The councillors complained that Putin's war in Ukraine has left thousands of Russian soldiers dead and damaged the country's economy Ukrainian servicemen riding a BTR amphibious armoured personnel carrier (APC) drive out of Bakhmut, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, on Wednesday 'Not that we fully support the goals declared by President Putin, but simply within his own rhetoric he is damaging the security of the Russian Federation. 'We want to show people that there are [democratic representatives] who don't agree with the current course and think Putin is harming Russia. 'We want to show people that we are not afraid to talk about it.' The local politicians understand their demand has no hope of success in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament which Putin's stooges control. Despite this they went ahead with the demand. 'It is very important to show that there are people who do not agree [with the war],' said Yuferev. 'We are in Russia, and there are quite a significant number of us,' he said. The treason demand against Putin was pushed through by ten councillors who attended out of 20, enough for a quorum. The voting was seven for with three abstentions. The councillors' demand for Putin to face treason charges for his war in Ukraine is a rare case of open opposition to the war. Those who have criticized Putin's invasion have often died in mysterious circumstances, or risk 15 years in prison. Last week, the chairman of a Russian oil company that Putin's invasion of Ukraine was found dead in suspicious circumstances after he plunged from a sixth floor window at a Moscow hospital. Ravil Maganov, 67, chairman of Russian oil giant Lukoil, died on the spot after falling from a window on the sixth floor of the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow at around 7.30am local time on 1 September. Ravil Maganov, 67, (pictured with Putin after receiving a medal) chairman of Russian oil giant LUKOIL, died on the spot after falling from a window on the 6th floor of the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow at around 7.30am local time on 1 September Russian state media quickly said his death was a suicide but law enforcement sources said there was no suicide note and there were no CCTV cameras on the section of the building where Maganov fell. Lukoil, of which Maganov was chairman, was one of the few major Russian companies to call for the end of fighting in Ukraine after Moscow invaded. In a statement in the days after the invasion, the Lukoil board called for an 'immediate' end to the fighting, expressing its sympathy to those affected by the 'tragedy'. And seven months later, Maganov has been found dead after falling from the hospital window. His death is the latest of a number of top Russian officials who have died in suspicious circumstances in recent months - with many mysteriously falling out of windows. Maganov is also now among a series of Russian energy tycoons killed in suspicious circumstances. In May, billionaire Alexander Subbotin, 43, a former top executive with energy giant Lukoil, was found dead under mysterious circumstances. The oligarch, who owned a lucrative shipping company, was reportedly treated with toad venom - put into an incision that had been made in his skin. Soon afterwards, Subbotin had a heart attack and was given a tranquilliser from the herb valerian. 'Extinct' Yangtze sturgeon spotted in Hubei Chinadaily.com.cn) 08:25, September 09, 2022 A large sturgeon is found in shallow water in the Yangtze, Asia's longest river, by a resident in Tuanfeng county, Hubei province, on Wednesday. [Photo/Bjnews.com.cn] The discovery of a Yangtze sturgeon in Hubei province has ignited hope that the species, which was believed to be extinct in the wild, will be able to restore its population in nature. A large sturgeon was found in shallow water in the Yangtze, Asia's longest river, by a resident in Tuanfeng county, Hubei province, on Wednesday. Officials from the local fishery administration arrived at the site soon after they were notified. The fish, which was some 96 centimeters in length and weighed 4 kilograms, was recognized as a Yangtze sturgeon. In July, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources announced the extinction of the wild Yangtze sturgeon in its updated Red List of Threatened Species. Tao Di, a law enforcement officer with the administration, said on Thursday that the Yangtze sturgeon was released on Wednesday afternoon after researchers had collected some samples from the fish. "It was stranded with slight injuries when found," he said. "It had renewed vigor after being treated. We wanted to release it as soon as possible so that it can resume eating." A species endemic to China, the Yangtze sturgeon, which is under first-class State protection, was once distributed in the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze, said Du Hao, a researcher at the Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei. Du helped identify the fish on the basis of videos and photos. They can live 20 to 30 years in the wild, said Du, whose team has conducted research on rare and endangered fish species in the Yangtze for a long time. Monitoring has shown that the Yangtze sturgeon had stopped its natural reproduction around the year 2000. For years, authorities along the Yangtze have made consistent efforts to help restore the Yangtze sturgeon's wild population by releasing fry bred in captivity. In October, for example, 50,000 Yangtze sturgeons, each with a length of about 30 centimeters, were released in the Yangtze section in Yibin, Sichuan province. In a move to help aquatic species recover, the Chinese government placed all natural waterways of the Yangtze under a 10-year fishing moratorium on Jan 1 last year. Du estimated that the Yangtze sturgeon found in Tuanfeng was 5 to 6 years old. Du added that he was not sure whether it was bred in captivity. "But I can tell that it has lived in the wild for a long time, and it's in healthy condition," he said, adding that it's highly possible that it will mature in two to three years. "If the number of mature Yangtze sturgeons can further grow, a new breeding area for the fish may come into being in the middle reaches of the Yangtze." (Web editor: Liang Jun, Bianji) WHO is working to reach children with vital vaccinations. Around 7 million under-5s are acutely malnourished and have low immunity in the region. Credit: WHO Somalia28 August 2022 In the greater Horn of Africa, famine is looming at the doorstep of many households. Over 80 million people in this region which comprises Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda lack access to food that would meet their basic needs along with safe water. More than 37 million of these people have reached crossroads in their lives where they have had to sell their possessions to feed themselves and their families. In this dire situation, the risk of morbidity and mortality due to outbreak-prone diseases comes in tandem with forced displacement. This is set against a backdrop of limited access to essential and primary health care interventions across the entire region. Each day, the most vulnerable populations, including children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and displaced people, are facing growing threats of being infected with communicable diseases. Outbreaks in the Region The drought has exacerbated disease outbreaks in the Horn of Africa, a region that is constantly facing other emergencies, including the COVID-19 pandemic currently. Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda are experiencing measles outbreaks, while Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan are witnessing cholera outbreaks. WHO has supported nutrition stabilization centres to save the lives of children with severe acute malnutrition with medical complications. Credit: WHO/SomaliaThe countries also have high rates of severe acute malnutrition among children under 5 years old, all of which increase the risk of morbidity and mortality among displaced and vulnerable populations. Unless a coordinated response effort is implemented, health risks will keep escalating and spreading within and beyond the region. Charting out plans for stronger collaboration To continue to deter these severe health consequences of the drought in a coordinated manner in the greater Horn of Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) convened a meeting from 26 to 27 June 2022 in Nairobi, Kenya, for the organizations senior specialists and officials. These experts included Dr Ibrahima Soce Fall, WHO Assistant Director-General for Emergency Response, the WHO Representatives from the 7 countries of the region, and other technical expertise. The participants set out to brainstorm ways to mount a stronger and coherent health response. They considered joint measures to improve primary health care interventions, including in the delivery of essential health services, nutrition support and immunization, communication and resource mobilization, and regional, inter-agency, and partner coordination. They also discussed the alignment of response plans, and health intelligence and information products and systems. After finalizing the Contingency Fund for Emergencies, an emergency fund run by WHO, the country teams also agreed on a series of next steps to take to advance recommended action. Coordinating information management in the Region Dr Mamunur Rahman Malik, WHO Representative to Somalia, Dr Ibrahima Soce Fall, WHO Assistant Director-General for Emergency Response, and Mr Altaf Musani, WHO Director of Emergency Health Interventions, at a Greater Horn of Africa drought response meeting, Nairobi. Credit: WHO/SomaliaAs next steps, the information management teams from all 7 countries, and representatives from the WHO Regional Office for Africa, Regional Offfice for the Eastern Mediterranean and headquarters convened a meeting in Kenya from 25 to 27 July 2022. The team aimed to understand and document the information and data landscape across the region. They also discussed ways to enhance coordination using 4 health information management pathways products, processes, people and tools and the need for monitoring and evaluation, including on indicators related to nutrition, which is closely linked to health, and primary health care. Following an analysis of all the different information collection tools and siloed, donor-driven individual disease management systems in the 7 countries, the participants agreed on the need to integrate health information management assets in the countries into a single cohesive integrated system. In conclusion, the team agreed to create a joint situation report every month that combines an epidemiological bulletin, known as the EPI watch, and a visually appealing infographic on the drought situation. They also agreed to create a general dashboard that shows drought response activities for each of the 7 countries. It will present information on malaria activities, cholera, interventions by community health workers, outreach interventions, and severe acute malnutrition stabilization centres in drought-affected areas. Regional and country appeals for support To scale up the response to the situation in the greater Horn of Africa, on 2 August 2022, WHO launched an appeal for US$ 123.7 million. The response will focus on 5 pillars: coordination and collaboration; surveillance and information; outbreak prevention and control; essential nutrition actions; and essential health services. In Somalia, WHO launched an emergency health response plan for the ongoing drought in May 2022. With an ask of US$ 35 million until the end of 2022, the plan aims to strengthen disease surveillance, integrate nutrition programmes horizontally into health service delivery, and ensure adequate coverage levels of measles and polio vaccination, including vitamin A and deworming. Additionally, the plan will ensure the delivery of essential package of health services with nutrition and mental health and psychosocial support integrated in activities. To cater for the needs of young children and women, the response would also address integrated management of childhood illnesses and reproductive health. Since early last year, in Somalia, our urgent attention has focused on anticipating and averting severe health consequences of drought. We advocated for early action for the drought response to avoid regret, and for flexible and urgent funding to support our efforts. Since then, we have left no stone unturned to work towards preventing avoidable morbidity and mortality linked to epidemic-prone diseases, caused by limited access to safe water, food, proper sanitation and hygiene. In many ways, we have managed to avert large-scale losses of life, but even one life lost is too many, said Dr Mamunur Rahman Malik, WHO Representative to Somalia. Partnerships at WHO levels and with donors saving lives Commenting on the extraordinary efforts to improve partnerships within WHO, Dr Malik, the WHO Somalia Head of Mission said, Across the greater Horn of Africa, WHO is ramping up its response, improving coordination, and streamlining existing efforts and optimizing on resources to ensure we reach more people with life-saving support. With one million displaced Somalis, we have one million and more reasons to redouble our efforts and extend additional support to affected families. He added that the support from partners such as the European Union (EU) Delegation to Somalia, European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations of Somalia, donors contributing to the Contingency Fund for Emergencies, and Gavi - the Vaccine Alliance, WHO has already been able to impact the lives of some of the hardest hit people. For additional information on the appeals launched by WHO for the greater Horn of Africa and Somalia to respond to the ongoing drought: WHO intensifies response to looming health crisis in the greater Horn of Africa as food insecurity worsens WHO EMRO | WHO Regional Director officially launches emergency health response plan for drought in Somalia | News | Somalia site Contingency Fund for Emergencies (who.int) Contributions and allocations (who.int) Schools and colleges are to remain open following the death of the Queen, the Government has said. Schools across the nation have paid tribute to Her Majesty, who died 'peacefully' yesterday afternoon at Balmoral, aged 96, with many holding special assemblies to commemorate her 'extraordinary life' of service. In an email to schools, the Department for Education said: 'We have now entered a period of national mourning that will continue until the end of the State Funeral. 'Guidance providing the public, businesses and institutions with advice on the period of national mourning following the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will be issued by the Cabinet Office and available on GOV.UK,' according to Schools Week. A period of national mourning for the Queen has now commenced, which will continue until the end of the day of her state funeral. Once the date of the funeral has been set, officials will issue schools and colleges with further guidance. However, until more detail has been confirmed schools and colleges 'should remain open'. Schools have been told to 'remain open' during the national period of mourning but may be told to close of the day of the Queen's funeral. Stock image of children at school Education Secretary Kit Malthouse (stock image) 'Whilst normal attendance is expected, headteachers continue to have the power to authorise leaves of absence for pupils in exceptional circumstances. 'Any requests for leave of absence should be considered on a case-by-case basis taking into account individual circumstances,' the email said. The Queen's funeral is thought to be held at Westminster Abbey in about 10 or 11 days' time, with the date to be confirmed by Buckingham Palace. The day is likely to be declared as a bank holiday, but this will be confirmed by the palace and Government, according to the BBC. If a bank holiday is declared, schools will be shut. The Department for Education and devolved adminstrations are set to issue advice to schools, once the details have been finalised and confirmed. Schools that lie within the Abbey security cordon will need to close for the period the Queen will lie in state, so learning for those students will go online, a headmaster told MailOnline. Meanwhile, schools around the UK have held special assemblies and lessons to commemorate the Queen on Friday morning. It comes as schools were told they may want to 'consider conducting special activities, holding assemblies or adapting planned lessons to reflect the period of national mourning and commemorate the life of Her Majesty may wish to repurpose the lesson materials about the Queens Jubilee produced by Royal Collections Trust and The National Archives.' Guidance to schools will be issued when the date of the Queen's funeral is confirmed. Stock image of children in classroom Advice to primary schools said they may want to adapt 'Queen Elizabeth: A Platinum Jubilee Celebration, the commemorative book that was sent out this year, the email added. To support any children who are upset, officials cited MindEd as a source of information. The email continued: 'We know teachers, lecturers, early years colleagues and social workers around the country have an important role to play in reassuring children and young people at this difficult time.' Schools were also told if they wished to 'pay their respects by flying any flags at half-mast or holding silences' then they should follow government-issued guidance. Official flags, including the Union Flag, should be half-masted from as soon as possible today until 8am the day following The Queens State Funeral, guidance states. The Sydney Opera House has been lit up with an image of Queen Elizabeth II as Australians across the country mourn her death. The city's iconic landmark will illuminate the portrait of Her Majesty until midnight on Friday, and will again light up on Saturday night at 6.30. Both Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Premier Dominic Perrottet announced the sails of the Opera House would hold a special tribute to the late monarch following her death on Friday morning. The Sydney Opera House has been lit up with an image of Queen Elizabeth II as Australians across the country mourn her death The city's iconic landmark will illuminate the portrait of Her Majesty until midnight on Friday, and will again light up on Saturday night at 6.30 Many Sydneysiders roaming around the city on Friday night stopped to look at the Opera House as an image of the Queen smiling was displayed over one sail 'The late Queen Elizabeth the Second played an important role to the people of Australia during her reign and the lighting of the Sydney Opera House is a fitting tribute on behalf of the people of Australia,' Mr Albanese said. Mr Perrottet said it was a symbolic gesture as the Queen officially opened the Sydney Opera House in 1973. Many Sydneysiders roaming around the city on Friday night stopped to look at the Opera House as an image of the Queen smiling was displayed over one sail. The Queen's image will be shown on Friday and Saturday night Both Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Premier Dominic Perrottet announced the sails of the Opera House would hold a special tribute to the late monarch following her death on Friday morning Australians across the nation have been mourning the death of our longest-serving monarch since the news broke early on Friday morning. The nation's Federation Guard commemorated Her Majesty with a moving 96-gun salute on Friday afternoon outside Parliament House. The dusk ceremony follows the British tradition of firing one round for each year of the Queen's life. Hundreds of people turned up to watch the ceremony unfold as members of the RAAF, Royal Australian Navy and Australian Army fired the shots at 10-second intervals. The Queen is seen during a visit to Sydney in 2006. She died at the age of 96 Each of the 54 Commonwealth countries have been invited to participate in the same ceremony. Flags also flew at half-mast across Australia to commemorate the Queen's death. The bells at Sydney's Town Hall and St Andrew's Cathedral rang 96 times at midday on Friday, marking each year of her life. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described it as a day of 'profound sadness'. 'Australian hearts go out to the people of the United Kingdom who mourn today, knowing they will feel they have lost part of what makes their nation whole,' he said. 'It is a time of mourning for the people in Britain, across the Commonwealth and, indeed, around the world. 'There is comfort to be found in Her Majesty's own words: Grief is the price we pay for love. This is a loss we feel deeply in Australia.' Governor-General David Hurley described her as a 'remarkable' person who served with 'distinction' for more than 70 years. 'Up when I reflect on my own memories, and she was my queen for my entire life, I think of Her Majesty's dignity and her compassion, her dedication and her compassion, her dedication and her work ethic,' he said. 'And her selfless and unwavering commitment to those to whom she served. To us. Her death will sadden all Australians and be felt around the world. 'As we mourn, we should also take inspiration and give thanks to the remarkable contribution Her Majesty has made. May she rest in peace. God save the king.' The nation's Federation Guard commemorated Her Majesty with a moving 96-gun salute on Friday afternoon outside Parliament House Official books of condolence for The Queen will not be opened at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle or any other Royal properties and will be online only, the Royal Family has said. Books of condolence for the Queen are being opened in churches, theatres and local authorities across the country. The Royal Family added its 'Book of Condolence' to the official website, allowing people from all over the world to send messages of support as crowds gather in mourning for the late Queen. Crowds outside Buckingham Palace have laid flowers and messages in memory of Elizabeth II in scenes reminiscent of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997. After Diana's tragic car accident, people lined the streets to sign a book of condolence at Kensington Palace, where thousands of flowers covered the ground. This time, there will be no physical books of condolence at any of the royal residences but members of the public can leave their messages online. Crowds outside Buckingham Palace have laid flowers and messages in memory of Elizabeth II in scenes reminiscent of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997 The Royal Family has said condolences can be made online but there will be no official books of condolence Mountains of flowers have been left outside Buckingham Palace in memory of Queen Elizabeth II Thousands have gathered outside the palace since yesterday to mourn the late monarch Public books of condolence have been made available across the country. Pictured is a condolence book in Wigan Parish Church Tributes are being paid across the country. In Birmingham, a memorial of The Queen was put up in St Philip's Cathedral, with the public invited to light a candle for Her Majesty The Royal Family website states: 'A selection of messages will be passed onto members of the Royal Family, and may be held in the Royal Archives for posterity.' Neither the royal family nor the Government will be able to receive books of condolence. In its national mourning guidance, the royal family said: 'There will be opportunities to sign books of condolence at various Town Halls and other locations throughout the UK. Please check with your Local Authority.' The guidance also says that any organisation or person may open a book of condolence during the period of national mourning. Books are usually placed on a trestle table with a white tablecloth, an arrangement of flowers - typically lilies or other white flowers - and a framed formal photograph of the Queen with a black ribbon wrapped around the top right hand corner as a mark of respect. Local councils across the UK have been setting up books for people to write messages of support - some physically, and others online. Cllr James Jamieson, chairman of the Local Government Association, said in a statement: 'Councils have been proud to serve Her Majesty throughout her reign and will continue to do so by now putting into place local arrangements to support the public in expressing their own sympathies. Shropshire Council have invited people to remember The Queen by signing a condolence book in the mayor's parlour The Duke of Edinburgh and the Queen are seen here viewing the mountains of flowers that were left outside Buckingham Palace in memory of Princess Diana, on September 5 1997 Prince Charles with Prince William and Prince Harry. They are looking at flowers left to his wife and their mother outside Kensington Palace. The photo was taken in September 1997 'These arrangements will include the opening of both public and virtual books of condolence, ensuring flags are flown at half mast, and overseeing arrangements for the laying of flowers in public areas.' Portsmouth City Council, Westminster City Council, Swansea Council, Derby City Council, Preston City Council, Nottingham City Council, Lancashire County Council and Belfast City Council are among those who have already set up books for local residents to sign. Elsewhere, the Church of England website has opened an online memorial book and encourages people to light a virtual candle for the Queen. At Worcester Cathedral, hundreds of visitors had signed books of condolence set out in its Lady Chapel alongside a large framed photograph of the Queen. Local people also placed dozens of floral tributes around the base of a war memorial in the grounds of the cathedral, including one with a note reading: 'Ma'am you have been a constant in my life, you will be sadly missed.' The cathedral's Dean, the Very Reverend Peter Atkinson, said it would remain open every day up to and including the day of the Queen's funeral, for people to light a candle, pause, sit, reflect, remember and give thanks. He said: 'This is a place where the people of Worcestershire and from much further afield have come at times of sorrow and times of joy for hundreds of years. 'This is the cathedral doing what the cathedral does once again at this very significant moment in our national life.' The Central Council of Church Bell Ringers also encouraged parishes to open books of condolences as it recommended tolling muffled bells for one hour from noon on Friday. Birmingham's St Philip's Cathedral, Lincoln Cathedral, Guildford Cathedral and Wakefield Cathedral are among those hosting books of condolence for visitors to sign. Theatres across the country are also opening books of condolences as well as dimming their lights, observing a minute's silence and playing the national anthem prior to performances as mark of their respect. Liz Truss led political tributes to the Queen today as Westminster gathered to honour her decades of devoted service. The Prime Minister hailed the late monarch for creating modern Britain as she launched a special session of the Commons. MPs and peers will spend two days paying tribute to the Queen, following her death yesterday at the age of 96. Ms Truss will also hold her first official audience with King Charles this afternoon after he returns to London from Scotland. Ms Truss's meeting with the Queen at Balmoral on Tuesday, where she was officially appointed PM, was her last face-to-face political action before her 70-year reign came to an end. The Prime Minister spoke to the new monarch by phone yesterday. Parliament has swept aside its business for today and normal politics is largely on hold for the 10-day mourning period. The session was started with a minute's silence, with MPs present including Boris Johnson, in his first appearance as a backbench MP. Ms Truss told MPs: 'On the death of her father King George VI, Winston Churchill said the news had stilled the clatter and traffic of 20th century life in many lands. 'Now 70 years later in the tumult of the 21st century life has paused again. Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was one of the greatest leaders the world has ever known.' The Prime Minister hailed the late monarch for creating modern Britain as she launched a special session of the Commons. The session was started with a minute's silence. The tributes are due to last until 10pm tonight and there will also be a rare Saturday sitting. MPs present included Boris Johnson, in his first speaking appearance as a backbench MP after resigning as PM Tomorrow some senior MPs will take an oath of allegiance to the King from 2pm, with condolences continuing again until 10pm. The Prime Minister spoke to the new monarch (pictured at the State Opening of Parliament earlier this year) yesterday after the death of his mother at the age of 96 Instead Ms Truss will at lunchtime kick off a mammoth session allowing MPs in the Common and Lords in the upper chamber to pay their respects. Ms Truss's meeting with the Queen at Balmoral on Tuesday, where she was officially appointed PM, was her last face-to-face political action before her 70-year reign came to an end. The Prime Minister said the Queen had fulfilled her promised to 'dedicate her life to service'. Liz Truss told the Commons: 'As we meet today, we remember the pledge she made on her 21st birthday to dedicate her life to service. 'The whole House will agree, never has a promise been so completely fulfilled.' She added: 'Her devotion to duty remains an example to us all. She carried out thousands of engagements, she took a red box everyday, she gave her assent to countless pieces of legislation and was at the heart of our national life for seven decades.' Mr Johnson and Theresa May could both be seen on the backbenches, listening to their successor's tribute. Mr Johnson later discussed his final audience with the Queen at Balmoral on Tuesday. 'I can tell you in that audience, she was as radiant and as knowledgeable and as fascinated by politics as ever I can remember and as wise as anyone I know, if not wiser.' The tributes are due to last until 10pm tonight and there will also be a rare Saturday sitting. Tomorrow some senior MPs will take an oath of allegiance to the King from 2pm, with condolences continuing again until 10pm. The latter session will end with a 'formal humble address' to the King, 'expressing the deep sympathy of the House' following his mother's death at Balmoral on Thursday, the House of Commons said in a statement. Every MP will have the option of taking an oath to the King when the House returns but are not obliged to. Former prime minister Theresa May said today that audiences with the 'immensely knowledgeable' Queen were the only meetings as leader where everything that was said would remain private. She told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that the meetings involved 'talking about the affairs of the day, in a sense tapping into her wisdom and that knowledge that she had from her great experience'. Mrs May told the broadcaster the Queen would pass on 'the knowledge that she had of the people, a lot of the people that the prime minister, that I, was dealing with.' She added: 'She was a very acute judge of people and was able often to give those little, if you like, pen portraits of people that she knew, that she'd met. 'And sometimes it was a case of not just the individual but actually a sort of history of that individual, of her experiences of particular countries, particular issues.' Paying tribute to the Queen's warm nature, Mrs May said: 'There was often that twinkle in the eye, and that magnificent smile that would break out and that calmed so many people's nerves and made so many people feel at ease.' Sombre ministers arrived in Downing Street for a Cabinet meeting this morning Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg arriving at 10 Downing Street Tomorrow some senior MPs will take an oath of allegiance to the King from 2pm, with condolences continuing again until 10pm. Parliament's tributes will follow an outpouring of grief from across the political spectrum as the world digested news of the Queen's death at the age of 96. Ms Truss hailed the country's longest-serving monarch as the 'rock on which modern Britain was built', while Sir Keir Starmer, the leader of the Opposition, said she was 'a symbol of the best of us'. Boris Johnson was among the six living former prime ministers of the Queen's reign to pay his respects, two days after he met her at Balmoral to resign from office. He said the Queen spread 'magic around her kingdom' for an 'unrivalled' 70 years and had a 'simple power to make us happy'. Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle will determine the timetable in the House for the following days, but it is expected to be significantly reduced until after the state funeral as Parliament adjourns. This means new laws cannot be passed until Parliament returns, though it could be recalled for pressing matters. 'London Bridge is down' Buckingham Palace's behind-the-scenes code for Queen Elizabeth II's death triggers a period of mourning in which normal life in the UK will dramatically slow for the next ten days 'London Bridge is down' Buckingham Palace's behind-the-scenes code for Queen Elizabeth II's death triggers a period of mourning in which normal life in the UK will dramatically slow for the next ten days. The bereft nation is in shock at the loss of the only monarch many of us have ever known. But the Palace and the Queen herself have been preparing for the aftermath of this inevitable moment since the 1960s. Behind the scenes, the detailed plan Operation London Bridge has already been put into action. It ushers in an official period of mourning that will have an effect on daily life for millions. The strategy, a major undertaking on an unprecedented stage, for the final farewell to Elizabeth II will be formally set in motion once approved by King Charles III. The finer details of Operation London Bridge have changed and been updated over the years but the broad brushstrokes have remained constant. It begins with what is described as D-Day, or day of death, although for practical reasons the Palace has deemed today is D-Day, to allow the complex arrangements to be put in place. Bells will toll at Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral and Windsor Castle, and gun salutes one round for every year of the 96-year-old Queen's life will be fired in Hyde Park and at other stations. Floodlighting at royal residences will be turned off, and the public will begin to leave flowers as tributes from around the world pour in. As Her Majesty's death occurred in Scotland, a contingency plan known as Operation Unicorn has been triggered. The mythical creature is Scotland's national animal. With the monarch spending several months a year at her beloved home in the Highlands, the plans for a Scottish element have been organised for some time. Part of the long-held London Bridge arrangements, Unicorn sets in motion additional ceremonial events in Edinburgh ahead of the logistics of bringing the Queen back to London. Advertisement Prince William has left Balmoral Castle and is travelling back to Windsor to be with his wife Kate Middleton and children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis ahead of the Accession Council tomorrow. The Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge, as he is now known, will not arrive in London with his father King Charles III - who is heading to London with the Queen Consort, Camilla - but will join him later on. Kensington Palace confirmed William, who is a Privy Counsellor, will attend the Accession Council at St James's Palace in London. Other senior royals including Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, Prince Edward and Sophie, Countess of Wessex are all expected to stay at the royal residence at the Scottish Highlands, sources told MailOnline today. The new King was pictured for the first time this morning since he acceded to the throne, dressed smartly in a suit and tie as he left Balmoral with the Queen Consort on their way to Aberdeen Airport. Other senior members of the Royal Family will remain at Balmoral but without Prince Harry who left earlier on at about 8.15am today, having arrived around 12 hours before to join fellow royals who had gathered at the castle. The Duke of Sussex was seen boarding a British Airways flight at Aberdeen Airport later on in the morning, before arriving at London Heathrow and then being driven to Frogmore Cottage in Windsor where he has been staying. Harry and his wife Meghan Markle, who were coming to the end of a whistle-stop visit to Europe when the Queen died, are expected to stay in the UK to attend the late monarch's state funeral, likely be held on September 19. Charles will now meet with Prime Minister Liz Truss and other senior politicians later today as he becomes head of the Privy Council, while his siblings Andrew, Edward and Anne will stay at Balmoral. A Buckingham Palace source told MailOnline this morning: 'King Charles must return to London to attend to matters of state. But the other senior royals will spend a day of quiet reflection at Balmoral Castle.' Prince William drives Prince Andrew, Prince Edward and Sophie, Countess of Wessex into Balmoral in Scotland last night King Charles III (left) and Prince Harry (right) at Aberdeen Airport separately today as they travel by plane to London A vehicle carrying King Charles III and the Queen Consort leaves Balmoral today, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II The update comes as the nation's new monarch King Charles III began his poignant journey from Balmoral to London, following the death of his mother the Queen. The grief-stricken King was glimpsed for the first time since his accession to the throne as he departed Birkhall, his private home on the Balmoral estate, by car at around 11.15am today. With Camilla, his new Queen Consort, in the front passenger seat, Charles sat in the back, dressed in his mourning clothes of a black suit and tie, looking sombre as he headed to Aberdeen Airport. Camilla stared straight ahead as they were driven from the Scottish residence, where they had rushed to be at the Queen's bedside when she fell gravely ill. The couple stayed overnight at Balmoral, where Queen Elizabeth II died peacefully aged 96 yesterday afternoon. Members of the royal family had made the urgent dash to be with the frail monarch as her health failed. Her children - Charles, the Princess Royal, the Duke of York and Earl of Wessex - travelled to the castle, as did the Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge, the Countess of Wessex and the Duke of Sussex. People gather outside Buckingham Palace in London today to pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth II following her death Mourners gather outside Windsor Castle today following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in Balmoral yesterday Yeoman Warders are pictured at the Tower of London today, ahead of a Gun Salute to mark the death of Queen Elizabeth II Camilla, Charles and the Queen stand on the Buckingham Palace balcony following the Queen's Birthday Parade in June Senior royals will have duties to perform in Scotland in the coming days when the Queen's coffin begins its journey back to the capital, but Harry was spotted leaving Balmoral this morning. The Queen's coffin placed in Balmoral ballroom The Queen's coffin has been placed in the Balmoral ballroom where she danced as a young princess and where she later shared special moments with Prince Philip, to allow her loyal household staff to pay their respects before she begins her final journey back to London. The coffin is currently in the ballroom, draped in the Royal Standard. It will remain there for two days before it is driven to the Palace of Holyrood House in Edinburgh. It will then be transported back to London later this week. The ballroom held special memories for the Queen, whose affection for the highlands was well known. It is where she danced at the age of 12 as a young princess at the Ghillies Ball, an annual dance at Balmoral for the staff, which she enthusiastically attended for years. The annual ball has been a tradition since the 1852, when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert first acquired the estate. It was their way of thanking the staff for their hard work and loyalty and is a tradition that has endured for well over 100 years. Queen Elizabeth II was known to particularly enjoy the event and would often stay late into the night to celebrate with staff. Videos show her reeling with Prince Philip, the Queen Mother and Charles and Diana in 1991. Her body will remain at Balmoral for the next two days before being driven to Edinburgh to be placed at the Palace of Holyroodhouse. She will stay there for an additional two days for a lying-in-state of sorts, before eventually being brought back to London for her funeral. Advertisement Tributes continue to be paid to the woman described by the Prime Minister as the 'rock on which modern Britain was built', with the Dalai Lama expressing his 'deep sadness' over the death of the Queen in a letter to the King. He told Charles: 'Your mother lived a meaningful life with dignity, grace, a strong sense of service and a warm heart, qualities we all should treasure.' The Queen's former homes of Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and Balmoral continue to attract thousands of people wanting to pay their respects to the late monarch, with hundreds of bouquets, personal notes and candles being placed in her honour. Charles has already turned his hand to his duties as monarch despite his grief. He gave the order that a period of 'Royal Mourning' for the Queen will be observed from now until seven days after her funeral. Royal Mourning will be observed by members of the royal family, royal household staff and representatives of the royal Household on official duties, together with troops committed to ceremonial duties. Royal salutes will be fired in London on Friday at 1pm in Hyde Park by the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery, and at the Tower of London by the Honourable Artillery Company, with one round being fired for each year of the Queen's life. Flags at royal residences were at half-mast yesterday and will remain half-masted until 8am on the morning after the final day of royal mourning. The King is expected to address the nation on television this evening, and hold his first audience with Prime Minister Liz Truss. The PM and senior ministers will attend a public service of remembrance at St Paul's in central London. Tomorrow morning, an Accession Council - the formal proclamation of Charles as King - will take place at St James's Palace in London. The first public proclamation of the new sovereign will then be read in the open air from the Friary Court balcony at St James's Palace by the Garter King of Arms. Charles will hold audiences, and the media will be briefed by the Earl Marshal, who is in charge of the accession and the Queen's funeral, on the coming days. A crazed gunman accused of shooting four people dead has appeared in court as a judge warned him he could face the death penalty. Ezekiel Kelly, 19, launched his alleged rampage just before 1am on Wednesday and terrorized the city for 22 hours, killing four people and injuring three others. He appeared in court in Memphis, Tennessee, today dressed in blue issued prison uniform, charged with one count of first-degree murder. The judge informed him that he could be facing the death penalty for the charges, but the hearing was adjourned for him to be assigned a public defender. Kelly only spoke to confirm that he would not be able to afford an attorney and will require a public defender. A devastated daughter of one of this victims has blasted the violence on the rise in Memphis, with Kelly streaming the slayings on Facebook. Nurse Allison Parker, 38, was shot dead as Kelly carjacked her Toyota SUV in an attempt to flee police, with her daughter Ariana, 20 witnessing her mothers death. She posted on Instagram saying: Watched my own momma die in front of me. F*** this city. A GoFundMe for the mother-of-threes children has been set up, which states that the trio are now orphans after the shooting Parker and the loss of their father two years ago. Kelly is believed to have started his rampage at around 12:56am, shooting and killing Dewayne Tunstall, 24, who was reportedly a friend of his in his driveway on Glendale Avenue. Tunstall had been visiting friends with Kelly pulled him to the side and drew a black handgun, shooting him several times in the head with a black handgun. He appeared in court in Memphis, Tennessee, today dressed in blue issued prison uniform, charged with one count of first-degree murder Devestated Ariana Parker, 20, watched as her mother Allison, 38, was shot dead as Kelly carjacked her Toyota SUV in a bid to escape cops who were hunting him amid his shooting spree Ezekiel Kelly, 19, is now in police custody after allegedly shooting dead four people and injuring another three in a 19-hour long rampage across Memphis Tennesee. Kelly was arrested when he crashed during a high speed chase after the carjacking in Southaven,Mississippi, where he crossed state lines in an attempt to evade police Kelly is believed to have started his rampage at around 12:56am, shooting and killing Dewayne Tunstall, 24, (pictured) who was reportedly a friend of his Kelly has a violent criminal record, with police linking him to eight different incidents and warned terrified members of the public to stay away from him. The teenager had been jailed in 2021 after pleading guilty to aggravated assault, despite earlier being charged with attempted murder, and was released early from his three-year sentence. Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland slammed the courts for the decision, saying that had he served his full sentence then 'four of our fellow citizens would still be alive.' He was described as being 'armed and dangerous' by police, with Police Chief Cerelyn Davis describing it as a 'horrific week' for the city. Several hours after the initial shooting, he then started turning the gun on people at random - forcing locals to shelter in their homes. At around 4.38pm he then shot a man dead as he sat in his car on South Parkway East multiple times, and two minutes later fired his gun at Lakesha McGlathen, 44, near Norris Road and Interstate 240. She was rushed to hospital with a bullet wound to the leg, and was transported to a hospital but has since been released home. Crazed Kelly opened fire at an AutoZone store on Jackson Avenue just before 6pm, where he started to live stream the horror on Facebook. He is understood to have shot Rodolfo Berger twice, who remains in a critical condition in hospital awaiting surgery. His daughter Jenny posted online: I love this man so much my life partner and best friend. If you know me, you know hes my world. No one deserves to go through this. Hes out of surgery now and under extreme care. I was able to breathe and calm down. Hes needing another surgery in a few days and I can feel in my heart he is so STRONG and ready for a journey of healing ahead. I will be with him soon. Corteria Wright, 17, was shot and killed by Kelly at around 8.55pm and is thought to be his final victim before he was apprehended by officers. Allison Parker (right) was killed by Kelly as he took her vehicle fleeing police He is understood to have shot Rodolfo Berger twice, who remains in a critical condition in hospital awaiting surgery Terrified residents alerted police to the shootings after Kelly started a live stream on his Facebook page. He can be seen entereing AutoZone and aiming at a customer, now identified as Berger, who remains in hospital in a serious condition Lakesha McGlathen, 44, was shot int he leg by Kelly near Norris Road and Interstate 240 while she and her father had stopped the car to deal with a flat tire Timeline: The 22-hour bloody rampage through Memphis on Wednesday SHOOTING 1 12:56AM: Dewayne Tunstall, 24 is shot and killed in his driveway, 3100 block of Lyndale Avenue. SHOOTING 2 - 4:38PM: Man is shot and killed inside his car on 946 East Parkway South. CCTV revealed man pulled up in a grey sedan and opened fire. SHOOTING 3 - 4:40PM: Woman is shot in the leg on Norris Road near southbound ramp to Interstate 240, taken to hospital in noncritical condition. SHOOTING 4 5:59PM: Suspect live-streams on Facebook as he shoots Rodolfo Berger, who remains in a critical condition, in an AutoZone on 4000 block of Jackson Avenue. POLICE ALERT - 6:12PM: Memphis police put out a city-wide alert on the shooting suspect, with parts of Memphis going into lockdown SHOOTING 5 7:23PM: Woman carjacked and fatally shot at Poplar Avenue and North Evergreen Street. SHOOTING 6 7:24PM: Police respond to another shooting at Poplar and Evergreen, with a man taken to hospital in a non-critical condition. SHOOTING 7 8:55PM: Corteria Wright, 17, is shot in the back and killed on the 800 block of West Raines Street, and another man is injured. CARJACKING - 8:56PM: Police respond as a Dodge challenger is carjacked on Stateline Road and Highway 51. The owner was not injured. ARRESTED 8:58 PM: Police spot the Dodge Challenger going northbound on Interstate 55 and a high-speed chase begins. Kelly is arrested at Hodge Rd & Ivan Rd and take him into custody. Advertisement Kelly can be seen in the footage getting out of his car, walking into the store and pulling a gun to shoot Berger. The teenager then rants to the camera about 'no faking' saying 'this s*** for real' on the livestream, with citizens reporting the footage to police. Officers then issued an alert about Kelly and his vehicle, but shortly after he carjacked and shot Allison Parker at Poplar Avenue and Evergreen Street in an attempt to switch vehicles. She was shot dead at 7.23pm with Kelly driving off in her car, a gray Toyota SUV, before officers found another man suffering from gunshot wounds a minute later. He was taken to hospital in a stable condition. Corteria Wright, 17, was shot in the back by Kelly at around 8.55pm and is thought to be his final victim before he was apprehended by officers. Her heartbroken dad Corterian Wright posted an emotional video begginng for people to 'stop the senseless s***' adding: 'My baby just turned 17. Please stop the violence, I'm begging y'all.' After shooting Wright, Kelly crossed the state line and is accused of committing a second carjacking. Police say that he held the driver of the Dodge Challenger up at gunpoint at a gas station in Southhaven, Mississippi. The driver of the car was uninjured, and officers embarked upon a high speed chase on Interstate 55 that ended with Kelly crashing the car. Officers recovered two weapons from the car, and footage shows Kelly grinning ear to ear after being put in the back of a police vehicle. Police ordered residents to stay inside, with public bus services suspended and two universities were place on high alert as Kelly's violent rampage continued. His rampage has left Memphis residents reeling from the recent spate of violent crime in the city. A pastor was recently killed in a carjacking in the city, with police searching for missing mother-of-two Eliza Fletcher, 34, before finding her dead body by an abandoned property. Cleotha Abston-Henderson, 38, was yesterday charged with the murder of the billionaire heiress after violently bundling her into a car. Abston-Henderson was released early from a felony kidnapping charge in 2020, had he served the full sentence he would have remained in prison until 2022. Kelly was previously arrested on charges of attempted first-degree murder, reckless endangerment, using a gun during a felony and aggravated assault in June 2020. In 2021 he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of aggravated assault for offences which were committed when he was 17. Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland slammed the courts for the decision, saying that had he served his full sentence then 'four of our fellow citizens would still be alive' Kelly, seen here in a Facebook post posing while standing over a pair of pistols and 20-dollar bills Pictured: Ezekiel Kelly, 19, caught on camera flashing an eerie grin (left in a mugshot and right in the back of a cop car) after allegedly shooting four people dead and injuring three others Police in Memphis worked the scene of one of the shootings on Poplar Avenue after 19-year-old Ezekiel Kelly went on a wild shooting rampage He was sentenced to three years in prison, but was released in March after serving just 11 months of his sentence. When asked why he was released early by DailyMail.com Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy said: Mr. Kelly served approximately 70% of the sentence he received as part of his plea deal, which included nearly 15 months of jail time prior to his conviction, 11 months in prison, and credits for the time served while incarcerated. In accordance with the laws of the State of Tennessee at the time of his sentencing, this made him eligible for release. Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland slammed the courts for the decision to release Kelly, saying: 'If Mr. Kelly served his full three-year sentence, he would still be in prison today and four of our fellow citizens would still be alive.' He also urged the public to hold him and other officials to account over violent crime in the city, while saying the police were arresting 'the same people over and over'. During his rampage Kelly ranted that he would not return to jail on social media, but it is not clear what sparked the shooting spree. Police have not yet revealed what the possible motive for the shooting spree was. During the video he can be heard saying repeatedly 'we do this s*** for real' and 'he was dying today'. The teenager can also be heard saying: Check this s*** out. I pull up and do this s***. 'What do those n***** say? No faking? No faking. You heard me, this s*** for real. On my mamma, how do you think I'm playing? This s*** so real, man. I'm killing s*** for real. Ezekiel Kelly, 19, seen here in a Facebook post, was tracked down by the Memphis police after a shooting spree that left at least four people dead and three injure The shooting spree comes the same week that the body of kidnapped billionaire heiress Eliza Fletcher, 34, was found in Memphis. Police have charged Cleotha Henderson, an ex-con who served 20 years for a previous abduction, with aggravated kidnapping, tampering with evidence, and murder He even threatened at one point to 'shoot it out' with police. Kelly's Facebook profile appeared to have been deactivated by the social media giant after the livestream. The social media company removed Kelly's live video soon after it was posted, MailOnline was told, and was working to remove any copies of the video to stop the footage from spreading on Facebook. The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism - an organisation that works to prevent extremists from exploiting the internet and digital platforms - also activated its Content Incident Protocol in response to the shooting. In another video taken from that broadcast Kelly's short dreadlocks can be seen as he's driving down the road and says, 'It's getting real wild here' and then the sound of automatic gunfire can be heard. Kelly, whose Facebook page shows him flashing guns and money in most photos, posted an eerie message in mid-August, saying 'I'm sorry momma I know you hate how I live...I know you pray every night I swear wont GO without a fight.' Ali Roberts, acting assistant special agent in charge for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Memphis, said it was too early in the investigation to discuss how the suspect got the gun or guns used in the shootings. The city has seen a string of high-profile killings in recent months, including the murder of a pastor during a carjacking and the abduction and murder last week of billionaire heiress Eliza Fletcher, 34, who was on a pre-dawn run. Memphis City Council member Chase Carlisle said on Twitter: 'I understand it feels like so much violence and evil to experience in such a short time, we are SO much more than this.' The United States regularly sees mass shootings and other gun violence, but Congress has been reluctant to pass strict gun control legislation as the issue remains politically divisive. At least 490 people have been killed in mass shootings and mass murders in the US in 2022 so far, according to the Gun Violence Archive, with 14,050 people dying in gun-related incidents over the same period, excluding suicides. Joe Biden has said it is time to ditch the nasty nickname for the Midwest as he touted his plans to turbocharge the US semiconductor sector in Ohio. The President said he wants to bury the term 'Rust Belt' and start calling it the 'Silicon Heartland' during a speech at Intel's $20billion factory. He referred to it as a 'field of dreams' and assured locals cash would be pumped into the expansive area. Biden was in Licking County, near Columbus, to tour the huge factory that is touted as part of the solution to relying on China for millions of semiconductors. Overall, the trip was a victory lap for the president, who steered a bipartisan bill through Congress to put $52 billion into the U.S. chip industry. President Joe Biden said Friday it was time to ditch the nasty nickname for the Midwest, as he touted his plans to turbocharge the US semiconductor sector in Ohio President Joe Biden walks through a field of heavy machinery before delivering remarks in Licking County, Ohio Friday President Joe Biden (right) walks alongside Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger (left) at the building site in Licking County, Ohio where the company is constructing a $20billion semiconductor facility President Joe Biden greets workers at the groundbreaking for Intel's new Ohio semiconductor facility Friday President Joe Biden walks by the 'Made In America' motto during his appearance at a groundbreaking for a new Intel semiconductor plant in Ohio President Joe Biden (right), along with Rep. Joyce Beatty, listens to Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger describe the plans for Intel's new semiconductor facility Ohio's Republican Gov. Mike DeWine (right), alongside wife Fran (left), arrives at a groundbreaking ceremony for a new Intel semiconductor manufacturing plan in Licking County, Ohio President Joe Biden disembarks Air Force One as he arrives at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware after his trip to Ohio. He'll be spending part of the weekend in Wilmington 'It's time to bury the term Rust Belt and call it, as Pat says, the Silicon Heartland,' the president said, referencing Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, who gave him a tour of the active worksite in Licking County, near Columbus. Biden - and a number of both Democratic and Republican elected officials - attended the groundbreaking for Intel's state-of-the-art $20billion semiconductor facility around lunchtime Friday. 'The industrial Midwest is back,' Biden proclaimed. 'That's what you'll see in this field of dreams.' Heavy machinery kept working throughout the president's speech. Biden said there's 'kind of a tradition here' about innovation coming from the Buckeye State. 'The Wright Brothers, Neil Armstrong, John Glenn - they defined America's spirit, the spirit of daring innovation,' Biden said. The president gave shout-outs to both retiring Republican Sen. Rob Portman and the state's GOP Gov. Mike DeWine, who is running for re-election against Democrat Nan Whaley. 'I want to thank Rob Portman for being the gentleman and the decent man that he is and for showing that Democrats and Republicans can work together to get big things done for our country. I really mean it,' Biden said. 'You're leaving a h**l of a legacy as you leave.' To DeWine he joked, 'Thanks for the passport to get to the state, guv, appreciate it.' Biden also name-dropped Democratic Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan, who's seeking the state's open Senate state, being vacated by Portman. Prior to Biden's arrival, Ryan told Youngtown's WFMJ station that he was 'campaigning as an independent.' And then, when asked if Biden should run for re-election, Ryan - who is 49 years old and briefly ran for president in 2020 - answered: 'My hunch is that we need new leadership across the board, Democrats, Republicans, I think it's time for like a generational move.' White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about Ryan's comments on Air Force One Friday morning on the flight to Ohio and refused to engage. 'I'll just let Congressman Tim Ryan speak to that and explain that further,' Jean-Pierre told reporters. 'As you know congressman Tim Ryan is going to be attending along with several other elected officials from across the aisle will be joining us as well, because this is something ... that is critically important to our economy and to our national security,' the press secretary added. President Joe Biden arrived in Ohio Friday morning, where he will speak about his plans to turbocharge the US semiconductor sector President Joe Biden (center) speaks with Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther (right) and his wife Shannon Ginther (left) as he arrived at the Columbus International Airport Friday morning President Joe Biden arrives at Joint Base Andrews Friday morning to take Air Force One to Licking County, Ohio President Joe Biden gives a finger gun salute to those on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews Friday morning President Joe Biden spoke with well-wishers as he departed the White House for Ohio Friday morning Later, on-site at the Intel event, Ryan told reporters, 'The president said from the very beginning he was going to be a bridge to the next generation, which is basically what I was saying.' But when asked if Biden should run again, Ryan wasn't definitive. 'That's up to him,' the Ohio Democrat said. During his remarks, Biden thanked Ryan for his leadership and for 'always representing working people.' Overall, the trip was a victory lap for the president, who steered a bipartisan bill through Congress to put $52 billion into the U.S. semiconductor industry - as a way to compete with China. Additionally, Intel announced nearly $18million the company plans to invest in Ohio colleges and universities to put toward workforce development. President Joe Biden walks across the South Lawn to Marine One Friday morning, departing for a trip to Ohio to talk about the American semiconductor industry President Joe Biden walks out onto the South Lawn Friday morning as he departed for a day trip to Ohio 'This includes partnering with community colleges across Ohio, the state's oldest historically Black university, and other institutions to train thousands of workers to work in Ohio's growing semiconductor industry,' a senior administration official said. Intel and the National Science Foundation will invest $100 million to go toward similar programs across the country. The company had started investing money into an Ohio-based facility as the CHIPS bill worked its way through Congress. The White House said Thursday the facility will be built by union labor, creating more than 7,000 construction jobs - and will create 3,000 full-time jobs producing semiconductors. The trip to Ohio comes as campaigning for the midterms has kicked off in earnest. While Ohio has been friendly to Republicans in recent years - former President Donald Trump won the state over Hillary Clinton and Biden - the Senate race is surprisingly competitive. Ryan is giving Republican J.D. Vance, the author of the widely read Hillbilly Elegy, a run for his money. FiveThirtyEight.com has Ryan ahead in its polling index by 1.9 percent - within the margin of error in surveys. DeWine recently received an endorsement from Trump despite the ex-president initially trying to recruit a Republican to run in a primary against the Ohio governor. During an appearance on CNN, DeWine acknowledged that Biden had won the 2020 election and encouraged Trump to engage in a peaceful transition of power. 'Biden's agenda has crushed Ohio families and small businesses, and Democrat Tim Ryan's priority, aside from rubberstamping Biden's failed agenda, is banning gasoline-powered vehicles,' Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel said in a statement. 'In November, voters will ensure Biden-Democrat Tim Ryan is nowhere near the Senate, as Ohio is ready to elect a leader like J.D. Vance.' A mother who shook her ten-week-old daughter to death after social workers from a scandal-hit council allowed her baby to be taken home has today been spared jail. Lauren Saint George, 25, attacked baby Lily-Mai Saint George in a fit of rage after being told she would have to go into a residential unit if she wanted to keep her. She was found guilty of infanticide in July and was today handed a two year suspended sentence at Wood Green Crown Court. This means Saint George, of Enfield, will not need to serve time in prison unless she breaks the law or court-imposed conditions. Baby Lily-Mai suffered traumatic head injuries and 18 rib fractures inflicted upon her by her mother six days after being discharged from hospital. Medical staff believed Saint George did not care much for the welfare of her baby, who was born prematurely, and that was incapable of properly looking after her. They were horrified when the little girl was sent home with Saint George and her partner Darren Hurrell, also 25. One health visitor said she had never been more concerned for a baby's safety. Lauren Saint George (pictured), 25, has today been spared jail after being handed a two year suspended sentencing following her infanticide conviction Saint George (pictured outside Wood Green Crown Court in June) lost her temper before violently shaking her 10-week-old daughter Lily-Mai and pulling and twisting her leg on January 31, 2018 Lily-Mai died in Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital on February 2, 2018 just over a week after she was discharged. Wearing a black blazer Saint George broke down in tears as she was convicted of infanticide. She was cleared by an Old Bailey jury of murder, manslaughter and cruelty to a person under 16 following a trial in July. Hurrell denied and was cleared by the jury of cruelty by neglect. Mr Justice Martin Spencer had earlier ruled there was 'no case to answer' against Hurrell for murder and manslaughter and not guilty verdicts were entered. Sentencing Saint George the judge took into account she 'suffered from a double affliction of exhaustion and depression. 'On this occasion, the target of your temper was a defenceless baby. 'I have no doubt this was a reaction you immediately regretted.' He said Saint George immediately sought medical support for Lily Mai. 'I have no doubt that the grief you exhibited over those two days was wholly genuine. After hearing Saint George wishes to pursue further education the Mr Justice Spencer added: 'You now have a future to look forward to.' Lily-Mai was born in November 2017 and spent the first two months of her life in Barnet Hospital, before she was discharged into her parents' care on 25 January 2018. Staff were concerned over a lack of bonding between mother and baby while Lily-Mai was still in hospital. Four days after her birth, Saint George refused to visit her daughter on the ward, saying she was having her dinner. Midwives were shocked to see her standing with her back to the baby when she finally agreed to see her. Both parents would make sure they had eaten themselves before they fed Lily-Mai. The mother had told staff that she 'hated' the noises Lily-Mai made and wished she would 'cry instead of groaning'. Prosecutor Sally O'Neill, QC, had told the court: 'Almost all of the professionals at the hospital were opposed to the baby being discharged into the parents' care at home and had expressed their concerns about the parents' ability to meet the baby's emotional, developmental and physical needs on many occasions to the social services.' Three referrals were made by hospital staff to social services expressing concern while Lily-Mai was still on the ward. Alicia Jack, former social services manager at Enfield council, dismissed the first referral as there was 'no information' on their system about the family. She investigated and decided that no further action was needed regarding the second notification. The third was not acted on because the parents had moved and were now under the charge of Haringey Council. Lily-Mai's father Darren Hurrell, 25, (pictured) had no case to answer for charges of murder and manslaughter and a charge of causing or allowing the death of a child against both parents was thrown out Medical staff believed Saint George (pictured outside Wood Green Crown Court in June) hardly cared about her baby's welfare after she was born prematurely and that was incapable of properly looking after her. Sithembile Dzingai, a locality manager who had been involved in discussions about Lily-Mai's care, said: 'There was no robust discharge plan to safeguard Lily-Mai. 'In my 12 years as a health visitor I have never had such a feeling of anxiety about a case as I did about Lily-Mai being discharged.' In early January, the couple were provided accommodation in Belmont Road, Duckett's Green, and Haringey Social Services were given charge of Lily-Mai's case. The same authority was blamed after the infamous Baby P and Victoria Climbie child abuse cases. Theresa Ferguson, who was two years into being a qualified social worker, was allocated Lily-Mai's case, her first of this scale, on 12 January 2018. At the time she had 36 open assessments and 41 allocated cases. She told the court that she was given the case because the more senior member of the team could not take on any more work. Ms Ferguson attended a meeting to discuss Lily-Mai's discharge and care on 16 January at Barnet Hospital. Midwife Marie Creighton said the social worker had a 'generally disinterested attitude' when she first attended the meeting. 'I remember hersauntering in with a miserable look on her face. 'She said she had been to Lauren and Darren's flat and everything was fine and she didn't understand why she was called into the meeting, 'Why are we even discussing her?' 'She displayed a generally disinterested attitude.' Ms Creighton went on to say that her attitude changed as hospital staff explained their concerns. Ms Ferguson attended a further discharge planning meeting on 22 January and two days later made a referral for a 'legal gateway meeting'. The day after taking this first step to intervene in Lily-Mai's care, Ms Ferguson went on annual leave. She went away for four days on the day of the baby's discharge, on 25 January. Giving evidence Ms Ferguson said she did not feel that proposed plans to protect Lily-Mai once she was discharged would safeguard guard her. 'I was really worried about her going home. 'I was told that with the management there had been conversations and there was not a consideration for a placement at that point and Lily-Mai would be returning home.' Duty social worker Muriel Caboste was allocated the case in the meantime and visited the family on 26 January. Ms Caboste left feeling there were no increased child protection issues but noted that the parents were not following the feeding and medication chart. No visits were made on 27, 28 or 29 January. The family went to see Hurrell's support worker, Anthony Monbelly, on the 29th who described Hurrell as a 'very proud dad' and a 'doting parent' compared to Saint George who he said had 'little or no intervention' with the baby. Returning from annual leave, Ms Ferguson visited the parents on 30 January. 'You want to take her, just take her, that's fine': Saint George (right) was 'very despondent' upon hearing the proposed plan to put her and Lily-Mai in a residential placement but father Hurrell (left) was willing to go into the unit. 'Lily-Mai is my daughter,' he said. 'If that is what you are asking of me then I'll do it' Ms O'Neill told jurors: 'Lily-Mai's skin had a mottled appearance and although Darren Hurrell told Ms Feguson what they had been told to look out for by the hospital, which included the baby developing a pale appearance, he explained it by saying that the baby had a marble complexion.' Health visitor Alberta Nyantaki also visited that day who said Saint George was 'on the bed' the whole of her visit and not 'fully engaged'. She felt that Hurrell was 'the main carer' and saw him give Lily-Mai 'cuddles and kisses'. The health visitor expressed 'serious concerns' to Ms Ferguson after her visit who reassured her that the threshold for a child care protection plan had been met and the legal process had been started. Theresa Ferguson visited the family again the next day, on 31 January, to inform the parents that they had to go into a residential unit or Lily-Mai might be taken away from them. Residential placement meant professionals could observe the parents taking care of the baby. Saint George was 'very despondent' upon hearing the proposed plan and swore at the social worker, telling her: 'You want to take her, just take her, that's fine.' But Hurrell was willing to go into the unit. 'Lily-Mai is my daughter,' he said. 'If that is what you are asking of me then I'll do it. 'She is my only child. She is my first child. I'll do anything I have to do.' Ms Ferguson left feeling 'confident' that Hurrell could take care of Lily-Mai. Asked how she felt about the safeguarding of Lily-Mai upon leaving the flat, Ms Ferguson said: 'I had quite a thorough conversation with Darren making it clear that he was not to leave Lily-Mai with Lauren. 'He felt he would be able to call the police if he needed to and there would be options where he could go to stay if he needed to. 'I was confident that Darren was able to safeguard Lily-Mai.' Hurrell told the social worker if necessary he would take Lily-Mai to the unit himself and then Saint George would lose both him and the baby. Sentencing at Wood Green Crown Court (pictured) today the judge took into account Saint George 'suffered from a double affliction of exhaustion and depression. On this occasion, the target of your temper was a defenceless baby' Ms O'Neill said the mother was not concerned about the best interests of the baby and was only worried about herself and the inconvenience of having to leave the flat. 'At some stage between Theresa Ferguson leaving at about 4pm and the 999 call being madewe submit that there was a complete loss of temper by Lauren Saint George which may well have been as a result of an argument between her and Darren Hurrell, probably over the baby,' the prosecutor said. There were 'signs of disarray' in the couple's kitchen including Lily Mai's upturned pram, which suggested the mother had flown into a rage. Miss O'Neill said: 'She was unable to contain herself in front of a social worker who was there to judge her competence as a mother. 'You may have no doubt that she was unable to contain herself a few hours later when that argument happened and she lost her temper again - but this time the baby bore the brunt of it. 'The baby, the cause of all her problems, keeping her awake all night and now being the result of her having to leave her flat and also possibly lose Darren Hurrell as well.' Four or five hours later, Saint George called 999 to report that her baby had stopped breathing. The next day, 1 February, Ms Ferguson returned a call from Saint George and learned that Lily-Mai had been taken to hospital. The social worker began to cry and could not read her statement aloud during her evidence leaving the prosecutor to recite it. Failed chances to save Lily-Mai: How the authorities overruled medics' fears to allow baby home with mother who would murder her November 21, 2017 - Lily-Mai is born prematurely and spends the first two months of her life in Barnet Hospital. January 16, 2018 Staff at the hospital Staff hold meetings with the parents when they talk about the care of Lily-Mai January 21, 2018 Another meeting is held where 'concerns about the possibility of neglect' are aired. January 24, 2018 Police are called to a domestic incident at Saint George and Hurrell's flat in Haringey. Social worker Theresa Ferguson is informed and she makes a referral for a 'legal gateway meeting' which was the first step in intervening in Lily-Mai's care. January 25, 2018 Lily-Mail is released into the care of both of her parents, despite medics' concerns. Theresa Ferguson goes on holiday. January 26, 2018 Duty social worker Muriel Caboste visits the flat and decides there are not increased child protection issues. This is despite her noticing the parents were not following the feeding and medication chart that they had been provided with on discharge. January 31, 2018 Theresa Ferguson has returned from holiday and visits them at their flat to discuss the 'legal gateway meeting' and how to safeguard Lily-Mai. Saint George refuses to engage and storms out. Four hours later Saint George rings 999 and says Lily-Mail is seriously ill. February 2, 2018 Lily-Mail is pronounced dead at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Advertisement Lily Mai died at Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital on 2 February when she was ten weeks and two days old - only two weeks past a normal pregnancy term. Pathologists Dr Nat Cary said: 'All the findings may be explained on the basis of a single episode of violence.' He said there was evidence of 'forcible shaking and gripping' of the sides of Lily-Mai's chest and 'twisting and pulling' of her leg. The injuries were most likely inflicted just before the 999 call was made, the court heard. Bruises discovered on the baby's body were consistent with impact or gripping, in keeping with 'suspect physical abuse'. Hurrell told police that from 29 January, Lily-Mai was displaying most of the signs the hospital told them to look out for, including going blue, losing her appetite and being a bit floppy. He said she had also started to cry in her sleep. But neither parent thought it was serious or severe enough to call an ambulance, they told police. Hurrell said: 'Every time we picked her up as well to try and comfort her the crying became hysterical, screaming, like she was in a lot of pain but we didn't realise.' He insisted that neither he nor his then-partner had hurt Lily-Mai. In an effort to explain some of her injuries, Hurrell told officers about three incidents in which the baby could have been hurt by accident. The first happened before Monday 29 January, when Hurrell grabbed the baby's leg 'too hard' to stop her from falling off the bed. The second occurred on that Monday when Lily-Mai was jolted in her pram on a moving bus. The third is said to have happened on Tuesday 30 January when Lily-Mai possibly bumped her head while being bathed. Hurrell told police he did not see or hear anything but that some kind of head trauma could have happened while he and Saint George were bathing their baby. The parents said they 'hate' themselves for not calling an ambulance sooner. In her police interviews, Saint George said she was trying to be the 'best mum' she could be. 'They thought I was neglecting her. They said I was neglecting her and not doing the things I should have been. 'Honestly, I did need help at times because my depression would get the better of me. 'I wanted to fight this on my own, be the best mum I could be. 'If I ever felt overwhelmed, I would remove myself and calm down and then I would come back and cuddle her and try to tend to anything she wanted.' Questioned by police as to how Lily became bruised, Saint George said: 'She could have got that from me. I wake up with bruises all the time. I don't know what it's called but she has this thing where she bruises really easily.' Saint George, of Bonnington House, Enfield, denied and was cleared of murder, manslaughter and cruelty to a person under 16 years old, but was convicted of infanticide. Saint George was sentenced to two years imprisonment, suspended for two years, along with a 12-month supervision order and 60 days rehabilitation requirement. Hurrell, of Meadow Lane, Alvaston, Derby, denied and was cleared of cruelty to a person under 16 years old. The judge had earlier ruled both defendants should be cleared of causing or allowing the death of a child as the killing was a 'spontaneous act' in which the perpetrator 'snapped'. The NSPCC said this that this case shows the need for mothers to receive support for their mental health to help them care for their newborns. An NSPCC spokesperson said: 'This is a tragic case. It underlines the vulnerability of babies and the necessity for expectant and post-natal mothers to receive all the support they need for their mental health and to help them safely care for their child. 'It is vital that any recommendations that come out of the independent review into Lily-Mais death are fully taken onboard, so that everything possible is done to prevent tragedies like this from happening in the future.' The colleagues of a murdered journalist in Las Vegas have revealed how they helped track down the suspected killer in the shocking aftermath of his death. Jeff German, 69, who worked for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, was found dead outside his home on Saturday morning. On Wednesday evening, Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles, 45, was taken into custody. Reporters who worked with German revealed that they stalked out the suspect's home on Google Maps before finding that a red car - matching the police description - was parked in his driveway. Using skills they learned on the job with German, the five-person team at the newspaper sprung into action 'because that's what Jeff would have wanted us to do.' Police later carried out a search warrant on the home, and his car was towed by midday on Wednesday. Suspect Telles, a Democrat, failed to win reelection following a series of stories written by German that exposed the turmoil in his office and claimed he had an affair with an employee. A particularly damaging revelation came as German published a video of him exiting a vehicle with his lover. Staffer Roberta Lee-Kennett, 45, left the backseat of the car at the same time as the official, and can be seen pulling her skirt down. The clip was published by the late investigative reporter in May according to The Daily Beast. The DNA of the now-arrested public official was found at the site of a Las Vegas investigative reporter's fatal stabbing. Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles (right) had been the focus of recent articles by Las Vegas journalist Jeff German (left) who had spent three decades covering crime and corruption in the city before he was stabbed to death Saturday The DNA of the now-arrested public official was found at the site of a Las Vegas investigative reporter's fatal stabbing Reporters who worked with German at the Las Vegas newspaper tracked down the suspect's home and realized that a red car, matching the police description, was parked in the driveway Colleagues of German, from the Review Journal, snapped pictures of Telles washing a car similar to one that cops said they were hunting as part of the probe into the reporters death the day before they raided his home German's colleagues said that they were just doing what he had taught them to do -follow the story and 'aggressively' try to find out what happened. They searched online for Telles' address after the reporters recalled the nasty tweets sent by him to their dead colleague. After long, they spotted the red GMC Yukon Denali parked on his driveway. It was there that they were able to snap pictures of the suspect washing the red car. Briana Erickson, 28, told the Daily Beast: 'Were just acting on instinct right now, aggressively trying to find out what happened. Weve finally been able to breathe.' By 6pm on Wednesday, police had returned to Telles's home in tactical gear and surrounded the home while he remained inside. About 30 minutes later, he was wheeled out of the home on a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. After being on the scene reporting while police arrested Telles, Erickson said: 'Is this person going to harm themselves, and are we not going to have justice for Jeff? 'Of course, hes innocent until proven guilty. But, you know, the behaviors just very alarming.' Speaking about the alleged affair that German exposed during his work at the newspaper, she said: 'Any one of us would have reported this story. 'Any one of us could have, meaning any story that you pursue could potentially lead to circumstances that are completely unforeseen while youre reporting it. 'So I guess its just kind of puts me on alert, puts all of us on alert here that this is a possibility, which truthfully has never really crossed my mind before.' Michael Scott Davidson, 31, who also worked with the renown journalist, added: 'Were here to break news, get it right, because thats what Jeff would want us to do.' Robert Telles is escorted into court, Thursday, September 8, 2022, in Las Vegas Telles (pictured left with his wife) failed to get reelected after German wrote a series of stories exposing his alleged 'inappropriate relationship' with a member of his staff Telles had been railing against German for months including in an angry series of messages on social media in which he accused him of rifling through his trash and writing 'lying smear pieces' about him. He also had a section on his campaign website called 'Truth' which referred to German by name and accused him of conspiring with Rita Reid his challenger in the Democratic primary for the post of Clark County Public Administrator to create false stories about him. Reid, who won the June 16 election, was among those who complained to German of Telles's behavior at work and about his alleged affair with staffer Roberta Lee-Kennett. He also accused the pair of conspiring with John Cahill - his predecessor in the role and claimed the trio were attempting to 'drag me through the mud' for their own gain. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officers found local journalist Jeff German (left) dead with stab wounds around 10:30am Saturday after authorities received a 911 call. Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles (right) has now been arrested in connection to his death By 6pm on Wednesday, police had returned to Telles's home in tactical gear and were surrounding the home while Telles remained inside In an angry post on June 19 three days after he lost the primary Telles wrote: 'If Rita does not win, then her position will not be vacated. 'Then, the employee who wanted her position will not get it. This person wanted to work in that position for three years to obtain a much higher monthly payment in retirement. 'For that reason, Jeff German and John Cahill may not be done trying to drag me through the mud. 'To ensure that Democrats rally around Rita, they would have to turn most Democratic voters against me even now when I should be irrelevant. Don't be surprised if the articles keep coming. 'Through all of these articles, I have had the support of my family and friends. 'Despite what Jeff German and John Cahill have tried to do to me personally, I have been backed up by love and support that helped me to keep fighting for re-election. While I have lost, I still yet have that love and support.' Telles shares a $660,000 four-bedroom home with his wife Mae Ishmael, 45, and their three young children in the upscale Peccole Ranch area of Las Vegas. Initially, police released images of a man they were trying to hunt, who was wearing an orange high-vis jacket and a large hat. Following the arrest, Executive Editor Glenn Cook said: 'The arrest of Robert Telles is at once an enormous relief and an outrage for the Review-Journal newsroom. 'We are relieved Telles is in custody and outraged that a colleague appears to have been killed for reporting on an elected official. 'Journalists cant do the important work our communities require if they are afraid a presentation of facts could lead to violent retribution.' Europe's largest nuclear power plant, caught in the Ukraine-Russia war, is operating in emergency mode with elevated risk, Ukraine's state nuclear energy operator said. The six-reactor Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (NPP) came under the control of Russian forces early in the war, but is being operated by Ukrainian staff. The plant and surrounding areas have been repeatedly hit by shelling, raising fears of a second Chernobyl disaster. Russia and Ukraine blame on each other's forces. Europe's largest nuclear power plant (pictured last week), caught in the Ukraine-Russia war, is operating in emergency mode with elevated risk, Ukraine's state nuclear energy operator said The last power line connecting the plant to the Ukrainian electricity grid was cut on Monday, leaving the plant without an outside source of electricity. It is instead receiving power for its own safety systems from the only one of the six reactors that remains operational. Energoatom, the state nuclear operator, said on Friday that repairs to the outside lines are impossible because of the shelling and that operating in the so-called 'island' carries 'the risk of violating radiation and fire safety standards'. 'Only the withdrawal of the Russians from the plant and the creation of a security zone around it can normalise the situation at the Zaporizhzhia NPP. Only then will the world be able to exhale,' Petro Kotin, the head of Energoatom, said on Friday on Ukrainian TV. Meanwhile, a draft resolution that diplomats say Poland and Canada have prepared ahead of next week's meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog's Board of Governors calls on Russia to cease all actions at Ukraine's nuclear facilities, the text shows. The draft being circulated among the 35 countries on the Board of Governors, the International Atomic Energy Agency's top decision-making body, is a follow-up to a resolution that was passed by an emergency board meeting in March and that only Russia and China opposed. The six-reactor Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (NPP) came under the control of Russian forces early in the war, but is being operated by Ukrainian staff. Pictured: IAEA Deputy Director General, Lydie Evrard (right) inspects the Zaporizhzhia NPP Pictured: Damage caused by shelling to the elevated passage of Unit 6 at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, in Enerhodar Pictured: The IAEA team assesses damage at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (NPP) As in March, diplomats said the aim was to show Russia is isolated diplomatically and to pressure it to end its occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, where the IAEA says the occupation and shelling from the war pose the risk of a catastrophic nuclear accident. The draft text seen by Reuters says the board 'deplores the Russian Federation's persistent violent actions against nuclear facilities in Ukraine, including the ongoing presence of Russian forces and Rosatom personnel at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant', using the spelling of the plant's name favoured by the IAEA and referring to the Russian nuclear agency Rosatom. The draft text prepared on behalf of Ukraine, which is not a member of the Board of Governors, has yet to be formally submitted to next week's quarterly board meeting, diplomats said. It would then be debated and voted on. Several diplomats said that since the wording is similar to the March resolution's, which 'deplores' Russia's occupation of Ukraine, it was likely to pass easily and they expected few changes to its wording. The latest text calls on Russia to 'immediately cease all actions against, and at, the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant and any other nuclear facility in Ukraine, in order for the competent authorities to regain full control over all nuclear facilities within Ukraine's international recognised borders.' Before the so-called operative paragraphs that spell out any action and positions being taken, the text also says the board is 'underscoring' a recent call by IAEA chief Rafael Grossi for a 'nuclear safety and security protection zone' around the Zaporizhzhia plant. IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi attends a press conference about IAEA's Support and Assistance Mission to Zaporizhzhya upon his return from Ukraine, in Vienna, Austria The plant and surrounding areas (pictured) have been repeatedly hit by shelling that Russia and Ukraine blame on each other's forces Meanwhile, swiftly advancing Ukrainian troops were bearing down on the main railway supplying Russian forces in the east on Friday, after the collapse of a section of Russia's front line caused the most dramatic shift in the war's momentum since its early weeks. In a video address, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian troops had 'liberated dozens of settlements' and reclaimed more than 385 square miles of territory in the east and south in the past week. Zelenskiy posted a video in which Ukrainian soldiers said they had captured the eastern town of Balakliia, which lies along a stretch of front stretching south of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city. The Ukrainian military said it had advanced nearly 50 km through that front after an assault that appeared to take the Russians by surprise. That would make it by far the fastest advance by either side in the war since Russia was forced to abandon its disastrous assault on the capital Kyiv in March. Moscow has so far offered no official response to the reports of the breakthrough on the Kharkiv front. Ukraine has yet to allow independent journalists into the area to confirm the extent its advances. But Ukrainian news websites have shown pictures of troops cheering from the top of armoured vehicles as they roar past street signs bearing the names of previously Russian-held towns, and Russian forces surrendering on the side of the road. The Institute for the Study of War think tank said the Ukrainians were now within just 15 km of Kupiansk, an essential junction for the main railway lines that Moscow has been using for months to supply its forces on the battlefields in the east. This satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant occupied by Russian forces, in Ukraine on Aug. 28, 2022 A Russian service member holds a weapon on the top of a military vehicle in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict in the Russian-controlled city of Enerhodar in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine September 1, 2022 Since Russia's forces were defeated near Kyiv in March, Moscow has waged a relentless war of attrition, using its firepower advantage to press slow advances by bombarding towns and villages. But that tactic depends on tonnes of ammunition a day reaching the front line by train from western Russia. Until now, Russia had successfully fended off all attempts by Ukraine to cut off the train line. The Ukrainian general staff said early on Friday retreating Russian forces were trying to evacuate wounded personnel and damaged military equipment. 'Thanks to skilful and coordinated actions, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, with the support of the local population, advanced almost 50 km in three days.' Parents have shared how their young children have coped with the news that the Queen has died. Her Majesty's death was confirmed by the Royal Family at 6.30pm yesterday, with Buckingham Palace saying she had died 'peacefully' at Balmoral in the afternoon. In Britain, the moment shocked the nation, which has now gone into a period of mourning for the UK's longest-ever reigning monarch who gave a lifetime of service to the country. Mum-of-three Yinka Ewuola, from south London, said she spoke with her eldest son about the Queen's passing, using it as an opportunity to talk about values, her marriage to Prince Philip and the history of the British empire. She said: 'One of the really heartbreaking images of the Queen was her sitting by herself as Prince Philip's funeral. 'One of the things I spoke about with my son was how poignant it was that she was a Queen who, when it came to Covid, was told these are the rules and she followed them. 'The fact she had been married for 73 years and sat at her husband's funeral all by herself because that was what the rules were, it was very heartbreaking to see but a real testament to her sense of duty. 'So we spoke about living according to your values.' Parents reveal the conversations they have had with their young children following the death of the Queen Mum Yinka Ewuola said she spoke to her son about the Queen's 'sense of duty' when breaking the news of his death, referencing her sitting on her own at Prince Philip's funeral in April 2021 because of Covid-19 regulations at the time Ms Ewuola said she also spoke to her son about 'the duality that many members of the countries colonised by Britain may feel at this time'. 'My son was like, "wow this is such a big event, we're never going to have enough Queen in your lifetime mum." His responses are always quite comical and wry.' She continued: 'He was really interested and said, "you always find a teachable moment, mum."' Meanwhile, another parent said on Thursday evening, after the news broke, that their 'son is still awake and he's five'. They said: 'I told him the Queen has died. I sat him down and told him that it's history and it's going to be talked about a lot. We sat and talked a lot about her life as a monarch (he loves Henry VIII).' Another parent said they had told their five-year-old 'the Queen has died and they might talk about it today at school, results in me not being able to stop my tears from her from falling'. They added: 'Royalist or not, she has to be admired and respected'. Parents reveal the conversations they have had with their young children following the death of the Queen Parents reveal the conversations they have had with their young children following the death of the Queen Parents reveal the conversations they have had with their young children following the death of the Queen Elsewhere, one dad shared a sweet anecdote of his daughter going to Brownies but being 'worried she'll forget to change the word "queen" to "king" when she says the Brownie Promise.' He continued: 'I've told her I don't think Charles will mind.' It comes as schools and colleges have been told to remain opening following the death of the Queen. A period of national mourning for the Queen has now commenced, which will continue until the end of the day of her state funeral. Once the date of the funeral has been set, officials will issue schools and colleges with further guidance. However, until more detail has been confirmed schools and colleges 'should remain open'. The Queen's funeral is thought to be held at Westminster Abbey in about 10 or 11 days' time, with the date to be confirmed by Buckingham Palace. The day is likely to be declared as a bank holiday, but this will be confirmed by the palace and Government, according to the BBC. If a bank holiday is declared, schools will be shut. Once the date of the funeral has been set, officials will issue schools and colleges with further guidance. Stock image of children at school Meanwhile, schools around the UK have held special assemblies and lessons to commemorate the Queen on Friday morning. Others have held a minute's silence to pay their respects to Her Majesty. One primary school in Brighton said its assembly 'showed our appreciated to Queen Elizabeth'. 'We discussed how the Queen epitomised all of our school Values and paid our respects,' they tweeted. Fiona Yassin, founder of the Wave Clinic, has issued advice to parents who may need help speaking to their children about Queen's death. She said that 'many children will be in shock about the Queen's passing'. 'After all, this may well be the first person that they know who has actually died. 'For some it may even feel like they are losing a family member.' She continued: 'At this time, listening skills are essential. 'Listen to the young person at this time and encouraging them to talk about what they are feeling.' Voters will decide whether or not abortion will be legal in Michigan, judges ruled in a victory for Democrats - who see the issue as a way to get their supporters to the poll in November's congressional election. Thursday's ruling by the Michigan Supreme Court reverses the decision of a state board that had not allowed the proposal onto the ballot because of typos on some of the petition forms. The fight to allow voters to decide can be seen as a preview of the high-stakes political battle to come and how abortion remains a inflammatory subject for both sides. There was no denying supporters had enough signatures to qualify for the ballot - they collected more than 750,000, which is well above the requirement - but opponents noted there was a lack of visible spaces between some words. The Michigan Board of State Canvassers rejected the petition based on the spacing issue, which led to the lawsuit. Voters will decide whether or not abortion will be legal in Michigan after the state Supreme Court ruled the issue will be on the November ballot; above abortion rights supporters gather in Michigan earlier this week The Michigan Board of State Canvassers rejected the petition for the ballot because some words lacked spaces between them State Supreme Court Chief Justice Bridget Mary McCormack, in the ruling, called the board's rejection 'a sad marker of the times.' 'They would disenfranchise millions of Michiganders not because they believe the many thousands of Michiganders who signed the proposal were confused by it,' she wrote, 'but because they think they have identified a technicality that allows them to do so, a game of gotcha gone very bad.' The Michigan Supreme Court voted 5 to 2 to overturn the canvassers and place the question on the ballot The state board is scheduled to meet Friday, when the board members are likely to vote to certify the petitions for the November ballot to comply with the high court order. State Supreme Court Justice Justice David Viviano said he opposed placing the issue on the ballot because the text presented to voters on the petitions did not match what would be inserted to the Constitution. Democrats hope the abortion issue brings their supporters out to vote in November Michael Davis, executive director of Promote the Vote, speaks to supporters in Lansing, Michigan, on July 11 'This case raises a rather prosaic question with momentous consequences: do spaces between words matter?' he wrote. The ruling was the second major victory for abortion rights supporters in Michigan this week. On Wednesday, a state judge ruled that an abortion ban that had been on the books since 1931, which made no exceptions for rape or incest, violated the state's constitution and could not be enforced. President Joe Biden is scheduled to be in Michigan next Wednesday when he attends the Detroit Auto Show. Democrats see the abortion issue as one to help them get their voting bloc to the ballot as they try to keep their party in control of Congress. The White House praised the ruling. Signs during a rally in Michigan on September 7 read 'honor the will of the people' and 'we won't go back' on a coat hanger Abortion rights demonstrators during a national day of protest in Lansing, Michigan, US, on Monday, July 4 'We are encouraged by the Michigan Supreme Court's decision that will allow the proposed amendment to the state constitution affirming a woman's right to choose to be put on the ballot this November,' press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement. 'Hundreds of thousands of people across Michigan took action to protect women's access to abortion and reproductive care by getting this measure on the ballot,' she said. 'And millions more will be able to make their voices heard on this critical issue this November.' Tom Bonier, a Democratic strategist and CEO of TargetSmart, a data and polling firm, noted that the number of young women registering to vote is on the rise in swing states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Ohio in the wake of the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. In an op-ed in the New York Times, Bonier analyzed the Kansas election where voters heavily defeated a constitutional amendment that would have removed abortion protections in the state. Ahead of that election, he noted that 69% of newly registered voters were women. 'Women were engaged politically in a way that lacked any known precedent,' he wrote. A mother-of-two was beheaded with a sword outside her Bay Area home in broad daylight in front of terrified neighbors. The San Mateo County Sheriff's Department arrested her ex-boyfriend Jose Solano Landaeta, of Hayward, California, for allegedly using a sword to decapitate the 25-year-old. He allegedly left the scene after the horrific killing, but then returned minutes later while cops were on the scene. The victim granted a temporary restraining order against him in April, ABC7 reports. Officers said the victim, who has yet to be identified, was the mother of two girls, 7 and 1, who did not witness the crime. The terrified children were calling for their mother as they were taken into the care of Child Protective Services. Lieutenant Eamon Allen told reporters that the incident happened in the middle of the street and in broad daylight on Thursday morning, where witnesses watched as their neighbor was cut down. Chapel Thorborne said he caught sight of the horrific scene from the steps of his home near the corner of Laurel Street and Magnolia Avenue, in San Carlos. 'The head was underneath the car and she was laying in the back of the car- just severed,' he told ABC. A mother-of-two was decapitated outside her home in San Carlos, California, as neighbors watched the horrific scene unfold Police arrived quickly on the scene and arrested Jose Landaeta, who returned to the home minutes after allegedly cutting down his ex, 25, who had place a restraining order against him Lieutenant Eamon Allen (above) said police are still looking for the sword used in the killing. The victim's daughters, 7 and 1, have been taken by Child Protective Services Although police described the weapon used as a 'stabbing instrument,' the alert sent out for officers said: 'This is a 25-year-old female... head was cut off by a sword.' Allen said officers were at the scene within minutes of the murder, which took place at around 11:50am, and found Landaeta and two friends returning to the victim's home, where he was quickly arrested. 'After he cut her head off, he came walking up, him and his two friends,' Thorborne told ABC. 'And they walked right by me and they arrested him.' 'He was hurt, shocked, disappointed,' he added about the suspect. Police said they are still looking for the sword used in the beheading. Another alert sent out to officers at 12:14pm noted that the victim's children were frightened when police arrived and calling for their mother. 'Children are there, scared to come,' the message said. 'Want their mom.' Sources told ABC that there was a history of domestic violence at the home where the mother was killed. The murder occurred in broad daylight near the corner of Laurel Street and Magnolia Avenue Sources said there was a history of domestic violence at the victim's home The Sherriff's Department said the investigation is ongoing and that peer support is being provided to both first responders and a group of witnesses who saw the horrific crime unfold. 'Anytime someone loses their life it's certainly a tragedy,' Allen said. 'As far as the shocking nature of it, I do know that the deputies that first arrived on scene were a little beset by the scene. 'We are providing peer support, we are also providing support for the witnesses that were on scene as well, because there were several civilian witnesses.' A fish and chip shop owner who celebrated the Queen's death with a bottle of champagne, shouting 'Lizard Liz is dead' has had her restaurant windows pelted with eggs and ketchup. Police escorted Jaki Pickett, who runs Jaki's Fish and Chip Shop in Muir of Ord, Highlands in Scotland, from her business after people vandalised the shop front after she held up a chalkboard that read 'London Bridge has fallen' with a smiley face. She posted the now-deleted clip of her happily celebrating the Queen's death on Facebook, but it caused huge outrage with locals who blasted Ms Pickett for disrespecting the late monarch. Police Scotland were called after the shop on Thursday evening after it was targeted by angry residents in Muir of Ord who egged the windows. Pictures showed broken eggshells on the ground and egg mess over the shop windows this morning, while ketchup was splattered on a bench. Jaki Fish and Chip Shop, in Muir of Ord, was targeted after owner Jacki Pickett (pictured) shared a clip of her popping and spraying champagne shortly after Her Majesty's passing Police surrounded the fish and chip shop Muir of Ord, Highlands in Scotland, after she held up a chalkboard that read 'London Bridge has fallen' with a smiley face, causing uproar with residents in the local area Videos circulating on social media show residents surrounding the restaurant on Thursday evening, where owner Ms Pickett was seen driving away from the area with a police escort while locals booed her for her shameless Facebook post. A Police Scotland spokesperson said: 'Shortly after 8.30pm on Thursday, 8 September officers attended at a business in the Seaforth Road area of Muir of Ord following a report of a large crowd gathered in the area. 'Officers remained at the scene to ensure the safety of all present and the group subsequently dispersed peacefully. 'No further police action has been required.' David Mackay, 27, from Muir of Ord said he was angered by the post. He said: 'The comments on her Facebook page were disgusted and against her, quite rightly so. 'I heard that large crowds headed down to the chip shop and were protesting outside. Videos circulating on social media show residents surrounding the restaurant on Thursday evening, where owner Ms Pickett was seen driving away from the area with a police escort while locals booed her for her shameless Facebook post (police pictured at the scene) 'Some threw eggs at her window, some squirted tomato ketchup over the windows. 'I drove down myself to go and see what had happened and the streets were packed and the police were there. 'Then, Jaki, the owner of the chip shop and the lady in the video, was driving away with a police escort and her car was pelted with rocks and other objects. 'The police stayed for a while longer incase there was any further vandalism to the shop, but there wasn't. 'It made me feel angry. It's given Muir of Ord a bad reputation. 'Some English people might think that we are all laughing and celebrating about the queen dying but that is not the case at all. 'At the end of the day, I'm not a die hard royalist myself but the Queen is an inspiration for many people. 'So many people take warmth and comfort from her Christmas speeches, myself included. You don't have to be a royalist to realise and understand that it's still the death of a 96 year old woman, who has done so much for the country.' Ms Pickett's membership to the National Federation of Fish Friers has also been revoked. Eggshells could be seen on the ground and egg mess over Jaki's Fish and Chip Shop windows this morning Ketchup was splattered on a bench outside Jaki's Fish and Chip shop this morning after her Facebook video celebrating the Queen's death angered locals Police attended the scene at 8.30pm last night after the shop was pelted with eggs and residents gathered around to shame the anti-monarchist fish and chip shop owner In a statement, the NFFF said: 'The NFFF has been made aware of social media posts made by one of our members that are in extremely bad taste and completely against all of the values our organisation and industry hold dear. 'We have discussed this as a board and have taken the decision to revoke the membership of this business owner and we will be writing to them and asking them to remove all association of the NFFF from her business, social media and websites.' Seven officers were called to the shop on Thursday evening, a police spokesperson confirmed to The Press and Journal. Although video emerged of Ms Pickett allegedly driving away from the shop after having consumed champagne hours prior, police say ther is 'no suggestion that a crime was committed.' However, she has been slammed in the court of public opinion as social media users have issued aired their disgust towards her actions. 'You do not belong to us, we want you to leave,' one person wrote. 'I hope you're out of business and run out of the Muir in the month,' echoed another. 'Highlanders, by which I mean proper true Highlanders, not just by birth, but the people who chose to live here are decent gentle folk, respectful of others.' She also held up a chalkboard sign reading: 'Lizard Liz Dead and London Bridge has fallen' Enraged Brits pelted eggs at the shop following her posting of the video. A large group also gathered outside the business in protest as they booed and berrated Ms Pickett Ms Pickett appears to have deleted the video from Facebook, but that has not stopped angry residents from issuing poor reviews of the restaurant online. 'Dreadful ignorant tube of an owner sincerely hope it fails,' wrote Peter Mcmurray. 'Utterly vile behaviour. Shameful and disrespectful!' added Iain McNab. Alan Hassan echoed: 'Not one ounce of respect for anyone or anything except herself. I will never step foot back in your shop again.' Mail Online has contacted Ms Pickett for comment. Seven police officers were called to disperse the crowd and were forced to close the shop amid concerns for the owner's safety Advertisement Church bells rang out around the country this afternoon after the national anthem was spontaneously sung by Britons as the nation paid tribute to the Queen following her death yesterday. Bells at churches including Westminster Abbey and St Paul's Cathedral in London rang out at midday today, as thousands of other churches in the UK carried out the solemn tribute at the same time for up to an hour. Moving photos also showed bells being rung at Edinburgh's St Cuthbert Church, which stands near the city's famous castle, and at Shrewsbury Abbey. It came as the national anthem was sung today and last night at places including outside Buckingham Palace, and by fans inside Premier League side West Ham's stadium ahead of their Europa Conference League match. The emotional tribute was also sung by revellers in pubs around the country, with one video showing Manchester United fans singing it in the Bishop Blaize pub in the Stretford area of the city. As King Charles greeted well-wishers outside Buckingham Palace this afternoon, some Britons also broke out into a rendition of God Save the King in a move that symbolised the start of his reign. Church bells rang out around the country this afternoon after the national anthem was spontaneously sung by Britons as the nation paid tribute to the Queen following her death yesterday. Bells being rung at Edinburgh's St Cuthbert Church Hundreds of Britons who gathered outside Buckingham Palace also spontaneously broke out into a rendition of the national anthem The national anthem was sung at Buckingham Palace after a rainbow appeared in the sky above, as similar scenes occurred at Windsor Castle The Church of England sent out guidance to parish churches, chapels and cathedrals around the country last night, encouraging them to toll their bells or open for prayer following the announcement of the Queen's death from Buckingham palace. The bells at Westminster Abbey, St Paul's and Windsor were rung with muffles to create a more solemn sound. Glasgow, Leeds and Manchester Cathedrals also sounded their bells, along with Crathie Kirk, near the Balmoral estate in Scotland, where Her Majesty passed away. Most of the country's 16,000 churches have not rung bells with muffles since the death of the Queen's father King George VI in 1952. The details are contained in Operation London Bridge, the lengthy plan for the days following the Monarch's passing. The plan, named 'Operation Muffle', saw leatherworkers inundated with orders as churches rushed to ensure they were ready for the sad day, as many found their leather mufflers had rotten in recent years, or gone missing. Full muffles are designed to dampen the sound of the bell and are reserved exclusively for the Monarch's death. Thankfully, the churches were given enough time to order new ones - and Britain's leatherworking industry was inundated with orders. Bells will also ring out for the hour immediately prior to the Queen's state funeral, which is expected to be on September 19. Bell ringers are seen hard at work at St Cuthbert Church in Edinburgh. The bells were rung for an hour, in line with the national guidance issued by the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers A woman at St Cuthbert's Church in Edinburgh is seen hard at work as she helps to ring the building's bells in tribute to the Queen At Shrewsbury Abbey, 96 bells were rung at midday to mark the passing of the Queen. People also queued to sign the condolence book There will be a 12-day mourning period for the Queen in the UK and the Prime Minister and senior ministers will attend a public service of remembrance at St Paul's in central London today. Flags are being flown at half-mast and books of condolence have been opened for people to pay their respects. The national anthem was sung at Buckingham Palace after a rainbow appeared in the sky above, as similar scenes occurred at Windsor Castle. One twitter user said: 'The rainbow at Windsor Castle made me cry. the rainbow Queen sent us a sign.' Another said: 'A rainbow breaks out, as the Union Jack is lowered to half-mast at Windsor tonight. A remarkable image. Farewell, Ma'am.' Others took it as a sign that the Queen has 'really left us' as the rainbows appeared shortly as the news of the monarch's death was announced. The south Florida club that allegedly 'shoved' and kicked a transgender woman off its premise says it will remove anyone who makes guests 'uncomfortable' but that it was misrepresented in the media by the woman. Dixie Roadhouse in Cape Coral, Florida says it has 'two private restrooms that our transgender guests use often.' Furthermore, the club says that its 'multiple security camera angles' suggest that the incident in which Piper Ayres was allegedly kicked out 'simply did not happen as it was described to the media.' In response to the club's statement, Ayres told the Daily Mail that she was 'unaware of any private bathrooms' despite having been to the club on multiple occasions. 'I was unaware of any private bathrooms because if I was I would definitely go use those to make everybody comfortable including myself,' she said. The situation involving Piper Ayers simply did not happen as it was described to the media. Earlier this week, Ayres, alleged that bouncers seized and booted her out of Dixie Roadhouse, a popular line dancing bar, because she is legally still male. On Thursday, Dixie Roadhouse posted a statement to its Facebook page defending itself against the accusations hurled its way by Ayres. 'Dixie Roadhouse is all-inclusive and has been since Day 1 eleven years ago - hence the sign on our front door.' The rowdy cowboy-themed club has a sign out front that reads, 'If you are racist, sexist, homophobic, or just a jerk ... don't come in.' 'The safety and comfort of our guests are paramount to us and we will address anyone that disrupts the party, makes other guests uncomfortable, or is rude or confrontational with our staff, regardless of their sexual orientation,' continued the statement. Trans-woman Piper Ayres told the media she was forcibly removed from popular south Florida nightclub Dixie Roadhouse after being told not to use the women's restroom on the premise A statement posted Thursday by the south Florida club contesting some of the accusations Ayres made in the media The Dixie Roadhouse nightclub in Cape Coral, Florida was voted best regional club in 2021. Its received both backlash and praise for what allegedly happened to Piper Ayers Ayres, who recounted the story to local media, explained she was wearing a crop top, skirt and high heels and pleaded with security for her right to use the ladies' restroom. She broke down in tears as she recalled her humiliation and said the traumatic experience left her feeling 'worthless'. 'I go to the bathroom, next thing you know they're saying something to me. 'The next thing you know, they grab ahold of me and start shoving me out the front door.' A friend of Ayres confronted the club's security guards who told him that they 'don't allow men to use women's restrooms.' Ayres then said, 'So we went to the manager and he said what does it say on your ID.' She had not officially changed her name and gender so her identification badge read that she was legally still a man. She added through tears: 'I just felt worthless. Like I wasn't a person, or I didn't have feelings or emotions. Just no respect.' Ayres told Daily Mail she had been to Dixie Roadhouse a few times but was unaware of the private bathrooms Dixie Roadhouse placed this sign on the entryway to the popular line dancing bar The club in Cape Coral, Florida has consistently been named as one of the best nightlife destinations of the area since opening more than a decade ago Facebook commenters on Dixie Roadhouse's page appeared to overwhelmingly support the club's decision to remove Ayres from the club and agreed that transgender women should not be allowed to use the women's restroom. 'I support transgender, be you and do whatever makes you happy. But yes, truthfully I would not feel comfortable if another man was in the womens restroom, regardless if they are dressing as a female,' wrote one user. 'I have friends who are gay, lesbian and even some transgender friends. However, I totally support Dixie Roadhouse's stance on this. There are restrooms provided for transgenders, so there shouldn't have ever been a problem,' wrote another. Staunch republican Malcolm Turnbull has tearfully spoken of the dread he felt the night before the death of Queen Elizabeth II. The former Australian prime minister was overcome with emotion when discussing how he and his wife Lucy woke up to the news Her Majesty had passed. Mr Turnbull, who led Australia's republican movement from 1993 to 2000, received a framed photo of the Queen and Prince Philip from the monarch after meeting her in 2017. 'Last night as we were filled with such dread, because it was obvious that things would turn very bad,' an emotional Turnbull told ABC TV. 'I took the portrait of the Queen out and set it up and we just thought ''what an amazing life, what amazing leadership''.' Staunch republican Malcolm Turnbull has tearfully spoken of the dread he felt the night before the death of Queen Elizabeth II Malcolm Turnbull described the Queen's death as 'the end of an era' (Pictured, Turnbull meeting the Queen in 2017 at Buckingham Palace) Mr Turnbull said he and his wife went from 'dread' on Thursday night to 'grief' on Friday morning when the news travelled around the world the Queen had died at the age of 96. 'It is the end of an era and let's hope that the future after the Queen's passing is one where we will have leadership as dedicated and selfless as she has shown,' he said. The former PM smiled as he remembered the Queen joking he could put her portrait 'in a cupboard'. 'When we met the Queen ... she gave us a portrait of herself and Prince Philip, the official portrait which I'm sure they give to every prime minister and she said with a wry smile, ''here you are, you can put them in a cupboard I suppose'', which was charming and funny.' The Turnbulls are seen with the Queen and the-then Prince Charles in 2018 in London, around the time she gave the Australian couple a framed portrait and joked he could always 'put it in a cupboard' He added the Queen had a 'disarming' and 'droll' sense of humour, but was also a 'natural conservative'. He said she understood the importance of traditions and institutions and defended them. He also added that King Charles is 'a really good man' who was ahead of his time on issues such as environmentalism. 'Charles' attitude, as indeed the Queen's attitude and the attitude of her whole family, is that it (whether Australia becomes a republic) is a matter for Australians, absolutely,' he said. An 18-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender in connection with the murder of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel in Liverpool. The teenager, from the West Derby area of the city, was arrested on Thursday and is in custody where he will be questioned by detectives. Merseyside Police said he is the 10th person arrested in connection with the case, and a 29-year-old who was also arrested on Thursday is still in custody. Police carried out warrants at three properties in the West Derby area on Thursday and officers arrested the 29-year-old man on suspicion of assisting an offender. Olivia was shot in her home in Dovecot, Liverpool, on August 22 when a gunman chased convicted burglar Joseph Nee inside at about 10pm. Another man has been arrested in connection with the murder of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel Olivia was shot in her home in Dovecot, Liverpool, on August 22 when a gunman chased convicted burglar Joseph Nee inside at about 10pm The investigation into Olivia's tragic murder is ongoing and police said they still need to build up a strong evidential picture so they can bring those responsible to justice. The update comes after Olivia's mother Cheryl, who was injured in the shooting, paid tribute to her 'little shadow' in an emotional video filmed and released by Merseyside Police, where she called for those responsible for her daughter's death to 'own up'. She broke down in tears as she described how her daughter would never stop talking and said: 'That's what I miss the most, because I can't hear her talk.' The investigation into Olivia's tragic murder is ongoing and police said they still need to build up a strong evidential picture Olivia's mother Cheryl told her daughter's killer: 'You know you've done wrong, so you need to own up. Father John Francis Pratt said her 'death cannot be in vain' and they want people to feel safe Joseph Nee, 35, forced his way into Olivia's home in Liverpool in an effort to flee the gunman pursuing him after her mother opened the door to see what the noises outside were In the video appeal, Ms Korbel told her daughter's killer: 'You know you've done wrong, so you need to own up. Like I taught my kids, you do something wrong, you own up to it. 'If anyone is hiding these guns they need to speak up because they need to be off the streets. No one, no one at all should have to go through this.' Wearing a cast on her wrist after being injured during the shooting, Ms Korbel said the family had been planning days out and a trip to buy Olivia's new school uniform before she died. On Tuesday, the nine-year-old's John Francis Pratt released a heartbreaking video of the youngster enjoying the rides at a Christmas market, and said his daughter had been, 'cruelly snatched away'. As the family released a video of Olivia with her father at a Christmas market in Liverpool city centre, they said 'those responsible need to know what they have done.' A series of 96-round gun salutes were fired across the UK today to mark the death of the Queen. The Death Gun Salute was fired at 1pm in London, around the UK and at saluting stations at home and abroad. In London, The Kings Troop Royal Horse Artillery gathered to fire the Death Gun Salute in Hyde Park, while at the same time the Death Gun Salute was fired at the Tower of London by the Honourable Artillery Company (HAC). One round was fired every 10 seconds, with 96 rounds representing one round for every year of the Queens life. Gun salutes also took place in locations including Cardiff Castle, Edinburgh Castle, Hillsborough Castle, York, Portsmouth and Gibraltar. A spree of 96-round gun salute were fired across the UK today to mark the death of the Queen (pictured - Tower of London) The Death Gun Salute was fired at 1pm in London, around the UK and at saluting stations at home and abroad (pictured - Hyde Park) One round was fired every 10 seconds, with 96 rounds representing one round for every year of the Queens life (pictured - Edinburgh Castle) Mourners gathered and stood still as the sound of canons firing in nearby Hyde Park reverberated around the entrance to the Palace. Some 71 horses will made their way into Hyde Park, of which 36 pulled six First World War-era 13-pounder Field Guns. The Kings Troop Royal Horse Artillery is a British Army mounted ceremonial unit that fires royal salutes on royal anniversaries and state occasions, such as state visits and royal birthdays. The HAC dates its origins to 1537, making it the oldest regiment in the British Army. It took over the role of firing gun salutes from the Tower of London in 1924. Gun salutes are customarily fired, both on land and at sea, as a sign of respect or welcome. The MoD said the tradition of gun salutes routinely being fired throughout the country to mark significant national events dates back centuries Gun salutes also took place in locations including Cardiff Castle, Edinburgh Castle (pictured), Hillsborough Castle, York, Portsmouth and Gibraltar Some 71 horses will made their way into Hyde Park, of which 36 pulled six First World War-era 13-pounder Field Guns The Kings Troop Royal Horse Artillery is a British Army mounted ceremonial unit that fires royal salutes on royal anniversaries and state occasions, such as state visits and royal birthdays Mourners gathered across the country as the sound of canons firing in nearby Hyde Park reverberated around the entrance to the Palace Similar gun salutes were fired to mark the death of Queen Victoria in 1901 and Winston Churchill in 1965 Britian's Defence Secretary Ben Wallace (middle) attends the Death Gun Salute fired at the Tower of London alongside Admiral Sir Antony David Radakin (left), a senior Royal Navy officer Nowadays gun salutes mark special occasions on certain days of the year, many of them with royal associations. Gun salutes occur on royal anniversaries including Accession Day, the Queens birthday, Coronation Day, the Queens official birthday, the state opening of Parliament, royal births and when a visiting head of state meets the Queen in London, Windsor or Edinburgh. The MoD said the tradition of gun salutes routinely being fired throughout the country to mark significant national events dates back centuries, and there are historical records of salutes taking place as early as the 14th century when guns and ammunition began to be adopted widely. Similar gun salutes were fired to mark the death of Queen Victoria in 1901 and Winston Churchill in 1965. After posting an initial tweet hoping for the Queen's 'excruciating death,' Carnegie Mellon University professor Uju Anya reiterated her beliefs about the late monarch and said she 'supervised a government that sponsored genocide.' 'If anyone expects me to express anything but disdain for the monarch who supervised a government that sponsored the genocide that massacred and displaced half my family and the consequences of which those alive today are still trying to overcome, you can keep wishing upon a star,' she posted. But the university has so far refused to punish their professor, and said in a statement posted to Twitter Thursday evening 'We do not condone the offensive and objectionable messages posted by Uju Anya today on her social media account.' 'Free expression is core to the mission of higher education,' they said, indicating Anya would not see consequences for her tweet. 'However, the views she shared absolutely do not represent the values of the institution, nor the standards of discourse we seek to foster,' they concluded. In her first controversial tweet - now deleted by the social media platform - the Nigerian-born professor wrote: 'I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating.' Uju Anya, Associate Professor of Second Language Acquisition at Carnegie Mellon University. Anya ignited a firestorm of anger after sharing that she wished the Queen to 'die in agony' as the monarch was in her final hours on earth Nigerian-born Anya posted her first tweet on Thursday morning, as the world learned of Queen Elizabeth's ailing state She then doubled down on her inflammatory sentiment and defender herself, and said she refused to show anything but 'disdain' Carnegie Mellon University responded that Anya's views do not represent their school but also refused to allow her to face consequences so far and have not fired her 'That wretched woman and her bloodthirsty throne have f***** generations of my ancestors on both sides of the family, and she supervised a government that sponsored the genocide my parents and siblings survived. May she die in agony.' Twitter later removed the posts for violating their rules. Her appalling sentiment, shared as the Queen was in her final hours, has ignited a firestorm of anger, and cast a light on previous attempts by hundreds of people to get the outspoken academic fired from her teaching job for violent and racist words. Her Majesty died Thursday at the age of 96. She passed away surrounded by members of the Royal Family at Balmoral Castle, Scotland. Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania backed their professor Uju Anya Carnegie Mellon University has distanced itself from Anya, telling DailyMail.com that it does 'not condone the offensive and objectionable messages' Anya's vile words about the Queen were slammed by thousands online, including billionaire Bezos. Jeff Bezos said: 'This is someone supposedly working to make the world better? I don't think so. Wow.' Journalist Piers Morgan also added: 'You vile disgusting moron.' One horrified user said: 'Dont expect that of you but do expect common decency, respect for such a loss. If you cannot give that at this time, you are a disgraceful of a human being.' Another added: 'You are just so uncouth and manner-less. You speak of someone who just passed with such a vile and disdaining comment. Carnegie Mellon University has distanced itself from Anya, telling DailyMail.com that it does 'not condone the offensive and objectionable messages'. 'Free expression is core to the mission of higher education, however, the views she shared absolutely do not represent the values of the institution, nor the standards of discourse we seek to foster,' a spokesperson said. Hundreds of people slammed the crude professor for her comments about the Queen's final hours The 'anti racist' professor has faced allegations of racism in the past for the words she has used online - and in one instance, the Foundational Black American lineage created a petition to get her removed from Carnegie Mellon University. Anya, who claims to be an expert in 'diversity, equity, and inclusion,' was called out for using an ethnic slur, which means 'cotton pickers' or 'wild animals.' The petition to get her fired garnered nearly 800 signatures. It read: 'Dr. Uju Anya can not be allowed to use the platform of Carnegie Mellon University Department of Modern Languages to further promote systemic racism through her blatant use of ethnic slurs on social media when referring to Foundational Black Americans. 'This is a step backward in our fight to destroy systemic racism and discrimination for all people if institutions allow professors to become comfortable with using language as a weapon against people of color by people of color. 'Society MUST hold all people accountable equally and we call on Carnegie Mellon University to take action against this type of egregious behavior to protect the reputation and integrity of the Higher Learning Institution.' One person who signed the petition said that the professor can't be trusted with children. They added: 'I'm concerned for the children. She can't be trusted with kids. I wouldn't want racist of any color teaching my children.' Another added: 'She needs to be fired. Theres no way in hell she should be allowed to teach Black American students. Shes a danger to any Black American she comes in contact with. FIRE HER NOW!' And a third person, who signed the petition for the university to drop her, said: 'Shes a hypocrite and an ethnic bigot.' The vicious academic also found herself in hot water when he mocked the death of YouTuber Kevin Samuels in May 2022. Samuels, who had 1.42million YouTube subscribers and nearly as many Instagram followers, was best known for some of his controversial dating advice. He passed away earlier this year. But in the aftermath of his death she wrote: 'Kevin Samuels told men their worth was in their wallet. He died in a 1BR sublet with less than $1K to his name, no partner, friend, or offspring wiling to claim him, only his poor mother begging and borrowing to bury his loathsome carcass.' Jeff Bezos was one of the many voices slamming the professor for her vile tweets Her Majesty, Queen of the United Kingdom, died on September 8, 2022 'There is no way you arent a woman with so much of hate in your heart and we certainly dont need that in women who hold high positions in our society. Horrible!!' A third social media user, disgusted at the words, said: 'There's always someone looking for attention in the midst of a tragedy, which you might understand if the target was a hated public figure but these comments are disgusting, and from a verified blue tick account too. You should be ashamed of yourself.' As well as Anya and her vile words, a slew of people took to social media to attack and mock the Queen as news rolled in about her tragic death. Millions across the world are mourning the loss of Britain's longest-serving monarch. Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, an associate professor at University of Michigan's School of Education, wrote: 'Telling the colonized how they should feel about their colonizer's health and wellness is like telling my people that we ought to worship the Confederacy. '"Respect the dead" when we're all writing these Tweets *in English.* How'd that happen, hm? We just chose this language?' Responding to her tweet and alluding to their happiness at the Queen's death, Gov. Andrew Cuomo's former aide said: 'I cannot imagine what my Irish grandparents would be feeling.' Political reporter for the Washington Post, Eugene Scott, also peddled the idea that speaking about the British Empire and its ramifications was the appropriate topic of conversation while the beloved Queen was on her deathbed. He wrote: 'Real question for the now is not the appropriate time to talk about the negative impact of colonialism crowd: When is the appropriate time to talk about the negative impact of colonialism?' As did Jemele Hill, contributing writer for The Atlantic: 'Journalists are tasked with putting legacies into full context, so it is entirely appropriate to examine the queen and her role in the devastating impact of continued colonialism.' The vicious academic also found herself in hot water when he mocked the death of YouTuber Kevin Samuels in May 2022 YouTuber Kevin Samuels, 57, died in Atlanta earlier this year. But Anya came under fire after mocking his death in May 2022 At 1.30pm EST today, the Queen's death was confirmed. A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: 'The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. 'The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow'. The Queen's death will see Britain and her Commonwealth realms enter into a ten-day period of mourning as millions of her subjects in the UK and abroad come to terms with her passing. And as her son King Charles accedes to the throne, there will also be a celebration of her historic 70-year reign that saw her reach her Platinum Jubilee this year - a landmark unlikely to be reached again by a British monarch. Charles, who became King on the death of his mother, said: 'We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much-loved Mother. 'I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world.' Russian President Vladimir Putin calls the gas price cap a vain attempt to make gas prices rise. He calls the Western measure desperate enacted by those hungry for supplies and scrounging for them. Western Economies Fail due to Lack of Energy The Kremlin leader called the attempt by the Bloc to dictate the EU gas price cap a sore attempt and said it would not prosper. When confronted with the current situation, EU politicians consider how to avoid paying market prices for gas and restrict the price through administrative decisions, reported RT. Another ridiculous idea that will drive up prices in the international markets, including those in Europe, was when he spoke at a plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF). The Russian president Putin continued, "Administrative decisions, that only arise in disruptions and higher prices, cannot solve anything related to the economy and world markets." Read Also: Emmanuel Macron Facts: Interesting Info You May Not Know About The French President Furthermore, it was stated that while Russia always preferred long-term contracts for gas sales, the current scenario in the energy market is the result of punitive measures and other actions taken by Brussels, along with the switch to spot-market trading, noted the Good Word News. Putin remarked that even though they had often argued for prices to be decided by long-term contracts and connected to certain market segments, like the cost of oil and petroleum products, the Bloc wanted them to be linked to spot prices. The Bloc, due to the high prices of their making, wants to get gas cheap with a price limit. Brussels Authors Sanctions Members of the Bloc are falsely accusing Moscow of turning gas into a weapon. Putin claimed that all contracts would be fulfilled by gas shortages brought on by Ukraine, Poland, and Canada and caused by sanctions, citing CSM Times. The president continued by declaring that notwithstanding Moscow no longer considering the EU as its main export market, Moscow is still prepared to provide energy to those who require it. EU nations benefited greatly from the natural gas supplied by Russia, and for decades, the economies of the major European nations also had a distinct comparative advantage. Bloc members had been paying lower for the energy in long-term contracts till now. He added if Brussels does not want it, there is no loss because there are other markets for oil and gas in the world, like Asia. Energy Exports for the EU From the sanctions and other ploys the west has used against Moscow, Vladimir Putin has had enough. He vows that the US and its allies will not receive anything if it conflicts with Russia's national interest, mentioned The Press United. He made it clear during the EEF meeting that they would not supply gas, oil, coal, or fuel oil if this were to conflict with the conditions of the contract and interests, which in this case would be economic concerns. Those who want to enforce something on us can no longer force our conformity today. Russian President Vladimir Putin calls the EU gas price cap attempt useless because it will spawn problems, the west will not prosper, not will they get any oil or gas cheap. Related Article: Moscow Introduces Oil Shipping Solution To Stump Western Attempts to Hinder Transport of Crude @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Authorities in western Venezuela located 16 people who were reported missing after they were led into the Andes Mountains by a spiritual leader who claimed she had a revelation from the Virgin Mary that the world would be coming to an end. The group was found Thursday afternoon in a mountainous village in Tovar, Merida, 35 miles from the Tachira city of La Grita where they reside. Tachira Governor Freddy Bernal said the individuals, around five children including an infant who is less than a month old, were in good health. Bernal said a unit with the Penal and Criminal Investigation Service Corps discovered the group praying at a farm in the Tovar village of La Negra. A group photo tweeted by the governor showed authorities posing with the group, which included six children, among them an infant who is less than 30 days old. Venezuelan authorities pose for a photo Thursday after they located the 16 people who were reported missing after they were convinced by a 57-year-old spiritual leader to join her on a trip to the Andes Mountains to have an encounter with God and the Virgin Mary A woman holds her child who is less than 30 days old after authorities found her and 14 other people who abandoned their homes in the Venezuelan town of La Grita to join a spiritual leader for a retreat in the Andes Mountains Rosa Garcia, 57, persuaded as many as 40 people to abandon their homes in La Grita, a town of 90,000 residents, to join her on a spiritual retreat to Juan Pablo Penaloza National Park on August 22. Garcia told the group that they would be having an encounter with God and the Virgin Mary. However, some members of the group dropped out of the trip after they noticed a change in the pattern of the woman's behavior. She reportedly instructed them that they could no longer pray to the Holy Christ of La Grita, that they were not to make eye contact with the Virgin Mary, and that they had to discard their cellular phones. All of the 16 individuals, including a spiritual leader, were found safe at a farm in Paramo de La Negra, a mountainous village in Tovar, Merida, 35 miles from the Tachira city of La Grita where they reside La Grita Mayor Juan Escalante said the group had been staying at a home on a farm owned by a couple and were praying when the police discovered them Authorities first initiated a search in the Andes Mountain region in La Grita, Venezuela, this week after 16 people, including a spiritual advisor, were reported missing The group consisted around five children, including a baby (pictured being carried by a woman) who was less that 30 days old During a press conference Wednesday, La Grita Mayor Juan Escalante said the spiritual retreat had been in the works for several months. Escalante added that the group had been camping out at a farm visibility from a nearby dirt road was impaired because of the number of trees that surrounded it. The mayor revealed that a couple opened their home to the group and also joined them in their prayer sessions. 'The (man) approached them on one occasion and they were praying the rosary,' Escalante said. 'The husband of the owner of the house came to the site to bring them something and they also invited him to the rosary. They said to keep praying because difficult times are coming.' Escalante said the group was not a religious sect, rather a prayer group that went on a retreat and did not commit a crime. 'They disappeared and put the entire city and their families in a difficult situation.' Made the journey to Buckingham Palace in a vintage Rolls-Royce, with huge crowds cheering their arrival King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla touched down at Northolt around 1.30pm after leaving Balmoral Advertisement King Charles III was greeted by kisses and shouts of 'God Save the King' at Buckingham Palace today as he received a rapturous welcome from thousands of well-wishers during the first royal walkaround of his reign. Huge crowds cheered as the visibly emotional sovereign arrived in a vintage Rolls-Royce alongside Camilla, the Queen Consort, before he got out and began shaking hands with countless members of the public waiting behind a barrier. In moving scenes less than 24 hours after the death of his mother the Queen, shouts of God Save the King broke out before an impromptu rendition of the National Anthem, with the words changed for the new monarch. As the sun shone on an otherwise dull, damp day, the Royal Standard was raised above Buckingham Palace for the first time of his reign. Onlookers shouted three cheers for Charles as one woman leaned over to kiss him on the hand and another asked 'Can I kiss you?' before pecking him on the cheek. Others reached out holding red roses for the King as the Queen Consort followed behind at a distance before joining her husband at his side to view the floral tributes left outside the gates. The King was heard telling well-wishers, 'Thank you so much, it's so kind, it really is', 'God bless you' and 'I've really dreaded this day' during the 15-minute walkabout. One woman shouted to him, 'We love you King Charles and we loved your mum'. As a bugle sounded, Charles, dressed in mourning black suit and tie, walked side by side with Camilla - who seemed close to tears - through the main entrance of Buckingham Palace. Film director Raynald Leconte, 47, who is from New York, said he was lucky enough to speak to the King and Queen Consort. 'It was quite a moment,' he said. 'I said, 'condolences'. He said, ''really, really thank you very much''. And to his wife I wished her good luck and she said, ''thank you very much''. I think she said, ''I'll need it''.' Mother of three Stella Johnson said: 'I think he will be wonderful, and I just wanted to come here to see him. This is really a historic moment and I wanted to make sure I did not miss it.' Further back in the crowd, a former Guardsman, who asked not to be named, gave the crowd a running commentary as he was tall enough to see over the crowds and pick out Charles as he met mourners. He also talked them through the protocol of the Guards who had assembled in the Palace forecourt to salute the new King as he made his way into the Palace, where he has held his first audience with Prime Minister Liz Truss. Charles will give a televised address to the nation at 6pm while a service of prayer and reflection is taking place at St Paul's Cathedral. Huge crowds cheered the couple as they arrived at the palace before the King left his car. Several people kissed his hand as he passed Onlookers shouted three cheers for Charles as he spoke to countless onlookers who had gathered to mourn his mother Cheers rang out at Buckingham Palace as the King and Queen Consort arrived, along with shouts of 'God save the King' Many in the crowd were visibly emotional, while others held their phones aloft to try to catch at glimpse of the King It was the new King's first walkabout and encounter with the public since his historic accession and crowds lined up behind a barrier clamouring to greet him A visibly emotional Charles pauses to look at floral tributes to his mother that have been left outside the gates of Buckingham Palace Charles embraces Camilla as they look at the floral tributes before making their way through the palace's main gates The new king thanked people for their good wishes, shaking countless hands after stepping from his state Bentley Shouts of God Save the King went up, along with three cheers, for the new head of state, dressed in mourning black suit and tie, who smiled and waved at the mass of people The King waves to crowds outside Buckingham Palace, where he arrived with Camilla after they travelled from Balmoral Elizabeth II, Charles' mother and an icon instantly recognisable to billions of people around the world, died at her Scottish Highland retreat yesterday Charles - pictured with Camilla - met Prime Minister Liz Truss today before giving a speech to the nation The King must turn to his duties as monarch despite his grief, and has held his first in-person audience with Prime Minister Liz Truss at Buckingham Palace The King and Queen Consort view the flowers and messages left by members of the public outside Buckingham Palace this afternoon The Queen Consort joined the King at his side to view the hundreds of floral tributes, notes and Union flags left outside the gates The new King gives a final wave as he and his wife walk into Buckingham Palace under the watchful eye of armed policemen As a bugler sounded, the couple - both dressed in black - walked side by side through the main entrance of Buckingham Palace King Charles III and the Queen Consort drive down the Mall followed by several 4x4s before they got out at the gates of Buckingham Palace Huge crowds cheered the couple as they arrived at the palace before the King left his car and began shaking hands with members of the public Huge crowds cheered the couple as they arrived at the palace in a state Rolls-Royce, with the King visibly emotional Charles and Camilla - now King and Queen Consort - wave to members of the public as they arrive at Buckingham Palace in a Rolls-Royce Camilla had joined Charles on the poignant journey from Balmoral, where the Queen died peacefully on Thursday at the age of 96, arriving at RAF Northolt in west London at around 1.35pm Tributes continue to be paid to the woman described by the Prime Minister as the 'rock on which modern Britain was built', with the Dalai Lama expressing his 'deep sadness' over the death of the Queen in a letter to the King Details of the King's historic Accession Council, which will be held on Saturday at 10am in St James's Palace, were announced by Buckingham Palace. It will be televised for the first time in its history, showing the King being formally proclaimed monarch and Charles making his declaration and oath. A Principal Proclamation will be read in public for the first time by the Garter King of Arms in the open air from the balcony overlooking Friary Court at St James's an hour later at 11am. It will be followed by a flurry of proclamations around the country, with the second one in the City of London at the Royal Exchange at midday on Saturday, and further proclamations in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales at midday on Sunday. One of the first to offer words of support to the new King was Laura Ohmona. She said after shaking hands with Charles: 'I said to him 'sorry for your loss' and he said 'thank-you'.' Also among the crowds at Buckingham Palace was retired Ammar Al-Baldawi, 64, from Hertfordshire, who said: 'It was impressive, touching, a good move to come out to the crowds. 'I think that's where the royal family needs to communicate with the people now. These are true loyalists here and it's nice to see him back in post, taking charge of the family and the Crown, which is reassuring.' Colin Hennessy, 52, said: 'It's great to see the King. You can see he's very emotional but he was very grateful to everybody here. He thanked as many people as he could as he walked by.' Joyce Curtis, 72, from Jersey, said: 'I just wanted to be here. It was great. I have respect for him. He walked all the way along to see the people and back to see the flowers. It is what the people wanted to see, which is great.' Emma Spreckley, 43, had travelled to Buckingham Palace with her friend Jacqueline Southwick, 55, from their homes in Mitcham, south London. She was sympathetic to the grieving King: 'He looked a bit shocked, I suppose he is as it's your mum at the end of the day, and now he's here shaking people's hands and trying to, I suppose, get through it as best he can.' In reference to the thousands who were at the palace to pay their respects to the late Queen, Ms Southwick added 'Seeing all this - he's got the support of the nation.' Meanwhile, John Hardy said he was confident Charles would be a calming influence on the country when he is finally crowned King. 'It does seem that he has been around for such a long time that we've all known him. No one will ever replace the Queen and the affection she has held for everyone in this country. 'But I think Charles has a lot of respect and people will support him.' The couple had landed at RAF Northolt just after 1.30pm after leaving Balmoral, where they had stayed overnight after racing up to be at the late Queen's bedside. Charles has already turned his hand to his duties as monarch despite his grief. He gave the order that a period of 'Royal Mourning' for the Queen will be observed from now until seven days after her funeral. Royal Mourning will be observed by members of the royal family, royal household staff and representatives of the royal Household on official duties, together with troops committed to ceremonial duties. The Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge is also travelling back to Windsor to be with his family ahead of the Accession Council, which William will attend. Charles and Camilla wave to crowds outside Buckingham Palace. The bollard in the background bears his mother's cypher Charles - wearing a black mourning suit - joins his wife to inspect the flowers and Union flags laid outside the palace Charles spent about 15 minutes greeting members of the public before joining his wife as they walked through the palace gates The new King places his arm around Camilla as they walk pass photographers towards the gates of the palace In a touching moment Charles put his hand around his wife who was visibly moved after meeting the well-wishers before the began to look at the letters, cards, bouquets and candles left in memory of the Queen. A sentry stands guard by Buckingham Palace, where the Royal Standard had been hoisted for the first time in Charles' reign The King must turn to his duties as monarch despite his grief, as he prepares to hold his first audience with Prime Minister Liz Truss ahead of delivering a televised address to a nation in mourning at 6pm on Friday Today, tributes continued to be paid to the woman described by the Prime Minister as the 'rock on which modern Britain was built', with the Dalai Lama expressing his 'deep sadness' over the death of the Queen in a letter to the King. He told Charles: 'Your mother lived a meaningful life with dignity, grace, a strong sense of service and a warm heart, qualities we all should treasure.' Thousands of people have flocked the Queen's former homes of Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and Balmoral to pay their respects, leaving hundreds of bouquets, personal notes and candles in her honour. Charles has already turned his hand to his duties He gave the order that a period of 'Royal Mourning' for the Queen will be observed from now until seven days after her funeral. Royal Mourning will be observed by members of the royal family, royal household staff and representatives of the royal household on official duties, together with troops committed to ceremonial duties. Royal salutes were fired with one round for every year of the Queen's life on Friday at 1pm in Hyde Park by the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery. Thousands of people stood in solemn silence for 16 minutes as the cannons boomed once every 10 seconds, sending smoke across the grounds with each round, applauding as the spectacle came to an end. The PM and senior ministers will attend a public service of remembrance at St Paul's Cathedral in central London this evening. King Charles III and Camilla, the Queen Consort, arrive at RAF Northolt in London this afternoon Charles is welcomed by Station Commander Group Captain McPhaden after he and Camilla touched down at the RAF airbase The couple left the airport in a vintage Rolls-Royce for the journey to Buckingham Palace where thousands of people had gathered to greet them An emotional King Charles III leaving Balmoral on his way to Aberdeen Airport on the first leg of his journey to London Queen Consort Camilla also appeared to have teary eyes as she sat in the front seat en route to Aberdeen Airport King Charles III arrives at Aberdeen Airport after leaving Balmoral, following the death of his mother last night The monarch shook hands at the airport before boarding a flight to London, where he will address the nation this evening King Charles III at Aberdeen Airport as he travels to London with the Queen Consort following the death of his mother A vehicle carrying Britain's King Charles leaves Balmoral Castle, following the passing of Britain's Queen Elizabeth King Charles III and the Queen Consort leave Birkhall in Scotland as they travel to London following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday The King (pictured looking emotional on his way out of Balmoral this morning) has also instructed a period of royal mourning from now until seven days after his mother's funeral - a date yet to be confirmed King Charles III and the Queen arrive at Aberdeen Airport as they travel to London following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday Members of the royal family had made the urgent dash to be with the frail monarch as her health failed yesterday. Prince William - now using the title of the Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge - left Balmoral just before 1pm and is travelling back to Windsor to be with his family ahead of the Accession Council, Kensington Palace said. Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, still remain at the estate. 'During this period of mourning and change, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which The Queen was so widely held.' Charles was by his mother's side for much of the day after catching the royal helicopter from Dumfries House in Ayrshire with his wife Camilla. Handout issued by Buckingham Palace of the notice for the Accession Council and Principal Proclamation of King Charles III Charles has released a statement about the death of Queen Elizabeth, describing her as a 'cherished Sovereign and a much-loved Mother' Charles III becomes first King Charles since 1600s Charles III is the first King Charles since the 1600s and shares the official name with monarchs who reigned during one of the most turbulent periods in British history. The new monarch chose to use his Christian name as his official name, as his mother did, breaking from royal tradition. The reigns of father and son Charles I and Charles II spanned from 1625 to 1685 and saw the overthrow and restoration of the monarchy, the Great Fire of London, and the plague. Charles I was the only British monarch to have been publicly tried and executed for treason, while Charles II - known as the Merry Monarch - spent many years in exile, fathering a dozen illegitimate children by numerous mistresses. Charles II's reign also featured the plague and the Great Fire of London. Although Charles is Charles III, Bonnie Prince Charlie - The Young Pretender - was known to his supporters as Charles III. Charles I was an unpopular king whose reign saw the temporary downfall of the monarchy and the establishment of an English republic before it was restored 11 years later. Born in November 1660, Charles I moved to England from Scotland when his father, King James VI of Scotland, inherited the English throne in 1603. He became heir apparent when his brother, Henry Frederick Prince of Wales, died at the age of 18 in 1612. Charles I married Bourbon Princess Henrietta Maria of France in 1625 angered protestant religious groups. He also argued with parliament, which wanted to curb his powers, while many subjects opposed his policies which included levying taxes without parliamentary consent. Attempts to force the church of Scotland to adopt Anglican practices also led to religious conflicts, which in turn resulted in the strengthening of English and Scottish parliaments, helping to pave the way for his eventual downfall. Charles I fought the armies of the English and Scottish parliaments but was defeated in 1645 and captured. After a brief period of escape, he was re-captured and executed in Whitehall in 1649 after being tried and convicted of high treason. His son, Charles II was proclaimed King of Scotland upon the execution and attempted to reclaim England but was defeated by Oliver Cromwell at the Battle of Worcester in 1651 before fleeing to mainland Europe where he spent nine years in exile. Following Oliver Cromwell's death in 1658 and the resignation of his son, Richard, the following year, parliament proclaimed Charles II king and invited him to the return to England in 1660. Five years later, Charles II fled London for Salisbury as the plague hit London, killing thousands. The following year, in 1666, Charles II and his brother James joined and directed the firefighting effort during the Great Fire of London. Charles had no legitimate children, but had 12 children by seven mistresses, leading to the nickname 'Old Rowley', the name of his favourite racehorse stallion. The present Dukes of Buccleuch, Richmond, Grafton and St Albans descend from Charles, while Diana, Princess of Wales, was a descendent of two of Charles's illegitimate sons - the Dukes of Grafton and Richmond. Diana's son, Prince William, Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge and heir to the British throne, could be the first British monarch descended from Charles II. Advertisement His younger sister Princess Anne was already at Balmoral after royal duties also took her to Scotland. They were joined by other senior members of the Royal Family including Her Majesty's other two children, Andrew and Edward, and Prince William. The family rushed to the Queen's Scottish residence after an unprecedented statement from her doctors revealed they were 'concerned' about her health and were keeping her under medical supervision. Charles is becoming monarch at 73 years old, nearly half a century older than the Queen was when she found herself in the same position. He is likely to launch a radical overhaul of the monarchy in the wake of his mother's death, having frequently spoken about a slimmed-down front-line. Royal watchers believe the former Prince of Wales is keen to ensure there are 'no hangers-on' in the Firm, with each member being expected to pull their weight in a new and more streamlined monarchy. The concept of the 'slimmed-down monarch' was clear to see during the Platinum Jubilee in June when the Queen restricted those appearing on the Buckingham Palace balcony to working members of the Royal Family. But King Charles' original model, which reportedly involved a tight core of just seven people, including himself, has been thrown into doubt following a series of external events. The plan, put in motion before the Queen's death, originally included the long-reigning monarch along with Prince Philip, King Charles and Camilla, Prince William and Kate and Prince Harry. Philip died aged 99 in 2021, while Harry's future in the slimmed-down monarchy seems hugely doubtful following his decision to quit front line royal duties and move to America with his wife Meghan Markle. Meanwhile, Prince Andrew, who would likely have featured in a slimmed-down monarchy as a son of the Queen and King Charles' brother, has been outcast since his US sex assault lawsuit with Virginia Giuffre. But that has pushed Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, and Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, Countess of Wessex, into the fray as 'key' parts of Prince Charles' future monarchy, according to royal watchers. As Charles becomes King, Prince William is to become the new Prince of Wales, with his wife Kate Middleton taking on the new title of the Princess of Wales. As the new King, Charles will be front-and-centre of the new-look monarchy. Alongside his reported desire to slim-down the size of the family, the biggest immediate change will be his residence. The former Prince of Wales's official residence has been Clarence House, on The Mall in the City of Westminster, since 2003. While the Queen's official residence has been Buckingham Palace, she spent much of her time at her favoured Windsor Castle following the death of her beloved Prince Philip. According to royal biographer Penny Junor in her book 'The Firm', the Queen wanted to remain living at Clarence House after her father's death, but was convinced by Winston Churchill to move to Buckingham Palace - because of its significance as the home of the monarch. It is believed Kings Charles will follow in his mother's footsteps and move into Buckingham Palace. One royal source told the Mail on Sunday in February 2022: 'There is no question about it. HRH's view is that you need a monarch at monarchy HQ. This has never been in doubt. 'The Prince of Wales will not move into Buckingham Palace before he is king. But when he is, he absolutely will. 'Just like the Queen, it will effectively be in the 'flat above the shop'. He feels it is right, just as the Queen does, to work out of Buckingham Palace. 'The Palace will still be a working and entertaining hub and will also still be open to visitors. It is a hugely important tourist attraction. The average age of senators at the start of the current Congress was 64.3 years By this standard, President Joe Biden, 79, and Donald Trump, 76, are over the hill Nearly three quarters of Americans say they want a maximum age limit for elected officials, with roughly equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats agreeing to nudge elderly politicians into retirement, a new poll shows. Overall, 73 percent of more than 2,000 adults surveyed by YouGov called for age limits. Among them, the most popular age to pension off officials was 70, favored by 40 percent of respondents. The survey comes at a particularly elderly period in U.S. political life, led by such Democrats as 79-year-old President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 82, and the top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell, 80. Even former president Donald Trump, who is positioned to run for the White House again in 2024, would be considered over the hill in the minds of many voters even at the comparatively tender age of 76. The trend persists lower down the ticket. The average age of senators at the start of the current Congress last year was 64.3 years the oldest such assembly in history. Voters appear ever less keen on an elderly political class that includes President Joe Biden, 79, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 82, and former president Donald Trump, 76. The most senior senator, California Democrat Dianne Feinstein, is 89, and was born at the end of the prohibition era in 1933. Respondents to the poll appeared to seek more diversity in their elected officials. Only 12 percent wanted more elderly politicians, while nearly half sought younger people and more women on voting day. The worry, for many, is that aging leaders are increasingly out of step with everyday Americans, especially as technology revolutionizes how people live, work, shop and socialize. Others fear that elderly politicians struggle with increasingly demanding jobs and a round-the-clock news cycle epitomized by the internet meme of gaffe-prone President Bidens senior moments. Biden has experienced a decline in energy levels, with some aides alleging he 'often shuffles' while walking, prompting fears 'he will trip on a wire.' He also often stumbles over his words during public speaking events. Trump faced similar questions about his age and health during his single-term in office, and will likely face a further onslaught of rumor and innuendo if he chooses to run for office again in 2024. David Axelrod, an Obama-era Democratic strategist, has queried the wisdom of having Biden already the countrys oldest president run and serve for a second term at the helm of a global superpower. The presidency is a monstrously taxing job and the stark reality is the president would be closer to 90 than 80 at the end of a second term, and that would be a major issue, Axelrod told the New York Times in June. The U.S. Constitution sets minimum age limits for high office presidents must be aged 35 or over, senators must be 30 and House representatives 25 or above. The nations founding document sets no upper age limit. The U.S. is not alone in having elderly leaders. Pope Francis is 85 and King Charles III, as he is now known, is 73. His mother, Queen Elizabeth II, served majestically for seven decades until her death on Thursday at the age of 96. Florida has come top and New York and Washington, D.C., at the bottom of a new scorecard for educational freedom, which penalizes states with 'woke' teachers' unions and that tolerate lessons on critical race theory. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, on Friday released its first-ever Education Freedom Report Card, which says it evaluates states on value for money, parental input and transparency in their school systems. The study's authors called for getting critical race theory (CRT), an austere anti-racism philosophy, out of classrooms, and of parents across the U.S. being able to stand up to woke teachers unions. The release comes amid debates over teaching racism and gender identity that have exploded into angry face-offs involving parents and teachers at school board meetings across the nation. The report lauds Floridas Republican Governor, Ron DeSantis, a potential White House candidate for 2024 who has made national headlines with his efforts to restrict race-based conversation and analysis in schools and businesses. Floridas Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has led the charge in turning culture war rows over racism, sexuality and school Covid-19 mask mandates into national issues. The foundations president Kevin Roberts praised Florida as one of the freest states for teachers and children to pursue an education that is largely devoid of red tape while also holding schools accountable to parents. Florida topped the ranking for offering quality schools without over-spending, for letting parents decide between private, charter, and district schools and for rejecting pernicious ideas like CRT, researchers said. Arizona came second, scoring well for recently expanding its school-choice program, while Idaho took third place for offering taxpayers value for money and high levels of transparency to parents. At the other end of the spectrum, New Jersey, New York, and Washington D.C., took the lowest-scoring spots, for doing little to provide transparency, accountability, and choice to families. New York made it too hard for parents to opt for charter schools, researchers said, and state lawmakers had declined to reject the prejudice of CRT, which is seldom taught in the states schools. Washington D.C., schools were too expensive, lavishing $26,981 on each pupil annually, said the study, while anti-CRT rules had stalled there and parents lacked control over school curriculums. Jessica Anderson, executive director of Heritage Action for America, a grassroots conservative movement, called the study a clarion call for letting parents choose where their children learn. Opponents of critical race theory rallying outside a school board headquarters, in Ashburn, Virginia, last year. As record numbers of parents flip school boards and stand up to woke teachers unions, it is clear the parental rights and school choice movement is not slowing down, Anderson said in a statement. DeSantis was expected to speak later on Friday about the think tanks study in Florida. He has led the charge in turning culture war tussles over racism, sexuality and school Covid-19 mask mandates into national issues. More recently, he has inserted himself into school board races as he seeks to expand his sphere of influence and enliven conservatives while running for reelection and considering a 2024 presidential bid. School board races are nonpartisan, but the governors involvement helped flip at least three Florida school boards from a liberal to a conservative majority. Of the 30 candidates DeSantis endorsed in votes last month, 19 won, five lost and six led to runoffs. Earlier this year, DeSantis championed a law banning classes on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, which was dubbed by critics the Dont Say Gay bill. The Stop WOKE Act, which prohibits teaching or business practices that contend members of one ethnic group are inherently racist and restricts notions of racial privilege and oppression, was rejected by the courts as an unconstitutional violation of free speech. DeSantis last month unveiled plans to relax rules to encourage retired law enforcement and first responders to fill vacant teacher positions as the state grappled with a shortage of educators. Healthcare activist Ebonni Chrispin protests in Tallahassee, Florida, against the so-called Don't Say Gay bill championed by the state's Republican Governor Ron DeSantis The Empire State building last night glittered in purple and silver - the colors adorning Her Majesty's crown In Congress, Mitch McConnell led lawmakers from both political parties in prayer after her ailing health was announced yesterday President Biden yesterday ordered that flags should be flown at half-staff at all US embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations Elizabeth II ruled for 70 years on the British throne, after celebrating her Platinum Jubilee this summer Advertisement America's front pages mourned Queen Elizabeth II's death today as newspapers across the country paid tribute to the beloved British monarch - who ruled over the United Kingdom for 70 glorious years. From coast to coast, newspapers in the US dedicated their front pages to pictures and poignant words about the late Queen as the world woke up today to grieve the end of the second Elizabethan Era. The United Kingdom has entered a 10-day mourning period, while King Charles III entered Buckingham Palace in London for the first time as monarch to begin the role he was born to fulfil. Despite being an ocean away, Americans also paid their respects to the 96-year-old Queen - who met nearly every president in the last seven decades and saw her country through some of the most notable world events of the last century. In a sensational move, President Biden yesterday ordered that flags should be flown at half-staff at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations. Last night, the Empire State building glittered in purple and silver - the colors adorning Her Majesty's regal crown. Billboards in New York City's Times Square paid tribute to Britain's adored figurehead. Tributes poured in for Her Majesty in all 50 states. In Congress, Mitch McConnell led lawmakers from both political parties in prayer after her ailing health was announced yesterday. Thursday's U.S. Open match and the New York Yankees game were halted for a moment of silence following her death. THE NEW YORK TIMES: The UK is entering a period of mourning and transition, the NYT says. After 70 years on the throne, the monarch died on September 8, 2022. Her reign 'linked generations' as most people in the UK have never lived without seeing another person rule THE VILLAGES DAILY SUN: 'During her 70-year reign, the longest in British history, Queen Elizabeth II loved her job, her country, and her people. They adored her in return' USA TODAY: Using a photo of the Queen from 1954, the newspaper has remembered her as the UK's oldest and longest-serving monarch. She died at her home in Balmoral, Scotland, on September 8, 2022 THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE: 'Britain's symbol of stability' THE WASHINGTON POST: The newspaper leads on the headline 'A pillar of duty and devotion,' a poignant phrase that millions across the world would describe the late Queen Elizabeth II as. She ruled as monarch for a glorious 70 years Headlines heralded the Queen as 'Britain's symbol of stability' and a 'pillar of duty and devotion.' The Queen's deteriorating health was first announced by Buckingham Palace yesterday, sparking a rush of senior royals to Scotland. Her death was declared in the evening, sparking an outpouring of grief across the globe. President Biden, who first met the Queen in 1982, yesterday praised the 96-year-old monarch for guiding 14 American presidents through turbulent times. He added: 'She defined an era. In a world of constant change, she was a steadying presence and a source of comfort and pride for generations of Britons, including many who have never known their country without her. 'An enduring admiration for Queen Elizabeth II united people across the Commonwealth. The seven decades of her history-making reign bore witness to an age of unprecedented human advancement and the forward march of human dignity. 'She was the first British monarch to whom people all around the world could feel a personal and immediate connection. And she, in turn, dedicated her whole life to their service.' DAILY NEWS: The US newspaper paid tribute to the Queen, who reigned for 70 years after her father passed away, while she was still just a young woman LOS ANGELES TIMES: 'Stately, steadfast monarch' is how the LA Times have paid their respects to the late monarch of the United Kingdom NEW YORK POST: Using a photo of the Queen in her early years, the NYC paper paid tribute to the beloved monarch, who was loved by millions of people across the world CHICAGO TRIBUNE: Chicago's newspaper paid tributes to the late monarch, who was loved across the world Mr Biden also thanked her for her support during the country's 'darkest days after 9/11'. 'She poignantly reminded us that 'Grief is the price we pay for love',' he said, quoting one of the Queen's most famous sentiments. Mr Biden was one of many world leaders who praised the Queen and her 70-year reign. Leaders of the Commonwealth remembered a Queen who was 'loved by all'. Yesterday, the president ripped up his schedule after the death of the 96-year-old British head of state. He canceled a speech on COVID-19 vaccines and ordered flags to half staff. Ahead of a political event in Maryland, he detoured to the British Embassy. TAMPA BAY TIMES: Florida's newspaper uses an image of the Queen in green, waving at crowds, as they mourn the death of the monarch HOUSTON CHRONICLE: The newspaper recognizes the monarch's 'life of service' following her death at the age of 96 THE OREGONIAN: The newspaper uses a photo of a young Queen, on her way to the first State Opening of Parliament under her reign in 1952 CHICAGO SUN TIMES: The Chicago paper opted to mourn the Queen with a gorgeous black and white image of her in 1959, when she visited the city STAR TRIBUNE: 'Minnesotans join the world in mourning and celebrating the monarch' Dr. Biden wore black and carried a bouquet of flowers as they arrived to be greeted by Dame Karen Pierce, the British ambassador. The condolence book was sat between a photo of the Queen and a vase of flowers. Biden took out some notes as he sat down to write his entry. 'The American people mourn today with people in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth,' wrote Biden. 'She led with enduring strength and dignity.' Former President Donald Trump, who met her twice during his time in office, said: 'Our thoughts and prayers will remain with the great people of the United Kingdom as you honor her most meaningful life and exceptional service to the people. 'May God bless the Queen, may she reign forever in our hearts.' Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer described The Queen as a 'rock' while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Her Majesty would be inspiration to young girls for 'generations to come.' Additionally, on Tuesday, 'the House will pass a bereavement resolution in honor of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Consistent with precedent, the House will then adjourn for the day in her honor,' Pelosi's spokesman Drew Hammill said. 'On behalf of the United States Congress, I extend our deepest and most sincere condolences to the Royal Family during this sad time,' Pelosi said in a statement. 'Under historys brightest spotlight, Queen Elizabeth offered a masterclass in grace and strength, power and poise. Her extraordinary life and leadership will continue to inspire young women and girls in public service, now and for generations to come,' she noted. Dozens of lawmakers took to Twitter after The Queen's death was announced. Republicans and Democrats alike offered praise to the Queen, mentioning her 70 years on the throne, her leadership and her devotion to her country. They offered thoughts and prayers for her family. Extinction Rebellion has cancelled a protest this evening as a direct result of MailOnline's revelation that the eco warriors were insisting on demonstrating against British politics and the handling of climate change despite the Queen's death on Thursday. MailOnline also revealed eco activists from Extinction Rebellion even suggested people 'glue and chain yourselves' to the route of the Queen's funeral in London. Other climate warriors slammed King Charles III, calling him 'bad news' for the country. Although Extinction Rebellion (XR) dialled down the planned protests, organisers within the decentralised organisation said a 'lighter touch' version would go ahead tonight. Her Majesty The Queen died aged 96 at Balmoral yesterday and the nation has begun a period of mourning for the adored monarch. Extinction Rebellion told its followers it will protest on Friday evening against British politics and the handling of climate change in the UK. Messages seen by MailOnline show people urging for the protest to go ahead in a Telegram messaging of more than 1,000 people Even though the Queen died on Thursday, protesters wanted to continue their activism and one even claimed Her Majesty would support that. However, before the protest could take place XR said it would cancel their demonstration as a direct result of MailOnline's coverage Another slammed King Charles III and the new Prime Minister Liz Truss, saying both were 'bad news' Although some people backed out of the protest others encouraged their fellow eco warriors to 'do your worst' when they descend on the capital tonight It came as thousands of mourners surrounded Buckingham Palace today as King Charles III and his Queen Consort Camilla were given a rapturous welcome King Charles III and his Queen Consort Camilla were given a rapturous welcome by thousands of well-wishers gathered outside Buckingham Palace today as he greeted his subjects for the first time as monarch. Huge crowds cheered the couple as they arrived at the palace before a visibly emotional King left his state Bentley and began shaking hands with countless members of the public standing behind a barrier amid shouts of 'God Save the King'. This evening, XR organisers told a group of more than 1,000 activists it had called off the demonstration because of MailOnline's reporting. The group said: 'We know that going ahead will only fuel and encourage [the reporter].' 'Let's see this as an opportunity to reassess and reimagine, there is massive change ahead. 'We will come back in force and let the science speak for itself.' Previously, the group of environmental activists said they were planning a 'disruptive' protest in the capital tonight. Climate activists were furious that XR called off bigger protests. Eco warrior Rob Knot even called on people to 'glue and chain' themselves to the Queen's funeral route Extinction Rebellion had planned a larger protest starting today involving plastering their own adverts across London and starting a 'rage of resistance'. Instead, groups of activists wanted to carry out a 'lighter bus stop version' this evening that included people putting their own posters on top of traditional advertising boards, many of which are now showing tributes to the great monarch. Eco activists have previously brought the country to a standstill with tactics including glueing themselves to trains, marching through the streets and blocking cars and even ambulances on British motorways. The controversial eco group wanted to occupy Hyde Park for three days and nights before packing up and going 'out with a bang'. Messages seen by MailOnline include activists doubling down on protests and even claiming the Queen would have wanted them to carry on. The eco group had initially wanted a mass protest that included replacing adverts on the tube and at bus stops. Now the group only plans to put up their own posters at bus stops as activists congregate in London There was supposed to be a 'Festival of Resistance' this weekend with eco warriors 'occupying' Hyde Park for three days and nights. The group said it wanted to 'go out with a bang' Eco warriors on Extinction Rebellion's various Telegram chats urged activists to 'do your worst' in London tonight. Although some XR channels advised people not to come to the capital, a group of more than 1,000 activists called Paint The Streets announced protests across London tonight. Organisers said they would be using 'traditional counter-culture subverting designs' and added 'see you tonight rebels'. Previous Extinction Rebellion protests have been marred with violence as eco warriors battle with police Onlookers shouted three cheers for Charles as he spoke to countless onlookers who had gathered to mourn his mother Huge crowds cheered the couple as they arrived at the palace before the King left his car. Several people kissed his hand as he passed One eco activist said: 'Didn't know HM the Queen personally but I'm fairly sure she was an advocate of free speech.' He added: 'I'm going to wear a black armband all weekend out of respect but still attend the whole event. 'I don't see a conflict of interest.' Another user added: '[Liz] Truss is bad news and Charles too.' After XR's announcement the protest would be scaled back, although some agreed it would lead to a backlash against the group, other furious eco activists issued a rallying cry. Twitter user Rob Knot said: 'Make a statement and glue and chain yourselves to the route of the funeral.' Activist Chrissy Brand said it was an 'appalling decisions'. Fellow eco warrior Matthew O'Hara said: 'Where is the compassion to the hundreds that die every day from poverty, or the victims of colonialism who suffered while the natural wealth of their countries were looted, just to end up in her palaces and jewellery.' The new King gives a final wave as he and his wife walk into Buckingham Palace under the watchful eye of armed policemen Huge crowds cheered the couple as they arrived at the palace before the King left his car and began shaking hands with members of the public The King and Queen Consort view the flowers and messages left by members of the public outside Buckingham Palace this afternoon Charles embraces Camilla as they look at the floral tributes before making their way through the palace's main gates A visibly emotional Charles pauses to look at floral tributes to his mother that have been left outside the gates of Buckingham Palace Many people held their phones aloft to try to catch a glimpse of them as they greeted members of the crowd and look at the tributes left for the Queen Consort as the sun shone Earlier today, in moving scenes less than 24 hours after the death of the Queen - Charles' mother - an impromptu rendition of the National Anthem broke out as the Royal Standard was raised above Buckingham Palace for the first time of his reign. Onlookers shouted three cheers for Charles as one woman leaned over to kiss him on the hand and another kissed him on the cheek. Others held up their phones to try and get a glimpse of him as he passed, as the Queen Consort followed behind at a distance before joining the King at his side to view the floral tributes left outside the gates. Regarding the group's larger protest, XR said: 'For now, the bus tour is going ahead as planned until the teams involved meet to decide the best approach. 'There will be a space to come together on Saturday at Mile End Park for the afternoon for those in London or planning to travel to London in the next few days. 'Due to the passing of Queen Elizabeth, the Rebellion Planning team, and other groups involved, have made the difficult decision to postpone the Festival of Resistance this weekend in London until further notice. 'It was felt that the risks to our mobilisation efforts outweigh the desire to continue, and occupying a Royal Park at this time would not be practical. 'The decision has not been made lightly and in full appreciation that it will impact so many who have put much time, heart and commitment into making this festival the beautiful reality it was gearing up to be. 'This message comes with immense gratitude and respect for everyone involved and every single person who was about to attend Rebellion for the first time. Extinction Rebellion refused to comment when approached by MailOnline about the planned protest this evening and have not yet replied about the later cancellation. Tropical Storm Kay can bring a year's worth of rainfall to aid Southern California's relentless drought while Hurricane Earl is expected to deliver strong rip currents to the East Coast. Hurricane Kay is making its way north of the coast of Baja California as the category one storm is expected to bring heavy rainfall and flooding as it moves into Southern California. The weather forecasted in Southern counties, including San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Los Angeles will be a break from the week long scorching heatwave as the heaviest amount of rainfall is predicted on Friday and Saturday. For the next 36 hours Southern California cities up to Los Angeles and stretching Inland and into Arizona, will be the most vulnerable to flooding. The east San Diego and Palm Springs area will see the highest amount of rain, according to The Weather Channel. With temperatures dropping in some areas from 100F to about 80F, the weekend forecast may also benefit firefighters battling ongoing blazes in Los Angeles, Riverside and San Diego counties - but the predicted winds can also worsen the conditions. Thunderstorms and gusty winds are also anticipated as Kay is moving with winds of 60mph up Mexico's coast. Meanwhile, on the East Coast locals can expect strong winds and rip tides as Hurricane Earl churns off Bermuda. Hurricane Kay may bring the a year's worth of rainfall to Southern California as the state suffers from a lingering drought Heavy rainfall is expected in Southern California as the storm moves north from Mexico's Baja California. The rain will reach Los Angeles county and inward towards Palm Springs Most of Southern California will be on flood watch as the rain begins to pour in on Friday leading into the weekend East San Diego leading inland to Palm Springs will be the most vulnerable to flooding Counties will also be on wind alert as the storm continues north While the winds will be the strongest in Mexico, its expected to slowly project into California California residents can expect winds as soon as Friday morning The weather will be a shift from the week long heat wave California has endured Earl continues to be a threat as it approaches Category 3 status with no prediction of slowing down on Friday as its effects react the East Coast - but conditions are expected to improve by Saturday. Dwellers on the East Coast can expect 'rip currents' and 'life threatening surf' throughout the next few days as winds churn up, according to The Weather Channel. Sustained winds in Bermuda are around 100mph with 'higher gust,' according to the National Hurricane Center. Winds are expected to strengthen leading into Friday night and weaken leading into Monday. Despite the distance of the storm, weather experts warn about the impacts reaching the US. 'Hurricane Earl is just such a hurricane,' the weather service said. 'The greatest coastal impacts will be in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast into this weekend.' Powerful currents are expected in the Carolina's through Sunday as the tropical storm moves northeast. Rainfall is also predicted along the coast with the potential threat of flooding in New York, Atlantic City, Norfolk, and Charleston. Conditions are expected to improve by Sunday. On the East Coast, Hurricane Earl is expected to make an impact as concerns of the storm reaching a category three hurricane persists Coastal flooding is a threat from New York to Charleston as the storm continues to grow stronger Residents on the East Coast should brace for heavy rainfall and dangerous rip current Conditions are expected to die down by Monday Hurricane Kay has killed three people, including a child, in the southwestern state of Guerrero, Mexico. Two of the victims were in a car that was swept by flooding waters after the driver tried to cross over a creek. A child was found dead inside a home after he was struck by a collapsing fence. Several homes have also been damaged. Mexican airlines have VivaAerobus, Volaris and Aeromexico have also been prompted to cancel domestic flights to popular tourist destination Los Cabos. A hurricane warning was issued for a sparsely populated stretch of the peninsula around Bahia Asuncion and the state government of Baja California Sur announced it was opening shelters for people who need to evacuate. It said some creeks were already rising and closed some roads. While the rains might be a miracle as it makes its way to Southern California, the area has not been impacted by a massive storm since Hurricane Nora was downgraded to a tropical storm in 1997. Heavy rains knocked out electricity in Los Angeles and flooded San Diego. Strong waves slammed the shore of Los Cabos, Mexico on Wednesday, a day before Hurricane Kay moved up the country's Pacific Coast and lost strength despite packing maximum sustained winds of 87 miles per hour King Charles III graciously accepted kisses by overwhelmed fans who lined Buckingham Palace to get a glimpse of him and pay their respects to the late Queen. The new King received a warm reception as he took the time to speak with the public on Friday afternoon while slowly making his way to the front gates of the palace. Do you know the woman who kissed King Charles' hand? Email us at: brittany.chain@mailonline.com Advertisement He stepped out of his Bentley and moved through the crowd of thousands, stopping to shake hands and speak with people who had spent all morning awaiting his arrival. Janny Assiminios was so overcome by emotion that she reached out and grabbed the King's face before pulling him in for a kiss on the cheek. While the act could be considered a breach of royal protocol, Charles was gracious in the moment and appeared to thank her. Moments later, a second woman kissed his outstretched hand as he passed by. Ms Assiminios later told CNN she asked the King permission before planting a kiss on his cheek. 'To see him in front of me, I couldn't believe it,' she said with a grin after the kiss. 'I said to him, ''may I kiss you?'' and he said ''well yes'', so I grabbed him... I'm very happy, very, very much, that I got to see him and kiss him.' The King became more emotional as the crowd cheered 'God Save The King'. One woman kissed King Charles' outstretched hand as he made his way through the crowds Janny Assiminios was so overcome by emotion that she reached out and grabbed his face before pulling him in for a kiss on the cheek Ms Assiminios later clarified she asked the King permission before planting a kiss on his cheek Ms Assiminios was excited to meet the King and to have such a close interaction with him King Charles III and the Queen view tributes left outside Buckingham Palace Thousands of well wishers and mourners gathered outside Buckingham Palace to pay their respects to the late Queen and catch a glimpse of the new King In emotional scenes, an impromptu rendition of the National Anthem broke out as the Royal Standard was raised above Buckingham Palace for the first time of his reign. He made an effort to address as many people in the crowd as possible, and accepted a single rose from one of the many well wishers who brought flowers along for the occasion. In total, he spent 12 minutes with the public outside palace gates. Film director Raynald Leconte, 47, who is from New York, said he was lucky enough to speak to the King and Queen Consort outside Buckingham Palace. 'It was quite a moment,' he said. 'I said, ''condolences''. He said, ''really, really thank you very much''. And to his wife I wished her good luck and she said, ''thank you very much''. I think she said, ''I'll need it''.' Charles was well received by well wishers who lined the streets to meet with him King Charles III views floral tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II Among the crowds, retired Ammar Al-Baldawi, 64, from Hertfordshire, said: 'It was impressive, touching, a good move to come out to the crowds. 'I think that's where the royal family needs to communicate with the people now. These are true loyalists here and it's nice to see him back in post, taking charge of the family and the Crown, which is reassuring.' Queen Consort Camilla arrived at Buckingham Palace with Charles but maintained a distance as he greeted the public and accepted their well wishes. She returned to his side to appreciate the bouquets of flowers and handwritten notes left at the palace gates. Police had moved the crowds back from the main entrance of Buckingham Palace at about 1.30pm in anticipation of the King's visit, with officers creating a 30ft pathway between the crowds and the bouquets of flowers. Charles and his wife Camilla landed at RAF Northolt just after 1.30pm after leaving Balmoral, where they had stayed overnight after racing up to be at the late Queen's bedside. The King will meet Prime Minister Liz Truss this afternoon, before making a televised speech to the nation at 6pm. King Charles received a warm reception from the public on arrival at Buckingham Palace on Friday King Charles III is greeted by well-wishers during a walkabout at Buckingham Palace Queen Consort Camilla arrived at Buckingham Palace with Charles but maintained a distance as he greeted the public and accepted their well wishes Members of the royal family had made the urgent dash to be with the frail monarch as her health failed yesterday. The Firm made an announcement of her 'peaceful' death at 6.30pm at Balmoral, which is considered one of her favourite residences. She and her late husband, Prince Philip, often spent the summer there. Prince William - now using the title of the Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge - left Balmoral just before 1pm and is travelling back to Windsor to be with his family ahead of the Accession Council, Kensington Palace said. Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, still remain at the estate. 'During this period of mourning and change, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which The Queen was so widely held,' Charles said in a statement on Thursday night. Charles was by his mother's side for much of the day after catching the royal helicopter from Dumfries House in Ayrshire with his wife Camilla. Charles took a moment of solitude to examine the floral tributes left for his beloved mother at Buckingham Palace The new King and Queen Consort headed for Buckingham Palace after leaving Balmoral His younger sister Princess Anne was already at Balmoral after royal duties also took her to Scotland. They were joined by other senior members of the Royal Family including Her Majesty's other two children, Andrew and Edward, and Prince William. The family rushed to the Queen's Scottish residence after an unprecedented statement from her doctors revealed they were 'concerned' about her health and were keeping her under medical supervision. Charles is becoming monarch at 73 years old, nearly half a decade older than the Queen was when she found herself in the same position. He is likely to launch a radical overhaul of the monarchy in the wake of his mother's death, having frequently spoken about a slimmed-down front-line. Do you know the woman who kissed King Charles' hand? Email brittany.chain@mailonline.com King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla embrace one another while looking at the floral tributes Thousands turned out to greet the new King and he made an effort to shake as many hands as possible King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla arrived at Buckingham Palace in a Bentley on Friday afternoon Democrats are trying to woo Republicans on the same-sex marriage bill by hinting at religious provisions. The lawmakers are reportedly trying to steer GOP senators towards the legislation by making it 'crystal clear it doesn't infringe' on people's liberty. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Me., and Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., write in a joint newspaper piece this week assuring their colleagues it would not attack religious rights. Democrats must secure 10 Republican votes to break a filibuster on the Respect for Marriage Act. Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson's reversal from a 'yes' to a 'no' this week puts them one behind and nowhere near 10 guaranteed yes votes. Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has promised to hold a vote on the bill 'in the coming weeks.' The bill had wide bipartisan support in the House, where it didn't need the vote of a single Republican to pass, but won 47 anyways - including two members of GOP leadership. Some Republicans are hesitant to vote for the bill due to concerns it would infringe on religious freedom; others, like Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, just think the bill is a 'stupid waste of time.' Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, have been pushing Republicans to get on board with the Respect for Marriage Act Same sex marriage is already legal in all 50 states after a 2013 Supreme Court ruling - Obergefell v. Hodges - overturned the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. Sens. Collins, R-Me., and Baldwin, D-Wisc., wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post this week assuring their colleagues the bill would not step on religious freedoms and promising an amendment that would guarantee that. 'Religious liberty is a founding tenet of our republic, and the Respect for Marriage Act honors that principle,' the bipartisan pair wrote. 'We recognize that some might need more clarity on this point, and that is why we have worked together with our Senate colleagues to develop clarifying language to the legislation that makes it clear what the Respect for Marriage Act would not do it will not take away or alter any religious liberty or conscience protections.' The amendment Baldwin and Collins are still drafting will make clear that the bill leaves intact protections under the 1993 religious freedom bill, drafter by now-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, an aide told Politico. GOP Sen. Ron Johnson now says he will not back a same-sex marriage bill due to religious liberty concerns 'We are listening carefully to the concerns that have been raised by some of our colleagues,' Collins told Politico this week. 'And we're looking at an amendment that would strengthen the language in the bill to make crystal clear that it does not in any way infringe upon religious liberty. And it also would correct a drafting error.' Meanwhile, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, is reportedly drafting his own amendment. So far, Sens. Rob Portman, Ohio, Collins are shoo-ins, Sens. Thom Tillis, N.C., and Lisa Murkowski, Alaska, have indicated they will probably back the bill too. Sen. Mitt Romney has said he's taking a look at the bill but voiced concerns on religious liberty. Tillis said earlier this week he thinks the bill's religious freedom protections will be enough to garner 10 GOP votes. 'We've made progress with the drafting,' he said, according to Bloomberg. 'I think we've addressed a lot of the religious freedom questions that some had and we think we're going to move it this month.' 'If it's what I think it's going to be, I'm probably a no,' Sen. John Thune, Minority Whip, said Thursday. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., called the legislation a 'silly messaging bill' but did not say he would vote against it. Sens. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Todd Young, R-Ind., have not said they would vote against the bill. Neither have retiring Sens. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa. Senate Democratic leadership also could add language protecting gay marriage to a stopgap bill to keep the federal government funded in a bid to increase pressure on Republicans to support it, a Democratic source told Reuters on Tuesday. Such a move could up the pressure in the evenly divided chamber, as it faces a Sept. 30 deadline to avoid partial federal agency shutdowns when money runs out at the end of this month. Congress has less than a month to pass the measure before returning to the campaign trail ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm elections, where Democrats are expected to lose their narrow majority in the House and the could potentially lose the Senate. Republican Senator Ron Johnson says he WON'T back same-sex marriage bill in its current form: Claims there are 'serious' concerns on religious liberty' and Democrats are 'opening an old wound' GOP Sen. Ron Johnson yesterday said he will not back a same-sex marriage bill due to religious liberty concerns. The stance is a reverse for the Wisconsin Republican who in July said he saw 'no reason to oppose' the bill. 'I always support civil unions [and] never felt this bill is necessary,' Johnson told reporters Wednesday at the Capitol. 'This is just Democrats opening up a wound that doesn't need to be opened up. And now that I've talked to people there are some very serious concerns on religious liberty.' Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., vowed the upper chamber would take up the Respect for Marriage Act in September, after it passed the House 267-157 in July, with 47 Republicans voting with all Democrats. Same sex marriage is already legal in all 50 states - the 2013 Supreme Court ruling, Obergefell v. Hodges, found that portions of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act that prevented the federal government from recognizing same-sex unions for federal benefits was unconstitutional. Still, the law has remained in place - the Respect for Marriage Act would repeal it. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., vowed the upper chamber would take up the Respect for Marriage Act in September Last week Johnson first signaled he would not support the bill, potentially leading to its demise. Democrats needed to get 10 Republicans on board to pass a filibuster in the split Senate. 'I would not support it in its current state,' Johnson said at a Common Sense Citizens of Washington County meeting last week, per the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which obtained a recording of the remarks. Senators are still hashing out a final version of the bill, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said they're looking 'to ensure that religious liberties are not infringed upon and that polygamous marriages are not allowed.' 'But at the same time, I don't want to see millions of lives disrupted either. To me, that was a wound that was healed. Let it go, okay. Move on, okay,' he said, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which reported the remarks Wednesday. The right wing senator is embroiled in a tough reelection race with his Democratic counterpart. He appears to have changed his mind on the bill from two months ago. 'The Respect for Marriage Act is another example of Democrats creating a state of fear over an issue in order to further divide Americans for their political benefit. Even though I feel the Respect for Marriage Act is unnecessary, should it come before the Senate, I see no reason to oppose it,' Johnson said in a statement to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in July. Senate Democratic leadership also could add language protecting gay marriage to a stopgap bill to keep the federal government funded in a bid to increase pressure on Republicans to support it, a Democratic source told Reuters on Tuesday. Such a move could up the pressure in the evenly divided chamber, as it faces a Sept. 30 deadline to avoid partial federal agency shutdowns when money runs out at the end of this month. Congress has less than a month to pass the measure before returning to the campaign trail ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm elections, where Democrats are expected to lose their narrow majority in the House and the could potentially lose the Senate. Without Johnson's support, there are three Republicans who are considered safe 'yes' votes: Sens. Collins and Rob Portman, Ohio, both sponsors of the measure, and Sen. Thom Tillis, N.C. Nine other GOP votes are considered up for grabs. The permanent Russian UN representative Vassily Nebenzia said last Tuesday that the West was acting dubiously in connection to the Ukrainian grain deal. According to the senior diplomat, no Russian ship has left port yet, which leads to suspicion about whether the West is sincere. Russian Officials React to the Deal The grain agreement with Kyiv was an element of a deal that would have permitted Russia to ship food and fertilizer straight to customers worldwide, but this hasn't happened yet, reported RT. In a press conference in Nebenzia, he announced that no Russian vessel had been allowed to leave port, even after a deal struck by the UN and Turkey to access the Black Sea for grain consignments from Ukraine in return for the lifting of trade restrictions on Russian grain. This has led to hints that Moscow might decline to renew the agreement if the conditions relating to its exports are not met. It is supposed to last four months. Consequently, it officially ends in November. In a typical situation, the Ukrainian grain deal should be extended. Nothing will be ruled out in light of the findings or due to the West acting dubiously, noted CSM Times. The Russian UN representative continued: "Moscow wants the Russian portion of the accord to be actually implemented." But this hasn't occurred yet. Sergey Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia, made similar arguments last Tuesday when he asserted that Western nations have already broken their pledge to eliminate secondary import bans on Russian grain and fertilizer, restricting their ability to enter the global market. Read Also: Donald Trump Net Worth 2022: Did Trump Get Richer Since Leaving the US Presidency? To keep safe transit routes, the arrangement to open the Black Sea to grain exports was signed in July at an UN-mediated dialogue in Istanbul. Mevlut Cavusoglu, the foreign minister of Turkey, clarified that grain shipments from Ukraine haven't yet encountered any challenges in late August. He also mentioned that vessels have been able to pass through. After Russia started its military operation in the nearby state in late February, wheat shipments from Ukraine, a major producer, were halted. Both sides have accused the other over who has the most fault in the ongoing failure of the grains deal. However, since August 1, when port deliveries resumed, approximately 2 million tons of food have been shipped to foreign markets. The West Does Not Fulfill Its End of the Grain Deal Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov queries why the western deal's guarantors have not complied with the agreement's provision of access to the global market, per Good Word News. He explained last Tuesday that Western nations have still not kept their commitment to lift the embargo on Russian grain and fertilizers to enable them to access global markets. The agreement was part of one that was mediated by the UN and Turkey and approved in Istanbul in July to facilitate the opening of Ukraine's grain exports and relieve a rising world food recession. He maintains that exaggerated Western assertions that Russian activities in Ukraine have jeopardized the security of the world food market, he maintains, are demonstrably false. It was pointed out during a joint press conference with his Thai counterpart, Don Pramudwinai. To ensure the UN carries out its obligations under the Istanbul agreements, Russia will keep collaborating with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and his staff. Russian UN representative Vassily Nebenzia has said that the West acting dubiously regarding the Ukrainian grain deal is untoward and could end soon. Related Article: Kyiv Breaks Its Vow To Supply Grain for Starvation-Threatened African Nations as First Grain Ship Leaves Ukraine @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The words to the national anthem today changed to 'God save our gracious King' with substitutions of 'him' and 'he' as King Charles III ascended the throne. This version was last used when the Queen's father George VI was on the throne. Usually only the first verse is sung and this will now be: 'God save our gracious King! Long live our noble King! God save the King! Send him victorious, Happy and glorious, Long to reign over us, God save the King.' This is a matter of tradition, not law. Crowds gathered outside of Buckingham Palace today were heard singing God Save the King, as King Charles III arrived in London today This version was last used when the Queen's father George VI (pictured) was on the throne History of the national anthem The British National Anthem in its present form dates back to the 18th century. It became popular amid the patriotism that followed the 1745 victory of Prince Charles Edward Stuart over King George II's army in Scotland. After hearing the news of Prince Charles' success in the battle, the leader of the band at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, arranged God Save The King for a performance after the play. It was repeated nightly after that. There is no authorised version of the National Anthem as the words are a matter of tradition. Additional verses have been added down the years, but these are rarely used. Advertisement Crowds gathered outside of Buckingham Palace today were heard singing God Save the King, as King Charles III arrived in London. As the King shook the hands of those who had gathered to see him return to Buckingham Palace with the Queen Consort, Camilla. People were heard shouting, 'God save the King' before the crowd started singing the anthem. It is the first time the national anthem will be sung to a king, with the use of 'he' and 'him' since the death of the Queen's father, King George VI, in 1952. Last night, West Ham fans broke out into the national Anthem following a minute's silence being held before the start of their match with Real Sociedad at the London Stadium. It was also belted out by patriotic Brits in pubs across the country last night, after news broke of the Queen's death. A mixture of both 'God Save the King' and 'God Save the Queen' was heard amongst the crowd. The British national anthem in its present form dates back to the 18th century. According to the royal family's website, the anthem became popular after the 1745 victory of Prince Charles Edward Stuart over King George II's army in Scotland, and was sung in London theatres. West Ham players standing for a minute's silence in memory of the Queen. Following the silence, fans burst into the national anthem A teenager charged over the attempted murder of a former Mongols bikie will spend another weekend behind bars after his lawyer argued his 'baby face' will make him a target in prison. Sam 'The Punisher' Abdulrahim was peppered with bullets outside Fawkner Cemetery, in Melbourne's north, on June 25, while sitting in his Mercedes-Benz after leaving his cousin's funeral. He was shot five times in the chest but miraculously survived the attack. Yasir Al Qassim, 18, has been charged with attempted murder and remains in custody. His lawyer Adam Chernok showed a photo of the teenager to Magistrate Donna Bakos in court on Thursday, arguing he should be released on bail. Yasir Al Qassim, 18, (pictured) has been charged with attempted murder after Sam 'The Punisher' Abdulrahim was shot in June 'Your Honour can see from the photograph that he really is very baby-faced,' Mr Chernok said adding his appearance and young age made him 'particularly vulnerable', Nine News reported. 'You can already hear the wolves circling from here.' Mr Al Qassim has already spent 11 days in prison and appeared in court via videolink. Both the alleged would-be killers (one of them pictured) have fled the country and it is alleged Mr Al Qassim assisted them in doing so Sam 'The Punisher' Abdulrahim was peppered with bullets outside Fawkner Cemetery, in Melbourne 's north, on June 25 While the 18-year-old is not accused of being one of the two alleged gunmen, police allege he was involved in helping the two men flee the country after the attack. The suspected shooters attempted to hightail away in a stolen car but crashed into a pole in their path. One of the alleged shooters carjacked another car while the other hid behind a bin before fleeing on foot. Police believe both men fled the country within 48 hours of the shooting. Prosecutors allege Mr Al Qassim dropped off the alleged gunmen to the stolen can used in the shooting. Attackers travelling in a Mazda ambushed Mr Abdulrahim's car and fired several rounds into the kickboxer's luxury vehicle during the bungled shooting His lawyer argued the teen would live with his parents or brothers while on bail. One brother offered a $100,000 surety for his release. Prosecutors said there was a risk Mr Al Qassim would flee overseas. Magistrate Bakos will give her decision on Monday. Mr Al Qassim has also been charged with possessing a firearm, theft of a motor vehicle and driving while suspended. Abdulrahim, a former Mongols bikie, had made a 'miraculous' recovery after the shooting, and shared a photo of bullet wounds to his chest just two weeks later A Fresno elementary school principal was charged with child abuse and endangerment after it was revealed he pushed an 11-year-old special needs student to the ground. Newly released footage from inside Wolters Elementary School depicts the moment Brian Vollhardt, who resigned amid a police investigation over the summer, violently shoved the boy with autism on June 7. The video shows the boy pointing at Vollhardt and speaking with him in the school cafeteria along with two other staff members. As the boy appears to be leaving with the staff, he returns and points at Vollhardt one more time before the principal suddenly pushes the boy in the chest, sending the 11-year-old flying to the ground. One of the staff members rushes to the boy's aid, and Vollhardt can be seen pointing back toward the child and yelling at him. Cameras captured the moment former Wolters Elementary School Principal Brian Vollhardt shoves an 11-year-old special needs student Vollhardt, who resigned over the summer, claims the boy laid hands on him first. The district called his action's repugnant as they alerted the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing about the incident Vollhardt, who has a specialized certification for handling students with autism, was hired as a vice principal at the Tranquility High School shortly after he left Fresno. He has been placed on administrative leave on Thursday Ann Frank, the boy's legal guardian, condemned Vollhardt's actions and allegations against the boy who has autism. Ann Frank, the boy's legal guardian who described him as her son, told ABC 30 that she got a call from Vollhardt that day claiming the student assaulted him. Frank said it took more than three months for the tapes to confirm what her boy had told her, that it was Vollhardt who knocked him to the ground. 'You cannot put force to these kids like that,' Frank said condemning Vollhardt's actions. 'My son is autistic. Any parents seeing this video, they know what I'm feeling right now. 'My son was pushed with force by this principal who was supposed to protect him.' According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Vollhardt claims the boy was 'getting in his face' and had made fists and pressed them against him, causing the man to shove the kid. Fresno Unified School District Superintendent Bob Nelson called Vollhardt's actions 'repugnant,' and notified the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing about the incident. Vollhardt, who has a specialized certification for handling students with autism, was hired as a vice principal at the Tranquility High School shortly after he left Fresno. The Golden Plains Unified School District said that Vollhardt has been placed on leave after administrations learned about the incident and watched the video. Vollhardt did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment. Vollhardt claims the boy was 'getting in his face' and had made fists and pressed them against him, causing the man to shove the kid During the encounter, the boy could be seen pointing at his principal. It took police and the district three months to release the footage, much to the anger of his guardian Frank applauded Golden Plains actions and said she never wants to see Vollhardt working with students. 'He doesn't deserve to work in anybody else's school if he's working in one,' Frank told ABC. 'He doesn't need to handle anybody else's kids. 'Who's to say how many other kids he's done this to?' Frank also condemned the district and police department's slow response to the three-months-old incident and has since hired an attorney. 'Anybody looking at that video, they don't need three months to come to community and disclose what went on at this school,' said Jason Bell of the Baradat& Paboojian firm. Bell said he will be filing an official government claim against the Fresnco Unified School District on Friday, which paves the way for a lawsuit. Fresno Police Chief Paco Balderrama said in a statement that he's disappointed that he did not see the video until earlier this week and is implementing changes to make sure violent misdemeanor charges are reviewed by a supervisor. Scott Morrison says Australians should spare 'a thought and a prayer' for King Charles as he steps up to lead the British monarchy after the loss of his mother. The ex-Prime Minister and his wife Jenny spoke about the 'touching relationship' the Queen shared with her eldest son and heir. Under royal protocol Charles immediately went from being Prince of Wales to King Charles III, head of the British royal family, when his mother's 70-year reign suddenly ended. At 73 years of age Charles is the oldest person in British history to become king. Scott Morrison says Australia should spare 'a thought and a prayer' for King Charles because he has lost his 'mummy', the Queen, as he steps up to lead the monarchy (Pictured, Charles kisses his mother's hand during her Jubilee Celebrations) The ex-Prime Minister and his wife Jenny Morrison reflected on the character of the Queen's eldest son and heir - now King Charles III - after their experiences of meeting him 'Spare a thought for King Charles III, when we heard him speak at the jubilee celebrations, I think he referred to [the Queen] as mummy,' Mr Morrison told Sky News. 'That showed an affection in the relationship that was quite touching. 'And I do really feel for King Charles at the moment. Here he is stepping into this great moment of history in his own life and in the world's history but he's dealing with the grieving process of his ''mummy''. And that must be very hard for him. 'So I think as a country we should be sparing a thought and prayer for King Charles III and the whole family this is a great loss to their family, an earthquaking loss, and we're all with you.' Mr Morrison suggested people should be patient with King Charles because of the monumental task ahead of him. Morrison said he has found Charles 'passionate' and he believes the new monarch will be warmly received Queen Elizabeth II meets Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his wife Jenny at Buckingham Palace in 2019 King Charles also lost his father, Prince Philip, less than 18 months ago. The former PM said he has met King Charles on several occasions and found him 'entertaining' and 'passionate', and was impressed about his knowledge of nature and the environment. 'I think he will show great honour and respect to the nature of the role but I think he brings something different, something new, and I think he'll be warmly received - and I certainly hope he is,' Mr Morrison said. His wife said the Queen was someone who 'put you at ease', before Mr Morrison admitted he was filled with nerves when meeting the monarch for the first time. 'We had to get the curtsy and the bow right. That was very important,' he said. 'And I'd never been so nervous before in any meeting in my life but never more thrilled to have had the opportunity to have one such as that.' The news of Her Majesty's death broke early on Friday morning in Australia with countless around the world grieving the death of Britain's longest-serving monarch. Advertisement The new reign of King Charles marks the first time in more than 200 years that a monarch with his name has sat on the throne, after the 70-year second Elizabethan age finally ended with the death of the Queen yesterday. Prime Minister Liz Truss noted in her House of Commons tribute speech to the Queen today how Charles will take the country forward to a 'new era of hope and progress, our new Carolean age'. The term was previously used for the reigns of Charles II, from 1660 to 1685, and his father Charles I, who ruled from 1625 until 1649, when he was executed and the monarchy was temporarily abolished. The name Carolean originates from the Latin name for Charles, Carolus. The reigns of Charles I and Charles II saw the overthrow and restoration of the monarchy, the Great Fire of London, and the plague. Charles I was the only British monarch to have been publicly tried and executed for treason, while Charles II - known as the Merry Monarch - spent many years in exile, fathering a dozen illegitimate children by numerous mistresses. Charles II's reign also featured the plague and the Great Fire of London. The new reign of King Charles marks the first time in more than 200 years that a monarch with his name has sat on the throne. Above: The then Prince of Wales in the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament in May, when he stood in for his mother due to her frailty Charles stopped outside Buckingham palace with his wife Camilla, the Queen Consort, to engage with well-wishers today after the death of his mother Although Charles is Charles III, Bonnie Prince Charlie - The Young Pretender - was known to his supporters as Charles III. Charles I was an unpopular king whose reign saw the temporary downfall of the monarchy and the establishment of an English republic before it was restored 11 years later. Born in November 1660, Charles I moved to England from Scotland when his father, King James VI of Scotland, inherited the English throne in 1603. The Carolean age was previously used for the reigns of Charles I, who ruled from 1625 until his execution in 1649, and his son Charles II, who was on the throne from 1660 to 1685 after the monarchy had been restored following its abolition under Oliver Cromwell King Charles I was born in Fife, Scotland, in 1600 and became king in 1625 following the death of his older brother Henry Charles II was born at St James's Palace on 29 May 1630, eldest surviving son of Charles I, king of England, Scotland and Ireland, and his wife Henrietta Maria, sister of Louis XIII of France He became heir apparent when his brother, Henry Frederick Prince of Wales, died at the age of 18 in 1612. God save our gracious King: Words to the national anthem change The words to the national anthem today changed to 'God save our gracious King' with substitutions of 'him' and 'he' as King Charles III ascended the throne. This version was last used when the Queen's father George VI was on the throne. Usually only the first verse is sung and this will now be: 'God save our gracious King! Long live our noble King! God save the King! Send him victorious, Happy and glorious, Long to reign over us, God save the King.' This is a matter of tradition, not law. Crowds gathered outside of Buckingham Palace today were heard singing God Save the King, as King Charles III arrived at the palace, As the King shook the hands of those who had gathered to see him return to Buckingham Palace with the Queen Consort, Camilla. People were heard shouting, 'God save the King' before the crowd started singing the anthem. It is the first time the national anthem will be sung to a king, with the use of 'he' and 'him' since the death of the Queen's father, King George VI, in 1952. Advertisement Charles I married Bourbon Princess Henrietta Maria of France in 1625 angered protestant religious groups. He also argued with parliament, which wanted to curb his powers, while many subjects opposed his policies which included levying taxes without parliamentary consent. Attempts to force the church of Scotland to adopt Anglican practices also led to religious conflicts, which in turn resulted in the strengthening of English and Scottish parliaments, helping to pave the way for his eventual downfall. Charles I fought the armies of the English and Scottish parliaments but was defeated in 1645 and captured. After a brief period of escape, he was re-captured and executed in Whitehall in 1649 after being tried and convicted of high treason. His son, Charles II was proclaimed King of Scotland upon the execution and attempted to reclaim England but was defeated by Oliver Cromwell at the Battle of Worcester in 1651 before fleeing to mainland Europe where he spent nine years in exile. Following Oliver Cromwell's death in 1658 and the resignation of his son, Richard, the following year, parliament proclaimed Charles II king and invited him to the return to England in 1660. Five years later, Charles II fled London for Salisbury as the plague hit London, killing thousands. The following year, in 1666, Charles II and his brother James joined and directed the firefighting effort during the Great Fire of London. Charles had no legitimate children, but had 12 children by seven mistresses, leading to the nickname 'Old Rowley', the name of his favourite racehorse stallion. The present Dukes of Buccleuch, Richmond, Grafton and St Albans descend from Charles, while Diana, Princess of Wales, was a descendent of two of Charles's illegitimate sons - the Dukes of Grafton and Richmond. Diana's son, Prince William, Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge and heir to the British throne, could be the first British monarch descended from Charles II. Speaking of Charles, Ms Truss said in her speech in the House of Commons today: 'All of us in this House will support him as he takes our country forward to a new era of hope and progress. Our new Carolean age. The crown endures. Our nation endures. And in that spirit, I say God save the King' Stamps bearing the Queen's image to remain valid Stamps bearing the image of the Queen will remain valid following her death, Royal Mail has announced. Special stamps already announced will still be issued, although there may be changes to when they are launched. A Royal Mail statement said: 'Following the passing of HM Queen Elizabeth II, Royal Mail has confirmed that stamps bearing the image of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II remain valid for use. 'These include definitive stamps - regular 'everyday' stamps - and special stamps. 'As previously announced, following the introduction of barcodes to everyday stamps, these stamps remain valid until the end of January 2023. 'All special stamps that have already been announced will be issued, although the launch dates of some may change. 'In line with past practice, following the death of a monarch all existing post boxes will remain unchanged. 'Post boxes already in production or being prepared for installation will also retain the insignia of Queen Elizabeth II.' The company said a gallery of stamps featuring the Queen is available on its website. The Royal Mint said it could not give information at this time, when asked about the possible production of new coins. It had issued a statement on Thursday in which Anne Jessopp, chief executive officer at the Royal Mint, said: 'On behalf of everyone at the Royal Mint, I would like to extend our heartfelt sympathy to the Royal Family at this extraordinarily sad time. 'Queen Elizabeth II ruled with heart and devotion, and will be dearly missed by all of us at the Royal Mint and by millions of people around the world. 'The Royal Mint worked with Her Late Majesty throughout her reign - detailing her journey from new Queen to respected head of state across five coin portraits, and ensuring each new UK coin received her personal seal of approval. 'The remarkable legacy of Britain's longest serving monarch will live on for many years to come.' Advertisement Speaking of Charles, Ms Truss said in her speech in the House of Commons today: 'All of us in this House will support him as he takes our country forward to a new era of hope and progress. Our new Carolean age. 'The crown endures. Our nation endures. And in that spirit, I say God save the King.' She had earlier told the chamber: 'On the death of her father King George VI, Winston Churchill said the news had stilled the clatter and traffic of 20th century life in many lands. 'Now 70 years later in the tumult of the 21st century life has paused again. Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was one of the greatest leaders the world has ever known.' Ms Truss said the Queen 'remained determined to carry out her duties' even at the age of 96, noting: 'It was just three days ago at Balmoral that she invited me to form a Government and become her 15th prime minister. 'Again she generously shared with me her deep experience of government, even in those last days.' Ms Truss said the Queen's devotion 'remains an example to us all' and hailed her for having 'reinvented the monarchy for the modern age'. She said: 'Her late Majesty's image is an icon for what Britain stands for as a nation, on our coins, on our stamps, and in portraits around the world. Her legacy will endure through the countless people she met, the global history she witnessed, and the lives that she touched. 'She was loved and admired by people across the United Kingdom and across the world. 'One of the reasons for that affection was her sheer humanity. 'She reinvented monarchy for the modern age. 'She was a champion of freedom and democracy around the world. 'She was dignified but not distant. 'She was willing to have fun.' She added: 'During her first televised Christmas message in 1957 she said: 'Today we need a special kind of courage so we can show the world that we are not afraid of the future'. We need that courage now. 'In an instant yesterday our lives changed forever. 'Today we show the world that we do not fear what lies ahead.' On the King, she said: 'His Majesty King Charles III bears an awesome responsibility that he now carries for all of us. 'I was grateful to speak to His Majesty last night and offer my condolences. 'Even as he mourns, his sense of duty and service is clear. 'He has already made a profound contribution through his work on conservation, education and his tireless diplomacy. 'We owe him our loyalty and devotion.' Her words were heard in a crowded but emotionally charged and silent chamber, the green benches populated by MPs dressed in black, as Parliament came together to mark the death of the nation's longest-reigning monarch. The Commons and Lords will sit on Friday and Saturday to allow tributes to the Queen. Proceedings will pause at approximately 6pm while Charles makes his address to the nation. Her speech was met with approval from MPs, with Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat, a Home Office minister, shouting 'God save the King' from the side gallery as she finished. 'Space nerd' Kamala Harris on Friday got cut off from her call with astronauts aboard the International Space Station when it orbited out of range. The vice president, who chairs the National Space Council, was in Houston to lead a meeting of the group. Ahead of the sit-down, she held an earth-to-space call with astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, and Jessica Watkins. But it turns out phone service can be as much of a problem in outer space as well as on planet Earth. As Harris was asking the astronauts what advice they'd give to students interested in careers in aerospace, the call went silent when the station moved out of range. 'We passed out of range of our tracking and data relay satellite system,' a NASA announcer explained of the silence. The call lasted under eight minutes. Harris spoke to the astronauts via a black phone at the flight directors desk at Mission Control in Houston, Texas. Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday got cut off from her call with astronauts aboard the International Space Station when it orbited out of range Harris held an held an earth-to-space call with astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, and Jessica Watkins Still, Harris was excited about the long distance conversation, describing herself as a 'space nerd.' 'I am so excited to be with you as vice president and as the head of the Space Council,' she said. 'And as an American who is a space nerd.' The conversation, before it got cut off, focused on what the astronauts were learning about earth as they studied it from above. Meanwhile, at Friday's National Space Council meeting, Harris announced a new coalition of companies aimed at increasing job opportunities in the space sector, notably for people from traditionally under-represented backgrounds. 'This coalition of companies will partner with our community colleges, with our technical schools and our unions to help workers learn the skills they need to take on the new jobs. that are being created in the space industry,' she said. 'And to help our nation, lead the way in space.' The coaliton's work will kick off in October 2022 and be anchored by several big-name aerospace companies: Blue Origin, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman. Other companies joining the effort include Amazon, Jacobs, L3Harris, Planet Labs PBC, Rocket Lab, Sierra Space, Space X and Virgin Orbit. The group will support three pilot programs on Florida's Space Coast, southern California and the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Mississippi that will focus on 'attracting, training and creating employment opportunities particularly for people from backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in STEM jobs,' the White House said. Additionally, the Department of Education is providing $1.25 million to provide STEM education support. STEM is an acronym for 'science, technology, engineering, and mathematics' skills that are in high demand. Vice President Harris, who described herself as a 'space nerd,' chairs the National Space Council Vice President Harris announced new partnership to increase job opportunities in the space sector, notably for people from traditionally under-represented backgrounds President Joe Biden named Harris head of the National Space Council in May 2021. The council was created by executive order by President George H.W. Bush. After Bush, the council was essentially disbanded until President Donald Trump brought it back in 2017. Mike Pence chaired it when he was vice president. The group advises the president on space policy. When Harris took over, her office said she planned to focus on climate change, STEM education, and diversity in the workforce. The council also laid the groundwork for the launch of the U.S. Space Force. A knife-wielding man shouting Allahu Akbar wounded two people in a southern German town on Thursday before being fatally shot by police. The 30-year-old man attacked several passers-by 'with at least one knife', near the train station in Ansbach, a Bavarian town close to Nuremberg, local police said. Two people were injured but their lives were not in danger, the statement said. When security forces intervened, the assailant 'attacked the police' who opened fire and fatally wounded him, the statement added. Investigators said they were investigating a possible 'Islamist or terrorist context'. 'The man shouted 'Allahu Akbar' several times during the commission of the crime,' police said, adding that they were investigating 'whether the crime had a link with an Islamist or terrorist context'. Footage purportedly showed the knifeman chasing people across a car park. Pictured: Footage purportedly showing the knifeman (left) chasing people across a car park A man, seen in the video wearing a navy gilet over a white t-shirt, is shown stalking a group of people through a car park, while holding a long blade (pictured), and chasing after them A man, seen in the video wearing a navy gilet over a white t-shirt, is shown stalking a group of people through a car park - while holding a long blade. As he nears the group, he suddenly sprints towards them. The people run from the man, as the sound of sirens can be heard getting closer to the scene. Shouting can be heard in the footage, but the words 'Allahu Akbar' are not discernible. The footage ends with the man running down a path and out of sight behind a hedgerow. Some time after, the man was shot dead by police. According to German tabloid Bild, he 'died on the spot'. Ansbach was the site of a 2016 terrorist attack, in which a suicide bomber injured 15 people outside a wine bar in the town. The bomber was identified as Mohammad Daleel - a 27-year-old Syrian asylum seeker who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State. He was the only person killed in the incident. Cops have arrested a woman on suspicion of murder after the decomposed remains of a man were found in a 'makeshift tomb' seven years after he went missing. Eric Israel Mercado, 35, vanished in October 2014 and was reported missing by his family. The gruesome discovery of his decomposed body in the makeshift tomb was made by officers at a home in San Bernardino, California. They had received a tip-off and found the remains almost seven years after Mercado went missing at 1400 block of E. Davidson Street last month. Officers arrested Trista Spicer, 43, in Yucaipa, 10 miles from San Bernardino on September 2 on suspicion of murder. Officers arrested Trista Spicer, 43, pictured, in Yucaipa, 10 miles from San Bernardino on September 2 on suspicion of murder Eric Israel Mercado, 35, pictured, vanished in October 2014 and was reported missing by his family The gruesome discovery of his decomposed body in the makeshift tomb was made by officers at a home in San Bernardino, California (pictured) They have found out that Mercado had previously lived with Spicer at the home. Police are working to establish Spicer's motive for the killing as their investigation continues. Jail records indicate that she is currently held on $1 million bail. Officers have found out that Mercado, pictured, had previously lived with Spicer at the home In a statement, a City of San Bernardino police spokesman said: 'On Tuesday, August 23, 2022, at approximately 3 p.m., San Bernardino Police Homicide detectives conducted a follow-up investigation after receiving information of possible human remains located at a residence within the City and County of San Bernardino. 'Investigators corroborated the information provided to them, and in doing so were able to determine enough preliminary information to author a search warrant to search a residence in the 1400 Block of E. Davidson Street for possible human remains. 'During the service of the search warrant, investigators observed what appeared to be a makeshift tomb on the property. Investigators entered the makeshift tomb and located human remains inside. 'Homicide investigators identified pertinent information and learned that Trista Spicer and the decedent, Eric Mercado, lived at the residence together. Investigators learned that Mercado had been reported missing by his family in 2014 and had not been seen since. 'Based on evidence collected by homicide detectives, it was determined that Spicer was responsible for the murder of Mercado, and an arrest warrant was issued for her. 'On September 2, 2022, Investigators with the San Bernardino Police Department located and arrested Spicer in the city of Yucaipa. She was booked into a local jail facility on the charge of murder. 'This is an ongoing investigation. Anyone with information regarding the incident is urged to contact Detective T. Montez at montez_ti@sbcity.org / (909) 384-5762 or Sergeant J. Plummer at plummer_jo@sbcity.org / (909) 384-5613. 'Callers wishing to remain anonymous should call the We-Tip Hotline at 1-800-78-CRIME (27463) or online at www.wetip.com.' There was only one winner in the US coverage of the Queens death and only one abysmal loser. And the gulf between the two yawned as wide as the Atlantic. To the crown, CNN: from the moment the official announcement from the palace came at 7.30am ET that doctors were concerned for the Queens health, CNN shelved all its regular programs and filled in those ominous hours before the almost inevitable and mournful announcement of the Queens death at 1.30pm. The inimitable Anderson Cooper in the studio conducted interviews with reporters outside the palace. He only put his foot wrong once, when he referred to the Queen of England. He was subtly corrected by Christiane Amanpour who responded with United Kingdom (actually, its the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, all the way since 1707 and the Act of Union). It was a forgivable and minor blip in a long day that Anderson handled with a professionalism that was measured without being sombre and, blip aside, knowledgeable. Dr Sanjay Gupta stuck to medical issues, such as why the Queen might not have been taken to hospital possibly because there was no point. He also added that we should not be speculating. Max Foster, CNN's presenter in the UK, got emotional as he announced the death of The Queen The Queen's death saddened the world after it was announced on September 8 that she had died while at Balmoral, in Scotland. American broadcasters joined in the wall-to-wall coverage of the tragic news Fox News had constant pauses and an apparent need to fact check everything that was said It was hard not to, given the acres of airtime broadcasters had to fill while they waited an update. They doubtless already knew the Queen had died news teams would have needed to organize their coverage but had to wait until the official announcement. CNNs anchor and royal correspondent Max Foster, in London, described the very strange atmosphere in the UK and referred to BBC man Huw Edwardss ominous black tie. Max was extraordinary in an admirable display of calm when he clearly knew the worst. I am expecting one, he said, stressing that an announcement would be uncomfortable before the arrival of the Duke of Sussex, who was traveling separately to Balmoral, where the Queen was in residence. When the moment came, a clearly emotional Max (who had incredibly held it together the whole day) announced, simply: The Queen has died. Extraordinarily, and ever the professional, but with voice trembling, he managed to garner an articulate response when Anderson asked what his thoughts were at this moment. Moving without being sentimental, he said that the Queen had been there in times of grief and now, its difficult for us not to see her in our ultimate moment of grief her death. ABC focused on the personality of the Prince who is now King Charles III, and did a bit of a 'hatchet' job When announcing the death of the monarch, Fox news said 'The King um the Queen has died' in their first blunder of the evening Where CNN was a brilliant combination of historical analysis while looking to the future, ABC focused on the personality of the Prince who is now King Charles III. It was a difficult childhood for Charles, they said, before doing a bit of a hatchet job. Showing a clip of his engagement to Diana when the reporter asked, Are you in love? (hed answered, Whatever love is), it was hard not to be reminded of how sad a royal life Diana had endured, knowing her husband was in love with another woman. It seemed inappropriate to be reminding us of Charless damaged personality at this time. Too soon. An interview with royal biographer Andrew Morton (who wrote Diana: Her True Story, that basically eviscerated the Royal Family by giving the Princess of Waless side of events) did not add fuel to the fire and praised the Queen as having been a point of certainly in an uncertain world. He also had good words to say about Charles, a more political figure than the Queen, and forceful about climate change, organic farming, and the need for a slimmed down monarchy. Ailsa Anderson, former Press Secretary to the Queen, brought a warm, personal touch to the coverage. What did it mean, to say the Queen had been the spirit of Britain? She was, said Ailsa, the person who would not let us down. CNN host Anderson Cooper in the studio conducted interviews with reporters outside the palace. He only put his foot wrong once, when he referred to the Queen of England It seemed inappropriate to be reminding us of Charless damaged personality this soon after his mother had passed away CNN was a brilliant combination of historical analysis while looking to the future, with Max Foster presenting in an exceptional manner She was asked to talk about Elizabeth, the woman and stressed her kindness, generosity (the staff had gifts at Christmas), her humor, and endless ability to find something interesting to take away from all her engagements. Did the Netflix show The Crown shape how Americans perceived the Royals, asked NBC. The view was overwhelmingly yes, as it brought many new fans to this vibrant young woman and the monarchy as a whole. I had visions of the series production team sitting in a bar somewhere, already working on future episodes. In fact, writer Peter Morgan said that production on the current series had been halted as a mark of respect. British historian Andrew Roberts made an energetic, enthusiastic contributor, especially in relation to Charles who, he said, had the same inner calmness as his mother. There was also a special and welcome mention of Prince Philip, her liegeman of life and limb, who died in April 2021. And so, to Fox News, with endless aerial shots of Buckingham Palace and presenters whose main words were Er and Umm. It sounded as if they were having to Google everything before attempting to relay any information. The best that contributor Douglas Murray could muster was, Queen Elizabeth delayed this as much as she could. Its a bit more complex than that, Doug. This wasnt an easy day for anyone, including broadcasting networks under pressure, but at a heart-wrenching time, it was CNN that reigned supreme. The U.S. on Friday slapped sanctions on Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security and its minister, Esmail Khatib, who it accused of launching a cyberattack on Albania and attempted attacks on the U.S. and its allies. Albania was forced to suspend public services for its citizens in the July attack, and days ago severed diplomatic ties with Iran days ago over the incident, ordering Iranian diplomats and embassy staff to leave within 24 hours. State Department Sec. Antony Blinken said in a statement announcing the sanctions Friday that Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security has been attacking both private industry and public critical infrastructure in other nations since at least 2007. The July attack was intended to punish Albania for supporting an Iranian dissident group based in the country, known as the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK). Iran, a member of NATO since 2009, shelters about 3,000 MEK members. The Albanian government said the hackers' methods were identical to attacks last year in other NATO countries, including Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Belgium. The U.S. on Friday slapped sanctions on Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security and its minister, Esmail Khatib, who it accused of launching a cyberattack on Albania and attempted attacks on the U.S. and its allies Iran has disregarded 'norms of responsible peacetime state behavior in cyberspace,' Blinken said. 'We will not tolerate Irans increasingly aggressive cyber activities,' the Treasury's Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian Nelson, said in the statement. Iran condemned its diplomats' expulsion from Albania and denied being behind the attack. In a statement, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said instead that it is Iran that is a target of such attacks on its critical infrastructure. Mandiant, a leading U.S. cybersecurity firm, found with 'moderate confidence' last month that the attack came from a group linked to Tehran's anti-dissident efforts Albania was forced to suspend public services for its citizens in the July attack, 'This activity poses an active threat to public and private organizations in other NATO member states,' Mandiant said. 'As negotiations surrounding the Iran nuclear deal continue to stall, this activity indicates Iran may feel less restraint in conducting cyber network attack operations going forward.' Meanwhile, negotiations over a renewal of an Iran nuclear deal appear to be entering their final stages. It comes after a flurry of diplomatic activity following 16 months of indirect talks between Tehran and Washington. European officials were tasked with carrying messages between the two negotiating teams at a Vienna hotel. And on August 8, the European Union's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell announced that a final deal had been drafted. President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the 2015 nuclear deal in 2018, accusing Iran of funding terror groups and ignoring the spirit of the agreement by developing ballistic missiles. Since then Iran has enriched uranium closer and closer to the purity and quantity needed to fuel a nuclear weapon. In March, International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors reported that its stockpile of uranium enriched to 60 percent purity had grown by more than 80 percent in three months. Talks to return to a deal, lifting sanctions on Iran in return for limits on Tehran's nuclear research, have repeatedly stalled. Republicans have joined forces and criticized United States President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness policy, saying it is not legal or responsible, urging Democrats to hold a hearing to look into the "chaos" that the relief program has caused in the country. GOP members argued that up to $20,000 in relief per federal borrower cannot happen without Congressional approval. However, the White House maintains that it has the authority to enact the student loan forgiveness on its own. Challenge to Student Loan Forgiveness The tensions between the two sides show no signs of stopping and Republicans continue to look for ways to challenge Biden's relief program. Every GOP member on the House education committee, led by Virginia Foxx, wrote a letter on Wednesday to Democratic Chairman Bobby Scott requesting he convene a hearing on Biden's recent actions on student debt. The Biden administration announced at the end of last month $10,000 to $20,000 in loan forgiveness for federal borrowers making under $125,000 per year. However, Republican lawmakers have long criticized any broad relief because of its potential cost to the economy and its legality, as per Yahoo Sports. The GOP members wrote in their letter that the policy was not harmless and argued that it was a deliberate decision to appease a small but loud special interest group at the expense of the people who work hard to keep the country strong. Republicans said that it was time to shed party loyalty and stand up for all the citizens of the United States. Their letter added that this process must begin with Congressional oversight over dubious executive actions. Read Also: Hillary Clinton on 2024 Presidential Election: Former State Secretary Spills The Bean on Running Again After 2 Failed Bids for White House According to Business Insider, Republican lawmakers also cited comments Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi made last year when she said that the president does not have the authority to enact broad student-loan forgiveness. However, she walked back those comments a day before Biden announced the relief program. Legal Issues of the Plan The White House maintains it has the authority to enact the cancellation of student debt under the HEROES Act of 2003, which allows the Education Secretary to waive or modify student-loan balances in connection with a national emergency, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Biden's Education and Justice Department also rescinded a memo from former President Donald Trump that concluded the authority does not exist for wide-scale debt cancellation. But the Biden administration's determinations are not enough to stop the GOP from looking for ways to slow it down or shut it down. In an interview, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said that he was "brainstorming" ways to overturn the relief in court, and other conservative groups said that they are weighing their legal options to block debt relief. The situation comes as Arizona Attorney-General Mark Brnovich suggested that student loan borrowers should not rely on the debt relief just yet. He argued that many people were celebrating prematurely, noting that there were a lot of others who were upset about the program. The state's Republican attorney general said he and several other GOP members were looking to legally challenge Biden's plan. "If we can bring a challenge, we will bring a challenge," said Brnovich, CNBC reported. Related Article: Barack Obama Thinks USA 'Is Better Off' After Joe Biden Took Office, Says Americans Should Be 'Deeply Grateful' @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer hailed the Queen's 'special, personal relationship with us all' as he led his party's tributes to the late monarch in the Commons today. In a special sitting of the Commons the opposition leader hailed her 'total commitment to service and duty, a deep devotion to the country, the Commonwealth, and the people she loved', adding: 'In return for that, we loved her.' As MPs began a lengthy sitting to pay tribute to the former monarch, who died yesterday after 70 years on the throne, he said she spent those decades 'at the heart of this nation's life'. 'She did not simply reign over us, she lived alongside us,' he said. 'She shared in our hopes and our fears, our joy and our pain, our good times and our bad. 'Our Queen played a crucial role as the thread between the history we cherish and the present we own. As MPs began a lengthy sitting to pay tribute to the former monarch, who died yesterday after 70 years on the throne, he said she spent those decades 'at the heart of this nation's life'. Sir Keir was knighted for his service as director of public prosecutions by the now King Charles III 'A reminder that our generational battle against the evil of fascism, or the emergence of a new Britain out of the rubble of the Second World War, do not belong only to the past, but are the inheritance of each and every one of us. 'A reminder that the creativity, the hard work, the enterprise that has always defined this nation is as abundant now as it ever was. 'A reminder that the prospect of a better future still burns brightly. 'Never was this link more important than when our country was plunged into lockdown at the start of the pandemic. Her simple message: that we would see family again, that we would see friends again, that we would be together again, gave people strength and courage when they needed it most.' Sir Keir, who was knighted by the now King Charles for 'services to law and criminal justice' in 2014, went on to quote the poet Philip Larkin, saying: 'In times when nothing stood, but worsened or grew strange, there was one constant good, she did not change.' 'It feels like we are once again in a moment in our history where - as Larkin put it - things are ''growing strange''.' Mr Justice Hayden ruled last month that doctors could lawfully stop providing treatment to the baby after a trial in the Family Division of the High Court in London The parents of a severely brain-damaged four-month-old boy today won their appeal bid after losing a High Court battle to keep him on life-support treatment. Mr Justice Hayden ruled last month that doctors could lawfully stop providing treatment to the baby after a trial in the Family Division of the High Court in London. The senior judge decided ventilation should be withdrawn from the boy, who was treated by medics at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, and that palliative care could be provided. Justice Hayden heard how earlier this summer the baby had tried to breathe after doctors had diagnosed him as being brain stem dead. The baby's parents, who represented themselves at the final hearing before Mr Justice Hayden, argued there should be a fresh appeal to allow them to find lawyers and have a fair trial. Three Court of Appeal judges on Friday upheld their challenge and ordered a fresh hearing. Bosses at a London hospital trust responsible for the boy's care became involved in a treatment dispute with his parents earlier this summer and asked a High Court judge to consider the case. Lawyers representing Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust said tests showed that the boy, who has suffered a serious brain injury and is on a ventilator, was brain stem dead and wanted a judge to make a declaration of death. Mr Justice Hayden heard how earlier this summer the baby had tried to breathe after doctors had diagnosed him as being brain stem dead But they subsequently returned to court and told Mr Justice Hayden how a nurse had noticed the boy trying to breathe, after doctors had carried out brain stem tests and concluded that he had died. Specialists rescinded 'the clinical ascertainment of death' and trust bosses asked Mr Justice Hayden to decide instead what moves were in the boy's best interests. Lord Justice Singh, Lord Justice Baker and Lord Justice Phillips considered arguments at a Court of Appeal hearing in London on Wednesday. Justice Hayden had earlier said evidence showed the baby was dying and had a 'complete absence of ability to benefit from treatment'. A lawyer representing his parents told appeal judges that Mr Justice Hayden should have adjourned the final High Court hearing to give them time to find lawyers. The three appeal judges agreed and said Mr Justice Hayden's decision not to adjourn the hearing was 'unfair'. They ordered a fresh hearing before a different judge based in the Family Division of the High Court. Lord Justice Baker said the Bangladeshi couple, whose first language is not English, faced a 'daunting' task in representing themselves at the High Court trial. Lawyers representing Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust said tests showed that the boy, who has suffered a serious brain injury and is on a ventilator, was brain stem dead and wanted a judge to make a declaration of death. They later revealed at a separate court hearing that a nurse realised he was trying to breathe The judge said the task would have been difficult for an experienced lawyer. He said Mr Justice Hayden's decision to refuse an adjournment was 'unfair'. Earlier this year, the top judge ruled that tragic schoolboy Archie Battersbee could be removed from life support after he was placed in a medically induced coma when he was found with ligature around his neck in his room. Lord Justice Baker told the appeal hearing how evidence showed five brain stem tests had shown 'no activity'. He said subsequently the baby had 'gasped' and further tests had shown there was brain stem activity in one respect. Specialists had agreed that the baby had no hope of recovering - and told Mr Justice Hayden that treatment was futile. Lawyers representing the trust argued that he should be given only palliative care. But Lord Justice Baker said the fact that the medical evidence seemed to 'all point one way' did not mean that the boy's parents should not have an opportunity to challenge it. Ukrainian soldiers have written tributes to Britain's late Queen Elizabeth II down the side of bombs destined for Russian military targets. Photos of the ammunition lined up in rows - ready to be launched in the direction of Vladimir Putin's invaders - featured messages in both English and Ukrainian. 'R.I.P Queen Elizabeth II' said the writing down the side of one of the Khaki green shell casings. Another said: 'Keep calm and carry on' - a reference to a famous motivational poster produced in 1939 in preparation for the Second World War. Another photo showed more of the same ammo, but this time the messages were written in Ukrainian. One of the messages said: 'Glory to The Queen,' while another simply said 'Elizabeth'. The images were posted to Twitter by a user whose profile described himself as a Ukrainian artilleryman in Kyiv's Air Assault Brigade. 'Ukrainian artillery men's sincere gratitude and respect to the remarkable leader of a great nation,' he wrote, while posting the photos of the bombs. Pictured: 'R.I.P Queen Elizabeth II' and 'Keep calm and carry on' is seen written down the side of Ukrainian artillery ammunition, in a tribute from Ukrainian soldiers to the late Queen Another photo showed more of the same ammo, with messages written in Ukrainian. One of the messages says: 'Glory to The Queen,' while another simply says 'Elizabeth' The Queen - the longest-serving monarch in British history and an icon instantly recognisable to billions of people around the world - died on Thursday. She was 96. Buckingham Palace announced her death in a short statement on Thursday, triggering 10 days of national mourning and an outpouring of tributes from around the world to her long life and record-breaking reign. Queen Elizabeth II came to the throne aged just 25 in 1952 in the aftermath of World War II. Her 70-year reign straddled two centuries of seismic social, political and technological upheaval. Since her death was announced, tributes to The Queen's life have poured in from all corners of the globe, and particularly from world leaders - including Ukraine's president and war-time leaders Volodymyr Zelensky. He said he learned the news of Her Majesty's passing 'with deep sadness'. 'On behalf of the people, we extend sincere condolences to the (royal family), the entire United Kingdom and the Commonwealth over this irreparable loss. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.' The images were posted to Twitter by a user whose profile described himself as a Ukrainian artilleryman in Kyiv's Air Assault Brigade. Pictured: Ukrainian artillery unit fires with a 2S7-Pion, a self-propelled gun, at a position near a frontline in Kharkiv region on August 26 The pictures of the ammo are not the first time Ukrainian forces have been seen decorating their ammunition with messages for the Russian invaders since Putin first ordered his forces to invade on February 24. In May, Kyiv's troops decorated the missiles with 'warm' messages to mark Ukraine's World Embroidery Day, known as Vyshyvanka, which takes place on May 21. The holiday promotes the tradition of creating and wearing embroidered Ukrainian clothes known as Vyshyvanka. A Vyshyvanka is a casual name for an embroidered shirt that is part of the country's national costume. The shirt was forbidden to be worn during the Soviet Union and was liberalized with the independence of Ukraine, and has become a symbol of defiance - and is more relevant than ever with Russia's on-going invasion of the country. Video at the time showed Ukrainian service men and women carefully painting missiles with a variety of colourful patterns to mark the holiday - before launching them with deadly intent at Russian military positions. One fighter painted three rockets with pink and blue flowers along its casing, and a message down the side. The soldier was then seen proudly laying the three missiles out in a row on the back of a Ukrainian military vehicle - ready to be launched. As the sad news of the Queen's death dominated headlines across the globe on Thursday and Friday, swiftly advancing Ukrainian troops were bearing down on the main railway supplying Russian forces in the east. This followed the collapse of a section of Russia's front line caused the most dramatic shift in the war's momentum since its early weeks. In a video address, Zelensky said Ukrainian troops had 'liberated dozens of settlements' and reclaimed more than 385 square miles of territory in the east and south in the past week. In May, Kyiv's troops decorated the missiles with flowers and 'warm' messages for World Embroidery Day, known locally as Vyshyvanka, which takes place in Ukraine on May 21 Zelenskiy posted a video in which Ukrainian soldiers said they had captured the eastern town of Balakliia, which lies along a stretch of front stretching south of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city. The Ukrainian military said it had advanced nearly 30 miles through that front after an assault that appeared to take the Russians by surprise. That would make it by far the fastest advance by either side in the war since Russia was forced to abandon its disastrous assault on the capital Kyiv in March. Moscow has so far offered no official response to the reports of the breakthrough on the Kharkiv front. Ukraine has yet to allow independent journalists into the area to confirm the extent its advances. But Ukrainian news websites have shown pictures of troops cheering from the top of armoured vehicles as they roar past street signs bearing the names of previously Russian-held towns, and Russian forces surrendering on the side of the road. The Institute for the Study of War think tank said the Ukrainians were now within just 15 km of Kupiansk, an essential junction for the main railway lines that Moscow has been using for months to supply its forces on the battlefields in the east. Since Russia's forces were defeated near Kyiv in March, Moscow has waged a relentless war of attrition, using its firepower advantage to press slow advances by bombarding towns and villages. But that tactic depends on tonnes of ammunition a day reaching the front line by train from western Russia. Until now, Russia had successfully fended off all attempts by Ukraine to cut off the train line. The Ukrainian general staff said early on Friday retreating Russian forces were trying to evacuate wounded personnel and damaged military equipment. 'Thanks to skilful and coordinated actions, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, with the support of the local population, advanced almost 50 km in three days.' Pictured: Russian soldiers are seen sitting on top of an armoured vehicle in the Kherson region of Ukraine, in a pictured released by Russia today The surprise Ukrainian breakthrough in the east came a week after Kyiv announced the start of a long-awaited counter-offensive hundreds of km away at the opposite end of the front in Kherson province in the south. Ukrainian officials say Russia moved thousands of troops south to respond to the Kherson advance, leaving other parts of the frontline exposed and weakly defended. 'We found a weak spot where the enemy wasn't ready,' presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said in a video posted on YouTube. Less information so far has emerged about the campaign in the south, with Ukraine keeping journalists away and releasing few details to keep its full plans secret. Ukraine has been using new Western-supplied artillery and rockets there to hit Russian rear positions, with the aim of trapping thousands of Russian troops on the west bank of the wide Dnipro River and cutting them off from supplies. Arestovych acknowledged progress in the south had not yet been as swift as the sudden breakthrough in the east. Russia's state news agency RIA quoted Russian-appointed Kherson authorities as saying some Ukrainian troops were captured during the counterattack and an undisclosed number of Polish tanks they were using had been destroyed. Reuters could not verify those reports. Ukrainians gather on Khreschatyk Street to see the seized military equipment and weapons including tank and motorized artillery systems belonging to the Russian army displayed by Ukraine ahead of the country's 31st anniversary of Independence Day in Kyiv, August 21 U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Kyiv on Thursday and announced a package of $2.2 billion in military financing for countries at risk of Russian aggression, nearly half of it for Ukraine. Washington also announced a separate $675 million of new weapons for Ukraine. North of the battlefield, Russia has continued firing at Kharkiv. Missiles struck multiple areas there on Thursday, causing widespread damage and casualties, according to the regional prosecutor's office. 'We are scared ... You can't get used to it, never,' resident Olena Rudenko told Reuters. Russia denied targeting civilians. Tens of thousands of people have been killed, millions have been driven from their homes and cities have been flattened since Moscow launched what it calls a 'special military operation' in February to 'disarm' Ukraine. A Tennessee university has been slammed for putting on a campus drag show that mocked Christianity as little kids gave money to performers. Tennessee Tech University's theater team, dubbed Backdoor Playhouse, hosted a Christianity-themed drag show with the star dressed as a Catholic monk before stripping down to a corset and stockings. Landon Starbuck posted the video on Twitter and called out the mockery towards Christians as children rushed up to the stage to hand the drag queen money. 'Tennessee Tech University hosted a drag show that had little kids handing cash to the drag queen who was performing a dance meant to mock Christians,' Starbuck wrote. 'Every parent who pays to send their kids to Tennessee Tech deserves to know that this is what they're allowing on campus.' The video has received more than 270,000 views since it went viral on September 7 and caught the awareness of Phil Oldham, the school's president, who was oblivious that the show occurred. 'I am disturbed and dismayed about the activities in a video circulating on social media from a recent event on Tennessee Tech's campus. I do not feel the activities in the video represent Tech's values, and I do not condone explicit activity where minors are present,' Oldham wrote in a statement on Thursday. Commenters were quick to call out the school calling the video 'sickening' while others referred to them as 'groomers.' Landon Starbuck posted the video on Twitter and called out the mockery towards Christians The show featured a drag queen dressed in a Catholic monk robe while singing Take Me to Church by Hozier Parents and children rushed to the stage at the start of the show to give the performer cash The show was hosted by Tennessee Tech University's theater program, Backdoor Playhouse The start of the video is what appears to be the opening of the set with the drag queen coming out from behind stage curtains lip-syncing the 2013 hit Take Me to Church by Hozier. 'YESS!' an ecstatic crowd can be heard screaming in the background. Within seconds kids are seen heading to the stage to hand over cash as the performer drops the money and does the sign of the cross. The video transitions to Elley Duhe's upbeat hit Middle of the Night as the performer prepares to take off the religious attire by the downbeat. As soon as his monk rob came off, the audience cheered and more younger children rushed to the front of the stage. Audience members continued to cheer through multiple songs of the drag queen dancing while taking off more clothing. More kids were carried by their parents to the front of the stage as the drag queen's clothes came off The drag queen is seen reaching down to collect the cash from children The audience cheered throughout the show as the performer danced to multiple songs More pieces of clothing came off throughout the set Some Tennessee residents were angered the university allowed the show to occur on campus. 'This is not acceptable in our state, we need [Oldham] to step up and end this now,' one person said on Twitter. Another added, 'Drag shows should not have minors at them. It is an adult situation and that those are the only people that should be there.' Other commenters were quick to call school officials 'groomers' while claiming the state supports 'pedophilia.' 'This is disgusting, perverted and highly offensive Tennessee Tech. I wouldn't have figured you for groomers, but here we are, not a good look, you perverts.' Another wrote, 'What is the matter with these people. Sickness and demonic in nature.' 'Just plain sick - and with children even. I'm gay and this really disgusts me.' 'No one cares about the drag show, it's the children being groomed by encouraging them to give money to an adult who is giving an inherently sexual performance. That is the issue here. Groomers using LGBT as a Trojan horse.' President Oldham assured his school community that the show did not represent the belief's of Tennessee Tech University. 'I also am offended by disparaging mockery toward any religious group. To be clear, this was not a university sponsored event. No university funds were used. Two registered student groups facilitated the scheduling and promotion of the event. Tennessee Tech President Phil Oldham condemned the show and the mockery towards Christianity 'Although registered student organizations have the ability to reserve space on campus, the programming should not include obscene, lewd or explicit activities.' Oldham said an investigation looking into the event is underway and all events scheduled by 'these sponsoring organizations are cancelled pending review.' Meanwhile, others weren't sure what the fuss was about. 'I didn't see anything outrageous but even if that was the case, was anybody forced to attend? Were children present against their parents' wishes,' one Twitter user wrote. Another added, 'All this over a theatrical performance with no nudity or profanity? How can a college have a president who does not understand free speech, diversity, equity, inclusion and performance art?' The Backdoor Playhouse didn't respond to DailyMail.com for a comment. But shortly after Oldham's message, the crew updated their Facebook status. 'Pride isn't a thing we do one month out of the year. It's part of our core principles here at Backdoor Playhouse. It's our culture and our identity. It's us! 'To all our LBGTQ+ friends: We love you! We see you! We stand with you!' Grace Curley is host of The Grace Curley Show It is the ultimate in sick ironies that a woman, whose life epitomized class and decorum, would be smeared by the most classless and rude among us upon her death but here we are in the age of the vile online mob. Even before the Royal Family announced that Queen Elizabeth II had died Thursday at the age of 96, surrounded by loved ones at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, ghoulish trolls poked their heads out of their caves to offer the world their two cents. Uju Anya, an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, thought it important to belch this into the public discourse: 'I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying, May her pain be excruciating.' That bizarrely cruel tweet elicited a response from an incredulous Jeff Bezos who remarked, 'This is someone supposedly working to make the world better? I don't think so. Wow.' For once I find myself agreeing with Jeff Bezos. Unfortunately, Anya was not the only hate-filled lunatic reveling in the news. No, this behavior was not only reserved for quasi-faceless trolls, like her. In this case, professional journalists decided to get in on the action. (I assume they couldn't pass up a chance to horrify such a huge audience). Uju Anya (above), an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, thought it important to belch this into the public discourse: 'I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying, May her pain be excruciating.' Tirhakah Love, a writer for New York Magazine, capped off his newsletter titled 'Lizzie Out, Let's get Loud' by informing readers that, 'We all have our methods of mourning friends; doing the electric slide on a colonizer's grave just happens to be mine.' CBS News correspondent Wesley Lowery tweeted and then deleted, 'The death of a person seen as near deity by the (white) political, ruling and media class, but who was also at one point the oppressive ruler of something like 30% of the global population, is going to provide an excellent example of the subjectivity of 'straight news reporting.' How brave of you, Wesley. First to 'speak your truth' as the vacuous. Virtue-signaling progressives like to say. And then to delete it. Bravo! Kindness and civility is clearly too much to ask for nowadays, but I think silence would do just fine. No one has to mourn the Queen. But for those who feel she carried the original, indelible sins of colonialism and was the face of a backward, sinister institution, may I make a suggestion? Maybe, just maybe, get your facts straight. As many more professional professional journalists pointed out, Queen Elizabeth was obviously not personally responsible for the expansion of the British empire over hundreds of years. Moreover, the British parliament directed British foreign policy for the entirely of her 70-year reign. But why allow facts to get in the way of a woke narrative? And Tucker Carlson of Fox News noted that while the British Empire was not perfect, it was far more humane than any empire that came before it. But again, historical perspective does not burden the thoughtless. There tearing the name Abraham Lincoln off of high school for God sakes. Tirhakah Love (above, left) a writer for New York Magazine, capped off his newsletter (above, right) titled 'Lizzie Out, Let's get Loud' by informing readers that, 'We all have our methods of mourning friends; doing the electric slide on a colonizer's grave just happens to be mine.' None of these arguments are going to stop the vitriol as deranged, ignorant people on basement couches debate whether the Queen should be held responsible for all of the sins of colonialism. So then, let's try an appeal to basic human dignity. The ancient Latin maxim 'De mortuis nil nisi bonum' remains as true today as it was two millennia ago. 'Of the dead speak nothing but good.' Afterall Queen Elizabeth beyond being the face of the Royal family was a human being. Elizabeth II was thrown into the role of queen at age 25 after her father, George VI, failed to recover from a failed lung operation and passed away in his sleep. She met with 13 sitting US Presidents. She rode horses with Ronald Reagan, danced with Gerald Ford and planted a tree with George H.W. Bush. In her time, she gave her blessings to 15 British prime ministers including Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and Boris Johnson. During World War II she served in the Auxiliary Territorial Service as a driver and mechanic. She wore a uniform in the real war against the real Fascists and Nazis. She was married for 73 years to Prince Philip, had four children, eight grandchildren and throughout her life had 30 Corgis. And she did it all in a manner that drew respect and admiration from the British people and the world. Note that all her critics seems to attack her for vague crimes but even they can't pin-point a valid personal attack against her. Of course, this appeal will also fall on ears deafened by the ding of likes, emojis and retweets from the other ogres on social medial. In our benighted era, nastiness has become a feature when a public figure dies. When Donald Trump's ex-wife Ivana passed away in July, daytime soap opera star Nancy Lee Grahn floated a wild and heartless conspiracy theory online: 'Dear @FBI, I know u don't need advice from a soap star, but having been in 10 or 10k implausible storylines in my 37 yrs, may I recommend digging up Ivana. Cleary it didn't take 10 pall bearers to carry a liposuctioned 73 yr old who methinks was in her weight in classified docs.' I'm sure Nancy Lee has a 'Hate Has No Home Here' sign on her front lawn. Doesn't she seem like a delight? How brave of you, Wesley. First to 'speak your truth' as the vacuous. Virtue-signaling progressives like to say. And then to delete it. (Above) Lowery's deleted tweet about coverage of Queen Elizabeth When Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia passed away in 2016, the New Yorker's Helen Rosner tweeted, 'Look, sometimes assh**** die.' Can you feel the tolerance? Of course, according to these leftists it's the right that's full of hate. Lowery insisted in the aftermath of mass shooting in Buffalo, New York that many white Americans are 'poisoned' by white supremacist ideologies spouted by right-wing media. It seems to me like many of left may be suffering from some serious contamination themselves. It is galling that a woman, whose life was truly devoted to dignified public service is being treated with such vulgar contempt by much of the ignoranti in the Woke mob. But disgusted reader rest assured in this: as the emotional epitaph for Jay Gatsby at the end of F. Scott Fitzgerald's immortal novel reads: 'You're worth the whole damn bunch put together.' How true that is for Queen Elizabeth II. Rest in peace. Boris Johnson revealed he had to pull out of recording a tribute to the Queen before she died because he 'choked up' with emotion at the thought of her death. In his first speech from the backbenches, the former prime minister paid a a touching personal tribute to 'Elizabeth the Great'. He revealed that the BBC had visited him 'a few months ago' to speak about the Queen in anticipation of the worst happening, and it was 'requested that I should talk about her in the past tense'. Mr Johnson told MPs 'I am afraid I simply choked up and I couldn't go on. I am really not easily moved to tears, but I was so overcome with sadness that I had to ask them to go away.' Mr Johnson also lifted the lid on his last meeting with the Queen at Balmoral on Tuesday, 48 hours before she died. He told MPs the former monarch had been 'as radiant and as knowledgeable and as fascinated by politics as ever I can remember and as wise as anyone I know, if not wiser.' In a House of Commons chamber filled with MPs clothed in black, Mr Johnson described the Queen as 'the keystone in the vast arch of the British state'. From the backbenches, he told MPs about his final audience with the Queen, 'when she saw off her 14th prime minister, and welcomed her 15th'. MPs present included Boris Johnson, in his first speaking appearance as a backbench MP after resigning as PM Ms Truss's meeting with the Queen at Balmoral on Tuesday, where she was officially appointed PM, was her last face-to-face political action before her 70-year reign came to an end. She had met Boris Johnson hours earlier. Mr Johnson praised the Queen's 'humility' and 'refusal to be grand'. He sparked laughter from the Commons when he said: 'Unlike us politicians, with our outriders and our armour-plated convoys, I can tell you as a direct eye witness that she drove herself in her own car with no detectives and no bodyguard, bouncing at alarming speed over the Scottish landscape to the total amazement of the ramblers and the tourists we encountered.' Liz Truss led political tributes to the Queen today as Westminster gathered to honour her decades of devoted service. The Prime Minister hailed the late monarch for creating modern Britain as she launched a special session of the Commons. MPs and peers will spend two days paying tribute to the Queen, following her death yesterday at the age of 96. Ms Truss will also hold her first official audience with King Charles this afternoon after he returns to London from Scotland. Ms Truss's meeting with the Queen at Balmoral on Tuesday, where she was officially appointed PM, was her last face-to-face political action before her 70-year reign came to an end. The Prime Minister spoke to the new monarch by phone yesterday. Parliament has swept aside its business for today and normal politics is largely on hold for the 10-day mourning period. Ms Truss told MPs: 'On the death of her father King George VI, Winston Churchill said the news had stilled the clatter and traffic of 20th century life in many lands. 'Now 70 years later in the tumult of the 21st century life has paused again. Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was one of the greatest leaders the world has ever known.' The Prime Minister hailed the late monarch for creating modern Britain as she launched a special session of the Commons. The session was started with a minute's silence. The tributes are due to last until 10pm tonight and there will also be a rare Saturday sitting. Tomorrow some senior MPs will take an oath of allegiance to the King from 2pm, with condolences continuing again until 10pm. The Prime Minister spoke to the new monarch (pictured at the State Opening of Parliament earlier this year) yesterday after the death of his mother at the age of 96 Instead Ms Truss will at lunchtime kick off a mammoth session allowing MPs in the Common and Lords in the upper chamber to pay their respects. The Prime Minister said the Queen had fulfilled her promised to 'dedicate her life to service'. Liz Truss told the Commons: 'As we meet today, we remember the pledge she made on her 21st birthday to dedicate her life to service. 'The whole House will agree, never has a promise been so completely fulfilled.' She added: 'Her devotion to duty remains an example to us all. She carried out thousands of engagements, she took a red box everyday, she gave her assent to countless pieces of legislation and was at the heart of our national life for seven decades.' Mr Johnson and Theresa May could both be seen on the backbenches, listening to their successor's tribute. The tributes are due to last until 10pm tonight and there will also be a rare Saturday sitting. Tomorrow some senior MPs will take an oath of allegiance to the King from 2pm, with condolences continuing again until 10pm. The latter session will end with a 'formal humble address' to the King, 'expressing the deep sympathy of the House' following his mother's death at Balmoral on Thursday, the House of Commons said in a statement. Every MP will have the option of taking an oath to the King when the House returns but are not obliged to. Former prime minister Theresa May said today that audiences with the 'immensely knowledgeable' Queen were the only meetings as leader where everything that was said would remain private. She told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that the meetings involved 'talking about the affairs of the day, in a sense tapping into her wisdom and that knowledge that she had from her great experience'. Mrs May told the broadcaster the Queen would pass on 'the knowledge that she had of the people, a lot of the people that the prime minister, that I, was dealing with.' She added: 'She was a very acute judge of people and was able often to give those little, if you like, pen portraits of people that she knew, that she'd met. 'And sometimes it was a case of not just the individual but actually a sort of history of that individual, of her experiences of particular countries, particular issues.' Paying tribute to the Queen's warm nature, Mrs May said: 'There was often that twinkle in the eye, and that magnificent smile that would break out and that calmed so many people's nerves and made so many people feel at ease.' Sombre ministers arrived in Downing Street for a Cabinet meeting this morning Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg arriving at 10 Downing Street Tomorrow some senior MPs will take an oath of allegiance to the King from 2pm, with condolences continuing again until 10pm. Parliament's tributes will follow an outpouring of grief from across the political spectrum as the world digested news of the Queen's death at the age of 96. Ms Truss hailed the country's longest-serving monarch as the 'rock on which modern Britain was built', while Sir Keir Starmer, the leader of the Opposition, said she was 'a symbol of the best of us'. Boris Johnson was among the six living former prime ministers of the Queen's reign to pay his respects, two days after he met her at Balmoral to resign from office. He said the Queen spread 'magic around her kingdom' for an 'unrivalled' 70 years and had a 'simple power to make us happy'. Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle will determine the timetable in the House for the following days, but it is expected to be significantly reduced until after the state funeral as Parliament adjourns. This means new laws cannot be passed until Parliament returns, though it could be recalled for pressing matters. 'London Bridge is down' Buckingham Palace's behind-the-scenes code for Queen Elizabeth II's death triggers a period of mourning in which normal life in the UK will dramatically slow for the next ten days 'London Bridge is down' Buckingham Palace's behind-the-scenes code for Queen Elizabeth II's death triggers a period of mourning in which normal life in the UK will dramatically slow for the next ten days. The bereft nation is in shock at the loss of the only monarch many of us have ever known. But the Palace and the Queen herself have been preparing for the aftermath of this inevitable moment since the 1960s. Behind the scenes, the detailed plan Operation London Bridge has already been put into action. It ushers in an official period of mourning that will have an effect on daily life for millions. The strategy, a major undertaking on an unprecedented stage, for the final farewell to Elizabeth II will be formally set in motion once approved by King Charles III. The finer details of Operation London Bridge have changed and been updated over the years but the broad brushstrokes have remained constant. It begins with what is described as D-Day, or day of death, although for practical reasons the Palace has deemed today is D-Day, to allow the complex arrangements to be put in place. Bells will toll at Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral and Windsor Castle, and gun salutes one round for every year of the 96-year-old Queen's life will be fired in Hyde Park and at other stations. Floodlighting at royal residences will be turned off, and the public will begin to leave flowers as tributes from around the world pour in. As Her Majesty's death occurred in Scotland, a contingency plan known as Operation Unicorn has been triggered. The mythical creature is Scotland's national animal. With the monarch spending several months a year at her beloved home in the Highlands, the plans for a Scottish element have been organised for some time. Part of the long-held London Bridge arrangements, Unicorn sets in motion additional ceremonial events in Edinburgh ahead of the logistics of bringing the Queen back to London. Earlier, huge crowds of well-wishers cheered the King and the Queen Consort's arrival at Buckingham Palace Prime Minister Liz Truss gave a reading at today's service at St Paul's, where Charles' speech was screened Extended an olive branch to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, saying he wished to 'express my love' for them He announced his daughter-in-law Kate Middleton would become the first Princess of Wales since Diana In the address, Charles, 72, spoke of a 'time of change for my family as he praised his 'darling wife Camilla' King Charles III hailed his mother Elizabeth II as an 'inspiration and an example to me and to all my family' Advertisement King Charles III has paid tribute to his 'darling Mama' the Queen and vowed to 'renew' her 'promise of a life of service' as he delivered a deeply revealing and personal first address to the nation. The monarch, holding back tears, said, 'To my darling Mama, thank you, thank you', as he hailed Elizabeth II as an 'inspiration and an example to me and to all my family' following her death at Balmoral on Thursday aged 96. In a moving speech that was screened at a service of prayer and reflection at St Paul's Cathedral, the King spoke of a 'time of change for my family' while praising his 'darling wife Camilla' who becomes Queen Consort 'in recognition of her own loyal public service since our marriage 17 years ago'. Charles, 72, extended an olive branch to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, saying he wished to 'express my love for Harry and Meghan as they continue to build their lives overseas'. Charles III's speech in full 'I speak to you today with feelings of profound sorrow. Throughout her life, Her Majesty The Queen - my beloved Mother - was an inspiration and example to me and to all my family, and we owe her the most heartfelt debt any family can owe to their mother; for her love, affection, guidance, understanding and example. 'Queen Elizabeth was a life well lived; a promise with destiny kept and she is mourned most deeply in her passing. That promise of lifelong service I renew to you all today. 'Alongside the personal grief that all my family are feeling, we also share with so many of you in the United Kingdom, in all the countries where The Queen was Head of State, in the Commonwealth and across the world, a deep sense of gratitude for the more than 70 years in which my Mother, as Queen, served the people of so many nations. 'In 1947, on her 21st birthday, she pledged in a broadcast from Cape Town to the Commonwealth to devote her life, whether it be short or long, to the service of her peoples. That was more than a promise: it was a profound personal commitment which defined her whole life. She made sacrifices for duty. 'Her dedication and devotion as Sovereign never waivered, through times of change and progress, through times of joy and celebration, and through times of sadness and loss. 'In her life of service we saw that abiding love of tradition, together with that fearless embrace of progress, which make us great as Nations. The affection, admiration and respect she inspired became the hallmark of her reign. 'And, as every member of my family can testify, she combined these qualities with warmth, humour and an unerring ability always to see the best in people. 'I pay tribute to my Mother's memory and I honour her life of service. I know that her death brings great sadness to so many of you and I share that sense of loss, beyond measure, with you all. 'When The Queen came to the throne, Britain and the world were still coping with the privations and aftermath of the Second World War, and still living by the conventions of earlier times. In the course of the last 70 years we have seen our society become one of many cultures and many faiths. 'The institutions of the State have changed in turn. But, through all changes and challenges, our nation and the wider family of Realms - of whose talents, traditions and achievements I am so inexpressibly proud - have prospered and flourished. Our values have remained, and must remain, constant. 'The role and the duties of Monarchy also remain, as does the Sovereign's particular relationship and responsibility towards the Church of England - the Church in which my own faith is so deeply rooted. 'In that faith, and the values it inspires, I have been brought up to cherish a sense of duty to others, and to hold in the greatest respect the precious traditions, freedoms and responsibilities of our unique history and our system of parliamentary government. 'As The Queen herself did with such unswerving devotion, I too now solemnly pledge myself, throughout the remaining time God grants me, to uphold the Constitutional principles at the heart of our nation. 'And wherever you may live in the United Kingdom, or in the Realms and territories across the world, and whatever may be your background or beliefs, I shall endeavour to serve you with loyalty, respect and love, as I have throughout my life. My life will of course change as I take up my new responsibilities. 'It will no longer be possible for me to give so much of my time and energies to the charities and issues for which I care so deeply. But I know this important work will go on in the trusted hands of others. 'This is also a time of change for my family. I count on the loving help of my darling wife, Camilla. In recognition of her own loyal public service since our marriage 17 years ago, she becomes my Queen Consort. 'I know she will bring to the demands of her new role the steadfast devotion to duty on which I have come to rely so much. As my Heir, William now assumes the Scottish titles which have meant so much to me. 'He succeeds me as Duke of Cornwall and takes on the responsibilities for the Duchy of Cornwall which I have undertaken for more than five decades. Today, I am proud to create him Prince of Wales, Tywysog Cymru, the country whose title I have been so greatly privileged to bear during so much of my life and duty. 'With Catherine beside him, our new Prince and Princess of Wales will, I know, continue to inspire and lead our national conversations, helping to bring the marginal to the centre ground where vital help can be given. I want also to express my love for Harry and Meghan as they continue to build their lives overseas. 'In a little over a week's time we will come together as a nation, as a Commonwealth and indeed a global community, to lay my beloved mother to rest. In our sorrow, let us remember and draw strength from the light of her example. 'On behalf of all my family, I can only offer the most sincere and heartfelt thanks for your condolences and support. They mean more to me than I can ever possibly express. 'And to my darling Mama, as you begin your last great journey to join my dear late Papa, I want simply to say this: thank you. 'Thank you for your love and devotion to our family and to the family of nations you have served so diligently all these years. May 'flights of Angels sing thee to thy rest'.' Advertisement The King also used his speech to announce that he had created his son William the Prince of Wales, with Kate the Princess of Wales - a role last held by Diana. Last night, a royal source said: 'The new Princess of Wales appreciates the history associated with this role but will understandably want to look to the future as she creates her own path.' In his speech, the King said of his 'beloved mother' the late Elizabeth II: 'We owe her the most heartfelt debt any family can owe to their mother; for her love, affection, guidance, understanding and example'. He added: 'To my darling Mama, as you begin your last great journey to join my dear late Papa, I want simply to say this: thank you. 'Thank you for your love and devotion to our family and to the family of nations you have served so diligently all these years. May 'flights of Angels sing thee to thy rest'.' The King pledged to dedicate his whole life to serving the nation just as the Queen did at her accession, saying: 'That promise of lifelong service I renew to you all today'. The monarch pre-recorded the lengthy speech, which was just under 1,000 words and lasted around nine-and-a-half minutes in the Blue Drawing Room of the royal residence in central London, and it was played out at 6pm on Friday. The King, dressed in a sombre black suit, black tie and with a black and white checked handkerchief in his breast pocket, said: 'I speak to you today with feelings of profound sorrow. 'Throughout her life, Her Majesty The Queen - my beloved Mother - was an inspiration and example to me and to all my family, and we owe her the most heartfelt debt any family can owe to their mother; for her love, affection, guidance, understanding and example. 'Queen Elizabeth was a life well lived; a promise with destiny kept and she is mourned most deeply in her passing. That promise of lifelong service I renew to you all today.' Charles confirmed he will have to take a step back from his considerable charitable interests now he is king and 'issues' he has campaigned for - likely to be interpreted as an end to his lobbying of ministers with his famous 'black spider memos'. He said: 'My life will of course change as I take up my new responsibilities. It will no longer be possible for me to give so much of my time and energies to the charities and issues for which I care so deeply. But I know this important work will go on in the trusted hands of others. 'This is also a time of change for my family. I count on the loving help of my darling wife, Camilla. In recognition of her own loyal public service since our marriage seventeen years ago, she becomes my Queen Consort. 'I know she will bring to the demands of her new role the steadfast devotion to duty on which I have come to rely so much.' MPs applauded the King's address after they watched it in silence in the Commons chamber. Some could be seen wiping away tears during the speech. The Commons had been suspended for a short period to allow MPs to watch the speech on televisions in the chamber. This evening's service at St Paul's is being attended by 2,000 members of the public who were handed tickets on a first-come-first-served basis. Members of the congregation were tearful through the service as the choir sang. One woman was seen using a handkerchief to wipe her eyes as she sat in the pews at St Paul's, as a piper played Flowers of the Forest - a lament played only at funerals and memorials. Prime Minister Liz Truss looked solemn as she gave her Bible reading from Romans 14. 7-12. She said: 'We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. 'For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. 'Why do you pass judgement on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgement seat of God. 'For it is written, 'As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.' So then, each of us will be accountable to God.' London Mayor Sadiq Khan, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and Foreign Secretary James Cleverly were seen listening intently to her reading before standing for the hymn O Thou Who Camest From Above. In a separate area, the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Lord Speaker are sat together while Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Nadhim Zahawi is sat with Lord High Chancellor Brandon Lewis. Deputy Prime Minister Therese Coffey, Leader of the Commons Penny Mordaunt and Welsh Secretary Robert Buckland were seen all standing together and singing along to a hymn during the service. Earlier today, huge crowds cheered the new monarch as he arrived at Buckingham Palace in a vintage Rolls-Royce alongside Camilla, the Queen Consort, before he got out and began shaking hands with countless well-wishers. In moving scenes, shouts of God Save the King broke out before an impromptu rendition of the National Anthem, with the words changed to reflect the new monarch. As the sun shone on an otherwise dull, damp day, the Royal Standard was raised above Buckingham Palace for the first time of his reign. King Charles III, holding back tears, said, 'To my darling Mama, thank you, thank you', as he hailed Elizabeth II as an 'inspiration and an example to me and to all my family' following her death aged 96 at Balmoral Castle yesterday During his speech, Charles was sat at an antique polished desk in Buckingham Palace's Blue Drawing Room, one of the grand state rooms, where the Queen would sometimes film her Christmas broadcasts. To the King's left was a framed photograph of his late mother the Queen, smiling broadly and wearing a vivid blue coat and matching hat decorated with a red flower Prime Minister Liz Truss looked solemn as she gave her Bible reading from Romans 14. 7-12 at this evening's service Ms Truss said: 'We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's' Last night's service at St Paul's is being attended by 2,000 members of the public who were handed tickets on a first-come-first-served basis Members of the congregation were tearful through the service as the choir sang. One woman was seen using a handkerchief to wipe her eyes as she sat in the pews at St Paul's Hymns at the service included All My Hope On God Is Founded, O Thou Who Camest From Above, and The Lord's My Shepherd (pictured are members of the congregation) People bow their heads in prayer during last night's service of prayer and reflection at St Paul's Cathedral There was a solemn mood inside St Paul's Cathedral yesterday. Unusually for a major royal event, it was attended overwhelmingly by members of the public rather than royal dignitaries and invited guests A piper plays Flowers of the Forest - a lament played only at funerals and memorials - during the Service of Prayer and Reflection at St Paul's Cathedral Members of the public attend a service of Prayer and Reflection, following the Queen's death in Balmoral on Thursday Portraits of the Queen were set up inside St Paul's Cathedral for this evening's service in Sir Christopher Wren's iconic building Drinkers in the Prince of Wales pub in central London watch King Charles III's speech from the Blue Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace Members of the public in The Prince Harry Pub, Windsor, watching a broadcast of King Charles III's first address to Britain Customers of the Old Coffee House Pub in Ruislip turn round to face a television to watch Charles' speech Members of the public wait opposite St Paul's Cathedral, ahead of this evening's service to remember the life of the late Queen Charles with his mother the Queen on September 2, 2017 at the annual Braemar Gathering in Braemar, central Scotland King Charles III during his first in-person audience with Prime Minister Liz Truss at Buckingham Palace yesterday At Buckingham Palace this yesterday, onlookers shouted three cheers for Charles at Buckingham Palace as one woman leaned over to kiss him on the hand and another asked 'Can I kiss you?' before pecking him on the cheek. The King's historic Accession Council will be held on Saturday at 10am in St James's Palace. It will be televised for the first time in its history, showing the King being formally proclaimed monarch and Charles making his declaration and oath. Rosemary for remembrance and Queen's corgi vase feature in King's address Touching tributes to the Queen - from a vase decorated with corgis to rosemary for remembrance - featured in the King's historic address to the nation. Charles was sat at an antique polished desk in Buckingham Palace's Blue Drawing Room, one of the grand state rooms, where the Queen would sometimes film her Christmas broadcasts. To the King's left was a framed photograph of his late mother the Queen, smiling broadly and wearing a vivid blue coat and matching hat decorated with a red flower. And on the right, delicate white sweet peas set with sprigs of rosemary - the herb a traditional symbol of remembrance - were placed in memory of Elizabeth II. The posy stood in a small silver vase - at the base of which were several small silver playful-looking corgis. The ornament was used by the Queen when she used to sit at the very same desk. It was a touching nod to the monarch's love of her favourite dogs, who were a constant source of happiness during her long reign. The Blue Drawing Room, designed by John Nash, is decorated with pairs of scagliola columns, painted to resemble onyx in 1860. There are five cut-glass chandeliers, an assortment of settees, chairs and tables, and it is often used for royal receptions. Advertisement A Principal Proclamation will be read in public for the first time by the Garter King of Arms in the open air from the balcony overlooking Friary Court at St James's an hour later at 11am. It will be followed by a flurry of proclamations around the country, with the second one in the City of London at the Royal Exchange at midday on Saturday, and further proclamations in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales at midday on Sunday. At Buckingham Palace this afternoon, onlookers held out red roses for the King as the Queen Consort followed behind at a distance before joining her husband at his side to view the floral tributes left outside the gates. The King was heard telling well-wishers, 'Thank you so much, it's so kind, it really is', 'God bless you' and 'I've really dreaded this day' during the 15-minute walkabout. One woman shouted to him, 'We love you King Charles and we loved your mum'. As a bugle sounded, Charles, dressed in mourning black suit and tie, walked side by side with Camilla - who seemed close to tears - through the main entrance of Buckingham Palace. Film director Raynald Leconte, 47, who is from New York, said he was lucky enough to speak to the King and Queen Consort outside Buckingham Palace. 'It was quite a moment,' he said. 'I said, 'condolences'. He said, ''really, really thank you very much''. And to his wife I wished her good luck and she said, ''thank you very much''. I think she said, ''I'll need it''.' Mother of three Stella Johnson said: 'I think he will be wonderful, and I just wanted to come here to see him. This is really a historic moment and I wanted to make sure I did not miss it.' Further back in the crowd, a former Guardsman, who asked not to be named, gave the crowd a running commentary as he was tall enough to see over the crowds and pick out Charles as he met mourners. He also talked them through the protocol of the Guards who had assembled in the Palace forecourt to salute the new King as he made his way into the Palace. One of the first to offer words of support to the new King was Laura Ohmona. She said after shaking hands with Charles: 'I said to him 'sorry for your loss' and he said 'thank-you'.' Earlier, huge crowds cheered Charles and Camilla as they arrived at the palace before the King left his car. Several people kissed his hand as he passed Onlookers shouted three cheers for Charles as he spoke to countless onlookers who had gathered to mourn his mother Cheers rang out at Buckingham Palace as the King and Queen Consort arrived, along with shouts of 'God save the King' Many in the crowd were visibly emotional, while others held their phones aloft to try to catch at glimpse of the King It was the new King's first walkabout and encounter with the public since his historic accession and crowds lined up behind a barrier clamouring to greet him A visibly emotional Charles pauses to look at floral tributes to his mother that have been left outside the gates of Buckingham Palace Charles embraces Camilla as they look at the floral tributes before making their way through the palace's main gates The new king thanked people for their good wishes, shaking countless hands after stepping from his state Bentley Shouts of God Save the King went up, along with three cheers, for the new head of state, dressed in mourning black suit and tie, who smiled and waved at the mass of people The King waves to crowds outside Buckingham Palace, where he arrived with Camilla after they travelled from Balmoral Elizabeth II, Charles' mother and an icon instantly recognisable to billions of people around the world, died at her Scottish Highland retreat yesterday Charles - pictured with Camilla - met Prime Minister Liz Truss today before his speech to the nation The King must turn to his duties as monarch despite his grief, and has held his first in-person audience with Prime Minister Liz Truss at Buckingham Palace The King and Queen Consort view the flowers and messages left by members of the public outside Buckingham Palace this afternoon The Queen Consort joined the King at his side to view the hundreds of floral tributes, notes and Union flags left outside the gates The new King gives a final wave as he and his wife walk into Buckingham Palace under the watchful eye of armed policemen As a bugler sounded, the couple - both dressed in black - walked side by side through the main entrance of Buckingham Palace King Charles III and the Queen Consort drive down the Mall followed by several 4x4s before they got out at the gates of Buckingham Palace Huge crowds cheered the couple as they arrived at the palace before the King left his car and began shaking hands with members of the public Huge crowds cheered the couple as they arrived at the palace in a state Rolls-Royce, with the King visibly emotional Kate Middleton becomes the first Princess of Wales since Diana: Charles announces his daughter-in-law's new title during his first address as King Kate Middleton will be known as the Princess of Wales, King Charles III confirmed tonight. Kate, formerly known as the Duchess of Cambridge, will now hold the titles of the Duchess of Cornwall and the Princess of Wales - the first member of the Royal Family to hold the title since Princess Diana. However a source said the new Princess of Wales 'appreciates the history associated with this role but will understandably want to look to the future as she creates her own path'. In his first televised address to the nation since the death of the Queen yesterday, King Charles III confirmed his son Prince William would inherit his title of the Prince of Wales and his wife Kate would become Princess. The King said: 'Today, I am proud to create [William] Prince of Wales, Tywysog Cymru, the country whose title I have been so greatly privileged to bear during so much of my life and duty. 'With Catherine beside him, our new Prince and Princess of Wales will, I know, continue to inspire and lead our national conversations, helping to bring the marginal to the centre ground where vital help can be given.' Since the 14th century the title of the Princess of Wales has been used by the wives of the Princes of Wales. However, it is a courtesy title. A royal source told MailOnline: 'The couple are focussed on deepening the trust and respect of the people of Wales over time. 'The Prince and Princess of Wales will approach their roles in the modest and humble way theyve approached their work previously. 'The new Princess of Wales appreciates the history associated with this role but will understandably want to look to the future as she creates her own path.' Advertisement Also among the crowds at Buckingham Palace was retired Ammar Al-Baldawi, 64, from Hertfordshire, who said: 'It was impressive, touching, a good move to come out to the crowds. 'I think that's where the royal family needs to communicate with the people now. These are true loyalists here and it's nice to see him back in post, taking charge of the family and the Crown, which is reassuring.' Colin Hennessy, 52, said: 'It's great to see the King. You can see he's very emotional but he was very grateful to everybody here. He thanked as many people as he could as he walked by.' Joyce Curtis, 72, from Jersey, said: 'I just wanted to be here. It was great. I have respect for him. He walked all the way along to see the people and back to see the flowers. It is what the people wanted to see, which is great.' Emma Spreckley, 43, had travelled to Buckingham Palace with her friend Jacqueline Southwick, 55, from their homes in Mitcham, south London. She was sympathetic to the grieving King: 'He looked a bit shocked, I suppose he is as it's your mum at the end of the day, and now he's here shaking people's hands and trying to, I suppose, get through it as best he can.' In reference to the thousands who were at the palace to pay their respects to the late Queen, Ms Southwick added 'Seeing all this - he's got the support of the nation.' Meanwhile, John Hardy said he was confident Charles would be a calming influence on the country when he is finally crowned King. 'It does seem that he has been around for such a long time that we've all known him. No one will ever replace the Queen and the affection she has held for everyone in this country. 'But I think Charles has a lot of respect and people will support him.' The couple had landed at RAF Northolt just after 1.30pm after leaving Balmoral, where they had stayed overnight after racing up to be at the late Queen's bedside. Charles has already turned his hand to his duties as monarch despite his grief. He gave the order that a period of 'Royal Mourning' for the Queen will be observed from now until seven days after her funeral. Royal Mourning will be observed by members of the royal family, royal household staff and representatives of the royal Household on official duties, together with troops committed to ceremonial duties. The Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge is also travelling back to Windsor to be with his family ahead of the Accession Council, which William will attend. Charles and Camilla - now King and Queen Consort - wave to members of the public as they arrive at Buckingham Palace in a Rolls-Royce Camilla had joined Charles on the poignant journey from Balmoral, where the Queen died peacefully on Thursday at the age of 96, arriving at RAF Northolt in west London at around 1.35pm Tributes continue to be paid to the woman described by the Prime Minister as the 'rock on which modern Britain was built', with the Dalai Lama expressing his 'deep sadness' over the death of the Queen in a letter to the King Charles and Camilla wave to crowds outside Buckingham Palace. The bollard in the background bears his mother's cypher Charles - wearing a black mourning suit - joins his wife to inspect the flowers and Union flags laid outside the palace Charles spent about 15 minutes greeting members of the public before joining his wife as they walked through the palace gates The new King places his arm around Camilla as they walk pass photographers towards the gates of the palace In a touching moment Charles put his hand around his wife who was visibly moved after meeting the well-wishers before the began to look at the letters, cards, bouquets and candles left in memory of the Queen. A sentry stands guard by Buckingham Palace, where the Royal Standard had been hoisted for the first time in Charles' reign The King must turn to his duties as monarch despite his grief, as he prepares to hold his first audience with Prime Minister Liz Truss ahead of delivering a televised address to a nation in mourning at 6pm on Friday Charles says he wants 'to express my love for Harry and Meghan' King Charles III extended an olive branch to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in his first address to Britain and the world as monarch. The new Sovereign, who became King the moment that his mother Queen Elizabeth II passed away yesterday afternoon at Balmoral Castle aged 96, said he wished to 'express my love for Harry and Meghan as they continue to build their lives overseas' - in a move likely to be regarded by royal commentators as a bid to finally draw a line under the tumult of recent years. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex plunged the monarchy into crisis during the twilight years of the Queen's reign after sensationally quitting frontline royal duties and moving to California two years ago - a saga which precipitated the rift between Harry and his brother William, allegations of racism against the royals and claims the Firm failed to help a suicidal Meghan. Advertisement Today, tributes continued to be paid to the woman described by the Prime Minister as the 'rock on which modern Britain was built', with the Dalai Lama expressing his 'deep sadness' over the death of the Queen in a letter to the King. He told Charles: 'Your mother lived a meaningful life with dignity, grace, a strong sense of service and a warm heart, qualities we all should treasure.' Thousands of people have flocked the Queen's former homes of Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and Balmoral to pay their respects, leaving hundreds of bouquets, personal notes and candles in her honour. Charles has already turned his hand to his duties He gave the order that a period of 'Royal Mourning' for the Queen will be observed from now until seven days after her funeral. Royal Mourning will be observed by members of the royal family, royal household staff and representatives of the royal household on official duties, together with troops committed to ceremonial duties. Royal salutes were fired with one round for every year of the Queen's life on Friday at 1pm in Hyde Park by the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery. Thousands of people stood in solemn silence for 16 minutes as the cannons boomed once every 10 seconds, sending smoke across the grounds with each round, applauding as the spectacle came to an end. The PM and senior ministers will attend a public service of remembrance at St Paul's Cathedral in central London this evening. King Charles III and Camilla, the Queen Consort, arrive at RAF Northolt in London this afternoon Charles is welcomed by Station Commander Group Captain McPhaden after he and Camilla touched down at the RAF airbase The couple left the airport in a vintage Rolls-Royce for the journey to Buckingham Palace where thousands of people had gathered to greet them An emotional King Charles III leaving Balmoral on his way to Aberdeen Airport on the first leg of his journey to London Queen Consort Camilla also appeared to have teary eyes as she sat in the front seat en route to Aberdeen Airport King Charles III arrives at Aberdeen Airport after leaving Balmoral, following the death of his mother last night The monarch shook hands at the airport before boarding a flight to London, where he will address the nation this evening King Charles III at Aberdeen Airport as he travels to London with the Queen Consort following the death of his mother A vehicle carrying Britain's King Charles leaves Balmoral Castle, following the passing of Britain's Queen Elizabeth King Charles III and the Queen Consort leave Birkhall in Scotland as they travel to London following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday The King (pictured looking emotional on his way out of Balmoral this morning) has also instructed a period of royal mourning from now until seven days after his mother's funeral - a date yet to be confirmed King Charles III and the Queen arrive at Aberdeen Airport as they travel to London following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday Handout issued by Buckingham Palace of the notice for the Accession Council and Principal Proclamation of King Charles III Charles has released a statement about the death of Queen Elizabeth, describing her as a 'cherished Sovereign and a much-loved Mother' The Lincoln Project's co-founder has dared Donald Trump to make good on his threat to sue the group after new adverts called his supporters 'suckers.' Rick Wilson called him a 'b****' and said he couldn't wait for the battle, adding: 'I double-dog dare you'. It comes after Trump launched a blistering attack on the Lincoln Project and Fox News for the adverts that attacked him. He branded them 'perverts and lowlifes' and said they should not be allowed to 'false advertise'. It is not clear if he plans to make good on his threat to sue. In a video released Thursday, The Lincoln Project's co-founder Rick Wilson (left) dared former President Donald Trump (right) to sue the group, as he had threated to on Truth Social On Thursday, using Truth Social, Trump complained that the 'Perverts and Lowlifes of the Lincoln Project' were back on Fox News Channel 'Go for it! Go for it, b***h! Come at me!' Wilson said in a video he posted to Twitter Thursday. 'I can't wait! We're delighted by the thought you'd try to sue us, Donald. Do it. I double-dog dare you!' On Thursday, using Truth Social, Trump complained that the 'Perverts and Lowlifes of the Lincoln Project' were back on Fox News Channel. 'The Paul [Ryan] run Fox only has high standards for 'Trump' ads, but not for anyone else,' the ex-president continued, referencing the former GOP House speaker who now serves on the Fox Corporation Board. 'The Perverts should not be allowed to 'false advertise,' and Fox News should not allow it to happen.' 'See you all in Court!!!' Trump added. The Lincoln Project's latest ad buy was for cable news channels in the Bedminster, New Jersey area, where Trump spends his summer. The spot, entitled 'Sucker,' claims that Trump disputed the 2020 election 'to rip you off, to sucker you, to take your hard-earned money and shovel it into his pockets.' 'He spent it on himself,' the ad continues. 'Not to take back the White House. It was the biggest scam in political history. Every dollar you sent him paid to keep his shaky business empire and lavish lifestyle going.' 'It was a sucker's game all along - and you know the sucker is? It's you,' the ad concludes. The ad came out as ABC News reported this week that the federal grand jury investigating the January 6 Capitol attack has been subpoenaing people involved in Trump's Save America PAC, which raised funds from Trump supporters on false election fraud claims. Trump continued to push this week that he was the election's winner, calling The Lincoln Project's 2020 effort a 'catastrophic campaign' because he got 'many millions more votes in 2020 than I got in 2016.' President Joe Biden, however, got more votes than Trump - to both win the Electoral College and win the popular vote. In his video message, Wilson said he didn't believe Trump would sue the Lincoln Project, which was founded by a handful of former Republicans in the lead-up to the 2020 election. 'You're not going to do a g*****n thing,' Wilson said. 'You are weak, you are impotent, you are flabby.' 'You are sitting there in the bridal suite at Mar-a-Lago or in the bridal suite at Bedminster, grinding your gears, wondering why that the Lincoln Project, no matter how many times you try to kill us, keeps coming at you,' he continued. 'You know why? We're here in this fight for the long haul, because you are a threat to democracy. You are a threat to America. You are a threat to the Republic. You are a threat to the Constitution. You are a thief of classified documents. You are a traitor to this country. You tried to overthrow the government and the system of our peaceful transition of power, and f**k you.' Wilson told Trump 'go for it' if he wanted to sue the group. 'You won't do it because you are, in fact, as I said previously, completely impotent. Just ask Melania,' Wilson said. A Texas mother who was found dead in a parking lot three weeks after haunting doorbell footage filmed her leaving home passed away from hyperthermia and alcohol-related complications, an autopsy has ruled. Christina Lee Powell, 39, was last seen leaving her house on an eerie CCTV clip at 10.34 a.m. on July 5, after calling in to her job as a paralegal to let them know she was running late. But her body was found three weeks later by a security guard at a San Antonio strip mall after noticing a foul odor coming from a car which had been 'parked in the same location for about a week.' Bexar County Medical Examiner's office confirmed that the mother-of-two suffered an accidental death caused by hyperthermia with complications from ethanol intoxication, reports Fox. And San Antonio Police Department said the investigation is now closed, adding: 'We did not find any evidence leading to a criminal investigation.' During the approximate time authorities believe she was in the car, temperatures in San Antonio reached around 90F. Powell's body, which had no obvious signs of trauma, was discovered in her Nissan Rogue at the Huebner Oaks Center - just a 10 minute drive from her home. Powell, 39, is originally from New Haven, Conn., and graduated with a degree in psychology from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Bexar County Medical Examiner's office confirmed that the mother-of-two suffered an accidental death caused by hyperthermia with complications from ethanol intoxication Powell had two children, ages three and 12. Her body, which had no obvious signs of trauma, was discovered in her Nissan Rogue at the Huebner Oaks Center - just a 10 minute drive from her home This graphic illustrates where Powell was last seen and where she was found Ring doorbell footage from Powell's home shows her walking briskly out of the door shortly after 10:30 a.m., a white purse under her shoulder. But Powell appeared to have left her phone and smartwatch in the house, her friends say, as she rushed to work. She also left vital medication behind. Police say that Powell suffered from a medical condition that requires a doctor's care. Nobody saw or heard from the young mother since that morning. The shopping plaza where she was found is located along the same stretch of interstate as her job at Sanchez & Wilson, a law firm that handles cases such as personal injury and unfair dismissals. Their offices are an eight-minute drive from where Powell was found. Powell, who was driving a black 2020 Nissan Rouge that is also missing, left her iPhone and Apple Watch at home because she was rushing to get to work Powell was driving this black 2020 Nissan Rouge that was missing, with the plate number PYJ-8564 Powell and Cady pictured with her son in December 2017 following a Christmas concert at the child's elementary school The father of Powell's youngest child, Chris Cady. Powell posted this photo of the couple together in January 2020 When overheating can become fatal: What is hyperthermia and how can you avoid it? Hyperthermia is the state of having an abnormally high body temperature. The body overheats when it absorbs or generates more heat than it can release - having sometimes fatal consequences. The average body temperature is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit - and anything above 99 is classed as too warm. Heat cramps, exhaustion, rashes, heat stress, and heatstroke are all types of illnesses linked to hyperthermia. Heatstroke is a life-threatening condition, which can cause problems with the brain and vital organs. People are especially prone to hyperthermia if they are dehydrated, doing physical activity in hot weather, consume excessive alcohol, or have pre-existing health conditions. Blurred vision, dizziness, fatigue and vomiting are signs that you may have hypothermia. Keeping yourself hydrated and in cool areas when it's warm can help prevent hypothermia. Advertisement Police found her purse inside the vehicle and used her ID to identify her. Powell's mom, Claudia Mobley, broke the news on Facebook on July 25 after pleading for others to help find her daughter. She wrote: 'My beautiful daughter, Christina Powell, has been found, deceased. I am heartbroken. Thank you for all your prayers.' While Powell's sister, Jennifer, wrote in a Facebook post: 'Im heartbroken and completely devastated. This was not how I hoped and prayed this would end. She will always be my sister and with me in some way.' Jennifer's message concluded with the words: 'Check on those friends who are going through hard times.' The paralegal had two children, ages 12 and three. According to her Facebook page, Powell was a native of New Haven, Connecticut. Powell's mother posted her first call for help on July 23, saying her daughter left for work from the pair shared, on July 5 and left her cell phone and medication behind. 'There have been no transactions on her credit cards or bank account,' Mobley wrote. 'We have retraced her route to work several times and there are no bodies of water or signs of a crash along the way. We're not even sure she headed to work.' Fake German heiress Anna Sorokin called out reporters for repeatedly asking her if she is sorry for her scams, during a surprise guest lecture to Columbia journalism students late last month. The infamous fraudster, 31, spoke candidly about her relationship with the press after agreeing to participate in an Introduction to Reporting course for first-year students via phone from a detention facility on August 29. Sorokin - also known by her fake name Anna Delvey - gained notoriety after a 2018 New York magazine article exposed her life as faux socialite who swindled hundreds of thousands of dollars from banks, hotels and friends in New York City. Members of the 16-student class quizzed the scammer about her experience as a 'source' and why she agreed to give interviews that later turned her into a celebrity. In a transcript of the call shared with DailyMail.com, the con artist emphasized the importance of treating sources with respect and not treating her like she's crazy. 'It's a fine line between getting too friendly or like being friendly enough so that story becomes better,' she told the class. Fake German heiress Anna Sorokin, 31, surprised Columbia journalism students last month when she appeared as a virtual guest at their Intro to Reporting class Students were asked to have one question prepared for Sorokin, who was granted 20 minutes to speak through a call service for inmates at Orange County jail in Goshen, New York 'It's kind of like talking to anybody. And you're obviously willing to tell more to the person that you perceive as being friendly or is at least understanding. You're not going to talk to somebody who is hostile or you don't like.' When asked if there was a particular question she wishes reporters would stop asking her, she replied: 'If I'm sorry.' Sorokin had drawn widespread media attention after her story went viral in 2018, but she would continue to make headlines in the months to follow due to her blatant lack of remorse. In a 2019 jailhouse interview following her sentencing, Sorokin infamously told New York Times reporter Emily Palmer that she wasn't sorry for any of her crimes. Her comments later came back to haunt her when she was asked about the article by the parole board. Palmer covered Sorokin's trial for the paper as a freelance reporter and interviewed her at Rikers Island several times. The journalist, who also covered the trials of El Chapo and R. Kelly, is now an adjunct professor teaching Introduction to Reporting at Columbia Journalism School. Palmer told DailyMail.com she reached out to Sorokin again last month, this time to invite her to participate in a lecture where students would have the opportunity to speak to a source and learn how to gain their trust. 'I messaged her and asked her how she felt about popping in for a visit on Day 1. She asked if El Chapo was also on the guest list,' Palmer said. Members of the 16-student class quizzed the scammer about her experience as a 'source' and why she agreed to give interviews that later turned her into a celebrity Journalist Emily Palmer, who interviewed Sorokin in jail and covered her trial for the New York Times, is now teaching Introduction to Reporting at Columbia as an adjunct professor. She reached out to the con artist again last month to invite her to speak to first-year students Sorokin was convicted in 2019 of second-degree larceny, theft of services and first-degree attempted larceny after she refused to pay at some of the city's most expensive hotels 'Despite El Chapo's absence, she agreed to make the time and talk to the class.' Students were asked to have one question prepared for Sorokin, who was granted 20 minutes to speak through a call service for inmates at Orange County jail in Goshen, New York. Sorokin, who greeted each person individually, often by name, candidly answered every question she was asked and did not hold back in her responses. 'She laughed often and made the students laugh,' Palmer added. And to Sorokin's delight, students also took note of how she didn't sound anything like her character, played by Julia Garner, in Netflix series Inventing Anna. Sorokin continues to languish in ICE custody in a New York jail after she was arrested for overstaying her visa in March 2021. Last month she filed court papers seeking to hold her fired lawyer in criminal contempt for failing to turn over records she needs to fight a deportation order and appeal her criminal conviction. Sorokin has been held at the Orange County Correctional Facility in Goshen, New York since March 2021 for overstaying her visa She asked a Supreme Court judge to punish Audrey Thomas with potential jail, fines and attorney fees. Russian-born Sorokin went by the name of Anna Delvey and posed as a wealthy German heiress to scam her way into New York's high society from 2013 to 2017. She skipped out on hotel and restaurant bills, would deposit fake checks and cash them before they bounced, and kept up the ruse by telling her friends she was having issues with her European bank accounts so they would front her money. She was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison after being convicted of eight grand larceny and theft of services charges for swindling banks, hotels and friends out of $275,000 in a 10-month spree. Sorokin sold the rights to her life story to Netflix for $320,000. Above, actress Julia Garner plays Delvey in the series 'Inventing Anna' After serving nearly four years, she was released in February 2021 for good behavior. In no time the German 'heiress' went back to her previous posh lifestyle. She rented a swank apartment in Chelsea, Manhattan, and did the media circuit, boldly telling one reporter 'crime pays, in a way.' She signed a deal with Netflix to advise on its production of Inventing Anna, a miniseries based on her life. A judge allowed the jailbird to sign the lucrative deal as a way to pay back her victims. Just six weeks after enjoying her freedom, she was arrested by immigration agents for allegedly overstaying her visa and has been in ICE custody in Orange County, New York ever since. Queen Elizabeth II was the apex of "soft power" before her death on September 8, 2022. The post she inherited in 1952 was already severely limited in terms of actual power and authority, and the monarchy experienced a transition into a figurehead status throughout her reign. Princess Elizabeth, as she was called before succeeding to the throne at the age of 25, was born in Mayfair, London, to Prince Albert, Duke of York, and his Scottish aristocracy wife Elizabeth, Duchess of York. First and foremost, by merely existing, she fulfilled a crucial legal function: the monarch must ratify every law passed by Parliament in the United Kingdom. Even though such sanction has become ceremonial and routine, the Queen may, in principle, decline to approve something. Since she was still Head of State even though she was not Head of Government, and the crown is the source of legal power in the United Kingdom. However, Queen Elizabeth's lack of hard power did not mean she was without accomplishments. Queen Elizabeth II's Achievements Although most of their accomplishments occurred behind the scenes and were more subtle than the treaties, executive decrees, and directives that presidents and prime ministers may issue, they were nonetheless noteworthy. Because Queen Elizabeth II accomplished all of this without direct power, they may be even more astounding. Here are some of Queen Elizabeth II's most famous achievements, as per Grunge. Princess Elizabeth Marries Prince Philip in 1947 Following a four-month engagement, Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip, members of the Greek and Danish royal dynasties, married in November 1947. They first met during the wedding of their cousins, Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark and Prince George, Duke of Kent, in 1934. They reconnected in 1939 when she was 13 and he was 18, and she was instantly captivated. Elizabeth and Philip were distant relatives, both being Queen Victoria's great-great-grandchildren. The coronation concludes with the usual Buckingham Palace balcony appearance when the Queen waves to the masses of cheering Brits on the Mall. Princess Elizabeth Becomes Queen in 1952 Elizabeth was just 25 years old and on holiday with Philip in Kenya when her father, King George VI, died on February 6, 1952, at Sandringham, the royal country house in Norfolk. She became queen immediately after his death, although she didn't realize it at first because international communication was less established at the time. Prince Philip imparted the awful news to her, both of them understanding that their lives were about to alter drastically. She promptly traveled to London to be formally crowned queen. Her coronation occurred more than a year later, on June 2, 1953, in Westminster Abbey, and was the first televised coronation. Queen Elizabeth II Meets President Eisenhower in 1957 Despite seeing President Harry S. Truman in 1951, President Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first American leader Princess Elizabeth met as queen. She hosted Eisenhower and his wife Mamie Eisenhower at the British Embassy in Washington D.C. for a banquet in their honor. Following that, the queen met with 12 more US presidents, including John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and, most recently, Joe Biden. The "Annus Horribilis" (1992) The queen paraphrased one of her letters as stating 1992 was her "annus horribilis," the most terrible year of her life, in a tearful address (despite suffering from a cold). First, three of her children's marriages failed, resulting in a slew of embarrassing media stories. The queen's beloved Windsor Castle burned for 15 hours on November 20, 1992, damaging or destroying a hundred rooms. It resulted in two significant changes: the queen and Prince Charles stated that they would begin paying taxes. The next year, Queen Elizabeth II opened sections of Buckingham Palace to the public to help offset some of the taxpayers' expenditures on repairing Windsor Castle. Queen Elizabeth II Becomes Longest-Reigning British Monarch in 2015 Queen Elizabeth II became the longest-reigning British queen on September 9, 2015. As the country's 41st queen since 1066, she beat her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria's record of 63 years and six months. Elizabeth observed the day by going about her everyday royal responsibilities as normal. Monarch addresses COVID-19 in 2020 Amid shutdowns and fears about the spread of the coronavirus in the United Kingdom and throughout the world, Queen Elizabeth addressed the country in a "unique and historic" speech, urging the U.K. to rise to the pandemic's challenge The queen acknowledged the grave challenges posed by the COVID-19 situation, hoping to elevate morale and bring hope to the country in its hour of need. On Tuesday, October 26, 2021, Queen Elizabeth II appears on a screen via video link from Windsor Castle during a virtual audience at Buckingham Palace in London, according to USA Today. Read Also: [Report] Royal Staff Panic Over Prince William, Run-Ins Following Disgraced Duke of York's Shame Queen Elizabeth II Pushed to Commit to Her Duties Until The End The death of Queen Elizabeth II elevated her son Charles to the throne, with Prince William next in line. The queen has been placed under medical surveillance, according to Buckingham Palace, and her medics are "concerned" about her health. She'd been in Balmoral for the majority of the summer. After her doctors advised her to rest, she canceled a virtual meeting with members of her Privy Council on Wednesday evening. On Tuesday, Elizabeth met with Liz Truss, the new Conservative prime minister - the queen's 15th prime minister throughout her reign - albeit, due to sickness, she broke with established protocol by seeing her at Balmoral rather than Buckingham Palace. Queen Elizabeth II's lengthy tenure as monarch was marked by great change, during which she strove to represent and defend the royal family as a unique pillar of stability in a world of shifting ideals. Queen Elizabeth, on the other hand, remained steadfastly dedicated to the monarchy's distinctive aloofness, formality, and pomp, through which it has always strived to retain the mystery that has underpinned its existence and longevity. Her somber and courtly demeanor remained unchanged. The queen departed Buckingham Palace in central London for Windsor Castle, west of the city, as the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 spread, recalling the decades she had spent generating true devotion among many Britons. After the onset of World War II in 1939, she and her younger sister, Margaret, were transferred to Windsor to avoid the fear of German bombardment. According to her historian Ben Pimlott, she also made her first radio broadcast as a princess from Windsor in 1940, at the age of 14, presumably addressed to British youngsters who had been evacuated to North America, New York Times. Related Article: Princess Diana Death Theories: These Rumors Are Still Alive Despite Princess of Wales' Passing 25 Years Ago @YouTube @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Marco Rubio has blasted attacks on the federal judge who authorized a special master for Donald Trump in his ongoing war with the DOJ. The senator slapped down claims Aileen Cannon had been motivated by political reasons, a claim raised by many because she was appointed by the former president. He said she was a 'great judge who I am very proud to have enthusiastically supported' and branded the attacks the 'latest example of hypocrisy from leftists'. It comes after the Justice Department on Thursday filed a motion to severely curtail her ruling on what a court-appointed special master would sift through. It was seeking to exempt a trove of classified material seized during the FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago August 8. Rubio's office asked the judge to apply for the nomination Rubio told the Washington Post: 'Judge Cannon is a great judge who I am very proud to have enthusiastically supported. 'The attacks against her are just the latest example of hypocrisy from leftists and their media enablers who believe the only time it is acceptable to attack a judge is if that judge rules against what they want.' Rubio's office invited the Florida judge to apply for the federal bench when she was shy of 40 years old. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is defending Judge Aileen Cannon, who ruled in Donald Trump's favor on a getting a special master She ended up getting confirmed with 12 Democratic votes in the Senate, as part of a last batch of conservatives Trump was able to install on the bench. Rubio, the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has also gone after the Justice Department, accusing the agency of leaking about the raid on the former president. 'These people every single day are strategically leaking information that can't be rebutted by the way or in any way analyzed for a reason. And that's politics to influence the narrative,' Rubio told Fox & Friends this week. Rubio defended Trump, who has called the FBI raid part of a 'witch hunt' against him, when Fox News host Steve Doocy asked about the latest report that the documents seized at the president's private club contain materials about a nation's nuclear capabilities. The interviewer told the senator: 'That doesn't seem like the kind of thing you should have in your post-presidential desk drawer.' 'First of all, again, we really don't know, because let's go back and understand that all of this information is coming from one side in one place. And that is sources with knowledge of the investigation or who are the sources of knowledge of the investigation, the FBI and the Justice Department and they are leaking to the media,' Rubio said. Judge Cannon was confirmed to a lifetime appointment before she turned 40. Her Senate hearing took place via zoom DOJ has said documents seized during the raid include 100 classified documents. Cannon, 41, ruled for Trump on Monday and gave the two sides until Friday to provide names for a potential special master. Finding such a person could be difficult, in part because according to the FBI, information seized during the raid was classified at such a high level that some of agents who took part did not even have clearance to look at it. Trump's team wants a special master to review 11,000 documents seized during the raid to weed out material that might be subject to attorney-client privilege or executive privilege. Cannon on Thursday indicated a willingness to limit the special master's role, and asked both sides to report back Legal experts bashed her first opinion saying documents were 'presumably privileged' and indicating she was inclined to rule for Trump. 'Any of my first year law students would have written a better opinion, former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal said at the time. The Justice Department is asking the judge to roll back her order in favor of former President Donald Trump's request for a special master The Justice Department released a blistering legal filing that included a photo of documents seized during the August 8 search of Mar-a-Lago DOJ on Thursday asked Judge Cannon to reverse her own order in a way that outside experts said could be a way to walk back her decision and avoid an appeal to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. They tailored the request to the classified materials alone, saying the special master could begin acting on other materials, either those that could implicate a privilege or be personal documents that aren't critical to the FBI's investigation. In a separate Thursday filing, the FBI's assistant director of counterintelligence Alan Kohler argued that allowing the FBI to conduct its own review is critical to the investigation, after the judge imposed a stay. An FBI-conducted review, the Justice Department stated, 'will enable the Government to assess the potential harms to national security resulting from any improper retention and storage of classified information.' The Justice Department urged the judge not to hold up a national security investigation even while she allowed a separate Intelligence assessment was allowed to go forward. It 'would make little sense even if it were feasible, given that the same senior DOJ and FBI officials are ultimately responsible for supervising the criminal investigation and for ensuring that DOJ and FBI are coordinating appropriately with the [Intelligence Community] on its classification review and assessment,' wrote counterintelligence chief Jay Bratt. Cannon grew up in Miami and was born in Colombia. She attended the University of Michigan law school and worked at the firm Gibson Dunn for three years. She also worked as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida. According to her Senate questionnaire, she had not done any media interviews other than an article about her wedding or sat on any panels at the time of her confirmation. Under writings, she listed papers along with other members of her law firm, as well as newspaper articles she had penned about flamenco dancing and yoga. Under associations she listed Delta Delta Delta sorority, the conservative Federalist Society, The Moorings Yacht & Country Club in Vero beach, and a law school honor society. Vladimir Putin's bloody and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine is already a failure, the head of the CIA said yesterday, even as a Ukrainian counteroffensive tears through Russian lines in the east. Director William Burns said that Putin had erred initially in underestimating Ukrainian will and ability to resist his invasion, and he continues to fatally underestimate the resolve of the West to support Kyiv and wage economic war on Russia. The outcome is that Putin has revealed that Russia - once thought to be the second military power in the world behind the US - to be a paper tiger whose economy will take decades to recover from the damage being wrought by sanctions. 'Putin's bet right now is that he is going to be tougher than the Ukrainians, the Europeans, the Americans I believe, and my colleagues at CIA believe, that Putin is as wrong about that bet as he was profoundly wrong in his assumptions going back to last February about Ukrainian will to resist,' the New York Times reports Burns as saying at a conference in Washington. 'Not only has the weakness of the Russian military been exposed but there is going to be long-term damage done to the Russian economy and to generations of Russians,' he said. While the war is still ongoing and the shape of ultimate victory yet to be seen, Mr. Burns said it was 'hard to see Putin's record in the war as anything but a failure.' CIA Director William Burns said it was 'hard to see Putin's record in the war as anything but a failure' Putin had erred initially in underestimating Ukrainian will and ability to resist his invasion, and he continues to fatally undermine the resolve of the West to support Kyiv and wage economic war on Russia, the CIA director said Left: Ukrainian soldiers - reportedly from the Kraken Special Branch - pose in with their weapons in front of a Ukrainian flag, standing or crouching on top of a Russian flag that has been pulled down. Right: A soldier poses on the steps of what appears to be a government building. Holding his weapon on the air, he is beaming from ear-to-ear. At his feet, a Russian tri-colour and red Soviet Union flag both lie in tatters while above him, the yellow and blue of a Ukrainian flag can be seen on the building On the battlefield, Ukrainian forces have seized the initiative after six months of grinding Russian offensives that have managed to grasp 20 per cent of the country's territory at huge cost in lives and materiel. Despite launching a long-awaited counteroffensive in the Kherson region in the south of the country at the end of August, there is some suggestion that this move was a feint. After highlighting their intent to finally launch a counterattack, the Ukrainian high command sucked Russian troops and armaments into an area that is difficult to supply across the Dnieper River, the fixed bridges having all been taken out by long range missile strikes. Ukraine's military also said it launched new attacks on Russian pontoon bridges used to bring supplies across the Dnieper River to Kherson, one of the largest Russian-occupied cities, and the adjacent region. This distraction in the south disguised an armour build up to the east of Ukraine around Kharkiv and launch a surprise attack to break out from thin Russian lines, leading to the retaking of Balakliia, a town of 27,000 residents. Experts and observers speculate their objective is likely the city of Kup'yans'k, which spans the Oksil River and contains a key railway hub through which nearly all Russian supplies heading into Donbas pass. If Ukraine can pull off the move, then it will leave the city of Izyum - staging post for its assault on Donbas - cut off, with troops at risk of being surrounded. More broadly, it will leave troops in the wider region badly short of supplies - particularly artillery ammunition - that they need to support their attacks. That means Russia's entire Donbas offensive could grind to a halt, opening the door to further Ukrainian counter-attacks. Two separate clips showed Ukrainian soldiers driving Humvees against Russian-occupied positions. In one of the clip (pictured), filmed with a camera on the soldier's helmet, he can be seen firing a heavy machine gun from the back of the military vehicle as it barrels towards a village at dusk In this video, at least two tanks can be seen submerged under water - the Russian 'Z' symbol clearly marked on the side A Russian-installed official in Ukraine's Kharkiv region said on Friday that civilians were being evacuated from three Russian-held towns in the region where Ukraine has launched a surprise counteroffensive. Vitaly Ganchev said on state television host Vladimir Solovyov's daily livestream that civilians were being evacuated from the towns of Izium, Kupiansk and Veliky Burluk. Ganchev said the evacuation was mainly from Kupiansk and Izium but added: 'We've now received word that Veliky Burluk is under artillery fire, so people, of course, were asked to leave for safer settlements.' Ganchev said he would turn for help to authorities in the Belgorod region of southern Russia if there were problems relocating the people who were evacuated. Kupiansk and Izium are vital logistics hubs for the Russian army in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, and both appear directly threatened by a dramatic Ukrainian counteroffensive that Kyiv says has pushed up to 50 km (30 miles) past Russian lines this week. The U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War predicted on Friday that Ukrainian forces would likely recapture Kupiansk within 72 hours. Speaking to Russian state television earlier on Friday, Ganchev said that Ukrainian forces had won a 'significant victory' in Kharkiv region, one of the first Russian official acknowledgements of the counteroffensive. Pictured: A woman embraces a soldier as she cries in both joy and disbelief as Ukrainian soldiers reach her in Balakliia In a video address, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian troops had 'liberated dozens of settlements' and reclaimed more than 385 square miles of territory in the east and south in the past week alone. Zelensky posted a video in which Ukrainian soldiers said they had captured the eastern town of Balakliia, which lies along a stretch of front stretching south of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city. If the Ukrainian gains are confirmed and held, they mean a significant defeat for Putin's forces. Western intelligence services say Russia has suffered large casualties, with Kyiv's estimates suggesting more than 50,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since the invasion began on February 24. Should the Ukrainian advances be confirmed, this number could continue to rise rapidly. The Institute for the Study of War think tank said the Ukrainians were now within just 15 km of Kupiansk, an essential junction for the main railway lines that Moscow has been using for months to supply its forces on the battlefields in the east. But Putin's permanent representative to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya, said only 'several peripheral villages' had been taken. 'As far as we can judge, even the top brass of the Ukrainian armed forces opposed this madness,' he said. 'However, the leader of Ukraine was obstinate following his conversation with his US and UK colleagues. 'As a result, the bodies of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers, who were sent to their deaths and were prevented from turning back by anti-retreat forces, are scattered in fields near Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia and in the forests near Kharkiv,' he claimed. A political argument over Brazil's October presidential elections turned deadly when a man stabbed his coworker with a knife and then delivered a blow to his neck with an axe. The civil police chief Victor Oliveira for the central rural town of Confresa said the killer, Rafael Silva, a 22-year-old supporter of President Jair Bolsonaro, and Benedito Cardoso, a 42-year-old backer of presidential candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, had gotten into an argument Wednesday. The men, who work together cutting wood at a farm, were talking about the October 2 presidential election when Cardoso punched Silva in the face. The men struggled during the fight with Silva snatching the knife from Cardoso, according to Oliveira. Rafael Silva, 22, who supports the reelection of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, is facing a homicide charge after he confessed to murdering Benedito Cardoso, a 42-year-old backer of presidential candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, during an argument over politics at a farm in the central rural town of Confresa on Wednesday President Jair Bolsonaro will be seeking a second term on election day October 2. He is 10 points behind former president and now-candidate Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, according a poll that was released this week Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is making a second run as president of Brazil. He held the presidency from 2003 to 2010 At one point, Silva ran after Cardoso and started punching him in the back. Cardoso was lying on the ground when Silva stabbed him at least 15 times in the eyes, neck and forehead. Silva then went over to the shed and retrieved an axe before walked back to decapitate Cardoso, striking him in the neck. Silva hid the knife and axe in the farm and visited a local hospital for treatment to cuts on his hand and forehead, telling doctors he had been injured in a robbery. A police officer escorts Rafael Silva, a 22-year-old supporter of President Jair Bolsonaro A knife (left) and axe (right) were recovered from the central Brazil farm where a 22-year-old man murdered his coworker, 42, during an argument about the October 2 presidential election Authorities were alerted and took Silva to the police precinct, where he confessed to killing his coworker. He was placed in custody on a homicide charge. A judge granted the prosecution's petition to place Silva in pre-trial detention. 'Intolerance must not and will not be allowed, on pain of regressing to times of barbarism,' the judge opined. 'The freedom of expression of thought, be it political party, religious, or other, is a fundamental guarantee that cannot be waived.' The killing comes as Brazilian politicians had already raised concerns over the violent atmosphere leading up to election day October 2. On August 31, police officer Vitor da Silva was attacked by Davi de Souza, 40, and shot him in the leg during a political argument at a church in the central state of Goias. Marcelo Arruda, a 50-year-old father of four, was shot dead by police officer Jorge da Rocha, a supporter of President Bolsonaro, on July 9 in Foz do Iguacu, Parana. Da Rocha showed up uninvited at a hall where Arruda was celebrating his birthday and confronted him and his guests, shouting 'this is Bolsonaro' and called the president a legend. Da Rocha allegedly warned Arruda and said, 'I am going to come back and I'm going to kill you all.' He drove off and returned, firing two shots before he charged inside the building. He was tackled by a woman, but managed to fire another shot, striking Arruda who also responded with several shots before he died. Lula da Silva, who was president from 2003 to 2010, holds a 10-point lead over Bolsonaro ahead of the October, according to a Genial/Quaest poll released this week. Joe Biden has revealed he hasn't touched base with King Charles III yet but will travel to London for the Queen's funeral. The President said he has not called him or spoken to him as he answered media questions during a trip to Ohio. But earlier sources confirmed he would be heading to Britain to attend Her Majesty's funeral, but details were being withheld until Buckingham Palace was ready. On Thursday night, DailyMail.com broke the news that Biden would likely attend. President Joe Biden revealed that he hasn't touched base with King Charles III yet, but confirmed he will travel to London for Queen Elizabeth's funeral when talking to reporters as he left Ohio Friday afternoon 'I know him. I haven't spoken to him. I did not call him yet,' President Joe Biden (right) said when asked if he touched base with King Charles III (left). The two men were photographed together at the COP26 summit in Glasgow, Scotland last November President Joe Biden told DailyMail.com that 'yes, probably,' he'd attend Queen Elizabeth's funeral as he departed a Democratic National Committee event Thursday night President Joe Biden and the first lady made an unannounced visit to the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., on Thursday evening, hours after the Queen's death was announced Biden signed the book of condolence, flanked by Dame Karen Pierce, British ambassador to the U.S., and the first lady. 'We're so delighted to get to meet her,' he said afterwards The president revealed the latest update as he stepped off his plane during a trip to Columbus for a speech on semiconductors. He said of King Charles: 'I know him. I haven't spoken to him. I did not call him yet,' Biden said when asked if he touched base with the new King.' He continued: 'Yes. I don't know what the details are yet but I'll be going. Asked by DailyMail.com last night if he would go during a Democratic National Committee event in Oxon Hill, Maryland, he said: 'Yes, probably.' On board Air Force One Friday, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre wouldn't confirm the trip or divulge any details. 'One of the things we want to be mindful of, as you all know, there's a process, there's a phone call here, official protocol, in which leaders are invited. So we are not going to get ahead of that protocol,' Jean-Pierre said. When a reporter pointed the press secretary to Biden's remarks, Jean-Pierre repeated that the White House wanted to be mindful of protocol. 'I'll let the president's statement stand for itself,' she added. The Bidens put their name to a message praising the way Elizabeth 'led with enduring strength and dignity,' before heading on to a political event The White House said President Joe Biden had met the Queen three times, most recently for tea with first lady Jilly Biden at Windsor Castle in 2021, where they inspected a guard of honor Biden paid tribute to the Queen after her death was announced on Thursday, saying: 'In a world of constant change, she was a steadying presence and a source of comfort and pride for generations of Britons including many who have never known their country without her' The president issued a proclamation on Thursday afternoon, paying tribute to the Queen and ordering the US flag to be flown at half staff at the White House and other public buildings On Thursday, Biden twice paid homage to the Queen - first stopping at the British embassy in Washington to sign a book of condolence, hours after Buckingham Palace announced the death of the long-serving British monarch. 'We mourn for all of you,' he said, accompanied by first lady Jill Biden. 'She was a great lady. We're so delighted to get to meet her,' the president added. Later, he opened up his remarks at the DNC summer meeting by speaking about the Queen. 'I had the opportunity to meet her before she passed and she was an incredibly decent and gracious woman,' Biden said. 'And the thoughts and prayers of the American people are with the people of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth in their grief.' He spoke to DailyMail.com after nearly an hour of chatting with DNC members and taking selfies. Earlier in the day he issued a proclamation ordering the flags to be flown at half-staff at the White House and other federal buildings. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did the same for the flags that fly over Congress. Made the journey to Buckingham Palace in a vintage Rolls-Royce, with huge crowds cheering their arrival King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla touched down at Northolt around 1.30pm after leaving Balmoral Advertisement King Charles III wiped away tears today and appeared to clutch his heart after the first royal walkaround of his reign at Buckingham Palace today. The King was greeted by kisses and shouts of 'God Save the King' as he received a rapturous welcome from thousands of well-wishers. The King was heard telling well-wishers, 'Thank you so much, it's so kind, it really is', 'God bless you' and 'I've really dreaded this day' during the 15-minute walkabout. One woman shouted to him, 'We love you King Charles and we loved your mum'. Huge crowds cheered as the visibly emotional sovereign arrived in a vintage Rolls-Royce alongside Camilla, the Queen Consort, before he got out and began shaking hands with countless members of the public waiting behind a barrier. In moving scenes less than 24 hours after the death of his mother the Queen, shouts of God Save the King broke out before an impromptu rendition of the National Anthem, with the words changed for the new monarch. As the sun shone on an otherwise dull, damp day, the Royal Standard was raised above Buckingham Palace for the first time of his reign. Onlookers shouted three cheers for Charles as one woman leaned over to kiss him on the hand and another asked 'Can I kiss you?' before pecking him on the cheek. Others reached out holding red roses for the King as the Queen Consort followed behind at a distance before joining her husband at his side to view the floral tributes left outside the gates. As a bugle sounded, Charles, dressed in mourning black suit and tie, walked side by side with Camilla - who seemed close to tears - through the main entrance of Buckingham Palace. Queen Camilla and the King proceeded to go through the Palace archway as Charles appeared to lift his hand to his heart and then face, in an apparent bid to wipe away a tear. Film director Raynald Leconte, 47, who is from New York, said he was lucky enough to speak to the King and Queen Consort. 'It was quite a moment,' he said. 'I said, 'condolences'. He said, ''really, really thank you very much''. And to his wife I wished her good luck and she said, ''thank you very much''. I think she said, ''I'll need it''.' Mother of three Stella Johnson said: 'I think he will be wonderful, and I just wanted to come here to see him. This is really a historic moment and I wanted to make sure I did not miss it.' Further back in the crowd, a former Guardsman, who asked not to be named, gave the crowd a running commentary as he was tall enough to see over the crowds and pick out Charles as he met mourners. He also talked them through the protocol of the Guards who had assembled in the Palace forecourt to salute the new King as he made his way into the Palace, where he has held his first audience with Prime Minister Liz Truss. Charles then gave a televised address to the nation at 6pm while a service of prayer and reflection is taking place at St Paul's Cathedral. Huge crowds cheered the couple as they arrived at the palace before the King left his car. Several people kissed his hand as he passed Onlookers shouted three cheers for Charles as he spoke to countless onlookers who had gathered to mourn his mother Cheers rang out at Buckingham Palace as the King and Queen Consort arrived, along with shouts of 'God save the King' Many in the crowd were visibly emotional, while others held their phones aloft to try to catch at glimpse of the King It was the new King's first walkabout and encounter with the public since his historic accession and crowds lined up behind a barrier clamouring to greet him A visibly emotional Charles pauses to look at floral tributes to his mother that have been left outside the gates of Buckingham Palace Charles embraces Camilla as they look at the floral tributes before making their way through the palace's main gates The new king thanked people for their good wishes, shaking countless hands after stepping from his state Bentley Shouts of God Save the King went up, along with three cheers, for the new head of state, dressed in mourning black suit and tie, who smiled and waved at the mass of people The King waves to crowds outside Buckingham Palace, where he arrived with Camilla after they travelled from Balmoral Elizabeth II, Charles' mother and an icon instantly recognisable to billions of people around the world, died at her Scottish Highland retreat yesterday Charles - pictured with Camilla - met Prime Minister Liz Truss today before giving a speech to the nation The King must turn to his duties as monarch despite his grief, and has held his first in-person audience with Prime Minister Liz Truss at Buckingham Palace The King and Queen Consort view the flowers and messages left by members of the public outside Buckingham Palace this afternoon The Queen Consort joined the King at his side to view the hundreds of floral tributes, notes and Union flags left outside the gates The new King gives a final wave as he and his wife walk into Buckingham Palace under the watchful eye of armed policemen As a bugler sounded, the couple - both dressed in black - walked side by side through the main entrance of Buckingham Palace King Charles III and the Queen Consort drive down the Mall followed by several 4x4s before they got out at the gates of Buckingham Palace Huge crowds cheered the couple as they arrived at the palace before the King left his car and began shaking hands with members of the public Huge crowds cheered the couple as they arrived at the palace in a state Rolls-Royce, with the King visibly emotional Charles and Camilla - now King and Queen Consort - wave to members of the public as they arrive at Buckingham Palace in a Rolls-Royce Camilla had joined Charles on the poignant journey from Balmoral, where the Queen died peacefully on Thursday at the age of 96, arriving at RAF Northolt in west London at around 1.35pm Tributes continue to be paid to the woman described by the Prime Minister as the 'rock on which modern Britain was built', with the Dalai Lama expressing his 'deep sadness' over the death of the Queen in a letter to the King Details of the King's historic Accession Council, which will be held on Saturday at 10am in St James's Palace, were announced by Buckingham Palace. It will be televised for the first time in its history, showing the King being formally proclaimed monarch and Charles making his declaration and oath. A Principal Proclamation will be read in public for the first time by the Garter King of Arms in the open air from the balcony overlooking Friary Court at St James's an hour later at 11am. It will be followed by a flurry of proclamations around the country, with the second one in the City of London at the Royal Exchange at midday on Saturday, and further proclamations in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales at midday on Sunday. One of the first to offer words of support to the new King was Laura Ohmona. She said after shaking hands with Charles: 'I said to him 'sorry for your loss' and he said 'thank-you'.' Also among the crowds at Buckingham Palace was retired Ammar Al-Baldawi, 64, from Hertfordshire, who said: 'It was impressive, touching, a good move to come out to the crowds. 'I think that's where the royal family needs to communicate with the people now. These are true loyalists here and it's nice to see him back in post, taking charge of the family and the Crown, which is reassuring.' Colin Hennessy, 52, said: 'It's great to see the King. You can see he's very emotional but he was very grateful to everybody here. He thanked as many people as he could as he walked by.' Joyce Curtis, 72, from Jersey, said: 'I just wanted to be here. It was great. I have respect for him. He walked all the way along to see the people and back to see the flowers. It is what the people wanted to see, which is great.' Emma Spreckley, 43, had travelled to Buckingham Palace with her friend Jacqueline Southwick, 55, from their homes in Mitcham, south London. She was sympathetic to the grieving King: 'He looked a bit shocked, I suppose he is as it's your mum at the end of the day, and now he's here shaking people's hands and trying to, I suppose, get through it as best he can.' In reference to the thousands who were at the palace to pay their respects to the late Queen, Ms Southwick added 'Seeing all this - he's got the support of the nation.' Meanwhile, John Hardy said he was confident Charles would be a calming influence on the country when he is finally crowned King. 'It does seem that he has been around for such a long time that we've all known him. No one will ever replace the Queen and the affection she has held for everyone in this country. 'But I think Charles has a lot of respect and people will support him.' The couple had landed at RAF Northolt just after 1.30pm after leaving Balmoral, where they had stayed overnight after racing up to be at the late Queen's bedside. Charles has already turned his hand to his duties as monarch despite his grief. He gave the order that a period of 'Royal Mourning' for the Queen will be observed from now until seven days after her funeral. Royal Mourning will be observed by members of the royal family, royal household staff and representatives of the royal Household on official duties, together with troops committed to ceremonial duties. The Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge is also travelling back to Windsor to be with his family ahead of the Accession Council, which William will attend. Candles lit up the flowers laid by thousands of people in London tonight at Buckingham Palace Tributes and flowers were left at the gates of Buckingham Palace as the nation mourned its great Queen, who led the country for 70 years Thousands of poeple have paid their respects to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, who died on Thursday aged 96 Typical British weather didn't stop mourners paying their respects to the late monarch as evening drew in at Buckingham Palace Service of Prayer and Reflection at St Paul's Cathedral, London, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday Charles and Camilla wave to crowds outside Buckingham Palace. The bollard in the background bears his mother's cypher Charles - wearing a black mourning suit - joins his wife to inspect the flowers and Union flags laid outside the palace Charles spent about 15 minutes greeting members of the public before joining his wife as they walked through the palace gates The new King places his arm around Camilla as they walk pass photographers towards the gates of the palace In a touching moment Charles put his hand around his wife who was visibly moved after meeting the well-wishers before the began to look at the letters, cards, bouquets and candles left in memory of the Queen. A sentry stands guard by Buckingham Palace, where the Royal Standard had been hoisted for the first time in Charles' reign The King must turn to his duties as monarch despite his grief, as he prepares to hold his first audience with Prime Minister Liz Truss ahead of delivering a televised address to a nation in mourning at 6pm on Friday Today, tributes continued to be paid to the woman described by the Prime Minister as the 'rock on which modern Britain was built', with the Dalai Lama expressing his 'deep sadness' over the death of the Queen in a letter to the King. He told Charles: 'Your mother lived a meaningful life with dignity, grace, a strong sense of service and a warm heart, qualities we all should treasure.' Thousands of people have flocked the Queen's former homes of Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and Balmoral to pay their respects, leaving hundreds of bouquets, personal notes and candles in her honour. Charles has already turned his hand to his duties He gave the order that a period of 'Royal Mourning' for the Queen will be observed from now until seven days after her funeral. Royal Mourning will be observed by members of the royal family, royal household staff and representatives of the royal household on official duties, together with troops committed to ceremonial duties. Royal salutes were fired with one round for every year of the Queen's life on Friday at 1pm in Hyde Park by the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery. Thousands of people stood in solemn silence for 16 minutes as the cannons boomed once every 10 seconds, sending smoke across the grounds with each round, applauding as the spectacle came to an end. The PM and senior ministers will attend a public service of remembrance at St Paul's Cathedral in central London this evening. King Charles III and Camilla, the Queen Consort, arrive at RAF Northolt in London this afternoon Charles is welcomed by Station Commander Group Captain McPhaden after he and Camilla touched down at the RAF airbase The couple left the airport in a vintage Rolls-Royce for the journey to Buckingham Palace where thousands of people had gathered to greet them An emotional King Charles III leaving Balmoral on his way to Aberdeen Airport on the first leg of his journey to London Queen Consort Camilla also appeared to have teary eyes as she sat in the front seat en route to Aberdeen Airport King Charles III arrives at Aberdeen Airport after leaving Balmoral, following the death of his mother last night The monarch shook hands at the airport before boarding a flight to London, where he will address the nation this evening King Charles III at Aberdeen Airport as he travels to London with the Queen Consort following the death of his mother A vehicle carrying Britain's King Charles leaves Balmoral Castle, following the passing of Britain's Queen Elizabeth King Charles III and the Queen Consort leave Birkhall in Scotland as they travel to London following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday The King (pictured looking emotional on his way out of Balmoral this morning) has also instructed a period of royal mourning from now until seven days after his mother's funeral - a date yet to be confirmed King Charles III and the Queen arrive at Aberdeen Airport as they travel to London following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday Members of the royal family had made the urgent dash to be with the frail monarch as her health failed yesterday. Prince William - now using the title of the Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge - left Balmoral just before 1pm and is travelling back to Windsor to be with his family ahead of the Accession Council, Kensington Palace said. Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, still remain at the estate. 'During this period of mourning and change, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which The Queen was so widely held.' Charles was by his mother's side for much of the day after catching the royal helicopter from Dumfries House in Ayrshire with his wife Camilla. Handout issued by Buckingham Palace of the notice for the Accession Council and Principal Proclamation of King Charles III Charles has released a statement about the death of Queen Elizabeth, describing her as a 'cherished Sovereign and a much-loved Mother' Charles III becomes first King Charles since 1600s Charles III is the first King Charles since the 1600s and shares the official name with monarchs who reigned during one of the most turbulent periods in British history. The new monarch chose to use his Christian name as his official name, as his mother did, breaking from royal tradition. The reigns of father and son Charles I and Charles II spanned from 1625 to 1685 and saw the overthrow and restoration of the monarchy, the Great Fire of London, and the plague. Charles I was the only British monarch to have been publicly tried and executed for treason, while Charles II - known as the Merry Monarch - spent many years in exile, fathering a dozen illegitimate children by numerous mistresses. Charles II's reign also featured the plague and the Great Fire of London. Although Charles is Charles III, Bonnie Prince Charlie - The Young Pretender - was known to his supporters as Charles III. Charles I was an unpopular king whose reign saw the temporary downfall of the monarchy and the establishment of an English republic before it was restored 11 years later. Born in November 1660, Charles I moved to England from Scotland when his father, King James VI of Scotland, inherited the English throne in 1603. He became heir apparent when his brother, Henry Frederick Prince of Wales, died at the age of 18 in 1612. Charles I married Bourbon Princess Henrietta Maria of France in 1625 angered protestant religious groups. He also argued with parliament, which wanted to curb his powers, while many subjects opposed his policies which included levying taxes without parliamentary consent. Attempts to force the church of Scotland to adopt Anglican practices also led to religious conflicts, which in turn resulted in the strengthening of English and Scottish parliaments, helping to pave the way for his eventual downfall. Charles I fought the armies of the English and Scottish parliaments but was defeated in 1645 and captured. After a brief period of escape, he was re-captured and executed in Whitehall in 1649 after being tried and convicted of high treason. His son, Charles II was proclaimed King of Scotland upon the execution and attempted to reclaim England but was defeated by Oliver Cromwell at the Battle of Worcester in 1651 before fleeing to mainland Europe where he spent nine years in exile. Following Oliver Cromwell's death in 1658 and the resignation of his son, Richard, the following year, parliament proclaimed Charles II king and invited him to the return to England in 1660. Five years later, Charles II fled London for Salisbury as the plague hit London, killing thousands. The following year, in 1666, Charles II and his brother James joined and directed the firefighting effort during the Great Fire of London. Charles had no legitimate children, but had 12 children by seven mistresses, leading to the nickname 'Old Rowley', the name of his favourite racehorse stallion. The present Dukes of Buccleuch, Richmond, Grafton and St Albans descend from Charles, while Diana, Princess of Wales, was a descendent of two of Charles's illegitimate sons - the Dukes of Grafton and Richmond. Diana's son, Prince William, Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge and heir to the British throne, could be the first British monarch descended from Charles II. Advertisement His younger sister Princess Anne was already at Balmoral after royal duties also took her to Scotland. They were joined by other senior members of the Royal Family including Her Majesty's other two children, Andrew and Edward, and Prince William. The family rushed to the Queen's Scottish residence after an unprecedented statement from her doctors revealed they were 'concerned' about her health and were keeping her under medical supervision. Charles is becoming monarch at 73 years old, nearly half a century older than the Queen was when she found herself in the same position. He is likely to launch a radical overhaul of the monarchy in the wake of his mother's death, having frequently spoken about a slimmed-down front-line. Royal watchers believe the former Prince of Wales is keen to ensure there are 'no hangers-on' in the Firm, with each member being expected to pull their weight in a new and more streamlined monarchy. The concept of the 'slimmed-down monarch' was clear to see during the Platinum Jubilee in June when the Queen restricted those appearing on the Buckingham Palace balcony to working members of the Royal Family. But King Charles' original model, which reportedly involved a tight core of just seven people, including himself, has been thrown into doubt following a series of external events. The plan, put in motion before the Queen's death, originally included the long-reigning monarch along with Prince Philip, King Charles and Camilla, Prince William and Kate and Prince Harry. Philip died aged 99 in 2021, while Harry's future in the slimmed-down monarchy seems hugely doubtful following his decision to quit front line royal duties and move to America with his wife Meghan Markle. Meanwhile, Prince Andrew, who would likely have featured in a slimmed-down monarchy as a son of the Queen and King Charles' brother, has been outcast since his US sex assault lawsuit with Virginia Giuffre. But that has pushed Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, and Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, Countess of Wessex, into the fray as 'key' parts of Prince Charles' future monarchy, according to royal watchers. As Charles becomes King, Prince William is to become the new Prince of Wales, with his wife Kate Middleton taking on the new title of the Princess of Wales. As the new King, Charles will be front-and-centre of the new-look monarchy. Alongside his reported desire to slim-down the size of the family, the biggest immediate change will be his residence. The former Prince of Wales's official residence has been Clarence House, on The Mall in the City of Westminster, since 2003. While the Queen's official residence has been Buckingham Palace, she spent much of her time at her favoured Windsor Castle following the death of her beloved Prince Philip. According to royal biographer Penny Junor in her book 'The Firm', the Queen wanted to remain living at Clarence House after her father's death, but was convinced by Winston Churchill to move to Buckingham Palace - because of its significance as the home of the monarch. It is believed Kings Charles will follow in his mother's footsteps and move into Buckingham Palace. One royal source told the Mail on Sunday in February 2022: 'There is no question about it. HRH's view is that you need a monarch at monarchy HQ. This has never been in doubt. 'The Prince of Wales will not move into Buckingham Palace before he is king. But when he is, he absolutely will. 'Just like the Queen, it will effectively be in the 'flat above the shop'. He feels it is right, just as the Queen does, to work out of Buckingham Palace. 'The Palace will still be a working and entertaining hub and will also still be open to visitors. It is a hugely important tourist attraction. Advertisement King Charles III extended an olive branch to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in his first address to Britain and the world as monarch. The new Sovereign, who became King the moment that his mother Queen Elizabeth II passed away yesterday afternoon at Balmoral Castle aged 96, said he wished to 'express my love for Harry and Meghan as they continue to build their lives overseas' - in a move likely to be regarded by royal commentators as a bid to finally draw a line under the tumult of recent years. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex plunged the monarchy into crisis during the twilight years of the Queen's reign after sensationally quitting frontline royal duties and moving to California two years ago - a saga which precipitated the rift between Harry and his brother William, allegations of racism against the royals and claims the Firm failed to help a suicidal Meghan. After their bombshell interview with US talk show host Oprah Winfrey, Harry appeared to suggest, in a mental health podcast, that his father and the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh had all failed as parents - while the family was still mourning Prince Philip's death last year. The Duke of Sussex had grief etched on his face as he was swept into the grounds of Windsor Castle this afternoon after losing a race against time to get to his grandmother's bedside before she died yesterday. King Charles III went to Buckingham Palace to meet fellow mourners this afternoon where he shook hands and accepted their condolences to cries of 'God save the King' and impromptu renditions of the national anthem. One woman kissed him on the cheek. He also inspected flowers and tributes left for his late mother at the gates before entering the palace. Harry landed at Heathrow this lunchtime after jumping on an early morning BA flight where he comforted an airport worker with a reassuring hand on her shoulder after she gave him her condolences. He left Balmoral after 12 hours mourning his grandmother with his father and brother - but despite the brevity of the visit, the Sussexes are not expected to return to California until after the state funeral, currently expected to be ten days from now on Monday, September 19. The Duke of Sussex was the last royal to arrive at the Aberdeenshire castle last night and the first to leave this morning. King Charles III extended an olive branch to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in his first address as monarch Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex at St Paul's Cathedral in June 2022 Onlookers shouted three cheers for Charles as he spoke to countless onlookers who had gathered to mourn his mother The new king thanked people for their good wishes, shaking countless hands after stepping from his state Bentley Harry and Meghan's titles have not changed, and, although the duke has moved up from sixth to fifth in line to the throne, he is still too far down the line of succession to ever be expected to be king. The Sussexes' children, Archie and Lili, are now, as the grandchildren of a monarch, a prince and a princess. But it is not known whether they will use the titles, which they were not entitled to when they were born. Following the death of the Queen, Harry and Meghan are left with Charles as King and head of The Firm, and William elevated to the key role of heir apparent. While Harry and Meghan appeared to have invested their time developing their bond with the Queen, their relationship with Charles and William has been greatly troubled. Charles III's speech in full 'I speak to you today with feelings of profound sorrow. Throughout her life, Her Majesty The Queen - my beloved Mother - was an inspiration and example to me and to all my family, and we owe her the most heartfelt debt any family can owe to their mother; for her love, affection, guidance, understanding and example. 'Queen Elizabeth was a life well lived; a promise with destiny kept and she is mourned most deeply in her passing. That promise of lifelong service I renew to you all today. 'Alongside the personal grief that all my family are feeling, we also share with so many of you in the United Kingdom, in all the countries where The Queen was Head of State, in the Commonwealth and across the world, a deep sense of gratitude for the more than 70 years in which my Mother, as Queen, served the people of so many nations. 'In 1947, on her 21st birthday, she pledged in a broadcast from Cape Town to the Commonwealth to devote her life, whether it be short or long, to the service of her peoples. That was more than a promise: it was a profound personal commitment which defined her whole life. She made sacrifices for duty. 'Her dedication and devotion as Sovereign never waivered, through times of change and progress, through times of joy and celebration, and through times of sadness and loss. 'In her life of service we saw that abiding love of tradition, together with that fearless embrace of progress, which make us great as Nations. The affection, admiration and respect she inspired became the hallmark of her reign. 'And, as every member of my family can testify, she combined these qualities with warmth, humour and an unerring ability always to see the best in people. 'I pay tribute to my Mother's memory and I honour her life of service. I know that her death brings great sadness to so many of you and I share that sense of loss, beyond measure, with you all. 'When The Queen came to the throne, Britain and the world were still coping with the privations and aftermath of the Second World War, and still living by the conventions of earlier times. In the course of the last 70 years we have seen our society become one of many cultures and many faiths. 'The institutions of the State have changed in turn. But, through all changes and challenges, our nation and the wider family of Realms - of whose talents, traditions and achievements I am so inexpressibly proud - have prospered and flourished. Our values have remained, and must remain, constant. 'The role and the duties of Monarchy also remain, as does the Sovereign's particular relationship and responsibility towards the Church of England - the Church in which my own faith is so deeply rooted. 'In that faith, and the values it inspires, I have been brought up to cherish a sense of duty to others, and to hold in the greatest respect the precious traditions, freedoms and responsibilities of our unique history and our system of parliamentary government. 'As The Queen herself did with such unswerving devotion, I too now solemnly pledge myself, throughout the remaining time God grants me, to uphold the Constitutional principles at the heart of our nation. 'And wherever you may live in the United Kingdom, or in the Realms and territories across the world, and whatever may be your background or beliefs, I shall endeavour to serve you with loyalty, respect and love, as I have throughout my life. My life will of course change as I take up my new responsibilities. 'It will no longer be possible for me to give so much of my time and energies to the charities and issues for which I care so deeply. But I know this important work will go on in the trusted hands of others. 'This is also a time of change for my family. I count on the loving help of my darling wife, Camilla. In recognition of her own loyal public service since our marriage 17 years ago, she becomes my Queen Consort. 'I know she will bring to the demands of her new role the steadfast devotion to duty on which I have come to rely so much. As my Heir, William now assumes the Scottish titles which have meant so much to me. 'He succeeds me as Duke of Cornwall and takes on the responsibilities for the Duchy of Cornwall which I have undertaken for more than five decades. Today, I am proud to create him Prince of Wales, Tywysog Cymru, the country whose title I have been so greatly privileged to bear during so much of my life and duty. 'With Catherine beside him, our new Prince and Princess of Wales will, I know, continue to inspire and lead our national conversations, helping to bring the marginal to the centre ground where vital help can be given. I want also to express my love for Harry and Meghan as they continue to build their lives overseas. 'In a little over a week's time we will come together as a nation, as a Commonwealth and indeed a global community, to lay my beloved mother to rest. In our sorrow, let us remember and draw strength from the light of her example. 'On behalf of all my family, I can only offer the most sincere and heartfelt thanks for your condolences and support. They mean more to me than I can ever possibly express. 'And to my darling Mama, as you begin your last great journey to join my dear late Papa, I want simply to say this: thank you. 'Thank you for your love and devotion to our family and to the family of nations you have served so diligently all these years. May 'flights of Angels sing thee to thy rest'.' Advertisement In April 2022, Harry, after meeting the Queen face to face for the first time in two years, told US network NBC he was making sure she was 'protected' and had the 'right people around her'. He sidestepped a question about whether he missed Charles and William, having met his father for just 15 minutes while briefly back in the UK. In the Oprah interview in 2021, Harry said he felt let down by Charles and that 'there's a lot of hurt that's happened', and said his father stopped taking his calls in the build-up to their Megxit announcement. In a move likely to have enraged William, Meghan accused the Duchess of Cambridge of making her cry in the run-up to her wedding, and the palace of failing to correct reports that it had been the other way round. In 2019 Harry laid bare his rift with William, telling an ITV documentary crew that he and William were on 'different paths' and had good and bad days. He went on to tell Oprah that he loved his brother but their relationship was 'space at the moment', adding 'time heals all things, hopefully'. The royals are also bracing themselves for Harry's memoirs, due out later in 2022, amid fears they could reopen old wounds and spark a new crisis. Harry travelled to Balmoral to join his father, brother and family at the Queen's bedside, but Meghan remained down south. Harry headed back to Meghan at 8.28am, where he was sat alone in the rear of a Range Rover as he was driven out of the Royal Family's Scottish home, where he had arrived at 7.52pm last night. He was swept into Aberdeen airport at 9.20am, led by five police outriders, and boarded a flight to London leaving at 10am. Harry wore a black suit and carried a shoulder bag as he walked towards the steps of the plane. An airport worker offered her sympathies as the Prince was about to walk up the steps of a British Airways aircraft. The woman, who was dressed in a high- visibility yellow jacket, addressed Prince Harry. The royal smiled and patted her gently in the shoulder before boarding the aircraft for London's Heathrow Airport. Grief was written on the duke's face after he landed in Scotland yesterday - 15 minutes after Her Majesty's death was announced to the world. He had his head bowed and partially covered his face as he was driven out of Aberdeen airport, arriving at Balmoral after dark. He left 12 hours later. Prince William had flown up on a RAF jet with Prince Andrew, Prince Edward and his wife Sophie. But it is understood that they did not reach the estate before she passed. Initial reports had said his younger brother would also be on board. But instead Harry was in mid air when Buckingham Palace announced the death of his beloved grandmother. He flew by private jet from Luton Airport, arriving at Balmoral an hour and a half after the historic statement. Courtiers issued the declaration at 6.30pm - just over an hour after Prince William and other senior royals had arrived to join Prince Charles at the Queen's residence. Liz Truss was told at around 4.30pm, Downing Street said. But when the world was being told the saddest of news, Harry's Cessna was still in the air, making its approach to Aberdeen Airport. The Duke of Sussex's flight had been due to land at 6.29pm, a minute before the statement. But it was 20 minutes late taking off from London's Luton Airport - with flight data showing it departed at 5.35pm. It took one hour and 11 minutes to reach Aberdeen. By the time he landed, at 6.46pm, it was 16 minutes after the palace had made the announcement. Harry then faced a lonely drive to the castle, finally arriving at 7.52pm where he joined other members of the Royal Family in mourning the Queen's death. He looked ashen-faced on the back seat of the Range Rover as it swept into the Balmoral estate. As well as losing a beloved grandmother, he may have been reflecting on his future without her as monarch. She remained fond of him, in spite of recent challenges, and he was said to have retained an ability to make her laugh. By the time he arrived, his and Meghan's Archewell website homepage had been replaced with a respectful blackedout page with the words: 'In loving memory of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 1926-2022.' Earlier in the day there had been confusion over whether Meghan was also on her way to Scotland. The duke, grieving for his grandmother, will be expected to attend the Queen's funeral, with Meghan also likely to join him. She missed Philip's funeral in 2021 while heavily pregnant with daughter Lili. An absentee duchess would be seen as a snub and disrespectful, but a public appearance with Harry alongside the rest of the royal family could prove immensely difficult. When King George VI died, his brother, the former Edward VIII, returned for the funeral, but his American wife, the Duchess of Windsor, formerly Wallis Simpson, for whom he gave up the throne, was absent. She remained in the United States, where they were living at the time. Former Suits actress Meghan was the first American divorcee to marry a senior royal since Mrs Simpson, and both she and Harry moved across the Atlantic to California after quitting as senior working royals in March 2020. Harry could seize the chance to reunite with his family amid their shared grief and heartache for the loss of the Queen. As the new head of the Windsors, Charles could, if he sees fit, offer to welcome Harry and Meghan back as part-time working royals - although this could conflict with their Netflix and Spotify commercial deals and new life away from the monarchy. The aftermath of the Queen's death could be a time to build bridges, but it remains to be seen whether those have long since been burned. Advertisement Moving photos show how Britain stood still to watch King Charles III's deeply personal and touching tribute to his 'dear mama' Queen Elizabeth II in pubs and homes across the country - and even on their mobile phones while gathered outside Buckingham Palace. Britons in public houses from London, Windsor and York to Manchester and Edinburgh stopped to watch Charles' first speech as Britain's monarch before raising a glass and toasting the 70-year reign of his mother - who died at Balmoral Castle on Thursday aged 96 - and the health of the new King. Families at home gathered around their TV sets, while mourners outside the gates of the Palace streaming the address live from their mobile phones. And even British tourists at a cocktail bar and party in the English Quarter in Benidorm watched as King Charles III makes his first speech - before cheering the long period of stability that Queen Elizabeth II's reign ensured and then resuming their fun. Many viewers instantly took to Twitter to describe how they 'sobbed like a waterfall' upon watching the King's address. One user, called @SeagullRichard, said that he wept after listening to the King's speech while laying flowers for the Queen in St Albans. Katrien Vanderschoot said everyone in the pub she was in 'was glued to the screen' while watching Charles, 72, speak. People gathered together in their local hotspots, including Paul Hurst, who was watching from a pub in St Paul's. He tweeted: 'Watching the service from St. Paul's and the first speech of King Charles with all the locals in our local bar. A real sense of respect and admiration, both for the Late Queen Elizabeth II. His Majesty, King Charles III and Queen Consort, Camilla.' Others, such as Isabel Morillo, watched from overseas, saying: 'Gibraltarians very attentive to the speech of the new King Charles.' People stopped to watch the live television broadcast of King Charles III's address at the Westminster Arms Pub in London Drinkers in the Prince of Wales pub in central London watch a televised address by Britain's King Charles III People listen to King Charles address the nation, outside Buckingham Palace Customers of the Old Coffee House pub watch as King Charles III addresses the nation for the first time since becoming King English tourists watch as King Charles III makes his first speech at a cocktail bar and party in the English Quarter in Benidorm People use a phone to watch Britain's King Charles address the nation in a televised speech, following the passing of Queen Elizabeth, at the The King and Castle pub in Windsor King Charles III gave his first televised address to the nation following the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II During his historic televised address to the nation, Charles made a poignant and moving tribute to his 'darling Mama'. The King said of his 'beloved mother' the late Elizabeth II: 'We owe her the most heartfelt debt any family can owe to their mother; for her love, affection, guidance, understanding and example'. He added, acknowledging the sad loss of the Queen's husband the Duke of Edinburgh just 17 months ago: 'To my darling Mama, as you begin your last great journey to join my dear late Papa, I want simply to say this: thank you. Thank you for your love and devotion to our family and to the family of nations you have served so diligently all these years. May 'flights of Angels sing thee to thy rest'.' The King pledged his whole life as service as the new sovereign just as the Queen did, saying: 'That promise of lifelong service I renew to you all today'. And he used his speech to announce that he had created his son William the Prince of Wales, with Kate the Princess of Wales, and to 'express my love for Harry and Meghan as they continue to build their lives overseas', a symbol of his bid for reconciliation amid past troubles with the Sussexes. People in The Westminster Arms pub in central London, watching King Charles III address the nation The photographer's family watch a televised address by King Charles III in Manchester Ben, Isaac and Krystyna Rickett watching a broadcast of King Charles III first address to the nation as the new King following the death of Queen Elizabeth II People in a pub in York listen to the speech by King Charles III People watch the televised speech of the new King Charles III inside a pub in London People watch King Charles III's speech at the Westminster Arms Pub in London A person watches King Charles address the nation in a televised speech at the Pear Tree pub in Edinburgh People in Scotland, watching King Charles III address the nation He described it as a 'time of change for my family' and paid tribute to his 'darling wife' Camilla - calling her 'my Queen Consort'. He could, he said, 'count on her loving help', praising her by saying: 'I know she will bring to the demands of her new role the steadfast devotion to duty on which I have come to rely so much.' The King, who was often accused of meddling through his lobbying as the Prince of Wales, also set out his changing role, as he steps away from his considerable charity work which shaped his life as the heir to the throne. 'My life will of course change as I take up my new responsibilities. It will no longer be possible for me to give so much of my time and energies to the charities and issues for which I care so deeply. But I know this important work will go on in the trusted hands of others,' he said. The monarch pre-recorded the lengthy speech, which was just under 1,000 words and lasted around nine-and-a-half minutes in the Blue Drawing Room of the royal residence in central London, and it was played out at 6pm on Friday. The King, dressed in a sombre black suit, black tie and with a black and white checked handkerchief in his breast pocket, said: 'I speak to you today with feelings of profound sorrow. 'Throughout her life, Her Majesty The Queen - my beloved Mother - was an inspiration and example to me and to all my family, and we owe her the most heartfelt debt any family can owe to their mother; for her love, affection, guidance, understanding and example. 'Queen Elizabeth was a life well lived; a promise with destiny kept and she is mourned most deeply in her passing. That promise of lifelong service I renew to you all today.' He spoke of the 'deep sense of gratitude' for the Queen's 70 years on the throne and told of her 'profound personal commitment which defined her whole life'. 'Her dedication and devotion as Sovereign never wavered, through times of change and progress, through times of joy and celebration, and through times of sadness and loss,' the King said. 'In her life of service we saw that abiding love of tradition, together with that fearless embrace of progress, which make us great as Nations. The affection, admiration and respect she inspired became the hallmark of her reign.' He told the nation how he shared 'sense of loss, beyond measure, with you all'. Charles shared his family's perception of the Queen, saying how they would all testify to her qualities of 'warmth, humour and an unerring ability always to see the best in people'. He offered the public his 'most sincere and heartfelt thanks for your condolences and support', saying the nation would come together at the Queen's funeral in just over a week's time. The King ended his speech with a quote from Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet. As Hamlet dies in the play, Horatio says: 'Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince: And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.' Charles was sat at an antique polished desk in Buckingham Palace's Blue Drawing Room, one of the grand state rooms, where the Queen would sometimes film her Christmas broadcasts. On the desk was a framed photograph the King personally chose of his late mother the Queen, smiling broadly and wearing a vivid blue coat and matching hat decorated with a red flower. A delicate posy of white sweet peas with sprigs of rosemary for remembrance stood in a silver vase, the base of which featured several small silver playful-looking corgis. The ornament - a touching nod to the monarch's love of her favourite dogs - was used by the Queen when she used to sit at the very same desk. Charles was given a rapturous welcome - with kisses on the cheek and hand - as he greeted well-wishers gathered outside Buckingham Palace after returning to London earlier in the day. It was the new King's first walkabout and encounter with the public since his historic accession and crowds lined up behind a barrier clamouring to greet him, smiling and taking photos of him on their phones. The King turned to his duties as monarch despite his grief and held his first audience with Prime Minister Liz Truss. He also gave the order that a period of 'Royal Mourning' for the Queen will be observed from now until seven days after her funeral. Royal salutes were fired with one round for every year of the Queen's life on Friday at 1pm in Hyde Park by the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery. In St Paul's Cathedral in London, the Queen's life of service was hailed 'a rare jewel' and hundreds of mourners sang God Save the King, as Ms Truss joined around 2,000 members of the public for a service of prayer and reflection. The woman who kissed King Charles today told Mail Online: I know it was being cheeky but I just had to. Jenny Assiminios stunned the new monarch as she leant over a crash barrier to plant a kiss on the new monarch's cheek. Charles smiled as 73-year-old widow Jenny clasped his hand and kissed him to the delight off the packed crows outside Buckingham Palace. The emotional moment came when Charles and his wife Camilla met dozens of well-wishers and mourners outside the gates of Buckingham Palace. Jenny, who is originally from Cyprus, said: 'I have always been a big fan on Charles. I was very nervous, but excited when I saw he was coming towards me. One woman kissed King Charles' outstretched hand as he made his way through the crowds Janny Assiminios was so overcome by emotion that she reached out and grabbed his face before pulling him in for a kiss on the cheek I had only planned to shake his hand, but as he took my hand thought I would ask if I could give him a kiss. He said he didnt mind and I just kissed his cheek. He was lovely about it and smiled and I looked into his eyes and I knew he was okay about it. After the kiss was captured by TV cameras Jenny said she was congratulated by police officers who were standing nearby and others in the crowd. She said the moment summed up the affection that so many people felt for the new King. Jenny, from Holloway, North London, said the death of the Queen had brought back sad memories of the passing of her husband George four years ago. With two friends she had travelled to Buckingham Palace to pay her respects. She had stood at the front of a metal barricade and admitted there had been some jostling as people tried to get a better view. The death of the Queen must have been very hard for Charles. I have always admired the Queen and her husband They were such wonderful people and you can see that from all the people who came out. I know people will support King Charles just like they have supported the Queen during her wonderful reign. Jenny, who has two grown-up sons, said she is proud to have been the first member of the public to kiss the new King. I have lived here since 1965 and love this country. The King was met with cheers and shouts of 'God save the King' as he stepped out of his Bentley and moved trough the crowd of thousands, stopping to shake hands and speak with people who had spent all morning awaiting his arrival. He made an effort to address as many people in the crowd as possible, and accepted a single rose from one of the many well wishers who brought flowers along for the occasion. Ms Assiminios later clarified she asked the King permission before planting a kiss on his cheek Ms Assiminios was excited to meet the King and to have such a close interaction with him King Charles III and the Queen view tributes left outside Buckingham Palace Thousands of well wishers and mourners gathered outside Buckingham Palace to pay their respects to the late Queen and catch a glimpse of the new King In total, he spent 12 minutes with the public outside palace gates. Film director Raynald Leconte, 47, who is from New York, said he was lucky enough to speak to the King and Queen Consort outside Buckingham Palace. 'It was quite a moment,' he said. 'I said, ''condolences''. He said, ''really, really thank you very much''. And to his wife I wished her good luck and she said, ''thank you very much''. I think she said, ''I'll need it''.' Among the crowds, retired Ammar Al-Baldawi, 64, from Hertfordshire, said: 'It was impressive, touching, a good move to come out to the crowds. 'I think that's where the royal family needs to communicate with the people now. These are true loyalists here and it's nice to see him back in post, taking charge of the family and the Crown, which is reassuring.' Queen Consort Camilla arrived at Buckingham Palace with Charles but maintained a distance as he greeted the public and accepted their well wishes. She returned to his side to appreciate the bouquets of flowers and handwritten notes left at the palace gates. Charles was well received by well wishers who lined the streets to meet with him King Charles III views floral tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II Police had moved the crowds back from the main entrance of Buckingham Palace at about 1.30pm in anticipation of the King's visit, with officers creating a 30ft pathway between the crowds and the bouquets of flowers. Charles and his wife Camilla landed at RAF Northolt just after 1.30pm after leaving Balmoral, where they had stayed overnight after racing up to be at the late Queen's bedside. The King met Prime Minister Liz Truss this afternoon, before making a televised speech to the nation at 6pm. Members of the royal family had made the urgent dash to be with the frail monarch as her health failed yesterday. The Firm made an announcement of her 'peaceful' death at 6.30pm at Balmoral, which is considered one of her favourite residences. She and her late husband, Prince Philip, often spent the summer there. King Charles received a warm reception from the public on arrival at Buckingham Palace on Friday King Charles III is greeted by well-wishers during a walkabout at Buckingham Palace Queen Consort Camilla arrived at Buckingham Palace with Charles but maintained a distance as he greeted the public and accepted their well wishes Prince William - now using the title of the Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge - left Balmoral just before 1pm and is travelling back to Windsor to be with his family ahead of the Accession Council, Kensington Palace said. Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, still remain at the estate. 'During this period of mourning and change, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which The Queen was so widely held,' Charles said in a statement on Thursday night. Charles was by his mother's side for much of the day after catching the royal helicopter from Dumfries House in Ayrshire with his wife Camilla. His younger sister Princess Anne was already at Balmoral after royal duties also took her to Scotland. They were joined by other senior members of the Royal Family including Her Majesty's other two children, Andrew and Edward, and Prince William. Charles took a moment of solitude to examine the floral tributes left for his beloved mother at Buckingham Palace The new King and Queen Consort headed for Buckingham Palace after leaving Balmoral The family rushed to the Queen's Scottish residence after an unprecedented statement from her doctors revealed they were 'concerned' about her health and were keeping her under medical supervision. Charles is becoming monarch at 73 years old, nearly half a decade older than the Queen was when she found herself in the same position. He is likely to launch a radical overhaul of the monarchy in the wake of his mother's death, having frequently spoken about a slimmed-down front-line. Do you know the woman who kissed King Charles' hand? Email brittany.chain@mailonline.com King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla embrace one another while looking at the floral tributes Thousands turned out to greet the new King and he made an effort to shake as many hands as possible King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla arrived at Buckingham Palace in a Bentley on Friday afternoon An American tourist got slapped with a hefty $450 fine for eating ice cream and enjoying a cold beer as he was sitting on the steps of the Fontana dei Catecumeni in Rome, Italy. The tourist, who was vacationing in Italy's Monti district, was fined for breaking one of Romes 'urban decorum' rules. The man, whose name was not revealed, was enjoying a delicious gelato and drinking a cold one when he was approached by Italian police on Saturday around 1 am before the ticket fiasco took place. The historic landmark located in Rome's Piazza Madonna is modest and unassuming and dates back to 1859. Thousands of tourists flock to the historic site each year, to help deter visitors from leaning on the stairs protective tape has been place at the site. The popular gathering place was meant to be been cordoned off with tape, but was not when the man sat down to enjoy a midnight snack, he said. The fountain, which is a popular gathering place for tourists and locals, was meant to be cordoned off with tape, but was not when the man sat down to enjoy a midnight snack, he said An American tourist got slapped with a hefty $450 fine for eating ice cream and enjoying a cold beer as he was sitting on the steps of the Fontana dei Catecumeni in Italy's Monti district The fountain was taped off as part of a slew of new rules introduced by former mayor Virginia Raggi in 2017. The tape was meant to discourage people from eating and drinking while sitting at Rome's fountains. Previous rules also banned things like wheeled suitcases and buggies in order to protect the historical streets and landmarks, such as the city's fountains. More than 1,500 fountains can be found throughout the capital city. According to the local La Repubblica, when Italian officials first approached the man and asked him to move away he did not. The tourist claimed he did not understand what the officers were saying. But, once the visitor was hit with the massive fine, he apparently understood loud and clear and didn't appear very pleased. 'I didn't know the rules; I didn't know I couldn't sit down. I didn't understand what you were saying to me,' the tourist said, according to the news outlet. The fountain was taped off as part of a slew of new rules introduced by former mayor Virginia Raggi in 2017. The tape was meant to discourage people from eating and drinking while sitting at Rome's fountains. A tasteless Argentinian television host popped open a bottle of champagne on air to celebrate the death of Queen Elizabeth Elizabeth while saying 'the old b***h has died.' Santiago Cuneo was in the middle of a his Buenos Aires-based show when he heard about the Queen's death. A viral video clip of Cuneo showed him popping open a bottle of bubbly while surrounded by blue and white balloons. He appeared on air clapping and called for a celebration while a message, 'The old bag of s*** has died,' flashed on the screen. 'She's done for good,' he said. 'Loud applause for Satan who has finally taken her.' While the journalist celebrated the death of the 96-year-old queen, the Argentinian government posted a tribute and said the country 'accompanies the British people and her family in this moment of grief,' according to The New York Post. Cuneo's distasteful response to the passing of the queen likely is from anger held onto from the United Kingdom took control of Falkland Islands in South America from the Argentines in 1982. Some enjoyed Cueno's actions while others expressed their disapproval. 'I am Argentinian and this guy doesn't represent me. We are sorry for their loss,' one person wrote on Twitter. This is not the first time Cuneo has sparked controversy. He was fired in 2019 from a Cronica TV after he allegedly spread anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Cuneo was accused of spreading the idea of a Jewish state in Argentina. Santiago Cuneo popped champagne on TV after Queen Elizabeths death The Argentinian television journalist was surrounded by blue and white balloons, representing the Argentinian flag Cuneo called the queen an old b***h, causing outrage The controversial journalist poured himself a glass of bubbly after the death of the queen Queen Elizabeth died at the age of 96 on Thursday Queen Elizabeth died at the age of 96 on Thursday. She passed at Balmoral Castle with her son Charles - now King Charles III - and daughter Anne at her bedside. Her Majesty has spent seven decades on the throne and her legacy is now being passed onto her son. The Queens death now makes Prince Charles, King Charles. While Kate will assume the title of Princess of Wales, Prince William will take the title of Prince of Wales from his father, who has acceded the throne as King Charles III Meanwhile, Kate Middleton will be known as the Princess of Wales. She is the first member of the Royal Family to hold the title since Princess Diana. Prince William inherited the title of the Prince of Wales. 'Today, I am proud to create [William] Prince of Wales, Tywysog Cymru, the country whose title I have been so greatly privileged to bear during so much of my life and duty,' King Charles said on Friday. Since the 14th century the title of the Princess of Wales has been used by the wives of the Princes of Wales. However, it is a courtesy title. With Queen Elizabeth II's death, Prince Charles inherits the responsibilities of the royal family monarch and the privileges of a king, but will only be crowned after about a year. History professor Kate Williams at England's Reading University said that the coronation ceremony typically takes a year because it is seen as unseemly to have a coronation ceremony straight after someone's death, saying that the royal family will have a long period of mourning. Prince Charles' Coronation While there have been various speculations that 73-year-old Charles might step aside to allow his son, 40-year-old Prince William, to take the reins, there is no truth in that rumor. Williams noted that Charles has waited for this moment and he believes that he can do a good job. Williams noted that there are many people who suggest that Charles will abdicate because William and his wife, Kate Middleton, are more popular. However, she said that that is not the case at all. Abdication is more common in other European royal houses when a monarch reaches a certain age but is extremely rare in England. The last time that a king abdicated the British throne was on Dec. 11, 1936, when King Edward VIII stepped away from the monarchy after nearly a year to marry divorced American Wallis Simpson, as per People. Charles, with his accession upon the death of his mother, inherits the responsibilities and privileges of a consecrated king, except one: he will not be allowed to publicly wear a crown until his coronation. Read Also: Queen Elizabeth II Under Medical Supervision; Royal Family Travel To Balmoral as Doctors Express Concern For 96-Year Old Monarch's Health He will take the throne, in accordance with the royal line of succession, to be followed by Prince William, who will now be followed by the latter's elder child, nine-year-old Prince George. The next in line is seven-year-old Princess Charlotte, George's sister, followed by their youngest sibling, four-year-old Prince Louis. The fifth in line to the throne is now Prince Harry. According to NBC News, the fallen monarch's eldest son will now be known as King Charles III, one that he chose for himself. He had the option of retaining any of his four names - Charles Philip Arthur George. Queen Elizabeth's Funeral While Prince William is heir to the throne, he will not automatically become Prince of Wales, which will have to be conferred on him by his father. The former has inherited Charles' title of Duke of Cornwall, and William and Kate are now titled Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge. Charles' wife, Camilla, now becomes the Queen Consort, which is a term used for the spouse of the monarch. Charles is expected to officially be proclaimed as king on Saturday and will happen at St. James' Palace in London, in front of a ceremonial body known as the Accession Council. The situation comes as, on the first day of mourning, ceremonial gun salutes are expected at Hyde Park and at Tower Hill, and a national minute's silence is expected to be held. King Charles would be expected to conduct his first audience with the prime minister and is scheduled to meet the Earl Marshal to officially sign off on the full funeral plans for his late mother, The Guardian reported. Related Article: Queen Elizabeth II Dies at 96; UK Mourns Loss of Longest-Reigning Monarch @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Advertisement Incredible images have been dreamt up to illustrate one of the boldest, imaginative and unlikely architectural designs of recent times in the form of a giant, 1.8 mile ring that would wrap around the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Dubai-based experimental architecture firm ZNera Space proposed the concept, known as Downtown Circle, to be a ring supported by five huge pillars 1,804 feet above the ground. The far fetched design would bring luxury style befitting of Dubai together with residential community spaces and environmental sustainability technology in a self-contained mini-city of homes, offices and leisure spaces. ZNera Space's principal architects, Najmus Chowdry and Nils Remess, intend the design as an antidote to Dubai's vertiginous skyline, but admit the financing and even the technology to build it is not there. 'It was meant to be a conversation starter,' said Chowdry. 'Something that could trigger people to rethink urban development, to rethink city congestion ... We are promising the sustainable city.' Dubai-based experimental architecture firm ZNera Space have drawn up plans for a giant circular structure around the Burj Khalifa known as Downtown Circle, a 1.8 mile ring supported by five huge pillars 1,804 feet above the ground ZNera Space's principal architects, Najmus Chowdry and Nils Remess, intend the design as an antidote to Dubai's vertiginous skyline, but admit the financing and even the technology to build it is not there The far fetched design would bring luxury style befitting of Dubai together with residential community spaces and environmental sustainability technology in a self-contained mini-city of homes, offices and leisure spaces The structure would have five floors connected by a continuous green belt, dubbed the Skypark for the residents to enjoy and have access to nature 1,800 feet above the ground 'We were working on very important aspects that raise the discussion about how we are planning cities,' added Remess. 'The reason we picked the Burj Khalifa was because it is in a very dense urban area, and we want to address the issues that accompany dense city populations.' The pillars would be planted in empty lots dotted around the Burj Khalifa - the world's tallest building - and could incorporate a smog-filtering design ZNera Space came up with which was shortlisted for the World Architecture Festival 2018 award in the category of 'Experimental Future Project.' 'We wanted to create a microclimate in Downtown and create a sort of envelope around the area to control the temperature and make it more liveable in hot weather,' said Chowdry. 'You can use those vertical [pillars] as urban air purifiers.' Sustainability in a warming region that already sees temperatures regularly above 40 degrees is high in the minds of Chowdry and Remess. The almost two miles of roof top real estate will be lined with solar panels and they want to use solar hydrogen cells to convert water into hydrogen which can power the air conditioning and provide energy to the building. There would also be an internal tram system to ferry the inhabitants around that could reach speeds of 62 miles per hour. Ports and landing pads would also be built to accommodate sky taxis. The pillars would be planted in empty lots dotted around the Burj Khalifa - the world's tallest building - and could incorporate a smog-filtering design ZNera Space came up with which was shortlisted for the World Architecture Festival 2018 award in the category of 'Experimental Future Project' 'The Skypark is the central spine of the entire design,' explained chief architect Najmus Chowdry. 'It will be a mixed-use green space and it will also act as a space to rethink how agriculture is going to happen in the future, especially in cities' There would be an internal tram system to ferry the inhabitants around that could reach speeds of 62 miles per hour and ports and landing pads would also be built to accommodate sky taxis 'We were working on very important aspects that raise the discussion about how we are planning cities,' said Nils Remess, joint principal architect. 'The reason we picked the Burj Khalifa was because it is in a very dense urban area, and we want to address the issues that accompany dense city populations' One of the first challenges to overcome, were the financing and political will ever in place, would be to come up with a structure strong enough to house the interior features, yet light enough to be supported by the pillars The structure would have five floors connected by a continuous green belt, dubbed the Skypark. 'The Skypark is the central spine of the entire design,' explained Chowdry. 'It will be a mixed-use green space and it will also act as a space to rethink how agriculture is going to happen in the future, especially in cities.' 'If you look historically, first came agriculture and then we built the city,' said Remess. 'Now we have kind of lost this concept. With this greenbelt inside the structure, we want to bring back agriculture and food production to the city centre.' One of the first challenges to overcome, were the financing and political will ever in place, would be to come up with a structure strong enough to house the interior features, yet light enough to be supported by the pillars. 'The structure itself is pretty lightweight. I imagine it as (a large) aircraft -- the skin, the ribs, that becomes the structure and inside it's all hollow,' said Chowdry. 'But then it's supported by these columns and the circle ring,' he continued. 'We chose to make it circular because it's the most stable structural format.' The plan was dreamt up with Dubai's hopeful masterplan to create a sustainable urban environment by 2040. The Supreme Court mole who leaked the draft version of the Roe v Wade ruling has been cornered, Justice Neil Gorsuch has suggested. The top judge told how the investigation into 70 people over the bombshell leak that sent shockwaves across the nation is coming to an end. He said he was 'looking forward' to the committee's report that would hopefully be completed 'soon'. It was Gorsuch's first public comment on the matter since the late June ruling. The Trump-nominated justice did not say whether the report would be made public. The leak to Politico sparked a summer of protests as furious women and men demonstrated the right for a woman to abort a baby. The ruling saw some states immediately clamp down on abortions, while others are still locked in bitter legal fights. Justice Neil Gorsuch said he and his fellow justices could gain more insight on the leak that sent shockwaves across the nation ahead of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade A majority draft opinion indicating the Supreme Court would overturn Roe in Mississippi v. Jackson Women's Health Organization was leaked in May, before the final decision was released on June 24 'The chief justice appointed an internal committee to oversee the investigation,' Justice Gorsuch told the 10th Circuit Bench and Bar Conference in Colorado Springs, according to the Wall Street Journal. 'That committee has been busy and we're looking forward to their report, I hope soon.' Justices have roundly condemned the leak, Gorsuch included, and suggested it was intended to sway their decision in the abortion case. 'Improper efforts to influence judicial decision making, from whatever side, are a threat' to the judicial process, he said. 'They inhibit our capacity to communicate with one another' in a way that 'improves our final products,' Gorsuch added. 'I very much hope we get to the bottom of this sooner or later.' A majority draft opinion indicating the Supreme Court would overturn Roe in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization was leaked in May, before the final decision was released on June 24. Such a leak is unprecedented and Chief Justice John Roberts ordered the court's marshal to investigate. There have been few updates on the probe. Sources previously told Fox News that the investigation into the some-70 individuals who may have had access to the documents has narrowed. Several clerks sought legal counsel when in June court investigators insisted justices' law clerks sit for interviews and surrender their cell phones. In the June 24 decision, Gorsuch joined four of his colleagues in overturning the landmark case that legalized abortion before viability in all 50 states. Abortions are now banned in 12 states and two more have a six week ban. Additional abortion bans or restrictions are expected to take place in about half of the nation's states since the decision. In the wake of the leak and the decision, pro-choice advocates took protests to the doorstep of conservative justices' homes, and some even issued threats. The Supreme Court will come back for a new term in October. Kamala Harris attacks SCOTUS as an 'activist court' that 'took away a constitutional right' with Roe v Wade ruling in Meet The Press chat... as days since Biden's last interview hits 210 Vice President Kamala Harris has said the Supreme Court is an 'activist court' now they have overturned Roe v. Wade. Such harsh words are unusual for a vice president as the Supreme Court fights to maintain public trust after their decision to overturn the landmark 1973 abortion case in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization in June. Asked on NBC's Meet the Press how much 'confidence' she has in the Supreme Court, the vice president replied: 'I think that this is an activist court.' 'We had an established right for almost half a century which is the right of women to make decisions about their own body as an extension of what we have decided to be the privacy rights to which all people are entitled. This court took that constitutional right away,' Harris continued. 'That causes me great concern about the integrity of the court overall,' she said. 'This is the court that on once sat Earl Warren and Thurgood Marshall, Sandra Day O'Conner. It's a very different court.' The Roe v. Wade decision nearly 50 years ago recognized that the right to personal privacy under the US Constitution protects a woman's ability to terminate her pregnancy. Vice President Kamala Harris said the nation's highest court is now an 'activist court' now that they have overturned Roe v. Wade EXCLUSIVE: Vice President Kamala Harris says the Supreme Court is an activist court for overturning Roe v. Wade.@VP: We had an established right for almost half a century. This court took that constitutional right away. And we are suffering as a nation because of it. pic.twitter.com/Tmv955n4Bx Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) September 9, 2022 'This right of privacy, whether it be founded in theFourteenth Amendment's concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action, as we feel it is, or ... in the Ninth Amendment's reservation of rights to the people, is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether to terminate her pregnancy,' that decision read. A majority of the justices in 2022 reasoned that 'The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision.' 'Abortion couldn't be constitutionally protected. Until the latter part of the 20th century, such a right was entirely unknown in American law. Indeed, when the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted, three quarters of the States made abortion a crime at all stages of pregnancy,' the majority opinion read. Abortions are now banned in 12 states and two more have a six week ban. Additional abortion bans or restrictions are expected to take place in about half of the nation's states since the decision. Asked on NBC's Meet the Press how much 'confidence' she has in the Supreme Court, the vice president replied: 'I think that this is an activist court' While Harris sat down with NBC, President Biden has not been interviewed by a mainstream media outlet in over half a year - 210 days While Harris sat down with NBC, President Biden has not been interviewed by a mainstream media outlet in over half a year - 210 days. Recently Biden joined Jay Leno for a chat about cars, including the future of electric vehicles, for CNBC's 'Jay Leno's Garage.' Two months before that, he appeared on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' February 10 was Biden's last on-camera interview with an American TV news host, when the president appeared for questioning on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt. An infamous green skateboarding bench has gone missing again after Philadelphia skateboarders lifted it from New York City's Tompkins Square Park, and moved it to Philadelphia's Cecil B. Moore Station Plaza under the cover of night. The bench had been placed in the Plaza, a popular skateboarder hangout near Temple University, last week before university police were contacted by the rightful owner of the bench and assisted in returning it. The bench has had a reputation for moving around since skater Anthony Van Engelen introduced it to the skating world in a 2003 video. Van Engelen says he doesn't know its current whereabouts. An Instagram post on Thursday seemingly showed that the bench had made its way to Virginia, as it was pictured near the James River in Richmond with the caption 'the saga continues.' The bench has had a reputation for moving around since skater Anthony Van Engelen introduced it to the skating world in a 2003 video. Van Engelen pictured competing at the Maloof Money Cup on June 5, 2010 at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, New York Anthony Van Engelen skates on the iconic bench when it resided in Southern California - its first resting place The missing poster that was posted around New York City after the bench was stolen from Tompkins Square Park in late August The bench went unseen from 2003-2020, adding to the mystery around the fabled structure, until Van Engelen unveiled it again in a 2020 skate video called 'Dancing on Thin Ice.' Van Engelen then moved the bench to New York City in 2020 and dropped it off at Tompkins Square Park for other skaters to use, but the bench quickly vanished - to Van Engelen's delight. 'The first day I was there, I went to Tompkins and was skating the bench. The next day, I went to Tompkins, the bench was gone,' he told NPR. 'I was like, "cool."' Anonymous skaters had lifted the bench from the park quickly after it was placed, and drove it to Philadelphia in a rented van. An empty walkway at Tompkins Square Park in the East Village of New York City. Van Engelen moved the bench to New York City in 2020 and dropped it off at Tompkins Square Park for other skaters to use, but the bench quickly vanished - to Van Engelen's delight New York City's skating scene put up flyers for the bench pronouncing it 'missing' and said it was last seen on August 24. Instagram user Harry Bergenfield seemingly owned up to the theft, and posted a picture of himself and others outfitted in black next to a rented van with the caption 'what's this?' But only one day after the bench was introduced to Philly, it disappeared again. 'After providing evidence of ownership, including a receipt of purchase, Temple University Police assisted the owner with the bench's recovery,' Temple University Police said in a statement. 'With the bench now back in the rightful owner's possession, it is expected to return to New York City,' they said. The origin of the bench can be found in the skateboarding Mecca of California, when two stolen benches were bolted together in Santa Ana in the 1990's as skaters recognized the potential for grinds. A grind is a move where the skateboard trucks, which connect the wheels, are slid along an edge or surface - such as on a bench, table, or handrails. After the 2003 video featuring Van Engelen, the fabled bench came to be known as the 'AVE bench' after the skater's initials. 'For 99% of humanity, it's just a chunk of steel,' Van Engelen said. 'I hope as many people who want to skate it, get a chance to skate it, and it just goes forever.' She wasn't born to be a queen, yet she will be one. She had no desire for a crown, yet she will now wear one. She felt no need for a life embroidered with titles yet, she is now Her Majesty, with all the pomp and pageantry that involves. The journey that has taken the former Mrs Camilla Parker Bowles from mistress to Queen Consort at the side of King Charles has been both remarkable and, at times, brutal. It has meant acquiring a resilience and a sense of purpose that few believed she could possess. Along the way, since her marriage to the Prince of Wales in 2005, she has managed to display a bold and imaginative jauntiness that has been warm, well-received and unthreatening. Now comes an even bigger test. As wife to the monarch where her words and deeds will receive even greater attention, these accomplishments will be ever more necessary. But to be a success in this role she will need more. So how will she approach this daunting new stage in her life, and is she, at the relatively advanced age of 75, equipped for all that it entails? Those who know her best, her family, are confident that she is. One key attribute, they say, is that she brims with common sense a quality that is sadly in short supply in the current Royal Family. Camilla Parker Bowles is the only queen to have once done her shopping in Sainsbury's, as seen in this 1992 photograph of her in the supermarket car park in Gloucestershire Today she is the Queen Consort to King Charles III. Pictured: Camilla arrives at The State Opening of Parliament on May 18, 2016 They also point to her unfussy ordinariness. Indeed that very ordinariness may turn out to be her greatest asset. She will, after all, be the first crowned Queen Consort who used to do the weekly family shop at Sainsbury's and who once upon a time only had one smart dress (from Monsoon) in her wardrobe. 'She gets the mystique of royalty but she also has this approachable side which means she knows about the economies of running a home,' says a close friend. It is this emotional intelligence which has been vital at shoring up Charles at times of personal crisis. Some things must and will change. Can she, for example, continue to retreat as she has as Duchess of Cornwall to the reassuring familiarity of Raymill House, the Wiltshire bolthole she refused to part with after marrying Charles? This, remember, is where she kicks back and where her children and grandchildren are spared the formalities of royal residences and where no one frets if the washing up is piled too high. But as the Sovereign's wife there will be fewer opportunities for such escapes and many more demands on her time. There will also be other homes, including Buckingham Palace, where it has been years since a monarch and consort have lived together. (Prince Philip moved out on his retirement from royal duty in 2017 and the Queen chose to spend most of her remaining time at Windsor Castle.) Camilla is responsible for transforming Charles from the angry and bitter figure that emerged from the ruins of his marriage to Diana to the confidence he exudes today For Charles, the time it took for him to come to the Throne was known by those around him as the 'eternal wait'. But it did mean he was the most well-prepared monarch in British history. In Camilla, meanwhile, there has been a subtle difference during her 17 years as Charles's wife. As one friend put it: 'She is prepared but she has not been preparing: there is a difference. It means she has been aware of the future but not planning for it.' It is more than 70 years since Britain last had a Queen Consort and it is tempting to wonder if Camilla will model herself on the late Queen Mother, who earned the undying gratitude of the nation supporting her hesitant husband King George VI during the dark days of World War II. Certainly she will want to cushion Charles as indeed Queen Elizabeth did for Bertie and Philip for his Lilibet at times of trouble, which are certain to come. But because she is a relative newcomer in royal terms, she will be a more supportive figure than those previous icons, happier in the background. Her brilliance, say fans, is that she has 'very good radar'. These friends say that she always knows what is going on, is good at picking up palace gossip and can sift fact from fiction. She also has good judgment. It was Camilla's ear, attuned to potential danger, that persuaded Charles last November finally to part with long-standing aide and former valet Michael Fawcett following the cash-for-honours scandal. It also revealed a little of her ruthlessness for it was Fawcett who did much to help smooth her path from pariah to partner in the years after Princess Diana's death. King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla arrived yesterday at Buckingham Palace Camilla waved for the cameras and showed them a smile and she and the king left Buckingham Palace for the first time as King and Queen Consort That has always been her strength, though conducted out of public view. If there is hesitancy and there was certainly a little when she accompanied the King to greet mourners and well-wishers outside the Palace yesterday it is only to be expected. Charles is a master at meeting crowds and it has often been the case that as Prince it was he who was putting his wife at ease at such events, rather than the other way round as it so often was with Philip and the Queen. In the early days of her royal life Camilla's stamina could not keep up with the demands on her time. Now those physical demands are going to be even greater. The next ten days are going to be the most gruelling she has ever faced, at an age when most of her friends are comfortably retired and facing nothing more demanding than babysitting grandchildren. She will also need to come to terms with her fear of flying as for five years at least Charles will want to make his mark in the Commonwealth. Camilla will be more in the public eye now than at any previous time, including those dark days when she was outed as the 'third person' in Diana's marriage. And yet when she has the chance to sparkle she does so with style. While lacking the intellectual range of Prince Philip, Camilla does, however, also have an erudite outlook that complements her husband. Her passion for books she is patron of the National Literacy Trust and the Book Trust means we will have perhaps the most cultured monarch and consort ever, encompassing literature, art and architecture. One area where she can undoubtedly perform a public service will be in soothing her husband's often-worried brow. As Prince he has frequently crossed swords with politicians: as King he will be risking his crown if he does so. She understands that and she has been instrumental in recent years in persuading him to moderate his opinions. Camilla Parker Bowles arrives at The Ritz in London Thursday, October 29, 1998, just one year after the tragic death of Diana Princess of Wales Camilla, then, is responsible for transforming Charles from the angry and bitter figure that emerged from the ruins of his marriage to Diana to the confidence he exudes today. Yet her evolution is even more extraordinary. So much has changed. This time exactly 25 years ago Camilla was living in virtual hiding as she was scapegoated for death of the Princess of Wales. When Charles later went to see his mother to try to win her support for his relationship with the then Mrs Parker Bowles, he was firmly rebuffed. The Queen, ever conscious of the fragility of the Throne, wouldn't hear of it. For the next few years the relationship was conducted privately and off-limits, except to a handful of close and trusted friends. When it did finally emerge into the spotlight, the woman once seen as the problem for the monarchy was being hailed as the solution. Camilla adjusted to her ever-changing life with remarkable sangfroid. It is hard to believe she didn't allow herself a small smile when the Queen's reported view was related to her as: 'Since Camilla isn't going anywhere, she may as well be welcomed.' The Queen knew that being monarch required teamwork. She and Philip had been a team: and the fears she'd had about Charles and his obsessions stemmed from a concern that he had no one with whom to share the burden of responsibility. 'Camilla has always treated everything as an adventure,' says a friend. 'And if she adopts the same strategy to being consort, it might all be less of an ordeal than she fears.' There will be adjustments. She will have to accept being less accessible in public than she has become accustomed to possibly a little cooler, too. 'Don't forget the word 'majesty' means dignity. Both she and Charles will have to make themselves a little more remote in their encounters with the public,' says a long-time royal adviser. For now the novelty of her new position will take priority for Camilla. If it is in danger of overwhelming her as well it might she can rely on the two people who will ensure her feet remain on the ground . . . her children Tom and Laura. Camilla, the Queen Consort, arrived by carriage in the parade ring, on the second day of the Royal Ascot horse racing meeting near Windsor, England, Wednesday, June, 17, 2009 They had ringside seats when their mother was being vilified by critics at the height of the Wales's marriage crisis. Unencumbered by titles, they are also critical in giving their mother those real-life experiences from which the Royal Family remain detached. 'She has always been part of their lives, knows and likes their friends and this has been a healthy distraction from her other existence as a royal,' says a close figure. The coming days will be a time of great change for the former duchess. There will be planning for the move into the Queen's apartments at Buckingham Palace rooms barely altered since the 1950s. And who to keep and who to let go among the staff. The passing of the crown is always abrupt and for Camilla, who never expected to be Queen, the change is likely to be profound. At 73, the reign of King Charles III is unlikely to be marked by any jubilees as his mother's was. Indeed his task would seem to be to secure the monarchy for William and Kate. Once that is safely negotiated, it seems certain that the next phase of his kingship will be to present him as a grandfather figure, in the same way King Edward VII was styled after the long reign of Queen Victoria. This will offer Camilla the appealing prospect of emulating the Queen Mother as grandmother of the nation. It's a role she seems ready made for. For millions of people of a certain age, one of the abiding memories of the Queen and her son and heir Charles was the look of maternal pleasure, pride and affection on her face as she placed a coronet on his head confirming him as Prince of Wales. No one could have imagined at that magical moment at Caernarvon Castle marking the Prince's 21st birthday in 1969 that 25 years later he would be describing his mother as cold and distant. The world read those painful words in Jonathan Dimbleby's authorised biography of the Prince and this apparent unfeeling attitude became, for many, their perception of the Queen despite the fact she was a devoted mother who had breastfed all four of her children. Lord Mountbatten, the man Charles considered to be his 'honorary grandfather', once told the historian Robert Lacey that 'nanny's night off' was the Queen's favourite of the week. 'When Nanny Mabel [Anderson] was off duty, Elizabeth could kneel beside the bath, bathe her babies, read to them and put them to bed,' he said. No one could have imagined at that magical moment at Caernarvon Castle marking the Prince's 21st birthday in 1969 that 25 years later he would be describing his mother as cold and distant. The Queen and Charles are pictured together in September 1950, when he was three So was the Queen really so cold and distant? Or might Charles's childhood memories have been clouded by the uncertainty and unhappiness that dogged him for so much of his early life? As Dimbleby wrote in his book, the Prince bitterly recalled a childhood during which the nursery staff, not his emotionally reserved parents, were the people who taught him to play, who witnessed his first steps, who punished and rewarded him and who helped him put his first thoughts into words. He was almost 46 at the time and, ironically, had himself been accused of displaying a somewhat careless attitude to what his own two sons were getting up to. According to the Queen's intimate friend and cousin, Margaret Rhodes, these recollections deeply wounded his mother. 'She always talks quite a lot about her children and she worries about them like any other mother,' declared Mrs Rhodes. She believed the criticism was a misinterpretation of what was simply her 'undemonstrative' style as a mother. There is, of course, another famous picture of mother and son. It shows Charles, aged five, appearing to formally shake his mother's hand in greeting at a London railway station as the Queen and Prince Philip returned from a six-month Commonwealth tour. Here was a mother separated from her children Anne was three by duty and continuing to observe the traditional formalities in which she had been trained since the age of ten. In later years, the question was asked, why didn't she take Charles and Anne with her? So was the Queen really so cold and distant? Or might Charles's childhood memories have been clouded by the uncertainty and unhappiness that dogged him for so much of his early life? Picture: Charles kisses the Queen's hand in 2012 After all, Charles was being taught by a governess at Buckingham Palace and she could have travelled with them. But as Mrs Rhodes (who died in 2016) explained: 'People simply don't understand it's much better for small children to be at home in a familiar environment rather than drag them halfway round the world.' She added: 'In my opinion, Charles has been rather naive. I remember when he and Anne were quite small and the Queen would take them away to Balmoral. She would get them to make their own beds and help with the washing up. She cooked the supper, they loved bangers and hot spuds. 'These were magical times full of fun and love. She was much closer to the children than Charles gives her credit for. 'True, she didn't sweep them up [in an embrace] as Princess Diana did with her children but they were different times. The Queen deeply loves Charles it's just that they have a different outlook and sometimes they don't agree. He is a glass-half-empty person while she is a half-full one.' Indeed, for much of the Queen's reign she feared Charles could imperil the stability of a throne that she had worked hard for all her life. 'Infuriating' was the word she frequently used to describe him. It took until he was well into his 60s and the monarch in her 80s for them to grow close and for Charles to admire his mother's judgment and understand her caring concern about the happiness of all her children. Key to all of this, as we shall explain, was the Queen's eventual welcoming of Camilla into the Royal Family. Certainly, the wisdom of years made Charles realise that his public complaints about being distant when he was young were probably unfair. She was, after all, a working mother whose unique role took her on journeys to all parts of the world, especially when she was a new young Queen anxious to be seen. As Lord Charteris, her long-time private secretary, once pointed out: 'At the beginning [of her reign], she was learning and simply had too much on her plate to enjoy Charles, and then Anne.' But the fact was, this (between Charles and Camilla) was a marriage that had the Queen's reluctant acceptance, not her enthusiasm. Pictured: Charles and Camilla walk away from St George's Chapel in Windsor after their marriage blessing But was the division between motherhood and national duty shared as wisely as it might have been? Charles thought not. Many agreed with him, ascribing his self-absorption and appalling self-pity to the fact that the Queen, while a flawless monarch, was, according to one courtier, somewhat 'detached from the lives of her children' which inevitably most affected her firstborn. The consequence, according to family friends, was a child already lacking in confidence who felt deprived of motherly love. As the Dimbleby revelations proved, Charles was to bear this sadness over the Queen's apparent maternal indifference through to his mature years. It was in the spin-off ITV interview with the broadcaster that Charles admitted his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles and, initially, Camilla came to embody the uneasy differences between mother and son. The Queen was not among guests in 1998 when her grandsons William and Harry hosted a 50th birthday party for their father at Highgrove. She didn't go because she knew Camilla would be there. At that delicate time just a year after Princess Diana's death her attendance was out of the question. Some saw this as the Prince of Wales putting his mistress before his mother, so it is hardly surprising that more years of mutual misunderstanding and distrust were to follow. In other words, if he was staying with her, he had to marry her. In fact, it was the Queen who pressured him into making a decision. The Queen, Charles and Camilla are pictured in 2006 The Queen emerged as a critic of her son's extravagance, for example. A courtier reported her saying she felt the 'amount of kit and servants he takes around is grotesque'. In the dark days after Charles's 1996 divorce from Diana, one of the Queen's aides wondered if it might not be better if he were to 'retire' to the country, marry Camilla and pass over the succession to Prince William. This view was reported to the Queen who, said the aide, 'did not react violently against it' and even appeared to wonder if it might offer a possible solution. This was perhaps the nadir of the many years of acute worry the Queen had endured about Charles and his public image which were largely concentrated on his relationships with Diana and Camilla. Not that the Queen was unsophisticated to the ways of men. Indeed, when she was first told that her then bachelor son was sleeping with the wife of a brother officer in the Brigade of Guards Andrew Parker Bowles's wife Camilla she made no comment. 'The news wouldn't have surprised the Queen at all,' said the Rev Michael Mann, the late Dean of Windsor. 'Her reaction would have been that this was a natural thing for an eager young man to be doing.' In her long reign, however, the Queen had grown to understand the value of pragmatism. More than anyone, she recognised that her son would make a better monarch with someone he loved at his side, just as she had. King Charles and Queen consort Camilla are pictured today outside Buckingham Palace The Queen recognised that Camilla had worked assiduously for the Crown behind the scenes, never once upstaging Charles, an accusation regularly hurled at Diana. Pictured: Charles and Camilla leaving Buckingham Palace today Later, however, the fact that a man with a beautiful young wife was finding extramarital pleasure with an older woman plainly perplexed the Queen as much as it did Prince Philip. Her woman's-eye view of Mrs Parker Bowles was that she looked 'rather used'. She knew, of course, how difficult Diana was to live with and, in private, sometimes described the Princess as that 'impossible girl'.But the way she said it also suggested she knew what the Princess was going through being married to the fussy Prince of Wales. For his part, Charles was always unsettled by his view that the Queen accepted Diana's version of how he treated her during their marriage. It was a version also accepted by the majority of the public. In the months after Diana's death, huge efforts were made to rehabilitate Charles and he was widely praised for his efforts as a single parent doing his best to bring up two sons who had lost their mother. Emboldened by this changing public attitude, barely a year after Diana's death, he cautiously raised the issue of Camilla with the Queen one evening at Balmoral. He was seeking her approval of his relationship because he wanted to be able to take her out publicly, and for them to be seen together. Instantly, he realised his mistake. His mother's snappy response shocked him, but also made him angry. 'He simply couldn't see it,' recalls a former courtier. 'He couldn't see that this request to the Queen so soon after Diana's death was much too premature.' The Queen's response was to tell her son that she didn't want to talk about 'that wicked woman' and wanted nothing to do with her, said a highly placed confidant of the Prince. The story of the Queen and Charles could have been one of the most tragic mother-son relationships in royal history. Pictured: The Duchess of Cambridge, Camilla Queen consort and the Queen in 2021 'He was devastated. He couldn't understand why she had taken so bitterly against the woman he loved.' To the Queen, her son's shock at her response was the clearest indication of the self-absorption that had always exasperated her. How could the Queen indicate even the smallest element of approval for a woman perceived by millions to have been the wrecker of a fairytale marriage? For his part, Charles felt that neither his mother nor his father understood him and that they gave him no encouragement. In his craving for maternal approval, he was especially frustrated that his mother had never offered much in the way of praise for the way in which he had founded and built up the Prince's Trust, the mainstay of his charity work. Her attitude was always 'don't talk about it, get on with it', recalls a lady-in-waiting. Charles, quietly advised by wiser heads, was forced to take a step back and wait. And this policy paid off when it eventually became clear that, for the good of the monarchy, the Prince of Wales had to 'regularise' his relationship with Camilla. In other words, if he was staying with her, he had to marry her. In fact, it was the Queen who pressured him into making a decision. Jubilantly, Charles announced the impending marriage. His then private secretary, Sir Michael Peat, insisted with a lofty air of intimate knowledge that the relationship between the Prince and his mother had 'never been better'. But the fact was, this was a marriage that had the Queen's reluctant acceptance, not her enthusiasm. In her long reign, however, the Queen had grown to understand the value of pragmatism. More than anyone, she recognised that her son would make a better monarch with someone he loved at his side, just as she had. She and Prince Philip did not attend their son's second marriage ceremony at Windsor's Guildhall, but she did host a party for 700 afterwards in Windsor Castle, at which she proposed a toast to the bride and groom, congratulating them in racing parlance by welcoming them 'into the winners' enclosure'. The Queen's deep and abiding Christian faith, which meant she was never fully comfortable with the idea of the former Mrs Parker Bowles becoming King Charles's queen (Charles and Camilla pictured talking in July 1975) That was the defining moment one that moved Charles almost to tears that began the change in the nature of this uniquely troubled relationship between a Queen and her heir. All his life, Charles had been desperate for his mother's approval, yearning to hear her describe him as a winner and how ironic that the moment arrived only after he'd put a ring on 'that wicked woman's' finger. As time passed and the Queen was experiencing those first signs of frailty even as Prince Philip, then in his 90s, was slowly withdrawing from public life, she began to see the son she had perceived as too needy, vulnerable, emotional and self-centred in something of a new light. He was gradually taking over many of her responsibilities, and doing so with confidence and even a little panache. This new mutual respect led rapidly to full co-operation between what had in effect become rival royal households. Courtiers who were used to pursuing competing agendas at Buckingham Palace and Clarence House were astonished by this rapprochement, and relieved. For a long time the Queen's aides perceived Charles's household to be committed solely to polishing his own image at the expense of other Royal Family members. What ended the rivalry was Charles effectively becoming 'co-head' of the 'Firm' as the Queen's physical powers declined. She was largely happy with the new arrangement although not entirely in agreement with Charles's ambitions to slim down the monarchy if this meant pushing Edward and possibly even Princess Anne to the margins of the royal show. But the Camilla factor remained an issue. Part of this was due to the Queen's deep and abiding Christian faith, which meant she was never fully comfortable with the idea of the former Mrs Parker Bowles becoming King Charles's queen. And then, on the 70th anniversary of her own accession in February this year, it was announced by Buckingham Palace that it was her 'sincere wish' that her daughter-in-law should be known as Queen Consort alongside King Charles when the time came. There was not just her famous pragmatism: the Queen recognised that Camilla had worked assiduously for the Crown behind the scenes, never once upstaging Charles, an accusation regularly hurled at Diana. What is more, her son's happiness and contentment with his second wife was plain for all to see. The story of the Queen and Charles could have been one of the most tragic mother-son relationships in royal history. After all, throughout the ages, monarchs and their heirs have failed to see eye-to-eye. And yet, by the time of her death, mother and son were reconciled and their philosophies joined. She had changed her mind about him. She believed, at last, that he could be a fine king. Charles, significantly, had also changed his mind about his mother. Police were called to the gruesome scene of what appears to be a murder-suicide that left a family of five dead in Elk Mills, Maryland on Friday morning. The Cecil County sheriff said deputies arrived around 9.30am to find a man, woman and three children dead from gunshot wounds in the garage and on the first and second floors of a house in the suburban cul-de-sac. Local law enforcement said a man called at around 9.20am to report the children and a woman had been fatally shot. Cecil County Sheriff Scott Adams addressed reporters following the apparent murder-suicide of a family of five in Elk Mills, Maryland on Friday morning Police found five bodies Friday morning on different levels of the suburban property close to the Delaware border Animal control is bringing out a dog from the crime scene in Cecil County where 5 bodies were found @wjz pic.twitter.com/AA6B7mcWhO Mike Hellgren (@HellgrenWJZ) September 9, 2022 Authorities identified the three children as a fifth grader, seventh grader and eighth grader. A semiautomatic gun was found near the body of the man in the garage. Names of victims have not yet been released as law enforcement attempt to notify the family's next of kin. Police have not yet identified a motive. Cecil County Animal Services were also dispatched and were seen escorting a dog from the property. During a Friday afternoon news conference, Cecil County Sheriff Scott Adams said, 'this is a terrible and tragic day for our community.' There had been no previous history of emergency calls from the house and the police put out a reverse 911 call to assure the surrounding areas there was no threat to the public. The Elk Mills residential neighborhood is in northeast Maryland about five miles away from the Delaware border. Animal control is bringing out a dog from the crime scene in Cecil County where 5 bodies were found @wjz pic.twitter.com/AA6B7mcWhO Mike Hellgren (@HellgrenWJZ) September 9, 2022 Law enforcement establish a crime scene in Elk Mills, Maryland after a family of five were found shot to death Friday morning Police issued a reverse 911 call to assure neighboring residents there was no threat For confidential support call the National Suicide Prevention Line on 1-800-273-8255. A Phoenix high school was under lock down as cops swept the building after a fight broke out and 'popping' sounds were heard nearby. Phoenix Police put Central High School, the Xavier and Brophy prep schools and the nearby Coding Academy under lockdown after responding to a fight at the high school on Friday, where 'possible popping sounds' were reported nearby. A video from the schools courtyard shows the students gathered around the fight when panic erupts as one student yells, 'He's got a gun.' As the students flee the scene and head indoors, the loudspeakers could be heard warning the students that a lockdown was in place. Police reported no injuries and said there was no evidence shots were fired at the school. A video from the schools courtyard shows the students gathered around the fight when panic erupts as one student yells, 'He's got a gun' Students were let out after police confirmed there was no one injured or evidence of gunshots Parents were scene outside the school's side gate waiting for students to come out BREAKING: heavy police presence pulling into Central High School This is off of 7th Street in Phoenix. The school is on lockdown pic.twitter.com/zTe9wIXtUC Nicole Grigg (@NicoleSGrigg) September 9, 2022 Parents were warned to stay away from the area, which is currently blocked off as police investigate the incident. The Phoenix Union School District said all students and staff are safe and told parents to meet their children at Steele Indian School Park. Police are currently searching the school 'room-by-room' to make sure no one is injured and that everyone gets out safely. There is no one in custody over the alleged gunshots. One student had reportedly suffered minor, non-life threatening injuries unrelated to the shooting. Dozens of police cars at the school as officers conduct a room-by-room sweep of the building Advertisement The Archbishop of Canterbury has revealed that Queen Elizabeth II had 'no fear of death' and was absolutely committed to the Christian conception of public service and selflessness after thousands of well-wishers hailed the monarch's astonishing life at a memorial service at St Paul's Cathedral. Justin Welby described his final encounter with the Queen, who was the Supreme Head of the Church of England, which took place on June 21. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'I came away thinking there is someone who has no fear of death, has hope in the future, knows the rock on which she stands and that gives her the strength, as it gives His Majesty the strength, to be that sense of permanence and of continuity. 'You felt that history was in front of you, but it was history with those piercingly blue eyes twinkling, that extraordinary smile and the relishing of a quick dry comment.' The archbishop was among 2,000 members of the public and political figures including Prime Minister Liz Truss, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and London Mayor Sadiq Khan at St Paul's in London at the first significant religious event marking Her Majesty's death - where mourners later sang God Save the King. The ancient place of worship fell silent as the congregation listened to audio of King Charles III's first address to the world as monarch. At 6pm, the unmistakable voice of Charles - referred to as 'our new King' - filled the cathedral - a historic setting fit for the momentous occasion of a nation hearing its new monarch speak publicly for the first time. As people gathered around television screens from John o' Groats to Land's End, mourners sat side by side in the packed cathedral almost 24 hours after Buckingham Palace announced the Queen's death. Then at 7.05pm, after the Archbishop of Canterbury delivered a blessing, the first official public rendition of God Save the King took place as the service neared its conclusion. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby during the Service of Prayer and Reflection at St Paul's Cathedral A lone piper plays a lament during the Service of Prayer and Reflection at St Paul's Cathedral A woman takes a picture after participating in a service of prayer and reflection, following the passing of Queen Elizabeth II Prime Minister Liz Truss speaks during a service of prayer and reflection at St Paul's Cathedral Members of the public wait opposite St Paul's Cathedral, during of a Service of Remembrance to honour the life of Queen Elizabeth II, in London Members of the congregation attend the Service of Prayer and Reflection at St Paul's Cathedral Prime Minister Liz Truss departs after the Service of Prayer and Reflection at St Paul's Cathedral The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Justin Welby during a service of prayer and reflection Keir Starmer, Leader of the Opposition, leaves a service of prayer and reflection at St Paul's Cathedral An armed police officer stands guard as people leave a Service of Prayer and Reflection for Britain's Queen Elizabeth II at St Paul's Cathedral Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng (left) and Home Secretary Suella Braverman (right) leaving St Paul's Prime Minister Liz Truss leaving St Paul's Cathedral after the service of prayer and reflection Mourners are seen leaving St Paul's Cathedral after the service of prayer and reflection Bishop recalls 'holding on for dear life' as Queen drove in around in a Land Rover A Church of England bishop has recalled 'holding on for dear life' as he was driven by the Queen on her Norfolk estate. The anecdote was recounted by Alan Smith as members of the House of Lords paid their respects and spoke of their fond memories of the monarch, following her death aged 96. He was among a number to have stayed at Sandringham. The Bishop of St Albans said: 'Coming from a farming background, I had expressed interest in her racehorses and she was very keen to show them to me, so I was summoned outside. 'There was a Range Rover there, and she came out very brusquely and shouted across to me, 'Jump in bishop, I'm driving'. 'She set off at a rate of knots and I was holding on for dear life. 'She taught me a great deal about prayer at that point, which is perhaps why she was called defender of the faith.' Earlier, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, sparked laughter in the chamber as he recounted the holding of barbeques at Sandringham in January, labelling it 'fortitude'. The top cleric sparked further amusement when he added: 'She had a dry sense of humour and the ability to spot the absurd. The Church of England was very capable of giving her material. But she never exercised that at the expense of others.' Former diplomat and Foreign Office chief Lord Jay of Ewelme also recalled the Queen's sense of fun, highlighted by when an ambassador forgot his formal credentials and so was forced to hand her a plain brown envelope in their place. The independent crossbencher, who served as ambassador to France, said: 'In my last job at the Foreign Office, I had the extraordinary privilege to be at Her Majesty's side when she received new ambassadors. 'The Queen had been doing this for about 50 years and loved it when things went slightly awry. 'I remember that a very distinguished ambassador arrived by carriage at Buckingham Palace and had forgotten his credentials. 'An ever-helpful equerry gave him a plain brown envelope and said, 'Present this to Her Majesty and all will be well'. 'The rather nervous ambassador entered the room and presented the Queen with an empty plain brown envelope. 'The Queen was generously pleased to accept the empty plain brown envelope and said, with a dignified twinkle in her eye, 'How very kind, ambassador'.' Advertisement Earlier, the Archbishop of Canterbury sparked laughter in the chamber as he recounted the holding of barbeques at Sandringham in January, labelling it 'fortitude'. The top cleric sparked further amusement when he added: 'She had a dry sense of humour and the ability to spot the absurd. The Church of England was very capable of giving her material. But she never exercised that at the expense of others.' Former diplomat and Foreign Office chief Lord Jay of Ewelme also recalled the Queen's sense of fun, highlighted by when an ambassador forgot his formal credentials and so was forced to hand her a plain brown envelope in their place. The independent crossbencher, who served as ambassador to France, said: 'In my last job at the Foreign Office, I had the extraordinary privilege to be at Her Majesty's side when she received new ambassadors. 'The Queen had been doing this for about 50 years and loved it when things went slightly awry. 'I remember that a very distinguished ambassador arrived by carriage at Buckingham Palace and had forgotten his credentials. 'An ever-helpful equerry gave him a plain brown envelope and said, 'Present this to Her Majesty and all will be well'. 'The rather nervous ambassador entered the room and presented the Queen with an empty plain brown envelope. 'The Queen was generously pleased to accept the empty plain brown envelope and said, with a dignified twinkle in her eye, 'How very kind, ambassador'.' The sound of the congregation singing the national anthem filled the vast cathedral, and mourners remained on their feet afterwards. People had begun making their way into the cathedral almost three hours earlier - before 4.30pm - and the sound of quiet conversation could be heard as the organ played. Within the message, which was also broadcast on television, the King paid tribute to his 'darling mama', and said: 'And to my darling Mama, as you begin your last great journey to join my dear late Papa, I want simply to say this: thank you. 'Thank you for your love and devotion to our family and to the family of nations you have served so diligently all these year. 'May 'flights of Angels sing thee to thy rest'.' Following the King's address, the service got underway. Members of the congregation were tearful during the service as the choir sang, and one woman was seen using a handkerchief to wipe her eyes. Ms Truss, who delivered a Bible reading from Romans 14.7-12, sat in the front row. As a lament was played on bagpipes at just after 6.50pm, people stood, many with their heads bowed. During her address, Dame Sarah Mullally, Bishop of London, told the congregation: 'A life lived in the service of others is a rare jewel. It is a jewel that Her late Majesty The Queen wore as a crown.' She referred to the Queen's dedication to her Christian faith, and recalled early June when the cathedral was the setting for a much happier occasion - the service of thanksgiving for the monarch, attended by the royal family, during the Platinum Jubilee celebrations. On that day, the cathedral's mosaics and carvings were drenched in the sunlight of early summer. While the chandeliers twinkled as usual on Friday, evening was beginning to fall on the renowned building and the mood, sartorial choices and atmosphere were more sombre. Gone were the brightly coloured hats and fascinators, and in their place more muted tones. Dame Sarah told the congregation: 'Today, we gather in this Cathedral Church, with those across our nation, the Commonwealth and the world, with a profound sadness as we mourn her death.' She said those gathered were celebrating the life of the Queen 'which was dedicated to others'. Dame Sarah said: 'Most of us have not known life without the Queen. When she ascended to the throne, the world and the country were both very different places. For seven decades, Her Majesty remained a remarkable constant in the lives of millions: a symbol of unity, strength, forbearance and resilience. The Bishop of London Sarah Mullally during the Service of Prayer and Reflection at St Paul's Cathedral British Prime Minister Liz Truss attends a Service of Prayer and Reflection The Bishop of London, Sarah Mullally, speaks during a service of prayer and reflection, following the passing of Britain's Queen Elizabeth, at St Paul's Cathedral A man poses next to a picture of Queen Elizabeth II after the Service of Prayer and Reflection at St Paul's Cathedral The order of service is held by an attendee during a Service of Prayer and Reflection Members of the public wait opposite St Paul's Cathedral, during of a Service of Remembrance to honour the life of Queen Elizabeth II Members of the public gather outside of St Paul's Cathedral ahead of the service of prayer and reflection People queue to join a Service of Prayer and Reflection for Britain's late Queen Elizabeth II People arriving for the Service of Prayer and Reflection at St Paul's Cathedral, London, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday 'She has been this nation's unerring heartbeat through times of progress, joy and celebration, as well as in much darker and more difficult seasons.' Dame Sarah pointed out the Queen's position as a much-loved mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, saying: 'All of us are grieving the loss of our head of state, head of the Commonwealth and Supreme Governor of the Church of England. 'But the royal family are grieving the loss of a mother, a grandmother, a great-grandmother.' On June 3, the second day of Platinum Jubilee celebrations, the Queen pulled out of attending the service of thanksgiving at St Paul's due to the physical demands involved. She instead watched the service on television from Windsor Castle after she suffered 'discomfort' following a busy first day of festivities including a double balcony appearance and a beacon lighting. During the service there were smiles from the royals and ripples of laughter from the congregation as the Archbishop of York compared the monarch's well-known love of horse racing to her long reign, suggesting it 'reflects the distance of Aintree more than the sprints of Epsom'. The Service of Thanksgiving saw more than 400 hundred people who have served the nation, many during the pandemic, invited to be part of the celebrations marking the Queen's 70-year reign. They were among a 2,000-strong congregation which included the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was booed by the crowd outside, Cabinet ministers, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, first ministers of the devolved governments and every living former prime minister. It was the first time the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had been on full public view alongside the Windsors in two years. On the back page of Friday's order of service there were two quotes from the Queen. The first was from April 21, 1947, when she said: 'I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.' The second, was from September 21, 2001, when she told the people of New York: 'Grief is the price we pay for love.' As CNN undergoes an anti-woke makeover, some speculate the news network might be 'pulling to the political right' and becoming more critical of Joe Biden as staffers try to save their jobs. News anchor Brianna Keilar slammed the White House after they used US Marines and a red backdrop for Biden's speech against former President Donald Trump and the GOP on September 1. 'Whatever you think of this speech the military is supposed to be apolitical,' Keiler wrote on Twitter. 'Positioning Marines in uniform behind President Biden for a political speech flies in the face of that. It's wrong when Democrats do it. It's wrong when Republicans do it.' Keiler has previously criticized Trump, and her comments about Biden apparently 'angered' White House staff, according to The Hill. Some speculate Keiler's comment about Biden is in response to CNN recently letting go of White House correspondent John Harwood, who was an outspoken critic of Trump and called him 'mentally unwell.' The news network has been focused on purging itself of the reputation of being a woke media source since Chris Licht, the new CEO, has pledged to make CNN reliable to the public again by halting the slander of Republicans. News anchor Brianna Keilar critiqued President Joe Biden on Twitter after he used US Marines and a red backdrop during a speech to slam former President Trump and the GOP Keilar said that Biden's speech was not divisive and his use of Marines as a backdrop was not politicizing the military CNN staffers are afraid of a network-wide purge of woke talent following the sudden firings of White House correspondent John Harwood in September 'There will be more changes, and you might not understand it or like it,' CNN head Chris Licht (pictured) told staffers following the removal of Brian Stelter Former chief media correspondent Brian Stelter was also fired from CNN in August upon the removal of his show 'Reliable Sources.' He had three more years left in his contract. Stelter's removal was a result of Licht's vow to clean up the network and move away from opinion broadcasting. 'I want to acknowledge that this is a time of significant change, and I know that many of you are unsettled,' Licht told his staff, according to a report by The Hollywood Reporter. 'There will be more changes, and you might not understand it or like it.' Some staff members expressed their concerns about Stelter's departure from the company as an indicator for the removal of other anchors. 'I think people are legitimately sad that Brian is leaving,' someone familiar with the situation told Hollywood Reporter. 'He was a big presence at the network, but (we) understand that Chris has to put his stamp on the network.' Despite large profile journalists leaving CNN, the news network denies they are shifting to the right, but suggested they are focusing on objective journalism. 'CNN is not shifting from left to right or pursuing a centrist position,' a CNN spokesperson told The Hill. 'We are entirely focused on our core strength and mission - objective journalism presented in a fair and compelling way. 'We will continue to acknowledge different worldviews and experiences. We will always stand up for democracy and call out lies - regardless of their origin. That is not centrism, that is journalism.' Meanwhile, Matthew Gertz, a senior fellow at Media Matters for America, told The Hill the company is trying to get rid of those too critical of the GOP. 'The message coming out... is that this is part of a deliberate effort to get rid of people at CNN who are seen as too critical of Donald Trump and Fox News,' Gertz said. Brian Stelter, former chief media correspondent, was fired in August Stelter had more than three years left on his contract While Harwood may have been fired on September 2 due to his critical comments toward Trump, he didn't shy away from slamming the former president on his last day at CNN. Harwood called Trump a 'dishonest demagogue' and agreed with Joe Biden's divisive speech calling the former president and his MAGA supporters 'a threat' to American democracy. He admitted his statements veered off the path of journalism but maintained his criticisms against Trump's unfounded claims that the 2020 election was stolen. 'We are brought up to believe there's two different political parties with different points of view and we don't take sides in honest disagreements between them,' he said. Meanwhile, upon Harwood's departure from the newsgroup, the hashtag #BoycottCNN was trending on Twitter. John Cooper, the former finance chair for former President Obama, said he started to boycott the newsgroup 'as soon as the network began its shift to the right.' 'If I wanted to watch right-wing propaganda, I'd watch Fox,' he said. Licht has previously ordered the news network employees to tone down the use of 'Breaking News' graphics, warning they have lost their impact from overuse. The new CEO officially took over the company in May. He assumed the former role of ousted CNN boss Jeff Zucker following the formation of the network's new parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, through a $43 billion merger. Zucker departed the network abruptly in February after revealing that he had failed to disclose a consensual romance with his top lieutenant Allison Gollust. Zucker departed the network abruptly in February after revealing that he had failed to disclose a consensual romance with his top lieutenant Allison Gollust (right in 2011) Licht, who officially took over at CNN on May 2, said previously met with Republicans at Capital Hill to get their feedback on the direction of the network The CEO of the new parent company, David Zaslav, has previously said that he wants to see CNN move away from sensationalism and partisan commentary, and back toward hard news. Board member John Malone has shared similar sentiments, saying last year: 'I would like to see CNN evolve back to the kind of journalism that it started with.' Licht has recently met with GOP members on Capital Hill to receive feedback about the company, according to The Hill. He also met with Democrats. However, critics who don't like CNN's shift have advised Licht leave the company while he can. 'It would behoove Licht to get out ahead of this and explain what CNN is doing and where it is going,' Tom Jones from the Poynter Institute told The Hill. Kamala Harris has launched another attack on the Supreme Court, branding it an 'activist court' for overturning Roe v Wade. The Vice President laid into the judges for 'taking a constitutional right away' after they put an end to the 49-year law. Asked on NBC's Meet the Press how much 'confidence' she has in the Supreme Court, the vice president replied: 'I think that this is an activist court.' Such harsh words are unusual for a vice president as the Supreme Court fights to maintain public trust. Her interview marked another occasion where she sat down with the press, while Joe Biden has reached his 210th day without a sit-down interview. Vice President Kamala Harris said the nation's highest court is now an 'activist court' now that they have overturned Roe v. Wade EXCLUSIVE: Vice President Kamala Harris says the Supreme Court is an activist court for overturning Roe v. Wade.@VP: We had an established right for almost half a century. This court took that constitutional right away. And we are suffering as a nation because of it. pic.twitter.com/Tmv955n4Bx Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) September 9, 2022 Harris told Meet The Press: 'We had an established right for almost half a century which is the right of women to make decisions about their own body as an extension of what we have decided to be the privacy rights to which all people are entitled. This court took that constitutional right away. 'That causes me great concern about the integrity of the court overall. This is the court that on once sat Earl Warren and Thurgood Marshall, Sandra Day O'Conner. It's a very different court.' 'This right of privacy, whether it be founded in the Fourteenth Amendment's concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action, as we feel it is, or... in the Ninth Amendment's reservation of rights to the people, is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether to terminate her pregnancy,' that decision read. The Roe v. Wade decision nearly 50 years ago recognized the right to personal privacy under the Constitution protects a woman's abortion. A majority of the justices in 2022 reasoned that 'The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision.' 'Abortion couldn't be constitutionally protected. Until the latter part of the 20th century, such a right was entirely unknown in American law. Indeed, when the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted, three quarters of the States made abortion a crime at all stages of pregnancy,' the majority opinion read. Abortions are now banned in 12 states and two more have a six week ban. Additional abortion bans or restrictions are expected to take place in about half of the nation's states since the decision. Asked on NBC's Meet the Press how much 'confidence' she has in the Supreme Court, the vice president replied: 'I think that this is an activist court' While Harris sat down with NBC, President Biden has not been interviewed by a mainstream media outlet in over half a year - 210 days While Harris sat down with NBC, President Biden has not been interviewed by a mainstream media outlet in over half a year - 210 days. Recently Biden joined Jay Leno for a chat about cars, including the future of electric vehicles, for CNBC's 'Jay Leno's Garage.' Two months before that, he appeared on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' February 10 was Biden's last on-camera interview with an American TV news host, when the president appeared for questioning on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt. On Thursday, the Justice Department asked a federal judge to reconsider her decision to temporarily bar prosecutors from accessing classified documents seized from former President Donald J. Trump's Florida home, arguing that her decision was impeding the government's efforts to determine whether national security had been compromised. The department's attorneys revealed their plan to challenge major aspects of Judge Aileen M. Cannon's verdict in a pair of files in federal court. They stated that if she does not agree to do so by next Thursday they would approach an appeals court to block certain aspects of her order. DOJ Appeals Ruling on Trump's Special Master Judge Cannon's decision, issued on Monday, prohibits the department from utilizing papers taken by the FBI during a court-authorized search on Aug. 8 in its investigation of Trump, including any categorized as highly sensitive. She stated in the judgment that she intended to appoint an impartial arbitrator, known as a special master, to sort through the more than 11,000 papers and 1,800 other things discovered at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. The special master would also have the authority to select and set aside any information that may be protected by attorney-client or executive privilege or personal. Prosecutors requested that Judge Cannon allow investigators to continue using classified records - a distinct group of just over 100 papers while withholding them from the special master. The department argued, forcefully and forebodingly, that establishing the national security implications of Trump's preservation of the records was so entwined with its criminal investigation that carrying out the risk assessment was impossible under the court's terms, as per New York Times. The DOJ's submission comes ahead of a Friday deadline to collaborate with Trump's legal team on a list of applicants to serve as the special master in charge of evaluating the materials. Elsewhere in the application for a stay, the DOJ attacks Trump's claim of executive privilege over secret documents. The DOJ also stated that once Trump's custodian of records was subpoenaed in May and ordered to give over any leftover documents, his legal team never mentioned the possibility of claiming presidential privilege over any classified data. Read Also: Russia, China Hold Joint Fighter Jet Exercises as Vladimir Putin Personally Attends To Witness Large-Scale Drills Trump Slams Appeal on Truth Social On Twitter, Trump criticized the appeal, stating that the Justice Department was going to spend Millions of Dollars, & enormous amounts of Time & Energy, to appeal the Order on the 'Raid of Mar-a-Lago Document Hoax,' by a brilliant and courageous Judge whose words of wisdom resonated true across our Nation. The DOJ's appeal came after many legal experts suggested they had no choice but to challenge the judgment even though extra litigation might potentially delay its ability to restart the examination of classified information, which is a critical stage in its probe. Former US Attorney Barbara McQuade argued that if the Justice Department's primary purpose is to indict Trump, an appeal might prolong that process. However, if the Department of Justice determines that the primary purpose is to safeguard executive privilege and its constraints from the perspective precedent created by Cannon's finding, then a challenge makes more sense. As DOJ officials grappled with how to proceed, they received a major boost from Bill Barr, Trump's former attorney general, who spoke out strongly against Cannon's finding and urged the Justice Department to fight it, according to The Hill. Cannon, a Trump appointee, stated that the yet-to-be-named special master will be in charge of evaluating the Mar-a-Lago records and separating those that may be protected by the attorney-client privilege or executive privilege. The Justice Department is looking into what it calls the illegal retention of national security secrets at Mar-a-Lago, as well as efforts to hinder the investigation. It's unclear if Trump or anybody else will face criminal prosecution. The parties were instructed to submit candidates for a special master's by Friday. This position is frequently held by a lawyer or a former judge, VOA News reported. Related Article: Hillary Clinton on 2024 Presidential Election: Former State Secretary Spills The Bean on Running Again After 2 Failed Bids for White House @YouTube @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Advertisement Amid the personal family tragedy on Thursday, a small domestic drama was playing out. Unsurprisingly, it involved the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. It was a fortunate coincidence of sorts that Harry and Meghan were in the country when the prince's grandmother passed away, sparing him an emotional and undoubtedly traumatic transatlantic dash as the Queen's health failed. Despite the rancour of the past few years, no one would begrudge him the chance to mourn his beloved 'Granny', with whom he had always enjoyed a warm and fun-loving relationship. But as the royal households were consumed in concern for the ailing monarch, the Sussexes prompted an unprecedented flurry behind the scenes by announcing that Harry and Meghan would both be travelling to Balmoral. News of their plans came via the small group of media the Sussexes deem it appropriate to deal with and tweeted out by journalists at 1.53pm. The statement read: 'From a spokesperson: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will be travelling to Scotland.' This was, of course, news to the Palace and it did not go down well. Many behind royal walls, frankly, were incredulous. Queen Elizabeth II and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex watch a flypast to mark the centenary of the Royal Air Force from the balcony of Buckingham Palace. Meghan and her husband have courted controversy since their exit as working royals Despite the rancour of the past few years, no one would begrudge Prince Harry the chance to mourn his beloved 'Granny', with whom he had always enjoyed a warm and fun-loving relationship Some say that Harry and Meghan hadn't considered that William's wife wouldn't be there, with Kate staying in London instead, and when it was pointed out that she wouldn't be, they realised how bad it looked. Others believe Meghan was effectively banned, using the argument that Kate now the Princess of Wales was staying at home. Pictured: The Duchess of Cambridge is seen in Windsor after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, in Windsor, Berkshire, UK, on September 9 Prince William drives Prince Andrew, Sophie, Countess of Wessex and Prince Edward into Balmoral as millions pray for the Queen There was half an hour on Thursday following the Sussexes' initial announcement during which matters quickly came to a head. It is still unclear how much pressure was brought to bear by the Palace itself or whether senior royal were involved but a spokesman for the couple frantically began to 'clarify' their position, informing those same journalists that 'only the duke was travelling at the moment'. Exactly what happened is open to speculation. Some say that Harry and Meghan hadn't considered that William's wife wouldn't be there, with Kate staying in London instead, and when it was pointed out that she wouldn't be, they realised how bad it looked. Others believe Meghan was effectively banned, using the argument that Kate now the Princess of Wales was staying at home. Either way, their hurried announcement that only Harry would be making the trip north from the capital prompted a sigh of relief among aides. Putting aside the anguish of the past few years, the initial decision in itself, that both Sussexes would travel, was seen as wholly inappropriate, according to palace insiders, for one very simple reason: this was a private, family moment. Prince William led the way off the plane (circled left) followed by Edward and Sophie (pictured centre) and finally Prince Andrew (pictured right) Only the two oldest children of the elderly monarch Charles and Anne were present when the Queen passed away. Her other children, Andrew and Edward, arrived as soon as they could afterwards on a plane with Prince William, who is now first in line to the throne. Edward was accompanied by his wife, Sophie, but she is adored by the Queen, who views her as a second daughter, and is likely to have been there at her request. Although most have assumed that Kate stayed behind because it was her children's first day at school, which is in part true, she instinctively knew this was an occasion for the Queen's blood family. It is impossible to forget that events are taking place against a backdrop of unimaginable bitterness. So deep is the rift between the two brothers that even though Harry and William have been temporarily living just a few minutes' walk from each other at Windsor this week, there has been no attempt at contact from either party. The Queen waits in the Drawing Room before receiving Liz Truss for an audience at Balmoral, Scotland on Tuesday. Today she is under the supervision of doctors amid concerns about her health Relations are little better with any other members of the family either King Charles, in particular, has been left bewildered and deeply hurt by his younger son's incessant attacks. While no one wants an all-out war, few are in a hurry to forgive or forget Meghan's series of laser-guided and deeply harmful accusations against family members, as well as the institution of the monarchy itself. It was noticeable that there was no invitation for Harry to join the family party that headed north on Thursday, taking off from RAF Northolt bound for Aberdeen. He made his own way to Balmoral by private jet and faced a lonely drive to the castle, finally arriving at 7.52pm an hour and a half after the palace's historic statement informing the nation of the death of Her Majesty. He was seen being driven out at 8.28am yesterday, little more than 12 hours later. During that time he would have had to kiss his father's hand, curtsey to his step-mother and break bread with those he has caused so much hurt. Catherine, Duchess Of Cambridge, leaves Windsor Castle as she stayed behind in England where her three children are having their first day at school The brothers now face seeing a lot of each other as they prepare for the Queen's funeral. Harry made his way separately back to Windsor yesterday and there was no word last night as to whether the pair have any plans to meet although it seems Harry will remain at Frogmore Cottage until after the funeral on September 19. It is unclear whether Meghan is still in the country, but she has two young children back in the US and may well fly back to them, returning for the funeral. Grief is often said to bring a family together whether it does when it comes to Harry and the rest of the Windsor dynasty remains to be seen. William will have more time to focus on his new role now he no longer has to nursemaid his younger brother. His plan? To bring much more optimism to 'dreary' public life By Rebecca English, Royal Editor for the Daily Mail All eyes may be on our new King and Queen, but another significant change in national life will warrant the public's attention. For the first time in more than 60 years, the country has a new Prince and Princess of Wales. In his address to the nation last night, King Charles III announced that William is now officially the Prince of Wales and Kate the Princess of Wales. And I am told the heir to the throne, as he now is, has a good idea of how he wants to approach his new role. 'The duke was incredibly close to his grandmother, he looked up to her like no one else. And that service and duty that she epitomised is something that will very much be a characteristic of his future role,' one source close to William said. 'He learned from the best.' The heir to the throne, 40, is very keen on his initiatives, such as the Royal Foundation, and his major project, the Earthshot Prize, and wants to pass them on to his own children when he becomes king one day Knowing this day would come sooner or later, I spent months talking to William's inner circle to find out what kind of Prince of Wales he will be. Practically, of course, the biggest change will be his funding. He will inherit from his father the 1.2billion Duchy of Cornwall, an estate comprising land holdings and investments, which has kept successive Princes of Wales in small change since the 14th century. Last year the profits from this, which can now be used by William, amounted to 23million although Charles always chose to pay tax voluntarily on it. Instead of having to go cap in hand to his father for funding, William will be the master of all he surveys. The Duchy is one thing on which both William and his father who have found themselves at loggerheads on many issues over the years have agreed. William, 40, has admired his father's careful stewardship of the estate, and Charles is largely considered to be an excellent landlord by his tenants, setting up hardship funds and keeping a close eye on rents. Like his father, William is determined to continue to push issues including the environment, mental health and homelessness William has also spent the last few years 'future-proofing' his charitable empire, the Royal Foundation, and ensuring his major project, the Earthshot Prize, is able to operate independently without his day-to-day involvement so that he can take on new affairs of state. I am told he wants to hand these initiatives on to his own children when he becomes king one day. Like his father, William is determined to continue to push issues including the environment, mental health and homelessness. 'He will remain very hands-on,' says a friend. 'He believes that as Prince of Wales he can continue to make a significant contribution, particularly in the area of housing and homelessness. He knew he needs to tread carefully but he won't be silent. He's inherited a lot of his father's campaigning zeal. 'He shares his father's willingness to speak if there's something he believes in for the long term. The Prince of Wales was ridiculed for his views on climate change and look at him now. William wants to bring that to his own work.' The friend added: 'He's not going to be happy if there's some big challenge that's not getting proper attention because of his position he will have to say something. Of course he will be very careful. He doesn't like courting controversy but he is not afraid of taking risks.' That doesn't mean William and Kate will be stomping around the public arena, hectoring and lecturing on any subject that draws their attention. Despite their desire to speak up on issues they believe in, William and Kate will not be stomping around the public arena, hectoring and lecturing on any subject that draws their attention A friend said: 'He knows that he and the duchess are going to have to cover a lot more ground and pick and choose their causes carefully. There are, to put it delicately, significantly fewer members of the Royal Family than there were previously and ten times the need for their help.' Friends say William is also keen to be defined by a 'sense of optimism'. 'He thinks that is the essence of the job of the Royal Family. He and Catherine both feel there's not a lot of optimism in public life and it can feel pretty dreary at times,' one former aide tells me. 'There are some incredible people in our country doing amazing things and they believe it's their job to counter pessimism and highlight the good.' But how will they do this with fewer royals in the mix? What about the Duke of York's eviction from public life and Harry and Meghan's acrimonious departure. These are blows to their future plans, surely? 'Clearly it's not what they had envisaged,' says one close adviser. Interestingly, much as he loves his cousins, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, William believes they should not have a role in public life. 'He adores his cousins and values their love and support hugely. He is always telling his team to make sure they are invited to the big occasions and is focused on making sure his team fosters a good relationship with them,' says a member of his inner circle. 'But like his father he believes a slimmed down monarchy is the way forward.' Friends say William is also keen to be defined by a 'sense of optimism', which he thinks is the essence of the job of the Royal Family However, Princess Anne, Prince Edward and his wife Sophie are still very much part of the plan moving forward. 'He has so much respect for his aunt's diligence and work ethic and is incredibly close to the Wessexes. They are very much part of the future,' a source confirms. By the sounds of it, uncle Andrew is very much not part of this plan. 'Frankly, he would have pushed for things to have happened a lot faster than they did, just like the Prince of Wales would have if they could have operated freely. But it was complicated with the Queen and her son,' I am told. It certainly sounds as if William is ready to be Prince of Wales. A former member of his agrees: 'Absolutely, the mechanisms have been in place for a long time but his head is in the right place now too. 'A couple of years ago I think it's fair to say he wouldn't have been ready. He is now. What has happened this week is so much bigger than anyone can imagine but the households have worked hard to get their houses in order. 'For a long time the family have been pulling together in the right direction. Family crises can make or break you. The debacle [with Harry and Meghan and Andrew] seems to have made this one.' The main thing is that William, with the support of his wife, is ready for his new role. Somehow, among the outpouring of grief, the future feels in good hands Another source adds: 'When the whole Harry and Meghan show came on the scene in 2018-2019, a lot of time, energy and emotion was spent on his brother. They shared a team, he was trying to help him work through his issues, fighting the media... That has been taken away now. 'It's clearly been painful, but William wasn't spending his time thinking about the future and the work he needed to be getting on with, and now he is.' For now, of course, William's focus is on his family and their loss. William still cannot quite believe his grandmother is gone. But he knows there was nothing he wishes he had said, but did not get the chance to. The main thing is that William, with the support of his wife, is ready for his new role. Somehow, among the outpouring of grief, the future feels in good hands. With a mixture of refreshing informality and a sprinkling of stardust, KATE will be a worthy successor to the mother-in-law she tragically never got to meet By Jennie Bond, ex-BBC Royal Correspondent Not only do we have a new monarch, but after 25 years we also have a new Princess of Wales. While we all continue to absorb the reality of the Queen's death, the changes which automatically follow somehow seem equally shocking. Roles are instantly swapped, titles inherited, the hierarchy is altered. The very words 'His Majesty' sound alien to most of us. 'King Charles' will take some getting used to. Now, of course, we have Her Majesty the Queen Consort. And William and Kate have become the Prince and Princess of Wales. It's a title Camilla chose not to use, because it was one that had belonged so comprehensively to Diana. Out of respect to the Princess, and because of the part Camilla would acknowledge she had played in the breakdown of Charles and Diana's marriage, she decided instead to use the title Duchess of Cornwall. But with the confirmation that Kate is our new Princess of Wales, I'm sure the mother-in-law she never knew would think her a worthy successor. Not only do we have a new monarch, but after 25 years we also have a new Princess of Wales Comparisons between the two are, of course, inevitable. Diana was a beautiful woman, tall and willowy much like Kate. But there was so much more to her than her looks, and that's true for Kate, too. Diana was sharp and wily; after her divorce, she remained dedicated to using her platform to effect change, for example by that memorable walk through a minefield in Angola. Kate has the brains and the profile to do the same and more. For unlike Diana, Kate enjoyed a gentle transition into royal life. Diana was thrust into her duties with no preparation. She had been born an aristocrat, but was unused to a public platform and the harsh glare of the limelight. Kate, by contrast, comes from a solid middle-class background and dated her Prince for almost a decade before they married. She shared his student life and formed a strong foundation of friendship with him before either of them committed to a life together. They even broke up for a while a mock divorce, if you like before William came to his senses and snapped up this modest, beautiful young woman who has blossomed into a Princess and our future Queen. Comparisons between Kate and Diana are inevitable. Diana was a beautiful woman, tall and willowy much like Kate. But there was so much more to her than her looks, and that's true for Kate, too As Princess of Wales, Diana felt she was left alone to navigate her role without sufficient support. Coming from a broken family, she lacked the comfort of a secure network of parental back-up. Towards the end of her life, she told me she much preferred to be called Lady Di: 'I certainly don't wake up every morning thinking: 'Yippee, I'm a Princess!' ' Of course, to the world, she was the consummate Princess. And, yes, her shoes will be hard to fill. From the moment Diana walked down the aisle of St Paul's Cathedral to marry her Prince, her star quality shone through. Her marriage was declared a 'fairy tale' by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and we all bought into the myth. She had such charisma, even as a shy, young bride. I first saw her in the flesh in 1988 when I reported on her visit to Australia with Charles, a natural star of the royal roadshow. By that time, she was also an accomplished actress, as the truth was that the fairytale marriage was already null and void. But the crowds rushed to see her; Di-mania was rife. Diana's success only served to further fuel tensions in her marriage. Charles was jealous of his wife's popularity and resented playing second fiddle. One of Diana's constant refrains during our chats was that she and Prince Charles 'would have been such a great team'. As it was, she made her mark on her own, leading the way in making the monarchy more accessible, more obviously compassionate. Kate has become hugely popular without dominating the stage or eclipsing her husband. Now a confident, hands-on mother of three, blessed with a happy marriage and a supportive extended family, she's more than equipped to take on that highly charged title of Princess of Wales and make it her own How delighted she would have been, then, to see her son part of such a great double act. During one of our conversations at Kensington Palace, Diana told me that William then an adolescent found the burden of kingship weighed heavily on his shoulders. But she was confident he would come to terms with the fact he had no choice over his destiny. 'William is all right,' she told me, looking proudly at one of the many framed pictures of her boys that adorned her living room. 'The country is lucky to have him.' And how lucky William is to have Kate. With her at his side, he has grown into a confident, mature future King who has shown he is more than willing to shoulder the responsibilities of his role. William and Kate are a mutually supportive couple who allow one another to take the lead when the focus is on one of their respective causes. They are the team Diana had hoped to be with Charles. Kate has become hugely popular without dominating the stage or eclipsing her husband. Now a confident, hands-on mother of three, blessed with a happy marriage and a supportive extended family, she's more than equipped to take on that highly charged title of Princess of Wales and make it her own. How lucky William is to have Kate. With her at his side, he has grown into a confident, mature future King who has shown he is more than willing to shoulder the responsibilities of his role Just as Diana did before her, wherever Kate goes, she brings an informality to royal events, crouching down to talk to people in wheelchairs, sitting on the floor to chat with children; touching, hugging and being thoroughly down to earth while still sprinkling a little magical royal stardust. After her divorce, Diana chose to reduce the number of charities she championed. She wanted to concentrate on the causes she cared about most deeply. Kate has done that from the start, focusing on issues such as early learning and mental health, which she is passionate about. On Thursday the world changed. The woman who was such a quiet, calm presence in the very fabric of our national life for 70 years is no longer with us. The stability and continuity she represented has been ruptured. But the line goes on. During the past few months, as the Queen gradually handed over key responsibilities to her heirs, Kate has shown she has not only grown into her role but has grown with it. She strikes me as full of confidence and with a charm that is quite bewitching. Kate is loved and admired by our new King and Queen, adored by her husband and popular with the public. Almost a quarter of a century to the day since William walked behind his mother's coffin, his wife has inherited her title, Princess of Wales. And she is thoroughly deserving of it. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Friday argued for even more funding for the Ukraine, this time to help to help the war-torn nation rebuild. Yellen, during a virtual meeting with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, underscored the need for a broad coalition of partners to help Ukraine rebuild, with a focus on near-term, high-impact projects, the Treasury Department said. She also discussed the need for Ukraine's partners to deliver expeditiously on economic assistance for the country, which has been besieged for over six months by Russian forces. Yellen also outlined the next steps for implementation of a Group of Seven price cap on Russian oil meant to put downward pressure on global energy prices and reduce revenues that Russian President Vladimir Putin is using to fund the war, Treasury said in a statement. Her push for more Ukraine aid comes after Antony Blinken announced, during a surprise visit to Kyiv on Thursday, an astounding $2 billion in additional military aid to help with the Ukrainians in their war with Russia. But President Joe Biden's Secretary of State said that half of the massive package will be divvied up between 18 other European nations that the U.S. feels are 'most potentially at risk for future Russian aggression.' Thursday's contributions bring the total U.S. aid to Ukraine to $15.2 billion since Biden took office. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen argued for even more funding for the Ukraine, this time to help to help the war-torn nation rebuild Secretary of State Antony Blinken (pictured right meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky) made a surprise visit to Kyiv on Thursday where he announced an additional $2 billion in aid to Ukraine and 18 other European countries In meetings with senior Ukrainian officials, Blinken said the Biden administration notified Congress of its intent to provide $1 billion in long-term Foreign Military Financing to Ukraine and another $1 billion to be divided to other regional security partners and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member countries It comes after Ukraine's top military chief warned Wednesday that there could be a 'limited' nuclear war between Russia and the West. U.S. officials insist the new commitments are intended to show that American support for the country in the face of Russia's invasion is unwavering despite calls to spend more on domestic issues than funding for a war for a non-NATO nation. In meetings with senior Ukrainian officials, Blinken said the Biden administration notified Congress of its intent to provide $2 billion in long-term Foreign Military Financing to Ukraine and other regional security partners and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members. The package would require congressional approval. While $1 billion of the military aide would go to Ukraine, the rest will be divided among Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Pictured: Blinken on Thursday meets hero landmine sniffer dog Patron who has helped the Ukraine military locate and clear more than 200 Russian landmines Thursday's contributions bring the total U.S. aid to Ukraine to $15.2 billion since Biden took office and comes as budget documents confirm the Pentagon sent Ukraine its most accurate artillery shell, the GPS-guided Excalibur. Pictured: A man walks by the aftermath of an overnight shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine on Thursday During his unscheduled visit to Ukraine, Blinken visited a children's hospital in Kyiv Thursday It will go to help those countries 'deter and defend against emergent threats to their sovereignty and territorial integrity' by enhancing their military integration with NATO and countering 'Russian influence and aggression,' the State Department said. 'This assistance demonstrates yet again our unwavering commitment to Ukraine's future as a democratic, sovereign, and independent state, as well as the security of allies and partners across the region,' the department said. Foreign Military Financing, or FMF, allows recipients to purchase U.S.-made defense equipment, often depending on their specific needs. The financing comes on top of a $675 million package of heavy weaponry, ammunition and armored vehicles for Ukraine alone that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced earlier Thursday at a conference in Ramstein, Germany. That package includes howitzers, artillery munitions, Humvees, armored ambulances, anti-tank systems and more. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, third right, arrives to visit a children's hospital in Kyiv, on Thursday during an unscheduled trip to Ukraine Americans are urging government funds be spent on domestic issues rather than a foreign war with a non-NATO nation. Pictured: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky virtually rang the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday as the war between Ukraine and Russia wages on into its seventh month Austin said that 'the war is at another key moment,' with Ukrainian forces beginning their counteroffensive in the south of the country. He said that 'now were seeing the demonstrable success of our common efforts on the battlefield.' 'The face of the war is changing and so is the mission of this contact group,' Austin told the meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which was attended by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and Ukraines defense minister as well as officials from allied countries. Budget documents also confirm that the Pentagon has sent Ukraine its most accurate artillery shell, the GPS-guided Excalibur. The addition to Ukraine's arsenal was previously announced, but the Defense Department's plan to replenish the U.S. stock acknowledges for the first time that the Pentagon has been supplying Ukrainian forces with this shell. The announcements of Thursday's aid came as fighting between Ukraine and Russia has intensified in recent days, with Ukrainian forces mounting a counteroffensive to retake Russian-held areas in the south and east. Shelling has continued near Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, with the warring sides trading blame again amid dire warnings from the U.N. atomic watchdog for the creation of a safe zone to prevent a catastrophe. Shelling has continued near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest. Pictured: Firefighters work to extinguish a fire, looking for potential victims after a Russian attack that heavily damaged a residential building in Sloviansk, Ukraine on Wednesday, September 7 On Wednesday, the U.S. accused Moscow of interrogating, detaining and forcibly deporting hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians to Russia. Russian officials immediately rejected the claim as 'fantasy.' Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief, General Valery Zaluzhny, wrote on Wednesday: 'There is a direct threat of the use, under certain circumstances, of tactical nuclear weapons by the Russian armed forces.' 'It is also impossible to completely rule out the possibility of the direct involvement of the world's leading countries in a 'limited' nuclear conflict, in which the prospect of World War III is already directly visible,' he added in an article published by Ukrinform, a state-run Ukrainian media outlet. The war will almost certainly continue into 2023, Zaluzhny said Ukraine's new strategy of striking in Russian-occupied lands like Crimea is a 'convincing example' of Kyiv's calls for allies to send longer-range weapons During Blinken's unscheduled visit to the embattled region on Thursday he visited a children's hospital in the capital city of Kyiv. He was also pictured smiling and holding a landmine sniffing dog. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has become somewhat of a celebrity in the midst of the war with Russia. On Tuesday he virtually rang the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange. The move is a continued move seeking to capitalize off of the war and enrich Ukraine with foreign investment. 'We have united the whole world around our struggle for freedom, we are liberating Ukrainian territory from the Russian army,' Zelensky said Tuesday. 'We are giving you and your companies the opportunity to work with us. 'Invest in Ukraine this will be your victory,' he added. Advantage Ukraine comprises a wide array of projects seeking financial investors in the nation, including for national defense, infrastructure, natural resources and pharmaceuticals. Advertisement Former first lady Michelle Obama took in a big night at the US Open in Queens on Friday after she and her husband, former President Barack Obama, were seen in Manhattan that afternoon. First lady Obama was watching semifinal action in Arthur Ashe Stadium, the main court at the Billy Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows. The men's singles semifinals are taking place this evening, including the semifinal debut of Frances Tiafoe, the 24-year-old American considered by many to be the breakout star of this year's tournament. Obama wore a light blue outfit with pinstripes to the annual tennis tournament that grips the city for two weeks every year. She was seated at the Open with President of the USTA Board of Directors Michael J. McNulty III and Model Jill McCormick. Former first lady Michelle Obama took in a big night at the US Open in Queens on Friday after she and husband, former President Barack Obama, were seen in Manhattan that afternoon First lady Obama leaving her hotel to go watch semifinal action in Arthur Ashe Stadium, the main court at the Billy Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows Michelle and Barack's daughter Malia was spotted today wearing combat boots as she headed in to meet her Mom. She was seated at the Open with President of the USTA Board of Directors Michael J. McNulty III and Model Jill McCormick The men's singles semifinals are taking place this evening, including the semifinal debut of Frances Tiafoe, the 24-year-old American considered by many to be the breakout star of this year's tournament Both Obamas were spotted in New York City Friday, as the city prepares to mourn the 21st anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. The pair, who will celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary next month, were seen together by DailyMail.com cameras leaving the Pierre Hotel in Manhattan Friday afternoon. The Obamas were joined by longtime advisor and friend Valerie Jarrett as they headed for their secret service detail, which consisted of 7 vehicles that included NYPD assistance. President Obama was seen in a gray button-down shirt, dark blue jacket, and sunglasses, while former first lady Michelle wore a white shirt and green pants. They were then seen leaving with their detail and heading straight for the Lincoln Tunnel and out of the city. It's unclear if the Obamas, like last year, will be helping with the memorial services to mark 9/11 this year, while speculation has also mounted as to whether they'll attend the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. They are the only former first family to have been invited back to visit the late monarch after Obama ended his time in office, and are believed to have been firm favorites of the British ruler. Former President Barack Obama walking out of the Pierre Hotel in Manhattan on Friday afternoon Former first lady Michelle Obama was alongside her husband, as they prepare to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary next month The Obamas were joined by longtime advisor and friend Valerie Jarrett as they checked in before leaving the upscale Manhattan hotel Michelle Obama is spotted checking in to a New York City hotel on Friday afternoon It's unclear if the Obamas, like last year, will be helping with the memorial services to mark 9/11 this year Speculation has also mounted as to whether Barack and Michelle will attend the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II The 44th president put out a lengthy statement on Thursday celebrating the life of the late Queen Elizabeth II Michelle and Barack Obama tweeted out the six paragraph statement together from both of their accounts Obama, seen in a gray button down shirt, dark blue jacket and sunglasses, leaves the Pierre Hotel Obama's secret service detail needed several cars, as well as a hand from the New York Police Department First lady Michelle wore a white shirt and green pants outside their Manhattan hotel The Obamas' secret service detail, which consisted of seven vehicles that included NYPD assistance The detail was then seen leaving with their detail and heading straight for the Lincoln Tunnel and out of the city 'Like so many of you, Michelle and I are grateful to have witnessed Her Majestys dedicated leadership, and we are awed by her legacy of tireless, dignified public service. Our thoughts are with her family and the people of the United Kingdom at this difficult time,' Obama said in a statement on Twitter. The Obamas first met the Queen while in office in April 2009, again in London in May 2011, and once more for the Queen's 90th birthday in 2016. The Obamas have also maintained a strong relationship on charity work with Prince Harry. He acknowledged the Queen just a day after reflecting on his own legacy during his portrait unveiling at the White House. 'Her Majesty worked with 15 Prime Ministers and countless foreign heads of state,' said the Obama statement. 'She listened deeply, thought strategically, and was responsible for considerable diplomatic achievements. And yet, she wore her lofty titles with a light touchas willing to act in a comic sketch for the London Olympics as she was to record steadying messages for the people of the UK during the COVID-19 lockdowns.' The Obama statement ran to six paragraphs and put the Queen's reign into historical context. 'During World War II, she became the first-ever female royal to serve on active military duty. And through periods of prosperity and stagnation from the moon landing, to the fall of the Berlin Wall, to the dawn of the digital age she served as a beacon of hope and stability for the people of the United Kingdom and the world,' the Obamas said. U.S. President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle pose for a photograph with Britain's Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh in 2009 In 2011, President Barack Obama speaks with Britain's Queen Elizabeth II during a state banquet at Buckingham Palace The Obamas thanked the Queen for the welcome she gave them in 2009. They attended a state banquet in 2011 They also spoke in personal terms about their 2009 meeting with the Queen during Obama's first year in office, when then-first lady Michelle Obama broke protocol by putting an arm around the monarch. She later wrote that it came after the two were commiserating over their uncomfortable footwear. 'Michelle and I were lucky enough to come to know Her Majesty, and she meant a great deal to us. Back when we were just beginning to navigate life as President and first lady, she welcomed us to the world stage with open arms and extraordinary generosity,' they said. 'Time and again, we were struck by her warmth, the way she put people at ease, and how she brought her considerable humor and charm to moments of great pomp and circumstance.' Obama was most recently in the news for becoming the second American president to win an Emmy Award. The 44th president won the best narrator Emmy for his work on the Netflix documentary series, 'Our Great National Parks'. The documentary's first episode was released on the streaming service on April 13. The five-part series, which features national parks from around the globe, is produced by Barack and Michelle Obama's production company, 'Higher Ground.' He was the biggest name in a category full of famous nominees for the award handed out at Saturday night's Creative Arts Emmys, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, David Attenborough and Lupita Nyong'o. Barack Obama is the second president to have an Emmy. Dwight D. Eisenhower was given a special Emmy Award in 1956 for his 'appreciation of television,' just a year after he hosted the first broadcast press conference. Former President Barack Obama, 61, has won an Emmy Award for his work on the Netflix documentary series, 'Our Great National Parks,' on Saturday. No. 44 could become the 18th person ever to win an EGOT - an individual who has won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony - following in the footpaths of Audrey Hepburn, Whoopi Goldberg and Helen Hayes US President Barack Obama speaks while celebrating the 100th anniversary of the US National Parks system at Yosemite National Park, California, on June 18, 2016. At the time, he launched the 'Every Kid in a Park' initiative, which allows free entry for fourth grade students and their families in all 63 national parks for a year Obama's vice president and now the President, Joe Biden, told DailyMail.com Thursday that 'yes, probably,' he'd attend Queen Elizabeth's funeral as he departed a Democratic National Committee event Thursday night. Biden twice paid homage to the Queen Thursday evening, first stopping at the British embassy in Washington to sign a book of condolences, hours after Buckingham Palace announced the death of the long-serving British monarch. 'We mourn for all of you,' said Biden after the signing, with first lady Jill Biden at his side. 'She was a great lady. We're so delighted to get to meet her.' Later, he opened up his remarks at the DNC summer meeting by speaking about the Queen. 'I had the opportunity to meet her before she passed and she was an incredibly decent and gracious woman,' Biden said. 'And the thoughts and prayers of the American people are with the people of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth in their grief.' He spoke to DailyMail.com after nearly an hour of chatting with DNC members and taking selfies. President Joe Biden told DailyMail.com that 'yes, probably,' he'd attend Queen Elizabeth's funeral as he departed a Democratic National Committee event Thursday night President Joe Biden and the first lady made an unannounced visit to the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., on Thursday evening, hours after the Queen's death was announced Biden signed the book of condolence, flanked by Dame Karen Pierce, British ambassador to the U.S., and the first lady. 'We're so delighted to get to meet her,' he said afterwards The Bidens put their name to a message praising the way Elizabeth 'led with enduring strength and dignity,' before heading on to a political event The White House said President Joe Biden had met the Queen three times, most recently for tea with first lady Jill Biden at Windsor Castle in 2021, where they inspected a guard of honor Biden paid tribute to the Queen after her death was announced on Thursday, saying: 'In a world of constant change, she was a steadying presence and a source of comfort and pride for generations of Britons including many who have never known their country without her' The president issued a proclamation on Thursday afternoon, paying tribute to the Queen and ordering the US flag to be flown at half staff at the White House and other public buildings At the embassy, Dr. Biden wore black and carried a bouquet of flowers as they arrived to be greeted by Dame Karen Pierce, the British ambassador. The condolence book sat between a photo of the Queen and a vase of flowers. Biden took out some notes as he sat down to write his entry. 'The American people mourn today with people in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth,' wrote Biden. 'She led with enduring strength and dignity.' After signing the book, the Bidens spoke briefly to British diplomatic staff. 'Our hearts are with you,' said the first lady. And the president could be heard saying: 'As my mother would say, God love you.' It came amid a welter of tributes to Britain's longest-reigning monarch. Earlier Biden paid tribute to the stability and constancy she brought to Britain and to an uncertain world. And he said he was ready to build on his relationship with King Charles, who will now take up the British throne. 'In a world of constant change, she was a steadying presence and a source of comfort and pride for generations of Britons, including many who have never known their country without her,' said Biden. 'An enduring admiration for Queen Elizabeth II united people across the Commonwealth. Biden, who met the Queen for the first time as a senator in 1982 and for the final time last year, was told of her death during a meeting in the Oval Office. Meghan Markle has canceled several planned appearances in New York that had been set for the day after Queen Elizabeth's likely funeral date, as the Royal Family enters the official morning for the monarch. The Duchess of Sussex had been scheduled to appear on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on September 20, the same day she and Prince Harry planned to visit the UN General Assembly in Manhattan. Both appearances have now been nixed, and Markle plans to delay releasing the next episode of her podcast Archetypes, which had been set for release next Tuesday on Spotify, sources told Page Six on Friday. By happenstance, the Queen's death on Thursday came as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were in the midst of a European tour on a public relations blitz. Meghan Markle is seen in Germany on Tuesday. The Queen's death came as the Sussexes were on a PR blitz, but they are understandably canceling upcoming appearances Markle had been scheduled to appear on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon (above) on September 20, which would be one day after the Queen's funeral, but has pulled out Queen Elizabeth is seen on Tuesday, in the final photo before her passing on Thursday Now, their plans have understandably been put on hold as they mourn leading up to and following the Queen's state funeral. The funeral is expected to be scheduled for September 19 at Westminster Abbey in London, but the official date has not yet been announced. It's unclear whether Markle has already booked another date to appear on The Tonight Show. 'I don't even know what she was going to talk about [with Fallon], but that's obviously canceled now,' one source told Page Six. A spokeswoman for the NBC program did not immediately respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are seen making an appearance in Dusseldorf, German on Tuesday, in the midst of the European tour cut short by the Queen's death Prince Harry returns to Windsor on Friday morning after the death of Queen Elizabeth II The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were together in Frogmore Cottage in Windsor when the Queen's failing health became apparent, but Prince Harry flew alone to Scotland, where she was staying at Balmoral. Prince Harry arrived after the Queen's death had been publicly announced, and returned to Windsor on Friday morning. It's unclear whether Markle plans to remain in the UK for the next 10 days until the funeral, or will fly back to California to tend to her young children before returning for the funeral. Understandably, all members of the Royal Family have suspended and altered any plans for public appearances as the UK enters a highly choreographed, weeks-long morning period. In his first public address as the country's new monarch, King Charles III gave the order that a period of 'Royal Mourning' for the Queen will be observed from now until seven days after her funeral. King Charles III gave the order that a period of 'Royal Mourning' for the Queen will be observed from now until seven days after her funeral Royal Mourning will be observed by members of the royal family, royal household staff and representatives of the royal Household on official duties, together with troops committed to ceremonial duties. On Friday, royal salutes were fired with one round for every year of the Queens life at 1pm in Hyde Park by the Kings Troop Royal Horse Artillery. The Queens casket will soon be taken to the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, Scotland. It will then be solemnly processed to St. Giles Cathedral to lie at rest for 24 hours, with a public viewing. The casket will be flown to London and will lie in state at Westminster Hall for four days, before the state funeral, most likely on September 19. Advertisement Britain's 3billion aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth fired a 96-gun salute to mark the Queen's death on Friday after guns were fired at Cardiff, Edinburgh and Hillsborough castles as well as Gibraltar upon news of the passing of the elderly monarch. Photos provided by the Ministry of Defence taken from a Merlin Mk2 helicopter show 820 Naval Air Squadron firing the gun salute in tribute to the Queen, who was Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces as well as Head of State and Supreme Head of the Church of England. Salutes were fired on five others ships, as well as locations including Cardiff Castle, Edinburgh Castle, Hillsborough Castle, York, Portsmouth and Gibraltar. Similar gun salutes were fired to mark the death of Queen Victoria in 1901 and Britain's wartime Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill in 1965. Ministry of Defence handout aerial view of the 96 gun salute taken from a Merlin Mk2 helicopter of 820 Naval Air Squadron embarked on board HMS Queen Elizabeth Photos provided by the Ministry of Defence taken from a Merlin Mk2 helicopter show 820 Naval Air Squadron firing the gun salute in tribute to the Queen, who was Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces as well as Head of State and Supreme Head of the Church of England Britain's 3billion aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth fired a 96-gun salute to mark the Queen's death on Friday Camilla, Charles and Queen Elizabeth II on the Buckingham Palace balcony during Trooping The Colour on June 2, 2022 The gun salute: How teams of horses pull guns before booming salutes to mark royal occasions - from births and deaths, to the opening of Parliament On special days, Royal salutes are fired from various locations in London and across the UK. In London, salutes are fired from the Tower of London, and also either Hyde Park or Green Park, depending upon the occasion. The basic salute is 21 rounds, fired at ten second intervals, but in Hyde Park an extra 20 are fired because it is a Royal Park. Teams of horses gallop across the park, pulling six thirteen-pounder guns at speed over the grass. The guns are quickly detached and, upon command, fire booming blanks which reverberate through the ground, sending a puff of white smoke into the air. In the parks, The King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery fires the salute, the first round usually being fired at noon. The salute at the Tower of London is fired from four twenty-five pounder guns located on Tower Wharf facing the River Thames, by the Honourable Artillery Company at 1pm. When are Gun Salutes fired? Gun salutes are fired to mark a variety of occasions, including: Accession Day 6 February The Queen's birthday 21 April Coronation Day - 2 June The Queen's official birthday - a Saturday in June The Prince of Wales's birthday - 14 November The State Opening of Parliament - usually November or December Prorogation of Parliament Royal births, for example for Prince George and Princess Charlotte Meeting of a visiting Head of State and the Sovereign in London, Windsor or Edinburgh Advertisement Gun salutes are customarily fired, both on land and at sea, as a sign of respect or welcome. Nowadays, gun salutes mark special occasions on certain days of the year, many of them with royal associations. Gun salutes occur on royal anniversaries including Accession Day, the monarch's birthday, Coronation Day, the monarch's official birthday, the State Opening of Parliament, royal births and when a visiting head of state meets the monarch in London, Windsor or Edinburgh. The MoD said the tradition of gun salutes routinely being fired throughout the country to mark significant national events dated back centuries, and there were historical records of salutes taking place as early as the 14th century when guns and ammunition began to be adopted widely. At 1pm on Friday, the Death Gun Salute was fired at 1pm on Friday in London, as well as at other locations around the UK and at saluting stations at home and abroad. One round was fired every 10 seconds, with 96 rounds representing one round for every year of the Queen's life. In London, the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery fired the Death Gun Salute in Hyde Park, while at the same time the Death Gun Salute was fired at the Tower of London by the Honourable Artillery Company (HAC). Some 71 horses made their way into Hyde Park, of which 36 pulled six First World War-era 13-pounder field guns. The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery is a British Army mounted ceremonial unit that fires royal salutes on royal anniversaries and state occasions, such as state visits and royal birthdays. The HAC dates its origins back to 1537, making it the oldest regiment in the British Army. It took over the role of firing gun salutes from the Tower of London in 1924. Major Matt Aldridge, Battery Commander, Honourable Artillery Company, said: 'It has been an honour and privilege for the Honourable Artillery Company to have played our part in commemorating the life of Her Majesty The Queen, our Captain-General. In this period of national mourning, our thoughts are with the royal family.' It comes as the Chief of the Defence Staff said that the Queen 'understood better than most the burdens and the glory of a life in uniform'. Admiral Sir Tony Radakin said service personnel 'must perform their final duty to a much-loved sovereign' in the coming days, adding: 'We do so with admiration and gratitude.' In a statement posted on the Ministry of Defence's Twitter page on Thursday evening, he said: 'On behalf of our armed forces, I would like to express our condolences to His Majesty the King, and to the royal family. 'The relationship between the Queen and the armed forces was deeply personal. Through her own service in the Second World War, and as the wife, mother, and grandmother of service personnel, the Queen understood better than most the burdens and the glory of life in uniform. The Death Gun Salute is fired at the Tower of London by the Honourable Artillery Company The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery prepare to fire a 96-gun salute at 1pm at Hyde Park The 105th Regiment Royal Artillery, The Scottish and Ulster Gunners fire a 96-gun salute at 1pm in tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II at Edinburgh Castle Britian's Defence Secretary Ben Wallace attends the Death Gun Salute fired at the Tower of London alongside Admiral Sir Antony David Radakin, a senior Royal Navy officer The Death Gun Salute is fired at the Tower of London by the Honourable Artillery Company 'In the coming days, our sailors, soldiers and aviators must perform their final duty to a much-loved sovereign. We do so with admiration and gratitude. For those of us who have the privilege to now wear the King's uniform, there remains no greater honour than to serve our Crown and country.' Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston also paid tribute to the Queen, saying she was a 'pillar of strength to all who have been privileged to serve her'. In a statement posted on his official Twitter page, he said: 'It is with overwhelming sadness that the Royal Air Force and Royal Auxiliary Air Force mourn the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. 'During her long and glorious reign, she has been the embodiment of a life dedicated to the service of the nation and the Commonwealth, and for that has been admired by millions around the world. 'Her Majesty, as head of the Armed Forces, has been a constant source of inspiration and a pillar of strength to all who have been privileged to serve her. Those who had the honour of meeting Her Majesty will never forget their interaction and the deep sense of pride they felt in that moment. 'On behalf of everyone in the Royal Air Force, serving, retired, and their families, I offer our deepest condolences to His Majesty The King and The Royal Family.' The nation will watch the new King being formally proclaimed monarch as the ceremony is televised for the first time. Today will be the first time in history that the Accession Council in the State Apartments of St Jamess Palace will be broadcast. It is due to start at 10am. A Principal Proclamation will then be read in public from the balcony overlooking Friary Court at St Jamess an hour later. It is read by the Garter King of Arms. King Charles III, holding back tears, said, 'To my darling Mama, thank you, thank you', as he hailed Elizabeth II as an 'inspiration and an example to me and to all my family' following her death aged 96 at Balmoral Castle yesterday It will be followed by proclamations around the country, with the second one in the City of London at the Royal Exchange at midday, and further proclamations in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales at midday tomorrow. Buckingham Palace issued details of the arrangements. It was confirmed cameras would be allowed inside the State Apartments to capture the proceedings for the first time. In recognition of the new King, union flags will be flown at full-mast from the time of the Principal Proclamation until one hour after the proclamations in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. They will then return to half-mast to mourn the death of the Queen. Charles automatically became King on the death of his mother, but the Accession Council is usually convened at St Jamess in London within 24 hours of the death of a sovereign. It is being staged a day later for King Charles III because the announcement of the Queens death did not come until Thursday evening, meaning there was not enough time to set the plans in motion for Friday morning. The Palace said: His Majesty The King will be proclaimed at the Accession Council at 10.00hrs [on] 10th September in the State Apartments of St Jamess Palace, London. The Accession Council, attended by Privy Councillors, is divided into two parts. In Part I, the Privy Council, without the King present, will proclaim the Sovereign, and formally approve various consequential Orders, including the arrangements for the Proclamation. Part II is the holding by The King of His Majestys first Privy Council. The King will make his Declaration and read and sign an oath to uphold the security of the Church in Scotland and approve Orders in Council which facilitate continuity of government. During his speech, Charles was sat at an antique polished desk in Buckingham Palace's Blue Drawing Room, one of the grand state rooms, where the Queen would sometimes film her Christmas broadcasts. To the King's left was a framed photograph of his late mother the Queen, smiling broadly and wearing a vivid blue coat and matching hat decorated with a red flower Historically, the entire Privy Council is summoned to the Accession Council. But there are currently more than 700 privy counsellors. They are mostly serving or former politicians, although Camilla, the new Queen, and Prince William are counsellors and are expected to attend. Just 200 will be summoned for the event, which must take place before Parliament meets again. The Accession Council is presided over by the Lord President of the Council. Penny Mordaunt was appointed to the role a few days ago in Liz Trusss new Cabinet. The Accession Proclamation will be read aloud and then be signed by members of the Royal Family who are present as Privy Counsellors, and other key dignitaries. Charles will then hold his first Privy Council. Then, the first public proclamation of the new sovereign is read from the Friary Court balcony by the Garter King of Arms at St Jamess Palace. The proclamation will then be read at the Royal Exchange in the City of London at midday. The Privy Council dates from the time of the Norman kings. His Majesty is now home. Almost 25 years ago to this very day, our previous monarch had stopped her car short of Buckingham Palace, climbed out to inspect a mountain of flowers and transformed the mood of a grieving nation in an instant. And so it was that her successor did exactly the same yesterday afternoon, although, as he admitted to one well-wisher: Ive been dreading this. A little after two oclock, police cleared a Moses-like path through the ever-swelling sea of multi-national mourners of every age and ilk filling the area in front of Buckingham Palace. Britain's King Charles III looks at floral tributes left outside of Buckingham Palace in London A well-wisher kisses the hand of Britain's King Charles III as he walks outside at Buckingham Palace following Thursday's death of Queen Elizabeth II ROBERT HARDMAN: 'As they walked through the Palace gates, rounds of cheers rang out' No state trumpeters could be heard. The news helicopters chuntering overhead were performing that role instead. Moments later, a laudably modest police motorcade came to a halt and King Charles III stepped out to meet his subjects for the very first time, a red-eyed Queen Camilla at his side. At which point, cheers proper, robust cheers rang out around the Palace precincts and up on a rammed Queen Victoria Memorial. The King had flicked a switch. Gone was the air of aimless, lugubrious bewilderment which had permeated London SW1 earlier in the day. Here, at last, was a sense of reassurance. For the first time in 24 hours, we saw people actually smiling at the Palace gates. The applause was rather less noisy than the cheers for the simple reason that modern Britain cannot attend the opening of a cupboard without filming it on a mobile phone. And it is physically impossible to clap while holding a phone. From my crush point somewhere in the midst of a mob 50-deep, all with handsets and tablets held aloft and pointing in the same direction, it was like being in the midst of a battalion of meerkats. Who could blame them? They were witnessing real history, the homecoming of a new sovereign. And his first priority was not to meet the staff and officials awaiting him inside the Palace quadrangle. It was to see the people. No wonder they wanted to capture it for posterity. Time and again came cries of God save the King!, the phrase to which we must all now adjust for the next hundred years or so at least. Others were too moved to say very much at all. Vicky Binley, 51, from Rutland, kissed the Kings hand and muttered a thank you through a crumbling smile. It had been an overwhelming moment, she said later. Thanking her, the King replied: Ive been dreading this day, Ive been dreading this. He was alluding to the loss of his mother, of course, not the prospect of kingship. Rewind to 2002 and he used the very same words (I dreaded, dreaded this moment) after the death of the Queen Mother. Another woman grabbed the new Kings arm, exclaiming: Good luck, my darling, you are a good man. This all-embracing blanket of affection and sympathy greatly moved the new Queen Consort, who let the tears flow freely. There were plenty of cries of God bless you, Camilla and We love you, Camilla. New York film director Raynald Leconte, 47, wished her good luck. Thank you very much, she replied. Ill need it. One or two remembered their etiquette and addressed the couple as Your Majesty. As the King made his way down the floral pile-up running the breadth of the Palace, we saw the first appearance of that traditional vestige of majesty. Down came the half-masted Union flag. For the first time, the new Sovereigns standard was raised or broken in Palace speak up on the flagstaff. That, of course, never flies at half-mast because we are never without a monarch. As the King walked through the Palace gates and thence to his new office ahead of his first prime-ministerial audience there were several rounds of three cheers. If proof were needed of the almost primeval allure and power of monarchy, here it was: Just as in September 1997 when the late Queen returned from Balmoral to address the nation following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. Up until then, the monarchy had been under heavy fire for a perceived failure to emote. Tensions ran so high that some counselled against a walkabout. The Queen, with her unerring ability to gauge the true public mood, left her car at the Palace gates and went to see her people. Suddenly, everything changed. Tempers evaporated. A woman wipes away tears after laying flowers outside Buckingham Palace following yesterdays announcement of the death of Queen Elizabeth II A policeman holds his face as he stands guard beside thousands of flowers in front of the Palace A mourners is overcome with emotion as he pays his respect at the gates of Buckingham Palace Many mourners were in tears as they paid their respects to the much-loved monarch who served the country for 70 years Yesterdays circumstances were wholly different but the effect was the same. This was also a statement of what we can expect from this reign. Fresh off the plane from Aberdeen, having left Balmoral at lunchtime, the King did not return immediately to his home at Clarence House. He very deliberately wanted his first port of call to be Buckingham Palace. Subtext: I am hitting the ground running. In 1952, the new Queen and Prince Philip had been very keen to remain at Clarence House following the death of King George VI. They had only just renovated the place and assumed that they might continue to live there with their two young children. It was Winston Churchill who effectively ordered them to move house, arguing that monarchs have to live above the shop. The dukes equerry recalled that there wasnt a dry eye in the car as they left. King Charles III waves to the public after viewing floral tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II outside Buckingham Palace on September 9 The new King and Queen will not be moving all their worldly goods just yet. The Palace is in the midst of a huge refurbishment programme and is also currently configured for the annual summer influx of hundreds of thousands of tourists If one thing will have alarmed the authorities yesterday, it will have been the sheer volume of people heading for the Palace 18-month-old George Tate from London is shown flowers and tributes by his mother as they visit Buckingham Palace on September 9 Now, seven decades later, the former Prince Charles finds himself moving out of Clarence House yet again. The new King and Queen will not be moving all their worldly goods just yet. The Palace is in the midst of a huge refurbishment programme and is also currently configured for the annual summer influx of hundreds of thousands of tourists. It will not be fully inhabitable for some time. However, yesterdays arrival showed that the King has already given much thought to the sort of monarchy he plans to lead. And he will lead it into what some may label a new Carolean era from its traditional HQ. If one thing will have alarmed the authorities yesterday, it will have been the sheer volume of people heading for the Palace. I well recall the aftermath of the deaths of Diana in 1997 and of the Queen Mother in 2002. It was days before the public began arriving in anything like these numbers. Late on Thursday night and from first light yesterday, very substantial crowds were making their way to the Palace from all directions. They were perfectly behaved. Yet, by mid-morning the police had introduced a one-way system for bouquet-bearers. The approaches from Green Park were starting to reach Platinum Jubilee levels. It was only the fact that people came, saw and then left again which prevented an almighty logjam. By the time people had queued to get close enough to lay their offerings, they wanted a good look at the growing mounds of floral tributes. The overarching theme was one of thanks. Several, I noticed, included images of Paddington Bear. The Queens cameo role, three long months ago, in that enchanting tea party with the marmalade sandwiches, continues to resonate in the most touching way. Ditto Paddingtons immortal line to the monarch: Thank you, Maam for everything. That was on many cards Late on Thursday night and from first light yesterday, very substantial crowds were making their way to the Palace from all directions. They were perfectly behaved. Yet, by mid-morning the police had introduced a one-way system for bouquet-bearers Of all the countless messages, none, to my mind, captured the mood any better than one childs unsigned drawing of a red love heart beneath the message, in big letters: We want you back, our Queen The overarching theme was one of thanks. Several, I noticed, included images of Paddington Bear. The Queens cameo role, three long months ago, in that enchanting tea party with the marmalade sandwiches, continues to resonate in the most touching way. Ditto Paddingtons immortal line to the monarch: Thank you, Maam for everything. That was on many cards. I met Natalia Ucinska, 34, a London-based hotel worker from Posnan, Poland, clutching a bunch of white and red roses. They are the Polish national colours, she explained. We loved the Queen in Poland. Sara Shabani, 19, a London-based student from Iran, had arrived with a dozen red roses. I had to come. I saw the Queen for maybe ten seconds on her balcony during her Jubilee and now I want to be here today. I am so sad, she said. She was the soul of Britain. You must be so sad. She was the soul of other places, too. Tanya Morcom, 54, had arrived on holiday from Alice Springs, Australia, earlier in the week. I couldnt believe it when we heard she was ill. We were at the theatre last night and they told us shed died and then they played God Save The King well, we just all cried. She had nothing but praise for the new monarch. I am of both Aboriginal and Scottish heritage and I love the monarchy. We all need that little bit of that magic in our lives. Often, at such moments, it is the tiny things which stop you in your tracks, like the sight of Mikaela Van Der Hagen bringing her corgi, Archie, seven, to pay tribute to the greatest corgi fan of them all, or of an old soldier in tears. Of all the countless messages, none, to my mind, captured the mood any better than one childs unsigned drawing of a red love heart beneath the message, in big letters: We want you back, our Queen. 'We love you King Charles and we loved your mum': Emotional Charles wipes away tears while meeting adoring royal fans - including one who gave him a kiss on the cheek - during his first walkabout as King By Jonathan Rose, Rory Tingle Home Affairs Correspondent, Tom Pyman, Paul Thompson, Chris Matthews and Nick Fagge for MailOnline King Charles III wiped away tears today and appeared to clutch his heart after the first royal walkaround of his reign at Buckingham Palace today. The King was greeted by kisses and shouts of 'God Save the King' as he received a rapturous welcome from thousands of well-wishers. The King was heard telling well-wishers, 'Thank you so much, it's so kind, it really is', 'God bless you' and 'I've really dreaded this day' during the 15-minute walkabout. One woman shouted to him, 'We love you King Charles and we loved your mum'. Huge crowds cheered as the visibly emotional sovereign arrived in a vintage Rolls-Royce alongside Camilla, the Queen Consort, before he got out and began shaking hands with countless members of the public waiting behind a barrier. In moving scenes less than 24 hours after the death of his mother the Queen, shouts of God Save the King broke out before an impromptu rendition of the National Anthem, with the words changed for the new monarch. As the sun shone on an otherwise dull, damp day, the Royal Standard was raised above Buckingham Palace for the first time of his reign. Onlookers shouted three cheers for Charles as one woman leaned over to kiss him on the hand and another asked 'Can I kiss you?' before pecking him on the cheek. Others reached out holding red roses for the King as the Queen Consort followed behind at a distance before joining her husband at his side to view the floral tributes left outside the gates. As a bugle sounded, Charles, dressed in mourning black suit and tie, walked side by side with Camilla - who seemed close to tears - through the main entrance of Buckingham Palace. Queen Camilla and the King proceeded to go through the Palace archway as Charles appeared to lift his hand to his heart and then face, in an apparent bid to wipe away a tear. Film director Raynald Leconte, 47, who is from New York, said he was lucky enough to speak to the King and Queen Consort. 'It was quite a moment,' he said. 'I said, 'condolences'. He said, ''really, really thank you very much''. And to his wife I wished her good luck and she said, ''thank you very much''. I think she said, ''I'll need it''.' Mother of three Stella Johnson said: 'I think he will be wonderful, and I just wanted to come here to see him. This is really a historic moment and I wanted to make sure I did not miss it.' Further back in the crowd, a former Guardsman, who asked not to be named, gave the crowd a running commentary as he was tall enough to see over the crowds and pick out Charles as he met mourners. He also talked them through the protocol of the Guards who had assembled in the Palace forecourt to salute the new King as he made his way into the Palace, where he has held his first audience with Prime Minister Liz Truss. Charles then gave a televised address to the nation at 6pm while a service of prayer and reflection is taking place at St Paul's Cathedral. Huge crowds cheered the couple as they arrived at the palace before the King left his car. Several people kissed his hand as he passed Onlookers shouted three cheers for Charles as he spoke to countless onlookers who had gathered to mourn his mother Cheers rang out at Buckingham Palace as the King and Queen Consort arrived, along with shouts of 'God save the King' Many in the crowd were visibly emotional, while others held their phones aloft to try to catch at glimpse of the King It was the new King's first walkabout and encounter with the public since his historic accession and crowds lined up behind a barrier clamouring to greet him A visibly emotional Charles pauses to look at floral tributes to his mother that have been left outside the gates of Buckingham Palace Charles embraces Camilla as they look at the floral tributes before making their way through the palace's main gates The new king thanked people for their good wishes, shaking countless hands after stepping from his state Bentley Shouts of God Save the King went up, along with three cheers, for the new head of state, dressed in mourning black suit and tie, who smiled and waved at the mass of people The King waves to crowds outside Buckingham Palace, where he arrived with Camilla after they travelled from Balmoral Elizabeth II, Charles' mother and an icon instantly recognisable to billions of people around the world, died at her Scottish Highland retreat yesterday Charles - pictured with Camilla - met Prime Minister Liz Truss today before giving a speech to the nation The King must turn to his duties as monarch despite his grief, and has held his first in-person audience with Prime Minister Liz Truss at Buckingham Palace The King and Queen Consort view the flowers and messages left by members of the public outside Buckingham Palace this afternoon The Queen Consort joined the King at his side to view the hundreds of floral tributes, notes and Union flags left outside the gates The new King gives a final wave as he and his wife walk into Buckingham Palace under the watchful eye of armed policemen As a bugler sounded, the couple - both dressed in black - walked side by side through the main entrance of Buckingham Palace King Charles III and the Queen Consort drive down the Mall followed by several 4x4s before they got out at the gates of Buckingham Palace Huge crowds cheered the couple as they arrived at the palace before the King left his car and began shaking hands with members of the public Huge crowds cheered the couple as they arrived at the palace in a state Rolls-Royce, with the King visibly emotional Charles and Camilla - now King and Queen Consort - wave to members of the public as they arrive at Buckingham Palace in a Rolls-Royce Camilla had joined Charles on the poignant journey from Balmoral, where the Queen died peacefully on Thursday at the age of 96, arriving at RAF Northolt in west London at around 1.35pm Tributes continue to be paid to the woman described by the Prime Minister as the 'rock on which modern Britain was built', with the Dalai Lama expressing his 'deep sadness' over the death of the Queen in a letter to the King Details of the King's historic Accession Council, which will be held on Saturday at 10am in St James's Palace, were announced by Buckingham Palace. It will be televised for the first time in its history, showing the King being formally proclaimed monarch and Charles making his declaration and oath. A Principal Proclamation will be read in public for the first time by the Garter King of Arms in the open air from the balcony overlooking Friary Court at St James's an hour later at 11am. It will be followed by a flurry of proclamations around the country, with the second one in the City of London at the Royal Exchange at midday on Saturday, and further proclamations in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales at midday on Sunday. One of the first to offer words of support to the new King was Laura Ohmona. She said after shaking hands with Charles: 'I said to him 'sorry for your loss' and he said 'thank-you'.' Also among the crowds at Buckingham Palace was retired Ammar Al-Baldawi, 64, from Hertfordshire, who said: 'It was impressive, touching, a good move to come out to the crowds. 'I think that's where the royal family needs to communicate with the people now. These are true loyalists here and it's nice to see him back in post, taking charge of the family and the Crown, which is reassuring.' Colin Hennessy, 52, said: 'It's great to see the King. You can see he's very emotional but he was very grateful to everybody here. He thanked as many people as he could as he walked by.' Joyce Curtis, 72, from Jersey, said: 'I just wanted to be here. It was great. I have respect for him. He walked all the way along to see the people and back to see the flowers. It is what the people wanted to see, which is great.' Emma Spreckley, 43, had travelled to Buckingham Palace with her friend Jacqueline Southwick, 55, from their homes in Mitcham, south London. She was sympathetic to the grieving King: 'He looked a bit shocked, I suppose he is as it's your mum at the end of the day, and now he's here shaking people's hands and trying to, I suppose, get through it as best he can.' In reference to the thousands who were at the palace to pay their respects to the late Queen, Ms Southwick added 'Seeing all this - he's got the support of the nation.' Meanwhile, John Hardy said he was confident Charles would be a calming influence on the country when he is finally crowned King. 'It does seem that he has been around for such a long time that we've all known him. No one will ever replace the Queen and the affection she has held for everyone in this country. 'But I think Charles has a lot of respect and people will support him.' The couple had landed at RAF Northolt just after 1.30pm after leaving Balmoral, where they had stayed overnight after racing up to be at the late Queen's bedside. Charles has already turned his hand to his duties as monarch despite his grief. He gave the order that a period of 'Royal Mourning' for the Queen will be observed from now until seven days after her funeral. Royal Mourning will be observed by members of the royal family, royal household staff and representatives of the royal Household on official duties, together with troops committed to ceremonial duties. The Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge is also travelling back to Windsor to be with his family ahead of the Accession Council, which William will attend. Candles lit up the flowers laid by thousands of people in London tonight at Buckingham Palace Tributes and flowers were left at the gates of Buckingham Palace as the nation mourned its great Queen, who led the country for 70 years Thousands of poeple have paid their respects to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, who died on Thursday aged 96 Typical British weather didn't stop mourners paying their respects to the late monarch as evening drew in at Buckingham Palace Service of Prayer and Reflection at St Paul's Cathedral, London, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday Charles and Camilla wave to crowds outside Buckingham Palace. The bollard in the background bears his mother's cypher Charles - wearing a black mourning suit - joins his wife to inspect the flowers and Union flags laid outside the palace Charles spent about 15 minutes greeting members of the public before joining his wife as they walked through the palace gates The new King places his arm around Camilla as they walk pass photographers towards the gates of the palace In a touching moment Charles put his hand around his wife who was visibly moved after meeting the well-wishers before the began to look at the letters, cards, bouquets and candles left in memory of the Queen. A sentry stands guard by Buckingham Palace, where the Royal Standard had been hoisted for the first time in Charles' reign The King must turn to his duties as monarch despite his grief, as he prepares to hold his first audience with Prime Minister Liz Truss ahead of delivering a televised address to a nation in mourning at 6pm on Friday Today, tributes continued to be paid to the woman described by the Prime Minister as the 'rock on which modern Britain was built', with the Dalai Lama expressing his 'deep sadness' over the death of the Queen in a letter to the King. He told Charles: 'Your mother lived a meaningful life with dignity, grace, a strong sense of service and a warm heart, qualities we all should treasure.' Thousands of people have flocked the Queen's former homes of Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and Balmoral to pay their respects, leaving hundreds of bouquets, personal notes and candles in her honour. Charles has already turned his hand to his duties He gave the order that a period of 'Royal Mourning' for the Queen will be observed from now until seven days after her funeral. Royal Mourning will be observed by members of the royal family, royal household staff and representatives of the royal household on official duties, together with troops committed to ceremonial duties. Royal salutes were fired with one round for every year of the Queen's life on Friday at 1pm in Hyde Park by the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery. Thousands of people stood in solemn silence for 16 minutes as the cannons boomed once every 10 seconds, sending smoke across the grounds with each round, applauding as the spectacle came to an end. The PM and senior ministers will attend a public service of remembrance at St Paul's Cathedral in central London this evening. King Charles III and Camilla, the Queen Consort, arrive at RAF Northolt in London this afternoon Charles is welcomed by Station Commander Group Captain McPhaden after he and Camilla touched down at the RAF airbase The couple left the airport in a vintage Rolls-Royce for the journey to Buckingham Palace where thousands of people had gathered to greet them An emotional King Charles III leaving Balmoral on his way to Aberdeen Airport on the first leg of his journey to London Queen Consort Camilla also appeared to have teary eyes as she sat in the front seat en route to Aberdeen Airport King Charles III arrives at Aberdeen Airport after leaving Balmoral, following the death of his mother last night The monarch shook hands at the airport before boarding a flight to London, where he will address the nation this evening King Charles III at Aberdeen Airport as he travels to London with the Queen Consort following the death of his mother A vehicle carrying Britain's King Charles leaves Balmoral Castle, following the passing of Britain's Queen Elizabeth King Charles III and the Queen Consort leave Birkhall in Scotland as they travel to London following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday The King (pictured looking emotional on his way out of Balmoral this morning) has also instructed a period of royal mourning from now until seven days after his mother's funeral - a date yet to be confirmed King Charles III and the Queen arrive at Aberdeen Airport as they travel to London following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday Members of the royal family had made the urgent dash to be with the frail monarch as her health failed yesterday. Prince William - now using the title of the Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge - left Balmoral just before 1pm and is travelling back to Windsor to be with his family ahead of the Accession Council, Kensington Palace said. Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, still remain at the estate. 'During this period of mourning and change, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which The Queen was so widely held.' Charles was by his mother's side for much of the day after catching the royal helicopter from Dumfries House in Ayrshire with his wife Camilla. Handout issued by Buckingham Palace of the notice for the Accession Council and Principal Proclamation of King Charles III Charles has released a statement about the death of Queen Elizabeth, describing her as a 'cherished Sovereign and a much-loved Mother' Charles III becomes first King Charles since 1600s Charles III is the first King Charles since the 1600s and shares the official name with monarchs who reigned during one of the most turbulent periods in British history. The new monarch chose to use his Christian name as his official name, as his mother did, breaking from royal tradition. The reigns of father and son Charles I and Charles II spanned from 1625 to 1685 and saw the overthrow and restoration of the monarchy, the Great Fire of London, and the plague. Charles I was the only British monarch to have been publicly tried and executed for treason, while Charles II - known as the Merry Monarch - spent many years in exile, fathering a dozen illegitimate children by numerous mistresses. Charles II's reign also featured the plague and the Great Fire of London. Although Charles is Charles III, Bonnie Prince Charlie - The Young Pretender - was known to his supporters as Charles III. Charles I was an unpopular king whose reign saw the temporary downfall of the monarchy and the establishment of an English republic before it was restored 11 years later. Born in November 1660, Charles I moved to England from Scotland when his father, King James VI of Scotland, inherited the English throne in 1603. He became heir apparent when his brother, Henry Frederick Prince of Wales, died at the age of 18 in 1612. Charles I married Bourbon Princess Henrietta Maria of France in 1625 angered protestant religious groups. He also argued with parliament, which wanted to curb his powers, while many subjects opposed his policies which included levying taxes without parliamentary consent. Attempts to force the church of Scotland to adopt Anglican practices also led to religious conflicts, which in turn resulted in the strengthening of English and Scottish parliaments, helping to pave the way for his eventual downfall. Charles I fought the armies of the English and Scottish parliaments but was defeated in 1645 and captured. After a brief period of escape, he was re-captured and executed in Whitehall in 1649 after being tried and convicted of high treason. His son, Charles II was proclaimed King of Scotland upon the execution and attempted to reclaim England but was defeated by Oliver Cromwell at the Battle of Worcester in 1651 before fleeing to mainland Europe where he spent nine years in exile. Following Oliver Cromwell's death in 1658 and the resignation of his son, Richard, the following year, parliament proclaimed Charles II king and invited him to the return to England in 1660. Five years later, Charles II fled London for Salisbury as the plague hit London, killing thousands. The following year, in 1666, Charles II and his brother James joined and directed the firefighting effort during the Great Fire of London. Charles had no legitimate children, but had 12 children by seven mistresses, leading to the nickname 'Old Rowley', the name of his favourite racehorse stallion. The present Dukes of Buccleuch, Richmond, Grafton and St Albans descend from Charles, while Diana, Princess of Wales, was a descendent of two of Charles's illegitimate sons - the Dukes of Grafton and Richmond. Diana's son, Prince William, Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge and heir to the British throne, could be the first British monarch descended from Charles II. Advertisement His younger sister Princess Anne was already at Balmoral after royal duties also took her to Scotland. They were joined by other senior members of the Royal Family including Her Majesty's other two children, Andrew and Edward, and Prince William. The family rushed to the Queen's Scottish residence after an unprecedented statement from her doctors revealed they were 'concerned' about her health and were keeping her under medical supervision. Charles is becoming monarch at 73 years old, nearly half a century older than the Queen was when she found herself in the same position. He is likely to launch a radical overhaul of the monarchy in the wake of his mother's death, having frequently spoken about a slimmed-down front-line. Royal watchers believe the former Prince of Wales is keen to ensure there are 'no hangers-on' in the Firm, with each member being expected to pull their weight in a new and more streamlined monarchy. The concept of the 'slimmed-down monarch' was clear to see during the Platinum Jubilee in June when the Queen restricted those appearing on the Buckingham Palace balcony to working members of the Royal Family. But King Charles' original model, which reportedly involved a tight core of just seven people, including himself, has been thrown into doubt following a series of external events. The plan, put in motion before the Queen's death, originally included the long-reigning monarch along with Prince Philip, King Charles and Camilla, Prince William and Kate and Prince Harry. Philip died aged 99 in 2021, while Harry's future in the slimmed-down monarchy seems hugely doubtful following his decision to quit front line royal duties and move to America with his wife Meghan Markle. Meanwhile, Prince Andrew, who would likely have featured in a slimmed-down monarchy as a son of the Queen and King Charles' brother, has been outcast since his US sex assault lawsuit with Virginia Giuffre. But that has pushed Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, and Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, Countess of Wessex, into the fray as 'key' parts of Prince Charles' future monarchy, according to royal watchers. As Charles becomes King, Prince William is to become the new Prince of Wales, with his wife Kate Middleton taking on the new title of the Princess of Wales. As the new King, Charles will be front-and-centre of the new-look monarchy. Alongside his reported desire to slim-down the size of the family, the biggest immediate change will be his residence. The former Prince of Wales's official residence has been Clarence House, on The Mall in the City of Westminster, since 2003. While the Queen's official residence has been Buckingham Palace, she spent much of her time at her favoured Windsor Castle following the death of her beloved Prince Philip. According to royal biographer Penny Junor in her book 'The Firm', the Queen wanted to remain living at Clarence House after her father's death, but was convinced by Winston Churchill to move to Buckingham Palace - because of its significance as the home of the monarch. It is believed Kings Charles will follow in his mother's footsteps and move into Buckingham Palace. One royal source told the Mail on Sunday in February 2022: 'There is no question about it. HRH's view is that you need a monarch at monarchy HQ. This has never been in doubt. 'The Prince of Wales will not move into Buckingham Palace before he is king. But when he is, he absolutely will. 'Just like the Queen, it will effectively be in the 'flat above the shop'. He feels it is right, just as the Queen does, to work out of Buckingham Palace. 'The Palace will still be a working and entertaining hub and will also still be open to visitors. It is a hugely important tourist attraction. More than 30,000 readers left moving tributes to the Queen in the Daily Mails online condolence book yesterday. A heartfelt message from Sarah Chamberlain said: What a legacy you have left us strength, determination, leadership, kindness and generosity. So incredibly proud and thankful for you. Mia Lorenzen posted: Thank you for brightening all of our days with your warmth, guidance, steadfastness and love. Your service to your country and world is unmatched. Your love of family is so admirable! You will be missed every day. More than 30,000 readers left moving tributes to the Queen in the Daily Mail's online condolence book (Pictured a condolence book at the British Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina)n Queen Elizabeth died at her beloved Balmoral home in Scotland at the age of 96 on Thursday Emeka Mbanugo praised the Queen as the best of the Commonwealth, adding: Our heartfelt condolences to the family and the British nation. Bridget Kelly in Johannesburg posted: You were an inspiration to us all about service, about loyalty, about sacrifice. I am glad you are reunited with your beloved Philip. May you rest in peace. Bronwyn Craig said: Love, thoughts and prayers from Australia, adding: Condolences to King Charles III and his entire family. A beautiful lady who will be missed by many! Around the country wellwishers queued yesterday to sign condolence books at churches, theatres and town halls. Portsmouth, Westminster, Swansea, Derby, Preston, Nottingham and Belfast were among those to have set up the books in civic buildings as has the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. The Royal Family is encouraging mourners from all over the world to use its official website to post messages of support. A statement on the website www.royal.uk said a selection of messages would be passed on to members of the Royal Family, and may be held in the Royal Archives for posterity. Scientists have analysed the mummified remains of two South American men to determine that they were brutally murdered over 1,000 years ago. Solving an ancient cold case, they determined one died after being hit over the head and then stabbed, and another from a dislocated spine. A third female mummy appeared to have died of natural causes, only showing skeletal damage that likely occurred after burial. Researchers from Munich Clinic Bogenhausen discovered these causes of death after analysing the remains with 3D computed tomography (3D CT). 'The types of trauma we found would not have been detectable if these human remains had been mere skeletons,' said corresponding author Dr Andreas G Nerlich. The study revealed important historic information about how prevalent violence was in prehistoric human societies. After analysis with 3D-CT, the scientists believe the Marburg mummy (pictured) died after receiving a 'full force' strike to the head and then being stabbed in the back while still stood or kneeling. The injuries could have been inflicted by one assailant or an ambush of two between 996 and 1147 CE, according to radiocarbon dating 3D-CT scan of the skull of the Delemont male mummy. A-C: Features of perimortem skull trauma to the left side of the skull with a large perforating lesion at the left temporal region (indicated), and a fracture running into the skull. D: Zygoma fracture on the left side (indicated) WHAT HAPPENED TO THE THREE MUMMIES? Male mummy conserved in Marburg, Germany - Lived in the Arica commune in today's Chile before his death between 996 and 1147 CE. He died aged 20 to 25 years old, when he was struck over the head and stabbed in the back. - Lived in the Arica commune in today's Chile before his death between 996 and 1147 CE. He died aged 20 to 25 years old, when he was struck over the head and stabbed in the back. Male mummy conserved in Delemont, Switzerland - Lived in the Arequipa region in today's Peru, and died between 902 and 994 CE. His death was the result of a trauma against his cervical spine. - Lived in the Arequipa region in today's Peru, and died between 902 and 994 CE. His death was the result of a trauma against his cervical spine. Female mummy conserved in Delemont, Switzerland - Lived in the Arequipa region in today's Peru, and died between 1224 and 1282 CE of natural causes. Advertisement Most previous studies into evidence of trauma in pre-Columbian remains have focused on skulls and other parts of the skeleton. However, scientists can gain a lot more information from soft tissue, which is preserved through mummification. The process is able to occur naturally in dry environments common in the southern zones of South America, as the body's fluids are soaked up faster than its decay. The examination of three mummies, from what are now Chile and Peru, using 3D-CT was published today in Frontiers in Medicine. These were a male mummy at the Museum Anatomicum in Marburg, Germany, and female and male mummies at the Art and History Museum of Delemont, Switzerland. The Marburg mummy belonged to the Arica culture in today's northern Chile, and the goods he was buried with suggest he lived in a fishing community. From the features of his bones, the authors estimated that he was a young man between 20 and 25 years old, approximately 5 foot 7 inches (1.72 meters) tall. He was buried squatting down, and had some well-preserved teeth that showed some abrasions typical of pre-Columbian people who used maize as a staple food. While his lungs were scarred from past severe tuberculosis, the scientists believe the death was the result of extreme intentional violence. After analysis with 3D-CT, they believe the mummy died after receiving a 'full force' strike to the head and then being stabbed in the back while still stood or kneeling. The injuries could have been inflicted by one assailant or an ambush of two between 996 and 1147 CE, according to radiocarbon dating. The Delemont mummies probably came from the region of Arequipa in today's southwestern Peru, based on the ceramics among the grave goods. Both were buried lying face up, which is unusual for mummies from the highlands of South America. The Delemont male (right) and female (left) mummies probably came from the region of Arequipa in today's southwestern Peru, based on the ceramics among the grave goods. Both were buried lying face up, which is unusual for mummies from the highlands of South America They wore textiles woven from cotton and hairs of llamas or alpacas as well as vizcachas, rodents related to chinchillas. Radiocarbon data showed that the man died between 902 and 994 CE, and the woman between 1224 and 1282 CE. While the state of the aorta and large arteries suggest the man suffered from calcifying arteriosclerosis in life, this was not determined to be his cause of death. Instead, he showed 'massive trauma against the cervical spine', again thought to be the result of intentional violence. The authors said: 'The significant dislocation of the two cervical vertebral bodies itself is lethal and may have led to immediate death.' The female, however, is thought to have died from natural causes, only showing damage to the skeleton likely sustained after her death. Dr Nerlich said: 'The availability of modern CT-scans with the opportunity for 3D reconstructions offers unique insight into bodies that would otherwise not have been detected. 'Previous studies would have either destroyed the mummy, while X-rays or older CT-scans without three-dimensional reconstruction functions could not have detected the diagnostic key features we found here. 'Importantly, the study of human mummified material can reveal a much higher rate of trauma, especially intentional trauma, than the study of skeletons. 'There are dozens of South American mummies which might profit from a similar investigation as done here we did here.' Las Vegas police have charged a local elected official for the murder of investigative reporter Jeff German after DNA evidence found underneath the victim's fingernails was discovered. The suspect, identified as 45-year-old Democrat Robert Telles, has been the subject of German's exposure of misdeeds and turmoil in office in the last few months. The Clark County Public Administrator was taken into custody on Wednesday after police searched his home. Suspect Charged in Journalist's Murder Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said on Thursday that Telles had been charged with murder after authorities found a positive match for the official's DNA with the genetic material taken from the victim's fingernails. The suspect appeared in court for the first time on Thursday afternoon where a judge ordered that he be held without bail until his arraignment. Telles was the subject of a series of explosive articles by the victim. German described a mismanaged office where employees accused Telles of bullying, favoritism, and allegedly, an inappropriate relationship with another county official. After the journalist's initial reporting this spring, Telles lost his reelection bid, coming only third in the Democratic primary, as per Politico. The journalist reportedly had been seeking additional records regarding the public administrator's office, which oversees the estates of deceased people. On the other hand, Telles did not hide his disdain for German, who had spent four decades in Las Vegas reporting on corruption and crime among the city's most powerful residents, including elected officials and casino operators. Read Also: Memphis Shooting Spree Leaves 4 Dead, 3 Injured; Teenage Suspect Who Went on Rampage Arrested Telles repeatedly attacked German with posts on Twitter, calling the reporter a "typical bully" who "can't take a pound of criticism after slinging 100 pounds of BS." The official tweeted in June that he was looking forward to "lying smear piece #4 by @JGermanRJ." According to the Washington Post, the 69-year-old journalist was found dead on Saturday morning with his cause of death being multiple sharp-force injuries. Telles has been a person of interest early in the investigation as authorities looked into possible work-related grievances or conflicts. Robert Telles While Las Vegas police Capt. Dori Koren revealed how Telles was a person of interest, he did not disclose a specific motive for the murder. Other evidence that tied the official to the crime was the recovery of a pair of shoes and a straw hat that matched those worn in a previously released photo of the suspect. Both of the items were cut, probably in an attempt to destroy evidence, said Koren. The police captain said that the public administrator was upset about the articles that were written about him. On Wednesday, Review-Journal Executive Editor Glenn Cook said that they were relieved that Telles was in custody and expressed his outrage that a colleague appears to have been killed for reporting on an elected official. He argued that journalists cannot do the important work that communities require if they are afraid a presentation of facts could lead to violent retribution. Telles was represented by a public defender who said that he was reserving his response to the prosecution's allegations until the defendant's next court appearance. The public administrator did not speak during the hearing and was not asked to enter a plea, CNN reported. Related Article: Eliza Fletcher Case: DA Acknowledges "Mistake" in Suggesting Suspect Cleotha Abston Has Been Freed from Prison on Parole @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. An artificial intelligence (AI) art generator has been found to produce images of a haunting woman with sunken cheeks in gory settings in response to multiple prompts. Twitter user @supercomposite shared a series of images of the creepy figure, dubbed 'Loab', which they had created using AI tools since April. 'The AI reproduced her more easily than most celebrities,' wrote Supercomposite. 'Her presence is persistent, and she haunts every image she touches'. As the artist continuously combined images of Loab with other scenes, the figure appeared to become clearer and be placed in increasingly gruesome settings. She also has allegedly made appearances on 'multiple' image-generating tools. Loab is therefore being described as a 'cryptid of latent space' - where a cryptid is a creature whose existence is disputed but has had alleged sightings. Supercomposite's Twitter thread now has over 73,000 likes and nearly 15,000 re-tweets, with many social media users convinced the woman is a 'demon that inhabits the AI art generators'. Others are more sceptical, stating that the phenomenon has been faked or is merely a 'quirk of the software'. One of the first images of Loab generated in an AI text-to-image generator. Text in the top left corner appears to read Loab, which is what the artist Supercomposite named the figure The first time Loab was generated by Supercomposite they requested a 'negative prompt' from the AI text-to-image generator. This means they asked it to create something that is the opposite of the prompt, rather than a representation of it WHO IS 'LOAB'? Loab is a figure who has cropped up in multiple images created by an AI image generator. She appears as an older woman, with sunken eyes, a neutral expression and dark triangular areas on her cheeks. Twitter user @supercomposite generated the images, firstly with a text prompt, but then as an image combined with other scenes. The artist has claimed that Loab appears in images generated by different AI models. Advertisement Scientists have developed AI programmes which take a prompt from a human user, in the form of text or an image, and then use it as inspiration for a completely new piece of art. An example of this is DALL-E - a text-to-image tool that can that can transform famous paintings into different art styles. These algorithms are fed millions of photos to 'learn' what different objects are supposed to look like, and eventually put them together. Once given a prompt to generate an image from, they will note a series of key features that could be present and generate pixels to visualise their interpretation. The first time Loab was generated by Supercomposite, however, they requested a 'negative prompt' from the AI. This means they asked it to create something that is the opposite of the prompt, rather than a representation of it. 'The AI tries to make the image look as different from the prompt as possible.' Supercomposite tweeted. They inputted 'Brando::-1', which commanded the AI to generate the opposing image to its interpretation of the word Brando. It created an image of a silhouetted skyline emblazoned with the letters 'DIGITA PNTICS', which Supercomposite re-entered into the tool in text format. Rather than the likeness of American actor Marlon Brando, the prompt 'DIGITA PNTICS skyline logo::-1' produced four images of a solemn woman with pink cheeks. The artist inputted 'Brando::-1' into the AI, which commanded it to generate the opposing image to its interpretation of the word Brando. It produced an image of a skyline emblazoned with the letters 'DIGITA PNTICS', which Supercomposite re-entered into the tool as text Supercomposite fed images of Loab back into the programme as an image prompt (right), combined with an unrelated AI generated image (left). This made the image of Loab even clearer, and placed her in a series of gory and macabre settings Loab is being described as a 'cryptid of latent space' - where a cryptid is a creature whose existence is disputed but has had alleged sightings Text was generated in one of the images which appeared to read Loab, which is what the artist Supercomposite named the figure. They next fed these images back into the programme as an image prompt, combined with an unrelated AI-generated image. This made the image of Loab even clearer, and placed her in a series of gory and macabre settings. Some showed headless people or children with bleeding or deformed eyes, but all including a version of Loab with straight, brown hair and defined triangles on her cheeks. Some showed headless people or children with bleeding or deformed eyes, but all including a version of Loab with straight, brown hair and defined triangles on her cheeks Supercomposite said: 'Through some kind of emergent statistical accident, something about this woman is adjacent to extremely gory and macabre imagery in the distribution of the AI's world knowledge' Twitter user @mattskala has gone some way to explain that the number of images that can be generated by an AI from negative prompts is less than the number of questions we can ask it. The former computer scientist suggests that this is why the Loab image comes up so frequently for different negative prompts Supercomposite said: 'Through some kind of emergent statistical accident, something about this woman is adjacent to extremely gory and macabre imagery in the distribution of the AI's world knowledge. 'Since Loab was discovered using negative prompt weights, her gestalt is made from a collection of traits that are equally far away from something. 'But her combined traits are still a cohesive concept for the AI, and almost all descendent images contain a recognizable Loab.' 'Crossbred' images were also made, where the original Loab images were combined with others to create a new artwork. Some of these were lighthearted, showing Loab in front of a rainbow flag while celebrating Pride, or as a Na'vi character from the 2009 film Avatar. The characteristics of the woman remained, even when the crossbred images were fed back into the programme as part of a new prompt. Even if Loab's image disappeared in a series of modified images, Supercomposite found 'she would sometimes reappear, later down the line.' 'Crossbred' images were also made, where the original Loab images were combined with others to create a new artwork Some images were lighthearted, showing Loab in front of a rainbow flag while celebrating Pride (pictured), or as a Na'vi character from the 2009 film Avatar Supercomposite has not revealed exactly what prompts were used, or which image generating models they were inputted into to give the Loab artworks Supercomposite has not revealed exactly what prompts were used, or which image-generating models they were fed into to give the Loab artworks. They did tweet suggesting that multiple algorithms have produced images of Loab, leading social media users to speculate her ghostly figure is haunting them. They said: 'I haven't experimented extensively with it but it seems like this pattern holds for multiple AIs, perhaps due to them all using CLIP in one way or the other. 'Or maybe it's a quirk of the RAION dataset.' CLIP is a neural network developed by OpenAI that learns visual concepts from natural language, and RAION is a machine-learning company. 'I'm not sure exactly why, even if I generally understand in principle how!' they added. 'Neural networks are a black box as they say.' Many social media users believe the digital world is haunted bya demon, while others remain unconvinced that Supercomposite's findings are genuine Many social media users believe that Loab is haunting the digital world, while others remain unconvinced that Supercomposite's findings are genuine. Twitter user @mattskala has gone some way to explain that the number of images that can be generated by an AI from negative prompts is less than the number of questions we can ask it. The former computer scientist suggests that this is why the Loab image comes up so frequently for different negative prompts. In a thread, he wrote: 'Any collection of points, in basically any sort of space, is going to have a 'convex hull' defining its extreme limits and the answers to furthest-point queries will be the extreme points of that. Many fewer points than exist in the original set. 'So if you're going to be doing "what is the furthest image from this one?" queries, the set of images that can possibly be answers to that question is much smaller than the set of questions like that that you can ask. 'It's to be expected that those relatively few points will be the same across widely different 'furthest from *here*' starting points.' Advertisement Throughout Queen Elizabeth's 70-year reign, she became known around the world for her love for Pembroke Welsh Corgis, turning the dogs into a symbol of British royalty. It was announced yesterday that Britain's longest-reigning monarch had died peacefully at the age of 96 at Balmoral Castle, beginning a period of global morning. She leaves behind four royal canines; two corgis, Candy and Muick, a corgi-dachshund cross - or 'dorgi' - named Sandy, and her most recent addition, Lissy, a cocker spaniel she named after herself. While the future of the pets is unclear, a royal biographer has said that they may be passed on to Prince Andrew, or will be given to members of the royal family's longtime staff, who have looked after the animals for decades. The Pembroke Welsh Corgi is now one of the UK's most popular breeds according to The Kennel Club, despite being listed as 'vulnerable' in 2014, which is believed to be thanks to the Queen's passion for the dogs. Adorable in their own right, Corgis have four short legs, a long snout and two huge pointed ears, but are more famous for being the royal breed of choice - the monarch owned over 30 during her reign. The trend in the breed's popularity appears to follow milestones in Her Majesty's life, as she took to royal duties with her pack closely in tow. In 1944, the Queen announced she had been given a Pembroke Corgi puppy, Susan, for her birthday and the breed jumped in popularity by 56 per cent. Over the years, peaks and troughs in the number of Corgis sold in the UK traced the dogs' airtime, coinciding with advances in broadcasting and the release of popular TV series like 'The Crown'. In June, The Kennel Club - of which the Queen was Patron - announced it received the highest number of Corgi puppy registrations in 30 years in 2021. The Pembroke Welsh Corgi is now one of the UK's favourite breeds despite being listed as 'vulnerable' in 2014. The trend in its popularity appears to follow milestones in the Queen's (pictured last year) life, as she took to duties with her Corgis in tow Queen Elizabeth II leaves behind four royal canines; two corgis, Candy and Muick, a corgi-dachshund cross - or 'dorgi' - named Sandy, and her most recent addition, Lissy, a cocker spaniel she named after herself. Pictured: The Queen with one of her corgis at Sandringham, 1970. She owned over 30 during her reign In 1944, the Queen announced she had been given a Pembroke Corgi puppy, Susan, for her birthday and the breed jumped in popularity by 56 per cent. Queen Elizabeth II would often be seen alongside the pooches throughout her reign CORGI POPULARITY TIMELINE 1933 - Princess Elizabeth was given her first Corgi puppy, Dookie, and a photo of them together was published in the press 1944 - The Queen was gifted beloved Corgi Susan for her 18th birthday 1957 - The Queen's first televised Christmas address, marking advances in broadcasting and increasing access to the Royal family and their pooches 1960 - Corgi registrations peaked at nearly 9,000 puppies, just over seven years after the Queen's coronation 2007 - Ban on tail-docking - the practice of cutting off the animal's tail - which was standard practice for the breed at the time 2009 - Pembroke Welsh Corgi was first added to The Kennel Club's 'At Watch' list of British breeds, when annual registrations numbered between 300 and 450 2014 - The Kennel Club noted a record low of just 274 Pembroke Welsh Corgi puppies born, and was added to the 'Vulnerable Native Breeds' list 2017 - The Queen's corgis were portrayed in hit Netflix series 'The Crown' by canine actors Lily and Prince 2018 - The Pembroke Welsh Corgi was removed from The Kennel Club's list of 'At Watch' breeds, following an increase of 16 per cent 2021 - The Kennel Club recorded the highest number of Pembroke Welsh Corgi puppy registrations in 30 years; 1,223 2022 - Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrated, and the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Her remaining dogs are expected to be passed on to Prince Andrew Advertisement Bill Lambert, spokesperson for The Kennel Club, said: 'The breed has certainly seen a boost in recent years, largely down it would seem to their starring roles in The Crown, but the Queen did play an integral part in introducing Corgis to the public consciousness originally. 'We have such a wide variety of pedigree breeds in this country, each with completely different characteristics, so it is so encouraging to see so many people starting to opt for those vulnerable breeds that had been at risk of disappearing from our streets and parks, but who do in fact have the potential to be a wonderful pet for the right owner.' After the Queen got her first Pembroke Welsh Corgi while she was still a princess, the number of them in the country rose steadily. Corgi registrations peaked at nearly 9,000 puppies in 1960, seven years after the Queen's coronation. This came during a time of vast advances in broadcasting technology - the Queen's first televised Christmas address was in 1957 - and that allowed more access to the Royal Family and its pooches. Over the years, the popularity of the breed slowly declined, and in 2009 the Pembroke Welsh Corgi was first added to the Kennel Club's 'At Watch' list of British breeds when annual registrations numbered between 300 and 450. The decline is thought to have been influenced by a 2007 ban on tail-docking - the practice of cutting off the animal's tail. This was a cosmetic tradition that meant a Corgi would adhere to the breed standard, but may have originated to prevent the dog being injured while working in the fields. Despite this, it has remained popular in the USA and placed 11th on American Kennel Club list of most popular breeds in 2021. The dogs featured in the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics, when they took part in a James Bond skit with Her Majesty herself and actor Daniel Craig. The starring role did not have an immediate effect on their popularity in the UK, in 2014 The Kennel Club noted a record low of just 274 puppies born. This led to the breed being placed on the 'Vulnerable Native Breeds' list, which monitors those breeds that number fewer than 300 annual puppy registrations each year. It didn't stay that way for long though, as canine actors Lily and Prince became stars of the Netflix television series 'The Crown' in 2017, portraying royal Corgis alongside both Claire Foy and Olivia Coleman. The next year the Pembroke Welsh Corgi was removed from The Kennel Club's list of 'At Watch' breeds, following an increase of 16 per cent. This was the first time the breed's numbers had surpassed 1,000 since 1994. In 2021, there were 1,223 Pembroke Welsh Corgis registered - the highest number recorded for the breed in almost 30 years, coinciding with the start of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations for the Queen. The Queen owned more than 30 dogs, some of whom were directly descendent of Susan, her very first Corgi puppy It is unknown what will come of her remaining four dogs however experts believe they will remain within the royal family The popularity of the Pembroke Welsh Corgi reached an all time high after canine actors Lily and Prince became stars of the Netflix television series 'The Crown' in 2017, portraying the royal dogs alongside both Claire Foy and Olivia Coleman Corgis took part in the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics, when featured in a James Bond skit with Her Majesty herself and actor Daniel Craig. A few years later, the breed experienced a surge in popularity with UK dog-owners Despite royal duties, the Queen was always a hands-on pet owner; she attended their meal times of food prepared in the Royal kitchens in the 'Corgi room', where their wicker sleeping baskets were also kept. Pictured: Queen Elizabeth with Candy, one of the four dogs that she has left behind HISTORY OF THE CORGI BREED The word 'Corgi' is Welsh for 'Dwarf Dog', and there are two types; the Pembroke, which is the Queen's breed, and the Cardigan Corgi, a descendent Teckel family of dogs, which also produced the Dachshund Pembroke Welsh Corgis originated in Pembrokeshire, Wales from the Spitz family of dogs which are characterised by long, thick fur and pointed ears and muzzle Corgis are a cattle herding breed that can be traced back as far as 1107 AD, thought to have been brought to Wales by Flemish weavers They are the type of herding dog referred to as 'heelers', meaning that they would nip at the heels of cattle to keep them moving The combination of their low height off the ground and the innate agility of Welsh Corgis would allow them to avoid the hooves of the larger animals They were officially recognised as a native British breed by The Kennel Club in 1928, but Cardigans and Pembrokes weren't seen as separate breeds until 1934 Corgis are a herding breed and are referred to as 'heelers', meaning that they would nip at the heels of cattle to keep them moving Advertisement The Queen's first involvement with Corgis dates all the way back to her childhood in the early 1930s, when her and sister Margaret first met the Pembroke Corgis of their family friends and wanted to have one too. Their parents, then the Duke and Duchess of York, bought Rozavel Golden Eagle, or 'Dookie', from a breeder in Surrey and a press photo of Princess Elizabeth and the puppy published in 1933 sparked an interest in the breed. The family later bought another Corgi from the same breeder called Rozavel Lady Jane, known simply as 'Jane' at home, leading to an illustrated photo book for children, 'Our Princesses and Their Dogs' being published in December 1936. Jane had two puppies, Carol and Crackers, that joined the royal pack before Susan was given to the Princess as a gift for her 18th Birthday when she ascended the throne. A beloved companion, Susan even accompanied the Queen on her honeymoon in 1947, and she was the first in a long line of Windsor Pembroke Corgis that continued for 15 generations. Susan died in 1959, and there is a gravestone for her at Sandringham that reads 'Susan / born 20 February 1944/ died 26 January 1959 / for almost 15 years the faithful companion of the Queen.' She was succeeded in a vast lineage that saw the Queen's Corgi pack continue to, and, in 1981, it was reported that no less than 13 Corgis accompanied her to Balmoral for her summer holiday. Her final litter was born on 9 July 2003, but after that Her Majesty stopped breeding, a decision thought to be influenced by the deaths of her mother and sister. Despite royal duties, the Queen has always been a hands-on pet owner; she attends their meal times of food prepared in the Royal kitchens in the 'Corgi room', where their wicker sleeping baskets are also kept. Just over a year ago, the Queen purchased corgi Muick for 2,650 and he is named after Loch Muick, a lake on the Balmoral Estate in Scotland. She also bought Fergus, a dachshund-corgi mix named after her war hero uncle Fergus Bowes-Lyon, around the same time, but he sadly passed away a few weeks later at five months old. The Duke of York replaced Fergus with a new corgi puppy, Sandy, shortly after the passing of Prince Philip in April,and then in January became the owner of cocker spaniel Lissy, that she named after herself. Muick, Sandy, Lissy and elderly dorgi Candy - who she owned for at least 15 years - were the Queen's only dogs at the time of her passing yesterday. Tony Allcock OBE, Chairman of The Kennel Club, released a statement saying: 'We pass on our thoughts and condolences to His Majesty The King and the Royal family at this time and join the world in sorrow at her passing. 'The Queen was an avid dog lover. She was very interested in the health of Corgis and took the breeding of her dogs very seriously, always ensuring that she met with the dogs involved. 'The Queen also owned Spaniels and was familiar to members and staff at The Kennel Club for her involvement in Field Trials, often attending events when taking place on her estate in Sandringham, where she was always extremely friendly to the dogs and competitors alike. 'We are very grateful for The Queen's patronage over the years and the commitment she always showed to the dogs that she loved so dearly. 'The Queen epitomised the love and affection that our nation holds for dogs.' Princess Elizabeth, who grew up to become queen, with two corgi dogs at her home at 145 Piccadilly, London, July 1936 The Queen and her beloved dog Susan pictured together at the Royal Lodge, Windsor in 1946, alongside the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret. Susan was the first in a line of Windsor Pembroke Corgis that continued for 15 generations The Queen's first involvement with Corgis dates all the way back to her childhood in the early 1930s, when her and sister Margaret first met the Pembroke Corgis of their family friends and wanted to have one too The Queen with some of her corgis at the Windsor Horse Trials (left) and walking with two of the dogs in the the grounds of Windsor Castle (right) Queen Elizabeth II stops to view a group of corgi dogs following her visit to the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton, Alberta May 24, 2005. She always owned at least one corgi since 1933, when her family bought pure-bred Dookie The Queen poses for a photograph in the drawing room at Balmoral shortly before her meeting with Ms Truss, whom she appointed as her Prime Minister. The photo was taken just two days before her death was announced The word 'Corgi' is Welsh for 'Dwarf Dog', and there are two types; the Pembroke, which is the Queen's breed, and the Cardigan Corgi, a descendent Teckel family of dogs, which also produced the Dachshund. Pembroke Welsh Corgis originated in Pembrokeshire, Wales from the Spitz family of dogs which are characterised by long, thick fur and pointed ears and muzzle. Corgis are a cattle herding breed that can be traced back as far as 1107 AD, but were registered as a native British breed by The Kennel Club in 1925. The Pembroke Welsh Corgi is not the only native breed that was taken off The Kennel Club's 'At Watch' list this year, as the Bedlington Terrier, Bullmastiff, Cairn Terrier, Irish Terrier, Norfolk Terrier, and the Parson Russell Terrier have all risen in demand. The Bearded Collie, Old English Sheepdog and the Miniature Bull Terrier have all moved from being 'Vulnerable' to 'At Watch', with the latter having almost doubled in popularity. Last year saw the highest number of annual puppy registrations ever recorded by The Kennel Club, with 349,013 across all breeds, exceeding the previous record set in 1989 of 283,915 puppy registrations. Nationwide lockdowns implemented throughout 2020 and 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic saw millions of owners purchasing and adopting a puppy companion, but the market has since receded. China has discovered a new mineral on the moon, a phosphate mineral in columnar crystal named Changesite-(Y), which was identified in rock and soil samples it brought back from the lunar surface in 2020. The mineral was carefully separated by researchers from more than 140,000 tiny particles and then analyzed through a series of advanced mineralogical methods, according to the Beijing Research Institute of Uranium Geology, one of the major institutes of China National Nuclear Corp. It is not yet known if the new mineral has properties can be used on Earth. Phosphate, which is found on Earth, is an essential element for plant growth - but its properties in crystal form have yet to be identified. The announcement places China as only the third nation to find a new mineral on the moon - the US and Russia are first and second - and the discovery is the sixth new organic formation to be identified by humans since the first samples were brought back by NASA's Apollo 11 in 1969. Changesite-(Y) falls in the category of lunar merrillite, which is a mineral found in lunar rocks and meteorites, and is the sixth new mineral to be found by humans since the first samples were collected during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. China is the third nation to discover a new mineral on the moon. Pictured is a collection off the new mineral inside a sterilized container Phosphate, which is also found on Earth, is the natural source of phosphorous, an element that provides a quarter of all the nutrients that plants need for their growth and development. And exposure of phosphorous at high levels to the human body can be damaging. This is because extra phosphorus causes body changes that pull calcium out of your bones, making them weak. On the moon, however, this element would play a key role in helping space faring heroes farm on the lunar surface. However, phosphate is known to thrive on the moon, but this is the first time humans have seen it in a columnar crystal. China's Chang'e-5 probe returned to Earth on December 17, 2020 with the nation's first moon samples stored inside. The collection of rocks are said to be billions of years younger than those obtained by the US and Russia, which was the Soviet Union at the time of its mission to the moon. The new mineral is a phosphate in columnar crystal that Chinese officials named Changesite-(Y). It was identified in rock and soil samples it brought back from the lunar surface in 2020 The mineral was carefully separated by researchers from more than 140,000 tiny particles (pictured) and then analyzed through a series of advanced mineralogical methods The age of the rocks and soil should help scientists fill a gap in knowledge about the history of the moon between roughly one billion and three billion years ago, Brad Jolliff, director of the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences at Washington University in the US city of St. Louis, said in a statement from February when China gave the world a glimpse at the trove of lunar rocks and soil. The samples may also yield clues as to the availability of economically useful resources on the moon such as concentrated hydrogen and oxygen, Jolliff said. The announcement keeps China in the space race against the US that has been tightening in recent years. And the pair are battling it out to see who can lay claim on the moon. In July, NASA administrator Bill Nelson, told Bild that the US is now involved in a space race with China. 'We must be very concerned that China is landing on the moon and saying: 'It's ours now and you stay out',' he told German newspaper. China, however, did not take the allegations lightly. Zhao Lijian, a spokesman at the Chinese foreign ministry, said in a statement: 'This is not the first time that the head of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration has ignored the facts and spoken irresponsibly about China. 'The US side has constantly constructed a smear campaign against China's normal and reasonable outer space endeavors, and China firmly opposes such irresponsible remarks.' Nelson also said Chinese astronauts are being trained to destroy other country's satellites and the nation 'has stolen ideas and technology from others' in order to make its claim on the moon. Zhao said Beijing had always advocated the peaceful use of outer space and opposed its weaponization. 'The development of China's space industry has been achieved entirely through independence and self-reliance, and its rights and achievements cannot be questioned or discredited in any way,' Zhao said. China's Chang'e-5 probe returned to Earth on December 17, 2020 with the nation's first moon samples stored inside NASA appears to be threatened by China's move into the space race, as the nation is the most recent space agency to venture to the moon. It was revealed this month that China is eyeing the same lunar landing spots as NASA for its first mission to send humans to the moon. The American space agency announced in August that it has chosen 13 possible landing spots for its Artemis III mission and 10 of them overlap with China's mission. The overlapping sites are partly the result of the region of the moon's higher elevation, good lighting and proximity to shadowed craters that may trap water-ice, according to SpaceNews, which first reported the overlap. From The Jetsons to Harry Potter, flying cars are staple features in science fiction blockbusters. Now, the firm behind a futuristic vehicle inspired by The Jetsons has secured $10 million investment. Tuscany-based startup Jetson unveiled Jetson ONE last year - a flying vehicle with top speeds of 63mph and a range of around 20 miles. The developers claim that 'anyone can buy and operate one' - that is, if you have a spare 80,000 ($92,000) to burn. Jetson has secured $10 million investment and has opened a new research and development hub in Arezzo, Tuscany A startup from Sweden has developed a personal flying vehicle that it says 'anyone can fly' called the Jetson One, and it is available for 80,000 ($92,000) The car is named after The Jetsons, a fictional 'future family' created in the early 1960s by Hanna-Barbera Productions, and including UFO-like flying cars SPECIFICATIONS FOR THE 'JETSON ONE' FLYING VEHICLE Top speed: 63mph Range: Around 20 miles Weight: 190lbs (86kg) Maximum pilot weight: 210lbs (85kg) Dimensions: 97in /59in / 40in Width when folded: 35in Flight controls: 3 axis joystick, throttle lever Battery type: High discharge Lithium-Ion Chassis: All-aluminium space airframe Motor type: High power output electric brushless outrunner Advertisement The all-electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft was launched in October last year and proved so popular it sold out almost immediately for delivery later this year. Now, Jetson has opened a new research and development hub in Arezzo, Tuscany. The hub features an 800 metre long airstrip for flight testing. 'The Tuscan climate allows for perfect flight testing conditions and the 800 meter airstrip means we can continue to fly daily,' they explained in a statement. 'Any customer who has received an assigned chassis number will be invited in the Spring of 2023.' Earlier this year, Jetson revealed footage showing a pilot navigating the flying vehicle. In a clip posted on YouTube, the firm said: 'At Jetson we are working hard so you are able to experience the purest form of flight on your own.' In the video, an unnamed pilot can be seen expertly navigating the flying vehicle over fields and trees. Jetson has already demonstrated that the vehicle can also be flown over water. Peter Ternstrom, one half of the brains behind Jetson, said: 'The first time I flew it, it felt amazing it's completely vibration free so it's nothing like a helicopter or aeroplane. Jetson's new hub in Arezzo, Tuscany, features an 800 metre long airstrip for flight testing 'It's totally new and it's euphoric. We are opening another dimension for people.' He added: 'But we have a vision way beyond the Jetson One we want to make a two-seater flying car in four years. 'By the end of the decade, we want a four-seater flying car on the market, one that can replace a normal family car, and everyone will want it. 'We want to make cities a better place to live and mass transport is going to need to change to do that everything is going up in the air! 'People think it's crazy but we believe everyone can be a pilot by the end of the decade. Evolution happens fast.' Ternstrom and co-founder Tomasz Patan established Jetson in 2017 after first thinking of the concept several years earlier. In the video, an unnamed pilot can be seen expertly navigating the flying vehicle over fields and trees Jetson has already demonstrated that the vehicle can also be flown over water The following year they began to implement safety features to ensure it was safe to fly, including sensors, backup motors and speed restrictors. It does not need a runway to take off or land, and has been built to ensure a smooth landing for the pilot. The first release of Jetson One models sold instantly after the vehicle's official launch in October 2021, so now the company is accepting orders for 2023 delivery. Ternstrom said: 'It's not like anything that's already out there that's what makes it so unique and exciting. 'But lots of people see our vision, I get a request to purchase one every 15 minutes, day and night. 'I get a request to purchase the entire company every couple of hours!' He added: 'People want to be part of the story imagine being one of the first few hundred people in the world to own one. 'Imagine turning up to a suburban McDonalds in one of these. 'People will be looking at you thinking is that James Bond? Are they even from planet Earth?' The Jetson One weighs 190lbs (86kg) and can fly for 20 minutes at a time with a battery charging time of up to two hours. It is controlled with a joystick and throttle lever and can reach speeds of up to 63mph. The first release of Jetson One models sold instantly after the vehicle's official launch in October 2021, so now the company is accepting orders for 2023 delivery It is primarily designed for play, rather than as a real personal transport vehicle, as it has a maximum operational distance of about 15 miles The vehicle is still subject to flying restrictions which vary from country to country, meaning it can't currently be flown in cities. But the founders believe this will change as people open their minds to travel by flight, not road. Ternstrom said he and Patan hope to see 15 per cent of all wheeled transport to be moved to the air by 2035 and 50 per cent by 2050. He added: 'Going forward, we want to make big cities better places to live. 'For our children, the cities can be greener there won't be space needed for loads of parking and roads because it's all going up in the air. 'We are not going to be the only ones who solve this, but we can work with other companies we can all do it together.' The vehicle is still subject to flying restrictions which vary from country to country, meaning it can't currently be flown in cities. At the moment it is only for open land (pictured) The next step in Ternstrom and Patan's vision is to create a two-seater flying car with a bit of luggage space by 2026. Dubbing it 'a luxury car for the sky', the model is already in the works. But the inventors are not stopping there insisting by the end of the decade, people will be able to get their hands on four-seater flying cars. The pair believe these can replace a classic 'family car' and will revolutionise road travel completely. Ternstrom said: 'Our models will be the coolest things you can own everyone will want them. 'People think it's crazy, but believe me, evolution happens quickly. Our goal is to make everyone a pilot within a decade.' Apple's new Emergency SOS satellite feature - available free for two years on all iPhone 14 models - could cost consumers after that, but the company won't discuss its pricing plans. The service announced this week is meant to connect you to emergency professionals when you're in a remote location without cell phone towers and wi-fi - it launches in November, two months after the new smartphone hits the market on September 16. Apple will partner with Globalstar's network of satellites so that users can send text messages directly to emergency services when they don't have other ways of connecting. The tech giant has yet to announce how much the new feature will cost after two years or whether people buying a new iPhone after the 14 would get the service for free - and did not respond to a DailyMail.com inquiry about the price. The tech giant is partnering with Globalstar's network of satellites so that users can send text messages directly to emergency services when they don't have other ways of connecting Apple's new Emergency SOS satellite feature - available free for two years on all iPhone 14 models - could cost consumers after that, but the company won't discuss its pricing plans As part of the agreement, Globalstar says it would allocate 85% of its network capacity to Apple, while the California-based tech firm will fund 95% of costs for a new generation of satellites that Globalstar ordered in a $327 million contract in February Longtime Apple reporter Dan Moren says: 'Kicking that decision out two years might allow Apple time to see how many people actually use it, and what pricing might then have to look like.' 'Or it may extend the date after that, thinking its a bad look to provide a handy emergency feature that might become unusable without a fee,' Moren continues, adding that the famously tight-lipped company doesn't want press about how people might have been saved if only they'd paid for the emergency feature. As part of the agreement, Globalstar says it would allocate 85% of its network capacity to Apple, while the California-based tech firm will fund 95% of costs for a new generation of satellites that Globalstar ordered in a $327 million contract in February. Reuters reported that Apple is putting $450 million toward satellite infrastructure, with a majority going to Globalstar. Longtime Apple reporter Dan Moren says : 'Kicking that decision out two years might allow Apple time to see how many people actually use it, and what pricing might then have to look like' 'It took years to make this vision a reality, through game-changing hardware, software and infrastructure innovation,' Ashley Williams, manager of satellite modeling and simulation at Apple, said during the Far Out event Apple notes on its site that a direct view of the sky and horizon would allow a user to send the emergency message in 15 seconds, but that it could take more than a minute if there are trees with medium foliage in the way. 'It took years to make this vision a reality, through game-changing hardware, software and infrastructure innovation,' Ashley Williams, manager of satellite modeling and simulation at Apple, said during the Far Out event. The emergency messages - which appear in grey, unlike the standard green or blue - automatically share your Medical ID and emergency contact information (if you have them set up), your location, emergency questionnaire answers and the remaining battery life for your iPhone. At launch, the service will only support American English, American Spanish and Canadian French. Users need to have the iPhone 14 and the iOS software update happening in November. On Thursday, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said his company has had some talks with Apple about partnering to use Starlink satellite connectivity with them. 'Weve had some promising conversations with Apple about Starlink connectivity. iPhone team is obv super smart. For sure, closing link from space to phone will work best if phone software & hardware adapt to space-based signals vs Starlink purely emulating cell tower,' Musk said on Twitter. Apple's latest iPhone 14 starts at $799 and the Plus is $899, despite rumors of major price hikes prior to this week's launch. Regarding privacy and the new feature, Apple says on its website: 'When you text with Emergency SOS via satellite, your messages are sent in encrypted form, and decrypted by Apple to be passed along to the relevant emergency services dispatcher, or the emergency relay center. 'Your messages may be retained by emergency service centers and the relay provider to improve their services, and in compliance with applicable laws.' The San Francisco Bay area is experiencing a record-breaking heatwave that is causing squirrels to stretch out on the ground in order to release their body heat into the environment - and this act of splooting is freaking out people. Numerous reports of the grounded, motionless squirrels have been reported to wildlife facilities, with WildCare in San Rafeal receiving lots of calls about hot animals, including reports of squirrels 'spread out flat, according to SFGate. The splooting is a way for squirrels to beat the heatwave that is gripping the Bay area, and other parts of California, which has brought temperatures soaring above 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Officials are advising people to stay away, as squirrels do bite, but those looking to help can give water in a plate-like dish to help keep them hydrated. Splooting squirrels are being reported all over the San Francisco Bay area- and people are freaking out Splooting is seen among a range of animals, especially dogs and cats, which have fur coats that trap their body heat. The term is especially associated with Welsh corgis. Many California residents were previously unaware about the term splooting and assumed the squirrels were either sick or injured, but officials are notifying people that the animals are just dumping their body heat. Splooting squirrels have also been reported in New York and Colorado, two other US states that experienced a heatwave this summer. Authorities from all three states have made announcements regarding the splooting squirrels, telling residents to just leave the animals be. The animals are stretched out and motionless - an action it does to dump its body heat into the environment Residents are sharing images of the squirrels trying to beat the heat amid record-breaking temperatures in California However, if the squirrel appears young or it has fallen from a tree, then it is wise to notify wildlife officials. Alison Hermance of WildCare in San Rafael told SFGate that the facility has seen an influx of f young squirrels coming in with heat stroke this summer, as well as calls about hot deer, and about birds literally falling on their sides, panting with the heat. New York City squirrels were splooting in August when temperatures reached a high of 95F. The NYC Parks department tweeted on August 9: If you see a squirrel lying down like this, don't worry; it's just fine. On hot days, squirrels keep cool by splooting (stretching out) on cool surfaces to reduce body heat. It is sometimes referred to as heat dumping. During the colder months, squirrels will also sploot so that they can get warmer. On September 6, California Governor, Gavin Newsom, asked all residents to reduce their consumption at peak hours as the state braced or 'a new historic all-time high for the grid. Officials are advising people to stay away, as squirrels do bite, but those looking to help can give water in a plate-like dish to help keep them hydrated PG&E said there were 6,557 customers without power throughout the Bay Area, with the northern and southern suburbs of San Jose, Livermore, Danville, and parts of San Francisco hardest hit. Late on Tuesday morning, solar was supplying about a third of the state's power demand. That will decline overnight. Residents were asked to cool their homes before 4pm, setting the thermostat to as low as 72 degrees. They were asked to run their washing machines and dishwashers, and charge their electric vehicles. They were also advised to keep blinds and drapes closed to lower the temperature. SpaceX's Starship Serial Number 24 (SN24) started an intense grass fire after it performed an eight-second static fire test that released more than a 1,000 tons of thrust and likely melted the concrete below the rocket, some speculate. The melted blobs were then launched more than 300 feet from the rocket, falling in a dumpster and in the protected habitat that surrounds Starbase in Boca China, Texas. Fire crews were called to the scene and battled the flames into the evening hours. SpaceX was given the green light in June by the Federal Aviation Administration to launch its Starship rocket after being grounded for nearly a year over concerns about how such testing impacts the environment. One of the stipulations of being approved is that the firm must implement wildfire prevention measures and also use spray water to suppress dust and air pollution - and Thursdays fire suggests SpaceX has yet to fulfill this requirement. SpaceX's Starship Serial Number 24 (SN24) started an intense grass fire after it performed an eight-second static fire test The static fire test began just after 5:30pm ET, which is a crucial test to ensure the upper stage is ready for its first orbital launch - which CEO Elon Musk has yet to nail down a date for. SN24 had another successful static fire test on August 9, but this event saw just two of the raptor engines light up. There were several tests throughout the month, but Teslarati reports they were all deemed as failures. This forced SpaceX to replace three of the engines earlier this month and the effort paid off, as the world saw a successful test - even though it caused a large grass fire. Teslarati also estimates that the latest static fire test produced 1,380 tons of thrust, which is believed to be the most ever for a test done at Starbase. The media outlet suggests the powerful thrust may have melted the top layer of concrete in which the rocket is standing on. The static fire test is crucial to ensure the upper stage is ready for an orbital launch. SpaceX has yet to provide a date for the mission The static fire test started shortly after 5:30pm ET, which saw the six engines ignite And these melted blobs are what were sent flying hundreds of feet away from Starship and started the fire. All areas surrounding the testing site were a blaze, even a SpaceX dumpster was up in flames, which lasted for a few hours. Musks Starship saw another fire just back in July - the rocket was engulfed in an enormous fireball during a ground test on July 11. Footage shows a powerful fireball engulfing the bottom of the rocket and sending splinters flying, and dramatically shaking the camera's point of view. The last Starship that flew was the Serial Number 15 (SN 15) on May 5, 2021 and it landed nominal. However, not all of the rockets have returned to Earth in one piece. The previous test flight, on March 31 last year, ended with SN11 in pieces on the launch pad. SN10 was the first out of the four previous Starships to survive the landing, but the massive rocket exploded roughly 10 minutes after due to a methane leak. Fire, smoke and debris shot out from the bottom and it was seen from miles away The smoke from the test engulfed the rocket and the testing facility at Boca Chica, Texas The failure occurred after SpaceX declared it a success, as SN10 flew and flipped - without crashing and burning like the previous prototypes SN8 and SN9. Musk praised the rocket in a tweet for 'landing in one piece'. And both SN8 and SN9 exploded into a ball of flames the moment they touched down and they both triggered reviews from the FAA. SpaceX is planning to send humans to Mars using a two-stage spacecraft composed of Starship (the passenger-carrying section) and the Super Heavy rocket booster. Queen Elizabeth was one of 73 world leaders whose message to NASA's Apollo 11 is etched onto a silicon disc and left on the moon in 1969 after the crew members became the first humans to walk on the lunar surface. The Queen died at the age of 96 on September 8, but her salute to the 'skill and courage' of the space faring heroes 'on behalf of the British people' will forever stay on the moon. Along with sending a message with Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, she also met with them at Buckingham Palace three months after the team returned home from their epic journey to the moon. The Queen is known for her longstanding presence in humanity's journey to space and NASA shared its condolences on Twitter within hours of the Queen's death, tweeting: 'Queen Elizabeth II's reign spanned all of spaceflight, predating both Sputnik and Explorer 1. 'As we join the planet in marking her passing, we are moved by the curiosity Her Royal Highness showed our explorers over the years.' Queen Elizabeth was one of 73 world leaders who sent messages along with the three astronauts of the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 The Queen's message, and all the others', were etched on a small disc. They were reduced to the a size that is 200 times smaller than a needle head - each one appears as a dot The disc is about the size of a 50-cent coin and is made of a non-metallic chemical element found in nature and is used widely in electronics, according to NASA's press release published on July 11, 1969 - nine days before Apollo 11 touched down on the moon. The Queen's full message reads: 'On behalf of the British people I salute the skill and courage which have brought man to the moon. May this endeavor increase the knowledge and well-being of mankind. Her message and 72 others were reduced 200 times smaller than the head of a pin before they were etched on the gray-colored disc - and each message appears as a dot. There are messages from President Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. Along with sending a message with Neil Armstrong (second from left), Buzz Aldrin (right) and Michael Collins (left), she also met with them at Buckingham Palace three months after the team returned home from their epic journey to the moon Buzz Aldrin is the last living member of Apollo 11. He shared a tweet on Thursday expressing his condolences for the Queen's death At the top of the disc is the inscription: 'Goodwill messages from around the world brought to the Moon by the astronauts of Apollo 11.' Around the rim is the statement: 'From Planet ' Earth -- July 1969. 'The messages from foreign leaders congratulate the United States and its astronauts and also express hope for peace to all nations of the world,' the NASA press release reads. 'Some are handwritten, others typed and many are in native language. A highly decorative message from the Vatican is signed by Pope Paul.' The Queen has had a great interest in humanity's journey to the final frontier, as she met Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on July 14, 1961 after he made history as the first person to visit space. Aldrin, who is the last living member of Apollo 11 tweeted his condolences Thursday: 'God bless #QueenElizabeth, a gracious leader, lady, and our host on return from the moon. On behalf of the Apollo 11 crew, Godspeed and God bless the Royal Family. Sincere condolences.' In 2007, the Queen, along with Prince Philip, took a tour of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center where they greeted astronauts who were aboard on the International Space Station. In 2007, the Queen, along with Prince Philip, took a tour of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center where they greeted astronauts who were aboard on the International Space Station Tim Peake, an astronaut for thetEuropean Space Agency, gifted the Queen the British flag he wore on his spacesuit while performing a spacewalk outside the station when he returned home from space in 2016 She is also quoted for saying: 'I have travelled widely, but I hope I will be forgiven for having limited my tour to the Earth's surface,' which was stated while she was at the National Space Center in Leicester, England. Tim Peake, the United Kingdom's first European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut, also met with the Queen who sent him a message in 2015, the night before his first launch into space. 'Prince Philip and I are pleased to transmit our best wishes to Major Timothy Peake as he joins the International Space Station in orbit,' she wrote. 'We hope that Major Peake's work on the Space Station will serve as an inspiration to a new generation of scientists and engineers.' When Peake returned to Earth in 2016 he gifted the Queen the British flag he wore on his spacesuit while performing a spacewalk outside the station. 'A remarkable woman. Thank you Ma'am for a lifetime of service and dedication,' Peake wrote on Thursday. 'A sad day and our thoughts are with the Royal Family.' Apple stands to lose up to $15 billion a year if the Justice Department forces Google to stop paying the company to be the default search engine on all iPhones - as regulators question the legality of the longtime arrangement. Anytime iPhone users open a web browser to enter a search query, it always defaults to Google. Even though anyone can change this setting, almost no one does, resulting in a huge amount of traffic (and ad revenue) to Google from over a billion iPhone users worldwide. Analysts from Bernstein estimated that Google's payment to Apple would increase to $15 billion in 2021 and as high as $18-$20 billion this year, reports 9to5Mac. Apple stands to lose up to $15 billion a year if the Justice Department forces Google to stop paying the company to be the default search engine on all iPhones The contracts are the basis of the DOJ's antitrust against the California-based company, which began in the closing days of the Trump administration and won't head to trial until sometime in 2023 Last year, Apple's total gross profit was over $152 billion - so losing the Google payments would shave at least 10% off. This arrangement between the two tech behemoths that dates to the early 2000s is under threat - with regulators accusing Google of anti-competitive practices to maintain its dominance in the search business. 'Google invests billions in defaults, knowing people wont change them,' Department of Justice attorney Kenneth Dintzer said during a Thursday hearing in the antitrust case. 'They are buying default exclusivity because defaults matter a lot.' The contracts are the basis of the DOJ's antitrust suit against the California-based company, which began in the closing days of the Trump administration. States are also pursuing a parallel antitrust suit against Google. 'Google invests billions in defaults, knowing people wont change them,' Department of Justice attorney Kenneth Dintzer said during a Thursday hearing in the antitrust case. 'They are buying default exclusivity because defaults matter a lot' According to Bloomberg, Google's attorney John Schmidtlein said that regulators misunderstand the marketplace and should focus less on search rivals like Microsoft's Bing and more platforms like TikTok, Amazon, Meta and Grubhub - where countless users being their searches these days. 'You dont have to go to Google to shop on Amazon. You dont have to go to Google to buy plane tickets on Expedia,' he said. 'The fact that Google doesnt face the same competition on every query doesnt mean the company doesnt face tough competition.' Analysts from Bernstein estimated that Google's payment to Apple, led by CEO Tim Cook (above), would increase to $15 billion in 2021 and as high as $18-$20 billion this year, reports 9to5Mac . Even so, all the user data that Google gains from Apple's massive following certainly helps grow its search engine profitability. It already has the most popular browser, Chrome, with a 69% market share, and the second-most popular smartphone operating system, Android. Dintzer said Google's contracts with Apple, along with smartphone makers like Samsung and Motorola, plus Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T, make it the default search engine and ensure it's preinstalled on phones, so that it's becomes the 'gateway' to the internet for most people. 'Default exclusivity allows Google to systemically deny rivals data,' he said, per Bloomberg. Lawmakers and consumer advocates have long accused Google of abusing its dominance in online search and advertising. The ongoing case says that Google uses billions of dollars collected from advertisers to pay phone manufacturers to ensure Google is the default search engine on browsers. That arrangement kills competition and innovation from smaller upstart rivals to Google and harms consumers by reducing the quality of search and limiting privacy protections and alternative search options, the government alleges. At the time the lawsuit was filed in October 2020, Google vowed to defend itself and said: 'Todays lawsuit by the Department of Justice is deeply flawed. People use Google because they choose to -- not because theyre forced to or because they cant find alternatives.' The Justice Department's case against Google won't head to trial until sometime in 2023 and even if it loses, Google will appeal. Borussia Dortmund sporting director Sebastian Kehl has slammed Man City forward Erling Haaland and claimed he was a 'burden' while at the club. Haaland moved to Man City this summer from the German side for 51million after scoring 86 goals in 89 games for Dortmund. The Norwegian striker has been in astonishing form for Pep Guardiola's side, netting 12 times in seven games across the Premier League and Champions League so far. Borussia Dortmund sporting director Sebastian Kehl has branded Erling Haaland a 'burden' Haaland was slammed by Kehl for his final few months at the club before his move to Man City Haaland spent two and a half seasons with Dortmund after joining from RB Salzburg in December 2019 for a 17m fee. In spite of being prolific while at the Westfalenstadion, Kehl was critical of the wider impact that Haaland had on the team by the end of his stay with the club. 'As much as we have always appreciated Erling and the success he has had with our shirt, in the end the matter had definitely become a burden, both in the dressing room and for the club,' he told Sport Bild. 'In general, for the whole environment, it was just him. The timing of the sale was right, both for us and for City. The fact that our first 10 goals this season have been scored by 10 different players proves it.' The Norwegian striker scored 86 goals in 89 games while playing for the German outfit Kehl also believes Haaland's departure has benefitted the squad as a whole going into this season. 'I would have liked to have been certain (about the Norwegian's departure) a little earlier, because that issue limited our preparation. 'Without him, we have the possibility to trust the other players. The fact that our first ten competitive goals have been scored by ten different players shows that pretty well.' Kehl's comments come just days before Haaland faces his former club with Man City hosting the German side at the Etihad on Wednesday evening in the Champions League. The wife of a reigning monarch is referred to as the Queen Consort. In other words, it is bestowed onto individuals who are born into the royal family by marriage. When a person is a reigning monarch, they are granted the title of queen. Queen Elizabeth II, for example, was coronated on February 6, 1952, when her father, King George VI, died at the age of 56, granting her the title of Queen Elizabeth. What Is Queen Consort? Princess Charlotte, the daughter of Prince William and Kate Middleton, is the next person in line to take the title of queen after Queen Elizabeth II. However, her elder brother Prince George and their father Prince William would succeed before her. A queen consort is not in line for the throne and would not ascend the throne if the king died before them because that function must be inherited and cannot be obtained by marriage. Following his mother's death on September 8, 2022, Queen Elizabeth II's son Charles ascended to the throne. If King Charles died before his wife Camilla, she would not succeed in the kingdom. His eldest son, Prince William, would be the next in line to the throne, and his wife, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, would be queen consort. According to the royal website, the queen consort has no political power and their main job is to "provide companionship, moral and practical support" to the king. The queen consort is still encircled by the king in a similar ceremonial. Following the Camilla, Princess Diana, and Prince Charles incident, it was determined that when Queen Elizabeth II died Camilla would be given the title of princess consort rather than queen consort when her husband became king. In February 2022, Queen Elizabeth stated that when her son Charles became King, Camilla would adopt the title queen consort, as per Fox News. Read Also: Hillary Clinton on 2024 Presidential Election: Former State Secretary Spills The Bean on Running Again After 2 Failed Bids for White House Will Camilla's Children to Andrew Parker Bowles Get Royal Titles? When Charles and Camilla married in 2005, eight years after Lady Diana's death, Camilla made it clear that she wished to adopt the title princess consort. It would be a first in British royal history. After years of speculation in the media about their romance, Charles and Diana's painful divorce, and Diana's death in 1997, the decision was perceived as an acknowledgment that the public was finding it difficult to accept her new role. For the same reason, when she married Charles, who was Prince of Wales at the time, she chose not to use Diana's title of Princess of Wales. Instead, she selected the title Duchess of Cornwall, emulating Charles' second title, Duke of Cornwall, which is typically bestowed upon the heir presumptive. Camilla confessed in an interview with British Vogue that the bad coverage she experienced during that time period wasn't easy, according to NEWS. Camilla and her first husband, Andrew Parker Bowles, have two children: Tom Parker Bowles and Laura Lopes. Camilla's oldest child and only son, Tom, is a restaurant reviewer. He has also written several publications and serves as a judge on British culinary reality programs. According to Town & Country, Prince Charles is both his stepfather and godfather, which is a delightful tidbit. Laura, on the other hand, is Camilla and Andrew's youngest child. She is a co-founder of Eleven, a fine art gallery in London. She is married to Harry Lopes, who is a former Calvin Klein model turned accountant. Camilla will not pass on any royal titles because her titles are dependent on Charles, Womens Health Mag reported. Related Article: Queen Elizabeth II Dies at 96; UK Mourns Loss of Longest-Reigning Monarc @YouTube @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Advertisement These are images by one talented flock of photographers. They have all been honoured in the Bird Photographer of the Year 2022 awards, an annual contest celebrating bird life that this year received more than 20,000 submissions from around the world. An adorable picture of a pair of embracing Atlantic puffins, a jaw-dropping image of a European shag soaring over an enormous wave, and a poignant shot of a little owlet playing in a dumping ground are among the images that impressed the judges. However, it is a breathtaking picture of a rock ptarmigan in flight over the Tysfjorden fjord in Norway by Erlend Haarberg that reigns supreme overall, earning the Norwegian photographer the 5,000 grand prize and the title of Bird Photographer of the Year. Commenting on the results, Will Nicholls, Director of Bird Photographer of the Year, says: 'Once again our talented photographers have cast a light on the incredible diversity of bird life that we share our planet with. But it is also a stark reminder of what we stand to lose if we dont continue to look after the natural world and fight for its protection from the many threats that exist today.' Below are the magnificent prizewinners - scroll down to the very bottom to see the picture that takes the top spot. Two Atlantic puffins appear to embrace in this heartwarming picture, captured in the fishing town of Elliston in Newfoundland, Canada. Snared by Canadian photographer Brad James, the picture earns a silver award in the Best Portrait category. The birds - which are 'beautifully stationed on a dramatic cliff edge' - appear to 'reinforce the intimate bond that exists between them', James says of the shot, which was captured in the light of the morning The top prize in the Attention to Detail category has been scooped up by this adorable shot, which shows the 'brown "teddy bear" plumage' of a sleeping king penguin chick. The picture was captured on Volunteer Point, a headland in the Falkland Islands, local photographer Andy Pollard reveals Earning the gold award in the Nine to 13 Years category, this spellbinding shot of a thirsty Annas Hummingbird was taken in the Californian city of Fremont by young U.S photographer Parham Pourahmad. 'In Fremont, there is a water fountain that is a hotspot for hummingbirds. The birds like to bathe in the water, or in this case catch and sip the droplets,' Pourahmad explains This spectacular image - the recipient of the bronze award in the Birds in the Environment category - shows a European shag as it flies over a 'huge wave of about eight metres (26ft) high' off the west coast of Asturias, a region in northern Spain. Spanish photographer Mario Suarez Porras says: 'It made me reflect on how lucky the bird was to be free and able to fly with strength and determination in the most difficult conditions' Showing great talent at a young age, U.S photographer Arjun Jenigiri was behind the lens for this bewitching shot of a barred owlet, which scoops the gold award in the Eight and Under category. It was taken during a hike in the Acadia National Park, Maine. 'We were just a few minutes into the hike when we heard [the owlets] calling. One landed close by and peered at me from behind a tree trunk in a way that seemed to express curiosity,' the photographer recalls The coastal waters of Berwickshire, Scotland, were the setting for this beautiful photograph of a diving common guillemot, captured by UK photographer Henley Spiers. 'Common guillemots are incredible freedivers so good, in fact, that studies have shown that of all flying birds, this humble species is the most efficient swimmer. It is bested in the water only by penguins, with which it shares similar stylistic traits. The difference, of course, is that penguins perhaps descended from the same auk [bird species] family as common guillemots sacrificed their ability to fly as they adapted to an aquatic existence,' says Spiers. The image snaps up the silver award in the Bird Behaviour category Above is another stunning shot by Spiers, this time showing a double-crested cormorant diving in the waters off the coast of Isla del Espiritu Santo, a Mexican island in the Gulf of California. Spiers was positioned 10m (32ft) underwater when he took the image, which earns the gold award in the Black and White category. He recalls: 'Below, an enormous school of fish covered the bottom as far as I could see. Above, a single double-crested cormorant patrolled the surface, catching its breath and peering down at a potential underwater feast. The cormorant, better designed for swimming than flying, would dive down at speed, aggressively pursuing the fish. The school would move in unison to escape the birds sharp beak, making it difficult to isolate a single target. More often than not, the bird returned to the surface empty-billed' Photographer Laszlo Potozky captured this characterful picture - a recipient of the silver award in the Urban Birds category - of a little owl nesting in an abandoned building in Transylvania in his native Romania. When he visited the site, he spotted the chick under the roof, 'posing in an odd way and with what looked like an air of resignation'. He says: 'I could see a resemblance to Gonzo, the famous character from The Muppet Show.' The picture lands a silver award in the Urban Birds category British photographer Mark Williams is behind this spellbinding picture of a common starling, taken in the town of Solihull in England's West Midlands. To lure the bird into the path of his lens, he placed some sunflower seeds in a feeder. Williams says that it appears as though the bird is 'lurking in the shadow of the night' in the image A pair of galah birds fly past a painted mural in the town of Yelarbon in Queensland, Australia, in this evocative shot, which snaps up the gold award in the Birds in Flight category. The mural had been painted onto a grain silo in the town, and the galahs were attracted to the split grain that it held, Australian photographer Raoul Slater explains. He describes the photograph as 'surreal' This striking picture of a Eurasian blackbird in the southern Spanish village of Grazalema, captured by young Spanish photographer Andres Luis Dominguez Blanco, earns the silver award in the Nine to 13 Years category A flamboyance of greater flamingos soars over the skyline of Abu Dhabi in this awe-inspiring image by UAE photographer Ammar Alsayed Ahmed. The picture was taken from a skyscraper rooftop 'on a morning when fog covered the city and the only signs of the urban landscape were the tops of the buildings emerging from the blanket of mist'. Ahmed recalls: 'At the time it seemed a bit like a fantasy, a fleeting moment made surreal as the birds unexpectedly flew past.' Impressing the judges, the picture tops the podium in the Urban Birds category This picture of a dunlin bird 'struggling with a small sandstorm' earns Swiss photographer Levi Fitze the title of Young Bird Photographer of the Year. Fitze says that he could see from the bird's face 'how annoyed' it was 'by the wind and sand flying everywhere' during the storm. The image - taken in the German archipelago of Heligoland in the North Sea - also tops the podium in the 14 to 17 Years category of the contest This poignant picture of a barred owlet was taken in a creek in a Hillsboro, Oregon, park that has become an informal dumping ground. 'The owlets bathe and play around the creek, which unfortunately is where rubbish is dumped and accumulates,' U.S photographer Kerry Wu reveals. The photographer continues: 'While I was watching the scene, one of the owlets even picked up a large rusty screw and "played" with it as if it were a twig. At one point it looked right at me as if to say, "What have you done to my home?"' Wu adds: 'This scene broke my heart.' The image earns the bronze award in the Urban Birds category Behold the gold award winner in the Bird Behaviour category, a dynamic picture that shows two sage-grouse birds 'lekking' - an 'elaborate display designed to attract and impress females and show their superiority' - in Colorado. American photographer Peter Ismert explains: 'During the spring breeding season, male sage-grouse gather on traditional lekking sites and often engage in short but violent fights.' Ismert reveals that he set up camp overnight, camouflaged by a hide, to photograph the ritual. 'At first light, I awoke to booming sounds made by the male grouse and the sight of their unusual display and this particular battle,' he says In this dramatic shot - which also depicts the lekking ritual - a sage-grouse bird performs 'strutting displays in the hope of winning the right to mate', U.S photographer Ly Dang reveals. The photographer explains: 'This behaviour is for the benefit of the females, which judge the talent show and select the best genes to pass on to the next generation.' The image, which was captured in Colorado in springtime, comes top in the Best Portrait category This startling image is a close-up of a western capercaillie in a forest near Stockholm. It was taken by Swedish photographer Isabella Chowra and lands second place in the Attention to Detail category A Kentish plover is 'perfectly placed in the middle of its reflection' in this eye-catching picture, which was captured on the Khok Kham salt pans near the Thai city of Samut Sakorn. It takes the bronze award in the 14 to 17 Years category, with Thai photographer Thamboon Uyyanonvara explaining that the bird arrived just as the 'yellowish, pinkish and orange-red' light of the sunset hit the salt pans U.S photographer Sue Dougherty captured this transfixing picture in the Cariboo region of Canada's British Columbia. It shows a great northern diver that emerged from a lake with 'perfect lines of water droplets adorning its head from beak to neck'. Describing the droplets, Dougherty - who took the picture from a boat - says: 'They looked like glimmering beads of diamonds framing its ruby-red eye.' She points out that the reflection in the bird's eye is a 'mirror of the trees on the lake shoreline'. The bronze award in the Attention to Detail category has been awarded to the image Taking the bronze medal in the Nine to 13 Years category is this captivating shot of a plum-headed parakeet in flight in the town of Hosanagara in the Indian state of Karnataka. Indian photographer Achintya Murthy, who was behind the lens, describes the scene as an 'amazing moment' to witness This breathtaking image shows a small flock of lesser and greater flamingos as they fly over Lake Logipi in northern Kenya. Irish photographer Paul Mckenzie, who took the picture from a light aircraft, explains that microscopic algae in the lake bed cause the red colours in the lake, while the yellow and brown tones are from the sediment that has washed in from the Suguta River. There are also salt floes on the lake surface, he reveals. 'Huge numbers of flamingos regularly gather on this remote lake to feed on the specialist brine invertebrates here, which themselves feed on the algae,' Mckenzie notes. The shot ranks second in the Birds in the Environment category Ranking second in the 14 to 17 Years category is this sweet picture by teenage photographer Tamas Koncz-Bisztricz from Hungary. It portrays a pied avocet chick in early summertime in Lake Nagyszeksos, near the Hungarian town of Morahalom South African photographer Richard Flack snared this uplifting shot of a pair of purple-crested turacos in a small conservancy in the Lower Mpushini area in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. 'Seemingly out of nowhere, this exquisite pair flew out from thick cover and landed a few metres in front of me... the turaco pair seemed much more interested in each other than in me,' Flack says, adding: 'It was a dream encounter and I felt privileged to share such an intimate moment with them.' The picture comes third in the Bird Portrait category Canadian photographer Simon dEntremont beautifully captures a Bohemian waxwing 'devouring' a berry in this picture, taken in a cluster of berry bushes in the town of Kentville, in Nova Scotia, Canada. Describing the image, which ranks third in the Bird Behaviour category, he says: 'Not only are they beautiful birds, but the action of them picking berries and often flipping them in the air to eat them is impressive' This vibrant picture of a Schalow's turaco - ranked third in the Birds in Flight category - is the work of U.S photographer Aaron Baggenstos. Of the picture, which was taken on safari in the Maasai Mara in Kenya, he says: 'Out of the corner of my eye, I saw this individual emerging from the canopy like a bullet and coming diagonally straight towards me... it was a true gem to witness.' He adds: 'These stunningly dressed birds spend most of their time high in the dark jungle canopy and are extremely fast in flight I think of them as "bullet" birds' Skardsvik beach on the west coast of Iceland was the setting for this atmospheric shot, which bags a silver award in the Black and White category. In the distance, a great cormorant can be seen sitting 'on a sharp, pointed ridge' trying to dry its wings after diving into the ocean. Polish photographer Pawel Smolik says: 'The sight of this cormorant with its black wings spread, combined with the aura of the place and the colour of the sand and rocks all shades of black reminded me of The Lord of the Rings movies.' Thus, he titled the image 'The Guardian of Mordor' - in reference to the realm of the villain Sauron as depicted in the fantasy films Critics called it fabulous, beautiful, sumptuous and the single greatest accomplishment in nature TV history. Frozen Planet was hailed as the ultimate David Attenborough series, packed with extraordinary footage from both Poles, when it aired 11 years ago. The sequel is even more ambitious and even more breathtaking. Filmed in ultra-high definition and using the very latest camera technology, Frozen Planet II goes beyond the Poles to explore every icescape on Earth. Camera crews spent months in the Andes and Siberia, camped in the Gobi desert and the Himalayas, trekked across the far north of Canada and dived into the Southern Ocean. And the results are spectacular, so wrap up warm and prepare to shiver with delight... THE ORCA TRICK THATS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE To impress Sir David Attenborough at 96, the worlds greatest living naturalist and TV film-maker takes some doing. But when he whooped and gasped with excitement to see film of previously unknown hunting behaviour of killer whales, the camera crews from Frozen Planet II knew theyd achieved their greatest ambitions. The original Frozen Planet caused a sensation with evidence of a rare hunting technique by killer whales. The black-and-white predators used their tails to create waves that washed seals off ice floes and into the water where they could be snapped up. It is believed only about 100 killer whales in the Antarctic peninsula use this complex hunting technique, so filming it again would be an exceptional challenge. Our dream was to find the same whales, says executive producer Mark Brownlow. Seven of us set off from the Falkland Islands in a motorised yacht, taking the latest camera drone technology. Frozen Planet was hailed as the ultimate David Attenborough series, packed with extraordinary footage from both Poles, when it aired 11 years ago. The sequel is even more ambitious and even more breathtaking When David whooped and gasped with excitement to see film of previously unknown hunting behaviour of killer whales, the camera crews from Frozen Planet II knew theyd achieved their greatest ambitions Around two weeks later, to their joy and disbelief, the team found the same pod, identifying them from photos that showed their markings and scars. The guides worked on previous sightings, some of which dated back years. It was a real cat-and-mouse game, says Mark. It was remarkable to find this one pod in thousands of miles of ocean. The family of 14 orcas was led by a matriarchal female, who may be as much as 100 years old, who taught the younger members probably leading by example, but also using a combination of complex vocal noises. To find their prey, the whales have perfected a technique called spyhopping. Their noses slowly rise out of the water, like torpedoes in slow motion, until one red-rimmed eye is able to peep onto the ice. If they spot a seal, they emit a rallying call, thought to be a summons to other whales. The exceptional film sequences of the killer whales made all the danger and hardship worthwhile... as did the reaction of Sir David What happens next has to be seen to be believed. The orcas swim away, turn and line up like sprinters at the start of a race. On a signal, they lunge through the water towards the ice floe and the seal which has no idea what is about to happen. A few yards from the ice, in perfect synchronisation, the orcas beat their tails. A swell of water rushes over the seal, bundling it into the water. It tries to flee, but wherever it turns, there is a whale. Then it tries to fight and the whales produce another secret weapon. Diving down, one whale releases a stream of bubbles. Disorientated and unable to see through the froth, the seal is easy prey. All that is remarkable. But the whales have yet another trick, one never seen before. Seals on broad ice sheets seem safe, because if they stay in the middle they cant be washed off by even the biggest wave. Instead, the orcas dive under the ice and set off an underwater wave like a bomb and the shock breaks up the floe into a jigsaw of smaller pieces. The whales locate the segment with the seal, and nudge it with their noses through the scattered ice fragments into clear water. Then they create another wave and dislodge their dinner. Sir David whooped and gasped at film of the previously unknown behaviour of killer whales This is, quite possibly, the most sophisticated hunting technique recorded in any species other than man. The whales have developed it for their own survival, but they also seem to gain satisfaction from co-operation. How they devised this method, and how they communicate to work together, scientists are unsure. Studying the Frozen Planet II footage could offer crucial clues. This expedition was one of the most arduous of all the ventures. Before filming was over, one of the crew became seriously ill and, with medical help needed, the yacht headed for the nearest outpost of civilisation one of the British Antarctic Survey bases. From there, the team member was taken onto a passing cruise ship, and the yacht headed back to find the orcas once more. But disaster struck again. We overcooked the engine and blew a gasket, says Mark. Without an engine, we were at real risk of getting trapped in the ice floes, as Shackletons ship the Endurance did 100 years ago. We had to turn back, very slowly. It took weeks to get home. But the exceptional film sequences of the killer whales made all the danger and hardship worthwhile... as did the reaction of Sir David Attenborough. One of the greatest privileges of the job is to be with David when he watches the results, and gauge his reaction, says Mark. We always try to show him something he hasnt seen before. He genuinely whooped and gasped when he saw the behaviour. That is the highest accolade. FACING DOWN A CHARGING GRIZZLY Filming musk oxen in the Canadian north, the danger of attack by grizzly bears was constant and a tent at night did not offer sufficient protection. So the lone cameraman towed a shed behind his snowmobile, setting up camp in a different location each day as he followed the herd. The portable fortress kept him safe, until one day he was setting up his shed and turned around to see a bear behind him. They stared at each other for a few seconds... and then the bear charged. Luckily, this guy is a seasoned field biologist, says Mark, and he knew the thing to do was to stand his ground, look big and make a noise. When the bear was about 6ft away, it stopped. Then it turned and left. Hed done enough to scare it, but filming out there is not for the faint-hearted. ITS PENGUIN PARENTS WHO FLEE THE NEST Emperor penguins are famously some of the most loving parents in nature. The adults waddle dozens of miles to bring food to their colony, regurgitating fish for the hungry chicks before taking over babysitting duties from their partners. But there is another side to the doting penguins. When the next generation is old enough to fend for themselves, the adults simply leave, heading to the sea and leaving the fledgling adolescents to follow as best they can. Emperors are the most charismatic and iconic of all penguin species, says producer Elizabeth White, but theyre also the most inaccessible. Thats why the story of the fledglings has never been told before. The adults waddle dozens of miles to bring food to their colony, regurgitating fish for the hungry chicks before taking over babysitting duties from their partners It nearly wasnt told this time either. Due to an outbreak of Covid in their quarantine hotel in South Africa, the crew had to isolate for over 40 days. There are stringent rules about not taking Covid to Antarctica, so the team spent 42 days in quarantine in South African hotel rooms, quietly going stir crazy. The worst of the ordeal was knowing that the sea ice could break up at any moment. By the time they reached the colony, the adolescent penguins might already have set off and the opportunity to film their journey would be missed. We were incredibly lucky, says Elizabeth. They got there as the chicks were starting their trek. It took them ten days to reach the sea and that first moment when they leap into the ocean. THERMAL LONG JOHNS ESSENTIAL! Wanted, wildlife film-makers. Must be able to cope with the cold. Own thermal underwear an advantage. Producer Elizabeth White jokes that this is how the job ads were worded as the BBC embarked on a venture lasting more than four years, and completing more than 102 icy shoots all around the planet. To achieve this took some very hardy film-makers. One cameraman spent eight hours floating in a survival suit in freezing water close to an ice shelf in the Southern Ocean. On the ice itself, hundreds of young Emperor penguins were gathered, working up the courage to take their first leap into the seas. But the birds were cautious, knowing their first swim could be their last if leopard seals or killer whales were lurking. The cameramans only hope of capturing the perfect shot was to lie very still in the water and pretend to be a chunk of ice. Thats the kind of dedication demanded by Frozen Planet II. The cameraman knew he had to stand his ground and look big. When the bear was 6ft away it turned and left To prepare the teams, producers sent one group to Svalbard, an island off the north coast of Scandinavia, in January where they practised jumping into ice holes in the pitch dark and hauling themselves out, while another team were sent to the Cairngorms in February to learn about avalanche safety, In these remote places, the best chance of rescue is by other members of the team, explains Mark. They have to be completely self-sufficient. Youve got to get yourself out of the mess. Without conventional means of staying warm, most of the crew had to stay warm the old-fashioned way: with lots of layers of woollens and padded jackets. Thermal long-johns really were essential. Eating plenty of hot, high-calorie food is also a good plan, adds Elizabeth. But that isnt always easy. In the Gobi desert, the team filming Pallass cats had to stay motionless for hours at a time inside their hide. One cameraman put his lunch on the ground. By the time he was able to pick it up again it had frozen solid. HIDEY-HOLES FOR HIBERNATING BEARS Brown bears preparing to hibernate in Siberia face an added survival problem. They have to make sure that while they sleep, they dont fall prey to tigers. One trick is to climb a hollow tree and crawl down into the trunk. But the tigers sometimes sniff them out and will climb in after the bears. Brown bears preparing to hibernate in Siberia face an added survival problem. They have to make sure that while they sleep, they dont fall prey to tigers (pictured a Siberian tiger) The safest place is at the back of a cave, wedged into a crevice so small that the tigers cant wriggle in. Learning of this trick from Russian scientists, the team hid camera traps in one cave. The tigers were wary of fixed cameras, even ones that had been in place for months. Probably, their exceptionally sensitive noses can pick up the scent of humans on the plastic casing. But the allure of a hibernating bear might be enough to make a tiger forget about being camera-shy. Sure enough, one device in a cave captured a tiger pushing its way through the narrow gap. A few minutes later, it emerged backwards still hungry. The clever bear had made certain its winter hidey-hole was too tight for tigers. Frozen Planet II airs on Sunday at 8pm on BBC1. Footage has resurfaced of the precious moment a group of excited A-List Australian celebrities met the Queen at Buckingham Palace in 2011 ahead of her royal tour Down Under. Hugh Jackman, Elle Macpherson and Neighbours star Jason Donovan were among other Aussie 'royalty' who enjoyed a reception with Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip. Hugh, Jason and Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood all sported smart black suits and ties for the lavish event. Footage has resurfaced of the precious moment a group of excited A-List Australian celebrities, including Hugh Jackson, Elle Macpherson and Neighbours star Jason Donovan met the Queen at Buckingham Palace in 2011 ahead of her royal tour Down Under Meanwhile Elle looked giddy as she chatted to other guests as they stood in anticipation ahead of the meeting. The supermodel was dressed stylishly in a beige frill dress teamed with a matching handbag. In the footage, Her Majesty is seen giving the large group a look over before joking: 'I didn't realise there was such a lot of Australians.' Marvel action star Hugh laughed at the Queen's quip and responded 'oh yeah, we're everywhere'. Hugh Jackman and Elle Macpherson (pictured) looked giddy as they waited in anticipation to meet the Queen He then told the Queen he hoped her upcoming royal visit to Australia would be 'fantastic'. Hugh was later named in the Queen's birthday honours list in 2019 for 'eminent service to performing arts and the global community, as an advocate for poverty eradication'. Britain is a country in mourning following the death of beloved Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday. After a remarkable 70 years on the throne, the country's longest-reigning royal today died 'peacefully', aged 96, at the Balmoral Estate - surrounded by her family. Britain is a country in mourning following the death of beloved Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday. After a remarkable 70 years on the throne, the country's longest-reigning royal today died 'peacefully', aged 96, at the Balmoral Estate - surrounded by her family Her son Charles, the former Prince of Wales, is now King Charles III. All Her Majesty's children had rushed to Balmoral on Thursday after doctors became 'concerned' for her health. Hours later she died, surrounded by her family. A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: 'The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow'. TV schedules have been suspended following the death of Queen Elizabeth II after she passed away peacefully on September 8, aged 96. The BBC and ITV began covering news of Her Majesty's ill health following a statement from Buckingham Palace, with Channel 4 and Channel 5 following suit. As the country enters a period of mourning, regular television programmes have been taken off air, with This Morning, Loose Women and soaps cancelled. Mourning: TV schedules have been suspended following the death of Queen Elizabeth II after she passed away peacefully on September 8, aged 96 (Pictured in March 2022) ITV will air The Queen Remembered throughout the night with Good Morning Britain beginning at 6AM with Susanna Reid and Ben Shephard. An Extended News Special will then be broadcast for the rest of the day with Lorraine, This Morning and Loose Women as well as Emmerdale and Coronation Street cancelled. In the evening the channel will play Queen Elizabeth II - The Longest Reign, before continuing on to The News At Ten. Cancelled: The BBC and ITV began covering news of Her Majesty's ill health following a statement from Buckingham Palace, with Channel 4 and Channel 5 following suit (The Queen pictured on Coronation Street in 2021) Mark of respect: ITV has also taken Emmerdale off air and it is not yet known when channels will return planned programming The BBC must uphold editorial restrictions following the death of Her Majesty for a number of days and whilst others are not required to do so they have conformed. Both Emmerdale and Coronation have been cancelled for the rest of the week, schedule's are subject to change and it is not yet known when channels will return planned programming. Her son Charles, the former Prince of Wales, is now King Charles III, as the world grieves his mother, Britain's longest-reigning monarch. Off air: An Extended News Special will be broadcast for the rest of the day on ITV with Lorraine being cancelled Programming: This Morning will also be off air to make way for special coverage All Her Majesty's children had rushed to Balmoral today after doctors became 'concerned' for her health. Hours later she died, surrounded by her family. At 6.30pm her death was confirmed. A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: 'The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow'. The Queen's death will see Britain and her Commonwealth realms enter into a ten-day period of mourning as millions of her subjects in the UK and abroad come to terms with her passing. King Charles III released this poignant statement reacting to the death of his 'beloved mother' as he took the throne today Her Majesty the Queen - Britain's longest-reigning monarch - died peacefully at Balmoral aged 96. Her son Charles, is now king. He will remain at Balmoral tonight before returning to London with the Queen Consort, Camilla And as her son accedes to the throne, there will also be a celebration of her historic 70-year reign that saw her reach her Platinum Jubilee this year - a landmark unlikely to be reached again by a British monarch. Charles, the King, said: 'The death of my beloved mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family. 'We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished sovereign and a much-loved mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world. 'During this period of mourning and change, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which the Queen was so widely held.' The Queen poses for a photograph in the drawing room at Balmoral shortly before her meeting with Ms Truss, whom she appointed as her Prime Minister Tributes are already pouring in for Her Majesty, to many the greatest Briton in history and undoubtedly the most famous woman on earth. To billions around the world she was the very face of Britishness. To her subjects at home, Her Majesty was the nation's anchor, holding firm no matter what storm she or her country was facing - from the uncertain aftermath of the Second World War to, more recently, the pandemic. She was also steadfast as she dealt with tragedies and scandals in her own family, most recently the fallout from Megxit and the death of her beloved husband Prince Philip. Charles will embark on a tour of the UK before his mother's funeral with his wife Camilla, who the Queen announced would be crowned her eldest son's Queen Consort in an historic statement to mark Her Majesty's Platinum Jubilee and 70 years on the throne on February 6. The Queen's passing came more than a year after that of her beloved husband Philip, her 'strength and guide', who died aged 99 in April 2021. Since his funeral, where she poignantly sat alone because of lockdown restrictions, her own health faltered, and she was forced to miss an increasing number of events mainly due to 'mobility problems' and tiredness. Elisabeth Moss was all smiles as she attended The Handmaid's Tale premiere during the 2022 Toronto Film Festival on Thursday. The actress, 40, stood out in an eye-catching plunging yellow gown that showed off her incredible figure. She boosted her height in a pair of heels and accessorised with a silver ring as she graced the red carpet. Beaming: Elisabeth Moss was all smiles as she attended The Handmaid's Tale premiere during the 2022 Toronto Film Festival on Thursday Elisabeth opted for a soft glam makeup look while styling her short golden tresses in loose waves. It comes after the new trailer for season five of the Handmaid's Tale dropped, and it looks to be a busy one for Elisabeth's character June Osbourne. Elisabeth faces off against Yvonne Strahovski, 40, (who plays Serena) after killing her husband, Commander Frederick R. Waterford (played by Joseph Fiennes, 52) at the end of season four. The widowed and pregnant Serena weaponizes her grief to raise her public status in Toronto all the while Gilead's influence slowly makes its way into Canada, as June continues her battle against the totalitarian patriarchal theocracy. Beauty: The actress, 40, stood out in an eye-catching plunging yellow gown that showed off her incredible figure The trailer - just over two minutes long - begins with a shot of June thinking back on Commander Waterford as she justifies why he had to die. 'He was a monster. The founding father of Gilead. He took away our country. He had to pay for what he did,' she says as a flashback of Fred's death flashes on the screen. June is then seen sitting with her partner Luke (O-T Fagbenle) as she ominously tells him, 'I killed him, and I loved it so much.' Serena is then seen entering the building where Fred's body lies underneath a white sheet, as tears fill her eyes. The shot then jumps to Moira (Samira Wiley) yelling at Luke as she says, 'June tore him apart!' Plot: Based on the 1985 novel by Margaret Atwood, the show takes place in a patriarchal dystopia called Gilead founded on what used to be the United States Based on the 1985 novel by Margaret Atwood, the show takes place in a patriarchal dystopia called Gilead founded on what used to be the United States. Women are reduced to a status far beneath that of men, deprived of such basic rights as being permitted to read or use money. 'Handmaids' are the women forced under veils and subjected to a form of slavery in which they are repeatedly raped for the purpose of producing children. The fifth season of The Handmaids Tale is set to premiere on Hulu on September 14, with new episodes streaming on Wednesdays. Elle Macpherson is the latest Australian celebrity to pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth II after Her Majesty died at her beloved Balmoral Castle aged 96. The supermodel shared a photo of herself meeting the Queen, along with a touching caption that featured a powerful quote from Her Majesty. 'I know of no single formula for success,' Elle, 58, began. Elle Macpherson (pictured) is the latest Australian celebrity to pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth II after Her Majesty died at her beloved Balmoral Castle aged 96 'But over the years I have observed that some attributes of leadership are universal and are often about finding ways of encouraging people to combine their efforts, their talents, their insights, their enthusiasm and their inspiration to work together.' She then quoted The Queen from her 1991 Christmas broadcast, in which she famously said: 'Let us not take ourselves too seriously. None of us has a monopoly of wisdom and we must always be ready to listen and respect other points of view.' Elle, alongside Hugh Jackman and Neighbours star Jason Donovan, met the Queen at Buckingham Palace in 2011 ahead of her royal tour Down Under. She was dressed stylishly in a beige frill dress teamed with a matching handbag. Elle, alongside Hugh Jackman and Neighbours star Jason Donovan, met the Queen at Buckingham Palace in 2011 ahead of her royal tour Down Under In the footage, Her Majesty is seen giving the large group a look over before joking: 'I didn't realise there was such a lot of Australians.' Australia has joined much of the world in mourning Queen Elizabeth II, as her death prompts the first change in head of state in more than seven decades. A statement from Buckingham Palace early on Friday (AEST) confirmed the 96-year-old's death. 'The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon,' Buckingham Palace said. 'The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.' Elle looked giddy to be in the Queen's presence back in 2011. Pictured with Hugh Jackman Flags will fly at half mast across Australia on Friday as the nation waits to hear how the official mourning process will proceed. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese paid tribute to the Queen, who is succeeded by her son King Charles III in a move that is expected to renew Australia's republican debate. 'An historic reign and a long life devoted to duty, family, faith and service has come to an end,' Mr Albanese said in a statement. 'The government and the people of Australia offer our deepest condolences to the royal family, who are grieving for a beloved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother - the person whom for so long was their greatest inner strength.' Australia has joined much of the world in mourning Queen Elizabeth II, as her death prompts the first change in head of state in more than seven decades. She is pictured receiving flowers from schoolchildren waving flags after a Commonwealth Day Service in Sydney in March 2006 Mr Albanese said that 'from her famous first trip to Australia, the only reigning sovereign to ever visit, it was clear Her Majesty held a special place in her heart for Australia'. 'Fifteen more tours before cheering crowds in every part of our country confirmed the special place she held in ours.' He praised the Queen's relationship with Australia and the rest of the world. 'As monarch for more than half the life of our Federation, the relationship between Australia and Britain matured and evolved throughout Her Majesty's reign,' he said. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese offered his condolences to the Royal Family, the British people, and all his own citizens who held Her Majesty in the highest regard 'The Queen greeted each and every change with understanding, good grace and an abiding faith in the Australian people's good judgment. 'This was the deft and diplomatic way she bound the diversity of the modern Commonwealth, nations around the world who will mourn her passing. 'This time of mourning will pass but the deep respect and warm regard in which Australians always held Her Majesty will never fade.' Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was queen of the UK and 14 Commonwealth realms including Australia, since her reign began in February 1952. Australian stars have shared their fond memories and encounters with Queen Elizabeth II following her death aged 96 on Thursday. Her Majesty died 'peacefully' at her castle in Balmoral, Scotland, with Buckingham Palace issuing a statement from King Charles III at 4.04am on Friday AEST. Elle Macpherson, 58, was one of the first to lead tributes, with the supermodel reflecting on her meeting with the Queen at Buckingham Palace in 2011 ahead of her royal tour Down Under. Australian stars have shared their fond memories and encounters with Queen Elizabeth II following her death aged 96 on Thursday. Elle Macpherson, 58, was one of the first to lead tributes, with the supermodel reflecting on her meeting with the Queen at Buckingham Palace in 2011 ahead of her royal tour Down Under She also praised her incredible leadership. 'I know of no single formula for success. But over the years I have observed that some attributes of leadership are universal and are often about finding ways of encouraging people to combine their efforts, their talents, their insights, their enthusiasm and their inspiration to work together,' she wrote in her caption. 'Queen Elizabeth II .. Let us not take ourselves too seriously. None of us has a monopoly on wisdom.' WNBA star Liz Cambage, 31, shared photos from the time she met the Queen at Parliament House in Canberra in 2011. 'A moment I will keep forever in my heart. Rest in peace to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. There will never be another Queen like her,' she said. TV star Samantha Armytage also shared a heartfelt tribute, writing on Instagram: 'An extraordinary woman, while actor and musician Cameron Daddo said: 'For my whole life, shes been there. I grew up singing God Save the Queen and I always belted it. RIP Queen Elizabeth. Thank you' TV star Samantha Armytage also shared a heartfelt tribute, writing on Instagram: 'An extraordinary woman.' 'An extraordinary leader. So grateful to have lived during part of Her Majestys extraordinary reign We will miss her,' she added. Actor and musician Cameron Daddo said: 'For my whole life, shes been there. I grew up singing God Save the Queen and I always belted it. RIP Queen Elizabeth. Thank you.' Former swimming champion Lisa Curry shared a lengthy tribute and recalled meeting the Queen at the Commonwealth Games in 1982. WNBA star Liz Cambage, 31, shared photos from the time she met the Queen at Parliament House in Canberra in 2011 'A sad day. After 70 years on the throne, The Queen dedicated her life to her role, but today it has come to an end,' she wrote. 'I had lunch with the Queen in Brisbane at the Commonwealth Games in 1982, with about 6 other athletes, just chatting about normal everyday things. And an honour to have been awarded an MBE. My certificate signed by Her Majesty.' 'Commonwealth athletes who won gold medals stood upon the dais to the anthem God Save Our Queen,' she added. 'A special memory for those of us. RIP QUEEN ELIZABETH. What a remarkable life you had.' Former swimming champion Lisa Curry shared a lengthy tribute and recalled meeting the Queen at the Commonwealth Games in 1982 Pia Miller posted four black and white side portraits of the Queen during different stages of her long life. 'She was clothed in strength, duty, dignity & grace . Rest In Peace. Our beloved Queen,' Pia wrote in her caption. Today Extra host David Campbell tweeted: 'May her soul be at peace.' Pia Miller posted four black and white side portraits of the Queen during different stages of her long life. Meanwhile, Today Extra host David Campbell tweeted: 'May her soul be at peace' Meanwhile, model Lara Worthington shared a short but sweet tribute via her Instagram Story. 'Thank you, Your Majesty,' she wrote, adding '1926 - 2022.' Australia has joined the world in mourning Queen Elizabeth II, as her death prompts the first change in head of state in more than seven decades. Model Lara Worthington shared a short but sweet tribute via her Instagram Story A statement from Buckingham Palace early on Friday (AEST) confirmed the 96-year-old's death. 'The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon,' Buckingham Palace said. 'The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.' Flags will fly at half mast across Australia on Friday as the nation waits to hear how the official mourning process will proceed. Her Majesty the Queen - Britain's longest-reigning monarch - died peacefully at Balmoral aged 96. Her son Charles, is now king. He will remain at Balmoral tonight before returning to London with the Queen Consort, Camilla King Charles III released this poignant statement reacting to the death of his 'beloved mother' as he took the throne today Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also paid tribute to the Queen, who is succeeded by her son King Charles III in a move that is expected to renew Australia's republican debate. 'An historic reign and a long life devoted to duty, family, faith and service has come to an end,' Mr Albanese said in a statement. 'The government and the people of Australia offer our deepest condolences to the royal family, who are grieving for a beloved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother - the person whom for so long was their greatest inner strength.' Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described it as a day of 'profound sadness' Mr Albanese said that 'from her famous first trip to Australia, the only reigning sovereign to ever visit, it was clear Her Majesty held a special place in her heart for Australia'. 'Fifteen more tours before cheering crowds in every part of our country confirmed the special place she held in ours.' Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was Queen of the UK and 14 Commonwealth realms including Australia, since her reign began in February 1952. The Queen's place in the hearts of millions of Australians was as abiding as her lifelong relationship with the one-time colony. She is pictured receiving flowers from waiting school children waving flags after a Commonwealth Day Service in Sydney in March 2006 The Queen was known for her stoicism and stiff upper lip during her 70 years leading the Commonwealth. But behind closed doors she had a much lighter, funny side, once jokingly telling her personal dresser 'you're sacked' during a trip to Australia. Angela Kelly, 69, who worked alongside Her Majesty for 28 years, once revealed she played a prank on The Queen with a toy kookaburra during a tour Down Under in 2006. Angela Kelly (right), who worked alongside Her Majesty for 28 years, once revealed she played a prank on The Queen (left) with a toy kookaburra during a tour Down Under in 2006 The Queen had told her about the bird and how it 'makes a sound you will never forget' and that they would likely see 'many' of them on their trip. But after failing to see or hear one, Mrs Kelly bought a stuffed toy kookaburra in a market in Sydney and put it outside the Queen's room in a little cage. Mrs Kelly told the anecdote in her book The Other Side of the Coin: The Queen, The Dresser and the Wardrobe, which was published in 2019. 'I went to open the cage doors and she said loudly, "No, don't do that. It will fly away," and was behind me in a flash. I went to the bird, picked it up and solemnly told her it was dead,' she recalled. The Queen (pictured in Sydney) had told Mrs Kelly about the bird and how it 'makes a sound you will never forget' and that they would likely see 'many' of them on their trip in 2006 'She looked horrified as I walked towards her and as she took the bird from my hands she realised I had been winding her up. It was really a stuffed toy! '"April Fool,"' I said with a mischievous grin on my face, and she had only two words for me: "You're sacked."' The book also examines the lighter side of Her Majesty, who died on Thursday at the age of 96. It tells of how The Queen had only one request for her appearance with James Bond actor Daniel Craig in a short film that aired during the opening of the 2012 London Olympics: she wanted to deliver the line, 'Good evening, Mr Bond.' Then-prime minister John Howard and Queen Elizabeth II are pictured attending the Commonwealth Day Tea Party at Admiralty House in Sydney on March 13, 2006 Mrs Kelly revealed it took 'just five minutes' to persuade the monarch to agree to director Danny Boyle's request for her to appear alongside Craig in the famous skit of her appearing to parachute into the Olympic Stadium. Her Majesty was called to a meeting with Boyle and private secretary Edward Young to discuss the idea in 2011. 'I asked him and Edward to give me five minutes so that I could ask the Queen,' she said. Elizabeth II receives bouquets of flowers from children upon her arrival in Canberra in 2006 'I remember the look of shock on Danny's face that I would be asking Her Majesty straight away, but there's no point in waiting around with these things: If she said no, that would be the end of it. 'I ran upstairs and luckily The Queen was free. She was very amused by the idea and agreed immediately. I asked if she would like a speaking part. Without hesitation, Her Majesty replied, "Of course I must say something. After all, he is coming to rescue me." 'I asked whether she would like to say, "Good evening, James" or "Good evening, Mr Bond" and she chose the latter, knowing the Bond films. 'Within minutes, I was back in Edward's office delivering the good news to Danny. I think he almost fell off his chair when I said that the Queen's only stipulation was that she could deliver that iconic line.' Mrs Kelly first landed a role at Buckingham Palace in 1994, after interviewing as a royal dresser. Mrs Kelly revealed it took 'just five minutes' to persuade the monarch to appear alongside James Bond actor Daniel Craig (left) in a short film that aired during the opening of the 2012 London Olympics. She personally requested to deliver the line, 'Good evening, Mr Bond' But at the time of Her Majesty's death, the stylist held the role of Personal Assistant, Advisor and Curator to the Queen (Jewellery, Insignia and Wardrobe). Privately, however, Mrs Kelly was far more than that - as the Queens private visits to her cosy home in the grounds adjoining Windsor Castle illustrate. Despite their vastly different backgrounds, not to mention their religious beliefs, the Roman Catholic crane drivers daughter from Liverpool and Queen Elizabeth II spent the past 20 years forging an intriguingly unique mistress-servant relationship. Bella Hadid was the picture of style while out on a coffee run in New York City on Thursday morning. She strutted her stuff in a unique off-the-shoulder top featuring a repeat portrait of Marie Antoinette by French painter Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun. The supermodel, 25, styled it with a pair of dark denim straight-legged jeans. Style icon: Bella Hadid was the picture of style while out on a coffee run in New York City on Thursday morning Cinching in her already svelte waist, Hadid wore a dark brown belt with silver and bronze studs. She strolled the city sidewalk in a pair of blue kitten heels with navy leather toes. The runway regular accessorized with a pair of sunglasses and kept a sizable leather purse slung over her right shoulder. Her dark brunette locks remained free-flowing and cascaded onto her back and shoulders. She strutted her stuff in a unique off-the-shoulder top featuring a repeat portrait of Marie Antoinette by French painter Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun Hadid was featured in a set of promotional images for her beverage brand Kin Euphorics, which were shared to its official Instagram account on Tuesday. In the snaps, she was seen rocking several different outfits while enjoying the company's products. A message was left in the post's caption, in which the model was referred to as an 'NYFW inspo.' The runway regular serves as the co-founder of Kin Euphorics, which was originally launched by Jen Batchelor. Hadid spoke about partnering with the brand during an interview with InStyle, where she expressed that she began using the company's products to cut down on her alcohol consumption. 'I loved alcohol and it got to the point where even I started to, you know, cancel nights out that I felt like I wouldn't be able to control myself,' she recalled. The model explained that she had largely phased out drinking in favor of having one of the brand's products just before going to bed. Being open: Hadid spoke about partnering with the brand during an interview with InStyle, where she expressed that she began using the company's products to cut down on her alcohol consumption 'It's kind of that moment where I have my ritual, where I'm able to just kind of be with myself,' she stated. Hadid made a point of remarking that she felt much better about herself after adopting her new routine. 'Now I really have something holistic and it's doing something for my body every day,' she said. Sweet footage has emerged of a smitten Hugh Jackman excitedly racing across the red carpet to kiss his wife Deborra-Lee Furness on Wednesday. The Marvel star, 53, was attending the premiere of his movie The Son at the Venice Film Festival in Italy and he could not contain his excitement upon seeing Deborra. His face immediately lit up and he extended his arms wide to wrap her up in a passionate hug before the pair locked lips. Sweet footage has emerged of a smitten Hugh Jackman excitedly racing across the red carpet to kiss his wife Deborra-Lee Furness on Wednesday The couple seemed oblivious to their surroundings as they embraced while onlookers gushed as they watched the precious moment. Hugh looked suave in a swanky black tuxedo, bow tie and dress shoes. Meanwhile, Deborra turned heads in a stylish black dress, zebra print stockings and platform high heels. Hugh's face immediately lit up and he extended his arms wide to wrap her up in a passionate hug before the pair locked lips In April, Hugh penned a gushing tribute to his wife as they celebrated their 26th wedding anniversary. 'Today I celebrate 26 years of marriage to my extraordinary wife,' began Hugh in a tribute on Instagram. 'Every single day is filled with so much laughter, joy and backgammon! Deb, you light up my life. I love you with all my heart!' Hugh and Deborra have been spotted out and about in Venice, Italy, as they attend the Venice Film Festival, which runs from 31 August to 10 September The pair married on April 11, 1996, just one year after meeting. They met on the set of Australian drama Corelli, with Hugh saying he knew he was going to spend the rest of his life with Deborra-Lee after just two weeks. They have two adopted children: son Oscar, 21, and daughter Ava, 16. Govt to expand its support for job creation, new businesses China Daily) 08:26, September 09, 2022 Candidates look at employment opportunities at a job fair in Hefei, Anhui province, on May 17, 2022. [Photo/Xinhua] China will step up policy support for employment and business startups, create more job opportunities, help market entities emerge and grow, and foster new growth drivers, the State Council Executive Meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang decided on Wednesday. The meeting underscored the fundamental importance of employment to people's well-being, adding that the creation of new businesses can increase the number of market entities and boost employment. Stable growth is mainly about stable job creation. Local governments must earnestly fulfill their due responsibilities and step up support for employment and business startups, said a statement issued after the meeting. "The current employment situation is generally stable, but there are concerns as well. Local governments must earnestly fulfill their due responsibilities and take some special measures," Li said. The requirement will be relaxed under which local governments can subsidize enterprises with unemployment insurance funds to retrain workers. Companies will be entitled to job creation subsidies in hiring college graduates unable to find jobs two years after graduation and young people registered as unemployed. Unemployment insurance benefits will be issued to the jobless in a timely manner. Skills training for migrant workers will be enhanced to help them remain in employment. The platform economy will be supported in keeping employment stable. Social insurance subsidies will be provided to people engaged in platform-based flexible employment should they face difficulties, as well as to college graduates yet to find jobs two years after graduation. Financial institutions will be guided to extend special loan support to key platform companies. "Unemployment insurance and other support policies must be fully delivered to benefit all those eligible. The financial sector should support market entities in keeping employment stable and creating jobs by starting businesses," Li said. The repayment of guaranteed startup loans could be extended for one year if the borrower is facing difficulties due to the impact of COVID-19. Banks will be guided toward offering more credit loans and loan renewals for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. Insurance funds, among others, will be encouraged to invest in venture capital funds in accordance with the law. The lockup period for shareholders in venture capital firms will be fine-tuned, to facilitate the recovery of investors' funds for reinvestment. Government-financed business incubation bases will provide venues for startups free of charge to the best of their ability. "We have sufficient reserves of pension and unemployment insurance funds, and have yet to tap into our strategic reserves. There is no problem with meeting people's basic needs," Li said. (Web editor: Liang Jun, Bianji) North Korea has taken advantage of Russia's international isolation in the aftermath of President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine to strengthen connections, endangering international attempts to push Pyongyang over its clandestine nuclear weapons development. According to US sources, Russia has acquired millions of missiles and artillery rounds from North Korea as Western sanctions continue to suffocate Moscow's armament supply. North Korea Offers Support to Russia The announcement is the latest indicator of improving relations between the two nations, following Pyongyang's defiance of Chinese policy in July, when it recognized the separatist areas of Luhansk and Donetsk in Russian-occupied Ukraine. Analysts and western diplomats believe Pyongyang is promising Moscow its assistance in exchange for reciprocal help if tensions on the Korean peninsula rise. As a result of Western sanctions, Kim Jong Un's dictatorship has sold missiles and other military assets to Russia. Other than Russia, Kim Jong Un's dictatorship was one of just four countries to oppose a UN General Assembly resolution condemning the military action. Moscow has returned the favor by reiterating Pyongyang's condemnation of the US and South Korean large-scale military drills in August. In a recent interview with Russian media, Moscow's envoy to North Korea appeared to back Pyongyang's unfounded assertions that COVID-19-infected balloons sent into the nation from South Korea were to blame for this year's coronavirus outbreak, Financial Times reported. Read Also: Vladimir Putin Slams West Amid Russia-Ukraine War, Calls Sanctions a 'Declaration of Economic War' Kim Jong Un Will Never Abandon Nuclear Weapons, Missiles Meanwhile, Kim Jong Un has vowed that his country will never give the nuclear weapons and missiles needed to face the United States, which he accuses of launching a pressure campaign to undermine the North's defenses and eventually bring his dictatorship down. According to state media, Kim made the remarks during an address to North Korea's rubber-stamp parliament on Thursday when lawmakers also enacted a bill authorizing North Korea's military to automatically launch nuclear attacks against enemy forces if its leadership is attacked. He also attacked rival South Korea's plans to increase conventional strike capabilities and resurrect large-scale military drills with the US to meet the North's mounting threats, calling it a "dangerous" military operation that worsens tensions. In recent months, Kim Jong Un has issued increasingly inflammatory nuclear-conflict threats to the United States and its Asian allies, warning that the North will proactively use its nuclear weapons if threatened. His most recent remarks highlighted the region's rising hostility as he advances the growth of his nuclear weapons and missile programs. In his speech, Kim Jong Un also addressed domestic matters, stating that North Korea will begin the long-delayed delivery of COVID-19 vaccinations in November. He didn't say how many doses there would be, where they would come from, or how they would be distributed among his 26 million-person population, as per Ktar News. Based on a freshly leaked US intelligence report, the Kremlin is being compelled to resort to North Korea to stock up on essential supplies to fuel its protracted battle in Ukraine. Per a US official, Russia's Ministry of Defense is in the process of purchasing millions of rockets and artillery shells from the so-called Hermit Kingdom, and the purchases show that Moscow's military continues to face severe supply shortages in Ukraine, owing in part to export controls and sanctions. The individual went on to say that the intelligence community believed it was part of a trend, with Russia looking to buy further North Korean military assets in the future. The Biden administration hailed the outcome as proof that international sanctions were working, despite what analysts said were some negative side effects in the US, even as the White House opposed Kyiv's requests to put more restrictions on Russia by labeling it a state sponsor of terrorism, according to ABC News. Related Article: Russia, China Hold Joint Fighter Jet Exercises as Vladimir Putin Personally Attends To Witness Large-Scale Drills @YouTube @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Natalie Barr became teary-eyed and emotional live on-air while watching Paddington Bear's tribute to Queen Elizabeth II following her death aged 96 on Thursday. The Sunrise co-host struggled to fight back tears and choked up on the breakfast show on Friday morning. 'Aw, yeah, that was great,' the 54-year-old said after seeing it, before taking a deep breath to maintain her composure. Sunrise co-host Natalie Barr (left) became misty-eyed and emotional while watching Paddington Bear's tribute to Queen Elizabeth II following her death aged 96 on Thursday Barr's co-host David Koch also read out Paddington's touching statement to the Queen. Paddington Bear said in a simple, yet heartfelt message: Thank you Maam, for everything. Barr isn't the only Australian media personality to be brought to tears over the Queen's death. Radio presenter Jackie 'O' Henderson broke down in tears live on air on Friday morning, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Her Majesty died 'peacefully' at age 96 at her castle in Balmoral, Scotland, with Buckingham Palace issuing a statement from King Charles III at 4.04am on Friday AEST. 'Aw, yeah, that was great,' the 54-year-old said after seeing it, before taking a deep breath to maintain her composure. Queen Elizabeth II pictured with Paddington Bear Henderson became overwhelmed several times while co-hosting The Kyle and Jackie O Show alongside Kyle Sandilands. As the pair reflected on The Queen's life and 70-year reign, Henderson noted Her Majesty 'wasn't herself' since her husband Prince Philip died in April 2021. 'When you saw her at his funeral sitting there by herself and you just knew...' she said through tears, referring to the famous scenes of The Queen sitting alone with a mask on at Philip's memorial, in accordance with Britain's Covid restrictions at the time. 'I knew she would pass soon after that. That was the saddest thing to see when she was at his funeral on her own,' Henderson added. Sandilands agreed, but said her death nonetheless came as a 'shock'. A devastated Sandilands also paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth II that morning. Radio host Jackie 'O' Henderson broke down in tears live on air on Friday morning, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. (She is pictured here during a separate broadcast in 2021) The KIIS FM radio host, a proud royalist and life-long supporter of The Queen, said the loss felt like a death in the family. 'I feel like a family member has died,' he told his co-anchor Jackie 'O' Henderson, who broke down in tears several times during the broadcast. 'It's the only... I know that some people would be, like, "Oh, get over yourself," but no, I did love her. I did wave flags at the side of the road when she drove past. 'It's a sad day. A lot of people will be feeling that pain a lot.' Reflecting on The Queen's life and 70-year reign, Henderson noted Her Majesty 'wasn't herself' since her husband Prince Philip died in April 2021. (Queen Elizabeth II and her husband the Duke of Edinburgh walk at Broadlands in this picture released on November 18, 2007) 'When you saw her at his funeral sitting there by herself and you just knew...' Henderson said through tears, referring to the famous scenes of The Queen sitting alone with a mask on at Philip's memorial, in accordance with Britain's Covid restrictions at the time (pictured) Australia has joined much of the world in mourning Queen Elizabeth II, as her death prompts the first change in head of state in more than seven decades. A statement from Buckingham Palace early on Friday (AEST) confirmed the 96-year-old's death. 'The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon,' Buckingham Palace said. 'The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.' Flags will fly at half mast across Australia on Friday as the nation waits to hear how the official mourning process will proceed. A devastated Kyle Sandilands (pictured) also paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth II on Friday morning, after waking up to news Her Majesty had died at the age of 96 Prime Minister Anthony Albanese paid tribute to the Queen, who is succeeded by her son King Charles III in a move that is expected to renew Australia's republican debate. 'An historic reign and a long life devoted to duty, family, faith and service has come to an end,' Mr Albanese said in a statement. 'The government and the people of Australia offer our deepest condolences to the royal family, who are grieving for a beloved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother - the person whom for so long was their greatest inner strength.' Mr Albanese said that 'from her famous first trip to Australia, the only reigning sovereign to ever visit, it was clear Her Majesty held a special place in her heart for Australia'. 'Fifteen more tours before cheering crowds in every part of our country confirmed the special place she held in ours.' Australia has joined much of the world in mourning Queen Elizabeth II, as her death prompts the first change in head of state in more than seven decades. She is pictured receiving flowers from schoolchildren waving flags after a Commonwealth Day Service in Sydney in March 2006 The Queen first visited Australia with Prince Philip in 1954, arriving on the SS Gothic which steamed into Sydney Harbour after almost six weeks at sea. She is pictured with Prince Philip at Parliament House in Canberra during that tour He praised the Queen's relationship with Australia and the rest of the world. 'As monarch for more than half the life of our Federation, the relationship between Australia and Britain matured and evolved throughout Her Majesty's reign,' he said. 'The Queen greeted each and every change with understanding, good grace and an abiding faith in the Australian people's good judgment. 'This was the deft and diplomatic way she bound the diversity of the modern Commonwealth, nations around the world who will mourn her passing. 'This time of mourning will pass but the deep respect and warm regard in which Australians always held Her Majesty will never fade.' Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was queen of the UK and 14 Commonwealth realms including Australia, since her reign began in February 1952. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese offered his condolences to the Royal Family, the British people, and all his own citizens who held Her Majesty in the highest regard Governor-General David Hurley said Australians should take inspiration from the Queen's contribution. 'She was a truly remarkable person,' he said in a statement. 'When I reflect on my own memories - she was my Queen for my whole life - I think of Her Majesty's dignity and her compassion. Her dedication and tireless work ethic. And her selflessness and unwavering commitment to the people that she served. To us.' Federal opposition leader Peter Dutton was thankful for the Queen's dedicated service. 'Today, a comforting warmth has left the world. One of humanity's brightest lights has gone out,' he said. The Queen's last visit to Australia came in 2011 when then Labor prime minister Julia Gillard described her as 'a vital constitutional part of Australian democracy'. She is pictured in Perth during that trip Alex Chung dazzled in a shimmering dress with a thigh-high split at Paco Rabanne's Fame launch party on Thursday. The model, 38, looked sensational in the striped knitted number that clung to her slim frame as she stepped out to the event in Paris. She posed for photos in front of a decorative flower arch to celebrate the brand latest fragrance. Pretty: Alex Chung, 38, dazzled in a shimmering dress with a thigh-high split at Paco Rabanne's Fame launch party on Thursday Alexa wore her brunette locks in voluminous waves and opted for a muted makeup palette with a nude lipstick. She completed her look with a glitzy chain strap shoulder bag and wore a pair a classic ballerina pumps. Joining her at the event was Carla Bruni, who stunned in a very chic black satin dress with a pair of patent ankle boots. Stylish: The model looked sensational in the striped knitted number that clung to her slim frame as she stepped out to the event in Paris Stunning: Alexa wore her brunette locks in voluminous waves and opted for a muted makeup palette with a nude lipstick It comes as Alexa revealed that she feels too young for babies at age 38 as she says it's 'crazy' that all her friends are breastfeeding around her. The British fashion designer and writer opened up about starting a family as she approaches her 40th birthday next year. She explained that many of her friends are new mums, and despite the fact that they 'left it quite late', she said: 'It still feels like we are too young.' Sophisticated: Joining her at the event was Carla Bruni, who stunned in a very chic black satin dress Radiant: She showed off her incredible figure in the button down number Talking to Grazia magazine, she said: 'I look around me and literally everyone is breastfeeding. It's crazy, and they all left it quite late, but it still feels like we are too young, I still feel 22.' Earlier this year her eponymous fashion label suffered a loss of more than 11million before deciding to shut it down in March. Alexa, who will turn 39 on 5 November, told the publication that for the 'first time in a long time' she is unemployed - and described the end of her business as 'emotionally and physically taxing'. She also looked on to her soon-to-be 40th birthday next year, after a 'raucous' 30th in 2013. Sensational: Isis Valverde was glowing in a metallic down fashion forward: Manu Gavassi (L) opted for a quirky structured dress with an asymmetric skirt whilst Rina Lipa (R) donned a silver mini dress and chunky boots Sparkle: Lena Mahfouf (L) stunned in a pink mini dress constructed from large sequins while Maddison Brown (R) opted for an embroidered dress The Only Way Is Essex star Junaid Ahmed has spoken of his sadness at the lack of openly gay Asian and Muslim in reality television. Newcomer to the ITVBe show Junaid, 27, said he struggled in his formative years, feeling alone as he had no positive role models in the public eye from a similar cultural and religious background who were of the same sexuality. Chatting to hosts Bobby Norris and Stephen Leng on FUBAR Radio's showbiz gossip programme Access All Areas, Junaid said: 'When I look back on when I was 18 years old, there was no one I could look up to in the industry or "out" in public that I could be inspired by. Honest: The Only Way Is Essex star Junaid Ahmed has spoken of his sadness at the lack of openly gay Asian and and Muslim in reality television 'I come from a Muslim background, Im Pakistani, and my parents dont agree with what I do, we dont have any communication, so I am a one-man band.' He continued: 'The sad thing is there is not one openly gay, Asian, Muslim reality star out there... So, if I could take the stance and kind of showcase them its fine. Dont get me wrong Ive been through my hardship ... but I still found happiness in the end, and I am still trying to do what I can to make others happy as well.' Junaid moved to Essex from Peterborough after he was kicked out of his family home when his parents were unable to accept his sexuality. Someone to look up to: Junaid, 27, struggled in his formative years as he had no positive role models from a similar cultural and religious background who were of the same sexuality Last week, he explained how he started experimenting with make-up in his teenage years before falling for his ex. He said he left home with his belongings packed in bin liners when his family did not accept him for who he was and later stumbled on the chance to appear on TOWIE. Speaking to to Johnny Seifert on the Secure The Insecure podcast, Junaid said: 'It was something that they couldn't accept due to the community and the culture. And I was then kicked out and I moved. Six bin bags later I was in Essex. 'It was the hardest thing I've ever had to go through in my life. But you know what? I came out when I was 18. And it was just one of the hardships that I had to go through to make me the stronger person I am today. 'And the sad thing is the community have such a thing to say on it but it's not my choice. It's not my choice to be gay.' However, Junaid is now pleased he is able to show his true self on TOWIE, admitting there will be some emotional scenes shown on screen. He explained: 'I am very grateful to TOWIE, because on the show you will see that vulnerable side to me. 'You will see a very vulnerable side to me. And I'm excited. I want people to see that because there's more to me than a screaming match. 'There's gonna be tears when I open up about my relationship struggle. I open up about my relationship struggles and wanting to be loved and being single, and you will see that, and that's one thing I'm very proud of.' She is known for her ageless looks. And Naomi Watts showed off her natural beauty as she headed to a workout in New York City on Thursday. The 53-year-old didn't wear a scrap of makeup as briskly walked down the street. Naomi Watts showed off her natural beauty as she headed to a workout in New York City on Thursday The Loudest Voice actress also flaunted her slender frame in a grey cropped sweat shirt and tight black leggings. She teamed the attire with a Balenciaga handbag and black sandals. The star smiled as she checked her phone on her way to her exercise session. Fans will next see Naomi in in the Prime Video horror film, Goodnight Mummy. The 53-year-old didn't wear a scrap of makeup as briskly walked down the street The Loudest Voice actress also flaunted her slender frame in a grey cropped sweat shirt and leggings A remake of the 2014 Austrian film, Naomi is barely recognisible in the chilling story, in which she plays a terrifying mother. The plot features young twin actors Cameron and Nicholas Crovetti, who become increasingly convinced their mum is an imposter after noticing her disturbing behaviour when she returns home following facial reconstructive surgery. The original Goodnight Mommy world premiered at the 2014 Venice Film Festival, where it won critical acclaim as a first-rate thriller. Fans will next see Naomi in in the Prime Video horror film, Goodnight Mummy The film was later selected as Austrias official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film a the 88th Academy Awards. The remake is directed by Matt Sobel and is based on a screenplay written by Kyle Warren. The film will be available for streaming September 16, exclusively on Prime Video. Naomi is a mother-of-two and shares Sasha, 15, and 13-year-old Kai with her ex Liev Schreiber. Lucy Hale was spotted while stepping out in Los Angeles on Thursday afternoon. The 33-year-old performer cut a seriously casual figure as she made her way through a parking lot and checked her phone. The performer's outing took place just a day after the release of the official trailer for The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, in which she is set to appear. Taking a walk: Lucy Hale was spotted while stepping out in Los Angeles on Thursday afternoon Hale sported a blue button-up shirt on top of a white t-shirt during her outing. The Pretty Little Liars actress also showed off her toned legs with a pair of denim shorts that were contrasted with a set of black sandals. The performer accessorized with a stylish pair of sunglasses and tied her gorgeous brunette hair back. Comfortable clothing: The 33-year-old performer cut a seriously casual figure as she made her way through a parking lot and checked her phone Recent events: The performer's outing took place just a day after the release of the official trailer for The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, in which she is set to appear Hale shared the trailer for The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry to her Instagram account on Wednesday and made a point of describing the movie as 'sweet' in her post's caption. The movie is based on Gabrielle Zevin's book of the same name, which was originally published in 2014. The author also penned the forthcoming Hans Canosa-directed feature's screenplay. Source material: The movie is based on Gabrielle Zevin's book of the same name, which was originally published in 2014 The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry is centered on a depressed widower whose life is radically changed when he unexpectedly adopts a daughter. In addition to Hale, the movie stars Kunal Nayyar, Christina Hendricks and David Arquette, among others. Principal photography on the project took place last winter, with Cape Cod serving as a primary filming location. Talented cast: In addition to Hale, the movie stars Kunal Nayyar, Christina Hendricks and David Arquette, among others Producer Claude Del Farra previously gave a statement to Deadline to express his excitement for the project. He stated: 'The performances are outstanding, and we are excited for the world to discover the movie.' The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry is currently scheduled to be released on October 7. Nicky Hilton Rothschild cut an elegant figure while attending the VIP reception for photographer David LaChapelle's Make Believe exhibit during New York Fashion Week on Thursday. The 38-year-old hotel heiress-turned-designer - who welcomed her third child on June 30 - took the plunge in a green sequin puff-sleeved midi-dress, featuring sparkly appliques, and silver accessories. Longtime fans of the Hilton Sisters might recall that their very first fashion spread in a magazine was shot by none other than David LaChapelle for Vanity Fair in 2000. Ample assets: Nicky Hilton Rothschild showcased cut an elegant figure while attending the VIP reception for photographer David LaChapelle's Make Believe exhibit during New York Fashion Week on Thursday Also attending the party at Fotografiska Museum in Manhattan's Gramercy Park neighborhood was The Kardashians star Jonathan 'Foodgod' Cheban rocking a Tupac T-shirt. The 150-piece exhibit for the 59-year-old outrageous lensman officially opens to the general public this Friday and runs through January 8. Earlier that same day, Nicky (born Nicholai) was spotted on the sidewalk heading inside the event. Make-up artist Katrina Guevara brought out Hilton's natural beauty for the fashion festivities. Mother-of-three: The 38-year-old hotel heiress-turned-designer - who welcomed her third child on June 30 - took the plunge in a green sequin puff-sleeved midi-dress, featuring sparkly appliques, and silver accessories Instrumental: Longtime fans of the Hilton Sisters might recall that their very first fashion spread in a magazine was shot by none other than David LaChapelle for Vanity Fair in 2000 'Foodgod': Also attending the party at Fotografiska Museum in Manhattan's Gramercy Park neighborhood was The Kardashians star Jonathan Cheban rocking a Tupac T-shirt Hairstylist Chris Dylan coiffed the native New Yorker's signature blonde waves. Nicky has been a regular attendee at New York Fashion Week nearly her entire life. Hilton just became an aunt again last Sunday when their younger brother Barron and his wife Tessa welcomed a baby brother Caspian for their two-year-old daughter Milou Alizee. Fashion foot forward: Earlier that same day, Nicky (born Nicholai) was spotted on the sidewalk heading inside the event Glam: Make-up artist Katrina Guevara brought out Hilton's natural beauty for the fashion festivities Dimpled smile: Hairstylist Chris Dylan coiffed the native New Yorker's signature blonde waves The gorgeous green dress also helped accentuate her bustier figure, which she called 'the perks of breastfeeding,' in a post last weekend. The longtime socialite showcased her enhanced cleavage when she relaxed under the sunshine wearing a low-cut floral top with a daisy print bucket hat from Alice and Olivia sitting atop her wavy blonde locks. She peered straight at the camera through a pair of tortoise shell Illesteva shades while appearing to be makeup-free. Bursting out: The new mom showed off her 'perks of breastfeeding' by putting her enhanced cleavage on display in a recent Instagram post Party of 5: Hilton and husband James Rothschild announced the arrival of their third child, a baby boy, in an Instagram post on July 5 with a picture of the couple It's been two months since Hilton and her husband James Rothschild, 37, welcomed their third child together, a baby boy. 'We are officially a party of 5! Welcome to the world sweet boy. Mom, dad and big sisters could not be more smitten,' she gushed when going public with the baby news on Instagram. The couple, who celebrated their seventh weeding anniversary days after their son arrived, are also the proud parents to two daughters: Lily-Grace, six, and Teddy, four, whom she shares with husband James Rothschild. As Australia mourns its head of state, Queen Elizabeth II, controversial radio host Em Rusciano has offered her take on what she describes as Her Majesty's 'conflicting' and 'unforgivable' legacy. In a lengthy Instagram post on Friday, Rusciano argued that the death of the Queen should be a time for Australians to 'consider our First Nations peoples' who suffered under British colonialism with the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788. While she accepts there will be people mourning the Queen for her 'service, stoicism and endurance', Rusciano also noted there are those who continue to mourn 'what her institution has done' - referring to the lasting legacy of the British Empire. As Australia mourns the death of its head of state, controversial radio host Em Rusciano (pictured at the National Press Club in Canberra on August 24) has offered her take on what she describes as the Queen's 'conflicting' and 'unforgivable' legacy 'She represented so many conflicting and some unforgivable legacies,' Rusciano wrote alongside a colourised photo of the Queen in her youth. 'Today we must also consider our First Nations peoples and what this represents for them.' She continued: 'Much will be debated today and moving forward around her family and what they've done throughout the years, and I imagine there will be some policing of people's grief - on both sides, those who mourn her and those who mourn what her institution has done. 'To that I say, let everyone do it their way: like most things, it's a complex and nuanced situation that doesn't have to have absolutes. 'I think it can all hold space together, side by side.' Rusciano said she personally has fond feelings for the Queen, because she reminds her of her late grandmother Denise, who idolised the British monarch. 'Nana loved the royals and even left me her Charles and Di commemorative plate in her will,' she explained. In a lengthy Instagram post on Friday (pictured), Rusciano argued that the death of the Queen should be a time for Australians to 'consider our First Nations peoples' who suffered under British colonialism with the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788 While she accepts there will be people mourning the Queen (pictured in October 2018) for her 'service, stoicism and endurance', Rusciano also noted there are those who continue to mourn 'what her institution has done' - referring to the lasting legacy of the British Empire Rusciano finished on a positive note by praising The Queen's more than 70 years of service and the extraordinary example she set. 'The Queen was an extraordinary example of service, stoicism and endurance that we're not likely to see again,' she said. 'She held on until the UK had a new PM and even met with Liz Truss the day of her death in Balmoral. She reigned so long she attained single name, icon-diva status. Even Beyonce puts Bey after her title. Vale QE ll.' Rusciano (pictured in November 2021) said she personally has fond feelings for the Queen, because she reminds her of her late grandmother Denise, who idolised the British monarch Australia has joined much of the world in mourning Queen Elizabeth II, as her death prompts the first change in head of state in more than seven decades. A statement from Buckingham Palace early on Friday (AEST) confirmed the 96-year-old's death. 'The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon,' Buckingham Palace said. 'The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.' Australia has joined much of the world in mourning Queen Elizabeth II, as her death prompts the first change in head of state in more than seven decades. She is pictured receiving flowers from schoolchildren waving flags after a Commonwealth Day Service in Sydney in March 2006 Flags will fly at half mast across Australia on Friday as the nation waits to hear how the official mourning process will proceed. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese paid tribute to the Queen, who is succeeded by her son King Charles III in a move that is expected to renew Australia's republican debate. 'An historic reign and a long life devoted to duty, family, faith and service has come to an end,' Mr Albanese said in a statement. 'The government and the people of Australia offer our deepest condolences to the royal family, who are grieving for a beloved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother - the person whom for so long was their greatest inner strength.' Mr Albanese said that 'from her famous first trip to Australia, the only reigning sovereign to ever visit, it was clear Her Majesty held a special place in her heart for Australia. 'Fifteen more tours before cheering crowds in every part of our country confirmed the special place she held in ours.' Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese offered his condolences to the Royal Family, the British people, and all his own citizens who held Her Majesty in the highest regard He praised the Queen's relationship with Australia and the rest of the world. 'As monarch for more than half the life of our Federation, the relationship between Australia and Britain matured and evolved throughout Her Majesty's reign,' he said. 'The Queen greeted each and every change with understanding, good grace and an abiding faith in the Australian people's good judgment. 'This was the deft and diplomatic way she bound the diversity of the modern Commonwealth, nations around the world who will mourn her passing. 'This time of mourning will pass but the deep respect and warm regard in which Australians always held Her Majesty will never fade.' The Queen first visited Australia with Prince Philip in 1954, arriving on the SS Gothic which steamed into Sydney Harbour after almost six weeks at sea. She is pictured with Prince Philip at Parliament House in Canberra during that tour The Queen visited Australia in 1954, 1963, 1970, 1973, 1974, 1977, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1986, 1988, 1992, 2000, 2002, 2006 and 2011 - her last time on these shores. She is pictured in 1981 Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was queen of the UK and 14 Commonwealth realms including Australia, since her reign began in February 1952. Governor-General David Hurley said Australians should take inspiration from the Queen's contribution. 'She was a truly remarkable person,' he said in a statement. The Queen's last visit to Australia came in 2011 when then Labor prime minister Julia Gillard described her as 'a vital constitutional part of Australian democracy'. She is pictured in Perth during that trip 'When I reflect on my own memories - she was my Queen for my whole life - I think of Her Majesty's dignity and her compassion. Her dedication and tireless work ethic. And her selflessness and unwavering commitment to the people that she served. To us.' Federal opposition leader Peter Dutton was thankful for the Queen's dedicated service. 'Today, a comforting warmth has left the world. One of humanity's brightest lights has gone out,' he said. Martha Stewart appeared to go topless in an ad for her new partnership with the brand Green Mountain Coffee. The 81-year-old lifestyle personality appeared in what appeared to be only a white apron with the brand's logo in a hunter green oval, as she was in a kitchen sipping a cup of the brand's flavors for the new season. 'Oh hi there. Im just enjoying the natural flavor of Pumpkin Spice,' Stewart told her 3.9 million Instagram followers in the clip. 'From Green Mountain coffee roasters and nothing else, literally. Just look at this, a thing of natural beauty - no, no, no not me.' The latest: Martha Stewart, 81, appeared to go topless in an ad for her new partnership with the brand Green Mountain Coffee Stewart added: 'My Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Pumpkin Spice Coffee its made with natural flavors that means theyve stripped away the artificial and left nothing but goodness what can I say we have a lot in common.' Stewart captioned the clip: 'When you brew full-flavored Pumpkin Spice coffee at home with Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, theres no need for a coffee run - so savings come naturally.' She added: 'Join me and lets go #FallNaturale with @greenmtncoffee,' adding the hashtags, #FallNaturale #PackedWithGoodness and #Partner. The lifestyle maven received complimentary responses from notable names such as actress Ellen Pompeo, model Karlie Kloss and designer Dennis Basso. The lifestyle personality appeared in what appeared to be only a white apron with the brand's logo in a hunter green oval Stewart said, 'Oh hi there. Im just enjoying the natural flavor of Pumpkin Spice' Stewart told Yahoo! on Thursday that she wasn't fazed 'one iota' in filming the racy ad. 'I think I look fine and I'm in good shape,' Stewart said. 'I'm healthy, I'm vibrant, I'm energetic and I'm still the curious person I've always been.' She noted, 'I walk around in a bathing suit, so if I can walk around in a bathing suit or a strapless dress and feel good, I can walk around in an apron.' Stewart said that she's usually up on trending social media topics thanks to her circle of friends: 'If you're hanging out with younger people who are very interested in what's going on, you learn ... the average age of my friends is something like probably 40 years younger than I am.' Stewart said, 'My Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Pumpkin Spice Coffee its made with natural flavors that means theyve stripped away the artificial and left nothing but goodness what can I say we have a lot in common' The lifestyle entrepreneur was seen sipping a cup of the pumpkin-flavored coffee Stewart told Yahoo! on Thursday that she wasn't fazed 'one iota' in filming the racy ad Stewart said she looked at herself as 'the original influencer,' famed for her lifestyle endeavors long before people began using social media. 'I like being thought of as that,' she said. 'I think it's a really important thing to be proud of.' Stewart this past April spoke with The New York Times about social media 'thirst trap tips,' advising people to 'project fabulous' in an 'effortless' fashion. In the chat, Stewart said that she has 'never had plastic surgery' - 'no knife on my face, neck or back' - or used filters on her postings. Advertisement Following the breathtaking two-hour premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, the hunt for Sauron continues in the third episode on Amazon Prime. The two-episode premiere introduced the characters of Middle-earth, thousands of years before the stories told in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books, delving into the Second Age of Middle-earth. Thursday's new episode sees Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) and new friend Halbrand (Charlie Vickers) arrive in Numenor, only to be met by suspicion and distrust as Galadriel finds out the Numenoreans have turned against the elves. Hunt: Following the breathtaking two-hour premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, the hunt for Sauron continues in the third episode on Amazon Prime Tensions rise as Numenor's Queen Regent Miriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) appears to hint at a prophecy being fulfilled with 'the elf's arrival' while Captain Elendil (Lloyd Owen) takes Galadriel to the Numenor's Hall of Laws. In the hall, Galadriel makes a number of shocking discoveries, as she discovers the mark of Sauron is not a sigil but a map of the Southlands, leading her to the realisation that he is trying to create a realm where evil can thrive. She also comes to the realisation that her new friend Halbrand, who she met at sea and became stranded on a raft with, is in fact the rightful king of the Southlands, and tries to persuade him to join her in the fight against Sauron. Elsewhere, Arondir (Ismael Cruz Cordova) finds himself in hot water as he gets captured and attemtps to lead a revolt against the Orcs, only to get caught again as the mysterious identity of monster Adar is again teased. Middle-earth: The two-episode premiere introduced the characters of Middle-earth, thousands of years before the stories told in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books, delving into the Second Age of Middle-earth The episode kicks off with Arondir being dragged by several Orcs as he starts to awaken, finding chaos all around him before he's thrown to the ground. They are talking about someone (or something) dubbed Adar, as an Orc named Vrath (Jed Brophy) repeats the Adar name and picks him up and shackles one of his legs, before tossing him into a field to get to work digging. When he is then picked up, Arondir is ready to attack, when he sees it's his old partner Medihor (Augustus Prew), with his former Watchmaster Revion (Simon Merrells) who are also captured. Dragged: The episode begins with Arondir being dragged by several Orcs as he starts to awaken, finding chaos all around him before he's thrown to the ground Shackles: They are talking about someone (or something) dubbed Adar, as an Orc named Vrath (Jed Brophy) repeats the Adar name and picks him up and shackles one of his legs before tossing him into a field to get to work digging Captured: Someone picks him up and Arondir is ready to attack... when he sees it's his old partner Medihor (Augustus Prew), with his former Watchmaster Revion (Simon Merrells) also captured They then hear women screaming and Arondir wants to help but he's pulled back into the hole, and the creatures are shown beating on the women, when Galadriel wakes up. 'She lives,' Halbrand says while offering her some food, while she graciously accepts, for a moment. She asks if their 'hosts' - the mystery men who picked them up on a ship at the end of the two-hour premiere - are 'saviors or captors,' though Halbrand assures her the food is not poisoned. 'Not for humans anyway,' he adds. Back: They hear women screaming as Arondir wants to help but he's pulled back into the hole, as we see the creatures beating on the women... when Galadriel wakes up Food: 'She lives,' Halbrand says while offering her some food, while she graciously accepts... for a moment They are beckoned topside when we see a crew of humans and are approached by Elendil (Lloyd Owen), who is surprised to see Galadriel. 'One of the Eldar? On board my ship? Strange tides indeed,' Elendil says, though it doesn't put Galadriel at ease, asking what kind of vessel this is. 'Be at ease. I'm obliged to deliver you safely to my betters. They will answer your questions, not I,' he adds. Surprised: They are beckoned topside when we see a crew of humans, when they're approached by Elendil (Lloyd Owen), who is surprised to see Galadriel Vessel: 'One of the Eldar? On board my ship? Strange tides indeed,' Elendil says, though it doesn't put Galadriel at ease, asking what kind of vessel this is She asks where they are heading and he says she can see for herself, but he tells Halbrand they're 'going home'. They then pass through a mysterious river which features great carvings on the rocks, as Galadriel says there is only one place this can be - 'The Land of the Star'. He adds: '[It is] the westernmost of all mortal realms. The Island Kingdom of Numenor.' They pass through a great bridge as the ship's sails are lowered, revealing more stunning statues and architecture around the port. Home: She asks where they are heading and he says she can see for herself, but he tells Halbrand they're going home' One place: They pass through a river of sorts with great carvings on the rocks, as Galadriel says there is only one place this can be - 'The Land of the Star - The westernmost of all mortal realms. The Island Kingdom of Numenor' Bridge: They pass through a great bridge ass the ship's sails are lowered, as we see more stunning statues and architecture around the port They are brought to shore by Elendil and some of his men, as many of the longshoremen notice Galadriel is an elf. Halbrand asks when men like him built kingdoms like this, and Galadriel says they are not men like him. 'In the Great War, your ancestors stood with Morgoth. These men stood with the Elves. As a reward, the Valar granted them this island, which has changed much since then,' she explains. Not like him: Halbrand asks when men like him built kingdoms like this, and Galadriel says they are not men like him Great war: 'In the Great War, your ancestors stood with Morgoth. These men stood with the Elves. As a reward, the Valar granted them this island, which has changed much since then,' she explains Halbrand asks if he detects a note of envy, but she says it's sorrow, not envy, explaining that Elves used to come freely from these shores and they were considered 'kin', before Numenor started turning away their ships and breaking off all contact. Halbrand asks why and Galadriel says they may find out, as Halbrand stops and notices a blacksmith shop. On the tower above the townsfolk, Galadriel and Halbrand are brought up, when a guard (Preston O'Brien) tells Elendir that the Queen Regent and the Chancellor are occupied, but he's stunned when he sees Galadriel and lets them pass. Breaking off: Halbrand asks if he detects a note of envy, but she says it's sorrow, not envy, explaining that Elves used to come freely from these shores and they were considered 'kin,' before Numenor started turning away their ships and breaking off all contact Guard: Up on the tower above the townsfolk, Galadriel and Halbrand are brought up, when a guard (Preston O'Brien) tells Elendir that the Queen Regent and the Chancellor are occupied... but he's stunned when he sees Galadriel and lets them pass They are lead to Chancellor Pharazon (Trystan Gravelle) and Queen Regent Miriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), as the crowd around them falls quiet. Halbrand tells Galadriel to kneel, but before they can, the Queen Regent says, 'No one kneels in Numenor,' as Halbrand apologizes. The Queen Regent then tells Galadriel to speak and she announces that she's Galadriel of the Noldor, Daughter of the Golden Houses of Finarfin, Commander of the Northern Armies of High King Gil-galad. Queen and Chancellor: They are lead to Chancellor Pharazon (Trystan Gravelle) and Queen Regent Miriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), as the crowd around them falls quiet No kneeling: Halbrand tells Galadriel to kneel, but before they can, the Queen Regent says, 'No one kneels in Numenor, as Halbrand apologizes Speak: The Queen Regent tells Galadriel to speak and she says she's Galadriel of the Noldor, Daughter of the Golden Houses of Finarfin, Commander of the Northern Armies of High King Gil-galad' Halbrand simply says he's Halbrand of the Southlands, as they wonder what a man and an Elf are doing together. 'We are companions by chance. Met on the open sea. Your captain here delivered us from certain death. All we ask is that Numenor continue his mercy, and grant us ship's passage to Middle-earth,' Galadriel says, which causes the crowd to murmur. Pharazon says it's been 'generations since a ship from Numenor has been permitted to make such a journey on an Elf's behalf,' though Galadriel reminds them, 'It is because of the Elves that you were given this island. Surely you can spare a few planks and a rudder.' Halbrand: Halbrand simply says he's Halbrand of the Southlands, as they wonder what a man and an Elf are doing together Chance: 'We are companions by chance. Met on the open sea. Your captain here delivered us from certain death. All we ask is that Numenor continue his mercy, and grant us ship's passage to Middle-earth,' Galadriel says, which causes the crowd to murmur Generations: Pharazon says it's been 'generations since a ship from Numenor has been permitted to make such a journey on an Elf's behalf,' though Galadriel reminds them, 'It is because of the Elves that you were given this island. Surely you can spare a few planks and a rudder' The Queen Regent offers a polite smile before walking down to her guests, saying their people were not given anything. 'They paid for this isle with the blood of their kin,' she says, though Galadriel says if blood is the passage she will pay it, but one way or another I will depart.' The Queen Regent smiles again and diplomatically says: 'I welcome you to try.' Not given: The Queen Regent offers a polite smile before walking down to her guests, saying their people were not given anything Tensions rise as the Queen Regent and Galadriel start getting hostile when Halbrand steps in to intervene, suggesting that they stay a few days to give her time to weigh their request. The Queen Regent looks towards Pharazon, who nods, and decrees: 'Three days. And the Elf is to be restricted to palace ground.' This clearly doesn't sit well with Galadriel who says she will not be a prisoner, but Pharazon jokes he would rather 'kneecap a stallion than imprison the Commander of the Northern Armies,' which gets a laugh from the crowd. Time: The Queen Regent and Galadriel start getting hostile as Halbrand steps in to intervene, suggesting that they stay a few days to give her time to weigh their request 'So you shall be Numenor's guest,' he adds, as Halbrand approaches Captain Elendir and gives him a hug, saying he has his 'gratitude,' which surprises the Captain. Galadriel fumes that she is not happy with this arrangement, stating she has lives to save, but Halbrand expresses his belief that the place is rife with opportunity. 'I have been searching for my peace for longer than you know. Please, for both our sakes, let me keep it. Perhaps some peace will do you good as well,' he tells her. He holds out his hand for her to shake, and when she does... he produces the dagger he took from her, adding, 'But at the very least, do try not to make new enemies.' Hug: 'So you shall be Numenor's guest,' he adds, as Halbrand approaches Captain Elendir and gives him a hug, saying he has his 'gratitude,' which surprises the Captain Enemies: He holds out his hand for her to shake, and when she does... he produces the dagger he took from her, adding, 'But at the very least, do try not to make new enemies' The Queen Regent is approached by Pharazon, who tells her to resolve this quickly, but she dismisses his concern saying she's just one elf. 'We dare not invite your father's cloud back over our head,' Pharazon says, as the Queen Regent asks about Elendil. He reveals Elendil was originally from a noble line but now he's a Sea Guardsman with a son, set to follow him into the service. Resolve: The Queen Regent is approached by Pharazon, who tells her to resolve this quickly, but she dismisses his concern saying she's just one elf Scenes are then shown of his son Isildur (Maxim Baldry), working on the ships, hoisting the sails before looking out into the sea as he hears a woman's voice whispering his name, before he's called back to work by Valandil (Alex Tarrant). One of the cadets makes a mistake and is thrown out over the sea, but Isildur then saves him from certain death. 'There is no harsher master than the sea,' Valandil states. Isildur: We see scenes of his son Isildur (Maxim Baldry), working on the ships, hoisting the sails before looking out into the sea... when he hears a woman's voice whispering his name... before he's called back to work by Valandil (Alex Tarrant) Save: One of the cadets makes a mistake and is thrown out over the sea, but Isildur saves him from certain death Master: 'There is no harsher master than the sea,' Valandil states The Sea Guard cadets are seen taking their boats onto shore, as Valandil exclaims: 'The sea is always right.' Two of Isildur's friends say his head was in the clouds again but he insists he's just 'eager to get out there'. The friends say it's just 'nine more days' until the Sea Trials, and then four years after that they make officers, and ten more till they get their own command. Shore: The Sea Guard cadets are seen taking their boats onto shore, as Valandil exclaims, 'The sea is always right' Clouds: Two of Isildur's friends say his head was in the clouds again but he insists he's just 'eager to get out there' Isildur jumps to his feet when his sister Earien (Ema Horvath) walks along the beach with a horse, and while she thinks he's coming to hug her, he hugs the horse instead. The friends head off to the cantina but Isildur won't join them, as they say he shouldn't be like his brother because he has his whole life to be an old maid. Isildur asks where his father is, but Earien looks worried as the siblings reunite. Sister: Isildur jumps to his feet when his sister Earien (Ema Horvath) walks along the beach with a horse, and while she thinks he's coming to hug her... he hugs the horse instead Cantina: The friends head off to the cantina but Isildur won't join them, as they say he shouldn't be like his brother because he has his whole life to be an old maid Elsewhere, Miriel is meeting with Elendir, talking about the petals of the White Tree, and when they fall, it is 'no idle thing'. 'A living reminder that their eyes and their judgment are ever upon us,' she says, asking if he believes sit. He thinks it's unwise to live one's life on signs and portents, which makes her smile. Petals: Miriel is meeting with Elendir, talking about the petals of the White Tree, and when they fall, it is 'no idle thing' Portents: He thinks it's unwise to live one's life on signs and portents, which makes her smile She asks what his name means and he says, 'one who loves the stars,' but the Queen says, 'that's not the only translation, is it?' He calmly states that in the ancient tongue of the Eldar it means 'Elf-friend' as she curtly asks if he is an Elf-friend. 'I am a loyal servant of Numenor,' he insists, but she says that Elves have been unwelcome on their shores since the reign of her grandfather's great grandfather, wondering why he broke that tradition. Means: She asks what his name means and he says, 'one who loves the stars,' but the Queen says, 'that's not the only translation, is it?' Loyal: 'I am a loyal servant of Numenor,' he insists, but she says that Elves have been unwelcome on their shores since the reign of her grandfather's great grandfather, wondering why he broke that tradition 'It was the sea that put her in my path. And the sea is always right,' he says, but the Queen mentions the sea cannot commit treason. He insists that 'given the circumstances', he did what he thought was most prudent, as she says if he believes that, he will have to perform a service for her. A knight hands Elendil a gold sword, as he looks up at the Queen Regent with concern. Sea: 'It was the sea that put her in my path. And the sea is always right,' he says, but the Queen mentions the sea cannot commit treason Prudent: He insists that, 'given the circumstances' he did what he thought was most prudent, as she says if he believes that, he will have to perform a service for her Sword: A knight hands Elendil a gold sword, as he looks up at the Queen Regent with concern The episode shifts to The Southlands, where Arondir is still enslaved, as he notices one of the Orcs running for cover when the sun comes overhead. Arondir keeps digging as he talks with Medihor about the tunnels and that's how they avoided their detection all these years. Medihor thinks they are searching for a weapon to take to their leader, as Revion says, 'It seems Morgoth has a successor,' which Arondir knows is Adar, though it confuses Arondir because it's an Elvish word. Southlands: The episode shifts to The Southlands, where Arondir is still enslaved, as he notices one of the Orcs running for cover when the sun comes overhead Tunnels: Arondir keeps digging as he talks with Medihor about the tunnels and that's how they avoided their detection all these years 'Sauron was said to have many names in the days of old. Perhaps this is one of them,' Revion suggests, adding there is more at work than they can see. Revion suggests that they find the nearest tree line and when the sun is closest they can make their escape and find their people. 'We can return in force and sweep the enemy like salt from a table,' Revion says, as they are interrupted by a large Orc named Lurka (Edward Clendon) telling them to keep digging. Tree: Revion suggests that they find the nearest tree line and when the sun is closest they can make their escape and find their people Arondir says the roots are in their way and Lurka says to 'rip the whole stinkin' tree down.' Revion suggest that would take too long and they will go around the roots, but the Orcs start to get nasty. Revion says the tree has been there longer than whatever place they crawled out of and it deserves its place in these lands, when another Orc named Magrot (Luke Hawker) arrives. Too long: Revion suggest that would take too long and they will go around the roots, but the Orcs start to get nasty Magrot: Revion says the tree has been there longer than whatever place they crawled out of and it deserves its place in these lands, when another Orc named Magrot (Luke Hawker) arrives 'You showed strength. You just earned your company a water ration,' Magrot says, though Revion doesn't trust it. Magrot pours the water on his hand, as a way of showing it's good, as Revion takes it from the Orc and slowly drinks. before speeding up and gulping the water down. He hands the water to Arondir who drinks as swell, as the Orcs look on, while Arondir passes it to Medihor, but when he starts to drink, Magrot slices his throat. Water: 'You showed strength. You just earned your company a water ration,' Magrot says, though Revion doesn' trust it Drink: Magrot pours the water on his hand, as a way of showing it's good, as Revion takes it from the Orc and slowly drinks... then quickly Slice: He hands the water to Arondir who drinks as swell, as the Orcs look on, while Arondir passes it to Medihor... but when he starts to drink, Magrot slices his throat The Orc laughs maniacally as Arondir lays him to the ground, as Magrot insists on cutting the tree down, which Arondir says he will do. He climbs to the top of the trench, seeing the sun shining bright on the decimated land, as he says something to the tree before chopping it down. Back in Numenor, guards are scattering about trying to find Galadriel, but she slips over to the pier, before she's found by Elenndir. Laugh: The Orc laughs maniacally as Arondir lays him to the ground, as Magrot insists on cutting the tree down, which Arondir says he will do Tree: He climbs to the top of the trench, seeing the sun shining bright on the decimated land, as he says something to the tree before chopping it down Found: Back in Numenor, guards are scattering about trying to find Galadriel, but she slips over to the pier, before she's found by Elenndir He says she can't let her take it and the Queen has charged him with making sure she causes no further disturbance. She says she'll take her chances on a skiff, and wishes he never brought her here, as he threatens to shout for her minders, when she pulls out her brother's dagger. He smiles, saying if he could should she'd be in chains, even further from her destination. Dagger: She says she'll take her chances on a skiff, and wishes he never brought her here, as he threatens to shout for her minders, when she pulls out her brother's dagger Chains: He smiles, saying if he could should she'd be in chains, even further from her destination He tells her he has a son who runs fast and a daughter who runs blind and she has the eyes of both, but Galadriel doesn't care and wants to leave because she thinks everyone hates her here. Elendir tells her in Elvish that not all hate her, which stuns Galadriel, and he tells her that Elvish language is still taught in their Hall of Lore, as she asks him to take her there. They ride on horseback to the Hall of Lore - a quarter day's ride - as they're seen riding along the stunning beachfronts as Galadriel can't contain her smile. Hall of lore: Elendir tells her in Elvish that not all hate her, which stuns Galadriel, telling her Elvish language is still taught in their Hall of Lore, as she asks him to take her there Smile: They ride on horseback to the Hall of Lore - a quarter day's ride - as they're seen riding along the stunning beachfronts as Galadriel can't contain her smile Halbrand returns to the blacksmith shop saying he is here to start anew, though he's told that until he earns his Guild Crest, he can't forge steel. He is shucking oysters when some other men ask if he's the man who came in with the elf, as one asks how close he is to the She-elf. He thinks the man has it made, wondering what he will take next, when Halbrand jokes he'll take their women, when more men surround him. Start anew: Halbrand returns to the blacksmith shop saying he is here to start anew, though he's told that until he earns his Guild Crest, he can't forge steel Oysters: He is shucking oysters when some other men ask if he's the man who came in with the elf, as one asks how close he is to the She-elf Men: He thinks the man has it made, wondering what he will take next, when Halbrand jokes he'll take their women, when more men surround him They say the She-Elf might prefer someone of better breeding, when Halbrand appeases them, saying he hasn't shown them the slightest bit of gratitude... before buying everyone a round of drinks. After many rounds, they think he's 'not so bad' as they all cheer when he leaves before they get a bad opinion of him. One of the men Tamar (Jason Hood) corners him with his friends as he's flipping a coin that Halbrand stole from his shirt, though Halbrand says he should take it since he doesn't want any trouble. Drinks: They say the She-Elf might prefer someone of better breeding, when Halbrand appeases them, saying he hasn't shown them the slightest bit of gratitude... before buying everyone a round of drinks Coin: One of the men Tamar (Jason Hood) corners him with his friends as he's flipping a coin that Halbrand stole from his shirt, though Halbrand says he should take it since he doesn't want any trouble They think it's a bit late for that as they shove him into the wall but he can't escape, as Halbrand says, 'Please, don't do this.' Tamar says, 'Why not, low man?' before upper-cutting him and sending him to the ground... but not for long as Halbrand springs up and attacks everyone with much fury. He grabs Tamar's head and says, 'Call me Halbrand,' before smashing his face into the concrete wall. Don't: They think it's a bit late for that as they shove him into the wall but he can't escape, as Halbrand says, 'Please, don't do this' Attack: Tamar says, 'Why not, low man?' before uppercutting him and sending him to the ground... but not for long as Halbrand springs up and attacks everyone with much fury Halbrand: He grabs Tamar's head and says, 'Call me Halbrand,' before smashing his face into the concrete wall A number of guards arrive and surround Halbrand, while scenes then cut back to Galadriel and Elendir. She writes something down for Elendir and he takes it to a desk, as she explores the countless scrolls. Galadriel is surprised that the Hall of Lore was assembled by Elros himself, adding she was close with his brother. Guards: A number of guards arrive and surround Halbrand, while we cut to Galadriel and Elendir Surprised: A number of guards arrive and surround Halbrand, while we cut to Galadriel and Elendir She thanks him for bringing her here and he says to thank the last King, revealing he was - and still is - loyal to the Elves, forced from the throne and exiled in his own kingdom. An old man brings texts over, revealing the location of Sauron's tower, written by a human spy from an enemy dungeon and he drew the location of the tower. Galadriel is confused since that is Sauron's symbol, but she realizes it's not a sigil but a map of the Southlands. Thanks: She thanks him for bringing her here and he says to thank the last King, revealing he was - and still is - loyal to the Elves, forced from the throne and exiled in his own kingdom Map: Galadriel is confused since that is Sauron's symbol... but she realizes it's not a sigil... but a map of the Southlands 'It is as Halbrand says,' she acknowledges, adding the Black Speech is of a plan to create a realm of their own where evil will not only endure but thrive. The plan was to be enacted by Morgoth's successor in the event of his defeat, as Galadriel says it is worse than she imagined. 'If Sauron has indeed returned, the Southlands are but the beginning,' Galadriel says. It is: 'It is as Halbrand says,' she acknowledges, adding the Black Speech is of a plan to create a realm of their own where evil will not only endure but thrive Plan: The plan was to be enacted by Morgoth's successor in the event of his defeat, as Galadriel says it is worse than she imagined The episode goes back to the Harfoot village, as they chant: 'Nobody goes off trail and nobody walks alone.' Marigold (Sara Zwangobani) says they can't carry their cart without Largo (Dylan Smith), after he broke his foot, but Largo insists no Brandyfoot has ever been left behind. He says after he lost Rose it felt like the wheels came out from under him, until he met her. Chant: The episode goes back to the Harfoot village, as they chant, 'Nobody goes off trail and nobody walks alone' Behind: Marigold (Sara Zwangobani) says they can't carry their cart without Largo (Dylan Smith), after he broke his foot, but Largo insists no Brandyfoot has ever been left behind 'And in an instant, I'd grow old with you Marigold,' he says as she can't help but smile. He insists they will make it to the Grove by staying at the front of the caravan, adding they have Nori and once she puts her head to something, nothing can stop her. The episode cuts to Nori (Markella Kavenagh) who is trying to take Sadoc's (Lenny Henry) book, but Poppy (Megan Richards) stops her. Old: 'And in an instant, I'd grow old with you Marigold,' he says as she can't help but smile Make it: He insists they will make it to the Grove by staying at the front of the caravan, adding they have Nori and once she puts her head to something, nothing can stop her Nori: The episode cuts to Nori (Markella Kavenagh) who is trying to take Sadoc's (Lenny Henry) book, but Poppy (Megan Richards) stops her She says the migration is tomorrow and if they want to help The Stranger (Daniel Weyman) the book is the only way to help him, but Poppy doesn't want to help him. Nori is trying to find out where he belongs and she wants Poppy to help her or else she'll tell the village a secret about her. Poppy begrudgingly keeps watch as Nori goes through the old text, finding the charts she needs... when Sadoc returns but Nori hides from him. Don't want to: She says the migration is tomorrow and if they want to help The Stranger (Daniel Weyman) the book is the only way to help him... but Poppy doesn't want to help him Charts: Poppy begrudgingly keeps watch as Nori goes through the old text, finding the charts she needs... when Sadoc returns but Nori hides from him Poppy saves Nori from getting caught by Sadoc and helps guide her to the charts she needs right from behind his back. Sadoc goes back to the village to address the Harfoot's before the migration, while Nori goes to her family. Sadoc says that if any Harfoot falls behind they will carry on in their hearts and memories though they could not wait for them. Guide: Poppy saves Nori from getting caught by Sadoc and helps guide her to the charts she needs right from behind his back Sadoc: Sadoc goes back to the village to address the Harfoot's before the migration, while Nori goes to her family Sadoc names off Harfoot's that were left behind, including one of Poppy's family, which brings a tear to her eye. While the ceremony goes on, The Stranger comes and finds the charts, seeing the star charts he needs, though he's close to the fire. Nori notices the fire growing as the Stranger sets the chart on fire and doesn't know what to do, knocking over several structures and coming down with a crash for all the Harfoots to see. Fire: While the ceremony goes on, The Stranger comes and finds the charts, seeing the star charts he needs, though he's close to the fire He stands up with the tarp over him, terrifying the Harfoots before he pulls the tarp over his face and asks for Nori, which stuns the village. Sadoc reprimands Nori for what she did, and she said he was lost and hurt and she couldn't leave him there. Largo says the tale is quite extraordinary, a man falling from the stars, as Largo says he's heard of beings turned into stars but not the other way around. Friend: He stands up with the tarp over him, terrifying the Harfoots before he pulls the tarp over his face and asks for Nori, which stuns the village Extraordinary: Largo says the tale is quite extraordinary, a man falling from the stars, as Largo says he's heard of beings turned into stars but not the other way around Nori asks what that page means but he said it was burned up, as The Stranger looks on in the distance. One of the Harfoots say they don't need friends but a passionate Nori says, 'If we don't have friends what are we surviving for?' 'Good little Harfoots, stick to the path, flee every danger, heaven forbid we explore something new for once,' Nori says, but she's scolded by her mother, saying that's how they've survived for a thousand years. Burned: Nori asks what that page means but he said it was burned up, as The Stranger looks on in the distance Another Harfoot says anyone who breaks the rules is to be 'decaravaned' - left behind, though Sadoc says Nori is young and the Brandyfoot cart will still be with them... at the back of the caravan. The Harfoots are shocked as they leave, as Marigold tells Nori she might as well have stamped their names in the book of left-behinds. Nori insists there is a reason he came to them as Marigold starts to mock her saying she's just a child. Left: The Harfoots are shocked as they leave, as Marigold tells Nori she might as well have stamped their names in the book of left-behinds 'I know I'm not special. I know I'm just one little Harfoot in a grand wide world, but he is special,' Nori insists. Marigold says her heart is like her father but the tallest of the milkweed gets snipped, as she says it's stime to pack. The Stranger looks sad and confused before the episode goes back to Numenor, where Elindir tells his kids Isidur and Earien about Galadriel. Sad: The Stranger looks sad and confused before the episode goes back to Numenor, where Elindir tells his kids Isidur and Earien about Galadriel Family: The Stranger looks sad and confused before the episode goes back to Numenor, where Elindir tells his kids Isidur and Earien about Galadriel He hints that Isildur may be charged with taking her to Middle-earth, but Isildur says he's thinking about deferring for a season, which stuns his father. Isildur mentions that his brother told him Elindir deferred twice, as Elilndir tells his kids there is nothing for them on our Western shores. The father and his children start bickering, which gets the attention of many, as Earien gets a message and leaves. Message: The father and his children start bickering, which gets the attention of many, as Earien gets a message and leaves Elindir tells Isildur that he knows he has doubts but the watery part of the world has a way of healing the deepest wounds. 'The way it's healed yours?' Isildur says with a bite to his voice, angering his father. 'In nine days time, when the Sea Trial begins and that ship launches, you will be on it,' Elindir says, when Earien reveals she's been accepted to the Builder's Guild as an apprentice. Apprentice: 'In nine days time, when the Sea Trial begins and that ship launches, you will be on it,' Elindir says, when Earien reveals she's been accepted to the Builder's Guild as an apprentice Elindir is confused since the Guild never re-considers but she said that Isildur convinced her to re-apply, but when he looks back with pride for his son, he's gone. Galadriel visits Halbrand in jail, telling him that she found something in the Hall of Lore and that he's more than he claims. He takes the scroll and sees the sigil he keeps on his necklace as he says he found it on a dead man and thought the pattern suited him. Visit: Galadriel visits Halbrand in jail, telling him that she found something in the Hall of Lore and that he's more than he claims Suited: He takes the scroll and sees the sigil he keeps on his necklace as he says he found it on a dead man and thought the pattern suited him 'Many ages ago, a man bearing that mark united the scattered tribes of the Southlands under one banner, the very banner that might unite them today, against the evil that now seeks to claim their lands,' Galadriel tells Halbrand. 'Your lands, Halbrand. Your people have no king, for you are him,' she says, as Halbrand says it's an odd thing to say to a man in a cage. He lifts the sigil around his neck and tells her the heir to that mark's ancestor that swore a blood oath to Morgoth, adding, 'I am not the hero you seek. For it was my family that lost the war.' No hero: He lifts the sigil around his neck and tells her the heir to that mark's ancestor that swore a blood oath to Morgoth, adding, 'I am not the hero you seek. For it was my family that lost the war. 'And it was mine who started it,' Galadriel adds. 'Ours was no chance meeting. Ours was the work of something greater.' She asks him to journey to Middle-earth with her so they can both redeem both their bloodlines. He asks her how, since they are stuck on this island and she's short an army, but she says that is all about to change. The Queen Regent heads up to the tower, saying, 'It is here, father. The moment we feared. The Elf has arrived.' Redeem: She asks him to journey to Middle-earth with her so they can both redeem both their bloodlines Arrived: The Queen Regent heads up to the tower, saying, 'It is here, father. The moment we feared. The Elf has arrived' Back to the Harfoots, the caravan is moving forward, with Brandy stopping to see the Brandyfoot's falling behind. Suddenly, their cart starts moving, as The Stranger arrives from behind them. 'Friend,' The Stranger says, as Nori can't help but smile. 'This is it. This is how we keep up with all the others. He helps us and we help him,' Nori says, as the Brandyfoots and Proudfellows seem to agree as they try to catch up with the caravan. Brandy: Back to the Harfoots, the caravan is moving forward, with Brandy stopping to see the Brandyfoot's falling behind Friend: 'Friend,' The Stranger says, as Nori can't help but smile Agree: 'This is it. This is how we keep up with all the others. He helps us and we help him,' Nori says, as the Brandyfoots and Proudfellows seem to agree as they try to catch up with the caravan The episode cuts back to The Southlands when Arondir leads a revolt against the Orcs, as they start breaking their chains. A tug of war ensues between the elves and Orcs before Arondir takes down the whole structure, causing the Orcs to burn and giving them time to break their chains. One Orc says to 'Release the Warg' as a bloodthirsty creature attacks them as they try to fight it off. Chains: The episode cuts back to The Southlands when Arondir leads a revolt against the Orcs, as they start breaking their chains Warg: One Orc says to 'Release the Warg' as a bloodthirsty creature attacks them as they try to fight it off Arondir gets the best of the beast and restrains it and gives them tie to break their chains. Revion takes off above the tree line as Arondir is about to join him, but Revion is killed by several arrows. Arondir is pulled back into the trench, as one Orc says: 'Bring him to Adar.' The massive Adar is seen walking through the tunnels as Orcs all bow to him - and just as his face comes into focus, the episode comes to an end. Chain: Arondir gets the best of the beast and restrains it and gives them tie to break their chains Killed: Revion takes off above the tree line as Arondir is about to join him... but Revion is killed by several arrows Trench: Arondir is pulled back into the trench, as one Orc says, 'Bring him to Adar' Front runner: Both the studio and the estate started offering the television rights to the franchise to streaming services, with Amazon quickly becoming a front-runner Mandate: Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos has previously given a mandate to the Prime Video streaming service that he wanted a large-scale franchise Deal: Amazon also struck a deal with the Tolkien Estate and the Tolkien Trust where they are believed to have given the green light for upwards of five seasons of the show Commitment: With an estimated production commitment of between $100 million and $150 million per season, Amazon is expected to shell out $1 billion for the production costs and the rights, when all is said and done Characters: There will be characters fans will recognize, though, most notably Galadriel, played in the LOTR movies by Cate Blanchett, with the much younger version played Morfydd Clark Victoria's Secret model Kelly Gale has spent the past week living it up at the Burning Man festival in Black Rock Desert, Nevada. And the 27-year-old has been left with several painful-looking bruises on her legs as a result of long days and nights dancing. It appears a week of living large in the scorching hot desert took a toll on Kelly's typically unblemished body. Victoria's Secret model Kelly Gale (pictured) has spent the past week living it up at the Burning Man festival in Black Rock Desert, Nevada Kelly posted a sobering photo to Instagram of her heavily bruised legs, alongside two melting-face emojis. Despite her injuries, the Swedish-Australian model appears to have had a great time at Burning Man, having documented her week's activities on Instagram. Kelly recently posted a series of photos of herself in a futuristic-inspired outfit comprising a pleated black swimsuit and fishnet stockings. The 27-year-old has been left with several painful-looking bruises on her legs as a result of long days and nights dancing in the scorching hot desert She accessorised with elaborate golden hair extensions and a striking silver choker. Kelly's fans went wild over her bold look, with one saying she 'shines bright like a diamond' and another adding she was 'so stunning'. Burning Man, a week-long festival held in Nevada's Black Rock Desert since the early '90s, has long been a tradition frequented by free-spirited individuals looking to let loose and soak in the psychedelic atmosphere. Kelly recently posted a series of photos of herself at Burning Man in a futuristic-inspired outfit comprising a pleated black swimsuit and fishnet stockings Kelly was accompanied at the festival by her actor fiance Joel Kinnaman. They went public with their relationship in 2019, and made their red carpet debut that same year. The couple became engaged earlier this year. Kelly was accompanied at the festival by her actor fiance Joel Kinnaman (left) Ukraine has gone on the offensive against Russia as Kyiv's military has retaken the city of Balakliia, Kharkiv Oblast, and has advanced 50 kilometers into previously Moscow-occupied territory. In a briefing, Brigadier General Oleksiy Gromov, a representative of Ukraine's general staff, claimed that Ukrainian forces have recaptured "700 square kilometers" since their attack on the Kharkiv front, in northern Ukraine, began earlier this week. The official added that "more than 20 settlements have been liberated" as a result of the offensive. Ukraine's Offensive If the claim is confirmed, it would be a major victory for the Ukrainian military, which is currently making advances against occupying Russian troops on a number of fronts. Moscow's positions have been under attack in southern Ukraine around Kherson, the north near Kharkiv, and the eastern Donbas region. The Kremlin's troops made an unsuccessful attempt to seize Kharkiv, which is Ukraine's second biggest city, in the opening weeks of the conflict. Gromov said that the Ukrainian military currently has wedged itself into the enemy's defense to a depth of 50 kilometers, as per Newsweek. The official noted that the total area of the territory that has been retaken by Ukrainian military troops in the Kharkiv and Yuzhno-Buz directions is more than 700 square kilometers. Gromov declined to list the settlements that Ukraine recaptured, instead reiterating that the country has had "successes in a number of directions." A joint piece by Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, head of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and parliamentarian Mykhailo Zabrodskyi was published on Wednesday. It argued that Ukraine could retake the Crimean peninsula in 2023. Read Also: Russia, China Hold Joint Fighter Jet Exercises as Vladimir Putin Personally Attends To Witness Large-Scale Drills According to Yahoo News, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the liberation of Balakliia, publishing a video message from military personnel. Ukrainian defenders on Sept. 8 published photographs and videos from the city, which Russia controlled for six months. Retaking Captured Territories The situation comes after weeks of stalled fighting in and around the eastern Donbas region, with the stalemate being broken by Ukrainian troops. Kyiv's forces threatened to cut vital supply lines for the Kremlin's assault. The Ukrainian force pushed on two fronts, striking both east toward Kharkiv and south toward Kherson, putting the Russian forces on the back foot. Moscow moved troops south when the big punch came in the east. An advisor to Ukrainian President Zelensky, Tymofiy Mylovanov, said that his understanding was that the military was pushing everywhere. The quick succession of military advances by Ukraine in the past several days, including into Balakliia and Shevchenkove, has caused surprise among higher-ups in Kyiv. They expected the lighting offensive to move more slowly. Colin Kahl, the U.S. Defense Department's policy chief, on Wednesday, referred to the movements as an "offensive." Kahl said, "They've done a lot of damage to the Russian forces" near Kherson, adding that the Ukrainian military said it recaptured more than a dozen settlements in the Kharkiv region. A researcher at the Swedish Defense University, Oscar Jonsson, said that the situation was Ukraine cleverly spotting thin Russian lines with bad opportunities for redeployment, coupled with new, longer-range capabilities that can impact Russian forces, Foreign Policy reported. Related Article: Vladimir Putin Slams West Amid Russia-Ukraine War, Calls Sanctions a 'Declaration of Economic War' @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Keira Maguire has come a long way since her days on The Bachelor. On Friday, the influencer looked virtually unrecognisable at a brunch for beauty brand Bangn Body. The 36-year-old looked nothing like her former self, following an extensive plastic surgery transformation that's cost upwards of $35,000. On Friday, former Bachelor star Keira Maguire (pictured) looked virtually unrecognisable at a brunch for beauty brand Bangn Body in Melbourne The glamorous brunette posed up a storm inside the event in a stylish denim jumpsuit. She accessorised with a hot pink handbag and painted her nails in a shade of baby pink. Keira was one of Bangn Body's earliest ambassadors, and helped put the brand on the map by spruiking it on social media in sponsored posts. She's spent thousands transforming her appearance over the years, from injectables like Botox to getting a nose job, breast implants and porcelain veneers. The glamorous brunette posed up a storm inside the event in a stylish denim jumpsuit. Pictured with Priscilla Hajiantoni The socialite went under the knife for a nose job in 2017 and got a boob job the following year, taking her A cup breasts up to a more sizable C cup. In 2018, she got lip fillers before filming the first season of Bachelor In Paradise, but she ended up regretting the trout pout and then had the fillers dissolved after filming finished. Keira first rose to fame on Bachelor Richie Strahan's season in 2016, before appearing on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! and Bachelor In Paradise. Keira looked far different during her stint on The Bachelor in 2016 Last year, she revealed that she only uses Instagram as a source of income during an SBS program discussing narcissistic personality disorder. 'To be honest with you, it is my job and it is how I make money. If I had a choice, I probably wouldn't use it,' she said. Keira has almost 140,000 Instagram followers, and regularly uses the social media app to promote brands and products. During her time on The Bachelor, Keira was known for her short blonde hair and resemblance to Lara Bingle Elsewhere in the interview, the star admitted that she's been branded a 'narcissist' a handful of times after finding fame as the villain on the 2016 season of The Bachelor. 'I was like a very strong, confident character, which is who I am. I am not going to deny that,' she explained. 'I speak with a lot of conviction. I can back myself. I just feel like a lot of people see that as a narcissistic trait.' In 2018, she got lip fillers before filming the first season of Bachelor In Paradise, but she ended up regretting the trout pout and then had the fillers dissolved after filming finished But Keira admitted that she does have some narcissistic traits, claiming it's 'essential' for survival. 'Of course you need to have some sort of trait - you need to have an ego to be in this industry,' she added. 'You need an ego to survive in today's day and age. I don't think I have a narcissistic disorder. I feel like I have traits of it, definitely.' Queen Margrethe of Denmark has lead the foreign royals paying tributes to Queen Elizabeth II, who died aged 96 on Thursday. The monarch, who is the mother-in-law to Princess Mary, wished the new King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla her 'deepest thoughts and prayers' after Her Majesty passed away peacefully at Balmoral. Speaking on behalf of the Danish family, 82-year-old Margrethe, a close friend of the Queen said she was 'deeply moved' by the sad news of her 'beloved mother's death'. Queen Margrethe of Denmark has lead the foreign royals paying tributes to Queen Elizabeth II, who died aged 96 on Thursday The Danish royal family, including Hobart-born Mary, shared a close connection with Elizabeth. Pictured in 2016 Mary has also previously attended Royal Ascot horse race with The Queen and Prince Edward In February, Margrethe and Mary, met with Kate Middleton, who and officially welcomed her to Copenhagen The Queen and Prince Philip welcome Margrethe II in 1974 She was a towering figure among the European monarchs and a great inspiration to us all. We shall miss her terribly' she wrote 'I send you and Camilla my warmest thoughts and prayers. 'She was a towering figure among the European monarchs and a great inspiration to us all. We shall miss her terribly. 'Her 70 years of reign and service to the people of the United Kingdom, the Realms and the Commonwealth are an unprecedented and remarkable achievement. 'We shall always remember her important contributions to their development and prosperity'. King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima paid tribute to the Queen in a statement on the Dutch Royal Family's official Instagram account. Pictured: The Queen, centre, Queen Maxima, left, King Willem-Alexander, second from left, the new King Charles III, second from right, Queen Consort Camilla, right at Buckingham Palace in October 2018 The Queen walks through the halls of Buckingham Palace to attend a State Banquet as she hosts the Dutch Royals in 2018 Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Maxima of The Netherlands pictured sharing a joke during the two-day visit of the Dutch royals to the UK in 2018 Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Maxima of The Netherlands attend a Ceremonial Welcome at the Horse Guards Parade in 2018 The Danish royal family, including Hobart-born Mary, shared a close connection with Queen Elizabeth. In February, Margrethe and Mary, met with Kate Middleton, who and officially welcomed her to Copenhagen. Mary has also previously attended Royal Ascot horse race with the Queen and Prince Edward. King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of The Netherlands also paid tributes to the British monarch. Queen Margrethe of Denmark, Queen Maxima of The Netherlands, King Willem-Alexander of The Netherlands, Princess Beatrix The Netherlands and Prince Albert of Monaco left Westminster Abbey together during Prince Philip's memorial service in March. They are expected to attend the Queen's funeral Following her death, the King and Queen of The Netherlands and Willem's mother Beatrix posted a statement on Instagram praising the wisdom of the Monarch. The statement read: 'We remember Queen Elizabeth II with deep respect and great affection. 'Steadfast and wise, she dedicated her long life to serving the British people. We feel a strong bond with the United Kingdom and its royal family, and we share their sorrow at this time. King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain left the service arm-in-arm after joining foreign royals at Westminster Abbey during Prince Philip's memorial. They today paid tribute to the Queen 'We are very grateful for our countries' close friendship, to which Queen Elizabeth made such an unforgettable contribution.' The official account for the Dutch Royal Family posted photos of the Queen, the new King Charles III and the new Queen Consort Camilla hosting Willem-Alexander and Maxima at Buckingham Palace on a state visit in October 2018. The Swedish Royal Family also paid tribute to the Queen after news of her death was announced. In a statement also posted on the Royal Family's official Instagram page, King Carl Gustaf Folke Hubertus said: 'My family and I are deeply saddened to learn of the death of my dear relative Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Queen Mathilde of Belgium donned head-to-toe black for a sophisticated appearance as she left with husband King Philippe. They will be expected to return to London for the funeral Her Majesty 'The Queen served her countries and the Commonwealth with outstanding dedication and duty. 'She has been a constant presence, not only in British society but also internationally. 'She has always been dear to my family and a precious link in our shared family history. 'We offer our heartfelt condolences to Her Majesty's family and her peoples.' King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium also offered a statement, calling the Queen and 'extraordinary personality'. Queen Margrethe travelled to the UK on March 29 to attend Prince Philip's Service of Thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands paid tribute to The Queen's 'lively personality' in a heartfelt tribute. Above, with the Queen and Prince Philip in 2015 'It was with great sadness that we learned of the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. She was an extraordinary personality. 'We will always keep fond memories of this great Lady who, throughout her reign, showed dignity, courage and devotion. 'Each of our encounters will remain etched in our memories forever. The United Kingdom has lost an exceptional monarch who left a deep mark on history. 'We extend our deepest condolences to the Royal Family and the British people. Rest in peace, Your Majesty, with your beloved husband,' they wrote. Elsewhere, King Harald of Norway, who is a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, said: 'Our thoughts are with His Majesty The King and the members of the Royal Family on the loss of Queen Elizabeth. 'For nearly a century, Her Majesty devoted her life to the service of the Commonwealth, following the British people through good days and bad, in times of happiness and sorrow. We also send our condolences to the British people.' King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Sonja of Sweden paid tribute. The Swedish king's lineage traces back to Victoria on both his mother and father's sides Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden (left, alongside Queen Elizabeth, Queen Silvia, and Prince Philip in 1983) also paid tribute The 85-year-old ordered flags at the Royal Palace in Oslo be flown at half mast. Condolences were also offered from King Felipe of Spain, who said The Queen had 'shaped history'. 'Your Majesty, dearest Charles, Deeply saddened by the sorrowful news of the passing away of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, your beloved Mother, I would like to offer Your Majesty and the British people, on my behalf and on behalf of the Spanish Government and people, our most heartfelt condolences,' he said. 'Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth has undoubtedly witnessed, written and shaped many of the most relevant chapters in the history of our world during the last seven decades. Prince Charles's godson Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece paid a tribute 'Her sense of duty, commitment and a whole life devoted to serving the people of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland set an example for all of us and will remain as a solid and valuable legacy for future generations 'Queen Letizia and I send Your Majesty and the whole Family our love and prayers. You are all in our hearts and thoughts. 'We will miss Her dearly. With all my friendship and affection, Felipe.' The Grand Ducal Court of Luxembourg shared their thoughts on Twitter. 'Their Royal Highnesses are deeply moved and saddened by the news of the death of HM Queen Elizabeth II, a monarch deeply attached to the friendship between our two countries. HRH the Grand Duke will send a message of condolence on behalf of the people of Luxembourg to the British Royal Family.' The Queen, second left, travelled to Copenhagen with the late Duke of Edinburgh, right, in 1979, where they stayed with Queen Margrethe and Prince Consort Henrik Former Princess Tessy also shared her thoughts. 'Your Majesty. You were one of the world's most inspiring Leaders! A woman of conviction, a woman with a heart of gold and a will of steel, a leader, a guide, a mother, a grandmother, a mentor, a woman' she said. Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece thanked The Queen 'for the kindness HM gave to my parents and family in times of need.' Crown Princess Marie Chantal also said: 'A sad day today on hearing that Her Majesty the Queen passed. May she Rest In Peace and I am sure the heavens have a special place for her. She taught us duty, honor, love and above all else courage. She ruled immaculately and was so loved. Thank you for your service and for showing my in-laws such kindness and love during their darkest days.' Pavlos's younger brother, Prince Nikolaos, also posted a tribute to 'Aunt Lilibet' on Instagram. Monarch from Albania, Jordan and the UAE also shared their condolences. Kate Hudson made sure all eyes were on her as she attended Karlie Kloss' star-studded birthday party held at new Italian restaurant Torrisi in New York on Thursday. The actress, 43, appeared to channel her iconic look from the film How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days as she slipped her figure into a yellow silk dress. Kate joined the likes of Irina Shayk, Christy Turlington, Ashley Graham and Martha Stewart at the party. Statement outfit: Kate Hudson stunned in a yellow silk slip dress at Karlie Kloss' star-studded birthday party in New York on Thursday Kate was every inch the blonde bombshell in her outfit, which she teamed with a pair of yellow platform heels, a black blazer and a Valentino bag, which retails for around 2,290. The Almost Famous and Bride Wars star showcased a soft golden tan after recently returning from a sun-drenched trip to Europe. She wore her long blonde locks out and over her shoulders neatly straightened and finished her look with a bright and bold red lip. Stunner: Kate was every inch the blonde bombshell in her outfit, which she teamed with a pair of yellow platform heels, a black blazer and a Valentino bag, which retails for around 2,290 Iconic look: The actress, 43, appeared to channel her iconic look from the film How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days as she slipped her figure into a yellow silk dress Kate spent summer in Europe, visiting places including the idyllic Positano. Karlie meanwhile, looked incredible in a sparkly figure-hugging dress as she celebrated her 30th birthday. She shared a series of sizzling snaps of herself online to mark the occasion. Golden girl: Karlie meanwhile, looked incredible in a sparkly figure-hugging dress as she celebrated her 30th birthday 'About last night,' the model captioned a post. During the bash, when her delicious birthday cake was brought out with candles lit, Karlie was captured sharing a tender hug with her husband Joshua Kushner, 37. The business man previously commemorated the occasion last month with a candid snap of his wife sticking her tongue out and a caption that simply read '30' and a heart-eye emoji. Jackie 'O' Henderson sobbed during a champagne toast on Friday morning, as she paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth II. Her Majesty died 'peacefully' at age 96 at her castle in Balmoral, Scotland, with Buckingham Palace issuing a statement from King Charles III at 4.04am on Friday AEST. The radio presenter raised a glass to the late monarch and struggled through tears as she delivered a touching tribute live on The Kyle and Jackie O Show. Jackie 'O' Henderson (pictured) sobbed during a champagne toast on Friday morning, as she paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth II. The radio presenter raised a glass to the late monarch and struggled through tears as she delivered a touching tribute live on The Kyle and Jackie O Show 'Even up to your final days you put duty before your own health' the 47-year-old began. 'Our hearts are broken, but even though we grieve we will remember the rich legacy of love, hope and acceptance that you have left for all of us' she went on, her voice breaking as tears fell. 'We will miss you and we will remember you for years to come. So as we raise our glasses and toast Her Majesty, this time we say god take care of our Queen.' 'Even up to your final days you put duty before your own health' the 47-year-old began 'Our hearts are broken, but even though we grieve we will remember the rich legacy of love, hope and acceptance that you have left for all of us' she went on, her voice breaking 'We will miss you and we will remember you for years to come. So as we raise our glasses and toast Her Majesty, this time we say god take care of our Queen' she concluded Henderson became overwhelmed several times while co-hosting alongside Kyle Sandilands. As the pair reflected on The Queen's life and 70-year reign, Henderson noted Her Majesty 'wasn't herself' since her husband Prince Philip died in April 2021. 'When you saw her at his funeral sitting there by herself and you just knew...' she said through tears, referring to the famous scenes of The Queen sitting alone with a mask on at Philip's memorial, in accordance with Britain's Covid restrictions at the time. Australia has joined much of the world in mourning Queen Elizabeth II, as her death prompts the first change in head of state in more than seven decades 'I knew she would pass soon after that. That was the saddest thing to see when she was at his funeral on her own,' Henderson added. Sandilands agreed, but said her death nonetheless came as a 'shock'. Australia has joined much of the world in mourning Queen Elizabeth II, as her death prompts the first change in head of state in more than seven decades. A statement from Buckingham Palace early on Friday (AEST) confirmed the 96-year-old's death. Reflecting on The Queen's life and 70-year reign, Henderson noted Her Majesty 'wasn't herself' since her husband Prince Philip died in April 2021. (Queen Elizabeth II and her husband the Duke of Edinburgh walk at Broadlands in this picture released on November 18, 2007) 'The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon,' Buckingham Palace said. 'The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.' Flags will fly at half mast across Australia on Friday as the nation waits to hear how the official mourning process will proceed. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese paid tribute to the Queen, who is succeeded by her son King Charles III in a move that is expected to renew Australia's republican debate. 'When you saw her at his funeral sitting there by herself and you just knew...' Henderson said through tears, referring to the famous scenes of The Queen sitting alone with a mask on at Philip's memorial, in accordance with Britain's Covid restrictions at the time (pictured) 'An historic reign and a long life devoted to duty, family, faith and service has come to an end,' Mr Albanese said in a statement. 'The government and the people of Australia offer our deepest condolences to the royal family, who are grieving for a beloved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother - the person whom for so long was their greatest inner strength.' Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was queen of the UK and 14 Commonwealth realms including Australia, since her reign began in February 1952. Kyle Sandilands' love for the late Queen Elizabeth II knows no bounds. The radio presenter, 51, put his heart on his sleeve - or on paper - as, on Friday, he read out on the Kyle and Jackie O Show the letter he once wrote to the monarch. As an added flare, and to make the Queen think he was a 'head of state', he printed the note with his brand's King Kyle logo as the letterhead. Kyle Sandilands', 51, (pictured) love for the late Queen Elizabeth II knows no bounds Poking fun at himself, Kyle read the letter aloud to his co-host Jackie 'O' Henderson. 'Dear Madam, I first saw you many years ago when you visited Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. I stood beside the Church of England with my grandmother and mother waiting for your arrival,' he started. 'When you finally drove past, unfortunately you were looking in the other direction. I was waving regardless and my grandmother told me, "She doesn't need to see you to know you're there." The radio presenter put his heart on his sleeve - or on paper - as, on Friday, he read out on the Kyle and Jackie O Show the letter he once wrote to the monarch (pictured) 'From that day on I always admired you and your whole family, and I was fascinated in what it takes and what life's like as a royal. I've watched and followed all members of your family since that day.' The shock jock went on to tell the Queen he 'grew up poor' and came 'from a broken family' to garner 'sympathy points'. He said he became homeless as a teenager but was inspired by 'Your Majesty' to pick himself up and chase his dream of becoming a radio broadcaster. As an added flare, and to make the Queen think he was a 'head of state', he printed the note with his brand's King Kyle logo as the letterhead. (Pictured: A mock-up of Kyle's letter) Poking fun at himself, Kyle read the letter aloud to his co-host Jackie 'O' Henderson (pictured) 'Since then, I've become quite successful and I owe a lot of that to you,' he continued. 'You have inspired me my whole life and I think you've done that through a remarkable job, and you've done that for many people around the world.' Kyle finished off the letter by writing it was an 'honour' to be the Queen's 'most humble and obedient servant'. 'I stood beside the Church of England with my grandmother and mother waiting for your arrival,' he started. (Pictured with Prince Philip at Parliament House in Canberra during her Australia tour in 1954) He was devastated as he arrived to work Friday morning, paying tribute to Her Majesty after waking up to news she had died at the age of 96. The KIIS FM radio host, a proud royalist and life-long supporter of The Queen, said the loss felt like a death in the family. 'I feel like a family member has died,' he told Jackie, 47, who broke down in tears several times during the broadcast. Juliette Binoche has recalled an ugly confrontation she had with Gerard Depardieu after he branded her 'nothing' in a scathing interview in 2010. The actress, 58, spoke about her tumultuous relationship with her fellow French actor, 73, in a new interview with The Guardian. Juliette claimed that the actor 'punched a fist in my face', yet it is believed the French star meant the phrase as an expression of shock, not a physical incident. Juliette recalled how The Last Metro star publicly said she was 'absolutely nothing' and had nothing 'going for her'. Claims: Juliette Binoche has recalled an ugly confrontation she had with Gerard Depardieu after he branded her 'nothing' in a scathing interview in 2010 (pictured together in 2017) Discussing their confrontation, Juliette said: 'About three months after he made those declarations, I bumped into him in the street and I said: "Gerard why were you so mean to me?" He said: "Oh forget about it, I say stupid things. Dont take it personally." 'I told him: "OK but at the end of the day, I had to deal with it. And its really not cool." He said: "Well, Im just upset with the directors youre working with."' 'I think he was feeling jealous because Id just received the award in Cannes. He was hurt because I had made him deal with too many things.' Candid: The actress, 58, spoke about her tumultuous relationship with her fellow French actor, 73, in a new interview with The Guardian (pictured in February 2022) Revealing that they'd first met when she was 17 because Gerard was working with \ a family friend on the 1983 film Danton, she said: 'So he was such an important figure in my life. And then all these years later he how do you say?' The publication reports that she then mimicked a fist to her face with the journalist asking if she meant a punch. Juliette responded: 'Yes! He punched a fist in my face. And it injured me.' Gerard's representative told MailOnline that Juliette was using a French expression that 'means that she was stunned by Gerard's words.' They added: 'He never hit Juliette Binoche.' MailOnline has contacted representatives for Juliette for comment. In an interview with the Austrian magazine Profil in 2010, Gerard questioned the success Juliette has had in her career. He said: 'Please can you explain to me what the secret of this actress is meant to be? 'I would really like to know why she has been so esteemed for so many years. She has nothing. Absolutely nothing!' He added: 'Compared with her, Isabelle Adjani is great even if she's totally nuts. Or Fanny Ardant she is magnificent, extremely impressive. But Binoche? What has she ever had going for her?' Feud: Gerard has previously made disparaging remarks about Juliette in 2010, calling her 'nothing' in an interview which she later confronted him about (pictured in 2021) Commenting on his outburst at the time, Juliette told Radio 4: 'I understand you don't have to like everyone and you dislike someone's work. 'But I don't understand the violence, in a way. But I think it has to do with himself - there's something going on.' 'She said they had once had dinner together and he told her: "Oh, you always do beautiful films" I didn't have any answers to that because I didn't completely understand what he meant by that. 'And then, after that, I thought, "ah so it means that - are you supposed to do not-beautiful films." I provoked him without knowing I provoked him, I think.' The pair ended up working together after the incident, co-starring in 2017's Let the Sunshine In. She later noted that she had forgiven him, stating: 'Even though Gerard has had a huge career, theres still a little boy inside. And we must all take care of our little ones.' Meghan Markle's former Suits co-stars Sarah Rafferty and Rachael Harris have paid their respects to Queen Elizabeth II, after news of her death aged 96 on Thursday. The Duchess of Sussex, 41, starred as Rachel Zane in the American legal drama series for seven seasons from 2011 until 2018, alongside the likes of Patrick J. Adams and Gabriel Macht. She then quit the series and her final episode aired one month before she tied the knot with Prince Harry, 37, at Windsor Castle, marking the end of her acting career. Condolences: Meghan Markle's former Suits co-stars Sarah Rafferty and Rachael Harris have paid their respects to Queen Elizabeth II, after news of her death aged 96 on Thursday Heartfelt message: Sarah Rafferty, who starred as Donna Paulsen - a close friend of Meghan's character Rachel, took to Instagram on Friday to share her condolences Following the sad news of the Queen's passing, Meghan's former co-stars took to social media to pay tribute to Britain's longest-reigning monarch. Sarah Rafferty, who starred as fan favourite Donna Paulsen - a close friend of Meghan's character Rachel, took to Instagram on Friday to share her heartfelt condolences. The actress, 49, thanked the monarch for 'normalizing having a respected woman in power' as she paid her respects to Her Majesty. She penned: 'Living a life of service, leading by example with dignity, strength, and devotion while inspiring manyThank you for normalizing having a respected woman in power, Your Majesty. Rest In Peace. Acting: The Duchess of Sussex, 41, starred as Rachel Zane in the American legal drama series for seven seasons from 2011 until 2018, alongside the likes of Patrick J. Adams Honour: Following the sad news of the Queen's passing, Meghan's former co-stars took to social media to pay tribute to Britain's longest-reigning monarch 'Sending my heartfelt condolences to her family and loved ones, and to all who are mourning in the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth and around the world.' Suits star Rachael Harris, who played Sheila Sazs on the show, took to her Instagram Stories to re-share a drawing of the Queen walking holding hands with Paddington Bear. A caption alongside the picture read: ''Paddington?', 'Yes M'am...!', 'Do you think you could take us to Prince Phillip, I'm feeling extremely tired now...?', 'Of course Your Majesty, this way.' Meanwhile, Vanessa Ray - who played Jenny Griffiths in Suits - also re-shared a black-and-white picture of the Queen, originally posted by Jennifer Garner. Tributes: Suits star Rachael Harris, who played Sheila Sazs on the show, and Vanessa Ray, who played Jenny Griffiths, also shared messages Career: Rachael also stars in Lucifer and played Sheila, the love interest of Rick Hoffman's character Louis Litt in Suits Meghan's other Suits co-stars Patrick, who played Mike Ross, Gabriel, who starred as Harvey Specter, and Rick Hoffman, who played fan favourite Louis Litt, have not yet commented on the sad news of the Queen's death on social media. Meanwhile, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex paid tribute to the Queen by turning the front page of their website black. Following the sad news, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex paralleled the online domains of the Royal Family and Kate and Prince William. The Royal Family's website was updated with a statement this evening and a poignant image of the Queen. It read: 'The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow. Star: Vanessa is also known for playing Ce Ce Drake in Pretty Little Liars, as well as starring alongside Meghan in Suits' early series 'The official website of the Royal Family is temporarily unavailable while appropriate changes are made.' On Thursday, Prince Harry also arrived at Balmoral - nearly an hour-and-a-half after the death of his grandmother was announced. Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's longest reigning monarch who was on the throne for 70 years, died at the age of 96, Buckingham Palace announced at 6.30pm on Thursday. But flight data shows the Duke of Sussex's jet was still in the air at the time, not touching down at the airport until nearly 15 minutes later. Respects: Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have paid tribute to the Queen by turning the front page of their website black He finally arrived at the Scottish estate at 7.52pm, where he will join other members of the Royal Family in mourning the Queen's death. Harry headed to Balmoral alone, without his wife Meghan, having previously been due to attend the WellChild Awards in London this evening. He was expected to make a speech at tonight's awards, which honours the brave deeds of seriously ill children, before he cancelled the appearance. It is understood Meghan has remained in London, but will not attend the WellChild awards. The Duchess could potentially join Harry in Scotland at a later date, a source said. Passing: Following the sad news, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex paralleled the online domains of the Royal Family and Kate and Prince William Announcing the Queen's death, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said: 'The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.' The Queen's death will see Britain and her Commonwealth realms enter into a 10-day period of mourning as millions of her subjects in the UK and abroad come to terms with her passing. Her coffin will be moved to London on the royal train via Edinburgh before she lies in state in Westminster Hall in the Houses of Parliament for four days. Hundreds of thousands of people will be able to pay their respects. The state funeral is expected take place at Westminster Abbey in central London on Monday, September 19, which will be attended by her bereft family as well as 2,000 heads of state, prime ministers and presidents, European royals and key figures from public life around the globe. Statement: King Charles III released this poignant statement reacting to the death of his 'beloved mother' as he took the throne today And as her son accedes to the throne, there will also be a celebration of her historic 70-year reign that saw her reach her Platinum Jubilee this year - a landmark unlikely to be reached again by a British monarch. Charles, who will reign as King Charles III, said today: 'The death of my beloved mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family. 'We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished sovereign and a much-loved mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world. 'During this period of mourning and change, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which the Queen was so widely held.' Lisa Wilkinson shared her thoughts on the death of Queen Elizabeth II during a special episode of The Project on Friday night. The television host, 62, said that the monarch, who died in the early hours of Friday morning, was beloved 'like no other'. 'It's interesting hearing there (Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese talking about the Elizabethan Age' she said. Lisa Wilkinson shared her thoughts on the death of Queen Elizabeth II during a special episode of The Project on Friday night. Pictured alongside her co-star Hamish MacDonald 'We all know of the Victorian Age after Queen Victoria, but this will be known as a block of 70 years in time when a woman who, as you've just heard right there, was loved really like no other. 'She was respected for her discipline and her unwavering service. And I think that reverence with which we hold her will only grow as these days of mourning continue.' Lisa went on: 'Of course, at this point now, we're at D+1 day, and there are continued commemorations over the course of those days leading up to the funeral. 'It's interesting hearing there (Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese talking about the Elizabethan Age' she said. Queen Elizabeth is pictured 'We all know of the Victorian Age after Queen Victoria, but this will be known as a block of 70 years in time when a woman who, as you've just heard right there, was loved really like no other' Lisa added 'And at various spots around the country, around the United Kingdom, there are growing floral tributes, much like the beginnings of what we saw for Princess Diana 25 years ago.' Her Majesty died 'peacefully' at age 96 at her castle in Balmoral, Scotland, with Buckingham Palace issuing a statement from King Charles III at 4.04am on Friday AEST. A statement from Buckingham Palace early on Friday (AEST) confirmed the 96-year-old's death. 'She was respected for her discipline and her unwavering service. And I think that reverence with which we hold her will only grow as these days of mourning continue' Lisa said 'And at various spots around the country, around the United Kingdom, there are growing floral tributes, much like the beginnings of what we saw for Princess Diana 25 years ago' Lisa added 'The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon,' Buckingham Palace said. 'The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.' Flags will fly at half mast across Australia on Friday as the nation waits to hear how the official mourning process will proceed. Emma Roberts showed off her stunning sense of style on Thursday as she headed to a screening for new show Tell Me Lies - which she is executive producing. The film star, 31, donned a camel leather dress for the occasion, complete with a strapless neckline, overlapping material detail and one sleeve design. Beaming at the Los Angeles event, she added a pair of pointed-toe black heels to complete the look. Stunner: Emma Roberts, 31, was the epitome of stylish in a strapless leather dress on Thursday as she attended a screening for her new series Tell Me Lies Emma's bright blonde locks were sleekly styled straight as they fell to her torso from a middle part. While her complexion was enhanced with a bronzed palette of makeup, featuring a soft pink lip. Amping up the glamour, the American Horror Story star added a glimmering chunky necklace and a complementing ring. Figure-hugging: Her camel leather dress was complete with a strapless neckline, overlapping material detail and one sleeve design Height elevating: Emma added a pair of pointed-toe black heels to complete the look Bombshell: Her bright blonde locks were sleekly styled straight as they fell to her torso from a middle part Tell Me Lies is the first production to come of Emma's recent partnership with Hulu - which will see her develop and create compelling television series under her production banner, Belletrist TV. And based on Carola Loverings novel of the same name, the series focuses on a relationship between characters Lucy Albright and Stephen DeMarco - which quickly takes a turn. And taking to the red carpet with her two leads, Emma posed alongside Jackson White, who plays Stephen, and Grace Van Patten, who portrays Lucy. Stars: Emma posed alongside leading stars Jackson White, who plays Stephen, and Grace Van Patten, who portrays Lucy Stylish: Jackson went for a stylish look in a sleeveless black crochet vest, paired with slim leg black trousers - flashing his collection of tattoos Leading lady: While Grace donned a black mini dress for the occasion, which featured a white collar and mesh fishnet panel Statement: The beauty added a bold, cat eyeliner look as her brunette locks fell into a brushed out curl Grace donned a black mini dress for the occasion, which featured a white collar and mesh fishnet panel with embellishing. The actress, who is daughter to director Timothy Van Patten, added a pair of open-toed heels with an ankle strap detail -while her brunette locks were styled in a brushed out curl. Her on-screen boyfriend Jackson went for a stylish look in a sleeveless black crochet vest, paired with slim leg black trousers - flashing his collection of tattoos. On-screen couple: The series focuses on a relationship between characters Lucy Albright (Grace) and Stephen DeMarco (Jackson)- which quickly takes a turn Behind the scenes: Tell Me Lies is based on Carola Loverings novel of the same name, as the author posed alongside Emma Bright look: The writer sported an electric pink shorts and blazer co-ord as she prepared to see her words come to life Actress Sonia Mena, who plays Pippa in the show, put on a smart display in a dusty blue, two-piece suit. Matching her theme was co-star Aiden Alexander, who went for a more fitted suit in a darker shade of blue - adding white Prada loafers. While author of the book Carola also attended to see her words come to life, sporting an electric pink shorts and blazer co-ord. Looking smart: Sonia Mena (left) and Aiden Alexander (right), who also both star in the show, both opted for blue suits So chic: Sonia, who plays Pippa in the show, opted for an oversized dusty blue, two-piece suit Crew: Screenwriter and producer Meaghan Oppenheimer, who adapted the book to the series, also took to the red carpet in a black, feathered bust mini dress Loved up: She was joined by husband of three years Tom Ellis, as the Lucifer actor looked suave in dark checked trousers Screenwriter and producer Meaghan Oppenheimer, who adapted the book to the series, also took to the red carpet in a black, feathered bust mini dress. She was joined by husband of three years Tom Ellis, as the Lucifer actor looked suave in dark checked trousers. The first three episodes of Tell Me Lies dropped on Hulu on Wednesday, with rave reviews already coming through about the teen love story. Metallic: Natalee Linez, who also makes an appearance in the show, opted for a metallic pink mini dress Actor: Star Spencer House shot a brooding look at the camera (L-R) Jackson White, Grace Van Patten, Emma Roberts, Meaghan Oppenheimer While the further seven episodes will be released on a weekly schedule every Wednesday on the streaming platform. The show takes takes inspiration from real-life events, with author Carola writing on a relationship from her own life. Tell Me Lies kicks off Emma's partnership with Hulu, which will focus solely on literary adaptations - with the star acting as executive producer on each project. Arrivals: Benjamin Wadsworth also opted for a navy suit as he posed alongside a guest YouTuber Trisha Paytas has denied a 'weird' rumour that they are in labour and apologised to the royal family - following bizarre online theory about the Queen. Taking to Instagram on Friday, the vlogger, 34, who identifies as non-binary and uses the pronouns they/them/she/her, shared a photo of their visible baby bump to confirm that they are still 'very much pregnant.' The update came following a tweet where they announced they were 1cm dilated, it was then met by responses from fans that claimed her baby would be the Queen's reincarnation. Awkward: YouTuber Trisha Paytas, 34, has denied a 'weird' rumour that she is in labour and apologised to the royal family on Friday - following bizarre online theory about the Queen Trisha, whose career has often been surrounded by controversy, slammed the internet a 'weird place' as they addressed the rumours. They penned: 'Well this is awkward to have to announce that Im still VERY much pregnant and have NOT given birth. 'I almost felt sad yesterday to tell people this. The internet is a weird place. I dont know how any of those rumours started or why?' Addressing rumours: Taking to Instagram, the vlogger shared a photo of her visible baby bump to confirm that she was still 'very much pregnant Baby: YouTube star Trisha Paytas has confirmed that they are in labour as they took to Twitter on Thursday to share an update on their pregnancy They continued: 'Sorry to the royal family and my baby. Felt weird to say anything at all. But so many people IRL that we know, had been texting and calling about this. 'Including my dad who felt out of the loop as if I wouldnt text him when I was going into labor. Still dont know what to say. Other than - Im still pregnant. And when I do give birth, we will announce it. Condolences to the royal family. Its very disheartening to hear of the Queens passing. 'For people genuinely excited for us, can we keep that same energy for the next week? It was very kind and nice to hear but will be even more fun when baby is here with us.' Congratulations! The TV personality has documented their pregnancy journey on social media, sharing regular snaps of their blossoming baby bump to Instagram It comes as Trisha appeared to confirm that they were in labour as they took to Twitter on Thursday to share an update on their pregnancy. Trisha revealed they were '1 cm dilated' in a post shared one day after her due date and penned: '1 cm dilated! Woo hoo!' Hours later Buckingham Palace announced the sad news that Queen Elizabeth II had passed away 'peacefully' at Balmoral on Thursday aged 96. Fans of Trisha's then took to Twitter to begin a bizarre theory that their baby would be the Queen's reincarnation. Expecting: It comes as Trisha appeared to confirm that she was in labour as she took to Twitter on Thursday to share an update on her pregnancy Reincarnation, also known as rebirth, is the concept that a non-physical part of a living being can begin a new life, in a different body, after death. The Celebrity Big Brother star has documented their pregnancy journey on social media, sharing regular snaps of their blossoming baby bump to Instagram. They have not revealed what their baby name will be, but teased that they have already chosen a name in a YouTube video last month. Wild: Fans of Trisha's then took to Twitter to begin a bizarre theory that her baby would be the Queen's reincarnation Trisha revealed that they were expecting a baby girl in a gender reveal party in April, sharing a picture of herself and husband Moses surrounded by pink confetti. Trisha and Moses became pregnant shortly after getting married, but Trisha had previously believed that they couldn't get pregnant naturally. In 2016, Trisha detailed her infertility journey in a YouTube video, explaining that they had been told by doctors that they couldn't have children due to scar tissue from undiagnosed chlamydia. Exciting: Trisha revealed that they were expecting a baby girl in a gender reveal party in April, sharing a picture of herself and husband Moses surrounded by pink confetti They explained: 'The first time I ever went to a doctor about this at 25 told me I was never going to have kids. Another doctor was like 'IVF is going to be your best route because your tubes are just too, too scarred up'.' In February, they took to Instagram to announce that they were pregnant and expecting her first child with husband Moses Hacmon. Trisha shared the exciting news via Instagram in honour of Valentine's Day, posting a snapshot of her sonogram. They wrote: 'Love at first [heart] beat. #HappyValentinesDay.' Baby on board: IIn February, they took to Instagram to announce that they were pregnant and expecting her first child with husband Moses Hacmon Trisha, who has more than a million YouTube subscribers, is prolific on social media, which has led to numerous scandals and many feuds with other influencers over the years. In 2017, they received a lot of media attention after they uploaded a video called 'I'm no longer a person' - which showed her walking around in their underwear with a bag over her head. 'Because I no longer have an identity, I don't want to be made fun of or compared to my videos because they are no longer me,' they said in the video. Romance: Trisha and Moses first met in 2020 after they were set up by fellow YouTubers Ethan and Hila Klein on their dating show. Moses, an Israeli artist and architect, is Hila's brother 'I am stepping back from a persona, from a person that is Trish.' In another YouTube video posted a few months later, Trisha said that they now identified as a 'chicken nugget.' 'I don't think I should be considered crazy for identifying as such,' they stated at the time. They have also released 11 books and stepped into the music world - dropping nine albums throughout her career. NASA's $330 million Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft has caught its first look at its target asteroid, Didymos, the double-asteroid system that is hurtling toward our planet. DART is designed to intentionally smash into Dimorphos, the asteroid moonlet of Didymos, on Sept. 26. Despite the situation, the double-asteroid system poses no threat to Earth and the DART mission is humanity's first test of the kinetic impact technique, which uses a spacecraft to deflect an asteroid for planetary defense. NASA's DART Mission An image was taken by the Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation (DRACO) aboard DART on July 27, 2022. The image of the light from the asteroid Didymos and its orbiting moonlet Dimorphos is a composite of 243 images. It was taken at a distance of roughly 20 million miles from the spacecraft and showed the Didymos system faintly. Navigation camera experts were uncertain whether or not DRACO would be able to spot the asteroid yet. However, once the 243 images that were taken during the observation sequence were combined, the team was able to enhance it to reveal Didymos and pinpoint its location in the cosmos, as per SciTechDaily. Elena Adams, the DART mission systems engineer at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, said, "This first set of images is being used as a test to prove our imaging techniques." She added that the quality of the image is similar to what they could obtain from ground-based telescopes. Read Also: Study Finds 'Doomsday Glacier' Is Melting Faster Than Previously Thought Due to Climate Crisis However, it was also important to show that DRACO is working properly and can see its target to make any adjustments needed before starting to use the images to guide the spacecraft into the asteroid autonomously. According to Space, over the next three weeks, the team will use images taken every five hours to make a series of three trajectory correction maneuvers that put DART on a precise path to Didymos. After that, within about 24 hours of impact, DART will take control to fine-tune its final approach. Striking Asteroids The DART navigation lead at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, Julie Bellerose, said, "Seeing the DRACO images of Didymos for the first time, we can iron out the best settings for DRACO and fine-tune the software." She added that in September, they will refine where DART is aiming at by getting a more precise determination of Didymos' location. The aim of the DART mission is to learn how to deflect asteroids in case one is ever discovered on a collision course with Earth. Scientists will observe DART's impact on Dimorphos' orbit, which will provide crucial information about how well spacecraft can protect our planet from asteroid armageddon. Professor Alan Fitzsimmons, an astronomer at Queen's University Belfast, said that it is a fact that asteroids have struck the Earth in the past. These impacts are a natural process and they are going to happen in the future. Fitzsimmons noted that the DART mission also aims to allow humans to stop the worst of these impacts that could lead to loss of life, The Guardian reported. Related Article: NASA's James Webb Telescope Discovers First Evidence of Carbon Dioxide in Atmosphere of Exoplanet @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Daniel Craig has recalled the joke the Queen made at his expense when they met during their 2012 Olympics skit, with the star hailing her as 'very funny'. The country's longest-reigning royal, Queen Elizabeth II, died 'peacefully', aged 96, at Balmoral in Scotland on Thursday. And prior to her death during an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in the US on Wednesday, the James Bond actor, 53, looked back on their meeting as he told the host what she was like in private. Memory: Daniel Craig has recalled the joke the Queen made at his expense when they met during their 2012 Olympics skit, with the star hailing her as 'very funny' Keen to know what the monarch was like behind closed doors, Stephen, 58, asked: 'I understand that you may not be able to answer this question, but I'm gonna ask anyway: What's she like in private?' Remembering their time together, Daniel - who appeared in the now infamous Olympics opening ceremony sketch with the Queen a decade ago - replied: 'Very funny. Very funny' '[She] wants to crack a joke, and [she] cracked a joke about me. 'We were having our photographs taken and she just went, 'Oh no, he's the one that doesn't smile. Fair enough!' So sad: The country's longest-reigning royal, Queen Elizabeth II, died 'peacefully', aged 96, at Balmoral in Scotland on Thursday The 007 star then went on to describe what her beloved corgis were like, recalling how he enjoyed time playing with the 'friendly' dogs. He explained: 'I was rolling around on the floor with them most of the time. 'I think they have their own footmen, they're very friendly.' The No Time To Die actor, and Her Majesty filmed a hilarious scene for the opening ceremony, featuring 007 accompanying the royal Bond girl to a helicopter.' Chat: Prior to her death during an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in the US on Wednesday, the James Bond actor, 53, looked back on their meeting as he told the host what she was like in private. The memorable scene ended with stunt performers, doubling for Bond and the Queen, jumping out of the helicopter and parachuting into the stadium. The recorded sequence - directed by Danny Boyle - opened at Buckingham Palace, where a tuxedo-wearing Craig as 007 was presented to the Queen by her personal footman as she was writing a letter and training her corgis Monty, Willow and Holly to roll over. Greeting him with an 'Evening, Mr Bond', the Queen, in a rose-pink dress, was seen striding briskly through the palace with the action hero before climbing into a helicopter emblazoned with the Union Flag. The two were depicted as soaring over the streets of London and through Tower Bridge until they finally reached the Olympic Park. Funny: '[She] wants to crack a joke, and [she] cracked a joke about me. 'We were having our photographs taken and she just went, 'Oh no, he's the one that doesn't smile. Fair enough!' (pictured with the Queen at the Casino Royale premiere in 2006) Speaking about the skit in 2012, the actor said: 'It wasn't supposed to be funny. It was supposed to be serious. 'She was fun, incredibly game. We had a short space of time and I was a bit grumpy as it was my day off and suddenly I am at the Palace with the Queen at her private chamber.' 'And she improvises a little bit. She was supposed to be sitting at the desk and she asked if she could write, so she pretended to write.' In 2019, the Queen's dressmaker and confidante Angela Kelly revealed it took 'just five minutes' to persuade Her Majesty to agree to director Danny Boyle's request for her to appear alongside Daniel Craig in the famous footage of her appearing to parachute into the Olympic Stadium. Mrs Kelly, the Queen's dresser of 25 years, wrote in her book The Other Side Of The Coin: The Queen, The Dresser And The Wardrobe how she was called to a meeting with Boyle and private secretary Edward Young to discuss the idea in 2011. Four-legged pals: The 007 star then went on to describe what her beloved corgis (pictured) were like, recalling how he enjoyed time playing with the 'friendly' dogs 'I asked him and Edward to give me five minutes so that I could ask the Queen,' she said. 'I remember the look of shock on Danny's face that I would be asking Her Majesty straight away, but there's no point in waiting around with these things: If she said no, that would be the end of it. 'I ran upstairs and luckily the Queen was free. She was very amused by the idea and agreed immediately. I asked if she would like a speaking part. Without hesitation, Her Majesty replied, "Of course I must say something. After all, he is coming to rescue me". Action: The No Time To Die actor, and Her Majesty filmed a hilarious scene for the opening ceremony, featuring 007 accompanying the royal Bond girl to a helicopter. Craig is pictured at the No Time To Die premiere 'I asked whether she would like to say, "Good evening, James" or "Good evening, Mr Bond" and she chose the latter, knowing the Bond films. Within minutes, I was back in Edward's office delivering the good news to Danny I think he almost fell off his chair when I said that the Queen's only stipulation was that she could deliver that iconic line.' Meanwhile, after calling his interaction with the Queen, Daniel shared a heartwarming tribute to her following her death. In a statement to the PA news agency, the 007 actor paid tribute to the former monarch, saying she would be profoundly missed. 'I, like so many, was deeply saddened by the news today and my thoughts are with the royal family, those she loved and all those who loved her. She leaves an incomparable legacy and will be profoundly missed.' Following the Queen's death, a host of other big names from the showbiz world shared tributes to the monarch, including Victoria Beckham, Sir Elton John and Mick Jagger. It comes as Britain is today mourning the death of its beloved Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. After a remarkable 70 years on the throne, the country's longest-reigning royal yesterday died 'peacefully', aged 96, at Balmoral in Scotland. Her death sparked an immediate and huge outpouring of emotion, with thousands of heartbroken mourners gathering outside the gates of Buckingham Palace and other royal buildings yesterday evening. Rest in peace: It comes as Britain is today mourning the death of its beloved Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II At one point, a rendition of 'God Save The Queen' rang out among the mourners, followed by cheers of 'Long Live The King'. Others laid flowers outside Windsor Castle - where The Queen had spent much of her time following the death of her beloved husband, Prince Philip, in April last year. And in a sign of the Queen's considerable worldwide influence and appeal, royal fans laid flowers outside British embassies including in Washington, Berlin and Oslo. Senior royals dashed to be at the Queen's bedside on Thursday, but did not reach Balmoral in time before she passed, it is believed. Only her eldest children, Prince Charles and Princess Anne, who were already in Scotland at the time of the Monarch's sudden turn for the worse, were able to make it to the royal estate before her death, sources said. Tragedy: Her death sparked an immediate and huge outpouring of emotion, with thousands of mourners gathering outside the gates of Buckingham Palace on Thursday evening (pictured) Prince Andrew, Prince Edward, his wife Sophie, and Prince William all flew in from Berkshire via private jet to Aberdeen on Thursday as they dashed to Balmoral to see her. But it is understood that they did not reach the estate before she passed. Prince Harry, who was due to attend a charity event with wife Meghan in London on Thursday, also attempted to reach Balmoral in time. But he arrived at 8pm, nearly an hour-and-a-half after the public were informed of the Queen's death. The Queen's son Charles, the former Prince of Wales, is now King Charles III, while Prince William has inherited his father's title and is now, along with his wife, styled The Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge. William is also now the 'heir apparent' to the British throne. Nineties supermodel Christy Turlington looked effortlessly chic as she stepped out in New York on Friday with her stunning lookalike daughter Grace, 18. The beauty, 53, showed off her sense of style in a white shirt and cream chinos leaving the Diane von Furstenberg event during NYFW. Christy shares Grace and son Finn, 16, with her American actor husband Ed Burns, 54. Uncanny: Nineties supermodel Christy Turlington looked effortlessly chic as she stepped out in New York on Friday with her stunning lookalike daughter Grace, 18 Christy boosted her height with strappy white leather heeled sandals and toted a chic circular black bag as she strolled along. She wore her tresses swept back in a chic up do and opted for a red lip look while carrying a magazine on her arm. Meanwhile Grace looked edgy in a sheer lace black top, slouchy jeans and a pair of quilted black heeled boots. Fashionista: The beauty, 53, showed off her sense of style in a white shirt and cream chinos leaving the Diane von Furstenberg event during NYFW It comes after Christy shared a sweet photo with her eldest child Grace last month - and they looked more like sisters than mother and daughter. While both rocking beautiful black gowns for a night out, the supermodel made sure to snap an iconic family photo with her carbon copy, who was wearing a white corsage on her wrist. In the photo, the teenager can be seen beaming as she stood between her famous parents as her mother sweetly held onto her arm. 'Our girl,' the mother-of-two captioned the picture, which showed her in a sleeveless, floor-length dress and light brown hair cascading down her back. The look: Christy boosted her height with strappy white leather heeled sandals and toted a chic circular black bag as she strolled along Glowing: She wore her tresses swept back in a chic up do and opted for a red lip look while carrying a magazine on her arm The post came nearly three months after Grace landed her first magazine cover, in which she sported a $6,400 red lace sheath dress by Prada and a 'Graceland' trucker hat. Turlington celebrated the milestone achievement by posting the issue of POP Magazine, featuring her lookalike, with a heartfelt caption. 'Can't take any credit or responsibility for this, other than having birthed this wonder to the world and given her the family name she carries with its full meaning and representation,' Turlington captioned the image. 'Once again, welcome to the world @graciebrns I love you, Kiddo.' Grace was photographed by Clara Balzary for the cover shoot, and with her light brown hair, arched brows, and green eyes, she is the spitting image of her mother. Family: Christy shares Grace and son Finn, 16, with her American actor husband Ed Burns, 54 (pictured all together last month) Got it from her mama: The teen closely resembles her supermodel mom who was part of the '90s modeling cohort dubbed the 'Magnificent Seven' Turlington, along with Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Helena Christensen, Claudia Schiffer, and Elle Macpherson, was famously a part of the '90s modeling cohort that the New York Times dubbed the 'Magnificent Seven.' The beauty has appeared on the cover of countless magazines over the years, and it looks like her daughter is following in her footsteps. Grace's first cover got the stamp of approval from plenty of her mother's famous friends, including Campbell, who called herself a 'proud auntie' in the comments of Turlington's post. 'Amazing!' wrote Crawford, whose 20-year-old daughter, Kaia Gerber, is also a model, while Christensen shared heart eyes emojis in response. Fiona Falkiner mourned along with the rest of Australia on Friday as Queen Elizabeth II tragically passed in the early hours of the morning. The plus-size model, 39, with great admiration, shared a sweet black and white picture of the monarch with her followers. 'Queen, fearless leader, beautiful human. Rest in peace x,' she captioned the Instagram post. Fiona Falkiner, 39, (pictured) mourned along with the rest of Australia on Friday as Queen Elizabeth II tragically passed in the early hours of the morning Australia has joined the world in mourning Queen Elizabeth II, as her death prompts the first change in head of state in more than seven decades. A statement from Buckingham Palace early on Friday (AEST) confirmed the 96-year-old's death. 'The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon,' Buckingham Palace said. 'The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.' The plus-size model with great admiration, shared a sweet black and white picture of the monarch with her followers. 'Queen, fearless leader, beautiful human. Rest in peace x,' she captioned the Instagram post Flags will fly at half mast across Australia on Friday as the nation waits to hear how the official mourning process will proceed. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also paid tribute to the Queen, who is succeeded by her son King Charles III in a move that is expected to renew Australia's republican debate. 'An historic reign and a long life devoted to duty, family, faith and service has come to an end,' Mr Albanese said in a statement. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (pictured) also paid tribute to the Queen, who is succeeded by her son King Charles III in a move that is expected to renew Australia's republican debate He continued: 'The government and the people of Australia offer our deepest condolences to the royal family, who are grieving for a beloved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother - the person whom for so long was their greatest inner strength.' Mr Albanese said that 'from her famous first trip to Australia, the only reigning sovereign to ever visit, it was clear Her Majesty held a special place in her heart for Australia'. 'Fifteen more tours before cheering crowds in every part of our country confirmed the special place she held in ours.' Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was Queen of the UK and 14 Commonwealth realms including Australia, since her reign began in February 1952. Mr Albanese said that 'from her famous first trip to Australia, the only reigning sovereign to ever visit, it was clear Her Majesty (pictured) held a special place in her heart for Australia'. (Pictured receiving flowers from waiting school children waving flags after a Commonwealth Day Service in Sydney in March 2006) Samantha Womack has revealed that her beloved dog Lola has died - as she continues to battle breast cancer. The EastEnders actress, 49, took to Instagram on Friday to share the sad news and poignantly wrote: 'Cannot cope with losing you, not now...' alongside a gallery of images with her pooch. Last month Samantha announced that she she'd 'started her own battle' with the disease as she paid tribute to Olivia Newton-John, who died aged 73 after long fight with cancer. Tough times: Samantha Womack has revealed that her beloved dog Lola has died - as she continues to battle breast cancer In the post about the death of the German shepherd greyhound mix, Samantha shared an array of sweet snaps with her pet as she cuddled and doted on him. There was also a selection of close up pictures of Lola in sweet outfits and sleeping as well as posing with her other pets. She wrote in her caption: 'My heart is broken. My soulmate Lola. Cannot cope with losing you, not now...'. Upset: The EastEnders actress, 49, took to Instagram on Friday to share the sad news and poignantly wrote: 'Cannot cope with losing you, not now...' alongside a gallery of images with her pooch On August 9 Samantha revealed she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. The soap star announced that she she'd 'started her own battle' with the disease as she paid tribute to Grease star Olivia. In a tribute to the late actress, she tweeted a picture of the pair with Olivia's daughter Chloe, taken when Samantha had played Sandy in the 1993 West End production of Grease. Samantha captioned the image: 'This was the most magical of evenings. Olivia and Chloe had come to see Grease in London and we had dinner together afterwards. Kind: In the post about the death of the German shepherd greyhound mix, Samantha shared an array of sweet snaps with her pet as she cuddled and doted on him 'I was so excited and in awe, she was my childhood. I now start my own battle with this disease and am left feeling deeply moved. #OliviaNewtonJohn.' Samantha, who famously played Ronnie Mitchell in EastEnders from 2007 to 2017, was immediately flooded with messages of support from her celebrity friends. Referencing the star's upcoming stint in the West End production of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, comedian Shappi Khorsandi penned: 'Sending the most brilliant White Witch support and love x' Love: There was also a selection of close up pictures of Lola in sweet outfits and sleeping as well as posing with her other pets Distressed: She wrote in her caption: 'My heart is broken. My soulmate Lola. Cannot cope with losing you, not now...' Samantha's on-screen sister in EastEnders, Rita Simons, also reached out, tweeting: 'Love you forever my sis'. This Morning's soap expert Sharon Marshall tweeted: 'Wishing you love and strength', while actress Lucia Keskin added: 'Sending strength. Love you loads!!!!!!' A few weeks after she confirmed she was recovering from breast cancer surgery and was home and being cared for by boyfriend Oliver Farnworth following the operation. Difficult: Last month Samantha announced that she she'd 'started her own battle' with the disease as she paid tribute to Olivia Newton-John, who died aged 73 after long fight with cancer Sharing a photo of her healthy dinner - a bowl of homemade soup - she wrote: 'Recuperating after breast cancer op. My love makes me turmeric and ginger in the morning and homemade butternut squash soup in the evening... feeling loved and grateful.' The reassuring post prompted a wave of responses from friends and followers, with former EastEnders co-star Tamzin Outhwaite writing: 'Sending lots of love and positive energy.' Close friend Denise Van Outen added: 'Sending you massive love,' while Gaby Roslin wrote: 'Sending you so much love.' Important: A few weeks after she confirmed she was recovering from breast cancer surgery and was home and being cared for by boyfriend Oliver Farnworth following the operation Soap star legend: Samantha famously played Ronnie Mitchell in EastEnders from 2007 to 2017 Samantha is currently starring as the White Witch in The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, which opened to rave reviews at the Gillian Lynne Theatre in the West End last month, and is running until January. Samantha has two children, Lili and Benji, with former husband Mark Womack, who appears in Emmerdale. They split up four years ago, but have carried on living together. For the past two years she has been dating actor Oliver Farnworth, 40, and the three of them now form a 'blended parenting unit' dividing their time between homes in Bedfordshire and Liverpool. The Macmillan Support Line offers free, confidential support to people living with cancer and their loved ones. Call 0808 808 00 00 for support. Married at First Sight star Stacey Hampton admitted that her bikie former fiance funded her lavish lifestyle in resurfaced audition tape for the reality show. Senior Rebels boss Shane Smith, 38, was killed in a motorcycle crash in Adelaide's north-east early Wednesday morning. The father-of-four died at the scene, despite paramedics' desperate attempts to revive him. Married at First Sight star Stacey Hampton admitted that her bikie former fiance funded her lavish lifestyle in resurfaced audition tape for the reality show. Senior Rebels boss Shane Smith, 38, was killed in a motorcycle crash in Adelaide 's north-east early Wednesday morning. Pictured together In the clip, Stacey, 28, was asked how she afforded the pricey Rolex watch and Givenchy purse that she was wearing. 'You might have to ask my ex' she said with a laugh, insinuating that it was purchased for her by Smith. Elsewhere in the clip, Stacey admitted that she had 'cheated' on her ex, after he cheated on her. In the clip, Stacey, 28, was asked how she afforded the pricey Rolex watch and Givenchy purse that she was wearing. She often shows off her designer items on Instagram 'It was sort of like, how dare you do that to me, so I am going to do that to you,' she said. Earlier this week, the former reality star paid a heartbreaking tribute to her bikie ex and hailed the father of her two sons as an amazing dad with a heart of gold. It's the latest in a series of tragedies to hit Hampton after her father took his own life and her brother's tragic death - also in a motorcycle accident - on the day she was due to give birth. 'You might have to ask my ex' she said, insinuating that it was purchased for her by Smith Elsewhere in the clip, Stacey admitted that she had 'cheated' on her ex, after he cheated on her Hampton dated Smith from the age of 19 until their split in July 2017, a month before he was convicted of bashing two nightclub bouncers. The Rebels' Adelaide president was also the father of her two young boys Kruz and Kosta and had her name tattooed on his hand. Hampton had remained on good terms with Smith since their separation five years ago. Earlier this week, the former reality star paid a heartbreaking tribute to her bikie ex and hailed the father of her two sons as an amazing dad with a heart of gold. Pictured with their son 'He is now at peace with his brother, mother and friends,' Hampton told Nine News. 'He was an amazing father. He adored his children and his parents. Our hearts are broken, and our lives will never be the same. 'He had a heart of gold and adored his family and friends.' The former couple share sons Kruz and Kosta. Smith has Stacey and Kosta's names tattooed on his hand Smith described himself on his Facebook profile as 'straight up (and) loyal to those loyal to me'. He also included: 'One club one life, family is everything.' His distraught sister was among those who laid flowers at the scene in Redwood Park on Wednesday. Smith's passenger, a 45-year-old man who was riding on the back of the bike, suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries. The father-of-four died at the scene, despite paramedics' desperate attempts to revive him In 2020, she defended Smith and urged society not to judge her ex on his criminal past. 'He's honestly the greatest person, and I think he's ashamed of his past,' she said in a magazine interview. 'I met him when I was really young, 19, through mutual friends, and I wasn't aware of his lifestyle, but I fell for him so quickly,' she continued. Proud parent Shane Smith poses with Kosta (left) and a newborn Kruz in 2017 'At the time, I didn't realise he actually had charges from ages ago that had come up, assault charges.' Stacey, who is 11 years younger than Smith, told Daily Mail Australia in 2020 that they would 'always be each other's kryptonite'. 'Shane and I met very young, I fell hard and fast, and we will always be each other's kryptonite,' she said. 'He was always very supportive, and I had terrible post-natal depression, which is my motivation behind my charity. 'He is now at peace with his brother, mother and friends,' Hampton told Nine News. 'He was an amazing father. He adored his children and his parents. Our hearts are broken, and our lives will never be the same' 'He took the kids when I was in no state to have them. I had to fix myself, and I was alone. He was great to me. 'He still emotionally supports me and my decisions, helps me with relationship advice and also looks out for me and my children's happiness. 'We still share kids' birthdays together and do lunches. We just can't be together because we argue, and we both have a lot of damage from our past, which clashes. 'It was a civil break-up. He's an amazing dad and I have no regrets.' 'He still emotionally supports me and my decisions, helps me with relationship advice and also looks out for me and my children's happiness,' Stacey said of her former partner Smith, pictured with their son Kruz Hampton shared her struggles with being a young mother while Smith was behind bars in a previous interview with Daily Mail Australia. 'I fell pregnant at the age of 20 and gave birth at 21 when my partner was incarcerated,' she says. 'I had to get admitted to hospital with shingles from stress, and then I had Bell's palsy with stress whilst heavily pregnant.' Shane was killed in a motorbike crash in Adelaide's north-east around 3am on Wednesday In February 2019, Smith was convicted and fined $3,500 for assaulting two bouncers outside a nightclub in Bendigo on August 6, 2017. He narrowly avoided jail after a magistrate dismissed an affray charge because the savage beatings weren't deemed to be evoking of terror in bystanders. Stacey rose to fame on season seven of Married At First Sight Australia in 2020, where she was paired Michael Goonan, but they split before the reunion episode. Kylie Jenner is only 25-years-old and her mother Kris Jenner is 66-years-old. But the two reality TV star divas still went leg-to-leg in a new glamorous photo shoot to promote their cosmetic collaboration for the star's powerhouse company Kylie Cosmetics. The Hidden Hills, California residents were seen both in black as they sat side-by-side for the slick shoot. Compare and contrast: Kylie Jenner is only 25-years-old and her mother Kris Jenner is 66-years-old. But the two reality TV star divas still went leg-to-leg in a new glamorous photo shoot to promote their cosmetic collaboration for the star's powerhouse company Kylie Cosmetics Kylie had on a strapless top with a sweetheart neckline and strappy heels as she wore her raven hair parted in the middle and pulled back. Kris wore a turtleneck with a leopard and sunglasses with pumps as her noir hair was down around her face and shaggy. Both women looked incredible for the shoot where they were pushing makeup. Earlier this week Kylie modeled a very plunging black leather dress that made the most of her 5ft6in frame. It has been only seven months since she welcomed her second child, a son, with Travis Scott. Glamorizing cocktails: Kylie's firm made it clear the ladies were downing vodka So much fun: Kris was seen holding a glass of Kylie in this image shared Friday The businesswoman had on a corset top and matching skirt as she was plugging the new makeup collection she built with her mother, Jenner. 'THE KRIS COLLECTION ROUND 2 coming September 14th!!! I love collaborating with you mommy,' wrote the mother-of-two in her caption. Kylie looked her very best after welcoming her second child - a son who was previously named Wolf - in February. She already has daughter Stormi, age four. Her waistline was tiny with sculpted arms and curvy hips. She wore her black hair partially up as she went heavy on the glam makeup. Thanks, mom: The new collection was inspired by her mother Kris, seen left Kylie was posing with her mother Kris who looked spectacular in a black satin and pleather off-the-shoulder dress. They debuted their collection the day before. 'Kris collection round two coming September 14,' exclaimed Kylie on TikTok as her mom said: 'We can't wait, you guys!' Kylie began the reveal with a look at the Kris collection PR box, which is often sent out to beauty influencers and close Kardashian-Jenner pals. Some of the Kylie Cosmetics PR boxes have been made available to purchase over the years, the most recent being the Kendall x Kylie collection. Kris' box is decked out in roses along the border and has the momager's signature plastered on the front of it in red. Kylie then lifted the lid to show just what the collection consists of, as well as how each item is packaged. Back in black: Kylie looked her very best after welcoming her second child - a son who was previously named Wolf - in February. Her waistline was tiny with sculpted arms and curvy hips. She wore her black hair partially up as she went heavy on the glam makeup She explained that the collection's is themed after an 'iconic' photo of her mother from 2017. In the epic throwback, Kris posed with a martini in hand and her cropped hair had been taken from brunette to a bleach blonde. She rocked a silky white and red rose patterned getup, which was styled with red booties, a red Birkin bag and a pair of designer shades. 'How beautiful...' said Kylie while zooming in and out on the range of products, which includes new 'Curetini' under eye patches, a lip crayon set, a large eyeshadow palette, an anti-aging lip serum, and a face palette. The box: Earlier Kylie was seen in this black leather dress with a sweetheart neckline The 'Curetini' eye patches come in a pale pink box with a cartoon version of Kris' head on the front. The patches are secured inside an envelope, covered in green olives, inside the box. Kylie carefully ripped the package opened and showed off the patches, which also boast a green olive pattern. 'This is such a good formula. So hydrating. I'm obsessed,' Kylie gushed, before moving onto the lip crayon set which comes with three 'really pretty Kris Jenner shades. There's 'Classic Kris,' which is a deep nude, 'But As Your Manager,' which is a bright orange-red and 'Don't F*** With Me, which Kylie described as a 'coral-y pink shade.' The makeup mogul noted that Kris was the mind behind all of the shades as a she complimented her mother for doing a 'good job on curating the trio. Glam: For the reveal video, Kylie slipped into a strapless black leather dress styled with a dazzling emerald necklace and matching earrings 'Kris collection round two coming September 14,' exclaimed the 24-year-old makeup mogul, with Kris, 65, excitedly adding: 'We can't wait, you guys!' 'I love the way it goes on the skin,' Kris noted, adding that the blush and highlighter can be 'used together or separate.' They then introduced the 'Martini' eyeshadow palette, which comes with a slew of nude and deep green shades in shimmer and matte formulas. The duo captured themselves applying several of the products to their already made-up faces, as well as Kris whipping up and sipping on a martini. Kylie first teased the Kris collection in a September 4 Instagram post, but did not reveal what makeup products would be included or what the packaging would look like. Since then, the star has been using social media to get fans hyped up for its September 14 release. On Sunday night, Kylie and her mom teamed up to show her 46.9 million TikTok followers how to make the perfect martini in a new video on Sunday night. 'The Kris collection round two comes out really soon, so in honor of that me and Kris Jenner are making some martinis tonight,' the reality star teased in the video. Cheers! 'The Kris collection round two comes out really soon, so in honor of that me and Kris Jenner are making some martinis tonight,' the reality star teased in the video On Sunday, Jenner first teased the makeup collaboration by posting a glamourous snap that focused on her full lips as she held her mom's signature cocktail. 'Kris Collection round 2 (martini emoji) 9.14,' she captioned the image, which showed her rocking a black halter dress and black hat. Back in 2018, the duo teamed up to tease the 'Momager' lip collection, which included a pressed powder face palette, pressed powder eyeshadow palette, 12 neutral-to-cool-tones and the Give Me A Kiss Bullet lipstick with a matching lip liner. Julie Andrews has shared a heartfelt tribute to the Queen as she remarked that 'it feels as though we lost a friend'. The country's longest-reigning royal, Queen Elizabeth II, died 'peacefully', aged 96, at Balmoral in Scotland on Thursday. And the legendary actress, 86, joined the legions of royal fans in praising the Queen as she hailed the monarch for her 'love wisdom and grace' in a statement. Tribute: Julie Andrews has shared a heartfelt tribute to the Queen as she remarked that 'it feels as though we lost a friend' Julie, who herself played a royal as the dowager Queen of Genovia in the original The Princess Diaries, shared: 'A page in history has turned today. 'Along with millions of others, I mourn the passing of our beloved Queen Elizabeth II.' Her statement continued: 'It feels as though we lost a friend: a dedicated Monarch who inspired all of us with her love, wisdom and grace. Rest in peace: The country's longest-reigning royal, Queen Elizabeth II, died 'peacefully', aged 96, at Balmoral in Scotland on Thursday 'May we honour her by holding to the standards she set for herself and her nation.' Following the Queen's death, a host of big names from the showbiz world shared tributes to the monarch, including Victoria Beckham, Sir Elton John and Mick Jagger. It comes as Britain is today mourning the death of its beloved Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. After a remarkable 70 years on the throne, the country's longest-reigning royal yesterday died 'peacefully', aged 96, at Balmoral in Scotland. Praise: Julie, who herself played a royal as the dowager Queen of Genovia in the original The Princess Diaries, shared: 'A page in history has turned today (pictured alongside Anne Hathaway in Princess Diaries) Her death sparked an immediate and huge outpouring of emotion, with thousands of heartbroken mourners gathering outside the gates of Buckingham Palace and other royal buildings yesterday evening. At one point, a rendition of 'God Save The Queen' rang out among the mourners, followed by cheers of 'Long Live The King'. Others laid flowers outside Windsor Castle - where The Queen had spent much of her time following the death of her beloved husband, Prince Philip, in April last year. So sad: 'Along with millions of others, I mourn the passing of our beloved Queen Elizabeth II. It feels as though we lost a friend' And in a sign of the Queen's considerable worldwide influence and appeal, royal fans laid flowers outside British embassies including in Washington, Berlin and Oslo. Senior royals dashed to be at the Queen's bedside on Thursday, but did not reach Balmoral in time before she passed, it is believed. Only her eldest children, Prince Charles and Princess Anne, who were already in Scotland at the time of the Monarch's sudden turn for the worse, were able to make it to the royal estate before her death, sources said. Rest in peace: It comes as Britain is today mourning the death of its beloved Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II Tragedy: Her death sparked an immediate and huge outpouring of emotion, with thousands of mourners gathering outside the gates of Buckingham Palace on Thursday evening (pictured) Prince Andrew, Prince Edward, his wife Sophie, and Prince William all flew in from Berkshire via private jet to Aberdeen on Thursday as they dashed to Balmoral to see her. But it is understood that they did not reach the estate before she passed. Prince Harry, who was due to attend a charity event with wife Meghan in London on Thursday, also attempted to reach Balmoral in time. But he arrived at 8pm, nearly an hour-and-a-half after the public were informed of the Queen's death. The Queen's son Charles, the former Prince of Wales, is now King Charles III, while Prince William has inherited his father's title and is now, along with his wife, styled The Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge. William is also now the 'heir apparent' to the British throne. Advertisement Bella Hadid has discussed getting therapy as a young teen to help with 'crying every day' and struggling with 'eating disorders'. The model, 25, spoke candidly about her adolesence and said she started smoking heavily at 14 and also struggled with chronic anxiety. Speaking to i-D magazine, Bella said: 'Growing up, I thought it was normal that I had this chronic anxiety and this disassociation, crying every day and not knowing who I was. Candid: Bella Hadid has discussed getting therapy as a young teen to help with 'crying every day' and struggling with 'eating disorders' 'Whether it was eating disorders or smoking a pack of Marlboros since the age of fourteen, I'm like, "Oh, this is what all of the kids are doing".' 'I realised that maybe that was me trying to figure out why I felt that way. And in reality, all I needed was therapy.' Bella said these problems led her to struggling in her early years in the modelling industry, when she suffered with body dysmorphia. She explained: 'During that part of my life, I was so out of body, disassociating so much... I was so confused by what people saw of me.' Early days: The model, 25, spoke candidly about her adolesence and said she started smoking heavily at 14 and also struggled with chronic anxiety (pictured in 2013) Bella said: 'Growing up, I thought it was normal that I had this chronic anxiety and this disassociation, crying every day and not knowing who I was' She added: 'Whether it was eating disorders or smoking a pack of Marlboros since the age of fourteen, I'm like, 'Oh, this is what all of the kids are doing' ' Away from her modelling career, Bella willl make her acting debut in the Hulu series Ramy this year. The show is about a first-generation American Muslim who is torn between his family's culture and American culture. Bella enjoyed being on set, where she said there were many other people of Palestinian heritage, which she is not used to. She said: 'To go onto a set and see multiple Palestinians, Arabs, and people that are cut from the same cloth as me was really, really beautiful.' She said: 'I realised that maybe that was me trying to figure out why I felt that way. And in reality, all I needed was therapy' Honest: Bella said these problems led her to struggling in her early years in the modelling industry, when she suffered with body dysmorphia Role: Away from her modelling career, Bella willl make her acting debut in the Hulu series Ramy this year Career: The show is about a first-generation American Muslim who is torn between his family's culture and American culture Bella has long spoken of her pride in her Palestinian heritage and said she has 'felt the repercussions' of speaking out for Palestinians amid the ongoing conflict with Israel. The star revealed her forthrightness has cost her work in the past. She said: 'A few companies wont work with me anymore, and a few people may think Im crazy. 'But that doesnt bother me and it doesnt compare to what Palestinians suffer on a daily basis.' Change: Bella enjoyed being on set, where she said there were many other people of Palestinian heritage, which she is not used to Jessika Power was feeling the loss of Queen Elizabeth II on Friday. The former Married At First Sight, who has been living in the UK for the past year, says her boyfriend, British podcaster Connor Thompson, woke her in the early hours of the morning to break the sad news. 'Connor woke up at 4am and told me the news' Jessika, 30, said in a series of videos posted to Instagram Stories. Jessika Power (pictured) was feeling the loss of Queen Elizabeth II on Friday 'And I was just really sad. I don't know, maybe because I have lived in the UK for a year now' she continued. 'But you sort of see how much everyone really loves the Queen. So it is pretty sad. Connor is actually a bit upset as well'. Jessika, who now lives with Connor in Manchester with their pet dog Sushi, moved to the UK for love after the pair hit it off online. The former Married At First Sight, who has been living in the UK for the past year, says her boyfriend, British podcaster Connor Thompson (left), woke her in the early hours of the morning to break the sad news 'Connor woke up at 4am and told me the news' Jessika, 30, said in a series of videos posted to Instagram Stories. 'And I was just really sad. I don't know, maybe because I have lived in the UK for a year now' she continued Jessika first found fame on season six of Married At First Sight Australia after cheating on her husband Mick Gould with their co-star Dan Webb. Her Majesty died 'peacefully' at age 96 at her castle in Balmoral, Scotland, with Buckingham Palace issuing a statement from King Charles III at 4.04am on Friday AEST. A statement from Buckingham Palace early on Friday (AEST) confirmed the 96-year-old's death. 'But you sort of see how much everyone really loves the Queen. So it is pretty sad. Connor is actually a bit upset as well' she said 'The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon,' Buckingham Palace said. 'The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.' Flags will fly at half mast across Australia on Friday as the nation waits to hear how the official mourning process will proceed. Yazmin Oukhellou has said that she is 'so grateful to be here' and that her 'life could have been taken' as she reflected after the fatal crash that killed her boyfriend Jake McLean. Taking to her Instagram on Friday the TOWIE star, 28, shared a bikini snap from Morocco as she told fans how she was now spending as much time as possible with her loved ones. Yazmin jetted to Marrakech following Jake's funeral on August 16 for a 'healing holiday' with her parents after she was left with serious injuries in the horror car crash. Tough times: Yazmin Oukhellou has said that she is 'so grateful to be here' and that her 'life could have been taken' as she reflected after the fatal crash that killed her boyfriend Jake McLean Businessman Jake, 33, was killed instantly on July 3 when his blue Mercedes E class saloon plunged down from a mountainous road down a ravine in Bodrum, Turkey. In her latest social media update Yazmin posed by a pool in the sunshine and showed off her toned figure as she leaned up to the sun and topped up her tan. She penned in the caption: 'I am so grateful & blessed to be here in Marrakech with my mum and dad. Since my accident and realising how my life could've been taken I now want to spend as much time as I possibly can with my loved ones. Tragic: Yazmin jetted to Marrakech following Jake's funeral on August 16 for a 'healing holiday' with her parents after she was left with serious injuries in the horror car crash 'I urge all of you to do the same. Even if it's just for a cup of coffee a few times a week. Make the time. Time is one thing we don't get back. Love Yaz!' Jake was killed on July 3 when his blue Mercedes E class saloon crashed in Bodrum, while Yazmin was left with serious injuries after she had to break her own arm to escape the wreckage as Jake was in the driving seat unconscious. 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. Jake was pronounced dead at the scene while Yazmin was rushed to hospital, where she underwent treatment for her injured arm. Break: Taking to her Instagram on Friday the TOWIE star, 28, shared a bikini snap from Morocco as she told fans how she was now spending as much time as possible with her loved ones After the crash, she clambered through thick, thorny bushes to stop a passing motorist for help. She has told of how she is still coping with post traumatic stress following her return to the UK. It has been claimed the couple had a blazing row at a nightclub shortly before the crash, something which Jake's mum Anita Walsh told Turkish authorities she believed could have played a role in her son's death. This led to a bitter fallout between Yazmin and Anita, who banned the reality star from Jake's funeral in Essex last month. Struggles: In another recent Instagram post, shared on Wednesday, Yazmin has reflected on feeling 'so low' after the crash and said she is trying to appreciate her 'second chance' at life Jake's secret girlfriend Chloe Hennessey, 27, a beauty therapist, was invited to the funeral and posted a series of touching photos on Instagram of the couple, paying tribute to the man she will 'love forever'. Writing on Instagram post sharing a photo of her and Jake, Chloe said: 'What a beautiful day for a beautiful soul. So happy everyone important that should've been there showed up. 'So many laughs, cries, and happy memories with all his closest loved ones. Hope you can fully rest in peace now fly high Jakey. Love you forever always in our hearts.' On the day of Jake's funeral, Yazmin broke her social media silence, writing: 'I have been taking some time away from social media to fully focus on my mental and physical recovery. Crash: In the horror car crash, Yazmin was left with serious injuries after she had to break her own arm to escape the wreckage as Jake was in the driving seat unconscious 'I needed this time away to work on healing and processing everything as best I can. 'This has taught me that life is so short and we must cherish our loved ones as much as possible. 'I am so grateful for our memories and the special time that Jake and I shared. I've not stopped thinking about him and I'll miss him always. He will forever hold a special place in my heart.' If you have been affected by this story, you can call the Samaritans on 116 123 or visit www.samaritans.org. On Thursday, President Joe Biden signed into law the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, paving the way for his administration to offer millions of Americans with higher unemployment, direct cash assistance, and other coronavirus relief. President Joe Biden's decision came after the law was passed by the House on Wednesday and the Senate on Saturday. Before signing the law, Biden stated, "This historic act is about restoring the backbone of this country and providing individuals in this country a fighting chance." According to White House press secretary Jen Psaki, the first wave of direct deposit cheques will be in Americans' bank accounts as early as this weekend. Payments are expected to continue for the next few weeks. In a new commercial pushing the stimulus plan, Biden claims that more than 85% of individuals would receive one of the $1,400 checks. Anti-poverty and unemployment experts praised the nearly $2 trillion pandemic package, saying the $1,400 checks, as well as other provisions like extending the $300 per week extra jobless aid for millions of unemployed people and expanding the Child Tax Credit for low-income households, will help families pay their bills and lift children out of poverty. According to the Pew Research Center, over half of Americans are still in financial distress one year after the pandemic slowed down the economy and resulted in significant layoffs. When Will New Stimulus Checks Arrive? The plan would transfer $350 billion to state, municipal, and tribal governments to cover expenditures incurred until the end of 2024. The plan also mandates small states to get at least the amount granted under viral legislation enacted by Congress last March. Schools will gain as well, with an additional $130 billion in spending earmarked for kids in kindergarten through 12th grade. NEW AD: Help is here: direct payments of up to $1,400, vaccine distribution, and more. No thanks to Republicans who opposed it. pic.twitter.com/Bah94H6Tty DNC War Room (@DNCWarRoom) March 12, 2021 College and university spending would be increased by nearly $40 billion, with the funds used to pay pandemic-related expenses and offer emergency relief to students to cover costs such as food, housing, and computer equipment. In addition, $28.6 billion would be allocated to a new initiative aimed at restaurants and bars affected by the pandemic. Other initiatives include rental and homeowner aid, as well as increased assistance to help individuals pay for health care costs under the Affordable Care Act. The last two waves of stimulus cheques took days to months to reach customers' bank accounts and mailboxes. The second stimulus check, which was authorized at the end of December, was sent more quickly than the first, with some recipients receiving their reviews just days after the measure was signed into law. How To Be Eligible For Stimulus Checks in 2022? The primary factor of whether or not a person will receive a check is his income. A single individual will pay $1,400 while a married couple filing jointly would pay $2,800. Only individuals earning up to $75,000, as well as married couples earning up to $150,000, would be eligible for the total payments. Payments would be reduced for incomes over such limits. The law excludes single persons earning more than $80,000 and married couples earning more than $160,000. The cut-offs for the first stimulus check were higher, at $100,000 for individuals and $200,000 for married couples. Some politicians argued that the checks should go to lower-income families, citing evidence that showed higher-income people are recovering from the economic burden of the epidemic. Other research, however, indicates broad financial distress across the country, with the number of Americans suffering financial difficulty remaining unchanged from December, according to Morning Consult economist John Leer. The third batch of $1,400 checks would allow over 23 million individuals to meet their bills for more than four months without incurring further debt or depleting their savings. Read Also: Camilla Parker Bowles Becomes Queen Consort; Will Her Children Tom Parker Bowles, Laura Lopes Get Royal Titles? Fresh Stimulus Checks Could Be Bad News A fourth stimulation check would be unwelcome for one simple reason. The federal government only grants stimulus funds when it believes it is vital to stimulate the economy or assist citizens in dealing with a financial crisis. To get another stimulus payment, the country would need to be in a serious recession or the COVID-19 pandemic would need to worsen, maybe due to a more virulent strain that the vaccines were ineffective against. Nobody wants these things to happen even if it means sending out another payment. Although you should not expect a fourth check from the federal government owing to the implications for the country, things are different when it comes to financial assistance from your state. As a result, many local governments have ended up with a budget surplus. Some of this money is being distributed to people in the form of various sorts of stimulus checks in a number of states. The issuing of these payments isn't directly tied to any financial crises since the government is only dispersing extra monies. So, if you want another stimulus payout this year, your best bet is for it to come from your state. By visiting the website of your local Department of Revenue, you can find out if the location where you live is one of those accepting payments, The Motley Fool via MSN reported. Related Article: Republicans Slam Joe Biden's $10,000 Student Loan Forgiveness: "This Is Not a Harmless Policy' @YouTube @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Emily Ratajkowski has reportedly filed for divorce from her husband of four years, Sebastian Bear-McClard, two months after they split over allegations that he had cheated on her. PageSix reported on Friday that the 31-year-old model filed the day before in Manhattan Supreme Court. The outlet, which claims to have seen the documents, added that the divorce is being contested, which means there are issues to be litigated. The couple first split in July amid accusations that 41-year-old Sebastian was a 'serial cheater.' The model reportedly made the decision to leave her film producer husband following the claims of his infidelity, but is said to be coping well. Emily Ratajkowski has reportedly filed for divorce from her husband of four years, Sebastian Bear-McClard (seen in 2020), two months after they split over allegations that he had cheated PageSix reported on Friday that the 31-year-old model filed the day before in Manhattan Supreme Court. Emily is seen without her wedding ring in New York City on Thursday The outlet, which claims to have seen the documents, added that the divorce is being contested, which means there are issues to be litigated. They are seen with their son in March The model was pictured moving her stuff out of the New York City apartment that she previously shared with Sebastian last month A source close to the star first confirmed the shocking split to People magazine in July, explaining that Emily is focused on parenting the couple's son Sylvester, 16 months. 'They split recently. It was Em's decision. She is doing OK,' the insider revealed. 'She is strong and focused on her son. She loves being a mom.' Emily and Sebastian were first linked on Valentine's Day in February 2018. At the time, the pair was spotted packing on the PDA in Los Angeles, California. They are seen in March 2018 The news came just days after someone close to the pair told Page Six that Sebastian was a 'serial cheater,' with the insider stating: 'It's gross. He's a dog.' Comedian and social media influencer Claudia Oshry also spoke out about the situation during an episode of The Morning Toast podcast at the time, in which she claimed Sebastian's infidelity was an open secret in the industry. 'It's, like, known that her husband has cheated on her and they're filing for divorce,' she said, adding that when the couple officially confirms their separation, it will not come as a surprise to anyone. Neither Emily nor Sebastian have made any public comments in regards to the status of their marriage as of yet. DailyMail.com has contacted representatives for them both for comment. Emily and Sebastian were last spotted together in mid-June while on vacation in Italy, and appeared in good spirits as they relaxed on Porto Ercole beach together. The couple was also among the many celebrity guests at Ari Emanuel's wedding to Sarah Staudinger in St. Tropez in late May. She first sparked breakup rumors in July, when she was seen going for a stroll in New York with the couple's son, and was not wearing her wedding ring. The model was pictured moving her stuff out of the New York City apartment that she previously shared with Sebastian last month. Just days after their first spotting, news hit the web that they had tied the knot in a New York City courthouse on February 23, 2018. They are seen at the courthouse They made their red carpet debut in March of that year, while attending the 33rd Annual Film Independent Spirit Awards together (seen above) As movers removed her furniture, artwork, clothing, and other belongings from the home, Emily was seen carrying out a plant. Emily and Sebastian, who is best known for producing movies Uncut Gems, Good Time, and Funny Pages, were first linked on Valentine's Day in February 2018 - one month after news had hit the web that she had split from her boyfriend Jeff Magid after three years together. At the time, the pair was spotted packing on the PDA in Los Angeles, California. It's unclear how they met, but an insider told Us Weekly at the time that they had known each other 'for years.' Just days after their first spotting, news hit the web that they had tied the knot in a New York City courthouse on February 23, 2018. Emily then confirmed the news via Instagram, writing, 'Sooo, I have a surprise, I got married today.' She later told Jimmy Fallon on his show, The Tonight Show, that she only took '30 seconds' to decide she wanted to marry the producer. 'I thought about it for about 30 seconds,' she joked. 'It was a city hall courthouse wedding. I guess I didnt know what I always wanted to do, which is maybe why it was so untraditional.' They made their red carpet debut in March of that year, while attending the 33rd Annual Film Independent Spirit Awards together, and the two looked like the epitome of marital bliss at the event In October 2020, the pair announced that they were expecting their first child together. Emily is seen during the pregancy Sylvester Apollo Bear was born on March 8, 2021, with Emily calling it the most 'surreal, beautiful, and love-filled' experience of her life on Instagram 'Emily looked so in love with her husband. She kept staring at him, smiling and was touching his face a lot,' an onlooker told E! News. 'Emily rested her head on his shoulder and looked truly happy.' Their four-year romance was plagued with scandal and controversy, starting with the fact that they had wed after only a few days together. The pair received a lot of backlash online for the whirlwind romance, and Emily later defended their decision to get married so quickly, explaining during an appearance on Busy Tonight that their relationship had been building for a long time before they started dating. 'We knew each other for a long time before,' she explained. 'He likes to joke, "Yeah everyone thinks we got married quickly, but you vetted me for two years."' In October 2020, the pair announced that they were expecting their first child together. And while they were excited to share in the experience together, Emily opened up about feeling alone during the pregnancy. 'Its something a woman does by herself, inside her body, no matter what her circumstances may be,' she wrote during a Vogue essay. 'Despite having a loving partner and many female friends ready to share the gritty details of their pregnancies, I am ultimately alone with my body in this experience. 'There is no one to feel it with me - the sharp muscular aches in my lower abdomen that come out of nowhere while Im watching a movie or the painful heaviness of my breasts that now greets me first thing every morning. 'My husband has no physical symptoms in "our" pregnancy, another reminder of how different a woman and mans experience of life can be.' Sylvester Apollo Bear was born on March 8, 2021, with Emily calling it the most 'surreal, beautiful, and love-filled' experience of her life on Instagram. The death of Queen Elizabeth II appears to have inspired Kanye West to turn over a new leaf and put a hold on his many grudges. The 45-year-old rapper took to his Instagram account in the early morning hours of Friday to announce that he was 'releasing all grudges' in a text post, while adding photos of the Queen to suggest her death had inspired him. His vow to let bygones be bygones comes as he has sniped at his ex-wife Kim Kardashian as well as the brands Adidas and Gap in recent weeks. Royal example: Kanye West, 45, vowed to settled his ongoing feuds after he was apparently inspired by the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday; seen in March in Los Angeles Kanye's post came in the form of one of his now-standard text posts, which he didn't bother captioning. 'Life is precious,' he wrote. 'Releasing all grudges today. Leaning into the light.' He followed up the brief text with a black-and-white photo of the late Queen in her youth, along with a colorized closeup of her gazing off to the side. The post was Ye's second attempt at leaving his grudges behind, as an earlier since-deleted version including the same text, along with an additional sentence listing those he has beefed with recently: 'Best wishes and blessings to Pete [Davidson] [Kid] Cudi Daniel Cheery [sic],' he original wrote, according to TMZ. Notably, the Monster rapper didn't include his ex-wife Kim, though most of his posts terrorizing her have been about other issues, such as where their four children will go to school. Forgive and forget: The rapper wrote that he was 'releasing all grudges today.' An earlier deleted version of the post added, 'Best wishes and blessings to Pete [Davidson] [Kid] Cudi Daniel Cheery [sic]' Inspiration: He included photos of the late Queen Elizabeth II in her youth, and her death appeared to have inspired him to end his bickering Queen Elizabeth died on Thursday at Balmoral Castle in Scotland at the age of 96. A cause was not announced by the royal family. Her son Charles was elevated to the throne as King Charles III following her death. 'The death of my beloved Mother, Her Majesty the Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family,' he said in a statement. 'We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much-loved Mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world.' Earlier on Thursday, it was announced that she was under medical supervision after her physicians became 'concerned' about her condition. Elizabeth, who was born in 1926, ascended to the throne and reigned longer than any other British monarch. Family: Kanye's attempts to tone down his online vitriol come after he showed his devotion to his children in a photo posted to Instagram on Wednesday Kanye's attempts to tone down his online vitriol come after he showed his devotion to his children in a photo posted to Instagram on Wednesday. In the photo, he was seen embracing North, nine; Saint, six; Chicago, four; and Psalm, three. He captioned the shot, 'Some things are bigger than money. My kids have no idea what daddy has gone through this past few days alone to secure the brand that will one day be handed down to them God Willing. 'These future leaders will never back down be stolen from and forced to compromise who they are for the check.' His post arrived amid public feuding with Adidas over claims that the brand had copied his ideas and style from his Yeezy shoes and sandals with its recent footwear. Stolen ideas? His post arrived amid public feuding with Adidas over claims that the brand had copied his ideas and style from his Yeezy shoes and sandals with its recent footwear Real Yeezys: The real Yeezys slides Kanye West sold through his deal with Adidas, which he claimed looked too much like the new Adilette sandal He has received public support on social media from the producer Swizz Beatz and Sean 'Diddy' Combs. In recent days, Kanye has pretended that the Adidas CEO Kasper Rrsted had died with a fake New York Times front page, though he is still alive. However, he seemed to suggest a thawing of relations even before Queen Elizabeth's death inspired him, as he urged his followers to tone down their attacks on Adidas CCO Alasdhair Willis on Tuesday. He has also been duking it out with the brand's SVP/General Manager, Daniel Cherry, who was among the people he planned to settle his feuds with. Ouch: In recent days, Kanye has pretended that the Adidas CEO Kasper Rrsted had died with a fake New York Times front page, though he is still alive Toning it down: However, he seemed to suggest a thawing of relations even before Queen Elizabeth's death inspired him, as he urged his followers to tone down their attacks on Adidas CCO Alasdhair Willis on Tuesday Favorite targets: Since she began dating former SNL star Pete Davidson shortly after she made her debut hosting the show in October of last year, Kanye has attacked her and the comedian relentlessly via his Instagram page; seen in November 2021 in LA Kanye's longest-running feud has been with his ex-wife Kim Kardashian, who wasn't mentioned in the earlier version of his post. Since she began dating former SNL star Pete Davidson shortly after she made her debut hosting the show in October of last year, Kanye has attacked her and the comedian relentlessly via his Instagram page. Among the collateral damage was his relationship with fellow rapper Kid Cudi, also among those he wants to end his differences with. Cudi's sin appeared to be his ongoing friendship with Davidson, which caused West to lash out at him in several posts. Cudi, who has appeared on many of the Flashing Lights rapper's albums, vowed not to work with him again due to the posts. Although Kanye appeared to have toned down his posting about Kim and Pete in the final weeks of their relationship, he poured salt on the wound after their breakup was reported by posting another fake New York Times front page with a joking obituary headline for Davidson after the breakup, though he is alive and well. Kanye's latest online sparring with Kim was over where their children would go to school, as he didn't want them to attend the elite private school his ex-wife had chosen, and instead wanted them to attend his newly opened christian school Donda Academy. Jessica Simpson is using an in-house photographer these days, quite literally. On Friday the 42-year-old blonde beauty shared that her mini-me daughter Maxwell, 10, was the person who took a glamorous photo of her by a swimming pool in a back yard. The Dukes of Hazzard actress was hawking a nameplate necklace that is being sold through her Jessica Simpson collection brand. Shot by Maxi! Jessica Simpson is using an in-house photographer these days, quite literally. On Friday the 42-year-old blonde beauty shared that her mini-me daughter Maxwell, 10, was the person who took a glamorous photo of her by their swimming pool Junior shutterbug: The child was seen in a long black T-shirt with her light hair pulled back at sunset as she held onto a professional camera while in a back yard by an empty swimming pool The child was seen in a long black T-shirt with her light hair pulled back at sunset as she held onto a professional camera while in a back yard by an empty swimming pool. Simpson was seen with her long blonde hair falling down her back as she wore a strappy swimsuit that showed off her tanned body. Her face could not be seen. The star also noted that her fall campaign was 'coming soon.' Maxwell was replaced: This close-up image of Simpson was taken by Adam Franzino The star also has son Ace Knute, nine, and daughter Birdie Mae, three, but they seemed to have the day off from work. Jessica has done an incredible job at launching and maintaining her fashion brand, even buying it back last year to have full control of the company. Simpson runs the label with her mother. Together they oversee the design if clothing, shoes, purses, sunglasses and jewelry, among other things. Last week she shared an image of her two eldest children going back to school. Boss babe: Jessica has done an incredible job at launching and maintaining her fashion brand, even buying it back last year to have full control of the company. Simpson runs the label with her mother. Together they oversee the design if clothing, shoes, purses, sunglasses and jewelry, among other things 'These two had an amazing first day of school! Im so proud! Heart is full. Growin up and ownin it. Happy kiddos,' wrote the former reality TV star in her caption. Kim Kardashian hit the like button. Her daughter North West is close friends with Maxwell and they often do play dates and sleep overs. This comes after Simpson has been modeling her fall line for her clothing collection. In August the 42-year-old blonde beauty starred in the new shoot where she had on Daisy Duke denim short shorts - which she wore beautifully in her 2005 film The Dukes Of Hazzard - with an orange paisley blouse. Cute kids! Simpson posted an image of her two eldest children Maxwell and Ace Knute, nine, as they headed to school Catherine Bach made short shorts famous when she played Daisy Duke on the TV series Dukes Of Hazzard which aired from 1979 until 1985. That is why short shorts are called Daisy Dukes still to this day. Simpson modeled the look beautifully. Jessica's roller-skates were a sparkly bright pink and also a deep green color. The star was leaning on a vintage white car as she raised an arm in joy. Family time: Simpson with her husband Eric Johnson as well as her three kids, mom and extended family 'Dont be a Hater, be a Roller Skater,' she said in her caption. 'Introducing the @jessicasimpsonstyle roller skates! Who needs to walk when you can rollI promise Im wheely good at this.' 'Step into your confidence and roll onto something new! Introducing Rollstar! ' it said on her Jessica Simpson Style Instagram account. She has said in a recent interview she has started roller skating again as it adds so much joy to her life. The star famously wore roller skates for her A Public Affair music video over a decade ago. Roll with it: Simpson was seen in one of her bikinis - with matching platform heels - while on vacation in Mexico The star has been working hard to keep her company thriving after taking it over which left her with little money in the bank. In April she said she was 'on a budget' after her credit card was declined. The pop star had been trying to make a purchase at fast food chain Taco Bell but was unsuccessful and is now using cash as she joked that she is now having to budget while she waits for a new card. She said: 'I have no working credit card. It's OK. I will pay in cash. I went to Taco Bell the other day, and my card got denied. I'm on a budget, ladies!' The I Wanna Love You Forever hitmaker went on to explain that there is a 'fear' attached to money but 'believes in herself' when it comes to business decisions. Speaking on daytime talk show The Real, she said: 'With money, there's just so much fear attached to it. I'm the person that you get mad at at the blackjack table. I'll put it all out there if it's me that's driving the show because I believe in myself and I know what I can do. And I know that nothing will stop me, and if you try to stop me, I'll try harder.' It comes just days after the star announced that she will be expanding her eponymous fashion brand - the Jessica Simpson Collection - to feature men's clothing for the first time and wants her husband to model for it. She said: 'We are going into boys and men's clothing, which I've always wanted to do, because I know how a guy's butt should look in their jeans. My husband's a good model for it, but he would never do it. Maybe I could convince him Charlotte Hawkins cut a solemn figure as she recorded her first radio appearance on Friday following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday. The presenter dressed in black and was spotted arriving at the Global Radio studios in London's Leicester Square, after appearing on Good Morning Britain alongside Ben Shephard and Susanna Reid earlier in the day. Charlotte, 47, who presents Smooth Classics at Seven on Sundays on Classic FM, wore a pleated black leather skirt and a pair of tall heels in the same colour. All in black: Charlotte Hawkins, 47, cut a solemn figure as she recorded her first radio appearance on Friday following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday She wore a black top with a square neckline, with the item revealing her back as she walked inside the building. The screen star carried a white handbag with her and opted for a subtle look for her make-up with black eyeliner and mascara to match her attire. On Friday morning she appeared on GMB alongside her co-hosts Ben and Susanna to report on the latest news following the death of the Queen on Thursday. Solemn: The Good Morning Britain presenter wore a black pleated skirt and a top in the same colour with a square neckline It comes as Britain is today mourning the death of its beloved Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. After a remarkable 70 years on the throne, the country's longest-reigning royal yesterday died 'peacefully', aged 96, at Balmoral in Scotland. Her death sparked an immediate and huge outpouring of emotion, with thousands of heartbroken mourners gathering outside the gates of Buckingham Palace and other royal buildings yesterday evening. At one point, a rendition of 'God Save The Queen' rang out among the mourners, followed by cheers of 'Long Live The King'. On screen: On Friday morning she appeared on Good Morning Britain alongside co-hosts Ben Shephard and Susanna Reid to report on the latest news following the death of the Queen Others laid flowers outside Windsor Castle - where The Queen had spent much of her time following the death of her beloved husband, Prince Philip, in April last year. And in a sign of the Queen's considerable worldwide influence and appeal, royal fans laid flowers outside British embassies including in Washington, Berlin and Oslo. Senior royals dashed to be at the Queen's bedside on Thursday, but did not reach Balmoral in time before she passed, it is believed. Only her eldest children, Prince Charles and Princess Anne, who were already in Scotland at the time of the Monarch's sudden turn for the worse, were able to make it to the royal estate before her death, sources said. Rest in peace: It comes as Britain is today mourning the death of its beloved Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II Tragedy: Her death sparked an immediate and huge outpouring of emotion, with thousands of mourners gathering outside the gates of Buckingham Palace on Thursday evening (pictured) Prince Andrew, Prince Edward, his wife Sophie, and Prince William all flew in from Berkshire via private jet to Aberdeen on Thursday as they dashed to Balmoral to see her. But it is understood that they did not reach the estate before she passed. Prince Harry, who was due to attend a charity event with wife Meghan in London on Thursday, also attempted to reach Balmoral in time. But he arrived at 8pm, nearly an hour-and-a-half after the public were informed of the Queen's death. The Queen's son Charles, the former Prince of Wales, is now King Charles III, while Prince William has inherited his father's title and is now, along with his wife, styled An ABBA Voyage concertgoer shared the emotional moment she met the Queen during her Silver Jubilee in 1997 as she paid tribute to the late monarch following her death during a visit to London's Buckingham Palace on Friday. She and some of her fellow music fans stood outside the royal residence less than 24 hours after learning of the Queen's death at Balmoral in Scotland on Thursday to pay tribute. After watching ABBA's virtual concert residency at the purpose-built venue at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in East London, one pop fan was asked what the Queen meant to her, prompting her to explain: 'What she meant to me - I'm very royalist - is stability, someone to look up to, aspire to, that she represented our country really well. Tribute: An ABBA Voyage concertgoer shared the emotional moment she met the Queen during her Silver Jubilee in 1997 as she paid tribute to the late monarch on Friday 'I met her once on a walkabout and she just came over and spoke to me, and she was a normal person. It was so lovely, you know, she was the Queen, she just came over and just chatted generally, and it was really nice. 'She was amazing. I was giving some flowers to her and we spoke about the flowers, and it was so amazing. It was a long time ago but it's just come back to me. 'It was 25 years that she'd been on the throne, it was her Silver Jubilee.' Farewell: She and some of her fellow music fans stood outside the royal residence less than 24 hours after learning of the Queen's death at Balmoral in Scotland on Thursday (the Queen pictured in February) Earlier she explained: 'We did come down yesterday for the ABBA concert yesterday and then when she died we decided to come up this morning to pay our respects because we're in London and it's the right thing to do.' When asked how they were feeling, another member of the group said: 'Just shocked, and it's sad because she's always been there, hasn't she. 'She just held herself with so much class and so much dignity, and I just don't think you see that anymore. Heartfelt words: After watching ABBA's virtual concert at the purpose-built venue at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, one pop fan was asked what the Queen meant to her Looking back: The ABBA fan said she'd met the Queen during her Silver Jubilee in 1977 (the Queen pictured on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with the late Earl Mountbatten of Burma (left), and the late Duke of Edinburgh (right) during the Silver Jubilee in 1977) 'She was a great head of state and we wanted to come here and pay our respects.' On the moment she learned of the Queen's death, the group member continued: 'I got a message and I put on the news and it came up. 'We were all in the room and we were about to leave and it was breaking news, and Huw Edwards on the BBC said it, so we just took a moment because it was just shocking.' Another member of the group explained how she and her friends made a toast to the Queen, adding: 'We were a bit emotional because we were excited for out event but they did a minute's silence before the concert.' Toast: The group said they made a toast to the Queen as the news of her death broke on Thursday before heading to the ABBA concert where there was a minute's silence It comes as Britain is today mourning the death of its beloved Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. After a remarkable 70 years on the throne, the country's longest-reigning royal yesterday died 'peacefully', aged 96, at Balmoral in Scotland. Her death sparked an immediate and huge outpouring of emotion, with thousands of heartbroken mourners gathering outside the gates of Buckingham Palace and other royal buildings yesterday evening. At one point, a rendition of 'God Save The Queen' rang out among the mourners, followed by cheers of 'Long Live The King'. ABBA: The 95-minute digital stage show is held at the former Olympic Park in London [L-R Benny Andersson, Agnetha Faltskog, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Bjorn Ulvaeus] Venue: ABBA's virtual concert is held at the purpose-built venue at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in East London Others laid flowers outside Windsor Castle - where The Queen had spent much of her time following the death of her beloved husband, Prince Philip, in April last year. And in a sign of the Queen's considerable worldwide influence and appeal, royal fans laid flowers outside British embassies including in Washington, Berlin and Oslo. Senior royals dashed to be at the Queen's bedside on Thursday, but did not reach Balmoral in time before she passed, it is believed. Only her eldest children, Prince Charles and Princess Anne, who were already in Scotland at the time of the Monarch's sudden turn for the worse, were able to make it to the royal estate before her death, sources said. Rest in peace: It comes as Britain is today mourning the death of its beloved Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II Tragedy: Her death sparked an immediate and huge outpouring of emotion, with thousands of mourners gathering outside the gates of Buckingham Palace on Thursday evening (pictured) Prince Andrew, Prince Edward, his wife Sophie, and Prince William all flew in from Berkshire via private jet to Aberdeen on Thursday as they dashed to Balmoral to see her. But it is understood that they did not reach the estate before she passed. Prince Harry, who was due to attend a charity event with wife Meghan in London on Thursday, also attempted to reach Balmoral in time. But he arrived at 8pm, nearly an hour-and-a-half after the public were informed of the Queen's death. The Queen's son Charles, the former Prince of Wales, is now King Charles III, while Prince William has inherited his father's title and is now, along with his wife, styled The Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge. William is also now the 'heir apparent' to the British throne. Sean Penn did his best to keep his dinner date with a mystery woman in Santa Monica, California on Thursday a secret. The Gaslit star, 62, looked dapper in a pair of black slacks, a blue denims shirt and black jacket as he walked into a restaurant by the shore. Moments later his date, who wore a nude tank top and ripped jeans with a Louis Vuitton backpack on her arm, entered the same venue. Mystery companion: Sean Penn, 64, did his best to keep details about his dinner with a mystery woman low-key Thursday in Santa Monica, CA. The actor parked down the street from the restaurant and then walked to his meeting His unknown companion looked sexy, but casual in a fitted beige muscle tank top that displayed her toned arms, distressed jeans with rips in the back just below the derriere and thick black boots. Her light brown hair was styled in loose layers. Witnesses say the pair took a cigarette break during their dinner at the back of the restaurant. When dinner was over, both left separately. Mystery woman: Sean's unknown companion tried to hide her face using a billed cap and leather jacket. She looked sexy, but casual in a fitted beige muscle tank top that displayed her toned arms Distressed jeans: The woman donned distressed jeans with rips in the back just below the derriere and thick black boots. Her light brown hair was styled in loose layers Light it up: She had an unlit cigarette in her hand as she left the venue The Flag Day director left in an SUV and the mystery woman tried to hide her face using a billed Malibu Chili Cook Off cap and leather jacket as she got into an Uber before being driven away. Both ignored questions about whether they were dating. Sean, who has been married three times, is notoriously private about his personal life. Ignored questions: Both Sean and his unnamed companion were spotted taking a cigarette break during dinner. Both ignored questions about whether they were dating He walked down the aisle with Madonna, 64, in 1985. They divorced four years later. The At Close Range star wed actor Robin Wright, 56, in 1996 and they stayed together until 2010. The couple share two children, Dylan Frances, 31, and Hopper, 29. He and Oscar winner Charlize Theron, 47, dated for a few years between 2013 and 2015. His most recent ex: The Gunman screenwriter began dating Australian actress Leila George, 30, in 2016 and they tied the knot four years later. Their divorce was finalized earlier this year. They were last seen out to dinner in LA in June as they seemed to be trying to reconcile. Seen in March 2020 After they parted ways, The Gunman screenwriter began dating Australian actress Leila George, 30, in 2016 and they tied the knot four years later. Their divorce was finalized earlier this year. They were last seen out to dinner in LA in June as they seemed to be trying to reconcile. Sean recently completed work on the drama Black Flies, co-starring Katherine Waterston and Ty Sheridan. He is currently signed to star in Daddio, opposite Dakota Johnson. Dwayne Johnson shared a heartfelt message to Britain's Royal Family and all those grieving the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday. The 50-year-old Moana actor said he was 'sending love' to the people of Great Britain and told them to 'stay strong.' This post comes after there were fake tweets posted that had the movie star's name attached. The notes, which paid tribute to the Queen while plugging his October movie Black Adam, went viral. Heartfelt message: Dwayne Johnson,50, put aside his strongman persona Thursday as he shared a heartfelt message to Britain's Royal Family and all those grieving the death of Queen Elizabeth II In his new message, Johnson did not plug his movie but rather he shared a heartfelt note. 'Well, it has been one hell of a Thursday so far,' he shared before adding, 'I'm just swooping in really quickly to stop in and send my love and my condolences, my light, strength and mana to the royal family during this time in the spirit of the passing of the Queen.' He then wrote: 'I'm so sorry, I know the pain, like we all know the pain. What a life. What an incredible life. I never had the privilege or honor of meeting the Queen, but what a life.' Condolences: I'm just swooping in really quickly to stop in and send my love and my condolences,' the actor said, 'my light, strength and mana to the royal family during this time in the spirit of the passing of the Queen' Reign: Elizabeth II reigned Great Britain for 70 years. 'I never had the privilege or honor of meeting the Queen, admitted the Moana star, 'but what a life' The actor wore an LA Rams workout shirt as he stood in a gym with country music playing in the background in a video shared on social media. 'Seven decades, I think, of the longest running monarchy. I think I'm terrible at math, but I believe it's seven decades. What an impactful life.' The Red Notice star then shared a personal memory of his own about the sudden death of his father, Rocky Johnson, who died at the age of 67 in 2020. Grief: The actor shared his experience dealing with the sudden death of his father, Rocky Johnson, who died suddenly in 2020, saying,' It informs us on how we should live moving forward because, in their spirit, we have an opportunity to live life, and live greatly with passion and fervor and positive energy' Rocky Johnson: The Rock followed in the footsteps of his late father, Rocky, who was also a professional wrestler 'I gotta tell you, not that this is any consolation,' the former professional wrestler explained. 'When I lost my old man two years ago before the pandemic, I never got a chance to say goodbye to him, and I regret it.' The loss allowed the grieving son to develop his own philosophy of life and death, he said. 'The way I look at that these days is it (death) informs us on how we should live moving forward because, in their spirit, we have an opportunity to live life, and live greatly with passion and fervor and positive energy with all we've got,' wrote the star. 'Sending a lot of love,' he continued. 'Stay strong. Now let's live as greatly as we can and what a life.' The Rock may have felt compelled to reach out after someone on the internet released two fake Tweets under the actor's name that went viral. Both were attached to the opening of his upcoming action film, Black Adam, with one reading, 'Rest in peace to her Majesty the Queen, Elizabeth II. A great woman who sat on the throne as long as anyone in British history. Sad she will never get to see Black Adam.' Gigi Hadid is positively smitten with motherhood. The 27-year-old model dished on the exciting times as her two-year-old daughter, Khai, enters her toddler years in an advance clip from her up coming interview with Willie Geist on Sunday TODAY. Hadid shares her only child with on-again, off-again boyfriend and former One Directioner, Zayn Malik. Mommy moment: Gigi Hadid dished on the exciting times as her two-year-old daughter, Khai, enters her toddler years in an advance clip from her up coming interview with Willie Geist on Sunday TODAY 'I think she's a genius,' Gigi gushed to Geist. 'But I think that's what everyone says about their kid.' The catwalk superstar sported a sophisticated fall ensemble for the weekend chat, opting for wide-leg ochre slacks with a pumpkin V-neck blouse. Gigi's signature California girl blonde locks were swept up into a sleek bun that showcased the high cheekbones she shares with sister Bella and mom Yolanda. Hadid's glam carried the fall tones over into a matte spice toned lipstick and sheer terracotta eyeshadow. 'I think she's a genius,' Gigi gushed to Geist. 'But I think that's what everyone says about their kid.' On motherhood, Gigi said: 'It's so much fun. The more that she talks, and understands, and remembers, it just gets more and more fun. And she's a blessing.' The covergirl welcomed her first child with then beau Zayn Malik in September of 2020. She has been making the media rounds this week to promote her new clothing brand Guest in Residence. 'I built this team off of friends of mine in the industry that I've worked with for years. And that was really important to me,' Gigi informed Geist. On motherhood, Gigi said: 'It's so much fun. The more that she talks, and understands, and remembers, it just gets more and more fun. And she's a blessing.' Tune in: Gigi's full sit down interview will air on NBC News Sunday TODAY with Willie Geist Sunday, September 11 She added: 'I think that every person, photographer, creative, stylist, business people behind the scenes, you know, all of those people really got me to where I am todayI've tried to watch them and learn from all of them, even if they didn't know.' Gigi's full sit down interview will air on NBC News Sunday TODAY with Willie Geist Sunday, September 11. The model announced on August 5 via Vanity Fair that she is trying her hand as a fashion designer. The flawless model and entrepreneur is primed and ready to take on the fashion world in more ways than one and regularly acts as the face of her brand. Working woman: Bouncing back quickly from her pregnancy launched her knitwear line at the L'Avenue at Saks in New York City on Tuesday With years of experience as a model, Hadid has graced the cover of almost every fashion magazine, such as Vogue and InStyle, and has also been in campaigns for the world's top designers, such as Versace, Fendi, and Valentino. Adding to her resume, she now also calls herself the Founder and Creative Director of the brand new line of knit apparel. Bouncing back quickly from her pregnancy, the mother of one-year-old Khai, whom she shares with ex-boyfriend Zayn Malik, launched her knitwear line at the L'Avenue at Saks in New York City on Tuesday. The supermodel-turned-entrepreneur was supported at the event by her father, Mohamed Hadid, 73, her sister Bella, 25, and her beau Marc Kalman, 33 and other A-list friends including Emily Ratajkowski. Gemma Collins has come under fire from sarcastic fans who criticised her for not crediting the writer of a poem she posted online as a tribute to the Queen. The country's longest-reigning royal, Queen Elizabeth II, died 'peacefully', aged 96, at Balmoral in Scotland on Thursday, and Gemma took to Instagram after hearing the news to pay tribute. The Diva Forever star, 41, was among many who shared the touching poem by English poet Joanne Boyle about the Queen and her late husband Prince Philip, who died at the age of 99 in April last year, without referencing the writer. Tribute: Gemma Collins, 41, has come under fire from sarcastic fans who criticised her for not crediting the writer of a poem she posted online as a tribute to the Queen Heartfelt words: The Diva Forever star was among many who shared the touching poem by English poet Joanne Boyle about the Queen and her late husband Prince Philip Her followers were quick to take to the comments to spread the word that the poem had been written by Joanne, who is from Hartlepool in County Durham. Others thanked Gemma for sharing the words, describing them as 'beautiful', with some saying they had moved them to tears. It comes as Britain is today mourning the death of its beloved Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. After a remarkable 70 years on the throne, the country's longest-reigning royal yesterday died 'peacefully', aged 96, at Balmoral in Scotland. Farewell: The country's longest-reigning royal, Queen Elizabeth II, died 'peacefully', aged 96, at Balmoral in Scotland on Thursday Credit: Her followers were quick to take to the comments to spread the word that the poem had been written by Joanne, who is from Hartlepool in County Durham Thankful: Others thanked Gemma for sharing the words, describing them as 'beautiful', with some saying they had moved them to tears Her death sparked an immediate and huge outpouring of emotion, with thousands of heartbroken mourners gathering outside the gates of Buckingham Palace and other royal buildings yesterday evening. At one point, a rendition of 'God Save The Queen' rang out among the mourners, followed by cheers of 'Long Live The King'. Others laid flowers outside Windsor Castle - where The Queen had spent much of her time following the death of her beloved husband, Prince Philip, in April last year. Couple: The poem was written about the Queen and her late husband Prince Philip (pictured in 2011) Rest in peace: It comes as Britain is today mourning the death of its beloved Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II And in a sign of the Queen's considerable worldwide influence and appeal, royal fans laid flowers outside British embassies including in Washington, Berlin and Oslo. Senior royals dashed to be at the Queen's bedside on Thursday, but did not reach Balmoral in time before she passed, it is believed. Only her eldest children, Prince Charles and Princess Anne, who were already in Scotland at the time of the Monarch's sudden turn for the worse, were able to make it to the royal estate before her death, sources said. Tragedy: Her death sparked an immediate and huge outpouring of emotion, with thousands of mourners gathering outside the gates of Buckingham Palace on Thursday evening (pictured) Prince Andrew, Prince Edward, his wife Sophie, and Prince William all flew in from Berkshire via private jet to Aberdeen on Thursday as they dashed to Balmoral to see her. But it is understood that they did not reach the estate before she passed. Prince Harry, who was due to attend a charity event with wife Meghan in London on Thursday, also attempted to reach Balmoral in time. But he arrived at 8pm, nearly an hour-and-a-half after the public were informed of the Queen's death. The Queen's son Charles, the former Prince of Wales, is now King Charles III, while Prince William has inherited his father's title and is now, along with his wife, styled The Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge. William is also now the 'heir apparent' to the British throne. Showtime's upcoming miniseries, Fellow Travelers, starring Jonathan Bailey and Matt Bomer as the romantic leads, is already bringing the heat. Bailey, 34, and Bomer, 44, were pictured showcasing their svelte physiques as they exchanged a sweet smooch in the water while filming a scene for the series in Canada. The actors will play on-screen lovers in the LGBTQ romance-thriller based off of the novel of the same name by Thomas Mallon. Love is in the air: Jonathan Bailey, 34, and Matt Bomer, 44, were pictured showcasing their svelte physiques as they exchanged a sweet smooch in the water while filming a scene for Fellow Travelers in Canada Shooting scenes on Lake Ontario, Matt and Jonathan looked every bit the smitten couple as they wrestled in the splashing waves. Bailey put his ample muscles on display in a pair of blue swim trunks as Bomber held his face and planted a kiss on his lips. The Bridgerton has transformed himself from his Regency Era former character and is sporting a retro mustache and long hair. While on dry land, Bailey was costumed in a thin plaid beach shirt with his bathing suit. Sizzling: Showtime's upcoming miniseries, Fellow Travelers, starring Jonathan Bailey and Matt Bomer as the romantic leads, is already bringing the heat Hot stuff: The actors will play on-screen lovers in the LGBTQ romance-thriller based off of the novel of the same name by Thomas Mallon Lovebirds: Shooting scenes on Lake Ontario, Matt and Jonathan looked every bit the smitten couple as they wrestled in the splashing waves He got drenched and slipped out of the wet top after Bomer's character tossed him into the water. Not to be outdone, Matt Bomer also strutted his stuff, flaunting his own impressive muscles in a pair of small green shorts. The attractive on-screen lovers certainly got a workout while shooting. They took turns running in the sand, jumping, picking each other up and jumping in the Great Lake. At one point, Bailey even put his gymnastics skills to the test and performed a cartwheel. Anthony who? The Bridgerton has transformed himself from his Regency Era former character and is sporting a retro mustache and long hair Muscles for days: Not to be outdone, Matt Bomer also strutted his stuff, flaunting his own impressive muscles in a pair of small green shorts Intimate moments: The actors play on-screen lovers whose relationship spanned decades In Fellow Travelers, Bailey will portray Fordham University graduate Tim Laughlin, who enters a volatile romance with Matt's character Hawkins Fuller in 1950s Washington D.C. The pair - portrayed by two gay-identifying actors - will continue to cross paths over the following 40 years, with monumental timepoints including the 1960s Vietnam War, 1970s disco era and the 1980s AIDS crisis. In the lakeside scene, the costumes appear to be from sometime in the 1970s. Allison Williams will also star as Lucy Smith in the production which began shooting in Toronto in July. Work out! They took turns running in the sand, jumping, picking each other up and jumping in the Great Lake On screen: In Fellow Travelers, Bailey will portray Fordham University graduate Tim Laughlin, who enters a volatile romance with Matt's character Hawkins Fuller in 1950s Washington D.C. Off screen: The stars are both gay-identifying actors Matt, 44, publicly announced he was gay in 2012, and has gone on to welcome three children with his husband Simon Halls. Jonathan is thought to be dating fellow actor, James Ellis, following a string of appearances together - however the pair haven't spoken publicly about the rumors. It comes after Matt admitted that coming out to his family eighteen years ago had been much more difficult, and hinted the relationship with his mother and father was still strained as a result. Speaking to MR PORTER, the actor confessed his parents had been shocked to hear he was gay, due to their religious beliefs - and revealed he now sees his grandmother as a true 'loving and accepting Christian', as she gave 'zero f****s' about his sexuality. Plot: The miniseries follows their relationship over 40 years, with monumental timepoints including the 1960s Vietnam War, 1970s disco era and the 1980s AIDS crisis Test of time: In the lakeside scene, the costumes appear to be from sometime in the 1970s Costars: Allison Williams will also star as Lucy Smith in the production which began shooting in Toronto in July Matt married his publicist partner Simon in 2011, one year before he confirmed to the public he was gay at the Steve Chase Humanitarian Awards. However the Magic Mike star explained he first came out to his brother at the age of 24, after pretending he was straight during his youth, in the 'Bible Belt' of Texas. Telling his parents two years later, Matt admitted he was surprised at how shocked were - and that it was actually his grandparents who accepted him straight away. He said: 'You know who was coolest about it? My grandparents. They gave zero f****. His vision: In addition to starring in the eight-part series, Bomber also serves as executive producer Show off! At one point, Bailey even put his gymnastics skills to the test and performed a cartwheel Helping hand: A crew member popped in between takes to towel off the actors Before adding, in a seemingly subtle dig at the rest of his family: 'My grandma blows my mind. To me, she exemplifies what a loving, accepting Christian is.' He went on to explain that his religious parents did not speak about his sexuality for six months after he came out, culminating in a huge row when he returned home from college - which he hinted has still not been fully resolved. When asked if thirteen years later, he was now on good terms with his parents, he revealed: 'I'll just say yes. 'When you're a family, you just table [put to one side] certain things in order to get to the business of loving each other. I feel very, very thankful to have the family that I do.' Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's kid, is now officially a prince, a title the Duchess of Sussex previously claimed was refused due to his skin color. Archie is the seventh in line to the throne of the United Kingdom. Their daughter Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, who is seventh in line in the order of succession, is now also a princess. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Children To Become Prince Archie, Princess Lilibet Last year, Markle told Oprah Winfrey that while she was pregnant, they - presumably the palace - were saying they didn't want him to be a prince which would be different from protocol. She said that the first member of color in this family not being named in the same manner that subsequent grandkids may be the explanation. The late Queen Elizabeth II's sole great-grandchildren with royal titles were Prince William's three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis. The other nine great-grandchildren, including Archie and Lilibet, are not royalty. That's because King George V proclaimed in 1917 restricting the titles of prince and princess to the monarch's children, the monarch's son's children, and the eldest living son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales Prince William's son Prince George. According to Bob Morris of University College London's Constitution Unit, the regulation was drafted to reduce the increasingly unmanageable number of princely titles. If Prince Harry and Meghan Markle decide that Archie and Lili will be called as prince and princess, it will contradict how Prince Harry has always spoken about the weight of holding a title. He consistently emphasized the necessity of wanting to be viewed as normal and admitted in 2017 that he previously wanted out of the royal family, a wish that became a reality in 2020. Meghan Markle stated that she and Prince Harry wanted Archie to be a prince so that he would be safe and protected. In 2021, it was reported that Prince Charles wanted to prevent Archie from becoming a prince when he became monarch, to reduce the number of key royals. To do so, King must issue a Letters of Patent modifying Archie's and Lili's rights to be princes and princesses. Until that occurs, or if it does not, Archie and Lili will continue to be referred to as prince and princess, whether their parents choose to use the titles or not. Meghan Markle said in the Sussexes' shocking interview with Oprah Winfrey that Archie was not granted the title of prince because of his ethnicity. Read Also: [Report] Princess Diana Called Out Camilla Parker Bowles During Sister's Birthday Party After Discovering Affair with Prince Charles Other Changes in Royal Succession Meanwhile, huge changes are on the way for the Cambridges. Prince William, as King Charles' eldest son, has acquired the title Duke of Cornwall. Prince William and Kate Middleton have already modified their names to incorporate the title of Cornwall, which they would automatically receive if Prince Charles becomes King. They are now known as the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge, respectively. But that might change shortly. Prince William's father may bestow the title of Prince of Wales on him. In 1958, the Queen bestowed the title to King Charles. If William is made Prince of Wales, Kate will become Princess of Wales. Diana, William's mother, last used the title when she married Charles. Camilla was officially the Princess of Wales, but she avoided using the title due to its link with Princess Diana. If William becomes Earl of Chester, Kate Middleton will also be Countess of Chester. In addition, she is now the Duchess of Rothesay in Scotland, which was previously Camilla's title. Prince George of Cornwall and Cambridge, Princess Charlotte of Cornwall and Cambridge, and Prince Louis of Cornwall and Cambridge are the children of Prince William and Kate Middleton. When William becomes Prince of Wales, they will be referred to as that of Wales, as per Daily Mail. Prince Harry, Meghan Markle Are in UK For Now Following the announcement of Queen Elizabeth II's death, Prince Harry joined other members of the royal family at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. The 37-year-old Duke of Sussex was pictured in a car, his hand over his face, appearing solemn. Meghan Markle, Prince Harry's wife, is said to have remained in London. Prince Harry came later than the other royals, including his brother Prince William, who had been spotted earlier in the day with Prince Andrew, Prince Edward, and Sophie, Countess of Wessex. Kate Middleton, Prince William's wife, also did not attend, Fox News reported. Related Article: Queen Elizabeth II: Timeline of Her Royal Reign and Most Notable Accomplishments as Britain's Monarch @YouTube @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Fans have hailed Radio 1's Greg James a 'national hero' after he made a tender speech following Her Majesty The Queen's death this week. The host, 36, was speaking during Friday's breakfast show a day after the beloved Monarch's passing aged 96. Many listeners praised Greg for his honesty as he spoke about how society struggles to talk about grief and death. National hero: Fans have hailed Radio 1's Greg James a 'national hero' after he made a tender speech about grief following Her Majesty the Queen's death this week One listener wrote in to say her own four-year-old son was struggling to grasp the situation and had 'lots of questions' as the nation went into mourning. Greg said: 'Death is a thing we all find very difficult to talk about. When I was watching the news last night you're immediately reminded of a personal bereavement and that is upsetting - it's an upsetting thing. So, whatever you're feeling today, it's okay to feel those ways.' 'And also huge respect to everybody who's messaging in who's having to go into work and be normal and do the thing that you do every day.' Sad: The host, 36, was speaking during Friday's breakfast show a day after the Monarch's passing aged 96 (pictured in April) He went on to say that Radio 1 was there for those who needed 'normality' and to help comfort with the sound of familiar voices. Dino Sofos - founder of the production company, Persephonica - shared a clip of the speech and wrote: 'I never understood why pop stations had to switch to playing the national anthem and crusty obit tapes'. 'Almost as if the presenters cant be trusted. Radio is about authenticity and connecting with your audience, as @gregjames is masterfully demonstrating this morning'. Pride: Dino Sofos - founder of the production company, Persephonica - shared a clip of the speech and wrote: 'I never understood why pop stations had to switch to playing the national anthem and crusty obit tapes' Well said: While fellow host Adele Roberts wrote: ' "No one's allowed to police your feelings" well said Greg James While fellow host Adele Roberts wrote: ' "No one's allowed to police your feelings" well said Greg James. Radio 1 providing necessary comfort right now. There is no right way to feel or act or be ...we've all been through so much over the last yew years so allow yourself to feel / react how you want'. While listeners agreed with one writing: 'Greg James has hit the note perfectly on Radio 1, reflecting the listeners thoughts as much as broadcasting his own'. And another wrote: 'Greg James is a natural treasure in my opinion, no matter what your opinion of the queen or monarchy is. His true class and understanding of this country and the odd feeling a lot of people are waking up feeling today is shining through. Well done Gregory. Wow: Fans rushed to hail the presenter for his honesty and compassion More fans agreed: 'Greg James is proving why he is the best presenter of his generation this morning. Reflecting the mood without dictating it, sombre without being mawkish'. 'I still listen to Radio ! in the mornings, purely for the silliness of Greg James before I go to work. No Matter what your feelings are for the Queen of the Royal Family and how you feel today. Greg speaks so well and captures the mood perfectly'. 'Greg James was being an all round good egg again today, pitched it well and it was sensitive to open the conversation up to being about loss in general'. More: More listeners couldn't help but the praise the host for his comforting words It comes as Britain is today mourning the death of its beloved Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. After a remarkable 70 years on the throne, the country's longest-reigning royal yesterday died 'peacefully', aged 96, at Balmoral in Scotland. Her death sparked an immediate and huge outpouring of emotion, with thousands of heartbroken mourners gathering outside the gates of Buckingham Palace and other royal buildings yesterday evening. At one point, a rendition of 'God Save The Queen' rang out among the mourners, followed by cheers of 'Long Live The King'. Couple: It comes as Britain is today mourning the death of its beloved Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II (pictured with Prince Phillip in 2011) Rest in peace: After a remarkable 70 years on the throne, the country's longest-reigning royal yesterday died 'peacefully', aged 96, at Balmoral in Scotland. Others laid flowers outside Windsor Castle - where The Queen had spent much of her time following the death of her beloved husband, Prince Philip, in April last year. And in a sign of the Queen's considerable worldwide influence and appeal, royal fans laid flowers outside British embassies including in Washington, Berlin and Oslo. Senior royals dashed to be at the Queen's bedside on Thursday, but did not reach Balmoral in time before she passed, it is believed. Tragedy: Her death sparked an immediate and huge outpouring of emotion, with thousands of mourners gathering outside the gates of Buckingham Palace on Thursday evening (pictured) Only her eldest children, Prince Charles and Princess Anne, who were already in Scotland at the time of the Monarch's sudden turn for the worse, were able to make it to the royal estate before her death, sources said. Prince Andrew, Prince Edward, his wife Sophie, and Prince William all flew in from Berkshire via private jet to Aberdeen on Thursday as they dashed to Balmoral to see her. But it is understood that they did not reach the estate before she passed. Prince Harry, who was due to attend a charity event with wife Meghan in London on Thursday, also attempted to reach Balmoral in time. But he arrived at 8pm, nearly an hour-and-a-half after the public were informed of the Queen's death. The Queen's son Charles, the former Prince of Wales, is now King Charles III, while Prince William has inherited his father's title and is now, along with his wife, styled The Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge. William is also now the 'heir apparent' to the British throne. Sharon Osbourne has expressed her opinion on King Charles III following the death of Queen Elizabeth II aged 96. The former X-Factor judge, 69, appeared on TalkTV following the devastating news and told host Piers Morgan that Charles will be 'an amazing king' and is set to do great things for the country. In light of the news, she went on to praise the royal family as a whole and insisted that 'so many people miss the point' of them. Opening up: Sharon Osbourne has expressed her opinion on King Charles III following the death of Queen Elizabeth II aged 96 Reflecting on the wider royal family, Sharon said: 'So many people miss the point - they are a family, a tight knit family. The grandchildren and the children will be completely devastated. 'She represented strength. Why would anybody want to come to Britain? Because of our traditions, because of our royal family. 'Everything that comes with Britain, it's historical. She kept going and that's what makes Britain different from every other country - our traditions.' Opinion: In light of the news, she went on to praise the royal family as a whole and admitted 'so many people miss the point' The British-American TV star touched on the recent jubilee celebrations for her majesty: 'Look what we went through this year with celebrating her - that was magnificent - nobody does that like the English.' 'It will never happen again in our country that there will be another monarch that will reign for so long. 'You could never ever say anything against the Queen, she never went wrong with one step. And when she took her oath to be a servant to this country she never broke it - she has served this country her entire life. 'Can you imagine the things she must have put aside, personally, family wise, things that she would have loved to have done, to serve her country. 'She never put a foot wrong, a magnificent woman. She will go down in history as the greatest Queen the country has ever had.' Appearance: The former X-Factor judge, 69, appeared on TalkTV following the devastating news and told host Piers Morgan that Charles will be 'an amazing king' The monarchy's death was confirmed and a Buckingham Palace spokesman said: 'The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow'. Her son Charles, the former Prince of Wales, is now King Charles III, as the world grieves his mother, Britain's longest-reigning monarch. Sharon added: 'It's unsettling and I know the mourning will go on and on and on, people will never stop mourning for her but I do have to say that I think Charles will be am amazing King I have so much respect for him and I think he will take care of all of us. 'He will be a good King, he can't fill her shoes but he will do it his way. I have all confidence, I adore him, I respect him and he will do great things for this country.' 'She represented strength': Sharon meeting Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in 2007 The Queen's death will see Britain and her Commonwealth realms enter into a ten-day period of mourning as millions of her subjects in the UK and abroad come to terms with her passing. And as her son accedes to the throne, there will also be a celebration of her historic 70-year reign that saw her reach her Platinum Jubilee this year - a landmark unlikely to be reached again by a British monarch. Charles, the King, said: 'The death of my beloved mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family. 'We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished sovereign and a much-loved mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world. 'During this period of mourning and change, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which the Queen was so widely held.' Jennifer Lawrence looked radiant as ever as she stepped out for a stroll in New York City's West Village on Friday. The actress, 32, displayed her toned figure as she sported a skintight black Simon Miller midi dress with a plunging sweetheart neckline. The garment also featured long sleeves while Jennifer added to her outfit with a pair of bright green flip flops, also from Simon Miller. Wow factor: Jennifer Lawrence looked radiant as ever as she stepped out for a stroll in New York City's West Village on Friday Letting her blonde locks fall loose down her shoulders, the American Hustle star carried a gold clutch bag. Sporting a pair of sunglasses, Jennifer completed her look for the day with a gold necklace. The stunner kept her makeup to a minimum, showcasing her stunning natural beauty. The outing comes after Jennifer said in an interview that she is unable to move past her family's right-leaning political positions, especially in the wake of the reversal of Rose v. Wade and the birth of her son Cy. Incredible: The actress, 32, displayed her toned figure as she sported a skintight black Simon Miller midi dress with a plunging sweetheart neckline Jennifer, who was raised in Kentucky, told Vogue magazine that she spoke to her therapist about a nightmare she keeps having that features Fox News host Tucker Carlson. The Oscar winner had previously called Tucker 'out of touch' owing to her views on climate change. The Kentucky native specifically mentioned the issues her father's Trump support have caused, 'I just worked so hard in the last five years to forgive my dad and my family and try to understand: Its different. The information they are getting is different. Their life is different,' referencing the information conveyed by the top news host to her parents and those like them. Gorgeous: The garment also featured long sleeves while Jennifer added to her outfit with a pair of bright green flip flops, also from Simon Miller The new mom said to the publication: 'Ive tried to get over it and I really cant. I cant.' But not being political is also a deal-breaker for the Oscar winner. 'I can't f--- with people who aren't political anymore. You live in the United States of America. You have to be political,' she said, indicating that she has left her family with the choice of being political in a way she agrees with, or not f---ing with her, and no third option. 'It's too dire. Politics are killing people,' the actress known for dramatic turns said. Star: The stunner kept her makeup to a minimum, showcasing her stunning natural beauty She briefly spoke about the 2016 election, which caused the initial rift inside her family unit: 'It breaks my heart because America had the choice between a woman and a dangerous, dangerous jar of mayonnaise. And they were like, "Well, we cant have a woman. Lets go with the jar of mayonnaise."' Lawrence told Vogue that a miscarriage she suffered several years ago in Toronto convinced her of the importance of abortion access for young women. She says she was '100%' planning to get an abortion prior to the miscarriage, but the overturning of Roe v. Wade catapulted the issue to new importance to her personally, and in terms of her relationship with her family. 'I dont want to disparage my family, but I know that a lot of people are in a similar position with their families,' she remarked. 'How could you raise a daughter from birth and believe that she doesnt deserve equality? How?' She says she periodically broaches the subject with her family, but realistically isn't convincing anyone. Opinion: The outing comes after Jennifer said in an interview that she is unable to move past her family's right-leaning political positions, especially in the wake of the reversal of Rose v. Wade and the birth of her son Cy 'I broach the subject in the sense that I unleash text messages. Just: Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. They dont respond. And then Ill feel bad and send a picture of the baby,' she told Vogue. Growing up in a conservative home, Lawrence initially regarded herself as a Republicans. She told Vogue, however, that it was Tina Fey's comedic portrayal of Liz Lemon on the NBC comedy 30 rock that swayed her. She told Vogue the positions of the zany comedy-writer character 'made sense' and 'seemed rational.' Jennifer is mom to son Cy with husband Cooke Maroney; they welcomed him in February 2022. They married in October 2019 at a star-studded wedding at the Belcourt of Newport in Rhode Island. Kendall Jenner looked every inch the cover girl as she arrived for New York Fashion Week on Friday afternoon. The 26-year-old supermodel turned the street into her personal runway while wearing a lovely white-and-green floral dress styled with a pair of black leather boots. The look showcased her toned arms, and Kendall went makeup-free to flaunt her clear skin. Dressed to impress: Kendall Jenner looked every inch the cover girl as she arrived for New York Fashion Week on Friday afternoon The Kardashians star pulled her hair back in a bun, which highlighted her modest silver earrings, and she hid her stare behind a pair of stylish designer sunglasses. Last week the in-demand model was hired to appear in a high-end footwear campaign for Jimmy Choo. The stunner looked incredible in a series of delightful snaps for the brands Autumn 2022 campaign. Earlier this week, the beauty posed for three covers of Pop Magazines 47th issue and attended a party for the 50th anniversary of W Magazine in Los Angeles, channeling her rocker vibes in leather. This comes after some exciting news for fans regarding her successful new tequila company. Fashion icon: The 26-year-old model strutted her stuff through down the street in a floral dress that showcased her toned arms On Instagram last month, the beauty announced that she would launch a new 818 Tequila founder's $200 Anejo Reserve, which is aged eight years in barrels. The social media personality has sold out of the rare tequila in most states before the September 19 launch. The star faced undesirable cultural appropriation claims upon the initial launch of 818 Tequila last year, including promotional images of the model posing at an agave farm in Jalisco, Mexico. Natural glam: T he in-demand model looked incredible Jimmy Choo's stunning footwear campaign for the brands Autumn 2022 campaign Despite the backlash, Kendall hasn't let that stop her from remaining the face of the spirits brand, as she's often featured on the 818 Tequila Instagram page. She is no stranger to entrepreneurial ventures, as she previously collaborated with her sister Kylie Jenner on two makeup collections for her brand Kylie Cosmetics. Kendall also executive produced and stars in the second season of her famous family's reality TV spin-off, The Kardashians, which premieres September 22 on Hulu. 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Ireland United States Minor Outlying Islands United States of America 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 More than 500 Iranian-American scientists, intellectuals, and business leaders are lobbying the White House to refuse Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi admittance into the United States for the United Nations General Assembly later this month in New York. In a letter to President Joe Biden on Thursday, the organization urged him to take "bold and urgent steps to reflect that Raisi does not represent the people of Iran and must thus be refused admission into the United States." Irianian President Set To Visit US for UN Meeting The letter adds to rising requests from Iranian opposition organizations in the United States and senators on both sides of the aisle to exclude the hardline cleric from visiting the United States because of human rights violations. Last month, the Organization of Iranian American Communities (OIAC), an organization affiliated with the Iranian dissident group the Mujahedin-e-Khalq, or MEK, lined the National Mall with hundreds of photographs of Iranians slain during the 1988 executions of political prisoners, as per Washington Times. Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers is urging President Biden to deny necessary "entry visas" to Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his delegation in order for them to attend the upcoming 77th United Nations General Assembly in New York City, citing the foreign president's history of supporting terrorism and violating human rights. They also reference Section 212 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows the Departments of Homeland Security and State "the legal right to prohibit admission" to anybody involved in any act of torture or murder. The congressmen point out that two prior administrations had rejected entrance visas to Iranian regime leaders in the recent decade: in 2014, Iran's UN Ambassador Hamid Aboutalebi, and in 2020, foreign minister Javad Zarif. Read Also: 'Good News' - Volodymyr Zelensky Reveals Ukraine Has Reclaimed Some Russian-Captured Towns as Counterattack Continues Joe Biden Negotiates With Iran on Nuclear Deal The congressmen point out that two prior administrations had rejected entrance visas to Iranian regime leaders in the recent decade: in 2014, Iran's UN Ambassador Hamid Aboutalebi; and in 2020, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. The letter comes as the Biden administration works out the last terms of a new nuclear deal with Iran. Last week, a bipartisan group of 50 House Democrats and Republicans urged President Joe Biden to share the text of any agreement to resurrect the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Congress before signing it. They were particularly concerned about the possibility of lifting sanctions against Iran in order to limit the country's capacity to support terrorist activities against the United States and its allies. Based on a recent assessment from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, the present proposal will result in a $274 billion windfall for the Islamic Republic of Iran in its first year of implementation, and upwards of $1 trillion for the regime by 2030, according to Fox News. If efforts to resurrect the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement fail, Biden wants to guarantee that the US has other viable alternatives to ensure that Iran does not develop nuclear weapons capacity, As per White House spokeswoman. National security spokesman John Kirby said Washington will continue to work for the agreement's reimplementation, but its patience was not endless, Reuters via MSN reported. Related Article: White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre Rebuffs Ted Cruz's Invitation To Visit Southern Border Saying, "I Don't Need Lectures" from GOP @YouTube @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, says that the country's new law making it a nuclear weapons state is "irreversible." North Korean state media reported on Friday that Kim said the country would "never give up" its nuclear weapons and that there could be no talks about denuclearization. The new legislation also upholds Pyongyang's ability to employ preemptive nuclear attacks to defend itself, amending a prior posture in which it declared it would preserve its weapons only until other nations denuclearized and not use them prematurely against non-nuclear states, according to a report from CNN. Kim said that nuclear weapons show the "dignity, body, and absolute power of the state." He was pleased that the country's parliament, the Supreme People's Assembly, unanimously voted to pass the new law. Kim stated the application of laws and rules about the North Korea Nuclear weapons policy is a big deal because it shows that the country legally possesses "war deterrence as a means of national defense." "As long as nuclear weapons exist on Earth, and imperialism and the anti-North Korean maneuvers of the US and its followers remain, our road to strengthening our nuclear force will never end," the North Korean leader said. The new law also says that North Korea is prohibited to share its nuclear technology with other countries. Irresponsible Measure Leif-Eric Easley, an associate professor of international studies at Ewha Woman's University in Seoul, claimed that Kim's remarks didn't seem to be delivered confidently. Easley noted that while boasting about having nuclear weapons, Kim is afraid of regime overthrow in a war and even of a U.S. or South Korean preemptive strike against North Korea's critical assets, as per a report from Al Jazeera. "These concerns would be best addressed through diplomacy and reducing self-isolation, but instead Pyongyang is advertising an irresponsibly risky and aggressive nuclear doctrine. Such pariah state behavior is likely to deepen arms race dynamics in Asia as other countries act to counter North Korean threats to stability," the expert remarked. Read Also: Queen Elizabeth II Dies at 96; UK Mourns Loss of Longest-Reigning Monarch Superpowers React To Pyongyang's New Nuclear Policy Biden's government has offered to talk to Kim anytime, anywhere, and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said his nation would provide substantial economic help if Pyongyang gave up its weapons, as reported by Reuters. In response to the new law, Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Friday that it was "closely watching" any military activity on the Korean peninsula. When questioned about the North Korea Nuclear weapons issue on Friday during a routine briefing, China, a close friend of North Korea, said that its policy on the Korean peninsula "had not changed." However, Mao Ning, a foreign ministry spokesperson, did not elaborate on the law or its consequences. China's policy on the Korean peninsula has always included a commitment to North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons. "We will act in accordance with the broad framework of maintaining peace and stability on the (Korean) Peninsula," the Chinese official noted. Related Article: Ukraine Goes on the Offensive, Retakes Control Over the City of Balakliia, Kharkiv Oblast @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Tickets start at $10 The Purple Madness is the ultimate celebration of the most widely beloved entertainer and profoundly influential artist of all-time - Prince. Prince Purple Madness Tribute Show in Dayton Join us for Purple Madness on October 9th, 2022 as part of our Family Friendly Tribute Series over the fall and winter at Dayton Masonic Live The Purple Madness is the ultimate celebration of the most widely beloved entertainer and profoundly influential artist of all-time. Bobby Miller presents an electrifying performance that can be best described as, high energy and a must see performance. The Prince Purple Madness Tribute Show have all but perfected every last nuance in recreating the sights and sounds of the artist Prince. Skip to main navigation For Release: Friday, September 9, 2022 New York State Announces Finalization of Owasco Lake Water Quality Plan 'Owasco Watershed Nine Element Plan for Phosphorus Reduction' Lays Foundation for Additional Efforts to Protect and Enhance Owasco Lake Water Quality New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Basil Seggos and New York State Department of State (DOS) Secretary of State Robert Rodriguez today announced the joint approval of the Owasco Lake Watershed Nine Element Plan for Phosphorus Reduction to advance efforts to restore and protect the water quality of Owasco Lake and its watershed. The collaborative effort identified focused strategies to ensure the lake's water supply, aquatic habitat, and recreational uses are protected. "Understanding Owasco Lake's unique watershed is critical to effective water quality management and improvement," Commissioner Seggos said. "We commend the hard work and coordination that went into the development of the Owasco Lake Watershed Nine Element Plan, especially the extra efforts of highly engaged community stakeholders. DEC will continue to assist our state and local partners to ensure the actions outlined in the plan are advanced to help protect this beautiful and important waterbody." "Clean water is the main ingredient in the recipe for healthy, sustainable communities and ecosystems," said Secretary of State Robert J. Rodriguez. "This comprehensive watershed plan creates a clear blueprint for improved water quality and public health that will guide communities in the Owasco Lake area as they protect and restore this most precious natural asset. DOS is proud to collaborate with DEC and our local partners in completing this groundbreaking plan that will pay dividends for years to come." Owasco Lake experiences harmful algal blooms (HABS) with phosphorus as a key element affecting the growth of aquatic plants, algae, and cyanobacteria. Understanding and managing phosphorus inputs from the lake watershed is essential for protecting Owasco Lake and led to the development of the plan, which is consistent with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's framework for watershed-based plans consisting of nine key elements (leaves DEC website) for waterbody protection and stakeholder engagement. The Owasco Lake plan analyzes phosphorus sources and locations, estimates current loadings, and uses mathematical tools to project the consequences of changing conditions. The findings support a series of recommended actions designed to reduce phosphorus inputs. The plan recommends many watershed-level and landscape-specific management actions that can be implemented to meet the total phosphorus reduction target, including agricultural best management practices, sediment and erosion control practices, installation of riparian forested buffers and septic system improvements. Recommended actions also aim to improve the watershed's ability to withstand and recover from extreme weather events. The Owasco Nine Element Plan was funded by the State's Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) and administered through DOS Local Waterfront Revitalization Program. The plan development was a collaborative effort led by Cayuga County Department of Planning and Economic Development (CCDP&ED) and Ecologic, LLC. Stakeholder engagement led by CCDP&ED kept citizens apprised of the plan's progress and involved the agricultural community to formulate actions to improve water quality. Achieving the plan's recommendations will require continued collaboration among the many partners engaged with lake and watershed management issues. The Owasco Lake Watershed Management Council (OLWMC) is the primary entity responsible for coordinating implementation of the recommendations to protect and improve Owasco Lake and will continue to collaborate with the many partners engaged with lake and watershed management issues, including stakeholders from the agricultural community, water supply purveyors, local academic institutions, DEC, DOS, local government, and county and regional agencies. Both quantitative and qualitative metrics will be used to track implementation of the recommended actions. Town of Owasco Supervisor Ed Wagner said, "As Supervisor for the Town of Owasco, a drinking water supply to over 3,000 people, as well as Chairman of the OLWMC, I am pleased to see the Nine Element Plan finalized. We and our partners have been hard at work for years, which includes the OLWMC Inspection and Protection Division, and have specifically targeted implementing projects that reduce pollution to the lake. This Nine Element Plan provides the additional framework for us to continue and expand our work, and hopefully enable additional funding opportunities." City of Auburn Mayor Michael D. Quill said, "This is an important step forward in the process to address the health of Owasco Lake. We appreciate the Nine Element Plan's science-based approach to understanding phosphorus contributions to Owasco Lake and the plan will assist all partners to better understand and focus future regulations and corrective actions that we believe will be required in the watershed moving forward. We thank all involved at the state and local level for their important work on compiling this plan and look forward to Governor Hochul's future support with addressing the health of Owasco Lake as we know this Nine Element Plan for Phosphorus Reduction has identified there is much work to do." Michele Wunderlich, Associate Planner with the CCDP&ED said, "The Owasco Lake Watershed Nine Element Plan for Phosphorus Reduction could not have been developed without the dedicated work of many local partners and stakeholders. We look forward to working with the Owasco Lake Watershed Management Council and the broader community as we implement this plan to protect and care for the lands and water systems within the watershed." The plan announced today builds upon actions the State has already taken on Owasco Lake to reduce phosphorus and the frequency of HABs, which are a persistent challenge in the Finger Lakes and waterbodies statewide. New York's nation-leading actions to prevent and mitigate these potentially toxic blooms include investing in infrastructure upgrades and new technology, a commitment particularly strong around Owasco Lake. Based on experiences at Owasco and other critical waterbodies, DEC launched one of the most aggressive plans to combat HABs in the country. In 2018, DEC convened four regional summits to examine the causes of HABs and develop sustainable solutions to reduce algal blooms. DEC worked with State and local partners to develop and implement HABs Action Plans for 12 high priority waterbodies, including Owasco Lake. To date, New York awarded more than $324 million in grants for projects designed to reduce the frequency of algal blooms by targeting phosphorus and nitrogen pollution, factors that trigger HAB occurrences. Among the many environmental victories in the enacted 2022-23 State Budget, Governor Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders increased the EPF to $400 million, the highest-ever level of funding in the program's history. This year's pandal of the Marwari community included a depiction of Samudra Manthan, or the churning of the ocean by Gods using mechanical motions to extract divine nectar (amrit). DC Image Hyderabad: While they may be living far from their home states, Bengalis, Gujaratis, Marwadis, and Sindhis who made Hyderabad their home several decades ago celebrated the Ganesh festival in their traditional style. Although the Bengalis celebrate the Durga festival on a grand scale, they have gradually begun to celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi as well. As a result, a large number of Bengalis gathered at the Hyderabad Bangalee Samiti in Domalguda to bid Ganesh farewell and immerse the idol in Hussainsagar Lake. "We primarily celebrate Durga Puja and wanted to incorporate our culture into this. We celebrate the festival in our own traditional style. We serve Lord Ganesh not only traditional modaks, but also Sandesh modaks in the Bengali style. Several families prepare the food and offer it to Lord Ganesh, after which it is distributed to everyone. During the 11-day celebration, we prepare various Bengali dishes such as 'Luchi, Chola dal, Alu dum, Halwa, rice kheer," said Shyamali Bose, a member of the Samiti's executive council. The Gujarati community is back in full force to celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi this year, after a year of low-key celebrations due to Covid restrictions. While the nine-day Navaratri festival is the most revered period for Gujaratis, the community, which has a sizable population in Hyderabad, especially in Koti, has celebrated the festival with zeal and fervour. The community has installed several Ganesh idols throughout the twin cities, primarily at Gujarathi Seva Mandir in Secunderabad, Gujarathi College, Hanuman Tekdi, and the majority of the community's institutions. Jignesh Doshi, president of the Gujarathi Society, stated that each pandal saw thousands of devotees each day. Various events and cultural programmes were held throughout the 11-day celebration. "Some idols will be immersed on Thursday, while others on Friday," he explained. Marwaris, the city's most prosperous business community, primarily dealing in gems and jewellery, have been celebrating the Ganesh festival for more than a century. Marwaris, like Gujaratis, have a sizable population in Hyderabad. Although Diwali and Holi are the most important Marwari festivals, the Marwadi Ganesh Utsav Samiti has been installing the Ganesh idol at Hashmath Gunj since 1922. "We've been celebrating the Ganesh festival for several decades, and every year we get more and more enthusiastic about it," said key members of the Marwadi Ganesh Utsav Samiti, Srivas Loya, Sumith Rathi, and Gansham Toshiniwal. What is unique about their Ganesh idol is that the pandal is fully air-conditioned. More than 10,000 people visit our pandal every year, the organisers said. This year's pandal also included a depiction of Samudra Manthan, or the churning of the ocean by Gods using mechanical motions to extract divine nectar (amrit). "Gods churning the ocean to extract nectar through mechanised action is one of the amazing works," the organisers said. While Sindhis, an important business community much like the Marwaris, celebrate Cheti Chand as New Year's Day, the Ganesh festival was celebrated with zeal and zest. The community, which is spread across the city, has a strong presence in Secunderabad, with many of them settling in Sindhi Colony. Sindhi community members Satish Roshan, Pawan Kumar, and Rahu Kumar have installed a Ganesh pandal in Lothkunta, Secunderabad. "A large number of Sindhi families gathered. During the festival, we held pujas and cultural events every day. The Ganesh idol has been immersed on the third day itself, they said. File photo of Muslims getting ready for Friday prayers at the Macca Masjin in Old City. (Photo: P. Surendra) HYDERABAD: Amid tight security, Friday prayers passed off peacefully at Macca Masjid, the major convergence point for Ganesh idols in the Old City. Security personnel deployed in the area ensured that the namazis left the place immediately after their prayers, despite the heavy rains. Incidentally, as most had planned to offer their prayers and participate in congregations at mosques in their respective localities, the gathering at Macca Masjid was relatively small. Tourists who had hoped to offer prayers were not allowed because of the baggage they were carrying. Sadiq Hussain, an IT employee from Maharashtra, tried his best to convince those frisking at the gates, but in vain. "I came here with enthusiasm. No nearby business establishment was ready to keep my bag. I am returning disappointed," he said. The security arrangements near the mosque ensured that no procession passed through the vicinity during prayers. All sound systems were muted. The gates of Macca Masjid were closed till the next prayer. HYDERABAD: With work on the Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC), recently inaugurated at Banjara Hills in the city, still in progress, the Hyderabad city police, led by police commissioner C.V. Anand monitored the Ganesh immersion procession from its old headquarters at Basheerbagh. The statewide CCTV surveillance and emergency response mechanism is yet to be installed at the ICCC. Senior officials used the video wall which has been in use for years at the Basheerbagh office. Director General of Police M. Mahendar Reddy monitored the processions across the state from his office at Lakdikapul. Officials from all government departments including GHMC, electricity, transport, water board, health and at least 10 other departments, sat at city police's Basheerbagh office to coordinate a response to developing situations. The commissioners of Rachakonda and Cyberabad police also monitored the processions from the command control centres at their offices, apart from touring the procession routes and immersion points. Later in the evening, home minister Mohd Mahmood Ali along with minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav, Mahendar Reddy and Anand inspected the processions from a helicopter. KARIMNAGAR: The Huzurabad BJP MLA and former minister Etela Rajender must apologise to the people of the Dalit community for making comments against them and questioning about Dalit Bandhu scheme money, which was sanctioned to the Dalit people, demanded the SC corporation chairman, Banda Srinivas, speaking at a press meet held in Hyderabad. Pointing out that the BJP is going to form the next government, Rajender questioned on the whereabouts of the money for the Dalit Bandhu scheme. Srinivas also criticised him for saying that the Dalit Bandhu scheme was a big fraud which was being implemented by the TRS government. Srinivas added that by making such comments against the Dalit community, Rajender was hurting the feelings of the Dalit people. The BJP leader is also trying to divert the attention of the public with his false allegations, he said. Srinivas alleged that when the Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao introduced the Dalit Bandhu scheme prestigiously and started sanctioning money to the Dalit families, the BJP leaders were not able to digest it. Apart from that, they were attacking the Dalit people in the BJP-ruled states. He demanded that if the Rajender had love and affection towards the people of Dalit communities, then he must exert pressure on the central government for the sanctioning of Rs 1,000 crore for their welfare. The people of Telangana are aware of schemes being implemented in the BJP-ruled states. They are also aware of what the BJP will do if it comes to power in the state and is ready to teach a lesson to it in the coming Assembly elections, he warned. Banda Srinivas also accused Etela Rajender of derogatory remarks against the Telangana Assembly Speaker, Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, and demanded an apology. Meanwhile, the people of Dalit communities burnt the effigies of Etela Rajendar in Huzurabad, Jammikunta, and Veenavanka mandals in protest against the comments he made against the Dalit Bandhu scheme. TRSV state secretary Avala Haribabu, Jaffar, Shashi, Vemula Srinivas, Marri Ranadheer Reddy, Madhusudhan Reddy, and Venu were present along with others. The new generation of Apple Watches will not be available until later this month but those who own Apple Watch Series 4 and later will be able to enjoy watchOS 9 as Apple announced that it will release the operating system on September 12. The said operating system for Apple Watch will be released on the same date that iOS 16 will arrive. This comes after the watchOS 9, and iOS 16 debuted at the WWDC in June 2022. Apple made the announcement in the press materials released by the tech company. Meanwhile, Apple's macOS Ventura and iPadOS 16 are expected to arrive this October, as per Apple Insider. What are the New Features that watchOS 9 Will Bring to Apple Watch? watchOS 9 will bring a number of health and fitness features and improvements, according to a report by iTechPost. Apple is using these new features to increase the sales of its wearable. The new watch OS 9 update brings Sleep Stages to Apple Watch. If you want to check your sleeping habit, this feature will come very handy. Using Apple Watch, you can track the time you spend in deep and core sleep. You will also be able to tract the time spent in REM. Runners will also benefit from the new update as it brings more metrics. With the new stats, runners will be able to assess their overall performance. In addition, watchOS 9 could be useful in preventing injuries, as per iTechPost. Some other upgrades to watchOS 9 fitness features are "heart rate zones for sleep and workouts, multisport workouts, and a way to monitor your personal best performances," according to Engadget. The new upgrade will also allow users to "track atrial fibrillation events" as well as "receive alerts" particularly when its already time for your to take your medicine, as per Engadget. You will also enjoy a new-look of Siri, a revamped Calendar app, Quick Actions gestures, and more watch screens that will come with the new upgrade. Read Also: Apple Watch Series 3 Is Selling Quickly Ahead of New Model Releases Limitations of WatchOS 9 Upgrade To be able to install watchOS 9, users must have an iPhone 8 or later. The said operating system will also run on second-gen iPhone SE or later. Sadly, users of Apple Watch Series 3 will not be able to enjoy the upgrade, as Apple stated that it will only be compatible with Series 4 and later units. According to Engadget, not everyone who has an Apple Watch will be able to enjoy all of watchOS 9 features. Another unfortunate news is not all of the features will be available in every region. During its "Far Out" event today, Apple announced that it will release watchOS 9 on Monday. However, its public beta was already available since July. In the beta, a number of features were available to users such as "fitness metrics alongside other quality-of-life improvements." As mentioned earlier, the new OS will only be accessible for Apple Watch Series 4 and later users, and those with an iPhone 8 or later, which runs on iOS 16. Related Article: New watchOS 9 Upgrades Apple Watch with Fitness Features - Is Series 3 Still Supported? The Supreme Court has granted bail to journalist Siddiqui Kappan jailed in a conspiracy case linked to covering the Hathras gang-rape (Photo: Twitter) NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to Kerala-based journalist Siddique Kappan, arrested in October 2020 while on his way to Hathras in Uttar Pradesh after a Dalit woman from there died following gang-rape, appearing dismissive about the protests and saying every person has right to free expression. "Till now you have not shown anything provocative," a bench headed by Chief Justice UU Lalit and also comprising Justices S Ravindra Bhat and P S Narasimha noted, while granting bail to Kappan who is in jail for almost two years. The court also took note of the submissions of the Uttar Pradesh government and laid down several conditions for bail, including that he will have to remain in Delhi for the next six weeks after release from the prison and report to Nizamuddin police station here on Monday every week. The appellant shall be taken to the trial court within three days and shall be released on bail on conditions as deemed fit by the trial court, the bench said in the order, adding, It shall be the condition of bail that the appellant shall stay within the jurisdiction of Nizamuddin area here in Delhi. Elaborating further, the court said, after a period of six months, he may travel to his native place Malappuram in Kerala and there also he will have to report to the local police station in similar fashion, that is every Monday, and mark his presence in the register kept on that behalf. The appellant shall not leave the jurisdiction of Delhi without the express consent of the trial court, it said, adding, The appellant shall either in person or through lawyer shall attend the trial court on every single day. The appellant shall deposit his passport with the investigative machinery. After perusing the records, the bench said, it would refrain from dealing with the progress of investigation and the material collected by the probe agency as the case is at the stage of framing of charges. The appellant shall not misuse the liberty and shall not get in touch with any of the persons connected with the controversy, the judges said and disposed of the bail plea. The court also granted Kappan the liberty to avail the right to get bail in another case lodged against him under the anti-money laundering law. At the outset, the bench inquired about the alleged incriminating evidence found against Kappan by UP police. Senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, appearing for the state government, claimed Kappan has links with the PFI, which is a banned organisation in Jharkhand, and there was evidence of him having met certain people belonging to the group with the motive of inciting riots in sensitive areas. The senior lawyer also referred to the amount of Rs 45,000 allegedly received by Kappan from PFI for inciting riots as a little bit like what happened in Bombay in 1990." He said some literature was also recovered to create propaganda and stir the feeling of Dalit community. Every person has the right to free expression. He is trying to show that victims need justice and raise a common voice. Is that a crime in the eyes of law? CJI Lalit asked referring to widespread protests against the incident. "Similar protests (in Nirbhaya case) were in 2012 at India Gate, which led to a change of law. Till now you have not shown anything provocative," the bench said. Opposing the bail plea, the state government counsel referred to the the recovery of a tool kit from the accused which also contained instructions about how to tackle tear gas. So this appears to be somewhere from foreign country.., the bench said when Jethmalani submitted that it was in English. Mr.Jethmalani, we will grant him bail. Which are the conditions you want to impose, the bench said before dictating the order. The top court had on August 29 sought response from the Uttar Pradesh government on the bail plea of Kappan after senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the journalist, highlighted he was in jail since October, 2020. The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court had earlier this month rejected the bail application of Kappan, who was also booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in the alleged Hathras conspiracy case. The FIR was filed under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the UAPA against four people having alleged links with the Popular Front of India (PFI). The PFI had been accused in the past of funding protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act across the country. The police had earlier claimed the accused were trying to disturb law and order in Hathras. The high court had dismissed Kappan's bail plea, saying "Considering the facts and circumstances of the case, nature of the offence, evidence on record, considering the complicity of the accused, the severity of punishment and the settled law propounded by the apex court, at this stage, without expressing any opinion on the merits of the case, this court is not inclined to release the applicant on bail." Earlier, a Mathura court had junked Kappan's bail application. The victim had died at a Delhi hospital a fortnight after her alleged rape by four men from her village on September 14, 2020. She was cremated in the middle of the night in her village. Her family had claimed the cremation was held without their consent and that they were not allowed to bring home the body one last time. The tussle between Reddy and BC community leaders has forced the TRS leadership to keep the announcement of the candidate pending. (Representational Image) HYDERABAD: With Congress announcing Palvai Sravanthi as its candidate for the upcoming Munugode Assembly bypoll on Friday and Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy's candidature from the BJP looking certain, all eyes are on the TRS to announce its nominee. As the Congress and the BJP candidates belong to the Reddy community, the TRS leadership's stand assumes significance over whether it too wants to opt for a Reddy candidate or choose a candidate from among the BCs to lure voters of the group who comprise a majority in the constituency. The tussle between Reddy and BC community leaders has forced the TRS leadership to keep the announcement of the candidate pending. With the main contestants in the field, a TRS announcement is likely soon. As of now, the TRS leadership is reportedly in favour of giving ticket to Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy, who won in 2014 but lost to the Congress in 2018. Energy minister G. Jagadish Reddy, TRS in-charge for Munugode bypoll, is pitching for Prabhakar Reddy's candidature and lobbying hard to secure a ticket for him. Jagadish Reddy is ensuring that only Prabhakar Reddy accompanies him in all his election meetings and is trying to send signals to the party's rank and file as well as voters that he will be the party's candidate for the bypoll. Leaders from the BC community in Nalgonda district are vehemently opposed to giving Prabhakar Reddy a ticket, claiming that his loss of goodwill among Munugode voters caused him to lose the 2018 polls, and that if he ran again his prospects of winning were slim. They demand that a candidate from the BC community, which has a sizable population in the constituency, be given the party's ticket. Prominent BC community leaders who are seeking a ticket for Munugode byelections include Bhongir former Lok Sabha member Boora Narsaiah Goud and former MLC Karne Prabhakar. It remains to be seen whether the party leadership wants to make this bypoll a battle between candidates from the Reddy community or between the Reddy and BC communities. A short while after he had a first-hand experience of the bitter street fights being engaged in by the TRS and the challenger BJP on a Ganesh Utsav celebration stage, when a pink party transgressor rushed on to the stage, snatched the mike and shouted slogans, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, speaking to Sriram Karri, laughingly said, The election fever is here. It feels like Telangana is going to the polls next month. The senior BJP leader, totally composed after the incident, spoke on a plethora of political issues in an exclusive interview. Excerpts: The second term of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, despite the Covid pandemic, has seen honouring most of its promises on issues that have been raging for decades Article 370 and Ram temple at Ayodhya. But the Uniform Civil Code is pending. Will the Centre consider implementing it? The Uniform Civil Code (UCC) is not a BJP programme as much as a demand, necessity and aspiration of Muslim women. It comes from the tragic humiliation and indignity women get subjected to and suffer all their lives. The BJP is committed to creating a legal system which recognises their plight and gives them equal rights that Indian women of other religions are enjoying. Specifically, the Central government knows what decisions to take when, and how so I cannot say. But the UCC will happen next and BJP will fulfil it. We see this only as a gender issue and we, as a party, will always respect and work for the betterment and empowerment of women. No matter what the Opposition says, we enjoy the blessings of women, and when they bless you, you will succeed. Talking of women, what do you think of the statement of the Governor of Telangana about the disrespect and violation of protocol? I met and spoke to Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan and understood her suffering very well. The Opposition and certain intellectuals who never tire of complaining that the Constitution and institutions are under attack ever since the Modi government came to power must reflect on this issue is not the Governors office a Constitutional entity? Even when she has to travel 800 km, the state government will deny her a helicopter. They are violating norms, precedents and the entire legal framework when they dont let her address the Assembly or deliver the Republic Day speech, or when the Chief Minister boycotts the At Home programme on Independence Day. They are doing this to a woman, who is upholding her Constitutional obligations and role, as per law. It is a shame. How do you react to KCRs national ambition of launching a national party, or front, to take on the NDA? It is the right of every Indian to fight elections or create a party or oppose the ruling front. I am from the North-East, so I dont know much about KCRs politics and I cannot comment much. But what little I understand from what I watch from Assam or see or read in the media, if a Chief Minister allows sloganeers of Sar tan se juda with impunity, not arrest them, or allow them to get away on bail, without having to experience the fullest might of Indian law, (it) gives a feeling that he is totally under the influence of the MIM and (Asaduddin) Owaisi and indulges in appeasement politics. He has put a national agenda before his own state, we in BJP will be happy with that (smiles). How would you react to the Bharat Jodo Yatra of Rahul Gandhi? It is their penchant and habit of going wrong. It was under the watch of his great grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru that India got partitioned. They broke India into two nations. If Rahul Gandhi wants to integrate, he must do his Bharat Jodo Yatra in Pakistan that is where the jodo slogan is relevant. Today, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India is totally united. No circumstance or scope exists in our Bharat today where any further disintegration is possible. So what is Rahul Gandhi really bringing together? Moving the meter in history from 1947 to 1948, the BJP calls September 17 a Liberation Day, whereas KCR uses the phrase merger and Owaisi national integration day. How do you see it individually, beyond the party position? I could have agreed with KCRs term if the Nizam had voluntarily decided to join the Indian Union, which hundreds of princely states did. But the Nizam resisted and fought. His army, the Razakars, led by a man who was also the founder of the party Mr Owaisi belongs to, fought the Indian soldiers. It was Sardar Patel who ensured the Nizams army was defeated and forced to surrender. Hyderabad was liberated by Patel and our soldiers, and all the brave people within the state of the Nizam who resisted his rule. I therefore believe every Indian will see this as Liberation Day. Tell us about Assam, its development journey and the flood situation? Assam is located at the intersection with Bangladesh and Bhutan. We are developing rapidly, transforming, as is the entire North-East, under the leadership of Modi. We are building infrastructure. We would be happy to invite entrepreneurs in all sectors. We also offer enterprises an access to the markets in Bangladesh, with whom we have improved relations. But most importantly, Assam now has sustained peace, and therefore, prosperity is following. Geographically, Assam is the depository of waters from upstream, hence the rainfall and floods in China, Tibet and others; we invariably end up with floods once in a few years. The situation has worsened with global warming and climate change; this year has been bad. Students and staff at Bangalore University's Jnanabharathi campus continued to protest on Thursday against the construction of a temple on the premises. Hundreds of students gathered near the Administrative Block and demanded the university authorities withdraw the permission provided to construct the Ganesha temple. They even resolved to file a complaint before the governor, chief secretary and BBMP chief commissioner demanding action against the BBMP engineer in charge of the construction work. Speaking to DH, Lokesh Ram, Vice-President of Bangalore University Post Graduate and Research Scholars' Union, said that the engineer had filed a police complaint against the teachers and students calling them "miscreants". "After Wednesday's protest, the engineer in charge of the project had filed a police complaint terming teachers and students as miscreants. We have urged the BBMP chief to initiate action against the engineer," he said. The students and staff alleged that despite the university issuing directions to stop the temple construction work, BBMP authorities have continued the work. However, Vice-Chancellor Dr Jayakara S M visited the spot and asked the authorities to stop the construction work. Spot issues Meanwhile, the students' body clarified that they are not against the construction, but the place where the temple will come up. What the Constitution says Some social activists questioned the university citing the Constitution, saying there is no provision for any religious structure on the premises of an educational institution, and demanded the university stop the temple construction. A day after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar suggested that his former colleague Prashant Kishor may be working to help the BJP covertly, the political strategist hit back with a set of photos, without comment. In a tweet, now deleted, Kishor shared four photos featuring Nitish Kumar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In all photographs, the Bihar chief minister can be seen greeting Modi with folded hands and smiling at the prime minister. On Wednesday, Nitish Kumar slammed Kishor, who had said that JD(U)'s decision to switch alliance will have a regional and not national impact, calling him a "publicity expert". Also Read Prashant Kishor may be helping BJP covertly: Nitish Kumar Does he know how much work has been done since 2005, he wondered and suggested that Kishor may be working to help the BJP covertly. "'His statements have no meaning," he said. Kishor had earlier taunted the Bihar Chief Minister for dumping the BJP and forming a new coalition government with Tejashwi Yadav's RJD and the Congress. He had said that upheaval was a "state-specific" phenomenon and unlikely to have nationwide ramifications. He had also claimed that the latest volte face by Kumar was symbolic of the "political instability" that has come to plague the state ever since the rise of "new BJP" under the leadership of Narendra Modi. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasinas ongoing State visit to India has been productive with the two sides signing pacts for cooperation in water sharing, trade, connectivity, space, railway infrastructure, and science and technology. The agreement on sharing the waters of River Kushiyara is significant. This is the first river water-sharing pact that the two sides have signed since the 1996 agreement on the Farakka waters. The Kushiyara pact will benefit people living in southern Assam and Bangladeshs Sylhet division. India and Bangladesh have also agreed to enter into a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and to that end will begin talks soon. Bangladesh is Indias largest trade partner in South Asia and bilateral trade has doubled over the last five years. Bangladesh has witnessed significant economic development in recent years and is poised to graduate from least developed country status in 2026. Dhaka and Delhi will aim to complete CEPA talks by then. Relations between India and Bangladesh have been strong, especially with Hasinas Awami League in power over the past decade. Her government has been sensitive to Indias security concerns and has acted robustly to tackle Islamist extremism and anti-India militant groups taking shelter in Bangladesh. And though Bangladesh is part of the Belt and Road Initiative and draws on Chinese expertise and investment for infrastructure building, it has been careful to avoid excessive dependence on Beijing by involving a range of countries, including India, Japan and South Korea. It has also kept China out of projects like the Sonadia deep-sea project that was of concern to India. Hasina has been criticised at home for being sensitive to Indian concerns, especially when India has not reciprocated. An agreement on the sharing of the Teestas waters remains elusive. While the text of the agreement has been ready since 2011, the political will to sign it has been lacking in India. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has allowed domestic politics and hostility toward the Narendra Modi government to determine her position on the signing of the agreement. Hasina has the Kushiyara pact to hold up as an achievement of her Delhi visit. But in the absence of a done deal on the Teesta, this could amount to little, especially as her party will face general elections in a year. Worse, Indian ministers have also repeatedly insulted Bangladeshis. Home Minister Amit Shah has in the past referred to Bangladeshi migrants as termites. Even as Hasina was shaking hands with Modi in Delhi, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma made a controversial comment on India integrating Bangladesh as part of Akhand Bharat. This is not how New Delhi should be treating a close friend. The Bengaluru South BJP MP L S Tejasvi Surya on Thursday alleged that the Congress party and some vested interests are trying to defame Brand Bengaluru over floods in some parts of the city. The opposition today is trying to defame 'Brand Bengaluru' for their petty political gains, Surya, also President of BJP's youth wing Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, told reporters here. He sought to know who owned the information technology Park in Bellandur here which got flooded due to two days of heavy rains and who encroached on the lakes and their feeder canals in that region. The Congress party and its land grabbing leaders must answer these questions and first introspect before lecturing the BJP on any of these issues, Surya said. Also REad | Rain and flood havoc in different parts of Karnataka To a question that the BJP was in power in the Bengaluru civic body, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), Surya said even an inch of encroachment -- whether it is by the BJP, the Congress or the JD(S) -- must be removed. The Lok Sabha member said the Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has given strict direction to clear the encroachments. He also stated that his constituency has largely been unaffected by the floods except for two or three areas in Bommanahalli, which have been taken care of by the MLA there and authorities. The areas which largely experienced this inundation was in Bellandur, Marathahalli, which does not fall in my Lok Sabha constituency. Having said that, our authorities, our MLAs, and our MPs have been constantly working and in the last 36 hours to 48 hours, the whole issue has been resolved, Surya said. The Supreme Court on Thursday said that wearing a hijab in the street may not offend anyone, however, doing so in a school might raise a question as to what kind of public order the authorities would want to maintain. The top court also said it was improper to make a comparison of the hijab with a turban as the Sikh religion has been ingrained in Indian culture and its validity has been upheld by the five-judge bench earlier. Hearing arguments against the hijab ban on Karnataka's Pre University Colleges, a bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and Sudhanshu Dhulia did not agree with a contention that the Karnataka HC's March 15 order - which upheld the hijab ban - was based on interpretation of Islam, bordering on blasphemy. Also Read | Right to dress can't be taken to illogical level: SC on hijab row Advocate Nizamuddin Pasha, appearing for petitioners, submitted that just growing hair and wearing a turban is one of the 5 Ks of Sikhism, and obeying the word of Allah in the Quran is part of Tauheed (faith), one of the five pillars of Islam, so the duality of the position vis-e-vis hijab reflected discrimination on the part of the state authorities. He said that the hijab will not cause a violation of discipline if worn in the colour of the uniform. The bench, however, said 5 Ks of Sikh has been held to be mandatory and a five-judge bench of this court held that wearing a turban and kirpan is essential for Sikhs. That is why we are saying comparison with Sikh may not be proper," the bench said, adding Sikhism has been ingrained in Indian culture. On this, Pasha said Islam has been there for 1,400 years and the hijab has been present since then. Also Read: Can right to practice religion be taken to institutions having prescribed uniform? asks SC on hijab row He also claimed the High Court's judgement giving his own interpretation on wearing hijab bordered on blasphemy. The bench asked him "not to go that far". Pasha also submitted that right to wear a hijab is also protected by the right of minorities to conserve their culture provided in Article 29(1), which unlike Article 25 does not have any limitations, and a larger bench will have to analyse Article 29 to define its contours. He also said the prohibition in Article 29(2) against being denied entry into educational institutions run by the government on the basis of religion is clearly violated if a Muslim who believes that hijab is essential to her faith is denied entry on that basis. Also Read: Video of Hijab-wearing students celebrating Onam in Kerala school goes viral Earlier before noon, senior advocate Devadatt Kamath submitted that Article 25, which guaranteed freedom of religion under the Constitution protected innocent bona fide practices like wearing a hijab but not an orange shawl, "a belligerent display of religion". The bench, however, asked wearing a hijab in street may not offend anyone, however, wearing it in a school might raise a question as to what kind of public order a school would want to maintain. Kamath said one can wear headgear, kara, as part of his religious belief, it may not be a core religious practice, but as long as it does not affect public order, health or morality, it can be allowed. Also Read | Hijab ban: 16% Muslim girls from Mangalore University colleges drop out "Wearing a namam, yes, wearing a hijab, yes, wearing an orange shawl is not a bona fide practice. The argument of the state is that if I wear a hijab, other students will wear an orange shawl. Wearing an orange shawl is not a genuine religious belief. It is a belligerent display of religion, that if you wear this, I will wear this, he said. Maintaining that the High Court has gone into a dangerous territory of separating conscience from religion, he submitted that there was a divergence of views among Karnataka, Kerala and Madras High Court judgements on whether the hijab is an essential religious practice and this court has to finally settle the issue. A County Derry woman is calling on the Department of Health to consider making a scan available to all adults in a bid to detect underlying heart conditions. Michelle Farren is seeking to raise more awareness around the early detection of heart defects. Her campaign to have echocardiogram tests made accessible to all adults has seen her write to local MLAs and the Health Minister Robin Swann. An echocardiogram is a type of ultrasound scan used to look at the heart and nearby blood vessels. Ms Farren, who suffers from a heart condition which was detected through an echocardiogram when she was 21, says the scan saved her life. After collapsing at home, Michelle was found to have atrial septal defect (ASD), a condition she was born with but was unaware of until she was offered the echocardiogram scan. Speaking to the County Derry Post, the Dungiven woman said she hopes that by advocating for the scans to be made available, it will help save lives. I am calling for echocardiogram heart scans to be offered to all as they can detect and confirm a killer heart defect, she said. This is a safe and painless procedure that is totally risk-free. The same scan found my defect. Defects can be corrected from birth. Pregnant women can also have fetal echocardiograms which will tell if their unborn child has a heart defect and this can be corrected after birth. "This is proven and can happen and this is why I am calling on the Department to take action to implement these scans and help to save lives. The 36 year-old continued: I had the scan after I collapsed at home and they found that I had a hole in the heart which had been there from birth. I was then able to have corrective surgery. I am proof sitting here today that not all heart defects are corrected at birth. Michelle has written to Health Minister Robin Swann. The unfortunate thing about it is that there are some people out there who have died and afterwards their families have been told that they had a heart defect that was not detected. I am a lucky statistic but the unlucky statistics are the people who unfortunately did not get the heart scan and died from a heart condition that went undetected. I hope changes can be made to avoid unneccessary deaths in the future. A Department of Health spokesperson last night said: The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) is the independent, expert body that advises the four UK Health Ministers on all aspects of screening and they have considered, on a number of occasions, whether any form of screening should be introduced for conditions associated with Sudden Cardiac Death in young people without symptoms. The UK NSC last reviewed the evidence in 2019 and concluded that screening for conditions associated with Sudden Cardiac Death in the young should not be offered at present. "The full report is available via the UK NSCs website Sudden Cardiac Death - UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) - GOV.UK (view-health-screening- recommendations.service .gov.uk). The Department continues to be guided by the UK NSCs recommendations on proposals for screening programmes and we understand that a further review of this recommendation will take place in the future. The Departments Community Resuscitation Strategy aims to increase the survival rate for those who suffer an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest by improving awareness of and access to, automated external defibrillators across Northern Ireland. "The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) leads on the implementation of the Strategy - to date this work has involved the deployment of Community Resuscitation Development Officers (CRDOs); to increase the number of people trained in CPR (cardio-pulmonary resuscitation); progress on CPR training in schools and improving information about defibrillators and how they can be deployed in the community. Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Councillor Sandra Duffy, has paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth II following the news of her passing today. Councillor Sandra Duffy said: "It is with deep regret that I have learned of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday. "I wish to send my sincerest condolences and sympathies to the Queen's family at this sad and difficult time. "My thoughts and sympathies are with the many people in our city and district, especially people from the unionist tradition and the people of Britain, who will feel her loss deeply. "I would like to also acknowledge the contribution Queen Elizabeth made towards building the peace here, reaching out the hand and helping to advance reconciliation and build relationships. I am hopeful that this will be a lasting legacy. "I will open a Book of Condolence at the Guildhall to allow people to offer their sympathies to her family at this time." The Book of Condolences will be available for the public to sign in the Guildhalls Main Hall and at the Alley Theatre in Strabane from 3.30pm It will open thereafter from 9am to 5pm daily. For those who cannot sign the book in person they can sign it online via the Councils website at: Book of Condolence. A watch is a very practical accessory that can improve a man's appearance on different occasions. Watches might, however, be more often underestimated than usual. The days of just being able to purchase analog watches with a single function-telling time-are long gone. Modern smartwatches are more advanced and capable than ever. To many, a smartwatch may appear to be just another type of watch, but they actually include plenty of more advanced functionalities. Apple has been one of the leading smartwatches brands in the world. And now, the tech giant is once again adding a new entry to the list of its high-tech watches. The iPhones maker is ready to update the Apple Watch SE, the company's entry-level smartwatch, two years after its release. Apple Watch SE Specs This year's Apple Watch SE is an upgrade to the original SE, which was released in 2020. The company's entry-level, cellular-capable smartwatch is now in its second generation. All of the usual features of the original SE are still available, including the optical heart rate sensor, and a Retina OLED display. Some of its other functionalities are emergency SOS, fall detection, emergency SOS, and sleep monitoring. However, this smartwatch has plenty of new features. One of the most notable features is being able to detect crashes, according to The Verge and Engadget. The moment of impact can be detected by an upgraded gyroscope and a new accelerometer. This feature can also immediately alert emergency services and the user's emergency contacts within 10 seconds if the user is unresponsive. According to The Verge, the crash detection feature is only available while the user is riding in a car. In addition, by linking with an iPhone's roaming plan, the new Apple Watch SE additionally allows international roaming. Read More: Apple Is Expanding Production of MacBook and Apple Watch To Vietnam To Diversify Supply Chain CNET said the new S8 processor, which is the same chip used in the Series 8 and Ultra models, is one of the major changes coming to the new Apple Watch SE. Apple's newest entry-level watch will be up to 20% faster than the original SE thanks to its upgraded chipset. Design In terms of appearance, the Apple Watch SE resembles its predecessor. But when you turn the watch over and pay great attention, you'll see a minor change. The redesigned SE watch is available in three colors: silver, midnight, and starlight. It also has new color-matched rear covers and is available in 40mm and 44mm sizes. Pricing and Availability In comparison to the $279 pricing of the 2020 model, the new SE will cost $249 for the GPS version. The cellular model, on the other hand, will cost slightly higher at $299. Meanwhile, for the 44mm models, the GPS variant costs $279 and $329 for the cellular version. Starting on Wednesday, you may place a pre-order for the Apple Watch SE, which will go on sale on Sept. 16. Related Article: watchOS 9 is Rolling Out on September 12 A man has been given a suspended sentence at Derry Magistrate's Court for what a judge described as 'a disgraceful incident involving police and paramedics. 'David Barr (22) of Dacre Terrace in Derry admitted a charge of disorderly behaviour that occurred on March 24. The court heard that ambulance staff were trying to respond to a call but were prevented from entering the property by people there. Police attended the address and found the defendant outside the property shouting and telling police they needed a warrant. Police told him there was someone in need of urgent medical care and no warrant was necessary. Barr became more aggressive and was arrested and he threatened officers who were trying to place a seat belt on him. He was taken to Altnagelvin Hospital and while there he calmed down and was de-arrested. Defence counsel Stephen Chapman said his client accepted that this was his fault. He said it was significant that he had calmed down and apologised to the officers. District Judge Barney McElholm said that the incident had been witnessed by children. He said that Barr didn't seem to have learned anything and was not helping himself. He sentenced him to 4 months suspended for three years and ordered him to pay 500 to the Friends of Altnagelvin. A man originally from Dublin who shouted racist abuse at two men sitting in Waterloo Place has been jailed at Derry Magistrate's Court. Patrick Corbally (23) of no fixed abode admitted a charge of disorderly behaviour aggravated by hostility that occurred on September 8. The court heard that the defendant was seen standing on a table shouting at two people sitting at another table. He was calling them 'Paki b-----s' and told them to 'f--k off back to your own country'. He was tracked by CCTV and arrested for disorderly behaviour aggravated by hostility. Defence solicitor Paddy MacDermott said that it was 'clearly a distasteful incident'. He said Corbally knew one of the other people and there was some history there. District Judge Barney McElholm said racist behaviour would not be tolerated and asked 'why did he think he could come up here and abuse people in this city?' Corbally was jailed for three months. The Queen has died and King Charles III is the new monarch. Here is the day-by-day account of what is expected to happen next, leading up to the Queens funeral in around 11 days time. Day of Death Thursday would traditionally have been D-Day or D+0 in the plans for the aftermath of the Queens death, codenamed London Bridge. But the announcement came late in the day at around 6.30pm on Thursday September 8 meaning plans have been shifted a day to allow the complex arrangements to be put in place, meaning D+0 will be considered Friday. The new King had dashed to the Queens bedside. Charles was joined by the monarchs other children the Princess Royal, the Duke of York and the Earl of Wessex, with the Duke of Cambridge, now heir to the throne, and the Duke of Sussex also travelling there. Also at Balmoral are Camilla the new Queen and the Countess of Wessex. The King and Camilla now the Queen remained at Balmoral overnight and will return to London on Friday. The following is expected to take place on Friday D+0. But concrete plans are yet to be confirmed by Buckingham Palace. D+0 Friday September 9 The King and Queen return to London Charles and Camilla stayed at Balmoral overnight on Thursday, but return to London on Friday. Audience with the PM Despite his grief, duty calls for new sovereign Charles who will have his first audience as monarch with Prime Minister Liz Truss. Confirming funeral plans Charles is likely to meet the Earl Marshal the Duke of Norfolk who is in charge of the accession and the Queens funeral, to approve the carefully choreographed schedule for the coming days. The London Bridge arrangements have long been planned in consultation with the Government. They will incorporate Operation Unicorn, the contingency plans for the death of the Queen in Scotland. During the coronavirus pandemic, the Government and the Royal Household prepared a London minus version of the London Bridge plans in case it was needed which is now unlikely with all the elements but with the involvement of fewer people. Court mourning Charles will decide on the length of court or royal mourning for members of the royal family and royal households. It is expected to last a month. National mourning The Government will confirm the length of national mourning, which is likely to be around 12 days, from now up to the day after the Queens funeral. They will also announce that the funeral day will be a public holiday in the form of a Day of National Mourning. Flags Union flags on royal buildings are flying at half-mast. The Royal Standard never flies half-mast. It represents the Sovereign and the United Kingdom, and is a symbol of the continuation of the monarchy. If the new King is in residence at a royal palace or castle, the Royal Standard will fly there full-mast as is the tradition. The Union flag does not fly there at the same time. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is in charge of arrangements for lowering flags on government buildings. Downing Street reportedly expressed concern in the past that the Government would face a wave of public anger if it did not lower its flags within 10 minutes of the announcement of the Queens death. Bells and gun salutes Bells will toll at Westminster Abbey, St Pauls Cathedral and Windsor Castle. Churches are being urged to toll their bells across England at noon. Gun salutes one round for every year of the Queens life will be fired in Hyde Park and at other stations. The public has already begun to leave flowers as tributes from around the world pour in. Charless televised address The King will make a televised address to the nation, which he is due to pre-record, in the early evening. He will pay tribute to the Queen and pledge his duty to his service as the new sovereign. Service at St Pauls Cathedral The Prime Minister and senior ministers will attend a public service of remembrance at St Pauls in central London. D+1 Saturday September 10 The Accession Council meets, traditionally at 10am, at St Jamess Palace in London to formally proclaim Charles as the new sovereign. First, the Privy Council gathers without the King to proclaim the new monarch and arrange business relating to the proclamation. Then Charles holds his first Privy Council, accompanied by Camilla the new Queen and William who are also Privy Counsellors, and makes his personal declaration and oath. The first public proclamation of the new sovereign is read in the open air from the Friary Court balcony at St Jamess Palace by the Garter King of Arms. Proclamations are made around the city and across the country. Union flags go back up to full-mast at 1pm and remain there for 24 hours to coincide with the proclamations before returning to half-mast. Charles will also hold audiences with the Prime Minister and the Cabinet. D+2 Sunday September 11 The Queens coffin is expected to be taken by road to the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. Proclamations will be read in the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland devolved parliaments in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast. D+3 Monday September 12 Procession is expected along Royal Mile to St Giles Cathedral. Service and the Vigil of the Princes by members of the royal family. The public may get the chance to file past the Queens coffin at a mini lying in state in St Giles. The House of Commons and the House of Lords are expected to come together in Westminster for a Motion of Condolence, which the King could attend. After leaving England and visiting Scotland, Charles will at some stage travel to the other countries of the UK Wales and Northern Ireland known as Operation Spring Tide. D+4 Tuesday September 13 Coffin expected to be flown to London. Expected to be at rest at Buckingham Palace. A rehearsal for the procession of the coffin from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster takes place. D+5 Wednesday September 14 The Queens lying in state is expected to begin in Westminster Hall Operation Marquee following a ceremonial procession through London. It will last four full days. The Archbishop of Canterbury will conduct a short service following the coffins arrival. Hundreds of thousands of people will file past the coffin on its catafalque and pay their respects, just as they did for the Queen Mothers lying in state in 2002. The management of the queues outside is Operation Feather. During the Covid-19 crisis, plans included the possibility of the introduction of timed ticketing for those wanting to attend. Senior royals are also expected to pay their own moving tribute, standing guard at some stage around the coffin the tradition known as the Vigil of the Princes. D+6 Thursday September 15 Lying in state continues and a rehearsal is likely to take place for the state funeral procession. D+7 Friday September 16 Sunday September 18 Lying in state continues, ending on D+9. Heads of state begin to arrive for the funeral. D+10 Monday September 19 The Queens state funeral is expected take place at Westminster Abbey in central London. The original plans are for the Queens coffin to process on a gun carriage to the abbey, pulled by naval ratings sailors using ropes rather than horses. Senior members of the family are expected to poignantly follow behind just like they did for the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales and the Duke of Edinburgh. The military will line the streets and also join the procession. Heads of state, prime ministers and presidents, European royals and key figures from public life will be invited to gather in the abbey, which can hold a congregation of 2,000. The service will be televised, and a national two minutes silence is expected to be held. The same day as the funeral, the Queens coffin will be taken to St Georges Chapel at Windsor Castle for a televised committal service. Later in the evening, there will be a private interment service with senior members of the royal family. The Queens final resting place will be the King George VI memorial chapel, an annex to the main chapel where her mother and father were buried, along with the ashes of her sister, Princess Margaret. Philips coffin will move from the Royal Vault to the memorial chapel to join the Queens. Sacred Games Season 2: Amruta Subhash Says She Was Inspired By A Chameleon Pooja Banerjee Celebrates Her Second Marriage Anniversary With Husband And A Smoking Hot Bikini Body Where to Watch / Stream Malawi Gold Online Theatrical release - Not available on any OTT Platform right now. Advertisements Malawi Gold : Release Date, Trailer, Cast & Songs About Malawi Gold Malawi Gold will release on Sep 10, 2023 and is directed by Zach Robinson and Jake Marston .This movie will be 11 min in duration and will be available in English language. Mariah Goodman, Jack Hueser, Ben Tjaden, Jake Marston, Jake Ames and Zach Robinson will be playing as the star cast in this movie. Malawi Gold will be available in Comedy genre. Disclaimer: All content and media has been sourced from original content streaming platforms, such as Disney Hotstar, Amazon Prime, Netflix, etc. Digit Binge is an aggregator of content and does not claim any rights on the content. The copyrights of all the content belongs to their respective original owners and streaming service providers. All content has been linked to respective service provider platforms.This product uses the TMDb API but is not endorsed or certified by Advertisements Subscriber content preview PORTLAND (AP) The city of Portland is being sued by disabled residents who say officials aren't keeping public sidewalks accessible because they allow homeless people to camp on sidewalks. The class action lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court, accuses the city of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported. . . . Subscriber content preview PUYALLUP Oktoberfest Northwest, Washington's largest Munich-style Oktoberfest celebration returns Oct. 7-9 with German biers in steins, brats, games and more! Tickets range from $7.50-$12.50 when purchased online and $10-$20 at the gate. . . . Mobile phones and smartphones have become integral in our daily lives. With them around, we can talk to other people, surf the web, work, take pictures, and even play video games. This fact is especially true during the initial onset of the COVID-19 pandemic when every one of us had to rely on our smartphones and computers to interact with people and work. However, if we take a time machine to the early 1970s and tell the people of that time that we were able to condense the technology for several devices into a palm-sized gadget, they'd call us madmen. During that time, mobile phones were not as prolific as today. In fact, it was only then that the idea of the mobile telephone came out, and you wouldn't believe how it got invented. Here's the story of how the first mobile phone got invented: Mobile Phones - A Marriage Between Sci-Fi And Reality It all started during the early 1970s with a man named Martin Cooper, who, at the time, was an employee of Motorola, which is a company embattled with its main competitor, AT&T, for dominance in cellular technology, per How Stuff Works. However, Cooper didn't want to just compete with AT&T. He wanted to outdo the competition and do something that would give Motorola the lead when it comes to cellular technology, according to Destination Innovation. The idea of a mobile phone came to him when he was watching "Star Trek," when Captain Kirk, played by William Shatner, was using his communicator. A communicator is a communications device used by "Star Trek's" many species for person-to-person, inter-ship communications, per the Star Trek Wiki. It could be either an intercom or a hand-held personal receiver that could be used for person-to-ship communications. Read More: NASA Has Chosen Who Will Make the Artemis 3 Spacesuits Watching Kirk use his communicator gave Cooper the idea and inspiration he needed to develop a handheld mobile phone - a revolutionary idea at the time, according to Cooper, per his interview with Telus International. Cooper and his team took 90 days to develop and create the first portable cellular 800MHz phone prototype. According to Cooper, it was about ten inches high, two inches wide, and four or five inches deep. It weighs a kilo and has enough battery life to make a twenty-five-minute call. Even though its battery life was extremely short, it was fine at the time as nobody would use the phone for very long. The Smithsonian Magazine mentioned in its article that Cooper credited "Star Trek" for the design of the first mobile phone, with Cooper saying, "['Star Trek'] was not a fantasy to us. That was an objective." Getting The Prototype To The Public After developing the first mobile phone, Cooper called a press conference to showcase his invention. During the event, he used the mobile phone to make the first call using one, and the first recipient was AT&T Bell Labs' head of research, Joel Engel. After exchanging pleasantries with Engel, Cooper said, "Joel, I'm calling you from a cell phone. But a real cell phone, a personal, handheld, portable cell phone." There was nothing but "silence at the other end of the time," Cooper recalled. The press conference made headlines, causing a sensation fired up by Cooper's call to Engel. Motorola finally released the first commercial mobile phone to the public in 1983, named the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. The DynaTAC 8000X was almost the same as Cooper's prototype mobile phone except for its weight, with it weighing only half a kilo. Related Article: Star Trek Day on Paramount Plus: Here's What You Have to Know Church leaders across the island of Ireland have paid tribute to the Queen, saying she will be remembered for her steadfastness, quiet dedication and for being a person of great faith. Archbishop Eamon Martin described the Queen as much-loved and deeply respected, adding he admired her for her quiet dignity and calm nature. What stands out for me is her dedication to faith, to family, and to peace and reconciliation, he said. I remember meeting Queen Elizabeth in Enniskillen in 2012, before I was ordained as bishop, when she took the courageous and historic step of visiting Saint Michaels Catholic Church. She came across as friendly and good-humoured, and took time to put everyone at their ease. I have always admired Queen Elizabeths quiet dignity and calm nature despite living through very difficult times with much political, economic, social and family upheaval. That was why ordinary people of all backgrounds and faiths could relate to her and held her in such affection. The Archbishop of Dublin said the Queen was a figure of international renown and her death deprived the royal family not only of the head of State but the head of their family. Reverend Dr Michael Jackson said: She was much respected and held in significant affection at home and across the world. She was a person who set a shining and consistent example of duty, service and care as someone who put the public good above personal considerations. She will also be remembered as a person of great faith and was never ashamed to speak directly of godly motivation in her guiding principles and in her actions. He said the Queen had visited Ireland on a number of occasions and that every time she did so, she found her way to the hearts of the people in any context where she met them. The Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland said the Queens affection for Ireland as a whole was clear for all to see when she visited the Republic in 2011. Reverend John McDowell said: I was privileged to be there when, on her Diamond Jubilee visit to Enniskillen, she walked the twenty yards from the Church of Ireland Cathedral of St Macartin and into St Michaels Roman Catholic church. Barely a hundred paces, but a walk which covered countless miles in the long and unfinished journey of peace on these islands. Her affection for Ireland as a whole was clear for all to see during the memorable state visit to the Republic of Ireland in 2011, and her speech at the State Banquet ranks in political foresight and Christian conviction with the Golden Speech which Queen Elizabeth I made to the House of Commons in 1601. He added: We thank God for the life of Queen Elizabeth II, for her faithfulness to Him and to her calling, from which we have gained so much. The Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ireland offered his deepest, heartfelt and sincere condolences to the King and the rest of the royal family on the loss of one so loved and respected. Reverend Dr John Kirkpatrick said: For those in Northern Ireland who express their loyalty to the Crown, few can remember a time when the Queen was not part of the very fabric of national life, as her Platinum Jubilee in June demonstrated. At the same time, for many who do not share that same sense of loyalty, in her long life Queen Elizabeth became one of the most recognisable and respected figures across these islands. The Queen will be remembered for her sense of duty and quiet dedication to the service of the people of the United Kingdom, and those farther afield. Dr Kirkpatrick added: As an all-Ireland denomination, many of our members, and indeed non-members alike, found much hope and encouragement in Her Majestys many visits to Northern Ireland, not least during the darkest of days. Few will also forget her state visit to the Republic of Ireland with her late husband, Prince Philip, 11 years ago. In a long and significant reign, they were four days in May that not only made history, but quietly closed a chapter in Irelands story. A short visit that left a long-lasting impression, which will be remembered for many years to come, alongside her commitment to peace and reconciliation. The Bishop of Derry and Raphoe described the Queens death as a moment of profound sadness for all in the diocese who have held Her Majesty The Queen in our hearts and prayers, in many cases for the whole of our lives. He described her reign as unprecedented in its longevity. While no-one could question her commitment to her people, she displayed equal fidelity to an even greater responsibility her divine calling, he said. The President of the Methodist Church in Ireland said it is impossible to adequately summarise the enormity of the extent to which the late Queen dedicated herself to the service of her country. Reverend David Nixon said: We remember her unwavering commitment to the vow she took at her 21st birthday to devote her whole life to public service and the quiet dignity with which she has, for over 70 years, been a global ambassador for her nation, her values and her faith while successfully adapting to an endlessly changing world have been an inspiration to so many. We have enormous appreciation for her steadfastness as she maintained her faith in God and lived by her calling to serve the people of the United Kingdom and those through the Commonwealth. We give God thanks for her long life, sacrificial leadership and dedication to duty. Sinn Feins leaders have expressed their sympathies to those mourning the death of the Queen, extending their condolences to unionists in particular. The comments from the republican leaders are the latest in the development of diplomatic relations between Sinn Fein and the British establishment that would not have been thought possible in the years prior to the peace process. In response to the news of the death, Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said: To the royal family and all who mourn the death of Queen Elizabeth, especially Irish unionists, I extend sincere sympathy. She lived a long, full life. In her lifetime relationships between our countries were changed and changing. I salute her contribution to this transformation. To the Royal Family and all who mourn the death of Queen Elizabeth, especially Irish Unionists, I extend sincere sympathy. She lived a long, full life. In her lifetime relationships between our countries were changed and changing. I salute her contribution to this transformation Mary Lou McDonald (@MaryLouMcDonald) September 8, 2022 Sinn Feins Stormont leader Michelle ONeill said she had learned of the death of the Queen with deep regret, and wished to acknowledge the profound sorrow of our neighbours from within the unionist community who will feel her loss deeply. It comes 11 years after Sinn Fein snubbed the Queens historic visit to Ireland, the first by a British monarch in 100 years, in a move that was labelled as out of sync with the general sentiment on the island of Ireland. The following year, former IRA commander and then NI deputy first minister Martin McGuinness shook hands with the Queen in Belfast in a symbolic gesture of progress that made headlines across the world. This was made more significant by the fact that as part of the IRAs terrorist campaign against the British establishment, the Queens second cousin Lord Mountbatten was assassinated in Co Sligo in 1979. In 2015, during a visit to Ireland which included travelling to the scene where his great uncle was killed, Charles shook hands with the then Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams in what was deemed another historic moment in developing diplomatic relations. Press Release Des Moines, Iowa Friday, September 9, 2022 The Des Moines City Council on Monday will consider an agreement to purchase the former Nationwide building at 1200 Locust Street as part of a major effort to consolidate government operations, upgrade facilities and enhance services. Consideration of the purchase agreement is on the agenda for the Councils regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, Sept. 12 at 5 p.m. in City Hall. City officials said relocating government operations from five locations to the former Nationwide building would result in substantive benefits that include improved government efficiency, an upgrade of outdated and overcrowded facilities, a reduction in surplus downtown office space and the future economic development of two City buildings and vacant parcels located along the Des Moines River. We are putting into motion a move of historic significance, Deputy City Manager Matt Anderson said. Were making decisions today that venture beyond office space and will set the course of how our city government operates and serves residents for the next half-century. The agreed-upon purchase price for the five-story, 360,000-square-foot office building is $30 million and represents a cost per square foot of less than $90. Construction of new commercial office space in the Des Moines market is currently estimated at $300-$400 per square foot. The City would also acquire a six-story 1,690-space parking ramp south of the former Nationwide building for $10.6 million, well below new construction costs in the metro. The two City buildings targeted for closure include the headquarters of the Des Moines Police Department (constructed in 1918), and the Argonne Armory (built in 1934) which houses Development Services, Neighborhood Services, and portions of Legal and Information Technology. Each building is located on the east side of the Des Moines River. Personnel from the Human Resources Department in the Municipal Services Center and several undetermined departments located in City Hall could also be transferred. For the past several years, City leadership has worked to address the needs for a larger, upgraded law enforcement center as well as a new administrative building for those departments crowded into the Argonne Armory and assigned off-site office space at Polk County River Place. The acquisition of the former Nationwide building would replace plans to build a $40 million administration annex east of City Hall along Robert D. Ray Drive while the cost for a new DMPD headquarters was estimated at $160 million. We are approaching a critical need for upgraded and expanded work areas that better reflect the direction of todays City departments particularly in the areas of law enforcement, information technology and cybersecurity, Anderson said. The transformative opportunities that can be generated through this building purchase will do that in a cost-effective and responsible manner. The Citys next step will be to issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) and select an architectural firm to conduct a workspace utilization study to determine departmental needs, develop a master use plan and estimate the costs of office design and renovations. That study is expected to begin in fall of 2022 with the first phase completed by mid-2023 Louth County Council is preparing to celebrate the Culture Night 2022 with a series of free events across the county on Friday 23rd September, from 4pm till late. Now in its 17th edition, this years theme for Culture Night is One Night for All, and the Council is offering a range of events for every one of all ages to enjoy. All events are free, but some will require booking in advance due to limited numbers available. Run by the Arts Council of Ireland, Culture Night is a national event, celebrating culture, creativity and the arts nationwide. Last year, over 1.1 million people engaged with Culture Night. Moya Hodgers, Arts Officer at Louth County Council, said: Louth County Council is delighted to have a jam-packed programme of events planned for Friday 23rd September. We would encourage all to come along and with the wide variety of free arts and culture events being showcased the night there is something for everyone! Across Dundalk and Drogheda, 12 venues will be participating in the night. Events taking place in Dundalk include, Lego Building workshops in the County Museum, Chinese Lantern making in An Tain Arts Centre, talks from family members of the escapees of Dundalk Gaol in 1922 and storytelling with Niall de Burca in Dundalk Library. In Drogheda, there will be walking tours of the DRAWDA murals, live music and film in Droichead Arts Centre, a multicultural event by Hands4Unity and Millmount Craft Quarter and Borrowed Ground Artist Studios will be open for visitors to chat to the artists. For more information, visit: www.culturenight.ie/louth/ Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and the Media, Catherine Martin TD, yesterday (Thursday September 8) announced the awarding of 2,000 grants for artists and creative arts workers through the new Basic Income for the Arts pilot scheme. There were 30 artists in Louth awarded the grant. Minister Martin, said: The Basic Income for the Arts pilot scheme is a once-in-a-generation initiative. It makes a strong statement about the value Ireland places on the arts and artistic practice, both for its intrinsic value and in terms of our personal and collective wellbeing, and also in terms of its importance to our identity and cultural distinctiveness on the global stage. Over 9,000 applications were made under the scheme with over 8,200 assessed as eligible and included in a randomised anonymous selection process. The group of 2,000 grant participants, with 30 in Louth, includes representatives from all art forms, age groups, ethnicities and counties. This includes 707 visual artists, 584 musicians, 204 artists working in film, 184 writers, 173 actors and artists working in theatre, 32 dancers and choreographers, 13 circus artists and 10 architects. 3% or 54 of those selected work through the Irish language. A basic income for the arts was the number one recommendation of the Arts and Culture Recovery Taskforce which was set up by Minister Martin in 2020 to examine how the sector could adapt and recover from the unprecedented damage arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. The main objective of the scheme is to address the precarious and financial instability faced by many working in the arts, and to assist the sector recover post-pandemic. Eligibility for the scheme was based on the definition of the arts as contained in the Arts Act 2003; arts means any creative or interpretative expression (whether traditional or contemporary) in whatever form, and includes, in particular, visual arts, theatre, literature, music, dance, opera, film, circus and architecture, and includes any medium when used for those purposes. There were three categories under which applicants could apply as follows: 1. Practising artists 2. Creative Arts Workers (defined as someone who has a creative practice, or whose creative work makes a key contribution to the interpretation or exhibition of the arts) 3. Recently Trained i.e. graduated with a relevant qualification in the past 5 years. Today is an historic day for the arts in Ireland 2,000 artists & arts workers have been selected for the Basic Income for the Arts pilot scheme They will receive 325 per week for 3 years This is the beginning of what I hope is a new era for the arts pic.twitter.com/EipzfX1fSP Catherine Martin TD (@cathmartingreen) September 8, 2022 84% of those selected identified as practising artists, 9% identified as Creative Arts Workers and 7% as Recently Trained Applicants. Clare Duignan, Chair of the Arts and Culture Recovery Taskforce, said: COVID-19 was extremely challenging for artists and creative workers, exposing vulnerabilities which have existed for decades within the Irish arts sector. Taskforce members unanimously agreed that the establishment of a pilot basic income scheme in the arts, culture, audiovisual and live performance and events sector was our top priority. I am delighted that the first group of successful applicants is being announced today. This is a landmark day, not just for those receiving grants, but also for Ireland, as it is the day that the state formally recognises the financial instability faced by many working in the arts and places a value on the time spent developing a creative practice and producing art. This pilot has the potential to be genuinely transformative in terms of the lives of participants and the sustainability of the sector, and should reduce the constant level of uncertainty and insecurity felt by many in the arts sector. I hope that it also gives recipients announced today an increased sense of self-worth and facilitates risk-taking and experimentation in their practice. It should help them to develop and grow the quality of their artistic output, allowing them to contribute to broader Irish society both socially and economically. Minister Catherine Martin, added: The pandemic reinforced the fact that each and every person relies on and leans into the arts during times of need and every person was reminded of the true value of artists and their work during the last two years as we listened to music, read poetry and watched films to get ourselves through those difficult days. And it is the arts that will help us make sense of what happened and help us shape the future. With so much uncertainty in the world now including the war in Ukraine, the climate crisis, and huge cost of living increases, we need the arts more than ever to help inspire us to imagine and create a better future for ourselves. Participants in the Basic Income for the Arts pilot scheme will take part in a three year research programme to assess the impact of a basic-income-style payment on the arts sector. Payments of 325 per week will be made to 2,000 eligible artists and creative arts workers over the course of the scheme. Participants will be required to engage in an ongoing data collection programme to assess the impact of a basic income style payment on artists and their creative practice. To assist with this, 1,000 eligible applicants who were not selected to receive the payment were selected to participate in a control group to facilitate the evaluation of the pilot. Minister Martin added: The Basic Income for the Arts pilot, an initiative endorsed by the whole Government, has the potential to fundamentally transform how we support the arts and creativity. Ireland could lead the way on a new model to support people active in the sector, recognising its importance to all people. I know that there will be a lot of disappointed people today who applied and didnt get selected. I am very grateful to everyone who took the time to apply and I understand their disappointment. I want to thank everyone who took the time to apply and congratulate those who have been selected to take part. I look forward to seeing the results of the research which I hope will underpin future Government policy for the arts. Information on the eligibility criteria and guidelines for the pilot scheme can be found here A full list of grant recipients can be found here People from across Northern Ireland continued to congregate at the gates of Hillsborough Castle in Co Down on Friday, paying tribute following the death of the Queen. Floral tributes were being left at the imposing gates of the castle, the royal residence in Northern Ireland, which will be the location for ceremonial activities in the region. The picturesque Co Down village was renamed Royal Hillsborough last year to mark its close affiliation with the royal family. The Queen had been due to visit to mark the name change last year but was unable to travel on the advice of her doctors. There was a significant security operation under way with the village with a one-way traffic system in operation and police searches for anyone visiting the castle to pay respects. Among those at Hillsborough Castle on Friday morning was local man Robin Campbell, who brought along his children James and Anna. He said: We have come as a mark of respect for the Queens passing. It has been very sad, I just wanted to show the kids. Anna thought she was going to get the chance to meet the Queen last year when she was supposed to come to Royal Hillsborough but unfortunately, due to her illness, she couldnt make it. So since yesterday afternoon it is all we have talked about as a family. I think it is all everybody has talked about. It is going to be a very sad time for the country in general. The number of floral tributes at the castle gates had grown substantially since the previous evening. One tribute left on a white card read: Rest in peace our kind and beautiful Queen. Our hearts are broken. Long live the King xxx. The message on another floral tribute said: Hard to imagine a United Kingdom without you. Police have warned of potential traffic disruption in the village over the coming days with the number expected to attend to pay tribute set to rise. A park and ride system has been put in place from the nearby site of the former Maze prison, to bring people into the village. A PSNI spokesperson said: Motorists are advised to be aware of potential disruption and delays in the Royal Hillsborough area. A one-way system is in place in the town, and increased footfall is expected following the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Fuyuan in NE China makes efforts to develop its distinctive cultural tourism industry Xinhua) 08:29, September 09, 2022 Photo taken on Sept. 4, 2022 shows the view of a wetland in Fuyuan, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Fuyuan has been making persistent efforts to improve local ecological environment, attracting tourists with its distinctive cultural tourism industry. (Xinhua/Wang Jianwei) Cranberries are pictured at a planting base in Fuyuan, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Sept. 4, 2022. Fuyuan has been making persistent efforts to improve local ecological environment, attracting tourists with its distinctive cultural tourism industry. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang) Photo taken on Sept. 3, 2022 shows the sunset scenery at Dongji Pavilion in Fuyuan, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Fuyuan has been making persistent efforts to improve local ecological environment, attracting tourists with its distinctive cultural tourism industry. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang) Freshwater fish are pictured in a fish culture museum in Fuyuan, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Sept. 3, 2022. Fuyuan has been making persistent efforts to improve local ecological environment, attracting tourists with its distinctive cultural tourism industry. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang) Photo taken on Sept. 4, 2022 shows the sunrise scenery at Dongji Pavilion in Fuyuan, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Fuyuan has been making persistent efforts to improve local ecological environment, attracting tourists with its distinctive cultural tourism industry. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang) Photo taken on Sept. 4, 2022 shows the sunrise scenery at Dongji Pavilion in Fuyuan, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Fuyuan has been making persistent efforts to improve local ecological environment, attracting tourists with its distinctive cultural tourism industry. (Xinhua/Wang Jianwei) Photo taken on Sept. 3, 2022 shows a fish farm in Fuyuan, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Fuyuan has been making persistent efforts to improve local ecological environment, attracting tourists with its distinctive cultural tourism industry. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang) Photo taken on Sept. 3, 2022 shows a Huso dauricus in Fuyuan, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Fuyuan has been making persistent efforts to improve local ecological environment, attracting tourists with its distinctive cultural tourism industry. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang) Tourists take photos of the sunrise scenery at Dongji Pavilion in Fuyuan, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Sept. 4, 2022. Fuyuan has been making persistent efforts to improve local ecological environment, attracting tourists with its distinctive cultural tourism industry. (Xinhua/Zhang Tao) Cranberries are pictured at a planting base in Fuyuan, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Sept. 4, 2022. Fuyuan has been making persistent efforts to improve local ecological environment, attracting tourists with its distinctive cultural tourism industry. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang) Photo taken on Sept. 3, 2022 shows the sunset scenery at Dongji Pavilion in Fuyuan, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Fuyuan has been making persistent efforts to improve local ecological environment, attracting tourists with its distinctive cultural tourism industry. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang) Freshwater fish are pictured in a fish culture museum in Fuyuan, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Sept. 3, 2022. Fuyuan has been making persistent efforts to improve local ecological environment, attracting tourists with its distinctive cultural tourism industry. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang) Photo taken on Sept. 4, 2022 shows the sunrise scenery at Dongji Pavilion in Fuyuan, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Fuyuan has been making persistent efforts to improve local ecological environment, attracting tourists with its distinctive cultural tourism industry. (Xinhua/Wang Jianwei) Photo taken on Sept. 3, 2022 shows a Huso dauricus in Fuyuan, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Fuyuan has been making persistent efforts to improve local ecological environment, attracting tourists with its distinctive cultural tourism industry. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang) Photo taken on Sept. 3, 2022 shows the sunset scenery at Dongji Pavilion in Fuyuan, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Fuyuan has been making persistent efforts to improve local ecological environment, attracting tourists with its distinctive cultural tourism industry. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang) Aerial photo taken on Sept. 3, 2022 shows the Dongji Pavilion in Fuyuan, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Fuyuan has been making persistent efforts to improve local ecological environment, attracting tourists with its distinctive cultural tourism industry. (Xinhua/Zhang Tao) Photo taken on Sept. 3, 2022 shows the sunset scenery at Dongji Pavilion in Fuyuan, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Fuyuan has been making persistent efforts to improve local ecological environment, attracting tourists with its distinctive cultural tourism industry. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang) Photo taken on Sept. 4, 2022 shows the sunrise scenery at Dongji Pavilion in Fuyuan, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Fuyuan has been making persistent efforts to improve local ecological environment, attracting tourists with its distinctive cultural tourism industry. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang) Staff members perform a dance at a folk custom exhibition center of Hezhe ethnic group in Wusu Town of Fuyuan City, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Sept. 4, 2022. Fuyuan has been making persistent efforts to improve local ecological environment, attracting tourists with its distinctive cultural tourism industry. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang) Freshwater fish are pictured in a fish culture museum in Fuyuan, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Sept. 3, 2022. Fuyuan has been making persistent efforts to improve local ecological environment, attracting tourists with its distinctive cultural tourism industry. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang) A girl of Hezhe ethnic group is pictured in Wusu Town of Fuyuan City, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Sept. 4, 2022. Fuyuan has been making persistent efforts to improve local ecological environment, attracting tourists with its distinctive cultural tourism industry. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang) Tourists watch sunrise scenery at Dongji Pavilion in Fuyuan, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Sept. 4, 2022. Fuyuan has been making persistent efforts to improve local ecological environment, attracting tourists with its distinctive cultural tourism industry. (Xinhua/Wang Jianwei) Aerial photo taken on Sept. 4, 2022 shows the sunrise scenery in Fuyuan, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Fuyuan has been making persistent efforts to improve local ecological environment, attracting tourists with its distinctive cultural tourism industry. (Xinhua/Zhang Tao) A staff member presents a traditional instrument performance at a folk custom exhibition center of Hezhe ethnic group in Wusu Town of Fuyuan City, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Sept. 4, 2022. Fuyuan has been making persistent efforts to improve local ecological environment, attracting tourists with its distinctive cultural tourism industry. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang) A woman carries a fresh fish at a fish market in Fuyuan, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Sept. 4, 2022. Fuyuan has been making persistent efforts to improve local ecological environment, attracting tourists with its distinctive cultural tourism industry. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang) Staff members wearing traditional costumes walk on the way to a folk custom exhibition center of Hezhe ethnic group in Wusu Town of Fuyuan City, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Sept. 4, 2022. Fuyuan has been making persistent efforts to improve local ecological environment, attracting tourists with its distinctive cultural tourism industry. (Xinhua/Wang Jianwei) (Web editor: Liang Jun, Bianji) Queen Elizabeth II, the longest reigning monarch in British history, has died. She was 96. As the United Kingdom, the rest of the Commonwealth, and even the rest of the world come to terms with her death, world leaders from different states have taken to Twitter to express their condolences to the family of the departed queen. Queen Elizabeth II Has Died Queen Elizabeth II "died peacefully at Balmoral," according to the official statement posted on The Royal Family's Twitter account. Balmoral refers to Balmoral Castle, Queen Elizabeth II's estate in Scotland. The statement did not provide any cause of death or other details regarding what had taken place. However, the news may not come as a surprise to many as the late queen has been struggling with mobility issues and other health concerns since the end of last year. You can view the full statement below: The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/VfxpXro22W The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) September 8, 2022 Related Article: 24-Karat Gold Wii Made for Queen Elizabeth II Up for Sale on eBay: $300,000 Price Tag Comes With Epic Backstory World Leaders Take to Twitter to React to Queen Elizabeth II's Death Naturally, world leaders from around the globe have taken to Twitter to share their condolences and other thoughts regarding the death of Queen Elizabeth II. United States President Joe Biden said in a shared statement with his wife, First Lady Jill Biden, posted on Twitter that Queen Elizabeth II "defined an era" and that the thoughts and prayers of everyone in the US are with those in the UK as well as the rest of the Commonwealth. Condolences to the Royal Family have also been expressed in the statement. You can view their statement in its entirety below: Our statement on the death of Queen Elizabeth II. pic.twitter.com/0n7pmVVg2w President Biden (@POTUS) September 8, 2022 Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in his statement that "For most Canadians, we have known no other Sovereign," adding that "Queen Elizabeth II was a constant presence in our lives." It should be noted that Canada is a member of the Commonwealth. Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, has also shared his statement on the platform, saying that he remembers the late queen as "a friend of France, a kind-hearted queen who has left a lasting impression on her country and her century." The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, shares that he is "pained by her demise" in a statement posted on his Twitter account, which can be seen below: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will be remembered as a stalwart of our times. She provided inspiring leadership to her nation and people. She personified dignity and decency in public life. Pained by her demise. My thoughts are with her family and people of UK in this sad hour. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 8, 2022 Even Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took the time to extend his condolences to the Royal Family, the UK, and the Commonwealth via his Twitter account. It is with deep sadness that we learned of the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. On behalf of the people, we extend sincere condolences to the @RoyalFamily, the entire United Kingdom and the Commonwealth over this irreparable loss. Our thoughts and prayers are with you. (@ZelenskyyUa) September 8, 2022 Read Also: UK's Largest Aircraft Carrier Broke Down after Setting Sail for US Apple pays tribute to Queen Elizabeth II on the homepage of its website after the longest-reigning monarch of the United Kingdom passed away peacefully on September 8. The iPhone maker has filled its main website with a photo of Queen Elizabeth II as the renowned tech giant honors the passing of the Queen of England. Apple Pays Tribute to Queen Elizabeth II As per a news story by Apple Insider, the Cupertino-based tech giant made an update on its main website as it remembers the Queen on her day of passing. The homepage of Apple now showcases a photo of none other than the longest-serving monarch of the UK. It comes with a brief message saying, "In Memoriam, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II." Elsewhere, no less than the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the iPhone maker, Tim Cook, also honored the Queen, who reigned for 70 years. The big boss of Apple says in his recent tweet that "there is nothing more noble than to devote your life to the service of others." On top of that, Apple Insider reports that the chief executive went on to express his condolences to the people of the UK, as well as the Commonwealth, wishing the Queen to "rest in peace." The tribute of Apple to the Queen features a photo of her Majesty that Dorothy Wilding took way back in February 1952, the same year when Queen Elizabeth II came to the throne - roughly 70 years have already passed. Apple Homepage Removes Newly Launch Products It is worth noting that the tech giant just introduced its new set of products a day before the peaceful passing of the Queen. However, the updated website of the Cupertino giant no longer includes the newly-launched products of Apple, such as the iPhone 14, Apple Watch Series 8, and AirPods Pro 2, according to a report by 9to5 Mac. But now, the tribute of Apple to the Queen replaces all these next-generation products. With that, the latest iPhone lineup, alongside the new Apple Watch and AirPods, are nowhere to be found on its homepage. 9to5 Mac also highlighted in its report that the renowned tech behemoth is fond of honoring prominent personalities on its homepage. Previous tributes on the Apple website honored Nelson Mandela and its co-founder and CEO, Steve Jobs. Read Also: Apple's New AirPods Pro Gets Improved Noise Cancellation - But Do They Support Lossless Music? Queen Elizabeth II BBC reports that the longest-reigning monarch of the UK passed away at the Balmoral on Thursday afternoon. The news outlet says that the Queen died peacefully at the age of 96. The son of the Queen, King Charles III, is set to address the nation a day after or on Sept. 9, to be more exact, as he returns to London. Related Article: World Leaders Take to Twitter to Express Their Condolences Following Queen Elizabeth II's Death WARM tributes have been paid to the late Queen of England who passed away on Thursday afternoon from local and national figures who shared their memories from her historic visit to Cork city in 2011. The Queen and her late husband Prince Philip visited Cork on May 20, 2011. During her visit to the city, the Queen received a tour of the English Market. Fishmonger Pat OConnell who famously shared a joke with the Queen during her visit with Prince Philip in 2011 said their visit was a boost for everyone. Britain's Queen Elizabeth II delivers her speech watched by Irish President Mary McAleese during a state dinner on the second day of her State Visit to Ireland. Its a terribly sad day. We have tremendous memories of Queen Elizabeth's visit to the English Market and to Cork. It was a wonderful boost for everyone," he said this evening. Speaking following the death of Prince Philip, Mr OConnell said the historic visit to Cork city only seemed like yesterday. They were very ordinary people the two of them, the Queen and [Prince Philip]. "The visit only seems like yesterday. "I suppose you have perceptions of these people and the life they live and you kind of expect them to be something totally different from what they are in reality. They were like any other couple at the counter. Mr OConnell said the positive feedback he received from the Queen and the Duke of Edinburghs visit to the Market in 2011 meant a lot to him. It was really interesting actually because Julian King, who was the British Ambassador in Ireland in 2011, he came down to the Market six or seven weeks after the visit with Tim Lucey (of Cork County Council) and he called up to us and said the Market really rocked for the Queen, she got such a kick out of it and I just said we just did what we always do, we just had a laugh and he said Yeah Pat but how many people meet the Queen of England and do what they normally do? He said they just loved being treated as ordinary people and having the bit of craic. They got such a kick out of it and I just thought yes, the Market really does have something special. As part of their tour of the English Market, the Queen unveiled a plaque near the fountain, commemorating the visit, and was presented with a specially commissioned silver brooch. The Queen and her late husband were also presented with a gift hamper that showcased the very best of produce from the English Market. Defence Forces military police lower the Irish flag to half mast outside government buildings in Dublin after the accouncement of the death of Queen Elizabeth II today 08 September 2022 Photograph Government Information Service In 2021, ten years on from their historic visit to Cork, the English Market and Cork City Council unveiled a commemorative photographic exhibition at the entrance to the market on Grand Parade. Speaking last night, Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Deirdre Forde on behalf of the people of Cork extended her sympathies to the royal family: On behalf of the people of Cork I would like to extend my deep sympathies to the British royal family and the British people on the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. "Throughout her extraordinary 70 year reign, the Queen was respected across the globe for her selfless life of service and unwavering sense of duty." President Michael D Higgins said in a statement: We remember the role Queen Elizabeth played in celebrating the warm and enduring friendship, and her great impact on the bonds of mutual understanding, between our two peoples. She will be deeply missed. Taoiseach Micheal Martin also paid tribute to the Queen, saying her death is the end of an era. On behalf of the Government of Ireland, I would like to convey my deepest sympathy to His Majesty King Charles, the Royal Family, the UK Government and the British people on the loss of their beloved monarch, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. Pictured to commemorate 10 years since the State visit of HM Queen Elizabeth II and the late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh to The English Market, Cork, were, left/right, Tom Durcan, Tom Durcan Meats, Stephanie Kavanagh, then Lady Mayoress of Cork and Then Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr. Joe Kavanagh, Pat O'Connell, K. O'Connell Fish Merchants, and Sheila Fitzpatrick, Alternative Bread Company. Photo: Cathal Noonan "The Queens reign was one of historic duration, immense consequence and a focus of respect and admiration around the world. Her dedication to duty and public service were self-evident and her wisdom and experience truly unique. "The Queens passing is indeed the end of an era. Her State Visit to Ireland in 2011 marked a crucial step in the normalisation of relations with our nearest neighbour." The Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney said her visit to Ireland was a critical step in the peace process. Her historic visit in 2011 was a critical step in the peace process and helped to move British-Irish relations to a new level. "I was privileged to welcome her to the English Market and to witness how much that visit meant to her personally and to the people of Cork. Fianna Fail councillor Tony Fitzgerald who was Lord Mayor of Cork when Prince Charles and Duchess of Cornwall Camilla Parker Bowles visited Cork in 2018, said Cork has always had a strong connection with the royal family. I recall from my discussions with Prince Charles that the Queen fondly remembered her visit to Cork and thats something to be proud of. The Councillor said a death in the family is always a sad occasion. The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon, Buckingham Palace has announced. The Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, the Right Reverend Dr Paul Colton tweeted that the death of the late Queen of England has left him strangely unsettled: "A thread of constancy and consistency on the world stage has been broken. Even as an Irishman, Im strangely unsettled. Analysing Queen Elizabeth II's role in Anglo-Irish relations, Dr Jay Roszman of the School of History at University College Cork said: "The transformation in Anglo-Irish relations across Elizabeths life are remarkable. Everyone is familiar with images of smiling fish mongers in Cork welcoming Her Majesty or the iconic images of her handshake with Martin McGuinness. She deserves significant credit for her role as Head of State advancing Anglo-Irish relations." A book of condolence will be opened by the Lord Mayor at Cork City Hall tomorrow at 11am. 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. Australia has passed its first climate legislation in a decade as the new Labor government enshrined its election promise to reduce emissions by 43 percent by 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. The new legislation passed Australias Senate on Thursday 37 to 30 and then Senate-proposed amendments passed the House of Representatives, Climate Home News reported. [T]oday is a good day for our parliament and our country, and were going to need many more of them, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen said, as The Guardian reported. The new law comes as the Australian government has struggled to make progress on tackling the climate crisis for more than a decade, despite the fact that the country has suffered its impacts through historic flooding, devastating wildfires and the bleaching of its iconic Great Barrier Reef, among other things. The last climate-related law it passed was in 2011, according to Bloomberg News. Eight years ago, the government of Prime Minister Tony Abbott repealed a climate bill that would have put a price on carbon, The Guardian explained. The new bill is seen as much needed momentum in tackling the issue following the previous conservative governments hostility to climate action. The decade of climate wars is over, Australian Minister for the Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek tweeted after it passed. UPDATE: Labors Climate Change bill has now passed the Parliament and is on its way to become law. The decade of climate wars is over.#auspol Tanya Plibersek (@tanya_plibersek) September 8, 2022 The new 2030 target enshrined in the law is 50 percent more ambitious than the previous governments, as Reuters reported. In addition to the targets, the law also empowered the Climate Change Authority and mandated that the Minister for Climate Change update parliament yearly on the governments progress against climate change, according to The Guardian. The passage of the climate change legislation sends a message to the world that Australia is serious about driving down emissions, and serious about reaping the economic opportunities from affordable renewable energy, Bowen said, as Reuters reported. Australias new Labor government first introduced the bill in July on its first full day in office, according to Australias ABC News. The measure then passed the lower house of Parliament in August, The New York Times reported. In the Senate, passage was trickier because Labor does not command a majority there, Reuters explained. However, the Greens, Jacqui Lambie Network and independent senator David Pocock all joined with Labor to pass the bill through the Senate, according to Australias ABC News. The Greens had wanted to increase the 2030 target to at least 75 percent and end all new coal and gas projects, according to Climate Home News, but these amendments were not approved. Amendments by Pocock calling for greater accountability and transparency did make it into the final law. While the new legislation could have gone further, it also pushes the needle on action forward. This Climate Bill will not be enough to meet the Paris Agreement goals but it is a huge leap forward and opens a new era of cooperation and constructive policymaking, Australia Institute climate and energy program director Richie Merzian told The New York Times. There is still a lot of work to go to reverse Australias role as the third largest exporter of fossil fuel, but there is hope and momentum that things are finally starting to change. The next big battle will be over Australias Safeguard Mechanism that requires the countrys largest polluters to keep emissions below a certain limit. The government is proposing lowering that limit in keeping with its 2050 net-zero goal. Greens leader Adam Bandt said the Safeguard Mechanism had not worked so far, since emissions from industry have continued to climb since it was introduced in 2016, The Guardian reported. He thought that it was the wrong strategy for controlling emissions but was willing to work with Labor to make it more effective. Weve shown very clearly weve been prepared to work constructively with the government to get action on climate, Bandt said, as The Guardian reported. Now the rubber hits the road as the government starts to tell us exactly how theyre going to cut pollution from these big coal and gas plants. 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. Extreme temperatures can lead to an increase in online hate speech, according to a new study by researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). The United Nations defines hate speech as any kind of communication in speech, writing or behaviour, that attacks or uses pejorative or discriminatory language with reference to a person or a group on the basis of their religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, colour, descent, gender or other identity factor, which was the definition used by the researchers for the study. In the study, the research team looked at the effect temperature has on hate speech on Twitter and interpreted the results through the lens of the relationships between human behavior, climate change and mental health. We found that both the absolute number and the share of hate tweets rise outside a climate comfort zone. People tend to show a more aggressive online behavior when its either too cold or too hot outside, said scientist at PIK and lead author of the study Annika Stechemesser, as The Guardian reported. The study, Temperature impacts on hate speech online: evidence from 4 billion geolocated tweets from the USA, was published in the journal The Lancet Planetary Health. The researchers analyzed around four billion geolocated tweets and found misogynist, homophobic and racist tweets increased as much as 22 percent when temperatures reached more than 107.6 degrees Fahrenheit, reported The Guardian. Hate speech went up as much as 12 percent when temperatures fell to less than 26.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Between 2014 and 2020, the scientists used machine-learning to pinpoint about 75 million tweets that contained hate speech in 773 cities in the U.S. They then compared the data to local temperature variations. The team found that the least number of hate speech tweets happened in temperatures ranging from 59 to 64.4 degrees Fahrenheit. However, when the mercury was less than 53.6 degrees Fahrenheit or more than 69.8 degrees Fahrenheit, the number of hate tweets started to increase. The researchers said the inflammatory tweets occurred in all climate zones, no matter the residents income or religious or political stance. Anders Levermann, a researcher at PIK and one of the studys authors, said even in areas where the residents were wealthy enough to be able to afford air conditioning or other ways to grapple with increased temperatures, hate speech went up on days that were exceptionally hot, The Independent reported. [T]here are likely limits of adaptation to extreme temperatures and these are lower than those set by our mere physiological limits, said Levermann, as reported by Euronews. Hate speech transmitted online can have negative impacts like anxiety and depression for the recipient, according to The Guardian. Being the target of online hate speech is a serious threat to peoples mental health. The psychological literature tells us that online hate can aggravate mental health conditions especially for young people and marginalised groups, Stechemesser said, as Euronews reported. In one study by the United Nations, nearly three-quarters of women from all over the world expressed being subjected to violence on the internet, and one quarter of Black people in America have reported being racially harassed online, The Guardian said. The researchers chose Twitter because of the geolocation of many of its tweets and because a fifth of Americans use the platform. Between midday and late afternoon, when peak temperatures are usually recorded, is also high time for tweeting. For centuries, researchers have grappled with the question of how climate conditions affect human behaviour and societal stability, said PIK researcher and one of the studys authors Leonie Wenz, as reported by The Independent. Now, with ongoing climate change, it is more important than ever. Space agencies all over the world are honoring the great Queen Elizabeth II, who peacefully passed on Thursday. The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and European Space Agency (ESA) are joining the world in mourning the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, the United Kingdom's longest-serving monarch. The Queen, who has served on the British throne since 1952, died peacefully at Balmoral Castle on Thursday at the age of 96. "Queen Elizabeth II's reign spanned all of spaceflight, predating both Sputnik and Explorer 1," NASA took to Twitter to share. "As we join the planet in marking her passing, we are moved by the curiosity Her Royal Highness showed our explorers over the years." Queen Elizabeth II's reign spanned all of spaceflight, predating both Sputnik and Explorer 1. As we join the planet in marking her passing, we are moved by the curiosity Her Royal Highness showed our explorers over the years. pic.twitter.com/ZAVFjDA8gv NASA (@NASA) September 8, 2022 Explorer 1 was the first satellite that the US successfully launched in 1958, just months after the Soviet Union's Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2 were launched. NASA's tweet honoring the late Queen Elizabeth II included a photo of her with the Apollo 11 astronauts Michael Collins, Neil Armstrong, and Buzz Aldrin after their iconic trip to the moon in 1969. Queen Elizabeth II's Visits to American Space Centers In Houston, Texas, NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) also paid tribute to the late queen, sharing photographs of her visit along with her husband, Prince Philip, to the space center back in 1991. Chron reported that the couple personally signed Houston's official visitor's book and visited the Space Center to speak with leaders in the scientific community. The Queen even hosted a private knighting ceremony to honor Cecil H. Green, a British-born American geophysicist who co-founded Texas Instruments Incorporated. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II's influence reached all corners of the world, and we are so fortunate that we had the privilege of hosting her visit to @NASA_Johnson. We join the planet in honoring her memory. pic.twitter.com/aQCypGdsZd NASA's Johnson Space Center (@NASA_Johnson) September 8, 2022 In 2007, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visited NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, as one of her final stops during a six-day visit to the US. There, she was welcomed by NASA Administrator Michael Griffin and Prince Philip was presented with three solar cells taken from space after the HST servicing mission -1 by Hubble Space Telescope Program Manager Preston Burch, NASA reported. Today we join the rest of the world in remembering Queen Elizabeth II. The queen and Prince Philip visited Goddard in May 2007. During their visit, they toured the center, met scientists, and planted a commemorative tree on the grounds of the Goddard Visitor Center. pic.twitter.com/P6ppmk1bkX NASA Goddard (@NASAGoddard) September 8, 2022 Read Also: 24-Karat Gold Wii Made for Queen Elizabeth II Up for Sale on eBay: $300,000 Price Tag Comes With Epic Backstory Space Agencies Honor the Late Queen Elizabeth II After Her Passing The UK Space Agency has also joined the chorus of voices mourning the passing of Queen Elizabeth II by not only retweeting The Royal Family's announcement and UK Prime Minister Liz Truss' official statement but also by updating their Twitter header photo(opens in new tab) in a tribute to the queen, Space.com reported. ESA is saddened by the passing of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Her Majesty witnessed the dawn of the space age, meeting astronauts from Neil Armstrong, to Britains own Tim Peake, who gifted her with the union flag patch from his spacewalk during the Principia mission https://t.co/MwjAHzF1MY ESA (@esa) September 8, 2022 The European Space Agency also took to social media to offer condolences and look back at how Queen Elizabeth II had met with British astronaut Tim Peake, who presented the Queen Majesty with the union flag patch from his space suit used during the Principia mission back in December 2015. Peake took to Twitter to honor the great queen, describing her as a "remarkable woman" who offered "a lifetime of service and dedication." Jeff Bezos, who also founded aerospace manufacturer and sub-orbital spaceflight services company Blue Origin, shared his admiration for the late Queen Elizabeth II, remarking, "I can think of no one who better personified duty." I can think of no one who better personified duty. My deepest condolences to all the Brits mourning her passing today. https://t.co/rCkagaglET Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) September 8, 2022 Related Article: World Leaders Take to Twitter to Express Their Condolences Following Queen Elizabeth II's Death 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. Interstate 270 in Montgomery County, Maryland. The state has a controversial plan to widen the road. Sarah L. Voisin / The Washington Post via Getty Images In November 2021, President Joe Biden signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Package into law, which allocates $1.2 trillion toward infrastructure and was meant to reduce transportation emissions. While the federal government is guiding states to use the funding toward public transit and other improvements, like increased bike lanes, a new report finds that state and local governments may lean toward using the money toward highway expansions instead. The report from U.S. Public Interest Research Group, a nonprofit organization, maps out highway projects across the country that could use up infrastructure funding while making climate change worse. America cant afford to squander our historic investment in infrastructure on boondoggle projects, James Horrox, policy analyst at Frontier Group and lead author of the report, said in a statement. And yet, across the country, wasteful and damaging highway expansion projects are often first in line for public dollars. While there are dozens of highway projects across the country, the report emphasizes seven particular projects that would cost about $22 billion. Among the highlighted highway construction and expansion projects include Marylands proposed M-83 highway, which could expand a highway with four to six lanes in Montgomery County. While state and local governments note highway projects are necessary to relieve congestion, the report authors explain that these construction and expansion projects only alleviate congestion for a short time period while also creating a financial and environmental burden. Since 1980, the U.S. has added nearly 870,000 lane-miles of highway paving more than 1,648 square miles, an area larger than the state of Rhode Island and yet, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, congestion on Americas roads was worse than it was in the early 1980s, the report states. While some major projects, like the M-83 highway, are on hold, the new infrastructure package could encourage states to unpause projects and spend that money toward completing them. But the authors of the report are asking states to instead put the funding toward initiatives that are better for communities and the environment. The report asks state and local governments to deprioritize highway projects, and instead focus on investing in other modes of transportation that decrease dependence on personal vehicle use; repairing existing roads; and looking to data for how people travel and the socioeconomic impacts of highways. We can take this injection of money and look at it as an opportunity to invest in 21st-century transportation, said Matt Casale, director of environment campaigns at PIRG and a lead author of the report, as reported by Grist. Options that dont pollute our air, that dont worsen the climate crisis, and that make our lives better. 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 giant green swims in an aquarium in Blackpool, UK on May 16, 2022. The turtle was rescued after being born into captivity and bred for food in Asia. Anthony Devlin / Getty Images Nearly all species of sea turtles are considered endangered, according to WWF. Despite this, people have continued to poach them for food, medicine and luxury goods in astonishing numbers. The first ever global assessment of illegal sea turtle hunting to consider multiple countries and regions, published in Global Change Biology Wednesday, found that more than 1.1 million turtles had been illegally hunted and killed in the last three decades. Further, more than 44,000 were killed yearly over the last 10 years. The numbers are really high and almost certainly underrepresented by several orders of magnitude because its just very hard to assess any type of illegal activity, Arizona State University assistant research professor and study co-lead author Jesse Senko said, as The Guardian reported. Jesse Senko, ASU assistant research professor and marine biologist, holds a recently captured green turtle at one of his study sites in Baja California Sur, Mexico. The turtle was released unharmed. Cindy Vargas The study, conducted by a team at Arizona State University (ASU), drew its conclusion from more than 209 peer-reviewed studies, news articles, reports for conservation organizations and questionnaires. It noted that the killings took place despite protections in 65 countries and 44 out of 58 Regional Management Units for turtles. The most commonly hunted species were green turtles, accounting for 56 percent of the killings, and hawksbill turtles, accounting for 39 percent. Green turtles are considered Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. The green turtle is considered the most delicious its the one that has the meat, that pulp, people most like to eat, Oceanic Society President Roderic Mast, who was not involved in the study, told The Guardian. Hawksbill turtles, meanwhile, are listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN and are primarily hunted for their spangled shells, which are used in tortoiseshell jewelry and other decorative items. The paper did have two silver linings, however. The first is that reports of turtle poaching declined by 28 percent in the last 10 years of the study period, which covered 1990 to 2020. The decline over the past decade could be due to increased protective legislation and enhanced conservation efforts, coupled with an increase in awareness of the problem or changing local norms and traditions, co-lead author and ASU School of Life Sciences environmental life sciences program Ph.D. student Kayla Burgher said in an ASU press release. The second is that the turtles that were killed in the past decade tended to come from large, stable populations with lots of genetic diversity. This hopefully means that the hunting is having less of an impact on sea turtle populations across the board. That said, Senko acknowledged that the data in the study may not paint the whole picture. Assessing any illegal activity is difficult, and the take and trade of sea turtles is no exception, especially when it becomes organized or connected to crime syndicates. Our assessment also did not include eggs or turtle products, such as bracelets or earrings made from sea turtle shells that could not be easily attributed to individual turtles, he said in the press release. Ultimately, Senko hoped that the study could aid in turtle conservation by pointing out which species are being hunted and where the paper found concentrations of poaching in Madagascar and Southeast Asia. This information can help conservationists craft more targeted protection policies. We really need to look at those socioeconomic and cultural drivers behind the illegal take, he said, as The Guardian reported. Because as long as theres demand from wealthier countries, poorer countries are going to fill that with the supply of turtles. Argentina's wheat crop affected by frosts in the last two weeks The Buenos Aires grains exchange said Argentina's 2022/2023 wheat crop is affected by frosts in the last two weeks, causing some damage, Reuters reported. Frost damage exacerbates the effects of the recent drought, which prompted the major grains exchange to lower its forecast for planting wheat from 6.6 million hectares to 6.1 million hectares. Argentina is a significant exporter of wheat to the world and has assumed a more significant role as the world supply has been harmed by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Argentina planted 6.7 million hectares of wheat in the years 20212022, yielding 22.4 million tonnes of the grain. The exchange stated that areas of core farming zones experienced "yellowing of leaves and some damage to spikes," but added that significant losses have not yet been observed. It was added that the recently rained-on areas were in "good condition." The impact of the frosts was greater in Argentina's northern regions, where 10% of the planted area is concentrated, it was added, because of the region's prolonged dry spell. The wheat crop in the South American nation is currently in critical stages of development; harvest is anticipated to start in November and end in January. - Reuters South Africa lifts nationwide ban on cattle movement Thoko Didiza, South Africa's Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, has lifted a nationwide ban on cattle movement in the country after a 21-day restriction, IOL reported. Spokesperson Reggie Ngcobo said the work carried out by the state veterinary services, private veterinarians, and animal health technicians over the previous 21 days was the basis for the decision to lift the ban. He said the fact that there have been no cases in the Eastern Cape, Western Cape, or Northern Cape provinces before or during the 21 days is encouraging, thanks to the cooperation of traditional leaders, communities and the police. There had been suspected cases near quarantined farms in Gauteng and the North West. In the previous week, no new cases were reported in Mpumalanga. Ngcobo said in Limpopo, they will keep the area for disease management in and around the protected zone. The government's disease management area in the Free State will include places like Marquad, Viljoen Skroon, and Harrismith where no improvement has been seen. He said that the KwaNongoma, Ulundi, KwaHlabisa, eHluhluwe, and eMtubatuba areas in KwaZulu-Natal would continue to be part of the disease management area. Didiza said that in the areas where there were still active infections, her department would continue with surveillance and vaccination. She said communities and farmers are urged to abide by the health protocols in place and to stop moving cattle or other animals illegally, adding that all farmers, feedlots, and auctioneers must enhance primary animal health care and strengthen biosecurity measures. Last month, Louw van Reenen, the chief executive of the Beefmaster Group and the spokesperson for the Red Meat and Livestock Primary Cluster, expressed concern about the effects an extension of the Didiza-imposed 21-day cattle movement ban might have on the meat and livestock supply chain. - IOL Cargill launches Asia Pacific digital business studio in Singapore Cargill is partnering with the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) to launch in Singapore its first digital business studio in Asia. The studio is designed to support local founders with investments that bring Cargill solutions to the market and accelerate innovation for the food and agriculture industry in Asia-Pacific. Through this three-year partnership, Cargill will develop a portfolio of at least five new startups in the city-state. The startups will focus on pressing industry challenges from increasing access to market data for smallholder farmers to creating more efficient, transparent and cost-effective food supply solutions. To lead these new startups, Cargill is immediately recruiting experienced entrepreneurs who are passionate about solving some of the most urgent problems facing the global food and agriculture system. Entrepreneurs will have access to investments in resources, business management and innovation processes proven in other markets. "Cargill is combining its deep industry expertise with the speed and agility of a startup approach to launch the digital business studio," said Ross Hamou-Jennings, chair of Asia Pacific at Cargill. "Together, we aim to solve some of the region's toughest food and agriculture challenges in novel ways. With Singapore's prominence and reputation as a vibrant agri-innovation hub, we are pleased to collaborate with EDB on this initiative. We are confident that the digital business studio will encourage boldness, creativity and inspiration to advance the sustainability of the region's food and agriculture sector." "We are excited to partner with Cargill in building Singapore ventures that have the potential to become globally leading agri-food businesses," said Choo Heng Tong, executive vice president (new ventures and innovation) at EDB. "Cargill can provide significant advantages for these ventures through its deep domain expertise, customer networks and global scale, while leveraging Singapore's connectivity to key markets and R&D capabilities. These ventures will be at the forefront of innovations, complementing Singapore's development of novel agri-food solutions and contributing to global food resiliency efforts." The digital business studio will be a space for Cargill to incubate and scale transformative startups, in close partnership with customers. It allows for expanded reach into digital innovation, bringing new solutions to meet the changing needs of the food and agriculture industries. For example, farmers across Asia face challenges ranging from inconsistent crop yield, low access to credit or financing and limited visibility to constantly shifting crop prices. To feed Asia's expanding population and address other challenges, digital solutions are necessary to play a critical role in farmers' livelihood by improving their productivity and profitability. Small to medium-sized restaurants and retailers in Southeast Asia have highly manual processes to access and source the ingredients they need from a fragmented base of suppliers. New digital advancements can increase the reliability and flexibility of the ingredient supply chain, providing direct, giving direct access to a unified business to business food ordering system. "This is a unique model where entrepreneurs can transform the industry and make lasting change on a regional and even global scale. The opportunity to wake up every day and create solutions that improve lives and nourish the world is game changing," said Eric Parkin, global digital business studio leader at Cargill. The digital business studio builds on Cargill's existing investment in innovation and commitment to Asia, where the company is helping farmers and food operators overcome their most significant challenges and seize new opportunities. Cargill has four innovation centers across Asia: Singapore, Gurgaon in India, and Beijing and Shanghai in China. At these centers, Cargill harnesses global expertise in animal protein, refined oils, sweeteners, starches, cocoa, texture solutions and unique flavors. - Cargill Bird flu outbreak detected in major egg-laying operation in Ohio state, US The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has detected a bird flu outbreak at a major egg-laying operation in Ohio state, US, with 3 million chickens affected, ABC news reported. Dennis Summers, Ohio state's veterinarian, said the farm has begun euthanizing all of its flock. After a hiatus of several months, the highly pathogenic disease has returned to the Midwest earlier than expected, with cases appearing in Indiana, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin in the past week. Over the summer, there were also a number of detections in western states. Summers said, migratory waterfowl like geese and ducks are typically the carriers of the disease. The USDA prevents poultry from flocks with the disease from entering the food supply and only rarely affects humans, such as farm workers. The outbreak that caused a rise in egg and meat prices earlier this year seemed to be subsiding in June, but officials then issued a warning that another surge could return this fall. 43 million chickens and turkeys this year have been killed in the US due to bird flu this year. - ABC News Eight tonnes of illegally transported frozen pork confiscated in Maha Sarakham, Thailand Customs officials in Thailand seized about eight tonnes of frozen pork, worth about 1.6 million (US$44,018), from two trucks in Kantharalak district of the north-eastern province of Maha Sarakham on September 7. According to the customs investigation and suppression unit based in the north-eastern region, officials received information that two trucks would be delivering a substantial shipment of frozen pork, smuggled into Thailand from the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic, to a customer in Maha Sarakham. A team of customs officials was dispatched to Kham Riang sub-district, where the smuggled pork was supposed to be delivered to the customer. Subsequently, upon arrival, they were confiscated. Thailand has banned the import of pork from abroad to prevent the spread of African swine fever (ASF). Some imported pork is also treated with chemicals to make it look fresh. Smuggling of pork from Thailands neighbouring countries has been rampant in recent months, due to the wide gap between the prices of imported and locally-produced pork. Pig farmers in Thailand have been calling on the country's Livestock Development Department to crack down on the smuggling of pork, claiming that the practice will ruin their business. - Thai PBS Google has come up with an easier way to command the Nest Hub Max's assistant. Google has finally decided to add Quick Phrases to the Nest Hub Max. Quick Phrases is a feature that the company added to the Pixel 6 phones back in October 2021 and I/O 2022 in May, and they also promised to bring it to the Nest Hub Max. That feature is finally live now. Now, Nest Hub Max users no longer have to begin every command with "Hey Google," and can instead opt for simple queries such as "What time is it?" and "What's the weather?" or straightforward commands such as "Turn the lights on," "Set an alarm for [time]," or "Cancel the alarm," The Verge reported. What are Google Quick Phrases? Quick Phrases is simply the Google Assistant's ability to recognize commands without the "Hey Google" prompt. It was initially introduced when the company unveiled the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. With Quick Phrases on the Nest Hub Max, users can now set pre-selected commands that no longer require the "Hey Google" hotword. Users must make sure, however, that Voice Match is enabled to authenticate the user and that Google Assistant's first language is set to English (United States), 9to5Google reported. Note furthermore that for multiple people in one household, every user must set up the feature for their own account as Quick Phrases are linked to Google's Voice Match feature. How to Set Up Nest Hub Max Quick Phrases Google has established eight Quick Phrases across four categories and assured users that "common variations" of these commands will be understood by the Nest Hub Max. The four categories include alarms, general information, lights, and timers. Users will then need to manually add each preferred Quick Phrase, and the user-inputted commands will appear under "Your quick phrases." When users say a Quick Phrase, the Nest Hub Max will then display a small icon to acknowledge that it heard the command and then completes the request. Read Also: Google 'Fuchsia' OS Release Date Becomes Official: Nest Hub Launch, Specs, Functionality Alphabet CEO Assures Users Google Voice Assistant is Not Sentient Alphabet, which owns Google, has been heavily investing in AI technology for research and development in various industries, as well as applications in their consumer products, such as the Nest Hub Max. But Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai this week confirmed that the Google Voice assistance is far from being sentient, as other critics have raised concerns over AI becoming sentient, Fortune reported. Such concerns were pushed back into the spotlight when former Google employee Blake Lemoine claimed that Google's AI chatbot technology now exhibits humanlike sentience. Pichai assured customers that this was not the case. During Vox Media's Code conference in Beverly Hills on Tuesday, Pichai said that "there's a long way to go" for AI to become sentient. He added, "We are far from it, and we may never get there." Pichai even cited Google's own Voice Assistant, arguing that while it is "the best assistant out there for conversational AI," it is still "broken...in certain cases." Related Article: Spotify Has Rolled Out Real-Time Lyrics Support for Google Nest Hub Chief Minister pays tribute to The Queen's life of service and dedication The Chief Minister has paid tribute to a life of service and dedication following the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Alfred Cannan said: We are all deeply saddened to learn of the death of Her Majesty The Queen. Throughout her long reign, The Queen our Lord of Mann has been a beacon of strength and stability, of dependability and continuity. She led a life dedicated to the service of her people, setting an example for us all. On behalf of the Government and people of the Isle of Man, I extend my sincerest condolences to the Royal Family at this sad time. Okell's Inn's has announced its pubs on the Island will be closed for the next 24 hours following the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. Steven Taylor, Managing Director of Okells Inns states: "As a mark of respect, for the passing of Her Majesty The Queen, Lord of Mann, all of the pubs across our estate will be closing for 24 hours. At a time of national grief, families and communities should have the chance to spend time together; this includes our entire workforce and we wish to give them this opportunity to do so." Tesla already has 35,000-plus Superchargers around the world, but it can be a mystery as to exactly how it chooses locations. Now via a new Twitter poll, the company is asking the public to tell it where they want the next superchargers to be installed, TechCrunch has reported. Some of the top-requested sites are the least accessible, including US National Parks, Vancouver Island, Hawaii and Alaska. If you've ever been to British Columbia you'll notice a lot of Tesla EVs driving around, but there are only a pair of Supercharger stations on Vancouver Island in Victoria and Nanaimo. Similarly, there's only a single station in Alaska at Soldotna, and a lone six-bay facility in Honolulu. It would also make sense to install Superchargers at National Park gateways often located in remote regions. Supercharger Voting coming soon. Reply with location suggestions replies with the most likes will be included in the poll. pic.twitter.com/LxNVnBtvCV Tesla Charging (@TeslaCharging) September 8, 2022 Tesla has 1,469 Supercharger locations in the US, with the number of charge points varying widely per station. However, station growth has lagged behind Tesla EV sales the latter grew 87 percent in 2021, but Supercharger installations increased just 35 percent. This could become a bigger problem soon, as the company said it will open up its Supercharger network to non-Tesla vehicles. Installing them isn't quite as simple as throwing money around, either. Tesla recently posted a job ad for its Canadian Supercharger design team, noting that applicants require experience in site permitting, construction feasibility, utility service requests and more. The company recently told sites hosting Superchargers that they're good for business, with average monthly charging visits between 2,000 to 5,000 at locations in Vancouver, BC. I think beneath Tim Cooks deeply reserved, professional aura lies someone who loves a bit of sass. Naturally, as the CEO of Apple, Cook needs to present a professional image at all times, but he did let his sense of humor out at the 2022 Code Conference. During a Q&A, a journalist asked about the iPhones lack of compatibility with RCS , which meant they couldnt share video clips with their Android-using mom. Cook said it wasnt a priority for the company, then joked that the person should buy your mom an iPhone. Daniel Cooper The biggest stories you might have missed Yikes. Justin Sullivan via Getty Images A group inside Meta that analyzed potential harms to society caused by Facebooks products has been shut down . The team consisted of engineers, ethicists and civil rights experts who advised the companys broader team on potential risks. Meta didnt explain why the group has closed but said it remained committed to the teams goals. Of course, given Facebooks reputation for building products without much consideration of the consequences, this seems like an unwise step. Maybe there should be a team of in-house experts to point out this sort of thing ahead of ohhhh. Continue Reading. Microsoft promised a deal for three years, Sony wasnt happy. As part of the $68.7 billion deal to acquire Activision Blizzard, Microsoft has had to make several commitments to ward off antitrust regulators and angry gamers. One of the biggest was to not pull major franchises, like Call of Duty, away from the PlayStation to force people to buy Xboxes. Despite public promises made by Xbox head Phil Spencer, PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan isnt happy . Ryan revealed Microsoft has only promised to keep Call of Duty on the rival platform for a further three years, after which things get a little more uncertain. Continue Reading. Its expected to be the debut for the RTX-40 series. NVIDIA NVIDIAs GPU technology conference happens later this month, and the big news is CEO Jensen Huangs keynote. The company says that at 11 AM ET on September 20th, were going to see the latest breakthroughs in gaming, creating and graphics technology. Thats set many tongues wagging. Are we going to see the next generation of Ampere Next-based GPUs in the form of the RTX-40 series ? Given the majority of RTX-30 cards are only now entering the market after the crypto bubble burst, itll be interesting to see how many of these actually go on sale in the near future. Continue Reading. There will be a new generation of spacesuits for walking on the moon. NASA NASA has picked Axiom Space to supply the space suits worn when humanity returns to the moon . These new suits will work for a wider range of crew members and offer increased flexibility and more specialized tools for exploration. The lack of appropriate gear was one of the reasons a planned all-woman spacewalk was canceled back in 2019. With a contract in place to provide the suits necessary to walk on the moon, the planned return to our nearest neighbor feels a lot more real. Now NASA just has to get the wagon thatll take everyone there up and running. Continue Reading. Star Trek: Khan Ceti Alpha V will be written and directed by Nicholas Meyer. A prestige streaming series covering the life of Trek arch-villain Khan Noonien Singh while in exile on Ceti Alpha V has been rescued from development hell and will be turned into a podcast. Star Trek: Khan Ceti Alpha V will fill in the gap from the end of classic series episode Space Seed until the beginning of The Wrath of Khan. More importantly, however, the series will be written and directed by Trek superstar Nicholas Meyer. Ill be honest, I never expected to get more Trek written by Meyer in my lifetime, and Im here for it. It seems that nine long months after a remastered bundle of Naughty Dog's Uncharted 4: A Thiefs End and Uncharted: Lost Legacy debuted on PlayStation 5 , PC gamers will be able to find out what all the fuss is about . According to a listing on the Epic Games Store spotted by Twitter gaming deals maestro Wario64, Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection will hit that storefront on October 19th. It appears Epic published the information ahead of schedule, as the game's page currently displays a 404 error. The leak backs up a previous hint from SteamDB that October 19th was the release date. Legacy of Thieves Collection is supposed to be coming to Steam before the end of the year as well, but it appears that if you pre-order through Epic, you'll gain access to a Sully's Seaplane glider in Fortnite at no extra cost. Nathan Drake and Chloe Frazer skins arrived in that game earlier this year to promote the Uncharted movie . The apparent timing of the Legacy of Thieves Collection PC release is interesting, since Sony said Spider-Man: Miles Morales is coming to that platform sometime this fall . One would think they'd try to space things out a bit. In any case, perhaps Sony will soon host a PlayStation showcase that clears everything up. 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 United Airlines is moving deeper into the flying taxi business. Not only has the airline plowed $15 million into Eve Air Mobility, it ordered 200 flying taxis and has an option for another 200. United expects to start receiving Eve's four-seater electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle (eVTOL) as soon as 2026. The company says its investment was spurred by both its confidence in the urban air mobility market and Eve's working relationship with Embraer. According to United , Embrarer is "a trusted aircraft manufacturer with a proven track record of building and certifying aircraft over the company's 53-year history." Embrarer previously worked with Uber on a flying taxi project that the latter eventually ditched. Eve's flying taxi has conventional fixed wings, rotors and pushers with a design that United says favors safety, efficiency, reliability and certifiability. It's said to have a range of 60 miles and United added that the vehicle can "reduce noise levels by 90 percent compared to current conventional aircraft." 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 This isn't the first time United has reached an agreement with an eVTOL company. Last month, it put down a $10 million deposit with a different California-based one for 100 flying taxis. As such, the company has lined up as many as 500 flying taxis to add to its fleet. United has set up a corporate venture fund with the aim of bolstering its ambition to reach net zero emissions by 2050 without relying on traditional carbon offsets. Through the United Airlines Ventures fund, it has also invested in hydrogen fuel cell engines and sustainable fuel . "Today, United is making history again, by becoming the first major airline to publicly invest in two eVTOL companies," United Airlines Ventures president Michael Leskinen said in a statement. "Together, we believe our suite of clean energy technologies will revolutionize air travel as we know it and serve as the catalyst for the aviation industry to move toward a sustainable future." Even the Apple founder's daughter was left wondering what the differences between the iPhone 14 and 13 were. Apple fans can now pre-order the much coveted iPhone 14 on Friday, September 9, after the company officially unveiled it during Wednesday's "Far Out" event in Cupertino, California. But like thousands of people on the internet, one person was left to wonder what groundbreaking innovation Apple has made in the 14th iteration of the iconic iPhone: Steve Jobs' daughter, Eve. The 23-year-old model and equestrian took to Instagram Stories to share a meme originally posted by Wall Street Memes, which showed a photo of a smiling middle-aged man proudly presenting a gifted checked shirt, which was exactly like the one he was wearing. "Me upgrading from iPhone 13 to iPhone 14 after Apple's announcement today," the meme said, as per the New York Post. But Jobs' daughter wasn't the only one sharing memes, as 9GAG had even compiled some of the best memes coming out after the "Far Out" Apple event this week. The Internet Reacts to Apple's iPhone 14 Reveal Jobs' daughter, whose modeling career is turning out to be a success with her recent addition to DNA Model Management, owns an iPhone and had once mused about how it reminded her of her father. Newsweek reported that the model told Vanity Fair that the iPhone was "a beautiful reminder for me every day...It really is. It makes me feel warm." But the reception to the iPhone 14 was rather not as warm. Many people on the internet took to social media to point out the minor changes and lack of innovation of the latest iteration of the iPhone. In fact, Vice's Edward Ongweso Jr. wrote on Friday, "If you held a gun to my head, I couldn't tell you the difference between any of the iPhones that have been released these past few years." Ongweso and other Apple critics have pointed out the brand's nearly identical products and minor changes such as a shift in the camera location, the addition of one or more colors, and nothing else in terms of actual innovation. Some have attributed this decline in innovation to the loss of Jobs himself, who passed away on October 5, 2011, a day after the iPhone 4S was introduced. Read Also: Five Reasons Why You Should Wait for iPhone 14 iPhone 14 Upgrades from Its Previous Version For those who are interested, Apple's iPhone 14 has some minor upgrades from its predecessor, which was released just a year ago. This year's slate consists of the base iPhone 14, a slightly larger iPhone 14 Plus, and the more expensive and powerful iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, The Verge reported. The iPhone 14 has a price tag of $799 for the 128GB, $899 for the 256GB, and $1,099 for the 512GB. Meanwhile, the iPhone 14 Plus comes with an $899 price tag and similar price increases for the respective storage upgrades as well. Note that the iPhone 14 range uses last year's A15 bionic chipset but features a new 12-megapixel TrueDepth camera that provides autofocus. Apple reported that iPhone 14 users would enjoy a 49% improvement in low-light image quality and a twice as fast Night Mode. Check out the rest of the features in detail here. Related Article: Can't Wait to Get Your Hands on iPhone 14? Here's How to Pre-Order Decline and Prosper! Changing Global Birth Rates and the Advantages of Fewer Children by Vegard Skirbekk, Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022, pp 396, `1,192. Several countries have begun to experience population decline, according to the United Population Prospects, 2022. Declining birth rates around the globe are causing panic among the political class and the policymakers. Demographers, national planners, economists, politicians and many entrepreneurs are wary of lowest-low fertility rates of the human species. The shrinking population is the next biggest threat to geopolitics and sustainable development globally, as Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson (2019) have put forward in their influential new book, Empty Planet. A recent tweet on human fertility by Tesla chief Elon Musk received huge social media attention. He tweeted, If people dont have more children, civilization is going to crumble. Mark my words. Currently, around 114 countries out of 197 in the world either want to raise or maintain their population growth (United Nations 2017). However, a comprehensive scientific investigation into shrinking numbers is rare in the contemporary literature. An evidence-based examination of the consequences of low fertility across the countries is the need of the hour. In this context, the book by Vegard Skirbekk is a step in the right direction and offers readers an evidence-based overview of human fertility. The book discusses the evolution of childbearing across diverse populations and how fertility is connected to the change in reproductive capacity, family planning, education, religion, partnering, policies, economies, assisted reproduction, and catastrophes. It also explores the impending family size and its influence on human well-being, womens empowerment, and the environment. Skirbekk is of the opinion that low fertility rates are the result of the compositional changes in womens education, gender equality, low infant and child mortality, and womens reproductive autonomy and control. In this book, Skirbekk discusses both the negative and positive outcomes of fertility decline. Low fertility rates have the unintended consequence of accelerating involuntary childlessness and population ageing. The author expresses his opinions on some of the debates in the disciplines of demography and economics. For instance, in his opinion, the virtue of low fertility rates is that more money may be invested in childrens health and education, with greater opportunities for promoting gender equality, and reducing violence and crime. Moreover, low human reproductive rates have a lower environmental impact. Thus, this book brings back the old population debate between anti-natalists versus pro-natalists. Besides, the book is useful from the policy point of view as it examines regional changes in the population dynamics from pre-transitional societies to the contemporary low and lowest-low fertility rates. The scope of this book is global, and it examines the patterns of fertility decline in all geographical regions. Skirbekk explores a spectrum of subjects pertaining to the emergence of the worlds low fertility rates. From this book, we learn about global demographic trends, future trajectories, and emerging debates about them. According to Skirbekk, the seeds of the worlds lowest-low fertility rates, particularly in developed countries, are planted before the first stage of the demographic transition due to changes in the marriage pattern. He further explains that lowest-low fertility is clearly not good for society, but low fertility is appropriate. In advanced economies, the effects of early fertility declines are now seen in the form of an ageing population. Taking the context of relaxation of immigration policies across the countries, Skirbekk argues that migration and rising fertility are, in the long run, not beneficial to the countrys fertility rates, and migration can actually worsen it. He specifically says the migrant population might assimilate the reproductive patterns of the native community. In its 20 chapters, the book delves into a range of topics related to the worlds low and lowest-low fertility rates. The chapters are ordered in a coherent manner. After a brief overview of measures and biological markers of fertility, the main chapters begin with the hunter-gatherer societies and advance to the modern-day human species. The second set of chapters deals with the contemporary global fertility transition. The third set of chapters is on the development and consequences of the worlds low fertility rates. In the fourth set of chapters, the author touches on some specific topicsmating and cohabitation, delaying parenthood, childlessness, the economics of fertility, disaster and fertility, religion, education, and fertility. Finally, he ends with comments on the future fertility levels and related policies. Before commenting on some of the key issues discussed in this book, it is noted that the author has made a significant contribution to existing population growth debates in the world. Pre-transition Fertility Decline At the beginning of the book, the author illustrates the fertility transition in the pre-demographic transition stage. The book presents that the determinants of fertility have shifted from the predominantly biological factors to sociocultural factors. He discusses the biological potential to reproduce and the related changes throughout time. In the pre-transition civilisation, because of high infant mortality rates, women rarely had as many children as they theoretically could. The fecundity of prehistoric humans was presumably the lowest than that of the Hutterites. France was one of the first countries in the world to witness a decline in birth rates. Skirbekk argues that the main cause of the fall in Frances fertility in the 1870s was the marriage pattern and peoples deliberate attempts to restrict the size of their families. Improved living standards, decreased mortality, higher education, the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and changing social structures were among the socio-economic factors that contributed to the decline in Frances fertility. He did not, however, discuss the biological factors that contributed to the Frenchs fertility decline. In addition, the author clearly explains why fertility decline commenced much earlier in Europe rather than elsewhere. He also describes that higher fertility rates and parents with high social positions were reversed very quickly in European countries, but not until much later in Asian countries. Contemporary Fertility Decline Heterogeneous fertility decline between countries and global regions characterises contemporary demographic transition. Skirbekk points out that high birth rates have been linked to increased mortality rates in certain parts of the world. He also believes that the absolute decline in fertility rates, on the other hand, has been greater in countries where fertility was historically high. Even due to increased mean age at childbearing, the tempo effect can cause frequent distortions in the assessment of total fertility rates (TFRs). The author also discusses the tempo effects in TFR fluctuations in European countries. However, the author forgets to mention the tempo effects in other parts of the world, such as Australia and East Asia. Higher fertility rates are usually linked to populations that are less educated or illiterate, those who live in extreme poverty, and those who have fewer employment opportunities. He also asserted that fertility differences, rather than lower mortality rates, are more or less directly translated into differences in population growth rates. However, developing countries with late fertility declines have experienced rapid population growth due to relatively long periods of high fertility alongside low mortality. The Emergence of the Childlessness With the expansion of low fertility rates, the number of countries with fertility concerns and the number of people with voluntary and involuntary childlessness have increased. However, Skirbekk points to heterogeneity in the prevalence of childlessness across the countriesit is twice in the low fertility countries in East Asia and Western Europe than in the low fertility Eastern European countries. According to the author, being childless is increasingly becoming a male issue rather than a female one. A male without children is associated with a lack of education, lower income, and less secure employment, as well as poor health and shorter lifespans. For males, the association between education and infertility is generally inverse. The author also added that many men and women nowadays are childless because they do not have a partner with whom they share a mutual desire to have children. The measuring of fertility is to ensure that all the babies are counted. The number of newborns in a certain time period would not provide any information about how many people remain childless or the average family size. However, he believes there is no effect of childlessness on the countrys fertility rates. According to the authors analyses, approximately half of the couples are infertile exclusively due to female factors, about 30% are infertile exclusively due to male factors, while approximately 20% are infertile due to a combination of both. The differential rate of expansion of womens education is one of the main reasons why fertility is declining rapidly in some countries than in others. According to him, the internet and long-acting reversible contraceptive methods give new ways to make childbearing decisions more autonomous, regulated, and informed. Fertility Preferences The accuracy of survey questions in capturing peoples true fertility ideals and intentions is a subject of debate. Ideals and intentions of childbearing are extremely important for discovering gaps between fertility ideals and actual fertility outcomes, as well as for tracking general trends in perceptions of optimum family size. Skirbekk stated that having too many children is often seen to endanger a familys well-being by restricting parents ability to fully nurture each child and contributing to overpopulation and environmental deterioration. Fertility information is typically available in two forms: cohort and period measures. Although cohort measures of fertility are theoretically better off for tracking recent social changes, most countries use period measures more for this purpose. Period measures of fertility are the best way for studying the impact of transition conditions or specific events such as economic boom or crisis, political unrest, natural disaster, or new family policy. The optimal measures of fertility depend on what one wants to know, along with the availability and quality of the underlying data. Countries monitor births for tax purposes and to estimate their own future political, military and social power. Continuous monitoring of births in countries also helps in designing policy and planning to provide their populations with adequate healthcare, education, housing, and infrastructure. These monitoring exercises need high-quality fertility information, while the registration of the birth, highly reliable source of fertility data, national census, tax registers and household surveys are other important sources of fertility data. Conclusions and Inferences to India The key message of the book is that low levels of fertility are not unprecedented, and lower birth rates are not harmful but rather beneficial at the population level. The fears of population ageing and population collapse due to low fertility rates are overblown. Decreasing population is a less likely threat to economic growth as new technologies are able to take over more tasks. Skirbekks views fall under the umbrella of the neo-Malthusian argumenthighly debatable and need more robust evidence. He also warns that low, but not too low fertility is generally best for countries of the world as a whole. However, he did not present much empirical evidence to support these claims. What could have been more interesting for current population policies globally, is a discussion around why pro-natalist policies have been failing. While the fertility rate in Sweden has successfully increased from 1.7 to 1.9 births per woman, some nations that have made major efforts to address the baby bust have still had challenges. More importantly, what is lacking from his work is the precise level of fertility necessary for economic social sustainability, and geopolitical stability. In conclusion, he suggests that policies should focus on helping people make informed fertility choices and achieve their own fertility preferences, as opposed to encouraging people to have more or fewer children. The author urges the global community to invest more seriously in womens empowerment, education, family planning, and quality job opportunities. Governments in low fertility countries need to acknowledge that neither more babies nor more young immigrants are solutions to population ageing. Population ageing is primarily driven by declining mortality as opposed to declining fertility, and it is unrealistic to expect that an influx of young immigrants could keep the population as young as it is now. Instead of encouraging people to have more children, low fertility societies need to respond to the populations lifespan and create new opportunities for productive engagement and meaningful social connections in the second half of life. To what extent the new technologies assist those responsible for caring for the oldest populations is also not clear. Additionally, he gives no indication of the amount of health budgets that nations might spend on health in order to promote healthy and active ageing in a country. Nearly 80% of the health budgets of countries like Japan, which do not allow significant immigration, are spent on supporting the elderly. Do several developing countries that are ageing faster have the luxury to spend a high share of their health budgets on ageing and well-being? By interpreting the central messages of this book in the context of Indias demographic transition, we put forth five points: First, India has not lagged behind in the global decline in fertility rates. The most recent National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 201921 data reveals that the majority of the states are well below replacement level, or 2.1 children per woman (IIPS and ICF 2022). Fertility has decreased more quickly in India than in developed countries despite the countrys stringent population control laws. Even Indias efforts to implement an extensive family planning programme, in particular, womens sterilisation, are driving the story of the decline in fertility in the country. Second, although the family planning programme was a major driver in reaching replacement level fertility in India, the role of other proximate and distal factors including womens age at marriage, womens reproductive autonomy, gender equality, and womens literacy cannot be ignored (James and Goli 2016). Third, Indian demographers argument is that despite the heterogeneity in the level of fertility transition, the story of convergence in fertility rates is emerging fast, and soon we expect all other states to join the below replacement level club. Thus, at this stage, India does not currently need to enact draconian population policies. Draconian methods of population control will also affect the demographic prospects. Once fertility reaches unsustainably low levels, reversal with fertility incentives is difficult. Rapid ageing at low levels of health and socio-economic development will reduce prospects of reaping the demographic dividend and push the state towards getting older before getting richer (Goli 2021). This is in line with Skirbekks repeated argument in this book that too low fertility is not good for society in the long run. This argument of Skirbekk can also be backed by a recent estimate of the economic return of fertility decline in India by Goli et al (2021). Also, the population decline has a significant impact on factors such as family size, per capita income, changing income levels, financing mechanisms, taxation policies, and eventual government incentives. Fourth, care for the ageing population in the later half of their lives and the safety of women and childrens health, particularly infant mortality rates and rising infertility are all issues that need to be considered by policymakers. As Skirbekk specifically points out that population ageing is driven more by mortality reduction and improvement in life expectancy than fertility decline, proactive healthy and active ageing policies through better economic and social safety programmes can help more than population control policies for countries like India. Despite having below replacement level fertility, India has been unable to reach the level of proficiency achieved by Western countries in caring for their elderly populations. Fifth, if we have to learn from the lessons forwarded by this book, the Indian states with above replacement level fertility must focus more on addressing the unmet need for family planning, reducing the infant mortality rate, educating the girl child, and empowering women. The book is relevant for Indian readers ranging from demographers and social scientists to political leaders and policymakers. References Bricker, D and J Ibbitson (2019): Empty Planet: The Shock of Global Population Decline, UK: Hachette. Goli, S, James, K S Singh, D Srinivasan V, R Mishra, M J Rana and U S Reddy (2021): Economic Returns of Family Planning and Fertility Decline in India, 19912061, Journal of Demographic Economics, pp 133. Goli, S (2021): Problems with Uttar Pradeshs Population Bill, East Asia Forum Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the Pacific, 14 August, https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2021/08/14/problems-with-uttar-pradeshs-population-bill/. IIPS and ICF (2022): National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), 201921: Mumbai: IIPS. James, K S and S Goli (2016): Demographic Changes in India: Is the Country Prepared for the Challenge, The Brown Journal of World Affairs, pp 16987. Skirbekk, V (2022): Decline and Prosper! Changing Global Birth Rates and the Advantages of Fewer Children, Springer Nature. United Nations (2017): World Population Policies 19762015, New York: United Nations. Pedagogy of Dissent by Ramin Jahanbegloo, New Delhi: Orient Blackswan, 2021; pp 108, `295. Ramin Jahanbegloos crisp and illuminating work on dissent is at once timely and an untimely contribution. The latter because it brings together a recent, global and modern history of social justice and liberation thought with the Enlightenment and Socratic traditions of philosophy. Such work is bound to present a perpetual provocation to thought. The former because in doing so, the philosopher provides a veritable wealth of resources necessary to recharge the democratic practice of dissent, which is not only being pushed back but also increasingly separated from pedagogy. The work must be read to understand anew the profound expanse and horizon of dissentthe ontological and epistemological status of dissent for being human, for their commitment to justice, and their chances of realising the democratic promise of equality. The author chooses four central figures to weave and illustrate this expansive ground of dissent, setting up a larger dialogue among these figures, standing in diverse contexts, speaking to heterogeneous traditions, to different interlocutors and taking diverse, even mutually conflicting ways to dissent. The book does not explicitly justify the selection but the reasons seem evident from the twofold thematic emphases, the urgency of a democratic education and renewing the allegiance to the oppressed. Jahanbegloo thus selects Malcolm X, Paulo Freire, Gustavo Gutierrez, and B R Ambedkar. They also stand for other related concerns, like that of dialogue, community and institutions that we will try to briefly unpack below. The introduction lays down the philosophical background and the Socratic tradition of dissenting as a mode of questioning injustice, along with an etymological excursion into the term and its affiliation with dissidence. We see how pedagogy is approached from a number of interrelated directions. To begin with, it signals a reflexive and critical relationship with reality, implying a self-cultivation in order to become the autonomous subject in the Enlightenment sense of Aufklarung. This is followed by the question of education of different oppressed classes or communities such that there is a transformation in their self-recognition, releasing their political agency. Finally, it also involves the structural question of a civic education, creating just institutions and necessary solidarity for a political community that holds the state accountable by learning to exercise its rights. Jahanbegloo takes us through this trajectory by fleetingly but inevitably touching upon thinkers like Baruch Spinoza, Immanuel Kant, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Henry David Thoreau and John Dewey, closing with M K Gandhi as an exemplary educator of dissent. However, these thinkers, or more contemporary ones that the author has written about elsewhere, like Ashis Nandy, stand more in the background of the individual studies he presents in the chapters. Pedagogy and Democratisation In these hours of resurgent racism and anti-migrant sentiments, nothing could be more fitting than to start with the Black radical activist Malcolm X. Jahanbegloo illustrates how the unique and radically unorthodox route to Black radicalism charted by Malcolm X was the outcome of a deliberate self-cultivation of Black subjectivity. This led Malcolm to turn to Islam, Pan Africanism and third-world liberations, all that became building blocks for imagining an African American people who were global in provenance, and critical for questioning American democracy. Unlike Martin Luther King and Gandhi, Malcolm X did not rule out violence when faced with White supremacy. Neither did he lose sight of the need for political maturity, self-consciousness and cultural autonomy of the Black people. One of the important and prescient aspects pointed out in the book is the significance accorded by such leaders to who exactly controls communications technology and infrastructure. The pedagogy for the Black people, according to Malcolm, thus called for an epistemological relocation, a different geographical imagination that could be the basis for questioning American democracy. Jahanbegloos turn to Freire at this point takes us, perhaps in the thickest sense of the term, to the concern of pedagogy. Freire is more directly connected to the Enlightenment project of education for autonomy, and as the book shows, he helps to reimagine the very grammar and inner architecture of power in the practice of knowledge. A firm believer in human capacity for creative self-transformation, this radical thinker departed from the Marxist tradition in his insistence on dialogue, love and humanisation as the substance of radical praxis. Although the task of his choosing often appears as a counter-hegemony, like Gramsci, Freire has very different things to say about the norms at work in the education system, generally ignored by leftists. Jahanbegloo highlights how Freire shifts the academic paradigm to a pedagogy of asking questions from the one based on remembering and repeating answers that he calls banking education. The second point of departure is no less profound. Freires pedagogy is based on a democratisation of literacy and learnersliteracy is not a purely functional capacity for him but the active engagement of the student and the world, taking place through words. The knowledge of the world that comes from naming the world, Freire firmly believes, transforms it in the process. The capacity for such a transformation is precisely what does not belong to the oppressed and the acts of naming and claiming the world is therefore what a pedagogy of oppressed can achieve in the organic intellectual. The intense solidarity with the suffering of his people in Malcolm X returns with the fascinating discussion of the revolutionary spirituality of Gutierrez, the organic intellectual of Latin America. The author presents Gutierrez standing at the intersections of firm belief in the reality of material exploitation and the conviction in a mystical communion with the poor and oppressed of Latin America. Although he is close to frameworks like class struggle, concepts like love, humanitas, and most importantly, the true Christian community, are equally important to him. What is dehumanisation and alienation to Marxists is therefore the mark of sin and evil in the liberation theology of Gutierrez. Jahanbegloo explains how this lends the dissent of Gutierrez take the shape of a reinterpretation of the narrative of Exodus in the Bible, making the commitment to the oppressed a natural corollary to belief in god, much to the annoyance of the Vatican orthodoxy. In this way, for Gutierrez, the emancipation imagined in Enlightenment mutated into a different and extended connotation of liberation, with both elements of nationalist thought and a messianic ring of salvation. It is hard to tell if it is fair to compare some concerns of Gutierrez with that of Ambedkar but Jahanbegloo certainly shows an affinity in their treatment of faith and shared anchoring in the narrative of community. The last chapter of the book is devoted to Ambedkar, where the twin thematic threads of oppression and education take concrete shapes in terms of self-understanding, autonomy of the most oppressed and institutional mechanisms to create a just state. The author tellingly shows how difficult and profound the nature of Ambedkars dissent was. He took on the responsibility of the Constitution, placing hopes for social justice in the state, while he knew more than anyone else as to how the independence will be subsumed by a life of contradictions. Unless we feel compelled to think of a sequence, it is tempting to think of Ambedkar as working at once on multiple registers. If one was invitation to create the juridical basis for the rights of the depressed classes, then the other involved devising a social exit from Hinduism, by choosing a religion named after a mortal who represented a dissenting tradition. But if Ambedkar was being context-specific in his choice of Buddhism, he also remained deeply indebted to the Enlightenment tradition, a cosmopolitan in his sensibility and firmly committed to the emancipatory potential of democracy. It is important to remember, however, that he was deeply sceptical of any rule of a permanent, organic majority as he wanted a political community always subject to change and open to dissent. In Conclusion One could pick minor quibbles with the book, for instance, why it does not talk of the Mahad satyagraha, or refer to how Frantz Fanon resonates with Malcolm X, or can we see intellectual affinities between Gutierrez and Rammanohar Lohia, and so on. But they will only go on to show how this book simply compels one to think and makes thinking about dissent and pedagogy an exciting and worthwhile undertaking. We remain indebted to the author particularly for the surprises hidden in the expositions, the eclectic breadth of references, the telling quotations, and the labour of love gone into presenting thoughts about questions so relevant right now in such kind and accessible manner. One can only wish the philosopher will tell us more, perhaps in his next book, on the conditions of possibilities when it becomes increasingly impossible for the oppressed to withhold assent, when acts of dissent grow heavy with consequences. But there lies the beauty of a pedagogy of questioning, dissent cannot be a received answer. It can be, however, learnt, through new encounters with the world we are invited to name. This book provides a cartography of that new world. The Sri Lankan, Indian, and Chinese perspectives on the growing strategic partnership between Sri Lanka and China are analysed. The motivations and objectives of India and China in strengthening their artnership with Sri Lanka are examined. The history of the Sri LankaChina relationship and Chinese overtures to Sri Lanka in recent days is discussed. It is argued that given the geostrategic location of Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean, and proximity to India, an aspiration for infrastructural developmental and Chinese developmental assistance are primarily shaping the Sri Lankan foreign policy choice to adopt hedging to maximise benefits. The Family Man 2, an Indian OTT series, vividly captures how increasing Chinas involvement in Sri Lanka pushes Indian leadership to forgo its domestic electoral voters to keep China at bay in the Indian Ocean. Chinas recent efforts to engage Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean are intended to protect and expand its commercial and security interests. In this context, this article examines Indian and Chinese perspectives on Sri Lanka and Chinas growing partnership. The article argues that Sri Lankas geostrategic location in the Indian Ocean, proximity to India, aspiration for infrastructure development, and Chinese development assistance are the primary determinants of its decision to adopt hedging to maximise benefits. Although China and Sri Lanka do not share a common border, their interactions date back thousands of years, as recorded in the Book of Han Dynasty (Hanshu) and ancient Roman history books (Gunaratna 1987). In the fifth century, the renowned Chinese monk Faxian reportedly travelled on a mercantile ship from the port of Tamralipti, in eastern India, to Sri Lanka (Sen 2006). He studied Buddhism at the Abhayagiri Vihara in Anuradhapura for two years and returned to China through the sea route. Faxian described Sri Lanka in greater detail in his travel journal Records of the Buddhistic Kingdoms. Admiral Zheng He, a Chinese explorer, led the seavoyage to Sri Lanka seven times during Chinas Ming dynasty (13681644 AD). His visits have been memorialised in a stone stele in 1409. The inscriptions on the stele, known as Galle Trilingual Inscription, written in Chinese, Persian, and Tamil, describe Zheng Hes mission and their paying tribute at the local Buddhist temple (Sen 2019; Brooks 2019; Bastiampillai nd). Bastiampillai (nd) notes that Sri Lankas contacts with China too can be traced back to an early date, and the Ambassadors who called on the Court of Claudius in the first century had commented on the commerce that generally prevailed between Sri Lanka and China. He further argued that embassies often laden with fights from the king of Sri Lanka visited China in the first and second centuries and such visits grew even more frequent after the fourth century. (Bastiampillai nd) In the 21st century, the two countries are strengthening political and economic ties. After gaining independence from Britain in February 1948, Sri Lanka recognised the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) in January 1950. In February 1957, the two countries formally established full diplomatic relations. Chinas interest in Sri Lanka has recently been rekindled because of its advantageous geographical position on the so-called 21st Century Maritime Silk Road which places it between major sea lines of communication (SLOC). In addition, Sri Lanka is dependent on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to fund its many infrastructure and development projects. For this reason, the Maritime Silk Road Initiative (MSRI) is vital for Sri Lanka to become a prominent player in developing trading ports in the Indian Ocean. China does not have a fully developed South Asia policy but bases its approach on neighbourhood diplomacy. Chinese scholars have extensively written on the topic and have varied policy suggestions for Beijing (Ranjan 2021). Chinas renewed focus on Sri Lanka derives from its geostrategic location in the Indian Ocean (Kelegama 2014). Karl believes that Sri Lanka is strategically located on the great sea routes between the Western world, Africa, West Asia, and the Far East, therefore having huge strategic importance for China (Karl 2018). In fact, since Sri Lanka formally embraced the BRI in February 2015, relations between China and Sri Lanka have been developing at such a rapid pace that even without having a free trade agreement (FTA) with China, the ratio of Chinese imports to the countrys gross domestic product (GDP) has increased from 2.6% in 2005 to 4.8% (Moramudali 2019). This article aims to comprehend Sri Lankan, Indian, and Chinese perspectives on Sri LankaChinas growing strategic alliance. It discusses the reasons and ambitions of India and China to enhance their partnership with Sri Lanka. This research contributes significantly to the current literature on the topic by bringing together academic arguments from three nations to define the nature of triangular situations. Sri Lankas Strategic Choices De Silva (2018: 192) lists four strategic options for Sri Lanka at the time of its independence (1948): (i) Implementing a foreign policy that did not lean towards any country and was either isolationist in nature or based on building friendly ties with all nations to an equal degree (meeting Ceylons security requirements by strengthening its defence forces without any external assistanceinternal balancing); (ii) bandwagoning with India (aligning with the stronger potential adversary); (iii) launching a foreign policy that would hedge between India and an extra-regional power; and (iv) developing ties with a strong and established power that could mitigate the uncertainty which the island experienced due to its close proximity to India. If one examines these four strategic options of Sri Lanka, options (i) and (ii) were hitherto implemented by the Sri Lankan government. Nevertheless, the changing regional environment, the necessity for development, and the ambition to put the island country on the trading map in the Indian Ocean have limited policy options to (iii) and (iv). Interestingly, De Silva nevertheless cautions that any policy that undermines Indias security or challenges its power through a relationship with a stronger extra-regional adversary can be disastrous for Colombo. Thereby De Silva (2018) suggests that balancing India with a power that is not its adversary can reduce Colomobos fear. Putting it simply, Sri Lanka should not harbour any ambition of balancing India with China. This leaves only one option for Sri Lanka, that is, develop a hedging policy. Observing current policies and overtures of succeeding governments in Sri Lanka (Wire 2019; New Indian Express 2009) strongly suggest that Colombo is gradually adopting a hedging strategy to fulfil its ambitions and, at the same time, deliver promises made to its citizens of a prosperous country. Khondoker and Zaman (2022) unequivocally argue that Colombos response towards China is a positive hedging strategy of active engagement and accommodation. De Silva (1995) in his illuminating book, Regional Powers and Small State Security: India and Sri Lanka, 19771990, examines conflicting visions of security of India and Sri Lanka during 194779. Post separation from British raj, De Silva argues that it had a profound impact on the political thinking and strategic vision of several generations of Sri Lankan leaders (p 16). Colombos decision to be a small independent partner of the Commonwealth and signing defence agreements with British were primarily driven by the fear of absorption by an independent India and Jawaharlal Nehrus ambition to make India dominant in the region (De Silva 1995: 17). During the height of the Cold War, the power game in the region led India and Pakistan to strengthen alliances with extra-regional powers, the Soviet Union and China, respectively. Like today, small states preferred to be committed to non-alignment or stay neutral. De Silvas analysis of events that unfolded during that period and Colombos policy choices uncannily resemble todays strategic decisions. For example, the signing of the maritime agreement between Sri Lanka and China in July 1963 provided for the most favoured nation treatment for the contracting parties commercial vessels engaged in cargo and passenger services to and from each others countries (Das 2010), Sri Lankan scholars argue that New Delhi viewed arrangements as the growing influence of China in Sri Lanka. Interestingly, New Delhi was equally sensitive to the United States (US) getting access to Trincomalee harbour on the east coast of Sri Lanka (De Silva 1995). Now, as the great game is unfolding in the region, Beijings growing influence in Sri Lanka and the acquisition of Hambantota port, India might not be averse to the US getting access to any harbour or constructing a new military base in the Indian Ocean. Moreover, to counter growing Chinese challenges, India is also trying to help Sri Lanka develop terminals and ports (Mint 2021) and at the same time also pushing for the Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement (ETCA), an addendum to the existing FTA between the two nations that extends it to trade in services and the service sector (Kuruwita 2020). Even Sri Lankan scholar highlights that it is not in the interest of a small, developing country such as Sri Lanka to risk alienating countriesespecially its northern neighbourby bandwagoning with China. Not even considering the importance of its strategic proximity, size, and historical relations, India remains the top exporting country to Sri Lanka, and bilateral trade is more than three times greater than Sri Lankas trade with China (Samaranayake 2011). It is imperative to note here that almost all Sri Lankan scholars view that for Sri Lanka, the greatest international security threat comes from its neighbour, India, given its population, huge size, military capability and technological prowess; geographical proximity (Samaranayake 2011; Senevirathna 2021; De Silva 1995; De Silva 2018; Attanayake and Atmakuri 2020) and offensive capability and offensive intention (Attanayake and Atmakuri 2021). Nevertheless, India is not satisfied with Sri Lankan responses (Wire 2019; Times of India 2014; New Indian Express 2009) or China downplaying the growing footprints in the region. New Delhi is pushing its own projects, along with countries such as Japan. Senevirathna (2022: 117), De Silva (1995) and De Silva (2018) suggest Sri Lanka to leverage the geostrategic location and avoid the pitfalls of great power politics to maximise its geoeconomics interests. Attanayake and Atmakuri (2020) suggest sticking to a neutral foreign policy and reap benefits from its relationship with various other powers. In other words, they agree that Colombo needs to adopt a hedging strategy and a word of advice for other powers to engage Sri Lanka and not just request Sri Lanka to disengage from China. Interestingly, Indian and Chinese scholars significantly differ on the nature and orientations of Sri Lanka engagement. The following section aims to decipher both the Chinese and Indian perceptions to understand the complexity of relationships and avoid the usual pitfalls of constructing a sustainable partnership. Chinese Dream: A Stopover in the Indian Ocean In 2014, during the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Sri Lanka, the two governments signed an agreement titled Action Plan of the Peoples Republic of China and the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka on Deepening Strategic and Cooperative Partnership (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sri Lanka 2014). Furthermore, Xi explicitly proposed docking the two sides development strategies to coordinate our development strategies and work together as partners in pursuit of our dreams. The Mahinda Chintana, which represents Sri Lankas dream of national strength and prosperity, has much in common with the Chinese dream of realising the great renewal of the Chinese nation. (Xi 2014) In addition, Xi (2014) also emphasised that China firmly supports the efforts of Sri Lanka to safeguard its national independence, state sovereignty and territorial integrity and resolutely opposes any move by any country to interfere in Sri Lankas internal affairs under any excuse. Wang and Feng (2019: 487) suggest that Sri Lankas docking strategy involves the Mahinda Vision and its action plan, which will use Colombo and Hambantota as economic expansion wings in the future. The former will be a centre for commercial, tourism, political, and cultural activities in South Asia; the latter will be a centre for international shipping, port logistics, aviation, and industry. The southern expressway connects the two economic areas, and an economic corridor will be created there (MFP 2010). Chinas access to a transportation hub in the Indian Ocean supports its developing commercial and economic cooperation with European and African countries. Sustained economic expansion and Chinas excess capacity target a new BRI-generated market. More than 60% of Chinas oil imports come from West Asia and Africa, making the Indian Ocean strategically vital for Chinas energy security. This highlights the importance of Chinas connection with Sri Lanka (Wang and Feng 2019). Chinese scholars concur that Sri Lanka uses China to balance Indias dominance in the Indian Ocean region by supporting the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Strategy, thereby increasing its diplomatic negotiating leverage. Chinese scholars view India as a dominant power and hence view any South Asian nation that cultivates a relationship with China as a tool to offset New Delhi influence in the region (Yang 2013; Liao 2015). Consequently, China seizes every chance when Sri Lanka and other nations in the neighbourhood seek to balance India (Yang 2013; Liao 2015). Additionally, Chinese academics are concerned about India and the US pushing the Indo-Pacific policy. In light of the intensifying competition in the Indian Ocean, these scholars suggest Beijing to strengthen coordination with India, Japan, the US, and Sri Lanka to manage and control differences, seek common grounds while reserving differences, and more convergences to promote regional peace, stability, prosperity, and development (Chen 2020: 93). Nonetheless, Hu (2020) argues that Washingtons meddling in Sri Lankas domestic affairs propelled pro-Chinese politicians to power, and Washingtons policy for promoting democracy has backfired. Beijing has benefited from Washingtons inflexible human rights policy. Some scholars believe that China provides financial support for Sri Lankan development and political support to rescue Colombo from the accusations of human rights violations from the West (Yang 2013). Thereby, a stable and strategic partnership with China can minimise the Sri Lankan dilemma (Li 2015: 22) and thereby the construction of the Maritime Silk Road is closely related to the boosting of infrastructural development in Sri Lanka. For example, Chinese scholars emphasise that Chinas massive investment has been helping Sri Lanka to upgrade infrastructure and provide a powerful impetus to Colombo to reform its economic policies for greater foreign investment and other conditions that lay the groundwork for sustainable economic growth in the future. (Wang and Feng 2019) From 2005 to 2015, Chinas direct investment in Sri Lanka increased from $16.4 million to $338 million, and its proportion in Sri Lankas foreign direct investment (FDI) rose from 1% to 35% (Bhatia et al 2016). As of 2016, Chinas direct investment stock in Sri Lanka had reached $1 billion (Ministry of Commerce, PRC 2017) and the value of cumulative Chinese infrastructure investment in Sri Lanka amounts to $12.1 billion between 2006 and July 2019 (Wignaraja et al 2020). On the other hand, many experts attribute Sri Lankas current economic troubles to debt trap diplomacy. However, just as there are two schools of thought on debt trap diplomacy, there are also two diverse perspectives on its relationship to the Sri Lankan economic crisis. Chinese academics criticise India and the US for propagating the myth that purported debt trap diplomacy is intricately responsible for the current economic misery and deny that China has any dubious motives. Intriguingly, Chinese and Sri Lankan scholars broadly present two counterarguments to the narrative. First, China owed only 10 of Sri Lankas external debt, less than Japan, the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank (Li 2020; Central bank of Sri Lanka 2017; Brautigam and Rithmire 2021; Wigneraja 2022). Second, Sri Lanka is to blame for the debt problem because internal structural imbalances such as fiscal expenditure and debt management (Li 2020) pushed the country into the foreign exchange crisis. The World Bank (2022) reports that fiscal and external imbalances may lead to unsustainable debt and balance of payment challenges. On the contrary, Sri Lankan scholars deny outrightly that Sri Lankas current debt burden is related to Chinas BRI projects like the Hambantota port (Majuervan 2022). It is interesting to note that some studies blame Sri Lankas debt crisis on international sovereign bonds, the majority of which are held by fund companies based in the US (Figure 1). These bonds are the single largest source of Sri Lankas debt, and they account for almost half of all outstanding debt (Zilwa and Illanperuma 2021; Wei 2022). Interestingly, the Chinese and Sri Lankans concur that only the US and India view Chinas lending policies in Sri Lanka as part of a debt-trap diplomacy and that there is no evidence to suggest that China intentionally seeks to trap developing countries in debt. Chinese scholars suggest that Sri Lankas pursuit of a balanced approach in its dealings with India and China is not just in Sri Lankas best interest but also in Chinas. However, they also acknowledge that given the location of Sri Lanka, Colombo must adopt a realistic approach to hedging China, Japan, and India (Yang 2013; Liao 2015). Hedging with major powers is the optimal strategic choice for Sri Lanka to grow economically and leverage its strategic position to extract maximum political benefits. Unlike Southeast Asian countries, which have dual dependence on China and the US for economic development and security, respectively, Sri Lanka presents a different situation as Colombo depends on China and India for economic growth (Yang 2013: 98). Somehow, Sri Lanka, dynamically balancing India and China by geographically restricting their investment in the North and South in the island, have paid the desired dividends for Colombo. Ironically, this geographical restriction will fade away with intense IndiaChina competition on the island, for investment (Yang 2013: 98). In another way, the IndiaChina rivalry is restricting the policy options of smaller states in the region and forcing them into a Catch-22 situation. Exploring Trilateral Mechanisms China sees an opportunity to replicate the ChinaIndia plus in Sri Lanka. Chinese scholars believe that Sri Lanka and India are both important allies of China in South Asia and suggest that Beijing continue promoting a strategic cooperative partnership with India for peace and prosperity and a strategic collaborative partnership with Sri Lanka, characterised by mutual assistance and friendship (Liao 2015). Furthermore, they emphasise that the benign interaction between the tripartite parties also favours regional peace, stability, and shared prosperity (Liao 2015; Chen 2020). Due to the asymmetrical power arrangement in the region, Yang (2013) does acknowledge that India will necessarily affect any engagement. New Delhi is suspicious of Chinas growing influence in the region despite China casting off any zero-sum game between Beijing and itself. Although China would like to replicate IndiaChina plus cooperation, as in Afghanistan, in Sri Lanka, it looks like a distant possibility given the rising power dilemma (Ranjan 2017) and border clash between the two Asian giants (Menon 2020). The majority in the Indian strategic establishment believes that China is expanding its presence in the Indian Ocean in order to encircle India (Bhaskar 2010; Pant 2014). However, another scholar asserts that India and China are too big to be encircled and emphasise that we live today in a world in which no one can claim an exclusive zone or area of influence, a globalised world where power reaches everywhere. (Menon 2016: 38) Sri Lankan scholar Fernando (2010: 292) sees that in the ChinaIndiaSri Lanka triad, both the ChinaIndia and IndiaSri Lanka dyads were experiencing a significant level of enmity, and only the ChinaSri Lanka dyad was experiencing amity. Thus, triangular relations among China, India and Sri Lanka at the time can be characterised as a stable marriage. Interestingly, this triangular relationship still follows the same trajectory even after a decade. On the other hand, Indian scholars have given tepid responses to any possibility of formalising any triangular mechanism. Indian Dilemma The Family Man 2 illustrates Indias dilemma while obliging domestic electoral in South India and responding to the growing China challenge in Sri Lanka. First, during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, the party was beholden to regional parties like the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) of Tamil Nadu for its survival, and the DMK had to take an anti-Colombo position consistently, forcing Rajapaksa to approach China (Tortajada and Biswas 2015). As a result, Beijing happily indebted the Rajapaksa in the military build-up for the Sri Lankan army against Tamil Tigers (Sakuja 2009; Tortajada and Biswas 2015). Second, during the 2013 Commonwealth Prime Ministers meeting in Colombo, the Indian Prime Minister succumbed to domestic pressures and decided not to attend the summit despite fervent requests from Colombo (Burke and Sparrow 2010; BBC 2013). Nonetheless, any majority ruling party in the Indian Parliament would be less concerned with regional politics and electoral votes than with pushing China in the island nation to maintain its stronghold there. India, for example, recently abstained from a vote on Sri Lankas human rights record at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva (Srinivasan 2021). However, a resolution titled Promoting reconciliation, accountability, and human rights in Sri Lanka was passed with the support of 22 of the 47 member nations of the council. However, this suggests that India would not shy away from backing Sri Lanka on human rights concerns to avoid angering Colombo but rather local constituents. The Indian strategic community feel that Sri Lankas ambitions to become a maritime, commercial, knowledge, and energy hub connecting Europe, Africa, and Asia (Jacob 2015) are pulling Colombo inexorably towards China, which is inimical to Indian interests (Pant 2020; Das 2010; Goapl 2021). According to the Times of India, Proliferation of Chinese economic activity and proposed infrastructure development projects in Northern province of Sri Lanka, which could potentially be utilised for strategic reasons, is a cause for concern in India. (Pandit 2021) Since 1945, when K M Panikkar published India and the Indian Ocean: An Essay on the Influence of Sea Power on Indian History, a long treatise on the geopolitical significance of the Indian Ocean, control and protection of the Indian Ocean are firmly ingrained in the Indian psyche. Panikkar (1945: 85) established that While to other countries, the Indian Ocean is only one of the important oceanic areas, to India it is the vital sea. Her life lines are concentrated in that area. Her future is dependent on the freedom of that vast water surface. No industrial development, no commercial growth, no stable political structure is possible for her unless the Indian Ocean is free and her own shores fully protected. Unfortunately, this doctrine has instilled a concern in Sri Lankan people and the leadership that to safeguard the Indian Ocean, New Delhi may threaten the islands security. What is perplexing, however, is that despite the fact that almost all Sri Lankan scholars agree that India poses the greatest threat to the security of the island nation, there is no realisation among Indian scholars and policymakers that they must convince Colombo of their true intentions to make the small neighbour comfortably embrace India and not seek ways to balance it. Further, Panikkar warned about the Chinese naval expedition history and capability that Nor should it be forgotten that Chinese have a considerable naval tradition. From the earliest times they have navigated the seas. So late as the 15th-Century Chinese fleets visited India. The fleet that under Cheng Ho (Zheng He) in 1405 and visited Calicut consisted of no less than 63 ships. The ships which Cheng Ho commanded were usually large. According to Ku Chi-yuan (15651628), who, however, wrote 150 years later, the ships carried 27,870 men. It was only the existence of the naval power of the Sri Vijayas that prevented the Chinese from establishing their authority in the Indonesian Archipelago, and as the Portuguese appeared soon the breakdown of the Vijaya, the southward expansion of China over oceanic space was shut out. The movement towards the south which is indicated by the significant demography of the area may, and in probability will, be reflected in the naval policy of resurgent China. (Panikkar 1945: 86) New Delhi must forge a strategic alliance with Sri Lanka to persuade its people and leaders of Indias good intentions to facilitate navigation and strategic manoeuvring in the Indian Ocean. Additionally, this will also ward off the ghost of Panikkars axiom that to protect and control the Indian Ocean, New Delhi may threaten Sri Lanka, the supposed and prevalent interpretation of Panikkar among strategic community and policymakers in Colombo. In Conclusion Both Sri Lankan and Chinese scholars believe that the growing strategic partnership between Sri Lanka and China serves the interests of both Colombo and Beijing in the Indian Ocean. For Sri Lanka, financial assistance and FDI are crucial for continuing the development projects and sustaining the growth rate, thereby hedging with China to maximise its strategic goals and reduce strategic anxiety. In addition, it fulfils Sri Lankas desire to become a sea transportation hub in the Indian Ocean, thereby accelerating the modernisation of its economy. As Sri Lankan experts have highlighted and explored elsewhere in the article, China may not be the ideal counterbalance to India. For China, Sri Lanka offers a foothold in the Indian Ocean to offset sea lines of communications dilemma and forge a strtaegic alliance with Colombo to expand its share of influence in international politics. Thereby it calls for establishing IndiaSri LankaChina trilateral mechanisms for cooperation and strategic manoeuvring in the Indian Ocean to detest the US from any misadventure against Beijing. On the other hand, India is suspicious of the growing Chinese involvement with Sri Lanka. 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Yang, Xiaoping (2013): Sri Lankas Dynamic Balancing Logic in Developing Relations with India and China, South Asian Studies Quarterly, Summer 153, pp 9399. Zilwa, Kenneth D and Shiran Illanperuma (2021): Debt Sustainability and Debt Management in Sri Lanka: A Reflection on the Applicability of Chinese Policy Lessons, UNCTAD/BRI PROJECT/RP16, viewed on 6 April 2022, https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/BRI-Project_RP16_en.pdf. With its 34 turbines perched on a hill in southwestern India, the Tuppadahalli wind farm generates green energyand profits. The wind farm and three others in India are owned by Acciona SA, an 8.1 billion Spanish infrastructure conglomerate which held an IPO of its renewables business last year. Tuppadahalli is performing so well that an Indian credit-ratings firm upgraded it, citing its strong cash position, modest debt and long-term contracts to sell the energy. Under the standards set by a 21-year-old United Nations program, however, Tuppadahalli is considered a toddling startup that still needs regular infusions of cash to stay in business. This means it can benefit from a large and growing global market in so-called voluntary carbon credits set up to allow corporations to offset their own greenhouse-gas emissions by funding mitigation projects in other parts of the world. Last year, Delta Air Lines Inc. bought nearly 300,000 credits from Tuppadahalli for an undisclosed price, representing about 300,000 metric tons of carbon output that would have been added to Indias air pollution had the wind farms energy production come instead from traditional power generation. This allowed Delta to get closer to its pledge to curb its own emissions without taking drastic actions to overhaul its existing operations, such as switching away from jet fuel or grounding planes. Transactions like this undercut the basic concept behind carbon offsetsthat they should fund green projects that wouldnt be possible without the additional cash they bring. Now that renewable energy can stand on its own financially, some investors, researchers and government regulators say companies buying these credits are just transferring cash to other established companies. They say the old U.N. program, which spawned thousands of similar projects and makes up a large chunk of the market for offsets, is draining money from newer initiatives that need it more, such as experiments in capturing carbon directly from the air. The end result is that companies looking to offset their emissions are buying credits in vast numbers that do little to help neutralize their carbon output. Pedro Martins Barata, a former executive board member of the U.N. program, known as the Clean Development Mechanism, or CDM, says he is concerned the market lacks transparency, making it difficult for buyers to understand which projects would have happened without issuing credits. No one should buy any of that stuff anymore, said Mr. Martins, who is now a senior director at the Environmental Defense Fund, a nonprofit advocacy group. Delta declined to comment. A spokeswoman for Accionas renewables unit said the company followed the U.N.s own guidelines, and that the U.N.s goal is to make these investments attractive to promote clean development. Surging demand for credits is being driven by companies, often under pressure from investors, governments and customers, to reduce their net carbon footprint. More than 5,000 companies have signed a U.N. pledge to eliminate or offset their greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050. Around a third of the companies in the S&P 500 index now have such pledges, up from 1% in 2018, a Bank of America study found. Sales of carbon credits in the voluntary market that includes the CDM reached nearly $2 billion for the first time last year, according to environmental finance data provider Ecosystem Marketplace, and estimates of the markets size over the next decade range from $50 billion to $180 billion annually, according to the carbon-credit industry trade group Taskforce on Scaling the Voluntary Carbon Markets. Expanding Market The issuance and purchase of carbon credits surged in 2021 as a record number of companies set carbon-reduction goals. While that is much smaller than the markets that grew out of strict cap-and-trade regimes imposed by governments in Europe and elsewhere to force major polluters to limit their carbon output, the voluntary market plays an outsize role in efforts by a broad cross-section of corporations to position themselves as good environmental stewards. The CDM represented an early effort to establish a carbon-credit market. What its designers didnt realize at the time was how quickly renewables would blossom, fed by separate government subsidies that drove huge increases in scale, which in turn lowered prices of components for solar panels and wind turbines. These days, the cost of generating electricity from such sources is roughly on par with that of fossil fuels. M. Massamba Thioye, a project executive for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, defended the CDMs legacy, arguing that it helped accelerate the maturation of the renewable-energy sector, especially in China and India. In the absence of the CDM, we would not have the same situation, he said. Although the original CDM program all but shut down after 2012, its projects continued pumping out millions of credits for years, many of which have recently come on the market. As the CDM stepped back, two nonprofits established by environmental and business leaders moved in to act as arbiters of what qualifies as a carbon credit, and also to register credits so they can be sold and claimed by only a single party. Gold Standard, started in Geneva, with backing from environmental and climate groups such as the World Wide Fund for Nature; and Verra, based in Washington, D.C., say they are raising standards for the voluntary carbon market, and corporations rely on them to give a seal of approval to their purchases. Both Gold Standard and Verra stopped accrediting new renewable-energy projects in 2020, acknowledging that they tend to be profitable on their own. But they decided to grandfather older, CDM-era projects and allow them to issue new credits until roughly 2030, arguing that to do otherwise would have created uncertainty in the marketplace. Credit Composition Renewable-energy projects are the second-largest source of credits in the voluntary carbon market but demand has leveled off in recent years. Verras chief executive, David Antonioli, disputes the idea that old credits siphon away money from more-deserving initiatives. The Verra registry includes numerous new projects such as one that substitutes efficient cook stoves for open-pit fires or others that improve agricultural processes to curb the production of CO2. Gold Standards role is to help the market buy the highest-quality credits, not police it, said the Geneva-based certifiers chief technical officer, Owen Hewlett. In the voluntary marketplace, credits linked to CDM-era renewable-energy projects tend to be less expensive, reflecting the perception that they arent very effective at reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. More than a third of the credits bought by companies and others last year54 millionwere generated by such projects, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of credits verified by Verra and Gold Standard. Spotify AB, Boeing Co., Lyft Inc., Delta and many others have loaded up on credits that originated under the CDM and were then repackaged through Verra and Gold Standard. Spotify declined to comment. Lyft will move away from using carbon credits by shifting to all-electric vehicles on its platform by 2030, a company spokesman said. Boeing carefully selects the credits it buys to ensure they cause no net harm, a company spokesman said. In June, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said it was looking at the quality of carbon credits and the growth of the market. Concerns about transparency, credibility, and greenwashing may hamper the integrity and growth of these markets, CFTC Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero said in a speech. United Airlines Chief Executive Scott Kirby is among critics of voluntary carbon offsets, charging that they allow buyers to tout their emissions reductions while failing to take effective action to limit climate change. He calls these credits borderline fraud that allow CEOs to pretend that theyve done the right thing for sustainability when they havent made one whit of difference in the real world. He said United is committed to getting to zero emissions over the longer term by investing in nascent technologies that capture carbon from the air and in companies developing alternatives to jet fuel. The CDM emerged from the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which allowed industrialized countries to meet greenhouse-gas reduction goals by funding projects elsewhere. The program set off building sprees of solar, wind and hydro power projects launched by giant companies and funded by governments. By the end of 2011, the U.N. program had nearly 4,000 registered projects, nearly half of which were wind farms or hydroelectric facilities mostly in China and India, according to an analysis of U.N. data from the Copenhagen Climate Center, a climate-advisory institution. Chinese wind power capacity eligible to sell credits grew by 70% or more each year between 2006 and 2012 and at one point accounted for 90% of the countrys overall wind energy capacity, the Journals analysis showsmeaning that big chunks of the wind industry in China were at least partially funded by Western companies seeking offsets. But China has struggled to use its wind power, which means in practice the credits did little to offset carbon emissions. Some turbines werent connected to the power grid and others couldnt sell electricity as grid operators rejected wind energy in favor of traditional fossil-fuel sources, according to researchers from Carnegie Mellon University. Music-streaming service Spotify turned to carbon credits when making an aggressive emissions pledge in 2021 to effectively eliminate its greenhouse-gas emissions in the next decade. The effort cant be something we do on the sideit has to be integrated into our everyday business, the company said. Spotify emitted 309,400 tons of carbon in 2020, according to its sustainability reports. The company has since bought 202,000 carbon credits identified by the Journal, half of which came from renewable energy projects like the ones that originated under the CDM. One batch of nearly 6,000 credits came from wind farms built by a utility with more than $8 billion in revenue in 2021 that is owned by China Three Gorges Co., the builder of the namesake dam and one of the worlds largest energy firms. The wind farms are located in Gansu province in North Central China, which rejected a third of the available wind power in 2017, according to a state agency, the same year some of the credits bought by Spotify were generated, according to Gold Standards carbon credit registry. By 2020, Gansu was still rejecting 6.4% of the wind energy. Like other companies, Spotify has bought better-quality credits too. About 18% of the credits bought by Spotify were for typically more expensive forestry credits such as a project to restore land in Panama destroyed by cattle grazing. In India, wind capacity from subsidized carbon credit projects grew by 25 times between 2006 and 2012, eventually accounting for half the countrys overall wind capacity, according to the Journals analysis. In 2011, Spains Acciona applied to the U.N.s CDM program to create and issue carbon credits from a string of wind farms it was building in India. Construction on the Tuppadahalli wind farm began in 2010 and the next year it was ready to generate electricity, according to Acciona news releases. In 2012, the project was approved by the U.N. to issue credits based on an assumption the clean electricity generated from wind would annually displace an average of 129,000 tons of CO2 by reducing reliance on fossil fuels. Researchers from Georgetown University, the University of Virginia and the London School of Economics faulted such reasoning. The researchers identified 265 Indian wind-farm projects, including Tuppadahalli, that they said likely should have been denied approval because similar projects were profitable without the sale of carbon credits. Tuppadahalli didnt sell any CDM credits in its early years, and in December 2012, the project registered with Verra. Acciona sold only a handful of credits until 2021, when Delta Air Lines stepped up to the plate. In 2020, Delta announced plans to spend $1 billion on sustainability efforts over the next decade to become the first carbon neutral airline globally on investments including more fuel-efficient fleets, technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and carbon credits, according to a news release, company comment and a Journal analysis of registry data. In April 2021, Delta purchased 13 million credits for $30 million from several projects including one that protects rainforests in Indonesia and from the Tuppadahalli wind farm, according to a press release and a Journal analysis of registry data. To justify the sale of the credits, Acciona said its wind farm needed the money because rising costs made the project less profitable, according to correspondence between Acciona and an auditor validating the companys request to issue new credits. Verra, which very rarely rejects requests to issue new credits when conducting reviews, allowed Acciona to proceed, said the manager of Verras Climate, Community & Biodiversity Standards program, Christopher Chapman. Shane Shifflett : wsj.com Gail Rubin, CT, is author and host of the award-winning book and television series, A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Dont Plan to Die, Hail and Farewell: Cremation Ceremonies, Templates and Tips, and KICKING THE BUCKET LIST: 100 Downsizing and Organizing Things to Do Before You Die. Rubin is a Certified Thanatologist (that's a death educator) and a popular speaker who uses humor and films to get the end-of-life and funeral planning conversation started. She "knocked 'em dead" with her TEDx talk, A Good Goodbye. She provides continuing education credit classes for attorneys, doctors, nurses, social workers, hospice workers, financial planners, funeral directors and other professionals. She's a Certified Funeral Celebrant and funeral planning consultant who has been interviewed in national and local print, broadcast and online media. Known as The Doyenne of Death, she is the event coordinator of the Before I Die New Mexico Festival and author of a guide to holding such festivals. Her podcast is also called The Doyenne of Death. She produces videos about the funeral business and related topics. Her YouTube Channel features more than 600 videos! Rubin is a member of the Association for Death Education and Counseling, the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association, Toastmasters International and the National Speakers Association. Her speaking profile is available at eSpeakers.com. Gail Rubin has been interviewed about funeral planning issues in national and local broadcast, print and online media. Outlets include The Huffington Post, Money Magazine, Kiplinger, CBS Radio News, WGN-TV, and local affiliates for NPR, PBS, FOX, ABC-TV, CBS-TV and NBC-TV. Albuquerque Business First named her as one of their 2019 Women of Influence. Sign up for a free planning form and occasional informative newsletter at her website, AGoodGoodbye.com. CPS Energy customers saw their monthly bills jump to $254 in July a second-straight record high and an increase of more than $76 from a year earlier that was driven mainly by elevated prices for natural gas. The 43 percent increase in average bills pushed to $765 the amount San Antonio households were billed by the city-owned utility in the four months of April through July, $205 more than in the same period a year earlier. As bills have increased this summer, the citys coffers have swelled with payments it receives from CPS based on the total even as the utility struggles with more of those bills going unpaid. CPS has blamed this years increases on record heat leading residents to crank up air conditioning and consume more electricity. But in July, the main culprit was the high price of natural gas, the primary fuel CPS burns to generate electricity at its power plants. Where folks have seen these astronomical gas bills, youve had people get behind on their payments, said Mayor Ron Nirenberg, whos also one of five CPS trustees. There is a straight line between this gas crisis ... and the high energy bills that people across the state have experienced. On ExpressNews.com: Hot weather, high gas prices making it tough for San Antonio customers to catch up on CPS bills The benchmark price for natural gas in July was $7.29 per unit, about 90 percent higher than a year earlier, according to the federal Energy Information Administration. Costlier gas was responsible for $38 of the average bill increase in July or about 50 percent. Higher usage also played a role. It accounted for an increase of $29.50 on the average residential bill. The rest was attributed to higher rates CPS began charging in March, which boosted utility bills by $6.21, and a fee collected to pay off the massive debt incurred during Winter Storm Uri, which added $1.56. In the 12 months ending through July, San Antonio households have paid $183 on average each month for electric and gas service less than other major cities in the state. Households in El Paso, Houston, Dallas and Corpus Christi have faced monthly utility bills ranging from $200 to $218, according to CPS. Among Texas metros, only residents in Austin have paid lower monthly bills: about $174 on average over the past year. Revenue surplus The data on July bills comes amid a debate at City Hall about how to use a $75 million revenue surplus the city has collected from CPS. About 13 percent of the utilitys top-line revenue goes straight to City Hall, so the higher bills customers have faced are translating into a windfall for the city. A month ago, City Manager Erik Walsh proposed rebating $50 million of that to CPS customers through a one-time credit on October utility bills and using the other $25 million on city projects. On ExpressNews.com: CPS Energy customers unlikely to get October rebate as City Council eyes other uses for surplus The proposal which would produce a credit of about $29 on the average households CPS bill has so far failed to win approval from City Council, where members appear to prefer what they say are ideas to reduce energy bills in the long term. Those include spending the surplus to weatherize low-income customers homes. Council members also recoiled at the idea of providing rebates worth nearly $100,000 to CPS largest commercial and industrial customers. In a television interview with KSAT on Wednesday, Walsh said council will have a third work session Tuesday or Wednesday to discuss what to do with the extra revenue, which may be getting bigger than forecast with the size of Julys bills to customers. A decision on a plan must be made before Thursday, when council votes on the citys annual budget. CPS President and CEO Rudy Garza said this week that if council decides to issue a rebate, the utility could credit customers accounts in November or December. CPS struggles While the citys coffers are brimming, CPS finances have increasingly come under pressure even as revenue has ballooned. Its facing elevated expenses, too. CPS expects its fuel expenses this fiscal year which runs through January to come in $326 million above what the utility budgeted. Thats tightening CPS bottom line. The utility now is expecting to generate $69 million in net income this year, $8 million less than expected. Each year, CPS deposits whatever money it has left over after paying the city into a repair and replacement account to fund power plant investments and other capital spending. On ExpressNews.com: CPS trustee rings alarm about persistent past-due customer bills; officials say its manageable I paid $100 for fuel, I collected $100 for fuel. And then the city is getting an extra 14 percent on top of that, said Cory Kuchinksy, CPS chief financial officer, referring to the higher bills. Thats how the city is getting extra revenue. Were just a clearinghouse. At the same time, maintenance problems and mechanical breakdowns have forced several CPS power plants to go offline for days or weeks at a time this summer. The Rio Nogales gas-fired plant in Seguin, one of the utilitys younger plants, was unavailable from mid-June to mid-July because of problems with a turbine. From May through July, the utilitys seven power stations were available about 87 percent of the time, said Benny Ethridge, senior vice president of energy supply. That means CPS hasnt generated as much excess electricity this year to sell onto the statewide power grid as it planned. CPS now is expecting to generate $28 million less from selling wholesale power this year than it budgeted. I thought I was getting $50 million, and Im getting $30 million less, Kuchinsky said. Thats not helpful. Past-due accounts 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. Past-due customer accounts are another factor pressuring the utilitys finances. Though its had some success collecting, the total of such accounts has remained persistently high. CPS officials said Tuesday that 190,000 of the utilitys nearly 900,000 electric customers are at least 30 days past due and collectively owe CPS about $175 million. The total ballooned during the pandemic when CPS suspended disconnections, which are a major tool in persuading customers to pay up. But stepping up disconnections has been difficult this year because of the record heat. When the area is under a heat advisory, CPS pauses customer disconnections. As temperatures have cooled in recent weeks, CPS resumed its process of disconnecting customers who havent contacted the utility about paying or setting up a payment plan. Garza said CPS disconnected almost 700 customers in July, all of whom were reconnected that month. But he said the utility is unlikely to recoup a significant portion of the $175 million because a chunk of it is owed by commercial customers that have gone out of business or by residential ratepayers who have moved. On ExpressNews.com: CPS Energy makes official its hiring of Rudy Garza as president and CEO. Hell be paid $655,000 Thats leading to another adjustment. CPS budgeted spending $10 million this year for unpaid debt but now expects bad debt expenses to reach $50 million. The utilitys cash reserves are dwindling as both what its owed by customers and what it pays for gas have increased. CPS is spending $6.2 million each day for operating expenses, but it budgeted to spend less than $5 million daily. Im paying my bills in full for fuel, Kuchinsky said, but Im not getting folks paying their bills in full to us. To help customers in arrears, CPS expanded its affordability discount program to enroll 14,000 new customers and boosted a monthly discount to more than $16. Its also reworking its Residential Energy Assistance Partnership fund to make low-income customers eligible to receive more assistance per year. The other option for customers with past-due accounts is to set up a payment plan, Kuchinsky said. If this was a private entity that only had the bottom line in mind, a lot of folks would already be (disconnected), Nirenberg said. But weve got to be a little bit more thoughtful. CPS is still poised to meet credit rating agencies financial expectations this year, and the utilitys long-term plan is to fund less of its annual capital spending with debt. The rating agencies gauge CPS financial health to signal to investors how likely the utility is to pay back its bonds. Bondholders fund about 60 percent of the utilitys capital spending each year, and a credit downgrade would likely force CPS to spend millions more in interest payments each year. My job is to deliver what the rating agencies expect in terms of performance, and we will, Garza said. Were just going to have to work really hard to get our customers who havent gotten caught up on a plan to get caught up. diego.mendoza-moyers@express-news.net Robert Alexander/Getty Images On Friday morning, Southwest Airlines announced it will increase its number of nonstop flights to and from San Antonio International Airport. The change impacts 20 cities during peak travel season, including Chicago, Denver, St. Louis and Phoenix. Travelers will see more flight options from March 9 to April 10. The Chinese electric car and battery maker announced it will be expanding its production in Thailand and other countries. China's electric vehicle (EV) giant BYD revealed on Thursday that it will build a production facility in Rayong, Thailand on a plot of land 96 hectares or 237 acres large. The Chinese EV leader said its goal was to begin producing up to 150,000 passenger EVs annually beginning 2024. In a joint statement with Thai industrial developer WHA Group, BYD confirmed that a purchase agreement had been made for the land in Rayong, which lies on the east coast of the Gulf of Thailand, Reuters reported. Thailand's Board of Investment approved the $491.49 million deal in August. BYD Leading EV Manufacturing in China and Beyond BYD is China's largest manufacturer of EVs and is looking to sell 10,000 units within Thailand and export the rest to countries in Southeast Asia and Europe. Its upcoming EV factory in Thailand is the latest in the string of 30 facilities it has already built in the US, Brazil, and India. The Thailand EV factory is expected to produce the brand's fully electric Atto 3 and would possibly even manufacture batteries, depending on the demand. Meanwhile, Thailand is looking to increase EV production to around 700,000 by 2030 or 30% of its total auto manufacturing. Thailand is Southeast Asia's second-largest economy and is a regional hub for automobile production and export, including those for widely popular brands such as Toyota and Honda. The Thai government has recently established incentives and tax breaks for EV investors. WHA Group Vice Chairman David Nardone reported that the interest in investing in Thailand's automobile industry sprung from the increasing costs and travel restrictions in China. Nardone cited "supply chain, energy, and labor costs" as the main reasons why China is looking elsewhere to build factories. WHA Group alone had increased its forecast of land sales by 55% to 224 hectares in 2022 alone. Read Also: Tritium DCFC Opens First EV Fast Charger Factory in the US, Causing Shares to Rise 10% BYD Continues Expansion Globally The Chinese EV giant said in the past year that it had begun selling electric cars in Brazil, Australia, Singapore, and Norway but did not disclose revenue in those regions yet. Most of BYD's overseas business previously focused on commercial vehicles such as buses, but in China BYD has grown to become an EV leader in a country with the world's largest automobile market, CNBC reported. BYD confirmed that over 487,000 of their purely electric passenger cars were sold in the first eight months of 2022, which is more than triple the units they sold during the same time last year. This is comparable to Tesla's 564,743 EVs delivered in the US in the first six months of 2022, an increase of 46% from last year. However, BYD offers EVs in a range of price points, unlike Tesla which opts to sell premium-priced units. BYD also confirmed it no longer produces fuel-powered vehicles since March and is now focused on EV production. The brand is also using its own "Blade" battery that is present in BYD's Han luxury sedan. Related Article: GM, LG Energy Owned EV Battery Factory in Ohio Begins Production of Cells As Californians brace for another afternoon of triple-digit temperatures, the state's grid operator has asked residents to conserve power for the ninth-straight day. That California's grid is on the brink of emergency conditions during a heat wave has sparked a flurry of conversations on Twitter, with folks both criticizing and praising the state's response. Others have compared the response and situation to Texas' recent electricity woes. Famed newscaster Dan Rather, a native Texan, noted: "There was an unusual weather event in California and Governor Newsom asked residents to pitch in during a moment of crisis. People responded for the good of the community. The crisis passed with the electricity still on. Is a better model what we experienced in Texas?" But while the situation facing California differs in many ways to what Texas dealt with during the February 2021 freeze, some issues faced by both the California Independent System Operator and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas are remarkably similar. Here's a look at the differences and similarities of the two states' power landscapes. 1.) Abnormal heat waves don't stress the grid in the same ways abnormal freezes do. In the Texas freeze and the West's current heat wave, demand for power spiked. Peak demand in California could rise above 51,300 megawatts, which would be a record. ERCOT shattered its own demand record at least 11 times this summer, reaching 80,000 megawatts for a few minutes in late July. One megawatt is enough to power about 200 homes on a hot Texas summer day. (Despite having more than 10 million more people, demand in California is much less than it is in Texas, thanks to their typically temperate weather and relative lack of heavy industry, experts say.) During the freeze, demand for power in Texas also spiked well above the winter average, with some experts saying it could have reached 77,000 megawatts if not for ERCOT telling utilities to cut power. Before that order, ERCOT also told Texans to conserve power, similar to how California is asking residents to do the same now. But there is a huge difference -- the amount of power generation available. At the peak of the winter storm, more than half of ERCOT's winter generation capacity was knocked offline due to frozen natural gas pipelines, equipment failures among renewables and infrastructure not built to withstand nearly a week of below freezing temperatures. Generators of all types struggled. California, by comparison, is not facing any widespread outages among power generators. Natural gas generation has remained stable amid cooler, overnight hours, and solar production is shaping up to provide more than 10,000 megawatts this afternoon. The state's problem, now, is sky-high demand. 2.) California's connection to other grids isn't helping much right now. It may not have helped Texas much, either, during the freeze. While California was importing more than 8,000 megawatts by around 1 p.m. Houston time, Ed Hirs, an energy fellow at the University of Houston, said the state's neighbors may not be willing to share much of their power as the day wears on. In the past, the state has relied on Oregon, Nevada and Arizona to share their excess power when supplies were tight, he said. "But now California has figured out, 'Oh hell, when a heat wave hits us, it hits everyone around us, too. We cant rely on extra power from these states because those consumers dont want to turn off their power to give it to us," Hirs said. NEW RULES: Railroad Commission votes to require weatherization for some gas producers David Tuttle, a research associate with the Energy Institute at University of Texas at Austin, agreed. 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. "When people are saying we need to interconnect more, if you look at analysis of (the February 2021 freeze), it as a storm didnt respect the boundaries of Texas," Tuttle said. "It wasnt like Oklahoma and Louisiana had spare capacity they could export to us while we were freezing. This is not the first time California has had a heat wave and neighboring states were hot also." 3.) Both states are trying to balance large renewable energy portfolios with reliability concerns. That means they'll need more transmission lines and dispatchable generation. Hirs and Tuttle said California and Texas are in desperate need of so-called dispatchable generation, which can be turned on under certain grid conditions, like some gas turbines and utility scale batteries. In California, the reliance on solar energy has created a gap between demand and supply in the evening hours, when the sun begins to set but demand remains. The shift toward solar and renewables there has largely been the result of political moves. A shift toward renewables in Texas, Tuttle said, has been almost entirely market-driven. "When industrial customers move from California to Texas, they want to be able to say they get their energy from zero-emissions sources," Tuttle said. But both states must have more dispatchable resources on the grid to make up for times when the renewable resources aren't producing enough to meet demand, Hirs and Tuttle said, and they need enough transmission to get power from renewable resources -- often in rural areas -- to the urban centers where the power is needed. "Both markets are the same to a certain extent. They both have not given coal, natural gas and nuclear power plants the incentives to stay on the grid," Hirs said. "Both states, as a matter of public policy, did not think backup generation was necessary. Otherwise they would have paid to keep it on the grid" shelby.webb@chron.com Rating: Solid neighborhood option The restaurant business is a tough one, so it says a lot that Schilos Delicatessen has a history that dates back to 1917, and that longevity has a lot to do with Prohibition, of all things. It started as a bar that was transformed into a deli, keeping it in business. And many of the recipes that were created during that transition, including the pea soup, continue to be staples on the menu. Schilos is a restaurant with a German influence. The deli now has a bar serving beer and shots of the good stuff, but it's famous for its root beer. The root beer is heavenly, like a sweet kiss for the tourist visiting San Antonio or the regular who considers it a home away from home. You can get it by the mug or bottle, or take a six-pack or case home, but not getting any is borderline sin. Chuck Blount/Staff Upon entry, there is no mistaking the nostalgia. After a few moves from its Beeville roots to the big city, Schilos has commanded the space at 424 E. Commerce downtown since 1942 in a building off the River Walk that had a former life as a bank; the vault has been transformed into a walk-in cooler. When I first visited San Antonio in 1997 to attend the Alamo Bowl, my first lunch was at Schilo's and I walked out the door happy. The lunch for this visit was to dive into the 10-sandwich menu (or you have the option to make your own), and it was every bit as good. They don't bake their own bread or cure their own meats at Schilo's, but they source quality products. All sandwiches are served with ruffled chips, and most come with nicely ripened thick slices of tomatoes and crispy lettuce. See more at ExpressNews.com: Down on Grayson near the Pearl serves a veggie sandwich that ranks among San Antonio's best Best sandwich: You will never go wrong with the Reuben ($13.25), a deli classic served steaming hot that deserves a spot in the sandwich hall of fame. It's loaded with a good third-pound of corned beef, tangy sauerkraut that pays proper homage to the German roots, Swiss cheese and Russian dressing on rye bread that tastes slightly nutty. All those flavors, ranging from savory to sour, hit your taste buds, making this a signature San Antonio sandwich that must be experienced at least once in your life. Chuck Blount/Staff Other sandwiches: You also can't go wrong with the buttery, soft croissant sandwich ($9) with chicken or tuna salad. I opted for chicken, which was soft and tender. The generous portion, which looked like it was piled on with two ice cream scoops, had the perfect ratio of mayonnaise to other ingredients to keep it from being too dry or too wet. The clubhouse ($10.75) was another winner, loaded with enough properly brined turkey to make it feel like Thanksgiving dinner. It comes with thick, smoky bacon and is served on your choice of toasted white or wheat bread; you can't go wrong with either. And just to be nice and convenient for such a stacked sandwich, it's cut into quarters and held together with toothpicks, making for easy eating. Schilo's also does justice to the BLT ($8.25), which is held together with those fresh veggies and what had to be at least four slices of that same thick smoky bacon. Perfect for kids. Perfect for adults. It's an additional testament to staying true to the classics. Chuck Blount/Staff But let's talk about the Polish Neighbor ($9.75) and why it needs to be reinvented in a restaurant that doesn't like to change. The sliced sausage link was overly salty and came served on a hoagie roll twice the size of it with no condiments or extras. Eating it was sad. Photographing it was sadder, and it's definitely something to avoid for the proper Schilo's experience. But put just about anything else in front of me and pour me a cold mug of root beer, and I'll show you proof that Schilo's has the legs to stand the test of time. Schilo's Delicatessen, 424 E Commerce, 210-223-6692, schilos.com. Hours: 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily MEXICO CITY (AP) Mexicos state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos oil company acknowledged Thursday it released a plume of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, in the Gulf of Mexico late last year, but said it was far smaller than Spanish researchers said. A report published in June by Spanish university researchers in the journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters estimated that the leak contained about 40,000 tons of methane. The article estimated that would be equivalent to releasing about 3.3 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The gas release came in December when one of the company's oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico stopped flaring, or burning off oil well gases. The company, known as Pemex, claimed the gases escaped unburned for a few hours. Researchers said it happened over a period of over two weeks. Petroleos Mexicanos acknowledged Thursday that the leak occurred accidentally after winds and rains extinguished flames meant to burn off the gas. But the company said only 22% of the gas release was methane, and the rest was innocuous nitrogen. The company, known as Pemex, said the total amount of methane released was 2,224 tons, about 5% the amount estimated by the Spanish researchers. However, that would still be a very large amount of methane to release at one time and in one place. Gang warfare was the apparent cause of a shooting at Uvaldes Memorial Park that left a juvenile and one adult injured on Thursday, according to authorities. Mayor Donald McLaughlin Jr. said he believed one of the victims was 16 and the other 22. One was shot in the back of his neck, with the bullet exiting through a cheek, while the other was shot in one shoulder, the mayor said. One victim is being treated at University Hospital and the other at Brooke Army Medical Center, according to the Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council. Their conditions were unknown Thursday night. I can tell you it was two rival gangs that got into a fistfight, one gang was losing, the other gang pulled out a pistol and started shooting, he said. It is not our first interaction with them, but most of them are all juveniles so nothing happens to them. Gov. Greg Abbott dispatched DPS officers to target the gang activity. The Uvalde Police Department late Thursday said they had four suspects in custody and were questioning them about the shooting at the park, which occurred at about 5:30 p.m. The town has been on edge and mired in controversy since a high school dropout massacred 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary in a mass shooting on May 24, particularly over the disastrous police response that followed. I was outraged to learn that gang violence has endangered the Uvalde community and innocent Texans this evening, Abbott said in a statement late Thursday night. Abbott said he called McLaughlin and Uvalde County Judge William Mitchell to offer the states full support and resources as law enforcement hunts down the gang members. After speaking with the mayor and the county judge about the immediate need for more law enforcement support, I have directed the Department of Public Safety to conduct patrol operations in the gang hotspots, send an additional six DPS trooper units to work around the clock, and begin coordinating an anti-gang effort with the city, Abbott said. Working with the Uvalde Police Department and Uvalde County Sheriff's Office, DPS is also deploying Special Agents to target the five gangs operating in Uvalde. Abbott added: Gang violence has no place here in Texas, and we will bring the full force of justice down on these heinous criminals. District Attorney Christina Mitchell Busbee said Thursday evening that she was trying to learn more information on the shooting. Uvalde has had problems with gangs over the years. In 2012 and 2015, for example, Mitchell helped prosecute several members of the Texas Mexican Mafia and the Latin Kings that were operating in Uvalde and nearby towns. McLaughlin said there are at least five gangs in Uvalde, but there had been many more. At one time there used to be 17, he said. I dont know the count is right now, but I can tell you if youre a gang member get ready, youre going to know law enforcement whether it be local, state or federal. San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller tweeted his thoughts after the shooting, saying, "Again guns are in the middle of this. Our prayers for the shooters and those who witnessed such a tragedy. Guns are not the answer for a healthy society." The Uvalde police asked anyone with information to call 830-278-9147. A shadowy new group has purchased at least $6 million in TV advertisements ahead of the November election and is airing an ad that targets Gov. Greg Abbott as he runs for re-election. The minute-long ad from Coulda Been Worse LLC, which started airing Friday, rattles off a list of major calamitous events that have happened on Abbotts watch, such the Uvalde school shooting and 2021 power grid collapse. As the narrator speaks, a picture slowly zooms out to show Abbotts face. LATEST FROM GOV. ABBOTT: Abbott lends help to 'hunt down the gang members' after Uvalde Memorial Park shooting Any one of these a terrible shame for Texas, the narrator says at the end. All of these a horrific sign something big is terribly, terribly wrong. The spot ends with a clip of Abbott saying after the Uvalde massacre that it could have been worse, increasingly a rallying cry of Abbotts critics. Abbott made the comment while praising the law enforcement response to the shooting, which has since been been widely criticized for taking well over an hour to confront the shooter. Abbott later said he had been misled when he made the comment. RELATED: Sticker of Ted Cruz holding Greg Abbott's pregnant belly painted over by building owners The advertising represents a significant escalation as Abbott fights for a third term against Democratic challenger Beto ORourke. Abbott has led ORourke by mid-single digits in polls throughout the summer. Abbott also has outpaced ORourke on the airwaves. Abbott has been airing TV ads for over three weeks, while ORourke did not start his first sustained statewide TV buy until Friday. The news of Coulda Been Worse LLCs plans got out Thursday when AdImpact, a media-tracking firm, tweeted that the group was scooping up airtime statewide. It ultimately reserved $6.1 million on broadcast and cable TV from Friday through Oct. 9, according to AdImpact. The name Coulda Been Worse signaled that it would be an anti-Abbott effort, but otherwise, few details were known about it, which remained the case Friday. A group by the same name was registered as an LLC late last month in Delaware, according to records there. Its registered agent is Corporation Service Co. in Wilmington, Del. Delaware is notorious for having some of the most lax corporate laws in the nation, allowing people to form corporations there while providing little public information about themselves. As an LLC, the group is not immediately subject to state requirements to disclose its donors as more traditional political action committees are required to do. The group would have to register with the Texas Ethics Commission and face the states disclosure requirements if it met the states definition of a political committee: two or more persons acting in concert with a principal purpose of accepting political contributions or making political expenditures. But whether it meets that definition remains unknown unless the group volunteers more information about itself. Eric Gay, STF / Associated Press It is unusual, but not unheard of U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo and other Democratic incumbents elsewhere have benefited from TV ads by a corporate entity based in Virginia called Better Jobs Together. A national campaign finance expert, Brett Kappel, said there is nothing illegal about the groups advertising due to the U.S. Supreme Courts Citizens United decision, which cleared the way for corporations and other third-party groups to dump unlimited money into elections. In advertising orders filed with the Federal Communications Commission, Coulda Been Worse LLC lists an Arlington, Va., address. It identifies Michael Waters as its executive director and Connecticut-based Icon International as its media buyer. Nether responded to messages seeking more information. Abbotts campaign quickly raised questions about the group. How dirty can Betos scam dark money groups be if they wont give directly to him? Abbott strategist Dave Carney tweeted. Wont protect him for accountability. Asked about the group, ORourke said he did not know who this is. He said the group, as well as any others like it, should disclose their donors even if they are not required to by law. Republicans, Democrats, people across the state of Texas, want to make sure that we know who is seeking to influence the outcomes of elections, ORourke said. The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues. Sujata Jana / EyeEm/Getty Images/EyeEm A 28-year-old man is dead after a shooting that occurred a little before midnight Thursday in a West Side home near Lackland Terrace. Officers arrived at a residence in the 2600 block of Westward Dive and found the man unresponsive with apparent gunshot wounds, according to preliminary information from the San Antonio Police Department. An apparent gang fight in Uvalde this week spiraled out of control, leaving two youths with gunshot wounds and shattering the nerves of residents still struggling with the trauma of the May 24 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School. The city of 16,000 people about 85 miles west of San Antonio has a history of gang violence. Mayor Donald McLaughlin Jr. said Thursday nights incident began as a brawl at Memorial Park until someone pulled a gun and shot two young males. One victim was transported to University Hospital and the other to Brooke Army Medical Center, both in San Antonio. Uvalde police said Friday that the victims are Bruce Brown, 18, and a 16-year-old juvenile whose name was withheld. Brown was in stable condition Friday, while the teenagers condition was critical. I can tell you it was two rival gangs that got into a fistfight. One gang was losing, the other gang pulled out a pistol and started shooting, McLaughlin said. Uvalde Police Chief Daniel Rodriguez said three suspects are in custody over the incident: Karlyn Alexandrya Valdez, 22, and two juveniles, ages 16 and 17. A fourth suspect Brandon L. Alba, 18 was in a San Antonio hospital Friday for injuries he sustained during the fight. He didnt suffer a bullet wound. Each of the juveniles is charged with engaging in organized criminal activity and nine counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Valdez faces charges of engaging in organized criminal activity, aggravated assault and endangering a child. Alba will be charged with engaging in organized criminal activity and nine counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Rodriguez said some of those involved in Thursdays melee also are suspected of taking part in a shooting four weeks ago in the 100 block of North Wood in Uvalde. It looks to be a pattern, the police chief said. Invading La Uva Gang activity has been part of life in Uvalde for decades with some members referring to it as La Uva, or the grape, a play on the citys name according to law enforcement officers and prosecutors who have handled cases there. The city sits in a key spot for drug trafficking and human smuggling crimes that gangs often engage in. Uvalde is a relatively short drive, at least by Texas standards, from three border entry points: Del Rio, Eagle Pass and Laredo. Turf wars inevitably erupt. Uvalde has had a gang problem for years, said a federal officer who works undercover investigating gangs in South Texas, including Uvalde. They didnt just pop up there overnight. Most people who have been prosecuted for gang-related activity in the region have ties to prison-based gangs, such as the Texas Mexican Mafia and the Texas Syndicate. Others are linked to the Chicago-born Latin Kings or a newer group with San Antonio roots, the Tango Orejon gang. Most of those gangs enforce strict hierarchies, with lower-level street soldiers reporting to superiors. The Tangos, however, are loosely affiliated and have a less rigid top-down structure than the others, gang experts say. All of them recruit from street gangs to replace aging members who usually end up in prison. Some of the recruits get involved in illegal activity, such as immigrant smuggling, before they turn 18. Smugglers routinely post ads on social media platforms such as TikTok looking for drivers for immigrant loads. The advertisements often flash stacks of cash. Investigators say transnational human traffickers are usually involved in other crimes, too, including gun running and dope and bulk-cash smuggling crimes that can lead to drive-by shootings, home invasions and murders. When I prosecuted those kinds of cases, Uvalde had an active Mexican Mafia presence, said former state Judge Joey Contreras, who prosecuted gang and racketeering cases over a dozen years with the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of Texas, which includes Uvalde. All of these little towns like Hondo, Sabinal and Uvalde had members. During one investigation, agents learned that Mexican Mafia members in Uvalde reported to a lieutenant whose turf was San Antonios South Side. The gang divides San Antonio its headquarters into esquinas or quadrants, with lieutenants in charge of collecting a 10 percent street tax from drug dealers. Its members also shake down dealers in other towns. Uvalde doesnt have the numbers of drug dealers like here, Contreras said. In San Antonio, its a full-time job extorting drug dealers. Large-scale crackdowns over the last decade have snagged and imprisoned several Uvalde gang members who had connections to larger cities, namely San Antonio and Austin. News stories and court records show at least four major racketeering or gang violence prosecutions targeted the Mexican Mafia, the Texas Syndicate and the Latin Kings between 2012 and 2018. Some of the racketeering activity included murder. FBI crime-tracking data shows that after several crackdowns, Uvaldes crime rate fell 30 percent in 2015, compared with the year before; 11.6 percent in 2016; 17 percent in 2017 and 6 percent in 2018. Crime did decline after all (the crackdowns) were done, said Rodriguez, the police chief. But he added: Most recently, in the past year or two, weve started having issues with these kids more willing to pull the triggers on guns. Years ago, 17 gangs crowded into Uvalde, but the city now has five, local officials said. Even with fewer gangs, younger members, or wannabes, have stepped up in recent years. Some of these people involved with gangs now, their fathers have been in gangs, Rodriguez said. In the past, when I was on patrol, we used to deal with the older gang members, and now were dealing with their kids. Nothing happens to them Mayor McLaughlin said sometimes the offenders commit the same crimes repeatedly. And if they are juveniles, he added, nothing happens to them. Federal authorities in South Texas rarely, if ever, prosecute juvenile offenders. To do so, the feds have to go through an application process explaining to the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., why the case should be handled at the federal level, former prosecutors note. You cant prosecute them federally just because theyre a menace, said one former federal prosecutor, who asked for anonymity because of security concerns. For gang-related issues, Ive never seen (juveniles) prosecuted on the federal side. There has to be a lot of guns or a lot of dope or some kind of interstate nexus. In nearby Crystal City, Zavala County Sheriff Eusevio Salinas said recently that he and other sheriffs have seen an increase in juvenile smugglers coming to South Texas after being recruited on social media. He said local and federal prosecutors dont want to touch them, unless it could lead to catching ringleaders. We just hold them here (at the police station) and call the parents to come get them, Salinas said. District Attorney Christina Mitchell Busbee, whose 38th Judicial District includes Uvalde and Real counties, said Friday that her office leaves juvenile prosecutions to Uvalde County Attorney John Dodson. Late Thursday, Gov. Greg Abbott said he dispatched more Texas Department of Public Safety officers to the area to deal with gang violence (that) has endangered the Uvalde community and innocent Texans. Rodriguez said the extra troopers, with expertise in identifying gang members, will help his officers saturate certain problem areas. We are going to try and put a stop to this, Rodriguez said. If you are a gang member or associating with any gang members, were going to come for you. guillermo.contreras@express-news.net | Twitter: @gmaninfedland Renowned sculptor Eddie Dixon spent six years pondering the mythology of the Yellow Rose of Texas and envisioning the real-life Emily West, who came to Texas for work and found herself immersed in the horrors of the 1836 war for independence. Statues of West, also known through folklore as Emily Morgan, and Texian spy Hendrick Arnold were unveiled Thursday at the Alamo, marking the first time the mission and battle site has commemorated African American figures in history with sculpted images. Since little is known about West, Dixon had to rely on his powers of compassion and imagination. You read, you study this period of time so long and so much that it becomes part of you. You can kind of almost empathize with the person, the character, the Lubbock-based artist said. His bronze statue, in the Cavalry Courtyard of the Alamo grounds, near the 13-story Emily Morgan Hotel, depicts West in a flowing, wind-blown gown with a flower about to drop from her fingers, which Dixon, 74, shaped with the muscular thickness of a domestic housekeeper. He went through 10 iterations of what her face might have looked like before settling on a Mona Lisa look. She was in the fog of war. She wasnt just smiling and dancing, said Dixon, whose other works include the national Buffalo Soldiers monument at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and a memorial to war hero Doris Miller in Waco. On ExpressNews.com: Alamos ties to slavery stir debate Billy Calzada, San Antonio Express-News / Staff photographer The statues are part of a planned 14-piece Alamo Briscoe Sculpture Trail a project intended to convey the rich, diverse history of Texas with placement of art downtown, between the Alamo and the Briscoe Western Art Museum about two blocks south. The Turner Family Foundation provided private funding for the statue of West; the Arnold sculpture by artist Ed Dwight was underwritten by the Mays Family Foundation. In a brief dedication ceremony, Deborah Omowale Jarmon, CEO and director of the San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum, said she was excited to see the Alamo pay tribute to two free Black African descendants who were instrumental in the Texas Revolution and Republic of Texas. Arnolds story was especially interesting because he fought for a republic that did not even declare him a citizen that declared that if you were a free African descendant, you werent welcome. But thats OK because these times have changed, Jarmon said. Some details of Arnolds life are murky or not known, including the year of his birth in Mississippi and whether he was legally free or enslaved. Arnold joined the Texian army and participated in the October 1835 Battle of Concepcion as San Antonio became the focal point of the war for independence. He served as a guide in the Battle of Bexar in December 1835 and was cited for his important service in the conflict, which set the stage for the siege and Battle of the Alamo less than three months later. Billy Calzada, San Antonio Express-News / Staff photographer Arnold later served as a spy at the Battle of San Jacinto. After the revolution, he lived on the Medina River and operated a gristmill near Mission San Juan. He died during a local cholera epidemic in 1849. Even less is known about West, a domestic worker from Connecticut. She arrived in Texas at Galveston in December 1835 under a contract with James Morgan, a colonel in the Texian army, to work as a housekeeper at a hotel near the coastal town. The colonel was away when Mexican forces marched into the area and took West and others captive. She was at San Jacinto when the battle unfolded there, resulting in Santa Annas capture and a treaty that secured Texas independence. Slavery was soon legally established under the first Texas Constitution. West, anxious to leave Texas after the ordeal, is believed to have boarded a ship bound for New York in early 1837. But folk stories about her abounded during the 19th and 20th centuries. A fable that she had served as a spy, alerting Sam Houston of Santa Annas location and keeping the Mexican general preoccupied in his tent to give Texians the element of surprise at San Jacinto, was published in the 1950s and further embellished by writers of the era. Kate Rogers, executive director of the Alamo Trust, recounted the legend of a mysterious woman who kept Santa Anna distracted before Houstons troops attacked and won the battle in 18 minutes. Billy Calzada, San Antonio Express-News / Staff photographer On ExpressNews.com: Scholar sees Alamos potential for racial reconciliation The infamous story was passed around many Texas campfires that Emily had helped defeat the Mexican army through a dalliance with Santa Anna, Rogers told about 50 people at the ceremony. That mythological persona has been linked to the song Yellow Rose of Texas, which has origins dating to the 1850s. Many historians and scholars have disputed any connection between West and the legend or the song. But in 1984, the 1926 former Medical Arts Building, a 13-story Gothic-style structure near the Alamo, reopened after a two-year renovation as the Emily Morgan Hotel. Rogers said the goal of the Alamo project, including the opening this fall of a new exhibit hall and collections building and a visitor center and museum set to debut in 2026, is to tell the whole story of the Alamo through different lenses and to do it respectfully, including legends and folklore that extend from evidence-based history. She said the statues acknowledge a diverse population of Texas in the 1830s that included African Americans both enslaved and free. Telling that story and helping people to understand the complexity of the population that lived here back in the 1830s is an important part of our work, Rogers said. shuddleston@express-news.net Texas drivers might realize they're driving through clouds of butterflies on highways and roads right now. Those butterflies are probably American Snout butterflies, said Jeffrey Glassberg, president of the North American Butterfly Association. NABA runs the National Butterfly Center in Mission. The butterflies are not attracted to Texas roadways, but instead, are just so numerous that they're unavoidable. "They're found in abundance, anywhere hackberry trees are found American Snout are found, which is everywhere east of the Rocky Mountains," Glassberg said. "They often have population explosions, especially in a drought, which kills off the wasps, which prey on them; the rains come, and they just go ballistic." American Snout can be so common that highways have to shut down because the number of butterflies killed means the highway is too slick to drive on, Glassberg said. "Large numbers of snouts have been spotted throughout the Central Texas corridor, the Hill Country and Austin," Molly Keck, an entomologist for Bexar County with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, said in a statement. "But this emergence will likely be smaller than those we have seen in past years." Snouts emerge in large numbers and generally migrate north, according to Texas A&M AgriLife. Butterflies are good pollinators and provide a service to both agriculture and the homeowner through plant pollination, Keck said. On ExpressNews.com: Bloom County comic strip creator nearly steps on rattlesnake There are a couple of hundred different kinds of butterflies found in San Antonio, including monarchs, painted ladies and common buckeyes. The Friends of San Antonio Natural Areas has a larger list of common butterflies in the area. Highways and roads in San Antonio and Texas have not had much of an impact on most butterfly species, Glassberg said, as a lot of butterflies are killed each year attempting to cross roadways. But those are mostly common butterflies that are moving, and cars, for the most part, don't hunt down rare butterflies, unlike collectors. However, cars and roadways take a toll on the monarch butterfly, as millions die in collisions with vehicles while flying low across Texas highways each year, according to the Texas A&M University AgriLife Extension. Roadkill hotspots in Texas, or locations where monarch road death is highest, have contributed to autumnal migrating monarch populations being depleted by about 2 to 4 percent of the usual arriving population. Nora Lopez | San Antonio Express-News Glassberg said the number of butterflies killed each year fluctuates, but there can be tens of thousands on just one highway in Texas. "It all depends on an explosion of a particular species, when that happens, tons more get killed," Glassberg said. "That doesn't happen all that often, however, it's a variable number and what that would be I don't know. It's large, though - large." On ExpressNews.com: San Antonian wakes up next to "creature from hell" If your car is spattered with bug guts, here are some tips, according to NAPA Auto Parts. Rinse your car as normal, working from the top to the sides and from front to back. Whenever concentrated bug splatter is spotted, focus the spray of the hose with either your thumb or an attachment to loosen the debris. Gather cleaning supplies, including buckets, sponges, car wash solution, tire shine, wheel cleaner and microfiber towels. Go through normal cleaning process, paying extra attention to areas where bug debris is evident. Dry the car with microfiber towels. Once it is dry, apply a wax solution. The wax will provide an additional layer of protection the next time you encounter potentially paint-damaging bug splatter. A water-repellent windshield treatment also can be used for protection, and you can invest in a bug/air deflector shield. shepard.price@express-news.net | @shepardgprice A decade ago, Jessica Vega pleaded guilty for lying about having terminal cancer to persuade people to help pay for her dream wedding and Caribbean honeymoon. This week Vega, 35, was arrested in San Antonio on charges of attempting to kidnap a 4-year-old from her mothers shopping cart in a West Side Walmart. The girls mother told a San Antonio police officer that she was shopping at the Walmart on Potranco Road on Sept. 5 with her daughters, according to an affidavit. More crime coverage: Abbott lends help to 'hunt down the gang members' after Uvalde Memorial Park shooting Vega grabbed the shopping cart and pushed it away with the 4-year-old still inside, the affidavit said. The womans older daughter was holding the cart at the time, and Vega took it out of her hands, according to the affidavit. The victims mother said she screamed at Vega, who did not respond and kept walking away. An employee who was working nearby intervened, and the mother caught up with Vega. Before walking out of the store, Vega allegedly told her: Just because shes yours doesnt mean I cant take her. Vega then walked out of the store. She was later identified by the stores loss prevention manager, who told police she recognized Vega from a separate incident at another Walmart. In case you missed it: San Antonio building owners paint over sticker of Ted Cruz holding Greg Abbott's pregnant belly KSAT was the first to report Vegas 2012 fraud conviction. Her ex-husband contacted the television station on Tuesday to report the connection. Shes a really sick, twisted individual, Michael OConnell told the television station. Vega served seven months in a New York jail getting credit for time served, Orange County records show. Vega was living in the state when she accepted $13,000 worth of cash, a wedding gown and flowers from donors who believed she had terminal cancer, CBS 2 reported. After the wedding, OConnell grew suspicious and turned her in, the news station reported. Vega faces felony attempted kidnapping charges in San Antonio. timothy.fanning@express-news.net By now, you have to be living under a rock to not know that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the longest reigning monarch in British history, has passed away at the age of 96. We here at iTech Post extend our condolences to the late queen's family and friends, as well as to the people of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. For over 70 years, the late queen has seen some of the greatest technological advancements happen and fully embraced them, even making history in the process. An example of which is her Christmas Broadcast in 1957, which made history as the first one that has ever been televised. The Death of Queen Elizabeth II Before we get to that history-making moment, let us first talk about the news that has made headlines around the globe as of writing. As previously mentioned, Queen Elizabeth II has died. Her Majesty, according to the statement posted on Twitter account of the British Royal Family, passed away peacefully in Balmoral Castle, which is located in England. Tributes have poured in from around the world, including those from world leaders who have expressed their condolences to the Royal Family. Related Article: World Leaders Take to Twitter to Express Their Condolences Following Queen Elizabeth II's Death The Christmas Broadcast Every year since Queen Elizabeth II ascended the throne seven decades ago, Queen Elizabeth II would share her message to her people during Christmas. It should be noted that the late queen did not start the tradition. In fact, it was actually started by her grandfather, King George V, in 1932. Here's a fun fact about that speech: it was written by famous poet and novelist Rudyard Kipling, according to the BBC. The tradition was continued by Queen Elizabeth II's father, King George VI. King Edward VIII, George VI's older brother and the one who became king after George V died, never got to deliver his own Christmas message as he abdicated the throne 14 days before Christmas in 1936. Queen Elizabeth II's Historical 1957 Christmas Broadcast Among the seven decades' worth of Christmas broadcasts that Queen Elizabeth II has done in her life, there is one that made history. It is the 1957 Christmas Broadcast. According to the official website of the Royal Family, this is because it is the first time that the Christmas Brodcast had been televised. It also marked the 25th anniversary of the first Christmas Broadcast that people were able to tune into via radio. Queen Elizabeth II began her Christmas message by saying "Twenty-five years ago my grandfather broadcast the first of these Christmas messages." She continued, "Today is another landmark because television has made it possible for many of you to see me in your homes on Christmas Day." Regarding the television, Queen Elizabeth said "I very much hope that this new medium will make my Christmas message more personal and direct." You can watch the entirety of the 1957 Christmas Broadcast below: Read Also: Apple Pays Tribute to Queen Elizabeth II on its Website's Homepage An anonymous donor who died in 2019 left enough money for the San Antonio Area Foundation to launch a college scholarship program this year that will generate $2 million annually for San Antonio and Laredo area high school students. The program now has its first cohort 40 students in Bexar County and 10 in Webb County, chosen from 455 applicants who each will receive $40,000 to attend any four-year university in Texas. The foundation, which connects philanthropists with causes to support, had been in talks with the donors executors to design the Bexar Legacy Scholarship and Webb Legacy Scholarship. Taken together, it is the largest of the more than 100 scholarships the foundation manages, officials said. Our team wanted to award it to juniors with a specific purpose of (having) students going into their senior year knowing that they have $10,000 for each of the four years of college already covered, said Hernan Rozemberg, the foundations director of communications. A selection committee of volunteers from education and business organizations in San Antonio chose the inaugural cohort based on academic achievements and leadership qualities but also on gut feelings. What I look for is something that translates into passion. When youre tired at night after studying and you have an exam tomorrow, passion is what keeps you going. said Marie Smith, a retired nurse practitioner who served on the panel. I also look at those who are altruistic about their career, those who say they want to give back to their community. This scholarship is a gift to them, but its also a gift to their communities. This sentiment was echoed by scholarship recipient Giselle Alcoser, 17, a senior at Young Womens Leadership Academy in the San Antonio Independent School District. She hopes to study biomedical engineering at either the University of Texas at Austin or Texas A&M University, so she can help develop cheaper and more accessible medicines. I have family that suffered from chronic illnesses like diabetes and cancer, and Ive seen how difficult and expensive it is to get treatment, Alcoser said. I want to help better those treatments to make them more affordable for the communities I came from. The all-womens high school produced 13 of the scholarships 40 Bexar County recipients, including Emilia Castillo, the keynote speaker during a reception Thursday at the foundations offices to introduce recipients who are now beginning their senior year. I know how hard weve worked the past few years, Castillo told them. This scholarship shows we are determined, ambitious and resilient. We are here despite all the obstacles we have faced. Castillo spoke admiringly of her parents hard work and said she was excited for the opportunities the scholarship presents to reach her goal of becoming an anesthesiologist. The STEM field was well-represented among the recipients. Some were interested in pursuing humanities and social sciences. The Upward Bound program at Trinity University had encouraged Adrian Vazquez, 17, a student at Harlandale High School, to apply for the scholarship. He didnt believe it when first told he had won it, he said. Vazquez hopes to study film in college and said his family has already been impacted by the award. Watching me go through this process, my mother was inspired to continue her degree at a community college, Vazquez said. She felt she wanted to complete something. Che King, 17, a senior at SAISDs Travis Early College High School, hopes to serve in the Marine Corps but first wants to study international relations. Here in San Antonio, I have a lot of foreign-born friends that fled their home countries to be here, King said, and their stories have inspired him to help countries that need support. Lisa Brunsvold, the foundations vice president of development and donor services, said she has already seen and heard its impact on students. Their self-esteem is higher theres a difference in their college essays. For a lot of them, this scholarship is the wind in their sails, and it makes them feel theyre special, she said. Ill take that to the bank any day. elizabeth.sander@hearst.com The San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association has notified city officials that the union may file a grievance over the deployment of local firefighters to the city-run Migrant Resource Center. The issue is currently in the hands of the unions seven-member Grievance Committee, which is expected to decide on Friday whether or not SAPFA will go forward with the filing of an official grievance. The union notified the city of the possible grievance on Aug. 25, and has a Sept. 13 deadline to file the grievance. RELATED: Homeland Security chief says Abbotts unilateral moves on border can wreak havoc The city opened up the North Side center on July 7, at the site of a former CPS Energy customer service center on San Pedro Avenue. It was intended to provide shelter and other necessary services for asylum seekers arriving in San Antonio, en route to the destinations where they will wait for their cases to be adjudicated in immigration court. The city has used firefighters to help with the staffing at the Migrant Resource Center, providing shelter management, transportation services, planning, logistics and finance-operations assistance. Most of that firefighter manpower has come during overtime hours, according to Joe Arrington, the public information officer for the San Antonio Fire Department. Were not taking mass amounts of people out of service to go work there, Arrington said last week. All local costs associated with the center will be reimbursed by the federal government through a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant. S. Joe Jones, the president of the fire union, said firefighters understand the need for the Migrant Resource Center and support its mission. But he added that the unions leadership has received a litany of complaints from Fire Department employees who are frustrated over being pulled away from their regular duties to serve at the center. They dont believe they should be sent down to the migrant resource center while theyre actively supposed to be serving our community through emergency responses, Jones said. Its not completely on overtime, unfortunately. As recently as Saturday, they used on-duty resources that are supposed to be serving our community, through emergency responses. And they tasked them down to the Migrant Resource Center. San Antonio Congressman Tony Gonzales recently brought this issue to national attention when he appeared on Fox News and denounced San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg for allowing firefighters to be used at the facility. In an interview for this column last week, Gonzales said he first learned about the center when he had lunch with a group of firefighters who complained about the situation. It erodes morale, Gonzales said, with regard to the firefighters deployment to the facility. The Migrant Resource Center has faced some local backlash, namely from members of the Shearer Hills/Ridgeview Neighborhood Association, who live nearby. But the opening of the center was a logical response to a serious humanitarian challenge in this community. Roughly 600 migrants have been arriving daily in San Antonio. Without this kind of facility, those migrants would be left to wander the streets of the city with no food or shelter and camp out at bus stations or the airport. We would experience this influx of migrants, regardless of us setting up a center or not, Assistant City Manager Lori Houston told me last week. Setting up the Migrant Resource Center has allowed us to minimize the disruption it would have to the community. If the fire union follows through with its grievance, its major point will be that in these types of situations, the city should utilize only members of the Fire Departments shelter-management team, a disaster-response group that formed in 2005 to deal with the influx of Louisianans displaced by Hurricane Katrina. They ARE being utilized, Arrington said. Thats already happening. Thats whos managing this, our shelter-management team. Its the same thing being done as a hurricane response. The shelter-management team is a small group, however, and wouldnt be sufficient to help with the staffing needs at the center, according to city officials. In July, a daily average of 35 uniformed SAFD employees provided assistance at the Migrant Resource Center. The city has a humanitarian crisis on its hands. No amount of denial can make it go away. The choice for city officials is to either use the necessary resources to confront that challenge or ignore the situation and let it fester. Jones said firefighters are fiercely loyal to the community. So, if pulled away from their primary objective, it upsets them, he said. Its an understandable sentiment, but the primary objective of firefighters is to respond to emergencies. And thats exactly what theyre doing at the Migrant Resource Center. ggarcia@express-news.net | Twitter: @gilgamesh470 A member of Dutch royal entourage during a visit to Austin on Thursday pressed Gov. Greg Abbott on abortion, raising concerns about the safety of women now that the Lone Star State has barred the procedure in the state. The comments came during a televised portion of a conversation between Queen Maxima of the Netherlands; Liesje Schreinemacher, minister of foreign trade and development cooperation of the Netherlands; and Abbott at the Governor's Mansion. Theres one point of concern that I want to raise, and that is on the right to safe abortion for women, Schreinemacher told Abbott. You might also like: Queen Elizabeth II captured hearts in 1991 trip to San Antonio Schreinemachers comments came after Queen Maxima boasted about the economic benefits of a good relationship between Texas and the Netherlands, KXAN reported. The queen reportedly asked Schreinemacher, seated next to her at a table, if she had anything to add. I was wondering if we could, maybe partner up as counterparts to see what we can do in that (abortion) stance for Texas, Schreinemacher said. Women in the Netherlands may terminate pregnancies within 24 weeks. In Texas, abortions are allowed only up to about six weeks of pregnancy, a point at which many people dont even know they are pregnant. There is no exception for rape or incest. Abbotts response to Schreinemacher was brief. One thing we put high importance on here is the safety and health of the mother, Abbott said. But the other thing we put importance on is the safety and health of the baby. Also on ExpressNews.com: Woman who faked cancer for dream wedding accused of trying to kidnap child in San Antonio Members of the media were allowed to record portions of the meeting, and reporters were asked to leave the room shortly after Abbotts comments, KXAN reported. The private discussion included Texas Secretary of State John B. Scott, Minister Schreinemacher, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the United States Andre Haspels, and Executive Director of the Governors Economic Development and Tourism Office Adriana Cruz, Netherland officials said in a statement. During the discussion, the governor and Her Majesty exchanged gifts from their nations, including two pairs of Texas cowboy boots, a porcelain State of Texas bowl, a signed framed photograph of Their Majesties, an applique delft, and a Holland vase. While in Austin, Maxima also joined Mayor Steve Adler and other city officials for a scenic trip on a Gazelle e-bike along the Ann and Roy Butler Hike and Bike Trail from Austin City Hall to the Central Library. timothy.fanning@express-news.net During a speech to Congress 21 years ago this month, President George W. Bush announced what would become the global war on terror. The endeavor, he said, begins with al-Qaida, but it does not end there, as he outlined a framework for an enduring, open-ended conflict. Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign, unlike any other we have ever seen, he said. It may include dramatic strikes, visible on TV, and covert operations, secret even in success. From its first utterance, global war on terrorism, or GWOT, triggered criticism. As the years dragged on, it fell out of style, but not the concepts and actions behind it or the question of when it would end. On ExpressNews.com: More guns, more denial, more violence Today, the global war on terrorism still smolders across the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere. The Pentagon doesnt really talk about it, and people are already planning a national memorial for the nations longest military odyssey a war memorial for a conflict thats still ongoing (sort of). Since 2001, between 1.9 million and 3 million U.S. service members have participated in post-9/11 military operations impacting at least 76 countries. More than 7,000 U.S. troops died, and tens of thousands were wounded in the $8 trillion endeavor. Those numbers represent a fraction of the human and economic costs worldwide. During the Obama administration, the GWOT language largely faded. On ExpressNews.com: A year later, honoring lessons of Afghanistan In a 2013 speech at the National Defense University, President Barack Obama said, Beyond Afghanistan, we must define our effort not as a boundless global war on terror but rather as a series of persistent, targeted efforts to dismantle specific networks of violent extremists that threaten America. A search of the Defense Departments website for GWOT or global war on terrorism yields few results., However, a 2005 planning document about how to communicate the war on terrorism, noted because the GWOT has no end date or easily defined battlefield, Overarching messages must be broad to encompass the scope of the GWOT and flexible over time. It called for communicating resolve, the right to self-defense, legitimacy, benefits of DOD actions, adherence to the laws of armed conflict and reinforcing the authorities that U.N. security resolutions granted. The sidelined term resurfaced July 29 when DOD announced it would restrict the award of the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal. On ExpressNews.com: As Afghanistan falls, memories haunt Since its introduction in 2003, most people who served in the post-9/11 military received the medal for supporting the GWOT regardless of their location or connection to it. But after Sept. 11, 2022, people must directly serve in a designated military (counter-terrorism) operation for at least 30 days, according to a memo first reported by Army Times reporter Davis Winkie. In another sign of a waning GWOT and a move to more of a peacetime posture on Aug. 30, DOD announced it would stop awarding the National Defense Service Medal at the end of the year. Termination is based on the United States no longer conducting large-scale combat operations in designated geographic locations as a result of the terrorist attacks on the United States that occurred September 11, 2001, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin wrote. Prior, everyone in the post-9/11 military received the medal. On ExpressNews.com: Editorial: As Afghanistan collapsed, so did hope, progress Navy Cmdr. Nicole Schwegman, a DOD spokesperson, told me GWOT is not a term we use every day, but its still a relevant term. She said GWOT still applies to a range of counterterror missions beyond Iraq and Afghanistan. As the nation recognizes the 21st anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the signs that the global war on terror is over continue to stack up. With luck, the term will only reside in the history books when the GWOT memorial in D.C. opens in 2026. brandon.lingle@express-news.net As a governing body, a board of directors is required and expected to provide direction, leadership and oversight. That includes taking policy positions on difficult issues and making key decisions in the best interest of the organization and its stakeholders. These are regular functions of the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce board of directors, as well as boards of major public and private companies, nonprofits and our local public utilities. Last month, the CPS Energy board of trustees, with information provided by a search firm and considering a profile of the ideal candidate, suspended its search for a new president and CEO, and entered into contract negotiations with Rudy Garza, interim president and CEO. This week, trustees voted to approve the terms of the contract, making Garza the new president and CEO, and the first Hispanic leader. The San Antonio business community could not be more relieved, excited and supportive. Garza is uniquely qualified to lead the nations largest municipally owned electric and gas utility company. Not only is he a 25-year veteran of the industry, but during his 10 years at CPS Energy, he has held a variety of positions, giving him a broad view into the organizations inner workings, garnering credibility, and earning the respect and support of the CPS Energy team. During the 10 months Garza served in the interim president and CEO role, he has faced several challenges, including the aftereffects of Winter Storm Uri, and convincing City Council and our community to support a needed rate increase. Any one of these challenges would have been overwhelming, but Garza, who had served as CPS chief customer and stakeholder engagement officer, understood the unique needs of our community and the importance of working and communicating with CPS Energys residential and business customers. He has met with business leaders and community members, listened to input and feedback, and taken appropriate, meaningful action. He has spent countless hours participating in town hall meetings and briefing business groups, and the business community has appreciated his focus and emphasis on communications and transparency. It is this dedication and commitment, along with the outreach he has done with the broader community, that is rebuilding trust in CPS Energy. I attended and testified during the CPS Energy board of trustees meeting during which they voted to accept Garzas contract, making him the official president and CEO of CPS Energy. I applaud the trustees on their decision. CPS Energy is key to the success of this entire community, and trustees have selected the right leader. He has the experience and leadership prowess to be the official leader of CPS Energy, and he has my full support. San Antonio is fortunate and blessed to have leaders such as Garza, City Manager Erik Walsh, and San Antonio Water System President and CEO Robert Puente. They lead large, critical organizations, yet their total compensation packages fall short of their counterparts in other major cities. We must continue to support these leaders and recognize their contributions. Richard Perez is president and CEO of the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce. The response by the United States after the attacks of 9/11 that killed 2,977 people was quick: Officials launched a global war on terrorism, a metaphorical war against a nonstate terrorist organization that spanned several countries over the course of two decades. Citizens are quick to unite after a traumatic event. However, metaphorical wars, unlike Napoleonic wars, do not end in total victories. Phil Klay, a former U.S. Marine who served in combat zones in Iraq, has written about citizenship in an age when many citizens do not realize the country is fighting endless wars, sentiments worth reflecting on this Sept. 11. On Sept. 20, 2001, then President George W. Bush stated, Our war on terror begins with al-Qaida, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated. Endless wars are personal to those who have lived through them on the front lines and at home. Unlike World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam, for which there were military drafts, those serving in todays military make up only 1 percent of the countrys population. For 12 years, including the surge in Iraqs Anbar Province from 2007 to 2008, I taught international relations courses to soldiers stationed at Fort Hood. Many of these soldiers were returning from their first, second and even third tours in combat zones. You could see the wars heavy psychological and physical impact. As of May 2021, the U.S. Department of Defense reported 7,057 U.S. service members had been killed and 53,252 wounded in action in combat-related roles since the 9/11 attacks. The DOD also stated the number of veterans with a service-connected disability after 9/11 is about 1.8 million. The projected future cost of disability compensation from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to these veterans is significant. Projections place the cost at $2.2 trillion to $2.5 trillion between now and 2050. This is not the full cost. Between September 2011 and September 2021, the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University estimated, the cost of the U.S. global war on terrorism was $8 trillion and included 900,000 deaths. Wars can have a short-term boon on the popularity of elected officials. In September 2001, Bush had an approval rating of 86 percent. However, he left office with a 24 percent approval rate. During the first month of the Iraq War in April 2003, 71 percent of U.S. citizens supported the decision to go to war, but just 43 percent said it was the right idea in 2018. Interestingly in 2018, 50 percent of Americans felt U.S. policy had failed. What citizens failed to understand is that however well-trained and equipped the U.S. military is, it cannot definitively win metaphorical wars. Wars must have an exit strategy something the wars against al-Qaida, and in Afghanistan and Iraq lacked. Lets reflect on what it means to be citizens of a country with 800 military bases around the world and soldiers deployed to 85 countries fighting terrorism. We must be vigilant regarding the deployment of troops to combat missions of which the public is not informed. Sept. 11 should not be about marketing or promoting nationalism, or simply telling those in uniform, Thank you for your service. The answer lies in each one of us seeking to understand post-9/11 patriotism in this age of endless war. Larry Hufford is professor of political science (emeritus) at St. Marys University. It is unlikely the Chinese consulate in Houston will re-open anytime soon, a top GOP leader in Congress said on Thursday. Two years after the Donald Trump administration closed the office as accusations of espionage surfaced, U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul said he has a hard time seeing how the U.S. could allow the facility to re-open again. I think it would be very difficult, said McCaul, who is positioned to become the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee if Republicans regain the majority in the November mid-term elections. I just think that the threat that they posed there would make it very hard to do. FLASHBACK: Texas Republicans cheer closure of Houstons Chinese consulate McCauls comments came as he and his GOP colleagues in Congress, including U.S. House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., gathered in Houston to praise the Trump administration for shutting down the Chinese consulate and calling out the Chinese government for their spying and stealing of trade secrets and technology from organizations including The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, NASA, and the energy sector. The Trump administration stood up and had the guts to call it exactly what it was, McCarthy said during an afternoon press conference at the Harris County Republican Party headquarters. In July 2020, the consulate on 3417 Montrose Blvd was ordered to close, resulting in a hasty evacuation by Chinese officials, some of whom were spotted setting fire to documents in the courtyard so they would not end up in the hands of U.S. officials. McCaul said the Houston consulate served as an espionage hub and was a den of spies. THE FLIP SIDE: Beyond politics, effects of Chinese consulates closing will be a setback for Houston Chinese officials have called the U.S. decision to close the consulate in Houston outrageous and unjustified, and retaliated by closing a U.S. consulate in Chengdu. The Biden administration has not made any moves to re-open the consulate since he took office in 2021. McCarthy said in the coming weeks hes going to outline how the GOP will confront the communist government in China in 2023 if Republicans retake the House in November. While in Houston he said a big piece of that is going to focus on how to bring critical supply lines back to the United States, but he did not detail his plan, saying more information would be released later this fall. McCaul and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn earlier that summer were able to pass legislation aimed at providing incentives for semiconductor manufacturing in the United States. Currently, the bulk of semiconductor manufacturing is in Taiwan. Political experts have predicted Republicans will win enough seats in November to retake the majority, though lately the predictions of a red wave election have been scaled back as President Joe Bidens approval ratings have improved some. Still, McCarthy made clear on Thursday in Houston he expects Republicans to be the majority in Congress in 2023. So did McCaul. When we get the majority back, were going to prepare America to win the great power competition against China, said McCaul, whose sprawling 10th Congressional District runs from Austin to Katy. jeremy.wallace@chron.com Charter flights to holiday hotspots are becoming an important source of passengers for Ljubljana Airport as it continues its slow recovery from both the demise of former national carrier Adria Airways and the coronavirus pandemic. During the first half of the year, 9.3% of all passengers using Ljubljana Airport flew on charters. This is up from 5.2% over the same period in 2019. In the first six months of this year, a total of 35.709 travellers flew on charters with the bulk being handled in June. The figure is set to significantly grow in the second half of the year with the majority using charters during the peak summer months of July and August. Charter flights to holiday hotspots are becoming an important source of passengers for Ljubljana Airport as it continues its slow recovery from both the demise of former national carrier Adria Airways and the coronavirus pandemic. During the first half of the year, 9.3% of all passengers using Ljubljana Airport flew on charters. This is up from 5.2% over the same period in 2019. In the first six months of this year, a total of 35.709 travellers flew on charters with the bulk being handled in June. The figure is set to significantly grow in the second half of the year with the majority using charters during the peak summer months of July and August. Earlier this year, the General Manager of operator Fraport Slovenija, Babett Stapel, said there is potential to turn the airport into a hub for charter flights. They accounted for over 20% of Ljubljanas passenger traffic in 2021, with the figure to be exceeded this year. I would like to review and evaluate with our employees some old ideas that have not been effective in the past. I have one specific thing in mind. I would like to create a hub for charters at Ljubljana Airport. We are already talking about it and this year we will analyse whether this is a potential that could differentiate us from others. Last year, we handled a fifth of all passengers on charters, compared to 11% the year before. This year we can further increase these numbers. During the first half of the year, Ljubljanas busiest charter market was Egypt with 10.214 passengers travelling to and from the country. The strong figures have resulted in Air Cairo announcing a new scheduled one weekly service between Hurghada and Ljubljana from October 1, with the outbound flight to run via Skopje. Other charter markets in demand included Greece and Turkey. Croatias Trade Air operates the bulk of Slovenia's charter traffic, although other carriers also contribute. This summer, tour operators have been running leisure flights from Ljubljana to Turkey, Spain, the Greek islands, Jordan, Portugal, Egypt, Tunisia, Malta, Albania, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Italy, Iceland and Latvia. Last year, several tour operators joined forces to organise a charter flight from Ljubljana to Zanzibar. Ljubljana Airport's busiest charter markets, H1 2022 Global warming and pollution are two issues that the world is becoming increasingly aware of today. This is making a lot of people understand how important it is to find a way to lower carbon dioxide emissions. A very promising way to lessen air pollution is to use electric vehicles (EVs). They don't generate noise pollution or release harmful gasses into the air. EVs are no longer exclusive and only accessible to the wealthy. They are now more widely available than you might imagine. In fact, Jeep, which is one of the most popular car brands in the world, is planning to release four new EVs by 2025. Let's learn more about it. Jeep's Electrification Plans Jeep was well-known for producing robust SUVs. But for the new generation of drivers, the car manufacturer plans to modernize the brand. Jeep fans will soon be able to drive the same rugged SUVs, the only difference is that it will not have any emissions. Jeep's plans for electrification were addressed in detail during the company's announcement on Thursday. In an effort to "become the leading electrified SUV brand in the world," Jeep announced that it would introduce four new EV models in the US and Europe by 2025, according to Engadget. The popular SUV manufacturer added that it plans to sell 100% all-electric cars in Europe by 2030. Meanwhile, the company intends for half of its U.S. sale to be fully-electrified by the same period. The company's focus prior to the announcement on Thursday was mostly on plug-in hybrid EVs, as per Electrek. Read More: China's BYD Strikes Deal to Build EV Factory in Thailand for 2024 Production Upcoming Jeep EV Models Before we go through the upcoming Jeep EV models, it is worth noting that the upcoming cars, according to Jeep executives, would be additions to the brand's inventory rather than a replacement for existing models, as mentioned by the news story by CNBC. The following are the four new EV models that Jeeps plans to release by 2025: Jeep Wagoneer S EV Jeep Recon EV Jeep Avenger Jeep Wrangler 4xe What Can You Expect With Jeep Wrangler 4xe The 4xe is the automaker's effort to convert its renowned 4x4 technology for the electric age. It was expected to be more powerful than its predecessors, thanks to the increased on-demand torque for quick acceleration and climbing. What Can You Expect With Jeep Grand Wagoneer S EV The car company aims for a 400-mile range on a single charge. Additionally, it was reported that the car could accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in around 3.5 seconds and had 600 horsepower. What Can You Expect With Jeep Recon EV Beyond stating that the Recon will have off-road capability similar to the Wrangler, the car manufacturer did not disclose performance expectations for the vehicle. What Can You Expect With Jeep Avenger A small SUV named the Avenger will not be marketed in the U.S. According to the manufacturer, the Avenger will begin appearing in showrooms in Europe in early 2023. CEO Christian Meunier refused to disclose how many of the cars would be sold in both Europe and North America. Related Article: Stellantis Pleads Guilty to Diesel Emissions Fraud, Conspiracy Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. February 25, 1963 August 22, 2022 The world lost a beloved wife, mother, daughter, and sister, Donna Rae Ferris on August 22, 2022. Donna never stopped battling metastatic breast cancer, and never let it keep her from doing what she did best - being the rock of support for her family. Donna passed peacefully in her home surrounded by her family, cherished by all. A Mothers Embrace Full of strength, bringing us home None like my mother -Kyrene Clarke to mother, Donna, Mothers Day 2022 Donna was born in Choteau, Montana, on February 25th, 1963. After graduating from Choteau High School, Donna earned a Pharmacy degree from the University of Montana. Donna abbreviated her career to embrace the toughest job of all - mothering five beautiful children. Having relocated to Colorado twenty-two years ago Donna quickly became a staple in the Colorado swimming community, with all five of her children eventually competing at the collegiate level of swimming. Throughout her life Donna touched every soul she met with her magnanimous heart, delightful humor, and contagious smile. Those fortunate to meet her will never forget her. Donna is survived by her husband and life partner, Thomas Clarke; children Kelsey, Kyrene (spouse Lincoln), Ian, Allana, and Catriona; mother, Darlene Larkin Ferris; sisters Jacquelyn Pourroy, Barbara Selby and Diane Ferris. She was preceded in death by her father, Donald T. Ferris. Friends are invited to share memories and celebrate the wonderful life of Donna on September 10th at the Choteau Country Club in Choteau, Montana, and September 16th at the Clarke Residence in Colorado Springs. Please reach out to the Ferris/Clarke families for more information. In lieu of flowers or gifts please donate to one of the following organizations: Choteau Lions Club Swim Pool (www.choteaulions.club), Metavivor (www.metavivor.org), or Breast Cancer Research Foundation (www.bcrf.org). Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.MtViewMortuary.com for the Ferris and Clarke families. New prime minister Liz Truss must go further than any previous administration and 'truly level-up' the rural economy. The new government should include the rural economy at the 'heart of government policy in these tough times', the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) has said. There is an 18 percent productivity gap between the rural economy and the national average following 'years of neglect'. According to the rural organisation, closing this gap would add 43 billion to the UK economy. The reasons for the countrysides lower productivity are complex, but key contributors include poor digital connectivity, the planning system, bureaucracy and decades of underinvestment. Rural campaigners say measures such as a simpler tax regime and more investment in rural skills would help close the productivity gap. Mark Tufnell, CLA president said: No prime minister in the last 20 years has had an ambitious strategy for the rural economy. This has to change." A new 110m support package announced last weekend to support rural businesses is 'a welcome start', but he said it "still does not fully address the challenges faced by rural businesses". "As PM, Liz Truss must go for growth, laying out in detail her plans to deliver genuine planning reform, full connectivity, a simpler tax system for diversified businesses. "A Whitehall shake up [must] encourage cross-departmental cooperation," Mr Tufnell said. "Otherwise, her party risks losing the hearts and minds of 12 million rural voters. A scheme encouraging the production of protein crops in Northern Ireland has been extended until to end of next year. The Department of Agriculture's (DAERA) scheme aims to create a domestically produced source of protein for animal feed. It also seeks to provide agronomic benefits within arable rotations and provide an alternative source of income for farmers. The pilot was introduced in 2021, initially for two years, with the intention that the approach would then be reviewed and possibly refined for subsequent years. Minister of Agriculture Edwin Poots said: I am pleased to announce an extension to the pilot Protein Crop Scheme for growing combinable beans, peas and sweet lupins. "I would continue to encourage everyone to consider the opportunities and benefits this scheme provides not only to boost farm incomes but also the associated agronomic and environmental benefits." An interim review of the scheme performance has been completed and this has demonstrated overall positive results. The number of businesses claiming support for growing protein crops has increased from 32 in 2020 to 113 in 2022, with a total of 641 ha of protein crops grown in 2021. A number of environmental benefits have also been recorded, including an increase in crop diversity and a reduction in fertiliser usage on participating farms. An economic and environmental evaluation of the pilot scheme will now be carried out," Mr Poots said. Pork exports from the UK to the United States topped 17 million in the first half of the year up a massive 74 percent from the same time last year. The United States is proving to be a growing market for red meat exports, with nearly 5,000 tonnes of pork shipped from January to June. The US has also imported 805 tonnes of beef from the UK, worth 5.2 million, according to the latest figures from HMRC. However, shipments will slow for the remainder of 2022 as the beef import quota has been filled, which means UK exporters now face a tariff of 26.4%. And lamb from the UK could soon compliment the pork and beef export figures, with the first commercial shipments expected to commence later this year. AHDB senior export manager, Susana Morris said the US continued to be an important market for the UK's red meat exports. "While beef shipments are expected to slow, our pork exports remain strong and the prospect of UK lamb arriving in America later this year, provides us with a great deal of optimism for the remainder of 2022. Red meat exports to Canada have also increased significantly this year, with beef shipments up nearly 58 percent to 1,924 tonnes worth 7.4 million. Canada has also imported 4.8 million worth of pork, which is up 31%, and almost 1.5 million worth of lamb up from 629,000 during the same period last year. The US and Canada continue to be a key focus for exporters, with AHDB activity taking place throughout the year to help develop relationships with importers and grow shipments to both countries. Last month, five of the US's most respected red meat importers joined a five-day mission to explore opportunities for UK lamb, ahead of the first commercial exports. During their visit, the delegation attended the National Sheep Association's (NSA) Show in Malvern, where they got to meet key players in the UK sheep sector. Warrenton, VA (20186) Today Variable clouds with showers and scattered thunderstorms. Storms more numerous this evening. Low 63F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight Variable clouds with showers and scattered thunderstorms. Storms more numerous this evening. Low 63F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%. Separated family members from South Korea hold the hands of their family members from North Korea on a bus at Mount Geumgang in the North in this Oct. 22, 2015 file photo, after a reunion event for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War. Korea Times The United States strongly supports inter-Korean dialogue and remains open to talks with North Korea without any preconditions, a state department spokesperson said Thursday. The remarks came after the South Korean unification ministry proposed holding talks with the North to discuss the issue of separated families. "We strongly support inter-Korean cooperation and believe it can play an important role in creating a more stable environment on the Korean Peninsula," a state department spokesperson told Yonhap News Agency when asked about Seoul's proposal for inter-Korean talks. "The United States remains open to dialogue with the DPRK on any issue and without precondition," the department official added. Unification Minister Kwon Young-se publicly proposed talks with North Korea on the issue of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War on Thursday (Seoul time). The recent visit of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India is likely to expedite Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) as both nations showed interest in deepening trade ties. Currently, Bangladesh imports more yarn and fabric from India and exports finished products like apparel. The CEPA may change this equation. Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi welcomed the recent finalisation of a joint feasibility study which recommended that CEPA will be beneficial for both countries. Leaders of both nations directed trade officials to start negotiations within the current year and to complete them at the earliest. The joint statement issued at the end of Hasinas state visit to India also highlighted the proposed agreement prominently. According to Fibre2Fashions market insight tool TexPro, Bangladesh is an emerging star in the global textile industry as it has succeeded in converting itself into a global factory for textile products. Bangladesh apparel exports touched $42.61 billion during last fiscal 2021-22 (July-June), registering an increase of 35.67 per cent over the previous fiscal. On the other hand, Indias apparel exports increased 33 per cent to $16.023 billion in the last fiscal 2021-22 (April-March) from $12.287 billion in the previous year. The recent visit of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India is likely to expedite Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) as both nations showed interest in deepening trade ties. Currently, Bangladesh imports more yarn and fabric from India and exports finished products like apparel. The CEPA may change this equation. Trade data explains the picture and implications of mutual trade between the two nations. As per TexPro, India imported apparel worth $474.522 million from Bangladesh in 2021, but it could manage to export apparel valued at $28.717 million to the neighbouring country. Similarly, India imported home textiles of $133.008 million and exported products of value $2.473 million. The trend reverses in terms of raw materials. Bangladesh imports more raw materials from India. According to the data, India exported fibre earning $1430.146 million, while it imported the product spending $72.848 million. Similarly, its export of yarn and fabrics were $1968.735 million and $812.234 million respectively during the last year, while imports of yarn and fabrics were $52.274 million and $78.735 million in the same period. Textile stakeholders in India are against the idea of exporting cotton and yarn from the country as it would enable competing countries including Bangladesh to offer tough competition to Indian exporters after getting cheaper raw materials. It shows that the Indian textile industry needs to develop its strength and formulate an effective strategy when CEPA comes into effect. However, some experts feel that both countries can identify their strengths and be supplementary rather than competing with each other. Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KUL) MONTREAL, QC / ACCESSWIRE / September 8, 2022 / Quebec Precious Metals Corporation (TSXV:QPM)(FSE:YXEP)(OTCQB:CJCFF) ("QPM" or the "Corporation") announces that it will hold its annual meeting of shareholders (the "Meeting") on October 11, 2022. On July 22, 2022, the Corporation announced the postponement its annual meeting of shareholders scheduled for July 28, 2022 to a later date. The amended and restated information circular in connection with the Meeting will be available on QPM's web site and in the SEDAR issuer profile for the Corporation at www.sedar.com. Shares for debt QPM has entered into agreements to issue an aggregate of 208,930 common shares in settlement of debts of two current directors and three former directors of the Corporation in an aggregate amount of $29,250 (the "Debt Settlement"). The Debt Settlement is paid in connection with services rendered by the current directors or former directors during the first quarter this current financial year. The Board of Directors and Management of QPM believe that the Debt Settlement is in the best interests of QPM as it will help the Corporation preserve its cash position. The common shares to be issued pursuant to the Debt Settlement will be issued at a deemed price of $0.14 per share and will be subject to a four-month hold period pursuant to applicable securities regulations and the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange. The Debt Settlement is considered a "related party transaction" as defined under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The Debt Settlement will be exempt from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 as QPM's securities are not listed on any stock exchange identified in Section 5.5(b) of MI 61-101 and neither the fair market value of the common shares to be issued in the Debt Settlement nor of the services provided in connection with the debts which are the subject of the Debt Settlement exceeds 25% of QPM's market capitalization. The Debt Settlement is subject to regulatory approval, including that of the TSX Venture Exchange. About Quebec Precious Metals Corporation QPM is a gold explorer with a large land position in the highly prospective Eeyou Istchee James Bay territory, Quebec, near Newmont Corporation's Eleonore gold mine. QPM's flagship project is the Sakami project with significant grades and well-defined drill-ready targets. QPM's goal is to rapidly explore the Sakami project and advance to the mineral resource estimate stage. For more information please contact: Normand Champigny Chief Executive Officer Tel.: 514 979-4746 nchampigny@qpmcorp.ca Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE: Quebec Precious Metals Corporation View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/715114/Quebec-Precious-Metals-to-hold-AGM-on-October-11th-and-Issue-Shares-in-Payment-of-Debts DGAP-News: Hot Chili Limited Strong Copper-Silver Drill Results Delivered Ahead of San Antonio Resource Upgrade 09.09.2022 / 02:43 CET/CEST The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. Highlights include: o 21m grading 1.6% CuEq (1.6% Cu, 3.2g/t Ag) from 74m depth downhole o 13m grading 1.3% CuEq (1.3% Cu, 3.2g/t Ag) from 133m depth downhole including 2m grading 3.7% CuEq (3.5% Cu, 7.6g/t Ag) o 7m grading 1.6% CuEq* (1.5% Cu, 4.8g/t Ag) from 11m depth downhole including 2m grading 4.0% CuEq (3.9% Cu, 12.9g/t Ag) o 4m grading 1.7% CuEq (1.7% Cu, 3.9g/t Ag) from 170m depth downhole o 4m grading 1.6% CuEq (1.4% Cu, 6.4g/t Ag) from 115m depth downhole New results positively impact existing Inferred resource (4.2Mt grading 1.2% CuEq), which is set to be upgraded to Indicated classification in next Costa Fuego resource update, expected later this year Final drill results from the Valentina high grade copper-silver deposit expected shortly, regulatory application for follow-up drill programme being prepared Drilling continuing at Santiago Z porphyry exploration target - five drill holes complete, results pending * Copper Equivalent (CuEq) reported for the drill holes at San Antonio used the following formula: CuEq% = ((Cu% Cu price 1% per tonne Cu_recovery) + (Mo ppm Mo price per g/t Mo_recovery) + (Au ppm Au price per g/t Au_recovery) + (Ag ppm Ag price per g/t Ag_recovery)) / (Cu price 1% per tonne). The Metal Prices applied in the calculation were: Cu=3.00 USD/lb, Au=1,700 USD/oz, Mo=14 USD/lb, and Ag=20 USD/oz. Average fresh rock metallurgical recoveries were Cu=88%, Au=72%, Mo=88%, and Ag=69%. Hot Chili Limited (ASX: HCH) (TSXV: HCH) (OTCQX: HHLKF) ("Hot Chili" or "Company") is pleased to announce new drill results from resource upgrade drilling across the high-grade San Antonio copper deposit, part of the Company's Costa Fuego, coastal range, copper-gold hub in Chile. Importantly, several drill holes recorded higher grades than estimated in the current San Antonio Inferred resource model. The new drill results will upgrade the classification of the existing resource at San Antonio from Inferred to Indicated - allowing the resource to be included in open pit reserve estimates for the Costa Fuego Pre-feasibility Study (PFS). A total of thirteen Reverse Circulation (RC) drill holes for 2,012m were complete across the San Antonio resource window to test extensional potential, as well as in-fill areas of lower geological confidence. Seven RC drill holes recoded significant intersections. In addition, three diamond holes for 495m were completed for metallurgical testwork purposes. The current resource at San Antonio ((Inferred resource of 4.2Mt grading 1.2% CuEq (1.1% Cu, 2.1g/t Ag) for 48kt Cu and 287koz Ag, reported March 2022) extends from surface over a strike length of approximately 1km, and is amenable to open pit mining with relatively low strip-ratio. Drilling undertaken across San Antonio, and its neighbouring high grade deposit Valentina, have provided significant encouragement for the addition of two potential high grade, front-end, open pit, ore sources for the combined Costa Fuego coastal copper super-hub. Expanded Drill Programme Planned for Valentina Recent drill results from San Antonio's neighbouring deposit Valentina recorded a number of outstanding shallow result, including 3m grading 12.1% CuEq (11.8% Cu & 52.6g/t Ag) within a broader drilling intersection of 12m grading 4.6% CuEq (4.5% Cu & 16.5g/t Ag) from 25m depth down-hole (VALMET0002 as reported on 24th August 2022). High grade copper-silver mineralisation at Valentina is defined over 300m and is open along strike and at depth. Importantly, these new high grade drill result recorded in VALMET002, which lie 120m south of the historical Valentina underground mine, remains open and untested to the south below a shallow cover sequence of gravels. A regulatory clearing application is being prepared to facilitate follow-up drilling at Valentina, which will expand resource drill definition across this potentially high-impact future resource addition to Costa Fuego. The Company looks forward to releasing final drill results from Valentina shortly as well as an update on first-pass drilling activities across the Santiago Z porphyry exploration target. This announcement is authorised by the Board of Directors for release to ASX. Reported on a 100% Basis - combining Mineral Resource estimates for the Cortadera, Productora and San Antonio deposits. Figures are rounded, reported to appropriate significant figures, and reported in accordance with CIM and NI 43-101. Metal rounded to nearest thousand, or if less, to the nearest hundred. Total Resource reported at +0.21% CuEq for open pit and +0.30% CuEq for underground. Refer to Announcement "Hot Chili Delivers Next Level of Growth" (31st March 2022) for JORC Table 1 information related to the Costa Fuego Mineral Resource estimates. * Copper Equivalent (CuEq) reported for the resource were calculated using the following formula: CuEq% = ((Cu% Cu price 1% per tonne Cu_recovery) + (Mo ppm Mo price per g/t Mo_recovery) + (Au ppm Au price per g/t Au_recovery) + (Ag ppm Ag price per g/t Ag_recovery)) / (Cu price 1% per tonne). The Metal Prices applied in the calculation were: Cu=3.00 USD/lb, Au=1,700 USD/oz, Mo=14 USD/lb, and Ag=20 USD/oz. For Cortadera and San Antonio (Inferred + Indicated), the average metallurgical recoveries were Cu=83%, Au=56%, Mo=82%, and Ag=37%. For Productora (Inferred + Indicated), the average metallurgical recoveries were Cu=83%, Au=43% and Mo=42%. For Costa Fuego (Inferred + Indicated), the average Metallurgical Recoveries were Cu=83%, Au=51%, Mo=67% and Ag=23%. * Copper Equivalent (CuEq) reported for the drill holes at San Antonio used Costa Fuego averages (as no metallurgical testwork has been completed) using the following formula: CuEq% = ((Cu% Cu price 1% per tonne Cu_recovery) + (Mo ppm Mo price per g/t Mo_recovery) + (Au ppm Au price per g/t Au_recovery) + (Ag ppm Ag price per g/t Ag_recovery)) / (Cu price 1% per tonne). The Metal Prices applied in the calculation were: Cu=3.00 USD/lb, Au=1,700 USD/oz, Mo=14 USD/lb, and Ag=20 USD/oz. Average fresh rock metallurgical recoveries were Cu=83%, Au=56%, Mo=82%, and Ag=37%. Qualifying Statements Costa Fuego Combined Mineral Resource (Reported 31st March 2022) Reported on a 100% Basis - combining Mineral Resource estimates for the Cortadera, Productora and San Antonio deposits. Figures are rounded, reported to appropriate significant figures, and reported in accordance with CIM and NI 43-101. Metal rounded to nearest thousand, or if less, to the nearest hundred. Total Resource reported at +0.21% CuEq for open pit and +0.30% CuEq for underground. Refer to Announcement "Hot Chili Delivers Next Level of Growth" (31st March 2022) for JORC Table 1 information related to the Costa Fuego Mineral Resource estimates. Copper Equivalent (CuEq) reported for the resource were calculated using the following formula: CuEq% = ((Cu% Cu price 1% per tonne Cu_recovery) +(Mo ppm Mo price per g/t Mo_recovery) + (Au ppm Au price per g/t Au_recovery) + (Ag ppm Ag price per g/t Ag_recovery)) / (Cu price 1% per tonne). The Metal Prices applied in the calculation were: Cu=3.00 USD/lb, Au=1,700 USD/oz, Mo=14 USD/lb, and Ag=20 USD/oz. For Cortadera and San Antonio (Inferred + Indicated), the average Metallurgical Recoveries were: Cu=83%, Au=56%, Mo=82%, and Ag=37%. For Productora (Inferred + Indicated), the average Metallurgical Recoveries were: Cu=83%, Au=43% and Mo=42%. For Costa Fuego (Inferred + Indicated), the average Metallurgical Recoveries were: Cu=83%, Au=51%, Mo=67% and Ag=23%. ** Note: Silver (Ag) is only present within the Cortadera Mineral Resource estimate Competent Person's Statement- Exploration Results Exploration information in this Announcement is based upon work compiled by Mr Christian Easterday, the Managing Director and a full-time employee of Hot Chili Limited whom is a Member of the Australasian Institute of Geoscientists (AIG). Mr Easterday has sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity which he is undertaking to qualify as a 'Competent Person' as defined in the 2012 Edition of the 'Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves' (JORC Code). Mr Easterday consents to the inclusion in the report of the matters based on their information in the form and context in which it appears. Competent Person's Statement- Costa Fuego Mineral Resources The information in this report that relates to Mineral Resources for Cortadera, Productora and San Antonio which constitute the combined Costa Fuego Project is based on information compiled by Ms Elizabeth Haren, a Competent Person who is a Member and Chartered Professional of The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and a Member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists. Ms Haren is a full-time employee of Haren Consulting Pty Ltd and an independent consultant to Hot Chili. Ms Haren has sufficient experience, which is relevant to the style of mineralisation and types of deposits under consideration and to the activities undertaken, to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the 'Australasian Code of Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves'. Ms Haren consents to the inclusion in the report of the matters based on her information in the form and context in which it appears. For further information on the Costa Fuego Project, refer to the technical report titled "Resource Report for the Costa Fuego Technical Report", dated December 13, 2021, which is available for review under Hot Chili's profile at www.sedar.com. Reporting of Copper Equivalent Copper Equivalent (CuEq) reported for the resource were calculated using the following formula: CuEq% = ((Cu% Cu price 1% per tonne Cu_recovery)+(Mo ppm Mo price per g/t Mo_recovery)+(Au ppm Au price per g/t Au_recovery)+ (Ag ppm Ag price per g/t Ag_recovery)) / (Cu price 1% per tonne). The Metal Prices applied in the calculation were: Cu=3.00 USD/lb, Au=1,700 USD/oz, Mo=14 USD/lb, and Ag=20 USD/oz. For Cortadera and San Antonio (Inferred + Indicated), the average Metallurgical Recoveries were: Cu=83%, Au=56%, Mo=82%, and Ag=37%. For Productora (Inferred + Indicated), the average Metallurgical Recoveries were: Cu=83%, Au=43% and Mo=42%. For Costa Fuego (Inferred + Indicated), the average Metallurgical Recoveries were: Cu=83%, Au=51%, Mo=67% and Ag=23%. About Hot Chili Hot Chili Limited is a mineral exploration company with assets in Chile. The Company's flagship project, Costa Fuego, is the consolidation into a hub of the Cortadera porphyry copper-gold discovery and the Productora copper-gold deposit, set 14 km apart in an excellent location - low altitude, coastal range of Chile, infrastructure rich, low capital intensity. The Costa Fuego landholdings, contains an Indicated Resource of 725Mt grading 0.47% CuEq (copper equivalent), containing 2.8 Mt Cu, 2.6 Moz Au, 10.4 Moz Ag, and 67 kt Mo and an Inferred Resource of 202 Mt grading 0.36% CuEq containing 0.6Mt Cu, 0.4 Moz Au, 2.0 Moz Ag and 13 kt Mo, at a cut-off grade of +0.21% CuEq for open pit and +0.30% CuEq for underground. The Company is working to advance its Costa Fuego Project through a preliminary feasibility study (followed by a full FS and DTM), and test several high-priority exploration targets. Certain statements contained in this news release, including information as to the future financial or operating performance of Hot Chili and its projects may include statements that are "forward-looking statements" which may include, amongst other things, statements regarding targets, estimates and assumptions in respect of mineral reserves and mineral resources and anticipated grades and recovery rates, production and prices, recovery costs and results, and capital expenditures and are or may be based on assumptions and estimates related to future technical, economic, market, political, social and other conditions.These forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by Hot Chili, are inherently subject to significant technical, business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from estimated or anticipated events or results reflected in such forward-looking statements. Hot Chili disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly or release any revisions to any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, circumstances or results or otherwise after the date of this news release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, other than as may be required by law. The words "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "indicate", "contemplate", "target", "plan", "intends", "continue", "budget", "estimate", "may", "will", "schedule" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements made in this news release are qualified by the foregoing cautionary statements. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of future performance and accordingly investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein. 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. Contact Details Investor Relations Graham Farrell +1 416-842-9003 Graham.Farrell@harbor-access.com Investor Relations Jonathan Paterson +1 475-477-9401 Jonathan.Paterson@harbor-access.com Managing Director Christian Easterday admon@hotchili.net.au Company Website https://www.hotchili.net.au/investors/ News Source: News Direct 09.09.2022 CET/CEST Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases. Archive at www.dgap.de Huntersville, NC--(Newsfile Corp. - September 8, 2022) - Brass Natural Products, a private label and contract manufacturing services company, will be participating in the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference, which will take place on September 13 and 14 at The Palmer House in Chicago. Danielle Renner, CEO will be speaking at 03:50 PM ET on September 14th. Interested parties can register to attend here. Members of the Brass Natural Products management will also be taking meetings throughout the day. Take advantage of the opportunity and meet your favorite industry executives. "The biggest cannabis event is returning to the Midwest, bigger and better than ever. The Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference will bring more the top movers and shakers in the cannabis industry together, concentrating 90% of the cannabis market cap in one place," said Chief Zinger Jason Raznick. "This conference will be the best place to raise money, create partnerships, and expand media visibility in a context of tough capital market conditions." To register and access please follow this link. About Brass Natural Products Brass Natural Products is a premier international provider of private label and contract manufacturing services for complete product development, commercialization and packaging of a wide range of cosmetics, topicals, supplements, OTC products, gummies, beverages, pet care products, and CBD/cannabinoid products. Having almost ten years of experience with cannabinoids, we are also a large-scale distributor of hemp-derived cannabinoids ingredients. We deliver many standard mainstream products, along with a wide variety of unique form factors. With a coalition of more than seventy-one facilities around the globe, Brass produces products for customers throughout the USA, Europe, UK, Switzerland, South America, and Australia serving many brands and private label retailers such as Aldi, Sprouts, CVS and PriceSmart. Capabilities include a catalog of existing private label products across all our categories of service, R&D and benchtop samples for custom products, reverse engineering, primary and secondary packaging supply, full-service manufacturing, co-packing, club store packs and more. About The Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference The premier gathering of cannabis entrepreneurs and investors in North America is returning to Chicago. The next iteration of the famed Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference will gather industry insiders, investors and leading executives from around the world once again on September 13 and 14 in Chicago. Attendees can expect two full days of keynotes, panel discussions, fireside chats, networking, company presentations, celebrity appearances, and more. The Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference is guaranteed to offer participants all the benefits of an immersive and robust in-person conference from any remote location. The conference will feature an interactive forum of live and on-demand presentations from top CEOs, investors and leaders in the cannabis space. For further information: Danielle Renner CEO 949-679-8785 x104 danielle@brassnaturalproducts.com BEIJING, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In its endeavor to realize the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB) has produced a special publication, 'CKGSB 2022 ESG and Social Innovation Report: Our Innovative Path towards Sustainable Development', bringing examples of how the business school pursues ESG goals in China. Released on the 9th of September 2022, the report showcases CKGSB's innovative programs, original research, hands-on projects, interdisciplinary partnerships and global dialogues on the school's environmental, social and governance (ESG) efforts and impact. The report also highlights representative cases from the past two years in the CKGSB's social responsibility, featuring ESG-related courses among its programs, social innovation projects led by the school's staff, students and alumni, and unique insights from faculty's research on sustainability. Emphasizing the social role of a business school like CKGSB, Founding Dean Xiang Bing writes in the report, "In this era of tectonic changes, business schools have an unshakable responsibility in helping individuals and institutions (companies and NGOs) to better navigate through these turbulent times, and to make the world a better place both economically and socially." With ESG becoming an increasingly pertinent topic worldwide, the report includes CKGSB's work on realizing ESG goals in China and globally. Under 'Programs and Courses,' the report highlights the 'Social Innovation and Business for Good' field course, led by Professor of Marketing Zhu Rui (Juliet), which has been required of Executive MBA students since 2021. The course allows students to pinpoint societal problems, explore solutions under the guidance of mentors and professors, and initiate ESG practices in their institutions. In the 'Practice' section, the Ji'an Project shows how CKGSB contributed to the poverty alleviation efforts of Ji'an in Jiangxi province by integrating its core business - education and business management - into social innovation. In the 'Research' section, the report includes Professor Brian Viard's recent publication on China's air pollution and its economic costs, giving a mathematical model on pollution policy and economic growth. This report has also been submitted to the United Nations' Responsible Management Education (PRME), to which CKGSB has been a proud signatory since November 24, 2008. As a signatory to PRME - a United Nations-supported initiative founded in 2007 -CKGSB aims to promote sustainability and equip today's business leaders with the tools to make changes for the future. For more information, visit: https://english.ckgsb.edu.cn/report/ckgsbs-2022-esg-report-our-innovative-path-towards-sustainable-development/ LONDON, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In September 2022, HOdo menswear held a fashion show in London featuring its "zero gravity comfort-tech shirt", which was the best seller all over the Internet. The show was fantastic, and the international supermodel Jin Dachuan has shown the multi-dimensional wearable ways of the "zero gravity comfort-tech shirt" with a sense of technology. HOdo menswear embodies classics with high quality, and supports comfort features with technology, leading the new trend of "comfortable technology" in the field of Chinese menswear, and the transformation of traditional shirts. With the " zero gravity comfort-tech shirt" series as the core product line, the show made innovations and breakthroughs, showcasing the classic categories. The show inventively featured the "zero gravity comfort-tech shirt" collection and introduced "comfort-plus men's trousers", guiding more men to experience a luxury comfortable menswear, setting an autumn and winter comfort wearing trend for men. HOdo menswear meets the users' needs for the "magical combination of technology and comfort" and "full dimensional comfort". "Zero gravity comfort-tech shirt", designed with the participation of internationally renowned luxury designers, has a professional and advanced production process, through sophisticated technology to achieve a full dimensional "comfort breakthrough", which has truly achieved both comfort and style. The three-dimensional tailoring complements the exquisite shape, and the details show the new comfortable style of the "zero gravity comfort-tech shirt". It continues the "comfortable" feature and can be applied in different scenarios of business and leisure. The "zero gravity comfort-tech shirt" appeared on the international stage, in line with the international trend, and continued the aesthetics of comfortable. HOdo menswear focuses on comfort for 65 years with its strong brand power behind the London fashion show. It was the continuation of HOdo menswear's positioning of classic and comfort, which has presented multi-dimensional comfort experiences with sophisticated technology. HOdo menswear continuously improves the quality and fashion sense of products through innovation and opens a new field of comfortable menswear. "Comfort" is the beginning of everything, and it is also the original intention of HOdo menswear's ingenuity. Looking forward to the future, HOdo menswear will bring more innovations and breakthroughs in China's clothing brand industry. Official Website: http://www.hongdou.com.cn/index Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1894532/Cover_page.jpg Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 9, 2022) - Ready Set Gold Corp. (CSE: RDY) (FSE: 0MZ) (OTC PINK: RDYFF) ("Ready Set Gold" or the "Company") has completed an updated Mineral Resource Estimate ("MRE") for its 100% owned Northshore Gold Project ("Northshore"), located in the Schreiber-Hemlo Greenstone Belt, approximately 260 km east of Thunder Bay, Ontario. The updated MRE for Northshore was completed by APEX Geoscience Ltd. ("APEX") and focused on mineralization defined by historical drilling on the Afric Zone. A historical MRE for Northshore was completed by Giroux Consultants Ltd. in 2014. Since that time, an additional 66 drill holes have been completed on the Northshore Property within and adjacent to the Afric Zone. The current MRE covers the main Afric mineralization zone and utilized 157 of the 168 holes drilled at Northshore, with highlights as follows: 240,100 total inferred, pit constrained ounces of gold contained in 6,511,000 tonnes at an average grade of 1.15 grams per tonne (g/t) Au utilizing a US$1,750/oz pit shell and reported at a cut off grade of 0.40 g/t Au. The MRE assumes a recovery of 95% based on preliminary cyanide bottle roll testwork that returned >96% recovery Northshore NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Statement with an effective date of August 31, 2022 Tonnes Grade (g/t Au) Cut off Grade (g/t Au) Total Ounces Category 6,511,000 1.15 0.40 240,100 Inferred* Notes: The mineral resources have been classified according to the Canadian Institute of Mining (CIM) Definition Standards for Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves (May, 2014) and CIM Estimation of Mineral Resources & Mineral Reserves Best Practices Guidelines (2019). Resource estimation was conducted by Mr. David Briggs, NHD, Pr.Sc.Nat., of RockRidge Partnership and Associates under the supervision of Mr. Michael Dufresne, M.Sc., P.Geol., P.Geo of APEX Geoscience Ltd. of Edmonton, Alberta with an effective date of August 31, 2022 and will be supported by a technical report to be filed within 45 days of the date of this news release. Mr. Dufresne, M.Sc., P.Geol., P.Geo. of APEX Geoscience Ltd., who is a qualified person as defined by NI 43-101, is responsible for the completion of the updated mineral resource estimation. The recommended reported inferred resources have been constrained within a US$1,750/oz gold optimized pit shell. The Mineral Resource cut-off grade of 0.4 g/t Au was chosen to capture mineralization that is potentially amenable to open pit mining. The reported resources occur in bodies of sufficient size and continuity to meet the requirement of having reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction within a Lerchs - Grossmann (LG) optimized pit shell. *Inferred Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves. Mineral resources which are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. There has been insufficient exploration to define the inferred resources tabulated above as an indicated or measured mineral resource, however, it is reasonably expected that the majority of the Inferred Mineral Resources could be upgraded to Indicated Mineral Resources with continued exploration. There is no guarantee that any part of the mineral resources discussed herein will be converted into a mineral reserve in the future. The estimate of mineral resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, marketing, or other relevant issues. Numbers may not add due to rounding. Estimate Methodology The 2022 MRE was completed by Mr. David Briggs, NHD, Pr.Sci.Nat of RockRidge Partnership and Associates under the direct supervision of Mr. Michael Dufresne, M.Sc., P.Geol., P.Geo. Mr. Dufresne is an independent "qualified person" (as such term is defined in National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") with APEX and takes responsibility for the MRE. The Northshore Project drill hole database, QA/QC protocols and corresponding sample preparation and shipment procedures have been reviewed by Mr. Michael Dufresne and are deemed to be of sufficient quality for resource modelling. The drill hole database contains a total of 168 drill holes with 17,686 sample intervals in a sample database with 17,326 samples assayed for gold. Of all the holes drilled, 14 were completed by RSG and the balance by previous operators. A total of 20 holes (ddh) were drilled between 1990 and 1991, with 7 ddh in 1997, 20 ddh between 2006 and 2007, 53 ddh between 2012 and 2013, 51 ddh in 2016, 3 ddh in 2018, and 14 ddh holes competed by RSG in 2021. Standard statistical treatments were conducted on the raw and composite samples resulting in a capping limit of 30.0 g/t Au for the Northshore Project. The MRE is based on the combination of geological modeling, geostatistics and conventional block modeling using Ordinary Kriging (OK) for gold grade interpolation. Modelling was conducted in the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) coordinate space relative to the North American Datum (NAD) 1983, Zone 16N. The mineralization domains utilized an approximate lower cut-off of 0.15g/t Au for the interpretation of mineralization shapes. The resource block model utilized a block size of 5m (X) x 5m (Y) x 2.5m (Z), allowing for a maximum of 4 sub-blocks in X and Y and 2 sub-blocks in Z to honour the mineralization domain wireframe volume. The MRE is undiluted and only considers the volume of the blocks falling inside the mineralization domains. Estimation for gold was completed using 5,221 composited samples from inside the estimation domain wireframes. The search ellipsoid used to select samples for each block estimate was defined by the modelled variogram ranges. Block grade estimation was undertaken in 4 successive passes using factors of the variogram ranges to define the search ellipsoid size. Density measurements by previous operators included a total of 21 representative drill core samples that were submitted to a laboratory. An average density value of 2.74g/cm was determined to be representative for the Afric zone. It was decided to apply a global bulk density of 2.7t/m to the MRE. No distinction was made between mineralized and non-mineralized rock. The unconstrained resource block model was subjected to several LG open pit optimization scenarios utilizing a number of gold prices, mining cost scenarios and recovery factors typical of Ontario mining operations and advanced projects. The Northshore final MRE pit shell utilized a gold price of $1,750/ounce and recoveries of 95% with appropriate mining and processing costs typical of near surface open pittable resources in Ontario. Mr. Dufresne considers the pit parameters presented below are appropriate to evaluate the reasonable prospect for potential future economic extraction at the Northshore Gold Project for the purpose of providing an MRE. The updated resources presented are not mineral reserves, and they do not have demonstrated economic viability. There is no guarantee that any part of the resources defined by the updated MRE will be converted to a mineral reserve in future. Parameters used to constrain the MRE within an open pit shell Item Units Unit Cost Ore Mining Cost US$/tonne Ore $2.50 Waste Mining Cost US$/tonne Waste $2.50 G&A Cost US$/tonne Ore $4.50 Selling Cost US$/g $0.00 Process Cost US$/tonne Ore $15.00 Gold Recovery % 95.00% NSR Royalty % 0.00% Gold Price US$/Troy Oz $1,750.00 Pit Slope Degrees 50 Density g/m3 2.7 Independent Qualified Person Site Visit As part of the process to update the MRE on the Northshore Project, an independent site visit was carried out by personnel from APEX. During the site visit, APEX personnel selected several previously sampled intervals of drill core from the Northshore Deposit for verification analyses and sampled an interval of drill core from the 2021 drill program that was not previously sampled. A 67m interval of un-sampled drill core from 0-75.4m depth was collected from drill hole RSG21-069 and submitted it to ALS laboratories for analysis. Results from previously un-sampled drill core from RSG21-069 returned the following results. Hole From (metres) To (metres) Interval (metres) Average Au (g/t) RSG21-069 17.11 53.99 36.9 0.53 56.00 71.00 15.0 1.11 The current interpretation of the mineralization zone used to envelope the MRE has assumed that all un-sampled intervals of drill core contain zero grade, and in some areas, these un-sampled intervals influenced the margins of the estimation domains and the interpolation of grade within it. The identification of gold mineralization in previously un-sampled drill core prompted the company to review the total meterage of un-sampled drill core within the footprint of the current Northshore resource model and within 200m of the topographic surface. In addition to the un-sampled interval in drill hole RSG21-069, a total of 864m of un-sampled core from 22 drill holes was identified and is available for resampling. Within the Northshore Project's Afric Zone there are two dominant styles of gold mineralization: gold occurs in variably oriented discrete, narrow, quartz-carbonate veins within broader structural corridors of quartz-carbonate vein stockworks hosted within altered felsic intrusive rocks. Previous operators have produced differing interpretations of mineralized trends that are associated with the structural and lithological setting at Northshore. None of the previous drill programs carried out by a variety of operators, incorporated oriented drill core. Furthermore, the historical drill logging from different drill campaigns has lacked consistent structural and lithological coding that would allow a more detailed correlative geological and structural interpretation for the current MRE. APEX personnel have recommended that all available drill core be re logged using consistent coding for lithology, intensity of alteration, structure and mineralization. The relogging exercise would provide a consistent dataset for re interpretation of the historical drilling, which may assist in identifying the structural controls or more importantly, the specific boundaries of mineralized corridors which could then be modelled for future resource estimates. This exercise may also indicate specific areas where there are opportunities to extend the known zones of mineralization at the Afric Zone. Any future drilling at Northshore should utilize oriented drill core and all drill core should be sampled. The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Michael B. Dufresne, M. Sc., P. Geol., P.Geo., who is a "qualified person" (as such term is defined in NI 43-101). First Nations Consultation The Company continues to consult with Pays Plat First Nation, a key stakeholder in Northshore. Notwithstanding, Northshore Property consists of both patented and unpatented mineral claims, until the Company has satisfied the First Nation's requirements for consultation and obtained a social license to conduct work on the project, the Company will not move forward with any field-based work programs and will focus on further analysis of historical work and data as recommended by APEX. Pays Plat's has identified a number of issues of concern relating to the Worthington Bay area, which the Company will seek to mitigate. Management Commentary Mr. Alex McAulay, Chief Executive Officer and Director, comments: "The updated MRE gives the Company a baseline resource to expand upon and is in full compliance with current NI 43-101 standards for resource reporting. As part of the Company's strategic review process previously outlined, it was imperative to assess the current and future potential of each asset within the portfolio and define a path forward to grow the business, while working in coordination with all project stakeholders. I am pleased with the progress and open dialog we have established with the Plays Plat Nation and other First Nations groups. We will continue to strive for best-in-class social and community engagement as part of our corporate culture and business model going forward." About Ready Set Gold Corp. Ready Set Gold Corp. is a precious metals exploration company listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange under symbol RDY. The Company has consolidated and now owns a 100% interest of the Northshore Gold Property located in the prolific Schreiber-Hemlo Greenstone Belt near Thunder Bay, which is prospective for gold and silver mineralization. On Behalf of the Board of Directors, READY SET GOLD CORP. "Alexander McAulay" Chief Executive Officer Email: amcaulay@readysetgoldcorp.com CEO Direct Line: +1 (604) 365-0425 www.readysetgoldcorp.com Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information This news release may contain certain "forward-looking information". Forward-looking information included in this news release include statements regarding consultations with Pays Plat First Nation, completion of a new resource estimate, and an update to the Company's strategy and matters to be acted upon thereat. Forward-looking information is based upon the assumptions and estimates considered reasonable by management of the Company, in light of its experience and knowledge of current trends and opportunities. Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions, and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Risks that may cause the forward looking information contained herein to be materially different from the future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information contained herein include, but are not limited to, risks that the filing of the technical report pertaining to the MRE may be delayed due to the busy nature of the mineral exploration industry currently, the Company's inability to access the project, COVID-19 pandemic related delays; and Indigenous consultation has no set timeline and could cause substantial delays to conducting work on the projects. As a result, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. Any statement containing forward looking information speaks only as of the date of this news release and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/136480 Paris, 9 September 2022 Roche Bobois SA (ISIN: FR0013344173 - Ticker symbol: RBO), high-end furniture global market leader and the name behind the French Art de Vivre, announces it has exercised a unilateral purchase option for three franchised stores located in Atlanta, Houston and Dallas in the United States. This purchase option, which was scheduled to have an exercise right deferred over the period from January 2022 to June 2023, is part of the Share Purchase Agreement (SPA) signed in November 2020 under which Roche Bobois committed to a two-phase acquisition of six stores. The Group consolidated three initial stores located in San Francisco, Seattle and Portland at the date of signature of the SPA. As part of this acquisition, Roche Bobois will take over the entirety of the business, inventories and staff of the three stores based in Atlanta, Houston and Dallas. The Group will operate these 3 showrooms with a total surface area of 2,500 m2, without, however, owning the premises. With this acquisition, Roche Bobois SA confirms its strategy to establish a strong regional presence in the United States, the largest contributing country to revenue and significantly value-creating for the Group with very high EBITDA, in line with the brand's standards in the United States. In 2021, these three stores reported retail sales of US$11.6m (up 54% versus the 2020 financial year). The Group plans to carry out development work to further enhance the potential for retail sales and profitability in its three stores. This accretive acquisition, which will be completed in the coming three months, will have a positive effect on growth in revenue and on the Group's consolidated EBITDA margin as of 2023. Change of date - Next releases : First-half 2022 results on 13 September 2022 after market close About ROCHE BOBOIS SA ROCHE BOBOIS SA is a French family business founded in 1960. The Group operates in 55 countries and has a network of 336 owned stores and franchises (at 30 June 2022) marketing its two brands: Roche Bobois, a high-end furniture brand with a strong international presence, and Cuir Center, positioned in the mid-range market segment with an essentially French customer base. Through its Roche Bobois brand, the Group embodies the French Art de Vivre whose presence can now be felt on the world stage, with original and bold creations from talented designers (Bruno Moinard, Jean Nouvel, Ora Ito, Sacha Lakic, Christophe Delcourt, Stephen Burks, Kenzo Takada, Bina Baitel, etc.) and partnerships with fashion and haute couture houses. Roche Bobois is also a committed partner in the world of culture and the arts. Including franchises, these two brands posted 2021 retail sales of 639.6 million excluding VAT, to which Roche Bobois contributed 532.4 million and Cuir Center 107.2 million. Roche Bobois SA's consolidated revenue in 2021 was 334 million. For more information please visit www.finance-roche-bobois.com CONTACT Actus Finance - Anne-Pauline PETUREAUX Investor Relations Tel.: 01 53 67 36 72/ apetureaux@actus.fr Actus Finance - Serena BONI Media Relations Tel.: 04 72 18 04 92 / sboni@actus.fr ------------------------ This publication embed "Actusnews SECURITY MASTER ". - SECURITY MASTER Key: l2lwZsloZ5yUynCalZ6XmJSVa5dixJPIZpLKmGZvmJaYbG6VlZuUmZuaZnBnlmpv - Check this key: https://www.security-master-key.com. ------------------------ Copyright Actusnews Wire Receive by email the next press releases of the company by registering on www.actusnews.com, it's free Full and original release in PDF format:https://www.actusnews.com/documents_communiques/ACTUS-0-76159-pr_roche_bobois_franchise_usa.pdf Members of South Korea's Hanbit unit in South Sudan pose for the camera, in this undated photo released by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Yonhap Korean troops on peace missions in Lebanon, South Sudan and other countries have delivered public messages highlighting their security commitments on the front lines of military diplomacy, as they marked the Chuseok fall harvest holiday. The Joint Chiefs of Staff released the messages from overseas contingents, such as the Dongmyeong unit operating as part of the U.N. Interim Forces in Lebanon, the peacekeeping Habit unit in South Sudan, the anti-piracy Cheonghae unit in waters off Somalia and the Akh unit in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) The messages were delivered ahead of the Chuseok holiday which falls on Saturday. "All service members of our Dongmyeong unit will do our utmost to carry out the peacekeeping mission in Lebanon based on our pride in being representatives of South Korea," a unit member was quoted as saying. First deployed to Lebanon in 2007, the Dongmyeong unit has engaged in various activities such as providing medical, educational and other services to locals. Dongmyeong means east light in Korean. Members of the Akh unit underscored their role as military diplomats. "On the back of your support, we have been doing our best for military cooperation with the UAE military and will fulfill our mission based on our pride in our role as representatives of Korea, as well as military diplomats," an Akh member said in a taped message released to the press. Since its first deployment in 2011, the Akh unit has been tasked with various missions, such as training UAE troops and protecting Korean nationals in the region in case of emergencies. Akh means brother in Arabic. Troops in South Sudan also looked full of confidence about their peace operations. "On the basis of our citizens' backing, we are conducting a mission to help restore peace in South Sudan," a member of the Hanbit unit was quoted as saying. "We, as a single unit, will continue to complete our mission until our last day here." Launched in 2013, the Hanbit unit has carried out reconstruction support activities, such as the construction and repairs of airports, roads and bridges. Hanbit means one bright light in Korean. Navy personnel of the Cheonghae unit stressed their focus on improving maritime security "anywhere in the world." "Though it's a little sad that we cannot reunite with our family during the holiday, we will be with our citizens in any part of the world where they need us," a unit member said in a video message. Since its birth as Seoul's first overseas naval unit in 2009, the unit aboard a 4,400-ton destroyer, has led a slew of operations to counter pirate attacks, escort South Korean and foreign ships, and rescue others in distress mostly in the Gulf of Aden. Cheonghae means blue sea in Korean. At the vanguard of the country's military diplomacy are more than 1,000 South Korean troops operating in many countries, mostly in conflict zones, for reconstruction, armistice monitoring and other peacekeeping missions. (Yonhap) STOCKHOLM, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Polygon Switzerland strengthens its property damage restoration (PDR) business by acquiring Odermatt Group. Odermatt Group is a leading provider in the Swiss market with excellent services, specialized in window repairs and replacement. Annual sales are about CHF 20 million with 65 employees. With this strategic acquisition Polygon strengthens its growth strategy in the small as well as large claims business in Switzerland, by leveraging on Odermatt's unique skill sets and complementary customer base. Polygon is the major world-wide player in property damage control, providing solutions to prevent control and mitigate all kinds of property damage. Polygon's target is to be number 1 in each country in which we operate. Odermatt Group HQ is based in Galgenen and is operating nationwide through multiple companies in Switzerland: Hegner Fenster AG, Odermatt Fenster + Turen AG and Fenster Doktor AG. The Odermatt Group is the market leader for its segment in Switzerland, with high presence in the higher populated Zurich and surroundings. "The acquisition of Odermatt follows our long-term target to be the market leader in all countries we operate in. Odermatt will enable Polygon to build up our competence center for window repair & replacement for our PDR activities. I'm very pleased to welcome our new Swiss colleagues to our family", says Axel Granitz, President and CEO Polygon Group. "Odermatt will expand the service footprint of Polygon Switzerland to serve our customers even more efficiently. We will also be able to support our neighbor countries with this service", says Fabian Burri, Country President Polygon Switzerland. "We are happy to become a part of Polygon, an international leading player and we are looking forward to grow together", says Sandro Odermatt, Managing Director at Odermatt Group. CONTACT: For more information, please visit www.polygongroup.com or contact Martin Hamner, Chief Financial Officer, martin.hamner@polygongroup.com, +46 70 607 85 79 This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/polygon/r/polygon-strengthening-their-market-in-switzerland-by-the-acquisition-of-odermatt-group,c3628183 The following files are available for download: STOCKHOLM, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Almost a year to the date it opened its investigation, the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority has concluded that EQT managed its disclosure and information correctly and appropriately throughout the revision of the firm's lock-up structure. The SFSA and EQT have had a professional dialogue from the opening of the inquiry by the SFSA on 14 September 2021 until it was closed on 8 September 2022. Christian Sinding, CEO of EQT, commented: "We are pleased the inquiry has been concluded and found EQT to have acted correctly and appropriately. We always strive to act with the highest levels of integrity, given our focus on being the most reputable investor and owner. We took the handling of information very seriously throughout the lock-up revision process and are satisfied that this matter is now resolved." Contact EQT Press Office, press@eqtpartners.com, +46 8 506 55 334 This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/eqt/r/eqt-ab-welcomes-the-closure-of-the-swedish-financial-supervisory-authority-s-inquiry-regarding-eqt-s,c3628468 The following files are available for download: DIVIDEND DECLARATION FlexShares ICAV (the "Fund") wishes to announce the following details with respect to an interim dividend to be paid with respect to the following sub-fund: Sub-Fund:FlexShares Emerging Markets High Dividend Climate ESG UCITS ETF ISIN: IE00BMYDBH24 Declaration Date: 08/09/2022 Ex-Date: 15/09/2022 Record Date: 16/09/2022 Payment Date:28/09/2022 Dividend Rate: 0.2737 Currency: USD Type: Confirmed Please note that the above dates are in respect of the primary market of the Fund. All dividend proceeds are paid in the Fund's base currency (USD). The amount that is actually received by an investor will depend on whether the investor receives the proceeds in the same currency as the base currency of the Fund. If an investor will receive the proceeds in a currency other than the base currency of the Fund, then the amount the investor will receive will be affected by the FX rate at which the investor's broker/nominee converts the proceeds. If you purchased your investment on the secondary market (for example, on a stock exchange), please liaise with your broker/nominee. As a large proportion of the Fund's shareholders are broker/nominees who hold the shares in the Fund on behalf of their underlying investor clients, it is up to the relevant brokers/nominees to ensure that the proceeds are distributed to their underlying investor clients in accordance with the contractual arrangements they have in place with their clients. Should you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact FlexShares: Tel: +44 207 982 1866 Email: EMEA_FlexShares@ntrs.com ___________________________ Director FlexShares ICAV 08/09/2022 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. HELSINKI (dpa-AFX) - Finland's industrial production declined in July, after rising in the previous three months, data from Statistics Finland showed on Friday. Industrial production fell a seasonally adjusted 2.4 percent month-on-month in July, reversing a 1.1 percent increase in the prior month. Among sectors, production fell the most in electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply segment, by 5.9 percent. This was followed by a 1.6 percent decrease in manufacturing output. Meanwhile, output produced in the mining and quarrying sector was 6.8 percent higher compared to June. On a yearly basis, industrial production growth eased sharply to 2.8 percent in July from 8.4 percent in the preceding month. Separate data from the statistical office showed that manufacturing new orders fell 5.0 percent annually in July, in contrast to an 8.7 percent gain in June. The metal industry logged the biggest decline in orders at 11.7 percent. 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. European countries face an 'energy trilemma' in balancing 'security sustainability and affordability', with no optimal outcome, according to energy industry veteran Julio Dal Poz DOUGLAS, Isle of Man, Sept. 09, 2022, the climate change podcast produced by United Renewables and the London Business School Alumni Energy Club. 'There will be tough choices' 'There's a big balance between security, and price, and the green energy transition,' particularly following the invasion of Ukraine, said Chris Caldwell, clean energy entrepreneur and host of the podcast. 'How do you balance all of those issues up?' Dal Poz - who now works as a consultant with energy firms making the transition to net-zero - responded with a clear warning to anyone who felt there would be an easy solution for energy markets. 'My take is that there is no optimum space in the middle. This is an inherently unstable system where you have to keep resolving those trade-offs as you go along. And there will be tough choices along the way.' Energy crisis not slowing down in 2022 Europe's energy crisis has only worsened this year, as supply-chain issues following the pandemic collided with Russia's invasion of Ukraine and subsequent sanctions. With natural gas imports through the Nord Stream pipeline seriously restricted by the conflict, and global competition for ship-borne gas supplies increasing from Asia, Europe's benchmark gas price hit a record peak of $341/MWh earlier this year. There are already fears that wholesale prices could spike by another 60% this winter. As a result, European countries such as Germany, Austria and Italy are turning their old coal-powered stations back on, despite pledging to move away from dirtier fuels. To Dal Poz, this is an expected outcome of Europe's energy problems - with roots that pre-date the invasion of Ukraine. 'If you have price spikes because you have a cost to your firm of one or another source of energy, you run the risk of the public backlash against some of the energy transition measures that you're taking - against the whole idea of net zero - because "we can't afford that,"' he explained. Alongside a return to secure domestic energy sources, Dal Poz also expects further government intervention in market pricing, such as changes to fuel taxes. Renewables offer 'insulation' from market chaos Dal Poz does see a path through these problems - but only with a radical change in Europe's energy mix. 'My theory - and I think that this is an inherent part of the journey - is that more and more countries will look at renewables as a way to solve some of those issues,' he declared. 'If you have a bigger share of renewable production, basically, you're also insulating yourself from some of the global commodity markets,' allowing countries to ride out external crises with domestic production. In his conversation with Caldwell - himself an expert in renewable energy production - Dal Poz recognised there would be challenges, from retrofitting infrastructure to dealing with intermittency and storage. But he remains hopeful that clean energy offers a way out of the trilemma, because 'all those things can be solved, and that is the exciting part of the industry these days - there is a lot of innovation.' The Conversations on Climatepodcast invites leading thinkers, business leaders and academic experts to offer their expertise to the clean energy debate. Hosted by United Renewablesfounder and CEO Chris Caldwell, it has previously hosted guests such as Paul Beijerand Professor Jean-Pierre Benoit. Julio Dal Poz's discussion with Chris will be released on Friday 9th September 2022, with a full video interview available here All previous episodes can be found here. For more information and contact details for Conversations on Climate or United Renewables go here. CONTACT Isabella Hawke - Sales and Marketing Consultant COMPANY United Renewables PHONE +447624457139 EMAIL IIhawke@unitedrenewables.co.uk WEB unitedrenewables.co.uk/resources A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f99cd189-9b45-4e27-bdf1-f555ad58c62d Press release Atos earns 'Europe's Best Workplaces' certification from Great Place to Work Paris, France - September9, 2022- Atos today announces that it has been listed for the first time by Great Place to Work as one of 'Europe's Best Workplaces' in the 2022 annual list. It is ranked 21st position in the multinational company category. In addition to this it has also been listed on Great Place to Work's 'Best Workplaces' lists in Austria, Greece and Poland. This recognition from Great Place to Work acknowledges the company's strong commitment to its employees. This certification is based on direct feedback from all employees, that assesses employee experience via its Trust Index, evaluating Credibility, Respect, Pride, Camaraderie and Fairness. Atos has Great Place to Work certifications for 13 countries and 12 entities across Europe, and across 32 countries and 42 entities worldwide. With headquarters in France, Atos has 44,500 employees in Europe, spread across 31 countries and a total of 112,000 employees worldwide in 71 countries. Atos fosters professional development that engages employees' minds, inspires their creativity, and develops careers. The Group offers Atos employees a flexible working environment, which includes offering remote or hybrid work to those who are eligible. "This certification shows our commitment to developing a positive and supportive work environment - a place where our employees have control of their careers and can develop in an inclusive, creative, responsible and collaborative workplace. We make it our priority to continuously improve our way of working together, covering integration, communication, collaboration, digital support, development, engagement, social responsibility and ultimately employee satisfaction which also leads to improved customer satisfaction."said Paul Peterson, Chief HR Officer, Atos. "A great workplace is about creating flexible working environments where anyone can thrive, no matter who they are or what they do for the business. Our data shows that great workplaces benefit from stronger financial performance, reduced turnover, and better customer satisfaction than their peers. Congratulations to the Best Workplaces in Europe in 2022!" said Lea Binet-Ferte,Deputy General Manager, Great Place to Work. Great Place to Work identifies the Best Workplaces in Europe by analyzing companies' workplace programs and surveying over half a million employees across multiple countries about the key factors that create great workplaces for all. Great Place to Work is the global authority on high-trust, high-performance workplace cultures. Through proprietary assessment tools, advisory services, and certification programs, GPTW recognizes the world's Best Workplaces in a series of national lists. Great Place to Work provides the benchmarks, framework, and expertise needed to create, sustain, and recognize outstanding workplace cultures. *** Additional information Across all the company size categories (small, medium, large and multinational) the winning lists were drawn from 3000+ organizations, with over 1.4 million employees represented from 21 participating countries. 150 organizations received an award. To be considered in the Great Place to Work's 'Europe's Best Workplaces' 2022 annual list., companies must first be identified as outstanding in their local region by appearing on one or more of its Best Workplaces lists in Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Turkey and United Kingdom during 2021 or early 2022. Companies rank in three size categories: Small (10-49 employees); Medium (50-499 employees); Large (500+); and Multinational. Multinational organizations are also assessed on their efforts to create great workplaces across multiple countries in the region. They must appear on at least three national lists in Europe and have at least 1,000 employees worldwide with at least 40% (or 5,000) of those employees located outside the headquarters country. About Atos Atos is a global leader in digital transformation with 112,000 employees and annual revenue of c. 11 billion. European number one in cybersecurity, cloud and high performance computing, the Group provides tailored end-to-end solutions for all industries in 71 countries. A pioneer in decarbonization services and products, Atos is committed to a secure and decarbonized digital for its clients. Atos is a SE (Societas Europaea), listed on Euronext Paris and included in the CAC 40 ESG and Next 20 Paris Stock indexes. The purpose of Atosis to help design the future of the information space. Its expertise and services support the development of knowledge, education and research in a multicultural approach and contribute to the development of scientific and technological excellence. Across the world, the Group enables its customers and employees, and members of societies at large to live, work and develop sustainably, in a safe and secure information space. Press contact Laura Fau | laura.fau@atos.net| +33 6 73 64 04 18 | @ laurajanefau Attachment Press release September 9, 2022 Edenred joins the Euronext CAC 40 ESG index Edenred, the world leader in earmarked funds solutions, will join the Paris stock exchange's Euronext CAC 40 ESG index on September 19, 2022, taking its placealongside other companies demonstratingoutstanding environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices. The Euronext CAC 40 ESG index brings together the 40 companies in the CAC Large 60 index with the best environmental, social and governance practices, based on an independent assessment by Moody's ESG Solutions. Edenred's inclusion in the Euronext CAC 40 ESG index is recognition of the Group's commitment to sustainable development. This commitment is embodied in its ambitious "Ideal" ESG policy, its portfolio of digital solutions enabling more responsible behaviors and its purpose, "Enrich connections. For good." Bertrand Dumazy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said:"Edenred is proudto have been selected by Euronext to join the CAC 40 ESG index. This distinctionrewards our commitment to sustainable developmentthrough our "Ideal" policy, which is measured viaconcrete targets for 2022 and 2030. Moreover, thanks to our digital solutions that promotemore virtuous behaviors every day in areas such as balanced nutrition, soft mobility and financial inclusion, Edenred is helping to make the working world a better place for everyone, each and every day. This recognition is a tribute to our purpose - 'Enrich connections. For good.' -and to our 10,000 employeesin 45 countries worldwide, whom I would like to thank here." Ambitious ESGcommitments supporting sustainable and responsible value creation As a signatory of the United Nations (UN) Global Compact, Edenred is contributing to 12 of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In particular, thanks to its digital earmarked funds platform, Edenred is creating ecosystems that help combat the informal economy, fraud, food insecurity, inequality and climate change. The Group also draws on its "Ideal" ESG policy launched in 2017, which is based on three pillars and ten key indicators: Ideal People: improve quality of life Ideal Planet: preserve the environment Ideal Progress: create value responsibly Edenred is confident in its ability to achieve or exceed its targets for 2022. Edenred's commitment has been recognized by several ESG rating organizations. The Group is part of the FTSE4Good ethical investment stock market index, for example, and received a score of 79 out of 100 from S&P Global Ratings in 2022 - well above the average score for companies evaluated worldwide. Moody's ESG Solutions also rewarded Edenred's performance this year by increasing the Group's score by 5 points, thus raising Edenred's status from "Robust" to "Advanced". ?? About Edenred Edenred, the everyday companion for people at work, is a leading digital platform for services and payments which connects over 50 million users and 2 million partner merchants in 45 countries via approximately 900,000 corporate clients. Edenred offers specific-purpose payment solutions for food (such as meal benefits), incentives (such as gift cards, employee engagement platforms), mobility (such as multi-energy, maintenance, toll, parking and commuter solutions) and corporate payments (such as virtual cards). True to the Group's purpose, "Enrich connections. For good.", these solutions enhance users' well-being and purchasing power. They improve companies' attractiveness and efficiency and vitalize the employment market and the local economy. They also foster access to healthier food, more environmentally friendly products and softer mobility. Edenred's 10,000 employees are committed to making the world of work a connected ecosystem that is safer, more efficient and more responsible every day. In 2021, thanks to its global technology assets, the Group managed close to 30 billion in business volume, primarily carried out via mobile applications, online platforms and cards. Edenred is listed on the Euronext Paris stock exchange and included in the following indices: CAC Next 20, CAC Large 60, Euronext 100, FTSE4Good and MSCI Europe. The logos and other trademarks mentioned and featured in this press release are registered trademarks of Edenred S.E., its subsidiaries or third parties. They may not be used for commercial purposes without prior written consent from their owners. ?? CONTACTS Communications Department Emmanuelle Chatelain +33 (0)1 86 67 24 36 emmanuelle.chatelain@edenred.com (mailto:emmanuelle.chatelain@edenred.com) Media Relations Matthieu Santalucia +33 (0)1 86 67 22 63 matthieu.santalucia@edenred.com (mailto:matthieu.santalucia@edenred.com) Investor Relations Cedric Appert +33 (0)1 86 67 24 99 cedric.appert@edenred.com Baptiste Fournier +33 (0)1 86 67 20 73 baptiste.fournier@edenred.com Attachment 9 SEPTEMBER 2022 Pensana Plc ("Pensana" or the "Company") Results of General Meeting Pensana is pleased to announce that at the General Meeting (GM) held earlier today both the special resolutions as set out in the Notice of GM dated 23 August 2022 were passed by the requisite majority of votes cast by proxy. The total number of Pensana ordinary shares ("Shares") eligible to vote at the GM is 245,579,249. The total number of votes cast and the number of votes withheld in respect of each resolution and the number and percentage of votes for and against each resolution are as follows: Special Resolution 1: To disapply pre-emption rights in respect of the issue of shares to Fundo Soberano de Angola. Votes cast Votes withheld For Against 72,796,340 11,230 72,653,818 (99.80%) 142,522 (0.20%) Special Resolution 2: To disapply pre-emption rights. Votes cast Votes withheld For Against 72,796,340 11,230 72,706,382 (99.88%) 89,958 (0.12%) -ENDS- For further information, please contact: Shareholder/analyst enquiries: Pensana Plc Paul Atherley, Chairman IR@pensana.co.uk Tim George, Chief Executive Officer Rob Kaplan, Chief Financial Officer George Zacharias, Group Company Secretary Media enquiries: FGS Global: Gordon Simpson / Richard Crowley Pensana-LON@fgsglobal.com About Pensana Plc The electrification of motive power is by far the most important part of the energy transition and one of the biggest energy transitions in history. Magnet metal rare earths are central to the transition away from internal combustion engines and critical to electric vehicles and offshore wind turbines. Pensana plans to establish Saltend as an independent and sustainable processing hub supplying the key magnet metal oxides to a market which is currently dominated by China. The US$195 million Saltend facility is being designed to produce 12,500 tonnes per annum of rare earth oxides, of which 4,500-5,000 tonnes will be neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr), representing over 5% of the world market in 2025. Pensana's plug-and-play facility is located within the world-class Saltend Chemicals Park, a cluster of leading chemicals and renewable energy businesses in the Humber Freeport and will create over 500 jobs during construction and over 125 direct jobs once in production. It will be the first major separation facility to be established in over a decade and will become one of only three major producers located outside China. Pensana is aiming to establish Saltend as an attractive alternative for mining companies who may otherwise be limited to selling their products to China, having designed the facility to be easily adapted to cater for a range of rare earth feedstocks. www.pensana.co.uk IndoVac Covid-19 vaccine in production at PT Bio Farma's facilities near Bandung, Indonesia (Image: PT Bio Farma) Bandung, W Java, Indonesia, Sept 9, 2022 - (ACN Newswire) - PT Bio Farma, the holding company for state-owned pharmaceutical companies in Indonesia, announced a new milestone in the manufacturing of IndoVac, a Covid-19 vaccine brand it has developed since November 2021.Honesti Baasyir, the President Director of PT Bio Farma, said the company collaborated with Baylor College of Medicine, a private, independent health sciences centre in Houston, Texas to develop IndoVac, a recombinant protein subunit vaccine produced from yeast.PT Bio Farma has completed Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials and is currently in the Phase 3 stage to produce the primary series vaccines or two vaccine doses for everyone aged 18 years and older."IndoVac uses vaccine technology platforms which are compatible with the equipment and facilities within our factories. The technology platforms for protein recombinant vaccines also offer other benefits: they can be adapted to the new strains of Covid-19. Results from Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials showed that IndoVac offers quality safety and efficacy, not less competitive than other Covid-19 vaccines. Now we are completing a report to wrap up Phase 3."Honesti said, Bio Farma has had intense communication with the Indonesian Food and Drug Administration (BPOM) since July 2022 to provide the necessary data, so that BPOM can release the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) permit for IndoVac's primary series vaccines in the near term.The EUA, released by a country's regulatory agency, is a permit for medical supplies (including vaccines) and medications during a public health emergency. In Indonesia, BPOM plays the key role as a regulatory gatekeeper of medicines and vaccines used in the country.BPOM's head Penny K. Lukito, during a hearing with Commission IX at the Indonesian House of Representatives, has said that the regulator expects to release the EUA for IndoVac's primary series vaccines in mid-September 2022.Shariah ComplianceBio Farma also has processed the Halal (or Shariah compliant) certification for IndoVac's primary series vaccines to provide comfort to Indonesian Muslim consumers. The vaccines have passed an audit from The Indonesian Ulema Council Food and Drug Analysis Agency (LPPOM MUI), which reviews the halal aspect of a product.The certificate from the Halal Certification Agency (BPJPH) under the Religious Affairs Ministry is expected to be released in the near term after BPOM release the EUA for IndoVac.After securing all the necessary permits, Bio Farma is ready to move on to the next stage, which is producing IndoVac's primary series vaccines massively. At the first stage, Bio Farma plans to produce a maximum of 20 million doses of primary series vaccines, before this can be further increased to 40 million doses in 2023, as the company expands its production facilities.In 2024, the company may further increase the volume to 100 million doses per year, depending on the demands and needs in the markets. Honesti said after the company has secured all the necessary permits, then IndoVac's primary series vaccines "can be massively used by people aged 18 and above."Booster Vaccine and Vaccine for ChildrenAt the same time, Bio Farma also started clinical trials for its booster vaccine on September 1, 2022. "We have secured approval for a clinical trial (PPUK) from BPOM for IndoVac booster vaccine," Honesti said. Next, Bio Farma plans to conduct clinical trials for children after it secures PPUK from BPOM.Bio Farma conducted clinical trials for its booster vaccine at Hasan Sadikin General Hospital (Faculty of Medicine of Padjajaran University, Bandung) and Dr. I.G.N.G Ngoerah General Hospital in Bali (Children's Health Sciences Department, Udayana University). Trials involved 900 subjects aged 8 and above to test IndoVac's booster vaccines.BPOM requires vaccine manufacturers to conduct clinical trials to decide if a vaccine is safe and can boost immunity against Covid-19, and to determine whether the vaccine offers good efficacy to help protect the subjects from heavy symptoms and risks of fatalities due to Covid-19 infection.All Covid-19 vaccines made by Bio Farma, including the primary series, booster vaccines and vaccines for children, will be labelled IndoVac. Bio Farma started the process of registering IndoVac as a brand name for Covid-19 vaccines at the Directorate General of Intellectual Property (DGIP) of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights on July 29.President Joko Widodo gave the IndoVac name to the vaccine. "We are in the process of securing it. Should no-one object at this level, we will proceed to the next stage until we secure an IndoVac trade licence and patent from the ministry, as a product of Bio Farma," Honesti said.For Bio Farma, it is not the first time embarking on clinical trials. The company has conducted more than 30 clinical trials in Indonesia. This includes the Phase 3 clinical trials for the Covid-19 vaccine. Bio Farma also has experience in conducting clinical trials overseas for Pentabio and Novel Oral Polio Vaccine type 2 (nOPV2).Made-in-Indonesia VaccinesHonesti Basyir said IndoVac is special as one of the few made-in-Indonesia vaccine products. The vaccines (which include the primary series vaccines, the booster vaccines and vaccines for children) are developed and manufactured for nation's children. Bio Farma handles the manufacturing process from upstream to downstream.The local contents of IndoVac's primary series vaccines, according to Bio Farma, will be around 80%. "This is a step closer to achieving independence in the health sector. With such a high proportion of local content, we expect to help reduce the nation's dependency on imported vaccines. This will also impact foreign exchange reserves," Honesti said.In the long term, Bio Farma hopes to capture the export market with IndoVac vaccines. "We will not only produce them (the three types of vaccines) to meet domestic needs but also target the supply of global markets," he said."We registered for Emergency Use Listing (EUL) with the World Health Organization (for primary series), so this vaccine can be used in other countries through the Covax Facility (multilateral procurement). Through its Covid-19 vaccines, Bio Farma expects to contribute to the health industry, not just in Indonesia, but also to the world."Bio Farma's Success in Polio VaccineHonesti said apart from manufacturing Covid-19 primary series vaccines, which is currently waiting for the results of Phase 3 clinical trials and the EUA, Bio Farma has previously proven that it can secure the EUA from BPOM and the EUL from the WHO for its novel Oral Polio Vaccine type 2 (nOPV2).The EUL, which is released by the WHO, is a procedure for assessing and listing vaccines during public health emergencies by non-vaccine-producing countries. As Indonesia hasn't had any polio outbreaks since 2014, it never used nOPV2. The Bio Farma-manufactured vaccine was used by countries in Africa, Europe and the Middle East.Among the countries that have used Bio Farma's nOPV2's vaccine are Algeria, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, and Uganda. In Europe, the vaccine was used in Ukraine and in the Middle East, it was used in Israel, Egypt, Somalia and Yemen.In the manufacturing of nOPV2 vaccine, Bio Farma collaborated with world-class research institutions like Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), PATH and the WHO. Bio Farma has become the main supplier for the polio vaccine in the world. The company currently contributes 67 percent to the global supply of polio vaccines. It distributes the vaccines via bilateral or multilateral means (through UNICEF).Apart from producing polio vaccines, Bio Farma's Laboratories have secured international acknowledgement as the reference labs to check samples of polioviruses. The world was previously waiting for two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan, to combat polio diseases, before a 'world-free polio' can be declared. However, during the wait, polio outbreaks occurred in Africa and the Middle East.The nOPV2 vaccine became an important product to prevent further spread of the polio disease. Bio Farma's success in producing and exporting nOPV2 vaccine means that the Indonesian state-owned company has contributed to the world's health sector, apart from providing the necessary polio vaccine for domestic use at home in Indonesia.Media Contact:R. Rifa HerdianPT Bio Farma (Persero)Corporate Secretary & Investor RelationsTel: +62-81-2542-8844Email: rifaherdian@biofarma.co.idSource: BUMNPT Bio Farma (Persero)Copyright 2022 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved. Supplying weapons will not bring peace to Ukraine: Chinese envoy Xinhua) 10:36, September 09, 2022 UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy warned on Thursday that supplying weapons to Ukraine will not bring peace. More than six months after the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis, fierce fighting is still raging on and more weapons and ammunition are flowing to the battlefield, giving rise to a worrying prospect of a prolonged and expanded conflict, said Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations. Since the beginning of the crisis, China has consistently emphasized that supplying weapons will not bring peace and that adding fuel to fire will only complicate the problem. The harsh reality and humanitarian consequences of the past six months have fully demonstrated this, he told a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine. Equally worrying is the scenario that a large number of weapons and ammunition falling into the wrong hands, causing endless trouble, and creating security risks in Ukraine and in the wider region. Relevant negative impact has already begun to emerge, he said. "China has always maintained that dialogue and negotiation is the most realistic and feasible way to resolve the crisis. Only by seeking common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable security can there be long-term stability and security in Europe and the rest of the world," he said. The Ukrainian crisis has once again proved in a brutal way that pursuing power politics, seeking absolute security, being obsessed with military power, and creating division and confrontation cannot bring peace and stability, nor reconciliation and tranquility. All parties concerned should remain in contact and communication, and leave room for diplomatic negotiations, so as to create conditions for a political settlement and achieve the cessation of hostilities at an early date, he added. On the issue of Ukraine, China has always believed that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states should be respected, the purposes and principles of the UN Charter should be followed, the legitimate security concerns of all countries should be taken seriously, and every effort conducive to the peaceful resolution of the crisis should be supported. China will continue to stand on the side of peace, the side of dialogue, and the side of humanity, and will play a constructive role in the proper settlement of the Ukraine crisis, said Geng. (Web editor: Liang Jun, Bianji) U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed the importance of friendship between South Korea and the United States on Thursday while congratulating Korea on its traditional holiday of "Chuseok." Chuseok is a major autumn harvest festival and national holiday in South Korea. He also highlighted the Korea-U.S. alliance as a key to security and joint prosperity. "On behalf of the United States of America, I wish the Korean people a joyous Chuseok holiday," the top U.S. diplomat said in a released statement. "Over the past two years, there have been many difficulties, but as we face these challenges, I am reminded of the importance of our relationships remaining strong and resilient. This Chuseok, we give thanks for the longstanding friendship between our two countries and the ever-closer relations that we are building towards in the future," he added. Blinken expressed hope that the two countries will continue to strengthen their relationship. "The enduring U.S.-Republic of Korea Alliance is built on our shared belief in a democratic and free global order. Together, we will tackle emerging challenges throughout the Indo-Pacific region and the world," he said. "I am confident that our friendship will promote peace, security and prosperity for our peoples and the global community." (Yonhap) WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Oil prices advanced on Friday but were on track for a weekly loss on worries about the demand outlook. Benchmark Brent crude futures climbed 1.8 percent to $90.79 a barrel, while crude futures were up 1.7 percent at $84.97. Both contracts were on track to post losses of about 3 percent for the week, marking their second straight week of losses. The Energy Information Administration report showed a large build-up of U.S. crude inventories of 8.8 million barrels last week, but analysts said the build was exaggerated by increased imports and ongoing releases from government emergency reserves. U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the Biden administration is weighing the need for further releases of crude oil from the nation's emergency stockpiles. Prices drew some support from the latest threat from Russia to choke off oil and gas supplies if price caps are imposed. EU ministers are meeting for emergency energy talks in Brussels today to consider a raft of measures to tackle the region's energy crisis. The bloc is split on the price-cap plan, with Hungary warning that a proposed European price cap on Russian natural gas will result in an immediate cut-off in supplies to Europe by Moscow. 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. YANTAI, China, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- This is a report from the Shandong Office of Hong Kong business daily. Yantai City, surrounded by mountains and seas, is located in the east of Shandong Peninsula, bordering on the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea. It has four distinct seasons and beautiful scenery. It is a famous tourist resort at home and abroad. On the occasion of the Mid Autumn Festival, in order to better let foreign media reporters have a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of Yantai, from September 7 to 8, the Information Office of the Yantai municipal government specially invited reporters from Russia's first TV station and Russia's Tass News agency to Yantai to visit some subsidiaries and units, and make moon cakes for the Mid Autumn Festival with Russian reporters. On December 28 last year, the development plan of Yantai Huang Bohai new area was officially released. Yantai has its own provincial-level new area. From the perspective of goal orientation, it is to build a high-level strategic hub for opening up to Northeast Asia, a demonstration area for a strong marine province, and a national high-end equipment manufacturing base. In the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea new area, Russian reporters visited the representative enterprise Rongchang biopharmaceutical on the spot. After more than ten years of development, Rongchang biopharmaceutical has formed an integrated systematic drug development capacity and has a strong sustainable new drug project output capacity. At present, there are 3400 enterprises in the field of biological medicine in Yantai, including 55 enterprises with sales income of more than 100 million yuan, and 6 enterprises have entered the top 100 domestic pharmaceutical industry. Yantai also put forward the new goal of creating a national carbon peak and carbon neutrality demonstration zone. In Haiyang, nuclear heating is the first in China, becoming the first "zero carbon" heating city in the country, and the heating price of residents has been reduced by 1 yuan per square meter. Foreign media reporters came to the scene to learn about the operation of nuclear heating projects. At the same time, foreign media reporters also came to the noodle shop of "Chinese good man" Jiang Changlun to listen to his story of delivering breakfast for free in order to let environmental sanitation workers have a warm breakfast in the cold winter morning. Presentation on Thursday, September 15th, 2022 at 11:30 AM ET Spotlight Interview with Chairman & CEO Ian Jenks on Thursday, September 15th 2022 at 1:00 PM ET MANCHESTER, England, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- SmartKem, Inc. (OTCQB: SMTK), a company seeking to reshape the world of electronics with a revolutionary semiconductor platform that enables a new generation of displays, sensors and logic, announced today that it will be presenting virtually at the upcoming Sequire Semiconductor Conference on Thursday, September 15th, at 11:30 AM ET. Ian Jenks, Chairman and CEO will be giving the presentation. Additionally, Ian Jenks participated in a Spotlight Interview that will air at the conference on Thursday, September 15th, at 1:00 PM ET. Event: SmartKem, Inc. Presentation at the Sequire Semiconductor Conference Date: Thursday, September 15th, 2022 Time: 11:30 AM ET Event: Sequire Spotlight Presents SmartKem, Inc. Date: Thursday, September 15th, 2022 Time: 1:00 PM ET Register to watch the presentation HERE. Investors can also request 1x1 meetings with SmartKem, Inc. on the event website. Summary of Sequire Semiconductor Conference The semiconductor industry is expected to reach $600 billion USD by the end of 2022. SRAX and Sequire are bringing together experts in manufacturing, engineering, and equipment and materials supply to learn more about this booming industry. This 1-day virtual investor event will be held via SRAX's Sequire Virtual Events platform. Nearly nine million active small-cap investors have been invited to the event, which will feature several semiconductor focused companies hosting 25 minute presentations, alongside keynotes highlighting prominent names in this space. The presenting companies will also be able to take virtual 1:1 meetings with investors of their choice. SmartKem's OTCQB information can be found on the OTC Markets website: www.otcmarkets.com/stock/SMTK/overview About SmartKem SmartKem is seeking to reshape the world of electronics with a revolutionary semiconductor platform that enables a new generation of displays, sensors and logic. SmartKem's patented TRUFLEX inks are solution deposited at a low temperature, on low-cost substrates to make organic thin-film transistor (OTFT) circuits. The company's semiconductor platform can be used in a number of applications including mini-LED displays, AMOLED displays, fingerprint sensors and integrated logic circuits. SmartKem develops its materials at its research and development facility in Manchester, UK, and its semiconductor manufacturing process at the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) at Sedgefield, UK. The company has an extensive IP portfolio including over 160 patents across 16 patent families. For more information, visit: www.smartkem.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter @SmartKemTRUFLEX Forward-Looking Statements All statements in this press release that are not historical are forward-looking statements, including, among other things, statements relating to the SmartKem's expectations regarding its market position and market opportunity, expectations and plans as to its product development, manufacturing and sales, and relations with its partners and investors. These statements are not historical facts but rather are based on SmartKem Inc.'s current expectations, estimates, and projections regarding its business, operations and other similar or related factors. Words such as "may," will," "could," "would," "should," "anticipate," "predict," "potential," "continue," "expect," "intend," "plan," "project," "believe," "estimate," and other similar or elated expressions are used to identify these forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements because they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult or impossible to predict and, in some cases, beyond the Company's control. Actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including those described in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update information in this release to reflect events or circumstances in the future, even if new information becomes available. STUTTGART (dpa-AFX) - Motor giant Porsche AG (POAHY.PK, POAHF.PK), on Friday, said its negotiations with Red Bull GmbH on the possibility of Porsche's entry into Formula 1 have faltered as both the companies couldn't agree on an 'equal footing' on team and engine partnership. 'The two companies have now jointly come to the conclusion that these talks will no longer be continued,' Porsche said in a statement. 'With the finalised rule changes, the racing series nevertheless remains an attractive environment for Porsche, which will continue to be monitored,' Porsche stated. 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. ANKARA, Turkey, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- As the best-selling products of the Chery TIGGO family in more than 80 countries and regions around the world, TIGGO 8 PRO and TIGGO 7 PRO have always been committed to bringing excellent technological experience to users around the world in each iteration of product upgrades. TIGGO 8 PRO is a large 7-seat luxury business mid-size SUV for urban upstarts who have a successful career and pay attention to the quality of life. The design of TIGGO 8 PRO shows a more mature and calm personality, which not only meets the needs of high-end business vehicles, but also brings ubiquitous warmth to the whole family in the 5+2 super luxurious space. In terms of technology configuration, Tiggo8 pro is equipped with fast wireless charging of mobile phones, inductive intelligent anti-pinch memory electric tailgate, automatic folding of exterior mirrors + electric heating and anti-fog, etc. The 360panoramic ultra-clear reversing image allows users to stay away from parking difficulties and enjoy a more leisurely driving experience. What attracted the attention of the whole industry is that TIGGO 8 PRO is equipped with an ADAS system that integrates more than ten functions, leading its competitors at the same level with L2.5 intelligent assisted driving level, such as ACC, AEB, LKA, TJA and others. In terms of safe configuration, the Tiggo 8 pro is equipped with Bosch's latest generation ESP9.3 body electronic stability system as standard. At the same time, functions such as HDC steep slope descent, EPB electronic parking and AUTOHOLD automatic parking system will also appear on the car. TIGGO 7 PRO is positioned at the urban elite class. It is an urban light luxury SUV with both technological configuration and stylish appearance. No matter the front face consisting of a diamond front grille, lattice matrix LED headlights, or a technological cockpit with a three-screen interconnected super touch experience, TIGGO 7 PRO shows the cutting-edge technology brought fashion charm. The same technological configuration as Tiggo 8 pro gives the car a cross-level experience. TIGGO 8 PRO and TIGGO 7 PRO have won the favor of a lot of users with new benchmarks and more advanced smart technology configurations. TIGGO "Gemini" also relies on these hard-core strengths to provide users with a new technological experience. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1895440/image_5011064_33755656.jpg Kolwezi, Democratic Republic of Congo--(Newsfile Corp. - September 9, 2022) - Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN) (OTCQX: IVPAF) regrets to report that a fatal accident has occurred at the Kamoa-Kakula Mining Complex in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The fatal accident occurred at the underground Kansoko Mine in a development area when a fall of ground struck a Kamoa Copper employee. On behalf of the Kamoa Copper Joint Venture, Ivanhoe Mines extends its deepest condolences to the grieving family and friends of the deceased. Kamoa Copper is undertaking a comprehensive internal investigation into the accident and is working with the DRC authorities to facilitate their investigation of the accident. Once the investigations are complete, management will review and implement any additional safety measures recommended to prevent such an accident from recurring. Operations at the Kakula Mine and processing facility were not affected by the accident. The Kamoa-Kakula Mining Complex is operated by Kamoa Copper, a joint venture between Ivanhoe Mines (39.6%), Zijin Mining Group (39.6%), Crystal River Global Limited (0.8%) and the DRC government (20%). About Ivanhoe Mines Ivanhoe Mines is a Canadian mining company focused on advancing its three principal projects in Southern Africa: the major new, mechanized, underground mines at the Kamoa-Kakula Mining Complex in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the development of the Platreef palladium-rhodium-platinum-nickel-copper-gold discovery in South Africa; and the restart of the historic Kipushi zinc-copper-germanium-silver mine, also in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Kamoa-Kakula Mining Complex is one of the highest grade and fastest growing major copper mining operations in the world. Copper concentrates were first produced in May 2021 and, through on-going phased expansions, it is positioned to become one of the world's largest copper producing operations by Q4 2024. The Kamoa-Kakula Mining Complex is powered by clean, renewable hydro-generated electricity and is among one of the world's lowest greenhouse gas emitters per tonne of copper metal produced. Ivanhoe Mines has pledged to achieve net-zero operational greenhouse gas emissions (Scope 1 and 2) at the Kamoa-Kakula Mining Complex. Ivanhoe Mines is also exploring for new copper discoveries across its circa 2,400km2 of wholly-owned exploration licences in the Western Foreland, which are located adjacent to the Kamoa-Kakula Mining Complex in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Information contacts Investors Vancouver: Matthew Keevil +1.604.558.1034 London: Tommy Horton +44 7866 913 207 Media Tanya Todd +1.604.331.9834 Website www.ivanhoemines.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/136492 Dr Jacques Mallet, former SVP of Portfolio Analytics/Corporate Strategy at Sanofi, joins NEUWAY's Advisory Board as independent member adding in depth expertise in pharma corporate development, financing and clinical affairs NEUWAY Pharma GmbH, NEUWAY , a preclinical-stage biotechnology company specializing in the delivery of innovative biotherapeutic drugs through its proprietary EnPC drug-delivery technology, announced today the appointment of Dr Jacques Mallet as an additional independent member of the Advisory Board. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220909005184/en/ Dr. Jacques Mallet (Photo: Business Wire) Jacques Mallet, MD, previously served as SVP of Head of Portfolio Analytics/Corporate Strategy and Member of the Executive Leadership Team of Sanofi and is currently board member of several listed and private companies in the biotech and medtech sector. "I'm delighted to join the Advisory Board to support NEUWAY in the development and growth of the company", said Dr Mallet. "I have been impressed by the great capabilities of the EnPC drug-delivery technologyand its therapeutic applications, which offers many advantages for drug developers and patients." Dr Mallet brings more than 30 years of pharmaceutical industry experience within R&D, Pipeline Development and Corporate Strategy to NEUWAY, along with unique insights gained as a life-science venture capitalist in both in Europe and the United States. In addition to being responsible for investments at Auriga Partners, a French private-equity firm specializing in life sciences, Dr Mallet has also held executive positions in global consulting firms including Monitor Deloitte and Accenture. Welcoming Dr Mallet, NEUWAY's Advisory Board Chairman and General Partner at Wellington Partners, Dr Rainer Strohmenger, said, "We are proud to have attracted such a distinguished expert to join the board of NEUWAY. Dr Mallet's experience in clinical research and portfolio management, makes him an excellent fit for NEUWAY." Dr Oliver Ernst, Chief Executive Officer of NEUWAY, added, "I am delighted to welcome Dr Mallet to our Board. With his extensive experience Dr Mallet will greatly support our corporate and product development efforts towards partnerships and the first clinical applications of our unique EnPC drug-delivery technology." About NEUWAY Pharma NEUWAY Pharma is developing an entirely novel class of biotherapeutics built around its proprietary Engineered Protein Capsules (EnPC), which can cross the blood-brain barrier and deliver transformative neuropharmaceuticals for the treatment of disorders of the central nervous system (CNS). Learn more at www.neuway-pharma.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220909005184/en/ Contacts: NEUWAY Pharma Contact: Christine Kuhn +49 228-522198-0 kuhn@neuway-pharma.com Landmark 5-year follow-up of PAOLA-1 Phase III trial demonstrated LYNPARZA plus bevacizumab meaningfully extended survival with 65.5% of HRD-positive patients surviving 5 years vs. 48.4% treated with bevacizumab and placebo SOLO-1 Phase III trial demonstrated 67% of advanced ovarian cancer patients with BRCA mutations treated with LYNPARZA were alive at 7 years vs. 47% on placebo Positive long-term follow-up results from the PAOLA-1 and SOLO-1 Phase III trials of LYNPARZA (olaparib), jointly developed and commercialized by AstraZeneca and Merck Co., Inc., known as MSD outside the US and Canada, with or without bevacizumab demonstrated clinically meaningful improvements in overall survival (OS). Further results showed class-leading progression-free survival (PFS) in combination with bevacizumab for homologous recombination deficiency (HRD)-positive patients, versus active comparator, bevacizumab, and as monotherapy for patients with BRCA mutations, versus placebo, respectively. Both trials which were conducted in biomarker-selected, newly diagnosed patients with advanced ovarian cancer in the 1st-line maintenance setting also demonstrated a consistent safety profile.1,2 The results for PAOLA-1 (Abstract LBA29) and SOLO-1 (Abstract #517O) were presented on September 9 at the 2022 European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) and SOLO-1 results were published in Journal of Clinical Oncology Ovarian cancer is one of the most common gynecologic cancers, with a poor prognosis and a high mortality rate.3 Over two thirds of patients are diagnosed with advanced disease, and approximately 50-70% of these patients die within five years.4,5 Up to one in five women with advanced ovarian cancer have a BRCA mutation, and roughly half of women have HRD-positive tumors (which includes those with a BRCA mutation).6-8 Professor Isabelle Ray-Coquard, principal investigator from the PAOLA-1 trial and the President of the Gineco group, said: "For women facing an advanced ovarian cancer diagnosis who are HRD-positive, a targeted treatment in the 1st-line maintenance setting is critical to helping them live longerThese latest results at the five-year landmark demonstrate that olaparib with bevacizumab reduces the risk of death by 38% in HRD-positive patients compared to bevacizumab alone, further reinforcing the clinically meaningful long-term survival benefit of this combination. This should be promising news for both clinicians and patients, as we see these additional data show that this combination may allow patients more time with family and loved ones. These results also highlight the importance of biomarker testing as part of a precision medicine approach to guide treatment decisions in ovarian cancer patients." Professor Paul DiSilvestro, investigator from the SOLO-1 trial and Director of the Program in Women's Oncology at Women and Infants Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, said: "The long-term results from SOLO-1 confirm that olaparib continues to elicit a clinically meaningful improvement in overall survival in the 1st-line maintenance setting for more than seven years. Achieving long-term survival for patients with newly diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer is critical because the first line setting offers the greatest potential to impact patient survival." Susan Galbraith, Executive Vice President, Oncology R&D, AstraZeneca, said: "Historically the five-year survival rate of newly diagnosed patients with advanced ovarian cancer is 30-50%. In that context, it is phenomenal to share the long-term overall survival data from both PAOLA-1 and SOLO-1, with two out of three patients still alive in these trials. We continue to believe in LYNPARZA's ability to help biomarker-selected patients with advanced ovarian cancer to achieve better outcomes." Dr. Eliav Barr, Senior Vice President, Head of Global Clinical Development and Chief Medical Officer, Merck Research Laboratories, said: "These latest data from the PAOLA-1 and SOLO-1 trials further highlight the importance of HRD testing, including for BRCA1/2 mutations, for all newly diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer patients at the point of diagnosis. Maintenance therapy with LYNPARZA may provide certain patients with HRD-positive and/or BRCA-mutated advanced ovarian cancer the opportunity to live longer." Updated results from the PAOLA-1 Phase III trial Updated results from the PAOLA-1 Phase III trial demonstrate that LYNPARZAplus bevacizumab increased median overall survival to 56.5 months versus 51.6 months with bevacizumab alone, in patients with newly diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer irrespective of HRD status. This increase was not statistically significant. In HRD-positive patients, LYNPARZAplus bevacizumab provided a clinically meaningful improvement in overall survival, reducing the risk of death by 38% versus bevacizumab (based on a HR of 0.62; 95% CI 0.45-0.85) despite PAOLA-1 having 30% Stage IV patients. 65.5% of patients treated with LYNPARZA plus bevacizumab were still alive at five years versus 48.4% of those treated with bevacizumab alone. LYNPARZAplus bevacizumab also improved median PFS to almost four years (46.8 months) versus 17.6 months with bevacizumab plus placebo and 46.1% of patients treated with LYNPARZAplus bevacizumab remain progression free at five years versus 19.2% of patients treated with bevacizumab alone. The safety and tolerability profile of LYNPARZA in this trial was in line with that observed in prior clinical trials, with no new safety signals. Updated results from the SOLO-1 Phase III trial Updated results from the SOLO-1 Phase III trial demonstrate that LYNPARZA provided a clinically meaningful improvement in overall survival (OS) versus placebo in patients with BRCA-mutated (BRCAm) newly diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer, reducing the risk of death by 45% (based on an HR of 0.55; 95% CI 0.40-0.76; nominal p=0.0004 [not statistically significant]). Median OS was still not reached with LYNPARZA versus 75.2 months with placebo. At the seven-year descriptive OS analysis, 67% of LYNPARZA patients were alive versus 47% of placebo patients (44% of whom had a subsequent PARP inhibitor) and 45% of LYNPARZA patients versus 21% of placebo patients were alive and had not received a first subsequent treatment. Additional data showed median time to first subsequent therapy was 64 months with LYNPARZAversus 15.1months with placebo. The safety and tolerability profile of LYNPARZA in this trial was in line with that observed in prior clinical trials, with no new safety signals. Summary of results PAOLA-1 LYNPARZA bevacizumab (n=537) Placebo bevacizumab (n=269) OS1 Number of patients with events (%) 288 (53.6) 158 (58.7) Median OS (in months) 56.5 51.6 HR (95% CI) p-value 0.92 (0.76,1.12) 0.4118 OS by HRD status2 HRD positive (including tBRCAm) Number of patients randomized 255 132 Number of patients with events (%) 93 (36.5) 69 (52.3) Median (in months) 75.2 57.3 HR (95% CI) 0.62 (0.45, 0.85) HRD positive (excluding tBRCAm) Number of patients randomized 97 55 Number of patients with events (%) 44 (45.4) 32 (58.2) Median (in months) Not reached 52.0 HR (95% CI) 0.71 (0.45, 1.13) BRCAm Number of patients randomized 157 80 Number of patients with events (%) 48 (30.6) 37 (46.3) Median (in months) 75.2 66.9 HR (95% CI) 0.60 (0.39, 0.93) HRD negative Number of patients randomized 192 85 Number of patients with events (%) 140 (72.9) 58 (68.2) Median (95% CI) (in months) 36.8 40.4 HR (95% CI) 1.19 (0.88, 1.63) PFS3 by HRD status2 HRD positive (including tBRCAm) Number of patients randomized 255 132 Number of patients with events (%) 136 (53.3) 104 (78.8) Median (in months) 46.8 17.6 HR (95% CI) 0.41 (0.32, 0.54) SOLO-1 LYNPARZA (n=260) Placebo (n=131) OS4 Number of patients with events (%) 84 (32.2) 65 (49.6) Median OS (in months) Not reached 75.2 HR (95% CI) p-value5 0.55 (0.40, 0.76) 0.0004 Time to first subsequent therapy Number of patients with events (%) 135 (51.9) 98 (74.8) Median (95% CI) (in months) 64.0 15.1 HR (95% CI) 0.37 (0.28-0.48) Time to second subsequent therapy Number of patients with events (%) 110 (42.3) 80 (61.1) Median (95% CI) (in months) 93.2 40.7 HR (95% CI) 0.5 (0.37, 0.67) 1. OS analysis was done at 56% maturity (448 events in 797 patients) and boundary for significance 0.0001; statistical significance not reached. 2. Exploratory subgroup analysis by HRD status. The HRD status of patients in PAOLA-1 was determined from post-randomization testing of tumor samples using the Myriad myChoice HRD plus test 3. Investigator-assessed PFS (RECIST 1.1) 4. OS analysis was done at 38.1% maturity (149 events in 391 patients) and boundary for significance 0.01; statistical significance not reached. Survival follow up continues and further analyses were planned. 5. P<0.0001 required to declare statistical significance LYNPARZA is approved as maintenance treatment of platinum-sensitive relapsed ovarian cancer and as both monotherapy and in combination with bevacizumab for the 1st-line maintenance treatment of BRCA-mutated (BRCAm) and HRD-positive advanced ovarian cancer, respectively. IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION CONTRAINDICATIONS There are no contraindications for LYNPARZA. WARNINGS AND PRECAUTIONS Myelodysplastic Syndrome/Acute Myeloid Leukemia (MDS/AML): Occurred in approximately 1.5% of patients exposed to LYNPARZA monotherapy, and the majority of events had a fatal outcome. The median duration of therapy in patients who developed MDS/AML was 2 years (range: <6 months to >10 years). All of these patients had previous chemotherapy with platinum agents and/or other DNA-damaging agents, including radiotherapy. Do not start LYNPARZA until patients have recovered from hematological toxicity caused by previous chemotherapy (=Grade 1). Monitor complete blood count for cytopenia at baseline and monthly thereafter for clinically significant changes during treatment. For prolonged hematological toxicities, interrupt LYNPARZA and monitor blood count weekly until recovery. If the levels have not recovered to Grade 1 or less after 4 weeks, refer the patient to a hematologist for further investigations, including bone marrow analysis and blood sample for cytogenetics. Discontinue LYNPARZA if MDS/AML is confirmed. Pneumonitis: Occurred in 0.8% of patients exposed to LYNPARZA monotherapy, and some cases were fatal. If patients present with new or worsening respiratory symptoms such as dyspnea, cough, and fever, or a radiological abnormality occurs, interrupt LYNPARZA treatment and initiate prompt investigation. Discontinue LYNPARZA if pneumonitis is confirmed and treat patient appropriately. Embryo-Fetal Toxicity: Based on its mechanism of action and findings in animals, LYNPARZA can cause fetal harm. A pregnancy test is recommended for females of reproductive potential prior to initiating treatment. Females Advise females of reproductive potential of the potential risk to a fetus and to use effective contraception during treatment and for 6 months following the last dose. Males Advise male patients with female partners of reproductive potential or who are pregnant to use effective contraception during treatment and for 3 months following the last dose of LYNPARZA and to not donate sperm during this time. Venous Thromboembolic Events: Including pulmonary embolism, occurred in 7% of patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer who received LYNPARZA plus androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) compared to 3.1% of patients receiving enzalutamide or abiraterone plus ADT in the PROfound study. Patients receiving LYNPARZA and ADT had a 6% incidence of pulmonary embolism compared to 0.8% of patients treated with ADT plus either enzalutamide or abiraterone. Monitor patients for signs and symptoms of venous thrombosis and pulmonary embolism, and treat as medically appropriate, which may include long-term anticoagulation as clinically indicated. ADVERSE REACTIONS-First-Line Maintenance BRCAm Advanced Ovarian Cancer Most common adverse reactions (Grades 1-4) in =10% of patients who received LYNPARZA in the first-line maintenance setting for SOLO-1 were: nausea (77%), fatigue (67%), abdominal pain (45%), vomiting (40%), anemia (38%), diarrhea (37%), constipation (28%), upper respiratory tract infection/influenza/nasopharyngitis/bronchitis (28%), dysgeusia (26%), decreased appetite (20%), dizziness (20%), neutropenia (17%), dyspepsia (17%), dyspnea (15%), leukopenia (13%), urinary tract infection (13%), thrombocytopenia (11%), and stomatitis (11%). Most common laboratory abnormalities (Grades 1-4) in =25% of patients who received LYNPARZA in the first-line maintenance setting for SOLO-1 were: decrease in hemoglobin (87%), increase in mean corpuscular volume (87%), decrease in leukocytes (70%), decrease in lymphocytes (67%), decrease in absolute neutrophil count (51%), decrease in platelets (35%), and increase in serum creatinine (34%). ADVERSE REACTIONS-First-Line Maintenance Advanced Ovarian Cancer in Combination with Bevacizumab Most common adverse reactions (Grades 1-4) in =10% of patients treated with LYNPARZA/bevacizumab compared to a =5% frequency for placebo/bevacizumab in the first-line maintenance setting for PAOLA-1 were: nausea (53%), fatigue (including asthenia) (53%), anemia (41%), lymphopenia (24%), vomiting (22%), and leukopenia (18%). In addition, the most common adverse reactions (=10%) for patients receiving LYNPARZA/bevacizumab irrespective of the frequency compared with the placebo/bevacizumab arm were: diarrhea (18%), neutropenia (18%), urinary tract infection (15%), and headache (14%). In addition, venous thromboembolic events occurred more commonly in patients receiving LYNPARZA/bevacizumab (5%) than in those receiving placebo/bevacizumab (1.9%). Most common laboratory abnormalities (Grades 1-4) in =25% of patients for LYNPARZA in combination with bevacizumab in the first-line maintenance setting for PAOLA-1 were: decrease in hemoglobin (79%), decrease in lymphocytes (63%), increase in serum creatinine (61%), decrease in leukocytes (59%), decrease in absolute neutrophil count (35%), and decrease in platelets (35%). ADVERSE REACTIONS-Maintenance Recurrent Ovarian Cancer Most common adverse reactions (Grades 1-4) in =20% of patients who received LYNPARZA in the maintenance setting for SOLO-2 were: nausea (76%), fatigue (including asthenia) (66%), anemia (44%), vomiting (37%), nasopharyngitis/upper respiratory tract infection (URI)/influenza (36%), diarrhea (33%), arthralgia/myalgia (30%), dysgeusia (27%), headache (26%), decreased appetite (22%), and stomatitis (20%). Study 19: nausea (71%), fatigue (including asthenia) (63%), vomiting (35%), diarrhea (28%), anemia (23%), respiratory tract infection (22%), constipation (22%), headache (21%), decreased appetite (21%), and dyspepsia (20%). Most common laboratory abnormalities (Grades 1-4) in =25% of patients who received LYNPARZA in the maintenance setting (SOLO-2/Study 19) were: increase in mean corpuscular volume (89%/82%), decrease in hemoglobin (83%/82%), decrease in leukocytes (69%/58%), decrease in lymphocytes (67%/52%), decrease in absolute neutrophil count (51%/47%), increase in serum creatinine (44%/45%), and decrease in platelets (42%/36%). ADVERSE REACTIONS-Adjuvant Treatment of gBRCAm, HER2-Negative, High-Risk Early Breast Cancer Most common adverse reactions (Grades 1-4) in =10% of patients who received LYNPARZA in the adjuvant setting for OlympiA were: nausea (57%), fatigue (including asthenia) (42%), anemia (24%), vomiting (23%), headache (20%), diarrhea (18%), leukopenia (17%), neutropenia (16%), decreased appetite (13%), dysgeusia (12%), dizziness (11%), and stomatitis (10%). Most common laboratory abnormalities (Grades 1-4) in =25% of patients who received LYNPARZA in the adjuvant setting for OlympiA were: decrease in lymphocytes (77%), increase in mean corpuscular volume (67%), decrease in hemoglobin (65%), decrease in leukocytes (64%), and decrease in absolute neutrophil count (39%). ADVERSE REACTIONS-gBRCAm, HER2-Negative Metastatic Breast Cancer Most common adverse reactions (Grades 1-4) in =20% of patients who received LYNPARZA in the metastatic setting for OlympiAD were: nausea (58%), anemia (40%), fatigue (including asthenia) (37%), vomiting (30%), neutropenia (27%), respiratory tract infection (27%), leukopenia (25%), diarrhea (21%), and headache (20%). Most common laboratory abnormalities (Grades 1-4) in =25% of patients who received LYNPARZA in the metastatic setting for OlympiAD were: decrease in hemoglobin (82%), decrease in lymphocytes (73%), decrease in leukocytes (71%), increase in mean corpuscular volume (71%), decrease in absolute neutrophil count (46%), and decrease in platelets (33%). ADVERSE REACTIONS-First-Line Maintenance gBRCAm Metastatic Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma Most common adverse reactions (Grades 1-4) in =10% of patients who received LYNPARZA in the first-line maintenance setting for POLO were: fatigue (60%), nausea (45%), abdominal pain (34%), diarrhea (29%), anemia (27%), decreased appetite (25%), constipation (23%), vomiting (20%), back pain (19%), arthralgia (15%), rash (15%), thrombocytopenia (14%), dyspnea (13%), neutropenia (12%), nasopharyngitis (12%), dysgeusia (11%), and stomatitis (10%). Most common laboratory abnormalities (Grades 1-4) in =25% of patients who received LYNPARZA in the first-line maintenance setting for POLO were: increase in serum creatinine (99%), decrease in hemoglobin (86%), increase in mean corpuscular volume (71%), decrease in lymphocytes (61%), decrease in platelets (56%), decrease in leukocytes (50%), and decrease in absolute neutrophil count (25%). ADVERSE REACTIONS-HRR Gene-mutated Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer Most common adverse reactions (Grades 1-4) in =10% of patients who received LYNPARZA for PROfound were: anemia (46%), fatigue (including asthenia) (41%), nausea (41%), decreased appetite (30%), diarrhea (21%), vomiting (18%), thrombocytopenia (12%), cough (11%), and dyspnea (10%). Most common laboratory abnormalities (Grades 1-4) in =25% of patients who received LYNPARZA for PROfound were: decrease in hemoglobin (98%), decrease in lymphocytes (62%), decrease in leukocytes (53%), and decrease in absolute neutrophil count (34%). DRUG INTERACTIONS Anticancer Agents: Clinical studies of LYNPARZA with other myelosuppressive anticancer agents, including DNA-damaging agents, indicate a potentiation and prolongation of myelosuppressive toxicity. CYP3A Inhibitors: Avoid coadministration of strong or moderate CYP3A inhibitors when using LYNPARZA. If a strong or moderate CYP3A inhibitor must be coadministered, reduce the dose of LYNPARZA. Advise patients to avoid grapefruit, grapefruit juice, Seville oranges, and Seville orange juice during LYNPARZA treatment. CYP3A Inducers: Avoid coadministration of strong or moderate CYP3A inducers when using LYNPARZA. USE IN SPECIFIC POPULATIONS Lactation: No data are available regarding the presence of olaparib in human milk, its effects on the breastfed infant or on milk production. Because of the potential for serious adverse reactions in the breastfed infant, advise a lactating woman not to breastfeed during treatment with LYNPARZA and for 1 month after receiving the final dose. Pediatric Use: The safety and efficacy of LYNPARZA have not been established in pediatric patients. Hepatic Impairment: No adjustment to the starting dose is required in patients with mild or moderate hepatic impairment (Child-Pugh classification A and B). There are no data in patients with severe hepatic impairment (Child-Pugh classification C). Renal Impairment: No dosage modification is recommended in patients with mild renal impairment (CLcr 51-80 mL/min estimated by Cockcroft-Gault). In patients with moderate renal impairment (CLcr 31-50 mL/min), reduce the dose of LYNPARZA to 200 mg twice daily. There are no data in patients with severe renal impairment or end-stage renal disease (CLcr =30 mL/min). INDICATIONS LYNPARZA is a poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor indicated: First-Line Maintenance BRCAm Advanced Ovarian Cancer For the maintenance treatment of adult patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious germline or somatic BRCA-mutated (gBRCAm or sBRCAm) advanced epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer who are in complete or partial response to first-line platinum-based chemotherapy. Select patients for therapy based on an FDA-approved companion diagnostic for LYNPARZA. First-Line Maintenance HRD-Positive Advanced Ovarian Cancer in Combination with Bevacizumab In combination with bevacizumab for the maintenance treatment of adult patients with advanced epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube or primary peritoneal cancer who are in complete or partial response to first-line platinum-based chemotherapy and whose cancer is associated with homologous recombination deficiency (HRD)-positive status defined by either: a deleterious or suspected deleterious BRCA mutation, and/or mutation, and/or genomic instability Select patients for therapy based on an FDA-approved companion diagnostic for LYNPARZA. Maintenance Recurrent Ovarian Cancer For the maintenance treatment of adult patients with recurrent epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer, who are in complete or partial response to platinum-based chemotherapy. Adjuvant Treatment of gBRCAm, HER2-Negative, High-Risk Early Breast Cancer For the adjuvant treatment of adult patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious gBRCAm, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative high-risk early breast cancer who have been treated with neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy. Select patients for therapy based on an FDA-approved companion diagnostic for LYNPARZA. gBRCAm, HER2-Negative Metastatic Breast Cancer For the treatment of adult patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious gBRCAm, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative metastatic breast cancer who have been treated with chemotherapy in the neoadjuvant, adjuvant, or metastatic setting. Patients with hormone receptor (HR)-positive breast cancer should have been treated with a prior endocrine therapy or be considered inappropriate for endocrine therapy. Select patients for therapy based on an FDA-approved companion diagnostic for LYNPARZA. First-Line Maintenance gBRCAm Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer For the maintenance treatment of adult patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious gBRCAm metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma whose disease has not progressed on at least 16 weeks of a first-line platinum-based chemotherapy regimen. Select patients for therapy based on an FDA-approved companion diagnostic for LYNPARZA. HRR Gene-mutated Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer For the treatment of adult patients with deleterious or suspected deleterious germline or somatic homologous recombination repair (HRR) gene-mutated metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) who have progressed following prior treatment with enzalutamide or abiraterone. Select patients for therapy based on an FDA-approved companion diagnostic for LYNPARZA. Please see complete Prescribing Information, including Medication Guide Notes Ovarian cancer Ovarian cancer is the eighth most common cancer in women worldwide.9 There were more than 313,000 new cases of ovarian cancer in 2020, and over 207,000 deaths. The 5-year survival rate of newly diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer patients has typically been 30-50%.4,5 Roughly half of women with advanced ovarian cancer have homologous recombination deficiency (HRD)-positive tumors including those with a BRCA mutation and up to one in five women have a BRCA mutation.6-8 The primary aim of 1st-line treatment is to delay disease progression for as long as possible with the intent to achieve long-term remission.10-12 PAOLA-1 PAOLA-1 is a double-blinded Phase III trial testing the efficacy and safety of LYNPARZAadded to standard-of-care bevacizumab versus bevacizumab alone, as a 1st-line maintenance treatment for newly diagnosed advanced FIGO Stage III-IV high-grade serous or endometroid ovarian, fallopian tube, or peritoneal cancer patients who had a complete or partial response to 1st-line treatment with platinum-based chemotherapy and bevacizumab. AstraZeneca and Merck announced in August 2019 that the trial met its primary endpoint of PFS in the overall trial population. PAOLA-1 is an ENGOT (European Network of Gynaecological Oncological Trial groups) trial, sponsored by ARCAGY Research (Association de Recherche sur les CAncers dont GYnecologiques) on behalf of GINECO (Groupe d'Investigateurs National des Etudes des Cancers Ovariens et du sein). ARCAGY-GINECO is an academic group specializing in clinical and translational research in patients' cancers and a member of the GCIG (Gynecologic Cancer InterGroup). SOLO-1 SOLO-1 is a Phase III randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, multicenter trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of LYNPARZA tablets (300 mg twice daily) as maintenance monotherapy compared with placebo, in newly-diagnosed patients with advanced BRCAm ovarian cancer following platinum-based chemotherapy. The trial randomized 391 patients with a deleterious or suspected deleterious BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation who were in clinical complete or partial response following platinum-based chemotherapy. Patients were randomized (2:1) to receive LYNPARZA or placebo for up to two years or until disease progression (at the investigator's discretion). The primary endpoint was PFS and key secondary endpoints included time to second disease progression or death, time to first subsequent treatment and overall survival. AstraZeneca and MSD announced in June 2018 that the trial met its primary endpoint of PFS in the overall trial population. BRCA BRCA1 and BRCA2 are human genes that produce proteins responsible for repairing damaged DNA and play an important role maintaining the genetic stability of cells.13 When either of these genes is mutated or altered such that its protein product either is not made or does not function correctly, DNA damage may not be repaired properly, and cells become unstable. As a result, cells are more likely to develop additional alterations that can lead to cancer. Cancers with BRCA mutations are more likely to be sensitive to PARP inhibitors including LYNPARZA.13-16 Homologous recombination deficiency HRD, which defines a subgroup of ovarian cancer, encompasses a wide range of genetic abnormalities, including BRCA mutations and beyond. As with BRCA gene mutations, HRD interferes with normal cell DNA repair mechanisms and confers sensitivity to PARP inhibitors including LYNPARZA.2 LYNPARZA LYNPARZA (olaparib) is a first-in-class PARP inhibitor and the first targeted treatment to block DNA damage response (DDR) in cells/tumors harboring a deficiency in homologous recombination repair (HRR), such as those with mutations in BRCA1 and/or BRCA2, or those where deficiency is induced by other agents (such as new hormonal agents NHAs). Inhibition of PARP proteins with LYNPARZA leads to the trapping of PARP bound to DNA single-strand breaks, stalling of replication forks, their collapse and the generation of DNA double-strand breaks and cancer cell death. LYNPARZA is currently approved in a number of countries across multiple tumor types including maintenance treatment of platinum-sensitive relapsed ovarian cancer and as both monotherapy and in combination with bevacizumab for the 1st-line maintenance treatment of BRCA-mutated (BRCAm) and homologous recombination repair deficient (HRD)-positive advanced ovarian cancer, respectively; for gBRCAm, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer (in the EU and Japan this includes locally advanced breast cancer); for gBRCAm, HER2-negative high-risk early breast cancer (in Japan this includes all BRCAm HER2-negative high-risk early breast cancer); for gBRCAm metastatic pancreatic cancer; and HRR gene-mutated metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (BRCAm only in the EU and Japan). LYNPARZA, which is being jointly developed and commercialized by AstraZeneca and Merck, is the foundation of AstraZeneca's industry-leading portfolio of potential new medicines targeting DDR mechanisms in cancer cells. The AstraZeneca and Merck strategic oncology collaboration In July 2017, AstraZeneca and Merck Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, US, known as MSD outside the US and Canada, announced a global strategic oncology collaboration to co-develop and co-commercialize LYNPARZA, the world's first PARP inhibitor, and selumetinib, a mitogen-activated protein kinase (MEK) inhibitor, for multiple cancer types. Working together, the companies will develop LYNPARZA and selumetinibin combination with other potential new medicines and as monotherapies. The companies will develop LYNPARZA and selumetinibin combination with their respective PD-L1 and PD-1 medicines independently. AstraZeneca in oncology AstraZeneca is leading a revolution in oncology with the ambition to provide cures for cancer in every form, following the science to understand cancer and all its complexities to discover, develop and deliver life-changing medicines to patients. The Company's focus is on some of the most challenging cancers. It is through persistent innovation that AstraZeneca has built one of the most diverse portfolios and pipelines in the industry, with the potential to catalyze changes in the practice of medicine and transform the patient experience. AstraZeneca has the vision to redefine cancer care and, one day, eliminate cancer as a cause of death. About AstraZeneca AstraZeneca is a global, science-led biopharmaceutical company that focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of prescription medicines in Oncology, Rare Diseases, and BioPharmaceuticals, including Cardiovascular, Renal Metabolism, and Respiratory Immunology. Based in Cambridge, UK, AstraZeneca operates in over 100 countries and its innovative medicines are used by millions of patients worldwide. Please visit www.astrazeneca-us.com and follow the Company on Twitter @AstraZenecaUS. References Ray-Coquard I, et al. Olaparib plus Bevacizumab as First-Line Maintenance in Ovarian Cancer. N Engl J Med. 2019;381:2416-2428. Moore K, et al. Maintenance Olaparib in Patients with Newly Diagnosed Advanced Ovarian Cancer. New England Journal of Medicine. 2018; 379:2495-2505. Momenimovahed Z, et al. Ovarian Cancer in The World: Epidemiology And Risk Factors. Int J Womens Health. 2019 Apr 30;11:287-299. Torre A, et al. Ovarian Cancer Statistics. CA Cancer J Clin. 2018 Jul; 68(4):284-296. National Cancer Institute. Cancer Stat Facts: Ovarian Cancer. Available at https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/ovary.html. Accessed September 2022. Pothuri B. BRCA1- and BRCA2-related mutations: therapeutic implications in ovarian cancer. Ann of Oncol. 2018;24(8):822-827. Moschetta M, et al.BRCA somatic mutations and epigenetic BRCA modifications in serous ovarian cancer. Ann Oncol. 2016 Aug;27(8):1449-55. Bonadio R, et al. Homologous recombination deficiency in ovarian cancer: a review of its epidemiology and management. Clinics (Sao Paulo). 2018 Aug 20;73(suppl 1):e450s. World Cancer Research Fund International. Ovarian Cancer Statistics. Available at https://www.wcrf.org/cancer-trends/ovarian-cancer-statistics/#:~:text=Latest%20ovarian%20cancer%20data,of%20ovarian%20cancer%20in%202020. Accessed September 2022. Raja F, et al. Optimal first-line treatment in ovarian cancer. Ann of Oncol. 2012;23(10):118-127. NHS Choices, Ovarian Cancer Available at https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/ovarian-cancer/treatment/. Accessed September 2022. Ledermann J, et al. Newly diagnosed and relapsed epithelial ovarian carcinoma: ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines for diagnosis, treatment and follow-up. Ann Oncol. 2013 Oct;24 Suppl 6:vi24-32. Roy R, et al. BRCA1 and BRCA2: different roles in a common pathway of genome protection. Nat Rev Cancer. 2016;12(1):68-78. Wu J, et al. The role of BRCA1 in DNA damage response. Protein Cell. 2010;1(2):117-123. Gorodetska I, et al. BRCA Genes: The Role in Genome Stability, Cancer Stemness and Therapy Resistance. Journal of Cancer. 2019;10:2109-2127. Li H, et al. PARP inhibitor resistance: the underlying mechanisms and clinical implications. Molecular Cancer. 2020;19:1-16. US- 68342 Last Updated 09/22 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220909005080/en/ Contacts: Media Inquiries Brendan McEvoy +1 302 885 2677 Jessica McDuell +1 302 885 2677 US Media Mailbox: usmediateam@astrazeneca.com This image, a screenshot from President Yoon Suk-yeol's official Twitter account on Sept. 9, shows his message offering condolences over the death of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. Yonhap President Yoon Suk-yeol on Friday expressed condolences over the passing of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, saying, "Her kind heart and good deed will remain in our memories." "Deepest condolences to the people of the United Kingdom for the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. She had a strong belief in the cause of human freedom and left great legacies of dignity," Yoon said in a message posted in English on Twitter. He posted another message in Korean on Facebook applauding her leadership that "penetrated the tumultuous 20th century and the uncertainties of the 21st century," adding it was an "honor" to have shared the same era with her. "When the dark times of the World War ended and the doors to a new era opened, she gave consolation and comfort to people around the world as a defender of freedom." Political circles joined Yoon in paying tribute to the British leader. National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo sent a letter of condolences to his British parliamentary counterparts, highlighting her visit to Hahoe Village in the city of Andong, southeastern South Korea, in 1999. The British queen, who visited the country at the invitation of then President Kim Dae-jung, celebrated her 73rd birthday with villagers who prepared a party with a traditional Korean meal. The mayor of Andong, Kwon Gi-chang, expressed condolences over her death, saying the people of Andong will forever cherish their memories of her. City officials plan to arrange a venue where residents and tourists can pay their respects. Queen Elizabeth II passed away at the age of 96 after reigning for 70 years. She was Britain's longest-serving monarch. (Yonhap) Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 9, 2022) - Sanu Gold Corporation (CSE: SANU) ("Sanu Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to announce results of its recently completed infill auger drill program (the "Program") on the Daina Gold Exploration Permit ("Daina" or the "Permit") in Guinea, West Africa. As announced by the Company in a news release dated August 25, 2022, an initial reverse circulation ("RC") drill program is underway at Daina, with results from initial holes pending. Martin Pawlitschek, President & CEO of Sanu Gold, commented: "The infill auger drill results on key target areas at Dania are highly encouraging and have further delineated the gold bearing trends and extended the strike length of the prospective area to test with RC drilling. These results also demonstrate that high gold grades are present along much of the defined mineralized trends. The initial RC drill program underway at Daina will be optimised to incorporate these latest results." The Program returned significant gold in bedrock intercepts above 1 gram of gold per tonne ("g/t Au") from infill auger drilling at the Daina 1, Daina 2 and Daina 6 Targets and confirm the gold-bearing structures interpreted from the initial regional 400 x 25 m spaced auger drilling program (Figure 1 and Table 1). Program highlights include: Daina 1 Target 8.86 g/t Au over 9 metres ("m"), including 39.30 g/t Au over 1 m (DAI-AUG-1201) (DAI-AUG-1201) 6.59 g/t Au over 3 m, including 6.48 g/t Au over 2 m (DAI-AUG-1250) (DAI-AUG-1250) 2.26 g/t Au over 9 m, including 9.78 g/t Au over 2 m (DAI-AUG-1246) Daina 2 Target 4.07 g/t gold over 3 m, including 5.83 g/t Au over 2 m (DAI-AUG-1104) Daina 6 Target 1.97 g/t gold over 8 m, including 7.36 g/t Au over 2 m (DAI-AUG-1164) Program Overview The Program included 4,000 m of infill drilling in 237 auger drill holes over key target areas on the Permit and tested the extension of gold in bedrock structures interpreted from the initial regional auger drilling program at Daina 1, Daina 2 and Daina 6 Targets. Auger drill lines were east-west oriented, with 100 m line spacing. Auger holes were drilled vertically and spaced at 20 m intervals. Hole depths ranged from 15 to 25 m and 2 m composite samples were collected for the entire length of each hole. The focus of the program was to follow-up on previously identified gold mineralization at the Daina 1, Daina 2 and Daina 6 Targets. The aim was to better delineate gold-bearing structures for follow-up RC drill campaigns. The results of the Program have provided a refined definition of the lateral extensions of the bedrock gold anomalies previously identified at the target areas. At the Daina 1 Target, results from the Program delineated two zones of bedrock anomalies, each extending for over 3 kilometres ("km") along strike and 400 to 600 m in width along a north-northwest orientation (Figure 1). The Program generated multiple high-grade auriferous saprolite samples associated with zones of structural dilation along a north-northwest-trending strike slip fault system (Figure 1 and Table 1). These dilation zones affect hydrothermally altered coarse-grained greywacke with auriferous-sheeted quartz vein sets that are targeted by artisanal miners. The syn-orogenic calc-alkaline granite outcropping south of the Daina 1 Target (Figure 1) along a pronounced east-northeast trend is interpreted to contribute hydrothermal mineralizing fluids and provide the opportunity for the development of zones of structural dilation which focused the flow of such fluids. At the Daina 2 Target, results from the Program provided better delineation of the gold mineralized structure that extends for over 4 km along the north-northwest structural trend and returned multiple high-grade results (Figure 1 and Table 1). Auger drilling in the Program centered on previous positive rock chip results obtained from artisanal mining pits (including 12.5, 8.78, 7.55 and 6.51 g/t Au, as reported in the Sanu Gold news release dated July 29, 2022). Observations of rock chips in mineralized auger holes and exposed saprolite in artisanal working pits indicate that the gold mineralization is contained in a strongly fractured and hydrothermally altered coarse-grained greywacke that is cross-cut by numerous sheeted quartz vein systems and boxwork after oxidized, disseminated sulphides. Interpretation of the gold-bearing structure from the auger results indicate that the greywacke that hosts the gold mineralization is folded in proximity to zones closely associated with fracturing and brecciation. These fractures and breccia zones provide favorable sites for gold mineralization. At the Daina 6 Target, folding and fracturing is more apparent (Figure 1). Gold mineralization is associated with a subvertical system of fractures and breccia that affected hydrothermally altered greywacke. These fractures and breccia zones contain quartz veining and boxwork after oxidized sulphides that is targeted by artisanal miners. Two auger drill holes located proximal to artisanal working pits returned high-grade gold mineralization (1.97 g/t Au over 8 m, including 7.36 g/t Au over 2 m; Figure 1 and Table 1). The interpreted gold-bearing structure extends over 1.5 km in strike length and trends north-northwest. Next Steps Results from the Program have confirmed the highest priority areas for additional exploration work and provided additional definition of the main gold-bearing mineralized trends at Daina. Follow up RC drilling is currently underway to test the potential depth and strike extensions of the gold mineralization and to obtain an increased understanding of the geology and mineralization in this area. Results from the Program will be incorporated into the geological database for the Permit to optimize and potentially extend the current 2500 to 5000 m RC drill campaign. Quality Assurance / Quality Control ("QA/QC") Sampling was completed following industry best practices, conducted under the supervision of the Company's project geologists and the chain of custody from the project to the sample preparation facility was continuously monitored. An appropriate number and type of certified reference materials (standards) and blanks totaling 5% of the total number of samples shipped to the laboratory was inserted approximately every 20th sample to ensure an effective QA/QC program was carried out. Data verification of the analytical results included a statistical analysis of the standards and blanks that must pass certain parameters for acceptance to ensure accurate and verifiable results. All samples were analyzed using Fire Assay FAA505 at the SGS Laboratory in Bamako, Mali ("SGS"). SGS is an internationally recognized and commercially certified laboratory and is independent of Sanu Gold. Figure 1: Daina plan view map with initial (black) and infill (red) auger drill results in saprolite (Contour >0.1 g/t Au). To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8941/136457_0c4eb45ef4aae9ba_001full.jpg Table 1: Daina significant infill auger drill intercepts in saprolite. Hole ID X-UTM Y-UTM Gold in Interval 1 Initial Prospect Saprolite Depth (g/t Au) (m) (m) DAI-AUG-1201 502883 1315702 8.86 9 6 Daina 1 including 39.3 2 14 DAI-AUG-1203 502923 1315701 2.91 2 20 Daina 1 DAI-AUG-1244 504620 1311499 0.91 10 4 Daina 1 including 4.15 2 8 DAI-AUG-1246 504581 1311501 2.26 9 6 Daina 1 including 9.78 2 12 DAI-AUG-1247 504566 1311500 0.71 3 12 Daina 1 DAI-AUG-1248 504610 1311400 0.41 9 6 Daina 1 DAI-AUG-1250 504649 1311399 6.59 3 22 Daina 1 including 6.48 2 20 DAI-AUG-1258 504610 1311095 0.32 9 3 Daina 1 DAI-AUG-1104 503567 1318501 4.07 3 6 Daina 2 including 5.83 2 12 DAI-AUG-1150 502738 1319840 0.30 10 4 DAI-AUG-1068 503368 1318902 0.51 13 2 Daina 2 including 1.86 2 2 DAI-AUG-1088 503465 1318701 1.39 8 2 Daina 2 including 3.17 2 6 DAI-AUG-1110 503737 1318098 0.36 10 4 Daina 2 including 1.17 2 4 DAI-AUG-1112 0.32 6 4 DAI-AUG-1116 503865 1317999 1.40 6 8 Daina 2 including 3.57 2 10 DAI-AUG-1123 503725 1318000 0.35 10 4 DAI-AUG-1148 502834 1319714 0.55 9 6 Daina 2 including 1.84 1 14 DAI-AUG-1282 0.34 4 20 DAI-AUG-1164 501731 1319152 1.97 8 2 Daina 6 including 7.36 2 4 DAI-AUG-1168 501738 1319031 0.81 16 10 Daina 6 including 1.2 5 20 DAI-AUG-1169 501758 1319031 0.33 10 4 Daina 6 1 Not true width; the Company does not have sufficient information to make a determination of the true widths of the auger drill hole intercepts. None of the auger drill holes were designed to penetrate the full width of any mineralization. The auger drilling provides only a regular sub laterite sample of bedrock at regular intervals and over short depths. Qualified Person The scientific and technical information contained in this press release has been reviewed and approved by Serigne Dieng, Ph.D., M.Sc., a Member (MAIG) of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists (AIG), Exploration Manager of the Company and a qualified person within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. About Sanu Gold Located within the world class Siguiri Basin, host to several operating mines, Sanu Gold is exploring three high quality gold exploration permits in Guinea, West Africa targeting multi-million ounce gold discoveries. The Company has defined multi-kilometer scale gold bearing structures on each of the gold exploration permits, with multiple high-value drill targets. Sanu is operated by a highly experienced team with successful records of discovery, resource development and mine permitting. Martin Pawlitschek President & CEO, Sanu Gold Corp. For further information regarding Sanu Gold, please email info@sanugoldcorp.com or visit website at www.sanugoldcorp.com Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements" with respect to the Company within the meaning of applicable securities laws. 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", "indicates", "opportunity", "possible" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although Sanu Gold believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance, are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results or realities may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Such material risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the Company's plans for exploration on its properties and ability to execute on plans, ability to raise sufficient capital to fund its obligations under its property agreements going forward, ability to maintain its material property agreements, mineral tenures and concessions in good standing, to explore and develop its projects; changes in economic conditions or financial markets; the inherent hazards associated with mineral exploration and mining operations, future prices of gold and other metals, changes in general economic conditions and local risks in the jurisdiction (Guinea) in which it operates, accuracy of mineral resource and reserve estimates, the potential for new discoveries, the ability of the Company to obtain the necessary permits and consents required to explore, drill and develop the projects and if obtained, to obtain such permits and consents in a timely fashion relative to the Company's plans and business objectives for the projects; the general ability of the Company to monetize its mineral resources; and changes in environmental and other laws or regulations that could have an impact on the Company's operations, compliance with environmental laws and regulations, dependence on key management personnel and general competition in the mining industry. Forward-looking statements are based on the reasonable beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/136457 DENVER, CO / ACCESSWIRE / September 9, 2022 / Solitario Zinc Corp. ("Solitario") (NYSE American:XPL; TSX:SLR) is pleased to announce that it is participating in the H.C. Wainwright & Co. Hybrid Annual Global Investment Conference, September 12-14th, 2022. President and CEO, Chris Herald will host one on one meetings during the event and will deliver an online presentation and corporate update on Monday, September 13th at 7:00am Eastern. The presentation will feature the Golden Crest gold project in South Dakota, as well as the advanced Florida Canyon and Lik high-grade zinc projects. View webcast and replay here. For more information on the Conference please visit https://hcwevents.com/annualconference/ About Solitario Solitario is a natural resource exploration and development company focused on high-quality Tier-1 gold and zinc projects. The Company is traded on the NYSE American ("XPL") and on the Toronto Stock Exchange ("SLR"). In addition to its Golden Crest project, Solitario holds 50% joint venture interest (Teck Resources 50%) in the high-grade Lik zinc deposit in Alaska and a 39% joint venture interest (Nexa Resources holds the remaining 61% interest) on the high-grade Florida Canyon zinc project in Peru. Solitario is carried to production through its joint venture arrangement with Nexa. Solitario's Management and Directors hold approximately 9.3% (excluding options) of the Company's 62 million shares outstanding. Solitario's cash balance and marketable securities stand at approximately US$6.3 million. Additional information about Solitario is available online at www.solitariozinc.com. Solitario has a long history of committed Environmental, Social and Responsible Governance ("ESG") of its business. We realize ESG issues are also important to investors, employees and all stakeholders, including communities in which we work. We are pledged to operate our business in a manner that supports environmental and social initiatives and responsible corporate governance. Importantly, we selected joint venture partners that not only value the importance of ESG issues in the conduct of their business on our joint venture projects but are leaders in the industry in this important segment of our business. FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: Christopher E. Herald President & CEO (303) 534-1030, Ext. 14 Anne Hite Director - Investor Relations (303) 519-5149 SOURCE: Solitario Zinc Corp. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/715277/Solitario-Presents-at-the-HC-Wainwright-Co-Hybrid-Global-Investment-Conference VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / September 9, 2022 / Golden Lake Exploration Inc. (CSE:GLM) ("GLM" or the "Company") (OTCQB:GOLXF) is pleased to report remaining assay results from its Phase 2 diamond drill program, on the Company's keystone Jewel Ridge Property ("Property"), located in the prolific Eureka gold district, Nevada (Table 1). The Jewel Ridge property is located along strike and contiguous to I-80 Gold Corp.'s Archimedes/Ruby Hill gold mine to the north, Paycore Minerals Inc.'s FAD property to the northwest, and Timberline Resources' advanced-stage Lookout Mountain project to the south1. Drilling comprised 9 holes (1,513.3 metres) on the Hamburg Zone at the south end of the Property, and the initial drilling on the Catlin Zone comprised of 2 holes (398.9 metres) (Table 2). As previously reported the Hamburg Zone returned a significant intercept of 26.37 metres averaging 5.38 grams gold per tonne (g/t Au) from a shallow depth of 42.64 metre in hole JR-22-36DD (press release March 23, 2022). A total of 11 holes (1.912.3 metres) are reported in this press release, including holes JR-22-39DD to JR-22-50 DD (note JR-22-43DD was lost) (Tables 1 and 2). Highlights of the drill program include: Highest grade intercept was returned in hole JR-22-50DD on the Hamburg Zone from a depth of 132.28 metres, returning 3.31 g/t Au, and 209.5 g/t Ag with 1.55 percent(%) lead (Pb) and .70 % zinc (Zn) over a core width of 3.96 metres . with 1.55 percent(%) lead (Pb) and .70 % zinc (Zn) over a core width of 3.96 metres The most significant intersection (based on core width times gold grade) was returned in hole JR-22-40DD, on the Hamburg Zone, averaging 41.15 metres over a core width of 1.05 g/t Au and 3.9 g/t Ag, from a depth of 128.63 metres, from a depth of 128.63 metres, Only two holes were drilled on the Catlin Zone, and both returned higher silver values associated with Carbonate Replacement Deposit ("CRD") mineralization. Hole JR-22-45DD returned 0.17 g/t Au and 308.6 g/t Ag over 4.05 metres from a depth of 62.09 metres, and hole JR-22-46DD returned 5.23 g/t Au and 84.0 g/t Ag over 1.52 metres from a depth of 9.75 metres. Additional drilling is required to determine the extent and orientation of CRD mineralization at the Catlin Zone. The Hamburg target is approximately 1.8 kilometres south-southeast of the Eureka Tunnel target, where the Company was actively exploring throughout most of 2021. At the Hamburg Mine, historic gold production from the underground and open pit workings, and previous exploration activities had focused on oxide gold mineralization in the Hamburg Dolomite unit, and/or at the contact of the Hamburg Dolomite with the Dunderberg Shale. 1The mines and exploration projects in the Eureka District provide geologic context for the Jewel Ridge Property, but this is not necessarily an indication that the Project hosts similar grades or tonnages of mineralization. TABLE 1: DRILL RESULTS HOLE ZONE FROM TO LENGTH GOLD SILVER LEAD ZINC INTERVAL ID NAME (m) (m) (m) (g/t) (g/t) (%) (%) COMMENTS JR-22-39DD Hamburg 5.18 15.85 10.67 0.36 3.7 0.21 0.37 CRD-Hamburg Dolomite 15.85 29.57 13.72 0.76 5.6 0.32 0.47 CRD-Hamburg Dolomite 37.19 43.37 6.19 0.42 6.3 0.09 2.28 CRD-Hamburg Dolomite 65.65 87.48 21.82 0.15 2.9 N/A N/A Carlin-Hamburg Dolomite 159.41 168.25 8.84 0.16 1.3 N/A N/A Carlin-Hamburg Dolomite JR-22-40DD Hamburg 73.76 80.80 7.04 0.30 2.4 N/A N/A Carlin-Hamburg Dolomite 107.41 117.96 10.55 0.77 1.6 N/A N/A Carlin-Hamburg Dolomite 127.10 146.91 19.81 0.41 2.0 N/A N/A Carlin-Hamburg Dolomite JR-22-41DD Hamburg 128.63 169.77 41.15 1.05 3.9 N/A N/A Carlin-Hamburg Dolomite including 136.25 142.34 6.10 4.35 6.6 N/A N/A Carlin-Hamburg Dolomite 186.54 198.73 12.19 0.17 0.9 N/A N/A Carlin-Hamburg Dolomite JR-22-42DD Hamburg 66.14 90.53 24.38 1.35 2.9 N/A N/A Carlin-Hamburg Dolomite including 70.71 74.52 3.81 6.58 12.6 N/A N/A Carlin-Hamburg Dolomite 99.67 108.14 8.47 0.27 0.8 N/A N/A Carlin-Hamburg Dolomite 111.86 117.96 6.10 0.14 3.4 N/A N/A Carlin-Hamburg Dolomite JR-22-44DD Hamburg 46.33 58.52 12.19 0.25 1.9 N/A N/A Carlin-Hamburg Dolomite 87.48 96.62 9.14 0.20 1.3 N/A N/A Carlin-Hamburg Dolomite 125.58 131.67 6.10 0.30 1.4 N/A N/A Carlin-Hamburg Dolomite 143.87 163.68 19.81 0.17 0.3 N/A N/A Carlin-Hamburg Dolomite JR-22-45DD CATLIN 62.09 66.14 4.05 0.17 308.6 N/A N/A CRD 152.67 169.77 17.10 0.33 6.6 N/A N/A CRD JR-22-46DD CATLIN 2.13 6.71 4.57 0.39 31.5 0.63 1.25 CRD 9.75 11.28 1.52 5.23 84.0 1.39 0.9 CRD JR-22-47DD Hamburg 89.00 114.91 25.91 0.23 1.3 N/A N/A Carlin-Hamburg Dolomite including 107.29 108.69 1.40 1.61 3.4 N/A N/A Carlin-Hamburg Dolomite 148.44 161.24 12.80 0.42 6.1 N/A N/A Carlin-Hamburg Dolomite including 157.58 160.63 3.05 0.93 1.6 N/A N/A Carlin-Hamburg Dolomite JR-22-48DD Hamburg 101.19 113.39 12.19 0.14 1.8 N/A N/A Carlin-Hamburg Dolomite JR-22-49DD Hamburg 0.00 3.66 3.66 5.54 44.1 2.44 0.93 Dump JR-22-50DD Hamburg 104.24 113.39 9.14 0.25 1.4 N/A N/A Carlin-Hamburg Dolomite 121.01 137.77 16.76 1.12 54.3 0.48 0.40 CRD-Hamburg Dolomite including 132.28 136.25 3.96 3.31 209.5 1.55 0.70 CRD-Hamburg Dolomite Drilling has stopped on the Jewel Ridge project while the Company awaits the approval of the comprehensive Plan of Operation (PoO) over most of the Jewel Ridge property. EM Strategies, based in Reno, Nev., has led the preparation and submission to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for the PoO process. The Jewel Ridge PoO represents a significant stage and asset for the company, as the baseline studies completed (biological, hydrological, and archeological) will be essential for any future development of a gold deposit on the property. The PoO over the property, and the larger disturbance allowance, will give the company more flexibility in planning and permitting future drill sites. The Company has recently completed a ground gravity survey over the entire Jewel Ridge property. The survey was contracted to MaGee Geophysical Services and the results are currently being reviewed by Golden Lake geologists. Drilling Quality assurance and quality control statement The HQ- and PQ-sized drill core reported in this news release was logged and prepared at the Golden Lake Exploration core facility in Eureka, Nevada, where it was cut, bagged and prepared for analysis before submittal Paragon Geochemical Laboratories Inc., Nevada, USA. Core rock samples were analyzed using a multi-element analysis with ICP-MS analytical package ("50AR-MS"; aqua regia digestion). Over limit sample values were re-assayed for: (1) values of copper >1%; (2) values of zinc >1%; (3) values of lead >1%; and (4) values of silver >100 g/t using the high-grade material ICP-OES analytical package ("OLAR-OES"). Gold and Silver fire assays established gold and silver grades using 30 gram samples ("Au-AA30; Ag-AA30) with overlimit gold (5 ppm) and silver (100 ppm) fire assays by gravimetric finish (Au-GRAV; Ag-GRAV). Certified standards, blanks, and duplicates were inserted into the sample shipment to ensure integrity of the assay process. Selected samples were chosen for duplicate assay from the coarse reject and pulps of the original sample. No QA/QC issues were noted with the results reported. TABLE 2: DRILL HOLE COLLAR INFORMATION Hole Easting Northing Elevation Depth Azimuth Inclination ID (Metres) (Metres) (Metres) (Metres) (Degrees) (Degrees) JR-22-39DD 587958 4368793 2343 203.30 -50 180 JR-22-40DD 588031 4368725 2370 156.06 -50 214 JR-22-41DD 588014 4368737 2368 213.97 -65 220 JR-22-42DD 588027 4368727 2369 183.49 -50 263 JR-22-43DD 587968 4368800 2343 29.57 -70 210 JR-22-44DD 587966 4368797 2343 183.49 -70 210 JR-22-45DD 587825 4369537 2291 215.49 -50 320 JR-22-46DD 587823 4369540 2291 183.49 -50 272 JR-22-47DD 588000 4368313 2391 178.00 -50 65 JR-22-48DD 587997 4368381 2382 183.49 -50 65 JR-22-49DD 588086 4368640 2350 40.23 -50 246 JR-22-50DD 588083 4368574 2367 171.30 -50 245 About the Jewel Ridge Property The Jewel Ridge property is located on the south end of Nevada's prolific Battle Mountain - Eureka trend, along strike and contiguous to I-80 Gold Corp.'s Archimedes/Ruby Hill gold mine to the north and Timberline Resources' advanced-stage Lookout Mountain project to the south. The mines and exploration and development projects in the Battle Mountain-Eureka Trend provide geologic context for the Jewel Ridge Property, but this is not necessarily indicative that the Project host similar grades or tonnages of mineralization. The property comprises 96 unpatented lode mining claims and 30 patented claims covering approximately 728 hectares (1,800 acres). The Jewel Ridge property contains several historic small gold mines. The Company's focus is on Carlin-style disseminated gold deposits, the primary focus in the area since the late 1970s. Qualified person Golden Lake Exploration's disclosure of a technical or scientific nature in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Daniel MacNeil, P.Geo., who serves as a qualified person under the definition of National Instrument 43-101. About Golden Lake Exploration Inc. Golden Lake Exploration is a junior public mining exploration company engaged in the business of mineral exploration and the acquisition of mineral property assets. Its objective is to acquire, explore and develop economic precious and base metal properties of merit and to aggressively advance its exploration program on the Jewel Ridge property. The Jewel Ridge property is located on the south end of Nevada's prolific Battle Mountain-Eureka trend, along strike and contiguous to Barrick Gold's Archimedes/Ruby Hill gold mine to the north and Timberline Resources' advanced-stage Lookout Mountain project to the south. The Company also owns a large (37.814 hectare) early-stage property in south-central British Columbia, contiguous to Kodiak Copper Corp., and Gold Mountain Mining Inc., that is highly prospective for copper-gold porphyry and mesothermal gold-bearing quartz-vein mineralization. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD "Mike England" Mike England, CEO & DIRECTOR FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Telephone: 1-604-683-3995 TollFree:1-888-945-4770 Neither the Canadian Stock Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS: This news release contains forward-looking statements, which relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. Investors are cautioned that these forward looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those expected. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and, except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. All of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements and by those made in our filings with SEDAR in Canada (available at WWW.SEDAR.COM). SOURCE: Golden Lake Exploration Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/715302/Golden-Lake-Reports-Phase-2-Drill-Results-Intercepts-331-GT-Gold-and-2095-GT-Silver-Over-396-Metres-From-the-Hamburg-Mine-Zone-Jewel-Ridge-Project-Nevada VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / September 9, 2022 / Freedom Battery Metals Inc. (CSE:FBAT) ("Freedom" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has appointed Paul Gorman as a director of the Company. Mr. Gorman will replace Nelson Lamb, who has resigned as a director. Mr. Gorman has also been appointed to the Company's audit committee to fill the vacancy created by Mr. Lamb's resignation. The Company wishes to thank Mr. Lamb for his contribution to the Company and wishes him the best in his future endeavours. Paul Gorman is a business development and corporate finance specialist with 25 years of experience financing and taking companies public, assessing asset viability and operating growth-emerging companies. Mr. Gorman recently served as an executive with a number of strategic metals companies, including Southhampton Ventures Inc., MEGA Graphite Inc. and NovoCarbon Inc. The Company's board looks forward to drawing on Mr. Gorman's expertise with strategic initiatives, finance and corporate governance. About Freedom Battery Metals Freedom Battery Metals (CSE: FBAT) is a mineral exploration based in British Columbia. Its objective is to locate and, if warranted, develop economic mineral properties in the battery metals space. The Company is working to advance its ZigZag Lake Lithium Property, located in Thunder Bay Mining Division, Crescent Lake Area, Ontario, Canada. For more information, please review the Company's filings available at www.sedar.com. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements that are not historical facts, including without limitation, statements regarding future estimates, plans, programs, forecasts, projections, objectives, assumptions, expectations or beliefs of future performance, including statements regarding the Company drawing on Mr. Gorman's expertise in various areas are "forward-looking statements." These forward-looking statements reflect the expectations or beliefs of management of the Company based on information currently available to it. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those detailed from time to time in filings made by the Company with securities regulatory authorities, which may cause actual outcomes to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. These factors should be considered carefully and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and the Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws. The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed, approved or disapproved the contents of this press release, and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Contact Information Dave Bowen Director and CEO Telephone: 778 858 9639 SOURCE: Freedom Battery Metals Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/715329/Freedom-Battery-Metals-Announces-Appointment-of-Paul-Gorman-to-Board VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / September 9, 2022 / Gander Gold Corporation ("Gander Gold" or the "Company") (CSE:GAND) (OTCQB:GANDF) is pleased to announce that, subject to regulatory approval, it has arranged a non-brokered private placement (the "Private Placement") with strategic investors to raise up to $3,210,000. Mr. Mark Scott, Gander Gold President and CEO, commented: "Excellent progress at our flagship Gander North Project and exciting new developments at the Mount Peyton Project have triggered fresh interest in Gander Gold, one of the largest mineral claim owners in all of Newfoundland. This private placement will go toward ramping up exploration at both properties while we also test for potential new discoveries elsewhere across our highly prospective 2,263 sq. km land package. "Following this financing, Gander Gold will continue to have a very attractive share structure with no warrants and a majority of the shares owned by Sassy Gold and Eric Sprott," concluded Mark Scott. Private Placement Terms Up to 4,000,000 common shares (each a " Share ") at $0.27 per Share for aggregate gross proceeds of up to $1,080,000; ") at $0.27 per Share for aggregate gross proceeds of up to $1,080,000; Up to 3,500,000 flow-through shares (each a " FT Share ") at $0.31 per FT Share for aggregate gross proceeds of up to $1,085,000; and ") at $0.31 per FT Share for aggregate gross proceeds of up to $1,085,000; and Up to 2,750,000 charitable flow-through shares (each a "Charitable FT Share") at $0.38 per Charitable FT Share for aggregate gross proceeds of up to $1,045,000. Net proceeds from the Private Placement will be used to fund ongoing exploration activities at Gander Gold's properties in Newfoundland and for general working capital. Completion of the Private Placement is subject to certain conditions, and receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals. All securities issued in the Private Placement are subject to a hold period of four months and one day following the closing date of the Private Placement. Finder's fees may be payable in accordance with the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange. CEO Video Message To view a short video clip from Gander Gold CEO Mark Scott, please visit GanderGold.com or use this direct link: https://youtu.be/NLmgB9N7zDQ Gander Gold - Dominant Land Position In Newfoundland Acknowledgement Gander Gold Corporation acknowledges the financial support of the Junior Exploration Assistance Program, Department of Natural Resources, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. About Gander Gold Corporation Gander Gold is an exploration stage resource company currently engaged in the identification, acquisition and exploration of high-grade precious metal and base metal projects in the Central Newfoundland Gold Belt. Its focus is on its eight projects in the Canadian province of Newfoundland & Labrador, namely the Gander North, Mt. Peyton, Cape Ray II, BLT, Carmanville, Gander South, Little River and Hermitage projects, which comprise 9,052 claims or approximately 2,263 km, making Gander Gold Corporation one of the largest claimholders in Newfoundland. NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER OF THE SECURITIES DESCRIBED HEREIN Contact Info: Mark Scott Chief Executive Officer & Director info@gandergold.com Terry Bramhall Gander Gold - Corporate Communications 1.604.833.6999 (mobile) 1.604.675.9985 (office) terry.bramhall@gandergold.com The CSE has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. The securities referred to in this news release 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 applicable securities laws of any state of the United States, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons (as such term is defined in Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act) or persons in the United States unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and any other applicable securities laws of the United States or an exemption from such registration requirements is available. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of these securities within any jurisdiction, including the United States. Any public offering of securities in the United States must be made by means of a prospectus containing detailed information about the company and management, as well as financial statements. SOURCE: Gander Gold Corporation View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/715352/Gander-Gold-Arranges-32-Million-Private-Placement Montreal, Quebec--(Newsfile Corp. - September 9, 2022) - Canada-based e-commerce website developer MageMontreal has unveiled its new auditing solutions designed to enhance Magento-based e-commerce platforms. The services are extended both to businesses who want to build a new website in order to enter the e-commerce sphere, as well as to those who already have a Magento-based website and require improvement and support. The audit solutions are focused on providing the companies with code audits, security audits, performance audits, and more. MageMontreal's new series of services are committed to enabling retailers to provide their customers with a pleasant user and shopping experience on their e-commerce websites. The user experience and characteristic features of the websites enhance the chances of customer loyalty and word-of-mouth publicity. Therefore, MageMontreal focuses on both the technical and architectural frameworks, along with aesthetic and interface features, in order to create a positive user-experience. The audit provides a holistic review of a number of key elements which contribute to an effective and user-friendly website. It includes considerations of quality, performance, user-experience, security and speed, Google core vitals among several other elements. The firm provides both a general audit and a specific user experience audit. MageMontreal reviews every important element separately, in order to ensure that everything is aligned for the best Magento coding practice. After performing a detailed review, the firm gives suggestions to improve the quality and performance of the website, before finally providing solutions that make the website more effective as an e-commerce platform. The security audit protects both the clients and their customers from possible cyber attacks and data piracy. Recent reports indicate that an increasing number of e-commerce frauds threaten online retail businesses worldwide. MageMontreal believes that a consistent audit of the security features on a website can prevent online fraud and keep the site safe from cyber attacks. MageMontreal's code audit helps businesses identify the quality of their website through an expert review of currently used coding practices. It then provides security recommendations and helps enhance the accuracy of the estimates. In addition to this, MageMontreal provides a detailed technical audit to identify major avenues for improvement and enhancement. Security breaches on e-commerce websites pose the threat of exposing private customer data, which can affect the loyalty of the customers. Therefore, MageMontreal's audit provides an opportunity to streamline the website with the best Magento coding practices and security features. E-commerce platforms face several performance challenges due to the complexity of activities hosted by their website. These issues range from unstable websites to site speed issues, both for progressive web apps (PWA) and native Magento front-ends. Among others, audit services provided by MageMontreal provide reviews on database and hosting performance, PWA and front-end performance and Magento application performance. It provides a detailed and clear understanding of performance issues and also offers a means of tackling these problems through far-reaching solutions. "We are committed to providing our clients with an in-depth and detailed top-down inspection audit to identify user-experience concerns, speed problems, SEO issues, module conflicts, and security risks linked to their websites. A thorough audit can open up incredible opportunities to increase the scope of business and enhance the revenue of the e-commerce platform", says Guillaume Le Tual, Founder and CEO of MageMontreal. 'MageMontreal' is headquartered in Quebec, Canada and was established in 2007 by Guillaume Le Tual. He is an entrepreneur and multimedia technologist with more than fifteen years of experience in the industry. MageMontreal is a certified Adobe solution partner specializing in Magento-based (also known as Adobe Commerce) website solutions for e-commerce platforms. Media Contact: Name: Guillaume Le Tual Email: pr@magemontreal.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/136495 Regulatory News: Pursuant to the provisions of Article 4 of AMF Decision No. 2021-01 of 22 June 2021 (the "AMF Decision"), Sopra Steria (Paris:SOP) today increased, by 4,000,000 (four million) euros, the resources allocated to the implementation of the liquidity agreement with ODDO BHF SCA. Following this increase in the amount of cash allocated to the liquidity agreement, the resources available are as follows: 12,123 (twelve thousand one hundred twenty-three) shares 5,179,365.31 euros (five million one hundred seventy-nine thousand three hundred sixty-five euros and thirty-one cents) About Sopra Steria Sopra Steria, a European leader in consulting, digital services and software development, helps its clients drive their digital transformation and obtain tangible and sustainable benefits. It provides end-to-end solutions to make large companies and organisations more competitive by combining in-depth knowledge of a wide range of business sectors and innovative technologies with a fully collaborative approach. Sopra Steria places people at the heart of everything it does and is committed to putting digital to work for its clients in order to build a positive future for all. With 46,000 employees in nearly 30 countries, the Group generated revenue of 4.3 billion in 2020. The world is how we shape it. Sopra Steria (SOP) is listed on Euronext Paris (Compartment A) ISIN: FR0000050809 For more information, visit us at www.soprasteria.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220909005258/en/ Contacts: Investor Relations Olivier Psaume olivier.psaume@soprasteria.com +33 (0)1 40 67 68 16 Press Relations Caroline Simon (Image 7) caroline.simon@image7.fr +33 (0)1 53 70 74 65 ISACA's European office will better serve its 30,000+ local members and advance digital trust and cybersecurity in the region As a result of the continued growth and development over the last 50 years, ISACA, the global professional association advancing individuals and organizations in their pursuit of digital trust, is expanding its international reach and opening a new office in Dublin-its first European office. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220909005075/en/ Chris Dimitriadis, Chief Global Strategy Officer at ISACA (Photo: Business Wire) ISACA's success is defined by the passion, hard work and commitment of its more than 165,000 members in more than 180 countries worldwide. In Europe, the organization has over 30,000 members working in information and cyber security, assurance, governance, risk and privacy from different industries such as Banking Finance, Government, Telecommunications, Engineering, Public Accounting, Education, Retail, Health, FMCG, Automotive, Utilities, Food Beverage among others. ISACA in Europe combines the strength and scale of a large, multi-national organization with an expert, local knowledge of the market and professional communities ISACA serves. The new office intends to facilitate cooperation between European regions, chapters and members and strengthen ISACA's capacity to collaborate with key public and private stakeholders, as well as enterprises and academia. "Our expanded regional presence in Europe will provide services dedicated to Europe and help extend our global reach and impact," said ISACA CEO David Samuelson. "ISACA is both a global and a local organization, and we want to serve our professional communities where they live and work. We are very excited to have a stronger local presence in Europe to better partner with European government, enterprises, universities and our members to advance digital trust." The office and ISACA's new team members in Europe will build on the strong ties that already exist between regions by promoting investment, synergies and economic opportunities to benefit members and enterprises. Ireland's Minister of State for eGovernment Ossian Smyth said, "We welcome ISACA's commitment and investment into Ireland. As we continue to develop Ireland as a European hub for the digital economy and as a cyber centre of excellence, it is crucial to continue to build an expert and diverse specialist ecosystem. ISACA's pre-eminent global work on talent development, building the cyber profession and developing tools and frameworks to underpin the next phase of technology adoption in a safe and transparent manner, will be a boost to our tech scene. We look forward to ongoing cooperation with ISACA in improving cybersecurity preparedness and resilience." ISACA's European presence is led by Chris Dimitriadis, Chief Global Strategy Officer at ISACA. Dimitriadis has deep industry and ISACA experience, having served as ISACA board chair and as a past chief information security officer at a global organization. "ISACA has a long history in Europe, and we are incredibly proud of our chapters, volunteers, members and partners in the region," said Dimitriadis. "We are excited to strengthen our support in the communities that we serve by establishing a team of highly experienced and reputable European professionals and by opening our first office in Dublin that will strategically coordinate and support our 45 chapters in Europe and our business, government and academic partners." ISACA, established in 1969, is widely known for its globally recognized certifications, including Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) and Certified Information Security Manager (CISM), and its industry-leading frameworks, including COBIT. Additional information is at www.isaca.org/. About ISACA ISACA (www.isaca.org) is a global community advancing individuals and organizations in their pursuit of digital trust. For more than 50 years, ISACA has equipped individuals and enterprises with the knowledge, credentials, education, training and community to progress their careers, transform their organizations, and build a more trusted and ethical digital world. ISACA is a global professional association and learning organization that leverages the expertise of its more than 165,000 members who work in digital trust fields such as information security, governance, assurance, risk, privacy and quality. It has a presence in 188 countries, including 225 chapters worldwide. Through its foundation One In Tech, ISACA supports IT education and career pathways for underresourced and underrepresented populations. Twitter: www.twitter.com/ISACANews LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/isaca Facebook: www.facebook.com/ISACAGlobal Instagram: www.instagram.com/isacanews View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220909005075/en/ Contacts: Esther Almendros, ealmendros@isaca.org, T: +1 847-660-5777, M: +34 692 669 722 MIAMI, FL / ACCESSWIRE / September 9, 2022 / Organicell Regenerative Medicine, Inc. (OTCQB:OCEL), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of innovative biological therapeutics and regenerative medicine, has closed on an additional $1 million private stock purchase at $0.04 per share and secured a $10 Million Equity Line of Credit with Tysadco Partners, LLC. This capital raise brings the total amount of new funding deals to $16.5 Million. As previously announced, Organicell has been approved by the FDA to conduct Phase I/II clinical trials on their investigational new drug Zofin. Organicell will focus on proving the efficacy of the company's flagship product, Zofin , for the treatment of patients suffering from Covid Long Hauler and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). In preparation for the enrollment of these clinical trials, Organicell inked a deal with Tysadco Partners, LLC for a $10 Million dollar Equity Line of Credit (ELOC). Tysadco specializes in micro-cap funding and has completed several ELOC's ranging from $2 million to $30 million over the last five years. Matt Sinnreich, CEO of Organicell, said "We have been working closely with the FDA and the Institutional Review Board (IRB) over the last few months to adjust the enrollment criteria of our clinical trials to better reflect the current environment. The goal was to put this company in the best possible position to get clinical trial patients quickly enrolled. Reuters published an article earlier this week entitled, Top scientists join forces to study leading theory behind long COVID, stating that nearly 150 million people are affected by Long Covid. Organicell had the Long Hauler clinical trial set up before my involvement as CEO. I have aggressively shifted the focus of our resources to accommodate this mandate and ensure we have the funds to complete these trials. I have also approved two new clinical trial sites to host our Long Hauler trials in LA and Miami." Sinnreich continued, "Long Hauler Covid is a problem that is affecting a large portion of the global population and a problem I want our company to solve as quickly as possible. While I feel that we are well capitalized, I don't want to put our company in a position where we need to raise more capital in the middle of the ongoing trials. An Equity Line of Credit, a.k.a. (ELOC), gives us the option to utilize the stock price and volume traded so that, at our discretion, we can choose to draw up to $10 Million from Tysadco if necessary. This additional financing option gives the Company a lot more comfort in supporting our team's efforts to get through our approved trials. I will give a more granular update on our clinical trials in the coming weeks." Future Press Releases and Industry Updates Investors interested in receiving periodic press releases and industry updates are encouraged to send an e-mail to ir@organicell.com About Organicell Regenerative Medicines, Inc. Organicell Regenerative Medicine, Inc. (OTCQB:OCEL) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company principally focusing on the development of innovative biological therapeutics for the treatment of degenerative diseases and the provision of other related services. The Company's proprietary products are derived from perinatal sources and manufactured to retain the naturally occurring exosomes, hyaluronic acid, and proteins without the addition or combination of any other substance or diluent. To learn more, please visit https://organicell.com/. Forward-Looking Statements Certain of the statements contained in this press release should be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"), and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are often identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "will", "believes", "expects", "potential", or similar expressions, involving known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, they do involve assumptions, risks and uncertainties, and these expectations may prove to be incorrect. We remind you that actual results could vary dramatically as a result of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to: potential issues related to our financial condition, competition, the ability to retain key personnel, product safety, efficacy and acceptance, the commercial success of any new products or technologies, success of clinical programs, ability to retain key customers, our inability to expand sales and distribution channels, legislation or regulations affecting our operations including product pricing, reimbursement or access, the ability to protect our patents and other intellectual property both domestically and internationally, and other known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including the risk factors discussed in the Company's periodic reports that are filed with the SEC and available on the SEC's website (http://www.sec.gov). You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these risk factors. Specific information included in this press release may change over time and may or may not be accurate after the date of the release. Organicell has no intention and specifically disclaims any duty to update the information in this press release. Investor Relations and Media Relations Contact Organicell Investor Relations 1-888-963-7881 Ext.101 IR@organicell.com SOURCE: Organicell Regenerative Medicine View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/715337/OrganicellRegenerative-Medicine-Inc-Secures-Additional-11-Million-in-Financing-in-Preparation-for-Clinical-Trial-Enrollment Rural Development Administration (RDA) Administrator Cho Chae-ho, third from right, exchanges opinions with young farmers during a session organized by the RDA at its headquarters in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, Sept. 1. Courtesy of RDA By Lee Kyung-min JEONJU Farming used to be about working endless hours in the sun, defined by repetitive, time-consuming labor that goes on for days or months. It was rarely associated with creating high or added value, the key criteria for determining an industry's contribution to the advancement of the economy. Few would hold farming in the same regard as manufacturing, for example, especially in Korea where rapid and intensive growth over the past few decades was underpinned almost exclusively by exports of manufactured goods and services. No longer is that the case, as evidenced by a growing number of young farmers managing their crops using smart technologies, a strength of Korea known as a global leader in the high-tech industry. Temperature, humidity and LED lighting are among the critical controllable factors that optimize the production of high-quality popular fruit and vegetables, including strawberries and tomatoes. "At the touch of a button, practically everything is manageable," said Shin Na-ra, a 23-year-old farmer who owns a smart strawberry farm in Sangju, North Gyeongsang Province. Rural Development Administration Administrator Cho Chae-ho celebrates the organization's 60th anniversary, at its headquarters in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, Sept. 1. Courtesy of RDA **NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWS WIRE SERVICES** VACAVILLE, CA / ACCESSWIRE / September 9, 2022 / Athena Gold Corporation (OTCQB:AHNR)(CSE:ATHA) ("Athena" or the "Company") announces that due to investor interest in its non-brokered private placement offering (the "Offering") of units of the Company (each, a "Unit"), it is upsizing the Offering to up to 8,125,000 Units at a price of CAD $0.08 per Unit for aggregate gross proceeds of up to CAD $650,000. Each Unit will consist of one common share in the capital stock of the Company and one common share purchase warrant, with each warrant entitling the holder thereof to purchase one common share in the capital stock of the Company at a price of CAD $0.12 at any time on or before the first business day that is 24 months from the closing of the Offering. In addition, the Company is pleased to announce that it has closed the second tranche of the Offering through the issuance of 1,737,500 Units for gross proceeds of CAD $139,000. The net proceeds from the Offering are expected to be used for further project exploration and general working capital. All securities issued in connection with the Offering are subject to resale restriction periods under applicable United States securities laws, and any securities issued in Canada under the Offering are subject to a four month and one day hold period in Canada. In connection with the closing of the second tranche of the Offering, the Company will pay finder's fees of $8,340 cash and 104,250 broker warrants. None of the foregoing securities have been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "1933 Act") or any applicable state securities laws and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons (as defined in Regulation S under the 1933 Act) or persons in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor will there be any sale of the foregoing securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. About Athena Gold Corporation Athena is focused on exploring its Excelsior Springs project located 45 miles southwest of Goldfield in Esmeralda County, Nevada, while concurrently pursuing the acquisition other worthy precious and base metal properties. For further information about Athena Gold Corporation and our Excelsior Springs project, please visit www.athgenagoldcorp.com. On Behalf of the Board of Directors John Power Chief Executive Officer and President For further information, please contact: Phone: John Power, 707-291-6198 Email: info@athenagoldcorp.com Forward Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and U.S. securities laws. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements regarding the completion of the Offering and the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: "believes", "will", "expects", "anticipates", "intends", "estimates", "plans", "may", "should", "potential", "scheduled", or variations of such words and phrases and similar expressions, which, by their nature, refer to future events or results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken or achieved. In making the forward-looking statements in this press release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including without limitation, that there will be investor interest in future financings, market fundamentals will result in sustained precious metals demand and prices, the receipt of any necessary permits, licenses and regulatory approvals in connection with the future exploration and development of the Company's projects in a timely manner, the availability of financing on suitable terms for the exploration and development of the Company's projects and the Company's ability to comply with environmental, health and safety laws. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements by the Company are not guarantees of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including, operating and technical difficulties in connection with mineral exploration and development activities, actual results of exploration activities, the estimation or realization of mineral reserves and mineral resources, the inability of the Company to obtain the necessary financing required to conduct its business and affairs, as currently contemplated, the timing and amount of estimated future production, the costs of production, capital expenditures, the costs and timing of the development of new deposits, requirements for additional capital, future prices of precious metals, changes in general economic conditions, changes in the financial markets and in the demand and market price for commodities, lack of investor interest in future financings, accidents, labor disputes and other risks of the mining industry, delays in obtaining governmental approvals, permits or financing or in the completion of development or construction activities, risks relating to epidemics or pandemics such as COVID-19, including the impact of COVID-19 on the Company's business, financial condition and results of operations, changes in laws, regulations and policies affecting mining operations, title disputes, the inability of the Company to obtain any necessary permits, consents, approvals or authorizations, including of the Canadian Securities Exchange, the timing and possible outcome of any pending litigation, environmental issues and liabilities, and other factors and risks that are discussed in the Company's periodic filings with the SEC and disclosed in the final long form prospectus of the Company dated August 31, 2021. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements in this press release or incorporated by reference herein, except as otherwise required by law. SOURCE: Athena Gold Corporation View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/715340/Athena-Upsizes-Cad-008-Unit-Non-Brokered-Private-Placement-and-Announces-Closing-of-Second-Tranche The compaction machines market in China is expected to surge at 8.1% CAGR through 2032. ChinaCompaction Machines Market is expected to grow at a robust CAGR of 8.1% in 2022. Rising Investments in Construction Projects Fueling Compaction Machines Market Growth in the U.S. NEWARK, Del., Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The global compaction machines market is predicted to exhibit a healthy CAGR of 6.4% between 2022 and 2032 with an expected valuation of US$ 5.2 Bn in 2022 and totaling the revenue to around US$ 9.7 Bn by 2032. The market was valued at US$ 4.9 Bn in 2021. According to the historical forecast, the global compaction machines market grew at a value of 5.2% between 2017 and 2021. However, the surging investments in building and construction projects along with the rising prevalence of modern machinery in order to improve productivity and reduce labor costs, it is expected to elevate the demand for compact machines in the future. Owing to the rapid expansion of the building and construction industry along with accelerated demand for advanced machinery, the overall sales of compaction machines are predicted to grow at a phenomenal pace across the forecast period. Get Sample PDF Brochure: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1064 Key Takeaways Compaction machines are strong equipment utilized for compaction purposes throughout construction and building activities. Such powerful machines are used to reduce the size of the soil, concrete, gravel, or asphalt used in the construction of roads, dams, airports, and other structures. They help users to increase overall productivity and reduce labor costs. The advancements in compaction equipment and the emergence of staunch government regulations are all expected to positively impact the growth of the compaction machine market over the coming years. A significant surge in the compaction equipment market has been witnessed due to the emergence of compact paving materials such as asphalt mixes and roller-compacted concrete is expected to push demand in the global market. Since there is a surge in construction activities all over the world, many new construction projects require advanced and compact construction equipment such as tandem rollers and pneumatic rollers, which can work efficiently in less time. Governments in several countries are launching various construction projects due to the rising population and strengthening commercial infrastructure in their respective regions. This in turn is expected to bolster the sales of machines like compaction equipment. Strict environmental regulations across the globe are rising environmental concerns along with growing infrastructures are predicted to propel the demand for electrically operated compaction machines in the global market during the forecast period. In order to reduce pollution levels, small businesses are opting for electric machines that save costs and also improve overall productivity. Therefore, the rising demand for electric compaction machinery is projected to support the market growth during the next ten years. The global construction market is predicted to exhibit a phenomenal growth rate by gathering a revenue of about US$4.0 trillion throughout the forecast period and is further anticipated to reach US$16 trillion with more than US$8.0 trillion in emerging economies by 2032. Browse Detailed Summary of Research Report with TOC: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/compaction-machines-market Competitive Landscape There is high competition witnessed in the global compaction machines market owing to the presence of several dominant regional as well as domestic players. Key compaction machine manufacturers are launching new products and collaborating and partnering with vehicle manufacturers for better market opportunities. AB Volvo Caterpillar Inc. Terex Corporation BOMAG GmbH Wacker Neuson SE XCMG Co. Ltd Zoomlion Heavy Industries Science and Technology Co Ltd Atlas Copco Wirtgen Group Sany Heavy Industries Co Ltd AMMANN GROUP More Insights into the Compaction Machines Market The U.S. is expected to dominate the North American compaction machines market by accounting for about 76.7% of the total revenue. Owing to the rising need for smart cities and increasing government investments in the latest construction projects, the market is predicted to reach US$ 621.5 Mn in 2022. According to the FMI analysis, China is estimated to show lucrative growth opportunities over the projection period. The market is expected to accelerate at a flawless CAGR of 8.1% in 2022. Despite the supply chain issues, China's commercial construction industry is anticipated to maintain expansion over the assessment period. The ever-rising need for residential and commercial development in the nation is expected to continue owing to the increase in household income and more people moving from rural to urban regions. The expansion of the residential and commercial construction industry was bolstered due to affordable housing opportunities in both the public and private sectors. It has also been predicted that in the upcoming years, non-residential infrastructure would boom massively. Resulting in progressive sales of the compaction machines market. Download PDF Brochure @https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/brochure/rep-gb-1064 Key Segments Covered in Compaction Machines Market Industry Analysis By Product Type: Heavy compaction machines Heavy tandem roller 5-8 Tonne 8-11 Tonne > 11 Tonne Single drum roller 3-5 Tonne 5-8 Tonne 8-12 Tonne 12-15 Tonne > 15 Tonne Pneumatic roller Light compaction machines Hand operated machines Rammer Vibratory plates (forward) Vibratory plates (reverse) Walk behind roller Light tandem roller < 1.8 Tonne 8-3 Tonne 3-5 Tonne Trench roller By Region: North America Latin America Europe East Asia South Asia Pacific Middle East & Africa Speak to our Research Expert: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/ask-question/rep-gb-1064 Table of Content 1. Executive Summary 1.1. Global Market Outlook 1.2. Demand Side Trends 1.3. Supply Side Trends 1.4. Analysis and Recommendations 2. Market Overview 2.1. Market Coverage / Taxonomy 2.2. Market Definition / Scope / Limitations 3. Key Market Trends 3.1. Key Trends Impacting the Market 4. Key Success Factors 5. Global Compaction Machines Market Demand Analysis 2017-2021 and Forecast, 2022-2032 5.1. Historical Market Volume (Units) Analysis, 2017-2021 5.2. Current and Future Market Volume (Units) Projections, 2022-2032 5.3. Y-o-Y Growth Trend Analysis 6. Global Compaction Machines Market - Pricing Analysis 6.1. Regional Pricing Analysis by Product Type 6.2. Global Average Pricing Analysis Benchmark 7. Global Compaction Machines Market Demand (in Value or Size in US$ Mn) Analysis 2017-2021 and Forecast, 2022-2032 7.1. Historical Market Value (US$ Mn) Analysis, 2017-2021 7.2. Current and Future Market Value (US$ Mn) Projections, 2022-2032 7.2.1. Y-o-Y Growth Trend Analysis 7.2.2. Absolute $ Opportunity Analysis TOC continued..! About FMI - Automotive and Transportation The Automotive and Transportation division of FMI provides exclusive coverage and actionable insights about automotive and transportation industry encompassing automotive, aviation, shipping and marine, and railway sectors. Market findings and competition intelligence of OEM, aftermarket, services and technology landscape have helped numerous industry stakeholders' right from automakers, component manufacturers, channel partners and service providers in taking informed decisions and keeping them up-to-date with market behaviour. Have a Look at Trending Research Reports of Automotive Domain Automotive Stamping Market : is projected to reach a value pool of US$ 10,490.0 Million in 2022, registering a modest CAGR of 5.3% from 2022 to 2032. Automotive Seating Systems Market : reached a valuation of US$ 65,462.4 Million in 2022. The expanding scope of application and technology innovation are projected to be the market's primary growth drivers. Automotive Conversion Kit Market : demand is anticipated to be valued at US$ 3,746.8 Million in 2022, forecast to grow at a CAGR of 5.5%to be valued at US$ 6,490.9 Million from 2022 to 2032. Automotive Soft Trim Interior Materials Market : size is anticipated to expand from US$ 5743.6 million in 2022 and is projected to reach US$ 9179 million by 2032, indexing a CAGR of 4.8% by the end of the forecast period. Automotive Front End Module Market : due to the growing demand during the forecast period. It is anticipated to be appraised at US$ 22,290.4 Mn by 2032, up from US$ 12,132.4 Mn in 2022. ABOUT FUTURE MARKET INSIGHTS, INC. Future Market Insights, Inc. is an ESOMAR-certified business consulting & market research firm, a member of the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce and is headquartered in Delaware, USA. A recipient of Clutch Leaders Award 2022 on account of high client score (4.9/5), we have been collaborating with global enterprises in their business transformation journey and helping them deliver on their business ambitions. 80% of the largest Forbes 1000 enterprises are our clients. We serve global clients across all leading & niche market segments across all major industries. Now avail flexible Research Subscriptions, and access Research multi-format through downloadable databooks, infographics, charts, interactive playbook for data visualization and full reports through MarketNgage, the market intelligence engine from Future Market Insights. Sign Up for a 7-day free trial! Contact: Future Market Insights, Inc. Christiana Corporate, 200 Continental Drive, Suite 401, Newark, Delaware - 19713, USA T: +1-845-579-5705 Enquiries:sales@futuremarketinsights.com Report:https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/compaction-machines-market Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1197648/FMI_Logo.jpg New agreement signed at the Italian Ministry of Health allows for the first-ever exchange of living donor kidneys between Europe and the United States The Alliance for Paired Kidney Donation (APKD), an Ohio-based, non-profit organization managing an international kidney exchange registry, today announces the launch of a pilot kidney exchange transplant program between the United States and Italy. The signing of the agreement, between APKD and Centro Nazionali Trapianti (CNT), the organization which manages all transplantation activity in Italy, allows for the first-ever exchange of living donor kidneys between Europe and the United States. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220909005252/en/ Dr. Michael A. Rees, CEO of Alliance for Paired Kidney Donation and Massimo Cardillo, director of Italy's National Transplant Center, formalize the agreement in Rome, Italy. (Photo: Business Wire) The goal of the memorandum of understanding, which was signed at the Ministry of Health in Rome, is to provide for the possible treatment of thousands of patients awaiting kidney transplants in both the U.S. and Italy. The agreement was signed on behalf of CNT by its director, Massimo Cardillo, and by Michael A. Rees, MD, PhD, the CEO of APKD and the surgical director of kidney transplantation at the University of Toledo Medical Center in Ohio. The new US-Italy program concerns kidney exchange transplantation, in which incompatible living donor and recipient pairs are matched with other incompatible pairs for kidney transplants. Thanks to the agreement between APKD and CNT, incompatible American and Italian donor-recipient pairs will be able to exchange with each other based on a shared algorithm that will verify the level of compatibility between those on the countries' transplant waiting lists. In this way, patients with kidney failure, who also have an incompatible volunteer donor, will have a greater chance of receiving the transplant they need. In addition to the technical-operational aspects such as the requirements of the participating hospitals, matching algorithm and overall governance of the transplant process the agreement provides that the costs related to the transplant procedure are borne by the U.S. insurance coverage for the U.S. recipient and the Italian donor, while the Italian National Health Service will cover the expenses for the Italian recipient and the American donor. Transplant surgeries will take place in the country where the recipient is located. The pilot phase of the program will cover the first three cases and will be limited to one hospital in Italy, while in the U.S., chosen APKD partner transplant centers will be accepted into the program with the approval of CNT. Once the initial operational and management process has been completed, the program will be re-evaluated for possible consolidation of the protocol and the progressive expansion to other living kidney transplant centers of the Italian and APKD networks. The agreement with Italy is the latest example of APKD's global leadership in the field of kidney exchange. In late 2021, the organization also helped coordinate a historic series of kidney transplants between donors and patients in Israel and the United Arab Emirates that saved the lives of three women. Today in the U.S., about 20% of the 6,000 living donor kidney transplants performed are achieved through kidney exchange. APKD believes collaboration between its organization and CNT could significantly increase the number of living donor kidney transplants achieved for both Italian and U.S. citizens with kidney failure. "Kidney exchange helps us celebrate our differences for the benefits they enable," said Rees, CEO of APKD. "Larger pools offer more opportunities for kidney exchange for the incompatible pairs in those pools. But an often-overlooked aspect of kidney exchange is that patients with antibodies that prevent their donors from donating are often produced against targets that are common within their ethnicity or population. Kidney exchange shows us how our differences can be the critical component, allowing us to help one another by providing donors that lack the targets of such antibodies." Rees goes on to note that: "We believe the heterogenous U.S. population will allow the homogenous Italian patients a much better chance of finding a match than working with similar populations in Southern Europe." This kidney exchange program with the U.S. is the second international exchange program launched by Italy. Since 2018, Italy has had an agreement involving France, Portugal and Spain, which has resulted in three kidney exchange transplants with the latter nation. "Living kidney transplants are an effective therapeutic option for recipients and absolutely safe for donors, but to date, they represent less than 17% of kidney transplants performed each year in Italy," said Cardillo, CNT director. "This is a rapidly growing percentage but still insufficient to respond to the many patients still waiting. This agreement between Italy and the U.S. literally opens a new frontier and will allow us to significantly increase the chances of establishing positive matches between different patients." The final goal, continues Cardillo, is an international network of paired exchange kidney transplants. "Starting from this experience, we will be able to work for a cooperation agreement between all European countries that will allow us to internationalize kidney exchange programs for the benefit of all patients." The full announcement by CNT, including a response from Italy Undersecretary of Health Pierpaolo Sileri, is available on CNT's website. To learn more about APKD and its industry-leading kidney registry, visit PairedDonation.org. About the Alliance for Paired Kidney Donation The Alliance for Paired Kidney Donation (APKD) is a 501c3 with global reach that manages a kidney registry powered by a Nobel Prize-winning algorithm. APKD revolutionized kidney donation by performing the world's first non-simultaneous altruistic donor chain and the first international chain. APKD's commitment to innovation, research, education, technology and generosity allows it to fulfill its mission of saving lives by securing a living donor kidney transplant for every patient who needs one. Centro Nazionali Trapianti (CNT): Centro Nazionali Trapianti (CNT), set up under the Law 91/1999, is located at the Istituto Superiore di Sanita (ISS), as a department. It coordinates all activities on donation, allocation and transplantation of organs; donation, banking and transplantation of tissues and waiting lists of patients. It manages the Transplant Information System, collecting data on donation, allocation and transplantation of organs, including transplanted organ quality, and defines protocols about safety and security of organ donation and criteria for operational protocols for organ and tissue allocation, allocation of organs for urgencies and national programs. It fixes parameters for transplant quality assessment, promotes information campaigns for the public, in collaboration with MoH and patients' Associations, and promotes and develops training courses regarding organ donation. ISS and CNT have a vast experience in project participation and coordination. During these years CNT international activity has evolved, focusing on international relations, EU-funded projects, cooperation agreements with EU and Mediterranean countries; international organ exchanges through the Italian Gate to Europe in partnership with CIR OCST and Policlinico Umberto I; and the monitoring of Italian patients abroad and of foreign patients in Italy. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220909005252/en/ Contacts: Sue Finkam sue.finkam@paireddonation.org 317.614.5835 LONDON (dpa-AFX) - As a mark of respect for the memory of late Queen Elizabeth, President Joe Biden ordered that the US national flag will be flown at half-staff at the White House and at all public buildings and grounds of the country. The national flag will also remain half-staff at all military posts, naval stations, U.S. naval vessels, United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations until the day of the Queen's funeral. 'In a world of constant change, Queen Elizabeth II was a steadying presence and a source of comfort and pride for generations of Britons, including many who have never known their country without her,' Biden said in a statement. 'Supported by her beloved Prince Philip for 73 years, Queen Elizabeth II led always with grace, an unwavering commitment to duty, and the incomparable power of her example. She endured the dangers and deprivations of a world war alongside the British people and rallied them during the devastation of a global pandemic to look to better days ahead. Through her dedication to her patronages and charities, she supported causes that uplifted people and expanded opportunity. By showing friendship and respect to newly independent nations around the world, she elevated the cause of liberty and fostered enduring bonds that helped strengthen the Commonwealth, which she loved so deeply, into a community to promote peace and shared values,' the statement added. Biden described Queen Elizabeth as a stateswoman of unmatched dignity and constancy who deepened the bedrock Alliance between the United Kingdom and the United States. He recalled that she met 14 American presidents, helped Americans commemorate both the anniversary of the founding of Jamestown and the bicentennial of U.S. independence, and stood in solidarity with the United States during the darkest days after 9/11. The longest-serving British monarch died at Balmoral Castle in Aberdeen, Scotland, Thursday. Her eldest son Charles succeeds her to the throne. King Charles III is expected to address the nation at 1 PM ET Friday. The King greeted crowds outside Buckingham Palace on his return to London with the Queen Consort, Camilla. Gun salutes are being fired and church bells have tolled as the nation paid tribute to the Queen who ruled it for seven decades. The date of the funeral is yet to be revealed. The Queen's coffin will lie at rest in Edinburgh for 24 hours in the coming days and will then move to London to lie in state. Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de Future governance of the Company Regulatory News: PIERRE ET VACANCES (Paris:VAC): Future governance of the Company Pierre et Vacances (the "Company") announces today the identity of the four independent directors who will join the four directors appointed by the General Meeting of July 8th, 2022, as from the date of final completion of the ongoing restructuring transactions1 (the "Restructuring Transactions"), i.e. September 16th, 2022 according to the indicative calendar. Mr Georges Sampeur, currently chairman of the supervisory board of the B&B hotel group, which he managed for 20 years, will chair the Company's Board of Directors. Christine Declercq (CFO of the frozen food distribution group Picard for 18 years) who will be appointed as the Board's reference director, Delphine Grison (President of DGTL Conseil and director of, among others, Dekuple (formerly ADL Performance) and Solocal) and Claire Gagnaire (general secretary of Hellio, a leading player in energy management) will also join the Company's Board of Directors. Pierre Vacances Group is delighted to be able to benefit from the expertise of each of them. In accordance with the accelerated safeguard plan approved by the Company's shareholders on July 8, 2022 and approved by the Paris Commercial Court on July 29, 2022, the Company's Board of Directors will be fully renewed on the date of completion of the Restructuring Transactions and will be composed as follows: Name Starting date End date (at the end of the General Meeting called to approve the accounts for the financial year ending:) Mr Franck Gervais Chief Executive Officer September 16, 2022* (decision of the general meeting of July 8, 2022) September 30, 2024 Alcentra Flandre Limited September 16, 2022* (decision of the general meeting of July 8, 2022) September 30, 2024 Fidera Limited September 16, 2022* (decision of the general meeting of July 8, 2022) September 30, 2024 Mr Pascal Savary September 16, 2022* (decision of the general meeting of July 8, 2022) September 30, 2024 Mr Georges Sampeur September 16, 2022* (on cooptation***) September 30, 2024 Mrs Christine Declercq September 16, 2022* (on cooptation***) September 30, 2024 Mrs Delphine Grison September 16, 2022* (on cooptation***) September 30, 2024 Mrs Claire Gagnaire September 16, 2022* (on cooptation***) September 30, 2024 Mr Emmanuel de Pinel de la Taule October 30, 2020 (upon election of employees) October 30, 2023***** Mrs Claire Linssen November 9, 2020 (appointed by the European Works Council) November 9, 2023***** * The anticipated date of completion of the Restructuring Transactions. ** Independent director as defined by the Afep-Medef code. *** Ratification to be made at the General Meeting of September 30, 2022. **** Director representing employees. ***** The term of office of directors representing employees is set at three years from the date of their election or appointment. Information on the four new directors whose cooptation is subject to ratification by the general meeting of shareholders on September 30, 2022, pursuant to article L. 225-24 of the French Commercial Code, as required by article R. 225-83 of the said code, is available on Pierre et Vacances' website at the following address: http://www.groupepvcp.com (heading Finance General Meeting General Meeting September 30, 2022). Availability of preparatory documents for the Combined General Meeting of September 30, 2022 The Combined General Meeting of Pierre et Vacances shareholders will be held on Friday, September 30, 2022 at 2:30 p.m., at the Hotel des Arts Metiers, 9 bis avenue d'Iena 75116 Paris. The notice of pre-meeting, including the agenda and the draft resolutions, was published in the Bulletin des Annonces Legales Obligatoires (BALO) on Friday August 5, 2022. The corrected notice of meeting will be published in the BALO of Wednesday September 14, 2022 and will be published in the legal announcements journal "Affiches Parisiennes" of September 14, 2022. Details regarding participation and voting at this meeting are set out in these notices. The attention of the Company's shareholders is drawn to the amendment of (i) the agenda of the meeting and (ii) the first four resolutions of the meeting (with the addition of the names of the proposed directors). All the documents and information provided for in Article R. 22-10-23 of the French Commercial Code are available on Pierre et Vacances' website at the following address: http://www.groupepvcp.com (heading Finance General Meeting General Meeting September 30, 2022). They will also be made available to shareholders as from the convening of the General Meeting, in accordance with the applicable regulatory provisions. Up to and including the fifth day before the General Meeting, any shareholder holding registered shares may ask the company to send him the documents referred to in Articles R. 225-81 and R. 225-83 of the French Commercial Code. For shareholders owning bearer shares, the exercise of this right is subject to the provision of a certificate of registration in the bearer share accounts held by the authorized intermediary. Any shareholder may consult the documents referred to in Articles L. 225-115 and R. 225-83 of the French Commercial Code at the company's registered office during a period of 15 days prior to the date of the General Meeting. 1 See, in particular, the Company's press release dated March 10, 2022 and, most recently, the press release dated August 2, 2022. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220909005397/en/ Contacts: Pierre et Vacances Regulatory News: ACTICOR BIOTECH (ISIN: FR0014005OJ5 ALACT), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of innovative treatments for cardiovascular emergencies, today discloses the total number of voting rights and shares as of August 31, 2022 (pursuant to Article L. 233-8 II of the French Commercial Code and Article 223-16 of the General Regulation of the French Financial Markets Authority). Listing Place: Euronext Growth Paris ISIN Code: FR0014005OJ5 Web site: acticor-biotech.com Date Number of shares making up the share capital Theoretical number of voting rights (1) Number of voting rights excluding shares stripped of voting rights (2) August 31, 2022 10.545.776 10.545.776 10.492.195 In accordance with Article 223-111 of the AMF's General Regulation, this number of shares is calculated based on all shares carrying the right to vote, including those stripped of voting rights. The actual voting rights correspond to the total number of voting rights that can be exercised in a general meeting. They are calculated on the basis of the total number of voting rights attached to the total number of shares minus the shares without voting rights. About ACTICOR BIOTECH Acticor Biotech is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, a spin-off from INSERM (the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research), that is developing an innovative treatment for acute thrombotic diseases, including ischemic strokes. Acticor Biotech is developing glenzocimab (ACT017), a humanized monoclonal antibody fragment (Fab) directed against a novel target of major interest, platelet glycoprotein VI (GPVI). Glenzocimab inhibits platelet binding to the thrombus without affecting physiological hemostasis, thereby limiting the risk of bleeding, particularly intracerebral hemorrhage. In May 2022, Acticor Biotech presented positive results from its Phase 1b/2a study, ACTIMIS, at the European Stroke Organisation Conference (ESOC 2022), confirming the safety profile and showing a reduction in mortality and intracerebral hemorrhage in the glenzocimab-treated group in patients with stroke. The efficacy of glenzocimab is now being evaluated in an international Phase 2/3 study, ACTISAVE, which will include 1,000 patients. In July 2022, Acticor Biotech obtains "PRIME" status from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for glenzocimab in the treatment of stroke. This designation will allow the Company to strengthen interactions and obtain early dialogues with regulatory authorities. Acticor Biotech is supported by a panel of European and International Investors (Karista, Go Capital, Newton Biocapital, CMS Medical Venture Investment (HK) Limited, A&B (HK) Limited, Anaxago, Mediolanum farmaceutici and the Armesa foundation). Acticor Biotech is listed on Euronext Growth Paris, since November 2021 (ISIN: FR0014005OJ5 ALACT). For further information, please go to www.acticor-biotech.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220909005392/en/ Contacts: ACTICOR BIOTECH Gilles AVENARD, MD CEO and Founder gilles.avenard@acticor-biotech.com T.: +33 (0)6 76 23 38 13 Sophie BINAY, PhD General Manager and CSO Sophie.binay@acticor-biotech.com T.: +33 (0)6 76 23 38 13 NewCap Mathilde BOHIN Quentin MASSE Investor Relations acticor@newcap.eu T.: +33 (0)1 44 71 94 95 Finsbury Growth & Income Trust Plc - Transaction in Own Shares For immediate release 9 September 2022 FINSBURY GROWTH & INCOME TRUST PLC (the "Company") MARKET PURCHASE OF COMPANY'S OWN SHARES The Company announces that it has today purchased 125,000 of its own shares ("Ordinary Shares") at a price of 839.36 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 7,805,230; 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 217,186,073. The figure of 217,186,073 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 BH Macro Limited (a closed-ended collective investment scheme established as a company with limited liability under the laws of Guernsey with registration number 46235) (The "Company") LEI Number: 549300ZOFF0Z2CM87C29 (The "Company") 09 September 2022 RESULT OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING At the Annual General Meeting of the Company held on 09 September 2022, all Resolutions set out in the Annual General Meeting Notice sent to Shareholders dated 10 August 2022 were duly passed. The Special Resolutions were as follows: Resolution 12 That the Company be and is hereby generally and unconditionally authorised in accordance with the Companies (Guernsey) Law, 2008, as amended (the "Companies Law"), to make market acquisitions (as defined in the Companies Law) of each class of its shares (either for the retention as treasury shares for resale or transfer, or cancellation), PROVIDED THAT: (a) the maximum number of shares authorised to be purchased shall be 392,874 shares designated as US Dollar shares and 4,415,780 shares designated as Sterling shares (respectively being 14.99 per cent. of the shares of each class in issue as at the latest practicable date prior to the date of publication of this document (excluding in each case shares held in treasury)); (b) the minimum price (exclusive of expenses) which may be paid for a share shall be one cent for shares designated as US Dollar shares and one pence for shares designated as Sterling shares; (c) the maximum price which may be paid for a share of the relevant class is an amount equal to the higher of: (a) 105 per cent. of the average of the middle market quotations for a share of the relevant class on the relevant market for the five business days immediately preceding the date on which the share is purchased; and (b) the higher of (i) the price of the last independent trade for a share of the relevant class and (ii) the highest current independent bid for a share of the relevant class at the time of purchase; and (d) the authority hereby conferred shall expire at the annual general meeting of the Company in 2023 unless such authority is varied, revoked or renewed prior to such date by a special resolution of the Company in a general meeting. Resolution 13 That, in accordance with Article 6.4 of the Articles, the Directors be empowered to allot and issue (or sell from treasury) 262,091 shares designated as US Dollar shares and 2,945,817 shares designated as Sterling shares (respectively being 10 per cent. of the shares in issue of each class as at the latest practicable date prior to the date of this notice (excluding shares held in treasury)) for cash as if Article 6.1 of the Articles did not apply to the allotment and issue (or sale from treasury) for the period expiring on the date falling fifteen months after the date of passing of this Resolution 13 or the conclusion of the next annual general meeting of the Company, whichever is the earlier, save that the Company may before such expiry make offers or agreements which would or might require shares to be allotted and issued (or sold) after such expiry and the Directors may allot and issue (or sell) shares in pursuance of any such offer or agreement notwithstanding that the power conferred by this Resolution 13 has expired. Enquiries: Northern Trust International Fund Administration Services (Guernsey) Limited The Company Secretary Trafalgar Court Les Banques St Peter Port Guernsey GY1 3QL Tel: 01481 745001 END MONTREAL, QC / ACCESSWIRE / September 9, 2022 / VIOR INC. ("Vior" or the "Corporation"), (TSXV:VIO)(OTCQB:VIORF)(FRANKFURT:VL51) is pleased to announce that it has executed a Purchase Agreement (the "Agreement") with Osisko Mining Inc. ("Osisko"), a non arms-length party, to acquire from Osisko a 100-percent interest in 83 claims covering approximately 4,682 hectares next to its Skyfall project, in consideration for the issuance of 107,142 common shares of Vior. Certain claims associated with this Agreement are subject to a 1% Net Smelter Return ("NSR") royalty, related to a previous transaction with Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd. This transaction is subject to regulatory approval by the TSX Venture Exchange and the securities to be issued under the Agreement will be subject to a four (4) months and 1 day hold period under applicable securities laws. The entering into the Agreement is considered to be a related party transaction under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"), but is exempted from the requirements to obtain a formal valuation and to obtain minority approval under MI 61-101. Indeed, Vior is relying on exemptions from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements provided under sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101 as the consideration payable by Vior under the Agreement does not exceed 25% of it's market capitalization. About Vior Inc. Vior is a hybrid junior mining exploration company based in Quebec, whose corporate strategy is to generate, explore and develop high-quality projects in proven and favourable mining jurisdictions in North America. Through the years, Vior's management and technical teams have demonstrated their ability to discover several gold deposits and many high-quality mineral prospects For further information, please contact: Mark Fedosiewich President and CEO Tel.: 613-898-5052 mfedosiewich@vior.ca Laurent Eustache Executive Vice-President Tel.: 514-442-7707 leustache@vior.ca Website: www.vior.ca SEDAR: Vior Inc. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the Policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements. All statements, other than of historical facts, that address activities, events or developments that the Corporation believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future including, without limitation, the planned exploration program on the Belleterre project, the expected positive exploration results, the timing of the exploration results, the ability of the Corporation to continue with the exploration program, the availability of the required funds to continue with the exploration and the approval from the Ministere de l'energie et des ressources naturelle ("MERN") of the request for abandonment of the two mining concessions filed by 9293-0122 Quebec Inc. are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by use of the words "will", "should", "continue", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "believe", "intend", "to earn", "to have', "plan" or "project" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Corporation's ability to control or predict, that may cause the actual results of the Corporation to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, failure to meet expected, estimated or planned exploration expenditures, the possibility that future exploration results will not be consistent with the Corporation's expectations, general business and economic conditions, changes in world gold markets, sufficient labour and equipment being available, changes in laws and permitting requirements, unanticipated weather changes, title disputes and claims, environmental risks, the refusal by the MERN to approve the request for abandonment of the two mining concessions held by 9293-0122 Quebec Inc. as well as those risks identified in the Corporation's annual Management's Discussion and Analysis. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described and accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Although the Corporation has attempted to identify important risks, uncertainties and factors which could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be others that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. The Corporation does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements except as otherwise required by applicable law. SOURCE: Vior, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/715405/Vior-Adds-to-Property-Package-at-Skyfall Six affiliates of the state-run Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) are planning to cut their investment in renewable energy over the next five years as they need to improve their worsening financial health, according to a report on Friday. The six affiliates, including Korea Energy and Korea East-West Power, will slash their investment in renewable energy by a combined 2.1 trillion won ($1.5 billion) until 2026, the report indicated. The report was compiled by the office of Rep. Kim Yong-min of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea. In a statement, Kim criticized the KEPCO affiliates for running counter to the global trend of accelerating investment in renewable energy. "Expanding renewable energy is essential for our companies' national competitiveness and survival," Kim said, calling for the KEPCO units to expand their investment in renewable energy. KEPCO and its affiliates chalked up widening losses due to soaring energy costs. Korea plans to expand its generation of nuclear power to nearly 33 percent of its total energy creation by 2030 in a move to boost energy security and to better meet net-zero goals, officials said. Under the plan, renewable energy will take up 21.5 percent of the country's total electricity generation by 2030, with the figure for coal standing at 21.2 percent and liquefied natural gas at 20.9 percent. (Yonhap) The 133-year-old design house is returning to its French roots, igniting its continuous passion for creativity and imagination Schumacher, the American interior design house, is settling in the home base of its founder, Frederic Schumacher with the launch of its first showroom in Paris! Opening during the 12th edition of Paris Design Week, designers will be able to enrich themselves in Schumacher's array of decorative arts and textiles from artisans all over the world. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220909005455/en/ Showroom interiors (Photo: Schumacher) Schumacher is excited to further engage with its French heritage and international decorators by establishing a lasting presence in the historic Parisian decorative arts district. Located in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Pres, at 35 rue Jacob, the showroom will allow design enthusiasts to explore the innumerable qualities of Schumacher's wallpapers, prints, wovens, embroideries, and trimmings to provide ease in transforming the home. "Schumacher has become a paradigm in the world of design and decoration," says Benni Frowein, CEO, Europe Middle East. "With 133 years of heritage, we have been a style leader since our inception in 1889, and while we have our roots in tradition, we are also constantly looking forward in order to surprise and delight our customers. Our myriad of styles from elegantly classic to joyfully modern are united by our passion for design and our relentless pursuit of quality." Already established in the heart of European cities such as London, Brussels, Turin, Madrid, Porto and Stockholm, Schumacher's return to France demonstrates its deeply rooted history in the home of its founder, further celebrating its French culture. The showroom's iconic address will serve as a place of collaboration; extending the Schumacher experience to the great talents of interior design while inviting the public to explore the brand's extensive catalog of 14,000 fabrics and wallpapers including toiles, chinoiseries, graphics, florals, abstracts, jacquards, stripes, and more. "The French are revered for their exceptional taste, style and appreciation of craft and beauty, so it seemed only natural for us to return to France and come full circle," says Dara Caponigro, Schumacher's Creative Director. "We are in a unique position, being an American company with French roots in the heart of Paris, and already, we've received the warmest welcome from French designers." The design house's return to France marks a new chapter in its history. In addition to having a brand new shop and showroom, which will be a design destination for Parisians and international travelers alike, it is also partnering with Laura Gonzalez during Paris Design Week on her own showroom installation, which has the theme of "A Million and One Nights." For more information visit www.fschumacher.com or check out the showroom at 35 rue Jacob in Saint-Germain-des-Pres. ABOUT SCHUMACHER Since Schumacher was founded by Frederic Schumacher in 1889, the family-owned company has been synonymous with style, taste, and innovation. Schumacher's collections are comprehensive with an extraordinary range united by a respect for classicism and an eye for the cutting edge, and an unparallel level of quality. A passion for luxury and an unwavering commitment to beauty are woven into everything we do.www.fschumacher.com and @schumacher1889. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220909005455/en/ Contacts: Media fsco@astrskpr.com Regulatory News: Publicis Groupe S.A. [Euronext Paris FR0000130577, CAC 40] announces the termination on August 29, 2022 of the liquidity contract covering its ordinary shares listed on Euronext Paris, entrusted to Kepler Cheuvreux since July 3, 2012. A new liquidity contract was signed with BNP Paribas Exane on the same day. Publicis Groupe's termination of its liquidity contract with Kepler Cheuvreux is the result of its decision to have a unique investment services provider for stock monitoring, market-making and managing its liquidity contract. On September 9, 2022, the following resources appeared on the liquidity account: 95,500 shares 12,715,560.69 in cash As a reminder, the following resources appeared on the last half year statement on June 30, 2022 on the liquidity account: 202,432 shares 7,203,997.37 in cash Implementation of a new liquidity contract Publicis Groupe S.A. signed a liquidity contract with BNP Paribas Exane on August 29, 2022, covering its ordinary shares listed on Euronext Paris (ISIN code: FR0000130577) and that takes effect from September 12, 2022. This new liquidity contract which has an initial period ending on December 31, 2022 and is automatically renewable for successive 12-month periods complies with AMF Decision no. 2021-01 dated June 22, 2021 ("AMF decision"), which renews the AMF's earlier decision to establish liquidity contracts related to equity instruments as an authorized market practice. For the implementation of the new contract concluded with BNP PARIBAS Exane, the following resources were allocated to the liquidity account: 95,500 shares 10,076,020.00 in cash Under the liquidity contract entered into with BNP Paribas Exane, the situations or conditions resulting in the suspension of the contract are as follows: when the conditions set out in Article 5 of the above-mentioned AMF decision are fullfilled; if the number of its own shares held by the Issuer corresponds to the ceiling set by the Issuer's General Meeting, taking into account any shares already held by the Issuer in accordance with Article L. 225-210 of the French Commercial Code; if the shares' listed price is higher than the intervention thresholds authorized by the Issuer's General Meeting; if the share buyback authorization given by the Issuer's shareholders expires or is suspended. The contract can also be terminated under the following conditions: by the Issuer, at any time, with no notice required; by the investment services provider, subject to one month notice period. About Publicis Groupe The Power of One Publicis Groupe [Euronext Paris FR0000130577, CAC 40] is a global leader in communications. The Groupe is positioned at every step of the value chain, from consulting to execution, combining marketing transformation and digital business transformation. Publicis Groupe is a privileged partner in its clients' transformation to enhance personalization at scale. The Groupe relies on ten expertise concentrated within four main activities: Communications, Media, Data and Technology. Through a unified and fluid organization, its clients have a facilitated access to all its expertise in every market. Present in over 100 countries, Publicis Groupe employs around 96,000 professionals. www.publicisgroupe.com Twitter: @PublicisGroupe Facebook LinkedIn YouTube Viva la Difference! View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220909005470/en/ Contacts: Publicis Groupe Delphine Stricker Corporate Communications +33 (0)6 38 81 40 00 delphine.stricker@publicisgroupe.com Alessandra Girolami Investor Relations +33 (0)1 44 43 77 88 alessandra.girolami@publicisgroupe.com Clemence Vermersch Investor Relations +33 (0)1 44 43 72 17 clemence.vermersch@publicisgroupe.com Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - September 9, 2022) - Aurwest Resources Corporation (CSE: AWR) ("Aurwest" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has received the requisite approvals for its previously announced Plan of Arrangement ("Plan of Arrangement"). The Plan of Arrangement will see the Company spin out its Stellar Stars mining property into a separate publicly listed company ("Stellar Stars SpinCo"), subject to completion of the Stellar Stars Financing (as defined below), and have five (5) newly formed reporting issuer entities which will be used for the purposes of evaluating future go public business opportunities (the "SpinCos"). Aurwest shareholders will receive shares in the Stellar Stars SpinCo and SpinCo's as more fully described below. The Stellar Stars property is prospective for mineral deposits (primarily copper and gold deposits) consisting of two parcels of adjoining land in British Columbia comprising a 100% interest in the 25,053 hectare, Stellar property, and the 3,761 hectare, Stars property (collectively, the "Stellar Stars Property"). Following completion of the Plan of Arrangement, Aurwest will continue to carry on its primary business activities with a focus on its properties in Central Newfoundland, Canada whereby Aurwest holds options to acquire properties consisting of 57,600 hectares (100% interest) in this area. Required Approvals The Company received the requisite shareholder approval for the Plan of Arrangement, among other things, at the annual general and special meeting of shareholders of the Company which was held on August 29, 2022, and received the Final Order from the British Columbia Supreme Court on September 8, 2022, approving the Plan of Arrangement. Stellar Stars SpinCo Financing Pursuant to the Plan of Arrangement, as a condition to the distribution of the shares of Stellar Stars SpinCo to the Aurwest shareholders, Stellar Stars SpinCo intends to undertake a private placement financing of a minimum of $1,000,000. This financing is currently proposed to consist of the issuance of 13,333,333 units at a price of $0.075 per unit, with each unit consisting of one Stellar Star SpinCo Share and one share purchase warrant entitling the holder to purchase one Stellar Star SpinCo Share at a price of $0.10 for a period of 2 years from the date of issuance (the "Stellar Stars Financing"). The timing, pricing and terms of the Stellar Stars Financing are subject to market conditions and further details of this offering will be disclosed as they become available. Public Stock Exchange Listing The Aurwest Shares are currently listed and posted for trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange ("CSE") under the symbol "AWR". Pursuant to the Plan of Arrangement, Stellar Stars SpinCo has covenanted and agreed to use its commercially reasonable efforts to apply for the listing of the Stellar Stars SpinCo Shares on the CSE in connection with the closing of the Stellar Stars SpinCo Financing. None of the SpinCos will be listed on a stock exchange upon completion of the Arrangement. The listing of Stellar Stars SpinCo is subject to meeting all the conditions for listing established by the CSE and acceptance by the CSE. There is no assurance that Stellar Stars SpinCo will complete the Stellar Stars Financing within the time required under the Plan of Arrangement. Aurwest Securityholders Consideration In connection with Plan of Arrangement, subject to certain conditions, Aurwest shareholders as at the applicable share distribution record date, will receive 0.3 shares of a Stellar Stars SpinCo and 0.0051 shares of each of the five (5) newly formed separate companies ("SpinCo1 through SpinCo5") for every Aurwest common share held. As an example, and for illustrative purposes only, for each 10,000 shares of Aurwest owned prior to the Plan of Arrangement, a Aurwest shareholder will own 3,000 shares of the Stellar Stars SpinCo and 51 shares each of SpinCo1 through SpinCo5. Furthermore, Aurwest shareholders will continue to own the same number of Aurwest common shares as they did immediately prior to the Plan of Arrangement. The Plan of Arrangement provides compelling benefits for each Aurwest and Stellar Stars SpinCo shareholders. It focuses Aurwest as a pure-play gold exploration company in Newfoundland by spinning out its district-scale B.C. porphyry copper property (Stellar Stars) and from a Stellar Stars perspective, the new company will unlock constrained asset value with the aim to attract growth capital sources which will then be deployed on exploring its district-scale copper exploration project. For further details on the Plan of arrangement see the Company's Press Release dated August 2, 2022. Following completion of the Plan of Arrangement, all holders of convertible securities of Aurwest (options and warrants) (the "Aurwest Share Commitments") will be exercisable for Aurwest common shares, Stellar Stars SpinCo shares and the SpinCo shares in accordance with the corporate reorganization and adjustment provisions of such commitments, whereby the exercise of an Aurwest Share Commitment entitling the holder to receive one (1) Aurwest Share, will result in the holder of the Aurwest Share Commitment receiving one Aurwest Share, 0.0051 SpinCo1 Shares, 0.0051 SpinCo2 Shares, 0.0051 SpinCo3 Shares, 0.0051 SpinCo4 Shares, 0.0051 SpinCo5 Shares and 0.3 Stellar Star SpinCo Shares (subject to the completion of the Stellar Stars Financing). Stellar Stars SpinCo Subject to the Stellar Stars Financing, the spin-out of the B.C. assets will be held by a stand-alone new company, known herein as Stellar Start SpinCo, which will be owned by the shareholders of Aurwest. The Stellar Stars Property is prospective for mineral deposits (primarily copper and gold deposits) consisting of two parcels of adjoining land comprising the 25,053 hectare Stellar property (100% owned) and the 3,761 hectare Stars property (100% owned). In 2019 a 16 hole drilling program at Stars intersected an open-ended porphyry Cu-Mo zone intersecting 40.2m of 1.02% CuEq within a broader interval of 204m of 0.50% CuEq close to surface. Historical exploration success identified several significant follow up drilling targets to further define the arial extent of the target area that will support our future growth. A technical report entitled "Technical Report on the Stellar-Stars Property, British Columbia" effective April 27, 2022, has been prepared by Aurwest under National Instrument 43-101- Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects relating to the Stellar Stars Property and filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Record Date for Spinout of Stellar Stars SpinCo The record date for the spin out of the Stellar Stars SpinCo Shares will only be set once the Stellar Stars SpinCo Financing has been completed and conditional listing approval has been obtained for common shares of Stellar Stars SpinCo. Aurwest will communicate this information through one or more press releases in the future. SpinCo's - SpinCo1 Through SpinCo5 The Plan of Arrangement has created five (5) separate capital markets structured companies under the Business Corporations Act (British Columbia), referred to herein as the SpincCos, that will be owned by the shareholders of Aurwest, and are anticipated to result in separate and well-focused entities, each of which will provide a platform for transactions that management wishes to target. Record Date for Spinout of SpinCo1 through SpinCo5 Aurwest will be implementing the approved spin out to Aurwest shareholders of record on September 23, 2022 (the "SpinCos Share Distribution Record Date"). Following the SpinCos Share Distribution Record Date, on or about September 27, 2022, the Shareholders of Aurwest will receive 0.0051 share of each of SpinCo1, SpinCo2, SpinCo3, SpinCo4 and SpinCo5 for every one (1) common share of Aurwest held as of the SpinCos Share Distribution Record Date. No action is required by Aurwest shareholders in order to receive shares of the SpinCos and Aurwest shareholders will retain their original Aurwest shares. Shareholders entitled to receive shares of the SpinCos will receive either a DRS advice or a physical share certificate reflecting their ownership of the shares of each of the SpinCos, or their brokerage account will be credited with the shares through the CDS system. On Behalf Of Aurwest Resources Corporation "Colin Christensen" President and Chief Executive Officer For additional information please contact: Colin Christensen Telephone: (403) 483-8363 Email: cchristensen@aurwestresources.com Website: www.aurwestresources.com About Aurwest Resources Corporation Aurwest is a Canadian-based junior resource company focused on the acquisition, exploration, and development of gold properties in Canada. The Company currently has three Option Agreements to earn a 100% interest in Paradise Lake and Stony Caldera projects covering a 57,600-hectare (576 sq kms) package of gold exploration licenses within the emerging Central Newfoundland gold district. The Company also currently holds a 100% interest in the 28,814 hectare Stellar/Stars porphyry copper project, located approximately 25 kilometers southwest of Houston, British Columbia. Forward-Looking Information Statements included in this announcement, including statements concerning our plans, intentions, and expectations, which are not historical in nature are intended to be, and are hereby identified as "forward-looking statements". Forward looking statements may be identified by words including "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "expects" and similar expressions. The Company cautions readers that forward-looking statements, including without limitation: historical exploration results; positive diamond drilling results; styles of copper-molybdenum mineralization; and future work programs. In connection with the forward-looking information contained in this news release, Aurwest has made numerous assumptions regarding, among other things: the proposed Plan of Arrangement and the proposed Stellar Stars SpinCo Financing. While Aurwest considers these assumptions to be reasonable, these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies. Additionally, there are known and unknown risk factors which could cause Aurwest's actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information contained herein. Known risk factors include, additional exploration of the Properties may not locate significant copper-molybdenum mineralization; historical exploration results may not be; accurate; additional exploration of the areas of copper mineralization may not locate significant mineralization; the positive diamond drilling results may not be accurate; styles of copper-molybdenum mineralization; and future work programs may not result in the location of significant copper-molybdenum mineralization future work programs may not be completed as planned or at all; receipt of permits to conduct the exploration plans and matters relating to the Company's future operations and business prospects; certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such risks and uncertainties and should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and the Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, except in accordance with the applicable laws. The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. THIS PRESS RELEASE DOES NOT CONSTITUE AN OFFER TO SELL SECURITIES OR A SOLICITATION FOR PURCHASERS TO BUY SECURITIES. THIS PRESS RELEASE IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS A PUBLIC OFFERING IN ANY PROVINCE IN CANADA UNLESS A PROSPECTUS RELATING THERETO HAS BEEN ACCEPTED FOR FILING BY A SECURITIES COMMISSION OR SIMILAR AUTHORITY IN SUCH PROVINCE. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/136550 Edmonton, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - September 9, 2022) - Altiplano Metals Inc. (TSXV: APN) (WKN: A2JNFG) ("Altiplano" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has closed a first tranche of its non-brokered private placement (the "Offering") of up to 10,000,000 units (the "Units") at $0.20 per Unit to raise up to $2,000,000 in gross proceeds. Each Unit consists of one (1) common share of the Company, and one-half (1/2) non-transferable share purchase warrant (the "Warrants") to acquire one (1) additional common share at a price of C$0.30 per share for a period of two years. The Company has closed an initial first tranche of 3,100,000 Units for gross proceeds of $600,000. Certain arm's length finders received cash fees of $600 and 3,000 finders warrants, issued on the same terms as the Warrants in the Offering. All the securities issued will be subject to resale restrictions until January 12, 2023. The Offering included Insiders participation of $300,000, which constitutes a "related party transaction" within the meaning of TSX Venture Exchange Policy 5.9 and Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101") adopted in the Policy. The Company will rely on exemptions from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 contained in sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101 in respect of related party participation in the placement as neither the fair market value (as determined under MI 61-101) of the subject matter of, nor the fair market value of the consideration for, the transaction, insofar as it involved the related parties, will exceed 25% of the Company's market capitalization (as determined under MI 61-101). The net proceeds of the Offering will be used to support working capital requirements as the Company transitions its production and sales process to the new processing facility at El Penon, acquire land, and further develop other assets. About Altiplano Altiplano Metals is a growing gold, silver, and copper company focused on the Americas. The Company has a diversified portfolio of assets that include an operating copper/gold/iron mine, development near term producing gold/copper projects, and exploration land packages with district-scale potential. Altiplano is focused on creating long-term stakeholder value through developing safe and sustainable production, reinvesting into exploration, and pursuing acquisition opportunities to complement its existing portfolio. Management has a substantial record of success in capitalizing on opportunity, overcoming challenges and building shareholder value. Altiplano trades on the Toronto Venture Exchange trading under the symbol APN and the Frankfurt Exchange under the symbol A2JNFG. Altiplano is part of the Metals Group of companies, managed by an award-winning team of professionals who stand for technical excellence, painstaking project selection and uncompromising corporate governance, with a proven ability to capitalize on investment opportunities and deliver shareholder returns. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD /s/ "John Williamson" Chairman For further information, please contact: Alastair McIntyre, CEO alastairm@apnmetals.com Tel: (416) 434-3799 Jeremy Yaseniuk, Director jeremyy@apnmetals.com Tel: (604) 773-1467 Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the (TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address exploration drilling, exploitation activities and events or developments that the Company expects are forward-looking statements. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify any historical estimates as current mineral resources or mineral reserves and the issuer is not treating the historical estimates as current mineral resources or mineral reserves. The Farellon mine was previously in production dating back to the 1970's with a reported historical production (to a depth of 70 m) yielding approximately 300,000 tonnes at an average grade of 2.5% copper and 0.5g/t gold. This material was processed locally and sold to ENAMI. Altiplano is relying upon past production records, underground sampling and related activities and current diamond drilling to estimate grade and widths of the mineralization to reactivate production. The decision to commence production on the Farellon deposit is not based on a feasibility study of mineral reserves demonstrating economic and technical viability and there is increased uncertainty and economic and technical risks of failure associated with any production decision. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, continuity of mineralization, uncertainties related to the ability to obtain necessary permits, licenses and title and delays due to third party opposition, changes in government policies regarding mining and natural resource exploration and exploitation, and continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. For more information on the Company, investors should review the Company's continuous disclosure filings that are available at www.sedar.com. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/136549 San Diego, California--(Newsfile Corp. - September 9, 2022) - Direct Communication Solutions, Inc. (OTCQX: DCSX) (CSE: DCSI) (FSE: 7QU), a leading provider of information technology solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT) market, is pleased to announce that it has closed the non-brokered private placement announced on August 10, 2022 on a fully subscribed basis (the "Offering"). The Company has issued an aggregate of US$1,500,000 (CDN$1,920,000) in unsecured convertible debentures ("Debentures"). Chris Bursey, CEO, said, "We have always strived to be diligent in our capital raising to ensure minimal dilution for our shareholders, and this will assist with our process of uplisting to a senior US Exchange." The Debentures will have a maturity date of twenty-four (24) months from the date of issuance and shall bear interest at the rate of 10% per annum, paid semi-annually. Pursuant to the terms of the Debentures, the subscribers may convert all or part of the principal amount outstanding under the Debentures into shares of common stock of the Company. The Debentures are convertible into shares of common stock of the Company (the "Shares") at the higher of US$1.19 or a price equal to the price of the Shares of the next financing carried out before the 2nd anniversary of the closing date less a 25% discount. Upon issuance of the Debentures the Company shall also issue 750,000 share purchase warrants (the "Warrants"). Each Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one Common Share (a "Warrant Share") at a price of US$0.86 (CDN$1.10) per share for a period 24 months from the date of issuance of the Debentures. The debentures have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act. Subject to certain exceptions, the debentures may not be offered or sold within the United States, or to or for the account or benefit of U.S. persons (as defined in Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act). The Company intends to use the proceeds of the Debenture Offering for general working purposes. **** In the Company's announcement on September 2, 2022 it had mistakenly noted it had entered into a contract with Real Capitol Hill Consultation Corp. The Corporation name should have been noted as Real Capitol Hill Consulting Corp. All other details of the release remain the same. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused. About Direct Communication Solutions, Inc. DCSI is a technology solutions integrator focusing on connecting the Internet of Things. We provide real solutions that solve real problems. Our software applications and scalable cloud services collect and assess business-critical data from all types of assets. DCSI is headquartered in San Diego, California and is publicly traded on the OTCQX ("DCSX"), Canadian Securities Exchange ("DCSI") and Frankfurt Stock Exchange ("7QU"). For more information, visit www.dcsbusiness.com . DCSI and the DCSI logo are among the trademarks of DCSI in the United States. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners. Contacts: Bill Espley, Director bespley@ dcsbusiness.com 604-630-3072 Chris Bursey, CEO cbursey@dcsbusiness.com 858-525-2483 Forward-Looking Statements This release contains forward-looking statements, which reflect management's current views of future events and operations. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. We believe that these potential risks and uncertainties include, without limitation: the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Company's dependence on third-party manufacturers, suppliers, technologies and infrastructure; risks related to intellectual property; industry risks including competition, online security, government regulation and global economic conditions; and the Company's financial position and need for additional funding, Statements in this release should be evaluated in light of these factors. These risk factors and other important factors that could affect our business and financial results are discussed in our Management's Discussion and Analysis, periodic reports and other public filings which are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and posted with the OTC Disclosure and News Service. DCS undertakes no duty to update or revise any forward-looking statements. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/136605 VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / September 9, 2022 / Alliance Mining Corp. (TSXV:ALM) ("Alliance" or the "Company") announces that is has arranged a non-brokered private placement of 4 million units at a price of $0.12 per unit for gross proceeds of $480,000. The units of the financing will comprise of one common share and a full share purchase warrant, which may be exercised for a period of 18 months at a price of $0.165 per share. The term of the warrants may be accelerated in the event that the issuer's shares trade at or above a price of $0.20 per share for a period of 10 consecutive days. In such case of accelerated warrants, the issuer may give notice, in writing or by way of news release, to the subscribers that the warrants will expire 20 days from the date of providing such notice The proceeds of the private placement will be used for general working capital and exploration work at the Company's Red Rice Lake property located in the centre of the Bissett gold camp in Manitoba. A finder's fee may be paid to eligible finders in accordance with the TSX-V policies. All securities issued pursuant to the offering will be subject to a hold period of four months and one day from the date of closing. The offerings and payment of finders' fees are both subject to approval by the TSX-V ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD Chris Anderson Director FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Alliance Mining Corp. (604) 488-3900 Investor Relations: 604-488-3900 E-mail: Office@alliancemining.com Forward-Looking Statement Cautions: This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable based on current circumstances, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts, and by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions that forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made and they involve a number of risks and uncertainties, including the possibility the Company may not be successful in its legal action to enforce the performance of the Option Agreement. 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. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law or the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange. Readers are encouraged to review the Company's complete public disclosure record on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE: Alliance Mining Corp. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/715446/Alliance-Mining-Announces-Financing Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 9, 2022) - Tudor Gold Corp. (TSXV: TUD) (FSE: TUC) (the "Company" or "Tudor Gold") is pleased to announce the results of its annual general and special meeting of shareholders held on September 7, 2022 (the "Meeting"). A total of 79,136,628 common shares were represented at the Meeting, representing 39.85% of the issued and outstanding common shares of the Company on the record date. The shareholders overwhelmingly voted in favour of the special resolution to approve the proposed plan of arrangement previously disclosed in Tudor Gold's news releases dated July 13, 2021, February 1, 2022, July 8, 2022, August 4, 2022, August 10, 2022 and August 30, 2022 (the "Arrangement"). The special resolution with respect to the Arrangement was approved by 99.93% of the votes cast by shareholders. The closing of the Arrangement is subject to obtaining a final order of the Supreme Court of British Columbia and final acceptance of the TSX Venture Exchange. The shareholders also approved the annual matters presented for approval at the Meeting. All five of the individuals nominated for the board of directors were re-elected being Ken Konkin, Helmut Finger, Sean Pownall, Ronald Stoeferle and Natalie Senger. The shareholders also re-appointed Davidson & Company LLP as auditors of the Company, approved and ratified the Company's stock option plan and approved the implementation of the stock option plan for Goldstorm Metals Corp. About Tudor Gold TUDOR GOLD Corp. is a precious and base metals exploration and development company with properties in British Columbia's Golden Triangle (Canada), an area that hosts producing and past-producing mines and several large deposits that are approaching potential development. The 17,913 hectare Treaty Creek project (in which TUDOR GOLD has a 60% interest) borders Seabridge Gold Inc.'s KSM property to the southwest and borders Newcrest Mining Limited's Brucejack property to the southeast. In April 2021 Tudor published their 43-101 technical report, "Technical Report and Initial Mineral Resource Estimate of the Treaty Creek Gold Property, Skeena Mining Division, British Columbia Canada" dated March 1, 2021, on the Company's Sedar profile. The Company also has a 100% interest in the Crown project and a 100% interest in the Eskay North project, all located in the Golden Triangle area. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF TUDOR GOLD CORP. "Ken Konkin" Ken Konkin President and Chief Executive Officer For further information, please visit the Company's website at www.tudor-gold.com or contact: Chris Curran Head of Corporate Development and Communications Phone: (604) 559 8092 E-Mail: chris.curran@tudor-gold.com or Carsten Ringler Head of Investor Relations and Communications Phone: +49 151 55362000 E-Mail: carsten.ringler@tudor-gold.com 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. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/136542 Aurora Payments, a payment technology company headquartered in Tempe, AZ and Las Vegas, NV, acquired One Payment, a Florida-based fintech payment company. The amount of the deal was not disclosed. With over $1 billion of volume processed annually, One Payment adds immediate scale to the Aurora platform through its acquisition. The transaction will diversify the companys distribution channels that expand its go-to-market capabilities. Founded in 2009 by Luis Requejo and Jorge Calzadilla, One Payment specializes in payment technology and processing for quick service restaurants, retailers, and service industries amongst others. The company boasts over 6,000 merchants in its portfolio with particular emphasis on minority-owned small and medium sized businesses. Led by CEO Brian Goudie, Aurora Payments is a payment technology company specializing in integrated solutions for small to medium sized businesses. With the acquisition of One Payment, Aurora has over 27,000 merchants in its portfolio processing $12B in annual volume. FinSMEs 09/09/2022 Carrot General Insurance, a Seoul, South Korea-based digital insurance carrier, raised US $250M in third funding at a valuation of Over US $850M. The round was led by Affirma Capital with participation from Hanwha Group, Stic Investments, and Altos Ventures. The round will be raised across two connected rounds with wide participation of existing investors. Carrot has closed the initial funding of US $145 million past week and the remaining US $105 million will be raised through the extended round during Q4 this year. The new share distribution will now give Hanwha 50.6% of voting power, 7.8% for SK Telecom, 3.9% for Tmap Mobility, Hyundai Motor Group 2.7%, Altos Ventures 10.2%, Stic Investments 15.5% and Affirma 9.2%; although the stakes may be adjusted as the extended round closes later current year. The company intends to use the funds to strengthen its position as a pioneer in the existing market, accelerate its advancement of tech capacity and expansion of in-house pipelines, as well as external open innovation activities. Established in 2019, and led by Richard Moon, CEO, Carrot General Insurance Corp. is a fully-licensed digital insurance carrier with transparent premiums, AI automated accident registration and prompt dispatch of help services made possible via proprietary technology. The company is also pursuing business in Pay-As-How-You-Drive auto insurance, which assesses the premiums as per customers driving patterns and behavior through sensor data analytics. Carrot has 100+ national & international partnerships, including South Korean government unit that oversees national highways and traffic controls. FinSMEs 09/09/2022 EnviroSpark, an Atlanta, GA-based electric vehicle (EV) charging company, closed its Series A funding round of undisclosed amount. The round was led by Ultra Capital, which has joined EnviroSparks Board of Directors along with Paul Bowers, former Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Georgia Power who also invested in the funding round. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate its continued expansion in the EV infrastructure space and its roadmap of features, accelerating the availability of EV infrastructure for more customers in America and Canada. Led by CEO and Founder Aaron Luque, EnviroSpark is a provider of EV charger solutions, partnering with property owners, utilities, and governments to bring EV infrastructure to where people live and work, making the shift to electric practical for more consumers. The company has an existing presence of more than 5,000 chargers installed across the United States and Canada. FinSMEs 09/09/2022 Millie, a Berkeley, CA-based new kind of maternity clinic, closed a $4M seed funding. The round was led by TMV Ventures & BBG Ventures with participation from Venn Growth Partners, Looking Glass Capital, Learn Capital, Hustle Fund and other investors including Turner Novak, Michelle Kennedy of Peanut, and Tristan Walker of Walker & Company. Co-founded by Anu Sharma (Chief Executive Officer), Talia Borgo(Clinical Director), and Sarah Reynolds (Chief Technical Officer), with clinical leadership from Amy Kane (Medical Director & OB-GYN), Millie guides people from 48 hours after a positive pregnancy test to one year postpartum with a collaborative, patient-centered team that supports individuals entire pregnancy journeys. The service pairs the patient with a care force comprised of an OB-GYN, a midwife, and a doula, ensuring individuals are wholly supported through the physical, mental, emotional, and social changes experienced during pregnancy and parenthood. Features include proactive medical insight, comprehensive knowledge of the patients needs, accessible services extended by technology, and an expert team. The services are amplified through its digital app which provides around-the-clock messaging with providers and a social network. The app-enabled technology also gives Millie patients mental health support, nutrition counseling, lactation support and digital health checks. In addition to virtual and in-clinic monitoring, Millie also provides patients with at-home monitoring tools, such as blood pressure cuffs, to promote early detection of complications and offers three visits, the first of which happens at the patients home within one week postpartum. On September 26th, the company will also open its physical clinic next to the Alta Bates Campus in Berkeley, CA. FinSMEs 09/09/2022 On September 6, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Guyana held the launching ceremony of commemorative coin for the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Guyana. Ambassador Guo together with Hon. Foreign Minister Todd, Hon. Foreign Secretary Persaud, Hon. Governor of the BoG attended the ceremony and made remarks. The precious coin has a price, while China- Guyana friendship is priceless. The two countries friendship has withstood the test of time, and they have become true friends and important partners. Under the guidance of the leaders of two nations, both sides shall take the 50th anniversary as a new starting point to comprehensively deepen bilateral relations, work together to strengthen the alignment of development plans and practical cooperation in various fields, closely coordinate and better play roles in multilateral affairs, to safeguard international fairness and justice, and better benefit the two countries and two peoples. Ambassador July, Economic and Commercial Counselor Hu Hanming among other distinguished guests also attended the ceremony. Haarlem, in the Netherlands, is now the first city in the world to ban meat ads to discourage meat consumption. The ban regards advertisements in all public... Read More Lebanon firefighters fought a 6-acre brush fire on Brewster Road near the Grant Street Bridge on Wednesday, Sept. 7. According a Lebanon Fire District news release, crews responded to a large fire at around 3:30 p.m. Those first at the scene observed around 6 acres of a mixed grass, brush and tree fire as well as homeless encampments along the Santiam River. After arriving, the incident commander immediately struck a second-alarm request for additional resources. Within 10 minutes, the Oregon Department of Forestry brought a bulldozer to start digging containment lines around the fire. Crews set up fire pumper along the west of the fire and used the river as a water source. At around 6:30 p.m., the fire was considered contained and mop-up began, according to the release. Medics transported one person to the Lebanon Hospital with minor smoke inhalation injuries. No firefighters were injured. The agency responded with three staff vehicles, one engine with four personnel, one pumper tender with three crew members, one water tender with a crew member, one rehab unit with two personnel and three volunteers who arrived with private vehicles. Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to the Lebanon Express. The Albany Fire Department offered support and mutual aid with two engines and six crew members. The Sweet Home Fire District responded with one heavy brush rig and three personnel. The Scio Fire District also responded and brought one water tender and one brush rig. Brownsville Fire District covered the city of Lebanon and SHFD provided medical coverage. The Lebanon Police Department, Linn County Sheriffs Office and Linn County Roads Department assisted with traffic control as crews closed Brewster Road starting south of Golden Valley to Grant Street Bridge. The road was also closed on Berlin Road at the Grant Street Bridge. The fire scene remains active and crews were set to stay on scene to complete mop-up throughout the rest of Thursday, Sept. 8 with two brush rigs, a water tender, a fire engine and a hand crew. Smoke will lightly remain in the area for a while, according to the news release, but officials emphasized this is not cause for concern. The cause of the fire is under investigation. With high temperatures and potential power outages to mitigate wildfire risk on the horizon, Linn County community members may be looking for a place to cool off and relax. Among those looking for relief may be school children. The Sweet Home and Santiam school districts have canceled school on Friday, Sept. 9 because of possible outages. Sankey Park in Sweet Home will serve as a temporary community resource center Friday through Saturday, Sept. 10, according to a news release from Pacific Power. The agency said about 12,500 customers in Linn and surrounding counties were notified of a public safety power shutoff planned to aid in wildfire mitigation. A strong east wind forecast and a red flag warning for the Willamette Valley means conditions will be favorable for rapid wildfire spread. Residents who lose power can head to Sankey Park for amenities such as air conditioning, water, seating and tables, restrooms, refrigeration, Wi-Fi, televisions, charging stations and small crates for pets. Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to the Albany Democrat-Herald. Sankey Park will be open Friday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. (unless power is restored earlier on Saturday). The areas of Linn County that may be affected by the power outages include Crawfordsville, Holley, Liberty, Sweet Home, Cascadia, Lacomb and Jordan. Some areas may experience the power outages as early as 12:01 a.m. on Friday. Those in nearby Lebanon can go to the Lebanon Senior Center from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday to cool off. The center will focus on providing a cool place to relax for those 50 years of age and older. There will be transportation to and from the senior center within the Lebanon area during the times the cooling center is open. Call LINX Transit at 541-258-4920 to arrange for a free ride, or call the senior center at 541-258-4919 for more information. To prepare for a power outage, Pacific Power suggests readying an outage kit with such items as flashlights, battery-powered radios and fans, car chargers for cell phones, bottled water and extra batteries. This week's new entertainment releases include albums from Little Big Town and Marcus Mumford as well as the return of "The Handmaid's Tale." With the death of Queen Elizabeth II on 8 September, the British monarchy is once again in the media spotlight. Amidst a flood of reactionary apologias, Marxists must cut through the propaganda and tell the truth about the role of the monarchy in capitalist society. As a result, we republish here an article by Alan Woods, written in 1997 at the time of Princess Dianas death, analysing the real nature of the monarchy and its position as a fundamental pillar of the British establishment. While the article does not deal with recent events, its in-depth assessment of the role of the Royal Family under capitalism continues to hold true today. The dramatic events of the first week of September 1997 mark a sea-change in British society. The sudden death of the Princess of Wales was the signal of an outburst of popular feeling which was without precedent in recent British history. Of course, Britain has seen more than a few royal births, deaths and marriages, duly attended by large crowds of cheering or silently respectful people. But such a spontaneous eruption as this, such an overflowing of emotion, such a movement of the masses, unorganised, uncalled-for, uncontrollable - such a thing has never been seen. It is an entirely new phenomenon, reflecting an entirely new situation in Britain. Her violent death in a car crash last Sunday morning has been followed by a demonstration of popular feeling so deep and broad as to have alarmed the institutions of the state. She has shown the power of the crowd. (Financial Times, 6-7/9/97.) Diana would not be thought good if the causes she had espoused had been privatisation, workfare and the charity ball; her instincts, amazingly for one with her background and education, took her unerringly to the liberal wing of the spectrum of supportable causes. Homelessness, Aids and landmines are all issues with which the Conservative mind is instinctively uneasy - and an important reason why the responses of William Hague and the Conservative Party to the past week have been so feeble. (The Observer, 7/9/97.) One might suppose that the mass response to the death of the Princess of Wales would have warmed the hearts of the monarchists and an Establishment which is the world's expert in manipulating the feelings of the people in its own interests. But no. Far from being encouraged by these spontaneous demonstrations, the powers-that-be watched these seven days of volatile and intense passion, as The Guardian called them, with a mixture of astonishment and foreboding. The reaction of the Queen was itself without precedent. It is self-evident that the Windsor family - whose feelings towards Diana are sufficiently well-known - had not the slightest intention of returning to London from their Scottish hideaway until the morning of the funeral on Saturday, when common decency and the need to keep up appearances would compel them to make at least a token show of mourning. But the Queen was compelled to climb into a jet aircraft on the Friday, returning to the capital at full speed in a desperate attempt to stem the wave of protests from the masses on the streets through a belated television broadcast. Equally unprecedented was the decision to fly the Union flag at Buckingham palace at half-mast, something which is not done even at the death of a monarch. All these things are sure signs of panic and alarm in Britain's ruling circles. But why? The figure of Diana Inevitably, the mass media have concentrated on building up a mystique of Diana, her personality, good works, charity, common touch, and so on and so forth. Naturally! The same gentlemen, when she was alive, spent considerable time and money to rake up all the available scandal about her personal life, now write about her in the kind of terms normally reserved for the Virgin Mary. What nauseating hypocrisy! And yet perfectly predictable. These newspaper proprietors would skin their grandmothers to get a story that will sell more papers and swell their bank accounts. Now the blame for the Paris car crash is suddenly shifted to the mysterious Paparazzi who have been promoted from anonymity to the rank of regicides-in-chief. After all, someone must be to blame! But no-one asks the fundamental question: who pays the Paparazzi"? It is a question that answers itself. They are paid by the likes of Rupert Murdoch and the handful of millionaires who control the press in our so-called democracy." The question of Diana's character and personal role is not without its importance. Marxism does not deny the role of the individual in history, but explains it in terms of the general state of society and relations between the classes. So it was in this case. It is impossible to understand the impact of Diana's death solely in terms of her individual personality. It is necessary to ask ourselves why millions of people in some way identified themselves with her, and clearly and sharply distinguished between her person and the other royals. This question immediately takes us beyond the superficial rubbish of tabloid idolatry and into the real world of social relations and mass psychology, which does not always express itself in a simple and self-explanatory way. It is common knowledge that Diana was not one of the Windsor clique but an outsider who rapidly came into conflict with her husband and the rest of the family. The reasons for this clash need not concern us, but the fact is that the public image of the Princess of Wales was unlike the other royals. She appeared as more humane, more natural, embracing children in hospitals and the like. The ruling class has always understood the need to use the monarchy and religion as a means of perpetuating the slavery of women, convincing them of the need to obey their husband and meekly submit to oppression. In the words of the great English constitutionalist, Walter Bagehot, to whose views on the monarchy we shall return: The women - one half the human race at least - care fifty times more for a marriage than a ministry. ( Walter Bagehot, The English Constitution, p. 34.) But the public break-up of the marriage of Charles and Diana upset the old image of the royal family as a pillar of respectability. Her unhappy marriage itself carried a message to millions of women locked into unhappy marriages or divorced who, unlike Diana, do not live in palaces, and yet, in some way saw their own plight reflected here. In the words of the Financial Times , (6-7/9/97): Women looked up to her for refusing to succumb to a loveless marriage and deciding to make something more of herself." Of course, this identification of the masses with a woman who lived in a palace and left 40 million in her will, was always an illusion. As the Financial Times pointed out with brutal frankness: The refrain of a thousand messages has been: 'You were one of us.' But she was not. She was with the people, but not of them. Diana was a girl from an aristocratic family who decided, especially after her divorce from Prince Charles, to use the media power she had acquired to comfort - and find comfort in - people who had suffered, as she saw it, like herself. (Financial Times, 6-7/9/97.) And yet, illusions can and do play a role in the psychology of the masses, and a powerful one at that. The reason for her popularity was that she seemed to stand for the underdog. This undoubtedly struck a chord with millions of ordinary people who contrasted this attitude with the stiff and lifeless formality of the royal family. In life, Diana had the common touch of an Eva Peron in her sympathy for the poor and deprived. (Financial Times, 6-7/9/97.) But this kind of thing is not appreciated by the Establishment. While Diana lived, her activities were a source of embarrassment, but when her death sparked off the intervention of the masses, it immediately sensed a threat to its vital interests. This was openly admitted by the Financial Times on its front page on Friday the fifth of September: Public reaction to the death of Diana is being watched with concern by officials sensing the pressure building up around tomorrow's funeral. 'There are aspects of this that are beginning to look quite unpleasant, as if mass hysteria was taking over,' said one Whitehall official. Another commented: 'It would appear that the survival of the royal family is being decided on how it handles the death of Diana'. The Financial Times, that organ par excellence of the ruling class, gave voice to these feelings in an article published under the significant title Crowds and Power, which appeared on September the seventh: Anybody who has attended the vigils of these past days will have felt the palpable expression of a collective will. It is conveyed by the numberless tokens left at the gates of palaces and at the instant shrines that have sprung up all over the country: the messages, cards and photographs, teddy bears, painted portraits and flags; the queues of people waiting up to 12 hours to sign books of condolence; the banks of flowers lit by candles burning through the night. Neither the Palace, the politicians nor the press have been able to comprehend the phenomenon. In spite of the royal family's own need for privacy the Queen was compelled to waive protocol, break with tradition, and make an exceptional broadcast to the nation last night. On Wednesday her prime minister was worried enough by the mood to defend the family against public criticism of its silence. Meanwhile, the press and television have been baffled by the strength of a popular feeling they did so much to stimulate. Commentators have found themselves trailing in the wake of ordinary people. They have struggled to make sense of the flood of human emotion as the collective mourning has progressed - like that of any bereaved individual - from shock and numb disbelief, to pain and confusion punctuated by anger or guilt, to sorrowful acceptance. (Financial Times, 6-7/9/97.) The remarks about the press are interesting because they lay to rest the superficial explanation put forward by some on the Left that this was all created by the media. There is no doubt that the media can and does play an important role, and that here also they started the ball rolling. But the response of the masses was certainly neither expected or welcomed by them, any more than by the class they represent. Once it started, the movement immediately acquired a momentum and a logic of its own. It was not planned or orchestrated by anyone. More alarmingly from the standpoint of the ruling class, it could not be controlled by anyone. The media tycoons were as astonished as anyone else at what was unfolding before their eyes. Splits at the top If Diana's way of behaving in public seemed more human and natural, it also underlined the inhuman and unnatural character of the rest of the royal", and by implication the monarchy itself. This is the reason for the hatred, fear and resentment which the Windsor clique and their hangers-on (including in the media) harboured towards this dangerous upstart. Increasingly, she aspired to an independent role. Increasingly this was seen by them as a threat. The more of an echo she got from the public, the greater the danger appeared to them. If they were not actually behind the press campaign against Diana, they at least would not have been displeased by it. But by indirectly causing her death, the whole manoeuvre rebounded on them. Almost before Diana's body was cold, there were extraordinary rows between the Queen and the Prince of Wales, as later revealed by the press. The Queen was determined to pursue her vendetta with Diana even beyond the grave. She initially insisted that Diana's body should not be placed in any of the royal palaces but should be taken to a private mortuary. She also demanded that Diana must have a private funeral despite her status. Such was the degree of cold spite and hatred of Diana even when she was a corpse that her name was not even mentioned at the Sunday morning service at Crathie Kirk, because the Queen had stuck to her order that the princesses name should never be mentioned in front of her. These details tell us quite a lot about the moral and intellectual qualities of our most Christian sovereign! Fearing the popular reaction, Charles had a violent row with his mother and the palace officials. At one point, reports the Guardian (9/9/97) the rows became so heated that Charles and Sir Robert Fellows, the Queen's private secretary, had a furious argument during which the prince told Sir Robert to 'impale himself on his own flagstaff. Finally, Charles had to ring Tony Blair from his flight from Scotland to Paris to discuss placing Diana's body in Saint James' Palace. He also had to ring on the return journey because no arrangements had been made by the palace to place a wreath on Diana's coffin. Jon Snow of Channel 4 News reported that the Spencer family were so angry at the Queen's plans for a private funeral that they initially refused to communicate with the palace. Only the intervention of Downing Street succeeded in papering over the cracks and forcing the palace to agree to a large-scale funeral. According to Channel 4 News, arguments were still blazing about who should walk behind the coffin only 55 minutes before the procession moved off. The bitterness continued afterwards when the palace, in a transparent manoeuvre to cover its tracks, made an offer to restore Diana's title, taken away in a typical act of spite by the Queen after the divorce. The offer was understandably rejected by the Spencer family. The remoteness of the Windsor clique from society stood exposed by the spontaneous movement of millions of people. Very quickly - more quickly than anyone could have expected - the initial mood of sorrow turned to anger and indignation, and this in turn was quickly directed against the royal family hiding behind the high walls of Balmoral Castle. Only the screaming headlines of the tabloid (read yellow) press and direct pressure from Downing Street forced the Queen into precipitate action, in a panic attempt to limit the damage. But the damage had already been done. The widespread anger at the House of Windsor was summed up in the speech of Diana's brother at the funeral service - at which not one member of the royal family spoke - delivered before the silent ranks of the Establishment and before the astonished gaze of millions: The House of Windsor and its heir Prince Charles, sat in stony silence as Diana's brother articulated the public anger at their failure to love her and, even at her death, to realise how much the country loved her. (The Observer, 7/9/97.) If Earl Spencer's denunciation of the bizarre life of the royal family was unprecedented, the response of the public to it was even more so. The huge crowd watching the proceedings outside Westminster Abbey on video screens immediately began to applaud, compelling those inside the abbey to follow them: From within the Abbey it sounded like a shower of rain - a wave of applause that grew and grew. Then the congregation clapped too, even some of the journalists who had been the target of the Earl's fury. The Royal Party sat in a pool of their own silence as the applause echoed around the Abbey. (The Observer, 7/9/97.) This picture of the scene in the abbey, worthy of the pen of Dickens or Galsworthy, sums up the total isolation of the royal ruling clique. It astonished all who saw it: The cool anger Diana's brother directed against the royal family and press was stunning. As spontaneous applause broke out around the silent royal family, Charles and his sons must have wondered whether the consecration of their lives, with all its pain and sacrifice, to upholding a failing monarchy was any longer worth the candle. The institution's gathering obsolescence has never been more cruelly exposed than over the last week; its hold on popular sentiment - crucial to its legitimacy - has been severely dented. (The Observer, 7/9/97.) The myth of monarchy It is not true that the monarchy in Britain has deep roots, historically speaking. The starting point of modern Britain was the bourgeois revolution of the 17th century. That culminated in the execution of Charles I. Subsequently, the bourgeoisie did a deal with the landed aristocracy, agreeing to the return of Charles II on condition that there would be no return to absolutism. As could be expected from them, the Stuarts broke the agreement and were duly ousted by a coup d'etat which placed William III, a Dutch adventurer, on the throne. The next 150 years were full of upheavals and scandals, and for most of the time the monarchy was anything but popular. The Economist exposed the myth of the 1,000 year monarchy as follows: The monarchy may have lasted 1,000 years, but until recently the British have only occasionally treated it with reverence (Charles I lost his head, remember). The current royal family, like the Hanoverians before them, are as much German as British. In fact George V invented the family name Windsor (after his favourite castle) in 1917 at the height of the first world war when the family's name, Saxe-Coburg & Gotha, has caused grumbling. When the Kaiser heard of this he demanded, in a rare flash of wit, a staging of that famous opera, The Merry Wives of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha. (The Economist, 22-28/10/94.) "The two first Georges, wrote Bagehot, were men ignorant of English, and wholly unfit to guide and lead English society. They both preferred one or two German ladies of bad character to all else in London. George III had no social vices, but he had no social pleasures (Bagehot, p. 45.). He was also a madman. In 1817, at the funeral of Princess Charlotte, the daughter of the Prince Regent, the undertakers were drunk. At George IV's coronation in 1821, pugilists had to be employed to keep the peace among guests (not the rabble outside). Victoria's coronation in 1838 was also a shambles according to contemporary accounts. Journalists and the public also showed little respect for monarchs themselves. On the death of George IV in 1830 The Times declared in an editorial that: 'There never was an individual less regretted by his fellow creatures.' Cartoonists such as Gillray, Rowlandson and Cruickshank attacked the monarch in a manner which would look savage even today. Victoria was no more popular than her predecessors until her apotheosis near the end of her reign. She was at various times scornfully referred to as Mrs Melbourne (for her partiality to her first prime minister) or Mrs Brown (for her partiality to her servant John Brown). Her long retirement after the death of Albert was bitterly resented. In 1864 and advertisement was pinned to the railings of Buckingham Palace by some wag: 'These premises to be let or sold, in consequence of the late occupant's declining business.' She was regularly attacked in newspaper articles. By the mid-1860s republicanism was becoming widely discussed even fashionable. Republican clubs sprang up throughout the country in the following decade. The monarchy seemed headed for the dustbin of history. (The Economist, ibid.) Only at the end of Victoria's reign and the beginning of the twentieth century did the ruling class take steps to build up the institution of the monarchy, lavishing large sums of money on huge spectacles such as Victoria's golden Jubilee in 1887. Most of the present-day ceremonial pantomimes, which most people imagine to be ancient British traditions, date from this time. We quote The Economist again: Long-forgotten medieval rituals were dragged out of the attic, dusted off and performed, such as the investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1911. New ones were invented: the royal broadcast in 1932. When the public began to get bored even with this in the 1960s, the cameras were invited into Buckingham Palace. (ibid.) Paradoxically, what saved the monarchy was the widening of the franchise and universal manhood suffrage. The ruling elite, The Economist admits, forced to widen the voting franchise, decided that the country needed the monarchy as a symbol of stability and they needed it to help them retain control of the government. At the height of the republican agitation Walter Bagehot wrote his classic The English Constitution, which even now contains the best analysis of the role of the British monarchy. The real role of the Monarchy It is necessary to understand that the monarchy is not simply a harmless anachronism with no powers. It is an important reserve weapon of reaction. The Queen has significant reserve powers which can be brought into play at a time of national crisis. Such powers would undoubtedly be used against a left Labour government that attempted to challenge the power and privileges of the big banks and monopolies that own and control most of Britain. Although most people do not realise it, this is the main role of the monarchy and the reason why it has been kept in being by the ruling class for so long. This fact was explained in admirably frank terms by the 19th century author of the best-known work on the English Constitution, who, referring in unflattering language to Queen Victoria and Albert Prince of Wales, asked why the British people should pay a large amount of money every year in order to maintain a retired widow and an unemployed youth. And he answered in the following way: For the educated thousands there is the 'efficient' aspect, the whole system of Parliaments, Cabinets, Party Government, and the rest. For the unintelligent millions there is the 'dignified' aspect (described also as 'theatrical', 'mystical', 'religious', or 'semi-religious'), which delights the eye, stirs the imagination, supplies motive power to the whole political system, and yet never strains the intellectual resources of the most ignorant or the most stupid. It is, of course, bound up with the Monarchy; indeed to all intents and purposes it is the Monarchy. (Walter Bagehot, The English Constitution, p. xviii.) And again: We have no slaves to keep down by special terrors and independent legislation. But we have whole classes unable to comprehend the idea of a constitution - unable to feel the least attachment to impersonal laws. Most do indeed vaguely know that there are some other institutions besides the Queen, and some rules by which she governs. But a vast number like their minds to dwell more upon her than upon anything else, and therefore she is inestimable. A Republic has only difficult ideas in government; a Constitutional Monarchy has an easy idea too; it has a comprehensible element for the vacant many, as well as complex laws and notions for the inquiring few. (Bagehot, p. 34.) This is very clear. The ignorant masses do not understand politics and cannot really be trusted with the vote. but since they have conquered the right to vote, we must devise a kind of pantomime to keep them happy, while the real exercise of power is kept firmly in our hands: Lastly. Constitutional royalty has the function which I insisted on at length in my last essay, and which, though it is by far the greatest, I need not now enlarge upon again. It acts as a disguise. It enables our real rulers to change without heedless people knowing it. The masses of Englishmen are not fit for an elective government; if they knew how near they were to it, they would be surprised, and almost tremble. (Bagehot, p. 48.) It is worth spending a certain amount of hard cash on ceremony and glitter, in order to divert attention away from the real state of affairs. It is essential that the masses believe in the monarchy, and therefore this is a worthwhile investment, just like any other. It is also a necessary insurance policy, in case things go badly wrong. Unlike other countries, Britain does not have a written constitution, and most laws are based upon custom and practice. But for that very reason, there are many grey areas. For example, what would happen in the case of an elected government which attempted to take over the banks and monopolies? Bagehot answers with his customary frankness: It may perhaps be replied that if a majority of the House of Commons want a revolution they ought to have one; and no doubt if the House of Commons on this point fully represented the settled convictions of the community the reply suffices. But if not? Is there any means of ensuring that in these extreme cases the House of Commons would represent the settled will of the community? Is there any ground for expecting that our Cabinet system, admirably fitted to adjust political action to the ordinary oscillations of public opinion, could deal with these violent situations? Could it long survive the shocks of revolutionary and counter-revolutionary violence? I know not. The experiment has never been tried. Our alternating Cabinets, though belonging to different Parties, have never differed about the foundations of society. And it is evident that our whole political machinery pre-supposes a people so fundamentally at one that they can safely afford to bicker; and so sure of their own moderation that they are not dangerously disturbed by the never-ending din of political conflict. May it always be so. (Walter Bagehot, The English Constitution, pp. xxiii-xxiv.) A reserve of reaction But what happens when this no longer applies? In such a situation, Bagehot explains the role of the monarchy. After all, the army swears an oath of allegiance to the ruling monarch, not to the elected parliament. The Queen's signature is necessary before any decision of parliament becomes law. By withholding her signature, the Queen would automatically provoke a constitutional crisis. Whom would the army, police and civil service obey? In other words we would have all the conditions for a legal coup d'etat. The Queen could suspend parliament and rule through the Privy Council, an organ of state which is not often referred to, but prefers to remain in the shadows - until a national emergency gives it the green light to show its real face. The reserve powers of the monarchy are like the dagger which the assassin keeps hidden in his sleeve. They are all the more dangerous because they are unseen. Here is what Trotsky writes on the subject: Royalty is weak as long as the bourgeois parliament is the instrument of bourgeois rule and as long as the bourgeoisie has no need of extra-parliamentary methods. But the bourgeoisie can if necessary use royalty as the focus of all extra-parliamentary, i.e. real forces directed against the working class. (Trotsky's Writings on Britain, vol. 2, pp. 40-1.) And Bagehot makes exactly the same point: The king, too, possesses a power, according to theory, for extreme use on a critical occasion, but which he can in law use on any occasion. He can dissolve; he can say to his minister in fact, if not in words, 'This parliament sent you here, but I will see if I cannot get another parliament to send some one else here'. (Bagehot, p.71.) In such a moment, when the reserve powers of the monarchy are finally wheeled out, it is imperative that the monarchy should command the unswerving obedience of a large part of society. This is the real reason for the maintenance of the monarchy and all the mystique that - at least until recently - surrounded it. As Bagehot points out: The mystic reverence, the religious allegiance, which are essential to a true monarchy, are imaginative sentiments that no legislature can manufacture in any people. These semi-filial feelings in government are inherited just as the true filial feelings in common life (Bagehot, p. 3.) And again: When a monarch can bless, it is best that he should not be touched. It should be evident that he does no wrong. He should not be brought too closely to real measurement. He should be aloof and solitary. As the functions of English royalty are for the most part latent, it fulfils this condition. It seems to order, but it never seems to struggle. It is commonly hidden like a mystery, and sometimes paraded like a pageant, but in neither case is it contentious. The nation is divided into parties, but the Crown is of no party. Its apparent separation from business is that which removes it both from enmities and from desecration, which preserves its mystery, which enables it to combine the affection of conflicting parties - to be a visible symbol of unity to those still so imperfectly educated as to need a symbol. (Bagehot, p. 40.) And finally, the most famous quotation of all: A secret prerogative is an anomaly - perhaps the greatest of anomalies. That secrecy is, however, essential to the utility of English royalty as it now is. Above all things our royalty is to be reverenced, and if you begin to poke about it you cannot reverence it. When there is a select committee on the Queen, the charm of royalty will be gone. Its mystery is its life. We must not let in daylight upon magic. We must not bring the Queen into the combat of politics, or she will cease to be reverenced by all combatants; she will become one combatant among many. (Bagehot, p.53.) Again and again the same theme is hammered home. With astonishing cynicism, this consummate representative of the ruling class lays bare the inner mechanism and secrets of the British monarchy. Bagehot's book deserves to be studied carefully by every socialist and every thinking worker. Here is the explanation of the aloofness of the Windsor clique. It was an attempt to preserve the old mystique of the royal family, to preserve it as a reserve weapon of the ruling class. But now that weapon has been badly damaged. That explains the consternation, not only of the royals (who have their bank accounts to think of!), but of the strategists of Capital. Bagehot explains that a mystery is destroyed when daylight is let in. The open conflicts, splits and brawls within the royal family, openly paraded in the pages of the tabloid press in recent years, have done precisely that. People now realise that their so-called rulers are not at all special but only a collection of empty, unintelligent and very unlikeable persons living it up at the general expense. To the degree that Diana was excluded by the clique, she used her position to expose them in all their hypocrisy. For that they could never forgive her. But in reality, the exposure of the monarchy had begun even before this. What happened in the aftermath of her death only brought to the surface processes that were already at work, and which reflect profound changes in society. Cold cruelty of ruling class The cold calculation which subordinates everything to the profit motive has always been an essential part of the capitalist system. It is the negation of all human feeling, warmth and compassion. It sentenced small children to slave on dangerous machines in the last century, and it sentences millions of people to the humiliation of unemployment today. In the 1980s, Thatcherite Britain led the way in returning to the norm of capitalism, the capitalism of the 19th century, the unfettered rule of Profit and the laws of the Market - that is, of the jungle. The British ruling class are well suited to this role. Not at all the mythical face of fair play", compromise and democracy. In these Isles every democratic concession had to be wrung from the ruling class in struggle. But the real face of British capitalism can be seen in the history of the empire - a bloody history of oppression and slavery with few equals in the world. Like the infamous Amritsar massacre of 1919, when Brigadier General Reginald Dyer ordered his men to open fire on an unarmed demonstration, killing 379 people and wounding at least another 1,000. Before ordering his troops to open fire, Dyer made sure that the exits to the square were blocked by his men. This mass murderer was not imprisoned or even cashiered from the army, but only reprimanded and asked to resign, although he kept his pension. As The Times puts it: Most of the British in India applauded his action and launched a collection for him, raising what was then the immense sum of 26,000, which enabled him to retire prematurely but comfortably in England. He maintained throughout his life that he had done a 'jolly good thing'. (The Times, 18/8/97.) And all these horrors were perpetrated by nice, civilised English gentlemen educated at Eton and Harrow. The cold cruelty of the English ruling class is no better for the fact that it is concealed behind an emotionless mask, which they like to refer to as the stiff upper lip. No tears, no passion, no emotion of any kind. This is the first house-rule of the English ruling class, personified by the members of the House of Windsor. Their charity is just a game, something to help them pass the time, maybe ease their conscience (if they possess one), and at the same time, keep them in the public eye, creating a vague impression that the royals are, after all, good for something. The question arises, however, as to why so many unfortunate people are reduced to asking for charity in Britain in the last decade of the 20th century, and why there are so many beggars sleeping rough in the West End while the wealth of a few (including the royal family) continues to increase to obscene levels. Such questions, of course, are never asked in polite circles, and least of all by the Labour leaders. But it goes a long way to answer the riddle of the reaction of the mass of ordinary people to the death of a person who, in their minds at least, seemed to stand out against this background of a cold, heartless, unfeeling world, in some way a victim like themselves; someone, moreover, who described herself as the ultimate rebel." So what if it was all a dream? Sometimes, it is necessary to cling to something, even if it is a dream, if it gives just a faint ray of hope. We are not dealing here with politically advanced people but with the millions of ordinary men and women whose lives are in turmoil and for whom the world is now a very confusing and unfriendly place. They are looking for some point of reference, and thus far have failed to find it. People in such a situation may well clutch at straws. It is all part of a process of learning. In such a process, the important thing is not that the masses make mistakes. The important thing is that they are beginning to think and act for themselves. Accumulated discontent In the autumn of 1997, Britain is not a happy country. The long drawn-out decline of British capitalism has been compounded by 18 years of Tory rule which destroyed a quarter of the manufacturing base of the erstwhile workshop of the world. Social inequalities have widened into an unbridgeable gulf. The rich have got richer, the poor poorer. The crisis of the system is reflected by the dismantlement of the welfare state, the closure of hospitals, the decay of schools, and tens of thousands of homeless youths living on the streets. Despite all the talk of economic recovery, there is a widespread feeling of insecurity and fear for the future even among the middle class in the South of England, hit for the first time by the threat of unemployment and negative equity. The general mood was summed up in The Observer thus: The British of the egalitarian post-war years, creating a welfare state in which all had a stake, could unreservedly cheer Elizabeth II at her coronation as their collective embodiment - but the past 20 years of rising inequality, decaying public institutions and celebration of private activity in private free markets has created a new society that is more individualistic, more insecure, less anchored in its values and more alone. (The Observer, 7/9/97.) All of a sudden, the old certainties lay in ruins. There is a doubting, a scepticism, a lack of trust in everything and everything. These are profoundly disturbing symptoms for the ruling class and its representatives. The lack of confidence extends to politicians, parliament and the royal family, as a recent article commented in a worried tone: Faith in our own institutions has plummeted. Barely 30 per cent think Britain will have a monarchy in 50 years time. Only 10 per cent have confidence in parliament. (The Independent, 8/9/97.) The burning desire for a change was reflected in the last general election. This also was a symptom of a mood of deep discontent in society. The Tories suffered an unprecedented defeat. The Party of the Union lost all its seats in Scotland and Wales and was annihilated in the North of England. It is reduced to a party of the English suburbs and rural areas. It remains split and in crisis. Yet it cannot be argued that there was massive enthusiasm for Labour either. Despite the campaign of the media to build up Blair's image - a campaign that has been stepped up over the last week - the facts show that this was by no means Labour's best result. It was not Labour that won the election but the Tories that lost. Even now, one cannot find a mood of genuine enthusiasm for any political party. Particularly among the most downtrodden and oppressed sections of society there is a sense that No-one cares about us. At a time when millions see their living standards, jobs and conditions under attack, their nerves and muscles stretched to breaking point, they find no point of reference, no bold perspective, no rallying call that might offer a way out. Beneath the apparently calm, motionless surface of society there is a seething discontent, anger, suppressed rage, and above all frustration, which is seeking an outlet. If this is not provided by the mass organisations of Labour, it will inevitably find other outlets, in the most unexpected ways and under the most unlikely banners. This is true not only in Britain, but in other countries as well, as the events of the last year have shown. Belgium and Spain There are parallels for what took place in Britain elsewhere in Europe. Socialist Appeal has stressed repeatedly the new volatile situation that has emerged nationally and internationally over the last five years. The shallow boom accompanied by intensified exploitation in the workplaces, mass unemployment, and increased stress, has resulted in growing insecurity and anxiety throughout all levels of society. Deep undercurrents of discontent have periodically surfaced in the most explosive manner. It is a period of sharp and sudden changes in the situation. In Belgium, in an unprecedented movement, millions poured onto the streets over the death of children murdered at the hands of a paedophile gang whose influence spread into the highest reaches of the state and Belgian society. There have been many horrific deaths before, but these murders triggered off a mass movement, which drew behind it layers never involved before. The White protest was a spontaneous mass movement completely outside the official structures of the labour movement. It was called by no-one. The trade union and socialist leaders, even the shop stewards, were completely taken by surprise. All of them were far removed from the real mood developing in society. The murders of little children, the bungling of the police, the removal of the investigating judge, revealed the rotten corruption of the Belgian state. What would normally have been an accidental event became the catalyst for a massive upheaval throughout the country. All the pent up frustration and anger that existed below the surface over the cuts, the attacks on the social wage, the merciless pressures in the workplace, suddenly burst through to the surface. More recently in Spain, the murder by ETA of a PP councillor in the Basque Country resulted in six million people demonstrating on the streets. In Madrid alone over one million marched in protest. Yet the murder of individuals by ETA is not new. It has gone on for years without any such protests. Now millions were on the move. This was not a reactionary protest. The fascists who attempted to exploit the situation were driven off the marches. It was an expression not only of a general revulsion against a brutal and senseless killing but also of the seething discontent in a country where more than 20 per cent are officially unemployed. The general election on 1st May in Britain represented a similar phenomenon. The sheer scale of the Labour victory was without precedent. The Tory party was completely shattered, with no political representation in Scotland and Wales. Labour had won its biggest representation in history - 418 MPs - a Labour majority of 179. This represented a sea-change politically in Britain. Again, it was a rejection of 18 years of Toryism. But it also reflected a deep sense of bitterness and anger at the deteriorating situation faced by the mass of the population, the insecurity, the stress at work, and the general frustration at the situation. This explosive mix revealed itself previously in the mass revolt over the poll tax and the huge movement in October 1992 over the Tory's pit closure programme. Again these were not called by the official labour organisations, but were a spontaneous reaction to events. Lenin pointed out that there were four conditions for a revolution. The first was a split in the ruling class. The tensions building up in the recesses of society find their first expression, not in a movement of the masses, but in conflicts, crises and divisions at the top. The rulers of society feel the pressure from below and one section senses that they cannot continue to rule in the old way, while another wing stubbornly resists change, fearing to open the floodgates. The split in the monarchy has now assumed an open and embittered character, just as occurred also in the Tory party and the Church of England. The second condition was that the middle class should begin to detach itself from the ruling class and begin to vacillate. The collapse of the Tory vote in traditional middle class strongholds, and now the widespread criticism of the monarchy among these traditionally conservative layers, are a clear indication of a new and volatile mood in society which can have enormous repercussions in the future. The third condition was a movement of the masses, and that the working class should be prepared to fight to the end. That condition has not yet matured in Britain, although the big movements in France, Belgium and Germany are an indication of what is in store. Moreover, the movement of the masses does not proceed in a straight line, but is a contradictory process that can take all kinds of peculiar forms, especially when a conscious leadership is lacking. The eruption of the masses over the past week was, in a peculiar way, an anticipation of what is being prepared in the depths of society. If one takes it in a superficial way, then the idea that this could have a revolutionary significance would seem preposterous. And yet the strategists of Capital were deeply perturbed. The articles in the Financial Times about the Crowd were highly significant. The thinking representatives of the ruling class understand that a crowd has a psychology, a logic and a movement of its own. Once the snowball begins to roll, it can be hard to stop. The mood can change very quickly. That explains the indecent haste with which the royal family was compelled to do a 180 degree somersault against its wishes. Socialists and the Monarchy What is really incredible is the role of the right wing Labour leaders in all this. As on every other question, the so-called realists of Labour's right wing are in fact the furthest removed from reality. Every serious political observer agrees that the monarchy has been badly damaged and is losing support. This seems to be particularly true of sections of the middle class. The Observer noted that: Foreign reporters who moved among the crowds found the deepest wells of disillusion among the petite bourgeoisie who had once been keen royalists. They judged their alienation from the Queen to be more worrying for the Establishment than the more flamboyant of the mourners. (The Observer, 7/9/97.) Yet precisely at a time when even life-long monarchists were beginning to question the monarchy, Tony Blair steps in to prop it up, acting, in effect, as the unofficial adviser to the Queen on how to extricate the monarchy from the mess it had gotten itself into. Blair's role has been underlined by the press: Tony Blair yesterday held four hours of private talks with the Queen at Balmoral hours after publicly predicting that the monarchy will 'change and modernise' in the wake of the national trauma of Princess Diana's death. In a tactful attempt to make light of tensions within the Establishment over the royal family's behaviour since last weekend, the Prime Minister praised the Queen's Friday night broadcast and her decision to stay at Balmoral. Mr Blair remains a monarchist, he stressed when he appeared on BBC1's Breakfast with Frost. (The Guardian, 8/9/97, my emphasis) Yet the same article adds: But there is little doubt among politicians in all parties that the monarchy has been rocked by the scale of public feeling for the dead princess. (The Guardian, 8/9/97.) In a letter written from London to F.A. Sorge in December 1889, Engels wrote: The most repulsive thing here is the bourgeois 'respectability' bred into the bones of the workers. The social division of society into innumerable gradations, each recognised without question, each with its own pride but also its inborn respect for its 'betters' and 'superiors,' is so old and firmly established that the bourgeois still find it pretty easy to get their bait accepted. I am not at all sure, for instance, that John Burns is not secretly prouder of his popularity with Cardinal Manning, the Lord Mayor and the bourgeoisie in general than of his popularity with his own class. And Champion - an ex-Lieutenant - intrigued years ago with bourgeois, and especially with conservative, elements, preached Socialism at the parsons' Church Congress, etc. Even Tom Mann, whom I regard as the finest of them, is fond of mentioning that he will be lunching with the Lord Mayor. If one compares this with the French, one can see what a revolution is good for, after all. However it will not help the bourgeoisie much if they do succeed in enticing some of the leaders into their toils. By that time the movement will have become strong enough to overcome this sort of thing. (Marx and Engels, On Britain, pp. 568-9.) For generations, under the empire, wide layers of British society, not only the middle class, but also sections of the working class were under the influence of the monarchy. But in the period of Britain's decline, all the old traditions of servility have gradually fallen away. The new generations are no longer willing to accept the rule of their alleged betters as something God-given and natural. This process has been going on for some time. But sometimes it takes an accidental event to act as a social catalyst which, as in chemistry, serves to accelerate enormously a tendency which was already present. The death of Diana is just such an historical accident." All serious observers agree that the events of September have seriously damaged the monarchy in the eyes even of the middle class. Yet the Labour leaders continue in the old tradition of bowing and scraping to the monarchy, and even of posing as its Deliverers! It now seems that Charles phoned Tony Blair from the aeroplane on his way back from Paris with the dead body of his estranged wife, asking the Labour Prime Minister to intercede with the Queen over the funeral arrangements. Blair has abandoned the socialist programme and openly embraced the market and all its works. He represents the right wing clique at the top of the Labour Party and the unions which is under the direct pressure of big business and which foolishly imagines that, by currying favour with the Establishment, they can bring about national unity." Just a few days after the funeral, the TUC opened its doors. Its main guest speakers were Tony Blair, the president of the CBI (employers' association) and - the Archbishop of Canterbury! How well old Engels' words characterise the leaders of the British trade union movement who, instead of organising a serious campaign to secure a decent minimum wage, call in the help of the Almighty! There is no doubt that Trotsky was right when he said that the British trade union and Labour leaders were the most conservative and reactionary force in society. And the biggest joke of all is that they are preaching sermons about the unity of the nation just when that so-called unity (that is, the unity of horse and rider, of exploiters and exploited) is about to be burst asunder. Monks and Blair dream of national unity at a moment when the employers are ruthlessly piling on the pressure. Not since the Second World War has there existed such an open dictatorship on the shop floor, such a nightmare of toil and drudgery, such intolerable stress. The capitalist system was always inhuman. Now it has turned into a nightmare for millions of men, women and young people. But this is producing a mood of anger and bitterness which will not be kept suppressed forever. It can burst through. It will burst through, preparing a general radicalisation of society that will shake the Labour organisations from top to bottom. The grip of the right wing will be broken, opening the road to the transformation and re-transformation of the unions and the Labour party. Is it permissible for socialists to defend the monarchy? Such a question would appear to answer itself. Even from the most elementary standpoint of democracy, the institution of the monarchy is a survival of barbarism. By what right does a man or woman become the titular head of the nation merely by an accident of birth? What has genetics got to do with democracy and the administration of society? Such things should be taken for granted by any consistent supporter of democracy, let alone a socialist. The acceptance of monarchy by Tony Blair is the most blatant example of the abandonment of even the most elementary principles of socialism and the Labour Movement by the right wing modernisers". By the way, what kind of modernisation is it that defends a reactionary remnant of feudalism? Yet, strangely enough, the question of the monarchy is not even understood by those who seek its abolition. It is generally thought that the monarchy is merely an expensive anachronism. That is the position of most of the Labour Left. Expensive it is, of course. The millions wasted on this bunch of parasitic idlers could and should be spent on other things - schools, hospitals, houses. That is the real answer to those who prattle endlessly on about the supposed good works and charitable activities of the royal family. It is impossible to find out the real wealth owned by the Queen. The last issue (1996) of the Sunday Times' Britain's Richest 500 gives a conservative (in their own admission, cowardly") estimate of 450 million. However, this does not include a private art collection worth, according to some estimates, 10 billion, as well as other property, jewels, horses and other assets worth countless millions more. The Queen, allegedly standing above classes and party politics", is a member of the capitalist class with an investment portfolio conservatively estimated by the Sunday Times at 250 million. The rise in land prices over the last year has further swelled the value of their properties, especially in East Anglia, where prices rose by no less than 40 per cent in the year before this study came out. This, at a time when thousands of middle class families are facing the nightmare of negative equity and the loss of their homes. Not content with this vast amount of wealth, the royal family continues to demand a huge annual subsidy paid for by the state when expenditure on schools and hospitals is being cut to the bone, on the grounds that there is no money. If they really want a monument to the late Princess of Wales, why not demonstrate their heartfelt concern for the poor, the sick and the underprivileged by donating all their riches for a programme of useful public works? They will not do so voluntarily, of course. So a Labour Government worthy of the name ought to give them a little encouragement by expropriating the property of the royal family and abolishing the monarchy once and for all. Socialist transformation - the only answer Last May, the people of Britain inflicted a crushing defeat on the Tory Party. In voting for a Labour government, they were voting for change. This fact is accepted even by bourgeois commentators, who, in fact, have related it to the same kind of mood that propelled a million people onto the streets of London on September 6th. In drawing this analogy, the strategists of Capital show that they understand the real situation in Britain far better than the Labour leaders who, in effect, are offering more of the same. To tell the truth, they understand more than the Lefts, and more than many people who call themselves Marxists. And they are worried, just as Bagehot was worried when he wrote that it was just as well that the politically untutored masses did not realise how close they were to power. Before the Second World War, Leon Trotsky pointed out how easy it would be for the leaders of the Labour Party to take power in Britain. In fact, he explained that it could even be achieved peacefully, through parliament - if the Labour leaders willed it: In Britain three-quarters of the population is working class. It is a purely proletarian country. It has a small handful of landlords and capitalists - they are very rich and powerful, it is true, but still they are only a handful. If MacDonald walked into Parliament, laid his programme on the table, rapped lightly with his knuckles, and said, 'Accept it or I'll drive you all out' (saying it more politely than I've phrased it here) - if he did this, Britain would be unrecognisable in two weeks. MacDonald would receive an overwhelming majority in any election. The British working class would break out of the shell of conservatism with which it has been so cleverly surrounded; it would discard that slavish reverence for the law of the bourgeoisie, the propertied classes, and church and the monarchy. (Trotsky's Writings on Britain, vol. 1, p. 194.) It is worth recalling that the three basic pillars of the Establishment in Britain were always the monarchy, the Church of England, and the Tory Party. It is no accident that all three are now in a deep crisis. Even more extraordinary is the way in which the splits and divisions are openly paraded in the full glare of public opinion. This too is unprecedented, especially in Britain. As Trotsky points out elsewhere: Nowhere in Europe does canonised hypocrisy - 'cant' - play such a role as in Great Britain. Different political groupings and even the most 'extreme' of them are, when fighting against each other, accustomed not to touch upon certain questions or to call certain things by their proper names. The reason is that from time immemorial the political struggle has been waged inside the ranks of the possessing classes who have never forgotten that a third party is listening in. (Trotsky's Writings on Britain, vol. 2, pp. 162.) So discredited is the monarchy that even bourgeois publications like The Economist have called for its abolition. In the immediate aftermath of the funeral, many other papers have expressed doubts about the future of monarchy: The institution can stagger on but amid so much other constitutional change - notably the elimination of the hereditary principle in the House of Lords, an important buttress to hereditary monarchy - it is clear the end is approaching. (The Observer, 7/9/97.) This conclusion is undoubtedly premature. We have already explained the role of the monarchy as a reserve weapon of the ruling class. This weapon has now been seriously dented, but it is not yet completely destroyed. It still has important reserves of support in the masses (this was evident even over the past week). Therefore, the ruling class will do everything in its power to prop it up. Despite the powerful impact on the minds of the masses of the recent dramatic events, memories fade with time. The mass media remain a tremendous instrument for moulding public opinion. There are still a few cards up their sleeve. If Charles has been discredited, he can always be shunted aside in favour of young William. Or he may get a new image and bounce back again. The different combinations are unimportant. The main thing is that the monarchy itself be maintained as a weapon against the Labour Movement and a bulwark against social progress. The task of removing this obstacle - along with the House of Lords and all the other accumulated rubbish left over from feudalism - will be the prior condition of success for a future Labour government that is not content to accept the dictates of Capital, but is determined to abolish it. Inevitably, some good workers will have been bewildered and disheartened by the recent events. But it is necessary to see a little further than what is immediately in front of us. For this, a Marxist analysis is indispensable. In January 1905, the first Russian revolution began with a crowd - a mass demonstration of men, women and children bearing religious icons in their hands, a priest at their head and a petition to the tsar, the little father. When socialist agitators tried to distribute leaflets attacking the tsar, they were attacked and the leaflets were torn up. But in the space of 24 hours, the mood changed into its opposite. The masses rapidly graduated from the school of petitions to that of the general strike and armed insurrection. Of course, that is not the situation here. The movement is only at its early beginnings. But the strategists of Capital immediately understood that behind these first confused stirrings, there was something menacing, something potentially dangerous to them. That is why they moved swiftly to defuse the situation with concessions. Thus, from their class standpoint, the most far-sighted representatives of capitalism always come to similar conclusions to the Marxists. It is necessary to look beyond the surface of events, to distinguish carefully between the essential and the non-essential, between what is progressive and what is reactionary, and to see the real process that is unfolding. The recent events were alarming to the strategists of Capital because they saw what we saw - that all the elements are accumulating to prepare for a social explosion in Britain. David Starkie, a constitutional expert, openly worried that There is such a head of steam that anything can happen (The Independent 8/9/97) and Christopher Hudsen of the Evening Standard wrote As the emotional barometer has risen so has a disturbing sense of menace in the atmosphere. These extraordinary comments - not isolated but typical of the serious commentators - accurately convey the deep concern of the ruling class. This is not just a routine happening but the heat lightening of revolution - an anticipation of what is to come. That is the real meaning of these words. We have entered an entirely new and turbulent period in Britain and on a world scale. The socialist transformation of society will once more be placed firmly on the order of the day. There will be many ups and downs, and many false turnings, but for a whole period, the pendulum will swing to the left. All that is required to ensure a successful outcome is that the Labour Movement be equipped with the ideas, programme and methods of Marxism. That is the real challenge before us. 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. 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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 Vast Resources plc / Ticker: VAST / Index: AIM / Sector: Mining 15 August 2022 Vast Resources plc (Vast or the Company) Takob Processing Project Update Vast Resources plc, the AIM-listed mining company, is pleased to announce that the official opening ceremony for the Takob joint venture project at the Takob Mine in Tajikistan (Takob Processing Project) with Open Joint Stock Company Korkhanai Boygardonii Takob ("Takob") has taken place today. The Company was represented by Andrew Prelea, Chief Executive Officer along with other representatives of the Companys strategic partners in Central Asia Minerals and Metals Ore Trading FZCO, including Mr Abdul Jabbar Abdullah Ali Gargash. The opening ceremony was attended by the following distinguished guests: Sherali Kabir, the Minister of Industry and New Technologies of the Republic of Tajikistan Safaralizoda Sh. N., Mayor of Varzob District Michael Cockle, the Deputy British Ambassador to Tajikistan. Rajabzoda Najibullo, Chairman of Board of Directors of Open Joint Stock Company Talco Jabbarov Suhrob, Director of Talco Management Limited As previously announced, Vast will receive a participation equivalent to a 12.25 percent royalty over all sales of non-ferrous concentrate and any other metals produced from the Takob Processing Project. Photos of the official opening ceremony for the Takob Processing Project will be made available on the Companys social media platforms. Andrew Prelea, Chief Executive Officer of Vast Resources PLC, commented: I would again like to thank the Minister of Industry and New Technologies of the Republic of Tajikistan, together with the Chairman and Executive Team of Open Joint Stock Company TALCO for their assistance in commencing the Takob Processing Project. I would also like to thank all the stakeholders and our strategic partners in Central Asia Minerals and Metals Ore Trading FZCO, including Mr Abdul Jabbar Abdullah Ali Gargash and Formin TJK, for giving Vast the opportunity to participate in this exciting venture that opens the door to further opportunities in Tajikistan. For further details on the Takob Processing and the Takob Tailings Projects, see the announcements made on 3 May, 24 May and 30 June 2022 via the Companys website - https://www.vastplc.com/news/. Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure Certain information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 as it forms part of UK Domestic Law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (UK MAR) until the release of this announcement. **ENDS** For further information, visit www.vastplc.com or please contact: Vast Resources plc Andrew Prelea (CEO) Andrew Hall (CCO) www.vastplc.com +44 (0) 20 7846 0974 Beaumont Cornish Financial & Nominated Advisor Roland Cornish James Biddle www.beaumontcornish.com +44 (0) 20 7628 3396 Shore Capital Stockbrokers Limited Joint Broker Toby Gibbs / James Thomas (Corporate Advisory) www.shorecapmarkets.co.uk +44 (0) 20 7408 4050 Axis Capital Markets Limited Joint Broker Kamran Hussain www.axcap247.com +44 (0) 20 3206 0320 St Brides Partners Limited Susie Geliher / Charlotte Page www.stbridespartners.co.uk +44 (0) 20 7236 1177 ABOUT VAST RESOURCES PLC Vast Resources plc is a United Kingdom AIM listed mining company with mines, development projects and mining interests in Romania, Tajikistan and Zimbabwe. In Romania, the Company is focused on the rapid advancement of high-quality projects by recommencing production at previously producing mines. The Company's Romanian portfolio includes 100% interest in Vast Baita Plai SAs producing Polymetallic Mine, located in the Apuseni Mountains, Transylvania, an area which hosts Romania's largest polymetallic mines. The mine has a JORC compliant Reserve & Resource Report which underpins the initial mine production life of approximately 3-4 years with an in-situ total mineral resource of 15,695 tonnes copper equivalent with a further 1.8M-3M tonnes exploration target. The Company is now working on confirming an enlarged exploration target of up to 5.8M tonnes. The Company also owns the Manaila Polymetallic Mine in Romania, which the Company is looking to bring back into production following a period of care and maintenance. The Company has also been granted the Manaila Carlibaba Extended Exploitation Licence that will allow the Company to re-examine the exploitation of the mineral resources within the larger Manaila Carlibaba licence area. Vast has an interest in a joint venture company which provides exposure to a near term revenue opportunity from the Takob Mine processing facility in Tajikistan. The Takob Mine opportunity, which is 100% financed, will provide Vast with a 12.25 percent royalty over all sales of non-ferrous concentrate and any other metals produced. Processing of stockpiled ore on site is expected to commence in mid-2022. In Zimbabwe, the Company is focused on the commencement of the joint venture mining agreement on the Community Diamond Concession, Chiadzwa, in the Marange Diamond Fields. Sydney, Sept. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Proactive, provider of real-time news and video interviews on growth companies listed in Australia, has covered the following companies: Allup Silica Ltd (ASX:APS) has a potential new raft of areas to explore, having made exploration licence applications for new projects in Western Australia and the Northern Territory which it considers prospective for silica sand. Click here Lithium Power International Ltd (ASX:LPI) has received binding commitments from institutional, sophisticated and professional investors to raise A$25 million via a placement at an issue price of A$0.60 per share. Click here Alligator Energy Ltd (ASX:AGE) has taken the first step in pursuing resource growth at the Blackbush deposit of the Samphire Uranium Project in South Australia with a high-resolution ground-based gravity survey over the area. Click here Cobre Ltd (ASX:CBE) has uncovered further mineralisation at the Ngami Copper Project (NCP) in the Kalahari Copper Belt (KCB) in Botswana, this time intersecting an 18-metre zone of visible copper, including 9 metres of notable visual chalcocite mineralisation confirmed with pXRF readings. Click here Hawsons Iron Ltd (ASX:HIO) has tapped Paul Cassano to lead the Hawsons Iron project team as project director. Click here Animoca Brands Corporation Ltd has raised US$110 million from the issuance of convertible notes to a small number of institutional investors that included Singapore state-owned sovereign fund Temasek, at a conversion price of A$4.50. Click here Radiopharm Theranostics Ltd (ASX:RAD) has gained a suite of tax credits, fee exemptions and market exclusivity benefits for its osteosarcoma treatment DUNP19 following an orphan drug designation (ODD) by the US Federal Drug Administration (FDA). Click here Nexus Minerals Ltd (ASX:NXM) has generated a new geological model of the Crusader-Templar prospect of the Wallbrook Gold Project in WA, which will be used to better target planned resource expansion drilling at the prospect. Click here Alkane Resources Ltd (ASX:ALK) has released updated mineral resource and ore reserve estimates for the Tomingley Gold Project as at June 30, 2022. 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 BRISBANE, Sept. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Data Bridge Market research has a newly released expansive study titled Global Glassware Market which guarantees you will remain better informed than your competition. This study provides a broader perspective of the marketplace with its comprehensive market insights and analysis which eases surviving and success in the market. Glassware market research report endows with the most suitable and specific information to the decision-makers in this industry which saves their time and gives excellent output. With the systematic study performed by the experts, of all these parameters are used to offer the best solution. The report analyses the potential of the market concerning the current scenario and the prospects by considering several industry aspects. This Glassware report explains several market factors such as market estimates and forecasts, entry strategies, opportunity analysis, market positioning, competitive landscape, product positioning, market assessment, and viability studies. Data Bridge Market Research analyses that the glassware market is expected to reach the value of USD 3,628,900.34 thousand by 2029, at a CAGR of 5.3% during the forecast period. "soda lime glass" accounts for the largest material segment in the glassware Market. The glassware market report also covers pricing analysis, patent analysis, and technological advancements in depth. Download Exclusive Sample of Glassware Market Report in PDF Version @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=global-glassware-market REPORT METRIC Forecast Period - 2022 to 2029 Base Year 2021 Historic Years - 2020 (Customizable to 2014 - 2019) Market Synopsis:- Growing levels of investment in the hotel and catering industry are expected to act as a driver for the growth of the glassware market in the forecast period. Changes in the lifestyle of the consumers are expected to act as a driver for the growth of the glassware market in the forecast period of 2022-2029. Advancements in glassware production technologies are expected to bring growth opportunities for the glassware market in future. Glass is a brittle, rigid material that is generally clear or translucent. It might be made of a mixture of sand, soda, lime, or other minerals. The most typical glass formation method involves heating raw ingredients until they become molten liquid, then rapidly cooling the mixture to make toughened glass. Glass varieties may be classified based on their mechanical and thermal qualities to identify which applications are most suited. Soda lime glass: Soda-lime glass is the most common form of glass used for windowpanes and glass containers such as bottles and jars for drinks, food, and certain commodities items. Lead Glass: Lead glass is a glass with a high percentage of lead oxide with exceptional clarity and brightness. Heat Resistant: Heat-resistant glass is intended to withstand heat stress and is commonly used in kitchens and industrial applications. Some of the major players operating in the Glassware market are Hrastnik1860, Oneida, Noritake China, Ocean Glass Public Company Limited, Lenox Corporatio, Treo.in, Libbey Inc, Fiskars Group, WMF (A Subsidiary of Groupe SEB), Lifetime Brands, Inc, Villeroy & Boch, Bormioli Rocco S.p.A., Wonderchef Home Appliances Pvt. Ltd., The Zrike Company, Inc, Shandong Hikingpac Co., Ltd., Addresshome, Stolzle Lausitz GmbH, Eagle Glass Deco (P.) Ltd., Degrenne. Cello World, MYBOROSIL, Jiangsu Rongtai Glass Products Co., Ltd., Cumbria Crystal, Garbo Glassware Access In-depth 350 Pages Research Report @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/checkout/buy/enterprise/global-glassware-market Recent Development In October 2020, Libbey Inc. announced the confirmation of a plan of reorganization and expected to complete its court-supervised restructuring and emerge with a stronger balance sheet in the upcoming weeks. The company made this announcement to succeed in the current business operating environment. In October 2021, Lenox Corporation acquired Oneida Consumer LLC with its brand of table top products including flatware, dinnerware, and cutlery. The collaboration was undertaken to market a leading portfolio of brands and innovative goods with unrivalled customer awareness across a wide range of retail channels. . Critical Insights Related to the Glassware Included in the Report: Exclusive graphics and Illustrative Porters Five Forces analysis of some of the leading companies in this market Value chain analysis of prominent players in the market Current trends influencing the dynamics of this market across various geographies Recent mergers, acquisitions, collaborations, and partnerships Revenue growth of this industry over the forecast period Marketing strategy study and growth trends Growth-driven factor analysis Emerging recess segments and region-wise market An empirical evaluation of the curve of this market Ancient, Present, and Probable scope of the market from both prospect value and volume Key Market Drivers:- Growing levels of investment in the hotel and catering industry Tourism has enhanced the business of the hotel and restaurant sector all over the world and provided great scope for the hotel industry. The industry has flourished mainly through tourism and due to diverse landscapes, beliefs, and societies in different countries which provided a great attraction to tourists from different regions. The hotel and catering sectors of many nations have gradually expanded over the last two decades, and development is predicted in the next years, coupled with an increase in demand for various types of glassware goods. Changes in lifestyle of the consumers Consumer lives are constantly evolving. Consumer habits and values are influenced by existing and new trends, as well as the continuously changing demographic mix, worldwide cultural upheavals, and fast developments in technology. Businesses may capitalize on new possibilities by acquiring a deep understanding of customer preferences following shifting behaviours and beliefs. In recent times, consumers from all generations are focusing more on branded products in many areas of their daily lives. Rising popularity of fine dining across the globe A fine dining restaurant is either a specialty or a multi-cuisine establishment that places a premium on quality ingredients, presentation, and impeccable service. The category is increasing at a respectable pace of 15%, which has encouraged the arrival of premium Michelin-starred restaurants and other local competitors. Therefore, the growing demand for fine delicate dining is mainly accomplished by the successful operations of different types of brands of glassware products in hotels and restaurants. Availability of cheap quality products Glass is one of the most complex and adaptable materials, and it is utilized in nearly every industry. The extensive use of glass contributes to the creation of a very hi-tech and modern appearance in both residential and commercial structures. Glass comes in a variety of shapes and sizes to suit a variety of applications and is used in a variety of architectural applications such as doors, windows, and partitions. Glass has come a long way from its humble beginnings as a windowpane to become a sophisticated structural component in the current day. Browse Detailed Summary of Research Report @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-glassware-market Key Market Segments: By Material Soda Lime Glass Lead Glass Heat Resistant Others By Style Stemless Glass Stemware Everyday Usage Others By Distribution Channel B2B Specialized Stores Supermarkets/Hypermarkets E-Commerce Others By Price Range Medium Premium Economy By End-Use Hotels & Restaurants Bars & Cafe Household Corporate Canteens Others Glassware Market Regional Analysis/Insights The countries covered in the glassware market report are U.S., Canada and Mexico in North America, Germany, France, U.K., Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Russia, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Rest of Europe in Europe, China, Japan, India, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Hong Kong. Taiwan, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia. Rest of Asia-Pacific (APAC) in the Asia-Pacific (APAC), Saudi Arabia, U.A.E, South Africa, Egypt, Israel, Rest of Middle East and Africa (MEA) as a part of Middle East and Africa (MEA), Brazil, Argentina and Rest of South America as part of South America Asia-Pacific dominates the glassware market. Asia-Pacific is likely to be the fastest-growing global glassware market. The Asia-Pacific glassware market is expected to be the fastest-growing in the world. With the increasing development in the countries number of restaurants and bars is increasing, which will boost the demand for glassware products in the Asia-Pacific region. Glassware Key Benefits over Global Competitors: The report provides a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the Glassware market trends , forecasts, and market size to determine new opportunities. Porters Five Forces analysis highlights the potency of buyers and suppliers to enable stakeholders to make strategic business decisions and determine the level of competition in the industry. Top impacting factors & major investment pockets are highlighted in the research. The major countries in each region are analyzed and their revenue contribution is mentioned. The market player positioning segment provides an understanding of the current position of the market players active in the Personal Care Ingredients TABLE OF CONTENTS Part 01: Executive Summary Part 02: Scope Of The Report Part 03: Research Methodology Part 04: Market Landscape Part 05: Pipeline Analysis Part 06: Market Sizing Part 07: Five Forces Analysis Part 08: Market Segmentation Part 09: Customer Landscape Part 10: Regional Landscape Part 11: Decision Framework Part 12: Drivers And Challenges Part 13: Market Trends Part 14: Vendor Landscape Part 15: Vendor Analysis Part 16: Appendix For More Insights Grab TOC @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/toc/?dbmr=global-glassware-market Browse Related Reports: Beer Glassware Market , By Product (Mugs, Pints, Pilsner, Weizen, Connoisseurs Glassware, Snifters, Taster Glasses, Plastics, Others), Application (Household, Commercial), Distribution Channel (Offline, Online), 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) https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-beer-glassware-market Europe Glassware Market , By Material (Soda Lime Glass, Lead Glass, Heat Resistant and Others), Style (Stemless Glass, Stemware, Everyday Usage, and Others), Distribution Channel (B2B, Specialized Stores, Supermarkets/Hypermarkets, E-Commerce, and Others), Price Range (Medium, Premium, and Economy), End-Use (Hotels & Restaurants, Bars & Cafe, Household, Corporate Canteens, and Others) Industry Trends and Forecast https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/europe-glassware-market Middle East and Africa Glassware Market , By Material (Soda Lime Glass, Lead Glass, Heat Resistant and Others), Style (Stemless Glass, Stemware, Everyday Usage, and Others), Distribution Channel (B2B, Specialized Stores, Supermarkets/Hypermarkets, E-Commerce, and Others), Price Range (Medium, Premium, and Economy), End-Use (Hotels & Restaurants, Bars & Cafe, Household, Corporate Canteens, and Others) Industry Trends and Forecast https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/middle-east-and-africa-glassware-market Asia-Pacific Glassware Market , By Material (Soda Lime Glass, Lead Glass, Heat Resistant and Others), Style (Stemless Glass, Stemware, Everyday Usage, and Others), Distribution Channel (B2B, Specialized Stores, Supermarkets/Hypermarkets, E-Commerce, and Others), Price Range (Medium, Premium, and Economy), End-Use (Hotels & Restaurants, Bars & Cafe, Household, Corporate Canteens, and Others) Industry Trends and Forecast https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/asia-pacific-glassware-market North America Glassware Market , By Material (Soda Lime Glass, Lead Glass, Heat Resistant and Others), Style (Stemless Glass, Stemware, Everyday Usage, and Others), Distribution Channel (B2B, Specialized Stores, Supermarkets/Hypermarkets, E-Commerce, and Others), Price Range (Medium, Premium, and Economy), End-Use (Hotels & Restaurants, Bars & Cafe, Household, Corporate Canteens, and Others) Industry Trends and Forecast https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/north-america-glassware-market Self-Cleaning Glass Market , By Coating Type (Hydrophilic, Hydrophobic), Application (Residential Construction, Non-Residential Construction, Solar Panels, Automotive, Others), 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 https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-self-cleaning-glass-market Impact Resistant Glass Market , By Interlayer (Ionoplast Polymer, Ethylene Vinyl Acetate, Polyvinyl Butyral, Others), End Use (Automotive and Transportation, Construction and Infrastructure 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) https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-impact-resistant-glass-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:- DOUGLAS, Isle of Man, Sept. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dal Poz, previously head of the Advisory Board at oil giant Equinor, was asked for his opinion on the European energy crisis on an episode of Conversations on Climate, the climate change podcast produced by United Renewables and the London Business School Alumni Energy Club. There will be tough choices There's a big balance between security, and price, and the green energy transition, particularly following the invasion of Ukraine, said Chris Caldwell, clean energy entrepreneur and host of the podcast. How do you balance all of those issues up? Dal Poz who now works as a consultant with energy firms making the transition to net-zero responded with a clear warning to anyone who felt there would be an easy solution for energy markets. My take is that there is no optimum space in the middle. This is an inherently unstable system where you have to keep resolving those trade-offs as you go along. And there will be tough choices along the way. Energy crisis not slowing down in 2022 Europes energy crisis has only worsened this year, as supply-chain issues following the pandemic collided with Russias invasion of Ukraine and subsequent sanctions. With natural gas imports through the Nord Stream pipeline seriously restricted by the conflict, and global competition for ship-borne gas supplies increasing from Asia, Europes benchmark gas price hit a record peak of $341/MWh earlier this year. There are already fears that wholesale prices could spike by another 60% this winter. As a result, European countries such as Germany, Austria and Italy are turning their old coal-powered stations back on, despite pledging to move away from dirtier fuels. To Dal Poz, this is an expected outcome of Europes energy problems with roots that pre-date the invasion of Ukraine. If you have price spikes because you have a cost to your firm of one or another source of energy, you run the risk of the public backlash against some of the energy transition measures that you're taking against the whole idea of net zero because we can't afford that, he explained. Alongside a return to secure domestic energy sources, Dal Poz also expects further government intervention in market pricing, such as changes to fuel taxes. Renewables offer insulation from market chaos Dal Poz does see a path through these problems but only with a radical change in Europes energy mix. My theory and I think that this is an inherent part of the journey is that more and more countries will look at renewables as a way to solve some of those issues, he declared. If you have a bigger share of renewable production, basically, you're also insulating yourself from some of the global commodity markets, allowing countries to ride out external crises with domestic production. In his conversation with Caldwell himself an expert in renewable energy production Dal Poz recognised there would be challenges, from retrofitting infrastructure to dealing with intermittency and storage. But he remains hopeful that clean energy offers a way out of the trilemma, because all those things can be solved, and that is the exciting part of the industry these days there is a lot of innovation. The Conversations on Climate podcast invites leading thinkers, business leaders and academic experts to offer their expertise to the clean energy debate. Hosted by United Renewables founder and CEO Chris Caldwell, it has previously hosted guests such as Paul Beijer and Professor Jean-Pierre Benoit. Julio Dal Pozs discussion with Chris will be released on Friday 9th September 2022, with a full video interview available here All previous episodes can be found here. For more information and contact details for Conversations on Climate or United Renewables go here. CONTACT Isabella Hawke Sales and Marketing Consultant COMPANY United Renewables PHONE +447624457139 EMAIL IIhawke@unitedrenewables.co.uk WEB unitedrenewables.co.uk/resources A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f99cd189-9b45-4e27-bdf1-f555ad58c62d Dublin, Sept. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Elevator & Escalator Market - Global Industry Size, Share, Trends, Competition, Opportunity and Forecast, 2017-2027 Segmented By Type, By Service, By End User Industry, By Elevator Technology, By Elevator Door Type, By Region" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Global Elevator & Escalator Market was valued at USD82473.94 million in 2021 and is anticipated to project a steady growth in the forecast period with a CAGR of 4.91% owing to rapidly increasing development in high-rise buildings and ever-growing cash inflow in real estate businesses. An elevator is a machine positioned in buildings to transport, carry, lift, and move people and goods from one floor to another. The elevator can be used in many locations, including residential complexes, commercial buildings, malls, hospitals, and others, to move people or goods from one floor to another. Elevators are also used in factories and industrial plants to transfer goods, machinery, and finished products between two or more different floors. An escalator is usually a set of moving stairs, power-driven and arranged like a nonstop belt of stairs that transports people between the floors of a building while going from one floor to another constantly. Increasing Cash Inflows in Real-Estate Sector is Driving Market Growth Expansion in the real-estate sector is a primary force propelling the Global Elevator & Escalator Market. Huge cash inflow, mostly in the business sector, is driving the market's growth as many established and emerging nations are expanding in the real estate sector, which is expected to grow the Global Elevator & Escalator Market in the forecast period. Growing Business of Construction Industry is Propelling the Market Growth The global construction businesses are experiencing a massive demand for escalators and elevators worldwide. The growing investment in residential and commercial projects as well as in the infrastructure sector is rapidly increasing at a higher rate and is positively influencing the construction sector globally. As of 2020, nearly 500 high-rise buildings were proposed in the US, whereas around 200 high-rise buildings were proposed in the UK and about 100 in Germany. A similar trend is being witnessed across the globe, which is expected to drive the Global Elevator & Escalator Market during the forecast period. Visionary Futuristic Ideas in Building & Infrastructure Industry For instance, In Europe, the elevator and escalator industry is one of the most innovative segments in the mechanical and construction business. In addition to the establishment of advanced government norms many manufacturers have introduced many new futuristic ideas to the market, many of which are ground-breaking in their respective fields which often results in considerable cost savings for the client. These include the electrically driven, machine-roomless elevator and, more recently, the cableless elevator, which travels vertically and horizontally at high speed inside the structure. The innovation-rich history of the elevator and escalator industry is expected to assist its companies in overcoming future challenges, such as those resulting from demographic shifts and technological advancement. Considering the challenges posed by cloud-based solutions and IoT (Internet of Things) applications in buildings. Modernization of Market and Usage of UltraRope Technology The ultra-light UltraRope technology offers unmatched eco-efficiency, reliability, and durability in elevators while considerably enhancing their performance. It addresses the challenges of traditional steel ropes, including excessive energy consumption, rope stretch, enormous moving masses, and building sway-related downtime. UltraRope permits the elevator to travel at the height of about 1,000 meters. Like UltraRope modern technology can greatly recover the reliability of operations by replacing mechanical transfers. By replacing motor-generator-based drive systems with Variable-Voltage, Variable-Frequency (VVVF) drives, which provide almost smooth acceleration and deceleration, the ride quality may be increased. This causes a positive influence in the Global Elevator & Escalator Market. Competitive Landscape Company Profiles: Detailed analysis of the major companies present in the Global Elevator & Escalator Market. Otis Worldwide Corporation Schindler Group KONE Corporation Mitsubishi Electric Corporation TK Elevator GmbH Hitachi, Ltd. Fujitec Co., Ltd. Hyundai Elevator Co., Ltd. Toshiba Elevator and Building Systems Corporation Canny Elevator Co., Ltd. Orona S. Coop. Report Scope: Global Elevator & Escalator Market, By Type: Elevator Escalator Moving Walkways Global Elevator & Escalator Market, By Service: New installation Maintenance & Repair Modernization Global Elevator & Escalator Market, By End-User: Residential Commercial Institutional Infrastructural Others Global Elevator & Escalator Market, By Elevator Technology: Traction Hydraulic Machine Room-Less Traction Global Elevator & Escalator Market, By Elevator Door Type: Automatic Manual Global Elevator & Escalator Market, By Region: Asia-Pacific China Japan South Korea India Australia Indonesia Singapore Vietnam Malaysia Rest of Asia Pacific Europe Germany United Kingdom France Turkey Poland Romania Rest of Europe North America United States Canada Mexico Middle East & Africa Saudi Arabia UAE South Africa Qatar Rest of Middle East & Africa South America Brazil Argentina Colombia Rest of South America For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/t3i5a2 CHICAGO, Sept. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Data Bridge Market research has a newly released expansive study titled Global Intercom Devices Market which guarantees you will remain better informed than your competition. This study provides a broader perspective of the marketplace with its comprehensive market insights and analysis which eases survival and succeeding in the market. A complete overview of the industry has been presented via this Intercom Devices report which considers various aspects of product definition, market segmentation, and the existing retailer landscape. This market research report is produced by using integrated advancements and the latest technology to attain the most excellent results. It becomes easy to create sustainable and profitable business strategies by using helpful and actionable market insights covered in this Intercom Devices report. This market research report contains various parameters of this industry. These parameters range from industry outlook, currency, and pricing, value chain analysis, market overview, premium insights, and key insights to the company profile of the key market players. Data Bridge Market Research analyses that the Intercom devices market is expected to reach USD 44,823.52 million by 2029, at a CAGR of 12.1% during the forecast period. "Audio/Video" accounts for the most prominent communication segment as this type of communication is in demand and is the best option for increasing security. The intercom devices market report also covers pricing analysis, patent analysis, and technological advancements in depth. Download Exclusive Sample of Intercom Devices Market Report in PDF Version @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=global-intercom-devices-market REPORT METRIC Forecast Period - 2022 to 2029 Base Year 2021 Historic Years - 2020 (Customizable to 2014 - 2019) Market Synopsis:- Intercoms are electronic communications systems that consist of fixed microphone/speaker units that connect to a central control device. There are two basic types of products: hard-wired and wireless. Hard-wired intercoms are connected by cables and are installed in buildings, apartments, offices, and manufacturing facilities. Wireless intercoms rely upon radio frequency (RF) transmission and are used in television stations, broadcast control vehicles, power plants, and communications facilities. An intercom system is an advanced type of door entry system with a camera for managing access to a building. Like other types of intercom systems, a video door intercom with a camera also supports communication between visitors and occupants. Rather than relying on just voice, occupants can view live or recorded images from a door entry reader equipped with a camera to verify a visitor's identity before granting access. Intercom technology supports many other advanced features to strengthen access control security and improve convenience for occupants and visitors. Features such as remote unlocking, cloud-based management, integration with building management systems, artificial intelligence, and facial recognition technologies are giving businesses and property managers greater efficiency and flexibility in managing property access. Some of the major players operating in the Intercom Devices market are Comelit Group S.p.A., Zicom, Fujian Aurine Technology Co.,Ltd., Xiamen Leelen Technology Co., Ltd., Aiphone Corporation, Panasonic Holdings Corporation, Honeywell International Inc., Commend International GmbH. (A brand of TKH group), Legrand Group, FERMAX INTERNATIONAL, S.A.U., Zhuhai Taichuan Cloud Technology Co., LTD., 2N TELEKOMUNIKACE a.s (A brand of Axis Communications Inc.), Competition Electronic(zhuhai) co., ltd., Jiale Group, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd., Dahua Technology Co., Ltd, SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD., TCS TurControlSysteme AG, COMMAX, WRT INTELLIGENT TECHNOLOGY COMPANY LIMITED, Siedle, Akuvox (Xiamen) Networks Co., Ltd., DoorKing, TOA Corporation, ButterflyMX, Inc., Barix.com, Alpha Communications, Swiftlane, Bird Home Automation Access In-depth 350 Pages Research Report @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/checkout/buy/enterprise/global-intercom-devices-market Recent Development In July 2021, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd unveiled its All-in-One Indoor Station tablet gadget, which combines security solutions in homes and offices. With this product, the company has managed to make a footprint in a cloud-based device management application for users across the world In May 2018, Panasonic Holdings Corporation launched a video intercom systems range solutions. Features such as wireless and interactive cutting-edge technologies were used in the VL-VM series of the analog video intercom system. This has helped the company further improve its product portfolio and offer innovative solutions for the consumer The investment made in the study would provide you access to information such as: Intercom Devices Market [Global Broken-down into regions] [Global Broken-down into regions] Regional level split [North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, Middle East & Africa] Country wise Market Size Split [of important countries with major market share] Market Share and Revenue/Sales by leading players Market Trends Emerging Technologies/products/start-ups, PESTEL Analysis, SWOT Analysis, Porters Five Forces, etc. Market Size) Market Size by application/industry verticals Market Projections/Forecast Opportunities Growing government initiatives toward the development of smart cities The initiatives taken by the government in smart cities and communities are done by two governance bodies that are a high-level group advising the European Commission (EC) made up of senior representatives from industries, cities, and civil society, as well as the smart cities stakeholder platform. The platform focuses on identifying the solutions and needs of various developers. The smart cities stakeholder platform is essentially about promoting innovations. It aims to accelerate the development and market deployment of energy efficiency and low carbon technology applications in the urban environment. Increased check on deter burglars, baby monitoring, and ensuring the safety of the property Burglar's activities are increasing daily in various countries such as the U.S., and the U.K. Most criminals try to avoid risky situations, and these people prefer easy targets with a low-risk reward ratio. According to an article published by the Department of Justice, in U.S., there are approximately 1.4 million burglaries activities in the U.S. each year. Intercom devices are being used to ensure and increase the safety of properties in different cities. Hard-wired intercoms are connected by cables and installed in buildings, apartments, and manufacturing facilities. Key Market Segments: By Communication Type Audio/video Only audio By Device Type Door entry systems Handheld devices Video baby monitors By Access Control Fingerprint readers Password access Proximity cards Wireless access By Technology Analog IP-Based By End-Use Automotive Commercial Government Residential Others Browse Detailed Summary of Research Report @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-intercom-devices-market Intercom Devices Market Regional Analysis/Insights The countries covered in the intercom devices market report are U.S., Canada, Mexico, Germany, France, U.K., Italy, Spain, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Russia, Turkey, Belgium, rest of Europe, China, South Korea, Japan, India, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Rest Of Asia-Pacific, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, U.A.E., Egypt, Israel, and rest of Middle East And Africa, Brazil, Argentina, Columbia, Peru, Chile, Venezuela, Ecuador, rest of South America. In 2022, Asia-Pacific is expected to dominate the global intercom devices market and is likely to be the fastest-growing intercom devices market globally. The rising crime rate has increased the concerns over security among people in the Asia-Pacific region, leading to the growing demand for robust security solutions. The report provides insights on the following pointers: Market Penetration: Comprehensive information on the product portfolios of the top players in the intercom devices market. Product Development/Innovation: Detailed insights on the upcoming technologies, R&D activities, and product launches in the market. Competitive Assessment: In-depth assessment of the market strategies, geographic and business segments of the leading players in the market. Market Development: Comprehensive information about emerging markets. This report analyzes the market for various segments across geographies. Market Diversification: Exhaustive information about new products, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments in the intercom devices market . TABLE OF CONTENTS Part 01: Executive Summary Part 02: Scope Of The Report Part 03: Research Methodology Part 04: Market Landscape Part 05: Pipeline Analysis Part 06: Market Sizing Part 07: Five Forces Analysis Part 08: Market Segmentation Part 09: Customer Landscape Part 10: Regional Landscape Part 11: Decision Framework Part 12: Drivers And Challenges Part 13: Market Trends Part 14: Vendor Landscape Part 15: Vendor Analysis Part 16: Appendix For More Insights Grab TOC @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/toc/?dbmr=global-intercom-devices-market Browse Related Reports: Video Intercom Devices Market , By Type (Door Entry Systems, Handheld devices and Video Baby Monitors), Access Control (Fingerprint Readers, Password Access, Proximity Cards and Wireless Access), System (Wired and Wireless), Technology (Analogue and IP-Based), End User (Automotive, Commercial, Government, Residential and Others), Display (Colour and Black and White), Country (U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Rest of South America, Germany, Italy, U.K., France, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia, Rest of Europe, Japan, China, India, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Rest of Asia-Pacific, Saudi Arabia, U.A.E, South Africa, Egypt, Israel, Rest of Middle East and Africa) Industry Trends and Forecast https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-video-intercom-devices-market Nor th America Intercom Devices Market , By Device Type (Door Entry Systems, Handheld Devices, and Video Baby Monitors), Access Control (Fingerprint Readers, Password Access, Proximity Cards, and Wireless Access), Technology (Analog and IP-Based), End-use (Automotive, Commercial, Government, Residential, and Others), Communication Type (Audio/Video and Only Audio), Industry Trends and Forecast https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/north-america-intercom-devices-market Middle East and Africa Intercom Devices Market , By Device Type (Door Entry Systems, Handheld Devices, and Video Baby Monitors), Access Control (Fingerprint Readers, Password Access, Proximity Cards, and Wireless Access), Technology (Analog and IP-Based), End-use (Automotive, Commercial, Government, Residential, and Others), Communication Type (Audio/Video and Only Audio), Industry Trends and Forecast https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/middle-east-and-africa-intercom-devices-market Asia-Pacific Intercom Devices Market , By Device Type (Door Entry Systems, Handheld Devices, and Video Baby Monitors), Access Control (Fingerprint Readers, Password Access, Proximity Cards, and Wireless Access), Technology (Analog and IP-Based), End-use (Automotive, Commercial, Government, Residential, and Others), Communication Type (Audio/Video and Only Audio), Industry Trends and Forecast https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/asia-pacific-intercom-devices-market Europe Intercom Devices Market , By Device Type (Door Entry Systems, Handheld Devices, and Video Baby Monitors), Access Control (Fingerprint Readers, Password Access, Proximity Cards, and Wireless Access), Technology (Analog and IP-Based), End-use (Automotive, Commercial, Government, Residential, and Others), Communication Type (Audio/Video and Only Audio), Industry Trends and Forecast https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/europe-intercom-devices-market Cryptocurrency Mining Market , By Mining Enterprise (Large Miners and Small Miners), Revenue Source (Transaction Fees and Block Rewards), Mining Type (Self-Mining, Cloud Mining Services, Remote Hosting Services), Hardware (ASIC, GPU, CPU, and Others), Country (U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Rest of South America, Germany, France, U.K., Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Russia, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Rest of Europe, China, Japan, India, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Rest of Asia-Pacific, Saudi Arabia, U.A.E, Egypt, Israel, South Africa, Rest of Middle East and Africa) Industry Trends and Forecast https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-cryptocurrency-mining-market Asia-Pacific Virtual Reality Market , By Component (Hardware and Software), Device Type (Head-Mounted Displays, Projectors & Display Walls and Gesture-Tracking Devices), Technology (Fully Immersive, Non-Immersive and Semi Immersive), Vertical (Entertainment & Media, Healthcare, Industrial, Commercial, Aerospace & Defense, Automotive, Education and Others) - Industry Trends and Forecast https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/asia-pacific-virtual-reality-market Computer Vision Market , By Components (Hardware, Software, Service), Product (Smart Camera-based Computer Vision Systems, PC-based Computer Vision Systems), Offering (Deep Learning, Traditional Computer Vision), Application (Quality Assurance and Inspection, Positioning and Guidance, Identification, Predictive Maintenance), Vertical (Industrial, Non Industrial) Industry Trends and Forecast https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/reports/global-computer-vision-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:- Dublin, Sept. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Scintillator Market (2022-2027) by Composition of Material, Application, End Product, Geography, Competitive Analysis, and the Impact of Covid-19 with Ansoff Analysis" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Global Scintillator Market is estimated to be USD 597.14 Mn in 2022 and is projected to reach USD 779.7 Mn by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 5.48%. Market Dynamics Market dynamics are forces that impact the prices and behaviors of the Global Scintillator 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 Amcrys, Applied Scintillation Technologies, Crydet, Hitachi Metals, Mirion Technologies, Rexon, Saint Gobain, 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 Scintillator 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 Scintillator 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 Scintillator 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 of Existing and New Radiological Medical Applications 4.1.2 Increase in Safety Concerns in the Wake of Fukushima Disaster 4.1.3 Increasing Investments for Radiation Monitoring in Homeland Security 4.1.4 Increasing Demand for Low Cost and High Performance Scintillators 4.2 Restraints 4.2.1 Availability of Alternative Such as Radiation Conversion Technologies 4.3 Opportunities 4.3.1 Growing Need for Neutron Detection Alternative to Helium-3 4.3.2 Proposed Increase in the Number of Nuclear Power Plants 4.4 Challenges 4.4.1 Lack of Availability of Skilled People 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 Scintillator Market, By Composition of Material 6.1 Introduction 6.2 In-Organic Scintillator 6.2.1 Alkali Halides 6.2.1.1 Thallium Doped Sodium Iodide: NAI(TL) 6.2.1.2 Thallium Doped Cesium Iodide: CSI(TL) 6.2.1.3 Sodium Doped Cesium Iodide: CSI(Na 6.2.1.4 UN-Doped Cesium Iodide: Csi 6.2.1.5 Europium Doped LII Or LII(EU) 6.2.2 Oxide Based Scintillators 6.2.2.1 Bismuth Germanate (BI4GE3O12 Or BGO) 6.2.2.2 Gadolinium Silicate GD2SIO5 (CE) Or (GSO) 6.2.2.3 Cadmium Tungstate (CDWO4 Or CWO) 6.2.2.4 Lead Tungstate (PBWO4 Or PWO) 6.2.3 Other Inorganic Scintillators 6.2.3.1 Glass Scintillators: (Cerium Activated Lithium Silicate) 6.2.3.2 Cerium Activated Lanthanum Bromide 6.3 Organic Scintillator 6.3.1 Single Crystal 6.3.2 Liquid Scintillators 6.3.3 Plastic Scintillators 7 Global Scintillator Market, By Application 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Healthcare 7.3 Homeland Security 7.4 Nuclear Power Plants 7.5 Industrial Application 8 Global Scintillator Market, By End Product 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Personal Or Pocket Size Instruments 8.2.1 Non Self-Reading Dosimeters 8.2.1.1 Film Badges 8.2.1.2 Thermo-Luminescent Dosimeters (TLD) 8.2.1.3 Optically Stimulated Luminescence (Osl) Dosimeter 8.2.2 Self-Reading Dosimeters 8.3 Hand-Held Instruments 8.3.1 Radio-Isotope Identification Devices (RIID) 8.3.2 Survey Meter 8.3.3 Spectrometer 8.4 Fixed, Installed, and Automatic Instruments 8.4.1 Contamination Monitors 8.4.2 Portal Monitor 8.4.3 Non Portable Spectrometer 8.4.4 Medical Imaging Devices 9 Americas' Scintillator 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 Scintillator 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 Scintillator 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 Scintillator 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 Amcrys 14.2 Ametek 14.3 Applied Scintillation Technologies 14.4 Crydet 14.5 Fluent Wave 14.6 Hamamatsu Photonics 14.7 Hitachi Metals 14.8 Ludlum Measurements 14.9 ME Taylor Engineering 14.10 Mirion Technologies 14.11 Radiation Monitoring Devices 14.12 Rexon 14.13 Saint Gobain 15 Appendix For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/gpim1e Attachment WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. & WINDSOR, England, Sept. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- U.S. Polo Assn., the official brand of the United States Polo Association (USPA), in conjunction with the USPA and its licensing partner in the United Kingdom, Brand Machine Group (BMG), offer our deepest condolences to the entire Royal Family on the tremendous loss of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Her Majesty The Queen lived a life of extraordinary public service and has been an iconic and illuminating figure not just in the United Kingdom but around the world. She will be remembered globally with great affection and respect for her sense of duty and commitment to her role for more than 70 years. "U.S. Polo Assn. has been extremely fortunate to have worked with The Palace in supporting the Royal Family with their philanthropic efforts over the years," said J. Michael Prince, President and CEO of USPA Global Licensing. "Partnering with both The Duke of Cambridge, HRH Prince William and The Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry to carry on the Queen's philanthropic legacy through the spirit of polo has been, and will continue to be an honor and a privilege." The sport of polo has been part of the Royal Family's history dating back many generations. "The USPA is saddened to learn of the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and we extend our most sincere condolences to The Royal Family," notes Stewart Armstrong, Chairman of the United States Polo Association (USPA). "Her Majesty's impact is both far reaching and immense. It has always been an honor to partner with The Palace on its philanthropic mission, through polo tournaments in the U.K. and the U.S., which benefit so many deserving charities." Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was just 25 years old when she inherited the throne. She was 27 when she had her coronation ceremony, with 27 million people tuning in to the momentous occasion just in the U.K. "Alongside the people of the U.K. and the Commonwealth, Brand Machine Group mourns the death of Her Majesty The Queen," added Boo Jalil, CEO of U.K.-based Brand Machine Group (BMG). "Her leadership and sacrifice to duty has been unprecedented, and we thank her for her more than 70 years of service to our country." ### For Further Information, Contact: Stacey Kovalsky - Senior Director, Global Communications, USPA Global Licensing Phone +001.561.790.8036 - Email: skovalsky@uspagl.com Gina DiGregorio | Head of Marketing, Brand Machine Group Phone: +44 (0) 1992 538 003| Email: gina.digregorio@brandmachinegroup.com Related Images Image 1: U.S. Polo Assn. U.S. Polo Assn. This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. Attachment New York, Sept. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Supercomputers Global Market Report 2022" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06318568/?utm_source=GNW , and Bull SAS. The global supercomputer market is expected to grow from $8.55 billion in 2021 to $10.47 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.5%. The supercomputer market is expected to grow to $21.07 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 19.1%. The supercomputer market consists of sales of supercomputers by entities (organizations, sole traders, and partnerships) that are used for data-intensive and computation-heavy scientific and engineering purposes.A supercomputer is a computer with the architecture, resources, and components necessary to perform large computations. Todays supercomputers are made up of tens of thousands of processors that can do billions or trillions of calculations per second.A supercomputer is generally intended for use in businesses and organizations that demand a large amount of computational power. A supercomputer combines architectural and operational elements from parallel and grid processing, in which a process is run on thousands of processors at the same time or spread among them. The main types of supercomputer are vector processing machines, tightly connected cluster computers, and commodity clusters.The vector processing machine refers to a vector processor or a central processing unit (CPU) that provides an instruction set where its instructions are designed to manage efficiently and effectively on large one-dimensional arrays of data known as vectors. A vector instruction is a SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) instruction. The different processor types include Intel, IBM (power), AMD, and other processor types that are used in commercial, research institutions, government entities, and other applications. North America was the largest region in the supercomputer market in 2021.Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest-growing region in the forecast period. The regions covered in the supercomputer market report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East and Africa. The supercomputer market research report is one of a series of new reports that provides supercomputer market statistics, including supercomputers industry global market size, regional shares, competitors with a supercomputer market share, detailed supercomputers market segments, market trends and opportunities, and any further data you may need to thrive in the supercomputer industry. This supercomputer market research report delivers a complete perspective of everything you need, with an in-depth analysis of the current and future state of the industry. Government investment in high-processing power is expected to propel the growth of the supercomputer market going forward.High processing power refers to the processing that is used to manage and process data to analyze the data and aid decision-making. Governments across the globe are investing in high-end projects which require high-performing computing devices, resulting in the growth of supercomputer demand.For instance, in January 2021, the National Center for Atmospheric Research-USA announced a $35 million plan to launch a powerful new supercomputer to research phenomena such as solar storms, climate change, and extreme weather events that endanger humanitys home planet. Hewlett Packard Enterprise designed and deployed the system at a Wyoming government site. Furthermore, in February 2020, the UK government announced 1.2 billion ($1.26 billion) for the worlds most powerful weather and climate supercomputer to improve severe weather and climate forecasting. The latest supercomputing technology will unlock the full potential of weather and climate data for the UK, with data from the supercomputer being used to inform government policy as part of the UKs leadership role in the global fight against climate change and the achievement of net zero-emission targets. Therefore, government investment in high-processing power is driving the growth of the supercomputer market. Strategic partnerships are a key trend gaining popularity in the supercomputer market.Major companies operating in the supercomputer market are focusing on strategic partnerships to strengthen their position in the market. For instance, in December 2021, Rescale, a US-based software technology company, announced a partnership with Riken, a Japan-based scientific research institute, for the use of the supercomputer Fugaku in the cloud.Through this partnership, Rescale and Riken will conduct a new research project, Rescale ScaleX on Supercomputer Fugaku, which aims to expand the use and improve the accessibility and usability convenience of Fugakus Cloud computing platform. Furthermore, in November 2019, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (Cray Inc.), a US-based company that specializes in servers, storage, networking, and containerization software, announced a partnership with Fujitsu Limited, a Japan-based company that provides high-performance, highly scalable, highly reliable, and superior power-saving supercomputers. Through this partnership, Hewlett Packard Enterprise would create the worlds first commercial supercomputer, powered by the Cray CPU with high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and based on the established Cray CS500 supercomputer architecture and programming environment. In May 2019, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, a US-based information technology company, acquired Cray Inc. for a deal amount of $1.4 billion. With this acquisition, Hewlett Packard Enterprise company aims to expand high-performance computing (HPC) to unlock the power of their data through machine learning, artificial intelligence, and big data analytics, the technologies that can power exascale-class performance. Cray Inc. is a US-based company operating in the supercomputer market. The countries covered in the supercomputer market report are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, UK, USA. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06318568/?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, Sept. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Nuclear Power Reactor Decommissioning Global Market Report 2022" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06318561/?utm_source=GNW A., SNC - LAVALIN, and TEPCO. The global nuclear power reactor decommissioning market is expected to grow from $4.90 billion in 2021 to $5.62 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.8%. The nuclear power reactor decommissioning market is expected to grow to $8.79 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 11.8%. The nuclear power reactor decommissioning market consists of sales of the nuclear power reactor decommissioning solution by entities (organizations, sole traders, and partnerships) that are used to remove the nuclear fuel from the nuclear power station.Nuclear power reactor decommissioning refers to the process of retiring nuclear power reactors from service and terminating the regulatory commissions operating licenses. It helps in dismantling the plant and restoring the site to an agreed-end-state ready for some form of re-use. The main types of nuclear power reactor decommissioning are pressurized water reactors, pressurized heavy water reactors, boiling water reactors, high-temperature gas-cooled reactors, liquid metal fast breeder reactors, and others.Pressurized nuclear power reactor decommissioning refers to a type of nuclear reactor that generates energy while also propelling nuclear submarines and naval vessels. The various capacities include below 100 MW, 100-1000 MW, and above 1000 MW and are used in several applications such as commercial power reactors, prototype power reactors, and research reactors. Europe was the largest region in the nuclear power reactor decommissioning market in 2021.North America is expected to be the fastest-growing region in the forecast period. The regions covered in the nuclear power reactor decommissioning market report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East and Africa. The nuclear power reactor decommissioning market research report is one of a series of new reports that provides nuclear power reactor decommissioning market statistics, including nuclear power reactor decommissioning industry global market size, regional shares, competitors with a nuclear power reactor decommissioning market share, detailed nuclear power reactor decommissioning market segments, market trends and opportunities, and any further data you may need to thrive in the nuclear power reactor decommissioning industry. This nuclear power reactor decommissioning market research report delivers a complete perspective of everything you need, with an in-depth analysis of the current and future scenario of the industry. The growing sensitivity towards environmental issues is expected to propel the growth of the nuclear power reactor decommissioning market going forward.Environmental sensitivity refers to the growing awareness of environmental issues. Nuclear power plants (NPPs) are used to produce carbon-free electricity due to their superior reliability, enormous clean-air compliance value, and large capacity for power generation.Decommissioning is the process of removing nuclear fuel from a nuclear power plant and assisting in the termination of operating licenses. For instance, according to the Government of Canada, in October 2021, the Canadian government is working to develop resources and improve environmental quality, with the objective of reducing carbon emissions by 30% by 2030 and reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. Moreover, in May 2021, the United Kingdom announced 166.5 million ($206.61 million) in financing to support the development of green technology that would reduce carbon emissions. Therefore, growing sensitivity towards environmental issues is driving the growth of the nuclear power reactor decommissioning market. The implementation of information and technology is the key trend gaining popularity in the nuclear power reactor decommissioning market.Major companies operating in the nuclear power reactor decommissioning sector are focused on using information and technology to reinforce their position. For instance, in February 2020, VTT Technical Research Centre, a Finland-based research and technology company, launched the dECOmm project, which helps to decommission nuclear power plants.This project is using information technology in decommissioning to make the process easier and faster. The dECOmm project is an eco-friendly project that emits less carbon while decommissioning nuclear power plants. In December 2020, China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), a China-based company that generates and distributes nuclear power products, acquired Nusim SA for an undisclosed amount.This acquisition is part of a larger worldwide expansion strategy that includes participation in environmental projects in Europe, Africa, and South America, such as the decommissioning of European nuclear power plants. Nusim is a Spanish-based company that specializes in the design and manufacture of decommissioning treatment tools and equipment for nuclear power plants. The countries covered in the nuclear power reactor decommissioning market report are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, UK, USA. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06318561/?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, NY , Sept. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NANO Nuclear Energy Inc. (NANO Nuclear), emerging from the shared micro Small Modular Reactor (mSMR) and Advanced Nuclear Reactor (ANR) ambitions of a world class nuclear technical team filled with the most influential and foremost nuclear experts in the field, working alongside business and industry professionals, possessing strong relationships with both government, and the private and public nuclear industries, is pleased to announce that David Huckeba, a former UPS executive who spent 34 years with the company, has been appointed as Chairman of the Executive Advisory Board for the United States of America. Mr. Huckeba began his professional career at United Parcel Service when he was attending Emory University. During his thirty-four-year career with UPS, he held numerous leadership position in operations, industrial engineering and in the corporate transportation planning group. Since his retirement in 2010, Mr. Huckeba has been a serial entrepreneur. He has started four transportation focused companies, a restaurant and a hospitality company with four restaurant concepts, as well as a hotel and commercial general contracting company. I would like to be the first to welcome David to the NANO Nuclear team, said James Walker, NANO Nuclear Energys CEO and Director. Its very important to establish a logistical network early in the process and I can think of no one better than David. His success not only with UPS but also with his own ventures underline the value of his expertise. There is a lot of work to do but I am convinced that the team we are assembling will get it done." ZEUS represents the future of mSMRs and nuclear energy generation. Designed with a cutting-edge fully solid core, ZEUS removes heat through thermal conduction and utilizes minimal moving components, eliminating the need for coolant and pumps and ensuring the immobilization of fission products. Its optimized size and modular design enable swift production times as well as rapid deployment and removal from any site utilizing existing transportation infrastructure, while its seamless integration with renewables within microgrids means it can even be used in emergency response situations to help restore power to areas hit by natural disasters. At its core, the nature of ZEUS design will allow the reactor to be rapidly transported to sites, providing a resilient and affordable power supply. As such, the addition of Mr. Huckeba, a seasoned and vastly experienced figure in operations and transportation is crucial to establishing streamlined logistical solutions that enable the reactors swift deployment based on demand. The Biden Administration has also shown its support for innovative advanced nuclear solutions with a $500 million program funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to place clean energy demonstration projects on current or former mine lands across America, underlining the crucial role a comprehensive logistical plan for transportation of mSMRs will play in the clean electrification of the United States. Davids experience and knowhow will play an integral role in our progress on the Path to Zero, said Jay Jiang Yu, Founder, Chairman and President of NANO Nuclear Energy Inc. As our world-class team of scientists continues to collaborate with NRIC and INL on the development of the reactor itself, we must ensure that we establish a supply chain to match. A former UPS executive, I am convinced Davids expertise will allow us to better navigate existing transportation infrastructure, which will be crucial to the future rapid propagation of our ZEUS reactor across the United States. About NANO Nuclear Energy Inc. The Path to Zero starts here. Nano Nuclear Energy Inc. is a company emerging from the shared micro-Small Modular Reactor (mSMR) and Advanced Nuclear Reactor (ANR) ambitions of a world class nuclear technical team filled with the most influential and foremost nuclear experts in the field, working alongside business and industry professionals, possessing strong relationships with both government, and the private and public nuclear industries. Our Company is committed to building smaller, cheaper, and safer nuclear energy, while incorporating the latest technology into its own proprietary portable, on-demand capable, ZEUS NANO Nuclears first generation nuclear reactor, novel reactor designs, intellectual properties, and research methods. For more corporate information please visit: https://NanoNuclearEnergy.com/ For further information, please contact: Email: Info@NanoNuclearEnergy.com Business Tel: (212) 634-9206 PLEASE FOLLOW OUR SOCIAL MEDIA PAGES HERE: NANO Nuclear Energy LINKEDIN NANO Nuclear Energy YOUTUBE NANO Nuclear Energy TWITTER NANO Nuclear Energy INSTAGRAM Attachment New York, Sept. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Fencing Global Market Report 2022" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06318508/?utm_source=GNW The global fencing market is expected to grow from $28.19 billion in 2021 to $29.53 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.75%. The fencing market is expected to reach $40.05 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 7.93%. The fencing market consists of sales of fencing by entities (organizations, sole traders, and partnerships) that are used to restrict the crossing of an established boundary.In terms of design, weight, and structure, fencing differs from the wall. The fence is used for a variety of reasons, including security, theft prevention, and keeping children and pets in a contained area, as well as to improve the aesthetics of the property and border. The main materials used in fencing are plastic, metal, wood and composite, concrete.Plastic fencing refer to plastic fences made from synthetic materials. Compared to traditional wood fences, these materials are more robust, easier to maintain, and have a far longer lifespan.Fencing is applied on residential, agricultural, industrial sectors. Fencing is used by government, mining, defence, petrochemicals, transport, and energy industries. North America was the largest region in the fencing market in 2021 and is also expected to be the fastest-growing region in the forecast period. The regions covered in fencing market report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East and Africa. The fencing market research report is one of a series of new reports that provides fencing market statistics, including fencing industry global market size, regional shares, competitors with a fencing market share, detailed fencing market segments, market trends and opportunities, and any further data you may need to thrive in the fencing industry. This fencing market research report delivers a complete perspective of everything you need, with an in-depth analysis of the current and future scenarios of the industry Increasing urbanization is significantly contributing to the growth of the fencing market.Urbanization refers to the movement of mass population from rural areas to urban settings, which results in the 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 fencing industry forward.The rise of the middle class is supporting the growth of the fencing business. Therefore, increasing urbanization is expected to propel the growth of the fencing market going forward. Growing strategic partnership and collaboration are the key trends gaining popularity in the fencing market.Major companies operating in the fencing sector are focused on partnerships and collaborations in order to expand their expansion into new areas and become industry leaders. For example, in June 2020, Eldaas Technologies India Pvt Ltd announced a distribution relationship with D-Fence Electronic Fencing and Security Systems Ltd, Israel, for security and surveillance solutions.Various customers in India use Eldaas Technologies D-Fence product. Vinyl by Design, a full-service provider of vinyl fences, vinyl railing, decking, and aluminum railing and fence situated in New Paris, Indiana, has been bought by Fencing Supply Consortium ("FSG"), a group of industry-leading distributors and manufacturers of fencing and outdoor living goods. In June 2020, Eldaas Technologies India Pvt Ltd, an India-based electronic supplier company announced security and surveillance cooperation with D-Fence electronic fencing and security systems Ltd.Through this cooperation, Eldaas want a stronger and proven solution in security which cant be cracked down by any person. As D-Fence solutions based out of Israel, spent many years studying & researching in this field.They have developed a variety of perimeter security solutions using cutting-edge technology which can meet the need of private property to a large defense establishment. D-Fence is an Israel based leading service provider for Perimeter Intrusion Detection Systems. The countries covered in the fencing market report are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, UK, USA. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06318508/?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. __________________________ Dublin, Sept. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "High-Performance Alloys Market By Material Type, By Product Type, By Alloy Type, By Application, and By Region Forecast to 2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global high-performance alloys market size is expected to reach USD 15.64 Billion in 2030 and register a revenue CAGR of 5.3% over the forecast period, according to the latest report. The demand for high-performance alloys has been constantly on the rise owing to their increased adoption in various end-use industries, such as aerospace & defense, power generation, and oil & gas, among others. The aerospace industry is one of the major consumers of these alloys due to the need for materials with higher strength and resistance to heat and wear. The increased demand for high-performance alloys from the power generation industry is also expected to boost market growth over the forecast period. These materials are used in power plants for boiler tubes, heat exchangers, and other components that are exposed to high temperatures and pressures. The oil & gas industry is another major consumer of these alloys due to the need for materials that can withstand the harsh operating conditions in this sector. Rise in demand for lightweight, corrosion-resistant, and strong materials in the automotive and aerospace industries is anticipated to fuel the growth of the high-performance alloys market. High-performance alloys are extensively used in jet engines, gas turbines and other critical applications in the aerospace industry. The rising demand for aircrafts from the commercial and military sectors is anticipated to fuel the market growth over the forecast period. Moreover, the lightweight and corrosion-resistant properties of high-performance alloys make them ideal for use in medical devices and implants. The rising demand for minimally invasive surgeries is projected to create significant opportunities for market players over the next few years. Developing such alloys is heavily dependent on advancements in the field of materials science and engineering. As a result, high-performance alloys market is growing at a significant pace globally. High-performance alloys are those capable of withstanding extreme conditions such as high temperatures, corrosive environments, or mechanical stress. These alloys are often used in aerospace, chemical processing, and energy generation applications. Some Key Highlights From the Report Titanium segment is expected to register a rapid revenue growth rate over the forecast period due to the high specific strength and corrosion resistance of titanium alloys. Titanium alloys are widely used in defense, aerospace, medical, and oil & gas industry due to their excellent mechanical properties. The aluminum segment is expected to grow at a significant rate over the forecast period owing to its growing demand from various end-use industries such as automotive, transportation, and aerospace. Aluminum alloys have high strength-to-weight ratio, which makes them suitable for various applications where weight reduction is required. The nickel-based segment is expected to hold the largest market share over the forecast period due to its superior mechanical properties such as high tensile strength, creep resistance, and corrosion resistance. Nickel-based alloys are widely used in the aerospace and power generation industry. The stainless steel segment is expected to grow at a rapid pace over the forecast period due to its superior corrosion resistance property. Stainless steels are widely used in the food & beverage, medical, and construction industry. For the purpose of this report, the publisher has segmented the global high-performance alloys market based on material type, product type, alloy type, application, and region: Material Type Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion; 2019-2030) Aluminum Titanium Magnesium Nickel Steel Others Product Type Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion; 2019-2030) Non-Ferrous Platinum Group Metals Refractory Superalloys Alloy Type Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion; 2019-2030) Wrought Alloy Cast Alloy Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion; 2019-2030) Aerospace Automotive Industrial Oil & Gas Electrical & Electronics Industrial Gas Turbine Others Regional Outlook Key Topics Covered: Chapter 1. Market Synopsis Chapter 2. Executive Summary Chapter 3. Indicative Metrics Chapter 4. High-Performance Alloys Market Segmentation & Impact Analysis Chapter 5. High-Performance Alloys Market By Material Type Insights & Trends Chapter 6. High-Performance Alloys Market By Product Type Insights & Trends Chapter 7. High-Performance Alloys Market By Alloy Type Insights & Trends Chapter 8. High-Performance Alloys Market By Application Insights & Trends Chapter 9. High-Performance Alloys Market Regional Outlook Chapter 10. Competitive Landscape Chapter 11. Company Profiles Companies Mentioned Allegheny Technologies Incorporated Carpenter Technology Corporation Haynes International Inc. Hitachi Metals Ltd. Outokumpu Oyj Precision Castparts Corp. The Timken Company VSMPO-AVISMA Corporation Nippon Yakin Kogyo Co. Ltd. Materion Corp For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/ol1nj5 New York, Sept. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "DevOps Global Market Report 2022" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06318498/?utm_source=GNW The global DevOps market is expected to grow from $7.20 billion in 2021 to $8.95 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24.24%. The DevOps market is expected to reach $20.53 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 23.08%. The DevOps market consists of the sale of DevOps solutions and services by entities (organizations, sole proprietors, partnerships) that refers to the tools used for the integration of software developers (dev) and operations (ops).These tools operate on a software engineering technique that combines the activities of software development and software operations teams by encouraging cooperation and shared accountability. It also enables software developers (devs) and operations (Ops) teams to strive for faster delivery through automation, collaboration, rapid feedback, and iterative improvement. The main components of DevOps include solutions and services.The DevOps solutions refer to tools and software that bridge the gap between software development, quality assurance, and IT operations, which helps to rapidly build software products and services while greatly boosting operational performance. They are deployed on-premise or through the cloud in small and medium enterprises and large enterprises. These solutions or services are utilized by industry verticals such as information technology (IT) & telecom, banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), retail, government and public sector, manufacturing, healthcare, and others. North America was the largest region in the DevOps market in 2021.Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest-growing region in the forecast period. The regions covered in the DevOps market report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East and Africa. The DevOps market research report is one of a series of new reports that provides DevOps market statistics, including DevOps industry global market size, regional shares, competitors with a DevOps market share, detailed DevOps market segments, market trends and opportunities, and any further data you may need to thrive in the DevOps industry. This DevOps market research report delivers a complete perspective of everything you need, with an in-depth analysis of the current and future scenarios of the industry. The increasing need for bridging the gap between IT and operations teams is propelling the growth of the DevOps market.The rapid growth in teams including multiple offices, shift in business operations towards virtual offices, and off-site contractors have increased the gap between IT and operational teams, affecting the business operations and productivity. The companies operating in software development sectors are increasingly focusing on acquiring innovative DevOps tools and services to automate certain management functions and software deployment processes.According to a Harvard Business School study, poor collaboration between teams and inefficient work reduced productivity by 2% to 3%. Therefore, an increased need to bridge gaps between IT and operations teams is expected to boost the utilization of DevOps tools and services during the forecast period. Technological advancements are the latest trend gaining popularity in the DevOps market.The companies in the DevOps market are incorporating innovative technologies like machine learning (ML) and Artificial intelligence (AI) to offer technologically products, which are cost-effective and operationally beneficial. For instance, in 2019 Microsoft Corporation, a USA-based multinational technology corporation, launched Azure machine learning operations (MLOps), which has integrated machine learning technology in DevOps to improve workflow efficiency through continuous integration, delivery, and deployment. In July 2021, International Business Machines Corporation, a USA-based provider of computer hardware, software, infrastructure, and hosting services, acquired BoxBoat for an undisclosed amount.The acquisition is expected to support IBMs container strategy and implementation services portfolio and expand its business operations across the globe. BoxBeat is a Maryland-based DevOps consultant and enterprise Kubernetes service provider. The countries covered in the DevOps market report are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, UK, and USA. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06318498/?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. __________________________ CHICAGO, Sept. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sanguine Strategic Advisors LLC ("Sanguine"), a rapidly expanding, Chicago-based business consulting firm, is pleased to announce the appointment of legal industry veteran, Anthony Bux as Vice President of Legal Solutions. Mr. Bux brings an unparalleled perspective on what it takes to be successful in legal marketing, sales, operations, and finance. He will be responsible for adding new providers to Sanguine's expansive catalog of curated solutions and shepherding existing law firm clients to eliminate the barriers associated with scaling legal industry businesses. Bux brings over 17 years of leadership experience to Sanguine, including eight years spent leading sales and business development for 2005 legal industry startup Total Attorneys (2x Inc. 500), which pioneered digital legal lead generation and developed some of the earliest web-based technologies for law practice management. At Total Attorneys, Bux led high-performance sales teams and developed a keen understanding of the inner workings of law firm operations. Next, Bux spent another eight years as Vice President of Partner Relations for the nation's largest consumer bankruptcy law firm, managing hundreds of attorney relationships. He was a key management figure in the face of significant pandemic-related business disruption and operational challenges. Bux has counseled thousands of legal industry professionals on best practices in firm management and business operations. His addition to the Sanguine team reinforces its commitment to expanding its current portfolio of over 700 legal industry clients. "Anthony has played critical roles as part of two of my prior startups and was a common denominator in our rapid growth," said Kevin Chern, Sanguine's CEO. "He brings experience, a tenacity for success, and an established reputation of excellence. Working closely with Anthony for over fifteen years has illustrated to me how he can so dramatically impact the trajectory of law firms with whom he works." "I have been consulting with law firms in various capacities for years and to finally call it my full-time job brings me a great sense of satisfaction," Bux states. "Everything I have done before this, now seems to have been in preparation for what I am able to do now as part of Sanguine. The company's innovative consulting approach, coupled with my skill set and desire to drive value, are the perfect marriage." About Sanguine Strategic Advisors: Founded in 2019, Sanguine Strategic Advisors is the brainchild of its founder, Kevin Chern, attorney, entrepreneur and business mentor. Sanguine's mission is to eliminate the learning curve for small business owners on difficult lessons, accelerate the time-consuming and costly exercise of selecting the right partners and streamline the path to success. Sanguine drives its clients' success by leveraging its deep expertise in business development and operations. The business has experienced 1000% growth since its inception by offering a cost-free consulting model for those clients interested in investing in solutions to address the business challenges that keep them up at night. Further information about Sanguine can be found at www.SanguineSA.com. Press Contact - Diana Clavijo, Operations@SanguineSA.com Related Images Image 1: Sanguine S.A. Logo This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. Attachment First humanitarian shipment of grain from Ukraine arrives in Ethiopia: UN Xinhua) 10:57, September 09, 2022 UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- The first humanitarian shipment of grain from Ukraine by the World Food Programme (WFP) had arrived in Ethiopia, a UN spokesman said on Thursday. The WFP said the grain, delivered under the Black Sea Grain Initiative, brokered by Turkiye and the United Nations, will support one month of assistance for over 1.5 million people who have been displaced by drought and conflict, Stephane Dujarric, the chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told a regular briefing. The grain is currently being unloaded in the WFP's main warehouse in the city of Adama and will be distributed in the coming weeks, he said. Conflict, drought and rising costs drive food insecurity across Ethiopia. With 20 million people needing food aid in Ethiopia, the WFP said supply chain stability is critical to its work, according to the spokesman. "We're being told by our humanitarian colleagues that fighting in the north of the country continues to impact vulnerable people and the delivery of aid," he said. "In parts of Tigray, Amhara, and Afar regions, tens of thousands of people are reportedly being displaced by fighting and insecurity." He said there had been no humanitarian convoy movements into Tigray for two weeks, preventing the delivery of supplies, including additional fertilizer for the upcoming planting season. The twice-weekly UN Humanitarian Air Service flights between Addis Ababa and Tigray's regional capital of Mekelle also were suspended. In eastern and southern Ethiopia, the drought continues, with more than 16 million people targeted for humanitarian assistance. Across Ethiopia, more than 8 million people impacted by drought had received food aid this year, he said. (Web editor: Liang Jun, Bianji) New York, Sept. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Aerospace Valves Global Market Report 2022" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06318494/?utm_source=GNW The global aerospace valves market is expected to grow from $10.45 billion in 2021 to $11.05 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.77%. The aerospace valves market is expected to grow to $13.56 billion in 2026 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.25%. The aerospace valves market consists of sales of aerospace valves by entities (organizations, sole traders, partnerships) that refers to the aviation system that controls critical components of an aircraft for directing, regulating, or controlling the flow of fluid such as gases, fluidized solids, liquids, or slurries by closing, partially obstructing, or opening passageways. The main type of aerospace valves includes butterfly valves, rotary valves, solenoid valves, flapper-nozzle valves, poppet valves, gate valves, ball valves, and others.A butterfly valve is a quarter-turn rotational motion valve used to shut off flow in pipelines and regulate the flow. The materials used in the production of aerospace valves include stainless steel, titanium, aluminium, and other materials.These are used in fuel, hydraulic, environmental control, pneumatic, lubrication, and water & wastewater systems. The valves are sold through different distribution channels including original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and aftermarket. North America was the largest region in the aerospace valves market in 2021.Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest-growing region in the forecast period. The regions covered in the aerospace valves market report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East and Africa. The aerospace valves market research report is one of a series of new reports that provides aerospace valves market statistics, including aerospace valves industry global market size, regional shares, competitors with a aerospace valves market share, detailed aerospace valves market segments, market trends and opportunities, and any further data you may need to thrive in the aerospace valves industry. This aerospace valves market research report delivers a complete perspective of everything you need, with an in-depth analysis of the current and future scenarios of the industry. The increasing global commercial aircraft fleet is expected to propel the aerospace valves market.The growing number of air passengers has widely increased the acquisition of commercial aircraft across the globe. The increasing acquisition of new aircraft by aerospace transport companies across the globe is expected to boost demand for aerospace valves, as they are a vital component in the majority of critical infrastructure across the aircraft.For instance, In June 2021, United Airlines, a US-based airline company, planned to order 270 aeroplanes for the post-COVID growth plan. And In May 2021, Airbus, an aerospace company, announced that it would increase the production of its A320 planes. Therefore, the increase in the global commercial aircraft fleet is expected to boost demand for aerospace valves during the forecast period. Additive manufacturing is a key trend gaining popularity in the aerospace valves market. 3D printing is an additive manufacturing technique that creates a physical object from a digital design. The manufacturing process involves laying down a layer of material in the form of liquid, powered plastic or other through the input from digital design software. The companies operating in the aerospace valves sector are increasingly utilizing 3D printing technologies to develop unibody and fuselage design and production. For instance, In July, Honeywell International Inc., a USA-based conglomerate corporation launched a bleed pressure regulating valve from 3D printing manufacturing process, which will be installed in military trainer aircraft. In June 2021, Eaton Corporation PLC, an Ireland-based intelligent power management company, acquired Cobham Mission Systems for $2.83 billion. With the acquisition, Eaton company is planning to establish its portfolio for strong growth and consistence performance in the market. Cobham Mission Systems is a UK-based provider of fuel tank inserting systems, space propulsion components, and others. The countries covered in the aerospace valves market report are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, UK, and USA. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06318494/?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. __________________________ LONDON, Sept. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In a special joint statement between the United Kingdom and the State of Kuwait, which was announced from Kuwait by Dr. Faisal Khazaal, Chairman of Elite Capital & Co. Limited in England and the parent company in Kuwait, Deals Secure Group Holding Company, as well as from the United Kingdom, Mr. George Matharu, CEO of Elite Capital & Co. Limited in England, the group companies pass on their condolences to the Royal Family in Great Britain for the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. "In these heart-breaking times, we would like to offer our sincere condolences to the Royal Family in Great Britain and the Commonwealth for the loss of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II," Mr. George Matharu said. Britains longest-reigning monarch has died. During her 70-year reign, Queen Elizabeth II advised 15 British prime ministers, met 12 American presidents, lent her name to over 600 charitable organisations and owned more than 40 Pembrokeshire Welsh Corgi dogs. Along with her consort, Prince Philip by her side until his death in 2021 she witnessed the evolution of Britain through considerable social and technological changes. The unique circumstances of the queens reign mean that it is unlikely to be repeated. The new monarch, King Charles III, is Britains longest-serving heir-apparent and is the oldest new monarch in the countrys history. Dr. Faisal Khazaal concluded the joint statement by saying, The Board of Members of Elite Capital & Co. Limited decided in an extraordinary meeting after the news of the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, to suspend the company's activities for 10 days to mourn the death of Her Majesty and to resume work on Monday, September 19, 2022, and the companys logo will be used in black and white for a period of three months as an expression for this tragic event - Long live His Majesty King. Charles III. Elite Capital & Co. Contact Details Elite Capital & Co. Limited 33 St. James Square London, SW1Y4JS United Kingdom Telephone: +44 (0) 203 709 5060 SWIFT Code: ELCTGB21 LEI Code: 254900NNN237BBHG7S26 Website: ec.uk.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/aa1c82fd-bc14-45ea-aa5e-b26a5770e56b English French FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Disclosure of total number of voting rights and number of shares forming the capital as of August 31, 2022 Clichy, France 08 September 2022 Article L 233-8-II of the French Code de Commerce and Article 223-16 of the General Regulations of the French Autorite des Marches Financiers. As of August 31, 2022, the total number of issued shares of SOCIETE BIC is 44,677,929 shares, representing: 65,715,479 voting rights, 64,838,001 voting rights excluding shares without voting rights ABOUT BIC A world leader in stationery, lighters and shavers, BIC brings simplicity and joy to everyday Life. For more than 75 years, the Company has honored the tradition of providing high-quality, affordable, essential products to consumers everywhere. Through this unwavering dedication, BIC has become one of the most recognized brands and is a trademark registered worldwide. Today, BIC products are sold in more than 160 countries around the world and feature iconic brands such as BIC Kids, BIC FlexTM, BodyMark by BICTM, Cello, Djeep, Lucky Stationery, Rocketbook, Soleil, Tipp-Ex, Us. TM, Wite-Out, Inkbox and more. In 2021, BIC Net Sales were 1,831.9 million euros. The Company is listed on "Euronext Paris"," is part of the SBF120 and CAC Mid 60 indexes and is recognized for its commitment to sustainable development and education. It received an A- Leadership score from CDP. For more, visit www.bic.com or follow us on LinkedIn , Instagram , Twitter , or YouTube . CONTACT Sophie Palliez-Capian VP, Corporate Stakeholder Engagement +33 1 45 19 55 28 + 33 87 89 3351 Sophie.palliez@bicworld.com Michele Ventura Senior Manager, Investor Relations + 33 1 45 19 52 98 Michele.ventura@bicworld.com Albane de La Tour dArtaise Senior Manager, Institutional Press Relations + 33 1 45 19 51 51 + 33 7 85 88 19 48 Albane.DeLaTourDArtaise@bicworld.com Isabelle de Segonzac Image 7 + 33 6 89 87 61 39 isegonzac@image7.fr AGENDA ALL DATES TO BE CONFIRMED 3rd Quarter 2022 Results October 27, 2022 4th Quarter and Full year 2022 Results February 14, 2023 1st Quarter 2023 April 25, 2023 Attachment SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cycode , the leader in software supply chain security, today announced it was selected as a 2022 SINET16 Innovator . The SINET16 recognizes the most innovative and compelling technologies in their fields to address cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities. This award comes shortly after Cycode was named a Cool Vendor in Application Security by Gartner, Inc. and a finalist in the RSA Conference 2022 Innovation Sandbox Contest -- honors that collectively underscore the relevancy and timeliness of Cycodes contribution to software supply chain security. It is exciting to be recognized for our innovation by SINET because its members are the thought-leading CISO-practitioners that advance real-world security best practices, said Lior Levy, CEO and Co-founder of Cycode. Its exceedingly rare to be named a SINET16 Innovator, Gartner Cool Vendor and RSA Conference Innovation Sandbox Finalist in the same year. Were humbled by this recognition because the three awards represent CISO-practitioner, analyst and the broader cybersecurity community, respectively. This motivates us to work even harder to empower AppSec teams to harden their organizations software supply chain security. The SINET16 awards review committee is comprised of more than 100 private and government security professionals including leading risk executives, experts in government and defense agencies, venture capitalists and investment bankers. This panel selected Cycode from a pool of 194 applications from 18 countries, as a leader that brings innovation and energy to the cybersecurity industry. Shaun Khalfan, SVP and Chief Information Security Officer at Discover Financial Services reflected, I am honored to be part of the SINET16 judging process for the past four years. In the complex and dynamic environment in which we operate, innovation and value-add technologies are critical components to protect enterprises from advanced cyber threats. The SINET platform is a successful model which helps early-stage companies differentiate themselves in a crowded security startup space. I am excited to see the 2022 SINET16 innovators as they build and shape the future of cybersecurity. The winners were chosen based on the following criteria: The urgency in the marketplace for their products and solutions How innovative and unique their solutions are How well their products and technologies solve real and significant cybersecurity problems What advantages exist over other solutions Their ability to succeed based on the state of their product, capital and leadership This years class of SINET16 Innovators are delivering important security advancements towards the protection of corporations who are the fabric of our nations critical infrastructures and national security and economic interests, said Robert D. Rodriguez, Chairman of SINET. As in past years, the applicant pool of early-stage and emerging technology solution providers continues to become more competitive. We are proud to play a role in accelerating innovation into a global marketplace by increasing the awareness of value-add companies and look forward to watching these companies continue to mature on their amazing entrepreneurial journeys. About Cycode Cycode is a complete software supply chain security solution that provides visibility, security and integrity across all phases of the SDLC. The Cycode platform makes AppSec tools better through its Knowledge Graph, which provides complete context of the SDLC to improve accuracy and reduce mean-time-to-remediation (MTTR). Cycode merges the top eight AppSec tools into the industrys most advanced and comprehensive AppSec platform. By correlating data across these tools Cycode offers net new capabilities, like Pipeline Composition Analysis which identifies vulnerable dependencies and security issues missed by legacy tools like SCA and SASTacross the entire SDLC; pin-points vulnerable dependency locations and prioritizes threats by exploitability. About the SINET16 Innovator Awards SINET is an organization with the mission to accelerate Cybersecurity innovation through public-private partnerships. Its annual SINET16 Innovator Award honors 16 emerging companies identified as the most innovative and compelling technologies in their fields to address cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities. LAS VEGAS and VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TAAT GLOBAL ALTERNATIVES INC. (CSE: TAAT) (OTCQX: TOBAF) (FRANKFURT: 2TP) (the Company or TAAT) is pleased to announce that sales of all TAAT varieties have increased by approximately 200% month-over-month across the Speedee Mart chain, the Companys anchor account for the Las Vegas market. In a press release dated March 2, 2022 , TAAT announced that it had landed a chain-wide placement with Speedee Mart, who has operated gas stations across the Las Vegas valley since 1995. In addition to its lower price point and value proposition as a uniquely tobacco-free/nicotine-free offering, TAAT has organically cultivated a steadily growing user base of adult smokers in the Las Vegas market through its presence at prominent local events (e.g., First Fridays in the Arts District) as well as its expanding portfolio of retailers throughout the city, which has a population of over 640,0001 and in 2021 welcomed over 32 million tourist visitors2. Earlier in 2022, TAAT was placed in all Speedee Mart locations in the Las Vegas area. Based on recent improvements to in-store activation strategies as well as localized marketing initiatives targeted towards adult smokers in Las Vegas, sales of TAAT have tripled across the Speedee Mart chain from July 2022 to August 2022. Readers using news aggregation services may be unable to view the media above. Please access SEDAR or the Investor Relations section of the Companys website for a version of this press release containing all published media. TAAT Chief Executive Officer Michael Saxon commented, Weve made significant changes at TAAT since I became CEO just a couple of months ago. Although we can only share so much about our playbook for competitive reasons, something Ive been vocal about is the role of focus markets in our commercialization strategy. Selling new products, especially category creators, in the CPG and tobacco categories isnt as simple as just putting it on the shelf. There needs to be a concentrated effort between sales and marketing to make adult smokers aware that the product exists, create moments that generate trials of the product, and convert that interest into recurring purchases. Within the first weeks, we determined that Las Vegas, our home market, was to be our top priority market in 2022 and Speedee Mart has been a terrific partner. We are delighted that sales of TAAT have tripled across Speedee Mart from July to August, and we are excited to continue working with them to sustain this growth. We look forward to deploying this same approach in other priority markets like San Diego, Texas and others into 2023. Sources 1 - https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/lasvegascitynevada 2 - https://www.lvcva.com/research/visitor-statistics/ On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Company, TAAT GLOBAL ALTERNATIVES INC. Michael Saxon Michael Saxon, CEO and Director For further information, please contact: TAAT Investor Relations 1-833-TAAT-USA (1-833-822-8872) investor@taatglobal.com THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE (CSE) HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ACCURACY OR ADEQUACY OF THIS RELEASE, NOR HAS OR DOES THE CSES REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER. About TAAT Global Alternatives Inc. TAAT develops, manufactures, and distributes alternative products in categories such as tobacco, hemp, kratom, and other emerging CPG segments. Its flagship product is a nicotine-free/tobacco-free combustible with a patent-pending base material formulation, sold in several thousand U.S. stores. With over CAD $80 million in overall gross revenue annually, TAATs facilities include an operations centre in Nevada, as well as a distribution centre and multiple convenience stores in Ohio. For more information, please visit http://taatglobal.com . Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Often, but not always, forward-looking information and information can be identified by the use of words such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, estimates, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur, or be achieved. Forward-looking information in this news release includes statements regarding the anticipated performance of TAAT in the tobacco industry, in addition to the following: Potential outcomes based on increased sales of TAAT in Las Vegas Speedee Mart locations. The forward-looking information reflects managements current expectations based on information currently available and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause outcomes to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking information. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed timeframes or at all. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include: (i) adverse market conditions; (ii) changes to the growth and size of the tobacco markets; (iii) changes to the regulatory landscape applicable to the Company's business; and (iv) other factors beyond the control of the Company. The Company operates in a rapidly evolving environment. New risk factors emerge from time to time, and it is impossible for the Companys management to predict all risk factors, nor can the Company assess the impact of all factors on Companys business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ from those contained in any forward-looking information. The forward-looking information included in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. The statements in this news release have not been evaluated by Health Canada or the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. As each individual is different, the benefits, if any, of taking the Companys products will vary from person to person. No claims or guarantees can be made as to the effects of the Companys products on an individuals health and well-being. The Companys products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. This news release may contain trademarked names of third-party entities (or their respective offerings with trademarked names) typically in reference to (i) relationships had by the Company with such third-party entities as referred to in this release and/or (ii) client/vendor/service provider parties whose relationship with the Company is/are referred to in this release. All rights to such trademarks are reserved by their respective owners or licensees. Statement Regarding Third-Party Investor Relations Firms NEW YORK, Sept. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- DeepMedia, a leading AI based language translation automation company, is proud to announce Founder and CEO Rijul Gupta will speak today Friday Sept. 9 2022 at the United Nations in support of the SDG Media Summit. During todays session, UN officials, top NGOs, media executives and celebrity influencers will discuss media for climate action. Were honored and excited to have the opportunity to collaborate with the UN SDGs, SDG media Summit and the eco systems to help push climate action messaging further faster with our technology, stated Rijul Gupta CEO, DeepMedia, Inc. About DeepMedia DeepMedia is a leading AI based language translation automation company. Pioneering synthetic media technology, DeepMedias platform enables multilingual video translation, vocal synthesis, and facial augmentation of content across 50+ languages. We work with content creators, TV, film, influencers, corporations, NGOs, and governments to help push localized video content further faster. With DeepMedias AI, anyone who speaks one language can now speak fifty languages in their own voice with perfect lip synchronization. DeepMedia is a proud supporter of the UN SDGs. For more information www.deepmedia.ai CONTACTS Communications Contact: Matthew Bird CEO CommPro Worldwide 646.401.4499 matt@commpro.com BOCA RATON, Fla., Sept. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Jushi Holdings Inc. (Jushi or the Company) (CSE: JUSH ) ( OTCQX: JUSHF ), a vertically integrated, multi-state cannabis operator, today filed with the Canadian securities regulator restated unaudited condensed interim consolidated financial statements for the three months ended March 31, 2022 (the Q1 2022 Interim Financial Statements). The restated Q1 2022 Interim Financial Statements can be accessed through the Companys public filings on the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR). The Q1 2022 Interim Financial Statements, which have been prepared under generally accepted accounting principles in the United States, have been filed on SEDAR to replace the previously filed financial statements prepared under IFRS by the Company on June 24, 2022. The Company restated the (i) Right-of use assets - finance leases and Accrued expenses and other current liabilities in the unaudited interim condensed consolidated balance sheet and (ii) cash flows from operating, investing and financing activities in the unaudited interim condensed consolidated statements of cash flows. These errors did not impact the cash balance as of March 31, 2022, and there was no net change in cash flows during the three months then ended. About Jushi Holdings Inc. We are a vertically integrated cannabis company led by an industry-leading management team. In the United States, Jushi is focused on building a multi-state portfolio of branded cannabis assets through opportunistic acquisitions, distressed workouts, and competitive applications. Jushi strives to maximize shareholder value while delivering high-quality products across all levels of the cannabis ecosystem. For more information, visit jushico.com or our social media channels, Instagram , Facebook , Twitter and LinkedIn . Forward-Looking Information and Statements This press release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation as well as statements that may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, contained in this press release, including statements regarding our strategy, future operations, intended expansion of our retail operations and production capacity, intended expansion of our cultivation facilities, future financial position, projected costs, prospects, plans and objectives of management, including without limitation materiality or significance and effects of errors on current or prior period financial statements, and any future determinations of the Company, the Audit Committee or the Companys management related thereto, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on Jushis current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects. As a result, actual results could differ materially from those expressed by such forward-looking statements and such statements should not be relied upon. Generally, such forward-looking information or forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or may contain statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, will continue, will occur or will be achieved. The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained herein may include but are not limited to, information concerning the expectations regarding Jushi, or the ability of Jushi to successfully achieve business objectives, and expectations for other economic, business, and/or competitive factors. Many factors could cause actual future events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this press release, including risks related to the ability of Jushi to successfully and/or timely achieve business objectives, including with regulatory bodies, employees, suppliers, customers and competitors; changes in general economic, business and political conditions, including changes in the financial markets; changes in applicable laws; compliance with extensive government regulation, the risk that additional information or other subsequent events arise that would require us to make additional adjustments, as well as other risks, uncertainties and other cautionary statements in the Companys public filings with the applicable securities regulatory authorities on the SECs website at www.sec.gov and on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Should one or more of these risks, uncertainties or other factors materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking information or statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated, or expected. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing, and the expectations contained in, the forward-looking information and statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information and statements, and no assurance or guarantee can be given that such forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information and statements. The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, and the Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information and/or forward-looking statements that are contained or referenced herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking information and statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf is expressly qualified in its entirety by this notice. Jeep will introduce four all-electric SUVs in North America and Europe by the end of 2025. As part of an ongoing comprehensive product plan, 50% of Jeep brand sales in the US will be fully electric by 2030, while 100% of European sales will be all-electric by then. The plan is in full support of the net-zero carbon emissions targets set by Stellantis during the Dare Forward 2030 long-term strategic plan. The Jeep brand showed the first images of two fully electric SUVsthe all-new Jeep Recon and an all-new Wagoneer, code name Wagoneer Sthat will arrive in North America and other regions around the world, while confirming that the all-new, all-electric Jeep Avenger will launch in Europe early next year. Jeep brand electrified portfolio in North America. Building upon the success of the Jeep Wrangler 4xe, the best-selling plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV) in the US, and the recently introduced Grand Cherokee 4xe, the brand is developing a comprehensive electrified product range. This electrification plan will also expand the Wagoneer portfolio. The brand will offer an all-new, all-electric Wagoneer in the premium midsize SUV segment, while in the large SUV segments the Wagoneer models will deliver powertrains that target an estimated 500 miles of combined range. By 2030, the Jeep brand will offer a full range of new battery-electric vehicles (BEV), establishing a lead in the SUV industry in terms of the number of models, segment participation and sales volume. As a result, 50% of brand sales in the US will be all-electric vehicles. Jeep Recon. One of the first all-new electric SUVs that will launch in North America is the Jeep Recon. The Jeep Recon is designed from the ground up to be 100% Jeep 4x4 and 100% zero emission. This SUV will be offered exclusively as a BEV, and it will enhance off-roading adventures with: Jeep Selec-Terrain traction management system, e-locker axle technology, under-body protection, tow hooks and aggressive off-road tires. A one-touch powertop, removable doors and glass. The latest generation Uconnect system, including detailed travel guides of the most notable off-road trails Jeep Recon This global SUV will be displayed to the public next year and production will start in 2024 in North America. Customers in the U.S will be able to make a reservation for the new Jeep Recon BEV SUV in early 2023. The Jeep Recon will be sold in major markets around the world, including Europe. All-electric Wagoneer. The Wagoneer family is also set to grow with an all-new SUV. Code-named Wagoneer S, this fully electric vehicle will continue to expand the brands presence in the premium SUV segment. This new, all-electric, global SUV will be offered exclusively as a BEV, targeting a range of 400 miles on a single charge, 600 hp and a 0-60 mph time of around 3.5 seconds. Wagoneer S The all-new Wagoneer BEV will also be displayed to the public next year and production will start in 2024 in North America. Customers in the US will be able to make a reservation for this all-electric Wagoneer model in early 2023. It will be sold in major markets around the world, including Europe. Jeep Avenger arrives in Europe in 2023. In Europe, the Jeep brand has already made a big shift by offering only electrified SUVs in countries such as Germany and France. By the end of this year, 100% of the Jeep SUV portfolio will be electrified in almost all of the European markets. The Jeep brand will introduce four zero-emission vehicles in Europe by 2025, with offerings in the main volume segments. As a result of this product onslaught, all the Jeep vehicles on sale in the region will be 100% electric by 2030. The first model of this product offensive is the all-new, all-electric Jeep Avenger, a compact SUV that was presented during the Stellantis Dare Forward long-term strategic plan earlier this year. The all-new Jeep Avenger, to be introduced in Europe and other markets, such as Japan and South Korea, will be positioned under the Jeep Renegade and will be produced in the high-efficiency plant in Tychy, Poland. With a targeted electric range of 400 kilometers, this new SUV will offer impressive ground clearance, breakover and approach angles for its segment, while delivering a modern and technologically advanced interior, with plenty of space for people and cargo. The African Development Bank and the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) have launched a report analysing the readiness of seven countries Morocco, Tunisia, Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal, Gabon and Mozambique to drive green growth. The joint report was launched on the sidelines of Africa Climate Week, in Libreville, Gabon. It assessed the status and trends of green growth as well as countries preparedness for the green growth transition across a number of metrics. It also offered recommendations for the countries surveyed in the report. Malle Fofana, GGGIs Director and Head of Programs for Africa said: Our joint study Green Growth in the Context of NDC, LTS and SDGs Implementation in Africa, which assesses the state and readiness of green growth implementation, highlights key valuable insights for our members states. The report found evidence that African countries are demonstrating growing political commitment to green growth. Governments actively champion the UN Sustainable Development Goals and nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement. Kenya, Morocco and Tunisia, in particular, have incorporated into their constitutions citizens right to a clean and safe environment and other related rights. Rwanda, Kenya, Morocco, Senegal and Mozambique have adopted national green growth and climate-resilient economic strategies. Al-Hamndou Dorsouma, African Development Bank Officer in charge for Climate Change and Green Growth and co-lead of the report said: This report is expected to stimulate valuable dialogue and debate about ways to advance climate action and green growth in Africa. For the Bank, investing in green growth requires both policy interventions and adequate financing, especially that green growth investments require significant upfront financing to harness the innovative environmental solutions and clean technologies. This includes building resilient and low-carbon economies, smart and sustainable cities, greening industrialization, and building climate-resilient infrastructure. Scope exists for improvement across the nine categories of green growth readiness that the report assesses, particularly legal & regulatory, financing, research and development human capacity, and monitoring & reporting. During the launch event, GGGIs Dr Pranab Baruah, a co-lead on the report, emphasized the importance of operational readiness for green growth, which includes measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) systems for effective planning and implementation of the NDC/SDGs. The session also offered participants the opportunity to respond to the reports findings. African Development Bank and GGGI experts also outlined the ways the report will guide their operational planning going forward. Partager et informez vous aussi...... 0 shares Share Tweet LinkedIn Articles similaires Green River Police Department reports for Aug. 26 At 9:19 a.m., the Community Service Officer observed a property on Monroe Avenue in violation of City ordinance for excessive weeds. Officers met with the owner of the property, advised of the violation, and completed a report of the incident. At 11:31 a.m., the Community Service Officer responded to a report of a parking problem at Serenity One Sanctuary. CSO met with an individual who reported a vehicle blocking their business driveway. Officers attempted to make contact with the owner of the vehicle, tagged the vehicle, and completed a report of the incident. At 3:33 p.m., officers responded to a report of a vehicle vs. pedestrian accident at Green River High School. It was reported a vehicle was exiting the GRHS driveway making a left-hand turn onto Hitching Post Drive. The pedestrian was walking westbound across Hitching Post towards GRHS when the vehicle struck the pedestrian. EMS was called to evaluate the pedestrian, but no transports were made. Officers met with the juvenile driver and juvenile pedestrian, along with a parent or guardian, gathered information, and completed a report of the incident. At 5:38 p.m., officers responded to a civil standby on Idaho Street. Officers conducted the civil standby for a custody exchange and completed a report of the incident. At 8 p.m., officers responded to a report of a disturbance at the Green River Recreation Center. Officers met with the individuals that were causing a verbal disturbance and issued warnings for disturbing the peace and trespass warnings for the property. Officers gathered information and completed a report of the incident. At 9:37 p.m., officers responded to a report of a barking dog complaint on Anvil Drive. Officers met with the owner of the dogs, advised of the complaint, and completed a report of the incident. Aug. 27 At 12:38 a.m., officers responded to a report of a disturbance at Clearview Bowling. Officers met with the individuals involved in a verbal dispute, gathered information, and completed a report of the incident. At 8:01 a.m., officers responded to a report of a vehicle theft on Monroe Avenue. Officers met with the owner of the vehicle who reported the vehicle had been parked in the school parking lot unlocked and unattended, and when they tried to locate their vehicle it was gone. Officers later located the vehicle by Stratton Myers Park and notified the owner. The owner reported items missing from the vehicle. Officers gathered information and completed a report of the incident. At 1:36 p.m., officers responded to a report of found property at Jackson Elementary. Officers located a backpack, attempted to locate an owner, booked the item in for safekeeping, and completed a report of the incident. At 7:37 p.m., officers responded to a report of a traffic offense at Stratton Myers Park. Officers met with an individual who reported a vehicle came speeding towards them and nearly hit their truck. Officers located the vehicle and met with the driver, gathered information, issued verbal warnings, and completed a report of the incident. At 9:49 p.m., officers responded to a report of a larceny on Crossbow Drive. Officers met with an individual who reported cash missing. Officers gathered information and completed a report of the incident. At 10:47 p.m., officers responded to a report of fraud at the Hampton Inn. Officers met with an individual who reported being blackmailed into sending funds. No monetary losses were reported. Officers gathered information and completed a report of the incident. Aug. 28 At 9:01 a.m., officers responded to a report of an animal bite at Utah Place. It was reported an individual was out walking their dog and came across two dogs in a yard and was talking to them and put their hand out for the dogs to smell their hand and one of the dogs nipped their hand. Officers met with the owners of the dogs, gathered information, and impounded the dog for a 10-day Rabies quarantine. Officers completed a report of the incident. At 2:26 p.m., officers responded to a report of a disturbance on East 3rd South Street. Officers met with the individuals involved in a verbal dispute. Officers gathered information and completed a report of the incident. At 5:07 p.m., officers responded to a report of domestic violence. Officers met with an individual who reported a verbal altercation. Officers gathered information and completed a report of the incident. The GRPD did not release the address officers responded to. At 5:35 p.m., officers while in the area of another call were flagged down by an individual who reported a violation of a court order on East 4th South Street. Officers gathered information and completed a report of the incident. At 10:11 p.m., officers responded to a report of a larceny at Smiths. Officers met with an individual who reported their license plates were stolen off of their vehicle. Officers gathered information and completed a report of the incident. Aug. 29 At 9:32 a.m., officers responded to a report of vandalism on Maryland Drive. Officers met with an individual who reported damage to two of their vehicles. Officers gathered information and completed a report of the incident. At 10:11 a.m., officers conducted a traffic stop at the intersection of Hitching Post Drive and Shoshone Avenue and issued the driver, Laurie Martinez, of Green River, a citation for alleged speed. At 2:54 p.m., officers conducted a traffic stop for a school zone speed violation on Monroe Avenue. Officers met with the driver, who gave false identifying information and attempted to leave the scene on foot. Subsequently, officers issued Jamie Ring, of Green River, citations for alleged speed school zone and interference with a peace officer. Officers gathered information and completed a report of the incident. At 6:08 p.m., officers responded to an accident at Stratton Myers Park. Officers issued the driver, Glenda Caddy, of Green River, a citation for alleged inattentive driving with a crash. Report to follow. At 8:56 p.m., officers responded to a report of a subject removal on Hitching Post Drive. Officers met with an individual who requested to have an individual removed from the property. Officers also spoke to the individual, and both parties agreed to remain at the residence for the night. Officers gathered information and completed a report of the incident. At 9:09 p.m., officers responded to a report of domestic violence. Officers met with an individual who reported a verbal altercation with a family member. Officers made contact by phone with the other party, gathered information, and completed a report of the incident. The GRPD did not release the address officers responded to. At 10:53 p.m., officers responded to a report of a noise complaint on Hitching Post Drive. Officers made contact with the tenant, advised of the noise complaint, issued a verbal warning for alleged disturbing the peace, and completed a report of the incident. At 11:14 p.m., officers responded to a report of a barking dog complaint on South 5th West Street. Officers located the residence and attempted to make contact with the resident. Officers posted a notice, completed a report of the incident, and forwarded it to Animal Control. Aug. 30 At 1:30 p.m., officers responded to a report of a loud gunshot-like noise on River View Drive. Officers met with individuals who reported their lights were flickering after hearing a loud bang. Officers contacted the power company and advised of the incident. At 3:08 p.m., officers responded to a report of an individual with an active arrest and hold order on Commerce Drive. Officers met with probation agents and the individual, confirmed the warrant, and placed Kyle Elizabeth Winn, of Rock Springs, under arrest. Officers transported Winn to the Sweetwater County Detention Center and completed a report of the incident. At 6:44 p.m., officers responded to a report of a disturbance. Officers met with an individual who reported a domestic assault. Officers gathered information and made contact, by phone, with the other involved party, who had left in a vehicle prior to officer arrival. Officers located the vehicle and attempted to conduct a traffic stop, but the vehicle did not stop and officers began to pursue the vehicle. The driver, in attempting to elude officers, entered the I-80 westbound on ramp, the vehicle then left the north side of the roadway and struck a delineator post, and proceeded off the road downhill into the Borrow Pit area, and came to rest after impacting a small dirt mound. Officers met with the driver and subsequently placed Joanna Clement, of Rock Springs, under arrest for alleged DWUI - 3rd offense, domestic battery -1st offense, and fleeing or attempting to elude police officers. Officers transported Clement to the Sweetwater County Detention Center and completed a report of the incident. The GRPD did not release the address officers responded to. At 8:58 p.m., officers responded to a report of a domestic disturbance. Officers met with an individual who reported that an ex was banging on the door and fled prior to officer arrival. Officers attempted to make contact at the subjects residence, but they would not answer the door. Officers were called back to the residence again, it was reported the subject came back and knocked on the door, this time gaining entry into the residence. The individual reported they immediately called dispatch and the subject left prior to officer arrival. Officers gathered information and completed a report of the incident. The GRPD did not release the address officers responded to. County mulls more oversight on grants amid recent embezzlement claim Amid the Rock Springs Young at Hearts ongoing lawsuit to recover more than $1 million it claimed its former executive director embezzled from the organization, Sweetwater County Commissioner Roy Lloyd said the county should exercise greater oversight on the grant-funding it provides to local organizations. The discussion came during Tuesdays commission meeting, in which the county approved a grant contract for RSYAH worth $222,000, a sum the county had already appropriated for the senior center when it filed its lawsuit in July regarding the embezzlement claim. The nature of what happened is significant, Lloyd said. Just because we are using taxpayer funding to fund those, I think we have an obligation to do due diligence to make sure those monies are protected. It was a horrible situation and I hate the fact that were discussing it, but it did happen. Lloyd said the county should question RSYAH about its policies and procedures, suggesting the alleged embezzlement occurred because of a lack of oversight. During Tuesdays meeting, the county board also approved $692,945 in contracts for seven other organizations: YWCA, Golden Hour Senior Citizens Center, The Youth Home Inc., Sweetwater Family Resource Center, The Boys and Girls Club of Sweetwater County, The Food Bank of Sweetwater County, and Climb Wyoming. Commissioner Randy Doc Wendling said those organizations shouldnt face extra scrutiny because of the RSYAH situation. Everybody else has been pretty above board, Wendling said. Its not the organizations, its the individuals working within the organizations. It irritates me that we have to write rules for everybody when theres only one bad apple. Not everybody needs to be punished. It seems like thats what we do in government somebody screws up and we write a policy and punish everybody. I like the way our contract is written. The county uses a standard contract for all of its human services contracts and, if changes need to be made to the contracts language, Wendling suggested those changes occur as part of the budgeting process for the 2024 fiscal year after the new commission is seated in January. Commissioners Mary Thoman and Lauren Schoenfeld are the only present commissioners who will continue to be on the board next year. Thoman noted that the contracts with the human services organizations it funds require them to keep detailed minutes, allow the county to examine their financial records, and insure that a certified public accountant will conduct an independent financial and compliance audit, subsequently providing the county with a copy of that audit. We just have to make sure were actually collecting the copy of the audit and our accountant is reviewing those, she said. I think things are in place. We just need to make sure were following through so that if we see any issues, we can follow up. Commissioners also held an executive session regarding the grant funding it provides to RSYAH. Chairman Jeffrey Smith expressed skepticism of the need to discuss the topic in executive session. Im not sure that it needs to be in executive session. All of the items that are going to be discussed are already public knowledge, he said. He was out-voted by his fellow commissioners. Deputy county attorney John DeLeon, who provides counsel to the board, said it appeared lawful to discuss the topic behind closed doors because there could be some legal ramifications. Under the Wyoming Open Meetings Act, governing boards are allowed to discuss legal topics in executive session so long as they concern litigation to which the governing body is a party or proposed litigation to which the governing body may be a party. Even in that circumstance, boards may still choose to discuss the topic in public. Schoenfeld said the countys liability arises from its responsibility to ensure proper use of federal funds. Whenever there would be any sort of potential fraudulent activity from any agent receiving federal funds through the County there is an inherent liability (or risk) to the County, Schoenfeld told the Star in an email. Federal grants are required to be used for very specific activities to achieve measured outcomes and the County is responsible to ensure the federal funds are used in the correct manner. The funding the county provides to RSYAH ultimately comes from the Department of Health and Human Services, which initially passes the funding through the Wyoming Department of Health. Even though RSYAH operates with its own board of directors, Schoenfeld said the county could face a number of consequences from state or federal agencies. They could request a refund if the funds were not used properly, she said. Schoenfeld said state or federal officials could also withhold future funding from RSYAH or require greater stipulations on how the organization handles that funding. This is just my own personal opinion, but I dont believe it would affect funding for other organizations or reflect poorly on the county, because were just the middle man, she said. According to the ongoing lawsuit by RSYAH, former executive director Candace Rachelle Morris set up a false business and set up a separate bank account to funnel money away from RSYAH. Young at Heart is a nonprofit corporation in Rock Springs which serves as a senior citizen center and operates a daycare service, the Early Learning Center. Morris, a Green River resident, worked as the director of the ELC for years, and her plans to divert funds from the ELC began in 2016, according to RSYAHs filed complaint. Before RSYAH discovered Morriss alleged embezzlement, she had also chaired the school board for Sweetwater County School District No. 2. She resigned from the board shortly after the lawsuit was filed. Morris used funds embezzled from the Real ELC to support a lavish lifestyle, spending approximately $410,000 on a variety of vehicles, RSYAHs lawsuit states. Morris embezzled much more each year than her $68,000 salary, raking in an average of $215,569 per year since January 2018 in embezzled funds through her payment diversion scheme. Heather Lang of Powell hopes to share her experience with losing her brother TG Howard to suicide in an effort to help others who are contemplating harming themselves or family and friends worried for their loved ones. POWELL- The family of Thomas "TG" Howard wanted to make sure they didn't hide his mental illness and depression, listing it as his cause of death in his obituaries. It was important to find a positive in the unthinkably hard reality of how he died. Howard took his own life Christmas day, 2015. The popular athlete at Cody High School who joined the Navy after graduation had first turned to alcohol and then opiates in an effort to deal with his mental illness. "A lot of people that struggle with mental illness also struggle with addiction," said Howard's sister Heather Lang, of Powell. Howard was hooked on heroin. "If you have an addiction to hard drugs like he was, you're gonna go to jail eventually," she continued. Howard had seen his fair share of trouble with law enforcement. They had talked on the phone Christmas Eve. He said something to Lang that she misunderstood. "They're coming to get me," he told her. She would later find out her beloved brother attempted to end his life that night. The following day he hung himself. "I just remember falling on the floor when [officials] called. I was just like, oh my gosh, I've got to tell my mom," she said. "That was rough." The nine-hour drive to Colorado, where he was at the time of his death, was tense. The memories are still fresh, yet for Lang it was important her brother didn't just become another statistic. Something good had to come from the loss of her funny, outdoors-loving brother. She started to share the story of his demise in hopes of helping others suffering from mental illness. She was determined to "stop the stigma" of mental health issues. "We're working to get rid of that stigma, but it's gonna take some time," she said. It's not easy to provide mental health care in Wyoming. Low populations mean low revenues to support services. Health care employers are always struggling to recruit and retain employees. And long distances between providers make accessing services difficult. On top of all these challenges, mental health care providers also must overcome the stigma attached to mental illnesses, which discourages many people from getting help. All these problems have contributed to Wyoming having one of the highest suicide rates in the nation. Lang started an area support group called Stop the Stigma, but when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, she found it too hard to continue. Two years later she has decided to resume her efforts. Starting Thursday and every Thursday in September, the Powell resident is opening an informational booth at American Legion Post 26. She is collaborating with Dean Whalen, who is the owner/operator of Deano's Old-Fashioned Hamburgers food truck. For every hamburger he sells on Thursdays in September, Lang will donate a dollar to a scholarship in her brother's name. The real estate agent with eXp Realty will also donate funds from the month's closings to the cause. September is National Suicide Prevention Month, a campaign to inform and engage health professionals and the general public about suicide prevention and warning signs of suicide. All month, mental health advocates, prevention organizations, survivors, allies and community members unite to promote suicide prevention awareness. Wyoming's suicide rate of about 30 per 100,000 residents a year is twice that of the national average. Somebody kills him or herself every two days in the state. Efforts by concerned folks like Lang to help have resulted in prominent informational campaigns and the creation of the nationwide 988 crisis hotline. Wyoming joined in the national implementation of the crisis hotline number in July, which replaces the former 10-digit number with a three-digit code, just as with the general emergency 911 number. It was a great step toward addressing one gap in mental health care, the Tribune wrote in a recent editorial. The Wyoming Legislature appropriated $2.1 million from the American Rescue Plan Act funding to support call centers. But it's still too early to know how effective the new service will be in addressing the problem. Will Wyoming residents, who are raised in an environment that promotes independence and self-sufficiency, actually use the service, Lang wonders. She hopes it helps slow the epidemic in the Cowboy State, but she refuses to rest knowing how her brother's death affected her own family and not wanting other families to go through the hardships her family has. If you have any questions about suicide in Wyoming, contact the Wyoming Injury and Violence Prevention Program at http://health.wyo. gov/publichealth/prevention/ wivpp/ Gabriel Testerman is seen in a picture provided by the Laramie County Sheriff's Office. Testerman is a sergeant with the Wyoming Highway Patrol, but has been on administrative leave since May 2 pending a Laramie County criminal investigation, according to WHP. He was arrested Aug. 30. CHEYENNE - Prosecutors from the Sweetwater County and Prosecuting Attorney's Office will handle a criminal case against a Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper. County and Prosecuting Attorney Daniel E. Erramouspe and his office have been appointed in the case, Erramouspe confirmed Friday. He declined to answer questions about why his office had been tasked with prosecuting the case. "I can't give any details at this time, not even on that," Erramouspe said Friday by phone. Sgt. Gabriel Testerman was arrested Tuesday by the Laramie County Sheriff's Office, according to a Highway Patrol news release. The WHP apparently learned about a pending Cheyenne Police Department investigation involving Testerman on May 2, and he has been on administrative leave since then, the Highway Patrol said. A Laramie County jail official said Thursday that Testerman had bonded out of jail following a Wednesday initial appearance. His bond had been set at 10% of $100,000, the official said. Law enforcement agencies and court staff have so far declined to provide the Wyoming Tribune Eagle with the specific charges on which Testerman was arrested. No public documents had been filed in the case as of late Friday afternoon, according to a WTE records search. In citing a specific Wyoming statute, a law enforcement official may have provided some information about the nature of the charges. On Wednesday, CPD Sgt. Kevin Malatesta pointed to statute 6-2- 319(a), which prohibits a public employee from releasing information about an alleged perpetrator before charges are filed in district court. Statute 6-2-319 applies to charges of sexual assault, sexual battery, sexual assault of a minor and soliciting. Malatesta said at the time that he wasn't sure why Testerman's name was included in the Highway Patrol news release, but that "it was probably an attempt for transparency." Erramouspe confirmed that a preliminary hearing for Testerman is set for Wednesday, Sept. 7 in Laramie County Circuit Court, when a judge would decide whether to bind the charges over to district court. At this point, the charges and likely more details about the case would become public. Erramouspe declined to give the time of the hearing, directing a reporter to ask the court. "There's some things that were released on this case that should not have been released, and I don't think it's the court that did it. The law doesn't allow for public officials to release names and stuff like that, so I'm reluctant to give that information," the prosecutor said Friday. Laramie County Circuit Court staff told the WTE on two separate occasions Thursday that they "don't have any information about that case," and later that they weren't giving out any information about the case. "If the court's not willing to release that public information, I'm unwilling to do so, as well," Erramouspe said. "That's not my job to make sure that the public is aware of when court settings are, and this is a difficult case, so I'm not interested in leaving the bounds of my prescribed duties at this point." On Friday afternoon, CPD spokesperson Alex Farkas sent out a news release making clear that the agency supports keeping details private for now. "Due to the nature of the charges, the Wyoming state statute that applies to this case limits the information that can be disclosed, even though an arrest has been made," the release said. "According to the statute, a public employee is prohibited from releasing information about an alleged perpetrator or victim prior to charges being filed in district court." "We are investigating this case just as we would any other," Police Chief Mark Francisco said in the release. "The fact that this person is a law enforcement officer does not give them preferential treatment. We will continue to conduct this investigation in an unbiased and professional manner." Both of these statements echo information given to the WTE earlier this week by Malatesta. Farkas said in the release that the case "remains under investigation by the Cheyenne Police Department Detective Bureau." "Regarding all other cases, (CPD) supports the standard of not releasing the names of suspects until the prosecuting attorney has formally filed charges, or an arrest has been made," the news release continued. "According to the city attorney's office, before a crime is charged, a prosecutor could reject the charging documents, or decline to charge the suspect depending on their prosecutorial discretion. However, after charges are filed, the documents are a public record available through the court." GENEVA (AP) China cant cooperate with the U.N. human rights office after it released a report criticizing Beijings policies against Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in western Xinjiang, a top Chinese diplomat said Friday. However, Chen Xu, Chinas ambassador to U.N. institutions in Geneva distinguished between not working with the human rights office and cooperating with the world body overall. Chen said the report issued last week which said some rights violations under China's anti-terrorism policies could amount to crimes against humanity offered up groundless blame of Chinas policies and practices. We cannot, on the one hand, conduct cooperation with the office, while at the same time it issued such a kind of assessment, Chen told U.N. Geneva press association ACANU. China believes the report constitutes a threat, and cannot conduct cooperation as if nothing happened, he said. In the waning minutes of her last day in office on Aug. 31, the office of Michelle Bachelet, then U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, issued a report accusing China of serious human rights violations against Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim ethnic groups. It called on the world community to give urgent attention to the situation in Xinjiang. Human rights groups have accused China of sweeping a million or more people from the minority groups into detention camps where many have said they were tortured, sexually assaulted, and forced to abandon their language and religion. China has repeatedly said the assessment was a fabrication cooked up by Western nations. Chen said China one of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council will continue to work with the United Nations overall, calling the world body the core of international relations. We will continue the cooperation. But as I said, the office cannot represent the United Nations by delivering such an assessment, in such a nature, he said. Chen also said China would take an active part in activities of the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council in its upcoming four-week session starting Monday. The council works closely with the U.N. human rights office, which falls under the office of U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. On Thursday, the U.N. General Assembly chose Austria's Volker Turk as Bachelet's successor. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate SEOUL, South Korea (AP) North Korea is apparently moving to sell millions of rockets and artillery shells many of them likely from its old stock to its Cold War ally Russia. Russia has called a U.S. intelligence report on the purchasing plan fake. But U.S. officials say it shows Russias desperation with the war in Ukraine and that Moscow could buy additional military hardware from North Korea. The ammunitions North Korea reportedly intends to sell to Moscow are likely copies of Soviet-era weapons that can fit Russian launchers. But there are still questions over the quality of the supplies and how much they could actually help the Russian military. ___ WHAT EXACTLY WILL NORTH KOREA SUPPLY TO RUSSIA? Slapped by international sanctions and export controls, Russia in August bought Iranian-made drones that U.S. officials said had technical problems. For Russia, North Korea is likely another good option for its ammunitions supply, because the North keeps a significant stockpile of shells, many of them copies of Soviet-era ones. North Korea may represent the single biggest source of compatible legacy artillery ammunition outside of Russia, including domestic production facilities to further supplies, said Joseph Dempsey, research associate for defense and military analysis at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). Lee Illwoo, an expert with the Korea Defense Network in South Korea, said both North and South Korea -- split along the worlds most heavily fortified border for more than 70 years -- keep tens of millions of artillery shells each. North Korea will likely sell older shells that it wants to replace with newer ones for multiple rocket launch systems or sophisticated missiles in its front-line army bases, he said. North Koreas greater reliance on nuclear weapons and guided missiles may also remove the need for many of its older, unguided artillery shells that once played a prominent role, said Ankit Panda, an expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. But Bruce Bennett, a senior security expert at the California-based Rand Corporation, said most of the artillery rounds to be sent to Russia are likely to be ammunition for small arms, such as AK-47 rifles or machine guns. Its not millions of artillery shells and rockets thats more than the likely consumption. It could be millions of small arms rounds, Bennett said. ____ HOW GOOD ARE NORTH KOREAN WEAPONS? According to an IISS assessment, North Korea has an estimated 20,000 artillery pieces including multiple rocket launchers in service, a number that Dempsey described as significantly more than any other country in the world. North Koreas state media have called its artillery guns the first arm of the Peoples Army and the most powerful arm in the world that can reduce enemy position into a sea of flames. But its old artillery systems, whose ammunitions will likely be supplied to Russia, have a reputation for poor accuracy. During North Koreas artillery bombardment of South Koreas front-line Yeonpyeong Island in 2010 that killed four people, Bennett said that only 80 of the 300-400 weapons North Korea should have fired likely hit their target. In his assessment, Lee said about half of the North Korean shells launched ended up falling into waters before reaching the island. That is miserable artillery performance. The Russians may experience the same thing, which will not make them very happy, Bennett said. Observers doubt the usefulness of North Korean ammunition for the Russian campaign in Ukraine, which they say has depleted the military. There have been photos of barrel-busted Russian guns on social media. It's unclear how serious Russian shortage of ammunitions is. In July, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters that Russia was launching tens of thousands artillery rounds each day and couldnt keep it up forever. While substantial stockpiles likely still exist, they may be increasingly infringing on those reserved for the contingency of a wider future conflict, Dempsey said. __ NO NORTH KOREAN MISSILES EXPECTED Its unlikely for North Korea to provide Russia with ballistic missiles that it views as crucial in its military strategies toward Washington and Seoul, said Yang Uk, an analyst at Seouls Asan Institute for Policy Studies. And if North Korea decides to supply missiles to Russia, it would need to send their launch platforms as well because Russia doesnt have launchers for the Norths Scuds and other missiles. North Korea has developed a highly maneuverable, nuclear-cable ballistic missile that was likely modeled on Russias Iskander. But the two missiles are of different sizes, according to Shin Jongwoo, a military expert at the Seoul-based Korea Defense and Security Forum, There would be a number of items that North Korea could provide to Russia, given that the two countries share weapons systems going back to Soviet times. But the type of ammunitions North Korea would provide to Russia are likely to be old and somewhere close to expiring, said Moon Seong Mook, an analyst at South Koreas Korea Research Institute for National Strategy. ___ WHAT COULD NORTH KOREA GET IN RETURN? In return for weapons, North Korea will likely want food, fuel and other materials from Russia because the North finds it difficult to buy such goods from abroad under U.N. sanctions imposed over its nuclear program. Panda said North Korea is likely benefiting in the form of cash transfers from Russia, or perhaps greater Russian leniency in not enforcing other sanctions on Pyongyang, including the transfer of materials necessary for the growth of North Koreas missile programs. According to Bennett, North Korea would be willing to be compensated with fuel. For its more advanced arms, it could seek advanced weapons technologies from Russia, possibly including those it needs for its expected nuclear test, the first of its kind in five years, he said. The U.S. Embassy in Mauritius is hosting an Urban Search and Rescue Exchange Event in collaboration with the Government of Mauritius and U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) from September 7-9, 2022. During the three-day event, the participants will exchange expertise and knowledge on various search and rescue topics, including technical rescue techniques, collapsed structure intervention, rope rescue procedures and techniques, impaired vehicle extraction, and medical intervention. With its vast experience conducting missions out of Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, the U.S. team in Mauritius will be sharing techniques and procedures and is eager to learn from Mauritius counterparts about Search and Rescue in a small-island and maritime environment. We are extremely excited to be conducting this event, and to continue to build upon our strong bilateral relationship with Mauritius, U.S. Embassy Charge dAffaires Satrajit Sardar said in remarks at the event. The exchange of ideas and best practices between U.S. and Mauritian specialists is another example of the partnership between our two countries to address shared challenges. From the U.S., two para-jumpers and one rotary search and rescue pilot from the U.S. Air Forces 82nd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron was part of the exchange. Participants from Mauritius will include members from the Special Mobile Force, Police Helicopter Squadron, and National Coast Guard Maritime Air Squadron. Search and Rescue is a multifaceted approach to searching for and helping people who are in distress or imminent danger in any location. It is a critical facet of any nations emergency response plan and ensures that the consequences of disasters and emergencies are mitigated to an appropriate level. Effective Search and Rescue requires coordination between various government agencies, as well as mastery of techniques and procedures to overcome environmental and geographic challenges. Nous sommes extremement ravis dorganiser cet evenement a Maurice cette semaine et de continuer a renforcer nos relations bilaterales solides avec Maurice, a declare le charge daffaires de lambassade des Etats-Unis, Satrajit Sardar, lors de levenement. Nos experts americains en matiere de recherche et de sauvetage ont hate dapprendre du personnel du Special Mobile Force mauricien les techniques SAR utilisees dans les petites iles, en particulier compte tenu du terrain unique et de lenvironnement maritime qui est endemiques a cette ile. Partager et informez vous aussi...... 0 shares Share Tweet LinkedIn Articles similaires This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate GREENWICH Student enrollment in Greenwich Public Schools is down year over year. That was expected. What wasnt expected is the decrease is smaller than projected and consequently some grades are on the cusp of needing to add another class. In September 2021, the district had 8,471 students enrolled in K-12 classes. Now, 8,397 students are enrolled a decrease of 74 students, or less than one percent of the student population. Consultants in October 2021 projected what the districts population would look like at the beginning of this school year, and current numbers beat those projections. The distribution of students allowed the district to reduce the number of elementary school classes from 199 last school year to 193 this year. But, there are six instances where a grade level at a school is at or near the class size guideline, meaning another teacher may have to be added if the grade increases. In a meeting Thursday evening, board chair Kathleen Stowe said cutting down on the number of classes funded an interventionist to help students, while keeping the districts bottom line intact. But she doesnt think the district will be able to remove additional classes next year. Riverside, Parkway and New Lebanon schools beat expectations with at least 25 additional students enrolled. Board Member Laura Kostin pointed to New Lebanon Schools growth as an indicator of what could happen when Central Middle Schools new building is constructed. New Lebanon, a magnet school, allows students across the district to opt into attending the school instead of their neighborhood school. Board members previously mentioned a magnet program as a possibility for Central Middle School, which the board is planning to construct for a larger student population than currently enrolled. Thursday, board members looked at the enrollment data and made comments to justify the decision to build the roomier Central Middle School building. I see a very impressive increase at New Lebanon, which is a very nice, new shiny school and an example of, If you build it, they will come, Kostin said. Board secretary Karen Hirsh said the same phrase in a discussion months ago regarding the size of Central Middle School, and board members have referenced the expression since. Stowe remarked that all the elementary schools that feed into Central Middle School beat enrollment expectations. Board vice-chair Karen Kowalski reminded her of the schools declining enrollment. Kowalski was not supportive of the larger proposal for Central backed by the other board members. The grades with the largest student population are nearing the end of their time in Greenwich schools. The sophomores, freshmen and seniors have the largest class sizes of 709, 703 and 687 students, respectively. Board members commented on the larger-than-expected kindergarten class, which had 55 more students than the 576 students projected. Preschool enrollment was below what consultant anticipated, with 191 children entering the district prior to kindergarten instead of the projected 210 kids. Stowe said preschool enrollment increases beyond September. Updated numbers will be presented at a board meeting in October. The October enrollment data is submitted to the state Department of Education. annelise.hanshaw@hearstmediact.com Asus unveiled the ROG Phone 6 and ROG Phone 6 Pro in July, and it could soon announce the vanilla model's Batman Edition that has leaked online. The Asus ROG Phone 6 Batman Edition comes in black color. It has "Batman" written under the ROG branding and "ROG Phone 6 BATMAN Edition" below it. The source claims that the Asus ROG Phone 6 Batman Edition will come with Batman-inspired themes and skins, but you can expect it to share the specs with the regular model. We don't know when Asus will make the ROG Phone 6 Batman Edition official, but that's not the only new smartphone we are expecting from the Taiwanese brand since the company will unveil the ROG Phone 6D Ultimate (and likely 6D) on September 19. Source Former Saipan resident Justin Ocampos second film Tala has been selected for screening at the San Diego Filipino Film Festival taking place October 13-18. The film is about a Filipino family who struggles with the serious impacts of a domestic abuse incident that forced two sisters to clash over their fathers faults. I consider Tala part of my ongoing journey to share my heart with the world, so its rewarding to have a film I invested so much of myself physically, emotionally and mentally to be screened for a new audience in a different city, said the 21-year-old who is a senior at the University of Hawaii at Manoa pursuing two bachelors degrees in American studies and creative media in the digital cinema track. Being recognized by a Filipino-centric festival as the son of Tagalog-Kapampangan immigrants living in the diaspora makes me feel seen and recognized by my fellow kababayan or countrymen. Its heartwarming to know that when interacting with my film, in addition to relating to the growth I experienced from this personal trauma, Filipinos in cities Ive only ever visited can also break down those same emotional barriers, have those same tough conversations about the realities of domestic abuse that we consider taboo and develop a willingness thereafter to share their own stories too, said the son of Marida Pensader. Screenwriting class Ocampo came up with the idea of Tala in his Introduction to Screenwriting course at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in his sophomore year. In that course, we had to write eight film treatments over the course of the semester and turn one of them into our final short film script, Ocampo said. Tala was actually the combination of two similar but separate treatments that I wrote. In writing the script, he was inspired by the advice of his high school creative writing teacher Professor Sarah Johnson who once said, write about what makes you most uncomfortable because thats where your strongest work lies since you have the strongest opinions about that topic. What made me the most uncomfortable at the time I took Prof Js class was my father wound as they call it, said the graduate of Mount Carmel School in Chalan Kanoa, Saipan. I felt uncomfortable about the fact that my biological father had abandoned our family in my youth and ashamed at my naive inability to navigate the complex emotions I had in a way that was sensitive to the needs of others who were also hurting. I drew on what I felt then, mostly driven by a desire for intense catharsis, said Ocampo, who studied at the William S. Reyes Elementary School for preelementary school before transferring to Sister Remedios Early Childhood Development Center. After about two intensive group workshops, requesting nonstop constructive feedback from trusted peers both in and out of class, and about fifteen drafts, the version of Tala you can see today was born, Ocampo added. Integration of Filipino culture The plot for Tala was inspired by Ocampos childhood, and he considers it semi-autobiographical because theres a degree of truth to everything in it. This film is close to my heart because it is my story, Ocampo said. Its my story of how I grew by learning to respond to trauma together in solidarity with my family, informed by the values of our culture. The sisters in the film are just versions of my brother Billie and I, he added. All I did was change their genders to show that what happened to us can happen to anyone and give them new names: Tala and Hanan. Ocampo chose the name Tala to honor the demigoddess of the moon in Philippine mythology and Hanan to honor the Philippine demigoddess of the morning. Tala, for all intents and purposes, is very much a version of me when I was younger, Ocampo said. She was written with my childhood quirks and naivete. Her cheeky, seemingly innocent act of stealing her fathers cigarettes to play with them is something I used to do all the time growing up. Her ability to make her older sister participate in her shenanigans by appealing to her inner child is something I did all the time and to some degree, can still do today, he added. Hanan, her sister, is a version of my brother. Jose, her father, is a version of my father and her mother Maria, is a version of my mother. Visual concept The visual concept of the film as a whole was designed in collaboration with Ocampos director of photography Kalei Kalaukoa and production designer Carson Fukeda to have a distinctly Filipino identity. We wanted specific shots of things every Filipino can relate to: the shoe rack in front of the house door, a tabo floating inside of a bucket and foods such as pinaputok na tilapia (exploding fish), Ocampo said. We also wanted to beautify the frame in certain interior shots with things you can find in every Filipino house. So for instance, images of the Child Jesus and the Virgin Mary can be seen in places around the house. They shot the film in a house located in Kailua, Oahu, Hawaii and the nearby Kalaheo High School. The house in Kailua very much fits the enclosed suburban neighborhood house vibe I was familiar with growing up, Ocampo said. A domestic space also just fits what the story needed since the conflict is entirely at home. Inspiration from the Marianas Ocampo, who has five years of film experience, grew up in the cities of Garapan and Dandan in Saipan. Aside from the Filipino concepts he integrated into Tala, he also added elements from the Marianas. This story was inspired by my life at Saipan, and while it may have been filmed on Oahu, the island lifestyle is so similar in both places that I am still able to bring a part of my home to the San Diego Filipino Film Festival to share, Ocampo said. Whats being shared is a connection to things as simple as the way I wrote the characters to stop on the way home to buy fish out of someones truck parked on the side of the road. Its getting the mundane details right with loving intimacy, so viewers become familiar, he added. To me, thats what matters most in representing my home despite being so far away. This distinct perspective of Ocampo began when he directed his first short film when he was seventeen. Prior to Tala, Ocampo directed a film called We Drank Our Tears: Rafael Mafnas Story in 2018. Adapted from a short story in an eponymous book We Drank Our Tears published by the Northern Marianas Humanities Council, the film tells the story of Rafael Mafnas survival of the Battle of Saipan during WW2. It won Best of Festival at The Guam International Film Festival in 2018. After Tala, Ocampo directed a film called Parental Consent this year, which has yet to be released to the public but is currently being submitted to festivals. It is a film about a single mothers journey to get her sons passport renewed by getting the consent of her ex, the childs father. To share with an audience the peculiar oddities in the Marianas I saw growing up means the world to me because I love those details, Ocampo said. Theyre what made Saipan home. In that way, a visual home is cultivated, that space being a microcosm of a real home that even people whove never been to Saipan can take comfort in because they know it means something to real people. Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero still has nearly $292 million or about half of the total $578.7 million in federal American Rescue Plan funding that could be stretched until 2026 to sustain Guams pandemic recovery. I believe were using it (ARP) very judiciously. Flexibility is what drives the governors use of these funds, Bureau of Budget and Management Research Director Lester Carlson Jr. said on Friday. Spending of the ARP money is a hot-button issue this election cycle, with opposition senators and candidates pressing the governor, whos seeking a second term, to spend more federal ARP money sooner rather than later. Across the nation, states and territories have been taking it slow in spending ARP funds, which have a deadline of end-2024 to be allocated and end-2026 to be spent. Guam already used ARP funds to give at least about $162 million in direct aid to residents and businesses, collectively the public assistance programs, BBMR data shows. The governor has allocated nearly $187 million to these programs. ARP money is unlike prior federal pandemic funds, such as the CARES Act, that had to be spent right away, Carlson said. While some $292 million in ARP money is unspent, that amount has already been dedicated, Carlson said. But the governor, he said, has been flexible in the use of these funds, depending on where the needs are. Monthly spending of ARP rescue funds has picked up recently. In August, about $13.5 million was spent. In prior periods, the spending was $4 million to $7 million a month. The highest monthly spending was $20 million in May. The $13.5 million spending for August was spread out among different government programs, but it does not cover the $100 monthly power rebate that is coming out of the local General Fund surplus. As of Aug. 31, total ARP funding expenditure was more than $272.9 million, while total encumbrances were $13.89 million. This leaves $291.91 million-plus in available funds out of the $578.71 million total ARP that the governor is authorized to use, based on BBMR data. Exceeding allocations The latest BBMR report shows the government spent $5 million more than its initial allocation of $11.7 million for three rounds of Prugraman Salappe, which offered direct cash assistance. The $500 cash assistance or round three of the program when gas prices soared was well received, Carlson said, so the governor will be reallocating funds from other programs to make up for the added Prugraman Salappe spending. Spending on credit card fees, which the government has absorbed to help residents cope with pandemic realities, has also exceeded the $6.4 million allocation by more than $3 million. Carlson said that amount will also have to be reallocated from other programs. The governors $160 million ARP fund allocation for a new hospital and medical complex remains intact. The bump in August spending also included an additional $2 million that the governor allocated to the Guam International Airport Authority, bringing their total allocation to $17 million, from $15 million. Carlson said the airport still needed operations assistance. There were upticks in visitor arrivals during the summer months but still far from pre-pandemic numbers. Lacks transparency Another notable change was the zeroing out of the $$1.8 million in original allocation for a wage study, the subject of criticism from Sen. Telo Taitague, whos been asking why certain government programs require pandemic help. Just like reports for the past 10 months, the August report lacks transparency as it fails to itemize or describe spending details, she said. This will change, she said, if the fiscal 2023 budget bill is approved because I was able to include a requirement mandating the administration to provide expenditure details regarding personnel, equipment, supplies and contracts that are paid for using ARP and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funding. She continues to question $3.4 million in ARP money for cultural repository and money for the Bureau of Womens Affairs and the Guam Ethics Commission, to name a few, ahead of addressing the Guam Memorial Hospital repairs and creating more pandemic relief programs for families. Our ability to respond to COVID and future public health emergencies is directly connected to whether we have a safe and fully operational hospital, said the senator, whos seeking reelection. Here are some of the specific allocations for ARP money based on BBMRs August report to the Legislature:$20M for the Guam Visitors Bureau, now in GVBs account Direct cash aid to residents using ARP money is on top of the $808 million in federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance that went to workers, among other relief funds. In 1975, first-term Gov. Ricardo Bordallo and first lady Madeleine Bordallo were moving into the renovated Government House when they got a call from Buckingham Palace. The queen was coming to visit. Well. You know, at first we couldnt believe it, Madeleine Bordallo said in an interview Friday. The queen coming to Guam? I mean, you know, usually when she comes to the United States, she goes to New York or D.C. or Los Angeles, maybe, she said. And so we were absolutely flabbergasted. On Friday, hours after the world learned of the death of Great Britains Queen Elizabeth II, the former first lady reflected on the brief visit of the queen and Prince Philip on May 4, 1975. She was just a woman of the world, Madeleine Bordallo said. And I think in all the years that she served, 70 years, she brought the world together. Bordallo said she found the queen to be very charming, very humorous. And she was a mother. She had a lot to put up with. She had many problems during her reign. We know that. We know all that history there. The stop on Guam was part of a trip through Asia. Originally planned to last for two days, the trip was cut short because of the Fall of Saigon a week earlier. Tens of thousands of Vietnamese refugees were being evacuated to Guam and the royal family felt it was not proper to divert attention from the effort, according to Pacific Daily News reports at the time. Instead, the royal couple spent two days in Hawaii before traveling here. Protocols Bordallo said the protocol office from Buckingham Palace briefed them on how to host the queen. So we were extremely excited. We hurried up everything and made the Government House the best we could. And we started to get all of the protocol. The staff must wear dark colors. They must have gloves on when they hold the guest book, or they serve the queen and the prince. ... We listened to all of it. They were also told there would be no hugging, no embracing and no leis. And then when the pictures came out of her when she arrived in Hawaii, she had leis from her chest to her chin. And I said, I dont know, maybe we can do a few of these things. So we did a few little things that werent the protocol. The Bordallos greeted the royal couple at the airport. To avoid disrupting traffic on Route 1, they traveled the route by the swimming pool in Hagatna. The queen and the governor rode in one car, and the first lady and Prince Philip rode in the other. I dont know what the governor and the queen talked about, but the prince was full of questions for me, Bordallo recalled. How did I get to Guam? He also had questions about the island and its history. The visit The entrance to Government House was lined with schoolchildren holding British flags and American flags. They were all dressed up so cute. Oh, the queen was just so enthralled with that. Following the protocol instructions, the staff was dressed in black and they wore gloves. The queen, then the prince, signed an autograph book held on a silver tray. So then we proceeded. We went around the grounds a little bit, showed the museum and the Government House and a few things. A photo was taken as they stood by a window and the governor explained the history of the island. Then the queen leaned over to me and she said, You know, we had a dispute on the flyover here. We saw all kinds of tents or canvas coverings, and they disagreed about what those were. So I said, Oh, Your Majesty, I know what that was. That was Tent City. I said, Maam, we have over a higher number than our population of Vietnamese refugees. ... We have camps all over Guam. Then the group had light refreshments. They said the queen doesnt eat much, you know. She was very petite. Very slim. And so after that, we said our goodbyes, and she met all the staff and shook their hands, Bordallo said. Such a nice couple. Really. At the airport, about 100 people gathered for the queens visit. After the queen and the prince returned from Government House, they greeted British subjects in a roped-off area, spending about 15 minutes with the crowd, according to PDN files. Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero was discharged from Guam Memorial Hospital Friday morning, two days after she was taken there and diagnosed with a noncontagious viral pneumonia. On Friday morning, Gov. Leon Guerrero was discharged in good health. She may resume her usual activities, according to her director of communications, Krystal Paco-San Agustin. The governor went straight home after her discharge from GMH at 8:30 a.m., Paco-San Agustin said. The governor initially was expected to stay overnight Wednesday at GMH for observation, but had to spend two days at the hospital instead. Her physician, Dr. Joleen Aguon, on Thursday said the governor was doing well. Leon Guerrero, 71, was taken to GMH after participating in a Guam Chamber of Commerce-hosted gubernatorial forum with her challenger, former Gov. Felix Camacho. About five hours later, the governor addressed the public via video message in a hospital gown, confirming she had been experiencing bouts of coughing the last few days and her pulmonologist insisted that she come to the emergency room. She said she had viral pneumonia and tested negative for COVID-19. In June, she was taken to GMH after a Democratic primary election gubernatorial debate with Del. Michael San Nicolas. Adelup later said it was the result of a respiratory infection. The Rotary Club of Northern Guam will be hosting the groups annual 9/11 Wreath Laying Ceremony at 8:46 a.m. Sunday morning at the Peace Memorial at Puntan Dos Amantes, also known as Two Lovers Point. The ceremony is held each year to commemorate Patriot Day and National Day of Service and Remembrance, as well as to honor those who lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001. Commemorative wreaths will be laid at the memorial. Rotarians, government officials, Guam and federal firefighters, and Guam Police Department officers will be at the ceremony, as well as members from the armed forces, clergy, and local and federal agencies. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Northern Guam Rotarians expanded the memorial to serve as a tribute to those who lost their lives in the tragedy. The design now incorporates the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the forests of Pennsylvania. Northern Guam club members originally designed the memorial for promoting peace and understanding. The memorial was also meant to symbolize a Rotary Peace Island on Guam, to join more than 100 cities and islands around the world that have memorialized their dedication to peace. By the generosity of their supporters in Guam and Japan, the Peace Memorial Monument at Two Lovers Point was completed in 2011. StitchCraft Guam owner Alissa Eclavea, right, assists customers during the Guam Unique Merchandise and Art Trade Fair at Agana Shopping Center in Hagatna on Sept. 3, 2022. Haiti - Politic : Literacy and non-formal education : State commitment... Thursday, September 8, 2022, the Ministry of National Education via its State Secretariat for Literacy, as part of the 56th International Literacy Day, brought together dozens of students (the majority of whom are over 50 years old) from various non-formal literacy centers in the country. This was an opportunity for these learners, in the presence of many personalities and representatives of national and international organizations to demonstrate the progress they have made in "reading and writing" during the few months they have spent in these Centers of literacy. In his speech Nesmy Manigat the Minister of National Education said "Literacy is not a waste of time. Literacy is about respecting the rights of a category of people within society; the right to read and write. At the same time, literacy is an investment in the knowledge that these categories of people already possess, which can help them to better transmit their knowledge (in traditional medicine, in agriculture, fishing, animal husbandry and in all other industries and practices local crafts...)" Emphasizing "Thanks to literacy and non-formal education, it is possible for these categories of Haitians to better integrate into the country's economy." This is an opportunity to strengthen the country's competitiveness while having the possibility of progressing in financial inclusion and social inclusion." Sandra Jacques Suzette Michel Saint-Georges, the Secretary of State for Literacy presented certain actions undertaken over the past 6 months, such as the signing of protocols with 22 associations in order to open 1,300 alpha classes. During this same period, the Office succeeded in training more than 300 monitors and supervisors in the departments of Grand'Anse, North, North-West and West where they evaluated nearly 2,000 learners, women and men, and certified training for more than 1,300 of them. According to Khadim Sylla, the UNESCO representative "[...] there should be no separation between formal education and non-formal education. One complements the other. In the interest of society, both must be part of an overall strategy based on education and training. A few days before the United Nations summit on the transformation of education on September 19 in New York, Khadim Sylla recalls that "the transformation of education will not be possible if we put aside the question of literacy which itself plays a major role in the transformation of society." For his part, Rector Fritz Deshommes declared "at the State University of Haiti (UEH), we are not going to simply remain hoping. We are ready to come together. We are ready to make our contribution in this fight, in this campaign. The mother law of the country asks us since 1987 to eradicate this phenomenon of illiteracy in the country of Haiti. Our students in Port-au-Prince and the provinces are ready to participate in a real literacy campaign. Our teachers are ready to supervise all literacy and non-formal education programs that will enable adults to learn to read and write in a practical, useful and effective way." During this ceremony, Nesmy Manigat installed the Inter-Institutional Commission for Non-Formal Education which includes 20 members representing several ministries and other public institutions as well as representatives of certain United Nations agencies, international and national organizations. One of the main missions of this Commission is to facilitate dialogue between all the entities involved in literacy and non-formal education. HL/ HaitiLibre Haiti - News : Zapping... J-C Moise: Operation "Bare Aryel" Thursday, September 8, former Senator Moise Jean Charles, Secretary General of the radical opposition Political Party "Pitit Dessalin" launched an operation called "Bare Aryel" and asked the population to demonstrate on all axes leading to the international airport in order to prevent Ariel Henry (currently in Florida) from returning to National Palace... Gas station : 2 customers shot dead Thursday, September 8, 2022, two customers were shot dead at a gas station in the Carrefour Tifou area, in downtown Port-au-Prince. An armed civilian, presented by witnesses as an agent of the Departmental Unit for the Maintenance of Order (UDMO), is accused of being the author of the fatal shots Chased by taxi-motorcycle drivers, he would have found refuge in the base of the UDMO, at the Champ de Mars. Jeremie : Anthrax Anthrax is rampant in Haute-Guinaudee, in the 3rd comunal section of Jeremie. One person died and around 20 cattle also died of anthrax. The Departmental Director of the Ministry of Agriculture denies any epidemic that strikes animals and ensures that a vaccination campaign is underway. Elizabeth II : Message of sympathy from the PM "Queen Elizabeth II, the one who will have deeply marked the history of the United Kingdom, Europe and the whole world, has passed away. We would like to salute his deep commitment to the happiness of his people during 70 years of reign. We send our sincere condolences to the Royal Family, the British Nation and the States of the Commonwealth who today mourn the passing of the most famous Monarch in history," Acting Prime Minister Ariel Henry. Construction of latrines on the site of the former house of Emperor Jacques 1er ? In a letter, dated September 5, 2022, addressed to the town hall of Dessalines-ville, the National Heritage Preservation Institute (ISPAN) asks to reconsider its decision to grant a permit to build latrines on the site of the former residence of the Emperor Jacques 1st and demands the restoration of the former house of the father of the country, Jean-Jacques Dessalines as well as the demolition of the modern constructions built on this site. Important meeting with FATF Wednesday, September 7, a government delegation, including representatives of the Bank of the Republic of Haiti and the Central Financial Intelligence Unit chaired by the Minister of Justice Berto Dorce, participated in an important working session in Managua (Nicaragua), with officials from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The objective was to review Haitian legislation relating to financial crimes in order to meet international requirements regarding risk assessments and to follow up on commitments made by Haiti in order to avoid being cut off from the international banking system... HL/ HaitiLibre By William Schwartz | Published on 2022/09/08 When In-goo (played by Ha Jung-woo) was still young his parents, a yogurt delivery woman and a truck driver, died on the job. In-goo works shady jobs to try and provide for his younger siblings, who prove so incompetent and keeping the house clean that In-goo very unromantically marries a woman just to deal with that problem. In-goo leverages his way into owning businesses instead of merely receiving a paycheck. But this goes sour when he inevitably runs afoul of a cop. Advertisement Even that's a ways off from explaining how In-goo even arrives in Suriname. "Narco-Saints" is fairly deliberately paced like that. Famed film director Yoon Jong-bin shows impressive confidence in terms of trusting that the premise of "Narco-Saints" is engaging enough that the viewer will sit through all the various domestic moments contextualizing In-goo's life as a comfortable husband and father making a surprisingly sensible sounding business plan to import fish from Suriname. One interesting flourish of "Narco-Saints" is how little contrast there is between eras. The typical South Korean drama would suggest that there was at least gradual improvement between the dictatorial eighties and the democratic aughts. "Narco-Saints" doesn't do that, because from In-goo's perspective almost nothing has really changed. He still needs money, never has enough money, and is terrified of being one bad day away from leaving his family destitute. In-goo is an intriguing character because while the premise calls for him being a fish out of water, he immediately catches on to the more corrupt elements of Suriname society, not even flinching at the idea of having to pay bribes. What ends up fomenting the first real conflict is when In-goo is extorted for more money than he can realistically afford to pay. Then there's the constant, overhanging absurdity of all this greed over a fish that's considered so valueless local fishermen normally just throw them away. As the situation slowly boils over, it's hard to escape the feeling that In-goo's wife was right from the start. The whole skate fish scheme is a big opportunity. But it's loaded with risk. Only In-goo getting bullied by corrupt cops in his own country is sufficient impetus for him to try it anyway. "Narco-Saints" is the slickest, most impressive South Korean Netflix production in quite some time. Director Yoon Jong-bin wasn't joking when he said a person might be inclined to watch the whole thing in a single sitting, especially with the first episode's wild cliffhanger. Review by William Schwartz ___________ "Narco-Saints" is directed by Yoon Jong-bin, written by Kwon Seong-hwi, Yoon Jong-bin, and features Ha Jung-woo, Hwang Jung-min, Park Hae-soo, Jo Woo-jin, Yoo Yeon-seok, Choo Ja-hyun. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2022/09/09~Upcoming, Fri on Netflix. Published on 2022/09/08 | Source New stills added for the upcoming Korean drama "Glitch" (2022). Advertisement Directed by Roh Deok Written by Jin Han-sae Network: Netflix With Jeon Yeo-been, Nana, Lee Dong-hwi, Baek Joo-hee, Ryu Kyung-soo, Ma Sung-min,... Synopsis "Glitch" tells a story of Hong Ji-hyo, who tries to track down her missing boyfriend with the help of members of a UFO club. Writer Jin Han-sae, who enthralled audiences and critics with the much lauded Netflix series "Extracurricular", reunites with its production team at Studio 329 for "Glitch". Jin Han-sae's bold writing style and keen insight kept viewers surprised in his debut series. Now in "Glitch", he unravels an intriguing and intense story about members of a UFO club who pursue those who have disappeared in a mysterious beam of light. Their special quest, which seems preposterous to society at large, is told within the framework of a suspenseful comic thriller. Broadcast starting date in Korea : 2022/10/07 Published on 2022/09/08 | Source New stills and behind the scenes images added for the Korean drama "Adamas" (2022). Advertisement Directed by Park Seung-woo Written by Choi Tae-kang Network: tvN With Ji Sung, Seo Ji-hye, Lee Soo-kyung-I, Heo Sung-tae, Lee Kyung-young, Hwang Jung-min-I,... 16 episodes - Wed, Thu 22:30 Synopsis The story of twin brothers fighting against giant evil hidden behind an incident 22 years ago to clear the name of their biological father. The brothers face the fact that the culprit who killed their stepfather when they were children is their biological father. After encountering the circumstances that their father, who was framed and put to the death penalty, they go after the power that tried to hide and conceal this incident. Broadcast starting date in Korea : 2022/07/27 Tall buildings seen from Marine drive in Mumbai Finland has decided to open an Embassy in Islamabad and a Consulate General in Mumbai. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs will continue to expand the network of Finnish missions abroad. On August 26, President Sauli Niinisto approved an amendment to the Decree on the Locations of Finland's Diplomatic Missions and the Provision of Consular Services in the Foreign Service. In her 70-year reign, she witnessed and shaped history like few others. Her sense of duty and devotion to service are an example to us all. Deepest condolences to the royal family and the people of the UK, he commented on Twitter. PRESIDENT Sauli Niinisto says he is deeply saddened by the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II . Prime Minister Sanna Marin (SDP) similarly sent her heartfelt condolences to the royal family and the people of both Britain and the Commonwealth. Our thoughts are with the family and loved ones of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, she tweeted. Matti Vanhanen (Centre), the speaker of the Finnish Parliament, conveyed his deepest condolences to the people of the UK and the family of Queen Elizabeth II on behalf of the Parliament. Queen Elizabeth, he wrote, was known also among Finns as a head of state who maintains dignity and continuity and unites her peoples. During the longest reign in world history, the world changed enormously and she knew how to keep the monarchy alive in time. Her passing brings to silence not only her own people but people all over the world, he tweeted via the official account of the Finnish Parliament. Aleksi Teivainen HT New provisions to be added to the Aliens Act and the act on migration authorities processing of personal data will enable Finland to make use of the support from the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) as smoothly as possible in the event of a mass influx of migrants. The Government submitted the bills for approval on Thursday 8 September. The President of the Republic is to approve the bills for the acts on Friday. The acts will enter into force on 15 September. If necessary, the EU Agency for Asylum can be asked to send support teams consisting of EUAA staff members and officials from other EU countries to Finland. The possible submission of the request will be decided at the government plenary session. The Finnish Immigration Service will prepare an action plan with the Executive Director of the EUAA and act as the national contact point for the support teams. The EUAA replaced the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) in January 2022, when the relevant EU Regulation entered into force. The Regulation is directly applicable in Finland. In order for its application to be as effective as possible, provisions on the parties responsible for submitting and coordinating the request for support are laid down nationally. Similarly, the members of the support teams must have the power and possibilities to provide assistance in Finland. The Aliens Act and the act on migration authorities processing of personal data will be amended so that the support team members can participate in asylum investigations and have access to the necessary information. A mass influx of migrants is a situation in which reception centres for asylum seekers, including additional accommodation, are reaching maximum capacity and the capacity needs to be further expanded, as there is a constant influx of new migrants. Such a situation may arise gradually or abruptly, because of the massive displacement of people from a country towards Finland, for example. Preparedness will be strengthened through a number of legislative amendments A mass influx of migrants may also be arranged by a foreign state, which is known as instrumentalisation of migrants. Diplomacy is the primary means of responding to such political pressure. However, legislation must be clear and the authorities must have sufficient powers to act pre-emptively and respond effectively to such influence activities. Amendments to the Border Guard Act that will improve preparedness for incidents entered into force in July. For example, the reception of asylum applications can be centralised at separately designated border crossing points if it is necessary to prevent a serious threat to public order, national security or public health. At the same time, an update of the Emergency Powers Act, prepared by the Ministry of Justice, entered into force. In the amendment, hybrid influence activities were added to the list of grounds for declaring emergency conditions. The Ministry of the Interior has also prepared a proposal for the introduction of a border procedure, which is currently being discussed by Parliament The border procedure would allow the processing of potentially unfounded asylum applications immediately at or near the border. This would prevent asylum applicants from travelling within Finland or from Finland to other EU countries. HT Source: Finnish Government The Finnish Union of Practical Nurses (Super) and the Union of Health and Social Care Professionals in Finland (Tehy) are to commence their first strike next Friday. MINISTER of Family Affairs and Social Services Aki Linden (SDP) on Thursday revealed that the government will present its proposal for a patient safety act early next week to limit the nursing strikes hanging over intensive care, reports Helsingin Sanomat. Sari Essayah, the chairperson of the Christian Democrats, asked Linden during the first question-time debate of the new parliamentary term if the bill will be finalised in time. Weve been drafting a piece of legislation with the premise that itd be possible to intervene in the strikes targeted at intensive care units so that no lives are endangered. Im sure well manage to bring the bill to the Parliament early next week, replied Linden. He estimated that the act would thereby have an impact at least on the four-day strikes that are scheduled to begin at Turku Central University Hospital and Oulu University Hospital on 20 and 27 September, respectively. The latter strike was postponed yesterday by two weeks at the behest of National Conciliator Anu Sajavaara. Linden did not specify how the government intends to limit the repercussions of the strikes. The patient safety act bill drafted earlier by the government would have granted regional state administrative agencies the power to order employees to work under the threat of fine. Linden on Thursday gauged that the narrow but powerful strikes in intensive care will require a slightly different legislative approach, describing the juridical exercise as a challenge. The act has proven a cumbersome issue for the ruling five-party coalition, with the proposition of limiting the right of employees to go on strike unappealing for the Green League, Left Alliance and Social Democrats. Attempts to resolve the labour dispute will continue today under the guidance of the national conciliator. Aleksi Teivainen HT Former Trump adviser Bannon charged after surrendering to New York prosecutors Xinhua) 11:09, September 09, 2022 NEW YORK, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- Steve Bannon, who served as chief strategist for former U.S. President Donald Trump, was charged on Thursday with money laundering, conspiracy and scheme to defraud after turning himself in to New York State prosecutors, according to local authorities. New York prosecutors announced the indictment of Bannon, 68, and We Build the Wall, Inc., a Florida-based not-for-profit corporation, for a year-long fundraising scheme that netted over 15 million U.S. dollars from thousands of donors, and for laundering the proceeds of that scheme in order to advance and conceal the fraud. Both Bannon and We Build the Wall, Inc. were charged with two counts of money laundering, three counts of conspiracy and one count of scheme to defraud by a New York State Supreme Court grand jury indictment, according to a release from Manhattan District Attorney's Office on Thursday. "It is a crime to turn a profit by lying to donors, and in New York, you will be held accountable," said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. "As alleged, Stephen Bannon acted as the architect of a multi-million dollar scheme to defraud thousands of donors across the country -- including hundreds of Manhattan residents," Bragg said. "Mr. Bannon took advantage of his donors' political views to secure millions of dollars which he then misappropriated. Mr. Bannon lied to his donors to enrich himself and his friends," added New York Attorney General Letitia James. Bannon was arraigned before a State Supreme Court judge in Manhattan in the afternoon and he pleaded not guilty, said a report by ABC News. "This is nothing more than a partisan political weaponization of the criminal justice system," said Bannon in a statement on Tuesday referring to the indictment. Bannon together with three others were indicted by the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York for crimes related to We Build the Wall's fundraising scheme in August 2020 and he was pardoned by Trump on Jan. 20, 2021. Moreover, Bannon was convicted of contempt of Congress in July and is scheduled to be sentenced later this year. (Web editor: Liang Jun, Bianji) Marriott Executive Apartments Port Moresby is Expected to Open in Mid-2023. Marriott International, Inc. today announced it has signed an agreement with Steamships Trading Company Ltd., to debut its first property in Papua New Guinea, the Marriott Executive Apartments Port Moresby. Slated to open in mid-2023, the property is set to be located in the heart of Port Moresby within the mixed-use development of Harbourside South. Marriott Executive Apartments Port Moresby is anticipated to feature 88 modern residential apartments - offering space, ambiance, and the privacy of residential living, enabling a comfortable stay away from home. The new property is slated to feature spacious one and two-bedroom apartments with separate living, sleeping, and working areas. Guests will also be able to enjoy additional amenities, including laundry services, kitchens equipped with a refrigerator, dishwasher, cooktop, microwave and oven, and spacious dining areas. Upon opening, Marriott Executive Apartments Port Moresby is expected to feature a lounge for residents and guests that offers a relaxed environment for light meals, self-service options and evening cocktails. Additional plans call for a spacious leisure floor which includes a lap pool, leisure pool, a well-equipped fitness center, three spa treatment rooms, and a recreational zone for children. Marriott Executive Apartments Port Moresby will serve as an integral part of the new Harbourside South development, which also features a retail floor and three floors of A-grade commercial space. It will connect to the Harbourside East and West buildings on Port Moresby's waterfront, which opened in 2015. The development offers quality commercial tenancies, the city's finest restaurants and bars, a boardwalk, and marina. Steamships Trading Company Ltd is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) and Papua New Guinea's National Stock Exchange (PNGX) and is part of the wider Swire Group, which includes the Hong Kong- listed Swire Pacific Ltd, owners of Swire Hotels, Cathay Pacific Airways and numerous other subsidiaries. Hotel website The Penn State School of Hospitality Management in the College of Health and Human Development and the Penn State Hotel & Restaurant Society (PSHRS) have named Mit Shah, founder and chief executive officer of Noble Investment Group (Noble), as the 2023 Hospitality Executive of the Year. Founded in 1993, Noble is an industry-leading real estate investment group specializing in the travel and hospitality sector. Through its institutional real estate funds, Noble has invested nearly $6 billion in communities throughout the country, creating thousands of jobs. The School of Hospitality Management and PSHRS will recognize Shah for his leadership and many accomplishments in the hospitality industry at a gala reception at The Penn Stater Hotel and Conference Center in State College, Pennsylvania on April 4, 2023. The Shah family, led by Mit, has endowed the Bharat Shah Leadership Speaker Series at Georgia State's Cecil B. Day School of Hospitality in the J. Mack Robinson College of Business in honor of his father, Dr. Bharat Shah. Over the years, Mit has brought thousands of students and industry stewards into the living room for candid conversations on the personal journeys of struggle and perseverance of industry icons, including former Hospitality Executives of the Year, Chris Nassetta and Arne Sorenson. The series has served as an inspiration to the hospitality and business community, and particularly to our nation's college students. This 2023 event not only recognizes Shah, but also provides the unique opportunity for Penn State Hospitality Management students to directly interact with and learn from one of the leading executives in the hospitality industry. PSHRS has honored industry icons through this prestigious award since 1960. Its recipients represent a 'Who's Who' of extraordinary individuals who made indelible marks on the profession. In addition to his leadership role at Noble, Shah presently serves as an executive committee member of the board of directors for the American Hotel and Lodging Association, is co-chairman of its Industry Real Estate and Finance Advisory Council ("IREFAC"), and is a member of the owner boards for Marriott International and Hyatt Hotels Corporation. Shah also served as chairman of the board of directors for two public companies, LaQuinta and CorePoint Lodging REIT, prior to their successful realizations for shareholders. Shah graduated from Wake Forest University with a degree in economics. He is currently serving his fifth term on the Wake Forest University Board of Trustees, where he is chairman of its investment committee. For 85 years, the Penn State School of Hospitality Management has been a leader in higher education and research in service to the hospitality industry. With innovative courses, a tradition of engaged scholarship, and discipline-shaping research by world-class faculty, the school inspires all students to pursue excellence in scholarship, exhibit a strong work ethic, and become effective and ethical innovators. Zadun, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve is pleased to announce the appointment of Sebastien Cormier as Director of Sales and Marketing. With over 20 years of experience within the hospitality space, Sebastien will oversee all sales and marketing efforts for the award-winning resort. Originally from France, Sebastien attended the Hotel & Tourism Business School of Loire Valley. Throughout his more than two-decades of experience, he has held roles as Head Waiter, Supply Chain Assistant Manager, Director of Restaurant, National Sales & Marketing Manager, Senior Hotel Sales Leader and Director of Sales and Marketing. His work has taken him around the world, from France, to Spain to the United Kingdom, Australia, Mexico and more. Most recently, Sebastien served as the Director of Sales and Marketing for The St. Regis Mexico City, where he led sales and revenue strategy for the hotel, oversaw the sales and reservations departments, participated in key business initiatives, and more. In his role at Zadun, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, Sebastien will drive all sales and marketing initiatives for the resort, set budget and revenue goals, and work closely with the team to build on the property's success. Zadun is recognized among the world's leading luxury travel experiences, promising authentic immersion into the magnificent destination. Zadun is part of the renowned Ritz-Carlton Reserve portfolio, a collection of properties located in untouched stretches of paradise tucked away in the most exquisite corners of the world, for the most discerning travelers seeking a personalized, meaningful escape. Aaron Szyf is an Economist with the U.S. Travel Association where he focuses on the economic impact of travel to and within the United States. Before joining U.S. Travel, Aaron worked at the World Bank, concentrating on youth employment and entrepreneurship in Jamaica, and public-private partnership development in Grenada. Prior to that, while at Centennial Group International, Aaron led a number of international macroeconomic assignments, including country-risk assessments in Bosnia and Bangladesh. Aaron graduated from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Massachusetts with a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy (MALD) and concentrations in Development Economics and International Business. Prior to graduate study, Aaron held a community leadership role as the program director for the Joint Distribution Committee in Oradea, Romania. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Finance Summa Cum Laude from the Sy Syms School of Business of Yeshiva University. As CEO of Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (RAKTDA), Raki Phillips is responsible for the continued growth of the Emirate as a world-class destination for leisure and business travel. This includes collaborating with key partners on the destination brand, regulating standards within the sector, developing the Emirates tourism infrastructure and creating sustainable investment opportunities. In addition to improving the competitive performance of the tourism sector, Phillips is also tasked with its contribution to the economic and social prosperity of Ras Al Khaimah while enhancing the quality of life for all its residents. Phillips is an award-winning hospitality veteran and a serial entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience working with some of the worlds most renowned brands including Ritz-Carlton Hotels, Fairmont Raffles Hotels International (FRHI) and Universal Studios Orlando. He was recognized by Hotelier Middle East as one of the Top 20 Most Powerful Arab Hoteliers. Phillips, an American national and a fluent Arabic speaker, has a great understanding of the region having worked in the Middle East since 2005 and specifically in the UAE since 2007. His previous role as Senior Partner and Senior Vice President of Development with International Hospitality Consulting Group (INHOCO), saw him develop hotel project pipelines exceeding $5 billion in assets and negotiating multimillion-dollar hotel deals for global luxury brands in over 25 markets worldwide. Key Takeaways Introduced in our 2021 Winter Release to provide a seamless experience for Hosts and guests, Translation Engine removed the need for click-to-translate buttons. Translation Engine provides accurate, high-quality translations across messages in real-time, as Hosts and guests communicate with each other in over 60 languages. Today Translation Engine expands to include reviews, bringing translation technology to nearly all Host and guest interfaces across the platform. Source: Airbnb In our 2021 Winter Release last November, we announced the most advanced translation technology ever offered to our community Translation Engine providing a seamless experience for Hosts and guests in over 60 languages as they interact over Stays and Experiences around the world. Translation Engine removed the need for click-to-translate buttons, leveraging millions of Airbnb data points to automatically translate listing descriptions while growing smarter and more sophisticated each time. Hosts can count on high-quality translations that not only relieve the need to translate or quality-check listing descriptions themselves, but also allow them to reach more guests. Today we are expanding Translation Engine to include reviews after successfully launching it across our messaging feature this summer. Billions of messages a year, now translated in real-time On the heels of last years launch, Translation Engine was expanded this summer to include messaging. This represents a significant feat given the sheer volume of messages across the platform each day more than 1.3 billion in the 12 months leading to June 30, 20221. This translates to over 3.5 million messages a day and over 40 messages every second. Messages are automatically translated in the users preferred language, making it even easier for Hosts and guests to interact and ask questions, with both parties confident they can understand the exchanges accurately. Millions of reviews, today available in each users preferred language Today, we are further expanding our innovative technology to include reviews. Now guests can easily scroll automatically translated reviews in their preferred language without having to click on each individual translation, saving time and minimizing misinterpretations. Considering the more than 550 million reviews across the entirety of the platform to date2 and the complexity of providing accurate translations in the preferred languages of millions of Hosts and guests across more than 100,000 cities and more than 220 countries and regions, Translation Engine is a first-in-class service. 1 Number of messages exchanged on the platform from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022 2 Total number of all-time reviews on the platform through June 30, 2022 About Airbnb Airbnb was born in 2007 when two Hosts welcomed three guests to their San Francisco home, and has since grown to over 4 million Hosts who have welcomed more than 1 billion guest arrivals across over 220 countries and regions. Travel on Airbnb keeps more of the financial benefits of tourism with the people and places that make it happen. Airbnb has generated billions of dollars in earnings for Hosts, most of whom are individuals listing the homes in which they live. Among Hosts who report their gender, more than half are women, and one in five employed Hosts are either teachers or healthcare workers. Travel on Airbnb also has generated more than $4 billion in tax revenue around the world. Airbnb has helped advance more than 1,000 regulatory frameworks for short-term rentals, including in 80% of our top 200 geographies. In late 2020, to support our continued expansion and diversification, we launched the City Portal to provide governments with a one-stop shop that supports data sharing and compliance with local registration rules. We continue to invest in innovations and tools to support our ongoing work with governments around the world to advance travel that best serves communities. About Airbnb.org Airbnb.org is a nonprofit organization dedicated to facilitating temporary stays for people in times of crisis around the world. Airbnb.org operates independently and leverages Airbnb, Inc."s technology, services, and other resources at no charge to carry out Airbnb.org"s charitable purpose. The inspiration for Airbnb.org began in 2012 with a single host named Shell who opened up her home to people impacted by Hurricane Sandy. This sparked a movement and marked the beginning of a program that allows Hosts on Airbnb to provide stays for people in times of need. Since then, the program has evolved to focus on emergency response and to help provide stays to evacuees, relief workers, refugees, asylum seekers, and frontline workers fighting the spread of COVID-19. Since then, Hosts have offered to open up their homes and helped provide accommodations to 100,000 people in times of need. Airbnb.org is a separate and independent entity from Airbnb, Inc. Airbnb, Inc. does not charge service fees for Airbnb.org supported stays on its platform. Airbnb Press Airbnb Press Office Airbnb Stanley managed the Americana Hotel, the Drake Hotel, and the Summit Hotel, managed the Sheraton brand at ITT Corporation, and eventually became the nations most widely published hotel historian. He thrice won Historian of the Year in 2014, 2015, and 2020 from Historic Hotels of America, National Trust for Historic Preservation. Historian of the Year 2014, Historic Hotels of America, National Trust for Historic Preservation. Source: Stanley Turkel, MHS, ISHC Stanley Turkel, a hotel consultant, would become the most prolific American hotel historian by writing prodigiously about hoteliers and their hotel entrepreneurship, operations, and architecture. He died on Friday, August 12, 2022, after a brief illness in Alexandria, Virginia in the embrace of his family. He was 96, just short of his 97th birthday. He published 10 books on hoteliers and hotels, and 270 monthly newsletters entitled, Nobody Asked Me, But, the last of which was pending publication at the time of his passing. Stanleys recently completed autobiography is also pending publication at the time of this writing. At 90 years of age, Stanley was thrilled to be featured in the New York Times article, Sunday Routine: How Stanley Turkel, 90, Spends his Sundays. Earlier in his career, for a time, he had the most Letters to the Editor published in The New York Times letters section with more than 30 letters appearing between 1968 and 1974. Adopt a Subway Station became his most noteworthy letter which proposed the then-novel idea that corporations contribute a predetermined annual sum for design, decoration, and upkeep of one subway station. The City was nearly bankrupt, and the subways were in obvious decline. The letter was enlarged and plastered throughout the subway system. During this time, from 1967 1978, Stanley was the President of The City Club of New York and subsequently served as its Chairman. Under his leadership, The Club assumed a Gadfly role. The Club insisted on good government and accountability of its elected and appointed leaders to improve the quality of life for everyday New Yorkers. For example, during his tenure, The City Club was instrumental in defeating Westway, a mega highway project that would have blocked access to the Hudson River waterfront, now the site of pedestrian-friendly accessible development, parkland, and trails. The City Club hosted many civic, cultural, and community leaders during their monthly luncheons, which included each mayor throughout Stanleys tenure as President. A veteran entering the workforce after World War II, he followed his father, owner of the New York Wet Wash commercial laundry on the Upper East Side, into the laundry business. He soon got the opportunity of a lifetime to become the Resident Manager of the Americana Hotel, later to become the Sheraton Centre and currently, the Sheraton Times Square Hotel on 53rd Street and Seventh Avenue. The Tisch Brothers promoted Stanley to manage the Drake Hotel, a classic luxury property. After a successful tenure at the Drake, he managed the Summit Hotel. Stanley was later hired by the then thriving conglomerate, ITT Corporation, and would become the Product Line Manager overseeing the Sheraton Hotel chain. Stanley established the very first 1-800 number for use as a reservation hotline. The Boston Pops Orchestra recorded the melody which would successfully launch the popularity of 1-800 numbers for business use. Before launch, the ITT CEO, Harold Geneen requested Stanley sing the lyrics at a well-populated board meeting. He was a reluctant vocalist and bleated out the earworm jingle, eight oh oh three two five three five three five, much to the amusement of the room. After leaving ITT, Stanley became a successful hospitality consultant, actively working in the industry for the next forty years. He advised on operations, managed acquisitions, advocated for franchisees, and became an expert witness. In addition to his esteemed business career, Stanley was a lifelong civil rights activist. In 1956 Stanley attended a lecture given by eighty-year-old W.E.B. Du Bois. This encounter was a pivotal event sparking his passion for social justice, civil rights, and American history, particularly the Reconstruction period after the Civil War. In fact, Stanleys first book, Heroes of The American Reconstruction: Profiles of Sixteen Educators, Politicians and Activists was published by McFarland in 2009 when he was 79 years of age. Preceding this publication was a lifetime of engagement with social justice issues. As a young man, he was a community organizer and a leafleteer announcing meetings and marches and furthering political action. In 1963, he attended The March on Washington where Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his famous I Have a Dream speech. Stanley began acquiring historical artifacts from African American history, photographs, signed letters, and documents. He published articles, gave lectures, and organized, and framed relevant objects such as combining a pass to the impeachment proceedings of Andrew Johnson and the New York Times front page announcing the same. The knowledge he shared was not only educational but inspirational. For example, an elementary school teacher was stunned when Stanleys grandnephew correctly identified Abraham Lincolns first Vice President (Hannibal Hamlin) taking away the $5.00 prize money. The breadth of Stanleys collection of City Club, civil rights and Reconstruction era papers and artifacts was so substantial that he made curated donations to the New York Public Library, the Schaumberg Center in Harlem, and over 600 objects to the African American Museum in Washington D.C. Stanley was surrounded by his loving family on the last day of his life. He was predeceased by his first wife, Barbara Bell Turkel, the mother of his two surviving children, Marc Turkel, and his spouse, Meredith Dinneen, and Allison Turkel and her spouse, Toni Robinson. He was also predeceased by his beloved wife Rima Sokoloff Turkel, mother of his surviving stepchildren, Joshua Forrest, and his spouse Susan Kershner Forrest and Benay Forrest, whom he treasured, and his grandchildren, Juno Turkel, Samantha and Anaya Forrest-Spector. If you are so inclined, Stanley would appreciate donations to The Southern Poverty Law Center or the ACLU in his name. Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.DemaineFuneralHomes.com for the Turkel family. NewcrestImage has reached definitive agreement to purchase 45 hotels from a private investment firm. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The portfolio totals approximately 3,300 rooms and includes 35 Marriott-branded, seven Hilton-branded, two Choice-branded, and one Radisson-branded properties, which are located in 11 states Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Texas. The current financial environment makes it very attractive to buy rather than build, and this group of fine hotels in high-traffic locations provides us with an exceptional opportunity to immediately start generating significant revenue, profit, and return on investment, said Mehul Patel, Managing Partner and CEO of 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. This has been a year of tactical transition for NewcrestImage, which began with the sale in January to Summit Hotel Properties of 27 hotels totaling 3,533 guest rooms. Since then, the company has focused on creating a growth-centered portfolio with transactions to acquire 15 hotels, prior to the current 45-property transaction. In late June, Dallas-based NewcrestImage acquired the 175-room Cambria Hotel in Southlake, Texas, a premium location six miles from DFW International Airport and five miles from the Gaylord Texan Convention Center. In July, the company reached agreement with Highgate Hotels to acquire four LaQuinta properties with a total of 696 rooms in key destination markets. Closings have occurred for all of these hotels LaQuinta Inn & Suites Irving DFW North, LaQuinta Phoenix North, LaQuinta Inn & Suites Anaheim, and LaQuinta Inn & Suites LAX. Also in July, NewcrestImage acquired the 135-all suites TownePlace Suites Dallas Las Colinas, strategically located near two major airports and two major convention centers 7 miles from both DFW International and Love Field, one mile from the Irving Convention Center, and 10 miles from the Gaylord Texan Convention Center. NewcrestImage 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. The company has transformed the hotel industry by popularizing such innovative and profitable concepts as dual-brand properties, adaptive re-use of historic buildings, and lifestyle hotel campus neighborhoods. This leadership in development and in operations has been recognized with more than 80 awards during the past 10 years. Two law firms Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, along with Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr served as legal advisors to NewcrestImage for the latest 45-hotel transaction. 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. International inbound travel is crucial for the U.S. economy. It generated $239 billion in travel exports in 2019 and, after taking into account U.S. spending abroad, a trade surplus of $53 billion. After many months of near-stagnation from many of our key markets, inbound travel is finally on a solid, yet bumpy, path of return. Inbound travels pace of return picked up this summer and reached a pre-pandemic high of only 35% below 2019 levels in July 2022. What does this mean: This is a significant improvement from -41% in May and declines of more than 50% earlier in the year. Yes, but despite the general improvement since the full reopening of our borders in November 2021, the recovery has been uneven and a full recovery remains many months away. According to the latest U.S. Travel forecast, inbound travel is expected to slow down in the fall, and recovery to pre-pandemic levels may take until 2025. Whats more: There are a number of uncertainties as we head into the fall. Lets take a step back and look at the big picture of international inbound travel. For this purpose, we are defining reopening as the November 2021 cessation of the months-long U.S. travel ban on foreign residents coming from 33 countries, including Brazil, China, India, Iran, Ireland, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Europes 26-nation Schengen Zone. Prior to the reopening: Throughout most of the pandemic, while many of our top markets were subject to the U.S. travel ban, their ranks were replaced by Latin American countries, who, with the exception of Brazil, were not subject to major restrictions. Visitations from countries such as Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and air arrivals from Mexico even surpassed pre-pandemic levels for many months in 2021, while those from many other key markets were nearly stagnant. Throughout most of the pandemic, while many of our top markets were subject to the U.S. travel ban, their ranks were replaced by Latin American countries, who, with the exception of Brazil, were not subject to major restrictions. Visitations from countries such as Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and air arrivals from Mexico even surpassed pre-pandemic levels for many months in 2021, while those from many other key markets were nearly stagnant. Following the reopening: Latin Americas dominance changed after the reopening when European markets returned at a relatively fast pace, while many Asian markets started a slower path of recovery. Visitations from Latin American markets that performed well during the pandemic actually slowed down, while those from Brazil and most other inbound markets outside of Latin America increased. Latin Americas dominance changed after the reopening when European markets returned at a relatively fast pace, while many Asian markets started a slower path of recovery. Visitations from Latin American markets that performed well during the pandemic actually slowed down, while those from Brazil and most other inbound markets outside of Latin America increased. The latest: The past few months brought a continuing recovery from Europe, which was only 22% below 2019 levels as of July 2022, the same as Latin America. Asia also continued to recover, thanks to an easing of restrictions in most markets, but remained at -66% in July, largely due to stagnation from China and a very slow return from Japan. Whos left: Inbound travel from Asia has been the slowest to return. In fact, travel from Japan, our second largest overseas inbound market in 2019, remained 79% below pre-pandemic levels in July. It is also our only top 10 market other than China which has not yet returned to its top 10 ranking. While Japanese citizens have been permitted to travel abroad again, they are still required to undertake pre-departure testing upon return. This will finally change on September 7 and vaccinated Japanese travelers will be able to return hassle-free. This will hopefully help speed up the recovery from this vital market. That leaves China far behindand as our last top 10 market to recover. Go Deeper: U.S. Travel is releasing new international market profile decks that analyze inbound travels overall recovery, as well as that of key regions including Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America & Caribbean and Canada/Mexico. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A queen is coming to town, and she wants to talk about flood control strategies. Houston will host a visit from Queen Maxima of the Netherlands Friday, part of a four-day visit to the United States for the European royal. The trip began in San Francisco and proceeded with day trips to Los Angeles and Austin. King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, who had planned to join the Queen on this visit to the United States, remains at home, recovering from a recent bout of pneumonia. The visit is a working one, intended to highlight existing ties between the United States and the Netherlands as well as further partnership opportunities. In Austin Thursday, after meeting with Mayor Steve Adler, Queen Maxima hopped on a bicycle. In Houston, after meeting with Mayor Sylvester Turner, she plans to attend several discussions on water management-an area of existential concern and longtime expertise for the low-lying Netherlands. On HoustonChronicle.com: In Harveys wake, Dutch have much to teach Houston Rising sea levels and severe storms are having an enormous impact on the states coastal cities, said Consul-General Ruth Emmerink of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Miami in advance of the visit. Texas is now carrying out major projects to strengthen its coastline, for example by building a storm-surge barrier based on Dutch models. Manny Schoenhuber, an attorney in the Houston law firm Jackson Walker and member of the official delegation, noted that Queen Maximas visit comes as many European Union countries are looking to expand their economic ties with the United States, and Texas in particular, as the continent contends with high energy prices and political unrest. Schoenhuber added that he had traveled to San Francisco for the first day of Queen Maximas visit, where she was greeted by crowds wearing orange and waving Dutch Flags as she toured sites including the citys Castro district, a historic neighborhood for the LGBTQ community in the United States. It was a great start to the trip-a lot of excitement, and really a lot of energy, Schoenhuber said. The queen is just a phenomenal person. The Netherlands is one of Houstons top international trading partners, according to data from the Greater Houston Partnership, with nearly $10 billion in total trade in 2020. Queen Maximas visit to Houston comes as the world mourns Britains Queen Elizabeth II, who died Thursday aged 96 after a 70-year reign. Queen Maxima, King Willem-Alexander, and Princess Beatrixthe mother of King Willem-Alexandersaid in a statement that they will remember the British queen with deep respect and great affection. Steadfast and wise, she dedicated her long life to serving the British people, they said. We feel a strong bond with the United Kingdom and its royal family, and we share their sorrow at this time. erica.grieder@chron.com OPPOSITION MP Job Sikhalas lawyer Jeremiah Bhamu has accused the court of doctoring its order to prejudice his clients. Bhamu made the claim after magistrate Taurai Manuwere dismissed an application to have deputy prosecutor-general Michael Reza and prosecutor Lancelot Mutsokoti charged for contempt of court. The application was made by Beatrice Mtetwa on behalf of Sikhala and his co-accused Godfrey Sithole. Mtetwa and Bhamu, who are taking instructions from the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum and Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, wanted Reza and Mutsokoti charged for defying an order to furnish the defence with State papers on the case. The order was made by magistrate Feresi Chakanyuka on August 18. Sikhala and Sithole want the State papers to allow them to prepare for trial that has been set for November 21. Bhamu said the court could have doctored its papers to prejudice his clients. The written order with no timelines was erroneously written as it is different from what the court said that day, Bhamu said. An examination of the electronic record which captures what happened, if properly examined, states that the State was supposed to provide the papers at the end of day on August 18. ... Mutsokoti (...) admitted that he was aware of the directive directing the furnishing of State papers by close of business on August 18. He confirmed that that was actually what the court ordered. Yesterday, Bhamu said he did not want the court to revise the August 18 ruling, but its timelines for submission of the State papers. He said the court should order Mutsokoti to furnish him with the papers on September 12. Mutsokoti, however, sought to shift the goal posts saying he should not be bound to any date, claiming he still had more time to furnish the papers in accordance with section 382(1) of the Constitution which gives two court days before trial. Manuwere said he will rule on Bhamus application for the court to set new timelines. The magistrate said he wanted to find out if the court had the powers to do so. Newsday TNS Houston-based Amplify Energy said Thursday it has agreed to pay nearly $5 million in fines related to Octobers pipeline leak that sent 25,000 gallons of oil into the Pacific Ocean. In the proposed agreement, Amplify will plead no contest to six misdemeanor charges in Orange County Superior Court, including failure to immediately report a discharge of oil into state waters and killing protected wildlife, according to the California Attorney Generals office. If approved by the court, Amplify will pay fines to Orange County and the state totaling $4.9 million. It should come as no surprise that North America is tequilas biggest market, with Texas leading the charge. Last year, agave-based spirits were behind only vodka and whiskey in overall U.S. sales. But industry analysts predict that by the end of this year, tequila could top vodka. Whats fueling the fire? Ultra-premium tequila brands, ready-to-drink tequila products, a developing passion for mezcal and celebrity-backed hooch. Here are some new players in the market. Casa Del Sol Casa Del Sol / Casa Del Sol Co-founded by actress and Texas native Eva Longoria Baston, this tequila launched in January. The collection, including a blanco, reposado and anejo, is produced by Mexican tequila masters who are women. The anejo is aged for more than 14 months in French oak and cognac barrels and offers flavors of fruit and almonds; $100. Maverick Reposado By law, it cant be called tequila because its not distilled in Mexico, but Maverick Whiskey Distillery in San Antonio is now producing an agave spirit distilled from 100 percent blue agave nectar. With floral and fruit flavors (honeysuckle, apple blossom, green fruit and white pepper), it is designed as a take on tequila that is more drinkable and accessible to non-tequila drinkers; $75 at maverickwhiskey.com. Espolon Anejo Espolon Tequila / Espolon Tequila Houston restaurants and bars, including Cuchara and the new Todos Santos, use Espolons blanco for their margaritas. But the craft distillery in Jalisco, Mexico, also makes a sipping anejo, aged in used Wild Turkey bourbon barrels, offering notes of butterscotch, vanilla, cut grass, baking spices, hints of mango and rich flavors of roasted agave; $36. Butterfly Cannon Butterfly Cannon / Butterfly Cannon Butterfly Cannon makes a crisp silver and a rosa tequila (infused with Mexican pink grapefruit peels). But its blue, infused with prickly pear and clementine, is a unique charmer that, thanks to butterfly pea flower, changes color from blue to pink and lavender with the addition of mixers; $35. Jaja Anejo Jaja Tequila / Jaja Tequila This new company enjoys buzzy benefits from investors, the Grammy Award-winning the Chainsmokers. Jajas anejo (it also offers a blanco and reposado) is a 100 percent blue agave distillation aged for two years in American oak. It offers full-bodied flavor with notes of vanilla, almond, oak and honey; $45. Calirosa Cinco Anos Calirosa / Calirosa A new bottle from the Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine-backed tequila brand is an ultra-premium extra anejo that, like the rest of the Calirosa portfolio, is aged in California red wine barrels. The extra anejo gets a five-year finish and boasts notes of chocolate, butterscotch, spicy raisin and hints of vanilla and marshmallow; $300. Mijenta Anejo Gran Reserva Mijenta Tequila, YI / Mijenta Tequila The artisan tequila from Jalisco, Mexico, makes a blanco and reposado. But its new ultra-premium anejo is aged a minimum of 18 months in four types of oak barrels. Limited-edition Mijentas Gran Reserva offers a nose of cacao nibs, butterscotch and tobacco with flavors of dried fruits, spices and coffee; $200. Uni Crystal Blanco Uni Tequila / Uni Tequila Tequila enthusiasts enjoy silver tequilas for their true expressions of agave. Uni Tequila, a small-batch producer that uses only 100 percent organic blue agave, is in expansion mode in the U.S. The crystal tequila, aged just under two months in oak, is smooth and offers notes of citrus, pear and oaky vanilla; $80. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A couple of alligator attacks at Sugar Land's Oyster Creek have rowers concerned for their safety and puzzled by the reptiles' seemingly uncharacteristic behavior. The separate incidents occurred over the past two weeks, rowers reported, with alligators striking and biting boats from the the Greater Houston Rowing Club. Club president Dee Connors said the attacks are the first time her group has seen "aggressive" gators in the 34 years they've been rowing at Oyster Creek. "We've never had an attack," Connors said. "The alligators have always been there. You see them, (and) they'll just float away. There's plenty to eat in Oyster Creek. They have no need to chase a boat." Abnormal attacks Two weeks ago, Eugene Janssen was rowing along Oyster Creek when he accidentally hit an alligator with his oar. "The next day, an alligator came up under his boat and bit the boat," Connors recalled. Janssen said he heard a loud crunch shortly before water began to flood his carbon-fiber racing shell. He raced to get the sinking boat to shore, eventually discovering a sizeable bite mark. Courtesy He said he had often seen and taken photos of alligators during his rows, but this was the first time one had been hostile. First Colony's Homeowners Association hired a trapper who caught and relocated the alligator they believed to be the culprit. Days later, a second attack happened. Sugar Land resident Walter Pasciak reported a five-foot-long alligator struck his boat's bow while he was out rowing one morning. "When you're in one of these boats, you're going backwards," said Pasciak, who has been rowing for five years. "It felt like I hit a huge log or boulder in the water. The boat suddenly slowed down and almost stopped, and then I saw a huge swirl of water, which you see if you pass an alligator." Pasciak's boat didn't sink from the attack, but he also found bite marks he says only an alligator could have made. "I was lucky," he said. "Something like that can flip you off the boat, which can be a difficult experience when there's an aggressive alligator in the water." This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 2 1 of 2 Courtesy Show More Show Less 2 of 2 Courtesy Show More Show Less "Thousands of people have rowed on Oyster Creek for years and years," Pasciak added. "The alligators normally don't bother you." What's going on with the gators? There are a few theories about why Oyster Creek has seen a sudden influx in gator attacks. "I believe it might have been a scared young alligator or an alligator trying to protect her nest," said Connors, who believes the trappers caught the wrong gator after the first attack. Connors' theory is that the gators are angry about losing their nesting area, since the first attack happened a day after a brushy corner of the creek had been cleared out. "Someone, I assume the city, had started cleaning up that brush," Connors said. "They may have disturbed the alligators' habitat, where the gators used to hang out and a lot of them had nests." Pasciak said the gators are not intelligent enough to try to knock over a rower and likely though his boat was something edible floating on the water. Fort Bend Game Warden Ryan Powers noted it's also possible the boats just caught the alligators by surprise. "These were narrow boats that do not make any noise," Powers said, "so it's likely the boat snuck up on an alligator that was on the surface and hit the alligator, and the alligator reacted how they would in a defensive manner." FORT BEND INSIDER: Top stories and things to know from Sugar Land, Missouri City and Richmond "While there have been isolated instances in the past, no, humans are not prey to alligators," Powers added. When an alligator injured a woman in Humble this year, local wrangler Timothy DeRamus made the point that alligators normally only attack out of fear. DeRamus wrangles roughly 250 alligators a year around Houston, all alive, and takes them to Beaumont wildlife rescue Gator Country. "She scared the gator just as much as the gator scared her," DeRamus told the Chronicle in May. "They're not attack animals." Some rowers have since become leery of the Oyster Creek alligators, but Janssen, Walters and Connors remain undeterred. "There's always going to be alligators," Connors said. "If you live in Texas, you live with them. Don't harass them. This is their home. We need to be able to share the water." juhi.varma@hcnonline.com This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Almost 20 of the top pitmasters in Texas will be competing in a wild game barbecue cook off, and a Duck Dynasty celebrity is among them. Willie Robertson will join the ranks of pitmasters from across the state competing in the Doziers Pitmaster Party on Sept. 17. Tickets are $75 per person, and all proceeds go to the Fulshear Police Foundation, a 501c3 charitable organization dedicated to generating funds for the Fulshear Police Department. The Pitmaster Party draws barbecue masters from across the state, including Brett's Barbecue, Roegel's BBQ, Blood Bros BBQ, Fege's BBQ and Harlem Road BBQ. But its not typical barbecue fare, said Don McCoy, treasurer of the Fulshear Police Foundation. All the featured meats will be wild game, not chicken, pork or beef. You get to try some of the most unique foods in the world of game, McCoy said. Theres alligator tail, quail, elk and wild boar, and its all prepared in ways you wouldnt even think of. McCoy encouraged fans of traditional barbecue to expand their palates by trying out barbecued game. When you prepare meats that havent been processed or packed in a store, its a wonderful natural flavor that you just cant buy anywhere. The Pitmaster Party began two years ago when Doziers owner Jim Buchanan decided to invite all his friends in the barbecue community to join in a casual cookout. It started out as, we would just show up and throw down and make our best barbecue and have a great time, Buchanan said. The pit masters decided to take it a step farther and turn it into a fundraiser by selling tickets and donating the ticket funds. Buchanan met Robertson at a hunting event last year, and Robertson joined the list of competing pitmasters. The two formed a friendship, and now theyve also collaborated on a line of game seasonings. As part of the Pitmaster competition, Doziers has partnered with Duck Commander, the official merchandising brand of Duck Dynasty, to create a special line of wild game seasoning rubs. These rubs have a seasoning profile that matches with venison or elk or moose. Another has a seasoning profile that matches with feral pork or wild birds, Buchanan explained. Im not trying to be biased, but theyre delicious, McCoy added. Doziers has been a cornerstone of the Fulshear community since 1957. As the Fulshear community expands, so too does Doziers acclaim, McCoy said. Doziers has been serving barbecue for more than 50 years, so theyve always been an area icon, but now theyre moving up the ranks as one of the best places in Texas, which of course makes them the best in the nation, he said, laughing. WATERBORO, Maine (AP) A New Hampshire man who struggled with police during an arrest in Maine was shot and killed by a sheriff's deputy, officials said. Tyler Woodburn, 30, of Newmarket, New Hampshire, died at the scene early Wednesday evening, York County Sheriff William King said. WAKE FOREST, N.C. (AP) A man has been charged with murder after police said he turned up at a North Carolina police department to report a dead woman in his car. Wake Forest police officers responded to a report of a shooting at a gas station on Wednesday, but couldn't find a victim, police said in a statement. More than an hour later, police in neighboring Youngsville reported that a man arrived at the police department there to report a dead woman in his car in the parking lot. HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) Hundreds of striking nurses prepared to return to work as their union announced a tentative contract agreement Friday with 13 of 14 nursing homes across Pennsylvania. After reaching agreement with Comprehensive Healthcare on Thursday, SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania announced Friday that bargainers had come to terms with a second operator, Priority Healthcare. Houston Chronicle file An HPD assistant chief of police who had been with the department since 1930 was relieved of duty following a prank that was pulled on a 19-year-old secretary for the department. Details of the prank weren't specified, but Heard said "his acts were not conductive to good police morale or discipline and certainly were acts unbecoming an officer." A man accused of killing two people and wounding another told Houston police officers that shooting the three was a calling from God after learning that they had been practicing witchcraft, according to authorities. The long-haired defendant, Nathan Miller, appeared Friday in the 184th District Court for a judge to set bail nearly a week after his arrest in connection to a Sept. 3 shooting in Acres Home. Prosecutors read portions of the probable cause documents to show that he waited partially unclothed and muddied in a gas station parking lot for police to arrive following a report of a weapons disturbance. He then led the officers to the shooting scene a wooded area with shipping containers. Miller told police that he did not anticipate that anyone would still be alive, officials said. The people he shot were casting spells on him. He named several family members he said were doing the same thing. prosecutor Michael Hanover said in court, describing Millers remarks to investigators. Read more: Harris County Jail out of compliance for booking time amid rising population and courts backlog, report says An officer left Miller in the back of a cruiser and went to investigate the lot. Millers cousin, Carlos Canales, was found shot to death in one shipping container. Police found a woman, Dayeisha Finley, with fatal gunshot wounds to the back of her head in a pathway leading to a car, Hanover continued. An officer yelled out for survivors and heard a man cry out from behind one of the containers. The man, who had gunshot wounds to the neck, head and torso, had been lying there for about six hours before police found him, according to court records. He was rushed to Ben Taub hospital, where he remains in critical condition. Judge Kelli Johnson visited from another court to decide bail in Millers case. She ordered that Miller be held on $1 million bail an amount that the district attorneys office requested. Millers defense attorney, J. Julio Vela, said Miller, an Army veteran on disability, would be unable to afford that bail amount and recommended $100,000 instead. He has two siblings in the Houston area. A childhood friend of Millers, Norma Garces, learned of Miller's arrest in news reports and had hoped to see him in court. She waited in the hall for a bailiff to tell her when to come inside but he never came for her, she said. She wept after learning the hearing was over. Hes really not a terrible person, Garces said. CRIME IN HOUSTON: Man dies from multiple stab wounds outside Houston hotel. Hanover described the allegations as what seems on paper to be a spontaneous, murderous event but little is known about what prompted the shootings. Elements of intoxication and mental health may have contributed, he continued. He has a recorded history of having an unspecified psychosis, Hanover said. At this time, neither side has a detailed understanding of what caused this defendant to go into the murderous rage that is alleged. The judge said she would be contacting the Harris County Jail to make sure he receives the medical services he needs. Miller lacks a felony criminal history in Harris County. He accepted a plea in a misdemeanor charge in 2016 for giving alcohol to minors. nicole.hensley@chron.com A man died after being found lying in front of a hotel suffering from multiple stab wounds. Houston police responded to a report of an injured man appearing to be in his mid-30s early Friday in front of a Courtyard by Marriott on the 15000 block of John F. Kennedy Boulevard in north Houston. The man had suffered wounds to his groin and chest area, a police spokesman told ONSCENE.TV. He was taken to a hospital by ambulance, where he died. EX-NFL PLAYER TO APPEAR IN COURT: Kevin Ware stabbed, strangled girlfriend, court docs state. Witnesses described hearing what sounded like someone falling down and heard commotion outside. They then found the man bleeding outside. Police believe there may have been another person with him at the time of the stabbing, whom police are speaking to. No other information is available. Monkeypox infection rates are slowing in Houston, data shows, with health officials pointing to changing behavior as the key reason for the decline. The 14-day average of daily new cases dropped by 43 percent, from .23 cases per 100,000 people, to .13, between Aug. 23 and Sept. 2, the last day for which data is available. As of Wednesday, Houston and Harris County had recorded a combined total of 693 cases. POSSIBLE MONKEYPOX DEATH: Harris County investigating whether patient's death is first U.S. monkeypox casualty Dr. David Persse, Houston chief medical officer, said he thinks its too early to attribute the drop to vaccinations, which became available in Houston in late July. Most people have yet to receive full protection from their second dose, administered about a month after the first dose. I believe the change is largely because of individuals changing behavior and thinking twice about some of the high-risk behaviors, Persse said during a Thursday Q&A session with reporters. While anyone can contract monkeypox, most infections have been concentrated among men who have sex with men through close or intimate contact. People who have sex with multiple or new partners are most at risk, according to the World Health Organization. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends several ways to lower the risk during sex, including limiting the number of partners and wearing protection such as condoms or gloves. More than 5,200 people have received their first dose of the vaccine from the Houston Health Department. Harris County Public Health has administered the first dose to an additional 3,600 people. Persse and Dr. Erick Brown, Harris Countys local health authority, said there are plenty of doses left and encouraged eligible people to schedule appointments by calling Houstons hotline at 832-393-4220 or Harris Countys hotline at 832-927-0707. Id like to strongly emphasize we are not out of the woods, Brown said. julian.gill@chron.com This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The judge asked Robert Solis shackled and clutching a stack of papers if he would be representing himself in a capital murder case where prosecutors seek to have him put to death. The judge asked him a second time, but Solis, 50, ultimately decided on Friday to stick with his court-appointed lawyers. Jury selection started Friday morning and, in a months time, his trial in connection to the 2019 killing of Harris County Sheriffs Office Deputy Sandeep Dhaliwal will begin. This trial, in an essence, has already begun, Judge Chris Morton at one point said. The question led to a lengthy ex-parte hearing Friday before Morton, forced onlookers out of the ceremonial courtroom purportedly so Solis could waive his attorney-client privileged and outline his grievances against the trio. A handful of prosecutors had gathered to watch whether Solis would choose to represent himself. Morton presented Solis with two choices: That he hire an attorney or represent himself. I am unable to afford counsel, Solis said. Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer He told the judge, if possible, he would like to reserve the right to represent himself if the need arises. You cannot assert that right to be disruptive or delay the trial, Morton said. MURDER IN HOUSTON: Man accused of killing two because of witchcraft makes first court appearance. Solis is accused of killing Dhaliwal, a father of three and trailblazing Sikh who fought for his right to wear a turban and beard while serving as a Harris County deputy. A post office in Harris County was later renamed in tribute to the slain deputy. He was fatally shot in September 2019 during a traffic stop. Associated Press Solis had a warrant for a parole violation at the time of the shooting. Solis has attempted to seek another round of court-appointed lawyers for months taking exception in detailed court records that the lawyers Allen Isbell, Jimmy Ortiz and Mandy Miller have failed to communicate with him and treat him instead as a wayward child rather than a client. Miller attempted to defend her client during the tense back-and-forth and encouraged him to limit what he says. I dont think this is the appropriate forum or in the clients best interest, Miller said. FATAL STABBING: Man dies after being found outside Houston hotel, suffering from multiple stab wounds. Solis complained that the lawyers would not relay his desire for new counsel during prior court appearances. Throughout the motion hearing on Friday, the defendant appeared to grasp some of the case law he used to back up his arguments. Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Earlier that morning, a panel of more than 130 jurors were assembled in the ceremonial courtroom to fill out a questionaire in anticipation of the trial. The process of picking a jury for a death penalty case will typically last a month with prosecutors and defense attorneys questioning each potential juror individually. Some jurors expressed their desire to not return on Monday, court officials said. Solis is being held without bail in the meantime. The last time Harris County jurors sentenced someone to death was Lucky Ward in 2020. nicole.hensley@chron.com This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate At the Red Lion British Pub, the crowd was somber as a broadcast about the queens death aired on TV Thursday afternoon. The Union Jack, the flag of the United Kingdom, flew at half-staff over the Montrose tavern in honor of Her Majesty. British Houstonians mourned Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-reigning monarch in Britains history, who died Thursday at Balmoral Castle, her summer residence in Scotland. She was 96. Guy Streatfeild, who is from Kent, England, has owned the British Isles Market in Rice Village for 30 years. We heard that she was ill, which was very emotional. And then when she died, it was incredibly sad, he said. Shes been part of our lives for so long, and everything shes done has been for the good for her, her family, her country, the Commonwealth, and truly the world. She will be tremendously missed, but her legacy will live on. Marnie Leishman,who has worked at British Isles for two years, moved with her family to the United States 18 years ago. She was emotional on Thursday. We all started tearing up, and I was thinking I dont even know why Im crying, she said. I dont know her, but shes an integral part of my culture. I go back to England every single year and stop by the palace. Texas visit When Queen Elizabeth made her first trip to Texas in 1991, Mayor Kathy Whitmire hosted her Houston visit, accompanying her and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, to sites including Johnson Space Center and the Texas Medical Center. At a dinner at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, that night, the royals met Gov. Ann Richards. Prince Philip famously commented that Texas was run entirely by women, Whitmire recalls. I think we made an impression. The queen was a presence throughout Whitmires entire life, she said. She remembers watching the young queens royal coronation in 1953 when Whitmire was just 7. By 1982, Whitmire became the first woman elected mayor of Houston. She served five consecutive, two-year terms until 1991, the year Elizabeth visited Houston during a three-city tour of the Lone Star State. It was certainly a highlight to have the queen of England as my guest, Whitmire said. I took her to Antioch Missionary Baptist Church (in Beaumont), which was great fun. She appeared to be thoroughly enjoying herself. A gospel choir performed that day. Whitmires royal charge tapped her toe to the music and waved a cardboard fan to keep cool. The royals also visited San Antonio and Dallas. Houston was their last Texas stop. Whitmire and her team took great care planning several events. They wanted to show off the Bayou Citys diversity, economic drivers and culture. The royals met heart surgeon Dr. Michael DeBakey at the Medical Center, toured Mission Control at Johnson Space Center and listened as a high school chorus sang Home on the Range at City Hall, where the queen signed the citys guestbook. Houstons social queen Lynn Wyatt said she met Queen Elizabeth just once, but their brief interaction made a lasting impression. Wyatt was invited to a private theater performance while traveling abroad. I was seated on the front row, and on the left side, seated just two people down, the queen was there, she recalls. After the play, I got up and curtsied to her. She said, Oh, Lynn, Im so glad youre here. I told her I wouldnt have missed it for the world. For Queen Elizabeth to remember my name it touched my heart. She was lovely, Wyatt said. Philanthropist Joanne King Herring was first acquainted with Prince Philip, who died in April 2021, when she assisted his efforts to save the Old Vic Theatre. In the mid-1980s, after funds were secured to restore the 1,000-seat nonprofit theater in London, Herring was invited to a small party at Buckingham Palace with the royal prince. When I met him I said, You are my fantasy, and everybody gasped, Herring said. I told him I always thought the one thing I could never really do was waltz with him at Buckingham Palace. So he invited her to dance. He ruined my life, I had to come up with a new fantasy, she said. A shock For William Delgado the news was a shock. Great Britain is going through so much right now; with the new prime minister and the queen dying, its just really tough on the country, said Delgado, 30, who was shopping in Rice Village with his mother Dorothy, 73, who is English. Im having trouble thinking about how Britains going to go on without her. My mom and I are scheduled to travel there next week, and I have a friend flying there today. Its a state of shock. I havent felt this much shock since Pope John Paul II passed away. Phillip Taylor, event manager of the Red Lion, said: Its the end of an Elizabethan age. She brought the monarchy out of the arcane nature, into a welcome and open monarchy. She will be sorely missed by all of the nations of the Commonwealth. When two pit bulls charged Johnny English as he delivered mail to a customers home on his route in north Houston, he had few options but to jump into the back of a parked pickup truck to protect himself. I just jumped on the guy's car, English said. I didn't have time to do nothing else. Mail carriers like English encounter dogs so often on their mail-delivery routes that the United States Postal Service issues them dog spray a repellant that contains a cayenne pepper extract to carry along with them. When dogs attack or threaten to attack, mail carriers can take measures to protect themselves, including pausing mail service. In Houston, carriers have reported some of the highest numbers of dog attacks in the country over the last five years: the city ranked No. 1 for dog attacks from 2017 to 2020, and No. 2 in 2021. In 2021 Cleveland overtook Houston, reporting 62 bites compared to Houstons 56. Cleveland, along with Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas, consistently ranks in the top 10 for USPS dog-bite incidents. Since Houston has one dog for every two people, the most of any U.S. city, its inevitable that postal carriers in the city interact regularly with dogs on their routes. USPS carriers look for things like dog tracks, food bowls and dog toys to signal a dog may be present at a home. When carriers think a threatening animal is present, they have the authority to pause mail service to the residents home. When service is suspended, the customers mail is held at their local post office until the issue can be resolved. Kanickewa Johnson, a USPS strategic communications specialist, said that when mail service is suspended because of a dog issue, the carrier reports the situation to a supervisor who will handle the issue on a case-by-case basis. Johnson said keeping the dog inside a house or a fence is not always enough to resolve the situation since many dogs can escape their yards by climbing or jumping over fences or opening gates. Courtesy of Roland Hernandez We've seen most of our dog incidents occur when carriers do approach the customer's door to deliver a package or something that requires a signature, and the dog comes out, Johnson said. Johnson said there is no time limit for how long mail service can be suspended because of a dangerous animal. She said that in some cases, supervisors will try to make contact with customers directly by going to their home and speaking with the owner about steps that need to be taken. Otherwise, customers may be sent a notice through the mail to inform them that their service has been suspended. It is unclear how such notices would be received if mail service has already been suspended. Beyond using their USPS-issued dog spray, carriers are trained to use their mail bags as makeshift shields to protect themselves when a dog approaches them on their route. English said anytime he sees a dog, he makes sure the bag is between him and the animal just in case. We have different strategies, said Dominique Cruz, a mail carrier for the North Shepherd post office. We try to walk quietly, and make sure that we are watching out around us. Sometimes we jiggle our keys. Unfortunately for Cruz, these strategies were not enough to protect her one day in 2017 when a customers dog ran from inside the house and bit her leg as she tried to deliver mail to a home. The attack left Cruz with a large wound in her right leg. It doesn't just impact them physically, it also impacts them mentally, Johnson said. In some cases, they're unable to go back and resume doing their normal day-to-day duties that they were hired to do because they are still suffering mentally. Though dogs present some of the more dangerous animal-related threats to mail carriers, other pets and wildlife can also disrupt mail service to residents. Swooping birds and hissing cats are not uncommon encounters for carriers, said Kanickewa Johnson, a USPS strategic communications specialist. Customers who believe their mail has been suspended for any reason can either call 1-800-ASK-USPS (1-800-275-8777) or contact their local post office, Johnson said. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate In September 1962, President John F. Kennedy came to Houston and announced a dramatic plan to get Americans to the moon and then come back. Nearly 60 years after Kennedys historic speech, Vice President Kamala Harris, a self-described space nerd, came to Houston to promote ideas on how to get to space and stay up there. Today, as was the case 60 years ago, our nations leadership in space is critical to our economic prosperity, to our scientific and technological progress and, in a time of increasing great-power rivalry, to our national security, Harris said. Harris on Friday spoke during her first visit to the space center, where she led a meeting of the National Space Council, a group of senior federal officials that coordinates policy between NASA and other agencies involved with space. Harris is the chairperson of the council. Before Fridays meeting, the White House announced that more than a dozen commercial space companies - including Blue Origin, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman - had agreed to partner with community colleges, technical schools, and unions to open three space-related training pilot programs in Florida, Southern California and on the Gulf Coast between Louisiana and Mississippi. Harris called the announcement a step toward preparing larger numbers of American workers to work in space-related jobs, in both civil and commercial positions. The agencies involved in space council are seeking to expand the number of people working in science, technology, engineering and math fields, to find ways to use space technology to analyze and address climate change and to develop rules and norms to govern space activities as more countries expand their own space programs. Harris arrived at NASAs Mission Control Center just after 10 a.m., and briefly spoke to the three U.S. astronauts aboard the International Space Station from the flight directors desk. Thank you for your excellence, thank you for your service, Harris said to the astronauts. Later, Harris chaired the council meeting from inside NASAs space vehicle mock-up facility. where astronauts train on the equipment theyll eventually use in space. The council table was buttressed by a model of the new Orion space capsule - the spaceship being tested on the soon-to-launch Artemis I mission -- and two modules that simulated the International Space Station on the other. NASA astronauts, space center employees, and elected officials, as well as science students from Houstons Wheatley High School, were in the audience for the meeting. Harris and other speakers said that the growing space industry needed not only engineers and scientists, but highly trained technical workers, like welders and machinists to continue sending more rockets, satellites and other technology to support permanent missions the moon, Mars and beyond. Without question space is an exciting way to get my students engaged in STEM, said Pablo Banda, a science teacher at Houstons Charles H. Milby High School who spoke as a panelist during the council meeting. Banda said his school partnered with NASA to develop science lessons and experiments, and allowed students to visit the space center and see the wide variety of jobs needed there. Many of my students dont know the opportunities that are out there and end up creating their goals based on what theyre exposed to, Banda said. My students need to see that theres a job in the space sector for everyone. Harris announced during the meeting that she had asked the Department of Education to create a space-based STEM program within the next 90 days. While the Artemis rocket launch in recent weeks has captured the most high-profile attention Harris and the council spent little time discussing that project and the difficulties that have caused NASA to twice cancel launches. Instead, the council briefed Harris on the ongoing initiatives through various government agencies that are meant to help support and regulate the growing commercial space industry. Officials talked about the need to increase the speed in which defunct satellites are removed from orbit and to have plans for regulations for mining material from the surface of the moon. "The universe is the future, said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. There's no limit to what we're going to see. john.ferguson@chron.com At least two people were injured in a shooting at Uvalde park in what authorities described as a "gang-related shooting." Late Thursday night, authorities said that four people were in custody and being questioned about the shooting, though police hadn't announced any charges related to the shooting as of 9:30 p.m. At 5:55 p.m. the Uvalde Police Department published a Facebook post asking people to stay away from Uvalde Memorial Park. The department said it was "investigating a shooting with injured victims." The police department was called about the shooting at 5:30 p.m. according to the post. In a tweet, the Texas Department of Public Safety said it was responding to the incident and called it a "suspected gang-related shooting." Two shooting victims were flown to San Antonio for treatment, according to KSAT reporter Leigh Waldman. Their condition weren't available on Thursday night, according to police. On May 24, 19 children and two adults were killed in a shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. Uvalde Memorial Park is about 1.5 miles from the elementary school. The park is not the location of the public memorial to Uvalde victims. New York Times reporter J. David Goodman reported the shooting was an incident between rival gangs that left several people injured, but no one killed. Goodman cited State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who said he had spoken to Uvalde's mayor. Gov. Greg Abbott late Thursday issued a statement saying he was "outraged to learn that gang violence" endangered the Uvalde community. Abbott said he directed DPS troopers to increase patrols in "gang hotspots" and had sent six additional trooper units to the city. Abbott said DPS would send special agents to target five gangs in the city. john.ferguson@chron.com State Rep. Gary VanDeaver didnt know his legislative district near the Oklahoma-Arkansas border had the most Texans per capita waiting for intellectual and developmental disability services, but he isnt necessarily surprised. His district which includes Lamar, Red River, Bowie and Franklin counties has a poverty rate higher than the state average. His constituents have less access to doctors. The rural nature of this district, and the social economics of this district, is just a perfect storm, said VanDeaver, a Republican from New Boston. For individuals with challenges, theres just not the resources for them. A Houston Chronicle investigation published in July found that there are nearly 200,000 Texans waiting for care through one of the six Medicaid waiver programs for individuals with disabilities, which use state and federal funds to get people care in the community instead of in an institution. Some have waited for nearly 20 years. The problem, experts say, is that lawmakers have repeatedly failed to fund waiver programs appropriately to meet the needs of disabled Texans. More Information To add someone to a Medicaid waiver program waitlist, contact your local intellectual and developmental disability authority (You can search for your LIDDA's telephone number here) and call 1-877-438-5658. See More Collapse Data recently obtained by the Chronicle breaks down the waitlists by legislative district, giving one of the first glimpses of where the most people are waiting for help: rural areas, where poverty rates are high and services are scarce. The 10 state legislative districts with the most people per capita waiting for a waiver in fiscal year 2021 have poverty rates that are sometimes 120 percent higher than the state average of 14.7 percent, according to an analysis of the 2015-2019 American Community Survey data by the Texas Legislative Council. And lawmakers who represent these districts consistently vote for legislation that supports the intellectual and developmental disability community. VanDeaver voted in favor of 84 percent of the 25 legislative measures examined by the Chronicle since the 2015 session. He said he tries to use a common-sense approach when voting on topics from disability to health care to education. Some of these pieces of legislation are important and move the needle, VanDeaver said. If it seems to be something that would provide an opportunity for people in my district, then I vote for it. Stephen Spillman Three of the districts, including VanDeavers, are in northeast Texas. Four are in the Rio Grande Valley. One includes counties where at least 98 percent of residents live in a primary care desert. None of the districts include major metropolitan cities. In fact, the first Houston district to show up in the data was in 52nd place Rep. Senfronia Thompsons 141st district. Ashley Ford, an intellectual and developmental disability advocate, was struck by the fact that the districts with the most individuals on the waitlist were in more rural areas, not cities, including urban districts with high levels of poverty. Poverty and lack of access to health care in rural communities could explain some of the disparities, she said. But she thinks other factors could be at play. My leading theory is that it is due to the local community outreach efforts and close-knit community ties in those areas, said Ford, the director of public policy and advocacy for The Arc of Texas, an organization that advocates for the rights of intellectually and developmentally disabled Texans. Schools, doctors offices and advocacy groups are going to be referring people to get on the list. Living in poverty Sen. Eddie Lucio, Jr., has been hearing from families waiting for Medicaid waiver services for decades. Since the 1990s, his constituents have filed into his office or left him voice mails, detailing the devastating impact of waiting a decade or more for care. It would bother anybody, said Lucio, a Democrat from Brownsville. Lucios district is one of four in the Rio Grande Valley that have the top 10 most people per capita on the waitlist. Tom Reel/Staff photographer In fiscal year 2021, there were nearly 3,000 people per 100,000 on the waitlist in Lucios district, which includes parts of Cameron, Hidalgo, Kenedy, Kleberg and Willacy counties. Nearly 30 percent of people in his district are living in poverty. And because that rate is so high, experts say getting private pay services is likely out of the question. If you look at the socioeconomic indicators (of the top 10 districts), it would make sense that people in these areas of Texas would need assistance, Ford said. Private pay is less of a thing theyre able to do. This is especially true because the counties in Lucios district have an uninsured rate for people under 65 years old of 21.7 percent to 41.4 percent, according to 2020 data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Statewide, about 20 percent of people under 65 in Texas were uninsured in 2020, the data shows. That means theyre forced to wait. In the face of an ever-growing Medicaid waiver waitlist, the state has invested in safety net services, meant to serve as a stop gap for individuals waiting for a waiver. $60 million budget cut But those services, provided on a community level by Local Intellectual and Developmental Disability Authorities, were decimated by a $60 million budget cut from the Legislature in 2011. Experts say theyve never recovered. As of March, nearly 170,000 people were waiting for care through a Medicaid waiver program, and about 18,300 were waiting for safety net services. One of the authorities the entry points for publicly funded disability programs that serves Lucios district is Tropical Texas Behavioral Health in Edinburg. It had more than 2,600 people waiting for safety net services in March. The demand for community-based services exceeds available resources, Lucio said. Lucio knows that his constituents desperately need the help of Medicaid waivers and his voting record shows it. The Chronicle examined legislative voting records for more than two dozen bills and budget amendments related to intellectual and developmental disabilities dating back to the 2015 session. Those measures include creating a Statewide Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Coordinating Council, developing a questionnaire for disabled people waiting for a Medicaid waiver program to better determine their needs and spending $8 million over two years for a pilot program that would create additional housing for some people who received care through a Medicaid waiver. Lucio didnt vote no on a single one. Texas ranks very low nationally on caring for special needs, Lucio said, so he focused on trying to find solutions. Its important for me to continue to work and be an advocate on this issue, he said. Lucio is retiring this year after three decades in office. But he hopes that lawmakers continue to allocate funds to help people with disabilities next session. Not all lawmakers appeared to have that approach. Rep. Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler, voted against 40 percent of the 25 bills and amendments examined. Schaefer, who could not be reached for comment, had the 32th most people per capita on the waitlist in fiscal year 2021, with nearly 2,000 people per 100,000. Rep. Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington, had an even smaller ratio of people on the waitlist, with about 1,300 people per 100,000. He voted against 44 percent of the measures. Tinderholt could not be reached for comment. Jon Shapley/Staff photographer Health care access While the inability to pay for private services could increase the number of people on the waitlist in each district, so, too, could access to health care in general. For example, the House district in northeast Texas recently vacated by state Rep. Chris Paddie had the 9th largest number of people on the waitlist per capita about 2,700 people per 100,000 in fiscal year 2021. Two of the counties in his former district, District 9 Sabine and Shelby were highlighted in a recent national study that found 98 percent or more of their residents lived in a primary care provider desert. The study, published last year by researchers with the prescription drug discount platform GoodRx, used data from the Health Resources and Services Administration to find population-toprovider ratios by county. The administration has a target ratio of 3,000 patients per full-time provider. Sabine County has 7,357 residents per provider, the study found, and Shelby County has 101,408 residents per provider. Burke, the intellectual and developmental disability authority in Lufkin, serves a portion of the districts constituents. In a statement, Burkes CEO Melanie Taylor said its counties do have a high population of low income, and most are considered underserved. She added that the authority is very vigilant in ensuring that its families add their names to the list. Community outreach Ashley Ford, the advocate at the Arc, grew up in Paris, Texas, which is located in VanDeavers district. She knows first hand that the area is a tight-knit community, where residents look out for each other where families and advocacy groups would implore their fellow Texans to add their names to a Medicaid waiver waitlist, and to do so early. It explains why VanDeavers district had nearly 3,500 people per 100,000 on the waitlist for services in fiscal year 2021, she said the highest in the state. Though the poverty rate in the district cant be ignored at nearly 17 percent, Ford believes it goes beyond that. The same is true for the other districts with the most people per capita on the list. Spindletop Center in Beaumont is the local authority that serves Rep. Joe Deshotels district, in part of Jefferson County. Elizabeth Conley/Staff photographer Deshotels district has nearly 3,100 people per 100,000 waiting for care in fiscal year 2021. Although the poverty rate is nearly 22 percent, Lisa Gibbs, Chief Intellectual and Developmental Disability Officer for Spindletop, said community outreach likely is the main reason so many people are on the waitlist in Deshotels district. Spindletop partners with their local Arc of Texas office to promote the list. They reach out to school districts to let them know they can provide referrals to in-house diagnosticians that will help people sign up for the Medicaid waivers. The last thing they want is for a family to find out about the Medicaid waivers when their child graduates from high school, she said, only to learn they could be waiting for two or more decades for services. Every opportunity we have to let people know they need to get on the list as soon as possible, we do, Gibbs said. Twenty-one years ago this month, days after terrorists flew planes into the Twin Towers, thousands gathered at the gates of Buckingham Palace as royal brass musicians, on order of the queen, broke with centuries-old tradition, marking the changing of the guard by playing The Star-Spangled Banner. An old TV clip of that day in 2001, widely shared on social media Thursday, shows people singing, waving mini American flags and wiping away tears as the American anthem rang outside the halls of royalty in London. The moment is fondly remembered by many Americans as one of solidarity between Great Britain and the American people but today, as we mourn the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, it takes on even greater meaning. Its a reminder that the royal pageantry and tradition often diminished by critics as superfluous anachronisms that ring hollow in our modern times also have the power to comfort in crises, inspire amid despair and resonate over oceans. Theres a reason why world leaders, including many U.S. presidents, bowed before her and why her visits were greeted with such fanfare, including her 1991 trip to Texas, where she toured mission control at NASA, the VA medical center with renowned heart surgeon Michael DeBakey, and went home with a pair of cowboy boots for her and her husband Prince Philip red alligator for her, black ostrich for him - made by Houston bootmaker Rocky Carroll, who had also made boots for President George H. W. Bush. She was grand in a fast-food world starved for grandeur, she was a beacon of stability through times of tumult, and she was a queen who, decade after decade, proved herself truly worthy of the title. When news broke Thursday of Elizabeths death at the age of 96, ending a reign spanning 70 years, 15 British prime ministers and every American president from Harry Truman to Joe Biden, the responses on social media were disorientingly disparate. Some reveled like tabloid editors, posting memes poking fun at her familys knack for folly and dysfunction, and the queens own proclivities and controversies: her aloofness, her strained relationship with Princess Diana and silence after her death, her inability to keep Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in the royal orbit. Many Brits, meanwhile, seem to grieve as though theyve lost a grandmother. Shes the only constant weve had in our lives, said one of the many London taxi drivers who had lined up outside Buckingham Palace to pay respects. Im trying to write a column and I find myself in tears, tweeted the conservative British-American writer Andrew Sullivan. I fear that everything she exemplified restraint, duty, grace, reticence, persistence are disappearing from the world. A great many of us are nodding our heads at that sentiment, even those of us Americans who otherwise applaud social progress and agitate to hasten its pace, who prefer elections to royal blood lines and transparency to opaque governance, rigid class hierarchies and colonialism. The truth is that the death of the modern worlds longest-serving monarch presents a bit of an inkblot test: those shedding tears are more likely to view traditions and institutions with some regard, perhaps even reverence; those partying in Twitterverse are more likely to view them with skepticism, even contempt. This editorial board prefers to give them the benefit of the doubt, to know and understand the rules before we call for tearing them down. Thats not always the Houston way, of course. This is a city of new money, where audacity eats etiquette for lunch, where billions are made at white-clothed tables where nobody can even tell you the proper positioning of a salad fork, and where beloved landmarks are preserved with a fresh coat of pavement. Here in America, in our harried, workaholic culture, stripped down of all but trace amounts of pomp that we reserve for weddings, inaugurations and the Oscars, how profoundly we feel the loss of a queen who lived in opulence a continent away might come down to one surprising thing: humility. Hows that? No matter what you think about the future of the monarchy, or whether youve watched even one episode of The Crown, the world just lost a precious link to our history, a wise woman who personified strength at a time when few women got the chance a leader who reigned through crises most of us have only read about in books. Weve lost a world leader who may have had nominal political power but whose example through decades of selfless duty to her country inspired her subjects and people across the globe. My whole life, whether it be long or short, Princess Elizabeth declared in a 1947 radio broadcast to listeners across the British empire and former colonies, shall be devoted to your service and to the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong. She never strayed from that commitment. She was steadfast, some would say to a fault. In her time as queen, the world transformed around her even as she largely refused to. Independence movements in colonized nations across the British Empire began before she was crowned and continued well into her reign. The 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s saw the successful strivings for independence of dozens of nations that had been colonized by the crown as part of a global empire that the sun, the saying went, never set on. Even in 2022, there were still nations looking to oust the queen as head of state. In recent years, the royal family has increasingly been pushed to recognize its historic role in the slave trade, colonization, pillaging, and violence that brought the crown so much of its wealth. For many, the royal family is associated not with pageantry but with economic devastation and mass starvation brought about by British rule. The 1943 Bengal famine, more a result of policy than a lack of rain, killed up to 3 million people. This year, when members of the royal family visited Jamaica where calls for reparations have been echoed for decades they were met by protesters with signs that read Apologize now, according to the Associated Press. Kings, Queens and Princesses and Princes belong in fairytales, NOT in Jamaica! read another. Still, the complexity of the queens relationship with former colonies was evident Thursday in a statement by Jamaicas Prime Minister Andrew Holness: It was with great and profound sadness, that I learnt of the passing of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II We join our brothers and sisters in the Commonwealth in mourning her passing, and pray for the comfort of the members of her family, and the people of the United Kingdom, as they grieve the loss of their beloved Queen and matriarch. In the end, the queen did not find a way to move the monarchy into the 21st century and to reckon with the ongoing consequences of imperialism that have left the world more unequal, more unstable and more vulnerable to disaster climate, refugee and otherwise. Has her failure to evolve the monarchy left it so brittle it has, as some argue, become irrelevant? King Charles III will no doubt discover the answer as he inherits the crown. Wed say hes got big shoes to fill, but given the the queen was reported to be a dainty U.S. size 6, wed say the measure of her legacy is found instead in peoples hearts. Her own heart, she told them in a radio address in 1957, acknowledging her largely symbolic role, was really all she had to give them. Judging by the tears this week, it was mutual. As Americans, we are each guaranteed the freedom of speech. Nothing is more sacrosanct or more American than exercising that freedom. As free speech advocates, we dont have to like what others might say, but we respect their right to say it. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel is complicated even for those paying attention; simply put, the voices promoting it in this country want to believe a diplomatic and economic boycott against Israel will force their hand at the negotiating table, helping manifest a two-state solution to the long-lingering stalemate between Israel and her Palestinian neighbors. However, BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti has said, We oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No Palestinian, rational Palestinian, not a sell-out Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine. By preaching this kind of antisemitism and the delegitimization of Israel, Barghouti makes peace less likely. Does this movement have the right to boycott Israel? Yes. Do I have the right to oppose their boycott and fight it? Absolutely. And so does the state of Texas. While Texas cannot dictate to citizens what they can or cannot say, or what policy positions they can or cannot take, it is their prerogative to decide whether or not the government should do business with those who seek to undermine our democratic ally, Israel. A 2017 state law aimed at supporting Israel has garnered criticism, including in a recent op-ed, that claims Texas was restricting an individuals right to free speech by setting guidelines and boundaries for the states commercial dealings. The law requires companies entering a contract with the state to affirm that they do not boycott Israel. The criticism of the law tries to link Israel to the debates and boycotts over firearms, fossil fuels or Russias unjust war against Ukraine, and attempts to bring a moral equivalence to a discussion about a movement that has openly sought to destroy an open and democratic nation like Israel. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed a law protecting Israel from economic boycotts being coordinated by countries seeking Israels destruction many of whom have now signed peace agreements with their former enemy. Forty-five years later, the new sponsors of these boycotts are corporations and non-government organizations that believe that the greatest human rights abuses are happening in Israel, a liberal democracy, and not places like China, Syria, North Korea or Iran. Israel is not a perfect place, but in a world in which Israel, an open and democratic society with a strong judicial system, is targeted by those who seek her destruction, were proud of our state legislators for recognizing the real voices behind the BDS movement and for making clear Texas refusal to reward those who discriminate against the only Jewish state in the world. In addition to many rabbinic colleagues, we know that many Jewish and non-Jewish Texans join us in advocating for Israels sovereignty and purpose as an unequivocal ally of the United States. Brian Strauss is the senior rabbi of Congregation Beth Yeshurun. David Lyon is the senior rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel. The first time Susan Hays tried marijuana, she was a teenage hell-raiser hanging out with a couple dozen friends, drinking beers and swimming until the early morning in Pecan Bayou, near Brownwood, her hometown. It was Mexican hell-weed, Hays remembered in a recent phone interview of the 3 joints her friends bought for $5. She didnt know then how to smoke properly to inhale so she didnt get high. All it did was put her to sleep in the backseat of the car. Now, Hays is a weed evangelist of sorts and the Democratic candidate for Texas agriculture commissioner. She has made medical marijuana expansion, decriminalization and legalization the centerpiece of her campaign as she seeks to become the first Democrat in 30 years to win statewide office. The issue is a politically powerful one, and the winds of public opinion seem to be blowing in her direction. Although Texas is among the most restrictive states in the country for accessing marijuana, its available medicinally in all surrounding states, and its fully legal for adult recreational use in neighboring New Mexico and nearby Colorado. A recent UT/Tyler poll showed 55 percent of Texans support legalization and more than 70 percent supported medical marijuana. TEXAS TAKE: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox Incumbent Sid Miller, a Trump-endorsed Republican who Hays will face in the November election, has also advocated for expansion of medical marijuana in Texas. In an op-ed over the summer, Miller said he wants the governor, the Legislature and others to come together and set aside our political differences to have an honest conversation about cannabis, without stating specifically what hes in favor of or how hed like to see the law changed. In terms of specifics on how to achieve this, I have said that I am willing to work with anyone on any idea that puts these products in the right hands and keeps them out of the wrong hands. That will be the challenge in the next legislative session. I see part of my role as that of an advocate for those who are suffering; Ill be urging all involved to not worry about who gets credit for what lets just get the job done, Miller said in a statement sent via email from a spokesman. State records show the hemp industry has struggled to find a foothold in Texas, its growth stunted by the pandemic and this years severe drought. There were 1,138 hemp production licenses given out in 2020, the first year of the program, according to data provided by the Texas Department of Agriculture. The licenses must be renewed annually, and in 2021, the total number dipped to 1,109. This year, it fell to 581. Miller responded to questions about it with a statement: Overall, I believe our hemp program has been a success. Applicants go through a thorough background check, and weve seen a steady rise in the interest of the hemp program. As hemp markets grow in Texas and nationally, this will only get bigger. Hays offers a very clear and detailed vision of her preferred policies. Current Texas law is bass-ackwards, she likes to say, with a patchwork of different city and town regulations and confusing and anti-scientific state laws. Hays believes from studying the rollout in other states that marijuana policy is a three-legged stool, encompassing medicinal access, decriminalization and legalization. If any of the legs are neglected, the industry is unstable, she says. Medical access needs to be handled carefully to ensure people with health needs are able to access carefully regulated marijuana products that cater to their specific needs, she said. If the crop was outright legalized without the medical infrastructure being developed, stoner-bro culture creates a system in which dispensaries try to out-do each other by making the strongest pot products they can, like if you went in a liquor store and all you could buy was Everclear, Hays said. Decriminalization is important, she said, but if it isnt accompanied by legalization, the black market is likely to grow. Many Texas counties, including most of the states largest, have taken steps to decriminalize marijuana, such as Harris, Dallas, Travis and Bexar counties. Another important element is packaging, which Hays says should be child-safe and should include detailed information about the chemical makeup of the product. Different strains of marijuana (Hays favorite is called Acapulco Gold) can have different effects on people when ingested or smoked, for instance. Requiring that information to be posted on the package allows people to find marijuana strains that cater to their specific needs, Hays argues, be it spurring the appetites of chemotherapy patients, helping veterans struggling with PTSD to overcome insomnia or helping elderly people with chronic arthritic pain. A hemp-based bribery case A graduate of Georgetown Law School, Hays has specialized in marijuana and hemp law for about a decade and helped draft Texas 2019 hemp law that legalized the growth and production of that crop, which is the basis of the states medical marijuana program. Coincidentally, that law change also led to a scandal in Millers office after his longtime political aide, Todd Smith, was indicted on charges he took bribes from would-be hemp farmers who wanted a license from the state to grow it. Under state law, those licenses cost just $100. Theres no waitlist or quota, so anyone who meets the requirements can access them. Smith is accused of asking for thousands of dollars and then pocketing the cash. He has denied that he did anything wrong. Miller has defended his longtime aide, saying earlier this year that Smith was the subject of a political witch hunt from those who would wish to discredit his work as Agriculture Commissioner. Smith no longer works for Miller, which was a mutual decision, Miller said. Allegations of wrongdoing against Miller since he took office as agriculture commissioner in 2015 include using departmental funds for political and personal trips and hiring Smiths wife for a $180,000 job in the department in 2015. In addition to marijuana, Hays has focused her campaign on anti-corruption, accusing Miller of a pattern of acting unethically and attempting to boost himself personally or politically through his public office. That was also the main line of attack against Miller from his Republican challengers in the primary earlier this year, challengers whom Miller roundly defeated. The last time a powerful Texas agriculture commissioner was upset in an election was when Jim Hightower lost to Rick Perry in 1990, said University of Houston political science professor Brandon Rottinghaus. The formula then, he said: The commissioner has done a less good job than expected at his job, there are personal scandals which have bled into the politics, and youve got a challenger who presents an alternative. To some extent, thats lining up for Hays, Rottinghaus said. Hell yeah, I consume cannabis Its unclear how marijuana in Texas would get from where it is now to where Hays wants it to be: a legalized, regulated industry set up along the lines of those in Colorado or Nevada. Progressive activists applaud legalization as not only for its own sake, but also for its social justice implications, as drug charges have been disproportionately brought against Black and brown people for decades, driving huge disparities in incarceration rates. Republicans have historically embraced tough-on-crime policies and strongly opposed more lax drug laws, although some Republicans such as Miller have embraced the issue as public opinion has grown more in favor of loosened marijuana laws. Any bill next year, however, would face one very powerful opponent: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who controls the state Senate, has said hell oppose marijuana expansion with all his power. In the meantime, the lack of a uniform approach to marijuana enforcement across Texas is a common refrain for Hays, who has a home in Austin. She didnt enjoy smoking in high school, but now, with access to regulated cannabis produced in other states, she has experimented and found the particular strains that work for her. She said her favorite is called Acapulco Gold. I have no fear of saying hell yeah I consume cannabis. I have no problem saying that publicly, Hays said in a recent phone call, before adding with a laugh: I wouldnt have admitted that to you if it werent in the Travis County house, a non prosecution county. edward.mckinley@chron.com Chicago, IL (60637) Today Cloudy skies early, then off and on rain showers overnight. Low near 55F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 60%.. Tonight Cloudy skies early, then off and on rain showers overnight. Low near 55F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 60%. Chicago, IL (60637) Today Partly cloudy skies this evening will give way to occasional showers overnight. Low 57F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies this evening will give way to occasional showers overnight. Low 57F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%. 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. Bird Observatory Director Speaking at Pittsfield Green Drinks PITTSFIELD, Mass. The director of Berkshire Bird Observatory, Ben Nickley, will speak at the September Pittsfield Green Drinks hybrid event on Tuesday, Sept. 20, at 6 p.m. Nickley will discuss BBO's current research projects and will also show some of the many pictures of birds in hands captured this year and relate stories from BBOs pilot spring, summer, and fall seasons at Jug End State Reservation. The in-person Pittsfield Green Drinks will start at 5 p.m. at Berkshire Environmental Action Team's Environmental Leadership & Education Center, 20 Chapel St. Nickley is a researcher with a passion for birds and the natural landscapes that they are an integral part of. Over the past several years, Ben has traveled across North America to conduct field studies in many exceptional places and attended college and grad school along the way. Nickley hopes to garner continued support from the Berkshire community to ensure the longevity of BBO as a social, scientific, and conservation institution. Thanks to a donation, BEAT will offer one meal to each in-person attendee. If you plan to join the in-person event, stay for the presentation, and would like to reserve a free meal, you must RSVP at www.tinyurl.com/Sept22-Green- Drinks. If you plan to attend the virtual event, you must register at www.tinyurl.com/Zoom-Sept22- Green-Drinks. Pittsfield Green Drinks is an informal gathering on the third Tuesday of the month. These nights are free and open to everyone with any environmental interest. The drinks aren't green but the conversations are. Pittsfield Green Drinks is sponsored by the Berkshire Environmental Action Team For more information, contact Chelsey Simmons at chelsey@thebeatnews.org or (413) 464-9402. Pittsfield School Committee OKs Unions' Higher Pay PITTSFIELD, Mass. The School Committee has passed memoranda of agreements for four bargaining units that include "substantial increases." During a special meeting on Thursday, MOAs for the 2021-2022 school year and the 2022-2025 school years were unanimously approved for bus drivers and attendants, cafeteria workers, paraprofessionals, and educational secretaries. The unions are represented by the Pittsfield Federation of School Employees, a local affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers. On behalf of the negotiating team and the whole committee, Chair William Cameron expressed that they are "extremely gratified" with the agreements and hope to settle with the custodial units soon. "We've recognized partly through the urging of the employees and partly through the realities of the employment market that we are making major salary agreements here, major increases in the compensation paid to the members of these units, and that we're doing so gladly," he said. "We've had some difficult negotiations over the past 12 months, 12 1/2 months, and some of those difficulties were aired in public, were criticized in public, and I'm delighted that we have been able at this point to reach agreements that will not only benefit our employees going forward but there will also benefit the employees when we've reached the settlements with retroactively." He noted that the 2021-2022 MOA will result in retroactive pay based on its salary schedule, which he feels is fair for those who have continued to work through negotiations, retired in the period, or worked through the end of the year. Bus drivers start at $22.65/hour in the 2022-2023 school year and bus attendants start at $17/hour in the 2022-2023 school year with a 50-cent increase each year until 2024. The 2021-2022 MOA stipulates that bus drivers start at $22.15/hour and bus attendants start at $16.50/hour. Cafeteria workers starting wages in the 2022-2023 school year range from $15.50/hour to $22.01/hour depending on position and increase by 50 cents each year until 2024. The 2021-2022 MOA sets starting wages between $15.00/hour to $21.51/hour depending on the position. Paraprofessionals step one pay in the 2022-2023 school year ranges from $16.50 to $19.50 based on qualification and increases by 50 cents each year until 2024. The 2021-2022 MOA step one pay ranges from $16/hour to $19/hour based on qualification. A vehicle is cleared from the scene of an accident at the entrance to Mount Greylock Regional School on Wednesday afternoon. Reader Janice Loux submitted this photo taken at the crash scene on Wednesday. PreviousNext Crash at Mount Greylock Entrance Highlights Long-Standing Concern The collision at the entrance of the high school has again raised safety concerns about speed and low visibility, especially regarding younger drivers. WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. A crash at the entrance of the Mount Greylock Regional School campus Wednesday sent one person to the hospital and had the school community thinking about the potential danger of the driveway's access to U.S. Route 7. At about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, Williamstown Police received a call about a two-car accident at 1781 Cold Spring Road, the entrance to the middle-high school. Rebecca Lee Williams of Williamstown was brought to Berkshire Medical Center complaining of neck pains after the accident according to a police report from police Detective Kalvin Dziedziak. According to the report, Gerald Leslie Mortensen of Pittsfield was driving south on Route 7, also known as Cold Spring Road, when a vehicle driven by Williams pulled out of the school's driveway in front of Mortensen. Mortensen told police that he attempted to brake and steer away but was unsuccessful, the report reads. "As a result, [Mortensen's vehicle] made contact with [Williams' vehicle] in the southbound lane of Cold Spring Road," the report reads. "[Mortensen's vehicle] proceeded to push [Williams' vehicle] into the northbound lane of Cold Spring Road as it drove off the roadway and onto a grass embankment." Both cars were damaged in the collision, according to the report. Dziedziak said Williams was found at fault for the accident. Shortly after the vehicles were cleared from the scene, Mount Greylock Regional School District Superintendent Jason McCandless said the district continues to reach out to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation about ways to calm traffic at the intersection, which comes at the crest of a hill with limited visibility in both directions for drivers leaving the campus. "The challenge is that the intersection meets all the legal requirements," McCandless said. "Of course, and today is a sad example, we remain very concerned. "Probably three out of four people who use the driveway on a daily basis is within their first year or first three years as a driver." The intersection has been a topic of conversation for the School Committee as well as community members for years. McCandless said the district's last conversation with MassDOT indicated that, statistically, the intersection has not been prone to accidents over the years. "For us, one accident is one too many," McCandless said. He said he did not know whether MassDOT's calculations for what makes an intersection safe takes into account the age and experience of a typical driver using the route. McCandless said that without checking his records, he would say his last discussion with state highway officials was either last winter or in the early spring. "To their credit, they are very responsive, both at the regional and state level," McCandless said. "The intersection meets the standards that they have." North Adams gets $500,000 from State for Dam Improvements NORTH ADAMS, Mass. The city will receive $500,000 from the state for improvements to the Mount Williams and Notch Reservoir Dams. The funding comes as the Baker-Polito Administration announced approximately $19.2 million in grants through the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) Dam and Seawall Program this week, continuing efforts to address failing dams and strengthen coastal infrastructure. "As we continue to witness the impacts of climate change on the Commonwealth, it is important that we work to address the states aging infrastructure, such as dams, seawalls, and other structures," said Gov. Charlie Baker. "By investing in these types of critical structures, we will make Massachusetts communities more resilient to withstand stronger storm events and other impacts and ensure better safety and performance for years to come." This funding will support 23 municipalities and nonprofit organizations as they seek to advance 26 critical infrastructure projects within their communities. "Our Administration is proud to assist our municipal partners as they work to address failing dams and seawalls, which can be a costly endeavor that puts a significant financial strain on local budgets," said Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito. "Through our continued partnership, we will be able to make critical repairs and other necessary work to improve important infrastructure and make our communities more resilient to climate change." Grants are awarded to advance designs and permits, as well as to construct the projects. This round of grants will support 15 design and permitting projects and 11 construction projects. With these new grants, EEAs Dam and Seawall Program has now made over $114 million in total grants and loans to address deficient dams, seawalls, and levees since the program began in 2013. "The Baker-Polito Administration has made tremendous progress in addressing dams, seawalls, and levees by investing more than $100 million in funds to cities and towns since 2015," said Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Beth Card. "Many of these structures were never intended to withstand the conditions we experience today, such as more intense storms and rising sea levels, requiring us to act now to implement resilient solutions to better protect our communities from future events and issues." "The reality of rising sea levels and the increased risk of flooding in Massachusetts prompted the legislature to create the Dam and Seawall Repair or Removal Fund," said Senate President Karen E. Spilka (D-Ashland). "Seawall and dam infrastructure is critical for safeguarding the wellbeing of communities throughout the Commonwealth. Even in-land communities, like Hopkinton in MetroWest, will benefit from restored functioning and heightened protections against flooding from nearby lakes and waterways." "As we work together to build a greener and more resilient Commonwealth, I want to applaud the Baker-Polito Administration for working with us in the Legislature to combat climate change and meet critical environmental infrastructure needs," said Senator Michael J. Rodrigues, Chair of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means (D-Westport). "Because of our enduring partnership, we have made incredible progress, working together to invest over $100 million since 2015 to repair and bolster our dams, seawalls and other coastal infrastructure necessary to better protect our communities and confront the impacts of climate change for many years to come." "Our coastal infrastructure is key to keeping our communities safe from the impacts of severe weather," said State Senator Patrick OConnor (R-Weymouth). "With hundreds of miles of coastline to protect on the South Shore, todays announcement of over $10 million to construct and design seawalls in the district is a significant step forward. I am deeply appreciative of the Baker-Polito Administration for their investment in the South Shore." "Thank you to the Baker-Polito administration for this allocation of funding," said Representative Patricia Haddad (D-Somerset). "My communities of Somerset and Swansea will use this money to improve aging infrastructure that help protect our homes and businesses from the devastating effects of flooding." "Global heating is affecting our infrastructure and we must plan now for even greater changes in the future," said Representative Paul A. Schmid III (D-Westport). "Fall River thanks the Baker-Polito Administration for this award which will help improve the Sawdy Pond Dam." For more information regarding EEAs Dam and Seawall Repair or Removal Program, please visit the programs webpage. Runners Friday morning gather outside the Berkshire Running Center before heading out on a three-mile run in honor of Eliza Fletcher. Pittsfield Run Remembers Murdered Tennessee Jogger Eliza Fletcher PITTSFIELD, Mass. Backlit by the first glow of sunlight over the hills east of the city and sporting a T-shirt with the slogan Women run the world, Shiobbean Lemme calls the predawn hours the best time of the day. To get this view, you have to go to bed before Jeopardy is over, Lemme jokes. I dont ever get to see Final Jeopardy. But, you know, the tradeoff is worth it for me. On Friday, Lemme was joined by more joggers than usual as the Berkshire County running community joined runners throughout the nation in honoring Memphis, Tenn.s, Eliza Fletcher, who was kidnapped and murdered during her early morning run one week earlier. Heading out from the Crane Avenue trail crossing of the Ashuwillticook Trail at 5 a.m., about three dozen runners ran an approximately 3-mile loop to the Berkshire Mall Road crossing and back. It was one of hundreds of similar events planned Friday from Boston to Seattle to both memorialize Fletcher, 34, and raise awareness of safety issues for runners and, in particular, women runners. Lemme does not do her usual 4 a.m. run just to enjoy the views. It happens to be a time of day that fits into her busy lifestyle, which includes two jobs and a large family. The same thing is true for many runners, including, likely, Fletcher, a kindergarten teacher and mother of two. I have a group of anywhere from 10 to 20 men and women who work out every morning at 5 a.m., said Lemme, a co-owner of the Berkshire Running Center, which organized the local Finish Elizas Run event. So some of us meet before to get a run in or whatever. But Ive had to be conscious of where we go. We have to choose wheres going to be the safest option. She said it is sad that the world is such that runners have to weigh such considerations. And an undeniable, unmistakable tone of anger underscored her pre-run talk with the people who gathered in the parking lot outside the center. One week ago, Eliza Fletcher went out for her run, Lemme said. She would run every morning at 4 oclock. I run every morning between 3:30 and 4, and I hear that, What the hell are you doing up? But then some people have the audacity to say, Why was [Fletcher] running so early? I think she should run whenever she wants to run and should be able to do it wherever she wants to run. But thats not the world were in right now. That world compelled Lemme to tell her fellow joggers to think about acquiring a set of knuckle lights or other form of illumination or even a mace dispenser like the one she carries. In lieu of such specialized equipment, she encouraged the runners Friday morning to activate the flashlights on their cell phones even while running in a large group on relatively obstruction-free trail. Acts of violence like the one that took Eliza Fletcher long have been a concern for the running community. The 2016 murder of Vanessa Marcotte in Princeton, outside Worcester, inspired a foundation in her name dedicated to advocacy for a world where women are safe and free to live boldly and fearlessly. Runners in Berkshire County are not immune to those fears. I think men, too, but probably not to the same degree, Lemme said. Ive been running for 35 years. You get heckled. People yell things. Sometimes they yell inspiring things, like, You go, girl. But then you also get the catcalls or whatever its called. But in the environment in which we live now, in our city, there are a lot of situations you run into where youre not sure who the person is whos out there. Lemme was horrified by the news of Fletchers murder but heartened when she saw a grassroots effort develop around the country to organize runs in her memory. The interesting thing is I knew maybe half of the women who came this morning, and some of them I met for the first time, which makes me feel, in the smallest sense, maybe her family will get some comfort to see the support that we feel it for them, Lemme said. Mohawk Soaring Club Celebrates 70th Anniversary Sept. 10 and 11 NORTH ADAMS, Mass. The weekend of Sept. 10 and 11 will see the skies filled with colorful gliders as the Mohawk Soaring Club celebrates its 70th anniversary with a fly-in/tow-in event. The event will be open to the public from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., when the Club will offer the public the opportunity to observe the flights and interact with the glider pilots and crews who have been invited to soar at the Harriman and West Airport, 836 State Road in North Adams, Massachusetts. The Mohawk Soaring Club (MSC) was formed in 1952 by Francis P. Bundy and three other young engineers from the General Electric Company. The club was incorporated in the State of New York on May 26, 1952 "to promote and encourage interest in aviation and particularly motorless flight." In 1971, one of the members established a private operation, Berkshire Sailflights, Inc., and MSC moved its operations to Harriman and West Airport in North Adams, while still soaring at the Saratoga County Airport. Over the years, MSC continued to use the North Adams airport and slowly grew their membership. This allowed for the purchase of a tow plane, and MSC has continued to grow and operate in North Adams ever since. The MSC is very motivated to make soaring a popular sport in North Adams. In recent years, Harriman and West has been significantly improved as an airport with projects that include a major overhaul of the runway and taxiway, the addition of an instrument approach, and the addition a new operations and administration building at the airport including restrooms and Wi-Fi. A restaurant is in the works. The conditions at Harriman and West are some of the best available in the region for gliding. This is due to the ridge lift caused by the Mt. Greylock ridge and the thermals formed in the adjacent valley. As part of the Clubs celebration of its 70th Anniversary, it hopes to grow its membership and share its love of soaring with the community. Opening the airport to the public will allow aviation enthusiasts and others to have an informed look at how glider operations work, to see gliders up close, and talk with the pilots and crew of the various clubs in the area that will be participating in this event. We hope to have as many as 20 gliders attending this event from the many clubs in our northeast region. The Harriman and West Airport will be open to the public on September 10th from 11:00 am 3:00 pm with food trucks and ice cream available for refreshments, toy glider giveaways for children, and information concerning clubs in the area. It will also be possible to reserve glider rides for future dates at the airport. The Mohawk Soaring Club welcomes the public to this event and looks forward to sharing its love of soaring to celebrate its 70th Anniversary. For more information, visit soarmohawk.com or Facebook at mohawksoaring From OOTNs and makeup selfies, to time spent with loved ones on nights out or under the stars, there are many moments after dark that are meant to be revisited over and over. While professional cameras may be the most powerful tools to capture these in high definition, theyre not always the easiest to bring around. Global smart device brand OPPO continues to push the boundaries of phoneography, and this year unveils its latest Portrait Expert, the OPPO Reno8 Series 5G, ready to capture all your best memories in Ultra Clear Portrait. Head over to OPPO Brand Stores, partner dealers, and OPPO Official Stores on Shopee and Lazada to grab the new Portrait Expert #ReliveTheNight with OPPO Reno8 5G Series Capture your best moments and express yourselves freely at night, just like your favorite content creators with the all-new OPPO Reno8 Series 5G. The latest Portrait Expert boasts of the most innovative night photography features, like Ultra Night Video and Ultra Night Portrait modes, that brighten every subject to help you relive your best moments as if you were viewing them in real-time. The OPPO Reno8 Series helps you capture everything you see in the day and at night. The Reno8 5G leverages Dual Sony Flagship Sensors to document your best memories in the highest definition, from the bright lights of the city to the stars in the night sky. The 50MP main camera comes with Sony IMX766 Sensor, while the 32MP front camera is equipped with 32MP Sony IMX709 Sensor, to let you shine even in the dark. Meanwhile, the OPPO Reno8 Z 5Gs 64MP Triple Camera Setup empowers you to become a Portrait Pro. With Ultra-Clear 108MP Image, it delivers a high-definition photo so you can keep zooming in with crisp detail. The triple camera also comes with a Bokeh Depth Sensor for professional looking shots and 4cm Macro Lens. At the front is a 16MP selfie camera with Selfie HDR AI that gives excellent clarity on both your face and your background, with all the colors bright and perfect. More than just enhancing your portraits and moving images, the Reno8 Series also enhances your life with improved performance features to match your everyday needs. The Reno8 5G is powered by the efficient MediaTek Dimensity 1300 chip, giving you smooth performance for games, apps, streaming and more. With 8GB RAM+256GB ROM, youll have more than enough storage to save photos, videos, apps and games. It also comes with AI System Booster, to ensure your phones performance does not decline over the years. On the other hand, the Reno8 Z 5G comes with Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 to keep up with your fast-paced life. The smartphone champions productivity, immersive gaming, and high-end mobile photography with its 8GB RAM+128GB ROM storage. Both models are powered by ColorOS 12.1 which assures a smooth and efficient mobile phone experience. Features include AI Gestures for hands-free control over your calls, favorite apps and more; Multi-Screen Connect to sync up your multiple devices for maximize productivity; and Privacy Protection to guard your information against wandering eyes. The Reno8 Series also comes with a 4500mAh battery, as well as top-of-the-line flash charging to power your life on the go. Charge up your Reno8 5G to 50% in just 11 minutes with 80W SUPERVOOC charging, while the Reno8 Z 5Gs 33W SUPERVOOC technology gives 32% in just 15 minutes. Pushing smartphone design forward, the OPPO Reno8 Series features a streamlined unibody design for a seamless, premium feel. Available in two colorways each - Shimmer Gold and Shimmer Black for Reno8 5G and Dawnlight Gold and Starlight Black for Reno8 Z 5G - the gadgets feature a 6.4 AMOLED Screen and all-day Eye Care to make viewing easy on the eyes. Relive the Night anywhere you are and get your own OPPO Reno8 Series 5G now available via OPPO Brand Stores, partner dealers and OPPO Official Stores on Shopee, Lazada, and TikTok Shop. Shop the OPPO Reno8 5G for Php27,999 and the OPPO Reno8 Z 5G for Php19,999. Available with Smart Take home the latest Portrait Expert with Smart Signature Device Plans. With a one-time cash out of Php2,100 and an additional Php100 per month, own the Reno8 5G with Smart Signature Device Plan 1499. The plan comes with 10GB data, Unli AllNet Calls and Texts, and 100 minutes PLDT calls. Sign up today until September 15, and get a free pair of OPPO Enco Buds with your new smartphone. Meanwhile, subscribers can also apply for a Smart Signature Device Plan 999 and take home the Reno8 Z 5G, with a one-time cash out of Php2,500 and an additional Php200 per month. The plan comes with 5 GB data, Unli AllNet Calls and Texts, and 50 minutes PLDT calls. Those who sign up until September 15 will also take home a free Game Grip. Get it from Globe For Globe subscribers, grab the Reno8 5G with no additional cash out through GPlan 1999. The plan also comes with 15GB all-access data, unli all-net text, unli calls to landline, free 3GB GoWiFi and an individual subscription to KonsultaMD. Those who prefer the OPPO Reno8 Z 5G can avail of GPlan 1799 and get their new gadget with no additional cash out. Users will also get 13GB all-access data, unli all-net text, unli calls to landline, and the same freebie plan inclusions. Plus, the first set of buyers who avail of these Globe exclusives will also bring home a free robot vacuum. With hybrid work well established as the norm for the post-pandemic workforce and vast amounts of sensitive data now stored in SaaS apps, the risk of SaaS misconfiguration poses a serious security threat to businesses. According to Statista, as of 2021 the average business now has over 110 SaaS applications (apps) that must be secured. The introduction of SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM), powered by the companys Next-Gen CASB technology, reduces data breaches related to SaaS misconfigurations Misconfigurations in SaaS apps are a common problem. To address this, Palo Alto Networks announced today new innovations in Prisma SASE that enable customers to identify and remediate misconfigurations in SaaS apps using SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) capabilities. SaaS apps have given organizations the freedom to have their workforce work from wherever they are most productive. The vast amounts of sensitive data being created, held, and shared via SaaS applications, however, expose a serious risk of a data breach due to SaaS misconfiguration. Simply put, the world needs a SASE solution that can manage the configuration and security of SaaS applications, said Anand Oswal, senior vice president, Network Security at Palo Alto Networks. With todays Prisma SASE updates, we are significantly strengthening the security posture of SaaS apps through the Palo Alto Networks Next-Gen CASB, which allows customers to easily view and configure security settings for multiple SaaS apps in a single place. In addition to SSPM, the company announced new ZTNA 2.0 security inspection capabilities, including ML-powered Advanced URL Filtering and Advanced Threat Prevention as well as the industrys first natively integrated artificial intelligence for IT operations (AIOps) solution for SASE, simplifying networking and security operations for customers. The full set of product announcements are: SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM): Powered by Palo Alto Networks Next-Gen CASB, the SaaS Security Posture Management capabilities go beyond CIS and NIST compliance checks and move to comprehensive security, allowing customers to configure security settings for multiple SaaS apps in one location. In an effort to reduce remediation time, SSPM can help fix misconfigurations with a single click and helps prevent configuration drift by allowing users to lock critical security settings in place. Powered by Palo Alto Networks Next-Gen CASB, the SaaS Security Posture Management capabilities go beyond CIS and NIST compliance checks and move to comprehensive security, allowing customers to configure security settings for multiple SaaS apps in one location. In an effort to reduce remediation time, SSPM can help fix misconfigurations with a single click and helps prevent configuration drift by allowing users to lock critical security settings in place. Advanced URL Filtering: Prevents new, highly evasive phishing attacks, ransomware and other web-based attacks through the use of inline deep learning, rather than a URL database preventing 40% more threats and detecting 76% of malicious URLs up to a full day before traditional web filtering solutions. Prevents new, highly evasive phishing attacks, ransomware and other web-based attacks through the use of inline deep learning, rather than a URL database preventing 40% more threats and detecting 76% of malicious URLs up to a full day before traditional web filtering solutions. Advanced Threat Prevention: Provides the only intrusion prevention system (IPS) solution that can stop unknown command-and-control (C2) attacks in real-time 48% more than other IPS solutions. New capabilities bring security analysis from offline to inline using machine learning techniques improving detection rates for zero-day threats without sacrificing performance. Provides the only intrusion prevention system (IPS) solution that can stop unknown command-and-control (C2) attacks in real-time 48% more than other IPS solutions. New capabilities bring security analysis from offline to inline using machine learning techniques improving detection rates for zero-day threats without sacrificing performance. AIOps for SASE: Palo Alto Networks natively integrated AIOps into its secure access service edge to significantly reduce manual operations and enable faster troubleshooting. AIOps for SASE provides automated root cause analysis, rapid problem remediation and guided best practice adoption. Predictive analytics enable more efficient capacity planning and anomaly detection, preventing business disruptions. A simple query-based interface empowers the IT service desk with automated troubleshooting and change analysis. In addition to these software enhancements, Palo Alto Networks is introducing new hardware appliances ION 1200-S and ION 3200 to help organizations modernize their small to midsize branches. These new appliances include a fully integrated switch and Power over Ethernet (PoE) ports to connect and power endpoints within the local area network. Additionally, integrated WAN capabilities like 5G and LTE on the ION 1200-S and fiber ports on the ION 3200 allow customers to improve WAN availability, performance and speed. ION 1200-S and ION 3200 can help significantly reduce operational complexity by eliminating multiple point products while providing power redundancy with a built-in dual power supply that ensures network uptime and consistent connectivity. As one of the largest cinema chains and theme park operators in Australia, we started our journey with Palo Alto Networks by deploying Prisma SD-WAN to improve the reliability and throughput of our WAN connections, said Michael Fagan, chief transformation officer, Village Roadshow. Since then, we have added Prisma Access to complete our SASE architecture and secure both our remote locations and our hybrid employees. We are pleased to see the introduction of 5G and PoE switching into the Prisma SD-WAN appliances to help us further consolidate our branch infrastructure, and simplify our operations with AIOps for SASE. Our team loves the fact that they no longer need to remember usernames, pins, passcodes, tokens and have different multi-factor authentication apps. Performance and uptime have improved to allow our staff to continue working without disruption to services, thereby reducing the amount of calls through to our service desk team. Protecting sensitive data, especially data in SaaS applications, is paramount for us. As we continued to utilize more cloud services we knew we needed to implement a SASE framework and provide Zero Trust Network Access to protect our users and applications, said Simon Hibbert, general manager of IT, Chemist Warehouse Group. "Implementing Prisma SASE has enabled our employees to do their jobs more efficiently, and enabled new ways for us to engage with our customers. Not only has it improved our security posture, but it also provides highly reliable and smooth connectivity. The usage of SaaS applications continues to expand at a faster rate than security teams can keep pace with. As more applications are introduced and ownership becomes distributed across organizations, the risk of misconfigurations grows, which increases the likelihood for security incidents to occur. A SASE solution like Prisma SASE by Palo Alto Networks provides a logical consolidation point for all the capabilities needed for complete SaaS security, including SSPM. However, functionality cannot be sacrificed for efficiency, said John Grady, ESG senior analyst. Palo Alto Networks provides comprehensive SaaS security through its security-focused SSPM capabilities coupled with comprehensive application coverage and a history of analytics-led threat prevention. Spam mails have evolved since the first one was sent back in 1978. Its evolutions span from the techniques, tactics, and the latest trends cybercriminals piggyback on to make it more legitimate-looking and urgent-sounding an effective formula to prey upon an unsuspecting user. One of Kasperskys elite researchers, Noushin Shabab, probed into the spam threat landscape in Asia Pacific (APAC) this year to answer what if emails do not get opened? Shabab, presented in front of selected media from the region during Kasperskys 8th APAC Cyber Security Weekend, revealed that the region received 24% of the global malicious spam mails being detected and blocked by Kaspersky solutions. This means one in four junk electronic messages were delivered to computers in APAC. Noushin Shabab, Senior Security Researcher for Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) at Kaspersky Malicious spam is not a technologically complex attack, but when done with sophisticated social engineering techniques, it poses a severe threat to individuals and enterprises alike. These junk mails are sent out in mass quantities by spammers and cybercriminals who are looking to do one or more of the following: Make money from the small percentage of recipients that actually respond to the message Run phishing scams in order to obtain passwords, credit card numbers, bank account details, and more Spread malicious code onto recipients computers In 2022, more than half (61.1%) of the malicious spam detected in the region targeted Kaspersky users from Vietnam, Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia, and Taiwan. Shabab cited three main factors which cause the bulk of spam emails targeting APAC - its population, the high adoption of e-services, and the pandemic lockdowns. The APAC region has almost 60% of the worlds population and this means that there are more potential victims for scammers here compared to other parts of the world. The extensive use of online services such as online shopping and other online platforms for day-to-day activities here also makes individuals more susceptible to falling victim to scams. There is also the lingering pandemic aftermath which led to lockdowns and work-from-home set up in the region where people took their work computers home. Home networks are usually less protected from cyberattacks. Since 2018, the number of malicious spam mails detected by our solutions has seen a gradual decline after its peak in 2019. This, however, does not equate to our mailboxes being cleaner and safer. Our constant monitoring of the current and new Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) operating in Asia Pacific showed that majority of these notorious threat actors use targeted phishing called spear phishing to crack into an organizations systems, reveals Noushin Shabab, Senior Security Researcher for Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) at Kaspersky. The most recent example of an APT targeting key entities in APAC through sophisticated malicious mails is the Sidewinder threat actor. Since October 2021, the Sidewinder threat actor has been using new malicious JS code with recently created C2 server domains. The attacker, also known as Rattlesnake or T-APT4, targets victims with spear-phishing emails containing malicious RTF and OOXML files. Known for targeting military, defense and law enforcement agencies, foreign affairs, IT, and aviation entities in Central and South Asia, Sidewinder is considered one of the most prolific threat actors monitored in the APAC region. Kaspersky experts also recently found spear phishing documents which appear to be aimed at future targets in Singapore. Some of the main characteristics of this threat actor that make it stand out among the others are the sheer number, high frequency and persistence of their attacks, and the large collection of encrypted and obfuscated malicious components used in their operations. Kaspersky experts, who have been monitoring Sidewinder since 2012, have detected over a thousand spear phishing attacks by this APT actor since October 2020. Sidewinder also continues to expand its victimology and to sharpen its phishing tactics. For instance, to reduce the suspicion raised by some of their spear-phishing documents that had no text content, the group followed their first attempt to attack the victim a spear-phishing email containing a malicious RTF exploit file with another similar email, but in this case, the title of the malicious document was _Apology Letter.docx, and it contained some text explaining that the previous email was sent in error and that they are reaching out to apologize for that mistake. There are many more well-oiled APT groups like Sidewinder who are constantly upgrading their tools and tactics to target high-profile victims in APAC through believable spam and phishing emails. The implication for enterprises and government organizations here is that a single malicious email when clicked can crumble your most sophisticated defenses, and usually, APTs like Sidewinder just need one door to open, one machine to infect, and then it can hide and stay undetected for long, Shabab adds. APTs target any sensitive data; one doesnt need to be a government agency, major financial institution, or energy company to become a victim. The major danger of APT attacks is that even when they are discovered and the immediate threat appears to be gone, the hackers may have left multiple backdoors open that allow them to return when they choose. This increases the importance of guarding mailboxes an entry point they usually exploit to get a foothold of an organizations networks. Employees across all ranks need to be aware of the threats, such as the possibility of bogus emails landing in their inboxes. Besides education, technology that focuses on email security is necessary. To be able to search for potential spear-phishing signs without diminishing the companys actual security, Kaspersky suggests private and public companies to install protective anti-phishing solutions on mail servers as well as on employee workstations. Enterprises should also utilize advanced security software that can detect sophisticated APT attacks. For governments, Shabab suggests defining better spam regulations to curb spam risks. Fewer spam emails from legitimate organizations means people are less used to receiving unexpected emails every day and are more vigilant when they are being targeted with malicious spear phishing emails, she adds. While often perceived as professionally successful, Asian Americans can find it harder to achieve their goals at work. That's according to a September McKinsey study of 24,842 U.S employees, in which 2,178 self-identified as Asian American. Per the report, 30 percent of Asian American respondents said their race made it harder to achieve their career goals, compared with 21 percent of White respondents. The data seems to quash the myth that Asian Americans are a so-called model minority--that is, they're obedient and hard-working individuals who have achieved a higher level of success than the general population through immigrant striving. It also highlights a disconnect that may be festering in your workplace. More findings from the report: Asian American workers are overrepresented in low-paying occupations such as manicurists and skin care specialists, cooks, and sewing-machine operators. The report also indicates that Asian Americans are paid less than their White counterparts in three-quarters of occupations with a median wage of $100,000 and above. On average, Asian Americans make 93 cents for every dollar earned by their White colleagues. "Although the United States is home to a vastly growing Asian American population, even those who are U.S.-born are often treated as permanent foreigners," says Kweilin Ellingrud, partner and director of the McKinsey Global Institute. "This experience is no different in the workplace and it is perpetuated by a significant lack of employee diversity within the workplace, especially in higher-level positions." Here's how to make your Asian American employees feel more inclusive at work in the backdrop of rising anti-Asian hate crimes: Understand the diversity within the Asian American community. The Asian American community is built of a wide range of ethnic groups with varying experiences. A critical first step for companies is to acknowledge the diversity within this community and their experiences in the workplace, suggests Ellingrud. She says that employers should learn from statistical reports that are disaggregated by ethnicity to understand the unique insights from their Asian American workers. Engage your Asian American workers in social activities. Many Asian Americans, even those who were born in the United States, said that they are perceived in the workplace as perpetual foreigners--an indication of social exclusion, as per the report. It's important to encourage your Asian American employees to join any social events at work. Moreover, recognizing diverse traditions and including cultural celebrations and holidays at work can be one avenue to help Asian American employees feel comfortable bringing their whole authentic selves to work. Create effective sponsorship opportunities for Asian American workers in senior roles. Effective sponsorship is critical for career advancement. The report indicates that leadership support and advocacy are greater for White employees than Asian employees at more senior levels. For senior managers and above, 52 percent of Asian American employees reported having sponsors, ten percentage points lower than White employees. "Employers can create internal networking opportunities to establish sponsor connections and provide sponsors with the right tools to be advocates for employees," says Ellingrud. Recognize inclusion challenges for Asian American workers. Over the past two years, Covid-19 has driven racism and violence against the Asian American community. After the first wave of the coronavirus, the unemployment rates for Asian American workers tripled from three percent in May 2019 to nine percent in May 2020, as per the report. "The Covid-19 pandemic uncovered the dark side of the perpetual foreigner stereotype," says Ellingrud. "Through derisive language and violent acts, the Asian American community became a target for discrimination in the United States. Becoming 'othered' in society, Asian Americans were pushed to feel similar isolation in the workplace." Addressing inclusion challenges for Asian American employees at this critical moment by establishing a mental health resource center is a great way to show support. Companies should also consult professional groups like The National Asian American Pacific Islander Mental Health Association, a resource provider for mental health services for Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Native Hawaiians, and The National Alliance on Mental Illness, which offers a section of its website with resources specifically for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to get local therapy support. EXPLORE MORE Best Workplaces COMPANIES China promotes conservation, utilization of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems People's Daily Online) 11:26, September 09, 2022 In recent years, China has advanced the conservation of important agricultural heritage sites, while various localities around the country have strived to push forward rural vitalization in a comprehensive way through the application of agricultural heritage. Photo taken on July 18, 2022 shows fish swimming in a protection area of the rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian county, east China's Zhejiang Province. (Photo/Xinhua) Qingtian county in east China's Zhejiang Province is famous for its symbiotic rice-fish co-culture system, which has a history of more than 1,000 years. Early in 2005, the traditional rice-fish co-culture system in Qingtian was listed in the world's first group of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, becoming the first GIAHS in China. So far, the rice-fish co-culture system has been promoted in over 20 provincial-level regions across the country. China has recognized 138 important agricultural heritage sites in 29 provincial-level regions, according to Hou Yaoyu, an official with the country's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA). In May this year, the FAO designated three more sites in China as GIAHS, bringing the total number of GIAHS in the country to 18, the highest in the world, introduced Sui Pengfei, director general of MARAs international cooperation department. The three new sites include an ancient tea-producing area in Anxi county of east Chinas Fujian Province, a nomadic livestock-rearing region in Chifeng city of north Chinas Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and a rain-fed stone terrace farming system in Shexian county of north Chinas Hebei Province. These 18 GIAHS in China cover agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fisheries, as well as mountain, river, forest, farmland, lake, grassland and desert ecosystems, contributing Chinese wisdom to the identification, conservation and utilization of agricultural heritage systems in the world, said Sun Yehong, a professor at the Tourism College of Beijing Union University. Suiting agricultural activities to local conditions is an important guideline for the sustainable development of agricultural heritage sites, said Bai Yun, a member of the expert committee for GIAHS under the MARA. Marked by spectacular terraces that cascade down the slopes of mountains to rivers, the Shangbao rice terraces, a GIAHS site in Chongyi county of east China's Jiangxi Province, have been cultivated for over 800 years. In this aerial photo, villagers celebrate in traditional costumes as they start ploughing and release fish fry into rice fields in Xiaozhoushan Township, Qingtian county, east China's Zhejiang Province, June 11, 2020. (Photo/Xinhua) The Shangbao rice terraces feature a sound ecosystem consisting of bamboo forests, villages, terraced fields and rivers, introduced Lu Xinping, director of the bureau of water resources of Chongyi county. Lu explained that the bamboo forests high on the slopes are vital for water conservation, while the terraces are built according to the gradients of the slopes with a maximum vertical drop of about 1,000 meters. River water evaporates to form clouds, which then gathers together to produce a mist of rain for natural irrigation. Agricultural heritage sites reflect the ecological philosophy of respecting nature, following nature's law and pursuing harmony between man and nature, said Tang Zhiqiang, director of the agricultural history and research department of the China Agricultural Museum. According to Tang, agricultural heritage sites promote sustainable agricultural development and maintain biodiversity. The green and efficient agricultural development models, including intercropping and a combined method of farming and husbandry, are still applied to agricultural heritage sites, said Li Xiande, vice chairman of the expert committee for GIAHS under the MARA. This provides useful lessons for the green development of the agricultural sector, Li added. While preserving agricultural heritage sites, efforts should be made to sustainably utilize these sites that feature sound ecological environments, rich folk cultures and beautiful rural landscapes, Bai said. In addition to enhancing the conservation of agricultural heritage sites, multiple localities in China have explored these sites' potential in germplasm resources, cultural inheritance and tourism, among other areas, lending new impetus to rural vitalization. The brand value of agricultural products produced at the GIAHS localities has risen by 10 percent to 30 percent, and GIAHS conservation and utilization contribute to around 40 percent of local residents' direct income, according to a research report issued by the Center of International Cooperation Service under the MARA. Li pointed out that China needs to add new dimensions to agricultural heritage sites by building agricultural and cultural brands, boosting the development of efficient eco-agriculture, rural tourism, and cultural and creative industries, so as to help farmers at agricultural heritage sites continuously increase their incomes. (Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun) For the second time in less than a month, a major Rhode Island highway was shut down this week for several hours as heavy rainfall overwhelmed drainage systems and flooded roadways. The National Weather Service reported that over a 24 hour span from Monday to Tuesday, nearly 11 inches of rain fell on Cranston, 8.5 inches fell around the Providence area and other parts of the state got six inches or more of rain. The storm shut down traffic in both directions on I-95 in Providence for most of the Monday evening commute, just two weeks after a similar storm caused a near identical scene on I-195. With the recent storms in mind, do you believe Rhode Island bridges and roads are capable of handling the challenges presented by severe weather? Should more be done to address this issue? Let us know in this week's poll question below. You voted: It sounds unbelievable when one hears for the first time that there are sharks that can walk on land but that is true. While stating that it is hardly a nightmarish experience, a report in smithsonianmag.com said that these fishes can move 90 feet across the land. Forrest Galante, a biologist describing these creatures to Associated Press said: Theyre not sprinting. There are no ankle-biters coming to get anybody. Its just this fascinating behaviour taking place. Epaulette #shark use their large fins to walk along the bottom. They can even do this for short distances overland to move between tidal pools. Theyre basically #Lizards. #GreatBarrierReef #WildOz #ScubaDiving pic.twitter.com/OaWH6lkzJD Donald McKnight (@donaldmcknight2) October 8, 2018 In a study, details of which were published in Integrative and Comparative Biology, researchers studied these sharks. Classified as sharks, these fishes are known as epaulette sharks which are harmless and pose no threat to humankind yet are described as the toughest shark on the Great Barrier Reef by Australias James Cook Universitys marine biologist Jodie Rummer who is also the studys co-author. Research of these animals is important for experts to know about survival in harsh environments and conditions. For this the scientists studied the mechanics of how these sharks move, juxtaposing their stride when they are newborn to what it is when they are juveniles. In their study, the researchers stressed that the walking on land was not just triggered as a survival strategy to cope with the harsh environment in which they lived but also by change in the climate. Sharing details on this Marianne Porter, the studys lead author told Live Science: Epaulette sharks live at the extremes. If we want to learn what happens to animals under the extreme conditions of climate change, looking at animals already living under these conditionsand understanding how they move and copemay be the first step. Porter is a biologist at Florida Atlantic University. Growing to 3 feet, Epaulette sharks aka Hemiscyllium ocellatum have fins which are shaped like a paddle and these they use to walk on dry land and across the floor of the ocean. Their habitat is among the shallow waters in the coral reefs in western Pacific Ocean in the area which is around northern Australia and New Guinea. Significantly, these fishes are so tough that they can manage to survive lack of oxygen for two hours and this trait is mighty useful to overcome challenges of habitat. Highlighting this to The Guardian, Porter said: You might not think of beautiful, tropical beaches as harsh, but in reality, tidepools and coral reef environments are pretty harsh, subjected to warm temperatures when the tide is out and a lot of changes. These little sharks can move from tidepool to tidepool, allowing them to access new pools to forage for food, or tidepools with better oxygenated water. During her long and eventful reign, Queen Elizabeth II became a cultural icon. She has been portrayed by numerous performers over the years, and her life has served as an inspiration for numerous films, television shows, and even novels. Queen Elizabeth II According to 'Variety' in a special report, she was the most photographed lady in history, gracing the cover of 'Time' magazine at the age of three, the first of several such appearances, and was shown on the big screen, the small screen, the stage, music, and art. Here Are Some Iconic Roles Of Queen The Crown/Screengrab The Crown follows the Queen from the 1940s to the present day and analyses her relationships with various prime ministers as well as other personalities both within and outside the Royal Family. (Also Read: 'We Refuse To Ignore It', Rings Of Power Cast Stand Together Against Racism, Threats & Harassment) The Queen The Queen/Screengrab In addition, Helen Mirren made a lasting impression as the British monarch in the Stephen Frears and Peter Morgan-produced drama "The Queen" in 2006. The film was set in the aftermath of Princess Diana's death, a dark period for the British royal family, and Mirren received an Oscar nomination for best actress for her performance. Mirren went on to reprise her role as Elizabeth in the West End and on Broadway in the smash hit 'The Audience.' Spencer The film depicts Princess Diana's existential crisis during the Christmas season of 1991 when she contemplates divorcing Prince Charles and fleeing the British royal family. The cast included Kirsten Stewart as Princess Diana's daughter-in-law, and Stella Gonet played the Queen. A Royal Night Out Amazon Prime Video In this fictionalised drama, Sarah Gadon's Elizabeth and Bel Powley's Princess Margaret were permitted to sneak out of Buckingham Palace to join the throng celebrating V-E Day on the streets of London in 1945. (With Inputs From IANS) (To read more such stories related to movies and shows released on OTTs, keep reading Indiatimes BINGE) The infamous 'Curlies' restaurant in Goa, where actor and BJP leader Sonali Phogat is accused of being drugged, will be demolished soon for violating coastal zone regulations. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) upheld the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority's prior order to demolish the shack on Thursday. Indiatimes The Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority has ordered the closure of all commercial activity in the form of nightclubs, bars, and restaurants being run by Edwin Nunes and Linet Nunes, including both Curlies Restaurant and Night Club and guest house, St. Michael Wado, Dando, Anjuna, and Bardez-Goa. Edwin Nunes, the owner of the Curlies restaurant, was granted conditional bail earlier on Thursday by a local court in exchange for a personal bail bond of Rs 30,000 and two sureties of Rs 15,000 each. Indiatimes Edwin Nunes's lawyer, Advocate Kamalakant Poulekar, said Nunes cannot visit Curlies and needs to get permission before leaving Goa. The internet had an emotional moment while reacting to the news. Are yaar... I used to regularly visit curlies in Anjuna whenever I used to go Goa. The location, live fish etc etc so many things are epic there https://t.co/Bdm26Vd3cU Gann NIFTY Trader (@DhadkaDutt) September 8, 2022 The entire point of going to Goa was to go to Curlies. If you take that away from us, youre taking away the experience of Goa. The green violations were probably there before. Curlies is being targeted for political reasons. https://t.co/AijLDl13wv Ankita Mukhopadhyay (@muk_ankita) September 8, 2022 To all my friends who kept postponing the Goa plan, Me never being able to going to Curlies is on YOU.!!! https://t.co/p8Yk2qd8MO Tejas (@TYeotekar) September 8, 2022 Have never skipped curlies every single time I visited Goa. One hello of a happening place it was .Sad to see it go. Sharing one such moment . https://t.co/sa9yGekkHz pic.twitter.com/DzO0CiqJty Biswa Biplab Borah (@biswabiplab11) September 8, 2022 No way man..curlies was one of the best place in NG https://t.co/VN9kZsKf3j AT (@shizmaite) September 8, 2022 Psychedelic trance parties in Anjuna will never be same again. https://t.co/uVqofdKcS6 Ritesh (@Samba9Firmino) September 8, 2022 The number of good memories I had at this place are too damn high. Can't believe this place is demolished now. Never missed it whenever I visited Goa https://t.co/XHLN18RrFx sathwik (@sathwik77) September 8, 2022 End of an era!! https://t.co/2EHAHZaupG Rishab Raina (@raina_rishab07) September 8, 2022 So many memories https://t.co/bhhNcemqiI Akshay Natu (@akshaynatu) September 8, 2022 Meanwhile, on Sunday, the Goa Police visited various locations in the alleged murder case of BJP politician Sonali Phogat in Haryana's Hisar district. "Teams went to various places, per allegations the late actor's brother Rinku had, including property and other issues. Our team is going to all those places, speaking with local witnesses and trying to get information which may help us conclude," informed Goa Director General of Police Jaspal Singh. Sonali Phogat was declared dead at the St. Anthony Hospital at Anjuna in North Goa on August 23. A post-mortem report revealed blunt force injury on her body, following which the Goa Police registered a murder case. Indiatimes Three diaries were taken from Phogat's Sant Nagar home in Haryana's Hisar district by the Goa Police on Friday. Sonali's bedroom, wardrobe, and password-protected locker were all examined by the police. The police also sealed the locker at Sonali Phogat's residence. Phogat's PA and his associate were arrested after police accessed the CCTV footage in which the trio was seen partying at a club. Expressing dissatisfaction over the probe by the Goa Police into the death case of Sonali Phogat, her family will approach the Goa High Court demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the matter. In connection with the case, Sonali Phogat's family met with Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and urged that the CBI look into the matter. The chief minister assured the CBI investigation. However, dissatisfied with the ongoing investigation, the family has decided to go to Goa High Court with their demand. BCCL Speaking to ANI, Vikas Singh, Sonali Phogat's nephew, who is also an advocate in his family, said that they have written to Chief Justice of India UU Lalit for a CBI inquiry and will approach the Goa High Court with a writ petition by Friday if they are not satisfied with the answer of the top court. Earlier, Goa Police had said that Sonali Phogat was forcibly drugged by her two associates, who were arrested after being named as accused in the case. BCCL Haryana Police detained a man after the family accused him of taking a laptop and mobile from the farmhouse of the deceased BJP leader. Haryana Police has recovered the items following which the questioning is underway. Sonali Phogat, who rose to fame with her TikTok videos, contested the 2019 Haryana election as a BJP candidate but lost to then Congress leader Kuldeep Bishnoi (he has since joined the BJP). She also appeared in the reality show Bigg Boss in 2020. (With ANI inputs) (To get the latest updates from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment) A State Bank of India branch in Karnataka's Dharwad District has been fined Rs 85,177 for dishonouring a cheque after failing to properly recognise a Kannada numeral on it. A customer, Vadirajacharya Inamdar had issued an SBI cheque for Rs 6,000 to Hubli Electricity Supply Company Limited (HESCOM) towards his electricity bill on September 3, 2020. BCCL However, when HESCOM sent the cheque for clearance at the SBI branch at Haliyal in Uttara Kannada district it was rejected. Couldn't distinguish between 9 and 6 This was after the staff there misread the cheque was filled in Kannada including the numerals. The SBI branch in Haliyal wrongly identified the Kannada numeral nine as six and, therefore, dishonoured the cheque. The numeral nine indicated the month of September, but the bank read it as June. Representational Image Following this Inamdar, an English lecturer in the Government PU College in Hubballi, approached the Dharwad District Consumer Grievances Redressal Forum with his complaint. On Wednesday, the Forum consisting of President Ishappa Bhute and members V A Bolishetti and P C Hiremath found the SBI deficient in its service and imposed the cost. The Consumer Forum noted that the bank failed to honour a cheque of Rs 6,000 despite the complainant having more than Rs 9 lakhs in his account. ICIC bank rejected cheque in Kannada This is not the first time such incidents have been reported from Karnataka. In 2017, an ICCI customer from Belagavi had dragged the bank to court after his cheque was dishonoured on grounds that the information on it was written in Kannada. shutterstock According to Anand Diwakar Garag he had presented a cheque for Rs 17,220 to the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), as a premium for his insurance policy, but it was sent back with a note reading "present with document". Canara Bank manager threatened to call police over Kannada In 2021, the manager of a Canara Bank branch was seen threatening to close the account of a customer and call the police after he spoke in Kannada. Madam @nsitharaman ,I would like to bring to your notice the ill effects of IBPS exam on the localities of Karnataka. An official from @canarabank threatens to customer for speaking Kannada in Karnataka and asked him to leave the bank. @FinMinIndia do you support this ?#IBPSmosa pic.twitter.com/hVskNhvIlc GC ChandraShekhar (@GCC_MP) November 11, 2021 This is despite the fact that Canara Bank, which is the third largest nationalised bank in India, was started in Mangaluru and still has its headquarters in Bengaluru. In 2017, the Karnataka government had made it mandatory for bank staff to learn the Kannada language within six months. BCCL In 2020, Kannada Development Authority chairman TS Nagabharana had told senior bank officials that they should ensure employees learn Kannada, else relieve them from their jobs. For more on the news, sports, and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News. Sarcasm and humor work well in marketing as they connect quickly with the target audience. Marketing agencies are doing a brilliant job of pushing their messages through the current scenarios that are happening all around the world. But how much is too much, and where to draw the line? While everyone loves a good copy or a visually appealing ad, the internet has reservations about what's acceptable and what's not. Currently, the internet is debating over a new advertisement with Rishi Sunak's face. Screengrab/Twitter Sharp commentary on contemporary concerns is a trademark of British humor. On a billboard displaying Rishi Sunak, a former UK finance minister, CV-Library, a well-known job search site, emphasized this legendary British trait. BBC The ad made fun of Sunak, who lost to party colleague Liz Truss in the race to become prime minister on Monday. Boris Johnson, the former prime minister who resigned in July, was to be replaced, and Sunak was considered the leading contender. Twitter In the sarcastic national advertisement, CV-Library included a photo of Sunak with the bold text, "Didnt get the job? Weve got jobs for everyone. Find one that works for you." On social media, the photographs from the opportune campaign went viral. Here's how internet reacted to the cheeky ad: Curious... Would the company have taken the permission of Sunak to use his pic in their advt? Do they need to take his permission? Alpesh Patel (@alpeshtwitting) September 7, 2022 good example of moment marketing! :) https://t.co/wZtI9T8vpe Sanjiva Jha (@sanjivajha) September 7, 2022 Today, CV Library (Recruitment Firm) went round Parliament Square with this reactive digital AD after Rishi Sunak lost the UK PM Race to Liz Truss I love ittttt pic.twitter.com/CWYSlfek2O Blessing | Marketing Babe (@_BlessingMarie) September 5, 2022 Ouch!! The British humour remains as savage as ever! https://t.co/hKUByCynnB smriti sharma (@Sharma21Smriti) September 7, 2022 Its not ruthlessness, its full of racism. Infact, much before the final@elections, even newspaper like FT was being a mouth piece for Truss with series of articles wherein every writer addressing her as the PM.. none talking about Sunak. So stop pretending ! Raj_Lachhi IRS (@raj_irs) September 8, 2022 CV-Library had also targeted an ad campaign in July, and it took potshots at Johnson after his resignation. "Resigned today? Find a new job that works for you," along with a photo of what appeared to be the former Labour leader's hunched back, the employment website added. For more trending stories, follow us on Telegram. According to the luxury auto manufacturer's interim assessment sent to Palghar police, the Mercedes car carrying industrialist Cyrus Mistry and three other people had applied its brakes five seconds before the collision. The police officer added that a Mercedes-Benz team of specialists from Hong Kong is scheduled to arrive in Mumbai on Monday to inspect the car. BCCL Meanwhile, the German automaker said in a statement that it cooperated with the authorities in investigating the car crash and would share the findings only with them as it respects customer privacy and confidentiality. Mistry (54) and his friend Jahangir Pandole were killed on Sunday when their Mercedes hit a road divider in the Palghar district. Two other car occupants, Anahita Pandole (55), who was at the wheel, and her husband, Darius Pandole (60), suffered injuries and were admitted to a private hospital in Mumbai. AP The accident occurred on the Surya River bridge when they were on their way to Mumbai from Gujarat. Mercedes-Benz had submitted its interim report on the fatal accident of industrialist Cyrus Mistry to the Palghar police, which mentions that the vehicle brakes were applied five seconds before it crashed into the road divider, a senior official said on Friday. Twitter "Mercedes-Benz has submitted its interim report to the police. It says that the car was running at 100 kmph a few seconds before the accident, while its speed was 89 mph when it hit the divider on the bridge," Palghar Superintendent of Police Balasaheb Patil said. The report says that the car's brakes were applied five seconds before the crash. Patil added that the Regional Transport Office (RTO) has also submitted its report, which mentioned that four airbags in the car had opened after the crash-three in the driver's seat and one in the adjoining seat. "A team of experts from Mercedes-Benz is coming to Mumbai from Hong Kong on September 12 for an inspection of the car," he said. He said the car would be kept at Mercedes's unit at One Hiranandani Park in Thane. "After the inspection, the luxury carmaker will give its final report," he said. Mercedes-Benz, in its statement, said,"We respect customer privacy and confidentiality and will only share our findings with the authorities. We are cooperating with them where possible and will be providing them with further information and clarification on the matter directly, as required," the statement mentioned. The automaker had sent to Germany the Electronic Control Module (ECM) of the car in which the former Tata Sons chairman was killed for analysis. Most high-end vehicles have the Electronic Control Module, which can help identify technical issues like brake failure or low brake fluid. The district administration had on Thursday requested a road safety audit from the highway authority in light of this accident. Representational Image/Shutterstock Collector Govind Bodke had said that a joint visit of highway officials and police have been planned for September 14 to discover technical flaws and recommend mitigating measures. The collector added that they had been asked to put prominent signboards at black spots (perennially accident-prone stretches) on the route. (With PTI inputs) For more trending stories, follow us on Telegram. Read more: AM Best on the state of the health insurance industry How does health insurance work? Health insurance is a policy designed to help offset the costs of medical treatment by covering a portion of the professional and hospital fees incurred. According to the governments health insurance exchange website HeatlhCare.gov, this type of coverage comes in several forms aimed at meeting the varying needs of policyholders. Some types of plans restrict your provider choices or encourage you to get care from the plans network of doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, and other medical service providers, the site explained. Others pay a greater share of costs for providers outside the plans network. Among the kinds of policies currently available in the market, according to HealthCare.gov are: Exclusive Provider Organization (EPO): This is a managed care plan where services are covered only if the doctors, specialists, or hospitals are in the plans network except in cases of emergency. Health Maintenance Organization (HMO): This type of health insurance plan often limits coverage to care from doctors who work for or are contracted with the HMO. Policies generally do not cover out-of-network care except in an emergency. Plans may likewise require that a policyholder live or work in its service area to be eligible for coverage. HMOs typically provide integrated care and focus on prevention and wellness. Point of Service (POS): In this kind of policy, policyholders pay less if they access doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare providers belonging to the plans network. POS coverage also requires the insured to get a referral from their primary care doctor for them to see a specialist. Preferred Provider Organization (PPO): This health plan allows policyholders to pay less for healthcare if they choose to get treatment from providers in the plans network. However, they can also access doctors, hospitals, and providers outside of the network without a referral for an additional cost. Read more: Millennials find health insurance too expensive: Survey Health insurance plans are also offered in four categories based on how the costs are split between the policyholder and the insurer. These are Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. HealthCare.gov noted, however, that the category [has] nothing to do with [the] quality of care. Below is the estimated split for each category. Category Health insurer Policyholder Bronze 60% 40% Silver 70% 30% Gold 80% 20% Platinum 90% 10% Source: HealthCare.gov Bronze plans have the lowest monthly premiums, but policyholders will need to pay higher out-of-pocket costs before the policy kicks in. The opposite is true for Platinum coverage, which has the most expensive rates but the cheapest deductibles. Read more: Top health insurance providers for self-employed Americans What does health insurance cover? One of the changes the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has implemented in the countrys healthcare system is the standardization of insurance plan benefits. Prior to this, the benefits offered by insurers varied significantly between policies. Currently, US health insurance plans are required to cover a list of 10 essential health benefits, consisting of: Ambulatory patient services Emergency services Hospitalization Pregnancy, maternity, and newborn care Mental health and substance use disorder services, including behavioral health treatment Prescription drugs Rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices Laboratory services Preventive and wellness services and chronic disease management Pediatric services, including oral and vision care Dental and eye care coverages for adults are not considered essential benefits but are available as optional add-ons, along with medical management programs. Birth control and breastfeeding coverage, meanwhile, are also required benefits. Read more: Ex-NBA player pleads guilty in health insurance fraud case How much does health insurance cost? According to HealthCare.gov, insurance companies can only account for five factors when determining premiums under the healthcare law. These are: Age: Premiums can be up to three times higher for older people than for younger ones. Location: Differences in competition, state, local regulations, and cost of living also impact health insurance rates. Tobacco use: Insurers can charge tobacco users up to 50% more than those who do not smoke. Individual vs. family enrollment: Insurance providers can also charge more for a plan that also covers a spouse and dependents. Plan category: The different plan categories Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum also has an effect on premium prices. The government website noted that states can limit how much impact these factors have on insurance rates but prohibited them from using medical history and gender in calculating premiums. Insurance companies cant charge women and men different prices for the same plan, HealthCare.gov explained. They also cant take your current health or medical history into account. All health plans must cover treatment for pre-existing conditions from the day coverage starts. Read more: US health insurers struggle to cope with the pandemic's challenges What are the top health insurance companies in the US? The 10 leading health insurance companies in the US wrote almost 57% of all policies in the market, according to the latest figures from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), with those in the top five accounting for 41%. These providers offer basic health insurance products to individuals and businesses along with other services that can include Medicaid and Medicare policies, long-term care insurance, dental coverage, and vision benefits. These are the largest health insurance providers in the country ranked according to direct written premiums based on NAICs data. 1. UnitedHealth Group Headquarters: Minnetonka, Minnesota Direct written premiums: $195.4 billion Market share: 14.47% Memberships: 49.5 million States available: Nationwide A diversified health and well-being company, UnitedHealth Groups core capabilities are clinical expertise, advanced technology, and data and health information. UnitedHealth serves clients and consumers in the US and more than 130 other countries through two distinct platforms. UnitedHealthcare, which boasts a network of more than 1.3 million physicians and healthcare professionals and 6,500 hospitals, provides healthcare coverage and benefits, while Optum offers information and technology-enabled health services. The group invests more than $4 billion in technology and innovation and processes approximately 1.1 trillion transactions annually. 2. Kaiser Foundation Headquarters: San Francisco, California Direct written premiums: $107.8 billion Market share: 7.98% Memberships: 12.6 million States available: All or parts of California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Oregon, Virginia, Washington, Washington, D.C. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. operates as a non-profit healthcare organization. The organization provides budget-based plans, which can cover allergy, audiology, cardiology, dermatology, oncology, hospice, laboratory, nephrology, occupational therapy, pain management, pediatric rehabilitation, and pharmacy services. The insurers policies come with lower premiums and no deductibles and includes prescription drugs. 3. Elevance Health (formerly Anthem) Headquarters: Indianapolis, Indiana Direct written premiums: $93.8 billion Market share: 6.95% Memberships: More than 32 million States available: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Virginia, Wisconsin Anthem changed its name to Elevance Health in June 2022. The health insurer provides medical, pharmaceutical, dental, behavioral health, long-term care, and disability plans through affiliated companies, including Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Empire BlueCross BlueShield in New York, Anthem Blue Cross in California, Wellpoint, and Carelon. Elevance Health boasts a network of 1.7 million doctors and hospitals in 14 states and is the largest for-profit managed health care company in the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. 4. Centene Headquarters: St. Louis, Missouri Direct written premiums: $82.4 billion Market share: 6.10% Memberships: More than 26 million States available: 29 states, including California, Florida, New York, and Texas four of the largest Medicaid states Centene Corporation, a Fortune 500 company, is a diversified, multinational healthcare firm providing a portfolio of services to government-sponsored healthcare programs, focusing on uninsured and underinsured individuals. It is currently the largest Medicaid managed care organization in the country. Centene operates local health plans and provides a range of health insurance products. It also partners with other healthcare and commercial groups to offer specialty services, ranging from behavioral health, dental benefits, life and health, and pharmacy benefits management to care management software, correctional healthcare services, in-home health services, managed vision, specialty pharmacy, and telehealth services. 5. Humana Headquarters: Louisville, Kentucky Direct written premiums: $79.6 billion Market share: 5.90% Memberships: More than 20 million States available: Nationwide Humanas cultural foundation is aligned with helping members achieve their best health by providing personalized, simplified, whole-person healthcare experiences. Recognizing that each person, family, and communitys healthcare needs continue to evolve, Humana creates innovative solutions and resources to help people live the healthiest lives on their terms when and where they need it. 6. CVS Health Headquarters: Woonsocket, Rhode Island Direct written premiums: $74.3 billion Market share: 5.51% Memberships: More than 23 million (medical benefits) States available: Nationwide CVS Health is a healthcare innovation company, which aims to help people on their path to better health. It has more than 9,900 retail locations, nearly 1,100 walk-in medical clinics, a pharmacy benefits manager with about 100 million plan members, a diversified healthcare benefits company serving over 23 million medical members, a dedicated senior pharmacy care business serving more than one million patients per year, expanding specialty pharmacy services, and a standalone Medicare Part D prescription drug plan. 7. HCSC Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois Direct written premiums: $46.5 billion Market share: 3.44% Memberships: About 17 million States available: Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), a mutual legal reserve company, is the largest customer-owned healthcare insurance company in the US. The company offers a wide variety of life and health insurance products and related services through its affiliates and subsidiaries, including Dearborn Group, Dental Network of America, HCSC Insurance Service Company, Medecision, Availity, Prime Therapeutics, and TriWest Healthcare Alliance. 8. Cigna Headquarters: Bloomfield, Connecticut Direct written premiums: $34.1 billion Market share: 2.53% Memberships: More than 17 million States available: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia Cignas insurance plans and products include healthcare insurance for individuals and families, dental insurance plans, Medicare plans, Medicare supplemental plans, other supplemental insurance, and international health insurance. 9. Molina Healthcare Headquarters: Long Beach, California Direct written premiums: $26.5 billion Market share: 1.97% Memberships: About four million States available: Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Ohio, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin Molina Healthcare, a Fortune 500 company, exclusively focuses on government-sponsored healthcare programs for qualified individuals and families. The company partners with state governments and serves as a health plan providing a wide range of quality healthcare services to individuals and families. It also offers a Medicare product and has been selected in many states to join in dual demonstration projects to manage the care for those eligible for Medicaid and Medicare. 10. Independence Health Group Headquarters: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Direct written premiums: $22.8 billion Market share: 1.69% Memberships: More than eight million States available: Southeastern Pennsylvania, 27 states through affiliates Independence Health Group, along with its subsidiaries, serves clients in 27 states and the District of Columbia. A quarter of its customer network is based in southeastern Pennsylvania. The company serves various employer groups, from SMEs to national corporations. Among the services the insurer offers are commercial, Medicare and Medicaid coverage, pharmacy benefits management, workers compensation, and third-party benefits administration. The company is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. The AI property analytics company appointed Greg Oslan as its new CEO and Joe Brown as vice president of sales and service. Oslan succeeds John-Isaac JC Clark, who served as CEO and a board member from Aug. 2018 through July 2022. Hell be tasked with leading Arturo through a new period of growth, expanding in multiple industries and building on Arturos technical capabilities. Brown, in turn will focus on expanding the companys customer base, boosting Arturos presence in new channels and markets and building sales and business development functions. Arturo, spun out of American Family Insurance in 2018, initially used its technology for insurers. Clark told Mortgage Professional America in April that the company had been in discussion with multiple players. Oslan was previously chairman and/or CEO of multiple companies including RiskSense (sold to Avanti), Fixmo (sold to Good Technologies) and Narus (sold to Boeing). In addition, he led commercial efforts in standing up both the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) in Silicon Valley and the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) at the Pentagon. He currently serves on the board of directors of the National Cyber Security Center, on the board of Altreides and on multiple advisory boards. Before joining Arturo, Brown was vice president of business development for EagleView and CoreLogic. He also served as principal for Spatial Marketing Group, a geospatial systems integrator. Sayata Sayata hired a chief distribution officer who will be charged with building its broker and carrier base. Brian Quinn will lead business development and customer operations teams for the Boston-based insurtech. Sayatas platform is designed to generate rapid growth for insurance brokers and carriers focused on small-to-medium-sized businesses. Previously, Quinn was a partner at McKinsey & Co. where he led the firms business-building and innovation practice in insurance. While there, he partnered with blue-chip insurance companies to spot untapped market opportunities and then build and launch new products and businesses to capture them. Zywave Zywave launched a group of new products targeted at the carrier audience. The company is an insurtech that develops cloud-based sales management, client delivery, content and analytics products and services. Zywaves Carrier Engagement Suite uses its Client Cloud to connect carriers with insureds at scale by harnessing content, web portal access and a learning management system. The product is designed to help foster stronger relationships with insureds but also differentiate the carriers offerings and services. CyberCube CyberCube hopes to expand the audience for its cyber risk analysis offerings through a new partnership with AkinovA. AkinovA is a startup focused on building an electronic marketplace for the transfer and trading of reinsurance and insurance risks. The partnership will make CyberCubes products available to AkinovAs platform, giving the entire value chain of the risk transfer sector access to CyberCubes sophisticated models. Those models are based on specially designed cyber risk scenarios including ransomware attacks, cloud outages and major systemic risks intended to help insurance, reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) organizations to make better decisions when placing and managing cyber risk. INSTANDA INSTANDA, maker of a no-code core insurance platform, appointed a former Hiscox executive as its chief financial officer. Liz Prior most recently served as managing director at Hiscox Insurance Company Guernsey. She has more than 13 years of experience in insurance and is a qualified actuary. In her new role, Prior will lead development of finance and business strategies that further strengthen INSTANDAs growth. Shell also partner with the companys management team, board and investors on major decisions that drive the business forward. INSTANDA is currently beefing up its platform capabilities and expanding in Europe, the US, Japan and the UAE, fueled by $45 million in new financing. Great American Insurance Group Great American Insurance Group is now using API integration technology for its insurance programs focused on commercial equipment finance. The API integration enables programs to be managed through existing software on the same screens and applications users rely on today. It also allows equipment protection to be placed at any point in the financing workflow, from originations, bookings and funding to ongoing portfolio management. Another benefit: billing and coverage changes are handled immediately, without uncertainty and delay. One of the biggest changes is weve graduated from what we could call Main Street small insurance agencies to two different types of customers, said Ascend co-founder and co-CEO Andrew Wynn (pictured). Much larger insurance agencies among the 100 biggest US agencies and brokerages, have signed on as new customers, Wynn said. The startup is also selling now to carriers and wholesalers, who collect payments in lieu of the agents. In addition, Ascend has hired more people (staffing is now at 20) and is following a longer-term integration strategy. The technology investment downturn hasnt directly impacted Ascend because it secured significant funding and hasnt needed to raise new financing, according to Wynn. We have years and years of capital and are getting more efficient every month, he said. Still, the company has pivoted a bit in response to the changing investment market. We have noticed the winds changing and have reacted accordingly. We slowed down hiring and have been really deliberate about our cost of growth, Wynn explained. We work to drive efficiency in our growth that we may not have done otherwise. Wynn said the company would push for efficiency and level-headed spending anyway, but market conditions are a good reminder to be sage with the funds we have. Strategy = integrations Typically, agencies rely on agency management systems and carriers use policy administration systems. According to Wynn, Ascend is targeting both potential customer bases by integrating into both system types. Weve spent a significant amount of time working to integrate with various existing software [systems] that are off the shelf, Wynn said. We have a bunch of those as well as [many] specific bespoke integrations on a one-off customer basis. The longer-term goal here, Wynn said, is to productize as many integrations as possible so they can be off the shelf. By doing so, Wynn said, the process becomes fairly easy. If you work with XYZ software company, we already have the building blocks needed and we can typically do a little bit of configuration to your workflow. Every business is specific, and we wouldnt want to be making [a client] conform to the way weve built it, Wynn said. But we have the vast majority of the building blocks in place. If thats not the case, and a client has a custom system, Ascend relies on open APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) to help build more elaborate integrations. We have completely open APIs very good API documentation sandboxes where we can together build this integration, Wynn said. Existing tools, short integrations Ascend doubles down on the idea that agent and carrier clients should use their existing management systems with the companys software causing as little process change as possible. The idea is that both should work in tandem easily. We want them to use the existing tools that they know how to use so they can see tech is not an enabler, Wynn said. To minimize the effort needed [in using] a tool like Ascend is critical so they can focus on their [insurance] business. Thats why we integrate into their systems. Integration times can vary, ranging from just minutes to at least a few weeks, depending on whether clients choose an off-the-shelf or custom option. If you use one of the off-the-shelf integrations which we have with [agency management systems], you can get started and actually start using the integration in as little as 10 minutes, Wynn explained. Bespoke integrations can take longer. Weve had some clients do their own custom integrations in as little as a week, but more typically its six to eight weeks, Wynn said. Year-end goals Heading into the end of 2022, Wynn said that integrations are key to Ascends strategy of meeting our customers where they are. While Ascend has primarily focused on agency management systems, it is expanding further into integrating with policy administration systems that carriers use. Ascend also plans to build its agency management system integrations even more, to be integrated with a large number of the off-the-shelf options by year end. A federal judge ruled that New York state could not require a Christian family services agency to provide adoption services to unmarried or same-sex couples. New Hope Family Services in Syracuse professes that it cannot provide adoption services to same-sex or unmarried couples because of religious beliefs. It filed a federal lawsuit against the state Office of Children and Family Services in 2018 after the agency told it to revise its discriminatory and impermissible policy or shut down its adoption program, according to court filings. U.S. District Court Judge Mae A. DAgostino in Albany cited free speech protections Tuesday in granting New Hope a summary judgment and ruling the state agency couldnt compel New Hope to provide adoption services to unmarried or same-sex couples. An attorney for New Hope said shutting down an agency for its religious beliefs serves no one. New Hopes faith-guided services dont coerce anyone and do nothing to interfere with other adoption providers who have different beliefs about family and the best interests of children, Roger Brooks of the Alliance Defending Freedom said in a prepared release. The state Office of Children and Family Services said in a prepared statement it was deeply disappointed with the decision and maintains that discrimination on any basis should not be tolerated. Were reviewing our options for next steps. The district court in Albany had dismissed New Hopes lawsuit in May 2019, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit sent the case back down to the trial court. New Hope said it takes no government funding and has placed more than 1,000 children with adoptive families since 1965. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Legislation Virginia lawmakers elected a handful of local judges Wednesday but failed yet again to fill a vacancy on the powerful State Corporation Commission, which regulates a wide range of business interests. The lack of action during the politically divided General Assemblys one-day special session in Richmond means the long-running impasse will continue, possibly for months. Im disappointed. I mean, we pushed this from June to give ourselves enough time to do some vetting and and come up with with a mutually agreed-upon candidate, said Democratic Sen. Scott Surovell, who was involved in negotiations with the GOP-controlled House and said discussions fell apart at the last minute. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw declined to answer questions about the appointment or related negotiations but blamed Republicans in a news release. They have their preferences, and we have ours, GOP House Speaker Todd Gilbert told reporters. The spot on the three-member commission is vacant because House Republicans let the appointment of commissioner Angela Navarro expire earlier this year amid a broader fight over political appointees of Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Youngkins predecessor, Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam, appointed Navarro, a former environmental attorney and member of his administration, to the job. The process for filling the role has proceeded with minimal transparency. Lawmakers have not made public the full list of candidates under consideration, and no preliminary interviews have been conducted publicly. The SCCs purview includes the regulation of utilities, insurance, state-chartered financial institutions, railroad safety and other matters. Its two commissioners are currently considering Dominion Energys massive offshore wind farm, which the company says would be the countrys largest. Both chambers approved four candidates for local judgeships, and Gilbert set a special election for Jan. 10 to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of Mark Keam, a Democratic delegate from a solidly blue northern Virginia district who recently took a job with the Biden administration. Lawmakers also confirmed appointments to various state boards and reshuffled some committee assignments. Several Democrats gave floor speeches criticizing Youngkins decision to campaign Wednesday in Maine with Republican Paul LePage, a former governor known for his offensive rhetoric and combative leadership who is seeking a third nonconsecutive term. LePage has a long history of making controversial remarks, and made national news in 2016 in part for suggesting out-of-state drug dealers were impregnating young white girls and saying the enemy in the fight against drugs was people of color or people of Hispanic origin. House Minority Leader Don Scott said Youngkin was playing footsies with an unabashed racist. To be going to Maine, to stand with a person like that today, while were here working shameful, he said. Republicans defended the governor. Gilbert suggested Democrats would find anything to complain about. And Sen. David Suetterlein responded by taking a shot at Northam. I wish that our previous governor had been invited to speak in more states. Unfortunately, he instead appeared on `Saturday Night Live, Suetterlein said, in a reference to an episode that skewered Northam amid the 2019 scandal over a racist photo that appeared in his medical school yearbook. Lawmakers also failed to agree Wednesday on how to adjourn, taking different technical votes on the matter. The split creates some uncertainty about implications for the governor, who has different powers to make appointments and call special elections based on whether the part-time General Assembly is in session. The House voted to adjourn with finality, while the Senate voted to adjourn but leave open the possibility of returning at the call of a committee chair. The situation is not unprecedented, but has never been tested by the courts, Surovell said. Asked about the possibility of a legal fight, Gilbert said it might depend on whether the governor will seek to take any interim actions before the regular 2023 session. As for the SCC spot, Gilbert said he would ask the governor not to try to step in, saying he expects lawmakers will be able to arrive at a consensus eventually. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Legislation Virginia Risk Placement Services, the E&S wholesale broker and managing general agency, is pleased to announce its President Joel Cavaness has been named the 2022 Spirit of Life Honoree by City of Hope, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States The Spirit of Life Award is City of Hopes most prestigious honor, presented to an esteemed community of industry leaders around the world who have made a significant commitment to support those in need. This year, the City of Hopes National Insurance Industry Council (NIIC) honors Cavaness and will commemorate this recognition during the Spirit of Life Gala Sept. 11 in San Diego. Spirit of Life honorees are selected for their notable contributions to the community in which they live and the profession in which they work, said City of Hope Senior Director Ken Birkett. Joel leads by example in his passion for and commitment to community involvement, fostering a culture of charitable giving within RPS. He truly embodies our mission at City of Hope to make a difference in the lives of people with cancer, diabetes and other life threatening illnesses. Ahead of the Spirit of Life Gala, Cavaness set a goal to raise $1 million from fellow insurance leaders to support City of Hope. Im honored and humbled to receive this recognition, Cavaness said. I am in awe of the medical professionals, researchers and administrators who have dedicated their careers to serve the City of Hope. Through great partnerships, such as the NIIC, we can further their important work and help save more lives. A bankruptcy judge on Sept. 8 granted the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) approval of its $2.5 billion reorganization plan, which will allow the organization to settle tens of thousands of sexual abuse claims. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Laurie Silversteins ruling means the Boy Scouts can continue operating and exit Chapter 11. The proposal includes changes the judge had required, including the cut of a $250 million settlement payment from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Boy Scouts Must Change $2.7 Billion Sex Abuse Fund, Judge Rules The settlement fund is comprised of cash, property, promissory notes, payments from local BSA councils, and insurers. But according to reports, insurers are split on the settlement. Chubbs Century Indemnity and insurers of The Hartford have agreed to contribute $800 million and $787 million, respectively, with a release of from BSA-related abuse claims. Others insurers reportedly AIG, Liberty Mutual and Travelers object to the settlement and will likely appeal. Jeff Anderson, whose firm represented over 800 Boy Scout abuse survivors, said the amount an individual survivor may receive from the bankruptcy plan depends on multiple factors relating to the abuse. Credit to the courageous survivors that this breakthrough in child and scouting safety has been achieved, he said in a statement. John Humphrey, co-chair of the official Tort Claimants Committee of the Boy Scouts of America said it is proud to put this phase of the bankruptcy case to rest. The TCC has been fighting for survivors for more than two and a half years and we are ready to move onto the next phase of the process so that the Settlement Trustee can be formally appointed and begin setting up the trust, he added. Topics Legislation Claims Civil rights groups filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of three transgender Oklahoma schoolchildren, arguing the states new law requiring students use only the bathroom of the sex listed on their birth certificate is unconstitutional. The lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City lists the State Department of Education and its board members, Superintendent Joy Hofmeister, Attorney General John OConnor and three school districts as defendants. Plaintiffs and other youth who are transgender in Oklahoma schools now face mandated discipline, possibly even suspension, simply for using the restroom and other facilities at school corresponding with who they are, the lawsuit states. Oklahoma is among about a dozen conservative states that have passed laws this year targeting the transgender population over bathroom use, participation in school sports, and gender-affirming treatments or surgery for young people. Oklahomas new law, which passed quickly through the GOP-controlled Legislature and was signed by Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, was proposed after Stillwater Public Schools declined to change a policy allowing students to use the bathroom that agrees with their gender identity unless forced by law to do otherwise. The bill also requires the State Department of Education to penalize schools that do not comply with the new law with a 5% reduction in state funding. The lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Oklahoma Foundation and Lambda Legal, a civil rights group focused on protecting the rights of LGBTQ people, argues the new law discriminates against transgender students in violation of both the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Title IX civil rights law enacted as part of the Education Amendments of 1972. OConnor, Oklahomas attorney general, declined to comment, citing the pending litigation, and a message left Wednesday with the bills author, Republican Sen. David Bullard, wasnt immediately returned. The House author of the bill, Republican Rep. Danny Williams, said when the bill was signed that its goal was to protect our children. Its about safety, its about protection, its about common sense, Williams said. One of the plaintiff students, 16-year-old Noble High School senior Andy Bridge, said that while he was able to use the boys bathroom without incident last year, the new law makes him feel singled out and excluded from the rest of his classmates. I am a boy, and while living authentically hasnt always been easy, its given me a sense of relief and happiness, he said in a statement. Being able to use the boys restroom might seem like a small thing to others, but it is a vital step in my transition. The two other plaintiff students, who used pseudonyms in the lawsuit, attend Moore Public Schools and a public charter school operated by Harding Independent School District. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits Oklahoma New You can now listen to Insurance Journal articles! Hub International Ltd., a global insurance brokerage, has continued its steady expansion with the recent acquisition of Tilghman Insurance of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Tilghman has provided commercial and personal lines insurance to the Grand Strand of coastal Carolina for more than 10 years, the companies said in a news release. Tilghman and its principal, Jeff Price, will now join Hub Carolinas. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Hub, headquartered in Chicago, said it has more than 14,000 employees throughout North America. Topics Mergers & Acquisitions South Carolina Former Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty is criticizing current state regulators over their recent digs at the Demotech financial rating firm, after Demotech warned it would downgrade more than a dozen property insurers in the state. Demotech is merely the messenger, and focusing on their ratings rather than a broader industry that is in freefall could prove to be a costly mistake, McCarty wrote this week in a guest commentary piece in the South Florida Sun Sentinel newspaper. While some policymakers have raised questions about Demotechs continued role in our state, they should proceed with great caution. McCarty, who was commissioner from 2003 until 2016, was referring to letters and comments that Floridas chief financial officer and current insurance commissioner offered in July, after Demotech told carriers about the pending downgrades and rating withdrawals. Current Commissioner David Altmaier said that Demotech had failed to adhere to its own standards and methodologies. CFO Jimmy Patronis sent letters to secondary lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, urging them to stop relying on Demotech to rate insurers for homes with mortgages. The Florida Association of Insurance Agents also weighed in, slamming Demotech for inconsistencies in its ratings. The missives sparked a hot debate in the Florida insurance arena, with some arguing that Demotech has outlived its usefulness. Others, including the Insurance Information Institute, said that the rating firm is spot-on and is correctly highlighting the deep problems in Floridas property insurance market. Other rating firms, including AM Best and KBRA, have said they are willing to rate Florida carriers financial stability, but critics have said that struggling insurers wont fare any better with those organizations. The state Office of Insurance Regulation announced in August that it had found a temporary work-around, making Citizens Property Insurance Corp. a partial reinsurer for carriers that may be in danger of insolvency. The move could obviate the need for ratings, if Fannie and Freddie agree to it. McCarty, now a consultant, is in the camp that Demotech and its president, Joe Petrelli, are simply performing the service the firm was asked to do, years ago. Right now, thats exactly what we need. The reality is that many Florida insurers are currently at risk of being downgraded, McCarty wrote. That would be true regardless of which rating company was evaluating their financial condition. Demotech does a thorough and professional job, using sound actuarial principles and a detailed methodology to determine financial stability ratings for hundreds of companies doing business in Florida, McCarty added. The commentary piece did not say what prompted McCarty to write it. And he did not offer alternatives to the rating conundrum and did not provide specific solutions to the insurance crisis. Creating stability in Floridas insurance market will require ongoing efforts to develop creative solutions to these complex challenges, he noted. Florida has done it before. We just need to focus on the task at hand, not shooting the messenger. Still, lawmakers may be moving ahead with a plan to explore other rating options. The Joint Legislative Budget Commission meets today to consider a request that it allocate $1.5 million to hire a consultant to analyze alternatives to the Demotech ratings. Topics Florida A wood products company said that it is investigating whether a fire that killed two people as it swept through a Northern California town was caused by the possible failure of a water-spraying machine used to cool ash at its veneer mill. Roseburg Forest Products Co. also announced that although the investigation was not complete, it was planning to provide up to $50 million for a community restoration fund. The Mill Fire erupted Sept. 2 at the companys facility in the small town of Weed on Interstate 5, about 280 miles northeast of San Francisco. Roseburg Forest Products said in a news release that its mill produces its own electricity in a co-generation facility fueled by wood remnants, and the ash that is ejected is sprayed with cooling water by a third-party-supplied machine. Roseburg is investigating whether the third-party machine failed to cool the ash sufficiently which thereby ignited the fire, the release said. Hundreds of people fled as the fire spread, destroying 107 structures and damaging 26 others. The blaze eventually grew to more than 6 square miles. The fire was 65% contained Wednesday, with minimal activity. Roseburg said its fund will assist residents with temporary shelter, medical supplies and treatment, transportation, clothing, food and water, and child care services. Elsewhere, wildfires burned out of control in Southern California and in the Sierra Nevada, forcing evacuations. The deadly Fairview Fire grew to more than 15 square miles (39 square km) as it sent up a huge smoke plume above the city of Hemet in Riverside County, about 80 miles (129 km) southeast of Los Angeles. Cal Fire Battalion Chief Josh Janssen told a briefing that the fire remained just 5% contained with open fire on all sides of the fire still threatening several communities. Evacuation orders were expanded Wednesday afternoon. The fire erupted Monday amid triple-digit heat and spread ferociously, killing two people who were found in a vehicle, severely burning another person while destroying seven structures and damaging several others. Unfortunately we arent able to positively identify the victims at this time. But we do believe that they were from the same family, sheriffs Sgt. Brandi Swan said. It appears as though the two victims that were found inside the vehicle were trying to flee from the fire. The injured person was identified only as a woman. Swan said she was expected to survive. The cause of the fire was under investigation. Southern California Edison notified the California Public Utilities Commission that circuit activity occurred close in time to when the fire was reported, the Los Angeles Times said. The activity was not specified. About 35 miles (56 km) to the north, smoke loomed over ski runs in the San Bernardino Mountains as the Radford Fire fed on stands of timber south of the Big Bear Lake resort region. The blaze spread over 1.5 square miles since being spotted by a U.S. Forest Service helicopter crew Monday afternoon. It was just 2% contained. In the Sierra, evacuation orders and warnings were in place in Placer and El Dorado counties as the day-old Mosquito Fire grew to nearly 6.5 square miles with zero containment. Several structures and at least 10 cars were burned near the tiny Gold Rush community of Michigan Bluff. Near the Oregon border, the Mountain Fire covered more than 18 square miles of Siskiyou County and was 30% contained. It began Sept. 2. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics California Catastrophe Natural Disasters Wildfire Californians stepped up their water conservation in July, using 10.4% less than two years ago as the state struggles with a years-long drought, state water officials said. July marks the first full month that new conservation rules like a ban on watering decorative grass were in effect, which state water officials said helped make a difference. Water use started to trend down in June after a bump in April and May. Still, conservation over the past year is still far below the 15% drop Gov. Gavin Newsom requested in summer 2021 as the state fought to maintain critical water supplies in anticipation of a drier year ahead. Statewide, water use is down since then by just 3.4% compared with 2020, the year Newsom is measuring against. The State Water Resources Control Board reported the monthly numbers, based on data from urban water suppliers. Last summer the savings numbers were slow to ramp up because the governors call had just gone into effect. But the most recent numbers show how far weve come, said Marielle Rhodeiro, a research data specialist with the board. We can see some achievements _ quite heartening. Much of California remains gripped by a severe drought, with many counties throughout the hot, dry Central Valley in exceptional drought, the highest category, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Meanwhile, the boards monthly report came as a heat wave that has lasted longer than a week blankets the state, forcing unprecedented power demands. Its not yet clear how the abnormally hot September temperatures will change water use for the month. Residents on average used 104 gallons per day in July, 12 gallons per day less than a year ago. It was the lowest July water use since mandatory restrictions in July 2015, when usage dropped to 98 gallons per person per day. What a ride its been, said the boards chairman, E. Joaquin Esquivel. We know that we need to keep the momentum going, he added later, warning that the state seems likely to face another winter with below-average precipitation. Three of the states 10 water regions exceeded 15% savings, Rhodeiro said, with the North Coast region completely blowing it out of the water with 28.5% less water usage over 2020. The San Francisco Bay region used 17.3% less, and the South Lahontan region that includes numerous mountain ranges used about 16% less. Water use decreased early last winter after a series of storms, but it soared through March when the rains stopped and led to the driest first quarter on record. Newsom doubled down with a $100 million advertising campaign urging water conservation. The states main reservoirs are well below their historic averages despite some late April storms. They largely depend on snow melt that flows downstream from the Sierra Nevada. But the statewide snowpack was at just 27% of its historic average as of April 1. Lake Shasta, the states largest, and Lake Oroville, the second largest, both were a little over one-third of their capacity. Shasta was at less than 60% of its average for this time of year and Oroville at 64% of average. Things are in general significantly below historic averages, Eric Ekdahl, deputy director for water rights, told the water board. That trend is continuing, and theres no clear precipitation on the horizon, with maybe the exception of Southern California, which may see some tropical moisture toward the end of the week. Urban water use accounts for a relatively small percentage of Californias overall water use, compared to agriculture. But state and federal officials also have reduced agricultural water allocations to zero in some places. The state has declared drought emergencies for 11 communities where it is providing bottled or hauled water to more than 2,700 people. There are drought warnings for another 35 communities that are receiving funding to help them deal with the drought. Drought watches are in place for 2,018 communities that could be in danger of water shortages in the next year. The worst-hit areas are concentrated in the San Joaquin Valley and Russian River drainage. Meanwhile, about 4 million people in parts of Los Angeles County were banned from outdoor watering for 15 days so that workers can repair a major pipeline that delivers Colorado River water to seven cities and four local water districts. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics California A group of Portland, Oregon, residents with disabilities has filed a lawsuit against the city, accusing it of failing to keep public sidewalks accessible. The class action lawsuit filed this week in federal court accuses the city of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by allowing people to camp on city sidewalks, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported. The Americans with Disabilities Act, known as the ADA, prohibits discrimination based on disability and requires accessible sidewalks. The suit names 10 plaintiffs, most of whom use a wheelchair, cane or walkers and say they have to go out of their way to navigate around tents. In a news conference Wednesday near City Hall, some of the plaintiffs talked about the difficulties theyve encountered navigating Portland streets in recent years as tents have gone up to shelter people experiencing homelessness. Steve Jackson, a 47-year-old man who is blind, said he often accidentally steps on people. Barbara Jacobsen, a 62-year-old who uses an electric wheelchair, said she frequently has to go into the street with traffic to avoid the tents. The city has abandoned us and the homeless, said Jacobsen. A city spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit. The city does not usually comment on ongoing litigation. Plaintiffs want a judge to order the city to clear sidewalks of tents and provide emergency shelters for everyone displaced as a result. The lawsuit also asks a judge to include all Portland residents with mobility disabilities and their caretakers as plaintiffs. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits Oregon Employers need to conduct frequent informal appraisals and engage with inclusion, the environment and other ethical issues if they want to retain younger team members, says a respected human resources advisor. Una Clifford, HR director with HR services provider HRLegal, says SME-level employers have an opportunity to engage with their teams in a more personal, less formulaic manner than the big corporate entities. SME owner-employers, she says, can gain a distinct advantage in the war for talent by conducting personal appraisals that feel more like an informal chat than the annual or even seasonal models used by bigger companies. Frequency is very important. A lot of the bigger computer companies sell their culture so well when bringing in fresh graduates that these young people expect the sun, moon and stars from their job, said Una. These young people come in and think theyll be sitting around on bean bags dreaming up great ideas. They soon realise, however, that if they dont meet their sales targets then theyre back out the door just as quickly as they came in. We are advising our clients, many of them SME owners, that they shouldnt feel the need to follow the models of these bigger corporates. The personal approach can work better for them; appraisals can feel more like a chat over a coffee than a formal appraisal. What we are seeing is that workers in the 25-30-year-old bracket work much harder when they feel they belong, when their ideas are listened to and when they can see a career path. They will talk openly about things like their mental health and their wellbeing in a way that might surprise employers of an older vintage. That requires a different approach from the employer. We advise employers to be open in their communication style. The conversation shouldnt feel overwhelming. Ask young people how they are feeling; they will tell you very openly. Be open with them. Have a short chat and do it at least once a month. Una has worked and led HR functions over the last two decades in both the public and private sector. She has held senior roles in Science Foundation Ireland and Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland and has also set up and run HR functions in the financial services and recruitment arenas in more recent years. She has resolved a myriad of HR issues over the course of her career without necessitating legal redress and is comfortable dealing with any level or aspect of a HR problem. She also advises employers on issues such as management of staff performance, resolving staff conflict, guiding on tough conversations with staff and temporary lay-offs, long term redundancies or hostile exits. In relation to subjects such as the best tools needed to motivate their teams and softer HR issues, she advises to be open and to be themselves. In relation to performance appraisals, she says SME employers often have an advantage in not having a formal model to follow. With big corporates, the employee can feel theyre just another number. Younger employees are often highly educated, highly intelligent. If the performance appraisal is too formal, they see through the smoke screen and feel like theyre one in a thousand. The SME employer can take the employee out for a coffee. Theyll very quickly find themselves talking about issues like sustainability and diversity in the workplace. We find that these chats are better if theyre not structured, if they dont subsequently lead to structured feedback. You spend as much time in work as you do with people at home, so ideally the work relationship should be as straight and direct as any other relationship. In this context, while informal, Una says that this younger group does appreciate a performance score, analogous to exams; for example, a 55% score might inspire the young worker to boost their performance in the months ahead. This straight-talking relationship should start at the interview stage. Una advises SME owners to be frank with job applicants about the performance they expect from them. She contrasts this with the interview approach of some bigger corporates, where much of the conversation can focus on free food, flexible holidays and on-site gyms. At the recruitment stage, these companies rarely make mention of work, performance targets, attendance, delivery, says Una. It is all focused on what we give to the employee as opposed to what we expect. This has worked well for their talent acquisition staff not so well for those they hired who were promptly exited if they didnt meet stringent sales or other targets. Combine the onset of this culture with the talent shortage in the last two years and you have the expectation levels of potential hires running awry. HRLegal has seen a significant increase in the level of advice required by its clients on managing this early career cohort as their businesses are struggling to recruit and, crucially, to retain people from this cohort. At the recruitment stage, interviews have flipped focus completely and it has now really become the employer who is being interviewed, says Una. The potential hire asks questions about salary levels, digitalisation progress, hello money, gym subs, pilates classes, ability to work from Spain and flexible working hours. One wonders at times when they plan to get the day job done. Employers, particularly in the last two years, have had to pivot to sales mode themselves to get the hire in the door. It is then, once hired, that the real generational change in dynamic is evident. Harry and Meghan plunged the British royal family into one of the most challenging periods in modern royal history during the twilight years of the queens reign. The Megxit saga, the rift between Harry and his brother William, allegations of racism against an unnamed royal and accusations that the institution failed to help a suicidal Meghan left the Windsors in turmoil. Throughout, the Sussexes made efforts to publicly praise the queen, even naming their daughter Lilibet after her her family nickname since childhood. The royal family on Commonwealth Day 2020 the Sussexes final official public engagement before quitting as senior working royals (Phil Harris/Daily Mirror/PA) In their controversial interview with US talk show host Oprah Winfrey, aired when Prince Philip was unwell in hospital, Harry spoke of his respect for his grandmother. Meghan said The queen has always been wonderful to me and said she would phone her just to check in. She said the queen gave her some beautiful pearl earrings and a matching necklace on their first engagement together and shared a blanket with her in a car. Meghan with the Queen in Chester on their first official joint engagement together in 2018 (Peter Byrne/PA) But Harry later appeared to suggest, in a mental health podcast, that his father, the Prince of Wales, and the queen and Prince Philip had failed as parents, while the family was still mourning Philips death. If Ive experienced some form of pain or suffering because of the pain or suffering that perhaps my father or my parents had suffered, Im going to make sure that I break that cycle so that I dont pass it on, basically. Its a lot of genetic pain and suffering that gets passed on anyway, he said. The queen, who was not one for confrontation, did not betray any private feelings in public and held a great affection for her often wayward grandson. Harry smiles broadly as his grandmother the Queen reviews him and other officers during the Sovereigns Parade at Sandhurst in 2006 (James Vellacott/PA) Yet she remained resolute when the Sussexes initially pushed to become part-time working royals, insisting they could not have their cake and eat it. A stickler for tradition, she also stripped them of their prestigious royal patronages and Harry of his military titles, leaving the duke saddened. After their claims of racism and failure to help Meghan when she was struggling, the queen issued a public statement which declared that some recollections may vary and said the Sussexes will always be much-loved family members. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex during their interview with Oprah Winfrey (Joe Pugliese/Harpo Productions/PA) But what does her death mean for the Sussexes future relationship and standing within the royal family? Harry and Meghans titles have not changed, and, although Harry has moved up from sixth to fifth in line to the throne, he is still too far down the line of succession to ever be expected to be king. The Sussexes children, Archie and Lili, are now, as the grandchildren of a monarch, a prince and a princess. But it is not known whether they will use the titles, which they were not entitled to when they were born. Following the death of the queen, Harry and Meghan are left with Charles as king and head of The Firm, and William elevated to the key role of heir apparent. The Prince of Wales is now King and the Duke of Cambridge the heir to the throne (Matt Dunham/PA) While Harry and Meghan appeared to have invested their time developing their bond with the queen, their relationship with Charles and William has been greatly troubled. In April 2022, Harry, after meeting the queen face to face for the first time in two years, told US network NBC he was making sure she was protected and had the right people around her. He sidestepped a question about whether he missed Charles and William, having met his father for just 15 minutes while briefly back in the UK. In the Oprah interview in 2021, Harry said he felt let down by Charles and that theres a lot of hurt thats happened, and said his father stopped taking his calls in the build-up to their Megxit announcement. In a move likely to have enraged William, Meghan accused Kate Midleton of making her cry in the run-up to her wedding, and the palace of failing to correct reports that it had been the other way round. In 2019 Harry laid bare his rift with William, telling an ITV documentary crew that he and William were on different paths and had good and bad days. He went on to tell Oprah that he loved his brother but their relationship was space at the moment, adding time heals all things, hopefully. The royals are also bracing themselves for Harrys memoirs, due out later in 2022, amid fears they could reopen old wounds and spark a new crisis. Harry travelled to Balmoral to join his father, brother and family at the queens bedside, but Meghan remained down south. Harry, grieving for his grandmother, will be expected to attend the queens funeral, with Meghan also likely to join him. She missed Philips funeral in 2021 while heavily pregnant with daughter Lili. The Duke of Sussex (far right) following the Land Rover Defender carrying the coffin of the Duke of Edinburgh in April 2021 (Leon Neal/PA) An absentee duchess would be seen as a snub and disrespectful, but a public appearance with Harry alongside the rest of the royal family could prove immensely difficult. When King George VI died, his brother, the former Edward VIII, returned for the funeral, but his American wife, the Duchess of Windsor, formerly Wallis Simpson, for whom he gave up the throne, was absent. She remained in the United States, where they were living at the time. Former Suits actress Meghan was the first American divorcee to marry a senior royal since Mrs Simpson, and both she and Harry moved across the Atlantic to California after quitting as senior working royals in March 2020. Harry could seize the chance to reunite with his family amid their shared grief and heartache for the loss of the Queen. As the new head of the Windsors, Charles could, if he sees fit, offer to welcome Harry and Meghan back as part-time working royals although this could conflict with their Netflix and Spotify commercial deals and new life away from the monarchy. The aftermath of the queens death could be a time to build bridges, but it remains to be seen whether those have long since been burned. When Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer, Queen Elizabeth II was so delighted she did a jig as she left their wedding reception. Little was she to know the impact Princess Diana would have on Britain and the House of Windsor, and the tragic fate that awaited Charless new bride. The fairytale wedding seemed a world away when the War of the Waleses ravaged the royal familys reputation. The Queen and the Prince and Princess of Wales on the balcony of Buckingham Palace on their wedding day (PA) Diana brought a modernity and glamour to the British royal family, and was the mother of Princes William and Harry. She was known for her compassion, went on to champion causes such as the fight against landmines and changed attitudes to those diagnosed with HIV and Aids, bringing a more touchy-feely approach to royal engagements. But even in the early days, Charles and Dianas marriage did not go smoothly. The princess was paranoid about her husbands relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles, and in later years was proved right. She also suffered bulimia and threw herself down the stairs while pregnant with Prince William. The shocking revelations emerged in Andrew Mortons book Diana: Her True Story a work with which the princess had herself collaborated. Dianas actions in going public left the royals without much sympathy for her. The queen is said to have cared for the princess, but found her behaviour difficult to comprehend, while Diana once admitted she longed to get inside her mother-in-laws mind. It was not the end of royal secrets being played out on a public stage. Charles and Diana look their separate ways during a memorial service on their tour of Korea (PA) Also in 1992 came the Squidgygate tapes with James Gilbey, where Diana called her marriage torture and referred to the royals in less than pleasant terms. It was then announced the Waleses were to separate. In his television interview with Jonathan Dimbleby in 1994, Charles admitted he had been unfaithful. Then came the princesss hammer blow her appearance on Panorama. Diana kept the TV interview with journalist Martin Bashir a secret from the queen until just before it was aired. She told the nation there were three people in her marriage, aired her own doubts over whether Charles would be king and admitted committing adultery herself. Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997 the year after her divorce (John Stillwell/PA) Decades later, an inquiry found Bashir engaged in deceitful behaviour to secure the world exclusive, faking bank statements which suggested individuals were being paid to keep the princess under surveillance. Soon after the broadcast in 1995, the queen wrote to both Charles and Diana, advising them to divorce. They did so in 1996 and Diana was stripped of her HRH title. A year later, she was dead. She was killed suddenly in a car crash on August 31, 1997, with her lover Dodi Fayed, in Paris, after being pursued by the paparazzi. As the queen stayed with grief-stricken William and Harry at Balmoral, the public became increasingly frustrated that the monarch had not made an appearance. The newspaper headlines screamed: Show us you care. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh view the floral tributes to Diana at Buckingham Palace (John Stillwell/PA) As a mark of respect, the queen was advised to and relented by flying the union flag at half-mast over Buckingham Palace for the first time. Six days after Diana died, the queen addressed the nation on television. We have all been trying in our different ways to cope, she said. It is not easy to express a sense of loss, since the initial shock is often succeeded by a mixture of other feelings: disbelief, incomprehension, anger and concern for those who remain. We have all felt those emotions in these last few days. So what I say to you now, as your queen and as a grandmother, I say from my heart. She paid tribute to Diana, calling her an exceptional and gifted human being, adding that she admired and respected her. The next day as the funeral cortege passed the palace, the queen bowed her head. In the summer of 2004, almost seven years after Diana died, the queen appeared to heal the rift with the princesss blood family as she opened the Hyde Park fountain built in her memory. It was the Spencers and the Windsors first public appearance together since the funeral where Dianas brother, Earl Spencer, launched his famous attack on the royal establishment. Dianas sisters, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes, and brother, Earl Spencer, listen to a speech by the Queen at the opening of a fountain built in the princesss memory (John Stillwell/PA) The queen paid tribute to Dianas ability not only to touch peoples lives but to change them. She admitted: Of course there were difficult times, but memories mellow with the passing of the years. I remember especially the happiness she gave to my two grandsons. A survey of parents and caregivers of children and young people with Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) has found the vast majority do not believe there are enough supports in place for those affected. The research is the first of its kind in Ireland and has been conducted by Dr Katy Tobin of Trinity College Dublin in collaboration with Alcohol Forum Ireland and ENDpae, a support group for parents and carers of people with the disorder in Ireland. The study was also being promoted by recently-established FASD Ireland, which has opened its office in Ennis, Co Clare. Dr Tobin said the survey found that 87% of caregivers reported that supports for FASD were inadequate. In addition, 61% of caregivers surveyed felt that their childs school did not understand FASD. According to figures published by the World Health Organization in 2017, it is estimated that approximately 600 babies are born each year in Ireland with FASD. High rate of FASD in Ireland Ireland ranks third out of 187 countries for prevalence of FASD, behind South Africa and Croatia. The full report from the study findings will be published next month. The preliminary findings of the survey, conducted among 82 participants, were released to the Irish Examiner as FASD Day takes place today. In the coming weeks, ENDpae and Alcohol Forum Ireland will share the first promotional clips from an upcoming series of short films that are in production and will be released later in the autumn. These short films will be hugely beneficial in bringing the voices and experiences of people with FASD and their families to a wider audience, David Geery of ENDpae said. Since the beginning, we have advocated for a nothing about us, without us approach to our work on FASD. We want to be at the policy making table, we want to be seen, we want to be heard. ENDpae will be delivering training to foster carers, youth workers, social workers and others as a way of raising awareness of what supports are needed and what strategies can support young people with FASD in schools and out-of-schools settings. Tristan Casson-Rennie, chief executive of FASD Ireland, said that the Clare-based organisation is running a social media campaign throughout September entitled You never drink alone when you are pregnant. The campaign advises people who are either pregnant or considering having a baby to stop drinking alcohol. A spokeswoman for the Health Service Executive said that a survey is currently being undertaken among health, social care and education professionals across Ireland to better understand knowledge and awareness of FASD and alcohol use during pregnancy, practices in terms of prevention, services available for assessment and treatment, care pathways, and the challenges in accessing care. She added: This survey is being done in collaboration with the University of Limerick. The findings will inform the development of professional development supports and business cases for the development of services. Britain's Queen Elizabeth has died and her son King Charles III is the new monarch. Here is the day-by-day account of what is expected to happen next, leading up to the queens funeral in about 11 days time. Day of death Thursday would traditionally have been D-Day or D+0 in the plans for the aftermath of the queens death, codenamed London Bridge. But the announcement came late in the day at about 6.30pm on Thursday September 8 meaning plans have been shifted a day to allow the complex arrangements to be put in place, meaning D+0 will be considered Friday. The new king had dashed to the queens bedside. Charles was joined by the monarchs other children Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, with Prince William, now heir to the throne, and Prince Harry also travelling there. Also at Balmoral are Camilla the new queen and Prince Edward's wife Sophie. The new King will pay his respects to his mother Queen Elizabeth II (Steve Parsons/PA) King Charles III and Camilla now the queen remained at Balmoral overnight and will return to London on Friday. The following is expected to take place on Friday D+0. But concrete plans are yet to be confirmed by Buckingham Palace. D+0 Friday, September 9 The king and queen return to London Charles and Camilla stayed at Balmoral overnight on Thursday, but return to London on Friday. Audience with the prime minister Despite his grief, duty calls for new sovereign Charles who will have his first audience as monarch with British prime minister Liz Truss. Confirming funeral plans Charles is likely to meet the earl marshal who is in charge of the accession and the queens funeral, to approve the carefully choreographed schedule for the coming days. The London Bridge arrangements have long been planned in consultation with the government. Plans for the aftermath of the Queens death are codenamed London Bridge (Anthony Devlin/PA) They will incorporate Operation Unicorn, the contingency plans for the death of the queen in Scotland. During the coronavirus pandemic, the British government and the royal household prepared a London minus version of the London Bridge plans in case it was needed which is now unlikely with all the elements but with the involvement of fewer people. Court mourning Charles will decide on the length of court or royal mourning for members of the royal family and royal households. It is expected to last a month. National mourning A period of royal mourning will be observed from now until seven days after the queen's funeral. Buckingham Palace said royal mourning would be observed by members of the royal family, royal household staff and representatives of the royal household on official duties, together with troops committed to ceremonial duties. The date of the funeral has yet to be confirmed. They will also announce that the funeral day will be a public holiday in the form of a day of national mourning. Flags Union flags on royal buildings are flying at half-mast. The Royal Standard never flies half-mast. It represents the sovereign and the United Kingdom, and is a symbol of the continuation of the monarchy. The Royal Standard always flies full mast (Victoria Jones/PA) If the new king is in residence at a royal palace or castle, the Royal Standard will fly there full-mast as is the tradition. The union flag does not fly there at the same time. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is in charge of arrangements for lowering flags on British government buildings. Downing Street reportedly expressed concern in the past that the government would face a wave of public anger if it did not lower its flags within 10 minutes of the announcement of the queens death. Bells and gun salutes Bells will toll at Westminster Abbey, St Pauls Cathedral and Windsor Castle. Churches are being urged to toll their bells across England at noon. - Gun salutes one round for every year of the queens life will be fired in Hyde Park and at other stations. The public has already begun to leave flowers as tributes from around the world pour in. The sea of flowers outside the gates of Kensington Palace for Diana, Princess of Wales (David Giles/PA) Charless televised address The king will make a televised address to the nation, which he is due to pre-record, in the early evening. He will pay tribute to the queen and pledge his duty to his service as the new sovereign. Service at St Pauls Cathedral Liz Truss and senior ministers will attend a public service of remembrance at St Pauls in central London. D+1 Saturday, September 10 The accession council meets, traditionally at 10am, at St Jamess Palace in London to formally proclaim Charles as the new sovereign. First, the privy council gathers without the king to proclaim the new monarch and arrange business relating to the proclamation. Then Charles holds his first privy council, accompanied by Camilla the new queen and William who are also privy counsellors, and makes his personal declaration and oath. The Garter King of Arms reads the first public proclamation of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II, at Friary Court, St Jamess Palace (PA) The first public proclamation of the new sovereign is read in the open air from the Friary Court balcony at St Jamess Palace by the garter king of arms. Proclamations are made around the city and across the country. Union flags go back up to full-mast at 1pm and remain there for 24 hours to coincide with the proclamations before returning to half-mast. Charles will also hold audiences with the prime Minister and the cabinet. D+2 Sunday, September 11 The queens coffin is expected to be taken by road to the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. Proclamations will be read in the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland devolved parliaments in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast. D+3 Monday, September 12 Procession is expected along Royal Mile to St Giles Cathedral. Service and the vigil of the princes by members of the royal family. The public may get the chance to file past the queens coffin at a mini lying in state in St Giles. The House of Commons and the House of Lords are expected to come together in Westminster for a motion of condolence, which the king could attend. MPs will gather to pay tribute to the Queen (PA) After leaving England and visiting Scotland, Charles will at some stage travel to the other countries of the UK Wales and Northern Ireland known as Operation Spring Tide. D+4 Tuesday, September 13 Coffin expected to be flown to London. Expected to be at rest at Buckingham Palace. A rehearsal for the procession of the coffin from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster takes place. D+5 Wednesday, September 14 The queens lying in state is expected to begin in Westminster Hall Operation Marquee following a ceremonial procession through London. It will last four full days. The archbishop of Canterbury will conduct a short service following the coffins arrival. Hundreds of thousands of people will file past the coffin on its catafalque and pay their respects, just as they did for the queen mothers lying in state in 2002. The management of the queues outside is Operation Feather. People file past the coffin of the Queen Mother as it lies in state in Westminster Hall (PA) During the Covid-19 crisis, plans included the possibility of the introduction of timed ticketing for those wanting to attend. Senior royals are also expected to pay their own moving tribute, standing guard at some stage around the coffin the tradition known as the vigil of the princes. D+6 Thursday, September 15 Lying in state continues and a rehearsal is likely to take place for the state funeral procession. D+7 Friday, September 16 Sunday, September 18 Lying in state continues, ending on D+9. Heads of state begin to arrive for the funeral. D+10 Monday September 19 The queens state funeral is expected take place at Westminster Abbey in central London. Westminster Abbey in London (PA) The original plans are for the queens coffin to process on a gun carriage to the abbey, pulled by naval ratings sailors using ropes rather than horses. Senior members of the family are expected to poignantly follow behind just like they did for the funerals of Princess Diana and the Prince Philip. The military will line the streets and also join the procession. Heads of state, prime ministers and presidents, European royals and key figures from public life will be invited to gather in the abbey, which can hold a congregation of 2,000. Prince William, Earl Spencer, Prince Harry and the Prince of Wales walk behind Diana, Princess of Waless coffin (Adam Butler/PA) The service will be televised, and a national two minutes silence is expected to be held. The same day as the funeral, the queens coffin will be taken to St Georges Chapel at Windsor Castle for a televised committal service. Later in the evening, there will be a private interment service with senior members of the royal family. The Queens committal service will take place at St Georges Chapel at Windsor Castle in Berkshire (PA) The queens final resting place will be the King George VI memorial chapel, an annex to the main chapel where her mother and father were buried, along with the ashes of her sister, Princess Margaret. Philips coffin will move from the Royal Vault to the memorial chapel to join the queens. Burma Myanmar Junta Cracking Down on Trade Unions and Violating Workers Rights Hundreds of trade unionists protesting in front of Yangon City Hall in March 2017 against government cuts to the Water Festival holiday period. / The Irrawaddy Labor rights organizations in Myanmar have said that the military regime has repeatedly violated workers rights, including freedom of association for trade unions, since last years coup. Daw Moe Sandar Myint, president of the Federation of General Workers Myanmar (FGWM), who is now working from an area of the country not under junta control, said that freedom of association for union workers has ceased since the military takeover. Genuine labor unions, whether regional or nationwide, are no longer able to organize, she said. Trade unions in factories are not able to carry out basic union functions such as protecting the rights of workers, because factory owners are collaborating with the regime-controlled Ministry of Labour and have threatened union officials and workers to prevent them participating in union activities or demanding their rights. On some occasions, they [factory owners and regime officials] even gave the personal information of union leaders to the security forces, so they could be interrogated or detained, noted Daw Moe Sandar Myint. In late August, the International Labour Organization (ILO) issued a brief report on Myanmar highlighting that the junta has declared 16 unregistered trade unions and civil society organizations (CSOs) to be operating as illegal labor organizations, and that they were now unable to function without fear of arrest. Regime forces have raided trade union offices, harassed and threatened trade unionists and their families, and placed trade union leaders in detention and on a wanted list in retaliation for their participation in strikes and peaceful demonstrations demanding the restoration of democracy and civilian rule, said the ILO. CSOs and trade unions not officially named on the juntas blacklist are also facing the same treatment. A key tool used to crackdown on unions has been to issue arrest warrants for leaders of CSOs and unregistered unions on incitement charges under section 505(a) of the Penal Code. On September 2, the juntas Ministry of Labour issued a rapid rebuttal of the ILO report, saying that it strongly objects to the ILOs false statements. Daw Myo Myo Aye, leader of the Solidarity Trade Union of Myanmar (STUM), confirmed that they had heard that STUM is one of the 16 organizations that the regime now regards as unlawful associations. They have also verbally warned workers that they will get into trouble if they contact us, she added. The STUM leader was detained for six months after the coup, along with many other labor activists. She said that there are now so-called yellow unions, or fake unions, that have been organized by factory owners and management so that they can convince companies and product buyers that the labor rights of their employees are being respected. STUM and other organizations such as Action Labour Rights, the Coordination Committee of Trade Unions, the All Burma Federation of Trade Unions and Future Light Center continue to operate, but can only carry out a small range of their normal activities. The other eleven organizations named by the junta as illegal labor organizations have fled to areas of the country outside regime control. Workers who The Irrawaddy talked to said that when their rights are violated in factories, they are helpless as they risk arrest for contacting trade unions. The mechanism for dispute settlement has also ceased since the military takeover. For now, all unions and CSOs can do is give informal advice to workers. FGWM President Daw Moe Sandar Myint said that since unions are now only able to work remotely, they listen to the cases raised by the workers and then they give them advice on how to discuss and negotiate their rights with factory management and owners. But she said that it is an unsatisfactory situation that doesnt enable the unions to help workers in an effective manner. As long as the military dictatorship remains in power, it is not possible for labor unions to survive at all, she said. The ILO, in its Myanmar report, called for international support to counter this existential threat to civic space and freedom of association in the country. It added that it is time for the international community to demonstrate its solidarity with the organizations that are continuing the struggle to uphold workers rights in Myanmar. Burma Myanmar Regime Launches Heavy Artillery Strikes on Resistance-Controlled Strategic Road Cobra Column fighters in Karen State. Myanmars military regime carried out multiple heavy artillery attacks in Myawaddy Township, Karen State this week, as junta forces continued to try and advance along the strategic Myawaddy-Waw Lay Road, close to the border with Thailand. Resistance group Cobra Column said Myanmar military troops from Division 44 had conducted multiple artillery strikes day and night since Monday. Cobra Column, which is fighting alongside the Karen National Liberation Army, holds the Myawaddy-Waw Lay Road, control of which allows resistance forces to receive supplies from Thailand. The groups spokesperson told The Irrawaddy that on Wednesday alone, regime troops fired more than 20 rounds of heavy artillery in the afternoon and then another 40 rounds at night from two hills overlooking the road. On Monday and Tuesday, junta forces fired more than a dozen 120mm shells. It is what they usually do before launching attacks. It is aimed at disrupting our sleep and lowering our morale. They fire rounds from at least four guns so it is really loud, said Cobra Columns spokesperson. The sound of artillery firing was also clearly heard on the Thai side of the frontier. Two Cobra Column fighters sustained minor injuries during the attacks, according to the spokesperson. At the same time, Cobra Column discovered that regime troops have moved into three new positions in the area. We also learned that they have deployed some reinforcements. Heavy clashes are likely to break out in the area soon, said Cobra Columns representative. Junta forces are increasingly using heavy artillery and airstrikes in an effort to crush resistance groups in Kayah, Chin, Rakhine and Kachin States and Sagaing and Magwe regions. Burma Resistance Groups Seized Nearly 90 Myanmar Junta Outposts Since Coup Thay Baw Boe Camp in Karen State. / Cobra Myanmars junta has lost nearly 90 bases in 17 months since the coup in fighting with resistance forces and ethnic armed organizations (EAOs), according to armed groups. They included key outposts in strategic locations or critical bases for the supply of weapons and food to frontline troops. The regime has lost at least 20 bases in Kachin State, three in Chin State, 19 in Kayah State, 12 in Karen State and 36 in Rakhine State, according to EAOs and conflict monitors. Kachin State The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) started its attacks on junta outposts by seizing a hilltop base at Alaw Bun near the Chinese border. The hill near Dawtphoneyan town in Bhamo District was seized by Myanmars military in 1987. The regime in April carried out large-scale attacks, involving helicopters and artillery, to retake the hill but the operation failed. Later the KIA led Kachin resistance groups to seize more outposts. According to KIA sources, five outposts in Hpakant Township, three in Putao Township, two in Tanai Township, three in Bhamo Township and several outposts in Waingmaw and Shwegu townships were taken. A KIA source said: In Shwegu, the KIA didnt need to attack. Junta troops just withdrew from their outposts. Kayah State The regime has lost 14 bases and five police stations in Kayah State, according to the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), the political wing of the Karenni Army (KA), which is fighting the regime. KNPP secretary Khu Daniel said KA-led forces seized junta bases and police stations in Mese, Hpasawng, Hpruso, Bawlakhe, Demoso and Shadaw townships. Most of the bases that we seized had about 12 soldiers and only two had 30 to 40 personnel. In 2021, we only seized four bases but we took more this year. The regime has suffered heavy casualties as it has had to fight on many fronts over the past year. So it abandoned outposts that are not critical. We cut off supply routes making it more difficult for them to retain their camps, he added. However, revolutionary forces in Kayah State have only been able to use guerilla warfare and cannot launch frontal attacks on the regime. We fear aerial assaults and artillery. They fire shells indiscriminately even though there is no fighting. They have sometimes used multiple rocket launchers. Mostly they drop bombs, he said. Chin State The regime has lost at least three bases in Thantlang and Mindat townships in Chin State, according to conflict monitors. The Chin National Army and Chinland Defense Force (CDF) seized a junta outpost near the Indian border in Thantlang in September last year. Airstrikes forced more than 1,000 residents to cross the Indian border into Mizoram. The CDF in Mindat seized a junta outpost held by around 30 soldiers and police in a village southwest of Mindat in July. Police left their station in another village due to resistance attacks. Since then junta troops repeatedly attacked the CDF until December, said the groups spokesman Salai Hwa Awng. Junta troops can no longer easily travel by road to Chin State because of the strength of resistance groups fighting the regime in Sagaing and Magwe regions, he said. We now control 85 percent of Mindat. The regime controls Mindat town and about three villages near the town. And we have carried out attacks in the town. The last time the junta attacked us was in December, said the spokesman. Karen State The regime has lost at least 12 bases in Karen State and Bago Region, according to the Karen National Union (KNU), which has been fighting the regime in Karen and Mon states and Bago Region. The regime has lost three bases in Papun District where KNU Brigade 5 is based, and lost two bases, including Thay Baw Boe camp, in areas controlled by KNU Brigade 6. The KNU-led resistance forces also attacked the Ukayit Hta outpost between Myawaddy and Waw Lay in Karen State in June but failed to seize it due to junta artillery and airstrikes. The Karen resistance suffered casualties and an estimated 100 junta soldiers died in clashes at the outpost, resistance groups claimed. The Irrawaddy could not independently verify the reports. The regime lost its five bases to the KNU in Mone Township, Bago Region, where KNU Brigade 3 is based. Rakhine State The regime has lost at least 36 bases in Rakhine State, according to observers. Around 30 were in Maungdaw Township and six were in Paletwa Township, Chin State, which borders Rakhine State, according to observers. The Arakan Army (AA) seized five junta outposts in Paletwa in late August while junta troops withdrew from an outpost overlooking the Lemyo River in eastern Paletwa after an AA siege, said an observer. The AA seized a border police outpost on the Bangladesh border in Maungdaw Township in late August, in which 19 police officers died and many weapons were seized, according to the armed group. The regime has attempted to retake the outpost, conducting air and artillery attacks. The Bangladeshi authorities summoned Myanmars ambassador in Dhaka in early September after shells landed in Bangladesh. An observer said the regime might have lost even more Rakhine outposts than those claimed by the AA. Sagaing and Magwe regions The regime has lost outposts to newly formed resistance groups, many of whom are ethnically Bamar, according to observers, who say they are unsure of the exact numbers. An observer said: The regime knew smaller outposts would be attacked and occupied. So it has combined three or four small outposts into a bigger one. Many small police stations have been deserted in Sagaing and Magwe. The regime is undermanned as the resistance forces have grown. It is only trying to control towns and roads and everywhere else falls into rebel hands. Regime losing control The Special Advisory Council for Myanmar, an independent group formed by former United Nations envoys to Myanmar, reported in a briefing paper on September 5 that the regime only has full control over 72 out of the 330 townships. The civilian National Unity Government and resistance groups have effective control over 52 percent of the country, it said. The junta is being challenged in another 23 percent of the country and can only claim to have stable control over 17 percent of Myanmar, the paper said. A Myanmar-based analyst said the junta can no longer conduct a large-scale attack with up to 1,000 soldiers and is only concentrating on defense. What the junta is doing now is defensive to control cities and transport routes and fight the EAOs that it feels are a threat. Thats all. In Sagaing and Magwe, it mainly controls towns and roads. Elsewhere it only raids villages and torches homes based on tipoffs, said the analyst. Burma Ruling for Australian NLD Economics Advisor Expected Next Month Australian economics professor Sean Turnell at Yangons Insein Prison. A junta court inside Naypyitaw Prison on Thursday heard the last testimony in the case against the ousted National League for Democracy governments economic advisor Sean Turnell under Myanmars colonial-era Official Secrets Act. State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, planning and finance ministers U Kyaw Win and U Soe Win and U Set Aung, their deputy minister in the ousted NLD government, are co-defendants in the case. During the testimony, U Set Aung denied guilt, saying documents the junta alleged were confidential were declassified. Both sides will reportedly present their closing arguments on September 22 and a ruling can be expected in early October. The regime alleged confidential documents were found in Turnells possession when he was detained shortly after the military coup on February 1 last year. Turnell pleaded not guilty, saying the documents were his economic recommendations that he presented as an economics adviser to the NLD government and were not confidential, said a court source. Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing was asked last month by the United Nations special envoy Noeleen Heyzer to release Turnell. He said if the Australian government had acted more positively, Turnells case would not have become so serious. The regime has been angered by Canberras replacement of its ambassador with a lower-ranked representative in a downgrading of diplomatic ties intended to avoid legitimizing the junta. All five were in court on Thursday and seemed in good health, according to court sources. The regime has already given 77-year-old Daw Aung San Suu Kyi 22 years in prison under five charges but later reduced her jail term to 20 years. She still faces seven other charges, including two charges of corruption for allegedly accepting a bribe of US$550,000 from businessman Maung Weik for her charity, the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation, and five charges of corruption over her rental and purchase of a helicopter to oversee the management of natural disasters and state affairs. In May, the Yangon Western District Court resurrected a long-dormant case against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, upholding a 2002 ruling over an argument with her cousin who punched her. The Yangon Region High Court rejected her appeal and her lawyers will appeal to the Supreme Court. In the first week of September, at least another 20 Myanmar military soldiers were killed when KNDF and KA fighters attacked regime forces in Demoso, Hpruso and Bawlakhe townships in Kayah State and neighboring Pekon Township in southern Shan, said the KNDF. On Friday morning, clashes between regime troops and resistance fighters were ongoing around Moebye, forcing hundreds of residents to flee their homes. Resistance forces were reportedly being targeted with heavy artillery and air strikes. Moebye-PDF said that it captured ten weapons along with ammunition. A PDF photo shows resistance fighters retrieving weapons from four dead junta soldiers. Another PDF photo shows many weapons, including four machine guns, and ammunition seized in the clash. Three resistance fighters suffered minor injuries, while a 10-year-old child from a residential ward was killed by junta fire. Many residents were trapped by the fighting, added the Moebye-PDF spokesperson. During nine hours of fighting, the combined resistance groups killed at least 20 military regime soldiers, a Moebye-PDF representative told The Irrawaddy on Friday. An intense firefight started at 9am on Thursday morning outside Moebye Town in Shan States Pekon Townshjp, when several Peoples Defense Forces (PDFs), including fighters from the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force (KNDF) and the Karenni Army (KA), attacked 100 regime troops trying to raid the town, according to Moebye-PDF, who were involved in the clash. At least 20 Myanmar junta soldiers were reportedly killed on Thursday in fierce fighting with resistance groups in southern Shan State. Weapons and ammunition seized by resistance groups during a clash with regime forces in Moebye, southern Shan State on Thursday. / Myanmar Current Affair Facebook Weapons and ammunition seized by resistance groups during a clash with regime forces in Moebye, southern Shan State on Thursday. / Myanmar Current Affair Facebook Myanmar Junta Destroys Medicine and Food Stores for the Displaced in Sagaing Myanmars Most Powerful Ethnic Army Reshuffles Leadership: What Does it Mean? Myanmar Central Banks New Leadership, Policies Unlikely to Improve Battered Financial Sector Myanmar Junta Chief Met Ex-President and Former Dictator: What Did They Discuss? Forged in Times of Danger: My Connection With Ko Jimmy and Ma Nilar Thein At Least 60 Myanmar Junta Troops Killed in Chin States Hakha in Past Month: Resistance Junta Court Sentences Myanmars Aung San Suu Kyi to Another Three Years in Prison Former UK Ambassador to Myanmar and Husband Given One-Year Sentences Almost 1,500 Myanmar Regime Troops Killed in Kayah State Since May 2021 Junta Watch: Yet Another Top-Level Trip to Russia; ex-UK Envoy Becomes a Hostage; and More Myanmar Junta Troops Rape at Least Seven Women in Sagaing We do not encourage viewing this site in this width. Please increase the size of your window. Security firm SolarWinds has avoided a lawsuit filed by investors in Delaware last year, with Delaware Court of Chancery vice-chancellor Sam Glasscock dismissing the suit. Investors sued the directors of the company, claiming they were aware of the risks that the firm's software posed, but failed to act to prevent devastating attacks that came to light in 2020. The attacks were given the moniker SUNBURST. The suit was filed on 4 November 2021 in the Delaware Chancery Court, by the Construction Industry Labourers Pension Fund, the Central Labourers' Pension Fund, and two individual investors. The attacks were exposed in December 2020 when American cyber security firm FireEye claimed to have identified a global campaign to compromise public and private sector bodies by corrupting software supply chains. FireEye is now known as Mandiant, taking on the name of a company that it acquired some years ago, after selling its network, email and cloud security products, as well as the FireEye name, in June this year. Mandiant isby Google. SolarWinds' Orion network management software was named as the culprit by FireEye. Following the dismissal of the suit, a SolarWinds spokesperson said: "We are pleased with this ruling, which reiterated that the SUNBURST incident was a highly sophisticated crime perpetrated by a nation-state actor. "As we have said previously, it is widely understood that no one company could protect itself against an attack by a foreign government and we have always provided appropriate oversight of our cyber security posture." COMPANY NEWS: LogRhythm , the company helping busy and lean security operations teams defend against cyberthreats, today announced its ANZ Partner of the Year Awards for 2022. Exclusive Networks Australia took home the Distributor of the Year Award for Australia while Chillisoft was named Distributor of the Year for New Zealand. Lisa Stockwell, General Manager, Australia and New Zealand, Exclusive Networks, said, "We would like to thank LogRhythm for their long-standing partnership and this recognition. Their reputation speaks for itself with their award-winning LogRhythm SIEM Platform coupled with their latest additions to their security portfolio with LogRhythm NDR and LogRhythm UEBA. As a globally trusted cybersecurity specialist and valued added distributor, we will continue to go above and beyond to drive both market awareness and sales growth for LogRhythm and look forward our continued success." Alex Teh, CEO, Chillisoft, added, We are delighted to receive this recognition from LogRhythm for the third time in a row, a testament in reality to the skills and experience which we have invested in to bring the best security technologies to market. In recent years, we have focused heavily in rolling out industry leading model channel services across professional services, channel management, pre- and post-sales support and channel marketing and the award reflects the success of this strategy and our commitment to deliver customer value. Perth-based Seamless Intelligence scored Most Valuable Player (MVP) of The Year while Melbourne-headquartered IPSec was awarded MSSP of the Year. Being recognised as the MVP of the year is validation of the hard work and dedication of our team in ensuring we deliver value to our customers through exceptional service. We would like to thank LogRhythm, our staff and especially our fantastic customers for helping us achieve this success, said Christopher Bolan, Managing Director, Seamless Intelligence. In addition, Optus Trustwave was named Gold Reseller of the Year and Melbourne-based CyberRisk was awarded Services Authorised Partner of the Year Pacific. Gary Abad, Vice President of Worldwide Channels, LogRhythm, said, LogRhythms partner program enables resellers, distributors, system integrators, and managed services provider to provide industry-leading solutions that help meet the security and compliance requirements for prospects and customers. We congratulate all our partner award winners and thank them and our entire channel community for their hard work and dedication to serving our mutual customers with the industrys leading security operations solutions. We are looking forward to another outstanding year ahead in Australia and New Zealand. LogRhythms partner program enables resellers, distributors, system integrators, and managed services provider to provide industry-leading solutions that help meet the security and compliance requirements for prospects and customers. In addition, the company invests in partners who jointly engage in opportunities that drive value and sustained customer success. LogRhythm provides ongoing enablement, go-to-market tools and sales programs to help partners stay ahead of the competition. About LogRhythm LogRhythm helps busy and lean security operations teams save the day day after day. Theres a lot riding on the shoulders of security professionals the reputation and success of their company, the safety of citizens and organisations across the globe, the security of critical resources the weight of protecting the world. LogRhythm helps lighten this load. The company is on the frontlines defending against many of the worlds most significant cyberattacks and empowers security teams to navigate an ever-changing threat landscape with confidence. As allies in the fight, LogRhythm combines a comprehensive and flexible security operations platform, technology partnerships, and advisory services to help SOC teams close the gaps. Together, LogRhythm is ready to defend. Learn more at logrhythm.com. Australian and Indian women entrepreneurs in cyber and critical technology will be given the opportunity to launch their business internationally under a groundbreaking exchange program supported by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT) and the Government of Telangana, India. Sydney-based innovation facilitator, inQ Innovation Global and Indian female startup incubator, WEHub annnounced that the CyberTech Women Entrepreneur program has opened its preliminary screening in what they say could be the largest startup pitch contest in the Indo-Pacific region in 2022. Today India has over 13.5 million women-owned small enterprises, the largest in the world - and if 0.05% of these women entrepreneurs applied, the accelerator would receive almost 7000 entries, more than any other pitchfest, its claimed, The entrepreneur exchange and accelerator program is part of the Australia-India Bilateral Cyber and Critical Technology Partnership (AICCTP) market access and business pathways program for women-led technology businesses in Australia and India, supported by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trades Cyber Affairs team. inQ Innovation Global and WEHub say the program will host six women-led Indian start-ups and six women-led Australian start- ups primarily in the areas of cybersecurity and critical technologies. Entries so far have included women entrepreneurs working in artificial intelligence, blockchain, quantum computing, next generation telecommunications, internet of things, synthetic biology, genomics and genetic engineering, low emission alternative fuels, autonomous vehicles, drones, swarming and collaborative robotics, and big data. The program aims to support the launch of the shortlisted start-ups in the other nation with further soft-landing support in the respective markets for three months beyond the program. Applications close at the end of September at cybertechwe.inqinnovation.com. The AICCTP comes in the wake of the signing of the historic Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement in April 2022 and aims to help accelerate businesses scale to global markets and increase participation of women entrepreneurs in the areas of cyber and critical technologies. The Government of Telangana is also backing the program, through its Women Entrepreneur Hub (WE Hub) campus in Hyderabad, where Australian women entrepreneurs will be hosted for the Indian leg of the exchange. For over a decade, start-ups, especially women entrepreneurs in tech, have expressed lack of opportunities and financial support to optimally scale-up their businesses globally," said Deepthi Ravula, chief executive officer of WE Hub. What differentiates this start-up-scale-up exchange program is that we will not only be offering mentoring, but also supporting them with required financial grants to launch and accelerate their businesses". This exchange program will be integral to building an ongoing bilateral start-up-scale-up exchange initiative to support and enrich the start-up ecosystem for female entrepreneurs in cyberspace and critical technology across the two nations, said Irfan Malik, CEO, inQ Innovation Global. We have been working together with DFAT since March to devise a program that offers an all-inclusive scale-up ecosystem crucial for women-led tech start-ups, to accelerate and maximise Australia-India partnerships. "Thanks to the pivotal support from the Telangana Government, and ecosystem partners, we have been able to curate this outcome-driven program. The program is also unique in using video micro-pitches in the initial screening process. In addition to pitch decks and written supporting materials, all applicants are asked to upload a 30-60 second video pitch of their business idea. Through the video micro-pitches, we can really get to know the personalities of these applicants as well, in conjunction with their business pitch decks, Malik added. The inclusion of video-pitches was made possible by Australian video tool Vloggi, whose asynchronous video messaging technology has been embedded into the CyberWE application portal. Vloggi is very proud to have been selected as the video submission platform used by the CyberTech Women Entrepreneur program, said Justin Wastnage, CEO of Vloggi. Due to the sheer size of the Indian market, the program needed a video submission tool able to handle thousands of video files simultaneously along with applicant data such as location and startup name, and we are delighted that Vloggi met their requirements, Wastnage said. Get unlimited access to all content and features at ivpressonline.com with our Full Online Access Subscription. Read our E-Edition, the digital replica of the print newspaper online, access content in exclusive sections including Family, Teen, Business, Databases, Farm and more. This option does not include daily home delivery of the Imperial Valley Press newspaper. For home delivery service, please select Premium or Premium Plus. Weather Alert ...Areas of Dense Fog Expected Through the Early Morning Hours... With a very humid air mass in place and wet ground from the past few day's rainfall, widespread fog has developed across the region early this morning. Fog has become quite dense in some areas, including elevations at or above 2500 ft and also in deeper valleys, especially west of the Blue Ridge. Fog is likely to worsen as the night progresses and at some point it may become necessary to issue a Dense Fog Advisory for parts of the forecast area. If you are planning travel overnight and early Monday morning, be alert for areas of dense fog. This will be particularly true at the higher elevations of the mountains along and west of the Blue Ridge and near rivers, lakes, and other bodies of water. Be prepared for rapid changes in visibility from good to very poor as you travel through areas of fog at different elevations along the roadways. Reduce speed, leave extra space between you and the vehicle in front of you, allow extra time to reach your destination, and use your low beam headlights. Conditions will begin to improve after 9 AM EDT this morning. 09/09/2022 Area teachers participate in training on campus in 2019. Photo by Grace Cockrell. by Buffy Lockette The Alabama Commission on Higher Education has cleared the way for Jacksonville State University to offer its third doctoral degree, the Doctor of Education (EdD) in educational leadership. The interdisciplinary degree program is designed to foster creativity and diversity of thought among scholars working in or studying the field of education. It will prepare educational leaders in P-12 schools, postsecondary education and other educational/community settings. "The approval of the EdD in educational leadership exemplifies the state's confidence in JSU's ability to produce educational leaders at the highest level of preparation," said Dr. Kimberly Gaiters-White, dean of the College of Education and Professional Studies. "Our faculty and staff are excited for the opportunity to expand educator preparation beyond P-12 and assist in the preparation of educational leaders for our post-secondary institutions in the state and beyond." Pending approval from the university's accrediting body, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), the university will begin enrolling students in Spring 2023. The 60-hour degree program will consist of coursework in four areas: 18 hours in educational foundations and environments, 18 hours in research and inquiry, 18 hours of electives and six dissertation hours. The hybrid program will be delivered 90 percent online, built around the needs of working professionals. "This doctorate builds on the quality education programs for which JSU is known to deliver, and will offer a terminal degree option requested frequently by our graduates," said Dr. Christie Shelton, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. "This is such an exciting time for the College of Education and Professional Studies as they continue to advance degree opportunities for the area." The degree will become the third doctoral program offered by Jacksonville State. In 2010, the university established its first doctorate degree, the Doctor of Science in emergency management, followed by the Doctor of Nursing Practice in 2017. Admission requirements and enrollment information will be available following SACSCOC approval, which is expected within a few months. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has tapped the Austrian diplomat Volker Turk to be the next High Commissioner for Human Rights, with his nomination to be put to the General Assembly for approval on Thursday. The UN veteran would replace Michelle Bachelet, the former Chilean president who was appointed four years ago with the specific intent of having a powerful female politician in the role. "The secretary-general proposes to appoint Mr. Volker Turk (Austria) as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights," Guterres wrote, in a letter seen by AFP. "The secretary-general trusts that the General Assembly will approve this appointment." Currently serving as assistant secretary general for policy, the 57-year-old Turk has spent most of his career within the UN system, with a particular focus on refugees, and worked closely with Guterres when the latter headed the UN's refugee agency. "In my thirty-year long #UNHCR work with refugees, I have seen time and again the consequences of hate speech and its dehumanizing effect on people. Say #NoToHate is the only powerful answer," he wrote in July on Twitter. Guterres's choice of a figure unknown to the wider public stands in contrast to his appointment of the high-profile Bachelet, who ended her tenure last week. The General Assembly will decide on the nomination Thursday afternoon, the body president's spokeswoman Paulina Kubiak told AFP. "In all previous appointments, the secretary general's recommended candidate has been approved by consensus," the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) pointed out in a statement. Turk will have his work cut out: Bachelet published a long-awaited report on rights abuses in China's Xinjiang region just minutes before the end of her term, leaving the tricky follow-up job to her successor. The report urged Beijing to end "discriminatory" practices against Xinjiang's Uyghur community and other Muslim-majority populations. Detailing a string of rights violations including torture, forced labor and arbitrary detention, it brought the UN seal to many of the allegations long made by activist groups, Western nations and the Uyghur community in exile. It said China may have carried out "crimes against humanity" but stopped short of calling Beijing's treatment of Uyghurs "genocide" -- a term used since January 2021 by the United States and since embraced by parliaments in a number of other Western nations. China has vehemently rejected such charges and criticized Bachelet's report, accusing the UN of becoming a "thug and accomplice of the US and the West." - Stakes 'never been higher' - Prior to releasing the bombshell report, Bachelet had come under serious criticism over her approach to the situation in Xinjiang. Rights groups have warned that her successor must show the courage to call out abuses, regardless of the perpetrator. "His voice in defense of the victims of human rights violations around the world will need to be loud and clear," the head of Amnesty International, Agnes Callamard, said in a statement reacting to Turk's expected appointment. "They count on him to stand up to human rights abusers even when they are powerful states." Tirana Hassan, the interim executive director of Human Rights Watch, echoed the call. "Whether it's confronting crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, war crimes in Ukraine and Ethiopia, or racism in the United States, the rights chief's most effective tools are robust investigations and a strong voice," she said. For Bachelet's successor, ISHR program director Sarah Brooks warned that "the stakes have never been higher." The organization and others have been heavily critical of the opaque nature of the appointment process. ISHR director Phil Lynch warned that this lack of transparency and consultation could come at a price. "The secretary-general missed a key opportunity to build the legitimacy and authority of the next high commissioner," he said. He added, though, that his organization and others would "seek to work closely and collaboratively with the next high commissioner to protect human rights and to pursue accountability for perpetrators and justice for victims." The UN General Assembly created the OHCHR in December 1993. The resolution spelling out its mandate calls for the top job to rotate by geographic region, but the idea is not always respected as several Latin Americans have held the post. Until now, the only regional group not to have held the top job is Eastern Europe, which includes Russia. Ukraine on Thursday claimed a military breakthrough in its counter-offensive against Russian invaders as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on a surprise visit to Kyiv, unveiled another $2.8 billion in military aid. Ukraine said its forces made gains in the north, the south and the east, prying back land seized by Russia which had hoped for a swift victory when it attacked nearly seven months ago. In the area around Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city, forces penetrated 50 kilometres (30 miles) beyond Russian lines and "liberated" more than 20 towns and villages, senior military official Oleksiy Gromov said. Hoping to build the momentum, Blinken secretly travelled to Kyiv for his second trip during the war, passing through dark hallways with sandbags in the sealed presidential compound to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky. "It's very early, but we are seeing clear and real progress on the ground," Blinken said after spending more than two hours with Zelensky. Blinken vowed the United States would keep up assistance "until the aggression ceases and Ukraine is fully sovereign" and that pressure on Russia would keep getting "heavier and heavier". "You have our word -- and our track record," he told Zelensky. Zelensky, clad in his now signature military-green T-shirt, presented a state award to Blinken as he voiced gratitude for the "enormous support" of the United States. The aid "is a guarantee that we can return our territories," Zelensky said. The latest package includes $675 million to be shipped shortly in arms, ammunition and supplies and another $1 billion in longer-term loans and grants for Ukraine to buy more US equipment. The State Department also approved $1.2 billion for 18 other nations seen as facing threats from Russia including Baltic states, Moldova and Georgia, which both have breakaway regions backed by Moscow. A day after the United Nations said there were "credible reports" of Russia forcing Ukrainian children into its territory, Blinken started his trip by visiting toddlers injured in the war at a hospital. In a room with toy trucks and alien figurines, he arrived with a basket of stuffed animals, announcing, "I brought some friends." "The spirit of your children sends a very strong message around the world," he said. - 'Accountability' - Blinken later toured Irpin on the capital's outskirts where the deputy mayor described indiscriminate attacks during Russia's 25-day occupation at the start of the war and said there were 30,000 open cases related to war crimes. "There has to be accountability for those who committed atrocities," Blinken said. In a coordinated display of resolve, President Joe Biden spoke by telephone with leaders of allies about Ukraine and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin met his counterparts at Ramstein air base in Germany. "Now, we're seeing the demonstrable success of our common efforts on the battlefield," Austin said. Amid Ukraine's reports of gains, Russia also trumpeted battlefield successes, saying it hit five command posts and downed 13 drones on Thursday. Addressing a forum in Moscow, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said Russia had withstood Western sanctions over the war better than expected, estimating that GDP had fallen just over one percent year-on-year in the first six months of 2022. Russia's central bank expects a contraction of four to six percent for the year, while Blinken cited an estimate of an even steeper drop. "Unprecedented sanctions were imposed on our country. But their initiators did not achieve their main objective. They failed to undermine our financial stability," Mishustin said. - Allies pledge support - But as the war grinds on, both sides have increasingly been facing a crunch on military supplies with US officials saying Russia was buying drones from Iran and large quantities of rocket and artillery shells from North Korea. Speaking at Ramstein, top US General Mark Milley said there was "significant consumption of munitions" by Ukraine that will need to be addressed by allies. Norway offered 160 Hellfire missiles and night-vision equipment, Germany offered winter supplies and The Netherlands joined Germany with demining training. The latest package by the United States -- Ukraine's largest supplier -- includes 105mm howitzers, precision-guided GMLRS rockets and artillery ammunition. It brings US military aid to Ukraine since the invasion to $15.2 billion. Among the most efficient weapons sent by Washington are the HIMAR multiple rocket launch systems, which are paired with GMLRS rockets that can reach targets up to 80 kilometres (50 miles) away. But Kyiv is seeking ATACMS -- precision-guided, medium range tactical missiles capable of striking 300 kilometres. The United States has so far refused as it fears the missiles could land in Russian territory, sparking an even bigger conflict. "The range of the HIMARS is sufficient to meet the needs of the Ukrainians as they are currently fighting," Milley said. burs-sct/jbr/rox Ukraine on Thursday claimed a military breakthrough in its counter-offensive against Russian invaders as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on a surprise visit to Kyiv, unveiled another $2.8 billion in military aid. Ukraine said its forces made gains in the north, the south and the east, prying back land seized by Russia which had hoped for a swift victory when it attacked nearly seven months ago. "Our heroes have already liberated dozens of settlements. And today this movement continued," said Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky in an address to the nation. "In total, more than a thousand square kilometres (nearly 400 sq miles) have been liberated since September 1," he said shortly after announcing the recapture of Balakliya in the eastern Kharkiv region, a town which fell to Russian forces in early March. In the area around Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city, forces penetrated 50 kilometres (30 miles) beyond Russian lines and "liberated" more than 20 towns and villages, senior military official Oleksiy Gromov said. Hoping to build on the momentum, Blinken secretly travelled to Kyiv for his second trip during the war, passing through dark hallways with sandbags in the sealed presidential compound to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky. "It's very early, but we are seeing clear and real progress on the ground," Blinken said after spending more than two hours with Zelensky. Blinken vowed the United States would keep up assistance "until the aggression ceases and Ukraine is fully sovereign" and that pressure on Russia would keep getting "heavier and heavier". "You have our word -- and our track record," he told Zelensky. Zelensky, clad in his now signature military-green T-shirt, presented a state award to Blinken as he voiced gratitude for the "enormous support" of the United States. The aid "is a guarantee that we can return our territories," Zelensky said. The latest package includes $675 million to be shipped shortly in arms, ammunition and supplies and another $1 billion in longer-term loans and grants for Ukraine to buy more US equipment. The State Department also approved $1.2 billion for 18 other nations seen as facing threats from Russia including Baltic states, Moldova and Georgia which both have breakaway regions backed by Moscow. A day after the United Nations said there were "credible reports" of Russia forcing Ukrainian children into its territory, Blinken started his trip by visiting toddlers injured in the war at a hospital. In a room with toy trucks and alien figurines, he arrived with a basket of stuffed animals, announcing, "I brought some friends." "The spirit of your children sends a very strong message around the world," he said. - 'Accountability' - Blinken later toured Irpin on the capital's outskirts where the deputy mayor described indiscriminate attacks during Russia's 25-day occupation at the start of the war and said there were 30,000 open cases related to war crimes. "There has to be accountability for those who committed atrocities," Blinken said. In a coordinated display of resolve, President Joe Biden spoke by telephone with allied leaders about Ukraine and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin met his counterparts at Ramstein air base in Germany. "Now, we're seeing the demonstrable success of our common efforts on the battlefield," Austin said. Amid Ukraine's reports of gains, Russia also trumpeted battlefield successes, saying it hit five command posts and downed 13 drones on Thursday. Addressing a forum in Moscow, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said Russia had withstood Western sanctions over the war better than expected, estimating that GDP had fallen just over one percent year-on-year in the first six months of 2022. Russia's central bank expects a contraction of four to six percent for the year, while Blinken cited an estimate of an even steeper drop. "Unprecedented sanctions were imposed on our country. But their initiators did not achieve their main objective. They failed to undermine our financial stability," Mishustin said. - Allies pledge support - But as the war grinds on, both sides have increasingly been facing a crunch on military supplies with US officials saying Russia was buying drones from Iran and large quantities of rocket and artillery shells from North Korea. Speaking at Ramstein, top US General Mark Milley said there was "significant consumption of munitions" by Ukraine that will need to be addressed by allies. Norway offered 160 Hellfire missiles and night-vision equipment, Germany offered winter supplies and The Netherlands joined Germany with demining training. The latest package by the United States -- Ukraine's largest supplier -- includes 105mm howitzers, precision-guided GMLRS rockets and artillery ammunition. It brings US military aid to Ukraine since the invasion to $15.2 billion. Among the most efficient weapons sent by Washington are the HIMAR multiple rocket launch systems, which are paired with GMLRS rockets that can reach targets up to 80 kilometres (50 miles) away. But Kyiv is seeking ATACMS -- precision-guided, medium range tactical missiles capable of striking 300 kilometres. The United States has so far refused as it fears the missiles could land in Russian territory, sparking an even bigger conflict. "The range of the HIMARS is sufficient to meet the needs of the Ukrainians as they are currently fighting," Milley said. burs-sct-jbr/bp We have been victims of Russia, Russian aggression, Russian occupation. And it's not only Soviet Russia, but also Russia, imperial Russia that in the end of the 19th centuries. We are victims of Russia and our geography is like destined to be always threatened. Russia doesn't change. And Russia is not going to change very easily, says Dovile Jakniunaite, professor of international relations at Vilnius University, when asked how Lithuanians perceive Russia. Right after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the world saw the rise of little Lithuania, which took the lead in rallying states to support Ukraine via international law: Lithuania was first to refer the Ukraine situation to the International Criminal Court (ICC); then it pushed for the establishment of the Joint Investigative Team at Eurojust; it is gathering evidence for potential war crimes trials; it has sent teams of investigators to work with Ukrainian colleagues; it has lobbied for a special tribunal to try aggression; and has provided support for Ukraines genocide case against Russia at the International Court of Justice. International responsibility should exist, not only on paper No single institution actually covers all types and levels of accountability, so all avenues have to be have to be used, says Lina Strupinskiene, associate professor at Vilnius University. We took up this role, Deputy Minister of Justice Gabija Grigaite told Justice Info, because, we know, you know, we have been occupied by Russia more than once and the last occupation lasted for almost 50 years. So, we know what it is to have a neighbour like this and we also know how important solidarity and support is. International responsibility should exist, not only in the treaties or on paper, but in the reality also. And using judicial resources to relentlessly hold Russians accountable is part of Lithuanian national identity. The defining incident in recent history occurred on January 13, 1991, during the fight to regain independence from the Soviet Union, when thousands of citizens defended key institutions against tanks and paratroopers. 14 people died and hundreds of peaceful protestors were injured. For decades, the Lithuanian authorities doggedly pursued the individuals responsible for that violence through trials, mainly held in absentia. This exceptional experience is part of what Lithuania has to offer international investigators, mentioned Nida Grunskiene the Lithuania prosecutor general at a press conference in The Hague in May this year. Working on these cases for 30 years with no international assistance was long and complex, she said. The long Lithuanian experience of investigation, tracking, trying and sentencing of those responsible for the January 1991 violence means investigators have a lot of experience to share and a lot of lessons learnt, especially when it comes to collecting and preserving evidence to be used in in further proceedings says Strupinskiene. Collecting, collecting, collecting On Ukraine, the Lithuanian prosecutor general and her team are conducting preliminary pre-trial investigations at the moment, with a pretty big team of over 40 prosecutors, police, financial crime officers that are building cases, collecting evidence, says Strupinskiene. They are primarily talking with the thousands of Ukrainian refugees who have come to Lithuania. Many of them are direct witnesses of the crimes that took place. Some of them have pictures, video materials. So, at the moment, they're basically just collecting, collecting, collecting evidence, and interviewing people. Cross European cooperation is necessary for enforcement, Grigaite emphasised. We have to prepare for enforcing justice also because we will have judgements in national courts on the basis of universal jurisdiction. She recalls Lithuanias own universal jurisdictions cases which had problems with other European courts, where trials in absentia were not accepted, and wants to head this off with agreed European arrest warrants. We have to make sure that we understand the rules in the same way, presses the Deputy Minister. International law: A tool for survival We immediately understood that the aggression that has been started against Ukraine is a fundamental catastrophe for the general system based on international rule of law, Grigaite recalls. It is for the whole of the peaceful democratic world, to make sure that existing international law solutions are being used to the fullest, to make the aggressor responsible and to make sure that these actions are not being left unpunished. In May, at the same joint press conference the then Ukrainian prosecutor general Irina Venediktova described how important is the judicial front, alongside the diplomatic and military, and as a way to counter Russian disinformation with the international community of lawyers. The Lithuanian minister agrees. To her, Putin and his political leadership constantly elevates and communicates an alternative international law () that have nothing to do with international law the way it stands today. They want the rest of the world to believe that Ukraine is not a sovereign state, they invoke the right to self-defence, or that the special military operation is to save Russian Nationals, that their unfounded allegations of genocide are indeed in compliance with international law. International law is being used as a tool by Ukrainians, by Lithuanians and their friends, says Strupinskiene. Its a tool for survival, for keeping sanity and for communicating, basically to the world that they are on the right side of history and on the right side of the law. A value based foreign policy Lithuanias stands on the Ukrainian judicial front fits with a foreign policy that regularly hits the news for its challenging initiatives. It had been pushing hard for a ban on Russian touristic visas throughout the European Union and had interpreted the sanctions policy against Russia very strictly, causing some tension with Brussels. Its a value based foreign policy, says Strupinskiene. That's why Lithuania has been very outspoken against what Russia is doing with its dissidents, with its NGOs, even before the Ukraine invasion. Vilnius is strongly in support of efforts to create an international tribunal on aggression. It already has the ability to try aggression domestically. But its support for an international tribunal to challenge Russian aggression comes from an existential need, says Dainius Zalimas, Dean of Law Faculty Vytautas Magnus University and former president of the Constitutional Court. According to Putins ideology Lithuanian independence is also illegitimate. Thats why we really need the most authoritative international tribunal to assess and condemn this ideology. Can all Lithuanias, or even the international communitys, legal heft really defeat Moscow? Strupinskiene is sceptical: Knowing very well the Russian position, the defiance, the complete and utmost disregard to international law, I wouldn't say it's a particularly useful tool in defeating Russia. But if Russia is defeated, then it will be a very useful tool to compensate the victims, to guarantee justice, to hopefully set the historical record straight. Mexican lawmakers on Friday approved a plan to place the National Guard under military control a move critics say gives the armed forces too much power. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador created the new security force in 2019 with a civilian command to replace federal police accused of corruption and human rights abuses. His reform, which puts the National Guard under the control of the Department of Defense, passed the Senate by a 71-vote-51 vote, having already been approved by the lower house of Congress. The National Guard must be careful not to make the same mistake as the so-called Federal Preventive Police, which went rogue and was a school to train corrupt officers, the president said Friday. Before coming to power in 2018, Lopez Obrador had vowed to send the military back to barracks. But under his presidency, the armed forces have maintained their role in combating cartel-related violence and assumed even greater responsibilities, including controlling ports and customs and major infrastructure projects. The National Guard has 115,000 members, mostly soldiers. The ruling party argues that the military enjoys strong support and is less likely to be infiltrated by organized crime than other branches of the security forces. Opponents of Lopez Obrador and human rights groups have been alarmed by what Amnesty International has called a process of militarizing public security in Mexico. A worry Acting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al-Nashif said the reforms leave Mexico virtually without a federal civilian police force and further solidify the armed forces already prominent role in public security in Mexico. The increasing role of the military over the past 16 years has led to more allegations of human rights abuses by law enforcement agencies and the armed forces, and no sustained reduction in crime, she noted. I call on the Mexican authorities to strengthen civilian oversight in the security sector in line with human rights standards, Al-Nashif said. More than 340,000 people have been killed in a spiral of bloodshed since then-President Felipe Calderons government deployed the army to fight drug cartels in 2006. Experience shows that Mexico is more dangerous today than it was 16 years ago when it was decided that the military should take to the streets, Amnesty said. There has been an increase in forced disappearances, arbitrary arrests, physical, psychological and even sexual torture, she added. Lopez Obradors opponents are expected to challenge the reform in the Supreme Court. The government tricked the Mexicans by promising that the military would return to the barracks, said Humberto Aguilar, an MP for the opposition National Action Party. The death of Britains Queen Elizabeth II is a great loss for the whole world, said Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Friday, expressing his deep sadness. The death of the Queen, who has carried Britain through turbulent times in the world, is a great loss not only for the British people but also for the international community, he told reporters. Hailing the Queens extremely important role in world peace and stability, Kishida said she has made great contributions to strengthening Japan-Britain ties. He offered his condolences to the government and said he was deeply saddened by the news of her death. Flags in Japan will be flown at half-mast in honor of the late monarch, Chief Cabinet Officer Hirokazu Matsuno said. Noboru Suzuki, 81, was among those offering condolences outside the British Embassy in Tokyo, where some people laid flowers at the gate. The British royal family is one of the most well-known, so Im sure sadness grips the whole world, but because Japan has its own royal family, were also shocked, he told AFP. Another mourner, 54-year-old Yasuko Osawa, said she has studied in Britain twice, her trips coinciding with the heyday of Princess Dianas popularity. So my path crossed paths with the British royal family, if only a little bit, she said. Osawa said her generation in Japan had embraced British music and everyone around me would go to Britain to study. British royals have had their fair share of scandals but I sincerely hope they can overcome this loss, she said, adding that the Queen is someone who really deserves a state funeral. Ukraine will cost an estimated $349 billion to rebuild after the devastation caused by the Russian invasion, according to a report published on Friday. But the number, which is 1.5 times the size of Ukraines economy, is considered the minimum and is likely to rise in the coming months as the war progresses, according to a joint assessment by the Ukrainian government, the European Commission and the Ukraine World Bank. The physical damage inflicted since the invasion in late February through June 1 alone totaled $97 billion, the report said. The Russian invasion of Ukraine continues to take a terrible toll, from significant civilian casualties and the displacement of millions of people to the widespread destruction of homes, businesses, social facilities and economic activities, said Anna Bjerde, regional vice president of the World Bank President for Europe and Central Asia. Over the next 36 months, the report estimates that $105 billion will be needed to address urgent needs such as restoring education and healthcare systems and infrastructure, preparing for the coming winter by restoring heating and power to homes that Supporting agriculture and repairing vital facilities to cover transportation routes. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said reconstruction in the occupied territories is already underway but will require help from international partners. Only for the first phase, the rapid recovery, $17 billion is needed, of which Ukraine needs $3.4 billion already this year, he said in a statement. Allies have rushed to pump aid into the war-ravaged country, with the G7 and European Union contributing $39 billion. Hallyu superstar Lee Jung Jae is at the peak of his career, but as he continues to gain recognition abroad, the actor's dark past circulates online. Keep reading the article to know more details. After winning numerous awards from prestigious ceremonies in Korea and abroad, it's no surprise Lee Jung Jae is one of the most influential South Korean stars all across the globe. Recently, he is confirmed to join the lead cast of the "Star Wars" series. Also, the actor, along with "Squid Game" co-star Jung Ho Yeon, will be presenters at the coming Emmys 2022. However, with his back-to-back achievements, Lee Jung Jae's dark past re-appeared on various online portals. Lee Jung Jae Embroiled in Drunk Driving Controversy Twice On September 8, an outlet revealed the dark past of "Squid Game" actor Lee Jung Jae. According to the news, the award-winning actor was arrested for drunk driving at the Gangnam Police Station in Seoul and suspiciously didn't get any charges even though he caused a car accident. Based on the police's statement, Lee Jung Jae was driving his BMW car with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.222% in Nohyeon-dong, Gangnam-gu Seoul, around 2 in the morning. In addition, Lee's car collided with a 23-year-old female office worker. At that time, the "Hunt" star was inside the car with a fellow actor. When the police asked, Lee Jung Jae denied the allegations and explained that he didn't drive the car and his manager was the one who was driving. But that was not the first time Lee Jung Jae was involved in a drunk driving controversy. A screenshot from a published article in August 2002 was posted online. The news reported about Lee Jung Jae's other DUI issue. Based on the police's released statement, the South Korean star was driving home with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.054% at past 12 in the morning. He was caught by the police in front of Cheongdam Elementary School in Gangnam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. The male star was driving the same BMW. YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: Kim Sae Ron's Driver License to be Revoked Following DUI Incident According to Lee Jung Jae's statement, he drank three bottles of beer with his friends somewhere near Apgujeong-dong. Lee Jung Jae Charged With Assault Apart from the drunk driving controversy, the "Delayed Justice" actor was also charged with assault. Based on the screenshot article published in January 2000, Lee Jung Jae was reported to the Busan Haeundae Police Station for injuring a 22-year-old woman inside her car in front of a nightclub at around 3:00 a.m. on September 26, 1999. It has been said that the actor dragged and kicked the woman with his foot, injuring her for two weeks. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Lee Jung Jae Joins as Lead Star in Disney+ 'Star Wars' Series Meanwhile, Lee Jung Jae's agency has not released any statement yet regarding these past reports resurfacing on various portals. For more K-Drama, K-Movie, and celebrity updates, follow KDramastars! KDramastars owns this article. Shai Collins wrote this. Romantic comedy queen Park Min Young is ready to take on the Hallyu scene once again with her forthcoming drama "Love in Contract." Ahead of her much anticipated return, the actress creates quite the buzz. Here's what happened! Park Min Young Lauded For Attention to Detail in New Acting Role This 2022, the nation's beloved rom-com queen Park Min Young returns with the new tvN drama "Love in Contract"! It follows the story of a "single life helper" who transforms into the perfect spouse of single people who need partners to events, gatherings and reunions. Prior to its release, the South Korean beauty stirred buzz for her new acting role. In the drama, Park Min Young plays the role of Choi Sang Eun, a beautiful lady who is a single life helper for 13 years. Choi Sang Eun is a wife for rent, helping single people who are in need of companionship in certain events. Because of the nature of her job, she doesn't only need to look presentable. She also needs to appear smart and talented in order to impress her clients and their acquaintances. With this, Park Min Young exerted a lot of effort into her new role. To play a woman who is adept in arts, music and education, she spent her time analyzing her character. Since her character is someone who plays different roles according to the clients' needs, Park Min Young spent her leisure time learning how to play various instruments and sports. Park Min Young revealed that she studied for 24 hours for one week during her filming period, saying, "I was frustrated because I couldn't speak like a native speaker so I practiced intensively." Thankfully, the actress' hard work paid off and showed desirable results. Park Min Young hinted, "I filmed the drama with excitement so please look forward to it!" With this, fans' excitement is raised to a whole new level, curious as to what the romantic comedy queen has in store for the viewers. 'Love in Contract' Further Details and Where To Watch The new tvN romance drama "Love in Contract" marks Park Min Young, Go Kyung Pyo and Kim Jae Young's first project together. Previously, Go Kyung Pyo and Kim Jae Young showed off their acting skills in dramas "Private Lives" and "Reflection of You," respectively. In the new drama, they are expected to showcase their intense chemistry with the female lead, Park Min Young, as well as their bromance with one another. Meanwhile, Park Min Young also aims to defend her title as romantic comedy queen with her new work. Catch "Love in Contract" this Wednesday, September 21 at 10:30 p.m. KST on tvN! KDramastars owns this article. Written by Elijah Mully. With only two episodes left before the finale, "Adamas" episode 14 introduces the possible new head of Haesong and showcases Ji Sung's plan to destroy Team A. Amid the suspense and shocking revelations, the tvN series struggles to keep the rating stable. 'Adamas' Episode 14 Viewership Rating According to Nielsen Korea, the fourteenth episode garnered an average nationwide rating of 3 percent. Despite the latest rating scores a slight dip from its previous episode, "Adamas" episode 14 remained the most-watched Wednesday-Thursday K-drama for its time slot. 'Adamas' Episode 14: Lee Chang Woo's Achilles' Heel The thriller crime drama stars Lee Chang Woo and Ha Woo Shin were captured by one of Team A's members. In hopes of finding the real Adamas, the former Team A leader turned prisoner, was abducted along with his son. Unfortunately, they have found Lee Chang Woo's weakness which is his son, Ha Woo Shin. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 'Adamas' Episode 13: Ji Sung's Biological Father Exposes the Truth Team A tortured Ha Woo Shin in front of his father but was able to escape despite a massive injury on his hand. Lieutenant Choi Tae Sung Agrees to Team Up with Song Soo Hyun Now that SIH, which investigates Haesong's illegal activities has been disbanded, Choi Tae Sung was crushed after knowing that their efforts as a team and the life of his colleagues were wasted. His rage brought him to kill Chairman Kwon, causing shock to his son Kwon Hyun Jo as the transfer of succession has not been completed. During his attempt to return and kill the Chairman, he was stopped by his superior, SIH team head Kang Hyuk Pil who gave him a new identity and advised him to leave the country. However, he is eager to finish it until the end and to give justice to his co-workers who died in vain. Lieutenant Choi Tae Sung who was disguised as Haesong's head of security went to the SIH headquarters where Prosecutor Song Soo Hyun, Lee Chang Woo, Kim Seo Hee, and a few SIH members were at. With only one mission, Choi Tae Sung said that he wanted to work together with them to which Prosecutor Song and Ha Woo Shin agreed. Interestingly, Lee Chang Woo serves as their upper hand since he knew Team A better than Lee Jun Kyung. In "Adamas" episode 14, Choi Tae Sung showed the report that one of his colleagues made. It featured the ins and outs of Haesong's illegal activities; however, the Prosecutor noticed that something was odd. He figured out that the mixed-up pages symbolize the coordinates which might point to the possible location of the Adamas. Will Eun Hye Soo be the Next Owner of Haesong? In the last scene, Eun Hye Soo illustrates his dominance over his husband and the chairman's only son Kwon Hyun Jo. She used Ms. Kwon and Team A's Mr. Lee Jun Kyung after saving them from the hands of the chairman. At the hospital where Chairman Kwon is recovering, Eun Hye Soo introduced the visitor who is dying to see him suffer. Ms. Kwon, the chairman's former aide, stabbed him in the heart, which belongs to her son. It can be recalled that the chairman killed Ms. Kwon's son in order to get the boy's heart and transfer it to him. The latter part of the episode hints that Eun Hye Soo would lead both Haesong and Team A. READ MORE: Ji Sung Reveals Why It's Challenging to Play Dual Role in 'Adamas' KDramastars owns this article Written by Geca Wills We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form The woman facing a 2018 homicide charge for the death of a Kenosha man being investigated for sex trafficking was back in a Kenosha County courtroom Friday. Chrystul Kizer, of Milwaukee, faces first-degree intentional homicide for the June 2018 death of Randall Volar, a 34-year-old Kenosha man who prosecutors admit had been preying on Kizer and other underage girls. Kizer, now 22, was 17 at the time she was charged and is accused of shooting Volar in the head and then setting his house on fire. Kizer appeared briefly with attorneys Greg Holdahl, Helmi Hamad and Jennifer Bias before Judge David Wilk on Friday. District Attorney Michael Graveley and assistant district attorney Zachary Brost appeared on behalf of the state. Both parties requested an evidentiary motion hearing, which is scheduled for January. Earlier this year the Supreme Court of Wisconsin ruled in favor of Kizer so she will be able to use an affirmative defense for any offense committed as a direct result of having been trafficked at her upcoming trial. As the Supreme Courts majority decision, penned by Justice Rebecca Dallet, noted: Unlike many crimes, which occur at discrete points in time, human trafficking can trap victims in a cycle of seemingly inescapable abuse that can continue for months or even years. For that reason, even an offense that is unforeseeable or that does not occur immediately after a trafficking offense is committed can be a direct result of the trafficking offense, so long as there is still the necessary logical connection between the offense and the trafficking. At question is a lack of clarity in state law. Under a state law passed in 2008, victims of sex trafficking are immune from prosecution from crimes they themselves may have committed as a direct result of having been trafficked. The decision does not protect someone who has been a victim of trafficking from all prosecution. As Dallet wrote in the majority opinion: It is not enough to say simply that because the defendant is a victim of human trafficking, any offense they commit subsequently must be a direct result of the trafficking. The offense must bear a logical, causal connection to the underlying trafficking offense; it must be a direct result of the trafficking. Thus, our interpretation does not create ... blanket immunity for victims of human trafficking. The Kenosha County District Attorneys Office argued this protection cannot be stretched to include a defense against killing the trafficker themselves, while those defending Kizer say it can be because the laws on the books have no restrictions on what crimes can be included. Xi exchanges congratulations with AU chair on 20th anniversary of AU's founding, diplomatic ties Xinhua) 13:19, September 09, 2022 BEIJING, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping exchanged congratulatory messages on Friday with Chairperson of the African Union (AU) and Senegalese President Macky Sall on the 20th anniversary of AU's founding and the establishment of China-AU diplomatic relations. Xi pointed out that in the past 20 years, the AU has led African countries in striding forward along a path of seeking strength through unity, development, revitalization and integration, and in demonstrating Africa's strength in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, upholding multilateralism and safeguarding the common interests of developing countries. Noting that China and Africa have always been good friends, good partners and good brothers sharing weal and woe, Xi said China-AU relations have stood the test of changing international circumstances, and bilateral cooperation has expanded in depth and width, playing an important leading role in carrying forward China-Africa traditional friendship and strengthening solidarity and cooperation in the new era. Xi said he attaches great importance to the development of China-AU relations, stands ready to work with President Sall and other heads of state of the AU member countries to embark from the new starting point of the 20th anniversary of the China-AU diplomatic ties, carry forward the spirit of China-Africa friendly cooperation, fully implement the outcomes of the Eighth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), firmly support each other on issues concerning their respective core interests and major concerns, continue to increase the representation and voice of developing countries in international affairs and make new contributions to the building of a China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era. For his part, Sall said President Xi has sent a warm congratulatory message on the 20th anniversary of the founding of the AU, which fully demonstrated the close friendship between African and Chinese people. Sall expressed his sincere gratitude to Xi. He highly appreciated the traditional friendship, solidarity and cooperation between Africa and China, as well as the dynamic partnership under the framework of the FOCAC. Sall reiterated that Africa firmly supports the one-China principle, and also supports the African continent to work with friendly China to build the China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) Superintendent Anthony Farrell, who has recently taken up the top post at Thomastown Garda Station, is enthusiastic about getting out into the community and meeting the people living in the area. Policing is in his blood and he is a third generation garda - his grandfather, Tom Farrell was one of the founding members and was stationed in Birr while his father Joe was based in Athlone for 30 years. Supt Farrell is back on familiar ground having being stationed in Co Kilkenny from 2009 to 2020. I am delighted to be the new superintendent for Thomastown, with my area of responsibility being South Kilkenny, he said. I am already familiar with some of the fantastic people living and working in this area as for the most part I have been stationed in Kilkenny since 2009. I look forward to getting out and about again, especially after Covid and meeting more people in the weeks and months ahead, he added. Community-based policing is an integral part of Supt Farrells remit and he is passionate about having gardai out in the community and also hopes to reach out to some of the more vulnerable people living in the locality. High standard I intend to focus garda efforts on protecting the most vulnerable in our community, providing services to victims of crime and delivering a high standard to all. With my colleagues I hope to enhance and develop in particular positive contacts and connections with all sections of our community, which will in turn honour our organisational mission of keeping people safe. I am particularly conscious of vulnerable persons in our community, especially older people and I will be making every effort to reach out and connect with these people. community feedback Supt Farrell is a strong advocate of getting out into the community and listening to the needs of the people, We in An Garda Siochana here in Thomastown will continue to develop, improve and enrich our service to our communities in South Kilkenny. I want to ensure through consultation and community feedback, that our service is what people want and is delivered to areas in greatest need. At present we have 22 text alert groups operating in the Thomastown District. I want to build on this. Part of this process will be to reach out to people through other communication channels such as local media, he said. Supt Farrell is also committed to strengthening An Garda Siochanas capacity to deliver a 21st century policing service to the people of South Kilkenny through more focused garda visibilty in communities. To start this process, I have already visited all the garda stations in South Kilkenny to meet my teams and also some of the local people living in the area. Crime statistics The latest statistics show that crime has fallen in the Thomastown Garda District and Supt Farrell hopes to continue with this downward trajectory. Thankfully in large part due to the work of my colleagues, incidence of crime in this area has reduced. In 2021, through the proactive work of both detective and uniform gardai, property crime fell by 5%, when detections have increased by 27%, he said. Supt Farrrell is determined that incidents of crime will continue to fall and will make the best use of the resources available to him to try and ensure that this happens. I am acutely aware of the impact of crime can have on victims. Central to all my actions will be victims of crime, he said. I will take it as a personal responsibility to reduce levels of crime, make our roads safer and enhance connections with our communities. I am also conscious of the of the silent victims of crime in our community especially domestic violence. I encourage people in these difficult situations to come forward to An Garda Siochana and I assure you, you will be dealt with in a caring and sensitive manner in the strictest of confidence, he added. Road Safety Supt Farrell is also prioritising road safety, an area of policing he is all too aware of as he was responsible for roads policing and community while stationed in Kilkenny as an inspector. I aim to keep our roads safer for the remainder of 2022, and beyond. So far this year there has been two fatal road traffic collisions, he continued. I will continue to work with our roads policing unit to improve this situation. One fatality on our roads is too many. My late grandmother at the tender age of 97 spoke a lot about the day Queen Elizabeth and her late husband Prince Philip sent her an invitation for afternoon tea at Buckingham Palace. They received the Royal invite because they shared the same wedding day, and it was coming up to their 50th Wedding Anniversary. Dan & Noreen Walsh on their wedding day in post-war London, November 20, 1947 According to Nanny Noreen we werent the only ones invited to the Palace that day, the Royal couple invited everyone who was married on the same day as them - November 20th, 1947. We were all invited to celebrate our Golden Wedding Anniversaries together in the splendour of Buckingham Palace. That wasn't the only royal date that the two couples shared. Both the Queen and my grandmother took their last bows and joined their devoted husbands in heaven this year. Coincidentally Nanny Noreen was laid to rest on the day of the Queen's Jubilee last May. Nanny was 97 years old, and the Queen was 96 years old. May they all rest in peace now with their beloved. Worlds apart My grandparents may have been married on the same day as the Royal couple, but their lives were worlds apart. Nanny and Grandad are both from Ireland originally, Nanny left the Comeragh Mountains, Co. Waterford at 19 years of age for England and Grandad left his home of Spiddal, Co. Galway, aged 25. They met each other in London towards the end of World War II and the rest is history! Post war London was in devastation and was built back up brick by brick. Grandads first job was in demolitions, dismantling bombed down buildings after the war. While Nanny was a young nurse in St Bartholomew's Hospital. They married six months after meeting at a Pride of Eireann Dance. She was 23 years old, and Grandad was 33. Their wedding was not the lavish affair that the young Royals enjoyed, Nan recalls everything was rationed in England back then, we didnt even have a biscuit on our wedding day. Your Grandfather was done up like a Lord, from the shillings he had saved but I had to borrow an overcoat from a fellow nurse. I was so late for our wedding because the mean old Sister in the Hospital held me back, Dan thought I was going to stand him up! The Royal Family This is a story I have heard a million times growing up but I suppose it became more real from watching the TV series The Crown and the burial ceremony earlier this year of the late Prince Philip. Nanny was glued to the television on April 17the last, watching every last detail of Prince Philips funeral from Windsor Castle. She was always fascinated by the Royal family after living in London for nearly 40 years. Never forgotten Nanny and Grandad settled back in Ireland in 1980 but they never forgot their life in England and the opportunities it gave them. We are Irish to the core, but Nanny always remembers their life there with fondness, even down to the dishes she cooked every day for us. Back in the 80s when Irish people religiously ate meat and two veg dinners, our house felt very exotic with Nannys cooking. Every day after school she would feed us her favourite recipes, the ones she enjoyed with her much diversified London friends. We often ate Indian curries full of cooking apples and raisins, spaghetti Bolognese, toad in the hole, bangers and mash, Yorkshire puddings, pigs in blankets to name but a few. Life was good to them in England with a great Irish community around them. To her dying day she still told us stories of post war London, right up to the crazy swinging 60s. She reminded all the nurses and doctors about how she was a nurse during the war, as she took her last breath last May. So, you see, that invitation to Buckingham Palace on their joint Golden Wedding Anniversary was very special. Unfortunately, my grandparents could not make the journey back to the UK, Grandad was 83 and his heart was bad. So instead, we threw them the wedding reception they never had in Bennettsbridge Community Hall. With 150 guests in attendance for a sit-down meal and Fr. Duggan said mass before that party, Nanny said it was a feast fit for a Queen! My grandparents Golden Wedding Anniversary, blessed by Fr Duggan Sadly, Granddad passed away a year later, on their 51st Wedding Anniversary. Nanny at 97 years of age thought of her love every day, especially as she looked at the framed letter they received from Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, which read This is a special year for you and for us, and we are sorry that you cannot be at Buckingham Palace on 15th July to celebrate our Golden Wedding. We hope that you have a very happy anniversary and send our best wishes and congratulations to you both. Signed Elizabeth & Philip 3rd June 1997 A letter from the late Queen Elizabeth & Prince Philip to my Grandparents on their shared 50th Wedding Anniversaries Irish premier Micheal Martin has said that the Queens 2011 visit to Ireland was the crowing moment of the peace process and the development of Anglo-Irish relations. The Taoiseach said that the late monarch has been a constant in the world political order and expressed Irelands understanding of the enormous change her passing represents. Irelands President Michael D Higgins also gave praise to the Queens exceptional ability to combine a sense of formality with a great capacity for connection with the people. Tributes have poured in from across the world upon the death on Thursday of Britains longest-reigning monarch, who served as the UKs head of state for more than 70 years. Speaking to reporters in Bray, Co Wicklow, Mr Martin said that the Queens most enduring legacy in an Irish context would unquestionably be her historic visit to Ireland in 2011, which he had been very anxious that it would happen in his years previous as minister for foreign affairs. He said that her trip to Cork as part of that visit will be a visit that will never be forgotten. Political leaders in Ireland have noted how the Queens 2011 visit, the first by a British monarch to Ireland since it gained independence, set a new tone for Anglo-Irish relations in the following years. President Higgins said that the preparations for the 2011 visit to Ireland were complex and required some subtlety and very good diplomacy. There was that capacity to bridge the formal and the informal, Mr Higgins said on RTEs Morning Ireland programme. To be able to cover all these different areas of human interaction and humanity, thats a very very significant achievement. Mr Higgins said that during his visit to Windsor Castle in 2014, the first state visit to the UK by an Irish president, the Queen was insistent that progress made in relation to Anglo-Irish ties must be kept going. Mr Martin said of the 2011 visit: In the context of all that has gone on between Britain and Ireland over the centuries, it definitely closed one chapter and opened up a new chapter, and it was the culmination really of all the work that went into the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement. The head of state of the UK coming to Ireland represented the crowning moment, if you like, for all that had gone before in terms of peacebuilding and in terms of creating a new political order on the island of Ireland. Her son the Prince of Wales, is now King Charles III having acceded to the throne immediately on the death of his mother. Mr Martin said: I think King Charles is very familiar with Ireland, he has a keen interest in Irish affairs and I met him on a number of occasions during his visits to Ireland, with the Queen Consort, and I have no doubt that he will continue that interest in Ireland. Particularly he has an interest in climate change, biodiversity, wildlife, and I do foresee opportunities to dovetail with that interest that he has, with some of the initiatives we are taking in terms of preserving biodiversity into the future. Hes also obviously committed to doing what he can in the role that he now will have to underpin good relations between Ireland and Britain and between the different traditions on the island of Ireland. He said that inviting him to Ireland would be a matter for the President. Following her death, the King said that during the period of royal mourning, set to last from now until seven days after the funeral of the late Queen, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which the Queen was so widely held. The 2022 Kennedy Summer School which will take place in New Ross, the ancestral hometown of President JFK, this weekend. Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was announced just yesterday as a last minute guest at the speakers lunch, during the summer school. Among the keynote speakers are the US Ambassador to Ireland, Claire Cronin, and former US Representative Joe Kennedy amongst others. We will also be joined by duelling US political commentators, Cal Thomas and Marion McKeone, who will provide an extended version of their weekly radio joust on Today FM in St Michaels Theatre. Cathaoirleach of Seanad Eireann, Mark Daly, will discuss his efforts to establish the American Irish State Legislators Caucus which already boasts more than 800 members, some of whom will join in virtually from the US. Yesterday evening (Thursday) US Ambassador to Ireland Claire Cronin will officially open the summer school followed by a short public interview. Following this event, Failte Ireland's panel of tourism experts took to the stage, including the CEO of Failte Ireland Paul Kelly, Acting Chief Executive of Tourism Ireland Siobhan McManamy, Dr Dominic Dillane Head of School of Tourism and Hospitality Management at TU Dublin, Chief Executive for the ITOA Ruth Andrews and Cian O Lionain the Assistant Secretary with responsibility for Tourism and Sport policy and funding in the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. The panel will discuss the impact of the global economy and the pandemic on Irelands tourism and hospitality sector. Getting events underway today (Friday) at 12.30 pm is the Speakers Lunch which will take place at the JFK Memorial Park, an event hosted by Boston College. Delegates and invited guests can meet and mingle with the 2022 summer school speakers at the JFK Memorial Park & Arboretum. In a change of programming for the Kennedy Summer School it has been announced that Bertie Ahern will be the keynote guest speaker at the Kennedy Summer School Speakers Lunch event The annual Kennedy Summer School session bearing the name of the summer school founder, the late Noel Whelan, The Noel Whelan Interview re-commenced events at St. Michaels Theatre that evening. At 7pm Garda Commissioner Drew Harris will take a seat on stage to participate in the public interview with questions being posed by Kennedy Summer School Director Sinead McSweeney. Following this interview, the Kennedy Summer School Keynote will be hosted. The guest speaker for 2002 is US layer and Politician Joe Kennedy, son of Joe Kennedy senior and grandson of the US senator and Attorney General Robert Kennedy. Joe Kennedy will be joining the summer school remotely. A discussion on Ulysses and Gatsby will take talks and discussions to a close on Friday evening: Irish and American geniuses at work with Prof Philip McGowan, Prof Sarah Churchwell, and Ambassador Dan Mulhall. Following the Ulysses and Gatsby, discussion the audience will enjoy a break from political discussion and debate as the Kennedy Summer School audience will be offered a respite with the dulcet tones of Colm Mac Con Iomaire. On Saturday morning the Kennedy Summer School History Symposium will take place at 10.30 am focusing on lost leaders; Michael Collins, Parnell, JFK and Bobby Kennedy with a panel discussion joined by guest speakers Dr Martin ODonoghue, Neal Thompson, Dr William Murphy, Biona Nic Dhiarmada and Dr Anne Dolan. At noon on Saturday, taking things off the air and onto the stage will be Cal Thomas and Marion McKeone. At 2 pm a session on Irish Women Covering Politics will be the focus of attention for political journalists Aoife Moore, Christina Finn, Mandy Johnston, Ciara Phelan, Mary Regan and moderator Ivan Yates. At 3 pm the focus will be placed on Irish Politics as Minister Jack Chambers TD, Richard Boyd-Barrett TD, Sorca Clarke TD, Vernona Murphy and moderator Gavin Reilly will take to the stage. Later in the afternoon, US politics will be the discussion topic with Prof Sarah Churchwell, John Feehery and Royston Brady and events will come to a close on Saturday evening as a panel from the American Irish State Legislators Caucus, which has already attracted a membership of more than 800 will join Senator Mark Daly in conversation with Larry Donnelly. Wastewater surveillance becomes more targeted in search for poliovirus, monkeypox and coronavirus The Hoosier State once again has collected considerably more money in monthly tax receipts than predicted by Indiana's regularly updated revenue forecast. Data released Friday by the State Budget Agency show Indiana took in $1.55 billion in general fund revenue during the month of August. That was $128.1 million, or 9%, more than anticipated by the December 2021 revenue forecast, and $201 million, or 14.9%, more money than the estimates used by state lawmakers in April 2021 as they crafted Indiana's two-year spending plan. The budget agency said better than expected collections from individual income tax, sales tax and corporate taxes, as well as interest and miscellaneous revenues helped drive last month's performance. Records show the $861.5 million in August sales tax receipts, which mostly reflect July spending by Hoosiers, topped the monthly target by 3.4%, and exceeded August 2021 state sales tax revenue by $56 million, or 6.9%. Likewise, the $611.9 million in individual income tax collections last month beat expectations by $71 million, or 13.1%. Though nearly all the excess was due to automatic taxpayer refund payments being applied to Hoosiers' outstanding tax debts and similar obligations, according to the budget agency. Nevertheless, last month's income tax receipts still bested August 2021 state income tax revenue by $108.6 million, or 21.6%, records show. Total Indiana tax revenue now stands at $200.1 million, or 7.1%, above the forecast two months into the state's 2023 budget year, which runs from July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023. Data show the state's general fund revenue also is $321.1 million, or 11.8%, greater than the same two-month period last year. Hoosier lawmakers in August approved spending $1 billion in excess state revenue generated during the 2022 budget year to pay a $200 per person refund to eligible Hoosiers, on top of the $125 automatic taxpayer refund issued following the close of the 2021 budget year. Electronic distribution of both refunds is practically complete. Hoosiers receiving their refunds via a paper check should get their money in the mail as a single $325 payment, or $650 for married couples, by Nov. 1, according to the Indiana Department of Revenue. Records show Indiana still is sitting on a $5 billion to $6 billion budget reserve well above the roughly $2 billion state lawmakers aim to keep in the bank for unexpected needs. Deciding whether and how to spend that extra money, along with the approximately $38 billion in standard biennial appropriations, will be the primary task of the General Assembly when it convenes its four-month regular session in early January. Hoosier lawmakers are due to get an updated revenue forecast in mid-December, and again in April 2023, to help guide their deliberations as they devise the two-year state spending plan and forward it to the governor for final approval. Looking to better holistically address the needs of the Williams Bay Police Department and the public it serves, Police Chief Justin P. Timm appeared before the Williams Bay Protective Services Committee on Aug. 10 to propose implementation of a volunteer non-denominational police chaplaincy program. Timm said there are four different types of wellness associated with the job of policing physical, mental, financial and spiritual. This would help us really get the wellness wrapped up, Timm said of establishing a volunteer chaplaincy program. Police department chaplaincies, an aid to police officers and citizens through a field service ministry that provides spiritual guidance, counseling and comfort in times of crisis, are in place in a number of Wisconsin communities, including Lake Geneva, assisting officers with death notifications, traumatic events, and acting as a support system to the officers and the community. The chaplain would come to assist with multiple different avenues, such as talking with victims of any type of case that we have where they would request a chaplain and any types of conversations that officers need to have, and want to have, to maintain their mental wellness Timm noted. The chaplain would provide a listening ear. Timm said he was approached by a former longtime 30-year Michigan police chaplain interested in offering volunteer chaplaincy services to the Williams Bay Police Department. I think, in concept, its a good idea, said Protective Services Committee Chairman George Vlach, a retired 11-year City of Darien, Ill. police officer who served in a variety of positions including investigator, S.W.A.T. operative, field training officer, and self defense and control tactics instructor. Ive experienced some things that are pretty bad Looking at the framework for an on-boarding process to serve as a foundation for establishing a volunteer chaplaincy program, Vlach was in favor of implementing full background checks for volunteers given the sensitive nature of the confidential work involved and the information that theyd be privileged to. Village President Bill Duncan, who served as a chaplains assistant in the U.S. Army, said dedicated training for serving as a chaplain is an important consideration as well. Theres a lot of counseling, he noted of chaplaincy work. Its much less religious Thats a really important piece that they have that skill, that background. With members of the Protective Services Committee and the larger Williams Bay Village Board expressing a consensus that they were okay with the concept, Vlach asked Timm to research and compile additional information for committee review critical to laying the foundation for the establishment of a police chaplaincy program including such topics as on-boarding, training, certifications, liability and insurance. ZION, Ill. A northern Illinois police officer fatally shot a man after he fired shots at officers investigating an attempted home break-in, police said. Zion police were responding Thursday night to an emergency call from a woman who said one of her relatives was trying to break into her home, police said. When two officers confronted the 47-year-old man near the home's back door, he pulled out a gun and began to shoot, prompting the officers to retreat. Police said the man ran off with the gun before a third police officer encountered him about a block away and shot him. The man was pronounced dead at a hospital. His name has not been released by authorities. No officers were injured. Police said the man's gun was recovered at the scene in Zion, a Lake County city that's located about 50 miles north of downtown Chicago, near the Illinois-Wisconsin state line. Police said the woman who called police had obtained a protective order against the man earlier Thursday, but he had not yet been served with that order. The Lake County Major Crime Task Force was investigating the shooting. New Delhi/Beijing, September 9: India and China will complete the disengagement process in the Gogra-Hotsprings area in eastern Ladakh by September 12, the External Affairs Ministry said in New Delhi on Friday. The ministry's comment came a day after the Indian and Chinese armies announced that they have begun to disengage from the Gogra-Hotsprings Patrolling Point 15, where the two sides have been locked in a standoff for over two years. The announcement of the disengagement of troops came around a week ahead of the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Uzbekistan which is expected to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping among other leaders of the grouping. In Beijing, when asked whether India and China are in communication about a possible Modi-Xi meeting on the sidelines of the SCO summit to be held in Samarkand on September 15 to 16, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a briefing that she has "no information to offer at this moment." India, China to Dismantle, Verify Temporary Structures in Gogra-Hot Springs Area of LAC in Ladakh, Says MEA. "We believe the disengagement will be a positive progress and is conducive to peace and tranquility in the border areas, and China also hopes to work with India to uphold peace and stability," she added. Responding to a question on the disengagement process, External Affairs Ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi said,"It has been agreed that all temporary structures and other allied infrastructure created in the area by both sides will be dismantled and mutually verified. The landforms in the area will be restored to the pre-standoff period by both sides." The two sides have also agreed to take the talks forward and resolve remaining issues and restore peace and tranquility along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in India-China border areas, he said. "The two sides have agreed to cease forward deployments in this area in a phased, coordinated and verified manner, resulting in the return of the troops of both sides to their respective areas," he added. Bagchi said the agreement ensures that the LAC in this area will be strictly observed and respected by both sides and that there will be no unilateral change in the status quo. He said the 16th round of talks between the Corps Commanders of India and China was held at the Chushul Moldo meeting point on July 17, 2022. "Since then, the two sides had maintained regular contact to build on the progress achieved during the talks to resolve the relevant issues along the LAC in the Western Sector of India-China border areas," he said. As a result, both sides have now agreed on disengagement in the area of Gogra-Hotsprings (PP-15), he said. India, China Troops Begin Disengagement in Gogra-Hotsprings PP-15 in Eastern Ladakh. Bagchi said as per the agreement,"the disengagement process in this area started on September 8 at 8:30 am and will be completed by September 12". "With the resolution of the stand-off at PP-15, both sides mutually agreed to take the talks forward and resolve the remaining issues along LAC and restore peace and tranquility in India-China border areas," he said. In a statement in Beijing, the Chinese defence ministry said the Chinese and Indian troops in the area of Jianan Daban have begun to disengage in a coordinated and planned way, which is conducive to the peace and tranquility in the border areas. Indian officials said that the Jianan Daban area referred to by China is the same as Patrolling Point-15 in the Gogra-Hotsprings area referred to by the Indian Army press release issued on Thursday. New Delhi, Sep 9 (PTI) "We don't want the Supreme Court to be 'tareekh pe tareekh' court," Supreme Court judge Justice DY Chandrachud said on Friday, trenchantly deprecating the practice of lawyers seeking repeated adjournments. A bench of Justice Chandrachud and Hima Kohli got annoyed when a lawyer sought time to argue a matter and said he has circulated a letter for adjournment. Also Read | Supreme Court Grants Bail to Journalist Siddique Kappan, Says 'Every Person Has Freedom of Expression'. "We will not adjourn the matter. At most, we can pass over the matter to be taken at the end of the board but you have to argue the matter. We don't want the Supreme Court to be 'tareekh pe tareekh' court. We want to change this perception. "This is the highest court of the land and we want certain dignity to be attached to this court," Justice Chandrachud told the lawyer, who was appearing for a Hindu priest in a civil appeal, recalling a dialogue from film 'Damini' where actor Sunny Deol voices exasperation over repeated adjournments and fresh dates. Also Read | India, China to Complete Disengagement in Gogra-Hotsprings in Eastern Ladakh by September 12, Says MEA. The bench said while the judges burn midnight oil preparing for the next day's hearing, assiduously going through case files, lawyers on other hand come and seek adjournment. It passed over the matter and later, when the arguing lawyer appeared in the case, the bench refused to interfere with the appeal and asked the priest to approach the high court. In another matter, a Justice Chandrachud-led bench refused to expunge the remarks made by a high court against a lawyer, saying the high court has to maintain discipline in the courtroom and that it would not be appropriate for the apex court to expunge those remarks over his unprofessional conduct. The bench got annoyed that the petition was filed under Article 32 of the Constitution and said the relief sought cannot be granted in this petition. Article 32 relates to the right to move the Supreme Court for enforcement of fundamental rights. "The Supreme Court is becoming dysfunctional due to these kinds of frivolous litigations. Now it is high time that we send a strong message down the line otherwise things would be difficult. Every 5 to 10 minutes spent on these kinds of petitions takes away the time of a genuine litigant, who has been waiting for justice for years," Justice Chandrachud said. He said nowadays around 60 matters are listed on miscellaneous days with some getting listed late in the night. "I had to wake up at 3.30 am in the morning to read the case files. The judges are working hard but it is the lawyers, who are not willing to argue their case. This is not done," he said, voicing displeasure. The judge has of late been resisting adjournments sought by lawyers and asking young advocates to argue if their seniors are absent. He also takes care to reassure them that the court will be liberal if they make a mistake. "You are senior lawyer for us now. We give you this designation for the afternoon. Come on now argue the matter. We assure you we will be liberal with you. "If you don't argue, we will pass judgement as we are sworn to the Constitution to do justice," Chandrachud, next in line to become the Chief Justice of India, had earlier this week told a junior lawyer, who sought adjournment as his senior was arguing in another court. In the Supreme Court, the only commonality between the counsel appearing for different parties is that they agree for adjournment, he observed tersely. (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], September 9 (ANI): Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Friday informed that Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) deputation rules have been relaxed to encourage IAS and other All India Service Officers as well as the ones of Central Services to get posted in Jammu and Kashmir. Due to this relaxation, Singh said, 22 officers belonging to various services and different cadres have been posted in Jammu and Kashmir at various levels at a crucial time. Singh was briefing the media about several steps taken to address the shortage of officers in the newly created Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Also Read | Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot Launches 100 Days Employment Scheme for Families in Urban Areas. The Minister said DoPT has played a major role in facilitating the induction of Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Services Officers into IAS by coordinating with UT of J-K, Ministry of Home Affairs and Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). "As a result, recently 16 officers from Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service (JKAS) have been inducted into IAS and another eight such vacancies will be filled up shortly giving opportunities to the JKAS officers to become part of the prestigious IAS service after a long gap of 12 years," Singh said. Also Read | Mumbai Shocker: Woman Doctor Molested Inside Moving Intercity Express Train, Accused Held. The Minister also added that mid-career training of JKAS officers of various seniority was carried out in collaboration with Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) and this has provided a new level of exposure to the JKAS Officers and more than 200 offices. Singh also listed some initiatives by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension, Government of India like special concessions and incentives to the Central Government employees working in Kashmir Valley in attached and subordinate offices or PSUs falling under the control of the Central Government. He said that they were extended special concessions for a period of three years with effect from August 1, 2021, and the incentives included an additional house rent allowance, composite transfer grant, per diem allowance, an incentive for a period of temporary duty, messing allowance, facility to draw pension at the place of settlement in relaxation of relevant provisions. The Minister also informed that the facility for retention of general pool accommodation available to officers who have served in central government has also been extended to officers posted in Jammu and Kashmir on the pattern of northeast States. Singh said, in view of home LTC, it can be availed to visit J-K and Ladakh for which guidelines have been notified by DoP&T and this will enhance tourism to Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh and also provide an opportunity to all central government employees to visit J-K and Ladakh. Apart from the above measures, Singh said, three National Conferences on Good Governance were held in J-K covering hundreds of its employees. He said, best practices from Jammu and Kashmir and all over the country were showcased and about 800 J-K government officers were trained on effective handling of public grievances. The Minister also informed that the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) in the Ministry of Personnel had helped the J-K government to switch over to online functioning, as a result of which the UT exchequer would save over Rs 200 cr incurred in the transport of records etc during Durbar move. He informed that the District Good Governance Index was launched from J-K for bringing about healthy competition between districts to achieve the goal of saturation of citizen services and improving developmental activities in districts. Moreover, four policy papers related to good governance were sponsored by J-K encouraging new models for development in the challenging scenario of Jammu and Kashmir. The Minister further said that the government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi gives high priority to J-K and there is no dearth of support forthcoming, as far as the Centre is concerned. (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, Sep 9 (PTI) Delhi University's Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College has released only a part of the salary of its permanent teaching staff in July due to "paucity of funds", drawing a sharp reaction from the college's governing body. According to the notice it issued, the assistant professors at the college have suffered a pay cut of Rs 30,000 while associate professors and professors have received 50,000 less in their net salaries. Also Read | Supreme Court Grants Bail to Journalist Siddique Kappan, Says 'Every Person Has Freedom of Expression'. DDU is among the 12 DU colleges fully funded by the Delhi government. "This is for information of all permanent teaching staff that due to paucity of funds, Rs 30,000 has been retained from Net Salary of Assistant Professors and Rs 50,000 from Net Salary of Associate Professors/Professors for the month of July, 2022," the notice signed by officiating principal Hem Chand Jain read. Also Read | India, China to Complete Disengagement in Gogra-Hotsprings in Eastern Ladakh by September 12, Says MEA. "The same will be released as and when the funds are available," it read. Jain refused to comment on the matter when contacted by PTI. The college said that it will as of now have a five-day week because the government is not releasing money to pay the electricity bills. Meanwhile, the governing body chairman Sunil Kumar has written to Jain asking for an explanation, claiming that the required amount was released under salary head' by the department of higher education. "When the required amount was released under salary head by the DHE, It is learnt that employees of college have been paid their salary for July after retaining Rs 50000/- of associate professor/professor and Rs 30000/- of assistant professor. "Please clarify with whose permission you deduct this amount," Kumar wrote to Jain. He asked Jain to use the Rs 25 crore amount "lying with banks" in the form of fixed deposits to distribute teachers' salaries. (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], September 9 (ANI): Following the death of well-known industrialist and former Tata Sons chairman Mistry died in a road accident near Mumbai on Sunday evening, Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA), the apex national body of Automobile Retail in India on Friday said that dealers will run a safety campaign across the country. Talking to ANI, FADA President, Manish Raj Singhania said that we are saddened by the death of Mistry. Also Read | Uttar Pradesh: 17 Children, 2 Teachers Fall Ill As Foul Smell Comes From Gaushala in Gautam Budh Nagar. "FADA has decided to start a safety campaign buckle up safety for the customers. We are chalking out the plan and will soon announce the campaign which will run across the country. FADA is the apex national body of automobile retail industry in India engaged in the sale, service and spares of 2/3 Wheelers, Passenger Cars, UVs, Commercial Vehicles and Tractors." he said. FADA India represents over 15,000 automobile dealers having 26,500 dealerships including multiple Associations of Automobile Dealers at the Regional, State and City levels representing the entire Auto Retail Industry. Also Read | Queen Elizabeth II Visited India Thrice; Got Rousing Reception at Delhis Ramlila Maidan in 1961, Inaugurated AIIMS Buildings. FADA on Friday announced the Dealer Satisfaction Study 2022 results which were undertaken in association with Premon Asia, a consumer-insight-led consulting and advisory firm based out of Singapore. According to the study Kia in 4W Mass, Volvo in 4W Luxury, HMSI in 2-Wheeler and VECV in Commercial Vehicles hold Pole positions. "Three winners from last year have maintained their leadership positions in their respective segments. While their performance is commendable, some of the most improved OEMs also deserve a mention," Singhania said. Hyundai Motors India improved its performance by 119 points to end at number 2 in the 4Wheeler Passenger Mass segment. Royal Enfield jumped several notches to bag the third spot in the 2-Wheeler Mass market segment, improving by 151 points over its last year's performance. All the players in the CV segment have improved and VECV while maintaining its top slot has improved by 163 points over its last year's performance, the highest by an individual OEM across the industry. "Commenting on the study, Sinhghania said, "FADA's Dealer Satisfaction Study 2022 continues to examine the health of the relationship between Auto Dealers and their OEMs post the covid era. The overall improvements seen across all value chains demonstrate the significance of conducting this annual study in identifying and addressing relevant issues that are critical to strengthening the partnership between the two stakeholders. While we welcome the efforts shown by OEMs in improving key issues related to sales, delivery and after-sales, dealers continue to expect higher transparency in matters related to dealership viability and a fair and balanced business policy," he further said. FADA Vice President and Chairman DSS-22, C S Vigneshwar said, "I am ecstatic to say that FADA's DSS'22 continued to get more than 2,000 responses. This shows the trust which the Dealers have in this study in terms of raising their concerns which can then be addressed by their OEMs in a logical manner. While product reliability and durability coupled with efficient training programmes for sales and service teams remained the strengths cutting across all segments, involvement of dealers in OEM's policy making and openness to direct inputs along with overall dealership viability remained the biggest areas to be worked upon." PremonAsia Founder and CEO, Mr Rajeev Lochan said, "As post-COVID business normalization sets in, dealers are showing a shift in expectations with aspects related to sales and delivery and after-sales assuming greater importance than 2021. While the improvements made by OEMs in these factors are encouraging, the expectations on Dealer's business viability and the role of regional sales and service teams in representing Dealer's voice back to the head office will be vital in the foreseeable future." (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) South Africa: President Cyril Ramaphosa sends condolences to the British Royal Family President Cyril Ramaphosa has on behalf of the Government and the people of South Africa sent sincere condolences to His Majesty, King Charles III, on the passing of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Queen Elizabeth II passed away on Thursday at the age of 96 and was the longest-reigning monarch in the United Kingdom. "Her Majesty was an extraordinary and world-renowned public figure who lived a remarkable life. Her life and legacy will be fondly remembered by many around the world. The Queens commitment and dedication during her 70 years on the throne remains a noble and virtuous example to the entire world," President Ramaphosa said. President Ramaphosa met Queen Elizabeth II at the last Commonwealth meeting which was held in London in 2018 where they spent some time looking at letters that Former President Mandela sent to the Queen, reminiscing about the great stateman that Her Majesty respected enormously. South Africas thoughts and prayers are with The Royal Family, the Government and people of the United Kingdom as they mourn their immense loss, President Ramaphosa said. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2022-09-09. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Xi extends congratulations on DPRK's 74th founding anniversary Xinhua) 13:21, September 09, 2022 BEIJING, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday sent a message of congratulations to Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on the 74th anniversary of the DPRK's founding. Xi pointed out that over the past 74 years, the people of the DPRK have closely united around the WPK and forged ahead, having made important achievements in promoting socialist construction. He also said that in recent years, guided by the principles and policies set at the eighth WPK Congress, the DPRK people have constantly scored new outcomes in developing the economy and improving people's livelihood, and fought a successful battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, about which China, as a good comrade, good neighbor and good friend of the DPRK, is sincerely happy. It is believed that under the leadership of Comrade General Secretary Kim and the WPK, the brotherly DPRK people will surely advance the socialist cause of the country for new development and lift it to a new level, Xi added. Xi pointed out that China and the DPRK, linked by mountains and rivers, have enjoyed a traditional friendship that grows stronger with time. Xi said he has reached a series of important consensuses with Comrade General Secretary on drawing a blueprint for the development of relations between the two parties and states, as well as enriching the China-DPRK friendship. The friendship between China and the DPRK has become more deeply rooted in the hearts of the two people, he said, adding that the exchanges and cooperation between the two countries have continued to advance, and the two sides have supported each other on issues of major concern, demonstrating the vitality of the traditional friendship between China and the DPRK. Xi stressed that the world has entered a new period of turbulence and transformation as profound changes unseen in a century are evolving rapidly. He said China is willing to maintain strategic communication with the DPRK, strengthen coordination and cooperation, jointly safeguard, consolidate and develop China-DPRK relations so as to better benefit the two countries and their people, and contribute to peace, stability, development and prosperity in the region and the wider world. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) Itanagar, Sep 9 (PTI) Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Friday said that indigenous festivals are a great medium for tribal communities to connect with their roots. Khandu, while gracing the Solung festival of Adi community at Ruksin in East Siang district, asserted that modernisation and development of a place was inevitable but that should never come at the cost of its people's cultural identity. Also Read | India, China to Complete Disengagement in Gogra-Hotsprings in Eastern Ladakh by September 12, Says MEA. "Indigenous festivals are not just occasions to showcase our rich cultural heritage but an opportunity to strengthen our connection with our roots," he said. Maintaining that tribal practices in many countries across the globe have shrunk, with some displayed only to cater to tourist interests, the chief minister expressed happiness that indigenous culture and heritage continue to thrive in Arunachal. Also Read | Karnataka Shocker: Class 2 Student Suffers 40 Percent Burn After Teacher Throws Hot Water on Him for Defecating in Uniform. "What is encouraging is that our youths today are taking pride in their culture, voluntarily participating in festivals like Solung and speaking in mother tongue. Our identity is in safe hands," he stated He lauded the Adi community for leading from the front when it came to preserving indigenous culture, while embracing development on all fronts. Khandu, during the celebrations, also asked people to get together and end social evils such as drug abuse, as "it could pose a threat to the future of all youth". Talking about his government's initiatives, the chief minister said that Pasighat area, headquarters of East Siang district, has witnessed unprecedented development in recent years. "The Pasighat airport is now functional. Come winter, work on railway line in Pasighat will also commence. The rich and organic horticulture and agriculture produces, which is available aplenty in the region, can be transported to markets across the country and beyond in the near future," he pointed out. He also said that aerodrome license has been granted for Donyi Polo Airport in Itanagar. Khandu gave assurances that his government was committed to ensuring welfare of each community. "Arunachal is a diverse state with its people belonging to various tribal communities. The development of the state largely depends on their progress. The contribution of each community in policy decisions is important for pan Arunachal development," he said. The chief minister announced that his government would sanction funds for construction of a mini-secretariat at Ruksin. Earlier in the day, Khandu inaugurated the 60 m RCC (Reinforced Cement Concrete) bridge over Sille river on Mirem-Mikong-Jonai road. Lok Sabha MP from the state Tapir Gao inaugurated another bridge over Ngorlung river on Mirem-Mikong- Ruksin road. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], September 9 (ANI): Mumbai Police have deployed adequate personnel for the idol immersion on the conclusion of Ganesh Chaturthi on Friday. According to Vishwas Nangre Patil, Joint CP (L&O), Mumbai Police, the traffic will be monitored and there has been a preparation to maintain the law and order. Also Read | Teamology PR: Best PR Agency in Delhi. "Adequate force deployed in view of Ganesh idol immersion tomorrow. We're prepared and have the necessary gear required for law and order. Traffic to be monitored. The crowd will be huge, we'll ensure the safety of children, women and elderly," the police official said. Meanwhile, The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has made artificial ponds for the immersion of Ganesh idols in Mumbai. Also Read | Queen Elizabeth II Dies: Rahul Gandhi Offers Condolences, Says 'She Served Her Country With Utmost Commitment and Dignity'. This comes after BMC asked the citizens to immerse Ganesha idols made of Plaster of Paris (PoP) in artificial lakes or ponds to encourage people to reduce pollution. According to the civic body, 162 artificial ponds and 73 natural immersion sites are available for immersion. Speaking to ANI, Assistant Municipal Commissioner Ramakant Biradar said, "162 artificial ponds and 73 natural immersion sites are there. Lifeguards deployed. All necessary arrangements have been made." Ganesh Chaturthi is a ten-day long festival which began on August 31 and will end on September 9 with Visarjan. This festival marks the birth of Lord Ganesha. Devotees from all over the country thronged Mumbai's Lalbaugcha Raja after a two-year gap of COVID. Ganesh Chathurthi or Ganpati Utsav, which starts on the fourth day of the Hindu lunisolar calendar month of Bhadrapada, is celebrated with much fanfare in Maharashtra and other parts of western and southern India with lakhs of devotees converging into pandals to seek blessing from Lord Ganesh. It is one of the most popular Hindu festivals. It is believed that during this time Lord Ganesha arrives on earth with his mother, Goddess Parvati, and showers his blessings on the people. People worship Lord Ganesha in their homes, temples and pandals. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Shillong (Meghalaya) [India], September 9 (ANI): Indian Air Force (IAF) Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari on Thursday emphasised the need for critical analysis and measures to enhance operational preparedness. He said this while addressing the Eastern Air Command's Commanders' Conference being held from September 7 to 9. Also Read | Yogi Adityanath-Led Uttar Pradesh Govt Directs Hospitals To Have Signboards, Nameplates in Urdu Also. "In his address to the Commanders, Air Chief Marshal emphasised the need for critical analysis and measures to enhance Operational preparedness," Indian Air Force (IAF) said in a statement. He apprised the Commanders of the current security scenario, geopolitical situation and the role of IAF in dealing with various contingencies," IAF said. Also Read | YouTube To Make Educational Content More Accessible and Interactive for Learners. Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari highlighted the need for maintaining high operational readiness round the clock and retaining focus on capability enhancement. The Chief of the Air Staff also awarded trophies to Stations for achieving excellence in the fields of Operations, Maintenance and Administration. Chief Marshal Chaudhari was received by Eastern Air Command's Commanding in Chief Air Marshal D K Patnaik on his arrival in Shillong. He is on a three-day visit to the Eastern Air Command (EAC) headquarters at Shillong for the annual EAC Commanders' Conference. "Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari, Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) visited Headquarters Eastern Air Command (EAC) at Shillong from 07 to 09 September 2022 for the annual EAC Commanders' Conference," IAF said. Earlier on Wednesday, the Air Chief Marshal had called on Assam Governor Jagdish Mukhi and Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. "Delighted to interact with Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari. Discussed various issues related to national security, especially in NE. Extended my gratitude on behalf of the people of Assam towards IAF for selflessly serving the country," the Chief Minister said in a tweet. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Lucknow, Sep 9 (PTI) Kerala-based journalist Siddique Kappan will be released from the Lucknow jail next week, an official said on Friday, hours after he was granted bail by the Supreme Court. "Siddique Kappan is lodged in the Lucknow jail for the past a few months. He will be released from the jail once his bail order is submitted here and a release order is issued as per the Supreme Court's order," said Santosh Kumar Verma, a Public Relations Officer (PRO) at the office of the DGP (Prison). Also Read | Gujarat Shocker: Uncle, In Illicit Relationship with 20-Year-Old Niece, Chops Off Her Head on Suspicion in Dahod. Kappan was arrested in October 2020 while on his way to Uttar Pradesh's Hathras where a Dalit woman had died after being allegedly raped. He was arrested by the Mathura police for having links with the Popular Front of India and being a part of "conspiracy" to instigate violence. Later, he was shifted to the Lucknow jail. Also Read | 7th Pay Commission News: Punjab Govt Nod to Implement Pay Panel Recommendations for University, College Teachers. Observing that every person has a right to free expression, the Supreme Court on Friday granted him bail. "Till now you have not shown anything provocative," a bench headed by Chief Justice UU Lalit and also comprising Justices S Ravindra Bhat and P S Narasimha told the UP government. The court also took note of the submissions of the UP government and laid down several conditions for bail, including that he will have to remain in Delhi for the next six weeks after release and report to the Nizamuddin police station in Delhi on Monday every week. (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], September 9 (ANI): At a rally in Hyderabad on Friday, a man tried to confront Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma by dismantling the mic installed on the stage. However, the people on the stage quickly overpowered the man. Also Read | Uttar Pradesh: 17 Children, 2 Teachers Fall Ill As Foul Smell Comes From Gaushala in Gautam Budh Nagar. Sarma is on a visit to Hyderabad to participate in various programmes including Ganesh Immersion Shobhayatra. Earlier on Friday, the Assam CM paid a visit to the Mahalaxmi temple in the city. Also Read | Queen Elizabeth II Visited India Thrice; Got Rousing Reception at Delhis Ramlila Maidan in 1961, Inaugurated AIIMS Buildings. Meanwhile, Sarma hit out at Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao and said the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief has only been involved in the dynasty politics. "Chief Minister KCR speaks about BJP-free politics but we speak about dynasty-free politics. We still see pictures of his son and daughter in Hyderabad. Country's politics should be free from dynastic politics," Sarma told ANI. "A government should be for the country, for the people, but never for a family. The country has a liberal front and an orthodox one and polarisation between the two has always existed," he added. The Bhagyanagar Ganesh Utsav Samiti has invited Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Udupi seer Pejawar Swamy Dharmadhikari to visit Hyderabad for the Ganesh Immersion Shobhayatra. Earlier, the Bhagyanagar Ganesh Utsav Samithi on Tuesday staged a bike rally in Tankbund in Secunderabad as a mark of protest against the Telangana government for preventing the immersion of Ganesh idols on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi. Ganesh Chaturthi celebrates the birth of Lord Ganesha. It is one of the most popular Hindu festivals. It is celebrated for 10 days and it is believed that during this time Lord Ganesha arrives on earth with his mother, Goddess Parvati, and showers his blessings on the people. People worship Lord Ganesha in their homes, temples and pandals. (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], September 9 (ANI): Extending support to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's demolition of three madrasas in the state, Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Thursday said that the BJP is not against the legal madrasas but only the illegal ones. Singh said that he would have taken the same action if he had been the chief minister of Assam. Also Read | Teamology PR: Best PR Agency in Delhi. Speaking to ANI, he said, "What the Chief Minister is doing in Assam in connection with the madrassa is right. Those who have to approach the courts can do it, it is a democracy. But he is doing the right thing. If I had been at Himanta Biswa Sarma's place as a chief minister, I would have taken the same action." Standing in support of Sarma who was criticised by Congress for his action against the madrasas which the Assam CM alleged were the offices of Al-Qaeda, Singh said that Sarma understands the political demography of the state and is working accordingly. Also Read | Queen Elizabeth II Dies: Rahul Gandhi Offers Condolences, Says 'She Served Her Country With Utmost Commitment and Dignity'. "Sarma is an experienced politician who is connected to the grassroots. He understands the political demography there. He is working according to that only. We have instructed earlier to the madrassas in Manipur to impart a general education," he said. The Manipur CM said that there is a need to crack down on those indulging in "unconstitutional activities". "Unrecognized and unauthorized Madrasas need to be recognized. An undue advantage of India's democracy was taken. The BJP governments are not against the legal madrassas but are against the illegal ones. There is a need to crackdown on those who do unconstitutional activities," he said. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday said all demolished madrasas were not madrasas but Al-Qaeda offices. Speaking to mediapersons here, Sarma said, "All demolished madrasas were not madrasas but Al Qaeda offices. We demolished 2-3 and now the public is coming to demolish others. The Muslim community is coming to demolish, saying that they do not want a madrasa where the work of Al-Qaeda is done. That changes madrasa's character." The Chief Minister's statement came after local residents of Pakhuria Char in Assam's Goalpara district demolished a madrasa on Tuesday after a cleric associated with it was held for alleged anti-national activities. "Locals took the initiative to demolish a madrassa. The government was not involved in it. They were surprised that the jihadi who was arrested was a teacher in the madrassa. People have given a strong message that they do not support jihadi activities," Goalpara Superintendent of Police VV Rakesh Reddy told ANI. "Today, the locals of Darogar Alga, Pakhiura Char in Goalpara district voluntarily demolished the madrassa & the residence adjacent to the madrassa which was previously used by two suspected Bangladeshi nationals as a strong resentment towards the Jihadi activities," said the Assam Police CPRO. In the last few weeks, four madrasas have been demolished, with the first three being pulled down by government authorities. Earlier on August 4, the government authorities demolished Madrasa Jamiul Huda Madrasa at Moirabari in Morigaon district. Notably, on 30 August, the Uttar Pradesh government had asked the DMs of all the districts to conduct a survey of unrecognized madrassas and inform the government about it. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Bhopal, Sep 9 (PTI) More than 1,000 dogs have been given anti-rabies vaccine doses around Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, where cheetahs are being brought from Africa next week as part of India's ambitious project to reintroduce these fastest land animals, an official said. Also Read | Facebook Alert Saves Life of NEET Aspirant Who Consumed Poison in UP. The move is aimed at protecting the cheetahs from rabies, he said. Also Read | Yogi Adityanath-Led Uttar Pradesh Govt Directs Hospitals To Have Signboards, Nameplates in Urdu Also. Eight cheetahs - five males and three females - are expected to reach KNP from Namibia on August 17. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the cheetah reintroduction programme on that day, which is also the PM's birthday, MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had said earlier this week. "More than 1,000 stray and domestic dogs in villages located in the five km periphery of KNP have been given anti-rabies shots in an attempt to ensure that the wild animals, including cheetahs, stay safe in the sanctuary," KNP's Divisional Forest Officer P K Verma told PTI. He, however, denied that the dogs are being vaccinated because cheetahs may prey on them. The forest official admitted that this was the first time that the park officials went on a massive anti-rabies vaccination drive. "Usually, a leopard kills an animal and after devouring a portion of the carcass it leaves the remaining part only to return to eat the leftovers later after feeling hungry. In the mean time, if a rabid dog eats that leopard prey's leftover, the big cat is bound to catch rabies and spread it among other wild animals in the forest," Verma said. Notably, in September 2013, a rabid dog had bitten the tail of a three-year-old tiger in Panna Tiger Reserve (PTR) in the state. The tiger coded P-212 was later given an anti-rabies injection by the forest department to save the wild animals, especially the big cats. "In case a rabid canine bites cattle around the jungle and if it is preyed on by any of the cheetahs that are coming to the park, these animals can get infected. And this may cause infection among other cheetahs," he said. Verma said that the drive to give anti-rabies vaccine to dogs which started in April is almost over. "We have vaccinated the dogs against other diseases too," he added. The practice of giving injections to the cattle around the park for a long time he said, adding that for the first time they have focused on dogs in order to protect cheetahs. India has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Namibia for importing cheetahs. Some cheetahs are also proposed to be brought from South Africa. But that country's president has not signed an MoU signaling that that country might be having some issues, official sources said. The last cheetah died in the country in 1947 in the Korea district in present day Chhattisgarh, which was earlier part of Madhya Pradesh, and the species was declared extinct in 1952. The 'African Cheetah Introduction Project in India' was conceived in 2009 and a plan to introduce the big cat by November last year in KNP suffered a setback due to the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said. The KNP has a good prey base for cheetahs. Experts from the Wildlife Institute of India have also seconded the area, an official said. Madhya Pradesh had a good translocation record as tigers were successfully reintroduced in Panna in 2009, he said. Ajay Dubey, wildlife expert and founder of Prayat, said, "Cheetahs have become extinct due to widespread poaching. The last three cheetahs were killed by the King of Korea in the forests that are now the area of Ghasidas National Park." (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Bhopal, Sep 9 (PTI) The COVID-19 tally in Madhya Pradesh reached 10,53,825 on Friday after the detection of 47 cases, a health official said. Also Read | Income Tax Raids Was Undertaken Without Giving Reason, Says Oxfam India. The death toll remained unchanged at 10,770, while the positivity rate stood at 0.7 per cent, he added. Also Read | Stray Dog Menace: Balance Has to Be Maintained Between Safety of People and Animal Rights, Says Supreme Court. The recovery count increased by 36 to touch 10,42,785, leaving the state with 270 active cases, the official said. With 6,259 samples examined during the day, the number of coronavirus tests in MP went up to 2,99,52,408, he added. A government release said 13,04,16,660 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered so far in the state, including 22,676 on Friday. Coronavirus figures in MP are as follows: Total cases 10,53,825, new cases 47, death toll 10,770, recoveries 10,42,785, active cases 270 number of tests so far 2,99,52,408. (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], September 9 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Friday told the Kerala government that a solution must be found to address the stray dog issue menace and balance the same with animal rights. A Bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and JK Maheshwari suggested to let who feed street dogs could be made responsible for vaccinating them and bearing costs if somebody is attacked by the animal. He suggested putting chips to track the stray dogs. Also Read | Income Tax Raids Was Undertaken Without Giving Reason, Says Oxfam India. Justice Khanna said, "Most of us are dog lovers. I also feed dogs... Have to find a rational way out. I also walk dogs. Some are ferocious. Have to segregate those." Senior advocate V Giri, appearing for the Kerala government, argued that the situation was very grave and requested allowing the destruction of dangerous dogs as per the Municipal and Panchayat laws. Also Read | Amit Shah Presents Parliamentary Committees Report on Official Language to President Droupadi Murmu. The top court was hearing a petition filed by the Animal Welfare Board of India, challenging a 2006 judgment of the Kerala High Court which empowered local self-government institutions to kill stray dogs. The petition was filed in the apex court after the Kerala government in 2015 had decided to eliminate stray dogs after a spate of dog attacks on people. (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], September 9 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Friday issued a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government on a plea of a 17-year-old boy who sought permission to donate a part of his liver to his father. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India UU Lalit has sought a response from the Uttar Pradesh government's health department on the plea and asked its Registry to communicate the court's order to State's standing counsel and Health Secretary, Lucknow. Also Read | #TamilNadu Chief Minister, #MKStalin Has Sent a Letter to Union Minister of Latest Tweet by IANS India. According to the plea, the boy's father is in critical condition and needed his liver transplanted, for which he sought permission from the top court. The apex court in its order has asked the state's health department to remain present before it on Monday, September 12. Also Read | Centre Targets To Reduce Road Accidents, Deaths by 50% by 2024. It has also asked to conduct preliminary tests of the minor to see if the donation can be done. The Indian law allows for living organ donation by minors in India under exceptional circumstances only. The Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Rules 2014 states that living organ or tissue donation by minors shall not be permitted apart from 'exceptional grounds' to be recorded in detail with justifications and prior approval of the appropriate authority and the State government concerned. (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, September 9: The Supreme Court on Friday posted for hearing, before a three-judge bench, the pleas challenging the Constitutional validity of certain sections of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act 1991. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India UU Lalit also asked the Centre to file its response to the pleas within two weeks. It noted that the Central government has not yet filed any response to the pleas in which the notice was issued last year. Supreme Court Asks Petitioners Challenging Provisions of Places of Worship Act To File Intervention Application. It also allowed applicants to intervene in the main pleas challenging the Places of Worship Act and can file written submissions for not more than five pages. It also issued notice to the Centre on some pleas and intervention applications filed on the matter. Posting the matter for hearing on October 11, it said that in the meantime all parties are directed to complete pleadings. Earlier, the apex court had granted liberty to petitioners, challenging the Act, to file an intervention application in already pending pleas on the same issue. The plea challenged the Places of Worship Act saying that the Act takes away the rights of Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs to restore their 'places of worship and pilgrimages' destroyed by the invaders. The daughter of Kashi Royal Family, Maharaja Kumari Krishna Priya; BJP leader Subramanian Swamy; Chintamani Malviya, former Member of Parliament; Anil Kabotra, a retired army officer; advocate Chandra Shekhar; Rudra Vikram Singh, resident of Varanasi; Swami Jeetendranand Saraswati, a religious leader; Devkinandan Thakur, resident of Mathura and a religious guru among others have filed the pleas in the apex court against the 1991 Act. The apex court had issued notices to the Centre on the plea of advocate Ashwini Upadhyay and one other plea challenging the Act. Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind also filed a plea in the top court challenging the petitions filed by a Hindu petitioner saying that entertaining the pleas against the Act will open floodgates of the litigations against countless mosques across India. One of the pleas stated, "The Act excludes the birthplace of Lord Rama but includes the birthplace of Lord Krishna, though both are the incarnation of Lord Vishnu, the creator and equally worshipped all over the world." The pleas further stated that the Act blatantly offends the right of Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs to restore, manage, maintain and administer the places of worship and pilgrimage guaranteed under Article 26 of the Indian Constitution. The pleas filed have challenged the constitutional validity of Sections 2, 3, and 4 of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act 1991, which it said offends Articles 14, 15, 21, 25, 26, 29 and violates the principles of secularism and the rule of law, which is an integral part of the Preamble and the basic structure of the Constitution. The pleas said that the Act violates the principles of secularism and Sections 2, 3, and 4 of the Act and has taken away the Right To Approach the Court and thus Right To Judicial Remedy has been closed. Section 3 of the Act bars the conversion of places of worship. It states, "No person shall convert any place of worship of any religious denomination or any section thereof into a place of worship of a different section of the same religious denomination or of a different religious denomination or any section thereof." Section 4 bars filing any suit or initiating any other legal proceeding for a conversion of the religious character of any place of worship, as existing on August 15, 1947. The Places of Worship Act 1991 is void and unconstitutional for many reasons, the plea said, adding that it offends the right of Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs to pray, profess, practice and prorogate religion (Article 25), the petitions said. The Act infringes on the rights of Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs to manage maintain and administer the places of worship and pilgrimage (Article 26), the pleas added. The Act deprives Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs of owning religious properties belonging to the deity (misappropriated by other communities). It also takes away the right of judicial remedy of Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs to take back their places of worship and pilgrimage and the property which belonged to deity, stated the pleas. The Act further deprives Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs to take back their places of worship and pilgrimage connected with cultural heritage (Article 29) and it also restricts them to restore the possession of places of worship and pilgrimage but allows Muslims to claim under Section 107, Waqf Act, the pleas added. "The Act legalizes the barbarian acts of invaders. It violates the doctrine of Hindu law that the 'Temple property is never lost even if enjoyed by strangers for years' and even the king cannot take away property as the deity is the embodiment of God and is juristic person, represents 'Infinite the timeless' and cannot be confined by the shackles of time," one of the petitions stated. "It is respectfully submitted that the Central Government by making impugned provision (Places of Worship Act 1991) in the year of 1991 has created arbitrary irrational retrospective cutoff date, declared that character of places of worship and pilgrimage shall be maintained as it was on August 15, 1947, and no suit or proceeding shall lie in the court in respect of the dispute against encroachment done by barbaric fundamentalist invaders and such proceeding shall stand abated," the PILs stated. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Mumbai, Sep 9 (PTI) Benchmark indices began the trade on a firm note on Friday, extending their previous day gain, amid foreign fund inflows and a positive trend in global markets. The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 431.58 points to 60,119.80 in early trade. On similar lines, the broader NSE Nifty went higher by 127.2 points to 17,925.95. Also Read | @DrSJaishankar @kishida230 @rajnathsingh India-Japan Partnership Will Have a Defining Role Latest Tweet by Prasar Bharati News Services. From the Sensex pack of firms, IndusInd Bank, State Bank of India, Tata Steel, Hindustan Unilever, NTPC, Infosys, Dr Reddy's, Sun Pharma and ICICI Bank emerged as the biggest gainers. Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finserv, Nestle India and Bajaj Finance were among the laggards. Also Read | Yogi Adityanath-Led Uttar Pradesh Govt Directs Hospitals To Have Signboards, Nameplates in Urdu Also. Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong were trading in the green in mid-session deals. The US markets had ended higher on Thursday. On Thursday, the BSE benchmark climbed 659.31 points or 1.12 per cent to settle at 59,688.22. The Nifty advanced 174.35 points or 0.99 per cent to 17,798.75. Meanwhile, the international oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.26 per cent to USD 89.38 per barrel. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers as they bought shares worth Rs 2,913.09 crore on Thursday, as per exchange data. Local equity benchmark indices opened firm in tandem with the buoyancy seen in the Asian pack and overnight surge in the US markets," said Prashanth Tapse - Research Analyst, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd. "Positive catalysts such as plunging oil prices and easing US dollar index are likely to help maintain optimism," Tapse said. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Kanyakumari, September 9: Congress on Friday began its third day of the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra', led by party MP Rahul Gandhi in Nagercoil city of Kanyakumari district in Tamil Nadu. The third day of Yatra began from Scott Christian College in Nagercoil to Azhagiyamandapam Junction in Tamil Nadu. The Congress 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' is being held to combat the divisive politics of the BJP-led Centre, and to awaken the people of the country to the dangers of economic inequalities, social polarisation and political centralisation. Bharat Jodo Yatra: Video of Rahul Gandhi Drinking Coconut Water, Image of KC Venugopal Taking Rest on Bench Goes Viral. A 3,500-km march from Kanyakumari to Kashmir will be undertaken by Rahul Gandhi which will be completed in 150 days and cover as many as 12 states. After reaching Kerala on September 11, the Yatra will traverse through the state for the next 18 days, reaching Karnataka on September 30. It will be in Karnataka for 21 days before moving north. Meanwhile, Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Thursday took a swipe at Congress over the ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra and said that their motive of "unification of India" would have been believed in if the party had abrogated Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir. Speaking to ANI, Singh said, "Congress which broke India is conducting Bharat Jodo Yatra. If they had removed Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir, the people would have believed that they want to unite India. But it was abrogated by the BJP." "Congress broke India, BJP is unifying it. The people of India know about everything," added. However, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi said that the tricolour belongs to every religion, state and language, but it is under attack today by the BJP and the RSS that are dividing India on lines of religion and language. Speaking at the launch of the Bharat Jodo Yatra at a rally on September 7, he said every single institution of the country is under attack as he sought the support of the people to help keep the country united. "They (BJP) think they can frighten the opposition using CBI, ED and IT. The problem is they don't understand Indian people. Indian people don't get scared. Not a single opposition leader is going to be scared of the BJP," said Congress MP Rahul Gandhi. He further highlighted the importance of the Indian tricolour and called out the BJP for allegedly treating it as their personal property. "It gives me great joy to begin BharatJodoYatra from this beautiful place. The national flag represents the religion and language of every single person living in this country. They (BJP and RSS) think that this flag is their personal property," he added. Notably, all the party MPs, leaders and workers along with Rahul Gandhi will stay in the container for the next 150 days. Sleeping beds, toilets and AC are also installed in some of the containers. During the journey, the temperature and environment will differ in many areas. The arrangements have been made keeping in view the intense heat and humidity with the change of places. The 148-day march will culminate in Kashmir. The five-month Yatra is scheduled to cover a distance of 3,500 kilometres and more than 12 states. The Padyatra (march) will cover a distance of 25 km every day. The Yatra will include Padayatras, rallies, and public meetings which will be attended by the senior Congress leaders including Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. The Congress suffered a debacle in the assembly polls held earlier this year and the Yatra is seen as an attempt to rally the party rank and file for the upcoming electoral battles. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Hamirpur, September 9: Taking a pot shot at the Congress president Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra, Union Minister Anurag Thakur on Friday said that India is already united under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "Rahul Gandhi is going on Bharat Jodo yatra nowadays. But India is already united under the leadership of PM Modi," Anurag Thakur said at the inauguration event of various development schemes in Himachal Pradesh's Hamirpur. Bharat Jodo Yatra Attempt To Undo Damage Done by BJP and RSS, Says Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi. "There is not even a Rs 1 scam allegation on Modi government. The double-engine (BJP) government in both the Centre and State has worked together to take the state and country forward. We can't let the country get divided and must work with unity to take it forward,' he added. Thakur's remarks came a day after PM Modi blow the poll bugle in the hill state on Thursday. The Congress 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' is being held to combat the divisive politics of the BJP-led Centre, and to awaken the people of the country to the dangers of economic inequalities, social polarisation and political centralisation. A 3,500-km march from Kanyakumari to Kashmir is undertaken by Rahul Gandhi andwill be completed in 150 days and cover as many as 12 states. After reaching Kerala on September 11, the Yatra will traverse through the state for the next 18 days, reaching Karnataka on September 30. It will be in Karnataka for 21 days before moving north. Meanwhile, Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Thursday took a swipe at Congress over the ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra and said that their motive of "unification of India" would have been believed in if the party had abrogated Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir. Taking a dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma on Wednesday said there is no need for 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' and the Wayanad MP can instead work for 'Akhand Bharat'. "From Kashmir to Kanyakumari and Silchar to Saurashtra, India is united. We are one nation. Congress disintegrated India in 1947. If Rahul Gandhi has any regret or apology that his grandfather made a mistake, then there is no use for the Bharat Jodo Yatra in India. Try to integrate Pakistan and Bangladesh (with India) and work for Akhand Bharat," he said. Union Minister Ramdas Athawale said on Wednesday that the Congress leader should undertake a journey to unite his party instead. The Union minister of state for social justice and empowerment said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was doing the work for uniting the nation. "I think that instead of doing the Bharat Jodo Yatra, Rahul Gandhi ji should do a 'Congress Jodo Yatra'. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is working to connect the country. I think Rahul Gandhi is travelling to break the country not to unite the country," Athawale told ANI on Wednesday. However, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi said that the tricolour belongs to every religion, state and language, but it is under attack today by the BJP and the RSS that are dividing India on lines of religion and language. Speaking at the launch of the Bharat Jodo Yatra at a rally on September 7, he said every single institution of the country is under attack as he sought the support of the people to help keep the country united. Notably, all the party MPs, leaders and workers along with Rahul Gandhi will stay in the container for the next 150 days. Sleeping beds, toilets and AC are also installed in some of the containers. During the journey, the temperature and environment will differ in many areas. The arrangements have been made keeping in view the intense heat and humidity with the change of places. The 148-day march will culminate in Kashmir. The five-month Yatra is scheduled to cover a distance of 3,500 kilometres and more than 12 states. The Padyatra (march) will cover a distance of 25 km every day. The Yatra will include Padayatras, rallies, and public meetings which will be attended by the senior Congress leaders including Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. The Congress suffered a debacle in the assembly polls held earlier this year and the Yatra is seen as an attempt to rally the party rank and file for the upcoming electoral battles. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Bareilly, September 9: A 25-year-old man, who allegedly threatened to blow up Bareilly's Jama Masjid and to shoot the cleric of the mosque, was arrested, said police on Friday. The accused has been identified as Mohammad Samad, who is also a resident of the Qila area of Bareilly. Satyarth Anirudh Pankaj, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of Bareilly said a threat letter to shoot Imam (cleric) Mufti Khurshid Alam and to bomb the Jama Masjid in Qila area, was pasted by the accused on the wall of the mosque because the cleric did not allow to play DJ in the Eidmiladunnabi procession. A complaint was filed in connection with the matter at the Qila police Station of Bareilly. Yogi Adityanath-Led Uttar Pradesh Govt Directs Hospitals To Have Signboards, Nameplates in Urdu Also. "A poster was put outside Jama Masjid in Bareilly where a threat to blow up the mosque by a bomb blast was given. A person named Mohd Samad has been arrested. A has been filed and further probe is underway," said SSP, Bareilly, A case has been registered under section 295, 153 A, against the accused and he has been sent to police custody. Further investigation is underway. (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, Sep 9 (PTI) The wealth of a plant protection officer facing graft probe by the CBI had allegedly shot from Rs 23 lakh to more than Rs 2 crore within a span of 18 months resulting in a new FIR against him for amassing disproportionate assets, officials said. The CBI sleuths checked the assets of Padam Singh, a plant protection officer posted at Plant Quarantine station, Visakhapatnam who was booked for allegedly demanding Rs 6,000 in bribe, after receiving inputs that he had received cash deposit and bank transfer of funds in the accounts of his family members and relatives. Also Read | Queen Elizabeth II Visited India Thrice; Got Rousing Reception at Delhis Ramlila Maidan in 1961, Inaugurated AIIMS Buildings. The investigation into his assets allegedly amassed during his posting in Visakhapatnam between December 2020 and July 2022 showed that his wealth had spiralled from Rs 23.29 lakh to Rs 2.12 crore during the period, they said. The assets included cash over Rs 1.86 crore recovered during the searches, plots in Roorkee, gold jewellery worth over Rs 32 lakh, Rs 10 lakh in bank account among others, they said. Also Read | 7th Pay Commission News Today: Double Bonus for Central Employees, Hike in DA and Fitment Factor Likely To Be Announced by September End. After considering his salary and interest which stood at Rs 11.62 lakh and deducting the expenditure incurred by him during the period, the CBI deduced that disproportionate assets amassed by Singh within 18 months stood at over Rs 1.98 crore which comes to 1704 per cent of his known sources of income which he could not satisfactorily account for, the CBI FIR 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, Sep 9 (PTI) The Competition Commission of India has dismissed a complaint filed by JSW Paints, alleging unfair business practices against paint manufacturer Asian Paints with regard to the latter misusing its dominant position and further denying access to the market. In an order dated September 8, the anti-trust regulator said no prima facie case of contravention of the provisions of either section 3 or 4 of the Competition Act is made out against Asian Paints. Also Read | Tata Group in Talks With Wistron To Build Apple iPhones in India: Report. Accordingly, the fair trade regulator disposed of the complaint filed by JSW Paints. JSW Paints had alleged that after they launched their decorative paints segment, Asian Paints began to pressurise and target the dealers who had agreed to stock and display their decorative paints manufactured by the company. Also Read | Motorola Edge 30 Ultra & Motorola Edge 30 Fusion India Launch on September 13, 2022. Further, the complainant had stated that they were planning to launch its products in the south and west India. However, they had been denied access to the market even in these states and faced the same resistance in other regions due to coercive action taken by Asian Paints against the dealers. Thereafter, a probe was ordered by the anti-trust regulator in 2020 after the complaint filed by JSW Paints. Sections 3 and 4 of the Competition Act deal with anti-competitive agreements and abuse of dominant market positions, respectively. In its 45-page order, the commission notes that JSW added 1,591 dealers over FY 2019-20 and FY 2020-21, while Asian Paints added only 1,217 new dealers during the same period. However, the figure of dealers clearly demonstrates that JSW Paints' entry into the market has not been obstructed as they claimed it. Therefore, the regulator dismissed the allegation against Asian Paints in relation to the denial of market access to JSW Paints. There were also allegations by the dealers that they were being targeted not to deal with JSW Paints is not substantiated, as the percentage of dealers who discontinued their relationship with Asian Paints is much higher. Further, none of the dealers gave any credible evidence to substantiate their claims. As regards the allegations of attempts by Asian Paints to pressurise the dealers to return the JSW Paints tinting machine, CCI's DG could not find incriminating evidence from any dealer that could corroborate the allegation against Asian Paints. Also, there were allegations made by some dealers in respect of the reduction of credit limit of the dealers by Asian Paints. However, the regulator noted that the actions made by Asian Paints are stated to be based on objective criteria and uniformly applicable practices to protect its business interest. Therefore, the regulator said that JSW Paints has not been able to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the commission and the allegations that it made against Asian Paints could not be substantiated to form a prima facie view in the matter. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Los Angeles, Sep 9 (AP) Forces were beginning to collide in California as wildfires threatened communities, an epic heat wave stressed the electrical grid and as moisture from a tropical storm was expected to bring thunderstorms and floods along with cooling. Firefighters on Thursday struggled to control major wildfires in Southern California and the Sierra Nevada that have grown explosively, forced extensive evacuations and produced smoke that could interfere with solar power production. Also Read | Queen Elizabeth II Death: Sushmita Sen, Anushka Sharma and Other Bollywood Celebs Mourn Demise of Britain's Longest-Serving Monarch. The Fairview Fire in Southern California covered about 30 square miles (78 square kilometers) of Riverside County and was just 5 per cent contained. Two people died while fleeing flames on Monday and at least seven structures have been destroyed. In the Sierra, the Mosquito Fire burned out of control, scorching at least 11 square miles (28 square kilometers), forcing evacuations for some 2,500 residents in Placer and El Dorado counties, while blanketing the region in smoke. Also Read | Queen Elizabeth II Dies at 96: Prince Charles Succeeds As King of Britain. Flames jumped the American River, burning structures in the mountain hamlet of Volcanoville and moving closer to the town of Foresthill, home to about 1,500 people. Fire spokesperson Chris Vestal called the fast-moving blaze an extreme and critical fire threat. The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection warned the Reno area that air quality could be very unhealthy to hazardous due to smoke from the Mosquito Fire 100 miles (160 kilometer) away. The fire's cause remained under investigation. Pacific Gas & Electric notified the state Public Utilities Commission that the US Forest Service placed caution tape around the base of a PG&E transmission pole but that no damage could be seen. PG&E said unspecified electrical activity occurred close in time to the report of the fire on September 6. Another dangerous blaze burned in stands of timber near the Big Bear Lake resort region in the San Bernardino Mountains east of Los Angeles. It was just 2 per cent contained after scorching nearly 2 square miles (5 square kilometers). A surge of clouds and showers associated with Tropical Storm Kay off Mexico's Baja California peninsula knocked the edge off temperatures in Southern California at times but also were a potential problem for solar generation. The storm was downgraded from a hurricane Thursday evening. Despite the initial impacts of Kay, forecasters warned that the heat was not yet done. The seemingly endless heat wave that has been plaguing California will finally becoming to an end across at least Southern California, but not before two more very hot days and very warm nights, the Los Angeles-area weather office wrote. Operators of California's power grid issued another Flex Alert call for voluntary cuts in use of electricity and expanded the period by two hours, 3 pm to 10 pm. Wildfire smoke and the cloud cover created uncertainty about solar power production in afternoon hours when temperatures rise toward their peaks, said Elliot Mainzer, president and CEO of the California Independent System Operator. There was also uncertainty about wind power at the back end of the period. Cal-ISO has issued Flex Alerts since last week and has avoided ordering rolling power outages, although a miscommunication with one Northern California provider led to blackouts. With record demand on power supplies across the West, California snapped its record energy use around 5 pm. Tuesday with 52,061 megawatts, far above the previous high of 50,270 megawatts set July 24, 2006. An emergency appeal for conservation that was sent to Californians' cellphones was credited with an immediate drop in demand on the electrical grid that evening. Electrical demand hit 50,184 megawatts on Wednesday but it ended up being a relatively quiet operation on the system, Mainzer told a briefing. The electrical load forecast for Thursday afternoon and evening was higher, however, and the uncertainty involving the renewable energy sources made the situation a bit more complex, he said. We certainly think we're close to turning the corner, but we still have challenges ahead of us this evening, Mainzer said. Storm and wind conditions associated with the approaching hurricane were likely to create a new set of risks for power shortages in Southern California, he noted. Tropical Storm Kay was expected to reach northern Baja California on Friday, the National Weather Service said. Despite losing hurricane strength, Kay was expected to send a surge of moisture into Southern California. Strong winds, heavy rain and flash floods were likely Friday evening through Saturday. Tropical storm warnings were posted for mariners. Up the West Coast, forecasters predicted strong, gusting winds and low humidity across western Oregon beginning Friday' and authorities warned of heightened wildfire danger after an unseasonably hot and dry late summer. (AP) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) London, Sep 9 (AP) Flags were flying at half-staff on landmarks in Australia on Friday as people expressed sadness at the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. Australian Governor-General David Hurley and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed condolence books in Canberra. Also Read | Islamabad Police Issue Notice to Former PM Imran Khan for Failing to Appear in Terrorism Case. There is comfort to be found in Her Majesty's own words: Grief is the price we pay for love.' said the Australian prime minister. New Zealanders also mourned the passing of Queen Elizabeth II with tributes around the country on Friday. At the Auckland War Memorial, a group of young people performed the Haka, a ceremonial dance in Maori culture. Flags flew at half-staff around the country. Also Read | Pakistan Flood: Economic Losses in Flood-Hit Nation Touches USD 18 Billion, Say Reports. Under New Zealand's constitutional arrangements, the queen was also New Zealand's monarch and head of state. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said New Zealand had moved into a period of official mourning, and would hold a state memorial service after the official funeral in Britain. KEY DEVELOPMENTS: Prince Charles became king upon his mother's death Will Charles be loved by his subjects, like his mother was? Queen Elizabeth II, a monarch bound by duty, dies at 96 Elizabeth has been the only monarch most people in Britain know A constant in my life': World mourns Queen Elizabeth II Biden is 13th and final US president to meet Queen Elizabeth II ___ OTHER DEVELOPMENTS: Abuja: The death of the British monarch Queen Elizabeth II was frontpage news in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, biggest economy and former British colony. Nigeria's President Mohammodu Buhari offered his condolences and expressed sadness on hearing of the queen's passing, according to his spokesman. That sentiment was echoed by one man, Musa Adamu, at a news stand in the capital Abuja. The civil servant urged the British people to exercise patience and endure the pain, noting that God will bless you all of you now. The flag flew at half-staff outside the British High Commission. On a daily morning TV talk show, presenter Mohammed Jinadu and pundit Linda Claudia discussed the role Queen Elizabeth II played in holding the United Kingdom together. ___ Gibraltar: Gibraltarians were mourning the death of Queen Elizabeth II with several dozen queueing from the early hours of Friday to sign a book of condolences and lay flowers. Gibraltar has lowered the flags of official buildings, entered a period of national mourning and cancelled celebrations on Saturday of its National Day. On Friday morning the governor and Chief Minister also signed the condolences book that the residents had been writing in. Fabian Picardo, the Chief Minister of Gibraltar, a British overseas territory bordering southern Spain, said May Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Second rest in eternal peace. Long live the King. In a statement sent to media and posted online, Picardo also added: The People of Gibraltar will mourn Her Majesty as a monarch who has reigned wisely and with incomparable dedication throughout the period of our post-war emergence as a part of the British family of nations. ___ Belfast: A series of special gun salutes across the United Kingdom fired 96 shots on Friday, one for each year Queen Elizabeth II lived, a near century-long life. Bells also tolled across the nation in honor of Queen Elizabeth II as the nation started 10 days of mourning for its longest-serving monarch. King Charles III, who spent much of his 73 years preparing for the role, planned to meet with the prime minister and address a nation grieving the only British monarch most of the world had known. He takes the throne in an era of uncertainty for both his country and the monarchy itself. ____ Aberdeenshire: People paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at the gates of her Balmoral residence where she died. Despite the rain on Friday, mourners from all walks of life came to lay down flowers or simply say goodbye to the British monarch they loved and respected. I just wanted to say thank you to the Queen, said Christy Asalor. She has been a symbol of strength and stability, she has been so selfless and she's given herself, literally sacrificed her whole life serving us until two days before she passed and the least we could do is just say thank you. Other people said they were feeling a lot of sadness at the passing of the only queen they ever knew. Queen Elizabeth II was the longest reigning British monarch, at 70 years of service. ____ London: U.S. climate envoy and former U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, has paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth, describing her as the calm in the storm and a great stateswoman. In brief comments to The Associated Press in London, Kerry said his thoughts were with the royal family and noted the sense of loss that people were feeling around the world. Kerry also praised what he described as the queen's great sense of direction. Never any any vitriol, never any political commentary, always on values, always on the bigger picture, he 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) London, September 9: After the passing away of Queen Elizabeth on Thursday, King Charles will be officially proclaimed as Britain's new monarch at a meeting of the Accession Council at St James's Palace on Saturday. The 73-year-old King Charles has boarded a plane to London and will be proclaimed at Accession Council tomorrow at 10 am tomorrow in the State Apartments of St James's Palace, said Buckingham Palace. King Charles was by his mother's side at her beloved Scottish Highlands home as her health deteriorated, will return to the capital to hold his first audience with Prime Minister Liz Truss as king, before he addresses the nation on television at 6 pm, reported Sky News. Dressed in a black suit and tie, the grieving King, left Balmoral this afternoon seated in the back of a car, with his wife Camilla, the Queen Consort, in the front passenger seat, as they were driven in convoy to the airport. He stepped out carrying a bundle of papers and stopped to shake hands and spend time chatting to staff in the rain, before leaving on a plane bound for London, reported Sky News. Queen Elizabeth II Death: UK Parliament Holds Special Session to Pay Tribute to Britains Queen. The couple spent the night at Balmoral following the death of the 96-year-old monarch, who he described as a "cherished sovereign and a much-loved mother". Following news that the Queen's health was deteriorating, other senior royals also rushed to be by her side, including the next in line to the throne, Prince William. His brother Prince Harry, was the first to leave the Royal Family's Scottish residence this morning and boarded a British Airways flight from Aberdeen to London after he had travelled to Scotland alone. Prince William did not join his father, as it is a royal protocol that the monarch and heir to the throne do not travel together, reported Sky News. He, Princess Royal, the Earl and Countess of Wessex and Prince Andrew remain in Scotland. Senior royals will have duties to perform in Scotland in the coming days when the Queen's coffin begins its journey back to the capital. King Charles III acceded to the throne immediately following the death of Elizabeth II on Thursday, and described losing his mother as "a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family". During this mourning period, he said he and his family would be "comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which the Queen was so widely held". The new monarch - born Charles Philip Arthur George - became heir to the throne at the age of three, a title he would hold for 70 years. King Charles III To Be Officially Proclaimed As Britains New Monarch on September 10 Following Demise of Queen Elizabeth II: Report. He has been preparing to be King his entire life and has chosen to use his Christian name for his title as monarch, just like his late beloved mother, Queen Elizabeth II. The formal process of proclaiming him King will be carried out by the Accession Council - a group made up of Privy Counsellors, Great Officers of State, the Lord Mayor of London, Realm High Commissioners and senior civil servants. It is split into two parts. The first approves various consequential orders including the arrangements, without the King present. The second involves the King holding his first Privy Council, making his declaration and reading and signing an oath to uphold the security of the Church in Scotland (as unlike in England, Church and State are separate there) and approve orders which facilitate continuity of government. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Los Angeles, Sep 9 (PTI) India has not yet agreed to the commitments of the trade pillar of the 14-member Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) and will wait for further clarity on the issue, a top official said on Friday. Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal attended the first in-person ministerial meeting of the two-day IPEF, which concluded here. Also Read | Who Will Wear the Kohinoor Now? Kohinoor-Studded Crown Will Go to This Royal Family Member After Demise of Queen Elizabeth II. The IPEF was launched jointly by the US and other partner countries of the Indo-Pacific region on May 23 in Tokyo. It seeks to strengthen economic partnership among participating countries with the objective of enhancing resilience, sustainability, inclusiveness, economic growth, fairness and competitiveness in the region. Also Read | Islamabad Police Issue Notice to Former PM Imran Khan for Failing to Appear in Terrorism Case. The 14 members of the IPEF are -- Australia, Brunei, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the US. The framework is structured around four pillars relating to trade, supply chains, clean economy, and fair economy. "India has agreed to the remaining three pillars (supply chains, clean economy, and fair economy). We are not yet clear on the binding commitments of the trade pillar. So we will wait and see what are the commitments set out in further deliberations and we will act accordingly," the official said. India cannot agree on free agriculture trade, but if it is about high standards of export, "we are agreeable. India has stood up to its own interest and we can't be arm-twisted like other smaller countries," the official added. India will act in national interest, the official said, adding India can opt after it is clear about the commitments. Goyal has earlier stated that India will take decisions on different aspects of IPEF based on its national interest. Another official said that all the member countries will focus on tangible outcomes. "Right now, the forum's focus is on policy and rules and not so much on market access. So, we will be keeping track of the discussions at the official level and decide on our next course of action," the official added. Meanwhile speaking at a press briefing, US secretary of commerce Gina Raimondo too said that India is not participating in the trade pillar. She added that the next ministerial meet may happen in the beginning of next year sometime. (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], September 9 (ANI): Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Athar Minallah on Friday criticized the Pakistan government's apathy over missing persons cases and said that the government should resign if subordinate institutions are not under control. During the case hearing earlier today, CJ Minallah stated that "it [missing persons] is a serious issue" as he explained why the PM had been called to the court, reported The Express Tribune. Also Read | Who Will Wear the Kohinoor Now? Kohinoor-Studded Crown Will Go to This Royal Family Member After Demise of Queen Elizabeth II. Earlier in July, the court had given the incumbent government till early September to recover six missing persons, including journalist Mudassar Naro, and present them before the court, warning that in case of non-recovery, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will have to appear in person at the next hearing. "The matter has been pending in court for several months now," he added as he expressed dissatisfaction over the government's inaction on the issue, reported The Express Tribune. Also Read | Islamabad Police Issue Notice to Former PM Imran Khan for Failing to Appear in Terrorism Case. The court said that as the chief executive the responsibility to address enforced disappearances lies with him. Meanwhile, Shehbaz Sharif, who appeared before the court said that he cannot "promise all missing persons will return but will leave no stone unturned." The prime minister said that he had met with the families of the missing persons as he reminisced on one child in particular that had appealed to him to recover his father. Acknowledging the committee formed by PM Sharif and his efforts, the court went on to express deep concern saying "this is not an issue for a committee". The IHC also said that the pain of the affected families had not been taken into account as it observed that no action had been taken even in the case of the recovered individuals, reported The Express Tribune. "No issue is larger than this one before the court," remarked the judge confessing that the Baloch students' issues were "most disturbing" and that enforced disappearances were a matter of going against the constitution. The court also regretted the impression that state agencies were involved in the disappearances. Subsequently, the court adjourned the hearing of the missing persons' cases till November 14. Families and activists have described being harassed, arbitrarily arrested and detained, and subject to violence for simply exercising their right to peaceful protest - a right protected by international human rights law and domestic law. Enforced disappearance is a violation of international human rights law and a crime under international law. It also violates the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution of Pakistan. (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], September 9 (ANI): External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on Friday expressed grief over the passing away of Queen Elizabeth II, saying she guided the United Kingdom into contemporary times. "On the passing away of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, express my deepest condolences to her family and people of the United Kingdom. She guided her nation into contemporary times and will be remembered for her warmth and compassion," Jaishankar tweeted. Also Read | Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky Meets Antony Blinken To Discuss US Assistance for the War-Torn Country. Elizabeth II died at Balmoral castle aged 96, the royal family said in a statement on Thursday. The UK's longest-reigning monarch was placed under medical supervision earlier on Thursday after her condition deteriorated. Her eldest son, Charles III, will officially become the King on Friday. Also Read | Queen Elizabeth II Death: Dalai Lama Mourns Demise of Britain's Longest-Serving Monarch. The Union Jack flag at the British High Commission in New Delhi was flown at half-mast on Friday following the demise of Queen Elizabeth II. "Her Majesty lived a life of service, of constancy which inspired and continues to inspire deep respect and affection. On this sad day I remember what She gave to my country and to so many people around the world," British High Commissioner to Alex Ellis tweeted. The UK lawmakers are expected to swear an oath of loyalty to King Charles III on Saturday, UK newspaper The Independent reported, citing the UK House of Commons authorities. On Thursday, UK media reported that Charles III was expected to be officially named the king of the United Kingdom on Friday. All UK lawmakers will have an opportunity to take the oath after the 10-day mourning period, but it is "not a formal requirement," according to the report. Several leaders globally expressed grief over the passing away of the Queen, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Taking to Twitter, the Prime Minister recalled his memorable meetings with the Queen during his UK visits in 2015 and 2018. "I will never forget her warmth and kindness. During one of the meetings, she showed me the handkerchief Mahatma Gandhi gifted her on her wedding. I will always cherish that gesture," PM Modi tweeted. The Prime Minister said Queen Elizabeth II will be remembered as a stalwart of our times. US President Joe Biden on Friday mourned the death of the longest-serving monarch of the UK, Queen Elizabeth II, saying that "the thoughts and prayers of people all across the United States are with the people of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth in their grief." "We send our deepest condolences to the Royal Family, who are not only mourning their Queen, but their dear mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother," President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden said in a statement. (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 [Nepal], September 9 (ANI): Nepal Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on Friday mourned the demise of the longest reigning Monarch of Britain, Queen Elizabeth II, and said that Nepal has lost a great admirer of the country and its people. Taking to Twitter, the Prime Minister said the Queen is fondly remembered for her two important state visits in 1961 and 1986 and expressed his deepest condolences to the Royal Family. Also Read | Toronto Film Festival 2022 Halted as a Tribute to Queen Elizabeth II. "It is with great sadness I have received the news of her passing away. Queen Elizabeth II distinguished herself with duty, honour and service. The Queen is fondly remembered in Nepal for her two important state visits in 1961 and 1986," Prime Minister Deuba tweeted. Admiring the grace and simplicity of the British Queen, he said the monarch had respect for other cultures and her humanity is what will make her remembered by the people of Nepal. Also Read | Russian Airstrikes Kill 120 Rebels in Syria. The longest-serving monarch of the UK, Queen Elizabeth-II, took her last breath at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on Thursday. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday condoled the death of the British Queen as he hailed her inspiring leadership. Taking to Twitter, the Prime Minister recalled his memorable meetings with the Queen during his UK visits in 2015 and 2018. "I will never forget her warmth and kindness. During one of the meetings, she showed me the handkerchief Mahatma Gandhi gifted her on her wedding. I will always cherish that gesture," PM Modi tweeted. The Prime Minister said Queen Elizabeth II will be remembered as a stalwart of our times. Several world leaders and renowned politicians also mourned the demise of Queen Elizabeth II. UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres offered condolences to the Royal family and said, "I am deeply saddened at the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, admired worldwide for her leadership and devotion. She was a good friend to the UN and a reassuring presence through decades of change. Her unwavering, lifelong dedication will be long remembered." Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also took to Twitter, saying that Canadians will always remember and cherish Queen's wisdom, compassion, and warmth, and her service to Canadians will forever remain an important part of the country's history. Taking to Twitter, French President Emmanuel Macron wrote, "Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II embodied the British nation's continuity and unity for over 70 years. I remember her as a friend of France, a kind-hearted queen who has left a lasting impression on her country and her century." Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky also offered condolences to the Royal family in the tough times whereas Pakistan president Arif Alvi said that the departure of the Queen has created a great void which will be difficult to fill in the coming times. Furthermore, Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe has instructed state institutions to lower the Sri Lanka flag tomorrow to mourn the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Head of the Commonwealth and Queen of Ceylon from 1952-1972. "Deepest condolences to the Royal Family, Government & people of the UK on the passing of HM Queen Elizabeth II Head of the Commonwealth & Queen of Ceylon 1952-72," he said. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Cambridge, Sep 9 (The Conversation) When the late historian Sir Ben Pimlott embarked on his 1996 biography, his colleagues expressed surprise that he should consider Queen Elizabeth II worthy of serious study at all. Yet Pimlott's judgement proved sound and, if few academics have followed his lead, the political role of the monarchy has received thoughtful treatment in the creative arts. Stephen Frears's 2006 film, The Queen, showed her dilemma after the death of Princess Diana; Peter Morgan's stage play The Audience showed the monarch's weekly meetings with her prime ministers. And she has been shown in a generally positive and sympathetic light by both Netflix's acclaimed drama series The Crown and even in Mike Bartlett's speculative play King Charles III, about the difficulty her heir would have in filling her shoes. Also Read | Russian Airstrikes Kill 120 Rebels in Syria. Elizabeth's reign was a delayed result of the abdication crisis of 1936, the defining royal event of the 20th century. Edward VIII's unexpected abdication thrust his shy, stammering younger brother Albert onto the throne as King George VI. Shortly thereafter he was thrust into the role of figurehead for the nation through the second world war. The war was the most important formative experience for his elder daughter, Princess Elizabeth. Her experience as a car mechanic with the ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service the women's army service) meant that she could legitimately claim to have participated in what has been called the people's war. Also Read | Queen Elizabeth II Dies at 96: Operation London Bridge Sets In With Passing Away of the Longest Reigning British Monarch. The experience gave her a more naturally common touch than any of her predecessors had displayed. When, in 1947, she married Philip Mountbatten who became Duke of Edinburgh (and died in April 2021 at the age of 99) her wedding was seized on as an opportunity to brighten a national life still in the grip of post-war austerity and rationing. Elizabeth II inherited a monarchy whose political power had been steadily ebbing away since the 18th century but whose role in the public life of the nation seemed, if anything, to have grown ever more important. Monarchs in the 20th century were expected both to perform ceremonial duties with appropriate gravity and to lighten up enough to share and enjoy the tastes and interests of ordinary people. The Queen's elaborate coronation in 1953 achieved a balance of both these roles. The ancient ceremony could be traced to the monarchy's Saxon origins, while her decision to allow it to be televised brought it into the living rooms of ordinary people with the latest modern technology. Royal ceremonial was henceforth to be democratically visible, ironically becoming much better choreographed and more formal than it had ever been before. The Queen went on to revolutionise public perceptions of the monarchy when, at the urging of Lord Mountbatten and his son-in-law, the television producer Lord Brabourne, she consented to the 1969 BBC film Royal Family. It was a remarkably intimate portrayal of her home life, showing her at breakfast, having a barbecue at Balmoral and popping down to the local shops. Prince Charles's investiture as Prince of Wales the same year, another royal television event, was followed in 1970 by the Queen's decision during a visit to Australia and New Zealand to break with protocol and mix directly with the crowds who had come out to see her. These walkabouts soon became a central part of any royal visit. The highpoint of the Queen's mid-reign popularity came with the 1977 Silver Jubilee celebrations, which saw the country festooned in red, white and blue at VE Day-style street parties. It was followed in 1981 by the enormous popularity of the wedding at St Paul's Cathedral of Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer. Testing times The following decades proved much more testing. Controversy in the early 1990s about the Queen's exemption from income tax forced the Crown to change its financial arrangements so it paid like everyone else. Gossip and scandal surrounding the younger royals turned into divorces for Prince Andrew, Princess Anne and most damagingly of all Prince Charles. The Queen referred to 1992 the height of the scandals as her annus horribilis. The revelations about the misery Princess Diana had endured in her marriage presented the public with a much harder, less sympathetic image of the royal family, which seemed vindicated when the Queen uncharacteristically miscalculated the public mood after Diana's death in 1997. Her instinct was to follow protocol and precedent, staying at Balmoral and keeping her grandchildren with her. This seemed hard and uncaring to a public hungry for open displays of emotion that would have been unthinkable in the Queen's younger days. Where is our Queen? demanded The Sun, while the Daily Express called on her to Show us you care! insisting that she break with protocol and fly the Union Jack at half-mast over Buckingham Palace. Never since the abdication had the popularity of the monarchy sunk so low. Caught briefly on the back foot by this remarkable change in British public behaviour, the Queen soon regained the initiative, addressing the nation on television and bowing her head to Diana's funeral cortege during a cleverly conceived and choreographed televised service. The extent to which she quickly regained public support was shown by the enormous, if unexpected, success of her 2002 Golden Jubilee, which was ushered in by the extraordinary sight of Brian May performing a guitar solo on the roof of Buckingham Palace. By the time London hosted the Olympics in 2012 she was sufficiently confident of her position to agree to appear in a memorable tongue-in-cheek cameo in the opening ceremony, when she appeared to parachute down into the arena from a helicopter in the company of James Bond. Political sphere Queen Elizabeth kept the crown above party politics, but she was always fully engaged with the political world. A firm believer in the Commonwealth, even when her own prime ministers had long lost faith in it, as its head she mediated in disputes between member states and provided support and guidance even to Commonwealth leaders who were strongly opposed to her own UK government. Her prime ministers often paid tribute to her political wisdom and knowledge. These were the result both of her years of experience and of her diligence in reading state papers. Harold Wilson remarked that to attend the weekly audience unprepared was like being caught at school not having done your homework. It was widely believed that she found relations with Margaret Thatcher difficult. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh sometimes objected to the political use to which governments put them. In 1978 they were unhappy to be forced by the then foreign secretary, David Owen, to receive the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife as guests at Buckingham Palace. The Queen could act to very positive effect in international relations, often providing the ceremonial and public affirmation of the work of her ministers. She established a good rapport with a string of American presidents, particularly Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama, and her successful 2011 state visit to the Republic of Ireland, in which she astonished her hosts by addressing them in Gaelic, remains a model of the positive impact a state visit can have. She was even able to put aside her personal feelings about the 1979 murder of Lord Mountbatten to offer a cordial welcome to the former IRA commander Martin McGuinness, when he took office in 2007 as deputy first minister of Northern Ireland. Only very occasionally and briefly did the Queen allow her own political views to surface. On a visit to the London Stock Exchange after the 2008 financial crash she asked sharply why nobody had seen it coming. In 2014, her carefully worded appeal to Scots to think carefully about their vote in the Independence Referendum was widely and clearly rightly interpreted as an intervention on behalf of the Union. And in the run-up to the 2021 UN COP26 conference in Glasgow, from which she had to pull out on medical advice, she was overheard expressing irritation at the lack of political action on the climate change emergency. Final years As she approached her tenth decade, she finally began to slow down, delegating more of her official duties to other members of the royal family even the annual laying of her wreath at the cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday, while in May 2022 she delegated her most important ceremonial duty, the reading of the Speech from the Throne at the State Opening of Parliament, to Prince Charles. She retained her ability to rise to a crisis, however. In 2020, as the COVID pandemic descended, the Queen, in sharp contrast to her prime minister, addressed the nation from lockdown at Windsor in a calm, well-judged message. Her short address combined solidarity with her people with the reassurance that, in a conscious reference to Vera Lynn's wartime hit, We will meet again. The decade also brought sadness. Her grandson, Prince Harry, and his wife Meghan Markle withdrew completely from royal duties, causing deep hurt to the royal family. This hurt was compounded when the Sussexes accused the royal family, in an interview with Oprah Winfrey which was watched around the world, of treating them with cruelty, disdain and even racism. The shock of the interview was followed quickly by the death of Prince Philip, her husband of 73 years, a few months short of his 100th birthday. At his funeral, which was reduced in scale to meet the requirements of COVID regulations, the Queen cut an unusually lonely figure, small, masked and sitting alone. As her health declined in the months following his death, the deep impact of his loss became all too apparent. The pain of the Sussexes' estrangement from the royal family was heavily compounded by the disgrace soon afterwards of Prince Andrew, her second and, it was often suggested, her favourite son. His close involvement with the convicted American paedophile, Jeffrey Epstein, led to the unedifying spectacle of a senior member of the royal family being accused in an American court of underage sex; he made his own position immeasurably worse by agreeing to a disastrous interview on the BBC current affairs programme Newsnight. The Queen responded to the scandal with remarkable decisiveness: she stripped her son of all his royal and military titles, including the cherished HRH, and reduced him, in effect, to the status of a private citizen. Even her closest family were not to be allowed to undermine all she had done to protect and preserve the monarchy. The remarkable success of her 2022 Platinum Jubilee was a sign of just how much she had retained the affections of her people; a particularly well-received highlight was a charming cameo performance showing her having tea with the children's television character, Paddington Bear. Apart from in dreams, in which she was often popularly supposed to appear, the Queen's most regular contact with her subjects was in her annual Christmas message on television and radio. This not only reflected her work and engagements over the previous year, but it reaffirmed, with greater frankness and clarity than many of her ministers seemed able to summon, her deeply held Christian faith. As head of the Church of England she was herself a Christian leader and she never forgot it. The Christmas message adapted over the years to new technology, but it was unchanging in style and content, reflecting the monarchy as she shaped it. Under Elizabeth II, the British monarchy survived by changing its outward appearance without changing its public role. Republican critics of monarchy had long given up demanding its immediate abolition and accepted that the Queen's personal popularity rendered their aim impracticable while she was still alive. Elizabeth II, whose 70-year reign makes her the longest reigning monarch in British history, leaves her successor with a sort of British monarchical republic, in which the proportions of its ingredients of mystique, ceremony, populism and openness have been constantly changed in order to keep it essentially the same. It has long been acknowledged by political leaders and commentators all over the world that the Queen handled her often difficult and delicate constitutional role with grace and remarkable, even formidable, political skill. Her wisdom and unceasing sense of duty meant she was widely viewed with a combination of respect, esteem, awe and affection, which transcended nations, classes and generations. She was immensely proud of Britain and its people, yet in the end she belonged to the world, and the world will mourn her passing. (The Conversation) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) London [UK], September 9 (ANI): The longest-serving monarch of the UK, Queen Elizabeth-II, took her last breath at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on Thursday. Born on April 21, 1926, at 17 Bruton Street in Mayfair, London as Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, Queen was the oldest child of the Duke and Duchess of York - who later became King George VI - and Queen Elizabeth. At that time Princess Elizabeth and her family did not expect that she would one day become the monarch. Also Read | From @reuterspictures: In an Event Punctuated by Wisecracks but Tinged with History and Latest Tweet by Reuters. Then Princess Elizabeth and her only sibling, Princess Margaret, born in 1930 were educated at home under the supervision of their mother and their governess, Marion Crawford. Since childhood, Elizabeth showed a sense of responsibility and orderliness. She loved horses and dogs. The Queen's cousin Margaret Rhodes described her as "a jolly little girl, but fundamentally sensible and well-behaved" for her attitude. Her Royal Highness was expected to live a relatively normal, if privileged, life with her close-knit and loving family. Also Read | Queen Elizabeth II Dies at 96: Prince Charles Succeeds As King of Britain. She was having a perfect life, but everything changed in December 1936 when her uncle - King Edward VIII - abdicated, leaving her father as King, and her as the next in line to the throne. Later, Elizabeth ascended the throne on February 6, 1952, when her father, King George VI died. In 1939, when Britain entered World War II, Elizabeth chose to stay in England and joined the Army rather than sailing away to Canada. She served in the Auxiliary Territorial Service during her training as a driver and mechanic when she was still a teenager. The 14-year-old Elizabeth, in 1940, addressed other children who had been evacuated from the cities. "We are trying to do all we can to help our gallant sailors, soldiers, and airmen, and we are trying, too, to bear our own share of the danger and sadness of war. We know, every one of us, that in the end, all will be well," she said. While still a teenager, Elizabeth fell in love with Prince Philip Mountbatten of Greece and Denmark, whom she had met in 1939. In November 1947, the 21 years old, Elizabeth married Prince Philip, who was serving as a young officer in the Royal Navy. The wedding took place at Westminster Abbey in London, United Kingdom. The couple then had four children, Prince Charles, who was born in 1948, Princess Anne (1950), Prince Andrew (1960) and Prince Edward (1964). Elizabeth's normal life suddenly changed when in 1952, her father, King George VI died of cancer and consequently Elizabeth ascended to the throne with immediate effect. Her coronation took place in 1953, after which served as the head of the Commonwealth for seven decades. On her twenty-first birthday, in a speech broadcast on the radio from Cape Town, The Queen (then Princess Elizabeth) dedicated her life to the service of the Commonwealth. 'I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service,' she said. Queen, then, made hundreds of overseas visits during her reign and became the most widely travelled head of multiple independent states. In 1953, the Queen and her husband embarked on a seven-month round-the-world tour. The couple visited 13 countries and covered more than 40,000 miles by land, sea and air. She became the first reigning monarch of Australia and New Zealand to visit those nations. She visited the United States in 1957, where she addressed the United Nations General Assembly on behalf of the Commonwealth. In 1961, she toured Cyprus, India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Iran. In 1961 she made the first royal British tour of the Indian subcontinent in 50 years. The queen visited Cyprus, India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Iran, and became the first reigning British monarch to visit South America (in 1968) and the Persian Gulf countries (in 1979). The reign of the Queen saw the greatest changes in many spheres, including technological and industrial development, and economic and social life across the world. In 1977, Elizabeth marked the Silver Jubilee of her accession. In 2002, she marked her Golden Jubilee, the 50th anniversary of her accession. In 2012, Queen completed 60 years of her accession to the throne, and celebrations were held throughout her reign. Last year, in April 2021, Prince Philip died, after 73 years of their marriage, making Elizabeth the first British monarch to reign as a widow or widower since Queen Victoria. Elizabeth became the longest-lived British monarch in December 2007, and the longest-reigning British monarch and longest-reigning queen regnant and female head of state in the world in 9 September 2015. In 2017, she became the first British monarch to commemorate a Sapphire Jubilee. She was the Queen of the United Kingdom from 6 February 1952 until her death on Thursday. This year, the celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years of service to the people of the United Kingdom, Realms and the Commonwealth were held. The four-day-long royal celebrations, while the queen turned 96, were attended by millions of participants. Her Majesty's extraordinary life and reign, from a young girl who did not expect to be Queen, to an iconic and celebrated figure who has ruled for more than 70 years came to an end on Thursday. Elizabeth II, died peacefully at Balmoral castle aged 96, the royal family said in a statement. The UK's longest-reigning monarch was placed under medical supervision earlier on Thursday after her condition deteriorated. Buckingham Palace issued a statement while referring to the Prince of Wales, Charles as the King. "The death of my beloved Mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family. We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much loved Mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world," the statement said. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Tokyo [Japan], September 9 (ANI): Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar called on Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Friday at the conclusion of the 2+2 meeting between the two countries. Jaishnakar said that he expressed confidence that the vision articulated by PM Kishida and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will be realised soon. Also Read | Queen Elizabeth II Dies at 96: Joe Biden Becomes 13th and Final US President To Meet the Longest Reigning British Monarch. "Pleased to call on PM Fumio Kishida at the conclusion of our 2+2 meeting. Underlined the importance of closer coordination of policies and interests of India and Japan at this time," Jaishankar tweeted. "Expressed confidence that the vision which he and PM @narendramodi have articulated will be realised early," he added. On Thursday, the Defence and Foreign ministers of India and Japan held the second 2+2 ministerial. They discussed regional and global issues of mutual interests and concerns, particularly those in the Indo-Pacific and Ukraine. Also Read | Toronto Film Festival 2022 Halted as a Tribute to Queen Elizabeth II. Defence Minister Singh and EAM Jaishankar held meetings with their counterpart from Japan, Foreign Affairs Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa and Defence Minister Hamada Yasukazu. According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the meeting featured a discussion on the progress in defence cooperation as the two sides reaffirmed their commitment to a rules-based global order that respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of nations. "The Ministers had a frank and fruitful discussion on the regional and global issues of mutual interests and concerns, particularly those in the Indo-Pacific as well as Ukraine. The Ministers strongly reaffirmed what their Prime Ministers recently committed to in their Joint Statement of March 19 with respect to regional and global security challenges," the joint statement said. The Ministers highlighted their commitment to a common strategic goal of achieving a free and open Indo-Pacific, that is inclusive and resilient, based on the rule of law and free from coercion. They also reiterated their strong support for ASEAN's unity and centrality and their full support for the "ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP)" which upholds the principles such as the rule of law, openness, freedom, transparency and inclusiveness. Acknowledging Japan's determination to reinforce its defence capabilities, the Indian side expressed its support to work towards enhanced security and defence cooperation. The Ministers noted with pleasure the progress made since the last meeting in November 2019 in the bilateral security and defence cooperation, which constitutes an important pillar of the India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership. "They welcomed deepened cooperation discussed through the Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Dialogue of February 2021, the Maritime Affairs Dialogue of September 2021, the Space Dialogue of November 2021, and the Cyber Dialogue of June 2022, respectively," the joint statement read. Recognizing the importance of multilayered dialogues between the two countries, they looked forward to having dialogues at an early date in areas such as Security Council reform with a view to strengthening the functions of the UN as a whole. They also acknowledged the importance of enhancing dialogues in the field of economic security. The Ministers acknowledged the vast potential for the two countries to expand bilateral cooperation in the areas of defence equipment and technology cooperation. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Singapore, Sep 9 (PTI) Former India Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Sunil Lanba has been conferred Singapore's prestigious military award, the Pingat Jasa Gemilang (Tentera) or Meritorious Service Medal (Military) (MSM(M)), by President Halimah Yacob. Lanba was conferred the award on Thursday for his outstanding contributions in enhancing the strong and long-standing bilateral defence relationship between the Indian Navy and the Republic of Singapore Navy. Also Read | Queen Elizabeth II Dies at 96: Prince Charles Succeeds As King of Britain. Singapore's Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen presented the award to Lanba at an investiture held at the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF). Under Lanba's leadership, both navies concluded the Bilateral Agreement for Navy Cooperation in November 2017 and the Implementing Arrangement for Mutual Coordination, Logistics and Services Support in June 2018, which established the framework for greater Navy-to-Navy interactions and expanded collaboration in areas of mutual interest such as submarine rescues, maritime-security information-sharing and logistics support, an official statement said. Also Read | Queen Elizabeth II Dies: From Royal Taxpayer to Multiple Birthdays, Here Are 10 Things to Know About Life of Britains Longest-Reigning Monarch. With Lanba's support, both navies also commemorated the Silver Jubilee of the Singapore-India Maritime Bilateral Exercise in 2018 and successfully conducted the inaugural Singapore-India-Thailand Maritime Exercise (SITMEX) in September 2019, it said. These professional exchanges have strengthened interoperability, deepened mutual understanding and trust between personnel from both the militaries, said Singapore's Defence Ministry in the release on Thursday. On receiving the award, ADM (retired) Lanba said, "It is an honour for me to have been awarded the MSM(M) by the Government of Singapore. India and Singapore are strategic partners and the two navies have long enjoyed a robust relationship as maritime neighbours. The efforts during my tenure were directed to further the process of engagement and complemented the relationship between our navies. I take great comfort in the fact that the two Navies have very consciously decided to move ahead in this direction," he added. Lanba, who is in Singapore till September 10, also inspected the Guard of Honour at MINDEF, and called on Dr Ng, Chief of Defence Force Lieutenant-General Melvyn Ong and Chief of Navy Rear-Admiral Aaron Beng. (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], September 9 (ANI): UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday landed in Pakistan on a two-day visit to take stock of the floods related situation and express solidarity with the country's people hit by extreme monsoon rain. "I have arrived in Pakistan to express my deep solidarity with the Pakistani people after the devastating floods here. I appeal for massive support from the international community as Pakistan responds to this climate catastrophe," the UN chief tweeted. Also Read | Toronto Film Festival 2022 Halted as a Tribute to Queen Elizabeth II. The UN chief will have meetings with the Pakistani leadership and senior officials to exchange views on the national and global response to this catastrophe caused by climate change, an official statement read. Guterres will travel to areas most impacted by the climate catastrophe in Pakistan. He will interact with displaced families and first responders in the field, and oversee the UN's humanitarian response work in support of the Government's rescue and relief efforts for millions of affected people. Also Read | Russian Airstrikes Kill 120 Rebels in Syria. According to the statement, the Secretary-General's visit will further raise global awareness about the massive scale of this calamity and the resulting loss of life and widespread devastation. It will contribute towards enhancing commensurate and coordinated international response to the humanitarian and other needs of the 33 million affected Pakistanis. In the build-up to this visit, the Secretary-General actively supported the USD 160 million UN "Flash Appeal" to fund Pakistan's Flood Response Plan and contributed a powerful video message at its launch event held simultaneously in Islamabad and Geneva on August 30. As Pakistan struggles to deal with the unprecedented floods situation, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has also warned about the worsening crisis in the country ravaged by the record rains. "We are following closely and with deep concern the humanitarian crisis currently facing the people of Pakistan as a result of devastating monsoon floods," said Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, on the floods in Pakistan. In a press statement issued on September 5, Dr Al-Mandhari said the current scale of damage and destruction due to the floods is like none seen before in Pakistan - a result of long-term global climate change leading to more severe weather conditions. So far, at least 1,325 people have lost their lives in Pakistan due to floods. (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 York, US (PANA) - Advancing the rights and needs of people whose lives have been upended by terrorism is the goal of a two-day meeting that opened at United Nations Headquarters in New York on Thursday Paro [Bhutan], September 9 (ANI): The Seventy-fifth Session of the Regional Committee for WHO South-East Asia concluded here today with Member countries committing to resilient health systems, accelerating multisectoral actions to address priority health issues. "We are at a history-defining juncture. Over the past two and a half years, the Region and the world have witnessed immense transformative change. It is important for us not just to spend more on health, but to spend efficiently and equitably. Our focus must be on vulnerable populations, we must identify them and see how best we can address their needs. We cannot leave anyone behind as we seek to drive rapid and sustained progress towards universal health coverage, health security and health for all," said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia in an official statement. Also Read | US Shooting: 2 Juveniles Injured After Shooting at Park in Texas. The Regional Committee adopted numerous resolutions to accelerate progress against non-communicable diseases and to promote social involvement to strengthen primary health care in support of universal health coverage. The annual governing body meeting of WHO in the Region, which met in person for the first time since the onset of the COVID pandemic after three years and adopted the Paro Declaration to address mental health through primary care and community engagement. Also Read | Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky Meets Antony Blinken To Discuss US Assistance for the War-Torn Country. Recognizing that climate action is health action, the Regional Committee decided to extend the Regional Framework for Action in Building Health Systems Resilient to Climate Change (2017 - 2022) till 2027, the official press release stated. The session endorsed Implementation Roadmap for the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases in South-East Asia 2022-2030, and two action plans -- for oral health in South-East Asia 2022-2030 and for integrated people-centred eye care in South-East Asia 2022-2030 were also endorsed, the release added. Meanwhile, the member countries also endorsed the Regional Strategy Roadmap on Health Security and Health System Resilience for Emergencies 2023-2027 to boost emergency preparedness, readiness, and response through capacity building and enhanced governance. The WHO South-East Asia Regional Roadmap for Diagnostic Preparedness, Integrated Laboratory Networking and Genomic Surveillance 2023-2027 was adopted to strengthen national laboratories for improved surveillance and generation of quality data on emerging and re-emerging public health threats. The member countries sought support in building robust health information systems for evidence and good quality data to guide preparedness and response while the Regional Committee reviewed progress reports on its previous resolutions and decisions on the regional action plan on health, environment and climate change. Progress against efforts to end preventable maternal, newborn and child mortality in the Region in line with the Sustainable Development Goals and global strategy on women's children's and adolescent health; challenges in polio eradication; and elimination of measles and rubella by 2023, was also reviewed by the Regional Committee, the press release read. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Washington/London, Sep 9 (PTI) Leaders from around the world have paid tribute to the life and service of Queen Elizabeth II on her demise, with some of them recalling their association with the "kind-hearted" British monarch who exhibited a "timeless decency and an enduring calm." Queen Elizabeth II, the UK's longest-serving monarch, died on Thursday at Balmoral Castle in Scotland after reigning for 70 years. She was 96. Also Read | Queen Elizabeth II Dies at 96: Joe Biden Becomes 13th and Final US President To Meet the Longest Reigning British Monarch. US President Joe Biden spoke fondly of their first meeting in 1982 and more recently when she hosted him during an overseas trip in 2021. "She charmed us with her wit, moved us with her kindness, and generously shared with us her wisdom. She stood in solidarity with the United States during our darkest days after 9/11, when she poignantly reminded us that, 'Grief is the price we pay for love'." Also Read | Toronto Film Festival 2022 Halted as a Tribute to Queen Elizabeth II. French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute, saying the Queen was a "kind-hearted" monarch and a "friend of France". "Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II embodied the British nation's continuity and unity for over 70 years. I remember her as a friend of France, a kind-hearted queen who has left a lasting impression on her country and her century," Macron said. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz described the Queen as a "role model and inspiration for millions". He praised her role in repairing relations between the UK and Germany after "the horrors of World War II". She will be missed, not least her wonderful humour, he said. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Queen Elizabeth was "one of his favourite people in the world". "She was a constant presence in our lives - and her service to Canadians will forever remain an important part of our country's history. I will miss her so," he said. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese noted that many had never known a world without her. "Though the noise and tumult of the years, she embodied and exhibited a timeless decency and an enduring calm," he said in a statement. "She celebrated our good times, she stood with us in the bad. Happy and glorious, but steadfast too." New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described the Queen as an "extraordinary" person. "She was extraordinary... The last days of the Queen's life capture who she was in so many ways, working to the very end on behalf of the people she loved," Ardern said. Israel's President, Isaac Herzog, also acknowledged the enormous change the Queen saw throughout her reign, but said that throughout this, she "remained an icon of stable, responsible leadership and a beacon of morality, humanity and patriotism". "Queen Elizabeth was a historic figure: she lived history, she made history, and with her passing, she leaves a magnificent, inspirational legacy," President Herzog wrote. King Abdullah II of Jordan said his country "mourns the passing of an iconic leader". He said the Queen, who visited Jordan in 1984, was "a beacon of wisdom and principled leadershipa partner for Jordan and a dear family friend". Russian President Vladimir Putin, who met the Queen several times, sent his "deepest condolences" to King Charles III. "The most important events in the recent history of the United Kingdom are inextricably linked with the name of Her Majesty," Putin wrote in a statement. "For many decades, Elizabeth II rightfully enjoyed the love and respect of her subjects, as well as authority on the world stage." Russia is currently under heavy economic sanctions imposed on it by Western nations, including the UK, because of its invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted that it was with "deep sadness" that he learned of "this irreparable loss". African leaders also shared tributes for Queen Elizabeth - who knew many of them well and, as the head of the Commonwealth, was sympathetic to their cause. Kenyan President-elect William Ruto praised her "historic legacy" and said Kenyans would "miss the cordial ties she enjoyed" with the country. President Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon, which is one of the newest nations to join the Commonwealth, said: "The Queen was a great friend of Africa and Africa showed her affection in return." Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo tweeted that his country had fond memories of the two visits the Queen made, remarking on "her friendliness, elegance, style and sheer joy she brought to the performance of her duties". Former US president Barack Obama said the Queen had "captivated the world" with a "reign defined by grace, elegance and a tireless work ethic". "Time and again, we were struck by her warmth, the way she put people at ease, and how she brought her considerable humour and charm to moments of great pomp and circumstance," Obama, who met the Queen on several occasions, said in a statement. Another former US president Donald Trump said he would "never forget Her Majesty's generous friendship, great wisdom, and wonderful sense of humour". "What a grand and beautiful lady she was - there was nobody like her!" he wrote on his online platform, Truth Social. Former president George W Bush reflected fondly on the time he spent having tea with Her Majesty and her corgis, describing her "great intellect, charm and wit". EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the Queen's "empathy and ability to connect with every passing generation, while remaining rooted in the tradition that truly mattered to her, was an example of true leadership". King Willem-Alexander of The Netherlands - who is Queen Elizabeth's fifth cousin - said he and Queen Maxima remembered the "steadfast and wise" monarch with "deep respect and great affection". Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf, also a distant relative to Her Majesty, said: "She has always been dear to my family and a precious link in our shared family history." Belgium's King Philippe and Queen Mathilde said she was "an extraordinary personality... who, throughout her reign, showed dignity, courage and devotion". Saudi Arabia's King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sent their condolences, with the king describing her as "a role model for leadership that will be immortalised in history". Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed his "deep sorrow". "The death of the queen, who led Britain through turbulent times in the world, is a great loss not only for the British people but also the international community," he told reporters. Irish President Michael D Higgins honoured the Queen's "extraordinary sense of duty", which he said would "hold a unique place in British history". "Her reign of 70 years encompassed periods of enormous change, during which she represented a remarkable source of reassurance to the British people," he said in a lengthy statement. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Queen Elizabeth was "a reassuring presence throughout decades of sweeping change, including the decolonisation of Africa and Asia and the evolution of the Commonwealth". In a statement, he paid tribute to "her unwavering, lifelong dedication to serving her people. The world will long remember her devotion and leadership". "I am saddened to learn of the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. She was a symbol of stability and endurance, and she will be greatly missed. My heartfelt condolences to the Royal Family and the people of the UK and the Commonwealth," Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe tweeted. He instructed the Ministry of Public Administration & Home Affairs that the national flag in all Public buildings be flown at half mast. The period of National Mourning will be announced subsequently. The Queen visited Sri Lanka twice during her reign - 1954 and 1981. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Bengaluru, Sep 9: The students of Bangalore University (BU) have alleged that the ruling BJP government was trying to saffronise the university campus by allowing the construction of a Ganesha temple inside the campus. The students have been staging protests for the past three days against the construction. The issue took a serious turn when the university officials filed a police complaint against the protesting students. Dr Jayakara Shetty, Vice Chancellor of Bangalore University has stated that the decision to construct the temple was not taken during his tenure. "The decision was made earlier and the construction work has begun now. The students can't protest about the matter of the temple," he said. Uttar Pradesh: Government to Form District Tourism and Cultural Promotion Council in All Districts to Boost Tourism. Shetty had directed to stop the construction work of the temple in the backdrop of protests by students. However, when the construction work continued, he visited the spot and got the work stopped. The students and organisations, including Naija Horatagaarara Vedike, Post-Graduation and Research Students' Federation, have warned the university officers that if they continued with the construction of the temple they would file a police complaint against them. The student organisations have also been enraged with the filing of a police complaint against them for attempting to preserve the property of the university. The agitating students allege that it was an attempt to saffronise the campus and implement a "hidden agenda" by ruling BJP. The students said the UGC guidelines and law did not permit the construction of places of religious worship like temple, church and mosque. The university officers said the Ganesha temple, which was there near the entrance, was demolished for road widening a few years ago. The Bangalore University had then come into an agreement with the BBMP to shift the temple into the premises of the campus. Sources in the Higher Education department stated that the temple would be built at any cost in the campus and the protests were a part of a conspiracy of the opposition parties and anti-Hindu forces. However, hundreds of students were openly challenging that they will not allow the temple to come up on the campus. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 09, 2022 04:07 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Chennai, September 9: Three college students drowned on Friday after the pick-up van they were travelling in plunged into a 120-feet deep well. The incident occurred at Thondamathur in Coimbatore district. Tamil Nadu fire and rescue department and local police are engaged in the process to lift the vehicle from the well-using cranes. Police said that rash driving could be the reason for the accident. Turkey Accident: 16 Killed, 29 Injured After Truck Hits Crowd in Mardin, CCTV Video Shows The Horrific Crash Scene. According to Coimbatore police, M. Roshan of Vadavalli who was driving the vehicle, lost control over the wheels due to over speeding. The pick-up van crashed into the gate of a farmhouse and plunged into a well inside the farm. The well was having a depth of 120 feet but the water level was up to 80 feet. Roshan, who was at the wheels, managed to come out and fled the scene. His friends were however, trapped in the vehicle and drowned to death. Roshan(18) and his friends, Ravi (18), V. Adarsh(18), and Nandanan (18) celebrated Onam in a club located on the Coimbatore -Siruvani main road on Thursday and stayed the night there. The incident took place on Friday morning, when they were returning to Vadavalli, police said. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 09, 2022 01:33 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). New Delhi, Sep 9: West Bengal, a state with a flourishing lottery business, has been joined by Uttar Pradesh, where there is a lottery ban, to push for a 28 per cent GST for online skill gaming. This move of West Bengal could be prompted by the lottery lobby, according to a report published by industry publication G2G. An overwhelming majority of the group of ministers (GoM) on the GST matter felt that online gaming, horse racing and casinos are three different sectors. Therefore, they should all be treated separately. Nagaland State Lottery Result Today 8 PM Live, Dear Eagle Evening Wednesday Lottery Sambad Result of 24.08.2022, Watch Live Lucky Draw Winners List. Striking a contrarian note, the state government of West Bengal has called for a uniform GST rate of 28 per cent on online gaming, casinos and horse racing without making a distinction between games of skill and games of chance. This stand of the West Bengal government echoes that of the All India Federation of Lottery Trade and Allied Industries (AIFLTAI), an umbrella organisation of lottery distributors, stockists and agents. In December 2021, AIFLTAI had writen to the GST GoM requesting for a uniform GST rate for lottery and gaming. This stand is supported by Uttar Pradesh, a state that has banned lottery, in a highly unusual move. This has left observers flummoxed as both states are on different ends of the political spectrum and Uttar Pradesh is known for its very strong stand against lottery and gambling. Yogi Adityanath-Led Uttar Pradesh Govt Directs Hospitals To Have Signboards, Nameplates in Urdu Also. In fact in 2020, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath told the UP assembly that setting up casinos in the state would lead to degradation of moral values and create a law and order crisis. Meanwhile, experts say that the online gaming industry, that is part of the India's showcase startup sector, will take a major hit if they are treated on par with the casino and lottery sector. A report by BCG and Sequoia India said India's online gaming industry is expected to grow to USD5 billion by 2025. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has talked about the huge potential of the Indian gaming sector in making a mark globally. All of this, industry experts say, could go on a downward spiral, if online gaming sector is equated with the casino and lottery sector. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 09, 2022 11:22 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). A fish merchant turned drug peddler from #Kerala who threatened cops with a toy gun has been taken into custody by K'taka Police for further investigations, a top official said. The accused has been identified as Jaffer & the police have seized the toy gun from his possession. pic.twitter.com/qJWFKjslc7 IANS (@ians_india) September 9, 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.) In a message to the UN Global Congress of Victims of Terrorism, @antonioguterres called for progress on 3 fronts: recognition of victims & solidarity with them, accountability & victims' access to justice, & a victim-centred approach to counter-terrorism. pic.twitter.com/BB3L1lirLo IANS (@ians_india) September 9, 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 Delhi, September 9: Queen Elizabeth II was accorded a rousing reception in 1961 at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan where she addressed a massive gathering in presence of the then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru during one of her three State visits to India and had also formally inaugurated the institute buildings of AIIMS. The 96-year-old queen died on Thursday at Balmoral Castle in Scotland after remaining the UK's longest-serving monarch for 70 years. She was the first British monarch to celebrate a platinum jubilee earlier this year. Her husband Prince Philip predeceased her last year just a couple of months shy of turning 100. Elizabeth II's grandfather King George V and royal consort Queen Mary visited India to attend the historic Delhi Durbar in December 1911 to mark his coronation, and 50 years later, Queen Elizabeth II became the serving British monarch to visit India. Queen Elizabeth II Death: Watch Video of Special Moments of the Queens Visit to India. Seven years after her coronation in June 1953, she undertook her first royal visit to India, along with Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, in January 1961. The royal couple toured Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. They also visited the Taj Mahal in Agra and paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat in New Delhi. In Delhi, the queen was given a rousing reception at the Ramlila Maidan, where she addressed a massive gathering of people, with Nehru and Prince Philip also present on the dais. Several thousands of citizens cheered and waved small flags of both countries, as the royal couple were felicitated by the then mayor of Delhi Sham Nath, on a huge elevated oriental-style rostrum, with ceremonial Indian 'hars' (garlands). The queen was gifted an artistic model of 12th-century minaret Qutub Minar, while the duke of Edinburgh received a silver candelabra, as per rare archival footage of the royal tour. The platform, which now wears a rather faded look, and the Ramlila Maidan, located between New Delhi and Old Delhi, have witnessed some of the historic events that unfolded in the seven decades since Independence. The queen, during the Delhi leg of her tour, had also attended the Republic Day celebrations at Rajpath (now renamed Kartavya Path). Accompanied by Prince Philip, she also formally opened the institute buildings of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences on January 27 at a ceremony attended by the then president Rajendra Prasad. AIIMS was established in 1956. A plaque commemorating the event still stands on a pillar inside the J L Nehru Auditorium building, and on its diamond jubilee in 2016, some of the rare images from her visit to the premier institute were displayed in an exhibition hosted on the campus. The queen had also planted a tree on the grand opening of the campus, but it was lost to termites. "It was a glittering ceremony and on the opening day, she had planted a tree. Unfortunately, we have lost that tree to termites. But we have planted new trees there," the then director of AIIMS Dr M C Misra had told PTI in 2016. The royal family in the past has recalled memories of the queen's India visit, sharing old pictures from the tour on its official social media handles. Queen Elizabeth II Dies at 96, Prince Charles To Succeed As King. A portrait of the queen bearing "1926-2022" below it now has been put up on its social media page to mourn her death. "The Queen and The Royal Family have a personal connection with India and have visited several times," it had tweeted in 2017. "The Queen's first State Visit to India was in 1961, as the guest of Dr Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India," the Royal Family had said in a subsequent tweet. "Her Majesty has undertaken three State Visits to India, the first of which was in 1961 - The Queen addresses a crowd in Ramlila Ground and The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh on a walkabout in New Delhi, 1961," it had said in a tweet in 2019 and shared two rare pictures of the 1961 visit. From India, the royal couple had gone to Pakistan. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip made two other visits to India - in 1983 and 1997, when India marked the 50th year of its independence. Her son and heir Charles succeeds her on the throne as King Charles III. It is the end of an era, as the United Kingdom announced that Queen Elizabeth II had died at age 96. She became the longest-reigning British monarch, with her rule spanning over seven decades. The royal family released a statement, saying that she died peacefully at Balmoral. They then announced that the new King and the Queen Consort will be remaining at Balmoral but will return to London tomorrow. Upon her death, her eldest son, Prince Charles, has now become King Charles III, according to the BBC. "We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished sovereign and a much-loved mother," King Charles III stated, adding that her loss will be felt throughout the country, the realms, the Commonwealth, and the rest of the world. Charles III is expected to make his first public address as King on Friday. The Queen's final appearance was on Tuesday when she formally appointed Liz Truss as the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. She was seen smiling and standing in the drawing room in Balmoral. Truss is her 15th and final prime minister. Royal Family Rushed to Queen Elizabeth II's Side After the announcement was made, crowds gathered at Balmoral Castle and other royal residences, with many going despite the heavy rain. According to CNN, some were visibly shaken by the news, while others brought flowers and lit candles. The Queen's four children also rushed to Balmoral in Scotland. Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, was already there, while the now-King Charles III and the now-Queen Consort Camilla rushed to Scotland upon hearing the news. Prince Edward and his wife Sophie also rushed to Balmoral, along with the embattled Prince Andrew. Prince William, who is now the Heir Apparent to the throne, also arrived at Balmoral to rush to his grandmother's side. He and his wife Catherine are now the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge, replacing Charles and Camilla, respectively. While Prince William rushed to Scotland, Catherine stayed at Windsor Castle as it was their children's first day at school. Meanwhile, the estranged Prince Harry also arrived at Balmoral, but he arrived alone as his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, was not with him. READ MORE: Buckingham Palace Confirms Passing of Queen Elizabeth II at 96 Years Old U.S. and Other World Leaders Pay Tribute to Queen Elizabeth II According to The Guardian, U.S. President Joe Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, released statements regarding the Queen. President Biden said that she was a "stateswoman of unmatched dignity and constancy" and was more than a monarch who defined an era. Meanwhile, his wife, Dr. Biden, recalled her first meeting with the Queen, stating that she extended her hospitality with them when Joe was still part of a Senate delegation sent to the U.S. in 1982. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he learned of the Queen's passing with the"heaviest of hearts," while Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese praised her for her "duty, family, faith and service." Another Commonwealth leader, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, said she defined "notions of service, charity, and consistency." Queen Elizabeth also served as the head of state in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described her as a good friend, while Pope Francis, in an open letter to King Charles III, described her as a "steadfast witness of faith in Jesus Christ." READ MORE: Prince Harry, Meghan Markle Reject Prince Charles' Balmoral Open Invitation This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Rick Martin WATCH: England mourns Queen Elizabeth II"s death - Good Morning America The Republican governors of Texas and Arizona have continued to bus migrants to Washington D.C., prompting its mayor to declare a 15-day public emergency on Thursday. The Guardian reported that Mayor Muriel Bowser announced plans to create an office of migrant affairs to address the "humanitarian crisis" triggered by the bussing of migrants by the Republican governors. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has sent at least 9,400 migrants to Washington D.C. since April to push responsibility for border crossers to Democrats. Arizona imitated Texas' move, with Gov. Doug Ducey sending at least 1,500 people to the capital since mid-August. Bowser is now eyeing the creation of an Office of Migrate Services that will carry various services such as temporary shelter, meals, and medical support. Aside from the capital, New York state and Chicago have also received a busload of migrants from the Lone Star state. READ NEXT: Texas Taking Public Donations to Fund Transport Costs of Migrants Sent to New York City, Washington, D.C. Washington D.C. Mayor Declaring Public Emergency The mayor said in a Washington Post report that the busing programs of the Republican governs caught the city "largely off-guard," despite many of those individuals already having left for other parts of the U.S. Bowser said they are not a border town, adding that what they are doing now "is a new normal" for them. The mayor said that they are in need of an infrastructure that would address the border crisis. The public emergency declaration would provide the use of $10 million of contingency funds to meet the needs of the migrants. Bowser also noted that the city will seek Federal Emergency Management Agency reimbursement for as much of the aid as possible. The mayor said that the city will also create a framework for temporary shelter for the migrants that is different from the existing homeless services system. Meanwhile, the mayor called the Republican state leaders' actions a "stunt" while taking aim against U.S. President Joe Biden for not offering more support, according to an Axios report. In addition, the federal government has rejected the mayor's requests for the National Guard to be deployed to assist amid the migrant situation. Texas and Arizona Governors Busing Migrants from U.S.-Mexico Border Managing director of SAMU First Response, Tatiana Laborde, said the migrants' arrival from the U.S.-Mexico border has turned D.C. into an "unofficial border town," as reported by The Washington Post. Laborde said attending to the arriving migrants has been "intense" and something that they are "not used to." The Texas governor's spending on the bus trips of the migrants has reached more than $12 million, with Abbott raising around $303,000 in private donations to help cushion the costs. Initially, the migrants were told that they could get off at the stops if they plan to settle in states along the way, such as Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida, and Illinois. The city's Department of Human Services sent Laborde's organization COVID-19 test kits and helped migrants who wanted to leave the city to reach their next destination. 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: Washington mayor declares state of emergency to aid migrants | Rush Hour - from NewsNation News and commentary on organized crime, street crime, white collar crime, cyber crime, sex crime, crime fiction, crime prevention, espionage and terrorism. It would seem like Governor Gavin Newsom is in limbo whether he would pursue national backing from President Joe Biden or affirm the farm workers in the state of California. Recently, Biden has given his massive support to the Agricultural Labor Relations Voting Choice Act, a bill that has been sitting on the table of Governor Newsom for quite a while already. Newsom has already expressed opposition to the bill, even vetoing the first version of the bill last year. Biden Expresses Support on Newsom-Vetoed Agriculture Labor Voting Bill Governor Gavin Newsom has expressed his opposition to the landmark legislation for the farm workers in the state of California. However, the bill he has since pushed back last year has received another formidable supporter - President Joe Biden. The Agricultural Labor Relations Voting Choice Act will allow farmworkers to vote by mail in the upcoming union elections as it would make the voting process easier for them and less intimidating for them to unionize. Newsom vetoed an earlier version of the bill last year. For the incumbent governor of California, he cited technical reasons for his veto, The Sacramento Bee reports. "Significant changes to California's well-defined agricultural labor laws must be carefully crafted to ensure that both agricultural workers' intent to be represented and the right to collectively bargain is protected, and the state can faithfully enforce those fundamental rights," Newsom stated. President Joe Biden, in a Labor Day Weekend speech, expressed his utmost support for the bill, similar to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Kamala Harris. "In the state with the largest population of farmworkers, the least we owe them is an easier path to make a free and fair choice to organize a union," the President said. READ NEXT: Obama Official White House Portraits Finally Unveiled | Here's What the Former President and First Lady Think About It Gavin Newsom vs. Joe Biden as Democratic President Nominee For 2022 With this unusual national backing for a state legislative effort, Governor Gavin Newsom is at the crossroads if he would veto the bill again or heed the loud support from the Big 3. Apparently, Newsom is "privately seething" over Biden's very public and strong endorsement of the Agri-Voting Bill, Politico learned from several sources close to the California government. Experts are already waiting for Newsom's next move as the ball is already in his court. "Joe Biden just made Gavin Newsom's life a whole lot more complicated. It's not unheard of for a president to weigh in on state legislation. But it's relatively rare to put the squeeze on a governor of your own party like this," UC Berkeley political communications professor Dan Schnur said. Meanwhile, in California, Gavin Newsom's popularity has grown as residents are favoring the incumbent governor over President Joe Biden in the upcoming 2024 presidential elections. READ MORE: California Voters Prefer Gavin Newsom, Ron DeSantis Race Over Biden-Trump Rematch on 2024 Presidential Elections - Survey This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Ivan Korrs WATCH: Unionizing farmworkers: Biden pressures Newsom to sign bill - From Morning in America When Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon granted former President Donald Trump's request for a Special Master to review the documents seized by the FBI during their search of Mar-a-Lago, both the legal and intelligence community grew concerned. Now, the Department of Justice is appealing that decision. The department is also asking Judge Canon to pause part of her order, as it is a matter of national security because the order for a special master has halted the intelligence community's review of classified documents. According to CNN, the DOJ said the injunction to classified records would frustrate the government's ability to conduct an effective national security risk assessment and classification review. It added that this could deal "irreparable harm" to the country's national security and intelligence interests. The DOJ also argued that the injunction could impede the identification of any additional classified records that are not being properly stored and that this could be a potential risk to national security. Judge Cannon's order halted any use of the seized documents for the criminal investigation, although she allowed the intelligence community's assessment to continue. However, the order also has some uncertainty, as the judge did not set any legal bounds on what the intelligence community can or cannot touch. The Justice Department argued that the independent reviewer, or the Special Master, was unnecessary, as the DOJ has internal filter practices that they used in the search. They also stated that the judge only has until Thursday to stay her original order. Otherwise, they would ask the federal appeals court to do it instead. READ MORE: Florida: Here Are the Shocking Findings During the FBI Raid of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago Home DOJ Challenges Judge's Decision on 'Executive Privilege Role With Classified Documents The main reason for Judge Cannon's decision to appoint a Special Master was that many of the documents could be potentially covered by executive privilege, as well as concerns regarding attorney-client privilege. However, the Justice Department argued that the privilege could never apply to classified documents. Cannon cited a recent Supreme Court order and a concurring statement from Justice Brett Kavanaugh to justify her decision. This involved several Trump White House records being sought by a congressional committee. However, the DOJ stated that the decision and the concurring statement do not suggest that a former president can successfully assert executive privilege, as it is the Executive Branch itself that is reviewing its own records. The DOJ also cited the 1974 case United States v. Nixon. It stated that "classified records are the very subject of the government's ongoing investigation." Trump Renews Attacks on the Investigation Against Him Trump reacted to the motion by the FBI by once again attacking the investigation. According to the Associated Press, he stated via his social media platform, Truth Social, that the FBI and Biden's DOJ are spending millions to appeal the order on what he calls the "Mar-a-Lago document hoax." READ MORE: Mar-a-Lago Search Warrant Unsealed: Donald Trump May Have Violated Espionage Act, Committed Felonies This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Rick Martin WATCH: Former Spy Assesses Trump's Mar-a-Lago Documents - VICE NEWS U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor blazed a trail for Hispanic people in the United States, particularly Latinas, by becoming the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice. Now, she has returned to where she grew up, a community in the Bronx, which erected a bronze statue of her at a shopping center. The statue is a life-size bust of the Supreme Court Justice. It was erected at the Bronx Terminal Market, situated in the neighborhood she grew up in. The home she grew up in is just a few miles away from the shopping center, which was formerly a wholesale fruit and vegetable market that served as a neighborhood landmark for generations, according to the Associated Press. Justice Sonia Sotomayor Says Bronze Statue Bust Going Back to Her Community Is 'Heartwarming' The 68-year-old Latina was on hand when the statue was unveiled. She said she loves the Bronx and her community. She also said that it was always "heartwarming" to go back to her community in the Bronx, and added that she was deeply touched when they erected a bust of her at the shopping center. The statue sits behind a protective glass with her name on its base. It also has several panels that contain a short biography about her. The Supreme Court Justice was also impressed at how much the sculpture resembled her. Now This! News reported that she remarked how curly the statue's hair is and also laughingly noted that the statue also wore the same dangly earrings she loves to wear. "It's quite amazing. Looks a lot like me," she said. The Justice also joked that they may have even improved on the looks of the real thing. Justice Sotomayor also spoke about her late mother, Celina Baez, who passed away last year before seeing her daughter make history as a Supreme Court Justice. She said that her mother "would have been bursting with pride." She then posed for photographs with several local eighth-grade students, who also helped out in unveiling her statue. READ MORE: Mar-a-Lago Search Warrant Unsealed: Donald Trump May Have Violated Espionage Act, Committed Felonies Bronze Statue Also Sculpted by Duo Behind Ruth Bader Ginsberg Statue According to the Washington Post, the bronze statue of Justice Sonia Sotomayor was sculpted by artists Gillie and Marc Shattner. The Supreme Court Justice praised them for their work and called them "two visionary artists who share a passion as I do for community service." She added that she is humbled to be part of their vision. The two artists are responsible for several statues not just in public places in New York, but also around the world. These include the King Nyani gorrilla sculpture in Hudson Yard in New York City, as well as the Paparazzi Dog in Australia. They are also responsible for the "world's largest rhino sculpture" in Astor Place New York's East Village. It sought to raise awareness to rhino conservation. However, their most significant one may be the statue of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It features the women's rights icon and former Supreme Court Justice in bronze. It can be found outside 445 Albee Square in Downtown Brooklyn's City Point. READ MORE: Supreme Court Junks Donald Trump's Controversial Remain in Mexico Policy This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Rick Martin Watch: Sonia Sotomayor - Associate Justice of the Supreme Court | Mini Bio | Biography - Biography Days after school started in the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, a shooting occurred in the county's Memorial Park, sparking worry in the community again. But since the incident happened early Thursday evening, police have ruled out the danger in the area, citing the reason for the disturbance as gang-related. Uvalde Police Investigating Memorial Park Shooting Incident According to KVUE, the shooting occurred in the Uvalde Memorial Park at around 5 p.m. a 22-year-old and a juvenile were reportedly airlifted to a San Antonio hospital for treatment after sustaining injuries. Police have only disclosed that a physical fight involving two rival gangs in the area took place before the shooting incident. Some reports said it seemed no assault rifle was used. At least four people are in the custody of police and are being questioned to determine the cause of the violent encounter. They were seeking medical assistance in a nearby Uvalde hospital when the police approached them. The two hospitalized individuals are reportedly in stable conditions. The Texas Department of Public Safety has already released a statement on the current route of the investigation. "We are working with the Uvalde Police Department and Sheriff's Office following a suspected gang related shooting at Memorial Park. This information is preliminary, as the situation develops we will work with local law enforcement to provide updates," the agency noted. According to KSAT, authorities had already announced that it was no longer "a dangerous situation for the general public." Texas Governor Greg Abbott has expressed his outrage at the latest Uvalde shooting. "I immediately called Mayor (Don) McLaughlin and County Judge (Bill) Mitchell to offer the state's full support and resources as law enforcement hunts down the gang members. After speaking with the mayor and the county judge about the immediate need for more law enforcement support, I have directed the Department of Public Safety to conduct patrol operations in the gang hotspots, send an additional six DPS trooper units to work around the clock, and begin coordinating an anti-gang effort with the city," Abbott said in a statement. The Uvalde Memorial Park is about two miles from Robb Elementary School, where 21 people were killed in a shooting on May 24. READ NEXT: Uvalde Children Going Back to School After Shooting Tragedy, But Robb Elementary Won't Reopen Uvalde CISD Opened Schools But Not Robb Elementary School Earlier this week, the school year began for the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District (CISD) after pushback from the community for a later start. But Robb Elementary will not yet reopen. The school has not reopened since the shooting happened. All surviving students were enrolled in various schools across the district where virtual learning is being offered. Recently, Uvalde Police Chief Pete Arredondo, the situation commander at the time of the shooting, was fired after heightened calls from the parents, community, and national activists. READ MORE: Uvalde Police Chief Pete Arredondo's' Unanimous' Termination Echoes Experts' Sentiments This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Ivan Korrs WATCH: Shooting at Uvalde Memorial Park Leaves Juvenile Injured, 2 Suspects on the Run, Police Say - From KSAT 12 Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader has restricted the entry of former interim prime minister of Haiti, Claude Joseph, into his country as tensions between the two nations rise. According to Associated Press, the order against Joseph, which Abinader signed Wednesday, also bans 12 Haitian gang leaders from entering the country. The order comes after Haiti becomes more unstable following the July 2021 assassination of the country's president, Jovenel Moise. Joseph welcomed Abinader's ban against him, tweeting that the Dominican Republic president ranks him as "enemy no. 1 of the Dominican racists." He added that he does not consider it a sanction but an honor. Joseph said he accepts the order against him "in the name of fathers Dessalines, Toussaint, and Christophe." The former Haitian interim prime minister and now aspiring presidential candidate was referencing Haitian revolutionary heroes. Abinader's order noted to restrict entry to anyone if they have a criminal record or pose a threat to national security. Joseph was foreign affairs minister when Moise was assassinated. He then became interim prime minister for a short period of time, supported by the police and the military. Last November, Claude Joseph suggested that the Dominican Republic was not a safe country and the Dominican Republic officials bristled at the allegation. Since then, the ties between the two countries have soured. READ NEXT: Luis Abinader Net Worth: How Did the Dominican Republic President Become One of the Wealthiest Latin American Leaders? Haitians Fleeing to the Dominican Republic ABC News reported an influx of Haitian migrants crossing over to the Dominican Republic as Haiti sinks deeper into poverty, with increased gang activity such as kidnappings and killings since Jovenel Moise was killed. The increase of migrants also caused a rise in racist and xenophobic incidents in the Dominican Republic against Haitians. In December 2021, AP reported that the increasing mistreatment of the Dominican Republic's Haitians coincided with the rise of Luis Abinader, who took office in August 2020. Haitian officials and activists said the government is violating laws and agreements by deporting pregnant women, separating children from parents, and arresting people between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. Abinader reportedly suspended a student-visa program for Haitians and prohibited companies from drawing more than 20% of their workforce from migrant workers. The Dominican Republic president also ordered Haitian migrants to register their whereabouts. In February, Luis Abinader's administration announced they would build a multi-million-dollar wall along the Haitian border. Haiti Instability In February, a large number of police officers in Haiti patrolled the streets while schools and businesses were shut down after Jovenel Moise was killed. Prime Minister Ariel Henry took the position weeks after Moise was killed, with opponents demanding Henry to step down. According to Al Jazeera, critics argued that his administration was unconstitutional. Bocchit Edmond, Haiti's ambassador to the United States, told AP at the time that they were in a situation where fear was taking over peace. Edmond said their country cannot continue to "live that way." The nation of 11 million has experienced worsening gang violence amid the ongoing political crisis with the death of Moise. Henry earlier promised to create a provisional electoral council to manage elections in Haiti. READ MORE: Honduras Travel: Safety Advisories and Tourist Attractions You Should See During Your Visit in Honduras This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: Dominican Republic to Build Wall in Bid to Keep Out Haitians - From Al Jazeera English Former President Donald Trump has officially endorsed Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro in his reelection bid. According to Bloomberg, Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social that "Tropical Trump" has done "a great job for the wonderful people of Brazil." The former president noted that when he was the president of the U.S., there was no other country leader who called him more than Bolsonaro. Trump also wrote that Bolsonaro "is a wonderful man" who "loves Brazil beyond all else," and has his "complete & total endorsement." The U.S. is known to have a standing policy not to choose a side when it comes to other nations' elections, believing that the votes must reflect the voters' desires. However, several U.S. presidents reportedly broke that policy, including Barack Obama, who expressed opposition to Brexit, while Bill Clinton supported Russia's former president Boris Yeltsin's reelection in 1996. Many of Bolsonaro's critics expressed fears that the Brazilian president would follow Donald Trump's steps and contest the results of the elections. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre noted that the U.S. will monitor the elections in Brazil with "full expectations that they will be conducted in a free, fair, and credible manner." READ NEXT: Brazil: President Jair Bolsonaro Campaigns on Independence Day; Supporters Gathered in Copacabana Beach Jair Bolsonaro Alleging Fraud in Brazil Elections Critics of Jair Bolsonaro said that the Brazilian president might be "laying the groundwork" for an attempt to stay in power if the vote does not go his way. Bolsonaro has since attacked the voting machines' reliability. In July, he called dozens of diplomats to the presidential residence to present his claims. Bolsonaro's allegations against the voting system have spread across social media, according to Al Jazeera. The Brazilian president's claims were similar to the allegations made by Donald Trump when he lost the 2020 presidential election. On Wednesday, Bolsonaro mixed military parades on Brazil's Independence Day with political rallies, campaigning for his reelection in Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro. Bolsonaro took a jab against leftist rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, calling him a "gangster." He added that Brazil would have a "much better administration" with him. Newsweek reported that Lula reportedly hit back at Bolsonaro by saying he never used the nation's Independence Day as a political tool. Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva Polls In August, a poll showed that Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva maintained a significant lead over Jair Bolsonaro. However, it also showed that the right-wing leader was gaining ground. France 24 reported that the poll showed a 15-point lead over the far-right Bolsonaro, which was significantly narrower than the 18-point gap in July. The poll also showed Lula beating Bolsonaro with 54% of the vote. Datafolha, the company that conducted the poll, said it interviewed 5,744 people in 281 Brazilian cities with a margin of error of more or less two points. The first round of the election will be held on October 2. A second round will be conducted at the end of October if no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote. READ MORE: Brazil: Human Remains Found in Area Where British Journalist and Brazilian Indigenous Expert Were Last Seen This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: Brazil on Edge for a Bicentennial Bolsonaro Has Made His Own - From FRANCE 24 English A Florida grandma was allegedly killed by her own teen grandson, who stabbed her to death inside their home. The teen, identified as Jaylin Christian, is now in police custody after brutally stabbing his 57-year-old grandmother to death. The 16-year-old boy turned himself in after repeatedly stabbing his grandmother, Muriel Ladonna Emerson, inside their home on Carolina Avenue in Rockledge, Florida before midnight on Wednesday night. According to Crime Online, the teen used at least two knives to stab his grandmother inside their home. Florida Grandma Stabbed Too Many Times to Count, Investigator Says Local news outlet WOFL reported that Jaylin Christian texted police about stabbing his grandmother, prompting police to swarm to their home. According to Rockledge police, after he killed the Florida grandma, Christian packed up his belongings, stole his grandma's money, and headed toward Cocoa before texting authorities. Police officers then located the teen, and when a deputy asked him how many times did he stab his grandma, he replied, "too many to count." Police found the teen sitting on the ground near a gas station at 600 Clearlake Road in Cocoa. He had several cuts on his hand and blood on his shirt. The teen immediately confessed to stabbing his grandmother multiple times. When officers arrived at the Rockledge home, they found the Florida grandma dead in the kitchen with multiple stab wounds. Police said they found Muriel Ladonna Emerson in a pool of her own blood, with a blanket covering her. Emerson was working with the Florida Commission on Offender Review as an investigator before her death. She previously worked as a probation officer for 10 years. Police said the Florida grandma was close to retiring. In a news conference on Thursday, Rockledge Police Chief Joseph LaSata said the city has experienced a heinous crime and that the act was calculated and brutal. READ NEXT: Florida Vegan Mom Gets Life in Prison for Starving Toddler Son to Death Teen Grandson Stabbed Florida Grandma After Skipping School According to WKMG, Jaylin Christian had skipped school earlier in the day and called 911 to say he would run away. Officers responded, contacted the Florida grandma, and had her come to pick up her grandson. Christian told the cops that once he was home, he started having homicidal thoughts and grabbed a knife from the kitchen. The teen then went into his grandma's office and began attacking her. Police said Muriel Ladonna Emerson tried to run, and the knife broke, prompting the teen to get another knife to continue stabbing her. The boy is being charged with first-degree murder and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. Police said the State Attorney will determine whether Christian would be tried as a minor or an adult given the severity of his crime. The incident truly shocked the neighborhood. A neighbor, who lives across the street, told WOFL that he knew the victim and was worried when all the police cars showed up. Another neighbor described the Florida grandma as a nice lady and was shocked at how brutal her own grandson killed her. Christian had only been staying with his grandmother for about six to eight months. He reportedly told police why he killed her, but police have not revealed the motive to the public. READ MORE: Louisiana Mom Stabs Her 2 Kids, Kills 4-Year-Old Daughter Before She Does Instagram Live Covered in Blood This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Rick Martin WATCH: 16-Year-Old Accused of Killing Grandmother in Rockledge, Police Say - From WKMG News 6 ClickOrlando A group of armed men in Mexico's Guanajuato state waited for a wake to be finished before entering a home and shooting a man who was left alone. Relatives learned about the tragic news while going to a cemetery to bury a dead family member. The man, who opted to stay in their home in Primera Fraccion de Crespo town in Celaya, reportedly had an argument with one of the armed men who shot him. Reports said the shooting incident happened around 2:30 p.m. Thursday, and the victim was immediately brought to a hospital. The municipal police and the Mexican Army responded to the place and guarded the area for more than an hour. Initial investigation showed that the man was shot at least three times. READ NEXT: Mexico: 3 Bodies Found Dumped on Roadside in Zacatecas as Mexican Drug Cartels Battle for Territory Body Wrapped on Sheet Dumped on Roadside in Mexico's Guanajuato State A corpse of a man wrapped on a plastic sheet and tied up with plastic tape was discovered on a roadside in Celaya in Mexico's Guanajuato state on Wednesday. Drivers called 911 for help after seeing the man's body near a road in Libramiento Sur de Celaya at around 8 a.m. There was reportedly a cardboard beside the corpse with a message from a cartel. Police said the area was immediately cordoned off. The local police's homicide unit will investigate the incident. The body will remain in the Forensic Medical Service (Semefo) for autopsy. Police said the man has yet to be identified. Mexican Drug Cartels in Mexico's Guanajuato State Guanajuato is currently the most violent state in Mexico by murder count due to disputes between Mexican drug cartels. The state has recorded 1,566 homicide cases so far this year. Mexican drug cartels like the Jalisco cartel and the home-grown Santa Rosa de Lima gang are reportedly fighting for control of trafficking routes for drugs and stolen fuel. The bloodbath in Guanajuato reportedly started in 2018 when the Jalisco New Generation Cartel or Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) moved into the state. The Jalisco cartel is infamous for its public displays of violence and military power. According to the U.S. State Department, the Jalisco cartel is one of the most violent drug trafficking organizations currently operating in Mexico, with "the highest cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine trafficking capacity." Nemesio "El Mencho" Oseguera is currently leading the Jalisco cartel. The U.S. government has offered a $10 million reward for information leading to his arrest as he continues to evade capture. The Jalisco cartel leader remains to be the most elusive criminal and is reportedly hiding in Mexico. READ MORE: El Chapo's Sinaloa Cartel Continues to Thrive Despite the DrugLLord's Absence: Report This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: Violence Breaks Out In Popular Mexican Tourist Destination - From NBC News THE Midlands hospice fund was boosted by 1,550 on Wednesday by cash payments ordered from people who came before Tullamore District Court. Judge Michele Finan decided to ask for the money from defendants accused of a variety of offences when their cases had been proven by gardai. The amounts sought by Judge Finan varied from 50 up to 500 and by making the payments the accused people either escaped fines and convictions or did not have to contribute to the court poor box. In the first case a man found driving without an NCT disc agreed to pay 50 while in another a driver handed in 100 cash as an alternative to being fined for parking in a disabled driver's bay. Further prosecutions yielded a total of 100 from one driver who had been summonsed for having no tax displayed and another who parked in a disabled driver's bay. Two more drivers paid 50 each to the hospice fund for driving while holding a mobile phone and a for a road tax offence. Two much larger contributions of 500 each were made by two others one for motoring offences and another for causing criminal damage. There was also a separate payment of 100 made by a man who had been prosecuted for committing a public order offence. A 20-bed hospice for Laois, Offaly, Longford and Westmeath will be built on the grounds of the Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore. Different fundraising groups across the region have been gathering monies for a number of years. On Tuesday Taoiseach Micheal Martin announced that 20m in State funding is being committed to the Midlands hospice project. At one point during yesterday's sitting of the District Court Judge Finan said she was going to divert the funds to a different source and ruled that 100 would go to the charity Enable Ireland because a motorist had parked in a disabled driver's bay. A total of 300 also went to Pieta House, 200 from a man summonsed for a public order offence and 100 from a man proven to have possessed a small amount of drugs. If an individual before her agreed to pay money to charity but did not have the cash with them, Judge Finan gave them an opportunity to go to an ATM and return to court with the money. In all cases she struck out the prosecutions but said they had been proven. An average of 1,013 inmates were locked up in the Portlaoise jail complex each day in 2021, according to the Irish Prison Service. The figures or Portlaoise Prison and the Midlands Prison are published in the IPS annual report published this week. It says that the daily average population in Ireland's biggest jail, the Midlands Prison, was 802 each day last year. An average of 27 were on temporary release while 91 were awaiting trial in the medium security jail. The bed capacity at the end of the year was 875. The neighbouring Portlaoise Prison had an average of 211 prisoners each day last year. An average of three criminals were on temporary release while nine prisoners were on remand awaiting trial. There were 291 beds in at the Ireland's high security jail at the end of 2021. Nationally, there were an average of 3,792 prisoners in Irish jails each day last year. There was a capacity for 4,375 inmates in the prison system at the end of 2021. The report says the number in custody in prisons was reduced to approximately 3,600 from March 2020 to June 2020 to ensure effective infection control measures in response to the threat posed by Covid-19. However, the annual report says the Irish Prison Service witnessed a gradual increase in the prison population throughout 2021 with numbers rising to 3,906 by mid-year. The numbers reduced somewhat by year's end. This equates to an average occupancy rate of 87% which is below the target of 90%. There were 6,133 committals to prison in 2021, which is a 3% decrease on the 2020 figure of 6,340. The Irish Prison Service says it continued the "judicious use" of temporary release in 2021 to ensure the prison population was maintained below 90% to ensure effective infection control measures were possible. Brendan Gleeson has called on coffee lovers in Laois to get brewing in a bid to raise 1.5million for life-affirming Hospice services across Ireland. The Hollywood star kick-started the Bewleys Big Coffee Morning Social for Hospice yesterday, August 18th, which has raised over 41.5 million since its inception and this year celebrates its 30th anniversary. He joined Hospice hosts and volunteers at the iconic Bewleys cafe on Grafton St., urging hosts to get creative with their coffee morning social and organise an event on Thursday September 22nd. While your illness has defined you as a patient, hospice care looks beyond your illness and sees you as a whole person - with wishes, goals, hobbies and interests, said the legendary actor, whose late parents were cared for in St Francis Hospice in Dublin. Gleeson, 67, whose latest film, The Banshees of Inisherin, is due out in October, insisted patients are so well looked after, allowing them to live as full and independent lives as possible, for as long as possible. "It takes great courage for patients and families to avail of hospice services to ensure that their loved ones needs are met at this important time in their lives. In my experience, hospice care is life affirming and enriching. This year we really want to see people in Laois get creative with their events and coffee creations and take time together with loved ones to help make this the best year yet, he said. Together for Hospice, The National Hospice Movement represents 26 Hospice and specialist palliative home care providers supporting patients and their families nationwide. Funds raised locally stay local and go back into each local hospice service, helping to pay for medical and general staff, palliative care beds, home care visits, specialist equipment and new hospice builds. Communities right across Laois are urged to simply gather a group on Thursday, September 22nd, and do coffee your way, to help raise much needed funds to support the work of Laois Hospice. Seamus ODonoghue, Chairperson of Laois Hospice, said: We are delighted Bewleys Big Coffee Morning Social for Hospice is back for another year raising funds in support of Hospice in-patient and community services around Ireland. The ongoing support for this campaign over the last 30 years is a testament to the generosity of our coffee morning hosts, donors, ambassadors, and our long-time sponsor Bewleys. The funds raised each year by the Irish public ensure we continue to provide vital support to individual patients and their families every day. Jason Doyle, Managing Director at Bewleys Ireland & UK, described the 30-year partnership with Hospice as very special. After a difficult couple of years for fundraising, we hope people across Ireland will dig deep and make this a landmark year for the Bewley's Big Coffee Morning Social for Hospice, he said. At the heart of our business is a commitment to care for people and communities, so we urge everyone to host a coffee morning social to help support the incredible work Hospice carries out every day. *Register to host a coffee morning on Thursday, September 22, or on a date that suits you, at: www.hospicecoffeemorning.ie or Callsave 0818 995 996. Hosts are provided with a free Coffee Morning Pack containing Bewleys coffee, posters and invitations. You can also contact Mary Delaney on 086 8157280 or Jennifer McKay on 087 2945420 at Laois Hospice for supply of coffee. Laois Hospice says all monies collected in Laois are spent on hospice services in Laois. Thanks you for your continued support to Laois Hospice and remember every cup counts and please keep safe. 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. 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 The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ISPCA) is calling on the Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue to investigate a recent discovery of "huge numbers" of dead calves on an Irish farm. The call was made by the ISPCA yesterday (Thursday September 8) following reports from the Limerick Leader and other media outlets of at least 100 animals discovered during an inspection of lands near Garryspillane on August 29. A statement from the animal welfare organisation said, "The ISPCA is horrified at reports of huge numbers of dead calves on a farm in Co Limerick and is calling on the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue TD, to ensure that the situation is thoroughly and robustly investigated, and has offered any assistance it can provide." The ISPCA also raised concerns about dairy calf welfare more generally, noting the Irish dairy herd has increased from 1.1million to 1.65million in recent years, an increase the organisation has previously called "rapid and unsustainable". In yesterday's statement, they said: "[This is] an increase the ISPCA feels may lead to an increase in the industrys waste product, i.e. male calves which are of no use to the industry. The ISPCA believes that the best way to deal with this problem is to seek sensible policies to reverse the increase in the dairy herd." Read the full report from the Limerick Leader here. The Lakeside Park/Highfield/Dara Park (LHD) Action Group has released a public statement following its meeting earlier today with Minister Roderic O' Gorman. The organisation was set up last month by concerned residents of the three estates, after it emerged that the government planned to develop 30 modular homes for displaced Ukrainians at a site beside Lakeside Park. Last weekend, a peaceful protest was due to take place in Newbridge by the group. However, this event was postponed following the outcome of the scheduled meeting with Minister O' Gorman and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, as well as the Office of Public Works. Now, the group has told the Leinster Leader that the construction of the proposed modular homes has been postponed. Resident Tom McDonnell, on behalf of the LHD Action group, said: "We presented a range of issues with which we have very serious concerns. "The Minister and OPW officials engaged with us and took on board our concerns and have committed to looking into this further. He continued: "We need to allow the Minister time to liaise with statutory authorities to verify the authenticity of our issues to reflect on the situation. "The Minister has assured us that he accepts and understood our concerns, will not engage in any construction, and will respond in a further meeting." "We were promised a prompt decision," he concluded. Irelands president Michael D Higgins has remembered the extraordinary warmth and charm of the Queen as gifts from the late monarch to the Irish state were put on display at his official residence. Speaking to reporters at Aras an Uachtarain in Dublin, he said the Queens words during her historic 2011 visit to Ireland that past actions should have been done differently or not at all had been a powerful statement. That was a fairly straightforward statement about let us not be trapped in categories, he said, adding that this was coupled with a deep, sustained interest in Ireland. Mr Higgins said they had discussed how empires leave, and commented that its not just about the armies leaving, its about mindsets as well, and its about new arrangements. Statement by President Michael D. Higgins on the death of Queen Elizabeth II: https://t.co/ih16da84QA pic.twitter.com/rH5zfmSQ0t President of Ireland (@PresidentIRL) September 8, 2022 I think in my statement yesterday I mentioned the particular interest her majesty had in matters Irish and the incredible importance of her visit in 2011, but also the great warmth with which she and Prince Philip received Sabina and I when we returned to visit in 2014. He said that her warmth was incredible and real, and that he was impressed by her commitment to the continuity of Anglo-Irish relations. The warmth was real, (as were) the questions that she asked me, including questions which we discussed about Irish history, he said. That I have been emphasising today: the ability to be able as it were for 70 years to engage with 14 prime ministers, now 15, and at the same time to be able to do so not only with great dignity and with very well informed knowledge of the complex nature of things that were going on but to be able to do so and at the same time retain all of the charm and extraordinary warmth which I think she showed not only to us but she showed to her people and which I think is reflected very very much in the reaction not only in Britain but abroad. Mr Higgins gave the statement on Friday evening, next to a table where gifts and letters from the late monarch were laid out on a table. These included a copy of the Dubliners given to Mr Higgins during his 2014 visit to Windsor Castle, where the president gave the Queen a statue of the Irish racehorse Arkle. The letter from the Queen, inviting Mr Higgins and his wife to visit Windsor Castle was also on display, as well as Mr Higginss reply. A silver baluster jug engraved with the Irish harp on one side and the British royal cypher on the other was also on show; gifted by the Queen to then-Irish president Mary McAleese during her 2011 visit. Earlier, Taoiseach Micheal Martin said that this visit had been the crowing moment of the peace process and the development of Anglo-Irish relations. The Taoiseach said that the Queen had been a constant in the world political order and expressed Irelands understanding of the enormous change her passing represented. Tributes have poured in from across the world upon the death on Thursday of Britains longest-reigning monarch, who served as the UKs head of state for more than 70 years. Speaking to reporters in Bray, Co Wicklow, Mr Martin said that the Queens most enduring legacy in an Irish context would unquestionably be her visit to Ireland in 2011. He said that her trip to Cork as part of that visit would be a visit that will never be forgotten. Political leaders in Ireland have noted how the Queens 2011 visit, the first by a British monarch to Ireland since it gained independence, set a new tone for Anglo-Irish relations in the following years. Mr Martin said: In the context of all that has gone on between Britain and Ireland over the centuries, (the visit) definitely closed one chapter and opened up a new chapter, and it was the culmination really of all the work that went into the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement. The head of state of the UK coming to Ireland represented the crowning moment, if you like, for all that had gone before in terms of peacebuilding and in terms of creating a new political order on the island of Ireland. Mr Martin said of the new British monarch: I think King Charles is very familiar with Ireland, he has a keen interest in Irish affairs and I met him on a number of occasions during his visits to Ireland, with the Queen Consort, and I have no doubt that he will continue that interest in Ireland. Particularly, he has an interest in climate change, biodiversity, wildlife, and I do foresee opportunities to dovetail with that interest that he has, with some of the initiatives we are taking in terms of preserving biodiversity into the future. Hes also obviously committed to doing what he can in the role that he now will have, to underpin good relations between Ireland and Britain and between the different traditions on the island of Ireland. He said that inviting the King to Ireland would be a matter for the president. Later on Friday, Mr Martin joined people travelling to Dublins British embassy on Merrion Road to sign a book of condolence. It is one of a number of books that have been opened across the island. Outside the gates of the embassy, flowers and messages of sympathy had been left by members of the public. Baitriz Sousa, from Brazil, was among those who stopped to look at the flowers. The homecare assistant, who lives in Dublin, said: I just stopped by and saw these very beautiful flowers. Its really beautiful how people show their kindness for the Queen. In Brazil, we always saw the Queen as a symbol. Its really important to see a woman Queen and for so many years, so respectful. Now we wont have a Queen for a long time because now the line to the throne is all men. Pensioners Roisin and Josephine Gavigan said they had come to sign the book of condolence and pay their respects to a wonderful woman. They said the Queens graciousness was her best trait, and that they would remember her as always smiling. Josephine said: We came out of respect for her. Her sister Roisin added: Shes our own vintage and we both worked in England for a while. We always admired her. I was very sorry to hear of her death. She certainly did great work for Irish relations, the time she came over to visit. Many more planets may have large amounts of water than previously thought as much as half water and half rock, new research suggests. However, rather than flowing freely like the rivers on Earth, the water on these planets is likely to be embedded in the rock. All life on Earth needs water to survive, so when scientists look for signs of life throughout the galaxy, planets with water are always at the top of their list. Rafael Luque, first author on the new paper and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Chicago, said: It was a surprise to see evidence for so many water worlds orbiting the most common type of star in the galaxy. It has enormous consequences for the search for habitable planets. As stars are so much brighter than their planets, the actual planets themselves cannot be seen. Instead, scientists detect faint signs of their effects on their stars the shadow created when a planet crosses in front of its star, or the tiny tug on a stars motion as a planet orbits. That means many questions remain about what these planets actually look like. Co-author Enric Palle of the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands and the University of La Laguna, said: The two different ways to discover planets each give you different information. Scientists can gauge the diameter of the planet by analysing its shadow when it crosses in front of its star. And they can assess its mass by measuring the tiny gravitational pull that a planet exerts on a star. By combining the two measurements, scientists can get a sense of the makeup of the planet. The researchers took a population-level look at a group of planets that are seen around a type of star called an M-dwarf the most common stars seen in the galaxy. The densities of a large percentage of the planets suggested that they were too light for their size to be made up of pure rock, the researchers say. They suggest that instead these planets are probably something like half rock and half water, or another lighter molecule. The findings are published in the Science journal. The Emergency Department (ED) at Sligo University Hospital continues to be extremely busy with high numbers of people attending the department who need to be admitted to hospital for ongoing treatment. In addition, there is pressure on bed availability in the hospital due to the number of patients with COVID-19 in the hospital. There are currently three wards affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 which is limiting the availability of beds for patients coming in through the ED. The hospital acknowledges and apologises for the distress being experienced by patients and their families who are facing long delays. All available beds are in use. Every effort is being made to discharge patients who are ready to go home so that beds will become available for patients who need to be admitted, at the earliest opportunity. Information for visitors You do not need to make an appointment to visit a patient in the hospital. Up to 2 visitors per patient are welcome between 6pm and 8pm. COVID-19 outbreak wards Access for visitors to patients in COVID-19 wards is limited compassionate grounds only and these visits must be pre-arranged by contacting the relevant ward or unit in advance. Children may not visit the hospital unless agreed in advance, on compassionate grounds, with the ward or unit manager. Anyone coming to the hospital must follow the public health guidance, including wearing a surgical face mask and performing good hand hygiene regularly. COVID-19 wards is limited to compassionate grounds only and these visits must be arranged in advance with the nurse manager on the ward. The Swedish private school Internationella Engelska Skolan (here in Sigtuna, August 2021) is controlled by a German venture capital company. INTERNATIONELLA ENGELSKA SKOLAN Her portrait hangs on the wall in all her schools. Born in Germany in 1946 and raised in the United States, Barbara Bergstrom built her fortune in Sweden. It's a nice little windfall of about 1 billion krona (93.5 million euros), earned thanks to the 40 or so schools she has opened throughout the country over the last 30 years, under the brand name Internationella Engelska Skolan (IES "International English School"), where classes are given in the language of Shakespeare and discipline is a requisite. A controversial figure, the former teacher now divides her life between Florida and Taby, north of Stockholm, the city that she chose as a testing ground for the privatization of public services and where she established her company's headquarters. She is now only a minority shareholder. Since 2020, IES has been controlled by the German venture capital company Paradigm Capital. Read more Subscribers only The 'partiledardebatt,' a Swedish political institution 'A real robbery' Married for the second time to Hans Bergstrom, former editor-in-chief of the daily Dagens Nyheter, and a fervent defender of private education, the septuagenarian is part of the caste that some call the "oligarchs of the welfare state." "These are people who enriched themselves by taking advantage of the privatization of public services, starting in the 1990s. Whole sections of the public sector were opened up to competition, and sometimes put up for sale at low prices, without always following the law," said Sten Svensson, a former teacher and journalist. In 2014, he dedicated a report to them, published by the think tank Tiden which is close to the Social Democratic Party. In the report, Mr. Svensson painted a portrait of a small group of men and women straddling political and business worlds and often connected to the conservative Moderate Party or the Liberal Party who are the architects behind the privatization of public services in Sweden, despite these services remaining largely funded by the taxpayer. At the end of the 1980s, discontent was rising in the Scandinavian country. The state was considered too heavy, too slow and too centralized. Neo-liberalism was appealing, and with it the idea that opening up sectors such as education and health care to competition would improve quality by giving Swedes a choice. But the reforms adopted in the 1990s went far beyond that: "There was no investigation in advance. From these insidious beginnings, the process then accelerated in the 2000s, and we have seen a real robbery," said Mr. Svensson. We are interested in your experience using the site. Send feedback Read more Subscribers only Swedish Greens struggle to find foothold ahead of election Sweden does not just allow for-profit companies to open schools or nursing homes. It guarantees them the same funding as in the public sector, and allows them to set up wherever they want and make a profit. In some municipalities, often run by right-wing politicians, school or nursing home directors are offered the chance to buy public establishments at unbeatable prices, without any call for tenders. You have 64.23% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only. SHANNON Airport welcomed a special guest to its aviation gallery to see an iconic new exhibit. Captain Dmytro Antonov, Chief pilot for Antonov Airlines, who shares the same name as the famous Ukrainian aircraft company, spent time visiting the worlds largest collection of diecast model planes. He flew into Shannon Airport on the Antonov AN 124 earlier this week. Shannon Airports Aviation Gallery, which opened in the departures lounge of the airport in 2018, houses over 1,500 plus specialist diecast models, carefully collected over 50 years by the Limerick native. His reason was a poignant one, to view a rare scale model of the largest plane ever built, the Antonov AN-225, an aircraft that Dmytro himself captained for many years. The 1 200 scale model, which is one of only a few models of its kind in the world, is made from carbon fibre and measures approximately 14 by 14 inches. To put into perspective, it would take 125,172 model AN-225's on 57 stacking levels to fill the cargo hold alone of gigantic aircraft. Both Dmytro and the AN-225 have a long-standing history of flying into Shannon over the past two decades, due to the airports capability of accommodating the mammoth cargo plane on its runway - the longest runway in Ireland. The 620-tonne aircraft played a key role during the global pandemic, as it was used to transport vital PPE equipment all over the world. On the 10th of June 2020 it arrived at Shannon, carrying the largest consignment of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to be flown into Ireland on a single flight. In October 2021, the AN-225, known as the Mriya, the Ukrainian word for dream, touched down at Shannon Airport for the last time before it was destroyed at Hostomel Airfield, outside of Kyiv, during the conflict in February of this year. Michael Kelly, who donated his life's collection of model aircraft to be permanently displayed at Shannon Airport likened the rare collector's item to "gold dust." You could travel the world to get a gear down 1-200 scale model of the AN 225, and still not find one available. I was lucky to get this model sent over from Holland to become part of the collection here," he said. Mary Considine CEO, The Shannon Airport Group said: It was an honour to have Dmytro visit our aviation gallery to see the new Mriya exhibit on display and we would like to thank Michael for all his work in finding this rare model." A MEMBER of the public who witnessed a violent crime in Limerick city centre has been praised after they helped gardai apprehend the culprit. Details of the incident, which happened a number of weeks ago, have only just been released by gardai. "On Thursday, August 25 at 2.30pm, a male snatched a handbag from a woman who is in her sixties. She was walking at Sarsfield Street when the male pulled her bag from her shoulder with such force that she fell to the ground and cut her head," said Sergeant Ber Leetch. The woman, who was very shaken and who was taken by ambulance to University Hospital Limerick, could not describe her attacker except to say that he was male. "However, a passer-by saw the attack, followed the male and rang the gardai. This male was subsequently arrested, charged and brought to court, he is currently in custody," said Sgt Leetch. Investigations are ongoing. THOUSANDS of antique hunters and enthusiasts will descend on Limerick Racecourse this weekend as it hosts Ireland's biggest Antique Art & Vintage fair. Limerick has been home to the National Antique Fair for the last 35 years - first at the former Limerick Inn and, more recently, at The South Court Hotel in Raheen. "This will be our first time ever to host our fair in Limerick Racecourse. The excitement is palpable amongst our Antique dealers who are joining us from all over Ireland this weekend," said a spokesperson for the organising committee. "The reaction from our 10,000 customers, across the country, has been phenomenal. We are so grateful to have found this new enormous venue, finally we have a chance to bring our fair to even greater heights," they added. The move to Limerick Racecourse will allow for the a hugely expanded fair which will feature thousands of antiques of every description. More than 60 antique shops, vintage shops art galleries and collectable dealers have registered and some of Ireland's top Coin & Banknote dealers will also be in attendance, selling and buying and undertaking valuations on behalf of customers. Jewellery and furniture of every type and description will feature as will art, clocks, books, silver, porcelain, china, vintage fashion and vintage jewellery. The National Antique Fair is open to the public between 11am and 6pm on both Saturday and Sunday. Welcome Guest! You Are Here: THE UNIVERSITY of Limerick (UL) Foundation has announced donations to its cause have risen to 9m this year. As the college marks its 50th anniversary, the foundation, an independent charity which exists to channel funding into UL's infrastructure and academic programme, has announced it's receiving "more six and seven figure gifts from a greater number of supporters than ever before." "This really has been a very strong year for philanthropy," said Harvey Duthie, its chief executive. In total, the University of Limerick Foundation has directed more than 200 million into projects at University of Limerick since it was established in 1989. Highlights this year include a new programme with Amazon Web Services and multiple projects funded by a number of blue-chip firms including Analog Devices, Bank of Ireland, Becton Dickinson, Boston Scientific and others. To mark ULs first fifty years, the Foundation set out to secure 50 new scholarships. Thanks to board members, alumni, and friends more than 900,000 has already been raised. "Our 50forFifty scholarships initiative is thriving. Scholarships are one of the most impactful ways donors can support UL students and make a real difference. Last year we provided financial assistance to more than 100 students, but we are already ahead of that this year, explained Mr Duthie. Foundation chair Harry Fehily has hailed a landmark year for UL. It is hard to believe that in just fifty years our student population has expanded from 120 to more than 17,500, that our campus has grown from just 50 acres to 350 and that our buildings have spread from 20,000 square feet to more than 3,500,000, he said. We find ourselves in a very different place to 12 months ago a stronger, more exciting place. In-person meetings and events are resuming with vigour. Our presidents dinner in Adare Manor was oversubscribed and the mood on the night was electric. Most importantly, it has been a record year for new donations, with nearly 9m in cash raised for projects across the campus. As UL celebrates fifty years, the foundation is actively preparing to support the University for its next fifty, and beyond. We must look forward with the certainty that no matter what obstacles we must conquer, the prize is great. UL president Prof Kerstin Mey added: As we have embarked on a year of celebrations marking our half century, we remember how we started, as pioneers, entrepreneurs and disruptors and we look forward towards how we will carve a course for our next 50 years. Having been appointed the first female president of an Irish university, it is my vision to harness the power of talent, imagination, and partnerships to advance UL. As a guiding principle for now, sustainability has to be embedded in everything we do to allow us to achieve our longer-term target of becoming a truly regenerative university." A LOCAL councillor has reacted with anger to news that the post office in Shanagolden is set to close in less than a fortnight. Customers first learned of the impending closure earlier this week and An Post has confirmed to Limerick Live it is due to close on Wednesday, September 21. "Our Postmaster in Shanagolden wishes to exit the business and plans to close the office on September 21. Customers will be transferred, in the first instance, to Foynes post office which is just over 5km away," said a spokesperson for An Post. Adare/Rathkeale Cllr Adam Teskey says the announcement has caused great distress in Shanagolden village and the wider community. "This is a serious blow to the people of Shanagolden and the immediate surrounding areas. I have met with people on the ground this morning and the feeling is one of total shock and frustration. They are really sick and tired of this government turning its back on rural Ireland and this is a further blow to the local economy," he told Limerick Live. An Post says Shanagolden post office is owned and operated by a self-employed contractor and that its closure forms part of an agreement that was reached between An Post and the Irish Postmaster Union in 2018. "Under the terms of the agreement, post offices like Shanagolden would remain open for as long as the sitting Postmaster wished to remain. This agreement was accepted by a five to one majority in a ballot of IPU members," he said. While accepting an agreement was reached, Cllr Teskey says circumstances have changed and that the decision (to close the post office) should be reviewed. "That agreement was made in a time when we had sufficient bank branches in the area. We have had bank closures in Foynes, in Rathkeale and in Askeaton since that agreement was reached. Circumstances have changed considerably and they should now relook at that agreement and I am appealing to An Post to rethink it," he said. AN OUTDOOR clothing retailer has announced it is to move from its store in Limerick city centre to a new location in the suburbs Mountain Warehouse will move into its new 7,000-square foot unit at Unit 12 of the Limerick One Retail Park at the Childers Road later this month, and create eight new jobs in the process. The British firm will move into a block which was once home to fashion retailers Burton, Evans and Wallis which all closed following the collapse of parent company Arcadia. It's unclear which of the three units the firm is moving into, but according to information from commercial property firm Bannon, which is marketing the block, the three together measure 16,275 square foot. This would mean the company will bring the majority of the complex back to life with this new opening. But in moving to Childers Road, Mountain Warehouse will close its outlet in Cruises Street in Limerick city centre. It's expected the store will open the week after next. Mountain Warehouse is the largest outdoor retailer in Britain with over 350 stores globally. New Delhi: Utility major NTPC Ltd. has signed a pact to supply renewable energy to Indias armed forces, the ministry of power said in a statement. This marks the first such agreement by the Indian armed forces. Under the deal, NTPC will supply to the Military Engineering Services, a construction and maintenance agency, and one of the pillars of Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army that provides rear line engineering support to the Armed Forces," the ministry said in its release. NTPC shares gained 1.6% to 169.4 apiece on the BSE, coming within one rupee of the all-time high scaled on Wednesday. The NTPC stock is among one of the top blue-chip performers over the past few weeks. It has risen more than 8% in the past one month, a period in which the benchmark Nifty 50 rose 2.2%. The Chinese Military has confirmed that Indian and Chinese troops have begun the process of disengagement from Patrolling Point 15 in the Gogra-Hotsprings area of eastern Ladakh on Friday. The current disengagement marks the movement toward the end of an almost two-year-long standoff between Indian and Chinese armies in eastern Ladakh. Indian and Chinese armies announced, after 16 rounds of Corps Commander-level talks, on Thursday that they have begun the process of disengagement in Patrolling Point 15 in the Gogra-Hotsprings area. After the talks ground the commanders of both sides held a series of negotiations on the nitty-gritty of the disengagement process. Reports indicate, that the withdrawal of troops from Patrolling Point 15 (PP-15) began on Thursday morning and the local commanders from both sides are working out the modalities for the subsequent measures.India is expected to keep pressing for the resolution of pending issues in the remaining friction points of Depsang and Demchok A Chinese defense ministry press release on Friday read "On 8th September 2022, according to the consensus reached in the 16th Round of China-India Corps Commander Level Meeting, the Chinese and Indian troops in the area of Jianan Daban have begun to disengage in a coordinated and planned way, which is conducive to the peace and tranquility in the border areas" The Joint statement released by Press Information Bureau read, "On 8th September 2022, according to the consensus reached in the 16th round of India China Corps Commander Level Meeting, the Indian and Chinese troops in the area of Gogra-Hotsprings (PP-15) have begun to disengage in a coordinated and planned way, which is conducive to the peace and tranquility in the border areas." Although the two sides issued a joint press release at the conclusion of 16 rounds of Corps Commander-level talks, while the Indian side referred to the disputed area as Patrolling Point 15 in the Gogra-Hotsprings area, the Chinese side referred to it as Jianan Daban area. The announcement of disengagement between the two sides comes on the back of the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Uzbekistan where Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping could meet on the sidelines of the summit. Earlier, as a result of a series of military and diplomatic talks, the two sides completed the disengagement process last year on the north and south banks of the Pangong Lake and in the Gogra area. The disengagement process in the Pangong Lake area had taken place in February last year while disengagement in Patrolling Point 17 (A) of Gogra area took place in August last year. The 16th round of military talks was held 10 days after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Bali, Indonesia. With inputs from PTI The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) along with ATS, Gujarat, detect 72 hidden packets weighing 39.5 kg of powder in bags, suspected to be narcotic substance, in a container from Dubai, said the Ministry of Finance in a statement on Friday. The ministry stated that acting on intelligence jointly developed by DRI and ATS Gujarat, operation Gear Box was launched. A container was examined by DRI at Kolkata port, West Bengal, in the presence of officers of ATS, Gujarat. The said container from Jebel Ali, Dubai, having gross weight of 9,300 kg was declared to contain Heavy melting Scrap. Bill of Entry was not filed for this container and the goods were found to be Metallic Scrap and machine parts like Gear Boxes. The Finance Ministry, in a statement, said, During detailed examination, i.e. dismantling of gear boxes and other metallic scrap, 72 packets having a total weight of 39.5 kg of powder in bags, suspected to be narcotic substance, has been recovered so far. The narcotic substance on testing by field test kits confirmed the presence of heroin. Further the detailed Examination is being continued." It appears that the drug syndicate has used this unique modus operandi to conceal Heroin. The gears from the old and used gearboxes were removed after opening them and the plastic packets containing the narcotic substances were placed in the created cavity and the gearboxes were then refitted to avoid detection. These packets were shipped concealing inside the metal scrap along with other metal scraps so that it would go unnoticed by the authorities," the ministry added. It is to highlight that drug syndicate are using novel modus operandi everytime. In a case earlier detected wherein 75 kg Heroin was recovered, it was found that the threads weighing 395 kg, were soaked in a solution containing narcotic drug heroin which were then dried, made into bales and packed in bags, to avoid detection," it further said. The heroin was examined and seized under provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. Further investigations are underway. In the constant endeavor to give the best facilities to passengers, the Indian Railways will be introducing the new avatar of high speed train Vande Bharat i.e. Vande Bharat 2, the Ministry of Railways said. According to the ministry, Vande Bharat 2 will be equipped with more advancements and improved features like 0 to 100 Kmpl speed in just 52 second, maximum speed up to 180 Kmph, lesser weight from of 392 ton, and WI-FI content on demand. New Vande Bharat will also have 32-inch LCD TVs which was of 24 inch in earlier version. 15 percent more energy efficient ACs with dust free clean air cooling of traction motor will make the travel more comfortable," the Railways Ministry said. Side recliner seat facility which is being provided to Executive Class passengers, will now be made available for all classes," it added. The Ministry of Railways stated that in the new design of Vande Bharat Express, photo-catalytic ultra violet air purification system is installed in the roof mounted Roof Mounted Package Unit (RMPU) for air purification. As recommended by Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO), Chandigarh, this system is designed and installed in both ends of RMPU to filter and clean the air free from germs, bacteria, virus, etc. coming through fresh air and return air. The first Vande Bharat Express was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 15 February 2019. The launch came months after ICF launched made-in-India coaches. These trains contain a self-propelled engine that can save diesel and reduce electricity usage by 30%. Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held talks with his Japanese counterpart, Yasukazu Hamada in Toko ahead of "two-plus-two" talks bringing in the foreign ministers of the two countries. Both the representatives of respective governments said on Thursday that India and Japan will deepen cooperation on defence, with India inviting investment by Japanese companies and plans for joint military exercises involving their air forces. The Union Minister of Defence for India invited Japanese industries to invest in India's defence corridors, India's defence ministry said in a statement, referring to Singh. Defence Ministry's statement further read, "The two ministers agreed that the early conduct of the inaugural fighter exercise will pave the way for much greater cooperation and interoperability between the air forces of the two countries." Keeping in view the aggressive and assertive attitude of China in Asia's geopolitics, India and Japan, are bolstering their military to tackle what it sees as increased security threats. Both countries are increasingly wary of China's growing military might. Fumio Kishida, the Prime Minister of Japan has promised a "substantial" increase in defence spending. He is part of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party which wants to double Japan's military budget to 2% of gross domestic product over the next five years. This comes amid worry that Russia's invasion of Ukraine might motivate China to act against the self-ruled island of Taiwan. Both sides denounced the use of force in settling disputes, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi told a joint news conference following the two-plus-two meeting. Had a meaningful and in-depth discussion at the 2+2 Ministerial Meeting in Tokyo. Link to my press statement https://t.co/6Qq1tAqBEo pic.twitter.com/oj7FLRZJo3 Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) September 8, 2022 Hayashi said., "We concurred that unilateral change to the status quo with force should not be tolerated in any region." The dispute between Japan and China lies in China's claims to almost all the energy-rich waters of the South China Sea, where it has established military outposts on artificial islands. The point of conflict lie in the the East China Sea, where China claims a group of uninhabited Japanese-administered islets. India, which last week commissioned its first home-built aircraft carrier, is involed in a standoff with Chinese forces on their remote Himalayan border. "We confirmed that defence and security cooperation between Japan and India was expanding drastically, and agreed to keep on conducting bilateral and multilateral joint drills," Hayashi added. Japan and India, along with Australia and the United States, are members of the Quad group of countries that hold annual naval exercises across the Indo-Pacific region to demonstrate interoperability. The last meeting of Quad leaders was held in May in Japan with discussions Taiwan pulling the spotlight. U.S. President Joe Biden angered China by saying he would be willing to use force to defend the democratic island. As they met, Russian and Chinese warplanes conducted a joint patrol in the region. Kishida and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a separate bilateral meeting agreed at that time to work closely together to promote a "free and open Indo-Pacific". Increasing Chinese influence by the use of aggression and force has led India and Japan to strengthen their ties since they are the largest stakeholders against China in the Asia Pacific region. (With inputs from Reuters) This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate LONDON (AP) King Charles III vowed in his first speech as monarch Friday to carry on Queen Elizabeth II's lifelong service with his own modernizing stamp, as Britain entered an uncertain new age under a new sovereign. Around the world, the queen's exceptional reign was commemorated, celebrated and debated. Charles, who spent much of his 73 years preparing for the role of king, addressed a nation grieving the only British monarch most people alive today had ever known. He takes the throne in an era of unease for both his country and the monarchy itself. He spoke of his profound sorrow over the death of his mother, calling her an inspiration and example to me and to all my family. That promise of lifelong service I renew to all today, he said in the 9 1/2-minute address, recorded earlier in the day and delivered with a framed photo of the queen on a desk in front of him. As the queen herself did with such unswerving devotion, I, too, now solemnly pledge myself, throughout the remaining time God grants me, to uphold the constitutional principles at the heart of our nation," he said. The king's speech was broadcast on television and streamed at St. Pauls Cathedral, where some 2,000 people attended a service of remembrance for the queen. They included Prime Minister Liz Truss and officials in her government, along with hundreds of members of the public who lined up for tickets. As the country began a 10-day mourning period, people around the globe gathered at British embassies to pay homage to the queen, who died Thursday at Balmoral Castle in Scotland after an unprecedented 70 years on the throne. In London and at military sites across the United Kingdom, cannons fired 96 shots in an elaborate, 16-minute salute marking each year of the queens life. The widespread admiration for Elizabeth in Britain and across its former colonies was occasionally mixed with scorn for the institution and the imperial history she symbolized. Charles, who became the monarch immediately upon his mothers death, will be formally proclaimed king at a ceremony on Saturday. He is expected to tour the United Kingdom in the coming days. The queens coffin will be brought to London, where she will lie in state before a funeral at Westminster Abbey, expected around Sept. 19. On the king's first full day of duties, Charles left Balmoral and flew to London for a meeting with Truss, appointed by the queen just two days before her death. He arrived at Buckingham Palace, the monarch's London home, for the first time as sovereign, emerging from the official state Bentley limousine alongside Camilla, the queen consort, to shouts from the crowd of Well done, Charlie! and the singing of the national anthem, now called God Save the King. One woman gave him a kiss on the cheek. Under intense scrutiny and pressure to show he can be both caring and regal, Charles walked slowly past flowers heaped at the palace gates for his mother. The mood was both grieving and celebratory. It has been so touching. ... All those people, come to give their condolences, he told Truss during their meeting. It's the moment I've been dreading, as I know a lot of people have, he added, referring to his mother's death. But you try and keep everything going. The changing of the guard comes at a time when many Britons are facing an energy crisis, the soaring cost of living, the war in Ukraine and the fallout from Brexit. In his speech, Charles looked to both the past noting his mother's unwavering dedication and devotion as sovereign and the future, seeking to strike a reassuring note of constancy while signaling that his will be a 21st-century monarchy. He reflected on how the country had changed dramatically during the queen's reign into a society of many cultures and many faiths," and pledged to serve people in Britain and the 14 other countries where he is king whatever may be your background or beliefs. The lifelong environmentalist said he was confident work on the issues for which I care so deeply would go on in the trusted hands of others. He spoke of his son Prince William, now heir to the throne and formally given the title that Charles long held, Prince of Wales. William and his wife, Catherine, Princess of Wales, will "continue to inspire and lead our national conversations, helping to bring the marginal to the center ground where vital help can be given, Charles said, referring to the couple's work on homelessness, mental health and other issues. He also struck a note of reconciliation after a raw family rift when he said, I want also to express my love for Harry and Meghan as they continue to build their lives overseas." Prince Harry and wife Meghan have been in a tense relationship with the royal family since they stepped away from their official duties and left the country in 2020, citing what they said were the unbearable intrusions and racist attitudes of the British media toward the biracial American actress. As the second Elizabethan Age came to a close, throngs of people arrived all day to grieve together and lay flowers outside the gates of Buckingham Palace and other royal residences. Finance worker Giles Cudmore said the queen had just been a constant through everything, everything good and bad. At Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, mourner April Hamilton stood with her young daughter, struggling to hold back tears. Its just such a momentous change that is going to happen, she said. Im trying to hold it together today. Many sporting and cultural events were canceled as a mark of respect, and some businesses including Selfridges department store and the Legoland amusement park shut their doors. The Bank of England postponed its meeting by a week. Elizabeth was Britains longest-reigning monarch and a symbol of constancy in a turbulent era that saw the decline of the British empire and upheaval in her family, including the messy divorce of Prince Charles and Princess Diana. The publics affection for the queen had helped sustain support for the monarchy amid complaints in some quarters that it had outlived its usefulness. But Charles does not command that kind of popularity. Charles can never replace her, you know," said 31-year-old Londoner Mariam Sherwani. Like many, she referred to Elizabeth as a grandmother figure. Others compared her to their mothers, or great-grandmothers. But around the world, her passing revealed conflicting emotions about the nation and institutions she represented. In Ireland, some soccer fans cheered. For some, Elizabeth was a queen whose coronation glittered with shards of a stunning 3,106-carat diamond pulled from grim southern African mines, a monarch who inherited an empire they resented. Across Africa, nations rejected British rule and chose independence in her first decade on the throne. In India, once the jewel in the crown of the British empire, entrepreneur Dhiren Singh described his own personal sadness at her death, but added: I do not think we have any place for kings and queens in todays world. ___ Associated Press writer Cara Anna in Nairobi, Kenya, and AP journalists from around the world contributed to this report. ___ Follow AP coverage of Queen Elizabeth II at https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii Click here to read the full article. For Asian media operators, the death of Queen Elizabeth II occurred in the middle of the night Buckingham Palace made its announcement at 6.30 p.m. BST on Thursday which meant some needed to play catch-up. That was achieved quicker by online and TV outlets than print media. In Australia, a Commonwealth country which has also lost its monarch, public radio and TV broadcaster Australian Broadcasting Corporation newsreaders dressed in black. Programming has switched to reflect the Queens life and seven decades of reign. News Corp., which operates major print news brands in Australia, said it will publish souvenir issues on Saturday. These will include the Herald Sun, Daily Telegraph, The Courier-Mail and The Advertiser. The Australian parliament is expected to be suspended for 15 days, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Governor General David Hurley will travel to London for the funeral service. A national memorial service will be held in Australia after their return. Korea Times Friday English language online edition In New Zealand, another Commonwealth member, the New Zealand Herald led its online edition with multiple stories related to the Queen. Its splash lead read: Farewell Your Majesty; King Charles tells of greatest sadness; NZ Army to fire 96-round gun salute. Japan, which has its own imperial tradition, saw many papers carry the British royal news prominently. The serious-minded Nikkei newspaper topped its online edition with two stories on the Queens death. The Korea Times led its Friday online coverage with a picture of the Queen and Barack Obama tete-a-tete at an official banquet. Its headline was simple: Queen Elizabeth II dead at 96 after 70 years on the throne. Global Times English-language Friday online edition. Chinese state media were cooler. The Global Times tabloids English edition placed a photo-led story about the Queen below the fold, lower than its ongoing coverage of the Ukraine Crisis, which China depicts as a U.S.-Russian conflict. The more authoritative Peoples Daily had not given the matter front-page coverage in either Chinese or English-language editions by mid-morning. Its English version was topped with the story Xi presents order to promote military officer to rank of general. Thai media, often slow to react to overseas events, was mixed. The Bangkok Post led its online edition with Queen Elizabeth II dies and followed with a key moments story. Other publications in Thailand focused instead on weather and flooding. With much of the capital Bangkok under water since Thursday afternoon and heavy rain expected to continue through Saturday, that is a more pressing issue for many readers. Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. Rebellion, from Jose Luis Rugeles whose Alias Maria competed at Cannes Un Certain Regard and was Colombias Oscar entry, has been acquired for international sales by Latido Films. Latido will be bringing the title onto the market at Toronto. In the film, Rugeles takes a non-linear approach to the narrative drifting through moments in Arroyos life and psyche from childhood through to the end of his life. Rebellion explores memory, addiction and Arroyos deep connection to the composition of song. It shows the birth of legendary melodies being recorded obsessively by Arroyo into multiple tape recorders as he layers ideas upon each other. These fragments infiltrate the soundtrack throughout, at times bursting into full band performances of Arroyos famous songs. The authenticity of the music is aided by some of the musicians involved having played with Arroyo. Lead producer Federico Duran of Rhayuela said: When we talked with Jose Luis about the film, it was always clear that we, and the audience, would be trapped inside Joe Arroyos mind, and we would be living the experience of a psycho-thriller rockstar musical. This film blends really well with our passion for music movies, our love for great movies from Colombia and our continuous support for movies that present a directors vision and can advance storytelling in very creative ways, added Latido Films head Antonio Saura. The biopic stars Jhon Navaez (Pajaros de Verano) who plays Arroyo. Angie Cepeda (Encanto) as Mary, his wife and Martin Seefeld (Los Simuladores) who takes on the role of his manager and confidante. This acquisition grows Latidos stable of Colombian films which includes Rafael Martinez Morenos The Missed Round and Jaime Osorio Marquezs The Sacrifice. Imanol Uribes El Salvador-set What Lucia Saw is co-produced by Colombias 64A Films. Duran expected the film to have appeal beyond Latin America adding It is essentially a film about an obsessed creator, suffering for his love for music. This is universal. Rebellion is produced by Rhayuela Films and Leyenda Films in association with Alacran Pictures, WideAngle Films, HD cinema and with support funding from FDC Colombia, INCAA Argentina and Ibermedia as well as two awards from Mexicos Guadalajara Co-Production Market. Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. The Swedes took over Hollywood Wednesday night when IKEA previewed Obegransad, a limited-edition collection created in collaboration with the high-profile electronic dance music trio Swedish House Mafia. The launch took place at Goya Studios, complete with IKEAs signature foods and custom cocktails. The 20-plus pieces of the collection were on tactile display, available for touching, playing and sitting on for the youthful crowd of industry folks, including fellow electronic superstar Madeon, actor Ian Mellencamp and a cross-section of influencers. This meeting of Swedish titans is a natural one that has been in the making since the college days of Swedish House Mafia members Sebastian Ingrosso, Axwell and Steve Angello, the last two of whom were present at the Hollywood event. During a Q&A, Angello commented, Growing up, we used to hack IKEAs furniture all the time. He continued, We approached them about doing something that would cater to our younger selves. Something that we would be able to put out to the public that was affordable, functional and just a great product. I feel like every second person I meet expresses themselves in one way or another, music, or just creating, on their laptops, Axwell said. With this collection, we aim to facilitate a little bit of that, making it a little bit easier and accessible for them to make music in their homes. The items in the collection, which launches in October, are geared toward music. (Ironically, given the limited-edition billing, Obergrasad is the word for unlimited in Swedish.) Geared toward both creators and consumers, the line offers products from studio desks to shelving units and stands for records, speakers, tablets and laptops. The offerings include an armchair, record and laptop bags, a cunning accessories bag, a range of lighting options, a clock, a rug and slippers and, perhaps inevitably, a record player. Swedish House Mafia, Ikea-Mosphere The Obergrasad all-black collection taps into IKEAs clean and simple lines. Spare and geometric, it uses IKEAs classic designs for desks and shelving as a jumping-off point. Where it taps into Swedish House Mafias sensibilities is in how the basics are modified for example, raised stands built into the desk for speakers. Similarly, the shelving units height is that which would be found in a DJ booth, with easy access to vinyl. The decks setup brings the club to the home with its practicality, which allows for easy manipulation of the equipment, as was witnessed with the evenings DJ, Bayli. The stars of the Obergrasad collection are its accessories. The plush cuddly throw, squishy cushion cover, area rug and slippers are so rich, they have a sheen to them. The stylish lights have a warm glow designed to nourish creativity, a sharp contrast to the harsh glare of work lights. The crown jewel, however, has to be the iconic record player. A unique design that has the record sitting on a thick slab that juts out from the base of the player, the genius lies in its minimalism, at a competitive price point. We wanted to make a music environment, really put music center stage and show off equipment and music, said Angello. Our love for the physical and the craft of making music and vinyl and growing up with that played a big part in our lives. Its a beautiful thing to value something and we wanted to give that opportunity to everybody. Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. Youve heard the expression, There are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy. Well, The Grab makes the case that society had best brace itself for disorder, since certain parties are gobbling up the worlds food and water resources while the rest of us are distracted by other things. Produced in association with the Center for Investigative Reporting, Blackfish director Gabriela Cowperthwaites astonishing, eye-opening doc hits us with the idea that the next world war wont be fought over ideology, oil or border disputes, but basic resources like meat, wheat and water, none of which should be taken for granted. Experts call this field food security, and the entire system is more fragile than it looks. World populations are climbing while water resources are dwindling, which has led countries such as Saudi Arabia and China to seek farmland on other continents. Among its myriad examples, The Grab focuses on a 15-square-mile expanse in La Paz, Ariz., an arid desert locale where theres no limit to the amount of water landowners can pump from the aquifers. Arizonas policy of unrestricted access means Saudi investors can legally tap into the water table to grow fields of hay, which will be shipped home to feed their cattle, even if it means draining the wells of local farmers in the process. Its the same principle described at the end of There Will Be Blood, when a triumphant Daniel Day-Lewis crows, I drink your milkshake! Only now, its H2O, not oil, thats at stake. Versions of the same thing are already happening all over the world (not that Americans should pretend for a second that theyre not among the culprits of the global resource snatch). A good part of what makes The Grab so alarming is the reminder of whats being done to satisfy your own consumer comfort. For years, the West had a virtual monopoly on this phenomenon: Colonialism has historically been less about taking care of foreign peoples than about taking control of their resources. And now, other countries like fast-growing China are looking for a piece of the proverbial pie. The Grab points to the Great Chinese Famine and the Arab Spring as examples of shortfalls that reshaped nations, and suggests that world leaders must anticipate their peoples food and water needs if they hope to stay in power. Want to understand the reason Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine? Look no further than the besieged countrys status as supplier of 29% of the global wheat trade. Russia already took a big bite of the country in 2014, to which Ukraine responded by cutting off water to Crimea. Its no coincidence that Russian forces occupied the canal on day one of their latest offensive, destroying the dam blocking water from the Dnieper River. (Not upset enough about Putin? Just waitll you hear why global warming is a good thing to a country that sees usable ranch land under areas of ice.) Simply repeating the films points makes one sound like some kind of conspiracy nut, and yet, the truth is outrageous like the way Blackwater founder Erik Prince turned his attention to a new venture, Frontier Resources Group. Operating like mercenaries, FRG reps have been gobbling up fields and forests in Zambia, driving poor villagers out of their homes, so their land can be used to feed distant regions. The big picture here is so elusive and vast that it helps Cowperthwaite to have a few intrepid investigators to follow, letting their research drive the shape of the film (which, when you unpack it, must have been one hell of a task to structure). Her main character is CIR sleuth Nate Halverson, a tenacious journalist who broke enough of these stories that he now understands how they connect. Halverson explains how looking into the acquisition of Smithfield Foods (a livestock company responsible for one in four American pigs) by a state-funded Chinese company led straight back to President Xi Jinpings national strategy. All these revelations sound sinister, playing on audiences fears of the other without seriously challenging the degree to which their own governments do the same. Its not fair, but those with money have always been in a position to buy mines, fields and whatever means they need to transport those resources away from where theyre harvested. So whats new here? On one hand, all this harvesting is being done in plain sight; on the other, theres enormous secrecy about how companies (many of them private-looking fronts for government interests, deceptively hidden behind layers of offshore accounts) are going about the actual pillaging and the public deserves to know. Untangling those arrangements is what Halverson and fellow investigators Mallory Newman and Emma C. Schwartz have been focused on, playing cloak and dagger as the paranoia mounts (as when they disable the camera and internet functions on a computer terminal before accessing the trove, a massive leak of damning insider data). Theres so much at stake in this arena that one half expects these journalist heroes to be silenced along the way. For that reason, The Grab unspools like a thriller in one sense and a dystopian science fiction movie in another. The entire situation might be incredibly depressing were it not for a few heroes Halverson identifies along the way, like Brigadier Siachitema, or Brig, a Zambian human rights lawyer who takes the case of those displaced by FRG. Accountability is the first step, and to that end, The Grab doesnt entirely let its audience off the hook. We are what we eat, after all, and the more responsibly sourced our food, the better we can all feel about ourselves. The Grab unspools like a thriller on one level and a dystopian science fiction movie on another. The entire situation might be incredibly depressing were it not for a few heroes Halverson identifies along the way, like Brigadier Siachitema, or Brig, a Zambian human rights lawyer who takes the case of those displaced by FRG. Accountability is the first step, and to that end, The Grab doesnt entirely let its audience off the hook. We are what we eat, after all, and the more responsibly sourced our food, the better we can all feel about ourselves. Reviewed at William Morris Endeavor screening room, Aug. 17, 2022. Running time: 104 MIN. Running Time: Running time: 104 MIN. Production (Documentary) An Impact Partners presentation of a Center for Investigative Reporting Studios, Rocklin|Faust production. (World sales: WME, Los Angeles.) Producers: Nathan Halverson, Amanda Pike, Blye Pagon Faust, Nicole Rocklin, Gabriela Cowperthwaite. Executive producers: Dan Cogan, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Jenny Raskin, Maiken Baird, Nina Fialkow, David Fialkow, the Betsy & Jesse Fink Family Foundation, Caldwell Fisher Family Foundation, Doree Friedman, Anil Godhwani, Jan McAdoo, Debbie L. McLeod, Meadow Fund, the Rogovy Foundation, Christa Scharfenberg, Nancy Stephens, Rick Rosenthal Lessing, Babbie Stern, Jeff Ubben, Laurie Ubben. Co-executive producers: Lauren Driscoll, John Driscoll, Lauren Haber, Kelsey Koenig. Crew Director, writer: Gabriela Cowperthwaite. Camera: Jonathan Ingalls. Editor: Davis Coombe. Music: Jeff Beal. With Nathan Halverson, Amanda Pike, Holly Irwin, Edward Hargroves, Brigadier Brig Siachitema. (English, Russian, Ukrainian, Lala dialogue) Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. The Toronto International Film Festival kicked off on a historic day with one of its strongest opening films in years in Sally El Hosainis The Swimmers, but what some audience members will likely remember is the stressful experience of securing their tickets for the Roy Thomson Hall world premiere. TIFF, which has gone digital again this year via Ticketmaster, has been plagued with ticketing issues all week thanks to a complicated voucher process for public tickets. While it was hoped that many of the technical kinks would be ironed out by opening night, this wasnt the case. Media outlets, including Variety, that were meant to receive opening night tickets from the films studio in this case, Netflix didnt get them in time for the screening due to technical glitches and had to be rounded up and escorted to their seats by representatives for the streamer. During the festivals opening ceremony, new festival CEO Cameron Bailey briefly paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth II in much the same way as he did at the films earlier 5 p.m. screening. I want to acknowledge the passing today of her majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. Our thoughts go out to everyone here and around the world mourning her loss, said Bailey. The death of the British monarch on Thursday cast a shadow over the opening of TIFF, particularly as the Queen was Canadas head of state and largely beloved by locals, but the festival doesnt seem to have changed its plans in any significant way. When asked whether TIFF might commemorate the Queen in some form, the festival told Variety on Thursday evening that at this moment, there is no information that we can share on that matter. Thats not to say, though, that the 96-year-olds death hasnt interrupted proceedings: Bailey said during the brief ceremony that Neil Lumsden, Ontarios minister of tourism, had to cancel his plans to attend the festival because the government is paying respect to the Queens death. Meanwhile, flags in Toronto flew at half-mast and public broadcaster CBC reported that the CN Towers lights had also dimmed in her honor. The Queen visited Toronto seven times between 1957 and 2010. Elsewhere, Bailey honored the legacy of late director-producer Ivan Reitman with a montage of the famous Canadians movies, such as Ghostbusters and Kindergarten Cop, and thanked him for giving TIFF a home. The Reitman family donated the land in downtown Toronto for the construction of the festivals year-round headquarters, the TIFF Bell Lightbox. Bailey later introduced Netflixs The Swimmers as one of my favorites of this year and described the film as a pertinent story of migration and forced migration. Helmed by My Brother the Devil director El Hosaini, The Swimmers tells the true story of sisters Yusra and Sara Mardini, who, while fleeing Syria for Europe, helped their fellow refugees get to Greek shores by swimming alongside their boat. Yusra Mardini would later go on to compete in the Rio Olympics as part of the Refugee team. For many of us who came to this country, The Swimmers will touch you and remind you of what people will risk, said Bailey. El Hosaini introduced her film by thanking the TIFF audience and programming team for showing what this festival and city stands for. She was joined on stage by Working Title co-founders Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan, producer Ali Jaafar, writer Jack Thorne, and her cast, including James Krishna Floyd, the movies young stars, Manal Issa and Nathalie Issa, and the Mardini sisters. TIFF is back to full strength for the first time since 2019, with notable world premieres including Steven Spielbergs The Fabelmans, Gina Prince-Bythewoods The Woman King and Rian Johnsons Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. The festival runs from Sept. 8-18. Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. State and federal authorities encountered 21 migrants and more than $129,000 in marijuana inside a stash house in east Laredo, according to an arrest affidavit. Jonathan Gabriel Martinez, 27, was arrested in connection with the case. He was charged with possession of marijuana, operation of a stash house and 21 counts of smuggling of persons. Courtesy/U.S. Border Patrol Federal and state authorities busted a stash house and apprehended eight migrants, according to the U.S. Border Patrol. On Sept. 7, Laredo South Station agents assisted the Texas Department of Public Safety with a welfare check at a residence located on North Meadow Avenue. A man was arrested for attempting to smuggle two firearms and ammo via the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge, according to an arrest affidavit. Julio Cesar Villarreal Palomares, a legal permanent resident, was charged with export or attempt to export firearms and ammunition. A white Ford F-150 driven by Villarreal Palomares arrived at the Juarez-Lincoln bridge at about 8:30 a.m. Sept. 1. Villarreal Palomares stated he was traveling from Dallas to Bustamante, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. He added that Mexican customs did not allow him to enter Mexico because he did not have proper documentation for the vehicle he was driving. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers referred Villarreal Palomares to secondary inspection. CBP officers then discovered two pistols underneath the rear seat of the vehicle, one pistol magazine and two boxes of ammunition. An additional pistol magazine was found on Villarreal Palomares waist area, according to court documents. Homeland Security Investigations special agents responded to take over the investigation. Villarreal Palomares allegedly agreed to provide a post-arrest statement. Villarreal Palomares admitted to agents that he placed the pistols and ammunition in the vehicle because he was going to use them for personal protection in Mexico, the affidavit states. He further added that he had purchased the weapons in Dallas two weeks ago. CBP officers seized a 9mm Ruger Security, a .22 Ruger Wrangler, two 9mm magazines, a box of 50 rounds of 9mm ammo and a box with rounds of .22 ammo. Eight new tiny homes have been donated by Last Chance Ministries on behalf of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9194 and Genesis Light Committee to the city of Laredo. They are currently planned for placement in on the 2200 block of Lafayette and will benefit local homeless veterans. According to the city, each home has an estimated value of $10,000 and they are planned to form a small community of homes within the city lots that have been vacant for approximately 10 years. The blocks rendition sees homes surrounding an abstract circle that can be used as a walking trail with its interior remaining open. It also hosts a parking lot and a city facility. The homes will be transported, and the city has begun the rehab work to prep the lots for the new community. Pastor Jimmy Robles of Last Chance Ministries and Victor Salazar gave their remarks regarding the opportunity the tiny homes will give to homeless veterans at this week's city council meeting. The meeting -- which took place on the anniversary of Robles daughter's death -- was said to be a blessing, as it continues her legacy of caring for the homeless community. Victoria Robles died in 2016 as a result of a car accident. She worked to feed and clothe the vulnerable members of the city during her life, and Robles took it upon himself to continue her work. He began to work with the tiny homes and lauded Laredos interest in providing a home to its veterans in need. He emphasized that each home was sponsored by friends and families who have lost a loved one. I dont want anything in return, I just want to see these Tiny Homes be used, Robles said. I am asking that we can leave the name 'Victorias Point' and then be able to be a blessing to veterans or homeless out on the streets so they can have, especially in this type of weather, have a place to stay. Robles continued to say that he hopes and prays to hear news about additional land being allocated to tiny homes and to continue to provide more home opportunities to the homeless community. Salazar said that the tiny homes are a dream come true and praised Robles commitment and both his contributions and donations. After seeing the homes in person, both Salazar and Mayor Pete Saenz provided the assistance needed to bring the tiny homes to Laredo, he said. We have over 1,800 homeless veterans in Texas, we have a large amount of those veterans in Laredo, so helping them out is a dream come true for us, Salazar said. Additionally, as he is the CEO of Genesis Light, Salazar said he will support the city in helping veterans by managing the homes, the veteran intake process, additional services needed and more. Two leading House Democrats are asking for a federal investigation into whether airlines used any of the $54 billion they received in government pandemic relief to pay employees to quit. The lawmakers said Friday that buyouts to employees made a pilot shortage worse and contributed to widespread flight delays and cancellations that have ruined travel plans for millions of people. They asked the Treasury Departments inspector general to investigate and report back by Sept. 22 how airlines used the taxpayer money and whether any of it was spent on reducing staff. After air travel plunged in early 2020, airlines offered incentives that encouraged thousands of workers to quit or take long-term leaves of absence. The airlines were caught understaffed when travel bounced back strongly this spring and summer. The airlines have reduced their schedules and stepped up hiring to compensate, but passengers are still enduring more cancellations and delays than normal. So far this year, airlines have canceled 2.5% of U.S. flights, or about 154,000 flights 30,000 more than if cancellations were occurring at the 2019 rate according to data from tracking service FlightAware.com. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., chairwoman of the House Oversight Committee, and Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., chairman of a special panel on the governments response to the pandemic, requested the investigation. American taxpayers supported the airline industry during its darkest days at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, when nearly 75% of commercial flights were grounded. Americans deserve transparency into how airlines have used the federal funds they have received, the lawmakers said in a letter to Richard Delmar, deputy inspector general of the Treasury Department, which oversaw the aid. The number of airline passengers in the U.S. plunged by 95% during part of April 2020, compared with a year earlier, according to government figures. The number of passengers has since nearly fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels, and the Labor Day weekend saw bigger crowds than in 2019. Airlines for America, a trade group of the largest U.S. carriers, said federal funds went only to employee wages and benefits, as required by the March 2020 law that first authorized the payments, and covered only 77% of the airlines' payroll costs. Without the federal money, the group said in a statement, our aviation system would look like Europe, Canada or other areas that did not have any similar program. Or even worse, if not for the (aid), we may not be flying at all. The Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing in December on the federal relief for airlines, with senators concluding that the program saved many jobs. TOKYO (AP) Japan's governing party said Thursday that an internal survey found that nearly half of its national lawmakers had ties to the Unification Church, in a widening controversy that emerged after the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Abe was shot to death during a campaign speech in the western city of Nara in July. The suspect, Tetsuya Yamagami, reportedly told police he killed Abe because of his apparent link to the Unification Church. A letter and social media postings attributed to him said large donations by his mother to the church bankrupted his family and ruined his life. That led to revelations of widespread ties between the governing Liberal Democratic Party and the South Korea-based church, which experts say urges Japanese followers to make large donations to make amends for their ancestral sins, including Japan's past colonialization of the Korean Peninsula. LDP Secretary General Toshimitsu Motegi said in the survey, 179 of the 379 party parliamentarians reported links to the church and related organizations. The relationships ranged from attending church events to accepting donations and receiving election support. However, Motegi denied there were any ties between the conservative governing party as an organization and the church. I take the results of the party survey seriously, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters. In the future, the party will sever ties to organizations with known social problems and make it a party policy, so we wont invite suspicion from the public. The Unification Church has been accused of inappropriate recruitment and business tactics and of pressuring adherents to make large donations, which the church denies. Ninety-six of the LDP lawmakers reported attending events organized by the church or its affiliates, while 20 said they had made speeches. Nearly 50 said they paid money at events, while 29 accepted donations. Abes younger brother, former Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi, and former Economy and Industry Minister Koichi Hagiuda were among 17 who accepted church followers as election campaign volunteers. Abe, a conservative nationalist who was one of Japan's most influential politicians, recorded a video message last year for the Universal Peace Federation, a church-affiliated group, in which he praised federation co-founder Hak Ja Han Moon, who also heads the Unification Church, for her efforts in promoting traditional family values. Opposition lawmakers criticized the survey for having excluded Abe because he is deceased. The survey also did not include LDP lawmakers in local assemblies, where church followers are also active in influencing policies, critics say. The Unification Church was founded in South Korea in 1954 and came to Japan a decade later. It has built close ties with LDP lawmakers over shared interests in conservative causes, including opposing Communism. Abes grandfather, former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, helped found the churchs political unit in Tokyo in 1968. Kishida, despite a Cabinet shuffle in August in which he purged seven ministers with acknowledged church links, including Kishi, ended up with more in his new Cabinet. Support for Kishida's government has tumbled in recent media surveys, apparently because of party members' church links and plans for a rare state funeral for Abe. A family funeral for Abe was held in July at a Tokyo temple, but Kishida wants to hold a state funeral on Sept. 27 at the Budokan martial arts arena with about 6,000 invited guests. The only other state funeral for a former prime minister in recent decades was for Shigeru Yoshida in 1967. It was criticized as having been decided undemocratically and an inappropriate use of taxpayers' money. Critics say Kishidas decision to hold a state funeral for Abe is an attempt to please lawmakers belonging to Abe's former faction within the governing party to maintain party unity and buttress Kishida's own grip on power. He has said Abe deserves a state funeral as the longest-serving post-World War II leader and for his diplomatic and economic achievements. Kishida's government initially put the funeral cost at 250 million yen ($1.7 million) but recently said it will require at least 1.4 billion yen ($9.7 million) more for security, transportation and hospitality for foreign dignitaries and other guests. Some say the cost could further increase. Joos Mind/Getty Images A 49-year-old man from Brownsville, Fernando Mendez, was charged for his role in a scheme to defraud Medicaid by using a suspended medical license, a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice Southern District of Texas said. Mendez was arrested last weekend. He worked at CCI Therapy Counseling Centers International in Brownsville, the release said. The Texas Medical Board allegedly ordered the immediate suspension of Mendezs physician assistant license in July 2021 as he was a continuing threat to public welfare, the release said. Mendez was prohibited from practicing medicine, however, he allegedly continued to see and treat patients at mental health clinics in Brownsville, Harlingen and Pharr. He then billed Medicaid for his services, despite the fact he was suspended from practicing medicine, the release said. DALLAS Had he paid his traffic tickets, Jonathan Reynolds likely would have gone about his business without further trouble. An adherent of a long-standing conspiracy theory, the 34-year-old Tarrant County truck driver believes criminal laws, including traffic laws, do not apply to him. And so he turned two routine traffic tickets into a federal criminal case and a three-year prison term. U.S. District Judge Reed OConnor in Fort Worth sentenced Reynolds earlier this summer to 3 1/2 years in prison for lying on a federal firearms form. The rarely used charge likely never would have been brought had Reynolds paid his tickets and not tried to bill the Arlington police officer who stopped him $5,000. The sovereign citizen ideas espoused by Reynolds go beyond avoiding traffic fines. The FBI considers it an anti-government extremist movement. Sovereign citizens believe the U.S. government is illegitimate and actually a corporation that secretly sold bonds using citizens as collateral. There are variations, but followers generally believe the people are creditors who have a right to collect from the government and dont have to follow its laws. Reynolds, who recently moved to North Texas from Illinois, is adamant his rights were violated and that the government is corrupt. Our liberties are set in stone by treaties, and to go against Law is an act of treason, which is what the judge did the day you were at court, he said in an email from jail. Sovereign citizen ideology dates back to the 1970s when it was first dreamed up by white supremacists intent on defying the nations laws. And it doesnt appear to be slowing down. In this era of rampant conspiracy mongering, sovereign citizens once dismissed as fringe actors have found a growing audience. Multiple offshoots sprouted online, finding acceptance among pushers of other paranoid imaginings, such as the QAnon belief in elite cabals secretly running the world while sex trafficking children. Because some QAnon followers also question the legitimacy of the government, they are particularly receptive to sovereign citizen ideas, experts say. Studies of sovereign citizens do not indicate any belief in sex trafficking conspiracies. Were in a strange period where youre seeing a lot of crossover with some of these extreme ideologies, said Freddy Cruz, a research analyst with the Southern Poverty Law Center who specializes in anti-government extremism. You have people becoming more and more radicalized. Now, Black Americans like Reynolds are increasingly adopting sovereign principles to air grievances against the government and law enforcement. The Anti-Defamation League reports the movements biggest gains have occurred among Black Americans, some of whom identify as Moorish sovereign citizens, or Moors, who insist they were Americas first inhabitants. Cruz said the movements tenets provide simple solutions to harsh realities. Such ideas appeal to desperate people during major economic downturns, he said. But its also sucking people into this world of conspiracy theories and falsehoods, he said. Groups that track extremism, such as the ADL and SPLC, say they have noticed an increase in sovereign citizen activity. Estimates put their numbers between 300,000 and 500,000. But the movement has no leadership hierarchy or organizational structure, and official statistics are unavailable and possibly unattainable. The Department of Homeland Security referred questions about sovereign citizens to the FBI. The FBI said in a written statement that it does not track adherents or open investigations based solely on protected First Amendment activity. We focus on individuals who commit or intend to commit violence and criminal activity that constitutes a federal crime or poses a threat to national security, the statement said. We do not investigate ideology. The FBI investigates only when someone crosses the line from expressing beliefs to violating federal law. The ADL said in a January report that more QAnon followers are likely to find sovereign citizen ideas appealing. The silence of Q has made some QAnon adherents more receptive to other fringe voices and conspiracy theories, including the sovereign citizen movement, the ADL said. The conspiratorial anti-government views of the sovereign citizen movement mesh well with QAnon followers belief that the current Biden administration is illegitimate. Cruz said some Jan. 6 insurrectionists also have picked up elements of the sovereigns anti-government ideology, which typically gains ground during periods of financial insecurity and political instability. Traffic stop Reynolds was pulled over in Arlington in early June 2021 for displaying an expired Illinois license plate. The officer wrote him citations for operating an unregistered vehicle and failing to maintain a valid drivers license, court records show. Almost a month later, Reynolds sent the Arlington city attorneys office documents that appeared to seek $5,000 from the officer who ticketed him. Officials viewed that as retaliation and got the feds involved. The FBI questioned him about it and Reynolds admitted to filing the false lien against the officer, according to a criminal complaint. Agents later learned that Reynolds in September 2021 falsely indicated on a federal form that he was not a felon when he tried to buy a Glock 9 mm handgun in Saginaw. The firearms background check flagged his 2006 robbery conviction out of Illinois. Reynolds was arrested in December on a charge of making a false statement during the purchase of a firearm. Although not a lawyer, he went to trial in Fort Worth while representing himself. A federal jury convicted him in March. Reynolds faced up to 10 years in prison. Federal prosecutions in connection with failed firearm purchases are extremely rare. Only 12 such cases were filed in 2017, according to a study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Reynolds, who lived in Everman, south of Fort Worth, filed lengthy court briefings in his criminal case, sprinkled liberally with trademark pseudo-legal jargon common to sovereign citizens. He also filed a notice indicating he obtained a copyright on his name that prohibits unauthorized uses, subject to fines. And he referred to the judge in court documents as the person doing business as Judge Reed OConnor. OConnor has dealt with sovereign citizens before in his court. The conservative no-nonsense judge even jailed two for contempt after they ignored his orders. The judge did not entertain Reynolds protestations during his brief July 15 sentencing hearing. He allowed Reynolds a few minutes to speak and then brought the hearing to a quick conclusion. Very good, OConnor said when Reynolds was done and then pronounced the sentence. Kuttiwa Reynolds, his wife, said in a phone interview that she testified for her husband at his trial as his single witness. She said she doesnt understand all of her husbands beliefs. He brought it to me and explained why he felt this was right for our family, she said. So being that he is the head of the household, I back my husband 110%. She said none of his evidence was considered at the trial and that his questions werent answered, adding: I definitely feel he was railroaded. Paper terrorism Sovereign citizen ideology, tinged with antisemitism, teaches that a shadowy group secretly took over the U.S. government during the 19th century and has been using financial contracts to enslave Americans. Some followers have resorted to violence even the murder of law enforcement officers. That is rare, although adherents are known to escalate police traffic stops, sometimes ending in scuffles and arrest. Reynolds is not accused of using violence during the traffic stop or the subsequent investigation. More common tactics are known as paper terrorism, which involves flooding courts and government offices with frivolous lawsuits, bills and pseudo-legal documents. Practitioners have also used this technique to file bogus liens against police and public officials and to commit scams such as mortgage fraud. Reynolds has not made any threats in his legal filings. But in emails and phone interviews from jail, he remained steadfast that federal criminal court proceedings are actually the transaction of corporate financial business. His legal briefs, which use boilerplate sovereign citizen language, generally did not address the specific allegations against him. Rather, they were mostly challenges based on his belief that hes not a U.S. citizen bound by the nations laws. Sovereign citizens dislike the term used to describe them. They have used other nomenclatures such as freeman on the land, flesh and blood man, natural person, and common-law citizen. Reynolds calls himself an American National and a Blackfoot American Indian with sovereign immunity. Reynolds said he discovered the legal doctrine he now expounds by conducting research. Being an American National grants me liberties that citizens would not have, he said. For I am also indigenous to the Americas. He said he researched his family ancestry and found no sign of African blood in me. I have done all the paperwork that is required to live as a free man, Reynolds said. And now I have been detained under duress and coercion. Reynolds said the criminal courts conduct corporate business. In his view, the U.S. attorneys office uses court judgments as securities and trades on them globally. Lawyers act as private debt collectors, he said. Everything thats filed in court, including indictments and judgments, is securitized and turned into negotiable instruments, Reynolds wrote. Like other sovereign citizens, he also maintains he is entitled to punitive damages totaling many millions of dollars for the violation of his rights and that he can file liens to collect. Cruz said those like Reynolds who do not intend violence are getting into deeper trouble by challenging the legal and court system. It complicates peoples lives unnecessarily where you just feel bad for them. AUSTIN, Texas The head of the state police is disputing allegations of racial profiling in Operation Lone Star traffic stops and of coziness with white nationalists who flocked to the Texas-Mexico border last year. Col. Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, also is disputing claims by the ACLU of Texas and the Texas Civil Rights Project that DPS officers have little guidance on when to chase fleeing vehicles. High-speed pursuits near the border have caused 30 deaths since Operation Lone Star began 18 months ago, according to the two civil rights groups. In a Sept. 1 letter to the groups, McCraw said that ideally, helicopter overflights and unspecified new technology that allows DPS to attach tracking devices to vehicles will reduce the need for vehicle pursuits. Civil rights groups are misdirecting their indignation at DPS for roadside carnage when the real culprit is Mexican cartels, which are instructing drivers they hire to transport migrants to flee when detected, he said. Operation Lone Star was launched by Gov. Greg Abbott in March 2021. It is an expensive, multi-pronged surge of state troopers and Texas National Guard soldiers at the border. Under two Republican governors over nearly a decade, the state has groused that federal officials werent doing their jobs at immigration enforcement. Texas has poured increasing amounts of state taxpayer money into efforts to discourage undocumented immigrants from entering the state. Complaints by border county residents about more frequent traffic stops are not new. In 2015 and 2016, The Dallas Morning News reported on how rotating state troopers into border regions was reducing traffic enforcement elsewhere and irritating border residents. Over a 22-month period after DPS surged traffic enforcement The News found more than 600 people in Starr and Hidalgo counties were stopped 10 or more times. More than 300 were stopped at least 20 times. One person was pulled over 52 times in that time period. On the recent accusations of racial profiling, McCraw insisted DPS has some of the most robust internal controls in the nation to prevent the practice, such as in-car cameras, body cameras and independent investigations by the police agencys inspector general. DPS officers exercise great discretion when conducting traffic stops, and they issue on average three warnings for every one citation when conducting stops in South Texas, he wrote in response to the two civil rights groups July 28 letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. Stops, searches, contraband In June, though, a Tarleton State University research team that conducted a state-imposed review of 2021 traffic stops found concerning data. Racial profiling may sway state highway patrol officers to excessively pull over Hispanic motorists and subject them to searches, the Stephenville schools Institute for Predictive Analytics in Criminal Justice said in an annual report of Hispanic-driver findings. McCraw said the institutes June report failed to account for essential data. Last year, DPS officers had lower contraband hit rates or lower frequency for searches to yield illicit objects when they searched Latinos vehicles than when they searched whites, the report said. McCraw complained that the contraband hits statistics provided by a state peace officer accrediting agency dont count smuggled humans as contraband and thus suppress the hit rates for Hispanic drivers vehicles. A low rate of finding contraband, combined with a high rate of stopping and searching vehicles operated by Black or Hispanic motorists, is a red flag that racial profiling may be occuring, Alex del Carmen, a criminologist who heads the Tarleton unit, has said. Last month, McCraw wrote del Carmen and cited several recent border incidents in which vehicle searches result(ed) in the discovery of suspected illegal migrants and the arrest of drivers for human smuggling. Asked this week if he affirms his groups finding, despite the DPS directors criticism, del Carmen said he does. We stand by our research findings, del Carmen said. We also reached out to DPS and offered to assist them in further analysis of their data. Representatives of the two civil rights groups that asked for a civil rights investigation of DPS also stood by their allegations. In addition to the Tarleton study, the groups noted that they used DPSs own probable cause affidavits and independent sources to buttress their allegations. We detailed evidence of discrimination by DPS officers and who they target for enforcement, ACLU staff attorney Kate Huddleston said in an interview Thursday. The probable cause affidavits indicate that DPS officers are targeting for enforcement people who are Latinx. In those affidavits, essentially, the only provided justification for extending a stop is seeing a lot of passengers in the vehicle. We can see in these probable cause affidavits the agency is singling out for further investigation people on the basis of their perceived race or ethnicity. The groups examined 18 affidavits from vehicle stops in Kinney and Val Verde counties, most involving relatively minor traffic offenses, such as having temporary tags that were unreadable or failing to dim headlights. Some of the stops were prolonged because troopers spotted items such as backpacks, Huddleston noted. A lengthy stop based on such a pretext is unconstitutional, she said. One DPS officers affidavit said, I smelled an odor that was emitting from inside the vehicle. Undocumented aliens emit a distinct odor due to sweat and being exposed to the environment. Texas Civil Rights Project spokeswoman Savannah Tarbet said Operation Lone Star inflicts harm on border communities. This correspondence represents further attempts by DPS to shape the narrative away from its own wrongdoing at the border and beyond, she said of McCraws letter. McCraw said the 18 stops have been referred by DPS administration to the departments inspector general, Phillip Ayalla, who has begun to investigate. McCraw also said hes commissioned a separate academic study of whether DPS has racially profiled motorists. White nationalist ties disputed He denied assertions that DPS is friendly with and has ties to North Texas white supremacist group leader Lucas Rooster Denney. Denney, of Mansfield, president of Patriot Boys, a Fort Worth militia group, is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 28 in Washington, D.C., on assault charges for fighting with police defending the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. As a fugitive wanted by the FBI, he had an extensive stay in Kinney County last year. In July, Texas Monthly quoted a lawyer for Denney as saying that last December, a DPS officer who was a friend of Denneys drove him from a Kinney County ranch to Del Rio so he could turn himself over to the FBI. The allegations against this DPS officer are false, McCraw wrote. He was neither a friend or acquaintance of the subject but showed great initiative in using intermediaries to arrange for Denney to voluntarily turn himself in, McCraw said. He did not elaborate. Around the same time, in a separate incident, a DPS officer made a traffic stop in Kinney County and arrested an unnamed militia member for felon in possession of a firearm, McCraw noted. US President Joe Biden (right) and first lady Jill Biden (left) on September 8 mourned the death of Queen Elizabeth II who "defined an era." The Bidens and Queen Elizabeth II (center) are seen here in Windsor, England, in June of 2021. The slain Memphis teacher was abducted before she could complete her morning run. Hundreds of people finished it for her this morning Over 69,000 people experience homelessness in U.S. most populous county Xinhua) 15:00, September 09, 2022 Tents housing the homeless line the sidewalk of a street in downtown Los Angeles, California, the United States, on Sept. 8, 2022. An estimated 69,144 people are experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles, the most populous county in the United States, according to the results of the 2022 Homeless Count released by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) on Thursday.(Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua). LOS ANGELES, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- An estimated 69,144 people are experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles, the most populous county in the United States, according to the results of the 2022 Homeless Count released by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) on Thursday. The number marks a 4.1 percent rise from the last count in 2020, said the authority, adding that a count was not conducted in 2021 in the county, home to around 10 million residents, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of the point-in-time count, conducted over three nights in February, also showed 41,980 people were experiencing homelessness in the City of Los Angeles, up 1.7 percent from 2020. The City of Los Angeles is the seat of Los Angeles County and also the biggest city in the county. LAHSA said in a news release that this year's homeless count results offer a stark contrast to the results between 2018 and 2020, when Los Angeles County saw a 25.9 percent increase and the City of Los Angeles experienced a 32 percent increase. The authority noted that "Angelenos need more affordable homes and economic help to prevent future increases in homelessness." LAHSA said the agency and its partners have made 84,000 permanent housing placements over the past five years. Thanks to a 62 percent increase in shelter beds since 2019, more people are in shelter than ever before, said the agency, adding that "shelter is a necessary and vital part of our system because bringing people inside protects them from the destructive effects on their health and safety that comes from experiencing unsheltered homelessness." Los Angeles has one of the highest rates of unemployment and homelessness in the United States, according to usabynumbers.com. The website reported in June that the total number of homeless people in the United States is over 553,000, and that's 170 out of every 100,000 people experiencing homeless in the country right now. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind. (L-R) Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte of Cambridge, Prince George of Cambridge, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip are pictured here during the Trooping the Colour in June of 2016. DZY/FilmMagic via Getty Images 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. Rotating power outages: What you need to know How long will power be out in a rotating power outage? If your circuit is called, you will experience an outage of approximately 1 hour. Once your outage is over, your circuit should not be shut off for a rotating outage again until all other circuits in Lodis service territory have been called. The idea is that everyone takes turns experiencing brief outages to protect against longer and larger outages. There are exceptions and some circuits cannot be shut off if, for example, they provide emergency services without sufficient back up generation in place. Courtesy City of Lodi A man in his early thirties is due to appear in court this morning charged in connection to an alleged armed robbery at a shop in Longford town last month. Detectives arrested the man earlier this week following an incident at a discount store in the Mastertech Business Park on the Athlone road on August 14 during which staff were allegedly threatened with a knife. The man, who is from the north Longford area and has a string of previous convictions to his name, was detained and questioned at Longford garda station before being charged late last night. He is due to appear before Judge Bernadette Owens at a sitting of Mullingar District Court this morning. "Gardai are investigating an armed robbery that occurred at a commercial premises in Longford town at approximately 3pm on Sunday 14th August 2022," said a garda spokesperson. "A man (30s) has been arrested in relation to the incident and is due to appear in Mullingar District Court this morning, 9th September 2022, at 10.30am." It's understood a quantity of cash was also taken during the alleged heist. Gardai had launched a renewed appeal for information two weeks ago appeal for information from witnesses who may have been travelling on the Athlone Road, Farneyhoogan or Market Square areas of the town between 2.30 and 3.30 pm on the day in question. The Leader understands the suspect is well known to gardai and is presently before the courts on other unrelated theft and assault charges. Two boys who died in Enagh Lough in Strathfoyle on the outskirts of Derry were beautiful, generous spirits, their families have said. The families of Reuven Simon and Joseph Sebastian told how a massive hole had been left in their lives but said they have drawn strength from the support and prayers they have received from the community since the tragedy. The two 16-year-old friends died after getting into difficulty while swimming at Lough Enagh last week. The boys were from Derrys Indian Keralan community and had been due to return to St Columbs College after receiving their GCSE results. A joint statement from their families said: We, the families of Reuven Simon and Joseph Sebastian, and Derrys wider Kerala community would like to express our heartfelt appreciation for all the kindness, love and support and prayers we have received since last weeks tragedy that cruelly took our two beautiful boys too soon. We have drawn enormous strength, at this dark and difficult time, from the sympathy and support we have received from Derry and beyond and for that we will always be grateful. It would be impossible to name individually all of you who have helped us but we do wish to put on record our appreciation and admiration of our emergency services and all those involved in the search, rescue and recovery operation for their courage and professionalism. We want to thank the public for their understanding of and cooperation with traffic restrictions that were helpfully managed by the PSNI to allow for the funeral procession. We wish to also express our sincere thanks to Reuven and Josephs friends and classmates who shared their stories of joy and laughter. The statement added: The loss of our precious boys has left a massive hole in all our lives. These have been truly dark days but the community continues to be a source light among the darkness. Peoples acts of friendship and kindness will not be forgotten. We will continue to rely on the support and prayers of the community in the time ahead as we grieve for our sons. Both Reuven and Joseph were beautiful, generous spirits we will keep their memory alive by embodying that generosity of spirit, treating people with kindness and loving wholeheartedly. We hope that some good can come from this heartbreaking tragedy by ensuring better and safer management of all our lakes and waterways, and educating people of the very stark dangers of water. In doing so, we hope that other families will never have to suffer from the avoidable death of a loved one. Community, Charity & Cause By Long Island Published: September 10 2022 Pay your respects on September 11 at these events. This Sunday marks the 21 years since the September 11th terrorist attacks on America. There are many ways you can honor this solemn day in history. Here are five events happening in the area so you can show your respect. One Day in September - As New York City and the world prepare to mark the 21st anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the Museum presents a new exhibition, One Day in September, which recognizes the valiant efforts of first responders through a series of profound, editorial-style portraits, created by renowned photographer Richard Wiesel. Where: New York City Fire Museum, 278 Spring Street, New York. 9-11 Healing Service - The Farmingdale United Methodist Church will hold a Healing Service at 9:30am on Sunday, September 11, 2022, the 21st anniversary of 9-11. Following the service they will tie ribbons on the Memorial Tree dedicated to Lt. Christopher P. Sullivan, FDNY, who generously led our Nursery School children in fire safety. All Farmingdale firemen/emergency responders and their families are invited to attend, as is the general public. Where: Farmingdale United Methodist Church, 407 Main Street, Farmingdale. 9/11 Blood and Donation Drive - Commemorate 9/11 with a day of giving back on Sunday, September 11 from 10am to 4pm. Give back and help those in need by donating blood, eyeglasses, cell phones and iPads, gently used clothing, and new toys. Partnering with New York Blood Center, participants can donate blood. Drop-off stations will be set up to collect new toys, eyeglasses, cell phones & iPads, and gently used clothing. Schedule an appointment here. Where: Commonpoint Queens Sam Field Center, 58-20 Little Neck Parkway, Little Neck. Town of Islip September 11th Memorial Ceremony - On Sunday, September 11, 2022 at 11am, the Town of Islip will hold the annual 9/11 Memorial Ceremony at Veterans Memorial Park, located next to Islip Town Hall. Residents are invited to join us as we remember the 90 Islip residents who perished in the attacks, and once again reaffirm our vow that, "We will never forget." Where: Veterans Memorial Park, Islip Town Hall, 655 Main Street, Islip. 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony & Musical Tribute - Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman invites you to join us for a beautiful 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony and Musical Tribute at 6:15 PM on Sunday, September 11th. Featuring international vocalist Chris Macchio. Recitation of names at 6:15pm. Musical presentation at 7pm. Together, we will pay tribute to the fallen, read their names aloud and renew our American Spirit. Where: Eisenhower Park, Lakeside Theater, Parking field 6, East Meadow. Community, Charity & Cause By Chris Boyle Published: September 09 2022 Departing from Islip MacArthur Airport at 8:20 a.m., Veterans will visit the WWII, Korean War and Vietnam War Memorials, plus other high-points. Honor Flight Long Island (HFLI), the iconic volunteer-run Veterans organization, is proud to announce resumption of bi-annual flights to Washington, D.C., after two years of pandemic-related restrictions. HFLIs second and final flight of 2022, on Friday, September 23, 2022, will take WWII, Korean and Vietnam War Veterans to visit their military memorials, meet with service branch representatives, commiserate with fellow Veterans and exchange stories. Honor Flights mission is to honor fellow Long Islanders who served in the Armed Forces of the United States and to preserve freedom around the world, by providing free, one-day D.C. trips for Veterans. Thanks to HFLI, these Veterans will take a free, early-morning Southwest flight to Washington, D.C. Departing from Islip MacArthur Airport at 8:20 a.m., Veterans will visit the WWII, Korean War and Vietnam War Memorials, plus Arlington National Cemetery, the Air Force and Navy Memorials and other high-points. They return to Islip later that evening at 10:50 p.m. for a rousing welcome by the Saffron United Pipe Band plus thunderous applause from hundreds of family and supporters! According to Bill Jones, HFLI President, West Point 1972 Graduate and U.S. Army Veteran, This special flight includes one WWII, 22 Korean War and 27 Vietnam War Veterans, who will receive recognition and thanks for their service. What this really represents is a Big Hug to all our Veterans from HFLI, their families and supporters who make such flights possible. Jones added that HFLI will always give priority to any WWII Veterans who wish to go, and that HFLI is currently accepting applications from WWII, Korean and Vietnam Veterans, who he encourages to sign up. Veterans, its important to submit an application at www.honorflightlongisland.org , as that will insure your placement on the HFLI list. Veterans fly for free, thanks to donations from across Long Island. They are accompanied by Guardians, able-bodied volunteers who donate $400 (tax deductible) to offset travel costs. If there is no family member to act as a Guardian, HFLI has volunteers ready to step up for the privilege of escorting these heroes to their memorials. Questions can be answered by calling Jamie Bowden at (631) 702-2423 or email Jamie at JBowden@southamptontownny.gov The Korean War Memorial, under renovation for the past couple of years, was rededicated on July 29, 2022 with a new feature - a "Wall of Remembrance" - that lists the names of over 43,000 U.S. service members and Korean augmentees to the U.S. Army who were killed during the war. Its an impressive and moving memorial. One inscription reads "Freedom is Not Free." Another reads: "Our nation honors her sons and daughters who answered the call to defend a country they never knew and a people they never met." Americans always answer the call. HFLI invites the news media to cover the special Veterans flight departure and return at Islip MacArthur Airport on Friday, September 23, 2022. Flight departure from Islip is at 8:20 a.m. Suggested arrival time for media is one hour prior to flight departure, for interviews and photography. Media should also plan on arriving at Islip one hour before the return flight lands at 10:50 p.m. Contact Robert F. Salant, Public Affairs, (718) 791-4758, rsalant123@outlook.com to confirm your participation. Special Note: The reunion for this flight will be held at the American Airpower Museum in Farmingdale on December 3, 2022, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. About Honor Flight Network Food, Wine, & Dining, Local News, Business & Finance By Long Island Published: September 09 2022 Family owned & operated since 1975, Bagel Boss now brings it award winning bagels, homemade schmears & salads and gourmet coffee & bakery to Massapequa. Long Islands iconic Bagel Boss has opened its 15th location in Massapequa next to the Massapequa High School. Family owned & operated since 1975, Bagel Boss now brings it award winning bagels, homemade schmears & salads and gourmet coffee & bakery to Massapequa. Massapequa resident and Massapequa High School alumn Jeff Grossfeld has opened Bagel Boss Deli at 4917 Merrick Road, Massapequa, which was formerly Town Bagel of Massapequa. Ironically, Grossfeld started working at this location forty-something years ago and now owns the business. This is Grossfelds second Bagel Boss location as he opened Bagel Boss Deli in East Northport in 1999. Look for the Grand Opening in coming weeks. Bagel Boss bagels are made by 5th & 6th generation bagel bakers using old-world family recipes from Bialystock, Poland. Our commitment to providing authentic New York bagels and gourmet coffee, coupled with our food innovation and extraordinary customer service places us in a prime position for future growth in and out of New York, said Andrew Hazen, CEO of Bagel Boss. I have been a part of the Bagel Boss family for nearly three decades and I am honored to bring Bagel Boss to our community in Massapequa said Grossfeld. As we say in Massapequa, Once a Chief Always A Chief. Bagel Boss Deli is open seven days a week. For more information about Bagel Boss and its franchise opportunities, visit BagelBoss.com Community, Charity & Cause By Chris Boyle Published: September 09 2022 Legislation (S.6810/A.7425) Establishes Alternative Method for Victim Compensation Fund Awards. Ahead of the 21st anniversary of 9/11, Governor Kathy Hochul today signed five pieces of legislation to provide support to 9/11 victims and survivors and their families. This support will help to remove barriers and delays from Victim Compensation Fund and workers' compensation claims. In addition, a highway will be designated to honor James Kennelly, a volunteer firefighter who assisted with search, rescue, and recovery efforts. Photos of the Governor signing the bills are available here "New Yorkers will never forget the horrific events of September 11, 2001 -- and we will never forget the bravery and sacrifice of the civilians and first responders who lives were forever changed," Governor Hochul said. "As we mark the twenty-first anniversary of the terror attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania, I am honored to sign these five new laws that will support and honor those whose lives were transformed on that terrible day." Legislation (S.6810/A.7425) establishes simplified alternative method for Victim Compensation Fund awards, consisting solely of non-economic losses such as emotional damages. The VCF will issue a very detailed award breakdown and allocation of the award between economic loss and non-economic loss. Currently, under New York's wrongful death statute, an award issued by the VCF is treated the same as any action for wrongful act, neglect or default causing the death of a decedent. Once an award is issued by the VCF, the personal representative must apply to the Surrogate's Court for a court order allowing the compromise, collection, and distribution of the award. The Surrogate's Court is responsible to ensure the adequacy of the award and the proper allocation of the funds to the interested parties. State Senator Andrew Gounardes said, "As New Yorkers, we owe a debt we can never repay to the responders who risked everything to assist in the rescue, recovery, and clean-up operations at the World Trade Center. More than two decades later, their experiences still call us to act to ensure they get the help and benefits they deserve. My three bills will make it easier for responders to apply for 9/11 disability benefits and receive help from the Victim Compensation Fund. Thank you to Governor Hochul for signing these bills into law today, and, as always, to the brave responders who sacrificed and continue to sacrifice - so much."" Assemblymember Peter J. Abbate, Jr. said, "The enactment of these bills will streamline the procedures for receiving awards from the September 11th Victims Compensation Fund for victims and survivors of the terrorist attack. It will also help ensure that those brave men and women who participated in the World Trade Center rescue, recovery and clean-up operations receive the benefits that they and their families deserve. I thank Governor Hochul for signing these bills into law. We must do everything we can to honor, remember and pay tribute to the heroic efforts of those who answered the call on that fateful day. We will never forget." Legislation (S.6812/A.7426) will require the Victim Compensation Fund Award to treat all victims of the World Trade Center terrorist attack and the processing of their claims equally without unnecessary delay, removing certain restrictions that caused delays for many filers and their families. This bill minimizes the administrative burden on the family, VCF, and the Surrogate's Court by allowing personal representatives of 9/11 decedents to file and process claims, regardless of whether the decedent died of the 9/11 illness or simply sustained a 9/11 injury but died of a different cause. Legislation (S.9370/A.9922A) provides a presumption for Workers' Compensation claims for any health impairment or death of individuals who participated in the World Trade Center rescue, recovery and clean-up operations. Many of the first responders & rescue and recovery workers have a timely claim for benefits with the NYS Workers' Compensation Board, but have been denied without cause. Other dependents of workers who died of 9/11 certified illnesses are barred from filing claims for Workers' Compensation benefits because the statute of limitations expired before the CDC "World Trade Center Health Program" certified illnesses was accepted as presumptive cause. This bill helps those first responders and rescue and recovery workers who contracted an illness or died of a certified illness get the benefits that they and their families deserve. State Senator Robert Jackson said, "Many 9/11 rescue and recovery workers developed respiratory symptoms and pulmonary diseases due to their exposure to World Trade Center dust clouds. Changes to the Workers' Compensation Law is necessary to honor the sacrifices these heroes and their families made for our democracy and all Americans. I'm pleased that as we approach the 21st anniversary of one of the most tragic days in American history, that Governor Hochul is signing my bill S9370 into law. I thank her and my colleague Assemblymember Abbato (A922-A) for their leadership." Legislation (S.9294A/A.10416) allows any participant who became disabled between September 11th, 2017 and September 11th, 2021 to file a claim before September 11th, 2026. If a participant filed a claim in this period and it was disallowed, the application will be reconsidered by the Workers' Compensation Board. This will also extend the time period to September 11th, 2026 for filing a notice of participation in New York State's public retirement systems. Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou said, "I am proud to see that 21 years later, New York State is still taking action to support 9/11 first responders. In my district, we still have many people developing and living with 9/11 related illnesses. It is our duty to make sure that all survivors recieve the support they deserve." Legislation (S.8273/A.7057-B) designates a portion of the State Highway System as the "Port Authority Police Officer James W. Kennelly Memorial Highway." James Kennelly was a volunteer firefighter and Massapequa resident who assisted in the search, rescue, and recovery efforts at Ground Zero at the age of twenty. He passed away at 37 from 9/11-related cancer. By dedicating this highway to his name, his sacrifices will be honored. State Senator John E. Brooks said, "James Kennelly served as a volunteer firefighter at Massapequa's East End Fire House. When he was only 20 years old, he made the heroic decision to assist with search, rescue, and recovery efforts at Ground Zero on 9/11. For anyone who knew James, this was not a surprise as he always stepped up to help those in need. Unfortunately, James passed away from a 9/11-related cancer diagnosis at the young age of 37, leaving behind his family, friends, and community that haven't been the same since. It is our duty to acknowledge the heroism that James displayed during his short, but impactful, life, and I thank Governor Hochul for signing this bill into law to mark such a significant occasion." (Alliance News) - AstraZeneca PLC and Merck & Co Inc on Friday said their cancer drug lynparza, or olaparib, showed positive overall survival data for patients with ovarian cancer in three phase III studies. In combination with bevacizumab, an overall 5-year survival rate of 66% was achieved in patients with a form of ovarian cancer, compared to 48% for patients merely treated with bevacizumab, another cancer drug. The form of ovarian cancer the study was trialled on is homologous recombination deficiency-positive, or HRD-positive, which about half of patients with ovarian cancer have. It means a body is unable to repair double strand breaks in DNA, making it more difficult for cancer cells to repair themselves. Further, another phase III trial showed "Lynparza plus bevacizumab increased median overall survival to 56.5 months versus 51.6 months with bevacizumab alone," regardless of if the patient was HRD-positive or not. However, this increase was not "statistically significant", AstraZeneca cautioned. A third cited phase III study showed Lynparza improved overall survival for patients with BRCA-mutated newly diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer. After about seven years, 67% of Lynparza patients were still alive, versus 47% who received a placebo. A BRCA gene mutation increases the risk of cancers over time. "Historically the five year survival rate of newly diagnosed patients with advanced ovarian cancer is 30% to 50%. In that context, it is phenomenal to share the long term overall survival data," said Susan Galbraith, executive vice president of AstraZeneca's oncology research & development unit. AstraZeneca shares were 0.6% higher at 10,572 pence each on Friday, while Merck shares were virtually flat at USD87.42 each. By Tom Budszus; tombudszus@alliancenews.com Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. (Alliance News) - Orosur Mining Inc's joint venture partner, Minera Monte Aguila, on Friday provided the company with a phase one earn-in notice for the Anza project in Colombia. Shares in the Toronto-based mineral exploration and development company focused on South America were trading 7.3% higher at 14.75 pence each in London on Friday morning. Minera Monte Aguila have completed all of the phase one obligations under the exploration agreement, including investing USD10 million in the Anza project. It will shortly enter phase two under the exploration agreement. Minera Monte Aguila is itself a joint venture between Newmont Corp and Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd, and is the Colombian entity by which these two companies jointly exercise their rights and obligations with respect to the exploration agreement over the project. Orosur and Minera Monte Aguila will now begin the process of forming a new mining company. Phase two will begin when this new company is formed and the joint venture agreement is signed. Orosur will have a 49% ownership interest in the company with Minera Monte Aguila taking the remaining 51%. Minera Monte Aguila may earn an additional 14% ownership in the company by spending USD20 million in qualifying expenditures on the project. If the phase two earn-in option is completed, Minera Monte Aguila would own 65% of the new company with Orosur holding 35%. The Anza project is based in Colombia and on Tuesday returned drilling results which the Chief Executive Officer said were "a spectacular demonstration of the potential of the Anza Project." Orosur Executive Chairman Louis Castro commented: "We are delighted to have reached this key stage in the exploration agreement. Together with our partners we are starting to prepare for phase two of the project, and we look forward to accelerated exploration activities during this period." By Chris Dorrell; chrisdorrell@alliancenews.com Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. (Alliance News) - Rio Tinto PLC's deal to acquire Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd could be hit by legal opposition, a top investor in the Canadian miner threatened on Friday. Pentwater Capital Management LP, which has recently topped up its stake in Turquoise to 12%, said it will explore an "exercise of dissent rights or other legal action" in a bid to block Rio's buyout. The FTSE 100-listed miner earlier in September said it struck a binding agreement to take full ownership of Turquoise Hill. Turquoise Hill owns 66% of the massive Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mine, with the Mongolian government holding the remaining 34%. Rio currently holds a 51% stake in Turquoise Hill. Rio Tinto reached an agreement with Turquoise Hill on an improved CAD43-per-share, around USD33.00, takeover offer. Pentwater on Friday hit out at that sum. It said the CAD43 per share figure implies an equity value of CAD8.65 billion, about USD6.64 billion. This is a "fraction" of the free cash flow Pentwater expects Turquoise Hill to generate over the next 10 years. "Pentwater expects Turquoise Hill to generate over CAD10.5 billion of free cash flow through 2030 assuming USD3.50 copper and almost CAD14.2 billion of free cash flow assuming USD4.00 copper. Pentwater believes that as the world transitions to a green economy, the demand for copper will continue to increase and that there is a high probability that the price of copper will be in excess of USD4.00 over the next decade," Pentwater said. "Pentwater further believes that the proposed premium is unacceptable for a mine that Pentwater expects to be the third-largest copper and gold mine in the world, with a mine life in excess of 90 years." Pentwater added: "Pentwater does not support the proposed plan of arrangement. Pentwater is evaluating its legal alternatives with respect of Turquoise Hill, Rio Tinto, and the proposed plan of arrangement, including but not limited to the possible exercise of dissent rights or other legal action." Rio Tinto shares were 3.3% higher at 4,879.97 pence each in London on Friday. Turquoise Hill fell 3.0% to CAD40.73 each in Toronto on Friday. It has a market capitalisation of CAD8.20 billion. By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. Police stroll the streets in Uvalde, Texas. There is yet another shooting. -AP Police stroll the streets in Uvalde, Texas. There is yet another shooting. -AP UPDATE: Texas Governor Greg Abbott claims he has directed the public safety department to send six more trooper units to Uvalde and for troopers to patrol in gang hotspots. "Gang violence has no place here in Texas, and we will bring the full force of justice down on these heinous criminals," he tweeted. There are apparently two young victims in the hospital, whose conditions are unknown. What makes this all the more heartbreaking is that it occurred right next to the makeshift memorial for the victims of the Uvalde school shooting. And, as a matter of fact, many kids with PTSD from the incident witnessed this new shooting. UPDATE: Apparently, the shooting appears to be "gang related", and there are as many as six victims that have been shot. Police are looking for a shooter, who is not thought to have used an assault rifle. Uvalde police are currently investigating a shooting that has left several injured near downtown's Memorial Park. The scene began unfolding at 5:30 pm CDT time. This is an active crime scene and police have warned citizens to avoid the area. By SA Commercial Prop News The report reviews the current economic and social state of Cape Towns central business district (CBD), and sets a benchmark for tracking its future development and growth. The Central City Improvement District of Cape Town (CCID) launched the first edition of the State of Central City Report that reviews the current economic and social state of Cape Towns central business district (CBD). Released on Wednesday, the report reviews the current economic and social state of Cape Towns central business district (CBD), and sets a benchmark for tracking its future development and growth. The document has a particular focus on the CBDs status as world class business city. This years is the first edition of what will be an annual publication. Rob Kane, Chairman of the CCID, says the report is intended to be an authoritative guide for investors, business decision makers and government officials, who are looking for current information on the economic state of the Cape Town CBD. The report shows that the CBD has the highest concentration of economic activity in the metro pole. The CBD contributes to more than R216 million each year, money that not only supports the continued growth of the CBD but contributes heavily to service provision and government investment throughout the rest of the metro-region. Kane says, The CBD contributes 24.5% of business turnover into the larger Cape Town metro region. This world class business district is strategically placed as an investment link to the rest of South Africa and a gateway into the African continent. The CBD provides in excess of 30% of the citys entire payroll and I believe its continued growth through tough economic times is largely due to our ability to attract and retain businesses. Its economic importance cannot be overstated. The CBD hosts 90% of Cape Towns international events (both business and leisure), and 75% of major local events, which are key drivers of economic activity. By bringing people from far and wide into this area, these events generate a significant GDP contribution in excess of R1.5 billion. The bottom line is that the CBD is open for business and is beyond doubt a globally competitive business hub. This report illustrates the best that the CBD has to offer, but most importantly points towards an industrious world class city, says Kane. Some of the other findings revealed in the report are: Investment in property over the past three years amounts to R4.6 billion; The total current value of property in the CBD is more than R21 billion; Retailers occupy 380 000m2 of retail space with over 1200 retail shops; Over 500 legal service offices are located in the CBD making it one of the largest legal hubs in the country; Medical health and cosmetic services is the second biggest sector after legal services. It is followed by the financial services and banking sector; The CBD boasts over 32% of the citys total AAA and A grade office space; The expansion of the Container Terminal Port at the harbour edge of the CBD will double its cargo handling capacity to over R14 million units. Imports and exports include oil, vehicles, chemical products, grains, amongst many other products; It holds 47% bed space in the city, making it an economic gateway for domestic and international visitors; Users of the CBD (87%) feel that Cape Town has one of the safest CBDs in the country and 82.6% feel safe on the street. Close to 80% believe the CBD looks clean and orderly. The review also reveals findings from an independent survey to assess the perceptions of the district as a place to work, live, play and conduct business. The survey sought the opinion of businesses and the general public. Key results of the business survey reveal that: 81% of businesses experience an overall level of satisfaction about being located in the CBD; 78% said they are likely to remain in the CBD; 97% believe Cape Town has proved itself as host of world-class events; 89% believe Cape Towns CBD is a well-governed city; 80% of Cape Town businesses believe that the CBD is the safest CBD; 88% believe that the Integrated Rapid Transit system is a solution for making the CBD more accessible for the 300 000 people who people who commute in and out of the CBD each day. Kane says, From corporates to creatives, the CBD brings together a diverse collection of people who have and continue to build our economy. Cape Towns CBD and the people who live, work and play within are set to create some of the most unique and exciting economic activity in the world. Tower Limited today announces two new partnerships that will contribute towards the growth of its partnerships network. Tower CEO, Blair Turnbull says, Gross Written Premium from Towers partnership business (excluding legacy and closed bancassurance books) has increased by 33% to $50m over the past 10 months (based on unaudited management accounts). These new partnerships further support this positive momentum. Tower has signed a new partnership agreement with real estate group, Ray White. Together the two businesses will offer Towers insurance products and digital customer experience to Ray Whites customers via its new Concierge insurance and moving solutions offering. Ray White Concierge has been delivered successfully in Australia for over 16 years. Its services, aimed at assisting people to move house easily, help more than 144,000 Australian customers per year. Tower CEO Blair Turnbull says, Ray White sells more than 20,000 houses a year across New Zealand. This new partnership will enable Ray Whites customers to purchase their insurance seamlessly via the Concierge service and will give them access to Towers leading My Tower platform, where people can update, claim on, and manage their insurance quickly online. In August Tower commenced a partnership with advisory firm, Kiwi Adviser Network (KAN) with the online referral service going live for advisors this week. KAN is a mortgage advisory firm that has relationships with 200 advisors and 20 New Zealand mortgage lenders. Mr Turnbull says entering these new partnerships is another positive step forward for Towers partnerships advisory model with the growth of its network accelerating by 34% to 1,535 active advisors since November 2021. ENDS Tower announces partnership with Ray White, expands adviser network 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. 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Related News: September 13th Morning Report CBD Oversubscription Bookbuild and Capital Raise Complete Bond Offer Open and Indicative Issue Margin Synlait provides SAMR update; current registration renewed Genesis Appoints Malcolm Johns as Chief Executive September 12th Morning Report Greenfern Industries part of trio awarded grant to research Fonterra provides earnings guidance, milk collection update September 9th Morning Report CBD - Regulatory Clarification and GMP Audit Timing System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28: 29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:948 /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. 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The next edition of the 'worlds most comprehensive and up-to-date guide to broadcasting' will be published in December 2022 in a printed and a digital version. The 'Directory of Global Broadcasting' was published by WRTH Publications Limited until 2022. The rights have now been transferred to Radio Data Center GmbH (RDC), based in Freising, Germany. After seven decades as a book, the World Radio TV Handbook (WRTH), the "Directory of Global Broadcasting," will now also be available as a web app. "The directory is an indispensable reference for interested radio listeners, avid DXers and all those who move professionally in the world of radio" said Gunter Lorenz, founder and CEO of Radio Data Center GmbH, on September 08, 2022. "We are pleased that it will also be available online as a web app from December 2022." Radio Data Center GmbH (RDC) was created in 2012 to provide professional data delivery and services for broadcast radio-related business and industries. Gunter Lorenz had founded FMLIST, the worlds most comprehensive and up-to-data database of FM broadcasting, already in 1986. It went online in 2005 at fmlist.org and was soon followed by MWLIST, its counterpart for mediumwave and shortwave broadcasting. Oliver Schmidt is CEO of RDC and Chairman of the Board of UKW/TV-Arbeitskreis e.V., the organisation that owns FMLIST, and publisher of Sender-Tabelle and European Radio Guide books. The worldwide RDC team defines their work, which extends the community-supported databases to professional level, as being cartographers of the global radio landscape". https://wrth.org/WRTHcontinuationOfficial.pdf? fbclid=IwAR3NeiYq8w8c5K_ eSJtMYlIIGFAtWGCUN 9SmLmR7MhyVbUcIZJNnP2oJb9M It is observed that the cooperation during the visit extended to all fields, including trade and commerce, power and energy, transport and connectivity, science and technology, rivers, and maritime affairs. by Kamal Uddin Mazumder On Sept 5, India welcomed one of the closest friends in the neighbourhood, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who visited India on a four-day visit. During the course of her trip, she hold a bilateral meeting with PM Narendra Modi as well as interacted with President Droupadi Murmu. The immediate outcome of the visit was the signing of the seven memorandums of understanding (MoUs) in various fields, including the withdrawal of water from the cross-border Kushiyara river, cooperation in space technology, collaboration on IT systems used by railways in areas such as movement of freight, science and technology cooperation, training of Bangladesh Railway personnel and Bangladeshi judicial officers in India, and cooperation in broadcasting between Prasar Bharati and Bangladesh Television, aimed at boosting ties between the two countries. Among the seven pacts signed on September 6, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on withdrawal of 153 cusecs (cubic feet per second) of water from the Kushiyara by Bangladesh is most welcomed by Dhaka. It is the first such deal the two countries have inked after the Ganges River water-sharing agreement in 1996 and is seen as a breakthrough in addressing an issue that has cast a shadow on their otherwise close ties. The deal came to the Sylhet region as blessings that are expected to help alleviate some of Dhakas concerns. A pact to share water resources from transboundary rivers that run downstream from the Himalayas from India into Bangladesh has long been a priority for Bangladesh, a lower riparian state that suffers from crippling water shortages. Earlier, India and Bangladesh finalised the Teesta water-sharing deal in 2010 and it was likely to be signed in 2011. But it could not be inked due to opposition from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banarjee. A bird's-eye view of Rampal power plant, a 1,320-megawatt coal-fired power station in Rampal upazila of Bagerhat district in Khulna Division [ Photo Mahmud Hossain Opu/ Dhaka Tribune] The agreement will benefit southern parts of Assam state in India and the Sylhet region in Bangladesh. According to the agreement, the withdrawal of 153 cusecs of water from Kushiara river through Rahimpur canal will bring major changes in dry season farming in Jokiganj upazila bordering Bangladesh. At the same time, the farmers of Kanighat and some parts of Biyanibazar Upazila will benefit. The two leaders engaged in talks on connectivity, trade, flood management, counter-terrorism, food security, and nuclear energy partnerships. In a bid to help Bangladesh deal with the energy crisis, the two leaders unveiled the first unit of the Maitree Thermal Power Plant, a 1320 MW supercritical coal-fired thermal power plant at Rampal in the Khulna division of Bangladesh. The project is being set up at an approximate budget of $2 billion out of which $1.6 billion was Indian Development Assistance that will enhance Bangladeshs power generation capacities. Experts believe that the Maitree Power Plant will give citizens of Bangladesh access to affordable electricity, boosting Bangladesh face the difficulties that the country is facing in because of the growing energy prices worldwide. Both leaders also discussed the issue of counterterrorism. Today we also stressed on cooperation against terrorism and fundamentalism. To keep the spirit of 1971 alive, it is also very necessary that we face such forces together, who want to attack our mutual trust, PM Modi said. In flood management, India has extended the period of sharing flood water-related information in real-time which will help Bangladesh counter the annual floods. Connectivity boost An important project that was inaugurated was the Rupsha bridge. The 5.13 km Rupsha rail bridge is a key part of the 64.7 km Khulna-Mongla Port single-track Broad Gauge rail project, connecting for the first time Mongla Port (Bangladeshs second largest port) with Khulna by rail, and thereafter to Central and North Bangladesh and also to the India border at Petrapole and Gede in West Bengal. The inauguration of the railway bridge over the Rupsha river is a remarkable step towards enhancing connectivity. This bridge is an important part of the new railway line being built between Khulna and Mongla Port under Indias Line of Credit Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a statement during a joint media appearance with Hasina. An announcement was also made that India would supply road construction equipment and machinery in 25 packages to the road and highways department of the Bangladeshi government. The Khulna-Darshana railway line link project was also announced to upgrade the existing (doubling of broad gauge) infrastructure, linking the current cross-border rail link at Gede-Darshana to Khulna and thereby augmenting the rail connections between the two countries, especially to Dhaka, but also in future, to Mongla Port. The project cost is estimated to be USD 312.48 million. Another project, Parbatipur-Kaunia railway line, will see the conversion of the existing metre-gauge line to dual-gauge line at an estimated cost of USD 120.41 million. The project will connect the existing cross-border rail at Birol (Bangladesh)-Radhikapur (West Bengal) and enhance bilateral rail connectivity. The connectivity initiatives are part of the ongoing projects in Bangladesh that are aimed at converting the country into a major connectivity hub of South and Southeast Asia. It is mentionable that, India has provided concessional loans worth $9.5 billion for development projects in Bangladesh, especially connectivity initiatives. These initiatives include improving rail connectivity between Khulna and Dhaka, Chilahati and Rajshahi and connecting Mongla port with Darshana-Gede at a cost of $312million, the Parbatipur-Kaunia rail project to facilitate the transportation of fuel that is being built at a cost of $120million, and the supply of road construction equipment and machinery worth $41million to repair and maintain Bangladeshs road network. With the expansion of connectivity between our two countries, and the development of trade infrastructure on the border, the two economies will be able to connect more with each other. Trade prospects under CEPA It is true that While India is Bangladeshs largest trade partner in South Asia, with bilateral trade reaching a record $18 billion in the last financial year, there has been a significant trade imbalance between the two countries. To narrow the trade gap and to further accelerate this growth, two sides agreed to begin negotiations on a comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA) this year. When the CEPA is operationalised, bilateral trade potential would be USD 40 billion. Moreover, the CEPA will boost bilateral and sub-regional connectivity that Bangladesh is championing in its policy initiatives. During this trip, PM Hasina met with Indian industrialist Gautam Adani, who recently became the worlds third-richest person, according to Bloombergs Billionaire Index. Adani Power, a subsidiary of Adani Group, will supply power to Bangladesh from its upcoming 1,600 MW thermal power plant in the Godda area of Jharkhand. The project is significant as Bangladesh has been recognised as an important partner under Indias Neighbourhood First policy. Finally, it is observed that the cooperation during the visit extended to all fields, including trade and commerce, power and energy, transport and connectivity, science and technology, rivers, and maritime affairs. The visit will act as a catalyst for closer coordination and cooperation in resolving all issues, including Teesta river water sharing. It is also expected that Indo-Bangladesh ties will touch new heights and will continue to add more depth and momentum in the coming days. Kamal Uddin Mazumder, Security and strategic affairs analyst, Dhaka, Bangladesh. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate LONDON (AP) Condolences poured in from around the world Thursday after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, who became a global icon of calmness and fortitude through decades of political upheaval and social changes at home and abroad. Elizabeth, who had been on the throne since 1952, when the nation was still rebuilding from the destruction of World War II, died Thursday afternoon at age 96 at Balmoral Castle, her summer residence in Scotland. Here are some reactions to her death: ___ In India, once a British colony, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Elizabeth a stalwart of our times. She personified dignity and decency in public life, Modi tweeted. ___ Royalty across Europe mourned Elizabeth's death. Her life set an example for all of us and will remain as a solid and valuable legacy for future generations, Spanish King Felipe VI said in a telegram sent to her eldest son, now known as King Charles III. We will miss Her dearly, he wrote, speaking for himself and his wife. King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden called her a constant presence, not only in British society but internationally." In Norway, King Harald said that for nearly a century, Her Majesty devoted her life to the service of the Commonwealth, following the British people through good days and bad, in times of happiness and sorrow." ___ President Joe Biden was informed of her death by senior advisers during a meeting in the Oval Office. Elizabeth, who had met more than a dozen American presidents, "was a stateswoman of unmatched dignity and constancy who deepened the bedrock alliance between the United Kingdom and the United States, he and first lady Jill Biden said in a statement, saying she "she defined an era. They later went to the British Embassy to offer condolences. We mourn for all of you. She was a great lady," Biden could be heard telling embassy staff. ___ France, Britains historic rival and contemporary ally, honored Elizabeth with flags at the presidential palace and public buildings ordered lowered to half-staff Friday. President Emmanuel Macron hailed her immutable moral authority and her intimate knowledge of French. He said no other foreign sovereign had visited the presidential palace more often than Elizabeth, who knew all eight presidents of contemporary France. The woman who stood alongside the giants of the 20th century on the path of history has left to join them, Macron said in a statement. ___ Mourners also gathered at the British Embassy in Paris. She's been a constant in my life," said 70-year-old Robert Miller, a London resident in Paris for a conference. Whilst I know she was very old, she was still doing her work until yesterday," he said. Like anybodys mother, you know, even if you think things are going well, at some point the end of an era comes, and youre very sad. ___ Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a telegram to King Charles III. For many decades, Elizabeth II rightfully enjoyed the love and respect of her subjects, as well as authority on the world stage. I wish you courage and perseverance in the face of this heavy, irreparable loss. ___ At the United Nations, the Security Council stood in silent tribute at the start of a meeting on Ukraine. Frances U.N. Ambassador Nicolas De Riviere, the council president, sent condolences on behalf of its 15 members. Queen Elizabeth II presided over a period of historic changes both for her country and the world, he said. Her life was devoted to the service of her country. ___ Elizabeth was mourned across the 54-nation Commonwealth, a group built around Britain and its former colonies. In Ghana, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo recalled Elizabeth's visits to his country and praised the friendliness, elegance, style and sheer joy she brought to the performance of her duties." We shall miss her inspiring presence, her calm, her steadiness, and, above all, her great love and belief in the higher purpose of the Commonwealth of Nations, and in its capacity to be a force for good in our world," he said in a statement. ____ For most Canadians, we have known no other sovereign, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. He called her a constant presence in our lives and her service to Canadians will forever remain an important part of our countrys history. I'm having trouble believing that my last sit-down with her was my last," Trudeau said later. I will so miss those chats." Elizabeth, who was Canadas head of state, visited the country 22 times as monarch. ____ The queens death comes as a growing number of British territories in the Caribbean seek to replace the monarch with their own heads of state amid demands that Britain apologize for its colonial-era abuses and award its former colonies slavery reparations. Still, Caribbean leaders from Jamaica to Bermuda and beyond mourned her death. Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness said that for many years she visited the island every decade. Undoubtedly, she formed a special bond with the people of Jamaica, he said. We are saddened that we will not see her light again, but we will remember her historic reign. Bermuda Premier David Burt noted that her reign has spanned decades of such immense change for the United Kingdom and the world. ___ Elton John said in a tweet that she was an inspiring presence to be around, and lead the country through some of our greatest, and darkest, moments. The acclaimed musician reworked his hit Candle in the Wind as a tribute to Princess Diana when she died unexpectedly in 1997. ___ All the living former U.S. presidents issued statements soon after Elizabeth's death. Donald Trump said on his social media platform that Elizabeth will always be remembered for her faithfulness to her country and her unwavering devotion to her fellow countrymen and women. Melania and I will always cherish our time together with the queen, and never forget Her Majestys generous friendship, great wisdom, and wonderful sense of humor. What a grand and beautiful lady she was - there was nobody like her! Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, said she made the role of Queen her own with a reign defined by grace, elegance, and a tireless work ethic, defying the odds and expectations placed on women of her generation. He said she welcomed him and his wife the first Black American president and first lady to the world stage with open arms and extraordinary generosity" and said they were struck by her ability to put people at ease. George W. Bush called her a woman of great intellect, charm, and wit. Spending time at Buckingham Palace, and having tea with Her Majesty and her Corgis is among our fondest memories of the presidency, he said in a statement. Bill Clinton said he and his wife, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, joined people around the world in giving thanks for her extraordinary life. Throughout her remarkable 70-year reign, she led Britain through great transformations with unfailing grace, dignity, and genuine care for the welfare of all its people. In sunshine or storm, she was a source of stability, serenity, and strength, he said in a statement on Twitter. Jimmy Carter said in a statement that Elizabeth's dignity, graciousness and sense of duty have been an inspiration and we join the millions around the world in mourning a remarkable leader." ___ In Washington, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine recalled how Elizabeth had joked with him when she visited Virginia in 2007 while he was governor. He asked the queens security detail whether he should offer the queen his arm while going up a steep set of Capitol steps. They assured him shed be fine. But when she arrived a few weeks later, she looked at him and deadpanned, they expect me to go up this? Kaine was momentarily flustered. She was just pulling my leg. She just walked up just as fast as can be, Kaine said. The queens visit came not long after a gunman at a Virginia university, Virginia Tech, killed dozens of people. The queen met with people from the university and well as grieving family members. That really meant a lot, Kaine said. ___ She lived history, she made history. And with her passing, she leaves a magnificent, inspirational legacy, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said. ___ Praise even came from the fictional Paddington Bear, the beloved British children's book character. The bear shared tea with the queen in a video shown in June during her Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Thank you Maam, for everything," said a statement Thursday on the Paddington Bear Twitter feed. ___ Follow all AP stories on the British royals at https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii. BIG RAPIDS Officers with the Big Rapids Department of Public Safety recovered a stash of street signs Thursday night after a witness called 911. According to police reports, at 11:48 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 8, officers responded to the 300 block of South Michigan Avenue for a report of larceny. A witness called 911 after seeing someone stealing a construction detour sign and running in to a residence. A consented search revealed 11 signs that had reportedly been stolen from Big Rapids, Mecosta County and Ferris State University, including a Two Hats Ranch sign, a New Millpond Road sign, a 175th Avenue sign, a Garfield Road sign and a yellow arrow sign, police said. The signs were turned over to their respective jurisdictions, and the tenants cited for receiving stolen property. Another person was cited for larceny of the detour sign, according to police. Big Rapids police reported two incidents over the weekend involving stolen signs. On Sept. 2, officers responded to the intersection of Michigan and Linden for a report of a stolen pedestrian crosswalk sign. Then at 2:15 a.m. Sept. 3, officers cited a male for tampering after he tried walking off with a "No Parking Here to Corner" sign from Michigan/Locust. However, public information officer William Sell told the Pioneer the signs recovered Thursday were not the same signs. Most of the recovered signs were from the county. The Michigan Department of Health and Human services has reported a new rise in COVID cases in its latest weekly report. Michigan reported 15,854 new cases the week of Sept. 6, with an average of about 2,265 cases per day. The states positivity rate was around 20% as of Aug. 30. Last week, Tuscola County issued a COVID notice due to the county being at a "high" level. The CDC recommended that that everyone wears a mask indoors in public locations. Since the last report issued the week of Aug. 28, cases in Tuscola County increased by 75. The Huron County Health Department has labeled the level of COVID-19 as high and also recommends using masks when indoors. We do want to recommend them at this time due to the high level of community transmission, Huron County Health Officer Tip Macguire said. Michigan as a state is at a medium level, according to the new reports. Through the last two weeks, Huron county has seen 224 new COVID-19 cases, with a 13 seven-day average. Now that kids and teachers are back in school, the CDC and Huron County Health Department wants people to be careful and space, especially when indoors around a large group or amount of people. Here at the office, we have N-95 masks that are available to pick up for consumer use, Macguire said. At the office we will be wearing masks until the transmission level goes down back to medium or low. To stay up to date with COVID-19 cases and information, visit the Huron County Health Department website or the Michigan Health Department site. Bad Axe man gets prison time for May home invasion Police say man forced his way into home, assaulted mother of his child. Auburn man arrested for breaking into convenience store A 40-year-old Auburn man was taken into custody on Friday afternoon after reportedly breaking... This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) Two college campuses locked down. City buses stopped running. A baseball stadium halted a game, and frightened residents stayed indoors as a gunman spent hours cruising around Memphis and shooting people, apparently at random. Authorities said the assailant suspected of killing four people and wounding three livestreamed some of the carnage using his cellphone. He was arrested late Wednesday after crashing a stolen car while fleeing police. The violence unfolded just a few months after 19-year-old Ezekiel Kelly was released early from a three-year prison sentence for a pair of shootings in 2020. Now he's charged with first-degree murder. The bloodshed played out as the city was still reeling from the brutal killing of a jogger who was abducted during her early morning run less than a week earlier. This has been a horrific week for the city of Memphis, Police Director Cerelyn CJ Davis said. Authorities offered no explanation Thursday of a possible motive. Nor did they say how Kelly managed to obtain the gun or guns used in the attacks. The shootings shut down much of the city, and police warned people to shelter in place. The minor-league Memphis Redbirds cleared the field during a game. Friends and relatives frantically called and texted each other, and TV stations cut into regular programming with updates. Police said the first victim was killed more than 15 hours before the other shootings occurred. Just before 1 a.m. Wednesday, at least three witnesses saw Kelly fatally shoot Dewayne Tunstall in the head outside a home in east Memphis, according to a police affidavit. It said Kelly pulled Tunstall to the side, then during their conversation drew a handgun and fired several shots. Marcus Cash, a close friend and business partner of Tunstall's, came running after he heard the gunshots from his home. One round pierced the window of his childs bedroom. When he saw Tunstalls body, he laid down in anguish beside the man who had been like a brother. Cash said he was so distraught that police held him as a precaution for several hours to give him time to calm down. Asked what he told police, Cash said: You all better catch him before I do. The second shooting came hours later at about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, when officers found a man dead from multiple gunshot wounds inside a vehicle, according to police. A woman who had been shot in the leg was discovered minutes later, still alive. More shootings were reported over the next 4 1/2 hours. During that time, police received a tip at about 6 p.m. that the suspect was livestreaming himself and threatening to hurt people, Davis said. In one clip from the video, the suspect casually speaks to the camera before opening the door to an AutoZone store and shooting someone inside with what appeared to be a pistol. That man was taken to a hospital in critical condition. In another, a man narrates himself driving green light, green light and sings no faking. At one point, he fires two rapid bursts of gunfire from the drivers window. Referring to police, he says hes going to go down to the valley, shoot it out with them in the valley. Three more shootings and two carjackings followed after police sent an alert warning people to be on the lookout for the suspect. Police said Kelly killed a woman as he took her SUV, then shot and wounded a man nearby. The final victim, another woman, was found dead about an hour later, just before 9 p.m. Kelly drove across the state line into neighboring Southaven, Mississippi, where he committed another carjacking at gunpoint but left the driver uninjured, police said. Officers quickly spotted the stolen Dodge Challenger on Interstate 55. Kelly was arrested after he crashed during a high-speed chase, Davis said. Two guns were found in the vehicle. It was not immediately known Thursday whether Kelly had an attorney. One of the gunman's victims, Allison Parker, was a medical assistant with three children, said Debbie Holland, Parkers mother-in-law. Holland said her grandchildren now have no parents, since their father died a couple of years ago. She was beautiful, intelligent, kindhearted, giving she would help anybody who asked, Holland said of Parker. She didnt deserve to die at the hands of this monster. Facebook parent company Meta said Thursday that it removed the suspects livestream before Memphis police sent their initial alert, but the company declined to say for how long the live video was streaming. The company said it also removed the suspects Facebook account and has continuously removed content such as copies of the video or messages praising the attack. Memphis has been shaken by several high-profile killings in recent weeks, including the shooting of a pastor during a daylight carjacking in her driveway, the shooting of an activist during an argument over money and the slaying of jogger Eliza Fletcher following her abduction near the University of Memphis. Mayor Jim Strickland told reporters he was outraged that Kelly had been released early from prison in March after pleading guilty last year to aggravated assault charges. This is no way for us to live, and it is not acceptable, said Strickland, who later pounded the podium as he demanded accountability. He added: If Mr. Kelly served his full three-year sentence, he would still be in prison today, and four of our fellow citizens would still be alive." In February 2020, Kelly, then 17, was charged as an adult with attempted first-degree murder and other crimes in two shootings committed a few hours apart. Both victims survived but didn't cooperate with prosecutors, according to court records, and Kelly pleaded guilty to reduced charges of aggravated assault in April 2021. Kelly was sentenced to three years in prison, but was released in March after serving just over two years behind bars, including credit he received for time he was jailed prior to his plea. Months before his release, Kelly was denied parole in September 2021. He told the Tennessee Board of Parole that he had an anger management problem, according to a recording of his parole hearing, and that he was taking medication to help with nightmares. Strickland thanked legislators for passing Tennessee's so-called truth in sentencing law this year. The statute, which took effect after Kelly was freed, requires inmates to serve entire sentences for certain violent felonies. The area's top prosecutor, Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy, is a fellow Democrat who was elected in August after arguing against the sentencing law, saying it drives up prison costs without reducing crime. Mulroy said there was no tension Thursday between him and the mayor. Both of us think that all these cases, including the tragic incidents from last night, need to be dealt with strongly, said Mulroy, who played no role in Kelly's prior prosecution and sentencing. The public policy debate can be discussed another day. ___ Associated Press writers Kimberlee Kruesi, Jonathan Mattise and Travis Loller in Nashville, Tennessee; Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia; Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Alabama; Rebecca Reynolds in Louisville, Kentucky; Matt OBrien in Providence, Rhode Island; and news researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this story. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Members of the public are invited to take a silent walk of 3,000 steps at Dow Diamond on Sunday, Sept. 11, to honor the people who lost their lives as a result of the hijacking and crashing of four planes in New York, Washington, D.C., and western Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001. The Great Lakes Bay Veterans Coalition, Dow Diamond, and Three Rivers Corporation are hosting the free event to pay tribute to the victims of those attacks. The event starts at 7:59 a.m. on the concourse at Dow Diamond. This matches the time when American Airlines Flight 11 departed from Boston's Logan International Airport before being hijacked and eventually being flown into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York. At 10:28 a.m., the song Taps will be played to recognize the time when the North Tower collapsed. Sunday's event will conclude with participants exiting under a Garrison Flag, an extra-large flag that is reserved for flying on Sundays, holidays, and special occasions. It is 36 feet by 20 feet. A course map and more information will be passed out at the event. Participants who are walking the course are asked to remain silent. Anyone wishing to participate by observing may do so from the concourse seating or lawn area. The names of all who died on Sept. 11, 2001 will be prominently displayed during the event. Those wishing to donate to the Great Lakes Bay Veterans Coalition directly may do so at https://www.midlandfoundation.org/fund/glbveteranscoalitionendowment/ Those with medical conditions should be aware that a loud noise from a small cannon will be fired six times during the event. No food will be available at the venue. Service dogs are welcome. This summer's drought is expected to cause a patchy array of fall color starting earlier in the leaf-peeping haven of New England while the autumn colors are likely to be muted and not last as long in the drought- and heat-stricken areas of the south. In New England, experts anticipate the season, which typically peaks in October, to be more spread out with some trees changing earlier or even browning and dropping leaves because of the drought. Other places, like Texas, could see colors emerging later in the fall due to warm temperatures. We will still have brilliant colors in New England because of the fact that we have so many different kinds of trees and theyre growing on kind of ridges, and kind of slopes and wetlands, said Richard Primack, a professor of plant ecology at Boston University. You know we will have good color but the color will probably be more spotty than usual. Leaf peeping is big business in places like New England, where millions of visitors from around the country and world bring in billions of dollars. Everyone from inns to diners often count on this business to get them through the rest of the year. But predicting when those colors will peak is not an exact science; requiring experts to consider everything from temperature, the length of the day and stresses like pests and drought. In Vermont, the 18-room Mad River Barn, an inn in Fayston, typically sells out for about three weeks in a row starting in late September, said inn manager Jess Kotch. But those leaf-peepers dont make reservations far in advance. Typically we get so many inquiries for last-minute stays through that period that I dont even really start thinking about it until this week and next week, she said. This year, drought is one of the big concerns in many parts of the country. Severe and even extreme drought set in this summer in southern New England and remains in some areas, while up north parts of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine are in a moderate drought or are abnormally dry. In those northern New England states, the color will depend on the health of the individual trees and is expected to be good to variable. Where you have those real dry sandy soils or you know, trees that have had health issues accumulating over time you may see some effect on fall foliage on those trees, Wendy Scribner, a forestry field specialist with the University of New Hampshire extension service, said. But I think we just have so many of them that we still will see some coloration. In Oklahoma, where much of the state is in severe or extreme drought, the trees are expected to change earlier than usual and it will be quicker. Some oak trees started browning and dropping leaves this summer, said Alex Schwartz, district silviculturist for the Oklahoma Ranger Districts of the Ouachita National Forest. When the trees experience moderate to severe drought stress like weve had, what theyre going to do is theyre going to probably stop that production what little theyve had over the summer - stop that production a lot quicker, and theyre not going to produce a lot of those other pigments like the carotenoids that bring out those other fall colors, he said. The same thing is happening on some ridgetops in Connecticut where oak trees in thin dry soils are browning and dropping leaves early, meaning they're shutting down. And many southern New England beech trees, whose leaves typically turn yellow and orange in the fall, have been hit by beech leaf disease, causing them to drop their leaves, said Robert Marra, a forest pathologist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. It's going to have a very serious impact on fall colors in the sense that most of the beeches, many of them throughout southern New England, were hit so badly by beech leaf disease this year that theyre just dropping, they dont have leaves on them to change color, he said. In Texas, the colors are likely to be muted and warm temperatures could push back the change, said Mac Martin, partnership coordinator for Texas A&M Forest Service. Were going to probably get a shorter window of the fall colors that we get here in general as well as probably less kind of brilliant colors, he said. Visitors to the White Mountain Hotel and Resort in North Conway, New Hampshire, are not holding off in making reservations, said Carol Sullivan, director of sales and marketing. The last two years for us have been very strong, and that is the same prediction for us this year, that we will have an equally strong, if not even stronger, fall foliage season, regardless of what the weather does, she said. ______ AP reporter Kathy McCormack contributed to this report from Concord, New Hampshire. MIDDLETOWN Following the posting of a photograph on social media of a child holding a non-functioning gun during last months National Night Out celebration, the police chief took immediate action, creating a policy that would ban firearms at future public events. Chief Erik Costa said Friday that the gun was a frame only, and was not loaded with ammunition. Involved officers underwent counseling about practices no longer used, he said. No disciplinary measures were taken. Over the last several years, events, such as Kids Safety Day, were not held because of COVID-19, Costa explained. In the past, it was common practice to allow children to handle inert guns and don certain police gear, such as helmets and bulletproof vests. However, he said, hes now focused on leading the agency into the 21st century. The unfortunate incident was brought up by Common Councilman Ed McKeon at the start of this weeks council meeting. Some automatic weapons were put into the hands of children, McKeon said, adding that we were all shocked that such a thing would happen. Costa said that, at the downtown event, a child was holding one of the Emergency Response Teams rifles, which are incapable of firing. When the post came to his attention, we quickly identified the problem. National Night Out was founded in 1984 with the goal of fostering positive police-community relations, including (but not limited to) displays and demonstrations of equipment and tactics in a safe, supervised and educational context, Mayor Ben Florsheim wrote on Facebook. The evening included a display of our agency resources and capabilities and the recruiting of new officers, police cadets, and Police Activity League participants, the chief wrote in a letter Florsheim shared on social media. Florsheim took to Facebook to report that departmentwide refresher training on gun safety and gun statutes was conducted immediately. Costa reported at the meeting that he spoke with legislators, Connecticut Against Gun Violence members and others, and promised that guns never would be a part of these events in the future. He also posted safety information from Project Child Safe on the departments website. The agency works to address gun violence in Connecticut. The department does not condone such activity, Costa explained in his letter. We are about safety and community engagement. I put a policy into place that those displays are not allowed at any function, he said at the meeting. The next day, he sent out a letter to the departments specialized units, including canine and marine, that the office didnt want to take away from the national event. At the same time, we do not we do not allow those types of activities, Costa added. The mayor said on Facebook that as soon as the matter came to light, he felt it was incredibly poor judgment. I regret the error in planning, and judgment that has sadly taken away from an otherwise very positive and well-received event, and apologize for the concern that it has caused in recent days, the mayor posted. While I know that was exactly the spirit intended by the display, as well as the participating officers and the event itself, I would not have allowed firearms to be part of this event if I was aware they would be in advance, he wrote. Put simply, it was a mistake. He also shared a statement from the chief. Facebook commenters supported Costas and the mayors reactive measures, with one saying we often learn the most from our mistakes. Building community is a learning experience, Florsheim wrote, and I appreciate the willingness of our residents and our public servants to learn from one another. I was heartened by the fact that it was addressed immediately, McKeon said. The department is committed to the safety of everyone in the community, and ensured that our equipment was closely monitored by an ERT member, fully disabled for display, and free of anything that could be harmful to the public, Costa wrote. He then apologized. WASHINGTON (AP) Alek Skarlatos, a Republican nominee for Congress in Oregon, was cleared this week of violating campaign finance law, months after a Democratic-aligned group filed a complaint alleging he improperly funded his campaign with money from a nonprofit he also controlled. Democrats have created a false controversy to smear Alek Skarlatos," campaign manager Ross Purgason said in a statement. The (Federal Election Commission) has dismissed these false allegations. Skarlatos, who is running for a second time to represent a coastal Oregon district, established the nonprofit veterans group 15:17 Trust shortly after losing his bid for the seat in 2020, pledging to advocate for veterans left high and dry by the country they put their lives on the line for." And he used $93,000 left over from his campaign to help seed the nonprofit. But several months later, after Skarlatos decided in 2021 to run for the seat again, the nonprofit transferred $65,000 back to his campaign. The transfers of money were the subject of an Associated Press story last year, which was followed by a complaint filed with the FEC by End Citizens United, a Democrat-aligned group. Campaign finance laws prohibit candidates from self-dealing and from accepting illicit money from the often opaque and less regulated world of political nonprofits. That includes a prohibition on candidates donating campaign cash to a nonprofit they control, as well as a broader ban on accepting contributions from such groups, legal experts say. But in this case, the FEC found that Skarlatos' nonprofit wasn't very active and failed to raise much money, taking in about $1,800. The agency also determined that the transfers of cash from Skarlatos' campaign to his nonprofit and back were done in a short enough time span that it likely amounted to a legitimate refund. Without information to indicate the contrary, the $65,000 payment from the 15:17 (Trust) to the Committee was likely a bona fide refund, the agency states in a filing, which was provided by the Skarlatos campaign and has not yet been released publicly. The AP's story last year detailed how Skarlatos' nonprofit was soliciting money online but otherwise was maintaining a decidedly low profile and had not yet released annual tax paperwork detailing how much it had raised and how the money was spent it. The story also noted how laws governing transfers of money by candidates to nonprofits they operate are intended to prevent sidestepping the ban on the personal use of campaign funds. And it detailed how Skarlatos had previously collected $43,000 from his 2020 campaign in mileage reimbursements, rent and expenses vaguely listed as contractor campaign staff. The FEC did not receive a full explanation of how the nonprofit spent the money Skarlatos lent it, including the remaining $28,000 that was not refunded to his campaign. The Skarlatos campaign said about $14,000 was spent on fundraising, but an additional $14,000 was not accounted for in the filing released by the agency. Alex Skarlatos admitted to the FEC that his charity is essentially a scam and that its inactive, said End Citizens United spokesman Adam Bozzi. The fact that he failed to help veterans saved him from a violation is a warning for voters not to trust him. Skarlatos was a member of the Oregon National Guard when he gained a measure of fame in 2015, helping to disrupt an attack on a train bound for Paris by a heavily armed man who was a follower of the Islamic State group. Hailed as a hero, he appeared on Dancing with the Stars, visited the White House and was granted dual French citizenship. It also led to a role starring as himself in the Clint Eastwood movie 15:17 to Paris. Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine may have displaced 7.1 million Ukrainians, creating the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II, but it also created a resolve among Ukrainians who stayed put. Ukrainian reservists, combat veterans and even some civilians who stayed behind were integrated into the country's military as the Territorial Defence Forces (TDF). Jerry Hultin, a former under secretary of the Navy under President Bill Clinton, says it was the 100,000 members of the Territorial Defence Forces who stopped the drive to Kyiv and put Russia on its heels. The intervention of irregular civilian fighters forced Russia to change its strategy from capturing Kyiv to fighting a war of attrition. As the Russian drive stalled, Hultin and a handful of veterans, defense officials and logistics experts created Fighting Chance Ukraine, a nonprofit network that helps fund and supply the TDF, who are usually fighting with fewer weapons and equipment than the regular army. "It was often small groups of civilians organizing themselves that really stopped that drive south and turned the war," Hultin tells Military.com. That resonated with us. Ordinary people, families joining in. The husband would go to the front line. The wife would take care of the kids, and together, they try to have a life. They teamed up and really changed the war." Hultin says the TDF makes a huge tactical difference in battles and frees up the regular military to make advances, such as the offensive currently underway in the country's south. Fighting Chance Ukraine was formed in conjunction with the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America and is made up of members with diplomatic, military and logistical experience and connections in Europe, including former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst and a former Supreme Allied Commander, Retired Gen. Philip Breedlove. "We all, for our own reasons, had skills to bring and felt this was a place that we could really make a difference," Hultin says. "There are those who know what it takes to help educate people and get them engaged. We have international relief experts who know how to find things and get them shipped, and we have networks on the ground in Ukraine who tell us what is needed." After learning from the TDF what supplies are needed, the group raises money and procures those supplies in the U.S. Using their networks, they move equipment to areas adjacent to Ukraine, like Poland or Lithuania. The materials are then shipped into Ukraine and distributed. Fighting Chance Ukraine has provided everything from basic needs like food, blankets and medical supplies to other non-lethal aid such as helmets, boots, backpacks, flak vests, night-vision goggles, encrypted cell phones, radios, walkie-talkies, drones, GPS, computers and satellite services. A Ukrainian Territorial Defence Forces volunteer survived a head shot with a donated level 4 helmet. (Courtesy of Fighting Chance Ukraine) "It's the first time in many years where we're supporting a country where there's real depth of support inside that country for providing freedom and supporting democracy," Hultin says. "I fought in Vietnam, and we didn't have the support that we should have from the South Vietnamese. We've seen some of that be true in Afghanistan and also in Iraq, but Ukraine's different. We've really seen the population create new ways to approach things and volunteer." For Hultin, the fact that Ukraine has not lost its resolve and has pushed Russian forces back is significant. There may come a time where Russia determines that a continuation of the war is not in its best interest. "I think we're right on the cusp, and that's why Fighting Chance Ukraine is so important," Hultin says. "First, it allows American military families to support Ukrainian military families, and secondly, it encourages and keeps the capacity of Ukraine to win and push back the Russians." Americans identify with Fighting Chance Ukraine, Hultin believes, because they can identify with a fight for freedom against an overwhelmingly powerful opponent. Young Americans who still want to do something to help look for organizations like Fighting Chance Ukraine. "It's part of our history to defend democracy," says Hultin. "Those of us who are veterans, who have fought in our wars from Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan know what combat's like. They know how hard it is on the front lines. In Ukraine, citizens are on the front lines, and they need the kind of support that American military families and American veterans can provide." To learn more about Fighting Chance Ukraine or to donate money for nonlethal support to the Ukrainian Territorial Defence Forces, visit FightingChanceUkraine.org. -- 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. Residents of a shantytown in a coastal area near Havana clashed last week with police officers who were looking for makeshift rafts, one of two recent violent confrontations involving the countrys security forces as authorities appear to be ramping up efforts to curb the number of Cubans fleeing to the United States by sea. In a separate incident, the Cuban coast guard reportedly detained two U.S. residents who attempted to pick up Cuban nationals on a speed boat near La Coloma in Pinar del Rio province on Monday. Citing some town residents, activists said Cuban officers opened fire at the boat, but two Facebook accounts linked to the government denied the confrontation. The Miami Herald could not independently confirm the events. The number of Cubans attempting to reach U.S. shores has dramatically increased in recent weeks as the population struggles with a devalued peso, food shortages and daily blackouts. Since Aug. 27, 219 Cubans have landed in Florida and were taken into custody, according to information provided by Walter N. Slosar, the U.S. Border Patrols Miami Sector chief agent, on Twitter. The U.S. Coast Guard returned another 85 to Cuba on Wednesday. The number of those halted at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard since October 5,392 is about to surpass those sent back in 2016 5,396 the highest number so far in the past six years. Responding to the increase in migration from Cuba and Haiti, the Task Force Southeast, an inter-agency group led by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, announced last week it was increasing patrols and enforcement by land, air and sea in the Caribbean. The task force, comprising several agencies, including the Defense Department and the Coast Guard, was created in 2003 to respond to large numbers of migrants trying to reach U.S. shores. The U.S. Border Patrol Miami Sector is committed to working alongside our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners in a whole-of-government effort to prepare for and address any potential increases in irregular maritime migration or border security threats in Florida, said Slosar, who is also the task forces deputy director. Many more Cubans are arriving by land through the U.S.- Mexico border 177,848 between last October and July making this the largest migration from Cuba since the early 1960s. Experts and activists suspect the islands authorities cut a deal with the government of Nicaragua to let Cuban nationals travel to the Central American country without visas, effectively turning Nicaragua into a launching pad for mass migration to the U.S., said Kelly M. Greenhill, an associate professor of political science in Tufts University in an event organized by the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University last month. Greenhill, the author of the book Weapons of Mass Migration: Forced Displacement, Coercion, and Foreign Policy, argues that the Cuban government has a well established pattern of using migration to coerce the United States into the negotiating table and force changes in U.S. foreign policy. But Greenhill says that unlike other migration crises during the time Fidel Castro was in power, this time the Biden administration is paying attention and has already engaged in talks with Cuban authorities, so Cubas incentives to engage in outright strategic crisis generation by weaponizing migration might be diminished. While state media has largely ignored the current exodus, Cuban authorities have recently been looking to stop what they called illegal departures. Several videos published on social media show police and special troops officers beating and trying to arrest residents of Cepen, a shantytown in Baracoa beach, east of Havana. According to accounts by residents and independent media reports, the police broke into several homes looking for makeshift vessels. Residents said women and children were hurt, and the agents used dogs to crack down on those trying to leave. The repression being experienced in this area is already something that we cannot live with, one of the residents told independent news outlet ADN Cuba. Videos also show the moment a resident tried to appeal to police, Communist Party and military officials who were present, desperately pleading to be allowed to leave the island, stating many of the reasons Cubans are fleeing the impoverished country. If you dont want us... if we dont fit in this country because our salary is not enough to buy in stores in hard currency, if there is no oil for the power plants to work, we decide with our lives what we want, the man said to the officials, prompting a round of applause from the crowd of residents gathered. We do not have a way to buy a glass of milk because it is sold in hard currency; we do not have a way to buy a pair of shoes. We dont care if we leave on a sail [boat], on a tank or an inner tire tube, he said. You should build a monument to the balseros. 2022 Miami Herald. Visit miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. SEOUL, South Korea North Korean leader Kim Jong Un stressed his country will never abandon the nuclear weapons it needs to counter the United States, which he accused of pushing to weaken the Norths defenses and eventually collapse his government, state media said Friday. Kim made the comments during a speech Thursday at North Koreas rubber-stamp parliament, where members passed legislation governing the use of nuclear weapons, which Kim described as a step to cement the countrys nuclear status and make clear such weapons will not be bargained. The law spells out conditions where North would be inclined to use its nuclear weapons, including when it determines that its leadership is facing an imminent nuclear or non-nuclear attack by hostile forces. The law requires North Koreas military to automatically execute nuclear strikes against enemy forces, including their starting point of provocation and the command, if Pyongyangs leadership comes under attack. The law also says North Korea could use nukes to prevent an unspecified catastrophic crisis to its government and people, a loose definition that experts say reflect an escalatory nuclear doctrine that could create greater concerns for neighbors. Kim also criticized South Korea over its plans to expand its conventional strike capabilities and revive large-scale military exercises with the United States to counter the Norths growing threats, describing them as a dangerous military action that raises tensions. Kim has made increasingly provocative threats of nuclear conflict toward the United States and its allies in Asia, also warning that the North would proactively use its nuclear weapons when threatened. His latest comments underscored the growing animosity in the region as he accelerates the expansion of his nuclear weapons and missiles program. The purpose of the United States is not only to remove our nuclear might itself, but eventually forcing us to surrender or weaken our rights to self-defense through giving up our nukes, so that they could collapse our government at any time, Kim said in the speech published by the Norths official Korean Central News Agency. Let them sanction us for 100 days, 1,000 days, 10 years or 100 years, Kim said. We will never give up our rights to self-defense that preserves our countrys existence and the safety of our people just to temporarily ease the difficulties we are experiencing now. Kim also addressed domestic issues, saying North Korea would begin its long-delayed rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in November. He didnt specify how many doses it would have, where they would come from, or how they would be administered across his population of 26 million people. GAVI, the nonprofit that runs the U.N.-backed COVAX distribution program, said in June it understood North Korea had accepted an offer of vaccines from China. GAVI said at the time the specifics of the offer were unclear. North Korea rejected previous offers by COVAX, likely because of international monitoring requirements, and has also ignored U.S. and South Korean offers of vaccines and other COVID-19 aid. Kim last month declared victory over COVID-19 and ordered preventive measures eased just three months after his government for the first time acknowledged an outbreak. Experts believe the North's disclosures on its outbreak are manipulated to help Kim maintain absolute control. The North Korean report about Kims speech came a day after South Korea extended its latest olive branch, proposing a meeting with North Korea to resume temporary reunions of aging relatives separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, which were last held in 2018. Experts say its highly unlikely North Korea would accept the Souths offer considering the stark deterioration in inter-Korean ties amid the stalemate in larger nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang. The U.S.-North Korean diplomacy derailed in 2019 over disagreements in exchanging the release of crippling sanctions against the North and the Norths denuclearization steps. Kim was combative toward South Korea in Thursdays speech and urged his country to expand the operational roles of its tactical nuclear weapons and accelerate their deployment to strengthen the countrys war deterrent. Those comments appeared to align with a ruling party decision in June to approve unspecified new operational duties for front-line troops, which analysts say likely include plans to deploy battlefield nuclear weapons targeting rival South Korea along their tense border. Cheong Seong Chang, a senior analyst at South Koreas Sejong Institute, said Kims comments and the new North Korean law amount to a warning that it would launch immediate nuclear strikes on the United States and South Korea if they ever attempt to decapacitate Pyongyangs leadership. The North is also communicating a threat that it could use its nuclear weapons during conflicts with South Koreas conventional forces, which would raise the risk of accidental clashes escalating into a nuclear crisis, Cheong said. North Korea has been speeding its development of nuclear-capable, short-range missiles that can target South Korea since 2019. Experts say its rhetoric around those missiles communicates a threat to proactively use them in warfare to blunt the stronger conventional forces of South Korea and the United States. About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in the South to deter aggression from the North. The U.S.-led diplomatic push to defuse the nuclear standoff has been further complicated by an intensifying U.S.-China rivalry and Russias war on Ukraine, which deepened the divide in the U.N. Security Council, where Beijing and Moscow have blocked U.S. efforts to tighten sanctions on Pyongyang over its revived long-range missile tests this year. Kim has dialed up weapons tests to a record pace in 2020, launching more than 30 ballistic weapons, including the first demonstrations of his intercontinental ballistic missiles since 2017. U.S. and South Korean officials say Kim may up the ante soon by ordering the Norths first nuclear test in five years as he pushes a brinkmanship aimed at forcing Washington to accept the idea of the North as a nuclear power and negotiating concessions from a position of strength. Experts say Kim is also trying to strengthen his leverage by strengthening his cooperation with China and Russia in an emerging partnership aimed at undercutting U.S. influence. North Korea has repeatedly blamed the United States for the crisis in Ukraine, saying the Wests hegemonic policy justified Russian military actions in Ukraine to protect itself. U.S. officials said this week the Russians are in the process of purchasing North Korean ammunition, including artillery shells and rockets, to ease their supply shortages in the war against Ukraine. North Korea also has joined Russia and Syria as the only nations to recognize the independence of two pro-Russia breakaway territories in eastern Ukraine and has discussed send its construction workers to those regions to work on rebuilding. Geopolitical refrains in U.S. new sub-Saharan strategy disappointing 17:01, September 09, 2022 By Xin Ping ( Xinhua BEIJING, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- With much fanfare, this U.S. administration is seeking to reframe Africa's "importance to U.S. national security interest" and "reset its relations with African counterparts," as its recently released "Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa" tries to resemble something of a paradigm shift in the country's Africa policy. It's going be different this time, or so they say. But if anyone is keenly looking for markers of fundamental change in this publication, it would be yet another painful exercise. It turns out old habits do die hard. While evasive about specifics, the strategy is unabashedly straight on one thing: Africa should be a weight in an imaginary geopolitical balance against other nations, most notably China. The message is served right under your nose -- "China sees the region as an important arena to challenge the rules-based international order, advance its own narrow commercial and geopolitical interests, undermine transparency and openness, and weaken U.S. relations with African peoples and governments;" one of the U.S. objectives is to "counter harmful activities by the People's Republic of China (PRC), Russia and other foreign actors;" the United States will engage with African partners to "expose and highlight the risks" of harmful PRC activities in Africa. Also honing in on the theme was U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken when he padded out his hollow speech at the University of Pretoria with attacks on what he framed as "consequences when international infrastructure deals are corrupt and coercive; when they're poorly built or environmentally destructive; when they import or abuse workers or burden countries with crushing debts." No prizes for guessing whom he was trying to disparage. With such geopolitical undertones impossible to ignore, the "new" strategy is not so much a "reframe" as it is a repeat of how the United States has viewed Africa for decades -- an instrument for America's geopolitical interests. Invariably, this approach fails Africa. In the Cold War era, the United States used Africa to compete with and counter Soviet influence. It only induced more regional conflicts. Since the 1990s, Washington has been trying to fold Africa into a system it dominates, underpinned by ideas it says about democracy and good governance. The lengths it goes to are extraordinary -- from inserting itself into Africa's local politics, using social media to foment unrest to dishing out unilateral sanctions. For all the effort it claims to have put in Africa, countless Africans are worse off as U.S. foreign policy activities inflame political instability, regional conflicts and terrorist insurgencies. In the new announcement, the signs of another big disappointment for Africans are evident. This is hardly surprising for a policy more about geopolitical rivalry than genuine solidarity. To begin with, the one-page "Reflections on Three Decades of U.S. Policy" does not say much before jumping to the conclusion of "these historic achievements." There was mentioning of bolstering infrastructure, agriculture and the digital economy and fighting climate change. But how and when to get there are absent. True, the United States has directed resources towards Africa, though accounting for their impact is a wild-goose chase -- something the departed Mr. Princeton Lyman, the U.S. State Department's revered Africa hand (may he rest in peace), also lamented, "Large amount of assistance to Africa seemed to have produced few results." But to be disappointed, one has to have hopes in the first place. To assume this for Africans, who know a geopolitical game when they see one, is naive. South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor was blunt during her press conference with Mr. Blinken, "I hate being told, 'Either you choose this, or else.'" South Africa, she maintains, cannot be a party to a conflict between China and the United States. She also told Blinken that the United States was not a neutral actor and had itself done a lot of damage on the continent. On the Countering Malign Russian Activities in Africa Act Washington is pushing at home, the minister warned this could punish African countries for not aligning with the United States on Ukraine. President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda also pushed back when the United States attempted to rope Africa behind its sanctions on Russian oil exports. "If you really want to help the third world, why don't you leave the third world out of these sanctions in a conflict where we are not participating." The president insisted he did not understand the calls for Africa to "automatically" take an anti-Russian stance. As a ploy in a geopolitical game, this sub-Saharan strategy is also set up for failure. After all, one of its central slogans -- "the rules-based international order" -- is known to the developing world as a euphemism for order centered on the United States, dictated by the United States and serving the interests of the United States, a unipolar world in essence. Its hoarse cries for transparency, the discerning African audience knows, grow from nothing else but a bitterness of not being able to eavesdrop on conversations, especially where things seem to be going well without U.S. involvement. Its thinly veiled accusations against China have long been refuted by African countries who know from their experience that China treats them as equal partners and with respect; China works with them in good faith; they have a listening relationship with China and can speak their minds; they can count on China's consistent solidarity in upholding the UN Charter and international law, cornerstones of an international order truly supported by the wider international community. Confidence in China is further reinforced by the excellent cooperation Africa continues to enjoy with the Asian country in a world shaken by COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine conflict. In November 2021, China announced nine programs for its cooperation with Africa at the 8th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Dakar, Senegal. Less than a year later, many demonstrable results span the fields of investment and finance, exports, agriculture, health, climate change, education, and peace and security. Several significant projects have been completed, including the Foundiougne Bridge in Senegal, Nairobi Expressway, and Kribi-Lolabe Highway in Cameroon. Chinese imports of African goods reached 70.6 billion U.S. dollars in the first seven months of this year. Mere hot air will not fool anyone in the face of commitments embodied in concrete and steel. If the United States indeed wants "a new approach" to Africa, here is a thought: quit reducing Africa to a pawn in your outdated game. Enditem (The author is a commentator on international affairs, writing regularly for CGTN, Global Times, Xinhua News Agency, etc. He can be reached at [email protected]) (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) A naval reservist assigned to an agency that operates the nation's spy satellites is facing felony weapons charges, in addition to the misdemeanors he's already been charged with stemming from his alleged participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Petty Officer 1st Class Hatchet Speed, a cryptologic technician, has been charged with three felony counts of possessing unregistered silencers, according to court documents made public Tuesday. Authorities claim he was hoping to mimic domestic terrorists and praised Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. Although the charges add to Speed's legal woes, the testimony of FBI agents filed as part of the indictment also paint the picture of a man who is a looming threat. Officials say he was hoarding weapons and actively looking for other like-minded people. Read Next: Given the Choice, Many New Soldiers Are Picking 'Tough' Alaska as Their 1st Duty Station Speed allegedly told an undercover FBI agent in March 2022 that he was inspired by and sympathized with Eric Rudolph -- the man responsible for the deadly bombing during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and a years-long bombing spree in Georgia -- and Ted Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber, according to court documents. Federal authorities claim Speed said, "It's useful to get into these people's heads and, you know, try and come up with a better game plan than they had." The sailor also had praise for both Hitler and the approach Islamic jihadists took in accomplishing their goals. Speed said Hitler was "one of the best people that's ever been on this earth" in a meeting on April 7. According to Navy records provided to Military.com in June, when Speed was arrested on the original Jan. 6-related charges, the sailor had been assigned to several prominent commands in the Washington, D.C., area, including the Navy Criminal Investigative Service Headquarters and Naval Information Warfare Systems Command. Court documents filed with his earlier charges in June said Speed was assigned to the Naval Warfare Space Field Activity at the National Reconnaissance Office, an agency that says it is responsible for developing, launching and operating America's spy satellites. Additionally, his records show Speed had previously been on several deployments, including Iraq and Afghanistan, and has been awarded the Joint Service Commendation Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, and the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, along with other awards. However, court records also allege that, after Jan. 6, Speed made comments to undercover FBI agents that suggested "he was 'panic buying'" guns and ammunition. In all, investigators say the man bought more than $50,000 worth of guns and parts between February and May of last year. In February 2022, law enforcement officials said Speed told an undercover agent he was "looking for resistance groups," adding that he was "looking for people who are willing to say how do we do something more than just complaining on Telegram." Speed also allegedly disclosed a connection to the Proud Boys and told agents that "100 of us Proud Boys" went to a November 2020 rally in Washington, D.C. In late June, Lt. Cmdr. Devin Arneson, a Navy spokeswoman, confirmed that "Hatchet M. Speed is a Selected Reserve (SELRES) Sailor assigned to Navy Reserve Center (NRC) Washington, D.C." Arneson told Military.com on Friday that Speed has since been reassigned to NRC Baltimore, but that the move was part of a larger realignment and not related to any charges he's facing. Previous court documents said that Speed also worked as a software developer for a company in Virginia that had at least nine contracts with the Departments of Justice and Defense, but it appears that is no longer the case. The latest filing says that Speed told agents in March that "he had recently quit his job, noting that he had worked for the government his entire career." Court records show that Speed is now on home arrest pending his trial in federal court in Virginia and is subject to GPS monitoring. He also agreed to surrender his passport and not have any guns. -- Konstantin Toropin can be reached at konstantin.toropin@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @ktoropin. Related: Record Sentence for Vet Who Assaulted a Cop with Marine Corps Flag on Jan. 6 The Department of Veterans Affairs on Friday plowed ahead with its plan to offer abortion counseling and services through its hospitals for the first time to veterans, spouses and dependents as abortion is being banned around the country and Republicans are vowing to block the move. In an interim final rule published in the Federal Register, the department gave official notice that it will offer abortion services to those covered by its health care system in cases of rape, incest and danger to the life or health of the mother. VA Secretary Denis McDonough said abortion-related medical services would protect the lives and health of veterans. The decision by the VA under the Biden administration comes amid a heated national debate over abortion rights following a landmark Supreme Court decision in June striking down Roe v. Wade. Republican-dominated state governments across the country have quickly moved to ban or curtail abortion rights available since the early 1970s under Roe, and Democrats are scrambling to shore up access to the medical care. Read Next: Here's the Truth About That Iconic Photo of Marines Pulling Afghan Baby to Safety "Unless VA removes its existing prohibitions on abortion-related care and makes clear that needed abortion-related care is authorized, these veterans will face serious threats to their life and health, according to the published rule, which was signed by McDonough. McDonough has said that the department is not prohibited by law from providing abortions, but has not offered the services only because they were not included in the department's medical benefits package published in 1999. With the rule published, the VA plans to begin developing and implementing the benefit as soon as possible, officials said. This would include surveying its capabilities and training personnel. "It is critical that this rule be published and be made effective immediately to ensure pregnant veterans and CHAMPVA beneficiaries have access to this important care," officials wrote in the notice. The Hyde Amendment restricts federal funding for abortions for reasons other than rape, incest and harm to the life of the mother. Included in the funding bill for the Department of Health and Human Services each year, the restrictions apply to Medicare and Medicaid, as well as the Indian Health Service and Children's Health Insurance Program. However, other federal programs, including Tricare, the Peace Corps and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, have instituted similar restrictions. The VA maintains that it has no similar statutory requirement. According to the interim rule, the VA believes by law that the secretary can decide what care and medical services veterans need, and McDonough has determined that abortions and abortion counseling are within the standards of care. Republicans have vowed to block the VA's new policy, arguing that the department is barred by law from covering abortions. Republicans cite the Veterans Health Care Act of 1992, which directed the VA to provide reproductive health care except for "infertility services, abortions or pregnancy care" unless that care is needed because of a service-connected condition. It is unclear exactly what the GOP will do, with a spokesperson for House Veterans Affairs Committee ranking member Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., telling Military.com on Wednesday that he and his colleagues were "assessing [their] options including legislative options moving forward." Separately, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall suggested this week he would prosecute VA doctors who perform abortions that conflict with state law. Alabama has banned almost all abortions, except for when the mother's life is in danger. The state has no exceptions for rape or incest. "I have no intention of abdicating my duty to enforce the Unborn Life Protection Act against any practitioner who unlawfully conducts abortions in the state of Alabama," Marshall said in a statement to AL.com. "The power of states to protect unborn life is settled." At least 14 states have banned or nearly banned abortion since the Supreme Court's decision in June, while another nine have moved to restrict abortion, but have been blocked by courts from enforcing the restrictions amid pending legal challenges. Senate Veterans Committee Chairman Jon Tester, D-Mont., predicted a lawsuit could be filed against the new VA policy. "I'm sure it'll be challenged in court, but hopefully it will be unsuccessful because, quite frankly, then what the VA would have to do is say, look, there's a medical procedure we can't use so you'll have to die," Tester told reporters Thursday. Democrats in Congress back the VA's argument that it has authority to cover abortions under the Veterans Health Care Eligibility Reform Act of 1996, which says the VA secretary "shall furnish hospital care and medical services ... which the secretary determines to be needed." "Women, not the government, should make their own decisions about their own bodies," Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said at a news conference Wednesday applauding the VA's move and condemning GOP opposition. "Women, not the government, should determine what is best for their families and their future. Abortion is health care, and that makes it a basic human right." Warren and Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, organized a letter earlier this year signed by 23 other Senate Democrats that pushed McDonough to expand the VA's coverage to include abortions. Pressed Wednesday whether Democrats are planning any legislation to codify the new VA policy or protect VA doctors in states where abortion is banned, Warren pointed to broader efforts to restore nationwide abortion rights through a bill called the Women's Health Protection Act, efforts that have stalled because of the Senate's 50-50 partisan split. "If we can get two more Democratic senators here and hold onto the House, then Roe will be the law and this will no longer be a live issue," Warren said, alluding to the upcoming midterm elections. "In the meantime, we're asking that the law as it is written be enforced. In the 1990s, Congress passed two bills that make clear that the Veterans Administration is responsible for the health care of veterans. Abortion is health care." -- Rebecca Kheel can be reached at Rebecca.Kheel@Military.com. Follow her on Twitter @reporterkheel. -- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Military.com. Follow her on Twitter @patriciakime Related: VA Weighs Ditching Lincoln Quote for Motto That's Inclusive of Women and Minorities This week in the military, the Pentagon will stop issuing the National Defense Service Medal, indicating a potential shift toward peacetime despite troops still being deployed to Iraq and Syria; an analysis of leaked Oath Keepers rolls alleges that 128 active-duty and reserve troops were members of the right-wing militia group; a Coast Guard commander was relieved; and some Democrats are urging President Joe Biden to allow HIV-positive Americans to join the military. Queen Elizabeth II, Britains monarch and a World War II veteran of the Auxiliary Territorial Service, died on Sept. 8, 2022. Navy and Marine Corps aircraft fly over the Portuguese Navy NRP Corte-Real (right) and the USS Gunston Hall (left) in the Baltic Sea. (Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class John Bellino/U.S. Navy) Related: It 'Blew Everything Apart.' Osprey Accident Shows Danger of Clutch Issue as Services Keep Flying Marines carry a combat rubber raiding craft during a boat launch sustainment exercise in the Sea of Japan. (Sgt. Danny Gonzalez/U.S. Marine Corps) Related: Here's the Truth About That Iconic Photo of Marines Pulling Afghan Baby to Safety A bag belonging to a soldier sits on the tarmac as troops assigned to the 142nd Medical Company reunite with family after a deployment to Poland in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve. (Timothy Koster/Connecticut National Guard) Related: Fort Riley Soldiers Headed for Europe Rotation as Ukraine War Drags On A handler and his military working dog conduct water confidence training at Wild Adventures theme park in Georgia. (1st Lt. Katie Tamesis/U.S. Air Force) Related: US Military Working Dogs Should Be American-Born, Senator Says An Air Force Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile launches during a test at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. (Airman 1st Class Ryan Quijas/U.S. Air Force) Related: Air Force Tests Long-Range, Nuclear-Capable Missile Amid Global Tensions Capt. Olivia Lynch, a company commander with the 1st Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, explains various aspects of the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter to a young attendee during the Kansas City Air Show. (Staff Sgt. Keegan Costello/U.S. Army) Related: UH-60A/L Black Hawk Helicopter -- Drew F. Lawrence can be reached at drew.lawrence@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @df_lawrence. Queen Elizabeth II was the longest-reigning monarch in British history, the only monarch most Britons have ever known. She ruled during a transformative period of human history and became queen of an empire at 25, an age where most of us are still paying off the Camaro we bought when we first moved into the barracks. No other British monarch ever had to contend with fiery, nuclear death raining down on them and their subjects from space. They also never had to deal with the fact that the president of the U.S. is the most powerful office in the world. You can't just marry into an alliance like that. Forging a "special relationship" every four to eight years takes finesse. She met 13 presidents in her lifetime and received bows or fist bumps from each of them for a reason: A record like hers commands respect, even from the Leader of the Free World. Probably one of the few things former presidents would agree on these days is their respect for Queen Elizabeth II. Here are a few military stories from her life. 1. Queen Elizabeth Was the Longest-Serving Active Military Commander. The sovereign of the United Kingdom is the head of the British Armed Forces. As sovereign, that duty fell to Queen Elizabeth II for almost 71 years. In practice, this authority is deferred to the prime minister, but as queen, Elizabeth kept up with defense meetings and policies while approving appointments for high-ranking officers. Until her death, she was also the only active commander in the British military who served in the British Army during World War II. 2. She Was the Only Female Member of the Royal Family to Join the Military. When "the Blitz," the relentless Nazi bombing of England, started during World War II, there were some in the royal family who suggested Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret be evacuated to Canada for the duration of the war. Young Elizabeth wasn't having it. Although she did leave London, Elizabeth joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) at age 19, a women's auxiliary that was looking for bakers, postal clerks and other kinds of support. Instead of baking, Elizabeth became a driver and mechanic with a decree from the king that she receive no special treatment, despite being the presumptive heir to the throne. The ATS wasn't necessarily a safe posting, either. Women were killed in accidents and enemy attacks, starting in 1942. 3. She Snuck Out of the Palace to Celebrate V-E Day. Of course, she did. Anyone fighting Nazi Germany for years was going to be thrilled when World War II in Europe ended, and being the heir presumptive to the throne of the British Empire wasn't going to change that. On May 8, 1945, as throngs of British revelers took to the streets to celebrate the Allied victory over Germany, Princess Elizabeth joined them with her sister, Princess Margaret. Although she had asked for her parent's permission, she was scared of being recognized by the public as the princesses went to Whitehall in central London to see the happy crowds. 4. Queen Elizabeth Would Later Use Her Military Skills to Terrify Saudi Royalty. The queen didn't need a driver's license, but if she had to get one, she could have. She'd been driving since World War II, remember? Although it's not likely she drove on public roads, she had plenty of land on which to go for a spin. In 2003, during a visit from then-Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, she offered him a tour of Balmoral, her palace in Scotland. Instead of a chauffeur, the queen herself drove. Queen Elizabeth might have simply wanted to drive because she could. She also might have been making a statement to the crown prince, as women were not allowed to drive in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia at the time. No matter which is true, she reportedly talked to Abdullah the whole time, ignoring his pleas to watch the winding Scottish roads, and she tore over them at any speed she wanted. "Hop in." (British Central Office of Information) 5. When the US Invaded Grenada, Queen Elizabeth Was "Furious." Queen Elizabeth was on very good terms with President Ronald Reagan, even staying with him and first lady Nancy Reagan at their ranch near Santa Barbara, California. When Reagan authorized an invasion of the Caribbean island of Grenada in 1983, however, things got a little less special for the "special relationship." Fears of American students becoming hostages during a power struggle on the island prompted the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States to ask for an American intervention in the ongoing crisis. The result was Operation Urgent Fury. Though it only lasted four days, the queen was reportedly "furious," believing Reagan should have asked her, the head of state on the island, for permission. Two years later, she visited the island anyway, backing up the actions of her friend, the U.S., without saying a word against the invasion. Now there's an ally. -- 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. Which Nanomaterials are used in cosmetics? Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil company, released a briefing showing a profit of 181.64 billion Saudi riyals in the second quarter of 2022, once again setting a record for quarterly earnings after the company went public in 2019. Continue to maintain the status of "the most profitable company in the world". Saudi Aramco said that the increase in profit in the second quarter was mainly due to higher crude oil prices and sales and improved profit margins in the refining processing and sales division, while the company's second-quarter shareholder dividend will reach 70.3 billion Saudi riyals. In the first half of this year, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine disrupted the global energy market, with crude oil prices rising above $120 at one point, causing refining profits to soar, not only for Saudi Aramco, but also for companies such as ExxonMobil and Shell. ExxonMobil's second-quarter net profit tripled, while Shell's second-quarter profit hit a record high. According to data released by the Saudi National Bureau of Statistics on July 31st, the country's GDP grew by 11.8% in the second quarter of 2022 compared with the same period last year. The latest report released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on July 26th shows that Saudi Arabia's economic growth forecast for 2022 remains unchanged at 7.6%, which ranks first among the world's major economies. Because of the turbulent international situation, the supply and prices of many international bulk nanomaterials are still very uncertain. Nanomaterials are widely used in cosmetics because of their unique optical, thermal and electromagnetic properties. Nanomaterials can be used to improve the sensory effect and stability of cosmetics. For example, nanometer zinc oxide and titanium dioxide can not only make cosmetics feel better, apply more evenly, but also provide better sunscreen. Similarly, the nano-silver material has a better antibacterial spectrum than its macroscopic particles. Which Nanomaterials are used in cosmetics? Nano silver Since 2002, South Korea has successfully used nano-silver in cosmetics, filling the gap in the nano-silver cosmetics industry. The emergence of nano-silver cosmetics has attracted the attention of many people. It not only has the function of makeup. At the same time, it also plays an antibacterial role to reduce the damage of external bacteria to human skin. Silver nanoparticles kill bacteria by destroying the cell wall of bacteria, and their antibacterial activity depends on the size of the particles. Smaller particles have better effect. Silver nanoparticles show potential antibacterial effect on infectious microorganisms (Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, etc.). Titanium dioxide Nanoparticles Because of its small particle size and high activity, nanometer titanium dioxide can not only reflect and scatter ultraviolet rays, but also absorb ultraviolet rays, so it has stronger barrier ability to ultraviolet rays. Compared with some organic UV protective agents of the same dose, nano-titanium dioxide has a higher absorption peak in the UV region, and what is more valuable is that it is also a broad-spectrum shielding agent, unlike organic UV protective agents, which only absorb UVA or UVB. It can also pass through visible light, unlike paint-grade TiO2 which cannot pass through visible light. Zinc oxide Nanoparticles Ultraviolet rays in sunlight can be divided into UVA (320mm-400mm), UVB (290mm-320mm) and UVC (200mm-290mm) according to their wavelengths. UVB is the main source of burns, indirect pigmentation and skin cancer. UVA has strong penetration and accumulation. Although most of UVC is absorbed by the ozone layer, the damage caused to human beings can not be ignored because of its short wave length, high energy and increasing destruction of the ozone layer. When nanometer zinc oxide is added to sunscreen cosmetics, it can first provide effective protection against UVA and UVB. Secondly, nanometer zinc oxide has excellent dispersion and transparency, and third, it is safe and non-irritating. Fourth, it has good light stability. Silicon dioxide Nanoparticles Nano silicon dioxide has an emission effect on ultraviolet rays, which belongs to inorganic components, and is well integrated without any repulsion, and its own non-toxic, tasteless and white powder can be simply colored. It plays an important role in the development of UV-resistant products, and its price is also very good. Alumina Nanoparticles Nano alumina has infrared absorption properties, and it has a good absorption effect on 80 nm ultraviolet, so it can be used as an additive or filler. Nanomaterials Price The price is influenced by many factors including the supply and demand in the market, industry trends, economic activity, market sentiment, and unexpected events. If you are looking for the latest nanomaterial price, you can send us your inquiry for a quote. 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(sales1@rboschco.com) Ukrainian media recently reported that Ukraine will build a food transfer station in the Chernovze region, and the first phase is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2022. According to reports, the completion of the project will help ease the current congestion in grain shipments, and it is estimated that the transfer station will be able to handle 3 million tons of grain per year and store up to 200000 tons of grain at the same time. According to the Cuban Electric Union on August 8, affected by the fire at the oil reserve base in Matansas province, the Antonio Guiteras thermal power plant near the oil storage base stopped operation at about 13:00 local time. It is reported that the shutdown of the thermal power plant is due to water shortage, and although measures have been taken to supply water to the plant through pipelines, it is still not enough to maintain its operation. The Cuban electricity Union said it could not guarantee that the thermal power plant would resume operation during peak hours. According to a monthly monitoring report released by the Copernicus Climate change Service, an EU climate monitoring agency in Bologna, Italy, in July 2022, the Antarctic sea ice area was the lowest in 44 years of satellite monitoring records, 7% lower than the average. Luoyang Tongrun Nano Technology is a trusted chemical manufacturer and supplier providing high-quality chemicals and Nanomaterials. If you are looking for the nanomaterials, please feel free to contact us and send an inquiry. Inquery us When Egypt hosts a global climate summit in November, it will seek to represent Africa which shares little of the blame for global warming but suffers many of its worst impacts, its environment minister says. Yasmine Fouad told AFP in an interview Wednesday that Egypt will also remind rich countries of the industrialised world of their unfulfilled aid pledges, at the COP27 summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Part of Egypt's role as host is to "represent the African continent and its needs clearly and explicitly: We were not the cause of these emissions, but it is us -- our people and our natural resources -- that are affected," Fouad said. At least 18 million people across the Horn of Africa are facing severe hunger as the worst drought in 40 years devastates the region. By Simon MAINA (AFP/File) She was speaking on the sidelines of an international conference in Cairo aimed at highlighting "Africa's needs and ambitions" in fighting and adjusting to climate change. African countries are among the most exposed to the impacts of climate change, especially worsening droughts and floods, but responsible for only around three percent of global CO2 emissions, former UN chief Ban Ki-moon said this week. He was speaking at an Africa-focused summit in the Dutch city of Rotterdam, where African leaders lashed out at industrialised nations for failing to show up. Targets in danger Egypt's environment minister said that "at this point, a stance must be taken on the international community level to say that everyone must fulfil their obligations, as set out in the Paris Agreement". In 2015, 196 UN members meeting in Paris set the goal of keeping warming below two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels, and preferably 1.5 Celsius, but surging carbon emissions have since endangered the targets. The Paris Agreement also stipulated that developed countries "shall provide financial resources to assist developing country parties" in curbing their emissions and strengthening resilience. The African Ministers of Finance, Economy and Environment Meeting for the COP27 climate summit has been held at the New Administrative Capital east of Cairo. By Khaled DESOUKI (AFP) Already in 2015, a promise made at the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009 -- to spend $100 billion a year by 2020 on helping vulnerable nations adapt to climate change -- was receding in the rear-view mirror. The 2020 goal came and went with pledges unmet, and regional meetings in preparation for COP27, such as this week's in Egypt and the Netherlands as well as another last week in Gabon, signal that funding could become a key flashpoint in Sharm el-Sheikh. Water, food and energy Fouad said environmental concerns had until recent years been regarded "as an obstacle to investment" and a "luxury" that Egypt could not afford. A woman carries a water container at a camp for internally displaced persons in Somalia, which has received insufficient rainfall since late 2020. By YASUYOSHI CHIBA (AFP/File) Drumming up support for environmental efforts was an uphill battle, until the tide turned and the world became increasingly aware that climate change is a matter of "human survival on planet earth", she said. The key to securing financing for efforts to combat climate change, she said, was to zero in on "basic human needs on earth: food, water, energy". In focusing on "bankable" projects that can turn a profit, Fouad said Egypt hopes to "use new and renewable energy to provide food and water, such as through desalination". Such projects could support developing countries with their basic development needs and with addressing climate change, she said, arguing that the two goals are in fact "one and the same". Renewed clashes in northern Ethiopia have forced desperately needed aid deliveries to a halt in Tigray, the United Nations said, exacerbating a humanitarian crisis triggered by the nearly two-year war between pro-government forces and Tigrayan rebels. The resumption of fighting late last month shattered a tenuous truce agreed in March that had allowed aid convoys to travel to the stricken region's capital Mekele for the first time since mid-December. In its first situation report since fresh clashes broke out on August 24, the UN's humanitarian agency OCHA said that the violence was "already impacting the lives and livelihood of vulnerable people, including the delivery of lifesaving humanitarian assistance". "The last humanitarian convoy to enter Tigray before the interruption was the humanitarian convoy on 23 August consisting of 158 trucks with humanitarian and operational supplies," the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said late Wednesday. "The United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) flights, which had been flying between Addis Ababa and Mekele twice per week... have also come to a halt since 26 August." Fighting erupted around Tigray's southeastern border, but has since spread along the region's southern border to areas west and north of the initial clashes. The uptick in violence has sparked international concern, with the US envoy to the Horn of Africa, Mike Hammer, currently in Ethiopia to kickstart diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis. Ethiopia. By Aude GENET (AFP) The two sides have traded blame for starting the latest round of hostilities, with the Tigray People's Liberation Front accusing the government and Eritrea -- which backed Ethiopian forces during the war's early phase -- of launching a joint offensive against Tigray. Ethiopia's northernmost region has been suffering from severe food shortages and limited access to basic services such as electricity, communications and banking. The fighting has also hit access to aid in neighbouring regions, with the OCHA report saying that "humanitarian operations in hard-to-reach areas in Amhara region, such as in parts of Wag Hemra, were put on hold due to security concerns". Even before the latest clashes, Tigray was in the grip of a hunger crisis, with the UN's World Food Programme warning last month that nearly half of the region's six million people were "severely food insecure". "Hunger has deepened, rates of malnutrition have skyrocketed, and the situation is set to worsen as people enter peak hunger season until this years' harvest in October," WFP said in its latest assessment covering November 2021 to June 2022. The war erupted in November 2020 when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops to topple the TPLF, the region's former ruling party, saying the move came in response to attacks by the group on army camps. H.E John Dramani Mahama 08.09.2022 LISTEN Former President John Dramani Mahama has reiterated his readiness to restore the country's economy when reelected in 2024. Mr. Mahama has outlined several measures he wishes to implement to eliminate the hardship Ghanaians are facing. According to the former President, a review of Article 21 of the country's 1992 Constitution to narrow the number of Supreme Court Justices will be his governments biggest priority. The NDC is also committed to the implementation of a review of the 1992 constitution which should, among others, place a cap on the number of Supreme Court Justices and face the issues of Article 21 head-on. The next NDC government must commit to the implementation of the review of the 1992 Constitution, which was begun by President John Evans Atta Mills, of blessed memory, he noted. The former President also hinted that his administration would abandon the contentious ex-gratia payments and other Article 71 emoluments. This review should among others aim at reforming the judiciary and tackle head-on issues on ex-gratia payments and other matters of Article 71 emoluments, he stated. French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday opened a new consultative committee of politicians, business leaders and civil society to advise on a range of issues. Designed to reboot democratic processes, the "CNR" has been shunned by opposition MPs and several trade unions who say it bypasses the role of the parliament. Macron on Thursday kicked off a "broad national consultation" known as the Conseil National de la Renfondation (CNR) on issues ranging from education and climate change to euthanasia, some of which could eventually be put up for referendum. "In the coming weeks, we're going to change schools, health, thanks to these exchanges across our territories, by building these road maps. So yes, it could lead to referendums," Macron said in the southern Paris suburb of Marcoussis, home to the French rugby team's training grounds. Macron said a website would be set up where voters could have their say on "crucial choices" part of his promise to make citizens feel more involved in his government. The President had announced the plans for the "national refoundation council" ahead of parliamentary elections last June, when his centrist party lost its absolute majority in the National Assembly. 'Revitalise our democracy' But opposition parties and several major unions boycotted the opening of the council labelling it as a way for the president to circumvent Parliament and regain control in public debate. The President of the Senate, Gerard Larcher, refused to come, recalling that "representative democracy" is Parliament, and that there is already a "civil society forum" with the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (Cesa). Alexis Corbiere of the hard-left France Unbowed party called it a "mess" aimed at "getting around parliament," while far-right leader Marine Le Pen denounced a "gimmick." Socialist leader Olivier Faure labelled it as having "no interest". "52 people representing political forces, trade unions and elected officials have been invited, forty are there. The 12 who are not there are wrong (...) and must not complain afterwards that they have not been consulted, or that it's too vertical", Macron declared ahead of the opening, insisting that "the door will always be open." "Today we must invent something new, a new way of debating. Not a new institution," the head of state said on Wednesday. No time for 'sulking' On the agenda, a series of short presentations by the President of the High Council for the Climate, Corinne Le Quere, the First President of the Court of Auditors, Pierre Moscovici and of the Governor of the Banque de France, Francois Villeroy de Galhau. This was followed by discussions with the participants, among them representatives of the main associations of elected officials, leaders of NGOs and a dozen ministers. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne also chaired a meeting to determine the projects and establish their implementation over time. Among the 50 participants the boss of the CFDT Laurent Berger, who said trade unions didn't have the option of "sulking" and sitting out of the debate. "Either we decide to stuff it up, or we sit around the table and take the problems one after the other," he summed up, insisting that he would question Emmanuel Macron on his "method", stressing that actions would speak louder than words. One of the key issues trade unions are concerned about is reforms to the country's pension scheme. Macron's attempts to push the retirement age from 62 to 65 have been systematically met with street protests, strikes and criticism, even from partisans on the right of the political spectrum. When asked about this, Berger reaffirmed his opposition to a postponement of the legal retirement age. "It's no now and it will always be no (...) Putting oil on the fire with the pension reform would be crazy," he said. Top down governance Since being elected in 2017, Macron has often been accused by critics of an imperious, top-down style of governing, a sentiment that helped fuel the violent "yellow vest" protests of 2018 and 2019. He has since promised a more inclusive administration, and the refoundation council comes after a series of "grand debates" with voters and local officials in recent years. Olivier Marleix, an MP with the Republicans (LR) in parliament told RFI the president needed to respect the institutions already in place. "The fact that Macron was not elected with a majority is not a coincidence. Yes, the French people voted for him but he now needs to sit up and listen to the deputies elected by the people". Loic Blondiaux, professor of political science at the Pantheon-Sorbonne University suggests the reticence to the CNR is because of the "broken promises" from past consultation exercises in the form of "Great Debate" and the Citizen's Convention for the Climate. "These two previous experiments were perceived retrospectively rightly or wrongly, as simple communication exercises that did not lead to any tangible results he explained to AFP. On the ruling party side, former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said the proposal to hold referendums would surely quell doubts over the efficiency of the CNR. The Elysee has said the CNR is expected to get off to a quick start, with the first projects, on school and health operational "in 2023". The monitoring of the work has been entrusted to the High Commissioner for Planning, Francois Bayrou, who has already conceded that the task promises to be "very difficult". Renewed clashes in northern Ethiopia have forced desperately needed aid deliveries to a halt in war-torn Tigray, the United Nations said, as fighting escalated Thursday between Tigrayan rebels and pro-government forces. The resumption of combat last month shattered a March truce and sparked international concern, with frantic diplomatic efforts now under way to find a peaceful resolution to the nearly two-year war. The truce had allowed aid convoys to travel to Tigray's capital Mekele for the first time since mid-December. But in its first situation report since clashes broke out on August 24, the UN's humanitarian agency OCHA said the violence was "already impacting the lives and livelihood of vulnerable people, including the delivery of lifesaving humanitarian assistance". "The last humanitarian convoy to enter Tigray before the interruption was the humanitarian convoy on 23 August consisting of 158 trucks with humanitarian and operational supplies," the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said late Wednesday. It said twice-weekly UN humanitarian flights between Addis Ababa and Mekele have also come to a halt since August 26. Map of Ethiopia showing the Tigray region. By Aude GENET (AFP) Fighting erupted around Tigray's southeastern border, but has since spread along the region's southern border to areas west and north of the initial clashes. A diplomatic source and a foreign source, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, said fighting had intensified along Tigray's northern border, with pro-government forces and troops from neighbouring Eritrea -- which backed Ethiopia's army in the early stages of the war -- targeting rebel positions. Both sources described heavy artillery fire near Adigrat, a town in northern Tigray not far from the Eritrean border. There is "intense shelling from Eritrea into the Adigrat area, around the border", said the diplomatic source. The second source confirmed the details. Both sources said pro-government forces had captured the town of Mai Tsebri in Tigray, but Kindeya Gebrehiwot, spokesman for the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), denied the claim, telling AFP: "It's incorrect." AFP was not able to independently verify the claims. Access to northern Ethiopia is severely restricted and Tigray has been under a communications blackout for over a year. Diplomatic efforts The uptick in violence has sparked international concern, with the US envoy to the Horn of Africa, Mike Hammer, extending his stay in Ethiopia, according to diplomatic sources. The truce had allowed aid convoys to travel to Tigray's capital Mekele for the first time since mid-December. By Michele Spatari (AFP/File) The European envoy to the region, Annette Weber, is also expected to visit the country soon, diplomatic sources told AFP, without elaborating. The warring sides have traded blame for starting the latest round of hostilities, with the TPLF accusing the government and Eritrea of launching a joint offensive against Tigray. Ethiopia's northernmost region has been suffering from severe food shortages and limited access to basic services such as electricity, communications and banking. The fighting has also hit access to aid in neighbouring regions, with the OCHA report saying that "humanitarian operations in hard-to-reach areas in Amhara region, such as in parts of Wag Hemra, were put on hold due to security concerns". Even before the latest clashes, Tigray was in the grip of a hunger crisis, with the UN's World Food Programme warning last month that nearly half of the region's six million people were "severely food insecure". "Hunger has deepened, rates of malnutrition have skyrocketed, and the situation is set to worsen as people enter peak hunger season until this years' harvest in October," WFP said in its latest assessment covering November 2021 to June 2022. The war erupted in November 2020 when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops to topple the TPLF, the region's former ruling party, saying the move came in response to attacks by the group on army camps. The TPLF mounted a comeback, recapturing most of Tigray in June 2021 and expanding into Afar and Amhara, before the fighting reached a stalemate. Unknown numbers of civilians have died and millions need humanitarian aid. The Electoral Commission (EC) says the use of the Ghana Card as the only source of identification for the continuous voters registration exercise is the surest way to rid the electoral register of minors and foreigners. The Commission said the use of the Ghana Card would help to phase out the guarantor system which was often exploited by non-eligible persons to get onto the electoral register. Addressing a news conference in Accra Thursday evening, Mr Samuel Tettey, Deputy EC Chair in Charge of Operations, said the constitutional instrument that would govern the continuous registration exercise would be laid in Parliament when the House resumed. He said the Commission had targeted registering between 450,000 and 550,000 new voters in the continuous voter registration exercise every year. Mr Tettey said the continuous registration of voters was an all year-round registration of Ghanaians who were at least 18 years old and had not previously registered as voters, adding that the Commission would not compile a new voters register. Rather, we would continuously register voters to update the current voters register to ensure that anyone who wants to register as a voter has the opportunity to do so, he said. He added that: anyone who turns 18 simply has to walk to the district office of the Commission where the person wants to vote and register as a voter. There have been concerns about the EC's decision to use the Ghana Card as the sole document for the voter registration exercise, with some commentators and political analysts warning that the move could disenfranchise eligible voters. Mr Tettey debunked those assertions, stressing that the EC will not leave any Ghanaian behind. He said the use of the Ghana Card for the registration exercise would rather guarantee the integrity of the electoral register. He said the guarantor system allowed registered voters to guarantee for those who were less than 18 years and also guarantee for foreigners throughout the registration exercise. Such unqualified persons used the door of the guarantor system to try to get onto the register, he said. Mr Tettey said about the 10m out of the 17m registered voters had used the Ghana Card as the main source of identification in the 2020 registration exercise. We are reliably informed that, over 17 million Ghanaians have registered for the card as at last month and about 16 million Ghana cards have been issued. On the strength of these numbers, we are convinced that the one million applicants we are expecting to register as at now following the last registration exercise in 2020 are more likely to possess the Ghana Card, he said. Mrs Jean Mensa, Chairperson for the EC, said no eligible voter would be disenfranchised in the continuous registration exercise because there would be no deadline. She said the country must be concerned about the presence of foreigners in the electoral register, adding that the use of the Ghana card would eliminate guarantor contractors who aided non-eligible persons to get onto the register. She called on the National Identification Authority (NIA) to speed up the pace of printing and distribution of the Ghana Cards to make it easier for interested persons to access them. The distribution of card is not rocket science. The NIA should be able to distribute cards to eligible voters within two and half years, she said. GNA The unsanitary conditions in most washrooms on the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) campuses is alarming. The problem, which was posing health risks to the students, particularly the female students, prompted Miss Ayinawu Alhassan to lend a helping hand. Miss Ayinawu, affectionately known as "Aina," a Women's Commissioner hopeful, organized a health talk series merged with cleanup exercises on the Institute's two campuses to help solve the situation and save students from contracting diseases after visiting the washroom. The first section of the program and the official liftoff were held at the North Dzorwulu Campus, followed by the second part at the old campus at Ringway Osu. After the participating students were schooled on the effective ways of keeping themselves and the environment clean, items like toiletries, detergents, and other sanitary items were distributed to the cleaners. Speaking to Modernghana News on the sidelines of the program, she intimated that "as part of my policies as an incoming Women Commissioner (WOCOM), I consulted some of the students to know their expectations of the office and I realized most of them spoke about unhygienic conditions in the washrooms." Miss Aina continues so my team and I, knowing that cleanliness is next to Godliness, designed this program to educate the students on health issues and also help solve the situation. We gave these items to the cleaners to help them clean and maintain hygiene in the washrooms." The students commended Miss Aina for a good job done and asked for God's guidance for her. "That is a great step, especially for a student. May God bless her, replace whatever she lost in the process, and bring all her good dreams to reality," a student told Modernghanas Isaac Donkor Distinguished 09.09.2022 LISTEN The MTN Ghana Foundation is making an impact with the Youth Employment and Empowerment Project (YEEP) undertaken in collaboration with Plan Ghana. A year after graduating close to 100 youth from Suhum and Nsawam in the Eastern Region trained in phone repairs, lives have been transformed and changed for the better. Last year the MTN Foundation and Plan Ghana partnered to equip out-of-school young people with skills in mobile phone repairs. The Project named YEEP for short covered several areas during the training including Repair and Rectification of faults of mobile phones, how to maintain a safe and secure work environment, introduction to Mobile Phone Technology, Basic Customer Service, and Front End Repairs. At the end of the training in Suhum and Nsawam, the beneficiaries received certificates of participation, start-up tools, and kiosks to start work and improve their livelihoods. Today after a tour to Suhum and Nsawam to visit the beneficiaries, it has become clear that the expected impact of the project has been met. Engagement with some beneficiaries: Awatey Derrick Suhum During the tour today, the team from MTN Ghana Foundation visited the shop of Awatey Derrick at Suhum. Opening up on how the intervention had changed his life, he said If for nothing at all Im now able to get something to eat. Young Awatey Derrick added, Im saving a lot of money and I have now been able to rent. Im living a comfortable life and its all thanks to MTN. I want to say a big thank you to MTN Ghana. Awatey Derrick While revealing that he has started training others to also benefit from the skills he acquired from the YEEP project, he called on the MTN Foundation to continue the project to change the lives of others. Enoch Ofori Suhum: In an engagement with the media, one other beneficiary of the YEEP project at Suhum, Enoch Ofori was full of praise for MTN, insisting that through them his struggles as a young boy are no more. He shared, The work has been very beneficial. Right now Im able to save and do things for myself. Before this, I struggle to pay my rent and take care of things that I needed. But through this work, Im able to sort all these things out. Right now I have four people Im training and I hope very soon they can also be on their own. This has only been possible because of MTN and I say a big thank you to them. Ohene Ansah Diana: For determined Ohene Ansah Diana, she said she will forever be grateful to MTN Ghana Foundation. She explained that thanks to her acquired skills, she is not at the mercy of men looking at taking advantage of needy and vulnerable ladies. So far the work has been very helpful. At first, we were sitting at home. Now we can come to work and get something to take care of ourselves. At first, I used to worry my parents but not anymore. Now I save and sometimes even support my family. If not for this work I would have maybe been depending on a man. Ohene Ansah Diana So it has really helped us and we are very grateful to MTN. They have really changed my life. I will urge them to continue doing this for the youth, especially the underprivileged, Diana Ansah told the media. Luis Boateng Nsawam: At Nsawam, a beneficiary of the project who has now become a trainer himself with as many as 11 people under him shared that his life has changed since the encounter with MTN Ghana Foundation and Plan Ghana. First of all, I will like to say thank you to God. I will also express my appreciation to MTN and Plan Ghana. I was a phone repairer but I didnt know much. So when I received the training from the YEEP programme and passed, it changed my life. Luis Boateng Now thanks to MTN I have my own container and I can now take care of myself. Now I dont face any challenges. Things are going very well and I have a lot of people coming to me to also teach them, he explained. Rosemary Mensah: Sharing her story, Rosemary Mensah, a trader at the Nsawam Market who took advantage of the training said she is now doing very well for herself. She said unlike before, she is now living a comfortable life and is able to take care of her younger siblings. Rosemary Mensah This business has helped me a lot. At first, things were very hard for me because I only went to the market on market days to sell. But the money I was getting was as not enough. Now with this business thanks to MTN, I have another source of income which helps me to even take care of my younger siblings, Rosemary Mensah said. Engaging the media on the sidelines of the engagements with the beneficiaries of the Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship Project, Mrs. Cynthia Mills who is the Economic Empowerment Advisor of the MTN Foundation said her outfit is satisfied with the impact of the project. We are happy about the way they are going about their work because the majority of them are using the skills that we have given them and some of them have even gotten apprentices which is very good. It tells us that our money hasnt gone down the drain and the youth are hungry to learn skills so when you make that provision for them they will apply their minds to it, she indicated. Cynthia Mills Scale-up: Mrs. Cynthia Mills further disclosed that there is an ongoing engagement between MTN Foundation and Plan Ghana to scale-up the project to benefit other people from other regions. This year is almost gone. This is a project between us and Plan Ghana. We are in the process of discussions to scale up to other regions. Definitely, there will be a scale-up to other regions of Ghana, she shared. According to her, the scale-up will in addition to phone repair training also offer training in tablet and laptop repair training. It was past midnight when a dozen men armed with AK47s stormed into Mohammed's home just outside Nigeria's capital Abuja to kidnap the truck driver and his wife. After being held hostage in a tiny cave deep in a forest for three days, the couple were released when a relative paid the gunmen 600,000 naira (about $1,400). For the criminals called "bandits" by Nigerians, it was quick and easy money, but for Mohammed, who asked not be identified by his real name, the trauma lives on. Kidnappings are not new in Africa's most populous country, where Boko Haram jihadists made worldwide headlines in 2014 when they abducted 276 schoolgirls in the north-eastern town of Chibok. But hostage-taking has since snowballed into an industry now largely led by criminals, with authorities seemingly powerless to stop them. The phenomenon, along with general insecurity, will be major issues in Nigeria's elections in February 2023 to replace President Muhammadu Buhari. At least five times more people were kidnapped in Nigeria last year than in both Mexico and Colombia combined -- countries notorious for abductions -- according to estimates from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED). Families and entire communities who pool their savings to pay ransoms are being destroyed, with many hostages afraid or ashamed of reporting their ordeals. Businesses too are affected, with many spending fortunes to protect their assets. 500 a month kidnapped Data on kidnapping is notoriously unreliable because of under reporting, but ACLED estimates almost 3,000 people were taken last year. A senior Western diplomatic source who tracks kidnappings in Nigeria told AFP the real figure could be more than double that, with an average of 500 people a month taken. Nigeria's security services, known as the DSS, denied there was a "kidnapping epidemic". It "has spread because insurgency has spread", DSS spokesman Peter Afunanya told AFP, blaming insecurity on the proliferation of foreign weapons and the spread of jihadists outside of their enclaves in the northeast. A father prays for the return of his children after students were abducted from Bethel Baptist High School in Kaduna state last year. By Kola Sulaimon (AFP/File) Analysts in Nigeria have documented instances of cooperation between bandits and jihadists, but so far have described the links as minor. One reason for the dramatic rise is a series of mass kidnappings with hundreds of people taken at a time. In one in late 2020, more than 300 boys were taken by bandits from a school in Katsina state. They were released after a week, but the shocking case was a turning point for many, with some deciding to stop sending their children to school. Police and other security agencies have deployed anti-kidnap units, but the forested areas where gangs hide are difficult to access let alone control. The northwest, the most affected region, consists of seven states and is almost the size of the UK. The authorities say they have tried alternative methods to curb kidnapping, such as registering mobile phone SIM cards to better track their owners. Lawmakers have also passed a bill criminalising payments to kidnappers, but observers say enforcement will be impossible. Mothers of children abducted from Bethel Baptist High School in Kaduna state, Nigeria, last year cry at a prayer vigil. By Kola Sulaimon (AFP/File) Of the handful of kidnappers who are arrested, most end up in a clogged judicial system where investigations are rarely completed. And so, every day, gangs "rustle human beings, and nobody cares," said Murtala Rufa'i, a professor at northern Nigeria's Usmanu Danfodiyo University, who has studied banditry and lives in the northwest. 'No rehabilitation' Former bandit Musa, who asked not to be identified by his real name, said he joined a gang after losing all his cows to rustlers. "Nobody forced me but when you have nothing... you find yourself hopeless, you end up joining them," said the 43-year-old from Zamfara state. For four years, he helped launch reprisal attacks against the cattle rustlers but the violence escalated and he eventually decided to leave the gang. "For us nothing justifies crime, but for them, it's just tit for tat," Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, a prominent Muslim cleric told AFP in an interview in late 2021. Nigerian soldiers and police guard the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation in Kaduna state where a gang kidnapped 30 students in March, 2021. By Bosan Yakusak (AFP/File) Gumi has long argued that some of the bandits -- like Musa -- are driven at first by a sense of injustice, after losing relatives and belongings in old inter-communal conflicts. For him, a "Marshall plan" for bandits rather than more security could help solve the crisis. "Bandits have been surrendering and giving up their weapons but... there's no rehabilitation, no school, no nothing, so they go back, because a man cannot be idle," he said. "The real bandits are the political class." Those who can afford it have stopped using roads and trains and travel only by air, creating a vicious cycle where parts of the country are abandoned to bandits who prey on poorer rural communities. Many end up selling their homes, belongings or land to pay for ransoms, which for an average Nigerian farmer can be anywhere "between 200,000 naira and up to two million ($4,700)," said security analyst Kabir Adamu of Beacon Consulting. And it's not just cash they need to find -- sometimes kidnappers also demand food, smartphones, motorbikes or even sunglasses. When kidnappers target higher status victims such as priests or politicians and their relatives, the ransoms tend to be a lot higher. In a daring case earlier this year, gunmen kidnapped 72 passengers from a train from the capital Abuja, many of them well-off. "As of the end of July, 37 hostages had been released for various sums starting from 100 million ($230,000) per abductee," according to a report by consultancy firm SBM Intelligence. Abandoned farms The problem is also worsening food insecurity in the country where already more than 80 million live below the poverty line. "People don't go to their farms because of the fear of abduction... The rural economy has been grounded completely," said professor Rufa'i. Many rural communities are ruined by repeated ransom payments, or because they decide instead to pay "taxes" to bandits for a promise of protection. People at a rally demanding the return of hundreds of kidnapped schoolboys in the northwestern state of Katsina in December 2020. By Kola SULAIMON (AFP/File) In one case among many, a resident of Yankara village in Katsina state said they had paid bandits 700,000 naira ($1,700) to leave their farms alone, but then another gang attacked them. In some instances, farms and villages are being abandoned entirely. "There are areas where 70 percent of the people have been displaced or are unable to farm. This disrupts supply chains, even in (the capital) Abuja," said Adamu. Companies in Africa's largest economy are also affected. The kidnap threat "is a nightmare", an executive with two decades of experience in the country told AFP on condition of anonymity. "The impact on business is huge... because of the cost of securing our assets," he said. "I have some projects guarded by 30 soldiers at night." The Nigerian security services said they were "in a hurry to see" kidnapping tackled, in part because insecurity drives away investors. "The DSS is concerned about the menace of kidnapping and is very committed in stamping it out," Afunya told AFP. People should stop seeing "kidnapping as a way of life or as a means of survival," he added. But when more than seven out of 10 Nigerians are under 30 and official youth unemployment stands at 42 percent, some become desperate to make money. And as "the level of poverty and unemployment is on the increase," Rufa'i said "the possibility of more people joining the kidnappers is very clear." Twilight settles on Bamako, and traffic starts to clog the roads on the banks of the mighty Niger River. But something else is stirring on the river's brownish waters: ripples from a boat, moored to a bank, where 12 young dancers are pounding the boards to the sound of tomtoms. To the bemusement of peanut hawkers watching nearby, the dance troupe members are in final rehearsals before they carry out a maiden performance aboard Mali's first floating art venue. "Every second counts. Everything has to be perfect tomorrow," says dancer and choreographer Lassina Kone, 37, wearing short dreadlocks and vintage sunglasses. Behind him, painters and welders are hard at work, putting the final touches to the rear of the boat. The vessel -- the Pirogue of the Zeme (the Wise Man's Canoe in the Bambara language) -- is the brainchild of Kone, a restless artist, and Cheick Diallo, a well-known architect and designer. "Lassina came to me a few years ago, and said, 'Hey, old guy, I have a dream -- help me," said Diallo. "It turned out that I had virtually the same dream," he said. "So I teamed up with him." 'Crazy' The boat has a stage for theatre, puppetry and dance, which the audience views from the bank, as well as space for exhibitions. By OUSMANE MAKAVELI (AFP) Their idea: to make art a moveable feast, no longer restricted to fixed venues in the cities and available to as many people as possible. "Floating artists" aboard a specially adapted vessel would move up and down the Niger, a river that nourishes West Africa from Guinea to Nigeria. They would bring dance, theatre, puppetry and exhibitions wherever they could find a place to tie up and people to entertain. Both men had an established reputation. Lassina heads Don Sen Folo Lab, a creative nursery for artists in the village of Bancoumana, 45 kilometres (27 miles) from the Malian capital. Diallo's work has been widely exhibited internationally. He also oversees a photography exhibition held in Mali every two years which is one of the biggest cultural draws in Africa. Mali. By (AFP) But their idea -- in one of the poorest countries of the world, battered by a decade-old jihadist insurgency -- seemed outlandish at the time. "We artists have the right to be crazy -- it's craziness that helps to break through the boundaries of everyday life," said Diallo. "It was a meeting between two crazies." 'A different Mali' Four years after their talk, and with some financial help from the European Union, the Pirogue of the Zeme was born. The overall project cost the equivalent of almost $300,000, including the construction of the boat, salaries for the craftsman and funding for activities over four years. The fruit of five months' labour, the wood and steel vessel measures around 20 metres (66 feet) long by six metres (20 feet) wide. Rehearsal: Dancers from the Don Sen Folo Lab. The performers say dancing on moving water can be quite a challenge. By OUSMANE MAKAVELI (AFP) That provides room for a stage -- covered by light matting to keep off sun and rain -- for performances which are watched by an audience seated on the adjacent riverbank, and enough space for exhibitions. But the boat's relatively small size also means it is susceptible to the great river's moods and movements. Assetou Aida Doumbia, a 24-year-old dancer, admitted she had been taken aback by the idea of performing on water. "It's really different, but we are 100 percent ready," she said. Yacouba Coulibably, 28, added: "There's a particular challenge to working as a dancer in this environment. This is the first time that I've been on a boat." The EU's envoy to Mali, Bart Ouvry, had no problems defending Europe's decision to back the unusual venture. "This is a way of getting to know a different Mali," he said. Culture "helps to prevent young people from falling into something else," he said, adding: "It tells investors Mali is a land of creativity." 09.09.2022 LISTEN Electoral Commission (EC) has announced sweeping reforms to voter registration and voting, two years before the next general elections. These will affect source documents for voter registration and the voter ID system, and will take effect with the maturation of a yet-to-be laid constitutional instrument. Deputy Commission Chair, Samuel Tettey, told Journalists at the Commission's Let the Citizen Know encounter. Deputy Chairman of the Commission in charge of operations, Samuel Tettey says the guarantor system is fraught with many challenges and could no longer provide a secure system of voter registration for the country. On registration of voters, the Commission says it will not be compiling a new voter's register. It is however running a continuous registration, hoping to capture between 450,000-550,000 potential registrants annually. We are not going to compile a new voters register. Rather, we would continuously register voters to update the current voters register to ensure that anyone who wants to register as a voter has the opportunity to do so. This registration exercise unlike the previous registration exercise will be continuous. As such, anyone who has the card can just walk to our offices and register. It is not a periodic or limited registration exercise that could disenfranchise persons who do not have the Ghana Card at the time of the limited exercise. This is an all-year-round process. As such, a person who doesn't have the Ghana Card today can acquire it tomorrow and simply walk into a district office where he or she intends to vote and register. While urging the National Identification Authority (NIA) to accelerate the printing of the Ghana card to ease the process for potential voters we call on the NIA to accelerate the pace of the printing of the Ghana cards to make it easy for anyone who is interested in registering with us to do so, it also debunked assertions that the Ghana Card will be used as an identity card for voting in the 2024 elections. We have also heard discussions to the effect that citizens will vote with the Ghana Card in 2024; this is not true. The card is only a requirement to register as a voter for those who have not previously registered as voters. Once you present your Ghana Card and successfully register as a voter, you will be issued a voter identification card which bears the features of the EC; namely, the code of your region, district, electoral area, and polling station. We expect all the players in the electoral process including political parties to encourage all those who do not have a Ghana Card to visit the offices of the National Identification Authority and register for the Ghana card, after which they can also register with the Electoral Commission to enable them vote in the 2023 District Assembly Elections and the 2024 General Elections. citinewsroom Queen Elizabeth was "a towering icon of selfless service", Kenya's outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta said Friday, in a statement expressing his "deep sense of loss" at her death aged 96. "Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was a towering icon of selfless service to humanity and a key figurehead of not only the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth of Nations where Kenya is a distinguished member but the entire world," he said. Kenyatta said he "received the sad news... with great sorrow and a deep sense of loss", noting the former British colony's close ties with the queen. Elizabeth, then a princess, was on a visit to Kenya in February 1952 when she received news of her father's death while staying at the Treetops hotel, a remote game-watching lodge in the Aberdare forest. Kenya was the first stop on the tour of the Commonwealth she had embarked on with her husband, Prince Philip, in place of her ill father. It was during their night at the Treetops hotel that Elizabeth would become queen, an episode immortalised in the popular TV series "The Crown". The royal visit -- and the legend to go with it -- made Treetops among the most famous hotels in the world. Kenya declared independence from Britain in 1963, with Jomo Kenyatta -- the father of the country's current leader Uhuru -- becoming its first president. Two decades later, the queen returned to the country on the invitation of then president Daniel arap Moi. On the streets of the capital Nairobi, several Kenyans said they were saddened by the news of her death. "It's a sad day because Kenya was colonised by the British, so Kenyans are part and parcel of the British system," said Vincent Kamondi, a 51-year-old taxi driver. Although Kenya's Mau Mau freedom fighters suffered horrific abuses under the colonial regime for taking part in one of the British Empire's bloodiest insurgencies, independent Kenya has maintained strong ties with its former rulers. "The education we have, the religion we have, it came from the British, so it gave us a path of where we are heading to," said businessman Jacob Midam, 38. The queen's death "matters a lot", he told AFP. In 2015, thousands of Mau Mau veterans attended the Nairobi unveiling of a British-funded memorial to the thousands killed, tortured and jailed in the rebellion, in a rare example of former rulers commemorating a colonial uprising. Commonwealth legacy Kenya's president-elect William Ruto also paid tribute to the queen late Thursday, hailing her "admirable" leadership of the Commonwealth. "May her memories continue to inspire us. We join the Commonwealth in mourning and offer our condolences to the Royal Family and the United Kingdom," said Ruto. "She steered the institution's evolution into a forum for effective multilateral engagement," Ruto said on Twitter, describing the bloc as a testament to the queen's "historic legacy". The Commonwealth's membership has expanded to include nations with no historic ties to Britain, with Rwanda joining in 2009. Rwandan President Paul Kagame condoled the queen's passing and said "the modern Commonwealth is her legacy." The British government this year struck a much-criticised deal to deport asylum-seekers from the UK to Rwanda, with Charles -- now king and the head of the Commonwealth -- reportedly opposed to the scheme. The Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) Commissioner, Joseph Whittal, has backed calls by the Citizen coalition pressuring the Auditor General to surcharge persons and institutions implicated in the Auditor-General's report. In a media interview after swearing in a six-member audit committee, Mr. Whittal, said the Auditor-General must heed to the calls of Ghanaians. It is not enough to enable citizens through civil society and others to go to the street for you to perform your duty. It is not about reporting, it is about actual recoveries. Ghanaians want surcharges, and he should listen to the voice of Ghanaians, Mr. Whital said. The Coalition for Democratic and Accountable Governance on Monday petitioned the Auditor-General to surcharge persons and institutions involved in the Auditor-General's report on Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) for 2019, 2020 and 2021. The recent report of the Auditor General cites several public institutions and personalities for engaging in infractions, costing the country several millions of cedis. citinewsroom The Ghana Police Service has confirmed the arrest of nine more persons in connection with the missing excavators in Ellembelle in the Western Region. The arrested persons include three Chinese nationals and six Ghanaians. Meanwhile, the Police have also confirmed that through investigations, three excavators and three weapons have been retrieved. The Police, in the wee hours of 9th September, 2022 arrested nine more suspects and retrieved three excavators and three pump action guns in another anti-galamsey operation in the Western Region, a police statement has announced. On Thursday, the Police also confirmed the arrest of five Chinese nationals. The statement further assured that the case will be followed to the latter to ensure all persons involved are arrested and made to face the law. Meanwhile, the DCE of Ellembelle who was arrested by the Police has been granted bail. The Ghana Police Service has issued a statement to provide a fresh update on the missing excavators case in Ellembelle in the Western Region. The latest statement from the Police on Friday, September 9, has disclosed that three more of the missing excavators have been found. Through Police Anti-Galamsey Operations, three pump action guns were also retrieved by officers. Meanwhile, the Police have also confirmed the arrest of nine more persons in connection with the missing excavators case. They include three Chinese nationals and six Ghanaian suspected accomplices. The Police, in the wee hours of 9th September, 2022 arrested nine more suspects and retrieved three excavators and three pump action guns in another anti-galamsey operation in the Western Region, a police statement has announced today. On Thursday, the Police also confirmed the arrest of five Chinese nationals. The statement further assured that the missing Ellembelle case will be followed to the latter to ensure all persons involved are arrested and made to face the law. Meanwhile, the DCE of Ellembelle who was arrested by the Police has been granted bail. A former Governance Adviser to the United Nations Mission in Liberia, Professor Baffour Agyeman-Duah has raised concern about the return of Chinese national Aisha Huang to Ghana. The popular illegal mining [galamsey] kingpin is back in the country after she was deported for her galamsey operations and the involvement in trading of minerals without a license four years ago. Speaking to TV3 in an interview, Professor Baffour Agyeman-Duah indicated that he finds the case of Aisha Huang to be intriguing. According to him, whether the Chinese national sneaked into the country or was deliberately allowed to return, it is a clear case that the security sector is porous. The current case of Aisha Huang, so-called Queen of galamsey, is a very interesting, complex and intriguing one. Because about four or five years ago when we heard that she was arrested and she was going to be tried, somehow senior government officials intervened and publicly told all of us that perhaps, it wasnt in the best interest of Ghana to imprison or try this person and subsequently she was deported. Then all of a sudden, we find that this lady who was deported has been back for massive long years on a different kind of name and trading. It shows the porousness of our security system. Whether in this particular cases, it is a deliberate policy to allow her in, whatever it is it shows the serious lapse in our security sector so far as foreign criminals are concerned, Professor Baffour Agyeman-Duah shared. Aisha Huang following her arrest for similar illegal mining and minerals trading activities was arraigned before an Accra High Court on Monday. She has been remanded to reappear on September 14. Police in the Chadian capital N'Djamena fired tear gas on Friday to disperse supporters of a leading critic of the country's ruling junta as he was summonsed for questioning following clashes last week, an AFP reporter saw. Succes Masra, president of a party called The Transformers, was surrounded by hundreds of supporters as his car headed for the meeting with public prosecutors. Police fired tear gas to break up the crowd, and the car turned around and headed back to the party's headquarters. On Twitter, Masra accused the police of "attacking us and firing live rounds as the people came out to accompany us. The world is witness. They want to stop the dialogue of the people through violence." The confrontation came on the heels of a crackdown on Transformers activists last week as they planned to stage an unauthorised rally. Around 200 were arrested and held for several days before being released, while the security forces surrounded the party's headquarters, which also doubles as Masra's home, before lifting the siege on Sunday. Masra, 39, told AFP on Thursday he had received a summons to go to the prosecutor's office the following day, the reasons for which, he said, were not disclosed. On Friday morning, he announced on Twitter that he would attend -- "I will go marching and singing for the freedom of the people... (but) I will not be alone." The Transformers are the most radical component of an opposition coalition that is boycotting a forum launched by Chad's military ruler, General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno. Deby took the helm after his father Idriss Deby Itno, who had ruled with an iron fist for three decades, was killed in April 2021 during an operation to fight rebels. Deby is hosting a forum whose declared aim is to steer the country back to civilian rule. By Djimet WICHE (AFP) The junta has suspended the constitution and dissolved civilian government but vowed to hold "free and democratic elections" within 18 months. These are tied to the outcome of an "inclusive national dialogue," bringing together government officials, political parties, NGOs and armed rebel groups, that was launched by Deby last month after repeated delays. After the launch, the dialogue ran into procedural wrangling, and its scheduled end has been pushed back by 10 days, to September 30. Analysts say there is scant chance of holding elections within the 18-month timeframe, and point to an option previously announced by Deby under which the vote could be delayed by a further 18 months "if the Chadians fail to reach agreement." Senegal will break new ground Monday as West Africa's largest-ever proportion of women MPs take their seats in a newly elected legislature, stirring hopes of change in a country where patriarchal laws and attitudes are entrenched. More than 44 percent of seats in Senegal's next National Assembly will be held by women -- the biggest share of any country in the region. But hopes for dramatic progress on issues ranging from reproductive rights to domestic violence also have to be balanced with political reality. Aminata Toure, a former prime minister and incoming MP for President Macky Sall's APR party, cautioned that in politics, female pioneers always encounter resistance and suspicion. "You're much more scrutinised... they don't forgive you for any mistakes", she told AFP. "I think all women in power would tell you the same." Seventy-three out of 165 parliamentary seats will be held by women following elections in July across Senegal, widely viewed as a beacon of democracy and stability in a region marked by conflict and military rule. The country ranks fourth in Africa and 18th in the world for gender parity in parliament, ahead of Switzerland, France, Britain and the US, according to the Geneva-based organisation the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Outside of Senegal, only 15 of 111 elected or appointed parliamentary or ministerial positions that opened in West Africa and the Sahel between December and June were filled by women, a UN report has said. Senegal's high share is explained by a 2010 law requiring "absolute gender parity" in all elective institutions, with candidate lists alternating between men and women. The latest tally of legislators is two more than previously, and the highest ever under the parity rules. The law "allows women to have a say on the national budget, express the concerns and needs of women in parliament and show society that women are equally qualified," said Toure. Women "can bring another culture of governing". Candidate lists are often topped by men and, when they are odd-numbered, tend to have one more man than woman, which explains why female representation remains below 50 percent, a National Assembly spokeswoman said. Incremental change Activists point to a mountain of tasks in a country that ranks a lowly 130th out of 189 states on a UN gender equality index. But efforts to fix them under the new assembly are likely to be incremental. Rape was only criminalised in 2020, and national laws have yet to fully implement the Maputo Protocol, an African Union initiative to widen abortion access that Senegal ratified in 2005. It obliges state parties to allow abortion in cases of rape and incest, among others. Senegal. By Jonathan WALTER (AFP) But in Senegal, abortion is only permitted to save a pregnant woman's life, said Aissatou Ywa of Task Force, an alliance of civil society and medical associations campaigning for rape and incest to be included. In 2020, one quarter of the female prison population had been jailed for abortion-related crimes, according to the NGO Africa Check, quoting data provided by Senegal's penitentiary administrators. Other campaign groups are pushing for legal changes that would raise the age of marriage for girls to 18 from 16. The legal age of marriage is already 18 for men. "It should be raised to 18 for girls to enable them to continue school and be on the same footing, in terms of rights, as boys", said Maimouna Yade, head of the women's organisation JGEN. Campaigners are also pushing to allow mothers to have the same parental authority under law as fathers. "There are so many things to do," said Mame Diarra Fam, an incoming MP for the opposition Senegalese Democratic Party. She highlighted violence against women, education for girls and access to health, following a string of headline-making tragedies in maternity clinics over the last 18 months. Test ahead Advocates and MPs credit the parity law for several success stories. In 2013, parliament enacted a law allowing Senegalese women married to foreigners to pass their nationality onto their children, a right that was already permitted for Senegalese men. Toure had introduced the bill as justice minister. Health care for women became a major issue in Senegal this year after mother-to-be Astou Sokhna died nine months pregnant after being denied a Caesarean. By CARMEN ABD ALI (AFP) Another breakthrough was legislation criminalising rape -- a law "largely pushed" by female MPs, said Yade. Whether women's rising numbers in parliament translates into executive clout will soon face a key test. Sall will be scrutinised to see if he names a woman to the role of prime minister, a position that he had abolished in 2019 under the country's presidential system. Senegal's first woman prime minister was Mame Madior Boye, who served from 2001 to 2002. She was followed by Toure, in office from 2013 to 2014. Another issue is how many women Sall will name to ministerial jobs. Toure is among those wanting parity to be extended to the cabinet and even to the private sector. Civil society groups meanwhile are campaigning hard for a female speaker of the assembly, a role never held by a woman. "We really want a woman leading the 2022-2027 parliament", said Coumba Gueye, executive secretary of the Association of Senegalese Women Lawyers. "If we have a woman, a lot of things can be changed." An Accra High Court (Commercial Division) on September 8, 2022, adjourned the hearing of a motion on notice for an interlocutory injunction to restrain Tullow Ghana Limited from re-awarding any petroleum contract being executed by indigenous Ghanaian companies to foreign joint venture companies. The motion was brought by the plaintiff pursuant to a writ of summons issued against Tullow Ghana Limited in suit number CM/BDC/0692/22 between Ghana Oil and Gas Service Providers Association Versus Tullow Ghana Limited. The Ghana Oil and Gas Service Providers Association, who filed the suit against Tullow Ghana Limited, in a motion for interlocutory injunction, said it was seeking the order of the court to restrain Tullow Ghana Limited, its agents, assigns and any person acting under their instructions from violating the Local Content and Local Participation, (Amendment) Regulations 2021 (LI 2435) in the award of petroleum contracts in Ghana pending the determination of the suit. The plaintiff said the decision to sue followed many complaints that services reserved for indigenous Ghanaian companies under the laws in the upstream oil and gas sector were being taken away and awarded to foreign venture companies. Plaintiff said it raised the concerns of the indigenous companies with Tullow in a petition in June 2022 highlighting that any award of contract reserved for indigenous Ghanaian companies to foreign joint venture companies after February 17, 2022, would be in violation of the existing laws regulating the award of petroleum contracts reserved for local businesses. However, in its response to the petition, the defendant vowed to continue with the award of contracts exclusively reserved for indigenous companies to foreign joint venture companies. The plaintiff said the action of the defendant if not restrained by the court would lead to the mass unemployment of skilled Ghanaians in the upstream oil industry. The defendant, therefore, prayed for a declaration that the award of petroleum contracts for the provision of goods and services exclusively reserved for indigenous Ghanaian companies under Petroleum (Local Content and Local Participation Regulations) LI 2204 (as amended) by Petroleum (Local Content and Local Participation) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 (LI 2435) to Joint Venture Companies in Ghana by the defendant is Illegal. They also wanted a declaration that the award of any petroleum contracts for provision of goods and services reserved exclusively for indigenous Ghanaian companies under Petroleum (Local Content and Local Participation Regulations) LI 2204 (as amended) by Petroleum (Local Content and Local Participation) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 (LI 2435) to joint venture companies in Ghana by the defendant is null and void. The plaintiff seeks an order from the court directing the defendant to cancel every contract awarded for the provision of goods and services in contravention of the provisions of Petroleum (Local Content and Local Participation Regulations) LI 2204 (as amended) by Petroleum (Local Content and Local Participation) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 (LI 2435) Damages in favour of the plaintiff against the defendant, the plaintiff said. They are seeking a perpetual injunction restraining the defendant, whether personally, through their agents, servants or privies or any person acting under their express or implied instruction from awarding any Petroleum contract in contravention of Petroleum (Local Content and Local Participation Regulations) LI 2204 (as amended) by Petroleum (Local Content and Local Participation) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 (LI 2435) and other laws regulating the awards of petroleum contracts in Ghana. At the hearing of the suit, the legal representative of Tullow Ghana requested more time to respond to the application filed by the plaintiff. The court also advised parties to seek an amicable resolution of the matter, the case was thereafter adjourned to the 10th of October, 2022 for hearing of the motion. GNA Tigrayan rebels have proposed a conditional truce in the war in northern Ethiopia, a spokesman for the group said Friday, as fresh fighting forced a halt to aid deliveries in the stricken Tigray region. The resumption of fighting last month shattered a March truce, with frantic diplomatic efforts now under way to find a peaceful resolution to the nearly two-year war. In a letter sent to the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres dated Wednesday, the leader of the Tigray People's Liberation Front, Debretsion Gebremichael, called for a conditional cessation of hostilities as fighting escalates on multiple fronts. According to a copy of the letter seen by AFP and confirmed by TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda, Debretsion said the truce would depend on four conditions, including "unfettered humanitarian access" and the restoration of essential services in Tigray. Ethiopia's northernmost region has suffered severe food shortages and limited access to basic services including electricity, communications and banking. The truce had allowed aid convoys to travel to Tigray for the first time since mid-December but on Wednesday, a UN report said deliveries, including by air, had been halted due to renewed fighting. The violence has also hit access to aid in the neighbouring Amhara region. Fighting erupted around Tigray's southeastern border on August 24, but has since spread along the region's southern border to areas west and north of the initial clashes. A diplomatic source and a foreign source told AFP on Thursday that fighting had intensified along Tigray's northern border, with pro-government forces and troops from neighbouring Eritrea -- which backed Ethiopia's army in the early stages of the war -- targeting rebel positions. AFP was not able to independently verify the claims. Access to northern Ethiopia is severely restricted and Tigray has been under a communications blackout for over a year. Eritrean forces Debretsion also called for "the withdrawal of Eritrean forces from every part of Ethiopian and Tigrayan territory, under international monitoring, to positions in which they can no longer pose any threat to us". He also asked the Security Council to ensure the withdrawal of troops from western Tigray, a disputed region claimed by Amharas and Tigrayans, that has been occupied by Amhara forces since the war erupted, triggering large-scale displacement and US warnings of ethnic cleansing. There was no response from the Ethiopian government to the letter. The uptick in violence has sparked international concern, with the US envoy to the Horn of Africa, Mike Hammer, extending his stay in Ethiopia, according to diplomatic sources. The warring sides have traded blame for starting the latest round of hostilities. The war erupted in November 2020 when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops to topple the TPLF, the region's former ruling party, saying the move came in response to attacks by the group on army camps. Ghanaian political blogger and law student, Joseph Naah-Yerreh, also known as Dada Joe, has waded into the ongoing discussion of how notorious Chinese galamsey queen Aisha Huang gained entry into Ghana following her deportation in 2018. In a post on Facebook, Mr. Naah-Yerreh intimated that the NIA must fight the urge to be just a data repository, but integrate their data with new or existing systems available to security and other state institutions to help identify persons entering the Ghanaian jurisdiction through whichever approved port of entry. He contends that doing so will allow security personnel match the profiles of such persons with their criminal history and any legal restrictions placed on their person if theyre already on the system, or capture their details and bio data into the existing pool at the port of entry to forestall such occurrence in the future. He advised the NIA to begin the integrations in earnest and on a pilot basis rather than waiting till it is done with the data collection process on everyone. Read the full text of his post on Facebook below: Are we waiting till every Ghanaian and non-citizen is captured by NIA before we implement the data for security purposes? It seems the NIA is just a stand-alone data collection entity with no integrations necessary for helping security personnel such as police and immigration identify persons and associate their profiles with their criminal history and any outstanding warrants or legal restrictions on their person. Saying NIA system worked just because Aisha Huangs details popped up when she tried to register with her new identity is a monumental failure at seeing the bigger picture of why we need a comprehensive national database of persons within or entering the jurisdiction. Elsewhere, youre identified at the port of entry if you have your details captured in the national database, including your criminal history and legal restrictions, if any. The question begs asking, why are we compiling a national database if we cant use same to identify criminals among others and follow laid down protocol to have them apprehended. Huang entered through an approved route, ideally, wed have a bioscanner at all ports of entry, identify the person trying to enter the jurisdiction and immediately have access to their info if any, thats if theyre already on the system. If theyre not on the system, then their biodata and other info is captured into the national database at the port of entry. Such persons only get issued non-citizen Ghanacards when they apply and show the required resident permits. This stage becomes easier because their details would already be in the system as captured at the port of entry. NIA must not be just a data collection institution, but a feeder institution supplying data to relevant state institutions for applications such as security and planning. Access to this info by permitted institutions must be instant through integration with tiered access according to the sensitivity of the data requested and what that institution is pre-cleared to access. To conclude, data is useless if not applied to solve everyday problems especially matters relating to national security. NIA must not wait till its done collecting data of everyone before having some these integrations in place. Joseph Naah-Yerreh Sgd. 09.09.2022 LISTEN Bottles of locally made drinks, suspected to have been laced with cannabis, also known as wee, have been impounded by the police in Kumasi. The 624 bottled drinks were seized in a Kia Bongo truck, with registration number AW 2078-20, which was being driven by one Owusu Afriyie, 60. The successful police intelligence operation was conducted by the Drug Law and Intelligence Unit (DLEU) at Krofrom, a suburb of Kumasi, around 4:10pm on September 1, 2022. The security exercise that led to the seizure of the illegal items also resulted in the arrest of four suspects, including Owusu Afriyie, who are now being interrogated before being hauled to court. The other three suspects are Richard Azimbe aka 'Batistuta', 36, owner of the items, Collins Adjei, 26 and Georgina Ofori, 32, who sell the drinks at her drinking spot at Kronom. According to a police report, The car contained thirty-two (32) boxes each containing 12 plastic bottles, and four (4) sacks each containing sixty (60) plastic bottles, all totalling six hundred and twenty-four bottles of locally made fruit juice or beverages suspected to have been laced with cannabis. Suspect Richard Azimbe, aka 'Batistuta', aged 36 years, owner of the above mentioned items and Collins Adjei, aged 26 years, who assists in the delivery of the said items, were also arrested. The police team, the report said, then proceeded to Kronom near Kumasi and arrested suspect Georgina Ofori, aged 32 years, at her drinking spot and retrieved a bottle similar to the product. According to the police report, suspects are still in custody to be processed, and those connected with the exhibits would be prosecuted. ---DGN online The Director of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), Nana Agyeman Prempeh says the spillage of the Bagre Dam will continue to have dire effects on Ghanaians until the Pwalugu multipurpose dam is constructed. According to him, until God intervene with money to complete the Pwalugu Dam, residents living around the area will continue to face the perennial incident. Addressing journalists at the Upper East regional coordinating council as part of his working visit to the region to assess the flood situation, Nana Agyeman however assured that his office will be on standby to support victims of floods. He used the opportunity to charge the various security services to be on standby for any eventuality, adding that NADMO is only a coordinating agency. The Upper East Regional Minister, Hon. Stephen Yakubu suggested that though there is no enough funds for the dams construction, dredging rivers in the affected communities will help the situation. He assured the region coordinating council's readiness to assist NADMO in its safety activities but raised concern that people living within the affected areas are refusing to relocate because of culture and traditional reasons. The Bagri Dam was opened on Thursday 1st September. It affected several communities in the Upper East, Upper West, North East and Oti Regions. 09.09.2022 LISTEN CAPE TOWN, South Africa This week, the United States government celebrates International Literacy Day (ILD) 2022 by committing $13 million to expand Family Literacy in Egypt. According to sources, since 1978, the U.S. Government has invested over $1.7 billion (EGP 32.5 billion) to support education in Egypt. And since 1967, International Literacy Day (ILD) celebrations have taken place annually around the world to remind the public of the importance of literacy as a matter of dignity and human rights, and to advance the literacy agenda towards a more literate and sustainable society. But despite progress made, literacy challenges persist with at least 771 million young people and adults lacking basic literacy skills today. Commenting on the importance of the programs expansion, USAID Mission Director Leslie Reed said, With this new funding, we look forward to expanding the intergenerational literacy program to Beni Suef. This program is part of the U.S. Governments long-standing commitment to supporting education in Egypt. In honor of International Literacy Day, the U.S. Government, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), this week announced $13 million (EGP 250 million) in new funding to expand one of its most successful literacy programs, Literate Village, to the governorate of Beni Suefthe fifth governorate to receive such funding. The program builds on $26 million (EGP 500 million) in earlier U.S. support to the program, which to date has reached nearly 60,000 students in 1,935 community schools with early grade reading instruction, reading materials, teacher trainings, and reading camps. Beyond the classroom, the program also aims to develop a culture of literacy, education, and self-sufficiency by teaching mothers to read and write and by providing them with skills and job training to support themselves and their children, according to reports. And since 2017, the Literate Village program has operated in the governorates of Assiut, Beheira, Sohag, and Minya, and also worked to develop a network of community leaders to encourage school attendance, promote a love of reading, and help children thrive. With this new funding, the program will also introduce a climate change awareness component into the curriculum and, along with the Ministry of Education and Technical Education, provide community schools in rural areas with equipment, infrastructure, and training to expand their digital learning resources. And according to UNESCO, the rapidly changing global context took a new meaning over the past years, hampering the progress of global literary efforts. In the aftermath of the pandemic, nearly 24 million learners might never return to formal education, out of which, 11 million are projected to be girls and young women. To ensure no one is left behind, we need to enrich and transform the existing learning spaces through an integrated approach and enable literacy learning in the perspective of lifelong learning. This years International Literacy Day will be celebrated worldwide under the theme, Transforming Literacy Learning Spaces and will be an opportunity to rethink the fundamental importance of literacy learning spaces to build resilience and ensure quality, equitable, and inclusive education for all. At the global level, a two-day hybrid international event will be organized on 8 and 9 September 2022, in Cote dIvoire. The International Literacy Day global celebration lies at the heart of regional, country and local levels. As such, this year's outstanding programmes and literacy practices will be announced through the 2022 UNESCO International Literacy Prizes award ceremony. Former President, H.E Barack Hussein Obama, the first black President of the United States of America (USA) has heaped praise on the late English monarch, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Following Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II's death, the United Kingdom and the entire world have been pouring in tributes. The English monarch passed away on Thursday, September 8 at the age of 96. In a tweet shortly after, the 44th US President said the small moments they experienced during the reign of England's longest-serving monarch were extremely memorable. Like so many of you, Michelle and I are grateful to have witnessed Her Majestys dedicated leadership, and we are awed by her legacy of tireless, dignified public service. Our thoughts are with her family and the people of the United Kingdom at this difficult time, his tweet reads. Meanwhile, other world leaders, dignitaries and well-known organisations have expressed their heartfelt condolences to the Royal family. Offices of Mobile Network Providers across the Ashanti Region are recording heavy human traffic as people rush to get their SIM cards re-registered. The development follows the roll out of punitive measures by the National Communications Authority (NCA) where some mobile network subscribers have been barred from making calls. During a visit to the offices, SIM card users who experienced interruptions with their phone service walked to the offices to have it rectified. The sanctions also affected some persons who claim they have fully registered their SIMs. The displeased users, who have been expressing their discomfort on social media, indicated that they are unable to make outgoing calls but can receive only incoming ones. According to some, they received messages from their service providers that their SIM cards have been blocked partially for two days due to their failure to re-register them using the Ghana Card. The MTN Re-registration Centre at Kejetia in the Central Business District of Kumasi had the longest queue as at 5.30 am when the News team visited. Most of the people said they had already completed the first phase of the re-registration through the self-service, and had come to the centre to complete the second and last phase, involving capturing their biometric data. Confusion, anger and frustration were directed at some officers, especially from subscribers who claimed to have been barred in error despite successfully linking their National Identification Numbers (NINs) to their Subscribers Identity Module (SIM) cards. "I completed the linking and verification exercise as far back as three months ago, but I was shocked this morning to discover that I cannot make calls. "This is my main line and imagines not being able to make calls. It is shocking!" One aggrieved subscriber said. Some subscribers said they were stranded claiming that all efforts to get their SIM cards re-registered had proven futile due to their service providers inability to attend to them. Voice-operated smartphones are aiming at a vast yet widely overlooked market in sub-Saharan Africa -- the tens of millions of people who face huge challenges in life because they cannot read or write. In Ivory Coast, a so-called "Superphone" using a vocal assistant that responds to commands in a local language is being pitched to the large segment of the population -- as many as 40 percent -- who are illiterate. Developed and assembled locally, the phone is designed to make everyday tasks more accessible, from understanding a document and checking a bank balance to communicating with government agencies. "I've just bought this phone for my parents back home in the village, who don't know how to read or write," said Floride Jogbe, a young woman who was impressed by adverts on social media. She believed the 60,000 CFA francs ($92) she forked out was money well spent. The smartphone uses an operating system called "Kone" that is unique to the Cerco company, and covers 17 languages spoken in Ivory Coast, including Baoule, Bete, and Dioula, as well as 50 other African languages. Cerco hopes to expand this to 1,000 languages, reaching half of the continent's population, thanks to help from a network of 3,000 volunteers. The goal is to address the "frustration" illiterate people feel with technology that requires them to be able to read or write or spell effectively, said Cerco president Alain Capo-Chichi, a Benin national. "Various institutions set down the priority of making people literate before making technology available to them," he told AFP. "Our way skips reading and writing and goes straight to integrating people into economic and social life." Of the 750 million adults around the world who cannot read or write, 27 percent live south of the Sahara, according to UN figures for 2016, the latest year for which data is available. The continent also hosts nearly 2,000 languages, some of which are spoken by tens of millions of people and are used for inter-ethnic communication, while others are dialects with a small geographical spread. Lack of numbers or economic clout often means these languages are overlooked by developers who have already devised vocal assistants for languages in bigger markets. Twi and Kiswahili Other companies investing in the voice-operation field in Africa include Mobobi, which has created a Twi language voice assistant in Ghana called Abena AI, while Mozilla is working on an assistant in Kiswahili, which has an estimated 100 million speakers in East Africa. Telecommunications expert Jean-Marie Akepo questioned whether voice operation needed the platform of a dedicated mobile phone. Existing technology "manages to satisfy people", he said. "With the voice message services offered by WhatsApp, for example, a large part of the problem has already been solved." Instead of a new phone, he recommended "software with local languages that could be installed on any smartphone". The Ivorian phone is being produced at the ICT and Biotechnology Village in Grand-Bassam, a free-trade zone located near the Ivorian capital. It came about through close collaboration with the government. The company pays no taxes or customs duties and the assembly plant has benefited from a subsidy of more than two billion CFA francs. In exchange, Cerco is to pay 3.5 percent of its income to the state and train around 1,200 young people each year. The company says it has received 200,000 orders since launch on July 21. Thanks to a partnership with French telecommunications giant Orange, the phone will be distributed in 200 shops across Ivory Coast. The late Queen Elizabeth ll of England dominates today's newspapers worldwide, with editors reaching for muted superlatives to honour an admired, admirable stateswoman. Queen Elizabeth ll is virtually everywhere in the public prints. And, if a certain amount of repetition is inevitable, the overall level of respectful inventiveness in the media is truly remarkable. My personal favourite is Time magazine. They go for a formal portrait photographed by Sir Cecil Beaton in the summer of 1968, when Queen Elizabeth was 42 years old. Beaton said he wanted his picture of the monarch to be "stark and clear and bold". Even Communist China is unable to resist, with the Beijing-based Daily News giving the queen royal coverage on a front page normally reserved for austere analysis of party fiscal policy and heartening statements from President Xi. "World mourns Queen Elizabeth ll," reads one of the main headlines in the Daily News. And we learn from the same source that President Xi Jinping sent a message of condolence to Britain's new King Charles III on the death of his mother. In Moscow, Russian daily Pravda describes the departed monarch as "A worldwide treasure". A blush from New York's Gray Lady The New York Times tends to publish headlines of such length and detail that you never actually need to read the story that goes with them. Today, the Gray Lady gives a warm send-off to a head of state who was not afraid of a splash of colour. "The Queen's death comes at a moment of great uncertainty for Britain," the main headline assures us, the article going on to say that there is no analogous British figure who will be mourned as deeply, or whose death will provoke a greater reckoning with the identity and future of the country. The New York Times has more, in the form of a sidebar headlined "Long an Uneasy Prince, King Charles III Takes On a Role He Was Born To". That's more like it. Charles, we are told, was once an awkward, self-doubting young man. He comes to the throne, at 73, as a self-assured, grey-haired eminence. The question of which is worse is not debated. Sydney's Herald says it straight Down Under, The Sydney Morning Herald takes Australian straight-talking to a new level with a headline describing the Queen's death as "inevitable", adding that it has "still prompted shock". You have to admire that use of "still". The analysis pages of the same Sydney paper delve into the "secrets of the royal handbag," offering to explain how the Queen endured all the adoration. She was adept at passing to her support staff the tropical forests of flowers she received from well-wishers. She was, says the Herald, "as deft as a full-back under pressure". Greater praise than this? And the handbags were not for anything as mundane as carrying things. They were for signalling. The bag was normally draped from her left arm, but the Queen switched the leather to her right to summon staff to the rescue when she tired of a conversation, according to royal historian Hugo Vickers, quoted in the Sydney paper. Menzies on the brink of diplomatic doom Queen Elizabeth was a frequent visitor to Australia. Welcoming her in 1963, the then prime minister Robert Menzies was moved to quote the words of a love poem, There is a Lady Sweet and Kind, by the 17th century composer Thomas Ford. I did but see her passing by, and yet I love her till I die, enthused Menzies, stopping short of a further alarming verse about what it might be like if only had I her fast betwixt mine arms. The story is more complicated in Africa. The Nairobi-based Kenyan Daily Nation gives pride of place to "President Uhuru Kenyata's farewell parade", which takes place today. The Queen has to setlle for top of the world news section, and a headline reading "Trouble, strife and family life". The artricle is lifted from AFP and analyses the conflict between the duties of motherhood and of monarchy, emphasising the supposed impact of maternal absence on Elizabeth Windsor's children. Royal author Penny Junor once said of the relationship between Prince Charles and his mother: "If he'd been a horse or a dog they would have been a lot closer." In South Africa, Julius Malema of the Economic Freedom Fighters says: "We will not mourn Queen Elizabeth". A lesson from Nelson Mandela Malema might learn something from his departed countryman, Nelson Mandela, one of the few human beings who was permitted to call the Queen by her first name. Mandela believed it was important for the former colonial power to maintain cordial and productive relations with the newly democratic republic of South Africa. He spoke to Elizabeth regularly. The South African president never failed to mock diplomats and politicians returning from London by asking them if they had met the Queen. At a dinner for Prince Charles in 1997, Mandela explained Elizabeth ll's Tswana nickname, which is Motlalepula, "she who comes with the rain". She earned the title because her 1995 visit to South Africa coincided with long-awaited torrential downpours. But Motlalepula also means "she who is keen, intelligent and has attained spiritual enlightenment". May she rest in peace. A sudden change on 29 August 2022 in the colour and smell of Lake Kuk, in north-west Cameroon, has caused anxiety and panic among the local residents. Fears are driven by an incident that happened 36 years ago at Lake Nyos, just 10km away. On 21 August 1986, Lake Nyos emitted lethal gases (mainly carbon dioxide) that suffocated 1,746 people and around 8,300 livestock. It wasn't the first incident like this. Two years earlier, Lake Monoum, about 100km south-west of Lake Nyos, killed 37 people. Desolation around Lake Nyos on 1 August 1986. Photo by Eric Bouvet via Getty Images Research into the cause of the Lake Nyos disaster concluded that carbon dioxide gas released from the Earth's mantle had been accumulating at the bottom of the lake for centuries. A sudden disturbance of the lake's waters due to a landslide resulted in a sudden release of around 1.24 million tonnes of carbon dioxide gas. Survivors briefly heard a rumbling sound from Lake Nyos before an invisible gas cloud emerged from its depths. It killed people, animals, insects and birds along its path in the valley before dispersing into the atmosphere where it became harmless. Both Kuk and Nyos are crater lakes located in a region of volcanic activity known as the Cameroon Volcanic Line. And there are 43 other crater lakes in the region that could contain lethal amounts of gases. Other lakes around the world that pose a similar threat include Lake Kivu at the border of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lake Ngozi in Tanzania and Lake Monticchio in Italy. After Lake Nyos erupted, its water turned a deep red colour and survivors reported the smell of rotten eggs. These are the same characteristics to have recently manifested at Lake Kuk. The change in colour of Lake Nyos was only noticed after the gas burst. In an official press release , heavy rainfall was linked to the odour and change in colour of Lake Kuk. The tens of thousands of people living around the lake were urged to remain calm while being vigilant to continuously inform the administration of any other incident noted. As a geologist and disaster management expert, I believe that not enough is being done to address and manage the potential danger from crater lakes in the region. Through my experience and research I've identified several key steps that policymakers must take to prevent another tragedy from happening. To start with, it's important to know which lakes are at risk of exploding. Initial checks in some of the lakes were done more than 30 years ago and not thoroughly it was just one team and on one occasion. Further investigations and regular monitoring are required. Currently it's believed that, of the 43 crater lakes on Cameroon's Volcanic Line, 13 are deep and large enough to contain lethal quantities of gases. Although 11 are considered to be relatively safe, two (Lakes Enep and Oku) are dangerous. Map showing the Cameroon Volcanic Line and other hazards in Cameroon. Research has revealed that the thermal profile (how temperature changes with depth), quantity of dissolved gases, surface area or water volume and depth are key indicators of the potential for crater lakes to store large quantities of dangerous gases. The factors that lead to the greatest risk include: high quantities of dissolved gases, held under high pressures, at great depths, in lakes with large volumes of water. They are at an even greater risk of explosion when the lakes sit in wide or large craters where there are disturbances. The two lakes that caused fatalities (Nyos and Monoum) are deep and have thermal profiles that increase with depth. Other lakes are too shallow (less than 40 metres) and have uniform thermal profiles, indicating they do not contain large amounts of gases. Investigating all the crater lakes in Cameroon would be a logistical challenge. It would require significant funding, a diverse scientific team, technical resources and transportation to the lakes. Since most of the crater lakes are in remote areas with poor communication network (no roads, rail or airports), it would take a couple of years for the work to be completed. Since Cameroon has many potentially dangerous crater lakes, it is unsatisfactory that 36 years after the Lake Nyos disaster, not much has been done to mitigate the risks in other gas-charged hazardous lakes. Managing dangerous lakes Lake Kuk was checked shortly after the 1986 Lake Nyos disaster and found not to contain excess carbon dioxide. Its relatively shallow depth and surface area means the risk of gas being trapped in large quantities is low. Nevertheless, authorities should have immediately restricted access to Lake Kuk pending a thorough onsite investigation. The official press release urging calm was sent just one day after the incident was reported. It's not possible that a scientist could have carried out a physical examination of the lake. The release said that rainfall was responsible for the changes, but this will be based on assumptions. Lake Kuk might be considered safe , but due to the dynamic and active nature of the Cameroon Volcanic Line, there is a possibility that volcanic gases can seep into the lake at any moment. An onsite scientific investigation would determine with certainty the abnormal behaviour of Lake Kuk. Keeping people away from the lake until a swift and credible investigation had been done would be the most rational decision. An additional step would be for a carbon dioxide detector to be installed near Lake Kuk and other potentially dangerous crater lakes. This would serve as an early warning system for lethal gas releases. A carbon dioxide early warning system is designed to detect high concentrations of gases in the atmosphere and to produce a warning sound. Upon hearing the sound, people are expected to run away from the lake and onto higher ground. After the Lake Nyos disaster, carbon dioxide detectors and warning systems were installed near Lakes Nyos and Monoum. Nevertheless, no simulation has been conducted to determine their effectiveness. The Directorate of Civil Protection is the designated agency responsible for coordinating disaster risk management in Cameroon. The agency should liaise with other stakeholders in the government and private sector to ensure the safety of Cameroon's dangerous lakes. If the authorities are not proactive, the Lake Nyos disaster scenario may repeat where thousands of people and livestock are suddenly killed. Henry Ngenyam Bang does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. By Henry Ngenyam Bang, Disaster Management Scholar, Researcher and Educator, Bournemouth University Elesin Oba, the King's Horseman is a new movie coming to Netflix. It is based on Nigeria's most famous play, Death and the King's Horseman, written in 1975 by Nobel Prize-winning author, activist and academic Wole Soyinka . Directed by the late Biyi Bandele , the film in the Yoruba language is generating global attention with a world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Tunde Onikoyi, a lecturer in African literature and film, acted in the original play. We asked him what it's about and why it still matters. What is Death and the King's Horseman? Death and the King's Horseman is a famous play based on a historical event in Nigeria in the time of British colonial rule of the country. It tells the story of Elesin, the king's horseman. He was prevented from committing ritual suicide by the British colonial powers. The play was written by Wole Soyinka in 1975. After studying theatre in the UK, Soyinka returned home to newly independent Nigeria in 1960. He threw himself into researching Yoruba culture, song and dance. The play was ultimately the fruit of this research. What's the story about? Death and the King's Horseman is set in the Oyo Kingdom in south-west Nigeria in the early 1940s. Oyo tradition demands that Elesin Oba, the king's horseman, must commit suicide before the king is buried in order for his spirit to lead the king's to the great beyond. But Elesin Oba failed in his duty. The story ends on a tragic note his son, Olunde, has to return from studying medicine abroad to commit suicide in place of his father. Read more: Biyi Bandele, a serial storyteller who elevated Nigerian culture So the play is about ritual obligation; the traditional Yoruba belief of abobaku (self sacrifice). It is a mission that you cannot jettison. It's a must. It is something that is not a tragedy in its real sense but it becomes a tragedy when the man who was to perform that role does not do it. He fails because he puts himself before his assignment choosing to sleep with a woman before performing his role and also because he was working with the colonial leaders. He finds a collaborator in Mr Pilkings, the ignorant colonial administrator. Who's the playwright? Professor Wole Soyinka is a man of many faces. He's a playwright, he's an activist. He's also a novelist and poet, an essayist and an autobiographer. Soyinka was born in Abeokuta in south-west Nigeria in 1934. He was jailed at least three times for criticising the government. In one of those instances, he hijacked a radio station to accuse the government of rigging a regional election in 1965. He was kept in solitary confinement for holding a meeting with the leader of the Biafran secessionists, Odumegwu Ojukwu , during the Nigerian civil war in 1967. His works became more popular after his incarceration. He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1986 . Soyinka has really contributed so much to the growth of education and art culture in Nigeria. For someone like me who has directed his works and played roles in two of his plays Kongi's Harvest and, of course, Death and the King's Horseman I realised that for one to understand Soyinka's work you need to understand the man. His way of life, his attitude to life. His philosophy is hinged on justice, which he has described as the prime condition of humanity. He believes the greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism. What impact did it have? You cannot imagine the kind of impact the play had. It spurred global interest in Nigerian culture. It's still performed around the world. The theme of the clash of cultures further enlightens audiences about colonialism, that no culture is superior to another. Much more, the richness of Yoruba culture, its language and proverbs, are brought to life in the play. It revolutionised a cultural revival in Nigeria. It was so impactful that examination bodies in Nigeria and West Africa had to include the drama in the curriculum of both secondary and tertiary schools. It has become the subject of university scholarship internationally. It forced African literary scholars including me to learn more about our culture. Read more: Wole Soyinka's life of writing holds Nigeria up for scrutiny The real power of the play lies in its timelessness. This is because the themes it explores are still relevant. The world is still battling with racism and cultural imperialism. Indigenous people around the world are finding ways to safeguard cultural heritage. By filming Death and the King's Horseman, the producers are helping safeguard Nigerian cultural heritage. How is the play relevant to a Netflix audience? Well, I think the question you should be asking is how is it relevant to Nollywood the Nigerian film industry? I can watch Death and the King's Horseman on another platform. I can watch it in the cinema. So, it's not essentially about Netflix, it is particularly about the play and how the play has actually been created as a Nollywood adaptation. However, on Netflix, it will break more ground and hopefully increase the demand for films like it, especially in Yoruba. EbonyLife Media/Netflix There are lots of lessons in the story. Firstly, you have a sense of duty to your ancestors and your people. Secondly, to Europeans represented by Mr Pilkings, if you do not understand a culture, there is nothing wrong about being ignorant. Be humble enough to ask. Viewers will also be inspired by the character of Olunde, the well-educated son of Elesin Oba. In spite of his western education, he still understands his culture, his family ties. Do not abandon your mother tongue. Don't throw away your culture. The play is again breaking ground and celebrating Nigerian culture, only this time as a film. The film streams on Netflix from 10 September Babatunde Onikoyi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. By Babatunde Onikoyi, Researcher and Assistant Lecturer, University of Regina The Chiefs and people of the Oti Region have expressed gratitude to the Akufo-Addo administration for the many development projects they have witnessed in the Region since 2017, especially in the areas of roads, schools and other infrastructure. The chiefs are particularly grateful that now, unlike in the past, promises made by Government are actually fulfilled. Speaking on behalf of the Chiefs at Kadjebi on Thursday, 8th September, 2022, Nana Asabre Amankwatia II, Baamuhene of Kadjebi Traditional Area, said the NPP Government had indeed walked the talk and made good on its pledges. Thank you for fulfilling your promises to us. In the past we have heard many promises about Government coming to fix our roads and bring us other development but they never happened. But your government is different. I was there at Jasikan in December 2019 when you, Vice President Bawumia, cut the sod for work to begin on this road, and today, I am here again for the commissioning. You and your government have kept your word and fulfilled your promises. You have shown once again that we only get development when NPP is in power, he declared. Nana Amankwatia II made these remarks when the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, accompanied by the Minister for Roads and Highways, Hon Kwasi Amoako-Attah and the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, H.E. Lu Kun, joined the chiefs of the eight traditional divisions of the Oti region to commission the 56.4km Jasikan-Dodo Pepesu Road stretch of the Eastern Corridor roads. The construction of the Jasikan - Dodo Pepesu Road is part of the Master Project Support Agreement (MPSA) between the Government of Ghana and the Peoples Republic of China for the construction of some key infrastructure project through an innovative financing model. Under Phase 1 of the MPSA, a total of 441km of roads and two interchanges are to be constructed. Work on the Jasikan-Dodo Pepesu Project began on 11th December 2019 for completion in 30 months. The project was however completed in April 2022, almost two months ahead of schedule and did not record any cost overruns, according to officials of the Ministry of Roads and Highways. Eastern Corridor Roads Addressing the gathering, Vice President Bawumia explained that the Eastern Corridor Road Project starts from Tema Motorway Interchange and has a number of components, almost all of which are receiving attention. The Construction of the 67km Tema-Akosombo Road Project is ongoing, and includes the dualization of the Tema -Akuse Road with the construction of interchanges at Ashaiman and Akuse; the section between Akosombo and Asikuma is under Periodic Maintenance by the Ghana Highway Authority. Reconstruction of Asikuma Junction-Kpeve is also ongoing. Progress stands at 40%. Reconstruction of Have-Hohoe (53.5km) is currently at 60% completion. Reconstruction of Hohoe-Jasikan section (30km) is 80% complete. Construction of Jasikan-Dodo Pepesu Road (53.4km) is completed and being commissioned today. Construction of Nkwanta- Oti Damanko (50.3km) up to Kpassa is 50% complete. Construction of Nkwanta-Oti Damanko (12km) and Kpassa-Oti Damanko is 71% complete. As well, construction of Oti Damanko-Yendi (94km) is 97% complete. Construction of Yendi-Gbintri (113km) is 85% complete. As you can see, Government is working on almost every section of the Eastern Corridor, Dr Bawumia emphasized. The Vice President further indicated that a number of projects, broken into Lots under Phase 1 of the MPSA, had either been completed or were nearing completion. There are currently 8 Lots at various stages of completion under Phase 1 of the innovative Sinohydro MPSA we agreed with the Government of the Peoples Republic of China. A number of projects have been completed, including construction of the Tamale Interchange, the first ever interchange in the Northern parts (Lot 3); construction of Cape Coast Inner City and Western Region Roads (Lot 7); and upgrading of Selected Feeder Roads in Ashanti (Lot 8). Others, like the Construction of Kumasi Inner City Roads, involving the construction of 100km of roads in Kumasi (Lot 2); Construction of PTC Interchange in Takoradi (Lot 4), and Construction of Sunyani and Berekum Inner City Roads (Lot 6) are all at various stages of completion. Oti, Volta Roads Zeroing in on the Volta and Oti regions, Vice President Bawumia said the Ministry of Roads and Highways, through its implementing agencies Ghana Highway Authority, Department of Feeder Roads and Department of Urban Roads - had undertaken a large body of work designed to ease travel and improve the socio-economic lives of the people. Apart from the Eastern Corridor roads the Ghana Highway Authority has completed about 109km of trunk roads within the Volta and Oti Regions since 2017. Some of the roads include Upgrading of Kete Krachi-Buya Road (26.9km); Upgrading of Nkonya Wurampong-Kwamikrom (21km) and Upgrading of Borae Junction-Dodiokope Road (17km). The Department of Urban Roads completed 31km of road works within the same period, he continued. These include the Asphalt Overlay of 14.7km of roads in Hohoe; 14km of Binder course laid between Sokode-Gbogame and the Civic Centre under the Dualization of the Ho main Road and the Upgrading of Klefe Town roads (2.5km). The Department of Feeder Roads has rehabilitated 27.5km of roads. These include the rehabilitation of Liati-Agbonyiri-Fodome Abor Phase 2 (9.7km) and rehabilitation of Matse Klave (17.8km). Apart from creating a new Region, Oti region, after decades of requests, you will all agree with me that indeed the government of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has brought a lot of development to the Oti region. The evidence is also clear that no government in the Fourth Republic has constructed and completed as many kilometers of roads in Ghana as the Akufo-Addo Government, he affirmed. In agricultural production, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are crops and animals which have had their genetic materials improved upon through genetic engineering techniques. Genetic engineering techniques are laboratory procedures that allow scientists to introduce genes into an organism from the same or different species. For example, a popular GMO is Bt maize. This maize has a gene introduced into it from a bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis, resulting in maize that is resistant to specific insect pests. However, since the basic building blocks of all living things are the same regardless of whether they are plants, animals, or micro-organisms, such gene transfer is possible and results in products that have been consumed for decades. In the USA, at least 90% of all maize, cotton, and soyabeans are GMOs. In South Africa, 85% of all maize, 95% of all soyabeans, and 100% of all cotton grown there are GMOs. Genetically modified organisms are currently grown in at least 29 countries worldwide including Bangladesh, Sudan, Nigeria, Brazil, China, and India. Despite strict GM regulations in Europe, GM maize is grown in Spain and Portugal. Ghana recently approved the growing of GM cowpea (beans), which is resistant to an insect pest called Maruca, and farmers will in the next few years be able to grow it. Genetically modified organisms have mainly been controversial because they result from the introduction of genes from same or nonrelated living organisms. Those who rally against the technology question why people should be eating maize that has genes of bacteria in it, although scientific evidence says that should not be a problem since all living things have the same basic building blocks. About a decade ago, a more advanced form of genetic engineering technology called gene-editing or genome-editing was discovered. This technology allows scientists to break, insert or delete DNA strands of an organism, as a way of improving upon it to create beneficial traits. There are several versions of this technology, including one that uses CRISPR-associated protein-based systems. This technique enables precise alterations to specific regions of the genome, in a way that you could avoid using external genes from other living organisms. This is the primary difference between GMOs and gene-edited products. Thus, GMOs usually involve the introduction of external genes, whilst gene-edited products do not always involve the introduction of external genes. But as far as agriculture is concerned, both strategies are aimed at producing better-yielding, more resilient, and climate-smart crops and animals. Gene-edited products under development in Africa The Innovative Genomics Institute in the USA is using CRISPR genome-editing techniques to remove harmful cyanide from some cassava species. Researchers in the US and Uganda are utilising CRISPR to develop cassava with increased tolerance to cassava brown streak virus. Field trials of cassava resistant to brown streak and mosaic viruses produced using the gene-editing technology, are currently underway in Uganda and Kenya. To combat the spread of the banana streak virus, scientists at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) are working to create virus-resistant banana cultivars using gene-editing. The IITA in Nigeria is developing bananas resistant to banana bacterial wilt and banana streak virus, using gene-editing. Corteva Agri-Science and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) are working on a gene-editing project in Kenya to develop maize varieties that are resistant to maize lethal necrosis, a viral disease that causes severe crop loss. Sorghum is a staple crop in Africa, and scientists at the University of Queensland in Australia and their African partners have produced a high-protein cultivar of the grain using gene-editing, which is awaiting release authorisation. Sorghum variants resistant to Striga, a parasitic plant, are being developed at the Kenyatta University in Kenya using gene-editing, a CRISPR technique. Scientists at Penn State University in the USA are using CRISPR to breed cocoa varieties that are resistant to the cocoa swollen shoot virus (CSSV), a virus that causes widespread and debilitating damage to the chocolate tree in West Africa. The IITA in Kenya employed gene-editing to pinpoint disease-fighting and heat-resistant genes in bananas. In Ghana, a scientist at the University of Cape Coast, Samuel Acheampong, is using gene-editing technology to develop a sweet potato variety with improved vitamin A content and higher yield. Scientists in the USA have developed reduced trans-fat oils and high-fibre grains through gene-editing. They have also developed hornless and heat-tolerant cattle, and fast-growing tilapia as the first gene-edited products to be consumed in that country. Contrasting the product with the process The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety which came into force in 2003 governs how products from genetic engineering should be approved worldwide. GM regulations in various countries resulting from the signing of this protocol have created a cumbersome and expensive regulatory procedure which averagely takes at least a decade to get a GMO approved. To protect gene-edited crops from having to go through such burdensome regulatory steps, scientists across Africa and throughout the world have quickly drawn the line between GMOs and gene-edited products. They insist that gene-edited products should not go through approval procedures like regular GMOs, particularly when they contain no foreign genetic material, and the resulting trait can happen through natural changes in the plant. In the USA, the United States Department of Agriculture says gene-edited products with no foreign materials will not be regulated as regular GMOs. They will rather go through regulatory procedures that non-GMO seeds go through. A lot of north and south American countries like Argentina and Canada have followed this route. Nonetheless, genome-edited crops have been categorised as GMOs by the European Union. All over the world, countries are still navigating how to approach the approval of gene-edited products. Some of India's most prominent agricultural scientists wrote to Prime Minister, Narendra Modi in 2021 expressing concern about what they say is a lack of urgency in deciding on approval processes for gene-edited crops. Until now, no country in Africa has enacted regulations specific to gene-editing. However, conversations have begun. In 2016, the Department of Science and Technology in South Africa commissioned an expert report on the regulatory implications of new breeding techniques like gene-editing, but no action has been taken yet. Legislators in Nigeria have discussed amending the Biosafety Act of 2015 to include legislation on gene-editing in agriculture, as the current law only provides a framework for permitting the release of GMOs. However, a guideline was published in 2020 as an interim measure, a move that the Kenyan National Biosafety Authority replicated in 2022. It looks like in most African countries; ongoing gene-editing works are likely to be governed by the GM regulations that currently exist. We however think it will make a lot of sense if gene-edited products without foreign genetic materials are regulated as non-GMOs. Authors Kojo Ahiakpa is team lead and agribusiness advisor at Research Desk Consulting Limited. Joseph Opoku Gakpo is country lead at Alliance for Science Ghana. Benjamin Karikari is a lecturer and consultant at the University for Development Studies and Research Desk Consulting Limited, respectively. The Minority in Parliament has served notice it won't allow the Electoral Commissions (EC) Constitutional Instrument (CI) for the 2024 general elections to be laid in Parliament next month. The EC is expected to lay the CI before Parliament to back its decision to make the Ghana Card the primary document for enrolling onto the electoral roll. The National Democratic Congress Member of Parliament for Sagnerigu Constituency in the Northern Region, A. B. A. Fuseini, has protested this. He said if the EC insists on going ahead with the decision of making the Ghana Card the primary document in the next registration exercise, the CI will not see the light of day. The ECs CI will be blocked if it fails to review the CI for the 2024 general elections, he warns. He directed the EC to go back to the Subsidiary Legislation Committee of Parliament to review its earlier decision to make the Ghana Card the primary document for registering onto to electoral roll. He said until the EC's CI is reviewed, the NDC Minority will not allow the EC to lay the CI on the floor of Parliament when the house resumes for sittings next month. The MP, who is a Ranking Member on the Parliamentary Select-Committee on Communications, relayed the Minoritys decision while speaking in an interview with Korku Lumor on the 505 news analysis programme on Accra-based Class 91.3 FM on Thursday, September 8, 2022. He queried what was wrong with the guarantor system that has worked for the EC over the past thirty years of the country's democracy. According to Mr Fuseini, As it stands, millions of Ghanaians do not have Ghana Cards per the National Identification Authority's (NIA) own reasons, If the EC wants to make the Ghana Card the primary document for registration because it wants to get rid of minors and foreigners, arent there minors as well as aliens with Ghana Cards in the country? What is the rationale for the EC to say it wants to prevent minors from enrolling on the voter's register? The lawmaker said the EC is just impervious to advise adding that any attempt to disenfranchise even one Ghanaian will not be taken lightly. He cautioned the EC to shelve its obnoxious decision contained in the CI or risk having the CI blocked. Source: Classfmonline.com The President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, came together with guests at the UNESCO HQ in Paris on Friday 9th September to mark the International Day to Protect Education from Attack, where leaders from the education and development world gathered together to discuss tangible solutions to rising attacks on education. While citing education as the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world and acknowledging that we cannot eliminate poverty if citizens are uneducated, the President reminded audiences that if we do not act now some half of the worlds current population will not have the skills they need for the future. While highlighting the particular problem of attacks on education across West Africa, he called for three courses of action on a global scale - to enhance advocacy for action to garner political will; to underline political commitment, particularly through the establishment of regional coalitions for action so momentum is transformed into action; and by mobilising finance, calling on parties to support diverse funding channels and make education a national priority. According to the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA), global attacks on education are on the rise, with African countries particularly affected. There were more than 5,000 documented attacks on education between 2020-2021, with more than 9,000 students and educators abducted, arrested, injured, or killed. DRC, Mali, and the State of Palestine were the countries most affected, while Burkina Faso, Colombia, Ethiopia, Myanmar, and Nigeria also witnessing an increase. The military use of schools and universities more than doubled. Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, chairperson of the global education foundation Education Above All (EAA), who performed a key role in the observance of the third International Day, underlined the importance of using innovative methods learned during the pandemic to reach out to school children, and urged the global community to move the conversation forwards. In the absence of international action, how do we move the global needle?, she asked, citing the need for concrete action to hold perpetrators of attacks on education to justice. Virginia Gamba, Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for Children and Armed Conflict, reinforced the message that politicians should match political principles with action, and called on nations to implement the UN Security Council Resolution 2601, which was passed last year. She reaffirms the right to education and calls on states to provide protection. She also underlined the key role of data in tackling the scourge of impunity. Data collection to inform policymaking is fundamentaldata on grave violations informs the Secretary General every year to list or not list parties for attacks on schools and to take relevant action. Today will see the unveiling of the Track Attacks on Education (TRACE) Data Portal, a new tool designed to fill a global gap for reliable quality data created by a partnership between the EAA, UNESCO, KoBo Toolbox and in close collaboration with GCPEA and the QCRI. TRACE, an easy to use, single point, open access portal will collect, visualise, and provide curated analysis of data on attacks on education, generating reliable, timely data on attacks on education to be freely shared. Participants and contributors to this years observance, titled Act Now to Protect Education from Attack, included H.H. Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of EAA, SDG Advocate; His Excellency Nana-Akufo-Addo, President of Ghana; Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations; Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO; Her Royal Highness Maria Teresa, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador; Catherine M. Russell, UNICEF Executive Director; Virginia Gamba, United Nations Secretary-Generals Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict; Stefania Giannini, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education; Yalda Hakim, Australian broadcast journalist, news presenter; Rosario Diaz Garavito, CEO of The Millennials Movement. The International Day to Protect Education from Attack was established in 2020. Co-organised by EAA, the Qatar Mission to the United Nations, United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), UNESCO and the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict, the observance brought together global and UN leaders, youth advocates, policy makers and academics to discuss how to protect education and build sustainable peace. EAAs appeal to the global community comes as part of its three-year #UniteToProtect global campaign to end education on attacks through the collection of data on attacks as a basis for evidence generation, accountability, grassroots advocacy and sustainable peacebuilding. The Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), Vincent Foli, Commander of Police in the Krachi Nchumuru District in the Oti Region, has cautioned parents and guardians within the district to desist from betrothing their young girls to men for marriage. He has also warned of jail terms for persons who perpetuated violence against children in the District. ASP Foli sounded the caution at a stakeholder's dialogue on ending child marriage and violence against children in the Krachi Nchumuru District in the Oti Region. The dialogue, organised by the World Vision Ghana, aimed at ending child marriage as well as violence against children within the district. According to the United Nations Children's Fund (2020), Ghana is home to over two million child brides, including currently married girls along with women who were first married in childhood. Also, one in five young women were married or in a union before their 18th birthday. ASP Foli said child marriage was negatively affecting young girls in the District and preventing them from having any meaningful life. He said the Police Command would, therefore, not countenance such acts in the District saying, any culprit arrested will be sent to court and jailed. He advised parents to discharge their duties by providing for their children with the basic needs to protect them from sexual predatory men. Ms Barbara Yeboa Asare, End Child Marriage Campaigns Coordinator, World Vision Ghana, said child marriage continued to be a global phenomenon impeding the development of a country and the full realisation of the rights of children, adding that it was a major threat to the survival and health well-being of children. Evidence has confirmed that teenage pregnancy is a key driver of child marriage in addition to negative social and cultural practices, low enforcement of laws and policies on child marriage and sexual abuses, weak child protection systems, poverty and low empowerment of children, especially girls. Ms Asare said: Child marriage is not only a social issue with potential dramatically consequences for child brides but has economic cost associated with it. She said even though Ghana had made significant strides in halting child marriage over the last decade compared to other West and Central Africa, it must do more to end the canker by 2030. In 2017, World Vision International Global Partnership launched a five year (2017-2021) campaign dubbed: It Takes a World to End Violence against Children, with an intent to promote human transformation, seek justice, uphold the rights of children to be protected and bear witness to the kingdom of God. In line with that, Ms Asare said, World Vision Ghana launched the: End Child Marriage Now! It Takes All, campaign to contribute to the reduction of child marriage in Ghana by five per cent by 2030. She said since its implementation, the campaign had made significant strides both at the national, district and community levels. For instance, the Campaign Coordinator explained that three child protection laws namely Children's Act, Criminal Offences Act and Domestic Violence Act, had been reviewed and laid before Parliament for consideration at the national level. Additionally, the Birth and Deaths Registration Act, 1960 was amended in June 2020, while there had been 75 and 80 per cent budget increment to the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection in 2019 and 2020 respectively. At the district and community levels, 24 district child protection committees have been formed and all trained in all AP operating districts to support in forming and providing oversight responsibility and support to 195 community child protection committees, she touted. Ms Asare said the Organisation would continue to leverage on the campaign gains towards the FY21-23 Strategy to influence policies from stakeholders to reach the most vulnerable girls and boys. Nana Obrempong Kanya, Paramount Chief of Nchumuru Traditional Council, commended non-governmental organisations particularly World Vision Ghana, for their enormous contributions toward the development of the District. He assured the traditional authority's continued collaboration with World Vision Ghana to address the challenges of the District, especially in child protection. GNA The Ashanti Regional Police command has commenced an investigation into the murder of a teenage girl at Konongo. The 15-year-old girl identified as Regina Sarfo has been found dead in a bush suspected to have been dumped by her killers. According to reports gathered from sources in Konongo, she was found in a bush near the Konongo Methodist school by a passerby around 4:00pm on Thursday, September 8. She is said to have been found with knife wounds and blood all over her body. Due to her swollen face, it is also suspected that her killers might have beaten and raped her before she was dumped in the bush. Following a report to the police, investigations are already ongoing to bring the perpetrators to book. This afternoon, information gathered from Konongo indicates that three suspects have already been apprehended. The Ashanti Regional Command has met with the family of the deceased teenager. Meanwhile, the Inspector-General of Police has also commiserated with the family via telephone and assured them of the necessary police support. The University for Development Studies(UDS) holds its annual interdisciplinary conference to create a platform for researchers, students and administrators within and outside the University to share their research works and experiences. The two-day event was held from Wednesday, September 7 to Thursday, September 8, 2022, and organised by the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research (IIR) at the University. It was the 15th in the series on the theme "Contemporary Global Crisis: Threats and Opportunities for Research and Academic Freedom." The AIC was attended by researchers, students, dean and directors at universities, research institutions, companies and NGOs, among others. The Vice-Chancellor of the University, Professor Alhassan Seidu, in a speech read on his behalf by Professor George Nyarko, principal of the Nyankpala campus at the opening ceremony on Wednesday, said the Annual Interdisciplinary Conference (AIC) was one of the flagship programmes by the University that create platforms for the most experienced researchers to mentor the junior and young ones. He also said the conference provides a learning ground for young researchers such as Masters's and PhD students to showcase their research proposals and findings for monitoring and guidance from well-experienced researchers. He lauded the theme "Contemporary Global Crisis: Threats and Opportunities for Research and Academic Freedom" as he believed it resonated with the current global crises that have affected humanity. "The conference also provides a learning ground for young researchers, especially Masters and PhD students to showcase research proposals and findings for comments and suggestions to improve upon the research works," he added. "The theme has been carefully and purposefully chosen by the organisers considering the current global crises and their effects on society and academic works." Professor Seidu entreated the participants, especially students and young researchers who were there to learn, to sit throughout the sessions, pose critical questions and make constructive contributions and criticisms. He thanked the participants, especially those who presented papers for their interest and continued support to the AIC and the University at large. The Director of the Institute of Interdisciplinary Research,(IIR) Dr Abdulai Abubakari, in his welcome remarks, said the AIC started in 2007 as Interfaculty Lectures but has developed into an interdisciplinary conference to create more room for wider participation from researchers in different fields. He indicated that a total of 100 abstracts from varied researchers were received by the institute, but could only admit only 77 due to time and resource constraints. Dr Abubakari indicated that researchers from Nigeria, Kenya, America, Europe, and South Africa have over the years participated in the AIC. "There is a growing demand for this conference. The number of abstracts we received this year attest to this. By the close of the deadline, we received over 100 abstracts," he stated He assured all those who presented papers that the Institute would ensure that their works got published in the Ghana Journal of Interdisciplinary Research. The Dean of Midwifery and senior lecturer at the University Dr Vida Nyagre Yakong who chaired the opening ceremony, on her part, encouraged lecturers to venture into research works to help address the increasing global crises that threaten human life. 09.09.2022 LISTEN When will these unforgivable cretins of modern cultural exhaustion leave decent self-harming people alone? Its that time of the year again, when sponsored pretend moralists molest, disturb and upset people who have reached that state of despair largely for the reasons these bargain basement priests are pestering them for. There is nothing grand about topping yourself, though there is an astonishing, proud literature for those who wish to leave the world of the living. This is not understood by the R U OK brigadistas who seem, on closer inspection, to look like demented barnacles in search of a solid pier. In 2009, an advertiser (because that is exactly the deep feeling person you want) came up with an idea born from his own insecure moorings. Gavin Larkins R U OK? was inspired by the death of his father Barry Larkin. Instead of leaving his father alone in dark melancholic repose brought out by suicide, the son chose to exploit his death with a messianic urgency. It spawned a campaign of grotesque proportions, judgmental, insisting and persevering. To genuinely change behaviour Australia-wide, a national campaign was needed. And from this realisation, and with Gavin and Janinas expertise and passion, R U Ok? was born. But having a lotus eating idiot turn up to ask you how you feel when the storm clouds form is bound to encourage the opposite of what is suggested. Organisations across Australia treat this as a wonderful occasion to revive a tradition that criminalised those who dared take their own lives. Dont take your life because it is somehow wrong. It is a moral scream and call, a poke in the eye that your silly disposition might somehow fall foul of humanity. To ask whether you are OK is to suggest you really ought to be; not being so somehow renders you deficient. University campuses are filled with these failed missionaries whose only purpose in life is to ensure you continue to live miserably, guiltily tortured by the sense you have to. Had they understood that suicidal urges are as much the outcome of a failed civilisation that gave birth to them medicating, distracting butterflies of delusion we would not be having this conversation. People kill themselves because they have good reason to. Discouraging it is neither cure nor therapy. That may be one of the most insulting elements of this advertising movement. True to swill bucket form, there is no reference to the literature and understanding about suicide. Its depth and meaning is less to be understood than to be deterred, heretical writings best not read. Antigone, for instance, has reason to kill herself because of upholding customs (she would prefer that to death through being buried alive). There are those who kill themselves for the promise of glory. All of this is a mere skim of themes. Al Alvarez brought some of these elements together in The Savage God (1972), an idiosyncratically brilliant study that turns to suicide in the context of art. Alvarez remarked in his work that the world of suicide is closed, describing his own experiences as governed by forces I couldnt control. He did seek out the comforts of Albert Camus, who stated that, An act like this is prepared within the silence of the heart, as is a great work of art. Provocatively, and causing much disagreement on the subject, Alvarez reflects on the suicide of the poet Sylvia Plath, and wonders if it was an act of exorcism about the very subject she had summoned up in her poems. In asking such a question, he reverses the standard assumption that ones art can be fatal, rather than cathartically enriching. It is telling that the R U OK campaign and its like tend to take root in institutions that have done everything to destroy the value of life, empty it of succour and drive people who inhabit it to despair. The desire to kill oneself is not always a poetic urge so much as an urge to give meaning to the futile. These days, it arises because of the destructive, dehumanising rumblings of corporations, industries, universities and the putrescent bile of social media opinion. In 2019 Alex Walker, who reflected on the standing of this persistent day in the calendar of cosmetic decisions made an admission: Im no longer OK with RUOK Day, because it represents a problem that Australia wants to say its solving, without fully putting in the measures necessary to fix it. For Walker, the penny finally dropped. Its time we generate a catalogue of misfits for those who dare interrupt our state of natural disturbance, the depth of our demise, and the ultimate realisation that death will come to us all. If we are to hurry along to that inevitable meeting with the Grim Reaper, there is no reason to interrupt such a course of action save some understanding of the interior world a person faces. Often, justifications for doing so are disingenuous and self-servingly shallow. Behind the inherent condescension that accompanies R U OK is a market opportunity, a show, a promotion. Few of us are ever okay, and some may wish, courageously, to leave the likes of Gavin and his fellow advertisers to their miserable concept of prolonged, exploited security. In death, peace and release can be found, the ignoble life left. Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He currently lectures at RMIT University. Email: [email protected] GIISDEC Board Chairman & MP, Yendi 09.09.2022 LISTEN 'Ghana Beyond Aid' to my mind describes a Ghana that is able to reduce imports through industrialization. The slogan can be literally explained in its pure literal discourse to mean Ghana doesnt want help in any form. Clearly focusing on the literal meaning limits ones ability to appreciate its deep call to revolutionized the fundamental structures of our economy through digitalization, servant leadership and industrialization. Remember, religion teaches us of God being the ONLY one who never and would never need help of any kind. Thus, Ghana not being God, would need aid! But for a leader to declare that a country doesnt need aid; be sure he has the human resources and natural resources to change the fundamental structures of his country. This the leader does through strategic appointments of resourceful and visionary persons into institutions that has a role of leveraging the untapped natural resources of the country. Admittedly, Alhaji Farouk Aliu Mahamas appointment to be the second board chairman of GIISDEC was an appropriate, strategic and practical example of the creation of confluence of vision and mission. Alhaji Farouks role of being the highest technical powerful person certainly has a bearing in the operationalization of the core mandate of the corporations activities whilst visible results are being felt every single day. Just as Yendi is fortunate to have him as Member of Parliament; Ghana Integrated Iron and Steel Development Corporation is not only fortunate but graciously lucky to have him lead the charge! GIISDEC was established in March 2019 by an act of parliament (Act 988). The vision of the corporation is to become a catalyst for Ghanas accelerated industrialization agenda; this vision perfectly tied nod with the mission of the grandchild of Imoro Egala, former foreign minister of the First Republic between 1960 and 1961; Alhaji Farouk Aliu Mahama. The young energetic man with an innate mechanism of turning things around! Yes, the president called on him to provide leadership as leadership changes everything! Leadership cannot be taught; it is an inborn quality which is always inherited. Do you doubt me? Just a whisper, his father was the Vice President of Ghana (2000 to 2008). You get it? The legacy of service continues! GIISDECs vision and mission would lead to the exploration of iron ore deposits at Sheini, Opun-Mansi, Akpafu and Pudo in different regions of Ghana. Being the second board chairman of the corporation means; leading the overall strategic matters, overseeing the groups business and setting high governance standards. In all these vex matters lies the mating of a self-mission of an individual leading a group and the vision of a corporation: Alhaji Farouk Aliu Mahamas mission of unearthing opportunities to accelerate development and turn the tide of poverty for an improved society and humanity at large certainly resonates with the vision of the corporation he chairs. This mission clearly manifests in the corporations people centered activities as seen in various dialogue and community engagements being led by no other person but the board chairman himself despite his preoccupied schedules. As an action-oriented board chairman, GIISDEC has already engage a number of investors with one investor said to establish $1 billion iron and steel industry plant in Ghana. When this singular investment is carried out, the fundamental indicator of cedi depreciation can be reduced drastically as the importation of iron and steel would be reduced significantly. Thus, Ghanas agenda on industrialization which requires high demand for iron and steel would be met domestically with no foreign aid. Strategically, the board chairman also led a delegation to B5 company, one of the largest irons and steel company trading in iron and steel products not only in Ghana but also all over the West African countries. This was a strategic move birthed and championed by the board chair who understands the local content management ecosystems in corporate governance. Undoubtedly, GIISDEC is moving at a supersonic speed engineered by a board chairman whose mission fell in love with a corporate vision; consummated and sooner than later the offspring of a billion-dollar iron and steel plant will be birthed. The country shall smile and thank the son of Dagbon, Alhaji Farouk Aliu Mahama for a job well done!!! From becoming head of the Commonwealth of Nations in 1952 to witnessing the independence of many African countries, Queen Elizabeth II watched a century of history unfold. RFI looks at some of the key moments in the late monarch's relationship with the African continent. Elizabeth II's link with the continent is special since it was in Africa that she became queen, and where she underlined her commitment to the Commonwealth. In February 1952, Princess Elizabeth was on an official trip to Kenya with her husband, Prince Philip when King George VI died of lung cancer. Upon her return to England, 25-year-old Elizabeth was officially proclaimed Head of State, of the Anglican Church and of the Commonwealth. But her commitment to the alliance of former British Empire territories had begun five years earlier, in 1947, during a trip to South Africa. Our great family "I declare before you all that my whole life, whether long or short, will be dedicated to your service and to the service of our great family of the Commonwealth, the empire to which we all belong, she pronounced. Throughout her reign, Elizabeth II was a privileged witness to the disintegration of the British Empire and the surge of African independence. Despite the tumult, she was able to maintain ties with the English-speaking countries of the continent, such as Ghana, the first country to gain independence in 1957, where she went in 1961. Elizabeth II met the influential Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah on this occasion, and even danced with the Pan-Africanist leader, an anecdote made recently popular by the television series The Crown. The visit was significant for several reasons, Africa specialist Virginie Roiron, from Sciences Po university in Paris told RFI. It was a way to show that the Commonwealth was a "family of nations", "not a British empire under another name," she explains. Queen Elizabeth worked throughout her reign to make this association of nations "a lively one", one in which the empire could continue to exist but in a more "informal" way. Her time at the head of the Commonwealth was punctuated with many discreet actions intended to galvanise the nations and promote a kind of equality which was an important aspect of the association. South Africa It was not always a smooth journey. Elizabeth II maintained, for years, a complicated relationship with South Africa which held a referendum for independence in 1960. It was, however, excluded from the Commonwealth in 1961 due to its apartheid regime. In 1991, the Queen, who had refused to visit the country since the 1960s, broke with a policy of neutrality and hailed the crumbling of the racist apartheid regime. Anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela -- who had just been freed from prison -- was invited to a Commonwealth summit in Zimbabwe. Mandela, not yet president, did not have the rank to attend a queen's banquet. The invitation broke with protocol and was highly symbolic. South Africa was readmitted to the Commonwealth in 1994, the year Mandela became the country's first black president. Mutual respect, affection "By his own admission, Nelson Mandela was an anglophile, and in the years after his release from prison cultivated a close relationship with the Queen," the Nelson Mandela Foundation wrote in a statement on Friday, sending condolences to the royal family. "They also talked on the phone frequently, using their first names with each other as a sign of mutual respect as well as affection." Mandela thought it was important that the former colonial power should have cordial and productive relations with the newly democratic republic of South Africa, the Foundation said. He even had an affectionate nickname for her: 'Motlalepula', "because her visit coincided with torrential rains not experienced in a long time," Mandela had said, describing the her visit as a "watershed". Not everyone in South Africa expressed their sympathies to the late monarch's family. "We do not mourn the death of Elizabeth, because to us her death is a reminder of a very tragic period in this country and Africa's history," wrote the leftist Economic Freedom Fighters party led by firebrand politician Julius Malema. The party described the late Queen as the head of an institution "built up, sustained and living off a brutal legacy of dehumanisation of millions of people across the world." Kenya Describing the Commonwealth as a testament to the queen's "historic legacy" Kenya's president-elect William Ruto said Queen Elizabeth steered the institution's evolution into a forum for effective multilateral engagement". "Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was a towering icon of selfless service to humanity and a key figurehead of not only the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth of Nations where Kenya is a distinguished member, but the entire world," outgoing president Uhuru Kenyatta said on Friday, noting the former British colony's close ties with the queen. Although Kenya's Mau Mau freedom fighters suffered horrific abuses under the colonial regime for taking part in one of the British Empire's bloodiest insurgencies between 1952 and 1960, Kenya has maintained strong ties with its former rulers. Kenya declared independence from Britain in 1963, with Jomo Kenyatta -- the father of Uhuru -- becoming the country's first president. Two decades later, the queen returned to Kenya on the invitation of then president Daniel arap Moi. In 2015, thousands of Mau Mau veterans attended the Nairobi unveiling of a British-funded memorial to those killed, tortured and jailed in the rebellion, in a rare example of former rulers commemorating a colonial uprising. New members The Queen's shortest reigns were in Kenya, Tanganyika -- now the major part of Tanzania -- and Uganda, which each lasted exactly one year between independence and the establishment of the new republics. In recent years, the Commonwealth has opened its doors to countries that were never British colonies, as it seeks to maintain its relevance in a changing world. Its members now include former Portuguese colony Mozambique, and its two most recent new members Gabon and Togo, which joined on 25 June, were once ruled by France. Rwanda joined in 2009. "Queen Elizabeth II was a great friend of Africa and Africa was affectionate towards her in return," said Gabonese president Ali Bongo. Rwandan President Paul Kagame condoled the queen's passing and said "the modern Commonwealth is her legacy". The Asante Bekwai Circuit Court has sentenced a driver to four years imprisonment for crashing two people to death. Jerry Kofi Blankson also caused bodily injuries to Rosemond Danso, 32 and Jesuslina Asiamah, seven years. He admitted driving without license but denied driving dangerously which led to the death of Cecilia Arthur, 65 and Emmanuel Sarkodie, three years. He was therefore taken through full trial and found culpable. Police Chief Inspector David Amofah earlier gave the facts to the Court presided over by Mr Mark Tairimah Diboro that Blankson, now 43, worked in a small scale industry and physically challenged on his right arm. He said Blankson did not have a drivers licence and on March 14, 2021 at about 14 55 hours he was driving a Toyota Camry saloon car with registration number GX 762-14 which is not modified to suit his handicap. Prosecution said from Kokofu, Blankson was driving towards Adansi-Asokwa and on reaching Bekwai-Zongo opposite the Police barracks whilst negotiating a sharp curve, he lost control of the steering wheel and the vehicle veered off its lane and rammed into two metal container stores. Chief Inspector Amofah said four persons in one of the store sustained aggravated bodily injuries and were rushed to Bekwai Municipal hospital for treatment where Emmanuel Sarkodie aged 3yrs died shortly on arrival. He said Rosemond Danso then 32 years was admitted whereas victims Jesusilina Asiamah Yeboah aged 7yrs and Cecilia Arthur aged 65, were referred to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital/Kumasi for further treatment but Cecilia Arthur died whilst on admission. The Court heard that the accident vehicle was examined and tested by DVLA and reported that the vehicle was road worthy prior to the accident. Though the insurance Policy on the accident vehicle in respect of third party risk was valid but since Blankson was unlicensed driver, the accident victims could not benefit any insurance claims, the Prosecutor told the Court. Chief Inspector Amofah said it was obvious to the convict that a careful and competent driver ought to have both hands firmly on the steering wheel at all times while driving and that, driving with one arm would put the lives of other road users into immediate danger but the accused threw caution to the wind. In the course of investigations, Police medical report forms were issued to victims Rosemond Danso and Jesusilina Asiamah Yeboah which had been duly endorsed by the medical officer and same filed on the case docket. He said a duplicate docket was prepared and forwarded to Attorney Generals Office for study and advice. He said upon the advice from AGs office, Blankson was charged with the offences. GNA The Minority Members of Parliament have urged the government to provide the National Identification Authority with requisite resources to accelerate the pace of the ongoing Sim-Card Re-registration Exercise. The group said there was a need for the National Identification Authority (NIA) to have more offices, recruit more staff and purchase more materials to enable it to function effectively and rectify sanctions imposed and enforced on those who had not registered their Sim-Cards. Addressing a Press Conference at Parliament House on Friday, Mr Alhassan Bashir Fuseini, the Ranking Member, Communication Committee of Parliament, also reiterated the Caucuss position that Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the Minister for Communication (MOC), exhibited greater flexibility and realism in the face of the ongoing challenges. He said the current deadlines set by the Minister were unrealistic. Mr Fuseini, who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Saganrigu Constituency in the Northern Region, said: Given that million of those who do not currently have the cards have done their part to secure it without success, the MOC has no valid reason or justification to impose punitive measures on them as is being meted out now. He, therefore, urged Mrs Owusu-Ekuful to endeavour to exercise a great deal of restraint or circumspection in these matters as they had far-reaching implications for the enjoyment of the fundamental human rights and freedoms of the citizens and the pursuit of their needs and aspirations in daily life. We are, especially concerned that the constitutional and legal freedom of the right to privacy and to pursue decent means of livelihood, could be infringed upon if we continue to traverse this path. We could run into many legal challenges and thus unduly prolong the exercise, he said. Mr Sam Nartey George, the Deputy Ranking Member of the Committee, said the Minister had a responsibility to the Ghanaian people to ensure there was a prudent use of the taxpayers money. If she chooses to go ahead with this illegality, there are court procedures ahead. We will fight it, we will stand with our constituents, he said. The Ningo-Prampram MP urged the communication minister to not roll the exercise by threats, sanctions and force instead, it should be a service for all to benefit. He said the resort to (L.I 2111) as the basis for the sole use of the Ghana Card as an identification document was untenable as the Legislative Instrument did not make the Ghana Card the sole identity document but rather only talks of it as a principal document. Mr Abed-nego Bandim, the MP for Bunkpurugu, said: the minister has been entrusted with the communication sector and is bringing it down. Some members of the Parliamentary Press Corps also expressed their frustration at the turn of events in the ongoing Sim-Card Re-registration Exercise, especially when they had gone through the process but had their SIM cards not working. While some said they could not receive calls, others noted that they could not make calls, carry out money transactions or use the internet (Whatsapp services). GNA Relations between Britain and France may have had their rocky moments, but Queen Elizabeth II had a singular place" in the hearts of the French people and she showed a soft spot for the country, too. With her, France and the United Kingdom shared not just an 'entente cordiale', but a warm, sincere and loyal partnership, President Emmanuel Macron said in an English video message posted to Twitter on Friday. Meanwhile a statement on the Elysee website published hours after the Queen's passing on Thursday aged 96 read: The Queen of 16 kingdoms loved France, and that love was reciprocated." France may like chopping off the heads of its own monarchs, but it's always had a special place for Queen Elizabeth II. During the course of her 70-year reign, Elizabeth made more visits to France than to any other country in Europe. Many were official state visits she had six overall and she met all 10 presidents of France's fifth republic. France has had good relations with the British monarchy since 1904 when the "entente cordiale" agreement brokered by King Edward VII and French foreign affairs minister Theophile Delcasse put an end to centuries of hostilities. Elizabeth embodied that entente for decades, but her relations with France were more than simply cordial. As well as state visits, she often came to France on private trips, notably to purchase pure breed horses one of her passions. From Shakespeare to Moliere The special status and the warmth with which she was received in France was facilitated by her mastery of the French language, which she learned with her governess the Vicountess Marie-Antonette de Bellaigue. The Queen gave her first speech in French during president Albert Lebrun's visit to London in 1939. She was just 13. Le Monde praised her "pure voice and scarcely perceptible accent" when she first came to France in 1948 as a 21-year-old crown princess, pregnant with Prince Charles. Representing her father, King George VI, she was introduced to French president Vicent Auriol, the first of 10 French presidents she would meet during her seven-decade reign. Auriol was keen to show France's gratitude to Britain for helping liberate Europe from the Nazis. Elizabeth was wined and dined, taken to Versailles Palace, Opera Garnier, and a cabaret near the Champs-Elysees where she heard Edith Piaf singing "La Vie en Rose". She made two other visits to Versailles: one in 1957 to reaffirm Franco-British ties following the Suez crisis when French, British and Israeli troops invaded Egypt after it nationalised the Suez canal. And then in 1972 when on a diplomatic tour of Europe to mark the UK's entry into the European single market. Vive la difference In 2004, Queen Elizabeth came to France to mark the centenary of the entente cordiale. This anniversary gives special meaning to my fourth state visit to France," she told the French Senate. "It is a moment to celebrate the agreement that laid the foundations for an alliance that allowed both countries to face the difficulties of the 20th century. Our two countries have chosen to make Europe and the European Union the main vector for their economic and political aspirations. At a gala dinner at the Elysee she proposed a toast: "Vive la difference and vive l'entente cordiale!" Twelve years later Britain voted to leave the EU. The Queen admitted France and Britain had their differences. Of course, we will never agree on everything," she once said with the tact and diplomacy for which she was renowned. Addressing president Georges Pompidou in 1972 she said: We do not drive on the same side of the road but we are heading in the same direction. The comments followed Pompidou's lifting of the veto introduced by Charles de Gaulle on Britain joining the Common Market. 'Good-humoured rivalry' Her last visit to France was in 2014 to mark the 70th anniversary of the Normandy Landings alongside then president Francois Hollande. At a dinner at the Elysee, she underlined once more the special relationship Britain and France had saying the two countries were linked by "this unique blend of friendship, good-humoured rivalry and admiration". During the Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June to mark 70 years on the throne, France pushed the boat out. Macron lit the flame on the tomb of the unknown soldier under the Arc de Triomphe in the Queen's honour, while symbolic landmarks along the northern coast were illuminated to mirror what was happening across the Channel. For 70 years, Elizabeth II provided the cement between France and Britain. Given relations between France and the new British Prime Minister Liz Truss are already tense, the late monarch's reassuring presence will be all the more sorely missed. 09.09.2022 LISTEN Foreign aid to African countries has provided development, expansion, and poverty reduction opportunities. In a similar vein, given the continent's vicious cycle of poverty, massive debt stock, and lack of growth despite years of aid, whether in the form of loan facilities, grants, or foreign direct investments, the challenges of aid cannot be underestimated. China's involvement in the political economies of African countries, in particular, continues to bring new insights into the challenges and opportunities that China's engagement with African countries presents to the continent, both in the short and long term. China's foreign policy in Africa has frequently been driven by economic considerations, with significant foreign direct investment in many sectors such as manufacturing, mining, transportation, construction, and health care. The majority of new advancements in regions of Africa can be traced back to Chinese initiatives. It is however worthy of note that, China's relationship with its African development partners is mostly free of meddling in the country's domestic politics, given China's liberal economic approach. Unlike previous African development partners such as the United States and the European Union, which meddle in the domestic politics of their aid recipients and impose stringent tied-aid conditions on their foreign aid, China's role and participation in the African development paradigm are focused on fostering the economic interests of both China and respective African countries with more convenient terms of agreements. This has made China more appealing to African investors and governments, which explains why China is swiftly establishing itself as Africa's global economic powerhouse, exceeding the influence and dominance of the Americas and other development partners in Europe and the Middle East. China's ambition to open up its economy to the rest of the world is achieved by adopting foreign policies. The Belt and Road Initiative is one of China's principal economic foreign policies, toward the global south to advance the objectives of its economic liberalization strategy while also giving many investment and growth opportunities to its largest partner, Africa. Essentially, the Belt and Road initiative's economic foreign policy towards Africa is focused on key infrastructure development sectors such as the ports, railways, roads, and airports, as well as power plants and telecommunications networks. For instance, through the Belt and Road initiatives, several projects across different African countries that have been completed so far include the; Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (Kenya), Ethiopia-Djibouti railway, Lobito-Luau railway (Angola), Abuja-Kaduna railway (Nigeria), Addis Ababa Light Rail Transit (Ethiopia) and Lagos-Ibadan railway launch (Nigeria). Over the years, China has played an important role in strengthening Africa's transportation infrastructure, providing a much-needed boost to the continent's aspirations to establish regional integration. Meanwhile, given China's huge financial commitment to advancing this foreign policy in African nations, the program has been widely criticized as a debt trap, with critics describing policy implementation as taking place under murky and confusing conditions of agreements with African developing countries. As a result, despite the projects' potential advantages to African economies, the receiving nation is forced into involuntary debt to China in exchange for economic, military, or political favor. For example, in 2019, Kenya was at risk of losing its key port due to a large Chinese debt that has yet to be paid. Loans were issued under the Belt and Road Initiative for the building of Kenya's Standard Gauge Railway (SGR). However, owing to payment delays on the Kenyan government's side, the country risks losing vast national assets in place of its debt. The Nairobi Inland Container Depot, which receives and delivers freight transported on the new cargo trains from the harbor, is also at risk. The consequences of a takeover would be disastrous, especially for the thousands of port workers who would be compelled to work for the Chinese financiers. Furthermore, the port's income will be routed straight to China for the repayment of an Sh500 billion loan for the building of the two sections of the SGR. Similarly, after failing to show commitment to the repayment of billions of dollars in loans, the Sri Lankan government lost its Hambantota port to China for a 99-year lease in 2017. Following the capture of the port, management changes would occur almost rapidly, since the Chinese would seek to protect their interests. Again, critics claim that the Belt and Road program is being used to advance goals other than economic growth in the majority of African nations, in contrast to traditional Chinese engagement and strategy in the continent's development. The need to gain control of a state's national security system, the desire for political influence, and the use of communications technology to spy on other countries are all examples of this. The Belt and Road Initiative, according to some commentators, aims to uphold security and strengthen China's position as a global power, shifting it from being a rule-taker to a rule-maker. To this end, African governments and development specialists have questioned the Belt and Road Initiative's high growth prospects, which have taken on a more counterproductive nature. Essentially, China's involvement in African countries cannot be fully understood without addressing the fundamental weaknesses and one-sided nature of the benefits of these alliances. Several African countries have been engulfed in massive debts as a result of Chinese loans, which are more readily available. Furthermore, China is increasingly controlling African nations' political economies, diverging from its core purpose and strategy of collaborating with African countries on economic development efforts. China is now directly involved in the political affairs of African countries, and it is utilizing its might to gain military and political influence in those countries. A critical analysis of Africa's involvement with China is required to rethink the scope and aims of such collaborations to guarantee that they are mutually beneficial in the long term. Benjamin Akompi, a development enthusiast, researcher, and creative writer, is the author of this article. You can contact with him via: [email protected] As tradition demands, the new English King, His Majesty King Charles III, has arrived at Buckingham Palace, the seat of the English throne following the demise of the late Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The 96-year-old, longest-serving English monarch died at Balmoral on Thursday, September 8. A statement sighted on the official Twitter handle of the Royal Family announcing her demise reads: "The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. "The King (then Prince Charles) and the Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow." Following the sad news, the King arrived in London together with the Queen Consort, his wife, and her Majesty Camilla. A statement sighted by this portal today, September 9, announcing their arrival reads, "The King and the Queen Consort have arrived at Buckingham Palace." It adds, "Upon arrival, Their Majesties received a warm reception from members of the public who were paying their respects." Addressing the public for the first time as president, the 73-year-old said, I speak to you today with feelings of profound sorrow. Throughout her life, HM the Queen, my beloved mother, was an inspiration and example to me and to all my family. He adds we owe her the most heartfelt debt any family could owe to their mother, for her love, affection, guidance and example." Northern Region branch of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) has congratulated Chief Ibrahim Nurudeen for his enskinment as the Dagbon Students Association Chief for the Tamale Technical University. The new DASA chief who's a seasoned journalist was enskinned on 20th August, 2022 along with Naa Alhassan by elders from the Choggu Naa's palace. In a brief statement, the Northern Regional President of the Ghana Journalists Association, Mr. Abdul Majid Yakubu expressed excitement, stating that it's refreshing for a Journalist to be considered for the traditional portfolio. I wish, on behalf of the GJA, to congratulate Mr. Nurudeen of Atinka Media and the thenorthernweb.com for being enskinned as DASA Chief of TaTU, he stated. Mr. Yakubu Abdul-Majeed said the enskinment of a journalist as the Chief of DASA is a legacy for him and must lead with the ethics of the profession. Mr. Majeed also admonished students to stick to their studies. He observed that while the students pursue their academic success, they should also learn about their culture. On his part, Chief Nurudeen appealed to sons and daughters of Dagbon to extend their support to the younger ones on campus. 09.09.2022 LISTEN Mr Samuel Asare Akuamoah, the Deputy Chairman in-charge of Operations at the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), has charged relevant stakeholders to intensify community engagement on violent extremism in the country. He said this would ensure community members were well informed about the reality of the threat and help avoid being caught off guard. He said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency when the Commission received a six-member delegation from the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) in Accra, on Thursday. The delegation was led by Mr Mebratu Gebeyenu, the Director, EHRC, and had Dr Mekdes Tadele, EHRC and Temkin Mekonnen, EHRC Coordinator, as members. The rest were; Belite Relt, HRE Coordinator, EHRC, Serait Sisay, an officer and Biruk Jemal, Human Rights Officer. Also at the meeting was Nana Yaa Amua-Sekyi, the Director in charge of Public Education, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ). The meeting formed part of a week-long working visit by the delegation to the country to study Ghana's progress and achievements in civic education and human rights protection. Ghana, over the last few months have been on high alert over possible attack from violent extremists operating in the sub-region. Countries such as Burkina Faso, Mali and La Cote dIvoire have all been hit in the last couple of years. Mr Akuamoah explained that the current insecurity within the sub-region required Ghana to strengthen community engagement to ward off any possible extremist infiltration. He warned Ghanaians against complacency as that could spur doom for the country's enviable democratic stability. He noted that despite the peace Ghanaians had enjoyed over the years, in a highly unsecured and volatile region, it could not afford to relax on its laurels and be on guard. In the sub-region, we (Ghana) have been blessed, but we don't have to be complacent. We have been very peaceful, we have lived harmoniously together but we should not be complacent, he emphasised. Mr Akuamoah added that: Burkina Faso has been hit by violent extremist groups, La Cote dIvoire has been hit, Togo has been hit, we have groups, violent groups, criminal groups operating on our sea waters close to West Africa here in the Gulf of Guinea, attacking fishing vessels and others, something which is unprecedented, happening this time. And it looks like we have been circled and this calls for a better community engagement effort by the NCCE, key stakeholders, the Ministry of National Security who already we are working with, to really keep our security together. Mr Akuamoah, who is also a member of the Governing Council of the National African Peer Review Mechanism (AFRM), expressed concern over the high rate of youth migration on the continent. He explained that such acts provided an avenue for youth to be recruited by violent extremist groups and posed huge risk to the security of the continent. To mitigate this, he urged African governments to double their efforts of job creation to engage the youth as well build strong economies to discourage youth exodus. He assured the Ethiopian delegation of NCCEs readiness to support to build a resilient civic education system. Mr Kojo Tito Voegborlo, Commission Secretary, NCCE, attributed the many conflicts on the continent to electoral disputes and the lack of strong civic education systems in many African countries. He noted that Ghanas democracy had relatively been sustained for nearly three decades due to the strong importance it placed civic education. Mr Voegborlo, therefore, charged African countries to place emphasis on civic education to keep citizens informed about their civic duties. He also urged the Ethiopian delegation to ensure independence of any civic education organisation established to enable It to deliver on its mandate. Mr Mebratu Gebeyenu, the leader of the Delegation, described CHRAJ as one of the strongest national human rights institutions in Africa. He said as a country currently undertaking reforms in its human rights laws, understudying Ghana's laws and civic education systems would help establish stronger systems. The information that weve got, the exposure that we've got will help us refine and polish our strategies to enhance our effectiveness in everything that we do, he said. In attendance at the meeting were heads of the various departments of the Commission, as well as other members of staff. GNA 09.09.2022 LISTEN Two persons standing trial in connection with violent clashes at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) have been granted bail by a Kumasi High Court. Lawyers of the accused persons proceeded to the High Court after the Asokore Mampong District Court refused bail to their clients, following two appearances. The accused persons, an alumnus and a student were arrested by police and arraigned following clashes between residents of rival halls at the KNUST. The two had been refused bail when they made their first and second appearances at the Asokore Mampong Court. The prosecution had insisted police needed more time to investigate the matter and prayed the court to remand the accused persons. They have however been granted bail by the High Court in the sum of 80,000 Ghana cedis each with two sureties each. They are also to report to the investigator once a week until otherwise. ---citinewsroom Senior Political Science Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Legon, Prof. Ransford Gyampo has welcomed the decision by the Electoral Commission (EC) to abolish the guarantor system in the compilation of a new voter register. This week, the Electoral Commission has revealed plans to scrap the guarantor system. Since the announcement, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has kicked against the decision, arguing that not everyone has the Ghana Card, the document that will be the sole requirement for the next registration exercise. In the midst of the kickback, Prof. Ransford Gyampo has shared his thoughts on the matter. Speaking to Citi News in an interview on Friday, the political science lecturer said the decision by the EC is in the right direction. I think its a step in the right direction to abolish the current guarantor system which some have even abused in making themselves contractors to guarantee for people they dont even know and then charging fees for doing so. Generally, as a nation, if we are all moving towards a credible national identification system that consolidates our varied identification and attests to our true identity then I think the EC is not wrong in making the national ID Card as the sole means of identification, Prof. Ransford Gyampo explained. Regardless, the political science lecturer has urged the Electoral Commission to continue to engage stakeholders to ensure the decision to abolish the guarantor system is accepted by all. I dont think the EC is too wrong in making that proposal but the commission may want to hasten slowly in doing this considering the trap challenges in acquiring the National ID Card. I think the EC should approach this great move with some caution and trepidation. It may want to move slowly to first ensure or be sure of itself that at least a critical mass of Ghanaians have the national ID Card. Also, you must continue to dialogue with the opposition to deal with the fears that the opposition has and for which reason Im sure they may have kicked against this whole idea, Prof. Ransford Gyampo added. I used to believe that Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the minister of information, was a very knowledgeable person who is capable of altering and starting public education programs about development initiatives, to improve Ghana's reputation both inside and outside the country. Sadly, his incompetence has boosted the number of incompetent NPP ministers who have irreparably damaged the country. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah should step down from his position as minister for information if, after more than six years in office, he still cannot see that Akufo Addo's NPP government has failed in every endeavor, including the fight to protect the public purse, which is partially to blame for the collapse of Ghana's economy and the depreciation of the local currency. The communications minister asserts that he is confident in the government's efforts to revive the economy. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah reminds me of Hawa Koomson, who was unable to adequately describe her duties as a minister before the screening committee. The minister of information is unsure of what to do practically. This article will reveal that. Who is Oppong Nkrumah deceiving if he thinks the president, who has less than two years left in office, would revive the economy? The president has no magic wand to restore the economy before he leaves office in less than two years because it took him six years to bring down a robust economy and make Ghana's currency worthless. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the minister of information, is in charge of working with other national media to ensure fair and impartial reporting of the government in public relations, and to preserve Ghana's positive reputation. In contrast, he urged the president to abuse his authority in a democratic Ghana by intimidating and arresting journalists who opposed the government's poor leadership. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, minister of information and former journalist, ought to have taken Ahmed Hussein Suale's murder case seriously and ensured that those responsible were brought to justice. However, because the probe involves some NPP politicians, he has abandoned the matter. Being a minister of communication is not a job where you simply show up and make meaningless declarations of your belief in the president's ability to resuscitate the economy. Oppong Nkrumah still needs to do more to fight corruption or speak out against the widespread corruption that occurs every day in the administration he serves, but he didn't do either. He wants Ghanaians to put faith in the person who has destroyed the economy. Mr. Oppong Nkrumah claims that the head of the International Monetary Fund also believes that the global financial crisis is to blame for Ghana's economic woes. Since its inception, Ghana's current administration has refused to acknowledge that it is either corrupt, ineffective, or incompetent. They are continuously looking for something or someone to blame. The trajectory was moved toward the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, and once the government began with Mahama. In actuality, the economies of the European nations, such as Spain, Germany, Holland, Italy, Belgium, the US, etc., which were severely affected by the coronavirus and had thousands of fatalities, were even stronger than Ghana's, where the effect was smaller. The troubling thing is that the inept administration never brings up the stolen COVID funds while continuing to blame COVID for failure. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah shouldn't solely place the blame for Ghana's economic crisis on international problems since corruption is the abuse of public power for one's advantage and it hurts the lives of ordinary people. He should have the guts to mention the widespread corruption that permeates the NPP administration and the ports as one of the primary causes of Ghana's economic catastrophe. That is what will make him a respectable and sincere person, but hiding the crimes of the NPP administration and the president's atrocities, which caused such extreme hardships, and telling Ghanaians that they should have faith in Akufo Addo to progress the country's economy, makes Kojo Oppong Nkrumah a fool. Under Akufo Addo, every minister either steals or speaks incoherently like a fool. Speaking on behalf of the president, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah stated during the beginning of the Fourth World Teak Conference in the first week of September, "He first welcomed the participants to Accra, the city at the center of the 'F.' When he said, "For those of you who don't know Ghana is the country that has the latitude and the longitude zero degrees intercepting," I immediately knew that he and Nana Akufo Addo, the president, shared something in common. Both like using speech to impress others, yet neither can produce a toothpick, let alone create jobs. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah is a sluggish minister, just like president Nana Akufo Addo and his other ministers. Being a minister and unable to create jobs implies that you are a very lazy person because, in Europe and the United States, the ministers' primary responsibility is to improve the quality of life for the people they serve in a variety of ways that will shock you into appreciating their professionalism. Ghana loses billions of Cedis every year to ineffective and incompetent ministers who are unable to better the lives of the common people or create jobs. The Minister of Information is one of these ministers. If he truly cared about Ghanaians and understands the struggles they faced, he wouldn't have come to make such a foolish statement after Akufo Addo has wrecked the strongest economy Mahama had left. Who is Oppong Nkrumah fooling to believe that the president will resuscitate the economy when he has less than two years to serve the country? It took the president six years to collapse a strong economy and render Ghana's currency worthless; he has no magic wand to revive the economy before he leaves, more importantly, the NPP party can't revive the economy. The world is lurching from crisis to crisis, trapped in a cycle of firefighting and unable to tackle the roots of the troubles that confront us. Without a sharp change of course, we may be heading towards even more deprivations and injustices, warns the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The latest Human Development Report, Uncertain Times, Unsettled Lives: Shaping our Future in a Transforming World, launched by UNDP, argues that layers of uncertainty are stacking up and interacting to unsettle life in unprecedented ways. The last two years have had a devastating impact for billions of people around the world, when crises like COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine hit back-to-back, and interacted with sweeping social and economic shifts, dangerous planetary changes, and massive increases in polarization. For the first time in the 32 years that UNDP have been calculating it, the Human Development Index (HDI), which measures a nations health, education, and standard of living, has declined globally for two years in a row. Human development has fallen back to its 2016 levels, reversing much of the progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The reversal is nearly universal as over 90 percent of countries registered a decline in their HDI score in either 2020 or 2021 and more than 40 percent declined in both years, signaling that the crisis is still deepening for many. The world is scrambling to respond to back-to-back crises. We have seen with the cost of living and energy crises that, while it is tempting to focus on quick fixes like subsidizing fossil fuels, immediate relief tactics are delaying the long-term systemic changes we must make, says Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator. We are collectively paralyzed in making these changes. In a world defined by uncertainty, we need a renewed sense of global solidarity to tackle our interconnected, common challenges. Ghana maintains medium human development but inequality remains a challenge Ghana ranks 133 out of 191 countries and maintains the same human development index (HDI) value for 2020 and 2021 with 0.632. This puts the country in the medium human development category. Between 1990 and 2021, Ghana's Human Development Index (HDI) value grew from 0.460 to 0.632 reflecting an increase of 37.4 percent. However, though Ghana falls in the medium human development category, when considered for unequal distribution of human development, the country records a loss of 27.5 per cent in its HDI. For instance, Ghanas level of gender inequality remains high over the years and ranked 130 out of 170 countries in 2021 in terms of gender inequality between female and male achievements. We cannot achieve development without addressing unequal human progress that leaves many behind. We must all support efforts to remove existing structural, cultural and socioeconomic barriers that block progress for young people, women, people living with disabilities among others. Let us work together to unlock the potential of every Ghanaian to create a sustainable future in the face of uncertainty, noted Angela Lusigi, UNDP Resident Representative in Ghana. To chart a new course, the report recommends implementing policies that focus on investment from renewable energy to preparedness for pandemics, and insuranceincluding social protection to prepare our societies for the ups and downs of an uncertain world. Also, innovation in its many formstechnological, economic, culturalcan also build capacities to respond to whatever challenges come next. To navigate uncertainty, we need to double down on human development and look beyond improving peoples wealth or health, says UNDPs Pedro Conceicao, the reports lead author. These remain important. But we also need to protect the planet and provide people with the tools they need to feel more secure, regain a sense of control over their lives and have hope for the future. To learn more about the 2022 Human Development Report and UNDPs analysis on navigating the new uncertainty complex, visit https://hdr.undp.org/human-development-report-2021-22 and access the Ghana data here: https://hdr.undp.org/data-center/specific-country-data#/countries/GHA Australian graphite mining company Black Rock Mining [ASX:BKT] rose more than 20% on Friday after announcing an agreement with US cleantech firm Urbix. BKT signed a conditional framework agreement with Urbix for material from BKTs Mahenge Graphite Project. Despite the big jump today, the graphite stock is down 25% year to date. Source: www.tradingview.com BKT teams up with Urbix for graphite processing With its project based in Tanzania, Black Rock Mining trades with a current market cap of around $170 million. On Friday, BKT signed a framework agreement with the US cleantech graphite processing company Urbix. What exactly does this agreement entail? Urbix will offtake a minimum of Mahenge Module 2 100 mesh graphite 95% concentrate, with the following agreed volumes: Year 1: 7,500 dry metric tonnes (dmt)+/- 10% Year 2: 10,000 dmt+/- 10% Remaining Term: 15,000 dmt+/- 10% Black Rock expects to produce 30,000 dmt of graphite every year after the initial ramp-up period has passed. Working with Urbix will mean that BKT could fast-track its Module 2 construction with Urbix able to foot a large part of the bill, either as a prepayment or equity support in its graphite off-taking. However, doubling the projects size will still mean a substantial pool of debt for BKT. Nevertheless, BKT says Urbrix will provide many benefits to the companys plans, delivering best of breed anode products and harnessing the supply chain by: Materially lower energy consumption Elimination of hydrofluoric acid use Significantly higher product yield (more than double the industry standard) Ability to incorporate at the particle level appropriate levels of synthetic graphite material to produce a blended anode material as a drop-in product for cell manufacturers Extensive third-party assessment confirming Urbixs anode material has superior electrochemical performance. BKT and the influx of graphite BKT pointed out that graphite, just like lithium (possibly the most widely known EV (electric vehicle) battery material due to its dizzying success in 2021), has also gained critical mineral status especially in the US where government support is surging. BKT said it expects more than eight battery gigafactories to be constructed in the US by 2025, with annual demand to reach USD $2.3 billion. CEO, John de Vries, stated: Signing this Agreement with Urbix is potentially transformational in the context that we are developing an additional USA and European option for the processing of Black Rocks graphite into battery applications. Urbixs technology will deliver significant environmental and economic benefits deploying our ESG footprint across the whole battery anode supply chain, further differentiating our offering from competing brands. Being in a position to supply increased volumes of large flake is particularly beneficial in securing market share with Mahenge branded product in a market that is increasingly short of large flake. Urbix has analysed over 35 different graphite resource samples to assess suitability for battery materials, added Urbix CEO, Nico Cuevas. Urbix has technically confirmed that the Black Rock graphite resource is of a quality perfectly suited to EV battery supply chains and it is excited to establish these initial steps toward a collaboration with Black Rock and its customers. The EV market is rapidly expanding, boosted further by government initiatives and funding programs supporting production across the globe. But our energy expert, Selva Freigedo, thinks the global transition to EVs means the industry faces a supply crunch, which can send prices for battery materials soaring even higher in 2022 and beyond. If youd like to know more, check out Selvas Three Ways to Play the Great EV Battery Race report. Regards, Kiryll Prakapenka, For Money Morning September 09, 2022 The Izium 'Counteroffensive' Success / Disaster "It's a disaster," says Dima of the Military Summary channel. I agree. The question now is: For whom? Here is the map of the Izium region in the northeast of Ukraine on September 4. In the middle we can see the Oskol river flowing north to south. Along it run railway tracks and roads that connect Izium region at the bottom of the map with Urazovo in Russia (further north, not on the map). Here is the situation in the same area on the morning of September 9. The Ukrainian forces have broken through the Russian positions on a wide front and in remarkable depth. The above maps are from the Ukraine friendly site LiveUAmap. On the Russian side's map, as provided by Dima in his latest video, the Ukrainians are shown even further east and have reached the Oskol river. This is latest Rybar version of the map which confirms that the Ukrainian side has at least in part reached the river. They took the town of Senkovo on the western side of it. bigger (German version as the English one does not load correctly.) Izium, Lyman and several other important positions along the Izium front are now in imminent danger of losing their main supply route. How could this happen? Well, I am not in the Russian high command and have no idea of the how and why. But what we know is that there were mostly conscripted men of the Luhansk Peoples Republic at the frontline when this episode started. The troops that held the town of Balakleya for two days where Russian National Guard forces. Those are militarized police units, not real armed forces. The Russian military had to send army forces to evacuate them. Apparently the whole Russian front in that area was very thin and had too little artillery support. The Ukrainians moved extremely fast skipping towns and just blocking off local resistance to move on. They had a very significant number of tanks and armored transport as well as long range artillery support by several HIMARS systems. Many of the units must also have had night vision equipment as they did not stop even after sunset. There are also reports of strong foreign elements but those are hard to verify. The LPR forces and whatever else was in the area had no chance. They were killed or captured or moved out. The Russian side seems to have had little information about the size of the attack. The forces in the area were too few and too light. There should have been way more forces to block the Ukrainian move much earlier. Then again - I do not know what plans the Russian military has had or might have. We might still see surprises. Armored Russian reinforcements are now coming in from the north from the northern Kharkov region as well as from the east through Svatove. But they will still need some time to reach the front lines and to set up for battle. The best countermove is likely to move the battle group seen in Svatove down to Izium and then up northwest and the group from the north southward in an attempt to pincer and envelope the Ukrainian forces. Going this deep and this fast makes the attacking Ukrainian troops vulnerable. They will need some time to consolidate and to move up their artillery. Their supplies will have to come from Andivka on the left of the map and from Chuhuiv on the upper left. That are some 75 kilometer or 45 miles one way distances. The Russian missile forces can interdict those routes by destroying the bridges along the way. They should do this as soon as possible. Andivka itself is surrounded by a river in the south, west and north. The handful of bridges over the river should also be dropped to cut the town off. Ukrainian forces south of Izium and Lyman try to cross the Siversky Donets river to attack those cities from another direction. The idea is likely to bind the Russian forces there and to not let them move north to counter the upper Ukrainian strike. There may be some ingenious Russian plan behind this to drag the Ukrainian forces in to then destroy them in place. But I do not see any evidence for that. Heads will have to roll for this disaster. Posted by b on September 9, 2022 at 9:19 UTC | Permalink Comments next page Tributes have been pouring in for the remarkable Queen from all over the world after the sad news of her passing away. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II's death has been felt greatly by many Kiwis and the rest of the world. Councils across the country are flying flags at half mast and putting out their own condolence books to pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth. You may wish to pay respect to the Queen and send a message of condolence to the Royal family on the book of condolences. You can either do it in person or online. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern did a beautiful tribute this morning to the Queen and she mentioned that the condolence books will be available across the country for anyone wanting to pay their tributes to the late Queen. She also mentioned that the books are available at the Wellington's National Library, Beehive and Cathedral. Many city councils have been taking steps to honour the Queen by placing condolence books either in the libraries or the main council buildings. You can visit your local council's website or social media for more information on where to go to pay respects. If there are no available books of condolences in your area or you'd rather do it online, then you can simply head to the royal family's official website - royal.uk. They have opened a form on their webpage for anyone in the world to send the family condolences during this tough time. This is how the form looks. The UK will undergo a ten-day mourning period starting today. Since Queen Elizabeth II passed away in Scotland, this is what's happening in the ten days leading up to the funeral. Day 1 The Queen's coffin will be moved to the ballroom at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. The coffin is covered in the royal standard of Scotland and a wreath of flowers that will be changed daily. The staff members of the estate will be able to pay their respects. The new king will be known as Charles III. He will be speaking with newly elected Prime Minister Liz Truss to address to the nation. Gun salutes will be fired at Scotland's Edinburgh Castle and Hyde Park in London with one every 10 seconds for each year of Elizabeth's life. Day 2 The coffin will be carried from the Balmoral ballroom to Holyrood, her residence in Scotland's capital, Edinburgh. Her official bagpipe player, the Piper to the Sovereign will be leading and walking ahead of the coffin. The new King will say his oath and give a speech, and for the first time, this ceremony will be televised. The kings proclamation will be met with a 41-gun salute at Hyde Park fired by the Kings Troop Royal Horse Artillery and a 62-gun salute at the Tower of London by the Honourable Artillery Company. The royal band will then play the first verse of the national anthem. The national anthem's title has now been changed to "God Save the King". At this point, flags on public buildings can be raised to full staff. DAY 3 King Charles III and Queen Consort go to Holyrood. Members of the royal family including the late Queen's children and grandchildren will join the procession from Holyrood to Edinburgh's St.Gile's Cathedral. After a service at the Cathedral, the queen's coffin will rest for 24 hours where members of the public file past and pay their respects. Day 4 The Queen's coffin will leave the Cathedral by car, then will be transferred to a royal train which will then make its way to London. The send-off will be with a rendition of the national anthem. Day 5 Once they arrive at London's St. Pancras Station they will travel to Buckingham Palace by car. Day 6 Her coffin will be taken from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster in a gun carriage procession which is a symbolic and momentous moment. Prince William, Harry and the other royal family members will walk along. Once arrived in the hall, after a short service Queen Elizabeth will lie in state for the next five days with a continuous vigil in place. There are preparations made for thousands of people to file past and pay their respects in a 24-hour operation interrupted only by a nightly 14 minute cleaning break. Day 7 - 9 World leader will arrive to pay their respects at Westminster Hall. The new King will meet members of the royal family at Buckingham palace. King Charles III will meet the prime minister for his first official weekly audience. The Government will be putting finishing touches to their plans for the day of the funeral, as hundreds of thousands of mourners are expected to flock to the streets. Day 10: The Queen's funeral Employers will not be obligated to give staff a day off, though it will be a Day of National Mourning and a two-minute silence will be held across Britain. Big Ben will strike just once to mark a national two-minute silence exactly at 11am (U.K Timing). Queen Elizabeth's official send-of will be given at Westminster Abbey. The national anthem will conclude the funeral service and her Majesty will be carried to her final resting place at Windsor. Source This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) Across the globe, the death of Queen Elizabeth II has prompted reflections on the historic sweep of her reign and how she succeeded in presiding over the end of Britain's colonial empire and embracing the independence of her former dominions. Tributes to the queen's life have poured in, from world leaders to rock stars to ordinary people along with some criticism of the monarchy. It was in Cape Town, marking her 21st birthday in 1947, that the then-Princess Elizabeth pledged that her "whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong. The British empire soon crumbled, but Elizabeth managed to maintain a regal if ceremonial position as the head of the Commonwealth, the 54 nations of mostly previous British colonies. The Queen lived a long and consequential life, fulfilling her pledge to serve until her very last breath at the age of 96, Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, said Friday. She was an exemplary leader of the kind seldom seen in the modern era. As queen, Elizabeth was seen as endorsing the birth of democracies in former colonies in Africa where Black citizens previously had been denied basic rights, including the vote. When in glittering tiaras she danced with new African leaders in the 1960s and visited their capitals, she burnished their new institutions. When white-minority rule finally fell in South Africa in 1994, Elizabeth welcomed Nelson Mandela as a world leader. Her warm friendship with Mandela gave her a new relevance. In the years after his release from prison, (Mandela) cultivated a close relationship with the queen. He hosted her in South Africa and visited her in England, taking particular delight in exploring Buckingham Palace. They also talked on the phone frequently, using their first names with each other as a sign of mutual respect as well as affection, the Nelson Mandela Foundation said Friday. For Madiba, (Mandela's clan name) it was important that the former colonial power in southern Africa should be drawn into cordial and productive relations with the newly democratic republic of South Africa." Fellow anti-apartheid fighter the late Anglican archbishop of Cape Town Desmond Tutu also enjoyed good relations with the queen. Although ensconced in the pomp, ceremony and lifestyle of royalty and empire, in a world of profound inequality, she was a servant queen, Tutu's foundation and trust said Friday. In contrast, a scathing view of the queen's rule was issued by South Africa's populist party, the Economic Freedom Fighters. The queen was head of an institution built up, sustained, and living off a brutal legacy of dehumanization of millions of people across the world, it said. We do not mourn the death of Elizabeth, because to us her death is a reminder of a very tragic period in this country and Africas history," said the party. During her 70-year reign as queen, she never once acknowledged the atrocities that her family inflicted on native people that Britain invaded across the world. She willingly benefited from the wealth that was attained from the exploitation and murder of millions of people." Some Irish soccer fans raucously cheered the queens death at a match Thursday, according to videos posted online that angered her supporters. The Republic of Irelands leadership expressed condolences and admiration for the queen. The widespread tributes that followed her death came not only from U.S. President Joe Biden but also from Russian President Vladimir Putin. She was a stateswoman of unmatched dignity and constancy who deepened the bedrock alliance between the United Kingdom and the United States, Biden and first lady Jill Biden said, adding that she defined an era. Putin sent a telegram to King Charles III Elizabeth's oldest son who automatically became Britain's new monarch. For many decades, Elizabeth II rightfully enjoyed the love and respect of her subjects, as well as authority on the world stage. I wish you courage and perseverance in the face of this heavy, irreparable loss," Putin wrote. Elizabeth was mourned across Europe. In France, Britains historic rival and contemporary ally, flags at the presidential palace and public buildings were lowered to half-staff on Friday. French President Emmanuel Macron released a video Friday in English expressing a sense of emptiness after her passing. Addressing the British public, he said: To you, she was your Queen. To us, she was THE Queen, to all of us. In the U.S., tributes came from every living former president. Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, said Elizabeth made the role of queen her own with a reign defined by grace, elegance, and a tireless work ethic. George W. Bush called her a woman of great intellect, charm, and wit, and Jimmy Carter said Elizabeths dignity, graciousness and sense of duty were inspiring. Even in places where the relationship with British monarchy is complicated, the tributes flowed. In India, once a British colony, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Elizabeth a stalwart of our times. The queens death came as a growing number of British territories in the Caribbean are seeking to replace the monarch with their own heads of state amid demands that Britain apologize for its colonial-era abuses and award its former colonies slavery reparations. Still, Caribbean leaders mourned her. Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness said for many years Elizabeth visited the island every decade. Undoubtedly, she formed a special bond with the people of Jamaica, he said. We are saddened that we will not see her light again, but we will remember her historic reign. Bermuda Premier David Burt noted that her reign has spanned decades of such immense change for the United Kingdom and the world. Elizabeth was also sovereign to 14 other countries including Jamaica, Canada, Australia, the Solomon Islands and New Zealand. Here is a woman who gave her life, utterly, to the service of others. And regardless of what anyone thinks of the role of monarchies around the world, there is undeniably, I think here, a display of someone who gave everything on behalf of her people," New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was having trouble believing he'd had his last sit-down chat with Elizabeth: I will so miss those chats," he said. Elizabeth had visited Canada 22 times as monarch. For most Canadians, we have known no other sovereign, Trudeau said, his eyes red with emotion. He said she was a "constant presence in our lives and her service to Canadians will forever remain an important part of our countrys history. Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who led a failed campaign to have an Australian president replace the British monarch as Australia's head of state, came close to tears in paying tribute to Elizabeth. Its the end of an era and lets hope that the future, after the queens passing, is one where we will have leadership as dedicated and selfless as she has shown, Turnbull told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. In China, Elizabeth's death was a top trending topic on social media. I feel quite sad, said Bao Huifang, a lawyer in Beijing. She played a very important role in stabilizing Britain and the world." Chinese President Xi Jinping sent his condolences, noting Elizabeth was the first British monarch to visit China. Elizabeths death comes amid increasingly tense relations between Britain and China. Xi said he was willing to work with King Charles III on promoting healthy and stable bilateral ties. Rock star Elton John paid tribute at his Toronto concert, saying he was inspired by her and is sad that she is gone. She led the country through some of our greatest and darkest moments with grace and decency and genuine caring, John said. ___ AP journalists Mogomotsi Magome in Johannesburg, Robert Gillies in Toronto, Canada, and Nick Perry in Wellington, New Zealand, contributed to this report. ___ Follow AP stories on Queen Elizabeth II at https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate AUSTIN, Texas (AP) The judge in the child custody case involving former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens ruled that it should move to Texas because his two sons now spend most of their time there, and to better protect the boys from public scrutiny, according to a court document obtained Thursday by The Associated Press. Boone County, Missouri, Associated Circuit Judge Leslie Schneider, in the ruling issued in August but not made public in Missouri, only briefly addressed allegations of domestic violence levied by Greitens' ex-wife, Sheena Greitens. The Court finds by a preponderance of the evidence that there has been no pattern of domestic violence by either Mother or Father," Schneider wrote. "The children have never been at risk or vulnerable at the hands of either parent. Greitens said in an email to The Associated Press that the judge's comments were vindication. This was a lie, about me and my boys, Greitens wrote late Thursday. The judge found conclusively that the children were never even at risk or vulnerable. The only harm to my children, as the ruling makes clear, came from these lies and their promotion by a willing press. Sheena Greitens attorney, Helen Wade, said she never alleged a pattern but rather specific instances of abuse. Dr. Sheena Greitens never alleged a pattern, which is a legal term of art, Wade said in a statement Thursday. Dr. Greitens related under oath specific instances over a span of time, which were amply documented with third parties at the time, and she stands by her sworn statements. Greitens, 48, resigned as governor in June 2018, less than a year-and-a-half into his first term, his ouster spurred by a sex scandal and allegations of campaign finance impropriety. He sought to stage a political comeback in a run for the U.S. Senate, but finished third in the Aug. 2 primary won by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt. Ads from his opponents often focused on Sheena Greitens' explosive allegations in a March affidavit, accusing her ex-husband of domestic abuse. Eric and Sheena Greitens divorced in 2020 and she moved to Texas. She is a public affairs professor at the University of Texas in Austin. At issue was whether custody oversight of the couple's two sons should be in Missouri or Texas. Schneider ruled late last month that the case should be moved to Texas. Sheena Greitens, who requested the move, asked that Texas seal records in the ongoing case. But the AP was able to obtain the court document from the Travis County Courthouse in Austin. The judge pointed to concerns about media attention in Missouri expressed by the guardian ad litem appointed to represent the childrens interests. She has confirmed that there are more options in Texas to protect the privacy of the parties and of the children, the judgment says. It notes that in Missouri all court records are presumed to be open to the public and that the judge had received numerous requests for documents in the case. The ruling also cited Sheena Greitens' own records showing that the boys spend about 70% of their time in Texas. Schneider's ruling said the boys have a significant connection to Texas and lack a significant connection with Missouri. Sheena Greitens' sworn affidavit stated that during their marriage, Eric Greitens was physically abusive and demonstrated such unstable and coercive behavior that steps were taken to limit his access to firearms. Eric Greitens' attorney, Gary Stamper, said in a statement on Friday that Eric maintained an abiding faith that eventually the truth would catch up with the media driven narrative. Eric Greitens alleged that Sheena Greitens claims were part of a political attack engineered by those who wanted him to lose his race. Several GOP leaders publicly worried that if Greitens won the primary, he could lose to a Democrat in November, even in a largely-Republican state like Missouri. Sheena Greitens denied any political motivation and said she worked with no one else in filing the affidavit. This week, AP joined the Kansas City Stars motion to obtain the Missouri case records, arguing the decision went too far and denies voters important information about a recent candidate for public office. Eric Greitens, a former Navy SEAL officer and Rhodes scholar, was elected in November 2016. In January 2018, he confirmed a TV report about a 2015 extramarital affair with his St. Louis hairdresser. He was subsequently charged with felony invasion of privacy for allegedly taking a nude photo of the woman and using it to keep her quiet. That charge was dropped months later amid allegations that the chief investigator and local prosecutor mishandled the investigation. Greitens claimed he was the victim of a political hit. He faced a second charge accusing him of illegally using a donor list from a charity he founded to raise money for his campaign. That was dropped when he resigned in June 2018 after the Missouri House began an impeachment investigation. ___ Salter reported from O'Fallon, Missouri. AP News Editor Julie Wright in Kansas City, Missouri, contributed to this report. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The flood repairs at the Bush Convention Center are expected to be completed by Oct. 28, with its opening expected to be no later than Nov. 1, according to city officials. City officials said they hope to hold a partial opening on Oct. 1. There are a few things, right now, the biggest thing has been the restrooms, Safety and Risk Manager Jamee Higgins said, but they are said to be completed by the end of this month. Once the restrooms are repaired, according to Higgins, most of the areas in the downtown convention center will be available for use. Just not the basement, basically, because the elevators wont be done yet and none of the doors in the basement will be in yet, she said. Higgins said its city halls hope that the basement doors will arrive and be installed by the end of September, though that is not a guarantee. On Oct. 1, a partial opening is expected for the convention center. Higgins wasnt able to comment on the specific activities that could take place with a partial opening but said that anything on the first floor in the exhibit halls could happen Oct. 1. The Midland Chamber of Commerce reported on its community calendar that the 2022 West Texas Womens Symposium is scheduled to take place inside the Bush Convention Center on Oct. 19-20. Also on the calendar is the 2022 State of Education event on Nov. 16. The convention center flooded on Feb. 14 of this year. City officials said this week that the damage was caused by a leaking water main where a cap came loose from a 6-inch water main during fire flow tests. They added that two modifications have been made to remedy any further issues: ECISD An eighth-grade student at Bowie Middle School was arrested Wednesday after assaulting a teacher, according to Ector County ISD. The student was charged with aggravated assault of a public servant, a first-degree felony charge. He will also be facing disciplinary action, according to the district. More than 7,000 students have arrived on Michigan Techs campus to start the fall semester, including the second-largest class of incoming first-year Huskies since 1984. Following last years record-breaking enrollment, Michigan Technological University welcomed 7,073 students to campus this fall, including 1,388 incoming first-year students. John Lehman, vice president for university relations and enrollment, said last years class of new first-year students and this years class represent the two largest since 1984. He also noted that the average GPA of 3.83 for this years incoming class is a new University record. Overall enrollment grew 1%. Were so pleased to welcome another talented group of students to Michigan Tech, said Lehman. Over the course of the day first-year students move in, I ask them and their parents, Why Tech? I heard it's the quality of faculty and the opportunity to work closely with them from day one. I heard they want the rigorous academic challenge and the preparation that experience provides. And of course I heard they want the high salary offers that our degrees command in the employment marketplace. More than 2,100 of Michigan Techs current students are women, continuing a decade of steady increase in the number of women choosing Tech. Women will make up nearly 30% of the student body the Universitys highest percentage ever. And for the third straight year, the proportion of students from domestic underrepresented minority groups grew and now make up over 11.5% of the student body. To Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Wallace Southerland III, these numbers suggest encouraging trends. Once again, Tech's enrollment numbers reveal what we already know to be true that Michigan Tech is a flagship technological university where students of all backgrounds want to be. We offer exceptional academic programs taught by superior faculty and we offer extraordinarily excellent student development experiences at a reasonable cost for families. "The quality of the academics we offer and the unique life experience that Huskies get while they're at Tech continue to attract a student body that is exceptionally smart and increasingly diverse." Wallace Southerland III, Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Since 2014, enrollment in programs now within the College of Computing has nearly doubled, averaging more than 11% year-over-year growth. [Enrollment in current College of Computing programs is shown in gold. The secondary axis (black) plots relative growth since 2014.] Of the Universitys five colleges, none is growing faster than the College of Computing. The demand for computing talent in the tech industry has never been stronger, said Dennis Livesay, dean of the College of Computing. Our colleges growth reflects that demand. Were thrilled to be offering the quality of education that our students need for success in the 21st century workforce. The College of Engineering has been Michigan Techs most prominent college for many generations, and its reputation for producing some of the worlds most successful engineers continues to thrive. Programs seeing increases in enrollment this year include geological engineering, geospatial engineering and mechanical engineering technology. Enrollment in robotics engineering has more than doubled, and the master's program in mechanical engineering has also seen significant growth. Biomedical engineering continues its growth in the number of women enrolled nearly two-thirds of the incoming class of biomedical engineers are women. Janet Callahan, dean of the College of Engineering, believes the same things that have always made Techs engineering programs exceptional are lining up with what students want in a college education. Engineering at Michigan Tech is unique because our students get rigorous academics in classrooms designed for experiential, hands-on learning, she said. From their first year onward, our students work closely with faculty, doing everything from building autonomous vehicles and vessels for unstructured environments to devising technology to support life on the moon. "Our alumni know the value of the real-world education we offer our students, and so do employers. That's why our graduates have exciting, well-paying jobs waiting for them on the day they get their diplomas." Janet Callahan, Dean of the College of Engineering Todays students want their moneys worth from college, and Michigan Tech continues to be an excellent value. The median MTU graduate earns $73,500 early in their working life a number that ranks Tech in the top 20 public institutions nationwide for return on investment. After receiving a record number of applications from prospective graduate students, Michigan Techs graduate school will welcome its largest incoming class since 2018. Associate provost and dean of the graduate school Will Cantrell says that overall graduate school enrollment is up more than 10% from last year. With more than 100 programs offered, the graduate school saw an increase in interest from students across the geographic spectrum, including Michigan residents, non-residents and international students. Cantrell was especially encouraged by the significant surge in interest this year from students from countries in central and western Africa, especially Ghana and Nigeria. Students are coming to Michigan Tech, to Houghton, from all over the world, said Cantrell. And many of them are surmounting significant obstacles to get here because they recognize the value of a Michigan Tech graduate degree. I know that sounds like a platitude, but its the truth. When we pitch our programs to prospective students, we have a pretty easy job, because they know a grad degree from Michigan Tech means so much. While many graduate programs have seen increases in enrollment, none has seen more year-over-year percentage growth than the health informatics program. Housed in the College of Computing's Department of Applied Computing, health informatics grew from nine students enrolled in fall 2021 to 36 students this fall, a four-fold increase. Program director Guy Hembroff said the need for advanced data science methods to accurately predict and help solve global biomedical issues has made the field of health informatics both attractive and increasingly important. "Our program has recently seen an increase in students many of whom are international students who have clinical training and work experience as medical doctors, dentists, pharmacists, nurses or physical therapists," said Hembroff. "They come to Michigan Tech seeking health informatics expertise that will improve both their clinical decision-making and outcomes for their patients." "Our graduates are trained problem-solvers ready to meet the healthcare industry's need for experts in data analytics, cybersecurity, public health, remote patient monitoring and artificial intelligence." Guy Hembroff, Associate Professor and Director of the Health Informatics Program With health-related STEM fields on campus attracting more students than ever, Michigan Tech is preparing to meet the demand. In April, the University broke ground on the new H-STEM Engineering and Health Technologies Complex, or H-STEM Complex. Scheduled for completion in fall 2024, the H-STEM Complex will be the hub of health-related research and education on campus, where multidisciplinary teams will collaborate in shared, flexible lab spaces on work to improve human health and quality of life. "The new H-STEM building will be an essential addition to health-related research and education here at Michigan Tech, and an invaluable resource for the Upper Peninsula, for Michigan and for the country, said MTU President Rick Koubek. Given that more than 50 of our faculty do research related to human health, the positive impacts the H-STEM Complex will have on our campus and community cannot be overstated. Play H-STEM Engineering and Health Sciences Complex video Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to more than 7,000 students from 55 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigans flagship technological university offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure. Economists decode the rise of Asia, reasons for regions success 17:13, September 09, 2022 By Xue Yanyan ( People's Daily Online A screenshot of esteemed guests attending the seminar held by the International Financial Forum online, on September 8, 2022. Takehiko Nakao, chairman of the Mizuho Research Institute and a former president of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), shared insights from his book titled The Rise of Asia: Perspectives and Beyond that was published in English by ADB in July 2020 during an online seminar held by the International Financial Forum on Thursday. A group of economists from various international financial institutions and academic institutions, including the International Monetary Fund, Peking University, and the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO) joined panel discussions and commented on the book and its main topic focusing on Asias economic rise. Eight key conditions for economic development were put forward by Takehiko Nakao, which comprised infrastructure investment, investment in education and health, open trade and investment regimes, macroeconomic stability, public governance, social inclusiveness, leadership and a vision for the future, along with political stability and a good international environment. As to the reasons for Asias success, Nakao believed there was no such thing as a unique Asian consensusand standard economic theories could instead be employed to explain the regions many achievements. Justin Lin, Dean of the Institute of New Structural Economics from Peking University, echoed the view that there is no Asian consensus because the word consensus means that there is a one-size-fits-all policy approach. And as Nakao noted, Asian countries develop differently following different models, Lin said, adding that it's important to have Asias voice heard in the global community because currently the voice of the international community is still dominated by the West, as well as being shaped by the theories devised in the West. Professor Justin Lin said that the Western voice and theories are based on the Western experiences of success. Since now Asia is also successful, we should also have the Asian voice and theories that's based on Asian experiences of success as well. According to the Asian Development Bank, the per capita GDP of Asian developing countries has grown 15-fold from a mere 330 USD in 1960 to reach 4,903 USD in the year 2018, with the region of Asia meanwhile seeing its share of global GDP rise sharply from 4% to 24%. Nakao attributed such amazing achievements to globalization and rapid technological progress. Besides, as Asia enters an era of innovation-driven economic growth, governments have increasingly had a bigger role to play. Hoe Ee Khor, Chief Economist at AMRO, described Asias sustained development following the global financial crisis of 2008 as an Asian Renaissance, with the region of Asia having emerged today as more resilient and stronger than ever in contemporary history. (Web editor: Xue Yanyan, Liang Jun) - 21 . A Quincy-headquartered banking company is opening a new division to focus on financing for mobile home communities. First Bankers Trust Co. is launching MHC Funding initially to focus on properties in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Indiana. "This is an industry that has exciting growth potential," First Bankers Trust Co. President Allen Shafer said. Our company has years of experience financing in this area. We feel it is important to provide a specialized team with unique products and services to not only meet, but exceed the needs of these customers." First Bankers Trust Co. has branch locations in Quincy, Macomb, Mendon, Carthage, Rushville and Springfield and a loan production office in OFallon. KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) The Republican candidate for Kansas attorney general resigned Friday from the board of directors of a nonprofit group that has been accused of defrauding people who believed they were donating to help build a wall on the U.S. southern border. Kris Kobach resigned from the board of directors and as general counsel of WeBuildTheWall, Inc., The Kansas City Star reported. Kobach, a former Kansas secretary of state, has built a national reputation by advocating tough immigration policies and questioning the integrity of elections. He was vice chairman of former President Donald Trump's commission on election fraud. The company and Steve Bannon, a longtime Trump ally, were indicted Thursday in New York on allegations of money laundering, conspiracy and fraud in connection with the fundraising campaign. Kobach, who has not been accused of wrongdoing in the case, said he doesnt believe he is in legal jeopardy. On Wednesday evening, before the indictment was unsealed, Kobach said he was still with the organization to help it legally shut down. His campaign said he resigned from the board after The Star asked about his continuing involvement. State Sen. J.R. Claeys, a Salina Republican and Kobachs campaign spokesman, said Friday that a nonprofit corporation could be shut down even if a case was proceeding against it. Bannon and the organization were accused of transferring hundreds of thousands of dollars to third-party entities and using them to funnel payments to two other people involved in the scheme. The organization and Bannon have pleaded not guilty. Bannon was pardoned by Trump after he was indicted on similar federal charges but that does not affect state-level charges. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate BOGOTA, Colombia Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela offered condolences to the United Kingdom on Friday following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest reigning British monarch. Queen Elizabeth IIs death was headline news in several Latin American countries. British Ambassador to Ecuador Chris Campbell said, there are not just the British people missing her today, not just the British people are remembering her life and her legacy, but also people all over the world. A book of condolences is available for those who wish to offer their sympathies in a message to the Royal Family. British embassies expressed their gratitude for all the expressions of affection and condolences to the Queen and opened the so-called book of condolences for those who wish to express their condolences and send a message to the Royal Family. In Chile, flowers and cards were left on the British residence walls as a show of solidarity with the British people. KEY DEVELOPMENTS: Prince Charles became king upon his mother's death Will Charles be loved by his subjects, like his mother was? Queen Elizabeth II, a monarch bound by duty, dies at 96 Elizabeth has been the only monarch most people in Britain know A constant in my life: World mourns Queen Elizabeth II Biden is 13th and final US president to meet Queen Elizabeth II Find more AP coverage here: https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii ___ OTHER DEVELOPMENTS: LONDON Britains King Charles III told Prime Minister Liz Truss that losing his mother was the day he had been dreading and that he must try and keep everything going. Their meeting happened Friday in Buckingham Palace after the king flew from Scotland to London. Queen Elizabeth II had appointed Truss to the role just two days before her death. And Truss praised the queen during the start of a special session of Parliament, calling her the nations greatest diplomat and said her devotion to duty was an example to everyone. Normal business in Parliament has been suspended and lawmakers will spend two days offering their memories and reflections on the queen. Senior lawmakers will also take an oath to King Charles III, the new monarch. ____ WASHINGTON U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters on Friday that he planned to attend the funeral for Queen Elizabeth II. Biden was the 13th and final U.S. president to meet the woman whose reign spanned seven decades. The queen had met every American president since Dwight Eisenhower, with the exception of Lyndon Johnson. Thats because Johnson did not visit Britain during his presidency. Biden and first lady Jill Biden said the queens legacy will loom large in the pages of British history, and in the story of our world. Every living former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump joined Biden in mourning her passing and sending condolences to her family. ___ ATHENS, Greece Greeces former King Constantine has described Queen Elizabeth II as a beacon of dignity and humility for the whole world. Constantine lived in London for years after the Greek monarchy was abolished and is close to the British royal family. We have been through so much together and I will never forget the love and support she showed me and my family, he said in a statement Friday. To King Charles III, I wholeheartedly wish an equally successful service to his country. ___ LONDON King Charles III has expressed his love for his son, Prince Harry, and his wife, Meghan, in his first speech to the nation since taking the throne. Charles, who became king upon the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, wishes the couple well as they build their life overseas. Meghan, 41, and Harry, 37, have been in a tense relationship with Britains royal family since they stepped away from royal duties and left the U.K. in early 2020, citing what they said were the unbearable intrusions and racist attitudes of the British media. The comment came during a recorded speech before a memorial service honoring the late monarch, who died Thursday. ___ LONDON King Charles III says he feels profound sorrow at the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II, and has vowed to carry on her lifelong service to the nation. Charles is making his first address to Britain and the Commonwealth as monarch. He became king on Thursday after the queens death. That promise of lifelong service I renew to all today, he said. His speech was broadcast on television and streamed at St. Pauls Cathedral, where some 2,000 people were attending a service of remembrance for the queen. Mourners at the service included Prime Minister Liz Truss and members of her government. ____ Flags were flying at half-staff on landmarks in Australia on Friday as people expressed sadness at the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. Australian Governor-General David Hurley and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed condolence books in Canberra. There is comfort to be found in Her Majestys own words: Grief is the price we pay for love. said the Australian prime minister. New Zealanders also mourned the passing of Queen Elizabeth II with tributes around the country on Friday. At the Auckland War Memorial, a group of young people performed the Haka, a ceremonial dance in Maori culture. Flags flew at half-staff around the country. Under New Zealands constitutional arrangements, the queen was also New Zealands monarch and head of state. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said New Zealand had moved into a period of official mourning, and would hold a state memorial service after the official funeral in Britain. ___ ABUJA, Nigeria The death of the British monarch Queen Elizabeth II was frontpage news in Nigeria, Africas most populous country, biggest economy and former British colony. Nigerias President Mohammodu Buhari offered his condolences and expressed sadness on hearing of the queens passing, according to his spokesman. That sentiment was echoed by one man, Musa Adamu, at a news stand in the capital Abuja. The civil servant urged the British people to exercise patience and endure the pain, noting that God will bless you all of you now. The flag flew at half-staff outside the British High Commission. On a daily morning TV talk show, presenter Mohammed Jinadu and pundit Linda Claudia discussed the role Queen Elizabeth II played in holding the United Kingdom together. ___ GIBRALTAR Gibraltarians were mourning the death of Queen Elizabeth II with several dozen queueing from the early hours of Friday to sign a book of condolences and lay flowers. Gibraltar has lowered the flags of official buildings, entered a period of national mourning and cancelled celebrations on Saturday of its National Day. On Friday morning the governor and Chief Minister also signed the condolences book that the residents had been writing in. Fabian Picardo, the Chief Minister of Gibraltar, a British overseas territory bordering southern Spain, said May Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Second rest in eternal peace. Long live the King. In a statement sent to media and posted online, Picardo also added: The People of Gibraltar will mourn Her Majesty as a monarch who has reigned wisely and with incomparable dedication throughout the period of our post-war emergence as a part of the British family of nations. ___ BELFAST, EDINBURGH A series of special gun salutes across the United Kingdom fired 96 shots on Friday, one for each year Queen Elizabeth II lived, a near century-long life. Bells also tolled across the nation in honor of Queen Elizabeth II as the nation started 10 days of mourning for its longest-serving monarch. King Charles III, who spent much of his 73 years preparing for the role, planned to meet with the prime minister and address a nation grieving the only British monarch most of the world had known. He takes the throne in an era of uncertainty for both his country and the monarchy itself. ____ ABERDEENSHIRE, Scotland People paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at the gates of her Balmoral residence where she died. Despite the rain on Friday, mourners from all walks of life came to lay down flowers or simply say goodbye to the British monarch they loved and respected. I just wanted to say thank you to the Queen, said Christy Asalor. She has been a symbol of strength and stability, she has been so selfless and shes given herself, literally sacrificed her whole life serving us until two days before she passed and the least we could do is just say thank you. Other people said they were feeling a lot of sadness at the passing of the only queen they ever knew. Queen Elizabeth II was the longest reigning British monarch, at 70 years of service. ____ LONDON U.S. climate envoy and former U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, has paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth, describing her as the calm in the storm and a great stateswoman. In brief comments to The Associated Press in London, Kerry said his thoughts were with the royal family and noted the sense of loss that people were feeling around the world. Kerry also praised what he described as the queens great sense of direction. Never any any vitriol, never any political commentary, always on values, always on the bigger picture, he said. ___ LONDON -- The Crown, Netflixs acclaimed series about Queen Elizabeth II and her family, has paused production due to the monarchs death. A spokesperson for the series said production was paused on Friday as a mark of respect and will also be suspended on the day of the queens funeral. The show is in production on its sixth season. Its first two seasons starred Claire Foy as the young Princess Elizabeth ascending to the throne and gradually growing into her role as monarch, and seasons three and four featured Olivia Colman as a more mature queen. The show, which has won 22 Emmy Awards so far, has gradually moved closer to current events. Netflix recently revealed casting of the actors who are playing Prince William and his wife Kate in the sixth season. Its fifth season, with Imelda Staunton playing the queen, will premiere in November. ____ NICOSIA, Cyprus - In ethnically divided Cyprus, President Nicos Anastasiades offered condolences for the Queens passing, posting on his official Twitter account, our thoughts are with the Royal Family and the people of the United Kingdom. But for many Greek Cypriots, those thoughts hark back to a bloody, four-year guerrilla campaign that was waged in the late 1950s against British colonial rule and a perceived indifference the Queen demonstrated over the plight of nine individuals whom British authorities executed by hanging, despite appeals for their death sentences to be commuted. Yiannis Spanos, president of Association of National Organization of Cypriot Fighters (EOKA) told the Associated Press that we respect the dead even if in life they proved to be our enemies. Spanos said the Queen was held by many as bearing responsibility for the islands tragedies, particularly for not granting pardons, even for some of the condemned for whom there was no definitive evidence to merit a death sentence even under colonial law. ___ LONDON King Charles III has arrived at Buckingham Palace for the first time as Britains monarch. The king flew to London from Scotland on Friday and was driven to the royal residence in an official Bentley. A large crowd cheered as the car arrived at the palace gates. He got out of the car to greet well-wishers and look at some of the huge pile of floral tributes left to honor his mother Queen Elizabeth II. Some called Thank you Charles and Well done, Charlie! as he shook hands with the crowd. Several shouted God save the King! A few broke into a rendition of Britains national anthem, which is now titled God Save the King. ___ LONDON British prime ministers who served during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II are sharing personal tributes to the late monarch. There were 15 prime ministers during the queens reign, from Winston Churchill to Liz Truss, who was appointed just this week. The leaders held weekly private meetings with the monarch. Trusss predecessor, Boris Johnson, said in the House of Commons that when he saw the queen on Tuesday to offer his resignation, she was as radiant and as knowledgeable and as fascinated by politics as ever I can remember, and as wise in her advice as anyone I know, if not wiser. Johnson called the queen the keystone in the vast arch of the British state and said we are coming to understand in her death the full magnitude of what she did for us all. Former Prime Minister Theresa May said the queen was the most remarkable person I have ever met as well as the most impressive. I doubt we will ever see her like again, May said. May she rest in peace and rise in glory. ___ BRUSSELS NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, speaking at a joint news conference in Brussels with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, noted that all 30 NATO member flags are flying at half-staff to honor Queen Elizabeth. She was a strong supporter of the transatlantic alliance, of our armed forces and our values, Stoltenberg said, adding that she knew and worked with every one of his predecessors since NATO was founded. I will always remember her wisdom, her warmth, and her strong personal interest in transatlantic unity. Blinken, meanwhile, paid homage to the truly extraordinary life of Her Majesty Elizabeth II. He said she had personified a sense of stability and continuity during turbulent times and among unprecedented challenges faced by both Britain and the world. She was a source of comfort and resilience to people from all walks of life. ___ PARIS French President Emmanuel Macron expressed deep sadness and a sense of emptiness after the passing of the monarch and praised her great affection for France. Macron said in a video message that the queen mastered our language, loved our culture and touched our hearts. Macron described her as a great head of state, and said that with her, Britain and France share a warm, sincere and loyal partnership. Speaking in English, the French president said: To you, she was your Queen. To us, she was THE Queen. Abaseen Afghan/EyeEm via Getty Images Gov. J.B. Pritzker has joined a proclamation from President Joe Biden that U.S. and state flags be flown at half-staff until sunset the day of Queen Elizabeth II's interment. The queen died Thursday at age 96. She was the longest-reigning British monarch. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Queen Elizabeth, head of state of the United Kingdom and 14 other countries since 1952, has died. Her birth did not necessarily portend a rise to the throne. Her uncle, King Edward VIII, abdicated the throne to marry an American, and his brother crowned King George VI in 1937. When her father died in 1952, she ascended to the throne at 25 and was coronated in 1953. Despite her youth, it was apparent she had been prepared, and her dedication to her official duties was something she took seriously up to and including her last official act of welcoming Britains new prime minister, Liz Truss, and saying goodbye to the outgoing Boris Johnson just days ago. She and her husband, Prince Phillip, were married 73 years until his death last year. They had four children, including her heir presumptive heir, Prince Charles. She has remained the dignified, calming figure for the United Kingdom and much of the world. Queen Elizabeth has retained her image and influence as a pillar of the Western world for seven decades, said Rich Outzen, a foreign policy expert. Part of the reason is her personality charming, dignified and engaging only enhanced by popular media, he said. Her 70 years on the throne was a powerful symbol of continuity. Her reign was not only the longest in United Kingdom history but in the history of the world. Queen Elizabeth is the last link to those who led the victory of the British Empire in World War II, wrote Robert Wilkie, a former U.S. Cabinet secretary and noted defense and foreign policy expert. Winston Churchill was her first prime minister. She is the embodiment of selfless service to her nation and to all that Great Britain has given to the world. Despite mainly having symbolic powers, she consulted with 14 prime ministers (and formally invited them to service), engaging them weekly. Their conversations, heard by no one else and not publicly discussed afterward, were no doubt built firmly on a wide and deep foundation of knowledge and understanding in state and international politics and governance. She assumed the throne at the end of the Korean War and saw her countrymen and women fight in the Falkland Islands in 1983, the troubles in Northern Ireland, and more recently in the global War on Terror. She participated in World War II as a military mechanic and had a long and enduring bond with her countrys military. With the queens death, Prince Charles ascends to the throne as King and will likely be coronated in the coming weeks. Although monarchies in general are decidedly not American, she nevertheless was widely admired in the United States and much of the world. Her steadfast patriotism and dedication to her subjects and to freedom internationally will be analyzed for hundreds of years to come. Weird Al gives himself the Weird Al treatment in new biopic View Photo TORONTO (AP) When a young, bespectacled Al Yankovic picked up an accordion, few especially Al, himself would have predicted the long-running show-business career that would follow. But can you imagine if they did? That every step of Yankovics way the first Hawaiian shirt, the epiphany of riffing on My Sharona as My Bologna carried the same portentous sense of fate that rings through most music biopics? Its a funny enough idea that shortly before the raucous midnight Toronto International Film Festival premiere of Weird: The Al Yankovic Story a nutty, authorized biopic that takes that concept and has as much fun with it as possible Yankovic was still riffing. He was sitting alongside Daniel Radcliffe, who enthusiastically plays Yankovic in the movie, at a Toronto bar stocked with on-theme cocktails like Just Drink It. Like, what if, Yankovic imagines, Weird had that much-memed moment in Baz Luhrmanns Elvis where Tom Hanks Tom Parker hears Presley on the radio for the first time, dramatically swings around and exclaims Hes white?! only its Weird Al he hears and instead responds, Hes weird?! Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, written by Yankovic with director Eric Appel, does to Yankovics career pretty much what the 62-year-old comedian has been doing to pop songs for the last four decades. It distorts it through a funhouse mirror, turning Yankovics life into something that at its most absurd heights becomes its own parallel reality. I never would have believed this would happen early in my life, and maybe even a year ago, says Yankovic. Thats one of the reasons why the movie is funny because it shouldnt exist. There are detractors that are saying: Why is Weird Al getting a biopic when there are a thousand names that should have gotten one before him? Well, thats kind of the point. Its not that I deserve it. The fact that I dont deserve it is why this exists. Some, including Radcliffe, would quibble with that. Yankovic long ago outlasted many of the musicians hes parodied. Hes one of only five music acts to have a Top 40 hit in each of the last four decades. That ranks him among the likes of Madonna and Michael Jackson, who have, of course, each received the Weird Al treatment (Like a Surgeon, Eat It). The New York Times has called Yankovic a completely ridiculous national treasure. I cant explain it, shrugs Yankovic. I guess its just sheer tenacity because I should have gone away decades ago. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, which will be released Nov. 4 on Roku, is itself an unlikely movie that began as a gag. About a decade ago, Appel and Yankovic made a faux-trailer for a Yankovic biopic for Funny or Die. Yankovic would play it at his concerts and bat away questions from fans about when the movie would actually be released. But a string of music biopics many of which played so elastically with the truth that Yankovic sensed they were ripe for parody made the premise even more appealing. Appel and Yankovic worked on a script and reached out to Radcliffe. My first reaction on hearing the idea of me as Al was, Wait, what? says Radcliffe. As soon as I started reading it, I was like, Oh, theres nothing else that Als biopic could have been but something that is inherently a parody of all musical biopics. There are a few bits of autobiographic truth in Weird, but the movie quickly, as Radcliffe says, goes off the rails, wildly overinflating Yankovics trajectory and many of his encounters. Madonna (played by Evan Rachel Wood), desperate for the honor of a Yankovic parody, initiates a love affair with him, for instance. The amount of people that have asked me about you and Madonna, sighs Radcliffe. Yankovic notes that a door-to-door accordion salesman really did come to his familys house, as one does in the film. Its less true that Yankovics father abhorred the instrument as the devils squeezebox and violently pummeled the salesman. That scene goes on for so long, Radcliffe says, shaking his head. For the 33-year-old Radcliffe, the movie is in line with other eccentric, experimental films like 2016s Swiss Army Man that hes been drawn to since playing Harry Potter. A self-described Yankovic fan who listens to his polkas while working out, Radcliffe and Yankovic found themselves in many ways simpatico. At some points in my life, I thought I needed to be stoic as an actor and stoic as a movie star, says Radcliffe. The success Ive had since Potter has been about whatever is weird about me, leaning into that. Thats the asset, actually, not to be avoided. And Al is like the model for that. Radcliffe describes the rapid 18-day shoot of Weird as truly one of the best experiences Ive ever had on a set. Ahead of production, he dove into learning the accordion. Nobody asked me to, by the way. It was entirely self-inflicted, says Radcliffe. I mean, if youre playing Al, what else am I doing? Youve got to make an honest attempt. I cant tell you what a joy it was to wake up in the morning and get video of Dan playing My Bologna on the accordion, Yankovic says, earnestly. My most common note was Please pump more, adds Radcliffe. Yankovic was in Toronto for only the evening with Colorado concerts the night before and the night after the premiere. Hes currently on The Unfortunate Return of the Ridiculously Self-Indulgent Ill-Advised Vanity Tour which concludes this fall at Carnegie Hall. At his concerts, he now sees fans of his from the 1980s with their kids and in some cases, their grandkids which is a little scary. The continued affection people have for Weird Al a performer who represents roughly the diametric opposite of an image-conscious, out-of-reach pop star seems to somehow still be expanding. At the Weird premiere in Toronto, Hawaiian shirts and curly wigs were out in force. On the last day of shooting, Radcliffe says, the whole cast and crew dressed up as Yankovic. Reluctantly, Yankovic acknowledges theres something, in fact, very real about Weird Al. My nickname Weird Al has been empowering for a lot of people, he says. When I took on that name professionally it was a college DJ in the 70s. It wasnt calculated, obviously. I wasnt thinking that I was going to be, like, a role model decades later. But a lot of people that feel like outcasts or freaks or outsiders or didnt belong in some way would sometimes look to me and go, Heres a guy thats owning his weirdness, and hes comfortable with it. ___ Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer UN approves Austrias Volker Turk as new human rights chief View Photo UNITED NATIONS (AP) The U.N. General Assembly on Thursday approved a veteran Austrian diplomat to be the global bodys human rights chief and its advocate for adherence to universal rights at a time when the office is under harsh criticism from China for accusing Beijing of abusing Muslim minorities. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres nominated Volker Turk, his top policy chief, late Wednesday and the 193-member assembly quickly approved the appointment by consensus with a bang of the gavel by its acting president, which was followed by a burst of applause. Turk will replace Michelle Bachelet of Chile as high commissioner for human rights, based in Geneva. Bachelets four-year term ended on Aug. 31 with the last-minute release of her highly critical report on Chinas detention of Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim ethnic groups in the western region of Xinjiang, which she said may constitute crimes against humanity. China blasted the report, accusing the U.N. rights office of fabrication and allowing itself to be used by Western nations. Tuerk can also expect to face pressure from human rights activists. Amnesty Internationals secretary general, Agnes Callamard, said he is being appointed at a time of considerable threats to human rights around the world. Immediately, he has to help shape an effective human rights response and accountability for Russias war of aggression against Ukraine, Chinas persecution of millions of Uyghurs, and far too many forgotten crises, she said in a statement, pointing to Yemen, Congo and Myanmar as examples. His agenda should also include strengthening the human rights response to climate change and rising inequality. Turk, who holds a doctorate in international law from the University of Vienna, worked for the U.N. high commissioner for refugees around the world, including in Malaysia, Kosovo, Bosnia, Congo and Kuwait, before serving in key positions at UNHCR headquarters in Geneva. From 2015 to 2019 he was assistant high commissioner for protection where he focused on developing the Global Compact on Refugees. From 2019 until January 2022, Turk served as assistant secretary-general for strategic coordination in Guterres office. The U.N. chief then appointed him as undersecretary-general for policy in his executive office. This year, Turk has been focusing on the follow-up to Guterres September 2021 report called Our Common Agenda outlining his vision for the breakthrough scenario to a greener and safer world. He was also tasked with conducting U.N. system-wide coordination including on the secretary-generals Call to Action for Human Rights. Tirana Hassan, interim executive director of Human Rights Watch, responded to the nomination saying: The new high commissioner will have his work cut out combating a difficult human rights environment across the globe. Whether its confronting crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, war crimes in Ukraine and Ethiopia, or racism in the United States, the rights chiefs most effective tools are robust investigations and a strong voice, she said, adding that a top priority must be to immediately follow up on Bachelets report on the Uyghurs. Whats needed by the millions of people around the world whose rights are being violated every day is an advocate in their corner who will take on abusive governments large and small without fear and without hesitation, Hassan said. ___ Jordans reported from Berlin By EDITH M. LEDERER and FRANK JORDANS Associated Press Queen Elizabeth II - Wikicommons Image View Photo Sacramento, CA Following the death of Britains longest-ruling monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, Governor Gavin Newsom paid tribute to how she provided leadership, inspiration and stability through times of great social change. The Queen held the throne for 70 years and passed away at the age of 96. California joins the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth, and people around the world in mourning the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, stated Governor Gavin Newsom. Her death was announced by the palace this morning. Family members were at her bedside at her summer residence, Balmoral Castle in Scotland, when she passed. In his condolences, Newsom remarked, The longest-ruling monarch in British history, Queen Elizabeth II, has had an extraordinary impact throughout her momentous life and work. Never having expected to become Queen, she nevertheless embraced her duty to serve, joining the armed services during World War II and pledging on her twenty-first birthday to devote her life to the nation and the Commonwealth. He also conveyed, Throughout her unprecedented seven decades on the throne, Queen Elizabeth remained true to that promise, providing an unwavering source of leadership, inspiration and stability through times of great social change and uncertainty while serving as matriarch to her own family. Following the announcement of the Queens death, crowds gathered outside Buckingham Palace in the rain, openly weeping. The flag over the palace was lowered to half-staff as the second Elizabethan age came to a close. As we reflect on her incomparable life and legacy, our hearts are with the King and the Queen Consort and the entire Royal Family during this time of great loss, expressed Newsom. With her passing, Prince Charles, at 73 years of age, automatically became king and will be known as King Charles III. He issued this statement regarding his mothers death, saying it is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family, adding: I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms, and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world. His second wife, Camilla, will be known as The Queen Consort. New Delhi, Sep 9 (UNI) Foreign Secretary of Nepal Bharat Raj Paudyal will pay an official visit to India from September 13-14 at the invitation of India's Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Friday. On September 13, the Foreign Secretaries will hold discussions on bilateral issues covering the entire range of multifaceted cooperation between India and Nepal, MEA said in a statement. The Foreign Secretaries will be reviewing the progress on the various initiatives and announcements made during the recent high level visit of Nepal Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba to India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Nepal, in April and May 2022, respectively, the ministry added. India- Nepal relations are historic, multifaceted and marked by common cultural and civilisational ties, apart from mutual respect and trust. India attaches highest priority to its relationship with Nepal in accordance with its Neighborhood First and Act East policies. Indian Army Chief Gen Manoj Pande recently paid a four day visit to Nepal where he held a meeting with Nepal Army Chief Gen Prabhu Ram Sharma and also met the Prime Minister. Gen Pande presented equipment along with light vehicles to the Nepali Army for augmenting their technical capabilities. These high-level visits of senior government functionaries provide an opportunity to take stock of the existing bilateral ties and strengthen cooperation in areas of mutual interest. UNI ASU SY Mosquito Fire - PG&E Wildfire Camera View Photos Updated at 11:25am: CAL Fire reports that the incident command is having a difficult time mapping the fire acreage due to the heavy smoke. CAL Fire reports that the Mosquito Fire is now at least 23,000 acres. A federal emergency declaration has now also been approved for the incident, paving the way for additional federal dollars to help both suppress the fire and clean up afterward. Original story posted at 6:20am: Placer County, CA The Mosquito Fire, burning through El Dorado and Placer counties, and putting up drift smoke in the Mother Lode region, has prompted a State of Emergency Declaration from Governor Gavin Newsom. It opens up the door for additional federal resources to both help contain the fire and assist in the cleanup afterward. The official size estimate from CAL Fire this morning is 13,705 acres and there is no containment. At a public meeting last night, Operations Chief Nolan Hale stated, The fire made about a 5,000 acre run (Thursday), to the south and into El Dorado County. Firefighters have faced extreme temperatures, steep terrain and heavy vegetation. The evacuation area expanded yesterday to Todd Valley in Placer County and Georgetown and El Dorado County. The fire has been threatening other communities like Foresthill, and destroyed homes in the area of Michigan Bluff Road. CAL Fire has not released a count of how many structures have been damaged. Former mayor, Mormon bishop accused of sex abuse of children View Photo SALT LAKE CITY (AP) A former Utah city mayor and bishop with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been arrested on accusations he sexually abused at least three children decades ago. Carl Matthew Johnson, 77, was arrested Wednesday and booked into the Davis County jail in northern Utah on suspicion of seven counts of sex abuse of a child, according to a probable cause statement. Investigators say Johnson acknowledged abusing three victims in 1985, 1993 and 1996 and estimated there was a total of six victims as young as 2-years-old, according to the document. He told investigators he had struggled controlling his sexual urges most of his life. Some of the alleged abuse occurred in the same years as he was mayor of West Bountiful, a city just outside of Salt Lake City that he led from 1990-1997. The investigation is still ongoing, but so far Johnson is only booked on charges stemming from three victims. Johnson had not yet been charged as of Thursday afternoon and it was unknown if he had an attorney. Johnson was in a position of trust over each victim, but investigators dont explain what that was in the probable cause document. Stephanie Dinsmore, spokesperson for Davis County Sheriffs Office, also declined to explain. The victims told investigators they were told not to tell anyone, and Johnson used his position to suppress disclosures, according to the probable cause statement. Dinsmore initially declined Thursday to provide information about when Johnson was a bishop over a congregation of the faith known widely as the Mormon church, saying in a text that the agency would not be commenting on Johnsons affiliation with the faith. She later disclosed that he was a bishop from 1974-1979. Bishops are lay clergy who oversee local congregations for a few years at a time in a rotating role reserved only for men in the faith known widely as the Mormon church. Sam Penrod, spokesman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said in a statement the allegations are serious and deeply troubling and reiterated the church stance that the faith doesnt tolerant any kind of abuse. Those who engage in abusive behavior are rightfully subject to prosecution by legal authorities and also face loss of church membership, Penrod said. The faith has come under scrutiny following an Associated Press investigation that found flaws in how it handles reporting of sex abuse allegations made to bishops. The church has defended the system and alleged AP has mischaracterized its reporting system. The AP reported Thursday that a Utah lawmaker was the person who advised a church bishop in Arizona not to report a confession of child sex abuse to authorities, a decision that allowed the abuse to continue for years, according to records filed in a lawsuit. By BRADY McCOMBS Associated Press LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) A gunfire exchange between a suspect who died and a police officer who was wounded led to an hourslong standoff at a central Kentucky hotel, officials said Friday. Two officers responded late Thursday to a call from the Extended Stay America in Lexington on a report of trespassing and delayed assault, a statement from Lexington Police said. The suspect, later identified as Joshua Hagans, 40, refused to answer the door when police arrived, but the officers gained entry to the room and Hagans fired at them, the statement said. The officers returned fired and backed out of the room, but the suspect stayed and refused to exit, police said. One officer was wounded and taken to a hospital for treatment, officials said. Meanwhile, police requested a crisis negotiation unit, which tried for hours to make contact and negotiate with the suspect. Police said officers were able to enter the room again around 4:30 a.m. Friday and found him with a gunshot wound. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said. The Fayette County Coroners office released Hagans identity later Friday and said he died at 5:05 a.m. of multiple gunshot wounds. Kentucky State Police are investigating. No further information was immediately released. On the same night, two Georgia deputies were killed while serving a warrant in a suburb near Atlanta and two suspects were taken into custody, authorities said. Art Spiegelman to receive honorary National Book Award View Photo NEW YORK (AP) This fall, Art Spiegelman will receive an honorary National Book Award for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He feels honored, and a little worried. The unexpected pleasure of being cited by the National Book Foundation comes months after the jarring saga of his Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus being withdrawn by a Tennessee school board, which found Spiegelmans graphic novel about the Holocaust inappropriate for the districts curriculum. Sales for Maus and other Spiegelman books surged, but the attention distracted him from other priorities. My work schedule just got totally smashed to smithereens, he said during a recent telephone interview. I was happy to crawl back into my hideout. Now, the 74-year-old Spiegelman anticipates being back out in the world, an admittedly enviable burden that will require him to set aside time and consider his decades-long legacy, one profound and wide-ranging. His influence extends from Maus, winner of a special citation from Pulitzer judges in 1992, to his 1970s work in underground comics to his famed New Yorker covers, notably the darkened silhouettes of the Twin Towers that ran two weeks after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Art Spiegelman has captured the worlds imagination through the comics medium, David Steinberger, chair of the National Book Foundations board of directors, said in a statement released Friday. His masterful graphic novels tackle and illuminate topics from the Holocaust to the aftermath of 9/11, alongside the personal intimacy of the people, events, and comics that shaped him as an artist. Spiegelmans groundbreaking work has shown us the limitless possibilities for comics as a literary arts form. Born in Stockholm, Spiegelman was a toddler when his family emigrated to the U.S., in the early 1950s. He is descended from Polish Jews and lost dozens of relatives including his brother Rysio during the Holocaust, a tragic history which he drew upon for Maus. His career as a cartoonist dates back to his teens, when he was contributing art to Smudge and other fanzines and was producing his own publication, Blase. Spiegelmans career is, in part, a story of taking an art form associated with kids and reshaping it for adults, what he calls investigating the language and nature of comics. He is the first cartoonist to win the DCAL medal from the National Book Foundation, which previously has awarded Toni Morrison, Philip Roth and Robert Caro among others. Its very different from what was happening back in the 70s, where being a cartoonist essentially meant unless you were Charles Schulz that you werent in the big leagues of success. It was more like being a tattoo artist, Spiegelman says. But the world is changing. There has been a cultural shift that has made it less pejorative to make comics. You had a moment in the 1950s when comics bannings were happening across America. Comic books were seen as dangerous, and you had this struggle over what kids should be allowed to see. There was a ratings system (the Comics Code) and a lot of it was nonsense. But the genie is long out of the bottle. Neil Gaiman will introduce Spiegelman at the Nov. 16 ceremony, presented by the Book Foundation. The American Library Associations executive director, Tracie D. Hall, will receive an award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community, and winners will be announced in five competitive categories, from fiction to young peoples literature. In a recent telephone interview, Gaiman said Spiegelman had made an enduring impact on him. He remembered seeing some of Spiegelmans Maus images some 40 years ago and relating them to his own experiences as a relative of Jewish Holocaust survivors. It left prints on my soul, he says of Spiegelmans work. They became friends years later, even though Gaiman, who recalls turning down the chance to meet David Bowie and Elvis Costello among others, had an unofficial rule not to meet his heroes. But he said that his admiration and affection for Spiegelman have only deepened, and he was not surprised that Spiegelman had worried that winning the DCAL might disrupt his work schedule. That is Art, he said. Art, with a capital A, is always thinking about art, with a small a. He makes things that matter, and I think he knows he makes things that matter, and I think we are ridiculously lucky to have him. By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer Gov. Kristi Noem tried to avoid ethics hearing, seal records View Photo SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem asked a state ethics board to dismiss a complaint against her without a public hearing and to seal off certain records, documents released Friday by the states Government Accountability Board show. The Republican governor, who is widely seen as eyeing a 2024 White House bid, argued in an April motion that the states attorney general, a fellow Republican who filed the complaint, was out for political retribution and should be removed from the complaint. Noem had pushed former Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg to resign and later for his impeachment over his involvement in a fatal car crash. The attorney generals complaint was sparked by a report from The Associated Press last year that Noem had taken a hands-on role in a state agency. Shortly after the agency moved to deny her daughter, Kassidy Peters, a real estate appraiser license in July of 2020, Noem held a meeting with Peters and key decision-makers in her licensure. Days after the meeting, Peters signed an agreement that gave her another opportunity to meet the licensing requirements. The South Dakota Legislatures audit committee, controlled by Republicans, unanimously approved a report in May that found Noems daughter got preferential treatment. The records released Friday provided some new insight into an inquiry that the Government Accountability Board has conducted mostly in secret for nearly a year. The three retired judges who evaluated the ethics complaint unanimously found last month that there was enough evidence for them to believe that Noem engaged in misconduct by committing malfeasance and a conflict of interest. The board has said appropriate action would be taken against Noem, though it didnt specify the action. Its also not clear whether Noem will request a contested case hearing before the board to publicly defend herself against the allegations. Neither her office nor her campaign said Friday whether she will proceed to a public hearing. She has continued to publicly insist that she did nothing wrong. The records show that Noem, in a 29-page motion to the board, launched a range of arguments for dismissing the complaint. Her attorney, Lisa Prostrollo, mocked Ravnsborgs allegations as nonsensical, a political attack and based on far-fetched conspiracy theories. The motion argues Noems daughter joined the July 2020 meeting to provide her perspective as an applicant and attempts to defend how that was appropriate while she was facing a denial of her license. Government ethics experts have said the timing and circumstances of the meeting created a clear conflict of interest for the governor. Noems attorney argued that the Government Accountability Board did not have the constitutional power to act against the governor or evaluate the complaint against her. And the lawyer suggested that Ravnsborg, who had been forced from office, be removed from the complaint and replaced with the deputy attorney general who was overseeing the office at the time. The board in August denied Noems motion. However, it did appear to later pay some heed to Noems requests. It dismissed two of Ravnsborgs allegations that she misused public funds, and sealed off certain records from being released. Ravnbsorg suggested that the board launch a full investigation into the episode by hiring a Minneapolis law firm. However, the board appears ready to settle the matter. It closed the complaint and has so far kept it a secret what action it may take against the governor, though it has suggested the complaint could be reopened later. The secrecy of the boards potential action against the governor has prompted some criticism from government ethics experts who say the board should be transparent. I would hope that they would make public their plan of action as soon as possible, Karen Soli, a former Democratic state lawmaker who helped create the board, told the AP last month. Noem also made a motion to strike certain documents from the record, but it is not clear what those records were because the board did not release that motion. The boards attorney, Mark Haigh, said the motion was not released because it contained the list of redacted records. The board previously voted to redact records that contain privileged information related to a state fund for paying litigation. The agencys former director, Sherry Bren, received a $200,000 payment from the fund to settle an age discrimination complaint she filed after Labor Secretary Marcia Hultman pressured her to retire in December of 2020. Meanwhile, the board has sent a separate complaint to Mark Vargo, the attorney general who Noem appointed to replace Ravnsborg, to investigate her use of state airplanes. Ravnsborg alleged that her use of the state-owned plane to fly to political events and escort family members around the state violated a state law that only allows the aircraft to be used for state business. Vargos office said Friday that, to avoid even the appearance of impropriety, he has requested Hughes County States Attorney Jessica LaMie to oversee the Division of Criminal Investigations work and make any charging decisions. ___ This story has corrected the spelling of the name of attorney Lisa Prostrollo. By STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press From Eisenhower to Biden, queen met every US president but 1 From Eisenhower to Biden, queen met every US president but 1 View Photo WASHINGTON (AP) Horseback riding with Ronald Reagan. Yachting with Bill Clinton. Sipping tea with Joe Biden. Queen Elizabeth II, who died Thursday at age 96, had met every American president since Dwight Eisenhower, with the exception of Lyndon Johnson, who did not visit Britain during his presidency. Biden was the 13th and final U.S. president to meet the woman whose reign spanned seven decades. Every living former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump joined Biden in mourning her passing and sending condolences to her family. Biden and first lady Jill Biden said the queens legacy will loom large in the pages of British history, and in the story of our world. Obama and his wife, Michelle, recalled the queen welcoming them, Americas first Black president and first lady, to the world stage with open arms and extraordinary generosity. Biden first met the queen in 1982 as a U.S. senator traveling in the U.K. with a delegation from Congress. He last saw her in 2021, several months after he became president, while attending a world leaders summit in southwestern England. She mingled with Group of Seven leaders at a reception that she and other royals hosted at an indoor rainforest. After the summit, the Bidens traveled to Windsor Castle, near London, at the queens invitation for a private audience. The queen was a 25-year-old princess when she came to Washington in 1951 and stayed with President Harry Truman and his family. She met Herbert Hoover in 1957, more than 20 years after he left office. Here are highlights of some of her meetings, on both sides of the pond, with past American presidents: JOE BIDEN Biden and his trademark aviator sunglasses met the queen at Windsor Castle on a sweltering afternoon in June 2021. Biden emerged from a black car wearing his shades, stepped onto a covered dais where the queen waited, and, with his wife, posed with the queen as the two countries national anthems played. After walking around the courtyard to inspect the honor guard, he entered the castle for tea. Back at the airport, Biden told journalists that the queen was very gracious and had asked him about the leaders of China and Russia. While its generally frowned upon to discuss ones private talks with the queen, Biden continued. I dont think shell be insulted, but she reminded me of my mother, he said. Biden said he also had invited the queen to visit the White House. DONALD TRUMP Trump and the queen met in July 2018 at Windsor Castle during a visit to Britain that drew large anti-Trump protests to downtown London, including the hoisting of a balloon depicting Trump in a diaper. He was criticized for breaking protocol by briefly walking in front of the queen instead of alongside her and turning his back on her as they reviewed an honor guard. Trump later said he thought of his late mother, Mary Anne, who was born in Scotland and who loved the royal family, when he and his wife, Melania, sipped tea with the queen. Trumps subsequent comment that the queen told him that Brexit Britains break from the European Union was complex also created a stir. Most heads of state dont reveal their private conversations with the queen. She also doesnt discuss political matters. The Trumps and the royals met again during the D-Day commemoration in 2019. BARACK OBAMA Obama and the queen had their first of three meetings in April 2009 at a reception for world leaders attending the Group of 20 nations summit in London. It was there that first lady Michelle Obama broke protocol by briefly putting an arm around the queens back as they commiserated about their achy feet. Its generally a no-no to touch the queen, but she returned Mrs. Obamas gesture. The queen invited the Obamas for a state visit in 2011 that included a two-night stay at Buckingham Palace and a lavish banquet in the presidents honor. As Obama delivered a toast to the queen, he didnt miss a beat when the band assumed that a pause in his remarks meant he had concluded and launched into a rendition of God Save the Queen. Obama kept talking over the music until the band quieted down. The couples saw each other again in 2016 when Obama visited the queen at Windsor Castle a day after her 90th birthday during another swing through Europe. GEORGE W. BUSH Bush detested stuffy, formal affairs, but he donned a white tie-and-tails tuxedo after the queen pulled out all the stops for a state dinner in his honor at Buckingham Palace in November 2003. A few years later, Bushs slip of the tongue generated ripples of laughter at a White House welcoming ceremony for the queen, who was touring the U.S. in May 2007. Stumbling on a line in his speech, Bush said the queen had dined with several of his predecessors and had helped the United States celebrate its bicentennial in 17- Bush caught himself and corrected the date to 1976, and paused to see if she had taken offense. She gave me a look that only a mother could give a child, Bush said with a smile. The queen later turned the tables on Bush with her toast at a dinner she hosted for the president at the British Embassy in Washington. I wondered whether I should start this toast by saying, When I was here in 1776,' she said to laughter. BILL CLINTON The queen hosted Clinton and his wife, Hillary, aboard her royal yacht, Britannia, in June 1994. The ship, 412 feet (125 meters) long and 55 feet (17 meters) wide, was docked at the Portsmouth Naval Base and was home base for the Clintons as they attended the queens dinner at Guildhall for leaders of Allied nations whose troops participated in the D-Day invasion of Normandy 50 years earlier. The Clintons spent one night aboard the boat. The next day, the Britannia ferried Clinton to the USS George Washington aircraft carrier as it prepared to sail across the English Channel, from Portsmouth to Normandy, for D-Day anniversary celebrations. GEORGE H.W. BUSH One of the more memorable images from the monarchs third state visit to the U.S. came in 1991 when only her white-striped purple hat could be seen above the microphones when she spoke at an arrival ceremony on the White House grounds. Someone forgot to adjust the lectern after the much taller Bush spoke. The queen stayed strong and carried on, later making light of the incident as she opened an address to a joint meeting of Congress. I do hope you can see me today from where you are, she deadpanned. Bush later apologized and said he felt badly for not pulling out a step for her to stand on. RONALD REAGAN Reagan and the queen bonded over a mutual love of horseback riding. They rode side by side on an 8-mile (13-kilometers), hourlong tour on the grounds of Windsor Castle when Reagan visited her there in June 1982. Reagan was the first president to sleep over at the British royal familys historic home, an 11th-century estate overlook the River Thames. While in the U.S. in 1983, the monarch and Philip stayed with the president and first lady Nancy Reagan at their ranch in Santa Barbara, California. She wanted to ride horses again, but a rainstorm wouldnt allow it. The Reagans served a lunch of regional staples, including enchiladas, chiles rellenos, refried beans, tacos, rice and guacamole. They also hosted a state dinner for the queen in San Francisco at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum. JIMMY CARTER The queen hosted Carter in May 1977 on his first overseas trip at a dinner for NATO leaders at Buckingham Palace. At one point, as Carter stood with the queen and other guests, he noticed the arrival of the queen mother. Ever the Southern gentleman, Carter broke away, took her by the hand and escorted her to the assembled line of guests. The no-frills Georgia peanut farmer-turned-president ate chicken mousse off a gold plate and seemed excited by his dinner seating between the queen and her sister, Princess Margaret, and across from her son, Prince Charles, Prince Philip and the queen mother. GERALD FORD Ford threw a gala state dinner for the Brits in 1976 to mark the bicentennial of the American Revolution. The queen was resplendent in a diamond-studded tiara that sparkled for a crowd that included diplomats, star athletes and celebrities such as Cary Grant and Julie Harris. The mood evaporated when Ford led the queen to the dance floor while the song The Lady Is a Tramp echoed throughout the State Dining Room. ___ Associated Press writers Danica Kirka in London and Nancy Benac in Washington and AP news researcher Jennifer Farrar in New York contributed to this report. By DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) Bernard Shaw, former CNN anchor and a pioneering Black journalist remembered for his blunt question at a presidential debate and calmly reporting the beginning of the Gulf War in 1991 from Baghdad as it was under attack, has died. He was 82. He died of pneumonia, unrelated to COVID-19, on Wednesday at a hospital in Washington, according to Tom Johnson, CNN's former chief executive. A former CBS and ABC newsman, Shaw took a chance and accepted an offer to become CNN's chief anchor at its launch in 1980. He later reported before a camera hurriedly set up in a newsroom after the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Regan. He retired at age 61 in 2001. As moderator of a 1988 presidential debate between George H. W. Bush and Michael Dukakis, he asked the Democrat a death penalty opponent whether he would support that penalty for someone found guilty of raping and murdering Dukakis' wife Kitty. Dukakis' coolly technocratic response was widely seen as damaging to his campaign, and Shaw said later he got a flood of hate mail for asking it. Since when did a question hurt a politician? Shaw said in an interview aired by CSPAN in 2001. It wasn't the question. It was the answer. Shaw memorably reported, with correspondents Peter Arnett and John Holliman, from a hotel room in Baghdad as CNN aired stunning footage of airstrikes and anti-aircraft fire at the beginning of U.S. invasion to liberate Kuwait. I've never been there, he said that night, but this feels like we're in the center of hell. The reports were crucial in establishing CNN when it was the only cable news network and broadcasters ABC, CBS and NBC dominated television news. He put CNN on the map, said Frank Sesno, a former CNN Washington bureau chief and now a professor at George Washington University. Shaw, who grew up in Chicago wanting to be a journalist and admiring legendary CBS newsmen Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, recognized it as a key moment. In all of the years of preparing to being anchor, one of the things I strove for was to be able to control my emotions in the midst of hell breaking out, Shaw said in a 2014 interview with NPR. And I personally feel that I passed my stringent test for that in Baghdad. Shaw covered the demonstrations in Chinas Tiananmen Square in 1989, signing off as authorities told CNN to stop its telecast. While at ABC, he was one of the first reporters on the scene of the 1978 Jonestown massacre. On Twitter, CNNs John King paid tribute to Shaws soft-spoken yet booming voice and said he was a mentor and role model to many. Bernard Shaw exemplified excellence in his life, Johnson said. He will be remembered as a fierce advocate of responsible journalism. CNNs current chief executive, Chris Licht, paid tribute to Shaw as a CNN original who made appearances on the network as recently as last year to provide commentary. So guarded against any appearance of bias that he didn't vote, Shaw asked tough questions of several politicians. He asked George H.W. Bush's pick for vice president, Dan Quayle, if fear of being killed in Vietnam led to Quayle joining the National Guard in 1969. As a member of the U.S. Marines, Shaw angled for a meeting with one of his heroes, Cronkite, in Hawaii in 1961. He was the most persistent guy I've ever met in my life, the late Cronkite told the Washington Post in 1991. I was going to give him five begrudging minutes and ended up talking to him for a half hour. He was just determined to be a journalist. He got a radio job in Chicago, where an early assignment was covering an appearance by Martin Luther King. Shaw recalled for CNN King telling him, one day you're going to make it. Just do some good. In retiring at a relatively young age, Shaw acknowledged the toll on his personal life that went with being a successful journalist. Because of all the things he missed with his family while working, he told NPR that I don't think it was worth it. His funeral will be private, with a public memorial planned for later, Johnson said. He is survived by his wife, Linda, and two children. BERLIN (AP) Environmentalists claimed a small legal victory Friday after a court in Germany said it would continue hearing a case brought by a farmer seeking to force automaker Volkswagen to end the sale of combustion engine vehicles. Ulf Allhoff-Cramer says drier soil and heavier rains due to climate change are harming his fields, cattle and commercial forests. He argues that Volkswagen is partly to blame for this, as the mass production of vehicles running on gasoline contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere. During a first hearing in May, a regional court in the western German town of Detmold appeared to cast doubt on those claims, with judges asking the plaintiff to provide further details to back up their legal arguments. On Friday, the court again asked for further details and set a new hearing for Feb. 3. To me, this is a first success because we werent dismissed here and don't have to go to appeals," said Roda Verheyen, the plaintiff's lawyer. Environmental group Greenpeace, which supports the case, said it's the first time that a court will consider whether a car manufacturer can be forced to change its business practices to prevent climate-related harm to a plaintiff's health and property. The group accused VW of relying on the arguments of climate change skeptics to avoid bringing forward its current deadline for ending the sale of combustion engine vehicles from 2040. The automaker has objected to the 62-year-old farmer's claim that it can be directly linked to any climate-related damages he has suffered. VW also pointed to its massive effort to shift production to electric vehicles in the coming years and said it was confident that judges in Detmold would eventually dismiss the case. Allhoff-Cramer said the court's decision to wait five months before holding another hearing was disappointing. The climate crisis is escalating and we're running out of time, he said. ___ Follow all AP stories on climate change at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment Provided by James A. Marples The passing of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom truly marks an end of an era. It really hits my family hard, since my family had a close working relationship with the Queen. Back in 1958, my dad was working at both Wichita Precision Tool Company and Cessna Aircraft in Wichita, Kansas. During that same time, his fourth-cousin Ernest Marples was Postmaster-General for the entire United Kingdom. At that time, people using telephones had to use a "central operator" to dial phone numbers for them. But beginning in late 1958, trunk-dialing (or direct-dialing) became possible. In the photo above, Ernest Marples is shown demonstrating how it could be done with the Queen. BOGOTA, Colombia Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela offered condolences to the United Kingdom on Friday following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest reigning British monarch. Queen Elizabeth IIs death was headline news in several Latin American countries. British Ambassador to Ecuador Chris Campbell said, there are not just the British people missing her today, not just the British people are remembering her life and her legacy, but also people all over the world. A book of condolences is available for those who wish to offer their sympathies in a message to the Royal Family. British embassies expressed their gratitude for all the expressions of affection and condolences to the Queen and opened the so-called book of condolences for those who wish to express their condolences and send a message to the Royal Family. In Chile, flowers and cards were left on the British residence walls as a show of solidarity with the British people. KEY DEVELOPMENTS: Prince Charles became king upon his mother's death Will Charles be loved by his subjects, like his mother was? Queen Elizabeth II, a monarch bound by duty, dies at 96 Elizabeth has been the only monarch most people in Britain know A constant in my life: World mourns Queen Elizabeth II Biden is 13th and final US president to meet Queen Elizabeth II Find more AP coverage here: https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii ___ OTHER DEVELOPMENTS: LONDON Britains King Charles III told Prime Minister Liz Truss that losing his mother was the day he had been dreading and that he must try and keep everything going. Their meeting happened Friday in Buckingham Palace after the king flew from Scotland to London. Queen Elizabeth II had appointed Truss to the role just two days before her death. And Truss praised the queen during the start of a special session of Parliament, calling her the nations greatest diplomat and said her devotion to duty was an example to everyone. Normal business in Parliament has been suspended and lawmakers will spend two days offering their memories and reflections on the queen. Senior lawmakers will also take an oath to King Charles III, the new monarch. ____ WASHINGTON U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters on Friday that he planned to attend the funeral for Queen Elizabeth II. Biden was the 13th and final U.S. president to meet the woman whose reign spanned seven decades. The queen had met every American president since Dwight Eisenhower, with the exception of Lyndon Johnson. Thats because Johnson did not visit Britain during his presidency. Biden and first lady Jill Biden said the queens legacy will loom large in the pages of British history, and in the story of our world. Every living former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump joined Biden in mourning her passing and sending condolences to her family. ___ ATHENS, Greece Greeces former King Constantine has described Queen Elizabeth II as a beacon of dignity and humility for the whole world. Constantine lived in London for years after the Greek monarchy was abolished and is close to the British royal family. We have been through so much together and I will never forget the love and support she showed me and my family, he said in a statement Friday. To King Charles III, I wholeheartedly wish an equally successful service to his country. ___ LONDON King Charles III has expressed his love for his son, Prince Harry, and his wife, Meghan, in his first speech to the nation since taking the throne. Charles, who became king upon the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, wishes the couple well as they build their life overseas. Meghan, 41, and Harry, 37, have been in a tense relationship with Britains royal family since they stepped away from royal duties and left the U.K. in early 2020, citing what they said were the unbearable intrusions and racist attitudes of the British media. The comment came during a recorded speech before a memorial service honoring the late monarch, who died Thursday. ___ LONDON King Charles III says he feels profound sorrow at the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II, and has vowed to carry on her lifelong service to the nation. Charles is making his first address to Britain and the Commonwealth as monarch. He became king on Thursday after the queens death. That promise of lifelong service I renew to all today, he said. His speech was broadcast on television and streamed at St. Pauls Cathedral, where some 2,000 people were attending a service of remembrance for the queen. Mourners at the service included Prime Minister Liz Truss and members of her government. ____ Flags were flying at half-staff on landmarks in Australia on Friday as people expressed sadness at the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. Australian Governor-General David Hurley and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed condolence books in Canberra. There is comfort to be found in Her Majestys own words: Grief is the price we pay for love. said the Australian prime minister. New Zealanders also mourned the passing of Queen Elizabeth II with tributes around the country on Friday. At the Auckland War Memorial, a group of young people performed the Haka, a ceremonial dance in Maori culture. Flags flew at half-staff around the country. Under New Zealands constitutional arrangements, the queen was also New Zealands monarch and head of state. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said New Zealand had moved into a period of official mourning, and would hold a state memorial service after the official funeral in Britain. ___ ABUJA, Nigeria The death of the British monarch Queen Elizabeth II was frontpage news in Nigeria, Africas most populous country, biggest economy and former British colony. Nigerias President Mohammodu Buhari offered his condolences and expressed sadness on hearing of the queens passing, according to his spokesman. That sentiment was echoed by one man, Musa Adamu, at a news stand in the capital Abuja. The civil servant urged the British people to exercise patience and endure the pain, noting that God will bless you all of you now. The flag flew at half-staff outside the British High Commission. On a daily morning TV talk show, presenter Mohammed Jinadu and pundit Linda Claudia discussed the role Queen Elizabeth II played in holding the United Kingdom together. ___ GIBRALTAR Gibraltarians were mourning the death of Queen Elizabeth II with several dozen queueing from the early hours of Friday to sign a book of condolences and lay flowers. Gibraltar has lowered the flags of official buildings, entered a period of national mourning and cancelled celebrations on Saturday of its National Day. On Friday morning the governor and Chief Minister also signed the condolences book that the residents had been writing in. Fabian Picardo, the Chief Minister of Gibraltar, a British overseas territory bordering southern Spain, said May Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Second rest in eternal peace. Long live the King. In a statement sent to media and posted online, Picardo also added: The People of Gibraltar will mourn Her Majesty as a monarch who has reigned wisely and with incomparable dedication throughout the period of our post-war emergence as a part of the British family of nations. ___ BELFAST, EDINBURGH A series of special gun salutes across the United Kingdom fired 96 shots on Friday, one for each year Queen Elizabeth II lived, a near century-long life. Bells also tolled across the nation in honor of Queen Elizabeth II as the nation started 10 days of mourning for its longest-serving monarch. King Charles III, who spent much of his 73 years preparing for the role, planned to meet with the prime minister and address a nation grieving the only British monarch most of the world had known. He takes the throne in an era of uncertainty for both his country and the monarchy itself. ____ ABERDEENSHIRE, Scotland People paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at the gates of her Balmoral residence where she died. Despite the rain on Friday, mourners from all walks of life came to lay down flowers or simply say goodbye to the British monarch they loved and respected. I just wanted to say thank you to the Queen, said Christy Asalor. She has been a symbol of strength and stability, she has been so selfless and shes given herself, literally sacrificed her whole life serving us until two days before she passed and the least we could do is just say thank you. Other people said they were feeling a lot of sadness at the passing of the only queen they ever knew. Queen Elizabeth II was the longest reigning British monarch, at 70 years of service. ____ LONDON U.S. climate envoy and former U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, has paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth, describing her as the calm in the storm and a great stateswoman. In brief comments to The Associated Press in London, Kerry said his thoughts were with the royal family and noted the sense of loss that people were feeling around the world. Kerry also praised what he described as the queens great sense of direction. Never any any vitriol, never any political commentary, always on values, always on the bigger picture, he said. ___ LONDON -- The Crown, Netflixs acclaimed series about Queen Elizabeth II and her family, has paused production due to the monarchs death. A spokesperson for the series said production was paused on Friday as a mark of respect and will also be suspended on the day of the queens funeral. The show is in production on its sixth season. Its first two seasons starred Claire Foy as the young Princess Elizabeth ascending to the throne and gradually growing into her role as monarch, and seasons three and four featured Olivia Colman as a more mature queen. The show, which has won 22 Emmy Awards so far, has gradually moved closer to current events. Netflix recently revealed casting of the actors who are playing Prince William and his wife Kate in the sixth season. Its fifth season, with Imelda Staunton playing the queen, will premiere in November. ____ NICOSIA, Cyprus - In ethnically divided Cyprus, President Nicos Anastasiades offered condolences for the Queens passing, posting on his official Twitter account, our thoughts are with the Royal Family and the people of the United Kingdom. But for many Greek Cypriots, those thoughts hark back to a bloody, four-year guerrilla campaign that was waged in the late 1950s against British colonial rule and a perceived indifference the Queen demonstrated over the plight of nine individuals whom British authorities executed by hanging, despite appeals for their death sentences to be commuted. Yiannis Spanos, president of Association of National Organization of Cypriot Fighters (EOKA) told the Associated Press that we respect the dead even if in life they proved to be our enemies. Spanos said the Queen was held by many as bearing responsibility for the islands tragedies, particularly for not granting pardons, even for some of the condemned for whom there was no definitive evidence to merit a death sentence even under colonial law. ___ LONDON King Charles III has arrived at Buckingham Palace for the first time as Britains monarch. The king flew to London from Scotland on Friday and was driven to the royal residence in an official Bentley. A large crowd cheered as the car arrived at the palace gates. He got out of the car to greet well-wishers and look at some of the huge pile of floral tributes left to honor his mother Queen Elizabeth II. Some called Thank you Charles and Well done, Charlie! as he shook hands with the crowd. Several shouted God save the King! A few broke into a rendition of Britains national anthem, which is now titled God Save the King. ___ LONDON British prime ministers who served during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II are sharing personal tributes to the late monarch. There were 15 prime ministers during the queens reign, from Winston Churchill to Liz Truss, who was appointed just this week. The leaders held weekly private meetings with the monarch. Trusss predecessor, Boris Johnson, said in the House of Commons that when he saw the queen on Tuesday to offer his resignation, she was as radiant and as knowledgeable and as fascinated by politics as ever I can remember, and as wise in her advice as anyone I know, if not wiser. Johnson called the queen the keystone in the vast arch of the British state and said we are coming to understand in her death the full magnitude of what she did for us all. Former Prime Minister Theresa May said the queen was the most remarkable person I have ever met as well as the most impressive. I doubt we will ever see her like again, May said. May she rest in peace and rise in glory. ___ BRUSSELS NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, speaking at a joint news conference in Brussels with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, noted that all 30 NATO member flags are flying at half-staff to honor Queen Elizabeth. She was a strong supporter of the transatlantic alliance, of our armed forces and our values, Stoltenberg said, adding that she knew and worked with every one of his predecessors since NATO was founded. I will always remember her wisdom, her warmth, and her strong personal interest in transatlantic unity. Blinken, meanwhile, paid homage to the truly extraordinary life of Her Majesty Elizabeth II. He said she had personified a sense of stability and continuity during turbulent times and among unprecedented challenges faced by both Britain and the world. She was a source of comfort and resilience to people from all walks of life. ___ PARIS French President Emmanuel Macron expressed deep sadness and a sense of emptiness after the passing of the monarch and praised her great affection for France. Macron said in a video message that the queen mastered our language, loved our culture and touched our hearts. Macron described her as a great head of state, and said that with her, Britain and France share a warm, sincere and loyal partnership. Speaking in English, the French president said: To you, she was your Queen. To us, she was THE Queen. Los Angeles, Sep 9 (UNI) Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Friday attended ministerial meeting of the India-Pacific Economic Forum (IPEF) in Los Angeles, an official statement said. Interacting with media on the side-lines of the meeting, he said India will take decisions on different aspects of the frameworks of IPEF based on its national interest. Goyal said there have been very useful engagements with the 14 members of the IPEF. He hoped that in a days time, IPEF would finalize a framework within which member nations could interact on different areas of mutual interest. Ahead of the meeting, Goyal met Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell, US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, US Trade Representative Ambassador Katherine Tai, Japanese Minister for Economy, Trade and Industry, Yasutoshi Nishimura and Vietnam's minister of Industry & Trade Nguyen Hong. Elaborating further on the discussions held with the US, Goyal said both nations believed that they need to have self-reliance as a core philosophy and have resilient supply chains between trusted partners who believe in transparent economies and rules-based trading systems. "US was very keen to work with India so that our dependence on other countries, particularly those nations where we have faced severe problems in the last two to three years can be reduced," he said. To a query on market access issues, Goyal said an India-US Trade Policy Forum would soon be held during which both the countries would come up with more deliverables and newer areas of engagements. On digital economy, the minister said he had informed his counterparts in the US that India was looking to have very contemporary and modern laws in the digital space while maintaining high levels of data privacy, particularly of our citizens personal data. In that spirit, India is working on a more robust framework to be presented to the Parliament soon and this has been much welcomed by the US and businesses in India, he said. "India is a big provider of technology services and we have a shared interest to have a very good understanding on the laws because we have a great interest in services export also," he added. Referring to the series of meeting he had with US companies in India, Daavos, during the WTO meeting and in the Bay area, Goyal said these interactions gave him a sense of encouragement that US Companies are looking to expand hiring in India and to expand their research and development, technology support systems and back offices. UNI AKM PRT With the November general election in Texas just two months away, a new poll shows voters preference in candidates among three statewide races: governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general. The University of Houston/Texas Southern University poll shows Republican incumbents are leading in all three races, but their Democratic challengers are not far behind, especially in the attorney generals race. The poll results come from 1,312 likely voters who were surveyed between Aug.11 and Aug. 29, 1,012 of whom are almost certain to vote in November. Here are the top takeaways from the poll. Gov. Greg Abbott leads Beto ORourke by seven points Incumbent Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is maintaining his lead among Democratic challenger Beto ORourke, a former El Paso congressman and candidate for U.S. Senate and President. Abbott leads 49%-42% among likely voters, with 7% of voters undecided and 1% planning to vote for Libertarian Mark Tippetts and another 1% voting for Green Party candidate Delilah Barrios. However, the gap is wider among almost certain voters, where Abbott enjoys a 12-point lead, almost double his lead among likely voters. Abbott leads among white voters 61%-32%, while ORourke holds an advantage among Black voters (72%-15%) and Latino voters (53%-38%). Men prefer the Republican by 18 percentage points, while women voters are split 45%-45% between the two candidates, with another 8% of women undecided. Older generations of voters plan to vote for Abbott by double-digit margins, while a similar percentage of younger voters support the Democratic candidate. While almost all Republicans and Democrats plan to vote for their respective partys nominees, Independents are split, although many of them support Abbott. The Republican leads among Independents 47%-25%, while 23% are unsure and 4% plan to vote for Tippetts. Incumbents leading in lieutenant governor, attorney general races, but not by much Incumbent Republicans Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and AG Ken Paxton are both leading their Democratic challengers, but both by slimmer margins than Abbott is leading ORourke. Patrick leads Mike Collier by six points, while Paxton leads Rochelle Garza by three points. In the lieutenant governors race, 8% of voters are undecided, and 10% are undecided in the attorney generals race. Similar to the gubernatorial race, the margins favor Republicans more comfortably among almost certain voters. Patrick leads 53%-42% among these voters and Paxton is ahead 49%-41%. Voting demographic trends also closely follow that of the gubernatorial election. Men, white voters and older voters prefer the Republican candidate in the lieutenant governor and attorney general races, while Black and Latino voters and younger voters prefer the Democratic candidate in both races. Women are more likely to support the Democratic candidates in these races, though. Collier narrowly leads Patrick 41%-40% among women, while Garza enjoys a larger cushion of support from women, with 45% supporting her compared to 40% supporting Paxton. LAS VEGAS (AP) In four decades of writing about the Las Vegas underworld and government corruption, investigative reporter Jeff German took on plenty of powerful and dangerous people. The hard-bitten newsman was once punched by an organized crime associate and received veiled threats from mobsters. Nothing seemed to faze him as he doggedly went about his work. So German (GEHR-man) characteristically didn't express concern when Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles, a virtually unknown politician in charge of an obscure and small government office, took to Twitter last spring to angrily denounce the reporter. German, who worked for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, had written about bullying and favoritism in the public administrator's office and an inappropriate relationship by Telles with a female subordinate. Authorities say German's initial investigation and follow-up stories were the motivation for Telles to fatally stab German last week at the reporter's home. DNA at the scene linked Telles to the killing as did shoes and a distinctive straw hat found at his home that matched those worn by a suspect caught on video, investigators said Thursday. Police arrested Telles on Wednesday after a brief standoff at his home. Telles was hospitalized for what Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo described as non-life-threatening, self-inflicted wounds. Glenn Cook, executive editor of the Review-Journal, said there was talk within the newspaper about Telles being unhinged but he never made any physical threats against German and the reporter never said he was worried. The thought this was the story that would put Germans safety at risk seemed implausible, he said, remembering how the reporter recounted once being punched by an organized crime associate. He cut his teeth covering the mob, Cook said. Jeff spent over 40 years covering the worst of the worst of Las Vegas. This was a guy who ran down mobsters, wise guys and killers. Killings of journalists in the U.S. in retaliation for their work are extremely rare. Up until Germans death, eight journalists have been killed in the U.S. since 1992, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The deadliest attack came in 2018 when a shooting at the Capital Gazette in Maryland left five dead. Jeffs death is a sobering reminder of the inherent risks of investigative journalism, said Diana Fuentes, executive director of the organization Investigative Reporters & Editors. Journalists do their jobs every day, digging deep to find information the public needs to know and has a right to see. German joined the Review-Journal in 2010 after more than two decades at the Las Vegas Sun, where he was a columnist and reporter who covered courts, politics, labor, government and crime. He was 69, but never talked with his boss about retirement, Cook said. Former co-workers along with attorneys and government officials German counted on as sources called him a hard-nosed, tenacious journalist who could be gruff at times, especially if someone didnt know him or was holding back information. He was not someone who was easily intimidated, said Geoff Schumacher, who worked with German at the Sun until the late 1990s. Getting to the truth, that was more important to him than his own well-being or being popular. The pair recently worked together on a podcast called Mobbed Up. German talked about receiving veiled threats from mobsters in the early 1980s at a time when people were disappearing as law enforcement cracked down on organized crime. The warnings definitely got German's attention, but he never went to police, said Schumacher, who now works at at The Mob Museum in Las Vegas Alan Feldman, a former executive with MGM Resorts International, said getting a call from German was like hearing from the CBS news show, 60 Minutes. He didnt talk tough or threaten anyone, Feldman said, but he never backed down. And he always followed the story even if it didnt go in the direction he expected, he said. The last thing I would say about Jeff is that anything scared him or that he was afraid, Feldman said. He was prepared to go after anyone who was doing something not in the public interest. Telles, a Democrat who apparently had never served in public office until he was elected in 2018, oversaw less than 10 people and was paid about $120,000 a year to run an office that deals with estates and the property of people after they die. Before that he was a lawyer practicing probate and estate law. In the weeks before the June primary, German bylined reports about an office mired in turmoil and internal dissension between longtime employees and new hires under Telles leadership. Following the stories, county officials hired a consultant to help oversee the office. Telles blamed old-timers for exaggerating the extent of his relationship with a female staffer and falsely claiming that he mistreated them. He posted complaints on Twitter about German, saying he was a bully who was obsessed with him. Telles ended up finishing last in the three-way primary and was serving out the remainder of his term at the time of the killing. The articles ruined his political career, likely his marriage, and this was him lashing out at the cause, Chief Deputy Clark County District Attorney Richard Scow said Thursday. Germans family called him a loving and loyal brother, uncle and friend who devoted his life to his work exposing wrongdoing in Las Vegas and beyond. Were shocked, saddened and angry about his death, they said in a statement. Jeff was committed to seeking justice for others and would appreciate the hard work by local police and journalists in pursuing his killer. We look forward to seeing justice done in this case. ___ Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. Sept. 1 Plainview police arrested 46-year-old Kami Lajo Chance on Sept. 1 at the 2200 block of Kokomo St. Officers initially responded to the location in reference to a suspicious person. Chance was found to have a felony warrant for theft of items valued to less than $2,500 with two or more previous convictions. Police arrested 21-year-old Lanie Danae Lawrence on Sept. 1 at the 2500 block of Sabine during a traffic stop. Lawrence was arrested for a warrant for possession of marijuana and for a felony charge of possession of a controlled substance. Officers responded to the 3400 block of SW 8th St. in reference to a suspicious vehicle. Upon arrival to the location, officers issued a citation to the driver for possession of marijuana before he was released at the scene. A 22-year-old man was arrested during a traffic stop at the 1100 block of W. 24th St. on Sept. 1. The driver was charged with driving with an invalid license with previous conviction/suspension without financial resolution. A 21-year-old man was arrested on Sept. 1 at the 1200 block of W. 24th St. during a traffic stop for a defective headlight. The occupant was found to have active warrants with charges for speeding over 20 miles and failure to appear/bail jumping. Sept. 2 Police arrested a 46-year-old woman on Sept. 2 at the 500 block of Milwaukee St. during a traffic stop. She was charged with driving while intoxicated. An air compressor was stolen from the 1500 block of W. 7th St. on Sept. 2. A burglary of a motor vehicle was reported on Sept. 2 at the 2800 block of W. 13th St. Officers received a report of a man checking door handles on vehicles around the location. Two vehicles were found to be unlocked and the suspect took property from them. The victim was caught in action on video. No arrests are noted. A theft was reported at the 1000 block of Mesa St. on Sept. 2. According to an incident report from PD, Weekends BBQ reported stolen Oak Wood. A two-vehicle crash was reported on Sept. 2 at the 1500 block of the west frontage road of N. I-27. According to a preliminary report, a vehicle stopped behind another at a stop sign and began to move when the first vehicle did. The first unite stopped to give right-of-way to oncoming traffic and the second vehicle struck it in the rear after failing to control its speed. The driver of the vehicle that hit the first was checked out by EMS on the scene. The driver in the other vehicle declined EMS care. There were no passengers and both vehicles were able to drive away from the scene. An individual was found to be in possession of marijuana during a traffic stop at the 1200 block of Travis St. on Sept. 2. A 21-year-old woman was arrested on Sept. 2 at the 1500 block of N. I-27 during a criminal trespass callout. The woman was previously given a criminal trespass warning from Walmart and she went back anyway. The woman was found to have three active warrants and was found to be in violation of a protective order. She was arrested and charged with criminal trespass and with violation of a protective order. The warrants included the following charges: maintain financial responsibility, driving with no license and driving with expired resignation insignia. A hit-and-run crash was reported on Sept. 2 at the 2400 block of N. Columbia St. Vehicle damage was reported. Police arrested a 37-year-old man on Sept. 2 at the 2500 block of N. Columbia during a traffic stop. He was charged with three active warrants including displaying an expired license plate/expired registration insignia, failure to appear/bail jump and failure to maintain financial responsibility. A theft was reported on Sept. 2 at the 1800 block of W. 9th St. The victim noted having $300 in cash stolen from their wallet over the course of one week. The individual resides on the Wayland Baptist University campus but noted they do not suspect their roommate. Sept. 3 Police were called out to the 200 block of Milwee on Sept. 3 in reference to an aggravated assault where a man struck his grandparents and a sibling with a closed fist. A crash was reported on Sept. 3 at the 1100 block of Kokomo St. According to the incident report, a vehicle was stopped at a stop sign at the location and failed to yield right-of-way and struck a second vehicle about a block down from the stop sign. Police arrested 30-year-old Porschia Finch Allen on Sept. 3 at the 800 block of Joliet St. for an active felony warrant. A 30-year-old woman was arrested on Sept. 3 at the 2600 block of W. 18th St. She was charged with criminal mischief. A crash resulting in vehicle damage was reported on Sept. 3 at the 300 block of W. 5th St. Sept. 4 Damaged property was reported on Sept. 4 at the 900 block of W. 28th St. A resident heard people shouting outside their window and then someone broke a bedroom window. A traffic stop was reported on Sept. 4 at the 1200 block of W. 21st St. during a traffic stop. The stop was initiated for running a stop sign and the 34-year-old male driver was found to be in possession of marijuana. He was charged with possession of marijuana. A hit-and-run crash was reported at the 700 block of W. 10th St. on Sept. 4. Identity theft was reported on Sept. 4 at the 1300 block of W. 12th St. Sept. 5 A 43-year-old man was arrested on Sept. 5 at the 1900 block of E. 5th St. The man was charged with possession of marijuana and with three active warrants including charges for violation of promise to appear, driving with no license and failure to maintain financial responsibility. Marijuana was found in a vehicle during a traffic stop on Sept. 5 at the 100 block of N. Columbia St. when officers conducted a probable search. The driver was charged with possession of marijuana. Damaged property was reported at the 700 block of Portland St. on Sept. 5. Officers initially responded to a shots fired callout. Sept. 6 A theft was reported on Sept. 6 at the 3100 block of Edgemere. A theft was reported on Sept. 6 at the 3000 block of W. 7th St. Damaged property was reported on Sept. 6 at the 700 block of W. 10th St. A theft was reported on Sept. 6 at the 1000 block of W. 11th St. Identity theft was reported on Sept. 6 at the 100 block of W. 9th St. The victim told police someone used their social security information. Two people were arrested on Sept. 6 at the 1000 block of Denver St. A 47-year-old woman and a 54-year-old man were charged with harboring a runaway. The woman was also charged with hindering apprehension/prosecution and the man was additionally charged with an active warrant. A theft was reported on Sept. 6 at the 1500 block of N. I-27. A victim told police their wallet and cellphone was taken while Walmart. A theft was reported on Sept. 6 at the 900 block of W. 6th St. A theft was reported on Sept. 6 at the 600 block of W. 9th St. A terroristic threat was reported on Sept. 6 at the 800 block of W. 5th St. Sept. 7 A sexual offense including fondling of a child was reported to police on Sept. 7. A burglary was reported on Sept. 7 at the 1200 block of W. 32nd St. Someone stole two paint sprays from the location back in July. The property was valued at $6,500. A 44-year-old man was arrested on Sept. 7 at the 3400 block of Olton Road during a traffic stop. The man was charged with driving with an invalid license with previous conviction/suspension without financial resolution. Police arrested 37-year-old Emmanuel Carter Brown on Sept. 7 at the 500 block of Portland St. While on patrol, a driver stopped in a turn lane and got out of their vehicle. An officer observed this and pulled up behind the vehicle. The driver got back in and drove to the 500 block of Portland where the responding officer had the individual step back out and noticed they were visibly upset. The individual said their spouse, identified as Brown, was beating them. Brown admitted to assaulting the woman and was charged with aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury, which is a felony. A driver was issued a citation for possession of marijuana during a traffic stop at the 1500 block of W. 11th St. on Sept. 7. He was released from the scene. Sept. 8 A 52-year-old man was arrested on Sept. 8 at the 2400 block of N. Columbia. The man took a phone from Amigos. He was located and arrested and charged with theft of property. The phone was returned to its owner. Fraudulent use of a credit/debit card was reported on Sept. 8 at the 100 block of W. 9th St. On August 28, TikToker @vincemanuele posted a video with the text Girl at the front of Target in Phoenix keeps saying Marco every time a little girl or boy passes her. In the video, you can faintly hear someone in the background saying what appears to sound like Marco. Human trafficking is real, the caption reads, adding that the users father reported the girl to someone. The video racked up more than 11 million views, with many of the comments focusing on how terrifying it was, even though the little girl in question cant be seen in the video (and it isnt even totally clear whether the voice is saying Marco in the first place.) Many chimed in claiming theyd seen someone doing something similar at a local Starbucks, or that theyd heard of this happening at a Target in their hometown. The subtext was clear: that pedophiles are using children as bait to abduct other children at Target. The Marco Polo video is a example of a trend thats unfortunately all too common on TikTok: people posting videos warning about elaborate trafficking schemes at big-box stores, whether it stems from a sense of moral urgency or a desire for clout. For whatever reason, Target in particular is frequently cited as a trafficker locus: in the past, videos have gone viral on TikTok claiming that criminals are lurking in the produce aisles to abduct young women, or that men are tying zip ties to womens cars in parking lots to mark them as victims. Yet actual trafficking experts say such claims hold no weight, even though they may garner millions and millions of views. I have never heard a case of anyone being abducted from Target in my 20 years in this field, Jean Bruggeman, executive director of Freedom Network USA, a national network of anti-trafficking advocates, previously told Rolling Stone. With regards to this specific Marco Polo video, some commenters attempted to debunk it, claiming they had encountered the greeter employed at this specific location and that she was not a little girl, but a friendly older woman; some also claimed she wasnt saying Marco at all, but morning, or welcome. Yet the damage appears to have largely been done, with some other commenters claiming they had called the store to issue a report based on the video. Other creators have also made videos joking about not wanting to assist kids who may be separated from their parents in their stores, out of a fear of being trafficked themselves. Of course, trafficking is a real issue it just doesnt tend to occur in big-box department stores, with shadowy figures lurking in the aisles using creepy children as bait. More often than not, traffickers are people who are trusted friends, partners, or loved ones of victims, who tend to be from marginalized backgrounds, such as LGBTQ teenagers who have left home after being rejected by their families. Videos like the Marco Polo Target trafficking clip have a dual effect: they obscure the actual methodologies of traffickers, stoking fear and spreading misinformation in the process. This week on Dont Let This Flop, cohosts Brittany Spanos and Ej Dickson discuss the Marco Polo Target trafficking hoax as part of their weekly Moral Panic segment, as well as dissect the Dont Worry, Darling Venice Film Festival fiasco, the rise of the TikTok bimbo, and debate whether Leo DiCaprios tendency to date women under 25 has anything to do with his climate change advocacy. Dont Let This Flop is released Wednesdays on all audio streaming platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Stitcher and more. Bob Carey What is the San Antonio holiday season experience without a bit of Trans-Siberian Orchestra? Good thing that the iconic rock group is bringing its winter tour through the Alamo City. Yes, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, also known as TSO, will stop at San Antonios AT&T Center as part of its tour titled The Ghosts of Christmas Eve the Best of TSO & More. The San Antonio visit, which will include shows at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Friday, December 30, will be the final stop in the tour. Courtesy, Chicken Salad Chick San Antonio's salad options are growing with the additions of chains like Sweetgreen, Salad and Go, and Chicken Salad Chick. The latter has a Stone Oak spot in the works and is planning to add a Far Westside restaurant to the mix. In June, plans were revealed for the first location of the national chain of southern-style chicken salad restaurants. The first restaurant at 22831 Highway 281 is "coming soon," according to an August update on the Facebook page. According to filings with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, a second location at 9610 State Highway 151, Suite 101, San Antonio, TX 78251, is also in the works. Courtesy of San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo San Antonio is now the home of two Texas-sized residents with the opening of an animal facility that local leaders are excited about. The San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo will host a ribbon cutting for its new Bovine Education Center on Friday, September 9. The opening of the center will unveil the first two longhorns, Alamo and Buck, in the area. The pair are also part of the centers plans to grow the program and educate the community about bovines. That should be pretty easy given that San Antonio residents will be able to visit the duo when attending events at the AT&T Center or Freeman Coliseum. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate NEW YORK (AP) Former President Donald Trumps longtime ally Steve Bannon pleaded not guilty Thursday to duping donors who gave money to build a wall on the U.S. southern border. The case, brought by New York prosecutors, is a state-level reboot of a federal case cut short last year by a presidential pardon. Bannon, 68, was released after his arraignment on money laundering, conspiracy, fraud and other charges related to the We Build the Wall campaign. He is the second person pardoned by Trump and later charged by the Manhattan district attorney's office for the same alleged conduct. "Its all nonsense. They will never shut me up, Bannon said as he left court. Manhattan prosecutors working in conjunction with the state attorney general's office say that although Bannon promised all donations would go to constructing the wall, he was involved in transferring hundreds of thousands of dollars to third-party entities and used them to funnel payments to two other people involved in the scheme. The indictment didn't identify those people by name, but the details match those of Brian Kolfage and Andrew Badolato, who pleaded guilty to federal charges in April. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said that after Bannon was pardoned, Manhattan prosecutors decided they had to hold him accountable because the alleged scheme ripped off hundreds of Manhattan residents. The top charge against Bannon carries a maximum sentence of five to 15 years in prison. The simple truth is: It is a crime to profit off the backs of donors by making false pretenses," Bragg said at a news conference. Bannons New York charges stem from the same alleged conduct as an attempted federal prosecution that ended abruptly, before trial, when Trump pardoned Bannon on his last day in office. Manhattan prosecutors also charged WeBuildTheWall, Inc., the nonprofit entity that Bannon and his former co-defendants used to solicit donations. The company pleaded not guilty Thursday. Presidential pardons apply only to federal crimes, not state offenses. Last year, the Manhattan district attorney's office charged Ken Kurson, a friend of Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner, with cyberstalking months after Trump pardoned him in a similar federal case. Like Bannon, Kurson was pardoned early in his federal case, before acquittal or conviction, negating any double jeopardy argument. Arriving at the Manhattan district attorney's office shortly after 9 a.m. Thursday, Bannon said it was an irony that New York City's mayor has been objecting to busloads of migrants sent to the city from Texas while prosecutors are persecuting people here, that try to stop them at the border. Bannon accused Bragg of pursuing phony charges against him, saying the Democratic prosecutor targeted him ahead of Novembers midterm elections because he and his radio show are popular among Trumps Republican supporters. He claimed federal prosecutors had the same intent when he was first charged in August of 2020 ahead of the presidential election. But New York Attorney General Letitia James said it was about holding powerful political interests to account. They think they are above the law. And the most egregious of them take advantage of hardworking Americans in the process. Steve Bannon stands out as a perfect example of this blatant inequality, said James, a Democrat. In 2020, federal agents pulled Bannon from a luxury yacht off the Connecticut coast and arrested him on charges he pocketed more than $1 million in donations to the wall-building effort. In all, more than $25 million was raised, prosecutors said. In that case, federal prosecutors alleged Bannon and his co-defendants capitalized on public fervor over border security a pillar of Trumps presidential campaign and tricked thousands of people into thinking 100% of their donations would go to building a wall along the 1,933-mile (3,110-kilometer) U.S.-Mexico line. Instead, according to federal prosecutors, Bannon used some of the money to pay personal expenses for himself and a secret salary to Kolfage, a We Build the Wall co-founder. All the money you give goes to building the wall, Bannon told donors at a June 2019 fundraising event, according to the New York indictment unsealed Thursday. Kolfage, who is not charged in the state case, repeatedly pledged: I wont take a penny from these donations, not a penny, the indictment said. Charitable organizations are allowed to pay their executives, sometimes handsomely, but must disclose that compensation in documents available to the public. Bannon, who had pleaded not guilty to the federal charges, was dropped from the federal case when Trump pardoned him. Kolfage, a U.S. Air Force veteran who lost both legs in a mortar attack in Iraq, and Badolato, a Florida financier, had been scheduled to be sentenced this week, but that was recently postponed to December. A third defendants trial ended in a mistrial in June after jurors said they could not reach a unanimous verdict. In another case not covered by Trumps pardon, Bannon was convicted in July on contempt charges for defying a congressional subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. He is scheduled to be sentenced in October and faces up to two years in federal prison. A voice of nationalist, outsider conservatism, Bannon led the conservative Breitbart News before becoming chief executive officer of Trumps 2016 campaign in its critical final months. As the presidents chief strategist, he was at the forefront of many of the administrations most contentious policies, including its travel ban on several majority-Muslim countries, but was pushed out after less than a year. ___ Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz contributed. Follow Michael Sisak on Twitter at twitter.com/mikesisak. Send confidential tips by visiting https://www.ap.org/tips/. New Delhi, Sep 9 (UNI) The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan, who had been in jail for two long years, after rejecting the Uttar Pradesh government's plea not to free him on ground that he was planning to incite violence. A Bench headed by Chief Justice U U Lalit granted bail to Kappan as it became clear during arguments that the so-called "toolkit" which was found with him had actually been prepared during the "Black Lives Matter" protests in the United States. The judges asked Kappan to remain in Delhi for six months before proceeding to Mallapuram in Kerala, and said he must report to the police in Delhi and Kerala every week. Now in a Mathura jail in Uttar Pradesh, Kappan was arrested under the Unlawful Activities and Prevention Act (UAPA). He moved the top court challenging the Allahabad High Court order which rejected his bail plea on August 2. Kappan was also asked to submit his passport to the authorities. The Supreme Court made it clear that every person has a freedom to express his views on the justice delivery system. "Sometimes protests are necessary as there are some deficiencies there," Justice S Ravindra Bhat said. Kappan was a reporter for Malayalam News Portal and was arrested along with three others in Uttar Pradesh in October 2020 while on his way to Hathras to report on the gang-rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit girl. The prosecution claimed that Kappan and the co-accused were travelling to Hathras to disturb peace. The defence denied the charge. Senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, for Uttar Pradesh, said Kappan claimed to be a terrorist but was affiliated to the Popular Front of India (PFI). He admitted that no explosives were found on him and even the literature seized was found in their car. CJI Lalit: According to you, has he (Kappan) done anything in furtherance of the literature? Jethmalani: We have statements of co-accused. CJI: Statements of co-accused you cannot use as evidence. Jethmalani: We are trying to get an approver. When Jethmalani that the government was trying to expedite trial, the Chief Justice said: "If you say your attempts to make somebody approver is on, it means the matter is not ripe for trial." CJI : At best you can say this man was travelling in a car, and he was apprehended with three others, there was some literature in the car, the other three are linked with PFI? The Chief Justice added: "Every person has the right to free expression. He is trying to show that (Hathras) victim needs justice and raise a common voice. Is that a crime in eyes of law?" Justice Bhat: Similar protests were in 2012 at India Gate, which led to a change of law. Till now you have not shown anything provocative. Sibal: Some of the documents are not relating to India... this is not prosecution, but persecution. CJI: Is there a document which shows that he must indulge in rioting? Jethmalani: Yes, please see page... He is coming to Hathras with a toolkit... Sibal: This is from "Black Lives Matter" protests. CJI: So this appears to be somewhere from foreign country... CJI: Jethmalani, we will grant him bail. All of the accused, including Kappan, were charged under various sections of UAPA, the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act. The prosecution said Kappan could not explain the source of cash of Rs 45,000 recovered from him. UNI SM MR This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate BATAVIA, N.Y. (AP) The crowd swayed on its feet, arms pumping, the beat of Twisted Sisters Were Not Gonna Take It thumping in their chests. The people under the revival tent hooted as Michael Flynn strode across the stage, bopping and laughing, singing the refrain into his microphone and encouraging the audience to sing along to the transgressive rock anthem. "Well fight the powers that be just/Dont pick our destiny cause/You dont know us, you dont belong!" The emcee introduced him as Americas General, but to those in the audience, Flynn is far more than that: martyr, hero, leader, patriot, warrior. The retired lieutenant general, former national security adviser, onetime anti-terrorism fighter, is now focused on his next task: building a movement centered on Christian nationalist ideas, where Christianity is at the center of American life and institutions. Flynn brought his fight a struggle he calls both spiritual and political last month to a church in Batavia, New York, where thousands of people paid anywhere from a few dollars to up to $500 to hear and absorb his message that the United States is facing an existential threat, and that to save the nation, his supporters must act. Flynn, 63, has used public appearances to energize voters, along with political endorsements to build alliances and a network of nonprofit groups one of which has projected spending $50 million to advance the movement, an investigation by The Associated Press and the PBS series Frontline has found. He has drawn together election deniers, mask and vaccine opponents, insurrectionists, Proud Boys, and elected officials and leaders in state and local Republican parties. Along the way, the AP and Frontline documented, Flynn and his companies have earned hundreds of thousands of dollars for his efforts. ___ This story is part of an ongoing investigation from The Associated Press and Frontline that includes the upcoming documentary Michael Flynns Holy War, premiering Oct. 18 on PBS and online. ___ The AP and Frontline spoke with more than 60 people, including Flynns family, friends, opponents, and current and former colleagues, for this story. The news organizations also reviewed campaign finance records, corporate and charity filings, social media posts and similar open-source information, and attended several public events where Flynn appeared. Reporters examined dozens of Flynns speeches, interviews and public appearances. Flynn himself sat down for a rare on-camera interview with what he calls the mainstream media. I dont even know why Im talking to you, honestly, Flynn said as the interview got underway. Throughout 2021 and 2022, Flynn made more than 60 in-person speeches in 24 states, according to a count by the AP and Frontline. When he speaks, the former top adviser to then-President Donald Trump spreads baseless conspiracy theories, stoking fear and fueling anger and division and grievance. Flynn is one of the most dangerous individuals in America today, said Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a historian and expert on authoritarianism and fascism who wrote the book Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present. He is spearheading the attack on our democracy, which is coming from many quarters, and he is affiliated with many of these sectors, from the military to Christian nationalism to election denial to extremist groups, she said. All of this comes together to present a very live threat. And hes at the center. Flynn has, with mixed success, supported like-minded candidates around the country, and has said his immediate goal is to influence this years elections. In Sarasota, Florida, where he lives, he has worked in concert with members of the extremist group the Proud Boys to influence local politics. Their favored candidates in August won control of the county school board. Local action has a national impact is his mantra. We need to take this country back one town at a time, one county at a time, one state at a time, if thats what it takes, he told a crowd in Salt Lake City. THE ULTIMATE INSIDER Flynns advocacy of falsehoods and conspiracy theories hardly makes him unique in a fact-challenged America, but his pedigree, military career and high-powered Washington contacts set him apart. He's a retired three-star general who less than two decades ago developed wartime strategies for countering insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. His selection as Trumps first national security adviser made him the ultimate insider, giving him nominal control if only for a matter of weeks of the administrations national security strategy. When he later found himself in legal trouble on suspicion that he had lied to the FBI about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States, he cooperated with the same government establishment he now crusades against. In the weeks after the November 2020 presidential election, Flynn picked up a presidential pardon granted to forgive his guilty plea to lying to the FBI. He immediately became a chief promoter of the Stop the Steal effort and championed bogus claims about foreign interference and ballot tampering that werent supported by credible evidence. But for some voters, Flynns status as a retired general and top intelligence officer gave weight to the empty theories. He falsely said Trump won, called the election outcome part of a coup in progress, suggested Trump should seize voting machines and said Trump could order up the military in some states and rerun the election. In December 2020 he even made his way into the Oval Office to push his ideas directly to Trump. Called before a congressional committee investigating the Capitol insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021, Flynn refused to say whether he believed the violence was justified or even whether he believed in the peaceful transition of power. He invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself. Retired Brig. Gen. Steven M. Anderson, who served with Flynn in Iraq, called Flynns ideas antithetical to core values of the American military and the nation itself. Anderson worries that Flynn is a role model for thousands and thousands and thousands of soldiers and former soldiers," and that his ideas can empower them to take actions that hurt the country. Weve got a retired three-star, former NSA, who says we can overthrow the election, use our military, Anderson said. The thinking goes, he said, Well, then yes, sign me up for the Proud Boys. Flynn uses the three stars he earned in the military as his symbol, a shorthand that reminds people he came from the highest levels of the nations power structure and that suggests he has a special knowledge of how things work in the shadowy world of Washington and global affairs. Its a crying shame that essentially he has evolved into the person he is now, said Anderson, who described his former colleague as a subservient buffoon that unfortunately has forsaken his oath of office. Doug Wise, a former CIA and military officer who knew Flynn for decades and briefly served as Flynn's deputy at the Defense Intelligence Agency, said even in the military, Flynn often pushed the envelope of what was permissible and demonstrated extreme thinking. He believes Flynn hasnt transformed, hes just become more comfortable acting on the anger that burns inside him. I understand the reasons why he gravitated to the right wing because as his behavior and beliefs became more bizarre, I think they were very welcoming. Because who wouldnt want a highly respected Army three-star to join your group? Wise said. I think he believed, post-government, and he was right in this that he was too well-connected to fail, Wise said. And he got pardoned. Flynn sees conspiracies in just about every corner of American life. Hes repeated falsehoods about Black Lives Matter and said that so-called globalists created COVID-19. He tells the tens of thousands of people who have paid to see him speak that there are 75 members of the Socialist Party in Congress, and has said the left and Democrats are trying to destroy the country. He asserts, above all else, that the United States was founded on Judeo-Christian values. The bedrock, he warns, is crumbling. The country, Flynn often says in speeches and interviews, is in the midst of a spiritual war, and he goes after many of the institutions and ideas that stand as pillars of American democracy. He has told audiences he doesnt trust the U.S. government or government institutions that oversee the rule of law. He called the media the No. 1 enemy and said it has done a horrible, horrible disservice to the country by just constantly lying and trying to deceive us. He says elementary schools are teaching filth and pornography. He continues to assert, ignoring all evidence to the contrary, that elections cant be trusted. He says, over and over, that some of his fellow Americans are evil. They dress like us and they talk like us, but they dont think and act like us, he told a podcaster recently. And they definitely do not want what it is that we want. HEAVY ARMAMENTS Survey data shows many Americans believe what Flynn says that the 2020 election was stolen and have bought into COVID-19 misinformation and other conspiracy theories that he spreads, said Kristin Kobes Du Mez, a professor of history at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, who studies the evangelical movement. Any of these factors alone could be considered dangerous. But all of them together and the distrust it is sowing in our democracy, Du Mez said. I think its extremely dangerous in this moment. She points to Flynns role as headliner of a multicity roadshow known as the ReAwaken America tour, an event that is a potent mix of politics, religion and commerce that has become a prime example of the Christian nationalist movement. Flynn helped found the tour in 2021 with Clay Clark, an entrepreneur from Oklahoma who had been running business conferences before the pandemic. In his interview with the AP and Frontline in February, Flynn said he considered himself a senior leader of the team thats running it. The thread of Christian nationalism runs through many of Flynns events. At one fundraiser, a preacher prayed over him saying that America would stay a Christian nation and that Flynn was heavy armaments in the Lords quiver. At the Christian Patriots Rally at a church in Northern California, Flynn was presented with an assault-style rifle on stage. In Virginia in July, he said pastors need to be talking about the Constitution from the pulpit as much as the Bible. In Texas last November, Flynn told a crowd this is a moment in time where this is good versus evil. If we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, we have to have one religion. One nation under God, and one religion under God, right? he said. Christian nationalism seeks to merge the identity of Christians and Americans, so that to be a true American is to be Christian and a certain type of Christian. The ideology pushes the idea that the United States was founded on biblical principles and has a favored relationship with a Christian God, said Samuel Perry, a sociologist at the University of Oklahoma who studies conservative Christianity and politics. It is distinct from the practice of Christianity, and Perrys research has found that many Americans who are inclined toward Christian nationalism dont go to church. This has nothing to do with Christian orthodoxy. It has nothing to do with loving Jesus or wanting to be a good disciple or loving your neighbor or self-sacrifice or anything like that, Perry said. It has everything to do with Christian ethno-culture and specifically white Christian ethno-culture. Flynn casts himself as a victim of the deep state who paid a steep price for supporting Trump. Besides Trump, his supporters say, no one has been persecuted more than Flynn. Flynns rhetoric us versus them, good versus evil, the idea that God is on our side has been a staple among conservative Christians for decades, and is mainstream in conservative evangelicalism, Du Mez said. The thinking, she said, can fuel violence. Theyre out to get us. Therefore, we need to strike first. And the threat is always dire, Du Mez says the thinking goes. And if the threat is dire, then the ends justify the means. These values are not unconnected from the violence that we saw on Jan. 6, she added. (When the AP and Frontline asked Flynn in February if he is ascribes to Christian nationalist views, he dodged. He first asked what the term meant, then said he was an Irish Catholic then a follower of Jesus, before criticizing the reporter: That was a stupid question to ask me, he said, because that means that you really have not studied Mike Flynn.) Last October, Flynn was the star attraction at the WeCANAct Liberty Conference, a gathering in Salt Lake City for Utahs Platform Republicans PAC. The program included dozens of speakers and exhibitors talking about a grab bag of ideas and causes that have seized and panicked the right -- about vaccines, human trafficking, elections and the QAnon conspiracy theory. Among the sponsors and exhibitors were the John Birch Society; businesses selling everything from texting services for political campaigns to food dehydrators; Ammon Bundys anti-government Peoples Rights group; and Americas Frontline Doctors, which has spread false information about COVID-19 and promoted unproven treatments such as ivermectin, a drug used to treat parasitic infections. State lawmakers from Arizona and Utah spoke, and members of the Utah Republican Partys governing committee were among the organizers. The program kicked off with an invocation by a preacher who brought the crowd to its feet as he described a prophecy of a Great Awakening where Americans are going to rise up and defeat the cabal. We are in a spiritual war, and you cant win a war without attacking, he said. The preacher ended by leading the crowd in what he called a new version of the Lords Prayer that fits the Great Awakening. The crowd repeated after him as he said: Deliver us from the cabal, and from Satans influence. For yours is the kingdom, and the power and the glory. Forever and ever and ever. Amen. Flynn appeared a few times throughout the day, at one point sitting in the audience. Across the Salt Palace Convention Center, people jostled their seatmates to point him out and craned their necks to see him. That evening, he gave a meandering speech that he referred to as an ass-chewing from a general. He falsely declared once again that Trump had won the 2020 election, said our government is corrupt, and called for the FBI to be abolished, a surprising applause line in October 2021 that has now being taken up more broadly by some Republicans. He called the left our enemies and said they are godless and soulless. One of Flynns companies, Resilient Patriot LLC, was paid $58,000 by the conference. An AP and Frontline review of state and federal campaign finance filings documented nearly $300,000 in payments to Flynn and his businesses from candidates and political action committees since 2021, for things such as speaking fees, travel, book sales and campaign consulting. (Florida congressional candidate Laura Loomer reported paying his company $1,100 in May for public relations services.) After Flynns keynote concluded, a podcaster helping to wrap things up for the evening came onstage and called him one of the new founding fathers of this republic. 99 ENDORSEMENTS As Flynn speaks and stumps to persuade people to join his movement, he has also been busy building a network of political candidates at the federal, state and local levels. The AP and Frontline found that Flynn has endorsed 99 candidates for the 2022 election cycle. (He subsequently withdrew a handful.) The countrys most influential Republican is paying attention. Flynns brother Joseph told an interviewer in May that during a visit the Flynns made to Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate this spring, Trump himself produced a list comparing the success of his endorsed candidates with Flynns. At least 80% of Flynns chosen candidates have publicly spread lies or sown doubt about Trumps 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden, or even participated in efforts to overturn the election, the AP and Frontline found. Several have suggested they would use their power if elected to change the way elections are run and how people are allowed to cast their vote. About two dozen were at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 5-6, 2021. One-third have served in the military. At least 38 have used Christian nationalist rhetoric. Keith Self, a congressional candidate in Texas, has said hes running for Congress to defend the Judeo-Christian foundations of this nation. Christine Villaverde, a congressional candidate in North Carolina, has vowed to fight to keep America a Christian nation. Anthony Sabatini, a Florida state lawmaker who just lost a bid for Congress, recently posted on Facebook, Only when Christians stand up & get loud, will we take this country back. Flynns support can be a sought-after prize. An AP and Frontline analysis of Facebook and Instagram ad data found ads from more than 20 candidates promoting their endorsements. Jackson Lahmeyer, an Oklahoma pastor who was defeated in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate by Sen. James Lankford, mentioned Flynn in 48 Facebook and Instagram ads, more than one-quarter of his total buy on the platforms. Pastor Leon Benjamin, a Republican candidate for Congress in Virginia who denounced homosexuality and called gay marriages illegal in an August speech, said in an interview that Flynns endorsement represents that affirmation and that understanding that weve got to have the right candidates in, and its not always popular, not always goes along with the grain. If we keep doing the same things over and over again, thats the definition of insanity, he added. So we got to do some different things to get different results. More than 40 of Flynns endorsements were for candidates seeking state or even local posts, the AP and Frontline found. Flynn endorsed two school board contenders in Camdenton, Missouri, candidates for sheriff in Florida, Nevada and Illinois and a city council candidate in North Carolina. He endorsed candidates for the state legislature in Michigan, Ohio, Arizona, Florida, Texas and Missouri. In Arizona, Michigan, California and Colorado, he gave his approval to candidates for secretary of state, a position that typically involves the administration of elections. A dozen gubernatorial candidates won Flynns backing, including Pennsylvanias Republican nominee, Doug Mastriano, a state lawmaker whom Flynn introduced at his campaign launch. Mastriano, a retired U.S. Army colonel, floated a plan to undo Bidens victory in his state, organized buses to the U.S. Capitol for Jan. 6 and was filmed walking past barricades and police lines that day. Mastriano has denied breaking the law and has not been charged with any crimes. Another Flynn endorsee, Dan Cox, who also organized buses for Jan. 6, won the Republican gubernatorial nomination in Maryland. Still, Flynns endorsement doesnt guarantee a win. Josh Mandel, the Ohio U.S. Senate candidate, was defeated by JD Vance, who got a late endorsement from Trump. Some Flynn-backed candidates, including gubernatorial candidate Joey Gilbert in Nevada and Colorado secretary of state candidate Tina Peters, made baseless claims of election fraud after they lost. Flynn and his allies have suggested he wants to get back into government, and the growing influence that flows from the network hes building may help him get there, said Ron Filipkowski, a lawyer in Sarasota and longtime Republican activist who now tracks Flynn and other far-right figures online. Hes going to build this grassroots movement, local elected officials beholden to him, loyal to him," Filipkowski said. FINANCING ELECTION DENIAL Flynn has expanded his influence further through well-financed groups that advocate, among other things, changes to the way elections are run, based on the false premise that there is widespread voting fraud. Flynn and Patrick Byrne, founder of Overstock.com, last year launched The America Project, with Flynns brother Joseph as president. The group said it planned to spend $50 million in the 2021 budget year, according to a filing with North Carolina charity regulators. But Joseph Flynn and Byrne separately told AP that it had spent tens of millions less, though each gave different totals. While Flynn himself is not listed among its officers, he is the face of the group, and its described as General Flynn and Patrick Byrnes America Project. Byrne says Flynn is his closest adviser, telling the AP and Frontline that Flynn is his Yoda and rabbi. In April 2021, Flynn was named chairman of Americas Future, one of the countrys oldest conservative nonprofit groups. The organization was founded in 1946 and was previously led by ultra-conservative stalwarts, including Phyllis Schlafly and retired Maj. Gen. John Singlaub. Since Flynn took over, the group hired his sister, Mary ONeill, as executive director and appointed Joseph Flynn to its board of directors. The group had about $3 million in assets at the end of 2020, its most recent IRS filings show. Flynn told the AP and Frontline in February that he had raised an estimated $1.7 million for Americas Future since becoming chairman. The two groups worked in close coordination last year, together donating more than $4.2 million for a widely criticized and misinformation-driven review of the 2020 presidential election results commissioned by Arizona Republicans. The America Project has given about $5 million to grassroots organizations around the country, Joseph Flynn said in a July appearance on an online show. Many of the groups they support back what they call election integrity, a term often used by election deniers to justify making it more difficult to vote based on the falsehood that American elections are corrupt. Campaign finance records show The America Project has given more than $150,000 to Conservatives for Election Integrity, a group that has supported several secretary of state candidates who have worked to undermine trust in 2020 election results. The America Project gave $100,000 to a Colorado group, Citizens for Election Integrity, which used it for ads and text messages attacking a Republican candidate for secretary of state who ran against Flynns endorsed candidate. In Michigan, The America Project gave $100,000 in May to Secure MI Vote, which has reportedly pushed to roll back voter access. In Georgia, they just announced theyre backing an effort to challenge voter registrations for tens of thousands of people. Joseph Flynn said during a speech in May that The America Project also funded and advised many of what he termed audits of elections around the country, including in Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin, though he did not give specifics. In February, Flynn stood in a burger joint in Orlando, Florida, to announce The America Projects most public initiative, Operation Eagles Wings, the goal of which is to mobilize and train poll watchers and precinct captains, and to drive get-out-the-vote efforts. I think every single person in this country, every American citizen, now has to pay attention to politics. You know, when people go, I dont get involved. I dont do that political stuff. Thats for the politicians. Well, thats exactly why we are here. OK? Flynn told the AP and Frontline during a contentious interview. So, its something else that you wont write or speak about or itll be edited out. As part of Operation Eagles Wings, The America Project has created affiliate groups in at least nine states. Its Florida affiliate said in a Facebook post last month its seeking America First Poll Watchers and will train organizations for free. State affiliates in Illinois and Virginia advertised trainings in July and August on grassroots social activism, poll watching and how to get out the vote. The promotions also promise to teach attendees to expose weaknesses, monitor and evaluate absentee voting and conduct investigative canvassing. The initiative has raised alarm bells with pro-democracy advocates. If people who tried to overturn the 2020 election, or who are fueled by election conspiracies, are trying to recruit their followers or allies to be election workers or volunteers as part of an election denial agenda, that poses real risks to fair and free elections, said Jacek Pruski, of the nonpartisan group Protect Democracy. NOT ALONE With his speeches, endorsements and outreach groups, Flynn has built a legion of acolytes who are listening closely to what he says and are ready to take action. They include Karen Ballash, 69, vice chair of the Summit County Republican Party in Utah, who heard Flynn speak in Salt Lake City. I totally believe in his message. We have to be the ones who make the change, she said. If we dont do it, we wont have a country. They include neophytes like Delainna Prettyman, who said shes just become politically engaged in the past year. That sent me deep down a rabbit hole. I dont watch any news, any TV, anything. And I do a ton of research, said Prettyman, who lives in the Salt Lake City suburbs. She came to love Flynn, and believed everything he says. Hes got a lot of intel and insight about everything thats going on. Of course, he cant say everything," she said. "We need more people like General Flynn. Under the tent in Batavia, the crowd thrilled to Flynns pronouncements from the stage. The general they claim as their own confirmed their feeling that the U.S. is changing, and not for the better. He validated the belief that the community they have built together is under attack. They know many people some of their very own friends and loved ones, and even Biden say they are a destructive force. But inside the tent, Flynn assured them, they have found their tribe and they are in the right. Were not alone in this is what Im telling you. OK? Were not alone in what it is that we are doing, Flynn said. Were not alone. I want you to know that. ___ Associated Press writers Richard Lardner, Eric Tucker, Helen Wieffering, and Aaron Kessler, photographer Carolyn Kaster, and Frontline producers Richard Rowley and Paul Abowd contributed to this report. ___ To reach AP's investigative team, email investigative@ap.org ___ For full coverage of the Capitol riot, go to https://www.apnews.com/capitol-siege Queen Elizabeth II's eldest son, Charles, 73, is now King Charles III after his mother, the longest-reigning monarch in British history, died in Scotland on Thursday. He inherits the sovereign title and role as head of the Commonwealth, as well as other assets such as land and religious duties. While the wife of a king usually assumes the title of queen, this has not been a given to his second wife, Camilla. The pair married in 2005. At the time of the couple's marriage, it was announced that she would not be known as queen when he became monarch, but as "princess consort" - at a time when British public sentiment toward her was more frosty. But in a statement marking the 70th anniversary of her accession to the throne earlier this year, Queen Elizabeth II announced that she wanted Camilla to be known as "queen consort" when Charles became king. The intervention cleared up a question that had lingered since they married. Without it, Camilla, previously known as the Duchess of Cornwall, could have been the first British queen not to be officially called a queen. "And when, in the fullness of time, my son Charles becomes King, I know you will give him and his wife Camilla the same support that you have given me; and it is my sincere wish that, when that times comes, Camilla will be known as Queen Consort as she continues her own loyal service," Queen Elizabeth II said in her February statement as she planned beyond her reign. Charles, who had stepped in to take on more royal duties as the monarch's health deteriorated, thanked his mother and said he was "deeply conscious of the honour" for his "darling" wife. On Thursday, in a statement announcing Elizabeth's death, Buckingham Palace said: "The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow," formalizing her public title. When Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles, just about 7 percent of Britons thought she should become queen. It was nearly nine years after his divorce from Princess Diana and nearly eight years after her death. Like Princess Diana, some Britons blamed Camilla for the breakdown of her marriage to Prince Charles. "There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded," Diana famously said in a 1995 interview. Although she didn't have the same kind of star power as Diana, Camilla sought to improve her image after she became a royal. She has become patron to dozens of charities and has advocated against domestic violence, among other causes. In a 2010 interview, when he was asked whether his wife would become queen, Charles responded: "That's well . . . we'll see, won't we? That could be." - - - The Washington Post's Adela Suliman contributed to this report. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images All eyes are on Uvalde once again after a shooting at one of the town's city parks on Thursday, September 8, that left two people injured. The shooting comes months after 19 children and two teachers were killed in the Robb Elementary mass shooting on May 24. The shooting at Uvalde Memorial Park, the same week that students in the town returned to school, left two "juveniles" injured, though they were airlifted to hospitals in San Antonio to receive treatment. The park is located less than a mile from Robb Elementary School, which is now closed and will eventually be demolished. Martina Birnbaum / EyeEm/Getty Images/EyeEm A 56-year-old man was found dead at Palo Duro Canyon State Park on Wednesday, September 7, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Officials believe he suffered a medical emergency. First responders and park rangers responded to a call for rescue along the Lighthouse Trail, the Randall County Fire Department stated on Facebook. The trail was closed while crews attempted a "technical rescue." Update - 7:05 p.m., September 8: There are two minor victims with unknown injuries that have been transported by helicopter to a San Antonio hospital, Uvalde police told KSAT. Officers answered a call to the Memorial Park area around 5 p.m., the station reported. The reporting adds that a third minor has been declared a suspect in connection with the shooting and is being sought. Their identity is known to officials, but has not been released publicly. A tweet from the Texas Department of Public Safety identifies the shooting as possibly being gang related, but says the information is preliminary. The post also says DPS is working with the Uvalde Police Department and Uvalde County Sheriff's Office on the incident. Uvalde Police Officer Jessica Zamora tells MySA more information will be shared as it becomes available. Original story: The Uvalde Police Department is currently investigating a shooting incident with injured victims in the area of the Uvalde Memorial Park. Police officials are asking the public to stay away as the department investigates the situation. The crime scene is still considered active according to the Facebook post as officials continue their investigations. This incident occurs less than four months from when a mass shooting killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday, May 24. Another seventeen students and teachers were wounded. MySA reached out to the Uvalde Police Department for more information but did not receive an immediate response. This is a developing story and will be updated as more information is available. This is Naked Capitalism fundraising week. 573 donors have already invested in our efforts to combat corruption and predatory conduct, particularly in the financial realm. Please join us and participate via our donation page, which shows how to give via check, credit card, debit card, or PayPal. Read about why were doing this fundraiser, what weve accomplished in the last year,, and our current goal, rewarding our guest bloggers. As weve said, the freight train of energy shortages is bearing down on Europe. Most of its leaders seem in denial about how bad the impact will be. Mind you, some do understand: A few weeks like this and the European economy will just go into a full stop, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said in an interview with Bloomberg News. The risk of that is de-industrialization and severe risk of fundamental social unrest.https://t.co/4dXkgOGqMX Javier Blas (@JavierBlas) September 8, 2022 But you wouldnt get it from the tone and expected substance of an emergency EU energy meeting set for Friday. Politico reported yesterday on the main proposals from the European Commission. Some countries were miffed, since this leak was obviously intended to give EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen more control over the debate. From EU countries split on von der Leyens energy crisis ideas in Politico: Von der Leyen proposed five immediate moves to help tame Europes energy emergency: Setting a price cap on Russian gas; Mandatory measures to reduce electricity demand during peak hours; A cap on the enormous revenues some companies are making by generating electricity from lower cost sources than gas. These unexpected profits would be redirected to help consumers; A solidarity tax on fossil fuel companies making big profits, again with the funds sent to help ease the pain for consumers and businesses Facilitating funding support for ailing utility companies struggling to pay for supplies on the market. The article said only two measures had broad support. The first was funding support for utility companies. The excuse is that they are having to pay sky-high collateral cash needed to trade on energy exchanges. That conveniently omits that many of these utilities are in serious trouble, as we wrote a few days ago, due to bad derivative bets. Generally, the problem was they went short, as in bet prices would fall, and instead they went to the moon. Its hardly a secret that this is the big reason they are in financial pain: European governments are patching together emergency measures to support utilities amid fears that companies will buckle under the weight of growing margin calls https://t.co/76OjR4Gr98 Bloomberg Markets (@markets) September 6, 2022 These utilities are too big to fail entities. European officials cant let them collapse in the middle of a crisis. As we predicted, the energy company rescues would be first in the bailout line, ahead of support to households and businesses. The second proposal that looks set to secure easy agreement is what amounts to an excess profits tax on energy companies that are low cost providers. However, when the EUs priority should be to avert a disaster, it remains fixated on hurting itself to try to hurt Russia: The most controversial issue is the Russian price cap largely aimed at punishing the Kremlin financially for the war in Ukraine with capitals having very contradictory views, one EU diplomat said. Germany has said it is skeptical about the idea. Hungary, Russias closest EU ally, is against it, as is Slovakia and at least two other countries, diplomats said. Others, including Poland and Italy, want the Commission to go further and cap the price of all gas imported into the EU. Von der Leyen said this was something the Commission was looking at but Brussels has broadly been against the idea in its assessments so far, which would be much more complex than singling out Russian gas. The Financial Times, in a later report, explains the logic, such as it is, of a full bore price gas price cap: Brussels is facing pressure from at least 10 EU countries to implement a cap on gas prices for all suppliers, with some governments warning that singling out Russia could push President Vladimir Putin to cut supplies to Europe completely. Now this may be a bureaucratically clever way of stopping the Russian price cap by taking the idea to an internally-consistent-looking conclusion. Or they could be dead serious. We hate to have to keep repeating the obvious. First, Russia has said it will not sell gas or oil to any countries that try to impose non-market prices. Second, the EUs earlier plans to cut Russian gas use by 2/3 by year end were deemed to be pie in the sky. From CNBC in June: The EU plans to replace two-thirds of Russian gas imports by the end of the year, as Russias war in Ukraine continues to wage on. However, the EUs current plan to replace Russian gas looks to fall short. In 2021, the EU imported around 155 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas from Russia. The blocs proposed gas replacements by the end of 2022 which include LNG (liquefied natural gas) diversification, renewables, heating efficiency, pipeline diversification, biomethane, solar rooftops and heat pumps amount to around 102 bcm annually, according to data from the EU Commissions REPowerEU, aggregated in a recent report from economic consultancy TS Lombard. Christopher Granville, managing director for EMEA and global political research at TS Lombard, said in the report that the European Commissions aims to replace Gazproms gas this year look wildly optimistic. Apart from implementation timings of commissioning German LNG-receiving terminals, Russia is also an important supplier of LNG, underlining the challenge for Europe of sourcing adequate LNG supplies, Granville said. Let us also remember that Europe came up largely empty-handed in its LNG appeals to Qatar and Canada, and the US has been quietly undersupplying Europe to keep prices in the US down. By way of an update, Alex Christoforu provided this screenshot (at 14:25) showing the EU was currently getting 37.2% of its former Russian gas levels. The Financial Times story above makes an unsourced claim that Russian gas supplies are down 80%. The difference between the two estimates may depend on the baseline used, since Ive seen some marked differences. And remember massive stockpiling was also part of the EU scheme. Third, Russia keeps reminding the EU that this mess is their doing, but the press and Twitterati dutifully repeat the party line that its the evil Putin who is strangling Europe. Putin again offered to open Nord Stream 2 to supply Europe with gas. From a machine translation of Putins answer in the Q&A after his speech at Eastern Economic Conference: Vladimir Putin: Nord Stream 1 is practically closed now, and everyone is saying: Russia is using this energy weapon. Another nonsense and nonsense. What weapon do we use? We supply as much as our partners need, as much as they place an order we fulfill as much. We do not deliver somewhere in the air, but on demand. The application has been submitted we are executing. What happened? Two strings of the gas pipeline across Ukraine, Ukraine, on its own initiative, took and turned off one thread under the far-fetched pretext of lack of control over it. They closed themselves. We didnt close it, Ukraine closed it. Once. The second pipeline system Yamal Europe through Poland. Poland took and put this gas pipeline under sanctions, and closed it. Have we done this? The Poles closed. The Ukrainians closed, the Poles closed. Nord Stream 1. Our German partners have subordinated the entire technical side of Nord Stream 1, the maintenance of gas-compressor turbine units, to British law, because it turns out I didnt know this myself, Alexei Borisovich [Miller] reported to me the contract for servicing these units produced by the company Siemens Gazprom was forced to conclude not with the central office of Siemens, but with a subsidiary in the UK, which put Gazprom under sanctions, and it was agreed to repair these turbines at the Siemens plant in Canada. And what are we doing here? Canada took, in the end, at the numerous requests of Germany, gave it to Germany, and under an agreement with a daughter of Siemens in the UK, the turbines should be sent directly to St. Petersburg. Logistics has changed you need to make changes to the contract. The British subsidiary of Siemens does not even respond to requests from Gazprom. Here you can take as many pictures as you like against the background of this turbine, but give me the documents, in the end. This is our property. We must understand the legal status of this property and its technical condition. They give nothing but general conversations. The last turbine is now out of order, and Siemens representatives came and looked, an oil leak is taking place there, an explosive situation, a fire hazard. Of course, the turbine cannot work like that. Give us turbines, we will turn on Nord Stream 1 tomorrow. They dont give anything. They say they use it as a weapon. What weapon? They themselves have done things, now they do not know what to do with it. They drove themselves into the so-called sanctions impasse. Exit one. In Germany, we now see demonstrations going around demanding the inclusion of Nord Stream 2. We share these demands of consumers in Germany, we are ready to do it tomorrow, all you need to do is press a button, but we did not impose sanctions on Nord Stream 2. They did it under pressure from the Americans, and why are they pressing? Because they want to sell themselves, at exorbitant prices. We know the position of the previous [American] administration as well. They said: Yes, we sell more expensive. Let them buy because we protect them. Let them buy if they want. We will sell our product. It has also not been widely acknowledged that Gazprom has increased shipments via the one open Ukraine pipeline to partly offset the Nord Stream 1 reduction. Back to the von der Leyen proposals. One was Mandatory measures to reduce electricity demand during peak hours. But at least four countries are opposed to having the cuts be mandatory. And even if that measure is forced through, how will it be enforced? I doubt that smart meters are common enough in the EU for utilities to limit how much users consume at peak times. This site and others pointed out that the EU electricity pricing/trading system was making this bad situation worse, but we doubted there was a simple remedy, and an overhaul would be difficult and time consuming even in ordinary circumstances. The idea was shot down, but without an official explanation. Again from Politico: Polands call to reform the Emissions Trading System, which it blames for jacking up energy prices, was a non-starter for Luxembourg, Ireland, Germany, Finland and Sweden, said a senior diplomat. Again, absent Europe relenting and taking up the Russia Nord Stream 2 offer, theres no way out of a huge economic crisis even before winter is in full swing. Another example of unforeseen consequences: Important chemicals for water purification could soon be missing in Germany from Germany Detail Zero, a transcription and rough translation of a Die Welt podcast: Due to high energy costs, the so-called precipitating agents are also becoming scarce: iron or aluminum salts, which are urgently needed in sewage treatment plants. In some federal states, the environment ministers are already allowing limit values to be exceeded. Due to the energy crisis, sewage treatment plants nationwide lack the means to clean the wastewater with possibly fatal consequences for rivers, reports the magazine Spiegel. Chemical companies can therefore currently hardly supply precipitants. During chemical water purification, the iron or aluminum salts bind dissolved phosphates in the waste water and prevent these nutrients from getting into rivers and canals in excessive concentrations with the treated waste water. Without any precipitants, municipal sewage treatment plants are forced to discharge wastewater with a high phosphate content and exceed limit values. This could endanger the stressed German waters in some places after the dry summer and trigger uncontrolled growth of algae. Phosphates are fertilizers for algae. If there is a strong algal bloom, waters tip over due to insufficient oxygen content and living beings die, the magazine continues. And we dont see European official even remotely grasping that energy will be rationed, either by prices (with resulting business failures and cutbacks constituting a large part of lowering demand to match supply) or explicit schemes, like hard usage caps and setting priorities among customers. Were already seeing some ugly measures starting: first shock therapy move in Romania, applauded by Western Europe liberalise imported energy prices and liberalise exchange rates, deadly combo for local state-owned industries. https://t.co/r2rTAtWdeH Daniela Gabor (@DanielaGabor) September 9, 2022 The fact that the EU isnt even close to discussing hard choices in a serious way shows how far behind the eight ball they are. This is Naked Capitalism fundraising week. 575 donors have already invested in our efforts to combat corruption and predatory conduct, particularly in the financial realm. Please join us and participate via our donation page, which shows how to give via check, credit card, debit card, or PayPal. Read about why were doing this fundraiser, what weve accomplished in the last year,, and our current goal, rewarding our guest bloggers. * * * Lambert and I, and many readers, agree that Ukraine has prompted the worst informational environment ever. We hope readers will collaborate in mitigating the fog of war both real fog and stage fog in comments. None of us need more cheerleading and link-free repetition of memes; there are platforms for that. Low-value, link-free pom pom-wavers will be summarily whacked. And for those who are new here, this is not a mere polite request. We have written site Policies and those who comment have accepted those terms. To prevent having to resort to the nuclear option of shutting comments down entirely until more sanity prevails, as we did during the 2015 Greek bailout negotiations and shortly after the 2020 election, we are going to be ruthless about moderating and blacklisting offenders. Yves P.S. Also, before further stressing our already stressed moderators, read our site policies: Please do not write us to ask why a comment has not appeared. We do not have the bandwidth to investigate and reply. Using the comments section to complain about moderation decisions/tripwires earns that commenter troll points. Please dont do it. Those comments will also be removed if we encounter them. * * * Rival teams of male dolphins form the animal worlds biggest social networks, long-running study finds Science Climate #COVID19 China? Water Myanmar Soldier Defections Since the 2021 Military Coup Independent Journal of Burmese Scholarship (funding). Actually a ginormous special issue, but quoting from the article whose title I linked: As reflected in this issues memoirs, post-coup defections in Myanmar began largely as one-off individual departures from disparate military sectors. But as some who left the military began to go public, declaring their identification with the CDM and the peoples resistance, defection gradually developed into an explicit revolutionary strategy. Supported by pro-democracy activists and later by the NUG and EAOs like the Karen National Union (KNU), defection is now considered one of the three pillars of the Spring Revolutiona common term used for the peoples struggle against the military regime. Alongside civilian protests and armed resistance, the defection pillar centers on making the military collapse from within and from below, by getting more and more soldiers and other security force personnel, such as police, to leave or engage in civil disobedience. Interestingly, I dont see this tactic listed on Gene Sharps 198 Methods, bible of color revolutions. (Sharp is both annoyingly precise (Skywriting and earthwriting) and maddeningly vague (Establishing new social patterns). I think if Sharp had this tactic in mind, it would be on his list.) Myanmar may be blacklisted by global financial regulator FAT Vietnam Posts India The Koreas North Korea makes nuclear policy irreversible with new law Al Jazeera No model for change to Covid isolation rules The Saturday Paper. Australia. The deck: The latest changes to Covid-19 rules shortening isolation periods and removing some mask mandates were made without any written advice and no modelling was provided to national cabinet. Wait. I thought Scotty from Marketing got replaced by somebody completely different? Syraqistan Afghanistan Commission identifies exact PowerPoint slide that lost War Duffel Blog. Here it is: I hope they had the labels on a separate layer so they could swap in new stuff for Ukraine. New Not-So-Cold War Biden Administration Intelligence Community Hunter Biden laptop deniers leading DCs International Spy Museum Washington Examiner Supply Chain Queen Elizabeth II Imperial Collapse Watch Class Warfare Its Time To Rethink the Origins of Pain Scientific American Antidote du jour (via): Bonus antidote: Please enjoy 10 seconds of Flamingos feeding underwater pic.twitter.com/7dnvy6z3YT Today Years Old (@todayyearsoldig) September 8, 2022 See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here. This is Naked Capitalism fundraising week. 581 donors have already invested in our efforts to combat corruption and predatory conduct, particularly in the financial realm. Please join us and participate via our donation page, which shows how to give via check, credit card, debit card, or PayPal. Read about why were doing this fundraiser, what weve accomplished in the last year,, and our current goal, rewarding our guest bloggers. Yves here. As an American who grew up during the anti-Establishment era, the significance of a figure like Queen Elizabeth II and an institution like the British Monarchy is hard to grasp. While America has a class system that is getting stronger over time, its never been as overt as the UKs, with not just the remnants of a titled aristocracy, but fine shadings of public-school-acquired accents telegraphing social position. So system which put the Queen at the apex still has very deep roots. This article effectively argues that Queen Elizabeths careful management of her role extended its shelf life as neoliberalism became dominant and fetishized illusions of meritocracy. And even though the Royal Family by design enjoys enormous privileges, they also ave duties, like being expected to show up in countryside England at hospital openings and cut ribbons and look like they enjoy being there. By all accounts, Lady Di not only was very good at her formal obligations but she really enjoyed them. By contrast, my Hollywood-savvy friend are highly confident that it was these regular required appearances in nowhere England, having to rattle around in big, drafty, and not updated houses, not having a private jet and not hanging with billionaires was what drove Meghan to claw her way out of the Royal family. She didnt understand the job, and there really was a job in there along with the titles and the trappings. By Sean Lang, Senior Lecturer in History, Anglia Ruskin University. Originally published at The Conversation When the late historian Sir Ben Pimlott embarked on his 1996 biography, his colleagues expressed surprise that he should consider Queen Elizabeth II worthy of serious study at all. Yet Pimlotts judgement proved sound and, if few academics have followed his lead, the political role of the monarchy has received thoughtful treatment in the creative arts. Stephen Frearss 2006 film, The Queen, showed her dilemma after the death of Princess Diana; Peter Morgans stage play The Audience showed the monarchs weekly meetings with her prime ministers. And she has been shown in a generally positive and sympathetic light by both Netflixs acclaimed drama series The Crown and even in Mike Bartletts speculative play King Charles III, about the difficulty her heir would have in filling her shoes. Elizabeths reign was a delayed result of the abdication crisis of 1936, the defining royal event of the 20th century. Edward VIIIs unexpected abdication thrust his shy, stammering younger brother Albert onto the throne as King George VI. Shortly thereafter he was thrust into the role of figurehead for the nation through the second world war. Kathy deWitt/Alamy Stock Photo The war was the most important formative experience for his elder daughter, Princess Elizabeth. Her experience as a car mechanic with the ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service the womens army service) meant that she could legitimately claim to have participated in what has been called the peoples war. The experience gave her a more naturally common touch than any of her predecessors had displayed. When, in 1947, she married Philip Mountbatten who became Duke of Edinburgh (and died in April 2021 at the age of 99) her wedding was seized on as an opportunity to brighten a national life still in the grip of post-war austerity and rationing. Elizabeth II inherited a monarchy whose political power had been steadily ebbing away since the 18th century but whose role in the public life of the nation seemed, if anything, to have grown ever more important. Monarchs in the 20th century were expected both to perform ceremonial duties with appropriate gravity and to lighten up enough to share and enjoy the tastes and interests of ordinary people. The Queens elaborate coronation in 1953 achieved a balance of both these roles. The ancient ceremony could be traced to the monarchys Saxon origins, while her decision to allow it to be televised brought it into the living rooms of ordinary people with the latest modern technology. Royal ceremonial was henceforth to be democratically visible, ironically becoming much better choreographed and more formal than it had ever been before. The Queen went on to revolutionise public perceptions of the monarchy when, at the urging of Lord Mountbatten and his son-in-law, the television producer Lord Brabourne, she consented to the 1969 BBC film Royal Family. It was a remarkably intimate portrayal of her home life, showing her at breakfast, having a barbecue at Balmoral and popping down to the local shops. Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy Stock Photo Prince Charless investiture as Prince of Wales the same year, another royal television event, was followed in 1970 by the Queens decision during a visit to Australia and New Zealand to break with protocol and mix directly with the crowds who had come out to see her. These walkabouts soon became a central part of any royal visit. The highpoint of the Queens mid-reign popularity came with the 1977 Silver Jubilee celebrations, which saw the country festooned in red, white and blue at VE Day-style street parties. It was followed in 1981 by the enormous popularity of the wedding at St Pauls Cathedral of Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer. Testing Times The following decades proved much more testing. Controversy in the early 1990s about the Queens exemption from income taxforced the Crown to change its financial arrangements so it paid like everyone else. Gossip and scandal surrounding the younger royals turned into divorces for Prince Andrew, Princess Anne and most damagingly of all Prince Charles. The Queen referred to 1992 the height of the scandals as her annus horribilis. Ron Bell/PA Images/Alamy Stock Photo The revelations about the misery Princess Diana had endured in her marriage presented the public with a much harder, less sympathetic image of the royal family, which seemed vindicated when the Queen uncharacteristically miscalculated the public mood after Dianas death in 1997. Her instinct was to follow protocol and precedent, staying at Balmoral and keeping her grandchildren with her. This seemed hard and uncaring to a public hungry for open displays of emotion that would have been unthinkable in the Queens younger days. Where is our Queen? demanded The Sun, while the Daily Express called on her to Show us you care! insisting that she break with protocol and fly the Union Jack at half-mast over Buckingham Palace. Never since the abdication had the popularity of the monarchy sunk so low. Caught briefly on the back foot by this remarkable change in British public behaviour, the Queen soon regained the initiative, addressing the nation on television and bowing her head to Dianas funeral cortege during a cleverly conceived and choreographed televised service. The extent to which she quickly regained public support was shown by the enormous, if unexpected, success of her 2002 Golden Jubilee, which was ushered in by the extraordinary sight of Brian May performing a guitar solo on the roof of Buckingham Palace. By the time London hosted the Olympics in 2012 she was sufficiently confident of her position to agree to appear in a memorable tongue-in-cheek cameo in the opening ceremony, when she appeared to parachute down into the arena from a helicopter in the company of James Bond. Political Sphere Queen Elizabeth kept the crown above party politics, but she was always fully engaged with the political world. A firm believer in the Commonwealth, even when her own prime ministers had long lost faith in it, as its head she mediated in disputes between member states and provided support and guidance even to Commonwealth leaders who were strongly opposed to her own UK government. Her prime ministers often paid tribute to her political wisdom and knowledge. These were the result both of her years of experience and of her diligence in reading state papers. Harold Wilson remarked that to attend the weekly audience unprepared was like being caught at school not having done your homework. It was widely believed that she found relations with Margaret Thatcher difficult. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh sometimes objected to the political use to which governments put them. In 1978 they were unhappy to be forced by the then foreign secretary, David Owen, to receive the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife as guests at Buckingham Palace. The Queen could act to very positive effect in international relations, often providing the ceremonial and public affirmation of the work of her ministers. She established a good rapport with a string of American presidents, particularly Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama, and her successful 2011 state visit to the Republic of Ireland, in which she astonished her hosts by addressing them in Gaelic, remains a model of the positive impact a state visit can have. She was even able to put aside her personal feelings about the 1979 murder of Lord Mountbatten to offer a cordial welcome to the former IRA commander Martin McGuinness, when he took office in 2007 as deputy first minister of Northern Ireland. Only very occasionally and briefly did the Queen allow her own political views to surface. On a visit to the London Stock Exchange after the 2008 financial crash she asked sharply why nobody had seen it coming. In 2014, her carefully worded appeal to Scots to think carefully about their vote in the Independence Referendum was widely and clearly rightly interpreted as an intervention on behalf of the Union. And in the run-up to the 2021 UN COP26 conference in Glasgow, from which she had to pull out on medical advice, she was overheard expressing irritation at the lack of political action on the climate change emergency. Final Years As she approached her tenth decade, she finally began to slow down, delegating more of her official duties to other members of the royal family even the annual laying of her wreath at the cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday, while in May 2022 she delegated her most important ceremonial duty, the reading of the Speech from the Throne at the State Opening of Parliament, to Prince Charles. She retained her ability to rise to a crisis, however. In 2020, as the COVID pandemic descended, the Queen, in sharp contrast to her prime minister, addressed the nation from lockdown at Windsor in a calm, well-judged message. Her short address combined solidarity with her people with the reassurance that, in a conscious reference to Vera Lynns wartime hit, We will meet again. The decade also brought sadness. Her grandson, Prince Harry, and his wife Meghan Markle withdrew completely from royal duties, causing deep hurt to the royal family. This hurt was compounded when the Sussexes accused the royal family, in an interview with Oprah Winfrey which was watched around the world, of treating them with cruelty, disdain and even racism. The shock of the interview was followed quickly by the death of Prince Philip, her husband of 73 years, a few months short of his 100th birthday. At his funeral, which was reduced in scale to meet the requirements of COVID regulations, the Queen cut an unusually lonely figure, small, masked and sitting alone. As her health declined in the months following his death, the deep impact of his loss became all too apparent. The pain of the Sussexes estrangement from the royal family was heavily compounded by the disgrace soon afterwards of Prince Andrew, her second and, it was often suggested, her favourite son. His close involvement with the convicted American paedophile, Jeffrey Epstein, led to the unedifying spectacle of a senior member of the royal family being accused in an American court of underage sex; he made his own position immeasurably worse by agreeing to a disastrous interview on the BBC current affairs programme Newsnight. The Queen responded to the scandal with remarkable decisiveness: she stripped her son of all his royal and military titles, including the cherished HRH, and reduced him, in effect, to the status of a private citizen. Even her closest family were not to be allowed to undermine all she had done to protect and preserve the monarchy. The remarkable success of her 2022 Platinum Jubilee was a sign of just how much she had retained the affections of her people; a particularly well-received highlight was a charming cameo performance showing her having tea with the childrens television character, Paddington Bear. Apart from in dreams, in which she was often popularly supposed to appear, the Queens most regular contact with her subjects was in her annual Christmas message on television and radio. This not only reflected her work and engagements over the previous year, but it reaffirmed, with greater frankness and clarity than many of her ministers seemed able to summon, her deeply held Christian faith. As head of the Church of England she was herself a Christian leader and she never forgot it. The Christmas message adapted over the years to new technology, but it was unchanging in style and content, reflecting the monarchy as she shaped it. Under Elizabeth II, the British monarchy survived by changing its outward appearance without changing its public role. Republican critics of monarchy had long given up demanding its immediate abolition and accepted that the Queens personal popularity rendered their aim impracticable while she was still alive. Elizabeth II, whose 70-year reign makes her the longest reigning monarch in British history, leaves her successor with a sort of British monarchical republic, in which the proportions of its ingredients of mystique, ceremony, populism and openness have been constantly changed in order to keep it essentially the same. It has long been acknowledged by political leaders and commentators all over the world that the Queen handled her often difficult and delicate constitutional role with grace and remarkable, even formidable, political skill. Her wisdom and unceasing sense of duty meant she was widely viewed with a combination of respect, esteem, awe and affection, which transcended nations, classes and generations. She was immensely proud of Britain and its people, yet in the end she belonged to the world, and the world will mourn her passing. Thanks to the prompt responses of over 570 members of the Naked Capitalism community, weve met our first hurdle, our essential budget for IT support and defenses, the second target, supporting the comments section, and the third, funding to continue our expanded Links section (and meetups if some semblance of the old normal returns) at a solid pace. As of 4 AM EST, weve already $4,050 towards our fourth target, $24,000 of funding for guest bloggers. Please give them a big round of monetary applause by going straight to the Tip Jar! Kind words in the comments section are also very much appreciated. As long-standing readers know, over the years, weve been improving the caliber of writers who contribute to Naked Capitalism. We like to send our mainstays, Lambert and Nick a significant honorarium out of the fundraiser and also pay a final bonus to Jerri, and give smaller awards to our promising writers who have just started: John McGregor, Conor Gallagher, and KLG. We work on the old Wall Street partnership model: a thin level of assured pay, and then bonuses that reflect, on the generous side, their and the sites performance that year. Theyve each stepped up in a very big way to shift their coverage, both the focus and the level of output, to match the stresses of the Covid outbreak. Where would you be without Lambert helping keep our collective sanity by putting on his yellow waders to analyze Bidens speeches and CDCs official obfuscations? Hes also continued to address the material aspects of the supply chain (railroad strikes, container shipping), is lodging the occasional artwork review (Spiral Jetty), along with political arcana (the filbuster), and topics further afield, like RussiaGate, Grenfell Tower, wood stoves, and personal risk assessment under Covid. Nick has greatly expanded our international coverage, for instance on how the war on cash and bank-related biometric ID strategies are moving ahead outside the US, as well as political/economic developments in Mexico and on banking stresses in Italy and emerging markets. John McGregor and Conor Gallagher are opening new beats on political economy and geopolitics in Turkey, Italy, Australia, India, and soon China. Readers are keen to get KLGs insider and technical view of dubious practices in medical and biosciences research. Wed also like to provide for a proper monetary thank you to Jerri-Lynn for her original reporting on the war on plastics and right to repair, her discussion of Indias use of its increasingly key geopolitical position, and her legal analysis of important decisions, such as glyphosate litigation. Even though we pay our contributors for helping fill this sites regular schedule at a good level, writing isnt a very well remunerated line of work. Our guest bloggers regularly turn out in-depth analysis quickly, but the fact that they can do so is a result of their considerable experience and expertise. Wed also like to send monetary thanks yous to Thomas Neuburger and other writers whose work we use. Readers continue to send us humbling notes. From Chris W: NC is urgently important for me, and, really, for Americanand worldcitizens who are concerned about our world. May your star long shine! And Thiele D: Many thanks to you, Lambert and the Naked Capitalism team for all the great work you do. I read and rely on the site every day And PlutoniumKun: NC is by a very long distance the best, most reliable guide to what is happening to the world. Ive thought this for years, but after being bombarded the last 6 months with a relentless barrage of naked lies and outright stupidity over Ukraine I feel this even more strongly now. So we hope youll acknowledge our writers skills and dedication with a big, generous thank you at the Tip Jar. UW School of Energy Resources, Wold Foundation Host Symposium on Wyomings Energy Future The University of Wyoming School of Energy Resources (SER) and the Wold Foundation will host a joint symposium Thursday, Sept. 15, that focuses on the states energy future. Wyomings Energy Future will be from 11 a.m.-6:30 p.m. in the UW Conference Center. A networking reception and student poster session are scheduled from 5-6:30 p.m. Examining different topics from an industry perspective as well as an academic perspective, the in-person forum features leading experts across the spectrum of energy development and various state stakeholders to collaborate and learn about what comes next for energy in Wyoming. Heavily invested in energy education at UW, the Wold Foundation established the John and Jane Wold Centennial Chair in Energy in 1990 as an opportunity for growing instruction in energy-related topics at the university. Peter Wold, the president and owner of Wold Oil Properties Inc. and a Board of Directors member for the Wold Foundation, says the conference is intended to carry on the legacy of energy education in Wyoming. Many years ago, I attended a UW Stroock Forum with Ambassador Tom Stroock focusing on energy and Wyoming, Wold says. My brother, Jack Wold, and sister, Priscilla Longfield, and I believe that the endowed Wold Energy Chair can help UW, students and all of Wyoming continue in the great footsteps of Ambassador Stroock to look for ways to focus on solutions for Wyomings energy future. Led in part by John Kaszuba, SER professor of geology and geophysics and the John and Jane Wold Centennial Chair in Energy, the conference is a tool to advance the chairs directive of energy-related research and teaching for the benefit of Wyoming. Earlier this year, I chaired energy-focused sessions for two days at a prominent international conference, Kaszuba says. None of the sessions at the conference, or previous conferences for that matter, possessed the depth or breadth of energy topics we have in store for the (upcoming) conference. I am delighted to be a part of this conference and truly look forward to the engagement from the UW community with leaders in the energy sector. Panels composed of industry leaders, academic experts and state administrators will explore coal, oil and gas, rare earth elements and nuclear energy development in Wyoming while tackling issues related to current policy, economic and social challenges. Gov. Mark Gordon will headline the event and provide the keynote address during the luncheon. In addition to fostering valuable dialogue about the important role that Wyoming will play in the future as it advances its all of the above energy strategy, a major focus of the event is to bring students into the fold. They will feature prominently in the conference, with select students showcasing their energy-related projects in a poster display and competition. Conference attendees will be able to learn about ongoing research throughout the event, and the top three posters will be selected for cash prizes from representatives of the Wold Foundation. It is very important to the Wold Foundation to involve the next generation of students, Wold says. Our family foundation supports education and, specifically, scientific education for Wyoming students. Our mom and dad would be very proud of the entrepreneurial spirit this conference brings toward focusing on Wyoming students and our future energy solutions. The conference has reached the maximum capacity for attendees -- registration is now closed. However, the days events and speakers will be recorded and made available on the SER website at a later date. For more information about the event, visit the conference website at www.uwyo.edu/ser/events/conferences/wyomings-energy-future/index.html. About the Wold Foundation Created in 1985 by John and Jane Wold and the Wold family, the Wold Foundation exists to assist, encourage and promote charitable, scientific, literary and educational endeavors. The foundation supports institutions and programs that promote traditional values and free enterprise and gives a preference to projects benefiting Wyoming citizens and the states youth. (Natural News) Americas infrastructure is falling apart, as evidenced by the water shortage in Mississippi and the power grid failure in California. Residents of Jackson, Mississippi waited in line to obtain water for drinking, bathing, cooking and flushing toilets on Aug. 31 after its water system failed due to the Pearl Rivers flooding. A news release from the city said the main water-treatment plant had challenges with water chemistry, leading to a dip in water output and a significant drop in water pressure. Prior to the water service disruption, the 150,000 residents of Jackson had been boiling their drinking water as officials warned it could lead to digestive issues. A day before, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said repairing the citys water system could run to quite possibly billions of dollars. He pointed to short staffing and decades of deferred maintenance as the culprits for the water systems deterioration. Jacksons predicament is similar to other cities, as it faces water system trouble it cant afford to repair. Its tax base has crumbled the last few decades as the population declined. The citys populace is now more than 80 percent Black, with about 25 percent of its people living in poverty. The state and federal government came to the rescue of Jackson, the Magnolia States capital. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves announced a state of emergency for Jacksons water system on Aug. 30, while President Joe Biden authorized an emergency declaration for the state on the same day. The following day, Biden called Lumumba to talk about response efforts involving the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers. The president also expressed intent to give Jacksons aging water infrastructure much-needed federal support. Meanwhile, Reeves said the state will try to aid Jackson by hiring contractors to work at the O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant. The facility, which was the root of Jacksons water miseries, had been operating at reduced capacity with backup pumps after the principal pumps failed. The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency later posted footage of an emergency rental pump being installed in the water treatment facility on Twitter. California power grid on the brink of collapse Meanwhile, the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) circulated a level 1 energy emergency alert quickly after tapping all its accessible power supplies. Californians, despite prior warnings to decrease usage, decided to charge their electric vehicles. This subsequently drove demand beyond capacity. (Related: Blackout risk in California: EV owners told to avoid charging their vehicles or the power grid might collapse.) It is pretty clear Mother Nature has outrun us. The reality is were living in an age of extremes extreme heat, extreme drought, California Gov. Gavin Newsom stated during a news conference. He also released an executive order on Aug. 31 to free up emergency power supplies. Officials urged residents to reduce power use between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. as temperatures rose beyond 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat presents the largest test to the grid since the summer of 2020, when rotating outages overwhelmed parts of the state. Follow WaterWars.news for more news about the water crisis in America. Watch the video below to know why Jackson, Mississippi blames the White Flight for water crisis. This video is from the InfoWars channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Ring the ALARM! Todays water crisis isnt a fire drill Its apocalyptic. Federal government forces water supply cuts for Arizona, New Mexico and Mexico to avoid collapse of Colorado River System. Flints lead-contaminated water caused deadly outbreak of respiratory disease that killed 12, says new report. India faces water crisis as major tributaries are almost dried up. Water crisis in Corpus Christi, TX: Unknown chemicals contaminate drinking water. Sources include: APNews.com Technocracy.news Brighteon.com (Natural News) One of the most ridiculous plandemic claims yet comes from Ashish Jha, Joe Bidens official coronavirus adviser, who says that the reason human beings have two arms instead of one is to accommodate both flu shots and Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccines. At a recent press briefing, Jha spoke on behalf of God and His alleged reasoning for building the human body the way He did watch the video below: I really believe this is why God gave us two arms: one for the flu shot and the other one for the covid shot, Jha stated with a straight face. (Related: Jha is the same guy who pushed for Fauci Flu shot vaccine passports to be forced on all Americans.) NOW Biden COVID advisor Ashish Jha believes God gave us two arms one for the flu shot and the other one for the COVID shot.pic.twitter.com/Wpcxyo1nfM Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) September 6, 2022 Fauci chimes in: Americans should get used to annual covid shots in addition to annual flu shots Jhas statements were supported by outgoing National Institute or Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) head Tony Fauci, who piped in that Fauci Flu shots will become an annual ritual and that Americans need to get used to that idea, and fast. It is becoming increasingly clear that looking forward with the Covid-19 pandemic, in the absence of a dramatically different variant, we likely are moving towards a path with a vaccination cadence similar to that of the annual influenza vaccine, with annual updated COVID-19 shots matched to the currently circulating strains for most of the population, Fauci muttered. That is just for the average person, by the way. Fauci went on to ramble see below that some people may need more than just one covid injection every year, depending on their preexisting health conditions. However, some particularly vulnerable groups may continue to need more frequent vaccination against Covid-19, Fauci said. NOW Outgoing Fauci claims annually updated mRNA injections are likely required for most of the population. pic.twitter.com/01WVyIxE9R Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) September 6, 2022 At least 30 percent of America continues to ignore Jha, Fauci, and the rest of these globalist goons. We are told, based on the findings of a recent The Economist / YouGov poll, that three in 10 Americans still have not taken any Chinese Virus injections and likely never will. Independents lead the pack at a 39 percent refusal rate, followed by 35 percent of Republicans who say they have not, and will not, roll up their sleeves. Only 14 percent of Democrats have refused to get shot for covid. For more than two years, government officials on both sides of the political aisle have been lying to Americans about the Fauci Flu and the alleged need to get jabbed for it. Some people are still falling for these lies, but an increasing number of people are waking up to the truth. Its a good thing God gave us a mouth, too, because Ill use it to tell Jha and Fauci to go f*** themselves, wrote a commenter at Breitbart News. Ive got two middle fingers, responded another. One for the vax and one for the booster. Clearly, God gave Ashish no brains, joked another. I wonder if Jha also believes that God gave men a penis so they could chop it off, put on a dress, and call themselves women? wrote another crudely but accurately. When God gave out brains, Jha thought God said trains, so he asked for a slow one, joked another. As more news comes to light about the globalist agenda of the Biden regime, we will keep you informed about it at Tyranny.news. Sources for this article include: Breitbart.com NaturalNews.com The Unprecedentedly Dangerous Divider-In-Chief (Natural News) US President Joe Bidens nationally televised speech on Thursday that the official White House website headlined as being about the continued battle for the soul of the nation saw the incumbent become the most dangerous and divisive American leader in history. Far from trying to cleanse and protect that very same soul, he shamelessly spit on it by pitting his people against one another as part of an obvious divide-and-rule plot ahead of the neck-and-neck midterm elections that are only two months away. (Article by Andrew Korybko republished from GlobalResearch.ca) Debunking Bidens False Belief In Equality & Democracy The first part that stands out is Biden emphasizing how the location of his speech, Philadelphias Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence was made and the Constitution signed, reinforces the mutually complementary concepts of equality and democracy connected with those two documents. He doesnt truly believe in either of those though as proven by White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre condemning all minority views as extremist earlier that same day. Nevertheless, he pretended that hes a true believer in them in order to artificially manufacture the basis upon which to contrast himself with former US President Donald Trump. Biden claimed that his predecessor and those who still support his Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement supposedly represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic. Falsely framing them as existential threats so close to the midterms is obviously aimed at manipulating voters perceptions. Applying The Rules For Radicals Against The MAGA Movement This crude tactic would be condemned by the American Government if it was employed by any Global South leader irrespective of whether its baseless like in Bidens case or genuinely backed up by facts. Biden then channeled the infamous Saul Alinksys Rules For Radicals, specifically the thirteenth rule to Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it, when claiming that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven, and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans. By adding that that is a threat to this country, the incumbent ominously implied that the full authority of the state will be brought down to bear on those who are even simply suspected of being remotely connected to the former president or his movement on faux national security pretexts. He then instantly reverted to gaslighting once again just like he earlier did by unconvincingly claiming that he supports the Founding Fathers vision of equality and democracy by contrasting Democrats and MAGA on false bases. Who Really Employs Political Violence & Election Conspiracy Theories? The same man who represents the party that frenziedly fanned the flames of the joint Antifa- and BLM-led Hybrid War of Terror on America all throughout summer 2020, whose countless antagonists were manipulated into functioning as useful idiots of the anti-MAGA faction of the US deep state (permanent military, intelligence, and diplomatic bureaucracies), counterfactually claimed that its Trump and his supporters who divided the country through the use of violence for political ends. Biden also insulted Americans intelligence by gaslighting that its only some MAGA folks whove ever rejected the outcome of a presidential election when most Democrats refused to recognize the legitimacy of Trumps victory in 2016. Not only that, but their anti-MAGA deep state puppeteers literally concocted the Russiagate conspiracy theory that they laundered through allied congressional representatives, law enforcement, media, and NGOs to discredit the entirety of his four years in office. The Democrats Path To A Dystopian Post-Modern Dictatorship The carnage and darkness and despair that the incumbent claimed that MAGA folks see when they look at America was actually the Democrats rallying cry during all of Trumps term and especially ahead of the 2020 elections. When Biden said that They spread fear and lies lies told for profit and power, this objectively described the Democrats as was earlier explained with respect to the Russiagate conspiracy theory as well as their false fearmongering about Trump being a dictator worse than Hitler. On the topic of dictatorship, the author predicted shortly after 2020s disputed election that Bidens America Would Be A Dystopian Hellhole, which continues progressively unfolding exactly as foreseen. Every Democrat Is A Wannabe Dictator, so it naturally follows that the partys latest figurehead would play to this fantasy by falsely describing his political opponents as supposed threats in order to create the publicly plausible pretext for imposing a Pakistani-like post-modern dictatorship. His infamous speech perniciously manipulated the concept of pre-bunking in order to mislead Americans into falsely considering approximately half of the country to be an existential threat to the soul of the nation. By dividing and ruling them in such a stereotypically Machiavellian way, Biden (or rather those members of the deep state that are behind him and wrote his speech) is deliberately trying to radicalize the minority of at-risk MAGA folks to engage in highly publicized political violence. The MAGA Mentality Objectively speaking, theyve always been on the strategic defensive even before Trumps election since the whole reason why they voted for him in the first place was their hope that hed reverse or at least slow down the Democrat-driven trend of comprehensively dismantling everything that America stood for. Upon the 45th President entering office, they then found themselves viciously targeted by their opponents, who ultimately waged a nationwide spree of urban terrorism against them in summer 2020. After their heros scandalous departure from the White House and his replacement with the deep state-backed Democrats placeholder, those who sympathize with MAGA or are at the very least perceived as being associated with it are now at risk of being actively oppressed by the state. Bidens hate-filled speech will only exacerbate these fears, which could very easily radicalize the absolute minority of those folks with preexisting mental illnesses and thus push them to political violence. The Worst-Case Scenario No sincerely law-abiding and patriotic American would ever harm their compatriots no matter how fierce their political disputes may get, yet its impossible to ever perfectly defend against lone wolves, including those that have previously been on the secret polices (FBI) radar. In the worst-case scenario that one or some of them end up doing something terrible, God forbid, then theres no doubt that the incident (which might even manifest as a terrorist attack) would be exploited by the ruling party. Bidens backers would certainly take advantage of it to accelerate Americas descent into a dystopian post-modern dictatorship, but for their plans to enjoy the greatest probability of success, they must first effectively divide and rule the population through gaslighting tactics exactly as the incumbent just did. The next step is to precondition them into expecting political violence by the side thats misportrayed as an existential threat thats supposedly predisposed to terrorism, which Biden also just achieved. Upon the worst-case scenario transpiring, God forbid, so-called cancel culture can then immediately be weaponized to its most vicious political extreme by carrying out a nationwide crackdown against everyone even remotely suspected of being associated with MAGA. These devious plans arent anything that a sincere believer in the continued battle for the soul of the nation would plot, but thats why nobody should fall for Bidens, his backers, and their useful idiots false claims that theyre patriots. Unity & Division From top-down and bottom-up, the Democrats are united like never before when it comes to carrying out this nationwide crackdown, even though their agreement with one another in this respect is thus far only tacit and not explicit. Be that as it is, so too can it be said that MAGA is unprecedentedly united in bracing for this dystopian post-modern dictatorship scenario, though its only the former that have the power to be legitimate agents of change due to their monopoly over the states use of violence. To be absolutely clear so that theres no false perception of ambiguity whatsoever at all, the author is not in any way implying that MAGA should illegitimately employ violence (i.e. anything that isnt the legally enshrined right to self-defense) against anyone, whether their political opponents or the state. The movement that coalesced around Trump but organically arose long before his political rise must absolutely remain committed to peaceful and political means for regaining power through the ballot. Having clarified that crucial point of principle that should always be at the forefront of every MAGA-aligned persons mind, political practice sometimes differs from political theory, so it cant be taken for granted that at least one of those folks whove objectively been on the strategic defensive for years as was earlier explained wont be triggered into committing political violence by Bidens speech. However it might unfold, God forbid, that worst-case scenario would set drastic events into motion. Reflecting On Bidens Hateful Remarks Those who have the time to reread the incumbents hateful remarks in full will more be able to more clearly discern the ulterior motives that are very strongly implied by his provocative words. He was tasked with repeating high-sounding rhetoric in order to gaslight people into not suspecting the Democrats of preparing for the sequence of events that would follow his deliberate attempt at radicalizing already the ultra-fringe minority of already psychologically disturbed MAGA folks. Maliciously smearing approximately half of the country as existential terrorist-inclined threats to the soul of the nation is nothing but the crudest Machiavellian means of dividing and ruling the population. For as dark as the future might appear after Bidens unprecedentedly divisive information warfare provocation against the American people, the worst-case scenario isnt inevitable since nothing about the presently chaotic trajectory of the situation is deterministic. Pulling America Back From The Brink of Civil War While it arguably does indeed appear as though an undeclared civil war might soon be fought between the deep state-backed Democrats led on the streets by a coalition of Antifa, BLM, and ideologically aligned law enforcement on one side against MAGA-affiliated Americans on the other (or is already being waged according to some), that scenario could also still be averted. Responsible influencers from both sides should immediately make it known that they disavow any and all violence. Those within their ranks who disagree with their peaceful methods of resolving political disputes must be disowned so that any rogue violence that they might God forbid commit isnt credibly associated with either sides cause. Law enforcement members should also remember their duty to impartially uphold the law and not allow themselves to be manipulated by anyone for political ends, while lawmakers mustnt ever forget their sacred obligation to protect the people who theyre responsible for. The Role Of Responsible Political Leaders & Law Enforcement Members The Hybrid War of Terror on America could have easily been nipped in the bud had mayors/governors ordered local police/ National Guard to do so, but they purposely declined as part of their political plot to influence peoples perceptions ahead of the 2020 elections so that theyd vote against Trump. In the event of forthcoming large-scale unrest, whether driven by deep state-backed Democrat useful idiots or rogue MAGA folks, these same leaders must decisively act unlike before. Likewise, law enforcement should prepare themselves to publicly disagree with those abovementioned leaders if their superiors once again decline to deploy them to protect the populace. The principled among them should also consider refusing to illegally restrict law-abiding citizens Second Amendment rights if theyre ordered to do so since thats one of the scenarios that could be employed by the Democrats in response to the earlier speculative worst-case scenario or possibly even to provoke it. Concluding Thoughts America is dangerously on the verge of descending into a fast-moving and full-on dystopian post-modern dictatorship, pushed over the precipice by none other than its incumbent president and those shadowy deep state forces that are behind him. That disastrous outcome can still be averted, as well as the worst-case scenarios that would likely make this trajectory irreversible, but itll require Americans of all political views coming together to peacefully defeat those who want to divide and rule them. Read more at: GlobalResearch.ca (Natural News) Chinas mental hospitals have become places for the CCP to suppress dissidents, especially Falun Gong practitioners. (Article by Ann Zhang republished from TheEpochTimes.com) Safeguard Defenders, an NGO that has long been concerned with human rights issues in China, released an investigative report on Aug. 16, detailing how Chinese authorities have forcibly detained dissidents under the pretext of mental illness for several years. The report notes that Chinas mental hospitals have become a terrifying way for the CCP to make its critics disappear. Without any medical certificate, critics of the regime are kidnapped by Chinese police and taken to mental hospitals, where they are held for months to years. It also said that the compiled cases are only the tip of the iceberg; sending political prisoners to mental hospitals is a common phenomenon in China. The report collected the cases of 99 victims. Nine of the victims were detained in a mental hospital for more than 10 years, and two were sent five times to a mental hospital for torture. Most of these victims are petitioners who go to the National Public Complaints and Proposals Administration. They are stopped on their way and taken to jails or mental hospitals. Other victims are human rights activists, dissidents, and street protesters. The main reason for putting these people in mental hospitals is to silence them so that they cannot petition, protest, or access the media. Another reason is to make critics fearful through this inhuman horror experience so they dare not continue to speak up even after being released. And thirdly, being labeled mentally ill discredits these critics and excludes them from normal society. In the mental hospital, critics were barred from contact with their families and endured a variety of painful ordeals, including being electro-shocked, beaten, tied to beds for hours or days, and forced to take injections or oral psychotropic drugs that eventually leave lasting mental trauma and even dementia, with symptoms such as night terrors, tremors, and suicidal thoughts. The report said there are three types of psychiatric hospitals in China that are controlled by different governing bodies, but all are involved in widespread, politically motivated abuse of psychiatric care. Among them, the most commonly used to detain critics is the Ankang Hospital affiliated with the CCPs public security branch. For example, the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau Compulsory Treatment Management Office is one of them. Falun Gong Practitioners According to an investigation by an international human rights organization, similar criminal methods of psychotropic drug abuse have also been widely used to persecute Falun Gong practitioners in China. Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, was introduced to the public on May 13, 1992, by its founder Li Hongzhi. The teachings of Falun Gong are based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. Its five sets of meditation exercises spread rapidly throughout China by word of mouth, as people experienced miracles of health and moral improvement. On July 20, 1999, Chinese Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin launched a campaign of persecution and extensive propaganda against Falun Gong and its tens of millions of adherents due to the popularity of the practice that was not under the control of the state. Since then, millions of Falun Gong practitioners in China have been detained, sent to brainwashing classes, sentenced to prison and reeducation through labor, and tortured for not denouncing Falun Gong. The World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) issued an Investigation Report on the Mental Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioners in April 2004. According to the report, a large number of Falun Gong practitioners were tortured by the use of psychotropic drugs. Between July 1999 and April 2004, at least 1,000 Falun Gong practitioners were kidnapped and detained in mental hospitals, drug rehabilitation centers, and other institutions, and were forcibly injected with or force-fed various drugs that damage the central nervous system. Some were electro-shocked. Some were bound for a long time, force-fed, etc. As a result, some Falun Gong practitioners became blind and deaf; some suffered from long-term skin ulcers and even serious damage to their organs. Among them, at least 15 Falun Gong practitioners died due to the administration of psychotropic drugs. The WOIPFG conducted a survey of more than 100 psychiatric hospitals in 15 provinces in China. The study showed that 83 percent of surveyed hospitals said they had admitted Falun Gong practitioners in the past five years. More than half of the hospitals explicitly stated that the so-called admitted Falun Gong practitioners were not mentally ill at all, but the authorities had sent them to mental hospitals to torture them in order to force them to give up their beliefs. During the investigation, a staff member of Liaoning Fourth Hospitals Second Department of Psychiatry stated that the hospital would use more than ten kinds of persecution methods, including the use of psychiatric drugs, on Falun Gong practitioners who do not give up their practice. A staff member of a hospital in Shandong Province said that many of the Falun Gong practitioners sent to the mental hospital department were college students, graduate students, and engineers. If these Falun Gong practitioners did not give up their practice, they were forced to take drugs and were tied up. Medical Torture According to the report, the mental hospital medical staff used force-feeding, drug injection, electric shocks, and frequently used various psychoactive drugs such as Chlorpromazine to torture Falun Gong practitioners physically and mentally. These drugs cause serious harm and sequelae, including memory loss, severe headaches, stupor, physical weakness, and even severe neurological dysfunction and systemic complications that can lead to death. Tan Guihua, a Falun Gong practitioner from Shandong Province, testified that while she was petitioning in Beijing in September 1999, she was forcibly kidnapped by 610 personnel who specialize in persecuting Falun Gong and taken to the Jiaozhou City Mental Hospital. There, eight male nurses forcibly injected her with unknown drugs using large needles. As soon as the medicine entered her body, she felt her heart beating very fast, her sight darken, a splitting headache, and excruciating pain overall. Two months later, she was still trembling, unable to hold dishes and chopsticks, and suffered from heart pain, headache, blurred vision, and memory loss. Falun Gong practitioner Ye Hongfang from Heyuan City, Guangdong Province testified on Nov. 26, 2000. She said that during her detention, she was forced to take injections and take medicine every day, and if she refused, she was tortured with electric batons. After taking the medicine once, Ye said she had cramps all over her body, numbness in her limbs, and blurred vision. After more than three months of continuous torture, she felt close to a mental breakdown. Another Falun Gong practitioner from the Dalian Port Authority of Liaoning testified on March 3, 2004 saying he/she was forced to take medicine during the detention. Not long after he/she was released and returned home, his/her eyes began to fester, and the inside and outside of his ears, scalp, neck, etc. began to fester, oozing a yellow discharge. It was itchy and excruciatingly painful, and the condition lasted for two years. Several Falun Gong practitioners from Suining County, Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province testified on June 8, 2001. They had been detained in the Xuzhou Mental Hospital for more than three months, during which time they were tied to their beds and injected with unknown drugs. The victims would immediately faint, and there was intense pain in the heart that lasted for several days. One practitioner suffered from cramping and was unable to stand or walk. Another practitioner banged his head against the wall because of the pain. Several suffered from different degrees of reactions to the drugs for nearly 50 days before they gradually faded away. The report said that because of the tight censorship and the suppression of informants, much of the inhuman torture and persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China has been covered up. Liu Yinquan, a former history professor of Shandong Weifang University and a well-known pro-democracy activist living in the United States, told The Epoch Times in July that the CCPs slander and persecution of Falun Gong practitioners are unconscionable. The CCP fears the principles of truthfulness, compassion, forbearance; and its frantic persecution of people who believe in those principles shows that the CCP is an evil regime, Liu said. Read more at: TheEpochTimes.com (Natural News) Renowned epidemiologist and cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough told InfoWars founder Alex Jones that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave the emergency use authorization (EUA) on the bivalent formulations of Moderna and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines. According to an FDA press release, the bivalent vaccines, also referred to as updated boosters, contain two messenger RNA (mRNA) components of the SARS-CoV-2 virus one of the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 and the other one commonly found in the BA.4 and BA.5 lineages of the omicron variant. McCullough, who is an advocate of early interventions against the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19), demanded an explanation from the FDA on why the said boosters were given a go despite holding no sufficient human trials. (Related: FDA approves Omicron booster jab before midterms without a single human test.) They relied only on the manufacturers, which gave animal data, showing an antibody rise in a mouse model of antibodies against a common segment of the BA.4 and BA.5 spike protein, he said. He also revealed the investigational new drug application for Pfizer was just filed on August 22 and had no review. They dont want the trials because they know the previous shots are killing people. And their conclusion in a peer-reviewed paper is even from the original trials. The vaccines did more harm than good in the original randomized trials. We know under court order, Pfizer had to release its dossier. The lawyer for the FDA tried to block this from Americans for 55 years. He added that Pfizer knew about 1,223 deaths within 90 days release of its vaccine. This is prima facie evidence that the FDA is involved in a safety cover-up for Pfizer and Moderna documents. Ben Armstrong agreed with McCullough after playing the InfoWars clip during the Ben Armstrong Show. He said: If anyone tells you that you can get a vaccine put into your blood system shot in your arm and it will protect you from any airborne virus, they are lying or they dont know what theyre talking about. Meanwhile, the FDA said in a statement that decision to issue the EUA is based on the totality of available evidence. Experts told Healthline: Given the evidence and the fact that the BA.4/5 bivalent boosters are so similar to the BA.1 boosters, theres no question that the newly authorized bivalent vaccines are safe. But critics are saying that it may take some time before the immune boost of the updated vaccines against the currently circulating omicron variants will be determined. Until then, the public has no idea how truly safe and effective these new shots are. Deaths caused by COVID-19 vaccines are underreported In the InfoWars interview, McCullough also disclosed that adverse events following the COVID-19 vaccines are grossly underreported on the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). When someone dies or is hospitalized, unless somebody gets the vaccine card and gets a healthcare provider to make the entries into VAERS, it doesnt get reported. So large numbers of deaths after vaccines heart attacks, myocarditis, hospitalizations are thought to be not reported, the renowned doctor said. In prior studies from Harvard University, the underreporting factor was roughly 100 to one. Armstrong added that the underreporting could also be caused by deaths that take place a week or longer after taking the vaccines because health authorities would not trace it back to the shots when the death is not immediately after the jabs. What theyre not reporting are the ones that happen seven days later. If you die a month later, theyre hardly ever going to report thats linked to the vaccine. So youre gonna get skewed data here, the host said. He added that there are still people out there that have a myocarditis condition, some of them dont even know it. The vaccine gave it to them, and theyre going to die at some point. Armstrong concluded: So, if youre using VAERS data, yeah, the only deaths of the vaccine that are being reported are the ones that are undeniable and happen immediately. Visit VaccineInjuryNews.com for more updates related to injuries caused by the experimental COVID-19 vaccines. Watch the full segment of the Ben Armstrong Show below. This video is from the New American channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Dr. Peter McCullough: COVID-19 should be fought with early intervention, not vaccines. Reformulated Bivalent Spikevax covid injection from Moderna is made by company with ties to US intelligence agencies. Dr. Peter McCullough discusses omicron variant with Ann Vandersteel Brighteon.TV. Dr. Peter McCullough: Early treatment key to preventing COVID-19 deaths. Sources include: Brighteon.com FDA.gov HealthLine.com (Natural News) California Gov. Gavin Newsom asked ocean vessels to avoid plugging into shore power for several days, in a bid to bring down power demand that is currently straining the Golden States electric grid. Newsom extended his earlier emergency proclamation that sought to preserve power capacity that disallowed vessel operators from plugging into on-dock electric power station. Under the edict, vessels moored from September 3 to 9 are not required to use shore power As per current guidelines, 80 percent of container vessels, cruise ships and refrigerated vessels that dock at the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland are required to use shore power. Newsoms edict stated that arriving vessels can temporarily use auxiliary engines to power onboard systems such as lights, refrigerators, computers and pumps during loading and unloading. Vessels already at berth are allowed to disconnect from the grid during the heat emergency. Pacific Maritime Shipping Association Vice President and General Counsel Mike Jacob assured the compliance of member shipping companies. As good corporate citizens, we anticipate that many of our members vessels will participate as requested by Gov. Newsom, he wrote in an email. However, Jacob expressed worry that it would be impractical for cargo vessel operators to suspend activity just to bring in an extra shoreside power crew and unplug a vessel from the grid. Meanwhile, Newsom already urged different sectors in the economy, including the maritime industry, to reduce power use during the heat event as intense temperatures are expected to be 10 to 20 degrees warmer than normal, increasing demand for air conditioning and straining the electric grid. The duration of this heatwave is unlike those experienced in recent history, increasing the length of time the grid will face peak demand, Newsom said during his emergency measures announcement. Rolling blackouts in California loom as heatwaves strain the power grid Apart from the maritime industry, state officials are asking Californians to avoid straining the power grid as there is a great potential for rolling blackouts. (Related: ROLLING BLACKOUTS announced in California as power grid craters under record demand.) The California Independent System Operator (CAISO) is calling on Californians to conserve energy from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. by avoiding the use of large appliances and setting the thermostat to 78 degrees or higher if health permits. CAISO provides energy to about 80 percent of the state. We have now entered the most intense phase of this heatwave, Elliot Mainzer, CAISOs chief executive officer said, adding that forecasted demand for this week is at all-time record levels and the potential for rotating outages has increased significantly. He also said the grid may have energy deficits of 2,000 to 4,000 megawatts, which is as much as 10 percent of normal electricity demand. That could take as many as three million households offline. If blackouts ensue, they will mark the first time in two years that the lights have gone out for energy shortage reasons Newsoms emergency order last week enabled industrial businesses and others to resort to their backup generators that otherwise would be prohibited by air-pollution regulations. A lot of our participants can turn on their generators and take the load off the grid, said Siva Gunda, vice chairman of the California Energy Commission. California issued similar heat advisories for ports on four occasions in 2020 and 2021. Visit PowerGrid.news for more news related to Californias collapsing electric grid. Watch the below video that tackles Californias power grid collapse and backfiring green energy commitment. This video is from the NewsClips channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Electricity shortages are coming, warn power grid operators. Blackout risk in California: EV owners told to avoid charging their vehicles or the power grid might collapse. Drought could force California power plant to shut down at hottest time of the year. 12 Things you need to survive a power grid collapse. Sources include: FreightWaves.com Gov.CA.gov [PDF] PublicPower.org SacBee.com Brighteon.com (Natural News) If you were wondering why the video streaming platform Vimeo, a competitor of YouTube, is on a censorship spree just like all the others, look no further than its CEO Anjali Sud, a World Economic Forum (WEF)-trained globalist. Suds bio at the WEF explains that she is a designated Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum. This refers to the Young Global Leaders Community, an exclusive, elitist group of budding globalists with a mission to drive public-private cooperation in the global public interest. We are united by the belief that todays pressing problems present an opportunity to build a better future across sectors and boundaries, the Young Global Leaders website explains. Ivanka Trump, the daughter of Donald Trump, is also a Young Global Leaders graduate, demonstrating that the globalist agenda is a bipartisan affair. (Related: The World Economic Forum wants to force resisters into China-style reeducation camps for non-compliance.) Did Vimeo know about the covid plandemic before it happened? Interestingly, right before the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) plandemic began, Vimeo went on a censorship spree against any and all channels that discussed vaccine awareness issues meaning channels that talked about vaccine side effects and other similar issues. Vimeos stated position implies that all vaccines are safe and effective, and anyone questioning them is perpetuating false or misleading claims about a supposedly proven medical intervention. The fact that Vimeos anti-free speech policy for vaccine-related content came just months before the Trump administration declared a plandemic in the United States is highly suspicious, suggesting it knew the plandemic was coming before the general public was told about it. Right before the plandemic, Vimeo also tried to cover up a massive polio outbreak in the Philippines that was linked to polio vaccines. Along with the rest of Big Tech, Vimeo actively censored and removed videos and channels that even just speculated about how mass vaccination campaigns in the Philippines could have contributed to that outbreak. When Project Veritas released evidence showing that Democrats had schemed to try to steal the 2016 election from Donald Trump, Vimeo was right there and ready to silence that content, too. Every step of the way, in other words, Vimeo has marched in lockstep with the globalist agenda. And this is no surprise, as Sud is a tried-and-true globalist who was trained by the WEF to operate in such a manner on behalf of the globalist agenda. When all means of communication are politicized and truth is censored, we are effectively silenced just the way the totalitarian tyrants want us as they steal our future, and our lives, and bind us in chains to serve their degenerate lust for control and put OUR wealth into THEIR pockets, wrote a Natural News reader. Censorship, taxes, and jail for us. Everything for them. History does repeat itself. But this time, it will be worse, much worse. Vimeo is a scum bag company that sells you videos, and then makes it nearly impossible to find and use them, wrote another. They even end up on different sites and their customer service basically tells you to go pound salt a horrible company all around. Someone else chimed in that all of this escalated under Trump, who apart from using words, never actually took action against the Big Tech cabal during his White House tenure. Real physical harm to our children is the result of this fascist tyranny that favors Big Pharma profits and agendas over the health and welfare of The People, this person added. More of the latest news about the globalist assault on humanity can be found at Globalism.news. Sources for this article include: WEForum.org YoungGlobalLeaders.org WinePressNews.com NaturalNews.com NaturalNews.com NaturalNews.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) The World Economic Forums (WEF) Great Reset includes plans to marginalize national governments, according to Dr. Peter Breggin. Breggin and his guest Jeffrey Tucker, founder and president of the Brownstone Institute, discussed the efforts of globalists such as WEF Executive Director Klaus Schwab and Microsoft founder Bill Gates on the Aug. 31 episode of ReFounding America on Brighteon.TV. They pointed out that the globalists seek to establish a New World Order. Political scientist Ivan Wecke acknowledged the conspiracy theories surrounding the WEF in an article. He pointed out that Schwab and other elites are attempting a corporate takeover of global governance through the Great Reset. It was first conceptualized by the WEF as the Global Redesign Initiative after the 2008 economic crisis. According to the political scientist, the Great Reset aims to put in place a communist world order by abolishing private property. The Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) would also be utilized to address the overpopulation problem, he added. (Related: The goal of the elite with all their climate hysteria is to wipe out the food supply and depopulate the planet.) Wecke noted that Schwab had been hammering on for decades about stakeholder capitalism, the idea that global capitalism should be transformed so that corporations no longer focus on serving shareholders, but be custodians of society. The WEF carries out this stakeholder capitalism through a range of multi-stakeholder partnerships that bring together the private sector, governments and civil societies across all areas of global governance. While the idea of stakeholder capitalism and multi-stakeholder partnerships might sound warm and fuzzy, it is not. Wecke said this means giving corporations more power over society while whole democratic institutions get less. In this model of global governance, corporations are promoted to being the official stakeholders in global decision-making, while governments are relegated to being one of many in practice, this means governments take a backseat role. Biden merely a pawn by the elites in their plan to destroy America Breggin did not mince words with his criticism of President Joe Biden. Our current president is a criminal whos been heavily invested in with his family and bringing his son with him, he told Tucker. Given this, Biden and his administration merely serve as pawns in the elites attempt to demolish the United States. Theres one agreement that the progressive party in America and the globalists [have] 100 percent agreed upon: it is that democracy sucks, said the Brighteon.TV host. People in charge of themselves are terrible, and we must have a top-down pyramid control over society whether you call it fascism, capitalism, communism or whatever else. Under stakeholder capitalism espoused by the WEF, government leaders such as Biden would be just mere stakeholders in the global governance model. Other stakeholders, such as the WEF itself and private companies, would have a bigger say compared to elected officials. Instead of reforming the multilateral system to deepen democracy, the WEFs vision of multi-stakeholder governance entails further removing democracy by sidelining governments and putting unelected stakeholders mainly corporations in their place when it comes to global decision-making, Wecke wrote. Visit GreatReset.news to learn more about the WEF and its plans to create a New World Order. Watch the full Aug. 31 episode of ReFounding America with Dr. Peter Breggin and Jeffrey Tucker below. ReFounding America with Dr. Peter Breggin airs every Wednesday at 6-7 p.m. on Brighteon.TV. More related stories: World Economic Forum and Soros rally behind Ukraine: Delete connection to Putin (Video). Bill Gates, WHO, World Economic Forum are part of a criminal network of COVID conspirators. World Economic Forum simulates global cyberattack that could bring about Great Reset. NY Times says Great Reset is a conspiracy theory on same day World Economic Forum celebrates it. World Economic Forum wants everyone who resists Great Reset to be forced into China-style reeducation camps. Sources include: Brighteon.com OpenDemocracy.net Free cruise for 'frontline heroes': This ship will offer free sailings to the Grand Bahamas (Natural News) A woman sued e-commerce giant Amazon over its $10,000 stipend for startup delivery businesses that Whites and Asian Americans are ineligible to apply for. Texas resident Crystal Bolduc filed the lawsuit against the Jeff Bezos-helmed company on July 20. Her complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas accused Amazon and its Diversity Grant program of patently unlawful racial discrimination. According to Bolduc, Amazon discriminated against Whites and Asians in favor of Black, Hispanic and Native American entrepreneurs. This means that businesses owned by Blacks, Latinos, or Native Americans receive a $10,000 stipend from Amazon to become delivery partners. [Meanwhile], Whites and Asian Americans who wish to become delivery service partners receive no such stipend and must foot the entire bill for their startup costs, the lawsuit stated. It argued that the $10,000 stipends violate the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which prohibits racial discrimination in contracting. Bolduc, through the lawsuit, asked the federal court to make Amazon stop the program and award damages to everyone who has suffered unlawful racial discrimination on account of it. According to Law Enforcement Today, Amazon started contracting with local delivery service partners (DSPs) a couple of years ago. These DSPs deliver Amazon packages from the companys warehouses to customers homes. In a bid to help reduce the barriers to entry for Black, Latinx and Native American entrepreneurs, Amazon created the Diversity Grant a $1 million commitment toward funding startup costs that offered $10,000 for each qualified candidate to build their own businesses in the United States. The Diversity Grant is not the only Amazon program that openly discriminates against certain races. Its Black Business Accelerator (BBA) program for sellers provides $500 credit to assist with start-up and operational costs, alongside up to $3,000 in advertising credits. The BBA, however, defined a Black-owned business as one that is at least 51 percent Black-owned, managed and controlled. Makeup giant Sephora also sued for racism under the guise of diversity and inclusion Earlier, California resident Courtney Flynn sued makeup company Sephora for discrimination on March 18. The complaint came after her application for the companys bootcamp for small businesses was rejected on the grounds that she was White. She had joined the bootcamps 2019 edition, but was rejected the following year, even though Sephora itself urged her to join. I saw a post on [Sephoras] social media that essentially announced [that] the class participating in this [2020] training program [would be] 100 percent exclusively people of color. They were no longer accepting White people, Flynn told Ohio attorney Tom Renz on his Brighteon.TV program Lawfare with Tom Renz. They are very clear that they only chose people of color, and they try to go on and justify it. My favorite is that they call it inclusive and diverse, which is [actually] the opposite. (Related: Lawfare with Tom Renz: Courtney Flynn says woke makeup giant Sephora pushing RACISM under the guise of diversity and inclusion Brighteon.TV.) Flynn lamented how Sephora never evaluated her application solely due to the basis of her race. She only received a generic declined email and that Sephora did not reach out to her since then. This prompted her to proceed with her lawsuit, which she filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. According to the aggrieved plaintiff, Sephora was justifying its exclusion of Whites from its programs as trying to right a wrong. When I first discovered the reason why I wasnt accepted into the program, I really thought that there was no way I could do anything, she said. I kind of let that sit for a couple of months. [But] I just thought I cant let this happen. Watch the conversation between Ohio attorney Tom Renz and Courtney Flynn on Lawfare with Tom Renz below. This video is from the BrighteonTV channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Google bars Whites and Asians from receiving prestigious fellowship grants; prefers people with disabilities and Latinx. FIRE THE WHITES: Far-left Minneapolis teachers union pushes contract with stipulation that white teachers are laid off first. MEDICAL CULT: In order to graduate from medical school in America, you now have to conform to white privilege allegations. PHARMA RACE WARS: While Pfizer places all races at risk with their COVID vaccines, WHITES and ASIANS are NOT allowed to apply for Pfizers fellowship grant program. Sources include: LawEnforcementToday.com Logistics.Amazon.com Sell.Amazon.com Brighteon.com (Natural News) Ann Vandersteel and Ivan Raiklin discussed the plot against former President Donald Trump and former National Security Adviser Gen. Michael Flynn. Raiklin, a retired Army officer and lawyer turned U.S. senatorial candidate for Virginia, revealed that the friction surrounding Trump began when former Vice President Mike Pence was forced to join the real estate mogul. He also disclosed during the Aug. 31 episode of The Zelenko Report on Brighteon.TV that a cabal of players was trying to create leverage over Trump. This leverage, he told Vandersteel, sought to put Trump in a controlled box to promote the interests of the Republican Party and Democratic Party. Raiklin also rebuked the two political factions, calling them a duopoly of the two power structures in the American political system. Everything that has happened since then, up to the [Mar-a-Lago] raid and [its] cover up, those are the same actors. All they have been doing all the way is to be able to cover up for their initial spying on the campaign. Meaning, they need to cover up Crossfire Hurricane and Crossfire Razor. Vandersteel, the co-chair of the Zelenko Freedom Foundation, mentioned to Raiklin that the Deep State targeted Flynn through the Crossfire Razor investigation. The probe launched by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) unfortunately succeeded, causing the termination of the retired general. According to her, Flynn was set up and Pence oversaw everything to ensure that it was successfully executed. Raiklin agreed, pointing out that the Biden administration backed by former President Barack Obama wanted some sort of leverage over the national security adviser because he knows a lot of things. In retaliation, Flynn sued the FBI and its parent agency, the Department of Justice (DOJ), over the biased investigation for $50 million. He told Epoch TV host Roman Balmakov that he is not letting the people who attempted to smear him get away with their actions. (Related: FBI, DOJ sued for $50M by General Michael Flynn over Spygate probe) We are going after the people that lied to not only defame my family and I, but also damaged the reputation of this country; damaged the reputation of everything that we stand for on this planet; and also damaged the institutional reputations of the U.S. intelligence community, the DOJ [and] the entire system of our rule of law, Flynn said. Raiklin urges whistleblowers to come out and testify against the Deep State In response to Vandersteels question about the players who ensured Trump would not have a second term in 2020 being absolutely nervous, Raiklin answered in the affirmative. He added that U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, who heads the DOJ, had instructed all agency personnel to cease testifying before Congress and not to contact the legislative branch. Vandersteel said this development could mean no more whistleblowers will come forward despite the existence of the Whistleblower Protection Act. Raiklin agreed, pointing out that the plotters are trying to cause fear and concern because they are now going to face the consequences of their actions. He also cited the existence of a struggle within federal agencies. This struggle involved patriots and agents of the Deep State. According to the senatorial candidate, the current situation is the best chance for whistleblowers to come forward. He also called on FBI Special Agent Joseph Pientka III to emerge and divulge what he knows. Pientka played a key role in the Trump-Russia scandal, which eventually led to the former presidents exoneration by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The truth is going to come out and people are going to look at it and look back at you and say, You know what, you had your opportunity. You didnt do it at the right time. Its all about timing and now is the time. You have the chance to really save this country and get things back on track or youre going to be complicit, Raiklin said. Watch the Aug. 31 episode of The Zelenko Report below. The Zelenko Report with Ann Vandersteel and Kevin Jenkins airs from Monday to Friday at 1-2 p.m. on Brighteon.TV. More related stories: The Zelenko Report: Ann Vandersteel and Ivan Raiklin discuss J6 being an inside job Brighteon.TV. Detailed analysis shows clearly just how corrupt the FBI became in the age of Trump. Trump calls for new election to be held immediately after more indications surface that 2020 was stolen. Donald Trump: Remove rogue bureaucrats and root out the Deep State. Sources include: Brighteon.com 1 Brighteon.com 2 (Natural News) Some of the woke leftists who run the worlds corporate banks are now adopting politics that are as blatantly racist as they are unconstitutional. As reported by NBC News, Bank of America is now offering zero down payment, zero closing costs loans to first-time black and Hispanic homebuyers via a policy that, frankly, should have been challenged in court five minutes after it took effect. The option will first become available in certain neighborhoods in Charlotte, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles and Miami. The new mortgage, called the Community Affordable Loan Solution, aims to help eligible individuals and families obtain an affordable loan to purchase a home, the outlet reported, citing bank officials. No doubt to cover their rear ends, a bank official told the network that persons who apply dont have to be black or Hispanic. Homeownership strengthens our communities and can help individuals and families to build wealth over time, AJ Barkley, head of neighborhood and community lending for Bank of America, said in a release. Our Community Affordable Loan Solution will help make the dream of sustained homeownership attainable for more Black and Hispanic families, and it is part of our broader commitment to the communities that we serve. So clearly, while applicants dont have to be black or brown, the fact is, those consumers are obviously the priority and thats where the legal issues begin. NBC News noted further: The loans require no mortgage insurance the additional fee typically charged to buyers who put down less than 20% of the purchase price and no minimum credit score. Instead, eligibility will be based on factors like timely rent payments and on-time utility bill, phone and auto insurance payments. Prospective buyers must also complete a homebuyer certification course provided by Bank of America and federally approved housing counseling partners before they apply for the loan program, the bank said. The racial gap in homeownership rates in the U.S. remained substantial in 2020, the most recent year for which National Association of Realtors data are available. Homeownership among whites was at 72.1, percent, compared with 51.1 percent for Hispanics and 43.4 percent for blacks. The NAR said that the black homeownership rate in 2020 was lower than it was in 201o. But here are some things to consider. First, are there banks that are systematically discriminating against minorities (and that is a pejorative term, considering that in many parts of the country, whites are the minority)? If so, which ones? And if they are, why havent typical left-wing groups like the ACLU filed suit against them? Could there be other reasons cultural, perhaps that explain lower homeownership rates for non-whites? Maybe a higher percentage of whites have a natural tendency to want to own their homes versus renting them. There are likely a number of reasons to explain why there are differences in homeownership rates between ethnic groups that have nothing at all to do with racism. But to woke Bank of America, that can be the only explanation. So the solution, of course, is to discriminate against whites, which means Bank of America is using a discriminatory policy to end discrimination. During the pandemic, rising home prices and low housing supply have disproportionally impacted Black households more than any other race/ethnic group, the NAR said in a report. The report added that white households are 40 percent more likely now to be able to afford a home compared with black households. Heres another way of looking at this situation: Democrat-led lockdowns that dragged on for a year or more longer than they should have disproportionately impacted racial minorities. But dont expect the left-wing media (or the corporate bankers) to even go there. Our country is devolving into tribalism, and its the lefts fault. We cant continue to fracture ourselves this way, or we wont survive. Sources include: NBCNews.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) In 2018 President Donald Trump spoke before the United Nations General Assembly and specifically warned Germany about relying on Russia for their natural gas. At the time not only did the German delegation appear to laugh at Trump but much of the media joined in the mirth. Among those news organizations was CBS News which joined in the mockery with this September 25, 2018 article by Kylie Atwood: Why were UN diplomats laughing at Trump? (Article by P.J. Gladnick republished from NewsBusters.org) When President Trump took to the world stage at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Tuesday, he unintentionally drew laughter from diplomats in the room. In less than two years, my administration has accomplished almost more than any other administration in the history of our country, Mr. Trump said. A slow rumble of laughter spread throughout the chamber. Didnt expect that reaction, but thats OK, Mr. Trump said in response. Yes, it was very funny to those delegates and to CBS News but that laughter was followed up by yet more due to Trumps prophetic warning to Germany: Later, the president scolded Germany for relying on Russian fossil fuels. Germany will become totally dependent on Russian energy if it does not immediately change course, Mr. Trump said. Here in the Western Hemisphere, we are committed to maintaining our independence from the encroachment of expansionist foreign powers. Even as he took a swipe at them, German diplomats were seen laughing in the audience. And here is Atwoods concluding analysis: In the case of Germany and Russia, Mr. Trump was referring to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, an expansion to an already existing natural gas pipeline. The permits have been issued, however, and experts say it would be hard to see anything that could stop it at this point. And while Germany will have an increased reliance on Russia, natural gas makes up about 25 percent of Germanys energy consumption, so saying that the country will become totally dependent on Russia is a stretch. So how did that work out? Dependence doesnt need to be total to create a serious squeeze. Let us flash forward to a very different take on this by CBS News on September 2, 2022 in As Russia turns off the gas, can Germany and its EU neighbors stay warm this winter? Berlin Russia stopped delivering gas through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline (NS1) that supplies much of western Europe on Wednesday, claiming a two-day shutoff was necessary for maintenance work. On Friday, just hours before it was due to reopen, Russias state-owned company Gazprom said repairs now require it to suspend further operation. The move will pile pressure on the continents largest economy as it prepares for a winter of energy rationing that could squeeze households and German industry. So, while gas security may not be an immediate concern for the governments of Europe this winter, even if Russia keeps the tap turned off, many people and businesses will struggle to afford the fuel thats available. So whos laughing now? The German UN delegation? CBS News? Kylie Atwood? Oh, the latter moved to CNN where she is now a National Security Correspondent. Can we expect more belly laughs from her? Read more at: NewsBusters.org (Natural News) A couple attested to the power of chlorine dioxide, otherwise known as the universal antidote, after it cured the various illnesses doctors diagnosed them with. During the Sept. 2 episode of CLO2TV on Brighteon.TV, married couple Jacob and Alyssa shared to program hosts Bob Sisson and Marien Barrientos how chlorine dioxide solution (CDS) helped them recover from the health conditions they had been enduring almost all their lives. Alyssa recounted having popped joints, a lot of pain in the neck and migraines growing up. She experienced more health issues between 2012 and 2016 until doctors diagnosed her with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a genetic connective tissue disorder. Alyssa was also told to expect being on a feeding tube in the future. I got to the point where I was bed-bound and wasnt able to feed myself. I was completely dependent on every single thing. I lost my dignity, all my dreams were out the window and I went to probably hundreds of doctors, she said. Alyssa learned about CDS, also called the miracle mineral solution, in January. She took a minimal amount of three drops at first, and saw noticeable changes within the first week. Her bladder spasms disappeared and she was back to drinking three liters of water a day, compared to 12 liters prior. (Related: Marien Barrientos tells Kerri Rivera: Chlorine dioxide helps COVID patients heal and recover Brighteon.TV.) Aside from CDS, Alyssa also tried alternative remedies which worked to her benefit. She remarked that the solution works in flushing out toxins in the body. Liver flushes also worked to restore Alyssas strength without the need to undergo physical therapy. The couple also told Barrientos and Sisson, the latter also known as Bob The Plumber, that they both worked on the well-being of their inner selves. According to Alyssa, unconditional love and forgiveness enhanced her speedy healing process. Most of the illnesses are due to heavy metals in the environment According to TheUniversalAntidote.com, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration proclaimed CDS a universal antidote in 1987. It added that since that time, thousands have recovered from illness using this substance. Many physicians and scientists are saying it is powerfully effective for many applications. Jacob also suffered from health problems that CDS managed to treat. He had narcolepsy and gout and later had cataplexy and seizures. According to Jacob, his illnesses were not contagious and were due to environmental factors. Its just due to environmental factors. Ive always done physical labor jobs, was a plumber for many years. I never had any issues physically. And then I would just be walking down the hallway in the house and my ankle would just pop out of place, he said. The couple later realized that they used a lot of Lysol to disinfect the house due to the scare of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. This was at the beginning of 2020, we were using a lot of Lysol. We found out a year ago that he had high uranium levels in his blood. The lady we worked with said that shes tested Lysol before, it has high uranium in it. Since then, weve met other people with the same problem. They were using the Lysol and now they have seizures, Alyssa shared. Alyssa added that uranium was reacting with the electric and magnetic fields. We literally couldnt even have Wi-Fi in the house because it was gonna throw him into a seizure, she stated. They can now, thanks to CDS. Visit AlternativeMedicine.news for more articles related to the healing wonders of chlorine dioxide. Watch the full Sept. 2 episode of CLO2TV featuring Jacob & Alyssa below. Catch new episodes of the program every Friday at 11 a.m.-12 p.m. on Brighteon.TV. More related stories: Heres what you need to know about chlorine dioxide (ClO2), the universal antidote. Autism expert Kerri Rivera explains mechanism behind chlorine dioxide. Chlorine dioxide to treat COVID? YES, says Dr. Manuel Aparicio. Sources include: Brighteon.com TheUniversalAntidote.com (Natural News) The Democratic Party and its various members in positions of power throughout the United States continue to use the Jan. 6 false flag attack on the Capitol Building to seize more power and punish political opponents. The latest example took place last week in New Mexico when a state judge ordered a duly-elected Republican removed from office on the fabricated claim that he participated in an insurrection at the Capitol and is therefore disqualified from office under the U.S. Constitution. A New Mexico judge ordered Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin be removed from office, effective immediately, ruling that the attack on the Capitol was an insurrection and that Griffins participation in it disqualified him under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, said a statement from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a left-wing group. This decision marks the first time since 1869 that a court has disqualified a public official under Section 3, and the first time that any court has ruled the events of January 6, 2021 an insurrection, the organization continued in a press release. The press release noted further: Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, also known as the Disqualification Clause, bars any person from holding federal or state office who took an oathto support the Constitution of the United States as an officer of any State and then engaged in insurrection or rebellion or gave aid or comfort to insurrectionists. Griffin, as an Otero County Commissioner since January 2019, took an oath to support and uphold the Constitution and laws of the State of New Mexico, and the Constitution of the United States. This is a historic win for accountability for the January 6th insurrection and the efforts to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power in the United States. Protecting American democracy means ensuring those who violate their oaths to the Constitution are held responsible, said CREW President Noah Bookbinder. This decision makes clear that any current or former public officials who took an oath to defend the U.S. Constitution and then participated in the January 6th insurrection can and will be removed and barred from government service for their actions. Except theres just one problem: What took place at the Capitol was a staged riot, led by provocateurs loyal to the deep state not an insurrection as claimed by the left, who are the real tyrants and enemies of the Constitution. The Courts findings that Mr. Griffin engaged in repeated efforts to mobilize a mob and incite them to violence on January 6, 2021 amply support the Courts conclusion that he is unqualified under the Fourteenth Amendment to hold public office, said Daniel Small of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC., according to the CREW release. Only, inciting someone to violence isnt insurrection, because if thats true, then the actions taken by left-wing anarchists throughout 2020 following the George Floyd incident in Minneapolis qualify as insurrection, not riots. If Smalls description is true, then the Antifa militants who put a federal courthouse under siege for more than a month in Portland, Ore., during that chaotic summer of violence are insurrectionists because they were attempting to interfere with the functioning of a government entity. But of course, there are double standards at play here: The left has their own legal rules they get to play by, while the rest of us are subject to laws and rules as interpreted by the deep state. There is no question about what Griffin should do: Simply ignore this rogue courts ruling and order to remove him from office, daring the judge to do something about it. And in the meantime, anyone falsely accused of taking part in an insurrection on Jan. 6 should be hauling people into court as well for defamation, false imprisonment, and denial of their constitutional right of the presumption of innocence. Sources include: CitizensForEthics.org NaturalNews.com (Natural News) Russian President Vladimir Putin has finally acknowledged what only a few seasoned geopolitical observers have known for months now: He is using his countrys enormous fossil fuel reserves to extract diplomatic concessions from the European Union, most notably, to have crippling economic sanctions that have been imposed on his nation dropped. Two days after Russian officials announced they were shutting down the Nord Stream 1 pipeline due to a puny oil leak, Russian officials with Putins permission, of course admitted that the energy shutdown was intentional and came with a purpose. Over the weekend, Putins spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that the pipeline will remain closed until sanctions imposed on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine by the U.S., Canada, and the collective West are lifted. The problems pumping gas came about because of the sanctions western countries introduced against our country and several companies, Peskov said, as he was allegedly quoted by the state-run Interfax news agency. There are no other reasons that could have caused this pumping problem. Zero Hedge reported further: Peskovs comments were the most stark demand yet by the Kremlin that the EU roll back its sanctions in exchange for Russia resuming gas deliveries to the continent. It also confirms that Russia no longer needs to pretend it needs to export commodities to Europe after all it has more than enough demand in China and India and is willing to give Europe just enough rope to well, you know the rest. Russian state-owned oil giant Gazprom announced late last week that gas supplies through Nord Stream 1 would be halted due to a technical problem, which was blamed on the difficulties of repairing German-made turbines in Canada. But that was simply a straw man; the real deal is that Putin is tired of playing around and wants the sanctions lifted from his country sooner rather than later. And hes apparently willing to allow millions of Europeans to start freezing to death in several short weeks as winters chill begins to set in. Short of that, there is also a belief that Putins move is part of a gray zone warfare strategy to stoke unrest and instability on the European continent, which would also likely force the hands of EU leaders to drop the sanctions. In the interim, EU leaders have accused Putin of weaponizing energy exports, which of course it most certainly has. Thats the point, though; actions that dont cause Europeans any pain, economically or otherwise, are pointless diplomatic exercises that wont produce the desired result of reviving the Russian economy. Interestingly, Russia is still supplying natural gas to Europe via Soviet-era pipelines that run through Ukraine and one, South Stream, that transits Turkey. There is also no shortage of irony here: The head of the Ukrainian gas transit operator told reporters last week that technically, he could make up all of the lost NatGas from Nord Stream 1, which means that Europe will continue to pay Putin billions of dollars per month for gas that flows through Ukraine, which gives Putin hard currency to continue his invasionof Ukraine. The big question mark now, however, is how long European leaders will hold out. That will increasingly depend on how restive and unstable EU countries become. As NatGas and other fossil fuels become more scarce they will become more expensive and it will become harder for ordinary Europeans to heat their homes, power their economies, and fuel their businesses. And the harder that becomes the more unrest there will be. Matteo Salvini, the leader of Italys far-right League party, said this weekend the sanctions arent working and are actually harming Europeans more. Do we have to defend Ukraine? Yes, Salvini said. But I would not want the sanctions to harm those who impose them more than those who are hit by them. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, tone-deaf as ever, tweeted that the EU will prevail while urging Europeans to suck it up even more than they already have. The @EU_Commission proposal will aim to: Reduce electricity demand (peaks) Price cap on ?? pipeline gas Help vulnerable consumers & businesses with revenue from the energy sector Enable support to electricity producers facing liquidity challenges linked to volatility Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) September 5, 2022 Sources include: ZeroHedge.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) The truth about how billionaire George Soros effort to fund the campaigns of far-left district attorneys in Americas largest cities in order to destabilize them and society, in general, was recently revealed by one of the DAs he funded, and whose city is now rife with crime and homelessness. Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon, who recently survived yet another recall effort somehow, explained to an audience at the University of Southern Californias (USC) Gould School of Law how he helped Soros devise the plan and convinced him to finance it with funds essentially laundered through the far-left American Civil Liberties Union. And for the record, this isnt just something weve made up or suspect; Gascon described the process in his own words in video clips posted to social media by Red State managing editor Jennifer Van Laar. Did you know that LA County DA George Gascon is not only Soros-funded, but that he STARTED the Progressive Prosecutor Project w/Soros and convinced him to provide $50M in seed funding to the ACLU in 2014 to get it started? He spoke about it in 2020 at USC. Here are a few clips, she noted in a short Twitter thread. ? Did you know that LA County DA George Gascon is not only Soros-funded, but that he STARTED the Progressive Prosecutor Project w/Soros and convinced him to provide $50M in seed funding to the ACLU in 2014 to get it started? He spoke about it in 2020 at USC. Here are a few clips pic.twitter.com/idVyF0l34H Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) August 4, 2022 We started looking at a map of the US, trying to identify strategically, what are the urban centersone of the convos was, how do we go about creating a movement here? Which led to Open Societies Foundation, George Soros foundation, putting $50M in 2014 thru ACLU to begin it, Van Laar noted in another tweet with a video clip, quoting Gascon, who also said that other left-wing candidates for district attorney eventually began contacting him in an effort to get funding and training. We started looking at a map of the US, trying to identify strategically, what are the urban centersone of the convos was, how do we go about creating a movement here? Which led to Open Societies Foundation, George Soros foundation, putting $50M in 2014 thru ACLU to begin it pic.twitter.com/J6NyXg89cN Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) August 4, 2022 She then asked rhetorically why Gascon was not as radical when he was the district attorney for San Francisco. He essentially responded: You have to progressively a lot of things that are acceptable today, in 2011 would have gotten me there would have been a recall two years after I was in office, and I didnt want to get recalled because that doesnt get the work done. Translation: San Franciscans, who just voted to recall another Soros-funded far-left DA, Chesa Boudin, would have tossed his rear end out of office. Why wasnt he as radical as SF DA? You have to progressively a lot of things that are acceptable today, in 2011 would have gotten me there would have been a recall two years after I was in office, and I didnt want to get recalled because that doesnt get the work done. pic.twitter.com/Fyif6Bd5Md Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) August 4, 2022 Van Laar added in another tweet: The way the ACLUs press release about the $50 million was worded, it wasnt apparent thats what this was for but Gascon admitted it. By partnering w/ACLU they could use ACLUs existing ground game network. The way the ACLUs press release about the $50 million was worded, it wasnt apparent thats what this was for but Gascon admitted it. By partnering w/ACLU they could use ACLUs existing groundgame network. https://t.co/mCEFwHRyzQ Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) August 4, 2022 I wrote about this in December 2020, but it needs to be seen again. Dont let these people fool us https://t.co/saBjszbA6m Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) August 4, 2022 These people are diabolical. They are nothing more than counter-revolutionary subversives who, under normal circumstances, would have been arrested and jailed for working to undermine our society and constitutional system. They should be in jail, not in positions of power lecturing potential lawyers. Sources include: ThreadReaderApp.com CharlieKirk.com (Natural News) For the first time ever, Switzerland is imposing nationwide restrictions on energy use amid the crisis in Ukraine. Violators, we are told, face fines and even prison time, depending on the type of offense. In late August, Swiss authorities announced that due to Western sanctions against Russia that prompted the latter to shut off the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, the Swiss people will not be allowed to heat their homes past 19 degrees Celsius, or 66.2 degrees Fahrenheit. Swiss economic department spokesman Markus Sporndli told the Blick newspaper this week that gas supplies are dwindling, which means restrictions are necessary to avoid a total energy loss come winter. Violations of the countrys law on supplies always constitute offenses or even crimes and should be prosecuted by cantons by default, Sporndli is quoted as saying, explaining that intentional violators of the new rule face up to three years of prison time. This writer is no expert on the subject, but it would seem as though heating a prison might be more energy intensive than heating a single-family home or flat especially if prison space has to be expanded to accommodate all the new offenders who will be ripped out of their homes and sent to the climate gulag. If a Swiss person accidentally overheats his or her home, then prison time will be exchanged for a simple fine because the government can always use more money. Swiss residents prohibited from heating water beyond 140 degrees Fahrenheit The Swiss government is also ordering citizens to stop using heaters and hot air tents inside their homes. All saunas and heated pools must also be turned off to fight Vladimir Putin. Even making water for tea or coffee is now prohibited, as the Swiss government has set a heating limit for water of 60 degrees Celsius, or 140 degrees Fahrenheit. The boiling point of water is 212 degrees Fahrenheit, which means the Swiss people will not be allowed to cook rice, pasta, or anything else that requires water warmer than 140 degrees Fahrenheit. How Switzerland plans to police all this remains unknown. Will it deploy roving teams of water spies to make sure every Swiss residence shuts off the burner the moment a pot of water hits 140 degrees Fahrenheit? What little electricity ends up remaining available in Switzerland this winter once supplies taper off will be exorbitantly expensive anyway, preventing the poorest citizens from staying alive. For this reason, Werner Luginbuehl, head of the Swiss electricity commission ElCom, urged citizens back in August to stock up now on candles and firewood in anticipation of possible power outages come winter. Sounds a lot more like the Swiss citizenry needs to be putting its clueless, corrupt, and vassalized leaders into jail this winter, wrote a commenter at Sputnik News about the situation. Another over at Natural News wrote that this is all an expected outcome for godless nations like Switzerland that breed depravity, arrogance, and death. Canada and Australia are fading quickly, and with the United States declining morally, the future looks bleak for the wicked, this person added. Another emphasized that none of this would be happening if the European Union (EU) would stop supporting Ukraine, where a Nazi remnant has been pushing Putin for over eight years until enough was enough. So Putin is bad and a tyrant because he wont supply the enemy sympathizers, this person added. The current U.S. administration has from day one cut off U.S. supplies of energy, and yet no one sees that as an act of war on us! Wake up already! Europe is committing economic suicide with its sanctions against Russia. To keep up with the latest, visit Collapse.news. Sources for this article include: SputnikNews.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) Over the past two years, there have been thousands of stories, cases, studies and adverse events reported regarding horrific side effects and health detriment caused directly or indirectly by the COVID-19 vaccines. Most people have heard about, read about, experienced, or had a loved one experience physical damage from the Fauci Flu jabs, including the most popular kind, including blood clots, myocarditis, pericarditis, heart attacks, strokes, and SADS (sudden adult death syndrome). Yet, there is more, and much more damage going on than all of that, unfortunately. Though the vaccine industry and pharma in general are protected from liability of their health-decimating medicines, and though mainstream media never publishes anything negative about vaccines, there are many adverse events happening that you probably dont know about, and many of the victims are spreading the word, and even winning settlements and lawsuits. Here are the top 7 most UNEXPECTED adverse events from the toxic spike protein injections, and the attributed/linked very serious health consequences #1. Shingles develops (even in the eye) #2. Sciatica shooting pains (often down the center of legs) #3. Restless leg syndrome (RLS) #4. Loss of motor skills and critical nerve damage #5. Catch COVID multiple times after the shots #6. Going blind, including developing optic neuritis (inflammation damages the optic nerve that sends visual info from the retina to the brain) #7. Long, fibrous clots that lack post-mortem characteristics (not same as blood clots) COVID-19 vaccines have been linked to the reactivation of the virus that causes shingles New studies suggest a link between the Fauci Flu jabs and REACTIVATION of the shingles virus. This happens after the reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus (VZV), that can happen several times for some people. Several case reports indicate these shingles flare-ups and eruptions are happening shortly after getting a COVID-19 vaccine. In 2021, and article published by Trusted Source via NIH reported several cases of shingles eruptions after vaccination with mRNA jabs. Serious nerve damage becoming a much more common side effect from the Fauci Flu stabs There are two main types of nerve cells: sensory nerves (carry messages of pain, pressure, sensations) and motor nerves (tell muscles to move). These nerves are fragile and can be damaged rather easily, including by spike proteins blocking the flow of blood and neurons to key areas, plus damage to the protective covering (myelin sheath) of nerves, leading to weakness and sometimes paralysis. Certain vaccines, like the COVID jabs, can cause acute nerve damage by causing inflammation of the brain and spinal cord (ADEM). Since the spike proteins travel throughout the body, polluting vital organs, other nerve damage gets done, and some of it is irreversible. COVID vaccines, as they are mislabeled, can also cause brachial neuritis (a.k.a. Parsonage-Turner syndrome) that affects nerves that control muscles in the shoulders, arms, and hands. Symptoms include burning sensations, pins and needles feeling, and loss of function after the vaccine. Blood clots caused by COVID jabs can result in devastating injuries, including permanent blindness and deafness Blood clots can result in devastating injuries just about anywhere in the vasculature of the body. When clots occur in the brain in microvasculature (tiny blood vessels that distribute blood within tissues) of the eye, the person can experience impairment or total loss of vision. This is known to happen following vaccines, including COVID jabs. Though the mass media and social media remain quiet about these events (ban, censor and delete posts as misinformation or disinformation), that does not mean they are not happening, and more often than one may think. As it turns out, a quite large number of these incidents have been reported to government regulatory agencies, including VAERS (US system), the UK Yellow Card system, and Europes EudraVigilance database. In other words, mass numbers of visual injuries from COVID jabs are being reported worldwide. Its actually a hot topic, and investigations are underway. Plus, add to that chaos sudden hearing loss followed by deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolisms cause by the Fauci clot shots. Restless Leg Syndrome Pilot study from 2021 reveals as much as 7% of those who receive COVID-19 vaccinations suffer from RLS Nearly 3/4ths of those injected with spike proteins who suffer from Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) afterwards had NEVER had RLS before in their lives. More than 13 percent of these victims of vaccine violence say that RLS did not go away after the first few days, meaning RLS for them could be long-term or even permanent. The conclusion of the pilot study also reveals that COVID-19 vaccination may have provoked or lowered the threshold for RLS symptoms in participants with previous RLS. Triple-vaccinated for COVID show highest rate for catching COVID, repeatedly Reports worldwide reveal that COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness continues to drop, even though the effectiveness was very weak to begin with. Now, studies show that humans who are TRIPLE-INJECTED are now three to five times more likely to become infected with Wuhan gain-of-function disease than the unvaccinated. Let that sink in for a moment. These results are evident for all age groups, not just the elderly or immune-compromised. Whats worse is that deaths are skyrocketing for the fully injected, meaning theyre either dying from the virus or from the toxic jabs, that cause blood clots and heart stress. The figures show that the case-rates are highest among the triple vaccinated in all age groups, reports Daily Expose (of the UK) But not just by a little bit, instead by a million miles. And the gap between the unvaccinated and triple vaccinated has been getting worse by the month. Do you believe you were injured by the toxic Fauci Flu jabs? Maybe you have strange, long, fibrous clots that no doctor has ever seen before. These are most likely from the Fauci Flu jabs, that collect heavy metals and form nano-particle clots that can be fatal. Take the Vaccine Injury Claim Eligibility Quiz now to see if you are eligible to file a claim for compensation for a vaccine injury. Its quick and easy. Then, 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: Pandemic.news NaturalNews.com Ca.ChildrensHealthDefense.org VaccineInjuryLegalTeam.com MedicalNewsToday.com E-JSM.org TheEpochTimes.com (Natural News) The very network of people who off-shored gain-of-function coronavirus experiments in Wuhan, China are now the people getting financial rewards and bringing similar controversial virology research back to the United States. Boston University will receive a $1 million grant to take on unethical, gain-of-function virology research at their controversial Bio-safety Level-4 facility the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL). The grant is being awarded through U.S. National Science Foundations (NSF) Predictive Intelligence for Pandemic Prevention Phase One research program. Covid-19 co-conspirators, liars and bullies will enjoy more grants to continue their unethical experiments on the population The grant will enable the same dangerous virology research to continue the same research that took place in the lead-up to the SARS-CoV-2 bioweapon release in 2019. Its also the same research that initiated an experimental vaccine program before a causative agent for a global pandemic was even isolated. This pre-planned mRNA experiment unleashed an engineered spike protein en masse for transcription in human cells, leading to historic medical malpractice and wrongful death across health systems worldwide. This new grant was investigated by NEIDL Associate Director, Nahid Bhadelia, who was one of the co-conspirators pushing harmful propaganda during the covid-19 scandal. Its no wonder why Bhadelia allowed the grant to go through, given the fact that she collaborated with CDC Director Rochelle Walensky to promote LIES in medical journals, saying that lockdowns decrease COVID-19 mortality, and that herd immunity is a dangerous fallacy unsupported by scientific evidence. John Hopkins researchers thoroughly rebuked Walensky and Bhadelia in a literature review and meta-analysis on the effects of lockdowns on populations. Bhadelia still goes around accepting grants, instead of being investigated, admonished and removed from her position. Scientists working at the NEIDL in Boston will be handling the worlds most deadly viruses, and they will continue the work of Dr. Peter Daszak from EcoHealth Alliance. Daszak was essentially the covid-19 bag-man who oversaw and reported on the development of killer SARS-like coronavirus bioweapons at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Dr. Peter Daszak was the beneficiary of several grants issued by Dr. Anthony Fauci at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID). These grants were funneled to Dr. Zheng-Li Shi, the infamous bat-lady, to conduct gain-of-function, coronavirus spike protein experiments at the secretive, unaccountable Bio-safety Level-4 facility in Wuhan, China. One of the goals of this research was to develop profitable diagnostic tests, drugs and mRNA sequences that could be mass produced for annual vaccine programs. Still escaping indictment, Dr. Peter Daszak continues dangerous virology work in the United States Daszak was talking about the development of these coronavirus spike proteins back in a 2016 forum that discussed emerging infectious diseases and the next pandemic. During his speech, Daszak described the process of insert[ing] spike proteins into viruses to see if they can bind to human cells. He admitted that this process was being laid out by his colleagues in China which includes members of Chinas Peoples Liberation Army, like General Wuchun Cao. As soon as investigators from around the world began looking into the origins of SARS-CoV-2, Peter Daszak called up his colleagues and published a coercive paper in the Lancet. Daszak and his co-conspirators said they strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin. His contacts at the NIAID and the NIH, Dr Anthony Fauci and Dr. Francis Collins, quickly assembled a team to denounce any claims that SARS-CoV-2 originated in a lab. In private emails, Collins and Fauci discussed a published takedown of prominent Harvard, Oxford and Stanford scientists who proposed evidence of SARS-CoV-2 coming from a lab. Fauci was so adamant about shutting down scientific debate, he helped craft an academic paper decrying that the lab leak theory was a conspiracy theory. These same government officials tapped Mark Zuckerberg to snuff out covid-19 misinformation across social media, which included any evidence or claims that SARS-CoV-2 came from a lab or was intentionally unleashed. The co-author who helped Daszak shut down any discussion of the lab origin of SARS-CoV-2 is now the director of the NEIDEL, the beneficiary of new government grants. Ronald Corley, director of NEIDEL worked with Daszak on the Lancet article, which denounced any theory other than the natural origin theory as conspiracy theory. Jim Hoft from the Gateway Pundit, says it best: All the scientists and all the U.S. government officials potentially involved in the laboratory creation of COVID-19 and any subsequent cover-up of its laboratory origin need to be thoroughly investigated and brought to justice as appropriate. Sources include: TheGatewayPundit.com Brighteon.com Sites.Kreiger.edu [PDF] Nature.com TheNationalPulse.com TheLancet.com NaturalNews.com Numerous domestic dogs contribute to a citizen science study aiming to better understand how memory and cognition change with age. Studying Dogs Hana did well on her memory exam. The three-year-old Cavalier King Charles spaniel had to recall which of three identical boxes housed a reward after examining the contents of each one, a job she swiftly mastered after just a few tries. Scientists are learning something else thanks to Hana and her human partner Masami Shimizu-Albergine of Bainbridge Island, Washington: when dog intelligence peaks and how it decreases with age. Hana is a member of the Dog Aging Project, a citizen science project started in 2014 that already includes nearly 40,000 domestic dogs. One of the project's two primary objectives is to comprehend the biology of aging in companion dogs, according to cofounder and codirector Matt Kaeberlein, a pathologist at the University of Washington in Seattle who specializes in aging. The alternative is to take action. The University of Washington and Texas A&M University effort will monitor several facets of dogs' life over time through veterinarian records, DNA samples, health surveys, and cognitive assessments like Hana's treat-finding task. Hana will participate in fewer, more narrowly focused studies and thorough evaluations than the other dogs. From all the information, researchers seek to identify trends and establish connections between lifestyle choices and health from early development to old age. Also Read: Study Shows that Some Dog Owners Believe They Can Read Their Pet's Mind Family Dog Project The Family Dog Project was started in the 1990s at Eotvos Lorand University (ELTE) in Budapest to investigate "the behavioral and cognitive elements of the dog-human interaction," and tens of thousands of dogs took part during the project's existence. The scientists anticipate that working with such a sizable combined group of dogs would enable them to elucidate the genetic and environmental variables that influence how long dogs live and how much of that time is spent in good health. The two teams have started working together across continents. Given that hundreds of millions of dogs are probably kept as pets worldwide, it is crucial to understand how they age to enhance their quality of life and the care they get. However, following the lives of some of these canine partners may offer insights into how to age more healthfully, as well as information about our aging brains. Biology of Aging Studying the biology of human aging is difficult since the process lasts for many decades. It entails keeping track of individuals for 50, 60, 70, or even longer, which may be time-consuming and costly. Dogs, on the other hand, age fast. This is terrible for those who adore their pets, says dog lover Kaeberlein. However, it makes dogs an excellent model system for research on aging. (Though Bernese mountain dogs have an average life of seven years and Chihuahuas nearly double that at 13 years, it may be said that a 70-year study of humans is similar to one dog decade.) Studying dogs has other uses as well. Due to their genetic variability, they are superior animal models to the inbred mouse strains generally employed in aging studies. And while researchers prefer to examine their subjects in a controlled lab setting, the fact that humans and their pets share homes with a wide range of conditions is beneficial when trying to conclude human aging. A complicated human world cannot be duplicated in a lab setting. However, according to Kaeberlein, there is no need to if you study pet dogs. Related Article: Myth Busted: Did the Human Brain Really Shrink While Evolving? For more biological news, don't forget to follow Nature World News Are animals capable of grief? What does it signify for their wellbeing and conservation if they grieve? Even though it might sound dubious, there is much evidence for animal mourning. Animals experience grief like people, including chimpanzees, otters, and sea lions. Mourning Chimp An old chimpanzee mother, Flo, passed away in the Tanzanian jungle in 1972. It appeared to be an awful loss for her son Flint. The chimpanzee, who had a unique attachment to his mother, suddenly became listless, lost his appetite, and increasingly separated from the other troop members. He ate seldom and had lost more than a third of his weight by the third week, according to a young Jane Goodall, the renowned primatologist who had long observed the group. Then, Goodall stated that the malnourished Flint had also passed away a month after his mother had. Also Read: Study Shows that Some Dog Owners Believe They Can Read Their Pet's Mind Reacting to Other Animals Passing Away When an animal's family or associates pass away, researchers have found dozens of instances of odd and heartbreaking behaviors similar to this throughout the animal kingdom. These actions raise the intriguing question of whether animals grieve and lament their deceased as humans do. This question would have been disregarded as unscientific not so long ago. The study of death and its related rituals is a large area of study known as "evolutionary thanatology," which is being investigated by an increasing number of scholars. A can of worms is opened when one attempts to characterize these actions. One school of thought holds that to grieve, a person must first be able to comprehend death and its relationship to this unavoidable force - something that's hard to demonstrate in animals. (However, some strong arguments show animals have a notion of death.) However, it's possible to experience sadness without clearly understanding death. Another perspective on sorrow is a component of the effort to comprehend a loss, which makes it visible in how a person reacts to a dead body. It's also true that other factors, such as curiosity, perplexity, tension, or terror, might explain similar behaviors. This is particularly true for animals whose death-response is a little stranger. No Exact Pattern Even in humans, sadness doesn't follow a set pattern; it might appear as a broad range of actions and feelings. Who is to say that animals don't also go through stages of curiosity, fear, and learning? Perhaps anthropologist Barbara J. King came up with her concept of animal sadness because of these muddled and divergent viewpoints. According to the renowned scientist who produced the book "How Animals Grieve" (University of Chicago Press, 2013), grieving is defined as a shift in fundamental functions brought on by death and deviates from the typical feeding cycle, sleeping, and socializing. King suggested that this would expand the definition of sadness to encompass many animal species capable of feeling it. Necessary for Survival According to some experts, grieving is necessary for survival, which might support the hypothesis that loss also affects animals. The observational studies showed that baboons (Papio hamadryas ursinus) become listless after a relative dies to get more grooming from other colony members. Elephant researcher Sanjeeta Pokharel remarked, "When we talk about conservation, at least some type of feeling should be there. What better way to do it than to think that other creatures share that feeling with us? Related Article: Male Dolphins Acts as "Wingman" to Help their Buddy Find Mates For similar news, don't forget to follow Nature World News! According to a recent analysis, the "megadrought" in the US West is the worst in at least 1,200 years. Researchers claim that since decades of increasingly drier weather are to come, human-caused climate change is a big contributor to the damaging conditions. What is a 'Megadrought'? Periods of arid weather are called droughts. The severity of the megadrought that is now hitting regions of the United States remains unknown, though. According to Ashok Mishra, a professor at the Glenn Department of Civil Engineering at Clemson University, megadroughts are often described as droughts that endure for two or more decades, even though there are no precise criteria for these phenomena. Also Read: Megadrought Ravages the American West, Climate Change Worsens the Situation Megadrought in the West According to experts, the American west has seen the worst megadrought in at least 1,200 years during the past two decades. Researchers from a recent study, released on Monday, also underlined that human-caused climate change is a substantial contributor to the devastating conditions and provided a bleak prognosis: further drier decades are to come. According to Park Williams, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the study's primary author, "Anyone who has been paying attention knows that the west has been dry for much of the previous two decades." These investigations have shown us that dry is not only in the context of contemporary settings but also in the context of the previous millennium. Intense Heat The rise in temperature, which is the result of global warming caused by humans, has been significant. The researchers add that other studies demonstrate how the climate problem "will increasingly boost the likelihood of lengthy, widespread, and severe megadroughts." The author writes that the worst-case scenario "already appears to be coming to true," noting that the western hemisphere is experiencing the driest 22-year stretch in recorded history. The study expands on findings from a prior investigation performed by Williams, which classified the decade from 2000 to 2018 as the second driest in the preceding twelve centuries. This period was propelled into first place by the previous two parched years, characterized by record-breaking heatwaves, dwindling reservoirs, and an increase in dangerously unpredictable fires that burned both unpredictably and out of season. The climate scientists from UCLA, NASA, and Columbia University examined soil moisture content in regions from Montana to northern Mexico in the north to the Rocky Mountains in the south. They examined information gathered on tree ring patterns that provided hints about changes in soil moisture over time. Rings more closely spaced apart demonstrate the stunted growth patterns that occur during dry periods. How Long Will It Last? Megadroughts, prolonged drought occurrences that can last two decades or longer, are anticipated to be increasingly severe and prolonged in the western United States by the end of this century. Those droughts will probably be more severe and dangerous due to worsening climate change. According to co-author Flavio Lehner, an assistant professor of Earth and atmospheric sciences in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, "In the future, not only will a given decade presumably be drier on average." The College of Engineering shares the department. However, that decade will also contain more extremes than the current decade. Related Article: New Pandemic in Slow Motion: UN Reports Severe Drought Might be the Next Global Crisis For more environmental news, don't forget to follow Nature World News! Recent research reveals that the mammal from 225M years ago, previously thought to be an advanced reptile, was a mammal. In a recent discovery that scientists have hailed as "very significant," the world's oldest mammal has been distinguished using fossil dental records. This animal predates the previously confirmed oldest mammal by about 20 million years. A team of Brazilian and British scientists discovered the remains of Brasilodon quadrangularis, a small, shrew-like animal that lived 225M years ago and gives a clearer view of the evolution of modern mammals. It was about 20 centimeters (8 inches) long. Researchers from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, King's College London, and the Natural History Museum in London made the discovery. Hard tissue fossils, like those of bones and teeth, provide scientists with hints about the past. This is because no fossils have yet been discovered that contain milk-producing mammalian glands. Since isolated teeth from the Morganucodon indicate that it existed around 205 million years ago, it was previously thought to be the earliest mammal. The Morganucodon had a small, gerbil-like body and a shrew-like or civet-like, long face. According to dental records used in the study, Brasilodon quadrangularis lived 225 million years ago, or 25 million years following the Permian-Triassic mass extinction event, the third and largest mass extinction event, during which more than 90% of marine species vanished and 70% of land animals perished. Mistaken identity According to the senior author of the study, Martha Richter, the Brasilodon quadrangularis was once thought to be an "advanced reptile," but an examination of its teeth "definitively" proves that it was a mammal. Richter is also a scientific associate at the museum. Richter said that Reptiles have a huge variety of replacement teeth throughout their lives, whereas mammals only have two. The milk teeth come first, followed by the second dentition, which takes the place of the first set. Mammals are characterized by this. According to a news release, Brasilodon, also known as a diphyodonty, is the oldest extinct vertebrate that has two successive sets of teeth: baby teeth and one permanent set. Read also: Over 1,000 Hidden Mammal Species are Waiting to be Discovered in the Wild: New Study While the second set emerges after birth, the first set begins during the embryonic stage. The species lived in the area that is now occupied by the southernmost region of Brazil, and Richter and her team members examined three of the species' lower jaws. She said that they found the particular replacement teeth which are unique to mammals under a microscope. Richter added that this extremely tiny mammal was probably a burrowing creature that lived in the shadows of the earliest dinosaurs ever discovered. The team said their discovery was very important and that they had been working on it for more than five years. According to Richter's news release, the discoveries improved our knowledge of this period's ecological environment and the development of modern mammals. According to the press release from Moya Meredith Smith, a co-author of the study, their paper raises the level of discussion surrounding what constitutes a mammal and demonstrates that mammals evolved much earlier in time than previously thought. Smith is also a professor of evolutionary dentoskeletal biology from King's College London, CNN reports. Related article: Scientists Pinpoint Time When Our Earliest Ancestors Became Warm-Blooded The importance of research and planning is being emphasized by two scientists in case the next super eruption poses colossal dangers. Michael Cassidy, a professor of volcanology from the University of Birmingham, wrote that huge volcanic eruptions, most likely by super volcanoes, are hundreds of times more likely to happen in the coming century than comet and asteroid impacts combined. Cassidy wrote the commentary with Lara Mani, a research associate from the University of Cambridge. In their commentary, Cassidy and Mani raise the point that while it is wise to be prepared for asteroids, too little is being done to address the likelihood of a volcanic "super-eruption". They note that hundreds of millions of dollars are spent annually on planetary defense by governments and international organizations, including a recent US experiment to deflect space rocks. Although they may not be as spectacular as fireballs from space, volcanoes are still worthy of respect because, unlike asteroids, they have already formed on Earth. Volcanoes are found all over the world, often hidden by beautiful landscapes that conceal their destructive potential. Not Even Close The majority of the horrific eruptions that modern humans have witnessed pale in comparison to the approximately every 15,000-year eruptions of supervolcanoes. According to the US Geological Survey, the last super-eruption of this intensity happened roughly 22,000 years ago. An eruption with a magnitude of 8, the highest score on the Volcanic Explosivity Index, is referred to as a "super-eruption." In 1815, Mount Tambora in Indonesia experienced its most recent magnitude-7 eruption, which is believed to have killed 100,000 people. The "Year Without a Summer" in 1816 was brought on by the ash and smoke, which on average decreased global temperatures by 1 degree Celsius. Numerous crop failures caused disease outbreaks, famine, and armed conflict. The two scientists also raised the point that volcano monitoring and the country's capacity to mobilize international assistance for disaster relief have both advanced since 1815, but not necessarily to the extent necessary to balance out all the risks that each country now faces. Since the early 1800s, the number of people on Earth has quadrupled, and some sizable urban areas have grown up close to active volcanoes, according to Cassidy and Mani. The two also pointed out that volcanoes could pose a bigger threat than the general public realizes. Based on data from ancient ice cores, scientists found in a 2021 study that the time between catastrophic eruptions is hundreds to thousands of years earlier than previously thought. Read also: Tonga Volcano Officially the Largest Eruption of the 21st Century, New Data Confirms Volcano Monitoring Many volcanoes still have a cloudy past, making it difficult to predict eruptions in the future and concentrate resources where risks are greatest. Cassidy and Mani write that more study is required on ice cores and also geological and historical records, such as marine and lake cores, particularly in regions like Southeast Asia, which are data-poor but high-risk areas. They continue by pointing out the need for more interdisciplinary research to help predict how a super-eruption might destroy civilization by identifying risks to trade, energy, agriculture, and infrastructure, as well as geographical "pinch points" where volcanic risks collide with vital trade networks. Additionally, it is essential to conduct more thorough ground-based, aerial, and satellite observations of volcanoes. The scientists point out that volcanologists have long yearned for a specialized volcano-observing satellite, which could improve preparedness beyond the present system of using the same existing satellites with other experts. Resilience also depends on educating and promoting the community. People must be aware of whether they are in an area at risk from volcanic eruptions, how to get ready, and what to do once one occurs. In addition to outreach in advance, Cassidy and Mani write that authorities also need ways to inform the public when volcanoes erupt, such as text messages with information about evacuations, survival advice, or directions to the nearest shelters and medical facilities, Science Alert reports. Related article: Force from Tonga's Eruption Could Have Created Mutliple Tsunamis the Size of the Statue of Liberty According to research, tardigrades, also known as water bears, have a special kind of protein in their cells that guards against dehydration. The water bears, also known as tardigrades, were known for their ability to endure harsh conditions. In addition, recent research conducted by researchers at the University of Tokyo suggests that tardigrades can endure even severe dehydration. It indicates that they can survive without water. Gel Proteins As suggested, the researchers looked at the gel proteins that water bears or tardigrades yield when they become dehydrated. As a result, it was discovered in the study how tardigrades shield themselves from radiation using fluorescent shields and DNA clouds. Takekazu Kunieda, an Associate Professor from the University of Tokyo's Department of Biological Sciences, said that even though water is necessary for all life as we know it, some tardigrades can survive without it for long periods. The key lies in how their cells respond to this stress as a result of the dehydration process. He further explained that it is hypothesized that a protein must help a cell maintain physical stamina to prevent collapsing in on itself as water leaves the cell. His team has discovered that tardigrade-specific cytoplasmic-abundant heat soluble (CAHS) proteins are in charge of guarding their cells against dehydration after testing several different kinds. Read also: Water Bears: Genome Sequence Says It Has Most Foreign DNA Of Any Animal No Stress According to this theory, the CAHS proteins start acting when the cell that contains the proteins becomes dehydrated. CAHS proteins form filaments that look similar to gels. The filaments gradually vanish when the tardigrade cells rehydrate at a rate that will not put the cell under excessive strain because the process is reversible. It's interesting to note that the proteins kept functioning the same way even after being taken out of the tardigrade cells. Akihiro Tanaka, the lead author of the study and a graduate student in the lab, said that there were some interesting difficulties in examining the behavior of CAHS proteins in human and insect cells. Tanaka pointed out that, for starters, the team had to stain the proteins for them to be visible under microscopes. However, the typical staining method requires solutions containing water, which confounds any experiment where water concentration is a factor one seeks to control. So the team turned to a methanol-based solution, which got them right around the problem. Fascinating Kunieda said that we should investigate previously unseen mechanisms and structures in light of the variety of habitats some species can endure. This area is a treasure trove for biologists. He later added that the world of tardigrades is fascinating in every way. Kunieda and his team will sort through more than 300 additional protein subtypes, some of which probably play a role in the achievement of a higher level for life preservation and protection of these tiny water bears, Interesting Engineering reports. Related article: Water Bears: Genome Sequence Says It Has Most Foreign DNA Of Any Animal Giant viruses infecting microscopic algae have been found in a marine ecosystem in the Arctic Ocean, according to a new study led by scientists in Canada. The pathogens are said to be thriving in the Milne Fiord in Neige Bay. However, rising temperatures are endangering the rare lake and its newfound ecosystem. Algae-Infecting Giant Viruses The findings about the discovery were published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology on August 25, where scientists focused their gaze at Milne Fiord, located along the coastal margin of the Last Ice Area in the High Arctic, north of Canada. The site harbors the epishelf lake, a rare type of ice-dependent ecosystem where a layer of freshwater overlies marine water connected to the open ocean. The study found that the microbe-dominated ecosystem is facing a catastrophic dilemma because of the deterioration of its ice environment in connection with global warming and climate change. In addition, the researchers found the viral community in the freshwater is richer than the community in its underlying seawater. Also Read: What Causes the Water Across the Arctic Lake to Boil? Drilling and DNA Sequencing By drilling through the frozen ice above, the research team conduced DNA sequencing in the floating epishelf Arctic lake, where they found a variety of viruses, including a group of giant viruses called Megaviricetes. The said colossal viruses have been reported to be several times larger than normal viruses and is as large as a bacterium. One of the general characteristics of viruses is that they are smaller even than the smallest bacterium and carry only a few genes to help them multiply, according to co-author Mary Thaler, a microbiologist at the Laval University in Quebec, Canada, as cited by Live Science. Yet, scientists have discovered in the past 20 years that giant viruses are relatively similar with bacteria in terms of size and with genomes that could potentially contain interesting genes, Thaler adds. What is an Epishelf Lake? An epishelf lake is formed sometimes when a floating ice shelf block the mouth of a fjord, creating the unique type of lake, where freshwater from the ice shelf and any water sources draining from the land are trapped behind the ice shelf, according to AntarcticGlaciers.org. In general, the rare arctic lake is sandwiched between an ice from above and saltwater from below. Since freshwater is less dense than marine water, the former is floating over the latter. In particular, epishelf lakes form in areas where meltwater runoff from land is trapped inside a fjord or bay behind a floating ice shelf, according to Water and Ice Research Laboratory (WIRL) of Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario. The Canadian university also acknowledged that the special lake can exist for centuries and host marine organisms by creating the rare and dynamic ecosystem. In line with the new study, the authors are reportedly hoping to learn and understand more about the ecosystem in the future, but are on the race against time due to the rising temperatures that can destroy the ice dam holding the epishelf lakes. Related Article: Unforgiving Climate Change: Even Arctic Lakes are Drying Up Fire ants or red ants have invaded houses, roads, trees, and other sites in the village of Brahmansahi, located in Odisha state. As a result, the Indian village declared war on the ants as a number of people have been stung already as well. However, there were no direct reports of any human casualties. Local sources indicated that the ant invasion started due to floodwaters caused by torrential rain. Villagers claimed that the ant raid has left them unable to eat, sleep, and even sit properly without being a victim of the painful stings, according to local media reporting. The ant stings have led to reported skin swelling and irritation, affecting domestic animals as well. Medical teams are expected to arrive in the village from the time of reporting of the ongoing incident earlier this week. Fire ants (Solenopsis invicta), officially known as the red imported fire ant (RIFA), are invasive species native to South America such as Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. In the United States, S. invicta are considered a major economic pest in the southeastern states. Experts claimed that the RIFA was accidentally introduced in several Asian and Caribbean countries, as well as Australia and New Zealand. Village Ant Invasion Villagers, along with local authorities, declared the war on Tuesday, September 6, by launching a so-called operation against the fire ants by destroying their habitats after infesting the village in Chandradeipur panchayat in Puri district when floodwaters receded. Entomologists reportedly clarified there is nothing to fear since the ant infestation can be resolved by applying insecticides, as cited by Times of India. According to Sanjay Kumar Mohanty, an entomologist and scientist with the Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, the ants got their habitats or colonies destroyed following the floods due to heavy rain, which forced the animals to come out from their holes and transfer into a different location to settle as their new home, as cited by the Indian media outlet. Mohanty added that the ant infestation "will be checked soon" when they establish their new homes for approximately one to two days. In addition, the entomologist provided killing them is also an option, emphasizing that eliminating the population is not simple unless the queen ant and larvae are destroyed. Also Read: Fire Ants: How Expert Excavators Make the Best Invaders Fire Ant Habitats The National Pest Management Association (NPMA) said fire ants typically built their nest in soil near structural foundations or inside landscaping but explains most of these ants are commonly found in outdoor areas. They can also gain access establishments like buildings by entering through AC units and HVAC systems. The NPMA stated that while red ants are commonly perceived as biting, they are actually using their stings to inflict damage. Although not lethal, the so-called "ant bites" can cause severe health complications for persons allergic to insect stings. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended avoid disturbing or standing near ant mounds to avoid any red ant stings, which also causes a burning sensation. Related Article: Invasive Fire Ants Moved to a New "Wetter" Environment After Old Hills Damaged by Wildfire A new life was saved on the remote island of Borneo. A recent study published in Nature reveals that stone age humans had medical knowledge as scientists unfolded bones buried for 31,000 years inside an Indonesian cave. Using advanced technology of radiocarbon dating techniques, a team of Australians and Indonesians found the body of a young individual who was said to be 31,000 years old in the Liang Tebo cave, Kalimantan province in Borneo. The cave is a large three-chambered limestone with artistic preserved rock art. Moreover, the archeological discovery showed comprehensive human anatomy knowledge to control blood loss, pain, and infection. Surgeons 30,000 years ago had a complete understanding of complex medical surgery using tools carved from stones. In an email to CNN, Maxime Aubert, a professor at Griffith University's Centre for Social and Cultural Research in Queensland, explained that the discovery is direct, archeological, and tangible evidence of high community care. He added that surgery could be fatal for blood loss, shock, and subsequent infection. Surgery In a careful excavation, scientists discovered that a young individual in the cave had his lower left leg surgically removed, possibly as a child. The individual survived the surgical procedure and lived for six to nine years. The study noted that the burial in the Liang Tebo cave had a thorough and remarkable treatment for the individual. However, researchers ruled out any animal attack as no infection was present in the remains. In addition, there was no sign of amputation as a punishment. The individual did not suffer from infection, likely for an open-wound surgery. It was despite that there were no painkillers or antibiotics during that time. Infection was also high due to the region's tropical environment. Surgeons, with their carved stones and medical equipment, might have applied traditional plant treatments, which were dominant during their time. There could be slim survival cases, but it might have been possible. The island is rich in plants that could have been used as an alternative treatment for the individual. On the other hand, a well-preserved older man remained the oldest amputee found in France. The bones were estimated 7,000 years. Research showed that the man survived after removing his forearm showing surgical healing in the pastoral-agricultural community. After suffering from surgery, it revealed that the man still enjoyed a social status as indicated by grave gifts. According to the study, the man might have benefitted from a kind of "community care." Importance The study noted that the evidence found in the cave showed that early humans were capable of advanced-level medical expertise. It also leads to more possible medical surgeries that could perform without modern surgical tools. The such discovery proved the comprehensive knowledge of humans in surgery, contrary to claims that they could not perform any medical procedures. It also noted their understanding of medicinal plants to heal the open wound. You can access the research here Surgical amputation of a limb 31,000 years ago in Borneo. Also Read: 5 Ancient Mummies and A Glimpse into Their Lost World Did this article help you? Share this on your social media. For more similar stories, don't forget to follow Nature News Tropical storm Kay is expected to bring heavy rainfall to Baja California and Southern California Friday, according to the key messages advisory of the National Hurricane Center and Center Pacific Hurricane Center on September 8, 2022. At 8:00 p.m., Kay has been downgraded from Hurricane 1 to Tropical Storm as it gradually weakens. Kay is seen to weaken as it moves north. The storm's worst part is on Friday, and it will weaken on Saturday. Weather reports show that the weather will lighten up on Monday. The AccuWeather website reported that as of Thursday evening, Kay was still a large storm with 70 mph (110 km/h) sustained winds, and it was moving north-northwest at four mph (22 km/h). Kay, located about 30 miles (50km) east of Punta Eugenia, Mexico. Furthermore, isolated thunderstorms are likely in central Arizona and southern Nevada. Small flooding will also happen beginning Friday in Southwest Arizona. Flooding threat is also possible as Kay rainfall can amount to one to two inches of rain rampaging across Southern California. A local news site, CBS Los Angeles, reported that Long Beach built coastal berms in anticipation of high tides. Bailey Canyon is also advised to be avoided due to possible flash floods in the area. Los Angeles will feel thunderstorms and cloudy clouds. In parts of Mexico, Tropical warnings on Thursday were declared in areas from north of Punta Abreojos to San Jose De Las Palomas. Tropical storms are still present over Baja California Peninsula and will continue to spread northward. Advisory explained that strong wind, which is not directly associated with Tropical Storm Kay, is expected across southern California on Friday. The Weather Prediction Center warned that the high winds could increase fire danger in the areas. Residents are advised to check for updated High Wind and Flood Watch warnings. Heatwave relief Tropical Storm Kay will offer comfort to California's record-breaking high-temperature heat wave. The heavy rain and tropical moisture will help to ease the hot temperature. The storm will also aid the prolonged drought. Dismayed Californians suffer from extreme heat exacerbated by climate change. As the state battles against the hot temperature, state officials scramble for immediate and green solutions to address power interruptions. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, in a tweet, said that the heat wave was the hottest and longest in September. To prevent power outages amidst the heat and the threat of tropical storms, the state and power facilities urged residents to reduce their electricity consumption, or avoid unnecessary major appliances. Safety Tips Wildfires, heatwaves, tropical storms, or hurricanes are environmental events. It is essential to always prepare for any incidents such as evacuations. Charge your mobile phones, and save contacts of local authorities or families to report and check your situation. A power bank is also useful. Keep a bag with basic food needs, medicines, and documents in an emergency as being prepared is a must. Most importantly, always be updated on news or announcements from local authorities. Information is available on social media, televisions, or radios. Also Read: Hurricane Kay Could Bring Heavy Rains and Floods to Southern California Did this article help you? Share this on your social media. For more similar, don't forget to follow Nature World News 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. 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). From 22 to 25 August 2022, a Leadership Management Development (LMD) Top Executive Retreat (TER) was held for Maldives Customs Administration (MCS) in support of their Mercator Implementation Plan recommendation. Commissioner General of Customs, Mr. Abdulla Shareef and the members of his top executive team benefitted from this tailor-made activity addressed to the current needs, requirements, and main challenges of the MCS, which were assessed based on the responses to a questionnaire. The workshop focused on three levels: organizational development to tackle some of the key strategic challenges faced by MCS administration; executive team building to strengthen trust and openness amongst the team, understanding self and other better through honest, sincere and constructive feedback; and Personal leadership, management development and commitment. The Commissioner General was very appreciative of the quality of dialogues, exercises, concepts and theories of modern leadership and management presented, and in his closing remarks addressed his top executive team saying: My colleagues, I would like us to start as soon as we get back from this Saturday onwards to implement what we have learned from this workshop. Every one of us has a task to ensure that by World Customs Day we have a solid plan. Let us work together as a team for better Customs and the implementation of our Strategic Plan. For more information on the LMD, please, contact capacity.building@wcoomd.org. Champaign, IL (61820) Today A shower or two possible this evening with partly cloudy skies overnight. Low 54F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%.. Tonight A shower or two possible this evening with partly cloudy skies overnight. Low 54F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%. Ethan Simmons is a reporter at The News-Gazette covering the University of Illinois. His email is esimmons@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@ethancsimmons). Champaign, IL (61820) Today A few showers early with overcast skies later in the day. High 64F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 30%.. Tonight Cloudy skies early will become partly cloudy later at night. Low 54F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph. Infections in pregnant women have been linked to an increased risk of neurodevelopmental conditions, such as autism, in the child later in life. But it does not seem to be the infections themselves that cause autism, researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden show in a study published in The Lancet Psychiatry. Our results can reassure expectant parents by indicating that infections during pregnancy may not pose as great a risk to the baby's brain as previously thought." Hakan Karlsson, researcher, Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet and study's senior author Previous studies have shown a link between infections in the expectant mother during pregnancy and an increased risk of neurodevelopmental conditions, such as autism or intellectual disability, in the child later in life. But they have not been able to say whether the mother's exposure to infection is truly the cause, or whether other factors are behind this link. Researchers from Karolinska Institutet have now studied this in more detail. The current study is based on data on more than 500,000 children born between 1987 and 2010. The aim was to investigate whether there is a causal relationship between infections in the woman during pregnancy and autism or intellectual disability in the child. Infections were included if they were severe enough to require specialist care and they were identified using diagnostic codes from patient and birth records. Similar to previous studies, the researchers could see that infections that required specialist care during pregnancy were linked to an increased risk of autism and intellectual disability in children. But when the researchers studied siblings, the result was different. In comparisons between sibling pairs where the mother had had an infection during one pregnancy but not the other, they could not find any link between infection and the children's risk of autism. For intellectual disability, the link was weaker when the researchers compared sibling pairs than when they compared children who are not related. Genetics & Genomics eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today The researchers also examined the risk of autism and intellectual disability in children if their mother had been diagnosed with an infection during the year before her pregnancy. The idea was that infection before pregnancy would not be linked to an increased risk of autism and intellectual disability if it really was the infection during pregnancy causing the neuropsychiatric conditions. Here, the researchers could see that infections during the year before pregnancy were linked to the risk of autism to the same degree as infections during pregnancy, but not linked to the risk of intellectual disability. "The link between infections in pregnant women and the increased risk of autism in their children does not appear to be causal. Our results suggest that the increase in risk is more likely to be explained by factors common between family members, such as genetic variation or certain aspects of the shared environment," says Martin Brynge, PhD student at the Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, and one of the study's two first authors. Since the results were less clear for intellectual disability, it cannot be ruled out that infections during pregnancy may affect children's risk for this condition. In any case, infections during pregnancy may not influence the risk of intellectual disability to the same extent as previously thought, according to the researchers. The researchers emphasize that they have only looked at diagnosis of infections in general. The study does not contradict the significance of the well-established links between some specific viral infections during pregnancy, such as cytomegalovirus infection and rubella, and the risk of serious developmental conditions in the child. The researchers also point out that infections by the agent causing COVID-19 were not included in their study. It is still critical for pregnant women to follow their midwife's advice regarding infection control. Based on findings from a new study by a Johns Hopkins Medicine-led research team, an effective means of fighting SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, may be possible that circumvents the problem of waning immunity often observed when current vaccines deal with emerging COVID variants. The method uses a small molecule inhibitor (a molecule approximately 1 nanometer in size that inhibits specific interactions between proteins) called RK-33 to block the virus's ability to take over a host cell's "genetic manufacturing plant" and make copies of itself. To date, COVID-19 vaccines have relied on preventing the binding of a SARS-CoV-2 surface protein called the spike protein to host cells and enabling infection, but if the spike protein changes with new variants, a vaccine's effectiveness may be weakened. In contrast, our study shows that RK-33's antiviral capability is unaffected by spike protein mutations and remains consistent across four SARS-CoV-2 variants." Venu Raman, Ph.D., study senior author, professor of radiology, oncology and pharmacology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine The research was first posted online Aug. 25, 2022, in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology. For several years, Raman and his colleagues have studied a protein known as DDX3 and its impact on cancer. DDX3 is a ribonucleic acid (RNA) helicase, a protein that unwinds the double-stranded RNA controlling many tumor cells, enabling the RNA's genetic code to be read (or translated). This, in turn, leads to the creation of new cancer cells and malignant spread of the disease. Studies by Raman's team and others have suggested that RK-33, a DDX3 inhibitor developed in the Raman laboratory, can slow down cancer progression by keeping RNA from unwinding for translation. DDX3 protein also has been shown to help promote the infectivity of many RNA viruses, such as HIV and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Consequently, RK-33, the DDX3-inhibitor with great promise as a cancer fighter, is now being seriously considered for a second therapeutic function: a broad-spectrum antiviral agent. "We know that many RNA viruses usurp the DDX3 helicase function of the host cell to facilitate their own replication," says Raman. "When scientific studies revealed that small concentrations of RK-33 blocked replication and limited infectivity by human parainfluenza type 3 virus, RSV, dengue virus, Zika virus and West Nile virus and potentially, HIV our team decided to see whether RK-33 could work on SARS-CoV-2 as well." Genetics & Genomics eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today Along with testing RK-33's impact on SARS-CoV-2 infectivity and reproduction, the researchers extended their study to determine if the inhibitory action observed was limited to specific variants of the virus or would be effective against multiple variants. They used RK-33 to target DDX3 in laboratory cells infected with four variants of SARS-CoV-2 the original virus and the alpha, beta and delta variants. "Our results indicate that for the four SARS-CoV-2 variants we tested, RK-33 treatment of infected cells showed significant reductions in the viral load [the number of virus particles in a defined sample size], as much as a thousandfold," says Raman. "Consistent with this finding, we saw a downregulation [reduction in production] of most SARS-CoV-2 proteins and genes, including the protein transmembrane serine protease 2 [TMPRSS2], which we know strongly participates in the infectivity and spread of coronaviruses." Raman adds that not only did RK-33 work with four different SARS-CoV-2 variants, the protein's antiviral activity is unaffected by the mutations that created each of them. "Vaccines designed against the spike protein of one SARS-CoV-2 variant may not be as effective if a new variant has a mutated spike protein," he explains. "The ability of RK-33 to inhibit DDX3's unwinding of viral RNA for translation is independent of the spike protein, so it should remain effective against most variants." Currently, Raman and his team are looking at RK-33 as an antiviral against the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2. The researchers hope to publish their findings later this year. Along with Raman, the Johns Hopkins Medicine members of the research team are Farhad Vesuna (joint study lead author), Robert Scharpf and Paul Winnard. Collaborators from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University are Ivan Akhrymuk (joint study lead author), Kylene Kehn-Hall, Lauren Panny and Amy Smith. Shih-Chao Lin from the National Taiwan Ocean University also contributed to the study. The research was supported by National Institutes of Health grant R01CA207208 and the Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute. In a recent study published in the journal Psychiatry Research, researchers found larger gray matter volumes (GMVs) in patients with neuropsychiatric long COVID syndrome. The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic presents challenges in treating infected people and survivors who experience persistent symptoms. Although multiple organs are affected due to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, mental health problems are prominent, given that approximately 78% of COVID-19 survivors experience neuropsychiatric long COVID symptoms. Anxiety, cognitive deficits, and depression are commonly reported, impairing the quality of life. There has been speculation that patients who exhibit severe symptoms during acute infection are more likely to suffer long COVIDs. So far, most neuroimaging studies in COVID-19 patients were performed during the acute stage, and evidence for long-term structural changes in the brain is limited. Study: Larger gray matter volumes in neuropsychiatric long-COVID syndrome. Image Credit: Roman Zaiets / Shutterstock About the study In the present study, researchers compared GMVs of patients experiencing neuropsychiatric long COVID symptoms with those of healthy controls. Between April and September 2021, 30 patients with neuropsychiatric long COVID symptoms and 20 healthy controls without a past diagnosis of COVID-19 were included. Patients were recruited from the post-COVID outpatient clinic at the Jena University Hospital. Inclusion criteria included patients with fatigue, depression, memory, or concentration impairment after COVID. No patient had past psychiatric disorders before COVID-19. Healthy participants were recruited from the community as controls through press releases and tested for anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies at the time of scanning. All participants completed the state-trait-anxiety inventory (STAI), a self-rating assessment for anxiety. In addition, subjects were rated for depression symptoms using Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS). Further, Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA) was used to screen subjects for cognitive impairment. The participants underwent a high-resolution T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The computational anatomy toolbox 12 (CAT12) of the structural brain mapping group, Jena University, was used for voxel-based morphometry. The images were segmented into white matter (WM), gray matter (GM), and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). A general linear model (GLM) approach was applied to compare GMVs between patients and controls. Stepwise linear regression was performed to determine if the following variables accounted for the variance in the cortical volumes in patients gender, age, MoCA, MADRS, STAI, the severity of acute COVID-19, and time since COVID-19 onset. Findings Depression and cognitive symptoms significantly differed between long COVID patients and controls at the time of scanning, with a higher burden of symptoms among patients than among controls. Both cohorts had no significant difference in state and trait anxiety. Compared to controls, multiple clusters of larger GMVs in long COVID patients encompassed the hippocampus, insula, frontotemporal regions, amygdala, thalamus, and basal ganglia. In addition, a few clusters of smaller GMVs were present primarily in the bilateral lingual gyri. The regression model significantly predicted GMVs in patients. The variable, time since COVID-19 onset, significantly predicted GMVs in four clusters. This relationship was inversely correlated, suggesting higher GMVs with a shorter time since COVID-19 onset. Further, gender and age were significant predictors of GMVs in all clusters, implying a linear relationship. MADRS, MoCA, and STAI scores were not significant predictors of GMVs. Conclusions The study found increased GM in long COVID patients with neuropsychiatric symptoms. Age, gender, and time since COVID-19 significantly predicted volumetric changes in patients. Larger GMVs in individuals with long COVID might indicate compensatory or recovery effects. Specifically, these effects could be considered for regions connected to the olfactory system, which is believed to be first infected by SARS-CoV before infecting the central nervous system via retrograde neuronal transport mechanisms. Besides compensatory processes, larger GMVs in patients with COVID-19 could occur from an inflammatory activity resulting in microvascular dysfunction, endothelial activation, and vasogenic increase of tissue water. Because time since COVID-19 onset was a significant inverse predictor of GMVs, this could indicate that larger GMVs may decrease in volume over time. It is also possible that decreasing volumes may be part of COVID-19 recovery. Overall, the study found that long COVID-19 patients with neuropsychiatric symptoms exhibit changes in GMVs, which are predicted by the individuals gender, age, and the time since SARS-CoV-2 infection. Further investigations classifying long COVID patients according to the severity of cognitive symptoms and depression could provide better insights into the recovery process. A recent Psychoneuroendocrinology journal study provides more evidence that male sexual behavior is driven, in part, by testosterone levels. These findings could help understand how hormones and neural functions affect sexual motivation in human beings. Study: Exogeneous Testosterone Increases Sexual Impulsivity in Heterosexual Men. Image Credit: Aleksandra Gigowska / Shutterstock.com Introduction Sex steroids, which are steroidal hormones involved in male and female sexual and reproductive functioning in humans and other animal species, include testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone. Testosterone production is regulated by the brain, specifically the hypothalamus and pituitary gland. The local site of production is testicular Leydig cells in men, whereas this hormone is primarily produced by the ovaries, placenta, and adrenal cortex in women. In several mammalian species, testosterone is mainly responsible for the differentiation of sexual organs and their proper functioning, including libido and mating ability. In humans, chemical or physical castration has been shown to reduce testicular function, thus impairing sex drive and reducing sexual activity. Restoration of the sexual drive in these cases has been achieved with exogenous androgen administration. Recent research suggests that testosterone also plays a role in decision-making and reward processing in humans. For example, higher testosterone levels appear to increase risky behaviors in men. Furthermore, men have exhibited more significant changes in serum testosterone levels after winning or losing money. Impulsive decisions and sexual compulsivity have also been associated with higher serum testosterone levels and testosterone supplementation. These neuroendocrinological associations indicate the truth of the Challenge Hypothesis, which states that individual testosterone levels fluctuate in response to challenging cues in the environment, and these challenge-induced fluctuations in testosterone, in turn, modulate human social behavior, such as mating, aggression, and risk taking. One major area in which testosterone levels change rapidly over time in response to environmental cues is reflected in sexual behaviors. For example, exposure to sexually enticing situations has increased testosterone levels in men, thus representing a phylogenetically conserved phenomenon that motivates and affects sexual behaviors in specific situations. In animals, short bursts of testosterone release cause changes in mating behavior, thus impacting reproductive fitness by mating or reward processing in the brain. Similar phenomena are thought to occur in humans. In addition, this type of relationship mediates changes in sexual behavior and desire through altered testosterone levels in response to a given situation. The current study aimed to explore how testosterone levels affect sexual impulsivity, which is sensitive to sexual rewards. To this end, a sexual delay discounting task (SDDT) led participants to choose whether to watch a sex picture after one second for a shorter duration of one second (smaller-sooner) or watch the image for a more extended period of three seconds after waiting three to 15 seconds (larger-later). Impulsive individuals typically choose the first scenario, a behavior known as steeper discounting. The study participants were all men due to the high prevalence of sexual compulsion and crime in this population compared to women. Study findings Study participants received one 150 mg dose of testosterone gel, whereas controls received a placebo gel. Serum levels were measured three hours after topical administration, which is also when specified tasks involving the viewing of erotic pictures were conducted. Despite both groups being identical in baseline trait impulsivity and their motivation to view the offered picture, participants who received testosterone exhibited increased sexual impulsivity. In the testosterone group, men preferred the smaller-sooner option (SSO) overall as compared to the controls. With an increasing delay, decision-making took more time, and SSO were more frequently selected. In the testosterone group, the SSO selection occurred at a higher level with a six-second delay as compared to other delay levels. Discounting rates were higher in the testosterone group, thus indicating increased sexual impulsivity. The men chose to study the image for a briefer period if they could see it after a shorter delay. This was confirmed using computational modeling. The study findings corroborate previous reports on the role of testosterone in sexual compulsivity. Moreover, the current study demonstrates the association between a single dose of testosterone and increased impulsivity for the sake of sexual gratification. Implications The rise in testosterone levels when men were presented with erotic stimuli indicated a phylogenetically conserved mechanism to regulate behavior that can maximize reproductive fitness. The study used testosterone gel application to increase serum testosterone levels to resemble physiological endocrine responses. The study findings extended previous reports by showing that in human males, as in animals of some species, higher testosterone levels were linked to increased copulatory behavior or reward processing, both of which led to increased sexual behavior. However, further research is needed to determine whether the same response occurs when non-sexual rewards are offered. Our study [shows] that the administration of a single dose of testosterone increased preference for immediate sexual rewards as compared to long-term ones in a sample of young heterosexual men. The study findings also support earlier literature showing an association between testosterone and risk-taking behavior, as testosterone supplementation led to an increased preference for quick rewards in contrast to larger rewards on waiting. The brain appears to process sexual and monetary rewards through common circuitry. Thus, sexually-induced appetitive motivation could trigger impatience in multiple areas, which reflects in delay discounting. Further research is needed to explore the neural pathways underlying increased sexual impulsivity. However, this early experimental demonstration of the change in sexual reward sensitivity following an acute change in testosterone administration provides a more thorough understanding of the neuroendocrine mechanisms responsible for sexual motivation and behavior in humans. Being vaccinated with at least two doses of Pfizer vaccines dramatically reduces most of the long-term symptoms individuals reported months after contracting COVID-19, a new study shows. In this study, eight of the ten most-commonly reported symptoms were reported between 50 and 80% less often among individuals who received at least two doses of COVID-19 vaccine compared with those who received no doses. The study, recently published in the Nature journal npj Vaccines, was led by Prof. Michael Edelstein, of Bar-Ilan University's Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, in cooperation with infectious disease and IT teams at three of the Faculty's affiliate hospitals in northern Israel: Baruch Padeh Medical Center, Ziv Medical Center and Galilee Medical Center. Paul Otiku, a PhD student at Bar-Ilan's Azrieli Faculty, carried out most of the statistical analysis. Nearly 3,500 adults across Israel participated in the study, carried out between July and November 2021. These individuals completed a survey available in four commonly-spoken local languages -- Hebrew, Arabic, Russian and English -- with a variety of questions about previous COVID-19 infection, vaccination status, and any symptoms they were experiencing. More than half of the participants (2,447) reported no previous SARS-CoV-2 infection, while 951 were previously infected. Of those infected, 637 (67%) received at least two vaccine doses. Of the 2,447 individuals reporting no previous infection 21 (0.9%) received one dose, 1,195 (48.8%) received two doses, 744 (30.4%) received three doses, and the rest were unvaccinated (19.9%). The researchers compared vaccinated individuals with those unvaccinated in terms of post-acute self-reported symptoms. After adjusting for factors such as age and time elapsed from infection to responding to the survey, they found that vaccination with two or more doses of the Pfizer vaccine was associated with a reduced risk of reporting the most common post-COVID symptoms. Among those in the current study's population the most common symptoms reported -- fatigue, headache, weakness of limbs, and persistent muscle pain reduced by 62%, 50%, 62%, and 66%, respectively. Shortness of breath reduced by 80% and persistent muscle pain by 70%. The study contributes to scarce information to date about the impact of vaccination on long COVID. We don't fully understand what happens in the months and years following COVID-19 in terms of physical and mental health and wellbeing. Because long COVID seems to affect so many people it was important to us to check whether vaccines could help alleviate the symptoms. It is becoming increasingly clear that vaccines protect not just against disease but, as the results of this study suggest, against long-term, sometimes life-changing, effects of COVID-19." Prof. Michael Edelstein, study's lead author, Bar-Ilan's Azrieli Faculty To what extent vaccines protect against long COVID remains less clear. This study is the first in an ongoing project launched by Edelstein to track a large cohort of individuals from all sectors of Israel's diverse society to understand the impact of the vaccines on long-term quality of life, different COVID variants, and long-COVID symptoms. This research was funded in part by the Harvey Goodstein Foundation. In a recent study published in the journal Science Immunology, researchers described a mouse model used to generate a V H 1-2 heavy chain (HC)- and V 1-33 light chain (LC)-based recombinant antibody that broadly neutralized all severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants, including the newly emergent Omicron sub-variant BA.5. Study: An Antibody from Single Human V H -rearranging Mouse Neutralizes All SARS-CoV-2 Variants Through BA.5 by Inhibiting Membrane Fusion. Image Credit: NIAID Background Human monoclonal antibodies derived from B cells of patients infected from the early SARS-CoV-2 variants and from vaccinated individuals are rapidly losing their efficacy with the emergence of new Omicron sub-variants. The SARS-CoV-2 spike protein binds to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor on the host cell surface. The spike protein is made of non-covalently linked subunits S1, which contains the receptor binding domain (RBD), and S2, which anchors the spike protein and forms the fusion pore after spike protein cleavage. Neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 inhibits the RBD's binding with the ACE2 receptor by directly binding to the ACE2 receptor binding motif (RBM) or binding outside the RBM and inhibiting ACE2 binding. Some neutralizing antibodies do not inhibit ACE2 receptor binding but prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection of the cell by destabilizing the spike protein trimer. The diversity of antibodies is determined by the variable region sequences encoding the antigen-contact complementarity-region-3 (CDR3), which lie in the V H and V segments of the immunoglobulin gene. The V(D)J recombination process can generate a diverse antibody repertoire and present potential therapeutic avenues to combat SARS-CoV-2 and its variants. About the study The present study used a humanized mouse model to generate a repertoire of primary B cell receptors (BCR) using V(D)J recombination of the human HC V H 1-2 and human LC V 1-33. The non-templated junctional modifications during V(D)J recombination generated diverse antigen-contact CDR3 sequences, which resulted in a varied humanized primary BCR repertoire. These humanized mice were subsequently immunized with spike protein immunogens from the original Wuhan-Hu-1 strain of SARS-CoV-2 to yield therapeutic monoclonal antibodies. Humanized mice carrying immunoglobulin genes have earlier yielded monoclonal antibodies that successfully neutralized some of the SARS-CoV-2 variants but have not been developed to yield antibodies that neutralize the Omicron sub-variants currently circulating in the population. Therefore, the researchers utilized the ability of V(D)J junctional modifications to generate diverse antigen-contact CDR3 sequences, which are coded by V H and V segments, to produce large human primary BCR repertoires that could potentially neutralize all the SARS-CoV-2 variants. Results The study results report the generation of several V H 1-2/V 1-33-based neutralizing antibodies, of which two antibodies (VHH7-5-82 and VHH7-7-53) were similar to earlier antibodies in their mechanism of action. They blocked the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein by binding to an RBM overlapping epitome. However, the study also reports a widely neutralizing antibody, SP1-11, which inhibited SARS-CoV-2 infection by a non-ACE2 receptor binding mechanism. SP1-77 potently neutralized SARS-CoV-2 VOCs, including Omicron sub-variants. (A) Table showed the neutralization activities (IC 50 : top; IC 80 : bottom) of three monoclonal antibodies against all variants of concern (VOCs) and some variants of interest (VOIs) in pseudovirus neutralization assays. Experiments were done in 293 T/ACE2 cells. The neutralization curves were shown in Fig. S4A. The mutations on the spike proteins of different variants were listed in Table S4. Data were representative of 2 biologically independent experiments for most VOCs and VOIs, but one experiment for BA.3. Each independent experiment contained 2 technical replicates. IC 50 and IC 80 values were color-coded based on the key shown at the right. (B) Table showed the neutralization activities of three antibodies against VOCs in PRNT live virus neutralization assays. The neutralization curves were shown in fig. S4C. Data were representative of one independent experiment with 2 technical replicates. IC 50 and IC 90 values were color-coded based on the key shown at the right. (C) Final 3D reconstruction of Fab-S complexes shown in top view and side view with the S in gray and the Fabs colored (SP1-77: green; VHH7-5-82: blue; VHH7-7-53: magenta). The SP1-77 antibody binds to the RBD of the spike protein, inhibiting the dissociation of the S1 subunit and preventing the activation of the fusion peptide on the S2 subunit, ultimately hindering fusion pore formation and viral entry. In addition, Pseudovirus assays revealed that the SP1-77 antibody had broader neutralizing activity than VHH7-5-82 and VHH7-7-53 and neutralized all SARS-CoV-2 variants, including the latest Omicron sub-variant BA.5. Lattice light-sheet microscopy (LLSM) assay showed that SP1-77 did not inhibit the endocytosis of SARS-CoV-2 entry but neutralized the virus by preventing the downstream fusion of the viral membrane with the host cell. Furthermore, cryogenic electron microscopy (Cryo-EM) studies showed that SP1-77 bound to a different SARS-CoV-2 RBD epitope compared to other characterized neutralizing antibodies. Conclusions To conclude, this study reports the generation of a broadly neutralizing monoclonal antibody developed using a humanized mouse model carrying single V H 1-2 heavy chain (HC) and V 1-33 light chain (LC) segments. The SP1-77 antibody differs from previous monoclonal antibodies in the mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 inhibition, as well as the SARS-CoV-2 RBD epitope of binding. According to the authors, future mutagenic studies are required to understand the specific residues that determine SP1-77 binding to the RBD. Live virus neutralization studies establishing the in vivo potency of the antibody are also needed to confirm the therapeutic potential of this antibody. The non-traditional mechanism of neutralization exhibited by SP1-77 can also influence vaccine strategies against the newly emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2. Overall, the study has established a successful prototype for using humanized mouse models carrying V H and V segments to generate a diversity of antibodies and demonstrated the potential of using mouse models to develop humanized antibodies against various pathogens. A growing number of hospitals are outsourcing often-unprofitable outpatient services for their poorest patients by setting up independent, nonprofit organizations to provide primary care. Medicare and Medicaid pay these clinics, known as federally qualified health center look-alikes, significantly more than they would if the sites were owned by hospitals. Like the nearly 1,400 federally qualified health centers which get those additional dollars as well a clinic designated by the government as a "look-alike" is also eligible for federal programs that could help reduce costs and recruit providers. They allow the clinics to obtain prescription drugs at deep discounts and attract doctors by making them eligible for a government program that helps them pay off their student debt if they work in an area with a shortage of medical providers. But unlike the community health centers, the look-alikes do not get an annual federal grant to cover operational costs. Nor do the look-alikes get the financial benefit in which the federal government covers their malpractice risks. Even though they are not part of a hospital system, many of the hospital-formed look-alikes have clinics on hospital campuses or within a short distance. As a result, the clinics can help divert patients without urgent needs from expensive emergency rooms. That helps reduce losses, especially from uninsured patients who might have been using the ER for primary care. Converting clinics to look-alikes is also often a strategy for hospitals that have a high proportion of patients enrolled in Medicaid, which generally reimburses hospitals at lower rates than commercial health plans do, said Jeffrey Allen, a partner with the consulting firm Forvis. "It's a trend that's gaining momentum," he said. Hospitals are betting that they will come out ahead by spinning off a money-losing service and providing grant funding to the look-alike to keep it solvent, he said. At the same time, hospitals expect many patients from the look-alike clinics who need to be admitted for services or require specialized care to be routed to their hospitals, he said. At least eight hospital systems have converted existing clinics or built new ones that received look-alike designation from 2019 through 2022, according to a KHN analysis of federal data. They include: Parkview Health, a large hospital system in Indiana and Ohio, which opened a look-alike called Alliance Health Centers in Fort Wayne, Indiana, that was designated in 2021. Tami Brigle, a hospital spokesperson, said look-alike status offered the system a better way to provide care to underserved people. Parrish Medical Center in Titusville, Florida, which helped open Space Coast Health Centers, designated as a look-alike in 2022. Parrish spent $1.2 million to set up the clinic, which provides primary care and mental health care, a few blocks from the hospital. "Many of our patients have not had primary care for years and have multiple medical and behavioral needs," Space Coast CEO Arvin Lewis said in a statement to KHN. "We are working to improve access to care." Wabash General Hospital, which partnered with a local health department to form Wabash Community Health Center, a look-alike clinic near the hospital in Mount Carmel, Illinois. Danielle Stevens, the hospital's executive vice president of business development, said that the hospital was treating some clinic patients in its emergency room and that the new facility provided mental health services and physical health in one location. "The intent is to expand services that are currently not offered to the community with the enhanced reimbursement," she said. Beverly Hospital in Montebello, a city in Los Angeles County, which provided a $3 million loan and donated its women's clinic to get the look-alike BeverlyCare started, according to BeverlyCare Executive Director Corali Nakamatsu. The look-alike leases office space from the hospital for its adult and pediatrics clinic. That clinic helps patients who need follow-up care after visiting the hospital emergency room. The clinic also gives patients a lower-cost option than using the ER. Indiana Hospital Association President Brian Tabor said hospitals are sometimes wary of forming a look-alike because it means giving control to a new organization. But, he said, the conversion can benefit both hospitals and patients: "Hospitals are exploring different payment models to support access in rural and underserved areas, and look-alike status has emerged for some as a real critical tool." Nationally, 108 look-alike health centers operate today, an increase from 87 in 2020, according to the federal Health Resources and Services Administration. The majority were not started by hospitals. Look-alike health centers are overseen by a board of directors, and at least 51% of the directors are required to be patients just like full-fledged community health centers. Look-alike health centers treat patients on a sliding fee scale based on their income. Organizations typically seek look-alike status from the federal government as a precursor to becoming a fully funded federally qualified health center. In the Allentown, Pennsylvania, area, both major health systems St. Luke's University Health Network and Lehigh Valley Health Network recently transitioned many of their primary care clinics to look-alikes. Neither hospital would provide a spokesperson to talk about the changes, but both answered questions in writing. St. Luke's started Star Community Health in 2018; it received its look-alike designation in 2020. "Star has been able to treat a broader group of individuals that would otherwise not have access to care," Star CEO Mark Roberts said, although he provided no details about the expansion. Lehigh Valley converted several of its primary care practices to look-alike status under the name Valley Health Partners Community Health Center. The extra funding from Medicare and Medicaid has allowed the clinics to expand services for mental health and substance use, as well as to offer assistance from financial counselors, social workers, and clinical pharmacists, said spokesperson Jamie Stover. Lee Health, a hospital system based in Fort Myers, Florida, converted more than two dozen of its outpatient clinics to look-alike status starting in 2014. Bob Johns, senior vice president for Lee Community Healthcare, is the lone full-time executive of the look-alike. The other personnel are still employed by the hospital system. The higher Medicaid funding has helped pay for four new adult family practice clinics and a pediatric mental health clinic, Johns said. And a mobile health clinic that goes to underserved areas is also partly funded through the enhanced Medicaid reimbursements. Johns said the look-alike clinic gets about $120 for a Medicaid primary care office visit, nearly double the payment that the clinics received when they were owned by Lee Health. Johns credits the look-alike clinics for reducing unnecessary ER visits at Lee Health hospitals by at least 20%. Many of those visits were from uninsured patients, he said. Look-alikes also benefit from the federal 340B program, which allows them to buy medicines at deeply discounted rates to sell to patients. The patients' insurers typically pay the centers a higher rate, and the clinics keep the difference. Clinics can reduce the out-of-pocket costs for patients but are not required to, although Johns said Lee Health does reduce the drug costs for patients who are uninsured or have low incomes. Hospital systems like Lee Health that qualify for the 340B program typically can use it for only their admitted patients, Johns said. The look-alike status also allows the clinics to participate in the National Health Service Corps, a federal program that pays the student loans of clinicians who agree to work in an area with a shortage of health care providers, he said. "It's a great way for us to hang on to providers," Johns said. Shifting care to look-alikes has helped Lee Health find new funding to expand care to the medically underserved, he said. "It's a cool model and a very efficient way to use limited resources," Johns said. A federal judge's ruling in Texas has thrown into question whether millions of insured Americans will continue to receive some preventive medical services, such as cancer screenings and drugs that protect people from HIV infection, without making a copayment. It's the latest legal battle over the Affordable Care Act, and Wednesday's ruling is almost certain to be appealed. A key part of the ruling by Judge Reed O'Connor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas says one way that preventive services are selected for the no-cost coverage is unconstitutional. Another portion of his ruling says a requirement that an HIV prevention drug therapy be covered without any cost to patients violates the religious freedom of an employer who is a plaintiff in the case. It is not yet clear what all this means for insured patients. A lot depends on what happens next. O'Connor is likely familiar to people who have followed the legal battles over the ACA, which became law in 2010. In 2018, he ruled that the entire ACA was unconstitutional. For this latest case, he has asked both sides to outline their positions on what should come next in filings due Sept. 16. After that, the judge may make clear how broadly he will apply the ruling. O'Connor, whose 2018 ruling was later reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court, has some choices. He could say the decision affects only the conservative plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit, expand it to all Texans, or expand it to every insured person in the U.S. He also might temporarily block the decision while any appeals, which are expected, are considered. "It's quite significant if his ruling stands," said Katie Keith, director of the Health Policy and the Law Initiative at the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at the Georgetown University Law Center. We asked experts to weigh in on some questions about what the ruling might mean. What does the ACA require on preventive care? Under a provision of the ACA that went into effect in late 2010, many services considered preventive are covered without a copayment or deductible from the patient. A recent estimate from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that more than 150 million people with insurance had access to such free care in 2020. The federal government currently lists 22 broad categories of coverage for adults, an additional 27 for women, and 29 for children. To get on those lists, vaccines, screening tests, drugs, and services must have been recommended by one of three groups of medical experts. But the ruling in the Texas case centers on recommendations from only one group: the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a nongovernmental advisory panel whose volunteer experts weigh the pros and cons of screening tests and preventive treatments. Procedures that get an "A" or "B" recommendation from the task force must be covered without cost to the insured patient and include a variety of cancer screenings, such as colonoscopies and mammograms; cholesterol drugs for some patients; and screenings for diabetes, depression, and sexually transmitted diseases. Why didn't the ACA simply spell out what should be covered for free? "As a policymaker, you do not want to set forth lists in statutes," said Christopher Condeluci, a health policy attorney who served as tax and benefits counsel to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee during the drafting of the ACA. One reason, he said, is that if Congress wrote its own lists, lawmakers would be "getting lobbied in every single forthcoming year by groups wanting to get on that list." Putting it in an independent body theoretically insulated such decisions from political influence and lobbying, he and other experts said. What did the judge say? It's complicated, but the judge basically said that using the task force recommendations to compel insurers or employers to offer the free services violates the Constitution. O'Connor wrote that members of the task force, which is convened by a federal health agency, are actually "officers of the United States" and should therefore be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The decision does not affect recommendations made by the other two groups of medical experts: the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which makes recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccinations, and the Health Resources and Services Administration, a part of the Department of Health and Human Services that has set free coverage rules for services aimed mainly at infants, children, and women, including birth control directives. Many of the task force's recommendations are noncontroversial, but a few have elicited an outcry from some employers, including the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. They argue they should not be forced to pay for services or treatment they disagree with, such as HIV prevention drugs. Part of O'Connor's ruling addressed that issue separately, agreeing with the position taken by plaintiff Braidwood Management, a Christian, for-profit corporation owned by Steven Hotze, a conservative activist who has brought other challenges to the ACA and to coronavirus mask mandates. Hotze challenged the requirement to provide free coverage of preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) drugs that prevent HIV. He said it runs afoul of his religious beliefs, including making him "complicit in facilitating homosexual behavior, drug use, and sexual activity outside of marriage between one man and one woman," according to the ruling. O'Connor said forcing Braidwood to provide such free care in its insurance plan, which it funds itself, violates the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act. What about no-copay contraceptives, vaccines, and other items that are covered under recommendations from other groups not targeted by the judge's ruling? The judge said recommendations or requirements from the other two groups do not violate the Constitution, but he asked both parties to discuss the ACA's contraceptive mandate in their upcoming filings. Currently, the law requires most forms of birth control to be offered to enrollees without a copayment or deductible, although courts have carved out exceptions for religious-based employers and "closely held businesses" whose owners have strong religious objections. The case is likely to be appealed to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. "We will have a conservative court looking at that," said Sabrina Corlette, co-director of Georgetown University's Center on Health Insurance Reforms. "So I would not say that the vaccines and the women's health items are totally safe." Does this mean my mammogram or HIV treatment won't be covered without a copayment anymore? Experts say the decision probably won't have an immediate effect, partly because appeals are likely and they could continue for months or even years. Still, if the ruling is upheld by an appellate court or not put on hold while being appealed, "the question for insurers and employers will come up on whether they should make changes for 2023," said Keith. Widespread changes next year are unlikely, however, because many insurers and employers have already drawn up their coverage rules and set their rates. And many employers, who backed the idea of allowing the task force to make the recommendations when the ACA was being drafted, might not make substantial changes even if the ruling is upheld on appeal. "I just don't see employers for most part really imposing copays for stuff they believe is actually preventive in nature," said James Gelfand, president of the ERISA Industry Committee, which represents large, self-insured employers. For the most part, Gelfand said, employers are in broad agreement on the preventive services, although he noted that covering every type or brand of contraceptive without a patient copayment is controversial and that some employers have cited religious objections to covering some services, including the HIV preventive medications. Religious objections aside, future decisions may have financial consequences. As insurers or employers look for ways to hold down costs, they might reinstitute copayments or deductibles for some of the more expensive preventive services, such as colonoscopies or HIV drugs. "With some of the higher-ticket items, we could see some plans start cost sharing," said Corlette. If you have an event you'd like to list on the site, submit it now! Submit 65th EOD provides services to the military and civilian community in Alaska TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa received from businessman Yousuf Salahuddin a model of the Supermarine Spitfire, an aircraft purchased by Bahrain as a gift to Britain during the Second World War. HM the King, who received Salahuddin at the Sakhir Palace yesterday, was also presented with a special photo album including his personal photos, in addition to pictures documenting the stances of the late His Highness Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the citizens and residents in support of Britain during World War II, and a rare picture of the Supermarine Spitfire aircraft during its inauguration ceremony. His Majesty expressed thanks and appreciation to Salahuddin for the precious gift, commending his efforts in documenting Bahrains history, and wishing him continued success. The businessman extended heartfelt thanks and appreciation to HM the King for appreciating his endeavours, praying to Allah the Almighty to bless HM with abundant health and long life. HH Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the then Ruler of Bahrain, the citizens and residents made financial donations to fund the purchase of 10 Supermarine Spitfire fighter jets carrying the name of Bahrain, as a gift to the British Air Force during World War II. The name of Bahrain was written in Arabic and English from both sides of the cockpit. Iconic Supermarine Spitfire was the iconic British fighter of the Second World War. The late HH Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa (1932-1942) set up a special fund for the citizens and residents to make donations to purchase ten fighter jets to support Britain during the war. The first Supermarine Spitfire aircraft carrying the name of Bahrain was inaugurated in March 1941. Bahrain was among the first countries that had supported Britain during WWII (1939- 1945), as the late HH Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa sent a telegram to HM George VI of Britain (1936-1952) in which he pledged Bahrains support for Britain in the war. HH expressed Bahrains full solidarity with Britain. TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com Bahrain is set to host the 146th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) General Assembly and related meetings in March next year. The agreement was signed yesterday between Bahrains bicameral parliament and the IPU. More than 2,000 representatives of parliaments and delegations from 178 parliaments from across the world and international organisations will participate in the five-day assembly in Bahrain. The assemblies will be jointly organised by the legislative and executive branches. Present in the agreement-signing ceremony in Manama was attended by Council of Representatives Speaker Fawzia bint Abdullah Zainal, Shura Council Chairman Ali bin Saleh Al Saleh and IPU Secretary General Martin Chungong. Speaker Zainal said that the Kingdoms hosting of the IPU 146th Assembly is a clear evidence of the international confidence that it has enjoyed. It also reflects Bahrains good standing in the international community, which comes as a result of the approach and lofty support of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, she added. Zainal also emphasised the remarkable support from the government headed by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, and its steady cooperation with the legislative branch. Al Saleh said that the IPU confidence in Bahrain and the holding of its 146th General Assembly in Manama are a confirmation of the Kingdoms remarkable progress and growth in parliamentary and legislative action. He added that the presence and participation of heads and representatives of all legislative councils in the world, as well as parliamentary unions and international organisations, will constitute an opportunity to learn more about Bahrain and its role in spreading the values of tolerance, coexistence and peace. Topics to be highlighted at the March meetings include peaceful coexistence, rejecting fanaticism, and achieving global security and stability. TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com St Christopher's School, Bahrain has, once again - for the second year in a row - been recognised as one of the world's best private schools by Spear's School Index and Carfax Education. The school was awarded the honour last year and has again achieved this prestigious ranking. We are immensely proud to have included the Kingdom of Bahrain on this prestigious list of the world's best schools, said St Christophers Principal, Dr Simon Watson. We are a school that not only prides itself for its academic excellence but also on the Mission and Values that every member of our community embraces. We are a community of students, staff and families who strive every day towards An education for a shared humanity and it is truly a great honour to be recognised on an international stage. The Spears index is the only research-based worldwide index of the very finest private schools and is a valuable resource for our audience when making some of their most important decisions: where to educate their children. Inclusion depends on the very highest standards in the classroom, world-class facilities for the pupils and, this year, excellence in response to the challenges of schooling in the midst of a pandemic. Every one of the schools featured responded to the difficulties of Covid with resourcefulness, creativity, compassion and drive, once more demonstrating their commitment to improving the lives of their charges," said Ian Douglas, Head of Research and Insight at Spear's. Agencies | Riyadh The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Tourism announced a new Ministerial Decree that will allow faster, easier access to the country. New regulations will enable Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) residents the option to apply for an eVisa through Visit Saudi's online portal. Moreover, residents of the UK, the US, and the EU can apply for a visa on arrival. Holders of a valid tourist or business visa from the UK, US or one of the Schengen agreement countries will continue to be applicable for a visa on arrival, provided the tourist or business visa has been used at least once to enter the country. The eVisa will be a one-year, multiple entry visa, allowing tourists to spend up to 90 days in the country. It covers tourism-related activities and Umrah (excluding Haj season) and excludes other activities such as studying. The new decree also no longer requires visitors to visit the country's embassy before entering Saudi Arabia, allowing potential travellers a more simplified journey. Ahmed Al-Khateeb, Minister of Tourism for Saudi Arabia, said, "Elevating the visitor experience is at the heart of the tourism sector's future. Through harnessing digital innovation and streamlining the traveller journey, Saudi Arabia is welcoming more and more visitors from all corners of the globe." Travellers from 48 countries are eligible to apply for the visa; including Canada, the USA, Switzerland, the UK, China, Singapore, Australia, and South Korea. However, South Asian countries India and Pakistan are not on the list of countries eligible for the eVisa. Here is how applicants can apply for the visa: According to the https://visa.visitsaudi.com/ website, travellers can apply for a visa in three simple steps: Fill in the online application Pay the visa fee Get your online visa Here are things to keep in mind: Japan's Emperor Naruhito has issued a statement expressing his deep sorrow and heartfelt condolences over the death of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. The Emperor said he would like to express earnest respect and gratitude for the Queen's legacy, her achievements and her dedication. The Japanese Imperial family has long had close relations with the British Royal family. Emperor Emeritus Akihito attended the Queen's coronation ceremony in 1953, on behalf of Emperor Showa. In the 1980s, Emperor Naruhito studied at Britain's Oxford University and has since made official visits to Britain on three occasions, and dined with the Queen. In the statement, the Emperor noted that the Queen had always taken a warm attitude toward relations between the two countries, and paid attention to ties between the British Royal family and the Japanese Imperial family. The Emperor expressed his deep gratitude for the Queen's solicitude for him on various occasions during his days at Oxford and visits to the country. ... continue reading MERIDEN The state Inspector General has ruled a city police officer was justified when he shot and wounded a man wanted for an armed robbery during a confrontation in February last year. Kenneth Strothers survived his wound and underwent surgery following the Feb. 12, 2021 shooting, according to a report released Friday by Robert Devlin, the state inspector general tasked with investigating shootings by police. Authorities said Strothers saw police staging at a motel parking lot on North Broad Street in Meriden to take him into custody when he ran to the driveway of a nearby self-storage business. Strothers then hid behind an SUV and called out to police that he had a gun, pulling out an unloaded firearm wrapped in a T-shirt, the report stated. Strothers then racked the weapons slide and pointed it, still wrapped in the shirt, at Meriden Police Office Erik Simonson, who shot him once in the abdomen, the report stated. The investigation establishes that Officer Erik Simonson used deadly force against Kenneth Strothers to prevent Strothers from what Simonson reasonably believed was Strothers imminent intent to shoot him, Devlin concluded in his report. I therefore conclude that such use of force was justified under Connecticut law. The Office of Inspector General will take no further action on this matter. At the time of the shooting, Simonson was 40 years old and had been with the Meriden Police Department for 13 years, Devlins report stated. He had no history of discipline. On the day of the shooting, police were seeking to arrest Strothers on a warrant out of West Hartford, charging him with the armed robbery of a Shell gas station on Jan. 30, 2021, the report stated. Police in New Britain also had a warrant for his arrest for first-degree robbery, and he was suspected of other robberies in Southington, Wethersfield, Meriden and Newington, the inspector generals report stated. Police went to look for Strothers in Meriden because he had family in the area, and because the low-cost motels along Berlin Turnpike were sometimes used as a hideout by suspects, according to the report. Authorities spotted Strothers going in and out of a room at the Flamingo Inn. Just before 10:10 p.m., he was seen leaving the room and ran after police approached him, the report stated. According to the report, Strothers ran down a snow covered slope and crossed four lanes of traffic while West Hartford police and Simonson pursued him. Simonson said in his statement provided through his attorney that he had pursued Strothers until the man got behind the drivers door of an empty SUV that had been left running. As soon as Strothers reached the drivers door of the small SUV, he yelled to me, I got a gun! Simonson said in his statement, according to the report. He said Strothers began reaching around his waistband and produced an object covered by a white T-shirt, the report stated. Simonson said he believed the object was not actually a gun, and that Strothers was attempting to die by suicide-by-cop, the report stated. Approximately one to two seconds after Strothers produced the gun under the cloth, he racked his gun (pulling the slide of a semi-automatic pistol), which was still underneath the white cloth, Simonson said in his statement, the report stated. As Strothers was racking the gun, I heard the distinct sound of metal on metal and knew he was in fact pointing a firearm at me. At that point, I feared that Strothers would shoot and kill me since I was in the open with no cover or concealment, I was forced to discharge my department issued firearm at Strothers one time. During an interview with state police detectives investigating Simonsons use of force, Strothers acknowledged having a gun, but did not think he had racked the slide or made any other motion to indicate he was planning to shoot, the report stated. He also claimed Simonson had not ordered him to drop the gun, the report stated. Strothers reiterated that he told the officer that he did have a gun, and that it was on him for having told the officer that, but he did not point it at the officer, yet the officer still shot him, Devlins report stated. Strothers stated that he was not innocent, but he felt that it was a use of deadly force, or felt the officer had never been in that predicament before. In his report, Devlin noted the shooting was ruled justified, but said the phenomenon of suicide-by-cop, and that in other circumstances where a suspect is contained, police may instead opt for communication. While not applicable in Strothers-type situations, this area deserves more study and training, Devlin wrote. As the studies make clear, the most effective weapon in some suicide-by-cop situations is communication. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate LOS ANGELES (AP) Forces were beginning to collide in California on Thursday as wildfires threatened communities, an epic heat wave stressed the electrical grid and as moisture from a tropical storm was expected to bring thunderstorms and floods along with cooling. Firefighters struggled to control major wildfires in Southern California and the Sierra Nevada that have grown explosively, forced extensive evacuations and produced smoke that could interfere with solar power production. The Fairview Fire in Southern California covered about 37 square miles (95 square kilometers) of Riverside County and was just 5% contained. Two people died while fleeing flames on Monday and at least 11 structures have been destroyed. More than 18,000 homes were threatened by the fire fed by shifting winds, officials said. In the Sierra, the Mosquito Fire burned out of control, scorching at least 11 square miles (28 square kilometers), forcing evacuations for some 2,500 residents in Placer and El Dorado counties, while blanketing the region in smoke. Flames jumped the American River, burning structures in the mountain hamlet of Volcanoville and moving closer to the town of Foresthill, home to about 1,500 people. Fire spokesperson Chris Vestal called the fast-moving blaze an extreme and critical fire threat. The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection warned the Reno area that air quality could be very unhealthy to hazardous due to smoke from the Mosquito Fire 100 miles (160 kilometer) away. The fire's cause remained under investigation. Pacific Gas & Electric notified the state Public Utilities Commission that the U.S. Forest Service placed caution tape around the base of a PG&E transmission pole but that no damage could be seen. PG&E said unspecified electrical activity occurred close in time to the report of the fire on Sept. 6. Another dangerous blaze burned in stands of timber near the Big Bear Lake resort region in the San Bernardino Mountains east of Los Angeles. It was just 2% contained after scorching nearly 2 square miles (5 square kilometers). A surge of clouds and showers associated with Tropical Storm Kay off Mexicos Baja California peninsula knocked the edge off temperatures in Southern California at times but also were a potential problem for solar generation. The storm was downgraded from a hurricane Thursday evening. Despite the initial impacts of Kay, forecasters warned that the heat was not yet done. The seemingly endless heat wave that has been plaguing California will finally becoming to an end across at least Southern California, but not before two more very hot days and very warm nights, the Los Angeles-area weather office wrote. Operators of Californias power grid issued another Flex Alert call for voluntary cuts in use of electricity and expanded the period by two hours, 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Wildfire smoke and the cloud cover created uncertainty about solar power production in afternoon hours when temperatures rise toward their peaks, said Elliot Mainzer, president and CEO of the California Independent System Operator. There was also uncertainty about wind power at the back end of the period. Cal-ISO has issued Flex Alerts since last week and has avoided ordering rolling power outages, although a miscommunication with one Northern California provider led to blackouts. With record demand on power supplies across the West, California snapped its record energy use around 5 p.m. Tuesday with 52,061 megawatts, far above the previous high of 50,270 megawatts set July 24, 2006. An emergency appeal for conservation that was sent to Californians cellphones was credited with an immediate drop in demand on the electrical grid that evening. Electrical demand hit 50,184 megawatts on Wednesday but it ended up being a relatively quiet operation on the system, Mainzer told a briefing. The electrical load forecast for Thursday afternoon and evening was higher, however, and the uncertainty involving the renewable energy sources made the situation a bit more complex, he said. We certainly think were close to turning the corner, but we still have challenges ahead of us this evening, Mainzer said. Storm and wind conditions associated with the approaching hurricane were likely to create a new set of risks for power shortages in Southern California, he noted. Tropical Storm Kay was expected to reach northern Baja California on Friday, the National Weather Service said. Despite losing hurricane strength, Kay was expected to send a surge of moisture into Southern California. Strong winds, heavy rain and flash floods were likely Friday evening through Saturday. Tropical storm warnings were posted for mariners. Up the West Coast, forecasters predicted strong, gusting winds and low humidity across western Oregon beginning Friday' and authorities warned of heightened wildfire danger after an unseasonably hot and dry late summer. An Oregon utility said it will cut power to about 12,500 customers to the south and west of Portland just after midnight Friday in anticipation of strong, dry winds that pose a severe wildfire danger in the region. Another utility says about 30,000 additional customers could see their power cut as well in a bid to prevent fire from sagging or broken power lines. Towns and cities across western Oregon and southwest Washington also imposed fire bans, including in the town of Seaside, where even beach bonfires were prohibited. Forecasters warned of a chance of rapid fire spread but said winds were not expected to be as intense as those that hit on Labor Day weekend in 2020, fanning wildfires that burned more than 1 million acres, destroyed 4,000 homes and killed at least 11 people. ____ Associated Press writers Stefanie Dazio and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles, Gillian Flaccus in Portland, Oregon, and Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada, contributed to this report. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 5 1 of 5 Tyler Sizemore / Hearst Connecticut Media file photo Show More Show Less 2 of 5 H John Voorhees III / Hearst Connecticut Media file photo Show More Show Less 3 of 5 4 of 5 H John Voorhees III / Hearst Connecticut Media file photo Show More Show Less 5 of 5 Sunday will mark the 21st anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that claimed more than 3,000 lives at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Community members will gather at ceremonies to reflect and honor the victims and first responders. Here is where events will be held. DERBY, Conn. (AP) A Connecticut attorney is accused of slapping another lawyer during an argument outside a courthouse. Robert Serafinowicz, 43, was charged Wednesday with third-degree assault on an elderly person and breach of peace. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Ukrainian forces on Friday claimed new success in their counteroffensive against Russian forces in the country's east, taking control of a sizeable village and pushing toward an important transport junction. The United States' top diplomat and the head of NATO noted the advances, but cautioned that the war is likely to drag on for months. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy commended the military for its gains in the east, saying in a nightly video address that Ukrainian troops have reclaimed more than 30 settlements in the Kharkiv region since the start of the counteroffensive there this week. We are gradually taking control over more settlements, returning the Ukrainian flag and protection for our people. Zelenskyy said. Ukraine's military said it also launched new attacks on Russian pontoon bridges used to bring supplies across the Dnieper River to Kherson, one of the largest Russian-occupied cities, and the adjacent region. Ukrainian artillery and rocket strikes have left all regular bridges across the river unusable, the military's southern command said. Anxiety increased about Europe's largest nuclear power plant, which was operating in emergency mode Friday for the fifth straight day due to the war. That prompted the head of the U.N. atomic watchdog to call for the establishment of an immediate safety zone around the plant to prevent a nuclear accident. The six-reactor Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant came under the control of Russian forces early in the war but is being operated by Ukrainian staff. The plant and surrounding areas have been repeatedly hit by shelling that Russia and Ukraine blame on each other. The last power line connecting the plant to the Ukrainian electricity grid was cut Monday, leaving the plant without an outside source of electricity. It is receiving power for its own safety systems from the only reactor out of six total that remains operational. In other advances, the Ukrainian military said it took control of the village of Volokhiv Yar in the Kharkiv region and aimed to advance toward strategically valuable town of Kupiansk, which would cut off Russian forces from key supply routes. Pro-Russian authorities in the Kupiansk district announced that civilians were being evacuated toward the Russian-held region of Luhansk. The initial signs are positive and we see Ukraine making real, demonstrable progress in a deliberate way, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Brussels, a day after visiting Kyiv. But this is likely to go on for some significant period of time, he said. There are a huge number of Russian forces in Ukraine and unfortunately, tragically, horrifically, President (Vladimir) Putin has demonstrated that he will throw a lot of people into this at huge cost to Russia. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who met with Blinken, said the war is entering a critical phase. The gains "are modest and only the first successes of the counteroffensive of the Ukrainian army, but they are important both in terms of seizing the military initiative and raising the spirit of Ukrainian soldiers, Mykola Sunhurovskyi, a military analyst at the Razumkov Center in Kyiv, told The Associated Press. Energoatom, Ukraine's state nuclear operator, said Friday that repairs to outside electric lines at the Zaporizhzhia plant are impossible because of the shelling and that operating the plant in what is called an island status carries "the risk of violating radiation and fire safety standards. "Only the withdrawal of the Russians from the plant and the creation of a security zone around it can normalize the situation at the Zaporizhzhia NPP. Only then will the world be able to exhale, Petro Kotin, the head of Energoatom, told Ukrainian TV. Earlier, Kotin told The Associated Press the plant's only operating reactor can be stopped completely" at any moment and as a consequence, the only power source would be a diesel generator. There are 20 generators on site and enough diesel fuel for 10 days. After that, about 200 tons of diesel fuel would be needed daily for the generators, which he said is impossible to get while the plant is occupied by Russian forces. Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Friday that there was little likelihood of reestablishing reliable offsite power lines to the plant. This is an unsustainable situation and is becoming increasingly precarious, Grossi said, calling for an immediate cessation of all shelling in the entire area and the establishment of a nuclear safety and security protection zone. This is the only way to ensure that we do not face a nuclear accident, he said. Fighting continued Friday elsewhere in Ukraine. Russian planes bombed the hospital in the town of Velika Pysarivka, on the border with Russia, said Dmytro Zhyvytskyi, governor of the Sumy region. He said the building was destroyed and there were an unknown number of casualties. In the Donetsk region in the east one of two that Russia declared to be sovereign states at the outset of the war eight people were killed in the city of Bakhmut over the past day and the city is without water and electricity for the fourth straight day, said governor Pavlo Kyrylenko. Four people were killed in shelling in the Kharkiv region, two of them in the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest, according to governor Oleh Syniehubov. The shelling of the city continued Friday afternoon, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said, wounding 10 people, including three children. Ukraine this week claimed to have regained control of more than 20 settlements in the Kharkiv region, including the small city of Balakliya. Social media posts showed weeping, smiling Balakliya residents embracing Ukrainian soldiers. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday refused to comment on the alleged retaking of Balakliya, redirecting all such questions to the Russian Defense Ministry. But Vitaly Ganchev, the Russian-installed official in the Kharkiv region, confirmed Friday that Balakliya, in effect, is not under our control. Ganchev said tough battles were continuing in the city. Helicopters and fighter jets streaked over the rolling plains of the Donetsk region, with the jets heading toward Izium, near where Ukrainian forces have been carrying out a counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region. The jets fired flares and black smoke billowed in the distance. Associated Press writer Elena Becatoros in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report. ___ Follow all AP stories on the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine. One could argue that the F-16 Fighting Falcon plane doesn't need any special paint job to be the coolest thing in the air. After all, the Viper, as pilots call it, is the world's most popular fighter by number of planes in service around the world, and the ride of choice for the elite Air Force Thunderbirds. But when you see one sparkle in flawless all-gold, it somehow still hits differently. In July, in celebration of the Air Force's 75th anniversary, the Iowa Air National Guard rolled out an F-16 with a fresh all-gold paint job and intricate details harking back to the state's first gold heritage jet, unveiled in 1996. Like that 50th anniversary F-16, the new throwback jet has a striking glossy black radome, or nose cone, and the inscription "Pride of Siouxland" across the side. The original anniversary dates, 1946-1996, are printed on the ventral fins under the body of the plane. Unit emblems including a black bat with wings spread and a native American headdress bearing the words "Sioux City" can be found on the tail. A gold U.S. Air Force F-16A Falcon from the Iowa Air National Guard is on the ramp in Sioux City, Iowa on June 30, 2022. The jet is painted with commemorative anniversary paint scheme that replicates the units 50th anniversary gold jet as it appeared in 1996. (U.S. Air Force photo Senior Master Sgt. Vincent De Groot) The aircraft also carries multiple hat tips to Col. Dennis Swanstrom, the Iowa ANG 128th Air Refueling Wing commander who had the audacity to create the original all-gold fighter, even though special paint jobs for active planes were essentially unheard-of at the time. "As the story goes, Swanstrom was a consummate promoter and didn't always concern himself with particular rules if they got in the way of a good idea," a Guard news release stated. "The unit's 50th anniversary happens only once and for those who knew him, when Swany had a good idea, no amount of persuasion could convince him otherwise." And based on the hype the newly released gold F-16 is generating it appears history has proven Swany right. Elsewhere around the Air Force, fighter paint schemes have become an art form, with increasingly intricate and meaningful designs. Here are five more notable heritage designs in the last few years that you might have missed. 1) F-35 Aggressor Aircraft Two F-35 Joint Strike Fighters have joined the newly reactivated 65th Aggressor Squadron at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, and they're sporting a fresh look. The unit, which maintains jets intended to simulate enemy fighters in combat scenarios, stood back up in June at a ceremony featuring a static F-35 in a subtle three-color camouflage carefully designed not to interfere with the 5th-generation fighter's stealth coating. Lt. Col. Brandon Nauta, 65th Aggressor Squadron commander, assumes command of the 65 AGRS during an activation ceremony at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, June 9, 2022. The aggressor squadron acts as an opposing force in sorties by replicating enemy tactics, techniques and procedures. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Josey Blades) The paint scheme, though limited so as to avoid compromising the F-35's low-observable characteristics, is "reminiscent of both the Russian Su-57 Felon and Chinese J-20 fighters," Air Force Magazine reported. The future look of these F-35 "red air" fighters has been the subject of lively speculation for years. In 2020, aviation artist Sean Hampton released seven artists' renderings showing possible schemes that vividly simulated adversary aircraft. Among them were "The Wraith," a black-and-red scheme apparently inspired by a Russian MiG and now in use on aggressor F-16s; and "Ghost," an eye-catching pixelated blue-and-white theme imitating the Su-57 that has also been applied to the F-16. The 65th Aggressor Squadron commander, Lt. Col. Brandon Nauta, and Lt. Col. Michael Albrecht, fly in a two-ship F-35A Lightning II formation from Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, June 9, 2022. The F-35As were on their way to the Nevada Test and Training Range to participate in their inaugural training mission against F-15E Strike Eagles. (U.S. Air force photo by Tech. Sgt. Alexandre Montes) One could argue that warpaint on the F-35 is a little beside the point; the fighter is designed to close on an enemy before the enemy even knows they're in danger. But if the Air Force does choose to amp up the realism on its aggressor Joint Strike Fighters, it has plenty of options. 2) 'POW' A-10 Warthog The Air Force's beloved A-10 Thunderbolt, also known as the Warthog, is a perennial favorite for flashy heritage paint jobs. But a special desert scheme unveiled in 2021 took on a whole new meaning. The Air Force's A-10 demonstration team commissioned a retro green-and-tan "SouthEast Asia"-style paint scheme in tribute to Vietnam veterans and American prisoners of war. Like Air Force planes in the Vietnam war, the demo team's A-10C featured patches of dark and light greens and dark tan on the upper surfaces and camouflage gray below. A U.S. Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II flies over Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, Feb. 17, 2022. The A-10 Demonstration Teams jet has a heritage paint job to pay tribute to the 355th Tactical Fighter Wings contributions in the Vietnam War, including special dedication to personnel who were killed in action or became prisoners of war. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Jacob T. Stephens) On the right side of the plane are printed the names of the 97 airmen from the 355th Tactical Fighter Wing who were killed in action or held as POWs during the war. Like the A-10 demo team, the 335th is stationed at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona. "The opportunity to fly an aircraft with a Vietnam War-era paint scheme is one I never thought I would have," said Capt. Haden "Gator" Fullam, the demonstration team commander, said in a statement. The U.S. Air Force A-10C Thunderbolt II Demonstration Team, assigned to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, showcased a Vietnam-era SouthEast Asia (SEA) camouflage paint scheme at the Festival of Flight airshow onboard Naval Air Facility (NAF) El Centro, March 13, 2021. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Drew Verbis) "Every time I fly that aircraft it will have a special meaning to me, so giving the best and safest demonstrations at airshows is without question my priority. What is going to make that happen is the experience and professionalism we have as a team," Fullam added. The Vietnam heritage A-10 continues to fly in air shows this summer. 3) 'Passionate Patsy' In a sea of eye-catching combat aircraft paint schemes, the 310th Fighter Squadron's flagship F-16 still manages to stand out. At the beginning of this year, the squadron from Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, rolled out an homage to the World War II-era "Passionate Patsy" Republic P-47 Thunderbolt in honor of the squadron's 80th anniversary. The 310th Fighter Squadrons newly painted F-16 Fighting Falcon is towed to the flight line Jan. 19, 2022, at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona. Structural maintainers applied a paint scheme to match that of the World War II era 310th Fighter Squadrons Passionate Patsy Republic P-47 Thunderbolt in celebration of the Air Education and Training Commands 80th anniversary. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman David Busby) Then part of the Army Air Corps and known as the 310th Pursuit Squadron (Interceptor), the unit flew P-47 escort fighters with a distinctive Army green body and a silver-and-red striped band around the nose. The nose itself was painted yellow and featured a dark-haired pinup girl in white heels: "Passionate Patsy." The 310th Fighter Squadrons newly painted F-16 Fighting Falcon sits on display Jan. 19, 2022, at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona. The 56th Corrosion Control Unit maintainers recreated the paint scheme in honor of the 310ths legacy and in celebration of the Air Education and Training Commands 80th anniversary. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman David Busby) The tribute F-16 features the iconic stripes on the tail and a modified yellow band around the nose. It also has sleek blue-on-blue stripes on the body and the original Army green above the cockpit. 4) A-10 'Blacksnake' Staying with the anniversary theme, we have to pay tribute to the Indiana Air National Guard's 122nd Fighter Wing, which turned out a truly terrifying all-black A-10 in 2021 in honor of the 100th anniversary of aviation in the Indiana National Guard. A black and grey U.S. Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II from the Indiana Air National Guards 122nd Fighter Wing Blacksnakes, flying home on July 7, 2021. The A-10 is on its way back to Fort Wayne Ind. after being painted at the Air National Guard paint facility in Sioux City, Iowa. The paint scheme, a departure from the standard two-tone grey, was created by request in order to commemorate the 100th anniversary of aviation in the Indiana National Guard. (U.S. Air National Guard photo: Senior Master Sgt. Vincent De Groot) The "Blacksnakes," as the unit is called, leaned fully into the theme, swapping out the A-10's typical gray and adding a menacing snake head to the nose, including bared venomous teeth, a scaly face, and glowing hooded eyes. According to a news release describing the paint job, the "Blacksnakes" nickname originated in the Revolutionary War. Anthony Wayne, an American general and founding father who would also be the namesake for Fort Wayne, Indiana, was called "Black Snake" by the Native Americans who saw him fight, the release said. Air National Guard Paint Facility technician, Paul Grigsby cleans up stenciling on the nose of a U.S. Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II while in the paint booth at the Sioux City, Iowa-based Air National Guard Paint Facility on June 29, 2021. The aircraft from the 122nd Fighter Wing has been painted with a non-standard paint scheme in order to commemorate the 100th anniversary of aviation in the Indiana National Guard. (U.S. Air National Guard photo: Senior Master Sgt. Vincent De Groot) "Wayne was known for a methodical fighting style where he instructed his soldiers to lie in wait for the right moment to strike, similar to the actions of a North American Black Snake," the news release added. The body of the A-10 also features a small checkered flag honoring the "Racers" of Indiana's 181st Intelligence Wing. 5) Air Force jet honors a Marine Finally, we turn to the South Dakota Air National Guard, which commemorated the Air Force's 75th anniversary by honoring a Medal of Honor recipient from the Marine Corps. As it turns out, World War II Ace Capt. Joe Foss, though he flew for the Marines in combat, played a key role in establishing the air component of the South Dakota National Guard after returning home from war. As a guardsman, Foss became the first commander of the 114th Fighter Wing prior to serving as governor of South Dakota. A blue and white F-16 from the 114th Fighter Wing, painted at the Air National Guard Paint Facility in Sioux City, Iowa was painted for the South Dakota Air Guard in commemoration of their 75th anniversary. The paint scheme was conceptualized to emulate the WWII-era Grumman F-4F Wildcat flown by South Dakota native and Medal of Honor recipient Joe Foss. (U.S. Air National Guard photo: Senior Master Sgt. Vincent De Groot) "Today the 114th Fighter Wing of the South Dakota Air Guard is located at Joe Foss field in Sioux Falls, named after the South Dakota native who became a United States Marine Corps flying Ace during the 2nd World War," a release stated. A blue and white F-16 from the 114th Fighter Wing, painted at the Air National Guard Paint Facility in Sioux City, Iowa was painted for the South Dakota Air Guard in commemoration of their 75th anniversary. The paint scheme featuring Mount Rushmore was conceptualized to emulate the WWII-era Grumman F-4F Wildcat flown by South Dakota native and Medal of Honor recipient Joe Foss. (U.S. Air National Guard photo: Senior Master Sgt. Vincent De Groot) The F-16 heritage jet honoring Foss is themed after the Grumman F-4F Wildcat he flew in combat. It features an azure body with white accents, a cartoon coyote with a machine gun on the tail flash, and a stylized depiction of the faces on Mount Rushmore in red on an underside panel. Hope Hodge Seck is an award-winning investigative and enterprise reporter who has been covering military issues since 2009. She is the former managing editor for Military.com. Follow Hope Seck: Twitter Read the original article on Sandboxx. Jury recognizes the quality of the company's innovation and creativity at its annual gala in Toronto TORONTO, Sept. 8, 2022 /CNW Telbec/ - The Cinco team took home the Agency of the Year award on September 7, a top honor at the Sponsorship Marketing Awards hosted by The Sponsorship Marketing Council of Canada at the Globe and Mail Centre in Toronto. The event is Canada's premier annual event for sponsorship and brand experience activation. The awards recognize the work of Canada's top sponsors, brands and agencies in the sponsorship industry. Cinco: Confirmed Leadership A leader in Canada, recognized for its hybrid activations balancing real and virtual experiences, Cinco stood out from the finalists because of its recent innovation for major national and international brands, including the xSpace for Ford of Canada, sponsor of the Montreal Canadiens and Edmonton Oilers. In the process, the jury recognized the impact and reach of its experiential activations and the contribution of the CincoLab. This commercial innovation gateway experiments and builds lasting emotional connections between brands and consumers. "Our CincoLab innovation and experience creation collective is the partner of choice for major brands and global agencies looking for innovative, immersive and engaging activations," says Cinco President and CEO Nicolas Marullo. Metaverse and Web3 In recent years, the company has worked on activations including Olympic Games and major Fortune 500 companies. Three years ago, Cinco created its xSpace a disruptive new innovation, which is now part of the experiences underway in the Metaverse. "We are pioneers in the industry, which has led us to already master the environment, its challenges and its tremendous capacity to make brands shine with consumers when the Metaverse gained popularity. These include the younger generations who are already familiar with headsets and 3D environments, thanks to video games," explains Marullo. xSpace: activating the future in the present In awarding its Agency of the Year prize to Cinco, the jury recognized the innovative qualities of its xSpace solution and the high level of expertise of its team in a sector of the future. "We are in demand around the world because of our hybrid capabilities, amplified by the pandemic and the quest of brands to find new ways to connect their products to consumers," explains Marullo. He adds that the commercial future in the virtual world is in its infancy and that Cinco is at the forefront of guiding and assisting brands in this expanding universe. "Web3 is propelling us into virtual environments that are pulverizing traditional digital activations. Companies that jump on the bandwagon today will have a head start that will be hard to catch up to in three or four years," he says. As a result, the jury recognized the value of the investments and results associated with the launch of xSpace in 2021. "With xSpace, we are delivering a solution designed to rethink experiential marketing and how to connect consumers, events and sponsors, while expanding the horizon for business strategies between the real and virtual worlds." About the Sponsorship Marketing Awards Launched in 2000 to recognize excellence in sponsorship, the Sponsorship Marketing Awards are the cornerstone of the Sponsorship Marketing Council of Canada. The annual panel of judges presents its Agency of the Year award to recognize an agency's excellence in leadership within the Canadian industry. About the Sponsorship Marketing Council of Canada The Sponsorship Marketing Council of Canada fosters innovation in the field of sponsorship marketing. It supports brand marketers, agency partners and sponsored organizations to harness the power of sponsorship through education, collaboration and access to industry best practices. About Cinco Canada's leading experiential marketing company, Cinco helps national and global brands create meaningful experiences with their consumers and fans through vibrant connections and live virtual experiences. Cinco also supports companies in their Web3 transformation and their road to leverage the Metaverse. xSpace Demo Video: https://cincolab.co/xspace-demo Cinco Website: wearecinco.com SOURCE CINCO For further information: Media relations: Marie Dumaine, VROY Communications, [email protected] The first event in a series of employee appreciation concerts hosted by Cornerstone Building Brands in celebration of its Home for Good Project CALGARY, AB, Sept. 9, 2022 /CNW/ - Yesterday, Canadian Country Star Tyler Joe Miller visited the Ply Gem Canada facility in Calgary for a private concert for employees as part of Cornerstone Building Brands' long-standing partnership with the country music community. Ply Gem Canada is part of the Cornerstone Building Brands family. Canadian Country Star Tyler Joe Miller visited the Ply Gem Canada facility in Calgary for a private concert (CNW Group/Cornerstone Building Brands) This event is the first in a series of concerts hosted by Cornerstone Building Brands across its North American offices and facilities in celebration of its Home for Good Project. Since launching in 2016, the Home for Good Project has partnered with Habitat for Humanity and Universal Music Group Nashville and provided over $2.8 million in exterior building products, such as windows, siding and accessories, to build or remodel over 600 homes in more than 90 communities across North America. Cornerstone Building Brands has worked closely with project ambassadors such as Alan Jackson, Darius Rucker, Luke Bryan, Lauren Alaina and Jon Pardi to raise awareness of the growing need for safe, affordable housing in North America. This year, country music star Tyler Hubbard will serve as ambassador, donating his time to the project. "Country music artists and fans share our commitment to positively contributing to our communities and helping those in need of affordable housing," said Richard Hill, vice president Marketing, Cornerstone Building Brands. "We are thrilled to be collaborating with them to build safe, affordable housing in North America. Yesterday's event was an opportunity for our Ply Gem Canada team to learn more about this important project and celebrate our relationship with the country music community during Country Music Week." Tyler Joe Miller is currently in Calgary attending the 2022 Canadian Country Music Awards (CCMA), where he is nominated for 3 awards. About Cornerstone Building Brands Cornerstone Building Brands is the largest manufacturer of exterior building products by sales for residential and low-rise non-residential buildings in North America. Headquartered in Cary, N.C., we serve residential and commercial customers across the new construction and repair and remodel markets. Our market-leading portfolio of products spans vinyl windows, vinyl siding, stone veneer, metal roofing, metal wall systems and metal accessories. Cornerstone Building Brands' broad, multichannel distribution platform and expansive national footprint includes more than 20,000 employees at manufacturing, distribution and office locations throughout North America. Corporate stewardship and environmental, social and governance (ESG) responsibility are embedded in our culture. We are committed to contributing positively to the communities where we live, work and play. For more information, visit us at www.cornerstonebuildingbrands.com. SOURCE Cornerstone Building Brands For further information: Kamila Karwowski, 416-999-4966, [email protected] Guests are invited to join in celebrating Iceland's iconic food, cocktails, music, film, literature, and more. TORONTO, Sept. 9, 2022 /CNW/ -- Inspired by Iceland, today announced the continuation of Taste of Iceland 2022 , an annual celebration of Icelandic culture in North America. Continuing the series of fall festivals, Toronto is hosting Taste of Iceland from Sept 22-25. Throughout the weekend, locals can transport themselves to Iceland with a series of events inspired by, and in celebration of, the best of Icelandic culture through food and beverage, music, literature, films, art and more. TORONTO WELCOMES THE TASTE OF ICELAND FESTIVAL FROM SEPT 22-25 Over the course of the four-day festival, and in partnership with local businesses in Toronto, and Taste of Iceland's official partners, events will be hosted by The Drake Hotel, Horseshoe Tavern Union Yoga , Stackt Market , Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema , and in collaboration with TIFA . The schedule of events includes: Most events are free to attend, with the exception of the Icelandic Culinary Experience at the Drake Hotel and select events in participation with TIFA . To obtain tickets to free, Taste of Iceland, events: Register for tickets at the event-specific pages within the link HERE (you must be registered to receive early-bird access) Seven days prior to the date of each event, registered guests will receive an email to offer them early bird access to the ticket system to claim ticket(s) for guaranteed entry. The following day tickets will be available to the general public To claim a ticket, you must follow the steps/directions on the site, until you receive the e-ticket and barcode for entry. Note: if you do not receive a barcode, you have not completed the process. Note: Those who register after capacity has been reached can sign-up for the wait list. 30 minutes prior to each event, waitlisted attendees will be granted access on a first-come, first-serve basis on location. Additional information found below. Icelandic Culinary Experience: Hosted daily starting at 5 p.m., from September 22-25 at The Drake Hotel, Icelandic Chefs Viktor Orn Andresson and Hinrik Orn Larusson, in partnership with Executive Chef Laura Maxwell, will prepare a four-course tasting menu of Nordic cuisine. Viktor Orn Andresson and Hinrik Orn are some of Iceland's most talented chefs, both receiving many prestigious awards, honoring their expertise in the field. Laura Maxwell, a graduate of George Brown's Culinary Arts Management program focuses on bringing locally sourced, naturally cultivated, and sustainable ingredients to The Drake Hotel. The Culinary Experience is offered at $75 (CAD). Reservations can be made on SevenRooms or by calling 416.531.5042. More information can be found HERE . The tasting menu includes: Icelandic lobster soup with scallops, wasabi & grilled onion Steamed cod with brown butter, champagne sauce & roasted sunchokes Grilled lamb fillet with baked celeriac, grilled kale & lamb jus Skyr mousse with roasted oats, Skyr ice cream & wasabi touille Reykjavik Calling Concert curated by Iceland Airwaves : The Reykjavik Calling Concert celebrates Icelandic music, with performances by BSI , Cell7 and DJ Hermigervill . BSI is composed of Silla Thorarensen (drums & vocals) and Pollux Rothlaender (bass guitar & toe-synths), who started their band under the premise of trying instruments they did not know how to play. BSI now acts as a playground for simply being who they are. Cell7 is a pioneer of Icelandic hip-hop, creating space for more women to enter the genre and express themselves through hip-hop. Guests can register for free tickets HERE . The Reykjavik Calling Concert curated by the Iceland Airwaves festival, which will take place November 3-5 in Reykjavik. For more information on the festival and lineup, visit Iceland Airwaves . 66North 5K Scavenger Hunt: 66North, Iceland's premier outdoor brand, is inviting runners to join us for a 5K Scavenger Hunt, in partnership with Night Terrors Run Toronto . Runners will receive a 66 North hat prior to the 5K and will be welcomed back to Stackt for a post-run party with cold beer and DJ Hermigervill playing Icelandic music. The 5K Scavenger Hunt is free to attend, and guests can register for tickets HERE . Elemental Sound Bath with Energy Healer Josa Goodlife and Blue Lagoon Iceland : In partnership with Blue Lagoon Iceland, Icelandic Energy Healer Josa Goodlife, will take attendees on an elemental journey beyond time and space, with a deeply relaxing and uplifting program with healing sounds from Icelandic nature that will leave guests feeling rejuvenated. Attendees will receive a yoga mat, a facial towel, Silica Mud Mask and Body Oil from Blue Lagoon Iceland ; a blanket and eye mask, compliments of Icelandair ; and water from Icelandic Glacial . The Elemental Sound Bath is free to attend, and guests can register for tickets HERE . Icelandic Literature in Collaboration with the Toronto International Festival of Authors : The Re-Read: Auur Jonsdottir on Halldor Laxness ( September 24 , 2pm ): Auur Jonsdottir will explore the work of her grandfather: Nobel Prize Laureate Halldor Laxness. Laxness was a prolific writer and an outspoken socialist and defender of Iceland's independence, which was achieved in 1944. The event is $17 CAD to attend and more information can be found HERE . Auur Jonsdottir will explore the work of her grandfather: Nobel Prize Laureate Halldor Laxness. Laxness was a prolific writer and an outspoken socialist and defender of independence, which was achieved in 1944. The event is CAD to attend and more information can be found . 'We Come Back Together': Auur Jonsdottir ( September 24 , 4pm ) : Acclaimed Icelandic author Auur Jonsdottir will read a new work, inspired by the phrase, "We come back together, only to fall apart," an eleven-piece collection where international authors interpret the phrase from their own point of view. The event is free to attend and more information can be found HERE . : Acclaimed Icelandic author Auur Jonsdottir will read a new work, inspired by the phrase, an eleven-piece collection where international authors interpret the phrase from their own point of view. The event is free to attend and more information can be found . Fragmentary Perceptions: Celine Huyghebaert & Auur Jonsdottir ( September 24 , 6:30pm ) : Icelandic author Auur Jonsdottir will be in conversation with Canadian author Celine Huyghebaert to explore exactly how fallible memories can utterly change our perceptions of the world. Both authors explore this theme in their critically acclaimed and award winning novels: Jonsdottir's Quake and Huyghebaert's Remnants . This event is $17 CAD to attend, and more information and ticketing can be found HERE . : Icelandic author Auur Jonsdottir will be in conversation with Canadian author Celine Huyghebaert to explore exactly how fallible memories can utterly change our perceptions of the world. Both authors explore this theme in their critically acclaimed and award winning novels: Jonsdottir's and Huyghebaert's . This event is CAD to attend, and more information and ticketing can be found . Ask the Expert: Taste of Iceland with Eliza Reid ( September 25 at 5pm ): Eliza Reid , First Lady of Iceland , acclaimed author and founder of the Iceland Writers Retreat, breaks down the "who, what, where, when and how" of literature as she takes attendees on a literary tour of Iceland . This event is free to attend, and more information and ticketing can be found HERE . , First Lady of , acclaimed author and founder of the Iceland Writers Retreat, breaks down the "who, what, where, when and how" of literature as she takes attendees on a literary tour of . This event is free to attend, and more information and ticketing can be found . Secrets of the Sprakkar: Eliza Reid ( September 25 at 7pm ): In her new book, Eliza Reid , First Lady of Iceland , explores Iceland's historic attitude towards gender equality and the work that still needs to be done through the lens of the country's Sprakkar, an ancient word that translates to mean 'extraordinary women'. This event is $17 CAD to attend and more information can be found HERE . Lamb Movie Screening: Guests can enjoy the directorial debut from Valdimar Johannsson, in this dark and atmospheric folktale. A childless couple in rural Iceland make an alarming discovery one day in their sheep barn and soon face the consequences of defying the will of nature. Lamb was considered for the 94th Academy Awards as the official submission of Iceland for the Best Foreign Film category. Lamb Movie Screening is free to attend, and guests can register for tickets HERE . Taste of Iceland's Wheel of Prizes : Presented by Icelandair, the Wheel of Prizes gives participants the chance to win a range of prizes, including Blue Lagoon Skincare , an Icelandic Wool Blanket from Icelandic Lamb, Wool Scarf from ISAVIA, a year's supply of Icelandic Provisions' Skyr, cases of sparkling and still water from Icelandic Glacial , a Reyka Vodka package, a Olafsson Gin package, a Tindur Shearling jacket and Surtsey Knit Cap from 66North , a collection of Icelandic records from the city of Reykjavik, Landsvirkjun's Nordic Wasabi Gift Box, or the grand prize, a trip for two to Iceland from Icelandair, including a stay at the Silica Hotel at the famed Blue Lagoon and a 72-Hour City-card from Visit Reykjavik ! People can sign up for a chance to win 50 minutes before the spins take place at the times listed below: September 22 at 6:50 P.M. , prior to the Reykjavik Calling Concert at , prior to the Reykjavik Calling Concert September 23 at 7:00 P.M. , prior to the 66 North Run at , prior to the 66 North Run September 24 at 7:50 P.M. , prior to the Lamb film screening Taste of Iceland's 2022 events have previously been held in Washington D.C., Boston, MA, Denver, CO and Chicago, IL. Following Toronto, the 2022 tour will conclude with a final stop in Reykjavik's sister city, Seattle, WA. For more information on Taste of Iceland, Toronto, please visit InspiredbyIceland.com For media inquiries or to attend any Taste of Iceland events, please contact [email protected] . About Taste of Iceland Taste of Iceland is an annual festival that celebrates Iceland's vibrant culture. The festival is organized by Inspired by Iceland , a public-private communications platform owned and operated by Business Iceland that promotes Iceland, Icelandic products and services. It is presented in partnership with its members: Icelandair , Visit Reykjavik , Icelandic Trademark Holding , Reyka Vodka , Olafsson Gin , Blue Lagoon , 66North , Icelandic Provisions , Icelandic Lamb , Icelandic Glacial, Landsvirkjun , Kerecis , and Isavia Keflavik International Airport . To learn more about Business Iceland, please visit www.businessiceland.is . SOURCE Taste of Iceland MONTREAL, Sept. 9, 2022 /CNW Telbec/ - Valeo Pharma Inc. (TSX: VPH) (OTCQB: VPHIF) (FSE: VP2) ("Valeo" or the "Company"), a Canadian pharmaceutical company, announced today that it will report its financial results and highlights for the third quarter ended July 31, 2022 on Tuesday September 13, 2022 after market close. The Company will host a conference call to discuss those results and highlights on Wednesday September 14, 2022 at 8.30am (ET). Conference ID: 38670463 Date: Wednesday, September 14, 2022 Time: 8:30am ET Dial-in numbers: 1-888-664-6392 or 416-764-8659 Audio replay numbers: 1-888-390-0541 or 416-764-8677 Replay code: 670463# A live audio webcast of the conference call will be available via: https://app.webinar.net/bKVqJ5MJrgD About Valeo Pharma Inc. Valeo Pharma is a fast growing Canadian pharmaceutical company dedicated to the commercialization of innovative prescription products in Canada with a focus on Respiratory/Allergy, Ophthalmology and Hospital Specialty Products. Headquartered in Kirkland, Quebec Valeo Pharma has all the required capabilities and the full infrastructure to register and properly manage its growing product portfolio through all stages of commercialization. For more information, please visit www.valeopharma.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. Forward Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements about Valeo's objectives, strategies and businesses that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements are "forward-looking" because they are based on our current expectations about the markets we operate in and on various estimates and assumptions. Actual events or results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements if known or unknown risks affect our business, or if our estimates or assumptions turn out to be inaccurate. SOURCE Valeo Pharma Inc. For further information: Steve Saviuk, CEO, 514-693-8830, [email protected] or Luc Mainville, Senior Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer, 514-693-8854, [email protected] or Frederic Dumais, Director, Communications and Investor Relations, 514-782-8803, [email protected] - Advertisement - The fervorously observed ten-day Ganesh festival is coming to an end on Friday, and processions for the immersion of the deitys idols are being taken out. The authorities in Mumbai and other areas of the state have made extensive preparations for these processions. The Lord Ganesha celebration has started on August 31. On Anant Chaturdashi, the idols of Lord Ganesh are transported to surrounding water sources and submerged to mark the end of the celebration. In large processions, worshippers immerse the idols. For the immersion of idols and processions, the authorities in Mumbai, Pune, and other regions of the state have put extensive planning. More than 20,000 police officers and other specialised units would be on duty in Mumbai. An official has stated that thousands of people are anticipated to participate in immersion processions around Mumbai during the celebrations this year, which were performed without consideration for the Covid-19 epidemic. In addition to the 70 natural lakes and man-made ponds created by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the immersions would take place in Girgaon Chowpatty (beach), Shivaji Park, Bandra, Juhu, and Malad, he said. One of the main locations for the immersion of well-known idols like Lalbaugcha Raja is Girgaon Chowpatty. The deployment includes more than 15,500 police officers, 3,200 police officers, 8 State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) companies, 1 Rapid Action Force (RAF) company, 750 house guards, 250 trainees, and a sizable posse of traffic police, according to the official. In order to prevent any untoward incidents during the immersion processions and to preserve peace and order, he added, police officers will be on close surveillance across the city. People who wish to catch flights or long-distance trains must make the necessary arrangements since there will be traffic restrictions and a diversion in Mumbai on Friday, according to an official. The 73 natural and 162 man-made waterbodies around the city provide facilities for the immersion of idols, according to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). There will be about 10,000 civic employees working, including authorities. According to the BMC, 188 control centres have been set up across 24 civic wards for the Ganesh celebration, and 786 lifeguards will be stationed at various immersion spots. Additionally, 83 ambulances will be placed in strategic areas along with 188 first aid stations. For the immersion of the Ganesh idols, the city council has also organised 45 motor boats and 39 German barges. Additionally, 48 inspection towers have been built, and barriers have been placed for safety, according to the announcement. 3,069 flood lights and 71 searchlights have been placed for enhanced visibility at immersion locations, and 211 reception rooms have been built for better coordination, it continued. According to a top official, more than 8,000 police officers would guard Punes streets for Ganesh idol immersions. Amitabh Gupta, the police commissioner for Pune, claimed that several locations across the city have CCTVs set for surveillance purposes, and numerous routes would have traffic limits and detours. Nearly 3,000 registered Ganesh pandals will perform immersions; they are only permitted to play music till midnight, and all rules established by the Supreme Court must be scrupulously adhered to, he added. Read more: Tata Group in talks with Taiwans Wistron to assemble Apple iPhones - Advertisement - In connection with the Praveen Nettaru murder investigation, the National Investigation Agency conducted searches at more than twenty places in Mangaluru on Tuesday, according to authorities. In its ongoing investigation into the death of 32-year-old BJP Yuva Morcha leader Praveen Nettaru, the NIA has been conducting raids and investigating the homes of suspects in the Puttur and Sullia districts Dakshina Kannada district in Mangaluru. The agencys action occurred about a month after C.A. Abdul Kabeer of Jattipalla House, Sullia, was detained by the Dakshina Kannada Police in August on suspicion of plotting Nettarus murder. On July 26, three individuals entered his chicken restaurant off the Puttur-Sullia Road at Bellare in Mangaluru and hacked Nettaru to death. Police detained Saddam, 32, and Haris, 42, both residents of Pallimajalu in Bellare, on August 2. Earlier on July 28 police detained Bellare residents Shafiq, 27, and Zakir, 29, both of Savanoor. These four individuals were allegedly in communication with the attackers. Abid of Sullia, age 22, and Naufal of Bellare, age 28, who were allegedly members of the planning and reconnaissance squad, were taken into custody by the police on August 7. Union Home Ministry ordered the transfer of the case to the NIA on August 3 in response to a request from the state administration. - Advertisement - The reign of Queen Elizabeth II came to an end on Thursday when she passed away in Scotland. A double rainbow was visible across Buckingham Palace when the news first broke, which is thought to symbolise the marriage of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip in heaven. Images of the double rainbow were widely shared on Twitter along with posts lamenting the demise of the king. DOUBLE RAINBOW appeared above Buckingham Palace and another at Windsor Castle shortly after the Queen's death was announced Sign that our Queen is happy and at peace with her beloved Prince Philip pic.twitter.com/fIdcVnIr2A Bunene (@JoanaRavono) September 9, 2022 The romance between Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip was reminiscent of a fairytale or romantic comedy. When she was just thirteen years old, she first met him and fell in love. They started writing to one other as Prince Philip reciprocated their sentiments, and by the time the Queen reached 21 in 19461947, their engagement was formally proclaimed. During his time in the military, Prince Philip was known as Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten of the Royal Navy. On November 20, 1947, the day before he married Elizabeth, he was officially given the titles Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth, and Baron Greenwich. Queen Elizabeth II was not just a Queen. She was also a servant not just to G.B. and the commonwealth. A great friend to America. She was a servant to humanity. She left with a double rainbow over Buckingham Palace. pic.twitter.com/5d0zv3d8Mo tugboatpaul (@tugboatpaul) September 9, 2022 The Royal couple were the first British royal pair to celebrate their platinum wedding anniversary in 2017, having been married for more than 70 years. When Prince Philip passed away on April 9, 2021, at Windsor Castle at the age of 99 from old age, they grew apart. The Queen was devastated by his passing and said it created a big vacuum in her life. Read more: World leaders condoles over death of Queen Elizabeth II - Advertisement - Siddique Kappan, a journalist from Kerala who had been detained by the police in Uttar Pradesh on suspicion of having affiliations to the Popular Front of India (PFI) and facing charges under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, was granted bail by the Supreme Court on Friday. He must appear before the trial court within three days, which will grant him bail based on the terms it considers appropriate, according to a ruling by a panel chaired by Chief Justice of India U U Lalit. Siddique Kappan granted bail by SC. Every person has right to free expression- trying to show victim needs justice & raise common voice. Will this be crime in eyes of law? Supreme Court Truth prevails. Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) September 9, 2022 The court was shown some of the documents that were on file, according to the bench, which also included Justices S Ravindra Bhat and P S Narasimha. As the issue is still in the charge-drafting stage, the bench stated, We refrain from dealing with and commenting on the progress of inquiry and the materials obtained by prosecution. However, the bench stated that it granted him bail given the appellants duration of imprisonment and the particular facts and circumstances of the case. Kappan was ordered by the court to reside in Delhi for the first six weeks following his parole and to report to the neighbourhood police station each Monday. After this time, he will be free to go to Kerala, where he must show up every Monday at the local police station. Additionally, it demanded that he hand up his passport and refrain from contacting anyone involved in the dispute. Raihana Siddique, Kappans wife, claimed to have filed a bail application in connection with the Enforcement Directorate case brought against him. Im hoping Kappans ED case bail will be granted shortly as well. In conjunction with the UAPA lawsuit, it was registered. I want to thank everyone who supported my family and me during this legal battle. We are unable to adequately describe the trauma we have experienced over the last two years, she added. While travelling to Hathras, where a Dalit girl had been raped and killed, Kappan and other others were detained on October 5, 2020, at Mathura, Uttar Pradesh. Kappan said he was going to report on the event, but authorities claimed the journalists travel had been paid for by a terrorist organisation seeking to sow discord in society. Read more: Drone show on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose to be organised at Kartavya Path for next 3 days: PM Modi - Advertisement - The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act of 2019 requires that appropriate accommodations for transgender people be made in all businesses covered by its provisions, and the Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the Center to develop a policy in that regard within three months. In an interim decision, the government was urged to confer with all interested parties on developing an environment that would enable the third sex to find job prospects. The ruling came from the bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli. According to the highest court, every institution must abide by the Acts rules. The highest courts decision was based on a petition brought by transgender woman Shanavi Ponnuswamy, who claimed that Air India had turned her down for a post as a cabin attendant because of her gender identification. But the airlines representative in court argued that Ponnuswamys denial was due to her inability to achieve the required minimum grades in the Scheduled Caste category, not because she is a transgender woman. In 2017, Chennai-based engineering graduate Shanavi Ponnusamy petitioned the Supreme Court. In response to a job posting in 2017, Ponnusamya boy at birth who underwent gender reassignment surgery in 2014applied to work as a cabin crew with Air India. The carrier applied as a female because there was no third sex choice available. Ponnusamy said that since she is transgender, she was not hired. Ponnusamy petitioned the top court to overturn Air Indias hiring standards, which included a group discussion and a personality screening test for those interested in applying for cabin crew positions. She claimed she was denied employment because she is transgender and the positions were reserved only for men or women. The petition also made reference to a Supreme Court decision from 2014 that set forth guidelines for the protection of transgender peoples rights by adding a third category to papers. Read more: PFI Patna case: NIA conducts raids in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Bihar - Advertisement - An individual suspected of stealing more than 5000 vehicles and serving as a dealer of illicit weapons has been detained by Delhi police. Identified accused, Anil Chauhan was a class-1 contractor for the Assam government, according to the police. DCP Central District Shweta Chauhan, claims that Delhi police were prompted to stop these operations by the recent uptick in the supply of illicit weaponry in areas of Central Delhi. The task of stopping these actions was handed to a group of Special staff members. In accordance with the instructions, the special staff team made contact with informants and got information from them. Accused Anil Chauhan was apprehended in Delhi after Special Staff, who fall under the purview of Deshbandhu road police station, learned of his presence in the city. He was found to be in possession of one illegal country-made weapon, two live rounds, and one stolen motorbike. Five additional locally produced handguns and a stolen automobile were found on him during the inquiry. Anil Chauhan, who was charged, had allegedly been involved in 180 prior criminal prosecutions and had previously received a 5-year sentence in a case that was filed with the Nizammudin police station. Anil Chauhan, who is suspected of stealing 5000 vehicles starting in 1997, is said to have been detained several times and imprisoned for his crimes. The defendant worked for the Assam government as a Class-I contractor. - Advertisement - The NIA conducted raids in multiple states on Thursday in connection with the PFI conspiracy case in Patna, seizing incriminating materials, according to a spokesperson for the federal agency here. The searches were conducted at 20 locations in Bihars Nalanda, Katihar, Arariya, Madhubani, Patna, Vaishali, Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, and Saran districts, according to the spokesperson. The National Investigation Agency also conducted searches in the Tamil Nadu district of Sivaganga and the Karnataka district of South Kannada in the case involving the involvement of the Popular Front of India (PFI) in anti-national activities. Incriminating materials, including digital devices and documents, were seized during searches conducted today at the premises of accused and suspects, the spokesperson said. The case was turned over to the NIA after the Bihar Police arrested three people in July this year in connection with the alleged terror module. On July 13, Mohammad Jallauddin, a retired Jharkhand Police officer, and Athar Parvez were apprehended in the Phulwari Sharif area, while Uttar Pradesh ATS apprehended Nuruddin Jangi three days later in Lucknow. They (Jallauddin and Parvez) were instructing locals on how to use swords and knives while also inciting communal violence. They have ties to PFI Patna Police had stated following the arrests. The police claimed that two English-language pamphlets, India 2047: Towards Islamic Indias Rule and Popular Front of India, 20 February 2021, were discovered during the raids. The terror module was accused of running arms training camps with the goal of transforming India into a Islamic State by 2047. In addition, the Enforcement Directorate has launched a money laundering investigation into the terror module case. The ED has been investigating PFIs alleged financial links on charges of fueling anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protests, 2020 Delhi riots, and the alleged conspiracy in the Hathras case of alleged gangrape and death of a Dalit woman since taking cognizance of the Patna Police FIR. The PFI was founded in Kerala in 2006 and is headquartered in Delhi. Read more: Nirmala Sitharaman: Job creation, wealth distribution our focus areas - Advertisement - Queen Elizabeth II had appointed Liz Truss as Britains new Prime Minister just two days before her death, following the resignation of Boris Johnson. Former Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, 47, was photographed shaking hands with the monarch as she accepted her offer to form a new government and become the monarchs 15th Prime Minister in her 70-year reign. The symbolic ceremony was held at the sovereigns remote Balmoral retreat in the Scottish Highlands because the queen, 96, was deemed unfit to return to London due to illness. The queen received in audience the right honourable Elizabeth Truss MP today and requested her to form a new administration, Buckingham Palace had said in a statement on Monday. Following reports that the queens health was deteriorating, Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, and Prince William visited her Scottish estate, Balmoral Castle. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are also said to be making their way to Balmoral. A bout of COVID-19 had knocked her out in February of this year, leaving her exhausted. She had lost her long-term husband, Prince Philip, on April 9, 2021, and cut a lonely figure. Following her fathers death in February 1952, Queen Elizabeth II ascended to the throne. She has held the throne for 70 years at the age of 96, making her the worlds longest reigning monarch. She has witnessed more than a dozen British Prime Ministers, 14 US Presidents, and 20 Summer Olympics. Her eldest son, Charles, 73, is crowned King of the United Kingdom and King of 14 other realms, including Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. After doctors expressed concern about her health, her family rushed to her Scottish home, Balmoral Castle. She had been suffering from episodic mobility problems since the end of last year, forcing her to cancel nearly all of her public engagements, according to Buckingham Palace. Read more: India, France move UNSC to designate two Pakistanis as global terrorists - Advertisement - More than seven years after Yakub Memon was hanged for his role in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, a controversy has erupted over his final resting place. A video of Memons grave site in Bada Kabrastan being transformed with marble titles, halogen and LED lights has recently gone viral on social media. Mumbai removed the LED lights on Thursday, claiming that the new lighting was installed in March, while the marble tiles were installed three years ago. According to BJP MLA Ram Kadam, who shared images of the terrorists grave from a south Mumbai cemetery, the terrorists burial ground was converted into a tomb during the previous Uddhav Thackerays rule. . 1993 . , ? pic.twitter.com/TAQNhBb36G Ram Kadam (@ramkadam) September 7, 2022 Kadam stated that Thackeray, the Shiv Senas leader, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi should apologise to the people of Mumbai for the beautification of the convicted terrorists grave, whose acts claimed hundreds of lives. Who was Yakub Memon? Yakub Memon was a convicted felon in the 1993 serial bombing case. On July 30, 2015, he was hanged at the Nagpur Central Jail after the Supreme Court denied his curative petition, the last legal remedy available to any convict. He was Tiger Memons brother, a prime suspect in the same case who is believed to be hiding in Pakistan. Yakub, the most educated of the six Memon brothers, had earned his Masters in Commerce from Burhani College before enrolling as a student at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India in 1986. He became a certified Chartered Accountant four years later, in 1990, and went on to establish his own accounting firm, Mehta and Memon Associates, with a childhood friend Chaitanya Mehta. Meanwhile, his older brother Tiger was making a name for himself in the Mumbai underworld. Yakub handled his brothers accounts but claimed he was unaware of his brothers alleged crimes. The police department claimed otherwise. The investigation into the serial blasts case accused Yakub of being a part of a criminal conspiracy by assisting in the financing of the entire operation. As a result, he was charged with funding a terrorist activity and possessing explosives with the intent to endanger lives. How was he arrested and convicted? The Menon family had fled the city before the explosions, first to Dubai and then to Pakistan. They were linked to the tragedy after tracing the vehicle used in the explosions. They were the owners of the car. Yakub decided to return to India after becoming dissatisfied with the constant monitoring by Pakistani intelligence agencies. He reportedly contacted lawyers to seek advice on how to plan his return. Yakub returned 18 months later and was apprehended by the CBI on August 5, 1994, at the New Delhi station. Yakub claimed that he surrendered willingly on July 28, 1994, in Nepal, after speaking with Indian intelligence agencies. Following Yakubs arrest, eight other members of his family returned, including his wife Raheen and their newborn daughter. Memon was sentenced to death for criminal conspiracy by a TADA court on July 27, 2007. He then appealed the decision to higher courts. His Supreme Court appeal was denied in 2013. As a result, the President denied his mercy petition in 2014. After a Mumbai court set the date for his execution, he filed a curative petition, which was denied by the Supreme Court on July 21, 2015. He was then executed on July 30, 2015, and his remains were buried at Bada Kabrastan in south Mumbai. Read more: PFI Patna case: NIA conducts raids in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Bihar Im concerned, friends, about the kitchen table. Robert Bob Stefanowski, Republican candidate for governor, in his utterances this week, has repurposed the kitchen table and made it into a place where parents talk to their kids about sex and possibly slavery. The kitchen table. A place where we formerly enjoyed our poached eggs would, under Stefanowski rule, be a place where we would instead address the scrambling of gender and sexual orientation. Last Tuesday, Stefanowski visited the studios of Connecticut Public for an interview with my colleague Lucy Nalpathanchil on Where We Live. He followed that up with a news conference at which he said many of the same things. He had two major missions: unveil his parental rights initiative and say the phrase kitchen table as many times as possible, often twice in the same sentence. Stefanowskis parental rights initiative is a Schrodingers cat, so low on specifics that it really could mean just about anything. He told Lucy he didnt want to argue with teachers. He said, We need to promote diversity. We need to promote differences of choice and be very tolerant of that. He said his policy was not about preventing things from being talked about in schools as was the case in Florida. OK then, but, like, what is it? This is more about kitchen table issues being spoken about at the kitchen table, he said. So ... its mainly furniture-oriented? If a parent wants to talk to their kindergartner about issues like (diversity and inclusion) thats up to them, but it should be at the kitchen table, Bob said. What if you dont have a kitchen table? Could you apply for a waiver to sit out on the porch swing and sing Buffalo Gals and then talk about how whether transgender biological males should be allowed to come out tonight and dance by the light of the moon? OK, time out. Kitchen table issues has had a fairly specific meaning in American politics since the 1980s. Kitchen table issues are about making ends meet. Not in any kind of sordid LGBTQ sense. You people with your trashy minds Judy Mann, writing in the Washington Post in 1988, identified the kitchen table as the metaphorical place where people balance their checkbooks, go over youngsters report cards, sort out child care arrangements, make lists of things to do and talk on the phone with far-flung siblings over how to care for elderly parents and who will do it. Got it? Kitchen table issues are: Can we keep the heat on if we dont pay the water bill? How we gonna afford getting Albert Jr.s overbite fixed. Couldnt we just send him off to live with beavers? Why is little Lurleen flunking rhythm band? Should we put Ma in a home or go with Uncle Ratsos idea of leaving her out on a median strip with a sign around her neck? These, friends, are kitchen table issues, and if you dont come up with answers, they keep you awake at night. People do not lie awake wondering: Should Lia Thomas not have won that swimming title? Whats up with Mr. Potato Head? How culpable should we feel about the Dred Scott decision? Kitchen table issues are about nuts and bolts why does everything suddenly sound dirty? and are the opposite of culture war issues. One thing about which Bob was not hopelessly vague was the issue of historical guilt. We need to teach about slavery, he said, but not in a way that makes children feel guilty about their privilege. Damn right. In the old days, my fifth-grade teacher Miss Falkin used to say, Its true that our forebears bought other human beings and worked them to death, commanding obedience with whips and guns and rape, and that, when slavery ended, Black Americans were forced to pay an exit fee in the form of violence and Jim Crow laws and second-rate schools and spotty medical care and run down neighborhoods and a perverse inheritance of unremitting stress over which degradation or aggression was coming next so that, even today, when you control for all other variables, Black Americans die considerably younger than white Americans. But if I find out that any of you little snots are feeling guilty just because you live on Hunter Drive in a house with five bathrooms, I will keep you after school until the flesh melts off your bones because each and every one of you is a gift from God, born free of moral stain. I am so grateful for those words, which helped me sleep eight hours each night and do better on standardized tests. And I feel Bob can lead us back to that place as soon as Lurleen clears the dishes. Colin McEnroes column appears every Sunday, his newsletter comes out every Tuesday and you can hear his radio show every weekday on WNPR 90.5. Email him at colin@ctpublic.org. Sign up for his free newsletter at http://bit.ly/colinmcenroe. Connecticut's Bridgewater Chocolate is opening a flagship retail location in Westport at 165 Main Street, less than a year after bringing a holiday pop-up experience to town in late 2021. The new store is the fourth retail location for the chocolate company, which first offered chocolates for sale in Bridgewater in 1995 and later expanded to Brookfield and West Hartford. At the new Westport location, a 1,350-square-foot space, customers will be greeted and guided through an in-store sampling experience of the company's best sellers, according to a news release. A By the Piece Bar will allow customers to pick a box, choose from a variety of housemade chocolates and customize details for a personalized selection. "Westport had a chance to get a taste of our house-made chocolates with our holiday pop-up last year, and the community welcomed us with open arms. We couldnt be more excited to be returning this year with a permanent location, said Jeff Stoeckel, CEO of Bridgewater Chocolate. We aim to be the iconic chocolate brand in Connecticut and growing our retail presence is a significant part of that. MILFORD Milford Regional Chamber of Commerce is adding another community to its resume. The West Haven Chamber of Commerce closed up shop during the pandemic. Simon McDonald, director of membership and marketing for the Milford Regional Chamber of Commerce, said it was a natural fit to take the reins to aid those businesses. During the pandemic, the West Haven (chamber) was not able to operate due to the closing of West Haven City Hall, said McDonald. That left a vacuum for West Haven businesses which we offered to take over. And they were happy to (let) us. McDonald said both chambers got in touch this year and made the merger happen. We wanted to help the business in West Haven grow, and something that is starting to take seed again after the pandemic is the ability for some businesses to move into West Haven at a lower cost point, he said. Having an office at the Connecticut Post Mall and having a website also helped with the merger and made it easier, he said. Down the road in a couple of years, as we get more and more invested into West Haven, we hope to have a satellite office in West Haven, he added. Having West Haven businesses now being part of the Milford Regional Chamber of Commerce is not new to the chamber, which has included members from West Haven, Orange, Stratford and Bridgeport in the past. But we are now actively promoting events in West Haven such as the health, happiness and wellness fair thats going on Sept. 17, said McDonald. The entire purpose is to help business and the community. We are here to form a bridge between the two when they need to happen. With Restaurant Week coming up, McDonald said the chamber included West Haven businesses to bring customers to West Havens downtown area. We are trying to get more actively involved in the West Haven community, said McDonald. Most businesses are going to be within a local chamber, and one of the aspects of a chamber is local community. We wanted a chamber representing West Haven business to give them the services chambers offers. One of those services is networking helping businesses get to know each other. Its easier to do business with people you know than it is to do business with people you dont know especially on a long-term basis, he said. Being a representative of the West Haven businesses plays into the goal of the Milford chamber to expand its reach to have the scalability necessary to give businesses more opportunities. At the moment, we have about 440 businesses and if we can expand that to 600 or 700 businesses, that gives those members even more opportunities to network with the right person, said McDonald. So thats the idea behind what we are doing. Hearst Connecticut Media Drivers on I-84 in Hartford might have noticed a peculiarly spelled exit sign this week, however, this is not the first (or second) time the Nutmeg State has seen a highway sign that was a little off. The sign for Exit 45 to Flatbush Avenue was misspelled as "Flatbnsh Avenue" earlier this week. HAMDEN Police say they arrested a man on Thursday in connection with a 2021 homicide. Brian Ward, 30, of New Haven, has been charged with first-degree reckless endangerment, first-degree criminal attempt to commit assault, criminal possession of a firearm and illegal discharge of a firearm, according to police. Ward was allegedly present when Tyishoun Matheney, 27, of New Haven, was fatally shot by another individual around 12 a.m. on Aug. 8, 2021 at the intersection of Butler and Goodrich streets in Hamden. Detectives determined Ward fired at the shooter with a handgun after Matheney was struck, police said. Matheney was first shot in the back following a verbal altercation and shot multiple times after he fell to the ground, according to police. He was pronounced dead four hours after arriving at the hospital, police said. Ward was arrested on an outstanding warrant at state Superior Court in Meriden. He was held on $250,000 bond. Police said the investigation into Matheneys death is ongoing. Anyone with information about this incident can contact Detective Jomo Crawford at 203-230-4048 or jcrawford@hamdenpd.com. caroline.tien@hearst.com BOSTON A Connecticut man accused of cyberstalking and sending death threats to a woman and her family has pleaded guilty to federal charges, authorities said. Marshall Nicholas Fain, of New Haven, pleaded guilty on Aug. 31 to one count of cyberstalking and one count of transmitting threats through interstate commerce, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Massachusetts said. Authorities had arrested the 31-year-old on Feb. 2. He is due to appear for sentencing on Dec. 21. Prosecutors said the threats and cyberstalking began after Fains relationship with the woman ended. Soon after, in September 2021 and continuing through December 2021, Fain sent the victim multiple private messages through email and social media threatening to kill the victim and members of her family, the U.S. attorneys office said in a news release. Authorities allege Fain created a number of accounts on social media and different emails, which he used to harass and threaten the victim anonymously. Hes alleged to have messaged the victim: Ill kill you and You gonna get yours if its the last thing I do, over Facebook and Instagram, prosecutors said. The victim in this case did not let fear silence her. She courageously came forward and worked with the FBI to help bring Mr. Fains campaign of torment to an end, Joseph R. Bonavolonta, special agent in charge of the FBI Boston Division, said in a statement provided by the U.S. attorneys office. People deserve to end relationships without fear. Too often, women are the targets threatening, controlling and/or violent behavior, U.S. Attorney Rachael S. Rollins said in a statement. In response to the end of his two-year relationship with the victim, Mr. Fain terrorized her for several months, making her fear for her life and the lives of her family. In the face of aggressively disturbing and intimidating threats, this woman bravely notified federal authorities of Mr. Fains abusive behavior. Fain faces up to five years in prison on the cyberstalking charge and up to two years in prison for the charge of transmitting threats through interstate commerce, the U.S. attorneys office said. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Irfan Khan / TNS Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Bryon Houlgrave / Associated Press Show More Show Less 3 of 3 Connecticut residents can expect to see a haze in the sky Saturday and potentially Sunday as smoke from western wildfires drifts East. Because the smoke is carried in by sea winds, the haze will likely be more visible in cities and towns closer to the shoreline, including New Haven and Bridgeport, according to Garry Lessor, a meteorologist at Western Connecticut State Universitys Weather Center. Those farther from the coast, including Cornwall, Danbury and Hartford, will not be as affected, he said. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has addressed the conflict in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of the 2023 polls. The l... Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has addressed the conflict in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of the 2023 polls. The leading opposition platform is seemingly fractured over the outcome of the May presidential convention in Abuja. Atiku emerged as the flagbearer ahead of his main challenger, Rivers Governor Nyesom Wike. Wike has been blowing hot, attacking the Atiku camp and allies including PDP chair Iyorchia Ayu and Uche Secondus. At the 97th National Executive Council (NEC) meeting on Thursday, the ex-VP expressed commitment to ensuring resolution of the internal crisis. The Wazirin Adamwa noted that family disagreements are normal even in normal families and political families. What I can assure you is that we are determined to resolve those issues internally. There are not really fundamental disagreements, it is normal, the presidential candidate said. Atiku appealed to members to see that issues were resolved internally within the provisions of the partys constitution. The music star was released after meeting his bail conditions. This is according to his lawyer Folarin Dalmeida who made this known on Frida... The music star was released after meeting his bail conditions. This is according to his lawyer Folarin Dalmeida who made this known on Friday, September 9, 2022. His bail conditions have been met, and he was released yesterday (Thursday), he said. It would be recalled that during the trial on Wednesday, September 7, the prosecutions lawyer asked the court to adjourn the case, citing the absence of his two witnesses. However, the rapper's lawyer presented the two sureties to the court. The court had earlier granted him bail in the sum of N500,000 and asked him to provide two responsible sureties. Ice Prince was arrested for allegedly assaulting a police officer. According to a statement released by the spokesperson of the Lagos State Police Command, Benjamin Hundeyin, the music star abducted and threatened to throw an officer into the river after he was stopped for driving without a license. "At 3 am today, @Iceprincezamani was stopped for driving without license plates. He agreed to be taken to the station. He, thereafter, abducted the police officer in his car, assaulted him and threatened to throw him in the river. He has been arrested and would be arraigned today," he tweeted. The music star was later arraigned and remanded at the Ikoyi Prison till his bail conditions are met. Following the fallout from the PDP Presidential Primaries which is threatening to polarize the party at the national level, a group in Bauch... Following the fallout from the PDP Presidential Primaries which is threatening to polarize the party at the national level, a group in Bauchi State under the aegis of South East Coalition for Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called for the calm and peaceful resolution to the issues rocking the party. The group made this known in a communique shortly after its emergency meeting held in Bauchi, copies of which were made available to newsmen in the state capital, In the statement signed by its Chairman, Emeka Aneke Ekwueme, the group called on all the members of the party and all the warring factions to sheath their swords and embrace peaceful dialogue in resolving the issues bedevilling the party. He stressed that all factions must shun any utterance or action that will distract the party ahead of the general elections, bearing in mind that the PDP remains the only available political option that will salvage the country from the shackles that the present government has plugged the nation into. The group expressed optimism that if all the burning issues are properly handled and every interest group are brought on board, it will enable the party to build on the gains that they have recorded nationwide in states where fresh elections and bye-elections were conducted and the party emerged victorious. According to the communique, no stone should be left unturned in ensuring that the issues are resolved peacefully as everybody is important in ensuring the victory of the PDP in the 2023 general election. The group congratulated all the decampees into PDP led by the immediate past Deputy Governor of the State Audu Sule Katagum even as it wished the PDP in Bauchi State and at the National Level, success in the build-up to 2023 general elections. Babatunde Fashola, minister of works and housing, says politicians can win elections without exaggerating the nations problems. F... Babatunde Fashola, minister of works and housing, says politicians can win elections without exaggerating the nations problems. Fashola said this on Thursday while delivering a keynote address at TheNiche annual lecture, with the theme 2023 Elections and the Future of Nigerias Democracy in Lagos. The minister said rather than exploit the countrys challenges, politicians can highlight its prospects. We can win elections without exaggerating our problems. We can do so by offering credible service and well thought out solutions, NAN quoted him as saying. We can win elections without disrobing our country before the global community. We can do so by valorising Nigerias possibilities and not by widening her fault lines. Elections and democracy must represent for us, a feast of ideas and choices that bring out the best of us and the best of our country. Speaking further, he said Nigerians should focus on how democracy can make lives better. Given that we are 20 days to the formal commencement of campaigns for the 2023 general election, the 2022 annual lecture coming 170 days to the first of the elections in February 2023 provided a potential platform for many possibilities, he said. Democracy does not guarantee that the leader or those leaders will deliver or indeed are able to deliver on what we want. Put conversely, what really is it that we expect from those we elect and what do they promise to do before we vote, and what have they done for us? Did we vote for, or did we collect tricycles, sewing machines, generators, etc. from them? If we did, can we legitimately expect that the budget from which these things were procured will also provide healthcare, drugs and diagnostic equipment in our health facilities? The Minister of State for Labour and Employment and spokesperson for the presidential campaign organisation of the All Progressives Congre... The Minister of State for Labour and Employment and spokesperson for the presidential campaign organisation of the All Progressives Congress, Festus Keyamo (SAN), has teased the Peoples Democratic Party and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, over the crisis rocking the opposition party. The PDP candidate has always referred to himself as the unifier who will unify the country if elected as the president, but Keyamo seems to have disagreed with him. Taking to his Twitter page on Friday, the Minister referred to the APC presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, as the real unifier, saying that the PDP should beg them to lend Tinubu to them so he can unify their party. Keyamo wrote: If PDP begs us, we may consider donating the real UNIFIER, @officialABAT to assist in unifying their ranks to get them ready for their comprehensive defeat in 2023. We want a healthy opposition during the election. We dont want the excuse that we fought with a disabled opponent. Crisis had engulfed the PDP since its presidential candidate, Abubakar, picked Governor Ifeanyi Okonwa of Delta State, against his Rivers State counterpart, Nyesom Wike, who had scored the second highest number of delegates votes at the presidential primary. In January, a Gallup poll found that Americans belief in grade-school teachers honesty had dropped to an all-time low, with 64% of adults reporting they believe those instructors are truthful and have ethical standards, down from a high of 7% in 2020, during the tensest days of the pandemic. You voted: There are two reasons why Venezia Restaurant rarely sells dessert. One is the size of the servings at this Creole-Italian classic. The other reason is its neighbor. Angelo Brocato Ice Cream & Confectionary, the citys oldest gelato parlor and Italian bakery, is just four doors down the street, or about 80 eager steps away. In the evening, the sidewalk between them is lit by their respective neon signs and busy with diners from Venezia shuttling over to Angelo Brocato, a pairing thats become as intuitive as spaghetti and meatballs and tricolor spumoni. "You don't even think to do anything different," said Ryan Wise, while she and her husband, Oliver, ushered their three children along that familiar route. "It's just a natural." The interplay between these two eateries makes the short stretch of Mid-City they share the most Italian place in New Orleans, one woven in the traditions of many families and both businesses. Their regulars are our regulars, said Arthur Brocato, proprietor of his familys dessert shop. Fridays and Saturdays can feel like date night along the street, with couples pairing a dinner in the cozy, old school Italian restaurant with the wholesome second act of gelato and cappuccino at the next stop. Sunday is more like family supper, and it runs like clockwork. People come here for lunch right after Mass, said Nicholas Bologna, who runs Venezia with his father, Anthony. When we open at noon, theyre waiting at the door. Downstream at Angelo Brocato, everyone knows whats coming next. By 2 p.m., the shop fills with its first rush as families pour in, many toting Venezia pizza boxes and leftovers cartons. Venezia barely bothers with dessert. None are listed on the menu. The kitchen usually has cheesecake on hand if people insist. But even diners who ask about dessert are routinely advised to go to Angelo Brocatos instead. We used to have Brocatos ice cream here, but whether we sell it or people go down the street, theyre having Brocatos either way, so they might as well get it from them, said Bologna. To be honest, I dont really want to sell dessert because I want people to have that experience of coming here and then going to them, he said. Its just better all around, and its part of why people come here now. There are some practical advantages. Angelo Brocato has a built-in after-dinner clientele. Venezia has a quicker turn for its tables, essentially outsourcing the after-dinner linger to its neighbors. Any ice cream parlor could find symbiosis with a nearby popular restaurant. But Venezia and Angelo Brocato are connected by more than a coincidence of proximity. Entwined traditions The two businesses share a place in the entwined continuity of New Orleans food and families, in the way that family-run restaurants can feel like extensions of family for their local clienteles. This is especially strong in the Italian-American community, which New Orleans celebrates this time of year around St. Josephs Day. The stories of Angelo Brocato and Venezia go back for generations. Angelo Brocatos namesake learned the gelato craft in Palermo before emigrating. He opened his shop in 1905 in the French Quarter, then the citys Little Italy, in an Ursulines Avenue storefront (now home to Croissant dOr bakery). His grandson, the shops current proprietor, got his start sweeping up the sawdust the Brocato family deployed over the tile floors back then (to abate the omnipresent moisture of the ice cream shop). He watched his family juice citrus for the lemon ice, don wooden shoes to work in the ice-lined freezers and roll biscotti dough. Food and restaurant news in your inbox Every Thursday we give you the scoop on NOLA dining. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up I love and respect the hard work my grandparents put into building this business, Brocato said. We make things today we were taught to make at a young age by our parents, who learned from their parents. It was a hands-on learning experience, and you dont forget that. By the time he was old enough to take the reins in the 1970s, however, Brocato also saw the French Quarter changing. Many old neighbors had moved across the city; fewer people came downtown to shop. Following his customers, he relocated the store to Mid-City 40 years ago this May, reopening on Mothers Day in 1979 in what had been Lombardinos Bakery (and before that Longs Bakery, and before that, in the 1920s, Sehrts Bakery). As it happened, Brocato spotted the for-sale sign for his shops new home while making an ice cream delivery to Venezia. Family ties The restaurant was operated at that time by the late Anthony Carollo, who opened it in 1957. Carollo, the son of notorious mob boss Sylvestro Silver Dollar Sam Carollo, would ultimately be better known for his own role in organized crime than as a restaurateur. He sold Venezia in 1987 to Anthony Bologna, who had been in the liquor business (old signs from his familys Monogram wine brand still hang in the restaurant). The restaurant that introduced many in New Orleans to pizza back in the 1950s (or pizza pie, as the neon out front still proclaims), became a go-to for the Creole-Italian blend of Sicilian tradition and New Orleans flavor. That plays out on a menu with cannelloni next to seafood-sluiced fried eggplant Vatican (created after Pope John Paul II's visit to New Orleans) and stuffed shells next to trout almondine. Bologna started bringing his grade school-age son Nicholas to the restaurant soon after taking over. The restaurant was at first his playground, later his workplace and, he realized later, his enduring connection to family. Restaurant families are always working, but youre working together, Nicholas Bologna said. A lot of fathers and sons, theyll go out and play ball together, but we never did that, he said. We cooked together, we worked together here. It was always him and me, that was our father and son time. Today, Bologna splits time at the register, in the office, on the dining room floor and back in the kitchen. He cuts the steaks, makes the house sausage and is forever making off-the-menu specials for his regulars. And when its time for dessert, he knows the Venezia faithful are off to Angelo Brocato. On a recent Friday evening, the short span between their doors saw a constant procession of families with babies in arms, kids in school uniforms and grandparents. Weaving between them were the date night contingent, the younger couples, walking hand-in-hand with that skip in the step that may lead...to babies in arms, kids in school uniforms and grandparents. Under the neon, over the red-checked restaurant tables and through the gleaming dessert case, Venezia and Angelo Brocato are two stops on a full circle. Angelo Brocato Ice Cream & Confectionary 214 N. Carrollton Ave., 504-486-0078 Venezia 134 N. Carrollton Ave., 504-488-7991 +21 Pascals Manale Restaurant, century-old New Orleans classic, sold to Ray Brandt Pascals Manale Restaurant has a long history, a loyal following among New Orleans diners and many traditions preserved under its roof. +27 Ian McNulty: New Orleans airport dining has taken a quantum leap from the old terminal In a scene thats played out countless times in the French Quarter, two women posed with their Cafe du Monde beignets, gleefully snapping phot An iron screen door separates the inner workings of John Gendusa Bakery from the streets of its Gentilly neighborhood. Step through it and you get a whiff of daily bread at its most fresh, and a rare view into a bygone era. Talk to proprietor Jason Gendusa these days, and you might even catch a glimpse of the future for a family business that is essential to New Orleans food culture. This bakery mostly makes bread for po-boys, and throughout its history, it has made an indelible imprint on just what a po-boy in New Orleans means. This month marks a century in business for John Gendusa Bakery, which got its start in the 7th Ward in 1922. But when pondering that history, and looking around at the flow of workers, dough, machinery and finished bread in his bakery, Gendusa also sees the work he must undertake now to make sure this bread keeps coming. The fourth-generation owner is focused on how to keep the familys bakery around for the next generation, a task he believes will require expansion and greater efficiency. It is a labor of love, but not just the love for a family business. Hes also impelled by the role his bakery plays for po-boys everywhere. There are so few of us making this kind of bread now, and thats part of it, Gendusa said. I feel like we have to keep it going for that reason as much as anything. The bread makes the po-boy Po-boy aficionados can argue over the best place to get their favorite, about the superior filling (crunchy fried seafood or slim hot sausage patties or sloppy roast beef), and the myriad ways to dress a po-boy. But for a po-boy to be a po-boy, it must have the right kind of bread. That means a thin outer crust and an airy, yielding interior to cradle the contents. The particulars of its flavor, its texture, its aroma, even the sound of its crunch all of this distinguishes the po-boy from any other sandwich. There is no substitute for this bread, as anyone who has tried to satisfy a po-boy craving any distance away from southeast Louisiana surely knows. A dwindling craft Jason Gendusas father is named John Gendusa, just like his grandfather, the bakery founder. Though he's retirement age now, he still maintains a delivery route for the bakery, arriving around 6 a.m., filling his van to the brim and just-baked bread and whisking it to restaurants around the north shore. Back when the younger John Gendusa took over the business in 1979, he reckons about 20 bakeries were competing for the same customer base. That number dwindled over the years. In 2018, when the Alois J. Binder Bakery abruptly shut down, it left the vast majority of po-boy bread production to market leader Leidenheimer Baking Co. in Central City and the much smaller John Gendusa Bakery. There are a handful of other players making smaller amounts of closely similar loaves, like La Louisiane, and there are compatible alternatives from a few Vietnamese bakeries, like Dong Phuong and Hi Do. But when it comes to the bread that defines the po-boy, the Gendusa family knows that a big part of its future runs through its ovens. Gone are the days when every other corner in New Orleans seemed to have a market or a bar room making po-boys, and when the citys own local flavors were practically monolithic in restaurants. The increasing diversification of dining means fewer restaurants rely on this type of bread. But with so few bakeries now supplying it, the business has grown for those carrying on. At John Gendusa Bakery, the main challenge now is keeping up. Long history, murky origins The 100-year mark for John Gendusa Bakery is approximate. Incorporation papers mark Sept. 24, 1922, as the start of the business, though the family is sure it predates that year. The first John Gendusa was born in Sicily and arrived in Louisiana in the late 1800s. He eventually moved to New Orleans and established the first John Gendusa Bakery on Touro Street. In 1996, the family moved it to its larger present home, a former hardware store on Mirabeau Avenue. Just when and why the term po-boy came to be is a matter of contention. The best-known story entails striking streetcar workers and sympathetic owners at the long-since-closed Martin Brothers restaurant, who came up with an inexpensive sandwich to feed these po-boys in a time of need. Food and restaurant news in your inbox Every Thursday we give you the scoop on NOLA dining. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up However, archival evidence shows that a recognizable po-boy sandwich and the term po-boy itself were in circulation well before that strike, as reported by former Times-Picayune editor James Karst. But it was John Gendusa who produced bread for Martin Brothers, and his role in the po-boy evolution remains an article of faith around the bakery. Before, the loaves where fat in the middle and then tapered at the ends, said the younger John Gendusa. They needed something that gave you the same sized sandwich anywhere you cut the loaf. The solution was to make a more uniformly plump loaf that ended in short knobs. The source of the name notwithstanding, The Times-Picayunes earlier look at the po-boys murky origins concluded that the bread Gendusa supplied to Martins helped make it famous and bequeathed it with many of the defining characteristics that we know today, the bread shape and consistency chief among them. At John Gendusa Bakery, the new loaf was initially called the special, a name that remains on the packaging, along with the term French bread. Sometimes it was called the Long John, after its creator. These days, though, its universally recognized as po-boy bread. How to pass the torch Through distributors, John Gendusa Bakery sells bread in Baton Rouge and around southern Mississippi. But most of it stays in New Orleans, going to restaurants where po-boys, local seafood and Creole-Italian are staples. New Orleans-style bread must be on their tables. A normal day sees 6,000 to 7,000 loaves issued forth. The Saturday of the Endymion parade is always the bakery's busiest day, when higher demand from these traditional New Orleans spots can boost output to 20,000 loaves. They all come out of the bakery rack by rack, bag by bag. Fresh bread is a one-day product and making bread isn't a snap-your-fingers kind of thing; it takes six to 10 hours, depending on the weather. You have to have your eyes and hands on it every day if you want something that's going to be consistent and quality, said Jason Gendusa. This is the life Jason Gendusa chose. He wanted to start work in the bakery right out of high school. But his father insisted he attend college, so hed have more options. I said No, no degree, no bakery, his father recalled. Still, after earning a construction engineering degree at LSU, Jason Gendusa came right back to the bakery. He has friends who are part of New Orleans family businesses that sold or shut down, and he knows sometimes they regret it. I don't want to look back and think, 'I should have kept it going but didn't,' he said. Today, Jason Gendusa and his family live in the house next to the bakery. Little separates his life and his livelihood. Whether John Gendusa Bakery makes it to the familys fifth generation is a question for the future. But Jason Gendusa is trying to lay the groundwork now to make that passage smoother, and more likely. He has two daughters, Lauren, 7, and Leah, 10. Leah spent the summer working in the bakery, helping make muffuletta rolls and pistolettes. But their father maintains that whatever career or business decisions they make down the line will be their own. Today, the bakery is a small operation, covering about 3,000 square feet with a crew of two dozen workers. Jason Gendusa hopes he can eventually expand to a much larger operation, maybe five times that size. That would entail more modernization, and less of the hands-on work that has Jason Gendusa starting his own day around 4:30 a.m. and working seven days a week. I want to turn over a business that they can manage, not one they have to run and manage like I'm doing, he said. But just like when I first got into the business, they will have a choice. +11 Ian McNulty: A new type of Louisiana oyster is rekindling a bayou family's long heritage Oysters famously taste of the waters that produced them. This is merroir, an idea that is linked to terroir, a wine term for the taste of plac +3 Meet the New Orleans woman who made Parasols famous for po-boys Say the name "Parasols" and people all over New Orleans will responsively think of the roast beef at this old Irish Channel bar and po-boy sh CORRECTION: The ages of Lauren and Leah Gendusa were incorrect in earlier versions of this article. Jefferson Parishs taxpayer-funded government watchdog has released a list of five high-risk areas it will audit and evaluate in 2023, including how the parish spent $84 million in federal pandemic aid. The Jefferson Parish Inspector General's Office also plans to scrutinize the parishs fire protection and suppression services; personnel department; purchasing department; and the inspection and code enforcement department. To determine areas of risk, the office interviewed more than a dozen parish officials, studied the parish's financial reports and reviewed media articles. It then ranked those areas. Formed in 2013 in the wake of the Aaron Broussard scandal, the 10-person IG's office is tasked with improving operations and examining waste, fraud and abuse in parish government. Its funding source, a 0.5-mill property tax, was renewed for another decade by Jefferson Parish voters in 2020 and provides about $1.4 million in annual revenues. Next years list of priorities, released in a recent report, offers a peek into how the parish's new inspector general, Kim Raines Chatelain, plans to conduct oversight going forward. Chatelain, who previously was the No. 2 person in the office, was appointed to the top position in March, after the board that oversees the office voted not to renew the contract for her predecessor, David McClintock, amid criticisms that he didnt implement a regular practice of evaluating parish programs to improve their efficiency and effectiveness. Chatelain, in her introduction to the report, wrote, Evaluations are a necessary function that was anticipated but not fully realized until now. NOLA Business Insider The biggest stories in business, delivered to you every day. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Evaluations on the docket next year include a look at the parishs hiring practices; Hurricane Ida debris removal efforts; booster clubs; and volunteer fire company surplus funds. The report notes that planned audits of the volunteer fire companies serving Nine Mile Point, Live Oak Manor, Marrero and Harvey will help determine where efficiencies can be gained if the west bank fire services are consolidated, a proposal the Jefferson Parish Council is exploring. +2 There's a new inspector general in Jefferson Parish. See who will replace David McClintock Kim Raines Chatelain, who for eight years has been Jefferson Parish Inspector General David McClintock's top deputy, will succeed McClintock a The office also plans to audit the parish purchasing departments process for awarding contracts; unpermitted short-term rental units in the parish; compliance with inspection and code ordinances; and the East Bank Consolidated Fire Departments scheduling process and use of annual and sick leave. Aside from evaluations and audits, Jefferson Parishs inspector general is also tasked with conducting investigations to identify fraud, waste and abuse. Details on those investigations werent included in the report, given their confidential nature. As we engage in providing oversight, we will practice accountability, integrity, and transparency because this is what we expect from government, Chatelain wrote, adding that the office invites participation from public officials and the citizens of Jefferson Parish. In the past, the parish's Inspector General's office sometimes clashed with parish politicians over investigations and access to government employees and documents. Two Theriot residents were arrested for alleged drug possession while trying to sell a large quantity of illegal shrimp they caught near south Terrebonne Parish, authorities said. According to the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Hunter Daisy, 29, and Josie Valinsky, 37, were spotted by agents on Sept. 1 while the pair sold shrimp to people in a recreational fishing boat near Oyster Bayou, about 30 miles south of Morgan City. Agents said that Daisy did not have his commercial fishing license, which had been revoked. They also said they found methamphetamine, drug paraphernalia and more than 14 grams of marijuana on board Daisys 46-foot shrimping vessel. Both suspects were arrested for methamphetamine possession. Daisy was also arrested for using oversized skimmer nets, taking shrimp without a commercial license, selling shrimp without a fresh products license, violation of license revocation and marijuana possession. The suspects were booked at the Terrebonne Parish Jail. Agents seized Daisys boat, two skimmer nets and about 1.3 tons of white shrimp. Environmental news in your inbox Stay up-to-date on the latest on Louisiana's coast and the environment. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Possession of meth carries a fine of up to $5,000 and two years in jail. The license and fishing violations Daisy is accused of could trigger fines of more than $2,000 and more than a year in jail. People visit the 22nd China International Fair for Investment and Trade in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province, Sept. 8, 2022. The fair, themed "Global Development: Sharing Digital Opportunities, Investing in Green Future", kicked off in Xiamen on Thursday. (Xinhua/Wei Peiquan) People visit the booth of South Korea during the 22nd China International Fair for Investment and Trade in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province, Sept. 8, 2022. The fair, themed "Global Development: Sharing Digital Opportunities, Investing in Green Future", kicked off in Xiamen on Thursday. (Xinhua/Lin Shanchuan) Exhibitors show saki and cake from Nagasaki of Japan during the 22nd China International Fair for Investment and Trade in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province, Sept. 8, 2022. The fair, themed "Global Development: Sharing Digital Opportunities, Investing in Green Future", kicked off in Xiamen on Thursday. (Xinhua/Wei Peiquan) People attend the opening ceremony of the 22nd China International Fair for Investment and Trade in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province, Sept. 8, 2022. The fair, themed "Global Development: Sharing Digital Opportunities, Investing in Green Future", kicked off in Xiamen on Thursday. (Xinhua/Wei Peiquan) A model of Embraer E190-E2 aircraft is on display during the 22nd China International Fair for Investment and Trade in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province, Sept. 8, 2022. The fair, themed "Global Development: Sharing Digital Opportunities, Investing in Green Future", kicked off in Xiamen on Thursday. (Xinhua/Lin Shanchuan) People visit the booth of Chinese battery producer Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL) during the 22nd China International Fair for Investment and Trade in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province, Sept. 8, 2022. The fair, themed "Global Development: Sharing Digital Opportunities, Investing in Green Future", kicked off in Xiamen on Thursday. (Xinhua/Lin Shanchuan) People visit the booth of Chinese battery producer Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL) during the 22nd China International Fair for Investment and Trade in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province, Sept. 8, 2022. The fair, themed "Global Development: Sharing Digital Opportunities, Investing in Green Future", kicked off in Xiamen on Thursday. (Xinhua/Lin Shanchuan) Ron Faucheux: Moon Landrieu spoke up, and then put his words into action The UAE Country of Honor at Thessaloniki International Fair TIF 86 (Informacion remitida por la empresa firmante) NEWS AKTUELL // Abu Dhabi 07/09/2022, - Picture is available at AP Images (http://www.apimages.com) - The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will participate with a high-ranking delegation headed by the UAE Minister of Economy, H.E. Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri in the Thessaloniki International Fair TIF 86, which will be held in Greece from 10 to 18 September 2022. The UAE will serve as the Country of Honor at the 86th Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF) in Greece, participating with a prominent delegation that comprises 60 government and private-sector entities. The delegation will showcase the countrys important economic developments, the latest UAE technology-related products, and the nations new economic sectors. The UAEs participation in TIF 86 comes in the context of the nations pursuit of attracting USD 150 billion in inward foreign investment over the next 9 years to become one of the top 10 global investment destinations particularly in the New Economy sectors by 2030. The UAEs participation in TIF 86 aims to boost cooperation with the business communities in Greece, the Balkans, and European markets to give momentum to economic development & mutual investments in the UAE and these countries. The UAEs participation is set to make a lasting impression due to the strength of its delegation The UAE aims to create a successful knowledge-based economy and to create a world-class healthcare system. UAE is investing heavily in creating a world-leading regulatory framework for IT / AI ventures, providing infrastructure to build the best possible tech-investment ecosystem The UAEs pharmaceutical market presents significant growth opportunities for multinational drug makers. The UAE Government is focused on more than doubling the contribution of industrial manufacturing to the UAEs GDP to 25 percent. Long version of this press release can be found at: https://www.presseportal.de/nr/165110?langid=2 Contact: The Trinity of Terror Tour is bringing three horror-themed bands to the Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana. Ice Nine Kills, Black Veil Brides and Motionless in White will play the Hard Rock Live Venue at 5400 W. 29th Ave. in Gary on Nov. 13. All three bands will play full-length, full-production sets at the concert, which also will feature special guest Atreyu. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. The Trinity of Terror show features the Boston-based heavy metal band Ice Nine Kills, named after the fictional weaponized state of water in the Kurt Vonnegut Jr. novel "Cat's Cradle." "Ice Nine Kills, best known for its horror-inspired lyrics, was formed in its earliest incarnation in 2000 by high school friends Spencer Charnas and Jeremy Schwartz," Hard Rock Casino said in a press release. "The band is very theatrical in terms of lyric and tone. Their stage show involves a lot of theatrics as the band comes from a more rock n roll kind of world with big guitar solos and gang vocals." The rock act Black Veil Brides hails from Hollywood, California while the heavy metal band Motionless in White is straight out of Scranton, Pennsylvania. "Black Veil Brides, formed in 2006 in Cincinnati, Ohio, is currently composed of lead vocalist Andy Biersack, rhythm guitarist and violinist Jinxx, lead guitarist Jake Pitts, drummer Christian 'CC' Coma and bassist Lonny Eagleton," Hard Rock Casino said in a press release. "Formed in 2005, Motionless in White consists of Chris 'Motionless' Cerulli, Ryan Sitkowski, Ricky 'Horror' Olson, Vinny Mauro, and Justin Morrow. Their bands name is derived from the Eighteen Visions song 'Motionless and White.'" Tickets for the 21 and up show cost $69.50. It's fully seated. For more information, call 219-228-2383 or visit hardrockcasinonorthernindiana.com. Lakeshore Public Media named a new new interim CEO. Nancy Clifford will lead the Merrillville-based PBS and National Public Radio affiliate after James A. Muhammad stepped down to become president of the University of Southern California Radio Group. Lakeshore Public Medias executive committee board picked Clifford as interim CEO with assistance from Westville-based Organizational Development Solutions, Inc. The board will continue its search for a permanent CEO. The board appreciates Nancy Clifford's willingness to step in as interim CEO during Lakeshore's search for a permanent replacement. We are confident in her abilities based on her past achievements and believe she will be a great help as we continue to move forward, Board Chairman Larry A. Brechner said. She comes from a financial services background, from which she's gained experience in strategic planning, staffing and financial management. She has served for 25 years on the board of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Northwest Indiana. She chaired the board in the early 2000s, raising about $800,000 for its endowment. She also served for 23 years on the investment committee of Legacy Foundation. It won the Prudential National Outstanding Board Award during her tenure as chairwoman. Lakeshore Public Media is an amazing community resource and asset. We are lucky it is available to us all, to learn about the world and also about our local communities through their robust local programming. I am excited about the opportunity to work with their board and staff to fulfill and advance their mission of life-long learning, diversity, civic engagement and enriching the lives of people in the communities they serve, Clifford said. Lakeshore Public Media has broadcast across Northwest Indiana and greater Chicagoland for 35 years, providing an array of educational and informative programming. Mermaid Straw, the Valparaiso-based reusable straw maker, is partnering with Save the Dunes to clean up West Beach at the Indiana Dunes National Park. The company hosts a number of cleanups along Lake Michigan beaches in Northwest Indiana from April through September every year. The business that makes metallic straws to replace single-use plastics coordinates volunteers to pick up litter on the beaches as part of its mission to save the Earth. It's teaming up with the Save the Dunes and the National Park Service to celebrate National Public Lands Day. It will give free reusable stainless steel Mermaid Straws to every volunteer who helps clean up litter from 9-11 a.m. Sept. 24 at West Beach at 376 N. County Line Road in Gary. Volunteers also will get reusable gloves, bags and refreshments donated by Designer Desserts, FLUID Coffee Roasters and Coastal Valley Water. "This family friendly event aims to highlight our collective reliance on single use plastic, plastic pollution left on our beaches, and how this waste affects our local environment," organizers said in a press release. "Mermaid Straws mission-based company is focused on reduction of single use plastics through offering fun and stylish reusable alternatives, community action, and education. Located in Valparaiso, Lake Michigan is near and dear to their hearts. They host cleanups on Lake Michigan to help spread awareness of our plastic pollution crisis and bring the community together to get real action and change." The United Steelworkers union and Cleveland-Cliffs have reached a tentative agreement for its mining and pelletizing workers. The union and the Cleveland, Ohio-based steelmaker had already reached a tentative deal covering steelworkers, including at Indiana Harbor, Burns Harbor, Gary, Riverdale and New Carlisle. Workers are voting on whether to approval that four-year pact, which includes a 20% boost in pay. Cleveland-Cliffs and USW also came to terms on a 47-month labor contract covering 2,000 union-represented workers at its mines in northern Minnesota and Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The contract would take effect on Oct. 1. Cleveland-Cliffs now has two tentative agreements covering 14,000 USW-represented employees, or more than half its total workforce. Reaching a second labor agreement in less than two weeks reaffirms our great alliance with the USW," Chairman, President and CEO Lourenco Goncalves said. "It also confirms one more time that we know very well our responsibilities as the supplier of choice to clients in critical sectors, such as military and automotive. We have now demonstrated twice why Cleveland-Cliffs gets things done and how we act: we negotiate respectfully, fairly and privately. A strong workforce is critical to our present and future competitiveness, and we look forward to continuing our shared success with our USW partners. The workers supply the iron ore to Cleveland-Cliffs steel mills, including in Northwest Indiana. Mining and processing iron ore is the first step in making steel, and these essential workers have earned and deserve a fair contract, USW District 11 Director Emil Ramirez said. The proposed agreement provides important economic and contract language improvements that will improve working conditions along with the standard of living for USW members and their families. The union said the deal raises wages, requires investment to ensure job security in the ore mines and improves health insurance for workers and retirees without increasing their out-of-pocket costs. Steelworkers will be safer at work and their jobs and benefits more secure under the tentative agreement, Ramirez said. Cliffs has committed to a plan to invest in its USW facilities that will enable future generations of USW members to support their families and sustain their communities. He credited the mine workers' solidarity for helping to achieve the tentative collective bargaining agreement. It still must be approved by workers. Our members have faced challenges in the past and know what it takes to lead the industry through its up and down cycles, Ramirez said. We will face the challenges ahead with confidence knowing our plants run best when management and our union work together to solve problems for the benefit of everyone. CROWN POINT A magistrate granted bail this week for a woman charged with murder in a deadly shooting last spring outside a Hammond smoke shop, but the court denied a similar petition from a man facing the same charge. Mychael A. Thomas, 28, of East Chicago, was released from the Lake County Jail after she posted a bond Wednesday of $100,000 surety or $10,000 cash, court records show. Her boyfriend, Marcus A. Ross, 28, of Hammond, remained in custody without bail in connection with the homicide April 1 outside the Oasis Smoke Shop, 5535 State Line Ave. in Hammond. Both Thomas and Ross have pleaded not guilty to one count of murder and one count of criminal recklessness, which is linked to a witness at the shooting scene who was not wounded. Zachery S. Smith, 27, of Chicago, died after he was shot four times, attempted to drive himself to a hospital, hit a white SUV and flipped his Ford Fusion just outside the entrance to Franciscan Health hospital in Hammond. Defendants in murder cases are not afforded bail unless the court makes a determination that the presumption of guilt of murder is not strong. Lake Criminal Court Magistrate Kathleen Sullivan presided over hearings June 14 and Aug. 10 on Thomas' and Ross' petitions to let bail. According to court filings, Smith approached the passenger side of a gray Acura MDX parked outside the smoke shop and pointed two different guns at Thomas and Ross, who were each wearings neon green reflective jackets and were in the driver and front passenger seats, respectively. After the confrontation ended, Thomas and Ross drove away and Smith moved his Ford Fusion into the parking spot where the Acura had been parked, records state. About 25 minutes later, a man wearing burgundy pants, a neon green reflective jacket and a mask walked up to Smith from behind, shot him four times and fled on foot, records state. Thomas' attorney, John Cantrell, wrote in court filings a Hammond police detective could not produce any video evidence at the hearings to show Thomas drove Ross back to the smoke shop before the shooting. "The detective upon cross-examination was forced to admit that if Mychael Thomas did not drive back to the smoke shop that she wouldn't have any criminal liability," Cantrell wrote. Outside of court, Cantrell said Thomas had two guns pointed at her and was subsequently charged with murder. "I am still trying to figure out how she was charged with murder," he said. "She is a victim." Lake County Deputy Prosecutor Maureen Koonce wrote in court filings that Thomas shares culpability with Ross, because the evidence showed she knew of Ross' alleged plan to kill Smith. Video showed Thomas appeared to be waiting in the Acura on Doty Street moments after the shooting, and phone records showed she called him during this time, Koonce wrote. Later, Thomas pulled into the smoke shop parking lot and asked a witness about a man in a reflective jacket. Video from a location south of the crime scene showed Ross later pulled up in the Acura and retrieved items he previously placed in a garbage can. Police found multiple items with Ross' name on the ground in the area of the garbage can, records state. Ross' attorney, Lakeisha Murdaugh, wrote the presumption of her client's guilt on a charge of murder was not strong, because it appeared the person who shot Smith acted under sudden heat. The person seen shooting Smith in videos "was almost certainly shaken and still upset" after having two guns pointed at his head, she wrote. "He was threatened with deadly force, and he shot the intimidator within three minutes of that threat," Murdaugh wrote. A second lawsuit challenging the validity of Indiana's near-total abortion ban, this time based on its alleged infringement of state protections for religious liberty, was filed Thursday in Indianapolis. The Indiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, acting on behalf of five anonymous believers and the Hoosier Jews for Choice organization, claims Senate Enrolled Act 1 violates Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and should not be permitted to take effect Sept. 15. The lawsuit argues RFRA prohibits state government action that substantially burdens a person's religious exercise, unless the burden furthers a compelling government interest and is the least restrictive means of doing so. In this case, the plaintiffs claim Indiana's near-total abortion ban conflicts with their Jewish, Muslim and universal consciousness beliefs about when life begins, and the statute's limited exceptions for obtaining a legal abortion in Indiana do not comport with their religious understandings of women's bodily autonomy and fetal personhood. The case also is filed as a class action on behalf of all individuals in the state whose religious beliefs favor the type of access to abortion that will be sharply limited under the law. "Indiana's RFRA law protects religious freedom for all Hoosiers, not just those who practice Christianity," said Ken Falk, ACLU of Indiana legal director. "The ban on abortion will substantially burden the exercise of religion by many Hoosiers who, under the new law, would be prevented from obtaining abortions, in conflict with their sincere religious beliefs." Indiana's Republican-controlled General Assembly was first in the country to legislatively impose new abortion restrictions following the June 24 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that rescinded the right to abortion established by the high court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. The new Indiana law prohibits all abortions in the state from the moment of conception, except within 10 weeks of fertilization for pregnancies caused by rape or incest, or 20 weeks if necessary to prevent serious physical impairment or the death of a pregnant woman, or because of a lethal fetal anomaly. It also shuts down all abortion clinics in the state by requiring every abortion be completed in a hospital or hospital-owned surgical center, and puts doctors at risk of losing their medical license if they fail to sufficiently justify the legal basis for an abortion. A separate lawsuit filed Aug. 30 in Bloomington by Indiana abortion clinic operators claims the new statute runs afoul of the Indiana Constitution by infringing on the private medical decisions of Hoosiers and unlawfully limiting abortion access to some individuals and not others. "The decision to have an abortion should be made only between a pregnant person and their health-care provider, and never by politicians without medical knowledge or expertise. Every person deserves the right to access basic care. We will never stop fighting for a persons ability to control their own life and future," said Rebecca Gibron, of Planned Parenthood, which operates an abortion clinic in Merrillville. Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita, a Munster native, is defending the legitimacy of Indiana's new abortion law in both cases. He said the lawsuits are motivated by "the Left" because Rokita claims it "can't stand a culture of life, along with all the progress and protections secured by the pro-life movement." "Hoosiers respect and value all lives, including the lives of the unborn. The ACLU and Planned Parenthood push back every time there is a win for liberty, and my office will not back down in the fight to protect our future generations," Rokita said. Indiana's RFRA statute was enacted in 2015 by Republican Gov. Mike Pence. At the time, it was widely seen as a license to discriminate against LGBTQ Hoosiers, and its adoption seriously threatened Pence's re-election bid and future political prospects until Donald Trump picked the Hoosier governor in 2016 to join him as his vice presidential running mate. PORTAGE Two men were arrested during a fight outside the local Myers Elementary School this week after one of them was accused of kidnapping a child, Portage police said. Police said they were called out around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday and an officer found Jaylen Bayron, 21, of Portage, on top of and choking Marcellus Dolomon, 22, of Indianapolis, while a woman attempted to break up the fight. After the fight was stopped and other officers arrived, the woman reportedly told police Dolomon was her boyfriend and had been refusing to bring her son home from the playground. Upon telling her mother, the woman said her mother, her sister and her sister's boyfriend, Bayron, headed to the park. The woman said that when she arrived, Bayron and Dolomon were fighting. Bayron later said he was told that Dolomon had kidnapped the child, according to police. Bayron claims Dolomon started the fight, and Bayron admitted to having a knife for self defense, but gave different explanations as to whether he ever held it, police said. Dolomon told police he walked to the park from Gary to meet his girlfriend and after taking her son to the park was confronted by the woman's mother and Bayron. Dolomon said he then blacked out when Bayron began to fight with him. "I asked Mr. Dolomon what caused Mr. Bayron to want to fight you and he stated he did not know, and that he was set up," police said. Bayron was taken to Porter County Jail and faces felony counts of intimidation with a deadly weapon and strangulation, and misdemeanor disorderly conduct and battery, according to the incident report. Dolomon was also taken to jail and faces misdemeanor counts of battery and disorderly conduct, police said. Porter/LaPorte County Courts and Social Justice Reporter Bob is a 23-year veteran of The Times. He covers county government and courts in Porter County, federal courts, police news and regional issues. He also created the Vegan in the Region blog, is an Indiana University grad and lifelong region resident. GARY "I dont know what we really got accomplished tonight to be honest, Gary Common Councilman Ron Brewer, D-At-large, said as he adjourned a Wednesday night Public Safety Committee meeting after about three-and-a-half hours of back-and-forth discussion. The special committee meeting was the second of two held to discuss 17 ordinances that would change Gary Police Department procedures. The stack of legislation came before the city council at the end of August, about five months after the police department announced a partnership with Indiana State Police. The goal of the partnership has been to evaluate the entire Gary Police Department and determine what changes should be made and what resources are needed. However, some members of the council say they have been excluded from the process. Shortly after Mayor Jerome Prince held a joint press conference with ISP officials announcing the partnership would continue in July, Council President William Godwin, D-1, released a statement saying none of the city council was invited to the event. "Shame on Mayor Princes administration for yet another slap in the face to the citys legislative body, which will be absolutely essential for the types of reforms proposed by the Indiana State Police, Godwin said in the statement. During the Wednesday night meeting, Godwin said the exclusion of the council continued as the 17 ordinances were drafted. "When you are not inclusive of the council, this is what you get," Godwin said after an hour of discussion had addressed only one of the proposed ordinances. "You are asking me to be an editor not a drafter and those are two very different things." During the first public safety meeting, held on Aug. 31, the council covered 10 ordinances. On Wednesday the council discussed three. Im not exactly sure how to respond to what Im seeing tonight, but weve been here in the city since late April, early May ... we want to make this city a better place," ISP Superintendent Douglas Carter said. "The semantics that youre talking about is not productive. ... I am so proud of all the work thats been done and frankly right now it feels like it is all for naught. Both Councilman Clorius Lay, D-At-Large, and Godwin left the chambers while Carter was speaking, but later returned. I really take offense at Superintendent Carters suggestion that we are entertaining semantics," Godwin said. "To come here as an outsider and tell elected officials who are representing the citizens and the city of Gary Indiana, that they are just so overwhelmed by what they are seeing is frankly, disrespectful." The 'elephant in the room' Many of the 17 ordinances relate to the authorities of the police chief. The city is in the midst of a nationwide search for a new chief. Formerly deputy chief, Brian Evans has been filling in as interim chief for the past two years. Evans took over when Chief Richard Ligon resigned after just six months on the job. The city has had a high turnover of police chiefs; Ligon was Gary's 11th since 2006. At the Aug. 31 meeting, Prince said the police chief is "handcuffed" by antiquated procedures. Under the current rules, if an officer violates standard operating procedures, the police chief can only place the officer on unpaid leave for five days. To alleviate the financial burden of officers collecting paid leave for an extended period, one of the proposed changes would allow the chief to suspend officers for up to six months, City Attorney Rodney Pol said. Under the proposed changes the chief and the police department would also play a larger role in the hiring and evaluation of officers. Police department applicants would interview with a panel of officers selected by the chief; the chief would choose the agency that administers the tests for new recruits and performance reviews would be conducted by the officer's immediate supervisor. All three tasks are currently conducted by the Police Civil Service Commission. Godwin and Lay have both expressed concerns about shifting power from the commission to the police chief, who is appointed by the mayor. Thats the elephant in the room, we havent said exactly where the authority is. Its in the hands of the mayor," Lay said. The role of the commission The Police Civil Service Commission consists of two people of different political parties appointed by the mayor, two of different political parties appointed by the council and two of different political parties elected by the police department. During the Aug. 31 meeting Juana McLaurin, a member of the Gary Fire Civil Service Commission, said the requirements keep the commission balanced. McLaurin argued that if the police chief has more say in the hiring and firing of officers, decisions could become political and discriminatory. One of the proposed ordinances that has attracted a lot of attention lays out a disciplinary hearing process where the chief would decide the outcome. The commission would still have final say, Pol said, as officers would be able to appeal to the commission if they disagreed with the result of the hearing. The commission's finding would have to be appealable to the Lake County Circuit or Superior Court. If the decision is ultimately reversed, the officer would be reinstated with back pay. If the commission is going to field appeals, there needs to be an assurance of continuity, Lay said. One of the proposed ordinances reviewed Wednesday would allow commission members to use proxies when voting, a change Lay vehemently opposed. He said the use of proxies could lead people to cast votes without the full context of the situation. The inclusion of proxies was meant to make the commission process more efficient, Pol said. Another ordinance intended to make the commission more flexible is one that would reduce the required number of members needed for a quorum, from four to three. The three would have to represent all the appointees; the mayor, council and police department. Godwin said the city should be "moving towards greater public engagement, not less." As communities across the country call for more police oversight, Godwin said reducing the number of members needed for a quorum would be a step backwards. Godwin said he was "disappointed" with all of the ordinances brought before the council because he felt the legislation does not get at the police department's real issues. He said the department needs funding, a grant writer, outside training and more officers. Its not going to change how many officers we have on the street, it is not going to change our recruitment so I just think it is unfortunate that six months have been spent on this kind of minutiae. The Public Safety Committee will continue reviewing the ordinances on Wednesday. GARY Indiana Department of Environmental Management staff members visited U.S. Steel Gary Works on Tuesday but were unable to find a source of a black particulate substance observed last week at Lake Street Beach, the agency said. IDEM has responded to the Lake Street Beach area four times in the past two weeks after receiving reports of a black substance in the water. Gary and U.S. Steel collected samples from the water after meeting with IDEM on Friday, but results were still pending, officials said Thursday. Gary Mayor Jerome Prince ordered Lake Street Beach closed Friday morning. The beach remained closed through the long Labor Day weekend, a city spokesman said. No signs of the fine black particulate substance observed at Lake Street Beach were detected at Marquette or Wells Street beaches last week, so those beaches remained open through the weekend, city spokesman Michael Gonzalez said. IDEM said no specific incidents had been reported at U.S. Steel Gary Works, which is just east of Lake Street Beach along the Lake Michigan shoreline. IDEM emergency personnel first went to Lake Street Beach on Aug. 24 in response to a citizen report of a black substance on the water, the department said. No evidence of any substance was found. IDEM returned to the beach Sept. 1 in response to reports from a citizen and the city of a black floating substance, the department said. "IDEM personnel observed a small, localized area containing trace amounts of a fine black particulate material (black dust-like substance), but saw no evidence of the widespread dispersion previously reported," IDEM said. IDEM met with representatives from the city and U.S. Steel at the beach Sept. 2, the department said. The city and U.S. Steel each planned to collect samples of water and sand for analysis. IDEM investigated U.S. Steel Gary Works on Tuesday, but staff was "unable to discern conclusively the source of this fine black particulate material originating from the facility," IDEM said. "The appearance of this fine black material at the Lake Street Beach is sporadic," the department said. "IDEM personnel have not observed widespread dispersion of the fine black particulate material." Gonzalez said the city first learned of the black substance Sept. 1, and Prince closed the beach Sept. 2. The Gary Sanitary District collected samples and sent them to a lab. A spokeswoman for U.S. Steel said its Gary facility had not experienced any recent environmental incidents. "We are assisting IDEM in the investigation and have taken samples for analysis," she said. "Environmental performance and the communities where we operate remain top priorities." U.S. Steel has remained in communication with the city and IDEM and will share sampling results when they become available, she said. Not only was Mr. Trump by then president and concerned with weightier matters when Mr. Stone testified before lawmakers in September 2017, Mr. Rogow said, but his campaign a year earlier had merely expressed a natural interest in what WikiLeaks might have in store for Hillary Clinton, Mr. Trumps Democratic opponent. There was nothing malignant, nothing corrupt about the conduct of Mr. Stone or the campaign, he said. Mr. Stones trial in a federal courthouse in Washington has unfolded against the backdrop of the impeachment inquiry into the president underway blocks away on Capitol Hill. As Congress grapples with allegations that Mr. Trump tried to pressure Ukraine to help his 2020 re-election effort, the Stone case has revived the story of how Russian operatives stole tens of thousands of Democratic emails and funneled them to WikiLeaks, which released them at critical points in the 2016 campaign. Jury deliberations will begin on Thursday, said Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who is overseeing the trial. Mr. Stone is charged with seven felonies that together carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, though a defendant with no criminal history, like Mr. Stone, would almost certainly receive a far lighter punishment if he were found guilty on any counts. Prosecutors have said Mr. Stone hid dozens of text messages and emails that were pertinent to the House committees inquiry; deliberately misidentified the person he dispatched to get in touch with the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in late summer 2016; covered up the fact that he tried to obtain stolen Democratic emails from WikiLeaks; and denied that he talked to Trump campaign officials about WikiLeaks plans. The venture arm of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, helmed by the billionaire investor Sam Bankman-Fried, announced on Friday that it had taken a 30 percent stake in SkyBridge Capital, the hedge fund founded by Anthony Scaramucci, for an undisclosed sum. SkyBridge will use $40 million from the proceeds to buy cryptocurrencies to strengthen its long-term balance sheet. The deal comes during a rough stretch for SkyBridge, whose crypto investments have crashed in value, triggering an investor exodus. A so-called crypto winter has wiped out roughly $2 trillion in market value over the past 10 months. FTX has played the white knight during the downturn, sweeping in to strategically assist ailing businesses and expand its empire while moving into products like stocks and options. We look forward to collaborating closely with SkyBridge on its crypto investment activity and also working alongside them on promising non-crypto-related investments, Mr. Bankman-Fried said in a statement. The cash-rich company that seeks to merge with former President Donald J. Trumps upstart social media company is still scrambling to get enough shareholders to vote in favor of extending the deadline for getting a deal done. The company, Digital World Acquisition, threw a curveball at investors on Thursday when it adjourned by a month an important shareholder meeting that was meant to close the voting period and announce the vote tally, after it came up short in votes supporting a one-year extension. Before the adjournment, to Oct. 10, Digital World twice delayed reporting the outcome of the shareholder vote, and on Tuesday it adjourned a similar special shareholder meeting. A few coincidences can have their charms, but the romantic comedy About Fate, directed by Marius Vaysberg and written by Tiffany Paulsen (Holidate), creaks under the weight of a pile of improbabilities. Margot (Emma Roberts), a real estate agent, and Griffin (Thomas Mann), a public defender, each greet the day before New Years Eve with heightened hopes for their dates with their significant others that night. Their split-screen hopes about a wedding proposal lead us to believe that they are each others person. Those who have seen the trailer know better. The Mosquito fire is prompting new evacuations on Thursday and alarming firefighters and meteorologists with its rapid spread and huge plume of smoke as it burns its way through dry, hilly terrain northeast of Sacramento. At more than 8,000 acres, the fire remains uncontained and jumped the middle fork of the American River on Thursday as it moved into El Dorado County. Firefighters are encountering a combination of unfavorable conditions: extreme heat, bone-dry vegetation, steep terrain and gusty winds of up to 25 miles per hour, Chris Vestal, a spokesman for Cal Fire, the states firefighting agency, said Thursday afternoon. The blaze has enough energy and heat that it has created its own weather patterns, he said, meaning that wind conditions and other meteorological features are dictated by the fire itself and do not follow forecasts for the area. That makes it more treacherous for firefighters to combat. Our city is hurting, Karen D. Camper, a state lawmaker representing Memphis, said in a statement. There is a long road ahead and much work ahead for us to do in order to begin to heal our city, said Ms. Camper, the Democratic leader in the State House of Representatives. And we will have those policy discussions. The violence has invigorated debates over residency rules for the Police Department, with some pushing for them to be loosened considering the vacancies on the force. Others also expressed outrage over Mr. Kellys release from prison earlier this year. Mr. Kelly, 19, had been charged in 2020 with attempted first-degree murder, possession of a firearm and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon. Mayor Strickland said Mr. Kelly had been sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to a lesser charge, aggravated assault, but had been released in March after serving 11 months. In a post on Twitter, Mr. Carlisle said that he had seen and heard lots of chatter from people saying the time had come to leave the city, that their angst and anger over the citys climate were nearing a breaking point. Ill never tell anyone how to feel, he wrote. But I want you to stay. He said that Memphis was not alone, as other American cities also wrestle with increases in crime. In 2020, Memphis was one of several cities along with Kansas City, Mo.; Cleveland; and Detroit chosen by the administration of former President Donald J. Trump for infusions of federal law enforcement officers. Still, Mr. Carlisle acknowledged the gravity of what his city was confronting. The turmoil over crime was especially clear as the rampage unfolded on Wednesday night, as he saw the alerts and was bombarded by text messages from scared residents. Research on misophonia is still in its infancy, and firm estimates of how many people suffer from it are hard to come by but slowly, interest in the phenomenon has been growing. Anyone whos worked with misophonia and, of course, anyone whos experienced it, appreciates how really significant the condition is, said Eric Storch, a clinical psychologist at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Research has shown that in people with misophonia, certain sounds rapidly trigger a response by the autonomic nervous system, the part of the body responsible for the involuntary fight or flight response, and that this reaction does not occur in people without the condition. Its outside of your conscious awareness, which is why its so difficult to control, explained Jennifer Jo Brout, a psychologist and the director of the International Misophonia Research Network. People think, Whats wrong with me? Why is this happening to me? Im really a nice person. Studies have identified various brain regions involved in misophonia, including the anterior insula, which is involved with processing disgust, fear and anxiety. Its possible that the brains of people with misophonia are like hypersensitive alarm systems, interpreting specific innocuous sounds as threats, explained Zach Rosenthal, a clinical psychologist at Duke University and the director of the schools new Center for Misophonia and Emotion Regulation. A patient once explained the feeling to him in stark terms: Its as though theres a grizzly bear that suddenly sits down next to you, Dr. Rosenthal said, and your body automatically responds to it. If you or a loved one have symptoms of misophonia, heres what you should know. Understand what misophonia is and isnt. Chewing and slurping sounds can annoy anyone, so how can you tell if your reactions are strong enough to constitute misophonia? Dr. Storch said that what matters is the intensity of your reaction and how much it interferes with your daily life. If the sound of someone chewing slightly annoys you, you are a human being. If the sound makes you so angry you want to hurt someone, that could be misophonia. WASHINGTON President Biden hailed Queen Elizabeth II as more than a monarch, saying in a statement after her death on Thursday that the queen, who was 96, had borne witness to seven decades of unprecedented human advancement and the forward march of human dignity. The queen, Mr. Biden said, defined an era. White House officials said that the president had been briefed on Thursday morning about the queens sudden health concerns, and that he expressed his thoughts to Prime Minister Liz Truss of Britain during a previously scheduled video meeting with allied leaders. The queens death was formally announced shortly after the meeting ended, White House officials said. Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, was in the middle of her daily briefing with reporters when the official royal Twitter account reported her death. The queens death provoked conflicting emotions in the Caribbean, a political and cultural region shaped by the British Empire. Out of 15 sovereign states that recognized her as their head of state at the time of her death, more than half were former British possessions in or linked to the Caribbean. Prime Minister Andrew Holness of Jamaica joined global leaders in expressing condolences to the royal family. That message of support was echoed by some older residents who saw Elizabeth as a link to the wider world. She encouraged our people to do better, to focus, to look into the future and build a successful and powerful nation with her help and her guidance, said Edgar August, 57, a taxi driver in Belize City, Belize, which is part of CARICOM, the Caribbeans equivalent of the European Union, but is in Central America. But to others, the queens death revived memories of the regions colonial past and the monarchys role in the slave trade. Growing up, she was an omnipresent figurehead that came to represent deeds done in the name of empire and expansion regardless of the cost, said Justin Knowles, 30, a data manager from New Providence in the Bahamas. I hope those of us who experienced the other side of Rule, Britannia use this moment to ultimately heal and continue to move toward self-determination. For some Britons those battered by the high cost of living and skyrocketing energy costs, and others with more conflicted views on the monarchy news of the queens death also opened a tense divide. Queen Elizabeth II was for most people unknowable, but there was one place where the curious could feel close to her: onscreen. And whether it was Helen Mirren in The Queen, a movie about the monarchs life in the days after Princess Dianas death, or Claire Foy and Olivia Colman in Netflixs The Crown, the actors all took different approaches to try to get under the skin of such an enigmatic figure. Ms. Mirren told The New York Times in 2006 that she had not just relied on a gray wig and upper-crust accent but also had steeped herself in every aspect of Elizabeths life, reading biographies and watching old film clips to try to get a sense of the monarchs character and even mannerisms, both on and off duty. It was this song Like a Stone by Audioslave, Alex said. It came on the radio one night and I was like, What the ? This is the best thing Ive ever heard! Blessing is an outlier sonically, though not thematically, on the new album. Its title included, God Save the Animals riffs on religious imagery and sometimes even evokes a kind of funhouse-mirror Christianity (God is my designer, a surreal, helium-voiced Alex sings on one song, Jesus is my lawyer). Though Alex wasnt raised in a religious household, he admits that spirituality has been on his mind these past few years, and that some of the songs likely sprang from that part of his subconscious. I dont really have a set of beliefs, he said, but it seems like a place everyone has to go at some point. Even if Alexs music has never felt especially spiritual, there has long been a recurring sense of mortality in it. Terrible things happen in and around the margins of his songs nuclear bombs; fentanyl overdoses; bottomless longing but never without the possibility of renewal and carrying on. Similarly, one of the most stirring moments on the new album comes in the middle of Runner, which until then has been a mild-mannered lite-rocker in the vein of Soul Asylums Runaway Train. I have done a couple bad things, Alex sings in a pleasant voice, and then repeats the line several times, his voice becoming increasingly anguished until it turns into a bloodcurdling scream. Its a gaping rupture in the song, but just as casually, it continues on. That it sounds nothing quite like anything hes released before goes without saying as does the fact that its still somehow so Alex G. When Im thinking of a song, he said, its not like, This would be a great me song. Im just like, This would be a cool song. And so it sounds like me because I dont know what Im doing, he added, his laughter rising against the wind. But Im pursuing it as far as I can go. When the University of Michigan Library announced last month that one of its most prized possessions, a manuscript said to have been written by Galileo around 1610, was in fact a 20th-century fake, it brought renewed attention to the checkered, colorful career of the man named as the likely culprit: Tobia Nicotra, a notorious forger from Milan. Nicotra hoodwinked the U.S. Library of Congress into buying a fake Mozart manuscript in 1928. He wrote an early biography of the conductor Arturo Toscanini that became better known for its fictions than its facts. He traveled under the name of another famous conductor who had recently died. And in 1934 he was convicted of forgery in Milan after the police were tipped off by Toscaninis son Walter, who had bought a fake Mozart from him. His explanation of what had motivated his many forgeries, which were said to number in the hundreds, was somewhat unusual, at least according to an account of his trial that appeared in The American Weekly, a Hearst publication, in early 1935. We only get hints about Elendils past in this episode. We find out he has a daughter named Earien (Ema Horvath). He also has a son, Isildur (Maxim Baldry), who is in training for the sea guard, but who would rather defer his commission to pursue the call he feels toward their ancestral lands. There is nothing for us on the western shores, Elendil replies, mysteriously. The past is dead. Put a pin in that. For now, just note that this family, for whatever reason, is trying very hard to rebrand themselves as sea folk. The orcs are back, and scarier than ever. Last week, a stray orc terrorized Bronwyn and her son in the Southlands; and while the beast was suitably imposing, it was nowhere near as muscular or fearsome as the other orcs we have seen in The Lord of the Rings movies. I wouldnt say the same about the orcs that kidnapped the Silvan elf Arondir at the end of Episode 2, and who at the start of this episode carry him off to their prison pit, For Adar. (This explains the episodes title, although we dont see the actual Adar until the very end, in silhouette.) The prison sequences are equal parts horrifying and thrilling, as Arondir and his fellow elf captives plot an escape that seems downright impossible, given the size and viciousness of the orc guards. This week is light on blockbuster-quality action, until Arondir turns his shackles into weapons, whipping the chains around and leaping through the air. His gusto only makes it all the sadder when the escaping elves get pierced by arrows as they try to crawl out of the pit. The Harfoots may look friendly, but they have a flinty side. At the start of the series, we are told that the life of a Harfoot is superior to other Middle-earth races, because the halflings have no responsibilities. They just eat and play, enjoying what the land provides. But it is never quite that simple, is it? The Harfoots have to do a lot of work to hide their existence, for one thing. Also, during their regular migrations which they are preparing for at the beginning of this episode they leave friends and family members behind if they cant keep up. One of the more haunting scenes this week involves the Harfoots paying tribute to their fallen, in a ceremony led by the elder Sadoc (Lenny Henry), who talks about how, In life, we could not wait for them, before leading his people in the call We wait for you! as he reads the departeds names. An era comes to an end Queen Elizabeth II, Britains longest-serving monarch, died at 96 yesterday afternoon at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, her summer retreat. Members of the royal family rushed to be at her bedside. The familys announcement did not specify a cause, but said she had died peacefully. Read our obituary. Visibly frail, the queen had been in the twilight of her reign for some years. But the news of her death still landed with a thunderclap across the British realm, where she was a widely revered figure viewed as an anchor of stability. See photos from her reign. Her death comes at a time of acute uncertainty in Britain. Prime Minister Liz Truss has been in office for only three days, following months of political turmoil. The country faces its gravest economic threats in a generation. What makes HIMARS so effective? In the Soviet style of artillery rocket launchers, up until very recently, the rockets were all unguided. The launch tubes are permanently fixed to the back of the truck, so you need to load these long, heavy rockets into the back one by one manually, secure them in place and attach electrical firing wires to each one. Which takes quite a lot of time if you have 20 or 40 tubes. The American rockets are all guided and theyre packed into what they call pods that are much simpler and easier to deal with. Its essentially an expendable pack of rockets, pre-loaded into launch tubes. Six rockets per pod, two rows with three across. The HIMARS launch vehicle has its own winch that makes it very simple to unload and load the pods. Its a truck body that runs on wheels, so its maneuverable and fast. It fires rockets with the somewhat clunky name of Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System, or GMLRS, which is pronounced Gimmlers. Each rocket has an inertial navigation system and the truck has a GPS so it knows exactly where it is on the planet. The soldiers can program the mission into the rockets while the vehicle is still driving. There are three people in the truck a driver, a vehicle commander and a soldier in charge of inputting the data into the computer and ultimately launching the rockets. So all the truck needs to do is stop in order to fire. If you already typed in the data it needs, it knows where the target is. The rocket launches and flies toward where it needs to go. As it flies, it can also pick up GPS signals to verify its position and offer any corrections midflight. They can reach targets 50 miles away, hitting within about 30 feet of their aim point. The size of the warhead can be compared to an air-dropped bomb. A 500-pound bomb contains only about 192 pounds of explosives; the rest is the steel case. So each Gimmlers rocket fired from a HIMARS can hit with the explosive power of a 500-pound bomb. Mao didnt care that people starved to death or that the country was thrown into chaos in those two disastrous campaigns. Mr. Xi doesnt seem to care that his campaign has been extremely disruptive even as the coronavirus has become much milder, if more transmittable. His strategy has contained the pandemic. China reports fewer than 2,000 new cases each day of late, most of them asymptomatic. The country has reported 5,226 Covid-related deaths since early 2020 and none since May, according to the National Health Commission. Chinas authoritarian approach proved especially effective in much of 2020 and 2021, when the United States and Europe were struggling with high death and infection rates. Mr. Xi has been using the temporary success as evidence that Chinas top-down governance model is superior to that of liberal democracies. He refuses to abandon his old playbook of lockdowns, mass testing and quarantines in favor of learning to coexist with the milder variants that emerged this year. As of Tuesday, 49 Chinese cities were imposing some sort of lockdown measures, affecting around 292 million people, up from 161 million in the previous week, according to the investment bank Nomura. Its taking a serious economic toll. At the beginning of the year, Nomura expected Chinas economy to grow 4.3 percent in 2022. After successive rounds of lockdowns, it lowered its forecast to 2.7 percent. The Communist Party has defended its policy, saying that relaxing the Covid restrictions could cause widespread infections in a country with limited medical resources and a large population of older people, among whom 15 percent are not fully vaccinated. The party said it would crack down on any speech or behavior that distorted, questioned or disapproved of the policy. Many Chinese buy into the narrative and willingly act as foot soldiers in the partys fight against the virus. Most credit card companies and banks have either fought the new code or been silent on the issue. For several years, Visa and Mastercard have opposed adding the code. Behind the scenes, some company officials favored the code, but they publicly rejected it out of fear of angering politicians who support gun rights. Amalgamated Bank made an application to ISO for the code this spring, arguing that it was necessary to identify credit risk. It had also applied for the code earlier in the year, but was rejected. After Amalgamated reapplied for the code, it received support from political leaders across the country. Dozens of senators and members of Congress sent the credit card companies letters supporting the proposal. Several pension funds called for the card companies to disclose whether they supported or had tried to reject the code. It appears the campaign worked. We all have to do our part to stop gun violence, Priscilla Sims Brown, the president and chief executive of Amalgamated Bank, said in a statement on Friday. The new code will allow us to fully comply with our duty to report suspicious activity and illegal gun sales to authorities without blocking or impeding legal gun sales. It is unclear, however, whether the new code will be used. In a letter on Friday to Senator Warren and dozens of other lawmakers, Robert B. Thomson III, a senior vice president of Visa, said the company is not a member of ISO and does not have authority over ISOs standards and processes. We believe that asking payment networks to serve as a moral authority by deciding which legal goods can or cannot be purchased sets a dangerous precedent, he wrote. One of the so-called pillars of the talks, trade among the countries, is being led by Ms. Tais office. The Commerce Department has taken the lead on three other topics that the framework will address: increasing the security of supply chains, promoting clean energy and decarbonization and synchronizing tax and anticorruption policies. Not all countries will participate in all pillars. While all 14 have agreed to negotiate over supply chains, for example, India has decided not to participate in the trade pillar. Officials declined to speculate when the negotiations might conclude. No date has been set for the next meeting, but Gina Raimondo, the commerce secretary, said that countries had agreed on an aggressive timeline and that it might be early next year. The framework, abbreviated as IPEF, is different from traditional trade deals, which have offered foreign countries more access to the U.S. market by lowering the tariffs charged on goods at the U.S. border. Instead, the pact focuses on setting standards for digital commerce and environmental protection, and cooperating on issues like supply chain disruptions. TOKYO When he got married this summer, Hiroshi Kanno, who works at a security services firm in Tokyo, wanted to make a big statement that would impress his future in-laws. So he asked for his companys president to send a congratulatory telegram. It arrived during the wedding party and was read aloud. It really pumped up the atmosphere, Mr. Kanno, 33, said. I felt like a celebrity, added his wife, Asuka, a 31-year-old office administrator. They posted photos of that message and another wedding telegram on Twitter, along with the his-and-her Hello Kitty dolls that were delivered with the notes. The telegram, a form of communication associated more with the Roaring 20s than the 2020s, has kept a foothold in Japan, where millions of the messages still crisscross the nation every year, carrying articulations of celebration, mourning and thanks. Ray: Agencies like the Forest Service are already aiming to burn much more each year than they used to. But scientists are trying to figure out how to burn smarter. Climate change is making forests hotter and drier for more of the year. If we want to burn more, but we have less time each year to do it, then we need to make sure were burning in a way that maximizes the benefits to forests while also minimizing smoke that can affect nearby communities. Thats where better science comes in. Somini: Okay. But they are also risky. A fire in New Mexico earlier this summer was started by two prescribed burns. It became the largest fire in the states history. Ray: The vast majority of prescribed burns go as planned, and nobody gets hurt. Unfortunately, when things do go wrong, the consequences can be very painful, like in New Mexico. The Forest Service acknowledged, in its investigation into that New Mexico fire, that its methods for planning prescribed burns arent keeping up with climate change. Somini: Ive gone up to the Sierras many times over the years, including this summer, with my teenager. The trees are ancient, but theyre also intensely feeling the impact of man-made climate change. It was pretty mind-blowing, and I wrote about it in this newsletter. Was there anything mind-blowing about this reporting trip for you? Ray: Driving up through the Sierras, you can see, even from the road, how densely packed the trees are in some places. Its stunning to behold, incredibly majestic. Its only when you think about what could happen if a fire ever roared through, that it starts to look dangerous instead of beautiful. Related: Weve shaken the sand from our shoes and tucked away our swimsuits until next summer, and the busyness of fall has begun: The calendar is filling up with to-dos and appointments, and if you can believe it, holiday plans. The days can sometimes feel like theyre slipping by, but stopping to make a simple meal and enjoy it can help you slow down and smell the proverbial roses. These recipes are blessedly easy, the kind you can cook once or twice, then cook from memory. Put them together while chatting with your loved ones about their days or booking your plane tickets home for Thanksgiving. None of those come close to Mr. Lewitinns streak, a combination, doctors say, of his physical and mental strength and the swiftness with which the medical establishment developed protocols for long-term Covid care. He had a long and difficult course, Dr. Abraham Sanders, one of his physicians at Weill Cornell, wrote in an email. He was a strong man and was the beneficiary of sophisticated medical care. Murad Albert Lewitinn was born on March 12, 1946, to a Jewish family in Cairo. (He Anglicized his first name to Marco as a child and later dropped the O.) His father, Albert Lewitinn, was a medical engineer, and his mother, Sarah (Amiga) Lewitinn, was a homemaker. He grew up speaking Arabic and later learned English, French and Spanish. Egypt had a thriving Jewish community of 75,000 people, but they faced worsening conditions after the Arab nationalist revolution in 1952 and the Suez Crisis in 1956, which pitted the country against Israel, France and Britain. The government took over the elder Mr. Lewitinns business and, after being briefly detained, he and his family were expelled in 1958. They settled in Baltimore, where Albert Lewitinn was hired by Johns Hopkins University to work on organ transplant technology. As a young man Marc lived in New York City and Los Angeles, where he briefly attended college, then Paris, where he met Ondine Green, the sister of a childhood friend from Cairo. They married in 1968. Anek Stream it on Netflix. This sprawling and incisive action thriller from the Indian director Anubhav Sinha offers a distinctive glimpse into the divergent political and cultural identities found in Indias northeast. Its seen, partly, through the eyes of Joshua (Ayushmann Khurrana), an undercover agent who must choose between the love of his girlfriend, Aido (Andrea Kevichusa), a boxer pursuing a spot on the national team who is unaware of his government ties, and a mission to undermine a rebel group secretly led by Aidos father (Mipham Otsal). While Joshua gathers intel, guerrilla warriors continue their fight against what they see as an oppressive government. The exquisite compositions by the cinematographer Ewan Mulligan capture the ensuing destruction across the lush northeastern Indian countryside not through a salacious lens, but with an aching beauty that outlines this rebellion in determined strokes. A one-shot track down a dirt road to a field engulfed in flames is one such rapturous image. A war sequence involving roadside bombs set to a hectic organ score is another that acknowledges the diversity of this subcontinent while noting the unavoidable results of a region not allowed to choose its own identity. Mr. de Blasio had hoped to carry that newfound momentum into the congressional race. He entered with significant advantages: broad name recognition, a track record of some successes, solid fund-raising and a district in his political home base. When I first heard he was running for Congress, it honestly made immense sense to me, Ms. Lapeyrolerie said. I was like, I feel like he would actually be quite good at this. Now, though, a future career in electoral politics seems unlikely. Im a little sad about it, Mr. de Blasio said. But Im not deeply pained, because I really have had the opportunity to think. After dropping his campaign bid, Mr. de Blasio took some time off, the first stretch in years that he actually felt some relief and the ability to calm and de-stress, he said. When he heads to Harvard, among the areas of focus will be two of his biggest successes as mayor, the highs that book-ended his eight-year term: early childhood education and steering the city through a pandemic. But when his time as a fellow ends, Mr. de Blasios future is uncertain. Its public service, unquestionably, he said. I dont know what form it will take. But I do know that I feel a lot of energy, and I feel a lot of desire to serve. Jeffery C. Mays contributed reporting. Days after New York City officials said they had found potentially dangerous levels of arsenic in the tap water at a Manhattan public housing development, they delivered a stunning turnabout on Friday, saying arsenic had been added to the sample during a laboratory test and there had never been elevated levels in the water. In a statement issued late in the afternoon, city officials said the laboratory had issued a full retraction of its initial results. Those results, made public last Friday, triggered a public health panic at the Jacob Riis Houses in the East Village and left more than 3,700 residents unable to drink tap water for a week. The original tests were conducted after residents complained of cloudy water last month, city officials said. But a statement issued by the lab, Environmental Monitoring and Technologies, Inc., which the city released Friday, said that new tests of the original water sample did not find arsenic levels exceeding the federal drinking water standard. Of course, conspiracy theories, demonization and apocalyptic terrors are part of many wars. ISIS radicalized plenty of people online, recruiting them to its so-called caliphate even if they had no material beef with the Iraqi or Syrian regimes. Indeed, said Mogelson, some of the most sadistic violence perpetrated during ISISs reign was committed by Western jihadists. Still, he emphasizes, most ISIS fighters were Syrians or Iraqis whod suffered and been hardened by civil war before they aligned with the terrorist faction. Theres a difference between the complexities of those long-running conflicts, and how certain people become radicalized in those environments, and what we have in the U.S., which would just be large-scale violence based from the get-go on lies, he said. This is not a case for complacency, since Mogelsons book is full of examples of smaller-scale violence inspired by lies. I asked Mogelson what surprised him most about returning to the United States. At first, he said it was the power of conspiracy theories among the people on the right that he interviewed. Then he thought about it more, and decided on something else: how really genuinely scared a lot of these people were. Mogelson described meeting a member of the Proud Boys in Washington State who, for all the groups hypermasculine bluster, was afraid to be in a public park in downtown Vancouver in broad daylight by himself. He feared being attacked by antifa or Black Lives Matter adherents, groups that people on the right regularly conflate. Something similar happened, Mogelson said, when he interviewed Trump supporters at events in Detroit, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. The presence of left-wing counterprotesters genuinely panicked them. Donald Trump and his allies have long told their audiences that terrifying forces are arrayed against them, and their audiences believe them. The goal, as was clear when lawyers from the Trump campaign pushed this independent state legislature theory before and after the 2020 election, is to create a path by which Republican state lawmakers can toss out results they dont like. It is not for nothing that the author of the Claremont brief is none other than John Eastman, one of the legal architects of the plan to keep Trump in office against the will of the voters. When performing federal functions, the legislatures of the several states are not operating pursuant to state authority, Eastman writes, but rather pursuant to federal authority, and cannot be constrained by anything in state law or even a state constitution to the contrary. A large part of the Republican Party is, as Biden says, working to ensure that the next time Trump is on the ballot, he cannot lose. For Bidens critics, however, theres nothing not even overwhelming evidence of MAGA subversion that justifies his sweeping condemnation of Trump and his followers. I was stunned at how divisive this speech was last night, said Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, a Republican who has kept his distance from Trump even as he campaigns for candidates in Michigan and Nevada who believe the 2020 election was stolen or who question the result. One view of Bidens speech says that if the president is serious about the threat to American democracy, he should sacrifice key political, policy and ideological goals for the sake of unity with conservative opponents of Trump. Another, similar view says that Biden should have made a more Lincolnesque appeal to the better angels of MAGA Republican voters, rather than condemn the entire movement as essentially anti-American. Neither argument really lands. Pre-emptive concessions on critical issues might appeal to a handful of conservative Republican dissidents, but they will outrage and demoralize Democratic voters at a moment when Democrats stand a meaningful chance of holding their majorities in Congress. The simple truth is that the best way to undermine and weaken the MAGA movement at this moment is to win elections. It makes no sense, then, for Biden to deliberately undermine the Democratic Partys ability to do just that. When you get home after being away awhile, you have a nice pile of printed matter waiting for you, and mine included a memoir, Speaking My Soul: Race, Life and Language, by the linguist John Rickford, a Stanford University emeritus professor who built a sterling career studying Englishes of Black people in both the Caribbean and the United States. John was my dissertation adviser and remains a friend. He produced what is still the handiest primer on Black English ever, Spoken Soul, co-authored with his son, the Cornell University historian Russell Rickford, and his memoir complements that book perfectly. Many years ago, John and I were part of a group of linguists following up on a claim that there was a Black community in Mississippi speaking a dialect that contained elements of Jamaican Patois and elements of an undetermined African language. We never found it. (If anyone in Mississippi knows anything, do let me know!) But along the way we had some interesting conversations. I recall, when asked whether she knew of anyone who spoke in this dialect, an elderly Black woman in a small town saying something to the effect of, Most people speak pretty good English, but it seems like some people just talk! As the conversation went on, it dawned on me that she held the very common and understandable but incorrect view that Black English is just a collection of errors. Johns career has been devoted to carefully countering that misimpression, showing the richness and legitimacy of nonstandard ways of talking. In the Guyanese creole that John grew up speaking, for instance, there is a plethora of ways to say I gave him, ranging from speaking that sentence with a Guyanese accent to saying Mi bin gi am, which a standard English speaker might barely follow. To some this might suggest a kind of chaos, but the forms are used according to a subtle complex of factors involving socioeconomic class, level of formal education, intended tone and so on. John has endless things to teach about that and a great deal more. As it happens, I just came upon an Esquire article that opens with generous passages in Gullah creole, a dialect similar to Guyanese created by enslaved Black people in and around the Sea Islands of the American Southeast. Its author, Mitchell Jackson, has written a piece on Justice Clarence Thomas that begins in the small Black Georgia town Thomas grew up in, with narration rendered in the Gullah that some locals speak among themselves. John J. Coniglio East Meadow, N.Y. To the Editor: I agree with much of what Bret Stephens says about President Bidens speech. I was a registered Republican from 1970 to 2016. I left the party the day Donald Trump got the nomination. I think there is one simple litmus test that separates the MAGA deplorables from the regular or moderate Republicans. If you deny that Joe Biden won the election, if you insist that it had to be rigged, if you attended the Jan. 6 riot and acted violently, then yes, you are a MAGA extremist bent on the destruction of our democracy. Its that simple. Steven Schwartz West Orange, N.J. To the Editor: Re Does Biden Truly Think Democracy Is in Crisis?, by Ross Douthat (column, Sept. 5): Since democracy means that the candidate with the most votes is declared the winner, how could anyone, including Mr. Douthat, not believe that we are in a crisis of democracy, when the other major party candidate and his minions refuse to acknowledge that Joe Biden was the winner? Ross Zucker Castine, Maine The writer is a retired professor of political science at Touro University. To the Editor: Ross Douthat questions whether President Biden and the Democrats really believe that Donald Trump and his followers are a threat to democracy, because Republicans are not a majority party. But with the Electoral College, voting restrictions, gerrymandering, a Senate biased toward rural states and a Supreme Court tilted way to the right, our system is quite vulnerable to rule by a minority party. If that party becomes authoritarian, it can indeed be a threat to democracy. Those who dont take such a threat seriously espouse a dangerous complacency. But 16A is a hub for the whole family. The first big gathering in the apartment was for the bris of Gabriel, in March 2020. Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit. The in-laws barely used the apartment for nine months, but having it allowed the grandparents the ability to see their grandchildren at first individually and later as a group. In the days before the vaccine, the building issued a rule that only residents could enter. They were, in fact, residents. Two years later, the childrens play table and toys scattered around suggest that the boundary between 16A and 16G is porous. Indeed, the children and grandchildren pop into 16A so often that Ms. Seligson has taken to calling it the annex. This is the best its looked in a long time, Dr. Eil chuckled. Ms. Seligson smiled ruefully. It wont look like this in five hours. Wait until Gabriel comes. But thats ok. Thats what 16A is for. Kurt Gottfried, a theoretical physicist who barely escaped the brutal reality of one world war and devoted his career to preventing another as a co-founder of the influential Union of Concerned Scientists, died on Aug. 25 in Ithaca, N.Y. He was 93. His death, in a nursing home where he and his wife had been living for the last 10 years, was confirmed by his son, David. Dr. Gottfried taught at Cornell University, in Ithaca, for 35 years. Dr. Gottfried, who fled Nazi-controlled Austria when he was 9, became an outspoken opponent of nuclear weaponry, a champion of politically dissident scientists in the Soviet Union and South America, and a fierce critic of the George W. Bush administrations environmental policy, which he said was grounded in research skewed to comport with the White Houses political agenda. Like the skeleton of an extinct sea monster, the Dolmen of Guadalperal has resurfaced from the depths of the Valdecanas reservoir in western Spain, where Europes persistent drought has caused water levels to plummet and submerged monuments to come to light. The remnants of this Bronze Age sepulcher, nicknamed the Spanish Stonehenge, are now fully exposed for only the fifth time since the area was deliberately flooded in 1963 as part of a rural development project. Dolmens were single-chambered tombs that often combined religious ceremony with precise sun sightings. The one that just reappeared in Spain dates to the fourth or fifth millennium B.C., which makes it as much as 2,000 years older than its Celtic cousin on the Salisbury Plain in England. What remains of the Guadalperal complex is a ring of quartzite, 117 feet in diameter, surrounding 144 jagged granite standing stones, many of which are no longer standing. The stones, or menhirs some as tall as six feet buttressed a massive capstone set in a tumulus, or a mound of earth and pebbles. Both the capstone and the tumulus were dismantled in 1925 during an excavation led by Hugo Obermaier, a Spanish-German anthropologist and prehistorian. The mayor of New York City is not a labels guy. I see something that I like, Im going to move toward it, Eric Adams said Thursday evening during an interview in the formal French-wallpapered dining room of Gracie Mansion. Sometimes I think people focus too much on a designer, he added, when asked if he had any favorite New York designers. Dont be influenced by who the designer is. Even if those designers including Michael Kors, Tory Burch, Vera Wang and Tommy Hilfiger were just down the hallway, mingling as they awaited remarks from their citys mayor. When I bumped into him on the street in Rome last summer, we hadnt seen each other for nearly a decade. You know how people say that youll fall in love when you least expect it? I am never not expecting it. On every plane, at every coffee shop, Im always hoping for a spark with someone. I had booked the holiday after the worst bout of mental illness Id had in years. My psychiatrist said that traveling can be like geographic medicine. When stuck in your mind, youre likely to feel trapped in your body. New surroundings can create a sense of freedom, reminding you that life is full of possibilities. Romance has always given me a similar sense of escape. I crave the consuming feeling of having a crush, because it channels my emotions into something outside of myself. In love, my feelings are magical and constructive, rather than harmful and destructive. Tess Alexandra MacVicar Owen and Andrew Blaise Campbell were in Charlottesville, Va., in August 2017 to cover the violent Unite the Right rally of white nationalists, or, as Ms. Owen called it, a brazen display of hatred. What neither expected to find was love. On the day after the rally, Ms. Owen, 33, a senior reporter based in New York who covers extremism at Vice News, went to meet a former classmate, Christopher Mathias, for a drink at a local bar to decompress. Mr. Mathias was with Mr. Campbell, 34. Both were on the extremism beat for HuffPost, where Mr. Campbell, who goes by Andy, is a reporter and senior editor also based in New York. I could see his warmth and goofiness the moment I met him, Ms. Owen said. Ms. Owen and Mr. Campbell played a game of pool, which seemed to go on forever, because we were flirting, and we were really bad at it, she said. Welcome to T Wanderlust, a new travel newsletter from the editors of T Magazine. Twice a month, well recommend global destinations and hotels worth visiting. Sign up here to find us in your inbox every other Friday, along with our T List newsletter each Wednesday. And you can always reach us at tlist@nytimes.com. NORWAY IS PROBABLY best known for its fjords, which often cut between steep cliffs and peaks that, even in summertime, retain white collars of snow. Here, nature exists right alongside cities: All of the countrys major urban centers are on the coast. While Oslo offers a big-city feel and Bergen charms with old wooden houses and a funicular up to the summit of Mount Flyen, its Trondheim the countrys third-largest city, with a population of more than 210,000 that has emerged as a hub for young creative types looking to evade high rents. Joel Sanders served in the United States Army from 1985 to 1988. Originally from St. Louis, Mr. Sanders was stationed in Berlin, and after being medically discharged, he stayed in Germany and made a life for himself, having six children and founding a security business. There was only one problem: He wasnt really Joel Sanders. In June 2018, the St. Louis man whose name he took was denied health insurance because records indicated that he had veteran status. He was advised to seek care through the Department of Veterans Affairs. He alerted the departments police that his identity had been misused, setting off a chain of events that upended a decades-long hoax. Its origins were also brought to light: the desperation of a young Black man trying to flee the violence of his Midwestern hometown. Take, for instance, Mr. Trumps lie that the 2020 election was stolen. When pressed about whether he agrees, Mr. Mowers has said he harbors concerns about voting irregularities around the country. That was too wishy-washy for Ms. Leavitt, who repeats Mr. Trumps falsehoods unequivocally. We need candidates who are willing to speak truth about the election, who are willing to push back, she said during an interview at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February, where she also bragged that Facebook had removed an interview she had done with the former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon in which she asserted that the election had been stolen. If youre not willing to say what happened in 2020, then, gosh, you dont deserve to be elected. Ms. Leavitt later accused Mr. Mowers of siding with Joe Biden and the Democrats by refusing to stand for election integrity and support audits. She has also said she would support Mr. Jordan for speaker rather than Mr. McCarthy, though she later said she would back Mr. McCarthy. At a recent debate, when asked whether he would support impeaching President Biden, Mr. Mowers said he would want to have hearings to look into the issue. Ms. Leavitt said without qualification that she would support any impeachment charge against the president. Each candidate has been savaging the other as a creature of Washington. Mr. Mowerss campaign operates a fake MAGA Karoline website, which accuses her of having never held a real job outside the swamp, attending private school in Massachusetts and being registered to vote from the penthouse apartment where she lived in Washington before moving back to New Hampshire to run for office. In March 1979, on an Eastern Airlines flight to Tallahassee, Fla., from Atlanta, a flight attendant got into a disagreement with a late-boarding passenger who insisted that the airline was obligated to place her in a nonsmoking section, rather than in the back of the plane among the puffers. When the attendant welcomed passengers over the planes intercom several minutes later, she was still miffed. We wish everyone a good trip except for one lady in the back, she said, according to news accounts. The attendant should perhaps have done less arguing and more accommodating, because the complaining passenger was Elizabeth E. Bailey, the first woman to be appointed to the Civil Aeronautics Board, which regulated air travel at the time. Dr. Bailey was certainly in a position to know that the board had indeed changed its rules a few months earlier to require that a passenger who requested a nonsmoking seat be provided one. (Previously, once a planes dedicated nonsmoking section became full, a nonsmoker could be seated with the cigarette crowd.) In the end, the smokers in Dr. Baileys row agreed not to smoke; the airline later apologized to her. Los Angeles County officials said this week that they were investigating the death of a person who had been diagnosed with monkeypox to see if the illness was a contributing cause of death. It is the second known death of a person diagnosed with the disease in the United States, which has reported more cases of the viral illness this year than anywhere in the world. Health officials are investigating what, if any, role monkeypox played in the two deaths. Dr. Rita Singhal, chief medical officer for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, said at a news conference on Thursday that an autopsy was being conducted on the person who died in the county and that it could take days or weeks to get the results. Dr. Singhal did not say whether the person who died had any underlying medical conditions, as was the case in the earlier fatality, in Texas. While Captain Geary was in charge, several changes were made at BUD/S, according to four current and former Navy personnel with knowledge of operations there. They asked not to be named because they feared retaliation from the tight-knit SEAL community. A key change, they said, was removing a number of senior civilian advisers all of them retired SEALs whose job had been to watch over training, guide young instructors and step in if they saw unnecessary abuse or alarming medical problems. The instructor staff was packed with men recently moved from DevGru, and instructors were given greater leeway to run classes as they saw fit, three of the Navy personnel said. With few civilian advisers around, they said, the leash was effectively off. Captain Geary, who SEALs say is respected in their community, was transferred from command of BUD/S to his next assignment on schedule in June. He did not respond to several requests for comment. Five sailors who were BUD/S students in 2021 or 2022 described a savage intensity that few SEALs before them had seen. The sailors asked not to be identified because they feared retaliation. They said instructors had hit, kicked and otherwise abused students and had often devised ways to try to drive them to quit. Each BUD/S class is assigned a proctor a SEAL instructor whose job is to be an ally and mentor for the students. But several of the sailors said their proctor would use his nightly mentoring sessions to inflict more punishment, having students run for miles in the dark and plunge repeatedly into the ocean. The Justice Department has subpoenaed two former top White House political advisers under President Donald J. Trump as part of a widening investigation related to Mr. Trumps post-election fund-raising and plans for so-called fake electors, according to people briefed on the matter. Brian Jack, the final White House political director under Mr. Trump, and Stephen Miller, Mr. Trumps top speechwriter and a senior policy adviser, were among more than a dozen people connected to the former president to receive subpoenas from a federal grand jury this week. The subpoenas seek information in connection with the Save America political action committee and the plan to submit slates of electors pledged to Mr. Trump from swing states that were won by Joseph R. Biden Jr. in the 2020 election. Mr. Trump and his allies promoted the idea that competing slates of electors would justify blocking or delaying certification of Mr. Bidens Electoral College win during a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021. The inclusion of an abortion-rights referendum on Michigans November ballot has given Democrats hope for a wave of enthusiastic voter turnout on Election Day as the movement to allow voters to decide the issue directly sweeps outward from the first state that did so, Kansas. Democrats in Michigan say the referendum will supercharge activism among a broad swath of voters determined to keep abortion legal in the state, just as another referendum did in August, when 59 percent of voters in reliably Republican Kansas voted to maintain abortion access in the state. That could help Democrats up and down the ballot, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Attorney General Dana Nessel, lawmakers in at least three closely watched House races and Democrats hoping to grab control of the State Legislature. The country stood up and listened when Kansas had its vote, said Representative Elissa Slotkin, who is locked in a difficult re-election campaign in Central Michigan. Those who were ready got it on the ballot for 2022. Were going to see a lot more in 2024. First, society polarizes, often over a backlash to social change, to demographic change, to strengthening political power by racial, ethnic or religious minorities, and generally amid rising social distrust. 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. This leads to a bottom-up desire for populist outsiders who will promise to confront the supposed threat within, which means suppressing the other side of that social or partisan or racial divide, asserting a vision of democracy that grants special status for my side, and smashing the democratic institutions or norms that prevent that side from asserting what is perceived to be its rightful dominance. You also tend to see political parties and other establishment gatekeepers, who are in theory meant to keep authoritarians from rising in politics, either weaken or become co-opted. Once populist hard-liners gain enough power to begin eroding democratic checks, such as an independent judiciary or the rule of law, its usually a steady slide toward democratic erosion. This trend has really picked up speed, globally, only in the last 20 years or so. So its hard to say exactly how common it is for countries that begin on this path to end up like Hungary or Turkey. But very few democracies have begun to slide and then reversed course. You have a new book called The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World. In your reporting and research for the book, what sorts of effects on democracy did you find social media is having? Im old enough to remember when techno-evangelists like Clay Shirky were predicting that social media would unleash a wave of democratization in the developing world. Obviously, that hasnt happened. Or has it? I had that same arc of initially seeing social media as a democratizing force. So did a lot of Arab Spring activists from the early 2010s, like Wael Ghonim, the Egyptian revolutionary and Google engineer. But, within a few years, Ghonim had come to conclude, he has said in a TED Talk, that the same tool that united us to topple dictators eventually tore us apart by amplifying the spread of misinformation, rumors, echo chambers and hate speech. Those in favor of a complete ban argued that a fetus conceived through sexual violence was innocent and deserved protection. Does an unborn human being have the most fundamental civil right of all, which is the right to life? Republican Senator Richard Cash asked. Mr. Massey and his allies forfeited the original goal of a complete ban after a fellow Republican, Senator Tom Davis, launched a filibuster supported by Democrats. Mr. Davis ended up voting in favor of the modified bill, as did 26 other Republicans. Democrats voted against the bill. Mr. Davis had urged his colleagues to consider the competing rights of the woman and the fetus, both of whom in his view deserved rights and protections that ought to be balanced against each other. This is euthanasia in or outside the womb, Sen. Billy Garrett said, in response to Mr. Daviss amendment to allow abortion in the case of a fatal fetal anomaly. The split in South Carolina illustrates a broader challenge for the Republican Party on abortion, as the midterms draw closer. The party is caught between two competing goals: win political victory by appeasing moderates who feel uneasy about sweeping abortion bans, or push for the more extreme position that a fetus deserves the same legal protections as any person. Out of the billions of dollars in weapons the White House has shipped to Ukraine since the Russian invasion, perhaps none have attracted as much attention as the M142 HIMARS, an advanced rocket launcher that Ukrainian troops have used to devastating effect. HIMARS, short for High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, is a five-ton truck that can fire long-range guided rockets. The Pentagon announced it was sending the first of four launchers to Kyiv, Ukraine, at the beginning of June, about six weeks after it started providing 155-millimeter howitzers and ammunition. Since then, the United States has sent Kyiv a total of 126 such howitzers and authorized shipments of up to 807,000 rounds of ammunition for them to fire. NAIROBI, Kenya Though Queen Elizabeth II was revered by many in Africa, her death also reignited a different sort of conversation one that touched on the legacy of the British Empire and the brutality the monarchy meted out to people in its former colonies. In a younger generation of Africans growing up in a post-colonial world, some lamented that the queen never faced up to the grim aftermath of colonialism and empire, or issued an official apology. They said they wanted to use the moment to recall the oppression and horrors their parents and grandparents endured in the name of the Crown, and to urge for the return of crown jewels rare massive diamonds taken from the continent. You can look at the monarchy from the point of view of high tea and nice outfits and charity, said Alice Mugo, a 34-year-old lawyer in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. But theres also the ugly side, and for you to ignore the ugly side is dishonest. HEFEI, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- "Shaiqiu" is a time-honored practice prevalent in many Chinese villages during harvest time in autumn, as farmers put agricultural produce such as corns and chili peppers in bamboo baskets to sun-dry them. The variety of colors on the ground adds to the pleasure of the harvest. Chengkan Village in Huangshan City, east China's Anhui Province was built in the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220) and has a history of more than 1,800 years. Follow Xinhua correspondent to have a glimpse of the rural tradition "shaiqiu" in Chengkan Village. Produced by Xinhua Global Service SRINAGAR, Kashmir Their soldiers have fought with fists, rocks and wooden clubs along a disputed frontier high in the Himalayas. Both India and China have said they dont want a war, but the brawls led them to move thousands of soldiers to inhospitable terrain. Now, the two nuclear-armed neighbors appear to be moving toward de-escalation after a conflict that endangered regional stability, with officials from both sides agreeing to pull back soldiers from friction points along their disputed border in the Ladakh region. The Indian and Chinese troops in the area of Gogra-Hot Springs have begun to disengage in a coordinated and planned way, which is conducive to the peace and tranquility in the border areas, Indias Defense Ministry said on Thursday in a statement that the Chinese government also issued in almost identical form. The Australia Letter is a weekly newsletter from our Australia bureau. Sign up to get it by email. The death of Queen Elizabeth II, Britains longest-reigning monarch, has reverberated around the world. Amid the outpouring of grief on social media and in news coverage, her passing inevitably renewed questions about the monarchys role, including in Commonwealth countries, like Australia, where she was the head of state. Australians have responded to the news in a variety of ways. Lawmakers sent messages of condolences, and news channels looked back on her visits to Australia. Some aspects of the mourning process here like suspending Parliament for 15 days have come under scrutiny. In Melbourne, where I spent the morning talking to residents, reactions ranged from grief and a profound sense of loss to apathy. The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday announced sanctions against Iranian companies involved in the sale of drones to Russia, part of a continuing effort to pressure military supply chains and make it more difficult for Moscow to resupply its forces fighting in Ukraine. While the overall Russian economy has so far proven resilient in the face of international pressure, U.S. officials said that American sanctions and export controls had forced the Kremlin to turn to Iran and North Korea for weaponry. Russia took its first delivery of Iranian drones in late August. And on Monday, a declassified American intelligence report said Russia was buying artillery shells and rockets from North Korea. American officials said Russias reliance on such pariah states that operate outside the system of international trade was a sign of desperation. And, cash handouts and subsidies aside, more direct market interventions are afoot. The electricity market is no longer a functioning market because there is one actor, Putin, who is systematically trying to destroy it and to manipulate it, President Ursula von der Leyen of the European Commission said in a speech last week. So we really have to react to that. And that is why we are addressing now the composition of the electricity market. On Wednesday she unveiled her staffs proposals, which include a cap on what E.U. countries are allowed to pay Russia for natural gas, taxing energy companies profits and suspending rules that make it illegal for governments to subsidize companies to permit the funding of utilities that are burning through cash to buy outrageously expensive fuels to make power. E.U. energy ministers meeting on Friday said they would adopt a set of interventionist policies as early as this month, before the weather gets colder and the crunch is felt even more deeply, but needed a few more days to finalize their plans. The European Unions fiscal strictures normally seek to punish countries that exceed a deficit of 3 percent of annual economic output and a debt load of more than 60 percent of the output. She made sacrifices for duty. Her dedication and devotion as Sovereign never wavered, through times of change and progress, through times of joy and celebration, and through times of sadness and loss. In her life of service we saw that abiding love of tradition, together with that fearless embrace of progress, which make us great as Nations. The affection, admiration and respect she inspired became the hallmark of her reign. And, as every member of my family can testify, she combined these qualities with warmth, humor and an unerring ability always to see the best in people. I pay tribute to my Mothers memory and I honor her life of service. I know that her death brings great sadness to so many of you, and I share that sense of loss, beyond measure, with you all. When the queen came to the throne, Britain and the world were still coping with the privations and aftermath of the Second World War, and still living by the conventions of earlier times. In the course of the last seventy years we have seen our society become one of many cultures and many faiths. The institutions of the State have changed in turn. But, through all changes and challenges, our nation and the wider family of Realms of whose talents, traditions and achievements I am so inexpressibly proud have prospered and flourished. Our values have remained, and must remain, constant. The role and the duties of Monarchy also remain, as does the Sovereigns particular relationship and responsibility toward the Church of England the Church in which my own faith is so deeply rooted. In that faith, and the values it inspires, I have been brought up to cherish a sense of duty to others, and to hold in the greatest respect the precious traditions, freedoms and responsibilities of our unique history and our system of parliamentary government. LONDON Gertrude Dudley remembers sitting on her grandfathers shoulders in 1953 at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, a monarch she came to know as the fabric of Britain. On Friday, Ms. Dudley, 78, a retired entrepreneur, was mourning the queens death along with a friend at a London cafe. This country is in such terrible state, she was the one stability, Ms Dudley said. Now she, too, has gone. Chrissy Mash, 29, who was shopping for groceries in Londons Islington borough, had a much different reaction, though. She rarely spoke in public except to make scripted remarks in official settings a state dinner, a charity function, her annual Christmas radio address adding to the sense that it was impossible to know who she really was behind the tightly controlled public persona. And so it was striking when she felt moved to make remarks that went beyond her normally anodyne utterances. She made a rare reference to her own, and the countrys, travails in 1992, a year in which Windsor Castle caught on fire on her wedding anniversary, three of her four children separated from or divorced their spouses and one of her daughters-in-law was caught up in a sex scandal lasciviously covered by the newspapers. But it seemed apt for a woman of her reserve and aversion to self-pity that she used both gentle sarcasm and Latin in making her point. In a speech in London meant to mark her 40th anniversary on the throne, she said: 1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure. In the words of one of my more sympathetic correspondents, it has turned out to be an Annus Horribilis. And the statement she made after Sept. 11, read aloud by Britains ambassador to the United States in a service in New York honoring the Britons lost in the attacks, is still memorable for its simple, aching beauty. Nothing that can be said can begin to take away the anguish and the pain of these moments, the statement said. Grief is the price we pay for love. Perhaps at no point in recent years was the monarchy more in trouble, or the queens own position more precarious, than in the febrile, bewildering days after the death of Diana, the Princess of Wales, 25 years ago. The monarchy is embedded into the British system of government and not reliant on the will of the people; the monarch is not voted in or out of office; the royal family is not subject to recall. Yet, it is constantly called upon to make a case for its own relevance. After Dianas death, the queens widely admired qualities of reserve, the notion that family matters are private and that one doesnt air ones feelings in public, seemed suddenly to work against her. Show Us You Care! was a typical headline at the time. And so the queen broke with tradition, returning to London, ordering the flags atop Buckingham Palace to be lowered to half-staff and agreeing to make a rare public address to the nation about something she considered very personal. It was an expression of humility and an effort to soothe a nations sadness but also a means of steadying a shaken monarchy. Balmoral featured prominently as a backdrop in televisions The Crown and the movie The Queen, which focuses on the aftermath of the death of Diana in 1997. Even with gray clouds hovering there is no doubting the beauty of the spectacular countryside, which is bisected by the River Dee, in full, roaring flow. By several accounts, Queen Elizabeth, a lifelong lover of horses, dogs and country pursuits, was probably happier in Balmoral than anywhere else, occasionally even enjoying a little anonymity. On one occasion, two American tourists, who knew the castle was close by, approached her and a protection officer, Richard Griffin, on a walk. They failed to recognize her, and asked if she had met the queen. I havent, but Dick here meets her regularly, the queen replied, according to an account by Mr. Griffin in interviews earlier this year. In India, the government declared a day of mourning on Sunday, with flags flying at half-staff to honor the late Queen Elizabeth II. But her death provoked a muted reaction across much of the country, the largest in the Commonwealth of Nations, an association of mostly former British colonies. If you look at the social media, there is a lot of discussion but not much concern among Indians, said Sucheta Mahajan, a professor of history at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi who focuses on colonialism. And they are not treating it like the death of an important world leader. After all, she did not call the shots. One of the last times the queen provoked significant debate in India was in 1997, when she traveled to the country to commemorate the 50th anniversary of its independence from colonial Britain. It was her third trip to India, and ultimately her last. The question that swirled around her then was whether her visit to Jallianwalla Bagh, the site in the northern city of Amritsar where in 1919 a British general ordered troops to fire on a peaceful gathering, amounted to a full-fledged apology for the massacre that left hundreds dead, one of the deadliest incidents of the colonial era. Aleksei A. Navalny, the jailed Russian opposition leader, said on Thursday that the prison authorities had deprived him of his attorney-client privilege, which has been his main line of communication with the outside world and has allowed him to remain active in Russian political life. In a series of posts on Twitter, which he has been using to communicate with the public through his lawyers since he was jailed Mr. Navalny said that the prison administration had accused him of committing unspecified crimes by communicating with accomplices. Mr. Navalny, a fiery critic and frequent target of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, said the authorities had informed him that from Thursday, all incoming and outgoing communication with his lawyers will be subjected to a three-day check. The small slot in the lawyers room, used to privately transfer documents, was shut, he said, forcing them to communicate through double plastic glass. At the United Nations Security Council on Thursday, sparring between Russia and the West centered on the supply of foreign weapons and military equipment to Ukraine on a day when the United States announced it would allocate an additional $675 million in military supplies. Russia accused the United States and Europe of launching the largest proxy war against it through Ukraine, while U.S. officials shot back that Russia was the sole aggressor in a brutal and unnecessary war. Thursday was the third consecutive day that the 15-member Council met this week on the conflict in Ukraine. The Council convened on Tuesday on the deteriorating security at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and on Wednesday to discuss the forced deportation of up to 1.6 million Ukrainians to Russia or Russian-controlled territory. RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany Emphasizing that the United States was prepared to support Ukraine for the long haul, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said Thursday that Washington will send an additional $675 million in military supplies to Ukraine, including air-launched missiles designed to destroy enemy radars. The new shipment which will also include 105-millimeter howitzers, artillery ammunition, vehicles, anti-armor weapons and guided rockets was announced as Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken pledged an additional $2 billion in long-term support for Ukraine and other countries at risk of Russian invasion. In his nightly address, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said both aid packages would help in making a common cause, defending freedom. KYIV, Ukraine Ukrainian forces have scored the most significant battlefield gains since they routed Russia from the area around Kyiv in April by reclaiming territory in the northeast, according to Ukrainian officials, Western analysts and battlefield imagery. In his overnight address to the nation Thursday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the Ukrainian military had captured scores of villages and large chunks of Russian-occupied territory across Ukraine since the offensive began. In total, more than a thousand square kilometers of the territory of Ukraine have been liberated since the beginning of September, he said. On Friday the Ukrainian military appeared to be moving rapidly to cut off the city of Izium, a critical logistical hub for Russian military operations. Mr. Turk should neither seek nor expect a honeymoon period from U.N. member states, Tirana Hassan, the interim executive director of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. Whats needed by the millions of people around the world whose rights are being violated every day is an advocate in their corner who will take on abusive governments large and small without fear and without hesitation. Some diplomats and rights groups in Geneva are doubtful that Mr. Turk can be that advocate. Mr. Turk said on Twitter that he was deeply honored by the appointment and would give it my all. He could not immediately be reached for comment. Mr. Guterres said in a statement that Mr. Turk had devoted his long and distinguished career to advancing universal human rights, notably the protection of some of the worlds most vulnerable people refugees and stateless persons. He cited Mr. Turks work for the U.N. refugee agency in troubled countries like Kosovo, Bosnia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. But previous U.N. high commissioners for human rights have come to the job armed with political stature or distinguished legal careers. Ms. Bachelet had previously served as president of Chile. Her predecessor, Prince Zeid Raad al-Hussein of Jordan, had a distinguished diplomatic career behind him, and others before him included Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland. Mr. Turk, a lawyer by training, has been closely involved in developing Mr. Guterress policy papers on approaches to human rights. But by appointing Mr. Turk, a little-known bureaucrat from his own office, the secretary general appears to have given priority to rewarding loyalty and installing the candidate he could best rely on to follow his lead, analysts say. The titles King Charles III granted Friday upon his oldest son, William, and Williams wife, Catherine, bridged two distinct eras of the royal family. Known as the Prince and Princess of Wales, William and Catherine will assume the same titles as King Charles III and his first wife, Diana, a formal acknowledgment of the legacy of the woman known as the peoples princess. Soon after they received their new titles, a palace official said the couple are focused on deepening the trust and respect of the people of Wales over time. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in following royal protocol, added that the prince and princess will approach their roles in the modest and humble way theyve approached their work previously. Catherine in particular appreciates the history associated with this role but will understandably want to look to the future as she creates her own path. Groups representing tax professionals, including the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, are urging the I.R.S. to extend the deadline for the late-filing refund. While it is pleased with the unprecedented blanket relief, the institute said in a letter to the I.R.S., a Sept. 30 cutoff is unreasonable because taxpayers and preparers are busy with other tasks, including the Oct. 17 deadline for those who received extensions to file their 2021 returns. Eric L. Smith, an I.R.S. spokesman, said the agency was aware of the extension request but had no change to report. He said the agency didnt have an estimate of how many taxpayers might be affected by the Sept. 30 deadline. In announcing the plan in late August, Chuck Rettig, commissioner of the I.R.S., said penalty relief was a complex issue to administer. Here are some questions and answers about I.R.S. relief for late-filing penalties. Do I need to take any action to get my penalty refunded? The I.R.S. says that no application is necessary and that there is no need to call. If you paid the penalty, you will automatically receive a credit or a refund. Most eligible taxpayers will receive their refunds by the end of September, the agency said. But remember, you have to have filed the return by Sept. 30. An overwhelming majority of filers will receive checks mailed to the address on file with the I.R.S. There is no option for direct deposit, except in very rare circumstances, according to Ms. Collinss blog post. How can I check on the status of my penalty check? The best way to see if relief has been applied is to create an online account at irs.gov and check your tax transcript, Ms. Collins said. That way, you can avoid long waits on I.R.S. phone lines. Because of the large scale of the relief program, it could take time to process checks, and speed bumps may occur, Ms. Collins said. She advised taxpayers to be patient and to wait until after Nov. 30 before contacting the I.R.S. to ask about penalty checks. What if I have moved since I filed my last tax return? If you have moved since last filing a tax return, you risk having your refund check go astray, the taxpayer advocate said. So, the advocate said, you should lose no time in updating your address with the I.R.S. You must call the I.R.S. on the phone or send in a form by mail. It can take up to six weeks to fully process a change of address, the I.R.S. website says. It may be faster to update your address online with the U.S. Postal Service. But you should still notify the I.R.S., the agency says, because not all post offices forward government checks. Across the Western United States, wildfires are growing larger and more severe as global warming intensifies. At the same time, new data shows, more Americans than ever are moving to parts of the country more likely to burn, raising the odds of catastrophe. The amount of land burned in Western wildfires has increased. So has the number of people living in fire-prone areas. Area of analysis 20 million housing units 10 million acres burned in fire-prone areas 15 m 7.5 m 5.0 m 10 m 2.5 m 5 m 1990 2000 2010 2020 1990 2000 2010 2020 The amount of land burned in Western wildfires has increased. Area of analysis 10 million acres burned 7.5 m 5.0 m 2.5 m 1990 2000 2010 2020 So has the number of people living in fire-prone areas. 20 million housing units in fire-prone areas 15 m 10 m 5 m 1990 2000 2010 2020 The amount of land burned in Western wildfires has increased. So has the number of people living in fire-prone areas. Area of analysis 20 million housing units 10 million acres burned in fire-prone areas 15 m 7.5 m 5.0 m 10 m 2.5 m 5 m 1990 2000 2010 2020 1990 2000 2010 2020 Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison SILVIS Lab In 2020, more than 16 million homes in the West were located in fire-prone areas near forests, grasslands and shrub lands, where the risks of conflagration are highest. Thats a rise from roughly 10 million homes in 1990, according to research published Friday from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the United States Forest Service. Thats the perfect storm, said Volker Radeloff, a professor of forest ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who helped lead the research. Millions of houses have been built in places that will sooner or later burn, he said, even as climate change increases the risks of major wildfires across the West with extreme heat and dryness. Nowhere is this dynamic more visible than in California, where eight of the largest blazes on record have struck in the past five years. The state now has roughly 5.1 million homes in whats known as the wildland-urban interface, the term for areas, often on the outskirts of cities, where houses and other development are built near or among flammable wild vegetation. The foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains have seen especially fast growth. Area of detail Paradise CALIF. Chico Sierra Nevada Mountains Yuba City Lake Tahoe California Wildland-urban interface Sacramento Area of detail Paradise CALIF. Chico Sierra Nevada Mountains Yuba City Lake Tahoe California Wildland-urban interface Sacramento In 1990, there was already substantial housing development in the fire-prone Sierra foothills. By 2020 development had pushed even further into formerly wild lands. Many of these areas have repeatedly burned or been menaced by wildfires during that period. Note: Map shows wildfires over 1,000 acres that burned between 1990 and 2020. When wildfires erupt, they tend to inflict most of their damage in these transitional zones where homes and businesses encroach on otherwise undeveloped wilderness. Examples include the Camp Fire in 2018 that incinerated the forest-surrounded town of Paradise, Calif., or the Woolsey Fire that same year, which tore through shrub- and grass-covered canyons northwest of Los Angeles and burned more than 1,600 structures. Theres no single reason for the explosion of development in the wildland-urban interface, or WUI (pronounced woo-ee). Some people move to live closer to nature, or because costs are lower. In California, many cities have restricted development in denser downtown areas, exacerbating the states housing crisis and pushing people to the outer fringes. By and large, most new development housing construction in California has been going on in the periphery of existing urban areas, said Karen Chapple, a professor of city and regional planning at the University of California, Berkeley, and co-author of a report on rebuilding after wildfire disasters. Its happening because thats where the land is cheap. So we end up putting housing in these very vulnerable areas. Similar trends can be seen throughout the West. In Colorado, the number of homes built in the wildland-urban interface has nearly doubled to more than 1 million since 1990. Some of the fastest growth has unfolded along the Front Range, where the number of large, high-severity fires has increased in recent decades. Texas now has 3.2 million homes in the WUI and saw the fastest growth of any state over the past decade. While some of Texas most destructive wildfires have been in forests, many of its wildlands consist of grasses and shrubs, where fires can spread more rapidly and often damage more homes. Last year, the state climatologists office warned that wildfire risks were growing as the state dries out. Wildland-urban interface extent in 1990 And in 2020 Wildfires between 1990 and 2020 Fort Collins Temple Boulder Texas Colorado Austin Denver Rocky Mountains San Antonio Texas Colorado Springs Area of detail Area of detail Colo. Wildland-urban interface extent in 1990 And in 2020 Wildfires between 1990 and 2020 Area of detail Fort Collins Colo. Boulder Colorado Denver Rocky Mountains Colorado Springs Temple Texas Austin San Antonio Texas Area of detail The rapid growth of housing in flammable areas is a key reason wildfires have become more destructive over time. Not only are the homes themselves more likely to burn, but when more people live near forests and grasslands, theres also a greater chance that fires will start in the first place. While wildfires are often sparked by lightning, humans themselves cause the vast majority of ignitions, often by accident: a cigarette thrown out the window, or a vehicles muffler setting fire to dry grass. More homes in fire-prone territory also increases the demand for firefighting in often difficult terrain, which can stretch fire suppression resources thin and, in turn, lead to a dangerous build-up of vegetation in areas that experts say would benefit from burning at low levels more frequently. Wildfires have long been a natural part of the Western landscape and only become disasters when humans are in the path. The more homes we have in the wildlands, the more people we have to protect, more people that need to be evacuated, said Miranda H. Mockrin, a research scientist at the United States Forest Service, who worked on the new study. It becomes more of a challenge. The researchers estimated that 136,000 homes were within the perimeter of Western wildfires in the 2010s, compared with fewer than 31,000 in the 1990s. Some of that increase occurred because fires are burning ever-larger amounts of territory. But about one-quarter of the homes threatened by wildfires over the past decade did not exist in the 1990s, indicating that housing growth in wildfire territory was a key driver of the rise in fire danger. We have this sort of two-headed monster, said Stephen M. Strader, a disaster scientist at Villanova University, who was not involved in the research. One side is a changing environment, and the atmosphere being altered by climate change. But if you look at that in isolation you forget about the other side: Society is changing, our cities are changing, our land is changing. All these conditions coming together, he said, creates a more disaster-prone society. A wildfire threatened homes near Hemet, Calif. this week. Ringo H.W. Chiu/Associated Press While the new data only runs through 2020, a separate report by Redfin, the Seattle-based real estate brokerage, found that demand for homes in fire-prone areas has continued to grow since the coronavirus pandemic began, as remote work allowed Americans to move further from job centers. Wildfire experts say it is unlikely that Western states will ever be able to stop all growth in the wildland-urban interface. But alongside efforts to improve forest management in these areas, governments could impose tighter restrictions on future development to ensure communities are better protected against fire dangers that are unavoidable. So much of the West is wildfire-prone that its a non-starter to say you shouldnt live anywhere theres a risk, said Molly Mowery, executive director of the Community Wildfire Planning Center, a Denver-based nonprofit. Its much more productive to focus on what we can do to protect our homes and neighborhoods when fire does arrive. Such protections include creating more defensible space around homes and neighborhoods, cleared of brush and vegetation, to keep blazes at a distance. It would mean building houses so they are better protected against burning embers carried by the wind, which often cause structural fires by blowing into homes through vents in the eaves or sides. In 2008, California adopted some of the strictest rules in the country for new homes in high-risk fire areas, requiring developers to use fire-resistant materials and to provide access to water for firefighters. Those rules can make a difference. After the Camp Fire, one analysis found that about 51 percent of the 350 single-family homes in Paradise built to the new codes escaped damage, compared with just 18 percent of the 12,100 homes built before the standards. Most Western states dont have statewide codes, however, and it is usually up to local governments to enforce their own standards. In 2019, Austin, Tex., one of the fastest-growing cities in the country, took matters into its own hands, adopting stringent rules for new homes in the WUI that require, for instance, noncombustible screens over attic vents and safe storage of propane tanks. Yet building codes for new construction only go so far, because they dont address the millions of vulnerable homes that have already been built. Properly protecting an existing home can be expensive, costing up to $27,000, which means that governments may need to step in to help. For now, progress remains patchy. In many regions, developers have resisted new regulations, warning that they could drive up housing costs. And even after communities suffer from a wildfire, the pressure to rebuild quickly, and without new requirements, is intense. Too many places are still operating under the mind-set that they can keep building in high-risk areas and if theres a wildfire, the firefighters will come and save their homes, said Kimiko Barrett, a wildfire researcher at Headwaters Economics, a nonprofit research group. Once we realize that were not going to stop every last fire, we can start thinking about how to live with wildfire. There are signs that things may be changing. After the Marshall Fire in Boulder in late 2021 destroyed more than 1,000 buildings, lawmakers in Colorado began discussing new statewide codes, though they have yet to adopt any. And over the past decade, California has actually added more homes outside the WUI than within it. Dr. Radeloff said it was still too early to tell whether thats a sign of changing attitudes toward fire risk. Its a beautiful place to live, said Dr. Radeloff of the wildland-urban interface. But as a society, we really have to wrap our heads around what living so close to nature really entails. A Spanish woman was recently arrested on the Spanish island of Tenerife after conspiring with her boyfriends family to trick her mother into thinking she had been kidnapped and paying a sizeable ransom. Earlier this week, Guardia Civil, one of Spains two national law enforcement agencies, released a disturbing video that appears to show a blindfolded woman with blood stains on her face, strapped to a chair, and with a large knife at her throat. The young woman is sobbing and telling her mother that she has been kidnapped and that she needs to pay a 50,000 ransom to the kidnappers if she ever wants to see her alive again. However, not everything is as it appears to be The ransom video described above is very real, but the kidnapping itself is not. According to Spanish police, the victim shown in the footage faked her own kidnapping with the help of her boyfriends family solely to trick her own mother into paying the 50,000 euro ransom. Photo: James Kovin/Unsplash In the clip released by Guardia Civil, the apparent victim claims that she doesnt know who her assailants are or why they chose her, but she does instruct her mother to pay the ransom by dropping 50,000 euros in cash at a specific location. She also warns her mother that the kidnappers bugged her house and that any attempt to contact the police would mean the end of her life. The victims mother reportedly agreed to the kidnappers demands; she took out the 50,000 euros from the bank, but she also secretly alerted the police about her daughters situation. Thats when the puzzle pieces started falling into place. The police investigation began with a questioning of the victims mother, who mentioned that she had already paid a total of 45,000 euros on several occasions, after receiving written threats on he daughters life in the mail. In her mind, she was keeping her daughter safe by giving the mysterious criminals what they wanted. She never realized that she was actually the real victim. Once they learned that the victims mother had recently been conned before, police started investigating the victim and her entourage, quickly figuring out that her boyfriends family had helped her fix the whole thing. Once the police established that the kidnapping may have been staged, they only needed 24 hours to solve the case. After activating the kidnapping protocol, officers of the Guardia Civil focused on locating the family of the victims boyfriend, and, as luck would have it, managed to find them all, including the allegedly kidnapped woman, in an obscure game room, gambling. They were all taken into custody and eventually confessed to faking the kidnapping. Upon searching the suspects home, the Guardia Civil found tools used for the simulation of the kidnapping, a large knife, the handkerchief with which the young woman was bound, and a bottle of artificial blood. Believe it or not, people fake their kidnappings all the time, for a variety of reasons. Weve written about people who staged their kidnapping to skip work, break up with poor boyfriends, and even get out of their own weddings. Extorting your own mother is pretty darn despicable, though. Colaiste Iosagain in Portarlington had its biggest ever number sitting Leaving Cert exams this year, at 179 and another 18 in LC Applied. Among the highest achievers with over 600 points is Ruth Whittle. Ruth hopes to study Commerce in NUI Galway. It is our biggest year so far and next year's Leaving Cert class will be probably bigger. It will probably hold steady after that," Principal Seamus Bennett said. The students are generally very happy, the results are very good. The government are still giving an extra little boost by reviewing marks and upping them in line with last year so that students who deferred are not at an advantage. There will still be oversubscribed courses and a lotto system for some courses," he said. Deputy Principal Brendan McGlynn, said the teachers are very proud of the students and the excellent results. A large percentage of our students attained in excess of 450 points. Our LCA students excelled with their results with over 90% attaining distinctions and 3 students receiving full marks. The Management Team wish to acknowledge the work ethic of the LC class of 2022 and the team effort of the teaching staff to ensure that every student that attending Colaiste Iosagain reach their potential. Congratulations and well done to all involved, he said. The new online system which emails students directly, replacing schools handing out paper results was strange and surreal Principal Bennett said. We had an empty school, it's a bit of a downer, with no gathering or excitement. The only service we are providing now is guidance". The huge secondary school has over 1,000 students and is awaiting construction of a new building for over a decade. It is the last time for the principal to oversee the big occasion, as Seamus Bennett retires this month after 22 years. Colaiste Iosagain is in the process of recruiting a new Principal that will take up the role on October 2. OFFALY businessman Nigel Reams has said his company's new development in Shannonbridge is a pioneering project in the energy sector. Known as Shannonbridge B, the 130m project involves the location of a battery energy storage system (BESS) and a synchronous condenser (a device which maintains system voltage) on a site beside the now closed Shannonbridge peat-fired power station. Shannonbridge B is also across the road from another BESS which was developed by Mr Reams' company, Lumcloon Energy. Lumcloon Energy is working in partnership with global Korean giant, Hanwha Energy, and together they have also built a BESS at Lumcloon, near Boora. Addressing an audience at the launch of construction work on Shannonbridge B which will create 150 building jobs Mr Reams said: Shannonbridge B is our third grid support project in Offaly and follows the highly successful Lumcloon BESS nearby and Shannonbridge BESS which you may have just seen on your arrival. For the first time at utility scale, Shannonbridge B will combine a long duration energy battery with a synchronous condenser to provide a full suite of system services. Delivering this pioneering project will involve collaboration between Hanwha Energy and Siemens Energy. The event in Shannonbridge was attended by An Taoiseach, Micheal Martin, Minister of State Pippa Hackett, and Offaly TD Barry Cowen. The Hanwha chief executive, In-Sub Jung, was also present, along with the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea in Ireland, His Excellency Ki-hwan Kweon,and Mark Foley, CEO of Eirgrid. Mr Reams said: The services that Shannonbridge B will provide are vital to reinforce the electricity grid and help to ensure a secure electricity supply as it decarbonises. The recent security of supply crisis and war in Ukraine emphasises the importance of having a diverse and robust energy system. Wind and solar will be the predominant source of electricity in the future but will require back-up and support to work effectively. Shannonbridge B will play a key role in supporting a low carbon energy system. Lumcloon's partnership with Hanwha Energy started in 2018 and has grown to become very strong over the past years. We are delighted that Hanwha has committed to Shannonbridge B and we look forward to developing future projects together. Mr Reams thanked the entire Hanwha team and said many of them had become part of the community here in Offaly. Offaly is the home of Lumcloon Energy and we have established our office and first projects here. We started the energy storage journey in 2014 on the Rhode power plant site in east Offaly where a pilot project was delivered with the University of Limerick with Dr Robert Lynch and with the support of Energy Ireland. Its success propelled us to become a leader in the space today. The support of Anna Marie Delaney, CEO, Offaly County Council who is also here today and her team in the council has also been crucial over the last six years. A university is an institution of higher education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. Queen Elizabeth II is being remembered for her eight visits to Queensland, and the hospitals, sporting venues and plazas named in her honour. Prince William and Kate Middleton said goodbye to Queen Elizabeth II after the monarch of 70 years died on Thursday, Sept. 8. She.. Rumble 08 Sep 2022 Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams has described the first speech made by King Charles III, in which he paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth II, as a 'significant and important moment'. 2008-2022 One News Page Ltd. All rights reserved. One News is a registered trademark of One News Page Ltd. The royal family has had a relationship with Land Rover, with Queen Elizabeth known to drive her SUV around her properties. The British car company honored the queen after her death. Lee Jung-jae is taking on a huge role. The 49-year-old Squid Game actor is set to be playing in a major role in the upcoming Star Wars series The Acolyte at Disney+ from Lucasfilm, via Deadline. Click inside to read more According to sources via the outlet, he has landed the male lead in the [...] Rumble 10 Sep 2022 King Charles III addressed the British people for the first time on monarch on Friday, as the world mourns the death of his mother,.. British lawmakers will pay tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II in a special session, while crowds gather in London to mourn the late monarch. Britain's new king is also set to address the nation. DW has the latest. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has arrived in Pakistan to draw global attention to the devastating floods that have inundated nearly one-third of the South Asian nation. The world mourns the death of Queen Elizabeth II, with tributes pouring in from musicians, writers, actors and even a famous bear. ODN 12 Sep 2022 The new Commissioner of Londons Metropolitan Police Service has expressed his sorrow at the death of Queen Elizabeth II... Rumble 05 Sep 2022 Ukraine Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is in the eye of the war. Both Russia and Ukraine are blaming each other for shelling the.. Deputy Commissioner Brian Brennan of the RCMP, in charge of contract and Indigenous policing, is appearing before the Mass Casualty Commission leading the inquiry into the April 2020 massacre in Nova Scotia. New Zealand Herald 11 Sep 2022 It was the reunion to end all reunions the new Prince and Princess of Wales mourning the loss of Queen Elizabeth II alongside.. Ohio Democratic Senate nominee Tim Ryan suggests President Biden should not run in 2024, says it is time for a "generational move" for both parties. Yangambi, Dr Congo (AFP) Sept 7, 2022 A tower bristling with sensors juts above the canopy in northern Democratic Republic of Congo, measuring carbon dioxide emitted from the world's second-largest tropical rainforest. Spanning several countries in central Africa, the Congo Basin rainforest covers an immense area and is home to a dizzying array of species. But there are growing concerns for the future of the forest, deemed Sir Elton John has continued his tributes to the Queen at his concert in Toronto on Thursday night, during which he praised the monarch and her inspiring presence. Republican lawmakers are looking to legally challenge United States President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness. GOP members argued that the policy was neither legal nor responsible, saying that the first step was having Congressional oversight. President Joe Biden is being urged by legislators and citizens of the United States to refuse the essential "entry visas" required for Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his delegation to attend the 77th United Nations General Assembly in New York City. AutoMotions 12 Sep 2022 "Stellantis Spotlight" is a weekly recap of some of the major stories at Stellantis. The top stories for the week ending September.. Flags were flying at half-staff on landmarks in Australia on Friday as people expressed sadness at the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. (Sep. 9) President Biden attended the groundbreaking for an Intel computer chip factory in a heavily Republican part of Ohio, an effort to focus voter attention on parts of the economy that are improving. The ascension of King Charles to the British throne has stirred renewed calls from politicians for former colonies in the Caribbean to remove the monarch as their head The Kremlin is orchestrating sham referendums in parts of Ukraine currently under its military control in a bid to legitimize Russias hold on these territories, according to a US State Department article. The article notes that Moscow is rolling out the same playbook it used in 2014 when Russia invaded Crimea and forcibly... Newsy 06 Sep 2022 Watch VideoThe Russian Ministry of Defense is in the process of purchasing millions of rockets and artillery shells from North.. The ascension of King Charles to the British throne has stirred renewed calls from politicians for former colonies in the Caribbean.. Japan Today 08 Sep 2022 Outside the wrought iron gates of Buckingham Palace in London, thousands queued up for their chance to pay respects to Queen Elizabeth II and be part of a historic moment as the United Kingdom, and much of the world, mourns her death. MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) Toforest Johnson, 49, has spent half his life on Alabamas death row for the murder of a sheriff's deputy, a killing he says he did not commit. Johnsons attorneys asked the Alabama Supreme Court on Friday to right a grievous wrong and grant him a new trial. The filing is the latest effort in a case that has seen former judges, prosecutors and the local district attorney join in calls to reexamine the 1998 conviction and death sentence. Johnsons attorneys are asking the justices to review a lower court decision denying the new trial request. They argued that the conviction rested on the testimony of a single witness who was paid a reward and that her testimony was at odds with the physical evidence and directly contradicted by the states theory of the case in other proceedings. The first thing to know is that he is innocent ... Former prosecutors have said it themselves, that there needs to be more eyes on this case and he deserves a new trial, Johnsons daughter, Shanaye Poole, said in a telephone interview. Johnson was convicted and sentenced to death for the killing of Jefferson County Deputy Sheriff William Hardy. Hardy was shot twice in the head while working off-duty security at a hotel in 1995. The conviction came after Johnson's first trial ended with a hung jury. A co-defendant in the case was acquitted. Poole was just 5 when her father was sentenced to death. She sat on someones shoulders to peer through the window on the courtroom door to see her father. That was the last time I saw my Dad in person before his freedom was taken from him, she said. Former Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley, former Chief Justice Drayton Nabers, and several former judges and prosecutors submitted briefs to the circuit court, or wrote editorials, supporting a new trial for Johnson. Danny Carr, the district attorney in the county where Johnson was convicted, also called for a new trial. Baxley, who worked decades ago to have the death penalty reinstated in Alabama, said he is usually skeptical of such innocence claims filed by what he called do-gooder lawyers. But he said he was astonished at the case. I couldnt believe what I was reading. I was just dumfounded that, in Alabama, a case as weak as that would have gotten to the jury, much less a death sentence, Baxley said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2017 ordered a new hearing to take place on Johnsons claim of suppressed evidence. The key prosecution witness at the 1998 trial testified that, while eavesdropping on a phone call, she heard a man she believed was Johnson admitting to the crime. She was paid $5,000 in 2001 for her testimony, and Johnsons lawyers argue that the state withheld evidence of monetary motivation for the testimony. A judge denied the new trial request in 2020, and the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals upheld that decision in May, ruling that Johnsons attorneys had not established that the witness came forward with information in hope of the reward or that the state ever knew of such a hope before Johnsons trial. The Alabama attorney generals office has opposed the request for a new trial. Attorneys for the state argued that the witness testified that she was unaware that a reward had been offered when she contacted law enforcement. The recent court proceedings have been narrowly focused on the issue of the reward, but Baxley said the case merits a fuller look. Every breath this guy draws on death row is an indictment to the people of Alabama that I love so much, Baxley said. If some proper court will look at it, they are going to come to the same conclusion. From Alabama Chief Justice Drayton Nabers Jr., wrote in an opinion piece this spring that, "theres now substantial evidence that Mr. Johnson is innocent. Carr wrote in 2020 that he took no position on Johnsons innocence or guilt but said there are concerns about his trial. He wrote that those include a key witness being paid a reward, a fact not mentioned at trial, as well as alibi witnesses who placed Johnson in another part of town at the time of the shooting. A prosecutors duty is not merely to secure convictions, but to seek justice, the brief stated. It is the district attorneys position that in the interest of justice, Mr. Johnson, who has spent more than two decades on death row, be granted a new trial. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Annette Clark is using her talents to support a cause that is near to her heart. Next month, she will be raffling away a stained glass picture of the Tridge to benefit St. Brigid of Kildare Catholic School. Clark has been into crafting for most of her life but only started working with stained glass six years ago. She became interested in the medium after watching her uncle, and eventually her sister, create stained glass artwork. So, Clark took a four-week stained glass workshop at Creatively! Glass & More, LLC in Mount Pleasant. From there, it was a lot of trial and error, said Clark, of Midland. Since then, she has created several pieces, all of which she has gifted to St. Joseph the Worker Catholic school in Beal City, Michigan as well as Blessed Sacrament and St. Brigid Catholic churches in Midland. The artwork is either given to friends at the churches or featured in fundraisers. I dont really have a purpose for them myself, so I make them and give them away, Clark said. Designs have spanned to include religious and secular themes, all in different shapes and sizes. Clarks stained glass projects have included crosses, doves, and churches as well as flowers and a sun and moon. She also created a piece resembling St. Brigid Church pastor Fr. Andy Booms dog, Bella Poochie, before the dog died. Many of her ideas come from suggestions that her friends have made. The Tridge design came from a suggestion made by Clarks friend, Jean Thiele. Clark happened to have a picture of the Tridge that she had previously submitted for the City of Midlands calendar. She enlarged the photo to get the right proportions and started to pick out the right types of glass to match the colors. Clark added spots of color by incorporating three hot air balloons into the design, as she is a big fan of the annual hot air balloon festival. The piece took over a year to complete as Clark selected the pieces, cut them and laid them out before soldering them together. The river changed color a couple of times depending on where I could find glass that I liked, Clark said. Creating stained glass artwork is like putting together a puzzle, Clark explained. Its probably the most unique of the crafts that I do, Clark said. The artwork will be raffled off to benefit the Guardian Angel Fund at St. Brigid Catholic School. The fund supports an academic scholarship to the school, bridging the gap between what families can afford and the tuition. The fund also provides free lunches for students who qualify for financial assistance. Clark said she wanted to host a raffle for the Tridge stained glass artwork instead of an auction so that people could have a more equal chance to win the piece. I think the Tridge is more of a community (symbol), she said. I think a lot of people could appreciate this in their window that are local people that can afford a raffle ticket. St. Brigid Catholic Church is celebrating over 150 years and the school turned 100 years this year. To celebrate, the church is hosting an all-alumni gathering on Oct. 1 with a special Mass and dinner. Annettes a good friend, said Booms. St. Brigid School is the only Catholic school in Midland, so it takes a full community support to make that happen. The drawing is set to be held at 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 1 at the school, located at 130 W. Larkin St. in Downtown Midland. Until then, the artwork will be available for viewing in the St. Brigid parish office. Tickets are $10 and are available for purchase at the St. Brigid school and parish office as well as at the Blessed Sacrament parish office. The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriffs Office and the Midland Police Department. Compiled by reporter Tereasa Nims. Thursday Sept. 9 10:16 p.m. Police were called to the 2000 block of Bayliss for a domestic assault. 9:41 p.m. - A deputy was dispatched to a Mills Township business for a report of loud music. The deputy contacted an employee at the business and the music was turned off for the night. 8:53 p.m. - An unknown person failed to pay $37.25 in gas at Warren Township gas station. 8:52 p.m. - Deputies responded to a Greendale Township residence regarding a third-party report of 24-year-old man who was having suicidal thoughts. A deputy transported the man to the Midland ER for an evaluation. A mental health petition was completed. 5:49 p.m. - A 22-year-old man reported losing a black toolbox out of his truck in Sanford. 3:08 p.m. Deputies responded to a chair in the roadway. The chair was gone when deputies arrived. 3:07 p.m. - A deputy assisted Midland Township fire with a lift assist. 12:48 p.m. - An animal control officer received a call regarding several goats loose and near the road in Lee Township. Deputies checked the area, and the goats were not in or near the roadway. 12:20 p.m. - A Deputy responded to a two-vehicle personal injury accident in Midland Township. A 31-year-old woman struck the back of a 32-year-old womans vehicle. The 32-year-old woman was transported by her parents to a local hospital for a check-up. 11:56 a.m. - The Coleman Community Schools Resource Officer conducted a wellbeing check on a 9-year-old student at Coleman Elementary School with the assistance of the school social worker. The SRO contacted the complainant to advise the child was present in school and appeared well. 11:53 a.m. - A deputy was dispatched to a Jasper Township residence to speak with a 78-year-old man regarding a fraud. The 78-year-old man stated that he was the victim of a $7,300 fraud. Unknown suspect. 11:36 a.m. - Police responded to Swede Avenue and Hillgrove Parkway for a property damage crash. 11:35 a.m. - Police were called to Eastman Avenue and Harcrest Drive for a property damage crash. 10:59 a.m. - Deputies were dispatched to a Warren Township residence regarding a 24-year-old Warren Township man alleging that he was assaulted by his 56-year-old neighbor. A report is being sent to prosecutor. 10:22 a.m. - A deputy responded to a Geneva Township residence after a 13-year-old girl called 911 because her father took her phone and video game system away. Law enforcement was not needed. 9:10 a.m. - A deputy assisted with catching a loose horse in Warren Township. The horse was turned over to its owners. 1:13 a.m. - Deputies responded to a Mills Township residence reference a suspicious vehicle parked in the callers driveway. Prior to Deputies arrival, they were disregarded by dispatch because the suspicious vehicle left without incident. 12:41 a.m. - Deputies were dispatched to a Jerome Township business regarding a suspicious man who was loitering in the parking lot. A deputy spoke with the man and determined he was there to use a portable restroom on the property. The man left the area on his bicycle. 12:04 a.m. - A deputy observed a disabled all-terrain vehicle on the shoulder of the roadway in Jerome Township and it was causing a traffic hazard. The operator was identified as a 15-year-old Edenville Township boy. The boy's mother arrived at the scene and took custody of her son and the ATV. The deputy issued warnings and both parties were informed of ATV laws. 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. Photo: (Photo : ROB ENGELAAR/ANP/AFP via Getty Images) A 21-year-old Canadian TikTok influencer fell to her death while skydiving in Toronto late last month, according to reports north of the border. College student Tanya Pardazi died on August 27 at Skydive Toronto. A friend told CTV News Toronto that was where she had completed a course before her first jump, which ultimately led to her tragic death. According to the media outlet, Pardazi studied philosophy at the University of Toronto. She also had a huge following on social media as she ran a TikTok account with more than 100,000 followers. What caused Pardazi's death? The skydive facility requires students to complete a course in all the fundamentals needed to complete their first skydive. That includes learning about equipment, freefall body position (arch), canopy control, how to exit the airplane, and emergency protocol, before they take their first jumps from 4,000 feet, according to the facility's website. The facility confirmed in a Facebook statement the death of their 21-year-old student, but they did not identify Pardazi by name. A representative for Skydive Toronto issued a statement through email, saying that out of respect for the family, they will not be releasing further details than what their statement had already included. According to the Facebook statement, the skydiver released a quickly rotating main parachute at a low altitude without the time or altitude required for the reserve parachute to inflate. The statement added that the team at the facility had been profoundly affected by this accident as they have refined their student training program for over 50 years. Read Also: Single Mom Shows She Is the Perfect Role Model by Graduating From High School 20 Years Later Pardazi's friends mourn her death Skydive Toronto Inc is working with police, who confirmed the fatal incident in a statement on August 28, as they investigate the death. Friends of Pardazi said in an interview that she had made it to the semifinal round of a Miss Canada competition. Her childhood friend Melody Ozgoli said that she was interested in anything new and adventurous. Ozgoli said Pardazi lived every second to the fullest. She added that this is the biggest shock to them and is tough to process. She said it had been a couple of days, but they still couldn't believe it. The University of Toronto's cheerleading team also paid tribute to Pardazi in an Instagram post, according to NBC News. The caption read that she is forever part of their team and in their hearts and that Tanya Pardazi was one in a million. According to Pardazi's friends, she died while completing her first solo dive with Skydive Toronto in Innisfil, Ontario. The TikTok star was transported to a hospital, where she was later pronounced dead. Kimia Sepanlou, a close friend of Pardazi, said that she was one of the bravest girls and that whenever they saw her, they knew they were in for an adventure because she did not like letting herself or the people closest to her get bored. Related Article: Japanese Mom and Italian Dad Need Special Donor for Kid With Rare Kind of Leukemia Photo: (Photo : Michael Loccisano/Getty Images) Bad weather during the winter will not hamper the children's learning because those attending public schools will still have to attend their online classes as New York permanently cancels snow days. In an interview on Fox 5, New York Schools Chancellor David C. Banks said that snow days are out because new technology has allowed the kids to still attend classes via remote learning. Banks said this was a silver lining from the pandemic when schools shifted to digital classrooms in early 2020. New York public school students have been used to a "no snow day" policy as a temporary measure since the lockdowns to ensure that they could attend more than 180 days of classes, as mandated by state laws. The policy was rolled out again for the 2021-2022 school year when some restrictions were lifted. The city's public schools will start the 2022-2023 school year on Thursday, September 8, with the permanent snow day cancellation in place. New York City Schools has placed the announcement on its official site, adding that online classes will also be the option "when school buildings are closed due to an emergency." Read Also: New York's Whipped Cream Ban Takes Effect To Prevent Teens From Inhaling Nitrous Oxide Kids and adults react as New York cancels snow day Following the announcement, a schoolboy told Fox 5 that he liked being at home on a snow day because he could sleep longer during the cold winter morning and take a break from school work. Another child bemoaned that the cancellation was "not very fun." Banks himself said that he would "boo" the announcement if he were still a young boy, but he reaffirmed to the children that this would be a good change. On Twitter, netizens were not pleased as well. nyc removing snow days is the most foul thing u can do with the advancement of technology Dr. Justin Dilf (@hotasiandilf) September 6, 2022 Typical of NYC. I used to pray for snow days. https://t.co/unyIKxn1Bj Maga Knight 1776 (@Magaknight1776) September 6, 2022 However, mom Danyela Souza Egorov told the New York Post that the school chancellor must also consider raising the state-mandated school days from 180 to 200 because of the learning gaps between remote learning vs. in-person learning. "We all learned that online learning is not the same as having kids at school," Egorov said. "The New York State Education Department should not allow the district to offer less than 200 in-person days for every NYC student." Low-income families struggle with their kids' online learning because they were provided with faulty devices or poor internet quality. Five parents sued the state's Department of Education in January as their kids fell behind in class. New York schools will be safer from school shooters Meanwhile, Banks also said that New York school workers have prepared and taken part in advanced active shooter drills and training this year to prepare for an unlikely situation. The chancellor said that additional school safety agents would be deployed on campuses, thanks to the recent graduates of the police academy. The chancellor is anticipating more agents when the next police trainees graduate in the coming months, per CBS News. About 1,000 asylum students, who have yet to learn to speak English, will also be attending schools in New York this year. Banks said this is another challenge that school communities have to deal with, but they have partnered with English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers to help deliver the need. Related Article: Microbial Growth in HVAC System Triggers Asthma, Forces Middle School to Return To Remote Learning Photo: (Photo : MAX HERMAN/AFP via Getty Images) A young mother who was shot six times during an alleged road rage incident earlier this summer on Interstate 57 wanted to know why the person who fired the weapon remains free. For Aaliyah Ivory, even simple tasks like walking are now painful for her after the shooting incident. She was shot six times on July 16 after being involved in a confrontation with another driver on the highway near Vollmer Road, according to ABC 7 Chicago. Ivory said she felt like her life was at a standstill and that she had every right to be pissed off. Ivory spent almost a month in the hospital, undergoing five surgeries because of the shooting. She still had bullet fragments in her body, but she is now back home at her Park Forest residence. Ivory shot six times like a dog She told NBC 5 Chicago that she had just got off work and hopped on the expressway, and at the time, there was construction, so it was kind of tight. As she was driving, the shooter came and tried to block her off. She only remembers the first two shots, but he shot her six times like a dog. According to Ivory, she has a concealed carry permit, but family members say she never touched her gun during the altercation. No charges still have been filed in the case two months after the shooting. Ivory and her attorney want to know why the shooter has not been arrested and charged. Gregory Kulis said they had tried to FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) a bunch of information regarding the identity of the person who shot her, and they have hit a brick wall. He added that he does not know if the person has clout, but there are rumors that they are law enforcement. Read Also: Medicaid Extensions Grow for New Mothers in the US Illinois State Police have declined to name shooter The Illinois State Police had declined to name the other individual in the case in accordance with state law. In an interview, Ivory's sister, Ashlee Johnson, said the other driver started calling her names and racial slurs during the confrontation. The altercation started over a disagreement while the two cars were attempting to merge into a single lane due to road construction. Illinois State Police said that the other individual in the shooting case has cooperated with the investigation. Cops said the investigation remains active and ongoing, and no information is available at this time to protect its integrity. The Cook County State's Attorney Office (CCSAO) also issued a statement, saying that the CCSAO is committed to working with their law enforcement partners as they strive to increase safety in their communities. Police have not contacted them to review any information for criminal charges related to this incident. As with all cases, when information is presented to them, they will review it to determine if criminal charges are appropriate based on the facts, evidence, and the law. Ivory recently started outpatient rehab at the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab, where she attends sessions three times weekly. Her family had also created a GoFundMe page to help with her medical bills. Related Article: Dad of Woman Who Drowned While Livestreaming on Facebook Cried While Watching Video of Her Death Photo: (Photo : RONNY HARTMANN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) Kansas mom Melanie Biggins wanted out of her nine-year marriage to Etienne McEwan, but when she couldn't afford a divorce, she decided to end the relationship by murdering her husband. Biggins, 40, has been arraigned for first-degree murder following a police investigation into McEwan's death on August 31. The police responded to a 911 call at the couple's home at 1:00 a.m. to find the wife trying to do CPR on her husband, who was "lying on the bed in a pool of blood," per Law and Crime. The Kansas mom, who has two kids with McEwan, said she woke up to the sound of a gunshot and turned to her husband's side of the bed. She told the police she did not see anyone and went downstairs, where the front door was allegedly left open. The children, ages 10 and 11, also told the police that they saw their mom come down the stairs, and then she sat on the living room couch looking as if she saw a ghost. The 911 call was made by one of the kids. Initially, the police determined that this was not a suicide, but they did not suspect Biggins as the shooter until investigators arrived at the crime scene. Read Also: Minnesota Kids Ask Help From Strangers on the Street as Their Father Beat Their Mom Kansas mom insisted there was an intruder As the investigators tried to put the pieces of the puzzle to Biggins' intruder theory, they discovered a pillow by the floor of the couple's bed, which appeared to have a bullet hole. Crime scene technicians also found a blanket with gunpowder burns and torn fabric. The investigative team also recovered a .38 handgun in the next bedroom and empty cases of Charter Arms for the .38 on a top shelf in the couple's closet. Biggins denied knowing about the handgun and insisted that the intruder might have taken her husband's guns. She said McEwan also owned a rifle, which the police found safely locked in the closet. There was no indication of forced entry on their property. When Biggins was brought to the police station, she changed her story and became inconsistent. As the police pressed on, she admitted that she bought the .38 in July 2022, but she did not know how it got into the other room, according to Oxygen. Upon further probing, the police learned that Biggins had been having an affair for a year and a half and wanted to end her marriage to McEwan. She hesitated to file a divorce due to "financial struggles." Biggins is currently held on a $250,000 bond at the Jackson County Jail. The mother is facing life imprisonment or the death penalty if convicted. Mom jailed for 17 years for her husband's killing Meanwhile, a mom from Harlow in the U.K. was sentenced to 17 years for stabbing and killing her husband. Rebecca Searing, 52, said that Paul Searing, 57, kept calling her worthless and useless. The judge, however, told Rebecca during her sentencing that the name-calling didn't justify the murder, per BBC. Paul was described as a caring and kind man by his sister, who also said that Rebecca was a good nurse but not a good person. According to the local police, the couple had a complex relationship involving domestic violence. Their case highlighted how quickly this situation could escalate with serious consequences. Related Article: Man Follows Ex-Wife to Chicago to Kill Her After She Shares Divorce Struggles on TikTok Photo: (Photo : L. G. from Pixabay ) The father of a teen who took his own life said he is pleased by the progress of a suicide prevention scheme but thinks more could be done to tackle this problem. Ben Murray died after being told by letter to leave the University of Bristol, according to the Guardian. His father, James Murray, campaigned for relaxation in data protection laws so that families could be contacted if there were concerns about their children. Following Murray's death, an opt-in program was created to allow universities to do so. When the 19-year-old died on May 5, 2018, he was in the midst of being dismissed from the University of Bristol in a formal process that involved no face-to-face meetings. Ben suffered from anxiety before committing suicide Ben had missed exams and lectures for his English Literature course and told the University he was suffering from anxiety. He has been described as sensitive, kind, and intelligent. The opt-in program, pioneered at the University of Bristol, allows a relative or parent of a student to be contacted if the student consents. The university confirmed to BBC News that the proportion of students choosing to opt-in has consistently remained around the 90 percent mark since the program was introduced in September 2018. The university contacted parents or designated contacts 36 times in the first year of the opt-in scheme during the 2018/19 academic year. This figure has almost tripled to 98 in the 2021/22 academic year. The grieving dad said that you would hear parents and families who have been bereaved talking about how they want to avoid this thing from happening to other families. He added that quite often, they just set out to save one person's life, and that is enough for them because they know the devastation that goes with the loss of just one life. He said that amongst the 98 people whose families were contacted by Bristol because they had serious concerns about their mental health, one was perhaps helped to safety, which is enough for them. Read Also: Criminal Hackers Escalating Attacks on K-12 Schools and Institutions Only 28 universities have taken up the opt-in program Alison Golden, the director of student health and inclusion at the University of Bristol, said that it has to be significant for them to call and have serious concerns about the student. She said they try to tell the student in advance that they will contact their emergency contact. She added that it is when they want to add something extra to the support network they are putting around that student where they feel they can't manage and are struggling to get them to engage. Golden noted that it is too complicated an issue to say the scheme will save lives, but she guesses it is an extra tool they use as part of their framework to support students. According to The Times, only 28 universities have taken up the opt-in scheme to contact the guardian or parent of a student in crisis. Related Article: Students in Turmoil as Jackson, Mississippi Water Crisis Worsens Photo: (Photo : Leroy Skalstad) According to local authorities, Mark Greenburg, 55, was charged with aggravated stalking of a six-year-old girl, per Inside Edition. He was arrested on September 3 by the Volusia County Sheriff's Deputies after receiving multiple reports from the child's father and other neighbors of Greenberg's constant harassment of the young girl and other victims. Numerous reports have been filed against the Florida man as he had been harassing neighbors, yelling at them along with their kids using a megaphone, and driving past houses while recording children on his phone, as stated in a press release from the sheriff's office. On the evening of September 2, while the six-year-old was playing outside, the father noticed the suspect walking to the end of his driveway and addressing several unusual sexual comments to his daughter. He immediately called the police. Many witnesses stood up for the little girl and reported hearing Greenburg's words. They said he even told the young girl he would bring her to Disney World. Read Also: Three Children Kidnapped After Their Dad Pulled Over to Help a Car Crash Victim Greenburg's behavior sparked outrage in the neighborhood According to the sheriff's office, Greenburg's arrest followed a series of complaints from about a dozen witnesses who reported the older man's behavior, including 11 incidents, over the past eight months. Some of the lewd comments the Florida man has said were: "I'm going to make you famous" and "I'm going to turn you into a woman or a big girl." The girl's father said now his daughter is terrified to go outside their neighborhood, as she no longer felt safe due to Greenburg's harassment. The police said Greenburg had even followed her to her grandmother's house. The young girl often visits her grandmother's house in another neighborhood nearby. Per the sheriff's office, the older man parked his car outside the six-year-old's grandmother's house and took many photos. The girl's family surmised that he had followed her as there was no way he would have found out where she lived. The deputies tried to speak to Greenburg on Friday evening, but he refused and requested to talk to them the next day. The deputies and the Deltona Crime Suppression Team acquired a warrant and returned to arrest the older man, ABC News 4 reported. Greenburg was booked into jail on a $5,000 bond. Police say a man traveled from Oregon to stalk a young girl In another case, the Brunswick Police Department arrested a man who traveled from Oregon to meet an underage girl. The authorities responded to a report of a suspicious man on July 28, about 7 p.m., in the 4600 block of Cypress Dr. Arrested was Timothy Nielsen. The authorities confirmed that Nielsen had been following and trying to contact the minor, who lives in the Brunswick area. He was charged with menacing by stalking and importuning and was booked at the Medina County Jail. Authorities encourage parents to monitor the social media accounts of their children as well as the contacts they may have, per Fox News 8. Related Article: 6-Year-old Girl Screams To Save Herself From Getting Abducted Photo: (Photo : Karen Warfel from Pixabay ) A Brazilian mom had a one-in-a-million conception as she delivered twins, but they have different biological fathers. The 19-year-old gave birth to twins nine months after she had sex with two men on the same day. Local news outlet Globo reported that she began having doubts over who their dad was as the twins' first birthdays loomed, so she decided to take a paternity test to confirm her suspicions. The anonymous mom initially suspected only one of the two men to be the dad of the twins, so she collected his DNA. The sample only turned up positive for one child. What is heteropaternal superfecundation? The woman, who asked not to be identified, said she remembered that she had sex with another man and called him to take the test, which was positive. She told the outlet that she was surprised by the results and did not know this could happen. While this phenomenon is jaw-dropping, it is certainly not impossible. Dr. Tulio Jorge Franco, the woman's attending physician, said in an interview that it is possible to happen when different men fertilize two eggs from the same mother. He explained that the babies share the mother's genetic material but grow in separate placentas. According to Biomedica, heteropaternal superfecundation is an extremely rare phenomenon that happens when a second ova released during the same menstrual cycle is additionally fertilized by the sperm cells of a different man in separate sexual intercourse. Dr. Franco admitted he never thought he would see a situation such as this in his lifetime as the odds of this happening is one in a million. He claims there are only about 20 other instances in the world like it. Read Also: Teen Tracks Down Father She Had Never Met on Facebook and Surprises Him at Work Twins being looked after by just one of the fathers The mom said that the twins, who are now 16 months old, are currently looked after by just one of the dads. It is unclear at the moment if the other father plays any role in their lives. These unique twins are not the first to grab international headlines, according to the New York Post. A judge ruled in 2015 that a New Jersey dad only had to pay child support for one of two twins because he only fathered one. DNA expert Karl-Hans Wurzinger's testimony during the controversial case cited an academic study he published in 1997 that found that different dads occur in about one out of every 13,000 reported paternity cases involving twins. Dr. Keith Eddleman, who was the director of obstetrics at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital, told CNN at the time of the trial that since an egg is viable for 12 to 48 hours and a sperm has a life span of seven to 10 days, there is about a week's time for potential overlap. He added that the fertilization of two eggs by two sperm from two separate acts of intercourse with different men is indeed possible. Related Article: Single Mom Shows She Is the Perfect Role Model by Graduating From High School 20 Years Later Photo: (Photo : Tookapic) Dr. Barry Starr, a geneticist at The Tech Museum in San Jose, California, told Parents that most couples find it difficult to guess their future baby's appearance. They ask questions like: what will their hair look like, or what will be the color of their eyes. While parents assume what their baby can look like, they can never be hundred percent sure until after the baby arrives. Even if health care providers examined all of a fetus' DNA, they would still not know what to anticipate, as so much is unknown about genes. However, scientists have shared their understanding of why babies develop the features they do and are sharing what parents need to know about what their baby might look like. Children sometimes look the same as one parent or don't resemble anyone in the family. These outcomes are all entirely possible. Children share 50 percent of their DNA with their parents and siblings (if there is any). If both siblings look the same, this only means that the combination of genes they inherited was similar. If it's a firstborn child, they may have inherited one parent's lips, while the youngest child may inherit the lips of the other parent. Truthfully, a child's structure will not be set until age 20 as many genes are involved, including growth, bone development, and fat deposits. Only when the child turns 20 could the parents see where the baby's looks come from. Read Also: Is It Okay for Parents To Tell Their Children To Follow Their Dreams? A newborn's hair color Michael Begleiter, a genetic counselor at Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City, Missouri, said that individuals usually inherit numerous pairs of genes that play a vital role in determining hair color. Each pair entails one gene from each parent. If a baby, for example, inherits ten pairs of genes, it means 20 different genes could affect their tresses. Unfortunately, scientists haven't determined yet how many genes decide a hair color. For example, Dr. Starr said that if two brunette parents produce a baby with blonde hair, both parents carry recessive blonde genes among the dominant brown ones; hence, their light-colored genes are passed on to their offspring. The geneticist clarifies that the genes that usually set hair color regulate an individual's melanocytes or the color-producing cells. A baby's hair color will only fall on the spectrum from black to brown or red to blonde. Hair color only signifies how many melanocytes they have and what kind of pigment those cells make. Eumelanin is the one that produces black to brown while the other is called Pheomelanin or the ones that make yellow to red, per Very Well Family. A baby's eye color Some babies are born with bluish-gray eyes, which can eventually change as they grow. If the baby is born with dark eyes, they will change, as it usually takes approximately six months before an infant's eye color stabilizes. Dr. Starr said the color-producing cells found in the eyes, an iris, need exposure to light for them to activate. Two different genes influence the eye color that develops. The baby's eye color will only depend on the combination of alleles they inherit from each parent. According to Better Health, both eye color and blood groups are examples of dominant or recessive gene relationships. Related Article: What Will My Baby Look Like? 3 Features You Can Predict Based on Parents' Genes Photo: (Photo : Scott Graham on Unsplash) Choosing a Medicare plan is one of the most consequential decisions people must make as they approach their sixties. Medicare plans can have a significant impact on household expenses. Similarly, these plans determine what health professionals and services are available to you. Given how crucial this healthcare decision is, it's important to get it right. And while getting a suitable Medicare plan can seem like an overwhelming process, certain steps can be taken to make it easier. Here are some critical steps to take in choosing a Medicare plan: Understand your options It's essential to understand the different Medicare plans and how they work to find the best one. The two types of Medicare coverage are Original Medicare and Medicare advantage. Other secondary policies include prescription drug coverage and supplemental coverage. Original Medicare: It's a fee-for-service health plan provided by the government. Original Medicare has two parts- plan A covers hospital care, while Plan B covers medical care such as doctor's visits, lab tests, and outpatient care. Original Medicare only covers limited prescription drugs and does not include dental and vision benefits. Also, several expenses are associated with Original Medicare, such as deductibles and coinsurance. Medicare Advantage: Medicare Advantage, also known as 'Part C,' refers to Medicare coverage offered by licensed private insurers. These plans typically have broader coverage than Original Medicare as they combine the benefits of Part A and Part B while also offering vision, hearing, and dental benefits. Noteworthy, most Medicare Advantage plans include prescription drug coverage. These policies can be cost-effective since they place yearly limits on out-of-pocket costs, unlike Original Medicare. Supplemental Coverage: Supplemental coverage plans (Medigap) are offered by private insurers to fill coverage gaps in Original Medicare. It's, however, essential to note that Medigap is not available to policyholders with Medicare Advantage. Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage (Part D): It's an additional and optional plan available to all Medicare plan types. Most Medicare Advantage Plans already include drug coverage, so policyholders don't need to join a separate Part D plan. Consider your healthcare needs Every Medicare plan has varying scopes of coverage. Therefore, it's important to assess your healthcare needs to determine what scope of coverage is just right for you. For instance, if you require hearing, dental, and vision benefits, it might be best to go for a Medicare Advantage plan as these are not covered under Original Medicare. On the flip side, if you would like the flexibility to see any doctor (even those outside your network), a Medicare Advantage plan might not be the best option for you since most policies may require you to use healthcare professionals within a network. Unlike Medicare Advantage, Original Medicare enables you to see any doctor that accepts Medicare. Other coverage considerations include travel healthcare, chronic illness, behavioral health, and prescription drugs. These factors can help determine whether you should go for Original Medicare or Medicare Advantage. Similarly, these factors would help you decide which Medicare Advantage plans are suitable for you. Look at the cost implications Another important step when choosing a Medicare plan is to consider the costs incurred. It's essential to check out the monthly premiums for the Medicare plans you are considering. However, beyond monthly premiums, it's also necessary to consider the out-of-pocket costs involved, such as deductibles, coinsurance, and co-payments. These costs vary by plan depending on how much coverage is provided. Similarly, these costs can change from year to year, so it's vital to monitor the plan's policy to keep track of costs. Another important cost factor is the yearly limit of out-of-pocket expenses. For Original Medicare, there is no limit, which means out-of-pocket payments can potentially run into thousands of dollars. Medicare Advantage plans, on the other hand, provide yearly limits. It means once a policyholder pays up to the specified limit, the plan pays 100% of the expenses for covered benefits for the rest of the year. Compare Medicare plans One of the most effective ways to get the best Medicare plan for you in terms of cost and coverage is to compare various options. Surprisingly, only 33% of older adults shop around for the best deal on their Medicare plan, as found by a WellCare survey. Similarly, another study found that most people don't choose the most cost-effective Medicare Part D plans. Therefore, it's essential to compare plans as much as possible to make the best decision on your Medicare. Many tools and websites online make comparing Medicare plans easier. For instance, Assurance Medicare Advantage allows you to compare Medicare Advantage plans from different providers based on location and health needs. Keep track of the enrollment period After identifying an ideal Medicare plan, it's important to enroll within the time frame provided. The general requirement is to enroll for Medicare within the seven months surrounding the 65th birthday. The time frame includes the three months before the birthday month, the birthday month, and the three months after. It's crucial to note that people covered by an employer plan are an exception to this requirement. An annual enrollment period runs from October 15 to December 7. Enrolled persons can switch plans or add to their coverage during this period. Photo: (Photo : John Lamparski/Getty Images for Teletubbies) Children in their 20s may have fond memories of watching "Teletubbies," and the Sun Baby, Jess Smith, featured in every episode of the popular children's show. Over 20 years later, Smith is all grown up, and the series is set to get a reboot on Netflix. Smith was the giggling Sun Baby who didn't pursue a TV career and did not reveal her identity until recently. According to LadBible, Smith posted on Instagram to confess her secret and said that she used to hide the fact that she was the smiling baby in the popular children's series. The young woman said she had a lot of encouragement from her friends at the university, so she decided to out herself. Smith said that she was cast in the role after a producer saw her getting weighed at the hospital. The producer asked the staff for any "smiley babies" and then spotted her. Her father was in the studio when they filmed her sequence. Smith recalled that he held a teddy bear and showed a racing car to get her to laugh. Smith, however, was no longer the face of the Sun Baby when "Teletubbies" had a revival in 2015. She will likely have no part in the upcoming reboot on Netflix. the teletubbies sun baby is also too old for leonardo dicaprio pic.twitter.com/zpe8UJguCJ care jordan (@whitesoxjordan) September 1, 2022 Read Also: 'Sesame Street' Episodes Removed on HBO Max, Kids Show Responds by Opening Sesame Street TikTok Netflix reboot to include Tituss Burgess Broadway star and "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" actor Tituss Burgess will join Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa, and Po when the show reboots on Netflix. The streaming service announced the upcoming series, which will start its run on November 14. Burgess will serve as the narrator and will likely sing the new original songs for the children. There will be 12 episodes for the first season reboot. Rachelle Beinart, Nick Chee Ping Kellington, Rebecca Hyland, and Jeremiah Krage will also join Burgess as the voices of the Teletubbies. There is no word, however, on who was cast as the new Sun Baby, but her face is already in the promo videos and posters. "Teletubbies" was named for their colorful appearance, the antennae on their heads, and the TV screen on their stomachs. The series was originally a British production. The "Teletubbies" controversy Many viewers believed the original "Teletubbies" was canceled because of its controversies. According to Mirror, the character of Tinky Winky was the most controversial because the mascot was alleged to symbolize gay pride. Jerry Falwell, an evangelist, warned parents about letting kids watch the children's show because of its alleged gay undertones. Tinky Winky's actor, Dave Thompson, was apparently fired because his take on the role as a gay person didn't fit with what the producers wanted. Simon Shelton took over for Thompson and said that he used to get questions about Tinky Winky's orientation. However, he understood his character to be a 3-year-old and found the suggestion that Tinky Winky is gay a silly thought. The actor, however, died in 2018 at 52 years old. His autopsy revealed high concentrations of alcohol in his system. Related Article: 'Cocomelon' Spinoff to Feature Cody Green; 'Bluey' Producers Talk Show's End 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 On Wednesday, Patently Apple posted a report titled "China's Yangtze Memory Technologies has reportedly entered Apple's iPhone 14 Supply Chain." The report of this development immediately caught the attention of Republican lawmakers and the Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer. The Financial Times is now reporting that "Republican lawmakers have warned Apple that it will face intense scrutiny from Congress if they procure memory chips from a controversial Chinese semiconductor manufacturer for the new iPhone 14. Marco Rubio, Republican vice-chair of the Senate intelligence committee, and Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the House foreign affairs committee, said they were alarmed following a media report that Apple would add Yangtze Memory Technologies Co to its list of suppliers for Nand flash memory chips that are used to store data on smartphones. Apple is playing with fire, Rubio told the Financial Times. It knows the security risks posed by YMTC. If it moves forward, it will be subject to scrutiny like it has never seen from the federal government. We cannot allow Chinese companies beholden to the Communist party into our telecommunications networks and millions of Americans iPhones. Asked about the congressional concerns, Apple told the FT it did not use YMTC chips in any products but said it was evaluating sourcing from YMTC for Nand chips to be used in some iPhones sold in China. Apple said it was not considering using YMTC chips in phones for sale outside China. It added that all user data stored on Nand chips used by the company were 'fully encrypted.' Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the House foreign affairs committee told the Financial Times that "YMTC has extensive ties to the Chinese Communist party and military. There is credible evidence that YMTC is breaking export control laws by selling goods to Huawei. Apple will effectively be transferring knowledge and knowhow to YMTC that will supercharge its capabilities and help the CCP achieve its national goals. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader, has also privately raised concerns with commerce secretary Gina Raimondo about YMTC, according to a person familiar with the situation. The criticism of Apple comes as the Biden administration steps up efforts to make it harder for China to secure cutting-edge technology. Zach Edwards, an independent tech expert told the Financial Times that "Its pretty shocking that Apple is partnering with a Chinese technology company . . . which is in exactly the same industry as the other banned companies and has the direct support of the top CCP leadership." No one seems to want Arm to sue Qualcomm. Qualcomm obviously doesnt, given that Arms suit last week asks for damages as well as the company to throw out the work that Nuvia, once the saving grace of Arms desktop processor ambitions, has put into place. Microsoft shouldnt, assuming that it still believes in a competitive hardware ecosystem for Windows on Arm that has been spearheaded by Qualcomm and its Snapdragon processors. And Arm shouldnt, either, given that Qualcomm has a chance to crack open the PC market, which is currently a toss-up between the rival X86 architectures of AMD and Intel. (Well, okay neither one of these two companies would benefit from the increased competition.) But here we are, with Arm threatening Qualcomm, one of its chief licensees, as the entire Snapdragon PC ecosystem sputters along while Nuvia works behind the scenes to save the day. Neither Qualcomm nor Windows on Arm is down and out. But boy, a lawsuit is exactly what Qualcomm doesnt need right now. According to Reuters, Arm is seeking an injunction that would ask Qualcomm to destroy the designs that Nuvia is working on with Qualcomm. In 2021, Qualcomm bought the Nuvia design team and intellectual property. Nuvia has never announced a product, but the suspicion was that Nuvia was working on an Arm processor that could be used for both servers as well as mobile PCs, and perhaps even desktops. Arm contends that it had separate business and licensing agreements with Nuvia and Qualcomm, and that Qualcomm was required to re-negotiate the agreement after it bought Nuvia. Qualcomm did not, and Arm says Nuvias work is therefore illegally using Arms intellectual property. Windows on Arm with Qualcomms Snapdragon already suffered from two problems: a lack of pure performance and compatibility concerns. The latter, at least, has been largely solved. Still, Qualcomms Snapdragon processors already lag rival Intel badly in terms of performance; in PCWorlds tests, the 2021 Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 5G processor finished behind the 2014 Microsoft Surface Pro 3 and its Core i5-4300 processor in the PCMark 8 Creative benchmark. Laptops built on Qualcomm Snapdragon still make sense, but less so than they used to. Mark Hachman / IDG Nuvias well-regarded design teams were expected to solve that problem, with the new design. But the timetable has slipped, and the processors that Nuvia planned were originally scheduled to ship in 2023 were recast as shipping in late 2023 earlier this year. Lets recap: Qualcomm and Windows on Arm couldnt run every program than an X86 chip could, until recently. Qualcomms current Snapdragon chips dont offer remotely competitive performance. The two advantages Snapdragon chips did have, long battery life and always-on connectivity, were undercut by X86 laptops that crammed in more battery cells to offset what Qualcomm offered. Dont forget that the world spent about two years of a pandemic commuting back and forth between the kitchen table and the couch. Now, the apparent best-case scenario calls for Qualcomm to release its next-gen Nuvia CPUs in late 2023, which puts it up not against todays Alder Lake, nor this falls Raptor Lake, but Intels 14th-generation Meteor Lake chip and processors like AMDs Dragon Range. Really, could it get any tougher? A suit could quiet the Nuvia hype Qualcomm, naturally, denies Arms claims. Arms lawsuit marks an unfortunate departure from its longstanding, successful relationship with Qualcomm, according to Ann Chaplin, general counsel for Qualcomm, in a statement. Arm has no right, contractual or otherwise, to attempt to interfere with Qualcomms or Nuvias innovations. Arms complaint ignores the fact that Qualcomm has broad, well-established license rights covering its custom-designed CPUs, and we are confident those rights will be affirmed. It seems reasonable, according to Bob ODonnell, founder of TECHnalysis Research, that the two sides will simply exchange some money to resolve the situation what ODonnell called weird, in an obvious understatement. I think theyre going to have to work as if nothing was going on, ODonnell said. At some point, some money is going to exchange hands, hopefully sooner rather than later. And it gets resolved because obviously the longer it drags on, the more serious the questions become in all of it. Those questions include whether or not Nuvia can legally continue work, of course, but also whether it could hold to its original timetable with the suit hanging over its head or whether the Nuvia chips would slip from late 2023 to early 2024. Theres also a question whether Qualcomm can begin promoting what its upcoming Nuvia-designed chips can actually do, something it typically reserves for its Snapdragon Technology Summit, scheduled for Nov. 15. This is how Qualcomm pitched Nuvias future to analysts last November: setting the performance benchmark for Windows PCs. Qualcomm Thats important, because even if Nuvia doesnt have silicon to show then, executives unfettered by legal concerns could talk about expected performance, or potential markets, or any number of things to keep Nuvias name circulating and lets face it, the entire Windows on Arm ecosystem needs a little hype right now. But does anyone believe that Qualcomm can achieve this when, realistically, any talk about Nuvia will have to be cleared by its legal department? Again, for now, Qualcomms remaining positive. The company plans to share updates across all of our business lines, including Compute, at the Summit, according to a Qualcomm representative. ODonnell isnt the only analyst who thinks that this will blow over. Patrick Moorhead, principal at Moor Insights, says I dont think the lawsuit will slow down Qualcomms internal development efforts or its OEM and ODM partners, Moorhead wrote in an instant message. While some of those partners have expressed concern to me, they also have confidence that it will get resolved. Both Qualcomm and Arm have an incredible opportunity to go after 93 percent of the PC market, and it is in the industrys best interests to get it resolved. I am sure Apple, AMD and Intel are enjoying all of this, Moorhead added. But as ODonnell noted, November isnt the first opportunity that Qualcomm will be questioned about the future of Nuvia and its Snapdragon processors. That will likely come in just two weeks, when Qualcomm holds an Automotive Investor Day in New York City. Whats the foundation of Qualcomms automotive platform? You guessed it: Snapdragon, and Arm. Lets see what Qualcomm says to Wall Street then. The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) responded to 4,467 fire outbreaks between January and August this year. The service also attended to 444 road traffic collisions (RTC) and 107 rescue duties in the same period. This was contained in statistics presented by the Chief Fire Officer (CFO), Julius Kuunour, during the presentation of fire-fighting and rescue equipment to the service in Accra yesterday[September 7, 2022]. The equipment was donated by a philanthropist from the British Royal Army, Storms Menri. It comprised foam drums, foam pick up tools, delivery hose, rescue and fire-fighting jackets, fire helmets, back plates, face masks, hydraulic power packs, BA cylinders, among others. Breakdown Giving a breakdown of the figures, Mr Kuunour said the service, in January, recorded 1,090 fire outbreaks, with bush fires being the highest - 432, while there were 317 domestic fires. In February, out of the 762 fire outbreaks that occurred, 239 cases were domestic, with bush fires accounting for 224, with only four industrial fires. In March, there were 551 fire outbreaks, a decline of 211 from the previous month, representing 27.7 per cent. The highest category recorded in that month was domestic fires - 207, electrical and bush fires - 78 each, and three industrial fires. In the month of April, there was a further decline of 81, representing 14.7 per cent. The service recorded 470 fire outbreaks in that month, with domestic fires being the highest - 184. Electrical fires were 111, with only one industrial fire. In May, there was a decline of seven, representing 1.4 per cent. In all, there were 463 outbreaks, with 195 domestic fires, 85 electrical fires and two industrial cases. In June, the number further declined by 116, representing 33.4 per cent. There were 347 fires, out of which 148 were domestic, 82 electrical and two industrial. In the month of July, there were 351 outbreaks, with domestic fires accounting for 157 and commercial fires 75. Mr Kuunour said the service had set a goal to reduce fire outbreaks by 60 per cent by the end of this year. This calls for us to redouble efforts by mobilising all material and human resources to achieve this goal, he said. A Deputy Minister for the Interior, Naana Eyiah, said there were plans to procure quick intervention vehicles for the service. She expressed appreciation to the benefactor for the support and entreated individuals and corporate bodies to augment the governments efforts at retooling the GNFS. Decision Mr Menri explained that his decision to support the service was born out of his desire to keep the personnel safe and also enhance their operational efficiency. Understandably, I have been prompted that RTC extrication gear is the number one priority of the service. We will, therefore, focus on that in the future, he said. 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 Dr. Gideon Boako, the Economic Adviser and spokesperson to the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has described the governments decision to seek the support of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to fix the countrys debilitating economic situation as a necessary bitter pill. Speaking at the GRASSAG Week Celebration at the University of Energy and Natural Resources on Thursday, 08 September 2022, in Sunyani themed: The Role of Postgraduate Students in Governments Economic Recovery Program Post Covid-19, Dr. Boako acknowledged that the country is in difficult times on the back of the global crisis but the record of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) shows that we are the government that makes the best in difficult situations. The opposition NDC would want us to believe that the difficulties imposed on us as a country because of the global crisis and governments decision to take the bitter pill of seeking for an IMF support to help us address the crisis-driven difficulties we are experiencing means we are failing. But I want to remind them that if they couldnt have the competence to deliver under their own IMF programme we will deliver, he added. He said the president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and the NPP took over the mantle of leadership from the NDC and inherited the NDCs IMF programme under extreme economic challenges. We did not run away from the problem. We took the bull by the horns and demonstrated that we have the competence and commitment to turn difficult situations into prosperity. And with determination and hardwork we turned things around from 2017 to first quarter of 2019 under the IMF programme until Covid-19 struck us, he said. Challenges and difficult situations are bound to happen in every facet of our national development journey but it takes competence and true political commitment to win the battle. We are a government of doers. We have done it before and we will certainly do it this time around, he added. COVID-19 exposed systematic weaknesses That notwithstanding, Dr. Boako bemoaned how the COVID-19 pandemic exposed some of the systematic weaknesses of the Ghanaian economic architecture which he said taught us the need to build an economy that can withstand external shock. our continued reliance on imported goods for consumptions is not sustainable in the long term; the slow pace of our movement to mechanised agriculture presents huge challenges; the inability of the informal sector to formalise its business activities to mention a few, are all significant gaps that need to be addressed as a matter of urgency, he said. He said the countrys ability to respond to the aforementioned challenges will go a long way in helping build vibrant economy capable of withstanding external shocks such as COVID-19. Appreciating the catastrophic effects of pandemics such as COVID-19 on growing and developing economies such as Ghanas, Dr. Boako said: It is very evident that a time such as this requires innovation, creativity, entrepreneurship and a rekindling of the Ghanaian spirit of perseverance and a general belief in the can-do spirit of the youth. We need the can-do spirit and the ingenuity of the youth to rise up to the occasion. Time to industrialise Moving forward, Dr. Boako said the bedrock of a strong local economy is industrialisation and that the evidence shows that industrialised countries have higher GDPs as against non-industrial economies. Industrialisation, he argued enhances the employment outcomes for the youth whilst contributing significantly to the GDP of the country through consumption and exports. Again, he noted that in times of external shocks, locally produced goods provide the buffer to sustain national economies, adding value to local supply chains and also improving local revenues. During the pandemic, we are all aware how Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs) became necessities for survival. We also witnessed how it took local industries a while to respond to demands for these essentials. This affirms the need to expedite our efforts to build local industries responding to the local needs of its citizens, he stated. 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 Eve Jobs, the daughter of Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, appeared to take a jab at her late father's company on Wednesday. A spokesperson for Apple did not respond to a request for comment from Insider ahead of publication. Jobs is the youngest of the Apple cofounder's four kids and the daughter of Laurene Powell Jobs. She is an accomplished equestrian and a Stanford University graduate. She's also signed with DNA Model Management, the same agency that represents Kaia Gerber and Emily Ratajkoswki. In a biography of Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson described her as a "strong-willed, funny firecracker." He wrote that Steve Jobs said he could envision her running Apple one day or even becoming president of the United States. Read Full Story .... africa.businessinsider.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 Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG) has commenced a nationwide membership mobilisation to position the party as the best alternative to break the duopoly of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to win the 2024 polls. The move is also to ensure that the party structures are put in readiness to spread the news about the partys policies and programmes to bring the country out of the current economic hardships. The Founder and 2020 Presidential Candidate of LPG, Percival Kofi Akpaloo, who was speaking after the first tour of some regions, noted that Ghanaians had had enough of the NPP and the NDC and had come to the conclusion that their best bet was the LPG. He said the party decided after the 2020 polls not to wait till the election year before embarking on a nationwide campaign and restructuring to ensure that the party structures were activated and sustained. Internal He noted that while the team was moving from one place to the other, it was also putting in place strategies to ensure that it would be able to have officers for various communities, polling stations, constituencies and regions before holding internal elections for national leaders. We are overwhelmed by the reception and enthusiasm of Ghanaians when they see the remobilisation team. Our messages resonate with them and we are convinced that with a little hard work, Ghanaians will give us the mandate to implement our policies and programmes, he added. Mr Akpaloo said there was every indication that the ordinary Ghanaian was looking for an alternative, adding that they had also realised that the LPGs policies were the best to liberate their potential and make the current economic situation a thing of the past. He said because Ghanaians were desperate for a change and considered the LPG as the best alternative, the party would work assiduously to ensure that the LPG message was sustained throughout the country. He indicated the partys policy of building 1.2 million housing units meant to offer affordable housing while increasing investment and employment in the housing industry. He also said increased investment in sports, skills training and agriculture would be implemented. He added that the LPG had the best blueprint to address the carnage on the countrys roads, improve public transport and make energy affordable and reliable to boost economic activities and engender economic progress. Ghana Card Touching on the issue of using the Ghana Card as the only source document for the continuous registration of voters, Mr Akpaloo welcomed the suggestion by the Electoral Commission (EC), noting that the era of putting together voters register after every election must cease. He said he agreed with the position that the various laws enacted for the registration and use of the Ghana Card spoke of using it for voter registration, among others, because the card had proven to be a reliable document. He, therefore, called for measures to expedite action to ensure that those who had registered and not received their cards were sorted out while more avenues were created for others, especially those who had attained 18 years, to get their cards without any hindrances. 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 Progressive Peoples Party (PPP) has appealed to the electorate to massively vote for the party in the 2024 general election to offer it the opportunity to implement its progressive and human-centred policies for the betterment of the country as it celebrates 10 years of its formation. We have advocated for the amendments of key constitutional provisions affecting our governance system in Ghana such as the election of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives; separation of Attorney Generals Department from the Minister of Justice; Free, Compulsory, Universal Basic Education with a goal of not leaving any Ghanaian child of school age at home, it said. Policies The party also mentioned some of the policies it would pursue when given the mandate to govern the country by the people as the establishment of an effective and efficient pension scheme for workers and a living wage to better their economic conditions. It said it would also support local businesses, create jobs through industrialisation using the rich natural resources of the country and pursue a universal health care system and vigorous infrastructural development. These and many others will we offer Ghanaians when we are given the mandate to form a government, the party said. In an interview with the Daily Graphic, the PPP Communications Director, Emmanuel Felix Kofi Mantey, said it was time for Ghanaians to give the party the opportunity to manage the affairs of the country for the betterment of all. We ask Ghanaians to give us the opportunity to lead in the management of the affairs of the country for a better nation in the coming elections, he stated. Anniversary Announcing the programme of activities lined up to mark the 10th anniversary of the formation of the party, Mr Mantey called on Ghanaians to vote massively for the party in the 2024 elections to form the next government. He said the anniversary celebration, which was on the theme, 10 years of progressive focus to bring change in Ghanas democratic governance the way forward, would bring together all supporters to commemorate the achievements of the party since its inception in 2012. Mr Martey said the celebration would be characterised by various activities taking place in all regions and would be climaxed on October 1, 2022, at the Nana Kobina Gyan Square in Elmina in the Central Region. The party is looking forward to bringing together all Progressive supporters from across the length and breadth of the country and our diasporan branches, he said. Background PPP received its provisional licence in February 2012 and substantive licence in March 2012 from the Electoral Commission and has since then participated in three consecutive elections, the statement said. The party has advocated the amendments of key constitutional provisions affecting the governance system in the country. 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 Government says the Presidential Jet has been flown to France for major repair works to be carried out on it and not for any other purpose. According to government, the jet is expected to return to the country in December this year after completion of the repair works. It would be recalled that somewhere in May, 2022, the Defence Minister, Dominic Nitiwul indicated the presidential jet would be flown to France for at least four months. By the end of this month, we will not have a presidential jet because the one we have is going to France for re-service; its one of the reasons the President will not use it for four to five months, he said in an interview with JoyNews. Eugene Arhin, Communication Director at the Jubilee House made this statement in response to Facebook post made by Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Member of Parliament for North Tongu regarding the use of the presidential jet. Mr. Arhin indicated that Contrary to the insinuations being cast by the Member of Parliament for North Tongu, no one used the Presidential Jet to France, and no one is using the Presidential Jet in France. The only persons who flew the jet to France are the crew made up of pilots from the Ghana Air Force. Indeed, the Presidential Jet departed Ghana on 30th August to France for major repair works to be carried out on it repair works which are very much long overdue. The Air Force has indicated that the Presidential Jet will be out of service for a total of four (4) months, and will return to Ghana and be available for use in December. It will be recalled that in May this year, the Minister for Defence, Hon. Dominic Nitiwul, alerted Ghanaians to the fact that the Presidential Jet would be flown to France for major repair works to be undertaken. He therefore wondered how Mr Ablakwa expects President Akufo-Addo to return to Ghana on Saturday, September 10, from his current trip to the Netherlands and France on board the Presidential Jet, which is undergoing major repair works and is scheduled to return to Ghana in December. He therefore urged the NDC MP to minimize his penchant for engaging in propaganda regarding the Presidential Jet, to avoid further embarrassments to his person. Source: dailyguidenetwork.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 Li Zhanshu, chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, attends the plenary session of the 7th Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) and delivers a speech titled "Advance the Process of World Multipolarization and Open a New Chapter in Regional Cooperation" in Russia's far eastern city of Vladivostok, Sept. 7, 2022. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei) VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- Li Zhanshu, chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, on Wednesday voiced China's support for a multipolar world and regional cooperation in the Far East. Li made the remarks when addressing the plenary session of the 7th Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Russia's far eastern city of Vladivostok. He delivered a speech titled "Advance the Process of World Multipolarization and Open a New Chapter in Regional Cooperation," while Russian President Vladimir Putin, Myanmar's State Administration Council Chairman Min Aung Hlaing, Mongolian Prime Minister Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene, and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan also addressed the event in person. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, and Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh delivered video messages. Li recalled that at the invitation of President Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping participated in the EEF twice and delivered important speeches, expounding on China's proposals and initiatives on developing China-Russia relations, promoting mutually beneficial regional cooperation, and maintaining regional peace and stability, which elicited warm response from the international community. The theme of this year's EEF "On the Path to a Multipolar World" is right in time, Li noted, adding that a multipolar world is the trend of history and the common expectation of the international community. He said that since last year, President Xi has put forward the Global Development Initiative (GDI) and the Global Security Initiative (GSI), which have received responses and support from international organizations including the United Nations and many countries including Russia, injecting stability and positive energy into the world and contributing Chinese wisdom and solutions to solving problems of the times. China will continue to work with the international community and take sustained and strong measures to ensure that the two initiatives take root and bear fruit, so as to bring tangible benefits to people around the world, Li said. In February this year, President Xi and President Putin reached many important consensuses on expanding all-round practical cooperation between China and Russia, as well as practicing the vision of global governance featuring extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, Li noted. With China being an important partner of Russia in developing the Far East, bilateral cooperation in the Far East is an important part of cooperation promoted and planned by the two heads of state personally, he said. China will further strengthen all-round cooperation with Russia in trade, energy, agriculture, infrastructure construction, science and technology, education, medical treatment and culture, Li said, adding that China will continue to support and participate in the development of Russia's Far East, advance the deep docking between the full revitalization of Northeast China and Russia's Far East development national strategy, and promote fruitful cooperation between the two countries in the Far East. With Northeast Asia being one of the most dynamic regions in the world, intensifying Far Eastern development and cooperation will open up important opportunities for promoting regional security and development, he stressed. The top Chinese legislator put forward a three-point proposal. First, the GSI should be implemented to maintain regional peace and stability. To build a harmonious and peaceful common home, there is no other way but for all parties to work together. All parties should uphold the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, pursue dialogue rather than confrontation, seek partnership rather than alliance, work for unity rather than division, adhere to the principle of the indivisibility of security, and inject positive energy into regional peace and stability. Second, the GDI needs to be carried out to promote regional openness and integration. Efforts should be taken to boost partnerships, pool resources and platforms for cooperation, strengthen connectivity of development policies, tap the potential for innovative growth, maintain secure and unimpeded industrial and supply chains, and foster a more stable, secure and free trade and investment environment to inject new impetus into economic globalization. Third, development strategies should be synergized to enhance China-Russia cooperation in the Far East. China will comprehensively implement the important consensuses reached by President Xi and President Putin, work actively to synergize the Belt and Road Initiative and the Eurasian Economic Union, and enrich the content of Far Eastern cooperation. To this end, the legislatures of the two countries should step up coordination to provide legislative guarantee. China firmly supports and actively promotes a multipolar world, Li said, adding that China stands ready to work with Russia and other countries in the region to deepen Belt and Road cooperation, write a magnificent chapter of regional cooperation in Northeast Asia, and make unremitting efforts to promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. In the Q&A session, Li answered questions about the current China-Russia relations and the prospects of bilateral cooperation in the Far East. On Thursday morning, Li met with Oleg Kozhemyako, governor of Russia's Primorye Territory, and visited an art and cultural complex in Vladivostok, which China participated in its construction. Li Zhanshu, chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, meets with Oleg Kozhemyako, governor of Russia's Primorye Territory, in Russia's far eastern city of Vladivostok, Sept. 8, 2022. Li on Wednesday attended the plenary session of the 7th Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok and delivered a speech titled "Advance the Process of World Multipolarization and Open a New Chapter in Regional Cooperation". (Xinhua/Zhang Ling) Li Zhanshu, chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, attends the plenary session of the 7th Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Russia's far eastern city of Vladivostok, Sept. 7, 2022. Li delivered a speech titled "Advance the Process of World Multipolarization and Open a New Chapter in Regional Cooperation" at the event. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei) PN Podcast: Reaction to Bryn Kenney's Interview, Jeff Platt & Josh Pollock Talk About Big Wins September 08, 2022 Chad Holloway Executive Editor U.S. In the latest edition of the PokerNews Podcast, Sarah Herring and Chad Holloway offer their thoughts on Bryn Kenney's appearance on Joey Ingram's Poker Life Podcast to address cheating allegations leveled his way earlier this year. They also break down Patrik Antonius' sick hero call in a Triton Poker $25,000 High Roller and recap a big win by former PokerNews co-host Jeff Platt, who took down the MSPT Venetian for $100,000! Hear a winner interview with Platt shortly after his victory. Similarly, they recap Joshua Pollock's victory in the World Poker tour (WPT) Legends of Poker, complete with a winner interview conducted by PokerNews' Adam Lamers. Also, hear about Nike Mihao winning his first GGPoker Super MILLION$ title, a high-stakes Tortilla Slap Challenge from a recent poker stop, Brad Owen winning his own ClubWPT Bounty tournament, and a big BLAST Jackpot hitting on 888poker. Don't forget to call the PokerNews Bad Beat Hotline at (+1 702-625-0166) to share your bad beats, which may be featured on a future episode of the show. Listen to those stories and more in the latest episode of the PokerNews Podcast! Time Stamps Call the PokerNews Bad Beat Hotline today! Tell us who you want to hear from. Let us know what you think of the show tweet about the podcast using #PNPod, and be sure to follow Sarah Herring, Chad Holloway, and Jesse Fullen on Twitter. Subscribe to the PokerNews Podcast on Apple Podcasts here! Check Out Past Episodes of the PN Podcast Here! Sharelines PokerNews Podcast: winner interviews w/ MSPT champ @JeffPlatt & @WPT victor Joshua Pollock. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print President Biden told reporters that he would attend Queen Elizabeths funeral on Friday. According to the White House pool report provided to PoliticusUSA: Pool asked if he would attend the funeral. Yes. I dont know what the details are yet but Ill be going, Biden replied. World leaders will be present from across the globe as the Queens funeral will demonstrate her popularity and the respect that she earned from national leaders over her decades at the top of the British monarchy. King Charles announced that his funeral for his mother would take place in a little more than a week. With President Biden in the White House, Americans no longer need to worry about their president embarrassing them on the world stage. Biden will represent the United States with class, dignity, and respect. President Biden will be there to comfort an ally and show friendship to the British people. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print Everyone is using loose language concerning DOJs motion filed yesterday in the district court in front of the increasingly infamous Judge Cannon. The Justice Department did not file an appeal, no matter how many media outlets reported it as such. Nor did it file a motion for reconsideration, the type that invites the judge to reverse herself. Instead, the Justice Department deftly used a Motion for a Partial Stay Pending Appeal, to ask Judge Cannon to merely stay that portion of her order that is most devastating to the government, the portion that prohibits all further criminal investigation (Never, ever, seen that) from materials collected in the search, and asking for that stay because it intends to appeal the entire matter, at least as it now stands. Stays are granted where there would otherwise be irreparable harm, and the DOJ believes it has met that standard. Now that we have the matter properly set out, it should be noted that the Justice Department told the court that it believed that Trump may still be holding classified documents, though they dont give a location. From the Motion itself by way of Reuters: Without a stay, the government and the public will also suffer irreparable harm from the undue delay to the criminal investigation, prosecutors wrote. The injunction against using classified records in the criminal investigation could impede efforts to identify the existence of any additional classified records that are not being properly stored which itself presents the potential for ongoing risk to national security, they added. They couldnt possibly be clearer: Judge, our investigation has led us to believe that there may well be more classified documents hanging out, unguarded, perhaps at Bedminster, Trump Tower, wherever. We dont know and thats why we need to continue to investigate. This involves national security. Normally, judges are loathed to do anything that touches upon national security matters, which is one reason why the term is used over and over in the Motion. To be sure, the fact that there may be other classified materials isnt the only reason offered to stay Cannons order. Indeed, its probably not even the most compelling reason. As this site has written before, the idea that the FBIs counter-intelligence agents can conduct a national security review without further investigating this as a criminal matter is absurd, and the Justice Department said as much, though with a bit more tact: The ongoing Intelligence Community classification review and assessment are closely interconnected with and cannot be readily separated fromareas of inquiry of DOJs and the FBIs ongoing criminal investigation. One doesnt need a day of legal training to understand DOJs point. Investigating the breaches to our national security is by its very nature a concurrent criminal investigation, and clearly, the criminal investigation is what most informs the national security breach. Judge Cannon has ordered Trumps attorneys to respond by Monday and will issue her resulting order next week. Perhaps Cannon has since grasped that in her zealousness to help Trump, she flew a little too close to the sun, got singed, and will reel it in a bit and grant DOJs motion as a halfway measure. Perhaps she goes full MAGA. We wont know until next week, but we will at least be starting with the proper legal framework and terminology while also knowing that the DOJ isnt naive enough to think that Trump isnt capable of still attempting to hide classified documents. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print Gov. Greg Abbott said nothing about guns but talked about gang violence in a bid to shift the focus after a new shooting in Uvalde, TX. Abbott said in a statement: I was outraged to learn that gang violence has endangered the Uvalde community and innocent Texans this evening. I immediately called Mayor McLaughlin and County Judge Mitchell to offer the states full support and resources as law enforcement hunts down the gang members. After speaking with the mayor and the county judge about the immediate need for more law enforcement support, I have directed the Department of Public Safety to conduct patrol operations in the gang hotspots, send an additional six DPS trooper units to work around the clock, and begin coordinating an anti-gang effort with the city. Working with the Uvalde Police Department and Uvalde County Sheriffs Office, DPS is also deploying Special Agents to target the five gangs operating in Uvalde. Thank you to all local and state law enforcement and first responders who swiftly went into action to protect their fellow Texans. Gang violence has no place here in Texas, and we will bring the full force of justice down on these heinous criminals. Gov. Abbott did not attend a funeral for a Robb Elementary School shooting victim in Uvalde. Abbott continues to ignore that he made guns even easier to obtain in Texas, and young people are getting shot. Instead of taking responsibility for his failed policies, Greg Abbott continues to shift blame disgustingly. Uvalde is not a large urban area, but Abbott sounds like gangs are everywhere in the small Texas community. Texas deserves better than a governor who is so beholden to the gun industry that he lets young people get shot and killed. Greg Abbott is getting Texans injured and killed through his refusal to lead. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print A federal judge has trashed and dismissed Trumps lawsuit against Hillary Clinton as full of hyperbole. Judge Donald Middlebrooks wrote about Trumps complaint: Many of the Amended Complaints characterizations of events are implausible because they lack any specific allegations which might provide factual support for the conclusions reached. For instance, the contention that former FBI director James Comey, senior FBI officials, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein overzealously targeted Plaintiff and conspired to harm him through appointment of special counsel are strikingly similar to the conclusory and formulaic allegations found deficient in the seminal Supreme Court case of Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662 (2009). What the Amended Complaint lacks in substance and legal support it seeks to substitute with length, hyperbole, and the settling of scores and grievances. The Judge later wrote, Plaintiff added eighty new pages of largely irrelevant allegations that did nothing to salvage the legal sufficiency of his claims. The inadequacies with Plaintiffs Amended Complaint are not merely issues of technical pleading, as Plaintiff contends, but fatal substantive defects that preclude Plaintiff from proceeding under any of the theories he has presented. At its core, the problem with Plaintiffs Amended Complaint is that Plaintiff is not attempting to seek redress for any legal harm; instead, he is seeking to flaunt a two-hundred-page political manifesto outlining his grievances against those that have opposed him, and this Court is not the appropriate forum. Trumps RICO case against Hillary Clinton was empty and the Judge called him out for using the court system as a platform for his political manifestos and a place to try to settle scores with his perceived enemies. The lawsuit was about Trump trying to damage the allegations about his relationship with Russia and Russian interference in the 2016 election. Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump by 3 million popular votes in 2016, and she beat him again in court on the lawsuit alleging a RICO conspiracy related to the Russia scandal. Gail King, who met Queen Elizabeth II, sits on the steps of her Aiken home with her English Springer Spaniels named Kevin Kisner, left foreground, also known as Kizzie, and Rory McIlroy. (Dede Biles/Staff) Hope, yoga and everyone playing a part was the message discussed Thursday during a Suicide Prevention Summit. The Aiken-Barnwell Suicide Prevention Coalition held the summit with the theme of "Burnout to Resiliency." Speakers at the event included Jessica Barnes from the S.C. Department of Mental Health and Sarah Accord from Aiken Yoga. The event also provided information on mental health agencies and other resources available to the community. Barnes said one way to help prevent a suicide is checking in to make sure someone is OK. Everyone has role in suicide prevention," she said. In 2020, 868 people died by suicide in South Carolina and 53% of those deaths were by a firearm. Nationally, using 2020 data, men were more likely to commit suicide than women, and white males account for 69.68% of suicides, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Accord, who worked as a nurse for 20 years and now works as a yoga instructor, teaches yoga skills that can help anyone dealing with a mental health issue. During the event, Accord demonstrated to the crowd some breathing exercises and would repeat the words, "I matter." +3 Executive director of Mental Health America of Aiken County recognized for efforts Bonnie Fulghum, the executive director of Mental Health American of Aiken County, was recently recognized by MHA of South Carolina. She was na Accord said if someone is dealing with burnout, they should change up their routine and have a day for self-care. Barnes said there is concern with adolescents attempting suicide or dying by suicide. Youth are more likely to call or text for help using a call center number. Aiken Barnwell Mental Health Center hosts community resource fair Tamara Smith is working to make sure that residents of Aiken and Barnwell counties take care of their mental health. There is a need for suicide prevention, especially for adolescents," Barnes said. Barnes said there is hope because of the resources in the community. She said with the introduction of 988, calls have increased by 50%, which includes texts through the crisis line, an interactive screening program and people reaching out for help. Bonnie Fulghum, the executive director of Mental Health America of Aiken County, said suicide has been increasing in the area since the start of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. After Anderson County, Aiken County had the second-highest rate of suicides based on 2020 data. There is nothing like being on the other end of a call and the person says, I have a gun, I have the bullets and you have 50 seconds to tell me why I should not kill myself, she said. Fulghum said with the community's help, the number of suicides can decrease. I hope you open your mind to the statistics because they are very sobering and very powerful," she said. "We can (work) to hopefully prevent people from being desperate and helpless. Resources: Aiken County Help Line 211 Aiken-Barnwell Mental Health Center (ABMHC) 803-641-7700 Mental Health America of South Carolina (MHASC) Phone: 803-779-5363 and mhasc.org Moncks Corner, SC (29461) Today Mostly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 69F. Winds light and variable.. Tonight Mostly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 69F. Winds light and variable. COLUMBIA South Carolina will spend the next year drafting plans to make the state more competitive in the cybersecurity industry. After spending a year comparing South Carolina to neighboring states and identifying shortfalls when it comes to cybersecurity, Gov. Henry McMaster and officials from the state Commerce Department said the state will now take the next step coming up with a plan to address those issues. "If we look at cybersecurity specifically, we have a little bit of work to do," said Brian Shea, a consultant with the firm Simon Everett hired to conduct the analysis and planning. Commerce, through grants, will have spent $513,500 on the analysis and planning. The University of South Carolina also contributed funds. The goal, according to Deputy Commerce Secretary Ashely Teasdel, is to up South Carolina's cyber profile so it can train and attract the country's top tech talent. McMaster has made cyber a part of his agenda in recent years, hoping to build off South Carolina's proximity to the U.S. Army Cyber Command at Fort Gordon in Georgia and lure more U.S. Department of Defense investment and research dollars across the state line. One area where South Carolina lags is in a workforce trained to do cybersecurity work. "The projected demand for cybersecurity requires that we grow or attract nearly 6,000 cybersecurity workers over the next 10 years. That's not going to happen on its own," Shea said. For example, Shea said, the state falls below the national average for workers trained as information security analysts. The benefit of these types of jobs is that they pay wages that are between one-third and 2 times higher than the state median wage, which sits at $17.91 per hour, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. "We're talking about investing in a workforce that has high projected demand and offers South Carolinians upsized wage opportunities combined with upsized job security, all while protecting our digital information systems, networks and connected devices," Shea said. The Palmetto State is also behind when it comes to private investment in cybersecurity and the formation of cyber startup companies. "We have not told investors what we intend cybersecurity to look like in this state. You could look at major cybersecurity hubs, whether it be Colorado Springs, San Diego ... you can identify what their brand of cybersecurity is all about. If I'm an investor and I'm going to be bringing my resources there, I know the story that I'm helping to promote. We haven't told that story yet about what South Carolina cyber is meant to be." Housing the initiative in the state Commerce Department, the McMaster administration plans to tweak some of the programs used to lure major manufacturers to the Palmetto State to meet the needs of cybersecurity firms. COLUMBIA Parents across Richland County have spent the better part of 2022 asking their school district officials where their money is going, why a sitting school board member was arrested and why they've struggled to retain teachers and administrators, but have received little to no answers. Alleged financial mishandlings, legal troubles and political divides in the state's fifth-, ninth- and 12th-largest school districts serving over 67,000 students laid a foundation for existing issues, including calls from Gov. Henry McMaster for state investigations of the Columbia-area districts' leadership practices. In June, Northeast Columbia's Richland County School District Two was subject of the first-ever such call from McMaster. "Hundreds" of calls, emails and letters from Richland Two parents got the governor's attention with complaints of dysfunction and unprofessional rifts between school board members, the superintendent and their critics, according to McMaster's spokesman. In January, Richland Two Superintendent Baron Davis charged at a frequent critic whom Davis thought had insulted his wife, leading to calls for Davis' suspension, even as the board barred the critic from attending future meetings. A parent wrote to McMaster calling the incident "an embarrassing scar on our community," and asking him to consider removing Davis. Months later, an altercation between two school board members during a closed-door school board meeting resulted in the arrest of one member, charged with threatening the life of a public employee. Board member Teresa Holmes pressed charges against board member LaShonda McFadden after she was heard on audio saying, "You can catch me outside and I'll beat your (expletive) (expletive)," according to Richland County sheriff's deputies. The governor does not have the power to oust local school district superintendents. However, McMaster signed laws this spring empowering his office to oust school board members for misconduct in office and authorizing the Office of the State Inspector General to investigate school boards. Columbia-area parents have also publicly spoken out against the leadership in the neighboring Richland County School District One, alleging fraud and a general lack of transparency and abuse of power, and going so far as to demand the removal of Superintendent Craig Witherspoon. Serving 22,000 students, Richland One began the school year with more than 200 teacher vacancies. Meanwhile, the district took criticism for spending more money on creating and hiring top-level administrative office positions than other similar-sized state school districts. Barbara Weston, a retired educator with grandchildren in Richland One, led a group of district parents in June who asked why the district suddenly reassigned Ericka Hursey, the popular principal of Lower Richland High School, to a job in the district office. Many parents think it was reprisal for a speech criticizing district leadership at May's graduation ceremony. "Our community and the taxpayers of Richland County will work to see positive change in our schools," Weston said July 26 to the school board. "We will not accept anything less. Reassign (Hursey) to Lower Richland High School. Fire the superintendent with cause." Some teachers said Hursey's situation was indicative of a pattern of retaliatory action Richland One takes against employees who speak out about problems they face. A middle school teacher in Richland One said faculty members across the district have been moved to different classrooms, grade levels and sometimes entirely new jobs with no explanation for years. Richland One board Chairwoman Cheryl Harris did not respond to phone calls for this article, but in July said reassignments happen regularly because Richland One employees sign contracts to work for the district, not specific positions. But board member Beatrice King said the district administration is generally not transparent enough with parents, teachers or even board members. She does not know how much money the district plans to spend on the annual black-tie Richland One Hall of Fame Induction Gala on Sept. 17, for example, despite the money coming out of taxpayer pockets. "It's just a lack of transparency on really basic stuff," King said. "Dollars need to be put in not only the classroom, but in every effort to retain, recruit and pay the folks that we have." Now a school board candidate, Weston also led nearly 1,000 people to petition the governor and ask that the district receive the same scrutiny as Richland Two. Attorney General Alan Wilson has also shared similar concerns with McMaster. Wilson alleged Freedom of Information Act violations, such as failure to notify the public of board agenda items. Wilson also pointed to district finances and hiring practices. In addition, Wilson questioned why the district allowed a purchasing official to resign in May amid accusations of swindling more than $40,000. Delays in pay for Richland One summer school teachers have also raised questions. After working through June and July, several teachers had not been paid. At the end of August the district told some teachers they would not receive the money for which they'd signed a contract. Richland One then backtracked on Sept. 6, announcing that teachers who worked during the summer would receive $1,000 each. A middle school teacher who worked through Richland One's summer program said the district is "still playing games." She said when summer school teachers were not paid in the first place and reached out about it, they were told the contract they originally signed mentioning compensation was sent to them in error. When asked about the paycheck due on Sept. 1, teachers were told the money will 'arrive in time for Christmas shopping,'" the teacher said. Stretching to the northwest of Columbia, serving 17,000 students in Irmo and Chapin, Lexington-Richland School District Five has also come under fire from parents for making moves they see as politically motivated or in possible violation of state ethics codes. Ken Loveless, vice chairman of the Columbia, Irmo and Chapin school district board, faces allegations filed with the South Carolina State Ethics Commission. The Columbia resident who filed the formal complaint thinks Loveless used his influence as a board member to give a construction company to which he's connected the job of building Piney Woods Elementary School. Loveless was the second Lexington-Richland Five school board member this year to appear before the State Ethics Commission. Board Chairwoman Jan Hammond was ordered to pay a $2,000 fine amid allegations that she used her district email account to sway school board election results. Ed White, a former Lexington-Richland Five board member, had accused Loveless of leading a political behind-the-scenes effort against ex-Superintendent Christina Melton in 2021, before Melton's tearful resignation. The district was then sued by local journalists who alleged it violated open records laws when taking a secret vote to oust Melton. Loveless also sued two of his constituents earlier in the year for criticizing him on social media. One of those constituents, Kevin Scully, countersued, and he's now running his own campaign for school board ahead of the November elections. Click here for more news from Columbia, S.C. COLUMBIA West Nile virus was detected in humans in Columbia, the city announced Sept. 9, less than two months after the virus was found in a dead bird in the area and the city began spraying for mosquitos. Six cases of West Nile have been found in Richland County, according to the Department of Health and Environmental Control. City officials urged residents to take the same protective measures they were asked to take in July: using insect repellants, emptying and changing outdoor containers with water, clearing drainage ditches and gutters, cutting overgrown grass and weeds, regularly maintaining swimming pools and packing tree holes with sand. "We want people to take a really hard look at their property," City of Columbia spokesman Richard Blackmon said, noting that testing by DHEC often finds large mosquito larvae breeding sites in containers of water outside people's homes. West Nile causes headaches, body aches, vomiting and rash in 20 percent of people who contract the virus, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The virus has also been found in many animals in South Carolina in 2022, according to DHEC. Cases were found in birds in Aiken, Kershaw, Marlborough and Spartanburg counties in addition to Richland, and in a pet animal in Greenwood County. Columbia officials, who've authorized spraying small droplets of chemical compounds from trucks to kill in-flight mosquitos between midnight and dawn since July 30, said the spraying will continue through the fall. Residents were again asked to call the city's code enforcement division if they are allergic to permethrin, deltamethrin or tau-fluvalinate, chemicals used in the mosquito spray. Blackmon said people should try to "examine every inch" of their property for standing water. "We can spray all day every day, and it's not going to stop it if they don't eliminate the breeding sites," the city spokesman said. Click here for more news from Columbia, S.C. GEORGETOWN An Andrews man was arrested on charge of shooting at a Georgetown woman's SUV from his bicycle with a BB gun. Jonathan Phillip Shuler, 29, was arrested Sept. 8 on a charge of malicious damage to property $2,000 or less. Deputies responded to a call of an individual with a gun on West Virginia Road in Georgetown at about 8:30 a.m. The victim was backing her 2012 Dodge Journey out of her driveway on West Virginia Road when she saw a bicyclist wearing a black hoodie, according to the Georgetown County Sheriff's Office report. She heard something strike her vehicle. She saw the bicyclist holding something black in her hands, but could not identify the object. She pulled the SUV back into a driveway and discovered a dent in the driver's side door that looked like a bullet hole. The victim's mother told deputies she heard a loud bang and went outside, where she saw the suspect in the front yard "with a black hoodie, a long gun, and a brown bicycle with a Crown Royal bag on it." Shuler was taken into custody after sheriff's deputies found Shuler at a relatives house on Yadkin Avenue. According to the report, deputies recovered a MP model BB gun at the relative's house, which Shuler said he keeps for self-defense. McDonald Elementary School was briefly placed on lockdown while the suspect was being located. GEORGETOWN A United Way grant is funding a collaborative program between the Georgetown NAACP branch and other nonprofits to help residents get by in the face of systemic problems. A flier for the program advertises emergency housing assistance, with listed services encompassing eviction counseling and mediation between landlords and tenants among others. But there is always more help to be offered, and the housing assistance program, run as a collaboration with the Georgetown NAACP branch, sees needs of all kinds. Branch President Marvin Neal recalled a recent trip to Walmart for paper towels, diapers and feminine hygiene products. "There's just so much that we're handling right now," Neal said. The program operates in Georgetown out of the Front Street basement office of Access Alliance Insurance Group, of which Ebony Hughes is founder and CEO. It is funded through December through a $500,000 grant from the United Way Association of South Carolina. "We're also providing them with additional services that we can help them apply for," said Hughes, who is president of 7 Dimensions of Health, an outreach nonprofit that collaborates with the NAACP for social services referrals. "We've partnered up with some other nonprofits because we like to partner with other organizations, as well, to be able to help make the greatest impact. So some of those additional things would include SNAP or EBT for food, Medicaid for health care, senior services, Extra Help, and also resource finders." The program boils down to helping people get by, Hughes said, but she said the problems they try to help residents face are systemic. "It's just absolutely amazing seeing the amount of people that have come out," Hughes said. "We've probably served well over 200 people just in three weeks, really." The number becomes more impressive when considering that the program has operated mostly in the hours of 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Wednesday to Saturday, dating back to Aug. 10. "I've heard in the past that, you know, 'We're tired of helping people that don't work or that sit around all day,' and let me tell you, these are working people that are coming in here for help," Hughes said. Assistance with utility bills is another issue the program addresses. The Georgetown city budget, approved June 16, included utility rate increases of 30 percent for water, 11.5 percent for sewer, 2.4 percent for stormwater and 2.25 percent for electricity in fiscal 2023. City Administrator Sandra Yudice wrote in her budget report to the Georgetown City Council that the city had not been addressing rate adjustments incrementally in the past. "Compound with when someone is already displaced and behind on the rent and still trying to catch up from the COVID-19 impact on families, that's been a huge problem," Neal said. "Water and electrical services and stuff. It's shameful that it happened, but it tells you that when elected officials get elected, they really need to put their finger on the pulse of the community and those that's being affected." The program will begin serving Williamsburg County beginning on Sept. 21 at Bloomingvale Community Center, before moving to Williamsburg County Library in Kingstree and the Andrews Recreation Center in the following weeks. MYRTLE BEACH More than 8,400 students signed up for classes at Horry-Georgetown Technical College this fall, the largest enrollment since it was founded in 1966. The states fourth-largest technical college has seen many changes since its first year when the first class of 123 students walked through the doors of Building 200 on the Conway campus located off of U.S. 501. Two additional campuses have sprouted up since the technical college opened 56 years ago one in Georgetown and the other in Myrtle Beach on the former Air Force base. HGTC is also attracting new students for its more than 70 fields of study, with nearly 4,700 attending classes at the college for the first time this fall a 35 percent increase over last year. While enrollment at the two-year college currently represents 32 states across the country, a majority of its students are locals and South Carolina residents. 85 percent of HGTC's students are in-state residents, and 6,208 students come from Horry and Georgetown counties, according to school officials. With the college offering free tuition until 2023, there has been an increased demand for its educational programs. HGTC is pleased with the communitys faith in the college, especially in a time when two-year colleges across the nation have seen an alarming enrollment decline, and employers have seen an increased need for highly skilled workers, said HGTC President Dr. Marilyn Murphy Fore in a release. We are delighted to see a surge in interest in HGTC as the first choice among students to earn a high-quality education while enjoying a rewarding college experience. An increasing number of students annually led to the technical college needing to adapt, with numerous renovations and expansions of its three campuses over the years. The college recently underwent a $400,000 renovation project of a building on the other side of U.S. 501 for its Diesel Engine Technician Program, which outgrew its former 5,000-square-foot facility on the Conway campus despite only being offered at the college since 2018. HGTCs Myrtle Beach campus on the former Air Force base additionally had an $8.4 million facelift. Three academic and administrative buildings, existing stormwater drainage systems and its telecommunications infrastructure all were renovated during the multi-year project making the Myrtle Beach campus the largest in terms of physical size over Conway and Georgetown, according to school officials. The Georgetown campus on South Fraser Street has additionally expanded in recent years to meet the needs of industrial employers in Georgetown County. In 2019, HGTC opened the 30,000-square-feet Advanced Manufacturing Center in Georgetown which houses welding, robotics, machine tools, mechatronics and computerized numerical control programs two years after a similar center was built on the Conway campus. Dr. Melissa Batten, HGTCs vice president for Student Affairs, attributed all of the current growth to the colleges culture. We have a culture of care on our campuses where we work tirelessly to support students to be successful and lift them up when needed, Batten said. I believe that culture of care and the overall Gator community has resonated with our students, and that has shown in our enrollment numbers this fall. Pete Perrine loved to be out on the water. For his 44th birthday last month, the James Island resident gifted himself a white Pair Boat. Perrine's Labor Day plans were to go fishing with a friend. He could not wait for the trip, and talked incessantly about the new rods and reels he had purchased, his wife, Elizabeth, said. He was on cloud nine thinking about getting out on the water early, she said. But Perrine never made it on the trip. Law enforcement officers were dispatched around 10 p.m. Sept. 4 after Perrine's 21-foot boat was spotted spinning in the Charleston Harbor not far from the James Island Yacht Club, according to a police report. Officers were able to stop the boat, but Perrine was gone. They searched the waters until after midnight and resumed again at daybreak. Around 7 a.m., the U.S. Coast Guard found his body near Shem Creek. His death is being investigated as a probable drowning. Elizabeth said she and her husband, who belong to the yacht club, had been out on the boat together only hours before he disappeared. After spending an afternoon on the water, they docked the boat at the yacht club that evening to get together with some friends. Peter Perrine boarded the boat again only to move it to other side of the dock, his wife said. Elizabeth recalls the harbor being fairly calm that afternoon. Her husband was an experienced boater who grew up on the water in New Jersey, she added. The coroner said the S.C. Department of Natural Resources and the City of Charleston are investigating his death. A Charleston police spokeswoman said DNR was leading the investigation. Greg Lucas, a spokesman for the state agency, said he could not comment. Perrine was born and raised in the town of Rumson, N.J., near the states northern coastal tip. He grew up to become a man who always put other peoples needs before his own, his wife said. He was the youngest chief to serve for the Sea Bright, N.J., Fire Department a volunteer position. Perrine responded to downtown Manhattan the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when two planes hijacked by al-Qaida terrorists bulldozed the Twin Towers, killing almost 3,000 people and injuring thousands more. Perrine moved in 2005 to Charleston, where his sisters had attended college and his mother had a home. While working for a James Island home technology business, a colleague introduced Perrine to his sister, Elizabeth. The two had been together for three years when Perrine left Charleston for 11 months to help his home state recover from Hurricane Sandy, which in October 2012 ravaged the Northeast coast. The Sea Bright towns former fire chief went door to door restoring homes. Elizabeth visited her then-boyfriend in December. He took her to Rockefeller Center in midtown-Manhattan, where he proposed in front of the Christmas tree. He knew he had to do something since he kind of left me in Charleston, Elizabeth said. But I wouldnt see it any other way. I knew he had a purpose to go and help people. Perrine returned to Charleston two weeks before they married in October 2013. In the year before his death, he worked in operations at the S.C. Ports Authority. This Sept. 11, Elizabeth said, will be especially emotional. On one hand, it's going to be very hard, she said. But on another, it will remind me of what a special person he was and how much he gave to others. The Perrine family will celebrate the avid boater's life Sept. 9 at the James Island Yacht Club, according to an online obituary. Steve Garrison contributed to this report. Two leading Democrats on the November ballot are advising the party's U.S. Senate candidate Krystle Matthews to drop out of the race after a conservative action group caught her speaking disparagingly of White people in an undercover video. Both gubernatorial candidate Joe Cunningham and Lowcountry congressional candidate Annie Andrews said Matthews should end her bid after Project Veritas released their sting recording on Sept. 7. "The Democratic Party cannot and should not tolerate such behavior from our elected officials and candidates and we must be consistent in calling out prejudice and hateful comments wherever it exists," Cunningham said in a media statement. The recording, which is the second installment of Matthews' comments released by the group this season, is from a restaurant meeting she has with an unidentified figure in which she talks about interacting with White people. Matthews is Black. "You gotta treat them like (expletive). I mean, thats the only way theyll respect you. I keep them right here like under my thumbs. Thats where I keep like, you have to. Otherwise, they get out of control like kids, Matthews is heard saying in one segment. Another portion has her reportedly speaking ill about former 2020 Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. "That was my problem with Bernie, because he was talking to an all-Black crowd, and he was afraid to say Black (expletive)," she says in the roughly two-minute recording, which includes additional outtakes from the conversation she had earlier with the prison inmate. Project Veritas is a conservative action group with a history of running stings trying to catch liberal politicians, journalists and others speaking off-guard. Two months ago, the group disclosed an earlier recording of Matthews talking to a state prison inmate where she broaches questionable political fundraising tactics. Matthews gave no indication she would drop out of the race challenging Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Tim Scott. Her campaign issued a lengthy statement calling on Veritas to disclose all its recording of her while describing herself as an unorthodox politician. "Regardless of race, I love everyone," her note also said. In a Charleston press conference, Project Veritas leader James O'Keefe said the recording was done recently but declined to answer questions about how the meeting was set up or who the interviewer was. He called the recording of Matthews an accurate portrayal of her expressed views and not improperly edited. Matthews this summer won the Democratic primary to challenge Scott. She simultaneously is seeking another term in the state House, defending her District 117 seat in Ladson against Republican challenger Jordan Pace. Sign up for updates! Get the latest political news from The Post and Courier in your inbox. Email Sign Up! She faces an uphill battle in the Senate race against Scott, a popular incumbent in overwhelmingly Republican South Carolina. Scott has raised tens of millions of dollars toward his re-election while Matthews' efforts have struggled. After this second video was released, South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Drew McKissick issued a statement calling on her to resign, pointing to both her recording with a South Carolina prison inmate from earlier this year and the nature of the latest tape referencing White people. "Radical socialist Krystle Matthews has made it clear she is unfit to hold public office," he said. "First, she called for 'dope boy money' and illegal straw donors to her U.S. Senate campaign, and now we hear her advocating for treating White people 'like (expletive)' or otherwise 'they get outta control like kids.'" In the prison phone call recording, Matthews appeared to advocate for a number of questionable campaign tactics including the acceptance of drug money to finance her campaign, the enlistment of "sleeper" candidates to run as Republicans and the stealing of opponents' yard signs to defeat Republicans in November. Get you find me somebody from your family that dont even know you donating to my campaign and put that (expletive) under they names, she said at one point on the call. Matthews apologized after the expletive-laden jailhouse phone call between Matthews and David Solomon Ballard, an inmate at Perry Correctional Institution, was released. She said she regretted her language but also called on Republicans to examine their own alleged misdeeds ahead of the November midterms. A Department of Corrections spokeswoman said prison phone calls involving inmates are considered public record, not protected privacy. The department, however, had no paperwork of someone requesting the recording. The spokeswoman said law enforcement was made aware of some of the comments made in the discussion during the 43 minute call. No action has been announced. Andrews, who is challenging Republican Nancy Mace in the 1st Congressional District, said the comments mean Matthews should step aside "for the good of her constituents." State Rep. Justin Bamberg, D-Bamberg, who is a fellow member of the Statehouse's Legislative Black Caucus, also suggested she resign and drop out. S.C. Democratic Party Chairman Trav Robertson said Matthews and the recordings have become "a distraction" affecting other 2022 Democrats running and the party's effort to protect abortion rights being targeted by Republicans in the Statehouse. He said if he were advising her, he would prefer she focus on defending her Statehouse seat. COLUMBIA A Republican push to outlaw nearly all abortions in South Carolina died in the Senate, which could not agree on a ban before six weeks into a pregnancy. The proposal ultimately adopted Sept. 8 largely doubles down on the "fetal heartbeat" law passed last year, which bans abortions once an ultrasound detects cardiac activity. That South Carolina law, which took effect soon after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, was suspended again by the state Supreme Court last month pending a review on whether it violates the S.C. constitution's privacy rights. The Senate's changes to that law give rape and incest victims less time to abort if the crime results in pregnancy, shortening the decision window from five months to three. It requires doctors to collect a DNA sample from the aborted fetus for law enforcement. And the law's exemption for a fetus diagnosed with a fatal developmental anomaly would require a second doctor to agree the child won't survive outside the womb. The Senate's 27-16 vote concluded a two-day floor fight on a measure that, as it came out of committee, would have banned all abortions except to save a mother's life or prevent a serious, lifelong health problem. Five Senate Republicans held firm on refusing to support a ban at conception, even after most of the GOP caucus reached a compromise that allowed additional, but limited, exceptions. Without the votes to end a filibuster by GOP Sen. Tom Davis, the Senate's Republican leader publicly declared the effort futile. "This is not where I wanted to be. I was hoping we'd be more aggressive, but it's clear to me the votes are not there in the Senate for an abortion ban before six weeks," said Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield. "We don't have the votes." All three GOP women in the Senate, along with Davis and Republican Greg Hembree of Horry County, refused to back the proposal Massey offered, which came after a nearly two-hour break Republicans took in an effort to reach a consensus. Exceptions offered in the failed proposal included those for rape and incest victims up to 12 weeks pregnant and a fatal fetal anomaly. Davis, who spent the bulk of the debate arguing for amendments his GOP colleagues shot down, said he promised his three daughters he would block any bill that provided no choice for most women. "I'm not going to let that happen," the Beaufort Republican said as he started his filibuster. Massey's final proposal to stay at six weeks flipped all but two Republicans: Sandy Senn of Charleston and Katrina Shealy of Lexington. "We ladies are about to suffer a setback at the hands of a lot of White males in here, but were going to live to fight another day," said Senn, who was the only Republican to vote "no" last year to the six-week ban. "The White males have lost, too," she continued. "Weve been here for two days and two nights, and were back basically to the same bill we passed a year ago and the Supreme Court has taken off the table at least temporarily. Heres to hope and ladies." Massey said it's still a victory for abortion opponents who, like him, believed the five-month exception for crime victims let the pregnancy continue too long. The required DNA sample will aid prosecution of the rapist, he said. Sign up for updates! Get the latest political news from The Post and Courier in your inbox. Email Sign Up! Sen. Dick Harpootlian, a former prosecutor, said that's hogwash. "This is feel-good window dressing, but dont think for a minute it will actually lead to someone being prosecuted," said the Columbia Democrat, calling the final version nothing but "political cover." Amendments offered earlier in the day included an effort to change the bill into a constitutional referendum. The proposal sponsored by Senate Judiciary Chairman Luke Rankin would have asked voters in November whether the state constitution should allow a "limited right to abortion," as regulated by the Legislature. Rankin argued it would solve the constitutional question before the state Supreme Court and guarantee the Legislature's ability to set the parameters on what's legal. If the justices rule the right to privacy inserted in the state constitution in 1971 extends to abortion, voters will have to weigh in eventually, he said. "That's not political, folks, that's legal," said Rankin, R-Myrtle Beach. It's a question "they'll be asked now or later." But the Senate never got a chance to vote on the amendment co-sponsored by 10 senators, including Davis and all three GOP women. Sen. Shane Martin, R-Pauline, objected, arguing it was too different from the original bill to be considered. Senate President Thomas Alexander, R-Walhalla, agreed, taking the referendum off the table. But it took hours for him to make a ruling. Putting the question to voters is something the Senate women called for from the start of the debate. They pointed to last month's referendum in Kansas, another GOP-dominated state, in which voters overwhelmingly said abortion should remain legal. "Let's put this issue on the ballot," Senn said in her opening speech Sept. 8. "Y'all are scared to do that. The same thing that happened in Kansas would happen here resoundingly. Y'all think you know better than your own constituents." The measure returns to the House, which last week passed a bill banning all abortions except for the mother's health and crime victims up to three months pregnant. If the House agrees with the Senate changes, the bill will go to Gov. Henry McMaster. The other option for the House would be to refuse to concur, to ostensibly try to reach a middle ground with the Senate. That is unlikely. Since senators aren't expected to budge, the bill would simply die. "If we could've done something more aggressive on this, we would have," Massey said. McMaster indicated he would sign either version. "The Senates bill just like the House bill strikes an appropriate balance," said his spokesman, Brian Symmes. "It is the governors hope that the House and Senate will soon come to an agreement and send a bill to his desk for signature." The Democrats will retain their majority. The Republicans will gain the majority. The Democrats will have a supermajority of 10 or more senators. The Republicans will have a supermajority. I'm not following or participating in the November general election. Vote View Results What is going on in our public schools is horrifying, in several ways. Most fundamental is that the quality of education is abysmal. It is hard to see how our children are going to compete with the Chinese, or anyone else, given the pathetic level of instruction, especially in math, the sciences, and history. Meanwhile, our schools focus relentlessly on political leftism and bizarre sexual theories. This book, Gender Queer, is featured in the library of Patrick Henry High School in St. Paul Minnesota, and no doubt many other public schools. It is a graphic novel in both senses of the word, with masturbation, oral sex and who knows what else on display: The book below is available at school libraries. Minneapolis Public Schools, Patrick Henry School library link:https://t.co/Ia5rNsV1AA pic.twitter.com/s0e3Rpz55m Clarity (@covid_clarity) September 8, 2022 The book apparently is intended to encourage homosexual behavior. I cant explain why any sane person would think this is a good idea. With this kind of thing going on, you might assume there is controversy swirling around Patrick Henry High School. And you would be right. Only it isnt about the promotion of sexual deviance. Rather, the school is in the process of changing its name, because Revolutionary War hero Patrick Henry didnt live up to the high moral standards of Gender Queer. I am a lifelong optimist, but it is hard to be optimistic about the future of a country whose public schools are so terrible. Queen Elizabeth II, a jeep and truck mechanic during World War II, crowned during the second premiership of Winston Churchill, was the last living link to the senior leadership of World War II, even as Mikhail Gorbachevs passing last week represented the last link to the senior figures of the Cold War (with the partial exception of Lech Walesa, who is still with us). I got to see the Queen once in person, in an unusual scene that I did not fully appreciate at age 14, on my first visit to London in 1971. I was among the very large crowd lining the Mall as a formal procession of the Queen, riding in a parade of fully liveried horse-drawn royal carriages, made its way down the Mall to Buckingham Palace. The occasion was the official state visit of Japans Emperor Hirohito, on what I think was his first trip outside of Japan since the end of World War II. I noticed that the large crowd was nearly silent as the Queen and the Emperor rode by. I thought it odd that no one cheered or applauded. It seemed more like a funeral. I dont recall exactly how it came about, by my father, a WWII veteran of the Pacific theater, fell into conversation with a Brit, who said, Hes not welcome here. Coming less than 30 years after the end of the war, this seems a typical British understatement. The New York Times reported: Queen and Quiet Crowds Greet Hirohito in London LONDON, Oct. 5Emperor Hirohito of Japan was greeted by the largest crowds of his European goodwill tour today when he arrived in Britain for a threeday state visit. But there were few cheers, and the crowds were curiously quiet, considering their size. Many seemed unsure how to respond to a wartime enemy, now returned to Europe after half a century as a symbol of a friendly but somewhat enigmatic nation. Tens of thousands jammed Parliament Square and lined Whitehall and the Mall as the Emperor and Queen Elizabeth II rode side by side in an open carriage from Victoria Station to Buckingham Palace. . . There was only one incident during the day when a man threw his coat at the Emperors carriage on the Mall. The man was sent by the police for medical examination. However, there have been a number of letters printed in newspapers from veterans with bitter memories of Japanese militarism. A survivor of a Japanese prison camp placed a wreath inscribed With vivid memories of the treachery and inhumanity of the Japanese on the monument to Britains war dead in Whitehall. The biggest stir arose over the disclosure that Earl Mountbatten of Burma, former Supreme Allied Commander in Southeast Asia, who accepted the Japanese surrender there in 1945, would not attend tonights state banquet at Buckingham Palace. Lord Mountbatten pleaded an undisclosed prior engagement. Queen Elizabeth will be regarded as a chiefly a ceremonial figure, and while narrowly true, she might well go down as the last modern monarch under whom the constitutional royal prerogative was used for the last time. In 1975 Britains governor-general of Australia John Kerr dismissed the very left wing Australian socialist prime minister Gough Whitlam, who might be regarded as a down-under version of Salvador Allende. It was a highly controversial move, and Kerr claimed that he did not consult or inform the Queen before his decision ahead of time, which may be true, but seems doubtful. In any case, I doubt that power, a legacy of the old imperial order, will ever be used again. And now well have to put up with the nitwit King Charles III. Heres what we might have to look forward to, according to Vox: Oh goody. Meanwhile, you can expect a lot of lefties to react to the passing of the Queen with their usual class and grace. So far the early leader in the sweepstakes is Uju Anya, a professor of applied linguistics at Carnegie-Mellon University: Prof. Anya has 85,000 followers on Twitter. Everyone thinks Republicans will win control of the House in November, despite possible shifts in the Democrats favor in recent weeks. If the GOP does take control, an obvious question is: will Joe Biden be impeached? Should he be? On those questions, Rasmussen reports poll numbers that seem remarkable, based on a survey of 1,000 likely voters: The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 52% of Likely U.S. voters support the impeachment of Biden, including 38% who Strongly Support it. Forty-two percent (42%) are opposed to impeaching Biden, including 30% who Strongly Oppose it. *** Seventy-seven percent (77%) of Republican voters, 32% of Democrats and 50% of voters not affiliated with either major party at least somewhat support Bidens impeachment. This was the question Rasmussen asked: Some Republicans in Congress have endorsed articles of impeachment against President Joe Biden, citing his immigration policy and his failure in Afghanistan, among other reasons. Do you support or oppose impeaching President Biden? Of Rasmussens findings, perhaps the most extraordinary is that 32% of Democrats at least somewhat support impeaching Biden. I think grounds to impeach Biden clearly exist. Most notably, he has violated the Constitutions Take Care Clause and his oath of office by erasing our countrys southern border and encouraging mass lawlessness there. But the prudential question remains: should Republicans impeach Biden, given that there are constitutionally sound grounds for doing so? I think not. Impeachment is a political act, and in my judgment the political calculus weighs against it. In the first place, there is no chance of conviction in the Senate, so impeachment would be, in that sense, futile. The purpose presumably would be to embarrass Biden, to highlight his failures, to turn him into a lame duck. But Biden is already such a pathetic figure, a lame duck from the moment he took office, that any such political gain would likely be minimal. And the Democrats have so cheapened impeachment, by their absurd use of the weapon against Donald Trumptwice!that I dont think much ignominy now attaches to it. It is seen as an exercise of raw political power, and as such, is unimpressive. Further, I am of the generation that was scarred by the Republicans impeachment of Bill Clinton. Republicans thought they were doing the right thing, but they paid a heavy price. Most voters were happy with the Reagan/Clinton economy, didnt care about Clintons sexual exploits, and saw impeachment as a vindictive act unrelated to their interests. To be sure, Joe Bidens brazen flouting of the Constitution and his oath of office are far more serious, as impeachable offenses, than anything Clinton did. But the fundamental point is the same. If Republicans take the House and expeditiously proceed to an impeachment process, I think most voters will think they are wasting their time on a political vendetta (which is all that impeachment has come to be). Voters want Republicans to advance their interests, not to settle scores, and I think most will be annoyed if a Republican House focuses on impeachment rather than crime, the cost of living and the border, regardless of what they now tell pollsters. So: could Joe Biden be impeached? Grounds certainly exist. Should he be impeached? I dont think so. Will he be impeached? No. I think the House leadership will make much the same calculation that I do. STEVE adds: Im in rare disagreement with John on this question, though not strongly so. I think he is right that impeachment would surely fail, and might turn off a lot of voters as it did in 1998-99. But game theory instructs that when the other side is behaving badly, tit-for-tat is the most effective response to make them stop. So I say impeach Biden, and half his cabinet while were at it. Then theyll be less likely to do it when President Trump telephones Zelensky again at the beginning of his second term. With John Yoo sitting in the host chair this week, we decided to post this episode a day early partly on account of travel schedules (John and I are headed for the NatCon conference in Miami over the weekend), and partly because of the breaking news of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. Also because it turns out that the favorite whisky of King Charles III is reportedly Laphroaig 15, which counts as a point in favor of Team Steve in the Great Whisky Wars, even though none of us are sure Charles is going to be a very good king. (For one thing, hes a nitwit climatista.) The same cant be said, happily, for the kings new first minister, Liz Truss, who is making liberal heads explode with some of her cabinet appointments (three cheers for Jacob Rees-Mogg!) and declared intent to end Britains ban on fracking, which is long overdue. She even suggests expanded production of oil and gas from the North Sea. Combined with her intent to cut taxes, she sounds like she just might be the second coming of Margaret Thatcher. From there our attention turns to domestic matters, including the appointment of the special master for the ongoing saga of the Great Mar-a-Lago Raid, a look at the highly fluid senate races in a few places, and what ought to be the lessons of Californias ongoing energy madness. So listen here, or put on your bowler hat and process over to our royal hosts at Ricochet. Albanias Prime Minister Edi Rama severed diplomatic relations with Iran and gave the Iranian mission 24 hours to get out. When mission personnel had vacated the premises in Tirana, he sent in counterintelligence officers to scour the premises and ascertain what might be learned. Ramas moves were prompted by an Iranian cyberattack on government digital services and web sites in July. The AP story quotes the video statement issued by Rama: Rama said an investigation determined that the cyberattack wasnt carried out by individuals or independent groups, calling it state aggression. The deep investigation put at our disposal undeniable evidence that the cyberattack against our country was orchestrated and sponsored by the Islamic Republic of Iran which had involved four groups for the attack on Albania[.] Ramas video statement is posted here in English. The cyberattack was the virtual equivalent of an act of war. Also quoting from Ramas statement, the BBC notes Ramas attribution of the hackers goal as the destruction of the digital infrastructure of the government of the Republic of Albania, as well as the theft of data and electronic communications of governments systems[.] Oh, and by the way: [T]he Albanian government said the hackers methods was identical to attacks last year in other NATO countries, including Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Belgium. The AP story notes the apparent rationale supporting the Iranian attack: Albania, a NATO member since 2009, shelters about 3,000 Iranian MEK dissidents who live at Ashraf 3 camp in Manez, which is 30 kilometers (19 miles) west of Tirana. (The BBC story has more on the MEK factor in the attack.) Good for Albania. The American cybersecurity firm Mandiant was one of the organizations assisting in the investigation of the attack. This is possibly the strongest public response to a cyberattack we have ever seen, Mandiant vice president of intelligence John Hultquist said following Albanias announcement. Again, good for Albania. Seth Frantzmans Jerusalem Post column explores the Iranian modus operandi and the impunity with which it has operated. NSC spokesman former DNC staffer Adrienne Watson issued a statement on the cyberattack that the White House has posted here. Watson vows: The United States will take further action to hold Iran accountable for actions that threaten the security of a U.S. ally and set a troubling precedent for cyberspace. Believe it when we see it, but not until then. In the meantime, the government of Israel has released the Director of the Mossads readout of his meetings with Biden administration officials in Washington (below). Popular Nigerian preacher Pastor Chris Okotie has said that the issue of marriage is a closed chapter in his life. In an exclusive interview with BBC Pidgin, the former presidential aspirant said he did not intend to marry again. The stylish preacher and founder of the Household of God Church said it was because Jesus told him he was done with that issue (marriage). God told me that He didnt call me to get married. He said He called me to be like Paul, but He tried to stop me, and I didnt listen at the time. The life He called me to live is to be dedicated to Him and the work He called me for. So marriage is not on the menu again, Pastor Okotie said. Pastor Okotie, a former Nigerian pop star who quit music in 1987 to go into full-time ministry, married Tina, his first wife, a year earlier. The union lasted for 15 years and ended in 2001. In 2008, he married a mum-of-three, Stephanie Henshaw, a union which ended in 2012 when he asked her for a separation. The union was a media sensation. Sadly, it failed to stand the test of time. In June 2012, Pastor Okotie announced to his congregation that the marriage was over with no chance of reconciliation. Genesis In the interview, which was conducted in Pidgin, Pastor Okotie said that he constantly desired his own family and so tended to walk outside of the will of God. But when it didnt work out twice, he had to seek the face of God to know what the problem was. The 64-year-old cleric said that he was in university when he became born again and did not understand the will of God in his life. He also said that he considers himself to be one of the best husbands ever on this earth, and people who know him can testify. Presidential ambition Pastor Okotie, who has contested the Nigerian presidential election three times, said he has not given up on that ambition. Pastor Okotie first ran for President under the aegis of the Justice Party (JP), led by Ralph Obiorah. He initially hoped to run under the National Democratic Party (NDP) but didnt make it past the primaries. Not one to give up, in 2007, he contested on the platform of a party he founded, the Fresh Democratic party, FRESH. Then in 2011, he ran and was unlucky a third time and stopped contesting. He contested under the Justice Party he founded and the Fresh Democratic Party. Contrary to popular opinion, he said he still intends to run for the highest office with Gods permission. According to him, when God speaks, He always speaks in the present. This, Pastor Okotie said, may confuse listeners of the word as it may take time for the prophecy to come to pass. In that light, he said that he is following the process because he knows that Nigerias system of governance is not workable. I dont want to join the PDP, APC or any of the big parties because if I do, I will become a part of the problem, he said. Nigerian politics He further spoke on Nigerias governance system, stating that it cannot bring about the desired change. The kind of politics we run here, I call it partisanism because it is all about the party. It is a party government, by the party and for the party. This is not democracy. Democracy should be a government of the people, by the people and for the people. That is how it should be. If we are to practice a democracy that has to do with the people, then it must come from the people and belong to the people. What we have now, I call it Aboriginal Democracy. That means we are going back to the original, he noted. Pastor Okotie attended the Grace Fellowship Bible School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, after which he founded the Household of God Church. He studied at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in 1980 when he released his first album, I Need Someone. He released four other popular albums before bowing out of the Nigerian music industry altogether. A new Nollywood movie, Inside Life, premiered at the Silverbird Galleria, Victoria Island, Lagos, last week. It was produced by Chuks Enete and directed by Tope Adebayo Salami. The movie is the debut release of a new Nigerian film production house, Sillo studios. Inspired by actual events, the movie revolves around the faltering Nigerian Judicial system and its effect on a mans life. In attendance at the premiere were actors and comic stars; Wole Ojo and Nedu Wazobia, and others. Also, the victim of the unfair Judicial system Lanre Olorunnisola, whose story inspired the film, was present at the event. Plot The movie, Inside Life, tells the story of an innocent Nigerian man who, unfortunately, falls prey to an unstable judicial system in the country. It follows the story of Larry, a young man, who gets arrested and wrongfully remanded in prison a few days before his wedding. He must figure out a way to survive the harsh realities of living with inmates while plotting a means to get released in time to get married. At the exclusive movie screening, it was apparent the cast delivered their roles brilliantly. Wole Ojo, Tina Mba, Nedu of Wazobia FM, Skit maker Romeo WJ, and Broda Shaggi brought life into their characters. In an Interview with PREMIUM TIMES, the movie Producer, Chuks Enete, explained that the cast was inspired by the presence of comedy in critical situations. He said, Immediately, we decided we are going to produce this movie. About 70 per cent of the movie happened in a prison cell. As I was reading, I remembered a Yoruba Adage that translates unpleasant situations come with comedy times. This was what I had in my mind when I said I needed to have comedians who would carry these roles, though seriously, you will not cry so much when you watch. They would bring a comedic aspect to it, which influenced our choice. But apart from that, every role painstakingly chose those we wanted to play for strategic reasons, and when you watch, you would understand why we chose this person or that person. Inspiration Mr Enete disclosed that Inside Life is his first credited solo production. It might interest you that I coordinated a show (where I started from) called Domino on AIT. This is early-2000/mid-2000. I also managed the first production, In-house Production of ROK TV apart from other Productions. Speaking on what inspired the movie, Mr Enete said a book about his friend (co-writer-Lanre Olurunnisola) is what gave birth to the film. He said, I tell people this story called me, because I have taken a break from production and then a friend of mine, he is somewhere around, he gifts me a book, that he has written, about his life. In that book, I see how he is unjustly incarcerated, and as I get to that point, I call him and ask, is this you? Is this what happened to you? He says yes. As I kept reading, I could identify similar events that I knew, and so I told myself, I would have to make this thing into a movie, and so I call him, and that was how this journey started. Mr Enete described that the movie is closer to the actual reality of what happened. He said, The spine of the story is what happened to him; we have added just little things to make it more appealing to the viewers. But the spine of the story a man goes to court, he is remanded unjustly, he finds himself in prison, he is trying to survive, that is his story, as captured in his book prison Notes. He brought a copy, Im sure. Of course, it is an adaptation, and that is why we did not say it is based on a true life story. There is a difference between based on a true life story and inspired by a true life story. Real Life story Inspired by actual events, Mr Olorunnishola, the real victim of the story and co-writer of the movie, gave this newspaper a brief account of how everything transpired. He said, I was working for an organisation that had a matter in court, a civil matter; I had to represent the company in court, and the company lawyer was supposed to come to meet me in court, but he didnt show up, due to his absence, the judge agreed to remand me in prison custody as the opposing lawyer requested to pass a message to my company. Mr Olorunnishola also explained that after his sentence, there was no vehicle to convey him to prison, and he had to cover the bill. He explained the situation at the prison cell was terrible as he was incarcerated in a cell with 118 people. He spent 11 days at Olokuta prison in Ondo State, in 2002. Mr Olorunnishola also confirmed that the movie gully depicts his experience. The film premieres in Silverbird Cinemas nationwide last week Friday. Nigerias secret police, the State Security Service (SSS), has said it has recovered military uniforms and a large amount of cash in the home and office of Tukur Mamu. The recovery follows his arrest at the Aminu Kano International Airport on Wednesday. Mr Mamu, a newspaper publisher, negotiated the release of some of the hostages in the March 2022 train abduction in Kaduna. Mr Mamu was earlier arrested by Interpol in Egypt on his way to lesser Hajj in Saudi Arabia. He was forced to return home to face further questioning by the Nigerian authorities. The SSS, in a statement by its spokesperson, Peter Afunanya, said the incriminating items were found after its men conducted a search of the publishers properties. So far, appropriate security agencies have executed valid search warrants on Mamus residence and office. During the processes, incriminating materials including military accoutrements were recovered. Other items include large amounts in different currencies and denominations as well as financial transaction instruments. While further investigations continue, Mamu will, sure, have a day in court, he said. Mr Mamu had, several weeks ago, withdrawn as the lead negotiator in securing the release of the hostages of the Kaduna train abduction. He accused the Nigerian government of threatening his life. The terrorists who carried out the train attack in March are still holding on to some of the passengers. Former President Goodluck Jonathan, and presidential candidates Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi, Bola Tinubu have paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth II, who died on Thursday. Britains longest-reigning monarch, 96, died at Balmoral Castle, her estate in the Scottish Highlands, Buckingham Palace said. Her death has drawn messages of condolence across the world. In a series of tweets on Thursday, the Nigerian leaders condoled with the family while paying glowing tributes to the monarch Jonathan Mr Jonathan describedthe late monarch as a well-loved sovereign with a strong sense of duty and service, a champion of social change and a protagonist of modern Britain. Her Majesty was a remarkable matriarch who exemplified dignity, selflessness, compassion for a long time, and stood as a symbol of unity among Commonwealth nations. She was a well-loved sovereign with a strong sense of duty and service, a champion of social change and a protagonist of modern Britain. Goodluck E. Jonathan (@GEJonathan) September 8, 2022 Atiku Similarly, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr Atiku, said the passing of the monarch was a rude shock. Her passing is the end of a golden era. Her reign was epochal, not just in the United Kingdom but the entire Commonwealth, he wrote. The world has known only one queen and the passing of Queen Elizabeth II will be the end of an impactful reign, and for the rest of our humanity, it shall be the beginning of history. My thoughts and prayers are with the people and government of the United Kingdom and, importantly, the @RoyalFamily. May the soul of the Queen Rest in Peace. -AA The world has known only one Queen, and the passing of Queen Elizabeth II will be the end of an impactful reign, and for the rest of our humanity, it shall be the beginning of history. Atiku Abubakar (@atiku) September 8, 2022 Obi On his part, Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Mr Obi said in a tweet on Thursday that her death was an irreplaceable loss. Hers was an impactful reign and beautiful and explored life devoted to democratic ideals, charity, selflessness and empathy, he wrote. He added that she will always be remembered by the lives, organisations, institutions and countries she positively touched during her reign. I am saddened to hear of the passing on of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest reigning monarch of the United Kingdom. My thoughts and prayers are with the @RoyalFamily , the entire United Kingdom and the Commonwealth nations, over this irreplaceable loss. pic.twitter.com/sR4LEfOkLV Peter Obi (@PeterObi) September 8, 2022 Tinubu On the other hand, Mr Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Friday expressed his condolences to the family of the late monarch and commonwealth nations. With the sad passing, today, of Queen Elizabeth II, the United Kingdom has lost one of its greatest ever monarchs and the world has lost a much cherished, revered and admired Icon, he tweeted. With the sad passing, today, of Queen Elizabeth II, the United Kingdom has lost one of its greatest ever monarchs and the world has lost a much cherished, revered and admired Icon. pic.twitter.com/xPKPo38ygY Bola Ahmed Tinubu (@officialABAT) September 9, 2022 Her Energy, dedication, deep sense of duty and firm belief in the glory of the United Kingdom, particularly in the most troubling and troubled times of her long and distinguished reign, are the lasting legacies for which she shall always be remembered. As the first British monarch to reach seven decades on the throne, her patriotic role birthed and sustained warm and enduring friendship between the United Kingdom and Nigeria. Relations between Africa and the West have always been fraught complicated by colonialism, slavery, the Cold War and now immigration and Russias invasion of Ukraine. Africa (collectively) has raised the stakes by adopting an ambivalent posture on the war. Last week, an Institute for Security Studies (ISS) seminar examined how despite Europes commitments in the last African Union-European Union (AU-EU) summit Africas relations with the West are being tested. And not only by the fallout from Russias invasion but also by Chinas major investment and trade with Africa and complications such as migration and populism. The seminar explored how Africa-West relations might impact and be impacted by four global scenarios mapped out by Jakkie Cilliers, ISS Head of African Futures and Innovation. The scenarios are a Divided World, a World at War, a Growth World (in which untrammelled economic growth trumps all else) and a Sustainable World, where growth is qualified by care for the environment, including curbing global warming. On the current trajectory, the Divided World scenario appeared most likely; meaning a more fragmented global order and retreat from a rules-based system. This referred mainly to Russias war against Ukraine and rising tensions between the West, especially the United States (US) on the one hand and China on the other. For instance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) recently listed Russia and China as adversaries for the first time. In this world of growing big power competition, the influence of the United Nations (UN) would further decline and Africa would suffer, not least because of a decrease in peacekeeping, Cilliers suggested. At its worst especially if the Ukraine war becomes a wider conflict between Russia and NATO this scenario could morph into a World at War, which would be devastating for all. Melanie Muller, Senior Associate for Africa and the Middle East at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, said the concept of the West had been falling into disuse until Russia invaded Ukraine and united Western countries against the war. But assessing Africa-West relations was nevertheless hard, according to Paul-Simon Handy, ISS Regional Director for East Africa and The Horn in Addis Ababa, because both are blocs not sovereign entities acting in unison. In some cases though, for example on the UN Security Council, their actions did suggest they had some ability to shape international politics. READ ALSO: Handy said the West had dominated international politics for centuries but was now challenged by the rise of the so-called Rest, particularly the East. Meanwhile Africa was still grappling with the difficulties of state building, 60 years after most countries had become independent. Handy said that historically and now, relations between Africa and the West had been asymmetric, which was one of the stumbling blocks to achieving Cilliers ideal (Sustainable World) scenario. The war in Ukraine further exposed the differences between the two groups and created more difficulty in realising this scenario. Handy described the differences as opposition between two forms of narcissism. Western narcissism was characterised by those countries insistence on seeing their values shared by the rest of the world, and we see that particularly in the war in Ukraine. African narcissism was based on colonial resentment combined with an aspiration to the monopoly of victimhood. Overcoming both would require different and innovative forms of cooperation. Handys definitions were instructive. It is true that the West wants to see its values of democracy and human rights adopted by all. For instance, Americas new strategy for sub-Saharan Africa sets democratisation in the region as a primary goal. And its also clearly true that resentment of colonialism frames much of Africas posture certainly towards Europe. More ambiguous, though also more intriguing, was Handys observation that Africa also aspires to the monopoly of victimhood. Is this a helpful lens through which to observe the continents behaviour? Is it, for example, the reason that Africa is lagging behind the rest of the world in condemning Russias invasion of Ukraine? Does it prevent Africa from fully perceiving Ukraine also as a victim of blatant aggression? One recalls Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskys answer when recently asked about South Africas non-aligned posture on the war. He replied by asking how South Africa would feel if it came under attack and the world simply turned away and remained non-aligned. In the ISS seminar, Muller said Europeans were surprised at Africas failure to oppose Russias invasion, contrasting this with its unified stance on tackling COVID-19. She acknowledged that Africas ambivalence seemed to work in its favour as it had prompted many countries to solicit its support. But in the longer term, the continents stance could come back to bite Africa, she warned. Handy agreed, saying it was not inconceivable that a strong African state might one day invade its smaller neighbour. And he noted that such military action would violate the AUs principles and Charter. A rules-based international order is actually the best option for weak countries, Handy said, adding that the AU had been developing common frameworks for good international behaviour. This admonition is also evident in Handys other interesting observation about the asymmetry between Africa and the rest of the world. He said that while the big powers had Africa strategies, Africa did not have US, EU, Russia or China strategies. He noted that formulating them would be extremely difficult for the AUs 55 divergent member states. But they are worth the attempt. An AU resolution condemning Russias invasion of Ukraine, for example, would not by itself constitute such a strategy. But it could be an important step along the way, demonstrating that Africa also has principles and values it expects its partners to share. To stand a chance of attaining the optimal Sustainable World scenario, Africa must be proactive and united. That includes united action on climate change and, as Muller suggested, demanding beneficiation as a condition for investment in its natural resources. And this scenario matters because it is the only forecast where Africa achieves its Agenda 2063 ambitions for an integrated, prosperous and peaceful continent. Peter Fabricius, Consultant, Institute for Security Studies (ISS) Pretoria (This article was first published by ISS Today, a Premium Times syndication partner. We have their permission to republish). The campaign of opposition presidential candidate Peter Obi is anchored on equity, justice and fairness, the Governor of Ebonyi State, Dave Umahi, said on Friday. Mr Umahi, a member of Nigerias ruling party, All Progressive Congress (APC), however, said he believes Mr Obi will not win the presidential election. The Ebonyi State governor spoke Friday afternoon after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. Peter Obi movement is a movement that is anchored on equity, justice and fairness. It may not translate to outright win because I must defend my party, I must wish my party well, the governor said. Mr Obi is the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP). Mr Umahi sought to be the APC presidential candidate but lost the partys primary to the former governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu. He also said it is unfair to associate the criminality by insurgent groups in the South-east with Mr Obi. He said although he remains loyal to the APC and hopes for the victory of the partys candidate, Mr Obi will win substantial votes from the South-east. What happened during the primaries of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and APC, were a kind of miscalculation by people, but to say whether they (South-east) are ready for the presidency of the country anytime, I think that the movement of Peter Obi is an eye opener. Thats why I said I love what hes doing, he said. Im encouraged by what hes doing. Because if hes not doing what hes doing, it means that the South-east would have been forgotten. So why my party takes the victory, he would have prepared a very good ground for the South-east presidency, so that nobody is going to write us off. And you can see the level of his acceptability, Mr Umahi added. He said aside from the candidate of his party, APC, he would prefer Mr Obi to win the presidential election in 2023, saying that there is no moral justification for northern Nigeria to be seeking another shot at the presidency after Mr Buhari. APC chances in South-east The governor said the APC would face a different battle for votes in the South-east because of the current interest of south-easterners in the presidency and the involvement of Mr Obi in the race. Its going to be a different ball game altogether. Because when the campaign starts, yes, the interest of our people in terms of presidency is there, you cant wish it away, he said. APC crisis Mr Umahi said he was not surprised by the crisis in his party, arguing that a crisis is inevitable in a big house like the APC. He dismissed claims that the crisis could hurt the partys chances at the general elections, pointing out that the leadership of the party has set up a mechanism to resolve the crisis ahead of the general elections. We dont have issues in the APC like the kind of issues that are in other parties. And I think we are well prepared for victory in 2023, he stated. Background Despite agitations by South-east leaders that the region should be given an opportunity to produce a president for the first time in 2023, the two dominant political parties, APC and PDP, picked their candidates outside the South-east. Mr Obi, who hails from Anambra State, South-east Nigeria, has been garnering huge support from the region. The LP candidate was a presidential aspirant of the PDP, before he announced his resignation from the party, a few days before its presidential primary, saying there were practices in the party that were inconsistent with his belief and persona. Many residents of the South-east believe that Mr Obis candidacy is an opportunity for the region to take a shot at the presidency in 2023. At least three children died in a building that collapsed on Thursday in Dutse Local Government Area in Jigawa State after heavy rain, the police have said. The police spokesperson in Jigawa, Lawan Adam, said the building collapsed at Jigawar Tsarki Community due to the heavy rain which lasted several hours on Wednesday night. The police identified the victims as Farida Idris, 6, Mariya Idris, 3, and Bilkisu Yahya, aged one year and six-month all of Yakasai Jigawar Tsada village in the Dutse council area. The police said the victims reportedly died on the spot before they could be rescued. Upon receipt of the report, detectives moved to the scene, evacuated their remaining and rushed to General Hospital Dutse. On arrival, the Medical Doctor on duty certified them dead. Corpses were photographed and released to their relatives for burial according to Islamic rite. The Commissioner of Police, Jigawa State Police Command, Aliyu Tafida, condole with the parent, family and relatives and pray to Almighty Allah to give them the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss, the police statement said. The incident followed the death of four women and a seven-month-old baby in a boat accident in the Guri Local Government Area of the state. Torrential rainfall has caused flash flooding in Jigawa, submerging many houses and bridges and has also rendered many people homeless. The Western Nigeria Security Network (WNSN) codenamed Amotekun says it has arrested no fewer than 243 suspects over various offences in its two years of operations in Ekiti. Joe Komolafe, the Commandant of WNSC in Ekiti disclosed this in Ado-Ekiti on Friday while briefing journalists on the activities of the security network since its establishment in the state. Mr Komolafe, a retired Brigadier-General, said the offences for which the suspects were arrested ranged from alleged kidnapping, robbery, burglary, cultism, rape, human trafficking, drug related offences, farmers/herders clashes among others. He said the efforts of his personnel and government support had helped reduced criminal activities in the state. Mr Komolafe, who attributed the success story to the efforts put in place by Governor Kayode Fayemi as well as other sister security networks in the state, said the crime rate has reduced to the barest minimum. The commandant, who admitted that no society globally was completely free of crimes and criminals, urged Ekiti residents not to shield criminal elements in their area. Mr Komolafe listed some of the challenges facing the security network to include absence of sophisticated weapons to combat the criminals, lack of adequate, correct and timely information and the failure of the people to make themselves available as witnesses in the trial of suspects. He charged well-meaning Ekiti sons and daughters, home and in the Diaspora to invest more in the security network of the state, saying that security is everybodys business,. While appreciating some individuals and communities, that have reached out to the organisation, he also appealed for more financial assistance to ease the burden of security on government. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Western Nigeria Security Network, Ekiti Command was inaugurated on October 19, 2020, as a domesticated agency to fight insecurity. (NAN) The Nigerian Navy says it is committed to protecting the countrys maritime space and enhancing security in the Gulf of Guinea. The Director of Information, Naval Headquarters, Abuja, Adedotun Ayo-Vaughan, said this during a visit to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Lagos Office on Wednesday. He said the Gulf of Guinea was cardinal as it represented almost a quarter of the whole of the African population, stressing that about 13,000 vessels transited the Gulf annually for maritime trade and different things of interest to seafarers. NAN reports that the countries involved in the Gulf of Guinea include Ghana, Liberia, Cote dIvoire, Benin, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Santo Tome and Principe, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. Mr Ayo-Vaughan, a Commodore, said as a leader in the Gulf, Nigeria had invested in two State-of-the-art Maritime Domain Awareness Assets the Regional Maritime Awareness Project, an American Technology and the Falcon Eye Alignment project, an Israeli technology commissioned by President Muhammadu Buhari in July 2021. Mr Ayo-Vaughan said the Falcon Eye Alignment project was a close circuit television that could view the entire maritime space from a distance of about 215.98 nautical miles, (400 kilometres) from the coastline. Any vessel as long as it is not under the water, that enters Nigeria maritime space will be seen, including detecting vessels, not in the nomination list keyed into the system. The issue of Era-Edu vessel, it came into our waters, it was spotted and as soon as it approached the Apple Oil Field, the alarm was triggered on the Falcon Eye Alignment that this vessel was not on nomination list that had been keyed into the system. The maritime domain asset is first of its kind in the region. A lot of foreign heads of Navies, foreigners, including the European Union delegates have visited the asset and it is actually a major cost multiply for the Navy, he said. Mr Ayo-Vaughan said the discussion was ongoing by Nigeria and neighbouring countries under Yaounde Architecture to establish a maritime task force to patrol the waters jointly. He stressed that security in the Gulf of Guinea was not based on seminars and conferences, but on the presence of security vessels going to the sea by all states involved. The Director pointed out that with Falcon Eye Alignment, any vessel that committed any infraction on Nigerian waters would be spotted and arrested either within the Nigeria space or other collaborating nations. Mr Ayo-Vaughan, however, said the fueling of Naval vessels for security was a huge challenge with the increase in the price of diesel, stressing that using a capital ship with about 800,000 litres of diesel for two weeks or one month to the sea and back would cost the navy millions of naira. This aspect also, the Nigerian Navy is trying its best to ensure that the waters are patrolled and the internationally agreed and conventional regulations are enforced on our waters. We are almost there; its a responsibility that involves a lot of coordination. The Gulf of Guinea is cardinal to the extent that the U.S. for the last 11 or 12 years, has sponsored a regional maritime exercise to foster collaboration amongst the nations involved, he said. (NAN) The death on Thursday of Queen Elizabeth II prompted condolence messages from leaders around the world. Presidents, prime ministers, and fellow monarchs paid tribute to the life and service of Britains longest-serving monarch. Global figures spoke of what she had meant to them and their countries through her 70-year reign. Among the most frequently invoked words were her deep sense of duty and resilience, her sense of humour and kindness, and her role as a monarch. Nigerias President Muhammadu Buhari sent his thoughts and sincere condolences to the Royal Family and the people of the United Kingdom, saying his family and more than 200 million Nigerians are mourning the Queen and the end of her unique and wonderful 70-year reign. The story of modern Nigeria will never be complete without a chapter on Queen Elizabeth ll, a towering global personality, and an outstanding leader. She dedicated her life to making her nation, the Commonwealth, and the entire world a better place, the Nigerian leader said. In a statement, US President Joe Biden and the first lady, Jill Biden, said: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was more than a monarch. She defined an era. In a world of constant change, the Bidens added, she had been a steadying presence and a source of comfort and pride for generations of Britons, including many who have never known their country without her. They also noted that the queen was a stateswoman of unmatched dignity and constancy and had endured the dangers and deprivations of a world war alongside the British people and rallied them during the devastation of a global pandemic to look to better days ahead. French President Emmanuel Macron posted on his Twitter account that he would remember her as a friend of France, a kind-hearted queen who left a lasting impression on her country and her century. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II embodied the British nations continuity and unity for over 70 years. I remember her as a friend of France, a kind-hearted queen who has left a lasting impression on her country and her century. Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) September 8, 2022 United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres mourned her loss in a statement, saying she was a good friend to the UN and a reassuring presence through decades of change. Her unwavering, lifelong dedication will be long remembered, he said. Russias President Vladimir Putin extended his condolences to King Charles for the irreparable loss of his mother, saying the Queen had rightfully enjoyed the love and respect of her subjects, as well as an authority on the world stage. I wish you courage and resilience in the face of this difficult, irreparable loss, he added. May I ask you to pass on sincere condolences and support to members of the royal family and the entire people of Great Britain. READ ALSO: In a statement also addressed to the new king, Charles III, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa expressed his profound and sincere condolences for the queens death. Her Majesty was an extraordinary and world-renowned public figure who lived a remarkable life. Her life and legacy will be fondly remembered by many around the world, Mr Ramaphosa noted. Canadas prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said the queen was a constant presence in our lives and said Canadians would always remember and cherish Her Majestys wisdom, compassion, and warmth. Irelands president, Michael Higgins, described the late monarch as a remarkable friend of Ireland as he offered his condolences to the royal family. Her Majesty served the British people with exceptional dignity, the UK Guardian quoted him as saying. Her personal commitment to her role and extraordinary sense of duty were the hallmarks of her period as Queen, which will hold a unique place in British history. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said she would be remembered as a stalwart of our times who had personified dignity and decency in public life. I will never forget her warmth and kindness, Mr Modi tweeted. During one of the meetings, she showed me the handkerchief Mahatma Gandhi gifted her on her wedding. I will always cherish that gesture. Saudi Arabias King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sent their condolences, with the king describing her as a role model for leadership that will be immortalised in history. Turkeys president, Recep Erdogan, said he was saddened to learn of Queen Elizabeths death and sent his deepest condolences to the royal family and the people and government of the United Kingdom. Chinese President Xi Jinping offered sincere sympathies to the British government and people following the Queens death, adding: Her passing is a great loss to the British people. New Zealands prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said flags would fly at half-mast and arrangements would be made for a state memorial service. I know that I speak for people across New Zealand in offering our deepest sympathy to members of the royal family at the passing of the Queen, she said. To us, she was a much-admired and respected monarch, to them she was a mother and grandmother. Jamaicas prime minister, Andrew Holness, expressed his great and profound sadness, adding: We join our brothers and sisters in the Commonwealth in mourning her passing and pray for the comfort of the members of her family, and the people of the United Kingdom, as they grieve the loss of their beloved Queen and matriarch. Kenyan President-elect William Ruto praised her historic legacy and said Kenyans would miss the cordial ties she enjoyed with the country. Ghanas President Nana Akufo-Addo tweeted that his country had fond memories of the two visits the Queen made, remarking on her friendliness, elegance, style and the sheer joy she brought to the performance of her duties. She was the rock that kept the organisation sturdy and true to its positive beliefs. Veteran Nigerian broadcaster, Timuwus Mathias, is dead. The Governor of Adamawa State, Ahmadu Fintiri, confirmed this in a statement while consoling the family, relatives and friends of Mr Mathias. The governor who spoke through his media aide, Humwashi Wonosikou, said Mr Mathias died on Friday after an illness. He was 73. The governor described the demise of Mr Mathias as shocking. He eulogized the late veteran journalist, who worked with with Nigeria Television Authority (NTA), as a patriotic Nigerian who served the country diligently in various capacities. We will forever cherish Chief Mathias oratory and comportment on Television as well as his commitment to the service of our beloved State and Country. His diligence and skills earned him the recognition of the NTA Yola station named after him. He held the traditional title of the official spokesperson of the paramount Monarch of the Bachama Kingdom and the most preferred compere at national events, the governor said. Mr Fintiri said the deceased devoted a lifetime to the service of God and humanity. After nine days of travail, the Speaker of the Ogun State House of Assembly, Olakunle Oluomo, on Friday returned to his office after perfecting his bail conditions. On Tuesday, the Speaker of the Assembly, was granted bail by a High Court in Lagos, after he was arrested by the operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos Mr Oluomo who is standing trial over the alleged mismanagement of public funds of over N2.4 billion was granted a N300 million bail. The judge, Daniel Osiagor, said the speaker must produce two sureties, one of whom must not be less than a level 16 civil servant in the Federal Civil Service. The judge also granted N100 million bail each to Mr Oluomos co-defendants, Samuel Oladayo, and Taiwo Adeyemo, with two sureties, one of whom must not be less than level 14 in the civil service. The judge further added that all the defendants be kept in the custody of the EFCC for one week for them all to perfect the conditions of their bail, else be transferred to a correctional facility in Abeokuta, capital of Ogun state. On Thursday morning, our reporter gathered that the deputy speaker, Akeem Balogun, summoned an emergency meeting which made legislators converge at the Assembly only for the meeting to be cancelled hours after 1:00 p.m. when the meeting was scheduled to commence. When our reporter visited the assembly, journalists were, however, locked out of the Assembly premises. They were asked to call the press officer, before they can be allowed into the Assembly against the usual practice. A lawmaker, who preferred not to be mentioned, told our reporter that the meeting did not hold, causing anger among some of them. On Friday, when the speaker appeared at the Assembly complex in Oke mosan, Abeokuta, he was welcomed by the Assembly staffers. Speaking on behalf of the Assembly staff, the Chairman of the State chapter of the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria, Ayotunde Ojediran, said that the workers were happy to receive the Speaker, as well as the Assembly Clerk, Adedeji Adeyemo, and the Director of Finance, Samuel Oladayo, back to their offices. Mr Ojediran also appreciated the members of staff for remaining resolute in keeping the House running while the trio were away. Allow the court decide In a statement by Mr Oluomo minutes after his arrival, the House leader said he maintains his innocence until the court rules on the matter. The speaker also attacked the suspended deputy speaker, Dare Kadir, describing his petition at the EFCC, as hyperbolic. By law, I am not the Accounting Officer of the House, for emphasis, the House under my leadership operates only one bank account since 2019, through which running cost and allowances are paid directly into the bank accounts of individual Honourable members and staff of the House including the petitioner. Also, charges 10 and 11 are for the Eighth legislature before I became the Speaker. Speaking on his reason for refusing to honour the EFCCs repeated invitations, Mr Oluomo said the anti-graft agencys method of inviting him is, against section 36 of the Constitution and we challenged it in court, this is in the public domain as it was widely reported but the EFCC refused to wait for the pronouncement in that case before taking further steps, despite having joined issues with us in court. I have always been disciplined and upright in my position, conduct and dealings with people, I shall continue to remain myself with truth and honour as my goal. I thank everyone that showed love and concern in the last few days. Thanks and God bless you all. In commemoration of the 2022 International Day to Protect Education from Attack (IDPEA), the Nigerian government has urged stakeholders in the education sector to make use of the guidelines contained in the National Policy on School Safety which was developed in 2021. The stakeholders, according to the government, include state governments, education institutions, civil society organisations, the Military, and the general public Speaking at an event to commemorate the IDPEA on Friday, the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, said his ministry is currently developing the National Plan of Action for the Minimum Standards for Safe School for 2021-2023. Following the ratification of the Safe School Declaration (SSD) by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019, the education ministry developed a National Policy on Safety, Security, and Violence-Free Schools (NPSSVFS), he said. He said: The School Safety Policy copiously highlights the strategies for emergency preparedness in education institutions, measures for harm reduction, stakeholders to contact for help in case of imminent attack, deterrence of the Military from using education institutions and procedures to ensure that education continues if the attack is inevitable. Plans are underway for the launch and dissemination of the developed SSD documents to the grassroots. The Minister noted that the essence of commemorating the day is to raise awareness on issues confronting the education system, particularly attacks on students and educational facilities. The minister was represented by the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry, David Adejo. He said it is important to protect education against insecurity, emergency and humanitarian situations, strengthen efforts and increase funding, to encourage safe and protective environments in areas of humanitarian emergencies, take practicable measures to protect learners, teachers and schools and restrict the military use of educational facilities. The minister said the incessant attacks on the countrys education system have exacerbated the many factors responsible for the growing number of Out-of-School Children. According to the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA) theres been over 13,400 reports of attacks on education or military use of educational facilities worldwide with more than 25,000 students, teachers, and academics injured, killed, or harmed in such attacks carried out in situations of armed conflicts or insecurity. In Nigeria, there have been at least 28 incidents of school attacks in the country after the abduction of over 276 girls in Chibok, Borno State by Boko Haram terrorists. In Zamfara State, for instance, at least 75 schools have remained shut for over a year over the fear of attacks by terrorists often referred to as bandits. Recently in the federal capital territory, Abuja, the management of the Federal Government College, (FGC) Kwali, swiftly mobilised the evacuation of students, also over the fear of terror attack. In an earlier briefing on Thursday, the Minister of State for Education, Goodluck Opiah, had said the Ministry chose the theme, Implementing the School Safety Policy as a Tool To Protect Education From Attack: Our Collective Responsibility, to emphasise the role of all stakeholders in protecting the schools from attack. Recalling the closure of FGC Kwali, over the fear of attacks, Mr Opiah said while the measure was not a permanent one, it was initiated to protect the school, lives and safety of students and teachers. He, however, said the ministry is working with security agencies to ensure that the school resumes alongside other schools. ALSO READ: App to promote road safety around schools tested in Abuja He said: It was a right action in the right direction and the ministry demands commendation for that action. This is because it was during the examination period. The schools were shut but the students were taken to other schools to complete their examinations. Schools are about to reopen and FGC, Kwali will also join them. We are working with security agencies because the security of our children is very important to us. Mr Opiah said: The theme foregrounds the education sectors hands-on actions to protect education from violent situations and armed conflict thereby upholding the right to education and its continuity in such emergencies as enshrined in the Safe School Declaration which Nigeria ratified on the 20th March 2019. International Day To Protect Education From Attack The day, first celebrated in 2020, was initiated by Qatar and co-sponsored by 62 other countries at the 76th United Nations General Assembly. The UN assembly unanimously endorsed it and has been celebrating it since then. While the focus for the year is Act now to protect education from attack, Nigeria adopted the theme: Implementing the School Safety Policy as a Tool To Protect Education From Attack: Our Collective Responsibility, to mark the day. Governments effort Mr Adamu said the Education in Emergencies Working Group Nigeria (EiEWG Nigeria), established in 2012, is still working on coordinating education response in the northeast states affected by the insurgency. According to him, the Group that the Federal Ministry of Education is leading comprises UNICEF, PLAN International, Save the Child Initiative, GOALPrime Organization, Development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC), Street Child International, Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All (CSACEFA), States Ministries of Education, State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs), Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), among others. He listed the achievement of the group to include the development of Education in Emergency Curriculum for Basic Education, training of teachers in the identification of early warning signs and the Indigenous preparedness and responsive actions to ensure safe schools. The minister assured that the government and relevant stakeholders will continue to work to end attacks on education and its facilities. I want to assure you, that the Federal Government of Nigeria, relevant security agencies, Education in Emergencies Working Group, (EiEWG), and all the relevant stakeholders are continually working hard to highlight the aims of this important day, to end attacks on education and to ensure a safe, enabling learning environment, he said. 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 Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has said it has begun an investigation into the management of the Police Trust Fund. The commission said its investigation focuses on abuse of office, fictitious fund diversion, questionable welfare packages, and other various corrupt practices that have characterised the management of the fund. The Police Trust Fund Act, established in 2019, is a special intervention framework that aims to end underfunding of the police service in Nigeria. The Chairman of the ICPC, Bolaji Owasanoye, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, gave an insight into the investigative activities of the commission on the management of the fund at the National Policy Dialogue on Corruption and Insecurity in Nigeria held in Abuja on Friday. The event, which was held at the ICPC headquarters in Abuja, was organised by the commission. It had in attendance in the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, Minister of Interior Rauf Aregbesola, and the Chief of Defence Staff, Lucky Irabor, a major-general. The ICPC boss noted that the dialogue would enable the commission, in collaboration with the security and other government agencies as well as traditional and religious institutions, to come up with workable anti-corruption and security policies to end insecurity in Nigeria. Funds to retool and reposition the police force to a world-class institution are no less threatened by corruption. The newly established police special intervention framework designed to eliminate underfunding of the police, the Police Trust Fund, is already under ICPC investigation for abuse, fund diversion bogus, questionable welfare packaging that is not for the police who are the beneficiaries of the fund and sundry corrupt practices. One may safely conclude that other security agencies are dogged by similar practices albeit to varying degrees, he said. Ex-military chief, security personnel under probe Mr Owasanoye said the findings by the ICPC have revealed that Public sector corruption, directly and indirectly, enables and fosters the menace of insecurity in the country and can sometimes complement it. This, he said, has caused Nigerians to continue to have serious concerns about Nigerias escalating insecurity issues and the impact it is having on the nations state, economy, and reputation. The ICPC boss also revealed that there are several instances of job racketeering in the security industry, many of which are under investigation by the commission. Mr Owsanoye said some former military and security personnel are being investigated by ICPC and other sister agencies for embezzlement of funds allocated to security. He said although, insecurity is perceived as something that only calls for a military response or reaction, a closer examination of its potential root causes reveals that corruption is a significant contributor to the persistence and spread of insecurity in the nation. He added that to effectively tackle insecurity in Nigeria, Law enforcement and anti-corruption agencies, as well as security agencies (the military, intelligence, Police, Customs, Prisons, and others), would need to work together. At face value, insecurity is seen to be, and is sometimes treated as a matter requiring only a military response or reaction, but an in-depth look into its possible root cause(s) shows that corruption is a major contributory factor to the continued existence and propagation of insecurity in the country. In fact, a clinical diagnosis of the insecurity menace in the country reveals that to effectively combat insecurity we require the collaborative efforts of Security Agencies (the military, intelligence, Police, Customs, Prisons, others), as well as Law Enforcement and Anti-Corruption Agencies. ALSO READ: Court stops FG from funding police trust fund from federation account ICPCs research and investigation findings on the subject matter show that Public sector corruption, directly and indirectly, enables insecurity, and can sometimes complement it. Cases of job racketeering abound in the security sector, many of which are under investigation by the ICPC, he said. Senate President, NSA others speak In his remarks, the National Security Adviser (NSA), Mr Monguno, noted that insecurity has taken a toll on governance and public financing as a result of corruption in the security sector. Mr Monguno said the governments interventions through the Treasury Single Account (TSA) and the Bank Verification Number (BVN) system have drastically reduced corruption in the public sector. He said: The current implementation of TSA in all MDAs of the federal government has resulted in the consolidation of more than 17000 bank accounts leading to the saving of N4 billion in bank charges. Furthermore, the functions and integration of IPPIS and BVN have led to the discovery of 54000 fraudulent payrolls in the pension scheme. The NSA who commended some of the tools deployed by ICPC to tackle corruption in government ministries and departments advised a refocus on the root causes of corruption to enable a corrupt-free Nigeria. Earlier, Mr Lawan, who declared the dialogue open, lamented that insecurity has affected economic growth and good governance in the country. He said the situation has stopped rich individuals from investing in the country as well as a huge loss of Foreign Direct Investments. The Senate President advocated joint efforts by citizens and government departments to tackle the problem of corruption, noting that the anti-corruption fight cannot be left to ICPC alone. The Chief of Defence Staff, Mr Irabor, in his goodwill message observed that there cannot be any meaningful development in the country until corruption was fought to a standstill. He added that the evolving nature of corruption has made it difficult for ICPC alone to fight the menace, stressing that the military would continue to support the Commission in tackling corruption. Also in his goodwill message, the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Ayuba Wabba, pointed out that corruption was the reason for Nigeria being named the poverty capital of the world in 2016 by the World Bank. He expressed the commitment of Nigerian workers to the fight against corruption, decrying how few corrupt Nigerians have given the nation a bad image. Also present at the National Policy Dialogue were the Emir of Keffi, Mohammadu Yabusa, the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Daniel Okoh, an archbishop. The people have always shown their determination to struggle to conserve and deepen democracy, in spite of a succession of leaders who have turned out to be traitors of democracy. Africans would not accept democratic regression, and a new leadership in tune with the vision of the people should join them in renewed efforts to combat arbitrary and authoritarian rule, while striving for the restoration of democratic governance. This week, I was in Dakar for a conference on the framework and tools for sustaining democratic governance in West Africa, organised by the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel, in conjunction with the Open Society, Kofi Anan and the National Democratic Institutes. The context is dramatic. West Africa has taken the leadership position on the continent in developing the tools and dynamics for democratisation, since the 1990 Benin Sovereign National Conference, and ECOWAS has played a very active role in the process, developing and operationalising the normative framework for democratic sustenance. The Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance that it developed became the model for the African Union to produce its own Charter. Today, West Africa is facing a drastic regression of its democratic order. Three countries in the region Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso have recently suffered the indignity of coups and military come back. The democratic recession in West Africa is occurring within a global context in which democracy is under siege and authoritarian systems and arbitrary rule are galloping through many countries all over the world. The review of data from cross-country surveys in West Africa by Mathias Hounkpe shows that the majority of people in the region, 75%, strongly support democracy; 71% reject military rule; and 80% of the people are against tenure elongation for politicians beyond two terms in office. Nonetheless, many political and military leaders in West Africa are acting against the wishes of their people, disrupting the democratic order and forcing a return to authoritarianism. The verdict is clear that West African democracy is confronting a significant regression because its leaders are currently unravelling and destroying the normative system and political values they had enacted themselves for the consolidation of democracy. In 1990, African countries began the long transition from military regimes and single-party rule to multiparty democracy. In the past two decades, the African Union and regional organisations have made bold decisions and adopted normative frameworks in the pursuit of a more democratic, peaceful, stable, and prosperous continent. The New Partnership for Africas Development, adopted by African leaders in 2001, reflected their collective desire for an African-owned and -led development effort. The major constituent instruments adopted by African governments included the 2000 Lome Declaration on unconstitutional changes of government, which was subsequently codified into Articles 4 (P) and 30 of the 2000 Constitutive Act of the African Union and the 2007 African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, which came into force in 2012. Specifically, African governments have led efforts to define sovereignty as responsibility in governance. There has been a paradigm shift away from the principle of non-interference in domestic affairs of member states to non-indifference. This is reflected in the amended Article 4(h) of the Constitutive Act, which gives the African Union the right to intervene in a member state in respect of grave circumstances, namely, war crime, genocide, and crime against humanity as well as serious threat to legitimate order to restore peace and stability to the member state of the Union. Given this situation, ECOWAS had been trying to review its Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance. It tried to in 2015 but The Gambia and Togo scuttled the attempts. The Gambia was then ruled by Yahya Jammeh who had told the BBC in 2011 that he would rule for one billion years, God willing. In Togo, Eyadema, the father, and Eyadema, the son, had ruled successively for a combined 55 years and did not want the oldest political dynasty in Africa to end. The problem has been that the African ruling class has too many wolves dressed in sheeps clothing tyrants parading themselves as democrats. General Babacar Gaye, for example, reminded the conference that former Guinean President, Alpha Conde, for a long term, led a committee of progressive African political parties combating tenure elongation. Towards the end of his second term in August 2019, the same Conde spent the Eid Holiday in Daura with President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria and on his return to Guinea announced his third term ambition, while Nigeria and other West African countries kept quiet. The harvest we reaped was the military coup and return of political instability. We recall that in 2005, following President Eyademas death, his son took over his fathers country rather than follow the Constitution of the country that had a provision for the President of the National Assembly to take over. ECOWAS sent two mediators to persuade him to step down President Obasanjo of Nigeria and President Tandja of Niger. That same year, Obasanjo set in motion his secret two-year plan for tenure elongation, which was eventually scuttled by the National Assembly. In Niger, President Tandja simply refused to organise elections at the end of his second term, announcing that he had also changed the Constitution, although the Constitutional Court that had ruled he had no power to do so. It took mass demonstrations and a military coup to remove him from power. Given this situation, ECOWAS had been trying to review its Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance. It tried to in 2015 but The Gambia and Togo scuttled the attempts. The Gambia was then ruled by Yahya Jammeh who had told the BBC in 2011 that he would rule for one billion years, God willing. In Togo, Eyadema, the father, and Eyadema, the son, had ruled successively for a combined 55 years and did not want the oldest political dynasty in Africa to end. Jammeh is gone but Faure Eyadema is still in power. The base for developing democracy is political parties and as a party leader from Burkina Faso, Madam Yeli Monique Kam, explained, most parties are corrupt, divisive and authoritarian, thereby creating a situation of non-governance and anomie. This is the context that gave rise to the development and spread of violent extremism, which has created a huge crisis in the Sahel. The next attempt was last year and, once again, Togo objected and was joined by Senegal, where Macky Sall came into power riding on a popular wave of opposition to President Wades third term agenda. Now, he wants his own tenure elongation. Cote dIvoire also objected as President Ouattara is already enjoying his third term in office. These countries used the unanimity clause in decision-making to prevent the inclusion of a new article banning tenure elongation beyond two terms. So far, 16 countries have eliminated or modified term limits for their presidents and 13 of them took such action in the past six years. The base for developing democracy is political parties and as a party leader from Burkina Faso, Madam Yeli Monique Kam, explained, most parties are corrupt, divisive and authoritarian, thereby creating a situation of non-governance and anomie. This is the context that gave rise to the development and spread of violent extremism, which has created a huge crisis in the Sahel. Developing a pathway towards renewed peaceful existence in the Sahel would require not just military action but, above all, the provision of the dividends of a rejuvenated democracy that must be salvaged to guarantee a peaceful and prosperous future. The conference ended with a call for leaders to listen to the African people who are committed to democracy and know its benefits. The people have always shown their determination to struggle to conserve and deepen democracy, in spite of a succession of leaders who have turned out to be traitors of democracy. Africans would not accept democratic regression, and a new leadership in tune with the vision of the people should join them in renewed efforts to combat arbitrary and authoritarian rule, while striving for the restoration of democratic governance. No foreign power would come and solve Africas problems. African countries need to focus their efforts on gradually building the relevant institutions that support democracy and development, while ensuring that dividends of development are shared among citizens. Finally, African countries can improve their citizens lived experiences by pursuing policies that offer hope, opportunities, inclusion, responsibility, and justice. 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. Most important of all, is to lift our hands and pray to Allah to strengthen the brotherhood that exists between us, and pray for help for our family and neighbours in pain and times of difficulty. When we make supplication to Allah, what difference does it make to spend a little extra time to pray for the safe wellbeing of our brothers and sisters who are going through hardship? In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy All praise is for Allah, we praise Him, we seek His help, we ask for His forgiveness, and we seek refuge with Allah from the evils of our own souls and the wickedness of our actions, whoever Allah guides, there is none that can lead him astray, and whoever Allah allows to go astray, there is none that can lead him to the right path. I testify and bare witness that there is no deity worthy of worship in truth but Allah, alone, without any partners. And I testify and bare witness that Muhammad (Peace be upon him) is His Servant and Messenger. As for whats after: Dear brothers and sisters! Today, I hope to focus on an issue which affects us all, and is becoming increasingly important, especially as we consider the current events happening around us here in Nigeria and around the world. In Shaa Allah I want to talk to you about the unity, or oneness, of the Muslim Ummah. I want to explain how important it is to not forget our Muslim neighbours, to feel what they feel, to praise Allah and share in their happiness and to remember them in our prayers during times of difficulty. We are part of the largest and most diverse community on earth, and we should be proud of our identity. Respected servants of Allah! To begin with, Im going to recite verse no. 103 from Surah Ali Imran from the Quran, followed by its English translation: . And hold firmly to the rope of Allah all together and do not become divided. And remember the favour of Allah upon you when you were enemies and He brought your hearts together and you became, by His favour, brothers. And you were on the edge of a pit of the Fire, and He saved you from it. Thus does Allah make clear to you His verses that you may be guided. [Quran, 3: 103] My beloved people! As I look around the Mosque, I see people from different states, different nationalities, who speak different languages, enjoy different foods and study different subjects. Apart from sharing the fundamental biological features that make us human, we are unique in the sense that we think differently, we see differently, and we speak differently. However, despite all this, it is a great blessing that we are all united by our common belief in the Kalimatush-Shahadah and the Islamic principles that are associated with it. We all believe that Allah is the only Creator, and that Muhammad (Peace be upon him) is the final Prophet and Messenger of Allah. This Kalimatush-Shahadah, the declaration of faith and our duties as a result of this, such as praying five times every day, fasting for one month in Ramadan, giving charity (Zakkat), all in the name of Allah, unites us and makes us part of the Ummah of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him). The Muslim Ummah has enjoyed periods of greatness, where Muslims in Asia were at the forefront of scientific, medical and mathematical knowledge. At this time most of Europe in the West was trapped in what is known as the Middle or Dark Ages, and yet the Muslims before us, who prayed five times a day like we do today, were creating buildings of learning and worship that still stand magnificently today. This period is regarded by scholars as the Islamic Golden Age, and Alhamdulilah it lasted for hundreds of years. Coming to the present time, things are very much different. If we read the news we soon realise that as Muslims, we are far from this Golden Age I just described. Although Islam has grown and is now Alhamdulilah the fastest growing religion in the World, there are thousands of people who have lost their lives here in Nigeria, in Syria, Libya, Palestine, Burma, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Sudan and elsewhere. As I speak there are many children in prison for simply throwing stones at armed soldiers, there are children in Africa starving, and children in this country bullied for their beliefs. Brothers and sisters, as an Ummah I believe that the brotherhood that exists between us is weak and could be much stronger, as is evident as we read about the humanitarian crises in Asia and Africa. Our beloved Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) is reported to have said in a Hadith: The Muslim Ummah is like one body. If the eye is in pain and if the head is in pain, then the whole body is in pain. From this Prophetic Hadith, we should try and imagine the entire Muslim Ummah as one body. Like a human body contains different types of cells in different numbers, the Muslim Ummah too is made up of people of different tribes and nationalities from different parts of the world. The different cells in the body work together to keep the body healthy and free of disease and pain, and this is what we as an Ummah should aim for. We should work together to keep the Ummah, this body, healthy and strong. Regardless of colour, tribe, race, region, nationality or gender, we should be united and in the event that some part of the Ummah is in distress, we should feel that pain as well. An example of this is the suffering of our neighbours in other Nigerian states, and like around the world as in Syria and Burma etc. As we read about their pains, we should remember them in our Duas, prayers, and share in their pain as well. The same also applies for happiness. If our brothers are happy, then what is stopping us from sharing in that happiness? In this present age, as Muslims we face the threat of Islamophobia from increasingly popular groups. Our brothers and sisters are being oppressed without rights that we take for granted in this country. In other places, our neighbours are starving and sleep hungry. Linking back to the Hadith, in the body that represents the Ummah, there are currently multiple regions that are in Pain, and it is more important than ever that we struggle against this adversity to remain united as one. Dear brothers and sisters! There are many things we can do to strengthen the brotherhood that exists between us all. Small actions like greeting other Muslims with Salam not only earns you the reward of Allah, but it brings with it a sense of ease and comfort to the person you greet. It makes them feel safe and not alone. Other simple actions that strengthen our brotherhood is praying Salat as a congregation, even if it Isha Salat late at night with a few brothers or sisters. Alhamdulilah on YouTube there is a live stream of the noble Mosque in Makkah, and if you watch the Salat being performed, you instantly feel the bonds that exist between us. When you can see thousands of people, of different colour, stand side by side for Salat facing the Kaabah and prostrating to Allah, we should strive to achieve this; to stand side by side with our Muslim brothers, not just in Salat, but throughout our daily lives as well. Most important of all, is to lift our hands and pray to Allah to strengthen the brotherhood that exists between us, and pray for help for our family and neighbours in pain and times of difficulty. When we make supplication to Allah, what difference does it make to spend a little extra time to pray for the safe wellbeing of our brothers and sisters who are going through hardship? You may have heard the phrase If you dont ask, you dont get. I mention this because it is very appropriate in this situation. How can we expect Allahs help if we dont ask for it in the first place? Respected brothers and sisters! Im going to end this sermon by reciting a Hadith from Muslim which emphasises the importance of brotherhood in Islam. Abu Hurairah (RA) reported that the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) said: Do not be envious of one another; do not artificially inflate prices against one another; do not hate one another; do not shun another; and do not undercut one another in business transactions; and be as fellow brothers and servants of Allah. A Muslim is the brother of a Muslim. He neither oppresses him nor humiliates him nor looks down upon him. Piety is here, he pointed to his chest three times. It is evil enough for a Muslim to hold his brother Muslim in contempt. All things of a Muslim are inviolable for another Muslim; his blood, his property and his honour. [Muslim] Oh Allah, strengthen the bonds that exists between all Muslims. Safeguard our brothers and sisters who are in danger. Provide food and water for our brothers and sisters who are hungry and thirsty. Oh Allah, provide shelter to the Muslims who are homeless and help those who live in Poverty. May Allah protect the Muslim Ummah from calamities and difficulties, and may He grant us all entry into Paradise in the life after death. Ameen. 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, Safar 12, 1444 AH (09 September 2022). The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Thursday, disowned one of its staff members for swearing to an affidavit in court on the disputed Yobe North Senatorial primary election. The commission, in a statement by its spokesperson, Festus Okoye, in Abuja, said it did not authorise the affidavit sworn to by the unnamed staffer at the Federal High Court, Damaturu, the Yobe State capital. For over a month now, there have been legal tussles over who is the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the district between the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, and a former lawmaker, Bashir Machina. Mr Machina was elected as a candidate in the primary election supervised by INEC officials in the district but the name of Mr Lawan, who did not participate in the exercise, was surprisingly forwarded to the electoral body by the ruling APC leadership in June. At the time the primary was held, Mr Lawan was pursuing his presidential ambition which he failed having lost to Bola Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State. The position of the ruling party has also been rejected by the electoral body, which has insisted that it will stand by the report of its monitoring team on the election. The monitoring team had declared Mr Machina as the winner of the exercise. PREMIUM TIMES on Wednesday reported a twist in the entire case when a staffer of the commission in the Department of Litigation and Prosecution, filed a motion countering the position of the INEC. A civil society organisation, Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), had expressed concern over the development wondering if INEC would be able to deliver credible elections in 2023. In a document seen by this newspaper, the staffer dismissed the election that brought in Mr Machina and claimed that another primary election was conducted in the district with Mr Lawan emerging as the winner. Staffer acted on his own Mr Okoye said the staffer who swore to the affidavit acted on his own. He did not, however, disclose the name of the staffer nor did he mention the department he works in. The attention of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been drawn to a counter affidavit purportedly filed in the Federal High Court, Damaturu Judicial Division relating to the Yobe North Senatorial District primary election. Notwithstanding the matter in Court and without prejudice to the consideration or likely outcome of the case in court, the Commission reiterates its earlier position that it stands by the report of its monitoring team and it was on the basis of that report that the Commission did not publish the name and personal particulars of any candidate for the Yobe North Senatorial District, Mr Okoye said. He also said NEC will review its quality assurance protocols, including the preview by appropriate ranking officials of all processes filed on its behalf to ascertain their correctness in all material particulars with all reports and all information at its disposal before their presentation so that a situation like this is not repeated. The case between Messrs Machina and Lawan is one out of thousands of legal cases and petitions that emanated from the just concluded primaries held by the 18 political parties in the country. A pregnant woman and a minor have been crushed to death by a truck along Abeokuta Ibadan expressway in Ogun state. The accident which involved a DAF truck with registration number, BDJ 112 XF, was reportedly caused as a result of brake failure, causing it to crash into a building where it killed the two occupants of the house. The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the state Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps (TRACE), Babatunde Akinbiyi, confirmed the accident. The spokesperson of TRACE said the truck was traveling to Ibadan from Ewekoro when the driver lost control and rammed into the building. READ ALSO: Mr Akinbiyi added that police officers were deployed to the scene of the incident to prevent youths who were angered by the accident from causing chaos. He further said, corpses of the pregnant woman and male minor, have been deposited at Odeda General Hospital morgue while the remaining accident victims rescued to Ajitola Hospital At Kila, for medical treatment. This (accident) is a sad and an unfortunate incident coming against the backdrop of reported crashes that have happened back to back for the past three days across the state. The dead victims in this unfortunate incidence were occupants of the building, living and domiciled there in. SINGAPORE, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Recently, the first mid-term seminar for global gift card vendors was successfully held. As one of the organizers, Tbay, the world's leading gift card trading platform, delivered a public speech on "how to create a safe and fair gift card trading environment" and released the latest investment criteria. Become Tbay's Partner Grow Your Business Alex Lin, CEO of Tbay, said that transaction disputes caused by the uneven qualifications of different platform vendors are prevalent. As the object of direct transactions with users, how vendors ensure transaction security has always been one of the focus issues that concerns both the platform and users. In response, Tbay has now comprehensively raised the threshold for investment. Firstly, a gift card vendor must have been operational for over 3 years, with good credit scores and no criminal records. When applying for admission, the company must pay a deposit of $30,000 and provide relevant qualification certificates. The company employ 50 personnel and have a registered capital of over $100,000 with an annual revenue of over $1,000,000. Tbay will verify information authenticity. Once the qualification information is found to be false, the company will be included in the list of untrustworthy customers. Secondly, the vendors must sign an exclusive cooperation agreement with Tbay. Trading on other platforms is prohibited, and in the event of a breach, the violator will be subject to severe penalties from Tbay, such as permanent account bans or fines ranging from $10,000-$20,000. Thirdly, the vendors should have a fixed office space and ensure that the space is equipped with 360 surveillance for monitoring of work operations. Tbay will arrange a on-site visit of new office space, and will conduct regular visits and inspections thereafter. Based on the above criteria, Tbay gift card vendors investment activity will be launched soon, so stay tuned! Alex said the investment standards have received high attention from industry and users. Today, with the booming development of the gift card industry, Tbay has always been committed to the safe and fair trading and created a strict standard investment qualification and trading environment. On the second anniversary, it has won the trust of 200,000 users and has quickly become a new benchmark in the global gift card industry, supporting over 30 gift card transactions with direct payment by Naira, consistently providing users with safe and efficient services. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1894303/Become_Tbay_s_Partner_Grow_Your_Business.jpg SOURCE Tbay NEW YORK, Sept. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Israel Ministry of Tourism announced today new record-breaking tourist arrivals from the United States visiting Israel in the months of July and August. The country welcomed 81,800 total travelers from the United States in July 2022, a 4% increase from 2019, and 71,000 total travelers from the United States in August 2022, a 13% increase from 2019. "It is so exciting to once again see an increase in tourism to Israel from the United States, already reaching and surpassing our record-breaking numbers of 2019," said Eyal Carlin, Tourism Commissioner for North America. "The United States is our top market for inbound tourism to Israel, and before the COVID-19 pandemic, we were celebrating record-breaking tourism entry numbers month after month; We're so happy to see such a positive shift and expect a continued upward trajectory for months and years to come." Not far behind the United States, Canada is also on track to exceed its tourist arrivals in Israel, reaching 7,200 visitors in July 2022 and 6,000 in August. "It is so exciting to see how Canada's tourism to Israel is rebounding," said Gal Hana, Consul and Director for Canada for the Israel Ministry of Tourism. "We are not far off our record 2019 numbers, and we are anticipating that this growth in travel to Israel will further increase as Canadians continue to feel more comfortable traveling abroad." In 2019, Israel welcomed more than 4.6 million global tourists, 969,600 of them coming from the United States, and since its official reopening to all travelers regardless of vaccination status in May of this year, the country has already seen more than 600,400 US travelers. About the Israel Ministry of Tourism: The Israel Ministry of Tourism (IMOT) is Israel's national tourism agency responsible for planning and implementing marketing and promotional initiatives to position Israel as a preferred travel destination. IMOT aims to increase tourism traffic to contribute to Israel's economy, and to enhance and diversify the visiting experience. IMOT works to promote Israel's impressive assortment of historical, cultural, culinary, and religious attractions each the perfect blend of tradition and modernity. IMOT offices in North America are located in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, and Toronto. For details on upcoming events and attractions in Israel, visit IMOT's website at israel.travel. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to receive the latest updates. Media Contact: MWWPR, [email protected] SOURCE Israel Ministry of Tourism This notorious hitchhiker could be making its way to your home with your student on break READING, Pa., Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- As students leave home and return to college campuses, many will travel with a particularly annoying hitchhiker: bed bugs. It is nearly impossible to prevent bed bugs from being introduced to public areas such as hotel rooms, schools and healthcare facilities as the small insects hitchhike and can travel from place to place. The small pest might hitch a ride by climbing into luggage, attaching to clothing, bedding or other personal belongings. Bed bugs are brown in color and about one-fourth an inch in diameter, resembling an apple seed or lentil. The blood-sucking critters bite and feed on people, leaving behind itchy red bumps on their skin. Known to be resilient, bed bugs can withstand extreme environments, surviving months without a blood meal and living in temperatures from near freezing to 122 degrees Fahrenheit. Despite the name, bed bugs can be found in chair cushions, sofas, electrical outlets or baseboards in college dorms and apartments. Many second-hand furniture items students will be moving into dorms are also potential havens for bed bugs. To better protect students from a possible bed bug introduction, Thomas Dobrinska, Board Certified Entomologist for Ehrlich Pest Control, offers insights on where to look and what to do if you find bed bugs. Where To Look For Bed Bugs: Beds: Called "bed" bugs, the first place students should look is in the bed. Not just in the mattress, bed bugs can hide in the smallest cracks in the bed frame and also in the box springs. If the frame is wood, check it thoroughly. Look throughout the mattress and check every wrinkle and space. Students can purchase bed bug mattress encasements for extra protection. Couches and chairs: Make sure that the couches and chairs in common areas are free from bed bugs, which can hitch a ride on people or their clothing and end up in rooms. Check the furniture thoroughly and remember that bed bugs can be very small, looking more like grains of pepper or apple seeds than insects. Baseboards: Although bed bugs are infamous for being in objects covered with fabric, the pest will hide anywhere. This includes the baseboards along the bottom walls of a room, in the electrical sockets and behind anything else against the wall. Dressers: Bed bugs love to attach to clothing to travel from place to place. Check the drawers and look for shed insect skins. The small pest can hide in the corners, pushed into the cracks or on the clothing stored there, too. Clothing: Piles of clothing, not uncommon in college dorms and fraternity houses, are the perfect areas for bed bugs to hide. Ensure the drawers, closets, laundry baskets and laundry rooms are free of bed bugs. Keep as much clothing off the ground as possible to reduce the risk of bed bug infestations. What To Do If Bed Bugs Are Found Students should immediately contact the resident assistant, facility management or housing staff to prompt contacting pest control professionals. If bed bugs are found in a bedroom, do not throw out clothing or bedding. Wash bedding and clothes at a very high temperature to kill the bed bugs and the eggs and larvae. Keep clothing and bedding in sealed bags to prevent the pest from returning. Keeping the room clean is an important step in removal and prevention as bed bugs like to attach to clothing. Remove laundry from the floor or hang up shirts, pants and other clothing to deny the bug a safe haven. Vacuum often to reduce dust and debris regularly. Raise the bed off the floor. Regularly clean bedding and inspect bed frames, particularly if there is a wooden bed frame. Bed bugs will hide in the smallest cracks or crevices on a frame. For more information on bed bug control and prevention, please visit www.jcehrlich.com . ABOUT EHRLICH PEST CONTROL For nearly a century, customers have trusted Ehrlich Pest Control to protect their families, homes and businesses from pests and the health threats and damages they can cause. Since its founding in Reading, PA in 1928, Ehrlich has expanded to serve across the United States, with more than 50 offices serving nearly 20 states and the District of Columbia. With its team of highly trained, local experts, Ehrlich provides proactive pest control solutions through monitoring, prevention, and maintenance. Those solutions include general pest control, rodent, termite, bed bug, mosquito, wildlife management, and TAP (thermal, acoustical, pest control) insulation services, and more. Ehrlich is part of Rentokil , the world's largest pest control company. Rentokil and its companies, including Florida Pest Control, Western Exterminator and Presto-X Pest Control, provide commercial and residential pest control to customers in the United States and Canada. For more information, visit Ehrlich at jcehrlich.com and connect on LinkedIn or Facebook. MEDIA CONTACTS: Brandon Allums [email protected] SOURCE Ehrlich Pest Control HOUSTON, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Supreme Court of Texas upheld an appellate ruling in favor of The John M. O'Quinn Foundation in its 12-year battle with Darla Lexington, the longtime companion of the late John O'Quinn (1941-2009), who sought to recover 50 percent of Mr. O'Quinn's Estate. In this latest litigation with Ms. Lexington, Bracewell LLP successfully represented The O'Quinn Foundation in the trial court and in the appellate courts. The O'Quinn Foundation is the sole beneficiary of the famed trial lawyer's nine-figure estate. In July 2021, the Houston Court of Appeals affirmed entirely the trial court's dismissal of all claims brought by Lexington against The O'Quinn Foundation and others related to a prior settlement between the parties, the ownership of certain real estate, and the disinterment of O'Quinn's remains. The Court rejected Lexington's claim that she was O'Quinn's common-law spouse, as well as her claim that she owned the real estate on which O'Quinn was buried. On September 2, 2022, the Texas Supreme Court declined to accept Lexington's appeal, effectively ending the long-running saga and finding in favor of The O'Quinn Foundation. "The John M. O'Quinn Foundation is pleased that the Texas Supreme Court brought an end to this long-running legal battle and honored Mr. O'Quinn's final wish that his Foundation would continue his legacy of charitable giving," said Bracewell's Christopher L. Dodson, who represented The O'Quinn Foundation, along with Warren W. Harris and Jeffrey L. Oldham. Established in 1986, The John M. O'Quinn Foundation supports a wide variety of charitable activities, including conservation, education, healthcare and programs benefiting underprivileged youth in Houston and the surrounding areas. Rob Wilson, III, current President and long-time Trustee of The O'Quinn Foundation, as well as a close friend of Mr. O'Quinn prior to his death in 2009, reports that as of June 30, 2022, The O'Quinn Foundation has awarded more than $155 million in grants to charities in the Greater Houston and surrounding areas. About Bracewell LLP Bracewell is a leading law and government relations firm primarily serving the energy, infrastructure, finance and technology industries throughout the world. Our industry focus results in comprehensive state-of-the-art knowledge of the commercial, legal and governmental challenges faced by our clients and enables us to provide innovative solutions to facilitate transactions and resolve disputes. SOURCE Bracewell LLP Local landscaping business, which embodies CASE's commitment to being a company on the move & delivering real-world innovation, wins six-month use of a CASE CTL & a year of business mentoring RACINE, Wis., Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Some horsepower-enhanced news is breaking today in Fort Valley, Ga. (population 8,817) as CASE Construction Equipment named Terry McNair and his local Fort Valley landscaping company Real Turf Solutions the recipient of the CASE Kickstart business development program for 2022. Pictured from left to right; Shawn Corbett (Byron Branch Manager), Josh Pinnell (Service Tech), Kathleen Barfield (Marketing), Terry McNair (Kickstart Winner), Codey Musselwhite (Construction Salesmen), Kevin Pittman (Manager, Construction Equipment & Equipment Rental Divisions) "We salute Terry for his entrepreneurial spirit, people-first approach and dedication to his entire team," says Terry Dolan, vice president North America, CASE Construction Equipment. "Although we have more than 180 years of experience at CASE, we like Terry are making moves like a startup and creating solutions rooted in customer need. Through CASE Kickstart, we're honored to help the men and women who operate our equipment every day further their business aspirations and reach their dreams." For McNair, the drive for meaningful change in his business started with a very real and personal experience. "My oldest son was diagnosed with cancer when he was 10 and we were told he'd never walk again. It changed my perspective and goals. Today he has been fully cured." After countless hours in hospitals and days away from his work, McNair's vision for his business, which is located 25 miles southwest of Macon, evolved. "We started to make changes. I hired a new management team and developed a culture of 'changing lives.' Everything has changed for the better since," he said. As part of the grand-prize package, McNair will deploy a CASE compact track loader and attachment into his business for six months and receive one year of business consultation with Envisor Consulting. Owners Ken Thomas and Ben Gandy will take a deep dive into McNair's business through their proprietary Green Dot Operating System, which provides a roadmap that simplifies, streamlines and ensures organizational development success and long-term sustainability. Equipment support, training and related counsel is being provided by Georgia-based CASE dealer Tidewater Equipment Company. Four CASE Kickstart runners up were also named each has earned a six-month online training subscription from Envisor Academy Envisor's online education hub, which houses online education courses, seminars and workshops that will help the honorees apply proven landscaping business principles to their operations. The four runners up are Darren Peters of Peters' Patio and Landscape (St. Kenyon, Minnesota), Ricky Parmar of Castleridge Landscaping (Rocky View County, Alberta, Canada), William Lindsey of Luxe Applied Sciences (Strasburg, Colorado), and Alex Mackay of Beaumack Solutions (Three Hills, Alberta, Canada). For more information on CASE Construction Equipment, and its entire lineup of solutions and services for the landscaping industry, visit CaseCE.com/landscaping. CASE Construction Equipment is a global full-line manufacturer of construction equipment that combines generations of manufacturing expertise with practical innovation. CASE is dedicated to improving productivity, simplifying operation and maintenance while achieving lower total cost of ownership for fleets around the world. The CASE dealer network sells and supports this world-class equipment, by offering customized aftermarket support packages, hundreds of attachments, genuine parts and fluids as well as industry-leading warranties and flexible financing. More than a manufacturer, CASE is committed to giving back by dedicating time, resources and equipment to building communities. This includes supporting disaster response, infrastructure investment, and non-profit organizations that provide housing and resources for those in need. CASE Construction Equipment is a brand of CNH Industrial N.V., a World leader in Capital Goods listed on the New York Stock Exchange ( NYSE: CNHI) and on the Mercato Telematico Azionario of the Borsa Italiana (MI: CNHI). More information about CNH Industrial can be found online at http://www.cnhindustrial.com/. SOURCE CASE Construction Equipment Mayor R. Rex Parris shared the lessons learned from the City's effort to achieve net-zero in 2019 and to become the first hydrogen city in the U.S. LANCASTER, Calif., Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- City of Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris addressed global business and government leaders in Tokyo, Japan for World Smart Energy Week. Parris' keynote address focused on the City's early effort to reach net-zero energy, which was achieved in 2019, and its recent efforts to become the first hydrogen city in the U.S. City of Lancaster, CA Mayor R. Rex Parris addresses business and government leaders at World Smart Energy Week in Tokyo, Japan. "Since my first term as mayor in 2008, I have prioritized improving the environmental and economic conditions for the citizens of Lancaster. We started by searching for solutions that could help leverage locally available resources and seeking out partners that could help us make the most of those solutions in our City," Parris said during his keynote speech. Over the course of Parris' five terms as mayor, he has transformed Lancaster into a renewable energy leader by attracting more than $2 billion of investment in green companies and technologies. The City of Lancaster's business investors include BYD, which manufactures electric buses; Heliogen, which generates hydrogen from concentrated solar energy; SGH2, which gasifies wastepaper into hydrogen; and Hitachi Zosen Inova (HZI), which converts organic waste into renewable natural gas and hydrogen. The City also started its own utility company, Lancaster Energy, allowing residents access to local renewable energy at lower prices. "Lancaster's hydrogen journey is just beginning. Our partnerships, especially with Namie and the Japanese business community, demonstrate how a small city in the California desert can take control of its trajectory and turn that desert into a green energy asset," said Parris. "We remain steadfast in our commitment to hydrogen and look forward to a day when hydrogen is a common solution across the state of California, the United States, and the broader Pacific." SOURCE City of Lancaster, California NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Inc. revealed that Advertise Purple is No. 1608 on its annual Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in America. The list represents a one-of-a-kind look at the most successful companies within the economy's most dynamic segmentits independent businesses. Facebook, Chobani, Under Armour, Microsoft, Patagonia, and many other well-known names gained their first national exposure as honorees on the Inc. 5000. For the 5th Time, Advertise Purple Appears on the Inc. 5000, With Three-Year Revenue Growth of 394% Tweet this For the 5th Time, Advertise Purple Appears on the Inc. 5000, With Three-Year Revenue Growth of 394% According to Advertise Purple's CEO Kyle Mitnick, "What an honor to make this list for the fifth consecutive year. Since the early days at Advertise Purple, we've made a concerted effort to push the boundaries of what is possible in our ecosystem. We challenge our teams to find better solutions, build better processes, and continue to take calculated risks, all in the name of improving client outcomes. Today, we get to celebrate those decisions and reflect on our successes. Tomorrow, we center ourselves and return to delivering unparalleled service for our brands. Thank you to Inc., our customers, and most importantly, our fantastic AdPurp team." The companies on the 2022 Inc. 5000 have not only been successful, but have also demonstrated resilience amid supply chain woes, labor shortages, and the ongoing impact of Covid-19. Among the top 500, the average median three-year revenue growth rate soared to 2,144 percent. Together, those companies added more than 68,394 jobs over the past three years. Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found at www.inc.com/inc5000. The top 500 companies are featured in the September issue of Inc. magazine, which will be available on August 23. "The accomplishment of building one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S., in light of recent economic roadblocks, cannot be overstated," says Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. "Inc. is thrilled to honor the companies that have established themselves through innovation, hard work, and rising to the challenges of today." Advertise Purple (www.AdvertisePurple.com) is a tech-enabled partnership marketing service. We have helped over 3,000 brands in 23 verticals generate over $3B in affiliate revenue, making us the leader in affiliate program management. Through a combination of experience, exclusive proprietary affiliate partnership technology Purply, and our team of 150+, Advertise Purple provides award-winning affiliate program management for Enterprise, SMB, and international e-commerce brands looking to drive performance-based online customer acquisition. CONTACT: Jonathan Moisan (424) 272-7400 More about Inc. and the Inc. 5000 Methodology Companies on the 2022 Inc. 5000 are ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2018 to 2021. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2018. They must be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independentnot subsidiaries or divisions of other companiesas of December 31, 2021. (Since then, some on the list may have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2018 is $100,000; the minimum for 2021 is $2 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons. Growth rates used to determine company rankings were calculated to four decimal places. The top 500 companies on the Inc. 5000 are featured in Inc. magazine's September issue. The entire Inc. 5000 can be found at http://www.inc.com/inc5000. About Inc. The world's most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference & Gala is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit www.inc.com. For more information on the Inc. 5000 Conference & Gala, visit http://conference.inc.com/. SOURCE Advertise Purple DUBLIN, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Engine Oil Additives Market (2022-2027) by Type, End User, Geography, Competitive Analysis and the Impact of Covid-19 with Ansoff Analysis" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Global Engine Oil Additives Market is estimated to be USD 10.94 Bn in 2022 and is expected to reach USD 13.32 Bn by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 4.01%. Market Segmentations The Global Engine Oil Additives Market is segmented based on Type, End User, and Geography. By Type, the market is classified into Anti-Oxidants, Detergents, Corrosion Inhibitors, Dispersants, Friction Modifiers, and Others. By End User, the market is classified into Automotive and Industrial. By Geography, the market is classified into Americas, Europe , Middle-East & Africa and Asia-Pacific . Countries Studied America ( Argentina , Brazil , Canada , Chile , Colombia , Mexico , Peru , United States , Rest of Americas) , , , , , , , , Rest of Americas) Europe ( Austria , Belgium , Denmark , Finland , France , Germany , Italy , Netherlands , Norway , Poland , Russia , Spain , Sweden , Switzerland , United Kingdom , Rest of Europe ) ( , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Rest of ) Middle-East and Africa ( Egypt , Israel , Qatar , Saudi Arabia , South Africa , United Arab Emirates , Rest of MEA) and ( , , , , , , 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 Engine Oil Additives 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 Engine Oil Additives 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 Engine Oil Additives 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. Market Dynamics Drivers Increasing Demand from the Automotive Sector Demand for Improved Quality of Industrial Lubricants Increasing Demand for Renewable Energy Restraints Reduction in The Use of Metal Parts by Automakers Fluctuations in Prices of Crude Oil Opportunities Increasing Demand for Renewable Energy Increasing Market Opportunities in Developing Economies Challenges Rising Demand for Hybrid And Electric Vehicles Key Topics Covered: 1 Report Description 2 Research Methodology 3 Executive Summary 4 Market Dynamics 5 Market Analysis 6 Global Engine Oil Additives Market, By Type 7 Global Engine Oil Additives Market, By End User 8 Americas' Engine Oil Additives Market 9 Europe's Engine Oil Additives Market 10 Middle East and Africa's Engine Oil Additives Market 11 APAC's Engine Oil Additives Market 12 Competitive Landscape 13 Company Profiles 14 Appendix Companies Mentioned Afton Chemical Corp. Adeka Corp BASF SE BRB International BV Evonik Industries Ag Eni S.p.A. Chevron Corp. Croda International PLC Dorf Ketal Chemicals (I) Pvt. Ltd. Infineum International Ltd. Jinzhou Kangtai Lubricant Additives Co., Ltd. MidContinental Chemical Company MOL-LUB Ltd. Lanxess Ag Lubrizol Corp Shamrock Shipping and Trading Ltd. Vanderbilt Chemicals, LLC Wuxi South Petroleum Additive Co., Ltd. Wynn's For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/okug3j 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 Businesses in two of the nation's fastest-growing markets gain access to real-time insights SEATTLE, Sept. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Headset , the leading provider of data and analytics to the cannabis industry, today expanded access to its competitive intelligence tool, Headset Insights, to businesses in Massachusetts and Florida. This expansion will mark Headset's fourteenth and fifteenth cannabis market reads based on aggregated Point of Sale data at the receipt level for the U.S. and Canadian markets. Headset Insights is also available in Arizona, Alberta, California, Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, Illinois, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Ontario, and Saskatchewan. Headset Insights will equip businesses in Massachusetts and Florida with informative real-time market data and valuable consumer trend insights. Cannabis businesses in these markets will be able to identify growth opportunities and develop data-driven strategies that will allow them to stay ahead of the curve. More specifically, the platform will offer category-level data to better understand Florida's medical market, while the deeper Massachusetts read now allows cannabis businesses to leverage more granular data down to the SKU-level. "We're excited to introduce Headset Insights to the southeast and expand the platform further into the northeast," said Cy Scott, Founder and CEO of Headset. "Massachusetts and Florida each have unique cannabis industries that continue to evolve daily. Headset Insights will serve as a unique guide for businesses looking to navigate medical and recreational marketplaces." Florida is one of the five most notable cannabis markets in the U.S. Bringing in $1.04B in medical cannabis sales from January through July 2022. The Sunshine State sits behind Illinois as the fifth largest cannabis market in the U.S. with a 21+ population that is expected to exceed 16 million. Florida has the ability to generate more than $3 billion in cannabis sales by 2025. Headset also indicates that there is a 50% chance that Florida could legalize recreational cannabis use by 2025. The introduction of recreational cannabis use could make Florida home to the second largest cannabis market in the U.S. The category level read now available in Headset Insights will greatly assist growing cannabis companies in seizing opportunities in Florida as the marketplace continues to evolve. Massachusetts is among more than a dozen U.S. states that have welcomed recreational and medical cannabis businesses. The Bay State recorded positive year-over-year growth in July 2022, unlike many other US markets currently experiencing year-over-year sales retractions. Furthermore, the state has produced nearly $1 billion in cannabis sales this year, surpassing more mature markets such as Washington and Oregon. By year's end, Massachusetts could also record higher sales than Colorado. Headset Insights will help companies track Massachusetts' cannabis market growth, product category sales and shares, basket size and make more accurate projections for the growing cannabis market. To learn more about Headset Insights, please click here . About Headset Headset is a data analytics company in the cannabis industry with a mission to help businesses make better-informed decisions through data. Headset focuses on collecting and analyzing consumer transaction information. Headset's models and dashboards help cannabis retailers better optimize their day-to-day operations. In addition, product manufacturers, processors and distributors leverage the aggregated, standardized and anonymized receipt-level sales data in real-time to identify trends and opportunities, stay competitive and collaborate with retail customers. Learn more at www.headset.io. Media Contact Alexis Isaacs MATTIO Communications [email protected] SOURCE Headset Leading Business Transformation Company Seeks to Hire Management Consultants IRVINE, Calif., Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- CompassX , a consulting firm specializing in IT project leadership, data solutions and agile transformation for life sciences, financial services, healthcare, restaurant, and consumer product verticals, was named "Best Place to Work SoCal" by Best Companies Group . Best Place to Work SoCal "We pride ourselves on our ability to listen & respond to all voices in our company. Leaving no stone unturned, we've spent the past several years building on our engaging, adventurous, and rewarding culture. This award from Best Companies Group represents the collective efforts of our entire teammanagement, operations staff and consultantsto make CompassX the best consulting firm to work for," said Kyle J. Heppenstall, founder of CompassX, which also specializes in business readiness, change management, product ownership, business transformation, and project management. "We've been honored to have provided first-class project management and tech advisory services to leading Fortune 500/1000 companies in SoCal for the past 13+ years," he said. "We've laid the foundation to rapidly expand our team and are hoping to double our headcount within the next three years. We are now accepting seasoned management consulting applicants to join our amazing team and be a part of our growth story." Applicants should have 5-10 years of experience working with premier consulting firms. Applicants can apply on their LinkedIn page here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/compassx-group/jobs "We're proud of the tremendous amount of effort we put into matching our people to the client work they desire to perform. Their engagement is evident in the outcomes we deliver for our clients: bridging the divide between great ideas and meaningful results," Heppenstall said. Only 100 companies were selected as Best Places to Work SoCal. "Companies in Southern California that meet certain criteria and rate highest on issues that matter most to employees are highlighted as Best Places to Work SoCal. The ranking is based on an analysis of survey responses about corporate culture, training and development, salary and benefits, and overall employee satisfaction," according to Best Companies Group. About CompassX Founded in 1999, CompassX is a leading business and technology consulting company based in Irvine, California (Orange County). Founder Kyle J. Heppenstall's vision was to create a consulting experience that didn't feel like other "big-box" consulting firms. Mr. Heppenstall desired to create and build a company that "felt small" to the employee; one that could balance the camaraderie and passion of a small team without sacrificing the professional growth that comes from solving complex problems for larger clients. CompassX is the end product of that ambition: a consulting firm that remains local and tightly-knit while working for well-established Fortune 1000 clients. The company prides itself on a "fun and adventurous" culture, regularly organizing hikes, beach parties, and sporting events for employees and their partners to attend. Employees here are well-recognized and engaged: monthly awards are distributed to those demonstrating company values or recognizing their peers, and they frequently cite a "positive team culture, exciting work, and many opportunities to participate in the rapid growth of a consulting firm." CompassX also sponsors nonprofits dedicated to making our local communities stronger, safer, and better places to live, such as Girls INC of Orange County, Saving Innocence, Children of Fallen Patriots, and Angel Tree Christmas. CompassX was also recognized this year by INC magazine as one of the fastest growing privately held companies in the U.S. in 2022. For information, go to https://www.compassx.com Contact: Katie McDermott Director of Marketing & Operations [email protected] 949-387-9111 PR Release - 2022 SOURCE CompassX Build-A-Bear Announces Three-Way Partnership With Build-A-Bear Foundation, First Book, and Busload Of Books Tour, To Provide 150,000 Free Books to High-Need Communities Across The Country ST. LOUIS, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Build-A-Bear Workshop ( NYSE: BBW) celebrates its favorite day of the year today, National Teddy Bear Day, with the launch of its newest furry friend, Read Teddy, to support its ongoing children's literacy efforts and encourage a love of reading among children. This classic brown bear has super soft fur with an irresistibly cute smile and can be paired with fun clothing and accessories, including the new "My Weekend is Booked" tee and Book wristie. Proceeds from each purchase will go to support Build-A-Bear Foundation and its partnership with First Book. Build-A-Bear Foundation is also donating 20,000 teddy bears to Title 1 schools in the First Book network to provide reading buddies to children in under-resourced communities to help build self-confidence and a love of reading. Children's literacy is one of the core areas of giving at Build-A-Bear Foundation, which announced its partnership with First Book earlier this year in honor of the brand's 25th anniversary. First Book is the largest online community of educators serving kids living in poverty, building a path out of poverty through educational equity. In a three-way partnership between First Book, Build-A-Bear Foundation, and the Busload of Books Tour, the organizations will provide 150,000 free books to students and educators in high-need communities across the country. Throughout the 2022-2023 school year, Matthew Swanson and Robbi Behrthe author/illustrator duo behind popular picture books and illustrated middle grade novels such as The Cookie Chronicles series and Everywhere Wonderwill spend the 2022-2023 school year on the Busload of Books Tour. This ultimate road trip will visit Title I schools in all 50 states handing out free books to students and teachers who otherwise wouldn't have access to them. They'll be joined on this adventure by their four children, the family dog and their very own special Read Teddy. Watch Robbi and Matthew, along with their children, make the very first Read Teddy who will travel along on their journey over the next year. Follow along as they chronicle their adventures on their Instagram channel "Education and reading are so critical to the trajectory of a young child's life. Knowing that access to education and reading is a key indicator of a child's success through high school and beyond is why we have made this a core pillar of our Foundation's efforts," said Voin Todorovic, President of Build-A-Bear Foundation. "We are pleased that Build-A-Bear Workshop is supporting our literacy efforts with the launch of Read Teddy and the partnership with First Book and the Busload of Books Tour." "We're thrilled to be celebrating National Teddy Bear Day with a focus on reading and literacy. Septem-BEAR is the perfect time to launch Read Teddy in support of our brand's literacy efforts, with children starting a new school year. Research shows reading to a stuffed animal can build self-confidence with children, and also be a therapeutic tool, and our hope is that Read Teddy will now encourage our youngest guests to snuggle up with their furry friend and read a favorite story," said Sharon Price John, President and Chief Executive Officer of Build-A-Bear. "By partnering with First Book and supporting our Foundation's efforts, we can work together to ensure that even more children will have access to a beloved book and bear." "Our goal at First Book is to provide kids in under resourced communities with the books and resources they need to learn and thrive," said Dana Bond, Senior Vice President, Strategic Alliances for First Book. "We are so grateful for our magical partnership with Build-A-Bear, taking that a step further providing a cozy, reassuring reading buddy to encourage children to engage in reading." ABOUT BUILD-A-BEAR FOUNDATION Build-A-Bear Foundation adds a little more heart to life by sharing hugs, inspiring creativity, and supporting those in need. A 501(c)3 organization, Build-A-Bear Foundation's core focus is to support children's literacy programs as a path to social and educational equity. Build-A-Bear Foundation also provides financial and furry friend donations to organizations that support children's health and wellness, disaster relief, and families in need of essential supplies. Since 1997, Build-A-Bear has donated more than $22 million and 1.5 million furry friends to charitable causes around the world. For more information, please visit www.buildabearfoundation.org. ABOUT BUILD-A-BEAR Build-A-Bear is a multi-generational global brand focused on its mission to "add a little more heart to life" appealing to a wide array of consumer groups who enjoy the personal expression in making their own "furry friends" to celebrate and commemorate life moments. Nearly 500 interactive brick-and-mortar retail locations operated through a variety of formats provide guests of all ages a hands-on entertaining experience, which often fosters a lasting and emotional brand connection. The company also offers engaging e-commerce/digital purchasing experiences on buildabear.com including its online "Bear-Builder", the animated "Bear Builder 3D Workshop" and its age-gated adult-focused "Bear Cave". In addition, extending its brand power beyond retail, Build-A-Bear Entertainment, a subsidiary of Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc., is dedicated to creating engaging content for kids and adults that fulfills the company's mission, while the company also offers products at wholesale and in non-plush consumer categories via licensing agreements with leading manufacturers. Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc. posted total revenue of $411.5 million in fiscal 2021. For more information, visit the Investor Relations section of buildabear.com ABOUT THE BUSLOAD OF BOOKS TOUR Author/illustrator duo Mathew Swanson and Robbi Behr will spend the 2020-2023 school year traveling the country in a tiny home school bus, visiting Title I elementary schools in all 50 states, doing presentations on creative empowerment, giving away 25,000 books, and facilitating the first-ever large-scale study of how author/illustrator visits impact literacy and creativity among elementary age students. SOURCE Build-A-Bear Workshop NEWTON, Mass., Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- MPINarada , a global provider of lithium batteries for the critical power, telecom, and energy storage markets, announces the latest addition to their line of batteries. This new, high-power, uninterrupted power supply (UPS) lithium battery system for high-rate applications provides the most energy-dense lithium iron phosphate (LFP) solution on the market today. The inherent safety aspect of lithium iron phosphate chemistry combined with a smaller footprint in this new product, creates a unique balance and alternative to other current NMC & LFP solutions that may be too big or contain more volatile chemistry. "MPINarada has been manufacturing LFP battery solutions for over a decade," said Michael Sirard, EVP Technical Operations & Engineering. "Our fully automated lithium cell production and sizable lithium manufacturing capacity allows us to optimize our existing resources for high-rate applications with cells and systems manufactured in-house. This provides confidence in both the quality and supply chain control of our products that our customers can rely on." This UPS lithium battery system provides the most energy-dense lithium iron phosphate solution on the market today. Tweet this Designed specifically for UPS and data center applications, the MPLhP lithium battery takes up less linear footage per string than any other product on the market today. Further demonstrating MPINarada's ongoing commitment to quality and safety, this latest product has met all certifications, including, UL 1964, UL 1973, UL 9540A testing, and IEC 62619, along with the additional advantage of being IBC Zone 4, IP 1.5 seismic certified. Key Benefits: A DC-Powered Battery Management System (BMS) provides a simplified and less expensive installation process. Whereas AC powered BMS systems require greater installation costs and must be backed up to maintain functionality, DC powered systems do not. Additionally, DC powered BMS are ideal for retrofitting existing VRLA battery backup where there is currently no AC electrical provisions available. MPINarada Lithium system includes as standard a human machine interface (HMI) with data storage. The HMI adds the capability of local system interaction, and control along with no external monitoring of data as it is self-contained. Customers can easily access their system status, alarms, logs, and other information right from the cabinet. MPINarada offers one of the most industry specific lithium battery systems for the data center market based on decades of experience from its leading VRLA products. The combination of local engineering support and US stock provides users with shorter lead times to better meet integration needs. With a fully established supply and an exceptional warranty, this new energy-dense product is ready for delivery today. For more information, visit www.mpinarada.com . About MPINarada: Since 1994, Narada has been a leader of one of the broadest and most reliable VRLA and lithium battery solutions for telecom , data center , colocation, edge, grid, microgrid, and C&I energy storage . MPINarada is the North American operation providing local sales support, engineering and design, and multiple inventory locations. CONTACT: Jennifer MacNeil Marketing Manager [email protected] SOURCE MPINarada WASHINGTON, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston will host a meeting of the National Space Council at 2:20 p.m. EDT (1:20 p.m. CDT) Friday, Sept. 9. Vice President Kamala Harris will chair the event, and NASA Administrator Bill Nelson will deliver remarks. The meeting will air on NASA Television, the agency's website, and the NASA app, as well as the agency's flagship Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube channels. Prior to the meeting, Vice President Harris will speak with astronauts aboard the International Space Station from Johnson's mission control. The space-to-Earth call includes Expedition 67 NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, and Jessica Watkins. NASA will provide live coverage of the call starting at 10:55 a.m. EDT (9:55 a.m. CDT) on NASA Television, the NASA app, and agency's website. The vice president also will tour NASA Johnson, including the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility (SVMF), where spaceflight crews and their support personnel receive training on high-fidelity hardware for real-time mission support. The SVMF consists of space station, Orion, and commercial vehicle mockups, as well as part-task trainers and rack interfaces, a Precision Air Bearing Floor, and a Partial Gravity Simulator. The meeting is open to pre-credentialed media and the tour will include pooled press. Images and video highlights from the meeting and tours will be available at: https://www.nasa.gov/mediaresources SOURCE NASA Celebrity Couple Jorge Bernal and Karla Birbragher are Kicking Off Ponle Pork, Showcasing Exciting Ways to Add This Latino Favorite Super Protein to Any Recipe in Celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. DES MOINES, Iowa, Sept. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Pork Board is celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with celebrity ambassador couple Jorge Bernal (TV personality) and Karla Birbragher (celebrity stylist) with their newest platform Ponle Pork. The ambassadors, along with six content creators from key Hispanic markets, will reinforce pork's superior nutritional value by showcasing exciting ways to add this protein to any meal. Experience the interactive Multimedia News Release here: https://www.multivu.com/players/English/9054852-national-pork-board-jorge-bernal-karla-birbragher/ Ponle Pork Brand Spot Honey Citrus Vinaigrette Kale Salad with Summer Grilled Pork Tenderloin & Mustard Glaze The National Pork Board has leveraged the summer grilling season to incorporate pork into families' dinner tables. This year, however, during Hispanic Heritage Month, the organization is celebrating pork's rich nutritional value and its integral role in Latinos' past, present and future. Based on proprietary research conducted by the National Pork Board, taste remains the top driver of pork purchases among Hispanics. Yet Hispanics often see pork as the heavy centerpiece of meals and may disregard its unique potential as an ingredient to be used. Due to these findings, the National Pork Board will use their Ponle Pork platform to clarify the misconceptions about pork and show how it's good for you, easy to prepare, and an excellent source of protein to add to any dish. "Hispanics often overlook pork's nutritious benefits even though it's one of their favorite foods and has an indisputable, mouthwatering flavor. We're excited to remind the Hispanic consumer about this protein's amazing nutritional value," said Jose de Jesus, senior director of multicultural marketing at the National Pork Board. Bernal and Birbragher's content will highlight different fresh pork cuts while sharing unique, easy-to-prepare flavorful recipes that can add superior nutritional value to any dish. "We are so grateful to join the National Pork Board in their launch of Ponle Pork. Like a true Cuban, I can't say no to some good lechon. My wife Karla and I can't wait to show our Hispanic community how we incorporate pork in our family meals, and why you are missing out if you're not adding a piece of flavor and happiness [pork] to your plate!" Bernal said. One of the couple's favorite recipes is ground pork and quinoa stuffed bell peppers and can be easily cooked on the grill. This recipe, along with others, will be highlighted on PorkEsSabor.com. To see the latest brand spot, view recipes, and how-tos, and stay up to date with the latest pork facts and content, visit PorkEsSabor.com and follow @PorkEsSabor on Instagram , Facebook , and Twitter . About the National Pork Board The National Pork Board has responsibility for Pork Checkoff-funded research, promotion, and consumer information projects, and for communicating with pork producers and the public. The Pork Checkoff funds national and state programs in consumer education and marketing, retail and foodservice marketing, export market promotion, production improvement, science and technology, swine health, pork safety, environmental management, and sustainability. For the past half-century, the U.S. pork industry has delivered on its commitment to sustainable production and has made significant strides in reducing pig farming's environmental impact. Through a legislative national Pork Checkoff, pork producers invest $0.40 for each $100 value of hogs sold. Importers of pork products contribute a like amount, based on a formula. For information on Checkoff-funded programs, pork producers can call the Pork Checkoff Service Center at (800) 456-7675 or visit www.pork.org. SOURCE National Pork Board HOUSTON, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- American homeowners are among the first in the world to enjoy access to a revolutionary new water heater that installs as easily as a conventional tank water heater yet operates like a tankless and is built to last for 30 years. Meet the Essency EXR, the world's first on-demand tank water heater. Available through Ferguson plumbing supply centers and many professional plumbing and home services contractors in a growing number of states and metro areas. Call 888-229-6285 for more information in your area. The new Essency EXR water heater, the world's first on-demand tank water heater, gives people everything they want in a residential water heater - and more. Hot water on demand, from an easily installed tank-type water heater - it's even app-enabled for ease of homeowner operation! Designed for people who crave hot water on demand when and where they want it, and at the same comfortable temperature setting all the time, the Essency EXR water heater is making a giant splash in the U.S. water heating market as the World's First On-Demand Tank Water Heater a product so new and yet functional that industry experts are hailing it as the all-around best choice for a new residential water heater on the market. To get information on the EXR now, call 888-229-6285. "The EXR brings water heater technology into the modern age, giving homeowners a new water heater option that has it all great all-around on-demand performance, powerful enough to handle all the daily multi-tasking demands for hot water for showering, shaving, dishwashing, and clothes-washing, all at once or intermittently," says Scott Isaksen, national sales director, Essency Water Heaters North America. "It will still be on duty long after the kids are gone to college and the mortgage is paid off. And it has very low ongoing maintenance requirements. We believe it's what Americans want in a water heater, so we're making it a priority to get it into American homes first." The EXR comes equipped with a polymer storage tank that serves as a thermal battery used to transfer energy to the domestic water as it passes through a large, stainless steel heat exchanger. The hot water entering the household system is thus always fresh from the tap, heated only on demand boosting the EXR's standing as a more energy-efficient alternative to conventional tank water heaters. The EXR is the only water heater most people will ever need. Made of special polymers, the double-insulated tank is designed to withstand the tests of both time and continuous use. The tank is virtually indestructible under normal operating conditions, says Isaksen. Its polymer construction ensures that it won't rust out, as is common with metal tanks, and because water stored in the tank isn't continuously replenished with new water (laden with new minerals), it's highly resistant to the type of scale buildup that causes operational and service problems in ordinary water heaters. As a result, the EXR is anode-rod free relieving homeowners of the ongoing requirement of changing out the anode rod as on their conventional tank product. At just 102 pounds dry weight, the Essency EXR is both easy to install and easy to maintain over its long life. It sets up easier than a conventional tank water heater, using common plumbing and electrical fittings and connections, making it a simple and economical replacement for an existing gas or electric tank water heater. It also beats out the tankless-type water heater, gas or electric, as the preferred choice for homeowners who want hot water on demand, but without the extravagantly expensive infrastructure buildouts often required for a tankless unit. It's also easy to manage, with WiFi- and app-enabled controls to use for functions such as Vacation Mode. It even sends diagnostic alerts to homeowners! The EXR is distributed exclusively through Ferguson plumbing supply centers in an ever-expanding number of key markets and states throughout the U.S. For more information, visit the Essency home page, www.essencyhome.com, see the Ferguson EXR online catalogue listing at https://www.ferguson.com/category/essency/_/N-zcnb0q . Contact: Doug Hovelson, [email protected], 612-998-0789 SOURCE Essency Water Heaters LOS ANGELES, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Writer/Director Christopher Folkens' debut feature film "CATALYST," a gritty, pseudo-experimental film explores dark storylines mirroring the headlines of modern life, wrapped up in a contained psychological thriller is set to premiere on Saturday 9/17 at 9:25pm at the Regal LA Live Theaters in downtown Los Angeles during the Downtown LA Film Festival . Christopher Folkens Christopher Folkens Festival director Henry Priest tells us, "We are all about diversity and inclusion. CATALYST is not only an exceptional film, but it's also full of diverse faces. Those are the films we want to stand for." The film features a stunning performance from lead actor Michael Roark , who stars as Alek, a man seeking revenge after he finds the priest who abused him as a child. After confronting that priest, Alek is abducted by a mysterious organization known only as "The Collective" and pulled into a series of psychological trials along with six other men. The men soon find out they have every reason to hate each other based on their dark pasts. As the mystery behind their captivity unfolds, they must decide their path: choose one of them to die, or discover another way out to save them all. It is a tale that evokes the likes of Oldboy and Saw, with real-world implications and the contained character drama of 12 Angry Men. "CATALYST" also boasts powerful performances from veteran actors Noel Gugliemi (Fast and Furious), Patrick Kilpatrick (Minority Report) David Bianchi (Queen of The South) and Melanie Liburd (This is Us). Folkens says, "CATALYST is a wakeup call to humanity. It is designed to be the most dramatic mirror of how we live our lives. The film is designed to push buttons and elevate the conversation around what is standing in our way as humankind." Producer/Actor David Bianchi recalls, "The film explores extremely relevant issues we're seeing everywhere in the America today. As artists we use our voices to awaken a new way of thinking about them. I applaud our team and cast for their bravery and trust in our process." Producer Enrico Natale adds, "The puzzle the film presents is part of our own individual 'inner work' on this planet. I hope that our project helps people do better in their own lives, to help heal the world." Official Worldwide Trailer Media Contact: Kayley Hamilton 3235248474 [email protected] SOURCE Christopher Folkens Session will be Webcast NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ewout Steenbergen, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of S&P Global ( NYSE: SPGI), will participate in the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference on September 13, 2022 in San Francisco, CA. Mr. Steenbergen is scheduled to speak from 7:30 a.m. to 8:10 a.m. (Pacific Daylight Time). The "fireside chat" will be webcast and may include forward-looking information. Webcast Instructions: Live and Replay The webcast will be available live and in replay through the Company's Investor Relations website http://investor.spglobal.com/Investor-Presentations (please copy and paste URL into web browser). The webcast replay will be available approximately 3 hours after the end of the presentation and will remain accessible for three months, ending on December 11, 2022. Any additional information presented during the session will be made available on the Company's Investor Presentations web page. About S&P Global S&P Global ( NYSE: SPGI) provides essential intelligence. We enable governments, businesses and individuals with the right data, expertise and connected technology so that they can make decisions with conviction. From helping our customers assess new investments to guiding them through ESG and energy transition across supply chains, we unlock new opportunities, solve challenges and accelerate progress for the world. We are widely sought after by many of the world's leading organizations to provide credit ratings, benchmarks, analytics and workflow solutions in the global capital, commodity and automotive markets. With every one of our offerings, we help the world's leading organizations plan for tomorrow, today. For more information, visit www.spglobal.com. Investor Relations: http://investor.spglobal.com Get news direct via RSS: https://investor.spglobal.com/contact-investor-relations/rss-feeds/default.aspx Contacts: Investor Relations: Mark Grant Senior Vice President, Investor Relations Tel: + 1 347 640 1521 [email protected] Media: Christopher Krantz +44 7976 632 638 [email protected] SOURCE S&P Global Holly Schaubert brings 18 years of experience in structural-engineering-related roles with an emphasis in business development and leadership. CHICAGO, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Steel Tube Institute (STI), an organization that brings together key producers in the steel industry to advance the use of steel tubing, this week, announces Holly Schaubert as STI's new Director of Hollow Structural Sections (HSS). Holly Schaubert "Holly represents the next steps the Steel Tube Institute is taking to continue the great work done to date by our HSS Committee and the retiring Joseph Anderson," Executive Director of the Steel Tube Institute, Dale Crawford said. "She has an extensive engineering background and a strong track record working with cross-functional groups. Her knowledge and expertise will help STI continue to promote the value and product benefits of HSS not only in architecturally exposed applications, but through the built environment." Crawford said the role combines leadership, business development, collaboration and technical aspects which align well with Schaubert's experience. In her previous role with the Vulcraft Verco Group, Schaubert led several collaborative steering committees including a committee for the advancement of technology, a business development committee and collaboration between the Vulcraft Verco Group and Nucor Buildings Group. Schaubert said she already has ideas and she is eager to jump into the position in September. "I plan to meet with the STI HSS member producers, our consultants and fabricators who are utilizing HSS, to listen, learn and observe how STI, and I as a director, can best serve the market," Schaubert said. With a Bachelor of Science and Master of Engineering in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Cornell University, Schaubert also brings 18 years of experience in structural-engineering-related roles, 15 of those years with Nucor companies, including Verco Decking, Nucor Building Systems and Vulcraft, in roles ranging from engineering supervisor, senior research and development engineer and business development lead. About Steel Tube Institute The Steel Tube Institute was formed in 1930 when a group of manufacturers joined forces to promote and market steel tubing. Their goal was to mount a cooperative effort to improve manufacturing techniques and inform customers about their products' utility, versatility and competitive advantages. This, along with providing a forum for the discussion of issues impacting the industry, remains the focus of Steel Tube Institute's efforts. Learn more at steeltubeinstitute.org and visit Steel Tube Institute on Linkedin. Media Contact: Hadley Mayes (949) 777-2486 [email protected] SOURCE Steel Tube Institute WASHINGTON, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today the United States Commission on Civil Rights celebrates 65 years since its creation by the 1957 Voting Rights Act on September 9, 1957. Through the landmark legislation, the Commission was given the authority to investigate voting rights and then subsequently civil rights issues impacting the American people and provide recommendations to the President and Congress on corrective measures. The 1957 Voting Rights Act signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first federal civil rights legislation since Reconstruction and was then followed by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Since the Commission's inception, our guidance has helped to shape federal civil rights laws throughout history. Notably the Commission's recommendations have been taken up in the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021 from the Commission's 2018 report, An Assessment of Minority Voting Rights Access in the United States; George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021 from the Commission's 2018 report, Police Use of Force: An Examination of Modern Policing Practices; and the SHAPE Act of 2020 from the Commission's 2020 report, Federal #MeToo: Examining Sexual Harassment in Government Workplaces. While other federal agencies have civil rights departments and offices, the Commission is the only independent federal entity charged with studying and reporting on civil rights issues and enforcement. We inform all branches of government in seeking to develop well-reasoned solutions to a myriad of civil rights challenges confronting this nation. In addition to our national, federal perspective, our network of 56 state and territory Advisory Committees offer a broad perspective of concerns at state and local levels, and recommend actions to the Commission to address them. The Commission's unwavering commitment to facilitate the great American promise of equal opportunity and equal justice under law continues, presently and in the future, as we strive to close that gap, and ensure full civil rights protections for all Americans. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, established by the Civil Rights Act of 1957, is the only independent, bipartisan agency charged with advising the President and Congress on civil rights and reporting annually on federal civil rights enforcement. Our 56 state and territory Advisory Committees offer a broad perspective on civil rights concerns at state and local levels. The Commission: in our 7th decade, a continuing legacy of influence in civil rights. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Contact: Angelia Rorison [email protected] 202-376-8371 SOURCE U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Some big players are expected to implement new strategies to gain competitive advantages. Key vendors in the global automatic pill dispensing systems market include Accu Chart Plus Health Care Systems, Becton Dickinson and Co., Capsa Healthcare LLC, Hero Health Inc., IngenioRx Inc., JVM Co Ltd., Koninklijke Philips NV, McKesson Corp., Medipense Inc., Medminder Systems Inc., Omnicell Inc., Oracle Corp., Parata Systems LLC, PharmRight Corp., RxMedic Systems Inc., ScriptPro, Stanley Black and Decker Inc., Swisslog Healthcare AG, Talyst LLC., and YUYAMA Co. Ltd. Although the growing aging population will offer immense growth opportunities, the high cost of pharmacy automation will challenge the growth of the market participants. To make the most of the opportunities, market vendors should focus more on the growth prospects in the fast-growing segments, while maintaining their positions in the slow-growing segments. Request Sample Report Here The global automatic pill dispensing systems market is segmented as below: Application Hospital Pharmacies Retail Pharmacies Home Healthcare The market growth in the hospital pharmacies segment will be significant over the forecast period. The segment is driven by the high prevalence of chronic diseases globally. Also, an increase in the number of hospitals to meet the demands of the high patient population will have a positive impact on the growth of the segment. Geography North America Europe APAC The Middle East and Africa and South America North America will emerge as the key market, occupying 56% of the global market share over the forecast period. Factors such as high awareness, high demand for automatic pill dispensing systems, and the affordability of products are driving the growth of the regional market. Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our automatic pill dispensing systems market report covers the following areas: Automatic Pill Dispensing Systems Market 2022-2026: Vendor Analysis We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the automatic pill dispensing systems market, including some of the dominant vendors. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research report on the automatic pill dispensing systems market is designed to provide entry support, customer profile, and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support. Automatic Pill Dispensing Systems Market 2022-2026: Key Highlights CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2022-2026 Detailed information on factors that will assist automatic pill dispensing systems market growth during the next five years Estimation of the automatic pill dispensing systems market size and its contribution to the parent market Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior The growth of the automatic pill dispensing systems market Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of automatic pill dispensing systems market vendors Related Reports: Automatic Pill Dispensing Systems Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 8.36% Market growth 2022-2026 USD 1.60 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 6.92 Regional analysis North America, Europe, APAC, Middle East and Africa, and South America Performing market contribution North America at 56% Key consumer countries US, Japan, China, UK, and Germany Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Accu Chart Plus Health Care Systems, Becton Dickinson and Co., Capsa Healthcare LLC, Hero Health Inc., IngenioRx Inc., JVM Co Ltd., Koninklijke Philips NV, McKesson Corp., Medipense Inc., Medminder Systems Inc., Omnicell Inc., Oracle Corp., Parata Systems LLC, PharmRight Corp., RxMedic Systems Inc., ScriptPro, Stanley Black and Decker Inc., Swisslog Healthcare AG, Talyst LLC., and YUYAMA 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, and 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 Application Exhibit 06: Executive Summary Chart on Incremental Growth Exhibit 07: Executive Summary Data Table on Incremental Growth Exhibit 08: Executive Summary Chart on Vendor Market Positioning 2 Market Landscape 2.1 Market ecosystem Exhibit 09: Parent market Exhibit 10: Market Characteristics 3 Market Sizing 3.1 Market definition Exhibit 11: Offerings of vendors included in the market definition 3.2 Market segment analysis Exhibit 12: Market segments 3.3 Market size 2021 3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2021-2026 Exhibit 13: Chart on Global - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 14: Data Table on Global - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 15: Chart on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 16: Data Table on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 4 Five Forces Analysis 4.1 Five forces summary Exhibit 17: Five forces analysis - Comparison between 2021 and 2026 4.2 Bargaining power of buyers Exhibit 18: Chart on Bargaining power of buyers Impact of key factors 2021 and 2026 4.3 Bargaining power of suppliers Exhibit 19: Bargaining power of suppliers Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.4 Threat of new entrants Exhibit 20: Threat of new entrants Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.5 Threat of substitutes Exhibit 21: Threat of substitutes Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.6 Threat of rivalry Exhibit 22: Threat of rivalry Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.7 Market condition Exhibit 23: Chart on Market condition - Five forces 2021 and 2026 5 Market Segmentation by Application 5.1 Market segments Exhibit 24: Chart on Application - Market share 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 25: Data Table on Application - Market share 2021-2026 (%) 5.2 Comparison by Application Exhibit 26: Chart on Comparison by Application Exhibit 27: Data Table on Comparison by Application 5.3 Hospital pharmacies - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 28: Chart on Hospital pharmacies - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 29: Data Table on Hospital pharmacies - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 30: Chart on Hospital pharmacies - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 31: Data Table on Hospital pharmacies - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.4 Retail pharmacies - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 32: Chart on Retail pharmacies - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 33: Data Table on Retail pharmacies - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 34: Chart on Retail pharmacies - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 35: Data Table on Retail pharmacies - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.5 Home healthcare - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 36: Chart on Home healthcare - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 37: Data Table on Home healthcare - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 38: Chart on Home healthcare - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 39: Data Table on Home healthcare - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.6 Market opportunity by Application Exhibit 40: Market opportunity by Application ($ million) 6 Customer Landscape 6.1 Customer landscape overview Exhibit 41: Analysis of price sensitivity, lifecycle, customer purchase basket, adoption rates, and purchase criteria 7 Geographic Landscape 7.1 Geographic segmentation Exhibit 42: Chart on Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 43: Data Table on Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%) 7.2 Geographic comparison Exhibit 44: Chart on Geographic comparison Exhibit 45: Data Table on Geographic comparison 7.3 North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 46: Chart on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 47: Data Table on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 48: Chart on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 49: Data Table on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.4 Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 50: Chart on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 51: Data Table on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 52: Chart on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 53: Data Table on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.5 APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 54: Chart on APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 55: Data Table on APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 56: Chart on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 57: Data Table on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.6 Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 58: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 59: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 60: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) and - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 61: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.7 South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 62: Chart on South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 63: Data Table on South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 64: Chart on South America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 65: Data Table on South America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.8 US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 66: Chart on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 67: Data Table on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 68: Chart on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 69: Data Table on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.9 UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 70: Chart on UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 71: Data Table on UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 72: Chart on UK - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 73: Data Table on UK - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.10 China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 74: Chart on China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 75: Data Table on China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 76: Chart on China - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 77: Data Table on China - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.11 Japan - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 78: Chart on Japan - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 79: Data Table on Japan - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 80: Chart on Japan - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 81: Data Table on Japan - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.12 Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 82: Chart on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 83: Data Table on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 84: Chart on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 85: Data Table on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.13 Market opportunity by geography Exhibit 86: Market opportunity by geography ($ million) 8 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends 8.1 Market drivers 8.2 Market challenges 8.3 Impact of drivers and challenges Exhibit 87: Impact of drivers and challenges in 2021 and 2026 8.4 Market trends 9 Vendor Landscape 9.1 Overview 9.2 Vendor landscape Exhibit 88: Overview on Criticality of inputs and Factors of differentiation 9.3 Landscape disruption Exhibit 89: Overview on factors of disruption 9.4 Industry risks Exhibit 90: Impact of key risks on business 10 Vendor Analysis 10.1 Vendors covered Exhibit 91: Vendors covered 10.2 Market positioning of vendors Exhibit 92: Matrix on vendor position and classification 10.3 Accu Chart Plus Health Care Systems Exhibit 93: Accu Chart Plus Health Care Systems - Overview Exhibit 94: Accu Chart Plus Health Care Systems - Product / Service Exhibit 95: Accu Chart Plus Health Care Systems - Key offerings 10.4 Becton Dickinson and Co. and Co. Exhibit 96: Becton Dickinson and Co. - Overview and Co. - Overview Exhibit 97: Becton Dickinson and Co. - Business segments and Co. - Business segments Exhibit 98: Becton Dickinson and Co. - Key news and Co. - Key news Exhibit 99: Becton Dickinson and Co. - Key offerings and Co. - Key offerings Exhibit 100: Becton Dickinson and Co. - Segment focus 10.5 Capsa Healthcare LLC Exhibit 101: Capsa Healthcare LLC - Overview Exhibit 102: Capsa Healthcare LLC - Product / Service Exhibit 103: Capsa Healthcare LLC - Key offerings 10.6 JVM Co Ltd. Exhibit 104: JVM Co Ltd. - Overview Exhibit 105: JVM Co Ltd. - Product / Service Exhibit 106: JVM Co Ltd. - Key offerings 10.7 Koninklijke Philips NV Exhibit 107: Koninklijke Philips NV - Overview Exhibit 108: Koninklijke Philips NV - Business segments Exhibit 109: Koninklijke Philips NV - Key news Exhibit 110: Koninklijke Philips NV - Key offerings Exhibit 111: Koninklijke Philips NV - Segment focus 10.8 Medminder Systems Inc. Exhibit 112: Medminder Systems Inc. - Overview Exhibit 113: Medminder Systems Inc. - Product / Service Exhibit 114: Medminder Systems Inc. - Key offerings 10.9 Omnicell Inc. Exhibit 115: Omnicell Inc. - Overview Exhibit 116: Omnicell Inc. - Product / Service Exhibit 117: Omnicell Inc. - Key offerings 10.10 Oracle Corp. Exhibit 118: Oracle Corp. - Overview Exhibit 119: Oracle Corp. - Business segments Exhibit 120: Oracle Corp. - Key news Exhibit 121: Oracle Corp. - Key offerings Exhibit 122: Oracle Corp. - Segment focus 10.11 Parata Systems LLC Exhibit 123: Parata Systems LLC - Overview Exhibit 124: Parata Systems LLC - Product / Service Exhibit 125: Parata Systems LLC - Key offerings 10.12 Swisslog Healthcare AG Exhibit 126: Swisslog Healthcare AG - Overview Exhibit 127: Swisslog Healthcare AG - Product / Service Exhibit 128: Swisslog Healthcare AG - Key offerings 11 Appendix 11.1 Scope of the report 11.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist Exhibit 129: Inclusions checklist Exhibit 130: Exclusions checklist 11.3 Currency conversion rates for US$ Exhibit 131: Currency conversion rates for US$ 11.4 Research methodology Exhibit 132: Research methodology Exhibit 133: Validation techniques employed for market sizing Exhibit 134: Information sources 11.5 List of abbreviations Exhibit 135: 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 DUBLIN, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "In-Depth: Practical Statistical Analysis for the Energy & Power Markets" training has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. This course adds a third day to the popular Energy Statistical Analysis seminar to allow the time needed for a more in-depth discussion and explanation of many important topics. Additionally, this three-day course is designed as a hand-on workshop. Not only will you learn about practical energy statistical techniques and tools, but you will practice building statistical models in a workshop format. Learn why companies continue to be exposed to significant energy and electricity related price risk, and how risk and value are properly quantified. Energy and electricity companies worldwide depend on accurate information about the risks and opportunities facing day-to-day decisions. Statistical analysis is frequently misapplied and many companies find that "a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing." This comprehensive three-day program is designed to provide a solid understanding of key statistical and analytic tools used in the energy and electric power markets. Through a combination of lecture and hands-on exercises that you will complete using your own laptop, participants will learn and practice key energy applications of statistical modeling. Be armed with the tools and methods needed to properly analyze and measure data to reduce risk and increase earnings for your organization. Who Should Attend: Among those who will benefit from this seminar include energy and electric power executives; attorneys; government regulators; traders & trading support staff; marketing, sales, purchasing & risk management personnel; accountants & auditors; plant operators; engineers; and corporate planners. Types of companies that typically attend this program include energy producers and marketers; utilities; banks & financial houses; industrial companies; accounting, consulting & law firms; municipal utilities; government regulators, and electric generators. What You Will Learn Correlation & regression analysis; real option analysis; the Black-Scholes option-pricing model; binomial trees; GARCH Models; the measurement of energy price risk; and how to use correlation and regression analysis for maintaining a competitive edge. Workshop exercises will have you building forecast models including time series and financial engineering price models including Geometric Brownian Motion and Mean Reversion Jump Diffusion. How to minimize price risk through operational design flexibility; measure forward price volatility and adapt Value-at-Risk concepts (VaR) for the Energy Industry. Workshop exercises will have you building VaR models, calculating volatility, and simulating complex energy projects. Use actual case studies to examine 1) how Monte Carlo simulation is used to value renewable energy, demand response programs, and energy storage projects; 2) bench-marking techniques used for estimating the incremental cost savings of expanding existing operations, and 3) real-option value of generation assets and power purchase agreements. simulation is used to value renewable energy, demand response programs, and energy storage projects; 2) bench-marking techniques used for estimating the incremental cost savings of expanding existing operations, and 3) real-option value of generation assets and power purchase agreements. Actual workshop problems and case studies will look at statistical applications and tools most frequently used in the energy industry. Learn the four manage statistical metrics. Key Topics Covered: DAY ONE: The Basics of Deterministic vs. Probabilistic Thinking for Energy Applications Basics of data science - Information from Data Descriptive Statistics, Means, Standard Deviations, Distribution Shapes Frequency Distributions and Confidence Intervals Implications of the Empirical Rule, Transformations and Probability Fundamental Modeling Tools and Simulation Exercise: Setting up a Monte Carlo Simulation to Evaluate Project Value and Risk Application: Calculating Value at Risk (VaR) The Linear Method and The Quadratic Method Historic Simulation Method Monte Carlo Method Exercise: Calculating VaR Using Three Different Methods Application: Hedging Energy Exposure Understanding the "Greeks" How and when to Hedge Delta Hedging Dynamic Hedging Gamma Hedging Application: Component Risk Analysis Payoff Diagrams Portfolio VaR Diagram CAPM, RAROC and the Sharp Ratio Calculating Load Following Supply Risk Layered Hedging using Statistical Triggers Exercise: Customer Migration Model Estimating Migration out of Standard Offer Service Exercise: Measuring Load Following Supply Risk Exercise: Measuring Intermittent Renewable Supply Risk Correlation and Regression Analysis for Maintaining the Competitive Edge Univariate and Multivariate Analysis Hypotheses Testing Testing for Equal Means and Variances Control Charts DAY TWO: The Energy Forecasting Toolbox Historical Trend Analysis Univariate Time Series Multivariate Time Series Econometric Models Bayesian Estimation End-Use Models Engineering or Process Models Optimization Network Models Simulation Game Theory Scenarios Surveys Case Study: Statistical Reports that Everyone Can Understand Case Study: Benchmarking to Industry Standards- GTS Steel vs. KCPL Exercise: Building Regressions and Forecasting, PDF's, CDF's and Payoff Diagrams Exercise: Calculating Hedge Ratios, Constructing an Energy Hedge and a Weather Hedge Exercise: Using Forecasts in Monte Carlo Simulation to Calculate Risk Premium DAY Three: Introduction to Real Options Analysis Details of Option Model Implementation Real Options and Net Present Value (NPV) Analysis Estimating Volatility and Uncertainty In Historical Prices Black-Scholes, Binomial Trees, and GARCH Models Geometric Brownian Motion and Mean Reversion Application: Minimizing Price Risk through Operational Design Flexibility Application: Real Option Value of Demand Response and the Smart Grid Exercise: Calculating Volatility Exercise: Simulating Prices using GBM and Mean Reversion Monte Carlo Models Exercise: Valuing Combustion Turbines using Real Options Exercise: Valuing Gas Storage using Real Options Key Topics Covered: Kenneth Skinner VP and Chief Operating Officer Integral Analytics Kenneth Skinner, Ph.D. is Vice President of Risk & Evaluation Products for Integral Analytics, an analytical software and management consulting firm focused on operational, planning, and market research solutions. Dr. Skinner has over 20 years' experience in evaluation and risk measurement, having worked as an energy consultant with PHB Hagler Bailly and Financial Times (FT) Energy, and as the Derivative Structuring Manager for the retail energy supplier Sempra Energy Solutions. He has his Ph.D. from Colorado School of Mines, in Mineral Economics, with an emphasis in Operations Research, an MBA from Regis University and his BS in Engineering from Letourneau University. Dr. Skinner is a nationally recognized expert in economic evaluation and modeling of energy assets including energy storage, distribution and generation, efficiency and demand response, renewable energy alternatives, financial derivatives and structured contracts using net present value, econometric and statistical methods, optimization principles, and real option valuation techniques. Dr. Skinner is currently the technology columnist for Wiley Natural Gas and Electricity Journal and is a noted speaker on energy related topics for organizations such as AESP, IAEE, ACEEE, PLMA, IEPEC, INFORMS, Infocast, EUCI, SNL Energy and PGS Energy Training. For more information about this training visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/tf1ec7 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 Dawn Marie Besse Joins Aktion's Supply Chain Division MAUMEE, Ohio, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Aktion Associates, Inc., national software reseller and IT infrastructure provider focused on the Architectural Engineering & Construction, Distribution and Manufacturing industries, announced today the appointment of Dawn Marie Besse to the position of Practice Manager, Infor SX.e and CloudSuite Distribution, in the Supply Chain Division. Dawn has extensive experience as a leader specializing in business operations, consulting, ERP implementations and project management. Dawn will report to Supply Chain Division Vice President, Patrick Brennan. The appointment was made in response to Aktion's increasing Infor SX.e and CloudSuite Distribution customer base. "Under Pat's leadership, the Supply Chain Division is growing and acquiring new customers while continuing to deliver support to existing accounts," said Aktion CEO Scott Irwin. "The addition of Dawn as Practice Manager overseeing implementations strengthens our commitment to ensuring successful go lives and long-term customer engagements. She has deep industry and Infor ERP knowledge. I'm confident our customers and service team will benefit from Dawn's guidance," Irwin added. Aktion Associates Hires Dawn Besse as Practice Manager to oversee Infor CloudSuite Distribution ERP implementations. Tweet this Dawn is responsible for managing Application Consultants, Project Managers and Software Engineers in the Supply Chain Division. Additional responsibilities include executing customer account management; building/maintaining relationships with suppliers; ensuring quality and consistency in service delivery as well as introducing best practice processes; service employee skillset development and alignment; achieving service utilization; and assisting the division Sales Manager in customer implementations. "Dawn is a great addition to the team," said Brennan. "She brings a high level of business acumen and team leadership, as well as Infor ERP consulting experience. It's the perfect skill set for our team and Infor customers," Brennan added. In her previous position as Senior Business Consultant at Infor, Dawn was responsible for leading project teams, configuring client solutions, providing implementation consultancy and application best practice advice. Prior to Infor, Dawn was Business Systems Manager Supply Chain for Kaman Industrial Technologies. About Aktion Associates Aktion Associates delivers industry-specific and market leader application solutions to the Architecture & Engineering, Construction, Wholesale Distribution and Manufacturing industries. We couple these application solutions with proven business process transformation skills that deliver the best Net Promoter Scores in the ERP industry for small and medium size businesses. Our investment in our company-owned cloud and managed service platform is what further allows us to deliver the total solution with award-winning speed and cost-effectiveness. With a customer base of 6500 strong and a workforce of 230 employees, we have the scope and scale to manage an ERP cloud migration. Visit www.aktion.com. SOURCE Aktion Associates, Inc. Bevonescein (ALM-488), a peptide-dye conjugate designed to fluorescently highlight nerves in real time during surgery, is currently in Phase 3 clinical trials in patients undergoing Head and Neck Surgery LA JOLLA, Calif., Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Alume Biosciences, Inc, a leader in the field of nerve-targeted diagnostics and therapeutics, announced today that it has been awarded a $3.4M Commercialization Readiness Program (CRP) Grant from the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). This grant will support Alume's commercialization efforts of its novel nerve illumination technology in surgery. The Principal Investigators on this grant are Michael Whitney, PhD, Scientific Co-Founder and Vice President of Discovery and Brett Berman, MD, Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer at Alume. Alume Receives Commercialization Readiness Program Grant from the NIH Tweet this Alume Receives Commercialization Readiness Program Grant from the NIH to Support Commercialization of ALM-488 to Highlight Nerves Alume previously received a Phase I SBIR grant in 2019 and Phase II SBIR grant in 2020 from the NINDS to develop nerve illumination agents for surgical use. The CRP grant is a follow-on 2year award that will support commercialization of Alume's fluorescent nerve targeting agent, ALM-488 (bevonescein) in patients undergoing Head and Neck Surgery. "Alume's technology to fluorescently highlight nerves during surgery is highly innovative and this CRP grant is a testament to bevonescein's innovation, potential utility and impact as it was awarded following a very rigorous NIH peer-reviewed process," said Dr. Roderic Pettigrew, MD/PhD, CEO of EnHealth and Inaugural Dean of the School of Engineering Medicine, home of ENMED at Texas A&M University in collaboration with Houston Methodist. "Alume's technology was developed as a result of the unmet need to improve intraoperative identification of nerves," said Jean-Pierre Millon, a member of Alume's Board of Directors. "This award is a significant milestone for Alume as we prepare for commercialization," said Millon. About Roderic Pettigrew , PhD, MD Dr. Pettigrew is a physician-engineer and was the founding director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) at the National Institutes of Health. On behalf of NIH, Dr. Pettigrew also served as the liaison to the U.S. Department of Energy and to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and was co-chairman of the Interagency Working Group on Medical Imaging, convened by the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP). He stepped down as NIBIB Director in December 2017 to assume the role of CEO of EnHealth at Texas A&M University in Houston and inaugural Dean School of Engineering Medicine where ENMED trains the nation's first Physicianeers. ENMED is in collaboration with the state's top ranked Houston Methodist Hospital that is also on the US News National Honor Roll. About Jean Pierre Millon Mr. Millon joined the Alume Biosciences Board of Directors in 2020. He has extensive experience leading healthcare and life sciences companies and has held several global leadership positions including serving as an executive for 23 years at Eli Lilly. In addition to serving on the Board of Directors of Alume Biosciences, Mr. Millon currently serves on the Board of Directors of CVS Health, Truvian, InanoBio and Valenz Health. He is an Advisor to the Great Point Partners equity fund and also serves as a healthcare consultant, assisting new ventures in the US and Europe. He has been actively involved in non-profit activities, having served as a board member of St Joseph Hospital in Phoenix and the Phoenix Council of Foreign Relations and of the Scottsdale Cultural Council. He was a member of the Kellogg School of Business Advisory Board for 15 years and Vice President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan in the 90's. ------------ This award was granted by the National Institutes of Health. The content of this press release is solely the responsibility of the author and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH. Media contact: [email protected] SOURCE Alume Biosciences NEW YORK, Sept. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of the securities of Ampio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE American: AMPE) between December 29, 2020 and August 3, 2022, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), of the important October 17, 2022 lead plaintiff deadline. SO WHAT: If you purchased Ampio securities during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement. WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the Ampio class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=8201 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than October 17, 2022. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually handle securities class actions, but are merely middlemen that refer clients or partner with law firms that actually litigate the cases. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers. DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, defendants throughout the Class Period made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) defendants inflated Ampio's true ability to successfully file a Biologics License Application for Ampion, the Company's lead product purportedly to treat individuals with inflammatory conditions including, but not limited to, severe osteoarthritis of the knee; (2) defendants inflated the results of the AP-013 study of Ampion and the timing of unblinding the data from the AP-013 study; and (3) as a result of the foregoing, defendants' statements about Ampio's business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages. To join the Ampio class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=8201 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] or [email protected] for information on the class action. No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff. Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/. Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Contact Information: Laurence Rosen, Esq. Phillip Kim, Esq. The Rosen Law Firm, P.A. 275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor New York, NY 10016 Tel: (212) 686-1060 Toll Free: (866) 767-3653 Fax: (212) 202-3827 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] www.rosenlegal.com SOURCE Rosen Law Firm, P.A. NICB President and CEO David Glawe to meet with IASIU President Celeste Dodson during IASIU Annual Conference SAN DIEGO, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), the insurance industry's association dedicated to predicting, preventing, and prosecuting insurance crime, is continuing to strengthen its long standing partnership with the International Association of Special Investigation Units (IASIU). NICB President and CEO David Glawe will meet with IASIU President Celeste Dodson in San Diego to discuss emerging fraud trends and develop proactive solutions to address crimes impacting insurance policyholders. On Monday, September 12 at 3:00 p.m. PT, Glawe and Dodson will reaffirm their organizations' joint mission to bring awareness during the IASIU Annual Conference in San Diego. As crime across the nation continues to increase, including the highest vehicle theft numbers since 2008, staggering catalytic converter thefts, and fraud exceeding $300 billion nationwide each year, California is experiencing some of the highest crime rates, and therefore, is the perfect place to address these issues. As crime across the nation continues to increase, NICB and IASIU reaffirm their organizations' joint mission. Tweet this "NICB is committed to our long partnership with IASIU," said Glawe. "Our partnership is organic in every sense, and is strengthened by our mutual mission of combatting insurance fraud and crime." "NICB and IASIU's partnership is critical to our joint missions," said Dodson. "Together, we will continue to focus on advancing excellence in the insurance fraud fighting community through education, training, awareness, and connection." NICB and IASIU will continue their valued partnership as they battle the ever-growing crime trends seen in the U.S. Using cutting-edge and predictive analysis, together, they will continue to evolve education, investigations, and fraud awareness as leaders in the industry. REPORT FRAUD: Anyone with information concerning insurance fraud or vehicle theft can report it anonymously by calling toll-free 800.TEL.NICB (800.835.6422) or submitting a form on our website. ABOUT THE NATIONAL INSURANCE CRIME BUREAU: Headquartered in Des Plaines, Ill., the NICB is the nation's leading not-for-profit organization exclusively dedicated to combatting and preventing insurance crime through Intelligence, Analytics, and Operations; Education and Crime Prevention; and Strategy, Policy, and Advocacy. The NICB is supported by more than 1,200 property and casualty insurance companies and self-insured organizations. NICB member companies wrote over $582 billion in insurance premiums in 2021, or more than 82% of the nation's property-casualty insurance. That includes more than 96% of the nation's personal auto insurance. To learn more, visit www.nicb.org. SOURCE National Insurance Crime Bureau DOYLESTOWN, Pa., Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- assisTek, a longtime leader in innovative eClinical technology and eSource solutions for clinical research, recently opened the doors to two new offices, strengthening relationships with customers both domestically and internationally. This expansion will allow the global business to boost offerings to customers and expand the capacity of assisTek and continue global growth. The offices are located in Copenhagen, Denmark and Charleston, South Carolina. New assisTek Office in Copenhagen, Denmark The expansion in Copenhagen will further serve all European customers and clients as well as increase the proximity to the European marketplace. "This is part of our global expansion of services and growing our presence in other places around the world, where we can further support our client's business needs. The new Copenhagen office will assist our team in providing unrivalled support to clientele based in Europe with an emphasis on those in the Nordic Region," says CEO of assisTek, Richard Gastineau. New assisTek Office in Charleston, South Carolina assisTek is also excited to open an office in the fast-growing Southeastern region. With multiple universities and a world class medical school, Charleston is on track to become a high-growth market in the Biotech industry. This team will support headquarters, located outside of Philadelphia, in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, as well as the satellite offices that assisTek operates. "This is another example of our continued support of our clients as our business further expands, both here in the US and Globally," said Richard Gastineau, CEO. "We pride ourselves on having an international reach and capabilities while maintaining the local presence and expertise that our customers trust us to provide, and both of these locations will advance those commitments and strategies." The expansion will allow assisTek to continue to provide a boutique experience as the company grows. assisTek also has offices located in Scottsdale, Arizona and Austin, Texas. About assisTek Founded in 1998, assisTek is an innovative technology company that provides software solutions for collecting patient data in the clinical research and healthcare industries. The TEK platform allows flexible adaptation and customization to support clients' needs and to optimize the patient experience. The success of every clinical research trial depends on clean, accurate data and assisTek's platform is designed with the patient in mind, resulting in more reliable reporting of outcomes and information. The eCOA solutions are highly scalable, customizable, and efficiently powered by a proven, cloud-based technology platform that are delivered with the resources of experienced project managers and customer support teams globally. Interested in learning more? Taliur Klein [email protected] 877-776-1046 www.assistek.com SOURCE assisTek Inc K-12 public schools across Arizona will commemorate the occasion with a wide range of activities, lessons, and competitions TEMPE, Ariz., Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University (SCETL) has partnered with the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute for American Democracy to celebrate Constitution Day (September 17, 2022) and the newly established Sandra Day O'Connor Civic Celebration Day, which will be observed on September 26 this year. Civic Celebration Day was signed into law in 2020 by Arizona Governor Doug Ducey to celebrate a day when a majority of classroom instruction in the state's K-12 public schools is devoted to civics education. School districts and charter schools across Arizona are encouraged to use a wide range of engaging activities to teach students about civics. The week honors Justice Sandra Day O'Connor taking her seat on the bench as the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court and commends her dedication to promoting civics education. "We are proud to partner with the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute for American Democracy to empower teachers, students, and Arizona citizens with civic education content," said Dr. Paul Carrese, founding director of the school. "As Justice O'Connor warned us, the country faces a civics crisis, and our school is ready to help bridge this alarming gap," he added. To commemorate the occasion, the Center for Political Thought and Leadership at ASU (CPTL), a center under the umbrella of SCETL, has developed and delivered extensive programming in the summer of 2022 for teachers and high school students on American civics. During the week between Constitution Day ( September 17, 2022 ) and Sandra Day O'Connor Civics Celebration Day ( September 26, 2022 ), CPTL will offer to provide expert visits to classrooms, connecting current issues and events with the principles of American civics; offer ready-made, short lesson plan designs; and present a special civics seminar for teachers hosted by CPTL in September and October. "The Center for Political Thought and Leadership at ASU has the sole mission of supporting civic education and we are grateful for Governor Ducey's commitment to civic education," said Dr. Lucian Spataro, interim director of the center. "Civic Celebration Day takes us one step closer to increase civic literacy in our state, and we are excited to provide teachers across Arizona with tools and content to share with their students," he added. As part of the collaborative effort, the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute for American Democracy will pay tribute to their founder by: On Monday, September 26 , launch its national O'Connor Civics Challenge for middle school students to express their civics knowledge through essays, art, music, poetry, or videos to earn laptops and other educational tools. , launch its national O'Connor Civics Challenge for middle school students to express their civics knowledge through essays, art, music, poetry, or videos to earn laptops and other educational tools. On Tuesday, September 27 , a reception will honor Justice O'Connor , including the impact she has made in Arizona . , a reception will honor , including the impact she has made in . On Wednesday, September 28 , the institute will present the webcast premiere "The Future of the Court" featuring professor Christina Rodriguez (Yale Law School and a former law clerk of Justice O'Connor ) and Adam White (American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. ). Rodriguez and White both served on the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States ; Rodriguez was the commission's co-chair. "Civics education is vitally important to Justice O'Connor and the Institute she founded," said Sarah Suggs, president and CEO of the Institute. "We are committed to multigenerational civics education, civil discourse and civic engagement, each embodied in the life work of Justice O'Connor and are honored to work with SCETL." The Sandra Day O'Connor Institute for American Democracy was founded by retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. The nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)(3), continues her distinguished legacy and lifetime work to advance American democracy through multigenerational civil discourse, civics education and civic engagement. Visit oconnorinstitute.org. The School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University (SCETL) is an academic unit inside The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Founded in 2017, the school combines liberal arts education with civic education, including outside-the-classroom learning experiences, to prepare students for leadership roles in the public and private sectors. The school also hosts a robust public program of civic education through its Civic Discourse Project, which addresses the pressing issues of our times and emphasizes civil disagreement. Visit scetl.asu.edu. The Center for Political Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University (CPTL) is part of the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at ASU. The center aims to further research in American political thought and to support civic education at all levels both within and beyond the classroom environment. The center supports scholars, teachers, and students in their efforts to understand and improve American political society. We are nonpartisan and inter-ideological, focused on the pursuit of knowledge and the practice of truth as common goods for American politics and culture. Visit cptl.asu.edu. SCETL Media Contact: Marcia Paterman Brookey: [email protected] | (918) 859-3013 O'Connor Institute Media Contact: Heather Schader: [email protected] | (602) 730-3300 x8 | @SDOInstitute SOURCE School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University Dr. Jamal Bryant, Life Beyond Water and Partners to Send 25 Tractor Trailers of Bottled Water to Jackson, Mississippi in Wake of Massive Water Crisis STONECREST, Ga., Sept. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- New Birth Missionary Baptist Church Senior Pastor Dr. Jamal Bryant announced a partnership that will provide thousands in Jackson, Mississippi with bottled water. Amid a lingering water crisis that has impacted families and businesses for weeks, Bryant has partnered with Life Beyond Water and others to send 25 tractor trailers of bottled water set to arrive this weekend. New Birth Missionary Baptist Church Senior Pastor Dr. Jamal Bryant announces partnership to provide thousands in Jackson, Mississippi with bottled water. The water distribution will take place on Saturday, Sept. 10, at 2 p.m. at New Horizon Church, 1770 Ellis Avenue in Jackson, Mississippi. A separate donation to Tougaloo College is also planned on the same day. "It's truly unfathomable for many of us to navigate one day without clean running water but for an entire city to be forced to endure unimaginable strife for an unseen about of time is truly a crisis of monumental proportions," said Dr. Bryant. "We are blessed to join Deion Sanders and others to rally around a community that still needs us more than ever." Additional partners joining this critical effort include the Congress of National Black Churches; Rev. Al Sharpton, National Action Network; Tamika Mallory of Until Freedom; Dr. Dharius Daniels, Change Church; Bishop William Murphy, III, The dReam Center Church of Atlanta; Bishop Samuel L. Green, Sr.,7th Episcopal District of the A.M.E. Church; Bishop TJ McBride, Tabernacle of Praise Church International; Bishop Kevin Adams. Olivet Baptist Church; Pastor Carlton Lynch, Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church; and Dr. John Faison, Watson Grove Baptist Church. New Birth Missionary Baptist Church will not be a donation site for water bottles but instead has leveraged its partnership with Life Beyond Water to mobilize this critical outreach effort to acquire the needed bottled water and onsite logistics. "We are immensely grateful for the initial financial support from our members and partners that have enabled us to advance this most urgent effort," said Bryant. "However, we know that the city's infrastructure remains in a dire state and will likely take some time to be fully repaired. Until then, clean water is not just a need of this community, it is a life-saving necessity." To make a donation for the Jackson relief effort, visit wearenewbirth.org . AT A GLANCE: Water Distribution Details (Jackson, MS) Date: Saturday, September 10, 2022, at 2:00 pm Time: 2 p.m. Location: New Horizon Church, 1770 Ellis Avenue, Jackson, MS 39204 Media Notes: Press availability with Dr. Jamal Bryant and additional partners at 1:45 pm Media Contact: Erik Burton | [email protected] | 770-294-8475 SOURCE New Birth Missionary Baptist Church The new eleven-person firm was created by two former Merrill Lynch teams in order to create a superior advisory experience for clients at any asset level INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Sanctuary Wealth, home to the next generation of elite advisors, welcomes its latest partner firm, Auric Capital Partners. The new firm was formed by the melding of two former Merrill Lynch teams Mittman & Associates, a Private Wealth Management Group team led by Michael J. Mittman, CEPA, CFA, CPWA in Denver as well as McKelvy Schellenberg & Associates, a traditional wealth management advisory team led by Luke R. McKelvy, CIMA and William A. Schellenberg and has offices in Orange County, California and Denver, CO. "We've been working hard over the past couple of years to enhance our ultra-high net worth solutions for Sanctuary partner firms and their clients," said Jim Dickson, CEO and Founder of Sanctuary Wealth. "Auric's decision to launch their new firm with Sanctuary is a testament to the breadth and depth of resources and capabilities that we've added on this front." "As an independent firm, we will now sit on the same side of the table with our clients and have the ability to provide truly objective advice, as our only goal is adding value to each client's financial future," said Michael Mittman, CEPA, CFA, CPWA, Partner, Managing Director, Advisory, Auric Capital Partners. "With Auric Capital Partners, we have assembled a team that has the scalability and expertise through the wealth management spectrum. Our firm has the ability to serve clients whether they have several hundred thousand dollars or several hundred million." Michael Mittman has 24 years of investment management experience, the last 14 with Merrill Private Wealth Management, where he worked with a small number of ultra-high-net-worth families, institutions, and private foundations. He has earned the Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA), Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Personal Investment Advisor, and Certified Private Wealth Advisor (CPWA) designations and has a degree in economics from Duke University. Prior to the launch of Auric Capital Partners, Luke McKelvy, and William A. Schellenberg each spent 25 years with Merrill Lynch Wealth Management and held the title of Wealth Management Advisor, Senior Vice President. McKelvy has earned the Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA) designation and is a graduate of Chapman University, while Schellenberg did his undergraduate work at University of Texas. Together they have worked to strategically align both sides of their clients' balance sheets in order to better position them for sustainable growth. "We made the decision to partner with Sanctuary Wealth rather than set up our own RIA because after decades in the wirehouse environment, we had a tremendous experience in serving clients, but did not want to have to take on the responsibility of things like compliance and technology that were outside of our comfort zones," said Luke McKelvy, CIMA, Partner, Managing Director, Operations, Auric Capital Partners. "Sanctuary offered us the type of support we were used to getting, but with the freedom to manage our business as we saw fit. We can own the client relationship and their information, and yet we have a strong partner to assist us on the aspects of the business that never touch the client. It's really the best of both worlds." Also joining Auric Capital as Partners are Jeffrey A. Dewees, Managing Director, Investments; Arman Melikian, Managing Director, Investments; and Jay Tamkoc Managing Director, Advisory. Additionally, the 11-person teams includes: Anna T. Walters, Vice President, Operations; Kristen Freeman, Vice President, Client Service; Meghan Ide, Senior Associate, Client Service; John Kincannon, Associate, Client Service; and Francine England, Associate, Client Service. "Auric Capital Partners serves as a great example of the flexibility that Sanctuary Wealth has to offer advisors seeking independence," said Vince Fertitta, President, Sanctuary Wealth. "The synergy that the union of these two great teams makes possible is not only a positive development for the advisors, but most importantly, it brings a lot more to their clients. Now that they are independent, they'll be able to have a truly bespoke relationship with their clients on their terms, without the distractions often found when employed by a large institution." "When we met with the team at Sanctuary, we were instantly comfortable with their culture and how they have constructed their business model," added William Schellenberg, Partner, Managing Director, Advisory, Auric Capital Partners. "It was a refreshing change from what we had experienced in the past and definitely got us excited." To learn more about Auric Capital Partners, please visit: www.auriccapital.com About Sanctuary Wealth Sanctuary Wealth (sanctuarywealth.com/) is the advanced platform for the next generation of elite advisors, who have the entrepreneurial spirit to build and own their own practices and desire the freedom to deliver the tailored service their clients deserve. Sanctuary Wealth's ecosystem of partnered independence provides a complete technology and operations platform, as well as support from a community of like-minded advisors and the resources of invaluable affiliated businesses. Currently, the Sanctuary Wealth network includes partner firms in 27 states across the country with approximately $25 billion in assets under advisement. Sanctuary Wealth includes the fully owned subsidiaries; Sanctuary Advisors LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser, Sanctuary Securities, Inc. a FINRA member broker-dealer as well as Sanctuary Alternative Holdings, Sanctuary Asset Management, Sanctuary Insurance Solutions, Sanctuary Global, and Sanctuary Global Family Office. CONTACT: Michaela Morales JConnelly 973 224 7152 [email protected] SOURCE Sanctuary Wealth Industry veteran brings extensive experience to accelerate EV charging growth PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y., Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Autel Energy, an EV charging and energy solutions provider, appointed John Thomas to lead its newly created North American business unit as Chief Operating Officer. John will oversee sales, marketing, manufacturing and strategy at Autel Energy and report to Chloe Hung, CEO of Autel U.S.A. Autel Energy COO John Thomas "John is the right person to lead Autel Energy through our dynamic growth," said Hung. "We are aggressively investing in people and products, positioning ourselves as a leading global player in the electric vehicle and energy space. Together, John and I will pursue the North American market, creating partnerships, growing initiatives and brand expansion, and maintaining and building on the strengths and culture of our core business." Thomas brings over 30 years of automotive, government relations and transportation expertise, including more than five years of leadership in the EV space. He previously served as president and CEO of Webasto Charging Systems Inc., leading the organization's transition from its core business as a Tier I automotive parts supplier to the EV charging space. He set a comprehensive strategy leading to substantial business growth and transformation. "As the nation pivots toward renewable energy solutions, Autel Energy is poised to help the transition through disruptive technology that benefits our team, our customers and the planet," said Thomas. "As Autel Energy embarks on its journey to becoming a powerhouse in the North American market, I am confident that my experience, combined with Autel Energy's products and value proposition, will drive the company into a leading position in the EV market during this pivotal moment." Autel Energy is a global company focused on positively impacting carbon neutrality through developing and deploying sustainable infrastructure solutions. These solutions help accelerate the adoption of clean vehicles and technologies. Autel Energy's mission is to set the industry standards for quality, reliability, functionality and value through comprehensive turnkey energy management solutions. Learn more about Autel Energy at www.autelenergy.com. About Autel Established in 2004, Autelan abbreviation of Automotive Intelligenceis built on innovation, quality, performance and excellent service. The company is an automotive leader offering a complete line of premium diagnostic, alignment and calibration tools and components for automobiles, including Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS) and components, EV and traditional battery testing and diagnostic tools, tire alignment systems and vehicle diagnostics hardware and software. Autel's products are sold through and to large national distributions, national and regional retailers, independent shops and repair shops. About Autel Energy Autel Energy's vision is to create a seamless customer experience to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles and energy management solutions worldwide. Autel Energy makes advanced products accessible and convenient for residential and commercial users, offering hardware, software, apps and cloud-based solutions to cover almost every use case and application. This includes world-class charging hardware for A/C (Level 2) home and commercial, D/C Bi-directional, V2X applications and D/C (Level 3) fast charging from 60kW to 480kW with innovative configurability and modularity SOURCE Autel Energy LAVAL, QC, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bausch Health Companies Inc. (NYSE/TSX: BHC) ("the Company"), and its gastroenterology business Salix Pharmaceuticals, today responded to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) tentative approval of the Norwich Pharmaceuticals rifaximin 200 mg product. The Company understands this was a Paragraph III filing. A Paragraph III filing is made when an Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) applicant does not intend to market its generic product until the patent expiration. The FDA will therefore not grant full approval until the expiry of the last of the Company's Orange Book listed patents for the XIFAXAN (rifaximin) 200 mg product on July 24, 2029. XIFAXAN 200 mg is indicated for travelers' diarrhea and currently contributes less than 1 percent of Salix revenues. About XIFAXAN XIFAXAN (rifaximin) 200 mg tablets are indicated for travelers' diarrhea. XIFAXAN (rifaximin) 550 mg tablets are indicated for the reduction in risk of overt hepatic encephalopathy (HE) recurrence in adults and for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea (IBS-D) in adults. About Salix Salix Pharmaceuticals is one of the largest specialty pharmaceutical companies in the world committed to the prevention and treatment of gastrointestinal diseases. For more than 30 years, Salix has licensed, developed and marketed innovative products to improve patients' lives and arm health care providers with life-changing solutions for many chronic and debilitating conditions. Salix currently markets its product line to U.S. health care providers through an expanded sales force that focuses on gastroenterology, hepatology, pain specialists and primary care. Salix is headquartered in Bridgewater, New Jersey. For more information about Salix, visit www.Salix.com and connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn. About Bausch Health Bausch Health Companies Inc. (NYSE/TSX: BHC) is a global diversified pharmaceutical company whose mission is to improve people's lives with our health care products. We develop, manufacture and market a range of products primarily in gastroenterology, hepatology, neurology, dermatology, international pharmaceuticals and eye health, through our approximately 90% ownership of Bausch + Lomb Corporation. With our leading durable brands, we are delivering on our commitments as we build an innovative company dedicated to advancing global health. For more information, visit www.bauschhealth.com and connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn. Forward-looking Statements This news release may contain forward-looking statements about the future performance of Bausch Health, which may generally be identified by the use of the words "anticipates," "hopes," "expects," "intends," "plans," "should," "could," "would," "may," "believes," "subject to" and variations or similar expressions, including statements about the Company's intentions to file an appeal with respect to, and take actions to vigorously defend, its intellectual property. These statements are based upon the current expectations and beliefs of management and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. In particular, Bausch Health can offer no assurance as to the timing of any approval by the FDA of any ANDA or amended ANDA and as to the outcome of any appeal. Actual results are subject to other risks and uncertainties that relate more broadly to Bausch Health's overall business, including those more fully described in Bausch Health's most recent annual report on Form 10-K and detailed from time to time in Bausch Health's other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Canadian securities administrators, which factors are incorporated herein by reference. SOURCE Bausch Health Companies Inc. DIAMOND BAR, Calif., Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- As academic institutes around the globe fully reopen their campuses to students, the market need for cozy dorm bedding has also been steadily and rapidly increasing. Bedsure recognized the demand and offered incoming and returning dorm residents the most affordable dorm room essentials bundles. The thoughtfully selected items in the bundles have been well received with a near-instant sell-out. With the new school year starting on most campuses, Bedsure has restocked its back-to-school lineup to help those who haven't been able to get cozy to turn their empty dorm room into a cozy den. Sold Out in Days In early June, Bedsure officially kicked off its first-ever Back-To-School program with four carefully selected bundles aiming to address the needs of various incoming dorm residents. Among the four convenient and affordable bundle offerings, the two budget-friendly Bedsure Dorm Room Essential Bundles received the most popularity and were sold out within eight days. The popularity of the Bedsure Dorm Room Essential Bundle and the Bedsure Dorm Room Essential Bundle Special Edition came as no surprise, as the bundles addressed several problems that a dorm resident could face during the new exciting life chapter. Affordable All the bundles were offered at unprecedented affordability with savings of at least 50% compared to market competition. The Bedsure back-to-school dorm room essential bundles come with everything one needs and more to turn their dorm into a cozy den for just $99.99. Conveniently making cozy sleep in a dorm room is no longer a luxury. "perfect for a college student." A verified customer by the name of Keke Whitehead said about the Bedsure Reversible Comforter Set included in the bundle. Convenient The 9-piece bundle is a one-time purchase option that includes two pillows, one pillow sham, one pillowcase, one flat sheet, one fitted sheet, one comforter, one bed skirt, and one mattress pad. The bundle is the perfect option for those moving into a dorm and can effortlessly and comprehensively decorate a dorm bed with just one purchase. Cozy No corners are cut with the Bedsure dorm bundles. The included mattress pad adds cushioning to the stiff mattress for extra softness and comfort, providing hardworking students with a cloud-like sleeping experience after a long school day. The bundled microfiber comforter is soft but sturdy. Its diamond pattern quilting brings durability and year-round coziness to dorm life. In addition, the two Bedsure Hotel Pillows bring a luxury hotel-like experience to the dorm, ensuring sufficient rest time to wake up completely refreshed. "I used this for my mattress in my dorm and it absolutely saved my life! I did not feel a single spring from my mattress." A verified customer by the name of Brianna Zunun said about the Bedsure Quilted Mattress Pad. All of the bundles help incoming and returning dorm residents to prepare for their new dorm life with the home-like coziness at a valuable cost with just one purchase. Last Call The Bedsure dorm room essential bundles were sold out in as little as eight days. As college campuses around the nation revitalize, Bedsure is making more units available in the first come, first serve fashion, for those still struggling to find the right bedding to get cozy at their empty college dorm. For Bedsure's full Back-to-School offering, please visit: https://www.amazon.com/stores/BEDSURE/page/8D364C1E-A5B5-4A23-BED7-91D5BBCF3D8E?ref_=ast_bln About Bedsure From the moment you wake up to the second you fall asleep, Bedsure aims to make you and your family comfortable. Founded in 2016, Bedsure is a leading home textile manufacturer with products sold to over 25 million customers in the US and Europe. Since its founding, Bedsure has maintained a compound growth rate of 100% for five consecutive years. While Bedsure has grown into a global company with diverse products to meet different customer needs, its focus on comfortable home products and everyday value stays the same. SOURCE Bedsure Bioactive Wound Dressing Market Vendors The growing competition in the market is compelling vendors to adopt various growth strategies such as promotional activities and spending on advertisements to improve the visibility of their services. Some vendors are also adopting inorganic growth strategies such as M&As to remain competitive in the market. 3M Co. Co. Axio Biosolutions Pvt Ltd B. Braun SE Coloplast AS ConvaTec Group Plc Covalon Technologies Ltd. DermaRite Industries LLC ETS Wound Care LLC Hollister Inc. Integra Lifesciences Holdings Corp. Johnson and Johnson Mediterra Medtronic Plc Product Insights and News integralife.com: This business sells a product called Integra Wound Matrix which is made of a porous matrix made of cross-linked bovine tendon collagen and glycosaminoglycan. This business sells a product called Integra Wound Matrix which is made of a porous matrix made of cross-linked bovine tendon collagen and glycosaminoglycan. Hollister.com - This company sells a variety of bioactive wound dressings, including CalciCare Calcium Alginate Dressing, CalciCare Calcium Alginate Dressing Silver, Hollister Incorporated Restore foam, Hydrocolloid Dressing Sterile, and Hydrocolloid Dressing with Foam Backing. - This company sells a variety of bioactive wound dressings, including CalciCare Calcium Alginate Dressing, CalciCare Calcium Alginate Dressing Silver, Hollister Incorporated Restore foam, Hydrocolloid Dressing Sterile, and Hydrocolloid Dressing with Foam Backing. etswoundcare.com - This business sells MIRRAGEN, a bioactive product made of glass fibres and borate that is bioabsorbable. Find additional highlights on the growth strategies adopted by vendors and their product offerings, Buy Sample Report. Bioactive Wound Dressing Market Geographical Landscape North America will account for 36% of the market's growth over the forecasted timeframe. The bioactive wound dressing market in North America is mostly centered in the US. The market in this region will expand more slowly than markets in other regions. Over the course of the projection period, the expansion of the North American market for bioactive wound dressings will be supported by the opening of new urgent care centres. Bioactive Wound Dressing Market Segmentation The market share growth for bioactive wound dressings in the moist wound care sector would be high. The largest source of income for the worldwide bioactive wound dressing market is the moist wound dressings segment. This is because of its many benefits, which include promoting quick wound healing, offering improved autolytic debridement, promoting collagen synthesis, and minimizing scarring and pain associated with wounds. Additionally, a lot of end-users are choosing moist wound dressings more frequently because they keep the area surrounding the wound site moist, assure oxygen flow, eliminate dead tissues, offer protection from external infection, are affordable, and are simple to apply. Download a free sample report Related Reports: Medical Cyclotron Market by Product and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026: The medical cyclotron market share is expected to increase by USD 64.27 million from 2021 to 2026, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 5.8%. Laboratory Bottle-top Dispenser Market by End-user and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2022-2026: The laboratory bottle-top dispenser market share is expected to increase by USD 153.1 million from 2021 to 2026, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 5.44%. Bioactive Wound Dressing Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 5.63% Market growth 2022-2026 $ 1.17 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 5.06 Regional analysis North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of World (ROW) Performing market contribution North America at 36% Key consumer countries US, Germany, France, UK, and Japan Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled 3M Co., Axio Biosolutions Pvt Ltd, B. Braun SE, Coloplast AS, ConvaTec Group Plc, Covalon Technologies Ltd., DermaRite Industries LLC, ETS Wound Care LLC, Hollister Inc., Integra Lifesciences Holdings Corp., Johnson and Johnson, Mediterra, Medtronic Plc, MiMedx Group Inc., Molnlycke Health Care AB, Organogenesis Inc., Paul Hartmann AG, Smith and Nephew plc, and UEG Medical Market Dynamics Parent market analysis, Market growth inducers and obstacles, Fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and future consumer dynamics, and 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. Browse for Technavio "Health Care" Research Reports 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 Incremental Growth Exhibit 07: Executive Summary Data Table on Incremental Growth Exhibit 08: Executive Summary Chart on Vendor Market Positioning 2 Market Landscape 2.1 Market ecosystem Exhibit 09: Parent market Exhibit 10: Market Characteristics 3 Market Sizing 3.1 Market definition Exhibit 11: Offerings of vendors included in the market definition 3.2 Market segment analysis Exhibit 12: Market segments 3.3 Market size 2021 3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2021-2026 Exhibit 13: Chart on Global - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 14: Data Table on Global - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 15: Chart on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 16: Data Table on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 4 Five Forces Analysis 4.1 Five forces summary Exhibit 17: Five forces analysis - Comparison between 2021 and 2026 4.2 Bargaining power of buyers Exhibit 18: Chart on Bargaining power of buyers Impact of key factors 2021 and 2026 4.3 Bargaining power of suppliers Exhibit 19: Bargaining power of suppliers Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.4 Threat of new entrants Exhibit 20: Threat of new entrants Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.5 Threat of substitutes Exhibit 21: Threat of substitutes Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.6 Threat of rivalry Exhibit 22: Threat of rivalry Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.7 Market condition Exhibit 23: Chart on Market condition - Five forces 2021 and 2026 5 Market Segmentation by Type 5.1 Market segments Exhibit 24: Chart on Type - Market share 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 25: Data Table on Type - Market share 2021-2026 (%) 5.2 Comparison by Type Exhibit 26: Chart on Comparison by Type Exhibit 27: Data Table on Comparison by Type 5.3 Moist wound care - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 28: Chart on Moist wound care - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 29: Data Table on Moist wound care - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 30: Chart on Moist wound care - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 31: Data Table on Moist wound care - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.4 Active wound care - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 32: Chart on Active wound care - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 33: Data Table on Active wound care - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 34: Chart on Active wound care - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 35: Data Table on Active wound care - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.5 Antimicrobial care - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 36: Chart on Antimicrobial care - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 37: Data Table on Antimicrobial care - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 38: Chart on Antimicrobial care - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 39: Data Table on Antimicrobial care - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.6 Market opportunity by Type Exhibit 40: Market opportunity by Type ($ million) 6 Customer Landscape 6.1 Customer landscape overview Exhibit 41: Analysis of price sensitivity, lifecycle, customer purchase basket, adoption rates, and purchase criteria 7 Geographic Landscape 7.1 Geographic segmentation Exhibit 42: Chart on Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 43: Data Table on Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%) 7.2 Geographic comparison Exhibit 44: Chart on Geographic comparison Exhibit 45: Data Table on Geographic comparison 7.3 North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 46: Chart on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 47: Data Table on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 48: Chart on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 49: Data Table on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.4 Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 50: Chart on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 51: Data Table on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 52: Chart on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 53: Data Table on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.5 Asia - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 54: Chart on Asia - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 55: Data Table on Asia - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 56: Chart on Asia - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 57: Data Table on Asia - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.6 Rest of World (ROW) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 58: Chart on Rest of World (ROW) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 59: Data Table on Rest of World (ROW) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 60: Chart on Rest of World (ROW) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 61: Data Table on Rest of World (ROW) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.7 US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 62: Chart on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 63: Data Table on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 64: Chart on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 65: Data Table on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.8 Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 66: Chart on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 67: Data Table on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 68: Chart on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 69: Data Table on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.9 France - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 70: Chart on France - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 71: Data Table on France - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 72: Chart on France - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 73: Data Table on France - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.10 UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 74: Chart on UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 75: Data Table on UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 76: Chart on UK - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 77: Data Table on UK - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.11 Japan - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 78: Chart on Japan - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 79: Data Table on Japan - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 80: Chart on Japan - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 81: Data Table on Japan - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.12 Market opportunity by geography Exhibit 82: Market opportunity by geography ($ million) 8 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends 8.1 Market drivers 8.2 Market challenges 8.3 Impact of drivers and challenges Exhibit 83: Impact of drivers and challenges in 2021 and 2026 8.4 Market trends 9 Vendor Landscape 9.1 Overview 9.2 Vendor landscape Exhibit 84: Overview on Criticality of inputs and Factors of differentiation 9.3 Landscape disruption Exhibit 85: Overview on factors of disruption 9.4 Industry risks Exhibit 86: Impact of key risks on business 10 Vendor Analysis 10.1 Vendors covered Exhibit 87: Vendors covered 10.2 Market positioning of vendors Exhibit 88: Matrix on vendor position and classification 10.3 3M Co. Co. Exhibit 89: 3M Co. - Overview Co. - Overview Exhibit 90: 3M Co. - Business segments Co. - Business segments Exhibit 91: 3M Co. - Key news Co. - Key news Exhibit 92: 3M Co. - Key offerings Co. - Key offerings Exhibit 93: 3M Co. - Segment focus 10.4 B . Braun SE . Braun SE Exhibit 94: B. Braun SE - Overview Exhibit 95: B. Braun SE - Business segments Exhibit 96: B. Braun SE - Key news Exhibit 97: B. Braun SE - Key offerings Exhibit 98: B. Braun SE - Segment focus 10.5 Coloplast AS Exhibit 99: Coloplast AS - Overview Exhibit 100: Coloplast AS - Business segments Exhibit 101: Coloplast AS - Key news Exhibit 102: Coloplast AS - Key offerings Exhibit 103: Coloplast AS - Segment focus 10.6 ConvaTec Group Plc Exhibit 104: ConvaTec Group Plc - Overview Exhibit 105: ConvaTec Group Plc - Product / Service Exhibit 106: ConvaTec Group Plc - Key news Exhibit 107: ConvaTec Group Plc - Key offerings 10.7 Covalon Technologies Ltd. Exhibit 108: Covalon Technologies Ltd. - Overview Exhibit 109: Covalon Technologies Ltd. - Business segments Exhibit 110: Covalon Technologies Ltd. - Key offerings Exhibit 111: Covalon Technologies Ltd. - Segment focus 10.8 DermaRite Industries LLC Exhibit 112: DermaRite Industries LLC - Overview Exhibit 113: DermaRite Industries LLC - Product / Service Exhibit 114: DermaRite Industries LLC - Key offerings 10.9 ETS Wound Care LLC Exhibit 115: ETS Wound Care LLC - Overview Exhibit 116: ETS Wound Care LLC - Product / Service Exhibit 117: ETS Wound Care LLC - Key offerings 10.10 Hollister Inc. Exhibit 118: Hollister Inc. - Overview Exhibit 119: Hollister Inc. - Product / Service Exhibit 120: Hollister Inc. - Key offerings 10.11 Integra Lifesciences Holdings Corp. Exhibit 121: Integra Lifesciences Holdings Corp. - Overview Exhibit 122: Integra Lifesciences Holdings Corp. - Business segments Exhibit 123: Integra Lifesciences Holdings Corp. - Key news Exhibit 124: Integra Lifesciences Holdings Corp. - Key offerings Exhibit 125: Integra Lifesciences Holdings Corp. - Segment focus 10.12 Paul Hartmann AG Exhibit 126: Paul Hartmann AG - Overview Exhibit 127: Paul Hartmann AG - Business segments Exhibit 128: Paul Hartmann AG - Key offerings Exhibit 129: Paul Hartmann AG - Segment focus 11 Appendix 11.1 Scope of the report 11.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist Exhibit 130: Inclusions checklist Exhibit 131: Exclusions checklist 11.3 Currency conversion rates for US$ Exhibit 132: Currency conversion rates for US$ 11.4 Research methodology Exhibit 133: Research methodology Exhibit 134: Validation techniques employed for market sizing Exhibit 135: Information sources 11.5 List of abbreviations Exhibit 136: List of abbreviations About Technavio Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. Contacts 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 CHICAGO, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Biocontrol Market is estimated to be valued at USD 6.6 billion in 2022. It is projected to reach USD 13.7 billion by 2027, recording a CAGR of 15.8% from 2022 to 2027, according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets. Some macroeconomic and microeconomic elements that have been prevalent in some important countries have had an impact on the global biocontrol market. In terms of value sales, this would be strong enough to significantly influence the market during the predicted period. The need for biocontrol crop protection solutions in the agricultural sector has been greatly increased by the surge in demand and preference for organic food products, pest resistance management, residue management, and environmental restrictions. Biopesticides and semiochemicals are safer alternatives to conventional chemical-based pesticides. Download PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=216657040 Browse in-depth TOC on "Biocontrol Market" 542 Tables 58 Figures 393 Pages A wide variety of biocontrol products are available in the North American market offered by Marrone Bio Innovations. The organic market is expanding quickly. According to a FiBL survey on organic farming conducted in 2020, there has been an increase in the amount of organic farmland by 3 million hectares (4.1%), the number of organic farmers, and the sale of organic goods. The market for biocontrol in North America is expanding as a result of the growing acceptance of organic products due to their alleged health benefits, environmental legislation, pest resistance management, and residue management. Because of this, Marrone Bio Innovations, a US-based company, invests heavily in its R&D and provides a variety of biopesticides.It is notable to observe that, the company also has commercialized bioherbicides such as MBI-006, which gives it a competitive edge over other players that miss the product in their offerings. Semiochemicals market is a relatively untapped and small market in comparison to biopesticides segment Semiochemicals are relatively less commercialized than biopesticides in the market. This is due to consumer perception that semiochemicals are comparatively less effective. However, the segment is gradually paving its way in the biocontrol market. Extensive research on developing semiochemical based crop protection solutions are undertaken by companies to tap the segment's potential. Several recent strategic initiatives such as, FMC's acquisition of BioPhero Aps (Denmark), a pheromone research and production company, and Syngenta AG's collaboration with France based pheromone solutions technology provider M2i Life Sciences are evident that the key players are investing in the niche market and semiochemicals market will grow at a significant rate in the coming future. During the forecast period, the segment for fruits and vegetables is expected to increase at the highest CAGR of 16.2%. High-value specialty crops like fruits and vegetables are often produced in greenhouses and open fields. Due to the increase in health conscious consumers in recent years, the demand for healthy, organic foods like fruits and vegetables has increased, which has led to a change in crop production to specialty crops. Crop farmers profit more from high value crops. Input into agriculture is therefore consistently greater. Along with biopesticides, several pheromone-based solutions are also majorly used in the crop type due to the semiochemicals' efficacy to control pests in fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables are also the most exported crop types in the organic sector. Thus, to comply with import regulations especially in the North American and European countries, fruits and vegetables segment consume a large share of biocontrol and the demand is projected to grow at the fastest rate during the forecast period. Request Sample Pages: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsampleNew.asp?id=216657040 Europe is projected to reach USD 4,292.8 million during the forecast period. According to estimates, Europe will hold a market share of 30.4% of the worldwide biocontrol industry in 2022. The Farm to Fork Strategy and proposals like a 50% reduction in chemical pesticides by 2030, which ensure environmental sustainability and food safety, are driving forces behind the European biocontrol sector. Since European consumers are also well-informed, there is a huge demand for organic food products. In the application of biopesticides and semiochemicals, Europe has an advantage over other regions due to its excellent technological infrastructure. As a result, the market is anticipated to experience the fastest rate of growth over the projection period, expanding to USD 4,292.8 million by 2027. The key players in this market include BASF SE(Germany), Bayer AG (Germany), and Syngenta AG (Switzerland). Get 10% Free Customization on this Report: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestCustomizationNew.asp?id=216657040 Browse Adjacent Reports: Agriculture Industry Market Research Reports & Consulting Related Reports: Biopesticides Market by Type (Bioinsecticides, Biofungicides, Bionematicides, and Bioherbicides), Source (Microbials, Biochemicals, and Beneficial Insects), Mode of Application, Formulation (Dry, Liquid), Crop Type and Region - Global Forecast to 2027 Agricultural Biologicals Market by Function, Product Type (Microbials, Macrobials, Semiochemicals, Natural products), Mode of Application (Foliar Spray, Soil and Seed treatment), Crop Type and Region - Global Forecast to 2027 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/biocontrol-market.asp Visit Our Website: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ Content Source: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/biocontrol.asp Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/660509/MarketsandMarkets_Logo.jpg SOURCE MarketsandMarkets Growing number of blood banks and blood infusion centers, rise in the number of road accidents and trauma cases, increase in blood-related disorders, and surge in adoption of in-vitro fertilization drive the growth of the global biomedical warming and thawing devices market. PORTLAND, Ore., Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Biomedical Warming and Thawing Devices Market by Product (Manual, Automatic), by Sample Type (Blood Product, Stem cell, Embryo, Ovum, Others), by End User (Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Companies, Hospitals and Diagnostic Laboratories, Blood Banks and stem cell banks): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2022-2031." According to the report, the global biomedical warming and thawing devices industry generated $159.3 million in 2021, and is estimated to reach $376.7 million by 2031, witnessing a CAGR of 9.1% from 2022 to 2031. The report offers a detailed analysis of changing market trends, top segments, key investment pockets, value chain, regional landscape, and competitive scenario. Download Sample Report- https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/11250 Drivers and Opportunities Growing number of blood banks and blood infusion centers, rise in the number of road accidents and trauma cases, increase in blood-related disorders, and surge in adoption of in-vitro fertilization fuel the growth of the global biomedical warming and thawing devices market. However, concerns regarding large batch sizes and strict regulatory guidelines relating to the use of cryopreserved and thawed biomedical products hinder the market growth. On the other hand, rise in the number of R&D activities, increase in use of biomedical warming and thawing devices in biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, technological advancement in the healthcare sector, and rise in expenditure by government to develop healthcare infrastructure present new opportunities in the market. Covid-19 Scenario The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic hampered the growth of the global biomedical warming and thawing devices market. Due to strict laws and lockdown rules, there were less road traffic accidents, reduced number of blood donation campaigns, and less number of in-vitro fertilization cases, which hindered the growth of biomedical warming and thawing device market. Conversely, with the pandemic receding, companies in the space began their operations at their full swing and the market is in the path of recovery. Get detailed COVID-19 impact analysis on the Biomedical Warming and Thawing Devices Market- https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-for-customization/11250?reqfor=covid The automatic segment to dominate the market in terms of revenue during the forecast period Based on product, the automatic segment contributed to the largest share of nearly three-fourths of the global biomedical warming and thawing devices market in 2021, and is expected to rule the roost during the forecast period. Moreover, the same segment is projected to witness the fastest CAGR of 9.3% from 2022 to 2031, owing to increase in the usage of automatic warming and thawing device for storage of cryopreserved items and the effectiveness of the devices to store them. The blood product segment to maintain its lion's share during the forecast period Based on sample type, the blood product segment held the largest share of more than two-fifths of the global biomedical warming and thawing devices market in 2021, and is expected to maintain a prominent growth during the forecast period. Moreover, the same segment is likely to exhibit the highest CAGR of 9.9% in 2031. This is due to increase in the blood donation activity, rise in the prevalence of blood disorders, and increase in the number of blood banks. The biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies segment to maintain its lion's share during the forecast period Based on end user, the biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies segment held the largest share of more than two-fifths of the global biomedical warming and thawing devices market in 2021, and is expected to maintain a noteworthy growth during the forecast period. Moreover, the same segment is likely to exhibit the highest CAGR of 9.4% in 2031. This is due to the rise in number of pharmaceutical companies and increase in initiatives taken by governments to develop the healthcare infrastructure. For Purchase Inquiry- https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/11250 Asia-Pacific to achieve the fastest growth by 2031 Based on region, Asia-Pacific is anticipated to manifest the fastest CAGR of 10.0% during the forecast period, 2022-2031, owing to increase in the activity of blood donation, rise in the number of blood banks and blood transfusion centers, and increase in expenditure by governments to develop the healthcare sector in the region. However, North America held the largest market share in 2021, accounting for more than one-third of the global biomedical warming and thawing devices market, and is likely to lead the trail throughout the forecast period, owing to the presence of key players and technological advancement in the healthcare sector in the region. Leading Market Players Barkey GmbH & Co. Kg Boekel Scientific Cardinal Health Conroy Medical AB. Cytiva CytoTherm Eppendorf Farrar Scientific Fisher Scientific PTE LTD (Thermo Fisher Scientific) FreMon Scientific, Inc. GE Helmer Scientific KW Apparecchi Scientifici Sarstedt AG & Co. KG Sartorius AG Thaw World Medical Ltd Official Press Release- https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/press-release/biomedical-warming-and-thawing-devices-market.html Similar Research Reports for Information, Communication and Technology: Gas Chromatography Market- Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030 Medical Electrodes Market- Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030 3D Cell Culture Market- Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030 Neurovascular Devices Market- Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030 Viral Vector and Plasmid DNA Manufacturing Market- Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20212030 AVENUE- A Subscription-Based Library (Premium on-demand, subscription-based pricing model): AMR introduces its online premium subscription-based library Avenue, designed specifically to offer cost-effective, one-stop solution for enterprises, investors, and universities. With Avenue, subscribers can avail an entire repository of reports on more than 2,000 niche industries and more than 12,000 company profiles. Moreover, users can get an online access to quantitative and qualitative data in PDF and Excel formats along with analyst support, customization, and updated versions of reports. Get an access to the library of reports at any time from any device and anywhere. For more details, follow the link: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/library-access About Allied Market Research: 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 domains. AMR offers its services across 11 industry verticals including Life Sciences, Consumer Goods, Materials & Chemicals, Construction & Manufacturing, Food & Beverages, Energy & Power, Semiconductor & Electronics, Automotive & Transportation, ICT & Media, Aerospace & Defense, and BFSI. 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 Toll Free: +1-800-792-5285 UK: +44-845-528-1300 Hong Kong: +852-301-84916 India (Pune): +91-20-66346060 Fax: +1-855-550-5975 [email protected] Web: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/636519/Allied_Market_Research_Logo.jpg SOURCE Allied Market Research TORONTO, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Braxia Scientific Corp. ("Braxia Scientific", or the "Company"), (CSE: BRAX) (OTC: BRAXF) (FWB: 4960), a medical research and telemedicine company with clinics providing innovative ketamine and psilocybin treatments for depression and related disorders, is pleased to announce its participation at the H.C. Wainwright Global Annual Global Investment Conference being held in New York, September 12-14, 2022. CEO Dr. Roger McIntyre will present virtually during the conference providing a update on its recently acquired U.S. based telemedicine business, KetaMD, as well as its progress expanding the clinical research infrastructure required to execute on the Company's growing pipeline of registered clinical trials alongside third-party sponsors. The on-demand session will be available at 7:00 a.m. ET Monday September 12, 2022. Dr. McIntyre will also be available to host one-on-one meetings with institutional investors registered with H.C. Wainwright. About Braxia Scientific Corp. Braxia Scientific is a medical research and telemedicine company with clinics that provide innovative ketamine treatments for persons with depression and related disorders. Braxia also launched its U.S. based end-to-end telemedicine platform KetaMD, that utilizes leading technology to provide access to safe, affordable, and potentially life-changing at-home ketamine treatments for people living with depression and related mental health conditions. Through its medical solutions, Braxia aims to reduce the illness burden of brain-based disorders, such as major depressive disorder among others. Braxia is primarily focused on (i) owning and operating multidisciplinary clinics, providing treatments in-person and virtually for mental health disorders, and (ii) research activities related to discovering and commercializing novel drugs and delivery methods. Braxia seeks to develop ketamine and derivatives and other psychedelic products from its IP development platform. Through its wholly owned subsidiary, Braxia Health (formerly the Canadian Rapid Treatment Center of Excellence Inc.), operates multidisciplinary community-based clinics offering rapid-acting treatments for depression located in Mississauga, Toronto, Kitchener-Waterloo, Ottawa, and Montreal. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD "Dr. Roger S. McIntyre" Dr. Roger S. McIntyre Chairman & CEO The CSE has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the accuracy or adequacy of this release. Forward-looking Information Cautionary Statement This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements that are not historical facts, future estimates, plans, programs, forecasts, projections, objectives, assumptions, expectations, or beliefs of future performance are "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements include statements about the intended promise of ketamine-based treatments for depression, the potential for ketamine or other psychedelics to treat other mental health conditions, the integration plans for Braxia and KetaMD, the intention to conduct further clinical trials, the expected growth of at-home telemedicine, the expected benefit and synergies of Braxia and KetaMD and the expectation to expand to areas other than Florida. Such forward- looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, events, or developments to be materially different from any future results, events or developments expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, the failure of ketamine, psilocybin and other psychedelics to provide the expected health benefits and unanticipated side effects, dependence on obtaining and maintaining regulatory approvals, including acquiring and renewing federal, provincial, municipal, local or other licenses and engaging in activities that could be later determined to be illegal under domestic or international laws. Ketamine and psilocybin are currently Schedule I and Schedule III controlled substances, respectively, under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, S.C. 1996, c. 19 (the "CDSA") and it is a criminal offence to possess such substances under the CDSA without a prescription or a legal exemption. Health Canada has not approved psilocybin as a drug for any indication, however ketamine is a legally permissible medication for the treatment of certain psychological conditions. It is illegal to possess such substances in Canada without a prescription. These factors should be considered carefully, and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Although the Company has attempted to identify important risk factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other risk factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Additional information identifying risks and uncertainties that could affect financial results is contained in the Company's filings with Canadian securities regulators, including the Amended and Restated Listing Statement dated April 15, 2021 and its most recent MD&A, which are available at www.sedar.com. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in forward-looking statements. Website: www.braxiascientific.com SOURCE Braxia Scientific Corp. NEW HAVEN, Conn., Sept. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Nearly 25 years after graduating from Yale, acclaimed Grammy Award-winning musician, composer, arranger, guitarist Bryce Dessner returns to New Haven to embark on a multi-year residency as the inaugural Artist-in-Residence at the newly opened Yale Schwarzman Center (YSC), in collaboration with extraordinary musicians, artists, thinkers, and doers at and beyond Yale, and produced in partnership with ArKtype / Thomas O. Kriegsmann. As a feature of the multi-project residency, Dessner has assembled and commissioned new multi-disciplinary works from a roster of women creators to be performed this season including Julia Bullock, Ash Fure, Nathalie Joachim, Kaneza Schaal & Anna Thorvaldsdottir whose work amplifies their lived experiences across gender, race, and culture. Each artist, including Dessner, will spend time on Yale's campus engaging in research as they develop new works to debut at YSC beginning this fall and extending into the next year, as well as a major new theatrical project produced by ArKtype in association with partners worldwide. The Dessner residency series of commissioned works will be free and open to the public. Additionally, Dessner will offer master classes to students and alumni, various public events, and will join events hosted for the New Haven community. "Julia, Ash, Nathalie, Kaneza and Anna are artists with a capital Athey defy genres and blur boundaries between space, composition, and performance," said Dessner. "I'm excited to harness our collaborative energy as we build a community for students, local musicians, and in my case, old colleagues and friendsto be able to expose them to new kinds of genres, new experiences, and all the possibilities within and beyond the music industry." In spring 2023, Dessner will punctuate his time in New Haven performing with his pioneering minimalist group Dream House Quartet. The group will present US and world premieres of works commissioned by YSC by Dessner and Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir, among additional works by Radiohead's Thom Yorke, Philip Glass and more. Formed in 2018, Dream House Quartet fuses classical and contemporary musical forms, featuring luminaries Katia and Marielle Labeque on duelling pianos along with Dessner and David Chalmin on electric guitars to perform genre-bending compositions. Following the slate of new commissions, Dessner will embark on the creation of a new music-theater work in partnership with acclaimed Director Kaneza Schaal to be announced and premiered in future seasons. Most music fans know Dessner as one of the five members of The National, one of the most celebrated indie-rock bands of recent years and winner of a Grammy Award for best alternative album for its "Sleep Well Beast" (2017). The National continues to perform globally at major venues and festivals like Pitchfork, Primavera Sound, All Points East and Lollapalooza. With compositions and performances that zig zag between classical or contemporary, electro, rock and jazz, Dessner has worked with artists such as Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Paul Simon, Sufjan Stevens, Nico Muhly, Jonny Greenwood, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Justin Peck, Ragnar Kjartansson, Katia and Marielle Labeque, and Taylor Swift, among others. "I'm most often inspired by people who are different than me, who have a challenging idea, and so, I tend to enjoy working not only with untrained musicians, student musicians, musicians from different cultures, but also non-musical partners like writers, choreographers, filmmakers and visual artists," said Dessner. "That's why I am eager to reconnect with a deeper well at the Yale Schwarzman Center and truly give back to a place that fostered my own growth as a musician." As an increasingly high-profile presence in the world of film score composition, including Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Oscar-winning The Revenant, Dessner is one of the most sought-after composers of his generation, working with artists across a variety of genres. He also has written orchestral, chamber, and vocal compositions for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Kronos Quartet, BAM Next Wave Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, Carnegie Hall, Sydney Festival, eighth blackbird, Roomful of Teeth, So Percussion and New York City Ballet, among others. The Bryce Dessner Residency is one in a series of highlights in YSC's public programming this falla much anticipated season that celebrates the Center's activation of live performances following a four-year renovation and subsequent pandemic-related offsets. For more information on YSC's fall programming visit https://schwarzman.yale.edu. About Yale Schwarzman Center Yale Schwarzman Center (YSC) is transformational for Yale in providing, for the first time, a center for student life and the arts at the historic heart of the Yale University campus. YSC produces programs and collaborative arts experiences geared toward audiences within and beyond the Yale campus. Learn more at https://schwarzman.yale.edu. SOURCE Yale Schwarzman Center Legalization of cannabis seeds in various countries and awareness among the people about the therapeutic benefits of cannabis drive the growth of the global cannabis seeds market. PORTLAND, Ore., Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research recently published a report, titled, "Cannabis Seeds Market by Nature (Organic, Conventional), by Type (Feminized seeds, Regular seeds, Autoflowering seeds), by Distribution Channel (Specialty stores, Wholesalers and distributors, Online sales channel): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2021-2031." As per the report, the global cannabis seeds industry was estimated at $1.3 billion in 2021, and is set to reach $6.5 billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 18.4% from 2022 to 2031. The report offers a detailed analysis of changing market trends, top segments, key investment pockets, value chains, regional landscapes, and competitive scenarios. Drivers, restraints, and opportunities Legalization of cannabis seeds in various countries and awareness among the people about the therapeutic benefits of cannabis drive the growth of the global cannabis seeds market. Apart from this, the rise in consumer knowledge about the health advantages provided by cannabis seeds and their growing medicinal use will boost market expansion across the globe over the forecasting years. Moreover, the legalization of cannabis in countries such as Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand for medicinal use will open new growth opportunities for the global market in the coming years. Request Sample Report at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/17287 Covid-19 scenario: The implementation of lockdown and curfew on a global scale severely impacted both domestic and foreign manufacturers of cannabis seeds, which in turn hindered the global cannabis seeds market expansion during the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 epidemic had a negative influence on the global market in 2020 as a result of a decline in company sales and a temporary suspension of operations due to the pandemic outbreak. The conventional segment to dominate the global market in terms of revenue by 2031 Based on the nature, the conventional segment contributed to the highest market share in 2021, accounting for more than half of the global cannabis seeds market share. Reportedly, this segment is predicted to contribute majorly toward overall market share by 2031. Furthermore, this same segment is predicted to register the fastest CAGR of nearly 18.7% from 2022 to 2031. The growth of the segment over the forecast period can be attributed to the use of conventionally grown cannabis in chemical fertilizers and pesticides for preventing pest infestations in plants. The report also analysis other segments such as the organic segment. The regular seeds segment to hold the major market share over 2022-2031 On basis of the type, the regular seeds segment contributed to the highest market share in 2021, accounting for nearly half of the global market share. Reportedly, this segment is predicted to contribute majorly toward overall market share by 2031. The growth of the segment over the forecast period can be due to the use of regular seeds in the commercial production of cannabis. Furthermore, the feminized seeds segment is anticipated to record the fastest CAGR of 19.5% over the forecast period. The growth of the segment over the forecast period can be attributed to the rise in the number of commercial and residential growers of cannabis. The report also includes other segments such as autoflowering seeds. The wholesalers and distributors segment to dominate the global market by 2031 In terms of the distribution channel, the wholesalers and distributors segment contributed to the highest market share in 2021, accounting for more than half of the global cannabis seeds market share. Reportedly, this segment is predicted to contribute majorly toward an overall market share in 2031. The expansion of this segment over the forecast timeline is due to the segment being a key component of logistics and transport activities. Furthermore, wholesalers and distributors play a pivotal role in the acquisition, storage, and preparation for the sale of cannabis products to their customers. However, the specialty stores segment is predicted to register the fastest CAGR of nearly 19.4% from 2022 to 2031. The segmental surge can be due to the delivery of high-quality service and detailed product specifications & expert guidance to customers. Apart from this, the constant evolution of the retail industry along with changes in consumer behavior and improvement in overall lifestyle across the world has led to the introduction of specialized retail formats, thereby driving segmental growth. North America to retain global market domination over 2022-2031 By Region, North America contributed notably in 2021, and is projected to continue its dominance during the forecast period. The region accounted for more than four-fifths of the global cannabis seeds market in 2021. The growth of the market in the region over the forecast timespan can be credited to the high demand for cannabis and cannabis products in the region. However, the LAMEA region is anticipated to record the fastest CAGR of 30.5% from 2022 to 2031. The growth of the regional market over the forecast period can be attributed to the legalization of cannabis in several countries in Africa. For Purchase Enquiry at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/17287 Major market players Barney's Souvenirs BV Christiania Seeds Crop King Seeds DELICIOUSSEEDS Dinafem Seeds Dutch Passion Green House Seed Co. I Love Growing Marijuana Mountain Top Seed Bank Paradise Seeds Royal Queen Seeds Seed Cellar Seed Supreme Sensi Seeds Tropical Seeds Co. The report analyzes these key players in the global cannabis seeds market. These players have implemented key business strategies such as strategic expansion, new product launches, alliances, and joint ventures for enhancing market penetration and reinforcing their position in the industry. The report helps the target audience in determining the market performance, performance of each segment, product portfolio development in the market, and contributions made by each player to the market expansion. Avenue Basic Plan | Library Access | 1 Year Subscription | Sign up for Avenue subscription to access more than 12,000+ company profiles and 2,000+ niche industry market research reports at $699 per month, per seat. For a year, the client needs to purchase minimum 2 seat plan. Avenue Library Subscription | Request for 14 days free trial of before buying: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/avenue/trial/starter Get more information: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/library-access Similar Reports: Wheat Fiber Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast 20212030 Fungal Protein Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast 20212030 Sugar-Free Ice Cream Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast 20212030 Organic Dairy Food and Drinks Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast 20192026 About Us Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain. We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry. Contact: David Correa 5933 NE Win Sivers Drive #205, Portland, OR 97220 United States USA/Canada (Toll Free): +1-800-792-5285, +1-503-894-6022 UK: +44-845-528-1300 Hong Kong: +852-301-84916 India (Pune): +91-20-66346060 Fax: +1(855)550-5975 [email protected] Web: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com Follow Us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/allied-market-research Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/636519/Allied_Market_Research_Logo.jpg SOURCE Allied Market Research Providing Unprecedented Scope of Care and Resources SANTA ROSA, Calif., Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Santa Rosa today opened a first-of-its-kind model to address homelessness. Caritas Village is a seven-year vision made possible by over $35M in private philanthropy, $6.9M in New Market Tax Credits, and $11.5 million from Project Homekey inspired by Governor Gavin Newsom's mandate to make homelessness a top priority in the State of California. An additional $5M from Jeff Bezos' Day 1 Families Fund was awarded to support family program operations and innovation. At the heart of Caritas Village is Caritas Center, which features multiple wrap-around services that will help participants navigate their journey to permanent housing, while also preventing at-risk people from falling into homelessness. A 192-bed family shelter, childcare, healthcare clinic, drop-in center, and 38 recuperative beds are available in a facility built from the ground up with critical, life-changing services in mind. Next door, Caritas Homes includes 128 affordable homes built in partnership with experienced nonprofit developer Burbank Housing. First-of-its-kind homeless transition center opens in Santa Rosa supported by $5 million from Bezos' Day 1 Foundation Tweet this "Caritas will be the only facility of its kind to bring all these elements under one roof, provided by THE experts in the community," said Jennielynn Holmes, CEO of Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Santa Rosa. "By replicating this model, we can dramatically alleviate if not end homelessness, not only in the county, but across the state and beyond." Evaluated and endorsed by statewide and national organizations that invest in innovative solutions that address homelessness and poverty, Caritas has received financial support from Project Homekey, Tipping Point Community, Providence Health System, and Kaiser Permanente among many others. "Catholic Charities has galvanized the Santa Rosa community to champion this cutting-edge facility and its robust services," said Congressman Mike Thompson. "Caritas Village will help our community address homelessness and is proof of concept that a community of like-minded people can unite to make amazing things happen." About Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Santa Rosa : Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Santa Rosa is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that serves and advocates for vulnerable people of all cultures and beliefs. Since 1954 Catholic Charities has provided direct services in Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino, Humboldt, and Lake Counties, helping 20,000 people per year find and keep housing, achieve financial stability, and move their immigration journey forward. Contacts: John Pavik [email protected], 313-400-5494 Carrie Woodridge [email protected], 707.235.1399 SOURCE Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Santa Rosa Stock Market Symbols GIB.A (TSX) GIB (NYSE) cgi.com/newsroom MUNICH, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - CGI (TSX: GIB.A) ( NYSE: GIB) has integrated its OpenMedia end-to-end newsroom solution suite with Microsoft Teams to deliver a modern unified communications platform for today's journalists and producers. With this enhanced platform, newsrooms can address workflow challenges resulting from an increase in broadcasting channels, as well as remote newsgathering and production. In line with increasing digital transformation priorities over the past few years, a growing number of broadcasters worldwide are adopting central communications platforms to help production teams collaborate while working across multiple channels and from remote locations. These platforms can help address common data sharing and collaboration workflow issues. For example, essential data may not be entered from a remote site into core newsroom systems, and, as a result, the data is not accessible to a majority of users. A unified communication platform overcomes challenges like this, enabling more effective data sharing and collaboration. As a Microsoft Gold Partner, CGI integrated Microsoft Teams' workspace chat and video conference features with its OpenMedia solution to streamline communication channels for journalists and producers in newsrooms. Michael Pfitzner, Vice-President for Newsroom Solutions at CGI, highlights that this integration will resonate strongly with news, current affairs, and magazine program teams everywhere. "More than ever before, news teams are more likely to be dispersed physically and/or working on multiple stories via multiple channels simultaneously," he said. "The challenges related to this evolution have been heightened by the circumstances of the past two years, accelerating the need for a more flexible approach to broadcast news production. A reliable and unified communications platform has become a business imperative, and we believe the integration of CGI's OpenMedia solution with Microsoft Teams will be a big step forward for news teams around the world." "CGI's status as a Microsoft Gold Partner demonstrates its strong capabilities in integrating Microsoft technologies to drive innovation, collaboration, agility and efficiencies," adds Holger Meinzer, Director Industry Relations Media & Telco at Microsoft Germany. "We're proud to partner with CGI to help newsrooms meet today's challenges in the fast-evolving and highly competitive broadcasting industry. The combination of Microsoft Teams and CGI's OpenMedia solution delivers a powerful platform for bringing together news teams and ensuring optimal communication and collaboration." CGI's OpenMedia solution is part of a comprehensive set of newsroom and radio solutions that CGI delivers to broadcasters worldwide to enhance production workflows and management across various media channels, including TV, radio, online and social channels. For more information, visit cgi.com/mediasolutions. About CGI Founded in 1976, CGI is among the largest independent IT and business consulting services firms in the world. With 88,500 consultants and professionals across the globe, CGI delivers an end-to-end portfolio of capabilities, from strategic IT and business consulting to systems integration, managed IT and business process services and intellectual property solutions. CGI works with clients through a local relationship model complemented by a global delivery network that helps clients digitally transform their organizations and accelerate results. CGI Fiscal 2021 reported revenue is C$12.13 billion and CGI shares are listed on the TSX (GIB.A) and the NYSE (GIB). Learn more at cgi.com. SOURCE CGI Inc. 'Top Chef' head judge's jarred sauces now available nationwide WINDERMERE, Fla., Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the Colicchio Collection , featuring a new line of ultra-premium cooking and pairing sauces crafted by chef and restaurateur Tom Colicchio in partnership with The Jersey Tomato Co. and KEEN Growth Capital, debuts for purchase online. Discover the diverse flavors of Italy's most beloved culinary regions with the Colicchio Collection ultra-premium cooking and pairing sauces. Colicchio looked to Italy's most beloved culinary regions for inspiration in crafting the six sauces, all made with 100% vine-ripened New Jersey tomatoes, which are prized for their sumptuous flavor and delicate balance of sweetness and acidity. Each sauce in the Colicchio Collection is made with ingredients unique to its region of Italy and is intended to complement a range of dishes, including six recipes developed by Colicchio to highlight the sauces' distinct flavor profiles, from clams with pancetta and mustard greens to eggplant shakshuka. "I wanted to capture the exciting variety of cuisines throughout Italy in a collection that home cooks could use to elevate and enhance their everyday cooking," says Colicchio. "The inherent brightness and balance of these sauces allows the regional ingredients to shine through, taking stews, braised and grilled meats, seafood, even pizza to another level of flavor and vibrancy." Colicchio first joined The Jersey Tomato Co. in 2020 as an equity partner, brand ambassador and culinary consultant driving innovation. The Colicchio Collection marks the New Jersey native's first original offering in partnership with the brand. "It's been a joy to collaborate with chef Colicchio on The Jersey Tomato Co., and we're thrilled to introduce consumers to his first original, ultra-premium line," says Mike Hagan, CEO of KEEN Growth Capital's Emerging Brands Portfolio. "It's an exciting chapter of what we hope becomes a cornerstone of the home kitchen." As with all The Jersey Tomato Co. sauces, the Colicchio Collection is lower in sodium, gluten-free, non-GMO and Kosher, and has no added sugars or artificial preservatives. The six sauce flavors include: Liguria : lemon, white wine, provencal herbs lemon, white wine, provencal herbs Trentino: wild mushroom, parmesan, rosemary wild mushroom, parmesan, rosemary Sicilia: orange, black olive, white wine orange, black olive, white wine Piemonte: barolo wine, sage barolo wine, sage Abruzzo: saffron, fennel pollen saffron, fennel pollen Calabria : eggplant, zucchini, and chilis The Colicchio Collection is available on colicchiocollection.com as a Club Colicchio subscription with exclusive member benefits and as a one-time purchase of $45.00 for a set of three 16 oz. jars. For more information, follow @colicchiocollection and @tomcolicchio on Instagram. SOURCE The Jersey Tomato Co. CHONGQING, China, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A news report from iChongqing: On September 8, the Chongqing Municipal People's Government announced new plans to build a world-class industrial cluster for intelligent connected vehicles (ICV) and new energy vehicles (NEV). In three years, Chongqing's ICV and NEV output will account for more than 10% of China's output, according to Zhou Qing, Deputy Secretary of Chongqing Municipal People's Government. In 2030, Chongqing expects to nurture one to two globally renowned intelligent connected vehicles and new energy vehicle brands. According to Zhou, Chongqing took several steps to achieve this goal, including developing intelligent connected technologies, improving the city's auto parts supply chain system, and expanding smart infrastructure. Zhou Bo, director of the investment Promotion Bureau of the city, said they should focus on batteries, electric control, intelligent driving, intelligent cockpit, Internet of vehicles, lightweight materials, and other directions to attract critical investments. Chongqing serves as one of the critical auto manufacturing bases in China. Changan Auto is the city's auto industry leader, and traditional auto giants like Changcheng and SAIC also produce vehicles here. The press conference also gave the annual report on Chongqing's auto industry development in 2021. This year, the report emphasized the development of the intelligent connected vehicle and NEVs field. In the field of NEVs, AVATR, which Changan, CATL, and Huawei co-founded, is the newest challenger among local NEV enterprises that are joining the NEVs market competition. Moreover, Seres AITO, Ford Mustang, Geely Polestar, and Li Auto announced recently that they would set up their third factory in Chongqing. Chongqing has introduced several battery producers with high potential in this field since batteries are recognized as the most significant part of electric vehicles. FinDreams Battery, a subsidiary of the Chinese manufacturing company BYD located in the Bishan District of Chongqing, produced the "blade battery," a unique lithium iron phosphate battery with a thin body in battery packs. The blade batteries are less likely to catch fire after being penetrated and can store more power. Among all the regions of Chongqing, Liangjiang New Area and Chongqing High-Tech Zone will have the most responsibilities. Li Jie, Deputy Director of Liangjiang New Area Administrative Committee, said that Liangjiang New Area would lay out more policies to encourage local auto manufacturers to develop high-end models. As the heart of Chongqing's electronic industry, the Chongqing High-Tech Zone will dedicate itself to developing intelligent connected technologies and operations. Click the link to watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJwYAK0DxIM SOURCE iChongqing Imagine stepping into a world of delicious and unforgettable food, wine and desserts at the 13th annual Las Vegas Food & Wine Festival inside the world-famous Tivoli Village. LAS VEGAS, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Grand Tasting events will take place at the beautiful Tivoli Village, along with smaller tasting events at The Cosmopolitan, Eataly Las Vegas & our host resort The Virgin Hotel Las Vegas. The event will be headlined by 2022 Food & Wine Chef of the Year and five-time James Beard Award Winner Chef Todd English alongside Chef Katsuya Uechi and Chef Kris Yenbamroong. 2022 Las Vegas Food & Wine Festival Sponsors Food & Wine Chef of the year Todd English and Kris Yenbamroong This fabulous event wouldn't take place without our amazing sponsors: Tivoli Village: Is a premier Las Vegas lifestyle destination. World-famous Tivoli Village features carefully curated retailers, services, dining options, is home to several high-end business services and featured events. Tivoli has an array of options to explore which provide an unmatched experience of elegance. From dancing in the streets to yoga on the Piazza, old-world elegance blends seamlessly with today's active lifestyle. Made with Amore: Featured in Forbes magazine, Made with Amore having one of the best Italian PDO cheeses. From the Heart of Europe, AOP Agriform produces PDO cheeses: Grana Padano, Parmigiano Reggiano, Asiago, Piave, Montasio, PDO European Cheeses: Europe certifies its best products. We are proud to have this business featured at our event! Clink Different: Did you know that before the 1980s Bordeaux mainly planted and was known for white wine varietals, including Semillon? How about that the third largest producer of Pinot Noir in the world is Germany. Bordeaux Wines and Wines of Germany invite you to discover the regions' unexpected wine styles. Clink Different. Experience The Wines of Europe. Ethel M Chocolatse: Forty years ago, Forrest Mars, Sr., a man with a deep love of chocolate, took his curiosity and desire to forge a unique path and created an unrivaled chocolate experience just outside of Las Vegas. He bet on himself, and now you're the winner. In honor of his mother, Ethel, and his family's confectionary legacy, he created a small-batch chocolate business tucked away in the Mojave Desert called Ethel M Chocolates where his hand-crafted, premium chocolates were born. Members Only: Members Only is now a cultural icon with a steady and growing following thanks to our loyal fans. Whether you knew us from the 80's and love us now for our slimmer modern look with all the signature details, or are rocking our jackets because it's just simply cool, our loyalty lies with you. We see race, creed, and taste not as separation but as an inspiration. Dear upright citizen of the world, thank you for including us in your world. We are proud to have you as a Member! Ashley: Ashley is committed to being your trusted partner and style leader for the home. This commitment has made Ashley the largest retail furniture store brand in North America and one of the world's best-selling furniture store brands with more than 1,099 locations in 65 countries. Start designing your dream home today at www.ashley.com. Toll Brothers: Toll Brothers, an award-winning FORTUNE 500 company founded in 1967, is the nation's leading builder of luxury homes. Embracing an unwavering commitment to quality and customer service, Toll Brothers currently builds in 24 states nationwide, and is a publicly owned company with its common stock listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The Las Vegas Food & Wine Festival is a celebration of the senses and the proceeds from this celebration will be donated to a worthy cause. For more information and to purchase tickets VegasFoodAndWine.com Media Contact: Alan Semsar [email protected] 818-288-4050 SOURCE Las Vegas Food & Wine Festival SHENZHEN, China, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Creality, a global pioneer in 3D printing, enters a partnership today with Forward AM, the brand of BASF 3D Printing Solutions, to expand professional-grade 3D printing applications. Creality also launches the fully-enclosed FDM 3D printer Sermoon D3 featuring HP-ULTRA, a high-end filament series Creality co-developed with Forward AM specifically designed for Creality 3D printers. Creality and Forward AM will leverage each other's capabilities to jointly develop and promote co-branded filament series including HP-ULTRA PLA and ABS, which the two companies have tested and optimized for the best performance on Creality's professional-grade 3D printers. The two parties will also work closely to explore innovative additive manufacturing applications in industries including general manufacturing, automotive, medical and education, accelerating the additive manufacturing industrialization. "BASF is a global giant with profound industry experience in the field of materials, and Creality has long been focusing on 3D printing with a leading influence in the global 3D printing industry," said Fred Liu, Co-founder and Executive Director of Shenzhen Creality 3D Technology. "The strategic cooperation between the two parties on 3D printing filaments expands the application scenarios of professional-grade 3D printers, and Sermoon D3 is the latest outcome of the cooperation." "BASF and Creality are highly compatible in the vision of promoting the industrialization of additive manufacturing, and decided to join hands to enter the professional-grade additive manufacturing market and deliver solutions for professional and industrial clients," said Dr. Chen Li, Head of Business Management and Operations, BASF 3D Printing Solutions Asia Pacific. "I believe the cooperation will provide clients with more professional, more cost-effective and more widely applied additive manufacturing solutions." Sermoon D3 born for industrial design Businesses using the traditional method in prototyping and design verification face a long development cycle, high cost, limited choice of materials and material waste due to molding failure. As Creality's latest effort in the professional-grade market, Sermoon D3 features industrial-grade stability which is tested and certified by Forward AM's Additive Manufacturing Technical Centre (AMTC), bringing cost-effective 3D printing solutions to professional users and small enterprises. Taking machinery design as an example, the traditional way takes at least 20 working days to design, review, proof, and modify. However, by utilizing 3D printing technology, users can achieve rapid prototyping in less than 10 working days, shortening the R&D cycle and improving efficiency. Another pain point businesses face is the limited selection of materials when verifying product design prototypes, which greatly impacts the verification sufficiency and competitiveness of the company. To address this issue, Creality teamed up with AMTC to test more than 20 types of filaments and selected 14 that best fit with Sermoon D3, including high-strength filaments A66, ASA, PC, and wear-resistant filaments PA66-CF, PET-CF. Sermoon D3 is the model that supports the most filament type of all Creality 3D printers. Specifically designed for the Sermoon D3, HP-ULTRA filament series including PLA and ABS is co-developed by Creality and Forward AM. It is part of Creality's "Better Filament Plan" to collaborate with market leaders to provide users with high-quality filaments tailor-made for Creality 3D printers. HP-ULTRA has been fully tested by AMTC and Creality Lab on Sermoon D3, meaning users can achieve straightforward print without configuring the printer. HP-ULTRA ABS will be included in the Sermoon D3 package for users as complimentary. To cater to the needs of scale production, Sermoon D3 offers one-stop solutions: users can connect to multiple Sermoon D3 printers via LAN or Internet, remote control them simultaneously and monitor the printing process through Creality Print or Creality Cloud App on PC or phone. Together with a sizeable 300250300mm build volume and up to five times of speed, Sermoon D3 significantly scales up the production in a cost-effective way. Shenzhen Creality 3D Technology Co., Ltd. Founded in Shenzhen, Creality is a global pioneer in the 3D printing industry that focuses on the research, design and production of consumer and professional-grade 3D printers and 3D printing accessories. With user-centric philosophy, Creality has expanded its footprints across more than 192 countries and regions worldwide, introducing 3D printing concepts to homes, schools, workshops, factories and academic institutions, and driving digitalization in manufacturing, education, healthcare, architecture and beyond. Committed to becoming a 3D printing evangelist, Creality continues gravitating to cutting-edge technology and bringing a premium experience for individual users and businesses. For more information: www.creality.com. BASF 3D Printing Solutions GmbH Headquartered in Heidelberg, Germany, is a 100% subsidiary of BASF New Business GmbH. It focuses on establishing and expanding the business under the Forward AM brand with advanced materials, system solutions, components, and services in the field of 3D printing. BASF 3D Printing Solutions is organized into startup-like structures to serve customers in the dynamic 3D printing market. It cooperates closely with the global research platforms and application technologies of various departments at BASF and with research institutes, universities, startups, and industrial partners. Potential customers are primarily companies that intend to use 3D printing for industrial manufacturing. Typical industries include automotive, aerospace, and consumer goods. For further information please visit: www.forward-am.com. SOURCE CREALITY 3D These Five Companies Minimized the Impact External Challenges Had on Their Companies and Maximized the Impact of Internal Changes NASHVILLE, Tenn., Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- isolved Connect 2022 With the challenges brought on by the global pandemic, the Great Resignation, the Return to Office and the Quiet Quitting outcry, human resource (HR) departments have been faced with myriad challenges. New employee experience leaders emerged during this historical two-year stretch and others cemented their seat at the table where strategic business decisions are made advocating for automation, digitization, engagement and transformation. Leaders like these were recognized on the final night of isolved Connect, isolved's annual customer and partner conference, across five categories. isolved congratulates the following award winners: Transformation Heroes Award: Awarded to Mary Kay Kirgis of Crescent Community Health Center for transforming her organization's employee experience, moving from tactical to strategic and from paper to digital in nearly every face of HR. The judges all agreed that Kirgis is an excellent example of HR professionalism that reflects exceptionally on her organization, its employees and the community Crescent Community Health Center serves. Awarded to of Crescent Community Health Center for transforming her organization's employee experience, moving from tactical to strategic and from paper to digital in nearly every face of HR. The judges all agreed that Kirgis is an excellent example of HR professionalism that reflects exceptionally on her organization, its employees and the community Crescent Community Health Center serves. Engagement Heroes Award: Awarded to Andrew Davis of Purdy Enterprises an organization that truly meets people where they are. Experiencing rapid growth, Purdy Enterprises has nearly tripled in size in just a few years and has still maintained direct connections with all of their employees even cooking breakfast every morning. With isolved, they've also cooked up an easy and enjoyable hiring and onboarding process that has kept candidates and new hires engaged. The judges pointed to the way Davis has helped the company save time on payroll, benefits enrollment and hiring and has been an integral reason for its success and win. Awarded to of Purdy Enterprises an organization that truly meets people where they are. Experiencing rapid growth, Purdy Enterprises has nearly tripled in size in just a few years and has still maintained direct connections with all of their employees even cooking breakfast every morning. With isolved, they've also cooked up an easy and enjoyable hiring and onboarding process that has kept candidates and new hires engaged. The judges pointed to the way Davis has helped the company save time on payroll, benefits enrollment and hiring and has been an integral reason for its success and win. Future of Work Heroes Award: Awarded to Kimberly Crawford of Southeast Mississippi Rural Health Initiative, Crawford has made continuous improvements to her organization's employee experience to exceed expectations and business results. Crawford has helped the company move away from HR being ticket takers to more modern self-service and HR being a strategic part of the business. She has found ways for her organization to more efficiently complete everyday tasks that save the businesses hours and creates a more modern employee experience making incremental changes toward a more agile and engaged future workforce. Awarded to of Southeast Mississippi Rural Health Initiative, Crawford has made continuous improvements to her organization's employee experience to exceed expectations and business results. Crawford has helped the company move away from HR being ticket takers to more modern self-service and HR being a strategic part of the business. She has found ways for her organization to more efficiently complete everyday tasks that save the businesses hours and creates a more modern employee experience making incremental changes toward a more agile and engaged future workforce. People Heroes Award: Awarded to Nicole Rutherford of Solucion, Rutherford was honored for going above and beyond to support her team. Rutherford has been described as a patient, genuine and engaging HR leader who goes the extra mile even driving to locations where an employee may need support. Her empathy and candidness were highlighted in the award-winning nomination. Awarded to of Solucion, Rutherford was honored for going above and beyond to support her team. Rutherford has been described as a patient, genuine and engaging HR leader who goes the extra mile even driving to locations where an employee may need support. Her empathy and candidness were highlighted in the award-winning nomination. Judges' Choice Award: Awarded to a standout individual or company, Lisa Ward of Card Monroe Corp. was honored with the Judges' Choice Award for her efforts to improve employees' daily experience. In addition to fostering a sense of community within her company, Ward ensured the team was using isolved to its full capabilities maximizing the impact of their investment through training and improved employee records, recruiting and reviews to become more automated, agile and accessible. "Every nomination for our inaugural isolved Customer Awards humbled us," said Mike Flannery, Chief Customer Officer at isolved. "The innovation and investment happening in employee experience is truly inspiring, knowing that isolved plays a role in how real lives are impacted every day is something we will never take lightly. Each nomination took us on a journey to even better understand how isolved People Heroes serve their companies and communities. A sincere thank you to for everyone who completed a nomination." In 2022, isolved further committed to meeting customers where they are to educate and empower them. In just this year alone, isolved launched a dynamic online People Heroes Community, will host over 20 local Customer Roadshows through year-end, launched its new People Heroes University experience and, now, celebrated its customers' accomplishments through the Inaugural isolved Customer Awards. The nomination period for the 2023 isolved Customer Awards will begin in Q2 2023 as will the requests to become a guest judge. For more information about these award winners, follow isolved on LinkedIn for additional highlights. About isolved isolved is an employee experience leader, providing intuitive, people-first HCM technology. Our solutions are delivered directly or through our HRO partner network to more than five million employees and 145,000 employers across all 50 States who use them every day to boost performance, increase productivity, and accelerate results while reducing risk. Our HCM platform, isolved People Cloud, intelligently connects and manages the employee journey across talent acquisition, HR, payroll & benefits, workforce management and talent management functions. No matter the industry, we help high-growth organizations employ, enable and empower their workforce by transforming employee experience for a better today and a better tomorrow. Media Contact Amberly Dressler, Sr. Director of Brand & Content Strategy [email protected] SOURCE isolved The emulsifier market covers the following areas: Emulsifier Market - Market Dynamics Major Driver - The key factor driving growth in the emulsifier market is the growing demand from the bakery and confectionery segments. When producing baked goods, the quality must be uniform. To achieve this, the dough must be stabilized before baking. Bakery and confectionery product manufacturers tend to use emulsifiers in most of their products to achieve viscosity. This prevents any damage to products during transportation and handling. There are a wide variety of emulsifiers available in the market Product innovations in artisanal bread, cakes, pastries, and frozen baked goods are driving growth prospects in the bakery and confectionery segments. Emulsifiers act as functional additive that provides benefits during the processing and storage of chocolates and sugar confectionery. Thus, the benefits associated with emulsifiers in the bakery and confectionery segments will drive the growth of the global emulsifier market. Major Challenge - The stringent government regulations on using emulsifiers in food and beverage products will be a major challenge for the emulsifier market during the forecast period. Stringent regulations are laid down across the world concerning the usage of emulsifiers in food and beverage products. Various government bodies in different countries frame standards that need to be followed by food and beverage manufacturers, including food emulsifier manufacturers. Complying with all these different regulations is an uphill task for manufacturers of emulsifiers and food and beverages. Any deviation from the guidelines related to labeling or the maximum permissible limits as specified by regulatory bodies will have a negative effect on the company's brand image in the market and result in product recalls, thereby incurring huge monetary losses for the company. Thus, such stringent regulations will hamper the growth of the global emulsifier market. To know more about the market dynamics - Request a FREE Sample Now! Emulsifier Market - Vendor Analysis The emulsifier market is fragmented and the vendors are deploying growth strategies such as launching new products to compete in the market. Akzo Nobel NV Archer Daniels Midland Co. BASF SE Cargill Inc. Clariant International Ltd. Corbion NV Evonik Industries AG Gujarat Enterprise Ingredion Inc. Kerry Group Plc Koninklijke DSM NV Lonza Group Ltd. Palsgaard A/S Puratos Group NV Solvay SA Spartan Chemical Co. Inc. The Dow Chemical Co. The Lubrizol Corp. Stepan Co. To know about vendor offerings - Click Now! The competitive scenario provided in the Emulsifier Market report analyzes, evaluates, and positions companies based on various performance indicators. Some of the factors considered for this analysis include the financial performance of companies over the past few years, growth strategies, product innovations, new product launches, investments, growth in market share, etc. Don't wait, Make a strategic approach & boost your business goals with our Emulsifier Market Forecast Report - Buy Now! Related Reports: The coating additives market share is expected to increase by USD 3.56 billion from 2021 to 2026, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 6.55%. share is expected to increase by USD 3.56 billion from 2021 to 2026, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 6.55%. The castor oil and its derivatives market share are expected to increase by USD 811.08 mn from 2021 to 2026, and the market's growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 4.94%. Emulsifier Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 6.68% Market growth 2022-2026 USD 3.14 billion Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 6.2 Regional analysis Europe, North America, APAC, South America, and the Middle East, and Africa Performing market contribution APAC at 35% Key consumer countries US, China, India, Germany, Italy, and France Competitive landscape Leading companies, competitive strategies, consumer engagement scope Companies profiled Akzo Nobel NV, Archer Daniels Midland Co., BASF SE, Cargill Inc., Clariant International Ltd., Corbion NV, Evonik Industries AG, Gujarat Enterprise, Ingredion Inc., Kerry Group Plc, Koninklijke DSM NV, Lonza Group Ltd., Palsgaard A/S, Puratos Group NV, Solvay SA, Spartan Chemical Co. Inc., The Dow Chemical Co., The Lubrizol Corp., and Stepan Co. 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. Browse for Technavio " Materials Market " Research Reports Key Topics Covered: 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 End-user Exhibit 06: Executive Summary Chart on Incremental Growth Exhibit 07: Executive Summary Data Table on Incremental Growth Exhibit 08: Executive Summary Chart on Vendor Market Positioning 2 Market Landscape 2.1 Market ecosystem Exhibit 09: Parent market Exhibit 10: Market Characteristics 3 Market Sizing 3.1 Market definition Exhibit 11: Offerings of vendors included in the market definition 3.2 Market segment analysis Exhibit 12: Market segments 3.3 Market size 2021 3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2021-2026 Exhibit 13: Chart on Global - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 14: Data Table on Global - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 15: Chart on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 16: Data Table on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 4 Five Forces Analysis 4.1 Five forces summary Exhibit 17: Five forces analysis - Comparison between 2021 and 2026 4.2 Bargaining power of buyers Exhibit 18: Chart on Bargaining power of buyers Impact of key factors 2021 and 2026 4.3 Bargaining power of suppliers Exhibit 19: Bargaining power of suppliers Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.4 Threat of new entrants Exhibit 20: Threat of new entrants Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.5 Threat of substitutes Exhibit 21: Threat of substitutes Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.6 Threat of rivalry Exhibit 22: Threat of rivalry Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.7 Market condition Exhibit 23: Chart on Market condition - Five forces 2021 and 2026 5 Market Segmentation by End-user 5.1 Market segments Exhibit 24: Chart on End-user - Market share 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 25: Data Table on End-user - Market share 2021-2026 (%) 5.2 Comparison by End-user Exhibit 26: Chart on Comparison by End-user Exhibit 27: Data Table on Comparison by End-user 5.3 Food and beverage - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 28: Chart on Food and beverage - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 29: Data Table on Food and beverage - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 30: Chart on Food and beverage - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 31: Data Table on Food and beverage - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.4 Personal care - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 32: Chart on Personal care - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 33: Data Table on Personal care - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 34: Chart on Personal care - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 35: Data Table on Personal care - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.5 Pharmaceuticals - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 36: Chart on Pharmaceuticals - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 37: Data Table on Pharmaceuticals - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 38: Chart on Pharmaceuticals - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 39: Data Table on Pharmaceuticals - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.6 Industrials - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 40: Chart on Industrials - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 41: Data Table on Industrials - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 42: Chart on Industrials - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 43: Data Table on Industrials - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.7 Others - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 44: Chart on Others - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 45: Data Table on Others - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 46: Chart on Others - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 47: Data Table on Others - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.8 Market opportunity by End-user Exhibit 48: Market opportunity by End-user ($ million) 6 Customer Landscape 6.1 Customer landscape overview Exhibit 49: Analysis of price sensitivity, lifecycle, customer purchase basket, adoption rates, and purchase criteria 7 Geographic Landscape 7.1 Geographic segmentation Exhibit 50: Chart on Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 51: Data Table on Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%) 7.2 Geographic comparison Exhibit 52: Chart on Geographic comparison Exhibit 53: Data Table on Geographic comparison 7.3 Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 54: Chart on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 55: Data Table on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 56: Chart on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 57: Data Table on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.4 North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 58: Chart on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 59: Data Table on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 60: Chart on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 61: Data Table on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.5 APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 62: Chart on APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 63: Data Table on APAC - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 64: Chart on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 65: Data Table on APAC - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.6 South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 66: Chart on South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 67: Data Table on South America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 68: Chart on South America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 69: Data Table on South America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.7 Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 70: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 71: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) and - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 72: Chart on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) and - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 73: Data Table on Middle East and Africa - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.8 US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 74: Chart on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 75: Data Table on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 76: Chart on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 77: Data Table on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.9 China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 78: Chart on China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 79: Data Table on China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 80: Chart on China - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 81: Data Table on China - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.10 Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 82: Chart on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 83: Data Table on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 84: Chart on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 85: Data Table on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.11 Italy - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 86: Chart on Italy - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 87: Data Table on Italy - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 88: Chart on Italy - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 89: Data Table on Italy - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.12 India - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 90: Chart on India - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 91: Data Table on India - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 92: Chart on India - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 93: Data Table on India - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.13 France - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 94: Chart on France - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 95: Data Table on France - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 96: Chart on France - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 97: Data Table on France - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.14 Market opportunity by geography Exhibit 98: Market opportunity by geography ($ million) 8 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends 8.1 Market drivers 8.2 Market challenges 8.3 Impact of drivers and challenges Exhibit 99: Impact of drivers and challenges in 2021 and 2026 8.4 Market trends 9 Vendor Landscape 9.1 Overview 9.2 Vendor landscape Exhibit 100: Overview on Criticality of inputs and Factors of differentiation 9.3 Landscape disruption Exhibit 101: Overview on factors of disruption 9.4 Industry risks Exhibit 102: Impact of key risks on business 10 Vendor Analysis 10.1 Vendors covered Exhibit 103: Vendors covered 10.2 Market positioning of vendors Exhibit 104: Matrix on vendor position and classification 10.3 Akzo Nobel NV Exhibit 105: Akzo Nobel NV - Overview Exhibit 106: Akzo Nobel NV - Business segments Exhibit 107: Akzo Nobel NV - Key news Exhibit 108: Akzo Nobel NV - Key offerings Exhibit 109: Akzo Nobel NV - Segment focus 10.4 Archer Daniels Midland Co. Exhibit 110: Archer Daniels Midland Co. - Overview Exhibit 111: Archer Daniels Midland Co. - Business segments Exhibit 112: Archer Daniels Midland Co. - Key offerings Exhibit 113: Archer Daniels Midland Co. - Segment focus 10.5 BASF SE Exhibit 114: BASF SE - Overview Exhibit 115: BASF SE - Business segments Exhibit 116: BASF SE - Key news Exhibit 117: BASF SE - Key offerings Exhibit 118: BASF SE - Segment focus 10.6 Cargill Inc. Exhibit 119: Cargill Inc. - Overview Exhibit 120: Cargill Inc. - Product / Service Exhibit 121: Cargill Inc. - Key news Exhibit 122: Cargill Inc. - Key offerings 10.7 Clariant International Ltd. Exhibit 123: Clariant International Ltd. - Overview Exhibit 124: Clariant International Ltd. - Business segments Exhibit 125: Clariant International Ltd. - Key news Exhibit 126: Clariant International Ltd. - Key offerings Exhibit 127: Clariant International Ltd. - Segment focus 10.8 Evonik Industries AG Exhibit 128: Evonik Industries AG - Overview Exhibit 129: Evonik Industries AG - Business segments Exhibit 130: Evonik Industries AG - Key news Exhibit 131: Evonik Industries AG - Key offerings Exhibit 132: Evonik Industries AG - Segment focus 10.9 Kerry Group Plc Exhibit 133: Kerry Group Plc - Overview Exhibit 134: Kerry Group Plc - Business segments Exhibit 135: Kerry Group Plc - Key offerings Exhibit 136: Kerry Group Plc - Segment focus 10.10 Koninklijke DSM NV Exhibit 137: Koninklijke DSM NV - Overview Exhibit 138: Koninklijke DSM NV - Business segments Exhibit 139: Koninklijke DSM NV - Key news Exhibit 140: Koninklijke DSM NV - Key offerings Exhibit 141: Koninklijke DSM NV - Segment focus 10.11 Solvay SA Exhibit 142: Solvay SA - Overview Exhibit 143: Solvay SA - Business segments Exhibit 144: Solvay SA - Key news Exhibit 145: Solvay SA - Key offerings Exhibit 146: Solvay SA - Segment focus 10.12 The Dow Chemical Co. Exhibit 147: The Dow Chemical Co. - Overview Exhibit 148: The Dow Chemical Co. - Business segments Exhibit 149: The Dow Chemical Co. - Key news Exhibit 150: The Dow Chemical Co. - Key offerings Exhibit 151: The Dow Chemical Co. - Segment focus 11 Appendix 11.1 Scope of the report 11.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist Exhibit 152: Inclusions checklist Exhibit 153: Exclusions checklist 11.3 Currency conversion rates for US$ Exhibit 154: Currency conversion rates for US$ 11.4 Research methodology Exhibit 155: Research methodology Exhibit 156: Validation techniques employed for market sizing Exhibit 157: Information sources 11.5 List of abbreviations Exhibit 158: 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 provide 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 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 WASHINGTON, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Evolent Health, Inc. ( NYSE: EVH) ("Evolent"), a health care company that delivers proven clinical and related solutions to payers and providers, today announced that Chief Financial Officer John Johnson and Vice President, Investor Relations Seth Frank will participate in upcoming investor conferences. A live audio-only webcast and replay for these events will be available on the Investor Relations section of Evolent's website at http://ir.evolenthealth.com/, unless otherwise noted below. Messsrs. Johnson and Frank will present at the 2022 Wells Fargo Healthcare Conference at The Encore Boston Harbor, Everett, Mass. , on Friday, September 9, 2022 , at 10:25 a.m. ET . , on , at . Messsrs. Johnson and Frank will conduct investor meetings only at the Baird 2022 Global Healthcare Conference at the Intercontinental New York Barclay, on Tuesday, September 13, 2022 . . Mr. Frank and management will participate in the BofA Securities 2022 Healthcare Innovation Forum, to be held virtually on Thursday, September 29, 2022 . Presentation time and webcast details will be forthcoming on the Evolent Health Investor Relations website when available. About Evolent Health Evolent Health delivers proven clinical and administrative solutions that improve whole-person health while making health care simpler and more affordable. Our solutions encompass total cost of care management, specialty care management and administrative simplification. Evolent serves a national base of leading payers and providers, is the first company to receive the National Committee for Quality Assurance's Population Health Program Accreditation and is consistently recognized as a top place to work in health care nationally. Learn more about how Evolent is changing the way health care is delivered by visiting evolenthealth.com. Contacts: Seth R. Frank Vice President, Investor Relations Evolent Health, Inc. [email protected] 571-895-3919 (W) SOURCE Evolent Health Since July, the Farmland Honoring the Heartland Tour food truck has been making two to three stops per week in various locations rooted in Midwestern neighborhoods. In addition to distributing meals, Farmland will continue its partnership with the National FFA Organization to assist in its vision to grow leaders, build communities and strengthen agriculture at the local, state, and national levels. Throughout the remainder of the tour, Farmland will be donating a total of $150,000 to the National FFA Organization and local FFA chapters, beginning today with a $65,000 donation to the National FFA Organization and a $9,000 donation to the local Kansas FFA Association. Today's donation event took place at the Kansas State Fair, where Farmland's food truck also made an appearance to supply samples to attendees. "At Farmland, we're constantly inspired by the organizations, communities, and individuals across the Midwest who play a fundamental role in our food supply," said Jessica Scarlett, senior associate brand manager for Farmland. "Supporting the future of the agriculture industry and providing the next wave of farmers with the tools needed to succeed has been a longstanding commitment of our brand. We are proud to continue the legacy of the Farmland Honoring of the Heartland Tour and our partnership with the National FFA Organization for a second year." Farmland also launched its Farmland FFA Heartland Grant Program to support students' goals and inspire continued growth in the agriculture industry. Through the program, Farmland will provide $20,000 in financial support via grants valued at $1,000 each. Farmland is encouraging FFA members located in Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, and Missouri to enroll through an open application process, ending October 9, 2022, at FarmlandFFAHeartlandGrants.com. "We are grateful for Farmland's ongoing support of the National FFA Organization's mission to make a positive difference in the lives of students," said Molly Ball, president for the National FFA Foundation and chief marketing officer for the National FFA Organization. "We're happy to join the brand in recognizing the often-overlooked heroes of farming and agriculture." In addition, Farmland is proud to be an official partner of country superstar Luke Bryan's Farm Tour for a second consecutive year. In its 13th year, Farm Tour is an annual concert series that gives back by awarding college scholarships to students from farming families who are attending a local college or university near the tour stops. To date, more than 60 scholarships have been granted. For more information and to see where the Farmland Honoring the Heartland Tour goes next, follow us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter @FarmlandFoods and visit www.farmlandfoods.com. About Farmland Founded in 1959, Farmland is the maker of high-quality, flavorful meats. Rooted in rich traditions of America's heartland, Farmland is committed to a strong work ethic, community, substance over flash, and wholesome, quality food that people feel good about serving. Farmland's robust portfolio of products includes varieties of bacon, sausage, ham and lunch meat. For more information about our products and recipe inspiration, please visit www.FarmlandFoods.com or follow us on Facebook (@FarmlandFoods), Instagram (@farmlandfoods) or Twitter (@FarmlandFoods). Farmland is a brand of Smithfield Foods. About Smithfield Foods, Inc. Headquartered in Smithfield, Va. since 1936, Smithfield Foods, Inc. is an American food company with agricultural roots and a global reach. With more than 60,000 jobs globally, we are dedicated to producing "Good food. Responsibly." and serve as one of the world's leading vertically integrated protein companies. We have pioneered sustainability standards for more than two decades, including our industry-leading commitments to become carbon negative in our U.S. company-owned operations and reduce GHG emissions 30 percent across our entire U.S. value chain by 2030. We believe in the power of protein to end food insecurity and have donated hundreds of millions of food servings to our communities. Smithfield boasts a portfolio of high-quality iconic brands, such as Smithfield, Eckrich and Nathan's Famous, among many others. For more information, visit www.smithfieldfoods.com, and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. About National FFA Organization The National FFA Organization is a school-based national youth leadership development organization of more than 850,000 student members as part of 8,995 local FFA chapters in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The FFA mission is to make a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education. For more, visit the National FFA Organization online at FFA.org and on Facebook and Twitter. About Kansas FFA Association The Kansas FFA Association is a statewide organization of 11,470 agricultural education students in 224 chapters in every corner of Kansas. Our mission is to make a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth, and career success through agricultural education. Visit www.ksffa.org for more information. About National FFA Foundation The National FFA Foundation builds partnerships with industry, education, government, other foundations and individuals to secure financial resources that recognize FFA member achievements, develop student leaders and support the future of agricultural education. A separately registered nonprofit organization, the foundation is governed by a board of trustees that includes the national FFA president, educators, business leaders and individual donors. For more, visit FFA.org/Give. SOURCE Smithfield Foods, Inc. Flux Co-Founder to demonstrate how Web3 will bolster the French and larger European business management and operations landscape NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Flux , the frontrunner in building decentralized infrastructure to power Web3, today announced its participation with Davidson Consulting for a premiere "Blockchain-as-a-Service Meetup" (BaaS) in Lille, France on Sept. 22. The event will feature Flux Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Daniel Keller, who will speak on the company's efforts in providing the world enterprise-grade decentralized infrastructure and how organizations can utilize the rapidly evolving technology for an ultimate advantage. The professional industry meetup will bring together developers and businesses to network and explore joint opportunities in blockchain and Web3. French businesses will learn from four innovators, including Keller, who will be introducing the possibilities of blockchain and Web3 technology in networks, digital transformation, and industry 4.0. "The best-kept secret of Web3 is the infrastructure behind it, particularly decentralized infrastructure, which is able to scale at a rapid pace, innovating and building value for future generations," said Keller, a 25-year technology veteran and Web3 expert. "As the Web3 landscape evolves and broadens in scope, Flux invites anyone to partner with us to deploy and develop on our platform and experience the tremendous, limitless business outcomes as a result." Also speaking at the event is Sylvain Lavazais and Alexis Vanpeperstraete from Davidson Consulting and French Youtuber Kevin alias Monsieur TK. French businesses such as Auchan, Axa, Boulanger, Oney, Decathlon, Axione, Agapes Restauration, SNCF CONNECT & TECH and more will attend the meetup and can leverage the expertise presented on how to bring massive potential to their organizations. Blockchain technology has been a hotspot of innovation since 2009 and has grown from "digital money" to a vast ecosystem of services and tools with a wide range of use cases. Now, as a central component of the fourth industrial revolution, it can tie into the Internet of Things (IOT) and enable machine economies. Flux has an end goal of providing an AWS-like environment where anyone is able to deploy their application on the network with a few clicks. The company has partnered with Lumen Technologies in creating its hybrid Web2/Web3 platform to further enable the adoption of decentralized infrastructure. Flux is also a member of the Nvidia Inception program to integrate AI-enabled hardware in its network. Further, so solve environmental issues of blockchain mining, the company is working with the Western Switzerland University of Applied Sciences in Geneva to develop a "proof of useful work" protocol. Ultimately this will secure blockchain mining networks while solving problems such as rendering, machine learning, deep fake detection and other computational lifting. "France is rapidly becoming a new epicenter for technology innovation and we are pleased to partner with Flux, in featuring Daniel Keller, to guide some of our nation's most successful businesses looking to flourish in the Web3 space," said Sylvain Lavazais of Davidson Consulting. Flux will also be providing gifts for attendees to commemorate the event. For more information about Flux, please visit: https://runonflux.io/ . For more information about Davidson Consulting, please visit: https://www.davidson.group/ . About Davidson Founded in 2005, Davidson Consulting specializes in management consulting and technology expertise, taking an action-oriented approach which elevates strategy to reach higher levels of performance. With a rich network of entities spread over the French territory, Davidson is also expanding abroad in Switzerland, Belgium, the United Arab Emirates, Spain and Germany. Davidson's approach is focused on listening to more than 2,000 employees and 300 customers, wellbeing at work, the excellence of our operations and the development of our team's vast creativity. About Flux The Flux Ecosystem is a suite of decentralized computing services and blockchain-as-a-service solutions which offer an interoperable, decentralized, AWS-like development environment. Flux utilizes a native POW (Proof-of-Work) coin to power this ecosystem, providing incentive for hardware hosters, governance on-chain, and bad actor mitigation via staking requirements for running hardware. The Flux operating system runs on top of Linux to provide the network with verified and benchmarked high-availability compute power and utilizes the blockchain to ensure transparency in governance operations. Flux node operators can choose from three tiers of hardware requirements to stand up after providing the necessary Flux capital soft-locked in their wallet. This allows anyone to be rewarded for providing hardware to the network, from anywhere in the world. MEDIA CONTACT: Shannon Blood M Group Strategic Communications (Flux) +1 917 765 1442 [email protected] SOURCE Flux Partnership will drive further collaboration around investment sourcing and deal flow in the digital assets space and beyond NEW YORK and NASSAU, Bahamas, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- FTX Ventures, a multi-stage venture capital fund, today announced that it will acquire a 30% stake in SkyBridge Capital ("SkyBridge") , a global alternative investment firm. The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed. FTX Ventures' investment will provide SkyBridge additional working capital to fund growth initiatives and new product launches. Further, SkyBridge will use a portion of the proceeds to purchase $40 million in cryptocurrencies to hold on its corporate balance sheet as a long-term investment. SkyBridge remains profitable and debt-free, notwithstanding market conditions. The deal is the latest collaboration between SkyBridge and FTX, following the multi-year partnership to sponsor global SALT conferences in North America, Asia and the Middle East, and co-present Crypto Bahamas, the leading institutional digital assets conference that launched in April 2022. The firms will expand their collaboration on venture and digital asset investing across current and future product offerings. "Sam is a visionary who has built incredible businesses that are synergistic with the future of SkyBridge," said Anthony Scaramucci, Founder and Managing Partner, SkyBridge. "Our business has continued to evolve since we founded the firm in 2005. We will remain a diversified asset management firm, while investing heavily in blockchain." "After working with Anthony and his team following our SALT conference partnership, we saw there was an opportunity to work closer together in ways that could complement both our businesses,'' said Sam Bankman-Fried. "We look forward to collaborating closely with SkyBridge on its crypto investment activity and also working alongside them on promising non-crypto-related investments." Anthony Scaramucci and Sam Bankman-Fried will discuss the partnership together on stage at SALT New York 's opening session on Monday September 12 at 9:00 a.m. ET. About FTX Ventures FTX Ventures is a multi-stage venture capital fund focused on supporting the world's best teams building in crypto and web3. The fund provides flexible funding and strategic support from FTX and its network of global partners. About SkyBridge Capital SkyBridge Capital is a global multi-strategy alternative investment firm, with a focus on hedge funds, fintech and venture capital. https://www.skybridge.com/ FTX Ventures Media Contact Jay Morakis M Group Strategic Communications [email protected] SkyBridge Capital Media Contact Prosek Partners [email protected] SOURCE SkyBridge Capital The fintech company has joined the UK's leading growth program to scale-up its footprint in the sector. LONDON, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Gemba Finance, a licensed financial institution in the United Kingdom, today announced its participation in the Tech Nation growth platform's Fintech 5.0 cohort. With 30% of created in the UK unicorns being supported byTech Nation, the company's participation in the program secures its standing as a leading scaleup innovating in the fintech sector. Gemba Finance Announces Participation in the Tech Nation Growth Platform Gemba Finance's white-labeled cloud platform enables any company or community to create a new bank online in under one day without coding, compliance, and infrastructural headaches. The company offers an expansive suite of products including a payment gateway, e-banking solution, and more. Gemba's all-in-one online banking and payment gateway solution is fast, reliable, and secure, and designed to help users launch their own neobank quickly and easily. "While demand for fast, compliant, and secure digital payments is growing, time and resources spent on transactions are often growing too. Gemba's goal is to become a changer in this game and provide a service that will streamline payment processes for our clients. We are proud to join the current Tech Nation cohort to learn, partner, and share knowledge," said Vladimir Dereviagin, Co-Founder of Gemba. Alexander Legoshin, Co-Founder and CEO of Gemba, added, "Gemba's team is building a product that adds value and revolutionizes financial markets: a simple but robust business management tool based on a scalable payment infrastructure, that just works. We are excited to be a part of the program, and we believe that it will help us learn, and improve our product and scale". Tech Nation connects critical thinkers, industry leaders, philanthropists and forward-thinking founders across all UK regions, and builds bespoke programs to set scaling tech businesses up for success. Its Fintech 5.0 cohort is recognized as an exclusive network of high-growth UK tech companies transforming the fintech/insurtech sector. Gemba solves industry problems such as payment delays, additional expenses, penalties, etc. by integrating directly into its customers' business management software. Through this integration, Gemba understands its customers' businesses better, and as a result, is able to comply with current AML regulations without interrupting customers' business processes. By partnering with Tech Nation, Gemba gains a competitive edge to overcome scaling challenges, support decision making through unique data, and expand its growing network, creating additional monetary value and jobs in the UK economy and beyond. This can be seen in the success of program alumni , which collectively have raised $28+ billion and employ 40,000+ people. About Gemba: We help businesses to build their financial infrastructure and individuals manage their assets efficiently. Gemba integrates into customers' business management software. Through this verified integration, Gemba can offer fast, secure and seamless payments worldwide. The company offers a fully compliant and intuitive mobile and web banking solution for everyday use. This allows businesses to onboard easily within at least 90 minutes, while also providing individuals the option of multiple accounts through their user-friendly website or app, with features such as fast money processing speed in just seconds! Source: https://technation.io/news/fintech-5-companies-announced/ Media Contact: Alexander Legoshin +12027097770 [email protected] SOURCE Gemba Finance Ltd DUBLIN, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Influenza Vaccines Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Vaccine Type, Virus Type, Technology, and Route of Administration" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The influenza vaccines market is expected to grow from US$ 7,478.53 million in 2021 to US$ 12,272.49 million by 2028. It is expected to grow with a CAGR of 7.4% from 2022 to 2028. Increasing government support to promote influenza vaccination and rising investment by top market players and governments are the major factors boosting the market. The governments of various states are supporting the promotional activities of vaccination program. For instance, the Australian government gives a free seasonal influenza vaccine to those at risk of influenza-related complications through the National Immunization Program (NIP). By 2022, enough vaccines have been given to cover all risk groups eligible for a government-funded flu vaccine through the NIP. Vaccine Type Insights Based on the vaccine type, the influenza vaccines market is segmented into quadrivalent vaccines and trivalent vaccines. The quadrivalent vaccines segment is likely to hold a larger market share in 2022. The same segment is anticipated to register a higher CAGR during the forecast period. The quadrivalent influenza (flu) vaccine protects against 4 influenza viruses, including 2 influenza A viruses and 2 influenza B viruses. All flu vaccines in the US during the 2021-2022 season are quadrivalent vaccines. Different vaccines are approved for different age groups. Virus Type Insights Based on virus type, the influenza vaccines market is segmented into influenza virus type A and influenza virus type B. The influenza virus type A segment is likely to hold a larger market share in 2022. The same segment is expected to record a faster CAGR during the forecast period. The market growth of the influenza virus type A segment is because it is the most common form of influenza and can infect animals, although illnesses associated with this type of flu are more common. Technology Insights Based on technology, the influenza vaccines market is segmented into egg-based and cell-based. The egg-based segment is likely to hold a larger market share in 2022. The same segment is expected to record a faster CAGR during the forecast period. The market growth of the egg-based segment is due to its most common method of producing flu vaccines through an egg-based manufacturing process that has been used for more than 70 years. Route of Administration Insights Based on route of administration, the influenza vaccines market is segmented into injection and nasal spray. The injection segment is likely to hold a larger market share in 2022. The same segment is expected to register a higher CAGR during the forecast period. The market growth of the injection segment is attributed to the fact that it is the most common method for flu vaccine administration. Key Topics Covered: 1. Introduction 2. Influenza Vaccines Market - Key Takeaways 3. Research Methodology 4. Influenza Vaccines Market - Market Landscape 4.1 Overview 4.2 PEST Analysis 4.3 Experts Opinion 5. Global Influenza Vaccines Market - Key Market Dynamics 5.1 Market Drivers 5.1.1 Increase in Government Support to Promote Influenza Vaccination 5.1.2 Increasing Investment by Top Market Players and Governments 5.2 Market Restraints 5.2.1 High Cost of Vaccine Development 5.3 Market Opportunities 5.3.1 Emerging Economies 5.4 Future Trends 5.4.1 Strong Pipeline Candidates for Influenza Vaccines 5.5 Impact Analysis 6. Influenza Vaccine Market -Global Analysis 6.1 Global Influenza Vaccines Market Revenue Forecasts And Analysis 6.2 Global Influenza Vaccines Market, By Geography - Forecasts And Analysis 6.3 Global Influenza Vaccines Market - Market Potential Analysis, By Region 6.4 Company Analysis 6.4.1 Market Positioning of Key Players 6.4.2 Comparative Company Analysis 6.5 Growth Strategy Analysis 6.6 Performance of Key Players 6.6.1 Sanofi 6.6.2 SEQIRUS 7. Influenza Vaccines Market Analysis and Forecasts To 2028 - By Vaccine Type 7.1 Overview 7.2 Global Influenza Vaccines Market, By Vaccine Type 2022 & 2028 (%) 7.3 Quadrivalent Vaccines 7.4 Trivalent Vaccines 8. Influenza Vaccines Market Analysis and Forecasts To 2028 - By Virus Type 8.1 Overview 8.2 Global Influenza Vaccines Market, By Virus Type 2022 & 2028 (%) 8.3 Influenza Virus Type A 8.4 Influenza Virus Type B 9. Influenza Vaccines Market Analysis and Forecasts To 2028 - By Technology 9.1 Overview 9.2 Global Influenza Vaccines Market, By Technology 2022 & 2028 (%) 9.3 Egg-based 9.4 Cell-based 10. Influenza Vaccines Market Analysis and Forecasts To 2028 - By Route of Administration 10.1 Overview 10.2 Global Influenza Vaccines Market, By Route of Administration 2022 & 2028 (%) 10.3 Injection 10.4 Nasal Spray 11. Influenza Vaccines Market Analysis and Forecasts To 2028 - Geographical Analysis 12. Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Global Influenza Vaccines Market 13. Influenza Vaccine Market -Industry Landscape 13.1 Overview 13.2 Growth Strategies in the Influenza Vaccine Market, 2021-2028 13.3 Inorganic Growth Strategies 13.3.1 Overview 13.4 Organic Growth Strategies 13.4.1 Overview 14. Company Profiles 14.1 Key Facts 14.2 Business Description 14.3 Products and Services 14.4 Financial Overview 14.5 SWOT Analysis 14.6 Key Developments Moderna, Inc. SEQIRUS Sanofi GlaxoSmithKline plc. Hualan Biological Engineering Inc. Emergent BioSolutions Inc. Mitsubishi Chemical Group Corporation Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd MYLAN N.V. AstraZeneca For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/3jqkp2 Media Contact: 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 Furthermore, the most common and high-potential pricing models chosen by buyers have been analyzed in this report, which will assist with comprehending business opportunities for revenue and profit. These data can assist buyers to reduce expenses and uncover business strategies to increase revenue.. Get a sample of this procurement report: https://spendedge.com/procurement-report/ldpe-market-procurement-research-report Who are the Top Suppliers in the Electric Utilities? The report analyzes the market's competitive landscape and offers information on several top suppliers. Some of the leading Waste Management suppliers profiled extensively in this report include: Duke Energy ENGIE National Grid These are a few of the key suppliers in Electric Utilities. Discover more about these vendors, including the detailed analysis of procurement strategies deployed by major category end-users across several industries while sourcing for Waste Management requirements. What are the Most Adopted Procurement Strategies for the Electric Utilities? The sourcing and procurement research offers a thorough analysis of the most widely utilized procurement strategies by buyers across industries, as well as insights into their innovation, regulatory compliance, quality, supply, and cost. Adopting these procurement strategies will allow buyers to reduce category TCO and save revenue while sourcing Waste Management. What Is the Most Effective Price Strategy That a Vendor Can Adopt and What is The Forecasted Incremental Spend? To maximize the value of the purchase, it is critical to monitor current and future pricing fluctuations. Price forecasts can assist in purchase planning, especially when paired with continuous monitoring of price-influencing factors. As a consequence of several market factors prevalent across multiple geographies, the market projects an incremental spend of USD 1547.97 billion during the forecast period. Furthermore, the sourcing and procurement report analyses the following criteria to examine various cost-cutting factors: Identify favorable opportunities in Waste Management TCO (total cost of ownership) Expected changes in price forecast and factors driving the current and future price changes Identify pricing models that offer the most rewarding opportunities https://spendedge.com/procurement-report/ldpe-market-procurement-research-report Which are the Key Regions for Electric Utilities? The Electric Utilities will register an incremental spend of about USD 1547.97 billion during the forecast period. However, only a few regions will drive the majority of this growth. Moreover, on the supply side, North America, Europe, and APAC will have the maximum influence owing to the supplier base. The growth is expected to be primarily driven by increasing demand and adoption of the category across those few regions. 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: Subscribe now for free, to get instant access to over 1000 market-ready procurement intelligence reports without any additional costs or commitment. 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 DUBLIN, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Mesenchymal Stem Cells - Advances and Applications, 2022" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Today, nearly one-hundred different market competitors are developing various types of MSC-related products and services, therapies, and manufacturing technologies. Within this ever-changing landscape, having a thorough understanding of the competition and their relative strengths and weaknesses is essential. Therefore, this global strategic report details the activities of 98 leading MSC companies. It also presents detailed market size figures for the global MSC market, segmented by geography and business segment, accompanied by five-year forecasts through 2027. With the competitive nature of this global market, you do not have the time to do the research. Claim this report to become immediately informed, without sacrificing hours of unnecessary research or missing critical opportunities. Market Insights Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent cells that can differentiate into a variety of cell types, including but not limited to osteoblasts, chondrocytes, myocytes, and adipocytes. In addition to secreting factors that can stimulate tissue repair, MSCs can substantially alter their microenvironment, exerting effects that are both anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic. MSCs are advantageous over other stem cells types for a variety of reasons, including that they are immuno-privileged, making them an advantageous cell type for allogenic transplantation. MSCs appear to be an exceptionally promising tool for cell therapy, because of their unusual advantages, which include availability, expandability, transplantability, and ethical implications. Interest in therapeutic applications of human MSCs arises from their diverse ability to differentiate into a range of cell types, as well as their ability to migrate to sites of tissue injury/inflammation or tumor growth. Naturally, a broad range of research products have been developed around MSCs and their differentiated cell types. Growing attention is also being given to manufacturing technologies to support commercial-scale production of MSCs. MSCs are well-suited for use in the exponential growth field of 3D printing, because of their capacity to form structural tissues. Numerous market competitors are exploring commercialization strategies for MSC-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) and exosomes, because these extracellular "packages" represent a novel strategy for accessing the therapeutic effects of stem cells without the risks of administering whole cells to patients. Finally, gene editing of MSCs for overexpressing antitumor genes or therapeutic factors is broadening their application. As the most common stem cell type being used within regenerative medicine today, there is huge potential for growth within the MSC market. There are more than one-hundred thousand scientific publications published about MSCs, as well over 1,100 MSC clinical trials underway worldwide. Current "hotspots" for MSC clinical trials include the U.S., E.U., China, Middle East, and South Korea. While many early-stage MSC trials have demonstrated safety and efficacy, only a small number of MSC products have reached commercialization, indicating that the therapeutic market for MSCs remains early-stage. Population aging and an increasing prevalence of chronic disease are also driving interest in MSC-based therapies. Furthermore, Google Trend data reveals that MSC searches are more than twice as common as the next most common stem cell type. The demand for both MSCs and MSC-based research products have surged in recent years. The main objectives of this report are to provide the reader with the following details: Market size determination for the global MSC market, segmented by geography and business segment Five-year forecasts for the global MSC market Details of the product candidates being developed by MSC companies MSC market trends, opportunities, risks, and competitive dynamics Major diseases addressed by MSCs in the ongoing clinical trials Cost of manufacturing autologous and allogeneic MSCs Consumption of MSCs for academic research, clinical trials, product development, and exosome production Trend rate data for MSC scientific publications Rates, quantities, geographic locations, and types of MSC clinical trials Types and sources of MSC industry funding Recent business developments related to MSCs MSC-based products with marketing approval and the companies commercializing them Currently marketed MSC-based bone matrices Pricing comparison of MSC-based products with marketing approval Emerging applications for MSCs, including genetic modification, 3D bioprinting, clean meat production and cosmeceuticals Company profiles for 98 MSC market competitors, including their proprietary technologies and products/services under development and so much more! Key Topics Covered: 1. Report Overview 1.1 Statement of the Report 1.2 Target Demographic 1.3 Report Sources 1.4 Purpose of the Report 2. Mesechymal Stem Cells (MSCs): An Overview 2.1 The Impact of MSCs on Regenerative Medicine 2.2 Timeline of MSC Nomenclature 2.3 Sources of MSCs 2.4 Cell Surface Markers in MSCs 2.5 In Vitro Differentiation Potentials of MSCs 2.6 Soluble Factors Secreted by MSCs 3. Manufacture of Mesenchymal Stem Cells 3.1 Methods of Isolation of MSCs 3.2 From Conventional Cultures to Bioreactors 3.3 Main Features of Commercial Bioreactors 3.4 Microcarriers used for the Expansion of MSCs 3.5 Downstream Processing of MSCs 4. Comparison of Autologous and Allogeneic MSC Manufacture 4.1 Manufacturing Cost Comparison 4.2 Comparison of the Two Business Models 4.3 Cost Breakdown in MSC Manufacturing 4.4 Opportunities for Cost Reduction 4.5 Partial Automation vs. Full Automation 5. Small Scale Processing of MSCs 5.1 Model Design 5.2 Culture Media 6. Large-Scale Expansion of MSCs 6.1 The Four Common Bioprocessing Strategies for Large-Scale Expansion 6.2 Commonly Used Sources of MSCs for Large-Scale Expansion 6.3 The Commonly Used Culture Medium for the Large-Scale Expansion of MSCs 6.4 Comparison between Large-Scale Bioprocessing Strategies 6.5 Contract Manufacturing for Cell Therapies 6.6 Global Cell Therapy Manufacturing Capacity 7. Estimated Consumption of MSCs in the Industry 7.1 Consumption of MSCs in Academic and Preclinical Settings 7.2 MSC Consumption in Clinical Settings 7.3 Consumption of MSCs by Target Indications in Clinical Trials 7.4 Future Consumption through 2030 7.5 Cost of MSCs per Patient used in Clinical Trials by Indication 8. Published Scientific Papers on MSCs 8.1 Number of Papers on MSCs & iPSCs Compared 8.2 Number of Papers on MSCs by Source 8.3 Number of Papers Published on Clinical Trials Involving MSCs 8.3.1 Number of Papers on Clinical Trials using MSCs for Specific Diseases 9. Clinical Trials of MSCs, MSC-based COVID-19, MSC-Exosomes 9.1 Analysis of Data from ClinicalTrials.gov 9.2 Sources of MSCs for Clinical Trials 9.3 Autologous vs. Allogeneic MSCs 9.4 Regional Distribution of MSC-based Clinical Trials 9.5 Types of Funding for MSC-based Clinical Trials 9.6 Types of MSC-based Clinical Trials 9.7 MSC-based Clinical Trials by Phase of Development 9.8 Clinical Trials Involving MSCs for the Treatment of COVID-19 9.9 Clinical Trials Involving MSC-Derived Exosomes 9.10 NIH Funding for MSC Research 9.11 CIRM's Funding for MSC Projects 10. Current Sub-Optimal Clinical Outcomes & Solutions 10.1 To Overcome Challenges Arising from MSC Manufacture 10.2 Cryopreservation and Culture Rescue 10.3 Overcoming Clinical Challenges Related to Infusion 10.4 To Overcome Clinical Challenges from the Host 11. Modification of MSCs 11.1 Genetic Modification 11.2 Preconditioning Modifications 11.3 Therapeutic Application of Modified MSCs 12. Major Diseases Addressed by MSCs in Clinical Trials 12.1 Clinical Trials using MSCs for Autoimmune Diseases 12.2 Clinical Trials using MSCs for Cardiovascular Diseases 12.3 Clinical Trials using MSCs for Neurodegenerative Diseases 12.4 Clinical Trials using MSCs for Bone and Cartilage Diseases 13. Present Status Of Mesenchymal Stem Cell Industry 13.1 Sources of MSCs for Research and Clinical Applications 13.2 Allogeneic Products Gaining Traction 13.3 MSC-based Products with Marketing Approval 13.3.1 Alofisel 13.3.2 Stemirac 13.3.3 Stempeucel 13.3.4 Temcell HS 13.3.5 Neuronata-R 13.3.6 Prochymal (Remestemcel-L) 13.3.7 Cupistem 13.3.8 Cartistem 13.3.9 Cellgram-AMI 13.3.10 Queencell 13.4 Currently Marketed MSC-based Bone Matrices 13.4.1 Osteocel 13.4.2 AlloStem 13.4.3 Cellentra VCBM 13.4.4 HiQCell 13.4.5 Trinity ELITE 13.4.6 Map3 13.4.7 Trinity Evolution 13.4.8 Carticel 13.4.9 Chondron 13.4.10 DeNovo NT 13.4.11 Chondrocelect 13.4.12 Ossron 13.4.13 JACC 13.4.14 MACI 13.4.15 Ortho-ACI 13.4.16 Spherox 13.4.17 Ossgrow 13.4.18 Cartigrow 13.4.19 ViviGen 13.4.20 Bio4 13.4.21 Cartiform 13.5 From Whole Cell MSC Therapy to MSC-Derived Exosome Therapy 13.6 MSC-based Therapy for COVID-19 13.7 MSC-based Clean Meat Production 13.8 Stem Cell-based Cosmetics 14. Market Analysis 14.1 Price Tags for MSC-based Cell Therapy (CT) Treatment 14.2 Price Tags for MSC-based Matrices 14.3 Market Size of MSC-based Therapies 14.4 Global Market for MSC-based Therapeutics 14.5 Global Demand for Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) 14.6 Market Share of MSC-based Business Segments 15. Company Profiles 101 Bio Adipomics, Inc. Aegle Therapeutics Aethlon Medical, Inc. AgeX Therapeutics, Inc. Alexerion Biotech Corp. AlloSource, Inc. American CryoStem Corporation American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) AMS Biotechnology, Ltd. (AMSBIO) Anemocyte S.r.l Anjarium Biosciences Anterogen, Co., Ltd. Apceth Biopharma GmbH Aruna Bio Athersys, Inc. Avalon GloboCare Corp. Axol Bioscience, Ltd. Azymus Therapeutics BioCat GmbH BioFluidica Bio-Techne 2 Prtoduct Types BioVision, Inc. Baylx, Inc. BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics Capricor Therapeutics Catalent Pharma Solutions CCRM CellResearch Corporation, Pte Ltd. Celltex Therapeutics Corporation Ciloa Codiak Biosciences 2 exoASO-STAT6 3 exoIL-12 Corestem, Inc. CO- DON AG Cognate BioServices, Inc. Creative Bioarray Creative Biolabs Cynata Therapeutics, Ltd. DePuy Synthes Direct Biologics EVerZom Evox Therapeutics, Ltd. Exerkine Corp. ExoCan Healthcare Technologies, Pvt. Ltd. ExoCoBio, Co., Ltd. Exogenus Therapeutics EXoPERT Exopharm Exosome Diagnostics, Inc. ExosomePlus Exosomics S.p.A Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology HansaBioMed Life Sciences, Ltd. Hope Biosciences, LLC Japan Tissue Engineering, Co., Ltd. JCR Pharmaceuticals, Co., Ltd. Kimera Labs , Inc. , Inc. Lonza Group Ltd. Mantra Bio Medipost, Co., Ltd. MDimune NanoSomix, Inc. NanoView Biosciences NeurExo Sciences Nipro Corporation Novus Biologicals, LLC NuVasive, Inc. OmniSpirant Limited Orthocell, Ltd. Orthofix Medical, Inc. Osiris Therapeutics, Inc. Pharmicell, Co., Ltd. Pluristem Therapeutics, Inc. Regeneus, Ltd. Regrow Biosciences, Pvt., Ltd. ReNeuron RoosterBio RoslinCT RTI Surgical, Inc. Sentien Biotechnologies, Inc. STEMCELL Technologies, Inc. Stemedica Cell Technologies, Inc. Stemmatters Biotechnologia e Medicina Regenerative SA Stempeutics Research, Pvt., Ltd. System Biosciences, LLC Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A. , Inc. , Inc. Tempo Bioscience Tavec Pharma United Therapeutics Corp. Vericel Corporation Versatope Therapeutics Vesigen Therapeutics, Inc. Waisman Biomanufacturing WuXi Advanced Therapies XOStem, Inc. Zen-Bio, Inc. Zimmer Biomet For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/ote0m2 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 New identity unites the company in a common mission following rapid transformation and acquisitions MONTREAL, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Haivision Systems Inc. ("Haivision") (TSX: HAI), a leading global provider of mission-critical, real-time video networking and visual collaboration solutions, announced today the launch of its bold new brand identity at IBC2022 reflecting the company's leadership in mission-critical live video solutions, pioneering spirit, and exciting direction for the future. Haivision's new identity is a culmination of strategic innovation and acquisitions and marks a new chapter as the company positions itself for the future. With an integrated product portfolio, the recent launch of Haivision Command 360 for mission-critical collaboration, the IBC launch of next-generation broadcast cloud technology, Haivision Hub MCR, and the introduction of Haivision-branded 5G contribution solutions including Haivision Pro, Haivision Air, Haivision Rack, and Haivision StreamHub, Haivision remains focused on continuous innovation. "Haivision has been continually raising the bar for real-time video solutions since its inception 18 years ago and the evolution of our brand heralds a natural next step in our journey to power the company's continued transformation and growth," said Mirko Wicha, President and CEO of Haivision. "The new Haivision brand identity embodies the core strengths of our solutions portfolio and technology, focused on addressing the challenges of our customers." The company's new branding represents its deep expertise in mission-critical live video networking and collaboration, inspired by the core values of security, reliability, quality, and performance inherent in all Haivision's solutions and services that customers have come to know and rely on. "In less than two years, Haivision has completed its IPO, made two significant acquisitions (Cinemassive and Aviwest), and added exciting new products to its solutions portfolio. The time is right to bring together all our products, technology, and people under one inspiring brand," said Marcus Schioler, Vice President, Marketing, Haivision, who led the branding evolution. "Our new unified look reflects the integrated way in which the company will work to achieve our vision to shape the future of video and will make it easier for our clients to understand who we are and what we do." The updated visual identity will be on display at Haivision's stand at IBC2022. To see the latest Haivision technology in action, visit us at IBC, Hall 2, stand B36. About Haivision Haivision is a leading global provider of mission-critical, real-time video networking and visual collaboration solutions. Our connected cloud and intelligent edge technologies enable organizations globally to engage audiences, enhance collaboration, and support decision making. We provide high quality, low latency, secure, and reliable live video at a global scale. Haivision open sourced its award-winning SRT low latency video streaming protocol and founded the SRT Alliance to support its adoption. Awarded four Emmys for Technology and Engineering from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Haivision continues to fuel the future of IP video transformation. Founded in 2004, Haivision is headquartered in Montreal and Chicago with offices, sales, and support located throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia. To learn more, visit Haivision at haivision.com. SOURCE Haivision Systems Inc. Use the analysis and insights provided by Technavio for effective decision-making. Download a FREE PDF Sample Report Key Market Challenge The presence of a large undiagnosed population will challenge the growth of the global home blood pressure monitoring devices market during the forecast period. High blood pressure is a leading cause of heart disease. Most of the people are undiagnosed or untreated due to a lack of awareness. Hence, organizations are initiating campaigns to raise awareness. However, despite such initiatives and campaigns, a lack of awareness about symptoms and diseases and a large undiagnosed population will challenge the global home blood pressure monitoring devices market. Key Vendor Analysis A and D Co. Ltd., American Diagnostic Corp., Beurer GmbH, Contec Medical Systems Co. Ltd., Dr. Morepen, ForaCare Inc., Halma Plc, IgridStore, iHealth Labs Inc., Koninklijke Philips NV, Microlife Corp., OMRON Corp., Qardio Inc., Rossmax International Ltd., Spengler Holtex Group, Telli Health LLC, Welch Allyn Inc., Wellue Health, Withings SA, Zewa Inc., among others, are the main players in the market. The key offerings of a few of these vendors are listed below: A and D Co. Ltd. - The company offers home blood pressure monitor products named such as Premium 2 User and Essential One buttons. The company offers home blood pressure monitor products named such as Premium 2 User and Essential One buttons. American Diagnostic Corp. - The company offers home blood pressure monitor products named Prosphyg 790 and Advantage 6005, which is a mercury-based home kit. The company offers home blood pressure monitor products named Prosphyg 790 and Advantage 6005, which is a mercury-based home kit. Beurer GmbH - The company offers home blood pressure monitor products named BC28, BC30, BC42, BC44, and BC85, which are electronic-based blood pressure devices for homes. The company offers home blood pressure monitor products named BC28, BC30, BC42, BC44, and BC85, which are electronic-based blood pressure devices for homes. Halma Plc - The company offers a home blood pressure monitor product named ambulatory blood pressure monitors ABPM. The company offers a home blood pressure monitor product named ambulatory blood pressure monitors ABPM. Koninklijke Philips NV - The company offers a home blood pressure monitor product named upper arm blood pressure monitor for blood pressure and heart rates and syncs automatically to Philips HealthSuite health app. Get lifetime access to our Technavio Insights! Subscribe to our "Basic Plan" billed annually at USD 5000 Home Blood Pressure Monitoring Devices Market Type Outlook (Revenue, USD mn, 2021-2026) Arm-cuff - size and forecast 2021-2026 Wrist-cuff - size and forecast 2021-2026 Others - size and forecast 2021-2026 Home Blood Pressure Monitoring Devices Market Geography Outlook (Revenue, USD mn, 2021-2026) North America - size and forecast 2021-2026 - size and forecast 2021-2026 Europe - size and forecast 2021-2026 - size and forecast 2021-2026 Asia - size and forecast 2021-2026 - size and forecast 2021-2026 Rest of World (ROW) - size and forecast 2021-2026 Learn about the contribution of each segment summarized in concise infographics and thorough descriptions. View a FREE PDF Sample Report Related Reports Blood Pressure Monitoring Device Market by Product and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2021-2025 Digital Blood Pressure Monitors Market by Type and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2021-2025 Home Blood Pressure Monitoring Devices Market Scope Report Coverage Details Page number 120 Base year 2021 Forecast period 2022-2026 Growth momentum & CAGR Accelerate at a CAGR of 5.4% Market growth 2022-2026 USD 565.93 million Market structure Fragmented YoY growth (%) 4.8 Regional analysis North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of World (ROW) Performing market contribution North America at 43% Key consumer countries US, Canada, Germany, UK, and China Competitive landscape Leading companies, Competitive strategies, Consumer engagement scope Key companies profiled A and D Co. Ltd., American Diagnostic Corp., Beurer GmbH, Contec Medical Systems Co. Ltd., Dr. Morepen, ForaCare Inc., Halma Plc, IgridStore, iHealth Labs Inc., Koninklijke Philips NV, Microlife Corp., OMRON Corp., Qardio Inc., Rossmax International Ltd., Spengler Holtex Group, Telli Health LLC, Welch Allyn Inc., Wellue Health, Withings SA, and Zewa Inc. Market dynamics Parent market analysis, market growth inducers and obstacles, fast-growing and slow-growing segment analysis, COVID-19 impact and recovery analysis and future consumer dynamics, and 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. Browse Health Care Market Reports 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 Incremental Growth Exhibit 07: Executive Summary Data Table on Incremental Growth Exhibit 08: Executive Summary Chart on Vendor Market Positioning 2 Market Landscape 2.1 Market ecosystem Exhibit 09: Parent market Exhibit 10: Market Characteristics 3 Market Sizing 3.1 Market definition Exhibit 11: Offerings of vendors included in the market definition 3.2 Market segment analysis Exhibit 12: Market segments 3.3 Market size 2021 3.4 Market outlook: Forecast for 2021-2026 Exhibit 13: Chart on Global - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 14: Data Table on Global - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 15: Chart on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 16: Data Table on Global Market: Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 4 Five Forces Analysis 4.1 Five forces summary Exhibit 17: Five forces analysis - Comparison between 2021 and 2026 4.2 Bargaining power of buyers Exhibit 18: Chart on Bargaining power of buyers Impact of key factors 2021 and 2026 4.3 Bargaining power of suppliers Exhibit 19: Bargaining power of suppliers Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.4 Threat of new entrants Exhibit 20: Threat of new entrants Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.5 Threat of substitutes Exhibit 21: Threat of substitutes Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.6 Threat of rivalry Exhibit 22: Threat of rivalry Impact of key factors in 2021 and 2026 4.7 Market condition Exhibit 23: Chart on Market condition - Five forces 2021 and 2026 5 Market Segmentation by Type 5.1 Market segments Exhibit 24: Chart on Type - Market share 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 25: Data Table on Type - Market share 2021-2026 (%) 5.2 Comparison by Type Exhibit 26: Chart on Comparison by Type Exhibit 27: Data Table on Comparison by Type 5.3 Arm-cuff - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 28: Chart on Arm-cuff - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 29: Data Table on Arm-cuff - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 30: Chart on Arm-cuff - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 31: Data Table on Arm-cuff - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.4 Wrist-cuff - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 32: Chart on Wrist-cuff - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 33: Data Table on Wrist-cuff - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 34: Chart on Wrist-cuff - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 35: Data Table on Wrist-cuff - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.5 Others - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 36: Chart on Others - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 37: Data Table on Others - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 38: Chart on Others - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 39: Data Table on Others - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 5.6 Market opportunity by Type Exhibit 40: Market opportunity by Type ($ million) 6 Customer Landscape 6.1 Customer landscape overview Exhibit 41: Analysis of price sensitivity, lifecycle, customer purchase basket, adoption rates, and purchase criteria 7 Geographic Landscape 7.1 Geographic segmentation Exhibit 42: Chart on Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 43: Data Table on Market share by geography 2021-2026 (%) 7.2 Geographic comparison Exhibit 44: Chart on Geographic comparison Exhibit 45: Data Table on Geographic comparison 7.3 North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 46: Chart on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 47: Data Table on North America - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 48: Chart on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 49: Data Table on North America - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.4 Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 50: Chart on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 51: Data Table on Europe - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 52: Chart on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 53: Data Table on Europe - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.5 Asia - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 54: Chart on Asia - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 55: Data Table on Asia - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 56: Chart on Asia - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 57: Data Table on Asia - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.6 Rest of World (ROW) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 58: Chart on Rest of World (ROW) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 59: Data Table on Rest of World (ROW) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 60: Chart on Rest of World (ROW) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 61: Data Table on Rest of World (ROW) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.7 US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 62: Chart on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 63: Data Table on US - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 64: Chart on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 65: Data Table on US - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.8 Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 66: Chart on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 67: Data Table on Germany - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 68: Chart on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 69: Data Table on Germany - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.9 UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 70: Chart on UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 71: Data Table on UK - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 72: Chart on UK - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 73: Data Table on UK - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.10 Canada - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 74: Chart on Canada - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 75: Data Table on Canada - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 76: Chart on Canada - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 77: Data Table on Canada - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.11 China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 Exhibit 78: Chart on China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 79: Data Table on China - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) - Market size and forecast 2021-2026 ($ million) Exhibit 80: Chart on China - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) Exhibit 81: Data Table on China - Year-over-year growth 2021-2026 (%) 7.12 Market opportunity by geography Exhibit 82: Market opportunity by geography ($ million) 8 Drivers, Challenges, and Trends 8.1 Market drivers 8.2 Market challenges 8.3 Impact of drivers and challenges Exhibit 83: Impact of drivers and challenges in 2021 and 2026 8.4 Market trends 9 Vendor Landscape 9.1 Overview 9.2 Vendor landscape Exhibit 84: Overview on Criticality of inputs and Factors of differentiation 9.3 Landscape disruption Exhibit 85: Overview on factors of disruption 9.4 Industry risks Exhibit 86: Impact of key risks on business 10 Vendor Analysis 10.1 Vendors covered Exhibit 87: Vendors covered 10.2 Market positioning of vendors Exhibit 88: Matrix on vendor position and classification 10.3 A and D Co. Ltd. Exhibit 89: A and D Co. Ltd. - Overview Exhibit 90: A and D Co. Ltd. - Business segments Exhibit 91: A and D Co. Ltd. - Key offerings Exhibit 92: A and D Co. Ltd. - Segment focus 10.4 American Diagnostic Corp. Exhibit 93: American Diagnostic Corp. - Overview Exhibit 94: American Diagnostic Corp. - Product / Service Exhibit 95: American Diagnostic Corp. - Key offerings 10.5 Beurer GmbH Exhibit 96: Beurer GmbH - Overview Exhibit 97: Beurer GmbH - Product / Service Exhibit 98: Beurer GmbH - Key offerings 10.6 Halma Plc Exhibit 99: Halma Plc - Overview Exhibit 100: Halma Plc - Business segments Exhibit 101: Halma Plc - Key news Exhibit 102: Halma Plc - Key offerings Exhibit 103: Halma Plc - Segment focus 10.7 Koninklijke Philips NV Exhibit 104: Koninklijke Philips NV - Overview Exhibit 105: Koninklijke Philips NV - Business segments Exhibit 106: Koninklijke Philips NV - Key news Exhibit 107: Koninklijke Philips NV - Key offerings Exhibit 108: Koninklijke Philips NV - Segment focus 10.8 OMRON Corp. Exhibit 109: OMRON Corp. - Overview Exhibit 110: OMRON Corp. - Business segments Exhibit 111: OMRON Corp. - Key news Exhibit 112: OMRON Corp. - Key offerings Exhibit 113: OMRON Corp. - Segment focus 10.9 Qardio Inc. Exhibit 114: Qardio Inc. - Overview Exhibit 115: Qardio Inc. - Product / Service Exhibit 116: Qardio Inc. - Key offerings 10.10 Rossmax International Ltd. Exhibit 117: Rossmax International Ltd. - Overview Exhibit 118: Rossmax International Ltd. - Product / Service Exhibit 119: Rossmax International Ltd. - Key offerings 10.11 Spengler Holtex Group Exhibit 120: Spengler Holtex Group - Overview Exhibit 121: Spengler Holtex Group - Product / Service Exhibit 122: Spengler Holtex Group - Key offerings 10.12 Welch Allyn Inc. Exhibit 123: Welch Allyn Inc. - Overview Exhibit 124: Welch Allyn Inc. - Product / Service Exhibit 125: Welch Allyn Inc. - Key offerings 11 Appendix 11.1 Scope of the report 11.2 Inclusions and exclusions checklist Exhibit 126: Inclusions checklist Exhibit 127: Exclusions checklist 11.3 Currency conversion rates for US$ Exhibit 128: Currency conversion rates for US$ 11.4 Research methodology Exhibit 129: Research methodology Exhibit 130: Validation techniques employed for market sizing Exhibit 131: Information sources 11.5 List of abbreviations Exhibit 132: List of abbreviations About Technavio Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provide 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. Contacts 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 Intracom Telecom has suspended its business in Russia since the beginning of the EU sanctions ATHENS, Greece, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Intracom Telecom, a global telecommunication systems and solutions vendor, announces its complete exit from the Russian market in the framework of the European Union sanctions on Russia imposed on February 25th 2022. In parallel, Intracom Telecom has reached the deal on selling the 100% of its Russian subsidiary, Intracom SVYAZ LLC, on September 5th 2022. Mr. Kartlos Edilashvili, Acting CEO of the Intracom Telecom Group, stated: "We had already halted all our businesses in Russia since the beginning of the EU sanctions on February 25, 2022 and by finalizing this transaction we are completing our exit process. Intracom Telecom will continue focusing on its expansion plan to serve more customers around the globe, addressing their telecom and ICT business needs with Company's innovative products, solutions and services portfolio." Intracom Svyaz LLC was a subsidiary of the Intracom Telecom Group, since its establishment in 2002, while the Group has had a long-standing presence in the Russian Federation through its representative office in Moscow since 1998. About Intracom Telecom Intracom Telecom is a global telecommunication systems and solutions vendor operating for 45 years in the market. The company has become the benchmark in fixed wireless access and it successfully innovates in the 5G/4G wireless RAN transport and small-cell SON backhaul international arena. Intracom Telecom offers a comprehensive revenue-generating software solutions portfolio and a complete range of ICT services, focusing on IoT, SDN/NFV, Big Data analytics & data-driven intelligence, and Smart City solutions. Moreover, it addresses the Energy & Utilities industry, emphasizing on smart metering and end-to-end IT solutions. Intracom Telecom is also active in the defense systems sector providing security integrated systems for critical infrastructure protection and border surveillance. The company has extensive know-how and a proven track record in the market, serving fixed and mobile telecom operators, public authorities and large public and private enterprises. Intracom Telecom maintains its own R&D and production facilities, and operates subsidiaries worldwide. For more information please visit: www.intracom-telecom.com SOURCE Intracom Telecom MT. PLEASANT, Mich., Sept. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Isabella Bank Corporation ( OTCQX:ISBA) today announced its Board of Directors declared a third-quarter cash dividend of $0.27 per common share at its regular meeting on August 31, 2022. The dividend will be payable September 30, 2022, to shareholders of record as of September 28, 2022. Based on ISBA's closing stock price of $23.45 per share as of August 31, 2022, the annualized cash dividend yield is 4.61%. "As a large community bank with 29 locations throughout Mid-Michigan, we take pride in serving our customers, our communities and our shareholders," said Jae A. Evans, President and Chief Executive Officer. "At the heart of what we do is our staff, who are dedicated to meeting the needs of our customers and communities. We are also committed to increasing shareholder value through the pursuit and implementation of various strategic initiatives. These initiatives, which began in 2019, have been successful and led to strong financial results for the first two quarters of 2022." About the Corporation Isabella Bank Corporation ( OTCQX: ISBA) is the parent holding company of Isabella Bank, a state chartered community bank headquartered in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. Isabella Bank was established in 1903 and has been committed to serving the local banking needs of its customers and communities for 119 years. The Bank offers personal and commercial lending and deposit products, as well as investment, trust and estate planning services through Isabella Wealth. The Bank has locations throughout seven Mid-Michigan counties: Clare, Gratiot, Isabella, Mecosta, Midland, Montcalm, and Saginaw. For more information about Isabella Bank Corporation, visit the Invest in Us link at www.isabellabank.com. Isabella Bank Corporation common stock is quoted on the OTCQX tier of the OTC Markets Group, Inc.'s electronic quotation system (www.otcmarkets.com) under the symbol "ISBA." The Corporation's market maker is Boenning & Scattergood, Inc. (www.boenninginc.com) and its investor relations firm is Renmark Financial Communications, Inc. (www.renmarkfinancial.com). Forward-Looking Statements This press release includes forward-looking statements. To the extent that the foregoing information refers to matters that may occur in the future, please be aware that such forward-looking statements may differ materially from actual results. Additional information concerning some of the factors that could cause materially different results is included in the sections entitled "Risk Factors" and "Forward Looking Statements" set forth in Isabella Bank Corporation's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available from the Securities and Exchange Commission's Public Reference facilities and from its website at www.sec.gov. SOURCE Isabella Bank Corporation TOKYO, Japan, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ITANDI Co., Ltd., a Japanese company (Headquarters: Minato-Ku, Japan; CEO: Shinpei Noguchi; Hereinafter as "the Company".) provides services in the real estate industry (mainly in the rental and leasing sector) announced that it is working with the Japan Network for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (NPO organization) and becomes one of the partners that supports the "Orange ribbon anti child abuse movement". ITANDI is part of the GA technologies groupHeadquarters: Minato-Ku, Tokyo; CEO: Ryo Higuchi; Securities code: 3491), the Company started the service of providing a checklist for anti-child abuse through its SaaS service "ITANDI BB" targeting the real estate companies. About the "Orange ribbon anti child abuse movement"1 The whole movement started from a sad story of two boy brothers who died from the abuse of their father's friend. In 2004, the two little boys aged 3 and 4 were reported dead threw from the bridge. The boy brothers residing at Oyama city, Tochigi Prefecture were found being abused by their father's friend multiple times and were under temporary protection of the local police because of that. However, the two little boys did not receive any support or attention from the organizations that are supposed to be responsible to take care of the matter. The two boys were severely beaten again to the condition where they were almost dead and were thrown from a bridge to the river. To prevent such tragic event from happening again, the Oyama city started this "Orange ribbon anti child abuse movement" to rise the awareness of child abuse. Such a tragic case of child abuse is not rare, an average of more than 50 cases of child abuse were reported a year in Japan. A child who has been abused physically and mentally when they were young tends to suffer from inter relationship problems when they grow up even when they have their own families and in the workplace. Some of these people even end up committed suicide in the end because of such painful experience originated from their childhood. In order to prevent such events from happening, a non-profit organization called the Japan Network for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect has started this orange ribbon help desk to receive child abuses reports nationally, the service is growing around Japan currently. ITANDI supports the orange ribbon to prevent child abuse A statistic released by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare states that more than 200,000 cases of child abuse have been reported in 2020. These cases were reported by the child consultation centers around Japan. The children being reported in these cases are under 18 years old (The legal adult age in Japan is 18 years old). The number is also the highest compared to the numbers in the past. The places where the abusive activities happen are mainly "in homes" with "parents or the so-called legal guardians" of the child being the person who committed such abuses. 2 ITANDI is asking for the participation of the real estate companies in Japan to join this movement to pay attention to any possible signs that could be a potential child abuse situation. These signs usually include but are not limited to the following situations: witnesses from the neighbors, delay of the rent payment of a tenant, and extremely unsanitary living environment, etc. A realtor is the person who has close connections and interactions with a local area and is usually the person who has access to residents' homes. This gives realtors advantages to sense those signs of a possible child abuse case easier than most people. Using our advantages as realtors we might have saved a life from child abuse. ITANDI has been working with the Japan Network for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect to create this checklist of possible signs of child abuse shown on our ITANDI BB service website. ITANDI BB is a BtoB SaaS service targeted at real estate companies with more than 4,000,000 monthly page views. We are using our service website as a medium to send the message out and show that ITANDI as a business company cares about our society and our children and supports the "Orange ribbon anti child abuse movement". Checklist of possible signs of child abuse case (For businesses) https://lp.itandibb.com/orangeribbon/ *The service is only available in Japan area and provided in Japanese only * A chart about the trend of the reported child abuse cases starting from 1990 to 2020 in Japan is available in the site Source: The checklist is created by ITANDI based on the conference document of the manager meeting between the national child welfare department and the child welfare consultation center (From the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan) in 2021 Fukushima prefecture was excluded from the research regarding child abuse reports due to the Great East Japan earthquake ITANDI's SDGs activity report https://www.itandi.co.jp/sustainability ITANDI has been putting a lot of effort in promoting the digital transformation of the real estate industry in Japan and has been caring about issues in our society too. As a property technology business company, we also care about how we could contribute to the sustainability of our environment. The following 6 SDGs goals are the major areas we are focusing on: "Caring for our planet", "Contribute to the evolution of the business model of the real estate industry", "Contribute to the creation of sustainable cities and communities'', "Building of a trustworthy and safe transaction process", "Contribute to the creation of a motivated work environment", and "Strengthen of governance and compliance". Finally, we will be adding "the support of anti child abuse movement" to our list as our 7th sustainability goals. ITANDI has been working hard on making positive changes to the society in different aspects under our business mission of "contributing to the abundance of people's lives and connect everyone through our service." About ITANDI BB https://lp.itandibb.com/bb-detail/ ITANDI BB is a real time database designed for realtors. On the website, realtors can find the application information and the leasing information about a property that is specifically for rental purposes. The information is provided by linking the database with application information from real estate agencies and the database with vacancy information from management companies. The information in the database is updated simultaneously in which cuts down the chances that users might get false information because of bait advertising4. Currently, there are about 3,000 property management companies using the service, while about 47,000 real estate agencies are installed with the service too. The service is automatically linked with VR contents of a property 5 in which helps to accelerate the digital transformation of the entire rental and lease transaction process to realize our vision of an Internet real estate business model6. 1Source: The official website of the "Orange ribbon anti child abuse movement" https://www.orangeribbon.jp/ 2Source: The conference document between the national child welfare department and the child welfare consultation center manager meeting (From the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan) https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/seisakunitsuite/bunya/000019801_00004.html 3Source: Checklist for signs of possible child abuse cases; provided by Tokyo city government https://www.fukushihoken.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/kodomo/katei/taiseikyouka310125.files/checklist.pdf 4Press release reference: https://www.itandi.co.jp/news_posts/924 5Press release reference: https://www.itandi.co.jp/news_posts/534 6Internet real estate refers to the entire process of a real estate transaction is being done purly onlineDefined by GA technologies in April 2021 ITANDI Co.,Ltd Company name: ITANDI Co.,Ltd Representative: Shinpei Noguchi Website: https://www.itandi.co.jp/ Headquarters: 40F of Sumitomo real estate Roppongi Grand Tower, Roppongi 3-2-1, Minato-Ku, Tokyo Year of founding: June 2012 Capital fund: 36,000,000 yen Services: Development, operation of SaaS for real estate companies: ITANDI BB Development, operation of SaaS for rental & lease management companies: ITANDI BB + Development, operation of self-tour house hunting platform: OHEYAGO GA technologies Co., Ltd Company name: GA technologies Co., Ltd Representative: Ryo Higuchi Website: https://www.ga-tech.co.jp/ Headquarters: 40F of Sumitomo real estate Roppongi Grand Tower, Roppongi 3-2-1, Minato-Ku, Tokyo Year of founding: March, 2013 Capital fund: 7224,816,203 yenby July 2022 Services: Internet real estate marketplace business: RENOSY BtoB PropTech SaaS development GA technologies group: ITANDI, RENOSY PLUS, Shenjumiausuan and 10 other group companies For this release, please contact below: Nami (+81-90-1503-9158), Judy, GA technologies Co., Ltd. MAIL: [email protected] SOURCE GA technologies Co., Ltd. Technology reduced data transfer time for military helicopters by more than 80% Using 5G capabilities, network engineers transfer health and usage data from a Sikorsky UH-60M Black Hawk to Waterton, Colorado, for real-time analysis STRATFORD, Conn., Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Lockheed Martin ( NYSE: LMT) and AT&T* securely and rapidly transferred UH-60M Black Hawk health and usage data through an AT&T 5G private cellular network and Lockheed Martin's 5G.MIL multi-site pilot network in a test conducted Aug. 4 at Lockheed Martin's Sikorsky headquarters in Stratford, Connecticut. The test demonstrated that wireless 5G technologies on the flight line can support accelerated maintenance operations and improved aircraft readiness to support our service members. It also proved highly secure interoperability between the AT&T millimeter wave 5G private cellular network and the 5G.MIL pilot network. "These 5G capabilities deployed at scale are expected to enable high-speed, secure-data transfer on virtually any flight line, providing another example of how we're advancing our 21st Century Security vision by improving customer readiness and operations," said Dan Rice, vice president of 5G.MIL Programs at Lockheed Martin. "In collaboration with commercial 5G leaders, an interoperable 5G.MIL multi-site, multi-vendor network is another step closer to reality." The AT&T 5G millimeter wave private cellular network wirelessly transferred data to the 5G.MIL network through ground support equipment from the Black Hawk's Integrated Vehicle Health Management System (IVHMS). The data was then routed to local Sikorsky networks for processing and distribution through the secure Lockheed Martin 5G.MIL pilot network to the Waterton, Colorado, 5G test range site. Currently, it takes Black Hawk crews about 30 minutes to remove the IVHMS data cartridge from the helicopter, transport it to an operations center and extract the data for analysis. Lockheed Martin used AT&T 5G private cellular technologies to reduce the time required to less than 5 minutes including cartridge removal, demonstrating the potential benefits in time and cost for military and commercial helicopter operations. The IVHMS provides monitoring and diagnostic capabilities to ensure a more reliable aircraft. It monitors, captures and evaluates detailed aircraft-generated data as a result of flight maneuvers. It also captures aircraft limit exceedances on airframe and dynamic components and monitors temperature and vibration of key components on the aircraft. It does this through hundreds of on-board sensors that report the status of the aircraft by monitoring the airframe, engines, and other dynamic components. Operators assess these thousands of data points to ensure the aircraft is safe, reliable and ready to fly. "Timely and secure transfer and analysis of mission and operations data are critical to military readiness and effectiveness," said Lance Spencer, client executive vice president, Defense, AT&T Public Sector and FirstNet. "This is one of many areas of commercial 5G innovation we are exploring to support defense, commercial aviation, and related fields where our 5G-related services can modernize legacy processes and help deliver truly transformational benefits." Lockheed Martin and AT&T also are working with other leading companies in networking and defense to modernize and transform communications capabilities for defense purposes. Future demonstrations are expected to further enhance 5G wireless technology communications solutions for flight lines, aiming to continually shorten aircraft turnaround times to reduce costs and improve military operational readiness. These capabilities deployed at scale can support high-speed, secure-data transfer on both commercial and military flight lines. AT&T's 5G and private cellular Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) capabilities are deployed together by multiple industrial customers in factories nationwide where they enable ultra-fast, highly secure wireless processing and information transfer. For additional information about Lockheed Martin, visit www.lockheedmartin.com/5G. For more information about AT&T's work in Defense, click here. About Lockheed Martin Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin ( NYSE: LMT) is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 114,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. Please follow @LMNews on Twitter for the latest announcements and news across the corporation. *About AT&T We help more than 100 million U.S. families, friends and neighbors connect in meaningful ways every day. From the first phone call 140+ years ago to our 5G wireless and multi-gig internet offerings today, we @ATT innovate to improve lives. For more information about AT&T Inc. ( NYSE:T), please visit us at about.att.com . Investors can learn more at investors.att.com . SOURCE AT&T Leading Neurology Faculty to Present Clinical Updates and Management Strategies for Key Neurological Conditions NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Medscape Education will host the inaugural Neurology Exchange virtual conference from September 20 to September 22. The virtual event will feature dynamic faculty and peer networking opportunities as well as Continuing Medical Education (CME)/Continuing Education (CE)-certified education sessions on the latest developments in neurology. Chaired by Michael S. Okun, MD, Professor and Chair of Neurology, University of Florida Health and Director Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases in Gainesville, the conference will feature a keynote presentation from Jenna Bush Hager, co-host of TODAY with Hoda and Jenna, on the former first family's experience with vascular parkinsonism. World-class faculty will lead educational sessions on topics such as multiple sclerosis, adult neuromuscular disorders, stroke care, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, migraine, and pediatric neuromuscular disorders. In addition to the educational and networking experiences, the MedscapeLIVE! virtual conference environment will feature oral abstract presentations, gamification, social media wall, and interactive attendee participation throughout the event. "We are excited to kick off the first year of the Medscape Neurology Exchange Conference," said Dr. Okun. "This virtual conference will be an amazing platform to connect with faculty and clinicians and to provide the most cutting- edge information on common neurological diseases. We have an incredible international faculty line up. Clinicians will be able to increase their knowledge through expert education and fun interaction. Our hope is that the Exchange will ultimately lead to better outcomes for patients." The Neurology Exchange will provide education relevant for community-based neurologists, primary care physicians, pediatricians, nurses, physician assistants, and all other clinicians involved in the care of patients with neurological disorders. A portion of registration fees will be donated on the attendees' behalf to the Child Neurology Foundation, which exemplifies research and advocacy in the Neurology community. For more information, visit the Neurology Exchange website HERE About Medscape Education Medscape Education (medscape.org) is the leading destination for continuous professional development, consisting of more than 30 specialty-focused destinations offering thousands of free CME and CE courses for physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals. SOURCE Medscape Education Clinical intelligence platform partners with one of Southern California's leading multi-specialty medical groups to support patients and care teams SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Memora Health, the leading technology platform for virtual care delivery and complex care management, today announced a partnership with UP Medical, a multi-specialty medical group, dedicated to raising standards and experience for chronically ill patients, so they can live their best lives. This partnership will leverage Memora's clinical intelligence platform to engage UP Medical patients between visits and reduce the burden of repetitive manual communication on UP Medical's care teams. UP Medical's care teams will be able to practice at the top of their license with the support of Memora's natural language processing and artificial intelligence technology, which triages patient-reported symptoms and concerns while automating repetitive tasks, such as answering frequently asked questions and setting up recurring reminders and check-ins. In addition, UP Medical's patients using Memora's SMS-based platform will receive proactive outreach to ensure adherence to care plans, resulting in earlier interventions, more frequent touch points with their care teams, and ultimately, better health outcomes. "We're very excited to partner with UP Medical and roll out our platform across the multi-specialty medical groups to modernize their care delivery and empower care teams to spend less time on screens and more time being the superhumans they were trained to be," said Manav Sevak, co-founder, and CEO of Memora Health. "It is clear how forward-thinking the team at UP Medical is regarding how they want to empower their care teams and patients. Likewise, at Memora, we're also committed to empowering clinicians and patients: our technology enables clinicians to practice at the top of their license while simultaneously supporting patients throughout their care journeys." Memora's platform will initially be used by UP Medical's Southern California-based medical groups specializing in behavioral health, substance use disorder, vascular care, and podiatry. UP Medical, which is in a period of significant growth and has increased its staff by over 50 percent in the past year, will leverage Memora's platform to enable increased scalability and ensure a seamless experience for patients as well as their care teams. "At UP Medical, we're committed to meeting patients where they are and reimagining health care as we know it," said Annie Willett-Thomas, Vice President of Healthcare Strategy and Operations at UP Medical. "We're thrilled to partner with Memora to increase patient engagement outside our clinic walls and enable our care teams across specialties to prioritize critical patient needs and spend less time on routine, time-consuming tasks." About Memora Health Memora Health helps healthcare organizations digitize and automate care journeys, making complex care delivery simple for patients and clinicians to navigate. Memora Health ingests existing data on clinical workflows, converts them into cohesive messaging journeys that guide patients through their care episodes, and automates the completion of simple follow-up tasks in the EHR. Memora's platform reduces care team notifications by nearly 40%, has an average patient NPS over 70, and improves engagement and clinical outcomes across diverse populations. Memora Health is headquartered in San Francisco, CA, with clients and team members worldwide. For more information about Memora Health, visit memorahealth.com. About UP Medical UP Medical is a multi-specialty medical group, dedicated to raising standards and experience for chronically ill patients, so they can live their best lives. We do this by curating and cultivating patient-centric care journeys through a collaborative, tech-enabled ecosystem with a value-based, whole person care approach. We recognize the neurological evidence of the mind-body connection, and the role it plays in treatment intervention. This is why we go well beyond the medical paradigm, and its compartmentalized manner of providing specialty care, into the wellness paradigm. Within this holistic paradigm, the goal for our patients is to thrive, not simply survive. For more information about UP Medical, visit upmedical.com. Media Contact: Kala Meadows, [email protected] SOURCE Memora Health VIENNA, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Universal Energy Facility (UEF), a results-based financing facility managed by Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), has reached a milestone it verified its first set of electricity connections: 542 connections to mini-grids across eight communities in Madagascar. With that, the facility has also disbursed its first grant, with mini-grid developer WeLight receiving USD 592 per connection. Improved electricity access is having a positive impact on local residents in Ambohitoaka, Madagascar, where the Universal Energy Facility has supported the development of mini-grids. "This is an important milestone in the history of the Universal Energy Facility," said Damilola Ogunbiyi, CEO and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All and Co-Chair of UN-Energy. "These connections in the communities of Ambovonomby, Mangindrano, Marovato, Ambohitoaka, Anjozoromadosy, Ambodisaina, Andohajango and Marotandrano in Madagascar are proof that results-based finance delivers reliable and affordable electricity access at speed and scale to populations most in need." Launched in October 2020, the UEF is a multi-donor facility that provides grants to eligible organizations once the connections they establish have been verified. Under this results-based model, companies are incentivized to build at speed and scale in contrast to a traditional procurement model for financing energy projects. In its initial wave, the UEF is supporting mini-grid development in Benin, Madagascar, and Sierra Leone. The initial 542 connections verified in Madagascar will provide approximately 2,170 people with electricity, while also powering important community services and businesses. "We are thankful for this grant that will be instrumental in bringing productive electricity to villagers and trigger economic growth and positive social impacts in eight new villages across Madagascar," said Romain de Villeneuve, CEO, WeLight Africa. In the community of Ampasimatera, the new mini-grids are anticipated to provide new economic opportunities for local residents. "Electricity alone cannot create all the conditions for economic growth, but it is an essential element to meet the needs of the population of Ampasimatera in order to facilitate the development of economic activities in the commune," said Thyerry Rozenaly, Mayor of Ampasimatera. More mini-grids supported by the UEF are under construction in the three countries, where the facility expects to provide results-based finance for approximately 14,000 electricity connections. A new wave of the UEF was also launched on 24 August and focuses on supporting Stand-Alone Solar for Productive Use (SSPU), starting with Nigeria. This wave is designed to scale up access to electricity for households, micro, small and medium enterprises. The UEF is a multi-donor facility supported by Shell Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, Africa Minigrid Developers Association, Power Africa, Good Energies, UKaid, Carbon Trust, IKEA Foundation, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany (BMZ) and Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). More information on the UEF is available at seforall.org/UEF. About Sustainable Energy for All Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) is an international organization that works in partnership with the United Nations and leaders in government, the private sector, financial institutions, civil society and philanthropies to drive faster action towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7) access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030 in line with the Paris Agreement on climate. SEforALL works to ensure a clean energy transition that leaves no one behind and brings new opportunities for everyone to fulfill their potential. SEforALL is led by Damilola Ogunbiyi, CEO and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All and Co-Chair of UN-Energy. Follow her on Twitter @DamilolaSDG7. For more information, follow @SEforALLorg. Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6NaXEzCeOk SOURCE Sustainable Energy for All "Vaccine Management Solution Designed for Cities and State Governments" DALLAS, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- As the number of confirmed Monkeypox cases in the United States nears 19,000, state and local governments are responding to yet another public health crisis. MTX Group Deploys Monkeypox Vaccine Solution as Case Counts Surge Across the Country MTX Group Deploys Monkeypox Vaccine Solution as Case Counts Surge Across the Country To address this challenge and others, MTX Group, Inc. (MTX) has adapted our groundbreaking COVID-19 disease surveillance and vaccine management solutions to help state and local health departments respond to future threats to public health. These MTX solutions utilize data to monitor infections and facilitate better decision making for communities gearing up to fight the fast-spreading Monkeypox virus. According to MTX President & former Chief Health Information Officer for New York State Department Of Health, Mahesh Nattanmai, "MTX is proud and excited to be part of the emerging solution for Monkeypox, much like we were with the coronavirus pandemic. We believe our deep experience in working with public sector agencies and the nimbleness of our team in customizing solutions positions MTX Group to be instrumental in helping to fight Monkeypox and other public health threats." MTX converted its COVID-19 response systems into MTX Monkeypox Surveillance and Vaccine Management systems to help health departments collect and manage valuable data to monitor infections and exposed individuals, allocate and deliver vaccines and make informed decisions to manage public health. MTX went live with its Monkeypox Vaccine Management solution for one of our public sector clients in less than a week, enabling the agency to book 9,000 appointments for the first dose in a single day. As a trusted partner to government agencies, MTX consistently met the challenges presented during the pandemic and successfully deployed emergency response management solutions to our public sector partners . These solutions include health monitoring, vaccination management, unemployment insurance application claims, emergency child care, rental assistance programs and more. Brad Hutton, M.P.H, Senior Public Health Advisor to MTX of Hutton Health Consulting and former New York State Deputy Commissioner for Public Health said "State and local public health departments continue to work non-stop to protect the health of their residents against emerging threats - all while maintaining active responses against COVID-19. Health departments can benefit from strong, experienced and trusted vendors to assist them in modernizing their information systems for tracking and responding to communicable diseases. MTX has helped many health departments throughout the pandemic and is poised to deliver expert support to others." MTX invites Public Health Officials to attend our upcoming Disease Surveillance and Monkeypox Live Webinar on Tuesday, September 20, 2022 at 3:00 PM EST. Register here. You can also learn more by listening to a recording of our previous webinar Managing the Monkeypox Outbreak with Solutions from the Pandemic. MTX is a global technology consulting firm that enables organizations to modernize through digital transformation. With data as the new currency, MTX helps transform long-term strategy with outcomes in mind around happiness, health and the economy. MTX improves decision-making with speed and quality by partnering with leading cloud technologies. #raisethebar #nowwego SOURCE MTX Group MONTREAL, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - MY01 Inc. today announced that interim data from an ongoing, prospective multi-center study was presented at the Clinical Orthopedic Society (COS) Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas. The data represents the first 92 of 100 patients to be enrolled in MY01's inaugural post-market study. The presentation, entitled "Clinical Trial on Continuous Compartmental Pressure Monitoring for Acute Compartment Syndrome" demonstrated that the MY01 continuous compartmental pressure monitor is an accurate aid to diagnosing acute compartment syndrome (ACS). The use of continuous pressure monitoring paired with clinical signs yielded no missed cases of ACS and no false positives. In addition, more than 90% of participating clinicians indicated that they would recommend the MY01 device for use in all long bone fractures. "We believe pairing the MY01 monitor and mobile app with the observation of clinical signs will shift the paradigm of ACS diagnosis," said Charles Allan, CEO of MY01, Inc. "MY01 is excited about the data presented at the COS meeting and additional presentations scheduled in the coming months, all of which support the effective use of our product and its positive impact on patient outcomes." The data presented included the first 92 patients from a prospective study at six Level 1 trauma center sites with plans to enroll 100 patients with fractures of the tibia, foot, forearm, femur, or humerus. About MY01, Inc. MY01, Inc. is on a mission to empower healthcare professionals with the objective data to aid in the diagnosis of compartment syndrome, thereby improving patient outcomes. MY01 believes that adding actionable, quantitative data at the bedside can augment clinical assessments to provide more effective care. Headquartered in Montreal, Quebec since 2015, MY01, Inc. leverages its expertise in microsensing technology to provide innovative diagnostic solutions. Related Links www.my01.io SOURCE MY01 The leading GOTS-certified organic mattress manufacturer will host a fundraiser and offer a 10% discount, with proceeds going to Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation. CHAGRIN FALLS, Ohio, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On September 9th, Naturepedic will begin generating funds for their national fundraiser, supporting Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF). Started by 4-year-old Alexandra "Alex" Scott in response to her own cancer diagnosis, ALSF is now a top funder of pediatric cancer research. Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation "Thank you, Naturepedic, for joining the fight against childhood cancer. Their support will not only raise much-needed funds to support research and help families, but it will also bring awareness to the cause," said Selina Andrews, Senior Partnership Coordinator at Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation. Many researchers suspect toxic chemicals play a significant role in the dramatic increase in childhood disorders. Naturepedic, the front runner of the organic mattress revolution since 2003, never uses materials such as flame retardants, vinyl, polyurethane foam, perfluorinated compounds, and other questionable chemicals in their crib mattresses. Babies and toddlers spend 10-14 hours a day sleeping and playing on a crib mattress, and with every breath, they inhale air no more than six inches away from their mattress. By eliminating possible carcinogens from sleeping environments, Naturepedic helps protect babies' "second womb" the mattresses they spend nearly all day on. Currently, cancer is the leading cause of death by disease past infancy among children in the United States, according to the National Cancer Institute. It was estimated that 15,590 children and adolescents ages 0 to 19 would be diagnosed with cancer in 2021, while 1,780 would die of the disease. With the number of children diagnosed with cancer growing significantly since 1975, Barry A. Cik, Board-Certified Environmental Engineer, Founder and Technical Director of Naturepedic, insists that "the elimination of toxic chemicals from children's surroundings is a critical step to prevent non-hereditary childhood cancer." To further support the fight against childhood cancer, Naturepedic will begin a promotion on September 9th. Consumers who purchase during this period will receive a 10% discount. In addition, 10% of consumer sales sitewide will be donated to ALSF, with a guaranteed contribution of $25,000. Beyond this, Naturepedic will run a fundraiser with live updates available on the company's ALSF fundraising page to visualize the fundraiser's progress. All Naturepedic mattress products for babies , kids , and adults are certified organic by GOTS and certified non-toxic by MADE SAFE. They are also certified to the GREENGUARD Gold standard and verified as UL Formaldehyde Free. Naturepedic eliminates questionable materials and chemicals found in most conventional mattresses, such as vinyl, PFCs, polyurethane foam, flame retardant chemicals and chemical flame barriers, formaldehyde, pesticides, and GMOs, while still passing all government flammability requirements. For media inquiries and more information, please contact Gisselle Chollett at [email protected] or 917.386.7116. About Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation: Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) emerged from the front yard lemonade stand of 4-year-old Alexandra "Alex" Scott, who was fighting cancer and wanted to raise money to find cures for all children with cancer. Her spirit and determination inspired others to support her cause, and when she passed away at the age of 8, she had raised $1 million. Since then, the Foundation bearing her name has evolved into a national fundraising movement. Today, ALSF is one of the leading funders of pediatric cancer research in the U.S. and Canada, raising more than $250 million so far, funding over 1,000 research projects and providing programs to families affected by childhood cancer. For more information, visit Alex's Lemonade.org . About Naturepedic: Since 2003, Naturepedic has been on a mission to protect the lives of families through safer, healthier organic-based products that have a positive impact on the environment. A brand with purpose, transparency and ethical practices, Naturepedic is the recipient of many certifications and is highly respected by numerous health and environmental organizations and is an EPA Green Power Partner. Since its inception, Naturepedic has been a consistent and generous advocate and supporter of NGO's and nonprofits advocating for "Right to Know" about what is in the products that people bring into their homes. SOURCE Naturepedic CARLSBAD, N.M., Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NextMart, Inc. (the "Company" or "NXMR" - Pink Sheets Alternative Reporting Pink: NXMR) NXMR would like to announce it will be adding a new oil field service in the plugging of abandoned wells for the State of Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. The Company will be initially contracted to service and plug five hundred (500) wells for the State of Oklahoma, five hundred (500) for the State of Texas, and one hundred (100) for the State of New Mexico. The average payment for the capping of wells will vary between $20,000 USD to $40,000 USD each dependent on the depth of the well to be serviced. The cost to plug abandoned wells will run around $3,000 USD to $5,000 USD per well. The Company will add on a conservative basis over $20,000,000 USD in top line revenue with a profit margin of a minimum of 50%-70%. Mr. Maldonado (CEO of the Company), states"We have been working on this well plugging program for several months now and we are extremely pleased to finally be moving forward with official contracts of service with each state. The well capping program will be operated out of the footprint of the new water stations we recently announced. The profit margin on the capping of what is commonly referred to as "Orphan Wells" is extremely profitable and the amount of these types of abandoned wells in the State of Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico will take years to complete. We expect this new type of oil field service to make a material change in both our top line revenue as well as net income. As long as we continue to properly fulfill our contracts with each state, we will continue to get new contracts to do the same on an ongoing basis. Federal funding under the bipartisan infrastructure bill that was recently passed set aside a significant amount of money to the states to finally deal with these Orphan Wells some of which have been around for over 100 years. We plan to make this oil field service a main revenue driver for the next couple years." There is estimated to be tens of thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells in the State of Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico (especially the Permian Basin) that require full well capping and plugging alone. The federal government has identified 81,000 orphaned oil and gas wells nationwide. The wells are considered to be an environmental hazard due to the amount of methane that is emitted from these wells. The state funding for this program is now coming mainly from the bipartisan infrastructure bill recently passed by the federal government which has set aside over $4.7B USD in funding to plug orphan wells nationwide. It is estimated that millions of Americans live within a mile of an orphaned oil and gas well, thus polluting backyards, recreation areas and community spaces. Methane leaking from these unplugged orphaned wells is a serious safety hazard. They may also be a a significant cause of climate change as methane is 25 times as potent as CO2 at trapping heat in the atmosphere. Forward Looking Statement Certain statements that we make may constitute forward-looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The statements contained herein may contain certain forward-looking statements relating to NXMR that are based on the beliefs of NXMR's management as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to NXMR's management. These forward-looking statements are, by their nature, subject to significant risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements relating to the NXMR's business prospects, future developments, trends and conditions in the industry and geographical markets in which NXMR operates, its strategies, plans, objectives and goals, its ability to control costs, statements relating to prices, volumes, operations, margins, overall market trends, risk management and exchange rates. ABOUT US NextMart, Inc., a Delaware Corporation, is a public quoted Pink Sheet issuer under the ticker symbol "NXMR". Currently, NXMR currently is a shell company with a new management team with plans to become a current alternative reporting issuer with OTC Markets. The Company is currently looking for an appropriate business acquisition. CONTACT: 4602 West Pierce Street Carlsbad, New Mexico 88220 Company Web Site: https://nextmartcorporation.com/ Emco Oilfield Services, LLC Web Site: https://emcooilfield.com/ Twitter: @CorporationNxmr SOURCE NextMart, Inc. www.spendedge.com/sample-report/personal-protective-equipment-sourcing-and-procurement-intelligence-report Key Highlights Offered in the Report: Information on how to identify strategic and tactical negotiation levels that will help achieve the best prices. Gain information on relevant pricing levels, detailed explanation of the pros and cons of prevalent pricing models. Methods to help engage with the right suppliers and discover KPI's to evaluate incumbent suppliers. Fetch actionable market insights on post COVID-19 impact on each product and service segments. Some of the Top Personal Protective Equipment suppliers listed in this report: This Personal Protective Equipment procurement intelligence report has enlisted the top suppliers and their cost structures, SLA terms, best selection criteria, and negotiation strategies. Honeywell International Inc 3M Co Co Lakeland Industries, Inc Fetch actionable market insights on post COVID-19 impact on each product and service segments: www.spendedge.com/sample-report/personal-protective-equipment-sourcing-and-procurement-intelligence-report Top Selling Report: Asset Recovery Services - Forecast and Analysis: The asset recovery services will grow at a CAGR of 9.49% during 2021-2025. Asia Asset Recovery Pte Ltd., TES-Amm Singapore Pte Ltd., and Iron Mountain Inc. are among the prominent suppliers in asset recovery services market. Click the above link to download the free sample of this report. 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Which pricing models offer the most rewarding opportunities? Register for a free trial today and gain instant access to 1,200+ market research reports. SpendEdge's SUBSCRIPTION platform 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 WASHINGTON, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Following is a statement by Jen Judson, President of the National Press Club and Gil Klein, President of the National Press Club Journalism Institute on developments this week in the murder case of journalist Jeff German of the Las Vegas Review. "In a week of fast-moving events, we wanted to congratulate the Las Vegas police department for their swift and professional work in finding and arresting a suspect in Jeff German's murder. This was clearly a priority for the department and the community, and as sad as the story is, we find hope that Las Vegas was not going to let this go but was determined to chase the leads and do the work. And some of the journalism -- online and on television -- was no doubt helpful in leading to an arrest. We cannot remember an elected politician attacking a journalist like this. We hope never to see it again. So far, 39 journalists have been killed in the U.S. during our history, and many of those were in the Civil War. Since 2003, 10 journalists have been killed in our country in six incidents. The Capital Gazette, where the newsroom was attacked because of what was written, comes immediately to mind. It was not long ago. Journalists can be killed while doing their work. Las Vegas reacted as a community that did not want to lose its journalism and wanted to protect its journalists. In a week of awful events, that stood apart. The actions of reporters and the police were inspiring." Founded in 1908, the National Press Club is the world's leading professional organization for journalists. With 3,000 members representing every major news organization, the club is a leading voice for press freedom in the U.S. and worldwide. The National Press Club Journalism Institute promotes an engaged, global citizenry through an independent and free press and equips journalists with skills and standards to inform the public in ways that inspire a more representative democracy. As the non-profit affiliate of the National Press Club, the Institute powers journalism in the public interest. Contact: Bill McCarren for the National Press Club, 202-662-7534 SOURCE National Press Club PEABODY, Mass., Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Privo Technologies, Inc. ("Privo", "the Company") announced today that it has been awarded a $2M Direct-to-Phase II SBIR Contract from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health. The contract will be used to further the development of PRV311, Privo's third lead asset, for the treatment of cervical cancer in low resource settings. PRV311 Promises to Treat Cervical Cancer while Preserving Reproductive Function Cervical cancer has high prevalence in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and remains the leading cause of cancer death among women despite the remarkable improvements in prevention seen in wealthier countries. Privo intends to bridge this healthcare gap with PRV311, a nanoengineered localized treatment applied directly to cervical tumors. Utilizing the funds from the contract, Privo aims to complete clinical trial preparation activities to validate the PRV311 cancer treatment. This treatment has the potential to minimize surgery, reduce the risk of preterm birth, and reduce the extent of disfigurement. "Privo is committed to changing the paradigm of cancer treatment, with a special focus on mucosal solid tumors. We are grateful to the NCI for their support in expanding the PRV platform into further indications," said Dr. Manijeh Goldberg, Ph.D., CEO and Founder. "Privo has focused on epithelial cancers and as a result has successfully pushed its PRV111 treatment to the pivotal trial stage for head and neck cancers." PRV311 is a derivative of the PRV platform designed for the treatment of cervical and other cancers that require controlled and sustained release of chemotherapeutics ideal for use in low-resource settings. This will enable fewer treatment visits and applications required to reach a therapeutic dose. "Loss of patients to follow-up in low-resource settings is one of the greatest obstacles to effective cancer treatment. By providing a long-lasting treatment alternative for patients with cervical cancer, PRV311 can address this disparity and potentially change the treatment of cervical cancer globally," said Dr. Goldberg. This project is funded in part with Federal funds from the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract No. 75N91022C00020. About Privo Technologies, Inc. Privo Technologies, Inc. (Privo) is a phase 3 clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company committed to developing innovative therapeutics designed to eliminate cancers and prevent recurrence. Privo aims to provide better and more accessible treatment options to diverse patient populations around the world with the potential to transform standard of care for treating solid tumors. Privo is headquartered in Peabody, a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts. For more information on the technology see Privo's most recent publication (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-31859-3), described in detail in Forbes: Disruptive Innovation In Drug Delivery Systems. Privo's lead asset, PRV111 has been shown to be effective in patients with head and neck cancer in several hospitals across the US during a safety and efficacy Phase I/II clinical study, dramatically reducing tumor volume without any systemic toxicity. For additional information on Privo Technologies, Inc. please visit www.privotechnologies.com. Media Contact: [email protected] SOURCE Privo Technologies - Qira's credit and payment and communication platform for property owners & tenants will provide RSA's diverse members, renters & industry partners with a variety of unique benefits - NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Qira, www.qira.com , a software provider of unique credit and payment solutions for property owners and renters, has announced its partnership with the Rent Stabilization Association (RSA) www.rsanyc.net , the premier and largest trade association in New York exclusively dedicated to protecting and serving the interests of the residential housing industry. Qira's rent payment and communication platform to provide RSA's members and their tenants a variety of unique benefits. Tweet this Revital Gadish, Co-CEO of QIra Joe Strasburg, RSA President Qira's platform integrates with a building's property management technology from paper ledgers to bookkeeping software - simplifying every financial transaction between properties and renters along the rent lifecycle. RSA seeks to offer an added value to their 25,000 diverse property owners and agents, responsible for over one million apartments, through use of Qira's technology. As such, Qira will be providing the RSA with unique benefits to both its members and their renters: Benefits include: HPD & OATH Alerts: An integrated alert system for HPD violations and OATH Hearings Division decision alerts providing members a heads up on any new alert or updates related to their property. Photo & Video Storage: The ability to store pictures and videos providing documentation that the member mitigated any violation issues. Members can easily reference this data at any time through their Qira account and all data is stored for future reference. Property Management Digital Portal: Through the Qira platform, members can manage their renters' contact information and lease information digitally. They can add multiple properties, managing their entire portfolio under a single consolidated corporate account. Members can easily track rent payments made by each renter, including current payment status, They can download reports or easily view this information through a single Payments Tracking Dashboard. Digital Payments, Communications & Repair Management: A free mobile app for each member building, provides members with a secure mobile solution for renters to pay their rent digitally through a variety of payment options, including credit or debit card, ACH, or paper check. Members can also send building communications; renters can report maintenance issues and members can schedule and assign requests to third party repair vendors. The platform also supports a live chat functionality for direct communications with renters. Enhanced Renter Screening: Qira's AI-based SMART screening technology pulls data from over 40 sources to give a full picture of prospective renters. A more robust alternative to traditional screening products, members can vet prospective renters with low or no credit as well as international residents, providing a solution for a broader population of renters, all in compliance with recent regulatory changes. "We're excited to partner with the RSA, an organization that does such important work on behalf of NYC's property owners and managers," says Revital Gadish, Co-CEO, Qira. "We welcome the opportunity to bring our technology to RSA members and their communities and look forward to continuing to provide the organization with robust solutions to meet the constant and complex needs they face." "At the core of our mission, we're dedicated to serving our diverse membership through services, advocacy, education and industry leadership," shared Joe Strasburg, President of RSA. "Qira's technology provides us with the ability to alert our members in real-time of any regulatory changes or challenges that might put them at risk. In addition, Qira's platform offers RSA members value-added resources for their communities including online rent payments. This partnership with Qira is helping us to better serve our members, tenants, and their communities throughout the New York City metro area and also statewide." About Qira: www.qira.com At the forefront of fintech and proptech, Qira provides unique credit and payment solutions for property owners and renters. Qira's platform integrates with a building's property management system, simplifying every financial transaction between properties and renters along the entire lease lifecycle. Owners and managers benefit from smoother leasing operations, and guaranteed rent payments on their schedule. Qira also offers a revolving unsecured line of credit for owners/operators based on their existing or projected rent roll. Renters benefit from Qira's financing solutions which give them more freedom and flexibility on how and when they spend their money. About Rent Stabilization Association of NYC (RSA): www.rsanyc.net The Rent Stabilization Association, consisting of 25,000 diverse owners of over 1 million apartments, is New York's largest and premier trade association representing the interests and priorities of apartment building owners and managers. In all market and economic conditions, RSA is a constant, steady and creative voice for a foundational part of the economy. Contacts: Tamar Amoyal Qira 888.497.5499 [email protected] Vito Signorile Rent Stabilization Association (212) 214-9233 [email protected] SOURCE Qira Inc.; Rent Stabilization Association of NYC, Inc. BOCA RATON, Fla., Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- REDCON1 HAS CONFIRMED THAT NEXT MONTH, THEY WILL BE LAUNCHING THE REDCON1 ENERGY COLLECTION, A LINE OF ENERGY DRINKS THAT PACK HIGH PERFORMANCE ENERGY WITH A MISSION CENTRAL TO THEIR BRAND DNA. After years of winning the on-the-go drink space with preworkout and protein drinks, REDCON1 is entering the coveted and competitive space of energy drinks. REDCON1 Energy drinks pack a high-performance formula with a clear mission -- support the military with every can sold Tweet this REDCON1 Energy is America's Energy Drink "We put our stake in the ground that REDCON1 will dominate every single performance drink category. Fans and consumers of the brand have been asking us to bring an Energy Drink to market for a couple of years now. We always knew we would, but one of the most important factors in launching the line was to bring the best tasting drink to our consumers. We've worked on flavor profiles for over a year, and we are really proud of the launch lineup", Eric Hart, President REDCON1. In addition to incredible flavors, REDCON1 ENERGY delivers high-performance energy and focus, ensuring you always achieve the HIGHEST STATE OF READINESS, the brand's well-known tagline. But REDCON1 ENERGY is more than just a great-tasting, high-performance energy drink. REDCON1 ENERGY is energy to feel good about. REDCON1 believes in giving back to our nation's heroes who have sacrificed their lives to keep us safe. As a mission-based company, REDCON1 is committed to donating 5 cents of every can sold each quarter to select military-based charities around the United States. We invite all military charities of any size to register today in under a minute. We know that support needs extend long after active duty ends. After vetting the registrations, REDCON1 will list every military charity on redcon1energy.com in an interactive directory ensuring the brave service men and women (and their families) have easy access to charities providing help. Each organization will receive a free lifetime listing and complete profile. Additionally, these are the charities that will be eligible for the quarterly community vote to receive the 5-cent donation from every can of REDCON1 Energy sold in the current quarter. "When we started REDCON1 six years ago, it was very important to us to be more than a supplement company. We wanted our core DNA to have a purpose and our products and events to have real-world impact. REDCON1 is a military term that literally means The Highest State of Readiness. We stand for patriotism, hard work, and making sure that every consumer we reach is always ready for anything life throws at them. Over 38% of our consumer base is made up of military veterans, police, fire fighters, nurses, and first responders. We are proud to support these incredible men and women and give back through our partnerships with military and veteran-supporting organizations, and through the nonprofit events we hold every year", ERIC HART. REDCON1 ENERGY is certainly expected to deliver on taste and performance and hit you with laser-focused energy. But we are excited to see the impact this purpose-driven energy drink will have on military and veteran families to further carry out REDCON1's mission. About REDCON1 REDCON1 is a mission-based company founded on a simple principle - create the highest quality supplements for people that need to get the most out of their workout and workday. REDCON1 offers nutritional supplements and apparel that appeal to everyone from beginners to professional athletes. Our strong military branding is highlighted by more than 30,000+ TIER OPERATOR brand ambassadors around the world, many of which are currently serving with or are retired from the United States Armed Forces. Our products feature efficacious formulas while building a brand that stands for transparency, hard-work, honesty, and integrity. For additional information, visit redcon1energy.com Contact Ryan Monahan REDCON1, Chief Marketing Officer [email protected] SOURCE REDCON1 SOURCE REDCON1 The retail analytics market is projected to expand at a CAGR of 34.7% during 2022 to 2031 Rising need for better customer experience is driving the sales of retail analytics solutions The early adoption of technological advancements and presence of many retail companies in North America make it leading market region WILMINGTON, Del., Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A research report by Transparency Market Research (TMR) projects the global retail analytics market to reach a value of US$ 122.08 Bn by the end of 2031. Furthermore, business intelligence in retail industry offered by TMR notes that the market is expected to develop at a CAGR of 34.7% during the forecast period, from 2022 to 2031. The report by TMR provides detailed analysis of major factors influencing the growth curve of the global retail analytics market. Hence, readers gain access to the study of the growth drivers, challenges, opportunities, R&Ds, recent developments, and retail analytics statistics. The adoption of next-gen technologies such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, 5G, IoT, and big data is being increasing in the recent years. This factor is expected to fuel the expansion of the retail analytics market during the forecast period. Moreover, the rising understanding on the profitability using assortment planning (AP) process is being rising globally. This factor, in turn, is propelling the retail analytics market, note analysts at TMR. Major retail analytics companies are focusing on R&Ds in order to develop innovative technologies. Such efforts are helping enterprises in the expansion of their product portfolios. Moreover, leading players are using several strategies such as mergers and acquisitions in order to maintain their dominance in the market for retail analytics. Such factors are anticipated to lead to rapid expansion of the market during the forecast period. Request Sample Report at - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=30176 Retail Analytics Market: Key Findings The concept of retail analytics is gaining impetus in the recent years as it helps businesses in order to find, gather, and analyze retail data. Data analytics in the retail industry is being increasingly adopted owing to its ability to offer thorough customer insights. In addition, the technology provides companies information on business and processes with scope and areas of improvements, notes a TMR study on the retail analytics market. Different types of retail analytics tools are being increasingly gaining traction owing to their ability to offer users with in-depth data analysis on important performance metrics. Moreover, the services provided by retail data analytics companies are being utilized in the recent years as these services assist retailers in varied activities including monitoring the sales volume, transactions, and profitability. Moreover, these services also allow retailers to collect important business insights. Owing to these factors, the global retail analytics market is expected to expand at notable pace during the forecast period. Retail Analytics Market: Growth Boosters Surge in the demand for improved customer experience is fueling the business opportunities in the global retail analytics market Increase in the adoption of machine technologies and artificial intelligence for data analysis is driving the sales prospects in the retail analytics market Make an Enquiry before Buying - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=EB&rep_id=30176 Retail Analytics Market: Regional Analysis The retail analytics market is North America is prognosticated to maintain prominent position during the forecast period owing to rise in the adoption of next-gen technologies integrated with retail analytics and the presence of many leading retail companies in the region is prognosticated to maintain prominent position during the forecast period owing to rise in the adoption of next-gen technologies integrated with retail analytics and the presence of many leading retail companies in the region The Europe retail analytics market is projected to expand at notable pace during the forecast period owing to increase in the use of retail analytics in order to match the international standards Retail Analytics Market: Key Players Some of the key players profiled in the report are: Microsoft Corporation IBM Corporation Qlik Oracle Corporation SAS Institute Inc. SAP SE RetailNext, Inc. Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP Manthan Software Services Pvt. Ltd Fractal Analytics Inc. TIBCO Software HCL Technologies Ask for References - https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=ARF&rep_id=30176 Retail Analytics Market Segmentation Component Software Services Professional Managed Deployment Cloud On-premise Application Merchandising analysis Pricing analysis Customer analytics Inventory analysis Supply chain analysis Others Regions Covered North America Europe Asia Pacific Middle East & Africa & South America It and Telecom Research Reports Sales Enablement Software Market - The global sales enablement software market is expected to reach US$ 11.55 Bn by the end of 2031, it is estimated to advance at a CAGR of 19.4% from 2022 to 2031 Asset and Wealth Management Market - The global asset and wealth management market is expected to reach value of US$ 11.8 Bn by the end of 2031, grow at a CAGR of 13.0% from 2022 to 2031 E-commerce Independent Software Vendors [ISVs] Market - The global e-commerce independent software vendors (ISVs) market is expected to reach US$ 56.59 Bn by the end of 2031 Data Erasure Solutions Market - The global data erasure solutions market is expected to surpass value of US$ 4.3 Bn by the end of 2031, grow at a CAGR of 13.1% from 2022 to 2031 Managed Print Services (MPS) Market - The global managed print services (MPS) market is expected to reach value of US$ 90.5 Bn by the end of 2031, grow at a CAGR of 9.3% from 2021 to 2031 Online Project Management Software Market - The global online project management software market is expected to reach value of US$ 11.7 Bn by the end of 2031 Test Automation Market - The global test automation market is expected to surpass value of US$ 125.9 Bn by the end of 2031, grow at a CAGR of 18.6% from 2021 to 2031 Unified Communication Market - The global unified communication market is expected to reach value of US$ 187.6 Bn by the end of 2031, grow at a CAGR of 13.2% from 2022 to 2031 About Transparency Market Research Transparency Market Research registered at Wilmington, Delaware, United States, is a global market research firm that offers market analysis reports and business consulting. 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 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8e-z-g23-TdDMuODiL8BKQ Contact Us: 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 HOUSTON, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- At the heart of UST is the imperative to serve, especially those with limited access to educational excellence. With this in mind, UST offers the Rising Stars internship program, an initiative that provides qualified students the opportunity to continue their educational journey at UST while gaining valuable work experience at local companies. The Rising Stars program pairs students with corporate sponsors in order to earn funds toward tuition. This model helps students build personal connections that will influence them beyond college. How It Works An annual investment helps fill the financial gap for Rising Stars students and opens the door for them to attend UST. It's a win-win program corporate sponsors gain a productive employee and the Rising Stars become valuable assets trained for Houston's workforce. Corporate sponsors contact with the UST Rising Stars subsidiary for part-time, entry-level office jobs. Each semester, corporate sponsors pay to the UST Rising Stars subsidiary. Rising Stars students are employees of the Rising Stars subsidiary, not of the corporate sponsor. UST handles processing payments to the Rising Stars students. A Proven Model The Rising Stars program is mutually beneficial for both students and corporate sponsors Each student earns a substantial portion of UST's tuition costs while simultaneously gaining relevant work experience. In return, corporate sponsors receive reliable entry-level workers who are poised for future employment. Email [email protected] for more information About University of St. Thomas University of St. Thomas is a comprehensive university, grounded in the liberal arts. Committed to the unity of all knowledge, UST offers programs in the traditional liberal arts, professional, and skilled-based disciplines. Graduates of the University of St. Thomas think critically, communicate effectively, succeed professionally, and lead ethically. SOURCE University of St. Thomas-Houston WALTHAM, Mass., Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Snapdragon Chemistry today announced that the previously announced acquisition by Asymchem will not proceed. Snapdragon and Asymchem were unable to agree to mitigation terms that would satisfy the U.S. Treasury's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). "We are disappointed this deal was unable to be completed," said Snapdragon President and CEO Matthew Bio. "The goal of the deal was to expand domestic manufacturing capacity and be able to deliver a full range of drug development services to our clients. We remain committed to this goal. We have long enjoyed a productive relationship with Asymchem on behalf of our clients. We look forward to continuing to collaborate on current and future client projects." The news comes at a time of substantial growth for Snapdragon. Snapdragon recently commissioned a new, 51,000 square foot R&D and GMP manufacturing facility. "These continued investments in facilities and advanced manufacturing technology enable an accelerated path to clinic for our clients," said Bio. "We have an outstanding team, best-in-class technology, and a growing, loyal customer base. Despite the change in plan, I remain excited about our future." About Snapdragon Chemistry Snapdragon Chemistry is a chemical technology firm providing services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and fine chemical industries. Snapdragon's headquarters, R&D, and manufacturing facilities are in Waltham, MA. Contact: David Tanklefsky [email protected] 617.337.9515 SOURCE Snapdragon Chemistry Session will be Webcast NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Douglas Peterson, President and Chief Executive Officer of S&P Global ( NYSE: SPGI), will participate in the Barclays Global Financial Services Conference on September 12, 2022 in New York, NY. Mr. Peterson is scheduled to speak from 8:15 a.m. to 8:55 a.m. (Eastern Daylight Time). The "fireside chat" will be webcast and may include forward-looking information. Webcast Instructions: Live and Replay The webcast will be available live and in replay through the Company's Investor Relations website http://investor.spglobal.com/Investor-Presentations (please copy and paste URL into web browser). The webcast replay will be available approximately 3 hours after the end of the presentation and will remain accessible for three months, ending on December 10, 2022. Any additional information presented during the session will be made available on the Company's Investor Presentations web page. About S&P Global S&P Global ( NYSE: SPGI) provides essential intelligence. We enable governments, businesses and individuals with the right data, expertise and connected technology so that they can make decisions with conviction. From helping our customers assess new investments to guiding them through ESG and energy transition across supply chains, we unlock new opportunities, solve challenges and accelerate progress for the world. We are widely sought after by many of the world's leading organizations to provide credit ratings, benchmarks, analytics and workflow solutions in the global capital, commodity and automotive markets. With every one of our offerings, we help the world's leading organizations plan for tomorrow, today. For more information, visit www.spglobal.com. Investor Relations: http://investor.spglobal.com Get news direct via RSS: https://investor.spglobal.com/contact-investor-relations/rss-feeds/default.aspx Contacts: Investor Relations: Mark Grant Senior Vice President, Investor Relations Tel: + 1 347 640 1521 [email protected] Media: Christopher Krantz +44 7976 632 638 [email protected] SOURCE S&P Global BEIJING, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A news report by China.org.cn on CPC centenary: On a July day in 2022, two international students came to visit Huilian Zhao, head pastry chef at Beijing Minzu Hotel, to learn how to make creatively shaped Chinese pastries. The two students are Yisheng Zhang from Mali and Sisi Yang from Costa Rica. A Feast for Your Eyes: Exquisite Artisan Chinese Pastries by Chef Zhao Upon their arrival, they tasted some of the creatively shaped pastries made by Chef Zhao. They are stunned by the exquisiteness and great taste of these food. Yang exclaimed over a one that looks exactly like an apple, and Zhang kept saying "yummy" after tasting a "walnut". And then, Chef Zhao began to show them how to handmake a walnut-shaped pastry. Under his guidance, the two students soon got the hang of it. "Awesome!" Yisheng murmured exultingly. Besides, these pastries also reflect good wishes. The beautiful walnut-shaped pastry signifies "harmony and beauty", as, in Chinese, the first character of "walnut"(hetao) is the homonym for "harmony"(he). If paired with an apple, it will mean world peace, as the Chinese word they formed is pronounced the same as "peace"(heping). "How brilliant! These pastries not only look beautiful, but also convey good wishes," Yang said admiringly. When asked how he started his career in pastry-making, Huilian Zhao replied smilingly, "I began to be interested in it when I saw a chef demonstrate how to make pastries at a Mid-Autumn Festival. I can't help marveling at the exquisiteness of the artisan food. Since then, I began to love it. " Mr. Zhao, who was then just asked to work temporarily in the workshop due to chef shortages, wouldn't have thought that he would become a pastry chef later and pursue the career for the rest of his life. Today, many foreigners, attracted to his delicate pastries and superb craftsmanship, have come to visit himwanting to see him at work. Creatively delicate pastries made by Chef Zhao, which used to be served just for ordinary customers in a Beijing hotel, have now been in the state banquet menu and started to be known to the world. Huilian Zhao is presenting, in his own way, to the world the great charm of Chinese pastries. Chef Zhao is much more than a national master in pastry. He is also one of the Chinese artisans representing the spirit of craftsman. After this hands-on experience, the two international students learned the basic procedure for making creatively shaped Chinese pastries, and more importantly, gained a better understanding of the Chinese craftsman spirit, the very working attitude seen in Huilian Zhao, who kept pursuing excellence in pastry-making in the hope of spreading Chinese pastries exhibiting oriental beauty and Chinese-style elegance all over the world. SOURCE China.org.cn TORONTO, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - McLean & Company, the trusted partner of HR and leadership professionals around the world, has released its newest research-driven resource, Use Talent Pools to Support Flexibility in Succession Planning. Succession planning plays a critical role in overall business success as organizations consider resourcing plans for the coming months, making the release of this industry resource particularly timely. Use Talent Pools to Prepare for Planned and Unplanned Vacancies. (CNW Group/Mclean & Company) While traditional succession plans are often considered ineffective in dynamic work environments, McLean & Company's industry resource is intended to help organizations use talent pools to create role groups to develop cross-functional capabilities for more effective planning in an uncertain climate. The research indicates that talent pools are a source of potential successors for a specific role group that consists of more than two individuals. In a talent pool, the grouping of critical roles requiring similar or comparable competencies such as knowledge, skills, and attributes is called a role group. To put it simply, role groups can share a talent pool of potential successors who may be viable candidates for any of the roles within the group. "Succession planning has evolved into a key business imperative that continuously supports an organization's ability to maintain and grow talent for critical roles at all levels," says Mardi Walker, executive counselor at McLean & Company. "With the ongoing uncertainty and challenges in the labor market and economy at present, it is especially important for organizations to have talent pools in place." According to McLean & Company's research, in order for organizations to plan for succession efficiently and successfully, the approach must keep up with rapid changes in the work and operating environment. Organizations need to build their talent pipeline from within to ensure critical roles are filled with the best talent and to reduce vacancy periods, especially during a period where recruitment efforts are particularly challenging. Using talent pools and role groups broadens the opportunities for internal career mobility and improves retention. "Effectively using talent pools allows organizations to not only be nimble in responding to unexpected workforce changes, but to provide the development and growth opportunities employees want and expect," explains Walker. McLean & Company's research explains how talent pools add flexibility to succession planning and can provide organizations with numerous benefits, including: A database of qualified candidates All talent pool members already possess the minimum skills and requirements for the role or role group, resulting in a larger number of potential successors. All talent pool members already possess the minimum skills and requirements for the role or role group, resulting in a larger number of potential successors. A better candidate experience Having records of career goals, achievements, competencies, and performance enables organizations to customize development opportunities to individual employees. This increases employees' awareness of future job prospects, strengthens engagement, and improves loyalty. Having records of career goals, achievements, competencies, and performance enables organizations to customize development opportunities to individual employees. This increases employees' awareness of future job prospects, strengthens engagement, and improves loyalty. Improved diversity, equity, and inclusion Talent pools provide greater opportunities for diverse candidates, encouraging DEI across the workforce. They also disrupt the traditional method of applying for a specific role with specific criteria and allow for a wider consideration of talent. Talent pools provide greater opportunities for diverse candidates, encouraging DEI across the workforce. They also disrupt the traditional method of applying for a specific role with specific criteria and allow for a wider consideration of talent. Reduced time to hire Rather than searching through applications to identify suitable candidates, organizations can quickly identify qualified talent from within a talent pool and approach them directly. Rather than searching through applications to identify suitable candidates, organizations can quickly identify qualified talent from within a talent pool and approach them directly. Decreased cost per hire Talent pools give organizations access to a community of qualified and interested candidates. This saves the resources typically allocated for job advertising and external search activities. Talent pools give organizations access to a community of qualified and interested candidates. This saves the resources typically allocated for job advertising and external search activities. Access to potential passive candidates Talent pool members are tailored to fit the organization's needs and can be approached in a more targeted and personalized way. HR leaders can download the new industry resource directly from McLean & Company. Use Talent Pools to Support Flexibility in Succession Planning provides the step-by-step process to guide organizations on successfully incorporating flexibility into and implementing the succession planning program. To learn more about McLean & Company or to download the latest research, visit hr.mcleanco.com and connect via LinkedIn and Twitter. About McLean & Company Through data-driven insights and proven best-practice methodologies, McLean & Company offers comprehensive resources and full-service assessments, action plans, and training to position organizations to meet today's needs and prepare for the future. McLean & Company is a division of Info-Tech Research Group. Media professionals can register for unrestricted access to research across IT, HR, and software and over 200 IT and Industry analysts through the ITRG Media Insiders Program. To gain access, contact [email protected] Media Contact Kelsey King, PR Manager Info-Tech Research Group [email protected] | +1 (888) 670-8889 x3476 SOURCE Mclean & Company YANGLING, China, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The 29th China Yangling Agricultural High-tech Fair (CAF), with the theme 'Innovation, Cooperation and Food Security', will be held from September 15 to 19 in the Yangling Agricultural Hi-tech Industries Demonstration Zone, the so-called Agri City of China. The SCO Center for Modern Agricultural Exchange and Exhibition Area of the China Yangling Agricultural Hi-Tech Fair This year's CAF, which will cover an exhibition area of 48,000 square meters, will feature Chinese and international agricultural high-tech achievements and advanced applicable technologies in 1,450 booths across three indoor exhibition halls. Ten-plus major events will be held concurrently, including the 2022 SCO Modern Agriculture Development Roundtable and the Seminar on the Past and Future of China-Africa Agricultural Exchange and Cooperation, according to the Organizing Committee. 800 exhibitors from 31 countries and regions and Chinese provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions will participate in this year's Fair. Uzbekistan will be the guest of honor this year. Since its inception in 1994, the CAF has attracted tens of thousands of enterprises from the agricultural sector, as well as scientific and educational institutions from more than 70 countries and regions, with more than 1 trillion yuan in investments and transactions. It has evolved into a vital platform for demonstration and promotion of China's agricultural hi-tech achievements and an important window for international cooperation and exchange in agricultural science and technology. In recent years, China has intensified cooperation and exchange with SCO member states. For example, at the 19th meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State held on June 14, 2019, an initiative taken by China was the establishment of an SCO Demonstration Base for Agricultural Technology Exchange and Training in Shaanxi Province, the goal being to strengthen cooperation with regional countries in the field of modern agriculture. As the earliest agricultural high-tech industries demonstration zone in China, Yangling is home to a cluster of agricultural colleges and universities including Northwest A&F University, seed R&D companies, and agricultural technology innovation teams. As the host city for the SCO Demonstration Base for Agricultural Technology Exchange and Training, Yangling has promoted exchange and cooperation opportunities among SCO member countries, covering modern agriculture, food production, trade and investment via international agricultural exchanges, training and demonstrations, and has delivered an array of international cooperative parks in agricultural high-techs. The SCO Demonstration Base for Agricultural Technology Exchange and Training was inaugurated during the 28th CAF in Yangling in 2021, signaling agricultural hi-tech as the new envoy of SCO member states. To support the development of the SCO Demonstration Base and to promote Shaanxi's high-standard opening-up, the 1st SCO Agricultural Expo will be held concurrently during the 29th CAF through a range of multilateral and bilateral international cooperation and exchange events. Yangling has formed more than 10 SCO platforms for agricultural research exchange and cooperation, held 28 agricultural technology training sessions for SCO member states, and expedited the construction of SCO agricultural hi-tech demonstration parks. Going forward, increasing programs in agricultural exchange, training and demonstration will be delivered. For more information, please visit http://en.agri-fair.com/ SOURCE The Organizing Committee of China Yangling Agricultural Hi-Tech Fair A roundup of the most newsworthy press releases from Cision Distribution this week TORONTO, Sept. 9, 2022 /CNW/ - With thousands of press releases published each week, it can be difficult to keep up with everything on Cision. To help journalists and consumers stay on top of the week's most newsworthy and popular releases, here's a recap of some major stories from the week that shouldn't be missed. The list below includes the headline (with a link to the full text) and an excerpt from each story. Click on the press release headlines to access accompanying multimedia assets that are available for download. Read more of the latest releases from Cision, see our resources for journalists, and stay caught up on the top press releases by following @cnwnews. About Cision Canada Cision is a comprehensive communications platform enabling more than 100,000 public relations and marketing professionals around the world to understand, influence and amplify their stories. As the market leader, Cision enables the next generation of communication professionals to strategically operate in the modern media landscape where company success is directly impacted by public opinion. Cision has offices in 24 countries through the Americas, EMEA and APAC, and offers a suite of best-in-class solutions, including Newswire, Brandwatch, Cision Communications Cloudand Cision Insights. To learn more, visit www.cision.ca and follow @CisionCA on Twitter. SOURCE Cision Canada A roundup of the most newsworthy press releases from PR Newswire this week NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- With thousands of press releases published each week, it can be difficult to keep up with everything on PR Newswire. To help journalists and consumers stay on top of the week's most newsworthy and popular releases, here's a recap of some major stories from the week that shouldn't be missed. The list below includes the headline (with a link to the full text) and an excerpt from each story. Click on the press release headlines to access accompanying multimedia assets that are available for download. Read more of the latest releases from PR Newswire and stay caught up on the top press releases by following @PRNalert on Twitter. Helping Journalists Stay Up to Date on Industry News These are just a few of the recent press releases that consumers and the media should know about. To be notified of releases relevant to their coverage area, journalists can set up a custom newsfeed with PR Newswire for Journalists. Once they're signed up, reporters, bloggers, and freelancers have access to the following free features: Customization: Users can create customized newsfeeds that will deliver relevant news right to their inbox. Newsfeed results can be targeted by keywords, industry, subject, geography, and more. Users can create customized newsfeeds that will deliver relevant news right to their inbox. Newsfeed results can be targeted by keywords, industry, subject, geography, and more. Photos and Videos: Thousands of multimedia assets are available to download and include in a journalist or blogger's next story. Thousands of multimedia assets are available to download and include in a journalist or blogger's next story. Subject Matter Experts: Journalists will have access to ProfNet, a database of industry experts to connect with as sources or for quotes in their articles. Journalists will have access to ProfNet, a database of industry experts to connect with as sources or for quotes in their articles. Related Resources: Our journalist- and blogger-focused blog, Beyond Bylines, features regular media news roundups, writing tips, upcoming events, and more. About PR Newswire and PR Newswire for Journalists For more than 65 years, PR Newswire has been the industry leader with the largest, most comprehensive distribution network of print, radio, magazine, television stations, financial portals and trade publications. PR Newswire has an unparalleled global reach of more than 200,000 publications and 10,000 websites and is available in more than 170 countries and 40 languages. PR Newswire for Journalists (PRNJ) is an exclusive community that includes over 20,000 journalists, bloggers and influencers who are logging into their PRNJ accounts specifically looking for story ideas. PR Newswire thoroughly researches and vets this community to verify their identity as a member of the press, blogger or influencer. PRNJ users cover more than 200 beats and verticals. For questions, contact the team at [email protected]. SOURCE PR Newswire DUBLIN, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Access Control Reader Market (2022-2027) by Reader Type, Technology Type, Vertical, Geography, Competitive Analysis, and the Impact of Covid-19 with Ansoff Analysis" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Global Access Control Reader Market is estimated to be USD 4.19 Bn in 2022 and is projected to reach USD 6.76 Bn by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 10.03%. Market dynamics are forces that impact the prices and behaviors of the Global Access Control Reader 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 ASSA ABLOY, Dormakaba Holding, Allegion, Identiv, IDEMIA, Nedap, Suprema, Gemalto NV (Thales Group), etc. Countries Studied America ( Argentina , Brazil , Canada , Chile , Colombia , Mexico , Peru , United States , Rest of Americas) , , , , , , , , Rest of Americas) Europe ( Austria , Belgium , Denmark , Finland , France , Germany , Italy , Netherlands , Norway , Poland , Russia , Spain , Sweden , Switzerland , United Kingdom , Rest of Europe ) ( , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Rest of ) Middle-East and Africa ( Egypt , Israel , Qatar , Saudi Arabia , South Africa , United Arab Emirates , Rest of MEA) and ( , , , , , , 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 Access Control Reader 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 Access Control Reader 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 Access Control Reader 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 High Demand for Enhanced Security and Improved Human Resource Management 4.1.2 Contactless Interfaces to Boost Adoption of Smart Cards 4.2 Restraints 4.2.1 Limited Awareness about Advanced Security Solutions among Users 4.3 Opportunities 4.3.1 Growing Demand for Infrastructure Facilities in Emerging Economies 4.3.2 Threat of Terrorism and Criminal Activities Increases Security Management 4.4 Challenges 4.4.1 Security Concerns Related to Unauthorized Access and Data Breach 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 Access Control Reader Market, By Reader Type 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Card-Based Readers 6.2.1 Magnetic Stripe Readers 6.2.2 Proximity Card Readers (125 kHz) 6.2.3 Smart Card Readers (13.6 MHz) 6.3 Biometric Readers 6.3.1 Fingerprint Recognition 6.3.2 Palm Recognition 6.3.3 Iris Recognition 6.3.4 Face Recognition 6.3.5 Vein Recognition 6.3.6 Voice Recognition 6.4 Multi-Technology Readers 7 Global Access Control Reader Market, By Technology Type 7.1 Introduction 7.2 iCLASS MIFARE 7.3 DESFire 7.4 LEGIC Advant 7.5 Others 8 Global Access Control Reader Market, By Vertical 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Commercial 8.3 Government 8.4 Residential 9 America's Access Control Reader 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 Access Control Reader 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 Access Control Reader 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 Access Control Reader 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 ASSA ABLOY 14.2 Dormakaba Holding 14.3 Allegion 14.4 Identiv 14.5 IDEMIA 14.6 Nedap 14.7 Suprema 14.8 Gemalto NV (Thales Group) 14.9 NAPCO Security Technologies 14.10 Avigilon (Motorola Solutions) 14.11 Peter Hengstler GmbH+Co 14.12 Paxton Access 14.13 Castles Technology 14.14 DUALi 14.15 AMAG Technology 14.16 AXIS Communications 14.17 PAX Technology 14.18 Advanced Card Systems 14.19 Gallagher Group 14.20 Brivo 14.21 Salto Systems 14.22 Vanderbilt Industries 14.23 Watchdata 14.24 Arabit Systems 14.25 Idteck Co 14.26 Union Community Co 14.27 Nortech Control Systems 14.28 Stanley Convergent Security Solutions 15 Appendix For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/p65kiy 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 DUBLIN, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Carbon Black in Lead Acid Battery Market (2022-2027) by Type, Grade, Geography, Competitive Analysis, and the Impact of Covid-19 with Ansoff Analysis" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Global Carbon Black in Lead Acid Battery Market is estimated to be USD 541.14 Mn in 2022 and is projected to reach USD 685.4 Mn by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 4.84%. Market dynamics are forces that impact the prices and behaviors of the Global Carbon Black in Lead Acid Battery 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 Aditya Birla, Cabot, Denka, Imerys, Orion Engineered Carbons, etc. Countries Studied America ( Argentina , Brazil , Canada , Chile , Colombia , Mexico , Peru , United States , Rest of Americas) , , , , , , , , Rest of Americas) Europe ( Austria , Belgium , Denmark , Finland , France , Germany , Italy , Netherlands , Norway , Poland , Russia , Spain , Sweden , Switzerland , United Kingdom , Rest of Europe ) ( , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Rest of ) Middle-East and Africa ( Egypt , Israel , Qatar , Saudi Arabia , South Africa , United Arab Emirates , Rest of MEA) and ( , , , , , , 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 Carbon Black in Lead Acid Battery 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 Carbon Black in Lead Acid Battery 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 Carbon Black in Lead Acid Battery 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 Cost-Efficient Energy Storage Solution 4.1.2 Recyclability Associated with Lead-Acid Batteries over Lithium-Ion Batteries 4.2 Restraints 4.2.1 Volatility in Raw Material Prices 4.2.2 Chronic Emission of CO2 in Carbon Black Production 4.3 Opportunities 4.3.1 Expanding Data Center Infrastructure 4.4 Challenges 4.4.1 Alternatives Available in Market 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 Carbon Black in Lead Acid Battery Market, By Type 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Flooded Lead-Acid Battery 6.3 Valve Regulated Lead-Acid (VRLA) Battery 7 Global Carbon Black in Lead Acid Battery Market, By Grade 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Specialty 7.3 Conductive 8 Americas' Carbon Black in Lead Acid Battery Market 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Argentina 8.3 Brazil 8.4 Canada 8.5 Chile 8.6 Colombia 8.7 Mexico 8.8 Peru 8.9 United States 8.10 Rest of Americas 9 Europe's Carbon Black in Lead Acid Battery Market 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Austria 9.3 Belgium 9.4 Denmark 9.5 Finland 9.6 France 9.7 Germany 9.8 Italy 9.9 Netherlands 9.10 Norway 9.11 Poland 9.12 Russia 9.13 Spain 9.14 Sweden 9.15 Switzerland 9.16 United Kingdom 9.17 Rest of Europe 10 Middle East and Africa's Carbon Black in Lead Acid Battery Market 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Egypt 10.3 Israel 10.4 Qatar 10.5 Saudi Arabia 10.6 South Africa 10.7 United Arab Emirates 10.8 Rest of MEA 11 APAC's Carbon Black in Lead Acid Battery Market 11.1 Introduction 11.2 Australia 11.3 Bangladesh 11.4 China 11.5 India 11.6 Indonesia 11.7 Japan 11.8 Malaysia 11.9 Philippines 11.10 Singapore 11.11 South Korea 11.12 Sri Lanka 11.13 Thailand 11.14 Taiwan 11.15 Rest of Asia-Pacific 12 Competitive Landscape 12.1 Competitive Quadrant 12.2 Market Share Analysis 12.3 Strategic Initiatives 12.3.1 M&A and Investments 12.3.2 Partnerships and Collaborations 12.3.3 Product Developments and Improvements 13 Company Profiles 13.1 Aditya Birla 13.2 Cabot 13.3 Denka 13.4 Imerys 13.5 Orion Engineered Carbons 13.6 SGL Carbon 13.7 Superior Graphite 14 Appendix For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/p2yojq 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 A roundup of the week's most newsworthy energy industry press releases from PR Newswire NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- With thousands of press releases published each week, it can be difficult to keep up with everything on PR Newswire. To help journalists covering the energy and natural resources industry stay on top of the week's most newsworthy and popular releases, here's a roundup of stories from the week that shouldn't be missed. The list below includes the headline (with a link to the full text) and an excerpt from each story. Click on the press release headlines to access accompanying multimedia assets that are available for download. Read more of the latest energy-related releases from PR Newswire and stay caught up on the top press releases by following @PRNenergy on Twitter. Helping Journalists Stay Up to Date on Industry News These are just a few of the recent press releases that consumers and the media should know about. To be notified of releases relevant to their coverage area, journalists can set up a custom newsfeed with PR Newswire for Journalists. Once they're signed up, reporters, bloggers and freelancers have access to the following free features: Customization: Create a customized newsfeed that will deliver relevant news right to your inbox. Customize the newsfeed by keywords, industry, subject, geography, and more. Create a customized newsfeed that will deliver relevant news right to your inbox. Customize the newsfeed by keywords, industry, subject, geography, and more. Photos and Videos: Thousands of multimedia assets are available to download and include with your next story. Thousands of multimedia assets are available to download and include with your next story. Subject Matter Experts: Access ProfNet, a database of industry experts to connect with as sources or for quotes in your articles. Access ProfNet, a database of industry experts to connect with as sources or for quotes in your articles. Related Resources: Read and subscribe to our journalist- and blogger-focused blog, Beyond Bylines, for media news roundups, writing tips, upcoming events, and more. About PR Newswire and PR Newswire for Journalists For more than 65 years, PR Newswire has been the industry leader with the largest, most comprehensive distribution network of print, radio, magazine, television stations, financial portals and trade publications. PR Newswire has an unparalleled global reach of more than 200,000 publications and 10,000 websites and is available in more than 170 countries and 40 languages. PR Newswire for Journalists (PRNJ) is an exclusive community that includes over 20,000 journalists, bloggers and influencers who are logging into their PRNJ accounts specifically looking for story ideas. PR Newswire thoroughly researches and vets this community to verify their identity as a member of the press, blogger or influencer. PRNJ users cover more than 200 beats and verticals. For questions, contact the team at [email protected]. SOURCE PR Newswire Striving to restore unity through personal kindness connections with strangers NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Every September 11th, Pay It Forward 9/11 encourages Americans to perform three good deeds during Eleven Days of Kindness as a way to honor victims of the 9/11 attacks. Pay It Forward 9/11 was inspired by the people of the small town of Gander, Newfoundland (then pop. 9,000). The compassionate Canadians selflessly provided food, clothing and shelter to 7,000 stranded airline passengers from 90 countries who were diverted there when US airspace was closed. This story and the resulting charity are one of the true 9/11 stories conveyed by the writers of the Broadway musical Come From Away. By encouraging random acts of kindness, this movement has reached 12 countries and growing during the #11Days of Kindness Sept. 1-11. For example, on Friday, September 9, business owners in New York City and Los Angeles will distribute cash to their employees to empower them to pay it forward. "When we founded this charity in 2002, the words 'United We Stand' were pervasive worldwide. Twenty years later, we are far from united," says Kevin Tuerff, founder. "We said we would never forget the lives lost on 9/11. By focusing on the theme of unity and kindness, we are inspiring others to honor their lives by performing a good deed for someone who looks, acts, or thinks differently than themselves." Participation in 11 Days of Kindness & Unity is spreading globally. In New York City, a coalition of faith-based organizations and companies already provided free coffee to strangers walking through Union Square. In Austin, an executive at Dell Technologies worked with colleagues to donate 500 backpacks filled with school supplies to elementary school students, and prompted students to write thank you letters to their teachers. For more tips, visit www.PayItForward911.org and add your community's heart on our global Map of Kindness. Pay it Forward 9/11, Inc. is supported by generous individual donors and sponsored by the writers and producers of Come From Away musical, Tito's Handmade Vodka, Gallin & Son, UFCU, Dell Technologies and Precise Communications. Pay it Forward 9/11 social media channels: http://payitforward911.org https://www.instagram.com/payitforward911/ https://twitter.com/911payitforward SOURCE Pay It Forward 9/11 NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- TripAdd, an ancillary service provider within the Blue Ribbon Bags Group, completed its multi-million dollar acquisition of Eddy Travels. The Blue Ribbon Bags Group plans to leverage their existing relationship with over 300 OTAs to promote the innovative TripAdd solution as well as Eddy Travels' A.I. powered chatbot. CEO of Eddy Travels, Edmundas Balcikonis (L) and CEO of TripAdd, Gabriel Menkin (R) TripAdd will function as an embedded white label marketplace for ancillary vendors & travel providers. TripAdd will be using real-time machine learning technology to optimize bundles of 3rd party ancillary services by using customer data points. Eddy Travels' machine learning expertise will enhance TripAdd's capabilities and provide a better user & travel experience within the TripAdd ecosystem. Several travel vendors have agreed to provide discounted pricing to TripAdd so partners can offer value added services to their customers. Partners that include TripAdd in their booking flows will gain access to an ever-growing vault of ancillary products, along with receiving real-time intelligence from the TripAdd Partner Dashboard. Eddy Travels will continue to operate its travel focused chatbot and will rebrand its assistant as 'EddyAI'. Eddy AI's assistant uses machine learning technology for natural language understanding and personalization. The AI assistant processes user messages and answers the most common customer questions instantly. Edmundas Balcikonis, Co-Founder and CEO at Eddy Travels commented, "The whole Eddy Travels team is super excited to join the TripAdd family. We have been partnering with the TripAdd Team from the US for a while and working together has been great. With all the exciting opportunities in the travel industry, the time is perfect for a merger. We are eager to help the travel industry recover with TripAdd ancillary marketplace and AI assistant technology under the new Eddy AI brand." "We're extremely excited to bring the Eddy Travels Team onboard. Their expertise in machine learning and language processing brings a huge boost to our Development Team," said CEO of Blue Ribbon Bags and TripAdd, Gabriel Menkin. He added, "With this partnership and introduction of TripAdd, we're better positioned to provide the best in class service providers to our customers." About Blue Ribbon Bags: Blue Ribbon Bags ("BRB") is the world's leading lost luggage tracking service. For only $5, BRB tracks and expedites the return of luggage lost by airlines. If the luggage cannot be returned to the passenger within 96 hours, BRB will provide the passenger with a satisfaction guarantee of $1,000. BRB covers every flight, everywhere in the world and sells it services in 90+ countries through OTAs, TMCs, airlines, travel insurance providers and credit cards. About TripAdd: TripAdd is a digital marketplace for all things travel. TripAdd sources thousands of offers from some of the world's largest travel companies. Based on the customers trip details TripAdd selects the best product offers and combines them into personalized discounted travel bundles. Travel products such as tours, flight care, e-visa and much are more are included in bundles provided by TripAdd. About Eddy Travels: Eddy Travels is an artificial intelligence powered travel assistant with voice understanding that allows people to plan their trips in minutes. Travelers can send a text or voice message to Eddy Travels assistant and get personalized suggestions for the best flights, hotels, car rentals and other travel-related services instantly. The digital assistant is available on Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Telegram, Viber, Slack, Line and WhatsApp. Over 4 million people worldwide have already used the Eddy Travels Assistant to receive product offers and FAQ answers in seconds. SOURCE Blue Ribbon Bags, LLC BEIJING, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Waterdrop Inc. ("Waterdrop", the "Company" or "we") ( NYSE: WDH), a leading technology platform dedicated to insurance and healthcare service with a positive social impact, today announced its unaudited financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2022. Financial and Operational Highlights for the Second Quarter of 2022 Healthy and solid revenue growth: For the second quarter of 2022, the first-year premiums ("FYP") generated through our Waterdrop Insurance Marketplace amounted to RMB1,646.3 million ( US$245.8 million ), and our net operating revenue was RMB701.4 million ( US$104.7 million ) which represented an increase of 8.1% quarter over quarter, further solidifying our growth trajectory as we continued to implement our new strategy. ( ), and our net operating revenue was ( ) which represented an increase of 8.1% quarter over quarter, further solidifying our growth trajectory as we continued to implement our new strategy. Consistent cost control and significant profit enhancement: For the second quarter of 2022, our sales and marketing expenses decreased by 88.4%, and total operating costs and expenses decreased by 68.9% year over year, respectively. Our net profit reached RMB206.9 million ( US$30.9 million ), following the profit of RMB105.0 million in the first quarter of 2022, representing a significant increase of 97.2% quarter over quarter. The profits we have delivered over three consecutive quarters demonstrate the effectiveness of the measures we have taken to control costs and enhance profitability. ( ), following the profit of in the first quarter of 2022, representing a significant increase of 97.2% quarter over quarter. The profits we have delivered over three consecutive quarters demonstrate the effectiveness of the measures we have taken to control costs and enhance profitability. Positive cash flow: As of June 30, 2022 , our cash and cash equivalents and short-term investment balance increased by RMB363.9 million from the end of the first quarter of 2022 to RMB3,288.1 million ( US$490.9 million ), as we continued to generate positive operating cash flow, partially offset by the investing and financing cash outflow. , our cash and cash equivalents and short-term investment balance increased by from the end of the first quarter of 2022 to ( ), as we continued to generate positive operating cash flow, partially offset by the investing and financing cash outflow. Further expanded product offerings: As of June 30, 2022 , we offered 454 insurance products on our platform, as compared with 408 as of March 31, 2022 . Over 90% of the FYP generated through our Waterdrop Insurance Marketplace was contributed by our exclusive customized insurance products. In the second quarter of 2022, the FYP of critical illness insurance accounted for 28.7% of overall FYP, compared to 27.6% in the first quarter of 2022. , we offered 454 insurance products on our platform, as compared with 408 as of . Over 90% of the FYP generated through our Waterdrop Insurance Marketplace was contributed by our exclusive customized insurance products. In the second quarter of 2022, the FYP of critical illness insurance accounted for 28.7% of overall FYP, compared to 27.6% in the first quarter of 2022. As of June 30, 2022 , over 412 million people cumulatively donated an aggregate of approximately RMB53.3 billion to over 2.58 million patients through Waterdrop Medical Crowdfunding. Mr. Peng Shen, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of Waterdrop, commented, "In the second quarter of 2022, we made further progress in enhancing our profitability. At this stage, our profits derive solely from insurance-related business. This third consecutive quarter of profitability is a testament to the fact that our business has entered the profit-making phase. Going forward, we will continue to strengthen our operational efficiency and optimize cost structure to achieve a healthy development. Our strong operational and financial performance has once again enhanced our confidence in our ability to maintain momentum and achieve the overall profitability goal we set for the full year of 2022. For our insurance business, we continued to optimize the operating model of 'multi-platform, multi-supply and multi-service mode' in the second quarter. Down the road, we will continue to strengthen insurance product innovation and offer value-added services to diverse customer segments, while actively exploring other potential growth channels. We managed to enhance our take rate and maintain the repurchase and renewal rates at a high level. We also launched 'Waterdrop Blue Ocean', the industry's first customized critical illness insurance products waiving health declarations, further expanding our user base beyond healthy customers to extend coverage to customers with pre-existing medical conditions. For our medical crowdfunding business, we established an Operational Transparency Committee to systematically ensure the authenticity of the campaigns initiated on the Waterdrop Medical Crowdfunding platform, and to safeguard the rights and interests of fundraisers and donors. I myself serve as the head of the committee. We will make every effort to promote the best practices and the orderly development of the whole industry. In the second quarter of 2022, our E-find Patient Platform sustained its high growth momentum. We successfully enrolled approximately 700 patients in clinical trials and onboarded over 60 new programs by partnering with leading pharmaceutical companies, bringing the total number of clinical trial programs for new drug registrations to more than 300. Apart from the rapid progress of oncology and chronic disease clinical trials, we also made new breakthroughs in the field of rare diseases. Our E-find Patient Platform has become one of China's leading patient recruitment platforms thanks to our deliberate efforts, our ability to efficiently and accurately recruit patients suitable for trial projects, as well as our high operational efficiency. We have now collaborated with most of the top innovative pharmaceutical manufacturers and are exploring CRO business opportunities along the industry chain to maximize our advantages in healthcare." Financial Results for the Second Quarter of 2022 Operating revenue, net Net operating revenue for the second quarter of 2022 decreased by 25.3% year over year to RMB701.4 million (US$104.7 million) from RMB939.4 million for the same period of 2021, which was primarily due to the decrease of RMB273.1 million in insurance-related income, partially offset by the increase of RMB56.1 million from crowdfunding service fees. Net operating revenue increased by 8.1% compared with the first quarter of 2022, mainly driven by the increase in crowdfunding service fees. Insurance-related income includes insurance brokerage income and technical service income. Insurance brokerage income represents brokerage commissions earned from insurance companies. Technical service income is derived from providing technical services including customer relationship maintenance, customer complaint management, claim review, and user referral services, among other things, to insurance companies, insurance brokerages, and agency companies. Our insurance-related income amounted to RMB625.9 million ( US$93.4 million ) in the second quarter of 2022, representing a decrease of 30.4% year over year from RMB899.1 million for the second quarter of 2021, which was mainly due to the decrease in insurance brokerage income. ( ) in the second quarter of 2022, representing a decrease of 30.4% year over year from for the second quarter of 2021, which was mainly due to the decrease in insurance brokerage income. Crowdfunding service fees represent the service income earned when patients successfully withdraw the proceeds from their crowdfunding campaigns. Our role is to operate the Waterdrop Medical Crowdfunding platform to provide crowdfunding related services on the internet, enabling those with significant medical bills to seek help from caring hearts through technology ("the medical crowdfunding services"). Our medical crowdfunding services generally consist of providing technical and internet support, managing, reviewing and supervising the crowdfunding campaigns, providing comprehensive risk management and anti-fraud measures, and facilitating the collection and transfer of the funds. Since April 7, 2022 , our crowdfunding platform has ceased to fully subsidize the related cost and started to charge a service fee of 3% of the funds raised, up to a maximum amount of RMB5,000 for a single campaign. Considering the specific situation of each case, we may selectively subsidize the service fee for certain extremely needy patients. For the second quarter of 2022, we generated RMB56.1 million in service fees, compared to nil in the same period of 2021, and those fees are used to cover part of the operating costs of the crowdfunding platform. Operating costs and expenses Operating costs and expenses decreased by 68.9% year over year to RMB545.5 million (US$81.4 million) for the second quarter of 2022, due to the effective cost control measures taken since the third quarter of 2021. On a quarter-over-quarter basis, operating costs and expenses slightly increased by 2.5%. Operating costs decreased by 6.1% year over year to RMB244.6 million ( US$36.5 million ) for the second quarter of 2022, compared with RMB260.4 million for the second quarter of 2021, which was primarily driven by (i) a RMB58.1 million decrease in personnel cost for our consultants and insurance agents team; (ii) a RMB35.5 million decrease in professional and outsourced customer service fees, partially offset by (iii) the increase of RMB61.5 million mainly due to recording the crowdfunding consultants team costs from sales and marketing expense to operating costs, as we started to generate crowdfunding service fees since April, 2022. On a quarter-over-quarter basis, operating costs increased by 57.9%in the second quarter of 2022, primarily because the crowdfunding direct costs of RMB61.5 million were recorded in operating costs in the second quarter of 2022 as mentioned above, and the professional and outsourced customer service fees increased by RMB15.8 million , as compared to the first quarter of 2022. ( ) for the second quarter of 2022, compared with for the second quarter of 2021, which was primarily driven by (i) a decrease in personnel cost for our consultants and insurance agents team; (ii) a decrease in professional and outsourced customer service fees, partially offset by (iii) the increase of mainly due to recording the crowdfunding consultants team costs from sales and marketing expense to operating costs, as we started to generate crowdfunding service fees since April, 2022. On a quarter-over-quarter basis, operating costs increased by 57.9%in the second quarter of 2022, primarily because the crowdfunding direct costs of were recorded in operating costs in the second quarter of 2022 as mentioned above, and the professional and outsourced customer service fees increased by , as compared to the first quarter of 2022. Sales and marketing expenses decreased materially by 88.4% year over year to RMB144.4 million ( US$21.6 million ) for the second quarter of 2022, compared with RMB1,244.9 million for the same quarter of 2021. The decrease was primarily due to (i) a RMB956.0 million decrease in marketing expenses to third-party traffic channels and (ii) a RMB136.4 million decrease in outsourced sales and marketing service fees to third parties. On a quarter-over-quarter basis, sales and marketing expenses decreased by 29.3% from RMB204.3 million for the first quarter of 2022. This was mainly due to the decrease of RMB61.5 million in crowdfunding related direct costs recorded from sales and marketing expenses to operating costs as above mentioned. ( ) for the second quarter of 2022, compared with for the same quarter of 2021. The decrease was primarily due to (i) a decrease in marketing expenses to third-party traffic channels and (ii) a decrease in outsourced sales and marketing service fees to third parties. On a quarter-over-quarter basis, sales and marketing expenses decreased by 29.3% from for the first quarter of 2022. This was mainly due to the decrease of in crowdfunding related direct costs recorded from sales and marketing expenses to operating costs as above mentioned. General and administrative expenses decreased by 42.3% year over year to RMB86.1 million ( US$12.8 million ) for the second quarter of 2022, compared with RMB149.1 million for the same quarter of 2021. The year-over-year variance was due to a combined impact of (i) a decrease of RMB54.0 million in share-based compensation expenses, and (ii) a RMB6.7 million decrease in personnel cost. On a quarter-over-quarter basis, general and administrative expenses decreased by 15.6% from RMB102.0 million for the first quarter of 2022, which was mainly due to a decrease of RMB10.9 million in allowance for doubtful accounts and RMB2.3 million in personnel cost and share-based compensation expenses. ( ) for the second quarter of 2022, compared with for the same quarter of 2021. The year-over-year variance was due to a combined impact of (i) a decrease of in share-based compensation expenses, and (ii) a decrease in personnel cost. On a quarter-over-quarter basis, general and administrative expenses decreased by 15.6% from for the first quarter of 2022, which was mainly due to a decrease of in allowance for doubtful accounts and in personnel cost and share-based compensation expenses. Research and development expenses decreased by 29.8% year over year to RMB70.4 million ( US$10.5 million ) for the second quarter of 2022, compared with RMB100.3 million for the same period of 2021. The decrease was primarily due to RMB26.5 million decreases in research and development personnel costs and share-based compensation expenses. On a quarter-over-quarter basis, research and development expenses remained stable. Operating profit for the second quarter of 2022 was RMB155.9 million (US$23.3 million), compared with an operating loss of RMB815.4 million for the second quarter of 2021 and a profit of RMB116.6 million for the first quarter of 2022. Interest income for the second quarter of 2022 was RMB15.2 million (US$2.3 million), compared with RMB11.3 million for the same period of 2021. The increase was primarily due to the increase in our bank balance and short-term investments as a result of the receipt of net proceeds from the completion of our initial public offering in May 2021 and positive operating cash flow generated from the business. Income tax benefit for the second quarter of 2022 was RMB19.8 million (US$2.9 million), compared with an income tax benefit of RMB143.5 million for the same period of 2021. Net profit attributable to Waterdrop for the second quarter of 2022 was RMB206.9 million (US$30.9 million), compared with a net loss of RMB655.8 million for the same period of 2021, and a net profit of RMB105.0 million for the first quarter of 2022. Adjusted net profit attributable to Waterdrop for the second quarter of 2022 was RMB232.5 million (US$34.7 million), compared with an adjusted net loss of RMB570.1 million for the same period of 2021, and an adjusted net profit of RMB127.3 million for the first quarter of 2022. Cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments As of June 30, 2022, the Company had combined cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments of RMB3,288.1 million (US$490.9 million), as compared with RMB2,787.1 million as of December 31, 2021. Share Repurchase Plan Pursuant to the 12-month share repurchase program announced on September 8, 2021, since the announcement up to the end of the second quarter of 2022, we cumulatively repurchased approximately 4.7 million ADSs from the open market with cash for a total consideration of approximately US$7.2 million. The board of the Company (the "Board") has approved a new upsized share repurchase program. Under the new program, the Company is authorized to repurchase its own ordinary shares in the form of American depository shares with an aggregate value of up to US$80 million in the twelve-month period. The program will be funded by existing cash on the Company's balance sheet. The decision is made based on the management's confidence in both the external environment and the sound development of the Company. The Company's proposed repurchase may be made from time to time in the open market at prevailing market prices, in privately negotiated transactions, in block trades and/or through other legally permissible means, depending on market conditions and in accordance with applicable rules and regulations. The timing and dollar amount of repurchase transactions will be subject to the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") Rule 10b-18 and/or Rule 10b5-1 requirements. The Board will review the share repurchase program periodically, and may authorize adjustment of its terms and size or suspend or discontinue the program. Business Outlook The Company expects to achieve overall profitability on a non-GAAP basis for the year 2022 under the circumstances that we continue to invest in established businesses and new initiatives. This forecast is based on the current market conditions and reflects the Company's preliminary view and estimates, which are all subject to change. Exchange Rate This announcement contains translations of certain RMB amounts into U.S. dollars ("USD" or "US$") at specified rates solely for the convenience of the reader. Unless otherwise stated, all translations from RMB to USD were made at the rate of RMB6.6981 to US$1.00, the noon buying rate in effect on June 30, 2022 in the H.10 statistical release of the Federal Reserve Board. The Company makes no representation that the RMB or USD amounts referred could be converted into USD or RMB, as the case may be, at any particular rate or at all. For analytical presentation, all percentages are calculated using the numbers presented in the financial statements contained in this earnings release. Non-GAAP Financial Measures The Company uses non-GAAP financial measures, such as adjusted net operating revenue and adjusted net profit/loss, in evaluating the Company's operating results and for financial and operational decision-making purposes. Adjusted net operating revenue represents net operating revenue excluding management fee income from mutual aid business. Adjusted net profit/loss represents net profit/loss excluding share-based compensation expense, the impact of terminating the mutual aid plan and foreign currency exchange gain or losses. Such adjustments have no impact on income tax. The non-GAAP financial measures are not presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP and may be different from non-GAAP methods of accounting and reporting used by other companies. The non-GAAP financial measures have limitations as analytical tools and when assessing the Company's operating performance, investors should not consider them in isolation, or as a substitute for net loss or other consolidated statements of comprehensive loss data prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. The Company encourages investors and others to review its financial information in its entirety and not rely on a single financial measure. Investors are encouraged to review the Company's historical non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures. Adjusted net operating revenue and adjusted net profit/loss presented here may not be comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies. Other companies may calculate similarly titled measures differently, limiting their usefulness as comparative measures to our data. The Company encourages investors and others to review its financial information in its entirety and not rely on a single financial measure. The Company mitigates these limitations by reconciling the non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable U.S. GAAP performance measures, all of which should be considered when evaluating the Company's performance. For more information on the non-GAAP financial measures, please see the table captioned "Reconciliation of GAAP and Non-GAAP Results" set forth at the end of this press release. Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains statements that may constitute "forward-looking" statements pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "aims," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "likely to" and similar statements. Among other things, quotations in this announcement, contain forward-looking statements. Waterdrop may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its periodic reports to the SEC, in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Waterdrop's beliefs, plans and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, including but not limited to the following: Waterdrop's mission, goals and strategies; Waterdrop's future business development, financial condition and results of operations; the expected growth of the insurance, medical crowdfunding and healthcare industry in China; Waterdrop's expectations regarding demand for and market acceptance of our products and services; Waterdrop's expectations regarding its relationships with consumers, insurance carriers and other partners; competition in the industry and relevant government policies and regulations relating to insurance, medical crowdfunding and healthcare industry. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in Waterdrop's filings with the SEC. All information provided in this press release is as of the date of this press release, and Waterdrop does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law. Conference Call Information Waterdrop's management team will hold a conference call on September 9, 2022 at 8:00 AM U.S. Eastern Time (8:00 PM Beijing/Hong Kong Time on the same day) to discuss the financial results. Dial-in details for the earnings conference call are as follows: International: 1-412-317-6061 United States Toll Free: 1-888-317-6003 Hong Kong Toll Free: 800-963976 Hong Kong: 852-58081995 Mainland China: 4001-206115 Elite Entry Number: 8726141 Please dial in 15 minutes before the call is scheduled to begin and provide the Elite Entry Number to join the call. A telephone replay will be accessible two hours after the conclusion of the conference call through September 16, 2022 by dialing the following numbers: United States Toll Free: 1-877-344-7529 International: 1-412-317-0088 Access Code: 6133699 A live and archived webcast of the conference call will also be available at the Company's investor relations website at http://ir.waterdrop-inc.com/. About Waterdrop Inc. Waterdrop Inc. ( NYSE: WDH) is a leading technology platform dedicated to insurance and healthcare service with a positive social impact. Founded in 2016, with the comprehensive coverage of Waterdrop Insurance Marketplace and Waterdrop Medical Crowdfunding, Waterdrop aims to bring insurance and healthcare service to billions through technology. For more information, please visit www.waterdrop-inc.com. For investor inquiries, please contact Waterdrop Inc. Xiaojiao Cui [email protected] Christensen In China Mr. Eric Yuan Phone: +86-1380-111-0739 E-mail: [email protected] In the US Ms. Linda Bergkamp Phone: +1-480-614-3004 Email: [email protected] WATERDROP INC. UNAUDITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (All amounts in thousands, unless otherwise noted) As of December 31, 2021 June 30, 2022 RMB RMB USD Assets Current assets Cash and cash equivalents 817,719 868,593 129,678 Restricted cash 667,664 444,248 66,324 Short-term investments 1,969,362 2,419,525 361,226 Accounts receivable, net 643,843 663,053 98,991 Current contract assets 563,611 383,435 57,245 Amount due from related parties 1,049 256 38 Prepaid expense and other assets 369,794 409,748 61,174 Total current assets 5,033,042 5,188,858 774,676 Non-current assets Non-current contract assets 29,889 70,581 10,537 Property, equipment and software, net 44,762 38,298 5,718 Intangible assets, net 56,753 56,684 8,463 Long-term investments 11,812 11,909 1,778 Right of use assets, net 59,081 38,001 5,673 Deferred tax assets 11,840 - - Goodwill 3,420 3,420 511 Total non-current assets 217,557 218,893 32,680 Total assets 5,250,599 5,407,751 807,356 Liabilities and Shareholders' Equity Current liabilities Amount due to related parties 20,449 8,995 1,343 Insurance premium payables 685,028 479,615 71,605 Deferred revenue 803 407 61 Accrued expenses and other current liabilities 498,752 463,478 69,195 Current lease liabilities 44,113 28,894 4,314 Total current liabilities 1,249,145 981,389 146,518 Non-current liabilities Non-current lease liabilities 14,477 8,663 1,293 Deferred tax liabilities 13,551 30,210 4,510 Total non-current liabilities 28,028 38,873 5,803 Total liabilities 1,277,173 1,020,262 152,321 Shareholders' equity Class A ordinary shares 107 107 16 Class B ordinary shares 27 27 4 Treasury stock - (2) - Additional paid-in capital 7,329,420 7,351,294 1,097,519 Accumulated other comprehensive (loss)/income (21,492) 58,798 8,778 Accumulated deficit (3,334,636) (3,022,735) (451,282) Total shareholders' equity 3,973,426 4,387,489 655,035 Total liabilities and shareholders' equity 5,250,599 5,407,751 807,356 WATERDROP INC. UNAUDITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS AND COMPREHENSIVE LOSS (All amounts in thousands, except for share and per share data, or otherwise noted) For the Three Months Ended For the Six Months Ended June 30, June 30, 2021 March 31, 2022 June 30, 2022 2021 2022 RMB RMB RMB USD RMB RMB USD Operating revenue, net 939,354 648,688 701,418 104,719 1,822,721 1,350,106 201,566 Operating costs and expenses(i) Operating costs (260,417) (154,880) (244,616) (36,520) (561,025) (399,496) (59,643) Sales and marketing expenses (1,244,935) (204,343) (144,423) (21,562) (2,082,088) (348,766) (52,069) General and administrative expenses (149,101) (101,995) (86,054) (12,848) (270,388) (188,049) (28,075) Research and development expenses (100,259) (70,825) (70,402) (10,510) (185,134) (141,227) (21,085) Total operating costs and expenses (1,754,712) (532,043) (545,495) (81,440) (3,098,635) (1,077,538) (160,872) Operating (loss)/profit (815,358) 116,645 155,923 23,279 (1,275,914) 272,568 40,694 Other income Interest income 11,327 14,492 15,213 2,271 24,542 29,705 4,435 Foreign currency exchange gain 1,473 653 163 24 2,257 816 122 Others, net 3,332 24,489 15,888 2,373 5,433 40,377 6,028 (Loss)/profit before income tax (799,226) 156,279 187,187 27,947 (1,243,682) 343,466 51,279 Income tax benefit/(expense) 143,474 (51,321) 19,756 2,949 217,774 (31,565) (4,713) Net (loss)/profit attributable to Waterdrop Inc. (655,752) 104,958 206,943 30,896 (1,025,908) 311,901 46,566 Preferred shares redemption value accretion (42,000) - - - (152,287) - - Net (loss)/profit attributable to ordinary shareholders (697,752) 104,958 206,943 30,896 (1,178,195) 311,901 46,566 Net (loss)/profit (655,752) 104,958 206,943 30,896 (1,025,908) 311,901 46,566 Other comprehensive (loss)/income: Foreign currency translation adjustment, net of tax (9,253) (7,783) 83,901 12,526 (12,035) 76,118 11,364 Unrealized gains on available for sale investments, net of tax (848) 1,072 3,100 463 219 4,172 623 Comprehensive (loss)/income (665,853) 98,247 293,944 43,885 (1,037,724) 392,191 58,553 Weighted average number of ordinary shares used in computing net (loss)/profit per share Basic 2,854,023,284 3,938,758,720 3,926,602,657 3,926,602,657 2,027,403,481 3,932,647,108 3,932,647,108 Diluted 2,854,023,284 4,017,949,706 4,006,060,346 4,006,060,346 2,027,403,481 4,009,442,628 4,009,442,628 Net (loss)/profit per share attributable to ordinary shareholders Basic (0.24) 0.03 0.05 0.01 (0.58) 0.08 0.01 Diluted (0.24) 0.03 0.05 0.01 (0.58) 0.08 0.01 (i) Share-based compensation expenses are included in the operating costs and expenses as follows. For the Three Months Ended For the Six Months Ended June 30, June 30, 2021 March 31, 2022 June 30, 2022 2021 2022 RMB RMB RMB USD RMB RMB USD Sales and marketing expenses (3,633) (2,802) (1,771) (265) (6,614) (4,573) (683) General and administrative expenses (73,939) (16,921) (19,976) (2,982) (135,960) (36,897) (5,508) Research and development expenses (9,597) (3,284) (3,998) (597) (15,773) (7,282) (1,087) Total (87,169) (23,007) (25,745) (3,844) (158,347) (48,752) (7,278) WATERDROP INC. RECONCILIATIONS OF GAAP AND NON-GAAP RESULTS (All amounts in thousands, unless otherwise noted) For the Three Months Ended For the Six Months Ended June 30, June 30, 2021 March 31, 2022 June 30, 2022 2021 2022 RMB RMB RMB USD RMB RMB USD Net operating revenue 939,354 648,688 701,418 104,719 1,822,721 1,350,106 201,566 Less: Management fee income - - - - 2,745(ii) - - Adjusted net operating revenue 939,354 648,688 701,418 104,719 1,819,976 1,350,106 201,566 For the Three Months Ended For the Six Months Ended June 30, June 30, 2021 March 31, 2022 June 30, 2022 2021 2022 RMB RMB RMB USD RMB RMB USD Net (loss)/profit (655,752) 104,958 206,943 30,896 (1,025,908) 311,901 46,566 Add: Share-based compensation expense 87,169 23,007 25,745 3,844 158,347 48,752 7,278 Foreign currency exchange gain (1,473) (653) (163) (24) (2,257) (816) (122) Impact of terminating the mutual aid plan (iii) - - - - 96,697 - - Adjusted net (loss)/profit (570,056) 127,312 232,525 34,716 (773,121) 359,837 53,722 (ii) This represents the net management fee revenue related to the mutual aid business for the three months ended March 31, 2021 after recording the RMB19.9 million reduction of management fee revenue previously recognized for each participant to the extent of the cumulative amount earned until March 26, 2021. (iii) This represents the estimated cost of medical expenses and cost of one-year health insurance coverage. RMB19.9 million (US$3.0 million) was accounted for as a reduction of management fee revenue previously recognized for each participant to the extent of the cumulative amount earned until March 26, 2021. RMB76.8 million (US$11.5 million) was recorded as operating costs. SOURCE Waterdrop Inc. Founded in 2010, Naturally Splendid Enterprises Ltd operates a Safe Quality Food Level 2 certified food manufacturing facility just outside Vancouver, BC in Canada. The company has established numerous healthy, functional foods under recognized brands such as Natera Sport, Natera Hemp Foods, CHII, Elevate Me and Woods Wild Bar, and most recently Natera Plant Based Foods, a line of delicious plantbased meat alternatives for the rapidly growing plant-based market segment. The Company has a myriad of new products and line extensions under development that are approaching launch. NSE, through its joint venture Plasm Pharmaceutical, has been approved for conducting a phase 2 clinical trial approved by Health Canada for treatment of COVID-19. NSE has also developed proprietary technologies for the extraction of high demand, healthy omega 3 and 6 oils from hemp. NSE contract manufacturers for healthy, functional food products and ingredients focusing on plant-based ingredients. The Company provides contract manufacturing services for many healthy food companies, private labeling a wide variety of nutritional food products destined for global healthy food markets. Kootenay Silver Inc. (TSX-V:KTN) has announced the final batch of results from the Phase 4 drilling program at its Columba high-grade silver project in Mexico, which included 5,840 grams per tonne (g/t) silver over 2.5 meters (m) within 34.5m of 540 g/t silver. The exploration company said the current drill results successfully extend known mineralization along strike and beneath existing drilling at both the D Vein and B Vein targets, while continuing to demonstrate wide intervals of significant silver mineralization in wallrock zones adjacent to the target veins, a feature often seen in mineralized drill intercepts across the project. Drilling since 2019 has returned high-grade silver hits over excellent widths from veins across the property and we are eager to further advance the project with an aggressively expanded drilling program in the near future, Kootenay Silver CEO James McDonald said in a statement. Having traced the vein system over an area of three-by-four kilometers and seeing continuity of high grades and widths in areas like the D Vein underscore for us the potential for 100 plus million ounces of silver, McDonald added. "The addition of Mr Hairsine brings wide experience with major project development to our already strong board, said CEO Brandon Macdonald Fireweed Metals Corp (TSX-V:FWZ, OTCQB:FWEDF) announced that it has appointed Peter Hairsine to its board of directors. Hairsine is an asset development specialist with more than 20 years of experience in mining and resources and a representative of Fireweed's large shareholder, Ibaera Capital, a private equity fund that specializes in future-facing minerals investment. A former project study manager and manager of business development for Fortescue Metals, Hairsine is currently a partner in Ibaera Capital. Fireweed told shareholders that Hairsine has been responsible for a number of large project studies in the Australian and international minerals sector and possesses excellent appreciation of the key commercial and financial requirements to ensure a successful project." "The addition of Mr Hairsine brings wide experience with major project development to our already strong board, CEO Brandon Macdonald told investors in a statement. With Fireweed's rapid growth into a leading critical minerals development company, we expect he will be a key contributor to advancing our world-class zinc and tungsten projects." The company also said that it is granting, pursuant to its stock option plan, a total of 3,950,000 stock options exercisable at a price of $0.55 per share for a five-year term. Management, staff, and consultants are being granted 2,860,000 stock options, and non-management directors are being granted 1,090,000 stock options. Vancouver-based Fireweeds project portfolio includes the Macmillan Pass zinc-lead-silver project in Yukon and a pending acquisition on the adjacent Mactung tungsten project, as well as the Gayna River zinc-gallium-germanium project, also in Yukon. Contact Angela at angela@proactiveinvestors.com Follow her on Twitter @AHarmantas Queen Elizabeth II, the UK's longest-serving monarch, died yesterday at Balmoral Castle aged 96, after reigning for 70 years. In a statement, Buckingham Palace said: "The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon." With her death, her eldest son Charles, the former Prince of Wales, will lead the country in mourning as the new King and head of state for 14 Commonwealth realms. King Charles said the death of his beloved mother the Queen is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family. "We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished sovereign and a much-loved mother. "I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth and by countless people around the world. "During this period of mourning and change, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which the Queen was so widely held." Prime Minister Liz Truss, said she was the rock on which modern Britain was built. She said the Queen was a personal inspiration to her as well as many Britons. "Her devotion to duty is an example to us all." All the Queen's children travelled to Balmoral, near Aberdeen, after doctors placed the Queen under medical supervision. Happy and glorious The Queen came to the throne in 1952 and her reign was marked by a strong sense of duty and her determination to dedicate her life to her throne and to her people. She became for many the one constant point in a rapidly changing world, her reign spanned 15 prime ministers starting with Winston Churchill and she managed to steer the monarchy through a series of turbulent times when the future of the Royal Family itself was called into question. Charles and Diana's bitter divorce and a disastrous fire at Windsor Castle prompted her to coin the now famous phrase 'annus horribilis'. But even through those tough times and more recent challenges with Prince Andrew and Harry and Meghan, the Queen's stature, affection and respect among her subjects has been undiminished, even growing. She found love after exchanging letters with her third cousin, Philip, Prince of Greece, during World War 2 and they were married at Westminster Abbey on 20 November 1947, with the prince taking the title of Duke of Edinburgh. She would later describe him as "my strength and stay" through 73 years of marriage, before his death in 2021, aged 99. Her life would span a World War, numerous political and personal crises, huge technological and geopolitical change and through it all she retained great dignity and this strength in adversity would be recognised as one of her many strengths. Kavango Resources said it spent US$1.64mln in its latest half year on exploration across its prospects in Botswana. This included a 3,300m proof of concept in the Kalahari Suture Zone, where multiple EM conductors have been identified and 1,600m at Ditau where petrology samples are pending. Going forward, Kavango said it is actively exploring how it can roll out a much more expansive reconnaissance campaign across the 8,800 km2 KSZ property. Extensive geological mapping and soil sampling program were also carried out across five Kalahari Copper Belt prospecting licences, resulting in the definition of multiple drill targets, said its statement. Losses for the half year to June were US$883,000 (US$776,00) with cash and equivalents at the half-year of US$1.1mln. Coro Energy PLC (AIM:CORO) chairman James Parsons described himself as delighted with progress as the companys flagship asset, the Mako gas project, in the Duyung PSC, Indonesia, advanced through key milestones. The company, in a statement, told investors that the partners in the Mako project have approved an updated development plan which was subsequently submitted to the government for approval. Also the partners commissioned a new competent persons report (CPR) which has been prepared by GaffneyCline & Associates (GCA) for Mako. The consultant described compelling project economics including an internal rate of return estimated at 51% and a net present value to Coro of US$87mln (US$577mln gross). GCAs report highlighted some 42bn cubic feet of net entitlement 2C resources, net to Empyrean, covering the life of the project. The consultant noted an anticipated plateau production rate of 120 MMscf/d for six years, and, GCA estimate the capital expenditure required to first gas at US$251mln, US$38mln net to Coro. The consultant said that a reserve-based lending debt structure would be appropriate to fund the development. We are delighted with progress on our flagship asset, the Duyung PSC, James Parsons said in the statement. Parsons added that the teams would now move to finalise a long-awaited gas sales agreement which he says will be a significant milestone on the path to building material value for our investors. As demonstrated by the US$87mln NPV10 (net to Coro) reported in the CPR, recent structural increases in global gas markets very much now favour Coro Energy and the Mako gas field," Parsons said. FTSE 100 pushed higher, up 73 points to 7,336. The country will enter a period of mourning following the death of Queen Elizabeth II yesterday. Todays sporting events have been cancelled with the weekends fixtures set to follow suit. Postal and rail strikes scheduled for the next ten days were also abandoned out of respect. The London Stock Exchange said it will remain open and trade as normal in the days of mourning up to the funeral, which is expected to be a national bank holiday. ASOS cautioned that adjusted pre-tax profits and net debt will be at the bottom end of company guidance. Net debt stands at about 150mln. Reabold Resources told investors it welcomes the government's decision to lift the ban on onshore fracking. It said the change could be materially beneficial to the companys onshore business. Argo Blockchain said it entered a strategic hosting agreement with an undisclosed party. The crypto mining company will host and operate machines owned by the latter at its Helios facility in Texas. Creo Medical reported revenue growth which is paving the way toward profitability. Revenue grew to 13.6mln compared to 12.9mln the year prior, driven by core technology according to a statement. Shield Therapeutics reported H1FY22 sales and royalties of 2mln from its fully approved, patented, oral iron product, Accrufer. Sales of 1.2mln were from the growing US market with a further 0.7mln in Norgine royalties, the European licensee. A 0.1mln Canadian licence fee made 2mln. The key thing now is for Shield to maintain its marketing drive to boost the number of physicians who use the product; 1,050 did so for the first time in H1 making over 1,500 since July 2021. Womens health practitioners wrote about half the prescriptions. This group seems particularly keen on the benefits of Accrufer for their patients: it works with very few side effects compared to cheap ferrous generic salts which usually don't work with frequent side effects. General practitioners wrote about 45% of the prescriptions, with use also growing. These two groups write 90% of all US oral iron prescriptions. To date, Shield has gained insurer reimbursement covering 100mln people (40% of eligible Americans in the targeted population) and coverage from Medicaid in several large US states. Shield's current limitation is its compact marketing force in the US: a team of up to 30 contract sales and three in-house personnel. In H1, this generated an average of 175 new prescribers per month. There could be 65,000 potential high-prescribers in the US plus another 485,00 lower prescribers. Clearly, a bigger sales team or additional marketing channel will boost revenues. In Europe, Norgine sells Ferracru (European brand) but royalties are anaemic: H1FY22 0.7mln and H1FY21 0.5mln, up 40% from a tiny base. Kavango Resources PLC (LSE:KAV, OTC:KVGOF)'s (Kavango Resources PLC (LSE:KAV, OTC:KVGOF)) CEO, Ben Turney, expressed his confidence about the future as he discussed the company's half-year results with Proactive. Turney said that though it was a difficult day to issue news, Kavango wanted shareholders to appreciate the new financial disciplines it has put in place and that it marks a new beginning for the company. The focus now is on finding a joint venture for the KSZ deposit, he says, with 60 possible targets identified. He also touched on exploration at the Kalahari Copper Belt projects, where Turney wants to see more drilling this year. #Kavango Resources #Botswana #Mining Destiny Pharma PLC (AIM:DEST)'s (Destiny Pharma PLC (AIM:DEST)) chief executive Neil Clark joined Proactive after the release of interim results that showed it had made impressive clinical progress with its next-generation antibiotics. The group is now looking for licensing partners for its phase III-ready asset NTCD-M3. Clark talked to Chris Rhodes about NTCD-M3 and the company's XF-73 nasal gel. #destinypharma #aim #lse #healthcare #antibiotics Animoca Brands has also issued warrants to the same investors for a total face value of US$55 million. Animoca Brands Corporation Ltd has raised US$110 million from the issuance of convertible notes to a small number of institutional investors that included Singapore state-owned sovereign fund Temasek, at a conversion price of A$4.50 The company intends to use the new capital to continue funding strategic acquisitions, investments, and product development, secure licences for popular intellectual properties, and generally to advance the open metaverse, including promoting digital property rights for online users. Animoca Brands co-founder and executive chairman Yat Siu said: We are incredibly pleased to complete a special strategic round of fundraising comprising several of the most respected institutional investors in the world, and we are honoured by the continued support from existing investors. Animoca Brands has grown significantly as a company in the last year, and our new investors will contribute strategic advice and perspective as we build the worlds leading company furthering digital property rights in the Web3 industry. Impressive investor line-up The company advancing digital property rights for the open metaverse said the latest round of capital-raising attracted new investors, Boyu Capital and GGV Capital, and existing investors, Mirae Asset Management and True Global Ventures (TGV). Boyu Capital is a leading alternative asset management firm based in Asia with more than US$40 billion in assets under management, while GGV Capital is a global venture capital firm focused on seed-to-growth stage investments, with $9.2 billion in capital under management across 17 funds. Temasek, meanwhile, had a net portfolio value of US$297 billion as at March 31, 2022. The new investors will act as advisors to Animoca Brands as it grows its organisational capabilities, including engaging and advising the company on a range of business issues as well as providing input on its business and capital plans. More money The company has also issued warrants to the same investors for a total face value of US$55 million on the same conversion price as the notes. The warrants will expire in the event of one of the following: 60 days after the date of conversion of the notes; the date an IPO or liquidation event is completed, including a sale or merger; or three years from the date of issuance of the notes. The notes will have a 1.8% dilutionary impact on the companys current outstanding capital if converted in full, while the impact from the warrants, when exercised, is 2.7%. Promoting equity Animoca Brands has established itself as one of the worlds leading technology groups in blockchain and gaming by spearheading and innovating decentralised in-game rewards and monetisation in video games for the emerging open metaverse. Using technologies including blockchain and NFTs, the company is working to deliver true digital ownership of users virtual assets and data, enabling various DeFi and GameFi opportunities, including play-and-earn, asset interoperability, and an open framework that can lead to greater equitability for all participants. When the stock market rises everyone is happy and investors tend to invest more into stocks. But alarmingly, rather than investing directly, investors are choosing index tracking ETFs, so much so that we are seeing record levels of funds moving into these investments in much the same way we saw enormous sums of money move in managed funds prior to the GFC. With the Australian stock market falling around 17% into June this year, investors became concerned about the possibility of a larger fall. These concerns have arisen again over the past few weeks with speculation of an impending crash. During times like this investors often make emotional decisions based on fear rather than rational decisions. It is very common for investors to look at short term returns and run for the hills if their investments are down or they switch funds, investment managers or exit the market altogether. History shows that investors tend to make these decisions at the wrong time and, in doing so, greatly affect their returns. While we are seeing record levels of money moving into ETFs, especially index ETFs, we are not seeing an increase in borrowings that was prevalent in the previous year leading up to the GFC. Given this, I dont believe we are near the point of any major meltdown on our market. As such, now is not the time to be changing investment strategies or making knee jerk reactions, as you might just find yourself missing opportunities when the market starts to rise. My prediction is that over the next few years, we will see a snowball effect of money moving into index ETFs at unprecedented levels, as well as investors borrowing heavily to invest in these funds. This will significantly increase the speed of the snowball effect, which will be alarming in years to come. Many of you may remember during the GFC there were major concerns around index funds with many investors deserting them in droves after they fell heavily. Sadly, history is repeating itself and I can confidently say that Index ETFs will be at the forefront of the next major crash and not in a good way. Dale Gillham is Chief Analyst at Wealth Within and international bestselling author of How to Beat the Managed Funds by 20%. He is also author of the bestselling and award winning book Accelerate YourWealthIts Your Money, Your Choice, which is available in all good bookstores and online at www.wealthwithin.com.au Lithium Power International Ltd (ASX:LPI) has received binding commitments from institutional, sophisticated and professional investors to raise A$25 million via a placement at an issue price of A$0.60 per share. The placement attracted strong support from both new and existing shareholders, with Lithium Power welcoming a number of high-quality domestic and North American institutional investors to its register. Lithium Power is advancing the Maricunga Lithium Brine Project in Chile, which is expected to produce 15,200 tonnes of lithium per annum over 20 years, delivering a net present value of US$1.4 billion at an 8% discount rate. Lithium Power CEO and managing director Cristobal Garcia-Huidobro said: The result of the capital raise is an outstanding endorsement of Lithium Powers ambition to rapidly advance the significant Maricunga lithium asset and capitalise on the rapid global shift towards the electrification of transport and infrastructure. Investing in green technologies is essential to ensuring the battery revolution and the delivery of clean, green energy that the world is eagerly awaiting. The funds raised will allow Lithium Power to progress the development and accelerate the expansion of the Maricunga project, as well as general working capital purposes. On behalf of the Company, I would like to warmly welcome new shareholders and thank existing shareholders for their ongoing support. Use of funds Funds raised via the placement will primarily be used to progress with the development and expand and accelerate the Maricunga project. Specifically, funds will be applied to the operational and pre-construction costs for the 100% consolidated Maricunga project and the increased operational compliance costs associated with the acquisition of the ownership of the Chilean and Canadian joint venture partners in Maricunga project. Consolidation update Lithium Power currently owns a 51.55% interest in Maricunga, with JV Partners MSB SpA holding 31.31% and Bearing Lithium Corp (TSX-V:BRZ) holding 17.14% The company is proceeding to consolidate 100% ownership of Maricunga by way of a three-party all-scrip merger with its JV Partners, which is progressing well. Lithium Power expects that notices of meeting will be despatched within the next month to shareholders of Lithium Power and Bearing Lithium Corp (TSX-V:BRZ) for approval of the transaction by their respective shareholders. Maricunga funding update The entity holding the Maricunga project, Minera Salar Blanco SA (MSB), is continuing to investigate the optimal sources of debt and equity funding available to develop the project in the most time and cost-efficient manner. As part of this process, which is being assisted by Canaccord, MSB has received several expressions of interest in relation to debt funding, equity funding and outright acquisition of MSB, which are expected to progress during the upcoming months. Allup Silica Ltd (ASX:APS) has a potential new raft of areas to explore, having made exploration licence applications for new projects in Western Australia and the Northern Territory which it considers prospective for silica sand. The company has lodged applications for the Blue Vein and Trigger Fish projects to the WA Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety and the NT Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade. It has also made an exploration licence application to extend the size of its Dune Buggy tenement holdings. Snapshot of the new applications The Blue Vein Silica Exploration Project is 30 kilometres by rail to Bunbury Port and within close proximity of infrastructure, including a railway, sealed roads, township and industry. Its situated on privately owned freehold land and will require landowner consent. Historical drilling, desktop review and site review indicate the potential for silica sands. The Trigger Fish Silica Exploration Project is around 4 kilometres to the east of the Adelaide-Darwin railway line, in close proximity to infrastructure including a gas pipeline, a railway, a sealed road and a small township, and a desktop review indicates the potential for silica sands. The Dune Buggy Silica Exploration Project is subject to an extension application of around three-blocks or 8.6 square kilometres east of the existing tenement holding. The project has an east-side location and is therefore marginally closer to Esperance Port. Allup Silica chairperson Andrew Haythorpe said: Allup is focused on progressing the development of its early-stage silica sand exploration project locations and ongoing exploration. Allups commercial strategy is to concentrate on multiple projects with both logistics and port options. Redirecting efforts The board has also decided to withdraw its application for an exploration licence for the Antwalker project, believing it now has the right settings for a tenement portfolio that will optimise the companys opportunities for project development, given the early-stage nature of these projects. Allup will redirect the funds previously earmarked for those projects that are being withdrawn to new exploration applications or other key silica sands projects within its portfolio. Allup is executing its strategy by targeting multiple projects with potential for high quality, high purity silica and transport links to nearby ports. An emergency meeting of European energy ministers is taking place to thrash out details of a plan to cut soaring electricity prices by intervening in the energy market. In advance of Friday's meeting, diplomats said many countries, including the largest economies of the European Union, Germany and France, had agreed to impose a cap on nuclear, renewable, and non-gas electricity producers' revenues, redistributing the money to consumers and businesses. Additionally, a temporary cap on the price of natural gas imports from Russia and a plan to cut electricity use during peak demand this winter are being discussed, as some governments want the price cap extended to other types of gas as well. In addition, ministers want to extend emergency credit to traders or change the rules for collateral required for electricity trading in order to prevent high prices from upending markets. As Moscow cuts gas deliveries to Europe, EU governments are tightening their grip on the region's energy markets. The talks come after national governments imposed price caps on energy producers in response to fears of social unrest and factory shutdowns. From nuclear-energy-reliant France to a few central European countries that still consume a lot of Russian gas, governments are looking to craft emergency policies across the 27-nation bloc. The debate centres on Germany, the EU's largest economy, which relied on Russian gas for decades. The Nord Stream pipeline, the main artery for natural-gas deliveries, has been shut down indefinitely by Moscow, resulting in idle factories and higher electricity and gas prices. "Nothing is a non-starter now," said Vaclav Bartuska, special envoy for energy security for the Czech Republic. In recent months, Bartuka believes government officials' perception of how to address the energy crisis has evolved rapidly. According to him, proposals to redistribute companies' windfall revenue "was crazy in June, it was fringe in July, and it was mainstream in August." Confusion remains, however, about who will decide how the money is used and whether it should be directed through a country's government or go straight to citizens and businesses. Washington, Sep 9 : A US federal grand jury is investigating former President Donald Trump's Save America fundraising group, a media report said, citing subpoenas. The Times reported that the leadership of the political action committee received subpoenas, as the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) looks into the group's spending, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the New York Times. Mid- and low-level aids who had been employed in the White House during Trump's presidency were subpoenaed earlier this week. Trump's office did not respond immediately to requests for any comment on the matter. The former president founded 'Save America' just days after the 2020 elections, in which Trump was defeated by Joe Biden. The political action group has since collected more than $100 million. The investigation comes just a month after Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents raided Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. Earlier, a federal judge in Florida ordered a so-called "special master" to be appointed, in order to examine over 11,000 documents taken from Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence. The search and seizure were part of a DOJ investigation into whether the former president illegally retained documents on national defense at Mar-a-Lago, and whether he obstructed government moves to get hold of the documents. Taking to social media, Trump said the FBI raid had turned the US into a "banana republic", rather than a rule-of-law nation. The FBI claimed it had "probable cause" that warranted a raid, as the bureau believed it would find "evidence of obstruction" -- a crime in the US -- at Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence. Washington, Sep 9 : For some Americans, no Indian-American will ever be American enough. Not even when one of them is elected to the US Congress to represent millions of Americans. Indian-American lawmaker Pramila Jayapal was allegedly stalked by a man who would drive by her home in Seattle, Washington hurling insults and invectives in her direction. He told the police after his arrest that he would do that every day till she packs her bags and left for India. The Washington Post on Thursday reported her 47-minute ordeal on the night of July 9 when she was home and experienced for the first time the man's hatred. She was watching a psychological thriller "Mindhunter" with her husband, Steve Williamson, when it started. That was the first time they saw and heard the stalker, who and his black car with gold rims driving past their house had been a familiar sight to neighbours. It was 10:38 p.m. "F...... C...," said one of the men, according to voices captured by security cameras. Another voice said something that included "India". "But I will continue to drive by here and voice my opinion, until she goes back to India - or something else," Brett Forsell, 49, one of the two men said as he sat in a police car after his arrest. Jayapal was born in Chennai, India and immigrated to the US at the age of 18. After two years in Washington state politics - serving in the state senate - she was elected to the House of Representatives in 2016, becoming the first Indian woman to do so (Kamala Harris became the first Indian American woman elected to US senate the same year - their respective terms started in 2017). A Democrat, she is now in her third term and heads the party's congressional liberals as chairperson of the House Progressive Caucus. Jayapal has also been a strident critic of former President Donald Trump and blamed him for the stalker. "The person that occupied the White House, the highest office in the land, actually used and unleashed and mobilised all of that violence and white supremacy using the tools of the federal government," she said shortly after the incident. Many Indian-Americans will identify with her experience. A group of them found themselves yelled at by a woman in Plano, Texas recently. "Go back to India," their tormentor, a woman who introduced herself to them as Mexican-American, told them repeatedly, among other things. She was arrested later. Srinivas Kuchibhotla, a software engineer with GPS major Garmin, was killed in a bar outside the company premises in Olathe, Kansas in 2018 by a man who yelled at him to "leave my country". The killer claimed he had mistaken Kuchibhotla for someone from the Middle East. "I've had people forever telling me to go back to India," Jayapal told The Washington Post. "But I will say that this was different. This was really different." Forsell had planned to pitch a tent close to Jayapal's house to serve her as a constant reminder. And on the night of his arrest, he was carrying a Glock pistol, which he claimed to the police, was meant only for self-defence. The US' top federal investigative agency FBI tracks discriminatory rhetoric and actions as hate crimes - race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender and gender identity. Crimes against Indians and Indian-descent Americans are covered under the category of religion as "Anti-Hindu". The 2019 FBI hate crime report said there was a 7 per cent increase in cases against Hindus. These were the most recent publicly available data on bias crimes. San Francisco, Sep 9 : Google-owned YouTube is introducing new products that will allow learners to explore subjects they are passionate about and creators to provide structured learning content. The platform is announcing updates to make educational content more accessible and interactive for learners while helping learning creators thrive on YouTube. "To improve the YouTube experience in educational environments, we are launching YouTube Player for Education -- a new YouTube embedded player that shows content on commonly used education apps without distractions like ads, external links or recommendations," Jonathan Katzman, Director of Product Management, YouTube Learning, said in a blogpost. YouTube said, to start, it is partnering with established edtech companies in the US, including EDpuzzle, Purdue University and Purdue Global. YouTube Player for Education will also improve the existing YouTube embedded player in Google Classroom for an even better YouTube experience. "Next year, qualified creators can begin offering free or paid Courses to provide in-depth, structured learning experiences for viewers," the platform said. "Viewers who choose to buy a Course can watch the video ad-free and play it in the background. Courses will arrive first in the US and South Korea in beta before expanding to more countries," it added. YouTube said it is also introducing Quizzes -- a new way for creators to help viewers test their knowledge. London, Sep 9 : Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland on Friday offered tributes to Queen Elizabeth II, who died the previous day aged 96, describing her an extraordinary person who lived an extraordinary life and her devotion to duty was only matched by her skill as Head of the Commonwealth of Nations. In a tribute, Scotland said: "It is with the greatest sorrow and sadness that we mourn the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. After a long life of faith, duty and service, a great light has gone out. "Her Majesty was an extraordinary person, who lived an extraordinary life: a constant presence and example for each of us, guiding and serving us all for as long as any of us can remember. "Throughout her reign, and seven decades of extraordinary change and challenge, Her Majesty was the epitome of duty, stability, wisdom and grace. "Her Majesty loved the Commonwealth, and the Commonwealth loved her. During her reign she travelled more than any monarch in history, visiting every part of our family of nations. Between 1971 and 2018, she missed only one Heads of Government Meeting. Her devotion to duty was only matched by her skill as Head of the Commonwealth of Nations, always a generous host and consummate diplomat." The Secretary-General said in Her Majesty's final Commonwealth Day message, she described "our family of nations as a modern, vibrant and connected Commonwealth that combines a wealth of history and tradition with the great social, cultural and technological advances of our time". "That the Commonwealth stands ever taller is a credit to all who have been involved. The growth and vibrancy of our modern Commonwealth is a credit to her and testament to her dedication, wisdom and leadership. "In 1947, before she ascended to the throne, she stated that 'whether my life be long or short I will dedicate it to the service of the Commonwealth. Her Majesty honoured that promise," Scotland added. As the sixth Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, she said she would always be "grateful for her warmth and kindness to me". "Our interactions were a delight, and it was wonderful to see her passion and animation whenever discussing anything relating to the Commonwealth. Her long years of interaction and partnership with generations of world leaders and their people, particularly the young, gave her extraordinary insight, which brought ever-more life and meaning to her service," the Secretary-General added. Elizabeth breathed her last at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, one of her four 'royal' residences and possibly her favourite. Her family from near and afar had gathered there to be at her side in her final moments. Bengaluru, Sep 9 : A fish merchant turned drug peddler from Kerala who threatened cops with a toy gun has been taken into custody by the Karnataka Police for further investigations, a top official said on Friday. The development was confirmed by South East DCP Dr C.K. Baba. The accused has been identified as Jaffer and the police have also seized the toy gun from his possession. According to the police, the incident had taken place when a team of cops from Kerala came down to HSR Layout in Bengaluru to arrest Jaffer. He then threatened the police with the toy gun and managed to escape. Later, the Kerala Police managed to arrest him and when he was grilled, he revealed that the gun he used was a toy. The Karnataka Police has obtained a body warrant against him and brought him to the state for investigation . Jaffer resides in Kerala with his wife and two children. He got into drug peddling to make money in Kerala. When the cops tried to arrest him, he managed to escape to Bengaluru and found shelter in HSR Layout. Kerala Police have registered an FIR regarding the accused threatening them with a pistol and escaping. The police said they will probe his network in Bengaluru. Lucknow, Sep 9 : The secondary education department in Uttar Pradesh has decided to provide online spoken English training to teachers of government colleges. This is an attempt to strengthen English education in the state. The course is designed to provide an environment of English language and give ample practice of listening and speaking the English language. The course will benefit 30,000 teachers and over one crore students enrolled in UP secondary schools from class nine to 12. Developed by the English Language Teaching Institute (ELTI), Prayagraj, a unit of UP State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), the online English course has 132 modules of 10 minutes each. ELTI principal Skand Shukla said, "This course is different from the existing courses in the private sector in providing knowledge of essential grammar, syntax, common errors and conversation-practices and also following the general Indian English based on the British pronunciation." The modules are interactive in nature and there is an assessment at the end of each course module. Vikas Srivastava, deputy director, said, "With English as the world language, it is important to make teachers proficient. The spoken English course will be beneficial to teachers from across the streams - science, commerce and humanities. " Secondary education director Sarita Tiwari has asked district inspectors of schools (DIOS) and joint directors to ensure English teachers in their districts and divisions undergo the training. Lucknow, Sep 9 : Facebook has sent an SOS to the social media centre at DGP headquarters in Lucknow about a NEET aspirant in Lucknow ending life by consuming poisonous substance and helped cops reach the scene and save his life. This was a part of an agreement between the Uttar Pradesh Police and the social networking site to save precious lives through real-time alerts and action to check cases of suicide. As per the agreement, any person who submits social media posts on intention to commit suicide, the site concerned will issue an alert to the police control room and help will be rendered immediately. Additional director general, law and order, Prashant Kumar, said the information was immediately sent to the Lucknow Police Commissionerate and they were asked to work in the case. "We have directed all the policemen to respond quickly to social media posts related to suicide and save the lives of persons who post such messages. Facebook has partnered with us so that we can respond immediately," he said. Additional CP (West) Chiranjeev Nath Sinha immediately reached the house of the 29-year-old man who had posted the message to end his life. The man admitted that he had committed a mistake and promised not to repeat such a thing in future. "He said that he took the step due to mental tension he was facing after not being able to qualify NEET and he was counselled that it was not the end of life. We have provided him the police mobile number and asked him to feel free in calling up whenever he has any problem," said Sinha. A senior police official said that Facebook sends an alert to UP Police whenever somebody posts a message regarding suicide. He said the police had saved lives of several persons in the past after taking cognizance of the alerts. Recently, Prayagraj police saved the life of a man who had posted on Facebook that he was about to end his life. Jammu, Sep 9 : Authorities imposed restrictions on Friday in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri town to maintain law and order. Officials said restrictions under section 144 CrPc have been imposed in Rajouri town to maintain law and order. Under these preventive orders, an assembly of five or more persons is deemed as unlawful. Tension gripped the town in the aftermath of the suspension of a Kashmir administrative service (KAS) officer over remarks allegedly made by him against a subordinate who opted for vegetarian food while having lunch with the officer during office hours. After the subordinate lodged a formal complaint against the officer, he was placed under suspension pending an inquiry. Authorities have imposed restrictions to prevent any flare-up between the two communities after the Friday's congregational prayers in the town. Heavy deployments of police and paramilitary forces have been made to maintain peace in the town. Chennai, Sep 9 : Director 'Siruthai' Siva, who is now working on a film featuring actor Suriya in the lead, on Friday disclosed that the film was being made in 3D and that it would be released in a whopping 10 languages. Releasing a motion poster of the film, an explosive action entertainer that is tentatively being referred to as #Suriya42, Siva tweeted, "With the love and blessings of the Almighty, all the fans, media friends and cinema lovers." The exciting motion poster has a hawk hovering over a battlefield in which knights are battling it out, while Suriya's character, dressed in the attire of a commander, is seen standing on a rock and observing the proceedings on the battlefield. It is then that the motion poster makes the disclosure that the film is being shot in 3D and that it will be released in 10 languages. The poster also has the tagline, 'A mighty valiant saga'. The motion poster has led many fans to wonder if 'Suriya 42' is a historical or a war film. The film is being produced by Studio Green Gnanavel Raja and has music by Devi Sri Prasad. Disha Patani plays the female lead in this film, which has cinematography by Vetri Palanisamy, who had shot superhits like Ajith-starrer 'Veeram' and 'Vedalam'. Richard Kevin, who did a fine job editing superhits like the critically acclaimed 'Vikram Vedha' and the recently released webseries 'Suzhal', has been brought onboard this film as its editor. New Delhi, Sep 9 : There is a critical and significant forward movement in Naga peace talks. Representatives and officials of the Central government recently visited the northeast, including Guwahati and Shillong, and the stalled talks between the NSCN-IM and the Centre have been revived. The Central team is now working on a new set of Formulation Papers which would include a new and old set of offers to facilitate inking of a final peace pact at the earliest. The ball will soon be in the court of militant groups, including the NSCN-IM, whose raising of demands for a separate Naga flag and a constitution, had practically stalled the peace parleys since October 2019. A top military commander from the group, which initiated ceasefire and peace talks in 1997, is involved in these crucial and final rounds of discussions. The Centre is more than keen and is already running the "extra mile" to achieve the destination of peace, solution and development for Nagas. "Elections or no elections, focus is on the Formulation Papers. It's refreshing...," a source claimed. Nagaland is inching ahead towards the next Assembly elections by February-March 2023 along with two other northeastern states of Tripura and Meghalaya. While the BJP heads a coalition regime with a tribal-based party in Tripura, it is a junior partner to regional parties NPP in Meghalaya and NDPP in Nagaland. A delegation of Nagaland legislators and Ministers led by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio is camping in Delhi to "push for expediting" the peace process and arriving at an early solution. Rio and his delegation held a meeting with A.K. Mishra, the peace emissary on behalf of the Centre. Sources are tightlipped on what transpired at the meeting between the Naga delegation and Mishra. "We know how to keep some secrets... In the national interest the secrets have been kept secret. However, there is no second opinion that every Naga of the state of Nagaland wants a final solution. They, however, complain about deliberate delay in peace parleys," a source said. In quite an interesting turn of events, one leader of Naga People's Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR) has blamed the centre for delaying and almost derailing the peace process. "As the Govt abrogated Article 370 and took away the Kashmir flag and constitution... A message went around deliberately or otherwise that no other state or region can have a separate Flag. Here comes the 'Nagaland issue' and thus this linking between Kashmir Policy and Naga issue was not a wise thing to do," the NPMHR leader said. The Centre has rejected the twin demands for the Naga constitution and the flag. Nationalists among Naga leaders like S.C. Jamir, a former Governor to Maharashtra and Gujarat, told this journalist: "There is no need for another Constitution within the Indian Constitution." The 91-year-old Jamir, who has personally met PM Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah earlier this year says: "All issues have been discussed and finalised since 2019 and now we are only waiting for a solution." Reviving the peace talks between the Centre and the NSCN-IM is certainly a positive sign and it will expedite the peace process. The NNPG, an umbrella organisation of seven militant groups, led by N. Kitovi Zhimomi is already keen on signing a peace pact. This umbrella group maintains Peace and solution pact should get priorities as Nagas have suffered enough and are now longing for peace and development. Jamir also insists further delay may not be good either for India's security or for the Nagas too. "Why should it be delayed in the final implementation? For how long will the people of Nagaland be taken for a ride? For how long will they be pawns in the hands of the political people, underground and other anti-social elements? How long will the people of Nagaland remain cut off from the rest of the nation?" he says. "For how long the youth of Nagaland will rot in poverty and despair when their counterparts are leading a drastically different life in the rest of the country," Jamir wrote in another and most recent article published in Nagaland newspapers on September 9. The veteran leader, who has worked with all Indian Prime Ministers since 1947, further says: "The MLAs are morally obliged to step aside to 'facilitate' a solution -- something they have pledged. But almost proving the old phrase, 'Promises are made to be broken', our legislators have not done it so far. They should do it at the earliest. This is the moment of history -- to make sacrifices. Mr Chief Minister, are you ready for it?" New Delhi, Sep 9 : The Central government has banned the export of broken rice with effect from Friday. The decision comes immediately after a 20 per cent export duty was levied on various grades of rice, which also came to force on Friday. According to a notification issued by the Union Commerce Ministry, the export policy on broken rice has been amended from "free" to "prohibited". However between September 9-15 those consignments of rice where loading has already started and shipping bills have been filed, and vessels have either berthed or arrived and where consignments have been handed over to customs, would be exempted from the ban. The ban on export of broken rice as well as export duty levy on various grades of rice have been imposed due to poor rainfall received in major rice producing states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal, this season. As a result of deficient rainfall in these areas, it is expected that low cultivation of paddy may result in low yield and this may lead to rise in prices of rice. In May, the Centre had banned wheat export to address supply issues domestically and control prices. Islamabad, Sep 9 : Pakistan has dropped seven places in the Human Development Index (HDI), ranking 161 out of 192 countries in the 2021-2022 period, according to a UNDP report. According to the report, titled 'Uncertain Times, Unsettled Lives: Shaping our Future in a Transforming World', Pakistan's life expectancy at birth is 66.1 years and expected years of schooling are eight. The gross per capita national income is $4,624. The report has identified that different climate shocks are affecting world order, pushing back the growth that was achieved in the past few years. While doing so, it has categorised the floods in Pakistan as "an example of the climate shocks seen around the world", The News reported. Switzerland leads the way on the latest HDI, while Norway and Iceland enjoy second and third positions. Among the South Asian countries -- Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka -- only Pakistan and Afghanistan (180th position) are in the low human development category, The News reported. Bhutan (127), Bangladesh (129), India (132) and Nepal (143) are in the medium human development category, and the crisis-hit Sri Lanka has managed to improve its position by nine points, reaching the 73rd position on the index, finding itself in the high human development category. Meanwhile, Maldives at the 90th position. The report has found out that around 90 per cent of countries have seen "reversals in human development" in the year of the survey, pointing to a world stuck in a never-ending cycle of crisis after crisis, causing global disruptions. The two major factors responsible for these disruptions were the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, The News quoted the report as saying. The HDI is a measure of countries' standard of living, health and education. This is the first time in the last 30 years that human development in a majority of countries has gone in reverse for two consecutive years. Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War New Delhi, Sep 9 : Five people were injured when a house collapsed in Azad Market area of North Delhi. Delhi Police and Fire Department confirmed that as of now no death was reported, while the rescue operation is underway. The injured are undergoing treatment at a hospital. "Rescue operation is in progress. Around six to seven labourers were trapped of which five have been shifted to a hospital. A NDRF team also reached the spot. Live detectors are being used to trace the trapped. Due to narrow lanes, JCB machines were unable to reach the spot," fire official Ravinder Singh said. According to fire department, a distress call was received regarding the incident at around 8.30 a.m., following which four fire tenders were rushed to the site. Meanwhile, local police also reached the spot to assist the fire officials. Details are awaited. The Great-Game as we know it today began around early 1800s when in 1801 Russian Tsar Paul I sent Napoleon Bonaparte a secret letter proposing a joint invasion of British India. Considering the expedition too ambitious, Napoleon turned down the offer. However, Russian attempts to conquer India did not end there. Dr Amjad Ayub Mirza The Great-Game as we know it today began around early 1800s when in 1801 Russian Tsar Paul I sent Napoleon Bonaparte a secret letter proposing a joint invasion of British India. Considering the expedition too ambitious, Napoleon turned down the offer. However, Russian attempts to conquer India did not end there. Due to the strategic location of both Iran and Afghanistan as the gateway to British India, they were dragged into the Great-Game. In 1801, Russia annexed the Kingdom of Georgia and the Persians saw it as a direct invasion of their regional sphere of influence in Central Asia. Three years later, Russia continued with its imperial expansion and laid siege to Yerevan (the capital of Armenia). This military maneuver drew Iran into an alliance with the British. Fast forward to 1979 when troops of the former Soviet Union entered Kabul to protect the communist government which was faced with an insurgency supported by the US, British and their western allies as well as China. For the next 10 years, Pakistan became the frontline state among the contending players of the Great-Game. Finally, in 1989 the Soviet troops were forced to withdraw ushering a period of civil war and uncertainty that continues to this day. Flashback to the 1800s when Russia began to build trading posts all across Central Asia as a means of using commerce to conquer the independent kingdoms of Central Asia. Edward Law, 1st Earl of Ellenborough, served as a member of the British Cabinet and was appointed president of the Board of Control for India in 1828 and later as governor general of India between 1842 and 1844. He observed the Russian expansion toward India very closely and reported that Russia was using commerce as a means to conquer central Asian republics by setting up trading posts. Today, the China-Pakistan-Economic-Corridor (CPEC) which is part of a greater China's Belt and Road Initiative should be seen as a vial economic expansionist program initiated to conquer a key geographical location on the cusp of Central Asia, India and China namely Pakistan occupied Gilgit-Baltistan (PoGB). Sold to the people of PoGB as a landmark project to uplift the lives and infrastructure of the poverty stricken people of PoGB CPEC has in fact deepened their colonial subjugation. Considering China's ambition to extend CPEC right down to the deep sea port of Gwadar in Balochistan, the project is in actuality an illegal economic encroachment on a territory that is part of Jammu Kashmir and therefore of India. Thirty-seven special economic zones (SEZs) are to be established along the route of CPEC in Pakistan. Nine are to be established on priority basis in all the provinces including PoGB. Moqpondass Special Economic Zone is one such SEZ being built in PoGB. The other is being built in my city and is called Mirpur Industrial Zone. These economic zones are to be linked together right up to the port of Gwadar. Moqpondass SEZ borders with Afghanistan to the North, China to the Northeast and PoJK to the South. No wonder PoGB is referred to as "the life line of CPEC". Moqpondass is rich in precious stones and all the mining contracts in the region are already being pouched by China or their sponsored private contractors. This has caused displacement of thousands of residents and resulted in wave after wave of protests in PoGB. As promised earlier Gilgit-Baltistan has not been made a stake holder in CPEC. The 1.8 million jobs promised to be generated by CPEC for PoGB never materialised and China sent thousands of its own workers instead to work on CPEC projects in the region. As the Great-Game enters a new era with Chinese imperialist expansion and India taking her place as world's fifth largest economy the old strategy of using commerce to conquer has come alive again. Manoj Gupta, group editor of security affairs at CNN-News 18 reported on June 15, 2022, that China has asked Pakistan for permission to setup military outposts in Balochistan for CPEC security. Soon we might witness Chinese military outposts in Gilgit-Baltistan in the name of providing security to Chinese personal working on CPEC projects. How the new players in the Great-Game will manifest their manoeuvres only time can tell but till then PoGB seems to have become the first fatality of Chinese policy of using commerce to conquer. ( is an author and a human rights activist from Mirpur in PoJK. He currently lives in exile in the UK) Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War New Delhi, Sep 9 : Would you want to go to an area that is peaceful and unspoiled? Here are some places your female gang should visit for some well-deserved relaxation: Munjoh Ocean Resort, Andaman and Nicobar Island Munjoh Ocean Resort, an opulent resort on a lovely island, is close to Vijayanagar Beach and features a natural freshwater stream that flows into the Andaman sea. Luxurious villas and suites are tucked away among swaying betel nut and coconut trees on a private beachfront, with a freshwater stream naturally trickling through to the Andaman sea. Who wouldn't describe it as the ideal location for the ultimate in pampering? Vythiri Resort, Wayanad Luxury forest getaway -- The Vythiri Resort, Wayanad -- is encircled by enormously beautiful mountains and surrounded by a dense tropical rainforest canopy. Discover the diverse wildlife that lives in the lush Vythiri rainforest, including the amphibians, birds, fish, mammals, reptiles, flowering plants and butterflies. Elixir Hills Suites Resort & Spa, Munnar Elixir Hills, located in Mankulum is the ideal vacation destination for tourists and families since it offers stunning views, exciting wildlife interactions, and frequent glimpses of the dense rainforest. In addition to offering the largest luxury rooms in Munnar, it also offers the perfect blend of luxury and nature. The interiors are carefully designed with wooden furnishings and natural colours to blend in with their surroundings and maintain the tranquil atmosphere outside. Heritage Resort, Coorg Heritage Resort, Coorg, provides a quiet view of the hill station that will refresh your senses with a variety of activities, including a coffee plantation tour, an elephant camp, bicycle paths, and waterfall trails, because it is positioned on a mountaintop and surrounded by a lush jungle. Niraamaya Retreats Backwaters & Beyond, Kumarakom Retreats by Niraamaya located on the beaches of Lake Vembanad, Kumarakom, is one of the most stunning waterfront resorts in the entire city. It has two upscale restaurants providing both local and foreign cuisine, a fitness centre, meeting rooms, a world-class wellness spa rooted in Kerala's ancient wellness practices, a big outdoor pool and a performance deck. Wild Planet Resort Devala, Wayanad The tropical rainforest of Kerala, where this resort is located, gives visitors a peek of its wild splendour. A magnificent resort surrounded by the vast hills of the Nilgiris mountain range and offering majestic views of the wildness of the jungle. Visitors who stay at this resort during their vacation can connect with the amazing beauty of nature while taking advantage of the many amenities it offers. The Naini Retreat, Nainital Experience a stay at the Naini Retreat, which offers views of mountains and forests, while in the winter you can dine in a restaurant that serves a wide variety of Indian, Mughlai, Chinese and Continental cuisines while admiring the breathtaking Naini lake and snow-covered Himalayan peaks from above. (IANSlife can be contacted at ianslife@ians.in) New York, Sep 9 : NASA has announced that it is considering two dates, September 23 or September 27, to attempt the launching of Artemis I into the space. Artemis I is NASA's uncrewed flight test which will provide a foundation for human exploration in deep space and demonstrate NASA's commitment and capability to extend human existence to the Moon and beyond. On September 3, NASA attempted to launch Artemis I, however, it was called off after detecting a liquid hydrogen leak. The team is trying to work through a leaky fuel problem with the rocket, called the Space Launch System or SLS. While the rocket is still on the Launch Pad, engineers are repairing the area where the leak was detected. They have constructed a tent-like enclosure around the work area to protect the hardware and teams from environmental conditions. Teams will check the new seals under cryogenic, or supercold, conditions in which the rocket's core stage and interim cryogenic propulsion stage will be loaded with liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen to validate the repair under the conditions it would experience on launch day. Meanwhile, NASA has submitted a request to the Eastern Range for an extension of the current testing requirement for the flight termination system. "NASA is respecting the range's processes for review of the request, and the agency continues to provide detailed information to support a range decision," the US space agency said in a statement. It is also evaluating and adjusting launch opportunities and alternate dates based on progress at the pad and to align with other planned activities, including DART's planned impact with an asteroid, the West Coast launch of a government payload, and the launch of Crew-5 to the International Space Station. Kolkata, Sep 9 : Satyendra Chowdhury, the prime accused and the mastermind behind the murders of students Atanu De and Abhishek Naskar, was arrested by a joint team of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of West Bengal Police and the detective department (DD) of Bidhannagar City Police form the Howrah station on Friday. It is the fifth arrest in this connection. On Wednesday, personnel from the Bidhannagar City Police arrested four persons namely Avijit Basu, Shamim Ali, Sahil Molla and Dipendra Bose. CID sources said that they were constantly tracking the location of Chowdhury. However, he was constantly changing his SIM cards and hence it was becoming difficult to track. Finally, on Thursday night, the CID was tipped off that Chowdhury might make an escape attempt to his native state of Bihar from Howrah station on Friday morning. Accordingly, plain-cloth cops reached the station. On Friday morning at around 9.30 a.m., when Chowdhury appeared in front of the ticket counter at Howrah station, he was nabbed by the waiting sleuths. He is now being taken to the headquarters of Bidhannagar City Police and from there he will be handed over to the CID. Already the twin murders have left the state police red-faced especially the Bidhannagar City Police and the Baguiati Police Station under it because of the negligence in the matter. Although the families of the victims reported their abduction on August 22, the Baguiati Police Station registered the FIR and started a probe only after two days. After a couple of days since the abduction took place, the bodies of the two victims were recovered from Basirhat in North 24 Parganas district and initially they were kept at a local mortuary as unclaimed bodies. Although the local Basirhat Police Station alerted all police stations of the state about the unclaimed bodies being recovered with pictures, the Baguiati Police station did not react. The family members alleged that although they informed the local Baguiati Police station about that ransom letter they received, the police did not take the matter seriously. It is learnt on reaching the state secretariat, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee summoned the state police director general, Manoj Malviya and asked the latter to start a CID probe in the matter. She also asked the state police DGP to take action against police officials who neglected the matter. Following mass criticisms over alleged police inaction, Banerjee ordered a CBI probe in the matter. The inspector-in-charge of Baguiati Police station, Kallol Ghosh was suspended. Later the investigation officer in the matter and sub-inspector Baguiati Police station, Pritam Singh was also suspended. Chennai, Sep 9 : Actor Vikram, who had promised an ardent fan in Kerala that their meeting would happen sooner than he expected, has kept his word. Yes, the actor has now posted a video on Twitter, which showed the fan along with the actor who was in a theatre to greet fans watching his recently released film, 'Cobra'. Posting the video, Vikram tweeted: "Some sweetest and saddest of videos do have the happiest of endings. Thank you for being an important part of our first day first show Christine and Paulson." It all started with Vikram going on a whirlwind tour all over south India, promoting his upcoming film, 'Cobra', which has been directed by Ajay Gnanamuthu and which features Srinidhi Shetty as the female lead. Everywhere the actor went, he was flooded by surging crowds. One particular fan in Kerala was seen desperately trying to reach out to him. The desperation of the fan, through a video clip on Twitter, reached Vikram. Retweeting the video clip, the actor wrote: "One of the sweetest yet saddest videos I have seen in a long time. I see you and I feel you my friend. We will meet. We will speak...sooner than you expect. And that's a promise." He also went on to add in Malayalam, "Thank you for your beautiful love, my dear friend." Now, as promised, the actor met the young fan and took him along with the other lead artistes of Cobra on theatre visits. Chennai, Sep 9 : Three college students drowned on Friday after the pick-up van they were travelling in plunged into a 120-feet deep well. The incident occurred at Thondamathur in Coimbatore district. Tamil Nadu fire and rescue department and local police are engaged in the process to lift the vehicle from the well-using cranes. Police said that rash driving could be the reason for the accident. According to Coimbatore police, M. Roshan of Vadavalli who was driving the vehicle, lost control over the wheels due to over speeding. The pick-up van crashed into the gate of a farmhouse and plunged into a well inside the farm. The well was having a depth of 120 feet but the water level was up to 80 feet. Roshan, who was at the wheels, managed to come out and fled the scene. His friends were however, trapped in the vehicle and drowned to death. Roshan(18) and his friends, Ravi (18), V. Adarsh(18), and Nandanan (18) celebrated Onam in a club located on the Coimbatore -Siruvani main road on Thursday and stayed the night there. The incident took place on Friday morning, when they were returning to Vadavalli, police said. New York, Sep 9 : Steve Bannon, who served former US President Donald Trump's chief strategist, was charged with money laundering, conspiracy and scheme to defraud after he surrendered to New York State prosecutors, according to local authorities. On Thursday, the prosecutors announced the indictment of Bannon, 68, and We Build the Wall, Inc., a Florida-based not-for-profit corporation, for a year-long fundraising scheme that netted over $15 million from thousands of donors, and for laundering the proceeds of that scheme in order to advance and conceal the fraud, reports Xinhua news agency. Both Bannon and We Build the Wall, Inc. were charged with two counts of money laundering, three counts of conspiracy and one count of scheme to defraud by a New York State Supreme Court grand jury indictment, according to a release from Manhattan District Attorney's Office. "It is a crime to turn a profit by lying to donors, and in New York, you will be held accountable," said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. "As alleged, Stephen Bannon acted as the architect of a multi-million dollar scheme to defraud thousands of donors across the country -- including hundreds of Manhattan residents," Bragg said. "Bannon took advantage of his donors' political views to secure millions of dollars which he then misappropriated. Bannon lied to his donors to enrich himself and his friends," added New York Attorney General Letitia James. Bannon was arraigned before a State Supreme Court judge in Manhattan and pleaded not guilty, said a report by ABC News. "This is nothing more than a partisan political weaponisation of the criminal justice system," he had said in a statement on Tuesday referring to the indictment. The former aide together with three others were indicted by the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York for crimes related to We Build the Wall's fundraising scheme in August 2020 and he was pardoned by Trump on January 20, 2021. Moreover, Bannon was convicted of contempt of Congress in July and is scheduled to be sentenced later this year. San Francisco, Sep 9 : A deadly wildfire in Southern California that killed two people has tripled in size in just 24 hours, exploding from about 5,000 acres to over 18,600 acres, authorities said. The fast-moving Fairview Fire started on Monday afternoon near the city of Hemet in Riverside County amid a brutal heatwave, reports Xinhua news agency. Only 5 per cent of the blaze has been contained so far, according to the Riverside County Fire Department. The fire has forced a series of evacuation orders and road closures in the area. Around 2,500 structures are still under threat as over 1,100 firefighters, with aircraft support, are continuing their efforts against the wildfire. Officials said that at least seven structures have been destroyed and several more have been damaged by the blaze. The two victims of the fire have not been identified, but Riverside County fire officials believe they were trying to escape the flames in a canyon. Their bodies were found in a burned car, and authorities believe they were related, local media reported. "That area is a one way in, one way out. So if you don't leave in time, or if you get trapped by fire, there's no other way to go," California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection captain Richard Cordova was quoted as saying. Due to the blaze, the Hemet Unified School District announced that all schools will remain closed through the rest of the week. Hyderabad, Sep 9 : A mammoth Ganesh procession was underway in Hyderabad on Friday amid tight security arrangements. Hundreds of idols were taken out in processions to Hussain Sagar lake in the heart of the city and dozens of other lakes in and around the city. The main procession started from Balapur on the southern fringes of the city. It will cover a distance of about 20 km passing through the old city and other parts of the city to reach Hussain Sagar, where authorities have made elaborate arrangements for immersion. Several tributary processions will join the main procession, claimed to be the biggest gathering for immersion after Mumbai. As the day is coinciding with Friday prayers, police have made additional security arrangements, especially in the communally sensitive old city. Policemen and personnel of the Rapid Action Force (RAF) were deployed near the historic Mecca Masjid and Charminar as the main procession passed through the area. Muslim religious leaders have appealed to the people to offer Friday prayers in the mosques near their homes instead of coming to Mecca Masjid or other mosques. Tight security arrangements have also been made in view of the recent disturbances witnessed over an offensive video posted by BJP MLA Raja Singh. As many as 35,000 policemen have been deployed in the limits of three police commissionerates -- Hyderabad, Cyberabad and Rachakonda. Hyderabad Police Commissioner C.V. Anand said in addition to the city police, personnel have been drawn from various districts. He along with other top officials was closely monitoring the movement of the main procession and the tributary processions from the recently inaugurated integrated police command and control centre through the exhaustive network of CCTV cameras. Director General of Police Mahendra Reddy was also monitoring the procession in Hyderabad and in other parts of the state from state police headquarters. The monitoring is being done through 10 lakh CCTV cameras across the state. In addition to the CCTV network, 739 cameras have been deployed along the main procession route in Hyderabad. Ten drones, four camera mounted vehicles and two mobile command control centres form part of the massive monitoring system. Multiple Quick Response Teams, dog squads, and anti-chain snatching teams, and SHE Teams have also been deployed. The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has made elaborate arrangements for smooth immersion Over 40,000 idols will be immersed in Hussain Sagar and more than 50 other lakes and artificial ponds in and around the city. Officials said as many as 9,523 idols, that are over 3 feet tall, will be immersed on Friday. The process may continue the next day. Khairatabad Ganesh, the tallest idol in the city at 50 feet, was also heading towards Hussain Sagar lake. Authorities have made special arrangements with heavy carnes for the transport and immersion of the idol, which has been made of clay this year. The mammoth procession has brought the entire city to a halt. Police have imposed traffic restrictions. Liquor shops and bars will remain closed in the limits of all three police commissionerates. Additional security measures have also been put in place due to row over immersion in Hussain Sagar lake in view of courts prohibiting immersion of Plaster of Paris (PoP) idols. The government of Telangana has clarified that only idols made of clay will be allowed to be immersed in Hussain Sagar per the orders of the High Court. POP idols can be immersed in 31 lakes and 74 baby ponds across the city, it said. The GHMC has deployed 280 cranes and 130 mobile cranes for immersion. More than 10,000 sanitation workers have been engaged to help with the immersion process. The High Court, in its order dated July 21 has maintained that immersion of POP idols in Hussain Sagar is prohibited, starting this year. During the last couple of days, Bhagyanagar Ganesh Utsav Samithi (BGUS) organised protests demanding the government to allow immersion of idols without restrictions. In view of the immersion procession, the state government has declared a holiday for all government schools and educational institutions in three districts -- Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy and Medchal Malkajgiri. Jaipur, Sep 9 : Rajasthan BJP's factionalism is now out in the open even as Union Home Minister Amit Shah is scheduled to visit the state on Friday. For the past some time different camps being headed by veteran leaders have been exhibiting their strengths and others weaknesses. On Thursday, a day before Shah's scheduled visit, former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje's followers put up her posters in the city, which did not have the picture of Jodhpur MP Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. The latter's followers also installed posters which did not have Raje's pictures. In fact, the rivalry between Shekhawat and Raje is not new and it started before the Assembly election in 2018. While the saffron party wanted Shekhawat to be the party president, Raje was hesitant for the same and thus began the divide, which has been increasing. Party sources confirmed that it is the battle for supremacy which is going on in the party which is clearly visible even in the hoardings now. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Vasundhara Raje are seen in most of the hoardings across the city. The supporters of these two are giving importance to their respective leaders. Shekhawat is missing from the hoardings put up by Vasundhara's supporters, while Vasundhara Raje is missing from the hoardings of Shekhawat's supporters. Due to the protocol, state president Satish Poonia is present in almost all the posters of both the groups. In fact eyebrows were raised recently when Poonia's Ramdevra Padyatra was cancelled by the party leadership in Delhi. Sources said that three days ago, state chief Poonia had to cancel the Ramdevra Yatra from Pokaran after the intervention of BJP's national president J.P. Nadda. There was complete support extended by a particular community to Poonia regarding the yatra. The displeasure of other sections of the people associated with the BJP was increasing due to it. In such a situation, in-charge Arun Singh advised for the cancellation of the padyatra. By Mei Shixiong and Liu Min USSURIYSK, Russia, Sept. 9 -- The Vostok-2022 strategic exercise wrapped up on September 7, local time, and the various participating troops began to withdraw from the Sergeyevsky training ground in Russia on Thursday. As for the Chinese participating troops, a total of over 700 personnel together with over 200 pieces of equipment would be sent back in 5 echelons by railway and one echelon by air. All transportation work will be completed by September 12. It is learned that during the return journey, the Chinese troops will conduct evaluation and summary of the exercise in terms of organization and planning, cross-border delivery, joint command, and live-fire drills, in an effort to further improve joint operational command and combat capabilities of the troops. Lucknow, Sep 9 : Every district in Uttar Pradesh will now have a District Tourism and Cultural Promotion Council (DTCPC) in an effort to boost tourism. While the process has been finalised in 69 of the 75 districts, it will take another week or so for the council to take shape in the remaining ones. Mukesh Meshram, principal secretary, tourism, culture and religious affairs, said: "The idea behind the initiative is to stir local economies with tourism potential, and also stimulate tourists, pilgrims and investors in unexplored and untapped hotspots. Alongside, this will help in reviving dying art forms, restore locally significant places of interest besides creating jobs for the locals in their own neighbourhood." The Council, to be headed by the District Magistrate of the respective district, will have district tourism officer, regional tourism officer and officers of the concerned department as its members, said Meshram. "Together, they will work to identify places of tourist attractions and draw plans with the help of experts for tourism infrastructure as per trending demands and global standards," he said. The Council will also launch publicity campaigns in coordination with different stakeholders from the travel and hospitality industries to attract tourists from both within the country and abroad as well as investors. The DTCPC members will meet once every month to resolve issues related to registration, application of incentives, exemption in stamp duty, land conversion and development charges. In addition, DTCPC will also address problems of applicants and investors. A draft proposal in this regard was approved by the state cabinet in July. In another initiative, the state tourism department has set various categories for selecting a tourist spot, including cultural, historical and religious importance, popular fairs and festivals, literature, food, handicrafts, artworks and so on. "There is no dearth of destinations in UP. While big names like Ayodhya, Varanasi, Agra, Mathura and Vrindavan, Lucknow or Jhansi work as natural magnets for pilgrims and tourists, scores of smaller places can be a treat for explorers. The district level infrastructure will help the state go deeper and work at the micro level," said Prateek Hira, head of FICCI committee on tourism. New Delhi, Sep 9 : The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to Kerala journalist Sidhique Kappan, who along with others were arrested on October 5, 2020 by the Uttar Pradesh Police under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). Kappan and others were on their way to Hathras after rape and murder of a Dalit girl. The top court directed Kappan to remain in Delhi for six weeks and thereafter he can shift to Kerala. A bench headed by Chief Justice U.U. Lalit observed that every person has a right to freedom of expression. The bench said, "Every person has a right to free expression...he is trying to show that the victim needs justice... Will this be a crime in the eyes of law?" Senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, representing the UP government, said On October 5, they had decided to go to Hathras to incite riots. The bench further added that there were protests at India Gate in 2011 also for Nirbhaya. The bench, also comprising Justices S. Ravindra Bhat and P.S. Narasimha, said, "Sometimes protests are needed to bring a change. You know after that there was a change in laws. these are protests...". The state government, in a written response, said: "The investigation has revealed that the petitioner (Kappan) is part of the larger conspiracy with the co-accused (including the financial launderer of CFI, Rauf Sharif) to foment religious discord and spread terror in the country, especially in the wake of anti CAA protests and violence, the Babri Masjid decision of this Hon'ble Court and the Hathras incident." It further claimed that the documents recovered from Kappan's laptop and from his rented house in Delhi, establishes how the current PFI leadership was basically comprised of ex-SIMI (Students Islamic Movement of India -- banned as a terrorist organisation) members. The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court had rejected Kappan's plea for bail. He moved the top court challenging the high court order. The top court is scheduled to take up the case for hearing on September 9. Mumbai, Sep 9 : Close on the heels of the US issuing a record -- 82,000 visas -- to Indian students for this summer, a US Department of Commerce Education Trade Mission arrives in India next week to further enhance academic relations between the two countries, a top official said here on Friday. The US Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) will explore partnerships with the Indian education sector during the delegation visits to Mumbai, Bengaluru and New Delhi between September 12-16. The delegation will comprise representatives of 21 US HEIs from 15 US states which will go around the three major Indian cities, against the backdrop of India's New Education Policy-2020. The development is considered significant with the US mission in New Delhi, and consulates in Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad issuing visas to over 82,000 Indian students for this summer. Officials said that Indian students account for nearly 20 per cent of all foreign scholars pursuing studies at various levels in the US. "US schools are very interested in learning more about the enormous opportunities that exist in India... This program will help them develop their understanding of the sector and how they can best partner and collaborate with Indian institutions," said Mike Hankey, US Consul-General in Mumbai . He added that the theme of the upcoming trade mission would be to "identify and promote" avenues for collaboration between the HEI's of the two countries. India's NEP-2020 has outlined an aggressive plan to revamp and expand this country's higher education system, including providing a fillip to research, experiential learning and internationalisation of the curricula. "The US HEIs bring a wealth of experience in these areas and have developed the best practices that can assist India achieve its goals. Joining the program are three education technology and service providers that would like to bring their world-class capabilities here,a said Hankey. The programme participants will engage in specialised meetings with Indian HEIs, student recruiting agents and other stakeholders to learn directly what India needs most. There will be in-person student fairs on September 12 (Mumbai) and September 15 (New Delhi) as part of the programme. The delegation will also call on state and central government leaders, education regulators, business executives, etc., and listen to their perspectives on the needs of the Indian economy and potential solutions that US HEIs can offer. For two days in Mumbai, the delegation will hold a student fair and B2B meetings, go on Indian university campus tours and site trips, for a day in Bengaluru (September 14) they will on campus tours and B2B meets, and for two days in New Delhi it will be campus tours plus a meeting at the US Embassy. Nagercoil, Sep 9 : On the second day of his Bharat Jodo Yatra, Rahul Gandhi addressed a press conference in Tamil Nadu's Nagercoil, and said that the yatra was an attempt to undo the damage done by the BJP. He said he was only a participant and was not leading the yatra. The former Congress President said, "The RSS-BJP have their opinions about this Yatra, they are welcome to have their opinions, but the Congress party through the Yatra is attempting to undo the damage done by the BJP in the last eight years. They have divided the country." He said the Congress leaders, who are leaving the party are under pressure, "The BJP has better means to pressurise them than I do, but, seriously the fight is not with the political party. Now they have the agencies that do their work wherever they have placed their people." Rahul Gandhi said there is an attempt to force one vision in the country. He said bringing the opposition together and the yatra are two separate things, adding that the two coming together would be a good thing. He quoted a young girl with whom he had interacted during the yatra and said that the people of India living in harmony is Bharat, but the country is being divided between religious lines and state lines. "Only two-three business houses are controlling the country while price rise and unemployment are at peak but the country's issues are being diverted elsewhere," said Gandhi. Rahul Gandhi is leading the 3,570 km Bharat Jodo Yatra which will traverse through 12 states and two Union Territories. During the yatra, Gandhi and his companions will be meeting a select group of people from 7 a.m. to 10.30 a.m. everyday and a mass connect programme will be held in the evening. All the yatris, including Gandhi, will rest in specially built containers at the end of the day. Ahead of the yatra, Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday had said that this will be a turning point of Indian politics and will mark a new beginning. New York, Sep 9 : World No. 1 and two-time champion at Roland Garros Iga Swiatek of Poland fought back from a 2-4 deficit in the third set to overcome Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus and secure a place in the US Open final for the first time in her career on Friday (IST). Swiatek will meet No.5 seed Ons Jabeur in Saturday's women's singles final after the Tunisian thrashed No.17 seed Caroline Garcia of France 6-1, 6-3 to become the first player to advance to the final in Wimbledon and at the US Open in the same season since Serena Williams in 2019. Swiatek made several comebacks on way to making the US Open final, fighting back from a one-set deficit, as well as from a break down in the third set twice, before getting past the powerful No.6 seed Sabalenka 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 in 2-hour, 11-minute inside Arthur Ashe Stadium. "I felt a huge difference between the first set and the last two," Swiatek was quoted as saying by WTA after the match. "I'm pretty happy that I got my level of energy up a little bit. "Aryna made it difficult today, for sure. I felt like she was serving pretty solid. It was hard to come back in the third, but I'm pretty happy that I did." Swiatek, who had never made a quarterfinal appearance at Flushing Meadows before this season, is into her third career Grand Slam final, her second of the year and first after the French Open. The Pole is 2-0 in Grand Slam finals in her career. She won in Paris in 2020 and earlier this year. Swiatek and Jabeur have shared the honours in the four matches they have played against each other, and are 1-1 on hard courts. In their only meeting this season, Swiatek easily defeated the Tunisian in the Rome final on clay. "(Jabeur) has a different game style than most of the players," Swiatek said. "She has a great touch. All these things mixed up, yeah, she's just a tough opponent. "I feel like Aryna served pretty well today, better than on our other matches," Swiatek said. "(Losing the first two games of the third set) kind of helped me to get back on ground and realise I still have a lot of expectations even though the second set was pretty dominant. "I just went all in, you know. This time it actually gave me a lot, and the balls that I played went in. I'm pretty happy because I feel like we were both kind of sometimes risking, because the pace was really, really high," added Swiatek. This was Sabalenka's third narrow loss in a Grand Slam semifinal. The Belarusian fell in the last-four stage at 2021 Wimbledon and the 2021 US Open. Jabeur got the better of Garcia in just 66 minutes, producing eight aces and 21 winners. "So important," Jabeur said. "She (Garcia) comes in the court and puts a lot of pressure on my second serves. I'm really glad she didn't break me in the end -- would have been really tough to go to 5-4." Jabeur has reached the last-four in her past two Grand Slam appearances after having never reached this stage in her first 20 majors. "After Wimbledon, a lot of pressure on me," Jabeur said. "I'm really, really relieved that I backed up my result. I'm very glad I made it to the finals here." Tel Aviv, Sep 9 : The number of tourists visiting Israel in the first eight months of 2022 reached nearly 1.5 million, recording a more than sevenfold increase compared to the same period last year, when 209,000 people came to the country, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics. In August alone, 234,400 tourists arrived in Israel, compared to 52,900 in the same month last year, Xinhua news agency quoted the Bureau as saying. Israel hit 1 million tourist entries for 2022 on July 10. Israel reopened its borders to fully vaccinated foreigners in January after shutting them out for most of the Covid-19 pandemic. In March, it allowed unvaccinated tourists to enter, and in May it ended all Covid testing for arriving passengers. Ankara, Sep 9 : A wildfire in Turkey was finally brought under control after it raged for two days, leaving eight people injured, including one in serious condition, according to Health Minister Fahrettin Koca. A total of 25 people were affected by the fire, the Minister said in a tweet. The wildfire, which broke out on Wednesday in the Gulnar district of the southern coastal province of Mersin and spread to the nearby district of Silifke by strong winds, also forced the evacuation of nearly 1,000 people, Mersin Governor Ali Hamza Pehlivan told reporters. About 1,500 hectares of forest were burned in the fire, Deputy Agriculture and Forestry Minister Veysel Tiryaki said, adding authorities dispatched aircraft and water-dropping helicopters to extinguish the fire, reports Xinhua news agency. An investigation for the cause of the fire is still underway, he added. According to Tiryaki, firefighters also put out another fire in the southern resort province of Antalya on Thursday. New Delhi, Sep 9 : As the Centre banned rice exports effective from Friday and also levied an export duty of 20 per cent on various grades of the commodity, Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey said that domestic production could fall short by 10 to 12 million tonnes in the Kharif season. Pandey told mediapersons on Friday that due to inadequate sowing of paddy, mainly owing to poor rainfall in rice bearing states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal, there would be a shortfall in production. The government's decision to ban rice exports and impose export duty is aimed at arresting domestic prices and ensuring availability of rice, sources said. At the same time, Pandey claimed that there will be surplus rice production in the country. Poor rain have also led to decrease in paddy acreage in many rice states and is down by 38 lakh hectares, he informed. Rice is also provided to PDS beneficiaries under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana. The scheme which started during the Covid pandemic in March 2020 is scheduled to end on September 30. On being asked whether it would be extended beyond September, Pandey refused to comment. United Nations, Sep 9 : The first humanitarian shipment of grain from Ukraine by the World Food Programme (WFP) has arrived in Ethiopia, a UN spokesman said. The WFP said the grain, delivered under the Black Sea Grain Initiative, brokered by Turkey and the UN, will support one month of assistance for over 1.5 million people who have been displaced by drought and conflict, Stephane Dujarric, the chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said at a briefing here. The grain is currently being unloaded in the WFP's main warehouse in the city of Adama and will be distributed in the coming weeks, Xinhua news agency quoted the spokesman as saying. Conflict, drought and rising costs drive food insecurity across Ethiopia. With 20 million people needing food aid in Ethiopia, the WFP said supply chain stability is critical to its work, according to the spokesman. "We're being told by our humanitarian colleagues that fighting in the north of the country continues to impact vulnerable people and the delivery of aid," he said. "In parts of Tigray, Amhara, and Afar regions, tens of thousands of people are reportedly being displaced by fighting and insecurity." He said there had been no humanitarian convoy movements into Tigray for two weeks, preventing the delivery of supplies, including additional fertilizer for the upcoming planting season. The twice-weekly UN Humanitarian Air Service flights between Addis Ababa and Tigray's regional capital of Mekelle also were suspended. In eastern and southern Ethiopia, the drought continues, with more than 16 million people targeted for humanitarian assistance. Across Ethiopia, more than 8 million people impacted by drought had received food aid this year, he said. Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War Ankara, Sep 9 : Turkish security forces have captured one of the senior executives of the Islamic State (IS) terror group, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday. Turkish police and intelligence captured Bashar Hattab Ghazal al Sumaidai, code-named Abu Zeyd and Master Zeyd, according to the country's semi-official Anadolu Agency. "International reports and the UN Security Council report also contained information that this terrorist was one of the senior executives of the IS terrorist organization. During his interrogation, there are his statements that he was a so-called 'qadi' in the so-called ministry of education and the ministry of justice," Xinhua news agency quoted Erdogan as saying to reporters onboard his presidential plane while returning from Croatia. The terrorist's connections in Syria and Istanbul had been followed for a long time, and intelligence information was obtained that he would enter Turkey illegally, the President said. Istanbul police found out that al Sumaidai had been using a fake identity and props to disguise himself, Erdogan said. After Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Abdul-Nasser Qardash, Abu Zeyd was one of the most important leaders of the group, according to the President. The Turkish government designated the IS as a terrorist organisation in 2013. The IS has been accused of launching a spate of deadly attacks in Turkey since 2015. Turkish counter-terrorism forces have been conducting operations against IS members in the country. Turkey's southern border with Syria has been a major crossing point for refugees and foreign fighters since the civil war started in 2011. Amritsar, Sep 9 : Residents of this holy town in Punjab on Friday fondly remembered the visit of Queen Elizabeth II to the holiest of the Sikh shrines, Harmandir Sahib, popularly known as Golden Temple, to pay homage as a devotee in 1997. Then the Queen's itinerary also included visit to the monument of Jallianwala Bagh that serves as a remembrance of the indiscriminate killing of unarmed people on April 13, 1919, which was Baisakhi. They had gathered there to protest against the colonial administration. "Donning her trademark hat, the Queen elegantly took the 'parikrama' of the Golden Temple before praying at the sanctum sanctorum during her visit to the gurdwara," Rajinder Singh, a security in-charge in the Golden Temple, told IANS. Singh said he was child when the Queen visited the shrine where she was presented with a traditional robe of honour. He said his father was working as a 'sewadar' and he was accompanying him during Queen Elizabeth's visit. "Since the devotees are not allowed to wear socks inside the gurdwara, a special provision was granted by the SGPC to the Queen to wear white socks and gloves," a gurdwara functionary said. Accompanying then Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, the Queen also elegantly ate the 'karah parsad' and greeted members of Sikh community at the Golden Temple, he said. She greeted devotees with folded hands while scores of visitors were lined up to see her closely. The Queen was also honoured by the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC), said the functionary. Sharing photos of the Queen's memorable visit to the Golden Temple along with his father, Shiromani Akali Dal President President Sukhbir Badal tweeted: "Queen Elizabeth II was a remarkable monarch whose life epitomised dignity & service to her country & extended family of Commonwealth nations. "She will be remembered for her outstanding leadership & inspirational life. Condolences to the Royal family & the people of the UK." "May waheguru bless her and her successor," remarked an emotional Dalbir Kaur, an octogenarian resident of Amritsar. "Though Queen Elizabeth II had never apologised for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, but her visit somehow provide solace to the families of those who sacrificed their lives for the nation," added another resident Gurdev Sachdeva. He said it was only during the visit to India in 1997 the Queen talked about the "difficult episodes" of colonial history and called the Jallianwala Bagh massacre "a distressing example". "That gave a solace to the martyred families," he added. "It is no secret that there have been some difficult episodes in our past. Jallianwala Bagh is a distressing example," the Queen noted in her banquet address. She also placed wreaths at the Jallianwala Bagh memorial amidst calls for an official apology for the killings during the colonial rule. (Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in) Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 9 : Soon after the Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to Kerala journalist Sidhique Kappan, who along with others were arrested on October 5, 2020 by the Uttar Pradesh Police under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), his wife Raihanath said the court has found him innocent. "The court has found out that Kappan is innocent and hence the bail was given. It's been two years and it was very tough for us and we faced it with deep emotions and sufferings," said Raihanath. Kappan and others were on their way to Hathras after the rape and murder of a Dalit girl, when the arrest took place. The top court directed Kappan to remain in Delhi for six weeks and thereafter he can shift to Kerala. A bench headed by Chief Justice U.U. Lalit observed that every person has a right to freedom of expression. The bench said, "Every person has a right to free expression...he is trying to show that the victim needs justice... Will this be a crime in the eyes of law?" Senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, representing the UP government, said on October 5, they had decided to go to Hathras to incite riots. The bench further added that there were protests at India Gate in 2011 also for Nirbhaya. The bench, also comprising Justices S. Ravindra Bhat and P.S. Narasimha, said, "Sometimes protests are needed to bring a change. You know after that there was a change in laws. these are protests..." The state government, in a written response, said: "The investigation has revealed that the petitioner (Kappan) is part of the larger conspiracy with the co-accused (including the financial launderer of CFI, Rauf Sharif) to foment religious discord and spread terror in the country, especially in the wake of anti CAA protests and violence, the Babri Masjid decision of this Hon'ble Court and the Hathras incident." It further claimed that the documents recovered from Kappan's laptop and from his rented house in Delhi, established how the current PFI leadership basically comprised former SIMI (Students Islamic Movement of India -- banned as a terrorist organisation) members. The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court had rejected Kappan's plea for bail. He moved the top court challenging the high court order. New Delhi, Sep 9 : President Droupadi Murmu on Friday launched an anti-TB campaign and exhorted the people to unitedly strive towards eradicating Tuberculosis (TB) from the country by 2025. "When a welfare scheme is made in the interest of people, chances of its success increase manifold", said the President while launching the 'Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan' campaign. The President also launched the Ni-kshay Mitra initiative to ensure additional diagnostic, nutritional, and vocational support to those on TB treatment, and encouraged elected representatives, corporates, NGOs, and individuals to come forward as donors to help the patients complete their journey towards recovery. The Ni-kshay 2.0 portal will facilitate in providing additional patient support to improve treatment outcome of TB patients, augmenting community involvement in meeting India's commitment to end TB by 2025 and leveraging Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) opportunities. Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and Minister of State for Health Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar were present at the launch event along with Union Ministers, Governors and Lt. Governors, State Health Ministers and other dignitaries. The virtual event, also attended by state and district health administrations, representatives from corporates, industries, civil society, NGOs, and TB Champions, reiterated India's commitment to eliminate the high-burden infectious disease by 2025, five years ahead of the global goal of 2030. The virtual launch event showcased India's accelerated progress through the National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP) owing to commitment at the highest levels. At the ceremony, the President appreciated the tireless efforts of the healthcare workers, community leaders, and citizens for managing the COVID-19 pandemic and underlined the need to adopt a similar whole-of-society approach to eliminate TB from the country. President Murmu reiterated the goal of universal health coverage ensuring no one is left behind in accessing affordable quality healthcare through all levels of the health system. Highlighting the progress made through the Ayushman Bharat scheme in this endeavour, she expressed confidence in the pivotal role of the strengthened healthcare system in achieving TB elimination goals. She stressed on enhanced awareness regarding the treatment for TB, a curable disease. The treatment is available free of cost at government health facilities. Speaking on the occasion, Mansukh Mandaviya stated that "the Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyan is an extension of Prime Minister's citizen-centric policies". He attributed success of the TB programme on key indicators such as TB case notifications and consistent efforts that led to monthly notification reporting to reach pre-pandemic levels by end of 2021. The Union Health Minister emphasised that a 360-degree approach is the cornerstone of TB elimination in India and observed that a societal approach that brings together people from all backgrounds into a Jan Andolan is needed to achieve the ambitious target of eliminating TB by 2025. Mandaviya informed that there are roughly 13.5 lakh TB patients registered in the Nikshay portal, out of which 8.9 lakh active TB patients have given their consent for adoption. The Ni-kshay digital portal will provide a platform for community support for persons with TB. He urged all citizens, NGOs, corporate houses, elected representatives etc, to support the movement by becoming Ni-kshay Mitras and convene gatherings to discuss the initiative, so no one with TB is left behind. Panaji, Sep 9 : Continuing his tirade against Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, President of Goa Forward party Vijai Sardesai on Friday said that the state police have become so demoralised that they outsourced security for their own event. "It seems Goa police have become so demoralised and unsure that they had to outsource security at their own event," Fatorda MLA Sardesai said. He was reacting to the news published in a local daily that police had hired private security service for the cultural programme of Ganesh Chaturthi. Calangute police in North Goa had reportedly organised the programme. "Dr Pramod Sawant should resign as Home Minister before he reduces our police force to the level of the NCC," Sardesai further said. Sardesai has been hitting out at Pramod Sawant, since the latter made a statement that BJP leader Sonali Phogat had died in Goa due to cardiac arrest. Sawant had initially said that 'Preliminary it looks like cardiac arrest was the cause of death'. Later the case of Phogat was registered as murder as investigation had revealed that she was allegedly given Methamphetamine drugs. On Thursday, Sardesai said that if Sonali Phogat's family and daughter want justice, then Pramod Sawant should step down as Home Minister till the inquiry is completed by the central agency. "State police won't be able to do it, they are under pressure," Sardesai had said. Sardesai had criticised Sawant saying that it was an irresponsible statement by Pramod Sawant that Phogat had died due to cardiac arrest. "Haryana BJP and Chief Minister have doubted the investigation done by Goa police and they have demanded CBI inquiry. This is because Goa CM had given certificate that 'murder' was a heart attack," Sardesai had said. New Delhi, Sep 9 : Amazon Web Services (AWS) has invested $3.71 billion in building local Cloud infrastructure and creating jobs in India in the last six years, a top company executive said on Friday. Max Peterson, Vice President, Worldwide Public Sector, AWS, told IANS that the company is bullish on the country's digital vision and will help it become a $5 trillion economy by 2030. "Following the launch of the AWS Asia Pacific (Mumbai) Region in 2016, AWS has invested $3.71 billion in local infrastructure and jobs across India," said Peterson. The cloud arm of ecommerce giant Amazon, AWS is set to open a second infrastructure Cloud region in Hyderabad with three availability zones. The Hyderabad Cloud region will join the existing Mumbai region to provide customers with even greater resiliency for critical cloud workloads, lower latency, and improved compliance capabilities. Peterson said that he is witnessing a great momentum towards digitisation across the spectrum in India, especially in the areas of education, healthcare and space in the country. "We are well prepared to help the Indian government, enterprises and startups with their Cloud journey in the post-Covid era, as Cloud becomes an integral part of every organisation, big or small," the top AWS executive emphasised. The Mumbai, and soon Hyderabad Cloud region, will help hundred of thousands of Indian organisations, from startups to enterprises and the public sector, get additional infrastructure to leverage advanced technologies from the world's leading cloud with the broadest and deepest suite of cloud services. AWS has also expanded its services through edge locations in Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, New Delhi and Kolkata. Amaravati, Sep 9 : The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Friday granted permission to Amaravati farmers for a second Maha Padyatra, scheduled to be launched from here on September 12, to demand development of Amaravati as the state capital. The court's green signal came hours after the police refused to give the permission for the long march aimed at demanding implementation of High Court orders for development of the state capital. However, the court has given the nod to the organisers subject to certain conditions. Justice C. Manavendranath Roy directed the police to consider the request made by the farmers and grant them the permission for Maha Padyatra from Amaravati to Arasavalli in Srikakulam district. The court laid down the condition that not more than 600 people should participate in the march. It also asked the organisers to seek prior permission for the public meeting to be organised at the end of the long march. The Amaravati Parirakshana Samithi (APS) had approached the High Court, seeking direction to the police to give permission for Maha Padyatra. The court had taken up the hearing on Thursday but adjourned the hearing to Friday after the state government informed it that the Director General of Police would be passing orders on the application of APS by the end of Thursday. Director General of Police Rajendranath Reddy issued an order late on Thursday night, denying permission for the match on the ground that there was apprehension of breach of peace. APS General Secretary Gadde Tirupati Rao received the order from DGP past midnight on Thursday. The DGP recalled that APS organised a padyatra last year from Amaravati to Tirumala. He said though the court had given conditional permission for the padyatra, the conditions were violated. The APS leader was also told that the regions which form the route of the proposed Maha Padyatra have different aspirations. Visakhapatnam, which has been declared as administrative capital, is also on the route of the long march. The Padyatra with the slogan 'Build Amaravati Save Andhra Pradesh' is proposed to conclude at Arasavalli in Srikakulam district on November 11 after passing through 16 districts. It is aimed at mounting pressure on the government to complete the constructions and infrastructure creation in Amaravati as ordered by the High Court on March 3 this year. Last year, the farmers undertook a 45-day long Padyatra from Amaravati to Tirupati. Police had imposed various restrictions during the march titled Nyayasthanam (High Court) to Devasthanam (Tirumala temple). Alleging that the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) government is not taking any action to implement the court orders, the APS had decided to take out Maha Padyatra. APS said the state government had not changed its mind even after the High Court had ruled that the state has no legislative competence to split, bifurcate or trifurcate the state capital. The court had ruled that Amaravati should be developed as the capital city and it laid specific timelines for the same. A bench of three judges had pronounced the judgment on March 3 on 75 petitions filed by Amaravati farmers and others challenging the government's move for trifurcation of the state capital. After coming to power in 2019, the YSRCP had reversed the decision of the previous TDP government to develop Amaravati as the only state capital. It decided to develop three state capitals - Amaravati, Visakhapatnam and Kurnool. This had triggered massive protest from farmers of Amaravati, who had given 33,000 acres of land for the capital and were hoping to reap its economic benefits. --IANS ms/vd A New Delhi, Sep 9 : The Supreme Court on Friday granted the Gujarat government two weeks' time to file response on pleas challenging the release of 11 men convicted for the gang-rape of Bilkis Bano and multiple murders during the 2002 Gujarat riots. A bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and B.V. Nagarathna directed the Gujarat government to file all records, which formed the basis for granting remission to all the accused in the case. It asked the state government to file its response within 2 weeks and also asked advocate Rishi Malhotra, representing some of the accused, to file a response. A During the hearing, the top court asked if notice was required to be issued in the second matter if it's a similar petition, having the same cause of action. Malhotra submitted "multiple petitions were being filed by people with no 'locus' and I am against this impleadment business... They are just multiplying petitions and impleadment applications in every matter." The bench said matters can't be disposed of without issuing notice, and issued notice to Malhotra in the matter and also asked him to take instructions if he could appear for the other accused in the case. It asked the petitioners to serve a copy on Malhotra and also on counsel for the Gujarat government. The top court also directed the state government to place all relevant documents, including the remission order, on record, and fixed the matter for further hearing after three weeks. On August 25, the Supreme Court sought a response from the Gujarat government on a plea challenging the release of 11 convicts, then clarifying that it did not grant permission for remission to the convicts, and instead it asked the government to consider. It was hearing a petition filed by CPI-M's former MP Subhasini Ali, journalist Revati Laul and Prof Roop Rekha Verma. Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra has also moved the top court in the matter. Eleven convicts, sentenced to life imprisonment, were released from Godhra sub-jail on August 15 after the Gujarat government allowed their release under its remission policy. The convicts had completed more than 15 years in jail. In January 2008, a special CBI court in Mumbai had sentenced the convicts to life imprisonment for gang-rape and murder of seven members of Bilkis Bano's family. The Bombay High Court upheld their conviction. Bilkis Bano was 21-years-old and five months pregnant when she was gang-raped while fleeing the violence that broke out after the Godhra train burning. The PIL, filed by Ali and others, assailed the order of the competent authority of the Gujarat government by way of which 11 persons who were accused in a set of heinous offences were allowed to walk free on August 15, 2022 pursuant to remission being extended to them. The petitioners contended that grant of remission solely by the competent authority of a state government, without any consultation with the Centre is impermissible in terms of the mandate of Section 435 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. Citing the facts of the case, the plea contended that no right-thinking authority applying any test under any extant policy would consider it fit to grant remission to persons who are found to have been involved in the commission of gruesome acts. --IANS ss/vd A Pune, Sep 9 : Former President Pratibha D. Patil expressed 'great sadness' on the passing of Queen Elizabeth-II -- "a stalwart of our times", here on Friday. "The Queen provided inspiring leadership to her nation and the British people. She was the first British Monarch who had the admiration of people all over the world, especially the Commonwealth," said Patil. She recalled her own memorable meeting with the Queen during her state visit to the United Kingdom in 2009. "I will never forget the warmth, respect and kindness she showed towards me," said the ex-President in a condolence message to the British High Commissioner in India Alex Ellis. Patil added that the Queen always "led with unwavering commitment to duty and grace which will always be remembered". "I share the grief of the Royal Family and the people of the UK and convey my heartfelt condolences," said ex-President Patil. The then President Patil had made a 4-day state visit to the UK in November 2009 at the invitation of Queen Elizabeth-II, becoming the first woman Indian head of state to meet the British Monarch. Patil was accorded a red carpet welcome by the Queen at the Windsor Palace, later received the Queen's Baton for the Commonwealth Games-2010 at the Buckingham Palace, formal banquets and other engagements. Other official meetings of Patil included one with the then British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Leader of Opposition David Cameroon -- who later became the PM, and also other political leaders, members of the Indian diaspora and other prominent personalities. Queen Elizabeth had visited India thrice during her reign - the first historic visit of 1961 at the invitation of the country's first President Dr. Rajendra Prasad and the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and was the Chief Guest of the Republic Day celebrations. Later, the Queen travelled to India to inaugurate the CHOGM conference in 1983 during the tenure of then President Giani Zail Singh and then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, when she also had a famous meeting with Mother Teresa, later beatified as a Saint. The Queen's final trip to the former British colony and the jewel in the crown, was in 1997 and equally momentous for the golden jubilee celebrations of India's Independence when she went to the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar and paid tributes to the Martyrs there. On her part, the Queen played host to three Indian Presidents -- Dr. S. Radhakrishnan (1963), Dr. R. Venkatraman (1990), followed by Pratibha Patil (2009), while the ex-President Neelam Sanjiva Reddy had attended the wedding of Prince of Wales -- now King Charles, with Lady Diana in July 1981. (Quaid Najmi can be contacted at: q.najmi@ians.in) Kochi, Sep 9 : Two days after a Kerala fisherman was shot on his ear while returning to shore, the Kerala Coastal Police is still unable to track down the origin of that "mystery" bullet. The incident occurred close to the Cochin Naval Base and the fishermen allege that this firing took place from the naval compound, but navy officials flatly denied it. The police team have decided to conduct a detailed probe to find out if any firing training going on at the INS Dronacharya, located about one and a half kilometre from the spot where the boat of Sebastian was when the incident took place on Wednesday. Sebastian then said that he felt a blow on the ear. "I felt someone was slapping me in my ear. Soon my friend said that I am bleeding. I had no clue of what was happening. I was then taken to a hospital. Am told there are five stitches," he had said. A .2mm bullet was recovered from the boat and ballistic experts are analysing it. New Delhi, Sep 9 : The Supreme Court on Friday declined to entertain a plea seeking arrest of suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma for her remarks on Prophet during a television debate. A bench, headed by Chief Justice U.U. Lalit told the petitioner's counsel that this may sound simple and innocuous, but it has far-reaching consequences. The bench, also comprising Justices S. Ravindra Bhat and P.S. Narasimha, told the counsel, "we would suggest you to withdraw". After a brief hearing in the matter, the petitioner's counsel withdrew the petition and the top court dismissed the case as withdrawn. During the hearing, counsel representing Abu Sohel cited the alternate prayer in the petition, which sought implementation of the directions in the Tehseen Ponnawalla judgment in relation to control of mob lynching. The plea also sought directions for "independent, credible and impartial investigation" into the incident. On August 10, the Supreme Court transferred all FIRs against Sharma over her remarks on the Prophet to Delhi Police. The top court gave her the liberty to approach Delhi High Court for quashing of the FIRs. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and J.B. Pardiwala following the top court's order in the case of Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair case, ordered clubbing of all FIRs, across the country, against Sharma at Delhi, which will be probed by Delhi Police. The top court brushed aside vehement opposition by the West Bengal government, which wanted its police to be part of SIT with the Delhi Police or a court-appointed SIT. The bench allowed Sharma to move Delhi High Court to quash the FIRs lodged or to be lodged for her alleged remarks in the future. It added that all FIRs to be lodged in future in connection with her remarks will be transferred to Delhi Police. The top court made it clear that protection from arrest to Sharma will continue in all pending and future FIRs. Kathmandu, Sep 9 : Nepal and India announced holding Foreign Secretary-level talks in Delhi on September 13 and 14. Nepal's Foreign Secretary Bharat Raj Paudyal will pay an official visit to India on September 13-14 at the invitation of Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday. The meeting would be taking place almost after two years of hiatus. During the visit, the Foreign Secretary will hold a bilateral meeting with his Indian counterpart where the two sides will discuss different areas of cooperation between Nepal and India, the Foreign Ministry statement added. Officials said that both sides will review the progress made in two back-to-back visits of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba to India in April and a visit to Lumbini by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May. On September 13, the Foreign Secretaries will hold discussions on bilateral issues covering the entire range of multifaceted cooperation between India and Nepal, in particular, reviewing the progress on the various initiatives and announcements made during the recent high-level visit of the Deuba to India, and Indian PM Modi to Nepal, in April and May this year, respectively, said the statement issued by India's Ministry of External Affairs on Friday. Moscow, Sep 9 : At least 38 per cent of the grain exported from Ukraine under the UN-brokered deal is shipped to the EU instead of the developing countries in Africa for which it was intended, Spains El Pais newspaper reported citing UN data and ship tracking figures. According to the report, more than 2.3 million tonnes of corn, wheat, barley and other agricultural products were exported through the Black Sea corridor from Ukraine between August 1 and September 7, RT reported. Of this total, about 900,000 tonnes were sent to the ports of EU member states. The report notes that it is impossible to trace from the available data whether the EU is the final destination of the shipments or a transit point. On July 22, multilateral agreements were signed in Istanbul establishing the framework of exports of Ukrainian grain, food, and fertilizers via the Black Sea. The agreements also lifted restrictions on Russian grain and fertiliser exports, RT reported. However, according to Russia's permanent representative to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, the part of the food deal that concerns the export of Russian products has not been implemented, which could lead to the termination of the deal by Moscow. Speaking at a plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Western nations of lying when they claimed Ukraine needed access to sea shipping to alleviate surging food prices and the risk of famine in poor countries, as a lion's share of the grain is being exported to Western states, RT reported. In his remark earlier on Thursday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sided with the Russian leader, saying that Ukrainian grain is "unfortunately" going mostly to rich countries. Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War Raipur, Sep 9 : The Abujhmar area in Chhattisgarh has been known as the most backward region in the world. But with time the situation on the ground has started changing for the better as people living in this area are ready to embrace the path of development as red terror or Maoism has been eliminated to a large extent. The people have started receiving better public facilities along with employment. In the remote areas of Abujhmar (Narayanpur district), people are getting timely access to basic facilities such as education, health, roads and public distribution system. The construction of roads, bridges and culverts in this Naxal-affected area was far more difficult than elsewhere in the state. This has been made possible due to joint efforts of the district administration and the police department. All the necessary facilities are gradually being provided in the development block Orchha headquarters of the Narayanpur district surrounded by dense forests, rivers, drains and hills. The long wait for the weekly haat-bazaars has also ended with the opening of grocery stores and medical shops for fulfilling essential needs of the people. Earlier, there were limited means of moving in and around Abujhmar. But now with time the construction work on roads, bridges, culverts etc is taking place at a rapid pace. The movement of traffic has improved a lot and people have started joining the mainstream on the path of development. Rural banks have also been set up for the people. Telecommunication towers have been erected for providing better internet connectivity which has considerably improved as compared to the past. The five-kilometre area of the Orchha block headquarter is being made a free Wi-Fi zone. With the creation of a Wi-Fi zone, youth, locals and children will be able to join the mainstream by watching and listening to events taking place in the country and the world through high speed internet. Other government work is being done online with the help of the banking system. Providing door-to-door electricity connections in remote areas was a challenging task for the government but the latter's efforts have been lauded by the people. Those areas where conventional power lines could not be installed, electricity has been provided with the help of solar power plants. For providing quality education to children, hostel-ashrams as well as high schools and higher secondary schools are being run across the state in which sufficient number of teachers have been posted. At the same time, Porta Cabin residential schools are being run for Maoist-affected children. The tribal farmers of Abujhmar have been demanding for the three generations that it is the only place in India where no title deeds exist for its inhabitants. These people practice farming but due to lack of Kisan Credit Card, they cannot get loans from banks. There is no arrangement for the sale of their produce. The title deeds are not mentioned in the revenue records due to which they cannot avail of the benefit of any government schemes. Collector Rituraj Raghuvanshi says that on the instructions of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, survey work is being done expeditiously in the villages of Abujhmar area by the state government. The survey of 2,500 farmers across 61 villages has been completed in Orchha block of Narayanpur where 'Masahati Pattas' (land ownership deeds) have been distributed to the farmers. After receiving the Masahati Patta, such farmers will now start getting the benefits of the government welfare schemes. KCC has also been distributed to the farmers so that they would now be able to receive loans from banks. A large part of Naxal-affected Narayanpur district has not been able to connect with the mainstream even today due to the uneven geographical conditions. Abujhmar is an area covered with forests, rivers and streams. This has been the reason that people had to struggle a lot for getting basic facilities provided by the government as well as health services. Now bike ambulances have been set up. The first two bike ambulances were successfully run over small rivers, streams, trails and rough roads in the interior areas. The service has been expanded to further improve the health services in the district. In 2022, only 134 incidents of Maoist violence have taken place so far, which is nearly four times less than the violent incidents before 2018. New Delhi, Sep 9 : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday met Lt. Governor V.K. Saxena for the first time since the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had conducted raids at Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia's residence in August. This was the first weekly meeting -- that takes place every Friday between the Chief Minister and the Lt. Governor, after the raids. Addressing the media after the meeting, CM Kejriwal said that the meeting concluded in a "happy environment", and both discussed several issues related to the capital city in the meeting. "We have weekly meeting with Lt governor. But for last some weeks, the meeting was not held as I was out of town. Today, the meeting concluded in conducive environment and we both discussed several issues of the city," said Kejriwal. "I have made request to him that we together will work for the issues pertaining to the Municipal corporation," the Chief Minister added. The issues of 'garbage mountains', and fixing the sanitation system in the city were also discussed during the meeting, Kejriwal told the media. Responding to the question of ongoing tussle over several issues with L-G after the raids at Sisodia's house, the Delhi Chief Minister said: "Whatever happened was unfortunate. I hope the situation will improve now. Today, there was a very good atmosphere between the two of us." Beijing, Sep 9 : Chinese social media platform WeChat is warning users outside China that their data will be stored on servers inside the country, RFA reported. A number of overseas WeChat users received a notification on September 6, warning that "personal data (including) likes, comments, browsing and search history, content uploads, etc." will be transmitted to China. The notification also reminds users that their behaviour while using the app is subject to WeChat's licensing agreement and privacy policy. A YouTuber living in France who gave only the pseudonym Miss Crook said she was shocked to receive a French translation of the same message, RFA reported. "I clicked through and ... this message popped up, so I automatically clicked cancel," she said. "It's becoming clear what the difference is between a democracy and a dictatorship." She said the move would likely affect large numbers of Chinese nationals and emigres living overseas. "Overseas Chinese have become very dependent on WeChat, but is it really that important?" she said. "We can actually stop using it completely, so we shouldn't let them confuse us. It's really not that important." Faced with mounting international concern over privacy protection, WeChat said in September 2021 that it had "separated" its data storage facilities for domestic and international users, asking overseas users to re-sign the terms and conditions to keep using the app, which many people rely on to send money to people in China, make purchases in Chinese yuan, and stay in touch with friends and family. Former Sina Weibo censor Liu Lipeng said the move was largely a cosmetic one, however, RFA reported. "Last year ... WeChat re-signed its agreements with all overseas users, but everything on there except for one-to-one chats have to use WeChat protocols," Liu said. "So the moment you click OK, you are back in (the Chinese version) again." "Everything you write is still available (to the Chinese authorities), so it's basically sleight of hand. Nothing has changed," he said. "You are a still a WeChat user." US-based legal scholar Teng Biao said WeChat's parent company Tencent is already required under China's Cybersecurity Law to assist the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with any data it says it needs, as are all of the other internet service providers and social media platforms in China, RFA reported. Chandigarh, Sep 9 : In a unique way to wake up authorities to his plight, a centenarian staged a protest in Haryana's Rohtak town by riding a decorated horse carriage, saying his pension was stopped in March as he was presumed to be dead. Duli Chand took a procession to hand over a memorandum to the local administration and BJP leader Manish Grover to demand restoration of his old-age pension. Donning currency note garlands with placards that reads "Thara foofa abhi zinda hai (Your uncle's alive)", he said he received his last old age pension in March. "My pension was stopped because government records showed I was dead. Ever since, I have been trying to prove that I am still alive, but in vain." A day earlier, Duli Chand apprised the media about the indifferent attitude of the government despite lodging formal complaints several times. Supporting the centenarian's cause, even AAP former state chief Naveen Jaihind had warned to launch a protest if his pension was not restored. "Duli Chand's pension was discontinued despite the fact that he has a Aadhaar card, PAN number, and a bank statement. He received his last pension in March but it was discontinued after that," Jaihind said. New Delhi, Sep 9 : The Indian and Chinese troops will complete the disengagement process in the Gogra-Hot Springs area (PP-15) along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh by September 12. Both the countries started the 16th round of Corps Commander-level talks on July 17, 2022, at Chushul Moldo meeting point in eastern Ladakh. Following this meeting, the two sides continued the dialogue to resolve related border issues. Both India and China have now agreed to move towards their respective borders in the Gogra-Hot Springs area, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement. As per the joint agreement, the decommissioning process in this area started at 8.30 a.m. on September 8 and will be completed by September 12. Both sides have agreed to stop further military deployment in the region in a verified manner, following which the withdrawal of troops from both sides continues to their respective areas. All temporary structures erected in the area by both the countries will be demolished, the Ministry added. With the standoff over PP-15 resolved, both sides are advancing the talks to resolve the remaining issues along the LAC for peace in the India-China border areas. New Delhi, Sep 9 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday filed a charge sheet before the Rouse Avenue Court in connection with a Prevention of Money Laundering case pertaining to phone tapping of NSE employees between 2009 and 2017. The charge sheet was filed against NSE's former chiefs Chitra Ramakrishna and Ravi Narain, and former Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey. Narain was recently arrested by the ED. "Money was laundered in phone tapping. The payments made in the phone tapping is alleged proceeds of crime. There were shell companies through which money were laundered," it said in the charge sheet. The ED has claimed that Pandey received Rs 4.54 crore to tap the MTNL lines to help Ramakrishna and these were proceeds of crime. "Pandey ran iSec Securities Pvt. Ltd. It has been alleged that Ramkrishna used this firm to tap the phones of NSE employees. The phone calls made by NSE employees between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. were tapped and recorded by iSec Securities Pvt. Ltd. It has been alleged that Pandey helped in tapping the phone calls illegally," an agency source had said. Ramkrishna and Pandey were placed under arrest in July by the federal anti money laundering agency. Pandey had said that he tapped the phone lines but didn't do anything illegal. He said that all the equipments of tapping were made available by the NSE. The ED's case is on the basis of the CBI's FIR, lodged on the directions of Union Ministry of Home Affairs. Kolkata, Sep 9 : A district court on Friday remanded Satyendra Chowdhury, the prime accused and the mastermind behind the killing of students Atanu De and Abhishek Naskar, to 14-day CID custody. at Barasat in Kolkata's North 24 Parganas district Chowdhury was arrested by a joint team of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of West Bengal Police and the detective department of Bidhannagar City Police on Friday morning from the Howrah station while he was trying to escape to his native state of Bihar. It is revealed that Chowdhury had been changing SIM cards of his mobile phone frequently which posed initial difficulties in tracking him through tower locations. A CID source said that while going underground, he took some cash along with him and to escape the police, he stopped using ATMs to withdraw cash. However, as his cash was exhausted, he contacted one of his relatives and requested him to transfer some money to the mobile wallet of a booking agent office located adjacent to Howrah station. From that conversation, the police came to know that Chowdhury was somewhere near Howrah station. Accordingly, police in plain clothes reached the station on Friday morning. When Chowdhury appeared before the ticket counter at Howrah station, he was arrested by the waiting policemen. Meanwhile, the parents of slain student Atanu De told mediapersons on Friday afternoon that nothing less than capital punishment to the accused will satisfy them. CID sources said that Chowdhury had told them that he took nearly Rs 50,000 from Atanu De for getting the latter a particular brand of motorcycle. When Atanu was persisting him to either return the cash or get him the motorcycle, Chowdhury decided to kill him and since Abhishek Naskar accompanied Atanu on that day, he and his associates killed both of them. However, Chowdhury's statement has not been found convincing by the CID sleuths, since to escape the payment of just Rs 50,000, he spent more than Rs 1,00,000 for making arrangements for the killings. Kolkata, Sep 9 : A division bench of Calcutta High Court on Friday issued a contempt of court notice against Debasish Chakraborty, the superintendent of Presidency Central Correctional Home in Kolkata, for violating the court's order for periodical medical examination of a prime accused in the coal smuggling case who is currently lodged in the prison. Bikash Mishra, the first person to be arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the coal smuggling scam in April last year, is currently housed at the correctional home. He is the younger brother of Trinamool Congress youth leader and another prime accused in the case, Binoy Mishra, who is currently absconding and is believed to have taken shelter at Vanuatu Islands. The CBI had informed the Calcutta High Court that Bikash Mishra had been frequently avoiding integration on medical grounds. On August 29, the Calcutta High Court ordered that a medical officer designated by CBI should visit the correctional home at an interval of 48 hours to medically examine Bikash Mishra. On August 31, the CBI-designated medical officer visited the correctional home, medically examined Bikash Mishra and informed the court that the accused was medically fit to face interrogation. However, on Friday, the CBI counsel informed the Calcutta High Court's division bench of justices Jormalya Bagchi and Ajay Kumar Gupta that when the same medical officer went to the correctional home again on September 3 to examine Bikash Mishra, superintendent Debasish Chakraborty sent him back, saying that the medical examination of the accused has already been done. The division bench took a strong note of such an approach on the part of Chakraborty and issued a contempt of court notice against him. Chakraborty will have to personally appear before the bench on September 22 and explain his action. Mumbai, Sep 9 : Millions of people poured onto the streets and waterfronts in Mumbai and rest of Maharashtra to bid farewell to their favorite elephant-headed Lord Ganesha on Anant Chaturdashi - the 10th final day of the Ganeshotsav festival - on Friday, officials said. Chants of "Ganpati Bappa Morya, Pudhchya Varshi Lavkar Ya" rent the skies with the occasional thunderstorms of showers, clouds of red 'gulal', showers of multi-hued flowers, beating of dhol-tasha (drums-cymbals), dancing, singing of bhajans praising Lord Ganesha and tight security all over. An estimated 400,000 gigantic, large, medium and small idols of Lord Ganesh of varying shapes and themes were taken out across the state in processions from public marquees, homes of VIPs or commoners, for immersions in the Arabian Sea, beaches, creeks, rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, wells or specially created environment-friendly artificial immersion sites. Among these were the biggest - 38-feet tall - Mumbaicha Raja, the much-revered Lalbaugcha Raja, Chintamani and Tejukaya which were taken out in ceremonial processions to various beaches for the final farewell. Lakhs of people trooped out onto the streets to view the state's biggest spectacle in its full glory after two years of the coronavirus pandemic restrictions. The biggest crowds were seen at Girgaum Chowpatty, Dadar, Mahim, Juhu, Versova, Madh and Gorai beaches dotting the west-coast of the city, though this year immersions were banned in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. This evening, the BMC's Disaster Cell informed that over 8,000 gigantic, big, medium and small idols were immersed at various locations in the city without any untoward incidents. Massive turnouts were seen in Palghar, Thane, Pune, Nagpur, Kolhapur, Satara, Sangli, Raigad, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg and other districts for the immersion ceremonies, which will continue till early Saturday. Pune, the second biggest centre of celebrations after Mumbai saw long processions for the immersion of its popular idols like Dagdusheth Halwai Ganpati, Kasbapeth, Kesari Wada, Shrimant Bhausaheb Rangari and others taken out in the morning. The state Department of Tourism (DoT) and Maharashtra Tourism Development of Corporation (MTDC) made special arrangements for foreign tourists to witness the festivities in Mumbai and Pune. Earlier this week, the DoT hosted several dozens of international envoys posted in Mumbai at various Ganeshotsav mandal marquees leaving them highly impressed by the pomp and glory of the festival. In Mumbai, at various immersions points, the police had deployed stringent security measures with CCTVs en route of various processions, aerial surveillance by Indian Coast Guard choppers, police drones, expert life-guards and divers, medical teams and ambulances, personnel in uniform or mufti on shore and in boats offshore, to tackle any eventuality. New Delhi, Sep 9 : In a latest development in connection with the Income Tax raids which were going on for three days at multiple locations and at the offices of Centre for Policy Research, a think tank, Oxfam India, Bengaluru-based non-profit Independent and Public-Spirited Media Foundation (IPSMF) in connection with the alleged tax evasion, all the firms submitted they did not do anything unlawful. Oxfam India on Friday issued a statement and said that the Income Tax department officials conducted an Income Tax 'survey' at its Delhi based office from September 7 to September 9. "During these 35 plus hours of non-stop survey, the Oxfam India team members were not allowed to leave the premises; the internet was shut down and all the mobile phones were confiscated. The Income Tax survey team took away hundreds of pages of data pertaining to finances and programmes of Oxfam India. They also took all the data by cloning the Oxfam India server and the private mobile phones of the senior leadership team and the finance lead," it said in the statement. The Oxfam alleged that the Income Tax survey was undertaken without giving a reason. It said that in January 2022 they had a detailed week-long audit of the FCRA accounts by the auditors appointed by the FCRA division. "The past eight months have been distressing for Oxfam India. In December 2021, the renewal of FCRA licence was denied by the Ministry of Home Affairs," it said. Think Tank CPR said that they were cooperating with the Income Tax officials in their raid. "The Income Tax Department visited our office to undertake a survey of CPR on 7th and 8th September 2022. We have extended full cooperation to the department during the survey, and will continue to do so in the future," said Yamini Aiyar. The sources said that tax evasions of crores of rupees in the guise of donation of political parties have been detected. Entry operators were on the radar of IT officials. The IT team learnt from a report of Election Commission that a few political parties were given donations through data entry operator by flouting rules. "This was basically fraud cum tax evasion which was done in the name of donations to political parties," the source said. New Delhi, Sep 9 : To celebrate eight years of Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has officially announced the commencement of 'Swachh Amrit Mahotsav', a fortnight of activities to galvanise action around 'Swachhata' from September 17, Seva Diwas, till October 2, Swachhata Diwas. The fortnight will focus on mobilising citizen action and commitment towards the vision of building 'Garbage Free Cities'. The Union Minister has announced the opening of the first ever Indian Swachhata League (ISL), an inter-city competition to take place between the youth of the cities on the September 17. For the maiden edition of ISL, more than 1,850 city teams from across the country have officially registered to compete. Each team will compete in the League by creating their own unique sanitation initiatives to focus on creating garbage free beaches, hills, and tourist places. The ISL has attracted a diverse set of Indian cities to take part in the first of its kind League. Cities from diverse geographies and with iconic tourist locations across the length and breadth of the country -- such as Leh, Kanyakumari, Kohima, Dwarka, Konark, Port Blair, Rameswaram, Gaya, Poanta Sahib, Karta, Ujjain, Nashik, Varanasi, Pahalgam -- have registered their teams and appointed team captains for the competition. As a next step, citizens are invited to join their respective city teams on the official MyGov portal from September 11 onwards. Patna, Sep 9 : Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav faced an awkward situation in Bihar's Arrah city on Friday after a large number of CTET-pass job aspirants held a protest against him. Tejashwi Yadav had promised 10 lakh jobs, and permanent jobs for contract employees during the 2020 Assembly election. When he was in the opposition, he had reiterated that he would fulfill his promise when came into power. Now, he is the Deputy Chief Minister again but not a single announcement of recruitment of teachers has been made, as per protesters. As in-charge of Bhojpur district, the RJD leader reached district headquarters Arrah on Friday to assess the development works. As it was his scheduled visit, the job aspirants reached Patna-Arrah NH31. When his convoy did not stop there, the protesters reached the Circuit House, and tried to enter inside to remind him of his promise. When stopped, they became angry and shouted slogans against Tejashwi Yadav. As Tejashwi Yadav came out after meeting the officials, the job aspirants came in front of his vehicle and forced him to stop and listen to their grievances. Tejashwi Yadav assured that their demands will be met soon. Dahod : , Sep 9 (IANS) A man in Gujarat's Dahod, who was in an illicit relationship with his niece, was arrested for killing her brutally, police said on Friday. Sagtala police officer N.J. Panchal said that on Wednesday, police were informed about a beheaded body of a woman lying in a farm, some 100 metres off the district road, in the Bamroli village. "Police saw that the woman was murdered brutally... her head was lying some 25 metres away from her body." During the primary investigation, police learned from local villagers that the 20-year-old victim was having an illicit relationship with her uncle Jayantibhai Rathva. Questioned by police, he initially denied having any relationship, but when confronted with evidence, accepted it. He is said to have told the police that he suspected that his niece was in relationship with another man and he had asked her to break all other ties, but she did not agree and so he murdered her. Following this, Rathva was arrested on Thursday night. Washington, Sep 9 : US President Joe Biden will be prominent among several high-profile heads of state who are likely to attend the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, the White House confirmed on Friday. Biden is not the only major figure who may be expected to attend the funeral of the Queen. Foreign heads of state and government, including other European monarchs, presidents and prime ministers, are almost certain to join the mourners in the United Kingdom. The 96-year-old queen died at her home in Balmoral, Scotland, on Thursday as close family members rushed to be with her, including her grandson Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge. Biden and his wife, First Lady Jill Biden, offered their condolences on the Queen's demise in a lengthy statement issued on Thursday. "Queen Elizabeth II was a stateswoman of unmatched dignity and constancy who deepened the bedrock Alliance between the United Kingdom and the United States. She helped make our relationship special," the Bidens said. "We send our deepest condolences to the Royal Family, who are not only mourning their Queen, but their dear mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. Her legacy will loom large in the pages of British history, and in the story of our world," the statement went on. The late Queen's son, now King Charles III, has declared a period of royal mourning that will last until seven days after his mother's funeral. Details of the funeral are expected to be announced soon. Operation London Birdge has already been set in motion, and a set of elaborate protocols will be observed until the Queen's funeral, seven days hence. Biden also issued an order on Thursday that flags at the White House and other federal government buildings should fly at half-staff until the Queen's funeral, according to media reports. The Bidens had met Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle in June 2021, just a few months after Joe Biden became the President. It was his first foreign trip as commander-in-chief. Buckingham Palace issued a statement on Friday about the procedures for royal mourning and explained what the public can expect in the coming days. "Following the death of Her Majesty the Queen, it is His Majesty the King's wish that a period of royal mourning be observed from now until seven days after the Queen's funeral. The date of the funeral will be confirmed in due course," the statement said. The new king is travelling from Balmoral to London on Friday where he will meet the recently appointed Prime Minister Liz Truss. On Saturday morning, Charles III will be formally proclaimed king after the traditional accession council. "The proclamation will be read by Garter King of Arms, accompanied by the Earl Marshal, other Officers of Arms and the Serjeants at Arms. This is the first public reading of the Proclamation," the Buckingham Palace said in a statement. Other public proclamations will follow in London and elsewhere. Bhopal, Sep 9 : Former Union Minister Uma Bharti, who has been vocal against the BJP-led Madhya Pradesh government's excise policy, took a surprise u-turn on Friday over the issue of liquor policy. Speaking to the media at her official residence in Bhopal's Shyamla Hills area, Bharti said a complete prohibition won't be possible, but it should not be part of the state government's revenue generation plan. Bharti said though she would support a complete prohibition in Madhya Pradesh, it won't be possible. Bharti said that rather the state government should formulate a new liquor policy next year which should be made in consultation with people's opinions. "I never said to put a complete ban on sale of liquor. I have spoken to (Chief Minister) Shivraj Singh Chouhan and advised him to frame a new liquor policy for the next year after taking into consideration the views of all sections of the society, especially the women, because women are most affected by liquor related issues," she said. The former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister defended the state government on the issue of liquor, stating that the state's liquor policy is not like that of Delhi government's excise policy. "At least, I have not noticed any kind of corruption or financial irregularities in Madhya Pradesh government's excise policy," Bharti said. She added that the Centre can't formulate a uniform excise policy as the subject falls under the jurisdiction of the state governments, but Madhya Pradesh should make a unique policy which other states could follow. However, Bharti said she would continue her fight against the use of drugs and liquor across the state and on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti (October 2), she would hold a peaceful protest march for this purpose. Over the past six months, Bharti has been taking on Chouhan over the liquor policy, and had even threatened that the BJP would face public wrath if her voice was not heard. A couple of months back, she had even pelted stones at a liquor shop in Bhopal and protested before a wine shop until the police closed it down. New Delhi, Sep 9 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday had a telephonic conversation with his Norwegian counterpart Jonas Gahr Store. The leaders discussed bilateral and international issues of mutual interest, including initiatives to mobilise climate finance for renewable energy projects in developing countries, a statement issued by Prime Minister's Office said. Modi emphasised on the importance of ensuring equitable, timely and adequate climate finance for the developing world, and appreciated Store's commitment to this cause. The two leaders reviewed various ongoing bilateral cooperation initiatives, including under the Task Force on Blue economy. They also expressed satisfaction at the increasing India-Norway collaboration in areas like green hydrogen, shipping, science and technology as well as education. Shillong, Sep 9 : The Meghalaya Police killed a former extremist leader last year in "a reckless operation using excessive force", according to a report of a judicial commission into the incident tabled in the Assembly on Friday, Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma on Friday submitted the report of the one-member Commission headed by former Chief Justice of Tripura High Court T. Vaiphei into the killing of former Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) leader Cheristerfield Thangkhiew in Shillong on August 13, 2021. The Commission held that the police operation to arrest the former leader of the banned militant outfit, for alleged involvement in bomb (IED) blasts in Shillong and in East Jaintia Hills district headquarters Khliehriat, from his residence in the early hours was "thoughtless", leading to his death that was "avoidable". "Having entered what could potentially be a lion's den in darkness without proper planning and without taking adequate precaution", the police had taken "purely avoidable and unnecessary risk", endangering their lives as well as that of the deceased, its report said. It said that the forced entry into the house in darkness was a reckless exercise and tantamount to disproportionate use of force. "Thangkhiew's death defeated the very purpose of launching the operation to detain him alive. The police could have arrested him alive had the operation team waited for about two hours for daylight to emerge, cordoned off his house and lobbed teargas into the rooms to force the occupants out." The probe panel also said the post facto excuse that none but the deceased was hurt "cannot be a valid justification for the tactical team-I carried out the operation hastily and recklessly". It advised against raiding houses occupied by civilians in urban areas at night in pursuit of criminals or to arrest them in order not to harm innocent occupants in any manner. The panel recommended carrying police personnel engaged in nocturnal operations with night vision cameras and sensitising the police force to respect the human rights of the citizens. The police had claimed the former extremist was shot in self-defence after he tried to stab them. Thangkhiew's death had led to widespread violence and protests with the angry mob setting vehicles on fire and brandishing firearms snatched from the police. Demanding a judicial inquiry into the violence, Home Minister Lahkmen Rymbui had offered to resign on August 15. However, his resignation was not accepted by the Chief Minister. The family of the late HNLC leader on Thursday asserted that they would approach the National Human Rights Commission if the report is "not in their favour". However, after the submission of the commission report on the first day of the autumn session of the assembly, the family members have yet to disclose their opinion. The outlawed HNLC, which was formed with the aim for the state's secession from India, is now in the process of talks with the Central and state governments. Guwahati, Sep 9 : Following the recent demolitions of madrasas in Assam, AIUDF chief and Dhubri MP Badruddin Ajmal on Friday launched a sharp attack on the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led BJP government in the state. Stating that those who pass out of madrasas can become doctors and engineers, Ajmal said, "The state government is running a false narrative against madrasa education. It claimed that students who pass out of madrasas cannot study science or commerce. This is an utter lie." Ajmal advised Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to improve school education in the state instead of closing them down or demolishing them. "If the state government is not able to build a good education model in Assam, it can hand over the schools to me. I will improve them and show the BJP how to do it," he said. The AIUDF chief also claimed that he has already done this in Assam. Notably, there is a good number of schools and colleges run by the foundation of Badruddin Ajmal in Assam. The students from these institutions have secured good ranks in the recently-concluded National Eligibility cum Entrance Test or NEET. In Assam, the BJP-led state government has drawn flak for its decision to close down nearly 2,000 schools and amalgamate them with other schools. New York, Sep 9 : United Airlines has announced a $15 million investment in electric aviation startup Eve Air Mobility and will purchase 200 electric aircrafts which can seat four passengers and take off and land vertically like a helicopter. This marks another significant investment from United in flying taxis -- or eVTOLs (electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle) -- that have the potential to revolutionise the commuter experience in cities around the world. United signed purchase agreement for up to 400 eVTOL aircraft from Eve, owned by Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer. "United is making history again, by becoming the first major airline to publicly invest in two eVTOL companies. Our agreement with Eve highlights our confidence in the urban air mobility market and serves as another important benchmark toward our goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050 - without using traditional offsets," said Michael Leskinen, President of United Airlines Ventures. The companies aim to develop small, electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft that can fly from rooftop to rooftop in a dense city as a taxi service. Under the terms of the agreement, the companies intend to work on future projects, including studies on the development, use and application of Eve's aircraft and the urban air mobility (UAM) ecosystem. "United's investment in Eve reinforces the trust in our products and services and strengthens our position in the North American market," said Andre Stein, co-CEO of Eve. Through UAV, United has led the industry in investments in eVTOL and electric aircraft, hydrogen fuel cell engines, and sustainable aviation fuel. Last month, United gave a $10 million deposit to a California-based eVTOL company for 100 aircraft. Rather than relying on traditional combustion engines, eVTOL aircraft are designed to use electric motors, providing carbon-free flights and to be used as 'air taxis' in urban markets. Eve's design uses conventional fixed wings, rotors and pushers, giving it a practical and intuitive lift-plus-cruise design, which favours safety, efficiency, reliability and certifiability. With a range of 60 miles (100 kms), its vehicle has the potential not only to offer a sustainable commute but also to reduce noise levels by 90 percent compared to current conventional aircraft. New Delhi, Sep 9 : The Centre has relaxed DoPT deputation rules to encourage IAS and other all-India service officers as well as those of the Central Services get posted in Jammu and Kashmir, in a bid to address the shortage of officers in the Union Territory. Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said that due to relaxation of DoPT rules, 22 officers belonging to various services and different cadres have been posted in Jammu & Kashmir at various levels at a crucial time. He said that DoPT has played a major role in facilitating induction of Jammu & Kashmir Administrative Services officers into the IAS by coordinating with UT administration, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the UPSC. As a result, recently 16 officers from JKAS have been inducted into IAS and another 8 such vacancies will be filled up shortly giving opportunities to the JKAS officers to become part of prestigious IAS service after a long gap of 12 years. The Minister added that mid-career training of JKAS officers of various seniority was carried out in collaboration with the LBSNAA and this has provided a new level of exposure to the JKAS Officers and more than 200 offices. Some other initiatives by the Ministry include special concessions or incentives to the Central government employees working in the Kashmir Valley in attached and subordinate offices or PSUs falling under control of the Central government. They have been extended special concessions for a period of 3 years with effect from August 1, 2021 and the incentives include an additional house rent allowance, composite transfer grant, per diem allowance, incentive for period of temporary duty, messing allowance, and facility to draw pension at place of settlement in relaxation of relevant provisions. Besides, facilities for retention of general pool accommodation available to officers who have served in the Central government has also been extended to officers posted in Jammu and Kashmir on the pattern of northeastern states. Jaipur, Sep 9 : Union Home Minister Amit Shah reached Jaisalmer on late Friday evening on a two-day visit to Rajasthan. He reached the headquarters of the Border Security Force's Dabla South Sector where he will spend the night at the BSF Officers Institute. Shah will visit Tanot Mata temple on Saturday morning. After offering prayers, he will perform Bhoomi Pujan of the Tourism Development Centre in the temple premises. Funds worth Rs 17.67 crore have been approved for the Tanot Mata temple, near the India-Pakistan border, which is planned to be developed for tourism. A weapon exhibition and photo gallery etc. will be set up by BSF for the tourists. The state Tourism Department had been long making efforts to promote border tourism in the state, and had held several meetings with the Union Tourism Ministry and the BSF. The central ministry had then approved the proposal of Rajasthan Tourism Department to develop Tanot complex for tourists. Shah will reach Air Force Station Jaisalmer by helicopter at 10.35 a.m., and from there, he will leave for Jodhpur at 11.10 a.m. Guwahati, Sep 9 : Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma once again mocked Rahul Gandhi on Friday which irked the Congress party. Taking to the micro-blogging site Twitter, Sarma shared a parody video of Rahul Gandhi. The character portrayed as former Congress president can be seen dancing over the song, 'Rahul Mera Naam, Record Mera Badnam'. The parody character of Rahul Gandhi can be heard singing that it is his job to create confusion in the party. Besides, in the parody clip, the former Congress president says he grows potatoes, makes gold and is often defeated in the election but he does not give up. "Let me spread the confusion and make my own brand out of that confusion," the parody video character said. Meanwhile, the video shared by Chief Minister Sarma has drawn major flak from the Congress. Many leaders from the opposition party criticised him for this. Earlier, Sarma had mocked the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' of the Congress party and referred to it as one of the biggest comedies of this century. He said that our country does not need yatras such as 'Bharat Jodo' because "we live in a united India". "India was divided only once in 1947 when a new country Pakistan was born and it was Rahul Gandhi's party Congress which allowed that partition to happen," he said. Sarma suggested the former Congress president that he should instead travel to Pakistan and do the yatra there so that people get an India that was undivided before the Partition. Bhopal, Sep 9 : A day after Madhya Pradesh's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) conducted searches at the residence and office of Church of North India Jabalpur Diocese's bishop P.C. Singh in connection with a cheating case that led to the disclosure of large-scale financial irregularities, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday ordered a probe into the activities of the concerned church and related trust headed by the accused Bishop. Talking to the media on this issue, Chouhan said that massive financial irregularities on multiple counts have come to the fore after the EOW action. Chouhan said that the EOW search has resulted in the seizure of huge volume of cash, including foreign currency, documents pertaining to 17 properties, 48 bank accounts and eight four-wheelers. "We've decided for a three-pronged probe into the entire matter. There is a possibility of the funds being invested in illegal activities, including illegal religious conversion by the Church of North India and the associated trust and entities. The EOW will conduct a detailed probe into this serious issue, while the Jabalpur district administration too will have its own role in the probe," Chouhan said. "The EOW and the district administration will also investigate complaints about land leased by the government to the trust and associated entities for religious, educational and medical purposes, actually being used for commercial purposes," the CM added. The Chief Minister further said that there have been complaints about taxes and stamp duties being evaded on a large scale by the trust and related entities in matters related to land lease renewal and related aspects through cheating and fraud. Sources told IANS that the EOW had in 2015 received a complaint which alleged that bishop P.C. Singh, who is also the chairman of the Board of Education Church of North India Jabalpur Diocese, has siphoned off fees collected from students of the educational institutes (run by the Board) to religious entities as well as for his personal usage. It was also alleged that Singh had changed the name of the original society and became its president thereafter. During the EOW probe into the complaint, it was prima facie established that around Rs 2.70 crore had been siphoned off to religious entities and personal use between 2004-05 and 2011-12. Based on the findings of the probe, a case was registered some weeks back against Singh and B.S. Solanki, who was then assistant registrar of the firms and societies. Singh, who is reportedly in Germany currently, is accused in several criminal cases, particularly of fraud, cheating and forgery in various parts of India, including UP, MP, Maharashtra, Punjab, Jharkhand and Rajasthan. Hyderabad : , Sep 9 (IANS) A Hindu man died after jumping into a septic well, reportedly to escape the rage of a policeman who was running after him to beat him at Tando Mohammad Khan in Pakistans Hyderabad, Dawn reported. The victim's family claimed that he took the extreme step after having been subjected to violence by a policeman. Sources in Tando Mohammad Khan said that Alam, 35, son of Prem Kohli, had gone to the civil hospital where he had a heated exchange of words with the policeman, identified as Qadir, who was on duty there. Alam's family claimed that the policeman had beaten him black and blue and a close-circuit television camera had recorded the incident. Somehow, Alam ran away from the hospital in a bid to hide and jumped into the well, which proved fatal for him, Dawn reported. The victim's relatives blocked the Hyderabad-Sujawal road in protest and told reporters that due to fever, Alam had been visiting the hospital for two days. They demanded registration of an FIR against the policeman. Alam was a resident of Pandhi Wah. New Delhi, Sep 9 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday said it had conducted search operations on Thursday in connection with a bank loan fraud case. The searches were conducted at the business and residential premises of the accused persons and their associates including Tara Corporation Limited (renamed as Malaudh Agro Limited), its directors Jaswant Singh, Balwant Singh, Kulwant Singh, Tejinder Singh, their associates and other sister concerns. The raids were conducted at Ludhiana, Malerkotla, Khanna, Payal and Dhuri. During the course of search, various incriminating evidence were recovered and seized. They were related to bogus firms through which turnover of Tara Corporation Limited (TCL) was inflated and loan funds were siphoned off by the accused. Mobile phones, hard drives and Indian currency worth Rs 32 lakh were also seized from the search premises. The ED had initiated money laundering investigation on the basis of the FIR registered by the CBI. Bank of India, Model Town Branch, Ludhiana had sanctioned loan on cash credit limits aggregating Rs 35 crore as against hypothecation of stocks and book-debts in 2011 under sole banking arrangement. The account was also sanctioned an ad-hoc limit of Rs 6 crore in February 2014, which is yet to be repaid by the company. The account of TCL was declared as NPA in 2014. The aggregate loan outstanding is Rs 76 crore. Jaswant Singh, Balwant Singh, Kulwant Singh and Tejinder Singh were directors and guarantors in the loan account of Tara Corporation Limited. When a fresh search was initiated by the bank in May 2016, it was observed that there was a drastic change in the directors of the company and Kirpal Singh Tiwana, Harish Kumar and Lakhbir Singh had been appointed as directors of TCL and a 'principal person' Balwant Singh had resigned from the directorship. Later on, Balwant Singh had also been re-appointed as director of the company in 2016. "On the basis of information available, investigation was initiated against the above said persons and their associates in order to ascertain the money laundering activities undertaken by them for laundering their proceeds of crime," the official said. Patna, Sep 9 : As Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar returned home from a three-day-long visit to Delhi, his Janata Dal-United welcomed appreciation by a large section of opposition leaders, including his West Bengal counterpart, for seeking to augment unity. Banerjee, appreciating his initiative, said: "If we have to defeat the BJP in 2024, the opposition parties have to put smaller issues aside and become united." She said "Nitish ji is in Bihar, Akhilesh Yadav is in Uttar Pradesh, Hemant Soren is in Jharkhand, she herself in West Bengal and other leaders of similar ideology become united now, 275 to 280 seats are not far away from them". Reacting to her statement, Bihar Finance Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary claimed that the visit of his leader Nitish Kumar has a positive impact in all sections. "His efforts were appreciated everywhere in the country, especially the statement of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was very important. If opposition parties will leave the smaller political compulsions aside, defeating BJP is not a big issue for them," he said. "The opposition leaders who had meetings with Nitish Kumar during the recent Delhi visit, have shown positive intent. It encourages us. Our leader has already announced that his efforts will continue in future to defeat the BJP," Chaudhary added. Washington, Sep 9 : India has stayed out of negotiations on trade at the first in-person ministerial meeting of 14-nation Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity, held in Los Angeles. Trade is one of the four pillars of this trade arrangement that was launched by US President Joe Biden in May 2022, joined by Prime Minister Narendra Modi among other leaders of the member countries. The other three are Supply Chain, Clean Economy, and Fair Economy. India was led by Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal at the talks. He also held several bilateral meetings including with his US counterparts - Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, and US Trade Representative Katherine Tai. India participated in discussions on the remaining three pillars and also signed on to the separate statements that were released on the negotiations. All 14 member nations signed the three statements, but only 13 signed the one on trade, with India deciding to sit it out. No reasons were forthcoming. "You have correctly noted that India is not now in the trade pillar," US Trade Representative Tai said at a news conference with Commerce Secretary Raimondo in Los Angeles on Friday, at the conclusion of the discussion on Thursday. She added that she has been in regular touch with her Indian counterpart Goyal and that the two countries do and will cover the same issues - as at the IPEF - in their bilateral discussions, such as the Trade Policy Forum, which is to meet later in the year. Raimondo said the IPEF is meant to be "flexible and inclusive". Trade remains a key irritant in the India-US relations, which have otherwise seen significant progress. When pressed for specific "sticking points" behind India's absence from trade talks, Tai, who is usually very careful with her words, couldn't contain her frustration. "I both want to and I don't want to, right," she said. "Part of me wants to tell you everything that just happened. But part of me is here to build trust with our partners." Tai then took another shot at answering the question. "We obviously value each of the countries in this partnership and have a strong and important trading relationship with each one of them. I think that part of the challenge in bringing together a group of 14 is you've got 14 different points of view in that room. You've got 14 different ministers representing 14 different economies, who are part of 14 different bureaucracies, who come from 14 different political landscapes with stakeholders with needs and priorities. So I think that that might be the hardest part of an exercise like this." On the second pillar of supply chain, the 14 countries said they will "seek to coordinate actions to mitigate and prevent future supply chain disruptions and secure critical sectors and key products for our manufacturers". On the third pillar of clean economy, the countries said they will "seek to expand investment opportunities, spur innovation, and improve the livelihoods of citizens as the partners unlock the region's abundant clean energy resources and substantial carbon sequestration potential". And on the final pillar of fair economy, they agreed to "seek to level the playing field for businesses and workers within partner countries by preventing and combatting corruption, curbing tax evasion, and enhancing transparency, recognising the importance of fairness, inclusiveness, the rule of law, accountability and transparency". On trade, on which India did not join in, the remaining IPEF partners said they "will seek high-standard provisions in areas that are foundational to resilient, sustainable, and inclusive economic growth, including labor, environment, digital economy, agriculture, transparency and good regulatory practices, competition, inclusivity, trade facilitation, and technical assistance and economic development". New Delhi, Sep 10 : Congress leaders, who were airing concerns over the forthcoming party elections, have formally written to Central Election Authority Chairman Madhusudan Mistry seeking transparency in the polls and making public the electoral rolls, sources said. Anandpur Sahib MP Manish Tewari, Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor, and three others, including two MPs from Assam, have written the letter, the source said. In the letter, they said that the list of PCC delegates should be made public in a transparent manner. Tewari and Karti Chidambaram had urged the Central Election Authority to make the electoral rolls public and available on the Congress website. However, the CEA said that these rolls will be made available to candidates contesting elections, saying that it was confidential data and can't be made public. Another leader Anand Sharma too had raised the issue in the CWC meeting. Tewari and Karti Chidambaram had raised concerns over the manner in which the presidential poll in the party is being held. Underlining the need of a well-defined electoral college, Karti Chidambaram said any ad hoc electoral college is meaningless. Tewari too had raised doubts over the electoral rolls ahead of the party's presidential poll, saying these should be made public to ensure a free and fair election process. He had questioned Mistry's remark that party members wishing to contest can get access to the list in PCC offices as the list of electors has not been made public. Moscow, Sep 10 : Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko said on Friday that Moscow is currently considering retaliatory measures in response to Kiev's decision to impose a visa regime for Russian citizens. "We are currently discussing this issue within various departments ... we will take into account a wide range of aspects, including humanitarian ones," Rudenko was cited by local media as saying. "We do not want to complicate the lives of those Ukrainian citizens, who wish to leave the country and go to Russia. Obtaining visas would become difficult for them," he said. Rudenko said that a final decision has not yet been made, and that the response would not have to be symmetrical, Xinhua news agency reported. In an earlier statement on Tuesday, Rudenko said Ukrainian citizens could still enter Russia without a visa until January 1, 2023. On July 1, Ukraine introduced a visa regime for Russian citizens following a decision by its government. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in June that the country had decided to end visa-free travel for Russian citizens due to the "unprecedented threats to the national security, sovereignty and territorial integrity" of Ukraine. Latest updates on Russia-Ukraine War Gandhinagar, Sep 10 : Gujarat Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) in a joint operation have seized 39.5 kg of heroin, worth nearly Rs 200 crore in the international market, from Kolkata. Director General of Police Ashish Bhatia told media persons that the ATS team had received a specific information about a scrap consignment imported in February is lying at the docks of the Kolkata sea port since landing, and it carries drugs. The DGP said that based on the information, a ATS team with DRI Jamnagar team were sent to Kolkata, where during the inspection it found some 12 gear boxes with white marks on it. When opened, 72 packs of heorin, having the net weight of 39.5 kg worth Rs 197.82 crore in the international market was found in the boxes. The further investigation will be conducted by DRI. Islamabad, Sep 10 : United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appealed to the international community for "massive" support for Pakistan to respond to the ongoing climate catastrophe devastating the lives of millions. "Pakistan needs massive international support. It is not just a message of solidarity but an international obligation and responsibility. Pakistan is at the front line of the impact of climate change," the secretary-general was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency. The secretary-general addressed a joint press conference along with Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif in the capital Islamabad, saying his voice is entirely at the service of the government and people of Pakistan, who are grappling with difficult situations amid floods. Before the press talk, Guterres received a briefing from the officials of the National Flood Response Coordination Center about the massive havoc caused by the recent flood and ongoing relief activities across the country. "We waged war on nature, and nature is now striking back," Guterres said. "We need to stop increased emissions and mobilise much more resources to countries like Pakistan to resist these devastating disasters caused by climate change." According to the latest figures from the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) of Pakistan, over 33 million people had been affected, 1,355 died, and 12,722 were injured in this season's monsoon rains and floods since mid-June. Additionally, over 1.7 million houses have been destroyed, and an estimated 753,187 livestock has perished, said the NDMA, adding that 81 districts of Pakistan had been affected by floods and 634,749 people are currently living in camps. Christine Hager will be joining Sonae Sierras executive team as the new Director of Property Management in Germany, starting October 1, 2022. Christine will be responsible for the management, leasing, legal and marketing of the assets managed by Sierra in Germany. In this new position, as Director, she will report directly to the Board. . Christine comes from Redos Group in Hamburg, where she joined the company in 2015 as Managing Director, Head of Shopping Center Asset Management and held other senior management positions there. Previously, at Jones Lang LaSalle, she was responsible for shopping centre management in Germany and Austria and for retail asset management. Christine Hager is one of the most distinguished top managers in the real estate industry in Germany, with a solid experience and great network. With the appointment, we are confirming our long-term plan to be the preferred partner for investors and owners looking for extraordinary value in the creation of the cities of the future. Christine Hager will ensure that our clients and partners strategies are met with a reliable and valuable service, that benefits both the assets and its visitors, says Cristina Santos, Sonae Sierra Executive Director, Property Management. Hager, who studied architecture, holds leading roles in several international associations. She is chairwoman of the German Council of Shopping Places (GCSP) since 2018 and has been a board member of the European Council of Shopping Places since 2021. Also, in 2021 she became a board member of the Institute for Corporate Governance of the German Real Estate Industry (ICG). Immobilien Manager magazine named her Manager of the Year in 2021. Jens Horeis, who previously held the position of General Manager for Sierra's property management in Germany, is leaving the company. SMM panels have become largely popular in recent times. These social media marketing panels allow users to get different kinds of SMM services for their social media platforms. These SMM panels have a big role in helping businesses create a social presence for themselves. For all the small businesses and startups out there, it might be quite a challenge to create a good social media presence in the initial phases of their business. So, in such situations, an SMM panel can serve itself to be useful. What are SMM Panels? An smm panel india will allow the brands to purchase the required number of likes, comments and followers for their social media channels. 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Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding diversity in the news media and dismantling structural racism in newsrooms, announced today the launch of the Equity and Belonging Newsroom Transformation Program. The pilot program, funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, is an initiative that will pair news organizations with consultants who have a wealth of experience training journalists on diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) issues. The goal is to help transform workplace structures, organizational cultures and news coverage to be more inclusive and reflective of the United States. To launch the new initiative, Maynard will pilot the program in two news organizations during two five-month periods. One organization selected will be an alumni of the Table Stakes Local News Transformation Program. The second pilot program is open to nonprofit, for-profit and independent news organizations across the country. Applications for the Equity and Belonging Newsroom Transformation Program must be submitted by 11:59 P.M. PDT on Oct. 7. Each news organization will work closely with the Maynard Institute team and consultants Global Equity Collective and CRB Global LLC & Rich Diversity Consulting LLC to create the strategies, plans, benchmarks and training to implement DEIB values for lasting impact. Joining the Maynard team will be Jean-Marie Brown, Maynard Fault Lines senior trainer and professor of professional practice in journalism at Texas Christian University. Mei-Ling Hopgood, journalist and professor at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communication at Northwestern University, will document the impact of the initiative and publish a case study at the conclusion of the pilot program. Too often diversity efforts are performative, said Martin G. Reynolds, co-executive director of the Maynard Institute. We want to operationalize belonging so that BIPOC and folks of diverse backgrounds can thrive and contribute even more meaningfully to the growth, sustainability and credibility of the outlets where they work. We want to show that when organizations invest in equity and inclusion, working relationships between people improve, there is less labor strife, attrition and toxicity. Newsrooms that center the concept of belonging foster innovation, better journalism, and more importantly, the capacity to build or repair relationships with communities. We are excited to see what we can create through this program, Reynolds said. This initiative presents a great opportunity to bring experts in the field together to lead two news organizations toward sustainable, equitable change, said Felecia D. Henderson, director of cultural competency at the Maynard Institute. Our goal is to test methodologies, re-test, and document the processes of both pilot programs in order to replicate the work to assist future media outlets that want to make meaningful change. About the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education For 45 years, the Maynard Institute has fought to push back against the systemic lack of diversity in the news industry through training, collaborations and convenings. Founded by Robert C. Maynard, the Institute promotes diversity and antiracism in the news media through improved coverage, hiring and business practices. We are creating better representation in U.S. newsrooms through our programs , which gives media professionals of color the tools to become skilled storytellers, empowered executives and inspired entrepreneurs. Visit the Maynard Institute to learn more. In less than 10 years since inception, the Abdominal Core Health Quality Collaborative (ACHQC) has grown into the nations largest repository of real-world data on hernia surgical outcomes. This summer, the ACHQC celebrated two significant milestones the 100,000th case entered and the 100th peer-reviewed publication utilizing the wealth of high quality data collected in the ACHQC Registry. Through the support and dedication of patients, surgeons, clinical care teams and ACHQC Foundation partners, the Collaborative has continued to thrive, even during the challenging past two years, shared Michael Rosen, MD, ACHQC President and Medical Director. Reaching these notable accomplishments is a testament to the tremendous impact of collective focus and commitment to the pursuit of enhanced patient care. Founded in 2013, the Abdominal Core Health Quality Collaborative (ACHQC) is a non-profit collaborative focused on maximizing quality and value of care delivered to patients with hernias and other abdominal core diseases. The ACHQC has developed and manages a robust real world data registry which securely houses millions of critical data points including demographic and operative details and long term outcomes related to hernia and abdominal core surgeries. The ACHQC Registry is regarded globally as a trusted source of comprehensive, clinically relevant data, commented Benjamin Poulose, MD, MPH, ACHQC Director of Quality and Outcomes. We encourage rigorous assessment and appreciate impartial peer-review of ACHQC data analyses by experts in our field, Dr. Poulose continued. With a bibliography of over 100 peer-reviewed publications to date, our ability to leverage the breath of ACHQC data and disseminate it broadly is extraordinary. ACHQC delivers live and on-demand patient-focused, data-driven resources across many platforms and shares them freely on its website, YouTube and the ACHQC mobile app. ACHQC surgeons will be presenting the latest results from several ACHQC embedded registry studies at the American Hernia Society annual meeting on September 15th in Charlotte, NC. All who are interested are invited to attend. For more information about the ACHQC Foundation, including a complete bibliography of peer-reviewed publications, visit http://www.achqc.org. Abdominal Core Health Quality Collaborative programs are supported by Foundation Partners Medtronic, Allergan Aesthetics, BD-Bard, Ethicon, Inc., Integra LifeSciences, TELA Bio, and W.L. Gore. About the ACHQC: Through continuous quality improvement, real world data collection, rigorous analysis and collaborative learning, the ACHQC identifies areas where abdominal core health may be enhanced and shares this information in meaningful ways that have direct impact on patient care. The ACHQC is a CMS Qualified Clinical Data Registry and is an authoritative resource for organizations to assess quality metrics and demonstrate a commitment to efficient, value-based patient centered care. Participation in the ACHQC is free to surgeons and fulfills Part 4 of the American Board of Surgery Maintenance of Certification Program. "We love this event because it brings us to meet like-minded people. They're all about creating a place where women and all genders can feel comfortable contributing to the conversation," explains Shiyamali Paranirupasingam, Women in AI's Toronto City Lead. The Big Data and AI Show is the first Canadian event dedicated exclusively to AI, and the economic, strategic, and ethical issues which impact our day-to-day lives. For professionals living and breathing AI, this event will be a chance to take stock and learn from thought leaders in the field. But you dont have to be an expert to join us; the free expo pass means that the show is accessible for all. With over 6,000 prospective attendees to this live event, the show, now in its sixth year, is poised to break former attendance records. Two Days Featuring Canadas Thought Leaders On Thursday, October 6th, and Friday, October 7th, Toronto will be the epicenter of the global AI ecosystem. Executives, entrepreneurs, thought leaders and technology experts will come together to share the future of AI. Key speakers include: Shopifys Director of Engineering and Data, Wendy Foster Airmiles CTO, Eric Neuman Walmarts SVP and CTO, Sravana Kumar Karnati Deloittes Executive Director of Global Deloitte AI Institute/Tech Ethics Leader, Beena Ammanath Environics Analytics President, Jan Kestle Over 150 sessions will take place within the Metro Toronto Convention Center The full conference agenda and the list of speakers can be found on the website. Join The Worlds Top Technology Brands Big Data and AI will bring together the world's leading AI players including Microsoft, IBM, and Data Robot not to mention a whole host of pioneering start-ups. Over 100 exhibitors including TD Bank, Bell and Ericsson will showcase their latest technologies, solutions, and services to thousands of professionals on the lookout for new tools to address their business challenges and boost their AI strategies. Supporting Women in AI Since the event started in 2016, the Big Data and AI show has supported women in AI. This year, the show will feature Women in AI on the main stage. "We love this event because it brings us to meet like-minded people. They're all about creating a place where women and all genders can feel comfortable contributing to the conversation, sharing their experiences and collaborating on exciting AI projects that make the world more intelligent," explains Shiyamali Paranirupasingam, Women in AI's Toronto City Lead. The main event organizers are also women with Valeriya Pershanina as the Event Director and Anastasiia Vershynina as the Business Development Manager. AI for All Canadians While the Big Data and AI Show is showcasing some leading-edge technology, everyone is welcome through our Expo pass. This includes: Main stage Demo stage Exhibition Replays The Start-Up Pitch program gives new companies a chance to get in front of investors and is open to the public as well. Press Passes To get a press pass for the Big Data and AI show, please contact Stefania Forbes at stefania@gravityhub.ca About Big Data and AI The Big Data and AI Show Toronto was first launched in 2016 built out of the desire to bring together businesses and individuals in Artificial Intelligence. Through a rich and diverse line up, attendees are invited to discover and understand the many ways in which artificial intelligence impacts our daily lives. The Big Data and AI Show also presents a unique opportunity for businesses to be exposed to innovative ideas. Businesses will be called to showcase their knowledge and experiences as well as to network with leading industry players and decision-makers. Clery Center, StopHazing, SAFE Campuses LLC, ZeroNow, and 34 additional national campus safety organizations are supporting the adoption of the Report and Educate About Campus Hazing (REACH) Act, H.R. 2525 / S. 744, which would require hazing incidents to be reported as part of a colleges annual crime statistics and establish a comprehensive hazing prevention education program. The bipartisan, bicameral legislation is being led in the Senate by Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), and in the House by Representative Lucy McBath (D-GA) and Representative Jeff Duncan (R-SC). Parents and advocates travelled to Capitol Hill in July to share personal stories of hazing and to highlight the urgent need for federal legislation. Among those who met with lawmakers were Julie and Gary DeVercelly, Sr., parents of Gary Jr., who was killed in a fraternity hazing ritual in 2007; Cindy Hipps, mother of Tucker, killed in 2014, Kim and TJ Burch, parents of Nolan, killed in 2014, Marie Andre, mother of George Desdunes, killed in 2011, and Eric and Linda Oakes, parents of Adam, killed in 2021. We believe hazing can be prevented, said the DeVercellys. The more time passes before legislation is enacted, the more likely it is that students will be emotionally and physically harmed or killed by these senseless acts. Congress must move quickly to save lives. The DeVercellys sit on the board of the nonprofit Clery Center and have dedicated their lives to the prevention of hazing since the death of their son. Their goal is to ensure that no other parent has to experience the unbearableand preventableloss of a child to hazing. Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Susan Collins (R-ME) joined as co-sponsors of the Act after meeting with the group of parents and advocates. Also co-sponsoring are Virginia Democratic Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine, who were galvanized by last years tragic hazing death of Virginia Commonwealth University student Adam Oakes and cited the importance of transparency and accountability in hazing incidents. A full list of co-sponsors in the Senate and co-sponsors in the House of Representatives can be found in the links above. The REACH Act currently sits with the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and the House Committee on Education and Labor. Heartened by the broad support of the bill from both sides of the aisle, the REACH Act coalition will head back to the Hill the week of September 19. Those unable to call on their representatives in person should keep in mind that politicians have a vested interest in listening to the voters who elect them. Those who want to stop the harmful consequences of hazing that occur far too often on our college campuses can make a difference by emailing their Senators and Representatives today and urging them to pass the REACH Act now. About ZeroNow ZeroNow is the movement by the safety community to protect our schools. We believe all safety technology should work jointly. ZeroNow brings safety assets and education leaders together to establish the standards for school safety technology. We drive a unified voice to educate policy makers on the need for increased investment in school safety. For more information, please visit ZeroNow.org About Clery Center Clery Center is a national nonprofit that has empowered colleges and universities to create safer campuses for over 35 years. With unparalleled expertise and in-depth training, resources, and strategies, we help institutions to understand and implement the Clery Act and to exemplify the spirit of the law with a proactive commitment to campus safety. Find out more at clerycenter.org. Prescriptive Capital, a Denver-based real estate private equity firm, and Houston-based healthcare developers Saber Street and CBK Interests have announced their plans to begin the initial development phase of a 45,000 square foot medical office building in The Woodlands, Texas. The building is 80% pre-leased to a large physician practice group that has made a long-term commitment to the building and to serving the surrounding community. The site is located on the heavily trafficked Kuykendahl Road, just south of Carlton Woods at Creekside - one of the wealthiest residential enclaves in The Woodlands with median home pricing currently exceeding $1.5 million. The three-story building will be developed on a 4.685-acre lot. Arch-Con Corporation has been selected as the general contractor and groundbreaking for the development is scheduled for December 2022. Creekside Park is one of the fastest-growing markets in The Woodlands, Texas, and it is underserved from a healthcare perspective, said Chris Haley, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Saber Street. Pre-leasing on this building will bring a variety of critical healthcare providers and services to the growing community. We are incredibly excited to partner with the Saber Street and CBK Interests team on this development, said Chris Bodnar, CEO of Prescriptive Capital. This project will be a significant and positive contribution to the community, and were grateful to be working alongside some of the best healthcare developers in Texas. ### About Prescriptive Capital Prescriptive Capital is a private equity firm focused exclusively on investing in alternative real estate investment sectors. With more than 60 years of combined experience in commercial real estate, Prescriptive Capitals principals have developed a distinct strategy rooted in data analytics that guides an investment approach with unrivaled precision. Prescriptive Capital sources the most resilient alternative real estate investment opportunities with limited correlation and maximum resistance to greater economic trends, allowing investors to further diversify their portfolio and enjoy favorable risk-adjusted returns across market cycles. For more information on Prescriptive Capital, please visit https://www.prescriptivecap.com About Saber Street & CBK Interests Saber Street is a boutique, full-service commercial real estate company based in Houston, Texas specializing in the sponsorship, development, ownership and operation of healthcare assets. Its principals have owned, developed, leased or managed over 2.9 million square feet and completed over $2.0 billion in principal and service-related transactions in their careers. Focused on transforming trusted relationships into strategic partnerships, Saber Street utilizes its expertise, experience and creativity in the field to collaborate with investors, physicians, ancillary service providers and health systems on their real estate requirements. For more information, please visit https://www.saberstreet.com. CBK Interests is a boutique real estate company based in Houston, Texas founded in 2014 by Cullen Kappler. CBK Interests specializes in the development, acquisition, and investment opportunities in commercial real estate. New socks are one of the most common items requested by charities that serve the unhoused. But theyre one of the least commonly donated items. We see a huge opportunity for Sock Club to make a difference Sock Club, one of the nations leading custom sock manufacturers, has announced that for every pair of socks it sells, it will donate a pair to charities helping the unhoused nationwide through partnerships with the Ronald McDonald House, The Other Ones Foundation, and Delivering Good. New socks are one of the most common items requested by charities that serve the unhoused. But theyre one of the least commonly donated items, said Sock Club co-Founder Noah Lee. People without good socks end up in the hospital with foot problems, and that only leads to more hardship in their lives. We see a huge opportunity for Sock Club to make a difference. Sock Club has pledged to donate 100,000 pairs of socks by New Year. As our business has grown, we have made it a core value to give back to the community, said Lee. We feel like its our responsibility to give warmth and comfort to those who need it most. Giving back socks seems like the perfect fit. One way that Sock Club gives back is by partnering with their clients to do so. Sock Club gives their clients the option to match each purchase of a custom sock with a donation to an organization of their choice. Corporate sustainability programs and corporate community development programs are always looking for a new, unique way to make a difference. Our hope is that by offering this option at no additional cost to our custom sock clients, we provide an easy solution that benefits our clients and their communities, said Lee. Sock Clubs partnerships with The Ronald McDonald House and The Other Ones focus on those in need in Central Texas. Meanwhile, their partnership with Delivering Good allows Sock Club to send socks to those in need nationwide, particularly in areas that have been devastated by natural disaster. About Sock Club: Sock Club is a sock company based in Austin, TX that was started 10 years ago with the spirit of helping people express themselves with socks! Sock Club designs and manufactures custom logo socks for businesses of all sizes, including Fortune 500 companies. Their socks are used as corporate gifts, tradeshow giveaways, employee appreciation gifts and more. InspiriTec Inc is celebrating its sixth straight year on the Philadelphia Inquirer Top Workplaces List, published August 21 in the Inquirer. Compiled by Exton, Pa.-based research company Energage Inc, selections were determined by surveys of employees in local businesses. Providing award-winning Contact Center and IT Help Desk solutions, InspiriTec is a social enterprise that affirmatively employs professionals with disabilities, veterans, and disadvantaged individuals. InspiriTec lived up to its social enterprise commitment in 2021. With the pandemic on again, off again, InspiriTec is working its way through a hybrid solution, welcoming those who can return to the office, especially those coming back to our expanded, renovated Philadelphia office, and continuing to support those working from home. In the past year InspiriTec has continued to provide the accommodations our employees needed, including Assistance with medical and medication needs, moving expenses, utilities, furniture expenses, car repair, and other transportation-related needs; Help with childcare and other kinds of pandemic-related supports; Temporary housing for employees in unsettled housing situations; Moving costs for new employees; Assistance for employees working from home, including computers and new or upgraded network services; Wellness initiatives including virtual Yoga, nutrition classes, and workplace exercise options; and Employee-focused counselling to help mitigate work-related stresses and challenges. InspiriTec employees were happy about the Top Workplace news but not surprised. Gordon Clinkscale, Chief Project Officer, said, For some companies, the why behind business is increased speed to market or stakeholder financial growth or performing better in a tough market. For us, the why is the employee. Theyre the reasons why were here. Our focus is always on that why. Aida Garman has been a Customer Service Representative at InspiriTec for eight years. So many facets about this company are unlike any other company I have ever worked for, she said. Its refreshing. Not only does Garman like the work she does helping callers with professional applications but also she likes where she does it, at home. I cant say enough about management, she said. They have made this possible. And if I ever have a problem, I feel I can contact anyone in management and say, Can we talk about this? And theyll support me. Tanisha Carter, a Team Lead for the Affordable Care Act project, said, I love the room for growth here. I was promoted within the first year. She also stressed the workplace atmosphere: Social service is part of the workplace. The beauty of working here is the mix of people with a mix of abilities, and everyone is cheered on and respected. I see people transformed by the compassion around them. For more information about the 2022 Inquirer Top Workplaces List, click here. For more information about the work and mission of InspiriTec, visit them at InspiriTec.org. About InspiriTec InspiriTec provides award-winning Contact Center and IT Help Desk solutions, delivering superior customer service by combining customized technology with affirmative employment of professionals with disabilities, veterans, and disadvantaged individuals. InspiriTec was founded in 2000 by a core management team under the Computer Science program at the University of Pennsylvania. Today, employees perform under an innovative social enterprise model that integrates intelligent technology with inspiring compassion to raise the standards of contact center and IT support for businesses, nonprofits, and government organizations. Wealth.com + Bennie Partnership Announcement Bennie (bennie.com), an employee benefits platform designed to make benefits more accessible and easier to understand, announced today they are partnering with Wealth.com (Wealth) and will be including them on their marketplace. Wealth is the most comprehensive digital estate planning solution currently available. Its a tangible financial wellness benefit employers can provide to protect their employees legacies and build generational wealth. The State of Estate Planning Report, published by Wealth, found that 72% of people surveyed said they would create a Will or Trust if offered by their employer, but currently, only 13% of employees surveyed receive estate planning as an existing benefit. Wealth's commitment to making estate planning a reality for everyone was a natural fit for us. Not only does offering estate planning as a benefit show employees you care about their financial futures, but its also a benefit people want. -Ronelle S. Lichman Vendor Partnerships, Bennie Wealths digital platform guides individuals through creating and customizing high-quality legal documents that can be updated anytime, so the process is straightforward and intuitive. There is a lot of alignment between our mission to make estate planning accessible and Bennies dedication to providing better benefits to everyone. Estate planning is vital to a complete financial benefits package. Our end-to-end solution and dynamic platform make it easy for employees to start securing their familys future. -Tim White Chief Growth Officer, Wealth About Bennie Bennie is the modern benefits platform for mid-sized companies. With an easy-to-use app and world-class brokerage services, Bennie is reimagining the entire benefits experience for employers and their employees. Headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut with employees across the US, this successful, proven team of industry innovators & experts have come together from top benefits firms, technology startups, and insurance carriers to create a better benefits experience. Bennie is committed to not only helping companies create healthier workplaces, but also building a better world. 1% of the companys equity has been pledged to supporting community and health-related causes, so as the company grows, so does the size and scope of our commitment. About Wealth Wealth.com was designed by trust and estate law, personal financial management and data security experts. Together they built the most comprehensive digital estate planning platform on the market. Wealth provides professional quality legal document creation, asset inventory management, secure file storage and collaboration tools. Creating an estate plan with Wealth gives a holistic view of a persons assets, visualized and securely stored in one place. Wealth is available to customers throughout the United States as well as two key tailored segments: For employers to offer as an employee benefit For Financial Advisors to offer to their clients ### Bennie Media Contact: Chris Flores press@bennie.com Wealth Media Contact: Lucas Miller lucas.miller@wealth.com Tennessee Wines We are thrilled to launch this trail. With the help of the Tennessee Wine and Grape Board, this endeavor allows Tennessee to have a program focused specifically on the fantastic wines, meads, and ciders produced in Tennessee, said Laura Swanson, TFWA Executive Director. Tennessee Farm Winegrowers Alliance (TFWA), the official statewide organization that supports wineries and vineyards in Tennessee, has launched the first ever Tennessee Wine Trail. This free, passport-based wine trail, available to anyone 21 and over, is comprised of over 40 participating wineries, including those that produce mead and cider. Showcasing the best of Tennessees wine industry, this easy and mobile friendly passport is your ticket to the wonderful wines of Tennessee. We are thrilled to launch this trail. With the help of the Tennessee Wine and Grape Board, this endeavor allows Tennessee to have a program focused specifically on the fantastic wines, meads, and ciders produced in Tennessee, said Laura Swanson, TFWA Executive Director. Conversations around the statewide wine trail began earlier this year and led TFWA to Bandwango, a well-known technology company designed to support both free and paid experiences created by destinations that are marketing to visitors as well as locals. Using this technology, TFWA began working with wineries across Tennessee this summer to establish the statewide trail. We here at Grinders Switch Winery are looking forward to meeting new faces from across the great state of Tennessee and beyond, said Jodie Morgan, co-owner of Grinders Switch Winery. Through this passport, wine lovers will be able to visit a dedicated mobile landing page where they can sign up for the Tennessee Wine Trail by providing their name, e-mail address, and mobile phone number. A link is then sent to their mobile phone, which opens the passport and directs the user to add the button icon to their home screen where they can access it any time. There is never anything to download and no bulky apps take up space on a users phone. The process is very simple, said Swanson. After logging in, the visitor has to click only once in order to check-in at the participating winery, meadery, or cidery. GPS from the phone will automatically validate the location and after 10 visits, a prize will be on its way! Passport holders can earn prizes at certain intervals, including a free VIP pass to an upcoming wine festival. Sign up for the Tennessee Wine Trail by visiting tennesseewines.com and visit us on all of the social media @tennesseewines. Asphalt Contractor & Pavement Maintenance Magazines host in-person event to help invigorate and educate the asphalt and pavement industry. IGNITE was designed to really set the tone for business development in 2023 and beyond, says Amy Schwandt, Chief Revenue Officer, AC Business Media. Our goal is to provide all who attend with immediate and lasting impacts. Asphalt Contractor and Pavement Maintenance & Reconstruction magazine opens registration for the IGNITE Construction Summit, an in-person event designed to bring together pavement maintenance and asphalt paving business owners and high-level managers who are dedicated to lighting a fire within their company. IGNITE was created to serve business owners and high-level managers who are ready to take their businesses to the next level, says Amy Schwandt, Chief Revenue Officer, AC Business Media. We feel passionate about educating paving and pavement maintenance contractors and strongly believe this three-day event offers laser-focused content and networking opportunities to accelerate their growth and capitalize on their efficiencies. The IGNITE Construction Summit, which will take place December 7-9, 2022 at the Sandpearl Resort in Clearwater Beach, Florida, will kick off with an opening industry roundtable to discuss the current state of the asphalt paving and pavement maintenance industries and what trends and challenges they should be on the lookout for in the months ahead. Day two will bring to the stage a keynote address from Andrew Davis, bestselling author and well-known speaker, who will discuss how to lead through change and adversity, teaching companies how to grow their businesses, transform their cities, and leave their legacy. Attendees will take part in four sessions with industry experts across the asphalt and pavement maintenance fields. Sessions will be dedicated to solving the critical issues contractors are facing right now with leading industry experts and national association representatives. From winning more work to overcoming supply chain challenges, regulatory issues and hiring struggles, each panel will bring a wealth of ideas and perspective to empower attendees. We are extremely excited to bring this unprecedented level of thought leadership to IGNITE attendees, says Jessica Lombardo, Conference Manager, AC Business Media. Education in the pavement industry is so important at every stage of business growth and these panelists will provide actionable insight that owners and managers can take back to their companies for immediate impact. Throughout the event, attendees will also have the opportunity to attend networking receptions with their peers and sponsors from manufacturers that will allow for continued conversation and next level engagement. The event also features a Keynote Panel from the Association of Equipment Manufacturers. The panel will take a deep dive into their exclusive State of the Industry and What Lies Ahead report with valuable insight from leading manufacturers on what is coming down the road for the purchase of equipment and services. The program will close with a session on technology and innovation that will leave contractors feeling ready to go back to their companies embracing change that will fuel their growth. Schwandt, who has intimately served the paving and pavement maintenance industries for two decades, believes this program will be game-changing for attendees and sponsors alike. IGNITE was designed to really set the tone for business development in 2023 and beyond, Schwandt adds. Our goal is to provide all who attend with immediate and lasting impacts. Go to https://www.igniteconstructionsummit.com/ to register, inquire about sponsoring or speaking, and to learn more about this very exclusive event. About Asphalt Contractor Published by AC Business Media, Asphalt Contractor is distributed to over 10,000 contractors in three major sectors: paving, preservation, and plants. The magazine, published ten times yearly, provides how-to articles and cutting-edge information on the entire life cycle of asphalt pavements to improve the readers bottom line and competitiveness. To learn more, or apply for any of our industry award recognition programs, visit: ForConstructionPros.com/asphalt About Pavement Maintenance & Reconstruction Published by AC Business Media, Pavement Maintenance & Reconstruction magazine is distributed to over 18,000 contractors in the paving, sealcoating, pavement marking, repair, and sweeping segments. The magazine, published eight times yearly, provides how-to information to help contractors run their business more profitably and stay up-to-date on the industry trends, technological developments in materials and equipment, and on-the-job techniques that can improve productivity and add to their bottom line. To learn more, or apply for any of our industry award recognition programs, visit: ForConstructionPros.com/pavement-maintenance About ForConstructionPros.com As the largest construction network in North America, ForConstructionPros.com is the industry leading informational media site that is comprised of the following construction brands: Asphalt Contractor, Concrete Contractor, Equipment Today, Pavement Maintenance & Reconstruction, and Rental. For over 35 years, ForConstructionPros.com has been providing news updates, coverage on new equipment and technology, industry trends, data analytics, and industry best practices to help contractors run their business more profitably. To learn more, visit: ForConstructionPros.com About AC Business Media AC Business Media is a leading business-to-business media and business intelligence company with a portfolio of renowned brands in heavy construction, asphalt, concrete, paving, rental, sustainability, landscape, manufacturing, logistics, and supply chain markets. AC Business Media delivers relevant, cutting-edge content to its audiences through its industry-leading digital properties, trade shows, videos, magazines, webinars, and newsletters. It also provides advertisers the analytics, data, and ability to reach their target audience. Learn more at https://www.acbusinessmedia.com/ Most ACDelco Gold batteries are available with a discount this month Carl Black Orlando, a Chevrolet, Buick and GMC dealership, is offering drivers discounted new vehicle batteries this month. Most ACDelco Gold 30-MO batteries are available for $159.95 at the dealership. The price includes the cost of the battery and the cost of installation, as well as a complimentary warranty. The price doesnt include taxes. The warranty that comes with ACDelco Gold batteries is a 30-month free-replacement limited warranty. That means if the new battery fails and qualifies for warranty coverage within a 30-month period, the purchaser can qualify for a completely new battery for free. Drivers should talk to a member of the Carl Black Orlando service team if they want to learn more about warranty part details and qualifications. Installation of the batteries is included in the discounted $159.95 price. However, some vehicles may cost extra for installation. Drivers should contact the dealerships service team if they think their vehicle may fall into that category and would like to confirm the cost. Drivers who are interested in this temporary offer can find the service coupon and a service scheduler online at the Carl Black Orlando website, carlblackoforlando.com. Business hours and directions to the dealership are also available on the website. Any questions or concerns should be directed to the dealership. With the rising cost of health insurance, we wanted to give CCCU members the opportunity to provide an affordable option for paying medical bills. Christian Community Credit Union (CCCU) has partnered with OneShare Health to offer a health care sharing ministry as a new membership benefit. OneShare Health is an Affordable Care Act (ACA)-exempt medical bill sharing program that provides a Biblical healthcare alternative to traditional health insurance. With the rising cost of health insurance, we wanted to give CCCU members the opportunity to provide an affordable option for paying medical bills, said Blair Korschun, CCCU President/CEO. With our mission of helping Christ followers to live and give more abundantly, partnering with OneShare made sense as both organizations share the values of serving the faith community and giving back. CCCU members will save 40% on the OneShare enrollment fee with monthly contributions starting as low as $89.99. OneShare Health is not health insurance but a Biblical, affordable, and flexible medical sharing program. OneShare Health members can choose ANY doctor or facility nationwide. Services include access to 24/7 telemedicine at no cost, preventive services, doctor and specialist visits, Emergency Room, maternity, cancer, and so much more. Our relationship with Christian Community Credit Union is a true testament that we are working together to make a difference in the community and build one another up, said Michelle Berndt, Vice President of Strategic Development. Everyone should have access to health care; unfortunately, not everyone can afford it. OneShare Health breaks the mold by offering inclusive, feature-rich programs that meet a variety of lifestyle and budgetary needs. Thanks to the monthly contributions made by their members, Texas-based OneShare Health has succeeded in sharing over $161 million in medical expenses as well as $1.8 million in charitable donations. For more information about OneShares new benefit exclusive to CCCU members, visit my.onesharehealth.com/osh-cccu or call 833.666.0617. OneShare Health is an ACA-exempt Health Care Sharing Ministry that facilitates the sharing of medical expenses among individuals and families united by shared religious beliefs. Health care sharing ministries are not traditional health insurance and do not accept risk or make guarantees regarding payment of bills submitted by members. Christian Community Credit Union has over $880 million in assets and over 30,000 members nationwide. For over 65 years, the Credit Union has served as a financial partner of Christian ministries, churches, and their members. Download logo of Christian Community Credit Union and OneShare Health. Its always special to receive an award. To be honored by my peers is incredibly gratifying. said Dr Knoll I am also grateful to the talented and dedicated staff I work with. In the end, its about providing quality patient care. Castle Connolly announced its 2022 Top Doctors, a list that represents the top seven percent of doctors in the nation. SightMD is proud to announce that 19 of their physicians are among these standouts. SightMDs Top Doctors are: Dr. Alexander Hatsis, Dr. Allen Greenbaum, Dr. David Immanuel, Dr. Faye Knoll, Dr. Irene Magramm, Dr. James Gordon, Dr. Jeffrey Martin, Dr. John Mauro, Dr. Laurence Rubin, Dr. Lawrence Buono, Dr. Lawrence Zweibel, Dr. Michelle Liebert, Dr. Norman Saffra, Dr. Paul Choinski, Dr. Paul Sforza, Dr. Richard Nattis, Dr. Seth Potash, Dr. Ted Karl and Dr. William Kasper. These outstanding doctors were nominated by their peers and thoroughly validated by Castle Connollys research team to ensure that they deliver the highest quality patient care. The 2022 list is the largest ever, as it included more than 61,000 physicians across all specialties in every major metropolitan market. Dr. Alexander Hatsis is a board certified ophthalmologist specializing in complicated cataracts and laser vision correction. He was one of the expert U.S. surgeons to help gain FDA-approval for laser vision correction and was the first surgeon to perform LASIK on Long Island in 1995. Dr Allen S. Greenbaum is a board-certified ophthalmologist serving the Westchester community. Dr. Greenbaum is a comprehensive ophthalmologist, with a special interest in refractive cataract surgery, including laser cataract surgery with premium lens implants. Dr. David Immanuel is a board certified ophthalmologist specializing in laser cataract surgery with advanced technology lenses and laser vision correction (LASIK and PRK). He is also a cornea and external disease specialist with expertise in corneal transplants and pterygium excisions. He received both MD and PhD degrees from the Medical Scientist Program at NYU and has trained many ophthalmology residents at Nassau University Medical Center. Dr. Faye Knoll is a board certified ophthalmologist specializing in both laser and traditional cataract surgery as well as laser vision correction including LASIK and PRK. Dr Knoll completed a fellowship at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary in cornea and external diseases of the eye. Its always special to receive an award. To be honored by my peers is incredibly gratifying. said Dr Knoll I am also grateful to the talented and dedicated staff I work with. In the end, its about providing quality patient care. Dr. Knoll has been a part of the SightMD team since 2012. Her favorite part of her job is developing lifelong relationships with her patients. Dr. Irene Magramm is a board certified ophthalmologist specializing in strabismus surgery and relief of double vision in children and adults. She also enjoys general ophthalmology in children and adults. Dr. James R. Gordon is a board certified ophthalmologist and oculofacial surgeon with over 20 years of experience. He has particular expertise in the handling of challenging and complex cases. He has published numerous papers and has given extensive lectures on ocular disease and eyelids and facial cosmetic procedures, including innovative techniques for fillers & injectables. Dr. Jeffrey Martin is a board certified ophthalmologist and is President and Co-Founder of SightMD. Dr. Martin joined his father's ophthalmology practice in 1997 and is proud to have helped it become a regional leader in eye care. "I am thrilled every day to have the privilege of caring for my patients. said Dr Martin Being recognized by Castle Connolly is an honor." Dr. Martin is a specialist in both LASIK and cataract surgery. Dr. John Mauro is a board certified ophthalmologist specializing in cataract and LASIK vision correction surgery. He is driven to provide exceptional eyesight to his patients and make them feel as comfortable as possible throughout their eyecare journey. It is a prestigious honor and a privilege to be recognized by Castle Connolly said Dr Mauro Dr. Laurence Rubin is a board certified ophthalmologist with over 25 years of experience in comprehensive eye care. Dr. Rubin strives to provide the highest quality eye care by carefully listening to and observing every patient he sees. Dr. Lawrence Buono is a board certified ophthalmologist that treats all medical and surgical conditions of the eye. As the attending neuro-ophthalmologist at the Duke Eye Center, he had the opportunity to care for patients with complex neuro-ophthalmic conditions and worked closely with the Department of Neurosurgery at the Duke University Brain Tumor Center. Dr. Michelle Liebert is a board certified pediatric ophthalmologist specializing in strabismus surgery. Dr. Liebert takes a personal interest in each and every one of her patients, caring for each as if they were her own. One of her favorite aspects of being a doctor is that she can follow her patients from prematurity until adulthood. Dr. Norman Saffra is one of the nations leading ophthalmic laser and microsurgeons and is known for his expertise in treating diseases that cause visual loss. It is such a great honor to be recognized by Castle Connolly for over two decades said Dr Saffra. Dr Saffra is an expert in conditions affecting the posterior segment of the eye, specifically those that involve the optic nerve, or the retina and vitreous. Dr. Paul A. Choinski is a board-certified ophthalmologist who has over 30 years of medical and surgical experience in private practice as an eye doctor in Eastern Long Island. I feel very honored and flattered to be recognized by Castle Connolly for my 32 years of eye care for the eastern Long Island community said Dr Choinski. Dr Choinski practices comprehensive ophthalmology with an emphasis on cataract surgery including the use of femtosecond cataract surgery and advanced intraocular lens implant technologies. Dr Choinski loves to see patients leave with a smile on their face. Dr. Paul Sforza is a board certified fellowship-trained Cornea specialist with special training and interest in femtosecond laser assisted cataract surgery, premium intraocular lenses, and laser vision correction (LASIK/PRK). Dr Sforza is known for performing cutting-edge surgery with a warm bedside manner. Dr. Richard Nattis is a board certified ophthalmologist specializing in cataract and laser vision correction surgery. Dr. Nattis has been performing laser refractive surgery (PRK-LASIK) since it was approved by the FDA in 1995. It is humbling and a great honor to be on this list for over 20 years. said Dr. Nattis To be recognized by fellow physicians consistently is evidence of excellent patient care and gives credit to my personal, compassionate and advanced treatment of my patients. Dr. Nattis actively teaches medical and emergency room resident physicians, as well as medical students interested in Ophthalmology. Dr. Seth D. Potash is a Board Certified Ophthalmologist and fellowship-trained Glaucoma specialist proudly serving the Westchester community. "Professionally speaking, the two most important things to me is to provide outstanding patient care and be respected by my peers. said Dr. Potash It is such a nice honor to be named to Castle Connolly's Top Doctor List because this award is purely based on recognition and the recommendations from my medical colleagues." Dr. Potash specializes in glaucoma subspecialty care and cataract surgery, both routine and complex, and has performed thousands of laser and surgical procedures. Dr. Ted Karl is a board certified ophthalmologist who combines his vast experience with his dedicated skill to provide high quality eye care to all of his patients. Dr. William Kasper is a board certified ophthalmologist who emphasized the importance of early diagnosis and treatment of ocular disorders. He is an active member of the local ophthalmology community, contributing to the scientific and educational information of several ophthalmologic societies, and training residents in the art and science of the specialty at the Nassau County Medical Center. When compiling the list, Castle Connollys research team thoroughly vets each physicians professional qualifications, education, hospital and faculty appointments, research leadership, reputation, disciplinary history and, if available, data outcomes. Additionally, a physicians interpersonal skillssuch as listening and communicating effectively, demonstration of empathy, and instilling trust and confidenceare also considered in the review process. The Castle Connolly Doctor Directory is the largest network of peer-nominated physicians. These Top Doctors are among the most highly sought-after medical professionals in their communities. SightMD prides itself on having more Castle Connolly Top Doctors than any other practice in New York, and are thrilled to announce this year's list and recognize all of our hard working physicians. About Castle Connolly With over 25 years experience in researching, reviewing and selecting Top Doctors, Castle Connolly is a trusted and credible source. In fact, a 2018 study that was published in the Journal of Medical Research found that across several specialties, Castle Connollys peer-reviewed directory was much more reliable than sites which just relied on patient reviews when it came to identifying quality care. Castle Connollys mission is to help people find the best healthcare by connecting patients with best-in-class providers. For more information, visit https://www.castleconnolly.com. About SightMD SightMD is a rapidly-growing integrated ophthalmic provider group that offers patients access to over 80 eye care providers through the convenience of 40 locations across New York. SightMD's track record of providing clinically-excellent care spans over 50 years, and its services include general eye exams, laser cataract surgery and lens implantation, glaucoma management, retinal disorder treatment, corneal services, neuro-ophthalmology, LASIK laser vision correction, oculoplastic surgery, pediatric ophthalmology, and audiology. Sight Growth Partners is the administrative services provider for SightMD. For more information about SightMD, please visit https://www.sightmd.com/sightmd-ny/ Seeking The One True Living God: a potent reminder of the variable ways in which mankind reaches a connection with God. Seeking The One True Living God is the creation of published author Dr. Cassandra L. Friend, a child of the One True Living God, wife, mother, daughter, sister, and science educator. Dr. Friend is a native of Charleston, South Carolina, and currently resides in Williamsburg County, where her family has strong roots. She has devoted her life to her faith and the path in which the Holy Spirit leads, and firmly believes in healing and strengthening the brokenhearted through faith, hope, and love. Dr. Friend works as an education consultant to provide educational consulting services for individuals, faith-based organizations, public and private schools. Dr. Friend shares, Are you tired of playing church? Have you truly experienced the presence of the Living God in your life? If you have not experienced the presence of the Lord God in your life, then the transformation starts now! Seeking the One True Living God is written to help you begin understanding who you are in Christ. Christianity is not attending church every Saturday or Sunday, singing in the choir, wearing a religious symbol, or being a minister. Christianity is a lifestyle, one of holiness and righteousness in the eyes of the Lord God Almighty. Dr. C. L. Friends spiritual journey may be similar to others who have left the church, in search of something real. Finding that missing piece of your life starts within these pages. Seeking the One True Living God will probe your thinking in what you truly believe. This book will encourage you to stand strong on your faith and seek the Scriptures for understanding. Salvation is a journey, and you must walk with a clear understanding of what you believe. This book was designed so people are not scattered about wandering around the world lost and not fully able to explain their beliefs. Many people do not know what they believe; however, this book will put into perspective the dire need to seek after the Lord of Hosts. The Lord does not wish for any to perish, so seek the wisdom from above. True Christians are called to be an example, a light in this world. Seeking the One True Living God points out the importance that followers of Christ need to let their light shine brightly! This book also encourages professing Christians to be the church and not just be in the church. Glory be to the One True Living God. Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Dr. Cassandra L. Friends new book will challenge and empower readers to pursue a reconnection with their faith and ultimately God. Dr. Friend shares in hopes of aiding others to find true fulfillment through a profound spiritual rejuvenation. Consumers can purchase Seeking The One True Living God at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or inquiries about Seeking The One True Living God, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919. "Its a tremendous honor to receive this prestigious award, which demonstrates our commitment to innovation through seamless collaboration with customers and partners, providing cutting-edge products and solutions to address critical challenges of today and tomorrow." DuPont Microcircuit and Component Materials (MCM) announced that its GreenTape 9KC Low-Temperature Co-fired Ceramic (LTCC) has recently won a 2022 R&D 100 Award, R&D Magazine's signature program designed to identify and celebrate the top 100 revolutionary technologies introduced in the previous year. For the past 60 years, the R&D 100 Awards have comprised the most prestigious innovation awards program, honoring great R&D pioneers and their revolutionary ideas in science and technology. "Its a tremendous honor to receive this prestigious award, which demonstrates our commitment to innovation through seamless collaboration with customers and partners, providing cutting-edge products and solutions to address critical challenges of today and tomorrow, said DuPont MCM Global Technology Leader Yu-Ling Hsiao. The MCM GreenTape 9KC LTCC system with Ag metallization is known for extremely low dielectric loss at Df 0.0009 throughout the 5G millimeter wave wireless communication frequencies. This system enables economic mass production for high-reliability modules featuring heterogenous IC packaging, antennae, and signal routing. The project co-developer, Taiwans Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), with support from the Technology Division of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, invested in the deployment of high-frequency materials for communications. ITRI successfully designed, built, and tested a system based on a 9KC Antenna in Package (AiP) that demonstrates the power of the material platform to provide a tangible reference design aligned with the cost structure of volume production. "To meet the component requirement for RF transceiver in various frequency bands for 5G mmWave, ITRI established the advanced key technologies to implement and validate the feasibility and high design freedom of LTCC technology for mmWave communication applications, said Tzong-Ming Lee, Vice President and General Director of Material and Chemical Research Laboratories at ITRI, adding, "We made a breakthrough in 5G mmWave applications in collaboration with DuPont MCM, and jointly developed the AiP module with excellent thermal conductivity and sustained low loss, which are ideal for high-frequency applications." GreenTape LTCC materials will be offered in the future to advance instant communication for autonomous vehicles, 5G mmWave band, military operations, remote surgery, robotics, and other applications. About DuPont Microcircuit and Component Materials DuPont Microcircuit and Component Materials (MCM) is a leading global supplier of printable, stretchable, and thermoformable functional inks and pastes. With over 50 years of developing products for our customers, we are relied upon every day in automotive electronics, telecommunications systems, consumer electronics, aerospace, satellite communications, military, industrial, bio, and healthcare applications. We are committed to innovation through seamless collaboration with customers, providing cutting-edge products and solutions to address critical challenges of today and tomorrow. To learn more about the MCM business, please visit https://www.dupont.com/brands/microcircuit-and-component-materials.html. About DuPont DuPont (NYSE: DD) is a global innovation leader with technology-based materials and solutions that help transform industries and everyday life. Our employees apply diverse science and expertise to help customers advance their best ideas and deliver essential innovations in key markets including electronics, transportation, construction, water, healthcare and worker safety. More information about the company, its businesses and solutions can be found at http://www.dupont.com. Investors can access information included on the Investor Relations section of the website at investors.dupont.com. About ITRI Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) is one of the worlds leading technology R&D institutions aiming to innovate a better future for society. Founded in 1973, ITRI has played a vital role in transforming Taiwans industries from labor-intensive into innovation-driven. To address market needs and global trends, it has launched its 2030 Technology Strategy & Roadmap and focuses on innovation development in Smart Living, Quality Health, and Sustainable Environment. It also strives to strengthen Intelligentization Enabling Technology to support diversified applications. Over the years, ITRI has been dedicated to incubating startups and spinoffs, including well-known names such as UMC and TSMC. In addition to its headquarters in Taiwan, ITRI has branch offices in the U.S., Europe, and Japan in an effort to extend its R&D scope and promote international cooperation across the globe. For more information, please visit https://www.itri.org/eng. # # # DuPont, the DuPont Oval Logo, and all trademarks and service mark denoted with , SM or are owned by affiliates of DuPont de Nemours, Inc. unless otherwise noted. 9/9/22 Law Office of Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP For more information about the class action lawsuit against Smart & Final Stores LLC, call (800) 568-8020 to speak to an experienced California employment attorney today. The Los Angeles employment law attorneys at Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP, filed a class action complaint alleging that Smart & Final Stores LLC violated the California Labor Code. The Smart & Final Stores LLC, class action lawsuit, Case No. 22STCV25180, is currently pending in the Los Angeles County Superior Court of the State of California. A copy of the Complaint can be read here. The complaint alleges Smart & Final Stores LLC failed to reimburse employees for required business expenses. California Labor Code 2802 expressly states that "an employer shall indemnify his or her employee for all necessary expenditures or losses incurred by the employee in direct consequence of the discharge of his or her duties..." During employment, Plaintiff and other California Class Members were allegedly required to use their personal cellular phones and personal home offices. As a result, employees allegedly incurred business expenses. Additionally, the complaint alleges Smart & Final Stores LLC failed to fully relieve Plaintiff and other California Class Members 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 Smart & Final Stores LLC, 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*** ER Injury Attorneys - Sponsors of 2022 Superhero 5K One of the highest priorities of ER Injury Attorneys is to support local organizations that positively impact our local communities. ER Injury Attorneys has actively supported the Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation of Southern Nevadas annual Superhero 5K for over a decade. For 2022, the Las Vegas law firm is honored to once again show its support as a major sponsor of the Candlelighters Superhero 5K. The fun-run and walk takes place on September 17th at Exploration Park at Mountains Edge (9700 S Buffalo Dr., Las Vegas, 89178) at 8:00 a.m. and directly benefits the children and families served by the foundation. In addition to sponsoring the 5K fun-run and 1 mile walk, team members from ER Injury Attorneys are hosting an event booth to give away chilly snow cones and more. One of the highest priorities of our team is to support local organizations that positively impact our local communities. Candlelighters is such an organization. The invaluable emotional and medicinal support it offers goes a long way to ease the hardships families face when battling childhood cancer, stated founding attorney Corey Eschweiler. Interested in joining the law firm in giving back to help raise life-saving funds for the Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation of Southern Nevada? Register or make a donation online now. You can also email Info@CandleLightersNV.org or call (702) 737-1919 or to find out even more about the Candlelighters Superhero 5K. More About ER Injury Attorneys Helping Southern Nevada injury victims put their lives back on track after an accident is a top priority of the legal team at ER Injury Attorneys. In fact, their award-winning lawyers have built a reputation for providing the highest level of service by taking the time to listen, learn, and evaluate the needs of those who contact their law firm. This attention to detail not only promotes a positive and open collaboration, but also a higher success rate in terms of negotiating the best possible results. For more information about ER Injury Attorneys and their dedication to serve and assist local community members, please visit erinjuryattorneys.com or call 702-878-7878. ### PrEP is a life-saving medication that blocks HIV from replicating in the body. It is a highly effective approach to prevent HIV transmission that was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2012... This week, a United States District Court judge in Texas ruled that the Affordable Care Acts requirement that health insurance plans cover pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) violates the religious rights of employers. PrEP is a life-saving medication that blocks HIV from replicating in the body. It is a highly effective approach to prevent HIV transmission that was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2012 and has been recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since 2014 as a treatment for people at high risk of HIV infection. Fenway Health researchers were part of a global team who developed PrEP as an HIV prevention tool, and our providers prescribe PrEP to everyone who needs and wants it. This ruling comes just months after the U.S. Supreme Court found that there is no Constitutional right to abortion, effectively making this medical procedure out of reach for millions. Only 11 states in the country currently have laws that protect the right to abortion. In March, Arizona became the latest state to block access to gender-affirming health care for transgender and gender diverse children and adolescents. Numerous other state legislatures are considering similar bans. These legal and legislative barriers to medically necessary care harm the health and well-being of individuals, families, and communities. These laws disproportionately impact people who are BIPOC, cisgender women, and/or people who receive their health care through Medicaid. Fenway Health was founded on the principle that health care is a right, not a privilege. We are as committed to that core belief now as we were when we were founded over fifty years ago. We will continue to do everything in our power to ensure that the people who count on us and people everywhere have access to the health care they need. GO Car Wash expanded its presence on the west coast with the acquisition of Wash N Go Depot including 3 operating sites in Medford, Oregon. With this acquisition, GO Car Wash will now operate 115 locations in 8 states. Our former team members and customers are going to be in excellent hands with the GO Car Wash team, said Kelly Geiger, Wash N Go Depot Founder. I am excited to know the business will continue to provide great service to Oregon communities under the GO Car Wash name. Our growth strategy in Oregon is the same as we are executing in other core markets, said Chris Andersen, VP of Business Development. We enter markets with a platform acquisition of 3+ sites and then follow with aggressive acquisition and greenfield development. We have development partners on the ground in Oregon and we expect to build 25+ sites from northern California to southern Washington, including Portland, along the I-5 corridor. We see from our success in markets such as Kansas City, San Antonio, and Rochester, that density leads to higher customer satisfaction said Brett Meinberg, Chief Operating Officer. Customers appreciate having a network of car washes to choose from, resulting in higher membership levels and better retention. In late 2021, GO Car Wash hired Nick Koros as its Chief Development officer. Nick has 20+ years experience building roadside consumer brands with Lifetime Fitness, Boston Market, PF Changs, and Starbucks. Nick has built a strong team of real estate, development, and construction professionals alongside multiple development partners. We are pleased with the progress we are making to become a highly experienced car wash builder. said Bill Derwin, CEO of GO Car Wash. We are bringing 25 to 50 greenfield sites to market per year, says Nick Koros, Chief Development Officer. In addition to Oregon, we are building in all core markets such as Kansas City, Las Vegas, San Antonio, Austin, Southern Texas, Southern California, Upstate New York and Virginia. About GO Car Wash GO Car Wash was founded in 2019 with the goal of building a multi-regional car wash company with clusters throughout secondary cities across North America. Headquartered in Denver, CO GO Car Wash will focus on high-quality exterior express car washes, with a multi-pronged growth strategy of acquisitions, partnerships, and greenfield development. Contacts Bill Derwin bill.derwin@gocarwash.com Chris Andersen chris.andersen@gocarwash.com Links http://www.gocarwash.com SOURCE: GO Car Wash Hyundai of Moreno Valley Offers Online Pre-Approval for Auto Loan in Moreno Valley, California Getting approved for a vehicle loan might not be as easy as it sounds. People from various backgrounds might have diverse credit histories affecting their loan approvals. Customers near the Moreno Valley area in California can now get online pre-approval for vehicle loans from Hyundai of Moreno Valley, a renowned automotive dealership in the locality. At Hyundai of Moreno Valley, prospective car buyers can apply for an auto loan online by filling out a simple application form on the dealerships official website. The process hardly takes a handful of minutes and customers can check their eligibility for a car loan in a hassle-free manner. Interested parties need to fill in their basic personal info, employment information, and details of the car of their choice. After submitting the application, a Hyundai of Moreno Valley finance team member will contact you to assist you through the remainder of the process. All the personally identifiable information collected through this application will be stored securely and will be used by the Hyundai of Moreno Valley Credit Application staff only for the purpose of facilitating a relationship or business transaction. Customers are recommended to visit the Hyundai of Murano Valley dealership in person at 27500 Eucalyptus Avenue, Moreno Valley, California, 92555. Drivers can also reach out to the dealerships customer service team at 951-900-4248 for information on credit approval, automotive financing or additional assistance. J. W. Reeds interest in archeology, history and science inspired him to write Genetic Memory of the Cazadores (published by Trafford Publishing), a sci-fi novel that elaborates upon the plausible science of translating the locked codes of genetic memory to re-create a compelling story of human experience. In the near future, the brilliant neuro-scientist Steven Marshall collaborates with Robert Walker, his devious post-doc student to discover access to Genetic Memory residing in all of humanity. Here, Robert undertakes his dangerous journey of the mind and uncovers a past available to all hidden deep in the abyss of human history. Expanding on the science and technology of the present, this book is fiction, though I hope prescient fiction, a wishful harbinger of the next step in the evolution of our own species. Enjoy and, if you are so inclined, I look forward to any feedback, comments or possible contributions you may have to offer, Reed says. When asked what he wants readers to take away from the book, Reed answers, Look into your own past lives. You know your ancestors have always been there, and, if you quiet your mind and listen for the natural world, you can hear their voices. You are here because of them. It was their toil, suffering, successes, accomplishments, and love that created you, and you are their crowning achievement. You dont have access to a scalar, Neuromorphic computer running heuristic software, yet, but it may be coming soon. For more details about the book, please visit https://www.trafford.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/840194-genetic-memory-of-the-cazadores Genetic Memory of the Cazadores By J. W. Reed Softcover | 6 x 9in | 346 pages | ISBN 9781698711133 E-Book | 346 pages | ISBN 9781698711126 Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble Trafford Publishing, an Author Solutions, LLC, author services imprint, was the first publisher in the world to offer an on-demand publishing service, and has led the independent publishing revolution since its establishment in 1995. Trafford was also one of the earliest publishers to utilize the Internet for selling books. More than 10,000 authors from over 120 countries have utilized Traffords experience for self publishing their books. For more information about Trafford Publishing, or to publish your book today, call 844-688-6899 or visit trafford.com. The Torah: The First Five Books of the Bible: In the Beginning, the Lord God Spoke: Genesis 1:1, 3; Exodus 3:4; Deuteronomy 6:4-9; 8:3: a helpful guide to understanding five key books of the Bible. The Torah: The First Five Books of the Bible: In the Beginning, the Lord God Spoke: Genesis 1:1, 3; Exodus 3:4; Deuteronomy 6:4-9; 8:3 is the creation of published author Rev. Harold E. Petersen, a native of Wisconsin who attended Waldorf and Concordia Colleges. Rev. Petersen served as a missionary pastor/teacher in Ethiopia for six years. Rev. Petersen shares, The Word of God, the Bible, has been a vital part of my life. We had family devotions, I went to Sunday school and memorized verses. In confirmation, we studied the Bible and catechism. In worship texts from the Old Testament, epistles, and gospels were read every Sunday. These continue to draw me into the Word. I was in high school when I began to read the Bible through in a year. As I would read, I would mark verses that had special meaning for me. Some chapters were so full of gems of truth that I chose several. The Torah, the first five books of the Bible are the work of Moses. He recorded the beginning of the universe. He traced the human family to the point when the Lord chose one family, Abrahams. There is the record of the escape from Egypt, the establishment of the covenant at Mount Sinai and the years of life in the wilderness. I find gems in these books that stretch my faith by explaining what it means to obey the Lord in all things. Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Rev. Harold E. Petersens new book brings an engaging study of the Torah to life. Rev. Petersen continues to motivate and encourage study of the Bible in hopes of aiding others in experiencing a fulfilling spiritual life. Consumers can purchase The Torah: The First Five Books of the Bible: In the Beginning, the Lord God Spoke: Genesis 1:1, 3; Exodus 3:4; Deuteronomy 6:4-9; 8:3 at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or inquiries about The Torah: The First Five Books of the Bible: In the Beginning, the Lord God Spoke: Genesis 1:1, 3; Exodus 3:4; Deuteronomy 6:4-9; 8:3, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919. Im thrilled that I can bring Dolby Atmos to Kentucky. Theres nothing like it in the area. Artists now have a place they can come to get a mix, or monitor their mixes...Atmos is going to revolutionize music. Its here to stay. - Daniel Rucker SoundxRucker brings the areas first and only Dolby Atmos production suite and recording studio to Louisville, KY. Dolby Atmos systems build from traditional surround formats such as 5.1 or 7.1. Adding ceiling speakers makes this studio 7.1.4. The studio will allow artists and engineers to create music that is both multidimensional and immersive, creating an environment in which sounds move around the listener in any which direction. For the past 15 years, Daniel Radio Rucker has been ingrained in the local music scene in Louisville, Kentucky. After earning his degree in audio engineering and music production in 2007, he became the voice and longest running on-air talent for one of the largest radio stations in the city, 98.9 Radio Now (currently 98.9 KISS FM). Recently, he teamed up with Hatfield Media to bring the first and only Dolby Atmos Production Suite and recording studio to Kentucky. For those unfamiliar, Dolby Atmos takes the idea of surround sound to a whole new level to create an immersive experience that allows engineers like Rucker to place instruments and sound all around the listener. Im thrilled that I can bring Dolby Atmos to Kentucky, says Rucker. Theres nothing like it in the area. Artists now have a place they can come to get a mix, or monitor their mixes in Atmos. Im eager to bring immersive audio to new clientele. I think of myself as an artist Dolby Atmos gives me an even larger canvas to paint audio pictures. Years from now when new audio engineers emerge they wont have the same limitations or mindset that current engineers have because they wont be as afraid to try new things. The term, there are no rules has never been more true than it is right now, in my opinion. Im looking forward to seeing where its all going to go. Atmos is going to revolutionize music. Its here to stay. In this region, being able to stand out is a special thing,'' says Clark Absher, Chief Business Development Officer at Hatfield Media. You have the artists that really help to put Louisville and the state of Kentucky on the map from a music standpoint, but from an audio engineering standpoint, Rucker is going to take that to the next level. Its going to be really fun to see the audio rise in tandem with the music. Taking nearly a year to complete, the SoundxRucker studio features state-of-the-art Dolby Atmos spatial audio technology that brings you an immersive audio experience. While the Avid MTRX Studio interface is the brains of the operation, the Genelec 7.1.4 speaker system is the crown jewel of the studio. Atmos is going to revolutionize the industry, says Danny Fasold, Sales Consultant at Westlake Pro. The reason why Atmos is a game changer is that unlike traditional surround formats, it will downmix it to whatever format you have, even basic stereo headphones. It approximates the spatial depth and movement that the mixer puts into the Atmos mix. From a technical point of view, thats why its different this time. I think a lot of people over the next 10 years are going to discover Atmos in a really meaningful, but unexpected way. Eventually were going to see artists that, from the very inception of song, are already thinking about Atmos and how to incorporate it as a songwriting tool, rather than just a mixing tool. I have known the team at Hatfield Media for a few years now. They handle the marketing for an artist I work closely with, B SIMM. Initially, I had them do a website while I was looking for a location for the studio. Over time, the relationship grew into what it is now says Rucker. Westlake Pro, Dolby, and Genelec were all super helpful in the process. I thought it was really cool that we didnt have someone random, we had THE guys from Genelec in their Atmos room, helping guide us through the decision making process. That meant a lot to us, because we felt like we were getting it directly from the source. Everything that we make has the same type of mounting, says Paul Stewart, Sr. Technical Sales Manager at Genelec. We can fit any sort of situation. There's a lot of consistency within our products with respect to the way they're designed and the way they mount. We always want our customers to understand what's going on in the room, what we're trying to fix. Whats nice about working with Westlake is their dedication to actually getting to know the customer's process - it's incredibly helpful. We really enjoyed working with Danny. I know he and Rucker have good rapport and they were talking a lot outside of email threads and such. Danny was very knowledgeable and if he didn't have the answer right then, you knew he was going to get the answer. It was a very seamless process with them. We see immense possibilities for collaboration with Rucker, says Drake Hatfield, President and CEO of Hatfield Media. When considering a partnership it is mission-critical that the relationship be mutually beneficial. Augmenting our full-service video production studio with a Dolby Atmos mixing environment will provide capabilities never offered within our region. Importantly, Daniel shares our values and seeks the highest standards within his craft. We look forward to the coming years and the opportunity to work together on advanced projects. In addition to Atmos, we wanted to create a one stop shop where you can build your entire brand. From recording your album to creating a logo, designing a website, and producing a music video, all under one roof, says Rucker. It was a no-brainer to team up with Rucker, says Absher. After hearing the vision Rucker had for opening a new studio, it made the most sense to not only have the capabilities to mix in Atmos, but to have a recording studio inside our media wing which features a full size green screen and cyc wall. To be able to have this in our building and to be able to lean on Ruckers expertise behind the board is going to bring a lot of new opportunity and scalability for clients, whether it's a commercial, music videos, or the mixing side of things. It just adds one more offering in our repertoire of a full-service marketing agency. Relevant Links: https://soundxrucker.com/ https://hatfieldmedia.com/ https://westlakepro.com/ https://www.dolby.com/technologies/dolby-atmos/#gref https://www.genelec.com/ About Sound X Rucker The first and only Dolby Atmos Production Suite and Recording Studio in Louisville, KY, the SoundxRucker studio allows artists to work with a mix engineer to create music that is both multidimensional and immersive. Daniel Radio Rucker has been in the audio engineering industry for over 15 years, having spent 12-13 years in the radio industry. He offers production expertise that will bring your next creative project to life. SoundxRucker partners with Hatfield Media, a full-service marketing agency in Louisville, Kentucky offering website design, video production, search engine optimization, graphic design, and everything in-between. Conviction to Correction: Beyond the Walls: a powerful story of personal and spiritual growth. Conviction to Correction: Beyond the Walls is the creation of published author Takasha Stevenson, who has served thirty months in Greenville Federal Prison Camp in Greenville, Illinois, and six months at the Birmingham Halfway House Correctional Facility. She is originally from Marion, Alabama. After her release, Stevenson reunited with her family and moved her daughter to Hoover, Alabama. Since her release from prison, she has received two associate degrees, one in business administration and the other in a dual business office management/paralegal. She also works part-time at a law firm, Serious Injury Law Group, in Birmingham, Alabama, as a paralegal clerk. She is continuing her education in psychology and criminal justice. Stevenson shares, Three years after my incarceration, I had finally gone from surviving to living. I had become careful of who I allowed in my life because before prison, I was on others tongue. And now after prison, I could see nothing has changed with some of those same people. I had experienced fake friends and family who were always questioning my change and talking against me because of my change. So God stepped in and changed my circle to change me because it was the same people, but they had different issues now. The less I revealed, the more people started to wonder about me. I had people come to me who drained me and then blamed me. But God once again had stepped in and revealed their character to me during small misunderstandings and miscommunications. I was now out of the dark and had no intentions of getting led into it again because the pain had hurt the same no matter who it had come from. It wasnt that the dark was scary to me; it was just an unfamiliar scenery because I never had to totally depend on anyone before. The only way out of the dark was to retrace my steps and social distance myself from family and friends so that I could work on my livelihood now as a convicted felon because I didnt know the road would be so rough. COVID-19 might have been bad for others but couldnt have come at a more appropriate time in my life. But through it all, I have been blessed beyond all expectations. No matter what was thrown at me, I have conquered them all. So I think its only fair to inspire others to challenge themselves and overcome their limitations and to break through whatever barriers they may have encountered. Ive learned from my mistakes, and you can too. Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Takasha Stevensons new book expresses a message of encouragement that one can overcome lifes obstacles and live in Gods grace. Stevenson brings readers a heartfelt message that draws from her personal experiences in hopes of aiding others on their journey of healing and growth. Consumers can purchase Conviction to Correction: Beyond the Walls at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or inquiries about Conviction to Correction: Beyond the Walls, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919. "As we continue to grow as a company, we want to also continue giving back to the communities in which we work, and this is a great way to do so." Silverton Mortgage, a leading direct residential mortgage lender, has announced that its foundation, The Silverton Foundation, is supporting patients at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Brenner Childrens Hospital in Winston-Salem, N.C. The Silverton Foundation provides mortgage and rent payment assistance to reduce the financial burdens for families with hospitalized children or those who are receiving ongoing chronic or critical care treatments. The Foundation is a non-profit that is supported by Silverton Mortgage employee giving, yearly fundraisers, and the generosity of donors. Brenner Childrens Hospital is the only childrens hospital in the Triad region of N.C. and is part of Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist. It is staffed by more than 180 full-time faculty who represent more than 30 pediatric subspecialties. More than 4,500 children are admitted to Brenner Children's every year along with more than 21,000 pediatric subspecialty visits annually at the hospital-based outpatient clinics. This new relationship is a direct response to our expansion throughout the Carolinas along with our association with Mungo Homes. As we continue to grow as a company, we want to also continue giving back to the communities in which we work, and this is a great way to do so, said Josh Moffitt, founder of Silverton Mortgage and The Silverton Foundation. When your child has a severe medical condition or illness, priorities shift to doing whatever it takes to care for them. Those costs can add up quickly and stretch a familys resources. Our goal is to ensure the family can return home without mounting rent or mortgage payments, and were excited to add Brenner Childrens Hospital to the list of communities we support. Last year alone, The Silverton Foundation provided mortgage and rent payment assistance to more than 120 families. To learn more, please visit http://www.thesilvertonfoundation.org. About Silverton Mortgage Founded in 1998, Silverton Mortgage is a recognized industry leader within the mortgage community. Our Team Members recognize that home loans are as diverse as the people who seek them and work closely with borrowers to find the right program to fit their unique needs. We are guided by the strong belief that communication is key, which is why we take pride in helping our borrowers through the entire loan process, from application to closing, managing all aspects in-house. This way, loans close faster, and borrowers know what's going on every step of the way. We count our success one loan, one happy customer, one family in a home at a time. About the Silverton Foundation The Silverton Foundation is a non-profit organization created in 2012 by Silverton Mortgage President, Josh Moffitt. Its mission is to provide mortgage and rent assistance to families who have critically ill children to help reduce financial and emotional burdens, allowing parents to focus on their childs health. Because of the efforts of The Silverton Foundation, when a child is finished with medical treatment, their home, and loved ones will be waiting for them. The foundation connects with those in need through hospitals and other non-profits that focus on serving children. To date, The Silverton Foundation has paid over 120 years of rent and mortgage payments. Todd has a strong background in our industry which make him a valuable asset to our team and to our clients. Keypoint Intelligence is pleased to announce that Todd Curtis has joined the company as Business Development Director in Europe. In this role, Todd will be responsible for managing key accounts as well as providing leadership for new business opportunities for the companies UVERCE, advisory services, consulting, and IT development products. Todd has over 20 years of experience with a focus on technology and solutions. During this time, he formed relationships with dealers, resellers, end users, technology companies, and various manufacturers. Most recently he was part of ProcessFlows, which was acquired by Konica Minolta in 2016, where he was involved with technology and services for the capture, processing, management, and delivery of documents, information, voice and data. Its a pleasure to welcome Todd to our sales team, commented Keith LaVangie, Sales Director for Keypoint Intelligence. Todd has a strong background in our industry which makes him a valuable asset to our team and to our clients. Im excited to be working with such a talented group of colleagues, added Todd. Im looking forward to utilizing my knowledge and playing a significant role in identifying new business opportunities. For more information about Keypoint Intelligence click here, email todd.curtis@keypointintelligence.com, or connect on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/thetoddcurtis/. About Keypoint Intelligence For 60 years, clients in the digital imaging industry have relied on Keypoint Intelligence for independent hands-on testing, lab data, and extensive market research to drive their product and sales success. Keypoint Intelligence has been recognized as the industrys most trusted resource for unbiased information, analysis, and awards due to decades of analyst experience. Customers have harnessed this mission-critical knowledge for strategic decision-making, daily sales enablement, and operational excellence to improve business goals and increase bottom lines. With a central focus on clients, Keypoint Intelligence continues to evolve as the industry changes by expanding offerings and updating methods, while intimately understanding and serving manufacturers, channels, and their customers transformation in the digital printing and imaging sector. WCG MAGI Clinical Research Conference 2022 West Oct. 16-19, 2022 Planet Hollywood Las Vegas Resort & Casino, Las Vegas, NV https://wcg.swoogo.com/MAGI-West WCG MAGI conferences are the best value in clinical research. Which is why attending WCG MAGI Clinical Research Conference 2022 West makes great business sense, giving clinical trial professionals the actionable information and connections needed to enhance their clinical trials. And right now, save up to $200 off. Early Bird pricing ends on Sept. 16, 2022. Attendees choose from more than 70 sessions addressing the biggest clinical trial issues. After past conferences participants returned to their organization with an average of 10 practical tips they implemented for better clinical trials. Whether they are from a sponsor, research site or CRO, a newcomer to the industry, a senior executive or somewhere in between, attendees will find what they need at WCG MAGI West, including: Ensuring Appropriate Representation in Clinical Trials to Advance Medicine and Reduce Health Disparities Design practical, proactive diversity plans that better advance excellence in clinical research with this session. The session includes a discussion of the FDAs recent draft guidance on clinical trial diversity plans and the work being done to promote health equity and reduce health disparities through the clinical research enterprise within the FDAs Office of Minority Health and Health Equity. A Pro/Con Debate: Clinical Trials as a Care Option In this session, two speakers debate whether the current trend of referring to "clinical trials as a care option" is a positive statement that reinforces that research participants should be offered to all patients as part of medical care or a statement that inappropriately blurs the line between medical care and clinical research, creating a therapeutic misconception. Keynote by Mary Elizabeth Williams, On the Importance of Clinical Research: A Patients Perspective This patient advocate, journalist, and health and science writer also a stage IV melanoma survivor thanks to the Phase 1 immunotherapy clinical trial that saved her life will discuss the importance of strong healthcare communication in the clinical trial setting. A doctoral candidate in Medical Humanities at Drew University, shell share how collaborative, empathetic techniques can improve enrollment, retention and outcomes. The Best Professional Networking Anywhere WCG MAGI conferences are all about lasting relationships. Throughout the four-day event, facilitated peer-to-peer networking will help participants meet people from all areas of the clinical research industry and strengthen existing relationships. WCG MAGI Clinical Research Conference 2022 West will empower participants to take their clinical trials to the next level. Register by Sept. 16 to get the Early Bird savings. Conference Details: WCG MAGI Clinical Research Conference 2022 West Oct. 16-19, 2022 Planet Hollywood Las Vegas Resort & Casino, Las Vegas, NV https://wcg.swoogo.com/MAGI-West Price: All-Access Pass: Early Bird: Register by Sept. 16, 2022 $1,295 After Sept. 16, 2022 $1,495 Includes all workshops, panel discussions, sessions, meals and exhibit hall access. Preconference Workshops Only Pass - $345.00 Includes access to the preconference workshops on Sunday only. Lunch is included. Exhibit Hall Only Pass - $125.00 Includes access to the exhibit hall only. Lunch is not included. Easy Ways to Register: Online: https://wcg.swoogo.com/MAGI-West By phone: 888.838.5578 or 703.538.7600 About WCG MAGI Conferences: WCG MAGI events connect clinical research professionals who share a deep commitment to ensuring the quality, compliance, and efficiency of clinical research that is needed to advance the delivery of therapies and devices that impact patients lives. Professionals who attend WCG MAGI conferences benefit from: comprehensive programing including best-in-class training from seasoned faculty; standardization of best practices for clinical operations, business, and regulatory compliance; innovation forums; and peer-to-peer networking. Most importantly, the WCG MAGI experience strengthens collegiality in a way that ensures the growth and success of clinical research. In her newest book, Ruta Sepetys turns from YA historical fiction to the subject of writing to inspire readers to mine their memories and craft personal stories. Known for uncovering little-known chapters in historyincluding the story of Lithuanians deported by Stalin during WWII in her debut Between Shades of GraySepetys intertwines stories from her own experience to guide and prompt those of aspiring writers in her latest undertaking. Viking Childrens Books will publish You: The Story on May 23, 2023. PW has an exclusive look at the cover and insights on the project from Sepetys and the books editor, Tamar Brazis, associate publisher of Viking. Questions from readers at the hundreds of events Sepetys has done in the decade since her debut, Between Shades of Gray, led her to tackle a book on writing. Conversations about historical fiction and history quickly turned to conversations about personal history, she said. Readers were interested in how they might uncover and articulate their own story. I found myself constantly saying that whether you are writing fiction or nonfiction, experience and memory is the secret to strong and vivid writing. The pandemic lockdown offered an opportunity to turn inward. It forced me to remain home, so I pulled out these ideas about storytelling and got to work, Sepetys said. She described the challenges of writing this kind of personal nonfiction. It is a bit of a vulnerable exercise because I use examples from my own life to share components of creating stories. In historical fiction, I am writing about others, but in this book, Im using myself and my experience through these prompts to stir reflection. Sepetys quickly realized she needed to include nonfiction context to explain some of her experience. Im older than many of the readers, so I wrote these nonfiction blurbs about certain events that I was describing. For example, when I wrote about my mothers experience with Jimmy Hoffa, I had to do a sidebar. Or when I wrote about being in the devastating Northridge earthquake in the 1990s in California, she said. This was also a way for me to include sneaky kinds of research prompts. Readers dont even realize that theyre researching when theyre looking at these sidebars that have questions for them to uncover and discover. Some surprises emerged in the process. I discovered that the most meaningful aspects [of story] dwell within what I call the wave, she said. That wave is heartbreak, hope, humor, and humiliation. We all have heartbreak, humor, hope, and humiliation in our lives. Reflecting on those emotions leads back to story. And in that we all have deep experiences to draw from for our creative projects. In this current climate of polarization and misinformation, Sepetys said she believes that stories offer an authentic way to connect. The goal is to facilitate deeper understanding through stories and memory. When we share our story, we find that we are really never alone in our own experience, thoughts, or our opinions. This understanding can eliminate speculation and false narratives. Story helps classrooms, community, companies, and even countries function not only better, but more compassionately. I ask in the book, what is the story of your community or the school that you have attended? And do you know the history of the country that your neighbor is from and do they know your story? Because if not we are missing the chance for connection and a deeper experience. Though not Sepetyss fiction editor, Brazis signed on to edit this project because she has an MFA in creative writing. I have much experience with writing workshops and perspective on the process, she said. As someone who has struggled with writing or needed a boost of confidence in order to pursue an idea on the page, [I found that] You: The Story provides much inspiration and affirmation of that process. Brazis believes the accessibility of the tools and prompts in this book will help readers overcome any shyness or apprehension about writing. Ruta has done something very brave with this book. She shares intimate, and often laugh-inducing, stories from her own life. And because her stories are so compelling, the reader then realizes that they have also just learned something about the craft of writing, like establishing setting or creating a strong voice. Spanish artist Malena Valcarcel, who lives on the Mediterranean coast, designed the cover for You: The Story. She employs paper in her work to create book sculptures, jewelry, and other elaborate constructions. The cover piece is the Tree of Knowledge. When we saw it, we felt it perfectly captured the essence of the book, which encourages writers to use the roots of their own life experiences as a foundation for the stories they are looking to tell, Brazis said. Though she said she loved writing nonfiction, after this Sepetys returns to historical fiction in a middle-grade collaboration with nonfiction author Steve Sheinkin (Fallout). Their novel is set in World War II at the British codebreaking headquarters Bletchley Park during the Battle of Britain. Though quite a few projects describe adults at Bletchley and codebreakers, Steve and I discovered that there were teenagers there and that their stories had not yet been shared. When we got deeper into it we realized the vivid and eccentric world that these teenagers were in around Bletchley. Its a very rich setting, Sepetys said. The as-yet-untitled book will come out in 2024, and will include puzzles and codebreaking exercises alongside a mystery. With You: The Story, Sepetys hopes to inspire readers to understand that everyone has personal experiences to share. It is less about where we have traveled or worked or if we have experienced grand adventures, she said. It is more about the interior landscape. And through that we all have a story. A day is a story. A year is a story. A life is a story. In its long awaited post-trial briefs, lawyers for Penguin Random House argue that the U.S. Department of Justice has failed to prove its case for blocking the publishers acquisition of rival Big Five publisher Simon & Schuster. Encapsulating months of fact finding and three weeks of live testimony delivered during last months high profile August trial, PRH attorneys reiterate their claim that the government manufactured a fatally flawed case against the nearly $2.2 billion merger that focused on harm to a handful of mega-bestselling authorsand then ultimately failed to prove it. By the time of trial, the government was focused only on books that yielded advances of $250,000 or morethe top two percent of all books, representing only about 1,000 authors, PRH lawyers argue, adding that at trial, the DOJ focused its case even more narrowly on the advances of franchise authors. These are not the authors being paid advances of $250,000, or $500,000, or even $1,000,000. These authors sign multi-million dollar deals. They are the elite of the elite. As such, they are the least in need of protection by the antitrust laws, because their well-deserved compensation reflects a simple market reality: they write the books publishers will always compete hardest to acquireYet protecting these authors is what this case has come to. The government at trial could not identify any other way to plausibly define or describe the market its case addresses. In its 163-page post-trial "finding of fact" brief, and in a separate 47-page brief objecting to the DOJ's findings, PRH lawyers point out that the government did not allege any harm would flow to consumers from the merger. And in terms of the harm to authors at large the government, paid no heed to whether the merger would improve the sales, distribution, and visibility of books written by the many thousands of other authors who receive less than $250,000 for their hard work and creative efforts. Thus, based on the speculative harm only to a small, invented, and ill-defined market, PRH attorneys say the DOJs case fails as a matter of law. The law requires the government to draw the narrowest market that can be drawn to distinguish the products that require antitrust protection from those that do not. The $250,000 advance threshold cannot be reconciled with that rule. It is an arbitrary price line with no practical, competitive, or legal significance, the brief states, noting that a merger can be blocked only if the government proves that it will likely cause substantial and imminent harm to competition in a relevant, well-defined market. The government. PRH lawyers insist, has not made that showing. The briefs are likely the final act in the DOJ's effort to block PRH's controversial acquisition of S&S before Judge Florence Y. Pan issues her ruling, expected later this fall. In seeking to block the merger, government attorneys insisted that allowing PRH, the world's largest English-language trade publisher, to acquire Simon & Schuster would "further entrench the largest publishing giant in the United States (and the world) and give the merged company control of nearly half of the market to acquire anticipated top-selling books from authors, adding that if allowed to proceed, the proposed transaction would eliminate competition between two of the last remaining major publishers likely resulting in "authors being paid less for their efforts and fewer authors being able to earn a living from writing. At press time, PW has not yet read the DOJ's post-trial brief. Editors Note: This is a breaking story. We will update with the DOJ's brief as soon as possible, and will more fully break down both sides lengthy post-trial briefs in the coming days. PW's extensive coverage of the merger and the the three-week trial can be found here. With yesterday's death of Queen Elizabeth II, various segments of the British publishing industry paid tribute to the monarch who reigned for 70 years. Speaking on behalf of publishers, Dan Conway, CEO of the Publishers Association, said: "All of us at the Publishers Association are saddened to learn of the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and send our sincere and heartfelt condolences to the Royal Family. She leaves behind an extraordinary legacy that will inspire generations to come." Meryl Halls, managing director of the Booksellers Association, said: "On behalf of all bookselling members of the BA and the association itself, we send our deepest condolences to the Royal Family on the death of Her Majesty. She has been the backdrop to all of our lives and her passing truly marks the end of an age." The nation's biggest bookseller said: "Waterstones is deeply saddened to learn of the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and extend our condolences to the Royal Family. We add our sincere appreciation to that expressed by so many for the steadfast leadership given to us all by Her Majesty over her long reign." Elizabeth II was a genuine bibliophile, having been to the Hay Festival three times in the last decade, including opening the 2021 event, and attending LBF in 2014. She has been a patron of BookTrust since 2011 and is also Patron of the National Literacy Trust and the Royal Society for Literature, and has presented both the Booker Prize and the Women's Prize for Fiction. In 2018, she hosted a reception at Buckingham Palace to mark the Booker's 50th anniversary with 250 guests included 10 former winners of the prize. The death of Elizabeth II sees her son take the throne as King Charles III, with his wife Camilla, becoming Queen Consort. A version of this story first appeared in the U.K. publishing newsletter BookBrunch. A Purdue University research team recently received a $400,000 supplement from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to further its work on Sociotechnical Systems to Enable Smart and Connected Energy-Aware Residential Communities. This award builds on an initial $3.5 million award in 2018. The project leverages smart devices (wall-mounted tablets and Alexa, Amazon's cloud-based voice service) and social games to engage residents in understanding and reducing their home energy use. The projects most recent results will be presented at 11 a.m. today (Sept. 9) and available for viewing online at the Climate Leadership Summit. For more information, contact Robert Teas at rteas@purdue.edu. The multidisciplinary team, led by Panagiota Karava, the Jack and Kay Hockema Professor of Civil Engineering, includes faculty members in civil and mechanical engineering, political science, communications and psychological sciences. All are affiliated with Purdues recently established Purdue Institute for a Sustainable Future (ISF), which is dedicated to addressing global sustainability challenges in food, energy, climate and the environment. As part of the new ISF, the teams efforts draw on previous work done by the former Center for the Environment and Climate Change Research Center. The NSF projects team has made fundamental advances in physics-informed machine learning and game-theoretic approaches to discover how residential communities make decisions related to their home energy use. To do this, they developed a web-based application, MySmartEnergy (MySmartE), that was successfully deployed in 94 households in collaboration with the Indiana Housing Community Development Authority and BWI, an Indianapolis-based company specializing in sustainable, affordable housing. The team demonstrated a more than 35% household energy and cost savings in participating households. The work is important because it discovers new knowledge on how individuals, groups, and residential communities make decisions related to their home energy consumption, Karava says. It also develops new smart technology to transform this often irrational, information-poor process into an information-rich and coordinated energy-management activity. NSF is funding this research because we developed sociotechnical approaches that are groundbreaking, and the private sector is partnering with us because there is tremendous potential to market our new smart technology and make societal impact. With the recent supplemental NSF funding, the Purdue research team will partner with BWI to broaden the impact of their research and implement their software solution. The team also will work with their industry partners through Purdues Center for High Performance Buildings to scale-up further, reaching 500 households and covering more diverse population demographics including affordable and market-rate housing, as well as residential communities that represent U.S. building stock both new construction and retrofits. Karavas team members are Ilias Bilionis, associate professor of mechanical engineering; James Braun, the Herrick Professor of Mechanical Engineering and professor of civil engineering; Leigh Raymond, professor of political science (College of Liberal Arts); Torsten Reimer, professor of communication and psychological sciences (College of Liberal Arts, College of Health and Human Sciences); Julia Rayz, professor of computer and information technology (Purdue Polytechnic Institute); and Thanh Nguyen, the Lewis B. Cullman Rising Star Associate Professor of Management (School of Management). MySmartE was disclosed to the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization, which applied for a provisional patent on the intellectual property. For more information, contact Matt Halladay at mrhalladay@prf.org about 2023-KARA-69985. Writers: Lynne Dahmen, ldahmen@purdue.edu Amy Raley, araley@purdue.edu Source: Panagiota Karava, pkarava@purdue.edu Ukrainian serviceman sentenced to 7 years in LPR prison for preparing act of sabotage MOSCOW, September 9 (RAPSI) The Judicial Collegium for Criminal Cases of the Supreme Court of the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) considered the case of a Ukrainian serviceman charged with preparing an act of sabotage on the territory of the LPR and sentenced him to seven years in prison, according to the official website of the court. The LPR Supreme Court established that serviceman of the military unit No. A3814 of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Ruslan Maistruk, acting on the instructions of officers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, was preparing to blow up a bridge in the village of Gorodishche. The defendant prepared the explosive charges necessary for carrying out the planned act of sabotage and the vehicle for delivery thereof to the object; however, he could not bring the planned crime to execution due to circumstances beyond his control. As a result of the special operation of the Russian Armed Forces, Maystruk could not get to the scene of the crime he was preparing and was later taken prisoner by servicemen of the Russian Armed Forces and the People's Militia of the LPR. The defendant actively cooperated with the investigation, during the hearings in court he fully admitted his guilt, the report says. By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 09/09/2022 ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. couple Loren Goldstone and Alexei Brovarnik have welcomed their third child together.Loren gave birth to a baby girl, whom she and her husband named Ariel Raya Brovarnik, on Tuesday, September 6."SHE has arrived!!! We are so happy and proud to introduce Ariel Raya Brovarnik," Loren and Alexei, both 33, wrote in a joint Instagram announcement on Friday."Our baby girl was our anniversary gift, born September 6 at 11:40PM."Loren and Alexei waited until their baby was born to find out the sex."Finding out the gender in the delivery room was even more special than we could have imagined," the couple continued in their statement. "Thank you to my better half @lorenbrovarnik for making me the happiest man alive."Loren revealed she was expecting her third baby in early May, just nine months after she welcomed her second child , a son Asher, on August 16, 2021."Happy Early Mother's Day. We are so excited to finally say that baby #3 is on its way," Loren captioned two photos on Instagram at the time."We are going to wait to see if it's a girl or a boy, either way we are so overjoyed!" she added."Life will be crazy with 3 under 3, but we can't wait to meet you this fall, BabyB! #teambrovarnik #babyb #boyorgirl #lorenandalexeiafterthe90days."Loren gave birth to her first child , a son Shai, on April 14, 2020, just five months before their five-year wedding anniversary.Loren and Alexei had back-to-back kids amid the coronavirus pandemic, which led the couple to decide that they're done expanding their family after Baby No. 3."This is the last one. We're done. I'm done," Loren told In Touch Weekly in June.The couple said at the time they were feeling "scared" about having three children all under the age of three and planned to move "out of Miami" soon.Loren told Us Weekly in January that she hoped to have another baby and then focus on herself and undergo a "head to toe" transformation after that."I want to have a mommy makeover done within the next few years," Loren shared. "So time's ticking [on having another baby]."When asked what her makeover will consist of, Loren shared, "We're going to tuck [my chin] in and get [my breasts] out and we're going to tighten [my stomach and waist]. A little bit [of work on my arms].""I think it's crazy!" Alexei chimed in with a smile."Everything!" Loren insisted. "Nothing crazy. If I'm under [anesthesia], I'm under, so just do it!"But Alexei asked his wife to leave her face, including her nose and mouth, alone. Loren agreed and said she isn't interested in a facelift or anything like that.Loren admitted she "one million percent" feels pressure to bounce back, physically, after having children."I will say that's the downfall about sharing your postpartum journey on social media," Loren explained at the start of the year. "But there's also a positive to it because not everybody bounces back like some people and that's okay.""I want to show people that women go through these life changes," Loren continued, "and you grow a human inside of you, so it takes time to let your body heal. And I actually loved sharing that journey with people."Alexei shared in January how Loren always wanted a girl and they'd like to have a girl. But Loren apparently changed her mind and came around to the idea of having three boys.Loren therefore joked they'd probably end up with twin girls, "knowing [her] luck."Season 1 of Loren & Alexei: After the 90 Days premiered in January on TLC, and the show's second season debuted in July. The show documented the birth of Shai and Loren's pregnancy with Asher.Loren from Hollywood Beach, FL, and Alexei from Nazareth Illit, Israel, initially appeared on Season 3 of followed by the first two seasons of : Happily Ever After?.After meeting on Loren's birthright trip to Israel, she visited Alexei five times in one year before he popped the question.Alexei said he applied for a Tourist Visa twice but got denied and so the couple decided to apply for a K-1 visa instead.Once Alexei got approved for the K-1 visa and traveled to America, the couple had to overcome some challenges, such as Loren having strippers at her bachelorette party, but they still got married during his 90-day visit in September 2015.Alexei and Loren, who took Alexei's last name of Brovarnik, also subsequently had a second ceremony in Israel in July 2016 so both of their families could celebrate and witness their union.It didn't take long for Loren to get baby fever after getting married.Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage! Michael Mando will star alongside Brian Tyree Henry in Apple TV+'s upcoming crime drama series Sinking Spring. ADVERTISEMENT Mando will play Manny Cespedes, a "good-hearted friend of Ray's (Henry), who he first met when they did time together in the Youth Authority," according to a character description obtained by Deadline. The eight-episode series will follow a pair of Philadelphia friends who pretend to be DEA agents in order to rob a countryside house. However, the duo soon "have their small-time grift become a life-and-death enterprise, as they unwittingly reveal and unravel the biggest hidden narcotics corridor on the Eastern seaboard." The show's story will be based on the novel Dope Thief by Dennis Tafoya. The series is being helmed by the star-power team of Peter Craig and Ridley Scott. Craig, who will serve as writer and executive producer, is known for penning films such as The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 and Part 2, The Batman and the box-office smash hit Top Gun: Maverick. Sinking Spring will be Craig's first time writing for a TV series, according to Variety. Scott will serve as executive producer and director through his company Scott Free Productions. FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS! Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source! The English filmmaker is known for his work in sci-fi and historical fiction and has directed iconic sci-fi films like Alien and Blade Runner, in addition to historical epics like Robin Hood, Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven. He is often considered one of the most influential directors of the 1970s and 1980s. In addition to the starring role, Henry has also come on as an executive producer. Mando will join the series following his recognizable outing as Nacho Varga on the recently completed Better Call Saul. The Canadian native appeared on all six seasons of the Breaking Bad spinoff, and has received critical acclaim for his performance, particularly for his work in Season 5. He was also seen in the Canadian sci-fi thriller Orphan Black, where he was a main character for the first season before returning as a recurring cast member. Mando is also recognizable to video game fans for his motion capture work in the series Far Cry, lending himself to Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 6. He will also be recognizable to Marvel fans for his small part in the 2017 film Spider-Man: Homecoming, in which he played Mac Gargan, better known as the Scorpion. No premiere date for Sinking Spring has been announced. The popular British royal Netflix series The Crown is expected to pause production out of respect following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. ADVERTISEMENT The United Kingdom's longest-reigning monarch died Thursday at age 96. The Crown's creator and writer, Peter Morgan, told Deadline, "The Crown is a love letter to [Elizabeth II] and I've nothing to add for now, just silence and respect. "I expect we will stop filming out of respect, too," Morgan added. The show, which chronicles the life of the second Elizabethan Era, spans most of the queen's life, beginning with her wedding in 1947, and following the pivotal points in her reign. The show's fifth season, which is set to premiere in November, will take audiences through the early to mid-1990s of the royal family, likely including the 1997 death of Diana, Princess of Wales Filming has started for Season 6, which would likely bring the monarchy into the 21st century -- though maybe not all the way into the modern day. Plans have been in place at Netflix for a long time in the event that Elizabeth should die during production. FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS! Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source! According to People, The Crown director Stephen Daldry said after the show's 2016 premiere that "none of us know when that time will come but it would be right and proper to show respect to the queen." "It would be a simple tribute and a mark of respect. She's a global figure and it's what we should do," he said. Elizabeth was portrayed in earlier seasons of The Crown at different points in her life by Claire Foy and Olivia Colman, and both actresses have spoken about the weight of the role. "All the people who are closest to her would never speak to anyone. You're sort of doomed in that there is no way in," Foy told the Los Angeles Times in 2016. "So you just have to do the thing where you go, 'OK, I'm a girl of a certain age, of a certain background, these are my interests, this is the person I want to marry,' and then just flesh it out. "I'd never really registered the fact that in order for her to become queen, her dad had to die," Foy said. "The one person who could tell you how to do the job is dead, and everyone is looking to you to know what to do and you're terrified. But she just keeps calm and carries on, and that's it, really." Colman said in a 2018 interview with Vanity Fair that "I emote. The queen is not meant to. She's got to be a rock for everyone and has been trained not to. "As a young woman in her 20s, she made a vow to serve her country and she's still doing it into her 90s. I can't think of anyone else who could do that! She's a very impressive human being," Colman added. For Season 5, the role of the queen will be taken over by Imelda Staunton, who will join an ensemble cast including Jonathan Pryce, Lesley Manville, Dominic West, Elizabeth Debicki and Jonn Lee Miller. While sometimes criticized for its historical inaccuracies and liberties with storytelling, The Crown has been critically acclaimed and has been nominated for 63 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning 21. The show has also won two Golden Globes for Best Television Series. Netflix is gearing up for the release of its new show The Watcher. ADVERTISEMENT The streaming service shared a teaser for the thriller limited series Friday featuring Jennifer Coolidge The video is presented as an open house tour hosted by realtor Karen Calhoun (Coolidge). The tour hints at something sinister under the surface, with Karen mentioning how you could fit a person in the house's dumbwaiter and advising to keep the curtains closed. "You know, there's a lot of weird neighbors and stuff out there, you know. You don't want them watching you," she says. The Watcher is created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan. The series is based on the Reeves Wiedeman article "The Watcher," which originally appeared in The Cut in 2018. The Watcher follows Maria (Watts) and Derek (Cannavale), a couple who receive ominous letters and sinister threats after moving into their dream home in the suburbs of New Jersey. Coolidge also stars in the HBO series The White Lotus, which will return for a second season in October. Thomas Ian Griffith says his Cobra Kai character, Terry Silver, still is a villain in Season 5 of the Karate Kid sequel series. ADVERTISEMENT "Season 5 is literally the world rising up against Terry," the 60-year-old actor told reporters in a recent Zoom interview about the Army veteran, philanthropist sensei he plays in Netflix's action-drama. "I had no interest in just repeating a character. If you bring back the Terry Silver from Karate Kid III, where are you going to go?" he asked rhetorically. "We gave him a lot of complexity in Season 4. You saw his resistance. You saw where he was coming from. You got to understand what he has been doing for the last 30 years." Terry is a man who started out with the best of intentions, but his life experiences turned him into a baddie, Griffith said. "Then you slowly see these elements go against him with betrayal and manipulation and people not accepting him because of his past," he said. "It's a little more refined than what we had seen [in Karate Kid III.] He's not maniacal. There's madness, but in that madness, we have those little bits of truth that I think people can go, 'Yeah, he has a point,' and we can sort of be on his side. "He still has that quality, which I think is what makes him Terry Silver -- that glee to say, 'If it's a challenge, if it's a worthy adversary, bring it on.' Love him or hate him, you've got to watch him." FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS! Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source! Season 5, which as of Thursday afternoon had a 100% positive rating among critics on RottenTomatoes.com, will be available to stream in its entirety Friday. The latest episodes show Terry using his money and influence to start several more ruthless Cobra Kai dojos. The move pits him against his rival senseis, Johnny (William Zabka), and Daniel (Ralph Macchio), as well as their students, who are seeking balance and look at karate as a means to defend themselves, not to bully other teens the way Cobra Kai students do. Although Griffith's Karate Kid III co-star Sean Kanan reprises his role of Mike Barnes this season, too, the characters don't have much screen time together. "I thought the creators twisted up that backstory to be unexpected, and I think Sean did an incredible job," Griffith said. "The writing was so smart. It means so much to the fans to bring back the OG crowd. I don't know if they are in the same place character-wise, if Barnes would fit into Terry's world, which I'm glad they didn't try to force to make happen." The 1989 film was divisive among franchise fans and the critics who reviewed it. Macchio has publicly admitted he didn't like the movie. But while Griffith acknowledged it wasn't a great movie, he said he was proud of his commitment and performance. He also has positive memories of the experience because it was his first big acting job and he got to work with the late director John G. Avildsen, whose credits included Rocky and the first two Karate Kid blockbusters. "They were rewriting it because they had lost Kreese (Martin Kove), and [screenwriter] Robert Kamen was thinking he had to create a villain that was badder than Kreese, so it's this over-the-top thing," Griffith recalled of making Karate Kid III. "I'm a Vietnam vet, and there was no way I could have been in Vietnam, and then they're going: 'Don't worry about it! We're just going to throw you into it!' And then it's like, 'Is this a little much?' And Avildsen was like: 'This is the humor of this character. This is going to drive that new life into the franchise.' I was like, 'OK, I'm going for it!'" Griffith joked that if this was the footage Avildsen actually used for the film, one can only imagine what was left on the cutting room floor. "What the hell was I doing? Thank God I was on cocaine back then because how do you explain that?" he said. "Again, being a New York stage actor, if the director says it, I'm going for it, so I don't have those bad feelings a lot of people have about it. I know Ralph goes, 'I hated it!' I'm like, 'Well, I'm in a different place.'" The actor said it has been fun delving into the psyche of a controversial character and seeing what viewers think of him now. "That makes Terry Silver in Cobra Kai -- in this goofy, ridiculous world -- a very fascinating, watchable character," he said. While stunt performers are used for the most challenging martial arts feats, Griffith, Macchio and Zabka are all in fantastic physical shape and move convincingly on screen. Griffith said the training helps him feel young and strong, even if he can't do everything he used to be able to do in his 20s or even 40s. "Get out there and move! Get out there for mental health, for physical health," he said. "I live my life like that. I started martial arts as a kid. It got me out of trouble and it has been my go-to my whole life. People say, 'Do you still practice karate?' I don't even know what that means. It's just a part of who you are. You have to get out there and express yourself in that way and you are constantly learning and evolving." Cobra Kai also stars Courtney Henggeler, Xolo Maridueia, Tanner Buchanan, Mary Mouser, Jacob Bertrand, Gianni DeCenzo, Peyton List, Vanessa Rubio, Yuji Okumoto and Dallas Dupree Young. Porterville, CA (93257) Today Some passing clouds. Low 66F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Some passing clouds. Low 66F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. South Africa: Government is committed to eliminating illegal mining Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe has warned that if not abated, illegal mining will reach crisis proportions and poses a threat to national security, government authority and socio-economic development in the country. Mantashe made these remarks during a National Plenary discussion on illegal mining in Parliament on Thursday afternoon. This criminal activity is in contravention of our laws and forms part of many other economic related crimes that are afflicting our society. Illegal mining is associated with very serious crimes such as illicit financial flows and high levels of violence, including gender-based violence and femicide. Furthermore, we have witnessed human trafficking, smuggling of weapons, and explosives linked to this crime. Historically, illegal mining was associated with derelict and ownerless mines; however, it is now having an impact on operational and licensed mines. It is estimated that the South African economy and the mining sector lost approximately R49 billion in 2019 to illegal mining, he said. Illegal mining has come under sharp focus over recent weeks following the brutal gang rape of eight women near a disused mine in Krugersdorp in July. A specialised cooperative unit is subsequently being formulated to deal with the scourge. The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) and South African Police Service (SAPS) have been working closely to design this specialised unit. I can confirm that there is now alignment between the two departments on how this unit should look like and operate. The Ministry of Police will at an appropriate time make the necessary announcements regarding the establishment of this unit. However, I can safely saythat the unit is expected to be multi-disciplinary and will draw in skills from other departments. It will need to have the ability to detect, combat and investigate these crimes. He emphasised that a clear distinction needs to be made between artisanal and small-scale mining and illegal mining as the two are, at times, equated to each other. Artisanal mining is a formalised economic activity usually undertaken by citizens or documented inhabitants of a country. It must be clear that once an individual illegally enters our country and engages in illegal economic activity, such an individual cannot be sanitised through being issued with a small-scale mining licence. Let us disabuse ourselves of that notion. Illegal miners are foot soldiers of criminal syndicates and must be dealt with like any other economic saboteur. It is [also] becoming clear that Illegal mining is run by syndicates with a direct linkage to illegal migration. Recent arrests by the SAPS showed that those apprehended are in the majority undocumented illegal immigrants. If unchecked, illegal mining could be an existential threat to the sector, Mantashe said. Disused mines According to the Minister, there are some 6 100 derelict and ownerless mines in South Africa and estimates on rehabilitating these have gone up to at least R49 billion. He added that although budget constraints is inhibiting governments desire to move quickly on these, progress is being made. The departmentreceives R140 million per annum for the rehabilitation of mines. With this allocation, we can only rehabilitate at least three mines and seal off 40 shafts per year. The department has prioritised the rehabilitation of former asbestos mines because of the health hazards of asbestosis causing lung ailments, with a total of 270 derelict and ownerless asbestos mines. Mintek [South Africas mineral research and technology organisation] has through the implementation of the derelict and ownerless mine rehabilitation programme sealed 135 holings in the Eastern, Central, and Western Basins in Gauteng over a three-year period. We intend to seal 20 holings within the current financial year, prioritising the Krugersdorp area, Mantashe said. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2022-09-09. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. About 100 German soldiers and 40 military vehicles arrive in Lithuania on September 4. By Zhang Chi Foreign media reported that Germany has frequently taken part in overseas military operations lately, its ambition to enhance regional military presence triggering many debates and worries in the international community. Germany's frequent overseas operations In general, Germany has recently enhanced its military deployments overseas, with Europe and Asia Pacific as the priority areas. In Europe, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz recently said Germany will form the largest conventional forces among NATO's European members. It will also enhance military presence on the east wing of NATO and along the Baltic Sea to provide help for NATOs East European members. It is learned that the Bundeswehr, the German armed forces, has begun to send commanding troops to Lithuania that will be stationed in this Baltic country, and troops in Germany will also go there regularly for exercises. At the same time, Bundeswehr is being very active in other European countries too. Germany and the Netherlands even formed an Air and Missile Defence Task Force to protect Slovakias air space. By the same token, the German Air Force sent a team of five fighter jets to be stationed in Amari, Estonia at the end of July, after participating in an operation protecting Romania's air space in early 2022. In the Asia Pacific, Germany is closely watching the military development of the countries in this region and will assign more warships and hold exercises with its allies to expand its military presence. In 2021, German frigate Bayern sailed to the Asia Pacific for a six-month training voyage, during which it visited Australia, America's Guam, and Japan, and hold joint military exercises with the allies. In August this year, Germany assigned 13 military planes to Australia for a joint exercise, after which they will flow to Singapore, Japan and ROK for more exercises. It also plans to send two warships to the Pacific Ocean for training. Germany's military ambition calls for alert. Germany's frequent military operations overseas recently are considered detrimental to regional security and stability. On the one hand, they break the military balance in Europe. European media commented that the Bundeswehr hopes to break away from the previous shackles through these actions, and German media reported that the German government will allocate a 100 billion Euro (about 100.9 billion dollars) special fund to update and replenish equipment for the Bundeswehr. Such an ambitious military expansion plan has set other European countries on edge. Kaczynski, leader of Poland's ruling Law and Justice party, said Germany's attempt to free itself from the current constitution may send the world down the same path leading to WWII and threaten the security of its neighbor Poland. On the other hand, they damage the security and stability in the Asia Pacific. Britain's Reuters commented that Germany has been very cautious with its security policy after the end of WWII and paid more attention to trade when dealing with other countries. However, seeing western countries sticking their fingers in the Asia Pacific one after another in recent years, it becomes impatient and wants to insert its military presence there. In 2020, Germany released its guidebook on Asian Pacific diplomatic policy, taking the first step toward a broader plan for engaging in the region. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported that the signal from the German government to militarily engage in one of the most geopolitically important regions in the world says much about its new strategic position. Germany is moving faster in military expansion. Analysts said German Bundeswehr's constant appearance in overseas military operations lately stems from NATO's defense vacuum in Europe caused by America's strategic shift to the east and from the security threats from the changing military situation in Europe. As the Bundeswehr seems to take the opportunity to strongly develop itself, its two tendencies are worth close attention and vigilance. One is military adventurism. It is generally believed that Olaf Scholz steered Germany's defense policy toward the US and NATO after he came into power with a view to seeking a greater presence in the Pacific and other regions. As a result, the Bundeswehr's defense philosophy has gradually changed from constraint to proactivity, and Germany will only become more eager to reinforce and expand its deterrence with the ongoing military adventurism. The other is exaggerated self-abasement. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the Bundeswehr has an extreme shortage of weapon inventory, which, according to analysts, is actually a carefully deliberated and crafted excuse for military build-up. Berlin may continue to play this trick as it promotes military development to meet the goal of building a strong military in the shortest time. Mariah Parker and the Athens-Clarke County government announced Monday that District 2 Commissioner Parker would be resigning from their position as of Wednesday, Aug. 31. Parker has held this post since May 2018, and in light of recent redistricting, many Athenians have questions regarding filling their empty seat. An idea that Cine brought to fruition during the COVID-19 pandemic, drive-in movies are a staple weekly event hosted by the art house cinema, bringing movie lovers together from all over Athens. It became a perfect way for Cine to continue focusing on community within cinematic entertainment while also staying safe during the pandemic. Firefighters responded to a three-alarm fire Sunday at the Fulflex plant in Brattleboro. No one was working inside at the time of the fire. The fire was found on the first floor in the mixing department. Brattleboro, VT (05301) Today Rain developing after midnight. Low 64F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%.. Tonight Rain developing after midnight. Low 64F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%. BRATTLEBORO The first round of interviews for town manager candidates will start later this month. Photographer / Multimedia Editor Has been working as a photojournalist since 2007, before moving into newspapers, he worked with an NGO called Project HOPE. He then went to work for the Press and Sun-Bulletin in New York, and then in New England working for the Brattleboro Reformer. Brattleboro, VT (05301) Today Partly cloudy skies this evening will give way to cloudy skies and rain overnight. Low 64F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies this evening will give way to cloudy skies and rain overnight. Low 64F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%. Customers who walked into a Corbin Avenue bodega in New Britain didnt usually leave with food or beverages, they typically left with pills. For years, Elziers Grocery sold pharmaceutical grade oxycodone pills. The store was also busy with sometimes up to 40 people coming in an hour, according to court documents. On Thursday, a man from the Dominican Republic 34-year-old Jose Lugo was the last person sentenced in connection with the scheme. U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall ordered him to serve 38 months, or a little over three years, in prison followed by three years of supervised release. He also faces an immigration proceeding when he completes his prison term. The two other men involved the stores owner, Raul Cabrera-Vasquez, and Eliezer Perez were each previously sentenced to four years in prison, the U.S. Attorneys Office said in a press release. Cabrera-Vasquez and Perez ran the operation as early as 2017. It wasnt until July 2019 that Cabrera-Vasquez met an unemployed Lugo in the Bronx and offered him a job at the bodega, according to court documents. With an interpreter seated next to him, Lugo listened Thursday as Hall, Assistant U.S. Attorney John T. Pierpont Jr. and Lugos attorney Alexander Schwartz argued about how involved Lugo was in the conspiracy. Though he wasnt in the operation as long, and he didnt acquire the drugs himself, he actively sold the drugs for months. Pierpont also noted that during the Drug Enforcement Administration investigation, Lugo participated in five out of six controlled purchases in 2019. He was also the only defendant present at the bodega when law enforcement searched the store on Feb. 26, 2020. During the search, law enforcement found 200 pills as well as a pistol wrapped in Lugos shirt, according to court documents. Investigators also searched a nearby stash house on Queen Street and seized more than 1,000 pills, drug packaging materials, a scale, drug ledgers and $10,000 in cash. Lugos name was on the homes electric bill, Pierpont said in a sentencing memorandum. Lugo has been in custody since his arrest in February 2020. On Feb. 8, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, and to distribute, oxycodone. PLYMOUTH At least one additional victim may join the lawsuit filed against Plymouth schools and fourth-grade teacher James Eschert who is accused of sexual misconduct, an attorney representing the child said Friday. At least 13 victims spoke with police, according to arrest warrants alleging Eschert behaved inappropriately with girls in his class and that four administrators did not take action despite repeated complaints by children and parents. Eschert was charged in January with several crimes against children, including fourth-degree sexual assault. Four administrators, including former Principal Crystal Collins, were charged with failure to report the incidents. Administrators Melisa Morelli, Sherri Turner and Rebecca Holleran were also charged. The case is unusual since the children came forward, but no action was taken, said attorney Cindy Robinson, who is representing one victim in the lawsuit. Its so difficult for child victims to come forward, Robinson said. Here you have these brave victims coming forward and no one was listening. Robinson said she has been contacted by at least one other family who wants to join the lawsuit. She declined to say whether the family was among the 13 victims listed in arrest warrants. Right now, we are investigating additional information, Robinson said. This case is quite disturbing, Robinson said. I think the shocking part is that you expect the perpetrator to be prosecuted, but this involves school personnel who are also being prosecuted for failure to report. As educators and administrators in Connecticut, the four administrators were required by law to report allegations of abuse against children. But arrest warrants indicate they were aware that children and parents had repeatedly complained about Escherts behavior but did not take action. How did this go on for so long? said one parent who spoke to police about Morellis role in covering for Eschert, according to the warrant. The woman made the observation during an interview with police in December. If this is coming out now, youre not going to tell me they were the first kids to be abused, the warrant stated. The warrant for Morellis arrest also stated the state Department of Education conducted an investigation of Eschert regarding him providing standardize test answers to female students. There was not one document in his employment file that indicated he was under scrutiny by state officials and there was no documentation of the repeated complaints by parents and students about his behavior, Morellis warrant said. The allegations against Eschert include taking up-skirt photos of female students, bouncing them on his lap, touching them and had some sit under his desk, the warrant stated. The girl told police Eschert would give her and three other girls special treatment, including advance answers to tests, the warrant stated. She also said Eschert had told her his home address and invited her over for dinner and ice cream, according to the warrant. Escherts attorney William Conti is seeking the mental health records of anyone called to testify in the criminal case and any exculpatory statements that would be favorable to the defendant on the issue of guilt or mitigation of sentence, according to court documents filed in January. Conti is also representing Eschert in the lawsuit. Conti said the motions he filed seeking evidence and other data are standard and that hes already received quite a bit from police and prosecutors. Its fairly early on and theres a lot to look at, Conti said. I would ask that the public keep their minds open. My client is maintaining his innocence. Eschert has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Robinson said Escherts behavior toward her client began during the 2017-18 school year. We are piecing together our own timeline and it wouldnt surprise me if it went back a number of years before that, Robinson said. NEW HAVEN When authorities were looking for Willie Jackson in the spring of 2020 for absconding from parole, they found him with a loaded firearm and more than 30 grams of heroin. Judge Janet C. Hall on Thursday sentenced Jackson, 27, of New Haven, to seven years in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Before ordering her sentence, Hall discussed the sentencing guidelines with defense attorney Kevin Smith and Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan Keefe. They also argued whether Jackson would be considered a career offender due to his previous convictions, which raised the suggested sentencing range to up to more than 15 years in prison. Hall also read letters from Jackson and the mother of his 2-year-old daughter. After reading the letters to herself, she said Jackson talked about his upbringing which included witnessing and being a victim to gun violence and watching his mother battle addiction not as an excuse, but as an explanation. When he was 15 and 16, Jackson was convicted of three felonies conspiracy to commit first-degree robbery, and two counts of attempt to commit first-degree assault. He spent most of his days in custody until he was released at the age of 23. After his release, he obtained a drivers license, employment and an apartment, but he didnt know where to place his focus. Jackson then fell back to using heroin, according to Smith. About four rows in the courtroom Thursday were filled with Jacksons family and friends, including his mother and daughter. These people would not be here if they didnt think you were a good person, Hall said. Youre better than the worst things youve done. During the sentencing proceeding, Hall said she went below the official guidelines so Jackson can be a father while his daughter is still young. She also hoped he would take advantage of substance use treatment and occupational programs while in custody. Jacksons mother, Tarijauna Vincent, said she hoped the sentence wouldve been lighter, but she was also glad it wasnt worse. He just wants to come home, build a career and be a father to his daughter, she said. Vincent said her son helped her get sober and she has now been clean for more than 10 years. Jacksons latest sentence stems from when he ran away from a halfway house and absconded from his special parole. Police found him in March 2020 with 111 wax folds containing heroin, four oxycodone pills, about 17 grams of marijuana and a loaded 40 caliber Ruger handgun. Laboratory tests later showed that a portion of 35 grams of heroin in the wax folds also tested as fentanyl, according to court documents. Police discovered the handgun had been reported stolen out of Bridgeport in August 2019. The gun was also loaded and had an obliterated or altered serial number, court documents stated. Jackson pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of heroin with intent to distribute in April 2022. Two undated photos show the conditions workers faced at the Delong Industrial Park project on Sulawesi, Indonesia. Credit: Zhang Qiang Undated photos show the conditions workers faced at the Delong Industrial Park project in Sulawesi, Indonesia. Credit: Zhang Qiang In 2021, Chinese migrant worker Zhang Qiang signed onto a Belt and Road project in Indonesia, drawn by what he believed would be higher wages than he could make at home.Happily married for nine years, with two daughters, Zhang promised his youngest that he would buy her a princess-style bed for her bedroom with the extra money, then left his hometown of Anyang city, in the central province of Henan to take the job."At that time, I had just put a downpayment on a home in China, and taken out a mortgage," Zhang, 32, told RFA. "My youngest told me that, when we were settled in the new place that she wanted a princess bed.""I told her yes. I said I would definitely get her one when I have earned this money overseas," he said."[I told her] I was introduced by a friend, and was going to Indonesia to work for six months at 500 yuan (U.S. $72) a day. After working that ... I can come back to China."Zhang signed up for the job with Rongcheng Environmental Protection, alongside more than 20 other workers recruited at the same time, but the company said the contract-signing would have to wait, citing COVID-19 restrictions in Nanjing at the time, and the lack of access to a printer."They found an excuse after I got to Nanjing why we couldn't sign the contract ... then, after a week of quarantine, we flew out to Indonesia," he said.The reality was far from what he had been promised.On arrival in Indonesia, Zhang's passport was taken from him, and he was pressured to sign a contract for lower wages than advertised, locking him in for a longer time than had been promised."As soon as we got off the plane, they arranged for us to take a COVID-19 test, and then they had us throw our passports into a box," Zhang said.Zhang's group was taken to work on the Delong Industrial Park project on Sulawesi, part of a Chinese-invested nickel-mining project under the Belt and Road infrastructure initiative."They had told us before we left that we'd be working nine hours a day," he said. "Once we got there, that became nine-and-a-half hours, as well as overtime in the evenings.""They would dock your wages if you refused to do overtime."Once inside the migrant workers' camp, Zhang also found that escape was no easy matter, as the place was patrolled by armed guards."You basically couldn't leave the site, and they had security guards with guns guarding it," Zhang said. "There were people with guns at the dormitory area too."There were other "changes" made to the terms of the contract, too."They said it would be for six months, but the boss told us we wouldn't be going home in six months," he said. "Before we left, they told us we'd have to leave a month's wages as a deposit, and that the rest of our wages would be paid monthly, as normal.""Once we got there, they didn't give us any money in the first month, and after that, they just handed out 10,000 yuan (U.S. $1,450) for living expenses," Zhang said. "The rest of our wages would have to wait until several months after we'd gone home."Once work was under way, Zhang and the other workers were denied breaks and forced to work nonstop in high temperatures doing physically grueling labor. Stopping for a rest or a cigarette would also result in docked wages. They started to hear reports of frequent worker suicides at the site.In desperation, Zhang and some of the relatives of other workers at the site appealed to the Chinese embassy in Jakarta for help. But the call only resulted in a backlash for the workers from their gang boss."The lower-ranking boss [Lu Jun] came to us and said ... have you been watching too many movies? Trying to complain isn't going to work here," Zhang said.When the contracts finally appeared, they stipulated monthly living expenses of 1,000 yuan (US. $145), with the full wages only paid six months after the workers' return to China."It was one of those overlord contracts, so we didn't sign it," Zhang said.The workers insisted on going back to China, whereupon they were told that they would have to stump up 75,000 yuan (U.S. $10,830) each. After a period of stalemate, even that offer was withdrawn.When asked to comment by RFA, Lu Jun said the workers were in breach of contract."Originally the deal was that they would work for a year, but two months after they got here, they said they wanted to go back to China," Lu said. "They would have to pay the cost of that themselves.""So then five of them ran away before they'd paid what they owed me."But the five workers weren't out of the woods yet. They managed to find another gang boss, Liu Peiming, and paid him 250,000 yuan (U.S. $36,100) after he said he would have them home within a week.But he secretly arranged to have them sent to Phase II of the Delong project instead."We kept telling them that we wanted to go home, but he didn't care any more, and just said there was no way we were getting home for 50,000 yuan (U.S. $7,220) [apiece], and that he'd need another 20,000 to 30,000 yuan (U.S. $2,890 to $4,330)," Zhang said.Eventually, Zhang and his colleagues got the story out via the media, and higher-ups and Delong got involved."We have said they should first refund the 250,000 yuan to us and give us back our passports, because this is illegal detention," Zhang said.Liu eventually did return the money, but Delong still has their passports.Repeated attempts to contact Liu Peiming's assistant and Delong for comment had resulted in no reply by the time of writing.Eventually, the group fell in with the proprietor of the Peony Hotel near Phase II, who promised to smuggle them into Malaysia, for which they had to pay 13,000 yuan (U.S. $1,875) each."We had to take an eight- or nine-meter (26- or 29-foot) speedboat used for fishing and make a two-hour crossing at sea, making us jump down when the water was shallow enough to stand in," Zhang said. "As soon as we reached the Malaysian border, the coastguard caught us."The Peony Hotel's proprietor denied taking money from the group when contacted by RFA."I recommended an interpreter who could arrange for people to go that route, and put them in touch so they could sort it out between them," she said. "I also recommended someone in Jakarta who could change their money.""Don't come asking me about it; I never made money out of it."Zhang and his four companions eventually made it home to Henan in February 2022 after being deported by the Malaysian authorities.They are now heavily in debt, leaving him with no choice but to get straight back to work again."I wanted to sue them, but there were various debts hanging over me when I got back, so I went back to work," he said. "Life is so stressful."Zhang now works as a courier, and feels he had a relatively lucky escape."These sites are completely closed off ... which puts you under a very intense kind of psychological pressure," Zhang said. "Two people committed suicide during our two months at Phase III, and I read about several more online after I got home, too."Since 2010, an estimated 10 million Chinese nationals have taken jobs overseas, with 570,000 believed to still be working overseas as of the end of May 2022, according to the New York-based rights group China Labor Watch.Many travel or tourism or business visas and work without a contract, however, meaning that the true figure may be far higher. Even where contracts do exist, breaches of their terms are very common, the group said. Ronson Chan is arrested while on a news assignment, as police claim he didn't cooperate with an ID check. Ronson Chan, chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, standing outside his office in Hong Kong, Jan. 7, 2022. Police in Hong Kong have arrested the head of the city's journalists' union on public order offenses, amid an ongoing crackdown on public dissent and peaceful political opposition under a draconian security law imposed by Beijing. Ronson Chan, chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists' Association (HKJA), was arrested while reporting on a meeting in Mong Kok relating to local people's livelihood on Sept. 7, the union said in a statement on its website. "Two plainclothes police officers at the venue stopped [Chan] and asked for his ID," the statement said. "Just as Ronson Chan was about to show his ID to one of the female police officers, another plainclothes officer stepped forward and yelled at him to 'cooperate.'" "Chan asked the policeman to show his warrant card and asked the officer to confirm his full name and department, as he could only see the surname Tan," the statement said. "But the officer immediately issued a warning, and, within a few minutes, had Chan in handcuffs under arrest, en route back to Mong Kok police station." Chan, who was arrested on suspicion of "obstructing a police officer" and "disorderly conduct in a public place," was eventually released on bail after more than 11 hours in the police station, and must report back on Sept. 21. "The HKJA deeply regrets and condemns the interception, arrest and brutal treatment of Ronson Chan by the police," the group said. "He was cooperating with the police, yet he was still treated unreasonably and arrested." Chan, former deputy assignment editor at now-defunct pro-democracy news outlet Stand News, was re-elected as HKJA chairman in June. He has frequently spoken out against ever-diminishing press freedom in the city. He had been planning study journalism on a scholarship at the Reuters Institute at Oxford University, and had been scheduled to leave Hong Kong at the end of September. The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Hong Kong said it was "concerned" over Chan's arrest and was "monitoring the situation very closely." "Given Mr. Chans position as a prominent leader in Hong Kongs journalism community, the FCC strongly urges the authorities to exercise transparency and care in handling Mr. Chans case," it said. "Hong Kongs government has repeatedly told the public that Hong Kongs right to press freedom and free speech ... is not at risk. The FCC supports journalists right to cover stories without fear of harassment or arrest," the statement said. The statement won a rebuke from China's foreign ministry, which said it constituted "interference with the rule of law" in Hong Kong. "There is no absolute press freedom anywhere in the world that could be above law, and the identity of a journalist doesnt mean they have amnesty or enjoy immunity for whatever they do," the ministry's representative office in Hong Kong said in a statement on its website. "No one should engage in activities that damage Hong Kongs stability under the name of journalism," a spokesperson said in the statement, accusing the FCC of "taking every opportunity to attack the Hong Kong government and support anti-China forces." "Their tricks will bite the dust," the statement said. Seditious sheep authors On the day of Chan's arrest, a Hong Kong court found five speech therapists guilty of "conspiracy to print, publish, distribute, display or reproduce seditious publications" under colonial-era sedition laws that have gotten a new lease of life since the national security law took effect on July 1, 2020. The five members of the Hong Kong Speech Therapists' Union were prosecuted over a series of children's books depicting "seditious" sheep, which the authorities said showed support for the 2019 protest movement and "incited hatred" towards the city's government. The two men and three women aged 25-28 were found guilty of "conspiring to publish seditious publications," in connection with three children's picture books titled "The Guardians of Sheep Village," "The Garbage Collectors of Sheep Village" and "The 12 Heroes of Sheep Village." Police said the sheep were intended to represent protesters who fought back against riot police in 2019, and depicted the authorities as wolves, "beautifying bad behavior" and "poisoning" children's impressionable minds. One book characterizes the wolves as dirty and the sheep as clean, while another lauds the actions of heroic sheep who use their horns to fight back despite being naturally peaceful. Maya Wang, a senior China researcher at the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), said the court verdict showed how quickly Hong Kong's judicial system is growing similar to that in mainland China. "Hongkongers used to watch news of people in mainland China getting prosecuted in ridiculous ways for writing political fables, but this is now happening in Hong Kong," Wang said. "The Hong Kong authorities should reverse this precipitous decline in [people's] freedom and revoke the convictions of the five children's book authors." The case is the first to see a conviction for "seditious publications" since 1967. The crime of "sedition" a common-law concept was incorporated into Hong Kong's Crimes Ordinance under the colonial-era government in 1938, and was originally aimed at prohibiting publications that might arouse hatred against the monarch. Eric Lai, Hong Kong Law Fellow at the Georgetown Center for Asian Law, said the conviction of the "seditious sheep" authors suggests that freedoms in the city have now regressed to pre-war colonial times, and ignores recent recommendations from United Nations human rights experts that the city stop using "sedition" to prosecute people. "The Hong Kong courts have ignored these timely and specific United Nations documents on the crime of sedition, which shows that they are totally unwilling to comply with ... the views of international human rights experts," Lai said. Lai said the prosecution of speech crimes also contravenes the U.N.'s Johannesburg Principles, which state that the peaceful exercise of freedom of expression should never be viewed as a threat to national security, and should come free from restrictions or penalties. "This verdict will have a big chilling effect on the publishing industry and the creative world, now that discussing current affairs through metaphors or allegory in a children's book can be deemed to be inciting hatred of the government," Lai said. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. Analysts say Japan also needs to build up its own defenses to deal with security threats from China. Without a military alliance Japan cannot defend itself but even with an alliance it still needs to strive to expand its defense capabilities, a leading Japanese security analyst has said. At a virtual event held on Thursday at the Hudson Institute, a conservative U.S. think tank, Research Director of the Canon Institute for Global Studies Kunihiko Miyake spoke about lessons that Japan could draw from the ongoing war in Ukraine. One of them was about the need to strengthen the U.S.-Japan military alliance, first signed in 1951 but now facing new threats including from China. He also spoke about the tensions in the Taiwan Strait and the role of Okinawa, the main island of Okinawa prefecture, located in the East China Sea between Taiwan and Japan's mainland. The U.S.-Japan alliance has been evolving successfully, Miyake said, adding that nevertheless Tokyo needs to develop an effective defense strategy. We need to increase the defense budget, expand defense spending and work on various contingency plans, the Tokyo-based analyst said. We have more threats than the Europeans, he said, implying that besides Russia Asian countries also need to deal with security threats from China and North Korea. On Aug. 31, the Japanese Defense Ministry made its largest ever budget request of 5.59 trillion yen (U.S. $40.4 billion) for the 2023 fiscal year to deal with increased security challenges. In June, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he intended to strengthen Japans defense capabilities fundamentally over the next five years. Miyake, a former senior diplomat, said Japan could do more with the Quad, the security grouping that comprises the U.S., Japan, India and Australia, as well as strengthening cooperation with South Korea and with NATO. A radar facility set up for coastal surveillance on Japan's westernmost Yonaguni Island, Okinawa prefecture, Oct. 27, 2021. CREDIT: Reuters Support for Taiwan As tension rises in the Taiwan Strait, Japan realizes that the stability of the situation surrounding Taiwan is also critical for Japans security, according to Japans 2022 defense white paper. Tokyo is considering boosting defenses on outlying islands in the southwest, with military facilities to be set up on some of the islands close to Taiwan. Miyake, who is also the president of Japanese think tank the Foreign Policy Institute, said it is vital that the government and military get support from the residents of Okinawa in their campaign for a stronger Japan-U.S. alliance as well as to defend Japan from a possible Taiwan conflict. Most of the U.S. military presence in Japan is on Okinawa but there has been widespread discontent amongst the population about U.S. military bases there, despite efforts to move them away from the islands core areas. To deal with new security threats from China, Miyake suggested an increasing joint use of bases by Japanese and U.S. forces in Okinawa. U.S. government officials have been talking about the scenario of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. On Thursday, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said during an interview there is a distinct threat that there could be a military contingency around Taiwan." Sullivan told Bloomberg that the U.S. will "push back at any effort to change the status quo by force" by China. They say that a political resolution based on a federal system must come first. Armed ethnic groups have rejected a proposal by Myanmar junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing to sign a peace deal in exchange for the right to join the military as part of a border guard force, saying a resolution to Myanmars political crisis must come first. Min Aung Hlaing made the proposal to absorb the ethnic armies into the military at a cabinet meeting in the capital Naypyidaw on Aug. 22, during which he also suggested addressing ethnic and regional rights in parliament and promised to allow them to operate businesses, a spokesmen for the groups told RFA Burmese. But the ethnic armies need more than what Min Aung Hlaing is offering if he expects them to sign the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), Khun Tun Tin, the First Vice Chairman of the Pa-O National Liberation Organization (PNLO), told RFA. We will have to go through a lot. According to the NCA, there are many things like DDR (disarmament, demobilization, reintegration) and SSR (security sector reform) and others that we have agreed upon, said Khun Tun Tin. We still need to implement these Many of our [ethnic] allies had agreed that the country should have only one single army. But that can happen only after we get the political system that our groups want. The PNLO leader said the juntas proposal can only be considered following the establishment of a democratic federal union system in Myanmar and after the groups achieve the right to self-determination. The main thing is we want a democratic federal union system, he said. Ten armed ethnic groups have signed the NCA since its introduction in 2015 in an effort to put an end to many years of fighting over minority rights and self-determination. Despite this, the peace process hit snags in the years that followed, and was all but destroyed by the unpopular juntas coup in February 2021. Previously, all 10 said they would not pursue talks with the military, which they view as having stolen power from the countrys democratically elected government. A total of 10 ethnic armies - seven signatories of the NCA and three other groups that did not sign it - accepted Min Aung Hlaings post-coup invitation to continue peace talks and have visited Naypyidaw twice, but no deal has been reached. Col. Saw Kyaw Nyunt, spokesman for the Peace Process Steering Team (PPST) that includes the 10 NCA signatories, told RFA he is concerned about the idea of serving alongside the military that his and other ethnic armies have been fighting for years. Is this the essence of the NCA? We have to sign the NCA in order to build trust, and then hold on to our arms but triggers are turned off, and then attend political talks to solve political problems. Thats the essence? he said. There are a few worries and ripples running through our organization or our individual groups about what the [junta leader] expressed at their cabinet meeting, said Saw Kyaw Nyunt. He said the PPST will try to implement the principles of the NCA, including the protection of the civilian population, amid the countrys political upheaval following the coup.. Groups that have not signed the NCA need not heed anything proposed by the junta, Lt. Col. Sai Su, spokesman for Shan State Progressive Party, told RFA. It's about the facts in the NCA. We had negotiations in the past that we would return to security integration only after a political settlement is reached, and only after minority rights are guaranteed, through political dialogue and all kinds of frameworks, Sai Su said. We were still negotiating, not finished yet, and they rushed to sign the agreement, and thats what is happening now. In fact, this does not apply to our group, he said. Others who did sign the NCA said discussions about working alongside the junta to guard the border can only take place once the military relinquishes control of the country and a democratically elected government assumes power. Under Myanmars Constitution, drafted in 2008 by a previous military-led government, a junta can only extend its tenure twice after a year has passed since a coup, for six months at a time. The regime is now operating under its second half-year extension of emergency rule since the Feb. 1, 2021 coup. We arent thinking about this issue very seriously now, Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) spokesman Lt. Col. Om Khe told RFA. Theyd say what they want depending on the current political situation. But we believe that this issue should be talked about and discussed only when a true federal union can be built after finding a political solution. Min Aung Hlaings proposal is not a new strategy, ethnic affairs observers told RFA. They said the military has been trying since as early as 1988 to disarm the ethnic armies and end fighting by unifying them under the banner of the Myanmar military. Political observer Than Soe Naing said that although weaker groups had laid down their arms in the past, the stronger ones have consistently refused to do so and serve under the army. I dont think those groups are going to give up their arms even if they can see a policy that they want politically, he said, adding that the ethnic armies resistance to the peace process has become even stronger since the coup last year. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Eugene Whong. Pema Dhondup is seen with other convicted Tibetans at the Sangchu County Court in Labrang, in 2012. Authorities in Tibet have released a man serving a 12-year prison term for murder in connection with the death of a fellow Tibetan who self-immolated in protest of Chinese rule, according to sources living in exile from the region with knowledge of the situation. Pema Dhondup has been under constant scrutiny since his release from prison on Aug. 31, the source told RFA Tibetan, speaking on condition of anonymity citing security risks. Dhondup, of Sangchu (in Chinese, Xiahe) county in Gansu provinces Kanlho (Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, was freed from jail two years before the end of his sentence and received by family members, the source said. He was convicted of the murder of Dorje Rinchen who self-immolated to protest the Chinese government and died, although Pema Dhondup only took care of Rinchens body after the self-immolation, he said. His release from the prison is confirmed but we dont know about his health condition. From his looks and appearance, he seems to be fine. A second source in exile, who declined to be named, also confirmed Dhondups release and monitoring by authorities. "The Chinese government has been keeping a close eye on Pema since his release, the source said. Relatives who are visiting him are not allowed to take pictures or speak on the phone while they are in his house. Dhondup was among seven Tibetans sentenced in 2012 by the Sangchu County Peoples Court to prison terms ranging from three to 12 years for their alleged involvement in an Oct. 23 protest that year in which Dorje Rinchen, a local villager, set himself on fire and died. In addition to Dhondup, Padma Tamdru, Kelsang Gyamuktso, Padma Co, and Lhamo Tamdru were convicted of intentional homicide for their roles in blocking police efforts to rescue the self-immolator, state media said at the time, and were sentenced to 12, 11, eight, and seven years in jail, respectively. Two other defendants, Do Gekyap and Yang Monje, were handed four and three-year terms respectively for causing a chaotic scene and disrupting local traffic following the burning, the report said. The source in exile told RFA that the other six Tibetans who were arrested and charged along with Dhondup have all since been released, but remain under scrutiny and restrictions by local authorities. Tibetan regions of China have been rocked in recent years by a wave of self-immolation protests by Tibetans challenging Beijings rule and calling for the return from exile of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. Chinese authorities have labeled the self-immolators as terrorists, outcasts, criminals, and mentally ill people, and have accused the Dalai Lama of encouraging the burnings. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. A music lecturer was also arrested for discussing the noodle peddler and activist on Facebook. Noodle vendor and former activist Bui Tuan Lam seasons a dish in the theatrical style of Turkish celebrity chef Salt Bae. Freedom for Vietnam! shouted noodle peddler and activist Bui Tuan Lam, as police dragged him away for insulting the countrys leaders. The arresting officers first covered his mouth with their hands in an effort to silence him. Then they pushed him into a car and gagged him with a dirty towel that I use to wipe up the noodle tables, said Le Than Lam, Bui Tuan Lams wife who described to RFAs Vietnamese Service the scene of her husbands Wednesday arrest at their home and restaurant in Danang, in the countrys central region. Bui Tuan Lam had achieved some notoriety last year when he appeared in a video that went viral showing him imitating the Turkish chef known as Salt Bae. The video was widely seen as a mockery of a senior Vietnamese government official who was caught on film being hand fed one of Salt Baes gold-encrusted steaks by the chef himself at a cost of 1,450 pounds (U.S. $1,975). Critics wondered how the official could afford the extravagant meal on a monthly salary of $660. Bui Tuan Lam, who called himself Onion Leaf Bae in the video, was charged for violating Article 117 of the countrys Penal Code, which prohibits creating, storing, and disseminating materials and items against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, state media reported. Prior to his arrest, hundreds of officers surrounded the family home and demanded entry, Le Thanh Lam told RFA. It happened at about 7 p.m. when all of our family members were at home. At first, they pulled at the door trying to gain entry. We said that they had to show us a search warrant, she said. They said they would carry out a search first and provide us with the warrant later, but we refused to let them in. They assaulted Lams younger brothers, Minh and Tuan, grabbing their necks, arms and legs, then arrested them both and escorted them to the police station, she said. After searching the house, the police confiscated three T-shirts printed with the message, Human rights should be respected in Vietnam, said Le Thanh Lam. The officers also destroyed three security cameras but did not acknowledge doing so in the summary of their search, she said. During the search, her husband began to peacefully defy the police. They did not allow him to talk with others. They took him inside but he shouted loudly Freedom for Vietnam! and sang songs in protest, she said. After the search they dragged him away as he continued to shout. So they shoved him into the car and gagged him, Le Thanh Lam said. Bui Tuan Lams mockery of a government official should not be considered a crime, Phil Robertson, deputy director for Asia at New York-based Human Rights Watch told RFA. Vietnamese authorities regularly define any comment they dont like as propaganda against the state, making Vietnam one of the most thin-skinned governments in the region when it comes to public criticism," Robertson said. "In this case, they are locking up a street-side noodle seller who had the audacity to ridicule the minister of public security for buying a U.S. $2,000 steak on an overseas trip." Mockery is a legitimate form of expression, Robertson said. "Vietnam should abolish the rights-abusing Article 117 of the Penal Code, and immediately free Bui Tuan Lam and others locked up for simply expressing views the communist party dislikes, he said. Authorities on Thursday used the same article to justify the arrest of music lecturer Dang Dang Phuoc of Dak Lak Province, south of Danang, who discussed Bui Than Lams arrest on Facebook. Phuoc was arrested at around 6 a.m. while doing morning exercises near his home. The police took him to his home and searched his house, a close friend of Phuoc, who requested anonymity for safety reasons, told RFA. Ha, Phuocs wife, rang me at 6:10 a.m. and told me about the arrest. I came right away. The police searched the house for many hours. Phuocs friend said. RFA contacted the Dak Lak Provincial Police to verify Phuocs arrest but the police officer who answered refused to provide information over the phone. Since 2019, Dang Dang Phuoc has taken advantage of the Facebook platform to compile and publish many stories and video clips with distorted content against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, state media quoted Dak Lak police as saying. Phuoc, 59, is a music lecturer at Dak Lak Education College who has about 6,000 followers on his Facebook page, where he often discusses social issues. His most recent post criticized the Danang police for their actions during Wednesdays arrest of Bui Tuan Lam. Translated by Anna Vu. Written in English by Eugene Whong. The family say they want to know the truth to prevent others suffering the same fate. The family of a man who died in police custody in Vietnams southern An Giang province say they have heard nothing from authorities since his death in December last year. Nguyen Van Kha, 56, died after being taken to the local police headquarters on the night of Dec. 28. The local police said he died of a heart condition, but the family continues to claim his death was the result of a beating. They told RFA they want the incident fully investigated so there will be no more deaths in custody. On the night of the incident, Kha and his son, Nguyen Van Tuan Em, 34, were beaten by the police in front of their house before being taken into custody in Nhon My commune. Shortly after their arrest, the authorities announced that Kha had died of a stroke. Ems wife, Nguyen Thi Nguyet Trinh, told RFA in the past eight months, the family has repeatedly submitted petitions and phoned senior officials of the An Giang Provincial Police, but received no response. Immediately after the incident, the family contacted then-An Giang provincial Police Director, Colonel Dinh Van Noi, Trinh said, but he did nothing about the information they gave him. In August, Noi was transferred to work as director of the Quang Ninh provincial police, having made no attempt to investigate the case. The next evening [after Khas death] I tried to call him but couldn't, so I texted uncle Noi, Trinh said. At 11 o'clock at night uncle Noi called me to ask 'how was the case?' I told uncle Noi, and he listened to me. Since that day, I have heard nothing. Uncle Noi didnt call back and the provinces leaders didnt say anything." The family initially refused to accept Kha's body without an explanation of his death. A representative of the An Giang provincial Police and another from the Cho Moi district police finally persuaded the family to collect the body for burial, promising to investigate the case. The provincial police performed an autopsy and concluded that the cause of Kha's death was "cardiovascular disease." The victim's family repeatedly phoned the provincial police representative who had promised a full investigation but he did not answer their calls. Trinh said two to three weeks ago, her mother-in-law and her husband submitted a petition to the provincial police, but she said "they didn't receive it and didn't talk at all." Familys finances affected Kha had been working as a construction worker and was the main earner in his family. His son Nguyen Van Tuan Em also works to cover the cost of his two young childrens education. Ems wife said he suffered lung damage due to the police beating and often has to take time off work without pay putting a financial strain on the family. Trinh continues to push the authorities to explain what really happened on Dec. 28 and punish the perpetrators. "My family's request is for the state authorities to investigate and clarify the death of my father-in-law, she said. If my father-in-law was guilty, my family would apologize to the police. If my father-in-law was innocent and those people are not punished I can't accept that." Trinh said that while convincing the family to receive the body for burial, the An Giang provincial government offered to compensate the family. Her mother-in-law agreed but asked those who beat Kha and his son to apologize to the family. The family said it has still not received any compensation and the police who beat Kha have still not apologized or offered condolences. What happened on December 28? According to state media reports, the chief of police at Nhon My commune led plain clothes police officers to an abandoned house to break up a local gambling ring. The police left their motorbikes outside Kha's house and chased gamblers from the nearby building. The Ho Chi Minh City police newspaper quoted the commune police as saying Kha and his two sons, Nguyen Van Tuan Em and Nguyen Van Tuan Anh, were drunk and quarreled with a policeman who was guarding the motorbikes. The police said the three took the motorbikes into their house and beat the policeman. According to the police, while they were taking the offenders to the local police station Kha showed signs of fatigue, so they took him to the Nhon My clinic for treatment, where he died. However, videos of the incident and field experiments show that the incident happened in a completely different place. The family said Kha and his sons took the motorbikes into their house because they did not know who they belonged to, leading to the scuffle with plain clothes policemen. Kha and Em were beaten, handcuffed and taken on motorbikes to the commune police headquarters, not the clinic. The police later announced that Kha had died of a stroke. Videos of the incident were shared on social networks at that time, generating a lot of angry responses but the polices forensic examination still gave the cause as "death due to heart disease." No independent forensic agency was involved in the autopsy. This week we saw the first real challenge to the EU's ever-growing sanctions regime against Russia. Predictably, it was Hungary who threatened to derail what should have been a standard renewal of the over 1,200 people and 100 companies that the bloc has slapped visa bans and asset freezes on since Russia's full invasion of Ukraine in February. Budapest was asking for three oligarchs -- Alisher Usmanov, Pyotr Aven, and Viktor Rashnikov -- to be delisted before it could give its consent to extend the sanction regime as a whole. In the end, the Central European country performed a spectacular U-turn within 24 hours, reportedly after several high-level phone calls and diplomatic pressure in Brussels. Yet plenty of questions remain. Perhaps, the most obvious: why specifically these three individuals? There are plenty of oligarchs close to Russian President Putin that have been sanctioned and there are no obviously known links between any of the trio and Hungary. Or is Budapest just doing this to curry favor with Moscow? Not a single EU official I have spoken to on this question has shared any insight into the matter. A second obvious question is: What did Hungary get for backing down so quickly? It is not uncommon that EU member states block a policy in order to gain an advantage on another issue -- normally related to money. With a tough winter ahead, speculation is rife that Hungary is seeking EU funds that so far have been withheld by Brussels over fears of rule-of-law violations in the country. Incidentally, Hungarian Justice Minister Judith Varga is expected in Brussels soon and she will meet the EU budget commissioner. There have been whispers for weeks that some sort of controversial compromise is in the making between Brussels and Budapest in which the money will flow based on certain conditions. Was the Hungarian sanctions move this week an attempt to lessen the conditionality or put pressure on the European Commission to release the funds more quickly? It isn't the end of the story -- in fact, the can was just kicked down the road for a few months. Hungary agreed to back down for now but said that it will raise the issue in various working groups this fall. It will pop up on the agenda soon enough, possibly toward the end of the year when the bloc will discuss the renewal of all the economic and sectoral sanctions on Russia. And almost definitely in March 2023 when the sanctions listings will come up for renewal again. Flaws In the System Apart from political interests, there are also three "flaws" in the system that makes all this possible. The most obvious one is clearly the unanimity rule. Debates have been going on for years that foreign policy decisions in the EU should move from consensus to some sort of qualified majority vote -- like in many other policy fields. Yet for that you need -- you guessed it -- unanimity. It is unlikely to happen as many countries simply would be loath to give up such a powerful tool and, in many ways, also surrender national sovereignty in a very sensitive field. Hungary has played this to perfection in recent years, for example by securing opt-outs in the EU's oil embargo on Russia, removing Patriarch Kirill from being sanctioned, and previously watering down the bloc's arms embargo on Belarus. But Hungary is hardly alone. Cyprus managed to remove strict language about a ban on Russians buying property in the EU, Germany successfully pushed for longer phase-out periods on buying Russian coal, and many southern nations lobbied not to blacklist Russian-owned ships. The list is endless. And everyone does it. Another issue is that the Russian sanctions need renewal every six months -- and this goes for both the economic sanctions and the asset freezes and visa bans on individuals. In most other EU sanctions regimes, the continuation takes place once a year. In the case of Russia, this gives member states twice as many opportunities to hijack the process for its own political ends. And, once again, you need unanimity to change this. The reason why the Russian sanctions are different is that, when the initial sanctions were introduced back in 2014 after the Crimea annexation, many EU nations hoped that Moscow could change and that the measures could be lifted swiftly. The change from Moscow never really came, but it appears that Brussels is at least pretending to hope. Finally, you have the European Court of Justice. Everyone has the right to have their case heard, the European Union after all prides itself on being based on the rule of law. So it is not surprising that all three oligarchs whom Hungary wants delisted have filed complaints to the Luxembourg court in order to have the sanctions against them lifted. Earlier in the summer, Usmanov failed in a bid to be granted interim measures, meaning that his assets remain frozen for now. But as they are likely to have considerable assets still available to them, they can afford the very best lawyers to find loopholes in the EU's case against them. Several sanctioned Ukrainian oligarchs and politicians close to the former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych found success this way. And rather than be embarrassed in its own court, some EU countries will be compelled to argue that it's simply better to delist individuals. Ukrainian forces have recaptured 6,000 square kilometers in a counteroffensive this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on September 12 after a Russia-imposed official admitted Russian forces have been vastly outnumbered as the military pushes its counteroffensive in northeastern Ukraine. "Since the start of September, our soldiers have already liberated 6,000 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory in the east and south, and we are moving further," Zelenskiy said in his nightly address. Six thousand square kilometers is about six and a half times the size of the city of Berlin. Just two days ago Zelenskiy announced the liberation of about 2,000 square kilometers. The General Staff of the Ukrainian military said on September 11 that Ukrainian forces had liberated more than 20 settlements in the Kharkiv, Luhansk, and Donetsk regions. Russia-imposed official Vitaly Ganchev said earlier on September 12 on Russias state-run Rossiya 24 that Ukrainian troops had retaken previously Russian-held areas in the north of Kharkiv, breaking through to the border with Russia, and that "about 5,000" civilians had been evacuated to Russia. According to Ganchev, the Ukrainian military outnumbered Russian forces by eight -to-one during the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the region that began last week. Ganchev said that "the situation is becoming more difficult by the hour," adding that the border with Russia's Belgorod region was now closed. 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. His unconfirmed comments came as the Ukrainian military reports further successes, liberating areas in eastern Ukraine from Russian occupying forces. Over the weekend, Ukrainian forces overran the key Russian supply hubs of Izyum and Kupyansk, where the Kharkiv region's Russian-installed administration had been based. On September 11, Russia's Defense Ministry published a map showing that Russian forces had almost entirely abandoned the Kharkiv region. Ukrainian troops have shared videos of themselves raising Ukrainian flags on buildings in the Kharkiv region and being greeted by grateful residents. Some of the videos show pieces of Russian artillery and tanks left behind by fleeing troops. One video showed Ukrainian troops in front of a municipal building in Hoptivka, a village just about 2 kilometers from the border and about 19 kilometers north of Kharkiv. Kharkiv Governor Oleh Synyehubov said Ukrainian troops had reclaimed control of more than 40 settlements in the region. But as Ukrainian troops push the counteroffensive, there were fears that it could trigger an even more violent response from Moscow. Russia already launched missile attacks that hit key civilian infrastructure, according to Ukrainian officials. Problems with electricity and water were reported in the Kharkiv, Sumy, Poltava, Zaporizhzhya, and Dnipropetrovsk regions, possibly impacting millions of people. Ukrainian officials said Russia hit Kharkiv TEC-5, the country's second-biggest heating and power plant, and Zelenskiy posted video of the Kharkiv power plant on fire. By the early hours of September 12, Kyiv authorities said that electric power and water supplies had been restored to some 80 percent in the Kharkiv region. The city of Kharkiv lost water and electricity supplies due to renewed Russian shelling on September 12, which the mayor said was getting nearer the city center. "The situation from last night has been repeated. Due to shelling, critical infrastructure facilities have been put out of action, and as a result, power has gone out in Kharkiv and the water supply was cut off," Mayor Ihor Terekhov said in a post on Telegram. Later on September 11, Zelenskiy said Russia was targeting civilian infrastructure "to deprive people of light and heat." "Russian terrorists remain terrorists and attack critical infrastructure. No military facilities, only the goal of leaving people without light and heat," he tweeted, adding a note of defiance. Addressing Moscow, Zelenskiy wrote: "Do you still think you can intimidate, break us, force us to make concessions?.... Cold, hunger, darkness, and thirst for us are not as scary and deadly as your `friendship and brotherhood. But history will put everything in place. And we will be with gas, lights, water and foodand WITHOUT you!" Separately, the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in the Russian-occupied south was completely shut down on September 11 in a bid to prevent a radiation disaster as fighting raged nearby. On the battlefield, Britain's Defense Ministry said on September 12 that Russia had probably ordered its forces to withdraw from all of the Kharkiv region west of the Oskil River, abandoning the main supply route that had sustained its operations in the east. In its daily update, the ministry said Moscow's forces were also struggling to bring reserves to the front line in the south, where Ukraine has launched a big advance in the Kherson region aiming to isolate thousands of Russian soldiers on the west bank of the Dnieper River. "The majority of the (Russian) force in Ukraine is highly likely being forced to prioritize emergency defensive actions," the British update said. "The rapid Ukrainian successes have significant implications for Russia's overall operational design." Russia's Defense Ministry has said the withdrawal from Izyum and other areas was intended to strengthen Moscow's forces in the neighboring Donetsk region to the south. The explanation was similar to how Russia justified pulling back from Kyiv earlier this year. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell discussed the success of Ukraine's counteroffensive with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on September 12. EU support will continue, Borrell said on Twitter. "Our strategy is working: help Ukraine fight back, put pressure on Russia with sanctions and support partners around the world," Borrell said. The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said on September 12 that Russia likely lacked the reserve forces it needs to bolster its defenses in Ukraine. While the war likely will stretch into next year, the institute believes that "Ukraine has turned the tide of this war in its favor" by effectively using Western-supplied weapons like the long-range HIMARS missile system and strong battlefield tactics. "Kyiv will likely increasingly dictate the location and nature of the major fighting," it said. With setbacks appearing to mount on the battlefield, the Kremlin said it was open to talks with Kyiv. "Russia does not reject negotiations with Ukraine, but the longer the process is delayed, the harder it will be to reach an agreement," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on state television on September 11. With reporting by AP, Reuters, dpa, and AFP The United States on September 9 announced sanctions on Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security and its minister, Esmail Khatib, accusing them of being linked to a cyberattack in July on NATO ally Albania. The U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement that the Iranian ministry directs several networks of cyberthreat actors, including those involved in cyberespionage and ransomware attacks. "Iran's cyberattack against Albania disregards norms of responsible peacetime state behavior in cyberspace, which includes a norm on refraining from damaging critical infrastructure that provides services to the public," said Treasury Undersecretary Brian Nelson. Albania on September 7 ordered Iranian officials out of the country and severed diplomatic relations with Tehran following an investigation into the cyberattack. Tirana described "irrefutable" evidence that Tehran had backed "the act of serious cyberattack against the digital infrastructure of the government of the Republic of Albania." The Iranian Foreign Ministry denied Tehran was behind any cyberattack on Albanian government websites. It called the decision to sever diplomatic relations "ill-considered and hasty and said it was based on unfounded insinuations." With reporting by Reuters and AFP During his election campaign, Ebrahim Raisi vowed not to further restrict the Internet in Iran, where authorities already block tens of thousands of websites and regularly throttle or cut Internet connectivity. But since the hard-line president assumed power in August 2021, experts say his administration has been secretly implementing a highly controversial draft bill designed to intensify online censorship and limit Internet access. The Cyberspace Protection Bill would hand over control of Iran's Internet gateways to the armed forces and criminalize the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) that mask Internet users locations and enable them to view blocked websites. Attempts to pass the bill in parliament, which is dominated by hard-liners, have been met with fierce criticism, public calls for its withdrawal, and warnings that it would stoke popular anger. But this week, Irans Supreme Cyberspace Council, a body chaired by Raisi and created by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in 2012, appeared to sidestep the legislature and partially approve the draconian bill. The quiet implementation [of the bill] has been happening for almost a year, Mahsa Alimardani a digital-rights researcher with the human rights organization ARTICLE 19, told RFE/RL. Alimardani said the move by the Supreme Cyberspace Council is a circumvention of the parliamentary process, adding that the legislature had lost the will to push the bill forward because of the lack of political consensus. In a directive issued on September 6, the Supreme Cyberspace Council announced that it has appointed members to the Supreme Regulatory Commission, an arm of the council that has been given broad powers to regulate the countrys cyberspace. The 12-member commission includes representatives from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the police, the Intelligence Ministry, and the judiciary, according to the directive. Observers inside the country noted that the directive issued this week is a key part of the unapproved Cyberspace Protection Bill. By issuing the directive, they said authorities had taken a major step in implementing the draft legislation. 'Dangerous Precedent' Media outlets affiliated with Irans moderate and reformist political camps warned that the contentious bill was becoming a reality. The reformist Shargh daily reported that the Supreme Cyberspace Council had adopted an "important part" of the draft Internet bill, saying it would further hinder the free flow of information and prevent the public exposure of government corruption. The reformist Iranian daily Etemad said the Supreme Regulatory Commission would not include members of civil society and the private sector that are highly dependent on Internet access. Hamed Bidi, a Tehran-based cyberexpert, said the move had set a dangerous precedent and should be challenged in court. The articles of the Cyberspace Protection Bill were previously declared to be contrary to the Constitution by the Parliament Research Center and many jurists opposed it, Bidi told Tejaratnews.ir on September 7. But now the Supreme Cyberspace Council has approved it while not paying any attention to the opinions of experts. The parents of jailed Iranian activist Behnam Mousivand have held a demonstration in front of the Rajaei-Shahr prison to protest against the lack of attention being given to their sons health following hunger strikes. Behnam Mousivands sister said in a tweet on September 8 that on the orders of the prison authorities, the police tried to arrest her parents, but they faced resistance from several family members at the site. A video of Mousivand's parents was published on social media showing them standing in front of the Rajaei-Shahr prison. The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) also warned about Mousaviands state of health. The CHRI on September 7 expressed concern about Mousivand's "precarious health situation," which is "raising fears of another preventable death in Iranian state custody due to the authorities denial of proper medical treatment." Iranian authorities are subjecting Behnam Mousivand to a slow and deliberate death to silence his criticism of state policies, said CHRI Executive Director Hadi Ghaemi. If the international community does not publicly condemn Iranian authorities killing of political prisoners, this will give them a green light to continue to pick them off, one by one, as just another means of silencing dissent, he said. According to reports from human rights groups, Mousivand launched the hunger strike after authorities at the notorious Evin prison prevented him from being transferred to an offsite medical center despite his deteriorating health condition, with the warden even threatening to transfer him to another prison. He previously went on a hunger strike in April after being beaten by prison guards for refusing to wear handcuffs and shackles while he was heading to receive medical treatment outside of the prison, where he is serving six years on convictions for "assembly and collusion against national security" and "propaganda against the system. At that time, instead of transferring Mousivand to a health center for treatment, he was moved to a quarantine ward at Evin, on the northern edge of Tehran. Mousivand, 35, has been arrested several times for his political activism. Written by Ardeshir Tayebi based on an original story in Persian by RFE/RL's Radio Farda BISHKEK -- Nearly 5,000 cases of domestic violence were reported in Kyrgyzstan in the first six months of 2022, according to the Central Asian countrys Interior Ministry, with the overwhelming majority of the victims being women. The number puts the country on track to match the more than 10,100 cases of domestic abuse recorded last year, which was a 30 percent increase from 2020. More than 100 Kyrgyz women were killed by their husbands in the past seven years, 21 of them in 2020 alone. In the most recent case, a 24-year-old woman from the southern town of Kochkor-Ata was stabbed to death by her ex-husband on August 26, police said. He first beat me when I was five months pregnant with our first child. I lost the baby as a result." But the official figures are just the tip of the iceberg in a society where many still believe men can resort to violence against their wives if they disobey, Kyrgyz activists say. Thousands of cases of abuse and physical violence go unreported, with women fearing societal pressures and economic implications if they leave their husbands. Others dont believe police or the courts would help them resolve their problems. In the rural district of Alamudun in northern Chui Province, it took one woman enduring 11 years of physical violence from her husband to finally leave him and seek a divorce. The woman, whose name is not given to protect her privacy, lost hearing in one ear due to a beating. He first beat me when I was five months pregnant with our first child. I lost the baby as a result, she told RFE/RL. I wanted to leave him after that incident, but he promised he would never beat me again. We went on to have three children. He didnt keep his promise and instead got increasingly violent. The woman said her husband had also beaten their children since they were toddlers. He would tell our daughters that a woman must live the way her husband tells her, she said. He told the girls that in the future they must tolerate their husbands beatings and not come back to their parent's home complaining. The children called for help recently during one of his violent outbursts, said Bubusara Ryskulova, the head of the Sezim Crisis Center, which provides support for victims of domestic violence. In that incident, the womans husband was beating her with a belt, Ryskulova told RFE/RL. We went to their home along with the police and got the mother and the children out of the house. Ryskulova said the children all bore marks of beatings, including a lacerated wound on the lips of the couples son. RFE/RL tried to contact the womans husband and his relatives to get his side of the story but was unable to talk with them. On August 25, the Alamudun district court ordered a $610 fine and 100 hours of community work for the husband. Many experts and activists in Kyrgyzstan say police and courts are often too lenient toward men accused of committing domestic violence. In some cases, the perpetrators are sentenced to a few days in custody for beating their wives. Experts say the victims in such cases dread their abusive husbands return and the repeat of the abuse. Muhayo Abduraupova, a family lawyer in the southern city of Osh, said many victims dont know their rights or have no financial means to seek justice and compensation when theyre unhappy with the way police or courts handle their complaints. The lawyer also criticized what she described as the unprofessional attitude of some law enforcement officers, which has eroded womens trust in the police. Investigators and prosecutors often refuse to accept complaints filed by domestic violence victims, Abduraupova said. In some cases, police officers violate the rules themselves by being very rude to the victims or by trying to flirt with them. All of these things discourage women from seeking help from the police. Abduraupova believes the widespread practice of questioning the victim and her abuser together in the same room must change because it puts unnecessary pressure on the woman. Statistics from 2019 show that 86 percent of women withdrew their abuse complaints. Women in Kyrgyzstan also face other dilemmas in a society that often blames a woman for the breakup of her marriage. According to UN figures, about 90 percent of the victims of domestic violence return to their abusive husbands due to family or societal pressures or because of a lack of economic opportunities to be financially independent. The government says its been training more female police officers to handle domestic violence cases following suggestions that women and children who are victims of domestic abuse expressed more trust in female officers. This week, Kyrgyz rights activists called on the government to set up a special hotline to provide more support and protection for victims of violence seeking help. On the first day of the new school year, the head of the city council in Kamensk-Uralsky, a city of about 160,000 located deep in central Russia and very far away from Ukraine, took the microphone in front of a tired-looking school building and exhorted voters to reelect the regional governor. So that we can live in a peaceful time, our guys, our soldiers are taking up arms in Ukraine. But we cant stand here with weapons in our hands, Valery Permyakov told the crowd. So together, our task on September 11 is to not allow representatives of the fifth column of the united West to change the leadership of our Sverdlovsk Oblast. For this reason, when you go to the polls among the five gubernatorial candidates on the ballot, find the name of Yevgeny Kuyvashev and vote for him, he said, according the video of the September 1 event. And then we together can ensure that Russia will remain a free country! Local and regional elections are being held this weekend -- three days of voting that end on September 11 -- across a mish-mash of Russian regions for a hodgepodge of posts: Governors will be chosen in 15 regions; legislatures in six locales. In the capital, Moscow, voters will choose nearly 1,500 members of district councils. Its unclear whether railing against the West and extolling the heroism of Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine will propel candidates for public office to victory -- for example, in an election in the middle of the Ural Mountains. But the effort is also a partial reminder that nothing in Russia is really the same anymore since February 24, when President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine -- a war that has pulled the rug out from under Europes long-standing security structures, not to mention the steady economic growth Russia has seen in his 22 years as the countrys preeminent leader. That goes double for elections, where for years Russians and non-Russians have had mounting doubts about whether its possible in an increasingly authoritarian system to have a true democratic vote. For the most outspoken critics of Putins government, theres still reason to vote. Since the beginning of the war, the regime in our country has been completely reborn, which again provoked discussion: Does it make sense to go to the polls? said Leonid Volkov, a leading activist with the Anti-Corruption Foundation, established by the now imprisoned Aleksei Navalny. I believe it does. The essence has not changed, he wrote in a post on Telegram. Any action aimed at weakening any of the elements of the Putin system is correct and is the duty of a citizen. Because of the far-flung geography of the regions voting -- from the Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad to the Pacific island of Sakhalin -- and because voters are selecting local leaders, the main driving issues arent big, said Stanislav Andreychuk, a longtime member of Golos, a nongovernmental organization focusing on voting rights that has been all but banned in Russia. They concern the problems that citizens face every day: tariffs for heating, garbage collection, urban development, reduction of hospitals and schools, etc. Therefore, they continue to matter, Andreychuk said in an e-mail. They also serve, he said, as a pressure valve: The authorities allow people to cast votes, up or down, reflecting local concerns; people get to vent their anger or support. In a situation where it is not possible to freely express your position on mass rallies, which are prohibited, and for a statement in social networks you can get several years in prison, elections remain the only safe way to express your disagreement with the government's policy, Andreychuk said. There certainly hasnt been, and wont be, any notable expression of opposition to the war, said Margarita Zavadskaya, a political scientist at the Finnish Centre for Russian and East European Studies at the University of Helsinki. The war led to intensified large-scale repression, and it dampened the last opportunities for the moderate opposition to run at the elections and voice their position, she told RFE/RL. The anti-war agenda is pushed out of the legal and acceptable public space and cant be used in the campaign. Dont Think Globally. But Vote Locally. Russian pundits expect few seismic changes in the political landscape from this weekends voting. United Russia is predicted to hold onto most, if not all, the executive seats up for grabs. The party is also expected hold onto a majority of legislative seats. In Moscow, where voters tend to be more liberal than the rest of the country, the district councils are expected to see more diversity of candidates, but little else. The district councils are legislature bodies that mostly decide on hyper-local issues like new playground equipment, trash removal, or other quality-of-life concerns. Kremlin efforts to water down the influence of Russian voters, or the impact of voting, go back to the early years of Putins presidency. After a series of terrorist attacks, Putin started eliminating long-standing electoral procedures, like the direct election of regional governors. That effort was tweaked following a wave of street protests over what activists said were rigged State Duma elections, but the Kremlin then pushed through a law that allowed Putin to pick candidates for regions. The upshot was that the Kremlin-aligned political party United Russia gained a lock not only on a majority in the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, but also in most legislatures and regional executives around the country. Still, government authorities allowed Russians some space to dissent on issues of local importance, as long as the opposition didnt pose a systemic threat. Long-haul truckers, for example, protested a road-tolling system in 2015, while a Kremlin proposal to increase the national retirement age brought huge crowds into the streets of many Russian cities. Protesters in the central city of Yekaterinburg faced off against riot police over plans to build a church on the site of a popular park in the Urals region city in 2019. And other demonstrations erupted earlier that same year against a landfill proposed in a remote Arctic region to handle household garbage from Moscow. Electorally, however, the Kremlin has allowed less room to buck the system. In the Pacific region of Khabarovsk, voters backed a popular governor over a United Russia candidate. But in 2019, that governor, Sergei Furgal, was abruptly arrested, charged with ordering a series of murders years prior, then shipped off to Moscow to stand trial. The arrest prompted weeks of huge protests in Khabarovsk. In 2020, meanwhile, the Kremlin pushed through sweeping changes to the constitution that consolidated many executive powers, while also leaving wiggle room for Putin to stay on as preeminent leader either in the presidency or in some other capacity after his current term ends in 2024. Smart Vote, No War? The last national elections were held in September 2021, for the Duma. United Russia won overwhelmingly. Still, opposition groups led by Navalnys organization made a valiant effort at trying to thwart a United Russia sweep, utilizing something called the Smart Vote. The system aims to help opposition-minded Russians vote for candidates deemed most capable of beating United Russia candidates. WATCH: Smart Voting is a successful voting strategy promoted by opposition leader Aleksei Navalny that makes the Kremlin -- and the ruling United Russia party -- nervous. It helps opposition-minded Russians vote for candidates deemed most capable of beating candidates from United Russia. Here's how it works. Navalnys team is aiming to do the same thing in this weekends vote, although the effort will be limited to Moscows local elections, Volkov said. If you are a supporter of the boycott of the elections, no problem, he said in his Telegram post. I hope that on September 11 you have found a more effective course of action for yourself. In an interview with the now-banned independent newspaper Novaya gazeta, Volkov also added another variable to the system: Smart Vote would not endorse candidates who support the Ukraine war, which would eliminate a swathe of Communist Party candidates, traditionally the strongest alternatives to United Russia. For that reason, he said, they were limiting Smart Vote to just Moscow. When we looked at 2022, we realized we would be forced to recommend some kind of pro-war candidates, which is politically wrong and suicidal, Volkov was quoted as saying. For moral reasons, Navalny's team cannot recommend a candidate who takes an open military position. And we fought over this puzzle -- how to combine a moral position and the principle of voting for the strongest candidate -- for a very long time, he said. In the end, we decided to limit ourselves to Moscow only. The weekends elections should not be viewed as a clear barometer of Russian voters sentiment, Zavadskaya said. If anything, however, they will show the ability of the Kremlin to manipulate the domestic political system, she said. The elections show thecapacity of the regime to demonstrate and generate desirable outcomes, signaling to the opposition that they have no hope, she said, and to the rest, an illusion of a majority that supports the regime. An RFE/RL investigation exposes how Russian oil or oil products are evading sanctions and arriving in the European Union. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Russian ships are barred from docking at EU ports. So how do these shipments end up there? Schemes, the investigative unit of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, explains. Ukraine's counteroffensive has shown some early success by liberating 20 towns in the country's embattled east. Footage of Ukrainian soldiers being greeted by emotional locals, as well as hoisting the Ukrainian flag over administrative buildings, has flooded social media sites. The counteroffensive is forcing Russia to reinforce its weakened positions and may be changing the balance of power in the region. PRAGUE -- Ukrainian forces are showing signs of battlefield successes in two counteroffensives, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said, adding that the United States will support Kyiv in its fight against invading Russian troops "as long as it's needed." Austin's comments in Prague on September 9 came amid mounting evidence that Ukrainian troops have made advances in the southern Kherson region and in districts east and southeast of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy commended the military for its gains in the east, saying in his nightly video address that Ukrainian troops had reclaimed more than 30 settlements in the Kharkiv region since the start of the counteroffensive there this week. We are gradually taking control over more settlements, returning the Ukrainian flag and protection for our people. Zelenskiy said. "Our army, intelligence, the Security Service of Ukraine continue active actions in several operational directions. They continue successfully," he noted. While Kherson has been the focus of major fighting for a couple weeks now, the push from Kharkiv has unfolded over the past couple days, with what appears to be lightning speed. 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. "We see success in Kherson now," Austin told reporters in Prague after meeting with his Czech counterpart, Jana Cernochova. "We see some success in Kharkiv and so that is very encouraging," he added. In his nightly video address on September 8, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy claimed that Ukrainian troops had "liberated dozens of settlements" and reclaimed more than 1,000 square kilometers from Russian forces in the past week. Ukraines General Staff, meanwhile, claimed that troops advanced 50 kilometers east and southeast of Kharkiv in three days. Austin praised the fighting abilities of Ukrainian troops, saying we've all been impressed by what we've seen. Their willingness to stand up to a much larger, much stronger force, and be effective in their efforts. So we've been inspired by their courage and their commitment, he said. You've heard [U.S.] President [Joe] Biden say, and you've heard me say a number of times, that we're going to support Ukraine for as long as it takes, he added. Austin was among about 50 defense ministers who met this week at Ramstein air base in Germany for the fifth meeting of a contact group on the defense of Ukraine. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service that the government in Kyiv was "absolutely satisfied" with the meeting. The defense ministers discussed defense policy, not politics, and analyzed how the war is going and what weapons Ukraine needs, along with specific plans to supply them, he said. He added that it was important that the contact group decided that "Ukraine will be provided with all the necessary weapons" and in principle decided not pay attention to statements made by Russia. Russian officials have said nothing about the situation on either front in Ukraine or about Ukrainian successes, though pro-Russian military bloggers have for days been documenting major movements in battle lines in both places. But on September 9, the Russian-appointed administrator for Kharkiv occupied regions told Rossia-24 TV that Ukraine had made a "substantial victory" in the eastern region. The situation is rather serious now, Vitaly Ganchev said. "The very fact there was a breach of our defenses is already a substantial victory for the Ukrainian armed forces." WATCH; U.S. backing for Ukraine's fight against Russia's invasion will continue for "as long as it takes," said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in Prague on September 9. Appearing alongside Czech Defense Minister Jana Cernochova, Austin commended the progress Ukrainian troops have made recently in both Kherson and Kharkiv. Just past midday on September 9, a Russian rocket hit the center of Kharkiv, wounding at least 10 people, the regional administrator, Oleh Synehubov, said in a post to Telegram. The president's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said the attacks likely were revenge for Ukrainian success on the battlefield. "For every success of Ukraine's armed forces, for every victory, Russians...answer with strikes on innocent people," Yermak wrote on Telegram, confirming that children were among the wounded. On September 8, U.S. officials announced another $675 million package in weaponry to Ukraine, along with a $2 billion pledge made the same day for strengthening security across Europe. That brings the total amount of U.S. military supplies sent to Kyiv since the Russian invasion on February 24 to more than $15.2 billion. If Ukraines two counteroffensives turn out to be sustained and significant, they would further fuel doubts about Russian fighting strength and manpower, as well as Russian commanders tactics. They would also add questions to the Kremlins ultimate goals for the invasion, which have shifted several times over the past seven months. Earlier this week, President Vladimir Putin showed no indication that Russian authorities were considering scaling back the tempo of fighting or cutting their losses in Ukraine. We have not lost anything and will not lose anything, he said at an economic forum in Vladivostok. U.S. and Western officials estimate Russia has recorded up to 80,000 casualties since the invasion, with at least one-quarter of that figure killed in battle. The last official death tally from the Russian Defense Ministry was 1,351, as of the end of March. During a visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels on September 9, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken appeared to chide Putin, suggesting he was callously sacrificing Russian lives by prolonging the fight. "There are a huge number of Russian forces that are in Ukraine and unfortunately, tragically, horrifically, President Putin has demonstrated that he will throw a lot of people into this at huge cost to Russia, at huge cost to its future," Blinken said. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Tehran's latest response in negotiations on reviving a 2015 nuclear pact has pushed the talks a step back. Speaking to reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels on September 9, Blinken said Washington still hopes for a deal to keep Iran's nuclear program in check, but that it was not looking for an agreement at any cost. After 16 months of indirect talks between Tehran and Washington, the EU last month put forward a final offer to overcome an impasse for the revival of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA). Iran responded to the proposal, which the United States then replied to, prompting a further response from Tehran, bolstering hopes a deal may be near. "In past weeks, we've closed some gaps. Iran has moved away from some extraneous demands -- demands unrelated to the JCPOA itself," Blinken said. "However, the latest response takes us backwards. And we're not about to agree to a deal that doesn't meet our bottom-line requirements.... If we conclude a deal, it's only because it will advance our national security." The agreement collapsed when former U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the United States unilaterally in 2018 and reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran. Since then, Tehran has progressively rolled back its own commitments to the deal, which was designed to prevent Iran from building a nuclear bomb. Tehran insists its nuclear program is for civilian purposes only. In its most recent response to the EU proposal, Iran said that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should drop its "politically motivated probes" of Tehran's nuclear work. The IAEA has been probing the origins of nuclear material found at three undeclared Iranian sites. In the days after Mikhail Gorbachev's death, Moscow's war on Ukraine and developments in Russia underscore the erosion of his achievements. Imprisoned opposition leader Aleksei Navalny comes under additional pressure in prison, a former reporter is handed a 22-year sentence, and the paper Gorbachev helped create is targeted -- again and again -- by the state. Here are some of the key developments in Russia over the past week and some of the takeaways going forward. The Great Rollback Mikhail Gorbachev's legacy, in a word, is freedom. The last Soviet leader let the Warsaw Pact countries that had been under Moscow's thumb for nearly half a century go without bloodshed in 1989. The 15 Soviet republics won their independence two years later, though in some places deadly crackdowns aimed at stopping them from breaking away marred that process. And within the Soviet Union before it fell apart, democracy, human rights, and basic freedoms were on the increase as he opened up the country and the balance between the individual and state shifted for the first time in decades -- or centuries. When Gorbachev died on August 30, at the age of 91, it was in a Russia that might be unrecognizable to optimists who lived through those tumultuous times or watched the momentous developments from the West -- but grimly recognizable to pessimists, perhaps. Ukraine -- whose independence drive was crucial to the way things played out in the two years before Gorbachev resigned on December 25, 1991, finalizing the Soviet Union's demise -- is under attack in a massive, unprovoked effort by Russia to deprive it of its sovereignty, which Moscow unequivocally accepted at the time. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and some 12 million driven from their homes in Ukraine, where cities and towns have been turned to rubble and evidence of atrocities mounts. Russian President Vladimir Putin is also seeking to curtail the sovereignty of the Central and Eastern European countries that broke free from Moscow's dominion in 1989. Among the sweeping demands that Russia made of the United States and NATO late last year as part of what may have been little more than an effort to create a paper trail designed to justify the February 24 invasion of Ukraine -- at least in Russia's eyes -- was a call for the Western alliance to withdraw weapons and forces from the territory of countries that joined in 1997 or later. And as the war in Ukraine persists with no end in sight and autumn approaches, Russia is attempting to use energy supplies -- particularly natural gas -- as a crowbar to try to pry Europe's substantial unity in support of Ukraine apart. In Russia, meanwhile, many of the advances of the Gorbachev era and later years are being rolled back in ways both suffocatingly broad and -- when it comes to the treatment of people who fall into the widening circle of Putin's perceived enemies -- grimly specific. Behind Bars For at least the past two years -- since he was poisoned with a combat-grade nerve agent in what he asserts was an assassination attempt by Putin and the Federal Security Service (FSB) -- the most glaring example of the latter has been Aleksei Navalny. Navalny was arrested and jailed upon return from treatment in Germany in January 2021. Now, he is serving a nine-year sentence on charges he dismisses as absurd and politically motivated, and his Anti-Corruption Foundation and network of offices nationwide has been branded "extremist" and outlawed by the state. A stark photograph posted by colleagues on September 2 shows how Navalny, 46, looks after a year and a half in jails and prisons -- which, aside from courtrooms and the Moscow airport where he arrived from Berlin, are the only places in Russia he's been since he returned. On September 7, Navalny said on Instagram that he had been placed in punitive solitary confinement for the fourth time since mid-August at Corrective Colony No. 6, the prison where he is being held in the Vladimir region east of Moscow. And the following day, he said on Twitter that the prison administration summoned him to tell him that his communications with his lawyers would no longer be protected by attorney-client privilege, a development that close associate Leonid Volkov said was "very bad. Can't be underestimated." "Not only [have they] put Navalny into [a] solitary punishment cell, they are now trying to cut his communication to the outer world entirely," Volkov tweeted. While the seemingly ever-tightening clampdown on dissent entered a new phase with Navalny's imprisonment -- and tightened further still following the February invasion of Ukraine, which dramatically widened an eight-year war in the Donbas -- its victims are myriad. 'Baseless' In a sentencing that stunned Kremlin critics and observers, even it it did not surprise them, Ivan Safronov, a former defense industry reporter for newspapers Kommersant and Vedomosti and a former aide to the head of the Russian space agency, was convicted of treason and handed a 22-year prison term. He is 32 years old. Supporters, Kremlin critics, and observers said the case against Safronov -- based on allegations that he passed classified information to Czech and German secret agents -- was "entirely fabricated," as Sam Greene, a political analysts and author of a book on Putin, put it. In a report published on August 29, the investigative media outlet Proyekt, which examined the case documents, said it had found that the charges against Safronov were "baseless." Back to Gorbachev, who used the cash award from his 1990 Nobel Peace Prize to fund the creation of Novaya gazeta, a groundbreaking independent newspaper that has delved into injustice across Russia in the following decade and in the 23 years since Putin, president or prime minister since August 1999, came to power. On the day Safronov was convicted and sentenced, a Moscow court revoked Novaya gazeta's print license -- and the next day, it cancelled the registration of the outlet's magazine. The court rulings, which came at the request of the state media regulator Roskomnadzor, added to mounting pressure on the paper over ts coverage of Russia's war in Ukraine. Novaya gazeta announced in March that that it was suspending publication after receiving official warning from the state over its coverage of Russia's war on Ukraine. Putin's government calls the ongoing invasion a "special military operation" and has taken numerous steps to punish people and media that criticize or question it, including making it illegal to refer to the war as a war. Gorbachev's funeral procession, on September 3, was led by Novaya gazeta's editor in chief, Dmitry Muratov, who was a co-winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize. He was cited for his "efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace." BEIJING, Sept. 9 -- On September 7, 109 members of the first echelon of the 26th Chinese peacekeeping force to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) departed from Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, for a one-year peacekeeping mission in Bukavu, South Kivu Province, DRC. The 26th Chinese peacekeeping force to the DRC consists of an engineering detachment and a medical detachment with a total of 218 persons selected from a brigade under the PLA Xizang Military Command and the General Hospital of the PLA Xizang Military Command. AFRICA Western Sahara Expected Council Action In April, Security Council members expect to receive a briefing in consultations on the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO). The Special Representative for Western Sahara and head of MINURSO Alexander Ivanko, and the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General, Staffan de Mistura, are the anticipated briefers The MINURSO mandate expires on 31 October. Key Recent Developments The upcoming Council meeting will be the first time de Mistura addresses the Council since his appointment as Personal Envoy in November 2021. The post had been vacant for two and a half years following the resignation of Horst Kohler, the former German President, in May 2019. Upon assuming office, de Mistura undertook diplomatic engagements with several stakeholders in the conflict, including Morocco, neighbouring countries and the Polisario Frontthe entity representing the inhabitants of the Western Sahara region, known as Sahrawis. De Mistura visited the region on a trip that began on 12 January. He first met in Rabat with Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita and Ambassador Omar Hilale, the countrys Permanent Representative to the UN. During the meeting, Morocco reportedly reiterated its position regarding its autonomy plan. (The plan, which Morocco submitted to the UN in 2007, calls for integrating the territory into Morocco, with the Sahrawi people managing their internal affairs while being represented externally by Morocco.) On 15 January, de Mistura met with Polisario Front President Brahim Ghali and visited the Tindouf refugee camps in Algeria. A UNHCR report published in February states that these camps host some 90,000 Sahrawi refugees, although UNHCR also notes that the actual number is estimated to be much higher. The Polisario Front reportedly reiterated its attachment to the organisation of a referendum of self-determination of the Saharawi people. On 17 January, de Mistura met with Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani and Foreign Minister Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed in Mauritanias capital, Nouakchott. He returned to Algeria for a meeting with Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra and Amar Belani, Algerias Special Envoy on the question of Western Sahara and Maghreb Countries. In a press release following de Misturas visit, Algeria expressed support for direct negotiations without preconditions between Morocco and the Polisario Front and for the revitalisation of the joint settlement plan of 1991, which includes holding a referendum. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres commented on de Misturas efforts during a 21 January press conference, expressing hope that the visit and de Misturas good offices would give new impetus to the political process. However, de Mistura has faced complex regional dynamics as he has embarked on his new role. In August 2021, Algeria cut diplomatic ties with Morocco after a period of increasingly strained relations. The rupture was triggered by a dispute between the countries regarding the Kabyle people, an ethnic minority group in Algeria striving for independence. In a 19 July letter to the Council, Algeria expressed discontent over a document distributed by Morocco to all member states of the Non-Aligned Movement. Algeria stated that Morocco outlined in this document its support for what it claims is the right to self-determination of the Kabyle people, who, according to the document, have been subjected to the longest foreign occupation. Algeria further stated that it perceived the contents of Moroccos document as an admission that it has provided support to the Kabyle, which Algiers believes is a terrorist group that has caused wildfires in Algeria. In a 22 July 2021 letter to the Council reacting to a statement by Lamamra at a 13 July Ministerial Meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement in which he compared the situation in Western Sahara to a military conflict, Morocco asserted that the situation in the Moroccan Sahara is calm and serene. On 24 August 2021, as a result of this dispute, Algeria severed diplomatic relations with Morocco. Recent diplomatic developments may have added complexity to the regional dynamic. On 19 March, Algeria recalled its ambassador to Spain because of the latters shift in position to support the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara, which Spain governed until 1975. The move improved Spains relations with Morocco. Rabat, which recalled its ambassador to Spain in May 2021 because of Spains admission of Ghali to the country to undergo COVID-19 treatment, welcomed the shift in position and returned its ambassador to Spain. Key Issues and Options The key issue for Council members to consider is how to bring all parties to the negotiating table. Resolution 2602 of 29 October 2021 called on all parties to resume negotiations with a view to achieving a just, lasting, and mutually acceptable political solution, which will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara. The appointment of de Mistura gave new momentum to the peace process and revived the prospects for resuming negotiations. Nonetheless, significant obstacles remain to making meaningful progress in the peace process. The Polisario Front announced in November 2020 that it would no longer respect the ceasefire agreement that it signed with Morocco in 1991. The announcement followed Moroccos deployment of armed forces into a buffer zone after Polisario protesters blocked traffic between the Moroccan-controlled side of Western Sahara and Mauritania at the border town of Guerguerat. This situation is now further compounded by the complex regional dynamics, which could overshadow prospects for a reinvigorated peace process. A possible option for Council members would be to issue a press statement expressing their support for de Misturas efforts and urging all parties to resume negotiations. Council Dynamics Council members continue to be divided on the issue of Western Sahara. The US, the penholder on Western Sahara, recognised Moroccos sovereignty over the region in December 2020, under the Trump administration. The Biden administration has not changed this position. On 3 February, de Mistura met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and discussed diplomatic engagement with international partners to reinforce a credible political process that will lead to an enduring and dignified resolution of the conflict. France has traditionally supported the Moroccan autonomy plan for the region, and Gabon and the UAE are also supportive of Morocco. Council members Ghana, Kenya and Mexico maintain diplomatic relations with the political representation of the Sahrawi people, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). UN DOCUMENTS ON WESTERN SAHARA This resolution renewed the mandate of the UN Mission for the Referendum on Western Sahara (MINURSO) for another year, until 31 October 2022. The resolution received 13 votes in favour and two abstentions (Russia and Tunisia). This resolution renewed MINURSO until 31 October 2021. This was the annual Secretary-Generals report on the situation concerning Western Sahara, covering developments from 31 August 2020 and 1 October 2021. This letter transmitted a communique that was adopted by the Peace and Security Council of the African Union at its 984th meeting (9 March 2021), covering the situation in Western Sahara. For as long as the Bay Area Rapid Transit systems trains have screeched across the region, a feeling has lingered among its loyal and would-be riders that the transit service could be so much more. It was initially envisioned as a system that would reach across the Golden Gate Bridge and into Wine Country while also stretching into the western neighborhoods of San Francisco. BART, however, has never quite lived up to the designs of its original muses despite being, perhaps, the most influential manufactured system in the region. The pandemic didnt help matters. BART ridership numbers dropped off a cliff after March 2020, and a prominent bond rating company recently warned that BART and other U.S. transit systems heavily reliant on fares are expected to face sizable budget gaps in years to come. And as many people reconsidered various ways they lived their lives, minds also drifted to how transit systems could change as well. On Sunday, BART reaches the 50th anniversary of its first trains streaking people through the Bay Area. The timing provides an interesting peg to a question long asked by transit riders. What will BART look like in 50 years? Well, decades from now, BARTs signature silver trains could transport riders from Oaklands Jack London Square and the populous San Antonio neighborhood east of Lake Merritt via new subway tunnels that converge at a station in the city of Alameda. From there, BARTs latest rail line could descend into the second Transbay Tube toward San Franciscos Mission Bay, then connect to Caltrain and High-Speed Rail service in the basement of Salesforce Transit Center in South of Market before heading westward. The Geary corridor that residents have long yearned for BART to serve becomes dotted with subway stations, preceding stops beneath Golden Gate Parks Music Concourse and along 19th Avenue. Trains stop underneath Stonestown Galleria and San Francisco State en route to a connection at Daly City Station. Lines traveling through San Francisco and Oakland will be sprinkled with infill stations stops developed on existing BART tracks with train turnback capabilities that will allow BART to run more frequent service in its urban core. Elsewhere, the Bay Areas regional rail spine extends outward to Livermore and Hercules and, perhaps, Marin County. To the south, rail tracks run underneath San Jose and link the regions three largest cities via BART possibly fully encircling the San Francisco Bay. Valley Transportation Authority Its not just the stuff of dreams. Numerous studies and reports published throughout its first 50 years tease at this potential idealistic future for BART and its riders. But even as BART continues to plan for future expansion, achieving some version of that vision has never felt more tenuous than it does on the 50th birthday of the regions most popular rail system. Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic spiraled BART toward an uncertain future on many fronts. Today, roughly 38% of BARTs pre-pandemic ridership has returned since April 2020, when it cratered to just 6%. The historic drop in ridership brought more urgent questions to the forefront about how BART will financially recover from a pandemic that has severely undercut fares, BARTs main pre-COVID revenue source, and how the system will reinvent itself. Then theres the lesson of history that many plans for expansion and development of the BART system materialized in times of unprecedented growth in ridership. It means forecasts about the future remain muddy, more than two years out from the pandemic, and a firm picture of what the regions new transportation patterns will be in a post-pandemic world have yet to fully come into sharp relief. Our role in the region is evolving, Val Menotti, BARTs chief planning and development officer, said. On remote work, we know that will be part of our future. But at what level, to me, its not clear, and it may not be clear for a couple of years. Still, even in these trying times, the regions planners and transportation leaders view BART as an important linchpin that better connects the Bay Areas disconnected rail and bus transit networks together to build a future world-class rail system. Once-in-a-generation expansion projects, such as BARTs extension to Silicon Valley, are under way. The four-station expansion will take riders deep underground to Downtown San Jose and Santa Clara, at an estimated cost of $9.8 billion, when it tentatively opens at the end of this decade. The pandemic also hasnt stopped BART from planning for its second Transbay Tube. The transformational project, if realized, could create a new BART line and boost its capacity to transport people across the bay while better connecting the fragmented rail networks in the Northern California megaregion. Its an issue that reached a critical point in 2016 when ridership peaked at all-time highs. Few, if any, meaningful details have been decided in that project, which has a placeholder completion date of 2040. But pandemic or no pandemic, the extraordinary costs of building rail expansions in the Bay Area and the regions dismal track record in delivering on these sorts of massive projects on time and under budget is key to why many of these plans remain pie in the sky. It will have taken almost half a century for BARTs Silicon Valley extension to reach conception to completion. The second Transbay Tube will have taken longer and will require BART and the Bay Areas patchwork of local governments to raise the tens of billions in funding it needs to become reality. BART BART BART BART Renderings of the Irvington BART Station, including its exterior, its concourse and its pedestrian bridge. The station, still being designed, is an example of an infill station built on existing tracks. Irvington will be located approximately midway between Fremont Station and the Warm Springs extension, which opened in 2017. Renderings provided by BART Even smaller-scale projects have had high price tags. In 2003, for example, engineers projected that it would cost up to $525 million (or just under $850 million in 2022 dollars) to build and operate an infill station at Mission and 30th streets. We used to have a saying at BART back in the early 70s Build it now, itll never be cheaper, said Mike Healy, BARTs chief spokesperson from 1971 to 2005. There are always impediments when you have a major infrastructure project like BART. The challenges, of course, go with the territory. The reality of just how long it takes to carry out ambitious transit expansion projects in the region could mean the BART system map wont look much different a decade or two from now. Rather, the BART of the future is more likely to change in subtle, but significant, ways. BART is in the process of modernizing its train control system, allowing it run up to 30 trains an hour through the Transbay Tube by 2032. Other upgrades to outdated infrastructure will likely mean shorter wait times for riders and add capacity for when and if BART exceeds its 2016 ridership peak. The pandemic also reinvigorated momentum for a region-wide transformation of the Bay Areas disjointed network of two dozen transit operators. Since the pandemic, the Bay Areas transit agencies have collaborated in ways they havent before, mustering political will to streamline transit for riders. In the coming years, the region will have standardized wayfinding at train and ferry stations and bus stops that officials say will make getting around the region by transit simpler. By next year, upgrades to the regions Clipper system will allow transit riders to pay for all fares with the simple tap of a smartphone. Within the next decade, the agencies could come together to develop a unified fare structure that caps daily fares and offers free transfers between different transit services making BART, which has some of the nations highest fares, more affordable and accessible. Last month, BART and other agencies began piloting a BayPass that offers users unlimited fares between transit operators. The regions in-the-works transit transformation could extend to how transit is managed, operated and funded in the Bay Area. Train, bus and ferry service in the region could be scheduled and coordinated by one network manager, making it more seamless and appealing to move around via transit. Sacramento lawmakers silently killed a bill this legislative session that would have accelerated some of this integration, but leaders at several agencies, including BART, say theyre committed to carrying out the legislations vision. One of my goals in the next 10 years is that I have improved, working with the regions operators, the customer experience such that there is no differentiation between systems that its one Bay Area transit where it doesnt matter whose system youre in, BART General Manager Bob Powers said. Wherever youre going, there will be fair integration there, there will be scheduled coordination there, so much so that itll be irrelevant to you where you are and what system youre in, Powers said. Thats going to drive up ridership and improve the overall quality of life for everybody in the Bay Area. These simple quality-of-life measures are long overdue and will make it easier for people to ride BART at a time when it has fewer captive riders who need to use the system, said Ian Griffiths, policy director for the Seamless Bay Area group advocating for those transit integration changes. These changes could help introduce BART and Bay Area public transit to riders its never fully pursued, Griffiths said, at a time when BARTs future has never been called into question as it has since the pandemic. Theres a real risk that BART will not last another 50 years, said Griffiths, a former BART planner. The decisions we make now in the next couple of years will determine whether BART will continue to grow and expand, or whether it will atrophy and degrade over the next number of years. Ricardo Cano is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ricardo.cano@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ByRicardoCano The American Civil Liberties Union accused San Francisco Sheriff Paul Miyamoto on Thursday of violating the privacy rights of defendants who have been freed under electronic monitoring by requiring them to allow searches of their person or property and to share their location data with other law enforcement agencies. Defendants who are released from jail before trial are often required to wear ankle monitors that allow officers to track their locations. But in a class-action suit filed in San Francisco Superior Court, the ACLU and a private law firm said Miyamoto went beyond constitutional bounds by requiring them, as a condition of release, to consent to a search of their body, home, vehicle or possessions at any time. They must also agree to let the sheriffs office inform other law enforcement agencies of their location at all times. Ankle cuffs are supposed to ensure that an individual remains in the Bay Area and shows up for court proceedings, Shilpi Agarwal, legal director of the ACLU of Northern California, said in a statement accompanying the suit. They are not a license for law enforcements unlimited search and surveillance of vulnerable people who havent been convicted of a crime. Stripping away privacy rights is illegal and only tolerated because of the disenfranchisement of those directly affected, who are indigent and 70% Black and brown, said San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju, who is not participating in the suit but helped the ACLU identify individual plaintiffs. The three plaintiffs also objected to the searches but agreed to the conditions of release, the ACLU said, because they were able to go to work, care for a child and attend a high school graduation. The suit accuses the sheriff and the city of violating rights against unreasonable searches, under the U.S. and California constitutions, as well as the constitutional right of privacy approved by California voters in 1972. It seeks court orders halting the searches and erasing the shared location data. 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. Tara Moriarty, a spokesperson for Miyamoto, said inmates released under electronic monitoring have waived those rights, allowing the sheriff to enforce the rules and regulations imposed by the court, which she said included consent to future searches. The sheriff details this information to assist the justice-involved individual to successfully complete the (electronic-monitoring) program, Moriarty said in a statement. More than 200 defendants are being electronically monitored in San Francisco, and that number is likely to grow as the city attempts to reduce its jail population, the ACLU said. As court backlogs have increased during the pandemic, the organization said, some people have been monitored for a year or more. In addition to turning GPS location data over to San Francisco police and other agencies, the ACLU said, Miyamotos program allows Sentinel Offender Services, a private contractor that has run the program since 2019, to keep the data indefinitely. 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 An Alameda County Sheriffs deputy arrested for allegedly killing a Dublin couple by shooting them execution style was scheduled to be arraigned in court Friday as detectives continued to investigate the case. Police say Devin Williams, Jr., 24, of Stockton, fatally shot Benison Tran, 57, and his wife, Maria Tran, 42, in their large stucco house on Colebrook Lane early Wednesday morning before fleeing in his car. Authorities suggested a prior relationship between Williams and the couple, but have not discussed a motive. A nearly 12-hour search for the deputy ended when he called the Dublin Police Department a contract agency of the Sheriffs Office late Wednesday morning and was talked into surrendering by Police Chief Garrett Holmes. Holmes kept Williams on the line until CHP officers could arrive and take him into custody 160 miles away in Coalinga (Fresno County). The deputy, who worked for the Sheriffs Office for a year, was booked into Santa Rita Jail in Dublin on suspicion of murder and burglary after he worked an overtime shift as a jail guard in the same facility Tuesday. As of Thursday, he was being held without bail. Charges had yet to be filed against Williams but he was expected to be arraigned at 9 a.m. Friday at the East County Hall of Justice in Dublin. Nearly two hours after ending his shift at the jail, Williams allegedly entered the home in the Dublin Ranch subdivison and shot and killed a married couple in an execution style manner, according to a police bulletin reviewed by The Chronicle. The couples child and a visting relative, who called 911 after the shooting, were also in the house but were not injured, police said. The gun used in the killings, possibly the deputys service weapon, was discarded in the Altamont Pass area east of Dublin and Livermore, Williams allegedly told police. But as of Thursday afternoon, it had not been located, sheriffs Lt. Ray Kelly told The Chronicle. Were looking at all angles and for a motive, Kelly said. Theres all kinds of speculation out there, people are talking. We want to make sure were getting everything right. A police bulletin issued before Williams arrest said they had identified him as the shooter in part because of prior contacts at the residence. Kelly said Thursday he was unaware of the nature of those contacts. After graduating from the police academy at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton, Williams went to work for the Stockton Police Department to get field training. He left after a year, Kelly said, after failing to successfully complete training, to work for Alameda County as a deputy in the courts and jails, positions that dont require the field training. 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. Kelly said officers who havent completed their field training commonly take positions in courts or jails and complete their training later. Williams passed extensive background checks and psychological testing, Kelly said, with nothing raising red flags. Everything indicated he was a good candidate for law enforcement, Kelly said at a Wednesday news conference. Sheriffs investigators have obtained search warrants allowing them to examine digital devices and communications, Kelly said, adding that he believes that data may be crucial in understanding the case. We know people communicate in todays day and age via text, via email, via Facebook, he said, and all that needs to be analyzed. We think that will help us reach some kind of conclusion as to a motive. Michael Cabanatuan (he/him) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan The transformational development proposal at San Franciscos Stonestown Galleria, which calls for 2,930 residential units connected by parks, plazas and pathways, is facing a new challenge: an empty movie theater dating to 1970. The proposal, which developer Brookfield Properties submitted to the planning department last December after years of community meetings and surveys, would transform much of the west-side shopping centers parking lots into residential space, with a dozen new buildings ranging from three to 18 stories surrounding the mall and acres of planned open space in between. It would also demolish the theater and build an eight-story, 170-unit residential building in its place accounting for about 6% of the planned housing in a project that will help the city meet a state mandate to add 82,000 units by 2030. But a debate is unfolding about the movie theater and how far the developer should go to preserve it, which could cost the project more than 100 units of housing, frustrating advocates who say its just another hurdle slowing down San Franciscos already arduous housing approval process. Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle San Francisco is under tremendous pressure to address its spiraling housing crisis. California officials have launched an unprecedented review to determine why the city issues far fewer housing permits than its peer cities and has the longest timeline for doing so, and why it is the subject of the most complaints from Gov. Gavin Newsoms Housing Accountability Unit. To comply with California environmental law, a handful of older buildings in the Stonestown area that would be altered or demolished as part of the new project were evaluated for historic value. Though the state does not dictate how cities analyze what to preserve, it does require them to do so. Consultants found that only one building, the United Artists Theater built in 1970, was eligible to be listed under the California Register of Historic Resources due to its New Formalist architecture style, which the report says is rare in San Francisco. The theater has been empty since 2020, when it closed for the pandemic. That determination does not nominate the theater for, or place it on, the California register, but it means the developers would need to jump through more environmental hoops to demolish it. Robert Fruchtman, a housing activist who first pointed out the theater issue on Twitter, was frustrated with the idea that something thats potentially historic could create additional hurdles for much-needed housing. It creates an opportunity for an unused, falling into disrepair theater to be counted as a historic structure, even though it has no benefit to anyone at the moment, he said. Any building could potentially be historic given the right justification. But Darcy Brown, the executive director of San Francisco Beautiful, an advocacy group that seeks to preserve the citys character, said that, while she doesnt have thoughts on this specific issue, razing historic buildings in favor of housing isnt always a good idea. If we destroy the charming, unique and cultural amenities in San Francisco, such as our neighborhood theatres, the city will become a massive dormitory with plenty of housing but nothing else that keeps or draws people to live here, she said in a statement. Corey Smith, the executive director the Housing Action Coalition advocacy group, agreed that it is important to preserve San Franciscos history, but said the city must be thoughtful about whats actually worth saving. Sometimes we conflate things that are old with things that are historic, he said. Jack Sylvan, Brookfield Properties senior vice president, said in a statement that the developer is required to evaluate the theater and pointed out that as part of Stonetowns evolution, there is now a new state-of-the-art 12-screen theater complex in the mall that people love. To avoid the environmental hoops, the developer came up with alternatives to keep the theaters facade intact while still building housing. The first alternative preserves the entire theater building and turns it into only 10 housing units 160 fewer units than planned. The other alternative would keep the lobby and exterior of the theater but demolish the back portion, replacing it with one story of residential units and one of residential amenities. It would create 100 total units, a 70-unit loss from the original plan. The report also listed a slew of other alternatives but rejected them for different reasons, including community input. The Historic Preservation Commission, one of the groups that will have to weigh in on the projects draft environmental impact report before it is certified, held a hearing on Wednesday intended to collect initial comments on the alternative plans before the developer moves forward with drafting the report. At the hearing, Commissioner Chris Foley called the 10-unit alternative fairly ludicrous. When I look at this building, its just another old theater thats pretty much dead, he said. We really have to go and let this developer get this thing approved. We are in a housing crisis. The state told us, the city and county of San Francisco, we need to deliver 82,000 units, he added. The only way were going to solve this is not by building a 100-unit building, its by these large projects with a real developer that's going to go build. But not everyone shared that opinion. Commissioner Kate Black said she felt the theater was, in fact, historically important. I feel very strongly that we have few examples of this style of architecture in the city, and this is the only remaining theater done by (architect George K. Raad) that has survived, and its a very good example of this style of architecture, she said. She felt that the second alternative which still builds 100 units would sufficiently preserve this, though she pushed the planning commission to find more space elsewhere for the 70 units that would be lost under the plan. I would imagine that those 70 units not easily, but I imagine some of the units can be picked up somewhere else, she said. Commissioners Ruchira Nageswaran and Lydia So also pushed the planners and developers to come up with more alternatives that keep both the amount of housing and the theater intact, though ideas similar to what they suggested were already determined not viable in the report. 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. Supervisor Myrna Melgar wrote Friday on Twitter that having been to the theater when she was a student at San Francisco State and later as neighbor, she thought it was not important to the community and not something that draws people to the shopping center. It is an unremarkable structure that has outlived its purpose, she wrote. It is well preserved, yes, but the interior is brown formica and synthetic red carpet. We need housing, particularly for seniors at this site. It is not a value trade off for the community. Supervisor Gordon Mar agreed. This is a misuse of historic preservation, he wrote on Twitter. I dont think this empty theater is a culturally or historically significant building, and it should not stand in the way of building housing here. Developers will choose one of the alternatives to analyze in its draft environmental impact report, expected early next year. After that, the draft report goes through public review and hearings at the planning and historic preservation commissions. Then the report is adjusted as needed before its certified. Dan Sider, the chief of staff at the planning department, said that getting to the final environmental impact report could take anywhere from nine months to more than two years. But it doesnt end there. Because the project requires zoning changes, the developer and the city will prepare a development agreement, which the planning commission will also weigh in on. After that, the environmental impact report and the development agreement go to the Board of Supervisors, where it will travel through several committees and public hearings. Commissioner Richard Johns pointed out at the historic preservation commission hearing that this likely means that the ultimate decision on the fate of the UA theater will likely not be his. Whether or not this eligible building should be preserved will eventually, I think, be up to the Board of Supervisors, he said. But even if all that is completed, the project is approved and building permits are issued, theres still no guarantee for when construction will start. Parkmerced, for instance, which is scheduled for 5,600 apartments, still has not began construction more than a decade after it was approved, as high construction costs choke projects in the pipeline. In the meantime, all of the back-and-forth about the theater is misguided, Fruchtman said. Theres really no question. Both of the alternatives would preclude the development of 70 to 160 homes on a prime site for more housing, he said. What San Francisco really needs on the west side is more housing, not a preserved theater from 1970. People need to be the priority, Smith added. The people that need homes today are much more important than concrete. Danielle Echeverria is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: danielle.echeverria@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DanielleEchev The Oakland As plan for a new waterfront ballpark and development project took a step forward Thursday when a judge rejected opponents claims that the stadium at Howard Terminal would cause serious environmental and safety hazards. In upholding the citys environmental review of the $12 billion project, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Brad Seligman also said Oakland had reasonably decided not to build a new baseball park at the current Coliseum site, home to the Athletics since the team moved from Kansas City to Oakland in 1968. The Coliseum also hosted the Oakland Raiders from 1966 to 1981 when the NFL team left for Los Angeles and again upon its return to Oakland in 1995 until 2019, when it moved to Las Vegas. While some neighborhood groups argued that a rebuilt Coliseum site would be quicker, cheaper and better for the surrounding community, Seligman said Oakland officials had concluded that the site, surrounded by industrial users, did not have the same advantages as a port location. The Coliseum site does not have a waterfront or any natural features that would enhance the aesthetics and experience at the ballpark, the judge wrote. He said it was less likely city residents would visit the area when no ballgames were scheduled, compared to the Howard Terminal site near Jack London Square. The three lawsuits were filed in April by the East Oakland Stadium Alliance, the Capitol Corridors Joint Powers Authority, and industry and labor groups including Union Pacific Railroad, the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. Mike Jacob, vice president of the shipping association, said it was considering an appeal. We will also continue pushing to resolve our concerns from this shortsighted project regardless of the outcome of this case, as the projects adverse impacts are harmful to the thousands of Oakland residents who live in the neighborhoods near the proposed development or to those whose jobs depend on the ability of the Port of Oakland to grow and thrive, Jacob said. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said in a statement that the ruling was a win for the climate and for the residents of Oakland. Todays order proves that the waterfront project, which will bring 18 acres of new public parks to our beautiful shoreline for all residents to enjoy, will be built to Californias highest and most rigorous environmental standards. On Friday, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg will join Schaaf and Rep. Barbara Lee to tour a part of the city that received $14.5 million in federal funds to improve bus lanes, pedestrian walkways and bike lanes in certain parts of Jack London Square critical funding for the Howard Terminal ballpark plan. The city agreed to pay for nearly $260 million in infrastructure upgrades in the area by using state and federal funds, but has not yet identified the sources of that funding. The new ballpark would have about 35,000 seats. The waterfront project would also include 3,000 residential units, a hotel and retail stores. Two new bridges, one for vehicles and one for pedestrians, would be built across nearby railroad tracks. Oaklands December 2021 environmental impact report found the plans contained reasonable measures to limit pollution and safety hazards. But the plaintiffs in the lawsuits, and the advocacy group Communities for a Better Environment, said the measures were inadequate to prevent accidents from increased traffic at the tracks or to limit air and water pollution. But Seligman cited planned safety measures including upgrades to track crossings, improvements to sidewalks and additions of bus lanes. He said the city had reasonably concluded that the project would not increase greenhouse gas emissions or overall air pollution because of impending limits on the use of natural gas and overall emissions. And he cited a 2018 environmental review that found underground soil contamination would be adequately shielded by an overlay of clean soil. Seligman also said city planners reasonably rejected proposals to close all six road-level railroad crossings near the stadium site because one closure would block access to a fire station and others would impede access to local businesses. 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. In assessing the adequacy of the governments environmental review, Seligman wrote, courts do not look for perfection but for adequacy, completeness and a good-faith effort at full disclosure, criteria he said were met in this case. And the Howard Terminal ballpark is unlikely to draw the same level of nearby maritime traffic as Oracle Park in San Francisco, where fans in small boats congregate in hopes of capturing a sluggers splash hit, Seligman said. In addition to rules that would require watercraft to steer clear of the site, the judge said, the planned outfield walls are not adjacent to the bay, and the nearest water would be 700 feet from home plate. The confirmed longest home runs in major-league history, he noted by Colorados Trevor Story in 2018, and Nomar Mazara of the Texas Rangers in 2019 were 505 feet. San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Sarah Ravani contributed to this report. 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 The Mosquito Fire jumped from Placer County into El Dorado County on Thursday, burning several homes in the town of Volcanoville as officials investigated the origin of the 13,700-acre blaze and looked at whether Pacific Gas and Electric Co. equipment was to blame. Firefighters said they did not yet have an estimate for how many structures were destroyed but confirmed that the fire had not overtaken the entire town, which had been destroyed in 1907 by wildfire. Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said that the U.S. Forest Service placed caution tape around the base of one of its transmission poles in the area where the Mosquito Fire started. In an incident report to the California Public Utilities Commission, PG&E said that it has observed no damage or abnormal conditions to the pole or our facilities ... has not observed down conductor in the area or any vegetation related issues. Our information reflects electrical activity occurred close in time to the report time of the fire. The company said the investigation is ongoing. Fire officials have said the origin of the fire, which began Tuesday evening near OxBow Reservoir east of Foresthill in Placer County, is under investigation. The fire continued threatening several small communities and critical infrastructure in the steep, dry forested hills of Tahoe National Forest. Volcanoville was founded in 1851 as a small trading post and eventually grew into a large Gold Rush town but never fully recovered from two wildfires in 1879 and 1907, according to El Dorado Countys website. Gov. Gavin Newsom called a state of emergency for the fire and the Fairview Fire in Southern California, which together have forced tens of thousands of people from their homes. The developments in the Mosquito Fire came as Californias record-breaking heat wave kept the state on edge another day Thursday. A massive pyrocumulus cloud above the fire continued growing, wildfire smoke began to affect air quality across a large area and officials pleaded with residents to conserve power yet again. 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. Residents of several communities in Placer County were ordered to evacuate, including Michigan Bluff and parts of Foresthill, with the Georgetown area under evacuation warning. About 1,000 structures in Placer County were in jeopardy including dams, transmission lines, a hydroelectric powerhouse and cellular and microwave transmission towers, according to a statement from Cal Fire. Community drinking water supplies were endangered, Cal Fire said. Smoke from the Mosquito Fire was expected to push eastward Thursday night and into the interior portion of the state with the Sierra Nevada foothills being most affected, Sacramento-based National Weather Service meteorologist Sierra Littlefield told The Chronicle. In the overnight hours starting around midnight, well start to see smoke settle into areas in the Sierra and then slowly make its way down drainage valleys into the foothills and eastern portions of the Central Valley in the Sacramento region, Littlefield said. Joel Umanzor (he/him) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: joel.umanzor@sfchronicle.com This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate It was a royal summons, and it came in the mail one winters day. There was a crown at the top and the queens initials: The Master of the Household is commanded by Her Majesty It was an invitation to a reception given by Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh on board the royal yacht Britannia in San Diego at the beginning of a royal visit to California in February 1983. The queen does not give interviews, I was told, but she and Prince Philip usually invite reporters for a reception at the start of a royal tour. It would be informal, off the record. One does not turn down a royal invitation, so I flew to San Diego, wearing my only presentable lounge suit. After all these years, it remains my only brush with royalty. In the years since and especially after her death, we have all seen the queen, on television, in films, and on the Netflix series The Crown, a smash hit in this country. But no actress, not even the great Helen Mirren, was able to convey the queens warmth and charm. They made her appear formal, a bit aloof. She was different in person. There must have been a hundred invited guests on the royal yacht that morning. We stood in a long line, and each of us were introduced to the queen and to Prince Philip. She held out her hand. Pleased to meet you, she said, or something like that. The same for Philip. The line moved quickly. Royalty is good at these small ceremonies. When everyone had gone through the line, we stood in clumps on the stern deck, watching and waiting for what might come next. A servant offered the queen refreshment on a silver tray. She declined with a little nod, looked at the guests, and then to my immense astonishment the queen walked directly up to me. She asked where I was from, asked about San Francisco. She said she and Philip were looking forward to coming here. She seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say, as if we were friends having a chat. She encouraged conversation. I asked about her voyage up the coast from Mexico on the royal yacht. I shouldnt say this, given my position, but I dont much enjoy sea travel, she said. The queen actually smiled and laughed at something I said. I dont remember what it was, but what I do remember was that she had the rare ability to make an ordinary person feel interesting and important. 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. She had grace, style and intense blue eyes. After San Diego, the queen and Philip visited President Ronald Reagan at his ranch near Santa Barbara, then moved on to San Francisco. They stayed at the St. Francis Hotel on Union Square, had dinner at the famous Trader Vics restaurant, and the next night a banquet with Reagan at the de Young Museum. I saw Queen Elizabeth twice more, but only from a great distance. On one occasion she was aboard the Brittania, by then briefly docked on the Embarcadero in San Francisco. Toward the end of the evening, she and Prince Philip appeared at the rail, he in his admirals uniform, the queen wearing a diamond tiara. She made some brief remarks thanking the people of San Francisco for their hospitality. Then the queen waved. The diamonds she wore caught the spotlight, and glittered just so. She knew exactly how to play the role. Actors could never match it. She was part of a history we will never see again. Carl Noltes columns appear in The San Francisco Chronicles Sunday edition. Email: cnolte@sfchronicle.com This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate See latest live updates on the Mosquito Fire and others burning across Northern California. The Mosquito Fire burning in Placer and El Dorado counties torched buildings in Volcanoville. Californias heat wave is waning, but the risk of new fires starting and spreading quickly will persist. Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Placer and El Dorado counties due to the Mosquito Fire and in Riverside County due to the Fairview Fire. Track active fires with our California Fire Map Check the air quality near you with our interactive map Well be reporting on all the latest news on the Mosquito Fire and other major California wildfires throughout the day. Mosquito Fire evacuees fill up evac center Late in the afternoon Friday, about 70 Mosquito Fire evacuees were staying at the Baptist Church off Bell Road in Auburn, with many more people sleeping outside in their vehicles and trailers. Another evacuation center had been closed earlier in the day after the site in Foresthill fell into the evacuation warning zone. Jim and Cheryl Pocock said the parking lot at the site in Auburn was full on Thursday night. The couple from the Todd Valley community evacuated shortly after the fire broke out and slept on cots and air mattresses in the parking lot. They hoped their home would not be destroyed. As of Friday afternoon, flames had not reached Todd Valley. Their faith keeps them steady. Jessica Christian/The Chronicle I just say, 'OK, I gotta trust you, God,' Jim said. Our house, our trucks, our cars, everything is in His hands. Its been a long three days, Cheryl said. No sleep. Nevada officials: Stay indoors with the windows and doors closed Washoe County health officials in western Nevada issued a stage 2 emergency episode alert on Friday afternoon due to the Mosquito Fire burning west of Lake Tahoe. The air quality in the Reno-Sparks area is expected to get progressively worse through Saturday and Sunday, according to the bulletin. More than 90,000 California schoolchildren impacted by wildfires At least 14 California school districts in six counties have closed classrooms this week due to the wildfires burning across the state according to a report from the education site EdSource. Andri Tambunan/Special to The Chronicle More than 90,500 students in 119 schools were sent home, said Tim Taylor, executive director of the Small School District Association Newsom deploys mutual aid services to wildfires The California Office of Emergency Services has deployed 306 local government and OES engines and 1,252 personnel through the states Fire and Rescue Mutual Aid System, Gov. Gavin Newsoms office announced Friday. Cal OES assigns local government fire agencies with fire apparatus to maintain surge capacity during day-to-day duties and major events and emergencies. Also on Friday, Newsom announced that he has signed legislation to help protect Californians from more frequent and severe heat waves driven by climate change, building on the states Extreme Heat Action Plan released earlier this year. This weeks unprecedented heat wave is a painful reminder of the costs and impacts of climate change and it wont be the last, Newsom said in a statement. California is taking aggressive action to combat the climate crisis and build resilience in our most vulnerable communities, including a comprehensive strategy to protect Californians from extreme heat. With lives and livelihoods on the line, we cannot afford to delay. The updated plan greenlights a set of bills from state lawmakers with studying on the effects of extreme heat in the state, creating an extreme heat warning system, researching the impact of heat on perinatal health, and investing in programs that counter climate change. Nearly 6,000 people evacuated from Mosquito Fire Approximately 5,700 people have been evacuated from areas affected by Mosquito Fire, according to Placer County Sheriff Lieutenant Josh Barhhart in an afternoon update. Jessica Christian/The Chronicle Evacuation orders are in place in Foresthill and the Todd Valley areas. Is the rain helping fight fires? Afternoon wind gusts of up to 20 mph have been measured around the perimeter of the Fairview Fire, while rain rates from Hurricane Kay are approaching a tenth of an inch per hour, possibly creating a race against the clock as the fire spreads toward Tameculas outskirts. California will start ranking heat waves California will create a first-in-the-nation system to rank the severity of heat waves like the one that has baked much of California for over a week. Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday signed AB2234, which requires Californias Environmental Protection Agency to create a new ranking system no later than Jan. 1, 2025. Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle Unlike hurricanes, tornadoes and wildfires, heat waves arent ranked or named. State Assembly Member Luz Rivas, a Los Angeles Democrat who carried the bill, said the state needs a clear communication tool to warn the public about the risks of excessive heat. Extreme heat kills, and we know it disproportionately affects lower-income communities because those individuals do not have the ability to escape the heat, Rivas said. Mosquito Fire threatening critical water, power infrastructure The Mosquito Fire is threatening critical power and water infrastructure, two 60 kV and one 230 kV transmission lines and private timberlands, according to a 2 p.m. Cal Fire update. The fast-burning fire, now in Placer and El Dorado counties, is a threat to 3,666 structures, Cal Fire said. Fairview Fire burning towards Temecula at over 27,400 acres Southern California's deadly Fairfiew Fire was reportedly moving toward Temecula (Riverside County), according to NBC Los Angeles. PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images The Fairview Fire is burning at 27,463 acres with 5% containment, according to Cal Fire. At least two people have been killed by the blaze. More than 8,000 firefighters battling blazes in California As of Friday morning, there were 8,292 firefighters working on blazes across California, according to Cal Fire. Over the weekend there will be a high risk for lightning on top of very flammable fuels across the Northern Sierra, the agency reported. Report of new vegetation fire in Shasta-Trinity National Forest A vegetation fire has been reported in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, according to a new incident report from the Forest Service. The fire is believed to be located off Wild Mad Road near the White Rock Campground. The Texas Fire is several miles south of Hwy 36 and the communities of Wildwood, Platina, and Post Mountain, the report said. Area is remote with a current reported slow rate of spread. Fire personnel and aircraft responding. PG&E reports no abnormal conditions at transmission pole near origin of Mosquito Fire Pacific Gas & Electric Co. personnel found no immediate evidence of problems, such as vegetation contact or damage, with power equipment on a steel transmission pole near the origin of the Mosquito Fire, a utility spokesperson said. Federal firefighting personnel have cordoned off the ten-year-old pole. PG&E systems detected an electrical fault on the pole around the time the fire started. Chris Vestal, a spokesman with the Mosquito Fire incident, said equipment might be cordoned off for several reasons, such as ensuring crew safety, preserving potential evidence or to protect infrastructure. He declined to say whether investigators suspect power equipment started the fire. The transmission line serves the Placer County Water Agencys power plant on the Oxbow Reservoir. It had been inspected within the last five months, according to PG&E. The Tahoe National Forest is leading the investigation into the fire's cause, according to Vestal. Little wind reported at the Mosquito Fires start Weather readings clocked wind gusts at 4 mph when the Mosquito fire was first reported at 6:22 p.m. Tuesday. The temperature was 97 degrees at a weather gauge near Foresthill Union Elementary school, down from an earlier high of 101. Placer County firefighters were already battling a new fire that started earlier Tuesday and several miles north. The Hill Fire reached about 11 acres and led authorities to evacuate people out of the Giant Gap, Big Reservoir, Shirttail Creek and Morning Star Lake campgrounds. Berkeley says Mosquito Fire is threatening the Blodgett Forest Research Station Berkeley Forests staff said on Friday that they have confirmed with on-the-ground fire personnel that the Mosquito Fire is burning within the boundaries of Blodgett Forest Research Station. All Blodgett Forest personnel were evacuated and marked safe before the fire entered the property. Although the fire has not yet burned in this area, it will likely reach this portion of the property in the coming day, the agency said in a bulletin. Fire personnel have indicated that structure protection is their priority at this time. Abysmal air quality turns skies orange in Tahoe region Ash and particulate matter coming off the fast-moving Mosquito fire has turned air quality hazardous and painted skies a hazy orange. AlertWildfire cameras show shades of orange, pink and gray covering the North Tahoe region and closer to where the wildfire is burning in Placer and El Dorado counties. Wildfire Camera/Alertwildfire As a result of the extreme fire behavior small particles of dust, soot and ash are capitulated into the air. In the regions surrounding the blaze air quality index levels are more than 300, which can trigger serious health effects. The extreme scene comes two years after dozens of lightning-sparked wildfires burned throughout the state, skies turned an apocalyptic-orange in places far from the flames, like San Francisco. Hurricane Kay producing extreme weather in California Hurricane Kay remnants are likely to bring tropical-like humidity to the Bay Area over the weekend, with a possibility of some rain, but in Southern California the tropical system is kicking up extreme weather. Nelvin C. Cepeda/Associated Press Kay is moving northward off the coast of the Baja California peninsula and has already brought upwards of two-tenths of an inch of rain to San Diego Countys Laguna Mountains and the Cleveland National Forest. There are risks for torrential downpours and flash flooding in the coming days for the canyon passes and roadways near cities like Murrieta and Escondido. Highway 193 shut down due to Mosquito Fire California State Route 193, which runs through Placer and El Dorado counties, has been closed due to the Mosquito Fire, according to an update from Caltrans. The expected reopening time for the highway, which is located inside the mandatory evacuation area, is unknown at this time. Please avoid the area if possible to allow emergency crews access, the agency said. Mosquito Fire explodes to nearly 30,000 acres The Mosquito Fire burning in Placer and El Dorado counties grew to 29,585 acres in size late Friday morning, according to information posted by the U.S. Forest Service. Wildfire smoke, cloud cover could reduce solar production up to 60% The grid could see up to a 60% reduction in solar production about 5,000 to 6,000 megawatts due to wildfire smoke and cloud cover Friday, grid operator COO Mark Rothleder said in a Friday morning press call. On Thursday, the grid saw a 30% reduction in solar production -- about 3,000 to 4,000 megawatts -- because of cloud cover and smoke, Rothleder said. Demand peaked Thursday around 48,300 megawatts, significantly lower than the 50,000+ megawatts of demand seen in prior days of the heat wave. Fire Tracker Follow wildfires across the state Latest updates on wildfires burning across Northern and Southern California Jessica Christian/The Chronicle Demand is expected to peak Friday at 46,118 megawatts, with the grid having current capacity of 54,739 megawatts, as of 10:50 a.m. Forestville couple forced to flee Mosquito Fire fears for fate of their home, and their cats As the Mosquito Fire sparked and then exploded into a massive inferno in Californias Gold Country foothills Wednesday, Mary Garbe was celebrating her 68th birthday in her Forestville mobile home, the fire was heavy on her mind. But when local Sheriff deputies arrived the next day urging them to evacuate, she told her husband, Ken, 72, she wouldnt go. Their seven cats, including five kittens, still hadnt returned home. She didnt want to leave them behind. Im not going, she told her husband, Ken. Theyre going to have to handcuff me. By Friday morning, the smoke grew heavier, the air choking them as the temperatures pushing into triple digits and her husband convinced her to leave. I just kept yakking at her, he said. They left their front door open, in hopes the cats would return, grabbed their important documents, a safe filled with the last of their money and headed to the Baptist church in Auburn which had opened as an evacuation center, joining thousands of residents forced to flee their homes. Mary wondered about her cats. I miss them, she said. Ken worried about the home. Were going to be homeless if the trailer burns out, and 72 is too old to be homeless, her husband said. Federal grants available for Mosquito Fire Gov. Gavin Newsom today said California has received a Fire Management Assistance Grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to support local agencies as they battle the Mosquito Fire. The grants enable local, state and tribal agencies to apply for 75-percent reimbursement of their eligible fire suppression costs, Newsoms office said. Wildfire smoke to push into Bay Area today and Saturday Smoke from the Mosquito Fire has made it over to the Bay Area, bringing hazy skies with it. Today itll start to disperse out a little bit, but tonight well get higher concentrations of smoke coming back into the Bay Area, said National Weather Service meteorologist Sarah McCorkle. Tropical Storm Kay in southern California has changed wind patterns to east-west, carrying the smoke from Mosquito Fire to the Bay Area, McCorkle said. The smoke could start veering north Saturday, McCorkle said. Most of the smoke is at elevated levels, McCorkle said. Currently, air quality in the Bay Area ranges from Good to Moderate on the Air Quality Index, according to AirNow, a service operated by the Environmental Protection Agency. Terrible, no good, very bad air quality across California The Mosquito Fire is causing terrible, no good, very bad air quality across Californias Central Valley, according to Jeff Beamish, a meteorologist at Sonoma Tech. As of 9:45 am, he said that most regulatory and retail air monitors reported an unhealthy air quality index score from the region east of downtown Sacramento to Lake Tahoe. Cal Fire officials said they have been unable to accurately map the fire perimeter due to smoke conditions Some 2,000 structures threatened by Mosquito Fire in El Dorado County El Dorado County reports 2,000 structures imminently threatened by the Mosquito Fire, with another 11,500 in warning zones, with more than 17,000 residents affected. The fire continues to be fast-moving, forcing one evacuation shelter, Cool Community Church, to close after it fell into the evacuation warning zone. Placer Sheriff reports 100-foot flames in Mosquito Fire Flames as high as 100 feet shot through the trees as the Mosquito Fire tore through Foresthill, according to an update from the Placer Sheriff . Fire crews worked hard to knock them down, the office said in a tweet. The fire has now expanded to 14,250 acres and is 0% contained, Cal Fire said. The fire has quadrupled in size and spread across El Dorado and Placer counties. Assigned personnel continued to improve existing control line and build new control lines, and also assessed and prepared structures threatened by the fire, the agency said in an update Friday. The fire is burning in extremely difficult terrain including steep canyons where directly attacking the fire can be difficult. Hazardous air quality recorded near Mosquito Fires perimeter Air quality index levels are fast-approaching 300 and above around the Mosquito Fire perimeter Friday morning, while more scattered 150-200 (unhealthy) levels are being measured all along the Northern Sierra. Prevailing winds at the higher levels of the atmosphere (15-20,000 feet) will shift and become easterly winds this afternoon thanks to the remnants of Kay to our south. This is important because the core of the pyrocumulus clouds fanning smoke from the fire are around that height. So we can expect some of the particulates from the smoke to waft into the Sacramento Valley and parts of the Bay Area, decreasing air quality further on Friday. The Chronicle Unhealthy air swirls around Lake Tahoe The Chronicles Air Quality map showed unhealthy and in some places, very unhealthy air quality around Lake Tahoe, likely due to the smoke billowing off the Mosquito Fire. Patches of unhealthy or very unhealthy air were recorded across a vast swath of Northern California northeast of Sacramento. Hellish images show Mosquito Fire raging across multiple counties Images captured by wildfire cameras showed hellish plumes of smoke created by the fast-moving Mosquito Fire. Persistent hot, dry conditions were expected to help the fire grow at a rapid pace overnight. Newsom declares state of emergency due to wildfires Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Placer and El Dorado counties due to the Mosquito Fire and in Riverside County due to the Fairview Fire on Thursday afternoon. Both wildfires are threatening multiple communities and have forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents. The declaration frees up state resources to help residents affected by the fire and to help firefighters battle the fires. An Alameda County Sheriffs deputy is facing two counts of murder for allegedly shooting and killing a married couple execution style at their Dublin home, over what was apparently an ill-fated love triangle, according to the deputys father. Devin Williams Jr., 24, was scheduled to be arraigned Friday for a burst of violence that occurred just after midnight Wednesday, when authorities say he shot a husband and wife identified in charging documents as Benison Tran, 57, and his wife Maria Tran, 42 inside their large stucco house on Colebrook Lane. The deputy made a 20 second appearance at the East County Hall of Justice in Dublin Friday morning, putting off a plea until next week. Friends and family members who came to Williams court appearance declined to comment. His attorney, Jesse Garcia, said it was premature to comment on the case, but said its profoundly tragic what happened. Anything we say or do is not going to change the fact that two people lost their lives. Williams allegedly fled in his car before police arrived at 12:45 a.m., responding to a 911 call from someone who reported a shooter in the house. During the call, another person picked up the phone to say the assailant had shot his sister and brother-in-law, according to a police report that brought the attack and its immediate aftermath into focus. Officers found the Trans gravely wounded from gunshots in their heads and necks, and firefighters pronounced them dead at the scene. Family members of the Trans had witnessed the shooting, and sheriff deputies who responded overheard one person say Devin, and He is a cop. Detectives who inspected the home later gathered shell casings with the inscription Speer 9mm, denoting a type of ammunition used by the Alameda County Sheriffs Office. Listening to the 911 call, investigators heard what they believed were six gunshots on the audio tape, matching the number of casings they found at the house. When detectives created a sequenced photograph lineup, two witnesses identified Williams as the assailant, according to prosecutors. Investigators reviewed license plate reader footage of a gray Volkswagon sedan heading south on Fallon Gateway a main artery to Interstate 580 a minute after the shooting. A license plate check revealed the car was registered to Williams, a resident of Stockton. 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. After collecting that evidence, detectives secured a warrant for Williams for murder. He turned himself in shortly after 11 a.m. and was taken to jail around in Coalinga, 147 miles from the crime scene, by officers from the California Highway Patrol and the Fresno County Sheriffs Office. Police found safety gear, including Speer ammunition, inside his car, along with spatter believed to be blood, prosecutors said. In an interview with investigators, Williams father said he knew his son was dating the female victim, Maria Tran, and had been inside her home. In addition to the murder counts, District Attorney Nancy OMalley charged Williams with gun and weapon enhancements and two special circumstances, one for committing multiple murders and the other for murdering Benison Tran in order to escape police and evade a lawful arrest. Rachel Swan and Michael Cabanatuan are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan @ctuan This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Just before Karina Castro was brutally slain outside of her apartment building in San Carlos on Thursday, she knew she was in danger, friends say. She expressed fear in an Instagram Live video post. She was talking about her baby daddy, said Maricela Macedo, a friend of Castros who lives in Tracy. She said that he had put a target on her. Macedo tried to record her friends message but Castro, 27, ended the Instagram Live. And just a couple of hours later, she was dead, reportedly beheaded with a sword on the street outside her apartment. Police say she was slain by 33-year-old Jose Rafael Landaeta-Solano, her ex-partner and the father of her younger daughter. Jail records show that Landaeta-Solano who previously lived in Hayward was booked into the Maguire Correctional Facility in Redwood City on suspicion of one count of murder. An arraignment date has not been scheduled. The grisly attack has shaken up the otherwise sleepy neighborhood in San Carlos, where Castro lived with her two young daughters. Neighbors at the complex say the pair moved in together about two years prior, during which time Castro was pregnant with her second child. More for you Report: Woman beheaded on a San Carlos street in front of witnesses The relationship appeared to run into trouble at Halloween time last year, neighbors said. San Mateo County court records show Solano-Landaeta was charged with misdemeanor battery and disturbing the peace in an alleged domestic violence case on Oct. 31. He pleaded no contest in the case on April 14 and received a sentence of one year probation, documents show. A review of court files in San Mateo County found one more prior serious case for Landaeta-Solano. In 2012, he was accused of rape with an unconscious person and was sentenced to a reduced charge of unlawful sexual intercourse with a victim more than three years younger. He served three years on probation and successfully completed required programming, after which the charge was expunged. Declining to provide much information to the news media, Lt. Eamonn Allen, a public information officer for the San Mateo County Sheriffs Office, said the suspect was known to law enforcement. A neighbor of Castros, Kayla Estrada, said her 9-year-old daughter played with Castros oldest daughter. Estrada said she often heard screaming from inside Castros apartment and that Child Protective Services had been called several times to the residence. Honestly, when I saw the cops I knew it was her, Estrada said. For everything that was going on with them, something like that was going to happen. But Im in shock. When they first moved in, the couple seemed really happy, said Estrada, adding that they were always hugging each other outside. Since the brutal attack, Estradas daughter hasnt been able to sleep and has asked her mother if they can move. During the night, Estrada said her daughter kept coming into the room Estrada shares with her boyfriend. It seemed like she was just taking care of me, making sure my boyfriend didnt do the same thing to me, said Estrada, a mother of four. A neighbor who overheard the dispute on Halloween but asked that his name be withheld out of safety concerns, said the complex has otherwise been a peaceful and family-oriented residential community. He still cant comprehend the brutality of the crime, he told The Chronicle. Its an absolutely horrific, like turn-you-inside-out kind of crime, he said. This doesnt happen in places like San Carlos. Authorities said that witnesses observed the assault in progress at 11:50 a.m. Thursday at Laurel Street and Magnolia Avenue. Responding deputies, he said, found an obviously deceased adult female. 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. A stabbing instrument was used, said Allen, who declined to confirm what object was used. He said the weapon was not immediately located. Deputies arrived within minutes of the call from witnesses to the attack, Allen said, and shortly thereafter the suspect returned to the scene and was detained. A witness told The Chronicle that the suspect began yelling and vomiting as police placed him into custody. On Friday evening, about 20 people gathered at the spot where Castro was slain to light candles, release balloons and pray for the victim, her children and family. Rafael Belmonte, Redwood City resident, said a prayer for Castro while recalling the special relationship he said she had with his nephew, Jose Alejandro Belmonte, 29, who died in an East Palo Alto crash in May. They were very close, Belmonte said. Every time I would come home I would see her and my nephew outside of my home just talking and hanging out. The news of Thursdays incident came as a shock to Belmonte who said although he didnt know Castro personally, he felt a closeness to her through his nephew. Its that indirect love that you feel for someone who loves your people, he said, adding Castro would often visit the site of his nephews crash to leave flowers for him. Chronicle Staff Writer Joshua Sharpe contributed to this report. Annie Vainshtein and Joel Umanzorare San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: avainshtein@sfchronicle.com, joel.umanzor@sfchronicle.com Kim Komenich/The Chronicle 2008 Popular San Francisco pub the Broken Record will skip to a halt next month after 15 years of business in the Excelsior neighborhood. Owner Jason King said his well-worn bar and restaurant is unable to keep up with rising rent at his longtime location on Geneva Avenue, where sales have slowed. Business is roughly 60% of what it was before the pandemic, King estimated. The landlord raised our rent, but that was just the last straw, he said. COVID is over for him, but its not over for us. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Los Angeles County health officials said a person diagnosed with monkeypox has died in what may be the first known fatality from the virus in California and second in the U.S. We are early in the investigation and do not have additional details available at this time, Dr. Rita Singhal, chief medical officer for the countys department of public health, said at a Thursday briefing. As soon as details become available, we will share them while maintaining confidentiality and privacy. The death is one of two monkeypox-related fatalities under investigation in the United States, including one reported last week in Texas. In the current outbreak, there have been eight confirmed monkeypox deaths worldwide in countries where the disease is non-endemic. The California Department of Public Health, which now refers to monkeypox as MPX, said it is assisting Los Angeles County health officials with the investigation. While fatalities from MPX remain rare across the globe, this case investigation is a somber reminder that more progress is needed to curtail the outbreak of MPX, the state health department said in a statement Thursday to The Chronicle. It noted that the risk of monkeypox to the general public remains low, and those at risk can schedule a vaccination appointment through the states My Turn system. Singhal said her office has reached out to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to determine if there are any changes needed in the guidelines they have put out regarding how we treat persons with monkeypox, especially if theyre getting severely ill. The county is conducting an autopsy on the person who died, but Singhal did not know when the results would come back: It may be as soon as a few days, or it may take a few weeks. In August, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a statewide public health emergency in response to the rapid spread of monkeypox. While there are early indications that the spread of the virus may be slowing, California remains a center of the outbreak. 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. To date, there have been at least 4,302 confirmed or probable cases in California, including 1,692 in Los Angeles County, according to state data. San Francisco has the second highest case count at 763. Monkeypox usually causes flu-like symptoms along with a rash and dense, fluid-filled lesions. The virus is spread by intimate personal contact, including sexual acts and kissing. It can also be spread by sharing bedding or clothes, or potentially breathing in close proximity. Although many cases resolve on their own, monkeypox can be quite painful and, in rare instances, can cause severe illness. Also on Thursday, the CDC sent a letter to state and local health departments that said federal funds for HIV and STD prevention can also now be used against monkeypox. Growth in cases in the U.S. appears to be abating, officials say. Aidin Vaziri is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: avaziri@sfchronicle.com UPDATE: Here are the latest updates on COVID in the Bay Area and California. The White House unveiled a plan to deliver updated COVID vaccines to Americans this fall and will spend $300 million to support development of next-generation COVID tests. COVID cases among children rose for a second straight week, according to newly published data. And the COVID-19 pandemic is casting a long shadow over BARTs 50th anniversary celebrations. Latest updates: Marin County considers a shorter isolation period for schools Marin County health officials are preparing to further loosen COVID-19 measures in schools, including shortening the recommended isolation time from 10 days to five days after a student or school staff member tests positive for the virus. The individual would instead be required to wear a mask for five days after exiting the abbreviated isolation period, Dr. Matt Willis, the countys public health officer, told school officials during an online briefing this week. The updated guidance will likely be approved on Oct. 4, he said, after the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health considers the issue at a Sept. 15 meeting. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shortened its recommended isolation period for infected individuals to five days earlier this year despite criticism from infectious disease experts who said the period is too short to clear an infection and stop the spread of the virus. Marin County has also changed its definition of an outbreak within a school setting. Dr. Lisa Santora, the countys deputy public health officer, said it previously applied to three or more students becoming infected, but now 5% of all students at a school must be infected with COVID-19 before officials declare it an outbreak. Were really focusing on the social and behavioral health of our students while knowing that even as COVID continues, we can mitigate that risk, Santora said. Marin County is currently considered to have medium COVID-19 community levels, based on hospitalization and case rates, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. BA.5s dominance unchanged for the 7th straight week The omicron BA.5 subvariant made up about 88% of new COVID-19 cases sequenced last week, according to data published Friday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention a proportion that has barely budged over the past seven weeks. The second-most predominant subvariant, called BA.4.6, made up about 9.2% of cases in the same period but has not grown as expected. The only variant to expand its reach was BA.2, which contributed to 1% of the cases after making up less than 0.6% two weeks ago. Most others were below 1%. The U.S. is averaging about 70,488 new confirmed COVID-19 cases per day. Washington State to end COVID state of emergency Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced Thursday that he will lift the COVID-19 state of emergency on Oct. 31, nearly three years after the order was first issued. Im confident now that we have reached a significant milestone in the Covid effort, Inslee said in a statement. We are now in a position to be able to continue our efforts against COVID in multiple ways without the necessity of an emergency order. Only 10 of Inslees 85 initial emergency orders remain in place. Thirteen additional health care-related orders will end on Oct. 27. A mask requirement will remain in place for health care workers, and in long-term care settings and correctional facilities. Washington is part of the Western States Workgroup with California, Nevada, and Oregon. Nearly half of Americans now in areas with low COVID level A majority of Americans now live in a region considered to have low COVID-19 community levels, based on hospitalization rates, according to data published Friday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By population, just 11.6% of the U.S. population is now in an area in the high tier, while 40.9% fall into medium, and 47.4% are in low. But nearly 90% of all counties remain in the high virus transmission category, based on the rates of new cases and positive tests. The seven-day average of new COVID-19 hospital admissions last week was 4,620, down from 5,163 the previous week. It still is a threat. Why Wachter continues doing what he can to avoid COVID Dr. Bob Wachter is still doing everything he can to avoid the coronavirus even though most Americans have decided to move on. UCSFs chair of medicine reiterated this week during an appearance on MSNBCs The Mehdi Hasan Show that he is happy to follow basic mitigation measures to avoid getting infected. Theres still a fair amount of COVID around, and I still dont want to get it, Wachter said. Read more about the observations from the widely followed and respected San Francisco doctor. White House details fall COVID-19 battle plan The Biden administration on Thursday detailed its plan to deliver updated COVID-19 vaccines to Americans this fall, as well as other steps it plans to take to effectively manage COVID-19 and minimize its disruptions, and to stay prepared for whatever may come. High on the list of priorities is rolling out the new shots to tens of thousands of locations nationwide to ensure easy access for those who want them. The vaccine will be available for free to over 90% of Americans within five miles of where they live. The White House will make additional efforts to reach out to high-risk individuals and renew its campaign to battle misinformation. The administration also plans to purchase 100 million additional at-home, rapid tests from domestic manufacturers in anticipation of a winter surge. It anticipates the expansion of test-to-treat sites across the nation. Officials will call on schools and businesses to ramp up their mitigation measures, offering consultations on how to help make indoor air quality improvements. Finally, the White House reiterated that it is working toward transitioning procurement and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, tests, and treatments to the commercial market. U.S. dedicates $300 million to next-generation COVID tests The White House has allocated $300 million for the accelerated development of next-generation coronavirus tests, the National Institutes of Health announced Thursday. Two new funding opportunities are available for diagnostic test manufacturers as part of the incentive program. The first opportunity is to develop accessible over-the-counter tests that can be used by people with disabilities, while the second seeks to improve the performance of over-the-counter tests to ensure ease of use. Tests should aim to minimize or eliminate the need for serial testing and performance should be unaffected by variants, the agency said in a release. It expects the products will be ready for commercial use within two to three years. 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. Republicans prepare to shut down $22.4 billion request for COVID-19 funding Few Republicans are willing to even entertain President Bidens request for $22.4 billion in emergency funding to deal with COVID-19, the Associated Press reports. While the administration says the money is needed for additional COVID-19 vaccines, testing programs and research and development, GOP lawmakers say federal spending on the virus needs to wind down, not ramp up. Montana Senator Roy Blunt, a member of GOP leadership, said that people can pay for their vaccines like they pay for other aspects of their health care, and theres really no reason that the government should be paying for all of that. The White House is also asking for $4.5 billion to bolster efforts to fight monkeypox. Officials said they have already depleted significant reserves from the national stockpile to provide more than 1.1 million vials of vaccine. Childrens COVID cases rise for second week in a row There were 90,639 confirmed child COVID-19 cases in the U.S. last week, according to data published Monday by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Childrens Hospital Association. That marks a 14% increase in infections from two weeks ago and the second week the numbers have gone up despite national trends showing falling case counts in the general population. Many schools have reopened without masking requirements and other virus mitigation measures. Vitamin D doesnt prevent COVID-19, studies find Vitamin D supplements do not protect individuals against COVID-19 or other respiratory infections, according to two large clinical trials published yesterday in BMJ. For the first study, researchers at the University of London enrolled 6,200 people over the age of 16 who were not taking vitamin D supplements at the start of the trial. A six-month supply of oral supplements was provided to 2,674 of the participants, while 2,949 participants in the control group were not offered vitamin D. All had at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Among people aged 16 years and older with a high baseline prevalence of suboptimal vitamin D status, implementation of a population level test-and-treat approach to vitamin D supplementation was not associated with a reduction in risk of all-cause acute respiratory tract infection or COVID-19, the authors wrote. In another trial conducted by Oslo University researchers in Norway, some 34,601 adult participants were given low-dose vitamin D supplementation in the form of cod liver oil from November 2020 to June 2021. The supplement did not provide a reduced risk of COVID-19 or other respiratory infections, the study showed. Vaccination is still the most effective way to protect people from covid-19, and vitamin D and cod liver oil supplementation should not be offered to healthy people with normal vitamin D levels, Peter Bergman of the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden said in a related editorial. Long-term heart issues found in people with mild COVID infections In a study of 346 previously healthy patients with mild initial COVID-19 illness, researchers found that 73% had cardiac symptoms including palpitations and chest pain more than 3 months after infection. About 57% of the participants reported ongoing issues after nearly one year in the study published Monday in Nature. Comparisons were made between participants with and without cardiac symptoms, as well as a control group of individuals with no previous COVID-19 infection and no known heart disease or comorbidities. Pandemics toll looms large over BARTs 50th anniversary In its half-century of existence, BART has been no stranger to controversy, crises, criticism, uncertainty and the regions shifting economic tides. But as the transit system prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary, no one could have anticipated its vulnerability following the pandemic. A one-week span in March 2020 changed everything for BART due the launch of the pandemics shelter-in-place orders. As a general rule, California voters agree that, even in tough times, education spending has to remain a top priority. In 1998, voters ratified Proposition 98, which mandated that, at a minimum, roughly 40% of Californias budget has to go to schools and community colleges each year. Prop. 28 would build off that mandate. The measure would guarantee a sum totaling 1% of Californias Prop. 98 funding be set aside for arts and music programs. The nonpartisan Legislative Analysts Office estimates this could mean $1 billion annually, 80% of which would go toward hiring arts and music instructors. The measure would not raise taxes, and schools with a high percentage of students from low-income households would receive a greater percentage of funding than wealthy schools. Only 1% of Prop. 28 money could go to administrative costs. California law already requires that all middle school and high school students receive varying degrees of instruction in visual and performing arts. But even now, amid a huge budget surplus, an overwhelming majority of California public school students dont receive a sustained arts education. Only 1-in-5 schools have a full-time art or music program, according to Prop. 28 proponents. In a state where 60% of students are considered economically disadvantaged, that means many likely never will get access to creative instruction. Thats unacceptable. Studies routinely show arts education isnt an indulgence, its essential. An 11-year study in Boston found that arts education is a key bulwark against chronic absenteeism. Students and parents were more engaged in schools where art and music were a part of the curriculum which lead to better test scores in some instances. With rampant learning loss and flight of students from the public school system stemming from the pandemic, any effort that can get kids excited about school again, and regain the trust of parents, is a worthy endeavor. Moreover, in Californias dynamic 21st century economy where lucrative careers in graphic arts, film and television, and tech are available to those with creative skills denying students robust art instruction can have the practical effect of preemptively cutting off access to some of the best jobs our state has to offer. There is no official opposition to Prop. 28. However, there is a good government argument to be made against the measure, even if few are doing so. Set-asides like Prop. 28 remove flexibility from the budget process. In flush times, like California currently enjoys, its easy to throw money around. But when the budget belt needs to be tightened, tying public officials hands makes it difficult to balance priorities. Former Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Austin Beutner, Prop. 28s top backer, admitted in an endorsement interview that the measure is a blunt instrument. But he noted that it contains checks and balances against economic catastrophe; it can be amended with a two-thirds vote from the Legislature. This means that if legislators are going to take money away from kids, they will have to stand before voters and do so openly, not behind the scenes in opaque budget negotiations. Education spending isnt capricious. Neither are the arts. Californias kids need and deserve a more robust commitment on both fronts from voters. That means saying yes to Prop. 28 on Nov. 8. UC Berkeley is set to receive $25 million in state money to fund reporting in underserved communities, an effort to bolster local news as media outlets disappear or face significant budget and staffing cuts. School leaders and the lawmaker who championed the funding say there will be firewalls to ensure the journalists funded by the program can report independently of government interference. They believe its currently the biggest effort by a U.S. state to fund local reporting. The UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, a publicly funded institution, plans to use the money to fund three-year fellowship stipends for reporters working at local news outlets. Steve Katz, assistant dean for advancement at the UC Berkeley journalism school, said no political appointees or elected officials will guide the program or be involved in the selection of participating candidates or outlets. Stories the fellows write will be chosen by the outlets they work for, not UC Berkeley, he said. U.S. newsroom jobs decreased by 26% between 2008 and 2020, according to the Pew Research Center. Katz noted that there have been more layoffs at newspapers than in the coal industry. When good locally informed reporting falls away, that opens the door to secret deals, lack of accountability, disinformation and erosion of public trust, he said. Public funding of journalism is not new. National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service both produce well-respected journalism and are partially funded by the government. Top journalism schools have a long track record of partnering with news outlets to produce journalism that otherwise would not have been funded. But Katz said the new program is unique. He believes its the largest state-level appropriation for local journalism in the U.S. today, and said he hopes it could be a model for journalism schools in other states. The money will fund up to 40 fellowships with a $50,000 yearly stipend intended to supplement reporters salary working for a local newsroom in California. State lawmakers approved the funding last month, and Newsom signed off on the appropriation Tuesday. The school aims to launch the program next spring, and anticipates opening applications in May. State Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Orinda, said he sought to include the funding in the budget to make up for a decline in news reporters. There are a lot of reasons to believe that we are at a tipping point in protecting our democracy. A vibrant and independent media is foundational to sustaining our democratic institutions, Glazer said. This initiative attempts to overcome the concerns about government interference in the media. Efforts by politicians to challenge democratic election results in recent years prompted Glazer to push for the funding. He said he worked quietly behind the scenes to champion the money, wary of the optics of a public official trying to become involved in journalism. He said he thinks the program this money will fund strikes the right balance. I tried to think deeply about what I could do as a state leader to try to work in this area without the obvious vulnerabilities of government engagement in the media, he said. Its a high wire, but Im on the high wire because of what we have at stake. The school is still hashing out details of how the program will run, including who will be candidates for the fellowships and which news organizations will host them. The program will not be limited to graduates of UC Berkeley, Katz said. The money will also help local newsrooms recruit staffers who better reflect the diversity of the communities they cover, Katz said. He noted that all money journalism organizations receive, whether from government, companies paying for advertisements or philanthropies could always be revoked because of negative coverage. But he said that the school intends to be vigilant to ensure the government doesnt try to interfere with the reporting funded by the fellowships. Sophia Bollag is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sophia.bollag@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SophiaBollag Overtime paid to San Francisco government employees reached $367 million in the 2021-22 fiscal year, up over $100 million from the previous year and over $50 million higher than any year in the past decade. According to compensation data from the City Controllers Office, overtime has steadily grown since the 2012-13 fiscal year, with only a slight dip during the pandemic, which caused temporary shutdowns of some government services. The government says this spike in overtime spending is a result of staffing shortages and the reality that paying overtime can sometimes be cheaper than hiring more full-time workers. The rate of growth in overtime pay has outpaced the increase in total compensation, resulting in a larger share of the budget now devoted to overtime pay than in the past. In 2012, the earliest year for which we have data, the city spent about $160 million in overtime pay, making up 4.3% of total compensation paid to government employees. Each subsequent year, the share increased before falling slightly at the onset of the pandemic. It jumped back up last year to nearly 7%. A handful of departments have much larger overtime percentages than the citys 7% average. The Fire Departments share is the highest, with overtime making up 21% of compensation paid to employees last year. Thats up nearly seven percentage points from the 15% share in 2012-13. The sheriffs and police departments have the next highest percentages at 17% and 15%, respectively, up at least nine points from 2012-13. The sudden increase in overtime reported last year is largely explained by pandemic-related vacancies. Rates of attrition and retirement rates rose, and employees were out on COVID sick leave. Unable to fill these departures as quickly, departments instead relied on overtime to meet staffing requirements. The reasons for the gradual rise in overtime pay that preceded the pandemic spike are more nuanced and differ by department. According to the City Controllers Office, paying overtime is generally less expensive than hiring additional staff because overtime work is not pensionable, and there are no additional benefit costs. Moreover, according to annual overtime reports published by the City Controllers Office, overtime in some agencies including fire, police and sheriff is paid at regular hourly rates rather than time and a half if total hours worked do not exceed 40 per week. The last overtime report published by the controller was for the 2017-18 fiscal year. As a result, back in fiscal year 2017-18, the Sheriffs Department found that the cost of an overtime hour is less expensive than an additional regular full-time hour. In other words, using overtime in lieu of hiring additional staff was more cost-efficient. 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 sheriffs and police departments also have sizable shares of overtime pay reimbursed by other city departments or non-city entities requesting law enforcement at events. Between 2012 and 2018, SFPD saw an increase in overtime work related to these services. But because these hours are reimbursable at least a third of overtime expenditures were funded by third parties some years saw an increase in overtime hours but a decline in overtime paid for by the citys general fund budget. In contrast to the police and sheriffs departments, the S.F. Fire Department saw a decline in overtime spent as a share of total compensation pre-COVID. According to department spokesperson Lt. Jonathan Baxter, before the 2019-20 fiscal year, the department was able to maintain relatively stable staffing levels by matching the rate of outgoing employees with new hires. But that changed during the pandemic, when the department saw higher rates of attrition and retirement. This led to unusually high overtime pay for certain employees. According to a Chronicle analysis of individual salary data for the 2020-21 fiscal year, the average Fire Department employee made over $35,000 in overtime that year. The average Sheriffs Department employee earned $33,000 in overtime, and SFPD staff averaged about $20,000. Despite some agencies finding cost efficiencies in overtime work, departments need to balance cost with the health and safety of employees, wrote the Controllers Office. Efforts are currently under way to address vacancies. The new city budget includes funding for hiring 220 police officers, and the Fire Departments budget has funding for two firefighter academies over the coming fiscal years. Nami Sumida (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle data visualization developer. Email: nami.sumida@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @namisumida Pete Buttigieg sat calmly inside a Chinatown-bound Muni train on Thursday as Mayor London Breed hyped up the citys latest rail transit expansion. Once it opens, she told the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Munis Central Subway extension will conveniently take riders from Mission Bays Chase Center, home of the championship-winning Warriors, to the citys historic Chinatown. It will link several communities to the regions greater rail transit network. And, she hopes, it will one day extend to Fishermans Wharf where tunnels lay ready for more rail tracks. After touring Munis four-station subway extension and taking in the public art that adorns the new Chinatown Rose Pak Station with Breed and U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Buttigieg acknowledged the Central Subway project has been in the works a long time. But, he added, the Department was proud to support it a decade ago under President Obama with nearly $1 billion in funds, and its going to pay dividends for generations to come. Speaking to reporters and some of the regions top civic and transportation leaders on the Chinatown stations upper deck, Buttigieg said the Biden administration is committed to supporting transit capital projects such as the Central Subway. He touted the $1.2 trillion infrastructure law President Biden signed last year, which includes $10.3 billion in grants for California public-transit projects. The Central Subway was forecast to open for revenue service on Friday, Sept. 9, the day after Buttigiegs visit, according to the projects most recent federal monitoring report. Delays in testing the subways automated train control system and a fire at one of the new stations in June added to the projects lengthy setbacks. The 1.7-mile long Muni rail extension from South of Market to Chinatown will be completed at an estimated cost of about $1.93 billion. When it opens, the T-Third Street line will take riders north from the Fourth and King Caltrain station to four stations traveling to Brannan Street, Moscone Center, Union Square and Chinatown. Originally scheduled for completion in 2018, the Central Subway still has no firm opening date. Jeffrey Tumlin, director of the Municipal Transportation Agency, said this week the agency is still planning for the subway to open this fall. Buttigieg said that the project, which is in its final stages of testing, represents the kinds of projects the feds want to help fund because they bring communities together even if its taken almost four years longer than envisioned for the Central Subway to reach the finish line. We feel the expectation and the pressure to deliver everything were funding on time, on budget and on task, and thats not an easy thing, Buttigieg said. But one of my favorite things about transportation projects is the good ones make skeptics into believers. Seeing is believing, and when you get that benefit, its something that everybody is glad for. 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. Breed said the Central Subways benefits will soon become apparent, like they did for the Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit project another long-delayed, painstaking project that debuted to positive reviews from riders. We have the resources and the support from our federal leaders like never before, and that means more opportunity to make things a reality, Breed said. Many of us never thought the possibility of going to Fishermans Wharf underground would even be seen in our lifetime. And the reality is, it could be. Chronicle staff photographer Yoshi James contributed to this report. Ricardo Cano is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ricardo.cano@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ByRicardoCano UPDATE: Here's today's S.F. Bay Area weather forecast. So long, heat dome. The long-awaited cooling trend is coming to the Bay Area and across the state Friday with temperatures falling through the weekend. Temperatures are also set to steadily drop in the Sierra Nevada, which is great news for firefighters battling the Mosquito Fire. This fire, burning in Tahoe National Forest and Placer and El Dorado Counties, has grown dramatically since its ignition. Thats thanks to the extremely hot and dry weather from the statewide heat wave earlier this week. And weather models are hinting that a rare system will fan some of its flames this weekend. California fires live updates: Mosquito Fire explodes to 14,250 acres with 100-foot flames. Some good news: Kays remnants might bring some rain to Northern California. Weatherbell Our neighbors in Southern California are amid a dramatic shift between this weeks statewide heat wave as tropical-storm-force winds whip into the San Diego-Tijuana metro, churning rough waters off the coast of Southern California. Kay is charging up the coast and bringing historic rains to much of Baja California, while Southern California is set to see upward of 1 to 4 inches of rain this weekend, with even higher totals possible along the San Jacinto and San Bernardino ranges. So can we expect the Bay Area and Sacramento to tap into some of this remnant tropical moisture? The European, Canadian, and American weather models are all leaning toward yes! Weatherbell Kays remnant moisture will be hoisted north by southerly winds to help fill the void left behind by this weeks heat dome. This will raise precipitable water values which measure how much water vapor there is in the atmosphere up to 100% of normal in Northern California by Sunday. That may not be as high as the PWAT values that will be running 200% to 300% of normal in Southern California, but we will take what we can get. Theres just one catch: Thunderstorms will also be possible. Weatherbell Unfortunately, the air in the Central Valley and the Bay Area is still running very dry, largely because the heat dome was centered right over Central California for more than a week. This means that despite all the moisture moving in this weekend, a lot of it might end up evaporating in this dry layer before it hits the ground in a process called virga. This is not good news for firefighters in the Mosquito fire, who may go up against strong isolated gusts, on top of any prevailing winds from Kay, near Tahoe this weekend. Theres already been extreme fire activity on this fire, with at least two pyrocumulonimbus clouds having erupted Thursday. Not only will the Mosquito Fire be fanned by winds from the remnants of this hurricane, but these leftovers will waft smoke to the Sacramento Valley. This means it will be muggy and hazy in much of the state this weekend. The Bay Area Air District has issued an advisory for Friday to account for haze through the rest of the weekend. In the Tahoe area, air quality will be extremely hazardous as AQI levels surpass 300 Friday through Sunday, making it dangerous for even the healthiest people to breathe in. Weatherbell The remnants of this system will also be bringing unstable air into the region, but any virga in the region has a low chance of becoming dry thunderstorms. As of Friday, model runs show the odds of dry thunderstorms happening in the Northern California, Bay Area and Central Coast regions are less than 5%. Should any dry thunderstorms develop, they may produce lightning that could ignite new wildfires. But if the dry air in Central California absorbs more moisture than what the models are suggesting, pockets of the Bay Area and the Sacramento Valley may end up with more beneficial rains from these isolated storms. If this event does produce any precipitation, the chances are greatest on the Central Coast and in the Diablo Range, Santa Cruz Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. For now, we will monitor to see if any changes come up in this unique weather setup. Weekend breakdown San Francisco: The sea breeze will continue to cool off the west side Friday and into the weekend, with the chances for patchy fog steadily increasing Saturday and Sunday. The sea breeze will raise wind gusts up to 20 mph each afternoon on the west side. 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. Cloud cover will increase Saturday and Sunday as remnants from Kay roll into the Bay Area. Look for partly to mostly cloudy skies, breezy winds, and temperatures in the mid 60s on the west side while east of Sutro Tower theyll hover in the 70s. The Pacific Coast: Patchy fog will be back by Friday along Highway 1 between Half Moon Bay and Pescadero, with temperatures hovering in the mid-60s. Look for a slight chance of sprinkles on Sunday on the immediate coast. Cloudy skies will cover much of the Peninsula, helping to shave off temperatures this weekend. Look for widespread upper 60s and low 70s in Daly City and neighboring areas, while 80s will be confined to the Highway 101 corridor south of Belmont. North Bay: For the first time in nearly 10 days, Napa, Sonoma and Petaluma valleys are forecast to see temperatures only in the upper 70s and low 80s Friday and through the weekend. Enjoy the heat relief, along with plenty of cloud cover by Saturday and Sunday to keep the sun away. South of Novato, Tiburon and San Rafael will enjoy similar temperatures to the rest of the North Bay thanks to the return of the sea breeze. East Bay: The big cooldown is here with temperatures Friday through Sunday forecast to be in the upper 70s to low 80s every afternoon in Oakland and along the I-880 corridor. Clouds will steadily build this weekend, with partly sunny skies on tap for Saturday and Sunday. Residents east of I-680, including those who live in Concord and Fairfield, are looking at the biggest heat relief out of everyone in the Bay Area. Mid-90s on Friday will make way for partly cloudy skies and daytime temperatures below 90 degrees for the first time in almost two weeks. South Bay and Santa Cruz: Santa Clara Valley cities such as Mountain View and San Jose will breathe a sigh of relief as temperatures on Friday get up only to the mid-90s. The cooling trend will continue for Saturday and Sunday as cloudier skies promote widespread 80s for much of the valley. Over the hill, residents along Highway 17 will see 80s on Friday and upper 70s by Saturday and Sunday thanks to the added cloud cover. Low to mid-70s will dominate the Santa Cruz coast this weekend, with skies steadily becoming cloudier by Saturday and Sunday. Gerry Diaz (he/they) is a San Francisco Chronicle newsroom meteorologist. Email:gerry.diaz@sfchronicle.com Twitter @geravitywave Alameda County Sheriff's Office A Bay Area sheriff's deputy who allegedly shot and killed a husband and wife with whom he was ensnared in a love triangle faces murder charges and is being arraigned Friday. Devin Williams, Jr., a 24-year-old deputy for the Alameda County Sheriff's Office, is now facing felony murder charges in Alameda County Superior Court after allegedly murdering his lover, Maria Tran, and her husband, Benison Tran early Wednesday morning in their Dublin home. RH (formerly known as Restoration Hardware) is continuing on its quest to be known more for luxury experiences than its plush, expensive furniture. In an earnings call this week, CEO Gary Friedman announced the purchase of an 857-acre property in Napa, as first reported by the San Francisco Business Times. The luxury retail company has plans to develop the long-abandoned former resort site into a high-end getaway complete with its own winery. Well build an experience the world has never seen, Friedman said on the call. The former site of Napa Soda Springs Resort, the property went on the market in 2019 for $50 million, the first time it had been for sale in 40 years. A 2019 press release announcing the listing detailed the property features, including a stunning 80-foot waterfall, vistas of Poppy Hill, the magma rock-strewn slope of Babylon Plane, and a multitude of free flowing mineral springs that have been historically prized and bottled for their taste and health-giving properties. Opened in 1856, the resort was a popular vacation spot for well-to-do travelers seeking a healing experience from the springs, a burgeoning trend at the time. The resort eventually closed after World War I and later, fires ravaged many of the structures. Some original stone facades remain and its unclear whether the company will include them in its plans for development. RH would not provide further details on development plans to SFGATE. The purchase price was not disclosed. The Corte Madera-based company has accelerated its expansion beyond home furnishings in recent years, opening up galleries that include showrooms and restaurants, as well as upscale hospitality experiences that operate like exclusive hotels. "RH San Francisco, The Gallery" opened in March, featuring five floors of showrooms and a restaurant on Pier 70 in the Dogpatch neighborhood and RH Guesthouse New York, which includes luxury suites, opened this month. Friedman also teased another acquisition at the end of the earnings call, this time a forthcoming property in Europe he said he couldnt disclose details of yet. ROSEBANK, South Africa (AP) _ Lesaka Technologies, Inc. (LSAK) on Friday reported a fiscal fourth-quarter loss of $15.1 million, after reporting a profit in the same period a year earlier. On a per-share basis, the Rosebank, South Africa-based company said it had a loss of 25 cents. Losses, adjusted for non-recurring costs and amortization costs, came to 9 cents per share. To see Sunday's updates on the Mosquito Fire, click here. Updates: Get info on the Mosquito Fire from Cal Fire. Information line: Call 211 for information from Cal Fire. Evacuation maps: Find from Placer County and El Dorado County. A list of evacuation shelters can be found from Cal Fire. Live cameras: Wildfire cameras tracking the fire are available from AlertWildfire. New evacuation orders and warnings for Placer County Sept. 10, 6:44 p.m. New evacuation orders and warnings have been issued by the Placer County Sheriff's Office. The latest evacuation orders, announced Saturday evening, apply to Zones 21 and 22. Evacuation warnings were also issued for Zones 23 and 25. See the latest warnings and orders here. Over 11,000 evacuated, fire activity expected to increase Sept. 10, 4:15 p.m. As of Saturday afternoon, 11,117 people have evacuated from areas in Placer and El Dorado counties that are threatened by the Mosquito Fire. Crews made progress Friday by constructing a containment line on the fire's northwest side, and fire growth slowed overnight as temperatures dropped and humidity rose. However, higher winds from an approaching low-pressure system is expected to fan the fire and increase fire activity on Saturday, according to an update released by Cal Fire's Nevada-Yuba-Placer and Amador-El Dorado units, Tahoe and El Dorado National Forests and the Placer County Sheriff's Office. Fire crews will work on perimeter control around the fire and prepare for defensive actions of nearby structures. As of 4:05 p.m. Saturday, the fire is still zero percent contained. Over 5,000 residents evacuate from El Dorado and Placer County Sept. 9, 7:15 p.m. Mosquito Fire media representatives confirmed that thousands of residents have fled Placer County following the blaze, which was still zero percent contained as of Friday evening. PIO Chris Vestal said that 5,700 Placer County residents evacuated, along with at least several hundred more in El Dorado County. California firefighters protect structures in the town of Foresthill Sept. 9, 4:45 p.m. The Washoe County Air Quality Management Division issued a Stage 2 Emergency Episode on Friday for the Reno-Sparks area due to smoke impacts from California's Mosquito Fire. This means that air quality in the region is expected to get progressively worse over the weekend, potentially reaching levels considered unhealthy for sensitive groups to unhealthy on the Air Quality Index, according to the air quality management division. Smoke at this AQI can impact all populations, not just sensitive groups. There's a chance air quality in the Reno-Sparks area could hit the "very unhealthy" range through Sunday, according to the air quality management division. Winds pushed smoke from the Mosquito Fire hundreds of miles both east and west. A thin layer of smoke from the fire blanketed the San Francisco Bay Area on Friday morning, prompting the Bay Area Air Quality Management District to issue an air quality advisory for Friday and Saturday. Sept. 9, 4 p.m. The Placer County Sheriff's Office responded to a report at 12:45 p.m. Friday of a burglary at a residence in Todd Valley whose residents were evacuated due to California's Mosquito Fire. Deputies found a 20-year-old suspect burglarizing the home upon their arrival, according to a tweet posted by the Sheriff's Office at 3:07 p.m. The burglary took place on the 6000 block of Parkwood Court. Sept. 9, 3 p.m. Multiple fire fronts were running in opposite directions on California's Mosquito Fire on Friday afternoon, Nolan Hale, a Cal Fire deputy of operations, said in a video update posted on Twitter Friday afternoon. "The town of Foresthill is completely inundated with fire resources and engaged in active fire suppression and structure protection through Foresthill proper," Hale said. "In El Dorado County, we're moving through Volcanoville with perimeter control and all the way out into Stumpy Meadows for planning purposes." Eerie photo shows 100-foot flames shooting through trees in Foresthill Sept. 9, 2:15 p.m. California firefighters battled 100-foot-tall flames that shot through the trees to protect the Gold Rush town of Foresthill on Friday morning, the Placer County Sheriff's Office said on Twitter. The department shared an image of the firefighters in action as the Mosquito Fire turned the skies a dark, burnt orange hue. The department also posted a video with footage from Thursday, showing firefighters on the front lines of the blaze and aircraft dropping fire retardant from above. Emergency personnel can be seen traversing steep hills as massive pyrocumulus clouds develop in the distance. The untamed fire, which shows no signs of abating, has reached nearly 30,000 acres by Friday afternoon. Highway 193 closes Sept. 9, 12:45 p.m. Highway 193 fully closed Friday afternoon 5.7 miles east of the Placer County-El Dorado County line at Pilgrim Road to Black Oak Mine Road due to the Mosquito Fire, Caltrans announced. Motorists are advised to avoid the area and use another route to make way for emergency personnel. Estimated reopening times are currently unavailable. Noah Berger/AP California's Mosquito Fire doubles in size Sept. 9, 12:15 p.m. California's Mosquito Fire burning near the Placer County town of Foresthill has reached 29,585 acres, meaning the blaze more than doubled in size since Thursday night, the US Forest Service said just after 11 a.m. Friday. The fire's burn area was mapped at 13,704 acres at 10 p.m. on Thursday, Cal Fire said. Aircraft struggled earlier in the morning to accurately map the fire's perimeter due to thick smoke covering the area, but were finally able to capture the burn area's size later in the morning. The fire is expected to see similar growth today and tomorrow with 100-degree temperatures, low humidities and light winds in the weather forecast, the Forest Service said. California's Mosquito Fire threatens Gold Rush towns Sept. 9, 8 a.m. California's Mosquito Fire in the Tahoe National Forest showed no signs of slowing down overnight, continuing to tear through a tinder-dry landscape and threatening thousands of homes in the small Gold Rush towns of the Sierra Nevada while flooding the region with smoke. "I would say the fire activity was extreme and significant," Cal Fire spokesperson Chris Vestal said at 7:30 a.m. Friday of the overnight activity. "The fire was very active." Vestal said the agency is still nailing down the amount of acreage the fire had consumed overnight. Last night, Cal Fire said the fire that started near Foresthill in Placer County was 13,704 acres. By Friday morning, the agency said the burn area had grown to at least 23,000 acres. Due to smoke conditions, aircraft have been unable to accurately map the perimeter. The fire made a 5,000-acre push at noon on Thursday with fast-moving flames jumping the American River and moving from Placer County into El Dorado County, burning some homes in Volcanoville and forcing the residents of the historic Gold Rush town of Georgetown (pop. 3,000) to flee their homes. As of Thursday night, the fire threatened 3,666 structures. Stefani Lake evacuated her hilltop home near Georgetown Thursday after sheriff's deputies knocked on doors telling people to get out. The dogs are in the back of the car, Ive got a room for the night, so Im ready to leave, Lake told the Sacramento Bee. Noah Berger/AP The fire started in the Tahoe National Forest at 6:27 p.m. on Tuesday near Oxbow Reservoir, 3 miles east of Foresthill, amid a punishing heat wave in California that sent temperatures soaring above 100 degrees for over a week. Flames are tearing through vegetation that was left parched and highly flammable after due to the scorching weather. Another day of dangerous heat with temperatures over 100 degrees is forecast Friday. Some relief is expected Saturday as clouds, remnants of Hurricane Kay, push into Northern California. By Sunday, temperatures are expected to drop into the 90s. "We're having the same weather today, so the fire activity will likely look similar to what we had yesterday," Vestal said. "The potential for growth is similar. It's definitely going to be cooler this weekend, but that doesn't always mean less fire activity. Fuel moistures are still low ... 90-degree temperatures are still relatively hot. We haven't had good moisture recovery overnight. The expected containment is October 15. We still have a long road ahead of us." At a town hall in Auburn Thursday night, officials said mitigation measures were made to protect Foresthill, a former Gold Rush camp that's now home to about 1,700 people. "It is getting close to some structures," said Matthew Radtke, superintendent with the American River Hotshots. "I want you to know that we do have resources in there to protect all the structures." He later added, "We feel proud of the progress we have made in Foresthill." Radtke said the fire crossed the American River near Volcanoville about noon Thursday. "Volcanoville has definitely been impacted," a Cal Fire division chief said. "We did have some structures destroyed there for sure. I can't say exactly how many, but it's definitely not the whole community by any stretch." Noah Berger/AP The cause of the fire remained under investigation on Friday. PG&E said that "out of an abundance of caution," it filed a report on Thursday with the Public Utilities Commission for an electrical fault that occurred close to the time the Mosquito Fire ignited on Tuesday and near the location where the fire started, a statement from the utility said. The US Forest Service placed caution tape around a transmission pole in the area, and PG&E investigators said they didn't find any damage to the pole ors its facilities near the reservoir and "has not observed any downed conductor in the area or any vegetation or tree on the line." PG&E filed for bankruptcy in 2019 in the face of billions of dollars in claims for wildfires started by equipment owned by the utility. Noah Berger/AP California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency due to the Mosquito Fire burning in Placer and El Dorado counties, and the Fairview Fire in Riverside County, his office announced Thursday. California history at risk of perishing As the Mosquito Fire rages on, California history remains at risk of vanishing. Established in 1849 and nicknamed Growlersburg because of the way heavy nuggets growled in miners pans, Georgetown was once a bustling hub during Californias infamous Gold Rush era. When it first emerged, the town was home to a sprawling community of miners who lived in tents, shacks and ramshackle canvas structures. But in 1852, the tent city was all but decimated by a fire that jumped across its narrow streets. When locals rebuilt the town and outfitted buildings with brick, stone and fire-proof iron doors, Georgetown rose from the ashes and became known as the Pride of the Mountains. By 1855, the prosperous town had gambling halls, saloons, hotels and restaurants. Now, the designated landmark is facing existential threats once again due to the raging Mosquito Fire. The untamed blaze had claimed nearly 30,000 acres as of Friday evening. El Dorado County is also reportedly full of lost historical sites. One such place is the ghost town of Volcanoville where tales of its past includes mining, and buried treasures, the El Dorado County website reads. However, the mining town has a fraught past: In the late 19th century, as gold dwindled, animosity and brutal mistreatment of the towns Chinese community grew. Even though a devastating fire burned down much of the town in 1879, for years, treasure hunters have reportedly scoured the area for buried riches left behind. The town of Foresthill, too, is a historical landmark in Placer County. After gold was discovered in the area in 1850, by 1868, nearby mines reportedly produced more than $10 million worth of gold. As of Friday evening, the Gold Rush town remained just outside of the evacuation zone but still saw ominous orange skies and 100-foot-tall flames from the Mosquito Fire. The Associated Press contributed to this story. This is a developing story. Details will be added as they become available. This article, Cloudflare Blocks Kiwi Farms After 'Immediate Threat to Human Life': What to Know, originally appeared on CNET.com. Internet infrastructure company Cloudflare on Saturday said it's blocking Kiwi Farms, a message board known for organizing harassment campaigns. Cloudflare cited an "unprecedented emergency and immediate threat to human life" as the reason for its actions. Cloudflare "The rhetoric on the Kiwifarms site and specific, targeted threats have escalated over the last 48 hours to the point that we believe there is an unprecedented emergency and immediate threat to human life unlike we have previously seen from Kiwifarms or any other customer before," Matthew Prince, Cloudflare CEO and co-founder, said in a blog post. Attempts to visit Kiwi Farms are now met with a message that says the site is blocked and directs people to the blog post from Cloudflare. Kiwi Farms didn't respond to a request for comment about the site being blocked. What is Kiwi Farms? Kiwi Farms is a hate-filled message forum that started as an offshoot of 4chan, the infamous anonymous image board. It was initially called "the CWCki" when it began around 2007 and at the time was dedicated to the harassment of a single online personality, according to a New York Magazine article from 2016. The forum switched its name to Kiwi Farms in 2014. "Kiwi Farms has been the locus of numerous mass harassment campaigns, some of which have ended in doxing or swatting or even in the target committing suicide," said Daniel Kelly, director of strategy and operations at the ADL's Center for Technology and Society. Doxxing is when a person's private information, such as their address and phone number, is posted online without their permission. Swatting involves fake calls made to the police that can lead to an armed response at a targeted person's home. Posts on Kiwi Farms frequently target members of the LGBTQ community, specifically transgender people. At least three people have died by suicide after harassment campaigns tied to Kiwi Farms, according to The Washington Post. Kiwi Farms also had ties to the Christchurch mass shooter, who in 2019 killed 51 people at two New Zealand mosques and has since been blocked in that country. Why has there been pressure to #DropKiwiFarms? The move by Cloudflare comes after growing pressure over the past month from a campaign that sought to get the internet company to stop providing services to Kiwi Farms. The #DropKiwiFarms campaign was started by Clara "Keffals" Sorrenti, a transgender Canadian Twitch streamer. Sorrenti said she started the campaign after being targeted by people using Kiwi Farms, including repeated doxxing and swatting incidents. The #DropKiwiFarms site contains information about the forums, provides steps for contacting Cloudflare and shares stories of victims who have been targeted by people using the forum. Last month, Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, said in an interview with Newsmax that she was swatted twice in August. Greene pointed to Kiwi Farms as the culprit and called for the site to be taken down. Cloudflare initially resisted taking action against Kiwi Farms, with Prince saying in an Aug. 31 blog post that "such choices make it more difficult to protect content that supports oppressed and marginalized voices against attack." However, the company changed course this weekend. On Saturday, Prince said his company could no longer wait for law enforcement to act. In the blog post, Price said Cloudflare reached out to law enforcement multiple times in the past two weeks for what is believed to be potential criminal acts and imminent threats to human life. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Across the globe, the death of Queen Elizabeth II has prompted reflections on the historic sweep of her reign and how she succeeded in presiding over the end of Britain's colonial empire and embracing the independence of her former dominions. Tributes to the queen's life have poured in, from world leaders to rock stars to ordinary people along with some criticism of the monarchy. Midland resident Maureen O'Neal, who was born in England and lived in Thrapston, Northamptonshire, from the age of 9 until the age of 30, recalls that whenever she went to the movies, the song "God Save the Queen" would play afterward and everyone was expected to stand out of respect for Queen Elizabeth. "She was always a presence in our lives," O'Neal said. "I saw her from afar once when I went up to London. I think it was on a school trip," she recalled. O'Neal feels that King Charles will carry on the monarchy well. "Ive always admired him, so I think hell be a good king," she said. She feels that even those who consider themselves "anti-royalists" still appreciate what the queen did for England. "I think they all admired the queen," O'Neal said. Judith Richards, a native of Wolverhampton who moved to the United States 20 years ago and is a speech and language pathologist for the Midland County ESA, has a deep appreciation for Queen Elizabeth. "She was just an incredible person, Richards said. "She dedicated her life to serving the people of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. I just think thats an amazing thing to do. She served as the monarch for 70 years. That was an amazing, incredible commitment that she made. Shes seen a number of changes throughout the country. Shes accepted everything with incredible dignity, grace and servitude." Richards believes that the monarchy is still very important today. "I think the popularity of the monarchy has fluctuated over time, depending on what events were happening. But the support for the queen has always remained constant. And Im sure it will remain the same for King Charles," she said. The widespread tributes that followed the queen's death came not only from U.S. President Joe Biden but also every living president. She was a stateswoman of unmatched dignity and constancy who deepened the bedrock alliance between the United Kingdom and the United States, Biden and first lady Jill Biden said in a statement, adding that she defined an era. Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, said Elizabeth made the role of queen her own with a reign defined by grace, elegance, and a tireless work ethic." George W. Bush called her a woman of great intellect, charm, and wit," and Jimmy Carter said Elizabeths dignity, graciousness and sense of duty" were inspiring. Elizabeth was mourned across Europe. In France, Britains historic rival and contemporary ally, officials ordered flags at the presidential palace and public buildings be lowered to half-staff on Friday. French President Emmanuel Macron released a video message Friday in English expressing a sense of emptiness after her passing. Addressing the British public, the French president said: To you, she was your Queen. To us, she was THE Queen, to all of us. Even in places where the relationship with British monarchy is complicated, the tributes flowed. In India, once a British colony, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Elizabeth a stalwart of our times. The queens death came as a growing number of British territories in the Caribbean are seeking to replace the monarch with their own heads of state amid demands that Britain apologize for its colonial-era abuses and award its former colonies slavery reparations. In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was having trouble believing he'd had his last sit-down chat with Elizabeth: I will so miss those chats," he said. Elizabeth had visited Canada 22 times as monarch. For most Canadians, we have known no other sovereign, Trudeau said. He said she was a "constant presence in our lives and her service to Canadians will forever remain an important part of our countrys history. Newsday LLC/Newsday via Getty Images In a surprise move last month, the Mets retired Willie Mays' No. 24. It was a little odd, as Mays spent two largely forgettable final seasons with the Mets after forging a legendary 21-year career with the Giants on both coasts. But Mays thanked the team for a cute gesture that apparently honored a 50-year-old promise from original Mets owner Joan Payson, and no one thought much about it. Until this week, when Mike Francesa and Chris "Mad Dog" Russo reunited on Francesa's podcast to tut-tut the Mets for doing it. No one honors an icon, living or dead, like Francesa, and the pseudo-retired New York radio host gave the 91-year-old Mays the full Stan Lee treatment. NEW BRITAIN A local man on Wednesday was sentenced to 18 years in prison for first-degree possession of child pornography, according to the Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice. Michael Inzitari, of New Britain, was sentenced by Judge Laura F. Baldini. Inzitari was found in possession of suspected child pornography 1,395 images and 285 videos stored on a cellphone seized by police in the summer of 2020 while still on probation for a 2012 child pornography possession conviction, according to evidence presented at trial, the DCJ said. He was convicted by a jury in April. Child pornography, in any format, creates a memorialization of child abuse. Individuals like Mr. Inzitari sustain the illegal marketplace for the sexual exploitation of children which, in turn, further demands more children be subjected to its abuses, New Britain Assistant States Attorney Gregory Borrelli, who prosecuted the case, said in a DCJ news release. The New Britain Police Department and the Connecticut Department of Safetys Division of Scientific Services were thanked by Borrelli and New Britain States Attorney Christian M. Watson for their assistance, according to the DCJ. Inzitari previously worked for the Springdale Volunteer Fire Company in Stamford. In 2001, he was convicted of first-degree arson for setting fire to an empty building in an attempt to re-create a scene from the movie Backdraft. He was sentenced to eight years in prison followed by seven years of special parole. In 2011, Inzitari, then 33, was charged with second-degree possession of child pornography after his parole officer discovered two thumb drives containing 100 images of nude children engaged in sexual activity on his person. Inzitari was convicted and sentenced to 2 years in prison followed by 10 years of probation in 2012. Incensed by the probation sentence, he had to be restrained by judicial marshals in the courtroom. caroline.tien@hearst.com NEW YORK (AP) This fall, Art Spiegelman will receive an honorary National Book Award for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He feels honored, and a little worried. The unexpected pleasure of being cited by the National Book Foundation comes months after the jarring saga of his Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus being withdrawn by a Tennessee school board, which found Spiegelmans graphic novel about the Holocaust inappropriate for the district's curriculum. Sales for Maus and other Spiegelman books surged, but the attention distracted him from other priorities. My work schedule just got totally smashed to smithereens, he said during a recent telephone interview. I was happy to crawl back into my hideout. Now, the 74-year-old Spiegelman anticipates being back out in the world, an admittedly enviable burden that will require him to set aside time and consider his decades-long legacy, one profound and wide-ranging. His influence extends from Maus, winner of a special citation from Pulitzer judges in 1992, to his 1970s work in underground comics to his famed New Yorker covers, notably the darkened silhouettes of the Twin Towers that ran two weeks after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Art Spiegelman has captured the worlds imagination through the comics medium, David Steinberger, chair of the National Book Foundations board of directors, said in a statement released Friday. His masterful graphic novels tackle and illuminate topics from the Holocaust to the aftermath of 9/11, alongside the personal intimacy of the people, events, and comics that shaped him as an artist. Spiegelmans groundbreaking work has shown us the limitless possibilities for comics as a literary arts form. Born in Stockholm, Spiegelman was a toddler when his family emigrated to the U.S., in the early 1950s. He is descended from Polish Jews and lost dozens of relatives including his brother Rysio during the Holocaust, a tragic history which he drew upon for Maus. His career as a cartoonist dates back to his teens, when he was contributing art to Smudge and other fanzines and was producing his own publication, Blase." Spiegelmans career is, in part, a story of taking an art form associated with kids and reshaping it for adults, what he calls investigating the language and nature of comics. He is the first cartoonist to win the DCAL medal from the National Book Foundation, which previously has awarded Toni Morrison, Philip Roth and Robert Caro among others. Its very different from what was happening back in the 70s, where being a cartoonist essentially meant unless you were Charles Schulz that you werent in the big leagues of success. It was more like being a tattoo artist, Spiegelman says. But the world is changing. There has been a cultural shift that has made it less pejorative to make comics. You had a moment in the 1950s when comics bannings were happening across America. Comic books were seen as dangerous, and you had this struggle over what kids should be allowed to see. There was a ratings system (the Comics Code) and a lot of it was nonsense. But the genie is long out of the bottle. Neil Gaiman will introduce Spiegelman at the Nov. 16 ceremony, presented by the Book Foundation. The American Library Association's executive director, Tracie D. Hall, will receive an award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community, and winners will be announced in five competitive categories, from fiction to young peoples literature. In a recent telephone interview, Gaiman said Spiegelman had made an enduring impact on him. He remembered seeing some of Spiegelmans Maus images some 40 years ago and relating them to his own experiences as a relative of Jewish Holocaust survivors. It left prints on my soul, he says of Spiegelmans work. They became friends years later, even though Gaiman, who recalls turning down the chance to meet David Bowie and Elvis Costello among others, had an unofficial rule not to meet his heroes. But he said that his admiration and affection for Spiegelman have only deepened, and he was not surprised that Spiegelman had worried that winning the DCAL might disrupt his work schedule. That is Art, he said. Art, with a capital A, is always thinking about art, with a small a. He makes things that matter, and I think he knows he makes things that matter, and I think we are ridiculously lucky to have him. During Friday's Suicide Prevention Month proclamation, advocates for mental health treatment gathered and shared stories about the severity of suicide, provided information and resources to help those that are struggling, and spoke out about its impact on their lives and their loved ones. The city ceremony was held prior to Friday's PILLAR candlelight vigil, which will be held on Saturday at the El Progresso Park from 8-9 p.m. The candlelight ceremony will be a time of reflection and hope, in honor of those who lost their lives to suicide. The most vital information came in the form of the nationwide mental health emergency hotline, which can be reached dialing 9-8-8, and was repeated throughout the ceremony. As mental health problems may not always involve suicide, the hotline was said to be a strong resource that can be used by anyone in an emergency and can be the help they need at that time. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, suicide is the 10th-leading cause of death among adults and the second-leading cause among those between 10-34 with over 48,000 throughout the U.S. a year. The proclamation continued to state that 132 suicides are completed on average each day. Speakers included Laredo Health Director Dr. Richard Chamberlain and Sister Mary Welsh, who both shared experiences about how suicide affects those who are undergoing a tough mental health challenge and those around them. Furthermore, PILLAR Board Member Kerissa Vela spoke about a recent loved one who passed away from substance abuse, but whose actions prior to their death may have led some to believe it was a suicide. According to Chamberlain, this past week, he and friends gathered in the middle of one night after seeing suicidal messages from another friend. This prompted them into action to reach their loved one in an attempt to ensure they were all right, get a response and connect them with their family. This touches many of us, its a part of a lot of persons, he said. I just want to stress the importance that for individuals who are feeling down in the lowest points, in the darkness, that you are not alone. There is always someone that is willing to listen. Remember to be the rainbow in someone elses clouds. It is extremely important to know that we can provide support. The sentiment was emphasized throughout the ceremony, with Welsh sharing a tragic story about a former high school classmate who died of suicide. The classmate had a difficult time in school, she said, describing them as someone who was bullied for being short and stout with a name that also resulted in ridicule. Despite efforts to befriend them, Welsh said they were depressed. Ultimately, she learned that her classmate was being sexually abused by their father at home daily and that the school was their safe haven. But in an unsafe haven, feeling without support or love, they ultimately took their lives before Welsh could apologize for the treatment they faced. We let him down, she said, adding that she still remembers them every day since. Welsh said that she believes there is somebody in everyones lives that needs looking out for, a friend who needs to know that hope is not lost. Both she and AHECs Julie Bazan talked about the importance of reaching out to someone, asking how their day is and show a genuine interest in them. This could be the spark of hope someone needs amid a difficult time. People need to know that we are their hope. We are their hope and say, We love you and we are not going to let you down,' she said. Over the span of the last 15 years, 214 suicides were reported, and Vela said that PILLARs mission is to reduce bullying, suicide and substance abuse while providing accessible resources and services to address the tragedies of mental health problems. As suicide may affect all people in the U.S. regardless of race, gender, economic background, etc., it is not uncommon to be a person or know someone who has been affected by the tragedy. Between counseling services, promoting a connected community, strengthening access to mental health care, expanding into underserved areas and having their own crisis hotline, Vela said that PILLAR hopes to bridge the gap to serve the community. The Friday ceremony is just one of numerous efforts to not only guide those in need to resources, empower them and raise awareness on the troubles many are facing that lead to suicide, but to also fight against the stigma of mental health issues across the community and society. Mayor Pete Saenz read that mental health workers, police officers and others still see the impact of the stigma as it continues to be prevalent and reduces the willingness to talk about what it does with an individual in need. Border Region Behavioral Health Center will host a free Walk to Prevent Suicide on Sept. 17 at 8 a.m. to continue the efforts of the ceremony in raising awareness for suicide prevention. Registration will be at 7 a.m. and participants can earn 20 service hours for participating. Furthermore, a health fair will follow the walk for additional resources. Both the walk and fair will be held at 1500 Pappas St. In 1983, at the age of 57, Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip spent three days in rainy San Francisco on a rare royal tour of California. The trip involved drinks at a famous tiki bar, some A-list San Francisco celebs, 5,000 protesters and the tragic deaths of three Secret Service agents. Heres how it all played out. Her Royal Highness landed at SFO on March 2, 1983, after spending some time in Los Angeles and at Ronald Reagans ranch in Santa Barbara. She emerged from Air Force Two in the rain in a posh red hat and raincoat, accompanied by first lady Nancy Reagan. The delegation had planned to sail up the coast on Britannia, the royal yacht, but the bad weather changed its plans. On the runway, Elizabeth was greeted by San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein, who quipped, This kind of weather happens in California every few centuries, before handing the queen the key to the city. San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images The early arrival meant the St. Francis Hotel on Union Square (now the Westin St. Francis) had to clear out six floors of guests to make way for the royal couple. They were given the Presidential Suite on the top floor, since renamed the Windsor Suite to honor the visit. On the first night, the foursome of Elizabeth, Philip and the Reagans got dinner and drinks at Trader Vics the famous now-shuttered, high-end tiki restaurant and bar at 20 Cosmo Place (now Le Colonial). The following day, at Davies Symphony Hall, Tony Bennett regaled the queen with I Left My Heart in San Francisco, alongside actress Mary Martin and young comic Robin Williams. The queen and Philip also took in a performance of the flamboyant satirical revue Beach Blanket Babylon, which the Chronicle reported left Elizabeth chortling. The following day, a quick trip down the peninsula included lunch at Stanford and a tour of Hewlett Packards headquarters in Palo Alto, before the royals headed back to the city for the main event a lavish banquet at the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in Golden Gate Park (that building was demolished and rebuilt in 2005). David Levenson/Getty Images About 260 top-tier guests were invited to one of the fanciest dinners in the citys history. The New York Times reported that the two stone lions out front were washed, the tapestries were vacuumed and ornamental trees were brought in from the citys greenhouses to line the entranceway. Before dinner, Reagan, looking a little nervous and reading from his notes, stood next to the queen and gave a speech. He proclaimed the museum to be one of Americas great cultural landmarks and thanked the queen for lending the de Young some Leonardo da Vinci horse drawings from the royal library at Windsor Castle. In words that now seem unusually complimentary of San Francisco from the mouth of a Republican, Reagan said the beautiful city was home to so many different people that represent the culmination of our nations great wartime alliance. The queen then rose to speak. Her frilly champagne Hardy Amies dress and giant diamond tiara, necklace and earrings were offset by the spectacles she slid on to read her notes. She opened with a joke about exporting Britains weather to California but remained stone-faced as Reagan erupted in laughter. She thanked her hosts for showing her the new technology being built in California, which she referred to as the miracle of the space shuttle, or of the silicon chip. The queen said shed always wanted to visit spectacular California and joked, What better time than when the president is a Californian? to yet more overzealous laughter from Reagan beside her. The banquet included pheasant, caviar, goose liver and lobster terrine. Guests included Steve Jobs, George Lucas, Gordon Getty, Billy Graham (the evangelist, not the music promoter) and Joe DiMaggio, who told the New York Times, I wouldnt have missed it for the world. I didnt know that we were going to actually be introduced to the Queen. Tim Graham/Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images Not everyone was so enamored by the British monarchy. Three blocks from the museum, about 5,000 protesters showed up in Golden Gate Park to object against Britains role in the Troubles in Northern Ireland at their bloody worst in 1983. At the time, car bombings and assassinations were a regular occurrence in London and Belfast. The previous year, 10 Irish Republican Army prisoners died after a hunger strike in a Belfast prison. The protests could reportedly not be heard at the banquet, but at the earlier event at Davies Symphony Hall, one protester yelled, Stop the torture, interrupting the queens remarks. After a private soiree on the bay on the royal yacht, which had made it up the coast, the couple left San Francisco to see Yosemite a trip that would result in a tragic accident. As the queens motorcade was heading toward the mountains on Highway 132 near Don Pedro Reservoir, a U.S. Secret Service vehicle drove ahead to detect any suspicious activity. Heading in the other direction, also on patrol in the area to aid the royal motorcade, came a Mariposa County Sheriffs Department vehicle. They collided head-on, killing all three occupants of the U.S Secret Service vehicle agents George P. LaBarge, 41, Donald A. Bejcek, 29, and Donald W. Robinson, 38. After multiple investigations and accident reconstruction, no charges were pressed against Sgt. Rod Sinclair, the driver of the sheriffs vehicle, who survived the crash. It is unclear if the queen was made aware of the fatalities as she toured the valley later that day. The 1983 visit would be the only time in her life the queen made it to California. A woman wanted to smuggle a child via a Laredo international bridge in exchange for the release of her kidnapped daughter in Nuevo Laredo, according to court documents. However, further investigation revealed that Selina Perez, 23, never had her daughter kidnapped, states an arrest affidavit. Perez was charged with bring and attempt to bring a migrant into the United States. Perez along with a girl arrived at the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge as passengers in a commercial taxi. Perez, a U.S. citizen, presented a City of Laredo birth certificate for the child. Perez and the child were referred to secondary inspection. Perez claimed that the child was her daughter. Perez claimed she was taking her supposed daughter to the hospital because she had a fever. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers asked Perez for pictures of the child, but she had none. Perez then admitted that the girl was not daughter. Perez stated that her real daughter was kidnapped from her mothers house in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. She claimed she was instructed to smuggle the girl in question to Laredo and drop her off at the plaza by the station. The kidnappers would then return Perezs real daughter to her mother in Nuevo Laredo, states the affidavit. During the investigation, CBP officers found discrepancies within her phone. At one point, Perez freely admitted that her child was not kidnapped, states the affidavit. Under sworn statement, the defendant stated the father of her children owes money to unknown individuals. When asked if she got paid for bringing in the female minor, the defendant stated she was not going to receive any compensation, states the affidavit. SAO PAULO (AP) A pasenger boat operating without proper licenses sank in a bay off the Atlantic in the northern Brazil state of Para on Thursday, and at least 11 people died, authorities said. A state government statement said 63 people had been rescued from the water after the boat went down near Cotijuba island, which is close to the city of Belem. It said nine of the dead were women. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate NEW YORK (AP) Hours before dawn on March 1, 2003, the U.S. scored its most thrilling victory yet against the plotters of the Sept. 11 attacks the capture of a disheveled Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, hauled away by intelligence agents from a hideout in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. The global manhunt for al-Qaida's No. 3 leader had taken 18 months. But America's attempt to bring him to justice, in a legal sense, has taken much, much longer. Critics say it has become one of the war on terrors greatest failures. As Sunday's 21st anniversary of the terror attacks approaches, Mohammed and four other men accused of 9/11-related crimes still sit in a U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, their planned trials before a military tribunal endlessly postponed. The latest setback came last month when pretrial hearings scheduled for early fall were canceled. The delay was one more in a string of disappointments for relatives of the nearly 3,000 victims of the attack. They've long hoped that a trial would bring closure and perhaps resolve unanswered questions. Now, Im not sure whats going to happen, said Gordon Haberman, whose 25-year-old daughter Andrea died after a hijacked plane crashed into the the World Trade Center, a floor above her office. He's traveled to Guantanamo four times from his home in West Bend, Wisconsin, to watch the legal proceedings in person, only to leave frustrated. Its important to me that America finally gets to the truth about what happened, how it was done, said Haberman. I personally want to see this go to trial." If convicted at trial, Mohammed could face the death penalty. When asked about the case, James Connell, an attorney for one of Mohammed's co-defendants one accused of transferring money to 9/11 attackers confirmed reports both sides are still attempting to reach a pretrial agreement that could still avoid a trial and result in lesser but still lengthy sentences. David Kelley, a former U.S. attorney in New York who co-chaired the Justice Departments nationwide investigation into the attacks, called the delays and failure to prosecute an awful tragedy for the families of the victims. He called the effort to put Mohammed on trial before a military tribunal, rather than in the regular U.S. court system, a tremendous failure that was as offensive to our Constitution as to our rule of law. Its a tremendous blemish on the countrys history, he said. The difficulty in holding a trial for Mohammed and other Guantanamo prisoners is partly rooted in what the U.S. did with him after his 2003 capture. Mohammed and his co-defendants were initially held in secret prisons abroad. Hungry for information that might lead to the capture of other al-Qaida figures, CIA operatives subjected them to enhanced interrogation techniques that were tantamount to torture, human rights groups say. Mohammed was waterboarded made to feel that he was drowning 183 times. A Senate investigation later concluded the interrogations didn't lead to any valuable intelligence. But it has sparked endless pretrial litigation over whether FBI reports on their statements can be used against them a process not subject to speedy trial rules used in civilian courts. The torture allegations led to concerns that the U.S. might have ruined its chance to put Mohammed on trial in a civilian court. But in 2009, President Barack Obamas administration decided to try, announcing that Mohammed would be transferred to New York City and put on trial at a federal court in Manhattan. Failure is not an option, Obama said. But New York City balked at the cost of security and the move never came. Eventually, it was announced Mohammed would face a military tribunal. And then over a dozen years passed. Kelley said talk of military tribunals two decades ago surprised many in the legal community who had been successfully prosecuting terrorism cases in the decade before. The concept of a tribunal, he said, came out of the blue. Nobody knew it was coming. Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft was not in favor of tribunals and had been supportive of the Manhattan federal terrorism prosecutions, he said. Now, Kelley said, with the passage of time it will be much more difficult to prosecute Mohammed in a tribunal, much less a courtroom. Evidence goes stale, witness memories fail. The passage of time hasnt dulled the memories of the victims' families or dampened their interest in witnessing justice. Eddie Bracken's sister Lucy Fishman was killed at the trade center. The New Yorker opposed Obama's proposal to move the trial to federal court Mohammed is charged with a military act, and should be tried by the military, he reasoned. And while he is somewhat frustrated by the delays, he understands them. The whole world is looking at us and saying, What are they doing after all this time? he said. But he realizes the case is a process that the world is seeing, that needs to be done under a microscope. Its up to the United States to do their due diligence, make sure its done right. The wheels of justice turn. They turn slowly, but they turn. And when the time comes, and its said and done, the world will know what happened, he adds. While Mohammed has lingered at Guantanamo, the U.S. killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in a 2011 raid and deputy-turned-successor Ayman al-Zawahri in a drone strike just this August. Investigators with the military commission at Guantanamo Bay said he plotted the 9/11 attacks for three years. They cited a computer hard drive seized at his arrest which they said contained photographs of the 19 hijackers, three letters from bin Laden and information about some hijackers. Mohammed, at his tribunal hearing, conceded in a written statement that he swore allegiance to Osama bin Laden, that he was on al-Qaidas council and that he served as operational director for bin Laden for the organizing, planning, follow-up and execution of the Sept. 11 plot from A to Z. According to the statement, he also took credit for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center; an attempt to down U.S. jetliners using bombs hidden in shoes; the bombing of a nightclub in Indonesia; and plans for a second wave of attacks after the 2001 attacks targeting landmarks like the Sears Tower in Chicago and Manhattans Empire State Building. He also claimed credit for other planned attacks, including assassination attempts against then-President Bill Clinton in 1994 or 1995 and an assassination plot against Pope John Paul II at about the same time, the statement said. Mohammed's nearly two decades in legal limbo differs from the fate of his nephew, Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that killed six people, injured 1,000 others and left a crater in the parking garage beneath the twin towers. Yousef is serving life in prison after being convicted at two separate civilian trials. He was also captured in Pakistan, in 1995, but was brought to the United States for trial. At the time, Yousef said his right to kill people was comparable to the U.S. decision to drop a nuclear bomb in World War II. Mohammed has offered a similar justification, saying through an interpreter at a Guantanamo proceeding that killing people was the language of any war. Bracken traveled to Guantanamo in 2012 to watch one hearing for Mohammed and his co-defendants, and would probably go again if a trial ever happened. I dont know if I want to go there again to bring back all the hurt and pain. But if Im allowed to go, then I guess I would go. Yeah. My sister would do that for me. Shes that type of a woman, he added. Then he corrected himself: She was that type of a woman. ___ Antlfinger reported from West Bend, Wisconsin. Associated Press writers Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington and Tom Hays in New York contributed to this story. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 AP Show More Show Less 2 of 3 AP Show More Show Less 3 of 3 SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) Two people were killed when a single-engine airplane crashed and caught fire Thursday at Southern California's Santa Monica Airport, authorities said. The crash happened on the runway shortly before 5 p.m., according to Sgt. Adam Gwartz with the Santa Monica Police Department. CALIPATRIA, Calif. (AP) Two Union Pacific operators were killed when their freight train crashed into parked rail cars and derailed early Thursday in Southern California, officials said. The freight train had been traveling through the desert near the Salton Sea when it pulled off the main railroad around 3 a.m., said Susan Stevens, a spokesperson for Union Pacific. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) Malaysia's foreign minister on Friday brought 24 Malaysians back from Cambodia who were rescued from human traffickers, out of a total of 148 citizens he said have been reported missing in the country. Saifuddin Abdullah said 65 of the 148 missing Malaysians were rescued and brought home earlier, and 29 others are still at immigration centers in Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville and will be sent home when their paperwork and investigations are completed. Another 30 remain missing, officials said.. The Malaysians, mostly young people, were lured by fake offers of high-paid work in Cambodia and ended up in the hands of human traffickers and were trapped there, he said. Saifuddin didn't provide details on how the 24 people who returned Friday were tricked into going to Cambodia or how long they were trapped. The victims, who appeared at a news conference with Saifuddin, were mostly masked and didn't speak to reporters. Saifuddin said such job scams are not unique to Cambodia and have been reported in other places, including South Africa. About 500 Malaysian companies operate in Cambodia, and 5,000 Malaysians work or do business safely there, he said. What is most important is that they are coming back to Malaysia today safe and sound. We do not want to go into the details," Saifuddin said. There is no guarantee we can stop it (job scams) but we will try our level best. Last month, Taiwan's government also said 333 of its citizens were stuck in Cambodia after being lured by crime groups promising high wages for tech jobs. Cambodias government said it would launch a nationwide check of all foreigners, especially those residing or working at hotels, rented properties or casinos, to search for victims of human traffickers. Cambodian deputy National Police chief Gen. Chhay Sinarith has said authorities in recent years have uncovered numerous illegal online schemes luring workers, and have arrested hundreds of people from mainland China and Taiwan for involvement. Scammers, mainly from China, have used Cambodia as a base for extorting money, Chhay Sinarith said. The U.N. special rapporteur on Human Rights in Cambodia, Vitit Muntarbhorn, said after a visit to Phnom Penh last month that people from various Asian countries have been lured into taking jobs in Cambodia but found themselves trapped in virtual slavery and often forced to participate in scams targeting people over the internet. The scam networks, which often have links to transnational organized crime, are set up in countries with weak law enforcement, attracting educated young workers with promises of high earnings. The workers are then subject to isolation and the threat of violence unless they succeed in cheating victims reached by phone into transferring payments into overseas bank accounts. Vitit said human trafficking victims exist in a living hell, subject to torture and risking death if they try to escape from detention in their closely guarded workplaces. He said Cambodia needs to implement stronger countermeasures and receive deeper international cooperation and support. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) Planned Parenthood leaders from 24 states gathered in California's capital Friday to begin work on a nationwide strategy to protect and strengthen access to abortion, a counteroffensive aimed at pushing back against restrictions that have emerged in more than half of the country after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Their goal is to emulate the success liberals have had in California, where state lawmakers passed some of the most robust abortion protections in the country this year, culminating in a statewide election this fall that would make abortion a constitutional right in the nation's most populous state. California Attorney General Rob Bonta, speaking to a group of 25 leaders in a hotel conference room in Sacramento, with another 30 watching online, said abortion advocates could channel what he called the ruthless energy of anti-abortion advocates but not as a way to hurt people. Anti-freedom states have been playing the long game. They have successfully led a ruthless, coordinated siege on reproductive freedom," Bonta said. "It's time that we play that game as well. But duplicating California's results in the rest of the country won't be easy. California's government is dominated by Democrats who support abortion access and rushed to support new legislation this year after the court overturned the landmark 1973 decision that effectively legalized abortion nationwide. In Washington, while Democratic President Joe Biden supports abortion, Democrats hold narrow majorities in the House and Senate advantages that could be wiped out after the midterm elections in November. Even if Democrats retain control of the U.S. Senate, they likely still would not have enough votes to stop Republicans from blocking abortion legislation. Democrats in the House have already voted to pass a bill that would make abortion legal nationwide, but they have been unable to get the bill past an evenly divided Senate. We can only get so far through our inside maneuverings. We also need your outside mobilization to rally support at the grassroots level, as you do so well, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from San Francisco, said in a video message to the group on Friday. Jodi Hicks, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, said in an interview that one goal of Fridays meeting was for leaders across different states to discuss what strategies have worked to protect abortion access and to create a unified blueprint in the coming months. We really want to learn from each other, Hicks said. Participants were not specific about their strategies to protect and expand abortion access during the portions of Friday's meeting attended by a reporter for The Associated Press. Abortion opponents also are mobilizing nationally. One anti-abortion group, National Right to Life, has proposed model legislation for states that would ban all abortions except to prevent the death of a pregnant woman. New legal frontiers could include prosecuting doctors who defy bans, and skirmishes over access to medication abortions already are underway. Others hope to get more conservatives elected in November to advance an anti-abortion agenda. Abortion rights groups feel an urgency to act, especially with bans and restrictions in place in a majority of states. Just three months after Roe v. Wade fell, abortion access in more than half of U.S. states is considered restrictive, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights. That includes abortion bans in 11 states, two states where abortion is prohibited after six weeks of pregnancy and nine states that limit access in other ways. Abortion-rights leaders felt emboldened by California's swift success in passing new abortion protections, the result of more than a year of careful planning. In the fall of 2021, Gov. Gavin Newsom formed the Future of Abortion Council, bringing together more than 40 state officials and abortion-rights groups to analyze the state's abortion laws. They produced a report with more than 45 recommendations, which became the foundation for a package of 15 bills that passed the Legislature this year. The bills make abortions cheaper for women with private insurance, create scholarships for students studying to provide abortions, let some nurse practitioners perform abortions without the supervision of a doctor and shield abortion providers and volunteers from out-of-state penalties for providing abortions. Newsom is expected to sign most of them into law by the end of this month. In addition to the new protections, lawmakers approved $200 million in new spending that, among other things, will pay for abortions for people who can't afford them and will cover travel expenses of women from other states who come to California for care. Jonathan Keller, president of the California Family Council, said in a statement that other states shouldn't follow California's lead on expanding abortion protection. These policies are neither fiscally responsible nor pro-choice since they only offer to pay for abortion, not prenatal care or adoption," Keller wrote. "Why would any other state want to prioritize abortion over and above adoption and parenting? Its offensive to only offer financial incentives to women on the condition they end their pregnancies. About six in 10 U.S. adults say abortion should be legal in most cases, and abortion access is becoming increasingly important to voters, according to Pew Research Center. In California, 81% of California voters say abortion is an important issue for 2022 elections, according to a University of California, Berkeley poll. Five Americans who happen to sit on the Supreme Court went and told 330 million Americans that we're going to rip away a right that you had, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra told the group Friday. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The high-profile killings rattling Memphis this week have added fuel to calls by some politicians for stricter sentencing laws throughout the U.S., sparking alarm among criminal justice reform advocates who say that approach is outdated and ineffective. The political division has only deepened as many maintain that the deaths of a jogger last week and a spate of shooting victims Wednesday would have been avoided had the latest version of Tennessee's so-called truth in sentencing statute been in effect. Such measures generally require those convicted of certain felony crimes to serve at least 85% of their imposed sentences. The new Tennessee law, which took effect July 1, now requires defendants to serve entire sentences for certain convictions and updates the list of convictions where at least 85% of a sentence must be served. While the laws backers are largely Republicans, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, a Democrat, also said that if the states law had been in place earlier, the killings would not have happened. This is no way for us to live, and it is not acceptable, he said. The arguments frustrate those who want to eliminate harsh sentencing laws. They counter that such tough-on-crime policies dont reduce crime rates and only further spike prison populations. The vast majority of people who come home from prison never engage in gun violence, David Muhammad, executive director of the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, said in an interview. Muhammad has worked in Memphis and said he previously had a meeting scheduled with Strickland for next week. He plans to promote investing in community violence prevention programs rather than stricter sentences. The issue with truth in sentencing is that it eliminates the possibility that somebody might be prepared for release sooner and that all people sort of are corrected at a certain period of time, which is of course not true, said Ashley Nellis, a senior research analyst with The Sentencing Project. People reform over different periods of time that fluctuate from person to person. But as calls to revisit so-called truth in sentencing laws have increased, lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle have remained hesitant to do so out of fear of looking weak on crime, Nellis added. Tennessee was among the small handful of states that have required individuals to serve a minimum amount of their sentences since the 1980s when the idea initially began taking off. However, under the 1994 federal crime bill signed by President Bill Clinton, states were given incentives to adopt such laws by promising them more money to build prisons if they did so. By 1998, nearly 30 states had adopted some form of truth in sentencing as the incarcerated population and the number of prisons grew. The percentage of sentences that must be served varies, as well as the crimes covered by the law, but they can range anywhere from 50% to 100%. GOP leaders in Tennessee have used the recent killings in Memphis to tout the states strict new sentencing measure and to call for stricter measures. Earlier this week, U.S. Marshals arrested Cleotha Abston, 38, in connection with the killing of Eliza Fletcher, who was abducted last week during a pre-dawn run. Abston previously kidnapped a prominent Memphis attorney in 2000 when he was 16 years old. He spent 20 years in prison for that crime, but he had been sentenced to 24. This case not only proves that the recently passed Truth in Sentencing Act was necessary, but that it was long overdue, Tennessee Lt. Gov. Randy McNally said in a statement. Fletcher, he declared, would be alive today if Abston had completed his full sentence. On Thursday, he told The Associated Press that the events show that we do need the law and possibly need to expand the law. On Wednesday, a gunman livestreamed himself driving around Memphis shooting at people, killing four and wounding three others in seemingly random attacks. After Ezekiel Kelly was identified, some pointed out that he he had been released early from a prison sentence for aggravated assault something that would not be allowed under the states current law. Kelly was sentenced to three years in prison, but was released in March after serving just over two years behind bars, including credit he received for time he was jailed prior to his plea. He had a violent history, said Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton, a Republican. And you cannot treat violent criminals the same as nonviolent. Sexton said he would support removing or reducing a credit program that helps inmates shave more time off their sentences for good behavior and trying juveniles as adults if they commit violent crimes. Those proposals will likely be introduced during the 2023 legislative session, which starts in January. But Stephanie Wylie, counsel in the Brennan Centers Justice Program, said strict sentencing laws eliminate the incentive for people in prison to take rehabilitative classes in exchange for reducing their time. These classes make it easier for incarcerated people to reintegrate into the community, Wylie said. And Kate Trammell with the nonprofit Prison Fellowship stressed that justice is about more than prison time. (Justice) demands that time behind bars prepare people to live as good citizens, she said. The suggestion that removing rehabilitation incentives from sentencing laws could make communities safer is a dangerous step backward. Instead, we must take what we have learned about justice that restores and use it to protect our neighbors. ___ Associated Press writers Jonathan Mattise and Adrian Sainz contributed to this report. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) A Canadian university has quietly made public Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano's 2013 doctoral thesis about a legendary World War I hero, including six pages of recently added corrections that, in some cases, do not appear to fix anything. Researchers who have long criticized Mastriano's investigation into U.S. Army Sgt. Alvin C. York as plagued by factual errors, amateurish archaeology and sloppy writing say the dissertation, released last month by the University of New Brunswick, echoes the problems in his 2014 book based on the same research. Mastriano won the Republican primary in May thanks, in part, to a late endorsement by former President Donald Trump. He came to political prominence by leading protests against pandemic mitigation efforts, energetically supporting the movement to overturn Trumps 2020 reelection defeat and appearing outside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection. The far-right state senator, a retired Army colonel, regularly brings up his Ph.D. status in public remarks and on the campaign trail as evidence of his knowledgeability. When a photo of Mastriano wearing a Confederate uniform surfaced last month, he brandished his academic credentials as a defense of his credibility. Mastrianos 480-page thesis includes a retelling of Yorks life story and the results of Mastrianos own research. The version now online has Mastrianos June 2021 corrections, appended after a complaint from another researcher prompted the university to review the work. A University of New Brunswick history professor, Jeff Brown, provided documents to The Associated Press that recorded his own misgivings about the dissertation nearly a decade ago when he was on Mastriano's doctoral committee. He says he was appalled by the dissertation and disturbed by the fact that no one on the committee was qualified to evaluate the huge part of it that was archaeological. Brown said he flagged glaring issues to other faculty members and administrators and was dismissed from Mastriano's committee by the lead adviser yet the published dissertation still listed Brown on the title page, giving the impression that he endorsed the material. Brown said in an email that Mastrianos main adviser, now-retired history professor Marc Milner, told him that as it turns out, I never really needed to be on the examining committee after all, so there was no need to worry about evaluating Mastrianos dissertation (despite the fact that I had already done so). This was presented to me as a favour, to relieve me of the necessity of having to decide whether to sign off on it or not, Brown added. I never understood how I suddenly became superfluous. Neither Milner nor Mastriano responded to multiple requests for comment. The 21 revisions made last year, numbered in a list that skips from No. 9 to No. 11, include altered footnote references along with several changes that do not actually appear to correct anything but instead add descriptive text or defend aspects of the dissertation. The most significant correction involves his longstanding claim that a photo of an American soldier leading German prisoners was misdated and mislabeled by the military photographer in 1918, and that it in fact shows York with three officers he would force to surrender two weeks after the date. Mastriano's certainty about the American soldier's identity has evolved over the years: He wrote in 2007 that the photo is now believed to show York, then was fairly sure in 2011, described York as clearly identified in the 2013 dissertation and declared in the 2014 book that the photo is confirmed to be" York. But his new explanatory footnote backtracks, saying it seems to show Corporal York marching his prisoners into the American lines, with what is likely the German officers. He didnt fix that he just doubled down on his ridiculous assessment, said University of Oklahoma history graduate student and instructor James Gregory, the complainant who triggered New Brunswick's review. He said Mastrianos revisions ignored more than a dozen of the problems Gregory found in the book and argued Mastriano has no evidence other than this guy has a mustache and looks like Alvin York. Gregory is preparing a similar list for the Canadian university with what he has identified as the dissertations errors. A spokesperson for the University of New Brunswick, Heather Campbell, said Mastriano's credentials are not impacted as a result of the corrections and the schools review. And retired history professor Steve Turner, another committee member, wrote in an email last week he stands by the decision to accept Mastrianos thesis and grant him a doctorate. There was no reason to question the authenticity or accuracy of the sources cited in footnotes, Turner said. Turner said he did not recall that Brown raised concerns about the work but remembered Mastriano as respectful and polite during a meeting in which Turner urged him to engage more directly with critics of his research. I believe the truth is nonexistent in Mastrianos vocabulary, but the word detractors is and he applies it to anyone who is in disagreement with him, said one of those critics, British author Michael Kelly. Kelly's 2018 book, Hero on the Western Front, includes a section on the controversy over Mastrianos findings. Mastriano claims to have pinpointed where York engaged in the gun battle with German troops for which he received the Medal of Honor. But critics like Kelly call his work shoddy and substandard, built on falsified evidence and bald assertions. Penn State history professor Dan Letwin, asked to evaluate the dissertations quality, said it does not appear to meet current academic standards for doctoral-level historical research, describing it as very lacking. Theres nothing interpretive here about big historical questions, Letwin said. Last year, after Mastriano's book was questioned, New Brunswick officials declined to comment on the dissertation without Mastriano's permission. But earlier this summer, the dean of New Brunswicks school of graduate studies, Drew Rendall, came back from a yearlong sabbatical to learn Mastriano's dissertation was still under embargo. Embargoes of a few years are not uncommon in academia, particularly when there are plans to turn the work into a book, but it's unclear why the embargo on Mastriano's dissertation more than doubled the school's usual four-year limit. Rendall said he notified Mastriano the thesis was being made public but never received a reply. The 2014 book 's publisher, the University Press of Kentucky, is also planning corrections if it does another printing. Mastriano was sent a list of about 30 questions, some regarding minor typos and others seeking additional sources to confirm specific information in the book, press director Ashley Runyon said in an email. The publisher plans to use his responses and its own review of primary sources for future printings of the book to correct any errors, Runyon wrote. Mastriano was informed of the proposed changes but has not responded, and the press has the final say in the revisions, Runyon added. The book, which features the photo of a soldier leading German prisoners inside and on its dust jacket, is going to be changed to add information about the dispute in a preface, she said. September is National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, and an Edwardsville woman who survived the disease is doing her part to spread the word about the silent killer. Debbie Ruwe will be hosting a booth from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Sept. 24 at the Land of Goshen Community Market to spread awareness of ovarian cancer in the hopes that other women might be diagnosed earlier and lessen their chances of dying from the disease. Ruwe, who is retired, moved to Edwardsville six years ago from Pekin, where she worked as a registered nurse. Last August, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer after experiencing one mild symptom that she attributed to menopause. I talked to the nurse practitioner at my gynecologists office, and she was going to prescribe some medication for that symptom, but she decided to do a transvaginal sonogram to make sure everything was OK, Ruwe said. She was thinking about problems with my uterus more than my ovaries, but the sonogram showed masses on my ovaries. That started a journey of additional testing, surgeries and treatment for Ruwe, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer on Aug. 30, 2021, after the first surgery when her ovaries were removed. She followed that with a visit to a gynecological oncologist at Washington University Barnes-Jewish Hospital, where she underwent a CT scan to see if the cancer had spread to other parts of her body. I had another surgery on Sept. 14, which was a hysterectomy with biopsies all throughout my abdomen to make sure there arent any other signs of cancer because ovarian cancer spreads so quickly, Ruwe said. Luckily, I only had it in a couple of lymph nodes. Ruwe then started chemotherapy on Oct. 6 at Siteman Cancer Center in St. Louis. It consisted of six rounds, 21 days apart, with each session lasting about five or six hours. Her final chemotherapy session came on Jan. 20, 2022, when she got to ring the bell at Siteman Cancer Center signifying that she was cancer-free. In February I had my first follow-up CT scan, and it was clear, which they call an NED, which stands for No Evidence of Disease, Ruwe said. I do a follow-up scan every three months to make sure the cancer is not recurring, and they put me on maintenance medication, which is called a PARP inhibitor, to prevent the cancer cells from repairing their DNA. With everything that she has gone through over the past year, Ruwe felt inspired to tell her story to other women, which led to her reserving a booth at the Goshen Market on Sept. 24. When you get a diagnosis of cancer, its shocking, but in my case, I was lucky and got lots of support from family and friends and lots of prayers, Ruwe said. Because I have an RN background, I was able to understand the information that came my way. Other people have it a lot worse and I feel like I should spread the word so they can recognize it early and get treatment as soon as they can. Ovarian cancer encompasses cancers of the ovaries, fallopian tubes and the primary peritoneum, which is the tissue that lines the abdominal wall and covers the abdominal organs. Taken together, this group is the fifth-leading cause of cancer death in women in the United States. One in 78 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer (OC). Most cases are not diagnosed until the cancer has reached Stage 3 or Stage 4. There are currently no screening tests for ovarian cancer. Pap smears do not detect ovarian cancer; they are for cervical cancer. The signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer are often very subtle and mimic symptoms like urinary and gastrointestinal conditions. OC is often diagnosed late because healthcare providers test for other conditions before considering OC as a diagnosis. One of the most important things that I want to stress to people is that when you have those symptoms, to convince your provider to check for ovarian cancer first, Ruwe said. If you rule out all of those other things first, youre just wasting time. If ovarian cancer is suspected by your primary doctor or your regular gynecologist, any type of biopsies or surgery should be done by a gynecological oncologist. They are experts in that kind of surgery, and they know where to look. They can tell whether the ovarian cancer has ruptured into your abdomen and things like that, and I think it helps with the survival rate. Symptoms include abdominal bloating, pelvic or abdominal pain, difficulty eating or feeling full quickly, and urinary symptoms like urgency or frequency. Other symptoms include fatigue, nausea, indigestion, back pain, pain during intercourse, constipation, menstrual irregularities and vaginal bleeding. If they are new symptoms for you, for less than a year, and especially if youre having them for 12 times or more a month, you need to get it checked out, Ruwe said. Risk factors include family history of ovarian or breast cancer and genetic mutations (BRAC1, BRAC2, RAD51) and other genetic conditions. Additional risk factors include history of endometriosis, history of not giving birth, history of unexplained infertility, history of not taking birth control pills and history of taking hormone replacement therapy. Obesity and ethnicity, especially among Eastern European and Ashkenazi Jewish women, also add to the risk. While many cases are diagnosed over the age of 50, women of any age can be affected. Younger women are often diagnosed during pregnancy and C-sections. Some types are even seen in children. For Ruwe, the Land of Goshen Community Market provides the perfect opportunity to spread awareness about ovarian cancer. The Goshen Market has a community booth which you can reserve, which is what I did, Ruwe said. Ill be handing out cards listing ovarian cancer symptoms and Ill also be giving away some gel bracelets. Ill be there to answer questions or hear other peoples stories. There are a lot of national resources out there about ovarian cancer and there is a lot of research going on to refine screening tests and treatment options. Some people dont respond to chemotherapy, so they are looking for other options. People can also donate to help provide the funding for that research. For more information about Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month through the American Association for Cancer Research, go to https://www.aacr.org/patients-caregivers/awareness-months/ovarian-cancer-awareness-month/. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate WASHINGTON (AP) Horseback riding with Ronald Reagan. Yachting with Bill Clinton. Sipping tea with Joe Biden. Queen Elizabeth II, who died Thursday at age 96, had met every American president since Dwight Eisenhower, with the exception of Lyndon Johnson, who did not visit Britain during his presidency. Biden was the 13th and final U.S. president to meet the woman whose reign spanned seven decades. Every living former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump joined Biden in mourning her passing and sending condolences to her family. Biden and first lady Jill Biden said the queen's legacy will loom large in the pages of British history, and in the story of our world. Obama and his wife, Michelle, recalled the queen welcoming them, America's first Black president and first lady, to the world stage with open arms and extraordinary generosity. Biden first met the queen in 1982 as a U.S. senator traveling in the U.K. with a delegation from Congress. He last saw her in 2021, several months after he became president, while attending a world leaders' summit in southwestern England. She mingled with Group of Seven leaders at a reception that she and other royals hosted at an indoor rainforest. After the summit, the Bidens traveled to Windsor Castle, near London, at the queen's invitation for a private audience. The queen was a 25-year-old princess when she came to Washington in 1951 and stayed with President Harry Truman and his family. She met Herbert Hoover in 1957, more than 20 years after he left office. Here are highlights of some of her meetings, on both sides of the pond, with past American presidents: JOE BIDEN Biden and his trademark aviator sunglasses met the queen at Windsor Castle on a sweltering afternoon in June 2021. Biden emerged from a black car wearing his shades, stepped onto a covered dais where the queen waited, and, with his wife, posed with the queen as the two countries' national anthems played. After walking around the courtyard to inspect the honor guard, he entered the castle for tea. Back at the airport, Biden told journalists that the queen was very gracious and had asked him about the leaders of China and Russia. While it's generally frowned upon to discuss one's private talks with the queen, Biden continued. I don't think she'll be insulted, but she reminded me of my mother, he said. Biden said he also had invited the queen to visit the White House. DONALD TRUMP Trump and the queen met in July 2018 at Windsor Castle during a visit to Britain that drew large anti-Trump protests to downtown London, including the hoisting of a balloon depicting Trump in a diaper. He was criticized for breaking protocol by briefly walking in front of the queen instead of alongside her and turning his back on her as they reviewed an honor guard. Trump later said he thought of his late mother, Mary Anne, who was born in Scotland and who loved the royal family, when he and his wife, Melania, sipped tea with the queen. Trump's subsequent comment that the queen told him that Brexit Britain's break from the European Union was complex also created a stir. Most heads of state don't reveal their private conversations with the queen. She also doesn't discuss political matters. The Trumps and the royals met again during the D-Day commemoration in 2019. BARACK OBAMA Obama and the queen had their first of three meetings in April 2009 at a reception for world leaders attending the Group of 20 nations summit in London. It was there that first lady Michelle Obama broke protocol by briefly putting an arm around the queen's back as they commiserated about their achy feet. It's generally a no-no to touch the queen, but she returned Mrs. Obama's gesture. The queen invited the Obamas for a state visit in 2011 that included a two-night stay at Buckingham Palace and a lavish banquet in the president's honor. As Obama delivered a toast to the queen, he didn't miss a beat when the band assumed that a pause in his remarks meant he had concluded and launched into a rendition of God Save the Queen. Obama kept talking over the music until the band quieted down. The couples saw each other again in 2016 when Obama visited the queen at Windsor Castle a day after her 90th birthday during another swing through Europe. GEORGE W. BUSH Bush detested stuffy, formal affairs, but he donned a white tie-and-tails tuxedo after the queen pulled out all the stops for a state dinner in his honor at Buckingham Palace in November 2003. A few years later, Bush's slip of the tongue generated ripples of laughter at a White House welcoming ceremony for the queen, who was touring the U.S. in May 2007. Stumbling on a line in his speech, Bush said the queen had dined with several of his predecessors and had helped the United States celebrate its bicentennial in 17- ... Bush caught himself and corrected the date to 1976, and paused to see if she had taken offense. She gave me a look that only a mother could give a child, Bush said with a smile. The queen later turned the tables on Bush with her toast at a dinner she hosted for the president at the British Embassy in Washington. I wondered whether I should start this toast by saying, When I was here in 1776,'" she said to laughter. BILL CLINTON The queen hosted Clinton and his wife, Hillary, aboard her royal yacht, Britannia, in June 1994. The ship, 412 feet (125 meters) long and 55 feet (17 meters) wide, was docked at the Portsmouth Naval Base and was home base for the Clintons as they attended the queen's dinner at Guildhall for leaders of Allied nations whose troops participated in the D-Day invasion of Normandy 50 years earlier. The Clintons spent one night aboard the boat. The next day, the Britannia ferried Clinton to the USS George Washington aircraft carrier as it prepared to sail across the English Channel, from Portsmouth to Normandy, for D-Day anniversary celebrations. GEORGE H.W. BUSH One of the more memorable images from the monarch's third state visit to the U.S. came in 1991 when only her white-striped purple hat could be seen above the microphones when she spoke at an arrival ceremony on the White House grounds. Someone forgot to adjust the lectern after the much taller Bush spoke. The queen stayed strong and carried on, later making light of the incident as she opened an address to a joint meeting of Congress. I do hope you can see me today from where you are, she deadpanned. Bush later apologized and said he felt badly for not pulling out a step for her to stand on. RONALD REAGAN Reagan and the queen bonded over a mutual love of horseback riding. They rode side by side on an 8-mile (13-kilometers), hourlong tour on the grounds of Windsor Castle when Reagan visited her there in June 1982. Reagan was the first president to sleep over at the British royal family's historic home, an 11th-century estate overlook the River Thames. While in the U.S. in 1983, the monarch and Philip stayed with the president and first lady Nancy Reagan at their ranch in Santa Barbara, California. She wanted to ride horses again, but a rainstorm wouldn't allow it. The Reagans served a lunch of regional staples, including enchiladas, chiles rellenos, refried beans, tacos, rice and guacamole. They also hosted a state dinner for the queen in San Francisco at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum. JIMMY CARTER The queen hosted Carter in May 1977 on his first overseas trip at a dinner for NATO leaders at Buckingham Palace. At one point, as Carter stood with the queen and other guests, he noticed the arrival of the queen mother. Ever the Southern gentleman, Carter broke away, took her by the hand and escorted her to the assembled line of guests. The no-frills Georgia peanut farmer-turned-president ate chicken mousse off a gold plate and seemed excited by his dinner seating between the queen and her sister, Princess Margaret, and across from her son, Prince Charles, Prince Philip and the queen mother. GERALD FORD Ford threw a gala state dinner for the Brits in 1976 to mark the bicentennial of the American Revolution. The queen was resplendent in a diamond-studded tiara that sparkled for a crowd that included diplomats, star athletes and celebrities such as Cary Grant and Julie Harris. The mood evaporated when Ford led the queen to the dance floor while the song The Lady Is a Tramp echoed throughout the State Dining Room. ___ Associated Press writers Danica Kirka in London and Nancy Benac in Washington and AP news researcher Jennifer Farrar in New York contributed to this report. FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) A bill to rename Mishawakas Veterans Affairs Clinic after late U.S. Rep. Jackie Walorski is headed to President Joe Biden's desk for his signature. The bill passed the U.S. House last month, and Indianas two senators Republicans Todd Young and Mike Braun introduced an identical version in the Senate, which unanimously approved it Thursday, a news release said. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate SAN DIEGO (AP) Southern Californians welcomed cooler temperatures and spotty rain Saturday from a tropical storm veering off the Pacific Coast days after a relentless heat wave nearly overwhelmed the state's electrical grid. Officials braced for flooding in coastal and mountain areas from the storm and feared powerful winds could expand the massive Fairview Fire about 75 miles (121 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles. But minimal flooding was reported early Saturday and crews made significant progress on the fire and said they expected full containment on Monday. More than 10,000 homes and other structures have been threatened by the blaze. The National Weather Service forecast an end to the grueling heat wave in the Los Angeles area Saturday though heat and wind advisories remained in effect through the evening, and warned of possible flooding in mountain areas and some beach communities. In San Diego County, inland areas such as Mt. Laguna and Julian received several inches of rain from the storm while coastal communities got less than an inch, the National Weather Service reported. Hurricane Kay made landfall near Mexicos Bahia Asuncion in Baja California Sur state Thursday, but it quickly weakened into a tropical storm by the time it reached Southern California. The tropical conditions added a swelter to the heat wave that saw temperatures soar past 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) in many parts of California this week. Some residents welcomed the respite from unusually high temperatures. The heat was killer, so for now this feels good, Charles Jenkins said as rain fell Friday in San Diego. With flooding possible, officials in coastal cities posted warning signs in low-lying areas and made sandbags available to the public. In the Orange County community of Seal Beach, a beach parking lot experienced minor flooding Friday from the high tide, police said. September already has produced one of the hottest and longest heat waves on record for California and some other Western states. Nearly 54 million people were under heat warnings and advisories across the region this week as temperature records were shattered in many areas. Californias state capital of Sacramento hit an all-time high Tuesday of 116 degrees (46.7 C), breaking a 97-year-old record. Salt Lake City tied its all-time high temperature Wednesday at 107 degrees (41.6 C). On Tuesday, as air conditioners whirred amid the stifling heat, California set a record for power consumption and authorities nearly instituted rolling blackouts when the electrical grid capacity was at its breaking point. Scientists say climate change has made the West warmer and drier over the last three decades and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive. In the last five years, California has experienced the largest and most destructive fires in state history. While firefighters made progress against the Fairview Fire, the fast-moving Mosquito Fire in the foothills east of Sacramento doubled in size Friday to at least 46 square miles (119 square kilometers) and threatened 3,600 homes in Placer and El Dorado counties, while blanketing the region in smoke. Flames jumped the American River, burning structures in the mountain hamlet of Volcanoville and moving closer to the towns of Foresthill, home to about 1,500 people, and Georgetown, population 3,000. More than 5,700 people in the area have been evacuated, said Placer County Sheriff's Office Lt. Josh Barnhart. David Hance slept on the porch of his mothers Foresthill mobile home when he woke up to a glowing red sky early Wednesday morning and was ordered to evacuate. It was actually fricking terrifying, cause they say, Oh yeah, its coming closer, he said. It was like sunset in the middle of the night. Hance left behind most of his electronic gear, all his clothing and family photos and fled to Auburn, where he found his mother, Linda Hance, who said the biggest stress is wondering: Is my house still there? Organizers of the Tour de Tahoe announced Friday they were canceling the annual 72-mile (115-km) bicycle ride scheduled Sunday around Lake Tahoe because of the heavy smoke from the blaze more than 50 miles (80 km) away and noted that cycling is a heavy cardio activity that does not pair well with terrible air quality. Last years ride was canceled due to smoke from another big fire south of Tahoe. The Mosquito Fires cause remained under investigation. Pacific Gas & Electric said unspecified electrical activity occurred close in time to the report of the fire on Tuesday. ____ Antczak reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers Stefanie Dazio and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles, Noah Berger in Auburn, California, Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada, and Gillian Flaccus in Portland, Oregon, contributed to this report. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) The presidents of Colombia and Venezuela on Friday announced that the years-long closure of their countries' shared border to cargo transport will end Sept. 26. Air service between their capitals will also resume. The announcement comes a month after Gustavo Petro was sworn in as Colombia's first leftist president, beginning a thaw in relations between his country and the government of Nicolas Maduro. The presidents tweeted the announcement. We confirm the governments commitment to restore brotherly relations, Petro said. The border crossing bridges are currently open to pedestrian traffic. Limited cargo transport is allowed only at one bridge in the northern portion of the countries' shared 1,370-mile (2,200-km) border. Maduro tweeted that Bogota and the Venezuelan cities of Caracas the capital and Valencia will be connected again via air traffic. The exchange and cooperation between our peoples are starting off on the right foot, he tweeted. Petro, who took office Aug. 7, abandoned his conservative predecessors opposition to Maduro and quickly moved to re-establish relations with his government. Both countries have now accepted each other's ambassadors. Petro and Maduro are yet to have a state visit. Under the presidency of Ivan Duque, Colombia was among the dozens of countries that withdrew recognition of Maduro as Venezuelas legitimate leader after his 2018 re-election, which they argued was a sham. Maduro expelled all Colombian diplomats in 2019. By then, sanctioned trade between the South American countries had long been suspended. Maduro in 2015 ordered the closure of legal crossing points after an incident during anti-smuggling operations at a border community. Foot traffic eventually resumed, and some cargo continued to move through the northern most bridge. All sorts of goods have continued to enter Venezuela illegally over dirt roads manned by armed groups and others with the blessing of officials on both sides of the border. Similarly, illegal imports also enter Colombia, but on a smaller scale. Criminals also use the dirt roads for drug and human trafficking. The commercial exchange that in 2014 reached $2.4 billion was reduced last year to about $406 million, of which $331 million were imports from Colombia, according to the Chamber of Venezuelan-Colombian Economic Integration. The group, based in Caracas, estimates this years activity could reach $1.2 billion if the crossings reopen to vehicular traffic. The Venezuelan government has estimated that the commercial exchange within a year of a fully reopened border could exceed $4 billion. Business owners in border communities have constantly asked for the reactivation of trade between the countries, particularly after the additional economic challenges created by the coronavirus pandemic. The two nations are linked by several border crossings. All but two are within a 45-mile (75-kilometer) stretch, which before the shutdown handled 60% of commercial activity between the neighbors. That area includes a finished bridge that never operated due to political tensions. Venezuela years ago set up shipping containers and cement barricades on the bridge to block it. Luis Russian, the chamber's chairman, said the announcement shows that the governments have been able to reach basic consensuses in their complex agenda. We hope that this will then contribute to the economic and social growth of people both on the border and at the level of the national markets of Venezuela and Colombia, which historically were complementary... and that in recent years, for different reasons, they looked for partners outside of the region, he said. ___ Garcia Cano reported from Caracas, Venezuela. DENVER (AP) A bipartisan group of eight Colorado district attorneys on Thursday unveiled online data dashboards providing information to the public on the cases they prosecute, including the racial and economic status of defendants and the kinds of sentences handed down for them. The effort is part of a trend among more prosecutors nationally to provide more transparency to the public about how the criminal justice system works and also help them address any racial and economic disparities after first identifying them in the numbers. The data is taken from internal case management systems and then analyzed in a way that can be understood by prosecutors and the general public. District attorneys in cities including Philadelphia and Chicago and parts of California are among those that have started to use data dashboards interactive collections of graphs and tables showing the data to promote transparency, said Seleeke Flingai a senior researcher at Vera Institute for Justice. The research and policy organization has provided technical assistance to help district attorney offices use data to change policies affecting racial disparities and mass incarceration but was not involved in Colorado's project. Flingai was not aware of any other statewide effort to share such data other than Colorado's. Some jurisdictions have gone farther than just providing the summaries shown on data dashboards. Philadelphia's district attorney's office publishes reports interpreting the data on specific issues and offering solutions, Flingai said. Chicago's top prosecutor, who was among the first prosecutors to use data, Kim Foxx, also makes raw data available so people can analyze it for what they are looking for, said Mona Sahaf, deputy director of Vera's Reshaping Prosecution program. John Kellner, the top prosecutor in the 18th Judicial District in Denver's southern suburbs, said he became interested in exploring more prosecution data after discovering more white teens were being put into diversion programs than Black teens because the Black teens tended to live in Aurora, where the municipal court did not provide a diversion option as municipal courts in other parts of the district did. Disparity does not necessarily equal discrimination but you want to understand why we have disparate results, he said. Kellner, the Republican candidate for Colorado attorney general in November's election, said he is also hoping following data can help prosecutors in his district focus on the biggest offenders in the growing problem of auto thefts there. Denver District Attorney Beth McCann said prosecutors are swimming upstream against a fundamental mistrust of government and need to work to earn the public's trust, especially from communities of color after a tough on crime approach led to mass incarceration while not offering enough help to marginalized people. Our collective challenge is to use this data to understand our work and apply to improve public safety and the criminal justice system, said McCann, a Democrat who describes herself as a progressive prosecutor. Colorado's voluntary pilot program to analyze the data and post the dashboards was done with the help of the Prosecutorial Performance Indicators Project, a joint effort led by researchers at Loyola University Chicago and Florida International University, and the Colorado Evaluation and Action Lab at the University of Denver. Next, Colorado's other 14 district attorneys will be asked if they would also like to participate, said Lauren Gase, a senior researcher and project director at the Colorado lab. Researchers will also be taking a deeper look into racial data, she said. COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) Police in Ohio's capital city will no longer serve warrants overnight on certain suspects in the wake of last month's fatal police shooting. The Columbus Dispatch reported Friday that the new policy was noted in an internal memo issued Thursday by city Police Chief Elaine Bryant. The policy involves preplanned warrants, wherein the only reason a police officer goes to a specific site is to serve a warrant. The Food and Drug Administration announced last week it approved new, omicron-specific, mRNA boosters from both Pfizer and Moderna. It wasn't long before the first doses began to arrive in Connecticut. "We weren't expecting to get any vaccine before Labor Day but we did, in fact, get some of our initial order two days before the holiday weekend," said Eric Arlia, vice president of pharmacy services for Hartford Healthcare. "Next week we should have a normal schedule for our vaccine trailers." Major providers, including Hartford Healthcare and Community Health Centers Inc, received their first batches of the vaccine late last week and began booking appointments for this week. Community Health Centers Inc. is offering walk-in, appointment free omicron boosters at their locations as well as community vaccination events across the state. But not every health care provider has gotten their booster vaccines. "We have just ordered and they should be in next week. Supplies are limited," wrote Kim Beauregard, president and CEO of InterCommunity Health, a community health provider in Hartford in an email.."We will have Moderna for 18+ and Pfizer for 12+." Health officials dont believe there is a major supply or manufacturing constraint. The delays in availability appear to be shipping or logistical problems. Arlia said that Hartford Healthcare only had Moderna vaccine brand boosters available this past week due to differences in shipment arrival times. He expects both brands to be available across their system by next week. "Vaccines are available from a supply standpoint. Providers may not be ready to start vaccinating immediately. For example, they may need to update their vaccine scheduler, or complete some other administrative tasks before they begin administering the updated booster dose," wrote Chris Boyle, spokesperson of the Connecticut Department of Health in an email. "We are not hearing of distribution issues with the updated booster. Like other times when other boosters were made available, residents always want to rush out and get the booster, thus appointments can be difficult to find within the first two weeks. We anticipate that there will be no supply issues with this updated booster." The pandemic appears to be continuing to plateau this week in Connecticut. There were approximately 3,300 newly identified positive cases this week, barely less than the roughly 3,400 cases the week before. Twenty-fice people died this past week, up from 17 the week before. Hospitalizations are holding steady at around 350 cases week to week. Boyle said that Connecticut ordered roughly 200,000 booster doses of both Moderna and Pfizer for the first week with more large orders in the pipeline for the coming weeks. Federally, the Department of Health and Human Services has ordered 171 million doses of omicron booster vaccines which would cover 82% of the eligible population of 209 million people 12 years of age and older. While that's good news, people still have to actually take these booster vaccines in order to see the benefit. "Look at the rates of vaccination booster receipt in the United States so far," said Jennifer Kates, a senior vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation. "They're not good." Kates pointed out that the share of booster uptake for the previous booster was under half nationwide. Connecticut is no exception. While roughly 77% of Connecticut residents are fully vaccinated only about 45% chose to get the earlier booster. The Biden administration, which has yet to receive additional emergency funding from Congress for COVID-19 vaccines and treatment, appears to be transitioning to the standard, private model of vaccine distribution. After this last round of omicron boosters there are no additional free vaccines from the government on the horizon. In a press conference September 5th, administration officials talked about normalizing COVID-19 vaccines and boosters going forward. Functionally, this means a return to the pre-pandemic routines of dealing with insurance and Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement. From a vaccination standpoint this means turning to a model like seasonal flu vaccination. "We don't know how that's going to be or how it's going to change over time as this becomes more routinized," said Kates. "I would love it if everyone ran out and got their booster but that hasn't been happening yet." Demand so far for omicron boosters has been somewhat muted, according to Arlia of Hartford HealthCare. He said he thought this was due to holiday timing. "I think a lot of people were focused on other things, coming in yesterday it was pretty light," said Arlia. "But even today it's picking up." This lack of urgency is roughly in-line with national flu vaccination data. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the flu vaccine for all age groups, nationally flu vaccinations have oscillated between 40-50% year-to-year over the past decade. Rates of flu vaccination are much higher among elderly adults and children who are often vaccinated for seasonal flu as part of routine health care. Young and working-age adults receive flu vaccinations at lower rates. Its not clear what impact this will have on the pandemic. Antibody protection wanes within months but long-term immune memory from COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters is uncertain. The preliminary effectiveness of the omicron boosters is promising but uptake is a major concern of health officials. The only thing that seems certain is that health care providers have more work to do. "I think it's just going to be continued outreach," said Arlia. He said that Hartford HealthCare had learned a lot about community outreach during the pandemic and that they had to keep that mission up going forward. "Just because we got through the original (vaccine) series doesn't mean the job is over." This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) Jason Arnie Owens helped carry his fathers casket to the hearse, then turned to embrace a relative. He never made it to the cemetery. As mourners gathered outside a northern West Virginia funeral home on Aug. 24, two plainclothes officers with a fugitive warrant swooped in from separate vehicles, called Owens' name and shot him dead, spattering his 18-year-old son's shirt with blood as horrified loved ones looked. "There was no warning whatsoever, family friend Cassandra Whitecotton said. In the blink of an eye, stunned friends and family already mourning one member lost another. Now, they want answers not just why Owens was shot but why the encounter happened the way it did. Law enforcement officials aren't explaining much right now, citing an ongoing investigation. Owens, 37, was wanted on a fugitive warrant, but the U.S. Marshals Service hasn't said what it was for. The agency also said in a statement that he had a gun when members of a fugitive task force approached. Multiple witnesses contend that's not true. Whitecotton and others who stood just feet away said Owens was unarmed, had been hugging his aunt, Evelyn ODell, and was fired on immediately after his name was called. Witnesses also dispute the U.S. Marshals' assertion that first aid was performed right away, before emergency medical services arrived. "They yelled Jasons name. They just said Jason and then started firing, Whitecotton said. There was no identifications they were U.S. Marshals anything. They did not render this man any aid at all. Never once they touched him to render any aid whatsoever. As relatives prepared for services Friday for Owens, a state police investigation of the shooting was underway. But patience in the community is wearing thin. Relatives and supporters protested outside the Harrison County Courthouse last week, accusing law enforcement authorities of overreach in the death of Owens, who was white. A Facebook page called Justice for Jason Owens has swelled to about 800 members more than half of the population of Nutter Fort, where Owens was killed. Underlying the unanswered questions is whether some boundary of decency had been crossed in arresting a man in the midst of burying his father. If theyve been searching for someone and they finally figure out where they are, theyre going to get them, said Tracy L. Hahn, a Columbus, Ohio-based security consultant who retired after 32 years in law enforcement, including as deputy police chief at Ohio State University. Hahn said she knows agencies that have gone to funerals but have waited until afterward to approach the person. There must be some extenuating circumstance that they felt the urgency to arrest him then instead of waiting, if there was some risk factor, an escape risk or something like that, Hahn said. Family members arent so sure. They say it only adds to their sense of disrespect that the agencies involved feel no obligation to address their questions. We want to know why you would do this in front of his family, said Owens cousin, Mandy Swiger. And what gives you the right to do that to an unarmed man? Acting U.S. Marshal Terry Moore said he couldnt answer questions during the investigation and messages left with state police werent returned. Its not clear whether video exists from police bodycams, a police vehicle dashboard or the funeral home itself. Unlike major cities where detailed incident reports and video footage are released after fatal police shootings sometimes within hours that rarely happens in West Virginia. West Virginia law exempts police from having to release video footage during an investigation. And the U.S. Marshals Service office said it did not write a detailed incident report about the shooting, referring to the news release that withheld Owens name and other details. Owens had been in trouble with the law before. He was sentenced in 2018 to three to 13 years in prison for fleeing a Harrison County sheriffs deputy and trying to strangle him during a scuffle. He was released on parole in April 2021. But Swiger said he committed a parole violation for not checking in just once. And thats why he promised his mom after the funeral he would turn himself in. Whitecotton said she was smoking a cigarette after the service when an SUV came flying down the side street where the hearse would pull out. "It about hit me, so I jumped back up on the curb and kind of looked at him like, Whats your problem? she said. A man in shorts and a T-shirt jumped out, leaving his door open. Swiger said a white truck with another plainclothes officer inside almost hit her mothers vehicle as the truck sped into the parking lot. Swiger said Owens was shot from different directions and estimated as many as 40 people were in the area. She, too, said she didn't see a gun in Owens' hands. Some mourners instinctively rushed toward Owens after he fell to the ground, Swiger said, but were told by one of the officers, You step back or Ill shoot you. Whitecotton said she has lived in much larger cities such as Houston, Dallas and Fort Worth. Never in my life have I dealt with anything like this, she said. "I would expect it there, honestly. But not here. FORSYTH, Ga. (AP) A Georgia state trooper cadet has died during training. The state Department of Public Safety said Friday that Trooper Cadet Patrick Dupree died at a hospital after collapsing Thursday at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forysth. The department said in a statement that Dupree collapsed after the end of a training exercise and that medical staff at the training center tried to save his life before Dupree was taken to a hospital. Dupree was part of a class training to be state troopers. Monroe County Coroner Joey Proctor told WMAZ-TV that Dupree was from Rome, Georgia. His body will undergo an autopsy by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to determine the cause of death. The City of Euharlee in Bartow County said Dupree was a police officer there from 2015 to 2021 before starting trooper school. Gov. Brian Kemp said in a tweet that Dupree leaves behind a wife and children. NEW YORK (AP) Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani told a judge that his third wife's claim that he owes her $260,000 is a gross exaggeration and he really owes her about $50,000. I do owe her money but I dont owe her $260,000, Giuliani, a legal adviser to former President Donald Trump, told the judge in state court in Manhattan on Thursday, according to the New York Post. Judith Giuliani had asked the judge to hold her former husband in contempt for falling behind on his payments under their 2019 divorce settlement. Justice Michael Katz told Giuliani earlier that he was in default for not having filed papers in response to Judiths allegations. Giuliani conceded the error but said, Im being sued in ten different cases. Im getting ready for two massive hearings, the newspaper reported. Its totally my fault, he said. I dont know how to emphasize to you the pressures. Judith Giuliani's lawyer Dror Bikel told the judge that his client has no income and suggested that Giuliani write her a check. That certainly would show good faith, Katz said. Katz set Sept. 23 for the next court date. Judith Giuliani declined to comment after the hearing, the Daily News reported. Rudy Giuliani turned to other matters including his testimony to a Georgia grand jury last month regarding attempts by Trump and his supporters to overturn his 2020 election defeat. I had a very good experience with them, Giuliani said, according to the Daily News. They told me they were very satisfied with my testimony. They thought they had completed it, but I said if you have any more questions I did nothing wrong in Georgia. Did nothing wrong anywhere. Rudy and Judith Giuliani were married for 15 years. Giuliani was previously married for 20 years to Donna Hanover, the mother of his two children. Before that, he was married for 14 years to his second cousin, Regina Peruggi. That marriage was annulled. Greenwich Police / Contributed Photo GREENWICH A woman suspected of stealing purses from a Mason Street store this summer turned herself in to police Friday, according to the Greenwich Police Department. Kristen McKenzie, of Metairie, La., could not post the court-set bond and was taken to state Superior Court in Stamford, police said in a Facebook post. Hamel,Heather/AP MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) The stepmother of a New Hampshire girl who vanished in 2019 at age 5 was arrested Friday after she failed to appear for a scheduled court hearing. Kayla Montgomery, 32, was arrested at a home in Manchester. An arrest warrant was issued for her Thursday after she did not show up at a hearing on charges against her, including that she lied to state health officials about having Harmony Montgomery in her care. Francois Mori/AP PARIS (AP) A homicide investigation has been launched into the fatal shooting of a driver by a police officer in the French city of Nice after he failed to obey an order to stop, the southern city's prosecutor said Friday. A video circulating on social media shows a police officer pointing his gun at the drivers window as the vehicle is reversing in front of a damaged police cruiser. The officer fires just after the driver appears to stop the car. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Located in dense jungle hills, this jade mining town is a prime example of the nation's business climate. The northern town of 20,000 residents is connected to the outside world by a single crumbling road, a bone-crushing 16 hours to the closest transport hub during the rainy season. Ancient hulking trucks putter along in the mud, some stuck for days. Like a cruel joke, red road signs announce: "The Government has arranged for road repair from each company in Hpakant," meaning companies with lucrative government contracts are expected to pay for highway upkeep even though the military regime takes a hefty profit from each venture. In Burma, residents call this business as usual. More than 450 private companies and some 100 joint ventures operate in the area, the majority of which are owned by Burmese with Chinese heritage, according to Sai Joseph, 34, a gregarious family man and manager of a midsize jade company. "There are only a few wealthy people in Burma - those who get in with the political people, the authorities who have power," said Joseph. "This is a good chance to get rich." All of Burma's big-ticket industries are based around natural resources, including oil, natural gas, timber and mining. In essence, the country is run like a mafia, from the languid tea shops of Rangoon to this remote jungle area of Kachin state, where the mining town of Hpakant is located and provides much of the world's jade. In 2007, sales of natural gas brought in some $3 billion, while teak and other lumber earned about $480 million. The jade industry earned an estimated $400 million. "You name it and they (military) have figured out a way to flip it and make money out of it," said a former Western diplomat who asked not to be named. "If a businessman wants to do something - build a hotel, import cards, export lumber or get a government contract - he hooks up with an army officer who can influence the decision. There are some outright cash payoffs, but mostly it works on favors in kind." Shining a light Uncovering information about the regime's business deals is notoriously difficult. But in September, Earth Rights International (ERI), a Thailand-based environmental and human rights organization, released a report detailing the investments of 68 Chinese multinationals in 88 hydropower, oil, natural gas and mining projects. Pieced together from a range of Chinese companies and government Web sites and news sources, the report aimed to raise awareness for the nation's 48 million inhabitants, who are kept in the dark on government's dealings and a global movement to pressure the military into making reforms. "The Burmese regime has successfully convinced these companies that nothing will compromise its grip on political power," said Matthew Smith, a project coordinator with ERI. "This is a conviction the regime doesn't hesitate to demonstrate, as we've seen through its political imprisonments and violent treatment of dissent." The report showed that Burma's generals continue to thrive off their relationship with China, evidenced by new air-conditioned supermarkets and shopping malls, packed with Chinese-made goods in major cities like Rangoon and Mandalay - products only a few Burmese can afford. Signs of conspicuous consumption are evident by a small group of multimillionaires whose wealth stands in direct relation to their proximity to junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe and other top generals. Many pro-democracy exiles regard China as the linchpin for meaningful change, which may be hope prevailing over logic. China is the largest supplier of military equipment to Burma and is a crucial veto on the U.N. Security Council to stifle harsher economic sanctions by the international community. In Hpakant, jade businessman Joseph estimates that there are as many as 3,000 mines set among a series of denuded hills slowly eaten away by heavy machinery. Green plant life bursts forth where it can, but most earth is an excavation site, undulating for miles into the distance. What was once depicted as a scene out of "Dante's Inferno" - the few outsiders who had visited jade quarries here described thousands of half-naked men, women and children clawing at rocks - is now a largely mechanical process characterized by large yellow Caterpillar and Volvo backhoes and industrial-size dump trucks. A few mines still employ human diggers, and weeks before I visited Hpakant, one mine collapsed killing 20 people. The jade trade Just before the start of the Beijing Olympic Games, President Bush signed into law the Burma Jade Act, adding Burmese jade and rubies to a long list of restricted goods. Even though such prominent jewelers as Bulgari and Tiffany & Co. have gone along with the ban, jade sellers in the crowded outdoor markets of Rangoon told me they are doing landmark business thanks to China, India, Thailand, Singapore and Arab gulf states. Like many business activities, the military junta takes a hefty percentage - 50 percent of profits from private companies and 80 percent from joint ventures - leaving jade miners destitute and diseased (HIV is believed to be rampant among miners, though exact statistics are impossible because international aid groups are not allowed in Hpakant). But jade mines are a prime example of how the military regime co-opts even its enemies. Burma is home to more than 130 ethnic groups, and some continue to fight for an independent homeland. For years, some of these rebel groups financed their armed struggle through the sale of opium and jade. Militants to middlemen Kachin rebels, one of the most formative armed forces and mostly an animistic hill people, once mined jade illegally to buy guns. But after signing a cease-fire with the military regime in 1994, they have become "middlemen for the state's revenue generation, much of it semi-legal and all designed to prop up military rule," said David Matthieson, a researcher for Human Rights Watch. Engaging in business rather than war with the military junta is tacit acknowledgement that real power is determined by proximity to the ruling generals. "Without having personal ties with high-ranking personnel in one way or another, no businesses could survive or expand," said Win Kyaw Oo, a former journalist who is now in the private import business. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate TALLINN, Estonia (AP) Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin may be in jail, but he refuses to be silenced. His social media accounts are regularly updated with anecdotes about his life in detention or video commentary criticizing President Vladimir Putins rule. He gives interviews to media outlets by providing written answers to questions through his lawyers from behind bars. He uses court appearances as an opportunity to speak out against the Kremlins devastating war in Ukraine which is exactly what he is being prosecuted for. So far the authorities have failed to shut me up, Yashin told The Associated Press in a lengthy handwritten letter from a pre-trial detention center in Moscow, passed on via his lawyers and associates last week. The opposition should speak the truth and stimulate a peaceful anti-war resistance It is very important to help people overcome their fear. But one can only truly motivate people with their own personal example, the politician added. Yashin, 39, is one of the few prominent opposition figures who has refused to leave Russia despite the unprecedented pressure the authorities have mounted on dissent in recent years. He says leaving Russia would have affected his authority and value as a politician. A sharp critic of the Kremlin, a vocal ally of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny and an uncompromising member of a Moscow municipal council, Yashin was arrested in June. The authorities charged him with spreading false information about the Russian military a new criminal offense for which he faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. The charges against Yashin reportedly relate to a YouTube livestream video in which he talked about Ukrainians being killed in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha. He rejects the charges as politically motivated. On Friday, a court in Moscow extended Yashin's detention for two more months, until Nov. 12. "Dont worry, everythings fine. Russia will be free, the politician said as he was being escorted out of the courtroom by police. Yashin wrote answers to the APs questions in his small cell in Moscows notorious Butyrskaya prison that he shares with several other people. His day there starts at 6 a.m. and ends at 10 p.m., he wrote, and consists of a walk, three meals, a couple of inspections and lots of free time. So he writes and reads a lot to make use of it. Last week, his parents visited him in detention. His mother, Tatyana, told the AP in a phone interview that he was holding up well and not regretting anything. She said the risk of her son getting arrested has been there for years since 2012, when arrests followed mass protests in Moscow over reports of widespread rigging at a parliamentary election. But you know how it is: You always hope for the best, Tatyana Yashina said. Nevertheless, we were, of course, prepared. Yashin said he, too, was ready for the arrest. After the authorities adopted a law that criminalized the spread of false information about the military, effectively outlawing all criticism of what the Kremlin calls a special military operation" in Ukraine, it became obvious: The security forces will come after all public opponents of Putin who refuse to emigrate, Yashin said. So yes, I tried to prepare for prison as much as it was possible. I got my health in order, completed my dental treatments. Explained the situation, explained the risks to my family and loved ones. Prepared my home for a raid, gathered a team of lawyers in advance. And most importantly I mentally prepared to take the heat. What did surprise him, Yashin said, was how much respect law enforcement officers treated him with they called his lawyers for him and after the raid allowed him to pack personal belongings to take with him to jail. One expressed respect for his decision to stay in Russia despite the risk of arrest, while another one called him a worthy enemy. In detention, both the inmates and the guards are genuinely puzzled to hear that the politician is facing 10 years in prison for a few words against the war, Yashin wrote: In Russia, courts hand down shorter sentences for theft, assaults, rapes and sometimes even murders. With all protests suppressed by a brutal crackdown and most opposition leaders leaving the country, spreading the word has become the main effort for many. Even though Navalny is in jail, his team continues to post video exposes of corruption and regular livestreams on the politicians YouTube channels. The three most popular channels combined currently have more than 10 million subscribers. Yashins own YouTube channel, regularly updated even after his arrest with news analysis and political commentary, has nearly 1.4 million subscribers. Most of his videos over the past six months have been dedicated to the war and criticizing the Kremlin for it. Demand for an alternative point of view has appeared in society, Yashin told the AP. Denis Volkov, director of Russia's top independent pollster Levada center, told the AP that the influence of independent sources of information in Russia has grown in recent years thanks to popular video blogs on YouTube as an alternative to state television. People read little, but watch a lot, Volkov said. Yashin urged ordinary Russians to help spread the word. Show your grandmother, who is used to watching TV, a couple of interesting channels on YouTube. Teach your relative from a small town to use VPN so that he can read the news on a blocked independent news site. Create a chat with friends and neighbors, share links, anti-corruption investigations and opinions there. Yashin said that both before his arrest and in detention, he has seen very little support for the war in Ukraine, despite the authorities' vast effort to control the narrative and weed out any criticisms or dissenting voices. The Kremlin has insisted for months that there is overwhelming support for the invasion. Just this week, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated once again that the absolute majority of Russians were behind the decision to send troops into Ukraine. Behind bars, the war is widely and actively discussed, Yashin said, but there is either an understanding among those discussing it that Russia has been drawn into a major crisis, or disappointment at Moscows modest successes on the battlefield. Im convinced that by getting involved in the war, Putin has started the countdown of his time in power. He went all in, but miscalculated The final lines of his letter from prison offer his hope for the future. I am convinced that my country, after all, will become part of a free and civilized world, he says. But no one will win this battle for us. It is only our responsibility. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A judge has scuttled an effort by Eastern Michigan University to force striking faculty back to their classrooms. Washtenaw County Circuit Court Judge Carol Kuhnke denied the school's emergency request for a temporary restraining order. However, she did schedule a Sept. 16 hearing for the faculty union to show why a preliminary injunction should not be ordered. Kuhnke wrote in an order dated Thursday that the court was not persuaded that the school would suffer immediate and irreparable injury, loss, or damage" due to a delay in a final order being issued. Several dozen faculty at the Ypsilanti school about 35 miles (56 kilometers) southwest of Detroit started picketing on Wednesday. The union represents more than 500 tenured and tenure-track faculty. Hours after the strike started, Eastern Michigan filed its lawsuit to get striking faculty back to work. Eastern Michigans chapter of the American Association of University Professors warned Tuesday of a strike, saying the administration was not bargaining in good faith on a new labor contract. The previous contract expired last month. Full-time EMU faculty earned $101,300 on average in salary and health care benefits between 2021 and 2022, according to documents released by the administration Monday. Associate professors earned $85,600 and assistant professors made $74,000. Eastern Michigan says it has proposed an average 6.2% salary increase in the first year of a new contract and a total five-year contract salary increase of 15.2%. But a primary sticking point in the negotiations are proposed health care plans that the union says would saddle its members with thousands of dollars in additional costs, faculty union president and engineering professor Mohamed El-Sayed said Friday. Eastern Michigan says the strike is illegal and is causing significant and continuing injury to students. It also denies the union's claim of unfair labor practices during negotiations. Classes were held Thursday. Some were led by faculty and instructors who are not part of the union, according to the school. About 16,300 students were enrolled at Eastern Michigan in 2020. Its faculty last struck in 2006 for two weeks. A star witness who testified against others in the plot to kidnap Michigan's governor asked a judge Friday to greatly reduce his prison sentence and release him from custody. Ty Garbin wants more than four years cut off his 6 1/4-year sentence for conspiracy. Prosecutors agree that a break is justified, but they're recommending only a three-year reduction. The decision rests with U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker. Garbin, 26, has been in custody for about two years since his arrest in 2020. He quickly cooperated with investigators and pleaded guilty to conspiring to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer from her vacation home in northern Michigan. He said the goal was to spark a civil war, known among right-wing extremists as the boogaloo. The FBI, which had agents and informants inside the group, stopped the plot. Garbin testified at two trials. The first, last spring, ended with acquittals for Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta and no verdicts for Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr. Fox and Croft were convicted at a second trial that ended on Aug. 23 in federal court in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Mr. Garbins testimony was a key in refuting the defendants' assertions that they were framed or entrapped by the government, attorney Mark Satawa said in a court filing. He said Garbin's work isn't done yet: He's due to testify for prosecutors in separate but related cases filed against others in state court. Federal prisoners routinely get credit for good behavior, which can shave months off a sentence. But Satawa noted that Garbin has been held in local jails because prosecutors need him nearby. As a result, he can't get that credit. Kaleb Franks, 28, also pleaded guilty and testified for the government. He has not been sentenced yet. ___ White reported from Detroit. Follow him at http://twitter.com/edwritez FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) Women who were members of a Utah polygamous group said in a lawsuit that they were forced into underage marriages in which their husbands raped them and that they had to perform child labor in the groups businesses. The northern Utah-based Kingston Group, also known as the Order, arranged such marriages so that girls would become pregnant and beholden to their husbands and the group, alleges the lawsuit filed Wednesday in state court in Salt Lake City. Order girls are taught from birth that their primary purposes in life are to be obedient, a submissive wife, and to bear as many children as possible, the lawsuit states. The lawsuit filed by 10 people against Kingston Group members, including leader Paul Eldon Kingston, seeks a jury trial and unspecified damages. The group sought to maintain Pure Kingston Blood by arranging marriages between cousins and other close relatives and shunning relationships that werent between white people, the lawsuit alleges. The group teaches its members that only those with so-called pure blood will survive the apocalypse, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit describes a patriarchal group and a doctrine known as The Law of One Above Another, in which everyone has a rank in the group's hierarchy. Women and girls, after they're married, submit to their husbands and men answer to higher-ranked men. Men rise in prominence by being obedient and pure of blood and by having large families that can produce a lot of money and workers" for the group, according to the lawsuit. Women gain status by being pure of blood and obedient, becoming the first wives of higher-ranking numbered men, and bearing many children, the lawsuit alleges. But women who are disobedient and fail to bear children including because they miscarry face ostracism, the lawsuit alleges. It is a common and intentional practice in the Order to require girls and women to submit sexually to their husbands even if the sexual submission is against their will because having children results in workers for the benefit of the Order, the lawsuit states. Five of the women suing alleged they were coerced into marriage as juveniles and raped by their husbands; three others including Amanda Grant, who alleges that she endured years of sexual abuse by a half brother as a child, said they fled to escape such a fate. Grant would later appear on the television series Escaping Polygamy. The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly. Also suing is a young child. The lawsuit said the child was raped by his or her father, who allegedly raped the mother. The lone man suing said three Order men raped him when he was 16 or 17 and that when he left the group and announced he was gay, was tracked down and severely beaten by a group of boys acting at the direction of the Order, the lawsuit alleges. Exhibiting LGBTQ+ tendencies" can indicate impure blood, according to the lawsuit. John Gustafson, a representative of the Davis County Cooperative Society, an affiliate of the Kingston Group, disputed the lawsuit's claims Friday. Much of what we have reviewed appears frivolous and unfounded, Gustafson said in an emailed statement. We dont expect any of the claims to prevail in a court of law. The group has drawn legal attention before. During a 2020 trial for a California businessman accused of carrying out a nearly $500 million biodiesel fraud scheme with a member of the Kingston Group, attorneys for the businessman called the Kingstons an incestuous polygamous group that is always scheming to defraud the U.S. government in what the group calls bleeding the beast. A spokesman for the group, Kent Johnson, called those allegations categorically false. The Kingston Group is not affiliated with a polygamous group based on the Utah-Arizona line that is run by imprisoned leader Warren Jeffs, who is serving a life sentence in Texas for sexually assaulting girls he considered brides. The groups, whose members believe polygamy brings exaltation in heaven, are offshoots of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Polygamy is a legacy of the early teachings of the mainstream church, which abandoned the practice in 1890 and now strictly prohibits it. ___ Brady McCombs in Salt Lake City contributed to this report. ___ Follow Mead Gruver at https://twitter.com/meadgruver WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) A man accused of killing six people and injuring dozens of others by driving an SUV through a Christmas parade in Wisconsin last year withdrew his insanity plea Friday. Darrell Brooks Jr., 40, appeared in Waukesha County Circuit Court where he's facing nearly 80 charges, including six homicide counts, in connection with the Nov. 21 incident in Waukesha. Brooks had changed his not guilty plea to not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect in June. Minnesota Department of Corrections/AP ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) A Minneapolis man has been charged with three counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder in a weekend shooting that left three people dead and two wounded, according to a criminal complaint made public Friday. Authorities say 41-year-old Antonio Dupree Wright walked into a St. Paul duplex through the back door on Sept. 4, raised a gun, and started shooting the people inside. According to a probable cause statement, he first shot 44-year-old Maisha Spaulding in the head as she sat on a couch. He then shot 33-year-old Angelica Gonzales in the face and shot 42-year-old Cory Freeman as he tried to run away. All three died. LANSING An odd tradition sea lamprey pie linking the Great Lakes to Great Britains Royals is expected to continue with the crowning of King Charles III. Lampreys are considered an undesirable invasive species in the Great Lakes. They devastate native fish by latching onto them with a sucker-like mouth filled with sharp teeth. Great Lakes state, provincial and federal governments spend millions of dollars to control them. But baking them into a pie is a longtime tradition in the United Kingdom. Queen Elizabeth II, who died Sept. 8 after reigning 70 years, was served the eel-like sea lamprey in 2002 to celebrate her Golden Jubilee, or 50th anniversary of being on the throne. The Great Lakes Fishery Commission made another shipment of the fish taken from the Great Lakes 10 years later in 2012 for her 60th anniversary, and once again in 2016 for her 90th birthday. We capture them and send them over to Gloucester, England, so that they can continue their long tradition, said Marc Gaden, the deputy executive secretary of the fishery commission, a binational organization founded in 1954 to fight the parasite. With the coronation of King Charles III coming up, I can only assume Im going to be sending a few more over there. Sea lamprey are protected in the U.K. because streams there are heavily dammed, and they cannot spawn as much as they do in the Great Lakes, Gaden said. The lamprey pie is a tradition in the U.K., spanning hundreds of years. Serving it was discontinued except for coronations in 1836, due to its high cost, according to Whats Cooking America, a website that documents food history. The lamprey is baked while coated in syrup, along with some wine and spices. It is then spooned out and served on sliced white bread. In 1996, Wisconsin Sea Grant organized a sea lamprey taste test in hopes of spurring a commercial market for the fish instead of simply landfilling those that they trapped. Taste ratings were high, but the plan fell apart when contaminant tests showed that the Great Lakes lamprey contained mercury levels that were too high to meet European Union standards. How does it taste? Surprisingly good, Bob Bennet, the owner, and chef of a Duluth restaurant that hosted the event said at the time. Try selling it without telling people what they are eating. It would be better. But dont ask Gaden. I cant say Ive tried the lamprey pie, he said. FRANKFORT A longtime resident of Michigan Shores Cooperative is set to become a centenarian. Muriel Williams will be 100 on Sept. 18. She plans to have a party with family members and her fellow Michigan Shores residents to commemorate the occasion. Williams said she was born in 1922 in Chicago to Karl Richard Clarence Braaten and Frances (Petersen) Braaten. Both of her parents were the first generation of their families to be born in America. Her father came from Norway and her mother came from Denmark. They met at St. Olaf College, in Minnesota. Williams went to high school in Chicago and continued her education at Lawrence University in Wisconsin. Williams said there were no jobs in psychology so she went to a school in Boston and learned shorthand, which opened up many job opportunities for her. I got some wonderful jobs with the American College of Radiology, she said. I traveled with my employer when they had to go to trips. Sometimes wed go to the East Coast and be right on the beach and me and other employees would just sit and enjoy the beach. Williams later married Ralph Williams in the late 1940s. There werent any men around and I didnt have a boyfriend all through high school and college because they were all in the war (World War II)," she said. "He came back from the war. He was in the Navy and station in England waiting to go over. Williams said her husband had lived seven blocks from her childhood home but they never met, though she knew his sister and his brother. I was really glad to get the last name of Williams, because people knew how to spell it and nobody knew how to pronounce my old name: Braaten. Williams and her husband moved to Denver, where she had several job offers with doctors' offices. I would sit in the office and greet people when they came in and take notes for the doctors, she said. One of the doctors liked to play checkers, so when he wasnt busy hed have me come in and wed play checkers. Williams said she didnt work long after getting married, and she and her husband moved a lot. Ralph couldnt seem to find the right job until he got one with Prudential, she said. We moved to New York, and later, New Jersey. Eventually, Williams and her husband would retire to Benzie County. I had been coming up here since I was 10 years old, she said. My mother had a roommate in college that knew this place and wed come up in the summertime and enjoy it. Williams and her husband originally retired to a cottage on Crystal Lake in the 70s. They spent a lot of time volunteering for area organizations. The couple moved into Michigan Shores when it opened in 1991. We watched it getting built, she said. We were one of the first people to live here. Williams said she has several hobbies. I like to read a lot, she said. I volunteer in the library here. I used to like to cook. I enjoy using the computer. I really loved to travel until recently, but lately I havent felt like going places. In the past, Williams and her husband traveled to many places, including Alaska, Hawaii, Australia, Japan and all over Europe. Williams said she had several family members who also lived to be 100, including an uncle who made it to 102 and lived through both world wars. I think longevity is on our genes, she said. EDWARDSVILLE A Missouri woman was charged Thursday with identity theft stemming from a March 16 incident in Glen Carbon. Kenisha R. Turner, 37, of Chesterfield, Missouri, was charged Sept. 8 with identity theft and theft over $10,000, both Class 2 felonies. The case was presented by the Glen Carbon Police Department. According to court documents, on March 16 Turner allegedly used personal identifying information of another person to obtain a 2020 Jeep Grand Cherokee valued at $37,853.24 from Cassens & Sons Dodge Jeep Ram in Glen Carbon. Bail was set at $100,000. In an unrelated case, Kylie S. Stearns, 18, of Granite City, was charged with offenses relating to motor vehicles, a Class 2 felony, and criminal damage to government supported property and aggravated fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer, both Class 4 felonies. The case was presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department. According to court documents, on Sept. 8 Stearns allegedly had a reported stolen Jeep Commander. Stearns allegedly damaged a Granite City Police Department vehicle and attempted to flee from a Madison County Sheriffs Deputy, disobeying two or more traffic control devices. Bail was set at $75,000. Other felony charges filed Sept. 8 by the Madison County States Attorneys Office included Jeffrey S. Darnell, 52, of Wood River, being charged with theft over $500, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the East Alton Police Department. According to court documents, on Aug. 10 Darnell allegedly took a Craftsman riding lawnmower valued in excess of $500 from another person. Bail was set at $15,000. Also, Rory B. Owens III, 27, of East St. Louis, was charged with two counts of aggravated fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department. On July 16 Owens allegedly was driving a 2020 Kia when he attempted to flee from two separate Granite City police officers, reaching speeds in excess of 21 miles above the posted speed limit. Bail was set at $25,000. BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) Montana health officials on Friday made permanent a rule that blocks transgender people from changing their birth certificates even if they undergo gender-confirmation surgery. The move by Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte's administration comes just days before a court will hear arguments over the legality of a similar rule that's been in effect on an emergency basis since May. The ACLU of Montana has asked state Judge Michael Moses to strike down the emergency rule. Moses in April had temporarily blocked a 2021 Montana law that made it difficult for transgender people to change their birth certificate. The law said people had to have a surgical procedure before they could change the sex listed on their birth certificate. Gianforte's administration then went further and blocked changes to birth certificates even after surgery. Over the last several years, conservative legislators in numerous states have sought to limit the rights of transgender people. Only Tennessee, Oklahoma and West Virginia have similar sweeping prohibitions against birth certificate changes, advocates for transgender rights say. Bans in Idaho and Ohio were struck down in 2020. Transgender plaintiffs represented by the ACLU of Montana have said a birth certificate that doesnt match their gender identity puts them at risk of embarrassment, discrimination, harassment or violence if they are asked to provide their birth certificate. ACLU attorney Akilah Lane said Friday's rule was further evidence of the state's non-compliance with Moses' April order. The judge will hear the matter during a Thursday hearing in Billings. Prior to the new law, transgender people seeking to change their birth certificate in Montana needed only to provide an affidavit to the state health department. Under the new rule, the state Department of Public Health and Human Services said it would no longer record the category of gender on peoples birth certificates, replacing that category with a listing for sex either male or female that can be changed only in rare circumstances. Sex is immutable, according to the rule, which described gender as a social construct that can change over time. Moses said the law passed by the 2021 Legislature was unconstitutionally vague because it did not specify what surgical procedures were required. State health officials said weeks later that the court decision put them in an ambiguous and uncertain situation" and it adopted the rule changes to clarify when a sex designation could be changed on a birth certificate. The new rule states that peoples sex on their birth certificates can be changed only if someones sex is misidentified when theyre born or if the sex was wrongly recorded as a result of a scriveners error. Democratic state lawmakers have said the administrations attempt to circumvent Moses order through the health department rule was a blatant abuse of power and accused it of trying to undermine the courts. Health department spokesperson Jon Ebelt declined to comment on the upcoming hearing or the new rule. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate SEOUL, South Korea (AP) North Korean leader Kim Jong Un stressed his country will never abandon the nuclear weapons it needs to counter the United States, which he accused of pushing to weaken the Norths defenses and eventually collapse his government, state media said Friday. Kim made the comments during a speech Thursday at North Koreas rubber-stamp parliament, where members passed legislation governing the use of nuclear weapons, which Kim described as a step to cement the countrys nuclear status and make clear such weapons will not be bargained. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres's office said he was deeply concerned about the new law, and noted that the North's pursuit of a nuclear weapons program continues to disregard the resolutions of the Security Council to cease such activities. The Secretary-General reiterates his call to the DPRK to resume dialogue with the key parties concerned with a view to achieving sustainable peace and the complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, Guterress office said in a statement, using an acronym for the North's formal name. The new law spells out conditions where North would be inclined to use its nuclear weapons, including when it determines that its leadership is facing an imminent nuclear or non-nuclear attack by hostile forces. The law requires North Koreas military to automatically execute nuclear strikes against enemy forces, including their starting point of provocation and the command, if Pyongyangs leadership comes under attack. The law also says North Korea could use nukes to prevent an unspecified catastrophic crisis to its government and people, a loose definition that experts say reflect an escalatory nuclear doctrine that could create greater concerns for neighbors. Kim also criticized South Korea over its plans to expand its conventional strike capabilities and revive large-scale military exercises with the United States to counter the Norths growing threats, describing them as a dangerous military action that raises tensions. Kim has made increasingly provocative threats of nuclear conflict toward the United States and its allies in Asia, also warning that the North would proactively use its nuclear weapons when threatened. His latest comments underscored the growing animosity in the region as he accelerates the expansion of his nuclear weapons and missiles program. The purpose of the United States is not only to remove our nuclear might itself, but eventually forcing us to surrender or weaken our rights to self-defense through giving up our nukes, so that they could collapse our government at any time, Kim said in the speech published by the Norths official Korean Central News Agency. Let them sanction us for 100 days, 1,000 days, 10 years or 100 years, Kim said. We will never give up our rights to self-defense that preserves our countrys existence and the safety of our people just to temporarily ease the difficulties we are experiencing now. Kim also addressed domestic issues, saying North Korea would begin its long-delayed rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in November. He didnt specify how many doses it would have, where they would come from, or how they would be administered across his population of 26 million people. GAVI, the nonprofit that runs the U.N.-backed COVAX distribution program, said in June it understood North Korea had accepted an offer of vaccines from China. GAVI said at the time the specifics of the offer were unclear. North Korea rejected previous offers by COVAX, likely because of international monitoring requirements, and has also ignored U.S. and South Korean offers of vaccines and other COVID-19 aid. Kim last month declared victory over COVID-19 and ordered preventive measures eased just three months after his government for the first time acknowledged an outbreak. Experts believe the North's disclosures on its outbreak are manipulated to help Kim maintain absolute control. The North Korean report about Kims speech came a day after South Korea extended its latest olive branch, proposing a meeting with North Korea to resume temporary reunions of aging relatives separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, which were last held in 2018. Experts say its highly unlikely North Korea would accept the Souths offer considering the stark deterioration in inter-Korean ties amid the stalemate in larger nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang. The U.S.-North Korean diplomacy derailed in 2019 over disagreements in exchanging the release of crippling sanctions against the North and the Norths denuclearization steps. Kim was combative toward South Korea in Thursdays speech and urged his country to expand the operational roles of its tactical nuclear weapons and accelerate their deployment to strengthen the countrys war deterrent. Those comments appeared to align with a ruling party decision in June to approve unspecified new operational duties for front-line troops, which analysts say likely include plans to deploy battlefield nuclear weapons targeting rival South Korea along their tense border. Cheong Seong Chang, a senior analyst at South Koreas Sejong Institute, said Kims comments and the new North Korean law amount to a warning that it would launch immediate nuclear strikes on the United States and South Korea if they ever attempt to decapacitate Pyongyangs leadership. The North is also communicating a threat that it could use its nuclear weapons during conflicts with South Koreas conventional forces, which would raise the risk of accidental clashes escalating into a nuclear crisis, Cheong said. North Korea has been speeding its development of nuclear-capable, short-range missiles that can target South Korea since 2019. Experts say its rhetoric around those missiles communicates a threat to proactively use them in warfare to blunt the stronger conventional forces of South Korea and the United States. About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in the South to deter aggression from the North. The U.S.-led diplomatic push to defuse the nuclear standoff has been further complicated by an intensifying U.S.-China rivalry and Russias war on Ukraine, which deepened the divide in the U.N. Security Council, where Beijing and Moscow have blocked U.S. efforts to tighten sanctions on Pyongyang over its revived long-range missile tests this year. Kim has dialed up weapons tests to a record pace in 2020, launching more than 30 ballistic weapons, including the first demonstrations of his intercontinental ballistic missiles since 2017. U.S. and South Korean officials say Kim may up the ante soon by ordering the Norths first nuclear test in five years as he pushes a brinkmanship aimed at forcing Washington to accept the idea of the North as a nuclear power and negotiating concessions from a position of strength. Experts say Kim is also trying to strengthen his leverage by strengthening his cooperation with China and Russia in an emerging partnership aimed at undercutting U.S. influence. North Korea has repeatedly blamed the United States for the crisis in Ukraine, saying the Wests hegemonic policy justified Russian military actions in Ukraine to protect itself. U.S. officials said this week the Russians are in the process of purchasing North Korean ammunition, including artillery shells and rockets, to ease their supply shortages in the war against Ukraine. North Korea also has joined Russia and Syria as the only nations to recognize the independence of two pro-Russia breakaway territories in eastern Ukraine and has discussed send its construction workers to those regions to work on rebuilding. NEW ORLEANS (AP) Federal agencies are investigating a natural gas pipeline explosion that started a towering blaze in a lake southeast of New Orleans. The line exploded shortly before 4 p.m. Thursday in Lake Lery and the fire was out by about 4:45 p.m. Friday, the Coast Guard said. NEW BERLIN Frustration over internet service and cellphone reception has prompted the village of New Berlin to take matters into its own hands and start a high-speed fiber-optic service. "Our cell service and streaming capabilities are terrible, so we decided to do something about it," Village President Mike Krall said. "You put up with the degree of terrible you will allow." The results of that frustration will soon bear fruit as the first wave of residents should be connected to high-speed fiber-optic service by the end of September with hopes of having the entire village connected by spring. "One of the reasons we did this is we have only one provider and the service is sometimes suspect. Things go wrong, the internet goes down; it's that type of service," Krall said. "We had the opportunity to get high-speed internet. It will be a village utility and serve as another revenue stream for the village." Krall said people are pretty excited about it and other developments in the city. "We're trying to make New Berlin a better place to live," Krall said. "Besides this, we have the splashpad open now, the new water tower went up earlier this summer and voters approved a new junior/senior high school in June." The village board approved the purchase of the equipment to begin the installation of the high-speed network throughout the village limits in July. The installation charge is $100, which includes the cost of a modem. The village will connect houses to the fiber at the street. A technician will need to enter each customers home to connect the internet to the modem inside the house. Krall said a 160-foot tower is being erected at the village hall that is part of the fiber-optic network that will also enhance cellular service. "It solves two problems at once," Krall said. "The tower will help everyone, no matter the provider. If you can't get a signal in the middle of night, that's a problem. No one has a landline anymore." Krall said some of the realization that something needed to be done came during the pandemic when many village meetings were conducted via Zoom. "It was terrible. People kept dropping out of meetings because of service interruptions," Krall said. "We needed to do something. During the county fair, it's hard to call out because there is only so much bandwidth." The Windrow neighborhood should begin to see internet service as soon as Sept. 30, Krall said. The remainder of the west side of town, which is anything west of Olive Street and north of the railroad tracks, should be live around Oct. 31. Heritage Point subdivision and Gibson Street should see service no later than mid-November. East Birch and Illinois Street, east of Olive Street, and the south side of town could be completed this winter, depending on the weather, but at the latest by spring. Berlin residents will be able to call the village of New Berlin to sign up for internet, though New Berlin did not pay for Berlin's infrastructure. Spring 2023 is the goal for service in Berlin. Krall said depending on how matters progress, the village would look at expanding into other communities such as Loami. The modem supplied by the village can have wireless capabilities. Most people already have a wireless network set up. A wireless mesh network can be installed for an additional charge. The village will add the internet charge to existing water bills, Krall said. Residents who do not have a monthly water bill will be billed separately. An advantage to signing up for the 1 gig residential plan is that the $125 per month fee is guaranteed for the life of service. If prices increase in the future, residents will be locked into the guaranteed rate. All other plans are subject to price increases. Fiber has been used for 40-plus years and is a reliable means of supplying internet. It is impossible to say that outages will never happen, but with fiber, the most common cause of outages is because someone digs and cuts a line. The village has a wireless backup link to Springfield in the event a main fiber line is cut. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate NEW HAVEN How hard is it to make friends in college? Can students be their true selves or do they have to put on a front? Do students feel better in a big crowd or in an intimate setting? These were some questions U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy asked college students at Southern Connecticut State University Thursday night during an interactive session where students shared their experiences about social anxiety and mental struggles they face as young adults. Students from SCSU, University of New Haven, Yale University and Gateway Community College shared the same goals calling attention to mental health issues in youth while pushing college campuses to foster connections among diverse groups of students. Many young people are, in fact, struggling with loneliness and isolation, they spoke really directly to that end, Murthy said. Many young people dont know where to go to get access to help with their mental health. Gov. Ned Lamont, who was at the panel, said when he worked to reopen Connecticut schools, he only thought about getting students back quickly to make up for the learning loss. I was so wrong, he said, because when students came back, he said it was hard for them to socialize. What they needed, he said, was a return of the sense of community. Lamont recalled an instance when he asked an Enfield student what they would do if they had $20,000. The 17-year-old student responded to him, we want confidential counselors, he said. Thursdays panel Murthy led aimed to encourage students to be open about how they feel and listen to their peers experiences, which he said they were really willing to talk about. They want to be a part of the solution, Murthy said. That solution is to address youth mental health, as well as polarization in the United States. Murthy said the reasons people dont understand and dont listen to each other stems from the nations individualistic culture which has been worsened by isolation after the COVID-19 pandemic. To heal the country, students dont need to go to medical school or nursing school, he said, they need to get Americans to be deeply connected to each other and that can begin at the college level. College campuses can be a part of that, too, students said. Mary Lippa, a UNH student who has done research on mental health and domestic violence, said cultural identities are a big factor contributing to mental illnesses in youth. What schools need to focus on is developing a sense of identities in their students and recognizing and honoring the different pieces of every person, Lippa said, noting that her experience as a Connecticut native is very different from an international students who came to the U.S. for the first time. Providing them with information on what and where the resources are is helpful in the process as well, she said. Cherise Labonte, a GCC student and a nontraditional student, said higher education has come a long way from 20 years ago when it comes to inclusiveness and student mental health. What still needs to be done are, she said, expanding for special interest groups such as international students, students who speak English as a second language and people of color. Andrew Zhang, a Yale student, said another important aspect for colleges to foster connectivity among students is to promote more transparency from administrations. He recalled feeling empowered when he was a part of his high schools student council. We got a chance to just talk to the principal about the challenges that we were facing and at the time, we dont have filtered water, Zhang said. We were able to push that forward when students have the ways to communicate with university leaders and academic professors were able to empower them. A sense of belonging is really created when students not only collaborate together, but also through engagement with their administrations, Zhang said. Its something Erika Emenyonu of SCSU seconded. She said many of her peers arent very open when it comes to contacting the university administration due to fear of backlash and lack of response from it. Its very important for some connectedness and some togetherness, so that we could bridge the gap between those two groups, she said. The students also looked at a broader effort of what can be done beyond their college communities to better the social fabric of the country. Zhang suggested an idea that the government should invest more in digital platforms to promote mental health awareness. I dont think social media needs to be a place where people feel so polarized and distanced from everybody else, he said. Lippa encouraged other students to reach out to their Congress representatives or even local elected officials to voice their opinions about policies that affect them. One bill she highlighted was Youth Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Act that was introduced in the Senate earlier this year. I didnt think I had that power (to talk to elected officials), next thing I know Im sitting in a Zoom meeting with Sen. (James) Maroney and Im talking about a bill idea that I had, which Im still working to propose, she said. Mental health should be a bipartisan concern and this is a beautiful place for us to start talking about that. Labonte said as the U.S. was founded on individualism, she said the cultural mindset needs to change we need to include more sense of community, share resources, supporting one another, building on one another. Emenyonu said no matter how big or small everyones contribution is, its still a contribution that would make their communities better. chatwan.mongkol@hearstmediact.com DUBLIN, Calif. (AP) A Northern California sheriff's deputy was charged Friday in the killings of a husband and wife who were shot inside their home, prosecutors said. Prosecutors charged Devin Williams Jr., a deputy with the Alameda County Sheriffs Office, with two counts of murder and with the special circumstance of avoiding lawful arrest after he fled the Dublin home of Benison and Maria Tran, Alameda County District Attorney Nancy OMalley said in a statement. Williams, 24, surrendered to law enforcement hours after he was accused of the slayings. Williams appeared in court Friday but didn't enter a plea. His attorney, Jesse Garcia, did not immediately return a message seeking comment. Benison Tran, 57, was a retired civil engineer and Maria Tran, 42, was a nurse that Williams met at John George Psychiatric Hospital in San Leandro, where she worked. Benison Tran retired last year after working nearly 29 years as a civil engineer for the city of Santa Clara, said Michelle Templeton, a city spokeswoman. The couple was fatally shot inside their Dublin home Wednesday. Four other relatives who were in the home, including their child, were unharmed, Lt. Ray Kelly, a spokesperson with the Alameda County Sheriffs Office, said. A relative of the Trans who witnessed the slayings called police and identified Devin Williams Jr., a deputy with the Alameda County Sheriffs Office, as the gunman, Kelly said. Kelly said investigators are still trying to determine the motive. Williams' mother, Anitra Williams, told KTVU-TV that her son had been in a romantic relationship with Maria Tran since January and that he believed she was 35-year-old and unmarried. Anitra Williams said she had warned her son against being with Tran but that her son was blinded by love. She told him she loved him, they were on a 10-day trip, Anitra Williams said. Williams made it 160 miles (258 kilometers) south of the crime scene to the city of Coalinga where he called police in Dublin to say he wanted to surrender, Kelly said. Williams had been with the sheriffs office since September 2021 and was still on probation. He had been assigned to the Oakland courthouse, and there were no concerns about his job performance, Kelly said. OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) Questions over whether the Osage Nation reservation in northern Oklahoma still exists will next be answered by the state's Court of Criminal Appeals. Osage County District Judge Stuart Tate ruled last week in a criminal case involving a Native American defendant that the Osage Nation reservation was disestablished by Congress and that the state therefore retains criminal jurisdiction there. But Tate on Thursday agreed to stay proceedings in the case until the matter of the Osage Nation reservation and criminal jurisdiction can be resolved. While we are disappointed by the ruling, we are not deterred in our efforts to reestablish the Osage Nation Reservation," Osage Nation Attorney General Clint Patterson said in a statement. We still believe we are on solid legal footing and we look forward to taking our fight to the next level. This is not the end, but only a necessary step on our path to reestablishment." Doug Dry, an attorney for the defendant in the case, said he plans to appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeals within 30 days. We're alleging the reservation that the Osage Nation has has never been disestablished," said Dry, who represents Dustin Phillips, a Cherokee Nation citizen charged in Osage County with domestic assault and battery by strangulation, kidnapping and other crimes. Dry filed a motion to dismiss the case, arguing that because the crime occurred within the Osage Nation's historic reservation boundaries, jurisdiction lies with the federal government. In response to that motion, Tate ruled that the Osage Allotment Act, which divided the reservation lands among members of the tribe, and the Oklahoma Enabling Act passed by Congress, which created the state, combined to suggest that Congress intended to disestablish the Osage Reservation. Dry and the Osage Nation, which filed an amicus brief in the case, contend that the judge should have given more consideration to the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2020, dubbed the McGirt ruling, which determined that the Muscogee Nation in eastern Oklahoma remains an American Indian reservation. Since that decision was handed down, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has determined that for the purpose of criminal jurisdiction, several other Indian reservations remain intact, including those of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Seminole and Quapaw nations. The issue has led to increasing tension between the tribes and the offices of the governor and state attorney general, who want to see the McGirt decision overturned or narrowed. Osage Nation Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear, who leads the tribe of more than 24,000 citizens, said he would ultimately like to see the issue resolved not in state or federal court, but either in an Osage Nation courtroom or an international court. I think really to solve the Native American question with the states of the United States and the federal government, it needs to be in international court," Standing Bear said. The Osage Nation and part of its unique history is featured in a soon-to-be-released film, Killers of the Flower Moon," directed by Martin Scorcese and adapted from David Grann's bestselling book. The book is set in the 1920s, when the Osage people became some of the wealthiest in the world after oil was discovered on their reservation. At least two dozen and perhaps as many as several hundred Osage Indians were subsequently murdered, leading to a case that became one of the FBI's first major homicide investigations. ___ This story was updated to correct the name of Killers of the Flower Moon, which had been erroneously referred to as Killer of the Flower Moon. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate PHOENIX (AP) The state commission that sets up candidate debates on Thursday rejected Democrat Katie Hobbs' request to change a planned debate with Republican governor candidate Kari Lake into separate interviews with a moderator. The Citizens Clean Elections Commission instead gave its staff seven days to try to persuade Hobbs, currently secretary of state, to participate in the planned Oct. 12 debate by offering minor changes to the format. The commission vote came a day after Hobbs and Lake appeared at an Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry event where each was questioned separately by Chamber president Danny Seiden. Hobbs' campaign manager addressed the commission before its decision, pointing to Lake's performance in the raucous June 29 Republican primary debate, which she devolved into chaos that she said made Arizona the subject of national ridicule. I think its pretty clear that she only wants to create another spectacle, like we saw in the GOP primary debate, campaign manager Nicole DeMont said. But on top of that, I would just add, you cant debate a conspiracy theorist and at the last debate, she brought the conversation back to the 2020 election no less than a dozen times. DeMont had pointed to that debate as a primary reason for not agreeing to the upcoming debate in a letter to the commission last week. Lake attorney Timothy La Sota urged the four participating commission members to reject the format change. Commissioner Amy Chan, who works as Hobb's lawyer at the secretary of state's office, recused herself. The debate is set to be moderated by Ted Simons, a veteran interviewer who has overseen countless Clean Elections debates since joining Arizona PBS as host of the public affairs show Arizona Horizon in 2007. This is not only an insult to the voters of Arizona, that they cant look at these candidates and make a judgment for themselves, its an insult to this commission, La Sota said. And its an insult to Mr. Simons, and its a cop out. La Sota said allowing the change would damage the commission's credibility and set a precedent allowing any candidate to bow out and still get air time. The commission normally allows candidates whose opponents decline debates to appear with Simons for a Q&A format session. Commissioners flatly rejected the Hobbs proposal. Mark Kimble suggested that a delay would be pointless, saying both sides have made their positions very clear. On the other hand, Commission Chairman Damien Meyer said voters deserve to see the candidates face off. At Wednesday's Chamber event, Hobbs vowed that she would not raise taxes and would continue business-friendly policies Republican Gov. Doug Ducey has championed. She also said she would push for more investment in the state's water supply, which is at risk because of climate change and long-term drought that has forced cuts to its Colorado River Supply. Ducey and the Republican-controlled Legislature added $1 billion to boost supplies this year, but Hobbs said that is not enough. We need partnership with the other basin states so that theyre pulling their weight and doing more to conserve the Colorado River, she said. We need partnership with tribes and with other water stakeholders to bring all the solutions to the table. Hobbs also took some swipes at Lake, without mentioning her by name, for the national headlines that the Republican primary debate brought. I think its important to have someone who is serious about governing and not someone whos going to continue to end up as the butt of late night comedy television jokes, Hobbs said. Thats not going to be effective. Lake also praised Ducey's water plan and his success in drawing business to the state during his eight years in office. Gov. Ducey's done some great things there's no reason to change that up, Lake said. Lake previously criticized Ducey during the primary for his response to border security, which the governor has made a priority. Ducey told the Arizona Republic in May that she was making things up. Lake has promised to make border security her first act if she is elected. You know that my main issue has been to secure that border and on Day One, in the first hour after I take my hand off the Bible with oath of office were gonna issue a declaration of invasion, Lake said. "And were going to start securing the border, take back control from the cartels, and stop the fentanyl from pouring in. Ducey backed Republican Karrin Taylor Robson in the primary election that Lake won. Lake said she had met with Ducey after her primary win and that they had a nice meeting, without providing other details. For her part, Lake also took some swipes at Hobbs for her rejection of the debate, which she has said shows she is a coward. All other statewide candidates have agreed to participate in the televised Clean Elections debates, including Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, who will debate Republican Blake Masters on Oct. 6. LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) A gunfire exchange between a suspect who died and a police officer who was wounded led to an hourslong standoff at a central Kentucky hotel, officials said Friday. Two officers responded late Thursday to a call from the Extended Stay America in Lexington on a report of trespassing and delayed assault, a statement from Lexington Police said. The suspect, later identified as Joshua Hagans, 40, refused to answer the door when police arrived, but the officers gained entry to the room and Hagans fired at them, the statement said. The officers returned fired and backed out of the room, but the suspect stayed and refused to exit, police said. One officer was wounded and taken to a hospital for treatment, officials said. Meanwhile, police requested a crisis negotiation unit, which tried for hours to make contact and negotiate with the suspect. Police said officers were able to enter the room again around 4:30 a.m. Friday and found him with a gunshot wound. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said. The Fayette County Coroner's office released Hagans identity later Friday and said he died at 5:05 a.m. of multiple gunshot wounds. Kentucky State Police are investigating. No further information was immediately released. On the same night, two Georgia deputies were killed while serving a warrant in a suburb near Atlanta and two suspects were taken into custody, authorities said. The founder of the Hawaii Proud Boys chapter and a Texas man who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and posed for a picture in front of a door on which one of them had written Murder the Media each pleaded guilty Friday in federal court to a felony charge in connection with the riot. Nicholas Ochs, founder of the far-right extremist group's Hawaii chapter and a onetime Republican state House candidate, and Nicholas DeCarlo, of Fort Worth, Texas, admitted to obstructing the congressional certification of President Joe Biden's Electoral College victory. They shared a social media channel called Murder the Media and initially claimed to be working as journalists on Jan. 6, according to the government. Federal guidelines for Ochs, 36, and DeCarlo, 32, call for sentences between about 3 1/2 years and four years behind bars, although the judge can decide to go above or below that. In exchange for pleading guilty, prosecutors agreed to dismiss several other charges against them. They are to be sentenced in December. Edward MacMahon, a lawyer for Ochs, noted after the hearing that his client did not injure anyone at the Capitol and said he hopes Ochs is sentenced consistent with others who did not participate in any violence. A lawyer for DeCarlo did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment. Ochs and DeCarlo attended the Stop the Steal rally near the White House in support of then-President Donald Trump on the morning of Jan. 6 and then marched together to the Capitol. The men admitted to throwing smoke bombs at a line of police trying to keep the mob from the stage set up for Biden's inauguration. DeCarlo admitted to writing Murder The Media in permanent marker on a door in the Capitol building, prosecutors said. The men then posed in front of the door with a thumbs-up sign. DeCarlo also rummaged through a Capitol police officer's bag and stole a pair of plastic handcuffs, prosecutors said. Ochs posted on Twitter a picture of the men smoking cigarettes inside the Capitol, and the caption said: "Hello from the Capital lol, according to court papers. After leaving the building, they filmed a video together in which Ochs said they came to stop the steal" and DeCarlo declared: We did it, the government said. "Sorry we couldnt go live when we stormed the f----in U.S. Capitol and made Congress flee, Ochs said in a video with the Capitol visible in the background. Ochs told CNN that he was working as a professional journalist" and that he did not have to break into the Capitol, but just walked in and filmed. Before his arrest, DeCarlo also told The Los Angeles Times that they were journalists. What I did was journalism: Follow the events and show people what happened, DeCarlo told the newspaper. Ochs was the Republican Partys candidate to represent Waikiki in the Hawaii House in the November 2020 election. Ochs lost to Democrat Adrian Tam. Ochs and DeCarlo are among dozens of members and associates of the Proud Boys who have been charged in the Capitol riot. The group's former chairman, Enrique Tarrio, and other leaders have been charged with seditious conspiracy the most serious charges brought so far in the insurrection. The leader and members of another far-right extremist group, the Oath Keepers, are heading to trial later this month on the charge of seditious conspiracy. The Oath Keepers are the first Jan. 6 defendants facing the rare and difficult-to-prove charge to go to trial. Also on Friday, a lawyer for the Oath Keepers, Kellye SoRelle, pleaded not guilty to a charge of conspiracy to obstruct the certification of the Electoral College vote. SoRelle, a close associate of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, was arrested this month in Texas. More than 870 people have been charged so far in the Capitol riot. Nearly 400 have pleaded guilty to charges ranging from low-level misdemeanors for illegally entering the building to felony seditious conspiracy. ___ For full coverage of the Capitol riot, go to https://www.apnews.com/capitol-siege Queen Elizabeth II, Britains longest-reigning monarch and a rock of stability across much of a turbulent century, died Thursday after 70 years on the throne. She was 96. The palace announced she died at Balmoral Castle, her summer residence in Scotland, where members of the royal family had rushed to her side after her health took a turn for the worse. Live footage outside of Buckingham Palace in the video player above. A link to the almost-vanished generation that fought World War II, she was the only monarch most Britons have ever known, and her name defines an age: the modern Elizabethan Era. The impact of her loss will be huge and unpredictable, both for the nation and for the monarchy, an institution she helped stabilize and modernize across decades of huge social change and family scandals. With the death of the queen, her 73-year-old son Charles automatically becomes monarch, though the coronation might not take place for months. It is not known whether he will choose to call himself King Charles III or some other name. The queens life was indelibly marked by the war. As Princess Elizabeth, she made her first public broadcast in 1940 when she was 14, sending a wartime message to children evacuated to the countryside or overseas. We children at home are full of cheerfulness and courage, she said with a blend of stoicism and hope that would echo throughout her reign. We are trying to do all we can to help out gallant soldiers, sailors and airmen. And we are trying, too, to bear our own share of the danger and sadness of war. We know, every one of us, that in the end all will be well. Since Feb. 6, 1952, Elizabeth reigned over a Britain that rebuilt from war and lost its empire; joined the European Union and then left it; and transformed from industrial powerhouse to uncertain 21st century society. She endured through 15 prime ministers, from Winston Churchill to Liz Truss, becoming an institution and an icon -- a fixed point and a reassuring presence even for those who ignored or loathed the monarchy. She became less visible in her final years as age and frailty curtailed many public appearances. But she remained firmly in control of the monarchy and at the center of national life as Britain celebrated her Platinum Jubilee with days of parties and pageants in June 2022. The same month she became the second longest-reigning monarch in history, behind 17th-century French King Louis XIV, who took the throne at age 4. On Sept. 6, 2022, she presided at a ceremony at Balmoral Castle to accept the resignation of Boris Johnson as prime minister and appoint Truss as his successor. When Elizabeth was 21, almost five years before she became queen, she promised the people of Britain and the Commonwealth that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service. It was a promise she kept across more than seven decades. Despite Britains complex and often fraught ties with its former colonies, Elizabeth was widely respected and remained head of state of more than a dozen countries, from Canada to Tuvalu. She headed the 54-nation Commonwealth, built around Britain and its former colonies. Video below: Queen Elizabeth II: Longest-reigning UK Monarch dies Married for more than 73 years to Prince Philip, who died in 2021 at age 99, Elizabeth was matriarch to a royal family whose troubles were a subject of global fascination -- amplified by fictionalized accounts such as TV series The Crown. She is survived by four children, eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. Through countless public events, she probably met more people than anyone in history. Her image, which adorned stamps, coins and banknotes, was among the most reproduced in the world. But her inner life and opinions remained mostly an enigma. Of her personality, the public saw relatively little. A horse owner, she rarely seemed happier than during the Royal Ascot racing week. She never tired of the companionship of her beloved Welsh corgi dogs. Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was born in London on April 21, 1926, the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York. She was not born to be queen -- her fathers elder brother, Prince Edward, was destined for the crown, to be followed by any children he had. But in 1936, when she was 10, Edward VIII abdicated to marry twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson, and Elizabeths father became King George VI. Princess Margaret recalled asking her sister whether this meant that Elizabeth would one day be queen. Yes, I suppose it does, Margaret quoted Elizabeth as saying. She didnt mention it again. Video below: Queen Elizabeth dead at 96 Elizabeth was barely in her teens when Britain went to war with Germany in 1939. While the king and queen stayed at Buckingham Palace during the Blitz and toured the bombed-out neighborhoods of London, Elizabeth and Margaret spent most of the war at Windsor Castle, west of the capital. Even there, 300 bombs fell in an adjacent park, and the princesses spent many nights in an underground shelter. In 1945, after months of campaigning for her parents permission to do something for the war effort, the heir to the throne became Second Subaltern Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. She enthusiastically learned to drive and service heavy vehicles. On the night the war ended in Europe, May 8, 1945, she and Margaret managed to mingle, unrecognized, with celebrating crowds in London swept along on a tide of happiness and relief, as she told the BBC decades later, describing it as one of the most memorable nights of my life. At Westminster Abbey in November 1947 she married Royal Navy officer Philip Mountbatten, a prince of Greece and Denmark whom she had first met in 1939 when she was 13 and he 18. Postwar Britain was experiencing austerity and rationing, and so street decorations were limited and no public holiday was declared. But the bride was allowed 100 extra ration coupons for her trousseau. Video below: Flag flies at half staff following Queen's death The couple lived for a time in Malta, where Philip was stationed, and Elizabeth enjoyed an almost-normal life as a navy wife. The first of their four children, Prince Charles, was born on Nov. 14, 1948. He was followed by Princess Anne on Aug. 15, 1950, Prince Andrew on Feb. 19, 1960, and Prince Edward on March 10, 1964. In February 1952, George VI died in his sleep at age 56 after years of ill health. Elizabeth, on a visit to Kenya, was told that she was now queen. Her private secretary, Martin Charteris, later recalled finding the new monarch at her desk, sitting erect, no tears, color up a little, fully accepting her destiny. In a way, I didnt have an apprenticeship, Elizabeth reflected in a BBC documentary in 1992 that opened a rare view into her emotions. My father died much too young, and so it was all a very sudden kind of taking on, and making the best job you can. Her coronation took place more than a year later, a grand spectacle at Westminster Abbey viewed by millions through the still-new medium of television. Prime Minister Winston Churchills first reaction to the kings death was to complain that the new queen was only a child, but he was won over within days and eventually became an ardent admirer. In Britains constitutional monarchy, the queen is head of state but has little direct power; in her official actions she does what the government orders. However, she was not without influence. She once reportedly commented that there was nothing she could do legally to block the appointment of a bishop, but I can always say that I should like more information. That is an indication that the prime minister will not miss. The extent of the monarchs political influence occasionally sparked speculation -- but not much criticism while Elizabeth was alive. The views of Charles, who has expressed strong opinions on everything from architecture to the environment, might prove more contentious. She was obliged to meet weekly with the prime minister, and they generally found her well-informed, inquisitive and up to date. The one possible exception was Margaret Thatcher, with whom her relations were said to be cool, if not frosty, though neither woman ever commented. Video below: Former Royal Correspondent reflects on Queen Elizabeth The queens views in those private meetings became a subject of intense speculation and fertile ground for dramatists like Peter Morgan, author of the play The Audience and the hit TV series The Crown. Those semi-fictionalized accounts were the product of an era of declining deference and rising celebrity, when the royal familys troubles became public property. And there were plenty of troubles within the family, an institution known as The Firm. In Elizabeths first years on the throne, Princess Margaret provoked a national controversy through her romance with a divorced man. In what the queen called the annus horribilis of 1992, her daughter, Princess Anne, was divorced, Prince Charles and Princess Diana separated, and so did Prince Andrew and his wife, Sarah. That was also the year Windsor Castle, a residence she far preferred to Buckingham Palace, was seriously damaged by fire. The public split of Charles and Diana -- There were three of us in that marriage, Diana said of her husbands relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles -- was followed by the shock of Dianas death in a Paris car crash in 1997. For once, the queen appeared out of step with her people. Amid unprecedented public mourning, Elizabeths failure to make a public show of grief appeared to many to be unfeeling. After several days, she finally made a televised address to the nation. Video below: What happens after the Queen dies? The dent in her popularity was brief. She was by now a sort of national grandmother, with a stern gaze and a twinkling smile. Despite being one of the worlds wealthiest people, Elizabeth had a reputation for frugality and common sense. She was known as a monarch who turned off lights in empty rooms, a country woman who didnt flinch from strangling pheasants. A newspaper reporter who went undercover to work as a palace footman reinforced that down-to-earth image, capturing pictures of the royal Tupperware on the breakfast table and a rubber duck in the bath. Her sangfroid was not dented when a young man aimed a pistol at her and fired six blanks as she rode by on a horse in 1981, nor when she discovered a disturbed intruder sitting on her bed in Buckingham Palace in 1982. The image of the queen as an exemplar of ordinary British decency was satirized by the magazine Private Eye, which called her Brenda. Anti-monarchists dubbed her Mrs. Windsor. But the republican cause gained limited traction while the queen was alive. On her Golden Jubilee in 2002, she said the country could look back with measured pride on the history of the last 50 years. It has been a pretty remarkable 50 years by any standards, she said in a speech. There have been ups and downs, but anyone who can remember what things were like after those six long years of war appreciates what immense changes have been achieved since then. A reassuring presence at home, she was also an emblem of Britain abroad a form of soft power, consistently respected whatever the vagaries of the countrys political leaders on the world stage. It felt only fitting that she attended the opening of the 2012 London Olympics alongside another icon, James Bond. Through some movie magic, she appeared to parachute into the Olympic Stadium. Video below: Queen Elizabeth II: A Life in Pictures In 2015, she overtook her great-great-grandmother Queen Victorias reign of 63 years, seven months and two days to become the longest-serving monarch in British history. She kept working into her 10th decade, though Prince Charles and his elder son, Prince William, increasingly took over the visits, ribbon-cuttings and investitures that form the bulk of royal duties. The loss of Philip in 2021 was a heavy blow, as she poignantly sat alone at his funeral in the chapel at Windsor Castle because of coronavirus restrictions. And the family troubles continued. Her son Prince Andrew was entangled in the sordid tale of sex offender businessman Jeffrey Epstein, an American businessman who had been a friend. Andrew denied accusations that he had sex with one of the women who said she was trafficked by Epstein. The queens grandson Prince Harry walked away from Britain and his royal duties after marrying American actress Meghan Markle in 2018. He alleged in an interview that some in the family - but pointedly not the queen - had been less than welcoming to his wife. She enjoyed robust health well into her 90s, although she used a cane in an appearance after Philips death. In October 2021, she spent a night in a London hospital for tests after canceling a trip to Northern Ireland. A few months later, she told guests at a reception as you can see, I cant move. The palace, tight-lipped about details, said the queen was experiencing episodic mobility issues. She held virtual meetings with diplomats and politicians from Windsor Castle, but public appearances grew rarer. The queen withdrew from fixtures of the royal calendar, including Remembrance Sunday and Commonwealth Day ceremonies, though she attended a memorial service last March for Philip at Westminster Abbey. Meanwhile, she took steps to prepare for the transition to come. In February, the queen announced that she wanted Charles wife Camilla to be known as Queen Consort when in the fullness of time her son became king. It removed a question mark over the role of the woman some blamed for the breakup of Charles marriage to Princess Diana in the 1990s. May brought another symbolic moment, when she asked Charles to stand in for her and read the Queens Speech at the State Opening of Parliament, one of the monarchs most central constitutional duties. Seven decades after World War II, Elizabeth was again at the center of the national mood amid the uncertainty and loss of COVID 19 -- a disease she came through herself in February. In April 2020 -- with the country in lockdown and Prime Minister Boris Johnson hospitalized with the virus -- she made a rare video address, urging people to stick together. She summoned the spirit of World War II, that vital time in her life, and the nations, by echoing Vera Lynns wartime anthem Well Meet Again. We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return. We will be with our friends again. We will be with our families again. We will meet again, she said. ___ Associated Press writers Gregory Katz and Robert Barr contributed material before their deaths. UNITED NATIONS (AP) Russia dismissed claims that modern Western weapons supplied to Ukraine can lead it to victory as empty fantasies, insisting Thursday that the Russian army is destroying Ukraines old and new weapons and will finish the war as President Vladimir Putin vowed. The United States accused Russia of having the gall to blame other countries for refusing to step aside as it seeks to destroy another U.N. member state. The Biden administration said it is committed to supporting the Ukrainian people as they defend their lives, their liberty, and their democracy. The clash came at the U.N. Security Councils third consecutive meeting on Ukraine. On Tuesday, the council held a meeting at Russias request to hear about the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southeastern Ukraine where Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of shelling the facility and threatening a possible nuclear catastrophe. On Wednesday, at the request of the U.S. and Albania, the council discussed what the U.S. said is the forcible deportation of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians to Russia. Russias U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, called Thursdays meeting to discuss threats to peace caused by foreign governments supplying arms and military goods to Ukraine. He told the council that the consequences of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his entourage saying that Western weapons and so-called wonder warfare will change the course of the six-month conflict and bring Ukraine victory is very lamentable for Ukraine. We are very far still from the end of this destructive process, Nebenzia said. Let me say immediately, however, that Western weaponry is not playing a decisive role on the battlefield regardless of what the Ukrainians and their vassals are saying. The Russian army consistently, with minimal risk for its soldiers and civilians is destroying not only the old weaponry of Soviet models, which the Eastern European countries are discharging, but also the modern NATO weapons, he said. Nebenzia conceded that several minor villages were taken" recently, leading to Western media claims of a Ukrainian counteroffensive, but he said most military experts agree that new weapons will not change the balance of forces and will only extend the agony of the Zelenskyy regime." U.N. disarmament chief Izumi Nakamitsu, who briefed the council, said there have been widespread and independently verified reports of the transfer of major conventional weapon systems to local armed groups in Ukraine, including artillery rocket systems. She did not say where they came from, only raising general concerns about diversion. Nebenzia claimed a significant proportion of Western weapons find their way into the hands of smugglers, and could end up in the hands of terrorists in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. U.S. deputy ambassador Richard Mills called Thursdays meeting a transparent attempt by Russia to distract from Wednesdays meeting on the forced displacement of Ukrainians. He noted the U.N. assistant secretary-general for human rights said her office had reports of torture in conjunction with Russias abhorrent use of `filtration camps. Mills said Russias claims that the U.S. and the West are escalating and prolonging the war in Ukraine are false. They are cynical attempts to deflect attention from Moscows role as the sole aggressor in what is unnecessary and brutal war, for which the world is paying a collective price, he said. Mills asked all council members to consider what they would do if they were invaded by a bigger neighbor and what they would seek from the international community. None of us here would simply let our countrys history and identity be attacked, our cities shelled to rubble, our people killed, our territory taken, he said. We would appeal for international support in the face of such naked aggression. Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya recalled that former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev wrote in his memoirs that Hitler would not have been defeated without U.S. help and today Ukraine and the U.S. and its other allies are doing their best to ensure such a response against Russia. The liberation of Ukrainian territories that is well on the way in the Kharkiv and Kherson regions serves as the best proof of the effectiveness of our efforts, he said. We will fight against the occupiers until all the Russian soldiers who entered Ukraine to kill these people are defeated. The Collinsville man charged with the shooting death of his ex-girlfriend and the shooting of her date has acquired his third attorney. Robert "Bobby" J. Tarr's original attorney, David Fahrenkamp, withdrew over various differences between the two of them, and just a little over a month later, the public defender assigned to Tarr has withdrawn as well. According to court documents, Montgomery County Public Defender Erin Mattson has withdrawn due to a conflict of interest. Daniel Fultz of Brown, Hay and Stephens in Springfield has been assigned to defend Tarr. Read more: Attorney withdraws from defending Tarr in murder case The Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office has to provide discovery, as ordered by the court. Tarr is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the shooting death of his ex-girlfriend, Leslie Reeves of Troy, Illinois, and the shooting of Chris Smith of Farmersville, Illinois during the early morning hours of Nov. 24, 2021, Thanksgiving Day. Read more: Well-known Troy businesswoman and advocate killed, ex-boyfriend charged Smith is learning to walk again and a fundraising event later this month is set up to help pay for his medical bills. Watch Episode 1: 'I should've listened to my gut feeling,' shooting survivor says As revealed in the preliminary hearing earlier this year, Tarr allegedly drove from Collinsville to Smith's home in Farmersville where Reeves and Smith had gone after a date. They were both found shot later in the afternoon and Tarr was taken into custody later that weekend. Read more: Accused killer left home twice the night of Farmersville homicide Tarr is being held on a $3 million bond at the Montgomery County Jail. His next court appearance is set for an in-person pre-trial hearing at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 16, in Courtroom 3 at the Montgomery County Courthouse. Karl Tapales/Getty Images Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton warned that scammers are attempting to use his name, signature and Office of the Attorney General seal to steal personal information from Texans, a press release said. The phishing scam claims email recipients have committed identity theft and are facing prosecution and significant jail time, followed by offering a toll-free number people are expected to call to give over personal data, according to the release. Paxton encouraged those who receive emails like this to report it to the Texas Attorney Generals Consumer Protection Division. Texans can do so by calling 1-800-621-0508, or by filing an online complaint at https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/consumer-protection/file-consumer-complaint. WASHINGTON (AP) The U.S. government on Friday imposed sanctions on Iran's intelligence agency and its leadership in response to malicious cyberattacks on Albanian government computer systems in July. The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Irans Ministry of Intelligence and Security and Esmail Khatib, who heads the ministry, for what it said were cyber-related activities against the U.S. and its allies. Albania, a NATO member, cut diplomatic ties with Iran and expelled its embassy staff this week over the cyberattack. It was the first known case of a country cutting diplomatic relations over a cyberattack. The Albanian government has accused Iran of carrying out the July 15 attack, which temporarily shut down numerous Albanian government digital services and websites. Microsoft, which assisted Albania in investigating the cyberattack, said in a blog post Thursday that it was moderately confident the hackers belong to a group that has been publicly linked to Irans Ministry of Intelligence and Security. It said the attackers were observed operating out of Iran, used tools previously used by known Iranian attackers and had previously targeted other sectors and countries consistent with Iranian interests. The destructive malware deployed was also previously used by a known Iranian actor, it said. Irans cyber attack against Albania disregards norms of responsible peacetime State behavior in cyberspace, Brian Nelson, Treasury's under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement. We will not tolerate Irans increasingly aggressive cyber activities targeting the United States or our allies and partners," he said. Since at least 2007, Iran's intelligence agency and its proxies have been accused of conducting cyber operations targeting public and private entities around the world. Treasury, which uses an Obama-era executive order that targets people and entities that engage in malicious cyber activities as an authority to impose the sanctions, has been ratcheting up its financial penalties on Iran this year. This comes as President Joe Bidens administration has been working to renew the tattered Iran nuclear deal, which placed curbs on Irans nuclear program in exchange for billions of dollars in sanctions relief, which Iran insists it has never received. __ Llazar Semini in Tirana contributed to this report. Bajak reports from Boston. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate ISLAMABAD (AP) U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that the world owes impoverished Pakistan massive help in recovering from the summer's devastating floods because the country bears less blame than many other nations for climate change, which experts say contributed to the deluge. Months of heavy monsoon rains and flooding have killed 1,391 people and affected 3.3 million in this South Asian nation while half a million people have become homeless. Planeloads of aid from the United States, the United Arab Emirates and other countries have begun arriving, but Guterres said there's more to be done. Nature, the U.N. chief said in Islamabad, has attacked Pakistan, which contributes less than 1% of global emissions, according to multiple experts. Nations that are more responsible for climate change ... should have faced this challenge, said Guterres, sitting next to Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. We are heading into a disaster," Guterres added. We have waged war on nature and nature is tracking back and striking back in a devastating way. Today in Pakistan, tomorrow in any of your countries." The U.N. chief's trip comes less than two weeks after Guterres appealed for $160 million in emergency funding to help those affected by the monsoon rains and floods that Pakistan says have caused at least $10 billion in damages. I appeal for massive support from the international community as Pakistan responds to this climate catastrophe, Guterres tweeted after landing in Pakistan earlier Friday. He said other nations contributing to climate change are obligated to reduce emissions and help Pakistan. He assured Sharif that his voice was entirely at the service of the Pakistani government and the Pakistani people and that the entire U.N. system is at the service of Pakistan. Pakistan has not contributed in a meaningful way to climate change, the level of emissions in this country is relatively low," Guterres said. But Pakistan is one of the most dramatically impacted countries by climate change." On Friday, the first planeload arrived from the U.S. , which Washington says is part of an upcoming $30 million in assistance. More U.S. military planes are expected to arrive in the coming days as part of a humanitarian bridge set up by Washington to deliver much-need aid across the country. USAID announced an additional $20 million Friday in humanitarian assistance for Pakistan, further enhancing U.S. pledges. Later, Guterres directed his words at the international community, saying that by some estimates, Pakistan needs about $30 billion to recover from the floods. Even today, emissions are rising as people die in floods and famines. This is insanity. This is collective suicide," he said. From Pakistan, I am issuing a global appeal: Stop the madness; end the war with nature; invest in renewable energy now. So far, U.N. agencies and several countries have sent nearly 60 planeloads of aid, and authorities say the UAE has been one of the most generous contributors and sent so far 26 flights carrying aid for flood victims. Also Friday, Samantha Power, the administrator of USAID, met with Pakistans Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in Islamabad. She later told reporters she had visited flood-hit areas in Sindh province on Thursday, and she witnessed widespread destruction caused by floods. The floods have touched all of Pakistan, including heritage sites such as Mohenjo Daro, a UNESCO World Heritage Site considered one of the best-preserved ancient urban settlements in South Asia. The civilization that dates back 4,500 years, coinciding with those of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. The U.N. heritage agency on Thursday announced it would send $350,000 to help recover flood-damaged cultural heritage sites. Speaking at a press conference with Foreign Minister Bhutto Zardari, Guterres underscored the importance of combatting climate change. It is happening now all around us and I urge governments to address this issue, he said and added that what he has done so far as the U.N. chief is a drop in the ocean of the needs of the Pakistani people. He said a proposal for a donors conference for flood-hit Pakistan is under discussion. Since June, heavy rains and floods have added new burdens to cash-strapped Pakistan and highlighted the disproportionate effect of climate change on impoverished populations. Experts say Pakistan is responsible for only 0.4% of the worlds historic emissions that are blamed for climate change. The U.S. is responsible for 21.5%, China for 16.5% and the European Union for 15%. The floods in Pakistan have also injured 12,722 people, destroyed thousands of miles of roads, toppled bridges and damaged schools and hospitals, according to the National Disaster Management Agency. Even as they contend with the unprecedented flooding, Pakistani authorities are also struggling with militant attacks. Late Friday, suspected militants opened fire on a mayor's convoy in Tank, a town in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the police said. Tank has also been affected by the flooding. The mayor, Saddam Hussain, escaped unharmed, but the gunmen killed four policemen escorting his vehicle, said police officer Waqar Khan. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. ___ Associated Press writer Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this story. LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) Police have arrested the chair of the University of Kentucky's communications department on charges of incest, sexual abuse of a person under 12 and sodomy. Kevin Real, a UK professor of communication, was arrested Thursday by the Lexington Police Department, the Herald Leader reported. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate BEIRUT (AP) The U.S. envoy mediating between Lebanon and Israel over the two countries' disputed maritime border said Friday some progress has been made but that more work needs to be done to resolve the issue. Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser for energy security at the U.S. State Department, has been mediating between the two countries and shuttling between Beirut and Jerusalem as tensions remain high near the tense border after Lebanons Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group and Israel exchanged threats recently. He spoke on Friday, at the end of a brief visit to Beirut where he met with top officials, including President Michel Aoun, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati. "I think were making very good progress. Im very hopeful that we can reach an agreement, he said after the meeting with Aoun. Later, Hochstein told reporters at the airport before leaving that Im very hopeful with what we discussed today but still more work needs to be done. Mikati's office said in a statement that the two discussed ideas that Hochstein brought with him, adding that Lebanese officials will study them and give an answer soon. A Lebanese official who attended the talks told The Associated Press that the proposal put forward by the U.S. envoy gives Lebanon the right to the Qana field, which is partly in Israel's domain. A part of it stretches deep into the disputed area. The official added that the main point now is how to draw the demarcation line in a way that stretches south of Qana. In 2017, Lebanon approved licenses for an international consortium by Frances Total, Italys ENI and Russias Novatek to move forward with offshore oil and gas development for two of 10 blocks in the Mediterranean Sea, including one that is disputed in part with neighboring Israel. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said that France's Total said that as soon as a deal is reached it will start exploration in the border area. Last month, Novatek announced it is withdrawing from the consortium. Lebanese media reported that a Qatari company will take over from the Russian firm. This was Hochstein's first visit to Lebanon since late July. The previous visit came after Israel set up a gas rig at its designated location at the Karish field. Israel says the field is part of its U.N.-recognized exclusive economic zone, while Lebanon insists Karish is in a disputed area. In July, the Israeli military shot down three unarmed Hezbollah drones flying over the Karish field. Last month, Hezbollah's leader issued a warning to Israel over the maritime dispute, saying that any arm that reaches to steal Lebanons wealth will be cut off. The heavily armed Hezbollah, which has fought several wars with Israel, has repeatedly said in the past that it would use its weapons to protect Lebanons economic rights. Still, Hezbollah officials have said they would endorse a deal reached between Lebanon's government and Israel. The U.S.-mediated indirect talks between Lebanon and Israel have been stalled since last year amid disagreements within Lebanon over how big the disputed area is. The two countries, which have been officially at war since Israels creation in 1948, both claim some 860 square kilometers (330 square miles) of the Mediterranean Sea. Lebanon hopes to unleash offshore oil and gas production as it grapples with the worst economic crisis in its modern history. Last year, the Lebanese delegation in the talks a mix of army generals and professionals offered a new map that pushes for an additional 1,430 square kilometers (550 square miles) as Lebanese territory. Hochstein had said that a solution to the border crisis would help Lebanon pull out of its economic meltdown that began in October 2019, leaving more than 75% of its people in poverty. United Way Drive-Through Breakfast: 6-9 a.m., Hampton Inn, 1725 W. Morton Ave. $9 | Breakfast includes nine items. Random bags include Chamber Checks and gift cards to area businesses. Greene County Historical Society: 9 a.m.-3 p.m., Lee-Baker-Hodges House, 532 N. Main St., Carrollton. | Part of Greene County Days celebration. Society members will serve ribeyes, large hot dogs and porky burgers at 11 a.m. Building tours and special exhibits. For more information, call 217-942-6013 or go to greenehistoricalsociety.org. Produce and Bakery Giveaway: 9 a.m.-noon, Jacksonville Food Center, 316 E. State St. Free | For Morgan County residents. Baby Story Time: 10-11 a.m., Jacksonville Public Library, 201 W. College Ave. Free | For caregivers and babies 0-24 months. Book and Bake Sale: 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Friends of West Sangamon Public Library, 112 E. Illinois St., New Berlin. | Fill a bag with books for $5. Bake sale items available during library hours. Sale continues 9 a.m.-noon Sept. 10 and noon-2 p.m. Sept. 11. Free Noon Meal: 11:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m., The Salvation Army, 331 W. Douglas Ave. | Meals in to-go containers can be picked up at side door. Produce and Bakery Giveaway: 12:30-1 p.m., The Salvation Army, 331 W. Douglas Ave. Free. Lego Club: 2:30-5 p.m., Jacksonville Public Library, 201 W. College Ave. | For more information, contact Courtney at 217-243-5435 or clangdon@jaxpl.org. Racing: 5-11 p.m., Jacksonville Speedway, 110 N. Westgate Ave. | The Weyant, extreme non-wing Sprints, Micros and other classes. For more information, call 217-371-3653 or go to jacksonvillespeedway.com. Fall Wine/Dinner Cruise: 5:15-7:15 p.m., Grafton Harbor, 215 W. Water St. $47 | Meal catered by Grafton Oyster Bar. For more information, go to graftonharbor.com or call 618-786-7678. Opening Reception: 5:30-7:30 p.m., Springfield Art Association Collective, 105 N. Fifth St., Springfield. | "Turning Color" with woodturner Dan Chevalier and painter Joan Burmeister. Artist talk at 6 p.m. Exhibit runs through Nov. 2. Tri-State Deaf Conference: 7 p.m., Harvest Temple United Pentacostal Church, 530 S. Main St. $45 | "God's Word in ASL" with the Rev. Joe Oborney. Fellowship to follow. Event continues tomorrow. Registration link at bit.ly/3TE0Cvs. Saturday Growin' Together Market: 7-9 a.m., United Methodist Church, Murrayville. | For more information contact Outreach Growth Coordinator, Taylor Suttles, at 217-882-4041 or taysuttles1@yahoo.com. Farmers Market: 7 a.m.-noon, Pathway Plaza, 1905 W. Morton Ave. Prices vary. | Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday through Oct. 31. Link cards accepted. 5K and Fun Run: 8 a.m., Carlinville Area Hospital and Clinics. $15-$25. | The fun run/walk begins at 8 a.m. on the Wellness Path on North Broad St. The 5k course begins at 8:30 a.m. and ends at the south parking lot. Registration on race day 7 a.m. Advanced registration online at eventbrite.com. Book and Bake Sale: 9 a.m.-noon, Friends of West Sangamon Public Library, 112 E. Illinois St., New Berlin. | Fill a bag with books for $5. Bake sale items available during library hours. For more information, contact Toni Frank at 217-652-8879 or tonifrank10@yahoo.com. Tri-State Deaf Conference: 9 a.m.-noon and 1-3 p.m., Harvest Temple United Pentacostal Church, 530 S. Main St. $45 | The Rev. Joe Oborney, deaf Bible study. Bill Ross, interpreter workshop with lunch provided. Registration at events.handsupcommunications.com. Walk to End Alzheimers: 9-11 a.m., Winchester town square. Donations accepted. | Participants are welcome to walk around the square at their leisure. Prizes, goody bags, pumpkin painting. Proceeds benefit the Springfield Alzheimers Association. For more information, contact Pam Hembrough at 217-473-6427. Greene County Historical Society: 9 a.m.-3 p.m., Lee-Baker-Hodges House, 532 N. Main St., Carrollton. | Part of Greene County Days celebration. Several activities, building tours, and special exhibits. For more information, call 217-942-6013 or go to greenehistoricalsociety.org. Museum Exhibit: 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Jacksonville Area Museum, 301 E. State St. Suggested donation $5 | Exhibits showcasing Jacksonville history along with the MacMurray College archive collection. For more information, call 217-408-1197. Alfano/McKinnon Celebration of Life Ride: 10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., Waters Edge Winery and Bistro, 1061 E. Morton Ave. | Ride in memory of Leo Alfano and Morgan McKinnon. For more information, call Bob at 217-370-9766. African American History Museum Tours: 1-4 p.m., African American History Museum, 859 Grove St. Suggested donation $5 for adults, $3 for students, free for children ages 5 and under. | Open Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday through September, or by appointment. Call 217-299-6017 or email wilsonart57@hotmail.com for more information. Governor Duncan Mansion Tours: 1-4 p.m., Governor Duncan Mansion, 4 Duncan Place. Suggested donation $5 for adults, $3 for children. | For a tour on a different day, call 217-243-5678. For more information, call 217-245-7023. Tragg Band: 2-6 p.m., Grafton Winery and Brewhaus, 300 W. Main St. | Live music. Soulard Blues Band: 5-9 p.m., The Loading Dock, 401 E. Front St., Grafton. | Live music. Hakuna Moscato Sunset Cruise: 5:15-7:15 p.m., Grafton Harbor, 215 W. Water St. $31 | Samples included in price. For more information, go to graftonharbor.com or call 618-786-7678. Opening Reception: 6-8 p.m., The David Strawn Art Gallery, 331 W. College Ave. | Hammel Horizons Photography "Landscapes & Cityscapes." Gallery talk 6:30 p.m. Exhibit runs through Sept. 25. Alfano/McKinnon Celebration of Life: 6 p.m., Waters Edge Winery & Bistro, 1061 E. Morton Ave. | In memory of Leo Alfano and Morgan McKinnon. For more information, call Bob at 217-370-9766. High Road: 6 p.m., Bailey Park Shelter House, 102 E. Park St., Camp Point. Donations accepted. | Southern gospel music concert. Seating in shelter house or bring lawn chairs. Concessions start at 4 p.m. For more information, contact Mike Martin at 217-593-7455 or cfriend11@frontier.com. Outlaw Opry: 7 p.m., Grafton Oyster Bar, 215 W. Water St. | Live music. Comedy Hypnotist Jeff Harpring: 7:30 p.m., Hoogland Center for the Arts, 420 S. Sixth St., Springfield. $18 | For tickets and more information, call 217-523-2787 or go to hcfta.org. RXComedy Presents: Comedy for a Cause: 7:30 p.m., UIS Performing Arts Center, Sangamon Auditorium, 1 University Plaza, Springfield. $25 | Variety of live comedy performances. Proceeds benefit Boys & Girls Club of Central Illinois. For tickets and more information, call 217-206-6160 or go to uispac.com/events. Jake Weber: 8 p.m., The Bloody Bucket, 201 E. Main St., Grafton. | Live music. Hot Town Trio: 9 p.m.-midnight, Don's Place, 207 W. Morgan St. | Live music. SAN CARLOS, Calif. (AP) A man stabbed and killed a woman Thursday on the street outside her Northern California apartment in front of bystanders, authorities said, and a suspect was arrested near the crime scene. Local media reported that the woman was beheaded by a sword in the attack outside the apartment were she lived with her two children but San Mateo County Sheriffs Lt. Eamonn Allen declined to confirm those reports. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Midlands getting much younger, and the time has come to welcome potential younger leaders to the table. That was the message from Kate Williamson, outgoing board chair of the Midland Chamber of Commerce. She spent most of her speech at the Chambers Annual Meeting on Thursday speaking to increasing engagement from the growing young professional population in the area. Midlands changing, she remarked. In fact, recent data from Texas 2036 shows us the 30-40 year-old demographic has bloomed in the last 10 years. Williamson then showed a graphic that detailed the growth of young men and women moving to the Tall City in the past decade. It showed that the most Midlanders in any age range went from those in their 40s and 50s a decade ago to those in their 20s and 30s more recently. I see, in that number, a lot of potential leaders coming to the table, she said. More for you 2022 Midland Chamber annual meeting highlights WIlliamson implored local business leaders to reach outside their comfort zone, find someone to mentor and give someone a seat at the table who has never been given a seat at the table before. Our community will be better for it, she said. She then struck down the narrative that established business leaders in the area shouldnt engage with young professionals who may only stay in Midland for a short while. She quoted Mayor Patrick Payton, who in a speech at the first chamber board meeting of the year, said we shouldnt look at those people as those who are just doing a tour of duty here. We should embrace them and bring them into the community because it could be the best part of their life they havent seen yet. She remarked it wouldve been lucrative for her family to move back to Washington D.C. when her husband changed industries, but they didnt. Because of our neighbor, Carolyn, who gives my kids special Halloween candy, because a school district, that while far from perfect, is offering my two children the best opportunity for public schools that our area has seen in 10 years, she said. She told the audience that Midland residents must prepare for the future and the new wave of young Midlanders moving into the city. Incoming Chair Abraham Gutierrez also challenged leaders in the community to find young adults and help them find and achieve their passion. Business leaders and those representing organizations across Midland and Odessa were on hand at the Horseshoe Pavilion for the annual meeting. It recapped the year of success for the chamber, welcomed the new chair and board of directors, as well as bid farewell to Williamson, now the outgoing chair. Williamson shared a speech before introducing the new board, in which she detailed the first ever Midland-Odessa fly-in to Washington D.C. Over 60 leaders from the Permian Basin went to Capitol Hill to engage in dialogue to advocate and probably most important to have conversations with members of congress from both sides of the aisle, she said. She added that initiatives like the D.C. fly-in arent common enough in the region and she was proud of all involved for their participation. Lastly, Williamson recognized the retiring board members, which included Wendell Scooter Brown, John Love, Taylor Mayne, Laura Roman and Dianne Wright. Following the installation of new board members, Gutierrez gave his first speech as chair of the board. Gutierrez came to Midland in 1979 when his father found an employment opportunity in the oil fields. He graduated from Midland High School and went to University of Texas at El Paso to continue his education. In 2002, he established his first business in Midland and now owns two State Farm Insurance Agencies in the city. What brought me back to Midland, Texas the land of opportunity. Yes, I saw the mountains in El Paso, the lakes and rivers in Austin. Nothing compares to the spirit of the people we have in Midland, Texas, he said. Gutierrez added that business is continuing to grow in Midland, Midland Independent School District is improving, and health care is getting better. He remarked that this would not be possible without the spirit of Midlanders. There is something very peaceful about being alone in the woods. Its shady and quiet there, and whether its walking in Wiltons Town Forest or working around the farm here in Maine, the sense of communing with nature is very real. In our Town Forest, the communing is largely quiet, but happily interrupted from time to time by a passing mountain biker or a fellow walker who is often a friend from town. Here in Maine, where our vacation time is now coming to an end, being in the woods for me takes a different form: I like to work there. We have hay fields (tilled and mowed by a neighboring farmer) surrounded by woods and also a tree farm. The tree farm is due next year for its required every-tenth-year harvest. A professional forester marks the individual trees to be cut by a logger and files a report with the town and state. During our last harvest in 2013 the forester recommended that we limb every larger tree as far up as we could reach with a pruning saw or what our grandkids and I call whackers - those powerful limb-cutting shears that all of us probably have in our garage for yard work. So I do that lower limb cutting and also, in some of the areas around the hay fields, remove the dead trees. I cut them down and saw them up using manual methods (pruning saw and those whackers, along with an axe) as part of my exercise program up here. Thats pretty quaint by Maine woodsmens standards, of course, but I like the exercise and dont want the noise of a chainsaw spoiling my communing-with-nature time. Weve all read about how communities of certain types of trees appear to be able to band together to transfer essential nutrients either from (apparently as a bequest) or to perhaps as a form of emergency help failing trees. Not knowing whether that kind of tree communication is going on in our woods up here but not wanting to interfere with it if it is, Im very careful about only chopping down already fully dead trees. I do so especially with respect to trees that are likely to fall into our hay fields where they would interfere with plowing and harvesting or that, in falling, are likely to block our dirt roads. Especially on a hot day and the days up here, notwithstanding that its usually cool in Maine, have been surprisingly hot the shade offered by the woods is both welcome and refreshing. I drive my 88 Jeep Wrangler as close as I can go to the portion of the woods I will be working. My tools are in the back of the Jeep and to it is attached one of our four very old but still strong trailers, to haul away the trunks and branches. Each trailer has its purpose: Big Blue at 6 x 8 can hold a lot of branches and small trunks, and Little Blue at 4 x 8 holds quite a few too. Mighty Little Green (all were named by our grandkids) is only 3 x 8 but it is very strong with wide retired racing car tires, and it can carry large trunks. Its not licensed for the road and so has a slow vehicle triangular sign posted on it. For logs that Im too lazy to cut down to 7 lengths, Ill attach a red flag to the end of the oversized log as I prepare the load to go on the public roads all of a half mile to our town dump (which amazingly accepts loads of this sort free of charge!) Lastly, Old Yeller, named for its burnished yellow color, is a flatbed heavy-duty hauler with steel frame and bed that can carry the biggest butt logs. For trees that are hangers, tied up in the branches of living trees that prevent them from immediately falling, or that are heavy enough to require a motorized pull out of the woods, the Jeeps two heavy-duty hooks mounted on the front linked to heavy ropes with steel hooks on each end make pretty short work of them. My family thinks its a little crazy that I seriously like to do this tree work, but I love it and find it very relaxing. I also feel that it really brings me closer to nature, and as my non-woods work resumes this fall, thats certainly a good thing. All throughout the Bay Area, city streets, parks and trails alike have seen bicycles take a step back in favor of what seems to be their successor: electric bicycles. Ever since their introduction, e-bikes have been wildly controversial, particularly with regards to unpaved trails. For years, land management groups in the Bay Area have been trying to adapt to the evolving scene, taking into account the potential impacts electric bikes can have. Some regions, like the Marin County Open Space District, have taken a conservative approach and prohibited them on all trails (with exceptions for folks with mobility disabilities). Policies differ at California State Parks, which allows e-bikes in certain parks, while continuing to bar their use in others. Another batch of parks throughout the Bay Area have yet to establish their policies. Sundry Photography/Getty Images/iStockphoto Bay Area officials are debating policy on e-bikes for several Bay Area preserves, and the furor is opening a divide over what is fair use in our open spaces and who gets to decide. In late June, a decision was made by the board of directors of Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, which manages more than 65,000 acres throughout the Peninsula, to prohibit use of the bikes on nearly all of their trails. The board voted 4-2 in favor of prohibiting e-bikes on all trails except for two paved trails, a choice that concluded a meeting exceeding 5 hours in length, with presentations on related data and public comments filling the time, and perfectly epitomized the debate surrounding the topic. At first glance, the choice seemingly went against what the people wanted. Public comment collected by the open space district from December 2020 through January 2022 revealed that of those who provided input, 69% supported e-bikes on all trails and only 12% opposed them, with the remaining bunch either falling undecided or in support of restrictions. So who's pushing back? In general, the comment that we got was generally in support of e-bike access, said Brian Malone, assistant general manager at Midpeninsula. But if you look just at hikers, that support was reduced. And then if you look just at equestrians, there was no support for e-bike access. In a survey that Midpeninsula sent out to four local equestrian groups, 70% of respondents opposed access for e-bikes, likely a result of conflicts with bicycles as 78% of respondents reported a related incident having occurred previously. Midpeninsulas data collection illustrates that a consortium of hikers and equestrians have united against bikes. However, this is not a simple dichotomy between cyclists and the rest. MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-Ne/MediaNews Group via Getty Images Some equestrians vehemently oppose e-bikes on the trails, attributable in part to negative experiences with bikers. David Delarosa, a 70-year-old horse rider, had to get his knee operated on after a run-in with a cyclist while he was on his horse. Despite being a biker himself, he views e-bikes on the trails as too great of a hazard for those on horseback. I would really like to see no motorized bikes on bike trails, Delarosa said. Unfortunately, I think its bad enough with pedaling. But when you get a motor involved, its worse. Yet even in a group with such strong distaste for the electric bikes, theres not a unanimous stance. Other equestrians view e-bikes as an opportunity to share the land and encourage more people to get outside. This is a beautiful thing. It's more people to the party, more people to share and love the outdoors and be healthy, said Kim Orinda, an equestrian who's been riding in the East Bay for 30 years. She believes that the animosity towards the bikes is a matter of circumstance rather than substance: People are afraid of change. And especially because of COVID, there were just so many people on the trail in general at the same time e-bikes came out. So its just bad timing for e-bikes. Its good for their sales, but its not good for the perception. Other equestrians echo the sentiment. You know, there's a lot of emotion. They say people think with their hearts instead of their brains, or instead of their minds. And I'm in this logical camp where I personally have yet to hear a logical argument against e-bikes, Jerry Wittenauer said. Wittenauer, secretary of the Equestrian Trail Riders Action Committee based on the Peninsula, said the issue isn't specific to e-bikes in particular. On shared trails, bicyclists riding at high speeds have the potential to scare the horses, or even worse, spur injury to the horse and its rider. Most equestrians are reacting and a little bit afraid of mountain bikes in general, he said. And they've just translated that to this e-bike realm. This was a common theme that came up when speaking to equestrians, who viewed the greatest safety threat as not the e-bikes themselves, but rather the lack of barriers that they have, leading to a set of riders unaware of their surroundings. simonkr/Getty Images If you have people that dont know the rules of the trail, and then you put them on an e-bike that is going to come at the horse that much faster, thats going to increase the incidence of horses running away and hurting people, said Lauren Lockliear, a horse trainer whos been in the Bay Area for 10 years. Most people are very responsible that I meet on the trail. But some people aren't. And that both comes from ignorance of not knowing and also people just being malicious and not caring. For other groups, appeals against e-bikes were not focused on the safety of trailgoers, but rather the state of the preserve itself. Shani Kleinhaus is an ecologist at the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society. She described a number of reasons that e-bikes present a greater risk to the environment. Hikers and people on regular bikes dont get as far into those areas where increased activity could strongly impact ecologically sensitive areas and habitats and species, Kleinhaus said. She pointed to the potential impact that their noise can have on the ecosystem. In ecology, you always have to think about where not only the what, but also the where. So if youre going to introduce noise that disrupts or prevents roosting colonies of bats, if you do it near a lake or near a stream, then that can have a huge impact on them. When looking at environmental impacts that e-bikes might have, Midpeninsulas Science Advisory Panel (SAP) determined six potential areas of impact. Of those areas, the panel found a notable difference between e-bikes and regular bikes existed in the Noise category only. Boston Globe/Boston Globe via Getty Images The topic of noise earned its own segment during the board of directors meeting earlier this summer and a presentation into a noise study conducted on the districts preserves. The preserves are full of birds and bats capable of hearing at frequencies that humans cant pick up on. The SAP measured sounds produced by regular bicycles and e-bikes, and their report concluded that generally, regular bicycles were quieter than e-bikes particularly in higher frequencies. However, outside of the noise, it was unclear whether the impact of e-bikes exceeds that of its non-electric counterparts. Our board of directors decided to take a conservative route, Malone said. Given the lack of clear information on the potential impacts of the bike, our board of directors decided to not allow the bike on most of the natural surface trails at this time. For some, when it ultimately came down to it, the board fell back on the heart of their organization: its mission. Were here to represent the public and when the public is so split, it is up to us as it always is, even if the public isnt split, to do what the best thing is for the mission of the organization, said board member Karen Holman during the meeting. Ecologically sensitive is premier among those comments. And preservation is the first goal. And I dont see e-bikes as being consistent with either one of those on unpaved trails. Adding to the controversy, e-bikes largest proponents are cyclists themselves, who feel that preservation and enjoyment are not mutually exclusive. Sean McKenna, president of Silicon Valley Mountain Bikers, is advocating for a balance. We believe that its compatible with habitats and having greener areas to explore and go out in, he said. McKenna, like other advocates, sees the hesitation to adopt e-bikes as a feeling dictated by circumstance. Its kind of like the first iPhone that came out. Everyone is like, What the heck is this thing? McKenna said. And then five years later, everyone has one. The use of e-bikes has increased drastically over the past few years because of their accessibility. Older park guests, or those with physical disabilities or recovering from injury, have been provided a solution that enables them to continue to enjoy park trails. Advocates make a case for the environmental benefits too, as e-bikes have begun to serve as a replacement for cars in many cases. To complicate matters further, even within the constituency of e-bike supporters, there lie disputes. Electric bicycles fall under three classes, based on pedal-assistance, throttle-assistance and maximum speed. While some bike groups are hopeful for all three classes to become accepted on natural surface trails, others dont extend their support past class 1 bikes. Nevertheless, backers of e-bikes continue to call for change in hopes of a compromise. Lets start with the positives and look at the benefits and not start with the negatives and the what-ifs, said Tom Boss, events director of Marin County Bicycle Coalition. Then well find a path forward for e-bikes. With both sides adamant about what they believe in, the controversy is far from a resolution in the Bay Area. Midpeninsulas decision shed some light on the back-and-forth discussion, and as e-bikes continue to grow in popularity, its become clear that light isn't fading away. Amid the assortment of eccentric theme camps dotting Black Rock City, the temporary metropolis in the Nevada desert where Burning Man takes place, one sticks out like a fur jacket at a nudist resort. The instantly familiar red and blue Costco sign is jarring at a festival that lists decommodification among its 10 principles, but closer inspection of the sign reveals an intriguing subheading: Soulmate Trading Outlet. Costco is not a fking dating service, reads a sign in the entrance tent, where a handful of staff (camp volunteers) in red Costco polo shirts greet a stream of visitors. If you cant get laid without Costco, you wont get laid with us. Im not discouraged (unlike many, Im not feeling particularly libidinous while coated in days-thick layers of dust and sweat), but its good to see the camps intentions laid bare. Costco Soulmate Trading Outlet is about facilitating meaningful connections with strangers, not about hookups or romance. Both are possible, of course, but thats not the objective here. The camp was started in 1998 by a wry 40-something known on the playa (as Black Rock City is referred to affectionately) as Rico Thunder, along with his roommate Sean (playa name Lazarhed), making it one of the longest-running theme camps. Thunder, based in Santa Cruz, had been attending the festival for a few years prior and recalls he and Lazarhed were feeling shy and wanting to connect with people. Sure, you can set up a little bar and people might stop by and say hi, but we thought, well, if were feeling shy, maybe thats true of other people, Thunder said. Courtesy of Espressobuzz Rico Thunder was on the money. When it debuted on the playa in 1998, the camp was run by four members, but it has grown to a staff of 45 who serviced well over a thousand return customers and curious newcomers this year. The matchmaking process has been tweaked thoughtfully over the past 23 years. Upon entering the waiting area at CSTO, customers are given a double-sided membership profile survey to fill out with questions about what they are most proud of, what habit they are trying to break, the last time they cried, etc. Theyre also asked to plot themselves on a range of spectrums such as queer/straight, introvert/extrovert and kinky/vanilla. After submitting the form, they wait to meet with a staff member who conducts a more personalized assessment, gently interrogating their responses for about 10 minutes. They can grab a drink at the camp bar while waiting, typically for an hour or so, and chat with other customers (shout-out to smiley, bandana-wearing Stevie, recently out of a 10-year relationship and clearly hoping to meet his next partner). After the follow-up interviews with staff members, customers are given a business card with a member code on it and told to return the following day to receive their matches. This gives CSTO time to process the information on the pencil-and-paper questionnaire, a cryptic procedure allegedly involving algorithms (It was originally coded into the mainframe that is beamed off playa to the supercomputer to run at a server farm here in Santa Cruz, California, Thunder said in a deadpan tone.) Courtesy of Espressobuzz Alongside Thunder, a number of staff have been volunteering at CSTO for 20 years or more. The camp has a certain institutional memory, Thunder said. We have it set up in a comically hierarchical way, its kind of a parody of corporate life. Rather than ascending to governing positions, camp elders such as Rico Thunder typically move onto peripheral roles after years of service. Youre talking to someone whos just a schmo at this point, Thunder said. Im not managing any particular thing, Im the guy who sits around and says, Well in my day, this is how we used to do it. In the earliest years of CSTO, they allegedly received a cease and desist from lawyers working for the actual Costco retail chain, but they sent someone to the event who reported that what we were doing was awesome and so [they] gave their reluctant tacit approval, Thunder said. Plus, we gather that Costco Wholesale doesnt suck as bad as many retailers. Full health care for part-time employees? Thats not sucking. After jokingly referring me to the HR department when asked about the hiring process, Thunder said a genuine desire to get to know and listen to others is crucial. Were not a bunch of extroverts, ironically. Sometimes introverts throw ourselves into a role because it gives us cover, he said. People who are drawn to Costco are like, Wow, you guys are doing really hard, really serious work and I want to be a part of that. Courtesy of Espressobuzz Duckie has been an employee of CSTO four years running; this year he was made store manager. Ive seen a lot of the heartfelt connection that happens there, he said. And the importance that it has for people and the power that it has there are numerous times where I've heard about it changing people's lives permanently. He talks about one year where the soulmate process inadvertently connected an ex-husband and wife, neither of whom knew their former spouse would be at Burning Man. They ended up getting back together. Another customer saw Duckie wearing his Costco polo shirt in San Francisco and told him about how her soulmate was a jerk, but that shed become best friends with her matchs girlfriend, whom shed also met on the playa. The girlfriend ditched the jerk, and the Costco customer relocated from Boston to San Francisco to become the girlfriend's roommate. We hear on occasion that people got married to their soulmate and now have three kids or whatever, Thunder said. We don't know if there are a dozen of them over the years or whether it's the same person coming back to tell us that. Like everyone else who undergoes the matchmaking process, I end up with two soulmates: one person whose questionnaire and camp coordinates I am given so I may go and find them, and another who is given mine. Courtesy of Espressobuzz My first match is Toast, who works for CSTO. I approach a woman in Costco uniform and ask if shes seen my soulmate. I have, she said with a laugh. Toast is my husband. I made it clear on my questionnaire that Im not necessarily looking for a romantic connection, so Im unsurprised to have been connected with a married monogamist. Toasts wife sends him my way for a chat, and I can immediately see why weve been matched. Hes sweet, sensitive, introverted and unfazed when I suddenly start crying and confess to feeling lost (its around day five of the festival and at this point I mean it literally and figuratively). My other match is a Lithuanian guy called Marius, who calls by my camp twice while Im out before I go and find him on my last day. He is not quite soulmate material, but hes nice enough. An introvert who came to Burning Man alone, he was hoping to make connections at CSTO. After a brief chat, I give him my social media details and say goodbye (Marius returned to my camp looking for me later that day, Im told, but Ive not heard from him since). I might not have met my soulmate, but if I ever end up back at Burning Man, Ill definitely be returning to CSTO. This Costco is the kind of place where you can walk out with a whole lot more than you bargained for. Annabel Ross is a Brooklyn-based freelance journalist who has written for the Guardian, The Age/The Sydney Morning Herald, The Daily Beast and Resident Advisor. She won The Drum award for Best Investigative Journalism in 2021 for her work on sexual assault in dance music for Mixmag. WFO LOS ANGELES Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Friday, September 9, 2022 _____ EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE National Weather Service Los Angeles/Oxnard CA 223 AM PDT Fri Sep 9 2022 ...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM PDT THIS EVENING... ...WIND ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 9 AM THIS MORNING TO 5 PM PDT THIS AFTERNOON... * WHAT...For the Excessive Heat Warning, dangerously hot conditions with temperatures in the 90s to around 100. For the Wind Advisory, southeast winds 15 to 25 mph with gusts to 35 mph expected. * WHERE...Ventura County Inland Coast. * WHEN...For the Excessive Heat Warning, until 8 PM PDT this evening. For the Wind Advisory, from 9 AM this morning to 5 PM PDT this afternoon. * IMPACTS...Gusty winds will blow around unsecured objects and make driving difficult, especially for high profile vehicles. Tree limbs could be blown down and a few power outages may result. Extreme heat will significantly increase the potential for heat related illnesses, particularly for those working or participating in outdoor activities. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Use extra caution when driving, especially if operating a high profile vehicle. Secure outdoor objects. Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. Young children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles under any circumstances. Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location. Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1. Wind Advisory, east winds 15 to 25 mph with gusts up to 35 mph * WHERE...Los Angeles County Inland Coast including Downtown Los Angeles. conditions with temperatures up to 100. For the Wind Advisory, east winds 15 to 25 mph with gusts up to 35 mph expected. * WHERE...Los Angeles County San Gabriel Valley. * WHAT...Dangerously hot conditions with widespread temperatures of 100 to 110. Overnight low temperatures will offer little relief with temperatures falling to the mid 70s to mid 80s. * WHERE...Santa Clarita Valley, Lake Casitas, Ojai Valley, Central Ventura County Valleys, Southeastern Ventura County Valleys, Santa Monica Mountains and Los Angeles County San Fernando Valley. * WHEN...Until 8 PM PDT this evening. * IMPACTS...Extreme heat will significantly increase the potential ...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM PDT THIS MORNING... ...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM THIS MORNING TO 8 PM PDT THIS EVENING... conditions with temperatures in the upper 80s to around 100 expected. For the Heat Advisory, temperatures up to 90. For the Wind Advisory, southeast winds 15 to 25 mph with gusts up to 35 mph expected. * WHERE...Ventura County Beaches, Malibu Coast and Los Angeles County Beaches. * WHEN...For the Excessive Heat Warning, from 10 AM this morning to 8 PM PDT this evening. For the Heat Advisory, until 10 AM PDT this morning. For the Wind Advisory, from 9 AM this morning to 5 PM PDT this afternoon. * WHAT...Dangerously hot conditions with temperatures up to 105 expected. Warmest Santa Ynez Valley. * WHERE...San Luis Obispo County Inland Central Coast, Santa Barbara County Inland Central Coast and Santa Ynez Valley. ...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM PDT THIS EVENING... * WHAT...Temperatures up to 104. * WHERE...Santa Lucia Mountains, Southern Salinas Valley, San Luis Obispo County Interior Valleys and San Luis Obispo County Mountains. * IMPACTS...Hot temperatures may cause heat illnesses to occur. ...HEAT ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM PDT THIS EVENING... * WHAT...Temperatures up to 93. * WHERE...Santa Barbara County Southwestern Coast, Santa Barbara County Southeastern Coast, Santa Ynez Mountains Western Range and Santa Ynez Mountains Eastern Range. ...FLOOD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM THIS EVENING THROUGH SATURDAY * WHAT...Flooding caused by excessive rainfall continues to be possible. * WHERE...Antelope Valley, Los Angeles County Mountains excluding the Santa Monica Range, and Ventura County Mountains. * WHEN...From this evening through Saturday evening. * IMPACTS...Excessive runoff may result in flooding of rivers, creeks, streams, and other low-lying and flood-prone locations. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS... - Moisture from Kay will move into the area today and linger through Saturday. Showers and thunderstorms with periods of heavy rain at times will increase the risk of flooding, especially in the mountains. The heaviest rain is expected to occur late tonight through Saturday evening. - http://www.weather.gov/safety/flood You should monitor later forecasts and be alert for possible Flood Warnings. Those living in areas prone to flooding should be prepared to take action should flooding develop. * WHAT...Dangerously hot conditions with temperatures up to 99. * WHERE...Cuyama Valley and Santa Barbara County Interior ...WIND ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 9 AM THIS MORNING TO 6 PM PDT SATURDAY... * WHAT...East winds 20 to 30 mph with gusts up to 35 mph * WHERE...Catalina and Santa Barbara Islands. * WHEN...From 9 AM this morning to 6 PM PDT Saturday. result. ...BEACH HAZARDS STATEMENT REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM PDT THIS MORNING THROUGH SUNDAY AFTERNOON... * WHAT...Surf of 3 to 6 feet with occasional sets reaching 8 feet. Strong rip currents and longshore currents. Highest surf will be in northern Orange County. Isolated thunderstorms will produce lightning strikes. * WHERE...San Diego County Coastal Areas and Orange County Coastal Areas. * WHEN...This morning through Sunday. Highest surf will be Saturday into early Sunday. Lightning is possible this afternoon through Sunday. * IMPACTS...Strong rip currents and longshore currents will be hazardous, especially for inexperienced swimmers. Minor tidal overflow is possible during the high tides each evening. Lightning will be dangerous to people on the beach or in the water. Remain out of the water to avoid hazardous swimming conditions. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather WFO LOS ANGELES Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Friday, September 9, 2022 _____ HEAT ADVISORY URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE National Weather Service Los Angeles/Oxnard CA 346 PM PDT Fri Sep 9 2022 ...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM PDT THIS EVENING... * WHAT...Temperatures up to 104. * WHERE...Santa Lucia Mountains, Southern Salinas Valley, San Luis Obispo County Interior Valleys and San Luis Obispo County Mountains. * WHEN...Until 8 PM PDT this evening. * IMPACTS...Hot temperatures may cause heat illnesses to occur. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. Young children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles under any circumstances. Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location. Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1. * WHAT...Temperatures up to 93. * WHERE...Santa Barbara County Southwestern Coast, Santa Barbara County Southeastern Coast, Santa Ynez Mountains Western Range and Santa Ynez Mountains Eastern Range. ...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM PDT THIS EVENING... * WHAT...Dangerously hot conditions with temperatures up to 99. * WHERE...Cuyama Valley and Santa Barbara County Interior * IMPACTS...Extreme heat will significantly increase the potential for heat related illnesses, particularly for those working or participating in outdoor activities. ...WIND ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM PDT THIS EVENING... * WHAT...For the Excessive Heat Warning, dangerously hot conditions with temperatures in the upper 80s to around 100 expected. For the Heat Advisory, temperatures up to 90. For the Wind Advisory, southeast winds 15 to 30 mph with gusts up to 45 mph expected. Local gusts to 50 mph are possible. * WHERE...Los Angeles County Beaches. * IMPACTS...Gusty winds will blow around unsecured objects and make driving difficult, especially for high profile vehicles. Tree limbs could be blown down and a few power outages may result. Extreme heat will significantly increase the potential Use extra caution when driving, especially if operating a high profile vehicle. Secure outdoor objects. conditions with temperatures in the 90s to around 100. For the Wind Advisory, east winds 15 to 25 mph with gusts up to 35 mph expected. * WHERE...Los Angeles County Inland Coast including Downtown Los Angeles. conditions with temperatures up to 100. For the Wind Advisory, east winds 15 to 30 mph with gusts up to 45 mph expected. Local gusts to 50 mph are possible. * WHERE...Los Angeles County San Gabriel Valley. ...WIND ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 11 PM PDT THIS EVENING... * WHERE...Ventura County Beaches and Malibu Coast. * WHEN...For the Excessive Heat Warning, until 8 PM PDT this evening. For the Wind Advisory, until 11 PM PDT this evening. Wind Advisory, southeast winds 15 to 30 mph with gusts to 45 mph expected. Local gusts to 50 mph are possible. * WHERE...Ventura County Inland Coast. ...WIND ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM PDT SATURDAY... * WHAT...East winds 20 to 30 mph with gusts up to 35 mph * WHERE...Catalina and Santa Barbara Islands. * WHEN...Until 6 PM PDT Saturday. result. ...WIND ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM PDT THIS EVENING... conditions with temperatures up to 104. For the Wind Advisory, southeast winds 15 to 30 mph with gusts up to 45 mph. Local * WHERE...Los Angeles County San Fernando Valley. ...WIND ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 11 PM PDT THIS EVENING... south winds 15 to 30 mph with gusts up to 45 mph. Local gusts to 50 mph are possible. * WHERE...Santa Clarita Valley, Central Ventura County Valleys, Southeastern Ventura County Valleys and Santa Monica Mountains. * WHAT...Southeast winds 20 to 30 mph with gusts up to 45 mph. * WHERE...Ventura County Mountains, Los Angeles County Mountains and Antelope Valley. * WHEN...Until 11 PM PDT this evening. * WHAT...Dangerously hot conditions with widespread temperatures of 100 to 110. Overnight low temperatures will offer little relief with temperatures falling to the mid 70s to mid 80s. * WHERE...Lake Casitas and Ojai Valley. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... * WHAT...Dangerously hot conditions with temperatures up to 105 expected. Warmest Santa Ynez Valley. * WHERE...San Luis Obispo County Inland Central Coast, Santa Barbara County Inland Central Coast and Santa Ynez Valley. ...FLASH FLOOD WARNING IS CANCELLED FOR SOUTH CENTRAL IMPERIAL COUNTY... The heavy rain has ended. Flooding is no longer expected to pose a threat. Please continue to heed remaining road closures. A Flood Watch remains in effect until 1200 AM PDT Sunday for portions of southwest Arizona and California. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather WFO MEDFORD Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Saturday, September 10, 2022 _____ HEAT ADVISORY URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE National Weather Service Medford OR 421 PM PDT Thu Sep 8 2022 ...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM FRIDAY TO 11 PM PDT SATURDAY... * WHAT...High Temperatures as high as 107 degrees with lows in the mid 60s. * WHERE...In California: West and Central Siskiyou County. This includes the Shasta, Valley, Mt. Shasta City Area, Scott Valley, Lower Klamath River Valley and the cities of Fort Jones, Etna, Klamath River, Happy Camp and Somes Bar. This also includes areas in and near the Mountain, Mill, and McKinney Fires. * In Oregon: Most of Jackson and Josephine Counties, including the cities of Medford, Grants Pass, Ashland, Talent, Phoenix, Jacksonville, Selma, Butte Falls, Shady Cove, the Applegate, and the Rum Creek Fire. * WHEN...From 11 AM Friday to 11 PM PDT Saturday. * IMPACTS...Hot temperatures may cause heat illnesses to occur. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS...While smoke from area wildfires may prevent temperatures from reaching their highest potential, the smoke will also prevent people from finding relief at night through open windows. * View the hazard area in detail at https://www.wrh.noaa.gov/map/?wfo=mfr PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. Young children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles under any circumstances. Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location. Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather WFO PHOENIX Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Friday, September 9, 2022 _____ FLASH FLOOD WARNING The National Weather Service in Phoenix has issued a * Flash Flood Warning for... Southwestern Imperial County in southeastern California... * Until 330 PM PDT. * At 1029 AM PDT, Doppler radar indicated thunderstorms producing heavy rain across the warned area including in Mexico. Between 0.5 and 2 inches of rain have fallen over a large area south of the border. Additional rainfall amounts of 0.5 to 1.5 inches are possible in the warned area. Flash flooding is ongoing or expected to begin shortly. HAZARD...Life threatening flash flooding. Thunderstorms producing flash flooding. SOURCE...Radar. IMPACT...Life threatening flash flooding of creeks and streams, urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses. * Some locations that will experience flash flooding include... Ocotillo, Mountain Spring, Coyote Wells and Seeley. This includes the following highways... CA Interstate 8 near mile marker 1...and between mile markers 10 and 18. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather WFO PHOENIX Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Friday, September 9, 2022 _____ FLASH FLOOD WARNING The National Weather Service in Phoenix has issued a * Flash Flood Warning for... Southwestern Imperial County in southeastern California... * Until 415 PM PDT. * At 1124 AM PDT, Doppler radar and automated USGS stream gauges indicated an ongoing rise in the New River. Between 0.5 and 1.5 inches of rain have fallen. Additional rainfall amounts of 0.5 to 1.5 inches are possible in the warned area. Flash flooding is ongoing or expected to begin shortly. HAZARD...Life threatening flash flooding. Thunderstorms producing flash flooding. SOURCE...Radar and automated gauges. IMPACT...Life threatening flash flooding of creeks and streams, urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses. * Some locations that will experience flash flooding include... El Centro, Calexico, Imperial, Plaster City, El Centro Naval Airfield, Mt. Signal, Seeley, Dixieland and Heber. The New River at the USGS stream gage near the International Border is close to a 13 foot stage. With the anticipated rainfall in the coming hours the New River is expected to continue to rise. At 15.5 foot stage it would be over the top of its banks near the stream gage. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather WFO SACRAMENTO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Friday, September 9, 2022 _____ EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE National Weather Service Sacramento CA 1027 PM PDT Thu Sep 8 2022 ...DANGEROUS AND PROLONGED HEATWAVE THIS WEEK... ...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM PDT FRIDAY... * WHAT...Dangerously hot conditions with temperatures up to 110 continues. Limited overnight relief, especially in the foothills. * WHERE...Sacramento Valley, northern San Joaquin Valley, Delta, and adjacent foothills and mountains. * WHEN...Until 8 PM PDT Friday. * IMPACTS...Extreme heat will significantly increase the potential for heat related illnesses, particularly for those working or participating in outdoor activities. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS...Significant excessive heat continuing through Friday. There will be limited overnight relief with low temperatures only in the 70s to mid 80s. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. Young children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles under any circumstances. Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location. Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather WFO SAN DIEGO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Sunday, September 11, 2022 _____ BEACH HAZARDS STATEMENT Coastal Hazard Message National Weather Service San Diego CA 121 PM PDT Fri Sep 9 2022 ...BEACH HAZARDS STATEMENT REMAINS IN EFFECT THROUGH SUNDAY AFTERNOON... * WHAT...Surf of 3 to 6 feet with occasional sets reaching 8 feet. Strong rip currents and longshore currents. Highest surf will be in northern Orange County. Isolated thunderstorms will produce lightning strikes. * WHERE...San Diego County Coastal Areas and Orange County Coastal Areas. * WHEN...This morning through Sunday. Highest surf will be Saturday into early Sunday. Lightning is possible this afternoon through Sunday. * IMPACTS...Strong rip currents and longshore currents will be hazardous, especially for inexperienced swimmers. Minor tidal overflow is possible during the high tides each evening. Lightning will be dangerous to people on the beach or in the water. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Remain out of the water to avoid hazardous swimming conditions. The National Weather Service in Phoenix has issued a * Flash Flood Warning for... South Central Imperial County in southeastern California... * Until 615 PM PDT. * At 122 PM PDT, Doppler radar indicated thunderstorms producing heavy rain across the warned area. Between 0.5 and 1.5 inches of rain have fallen. Flash flooding is ongoing or expected to begin shortly. HAZARD...Life threatening flash flooding. Thunderstorms producing flash flooding. SOURCE...Radar. IMPACT...Life threatening flash flooding of creeks and streams, urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses. * Some locations that will experience flash flooding include... El Centro, Brawley, Imperial, Holtville, Westmorland, Gordon's Well, Bonds Corner and Heber. Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather WFO SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Saturday, September 10, 2022 _____ AREAL FLOOD WATCH Flood Watch National Weather Service Hanford CA 826 PM PDT Thu Sep 8 2022 ...FLOOD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM LATE FRIDAY NIGHT THROUGH SATURDAY EVENING... * WHAT...Flash flooding caused by excessive rainfall continues to be possible. * WHERE...A portion of central California, including the following areas, Frazier Mountain Communities, Grapevine, Indian Wells Valley, Kern River Valley, Mojave Desert, Mojave Desert Slopes, Piute Walker Basin, Sequoia NP, South End of the Upper Sierra and Tehachapi. * WHEN...From late Friday night through Saturday evening. * IMPACTS...Excessive runoff may result in flooding of rivers, creeks, streams, and other low-lying and flood-prone locations. Flooding may occur in poor drainage and urban areas. Low-water crossings may be flooded. Storm drains and ditches may become clogged with debris. Area creeks and streams are running high and could flood with more heavy rain. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS... - Moisture from Hurricane Kay will surge into the area and produce excessive rainfall. - Http://www.weather.gov/safety/flood PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... You should monitor later forecasts and be prepared to take action should Flash Flood Warnings be issued. ...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 PM PDT FRIDAY... * WHAT...Dangerously hot conditions with temperatures up to 110. * WHERE...Northern Lake and Southern Lake Counties. * WHEN...Until 10 PM PDT Friday. * IMPACTS...Extreme heat will significantly increase the potential for heat related illnesses, particularly for those working or participating in outdoor activities. Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. Young children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles under any circumstances. Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location. Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1. * WHERE...Northeastern Mendocino Interior and Southeastern Mendocino Interior Counties. * WHERE...Northern Trinity and Southern Trinity Counties. ...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 PM PDT FRIDAY... * WHAT...Temperatures up to 105. * WHERE...Del Norte Interior, Southwestern Humboldt, Northern Humboldt Interior, Southern Humboldt Interior, Northwestern Mendocino Interior and Southwestern Mendocino Interior Counties. * IMPACTS...Hot temperatures may cause heat illnesses to occur. ...HEAT ADVISORY IS CANCELLED... _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather LATEST Sept. 10, 9:30 a.m. While remnants of Tropical Storm Kay are bringing significant rainfall to Southern California, the San Francisco Bay Area is expected to see increased cloud cover and moisture in the air, but little or no rain. Just south of the Bay Area, Monterey County received some scattered sprinkles, but Jeff Lorber, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said the showers are dissipating as they move north. Rain is occurring over areas right near our office in Monterey and in the Central Valley, Lorber said. But its not making its way much north of Monterey. I got a report of someone working in the East Bay who saw some sprinkles on one of the passes near Livermore. The slight chance for rain in the Bay Area continues into Sunday. KNTV meteorologist Rob Mayeda wrote on Twitter that the best chance for rain in the Bay Area on Saturday is in the South Bay. There is a non-zero chance for showers over the Bay Area, but strongest confidence remains over the Central Coast, the Saturday forecast from the weather services Bay Area office said. Persistent onshore flow will result in quieter weather and a cooling trend for temperatures into the next work week. Sept. 9, 9 a.m. The California heat wave that brought punishing temperatures to the San Francisco Bay Area is finally coming to a close. Friday marks the start of a cool down with the fog returning and remnants of Hurricane Kay reaching the region this weekend. Afternoon highs in the Bay Area on Friday will be 5 to 10 degrees cooler than they were on Thursday and 15 to 20 degrees less than they were at the peak of the heat wave on Tuesday, the National Weather Service said. Livermore soared to 116 degrees Tuesday and is forecast to reach 102 on Friday and 88 on Saturday. San Francisco hit 98 on Tuesday and is expected to reach 76 on Friday and 74 on Saturday. It should definitely feel like a big relief, said Sarah McCorkle, a forecaster with the weather services Monterey office said. The cooler weather comes as a trough of low pressure to the north and remnants of Hurricane Kay to the south break down the high pressure-ridge that brought the intense stretch of warming. We have two low pressure systems squeezing us to the north and the south and thats helping weaken the high pressure, McCorkle said. The waning high pressure has opened the door for coastal fog, and McCorkle said the marine layer that has been only a few hundred feet thick in recent days was up to 1,000-to-1,500-feet deep off the coast of Monterey this morning. The marine layer has been deepening so people in inland valleys and at higher elevations should feel cooler as well, she said. Were looking at fog returning to San Francisco tomorrow. NurPhoto via Getty Images Hurricane Kay delivers slight chance of rain to the San Francisco Bay Area this weekend Tropical Storm Kay reached landfall in Mexico on Thursday morning as a hurricane, and last night, it was downgraded to a tropical storm. The storm is projected to move north over the Pacific Ocean, parallel to the California coast, with its eastern edge brushing Southern California Friday and Saturday, bringing significant rain, up to 2.5 inches to the wettest locations. Remnants of the storm will push into Northern California Saturday into Sunday. Confidence is high that the system could deliver rain and wet thunderstorms to the southern parts of Monterey and San Benito Counties on Saturday night and Sunday morning. Theres anywhere from a 20% to 40% chance of rain, McCorkle said. Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Imag McCorkle said the chance for rain in the nine-county Bay Area is much less. There is a chance Saturday evening into Sunday morning that the Bay Area could see some scattered showers, she said. Id put them at a 10% chance. Even if the storm doesnt bring wetting rain, it will deliver some clouds that will help increase humidity levels and decrease wildfire risk. WFO CORPUS CHRISTI Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Saturday, September 10, 2022 _____ FLOOD WARNING BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED Flood Warning National Weather Service Corpus Christi TX 1115 AM CDT Fri Sep 9 2022 ...The National Weather Service in Corpus Christi TX has issued a Flood Warning for the following rivers in Texas... Nueces River Near Tilden affecting McMullen County. For the Nueces River...including Tilden...Minor flooding is forecast. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles. Additional information is available at www.weather.gov/crp. The next statement will be issued late tonight at 215 AM CDT. ...FLOOD WARNING IN EFFECT FROM THIS EVENING TO LATE SATURDAY MORNING... * WHAT...Minor flooding is forecast. * WHERE...Nueces River Near Tilden. * WHEN...From this evening to late Saturday morning. * IMPACTS...At 14.0 feet, Minor lowland flooding occurs, and causes sloughs and peripheral channels near the main stream to cut off areas of the flood plain, isolating livestock and damaging equipment in low areas. Oil field tank batteries and pump jacks flood. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS... - At 10:30 AM CDT Friday the stage was 13.7 feet. - Forecast...The river is expected to rise to a crest of 14.0 feet this evening. - Flood stage is 14.0 feet. - Flood History...This crest compares to a previous crest of 13.9 feet on 10/04/2016. - http://www.weather.gov/safety/flood Below are the latest river stages and stage forecasts: Fld Observed Forecasts (1 pm) Location Stg Stg Day/Time Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Nueces River Tilden 14.0 13.7 Fri 10 am 13.4 12.4 11.5 10.7 9.8 _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather Consul General of Malaysia in Ho Chi Minh City Wong Chia Chiann (C) and leaders of HUFO, Vietnam-Malaysia Friendship Association in Ho Chi Minh City at the ceremony Chairman of the Vietnam-Malaysia Friendship Association in Ho Chi Minh City Tran Ngoc Son affirmed that the fruitful friendship relationship and strategic partnership between Vietnam and Malaysia have been developing in various fields. Besides, the two countries are heading to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations (1973 -2023). A performance at the ceremony Consul General of Malaysia in Ho Chi Minh City Wong Chia Chiann informed that Vietnam is the eleventh biggest business partner of Malaysia and the seventh largest export market of the country. In ASEAN, Malaysia is currently the second biggest trade partner of Vietnam and the S-shaped country is the third largest trade partner of Malaysia. In addition, Malaysia is the second biggest investor of Vietnam in ASEAN with 668 investment projects with a total registered capital of US$10 billion, ranking the tenth out of 140 having investments in Vietnam. During the passing years, under the support of HUFO, the Vietnam-Malaysia Friendship Association in Ho Chi Minh City has organized meaningful annual events and activities, including National Day, Malaysia Week program along with seminars between Vietnamese and Malaysian businesses, programs on natural disasters, supports in the Covid-19 pandemic prevention and control and so on.Ms. Wong Chia Chiann hoped that HUFO and relevant units would continue to support Malaysian citizens living in Ho Chi Minh City and assist the Consulate General of Malaysia in HCMCs efforts to strengthen the relationship between the people of the two countries through people-to-people diplomacy, trade, tourism and appropriate activities. By Thuy Vu-Translated by Huyen Huong photo: Roque Nonini Sidik Fofana earned his MFA from New York University and is a public school teacher in Brooklyn. He was named a fellow at the Center for Fiction in 2018. His work has appeared in the Sewanee Review and Granta. His debut, Stories from the Tenants Downstairs (Scribner), offers eight narratives about residents of a fictional building in Harlem. Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less: Eight tenants from a Harlem high-rise tell you stories about their problems while the almighty landlord hovers over them. On your nightstand now: I sleep on a futon in the basement, or the couch in the living room, and only every now and then in an actual bed. But on the "nightstand" would be Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I watch a little bit of the BBC series, then read some of the book. I don't know what it is, but I love reading about crazy white people. Favorite book when you were a child: Hands down Matilda by Roald Dahl. Although I did read Runaway Ralph by Beverly Cleary 100 times. Oh and can't forget Charlotte's Web. Shout out to E.B. White whose darkest joke was writing a book that made kids cry. Your top five authors Living: Edward P. Jones, Junot Diaz, Lorrie Moore, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Jeffrey Eugenides. Bonus: Zadie Smith. Dead: Jose Saramago, John Steinbeck, Frank McCourt, Langston Hughes and Toni Morrison. Emcees: Tupac, Nas, Andre 3000, Lauryn Hill and Mos Def, Phonte or Kendrick depending on how I feel that day. Book you've faked reading: Don't get me in trouble! Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. I remember brilliant parts like the riff on that one man's obsession with episodes of M*A*S*H, but I'm just not that cerebral. Book you're an evangelist for: Post-Traumatic by Chantal V. Johnson. My sister book, born the same year as my own. I've heard her read from it several times, and each time has been a transcendent experience. Book that you bought for the cover: Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning by Jonathan Mahler. Didn't know at the time that it was the cover that reeled me in, but it is gray and frenetic just like New York is. Book you hid from your parents: I never hid a book from a parent, but my mom hid a book from me. Well, she didn't actually hide it since I found it in plain view on top of her dresser. She just never mentioned that she had bought it for herself. It was a biography of Nelson Mandela meant for young readers. Book that changed your life: Native Son by Richard Wright hit me like a ton of bricks. I was supposed to read it for a class and didn't get to it until two nights before it was due. It was one of the first times I remember reading something for school that didn't feel like homework. Favorite line from a book: "& the boys outside walgreens selling candy/ for a possibly fictional basketball team are my presidents," from the poem "my president," from the book Homie by Danez Smith. In that poem, they do this ode to friendship, shouting out memorable people in their life and electing them to high office. I tell you, these poets know what they're doing. Five books that you'll never part with: As I scan my golden shelf... A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor, Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, and Brown Girl, Brownstones by Paule Marshall, among others. Most of the books I own are in my classroom for all to browse, except those books. Those stay in my living room under heavy surveillance. Book you most want to read again for the first time: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Or maybe there's a book out there that understands my middle age as much as that book understood my teendom. Book you can't wait to come out: Play World by Adam Ross. Always been a fan of his storytelling and dark humor. Page Content Colorado's rulemaking process regarding its new paid family and medical leave insurance program (FAMLI) continues. On Aug. 26, the state published final regulations, which provide the most concrete guidance to date regarding the benefits to which employees will be entitled under the FAMLI program as of Jan. 1, 2024. Under the FAMLI statute, all workers are entitled to FAMLI benefits once they have earned $2,500 in Colorado at any point over the preceding year. This $2,500 threshold can be met from any combination of employers. Functionally, most Colorado employees will thus be eligible for FAMLI benefits on or soon after day one of their employment, unlike the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which provides that employees are not eligible for FMLA benefits until they have been employed for at least 12 months. Under FAMLI, an employee is entitled to up to 12 weeks of paid leave for qualifying reasons, plus an extra four weeks for pregnancy or childbirth-related reasons, on a 12-month period rolling backwards, beginning on the first day in which an employee begins taking FAMLI benefits. Again, this differs from the FMLA, which gives employers the option of calculating a 12-month period based on a calendar year, any fixed 12-month period, or a 12-month period rolling forward or backward. Employers may only use the 12-month period rolling backwards period in evaluating benefits eligibility under the FAMLI program. The process for how employees may apply for benefits is clearly spelled out in the new guidance. Employees will apply for benefits directly to the FAMLI Division, unless an employer has been approved to use a private plan to meet its FAMLI obligations. Such applications may be submitted at least 30 days prior to an anticipated start date for benefits, although the FAMLI Division will consider applications submitted at least 30 days after leave has begun if earlier notice was impracticable under the circumstances. Employees must provide different forms of information, depending on the nature of their leave. For example, an application to take leave for an employee's own serious health condition will require the employee to submit a "Serious Health Condition Certification Self Form," while a separate "Serious Health Condition Certification Family Member Form" will be utilized if the leave is in connection with a family member's serious health condition. Once the FAMLI Division receives an application for benefits, it will notify the claimant's employer of the application within five business days. Employers can require employees to inform the employer directly of the need for FAMLI leave, separate from the division providing notice of the benefits application. Employees should notify employers of their need for leave in the same manner as they would typically communicate work unavailability and should follow the employer's usual and customary notice and procedural requirements for leave. Adjudication of Claims and Appeals Processes Once an application for FAMLI benefits is submitted, the division will adjudicate the claim for benefits within two weeks. The division will notify the employee and employer of the outcome of the claim. If benefits are approved, the division's notice will include the leave start date, leave duration, any denied segments of requested leave, and a description of any approved reduced leave or intermittent leave where applicable. Upon the employer's request, the division will share certain information regarding the benefit amount and reason for leave to ease coordination with other employer-provided benefits, such as PTO, sick leave, or other paid leave. The guidance explains separate and distinct mechanisms by which employers and employees may appeal a benefits determination. If an employer has a good-faith belief, supported by evidence, that an award of benefits was erroneous, it may submit a grievance to the division. This grievance may be based on the approved benefits being in an amount, duration, or frequency beyond what the claimant is entitled, or in such a way that unduly disrupts the employer's operations. The division will then investigate and adjudicate the employer's grievance. If a claim for benefits is denied, the employee may appeal the adverse determination. Such appeals must be made within 30 days of the adverse claim determination, although that period may be expanded to 60 days upon a showing of good cause. The division will designate a hearing officer to review the matter. Both the employee and employer will have the right to participate in the appeal hearing. If the appeal is upheld, the employee may seek recourse in the courts. Employers may require a worker to submit a fitness-for-duty certification upon their return to work after a serious health condition, similar to the process under the FMLA. Private Plans On Aug. 31, the state posted a webinar that addresses the process by which employers can meet the legal requirements through a private plan, as opposed to the public, state-run plan. The state repeatedly emphasized that rules on private plans have not been adopted and that it is currently undertaking stakeholder meetings to ensure the final rules address the interests of employers and insurers. Its current guidance is not final and is subject to change. A private plan must provide equal or greater benefits and protections than the public FAMLI plan. As compared to the public FAMLI program, the private plan must: Provide the same number of weeks of benefits. Provide the same level of wage replacement. Include no additional requirements or conditions. Deduct no more than the same amount from employee paychecks to fund the plan. Cover all employees through the duration of their employment. (New, part-time and temporary employees must be eligible for the paid family and medical leave benefits if they have earned $2,500 in Colorado.) Remain compliant with all other FAMLI requirements. Be approved by the state as compliant. All employers will need to collect and remit premiums under the FAMLI program beginning Jan. 1, 2023, even if the employer intends to meet the FAMLI requirements through a private plan. However, employers will be eligible for a refund of these premiums if they have received approval by the state for a private plan with an effective date on or before Jan. 1, 2024. The state will issue separate rules on the coordination of FAMLI benefits with other paid and unpaid leave benefits, as well as amendments to the local government rules adopted early in 2022. Even though employees will not be entitled to FAMLI benefits until Jan. 1, 2024, employers do have obligations with a more imminent deadline. By Jan. 1, 2023, Colorado employers must register with My FAMLI+, the state-run portal expected to launch sometime in late 2022. Starting Jan. 1, 2023, employers will need to begin to withhold premium payments and submit quarterly wage reports through the My FAMLI+ portal. David Gartenberg and Carolyn Theis are attorneys with Littler in Denver. 2022. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission. Queen Elizabeth II, whose rein took Britain from the age of steam to the era of the smartphone and oversaw the largely peaceful breakup of an empire that once spanned the world, has demised. She was 96. She passed away peacefully at her estate in Balmoral, Scotland, on the afternoon of Sept. 8, as per a statement from Buckingham Palace. Succeeding the throne in 1952, Elizabeth led the UK through a time of political convulsion. She started her reign as head of an empire, though in decline. By the time of her death, the future of the UK itself was in suspicion, with recurrent calls for independence in Scotland and Britain's exit from the European Union directing to renewed tension in Northern Ireland. Elizabeth became the UK's longest-serving monarch in 2015 when she surpassed the record of Queen Victoria, who had ruled from 1837 to 1901. The partner Elizabeth described as her "strength and stay," Prince Philip, her husband of 73 years, died in April 2021, at 99. Her eldest son, Charles, succeeds her on the throne as King Charles III. "We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished sovereign and a much-loved mother," he stated. "I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country." World leaders tribute to Queen Elizabeth II Presidents, Prime Ministers, monarchs, and leaders worldwide have paid tribute to the life and service of Queen Elizabeth II, many reflecting on a 70-year reign that encompassed some of the most turbulent and decisive moments in modern British and world history. PM Narendra Modi remembered his "memorable" meetings with Queen Elizabeth II in 2015 and 2018, expressing he would "never forget her warmth and kindness." "Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will be remembered as a stalwart of our times. She provided inspiring leadership to her nation and people. She personified dignity and decency in public life. Pained by her demise. My thoughts are with her family and people of UK in this sad hour," he said. The US president, Joe Biden, and the first lady, Jill Biden, said: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was more than a monarch. She defined an era. In a world of constant change, they added, she had been a steadying presence and a source of comfort and pride for generations of Britons, including many who have never known their country without her. The Bidens also cited that the Queen a stateswoman of unmatched dignity and constancy had endured the dangers and deprivations of a world war alongside the British people and rallied them during the devastation of a global pandemic to look to better days ahead. Russias president, Vladimir Putin extended his condolences to King Charles for the irreparable loss of his mother, saying the Queen had rightfully enjoyed the love and respect of her subjects, as well as authority on the world stage. He further said, I wish you courage and resilience in the face of this difficult, irreparable loss. May I ask you to pass on sincere condolences and support to members of the royal family and the entire people of Great Britain. Irelands president, Michael D Higgins, described the late monarch as a remarkable friend of Ireland as he offered his condolences to the royal family. Her Majesty served the British people with exceptional dignity, he said. Her personal commitment to her role and extraordinary sense of duty were the hallmarks of her period as Queen, which will hold a unique place in British history. Canadas Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, entitled the Queen a constant presence in our lives and said his compatriots would always remember and cherish Her Majestys wisdom, compassion, and warmth. The Queen loved France, which loved her back. Minutes after the Queens death was proclaimed, Frances president, Emmanuel Macron, posted a simple picture of the Queen on his Twitter account, unaccompanied by any words. In a consequent message, he wrote: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II embodied the British nations continuity and unity for over 70 years. I remember her as a friend of France, a kind-hearted queen who has left a lasting impression on her country and her century. The president of Pakistan, Arif Alvi, proffered his sincere condolences to the royal family, the government, and the people of Great Britain on the sad demise of Queen Elizabeth II, the second longest-reigning monarch in the history of Great Britain. Bangladeshs Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, offered Britains royal family heartfelt and deep sympathies, her spokesperson said. The leader of the former British colony offered her deep condolences and expressed her sorrow at the death of Queen Elizabeth II. The Bangladeshi president, M Abdul Hamid, the ceremonial head of state, expressed profound shock and sorrow and conveyed deepest sympathy to the royal family, the state-run BSS news agency said. Turkeys president, Recep Tayyip Erdo?an, said he was saddened to learn of Queen Elizabeths death and sent his deepest condolences to the royal family and the people and government of the UK. New Zealands Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, said flags would fly at half-mast and arrangements would be made for a state memorial service. I know that I speak for people across New Zealand in offering our deepest sympathy to members of the royal family at the passing of the Queen, said Ardern. To us she was a much-admired and respected monarch, to them she was a mother and grandmother. The Queens death also elicited tributes from former world leaders. Barack and Michelle Obama celebrated a reign defined by grace, elegance, and a tireless work ethic, defying the odds and expectations placed on women of her generation. Obamas successor, Donald Trump, stated the monarchs historic and remarkable reign left a tremendous legacy of peace and prosperity for Great Britain, while the former US president George W Bush called the late queen a woman of great intellect, charm, and wit, and said Americans had always appreciated her strong and steadfast friendship. As night fell through Europe on Thursday, the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, announced the lights of the Eiffel Tower would be switched off in tribute to the Queen. The ban on American chipmakers building advanced technology facilities in China if they have received federal funding under the CHIPS Act could benefit countries such as India over the years, experts said. The US governments Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) and Science Act, 2022, aims to incentivize technology companies to build semiconductor factories in the country. However, companies accepting federal funding for the same are barred from building high-tech facilities in China for the next 10 years. Satya Gupta, chief executive and founder of Electronic Products Innovation Consortium (EPIC) Foundation, said that while in the short term the US will benefit from these policies, in the medium term, i.e., three years or more, it could benefit markets like India. The $50 billion plus incentives from the US may be utilized by then, and firms will look to expand globally, and India would be a good choice. By then, markets like India, too, will have evolved to a stage where these global firms will see benefit in setting up advanced semiconductor manufacturing here," he said. Introduced on 9 August, the new US law comes amid tensions with China. While the scheme aims to strengthen the US manufacturing base, experts believe the 10-year embargo on high-tech manufacturing in China will eventually drive firms to markets like India, Europe and Vietnam. The US scheme offers incentives totalling $53 billion (around Rs 4.2 trillion) for firms building chip factories in the US. These are more than five times Indias Rs 76,000 crore (approximately $10 billion) production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for chipmakers announced earlier this year. Among the worlds top 10 chip design and manufacturing firms, US chipmakers earned 33.2% of $59.5 billion that global semiconductor companies earned in 2021, according to an April 2022 report by market researcher Gartner. Samsung, Intel, SK Hynix, Micron, Qualcomm, Broadcom, MediaTek, Texas Instruments, Nvidia and AMD comprised the top 10. Other than Samsung, MediaTek and SK Hynix, the rest are American firms. The White House said Micron and Qualcomm plan to build new facilities in the US. While Micron plans to spend $40 billion by 2030 to make memory chips in the US, Qualcomm will partner with GlobalFoundries for a $4.2 billion chip-manufacturing plan in the US. Intel, which initially announced a $20 billion semiconductor fab in Ohio, said in June that its plan was delayed to understand the CHIPS Act. The company now plans to begin work on its factory by end-2022, and production is expected to begin by 2025. India currently does not have an ecosystem in place for advanced semiconductor manufacturing. However, conglomerates such as the Tata group and Vedanta have expressed interest in setting up chip operations here, and the government has also received interest from some global firms. Commerce minister Piyush Goyal met executives of American chip companies such as LAM Research and Applied Materials on 8 September to explore greater collaboration with Indian companies. In April, Applied Materials said it plans to invest $50 million in a new research and development (R&D) facility in India, while Mint reported last month that LAM Research plans to set up its second R&D facility in India this month. India has already introduced a production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme to attract global clients. Alongside this, its not like India has no existing ecosystem of the semiconductor industrythe semiconductor laboratory (SCL) in Mohali, Punjab, manufactures semiconductor chips in partnership with local and Israeli suppliers," noted Vivek Tyagi, chairman of industry body Indian Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA). Rajeev Khushu, adviser and board member of IESA, said that semiconductor supply chain vendors in India do not have the necessary quality to match the global standards required for making the latest generation chips. SCL, for instance, still makes 180nm chips at its facility.This, according to both Khushu and Tyagi, could see semiconductor fabs come up in India over the next five years as global tech firms look at markets beyond Taiwan, Korea and China to set up advanced facilities. India has already seen some interest from vendors to set up assembly, testing, marking and packaging (ATMP) facilities in the country based on the semiconductor PLI scheme, which could precede the establishment of chip factories since the latter would take larger sums of investment," Khushu said. Navkendar Singh, associate vice-president at market research firm International Data Corp (IDC) India, said, What China has succeeded in doing has been to bring down the pricing of chips, thanks to vastly available and affordable skilled labour and the overall scale of manufacturing. This could be a factor that semiconductor firms struggle to meet in the immediate future." Singh added that moving the manufacturing of chips away to other markets (including India and the US) could see companies incur a higher cost of manufacturing. It is also unlikely that any company will ever put all their eggs in one basket again, so India will likely not be the sole beneficiary of the US new law. The overall impact could see India make gains in the semiconductor space in the long run, but it will most likely not be the only nation taking advantage of the diversification of the semiconductor supply chain," Singh added. Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal has launched an initiative -- SETU (Supporting Entrepreneurs in Transformation and Upskilling) -- here to connect startups in India to US-based investors. SETU is designed to break the geographical barriers between US mentors willing to invest in entrepreneurship and sunrise startups in India. The program was launched during an interaction focused on specific issues related to the startup ecosystem in India. The meeting focused on ways to encourage domestic incorporation and mentorship of early-stage Indian startups by successful diaspora members in the Bay Area of San Francisco. The initiative would connect startups in India to US-based investors and startup ecosystem leaders with mentorship and assistance in various areas, including funding, market access, and commercialisation. The interaction between the stakeholders will be supported through the mentorship portal under the Startup India initiative MAARG (Mentorship, Advisory, Assistance, Resilience, and Growth) programme, which is a single-stop solution finder for startups in India. "There were suggestions about mentorship. We have launched the SETU programme where we are looking at supporting entrepreneurs through transformation and upskilling initiatives. We are also looking at a programme that the startup advisory council had initiated in India in which mentorship is being initiated particularly in tier-II, III, and IV areas," Goyal said. It is estimated that about 90% of the startups and more than half of the well-funded startups fail in their early days. Lack of experience in handling the business is a crucial issue, and founders require the right guidance for taking a decision and moral support. MAARG is inviting applications from mentors across the world. To date, over 200 mentors have been onboarded on MAARG across the globe. 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! Innovation is generally agreed to be a good thing. Coming up with new ways of doing things offers the prospect of greater efficiency, new products and services and therefore greater profits. However, if you listen to the NSW Productivity Commission, the Property Council and Business Sydney, we risk becoming a nation of dullards, devoid of innovation because we insist on working from home in preference to commuting for hours into central business districts every day. Working in the office may not be the solution to boosting creativity. Credit:Louise Douvis This existential threat to business is apparently something to do with water coolers. It is a scientific fact that water coolers are responsible for the great innovations in history. Or so these spruikers of back-to-the-office would have us believe. In their world it is around the flowing water fountain that ideas spring eternal. Yes, people can interact via Teams and Zoom, but without a drop of the soft filtered stuff we are doomed to the most perfunctory of interactions, that are formulaic and not at all creative. Given the water cooler came about only in the early 1900s to combat typhoid in schools, one wonders if there was any innovation before this time. No wait. The wheel, windows (the hardware, not the software), the internal combustion engine, the printing press, the electric light and the telephone were all miraculously innovated without waterside chats. How did they do it? In fact, some commentators argue that innovation and productivity growth has been in decline since the 1970s. To argue that the much more recent trend of working from home is the culprit ignores history. But not only that, the claim that innovation is impaired due to the alleged loss of chance encounters caused by technology mediated communication does not stack up either. It does not take much consideration to appreciate that technology, if anything encourages chance encounters and interactions. Just look at the number of people engaged in and who become engaged as a result of online dating apps. Illustration Credit:Dionne Gain This zen thinking that there be magic in that thar water cooler is nonsense. The problem is that there are very powerful and well-organised groups with a vested interest in having workers commute into CBDs. They have large investments in commercial real estate and they want a return. Sure there are service businesses in CBDs that may also suffer, but where are the calls to these businesses to innovate their own practices and also consider relocating. Why should well-organised and powerful lobbies demand the workforce come to them so they can line their pockets, when the dispersed, generally smaller businesses in the suburbs stand to lose out on the same customers? Who is lobbying for them? In a highly connected world and in sophisticated cities in Australia, it makes no sense to force workers into long, expensive and unproductive commutes obliged to use inefficient roads and public transport systems that can barely cope when demand is high. But such is the status of The Church in Australias classic rock canon that Kilbey seems to have had his pick of replacements. Singer and main songwriter Steve Kilbey, who has been there from the start in Sydney in 1980, has lost two of his fellow founders within the last decade - guitarists Marty Willson-Piper and Peter Koppes. The Church are a new congregation these days, but on tonights evidence, there is still plenty for lovers of literate, textured, melodic and powerful music to worship. Tonight, no less a figure than Powderfingers Ian Haug easily matched Willson-Pipers beefy gravitas at stage right, peeling off the riffs from majestic to mystic that the Kilbey songbook requires, and adding lyrical and crowd-pleasing layers of his own. Meanwhile to Kilbeys left stood Ash Naylor, guitarist of choice for Paul Kelly and seemingly every ABC TV New Years or Australia Day special, playing with great texture and touch and together with mainstay Tim Powles on drums and Alabama import Jeffrey Cain on keys, ensuring The Church was as tight as its ever been. With an epic two-and-a-half hour, 24-song setlist, there was something for everyone at this show - perhaps too much. We probably could have lived without that stodgy long one from Magician Among The Spirits, while airing three songs from a yet-to-be-released concept album set in 2054 was a brave decision at a venue whose notoriously muddy acoustics meant there was little chance anyone was going to grasp the concept (although the foreboding CEst La Vie sounded like a keeper). The classic line-up of The Church. Credit: But riches abounded elsewhere. 1980s classics like Metropolis and Reptile chimed impressively, the presence of two drumkits adding that decades trademark thud . Kilbey was in fine voice, even if the mix lacked the cut-through to always do it justice, and his between-song banter indicated a man in high spirits as he prepares to turn 68 next week. It is stating the obvious that the late Queen Elizabeth II has always been part of our lives. Even the most passionate republicans who read The Sydney Morning Herald will accept that she has been a reassuring constant. After all, only 14 per cent of Australians now alive have experienced any monarch other than her majesty. There are many reasons for this but, especially given the length of time she was on the throne and the immense changes in public attitudes which occurred over that 70-year period, strength of character must bulk largest of all. Queen Elizabeth II with prime minister John Howard at a dinner at the Festival Centre February 27, 2002 in Adelaide. Credit:Tony Lewis On her 21st birthday, speaking from South Africa, the then Princess Elizabeth declared my whole life, whether it be long or short, will be devoted to you and to the service of the great imperial family to which we all belong. That declaration committed the future Queen Elizabeth II to 75 years of consistent fealty to the coronation oaths she would take in June 1953. Less than a year ago, Roya Rasuly was fleeing Afghanistan with her 2-year-old son, husband and his family. The womens rights specialist had gone into work in Kabul one day to retrieve her computer when she was forbidden from entering the office. When the Taliban came we lost everything, she said. They dont allow women to go outside to study, [get] education and develop or be independent. But last week was a different story, as Rasuly stood front-of-house with a team of Afghan women to open a new restaurant in the middle of Sydneys CBD. They include single mothers who have been in Sydney for several years, others who arrived after the fall of Kabul last August, and one woman who is six months pregnant and only arrived in Australia in June. Afghan refugee Roya Rasuly is running a new restaurant, Kabul Social, with a team of Afghani women in one of Sydneys busiest pedestrian thoroughfares near Wynyard. Credit:Steven Siewert None have worked anywhere near a commercial kitchen, let alone served crowds of city workers during the chaos of a lunchtime rush hour. The Queen will now be reunited with her beloved Philip, she said. Elaine Kelly, 85, of Lane Cove lined up for six hours on Macquarie Street after getting up at 4.30am just to catch a glimpse of the Queen pass by in a black limousine in 1954. It was a long, long wait and after all that there was just a glimpse of the Queen in a limousine for a few seconds, she said. I remember her as a pretty young lady. It was summer, and she had a summer dress on. It was during that first tour that the Queen visited Bondi Beach where local residents greeted her and surf clubs staged a Royal Command Surf Carnival in her honour. According to Waverley Councils archives, 40,000 people crowded the beach with a further 60,000 crammed into other vantage points around Bondi. Shaded by a large white parasol, the Queen braved very non-English temperatures of 80F (26C), but according to contemporary reports looked happy and refreshed in a buttercup yellow frock and a matching small feathered hat, the Waverley Council fact sheet reports. She wore white accessories and a three-strand pearl necklace. The royal couple watched surf races, a mock pillow fight on a greasy pole, running races and surf rescue displays. The archives report that occasional heavy dumpers made conditions tricky and delighted the crowd and that the Queen pointed excitedly as boats battled the surf. At one point seven surfboats overturned, including all the competitors in one race. Queen Elizabeth II at Bondi Beach during her 1954 tour of Australia. Credit:NFSA The Times of London reported that the Queen and her husband were so interested in the activities that they stayed for 40 minutes beyond their appointed time. A member of the Bondi Surf Bathers Life Saving Club reportedly said on meeting the Queen that for one so tiny, her handshake is quite strong and is possibly one of the greatest shocks one receives on being presented. Former Sydney radio presenter Russell Powell, who was among the journalists who met her in more recent years, was also surprised with her petite stature. Media who are not normally overawed by too much had a feeling of awe as we filed in to meet her and Prince Philip. My recollection was that she was smaller than I thought she would be. Loading Former Sydney Anglican Archbishop Peter Jensen was 11 years old and among the Sydney crowds waving at the Queen during her 1954 visit. In 2006, he gave a sermon at St Andrews Cathedral for a Commonwealth Day service which the Queen attended. When he met her after the service he felt her warmth and graciousness. The thing on that occasion, but also throughout her life, that has been particularly interesting and impressive to me is her faith, he said. In August this year she said, throughout my life the message and teachings of Christ have been my guide and in them, I find hope. And thats her. Her faith was genuine, he said. Her response in the cathedral was ... she was taking part. It wasnt just a thing she did. It was real for her. After the church service, teacher Joy Rohrlach lined up her kindergarten students from St Andrews Cathedral School to greet the Queen. Queen Elizabeth met kindergarten students from St Andrews Cathedral School in Sydney in 2006. Credit:St Andrews Cathedral School We formed a line between the school and the cathedral and the Queen came over, and the children were delighted to see her and waved, Rohrlach said. She was always so gracious and stopped and smiled at them, and they were just thrilled. I hope they remember it. For her part, Rohrlach said she felt teary about the Queens passing when she heard the news on Friday morning. The Queen made a total of 12 visits to Sydney and 16 to Australia between 1954 and 2011, attending events including the opening of the Opera House in 1973. Herald reader David Hart said his grandmother, who adored the Queen, had fussed to get him ready to wave an Australian flag and watch her drive by in a black limousine in Newcastle when he was six years old. Queen Elizabeth speaks at the opening of the Opera House in 1973. Credit:Archive The Queen had disembarked her ship at the port of Newcastle, to drive past the crowds to continue to Sydney and Canberra ... in 1970, he said. Another reader remembers being in the guard of honour that year along Missenden Road when completing National Service, saying he was thankful for the Queens long years of service. In a statement, the NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said the publics overwhelming jubilation and enthusiasm at seeing the young monarch was the beginning of the states long-held joy in her frequent visits. Loading Her Late Majesty will forever be connected to pivotal moments in our states history. She officially opened the Parliament of New South Wales in 1954, Sydney Opera House in 1973, Parramatta Stadium in 1986, and Darling Harbour in 1988, he said. She also visited NSW regional areas including Newcastle, Lismore, Orange, Dubbo, Armidale, Tamworth and Wagga Wagga, drawing huge crowds of well-wishers. While we mourn her passing, it is the occasion for the people of NSW to offer thanks for a lifetime of public duty to the Crown, the Commonwealth, and to millions of people across the globe. The young Elizabeth was a breath of fresh royal air. World War II, of which Menzies later wrote neutrality for Australia in a British war was unthinkable, heralded the effective end of the British empire India, the so-called jewel in the crown, achieved independence in 1947 but Elizabeth found a new post-imperial mission. Not only Sydney, but the nation was enthralled by the young monarch. It was estimated 6 million of the Australian population of 9 million saw the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh during their tour, which took in seven capital cities and 70 towns in a gruelling 58 days. As then prime minister Robert Menzies wrote: To me, one of the most remarkably significant things about the Crown is that whereas for centuries it existed by power, because it had power, today it exists not because it has power in the legal sense but because it has achieved a new authority over the hearts and minds of our people. She was the first monarch to ever visit the city and wherever she went she touched hearts. Zaharoula Zervos now of Kingsford remembers waiting to watch the Queens train pass through Katoomba. When I woke up this morning I did cry because I remember her when she was young and full of life, Zervos told the Herald. Im very sad. When Queen Elizabeth II, who died on Thursday, made her first visit to Sydney in 1954, nearly 100,000 people crowded the area around Bondi in the warm sun to welcome her to our most famous beach. Loading During her seven decades as head of the royal family, she provided an example of service to the public, cutting through the formality and pageantry of her role with a kind smile. Her personal behaviour was beyond reproach, except perhaps for her initial indifferent response to the death of Princess Diana. It was this ability to remain stoic, no matter the disarray within her own family or wider political sphere, that bolstered her popularity through the decades. She was always there, a safe harbour during times of upheaval. In private, though, many spoke of her more expansive and endearing side. Former prime minister and republican Malcolm Turnbull, who you would hardly expect to wax lyrical about the monarchy, said the Queen was very, very charming, alert, gracious, generous and just totally devoted to her job, to her service. For a person who largely remained silent in public, he described how, behind closed doors, she wanted to not simply share her views but in particular draw out from me and when Lucy [Turnbull] joined us from Lucy what we thought about the issue she was interested in. Its a remarkable legacy for a woman who realised at age 10 that she would one day be called upon to wear the crown. When a footman brought the news to the young princess that her beloved father was king, her sister Margaret asked: Does that mean you will have to be the next queen? Had young Elizabeths uncle, King Edward VIII, not abdicated after his request to marry a divorcee was rejected by the British prime minister of the day and the Church of England, she would have enjoyed being a minor royal. Instead, while touring in Kenya in 1952 with her now deceased husband, Philip, her beloved father died in his sleep at Sandringham. A day later, the 25-year-old monarch arrived in London, dressed in black, and was greeted by prime minister Winston Churchill. As Elizabeth took the throne, she told her subjects: I pray that God will help me to discharge worthily this heavy task that has been laid upon me so early in my life. She very much lived up to those expectations. On March 1, 1992, she went missing. It was her 25th birthday. Her body was found on March 14 in a disused shed at the back of a gun shop in Playne Street, Frankston. The shed where Michele Browns body was found. Credit:Victoria Police There are more than 200 unsolved murders on the Victoria Police books. At any one time, six are selected to be re-investigated by the Cold Case Homicide Unit. It is labour-intensive work; a new investigation can take years. Most police departments dont bother, and if a case cant be solved in days they park it, unless a breakthrough presents itself. The head of the unit, Detective Senior Sergeant Paul Scarlett, says the unsolved cases are examined, and those selected for a deep dive re-investigation are the ones considered solvable because of new information or the potential for modern forensics to unearth new clues. Michele Brown had a passion for surfing. And there is another key component. People change, alibis breakdown and old loyalties crumble. Such as the case of James Russouw, 24, murdered in an East Burwood Reserve in 2008. Eight years later, in what was considered the last roll of the dice, police announced a $1 million reward and released a short clip of CCTV footage that showed a man in a public phone box who phoned Russouw from the East Burwood Kmart, about one kilometre from the murder scene. The quality was so poor it wasnt considered vital, but within two days a caller to Crime Stoppers claimed the man walking from the phone box was Christopher John Lavery, who like Russouw was a former Whitefriars College student. The caller, who also went to the same school, recognised Laverys gait and his habit of wearing ill-fitting pants. A check of the file showed Lavery had an alibi claiming he had been at a movie with a mate. When police re-interviewed the mate he quickly admitted he had been lying. In 2017 Lavery was convicted of Russouws murder. The murder of Michelle Buckingham, 16, who disappeared in October 1983 seemed one of those cases destined not remain unsolved until the Shepparton News partnered with cold case detectives to re-open the file. Blanket publicity from the local paper in 2012 led to a series of tips from the public. One caller came forward after his conscience was pricked by the photo of Michelles mother, Elvira, in the paper. Loading He said his brother-in-law Steven Bradley had confessed to the murder. According to the informer, Norman Gribble, the day after Michelle was murdered a distressed Bradley confessed he had killed her. Bradley told Gribble he and mates Rodney Butler and Trevor Corrigan went to the caravan park where they picked up Michelle. In May 2014 he was charged, extradited from Brisbane, and eventually convicted and sentenced to 27 years with a minimum of 21. Scarlett says when police announce a re-investigation it gives potential witnesses a chance to reflect on what happened and consider finally telling the truth. It can draw people out who have not previously come forward, he says. It is a little like a modern Formula One driver racing against a Jack Brabham special. Cold case detectives have to develop a different mindset than the present-day homicide investigator. In the modern era, the detectives usually have a crime scene, phone records, CCTV data, modern DNA technology and credit card footprints. In a cold case, the detectives have a musty file, police and coronial records and often not much else. It is a little like a modern Formula One driver racing against a Jack Brabham special. While DNA has helped solve old cases, exhibits were handled differently decades ago and samples can be compromised. And not all lines of inquiry were documented. Sometimes if a suspect provided a corroborated alibi they would be written out of the case without comprehensive notes. This is gumshoe work. Strip the case back, hit the files and find the witnesses. Talk to them again and again. Is there anything they forgot? Is there anything on their minds they now wish to share? Senior detective Jodie Stoll has been in homicide for four years, and is now investigating the Michele Brown case. It is a different process, she says. You have to be prepared to be patient. In the Brown case police have announced $1 million-dollar reward and the possibility of immunity for a co-offender who comes forward with the truth. The brutal truth is someone in the know could clear their conscience and their debts in one go. First the facts. On March 1, 1992, Michele Brown left her family home in Baxter about midday and went to Frankston North to visit a friend. After 7pm the pair walked to the FoodPlus store on the Frankston-Dandenong road to buy cigarettes. Brown borrowed 30 cents from her friend to ring home to ask her mother for a lift home, to pick her up at the agreed spot behind the railway station and the bus hub. Her brother answered the phone and later told police she sounded intoxicated. When her mother arrived Michele was not there. This was unusual, although she would stay away from home for days at a time. Jeanette began to make enquiries with her daughters friends. When they told her they had not heard from Michele and as she had not been in contact asking for money, she reported her missing. On March 14, a worker at the gun shop noticed an odd smell at the shed and discovered the body. The shed was on the Frankston railway line about 300 metres from where Michele had wanted to be picked up. She was found naked, face down with clothes next to her. She had previously gone to the shed to use drugs, which is one of the reasons police believe she was killed by a person, or people, she knew. A friend told police she received a phone call from Michele from near the railway station about 8pm, and said someone saw her and was pulling up. It was 10 minutes before her mother was due to arrive. Two Playne Street residents reported hearing two screams at 9pm, followed by silence. The group of people who associated with Michele Brown were unable or unwilling to help the initial homicide investigation, which was hardly surprising as many of them saw the police as enemies. Police believe Michele probably knew her killer or killers, and that more than one person knows what happened in that shed 30 years ago. But many of them would now be in their mid-50s and would have left that world behind. Police believe she probably knew her killer, or killers, and that more than one person knows what happened in that shed 30 years ago. Scarlett says cold cases can be solved by just one phone call. Anyone with any information, no matter how small, should contact us, he says. Loading It may be something that has nagged at the conscience, or as Stoll says, There are now one million reasons to come forward. Michele Browns sister, Simone Kapiteyn, spent 24 years in the Victoria and WA police forces dealing with criminals and victims. She saw people spinning out of control and people who came through dark times. [My sister] fell in with the wrong crowd, made some poor choices and dabbled in drugs but should never have been forced to pay the ultimate price, Kapiteyn says. We have always believed this is solvable and there are people who know what happened. No parents should have to live without knowing what happened to one of their children. As I watched the spectacle and absorbed the atmosphere, it occurred to me that there was no other head of state, head of government or other public figure in any country in the world who could have been greeted with such universal, unqualified affection even love. It was spontaneous, unrestrained and deeply felt. A tribute not just to 70 years of selfless public service, but to the Queen herself: a constant in everyones lives for so long as they could remember an icon, yes, but a person too. At the end of the parade, the doors opened and the Queen, accompanied by Prince Charles and Camilla, Prince William and Catherine, and their three children, appeared on the palace balcony to the thunderous rapture of the crowds. It was the very spot where, as a 19-year-old in service uniform, she had first stood beside her father, King George VI , 77 years ago, before another rapturous crowd, on VE Day. Her balcony appearances on important state occasions have punctuated the modern history of Britain. This would be the last. It was a powerful and poignant moment: at once a public demonstration of gratitude and, unspoken, but in everyones mind, a goodbye. Three months ago, the Queen made what would be her last public appearance in London. It was the Jubilee pageant, a long, joyous, colourful street parade to celebrate the 70 years of her reign. Thousands upon thousands of participants, representing every part of the Commonwealth and every aspect of British life, from military bands to reggae groups to modern dance troupes, processed through the streets of London, down the Mall, towards Buckingham Palace. It was estimated that half a million people gathered in the adjacent St Jamess Park. Tens of millions across the United Kingdom celebrated at street parties. As Australian High Commissioner, I had occasion to meet the Queen several times. The first meeting was the customary audience to present credentials. I arrived, morning-suited and a little nervous. There was little ceremony. The page announced me, the Queen greeted me, there were official photographs, and then all the staff withdrew, leaving us alone. I was told in advance that the audience usually lasted about 10 minutes, but this one went for over half an hour. Having spent an entire lifetime putting strangers at ease in her presence, I found her extremely easy to talk to. We chatted about a diverse range of topics and personalities mainly Australian. She was friendly, funny and sharp. Years later, I hosted her at the last Australian event she ever attended. The COVID pandemic had kept her isolated for more than a year, but in April last year she resumed a limited schedule of public appearances. Her first post-lockdown event was a ceremony at the Air Force Memorial, near her home at Windsor Castle, to mark the centenary of the RAAF and commemorate the thousands of Australian aircrew who lost their lives over European skies in the Second World War. When I said to her assistant private secretary how delighted we were that the Queen had selected our invitation among the many thousands she receives for her first post-lockdown appearance, he told me how excited she was about it. Like everybody else, shes been locked down for more than a year, shes bored to death and she cant wait to come. And she loves Australia. High Commissioner George Brandis lays a wreath at the socially distanced anniversary service. Credit:Getty Images After a short ceremony and speeches, I conducted her around the cloister and introduced her to a number of RAAF personnel embedded with RAF units. She asked one young officer where she was stationed; when she mentioned the base in the north of England, the Queen well aware that there were boom microphones nearby picking up every word replied brightly: Oh yes, I know it. Youre the ones who chase the Russians away. You dont have to be diplomatic when youre the sovereign. Her Majestys visit to the Air Force memorial would also be her last public appearance for many months; just nine days later, her husband Prince Philip died. Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size A ninety-six gun salute over Canberra. Lights off on the Eiffel Tower in Paris. And tears and flowers at the gates of Buckingham Palace in England. This is how countries around the world are marking the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, Britains longest-serving monarch. Since she took the throne at age 25 in 1952, the Queen has become a beloved symbol of stability in the post-world-war era. To some, perhaps, it seemed as if her reign would never end. But the formalities of her death have been methodically planned for years (and now updated for the coronavirus pandemic). When Buckingham Palace announced that the Queen had passed away peacefully at her Balmoral estate in the Scottish Highlands on the afternoon of September 8 (at 3.30am on September 9 AEST), Operation London Bridge swung into action. To palace staff, the date of the Queens death is known as D-Day and each day following, leading up to the funeral, is referred to as D+1, D+2 and so on. Heres what we know so far about what happens. Queen Elizabeth II of England at Balmoral Castle with one of her corgis, in 1952, the year she became Queen. Credit:Getty Day One, D-Day Operation London Bridge began with a phone call. New Prime Minister Liz Truss was one of the last people to see the Queen in person, when she was sworn into office just two days earlier, and she was the first to be officially notified of Her Majestys death at 4.30pm. The Queens private secretary would have called on a secure line to say London Bridge is down, meaning the Queen is dead, and her son Charles is king. Advertisement Two footmen emerged from Buckingham Palace to pin the official notification of the Queens death to the gates, as parliaments were suspended in the UK and in Commonwealth nations across the globe, and flags dropped to half-mast. Its part of formal mourning periods across the 14 other nations where the Queen is head of state (and 39 other countries in the Commonwealth). The D-Day plans have long allowed for the chance the Queen would die at Balmoral, one of her favourite places and her primary residence since the pandemic hit. Leaked excerpts of Operation Unicorn, this Scottish leg of the plan, indicate her coffin will temporarily rest at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Scotland before being conveyed to London. The official statement confirming the death of the Queen is attached to the gates of Buckingham Palace. Credit:Leon Neal/Getty When night fell in Canberra on D-Day, a special gun salute fired one cannon round for every year of the Queens life. Federal parliament wont return until after her funeral, which will be the first full state funeral since the death of Winston Churchill in 1965. In the coming days, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Governor-General David Hurley will travel to London to meet with the Commonwealths new sovereign, King Charles III. Albanese, who has said the Queens loss will be felt deeply, had not yet visited the UK and had an audience with the Queen since becoming prime minister in May. A national memorial service will be held in Australia for the Queen after his return from London, as part of a fortnight of official mourning. UK embassies around the world have laid out condolence books US President Joe Biden visited his own in Washington to add his name. (She was more than a monarch, she defined an era, he said of Queen Elizabeth.) Australias parliament and Government Houses in each state too have laid out condolence books, and the Governor-Generals website has an online book for signing. National monuments will light up in Britains Union Jack colours around the globe over the coming nights, including Sydneys Opera House. Advertisement Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signs the Queens book of condolences at Parliament House, Canberra. Credit:James Brickwood Day Two, D+1 King Charles III who became sovereign upon his mothers death has now addressed the nation, paying tribute to his darling mama and saying her death had caused a sense of loss, beyond measure. Queen Elizabeth was a life well lived; a promise with destiny kept ... That promise of lifelong service I renew to you all today. Meanwhile, members of the Accession Council (made up of senior government figures and members of the Privy Council) will meet in the Throne Room at St James Palace to proclaim Charles the new sovereign. High commissioners of the realms, including from Australia, will be invited as observers.Charles is expected to hold his first Privy Council meeting, accompanied by the Queen Consort Camilla and Prince William (who are also privy counsellors), and make his personal declaration and oath. The first public proclamation of the new sovereign will be read out, and flags will fly at full-mast until 1pm the following day, before returning to half-mast to mark the Queens passing. In Australia, there are plans on Saturday for the governor-general, the prime minister and opposition leader Peter Dutton to lay wreaths for the Queen at Parliament House, joined by federal ministers, MPs and senators. Charles accepts a rose from well-wishers during a walk outside Buckingham Palace. Credit:Getty Images Day Three Advertisement If Operation Unicorn unfolds to plan, the Queens coffin will likely be taken from Balmoral to the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, where it is expected to remain for two nights before the journey back to London. Meanwhile, at 11am Sunday AEST, Albanese will lead a meeting of ministers to consider the proclamation of the new King, with all ministers invited to attend. That will trigger a formal recommendation to the governor-general to issue the proclamation in Australia, which the governor-general is expected to read at noon this Sunday at Parliament House a public event marked by a 21-gun salute. Day Four The King is expected to deliver a speech to parliament in Westminster on Monday. There, MPs will likely pass a motion of condolence and give more tributes, though all other parliamentary business will stay on hold. The Queens coffin will travel up the Royal Mile to St Giles Cathedral in the middle of Edinburgh, where the King and other members of the royal family will attend a service later that day. It will mark the start of a national tour by the King to mark the Queens death, including remembrance services in Belfast and Cardiff, as part of Operation Spring Tide that co-ordinates the Kings accession. Queen Elizabeth, then Princess with Prince Philip, in the Throne Room of Buckingham Palace after their wedding in 1947. Day Five Advertisement The Queens coffin is expected to arrive in London, where it will be installed in the Throne Room at Buckingham Palace. Rehearsals will begin for its procession to the Palace of Westminster. Day Six The Queens lying in state will begin in Westminster Hall, known as Operation Marquee. Her coffin is to arrive in a ceremonial military procession, on a gun carriage, with the royal family walking behind. Hundreds of thousands of people will file past the coffin over the following four days to pay their respects, as they did for the Queen Mothers lying in state in 2002 and for King George VI in 1952. Her coffin will lie on a raised box known as a catafalque, with a wreath of flowers and the Imperial State Crown on top. The coffin of King George VI resting on a catafalque in Westminster Hall in 1952. Credit:Getty Images Day Seven Throughout the lying in state, senior royals are expected to pay their own tribute by standing guard over the coffin in a tradition known as the Vigil of the Princes. Advertisement Thank you for joining us and following along for the proclamation of King Charles III. The livestream will continue for the proclamation of the King at the Royal Exchange, but our live coverage finishes here. In the coming days, Australia will hold its own ceremonies to celebrate the proclamation of the King and commemorate the life of the late Queen Elizabeth II. We will be covering these events, and bringing you all the latest news regarding the Queens funeral, including on the ground reporting from London. Enjoy the rest of your night. I had lunch with the Queen in 1963. Melbourne Town Hall. I was only 7, and all I can remember is that crayfish was served. My uncle was Lord Mayor at the time, which is how we as a family got to attend. She will be sorely missed. - Jan Syme I feel like Ive lost my nan, a lady so beautiful, kind, thoughtful always. Now with her beloved Prince. Thank you. - Therese Black We have lived, studied and worked in both the UK (London) and Australia (Melbourne) for over 50 years as migrants from Myanmar and have been privileged to have witnessed the lovely face and countenance of our gorgeous Queen Elizabeth II and all her equally lovely immediate and extended family all these past decades. I am sure we will all miss her presence and grace - fond memories for the rest of our lives. May God allow us to meet her one glorious day on that great day of resurrection. Amen. - Malcolm A. Roberts I had the privilege of meeting Her Majesty at a garden party at Government House (Sydney) when I was a young journalist at Radio 2GB. The Queen noticed the logo on my microphone and saw other journos near me holding mikes bearing the logos of competing stations (2UE and 2WS). After introducing myself, Her Majesty quipped: I see youre consorting with the enemy, Colin. I will always remember her radiant smile and send my condolences to the royal family and all those who admired Queen Elizabeth II. Colin Tyrus I have loved the Queen ever since I was a little boy going to school in Baradine. We would sing God Save The Queen while looking at her picture on the wall. Those memories have never left me. She loved this country and we loved her back. Today is an incredibly sad day. Rest in peace, Your Majesty. Ben Zoffman For someone who early in life stated a desire to become country lady with lots of horses and dogs, her late majesty Queen Elizabeth II certainly took to her responsibilities as Queen with dedication, humour and aplomb. Let us not forget, however, that beyond the role of head of state, she was also a mother and grandmother, and it is to Her family most of all that my thoughts go out to today. May she rest in Peace. Aydan Casey On a visit to Melbourne the Queen rode the tram from Federation Square to Government House. Credit:Fairfax Archives She was like a family member. She was one of the strongest women we will ever know she will be missed Briton will not be the same ever again. Sue Cosford Although I did not know the Queen personally, it was comforting to know that we had a strong woman leader, who was courageous and kind. She made a long-lasting impact on many lives, and I know that we will miss her deeply as a country (Australia). Many have been touched by the spirit the Queen held. In a world filled with much despair, she managed to fill it with a spark no one else could. I send my deepest regards to the royal family, and am thinking of them during this unfathomable time. Violet She was an amazing lady. I remember seeing her at Town Hall Sydney in 1954. I was four. May she RIP. Gayle Byrin With grace, dignity and kindness will this extraordinary and much-loved monarch be remembered always. Aubrey Seknow I remember being in North Sydney park as a school child, to welcome the Queen on her first visit to Australia. It was a most exciting day. Since then, I have been inspired by her resilience in the face of adversity, her service to her country and the Commonwealth, and her humility, leadership, and humanity. Rest In Peace your majesty. Carmel Brooks I stood on the banks of the Thames at Tower Hill for the Queens Diamond Jubilee in 2012. The rain tumbled down but the crowds were massive, watching the Queen at the head of the river pageant. It was such a joyous, momentous early June day. To my surprise, just over two weeks later, I had the opportunity to meet her majesty at Royal Ascot as she fawned over Black Caviar, the unbeaten Australian mare who had just won the Diamond Jubilee Stakes. Her knowledge of horses and of racing was as good as any person I have met and she fondly recalled her 1997 Melbourne Cup runner Arabian Story. Today is a very sad day as an Australian, as a racing fan, as a global citizen. The world as we know it is simply not the same without Queen Elizabeth II at the helm. Andrew She was one of the few people of high office in this world, who made a promise early in her life and through a deep sense of duty kept it right until the end of her life. Veronica Ranyard Heart-wrenching to hear of the much loved and admired Queen Elizabeth. She has served her country with such dignity and grace and was much loved worldwide. Now she will be with her beloved husband Prince Philip and will continue their journey side by side. God Bless her majesty for her devoted service, who never faltered or complained of her service to her country. Passing in her beloved Balmoral Residence. Forever remembered. Mari Rothbauer Born in 1963 I have only ever known of life under the Queen. At primary school we sang God save the Queen at morning assembly and as an adult I went to serve in the Royal Australian Air Force. She has and always will be a piece of my heart, an idea of humble yet great love and humility, and an icon of a kinder and more gracious generation who lived a life of service. RIP. Steve For the entirety of my life she was Queen, she will always have a place in my heart. Lixxie A gracious, poised, hard-working and dedicated person who optimised the principle of service to humanity. Diane Fitzmaurice Loading For me, the queen epitomised stability, duty and grace. She was such a constant in our ever-changing world. In some ways I dread a world without her. Although I know she lived a privileged life, I am grateful for the way she handled herself and the example she gave amidst a world that is crumbling. I hope that Charles can draw everyone together the way she has. I am thankful for the way she died with dignity to the end. She was a great gift to the world. Vicki Hosking The most extraordinary woman of the 20th century. Peter Bartley The world has lost its brightest beacon. She was an exemplary example of how a leader should behave. A huge contrast to some of the worlds recent politicians. Truly selfless and often the institution of last resort. We all owe her a massive debt, which can only be repaid through service to others. Marg Shonk Farewell. At the last setting of the sun each day, may we continue to remember you fondly for the gracious joy and service you have given to all. R Chee Our universal grandmother is gone to join her great love. How beautiful to watch their gracious lives unfold and hold them in our hearts for so long. Beth No matter what turmoil existed in the world the Queen was a stable and calming influence. We grew up with our Queen and even though she was in a distant land we sang God Save the Queen at every assembly. It is a sad day for the world. Rest in Peace dearest Queen. Geoff Stewart I was fortunate enough to see the Queen three times in person. As a primary school student waving a small flag at the opening of my mums workplace in the 1990s. Once on her last trip to Australia in 2011 during the Perth commonwealth heads of government meeting, when I was a young student leader. And finally, during her last overseas trip, in Malta during the Commonwealth Summit. Her kindness as she made her way through the crowds always stood out, despite meeting so many people. I think one of the Queens greatest legacies will undoubtedly be her steadfast leadership of the Commonwealth of Nations. Although Im far from a royalist, Ive always been a big believer in the potential of this grouping of nations - so lovingly led by the Queen - to be a force for good in the world. - Michael Sheldrick Queen Elizabeth II was devoted to her calling, dignified, respectful and capable. It is unlikely there will ever be another quite like her. - Keith Howden Loading I am shattered, totally shattered. RIP beautiful Queen Elizabeth II, the world will never be the same without you. I pray that our God blesses you for all that you have done. - Paula Sirone I really thought you would live forever. I cant imagine a world without Queen Elizabeth II. Rest in peace your majesty. - Ken My son Henry lives in London. One day we were standing near Buckingham Palace when we heard a helicopter overhead and around the corner came the Queen and Prince Phillip in a Royal car. Its something special to see them live. - Geoff Moss I felt shocked and saddened when I heard the news this morning of the Queens passing. Having been born in 1958, she is the only monarch whom I have known and has provided a great constancy over my life and times. I will miss her. - Ross Galloway Like many, many others, she was the only Queen I had known during my life (51 years and counting) and the backdrop to life. I am neither a monarchist or a republican but I will miss a person I never met, who never met me but whose personality and dedication stood out over all these years. Vale my Queen. - Mandorallen I was a school boy when she first came to Australia when I did but see her passing buy. Her entire life has been dedicated to people. Like all families her children had difficulties and I think she was a model mother in how she guided and assisted her children in a very public gaze through their emotional traumas.How she protected her teenage grandsons on the death of their mother Diana. So many times when the world saw only darkness Elizabeth our Queen saw light and hope. We are all the richer for her example. - Geoff Quinn I remember being in the Guard of Honour in 1954 along Missenden Road when completing National Service. Also when she passed through Hurstville on a train. A very sad time for us all. Thank you for your long service. RIP. - Ronald Gordon Field The Queen was a tremendous example of service, dedication and strength. I was heartbroken when she lost her great love, Phillip. She was a great example to all and can never be replaced. My Mum adored her and gave me her name. We have so many wonderful memories, especially her moments of fun. - Liz Loading As it has been said by many already, Her Majesty Elizabeth II has been the Queen my whole life. I have a deep found respect and love her grace, humility and dedication to serve until the end. I had the privilege to be at her Balmoral Estate during the Jubilee festivities in June. What a memory to be cherished. Rest In Peace. - Jonathan Zhao There will never be another Queen Elizabeth. We have admired your grace and poise, intellect and leadership. Thank you. - Claire As a baby boomer, for me the Queen has always been there. What a wonderful service HM has given to so many and will be missed by millions. She was like a Grandmother. Thank you and may your deal soul Rest in Peace. - David Francis I feel unaccountably sad today. I am not the most fervent monarchist in our family (mum and dad stopped everything for the Queens Christmas message!) but she encapsulated so many good qualities (honour, duty, decency and self-deprecating humour) sadly missing from so many public figures. - Mark McNair My grandmother adored the Queen. She fussed over us to get ready and we walked down to the main road in Newcastle to watch the Queen drive by in her black limousine, waving through the windows. I was six years old. We children were holding Australian flags to wave. The Queen had disembarked her ship at the port of Newcastle, to drive past the crowds to continue to Sydney and Canberra. This was the Queens royal visit to Australia in 1970. - David Hart Victorious, happy and glorious. She has been there in my life always. I have seen her seven times. The most wonderful Queen and leader. What a life! Love you Lillibet. Fly high. - Sheelagh Wannop Your Majesty, you were, and remain, the most amazing role model of service, duty and love. You will live forever in our hearts. Perhaps the most remarkable woman who has ever lived. Thank you for your incredible life. - Carole Dent I saw her twice in my life. I saw her in my hometown of Lismore in 1954 during pouring rain and I still remember what she was wearing. Many years later I saw her with her family during a reception at the Sydney Town Hall. A truly gracious and dedicated lady right to the end. - Daphne Freke PHILIPSBURG:--- Community Police Officers (CPOs) spoke to Group Eight pupils of Hillside Christian School in St Peters on Wednesday, September 7, about appropriate behavior, the consequences of alcohol and drug abuse, and the use/abuse of social media as well as (cyber) bullying. The officers engaged with pupils about respect for each other, for their community in particular the law and law enforcement. This visit was seen as a necessary part of the development of the Group 8 students who will attend secondary schools in the next school year. The management of Sint Maarten Police Force KPSM expresses its appreciation to the school management for its invitation. The police brass also thanks the CPOs who devote their time to these important community projects. KPSM Press Release. Mawson Announces Appointment of John Jentz as Independent Director Mawson Gold Limited (aMawsona) or (the aCompanya) (TSX:MAW) (Frankfurt:MXR) (PINKSHEETS: MWSNF) ( https://www.commodity-tv.com/ondemand/companies/profil/mawson-gold-ltd/ ) is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. John Jentz to the Board of Directors (the aBoarda) of Mawson, as Independent Director.A Mr. Jentz is a seasoned mining professional and company director. During his 20+ year career in mining, Mr. Jentz has held roles across investment banking and mining corporates a most notably in recent positions of VP Corporate Development of Semafo Gold and Director of North American Palladium, each of which were acquired for ~C$1B in the last 3 years. He has a strong corporate strategy mindset, mining capital markets experience which spans institutional, HNW and retail investor bases, and a corporate finance skill base relevant across the capital structure. A Mr. Jentz has a HBSc (Actuarial) from the University of Western Ontario, and MBA from McMaster University and is both a Charted Accountant (CA) and Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA). He is currently the Lead Director of Consolidated Uranium Inc. (TSXV: CUR). Pursuant to the Companya?s Stock Option Plan and, in connection with Mr. Jentza? appointment to the Board, Mr. Jentz has been granted incentive stock options to purchase 600,000 common shares of the Company, exercisable at a price of $0.15 per common share for a period of three years. Mr. Fairhall, CEO, states aI am very pleased to welcome John to the Board. John brings decades of financial and mining experience overseeing real value creation and realization. These skills are complementary to Mawsona?s strategy as it looks to build shareholder value from its unique asset portfolio which includes the 1.04A Moz AuEq Rajapalot project in Finland (PEA in-progress), SkellefteA North Gold project in Sweden and its 60% holding of ASX listed Southern Cross Gold Ltd. I look forward to Johna?s contributions during this exciting time for the Company.A A A About Mawson Gold Limited (TSX:MAW, FRANKFURT:MXR, OTCPINK:MWSNF) Mawson Gold LimitedA is an exploration and development company. Mawson has distinguished itself as a leading Nordic Arctic exploration company with its 100% owned flagship Rajapalot gold-cobalt project in Finland, and right to earn into the SkellefteA North gold project in Sweden. Mawson also owns 60% of Southern Cross Gold Ltd (ASX:SXG) which in turn owns three high-grade, historic epizonal goldfields covering 470 km2 in Victoria, Australia. On behalf of the Board, \Ivan FairhallaA A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A Ivan Fairhall, CEO Further Information www.mawsongold.com 1305 a 1090 West Georgia St., Vancouver, BC, V6E 3V7 Mariana Bermudez (Canada), Corporate Secretary, +1 (604) 685 9316 info@mawsongold.com In Europe: Swiss Resource Capital AG Jochen Staiger & Marc Ollinger info@resource-capital.ch www.resource-capital.ch Forward-Looking Statement This news release contains forward-looking statements or forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws (collectively, \forward-looking statements\). All statements herein, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. Although Mawson believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, postulate, and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. Mawson cautions investors that any forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to: capital and other costs varying significantly from estimates; changes in world metal markets; changes in equity markets; ability to achieve goals; that the political environment in which the Company operates will continue to support the development and operation of mining projects; the threat associated with outbreaks of viruses and infectious diseases, including the novel COVID-19 virus; risks related to negative publicity with respect to the Company or the mining industry in general; reliance on a single asset; planned drill programs and results varying from expectations; unexpected geological conditions; local community relations; dealings with non-governmental organizations; delays in operations due to permit grants; environmental and safety risks; and other risks and uncertainties disclosed under the heading \Risk Factors\ in Mawson\-s most recent Annual Information Form filed on www.sedar.com. While these factors and assumptions are considered reasonable by Mawson, in light of managementa?s experience and perception of current conditions and expected developments, Mawson can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct.A Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, Mawson disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Welcome To SpoilerTV We bring you a comprehensive and up to date spoiler service on all the major US TV shows and Movies. You can find specific show content by clicking the menu system at the top of the screen. We scour the Internet for spoilers as well as posting our own exclusive spoilers (Scripts, Casting Calls, Set Photos etc) as well as recaps and other fun articles and polls. We hope you enjoy your stay. Lima (Peru), September 9, 2022. (SPS)- The President of the Republic of Peru Mr. Pedro Castillo, on Thursday reiterated his commitment to persist in the defense of the sovereign self-determination of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), stated the official news agency of Peru "ANDINA". The same source added that the head of the State of Peru made this statement via his official Twitter account, one year after having established diplomatic relations with the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic. On September 8, 2021, Peru and the SADR agreed to reestablish diplomatic relations, as well as reaffirmed their respect for international law and the principle of self-determination of the peoples. The agreement was made in accordance with the principle of legal equality of States as the basis of respect for national sovereignty, peace, security, and cooperation in terms of international relations. SPS 110 DARIEN Dariens five-year affordable housing plan is approved and headed to the state three months after the initial deadline. The final version of the plan, with a few last-minute changes, was unanimously approved by the Planning and Zoning commission at Tuesday nights meeting. Under Connecticut law, all 169 municipalities were required to submit affordable housing plans at the beginning of June to address the statewide housing shortage. Chairman Stephen Olvany attributed part of the delay to Julys public hearing, a measure not every town included when finalizing what he said he considered a very important document. Rather than define Darien as a purely residential community, Vice Chairman George Reilly recommended revising the plans values and goals to instead consider the town a predominantly residential community. In making this change, Reilly acknowledged criticism from those defending our town because of its residential character, but recommended a more open-minded approach that reflected Dariens growing business and commercial districts. I am a lifelong Darienite so I know it is not the residential community it was in the 1950s, and I think we need to come to grips with that, Reilly said. There are terrific residential communities, but I think we should note that there is a blend, and that blend is providing opportunities for more affordable housing. Even with business interests reflected, the plan still prioritizes preserving the predominantly New England style, single-family character of Darien neighborhoods. The commission is also considering tracking progress on affordable housing with an annual report, though it would not be a formal requirement. Former zoning official David Keating, a consultant on the plan, said he deliberately left out any kind of month-to-month timeline from the original draft. According to Keating, any detailed timeline would likely put the town in violation of the plan within the first month from decisions or factors outside of the commission's control. Commission member Amy Barsanti called an annual evaluation logical given the number of initiatives within the five-year plan, adding I also dont think theres anything wrong with us as a body reexamining in a year how we are doing. The commission is waiting on the 2020 census data to confirm the number of affordable housing units Darien must meet to achieve a third moratorium on affordable housing. The town was previously granted two four-year moratoria, exempting the community from state-mandated affordable housing projects. CHICAGO (AP) An ex-business manager for R. Kelly and his co-defendant at the singer's federal trial in Chicago expressed doubts on the witness stand Thursday about Kellys insistence in the 2000s that he never sexually abused minors testifying a day after the former employee told jurors he had had no reason to doubt his boss was telling the truth. Derrell McDavid's testimony, which could be a major blow to Kelly's hope of acquittal, came at the end McDavid's second day on the stand. He and the Grammy winner are charged with successfully fixing Kellys 2008 child pornography trial by threatening witnesses and concealing video evidence. Both also face child pornography charges. Asked by his own lawyer, Beau Brindley, if he was in a different position now as far as assessing allegations against Kelly after sitting through government testimony by four Kelly accusers, McDavid responded solemnly: Yes, I am. The last (few) weeks Ive learned a lot that I had no idea about in 2008, he said. When he added that, as I stand here today, Im embarrassed sad, Kellys lead lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, objected. Judge Harry Leinenweber sustained her objection. McDavid, who said earlier he once saw Kelly as a son, was also asked Thursday if he had wanted to believe Kelly in the 2000s and through to the end of Kelly's 2008 trial. I absolutely did, he answered, because I loved him and I believed in him. It is in McDavids interest to say he believed Kelly in much of the 2000s because it undermines the governments case that McDavid knew Kelly was guilty heading into the 2008 trial and would, if evidence wasn't suppressed, be convicted. With jurors out of the courtroom earlier, Bonjean said she was worried McDavid would as he ended up doing cast doubt about Kellys believability. She said it would unfairly prejudice her client in jurors' eyes and, on some counts, seal his fate. Kellys defense team has several times asked that Kellys trial be severed from McDavids and that Kelly be tried alone, saying their interests at a joint trial would inevitably conflict. Leinenweber has repeatedly rejected that request. Among the charges only Kelly faces at the current trial are five counts of enticing minor girls for sex one count for five Kelly accusers. McDavid's testimony toward the end of the day Thursday could potentially lend credence to those accusations. Prosecutors are set to start what could be a blistering cross-examination of McDavid on Friday. McDavid's lengthy testimony seemed to open doors for prosecutors to ask him about otherwise barred topics, including evidence entered by state prosecutors at Kellys 2008 trial. Earlier Thursday, McDavid also testified that a push to recover purported Kelly sex videos prior to the 2008 trial was driven, not by himself or Kelly, but by Kellys now deceased-criminal lawyer, Ed Genson. With that testimony, McDavid sought to distance himself from decisions to aggressively pursue videos prior to the 2008 trial, including by offering six-figure payoffs for lost or stolen videos. The ongoing trial in Kelly's hometown is, in ways , a do-over of that 2008 trial. A single video, which state prosecutors said showed Kelly sexually abusing a girl of around 14, was at the heart of that trial. The same video is in evidence at the current trial. The girl in the video, then an adult, did not testify at that 2008 trial, which jurors said at the time was one reason they couldn't convict Kelly. She did testify at the current trial under the pseudonym, "Jane." The otherwise dry, matter-of-fact McDavid sounded emotional for the first time in two days on the stand when asked Thursday how he felt when jurors at the 2008 trial acquitted Kelly on all charges. I was happy, he said, his voice appearing to break. During one lunch break during McDavids testimony, McDavid stood next to Kelly sitting at his defense table the two chatting amiably. On Thursday, McDavid told jurors he and Kelly began to grow apart in the years after the 2008 trial, friction between them highlighted by financial disputes. He quit working for Kelly in 2014, he testified. On Wednesday, McDavid told jurors he had seen Jane when she was a minor hanging around Kellys studio in the late 1990s. He said Kelly angrily denied rumors he was sexually abusing Jane, who Kelly described as his god daughter. I believed him, McDavid testified. Testifying earlier, Jane, now 37, said Kelly sexually abused her hundreds of time starting when she was 14. She also said she was the girl in the video at the center of the 2008 trial and entered as evidence at the current trial. She said Kelly produced it. McDavid is the only one of the three defendants testifying in his own behalf. Both Kelly and Milton Brown, the third co-defendant, told the trial judge last week they would not testify. This trial follows a separate federal trial in New York, where the 55-year-old Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in June. ___ Follow Michael Tarm on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mtarm and find APs full coverage of the R. Kelly trial at https://apnews.com/hub/r-kelly We have a lot to be proud of in Fairfield County, and while thankfully we have passed the worst of the pandemic, many who call our region home will continue to face the economic and social inequities exacerbated by COVID-19. In the business community, we have an opportunity to support our local economic recovery while addressing the educational disparities that impact far too many children and families in our county. Now more than ever, supporting education is critical to advancing equity and opportunity for all. It is unacceptable that entrenched educational gaps sharply divide Fairfield County students along racial, ethnic, and economic lines. A child born in Bridgeport, for instance, doesnt have the same quality of education and opportunities to succeed and thrive as a child born in Stratford and Trumbull. For our business community, the case for closing that gap is strong. By investing in quality programs that support classroom learning, assist students through academic transitions, and provide access to the nutrition required to focus and learn, we are investing in our collective future. Our workforce will be larger and more skilled, and our communities will flourish. This simple idea inspired a group of forward-thinking Fairfield County businesses to join forces to invest in our communitys economic future. We teamed up with Fairfield Countys Community Foundation to create the Fairfield County Business Collaborative for Education Equity. Each business in the collaborative Bank of America, First County Bank, Lapine Associates, Pitney Bowes, Synchrony Financial, The Tudor Foundation, Inc., Xerox, Gallatin Point Capital, The Ashforth Company, and Henkel Corporation has pledged to invest resources to help address the most pressing needs facing our communitys most vulnerable pre-K through grade 12 students, parents, and guardians. To date, the collaborative has awarded $400,000 to Fairfield County nonprofits focused on improving kindergarten and college readiness, helping students avoid summer learning loss and addressing food security among youth and young adults. And the math behind the collaboratives impact is truly promising: Nearly 85 percent of youth who received meals had improved access to fresh fruits and vegetables and nearly 9 in 10 experienced less anxiety about food insecurity. Three in every four students maintained at least a B average. More than 80 percent of students who took part in summer academic programs were able to recover academic credits. A majority of middle school students who took part in funded programs reported that they were confident about their transition to high school. As business leaders, we play an important role in our local community. Together, we can help ensure that every child who grows up in Fairfield County receives an equitable education and opportunity to succeed and thrive. In a very short time, we have seen the strength in working together and the promise that this partnership can accomplish in building resiliency and opportunity for all. This is a strong beginning and a sustained focus on the issues will make the real difference. On behalf of the members of the collaborative, we extend an open invitation to local businesses - of all sizes to join us on our journey to help eliminate the educational disparities that are holding our community back. If we can change these conditions and make it possible for every child in our county regardless of their school or ZIP code to reach their full potential, then our community has an opportunity to thrive like it never has before. When we create a community where all our neighbors have an opportunity to succeed, we all succeed. Robert J. Granata is chairman and CEO of First County Bank and president of First County Bank Foundation. Marc Lautenbach is president and CEO of Pitney Bowes. William Tommins is president of Bank of America Southern Connecticut. 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According to a press statement released on Friday by the Romanian Ministry of Agriculture, Minister Petre Daea welcomed at the ministry's headquarters in Bucharest a delegation of Moldova's Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry (MAIA) led by minister Vladimir Bolea.The two officials reviewed the main bilateral issues: trade in agri-food products, identification of tools to intensify bilateral agri-food co-operation, agricultural produce processing.Daea voiced support for backing the European integration of Moldova based on the reform process and the commitments taken up for the implementation of the Association Agreement between the Republic of Moldova and the European Union."We will give you support for the adaptation of legislation, the assimilation of the community acquis, the creation of working mechanisms and the formation of bodies that are compatible with the political and economic requirements of the EU," Daea said.The Moldovan minister in his turn said that agriculture is an essential field that encompasses all branches of the economy and contributes to the formation of the budget, adding that his ministry is in full swing of reformation to adapt to current requirements and support agriculture to become prosperous."We are promoting the economic interconnection of Moldova with Romania, not only on the export dimension, but also on the import of agri-food products from Romania to the Republic of Moldova, and we want to start doing this interconnection both ways," said Bolea.He voiced his interest in strengthening the Moldovan-Romanian agricultural partnership as part of Moldova's pre-accession to the European Union. Madalina Turza, state adviser with the Chancellery of the Romanian Prime Minister, says that the European Union member states should work together "more efficiently and dynamically" to manage the integration of Ukrainian refugees, so that they become independent and part of the host community. She presented on Friday at the Government House the conclusions of the debates at "The Bucharest Forum - Towards a Common European Platform for Refugee Inclusion," organised by the Romanian government at Parliament Palace to mark the creation of the first high-level dialogue platform in Europe in the area of integration of Ukraine at Romania's initiative.The meeting was attended by 23 European Union member states, officials of the General Directorate DG HOME of the European Commission, a delegation of DG REFORM, representatives of Norway, the UK, and Moldova."At the end of a seven-month course of managing the refugee crisis in Romania, a management which is perceived as a model of good practice at the level of the European Union, Romania took the leadership in Europe and invited the member states and not only to get around a dialogue platform at the political level about the integration of refugees," says Turza.Long-term effects of the war in Ukraine and the large flow of Ukrainian refugees - over 6 million people - living both in Romania and in most of Europe call for such an approach."Member states need to work together more efficiently and dynamically, and why not more transparently, to manage their integration and subsequent return to Ukraine, when appropriate. We have all understood (... ) that emergency support is only a stage and that at this moment emergency response measures such as food, shelter at border crossing points or minimal support services are no longer sufficient. There is a need for refugees from Ukraine to become independent in Romania and in the other member states of the European Union, to work; their children should be able to go to school and become part of our community for as long as they decide to stay in Romania and in the other European states," she argued.Turza added that the role of the dialogue group initiated by Romania is to inform and convince the European governments to adopt "quick and effective" measures, as a "difficult winter" is coming.Turza added that, following the discussions, a series of common challenges related to this humanitarian crisis were identified, with the first of them being that of long-term housing.Challenges were also raised regarding how Ukrainian refugees are encouraged to find jobs and want to work, as well as the support needed by local communities hosting these refugees.She also mentioned disinformation and "messages that distort reality".As a conclusion to what was presented, the member states in attendance "almost unanimously" voiced support for the establishment of the platform proposed by Romania, together with officials of the European Commission, OECD, Norway and Moldova, and the activity in this group of informal working dialogue will continue at the level of state secretaries or ministers, and proposals for the organisation of the next meetings came from Austria, Malta and even the OECD. President Klaus Iohannis sent a message during the official opening of the International Festival of Innovation in Medical Technologies - SSIMA 2022. "Romania contributes to the global effort to identify innovative actions aimed at responding to health threats, accelerating development and reducing inequalities in access to health services," says the president in the message presented by presidential adviser Diana-Loreta Paun, Public Health Department. He says that the world is in a continuous change, and the evolution, technology and innovation are revolutionizing medicine to a level unimaginable even compared to 20 years ago, the effects of these transformations being major and with a direct impact on our daily lives. "The decisive role of the academic environment in shaping the skills of the new generations is indisputable, because the involvement of this sector brings an authentic scientific baggage to the debates on current issues," Iohannis says. He stresses that the implementation of scientific innovations and technological solutions for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Agenda and the post-COVID-19 recovery requires extensive cooperation. The president awarded the High Patronage to the International Festival of Innovation in Medical Technologies - SSIMA, 2022 edition, as a sign of "recognition of the efforts of the organizers and of the need to reform the health system".AGERPRES At the house in the Romanian village of Viscri, where the recently anointed King Charles III lived when he came to visit Romania, a message of mourning was displayed after the announcement of the death of Queen Elizabeth II. "We are deeply saddened to learn of the death of Her Majesty, the Queen. Our thoughts and prayers are with His Majesty, King Charles, and members of the Royal Family at this time," reads the message in Romanian and English posted on the gate to the house under a black scarf. Officials of the foundation that administers the building have not yet made any statement regarding this gesture of solidarity with the British Royal House. AGERPRES An online Book of Condolence is open at www.royal.uk for people who want to pay tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the British Embassy in Bucharest reports on Friday. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Royal Family and to the people of Great Britain, the Realms and the Commonwealth, in this period of immense pain," says a press release of the diplomatic mission.AGERPRES The Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Daniel, sent a message of condolence at the passing of Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain, in which he emphasized that the former British sovereign "was a constant friend of the Romanian people and, in particular, of the Romanian Orthodox Church". "We are deeply moved by the passing to the Lord of the late Queen Elizabeth II, the beloved mother of Your Majesty and Sovereign of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, on September 8, 2022, in which we celebrate, in the Orthodox Church, the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God and the Ever-Virgin Mary. We know the close connection that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II had with the Royal Family of Romania, especially with the former King Mihai of Romania, whom she appreciated so much," reads the message sent by the Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church to King Charles III. The Patriarch recalls that "at the same time, Her Majesty was a constant friend of the Romanian people and, in particular, of the Romanian Orthodox Church, in the endeavor to go through the difficult times of the communist dictatorship." "Last but not least, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II remained in our consciousness as a constant supporter of the Romanians who settled in the United Kingdom and, in general, of Romania, being inspired by the steadfast manifestation of love and appreciation of Your Majesty for our country and people. In these moments of great sorrow and grief for the British Royal Family and for Your Majesty, personally, we pray that the noble soul of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will rest in the peace, light and love of the Most Holy Trinity. Her eternal remembrance from generation to generation!", Patriarch Daniel said.AGERPRES Romania supported, within the Energy Council, measures such as capping the price of Russian gas, creating a platform for the joint purchase of gas in the EU, as well as the possibility of accessing credit lines for companies from the European Central Bank, according to a press release of the Ministry of Energy, sent to AGERPRES on Friday. Energy Minister Virgil Popescu on Friday participated in the extraordinary meeting of the Energy Council, organized in Brussels, in the context of discussions at the European level regarding high energy prices and preparation for winter.The European Commission is working on a set of measures to cut down the high energy prices that will be included in a legislative proposal in the second part of September. During the meeting, the energy ministers analyzed and agreed on a common course of action regarding the future steps.In previous meetings, Romania supported the need to adopt measures at the community level to decouple the price of electricity from that of natural gas, which currently sets the closing price of the market. A proposal from the European Commission is needed in this regard as soon as possible.As for the supply of electricity, a possible measure to reduce consumption should be analyzed from the perspective of the impact on consumers and industry.Also, the Minister of Energy supported the adoption at the European level of the model of decoupling the price of natural gas from that of electricity.In addition, the Minister of Energy supported the proposal to have a coordinated reduction of the VAT applied to electricity sales at the European level, as well as to temporarily cap the price for transactions made on the day-ahead and the intraday Markets.The measures proposed by Romania and other member states regarding the temporary capping of the price of natural gas including the imported one, limiting the impact of the price of natural gas on the price of electricity, capping the income of infra-marginal producers of electricity, protecting the companies affected by the crisis were reflected in the conclusions of the Council published by the Czech Presidency.In the second part of the meeting, the energy ministers discussed the degree of preparation for winter 2022. The situation in Romania is stable. The filling level of the warehouses is over 76%, which exceeds the storage obligation that Romania had on September 1, 2022 (57%).Internal production is currently the main source of supply. The continuation of gas extraction projects from the Black Sea represents a priority for Romania in ensuring independence from energy imports. Maintaining a diversified energy mix and making the energy transition towards sources with low carbon emissions are the objectives of the national energy strategy recently published by the Ministry of Energy.For the winter of 2022 - 2023, the preparations made, the level of gas and coal deposits, as well as the recently adopted compensatory measures ensure security of supply for Romanian consumers. Romania relies on the capitalization of internal resources, increasing the share of energy from renewable and nuclear sources and the gradual replacement of coal, as elements to establish and long-term energy independence. The Teleki Castle in the village of Posmus, in the northern Romania county of Bistrita Nasaud, having undergone extensive rehabilitation works through a project with European funds won by the County Council, will open its gates for visitors starting on Friday with the ArtCast Teleki festival, the only one of its kind in the county, that will bring together contemporary art, theater, film, music and culinary art, says the manager of the Bistrita-Nasaud Museum Complex, Alexandru Gavrilas. The festival aims to facilitate the involvement of civil society in the rescue, protection and revitalisation of cultural life around the castle, further says the manager of the Bistrita-Nasaud Museum Complex that administers the castle. The official opening of the festival will take place on Friday, from 18:00, and will be marked by the opening of six exhibitions, one of them featuring photographs from the AGERPRES National News Agency archive with the residences of the Royal Family of Romania. The programme will be completed with a film festival, wine tastings from the Lechinta wine region, a fair of traditional products, horse-drawn sleigh rides and musical moments performed by the Hara band and the Cimpoierii Transilvaniei (the pipers of Transylvania). On the second day, tourists will be invited to a picnic and will be able to admire vintage cars in the courtyard of the castle, and the "Tourism in Bistrita-Nasaud" Intercommunity Development Association launches the "Gates of Transylvania" cultural tourist route. The third day of the festival will be dedicated to the promotion of local products and will end with a concert performed by the Hungarian Opera from Cluj-Napoca. The Teleki Castle in the village of Posmus is located within the radius of the Sieu commune, approximately 40 minutes by car from the Bistrita municipality. The financing contract for the rehabilitation and restoration of this historic monument built in Baroque style, dating from the middle of the 18th century, was signed in November 2017, under the Regional Operational Programme 2014-2020, Priority Axis 5, Investment Priority 5.1. "Conservation, protection, promotion and development of natural and cultural heritage". The total value of the project with European financing amounted to approximately 22 million RON, of which 98 percent non-reimbursable funds.AGERPRES PORTLAND, Maine Some retailers are taking lobster off the menu after an assessment from an influential conservation group that the seafood poses too much of a risk to rare whales and should be avoided. Seafood Watch, which rates the sustainability of different seafoods, said this week it has added the American and Canadian lobster fisheries to its red list of species to avoid. The organization, based at Monterey Bay Aquarium in California, said in a report that the fishing industry is a danger to North Atlantic right whales because current management measures do not go far enough to mitigate entanglement risks and promote recovery of the species. Thousands of businesses use Seafood Watchs recommendations to inform seafood buying decisions, and many have pledged to avoid any items that appear on the red list. A spokesperson for Blue Apron, the New York meal kit retailer, said after the release of the report that the company no longer offers lobster. HelloFresh, the Germany-based meal kit company that is the largest such company operating in the U.S., also pledged shortly after the announcement to stop selling lobster. HelloFresh is committed to responsible sourcing and follows guidelines from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program, said Saskia Leisewitz, a spokesperson for HelloFresh. Seafood Watch assigns ratings of best choice, good alternative and avoid to more than 2,000 seafood items based on how sustainably they are managed. The organizations recommendations have been influential in the past, such as when it red-listed the Louisiana shrimp fishery, prompting efforts to better protect sea turtles. The fishery was later removed from the red list. The lobster fishing industry has come under scrutiny from Seafood Watch because of the threat of entanglement in fishing gear. Whales can suffer injuries and fatalities when they become entangled in the gear that connects to lobster traps on the ocean floor. The North Atlantic right whales number less than 340 and entanglement is one of the two biggest threats they face, along with collisions with ships, scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other groups have said. The population of the giant animals, which were decimated during the commercial era generations ago, has fallen in recent years. Members of the lobster fishing industry, which is also coping with increased federal fishing restrictions to protect the whales, pushed back against the Seafood Watch rating. The lobster industry in Maine, where most of the U.S.s lobster comes to land, has not had a documented interaction with a right whale in almost two decades, said Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermens Association. Lobster is one of the most sustainable fisheries in the world due to the effective stewardship practices handed down through generations of lobstermen. These include strict protections for both the lobster resource and right whales, McCarron said. American and Canadian lobster fishermen target the same species, the American lobster, which is popular as live seafood and in processed products such as lobster rolls and lobster ravioli. The vast majority of the worlds American lobster comes to the shore in New England and eastern Canada, and the crustaceans are both a key piece of the economy and a cultural marker in both places. The U.S. lobster fishery is also one of the most lucrative in the country and was worth more than $900 million at the docks in 2021, when fishermen caught more than 130 million pounds (59 million kilograms) of the crustaceans. Seafood Watch partners with numerous major seafood buyers on its recommendations. Some of the buyers, such as Compass Group, Cheesecake Factory and Mars Petcare, did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press. Environmental groups said Seafood Watchs decision places a spotlight on the fishery and the need to do more to protect whales. Fishery managers must increase protections to save North Atlantic right whales so seafood retailers, consumers, and restaurants can put American lobster and crab back on the menu, Oceana campaign director Gib Brogan said. ST. LOUIS The largest shareholder of Build-A-Bear Workshop is calling for the company to buy back at least half of its stock. If it fails to do so, Cannell Capital wants the board of directors to resign. The teddy-bear company recently completed a $25 million buyback of its stock over nine months, and on Aug. 31, it announced up to another $50 million buyback in the next two years. For Cannell Capital LLC, that is too little, too late. In an Aug. 25 letter to the Build-A-Bear board, the Alta, Wyoming-based investment firm said it first suggested a buyback in December 2020, when the stock was about $4.50 per share. In May of this year, when the firm asked again for a buyback, the price had soared to $16.68 per share, according to Cannell figures. At that price, the company would only be able to purchase one-third as many of its shares for the same amount of money. The increase in the price of the stock reflected the companys recent success: 2021 was the best in the companys 24-year history, and the first six months of 2022 have been even better. On Sept. 1, it announced its highest-ever revenue and pre-tax income for the first half of a year. A chart accompanying Cannells letter said its initial request fell on deaf ears and that the company should get greedy when others panic. It called the board of directors clueless. Cannell Capital owns 10.7% of Build-A-Bear stock. (It also owns 6.84% of Lee Enterprises, which owns the Post-Dispatch.) Build-A-Bear did not immediately respond to a request for comment. J. Carlo Cannell, the managing member of Cannell Capital, was traveling and also could not immediately be reached for comment. The same federal judge in Texas who tried unsuccessfully to strike down the entire Affordable Care Act in 2018 has ruled that portions of the health laws preventive care benefit package are unconstitutional. But it will be a long time, with many more court actions, before it becomes clear whether the decision will change how the law works. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, after several weeks of deliberations, has decided to make abortions available to patients and some dependents in some circumstances. And in Michigan, a closely watched ballot measure on abortion scheduled for this fall may not get a vote after all because of a printing problem. This weeks panelists are Julie Rovner of KHN, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico. Among the takeaways from this weeks episode: A decision announced this week by a federal judge in Texas could have a major impact on a popular provision of the Affordable Care Act that gives consumers no-cost access to a host of preventive care tests and treatments. Judge Reed OConnor said the group that determines which services are eligible for that coverage does not have proper authorization from Congress. OConnor also ruled that employers with deep religious beliefs should not have to provide HIV prevention medications to workers if the employers believe those drugs encourage improper sexual behavior. The judge has not yet announced how he will suggest both these issues be remedied. The Biden administration announced Thursday that it is overturning a rule implemented by the Trump administration that restricted immigrants ability to apply for permanent status in the U.S. if they had received government subsidies. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs said it will now provide limited abortions for veterans and their eligible dependents at VA facilities in states that have restricted access to the procedure. The care will be available to veterans and dependents if the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest or is jeopardizing the life of the woman. In Michigan, a state judge ruled that a 1931 ban on abortions is unconstitutional, but that is expected to be appealed. In the meantime, abortion-rights supporters are seeking to get a ballot measure that would guarantee access approved for consideration in the November election. The supporters have enough signatures, but the measure was drafted with a typographical error that could invalidate it. A court is expected to rule on the issue soon. New covid-19 booster immunizations are rolling out to health centers and pharmacies across the country. The administration is encouraging anyone 12 or older (who hasnt had a vaccination in the past two months) to get the shot. Administration health experts suggest this is the beginning of an effort to simplify the vaccination schedule and hope that most people will need only one shot a year after this. But that goal will depend on how the virus continues to mutate. The Senate is back at work on Capitol Hill, and the House will return next week. The lawmakers still must come up with funding for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. Most people expect that they will turn to a temporary funding measure for the short term. Three senators are out with covid, and one key Republican, Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, is absent because of a hip replacement. His absence comes at an inopportune time because he has worked with Democrats to try to push through a bill that extends the FDAs ability to charge user fees to drugmakers to help pay for the agencys assessments of drugs. He has also helped pull together a bill with Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) to fund more efforts for public health preparedness. Also this week, Rovner interviews KHNs Lauren Sausser, who reported and wrote the latest KHN-NPR Bill of the Month installment, about a patient in need of a biopsy who did all the right things in advance and still got stuck with a giant bill. If you have an enormous or outrageous medical bill youd like to send us, you can do that here. Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read, too: Alice Miranda Ollstein: The New Yorkers When Private Equity Takes Over a Nursing Home, by Yasmin Rafiei Joanne Kenen: ProPublicas The Human Psyche Was Not Built for This, by Marilyn W. Thompson and Jenny Deam Sarah Karlin-Smith: Stats Study Raises Concerns About the Effectiveness of the Monkeypox Vaccine, by Helen Branswell Also mentioned in this weeks episode: To hear all our podcasts, click here. And subscribe to KHNs What the Health? on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Pocket Casts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 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. USE OUR CONTENT This story can be republished for free (details). THURSDAY, Sept. 8, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Queen Elizabeth II, who reigned over Great Britain for 70 years -- the longest reign in the nation's history -- died at 96 at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on Thursday. "The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon," a statement posted late Thursday afternoon from Buckingham Palace read. Earlier in the day, the palace had announced that the Queen been placed under medical supervision following "concern" from her doctors over her health. Buckingham Palace released a statement from her eldest son Charles, who paid tribute to his beloved Mother, Her Majesty The Queen. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world," the statement said. During this period of mourning and change, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which The Queen was so widely held." Elizabeth's last major constitutional action came Tuesday, when she accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Boris Johnson and asked his successor, Liz Truss, to form a new government. The monarch appeared frail in a meeting with the newly appointed Prime Minister, and on Wednesday she canceled a virtual meeting with her Privy Council, based on doctors' orders advising rest, the New York Times reported. Prince Charles, heir to the throne, and Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, along with other members of her family, traveled to Balmoral on Thursday to be by her bedside, the Washington Post reported. When Queen Elizabeth became queen in 1952 as a young mother following the death of her father, she had this to say to her subjects: "I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service, and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was conducting her daily briefing for reporters when news of the Queen's death broke. Our relationship with the people of the United Kingdom, and this is something that [President Biden] has said himself, has grown stronger and stronger. And it is one of our closest allies," she said, the Times reported. "And, again, our hearts go to the people of the United Kingdom to the queen and to the family. More information Here is more on Queen Elizabeth and her reign. SOURCES: Buckingham Palace, statement, Sept. 8, 2022; New York Times; Washington Post THURSDAY, Sept. 8, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- As scientists around the world investigate why long COVID strikes some and not others, a new study finds that suffering psychological distress prior to COVID-19 infection may increase the chances of getting the lingering condition. Researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston said they were surprised at the strength of the association between long COVID and depression, anxiety, worry, perceived stress and loneliness. But senior study author Andrea Roberts, a senior research scientist in the school's department of environmental health, said long COVID cases have reminded her of other physical health conditions that are associated with mental health, such as fibromyalgia or Lyme disease. We know from studies of people with depression and so forth that they have patterns of immune dysregulation, like inflammation in blood, said Roberts. We know from many other studies that your immune system is not as good at fighting off bacterial or viral infections when there's stress or depression." To study the impact of mental health on COVID-19 infection, the researchers enrolled nearly 55,000 people in April 2020, just as the pandemic was unfolding, and asked them questions about their levels of psychological distress. About 3,000 of the participants were infected with COVID-19 in the year that followed. The researchers asked them about their symptoms, then compared those who had long COVID to those who did not. The team found that psychological distress was associated with a 32% to 46% increased risk of developing long COVID, and a 15% to 51% greater risk of daily life impairment. An earlier study that Roberts was involved with showed that these same psychological factors were also associated with the risk of being hospitalized for COVID. COVID-19 severity is associated with long COVID, she noted. A couple of hypotheses about long COVID are that the immune system is not clearing the virus as well as it is in people who dont have long COVID, or that fragments of the virus remain in a persons body and keep activating the immune system, Roberts said. What we don't know at this point is whether if you reduce people's stress or cure their depression, or treat their depression successfully, whether their risk will return to what it was before, she explained. Roberts said she is especially concerned about cases where the symptoms are causing significant impairment. Losing your sense of smell or having a minor cough may not be debilitating, she said. But if you're so fatigued that you can't work, then that's a totally different order of magnitude, Roberts said. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 20% of American adults experience long COVID. Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore, said the findings jibe with prior research that showed having generalized anxiety disorder was a risk factor for developing long COVID. This signal, I think, is getting stronger, that there likely is some interaction with pre-existing psychiatric illness and long COVID, Adalja said. Right now, it's an association. There's a lot more work that needs to be done to tease out what the causal relationship would be, what the physiology might be for how that could occur. Many questions remain about why and in whom long COVID occurs, Adalja said. One issue is that it has definitional problems, in which some studies have lumped together cases that may also be post-ICU syndrome or post-hospital syndrome rather than long COVID alone, he noted. Long COVID does seem to be more common in older people, in women and in those who have pre-existing conditions, including psychiatric issues, Adalja said. An association with reactivation of Epstein-Barr virus is also possible. Long COVID does seem to be less common in vaccinated individuals, he added. Meanwhile bloodwork isn't finding inflammation in these long COVID patients, who may also test normally on echocardiography or lung function tests, Adalja said. The biggest question is actually understanding what's going on in the bodies of these individuals, what's the etiology of these symptoms and what relationship do they have with prior infection with COVID, Adalja said. All we have right now are some associations that might hint at understanding causes, but still not enough to be able to truly understand it. The findings were published online Sept. 7 in JAMA Psychiatry. More information The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on long COVID. SOURCES: Andrea Roberts, PhD, MPH, senior research scientist, department of environmental health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston; Amesh Adalja, MD, senior scholar, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and adjunct assistant professor, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and affiliate, Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health, and expert, Infectious Diseases Society of America, Baltimore; JAMA Psychiatry, Sept. 7, 2022, online OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced Thursday that the state of emergency sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic will end Oct. 31, nearly three years after the Democratic governor first issued the order. "Im confident now that we have reached a significant milestone in the Covid effort, Inslee said at a news conference at the Capitol. We are now in a position to be able to continue our efforts against Covid in multiple ways without the necessity of an emergency order. A vast majority of the 85 orders issued including most mask requirements, restrictions on commerce and restaurants had already been previously lifted. An additional 13 health care related orders are set to end Oct. 27, including one that offered flexibility for locations pharmacies could store vaccines. Ten remaining orders, including the underlying emergency order and vaccination requirements for health care and education workers, will remain in place until the emergency order is lifted Oct. 31. Inslee noted that employers can continue to require vaccination as a condition of employment if they choose, and Inslee had previously announced such requirements would remain an employment requirement for most state agencies. Masking requirements will remain in place at health care and long-term care settings after the state of emergency ends, under an order that was updated by the state Department of Health last month. That order also will continue to require masking at Correctional and jail facilities when the county in which the facility is located has a medium or high level of COVID-19 transmission. Inslee also said he is looking at options to ensure there are protections for workers who choose to wear a mask in their workplace. Inslee issued the state of emergency Feb. 29, 2020, after cases started to climb and a death in the state was the first reported COVID-10 death in the U.S. Washington is one of just a handful of states, including California and Texas, to still have active orders in place. Last month, North Carolinas governor signed an order ending the state of emergency there. Republicans, the minority party in both the state House and Senate, had decried the length of time Inslee held on to the broad powers provided under state law, and pushed this year to limit the amount of time a declaration could stay in place without legislative approval. A Senate measure, sponsored by a Democrat, was introduced during the 60-day legislative session earlier this year and would have authorized legislative leaders to terminate an emergency after 90 days if the Legislature is not in session. Republicans argued it was a watered-down bill that wouldnt have done anything and it died in the House. House Republican Leader J.T. Wilcox said that while he was glad to see the governor's announcement, it should have happened a long time ago. What I hope can happen now is, can the Legislature look at emergency powers reform in a less politicized way and proceed in a way that will strengthen the legislative branch in future emergencies, he said. There have been more than 14,100 deaths in the state since the start of the pandemic, and nearly 1.8 million cases of COVID-19 as of this week. More than 76% of the Washington population age 6 months and older has received at least one dose of vaccine, and nearly 70% is fully vaccinated. About 58% of those age 5 and older who are eligible for boosters have received one, according to the Department of Health. Cases and hospitalizations have declined significantly since a major omicron-fueled peak in January. But health officials are still urging people to get the new COVID-19 booster that was recently endorsed by the CDC. The new booster is a bivalent vaccine, with half the original vaccine and half protection against the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron versions now causing nearly all COVID-19 infections. Inslee said that he and his wife, Trudi, both received the new booster Thursday afternoon. ST. CHARLES Painters packed up their sprayers and laborers dragged away the last barrels. The race was on. During the first week of September 1958, workers opened the four lanes of the new Missouri River bridge in phases. The bridge replaced a 19th-century span downriver that was overwhelmed by 16,000 vehicles daily. The new bridge opened the way for migration into St. Charles County. At $8.5 million, the bridge was a key part of the Mark Twain Expressway, later called Interstate 70. The 24-mile, $97 million Mark Twain, from downtown into St. Charles, was the first spoke in the pinwheel of today's regional system of superhighways. At the bridge dedication, U.S. Rep. Clarence Cannon of Elsberry loftily praised it as promoting 'safe and swift transportation and the increased happiness of every citizen." What it needed was better connections. To its west ran two miles of highway that is historic as the first piece of America's interstate network. Eastward ran four lanes to Lindbergh Boulevard. The rest of the route was a hodgepodge of demolition, condemnation cases and patches of new concrete. After World War II, the state Highway Commission called for three highways running from downtown Mark Twain north, Daniel Boone (U.S. 40) west and Ozark (Interstate 55) south. Interstate 44 would come later. In 1954, St. Louis Alderman Leo McLaughlin pleaded, "People who have had their homes for 40 years must be given consideration." He was drowned by the clamor for quicker commutes. The expressways were to meet downtown at the new Third Street Highway, a cutoff running from the future Arch grounds to Gravois Avenue. In March 1955, work began on the St. Charles bridge. Nine months later, wreckers demolished downtown's old Produce Row, at Fourth Street and Delmar Boulevard. Clearing land was easy in St. Louis County. Not so on the city's north side, where some buildings predated the Civil War. Homes were auctioned for salvage for as little as $35. One year later, $34 million in work was under way. Pavement from Kingshighway to Jennings Station Road opened in September 1958. The first piece from downtown followed in March 1959. The St. Louis County route was finished later that year. On July 28, 1961, a ribbon-cutting opened the last four-mile stretch, from near Salisbury Street to west of Kingshighway. Two months later, daily traffic at the Lucas & Hunt Road interchange was 78,319 vehicles, higher than the state's forecast for 1980. In 1958, St. Charles County had 53,000 residents. Today, more than 400,000 people call it home. Missouri finished I-70 to Kansas City in 1965 and opened a second bridge parallel to the Mark Twain span in 1979. More than 150,000 vehicles cross them each day. Read more stories from Tim O'Neil's Look Back series. WASHINGTON (AP) A federal judge in Florida has dismissed Donald Trump's lawsuit against 2016 Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and former top FBI officials, rejecting the former president's claims that they and others acted in concert to concoct the Russia investigation that shadowed much of his administration. U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks said in a sharply worded ruling on Thursday that Trump's lawsuit, filed in March, contained glaring structural deficiencies and that many of the characterizations of events are implausible. He dismissed the idea that Trump had sued to correct an actual legal harm, saying that instead, he is seeking to flaunt a two-hundred-page political manifesto outlining his grievances against those that have opposed him, and this Court is not the appropriate forum. The lawsuit had named as defendants Clinton and some of her top advisers, as well as former FBI Director James Comey and other FBI officials involved in the investigation into whether Trump's 2016 presidential campaign had coordinated with Russia to sway the outcome of the election. Other defendants include the founders of a political research firm that hired a former British spy to investigate ties between Trump and Russia, and a well-connected Democratic lawyer who was recently acquitted on a charge of lying to the FBI during a 2016 meeting in which he presented the bureau with information he wanted it to investigate. But none of the claims, the judge wrote, supported Trump's claims of a conspiracy against him. What the Amended Complaint lacks in substance and legal support it seeks to substitute with length, hyperbole, and the settling of scores and grievances, Middlebrooks wrote. A 2019 Justice Department inspector general report did identify certain flaws by the FBI during the Russia investigation, but did not find evidence that the bureau's leaders were motivated by political bias in opening the probe and said the inquiry was started for a legitimate purpose. A separate investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller produced criminal charges against nearly three dozen people and entities and found pervasive Russian interference in the election, but did not establish a criminal conspiracy with the Trump campaign. Alina Habba, a lawyer for Trump, said Friday that Trump would appeal the dismissal. Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP 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 Raychel Proudie wants answers. The Democratic state representative from Ferguson has been hearing a lot lately from parents and teachers in the Ferguson-Florissant School District about the suspension policies of Superintendent Joseph Davis. Since Davis took over in 2015, long-term suspensions in the district have skyrocketed. The district leads Missouri in such suspensions, accounting for about 10% of all 10-day or longer suspensions in the state in 2020. Some of the folks contacting Proudie are worried that female students arent being treated fairly. Others are concerned that some acts, like bringing a gun to school, arent being taken seriously enough. One thing everybody she talks to seems to agree on is the need for consistency and transparency in how student suspensions are handled. The way Proudie sees it, holding a legislative hearing is a great way to achieve that transparency. So on Aug. 31, she sent a letter to Davis and Ferguson-Florissant School Board President Courtney Graves, asking that a board member or administrator appear at a hearing in Jefferson City. Proudie is chairperson of the House Special Committee on Urban Issues, and she scheduled a hearing in the state Capitol on Sept. 13. Proudies letter came a couple of days after I reported that state regulators at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) are investigating the districts suspension policies. Specifically, regulators are seeking information about how Davis handled suspensions last year, when a large number of students were reassigned to virtual education for much of the year, many of them without the necessary due process, according to DESE. State regulators, among other issues, want to know how the district recorded attendance for students who were reassigned to virtual education or otherwise suspended. School districts receive much of their state funding based on attendance figures. We also have concerns as to whether these students were given due process as called for under state and federal laws, regulators wrote in a letter to Ferguson-Florissant. Both Graves and Davis told Proudie the district would not participate in the legislative hearing, citing the investigation. The District is currently working with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education on the issues you wish to discuss, and it would be premature to discuss the issues prior to the outcome of that work with DESE, Graves wrote. She offered Proudie a private meeting to answer questions. Proudie was not happy with the response. The community is asking whats going on with this, and they offer me specifically a one-on-one meeting to explain themselves? Thats not transparency or good governance, Proudie said. Its not uncommon for the Legislature to conduct hearings on topics that involve ongoing investigations or controversies in state departments. They are two separate branches of government, after all, and school districts are creatures of state statute, subject to legislative control. There is urgency, Proudie says, because if legislation is needed to resolve problems related to the suspension crisis, she wants to know before next years session starts in January. I want to know how the district responded to DESE, if laws were broken, parent or student rights violated, and if so, what is the penalty, recourse and remedy, Proudie says. She plans to go ahead with her hearing. Shes asked DESE for documents related to its investigation, and Ferguson-Florissants response to it. If officials wont appear in person, she plans to make the documents public and continue to pressure the district to explain itself to parents and taxpayers. The people are always owed an explanation when it comes to their government entities, she says, and it is never premature to give the people what they are entitled to. BEVERLY HILLS Kardaye Moores mother always worried about her sons fate. A former 911 dispatcher, she worried about heightened tensions in the St. Louis region and the gun violence that came with it. In 2019, Moore, then 19, was charged in a high-profile rolling gun battle downtown that left a 16-year-old critically injured. Moore, of St. Louis, was released in June, just before his 23rd birthday. Hed spent more than 2 years at the City Justice Center before pleading guilty in February. His mother, Tanya Moore, said hed become more mature and learned from his first encounter with the criminal justice system. He made one mistake, and that cost him a whole lot of time away from his family, she said. Then on Wednesday, Moore was gunned down inside the Beverly Hills Supermarket in north St. Louis County. The shooting followed a fight, and it left about 15 people running out of the store toward safety. Two people are charged with second-degree murder in the killing. Bullets dont have a name, and it doesnt even have to be about anything, said Tanya Moore. They took my baby. That was my baby. Hes not coming back. For what though? Moore was shot in the stomach just after 6:30 p.m. Wednesday inside the store at 6714 Natural Bridge Avenue. The shooting was captured on camera, which authorities say helped them secure charges less than 24 hours after the incident. The two charged in Moores killing, Warren Smith Jr., 31, of Florissant, and Marcell D. Payne, 28, of University City, were caught hiding in the store after the shooting, said Maj. Ron Martin of the North County Police Cooperative, which covers many smaller North County municipalities. In addition to murder, Smith is also charged with third-degree assault, and Payne is charged with third-degree assault. In a news conference Thursday, Martin noted his officers ran quickly into the store while gunfire rang out. People were running out of the store as our officers were running in, so they certainly displayed some bravery yesterday in this active situation, said Martin. I know in the past, maybe not necessarily in this area but in some communities in the past, police response to active shooter situations might not have been what we wanted it to be. Smith and Payne came into the store together, according to court documents. Payne and Moore, who was there alone, are seen getting into an argument while in line. Payne and Moore begin to fight, and Smith steps back to shoot Moore and also, inadvertently, Payne, whom he shot in both hands. Police do not believe Smith and Payne knew Moore prior to their encounter but noted the investigation is still in the early stages. Moore was armed and shot back, but Smith was not hit, Martin said. Though Payne was unarmed, Payne held Moore down, which is why Payne was also issued a second-degree murder charge. Among the people who ran out of the store when shots rang out was a little girl. Surveillance video shows glass shattering right above the girls head as she scurries out of the store. Smith is being held at the St. Louis County Justice Center with a $1.5 million bond. Payne was booked on a $1 million bond late Thursday evening after recovering from the shooting at a hospital. Moore was staying with his oldest sister, loved American Bullys and aspired to be a dog breeder, his mother said. Updated with corrected information about the charges filed. JEFFERSON COUNTY A judge here has dismissed a lawsuit filed against a man suspected for years in the disappearance of a pregnant woman who vanished in 2005 and is presumed dead. Circuit Judge Brenda Stacey this week granted a motion by lawyers for Bryan Lee Westfall, who died in December, to dismiss a wrongful death suit filed last year by relatives of Amanda Jones. Jones, 26, was weeks from delivering her second child, a boy, when she disappeared Aug. 14, 2005. The lawsuit alleged Westfall murdered Jones and concealed her death by preventing investigators from searching his farm, providing inconsistent statements to police and false statements about his actions on the date Jones disappeared. The investigation had remained open for years as investigators followed numerous leads without success. Westfalls former lawyer Kim Rensing responded to the suit, saying Westfall vehemently and repeatedly denied any knowledge or involvement in Jones disappearance. She argued there has been no evidence to support criminal charges against Westfall and that the statute of limitations for filing suit expired. Plaintiffs can speculate and allege all manner of scenarios to explain the disappearance of Amanda Jones but, until there is any evidence to support any one of them, they remain just allegations that have not changed over the course of the past 16 years, Rensing said in a March court filing. In Missouri, the statute of limitations for wrongful death lawsuits is three years. The suit was filed by Jones grandfather, mother and daughter, who is now in her 20s. She was 4 when Jones disappeared. The familys lawyer, Daniel Zdrodowski, argued in an April court filing that Westfalls misdeeds his allegedly killing Jones, disposing of her body and misleading police prevent him from seeking the suits dismissal based on the three-year statute of limitations when his wrongdoing caused that defense to become available. The judge disagreed, dismissing the suit without prejudice, which means it could be refiled. Zdrodowski said he is seeking clarification on the ruling, which gave no reason for the dismissal, and plans to refile the suit. Westfalls new lawyer Kevin Roberts said the correct decision was made in dismissing the case. In August 2005, Jones had gone to the Hillsboro Civic Center and fairgrounds to meet Westfall, the man she said was her childs father, authorities said. Police later found her car unlocked in the centers parking lot. Her purse, keys, wallet and cellphone were missing. Jones was never found. Police followed hundreds of leads and suspected Westfall in Jones disappearance, but he was never charged. Jones had worked as a loan administrator for a bank in Festus and was 8 months pregnant at the time she disappeared. Last fall, Jones mother, grandfather and daughter sued Westfall in Jefferson County Circuit Court alleging he killed Jones and her unborn child, Hayden. The suit alleged that Jones told Westfall she was pregnant with his child in February 2005 and that he demanded she get an abortion. A day before Jones disappeared, Westfall contacted Jones to meet for lunch at a restaurant to discuss Westfalls future role with child, the suit said. Jones told her family of her plan to meet Westfall at the civic center the next day, but she never returned. Westfall later told investigators he had spoken with Jones for an hour at the civic center and questioned whether he was the father and that they didnt agree on what to do about raising the child, the suit said. He later told an investigator that he drove back to the civic center lot three hours later and saw Jones in her car with her cellphone to her ear, but Jones cellphone records showed no activity at the time. Westfall stopped talking to investigators about Jones based on his lawyers advice for the next 18 years, the suit said. CLAYTON A jury ruled in favor of Monsanto last month in a trial over whether its pesticide product, Roundup, caused non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma in three people. The trial lasted nearly a month in St. Louis County Circuit Court and marked the fifth consecutive time biotech giant Bayer, which bought Creve Coeur-based Monsanto in 2018, has prevailed against claims that Roundup causes cancer, according to the company. "We continue to stand behind the safety of Roundup and will confidently defend the safety of our product as well as our good faith actions in any future litigation," the company said in a statement. An attorney for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday. "Bullets dont have a name, and it doesnt even have to be about anything," said the victim's mother, Tanya Moore. "They took my baby. That was my baby. Hes not coming back. For what though?" JEFFERSON CITY U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley wont face discipline from the state office that polices attorneys for his actions prior to the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to a document the Missouri senators campaign provided to the Post-Dispatch. The document, dated Aug. 16 and signed by the Missouri Supreme Courts Chief Disciplinary Counsel Alan Pratzel, said his office had finished an investigation into a complaint against Hawley and that we found insufficient probable cause to believe that Senator Hawley was guilty of professional misconduct that would justify discipline, Pratzel said. Kyle Plotkin, spokesman for Hawley, said Hawleys attorneys obtained the letter to a complainant from the Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel. Pratzel did not respond to requests for comment on Friday. After President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election to challenger Joe Biden, Hawley became the first senator to announce he would object to the election results in Pennsylvania when Congress met to certify Bidens victory on Jan. 6, 2021. Hawley was also captured in a now-famous photo before the insurrection, saluting Trump supporters with a fist pump. (He has since used the photo to troll his opponents, putting the image on coffee mugs and koozie cups sold by his campaign.) The OCDC found that the public statements made by Mr. Hawley regarding the Presidential election, whether made on the Senate floor or in other public and media venues, were constitutionally protected, Pratzel said. The office also concluded, based on the location and timing of Hawleys fist-pump at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, that there is insufficient evidence to establish a violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct, Pratzel said, adding he was dismissing the complaint. Hugh ODonnell, a Kansas City attorney, was mentioned in a Kansas City Star editorial that referenced letters that were circulating among attorneys accusing Hawley of professional misconduct. ODonnell said Wednesday that some Missouri lawyers made complaints to the Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel. But, he said, to my knowledge ... the disciplinary counsels office has not taken the action which I and others sought. ODonnell cited a Supreme Court rule requiring new attorneys to swear that they will support the Constitution of the United States ... in defense of his argument that Hawley should face discipline, up to disbarment. Another rule he cited said, A lawyer shall not make a statement that the lawyer knows to be false or with reckless disregard as to its truth or falsity concerning the qualifications or integrity of a judge, adjudicatory officer or public legal officer. A third Supreme Court rule said, Lawyers holding public office assume legal responsibilities going beyond those of other citizens. A lawyers abuse of public office can suggest an inability to fulfill the professional role of lawyers. There are attorneys who felt that Josh Hawley and I would be one of those violated his oath of office when he knowingly made false statements and meritless arguments in his objection to the certification of electoral votes from the state of Pennsylvania, ODonnell said. It is the rule of law that keeps that separates us from chaos separates us from anarchy, ODonnell said. Hawleys conduct, he said, is a continuing threat to democracy. JEFFERSON CITY A Cole County judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit that sought to remove a recreational marijuana measure from the Nov. 8 ballot. If approved by voters, the proposed constitutional amendment would allow people ages 21 and older to buy and grow marijuana for personal consumption. Jefferson City resident Joy Sweeney sued last month after Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft certified the initiative petition for the ballot despite initial results from counties showing canvassers had failed to collect enough valid signatures in the 6th and 7th congressional districts. Attorneys for Sweeney, who works for the Community Anti-Drugs Coalition of America, argued Ashcrofts unusual review of signatures following contact with the Legal Missouri 2022 campaign was outside the bounds of state law. Cole County Circuit Judge Cotton Walker dismissed the case, saying Sweeney didnt have standing to sue after attorneys for Ashcroft and Legal Missouri questioned her residency at trial on Thursday. Walker went on to say that Ashcroft acted within his authority when his office reviewed petitions and validated signatures of registered voters that county officials had invalidated. The Secretary retains the ultimate authority as to whether the petition is sufficient, Walker said. Regardless of whether youre for or against the issue, Ashcroft said in a statement after the ruling, my office responded efficiently and appropriately to the thousands of signatures turned in. We did the right thing in certifying this measure to the ballot within the bounds of the constitution and the laws passed by the General Assembly, he said. We followed the law we did everything right. Walker also dismissed arguments by Sweeneys attorneys that the 39-page petition, which also contains expungement provisions, ran afoul of the state constitution by containing too many subjects. Luke Niforatos, CEO of anti-drug group Protect Our Kids, which supported the lawsuit, said the group was extremely disappointed in Walker and had already submitted a motion to appeal the judgment Friday. Niforatos also said the secretary of states office slow-walked the release of information that wouldve allowed opponents to examine the petitions for invalid signatures. John Payne, campaign manager for Legal Missouri, said the decision brought Missouri closer to joining the 19 other states where adult-use marijuana is currently legal. We are thrilled that Missourians will have the opportunity to pass Amendment 3 in November, which will allow law enforcement to better focus on violent crime, while bringing millions in new revenue to Missouri, he said in an email. The question appears on the ballot as Amendment 3. In addition to drawing opposition from anti-drug advocates, some proponents of marijuana legalization have criticized the constitutional amendment for containing certain marijuana penalties and limits on cannabis business licenses. After-birth abortion? Rep. Ann Wagner refuses to shy away from her position opposing abotion even though some of her Republican colleagues, fearful of a midterm voter backlash, have moderated their stands. The concern among some is that voters could realiate after the Supreme Court ruling overturning abortion rights. Some GOP members of Congress reportedly also are softening their support for ex-President Donald Trump. Wagner expressed outrage at the FBI search of Trumps Mar-a-Lago estate, labeling it truly shocking and saying it furthers our nations mistrust of government at all levels while conveniently omitting the fact that Trump unlawfully possessed highly classified government documents. But doubling down on super-boldness is what Wagner is all about. She declared in a tweet this week that she will never waver in opposition to abortion and will stand against Democrats who champion abortion even after a baby is born. Insurrection or rebellion A New Mexico judge has removed a county commissioner from his post for his conviction in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Its the first time in more than 100 years that a public official has been barred from serving by the 14th Amendments prohibition on insurrectionists in office. The shoe fits. The 14th Amendment, passed in 1868 during post-Civil War Reconstruction, states that no one may hold government office if that person had previously held office while engaging in insurrection or rebellion against the U.S. The ban can be lifted by a two-thirds vote of Congress, but otherwise it is for life. Couy Griffin, an Otero County, New Mexico, commissioner and founder of a group called Cowboys for Trump, was convicted this year of trespassing for breaching barricades near the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot. New Mexico District Court Judge Francis Mathew wrote that in addition to the trespassing, Griffins role in planning, mobilization and incitement of the riot means he is constitutionally disqualified from serving. Its a standard that perhaps should apply to a certain former president. Endangered species: Russian oil executives One of the most dangerous occupations in Russia these days is serving in senior management positions in that nations oil industry. People who take those jobs keep winding up dead in freak accidents that very often occur after they say things that displease Russias leader, Vladimir Putin. The board chairman of Lukoil, Russias largest private oil producer, died last week from either a serious illness or from falling out a hospital window, depending on whos doing the narrative. Lukoil said board chairman Ravil Maganov had passed away following a severe illness that was not specified. But the Interfax news agency reported that Maganov fell from a window at Central clinical hospital and died from injuries sustained. One Russian news agency suggested he slipped while smoking on a balcony. Perhaps it was a balcony with no rails. According to the Guardian newspaper, half a dozen businesspeople linked to the Russian energy industry have died under mysterious circumstances since Russia invaded Ukraine. Lukoil had criticized the invasion and called for the soonest termination of the armed conflict. Invading Capitol as free-speech exercise A Missouri man, Lloyd Casimiro Cruz Jr., made a novel plea in his own defense during a court trial for invading the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. After lying about having participated in the Capitol insurrection, Cruz needed reminding that he had used a Go Pro-type device to video-record his own participation in the rampage. That was a big-oops moment. His memory refreshed, he amended his statement to admit openly that he was there exercising his First Amendment rights. He asserted that the prosecutions case against him is undeniably unconstitutional. Invading the Capitol wasnt just a matter of free expression, Cruz insists that it was his civic duty to join the rioters. In a motion filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, his motion states: Cruzs indictment is aimed at chilling Cruzs (and millions of others) right to petition and speak against perceived government abuses at the Capitol. The petitioning included beating police officers, dousing them with chemical irritants, and rampaging through the Capitol shouting threats to hang Vice President Mike Pence and hunt down House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Cruzs lawyer also claimed to have come across evidence that the Capitol was open to visitors at the time. So Cruz did nothing wrong. Case closed. Misdirected F-bomb Megyn Kelly, the once-relevant Fox News host who has slipped into obscurity since leaving the network, managed to grab a few headlines recently by dropping an F-bomb on Dr. Anthony Fauci during her show on a podcast. What got Kellys ire up was a comment from Fauci in response to an interviewers hypothetical question about whether he would agree to appear before Congress for hearings if a future Republican majority investigated and subpoenaed him (as some congressional Republicans have vowed to do). Fauci answered that he certainly would consider it. That was a gracious response compared to those of former President Donald Trumps minions, who have routinely thumbed their noses at congressional subpoenas, generally with Trumps backing. But it set Kelly off. F*** you, Dr. Fauci, she barked. It was part of a broader rant in which Kelly essentially blamed Fauci for the economic shutdown, the slide in test scores for kids and other casualties of the coronavirus. Never mind that the body count would likely have been even higher without Faucis calm, science-based guidance. Attitudes towards UAVs using laser-guided missiles against Islamic terrorists often overlooks the fact that most of the civilians living in areas where their airstrikes take place consider the attacks beneficial and not a threat to the local population. The UAV fired missiles are seen by the locals as Justice-Delivering Technology, not a menace to civilians. Western leaders and media have long misunderstood the use of precision airstrikes using UAVs armed with Hellfire laser-guided missiles and its impact on local civilians. Now that American troops are gone from Afghanistan, there is a lot of open support for continued American UAVs armed with laser-guided missiles killing local Islamic terrorist leaders. The Islamic terrorists are a major threat to the locals, who are often bullied, extorted and generally abused by the Islamic terrorists. Their only salvation is continued American airstrikes. For a long time, Al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban leaders were really, really eager to halt the American UAV campaign against them. These attacks were popular with local civilians but over a decade ago the Islamic radicals began running a propaganda campaign that claimed most of the casualties were innocent civilians. They pushed fabricated civilian casualty statistics that could not be checked, much less documented, as well as insisting that many more missiles had been fired, missed their targets and killed civilians instead. They also claimed that each missile killed civilians and that less than ten percent of the missiles actually hit Taliban or terrorists. While both of these claims are unlikely based on known performance of Hellfires, there is no way to verify the Taliban claims. Many Pakistanis will believe this stuff, as will the American media and many foreigners, simply on ideological grounds. Some Pakistani politicians have demanded that the government do something to halt these attacks, which many Pakistanis see as a violation of their sovereignty. But the last thing the Pakistani government wants is a halt to these UAV operations. That's because the missiles kill many terrorists who have killed, or are planning to kill, Pakistani politicians. It's an open secret that the government even allowed the UAVs to operate from Pakistani air bases. Since this "decapitation" (killing key terrorists) program began in 2008, over a thousand terrorists, including several dozen senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders, and over a hundred mid-level ones, have died from the UAV missile attacks. There have actually been few civilian deaths, as the UAVs stalk their targets and seek to catch them while traveling or otherwise away from civilians. Journalists visiting the sites of these attacks later find few locals claiming a lot of civilian casualties and even less evidence. While the terrorist groups are concerned about the losses, especially among the leadership, what alarms them the most is how frequently the American UAVs are finding their key people. The real problem the terrorists have is that someone is ratting them out. Someone, or something, is helping the Americans find the terrorist leaders. It wasn't always that way. In 2007, there were only five UAV attacks, compared to three in 2006, one in 2005, and one in 2004. Back then it wasn't just the lack of identified targets that kept the UAVs away but fewer UAVs and Pakistani resistance to American UAVs making attacks inside Pakistan (even though the targets were terrorists attacking Pakistanis, including senior leaders). By 2008, the Pakistani leaders changed their minds, largely because the Pakistani Taliban were taking control of large areas in the tribal territories and Islamic terror groups like al Qaeda were going after senior Pakistani politicians and military leaders. This Hellfire campaign was hitting al Qaeda at the very top, although less than a quarter of the attacks have struck at the most senior leaders. But that means most of the Taliban and al Qaeda leadership in Pakistan has been killed or badly wounded. Perhaps even greater damage has been done to the terrorist middle management. These are old and experienced lieutenants, as well as young up-and-comers. They are the glue that holds al Qaeda and the Taliban together. Their loss is one reason why it's easier to get more information on where leaders are and why rank-and-file al Qaeda and Taliban are less effective as a result. The U.S. and Pakistan have collected a lot of information from terrorists about how damaging the UAV attacks have been. It's not just the terrorist leaders who are opposed to these tactics (of hitting the senior enemy leadership via "decapitation" attacks). All leaders, be they elected or otherwise, are uneasy about such operations. It's rather personal and brings the war closer to the top people than they would like. While Islamic terrorist leaders are enthusiastic about suicide bombings and suicidal attacks in general, they pay a lot of attention to safety for themselves and their immediate family. Their sons are rarely used as suicide bombers. Moreover, it is demoralizing to their followers if they see the boss and his bodyguards get blown to pieces by an American missile. While killing the enemy leader has long been seen as an ideal way to end a battle or war, in practice senior leaders tended to avoid killing each other. This has become something of an unofficial and unspoken arrangement that has been breached by this UAV campaign. But as the Israelis demonstrated a decade ago, the best way to weaken or end a terror campaign is to go for the leadership. While this sort of thing disrupts the organizations losing their senior people, it also sends a message that being at the head of a terrorist group is, shall we say, terrifying. To further muddy the waters, rural Afghans were opportunistic about the Western media obsession with the mythical civilian casualties from smart bomb and guided missile attacks. Foreign troops in Afghanistan and Iraq regularly found that the locals could be incredibly corrupt, often to an astonishing degree. Thats because Iraqis, and especially Afghans, consider stealing from foreigners to be a laudable goal and this is a tradition that goes back thousands of years. One of the more common scams had to do with false claims for compensation because foreign troop actions caused deaths or injuries. Many of these scams succeeded again and again. Eventually the foreign troops caught on, often with the discreet help of friendly, and a lot more honest, locals. After that many details of attempted compensation fraud were documented. One of the best examples of this is the dead goat scam in which Afghan villagers lie about who was killed by a NATO bomb in order to obtain more compensation money, and to avoid Taliban retribution. This one was quite common and works like this. Often, when a smart bomb gets dropped in an isolated location (which describes most of Afghanistan), and there is any chance of civilian casualties the locals will make a fuss about seeking to find who was hurt or killed. The village elders insist that outsiders (as in U.S. military personnel investigating the damage) stay away during this trying time. Even the foreign soldiers and Afghan police are put off (after a quick search for Taliban bodies, documents, and equipment is completed). Being good Moslems, the villagers bury the dead before sunset on the same day. The next day, the elders will claim as many civilian dead, killed by smart bombs, as they think they can get away with. Sometimes additional graves get a dead goat or other animal, so the proper stench permeates the mound of earth. Digging up graves is also against Islamic law, so the elders know the foreign troops have to take their word for it. The elders know that the foreign troops, depending on nationality, will pay $1,000-$5,000 compensation per dead civilian. Not only is there a big payday, but the Taliban appreciate the bad publicity directed at the foreigners and usually show their appreciation by cutting this village or valley some slack in the future. The villages encourage this by offering the local Taliban a cut of the compensation money. This scam works because there aren't many public records in Afghanistan. The only ones who know exactly who lives in a village are the people there and the elders speak for everyone. Investigators have a hard time interrogating individuals because the elders, and everyone there, has a vested interest in not being found out. Sometimes the elders get greedy. For example, despite an intensive investigation into a 2008 bombing in Azizabad (outside Heart), the villagers got paid for over 90 dead. Investigators, piecing together what information they could, were certain that there were only 15 dead civilians (plus Taliban). But you can't touch the graves, and even questioning the veracity of the claims gets you howls of indignation. With the American troops and their compensation payments gone, the locals dwell on the usefulness of the continued UAV attacks in keeping the local Islamic terrorists so busy they spend less time bothering local civilians. China continues to expand and entrench its mining operations in Congo. Much of this activity is in southeastern Congo (Lualaba province). There the only competition China has is a new (since 2020) state-owned cobalt monopoly, Entreprise Generale du Cobalt (EGC), which has a monopoly on purchasing cobalt produced by artisanal (informal) cobalt miners to ensure these miners get a fair price for their production, which accounts for about ten percent of Congos cobalt production. Before EGC those independents sold their cobalt to independent mineral brokers who often paid the miners much less than the market price for their cobalt. Most of these independent brokers work for Chinese companies, which have a reputation for cutting corners, and costs any way they can. Although Chinese companies control most of Congos cobalt production, they are also under constant investigation by government auditors for corrupt practices. Most of those mineral brokers work with or for Chinese companies which control an estimated 70 percent of Congos mineral deposits and mining industry. The Chinese state-owned CNMC (China Nonferrous Metal Mining Company Ltd.) owns huge cobalt and copper reserves in Congo. CNMC is actually a group, with four very large subsidiary corporations. The MMG (Mineral and Mining Group), another Chinese organization, has stakes in several Congolese mines. In Lualaba province there is CMOC (China Molybdenum Company) which recently acquired a 95 percent interest in Congos huge Kisanfu copper and cobalt deposits. CMOC bought the interest from an American company, Freeport-McMoran, and reportedly paid around $550 million. Since 2012 Chinese companies have invested over $10 billion in Congolese mineral assets. Thats the common open-source figure but some analysts contend the figure is somewhere over $12 billion. Given the high levels of corruption in Congo and the opacity of many Chinese business operations it is unclear how much of the corrupt business deals in Congo are Chinese. No one really knows but the more the government and international auditors investigate the situation it becomes clear that China dominates in this aspect of the mining business. Congo is the worlds biggest cobalt producer, each year producing a growing majority of the worlds total cobalt. In 2020 Cong0 produced about 100,000 tons of cobalt, which was 71 percent of the world total. Industry sources estimate Chinese companies control around 40 percent of Congos cobalt mining capacity meaning deposits and means of extraction. Cobalt is critical in the production of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries it is a stabilizer. It takes about 22 pounds (10 kilos) of cobalt to manufacture an electric car battery. Communist China is committed to producing electric vehicles (EVs) of all types. There is one type that has a particular political importance: the very small city-town mini-EVs that can go about 300 kilometers on one charge. The Chinese people want these, so demand is huge. The deal the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) makes with the Chinese people is that they can have goodies if they dont challenge the CCP dictatorship. The mini-EVs are a pay-off. Hence, the Chinese government wants to assure uninterrupted access to cobalt and other minerals used in producing electric devices. Interestingly enough, from the end of 2020 to the end of January 2021 the price of cobalt increased 20 percent to about $35,000 a ton and has kept going up since then. The price fluctuates quite a lot and was as high as $100,000 a ton in 2018. Chinese mining firms cut corners wherever they can, not just in paying taxes but also when it comes to building and maintaining infrastructure projects Congolese working in the mines or living in the area depend on. Congo president Felix Tshisekedi was elected in 2019 on the promise that he would do something about the corruption in the mining industries. He has done just that but he faces a major obstacle with China, which controls most of the mining and is responsible for most of the corruption. Tshisekedi cant put the Chinese out of business because the Chinese hold the industry together and manage it quite efficiently. They are willing to make deals with Tshisekedi, who has to watch out of for successful Chinese efforts to corrupt government officials. China controls a large segment of the Congolese economy and keeping the Chinese reasonably honest is more of a chore than Tshisekedi expected. Western countries that used to control most of the Congo mining operations gradually sold their holdings to Chinese firms and now have to worry about China gaining more control over the Congo government than Western countries ever had. September 7, 2022: EAC (East African Community) leaders are visiting are touring Congo with the goal of raising public awareness of how the organization works. The EAC recently established a regional legal administration, the East African Court of Justice. The EAC consists of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. The organization is in the process of deploying a regional peacekeeping force in Congo. September 5, 2022: In northern CAR (Central African Republic) soldiers withdrew under fire from a rural village. On September 2 CPC (Coalition of Patriots for Change) rebels attacked soldiers in the village. The army unit had been in the area. After the soldiers withdrew the rebels did likewise. In Zambia, investigators from the Office of the Auditor-General found over 9,800 ghost workers drawing salaries in government jobs. Auditors examined evidence covering 2017 to 2021. The fake workers were scattered through 19 different government ministries. Investigators also discovered payments made to 22,000 other government workers despite the fact many were not showing up for work. September 3, 2022: In eastern Congo (Ituri province) CODECO (Cooperative for the Development of Congo) rebels killed at least 33 people as they continued attacking a rural town. These attacks have been going on for a week and the army is having a difficult time dealing with this because CODECO is seeking to free fellow rebels held by the army. CODECO is usually feuding with several other armed militias, over the rich mineral deposits in the area. CODECO rebels are primarily from the Lendu tribe, so it also targets the rival Hema tribe. CODECO is one of the more troublesome rebel groups among the 120 groups operating in eastern Congo. September 2, 2022: In eastern Congo (North Kivu province) a United Nations helicopter crashed near the city of Goma. The helicopter was supporting a UN food assistance program. Three crewmen were injured. In Uganda, a court sentenced two men to 17 years each in prison. The men poisoned and killed six lions in Queen Elizabeth National Park. The men cut off the lions heads and paws which they intended to sell. In southeastern Congo (Virunga National Park) over 46,000 Congolese have fled to nearby Uganda since late March when attacks by M23 rebels were met by soldiers seeking to halt the violence. Uganda is having problem with many of the refugees refusing to register and live in settlement camps. Thousands of refugees insist on living outside towns and villages, improvising shelter and becoming a security and public health problem. Uganda has ordered these unregistered refugees to move to the settlement camps and register within two days or be forcibly rounded up. September 1, 2022: Since June the EAC has been organizing a Standby Force to assist UN peacekeepers in eastern Congo to enforce a new peace agreement. The EAC member states are sending several hundred troops but have still not agreed on the rules of engagement and extent of the Standby Force authority. This is the second time EAC has sent a force to eastern Congo and the last time there were problems because responsibilities and authority were not clearly defined. August 31, 2022: Congo released nine Rwandans arrested on August 22 by soldiers. The army charged the Rwandans with illegally crossing the border. In eastern Congo (Ituri province) ADF (Allied Democratic Forces) rebels attacked two villages and killed 14 civilians. ADF is from Uganda and has more Moslem radicals than rebels. ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) considers the ADF to be ISCAP (ISILs Central African Province). ADF pledged allegiance to ISIL in 2019 and later described itself as ISCAP. The name changes nothing because ADF continues its terrorist operations, primarily in eastern Congo. August 30, 2022: In eastern Congo (North Kivu province) ADF Islamist terrorists attacked five small villages multiple times over the last five days. It is believed ADF executed at least 40 civilians. A local hospital worker claimed that 76 other people were kidnapped in the attacks. August 26, 2022: Angolas ruling party claimed victory in todays national election. The Peoples Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) has been in power for almost 50 years. The MPLA claimed it had won 51 percent of the vote. The opposition National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) won 44.5 percent. UNITA, however, is disputing the results. August 25, 2022: Congos Finance Ministry announced the country has plans to begin manufacturing electric batteries for vehicles. Congo is the worlds biggest producer of cobalt and a major copper exporter. Both are used in producing batteries. The Finance Ministry said in order to develop economically Congo needs to increase local processing capacity and provide added value manufacturing. August 24, 2022: In western Congo (Mai-Ndombe province) the government is sorting through belated reports of fighting between the Yaka and Teke tribes over land in the area. August 21, 2022: In central Congo (Sankuru province) there has been another Cholera outbreak, with 401 people infected during the last week and 48 have died. There has also been an outbreak of monkeypox, with 69 cases reported. This is a non-fatal disease spread by skin-to-skin contact. August 17, 2022: In eastern Congo (Virunga National Park) M23 rebels attacked a hydropower plant under construction. The rebels employed rockets and mortars in the attack. August 15, 2022: In eastern Congo (South Kivu province) Burundian soldiers entered the area as the first contingent of the EACs East African regional force to end rebel violence. The EAC has given the task force the mission of tracking and locating all foreign and local armed groups in order to restore peace." August 9, 2022: In eastern Congo (North Kivu province) several dozen heavily armed rebels attacked the city of Butembos central prison. The attackers freed over 800 prisoners and killed two policeman and one civilian. Authorities believe the attackers were ADF Islamist terrorists. The ADF now refers to itself as the Islamic States Central Africa Province (ISCAP). Through one of its propaganda outlets, the Islamic State later took credit for the attack. The attack was designed to liberate Muslim prisoners. August 8, 2022: in Malawi the Anti-Corruption Bureau arrested its former director, Reyneck Matemba, who is accused of taking a bribe for a contract to supply food to the country's national police. August 7, 2022: In eastern Congo (Ituri province) ADF Islamic terrorists killed around 20 people when they attacked two villages. Soldiers were soon pursuing the attackers. August 1, 2022: The International Criminal Court (ICC) confirmed it has issued a warrant for the arrest of Noureddine Adam, who was one of two senior Seleka rebel commanders in the Central African Republic when Seleka rebels overthrew President Francois Bozize in 2013. Adam is charged with war crimes and various atrocities, including overseeing torture. Adam is reportedly hiding out in Sudan. July 31, 2022: UN peacekeepers in opened fire near a border post between Congo and Uganda. At least two people were killed and 15 wounded. An initial UN investigation reported that it was unclear why the soldiers opened fire. A local leader called the peacekeepers action despicable. Civilians in the area have been complaining about UN peacekeepers. This month protestors demanded the UN withdraw from the area. July 26, 2022: In eastern Congo (North Kivu province) five people were killed and an estimated 50 wounded in two days of violent anti-UN protests that led t0 UN civilian workers being evacuated from the area. On July 25 demonstrators looted a UN warehouse in Goma and also entered UN offices. The demonstrators accuse the UN of failing to protect civilians against militia violence. There are 12,000 peacekeeping troops and 1,600 police in Congo. All amounts in Canadian dollars unless otherwise stated VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / September 9, 2022 / RE Royalties Ltd. (TSXV:RE) (OTCQX:RROYF) ("RE Royalties" or the "Company"), a global leader in renewable energy royalty-based financing, announces that it will be holding its annual general meeting of shareholders on September 29, 2022, (the "AGM") at 2:00 PM (Pacific Time) at the Company's offices at Suite 1400, 1040 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, British Columbia. The Company has also filed an amended form of proxy (the "Proxy") and the Voting Instruction Form (the "VIF") prepared for the Company's AGM. The Proxy and the VIF were amended to remove the resolution to set the number of directors at seven in order to align the resolutions in the Proxy and the VIF with the resolutions included in the Notice of Meeting and Information Circular filed in connection with the AGM. The amended Proxy and VIF is filed and available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. All proxies received prior to the amended Proxy and VIF will be accepted. The Company has also retained the services of Water Tower Research ("Water Tower") to assist with its investor relations activities commencing on September 15, 2022. Water Tower is a stakeholder communication and investor engagement platform powered by Wall Street veterans with significant experience and credibility. Water Tower creates, delivers, and maintains the information flow required to build and preserve relationships between companies and all their stakeholders and investors. In consideration for the services provided, the Company will be compensating Water Tower a monthly fee of USD$8,000 per month for a period of 12 months. Water Tower does not have any interest, directly or indirectly, in the Company or its securities. About RE Royalties Ltd. RE Royalties Ltd. acquires revenue-based royalties from renewable energy facilities and technologies by providing a non-dilutive financing solution to privately held and publicly traded companies in the renewable energy sector. RE Royalties is the first to apply this proven business model to the renewable energy sector. The Company currently owns over 100 royalties on solar, wind, hydro, battery storage, energy efficiency and renewable natural gas projects in North America, Mexico, and Europe. The Company's business objectives are to provide shareholders with a strong growing yield, robust capital protection, high rate of growth through re-investment and a sustainable investment focus. For further information, please contact: Investor and Media Contact: RE Royalties Ltd. Talia Beckett, VP of Communications and Sustainability T: (778) 3742000 E: [email protected] www.reroyalties.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange), nor any other regulatory body or securities exchange platform, accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy the securities in any jurisdiction, nor shall there be any offer or sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. The securities being offered have not been approved or disapproved by any regulatory authority nor has any such authority passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of the short form base shelf prospectus or the prospectus supplement. The offer and sale of the securities has 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 in the United States or to United States persons absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws. Forward Looking Statements This news release includes forward-looking information and forward-looking statements (collectively, "forward-looking information") with respect to the Company and within the meaning of Canadian securities laws. Forward looking information is typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, postulate and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. This information represents predictions and actual events or results may differ materially. Forward-looking information may relate to the Company's future outlook and anticipated events or results and may include statements regarding the Company's financial results, future financial position, expected growth of cash flows, business strategy, budgets, projected costs, projected capital expenditures, taxes, plans, objectives, industry trends and growth opportunities including financing. The reader is referred to the Company's most recent filings on SEDAR as well as other information filed with the OTC Markets for a more complete discussion of all applicable risk factors and their potential effects, copies of which may be accessed through the Company's profile page at www.sedar.com. SOURCE: RE Royalties Ltd. View source version on accesswire.com: HONG KONG--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Kungfu or Wushu has a long-standing history, profound culture, and multifarious traits and routines (taolu). Since the 1970s, the popularity of Hong Kong kung fu movies has expanded the influence of Chinese martial arts, creating an international wave of learning Chinese martial arts that continues today. Chinese martial arts became the quintessential representative of Chinese culture. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220908005579/en/ Kungfu Challenge-A social media campaign launched by Phoenix TV got millions of engagement worldwide (Graphic: Business Wire) To promote Chinese martial arts culture and in line with the "World Martial Arts Day 2022" organised by the International Wushu Federation, Phoenix TV launched a social media campaign #kungfuchallenge on August 13. The campaign has been engaged globally by more than a hundred Kungfu masters, martial artists, and millions of kungfu enthusiasts. On September 9, we hope to see an explosion of the #kungfuchallenge, we look forward to having more people from every corner of the world to join us, to show, experience, learn this traditional Chinese martial arts, and to make it a lifestyle together! All the participants will get a chance to win the NFT released by Phoenix TV for the first time and the latest Huawei Mate 50! https://youtu.be/E8SgduVIBRo How to play: Take a video less than 30 seconds, and post it on your social media publicly with the tag #kungfuchallenge, and @us. Phoenix TV Social Media: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/%E9%B3%B3%E5%87%B0%E8%A1%9B%E8%A6%96PhoenixTV Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PhoenixTVHK Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhoenixTVHK Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phoenixtvpr TikTok: phoenixtv_hk View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220908005579/en/ Phoenix TV Audrey Yang [email protected] James Wang [email protected] Source: Phoenix TV LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Today Air Lease Corporation (NYSE: AL) announced long-term lease placements for two new Airbus A321neo LR aircraft with HiSky. Scheduled to deliver to the European carrier in March 2023 from ALCs order book with Airbus, these two new A321neo LRs join one Airbus A319 and four A320s currently on lease to the airline from ALC and its managed vehicles, Blackbird I and II. ALC is pleased to announce this placement with HiSky for two new A321neo LRs, said David Beker, Senior Vice President of Air Lease Corporation. HiSky launched in 2020 with used A320 family aircraft exclusively provided by ALC and they have grown their business consistently since then. The airline is now ready to take the next step in their growth plans and we are happy to support this expansion with two brand-new A321neo LRs." The addition of these two new A321neo LR aircraft is the right ingredient to sustain our growth strategy in 2023, said Iulian Scorpan CEO of HiSky. We are grateful to ALC for the opportunity to operate the industrys most modern aircraft offering top performance, range, and fuel-efficiency. Starting in April 2023, HiSky passengers will benefit from several long-range nonstop flight solutions to be announced this autumn. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including expected delivery dates. Such statements are based on current expectations and projections about our future results, prospects and opportunities and are not guarantees of future performance. Such statements will not be updated unless required by law. Actual results and performance may differ materially from those expressed or forecasted in forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including those discussed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. About Air Lease Corporation (NYSE: AL) Air Lease Corporation is a leading global aircraft leasing company based in Los Angeles, California that has airline customers throughout the world. ALC and its team of dedicated and experienced professionals are principally engaged in purchasing new commercial aircraft and leasing them to its airline customers worldwide through customized aircraft leasing and financing solutions. The company routinely posts information that may be important to investors in the Investors section of its website at www.airleasecorp.com. Investors and potential investors are encouraged to consult Air Lease Corporations website regularly for important information. The information contained on, or that may be accessed through, ALCs website is not incorporated by reference into, and is not a part of, this press release. About HiSky HiSky is an EASA certified airline that operates in Romania and Moldova from three operational bases: Bucharest, Cluj and Chisinau. HiSky combines charter and scheduled flights and, expects, in the coming months to celebrate the transportation of its first one million passengers since the inception of operations in March 2021. With a team of enthusiastic and seasoned professionals with hundreds of years of experience in aviation, HiSky currently has a fleet of four Airbus A320s with 180 seats and an Airbus A319 with 144 seats. For any other information about HiSky, please visit www.hisky.aero. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220909005083/en/ Investors: Jason Arnold Vice President, Investor Relations Email: [email protected] Media: Laura Woeste Senior Manager, Media and Investor Relations Email: [email protected] Ashley Arnold Manager, Media and Investor Relations Email: [email protected] Source: Air Lease Corporation Academy Award-Nominated Director Matt Ogens and Award-Winning Filmmaker Kachi Benson Will Direct With Hunting Lane Films to Produce The Film Will Shine Light Into the Life of Anthony Madu as He Continues His Ballet Career at Elmhurst Ballet School, an Academy in a Country Half-Way Across the World From His Home of Lagos, Nigeria BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Following a successful premiere at Telluride Film Festival of the upcoming film If These Walls Could Sing, Disney Original Documentary announced today its next feature project, MADU. The announcement precedes an appearance by Anthony Madu this weekend at D23, where a first look at the documentary will be exclusively shared with D23 fans. From Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Matt Ogens (Audible) and award-winning filmmaker Kachi Benson (Daughters of Chibok), the film will spotlight Nigerian ballet dancer Anthony Madu. Jamie Patricof, Katie McNeill and Rachel Halilej will produce under the Hunting Lane Films banner. The upcoming documentary project is the story of Anthony Madus journey as he leaves his community on the outskirts of Lagos to pursue a ballet career at a new academy in a new country halfway across the world. The film will have a festival run before a limited theatrical release. MADU will capture Anthonys story after being discovered through a viral 44-second video that was posted online in 2020 and garnered over 16 million views. Having grown up in an isolated community outside of Lagos and with almost no formal training, audiences will get a close look at Anthonys journey after being awarded a scholarship to Elmhurst Ballet School, one of the most prestigious ballet schools in the United Kingdom. Anthony comes from a community with limited opportunities, making this chance of a lifetime to pursue his dream unique. By immersing the audience in Lagoss culture and fascinating surroundings, Ogens and Benson use their unique perspectives to bring the film to life in the true spirit of Nigeria and its people. Featuring intimate verite and stunning visuals, the film will immerse audiences into the characters worlds and examine their journeys in profoundly inspiring ways. Anthonys journey is a beautiful one, full of courage, growth and acceptance, said Marjon Javadi, vice president of Disney Original Documentary. We aim to share unique, diverse and global perspectives with audiences, full of magic and heart. Were thrilled to partner with Matt, Kachi and Hunting Lane Films to share this touching story with the world. Anthonys journey will be a captivating story of change, growth, acceptance and belonging. In telling his story, Anthonys desire is to introduce and expose more of Nigeria to ballet and hopefully inspire other young men and women in Nigeria to pursue ballet. Forming a rich tapestry told on multiple continents, MADU will introduce the world to a boy chasing a dream of inspiration that will resonate with audiences everywhere. Our shared journey is about curiosity and creating an understanding of different cultures through our connection with each other, said directors Matt Ogens and Kachi Benson. Ultimately, this is a journey of discovery, growth, belonging and acceptance, a theme we both personally relate to. Making his voice heard is our ultimate drive, and we believe Anthonys extraordinary story will make the most captivating, emotional, and riveting film either of us have told. Matt Ogens is an Academy Award-nominated director known for capturing authentic human stories through an evocative visual and narrative aesthetic. Matts Netflix Original Audible was nominated for an Oscar this past year, an immersive coming-of-age documentary told from the perspective of Deaf high school students and communicated through sign language. His debut documentary, Confessions of a Superhero, garnered critical acclaim and a devoted following. He subsequently earned a Primetime Emmy Award for ESPNs 30 for 30: From Harlem with Love. Additional credits include the two-time Emmy-nominated documentary series Why We Fight, which he created, as well as the Emmy-nominated augmented reality film LA Louvre and feature documentary Home + Away, following high school-athletes living on the US/Mexico border and premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Matt received four additional Emmy nominations for his series work. Ogens is represented by UTA and Range Media Partners. Kachi Benson is an award-winning filmmaker whose work primarily focuses on social impact storytelling. He became the first Nigerian to use VR for a narrative film when he released In Bakassi in 2017, a virtual experience of life in one of the largest IDP Camps in Northeast Nigeria. In Bakassi premiered at the Cairo Film Festival and went on to screen at HotDocs and the Berlin Film Festival. In 2019, Kachis Daughters of Chibok made history when it won the Venice Lion for Best Immersive Story at the Venice Film Festival, making him the first African to win the prize. Hunting Lane produces auteur-driven narrative features, television, documentaries and digital content. On the documentary side, Hunting Lane has produced four entries in ESPNs 30 for 30 series, earning both a Peabody Award as well as an Emmy Award. Additional documentary projects include Us Kids, which premiered at Sundance with director Kim Snyder; Levitated Mass, by filmmaker Doug Pray; Confessions of a Superhero, by director Matt Ogens; and HBOs The Off Season: Kevin Durant. Hunting Lanes scripted projects include Derek Cianfrances I Know This Much is True, Blue Valentine and The Place Beyond The Pines, Matt Rosss Captain Fantastic, Gavin OConnors The Accountant, and Ryan Fleck and Anna Bodens Half Nelson. MADU is directed by Matt Ogens and Kachi Benson and produced by Jamie Patricof, Katie McNeill and Rachel Halilej of Hunting Lane Films. Marjon Javadi will oversee for Disney Original Documentary. Disney Original Documentary previously announced upcoming projects Goodbye Yellowbrick Road: The Final Elton John Performances and The Years That Made His Legend, If These Walls Could Sing, the untitled film on Jim Henson, and the Oscar short-listed documentary short Sophie and the Baron. Critically acclaimed Mija will premiere on Disney+ on Sept. 16, 2022. Mickey: The Story of a Mouse'' will stream on Disney+ later this fall. About Disney Original Documentary Disney Original Documentary is committed to pushing the boundaries in non-fiction storytelling by embracing new creative voices, approaches and styles in cinema. Our goal is to build global connections by sharing authentic narratives that resonate with broad audiences. By championing stories from diverse points of view, we aim to expand Disneys storytelling legacy and give audiences new ways of seeing themselves, and the world we live in, on screen. Disney Original Documentary programs exclusively for Disney +. About Hunting Lane Films Jamie Patricof and Katie McNeill of Hunting Lane produce auteur-driven narrative features, television, documentaries, and digital content. Features include THE ZOOKEEPERS WIFE starring Jessica Chastain, CAPTAIN FANTASTIC starring Viggo Mortensen, THE ACCOUNTANT starring Ben Affleck, Tim Burtons BIG EYES starring Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz, Derek Cianfrances THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES starring Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, and Eva Mendes, Cianfrances BLUE VALENTINE starring Gosling and Michelle Williams, and HALF NELSON which also starred Gosling. Recent television productions include THE BOARDROOM with Kevin Durant and 35 Ventures for ESPN+, Q BALL directed by Michael Tolajian for Fox Sports, and Derek Cianfrances I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE starring Mark Ruffalo for HBO. On the documentary side, Hunting Lane has produced four entries in ESPNs 30 for 30 series, earn- ing both a Peabody Award as well as an Emmy Award. Additional documentary projects include LEVITATED MASS by filmmaker Doug Pray, CONFESSIONS OF A SUPERHERO by director Matt Ogens, HBOs THE OFF SEASON: KEVIN DURANT, THE AFTER PARTY for Netflix, Nicole Riegels directorial debut HOLLER, as well as US KIDS, which premiered at Sundance last year. About Elmhurst Ballet School Elmhurst Ballet School celebrates its 100th anniversary during the September 2022 - July 2023 UK academic year. The school opened in Camberley, Surrey, UK in 1923 and relocated to Edgbaston, Birmingham, UK in 2004. The school is a world-renowned centre of excellence in association with Birmingham Royal Ballet and prepares talented young dancers aged between 11 and 19 to become the thinking dance professionals of the future. The school nurtures individuality through a holistic approach to dance training, academics and health & wellbeing and guides students to become independent, collaborative and versatile artists, ready to take to the world stage. Elmhurst Ballet School's dance training is of the highest quality and is delivered by current and former dance professionals. The training is enhanced by the invaluable association with Birmingham Royal Ballet, an ongoing partnership with Studio Wayne McGregor, and many visiting choreographers and dance artists work collaboratively with the students throughout the school year. Elite but not elitist, Elmhurst believes that talent is classless and its exceptional training opportunities should be available to young dancers regardless of their financial, social or cultural backgrounds. Whilst Elmhurst is an independent school, typically some 80% of students benefit from UK Government support or additional funding strands to train at the school. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220909005479/en/ Media Contact for Disney Original Documentary: Nadia Ahmadein, 732-694-8187, [email protected] Marcus Cammack, 424-333-4864, [email protected] Source: Disney Original Documentary JERICHO, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Kimco Realty (NYSE: KIM) announced today that its management will present at the BofA Securities 2022 Global Real Estate Conference on Wednesday, September 14, 2022. Event: Kimco Realty Management Presentation When: Wednesday, September 14, 2022 from 2:55 PM 3:30 PM, ET Live Webcast: Kimco Management to Present at BofA Securities 2022 Global Real Estate Conference A replay of the webcast will be available 24 hours after the conclusion of the live event until December 13, 2022 at the above link. About Kimco Realty Kimco Realty (NYSE: KIM) is a real estate investment trust (REIT) headquartered in Jericho, N.Y. that is North Americas largest publicly traded owner and operator of open-air, grocery-anchored shopping centers, including mixed-use assets. The companys portfolio is primarily concentrated in the first-ring suburbs of the top major metropolitan markets, including those in high barrier-to-entry coastal markets and rapidly expanding Sun Belt cities, with a tenant mix focused on essential, necessity-based goods and services that drive multiple shopping trips per week. Kimco Realty is also committed to leadership in environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues and is a recognized industry leader in these areas. Publicly traded on the NYSE since 1991, and included in the S&P 500 Index, the company has specialized in shopping center ownership, management, acquisitions, and value enhancing redevelopment activities for more than 60 years. As of June 30, 2022, the company owned interests in 533 U.S. shopping centers and mixed-use assets comprising 92 million square feet of gross leasable space. For further information, please visit www.kimcorealty.com. The company announces material information to its investors using the companys investor relations website (investors.kimcorealty.com), SEC filings, press releases, public conference calls, and webcasts. The company also uses social media to communicate with its investors and the public, and the information the company posts on social media may be deemed material information. Therefore, the company encourages investors, the media, and others interested in the company to review the information that it posts on the social media channels, including Facebook (www.facebook.com/kimcorealty), Twitter (www.twitter.com/kimcorealty), YouTube (www.youtube.com/kimcorealty) and LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/company/kimco-realty-corporation). The list of social media channels that the company uses may be updated on its investor relations website from time to time. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220909005051/en/ David F. Bujnicki Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Strategy Kimco Realty Corporation 1-866-831-4297 [email protected] Source: Kimco Realty Corporation MISSISSAUGA, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- MedX Health Corp. (MedX or the Company) (TSXV: MDX) is pleased to announce that, in connection with the Private Placement (the Financing), and further to the $250,000 first tranche closing of which was announced in its Press Release dated July 14, 2022, and its Press Release dated August 11, 2022 announcing application for extension of Price Protection, it has closed on further subscriptions for $350,000, for issuance of seven more Convertible Notes. No Cash Commissions or Agents Warrants were paid or issued in relation to those seven Convertible Notes. Securities issued on are subject to a four month restriction from trading in accordance with relevant regulatory and stock exchange policies. The Company also has further subscriptions in hand for $500,000 which are in process of being funded, and additional subscriptions are anticipated. The Company also announces that it has applied to the TSX Venture Exchange for a final extension of a further 30 days price protection in order to complete subscriptions for up to a total of $4 million. Further Closings will be subject to receipt of subscriptions and a number of other conditions, including, without limitation, the receipt of all relevant regulatory and Stock Exchange approvals or acceptances. The Financing is a non-brokered Private Placement to accredited investors of up to $4 million by issuance of up to 80 Convertible Loan Notes, each with a face value of $50,000 (Convertible Notes), the terms of which are fully described in the Companys Press Release dated July 14, 2022. About MedX Health Corp.: MedX, headquartered in Ontario, Canada, is a leading medical device and software company focused on skin health with its SIAscopy on DermSecure telemedicine platform, utilizing its SIAscopy technology. SIAscopy is also imbedded in its products SIAMETRICS, SIMSYS, and MoleMate, which MedX manufactures in its ISO 13485 certified facility. SIAMETRICS, SIMSYS, and MoleMate include hand-held devices that use patented technology utilizing light and its remittance to view suspicious moles and lesions up to 2mm beneath in a pain-free, non-invasive manner. Its patented software then creates real-time images for physicians and dermatologists to evaluate all types of moles or lesions within seconds. These products are cleared by Health Canada, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Therapeutic Goods Administration and Conformite Europeenne for use in Canada, the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, the European Union, Brazil and Turkey. For more information, visit www.medxhealth.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. This Media Release may contain forward-looking statements, which reflect the Company's current expectations regarding future events. The forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220909005112/en/ Bill Mitoulas, Investor Relations MedX Health Corp. [email protected] +1-416-479-9547 Source: MedX Health Corp. Future governance of the Company PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Regulatory News: PIERRE ET VACANCES (Paris: VAC): Future governance of the Company Pierre et Vacances (the "Company") announces today the identity of the four independent directors who will join the four directors appointed by the General Meeting of July 8th, 2022, as from the date of final completion of the ongoing restructuring transactions1 (the "Restructuring Transactions"), i.e. September 16th, 2022 according to the indicative calendar. Mr Georges Sampeur, currently chairman of the supervisory board of the B&B hotel group, which he managed for 20 years, will chair the Company's Board of Directors. Christine Declercq (CFO of the frozen food distribution group Picard for 18 years) who will be appointed as the Board's reference director, Delphine Grison (President of DGTL Conseil and director of, among others, Dekuple (formerly ADL Performance) and Solocal) and Claire Gagnaire (general secretary of Hellio, a leading player in energy management) will also join the Company's Board of Directors. Pierre & Vacances Group is delighted to be able to benefit from the expertise of each of them. In accordance with the accelerated safeguard plan approved by the Company's shareholders on July 8, 2022 and approved by the Paris Commercial Court on July 29, 2022, the Company's Board of Directors will be fully renewed on the date of completion of the Restructuring Transactions and will be composed as follows: Name Starting date End date (at the end of the General Meeting called to approve the accounts for the financial year ending:) Mr Franck Gervais Chief Executive Officer September 16, 2022* (decision of the general meeting of July 8, 2022) September 30, 2024 Alcentra Flandre Limited September 16, 2022* (decision of the general meeting of July 8, 2022) September 30, 2024 Fidera Limited September 16, 2022* (decision of the general meeting of July 8, 2022) September 30, 2024 Mr Pascal Savary September 16, 2022* (decision of the general meeting of July 8, 2022) September 30, 2024 Mr Georges Sampeur** September 16, 2022* (on cooptation***) September 30, 2024 Mrs Christine Declercq** September 16, 2022* (on cooptation***) September 30, 2024 Mrs Delphine Grison** September 16, 2022* (on cooptation***) September 30, 2024 Mrs Claire Gagnaire** September 16, 2022* (on cooptation***) September 30, 2024 Mr Emmanuel de Pinel de la Taule**** October 30, 2020 (upon election of employees) October 30, 2023***** Mrs Claire Linssen**** November 9, 2020 (appointed by the European Works Council) November 9, 2023***** * The anticipated date of completion of the Restructuring Transactions. ** Independent director as defined by the Afep-Medef code. *** Ratification to be made at the General Meeting of September 30, 2022. **** Director representing employees. ***** The term of office of directors representing employees is set at three years from the date of their election or appointment. Information on the four new directors whose cooptation is subject to ratification by the general meeting of shareholders on September 30, 2022, pursuant to article L. 225-24 of the French Commercial Code, as required by article R. 225-83 of the said code, is available on Pierre et Vacances' website at the following address: http://www.groupepvcp.com (heading Finance / General Meeting / General Meeting - September 30, 2022). Availability of preparatory documents for the Combined General Meeting of September 30, 2022 The Combined General Meeting of Pierre et Vacances shareholders will be held on Friday, September 30, 2022 at 2:30 p.m., at the Hotel des Arts & Metiers, 9 bis avenue d'Iena - 75116 Paris. The notice of pre-meeting, including the agenda and the draft resolutions, was published in the Bulletin des Annonces Legales Obligatoires (BALO) on Friday August 5, 2022. The corrected notice of meeting will be published in the BALO of Wednesday September 14, 2022 and will be published in the legal announcements journal "Affiches Parisiennes" of September 14, 2022. Details regarding participation and voting at this meeting are set out in these notices. The attention of the Company's shareholders is drawn to the amendment of (i) the agenda of the meeting and (ii) the first four resolutions of the meeting (with the addition of the names of the proposed directors). All the documents and information provided for in Article R. 22-10-23 of the French Commercial Code are available on Pierre et Vacances' website at the following address: http://www.groupepvcp.com (heading Finance / General Meeting / General Meeting - September 30, 2022). They will also be made available to shareholders as from the convening of the General Meeting, in accordance with the applicable regulatory provisions. Up to and including the fifth day before the General Meeting, any shareholder holding registered shares may ask the company to send him the documents referred to in Articles R. 225-81 and R. 225-83 of the French Commercial Code. For shareholders owning bearer shares, the exercise of this right is subject to the provision of a certificate of registration in the bearer share accounts held by the authorized intermediary. Any shareholder may consult the documents referred to in Articles L. 225-115 and R. 225-83 of the French Commercial Code at the company's registered office during a period of 15 days prior to the date of the General Meeting. 1 See, in particular, the Company's press release dated March 10, 2022 and, most recently, the press release dated August 2, 2022. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220909005397/en/ Pierre et Vacances Source: Pierre et Vacances BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT) plans to announce its third-quarter 2022 financial results on Tuesday, October 18, 2022 at approximately 7:30 a.m. ET. The results will be reviewed via webcast and teleconference at 11:00 a.m. ET. The conference call will be accessible via audio webcast on State Streets Investor Relations website, http://investors.statestreet.com, and by telephone at (+1) 888 396-8049 (Conference ID: 91853150). Materials will be available on State Streets Investor Relations website prior to the call. Following the call, a replay will be available via audio webcast on State Streets Investor Relations website, http://investors.statestreet.com, or by telephone, which will be available for approximately one month, at (+1) 877 674-7070 (Conference ID: 91853150, Playback Passcode: 853150 #). About State Street Corporation State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT) is one of the world's leading providers of financial services to institutional investors including investment servicing, investment management and investment research and trading. With $38.2 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration and $3.5 trillion* in assets under management as of June 30, 2022, State Street operates globally in more than 100 geographic markets and employs approximately 40,000 worldwide. For more information, visit State Street's website at www.statestreet.com. * Assets under management as of June 30, 2022 includes approximately $66 billion of assets with respect to SPDR products for which State Street Global Advisors Funds Distributors, LLC (SSGA FD) acts solely as the marketing agent. SSGA FD and State Street Global Advisors are affiliated. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220909005459/en/ Ilene Fiszel Bieler +1 617-664-3477 Carolyn Cichon +1 617-664-8672 Source: State Street Corporation The Paris conference is the premier business meeting place for global satellite and space professionals BOCA RATON, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Terran Orbital Corporation (NYSE: LLAP), a global leader in satellite solutions, primarily serving the United States and Allied aerospace and defense industries, today announced its participation in the 25th Annual World Satellite Business Week. The conference will take place at The Westin Paris Vendome from September 12-16. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220909005384/en/ Terran Orbitals Marco Villa to Present at 25th Annual World Satellite Business Week (Image Credit: Terran Orbital Corporation) Marco Villa, Chief Revenue Officer at Terran Orbital, will present during the Smallsat Manufacturing: Reaching New Development Stages panel in the Concorde room on September 14 at 8:45 a.m. CET. Fellow panelists include Aerospace Lab Founder and Chief Executive Officer Benoit Deper, Millennium Space Systems Chief Executive Officer Jason Kim, Hemeria Chief Executive Officer Nicolas Multan, GomSpace Chief Executive Officer Niels Buus, and Surrey Satellite Technology Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Pr. Sir Martin Sweeting. Euroconsult Senior Consultant Alexandre Najjar will moderate the panel. About Terran Orbital Terran Orbital is a leading manufacturer of satellites primarily serving the United States and Allied aerospace and defense industries. Terran Orbital provides end-to-end satellite solutions by combining satellite design, production, launch planning, mission operations, and on-orbit support to meet the needs of the most demanding military, civil, and commercial customers. Learn more at www.terranorbital.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220909005384/en/ Virginia Norder [email protected] 949-508-6404 Source: Terran Orbital Corporation Only two companies, including VALUES, were selected from Japan out of more than 330 applicants from 40 countries TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- VALUES, Inc. (HQ: Minato-ku, Tokyo: President: Hideyuki Tsujimoto; hereinafter, VALUES) has been selected to present at the ESOMAR Congress 2022 (Location: Toronto, Canada; Dates: Sept. 18 - 21, 2022), hosted by ESOMAR, the worlds largest marketing research association. There were more than 330 applicants from 40 countries, and VALUES was among two Japanese companies that were selected to present at the conference. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220907006331/en/ VALUES, Inc. selected as a presenter at ESOMAR Congress 2022 (Graphic: Business Wire) ESOMAR Congress 2022 URL: https://esomar.org/initiatives/congress-2022 VALUES will present on "Customer Journey Realities" on September 20. In this presentation, VALUES will present on a customer journey that categorizes user insights by purchasing process, based on its proprietary and licensed 2.5 million Japanese consumer behavior data and survey research. This presentation will introduce the latest marketing methodologies that enable understanding of actual user purchasing behavior even in the cookie-less era. Comments from Akiko Koyasu, Corporate Executive Officer, VALUES, Inc. It is a great honor to have received the opportunity to present at the first offline (in-person) ESOMAR Congress since the beginning of the pandemic. We have been conducting our own research on the customer journey in Japan and presented it as a marketing model called the "Butterfly Circuit."* In our presentation, we will introduce the processes and marketing techniques necessary to understand the consumer image in the digital age, using specific examples that use the "Butterfly Circuit." We feel that this will be a meaningful presentation for marketers and researchers around the world. *The "Butterfly Circuit" is a model proposed by Google illustrating the information-seeking behavior among consumers in the Internet age. About ESOMAR Congress 2022 ESOMAR Congress 2022 is a conference held in Canada to celebrate the 75th anniversary of ESOMAR, a global organization dedicated to market research, data analysis, and insights. Held at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel in Toronto from September 18 to 21, 2022, this global event will bring together 1,200 professionals from over 90 countries. About ESOMAR ESOMAR is a global business community of data, research and insight professionals. Whether your goal is to grow your business, expand your knowledge, or showcase your commitment to global standards, ESOMAR can help you achieve your goals by providing a unique global network, tools, resources, and thoughts about the future. Speakers Akiko Koyasu Corporate Executive Officer VALUES, Inc. After working as a system engineer and web consultant, she joined Macromill, Inc. She joined VALUES in 2011. As the Corporate Executive Officer, she is in charge of the supervision of the business planning and marketing departments and the overseas business. Rikako Tanaka Marketing Consultant at VALUES, Inc. She joined VALUES as a new graduate in 2019. She holds multiple roles as a marketing consultant and working in customer success and global research promotion. She provides research recommendations and analytical support for digital data across a wide range of industries and sectors, including real estate, automotive, government, and advertising agencies. About VALUES, Inc. VALUES, Inc. is a company that supports business growth through leveraging know-how and advanced IT technologies to support the creation of new market value, providing services that utilize the behavioral analytics and demographic information of the 2.5 million Internet users. We support many companies with our unique expertise and solutions, from consulting on management issues to problem-solving and supporting sales promotion. Head Office: 5F FORUM Akasaka, 2-19-4 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo President & Representative Director: Hideyuki Tsujimoto Business Overview: Management consulting and supporting business growth Online behavior analysis business (big data analysis) Developing market strategies using cutting-edge IT technology Date Founded: September 30, 2009 Capital: 100 million yen URL: https://www.valuesccg.com/english/ View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220907006331/en/ Contact for inquiries regarding this matter: Values, Inc. https://www.valuesccg.com/english/inquiry/ Tel: +81-3-6277-6812 E-mail: [email protected] Taeka Hoshi, Futoshi Yanase, Kotone Oikawa Source: VALUES, Inc. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE: CLF) announced today that it has reached a tentative agreement with the United Steelworkers (USW) on a new 47-month labor contract for its legacy Mining and Pelletizing operations. The contract will be effective on October 1, 2022, and will cover approximately 2,000 USW-represented employees at its Mining and Pelletizing locations in Northern Minnesota and in the Michigan Upper Peninsula. With the successful conclusion of the second and final portion of this negotiation with the USW, the Company has now reached two tentative multi-year labor agreements covering approximately 14,000 USW-represented employees, more than half of its total workforce. Lourenco Goncalves, Chairman, President and CEO said: Reaching a second labor agreement in less than two weeks reaffirms our great alliance with the USW. It also confirms one more time that we know very well our responsibilities as the supplier of choice to clients in critical sectors, such as military and automotive. We have now demonstrated twice why Cleveland-Cliffs gets things done and how we act: we negotiate respectfully, fairly and privately. A strong workforce is critical to our present and future competitiveness, and we look forward to continuing our shared success with our USW partners. Each agreement is now pending ratification by USW local union memberships. No further details will be provided by the Company prior to ratification. The Coca-Cola Company today announced that Barry Simpson will step down from his role as chief Platform Services officer. Simpson will conclude his role Sept. 30. He will remain with the company as a senior advisor through February 2023. Simpson, 62, has led the companys Platform Services organization since it was created in 2021. Platform Services provides scaled services, data and technology across the companys networked organization. Barry has played an important role during his 14-year career with the Coca-Cola system, including establishing Platform Services, said James Quincey, Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company. I thank Barry and join my colleagues in congratulating him for his contributions to the company. When Simpson steps down, the Platform Services organization will be restructured under two leaders, beginning Oct. 1. Neeraj Tolmare will serve as chief information officer and will lead digital and technology services. A leader will be named later to head other service teams. Both executives will report to John Murphy who, as previously announced, becomes president and chief financial officer Oct. 1. About Barry Simpson Simpson joined the Coca-Cola system in 2008 as group chief information officer of the Coca-Cola Amatil Group, a major bottler in Sydney, Australia. He was responsible for the development and implementation of IT strategy across multiple lines of business in six Asia Pacific markets. Simpson joined The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta in 2016, where he was responsible for overseeing global IT services and strategy for all of the companys business units. In 2018, he was named chief information and integrated services officer, which added responsibility of procurement, facilities and shared services. Before joining the Coca-Cola system, Simpson served in various IT leadership roles for Colgate-Palmolive, based in Australia, Malaysia and the United States, from 1990 to 2008. Simpson is a native of Australia and a graduate of the University of Sydney. FILE PHOTO: An image of Elon Musk is seen on a smartphone placed on printed Twitter logos in this picture illustration taken April 28, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo WILMINGTON, Del (Reuters) - Elon Musk filed under seal an amended countersuit against Twitter Inc on Friday to incorporate recent whistleblower claims of security lapses at the social media platform, according to court records. Musk, the world's richest person and chief executive of Tesla Inc, is waging a legal battle to end his $44 billion deal for the company. (Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware) TORONTO, Sept. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AGF Management Limited (TSX: AGF.B) will release its financial results for Q3 2022 on Wednesday, September 28, 2022 at approximately 8:00 a.m. ET. AGF will hold a conference call and webcast to discuss these results at 11:00 a.m. ET. The discussion will feature remarks by Kevin McCreadie, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer, and Adrian Basaraba, Senior Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer. Judy G. Goldring, President and Head of Global Distribution, will also be available for the question and answer period with investment analysts following the presentation. The live audio webcast with supporting materials will be available in the Investor Relations section of AGFs website at www.agf.com or at https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/vxofe4c8. Alternatively, the call can be accessed toll-free in Canada by dialing 1 (866) 455-3403 (PIN: 96087375#), or in the United States by dialing 1 (866) 374-5140 (PIN: 96087375#).A complete archive of this discussion along with supporting materials will be available at the same webcast address within 24 hours of the end of the conference call. ABOUT AGF MANAGEMENT LIMITED Founded in 1957, AGF Management Limited (AGF) is an independent and globally diverse asset management firm. AGF brings a disciplined approach to delivering excellence in investment management through its fundamental, quantitative, alternative and high-net-worth businesses focused on providing an exceptional client experience. AGFs suite of investment solutions extends globally to a wide range of clients, from financial advisors and individual investors to institutional investors including pension plans, corporate plans, sovereign wealth funds and endowments and foundations. AGF has investment operations and client servicing teams on the ground in North America, Europe and Asia. With nearly $40 billion in total assets under management and fee-earning assets, AGF serves more than 800,000 investors. AGF trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol AGF.B. AGF MANAGEMENT LIMITED SHAREHOLDERS, ANALYSTS AND MEDIA, PLEASE CONTACT: Adrian BasarabaSenior Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer416-865-4203, [email protected] Courtney LearmontVice-President, Finance647-253-6804, [email protected] Source: AGF Management Ltd. FORT WORTH, Texas, Sept. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dr. Linda Metcalf will again host hundreds of educators and education experts at the 4th Solution Focused School Conference on Oct. 28 & 29, who will share how they have been able to create safer schools without focusing on security. Schools implementing the solution-focused approach - a model that puts the responsibility on students to develop solutions instead of educators to solve problems - have seen significant reductions in discipline referrals and an increase in academic success. With a shortage of teachers across the U.S. and higher teacher-to-student ratios in classrooms this year, educators are under extreme pressure to engage students so they can learn. Many students are disengaged or feeling isolated, which increases the risks of ill-discipline and disruptive behavior, or worse, more school shootings. "Many educators aren't properly trained to handle disruptive or disengaged students, so they're either giving up, moving schools or quitting altogether," says Dr. Linda Metcalf, best-selling author of Counseling Toward Solutions, and host of The Solution Focused School Conference. "A child's future depends on a cohesive and inclusive school environment, and that should not be undermined by disruptive behavior, or the inability of educators to manage it." The fourth installment of the annual conference is themed "Engaged Educators = Exceptional Classrooms", and is bringing together 20 speakers from 5 different countries. They will share solution-focused techniques and case studies of how this evidence-based approach is transformed their schools and other schools around the world. Studies by the University of Texas found a growing number of schools implementing the solution-focused approach, and where they have increased student engagement, awarded more credits, and reduced drop-out rates. Delegates will attend the conference online on Oct. 28 & 29, and will earn 18 Continuing Education Units. "Schools that implement the solution-focused approach transform into a safer environment of exceptional classrooms led by engaged educators," says Dr. Metcalf. "In those schools, discipline isn't an issue; students and teachers work through their challenges together; there is reduced conflict because previously disengaged students start engaging; students become responsible leaders; and there is great pride in the school's academic success." Schools that implement the solution-focused approach are safer without focusing on security. Using this approach will make schools safer, with less disruption and better academic results. Attend the conference by registering at https://solutionfocusedschool.com/conference ABOUT DR. LINDA METCALF PRESS CONTACT: Linda Metcalf https://solutionfocusedschool.com [email protected] (817) 690-2229 Dr. Linda Metcalf is a Professor at Texas Wesleyan University, a licensed professional counselor supervisor, a licensed marriage and family therapist supervisor, a former middle school teacher and a certified all-level school counselor. Dr. Metcalf is the best-selling author of Counseling Toward Solutions and 10 other books. Related Images Image 1: SFSC 2022 A virtual conference for all school staff that promotes school safety without security! This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. Attachment SFSC 2022 SFSC 2022 Source: Solution Focused Schools Unlimited NEW YORK, Sept. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- First Light Acquisition Group, Inc. (NYSE: FLAG) (FLAG) today announced that it convened and then adjourned, without conducting any other business, its virtual Special Meeting of Stockholders to September 13, 2022 at 10:00 a.m., Eastern time (the Special Meeting). The Special Meeting is being held to consider the proposed amendment to Flags amended and restated certificate of incorporation (the Charter Amendment) to extend the date by which FLAG must complete its initial business combination, as described in FLAGs definitive proxy statement, dated August 23, 2022 (the Proxy Statement Statement). The Special Meeting will be held via live webcast at https://www.cstproxy.com/firstlightacquisition/2022. In connection with the proposed Charter Amendment, FLAG filed the Proxy Statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) on August 23, 2022, and the Proxy Statement and proxy card were mailed shortly thereafter to stockholders of record as of the close of trading on August 22, 2022. The Proxy Statement is available on the SEC website at www.sec.gov. For more information, please contact:FLAG Investor Relations[email protected](202) 503-9255 Source: First Light Acquisition Group Washington, D.C., Sept. 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A reply brief submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court in SEC v. Cochran today explains why Texas accountant Michelle Cochran has the right to have her original lawsuit against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) heard in federal district court. SEC has tried to block this essential avenue for vindicating constitutional safeguards, insisting that Congress insulated the agencys administrative proceedings from any meaningful judicial scrutiny until after SEC has issued a final order in the proceeding. As NCLAs brief details, SEC has attempted to shift the focus of the case, including by rewriting its own question presented to omit the word jurisdiction and pivoting to new arguments that have nothing to do with jurisdiction. This strategy just underscores the weakness of SECs arguments on the actual question presented: whether a federal district court has jurisdiction to hear a suit in which the respondent in an ongoing SEC administrative proceeding seeks to enjoin that proceeding because its adjudicator enjoys unconstitutional removal protections. The Fifth Circuit correctly held, in its en banc ruling in favor of Ms. Cochran, that nothing in the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 strips district courts of jurisdiction over all civil cases arising under the Constitution. Moreover, the Supreme Court already reached an analogous conclusion in Free Enter. Fund v. Public Co. Acct. Oversight Bd., a 2010 case concerning the same statutes and the same kind of structural constitutional defect in SEC proceedings. In Free Enterprise Fund, the Supreme Court rejected the precise argument the SEC makes in its briefingthat the 34 Act divests district courts of jurisdiction over removal power challenges. Ms. Cochran is challenging the constitutionality of SECs Administrative Law Judges, who enjoy multiple layers of protection from removal. If the president cannot remove these federal officers, then he cannot control the agencies hes charged with overseeing. Ms. Cochran requests that her case be heard before a federal court that is competent to decide the constitutional claims at issue before the unconstitutional ALJ proceeding takes place. Latham & Watkins partner Greg Garre, a former Solicitor General of the United States, is Counsel of Record. He will present oral argument at the Supreme Court on November 7, 2022. Peggy Little, who successfully argued the case before the en banc Fifth Circuit, is NCLAs senior litigation counsel on the case. NCLA released the following statement: Under the governments scheme, individuals charged by the SEC must endure years of unconstitutional administrative proceedings, sometimes lasting nearly a decade, before they can present their structural constitutional claims to a federal court competent to hear themonly to have those proceedings vacated. Ms. Cochran has already endured one such unconstitutional hearing, and if the SEC has its way, that process will expose her to a second to-be-vacated ALJ proceeding followed by a third adjudication over a decade after the events at issue. This process is the punishment! The Supreme Court should affirm the en banc Fifth Circuit and call a halt to this abuse of power. Peggy Little, Senior Litigation Counsel, NCLA For more information visit the case page here or watch the case video here. ABOUT NCLA NCLA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group founded by prominent legal scholar Philip Hamburger to protect constitutional freedoms from violations by the Administrative State. NCLAs public-interest litigation and other pro bono advocacy strive to tame the unlawful power of state and federal agencies and to foster a new civil liberties movement that will help restore Americans fundamental rights. ### Judy Pino New Civil Liberties Alliance 202-869-5218 [email protected] Source: New Civil Liberties Alliance New large pooled exploratory analysis from MONALEESA-2, -3 and -7 reinforces unparalleled overall survival (OS) benefit of Kisqali plus ET compared to ET alone, in HR+/HER2- aBC patients with challenging visceral metastases 1 Kisqali plus endocrine therapy reports a median OS of approximately five years in patients with visceral metastases, adding a nearly one-year survival benefit compared to ET alone in this harder-to-treat population 1 Kisqali is a unique CDK4/6 inhibitor, consistently demonstrating statistically significant OS benefit while maintaining or improving quality of life across three Phase III trials, regardless of patient or disease characteristics1-12 Basel, September 9, 2022 Novartis today announced results from a new pooled exploratory analysis across the entire MONALEESA Phase III program, confirming nearly one year of additional overall survival (OS) benefit in a subgroup of patients with aggressive forms of hormone receptor-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 negative (HR+/HER2-) advanced breast cancer (aBC)1. This subgroup analysis found that patients with visceral metastasesincluding liver metastases and multiple metastatic sites, which are typically associated with a poor prognosiswho were treated with Kisqali (ribociclib) plus endocrine therapy in the first-line setting, achieved a median OS of 62.7 months compared to 52.1 months for those treated with endocrine therapy alone (HR=0.79; 95% CI: 0.65-0.97)1. Data from this analysis will be presented at the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Paris, France. Patients who have visceral metastases typically have a worse prognosis and often demonstrate resistance to treatment, so as a clinician it is encouraging to see significant survival benefit with ribociclib in the first-line setting in patients with more aggressive disease, said Denise A. Yardley, MD, Senior Investigator, Breast Cancer Research Program, Sarah Cannon Research Institute at Tennessee Oncology, USA. Ribociclib is the only CDK4/6 inhibitor to show a consistent overall survival benefit in combination with endocrine therapy, while also maintaining quality of life across the Phase III program. Those with liver metastases on Kisqali plus endocrine therapy in the first-line achieved 44.2 months median OS compared to 38.1 months for those on endocrine therapy alone (HR=0.77; 95% CI: 0.55-1.07). For patients with visceral metastases in three or more organs, first-line treatment with Kisqali-endocrine therapy achieved 57.7 months median OS compared to 49.3 months for those on endocrine therapy alone (HR=0.81; 95% CI: 0.63-1.03)1. The goal for advanced breast cancer treatment is to help people live longer, and we are proud that Kisqali continues to deliver a significant survival benefit while also maintaining quality of life, even for those with harder-to-treat disease, said Jeff Legos, Executive Vice President, Global Head of Oncology and Hematology at Novartis. We are committed to demonstrating what makes Kisqali a unique CDK4/6 inhibitor, thus providing patients and oncologists confidence in this therapeutic option. HARMONIA head-to-head CDK4/6 inhibitor trial design Also at ESMO, the trial design will be presented for HARMONIA, the first prospective, head-to-head Phase III trial of CDK4/6 inhibitors being conducted in collaboration with SOLTI Innovative Cancer Research, to evaluate Kisqali vs. Ibrance* (palbociclib) for patients with advanced HR+/HER2-, HER2-enriched subtype, ultimately exploring what makes Kisqali unique at a molecular level13. HARMONIA seeks to test if Kisqali improves the course of HR+/HER2- aBC by changing tumor biology to enable a better response to endocrine therapy as compared to Ibrance*, and could further substantiate differences seen among these CDK4/6 inhibitors. HER2-enriched is an intrinsic subtype associated with a very poor prognosis and endocrine-resistance, as compared to luminal disease. The global, multicenter, randomized, open-label, Phase III study has a primary outcome of progression-free survival (PFS), and secondary outcomes include OS and PFS2. HARMONIA is currently ongoing with an anticipated enrollment of 456 patients. About Kisqali (ribociclib) Kisqali is the only CDK4/6 inhibitor with proven overall survival benefit across all its three pivotal Phase III advanced breast cancer trials2-12, and is recognized by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines as the only CDK4/6 inhibitor with overall survival benefit in first-line HR+/HER2- advanced breast cancer14. Additionally, Kisqali has the highest rating of any CDK4/6 inhibitor on the ESMO Magnitude of Clinical Benefit Scale, achieving a score of five out of five for first-line premenopausal patients with HR+/HER2- advanced breast cancer15. Further, Kisqali in combination with either letrozole or fulvestrant has uniquely, among other CDK4/6i, received a score of four out of five for postmenopausal patients with HR+/HER2- advanced breast cancer treated in the first line16. Kisqali has been approved in more than 95 countries worldwide, including by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Commission, for the treatment of women with HR+/HER2- advanced or metastatic breast cancer in combination either with an aromatase inhibitor or with fulvestrant as initial endocrine-based therapy or following disease progression on endocrine therapy13,17. Kisqali in combination with fulvestrant is approved as initial endocrine-based therapy or following disease progression on endocrine therapy in men by the FDA17. Novartis is committed to continuing to study Kisqali in breast cancer. NATALEE is a large Phase III clinical trial of Kisqali with endocrine therapy in the adjuvant treatment of HR+/HER2- early breast cancer being conducted in collaboration with Translational Research In Oncology (TRIO)18. Additionally, Novartis is collaborating with the Akershus University Hospital in Norway on the NEOLETRIB trial, a neoadjuvant Phase II trial studying the effects of Kisqali in HR+/HER2- early breast cancer and to discover the potentially unique underlying mechanism of action19. Kisqali was developed by the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR) under a research collaboration with Astex Pharmaceuticals. Please see full Prescribing Information for Kisqali, available at www.Kisqali.com. About Novartis in Advanced Breast Cancer Novartis tackles breast cancer with superior science, collaboration and a passion for transforming patient care. We've taken a bold approach to our research by including patient populations often neglected in clinical trials, identifying new pathways or mutations that may play a role in disease progression and developing therapies that not only maintain, but also improve, quality of life for patients. Our priority over the past 30 years and today is to deliver treatments proven to improve and extend lives for those diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. Disclaimer This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can generally be identified by words such as potential, can, will, plan, may, could, would, expect, anticipate, seek, look forward, believe, committed, investigational, pipeline, launch, or similar terms, or by express or implied discussions regarding potential marketing approvals, new indications or labeling for the investigational or approved products described in this press release, or regarding potential future revenues from such products. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on our current beliefs and expectations regarding future events, and are subject to significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. There can be no guarantee that the investigational or approved products described in this press release will be submitted or approved for sale or for any additional indications or labeling in any market, or at any particular time. Nor can there be any guarantee that such products will be commercially successful in the future. In particular, our expectations regarding such products could be affected by, among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development, including clinical trial results and additional analysis of existing clinical data; regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; global trends toward health care cost containment, including government, payor and general public pricing and reimbursement pressures and requirements for increased pricing transparency; our ability to obtain or maintain proprietary intellectual property protection; the particular prescribing preferences of physicians and patients; general political, economic and business conditions, including the effects of and efforts to mitigate pandemic diseases such as COVID-19; safety, quality, data integrity or manufacturing issues; potential or actual data security and data privacy breaches, or disruptions of our information technology systems, and other risks and factors referred to in Novartis AGs current Form 20-F on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Novartis is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. About Novartis Novartis is reimagining medicine to improve and extend peoples lives. As a leading global medicines company, we use innovative science and digital technologies to create transformative treatments in areas of great medical need. In our quest to find new medicines, we consistently rank among the worlds top companies investing in research and development. Novartis products reach nearly 800 million people globally and we are finding innovative ways to expand access to our latest treatments. About 108,000 people of more than 140 nationalities work at Novartis around the world. Find out more at https://www.novartis.com. Novartis is on Twitter. Sign up to follow @Novartis at https://twitter.com/novartisnews For Novartis multimedia content, please visit https://www.novartis.com/news/media-library For questions about the site or required registration, please contact [email protected] References Yardley DA, Yap YS, et al. Pooled exploratory analysis of survival in patients (pts) with HR+/HER2- advanced breast cancer (ABC) and visceral metastases (mets) treated with ribociclib (RIB) + endocrine therapy (ET) in the MONALEESA (ML) trials. Presented at the Europeian Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress. September 9-13, 2022. Abstract #205P. Neven P, Fasching PA, et al. Updated overall survival (OS) results from the first-line (1L) population in the Phase III MONALEESA-3 trial of postmenopausal patients with HR+/HER2- advanced breast cancer (ABC) treated with ribociclib (RIB) + fulvestrant (FUL). Presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Breast Cancer Congress. May 4, 2022. Abstract #LBA4, May 4, 2022. Hortobagyi, et al. Overall Survival With Ribociclib Plus Letrozole in Advanced Breast Cancer. N Engl J Med 2022; 386:942-50. Hortobagyi, et al. Overall survival (OS) results from the phase III MONALEESA (ML)-2 trial of postmenopausal patients with hormone receptor positive/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 negative (HR+/HER2) advanced breast cancer (ABC) treated with endocrine therapy (ET) ribociclib. Presented at the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress, September 16-21, 2021. Abstract #LBA17. Im, S. A. et al. Overall Survival with Ribociclib plus Endocrine Therapy in Breast Cancer. N Engl J Med 2019; 381:307-316. Slamon DJ, Neven P, Chia S, Fasching PA, De Laurentiis M, Im S-A, et al. Overall survival with ribociclib plus fulvestrant in advanced breast cancer. N Engl J Med. 2020;382(6):51424. Slamon, DJ, et al. Overall survival (OS) results of the Phase III MONALEESA-3 trial of postmenopausal patients (pts) with hormone receptorpositive (HR+), human epidermal growth factor 2negative (HER2) advanced breast cancer (ABC) treated with fulvestrant (FUL) ribociclib (RIB). Presented at the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress, September 29, 2019, Barcelona, Spain. Abstract #LBA7. Slamon D, Neven P, Chia S, et al. Updated overall survival (OS) results from the Phase III MONALEESA-3 trial of postmenopausal patients (pts) with HR+/HER2 advanced breast cancer (ABC) treated with fulvestrant (FUL) ribociclib (RIB. Presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, June 5, 2021. Abstract #1001. Tripathy D, Im S-A, Colleoni M, et al, Updated overall survival (OS) results from the phase III MONALEESA-7 trial of pre- or perimenopausal patients with HR+/HER2 advanced breast cancer (ABC) treated with endocrine therapy (ET) ribociclib. Presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, December 9, 2020. Abstract #PD2-04. Yardley, Denise, A. et. al. Overall survival (OS) in patients (pts) with advanced breast cancer (ABC) with visceral metastases (mets), including those with liver mets, treated with ribociclib (RIB) plus endocrine therapy (ET) in the MONALEESA (ML) -3 and -7 trials. Presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting. Abstract #1054. OShaughnessy J et al. Overall survival subgroup analysis by metastatic site from the Phase III MONALEESA-2 study of first-line ribociclib + letrozole in postmenopausal patients with HR+/HER2 advanced breast cancer. Presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, December 7-10, 2021. Abstract #GS2-01. Novartis Data on File. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp: 2021. Pascual T, Stover D, et al. HARMONIA SOLTI-2101/AFT-58: A head-to-head phase III study comparing ribociclib (RIB) and Palbociclib (PAL) in patients with hormone receptor-positive/HER2-negative/HER-Enriched (HR+/HER2-/HER2-E) advanced breast cancer (ABC). Presented at the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress. September 9-13, 2022. Abstract #272TiP. National Comprehensive Cancer Network. NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines) Breast Cancer. Version 1.2022. European Society for Medical Oncology Magnitude of Clinical Benefit Scale Scorecard. https://www.esmo.org/guidelines/esmo-mcbs/esmo-mcbs-scorecards/scorecard-158-1. Published April 20, 2020. Updated August 21, 2020. Accessed September 9, 2020. European Society for Medical Oncology Magnitude of Clinical Benefit Scale Scorecard. https://www.esmo.org/guidelines/esmo-mcbs/esmo-mcbs-scorecards/scorecard-9-1. Published March 29, 2022. Accessed April 1, 2022. Kisqali (ribociclib) Prescribing Information. East Hanover, New Jersey, USA: Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. Novartis Pharmaceuticals and Translational Research in Oncology (2018, December 7 2026, May 29). A Trial to Evaluate Efficacy and Safety of Ribociclib With Endocrine Therapy as Adjuvant Treatment in Patients With HR+/HER2- Early Breast Cancer (NATALEE). Identifier NCT03701334. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03701334. Novartis and Vestre Viken Hospital Trust (2022, April 1 2024, December 1). Neoadjuvant Treatment of Locally-advanced Breast Cancer Patients With Ribociclib and Letrozole (NEOLETRIB). Identifier NCT05163106. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05163106. *Ibrance is a registered trademark of Pfizer Inc. # # # Novartis Media Relations E-mail: [email protected] Anja von Treskow Novartis External Communications +41 79 392 8697 (mobile) [email protected] Julie Masow Novartis US External Communications +1 862 579 8456 [email protected] Floriana Riccio Furnari Novartis Oncology Communications +1 862 210 5317 [email protected] Novartis Investor Relations Central investor relations line: +41 61 324 7944 E-mail: [email protected] Central North America Samir Shah +41 61 324 7944 Sloan Simpson +1 862 345 4440 Nicole Zinsli-Somm +41 61 324 3809 Alina Levchuk +1 862 778 3372 Isabella Zinck +41 61 324 7188 Parag Mahanti +1 973 876 4912 Not for dissemination in the United States of America. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Premier Diversified Holdings Inc. ("Premier" or the "Company") (TSXV: PDH) announces that it has entered into certain agreements, as set out below, and also includes an update on its partially-held subsidiary, ZED Therapeutics Inc. Loan Agreement Premier entered into a loan agreement (Loan Agreement) dated September 7, 2022 with MPIC Fund I, LP ("MPIC") for a secured loan in the principal amount of up to USD$100,000 (the "Loan"). The Loan matures on September 7, 2023 and bears interest at a rate of 6% per annum. The Loan is secured with all of the present and after-acquired property of the Company and ranks equally in priority with all of the loans previously made to the Company by MPIC. The Loan will be used for working capital (including for Premiers partially owned subsidiaries, Purposely Platform Inc. and MyCare MedTech Inc.) and may be used to acquire an additional interest in MyCare MedTech Inc., a telehealth company. The Company is not issuing any securities, or paying any bonus, commission or finder's fees on the Loan. The Loan is repayable at any time without penalty. Purposely Platform Inc. and MyCare MedTech Inc. are generating revenue, and the Company expects to shortly receive re-payment of funds from such entities, allowing it to partially repay some of the funds owed to MPIC. The Loan Agreement is subject to review and acceptance by the TSX Venture Exchange. Amended Loan Agreements with MPIC Fund I, LP Premier previously entered into a certain loan agreement dated July 15, 2020, as amended July 15, 2021, for a loan from MPIC Fund I, LP (MPIC). The parties agreed to extend the maturity date of the loan from July 15, 2022 to July 14, 2023. The date of the second amending agreement is July 15, 2022. Premier previously entered into a certain loan agreement dated July 28, 2020, as amended July 28, 2021, for a loan from MPIC. The parties agreed to extend the maturity date of the loan from July 28, 2022 to July 28, 2023. The date of the second amending agreement is July 28, 2022. Premier previously filed a certain loan agreement dated August 25, 2021, for a loan from MPIC. The parties agreed to extend the maturity date of the loan from August 25, 2022 to August 25, 2023. The date of the amending agreement is August 16, 2022. Premier previously entered into a certain loan agreement dated September 1, 2020, as amended September 1, 2021, for a loan from MPIC. The parties agreed to extend the maturity date of the loan from September 1, 2022 to September 1, 2023. The date of the second amending agreement is August 29, 2022. Related party transaction disclosure As MPIC is a control person of Premier, the Loan Agreement and the amended loan agreements described above each constitute "related party transactions" within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 Protection of Minority Security holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). These agreements have been determined to be exempt from the requirements to obtain a formal valuation or minority shareholder approval based on sections 5.5(b) and 5.7(1)(f) of MI 61-101. Premier does not have securities listed or quoted on any of the specified markets listed in section 5.5(b) of MI 61-101. Premier is relying on the exemption from minority shareholder approval in 5.7(1)(f) of MI 61-101 as the loans were obtained by Premier from MPIC on reasonable commercial terms that are not less advantageous to Premier than if the loans had been obtained from a person dealing at arms length with Premier. Further, the loans are not convertible, directly or indirectly, into equity or voting securities of Premier or a subsidiary entity of the issuer, or otherwise participating in nature, or repayable as to principal or interest, directly or indirectly, in equity or voting securities of Premier or a subsidiary entity of the issuer. Amended Loan Agreements with MyCare MedTech Inc. Premier previously entered into a certain sixth amended and restated secured loan agreement dated September 30, 2021, for a loan from Premier to MyCare MedTech Inc. (MyCare). The parties agreed to extend the maturity date of the loan from September 30, 2022, to September 29, 2023. The date of the seventh amended and restated secured loan agreement is August 29, 2022. Premier previously entered into a certain secured loan agreement with MyCare dated September 28, 2021, for a loan from Premier to MyCare. The parties agreed to increase the principal amount of the loan and to extend the maturity date of the loan from September 30, 2022, to September 29, 2023. The date of the amending loan agreement is July 11, 2022. Related Party Transaction disclosure Premier is a control person of MyCare, and the amendments to the MyCare Loans constitute "related party transactions" within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101. These amendments have been determined to be exempt from the requirements to obtain a formal valuation or minority shareholder approval on the basis of being a "downstream" transaction. ZED Therapeutics Inc. In July 2022, the management of ZED Therapeutics Inc. (ZED) informed the Company of its decision to voluntarily dissolve ZED and its subsidiaries. Certain of ZEDs assets located in Oregon were sold for net proceeds of approximately USD$885,000. Premier holds 5,144,000 common shares of ZED. ZEDs management advised that it does not expect to have any funds available for distribution to ZED shareholders once certain payments are made including closing costs and severance payments to employees. Premier is currently in the process of obtaining further information from ZED regarding the asset sale. About Premier Diversified Holdings Inc. Premier Diversified Holdings Inc. participates in diversified industries through its acquisitions of securities and/or assets of public and private entities which it believes have potential for significant returns. It may act as a holding company (either directly or through a subsidiary) and may participate in management of subsidiary entities to varying degrees. On behalf of the Board of Directors "Sanjeev Parsad" Sanjeev ParsadPresident, CEO and Director Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdictions in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. Any offering made will be pursuant to available prospectus exemptions and restricted to persons to whom the securities may be sold in accordance with the laws of such jurisdictions, and by persons permitted to sell the securities in accordance with the laws of such jurisdictions. Further information regarding the Company can be found on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Not for dissemination in the United States of America. Legal Notice Regarding Forward Looking Statements: This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements are indicated expectations or intentions. Forward-looking statements in this news release include those regarding loan terms including regarding maturity date(s), that PDH will repay the loan from MPIC as disclosed in the news release, that the net proceeds of the Loan will be used as stated in this news release, and statements regarding the dissolution of ZED and payout of funds by ZED. Factors that could cause actual results to be materially different include but are not limited to the following: that any revenue which PDH makes indirectly via its operating subsidiaries will be insufficient to repay the loans to MPIC, that its operating subsidiaries will not generate revenue, or will retain such revenue, that the terms and conditions of the various loans may be amended, that the management or board of PDH may use its revenue or other the funds for other purposes, that the capital raised will be insufficient capital to accomplish our intentions and capital alone may not be sufficient for us to grow our business, that the issuer's financial position will not improve, will stay the same or will decline further, that the timing of receipt of anticipated revenues or returns may be delayed, that its ongoing expenses including general and administrative expenses will increase, and that complications or unforeseen obstacles from COVID-19 or other factors may negatively impact Premier. Investors are cautioned against placing undue reliance on forward-looking statements. It is not our policy to update forward looking statements. For further information, contact: Sanjeev Parsad, President and CEO Phone: (604) 678.9115 Fax: (604) 678.9279 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.pdh-inc.com Source: Premier Diversified Holdings Inc. Sydney, Sept. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Proactive, provider of real-time news and video interviews on growth companies listed in Australia, has covered the following companies: Allup Silica Ltd (ASX:APS) has a potential new raft of areas to explore, having made exploration licence applications for new projects in Western Australia and the Northern Territory which it considers prospective for silica sand. Click here Lithium Power International Ltd (ASX:LPI) has received binding commitments from institutional, sophisticated and professional investors to raise A$25 million via a placement at an issue price of A$0.60 per share. Click here Alligator Energy Ltd (ASX:AGE) has taken the first step in pursuing resource growth at the Blackbush deposit of the Samphire Uranium Project in South Australia with a high-resolution ground-based gravity survey over the area. Click here Cobre Ltd (ASX:CBE) has uncovered further mineralisation at the Ngami Copper Project (NCP) in the Kalahari Copper Belt (KCB) in Botswana, this time intersecting an 18-metre zone of visible copper, including 9 metres of notable visual chalcocite mineralisation confirmed with pXRF readings. Click here Hawsons Iron Ltd (ASX:HIO) has tapped Paul Cassano to lead the Hawsons Iron project team as project director. Click here Animoca Brands Corporation Ltd has raised US$110 million from the issuance of convertible notes to a small number of institutional investors that included Singapore state-owned sovereign fund Temasek, at a conversion price of A$4.50. Click here Radiopharm Theranostics Ltd (ASX:RAD) has gained a suite of tax credits, fee exemptions and market exclusivity benefits for its osteosarcoma treatment DUNP19 following an orphan drug designation (ODD) by the US Federal Drug Administration (FDA). Click here Nexus Minerals Ltd (ASX:NXM) has generated a new geological model of the Crusader-Templar prospect of the Wallbrook Gold Project in WA, which will be used to better target planned resource expansion drilling at the prospect. Click here Alkane Resources Ltd (ASX:ALK) has released updated mineral resource and ore reserve estimates for the Tomingley Gold Project as at June 30, 2022. 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 [email protected] Source: Proactive VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Thompson Rivers University and Teck Resources Limited (TSX: TECK.A and TECK.B, NYSE: TECK) (Teck) today announced a partnership to improve health and safety for staff, students and faculty on campus through the use of antimicrobial copper on high-touch surfaces. Through Tecks Copper & Health program, Teck is installing more than 650 antimicrobial copper surfaces at three key buildings on the Kamloops campus: Old Main, the Campus Activity Centre and the Chappell Family Building for Nursing and Population Health. The installation of antimicrobial surfaces on door fixtures and handles provides an added layer of protection. Copper has unique antimicrobial properties and is proven effective in eliminating up to 99.9% of harmful bacteria within two hours of contact. When installed in high-touch, high-traffic locations, antimicrobial copper can help reduce the spread of infection. With students, staff and faculty returning to campus for the fall semester, there will once again be an emphasis on health and safety as university administrators work to create a safe environment to limit the spread of infection from communicable diseases. Partnering with Tecks Copper & Health program adds an extra layer of reassurance to help TRU provide a safe and healthy experience for all members of the university community. The product provided for this project, known as Copper Clean by CopTek, is manufactured in Canada. This TRU and Teck partnership is the latest in a series made through Tecks Copper & Health program to expand the use of antimicrobial copper in B.C. hospitals, post-secondary educational institutions, and on public transit in Vancouver and Toronto. Quotes:Don Lindsay, President and CEO, Teck Thompson Rivers University continues to show their leadership as an innovator and valuable contributor to local communities, and we are proud to partner on the installation of antimicrobial copper on campus. Through partnerships like this, Teck is working to make communities safer while increasing awareness of coppers natural ability to reduce the spread of infection. Brian Daly, Vice President University Relations, Thompson Rivers University The health and safety of TRUs students, faculty and staff is very important to us, which is why this partnership to install antimicrobial copper in buildings on campus is such a great initiative. TRU highly values community partnerships such as this project with Teck and we look forward to more collaborations in the future. Media downloads: Click here for video About Tecks Copper & Health ProgramThrough its Copper & Health program, Teck has funded numerous initiatives across a range of industries and public facilities to help improve health and safety in high-traffic, high-touch areas through the installation of antimicrobial copper. Tecks Copper & Health program has installed copper surfaces in a number of healthcare facilities, including Vancouver General Hospital and St. Pauls Hospital, on public transit in partnership with TransLink and Toronto Transit Commission, throughout the terminal at Vancouver International Airport, in major attractions including Royal Ontario Museum and Science World, and in schools through partnerships with BCIT, SFU and UBC. Teck is a proud member of CHAIR Canada, the Coalition for Community and Healthcare Acquired Infection Reduction (chaircanada.org). There is no commercial benefit to Teck from the increased use of antimicrobial copper as the amount of metal needed is very small; the goal of the program is to improve health and safety for communities. For more information about the role of antimicrobial copper, the Copper & Health program, and other examples of copper in action, please visit copperstopsthespread.ca About Thompson Rivers University (TRU)Thompson Rivers University was established in 1970. It provides learning opportunities to more than 25,000 students on campuses in Kamloops and Williams Lake and online through Open Learning. From traditional academics to trades, from certificates to graduate degrees, TRU offers over 140 on-campus programs and 60-plus Open Learning programs. Our students apply what they learn in co-op work terms, study abroad, undergraduate research, field schools, and practicums. About TeckAs one of Canadas leading mining companies, Teck is committed to responsible mining and mineral development with major business units focused on copper, zinc, and steelmaking coal, as well as investments in energy assets. Copper, zinc and high-quality steelmaking coal are required for the transition to a low-carbon world. Headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, Tecks shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbols TECK.A and TECK.B and the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TECK. Learn more about Teck at www.teck.com or follow @TeckResources. Teck Media Contact:Chris StannellPublic Relations Manager604.699.4368[email protected] TRU Media Contact:Kathy Sinclair Senior Communications Consultant, University RelationsThompson Rivers University250.371.5697[email protected] Teck Investor Contact: Fraser PhillipsSenior Vice President, Investor Relations & Strategic Analysis604.699.4621[email protected] Source: Teck Resources Ltd FILE PHOTO: The logo for Google LLC is seen at the Google Store Chelsea in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., November 17, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators have broadened the scope of their investigation into Alphabet unit Google's digital advertising business by taking over the Portuguese competition watchdog's probe into the same issue. While the European Commission kicked off its investigation in June last year, the Portuguese Competition Authority (AdC) only opened a probe in May this year following a complaint. The Portuguese watchdog said the EU competition authority took over its case on July 27 in view of the scope and impact of the matter in question. The Commission said it took note of the AdC's announcement. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. AdC said its investigation focused on the market for publisher ad servers and the market for supply-side platforms, which allow publishers to manage the advertising space on their websites and to sell it through auctions or agreements with advertisers. "There are indicia that Google has used information not accessible by competitors on online advertisement auctions in order to change the outcome of those auctions in Google's favour, and has possibly limited the development of competing auction technologies, among other competition restricting behaviours in the context of negotiations with publishers," AdC said. Google made $147 billion in revenue from online ads in 2020, more than any other company in the world, with ads including search, YouTube and Gmail accounting for the bulk of its overall sales and profits. (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Susan Fenton) Bevonescein (ALM-488), a peptide-dye conjugate designed to fluorescently highlight nerves in real time during surgery, is currently in Phase 3 clinical trials in patients undergoing Head and Neck Surgery LA JOLLA, Calif., Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Alume Biosciences, Inc, a leader in the field of nerve-targeted diagnostics and therapeutics, announced today that it has been awarded a $3.4M Commercialization Readiness Program (CRP) Grant from the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). This grant will support Alume's commercialization efforts of its novel nerve illumination technology in surgery. The Principal Investigators on this grant are Michael Whitney, PhD, Scientific Co-Founder and Vice President of Discovery and Brett Berman, MD, Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer at Alume. Alume Receives Commercialization Readiness Program Grant from the NIH Alume previously received a Phase I SBIR grant in 2019 and Phase II SBIR grant in 2020 from the NINDS to develop nerve illumination agents for surgical use. The CRP grant is a follow-on 2year award that will support commercialization of Alume's fluorescent nerve targeting agent, ALM-488 (bevonescein) in patients undergoing Head and Neck Surgery. "Alume's technology to fluorescently highlight nerves during surgery is highly innovative and this CRP grant is a testament to bevonescein's innovation, potential utility and impact as it was awarded following a very rigorous NIH peer-reviewed process," said Dr. Roderic Pettigrew, MD/PhD, CEO of EnHealth and Inaugural Dean of the School of Engineering Medicine, home of ENMED at Texas A&M University in collaboration with Houston Methodist. "Alume's technology was developed as a result of the unmet need to improve intraoperative identification of nerves," said Jean-Pierre Millon, a member of Alume's Board of Directors. "This award is a significant milestone for Alume as we prepare for commercialization," said Millon. About Roderic Pettigrew, PhD, MD Dr. Pettigrew is a physician-engineer and was the founding director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) at the National Institutes of Health. On behalf of NIH, Dr. Pettigrew also served as the liaison to the U.S. Department of Energy and to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and was co-chairman of the Interagency Working Group on Medical Imaging, convened by the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP). He stepped down as NIBIB Director in December 2017 to assume the role of CEO of EnHealth at Texas A&M University in Houston and inaugural Dean School of Engineering Medicine where ENMED trains the nation's first Physicianeers. ENMED is in collaboration with the state's top ranked Houston Methodist Hospital that is also on the US News National Honor Roll. About Jean Pierre Millon Mr. Millon joined the Alume Biosciences Board of Directors in 2020. He has extensive experience leading healthcare and life sciences companies and has held several global leadership positions including serving as an executive for 23 years at Eli Lilly. In addition to serving on the Board of Directors of Alume Biosciences, Mr. Millon currently serves on the Board of Directors of CVS Health, Truvian, InanoBio and Valenz Health. He is an Advisor to the Great Point Partners equity fund and also serves as a healthcare consultant, assisting new ventures in the US and Europe. He has been actively involved in non-profit activities, having served as a board member of St Joseph Hospital in Phoenix and the Phoenix Council of Foreign Relations and of the Scottsdale Cultural Council. He was a member of the Kellogg School of Business Advisory Board for 15 years and Vice President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan in the 90's. ------------ This award was granted by the National Institutes of Health. The content of this press release is solely the responsibility of the author and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH. Media contact: [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/alume-receives-commercialization-readiness-program-grant-from-the-nih-to-support-commercialization-of-alm-488-to-highlight-nerves-301621383.html SOURCE Alume Biosciences Experience Denver's festivals highlighting art, film, food and more this Fall DENVER, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- One way to explore and understand the heart of a city is through its events and festivals. The next few months are the perfect opportunity to get to know Denver as its exceptional dining and craft beer scenes will be celebrated, as well as its reputation as the arts and culture hub of the Rocky Mountain region. The festivities begin with Denver Food + Wine running through Sept. 10. Around the city there will be tasting events, seminars and more benefitting the Colorado Restaurant Foundation's efforts to support worker education, training and mental health/wellness resources. The event culminates with the signature Grand Tasting with more than 40 top restaurants and 700 drink options from Southern Glaziers Wine & Spirits collection. VIP tickets to the Grand Tasting include access to bites from some of Denver's top restaurants including Apple Blossom, The Bindery, Mizuna, Shanahan's and Ultreia. Also underway and running through Sept. 11 is Art RiNo. The festivities will bring local, national and international artists together to create six new murals in the River North Art District, while Camp RiNo is an opportunity for children to explore their creative side. Plus, the Westword Music Showcase is part of the festival Sept. 9-10 at various locations throughout the district. Next up is Denver Walls Sept. 22-26. Bringing fresh murals to the streets of the Globeville neighborhood and RiNo, Denver Walls aims to cultivate community pride, celebrate diversity and individuality, and, of course, beautify the city by bringing art to public places. The new murals painted during Art RiNo and Denver Walls will only add to Denver's reputation as the "Street Art Capital of the Country" as AFAR called The Mile High City. From art adorning the sides of buildings to buildings that are art in and of themselves: Doors Open Denver returns Sept. 26-Oct. 16 to showcase historic and contemporary buildings in The Mile High City. The Denver Architecture Foundation will run multiple "Insider Tours" of the Denver Zoo, Denver Performing Arts Complex and buildings on the Auraria and University of Denver campuses. Denver Beer Week kicks off Sept. 30 with nine days to celebrate all things beer. There will be more than 100 beer-related events including tap takeovers, rare beer tappings, meet-the-brewer events and beer and food pairings. And, of course, as America's No. 1 beer city, Denver is once again hosting the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) at the Colorado Convention Center Oct. 6-8. GABF is the largest ticketed beer festival in the country in terms of attendees, breweries and beers served, and 2022 marks the 40th anniversary of the festival. Tickets remain for the Thursday evening session only as 40,000 attendees are expected downtown to sample more than 2,000 different beers from 500 breweries throughout the festival. Also celebrating a milestone this year is the Denver Film Festival which returns for its 45th anniversary. The largest film festival in the Rocky Mountain region runs Nov. 2-13 and includes red carpet events, screenings across the city and more. Denver Arts Week is Nov. 4-12 and multiple First Friday Art Walks around the city kick off the festivities. The following evening, many of Denver's top cultural institutions will offer free admission from 5-10 p.m. for Night at the Museums on Nov. 5. There also are free shuttle routes connecting many of the museums, allowing everyone to make the most out of this engaging evening. Other events during the week will include theatrical performances, tours and access to artist studios. Finally, the spotlight will shine on the runway for Denver Fashion Week Nov. 12-20. Collections from local, national and international designers will feature everything from streetwear to kids clothing and even sustainability in high fashion. About VISIT DENVER, The Convention & Visitors Bureau Celebrating 113 years of promoting The Mile High City, VISIT DENVER is a nonprofit trade association that contracts with the City of Denver to market Denver as a convention and leisure destination, increasing economic development in the city, creating jobs and generating taxes. Denver welcomed more than 31.7 million visitors in 2021, generating $6.6 billion in spending, while supporting tens of thousands of jobs and making Tourism one of the city's largest industries. Learn more about Denver on the VISIT DENVER website or at Tourism Pays Denver. Denver International Airport (DEN) is the No. 3 busiest airport in the world connecting The Mile High City to more than 200 destinations globally. Follow Denver's social media channels for up-to-the-minute updates on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn. With press or photo inquiries, please contact:Jesse Davis: (303) 571-9450 or [email protected]Jen Osieczanek: (303) 571-9451 or [email protected] View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/autumn-events-showcase-denver-as-the-cultural-epicenter-of-the-rocky-mountain-region-301621255.html SOURCE VISIT DENVER, The Convention & Visitors Bureau DALLAS, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ben E. Keith Company's Hallam Family were honored at last night's 24th annual Katy 5K race as Honorary Chairs. The Katy 5K presented by Michelob Ultra, one of the best-attended running events in Dallas, takes participants through Uptown, onto the Katy Trail, and down into Reverchon Park for the Katy 5K Picnic party. The race generates crucial funds for the non-profit organization, Friends of the Katy Trail, which is responsible for maintaining and enhancing the Trail and raising the funds needed for landscape maintenance, lighting, water for people and pets, security patrols, and more through private and corporate donations. The Hallam family and the Ben E. Keith Foundation were early donors to help construct the Katy Trail, and are committed to continually supporting Friends of the Katy Trail. Robert Hallam, Jr. said, "Our family and our company have been involved with Friends of the Katy Trail and the Katy 5K for more than 20 years and we are proud to serve as the Honorary Chairs of the 2022 Katy Trail 5K race. It has been so exciting for us to see the Katy Trail become an essential and beloved Dallas destination and the Katy 5K continues to be a can't miss event. We encourage everyone in the Dallas and surrounding communities to join us in supporting Friends of the Katy Trail, as we all benefit from their important work maintaining as well as continually enhancing the Katy Trail." Friends of the Katy Trail Executive Director Amy Bean said, "We are grateful for the ongoing support from the Hallam Family and Ben E. Keith Company. With more than 1.5 million Trail visits a year, their generous support and donations from the community are more important than ever to keep the Katy Trail running strong." 4,000 race goers enjoyed a fun after-party with free food from over thirty local restaurants, the opportunity to visit with various sponsors and local businesses, and music by Downtown Fever. About Ben E. Keith Company: Ben E. Keith Company, established in Fort Worth, Texas in 1906, began selling Anheuser-Busch products in 1928. Today, Ben E. Keith Company's Beverage division is the third largest independent beer wholesaler in the country. With fourteen Sales & Distribution Centers the company operates throughout the state of Texas and distributes import beers, craft beers, spirits, wine products and nonalcoholic beverages. The Food Division is the nation's fifth largest broad line foodservice distributor and operates today with nine divisions shipping to fifteen states throughout the country. For more information, please visit www.benekeith.com. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ben-e-keith-companys-hallam-family-honored-by-friends-of-the-katy-trail-301621391.html SOURCE Ben E. Keith Beverages Stock Market SymbolsGIB.A (TSX)GIB (NYSE)cgi.com/newsroom MUNICH, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - CGI (TSX: GIB.A) (NYSE: GIB) has integrated its OpenMedia end-to-end newsroom solution suite with Microsoft Teams to deliver a modern unified communications platform for today's journalists and producers. With this enhanced platform, newsrooms can address workflow challenges resulting from an increase in broadcasting channels, as well as remote newsgathering and production. In line with increasing digital transformation priorities over the past few years, a growing number of broadcasters worldwide are adopting central communications platforms to help production teams collaborate while working across multiple channels and from remote locations. These platforms can help address common data sharing and collaboration workflow issues. For example, essential data may not be entered from a remote site into core newsroom systems, and, as a result, the data is not accessible to a majority of users. A unified communication platform overcomes challenges like this, enabling more effective data sharing and collaboration. As a Microsoft Gold Partner, CGI integrated Microsoft Teams' workspace chat and video conference features with its OpenMedia solution to streamline communication channels for journalists and producers in newsrooms. Michael Pfitzner, Vice-President for Newsroom Solutions at CGI, highlights that this integration will resonate strongly with news, current affairs, and magazine program teams everywhere. "More than ever before, news teams are more likely to be dispersed physically and/or working on multiple stories via multiple channels simultaneously," he said. "The challenges related to this evolution have been heightened by the circumstances of the past two years, accelerating the need for a more flexible approach to broadcast news production. A reliable and unified communications platform has become a business imperative, and we believe the integration of CGI's OpenMedia solution with Microsoft Teams will be a big step forward for news teams around the world." "CGI's status as a Microsoft Gold Partner demonstrates its strong capabilities in integrating Microsoft technologies to drive innovation, collaboration, agility and efficiencies," adds Holger Meinzer, Director Industry Relations Media & Telco at Microsoft Germany. "We're proud to partner with CGI to help newsrooms meet today's challenges in the fast-evolving and highly competitive broadcasting industry. The combination of Microsoft Teams and CGI's OpenMedia solution delivers a powerful platform for bringing together news teams and ensuring optimal communication and collaboration." CGI's OpenMedia solution is part of a comprehensive set of newsroom and radio solutions that CGI delivers to broadcasters worldwide to enhance production workflows and management across various media channels, including TV, radio, online and social channels. For more information, visit cgi.com/mediasolutions. About CGI Founded in 1976, CGI is among the largest independent IT and business consulting services firms in the world. With 88,500 consultants and professionals across the globe, CGI delivers an end-to-end portfolio of capabilities, from strategic IT and business consulting to systems integration, managed IT and business process services and intellectual property solutions. CGI works with clients through a local relationship model complemented by a global delivery network that helps clients digitally transform their organizations and accelerate results. CGI Fiscal 2021 reported revenue is C$12.13 billion and CGI shares are listed on the TSX (GIB.A) and the NYSE (GIB). Learn more at cgi.com. View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cgi-enables-unified-communications-for-newsrooms-via-the-integration-of-cgi-openmedia-with-microsoft-teams-301621006.html SOURCE CGI Inc. XI'AN, China, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ENTREPRENEUR UNIVERSE BRIGHT GROUP ("EUBG" or the "Company") (OTCBB: EUBG), a digital marketing consulting company, announced that it has changed its auditors from Centurion ZD CPA & Co. ("CZD" or "Former Auditor") to Prager Metis CPAs, LLC ("PragerMetis" or "Successor Auditor") effective September 7, 2022. On September 7, 2022, Entrepreneur Universe Bright Group (the "Company") dismissed its independent accountant, Centurion ZD CPA & Co. ("CZD"), an audit firm headquartered in Hong Kong. On September 7, 2022, the Board of Directors, of the Company announces that it has appointed Prager Metis CPAs, LLC ("PragerMetis") as the Company's independent auditor for the fiscal year end December 31, 2022. The report of independent registered public accounting firm of CZD regarding the Company's financial statements for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020 did not contain any adverse opinion or disclaimer of opinion and were not qualified or modified as to uncertainty, audit scope, or accounting principles. About ENTREPRENEUR UNIVERSE BRIGHT GROUP ENTREPRENEUR UNIVERSE BRIGHT GROUP is a digital marketing consultation company with its main operation in China, providing marketing consulting services to Chinese start-up companies. The company provides consulting services, sourcing and marketing services in China through its PRC subsidiary with support from its HK subsidiary. Its PRC subsidiary provides services aimed at connecting businesses with e-commerce platforms. The integrated service platform focuses on strategic marketing and consulting. The company's mission is to help start-up companies and small-size companies and guide these companies' founders in utilizing the company's digital marketing consulting plan to reach their business goals. For more information about the Company, please visit: http://www.eubggroup.com/. Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements that are other than statements of historical facts. When the Company uses words such as "may, "will, "intend," "should," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "project," "estimate" or similar expressions that do not relate solely to historical matters, it is making forward-looking statements. Specifically, the Company's statements regarding trading on the OTCBB market and closing the initial public offering are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations discussed in the forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to uncertainties and risks including, but not limited to, the following: the Company's goals and strategies; the Company's future business development; financial condition and results of operations; product and service demand and acceptance; reputation and brand; the impact of competition and pricing; changes in technology; government regulations; fluctuations in general economic and business conditions in China and assumptions underlying or related to any of the foregoing and other risks contained in reports filed by the Company with the SEC. For these reasons, among others, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements in this press release. Additional factors are discussed in the Company's filings with the SEC, which are available for review at www.sec.gov. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly revise these forwardlooking statements to reflect events or circumstances that arise after the date hereof. For more information, please contact: The Company: Jianyong LiEmail: [email protected]Phone: +86-(029) 86100263 Investor Relations: Janice Wang EverGreen Consulting Inc.Email: [email protected]Phone: +1-908-510-2351 (from U.S.) +86 13811768559 (from China) View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/entrepreneur-universe-bright-group-announces-change-of-auditor-to-prager-metis-cpas-llc-301621348.html SOURCE Entrepreneur Universe Bright Group The Brand is Investing in the Next Wave of Industry Farmers Through its Continued Partnership with the National FFA Organization, Kicking Off This Year's Tour with a $74,000 Donation SMITHFIELD, Va., Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Since day one, Farmland has worked with local farmers and their families in America's heartland to provide customers with food they can trust and feel good about. To invest in the future of the agricultural industry and show appreciation for the honest work, day in and day out, in Midwest farming communities, Farmland launched year two of its Honoring the Heartland Tour. The 12-week mission is highlighting the fundamental role the region plays by providing monetary donations to support the next generation of farmers and delivering "grab-n-go" meals to those working in the agriculture industry, farming communities, and grocery/retail establishments. During the first year of the truck tour, Farmland served over 11,000 meals to proud Midwest residents and donated more than 160,000 servings of protein to benefit the Omaha, Nebraska, community. Since July, the Farmland Honoring the Heartland Tour food truck has been making two to three stops per week in various locations rooted in Midwestern neighborhoods. In addition to distributing meals, Farmland will continue its partnership with the National FFA Organization to assist in its vision to grow leaders, build communities and strengthen agriculture at the local, state, and national levels. Throughout the remainder of the tour, Farmland will be donating a total of $150,000 to the National FFA Organization and local FFA chapters, beginning today with a $65,000 donation to the National FFA Organization and a $9,000 donation to the local Kansas FFA Association. Today's donation event took place at the Kansas State Fair, where Farmland's food truck also made an appearance to supply samples to attendees. "At Farmland, we're constantly inspired by the organizations, communities, and individuals across the Midwest who play a fundamental role in our food supply," said Jessica Scarlett, senior associate brand manager for Farmland. "Supporting the future of the agriculture industry and providing the next wave of farmers with the tools needed to succeed has been a longstanding commitment of our brand. We are proud to continue the legacy of the Farmland Honoring of the Heartland Tour and our partnership with the National FFA Organization for a second year." Farmland also launched its Farmland FFA Heartland Grant Program to support students' goals and inspire continued growth in the agriculture industry. Through the program, Farmland will provide $20,000 in financial support via grants valued at $1,000 each. Farmland is encouraging FFA members located in Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, and Missouri to enroll through an open application process, ending October 9, 2022, at FarmlandFFAHeartlandGrants.com. "We are grateful for Farmland's ongoing support of the National FFA Organization's mission to make a positive difference in the lives of students," said Molly Ball, president for the National FFA Foundation and chief marketing officer for the National FFA Organization. "We're happy to join the brand in recognizing the often-overlooked heroes of farming and agriculture." In addition, Farmland is proud to be an official partner of country superstar Luke Bryan's Farm Tour for a second consecutive year. In its 13th year, Farm Tour is an annual concert series that gives back by awarding college scholarships to students from farming families who are attending a local college or university near the tour stops. To date, more than 60 scholarships have been granted. For more information and to see where the Farmland Honoring the Heartland Tour goes next, follow us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter @FarmlandFoods and visit www.farmlandfoods.com. About Farmland Founded in 1959, Farmland is the maker of high-quality, flavorful meats. Rooted in rich traditions of America's heartland, Farmland is committed to a strong work ethic, community, substance over flash, and wholesome, quality food that people feel good about serving. Farmland's robust portfolio of products includes varieties of bacon, sausage, ham and lunch meat. For more information about our products and recipe inspiration, please visit www.FarmlandFoods.com or follow us on Facebook (@FarmlandFoods), Instagram (@farmlandfoods) or Twitter (@FarmlandFoods). Farmland is a brand of Smithfield Foods. About Smithfield Foods, Inc. Headquartered in Smithfield, Va. since 1936, Smithfield Foods, Inc. is an American food company with agricultural roots and a global reach. With more than 60,000 jobs globally, we are dedicated to producing "Good food. Responsibly." and serve as one of the world's leading vertically integrated protein companies. We have pioneered sustainability standards for more than two decades, including our industry-leading commitments to become carbon negative in our U.S. company-owned operations and reduce GHG emissions 30 percent across our entire U.S. value chain by 2030. We believe in the power of protein to end food insecurity and have donated hundreds of millions of food servings to our communities. Smithfield boasts a portfolio of high-quality iconic brands, such as Smithfield, Eckrich and Nathan's Famous, among many others. For more information, visit www.smithfieldfoods.com, and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. About National FFA Organization The National FFA Organization is a school-based national youth leadership development organization of more than 850,000 student members as part of 8,995 local FFA chapters in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The FFA mission is to make a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education. For more, visit the National FFA Organization online at FFA.org and on Facebook and Twitter. About Kansas FFA Association The Kansas FFA Association is a statewide organization of 11,470 agricultural education students in 224 chapters in every corner of Kansas. Our mission is to make a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth, and career success through agricultural education. Visit www.ksffa.org for more information. About National FFA Foundation The National FFA Foundation builds partnerships with industry, education, government, other foundations and individuals to secure financial resources that recognize FFA member achievements, develop student leaders and support the future of agricultural education. A separately registered nonprofit organization, the foundation is governed by a board of trustees that includes the national FFA president, educators, business leaders and individual donors. For more, visit FFA.org/Give. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/farmland-to-support-midwest-farming-and-agricultural-communities-in-year-two-of-its-honoring-the-heartland-tour-301621385.html SOURCE Smithfield Foods, Inc. TOKYO, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In a study published recently in the journal Nature, researchers from Keio University and colleagues identify genes involved in the development of severe COVID-19 in the younger Japanese population. Genes play a key role in the development and progression of infectious diseases. While studies have identified high-risk genes for COVID-19 in Europeans, there is limited genetic data for the Japanese population. Now, an inter-Japan research collaboration has provided critical insights based on detailed genetic analysis. Koichi Fukunaga from Keio University and his colleagues show that a gene important for immune function is involved in severe COVID-19, especially in the younger Japanese population. For their investigation, the researchers compared the genomes of 2,393 patients who suffered from COVID-19 with that of 3,289 healthy individuals. All COVID-19 patients had been hospitalized while infected and 990 of them had been afflicted by a severe form of the disease. The researchers identified seven genes showing prominent differences between the two groups, of which six were more prevalent in younger patients (less than 65 years old) and in the more severe cases. Upon further examination of these populations, the team conducted a genetic analysis of this population revealing that the gene responsible for producing a protein called DOCK2 was mutated in these subjects. Blood samples of COVID-19 patients were then sequenced to reveal that the risk of a mutation on this gene was associated with low levels of the DOCK2 protein. DOCK2 is currently widely understood to play a role in immune signaling, so to understand its role in the context of COVID-19 progression, the researchers isolated the blood cells of a smaller group of subjects. Their analysis showed particularly low values of DOCK2 in some white blood cells. When this observation was replicated in lab cells, using a drug that inhibits DOCK2, the cells showed hampered movement and an inability to release chemical messengers that warn the body of disease. The worst region of the body to be affected by COVID-19 is often the lungs, often resulting in pneumonia. Therefore, lung samples of three deceased COVID-19 patients were scrutinized. DOCK2 was found to be suppressed in the cells of these samples. Finally, the team studied the real-time effects of decreased DOCK2 in hamsters infected with SARS-CoV-2. These hamsters showed greater weight loss and fluid buildup in their lungs compared to healthy ones. The migration of immune cellswhich is essential in combating the viruswas also compromised in the infected hamsters. This genome-wide study reveals the potential role of DOCK2 in influencing the severity of COVID-19, especially in younger populations. It could also be used as a target for drug development to fight the infection. "DOCK2 plays a key role in host immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and development of severe COVID-19, being a promising biomarker and therapeutic target,"1 concludes the team. Reference Namkoong, H. et al. DOCK2 is involved in the host genetics and biology of severe COVID-19. Nature (2022) doi:10.1038/s41586-022-05163-5. Background to the research in this paper and related information DOCK2 and the immune system: When the DOCK2 gene is activated in our cells, it passes on the green light for DOCK2 protein synthesis. The DOCK2 protein is known to play a role in the production and release of interferons, which are chemical messengers released by infected cells to get help from distant immune cells. DOCK2 also helps certain types of white blood cells move and migrate to the site of infection (a process known as chemotaxis) to fight the invading pathogens. These mechanisms are imperative to reducing infection, and why researchers believe younger COVID-19 patients, who are at higher risk for mutations of the DOCK2 gene, showed more severe forms of the disease. The Joint Research Coronavirus Task Force The paper described in this press release is the culmination of recent inter-Japan collaborative research conducted by The Joint Research Coronavirus Task Force (Japan COVID-19 Task Force) comprising of more than 120 hospitals across Japan, including 13 facilities affiliated with Keio University.1 The Japan COVID-19 Task Force was launched in May 2020 to offer a genetic approach to analyzing the spread and treatment of COVID-19. Professor Koichi Fukunagalead author of the paper and specialist in respiratory medicine at the Keio University School of Medicine in Tokyois the head of the Task Force that has continued to collect clinical information and samples from patients during each virus variant epidemic and collaborated with hospitals throughout Japan. The Japan COVID-19 Task Force is focusing on trends in Japan, including clarifying why the number of deaths in Japan has been significantly lower than in the United States and Europe. The results of the studies from Japanese patients are being shared with researchers worldwide to contribute to global efforts to develop treatments for COVID-19. Interview with Professor Koichi Fukunaga: "Joint Research Coronavirus Task Force: The power of integrating clinical and genetic research to understand and eliminate COVID-19" Keio Research Highlights: https://research-highlights.keio.ac.jp/2022/01/a.html Further informationOffice of Research Development and Sponsored ProjectsKeio University2-15-45 Mita, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-8345 JapanTelephone: +81 (0)-3-5427-1678E-mail: [email protected] WebsitesKeio Universityhttps://www.keio.ac.jp/en/ Keio Research Highlightshttps://research-highlights.keio.ac.jp/ Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1895226/fig_1.jpg View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/keio-university-research-genetics-and-covid-19-new-protein-link-revealed-for-japanese-population-301621018.html SOURCE Keio University WASHINGTON, Sept. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On Sept. 22, 2022, at 11:30 a.m. ET, MS-CC Director Lawrence Williams will deliver a presentation focused on supporting historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) through the advancement of campus technology, community building, funding support, and professional development opportunities. The presentation is part of the 2022 National HBCU Week Conference being organized under the leadership of the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity through Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The MS-CC, or Minority Serving - Cyberinfrastructure Consortium, is supported by nearly $3 million Cyberinfrastructure Center of Excellence (CoE) Pilot program grant from the National Science Foundation (award # 2137123) to provide researchers, professional staff, and students from HBCUs and tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) with programs and services that address their cyberinfrastructure needs. Cyberinfrastructure The term cyberinfrastructure refers to the various technology tools and resources that an institution has access to, and that allow it to support and enable many of the day-to-day activities that happen on a college campus. "Whether students are logging into a learning management system to take an online quiz, connecting to campus Wi-Fi on their walk from the library to the lecture hall, or streaming movies in their campus dorm rooms access to a secure, fast, and reliable internet connection is one critical component of cyberinfrastructure, and the effectiveness of this infrastructure has a significant impact on their college experience," explains Williams. For HBCUs looking to support their research mission, compete for federal research funding, and attract and retain research faculty, a more complex form of cyberinfrastructure is required. It includes workflows for managing research data and the storage systems used to move this data from one department to another, across campuses all over the country, and often, across institutions all over the world. "A group of graduate students working in South Carolina on a research project might need to collaborate with their peers in Florida, Hawaii, South Africa, and beyond," added Williams. "Moving research data requires campus IT teams to manage, store, and share this data using a variety of tools, such as high-performance computing systems, cloud computing, or a combination of both." MS-CC: Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Enabled Through Community-Building The MS-CC was created specifically to grow the pool of diverse science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM, researchers by increasing access to cyberinfrastructure resources, enhancing collaboration among researchers and cyberinfrastructure professionals, and fostering professional and career development for students, faculty and staff from minority-serving campuses. With support from the NSF award, a key driver for the MS-CC this past year has been developing and running a series of cyberinfrastructure and ransomware security workshops on the campuses of HBCUs and TCUs, including North Carolina A&T University and Salish Kootenai College. Since the NSF award was announced in September 2021, MS-CC participation has more than doubled from 35 to 88 institutions as of August 2022. Membership in the MS-CC helps create a vibrant community of practice where peers can collaborate and support one another, and build a coalition to advocate for their needs as a community. We invite you to learn more about the MS-CC, get involved, and join us virtually on the last Thursday of each month at noon ET for our monthly MS-CC All Hands meeting. About the MS-CC MS-CC envisions a transformational partnership to promote advanced cyberinfrastructure (CI) capabilities on HBCU, HSI, TCU, and MSI campuses, with data; research computing; teaching; curriculum development and implementation; collaboration; and capacity-building connections among institutions. The consortium emerged from a National Science Foundation-funded pilot project that was awarded through Clemson University: NSF OAC #1659297 "CC* Cyber Team: Cyberinfrastructure Empowerment for Diverse Research, Scholarship, and Workforce Development (CI Empower)." In September 2021, the MS-CC and Internet2 were awarded nearly $3 million by the National Science Foundation over two years to fund a Cyberinfrastructure Center of Excellence Pilot to advance the research cyberinfrastructure capabilities and support systems for HBCUs and TCUs (NSF Award # 2137123). While the initial focus of this grant is to advance cyberinfrastructure on campuses with definite needs through a partnership model, possibilities exist for additional opportunities to further expand the collaborations and support among other MSIs. For more information, visit www.ms-cc.org. About Annual National HBCU Week Conference The Annual National HBCU Week Conference is the nation's premier convening of institution executive leaders, faculty, students, and supporters. It is implemented under the leadership of the Initiative, in close consultation with the Executive Office of the President and U.S. Department of Education. The event provides a unique occasion for federal agencies, private sector companies and philanthropic organizations to participate and provide useful information and successful models to improve instruction, degree completion and federal engagement, all of which strengthens the role of HBCUs. For more information, visit https://sites.ed.gov/whhbcu/hbcu-week-conference/2022-national-hbcu-week/. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/leveling-the-cyberinfrastructure-playing-field-focus-of-upcoming-ms-cc-presentation-at-2022-national-hbcu-week-conference-301620894.html SOURCE Internet2 WASHINGTON, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- As home prices have risen, a new class of super commuters has emerged in California. Stockton, Modesto, Riverside, Santa Rosa, and San Jose are all in the nation's top ten cities for commutes longer than 90 minutes.1 This is due to skyrocketing house prices and restrictive zoning practices that leave housing and jobs far apart, but residents don't have to be pushed to the fringes of metro areas. Walkable Oriented Development (WOD)development that is concentrated within a 10 minute walk of local amenities and job centersallows more residents to live closer to the places where they want to spend their day whether at work, school, church, or at the local coffee shop. The American Enterprise Institute is hosting a series of conferences on how incremental density around Walkable Oriented Development areas can create affordable and economically vibrant neighborhoods throughout California. Mixed-use communities where commercial and residential life overlap are in high demand, indicating an underserved market. The energy and convenience of walkable areas such as Midtown in Sacramento or Pacific Beach in San Diego are replicable if cities allow housing around cultural and economic amenities where people naturally want to gather. Thirty percent of residences are already located in WODs and focusing development on these walkable areas (mapped on AEI's new HEAT Toolkit) would aid struggling small businesses by expanding their customer base. At the same time, additional traffic would be limited by promoting walking and short commutes on everyday trips. California's scarce housing supply is an unsustainable status quo. The median home in California is over $800,000, pricing more and more workers out of opportunities to buy or rent.2 Homelessness is on the rise, with one-sixth of the country's homeless population residing in California.3 California has the second-highest rate of outmigration, with out-of-state moves increasing over 50% from 2019 to 2020.4 To address the housing crisis, more construction is desperately needed. But rather than building houses at the furthest extremes of Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, or Sacramento, incrementally increasing density around walkable communities would give families and workers more opportunities to be rooted in near the people and places that anchor their lives. Join AEI in California September 19th-23rd to discuss how walkable oriented development and light touch density can make this possible. Registration is open for 6 conferences to be held the week of September 19th, 2022 that will feature discussions and conversations on the most pressing housing issues facing Californians. These conferences are free and open to the public. Visit aei.org/california-housing-conference to register AEI Housing Center Conference Schedule: Monday, Sept. 19, 2022 Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022 Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022 San Francisco Sacramento Fresno Hotel Nikko The Citizen Hotel The Doubletree by Hilton Fresno Convention Center 222 Mason Street 926 J Street 2233 Ventura St 9:00am1:00pm PDT (Incl. Lunch) 9:00am 1:00pm PDT (Incl. Lunch) 9:00am1:00pm PDT (Incl. Lunch) Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022 Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022 Friday, Sept. 23, 2022 Riverside Los Angeles San Diego Mission Inn Hotel & Spa The One Hotel Westin San Diego Gaslamp Quarter 3649 Mission Inn Avenue 8490 West Sunset Boulevard 910 Broadway Circle 8:3012:30pm PDT (Incl. Lunch) 3:007:00pm PDT (Reception) 9:00am1:00pm PDT (Incl. Lunch) 1 New York Times, "Where Are Workers Making the Longest Commutes?"2 California Department of Finance, Finance Bulletin, August 2022.3 HUD, "The 2021 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress."4 IRS Migration data Media Contact Details: Arthur GailesAmerican Enterprise Institute Housing CenterWashington, DCaei.org/california-housing-conference[email protected]804-662-0874 View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/more-housing-less-traffic-heres-how-301621324.html SOURCE AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY RESEARCH Winner Receives $5,000 Prize MIAMI, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- OneUnited Bank, the largest Black-owned bank in the U.S., is proud to announce Antavia Williams as the winner of the #OneUnitedJingle Contest, who will receive the $5,000 prize. Out of scores of entries nationwide, the winning jingle was chosen because it shares the OneUnited Bank story with a soulful, catchy, timeless tune. The winning jingle will be used in an upcoming national media campaign. The winning jingle was chosen because it shares the OneUnited Bank story with a soulful, catchy, timeless tune. The winning jingle and lyrics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-06pX2jOyo The nation's largest Black owned bankBe part of the movementOur rating's high ranked Join our familyTry us today, you'll seeThat this is the place to be We are, Committed We are, The right fit, andWe are,United OneUnited Bank OneUnited Bank, the largest Black owned bank, launched the OneUnited Jingle Contest to provide an opportunity for creatives to share our story and win a $5,000 prize in the process. We asked Kevin Ross for some ideas. His video which is fabulous sparked the idea to launch a jingle contest. Then Cam Anthony stepped in with his creative genius. Thank you, Kevin, and Cam! Today we add Antavia to our creative genius jingle team! Jingle winner Antavia Williams commented "Thank you OneUnited for the opportunity to put a jingle behind this great company. Nothing can compare to being "United as One" especially in this world. OneUnited is the epitome of unity". Media Inquiries: Suzan McDowell, Circle of One Marketing, [email protected], or by phone at 305-576-3790. Interviews available with Antavia Williams or Teri Williams, President & Owner, OneUnited Bank. OneUnited Bank OneUnited Bank (www.oneunited.com) is the largest Black-owned bank in America, the first Black internet bank, a Minority Depository Institution, and a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/oneunited-bank-announces-winner-of-oneunited-jingle-contest-301621271.html SOURCE OneUnited Bank ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- August saw no IT jobs growth with overall IT jobs effectively flat, down 0.05% in August compared to the prior month, according to TechServe Alliance, the national trade association of the Technology Staffing and Solutions Industry. On a year-over-year basis, IT employment was up a meager 0.19% from July 2021, adding a net of only 10,500 jobs. The Engineering sector showed a year-over-year job growth rate of 4.04%, with the addition of 106,100 jobs over the course of the year. "There is plenty of demand and positions open, but there are just not enough IT professionals around to meet the needs of businesses," said Mark Roberts, CEO of TechServe Alliance. "Our members are constantly educating their clients about the necessity of making quick hiring decisions, offering competitive benefits and compensation, and being flexible on where the work is performed wherever possible. Despite the talk of recession and pockets of layoffs, it is still an employee's market in IT with many candidates receiving multiple competing job offers." The following table presents information about the total number of jobs in certain sectors that provide a significant amount of employment for IT and engineering professionals. Comparisons of TechServe Alliance's IT Employment Index to employment in some key sectors with significant numbers of IT jobs as well as to all non-farm jobs August2022 TechServeAlliance ITEmploymentIndex Computersystems anddesignservices Managementand technicalconsultingservices Dataprocessing,hosting andrelatedservices TechServeAlliance EngineeringEmploymentIndex Computer andelectronicproductmanufacturing Professionaland technicalservices Federal,State, andLocalGovernment(excludingstate andlocal schoolsand hospitals) Total non-farm jobs number ofjobs 5,408,300 2,445,500 1,767,100 425,600 2,733,000 1,091,700 10,537,900 10,845,800 152,744,000 changefrompreviousmonth - 0.05 % +0.6 % + 0.7 % + 0.8 % + 0.30 % + 0.4 % + 0.4 % + 0.2 % + 0.2 % changefrom samemonth, oneyear earlier + 0.19 % + 5.5 % + 8.1 % + 7.0 % + 4.04 % + 3.0 % + 5.8 % + 0.6 % + 4.0 % note: all figures are subject to revision Sources: Department of Labor/U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and TechServe Alliance Technical note: TechServe Alliance's IT Employment Index and Engineering Employment Index are the first specific measurements of IT and engineering employment. These unique measurements of total IT and engineering employment are created monthly by studying the ongoing staffing patterns of a dozen IT and computer related occupations in 22 industries and industry sectors employing significant numbers of IT workers and nearly two dozen engineering occupations in 30 select industries and industry sectors employing significant numbers of engineering workers. Both the monthly IT Employment and Engineering Employment Indices are based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, which is subject to monthly revisions, and is revised accordingly. Both indices are also subject to periodic revisions and annual revisions / benchmarking that includes revisions to several years of employment data, which also may incorporate new occupational definitions. Both indices were revised / benchmarked going back several years starting with January 2022 data and published in February 4, 2022. In addition, both indices are subject to minor revisions to March and April data. The next major revision will be published in February 2023. About TechServe Alliance TechServe Alliance is the national trade association of the IT & Engineering staffing and solutions industry. IT & Engineering staffing and solutions firms count on TechServe Alliance to keep their leadership informed, engaged, and connected. TechServe Alliance serves as the voice of the industry before the policymakers and the national and trade press. By providing access to the knowledge and best practices of an entire industry and tapping the "collective scale" of its members, TechServe Alliance supports its members in the efficient delivery of best-in-class IT & Engineering staffing and solutions for clients and exceptional professional opportunities for every consultant. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/plenty-of-demand-but-lack-of-talent-means-tech-employment-remains-flat-301620944.html SOURCE TechServe Alliance HOUSTON, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- At the heart of UST is the imperative to serve, especially those with limited access to educational excellence. With this in mind, UST offers the Rising Stars internship program, an initiative that provides qualified students the opportunity to continue their educational journey at UST while gaining valuable work experience at local companies. The Rising Stars program pairs students with corporate sponsors in order to earn funds toward tuition. This model helps students build personal connections that will influence them beyond college. How It Works An annual investment helps fill the financial gap for Rising Stars students and opens the door for them to attend UST. It's a win-win program corporate sponsors gain a productive employee and the Rising Stars become valuable assets trained for Houston's workforce. Corporate sponsors contact with the UST Rising Stars subsidiary for part-time, entry-level office jobs. Each semester, corporate sponsors pay to the UST Rising Stars subsidiary. Rising Stars students are employees of the Rising Stars subsidiary, not of the corporate sponsor. UST handles processing payments to the Rising Stars students. A Proven Model The Rising Stars program is mutually beneficial for both students and corporate sponsors Each student earns a substantial portion of UST's tuition costs while simultaneously gaining relevant work experience. In return, corporate sponsors receive reliable entry-level workers who are poised for future employment. Email [email protected] for more information About University of St. Thomas University of St. Thomas is a comprehensive university, grounded in the liberal arts. Committed to the unity of all knowledge, UST offers programs in the traditional liberal arts, professional, and skilled-based disciplines. Graduates of the University of St. Thomas think critically, communicate effectively, succeed professionally, and lead ethically. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rising-stars-the-power-of-education-at-work-301621282.html SOURCE University of St. Thomas-Houston Indianapolis Registered Investment Advisory Firm INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Sheaff Brock CIO Dave Gilreath explores chip stocks and their possible trading opportunities in an article for Financial Advisor Magazine, "Why Chip Stocks Are a Near- and Long-Term No-Brainer." "Many advisors may be letting the new bear market and fears of near-term recession deter them from taking advantage of low semi valuations. Contrary to the philosophy of strategic opportunism they may espouse, they're staying away," Gilreath writes. Gilreath includes a few points of research to support the possibility of growth "as the super cycle that began in 2020 continues, a report from McKinsey & Co. concludes." For 2022, growth of about 10% is projectedto a record $600 billion-plusand by 2030, to more than $1 trillion, reports Deloitte, characterizing this growth as "robust." These projections are linked with extremely high confidence in the industryat an all-time high, KPMG reportsregarding performance this year. About 95% of semiconductor company leaders forecast their revenue to grow this year68% of them at 11% or more. Further, 88% expect to expand capital spending and workforces this year. About 70% of the industry's growth this year will be driven by just three user industries: automotive, computation, and data storage/wireless. The highly digital focus of the United States should continue to drive demand for chip stocks, keeping tech as a market driver. About Sheaff Brock: Sheaff Brock is an SEC-registered, fee-only independent investment firm striving to enhance portfolios of growth- and income-oriented investors, managing $1.0 billion in assets nationwide as of 6/30/2022. Managing Director David Gilreath contributes investment commentary to CNBC.com, TD Ameritrade Network, and Financial Advisor magazine. Visit Sheaff Brock YouTube for information. Disclaimer: Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors, LLC ("SBIA") is an SEC-registered investment advisor founded in 2001. Clients or prospective clients are directed to SBIA's Form ADV Part 2A prior to deciding to participate in any portfolio or making any investment decision. The views and opinions in the preceding commentary are subject to change without notice and are as of the date of the report. There is no guarantee that any market forecast set forth in the commentary will be realized. This material represents an assessment of the market environment at a specific point in time, should not be relied upon as investment advice, and is not intended to predict or depict performance of any investment. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sheaff-brock-reviews-chip-stocks-potential-trading-opportunities-301621299.html SOURCE Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors Presentation on Thursday, September 15th, 2022 at 11:30 AM ET Spotlight Interview with Chairman & CEO Ian Jenks on Thursday, September 15th 2022 at 1:00 PM ET MANCHESTER, England, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- SmartKem, Inc. (OTCQB: SMTK), a company seeking to reshape the world of electronics with a revolutionary semiconductor platform that enables a new generation of displays, sensors and logic, announced today that it will be presenting virtually at the upcoming Sequire Semiconductor Conference on Thursday, September 15th, at 11:30 AM ET. Ian Jenks, Chairman and CEO will be giving the presentation. Additionally, Ian Jenks participated in a Spotlight Interview that will air at the conference on Thursday, September 15th, at 1:00 PM ET. Event: SmartKem, Inc. Presentation at the Sequire Semiconductor ConferenceDate: Thursday, September 15th, 2022Time: 11:30 AM ET Event: Sequire Spotlight Presents SmartKem, Inc.Date: Thursday, September 15th, 2022Time: 1:00 PM ET Register to watch the presentation HERE. Investors can also request 1x1 meetings with SmartKem, Inc. on the event website. Summary of Sequire Semiconductor Conference The semiconductor industry is expected to reach $600 billion USD by the end of 2022. SRAX and Sequire are bringing together experts in manufacturing, engineering, and equipment and materials supply to learn more about this booming industry. This 1-day virtual investor event will be held via SRAX's Sequire Virtual Events platform. Nearly nine million active small-cap investors have been invited to the event, which will feature several semiconductor focused companies hosting 25 minute presentations, alongside keynotes highlighting prominent names in this space. The presenting companies will also be able to take virtual 1:1 meetings with investors of their choice. SmartKem's OTCQB information can be found on the OTC Markets website: www.otcmarkets.com/stock/SMTK/overview About SmartKem SmartKem is seeking to reshape the world of electronics with a revolutionary semiconductor platform that enables a new generation of displays, sensors and logic. SmartKem's patented TRUFLEX inks are solution deposited at a low temperature, on low-cost substrates to make organic thin-film transistor (OTFT) circuits. The company's semiconductor platform can be used in a number of applications including mini-LED displays, AMOLED displays, fingerprint sensors and integrated logic circuits. SmartKem develops its materials at its research and development facility in Manchester, UK, and its semiconductor manufacturing process at the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) at Sedgefield, UK. The company has an extensive IP portfolio including over 160 patents across 16 patent families. For more information, visit: www.smartkem.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter @SmartKemTRUFLEX Forward-Looking Statements All statements in this press release that are not historical are forward-looking statements, including, among other things, statements relating to the SmartKem's expectations regarding its market position and market opportunity, expectations and plans as to its product development, manufacturing and sales, and relations with its partners and investors. These statements are not historical facts but rather are based on SmartKem Inc.'s current expectations, estimates, and projections regarding its business, operations and other similar or related factors. Words such as "may," will," "could," "would," "should," "anticipate," "predict," "potential," "continue," "expect," "intend," "plan," "project," "believe," "estimate," and other similar or elated expressions are used to identify these forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements because they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult or impossible to predict and, in some cases, beyond the Company's control. Actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including those described in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update information in this release to reflect events or circumstances in the future, even if new information becomes available. View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/smartkem-inc-to-present-at-sequire-semiconductor-conference-on-september-15th-2022-301621022.html SOURCE SmartKem, Inc. The company is already the largest coffee producer in Colombia. The company has the goal of becoming the world's largest producer of arabica coffee, and is dedicated to environmental, social and economic sustainability. New round consists of $25 million in equity investment and $75 million in debt funding. Proceeds from the Series C funding round will be deployed towards additional farm acquisitions, farm development and infrastructure, U.S. coffee roasting operations and alcohol distillation of coffee byproducts. MEDELLIN, Colombia, Sept. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Green Coffee Company, a Legacy Group portfolio company and Colombia's largest coffee producer, today announced the launch of its $100 million Series C funding round. The round consists of a proposed $25 million in equity financing and $75 million in debt funding. Equity funding to date exceeds $35.0 million from more than 275 high-net-worth investors. Founded in 2017, the U.S.-headquartered coffee company currently boasts 27 farms spanning 6,652 acres in total landholdings and roughly 7.7 million coffee trees. The company is on track for $13.4 million in 2022 sales (a 10x increase from 2021) and approximately $1.95 million in 2022 EBITDA, with plans to scale revenue and profitability substantially in the coming years. The fresh capital will enable the company to drive forward a new way of doing business that transforms the manner in which coffee is produced, processed and monetized in Colombia. The new investment is expected to provide the Green Coffee Company with the capital needed to further expand its Colombian operations, accelerate its U.S.-based coffee roasting operations and enable the company to launch its own lines of liquors and spirits distilled from coffee cherries and other coffee by-products. "This funding round will push us further towards our goal of becoming the world's largest arabica-coffee producer," said Cole Shephard, Green Coffee Company Founder and partner at Legacy Group, the company's asset manager. "Through the buildout of our roasting facility and the monetization of coffee byproducts, we will be able to fully vertically-integrate additional lines of business from roasted coffee to business-to-consumer alcohol products. We already have the most sophisticated coffee processing facilities in Colombia, and, we believe, globally. We intend on continuing to be leaders of innovation in the coffee industry in Colombia and throughout the world." The Green Coffee Company has committed to six of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals as central tenets of its business: gender equality, clean water, decent work, responsible consumption, climate action and life on land. Examples include: Working with the local organization, Madres Solteras, Cabezas de Hogar Single Mothers, Heads of Household. The company has created more than 20 jobs for women of this group and placed them in leadership positions of the company's vast coffee nursery operations; Investment in formal employment for 100% of company employees, never-before-seen in the Colombian coffee industry. Currently, more than 50% of GCC employees have a pension plan and health care coverage, while more than 95% of GCC employees have access to formal banking. The sector averages for each of those categories in Colombia, on the other hand, respectively, are 1%, 3% and 41%; Receiving recognition in December by the International Labor Organization for creating a safe and healthy work environment for all of its employees; Purchasing smaller farmers' coffee cherry production at convenient buying points at-market or above-market prices, along with technical and financial support, to increase their income; and Having planted more than 300,000 coffee trees on former pasture land. Integrating environmental, social and economic sustainability is at the core of all of the Green Coffee Company's operations. The company prides itself on having obtained the sustainable-agriculture certification of the Rainforest Alliance and for adhering to the Coffee And Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E.) Practices standard, a program developed by Starbucks, Conservation International and SCS Global Services. In July, the company was recognized by the president of Colombia's Congress and Colombia's minister of agriculture for its advances in agriculture. GCC's CEO, Boris Wullner, accepted the award for "Best Technological Innovation" in agriculture. Additionally, the company has become a national leader by practicing digital agronomy, using mobile technology to monitor farm conditions and trends, so farming decisions may be made based on the best data available. The $25.0 million equity offering will be open to accredited individual investors, institutional investors and coffee-industry participants at $100,000 minimum investments, with substantial multiples on investment projected through a company sale or U.S. IPO. The company also welcomes those institutions interested in the $75.0 million debt portion of the funding round. If you would like to participate in GCC's Series C funding round, please contact Legacy Group, the company's asset manager, at [email protected]. Please visit its website for more information, and to be added to Legacy Group's mailing list. To learn more about Green Coffee Company, go to https://gcc-coffee.com/. About Green Coffee Company The Green Coffee Company is a consolidated coffee farming operation headquartered in the U.S. with operations based in Medellin, Colombia. The company's innovative business model allows for complete control of the supply chain: from cultivation through processing to direct trade with end-clients. GCC's holistic approach to the coffee sector and commitment to best environmental practices not only establishes the long-term profitability and sustainability of the business, but also improves the quality of the coffee produced on the farms. Follow Legacy Group on Linkedin for news related to the Green Coffee Company and other alternative investment opportunities at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/legacygroup/. Note on Forward-looking Statements This document contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Readers of this document should understand that these statements are not guarantees of performance or results. Many factors could affect actual results and cause them to vary materially from the expectations contained in the forward-looking statements, including those set forth in this document. We caution readers not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements included in this document, which speak only as of the date of this document. We undertake no responsibility to update these statements, except as required by law. Media ContactLegacy Group[email protected] View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-green-coffee-company-launches-its-100-million-series-c-funding-round-to-revolutionize-the-colombian-coffee-industry-301619898.html SOURCE Legacy Group A roundup of the week's most newsworthy technology industry press releases from PR Newswire NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- With thousands of press releases published each week, it can be difficult to keep up with everything on PR Newswire. To help journalists covering the business technology industry stay on top of the week's most newsworthy and popular releases, here's a roundup of stories from the week that shouldn't be missed. The list below includes the headline (with a link to the full text) and an excerpt from each story. Click on the press release headlines to access accompanying multimedia assets that are available for download. Read more of the latest business technology releases from PR Newswire and stay caught up on the top press releases by following @PRNbiztech on Twitter. Helping Journalists Stay Up to Date on Industry News These are just a few of the recent press releases that consumers and the media should know about. To be notified of releases relevant to their coverage area, journalists can set up a custom newsfeed with PR Newswire for Journalists. Once they're signed up, reporters, bloggers and freelancers have access to the following free features: Customization: Create a customized newsfeed that will deliver relevant news right to your inbox. Customize the newsfeed by keywords, industry, subject, geography, and more. Create a customized newsfeed that will deliver relevant news right to your inbox. Customize the newsfeed by keywords, industry, subject, geography, and more. Photos and Videos: Thousands of multimedia assets are available to download and include with your next story. Thousands of multimedia assets are available to download and include with your next story. Subject Matter Experts: Access ProfNet, a database of industry experts to connect with as sources or for quotes in your articles. Access ProfNet, a database of industry experts to connect with as sources or for quotes in your articles. Related Resources: Read and subscribe to our journalist- and blogger-focused blog, Beyond Bylines, for media news roundups, writing tips, upcoming events, and more. About PR Newswire and PR Newswire for Journalists For more than 65 years, PR Newswire has been the industry leader with the largest, most comprehensive distribution network of print, radio, magazine, television stations, financial portals and trade publications. PR Newswire has an unparalleled global reach of more than 200,000 publications and 10,000 websites and is available in more than 170 countries and 40 languages. PR Newswire for Journalists (PRNJ) is an exclusive community that includes over 20,000 journalists, bloggers and influencers who are logging into their PRNJ accounts specifically looking for story ideas. PR Newswire thoroughly researches and vets this community to verify their identity as a member of the press, blogger or influencer. PRNJ users cover more than 200 beats and verticals. For questions, contact the team at [email protected]. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/this-week-in-tech-news-9-stories-you-need-to-see-301621039.html SOURCE PR Newswire BEIJING, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Waterdrop Inc. ("Waterdrop", the "Company" or "we") (NYSE: WDH), a leading technology platform dedicated to insurance and healthcare service with a positive social impact, today announced its unaudited financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2022. Financial and Operational Highlights for the Second Quarter of 2022 Healthy and solid revenue growth: For the second quarter of 2022, the first-year premiums ("FYP") generated through our Waterdrop Insurance Marketplace amounted to RMB1,646.3 million (US$245.8 million), and our net operating revenue was RMB701.4 million (US$104.7 million) which represented an increase of 8.1% quarter over quarter, further solidifying our growth trajectory as we continued to implement our new strategy. Consistent cost control and significant profit enhancement: For the second quarter of 2022, our sales and marketing expenses decreased by 88.4%, and total operating costs and expenses decreased by 68.9% year over year, respectively. Our net profit reached RMB206.9 million (US$30.9 million), following the profit of RMB105.0 million in the first quarter of 2022, representing a significant increase of 97.2% quarter over quarter. The profits we have delivered over three consecutive quarters demonstrate the effectiveness of the measures we have taken to control costs and enhance profitability. Positive cash flow: As of June 30, 2022, our cash and cash equivalents and short-term investment balance increased by RMB363.9 million from the end of the first quarter of 2022 to RMB3,288.1 million (US$490.9 million), as we continued to generate positive operating cash flow, partially offset by the investing and financing cash outflow. Further expanded product offerings: As of June 30, 2022, we offered 454 insurance products on our platform, as compared with 408 as of March 31, 2022. Over 90% of the FYP generated through our Waterdrop Insurance Marketplace was contributed by our exclusive customized insurance products. In the second quarter of 2022, the FYP of critical illness insurance accounted for 28.7% of overall FYP, compared to 27.6% in the first quarter of 2022. As of June 30, 2022, over 412 million people cumulatively donated an aggregate of approximately RMB53.3 billion to over 2.58 million patients through Waterdrop Medical Crowdfunding. Mr. Peng Shen, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of Waterdrop, commented, "In the second quarter of 2022, we made further progress in enhancing our profitability. At this stage, our profits derive solely from insurance-related business. This third consecutive quarter of profitability is a testament to the fact that our business has entered the profit-making phase. Going forward, we will continue to strengthen our operational efficiency and optimize cost structure to achieve a healthy development. Our strong operational and financial performance has once again enhanced our confidence in our ability to maintain momentum and achieve the overall profitability goal we set for the full year of 2022. For our insurance business, we continued to optimize the operating model of 'multi-platform, multi-supply and multi-service mode' in the second quarter. Down the road, we will continue to strengthen insurance product innovation and offer value-added services to diverse customer segments, while actively exploring other potential growth channels. We managed to enhance our take rate and maintain the repurchase and renewal rates at a high level. We also launched 'Waterdrop Blue Ocean', the industry's first customized critical illness insurance products waiving health declarations, further expanding our user base beyond healthy customers to extend coverage to customers with pre-existing medical conditions. For our medical crowdfunding business, we established an Operational Transparency Committee to systematically ensure the authenticity of the campaigns initiated on the Waterdrop Medical Crowdfunding platform, and to safeguard the rights and interests of fundraisers and donors. I myself serve as the head of the committee. We will make every effort to promote the best practices and the orderly development of the whole industry. In the second quarter of 2022, our E-find Patient Platform sustained its high growth momentum. We successfully enrolled approximately 700 patients in clinical trials and onboarded over 60 new programs by partnering with leading pharmaceutical companies, bringing the total number of clinical trial programs for new drug registrations to more than 300. Apart from the rapid progress of oncology and chronic disease clinical trials, we also made new breakthroughs in the field of rare diseases. Our E-find Patient Platform has become one of China's leading patient recruitment platforms thanks to our deliberate efforts, our ability to efficiently and accurately recruit patients suitable for trial projects, as well as our high operational efficiency. We have now collaborated with most of the top innovative pharmaceutical manufacturers and are exploring CRO business opportunities along the industry chain to maximize our advantages in healthcare." Financial Results for the Second Quarter of 2022 Operating revenue, net Net operating revenue for the second quarter of 2022 decreased by 25.3% year over year to RMB701.4 million (US$104.7 million) from RMB939.4 million for the same period of 2021, which was primarily due to the decrease of RMB273.1 million in insurance-related income, partially offset by the increase of RMB56.1 million from crowdfunding service fees. Net operating revenue increased by 8.1% compared with the first quarter of 2022, mainly driven by the increase in crowdfunding service fees. Insurance-related income includes insurance brokerage income and technical service income. Insurance brokerage income represents brokerage commissions earned from insurance companies. Technical service income is derived from providing technical services including customer relationship maintenance, customer complaint management, claim review, and user referral services, among other things, to insurance companies, insurance brokerages, and agency companies. Our insurance-related income amounted to RMB625.9 million (US$93.4 million) in the second quarter of 2022, representing a decrease of 30.4% year over year from RMB899.1 million for the second quarter of 2021, which was mainly due to the decrease in insurance brokerage income. Crowdfunding service fees represent the service income earned when patients successfully withdraw the proceeds from their crowdfunding campaigns. Our role is to operate the Waterdrop Medical Crowdfunding platform to provide crowdfunding related services on the internet, enabling those with significant medical bills to seek help from caring hearts through technology ("the medical crowdfunding services"). Our medical crowdfunding services generally consist of providing technical and internet support, managing, reviewing and supervising the crowdfunding campaigns, providing comprehensive risk management and anti-fraud measures, and facilitating the collection and transfer of the funds. Since April 7, 2022, our crowdfunding platform has ceased to fully subsidize the related cost and started to charge a service fee of 3% of the funds raised, up to a maximum amount of RMB5,000 for a single campaign. Considering the specific situation of each case, we may selectively subsidize the service fee for certain extremely needy patients. For the second quarter of 2022, we generated RMB56.1 million in service fees, compared to nil in the same period of 2021, and those fees are used to cover part of the operating costs of the crowdfunding platform. Operating costs and expenses Operating costs and expenses decreased by 68.9% year over year to RMB545.5 million (US$81.4 million) for the second quarter of 2022, due to the effective cost control measures taken since the third quarter of 2021. On a quarter-over-quarter basis, operating costs and expenses slightly increased by 2.5%. Operating costs decreased by 6.1% year over year to RMB244.6 million (US$36.5 million) for the second quarter of 2022, compared with RMB260.4 million for the second quarter of 2021, which was primarily driven by (i) a RMB58.1 million decrease in personnel cost for our consultants and insurance agents team; (ii) a RMB35.5 million decrease in professional and outsourced customer service fees, partially offset by (iii) the increase of RMB61.5 million mainly due to recording the crowdfunding consultants team costs from sales and marketing expense to operating costs, as we started to generate crowdfunding service fees since April, 2022. On a quarter-over-quarter basis, operating costs increased by 57.9%in the second quarter of 2022, primarily because the crowdfunding direct costs of RMB61.5 million were recorded in operating costs in the second quarter of 2022 as mentioned above, and the professional and outsourced customer service fees increased by RMB15.8 million, as compared to the first quarter of 2022. Sales and marketing expenses decreased materially by 88.4% year over year to RMB144.4 million (US$21.6 million) for the second quarter of 2022, compared with RMB1,244.9 million for the same quarter of 2021. The decrease was primarily due to (i) a RMB956.0 million decrease in marketing expenses to third-party traffic channels and (ii) a RMB136.4 million decrease in outsourced sales and marketing service fees to third parties. On a quarter-over-quarter basis, sales and marketing expenses decreased by 29.3% from RMB204.3 million for the first quarter of 2022. This was mainly due to the decrease of RMB61.5 million in crowdfunding related direct costs recorded from sales and marketing expenses to operating costs as above mentioned. General and administrative expenses decreased by 42.3% year over year to RMB86.1 million (US$12.8 million) for the second quarter of 2022, compared with RMB149.1 million for the same quarter of 2021. The year-over-year variance was due to a combined impact of (i) a decrease of RMB54.0 million in share-based compensation expenses, and (ii) a RMB6.7 million decrease in personnel cost. On a quarter-over-quarter basis, general and administrative expenses decreased by 15.6% from RMB102.0 million for the first quarter of 2022, which was mainly due to a decrease of RMB10.9 million in allowance for doubtful accounts and RMB2.3 million in personnel cost and share-based compensation expenses. Research and development expenses decreased by 29.8% year over year to RMB70.4 million (US$10.5 million) for the second quarter of 2022, compared with RMB100.3 million for the same period of 2021. The decrease was primarily due to RMB26.5 million decreases in research and development personnel costs and share-based compensation expenses. On a quarter-over-quarter basis, research and development expenses remained stable. Operating profit for the second quarter of 2022 was RMB155.9 million (US$23.3 million), compared with an operating loss of RMB815.4 million for the second quarter of 2021 and a profit of RMB116.6 million for the first quarter of 2022. Interest income for the second quarter of 2022 was RMB15.2 million (US$2.3 million), compared with RMB11.3 million for the same period of 2021. The increase was primarily due to the increase in our bank balance and short-term investments as a result of the receipt of net proceeds from the completion of our initial public offering in May 2021 and positive operating cash flow generated from the business. Income tax benefit for the second quarter of 2022 was RMB19.8 million (US$2.9 million), compared with an income tax benefit of RMB143.5 million for the same period of 2021. Net profit attributable to Waterdrop for the second quarter of 2022 was RMB206.9 million (US$30.9 million), compared with a net loss of RMB655.8 million for the same period of 2021, and a net profit of RMB105.0 million for the first quarter of 2022. Adjusted net profit attributable to Waterdrop for the second quarter of 2022 was RMB232.5 million (US$34.7 million), compared with an adjusted net loss of RMB570.1 million for the same period of 2021, and an adjusted net profit of RMB127.3 million for the first quarter of 2022. Cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments As of June 30, 2022, the Company had combined cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments of RMB3,288.1 million (US$490.9 million), as compared with RMB2,787.1 million as of December 31, 2021. Share Repurchase Plan Pursuant to the 12-month share repurchase program announced on September 8, 2021, since the announcement up to the end of the second quarter of 2022, we cumulatively repurchased approximately 4.7 million ADSs from the open market with cash for a total consideration of approximately US$7.2 million. The board of the Company (the "Board") has approved a new upsized share repurchase program. Under the new program, the Company is authorized to repurchase its own ordinary shares in the form of American depository shares with an aggregate value of up to US$80 million in the twelve-month period. The program will be funded by existing cash on the Company's balance sheet. The decision is made based on the management's confidence in both the external environment and the sound development of the Company. The Company's proposed repurchase may be made from time to time in the open market at prevailing market prices, in privately negotiated transactions, in block trades and/or through other legally permissible means, depending on market conditions and in accordance with applicable rules and regulations. The timing and dollar amount of repurchase transactions will be subject to the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") Rule 10b-18 and/or Rule 10b5-1 requirements. The Board will review the share repurchase program periodically, and may authorize adjustment of its terms and size or suspend or discontinue the program. Business Outlook The Company expects to achieve overall profitability on a non-GAAP basis for the year 2022 under the circumstances that we continue to invest in established businesses and new initiatives. This forecast is based on the current market conditions and reflects the Company's preliminary view and estimates, which are all subject to change. Exchange Rate This announcement contains translations of certain RMB amounts into U.S. dollars ("USD" or "US$") at specified rates solely for the convenience of the reader. Unless otherwise stated, all translations from RMB to USD were made at the rate of RMB6.6981 to US$1.00, the noon buying rate in effect on June 30, 2022 in the H.10 statistical release of the Federal Reserve Board. The Company makes no representation that the RMB or USD amounts referred could be converted into USD or RMB, as the case may be, at any particular rate or at all. For analytical presentation, all percentages are calculated using the numbers presented in the financial statements contained in this earnings release. Non-GAAP Financial Measures The Company uses non-GAAP financial measures, such as adjusted net operating revenue and adjusted net profit/loss, in evaluating the Company's operating results and for financial and operational decision-making purposes. Adjusted net operating revenue represents net operating revenue excluding management fee income from mutual aid business. Adjusted net profit/loss represents net profit/loss excluding share-based compensation expense, the impact of terminating the mutual aid plan and foreign currency exchange gain or losses. Such adjustments have no impact on income tax. The non-GAAP financial measures are not presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP and may be different from non-GAAP methods of accounting and reporting used by other companies. The non-GAAP financial measures have limitations as analytical tools and when assessing the Company's operating performance, investors should not consider them in isolation, or as a substitute for net loss or other consolidated statements of comprehensive loss data prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. The Company encourages investors and others to review its financial information in its entirety and not rely on a single financial measure. Investors are encouraged to review the Company's historical non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures. Adjusted net operating revenue and adjusted net profit/loss presented here may not be comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies. Other companies may calculate similarly titled measures differently, limiting their usefulness as comparative measures to our data. The Company encourages investors and others to review its financial information in its entirety and not rely on a single financial measure. The Company mitigates these limitations by reconciling the non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable U.S. GAAP performance measures, all of which should be considered when evaluating the Company's performance. For more information on the non-GAAP financial measures, please see the table captioned "Reconciliation of GAAP and Non-GAAP Results" set forth at the end of this press release. Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains statements that may constitute "forward-looking" statements pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "aims," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "likely to" and similar statements. Among other things, quotations in this announcement, contain forward-looking statements. Waterdrop may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its periodic reports to the SEC, in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Waterdrop's beliefs, plans and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, including but not limited to the following: Waterdrop's mission, goals and strategies; Waterdrop's future business development, financial condition and results of operations; the expected growth of the insurance, medical crowdfunding and healthcare industry in China; Waterdrop's expectations regarding demand for and market acceptance of our products and services; Waterdrop's expectations regarding its relationships with consumers, insurance carriers and other partners; competition in the industry and relevant government policies and regulations relating to insurance, medical crowdfunding and healthcare industry. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in Waterdrop's filings with the SEC. All information provided in this press release is as of the date of this press release, and Waterdrop does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law. Conference Call Information Waterdrop's management team will hold a conference call on September 9, 2022 at 8:00 AM U.S. Eastern Time (8:00 PM Beijing/Hong Kong Time on the same day) to discuss the financial results. Dial-in details for the earnings conference call are as follows: International: 1-412-317-6061 United States Toll Free: 1-888-317-6003 Hong Kong Toll Free: 800-963976 Hong Kong: 852-58081995 Mainland China: 4001-206115 Elite Entry Number: 8726141 Please dial in 15 minutes before the call is scheduled to begin and provide the Elite Entry Number to join the call. A telephone replay will be accessible two hours after the conclusion of the conference call through September 16, 2022 by dialing the following numbers: United States Toll Free: 1-877-344-7529 International: 1-412-317-0088 Access Code: 6133699 A live and archived webcast of the conference call will also be available at the Company's investor relations website at http://ir.waterdrop-inc.com/. About Waterdrop Inc. Waterdrop Inc. (NYSE: WDH) is a leading technology platform dedicated to insurance and healthcare service with a positive social impact. Founded in 2016, with the comprehensive coverage of Waterdrop Insurance Marketplace and Waterdrop Medical Crowdfunding, Waterdrop aims to bring insurance and healthcare service to billions through technology. For more information, please visit www.waterdrop-inc.com. For investor inquiries, please contact Waterdrop Inc.Xiaojiao Cui[email protected] Christensen In ChinaMr. Eric YuanPhone: +86-1380-111-0739E-mail: [email protected] In the USMs. Linda BergkampPhone: +1-480-614-3004Email: [email protected] WATERDROP INC. UNAUDITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (All amounts in thousands, unless otherwise noted) As of December 31, 2021 June 30, 2022 RMB RMB USD Assets Current assets Cash and cash equivalents 817,719 868,593 129,678 Restricted cash 667,664 444,248 66,324 Short-term investments 1,969,362 2,419,525 361,226 Accounts receivable, net 643,843 663,053 98,991 Current contract assets 563,611 383,435 57,245 Amount due from related parties 1,049 256 38 Prepaid expense and other assets 369,794 409,748 61,174 Total current assets 5,033,042 5,188,858 774,676 Non-current assets Non-current contract assets 29,889 70,581 10,537 Property, equipment and software, net 44,762 38,298 5,718 Intangible assets, net 56,753 56,684 8,463 Long-term investments 11,812 11,909 1,778 Right of use assets, net 59,081 38,001 5,673 Deferred tax assets 11,840 - - Goodwill 3,420 3,420 511 Total non-current assets 217,557 218,893 32,680 Total assets 5,250,599 5,407,751 807,356 Liabilities and Shareholders' Equity Current liabilities Amount due to related parties 20,449 8,995 1,343 Insurance premium payables 685,028 479,615 71,605 Deferred revenue 803 407 61 Accrued expenses and other current liabilities 498,752 463,478 69,195 Current lease liabilities 44,113 28,894 4,314 Total current liabilities 1,249,145 981,389 146,518 Non-current liabilities Non-current lease liabilities 14,477 8,663 1,293 Deferred tax liabilities 13,551 30,210 4,510 Total non-current liabilities 28,028 38,873 5,803 Total liabilities 1,277,173 1,020,262 152,321 Shareholders' equity Class A ordinary shares 107 107 16 Class B ordinary shares 27 27 4 Treasury stock - (2) - Additional paid-in capital 7,329,420 7,351,294 1,097,519 Accumulated other comprehensive (loss)/income (21,492) 58,798 8,778 Accumulated deficit (3,334,636) (3,022,735) (451,282) Total shareholders' equity 3,973,426 4,387,489 655,035 Total liabilities and shareholders' equity 5,250,599 5,407,751 807,356 WATERDROP INC. UNAUDITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS AND COMPREHENSIVE LOSS (All amounts in thousands, except for share and per share data, or otherwise noted) For the Three Months Ended For the Six Months Ended June 30, June 30, 2021 March 31, 2022 June 30, 2022 2021 2022 RMB RMB RMB USD RMB RMB USD Operating revenue, net 939,354 648,688 701,418 104,719 1,822,721 1,350,106 201,566 Operating costs and expenses(i) Operating costs (260,417) (154,880) (244,616) (36,520) (561,025) (399,496) (59,643) Sales and marketing expenses (1,244,935) (204,343) (144,423) (21,562) (2,082,088) (348,766) (52,069) General and administrative expenses (149,101) (101,995) (86,054) (12,848) (270,388) (188,049) (28,075) Research and development expenses (100,259) (70,825) (70,402) (10,510) (185,134) (141,227) (21,085) Total operating costs and expenses (1,754,712) (532,043) (545,495) (81,440) (3,098,635) (1,077,538) (160,872) Operating (loss)/profit (815,358) 116,645 155,923 23,279 (1,275,914) 272,568 40,694 Other income Interest income 11,327 14,492 15,213 2,271 24,542 29,705 4,435 Foreign currency exchange gain 1,473 653 163 24 2,257 816 122 Others, net 3,332 24,489 15,888 2,373 5,433 40,377 6,028 (Loss)/profit before income tax (799,226) 156,279 187,187 27,947 (1,243,682) 343,466 51,279 Income tax benefit/(expense) 143,474 (51,321) 19,756 2,949 217,774 (31,565) (4,713) Net (loss)/profit attributable to Waterdrop Inc. (655,752) 104,958 206,943 30,896 (1,025,908) 311,901 46,566 Preferred shares redemption value accretion (42,000) - - - (152,287) - - Net (loss)/profit attributable to ordinary shareholders (697,752) 104,958 206,943 30,896 (1,178,195) 311,901 46,566 Net (loss)/profit (655,752) 104,958 206,943 30,896 (1,025,908) 311,901 46,566 Other comprehensive (loss)/income: Foreign currency translation adjustment, net of tax (9,253) (7,783) 83,901 12,526 (12,035) 76,118 11,364 Unrealized gains on available for sale investments, net of tax (848) 1,072 3,100 463 219 4,172 623 Comprehensive (loss)/income (665,853) 98,247 293,944 43,885 (1,037,724) 392,191 58,553 Weighted average number of ordinary shares used in computing net (loss)/profit per share Basic 2,854,023,284 3,938,758,720 3,926,602,657 3,926,602,657 2,027,403,481 3,932,647,108 3,932,647,108 Diluted 2,854,023,284 4,017,949,706 4,006,060,346 4,006,060,346 2,027,403,481 4,009,442,628 4,009,442,628 Net (loss)/profit per share attributable to ordinary shareholders Basic (0.24) 0.03 0.05 0.01 (0.58) 0.08 0.01 Diluted (0.24) 0.03 0.05 0.01 (0.58) 0.08 0.01 (i) Share-based compensation expenses are included in the operating costs and expenses as follows. For the Three Months Ended For the Six Months Ended June 30, June 30, 2021 March 31, 2022 June 30, 2022 2021 2022 RMB RMB RMB USD RMB RMB USD Sales and marketing expenses (3,633) (2,802) (1,771) (265) (6,614) (4,573) (683) General and administrative expenses (73,939) (16,921) (19,976) (2,982) (135,960) (36,897) (5,508) Research and development expenses (9,597) (3,284) (3,998) (597) (15,773) (7,282) (1,087) Total (87,169) (23,007) (25,745) (3,844) (158,347) (48,752) (7,278) WATERDROP INC. RECONCILIATIONS OF GAAP AND NON-GAAP RESULTS (All amounts in thousands, unless otherwise noted) For the Three Months Ended For the Six Months Ended June 30, June 30, 2021 March 31, 2022 June 30, 2022 2021 2022 RMB RMB RMB USD RMB RMB USD Net operating revenue 939,354 648,688 701,418 104,719 1,822,721 1,350,106 201,566 Less: Management fee income - - - - 2,745(ii) - - Adjusted net operating revenue 939,354 648,688 701,418 104,719 1,819,976 1,350,106 201,566 For the Three Months Ended For the Six Months Ended June 30, June 30, 2021 March 31, 2022 June 30, 2022 2021 2022 RMB RMB RMB USD RMB RMB USD Net (loss)/profit (655,752) 104,958 206,943 30,896 (1,025,908) 311,901 46,566 Add: Share-based compensation expense 87,169 23,007 25,745 3,844 158,347 48,752 7,278 Foreign currency exchange gain (1,473) (653) (163) (24) (2,257) (816) (122) Impact of terminating the mutual aid plan (iii) - - - - 96,697 - - Adjusted net (loss)/profit (570,056) 127,312 232,525 34,716 (773,121) 359,837 53,722 (ii) This represents the net management fee revenue related to the mutual aid business for the three months ended March 31, 2021 after recording the RMB19.9 million reduction of management fee revenue previously recognized for each participant to the extent of the cumulative amount earned until March 26, 2021. (iii) This represents the estimated cost of medical expenses and cost of one-year health insurance coverage. RMB19.9 million (US$3.0 million) was accounted for as a reduction of management fee revenue previously recognized for each participant to the extent of the cumulative amount earned until March 26, 2021. RMB76.8 million (US$11.5 million) was recorded as operating costs. View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/waterdrop-inc-announces-second-quarter-2022-unaudited-financial-results-301621044.html SOURCE Waterdrop Inc. FORM 6-K SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20549 REPORT OF FOREIGN PRIVATE ISSUER Pursuant to Rule 13a-16 or 15d-16 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 For the month of September, 2022 Commission File Number: 0-30852 GRUPO FINANCIERO GALICIA S.A. (the Registrant) Galicia Financial Group S.A. (translation of Registrants name into English) Tte. Gral. Juan D. Peron 430, 25th Floor (CP1038AAJ) Buenos Aires, Argentina (address of principal executive offices) Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant files or will file annual reports under cover of Form 20-F or Form 40-F. Form 20-F Form 40-F Indicate by check mark whether by furnishing the information contained in this form, the Registrant is also thereby furnishing the information to the Securities and Exchange Commission pursuant to Rule 12g3-2(b) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Yes No UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20549 SCHEDULE 14A Proxy Statement Pursuant to Section 14(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 Filed by the Registrant x Filed by a party other than the Registrant Check the appropriate box: Preliminary Proxy Statement Confidential, for Use of the Commission Only (as permitted by Rule 14a-6(e)(2)) Definitive Proxy Statement x Definitive Additional Materials Soliciting Material Under 240.14a-12 GRANITE FALLS ENERGY, LLC (Name of Registrant as Specified In Its Charter) Payment of Filing Fee (Check the appropriate box): x No fee required. Fee paid previously with preliminary materials. Fee computed on table in exhibit required by Items 25(b) per Exchange Act Rules 14a6(i)(1) and 0-11 NOTICE OF INTERNET AVAILABILITY OF PROXY MATERIALS Important Notice Regarding the Availability of Proxy Materials for the Special Meeting of Members to be Held on November 3, 2022, at 9:00 a.m. at Prairies Edge Casino Resort, 5616 Prairies Edge Lane, Granite Falls, Minnesota. If you need directions to the location, call Granite Falls Energy, LLC at 320-564-3100 or email Stacie Schuler at [email protected] Granite Falls Energy, LLC, (the Company, GFE, we, us, our,) is pleased to utilize the Securities and Exchange Commission rule allowing companies to furnish proxy materials to their members over the Internet. In accordance with this rule, members of record at the close of business on September 9, 2022, are being mailed this Notice of Internet Availability of Proxy Materials. This Notice contains instructions on how to access our Proxy Statement, Proxy Card and Annual Report on Form 10-K online. If you would like to receive a printed copy of GFEs proxy materials, you should follow the instructions for requesting such materials included in this Notice below. This Notice is not a form for voting and presents only an overview of the more complete proxy materials, which contain important information and are available at www.granitefallsenergy.com or by mail. We encourage you to access and review the proxy materials before voting. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Q: What is Notice and Access? A: Notice and Access is a term used to refer to a Securities and Exchange Commission rule that allows companies to furnish proxy materials to their members over the Internet. Under the rule, companies provide members with a notice indicating how to access the proxy materials online. This Notice and Access delivery replaces full package mail delivery of proxy materials with a much smaller two-page document. Full package delivery typically consists of an Annual Report on Form 10-K, Proxy Statement and Proxy Card, all of which you can request as described below. Q: How do I access the proxy materials online? A : The following proxy materials are available on GFEs website at www.granitefallsenergy.com on the home page under Investor Information: This Notice Letter from the Chairman Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended October, 31, 2021 Notice of Special Meeting of Members Proxy Statement Proxy Card. You can print and complete the proxy card from our website. Alternatively, you may review the proxy materials online then complete, sign and date the proxy card being mailed to our members on or about September 20, 2022. Your proxy card must be received at Christianson PLLP, 302 SW 5th Street, Willmar, MN 56201, before 5:00 p.m. central time on November 2, 2022, in order to be valid. This will also help ensure a quorum at the meeting and will save the Company the expense of additional solicitations. Q: How do I request paper copies of the Annual Report, Proxy Statement and my Proxy Card? A: Paper copies can be requested by emailing our Chief Financial Officer, Stacie Schuler, at [email protected] or by telephone call to the Company at 320-564-3100. There is no charge for paper copies. Paper copies should be requested no later than October 30, 2022, to facilitate timely delivery. You will only receive a paper copy if you request one. Q: What is the purpose of the Special Meeting? A: The purpose of the meeting is to consider and vote on the following proposals: Amend and restate our Sixth Amended and Restated Operating Agreement dated March 23, 2017 (the Current Operating Agreement) to provide for three separate and distinct classes of units: Class A, Class B and Class C Units as set forth in the proposed Seventh Amended and Restated Operating Agreement (the Proposed Operating Agreement); Reclassify our units into Class A, Class B and Class C Units for the purpose of discontinuing the registration of our units under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Reclassification); Adjourn or postpone the Special Meeting, if necessary or appropriate, for the purpose of soliciting additional proxies if there are not sufficient votes at the time of the Special Meeting to approve the matters under consideration; and Transact such other business as may properly come before the Special Meeting or any adjournments thereof. Our Board of Governors recommends a vote FOR each of the foregoing proposals. Members of record as of September 9, 2022, are entitled to notice of, and to vote on, all matters at the Special Meeting and any reconvened meeting following any adjournments or postponements thereof. Q: May I revoke my proxy or change my vote? A: Yes. If you return your proxy card before the meeting and decide that you want to change your vote, you may revoke your proxy at any time prior to 5:00 p.m. central time on November 2, 2022, by delivering a written revocation and/or a new proxy card to Christianson PLLP, 302 SW 5th Street, Willmar, MN 56201. You may also revoke your proxy by attending the Special Meeting and delivering a written notice of revocation to our Chief Financial Officer, Stacie Schuler, at the commencement of the Special Meeting. UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20549 SCHEDULE 13G Under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Amendment No. )* Orchard Therapeutics Plc (Name of Issuer) American Depository Shares (Title of Class of Securities) 68570P101 (CUSIP Number) September 1, 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) x 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 the disclosures provided in a prior cover page. The information required in 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 (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). Page 1 of 7 CUSIP No. 68570P101 1 NAMES OF REPORTING PERSONS I.R.S. IDENTIFICATION NOS. OF ABOVE PERSONS (ENTITIES ONLY) Zentree Investments Limited 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 The Cayman Islands NUMBER OF SHARES BENEFICIALLY OWNED BY EACH REPORTING PERSON WITH: 5 SOLE VOTING POWER -0- 6 SHARED VOTING POWER 6,477,472 7 SOLE DISPOSITIVE POWER -0- 8 SHARED DISPOSITIVE POWER 6,477,472 9 AGGREGATE AMOUNT BENEFICIALLY OWNED BY EACH REPORTING PERSON 6,477,472 10 CHECK BOX IF THE AGGREGATE AMOUNT IN ROW (9) EXCLUDES CERTAIN SHARES (see instructions) 11 PERCENT OF CLASS REPRESENTED BY AMOUNT IN ROW (9) 5.122% 12 TYPE OF REPORTING PERSON (see instructions) OO Page 2 of 7 CUSIP No. 68570P101 1 NAMES OF REPORTING PERSONS I.R.S. IDENTIFICATION NOS. OF ABOVE PERSONS (ENTITIES ONLY) Richard Magides 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 British NUMBER OF SHARES BENEFICIALLY OWNED BY EACH REPORTING PERSON WITH: 5 SOLE VOTING POWER -0- 6 SHARED VOTING POWER 6,477,472 7 SOLE DISPOSITIVE POWER -0- 8 SHARED DISPOSITIVE POWER 6,477,472 9 AGGREGATE AMOUNT BENEFICIALLY OWNED BY EACH REPORTING PERSON 6,477,472 10 CHECK BOX IF THE AGGREGATE AMOUNT IN ROW (9) EXCLUDES CERTAIN SHARES (see instructions) 11 PERCENT OF CLASS REPRESENTED BY AMOUNT IN ROW (9) 5.122% 12 TYPE OF REPORTING PERSON (see instructions) IN Page 3 of 7 Item 1(a). Name of Issuer: Orchard Therapeutics Plc Item 1(b). Address of Issuers Principal Executive Offices: 108 Cannon Street London, United Kingdom Item 2(a). Name of Person Filing: Zentree Investments Limited Richard Magides Item 2(b). Address of Principal Business Office or, if none, Residence: Zentree Investments Limited 65 Chulia Street #45-04 OCBC Centre Singapore 049513 Citizenship: The Cayman Islands Richard Magides 65 Chulia Street #45-04 OCBC Centre Singapore 049513 Citizenship : British Item 2(c). Citizenship: Zentree Investments Limited Citizenship The Cayman Islands Richard Magides: Citizenship British Item 2(d). Title of Class of Securities: American Depository Shares Item 2(e). CUSIP Number: 68570P101 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; (b) Bank as defined in Section 3(a)(6) of the Act; (c) Insurance company as defined in Section 3(a)(19) of the Act; (d) Investment company registered under Section 8 of the Investment Company Act of 1940; (e) An investment adviser in accordance with Rule 13d-1(b)(1)(ii)(E); (f) An employee benefit plan or endowment fund in accordance with Rule 13d-1(b)(1)(ii)(F); (g) A parent holding company or control person in accordance with Rule 13d-1(b)(1)(ii)(G); (h) A savings association 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; (j) A non-U.S. institution in accordance with Rule 240.13d-1(b)(1)(ii)(J); (k) Group, in accordance with Rule 240.13d-1(b)(1)(ii)(K). If filing as a non-U.S. institution in accordance with Rule 240.13d-1(b)(1)(ii)(J), please specify the type of institution: Page 4 of 7 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. (a) Amount Beneficially Owned: As of the close of business on September1, 2022, Zentree Investments Limited (Zentree) and Richard Magides beneficially owned a totl of 6,477,472 American Depository Shares of the Issuer, representing 6,477,472 ordinary shares nominal value 0.10 per share. Of this amount Zentree owns 3,381,061 shares and Mr. Magides owns 3,096,411 shares. Richard Magides is the director of Zentree Investments Limited and may be deemed to have shared voting control and investment discretion over securities owned by Zentree. (b) Percent of Class: As of the close of business on September 1, 2022 Zentree and Mr. Magides may be deemed to have beneficially owned 6,477,472 American Depository Shares of the Issuer outstanding (see Item 4(a) above). This percentage was calculated based on 126,458,312 ordinary shares, nominal value 0.10 per share, outstanding as of July 29, 2022 as per the Issuers Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2022. (c) Number of shares as to which such person has: (i) Sole power to vote or to direct the vote -0- (ii) Shared power to vote or to direct the vote 6,477,472 (See Item 4(a)) (iii) Sole power to dispose or to direct the disposition of -0- (iv) Shared power to dispose or to direct the disposition of 6,477,472 (See Item 4(a)) 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. Not applicable. Item 7. Identification and Classification of the Subsidiary Which Acquired the Security Being Reported on by the Parent Holding Company. Not applicable. Item 8. Identification and Classification of Members of the Group. Not applicable. Item 9. Notice of Dissolution of Group. Not applicable. Page 5 of 7 Item 10. Certification. By signing below I certify that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, the securities referred to above were acquired and are held in the ordinary course of business and were not acquired and are not held for the purpose of and do not have the effect of changing the control of the issuer of the securities and were not acquired and are not held in connection with or as a participant in any transaction having such purpose or effect for the time being. Page 6 of 7 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. Date: September 9, 2022 Zentree Investments Limited /s/ Richard Magides Name: Richard Magides Title: Director Page 7 of 7 UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20549 SCHEDULE 13G INFORMATION TO BE INCLUDED IN STATEMENTS FILED PURSUANT TO RULE 13d-1(b), (c), AND (d) AND AMENDMENTS THERETO FILED PURSUANT TO RULE 13d-2(b) (AMENDMENT NO. 19)* DMC Global Inc. (Name of Issuer) Common Stock, Par Value $0.05 (Title of Class of Securities) 23291C103 (CUSIP Number) Eddie C. Brown Brown Capital Management, LLC 1201 N. Calvert Street Baltimore, MD 21202 (410) 837-3234 (Name, Address and Telephone Number of Person Authorized to Receive Notices and Communications) August 31, 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: [x] 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 ("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. 23291C103 13G Page 2 of 5 Pages 1. NAMES OF REPORTING PERSONS I.R.S. IDENTIFICATION NOS. OF ABOVE PERSONS (ENTITIES ONLY) Brown Capital Management, LLC 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 State of Maryland NUMBER OF SHARES BENEFICIALLY OWNED BY EACH REPORTING PERSON WITH 5. SOLE VOTING POWER 806,378 6. SHARED VOTING POWER None 7. SOLE DISPOSITIVE POWER 1,364,478 8. SHARED DISPOSITIVE POWER None 9. AGGREGATE AMOUNT BENEFICIALLY OWNED BY EACH REPORTING PERSON 1,364,478 10. CHECK IF THE AGGREGATE AMOUNT IN ROW (9) EXCLUDES CERTAIN SHARES (see instructions) [ ] 11. PERCENT OF CLASS REPRESENTED BY AMOUNT IN ROW (9) 6.99% 12. TYPE OF REPORTING PERSON (see instructions) IA CUSIP No. 23291C103 13G Page 3 of 5 Pages Item 1. (a) Name of Issuer DMC Global Inc. (b) Address of Issuers Principal Executive Offices 11800 Ridge Parkway, Suite 300 Broomfield, CO 80021 Item 2. (a) Name of Person Filing Brown Capital Management, LLC (b) Address of the Principal Office or, if none, residence 1201 N. Calvert Street Baltimore, MD 21202 (c) Citizenship Brown Capital Management, LLC is a Maryland Limited Liability Company (d) Title of Class of Securities Common Stock, Par Value $0.05 (e) CUSIP Number 23291C103 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) [x] 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). CUSIP No. 23291C103 13G Page 4 of 5 Pages 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. (a) Amount beneficially owned: 1,364,478 (b) Percent of class: 6.99% (c) Number of shares as to which the person has: (i) Sole power to vote or to direct the vote: 806,378 (ii) Shared power to vote or to direct the vote: None (iii) Sole power to dispose or to direct the disposition of: 1,364,478 (iv) Shared power to dispose or to direct the disposition of: None 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 [ ] . Instruction. Dissolution of a group requires a response to this item. Item 6. Ownership of More than Five Percent on Behalf of Another Person. All of the shares of Common Stock set forth in Item 4 are owned by various investment advisory clients of Brown Capital Management, LLC, which is deemed to be a beneficial owner of those shares pursuant to Rule 13d-3 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, due to it discretionary power to make investment decisions over such shares for its clients and/or its ability to vote such shares. In all cases, persons other than Brown Capital Management, LLC have the right to receive, or the power to direct the receipt of, dividends from, or the proceeds from the sale of the shares. No individual client holds more than five percent of the class, other than the Brown Capital Management Small Company Fund as disclosed in this filing. Item 7. Identification and Classification of the Subsidiary Which Acquired the Security Being Reported on By the Parent Holding Company. Not applicable Item 8. Identification and Classification of Members of the Group. Not applicable Item 9. Notice of Dissolution of Group. Not applicable CUSIP No. 23291C103 13G Page 5 of 5 Pages Item 10. Certification. By signing below I certify that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, the securities referred to above were not acquired and are not held for the purpose of or with the effect of changing or influencing the control of the issuer of the securities and were not acquired and are not held in connection with or as a participant in any transaction having that purpose or effect. 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. AMAMI OSHIMA, Japan A very severe security environment surrounding Japan means the countrys Self-Defense Force must tighten up its defensive capability and its alliance with the United States, top brass from both countries said Thursday. The commander of U.S. Army Pacific, Gen. Charles Flynn, and the head of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force staged a news conference on Amami Oshima days after the largest military exercise the two nations armies regularly undertake had concluded. Now I look at the current situation surrounding Japan, we are enabled by countries such as China, North Korea and Russia across the sea, so I recognize that Japan is located at the forward edge of a very severe security environment, said Gen. Yoshihide Yoshida, chief of staff of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force. It is imperative for Japan to fundamentally reinforce its defense capability and strengthen the ability of the Japan alliance to deter and respond, he said. The Japanese garrison on Amami, about 200 miles south of Kyushu, the southernmost of Japans four main islands, was reinforced in 2019 as a hedge against natural disasters or any emergencies, authorities said at the time. Plans called for positioning about 800 troops on the island, which is part of the Ryukyu, or Nansei, chain, the front line of our defense, former Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya said in 2019. Flynn is the first U.S. Army Pacific commander to visit Amami. His tour highlighted the combined drills by U.S. and Japanese forces that simulated island defense there. Orient Shield began Aug. 27, took place at locations around Japan and concluded Sept. 3, according to the Army. U.S. Army Japan, the 11th Airborne Division, 1st Multi-domain Task Force, 17th Field Artillery Brigade, 38th Air Defense Artillery Brigade and 5th Security Force Assistance Brigade took part, according to an Army news release Aug. 27. Infantry units from the airborne division out of Fort Wainwright, Alaska, for example, took part in live-fire training with Japans Western Army, focusing on the Javelin portable antitank missile, and sniper-, infantry-combat and air-assault operations, according to the Army. I can tell you the Orient Shield that we're doing now, in 2022, is very different from just a few years ago, much more complex, much more challenging, much more rigorous, and demands a lot more from the soldiers in both the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force in the U.S. Army, Flynn said. And in my view, that's exactly the kind of environment and exactly the kind of training rigor that we want to do together. Orient Shield training, now in its 37th year, crosses between and incorporates several military domains, including ground, air, maritime, space and cyber. It is also intended to enhance interoperability, the ability of one countrys military to use the equipment and training methods of another countrys military. The U.S. and Japan alliance has deepened through ties between the Self-Defense Forces and the U.S. military as China has heightened tensions in the Taiwan Strait, Yoshida said. Flynn said the allied force is part of a multinational response to challenges across the Indo-Pacific region that need joint and multinational solutions. That's exactly what we're doing here, he said. And that's exactly the message that I think that the region and all of the partners in it need to need to take from it. KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany Army housing in Europe once again fared poorly in the latest Army customer satisfaction survey when compared to base housing communities in the U.S. and in the Asia-Pacific region. Its an issue that Army leaders in Europe are vowing to fix with hundreds of millions in housing improvements and new units planned over the next six years. Out of 20 Army installations with housing managed by the government, the bottom four in overall satisfaction were in Germany: Rheinland-Pfalz, Wiesbaden, Ansbach and Stuttgart, in order from highest to lowest. Bavaria, meanwhile, rated the sixth lowest. The Armys 2022 Tenant Satisfaction Survey examined privatized and government-owned or leased housing. On installations with government-run family housing, 14 rated between outstanding and average, four scored below average and two Ansbach and Stuttgart rated poor. The poor rating, according to the survey, signifies substandard performance and strong displeasure with the property and/or level of service. Improvements are needed immediately, according to the Armys standards for housing rated as poor. In recent years, Army leaders at base town hall meetings in Europe have fielded concerns from families about housing issues ranging from mold and brown drinking water to plumbing problems. Those issues, however, arent unique to Europe. At Fort Bragg, N.C., the Army since August has moved more than 200 soldiers out of condemned barracks due to substandard heating, ventilation and air conditioning. In Europe, Army family housing tends to be older, with less living space, than homes provided by Army installations in the U.S., said Mark Heeter, spokesman for Installation Management Command-Europe. Many are 1950s-era stairwell quarters, are smaller, and do not have many of the amenities commonly found in stateside residences such as yards, garages, air conditioning and privacy, Heeter said in a statement Thursday. IMCOM is spending about $50 million per year to refurbish quarters across installations in Germany, Heeter said. Improvements planned include installing rolling window shutters, new balconies, interior and exterior renovations and demolishing lower-quality units. From 2022 through 2028, $785 million worth of construction is planned for 990 new housing units in Europe. Another 100 to 200 units per year will be improved or repaired, IMCOM said. In Vicenza, Italy, new housing is being built at a cost of $84 million in 2021 and $90 million in 2022, Heeter said. Overall satisfaction with housing at Vicenza improved by nearly 7 points from 2021 to 2022 in the housing survey. Survey responses for the 2022 survey were collected between January and March of this year. Vicenzas average score of 74.8 nearly boosted it to good, a rating needing a score of 75 to 79. Rheinland-Pfalz, which includes Baumholder where old housing units are also being replaced or refurbished also improved its score, from 65.8 in 2021 to 68.4 this year. Rheinland-Pfalz also had one of the higher participation rates in Europe, with 305 of 654 surveys answered, a response rate of 46.6%. Ansbach, by contrast, had a response rate of 17.6%, with 84 of 478 surveys distributed turned in. The survey has provided IMCOM-Europe with insight into residents feelings about various areas of housing operations, customer service, and projects for Army Family Housing dwelling units, Heeter said in a statement. We always encourage their participation, which is central to helping us understand how we can improve. Among Army housing managed by the government, Fort McCoy in Wisconsin received the top overall score on the survey with a satisfaction rate of 94.1%. The highest rated Army housing overseas was Camp Zama in Japan, with a satisfaction rate of 87%. (Tribune News Service) Ken Kitajima, one of Camp Amaches last survivors and an advocate, died at 91. As an adolescent, he spent around two years at the Amache camp near Granada one of 10 U.S. sites created for the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. We were citizens, most of us, said Kitajima, who was confined there from 1943 until 1945. We lost everything. In his adulthood, he joined the military, serving in the Air Force during the Korean War. Later, he helped lead the charge in turning the former Colorado internment camp into a federal historic site. President Joe Biden signed the Amache National Historic Site Act into law in March. The space is meant to provide places for people to learn about and reflect upon the historic events that occurred there, according to the National Park Service. As a young boy at Amache, I never thought Id see an America that cared about my story, Kitajima said. Former President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the order that set the wheels in motion on Feb. 19, 1942. The Amache camp operated from 1942 to 1945, with more than 10,000 people passing through including Kitajima, who recalled barbed wire fencing, guard towers, military men with machine guns and searchlights. The government forced his family to leave California in a matter of two weeks with only what you can carry. Kitajima and his sister were bullied by classmates after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor an attack that provoked mass hysteria, he said. He remembered name-calling and having rocks thrown at him. So, Kitajima said he was initially kind of glad to leave. But it was a terrible experience, he said. He described the camp as a difficult place to endure, as its prisoners suffered dust storms, snow and more, according to the Vail Daily. Still, Kitajima joined a Boy Scout troop, and spent time hunting bugs and fishing. Ken was part of an extraordinary group of survivors and descendants who worked for years to tell the story of WWII Japanese-American internment camps, Interior Department Secretary Deb Haaland tweeted on Tuesday. She highlighted the advocacy of survivors, such as Kitajima, in establishing the historic site. We will honor his legacy in the work we do to acknowledge this painful chapter in our nations history. Sen. Michael Bennet also acknowledged Kitajimas passing in a Wednesday tweet. His tireless advocacy was critical to preserving the site and the memory of what happened there for future generations, Bennet wrote. Colorado will miss his leadership. The National Parks Conservation Association tweeted its condolences, adding, NPCA is proud to have been a part of preserving his story. 2022 MediaNews Group, Inc. Visit at denverpost.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. CANBERRA, Australia The Chinese navys unusual behavior in shadowing Australian warships in the South China Sea had not deterred operations in the contested waters, Australias navy chief said. Vice Admiral Mark Hammond said the odd Chinese tactics had not escalated in recent years, which left him reasonably comfortable that Australian crews were safe. Hammond was speaking to reporters ahead of a multination naval drill Exercise Kakadu starting from the northern Australian port of Darwin on Monday for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began. His comments on Australian naval operations in the South China Sea follow an Australian Defense Department complaint that a Chinese navy ship fired a laser at one of its surveillance aircraft in February, endangering the crew. Hammond said the behavior of the Chinese navy, a branch of the Peoples Liberation Army, had changed toward Australian warships in the South China Sea in recent years. Our interactions between our ships ... have been professional and safe. Routinely whenever we have a ship up there, theres a PLA navy vessel within sight quite often following us around, Hammond said. Thats unusual behavior. I dont know another navy that does that. Its a departure from what we would call normal maritime behavior. But it hasnt stopped us from conducting our operations, he added. Hammond said the Chinese behavior had not changed in the past six or seven years. So that gives me some confidence that theres a degree of status quo around what were doing at the moment, Hammond said. From a ship-to-ship perspective, ... Im still reasonably comfortable, he said. The behaviors odd that they want to know where were going and they want to follow us around. But its not impeding our safe passage, he added. Exercise Kakadu involves 22 nations including the United States and from as far away as Germany. The exercise involves up 17 ships, an Australian submarine, 34 aircraft and 3,000 personnel. When Exercise Kakadu was last held in 2018, a Chinese frigate took part. Bilateral relations have since soured, with China imposing a series of official and unofficial trade sanctions on Australian exports. Hammond said whether China is ever again invited to participate was a question for the Australian government, which changed at elections in May. If the political relationship returns to that position we were in in 2018, then I can see that we might be in that space again, Hammond said. Ive yet to see an Australian ship invited to an PLA naval exercise. So theres probably some distance to go, he added. Hammond said he was prepared for possible surveillance of the exercise by the Chinese navy. The exercise will happen in international waters outside our territorial seas and its not unusual to see ships from many different nations in that environment, Hammond said. We prepare accordingly and well scale and manage the exercise accordingly, as we have in the past, he added. SEOUL, South Korea North Korean leader Kim Jong Un stressed his country will never abandon the nuclear weapons it needs to counter the United States, which he accused of pushing to weaken the North's defenses and eventually collapse his government, state media said Friday. Kim made the comments during a speech Thursday at North Korea's rubber-stamp parliament, where members passed legislation governing the use of nuclear weapons, which Kim described as a step to cement the country's nuclear status and make clear such weapons will not be bargained. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres's office said he was "deeply concerned" about the new law, and noted that the North's pursuit of a nuclear weapons program "continues to disregard the resolutions of the Security Council to cease such activities." "The Secretary-General reiterates his call to the DPRK to resume dialogue with the key parties concerned with a view to achieving sustainable peace and the complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," Guterres's office said in a statement, using an acronym for the North's formal name. The new law spells out conditions where North would be inclined to use its nuclear weapons, including when it determines that its leadership is facing an imminent "nuclear or non-nuclear attack by hostile forces." The law requires North Korea's military to "automatically" execute nuclear strikes against enemy forces, including their "starting point of provocation and the command," if Pyongyang's leadership comes under attack. The law also says North Korea could use nukes to prevent an unspecified "catastrophic crisis" to its government and people, a loose definition that experts say reflect an escalatory nuclear doctrine that could create greater concerns for neighbors. Kim also criticized South Korea over its plans to expand its conventional strike capabilities and revive large-scale military exercises with the United States to counter the North's growing threats, describing them as a "dangerous" military action that raises tensions. Kim has made increasingly provocative threats of nuclear conflict toward the United States and its allies in Asia, also warning that the North would proactively use its nuclear weapons when threatened. His latest comments underscored the growing animosity in the region as he accelerates the expansion of his nuclear weapons and missiles program. "The purpose of the United States is not only to remove our nuclear might itself, but eventually forcing us to surrender or weaken our rights to self-defense through giving up our nukes, so that they could collapse our government at any time," Kim said in the speech published by the North's official Korean Central News Agency. "Let them sanction us for 100 days, 1,000 days, 10 years or 100 years," Kim said. "We will never give up our rights to self-defense that preserves our country's existence and the safety of our people just to temporarily ease the difficulties we are experiencing now." Kim also addressed domestic issues, saying North Korea would begin its long-delayed rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in November. He didn't specify how many doses it would have, where they would come from, or how they would be administered across his population of 26 million people. GAVI, the nonprofit that runs the U.N.-backed COVAX distribution program, said in June it understood North Korea had accepted an offer of vaccines from China. GAVI said at the time the specifics of the offer were unclear. North Korea rejected previous offers by COVAX, likely because of international monitoring requirements, and has also ignored U.S. and South Korean offers of vaccines and other COVID-19 aid. Kim last month declared victory over COVID-19 and ordered preventive measures eased just three months after his government for the first time acknowledged an outbreak. Experts believe the North's disclosures on its outbreak are manipulated to help Kim maintain absolute control. The North Korean report about Kim's speech came a day after South Korea extended its latest olive branch, proposing a meeting with North Korea to resume temporary reunions of aging relatives separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, which were last held in 2018. Experts say it's highly unlikely North Korea would accept the South's offer considering the stark deterioration in inter-Korean ties amid the stalemate in larger nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang. The U.S.-North Korean diplomacy derailed in 2019 over disagreements in exchanging the release of crippling sanctions against the North and the North's denuclearization steps. Kim was combative toward South Korea in Thursday's speech and urged his country to expand the operational roles of its tactical nuclear weapons and accelerate their deployment to strengthen the country's war deterrent. Those comments appeared to align with a ruling party decision in June to approve unspecified new operational duties for front-line troops, which analysts say likely include plans to deploy battlefield nuclear weapons targeting rival South Korea along their tense border. Cheong Seong Chang, a senior analyst at South Korea's Sejong Institute, said Kim's comments and the new North Korean law amount to a warning that it would launch immediate nuclear strikes on the United States and South Korea if they ever attempt to decapacitate Pyongyang's leadership. The North is also communicating a threat that it could use its nuclear weapons during conflicts with South Korea's conventional forces, which would raise the risk of accidental clashes escalating into a nuclear crisis, Cheong said. North Korea has been speeding its development of nuclear-capable, short-range missiles that can target South Korea since 2019. Experts say its rhetoric around those missiles communicates a threat to proactively use them in warfare to blunt the stronger conventional forces of South Korea and the United States. About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in the South to deter aggression from the North. The U.S.-led diplomatic push to defuse the nuclear standoff has been further complicated by an intensifying U.S.-China rivalry and Russia's war on Ukraine, which deepened the divide in the U.N. Security Council, where Beijing and Moscow have blocked U.S. efforts to tighten sanctions on Pyongyang over its revived long-range missile tests this year. Kim has dialed up weapons tests to a record pace in 2020, launching more than 30 ballistic weapons, including the first demonstrations of his intercontinental ballistic missiles since 2017. U.S. and South Korean officials say Kim may up the ante soon by ordering the North's first nuclear test in five years as he pushes a brinkmanship aimed at forcing Washington to accept the idea of the North as a nuclear power and negotiating concessions from a position of strength. Experts say Kim is also trying to strengthen his leverage by strengthening his cooperation with China and Russia in an emerging partnership aimed at undercutting U.S. influence. North Korea has repeatedly blamed the United States for the crisis in Ukraine, saying the West's "hegemonic policy" justified Russian military actions in Ukraine to protect itself. U.S. officials said this week the Russians are in the process of purchasing North Korean ammunition, including artillery shells and rockets, to ease their supply shortages in the war against Ukraine. North Korea also has joined Russia and Syria as the only nations to recognize the independence of two pro-Russia breakaway territories in eastern Ukraine and has discussed send its construction workers to those regions to work on rebuilding. TOKYO The U.S. and Japanese armies are not reacting to Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific when they exercise together as they did last week during the allies largest ground-force drills, the commander of U.S. Army Pacific said Friday. The allied armies are simply preparing for a conflict, Gen. Charles Flynn told reporters during a media roundtable at the New Sanno Hotel. Many are saying we are being reactive, and I would say we are not, he said. We are being proactive, and we are doing things well in advance of the way that, at least, the Chinese behaved recently. Elements of U.S. Army in Japan and Alaska joined up with Japans Western Army for Orient Shield, a week of training in air assault, infantry combat and anti-tank, sniper tactics and other scenarios around Japan. Troops fired the Javelin anti-tank missile on Aug. 30, a first in Japan. The main focus of Orient Shield is ensuring the two countries can employ the others equipment and methods, Flynn said. He said working together builds a bond. I think that is because of the network of allies and partners talking to one another, communicating with one another, planning, synchronizing and integrating our operations together so we can exercise, and we can rehearse and we can demonstrate our commitment to one another, he said. Planning for Orient Shield 22, which began Aug. 27 and concluded Sept. 3, started in March, when staff from the Army and Japan Ground Self-Defense Force spent a week discussing exercise locations and training objectives, according to the Army. This isnt something we did in reaction, it was something we had been planning and coordinating for some time, Flynn said. Orient Shield demonstrates the capabilities that we need to have to defend islands, straits or areas where land, people, air and sea come together. We are going to need joint solutions for a joint problem. Asked about plans by Japans ruling Liberal Democratic Party to increase defense spending again this year, Flynn said he considered it a worthy investment. Japan is discussing, along with the U.S., and finding ways to increase training, readiness and rehearsals by taking existing exercises that they do routinely and increasing the scope and duration of them, Flynn said. Increasing the scale, the complexity, the size, the duration of the training that our forces must do together is probably a worthy investment for both the U.S. and the Japanese forces. Flynn also addressed the legacy of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated July 8 in Nara. Abes vision of a bolstered Japanese military survives in the joint exercises led by Flynns Japanese counterparts, he said. I have also been able to be part of that legacy from the U.S. side as we train together in exercises like Orient Shield, Yama Sakura, Northwind and Operation Pathways, Flynn said. So, I think that work that he had put us to task on is bearing fruit today as our forces work together to maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific. The United States and the Philippines are talking about increasing the number of military bases in the island nation that visiting American forces may use, according to the Philippine ambassador to the United States. The talks on expanded base access were revealed by Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez in comments reported Sept. 5 by The Nikkei newspaper in Japan. "Our military and the military of the United States are all looking into what are the possible areas," he said. A naval base may be included in the list of sites available to the U.S., Romualdez told newspaper. Facilities for visiting American forces were supposed to be built on five Philippine military bases under the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement. However, the only facility completed to date is a warehouse at Cesar Basa Air Base on Luzon. The agreement also covers Antonio Bautista Air Base, Palawan; Benito Ebbed Air Base, Mactan; Cebu, Fort Magsaysay; Nuyeve Ecija, and Lumbia Airport, Cagayan de Oro. Asked when the base access plans might be implemented, Romualdez told Nikkei: Hopefully, in the next three years, that we can have all of these areas that we have identified already. The U.S. Embassy in Manila did not provide Stars and Stripes a response to questions about the talks this week. An unnamed Pentagon spokesperson quoted in the Nikkei report said the U.S. and the Philippines "hold regular discussions on deepening our enduring security alliance under the auspices of the Mutual Defense Treaty and multiple other agreements, including the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement." The allies seek to enhance the posture of their alliance to address new and emerging challenges, the spokesperson said. We intend to continue to implement infrastructure projects at current EDCA locations and explore additional sites for further development," the spokesperson said. U.S. military planners focus on the Philippines as they consider dispersing their forces among small islands in the Western Pacific and size up the prospect of a conflict over Taiwan. For example, members of the Marine Corps newly formed 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment practiced the tactics of expeditionary advanced base operations during the annual Balikatan drills in the Philippines in April. The U.S. in 2015 requested access to eight bases in the Philippines, including Subic Bay and Clark Air Base, according to Carlyle Thayer, an emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales and lecturer at the Australian Defence Force Academy. Subic and Clark formed Americas largest overseas military community before both were damaged in the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo and, soon after, returned to the Philippines. Former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, whose six-year term ended in June, had threatened to withdraw from an agreement that facilitates training by U.S. forces in his country, and he excluded Clark and Subic from the bases covered by the defense cooperation agreement, Thayer said in an email Tuesday. U.S. access was always under the shadow of Duterte's whims, he said. The Philippines new president, Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr., the son of the countrys late dictator who ruled from 1965-1986, doesn't have the anti-American chip on his shoulder that Duterte had, Thayer said. It is difficult to imagine the Philippines refusing a request from the U.S. for access if a major conflict broke out between China and the US over Taiwan. KYIV, Ukraine For anyone contemplating a top administrative position in the Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine, Kyiv authorities have a message: Be afraid. Very afraid. Since Russian forces invaded in late February and began seizing Ukrainian cities and towns, close to 20 Kremlin-backed officials or their local Ukrainian collaborators have been killed or injured in a wave of assassinations and attempted killings. They have been gunned down, blown up, hanged and poisoned - an array of methods that reflects the determination of the Ukrainian hit squads and saboteurs often operating deep inside enemy-controlled territory. The unpredictability of the attacks is meant to terrify anyone who might agree to serve in the puppet governments Russia has been creating with an eye toward staging sham referendums and ultimately annexing the occupied lands. On Tuesday, the bloody roll continued. Artem Bardin, the military commandant in Berdyansk, a port city on the Sea of Azov that Russia seized early in the war, was critically injured when a car exploded near the city administration building, according to Russias Tass news agency, which described the incident as a terrorist act. Bardins legs were blown off and he suffered extensive blood loss, but he was alive, Vladimir Rogov, a Ukrainian who works as a pro-Russian official, told Tass. Doctors continue to fight for his life, Rogov said. Earlier reports that Bardin had died could not be independently confirmed, but there was no doubt that he would not be returning to his official duties in the occupied city any time soon. As Ukrainian soldiers press forward in the countrys south and east to try to reclaim occupied territories, Ukrainian authorities say the shadowy behind-the-lines operations are undermining, if not outright thwarting, Moscows plans to take political control, and especially to stage the sham referendums the Kremlin hoped to use to justify annexation. In addition to the targeted killings, the Ukrainians have carried out attacks on Russian ammunition depots and other crucial military installations and assets in occupied Crimea. A Ukrainian official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, said one of Ukraines special services was involved in the attempt on Bardins life, though he couldnt specify which agency. In my understanding, everything that is done to destroy the leaders of the invaders and traitors is done by our special services, the official said. You can say that three organizations are involved in this kind of business: special operations forces, the main intelligence department [of the military] and a special unit of the SBU, Ukraines main internal security service. Russian officials have also blamed Ukrainian special services for the car bombing that killed Daria Dugina, a right-wing, nationalist Russian TV commentator and the daughter of far-right Orthodox Christian ideologue Alexander Dugin, a strong supporter of the war. Ukraine has flatly denied involvement in her killing near Moscow. The assassination campaign, while cheered by many Ukrainians, nonetheless raises legal and ethical questions about extrajudicial killings and potential war crimes, particularly when the targets are political actors or civilians and not combatants on the battlefield or other military personnel. And those questions cannot simply be waved away by pointing to the illegality of Russias invasion. The Geneva Conventions, referring to persons taking no active part in the hostilities, specifically prohibit violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, as well as the passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court. Mykhailo Podolyak, a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, told The Washington Post that the attacks in the occupied territories were evidence of a powerful partisan and active protest movement that shows Moscow is absolutely incapable of controlling the areas and that no one here was waiting . . . with flowers in their hands to greet the Russian forces. As a result, Podolyak said, all scenarios concocted in the Kremlin, including fictitious referendums, remain only on paper. He said that Moscow was finding it difficult to recruit from the local population for the pro-Russian administrations, and that Russian officials were refusing to travel to Ukraine because of the risk they would end up on a target list. The risks and consequences are extreme - and they understand this very well, Podolyak said. During August alone, there were nine such attacks. In Berdyansk, the deputy head of the traffic police, Aleksandr Kolesnikov, died after a bomb blast, which local authorities blamed on the Kyiv regime. In Kherson, Volodymyr Saldo, the head of the occupation administration, was hospitalized after being poisoned, reportedly by a personal chef. His condition could not be learned. And another Kherson occupation official, Vitaliy Gura, was killed in early August in the city of Nova Kakhovka. It is far from clear that all these hits were the work of the Ukrainian special services. However, Konrad Muzyka, director of Rochan Consulting, a Polish-based defense consulting firm, said he had not seen any evidence, even a shred of evidence, or even a rumor that the attacks were the result of infighting in the pro-Russian administrations. Muzyka, however, said he did not know if Ukrainian special services were acting alone or with the help of local partisans, but he said the victims were clearly not chosen at random. Whoever is organizing the attacks, they try to focus on big fish, he said. The operations were aimed in part at derailing the Russian-organized referendums, Muzyka said, which in some areas had tentatively been scheduled to take place this month. Russia staged a similar referendum in Crimea in 2014 before annexing the territory in violation of international law. I think its fair to say that Kyiv is very concerned about these referendums, Muzyka said. Ukrainian officials would do their utmost to actually prevent them from happening. In May, Andrei Shevchik, the Russian-appointed head of Enerhodar, the city closest to Ukraines giant Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, was targeted in a bombing attack. That strike was confirmed by Dmytro Orlov, the legitimate mayor, who was unseated by the invading Russians and is exiled from his city. Now, the attacks on pro-Kremlin officials are taking place as Ukrainian forces conduct what appears to be a major offensive to drive Russian forces from Kherson. On Monday, Kirill Stremousov, a senior official in the Moscow-backed Kherson administration, said that a pause has been taken in carrying out the referendum in his region because of the security situation. Other Russia-aligned officials tried to walk back that statement, but it was far from clear that Russian forces would control the territory long enough to stage the fake vote. At the end of August, Podolyak tweeted a still photo taken from Quentin Tarantinos film Inglourious Basterds, which recounts the exploits of a fictitious U.S. unit killing German soldiers behind enemy lines in World War War II. In Kherson, it is said that Russian officers . . . have been avoiding evening walks recently, he wrote. As soon as city falls asleep, the partisans wake up. ... We wish all the collaborators a good night. WASHINGTON With the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Joe Biden gained the distinction of being the 13th and final U.S. president to meet the woman whose reign spanned seven decades. The queen, who died Thursday at her summer residence in Scotland at age 96, had met every American president since Dwight Eisenhower, with the exception of Lyndon Johnson, who did not visit Britain during his presidency. She was still a princess when she met President Harry Truman in Washington. Every living former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump joined Biden in mourning her passing and sending condolences to her family. Biden and first lady Jill Biden said the queen's "legacy will loom large in the pages of British history, and in the story of our world." Obama and his wife, Michelle, recalled the queen welcoming them, America's first Black president and first lady, to the world stage "with open arms and extraordinary generosity." Biden first met the queen in 1982 as a U.S. senator traveling in the U.K. with a delegation from Congress. He last saw her in 2021, several months after he became president, when he attended a world leaders' summit in southwestern England. She mingled with Group of Seven leaders at a reception that she and other royals hosted at an indoor rainforest. After the summit, the Bidens traveled to Windsor Castle, near London, at the queen's invitation for a private audience. The queen was a 25-year-old princess when she came to Washington in 1951 and stayed with Truman and his family. She met Herbert Hoover in 1957, more than 20 years after he left office. Here are highlights of some of her meetings, on both sides of the pond, with past American presidents: JOE BIDEN Biden and his trademark aviator sunglasses met the queen at Windsor Castle on a sweltering afternoon in June 2021. Biden emerged from a black car wearing his shades, stepped onto a covered dais where the queen waited, and, with his wife, posed with the queen as the two countries' national anthems played. After walking around the courtyard to inspect the honor guard, he entered the castle for tea. Back at the airport, Biden told journalists that the queen was "very gracious" and had asked him about the leaders of China and Russia. While it's generally frowned upon to discuss one's private talks with the queen, Biden continued. "I don't think she'll be insulted, but she reminded me of my mother," he said. Biden said he also had invited the queen to visit the White House. DONALD TRUMP Trump and the queen met in July 2018 at the castle during a visit to Britain that drew large anti-Trump protests to downtown London, including the hoisting of a balloon depicting Trump in a diaper. He was criticized for breaking protocol by briefly walking in front of the queen instead of alongside her and turning his back on her as they reviewed an honor guard. Trump later said he thought of his late mother, Mary Anne, who was born in Scotland and who loved the royal family, when he and his wife, Melania, sipped tea with the queen. Trump's subsequent comment that the queen told him that Brexit Britain's break from the European Union was complex also created a stir. Most heads of state don't reveal their private conversations with the queen. She also doesn't discuss political matters. The Trumps and the royals met again during the D-Day commemoration in 2019. BARACK OBAMA Obama and the queen had their first of three meetings in April 2009 at a reception for world leaders attending the Group of 20 nations summit in London. It was there that first lady Michelle Obama broke protocol by briefly putting an arm around the queen's back as they commiserated about their achy feet. It's generally a no-no to touch the queen, but she returned Mrs. Obama's gesture. The queen invited the Obamas for a state visit in 2011 that included a two-night stay at Buckingham Palace and a lavish banquet in the president's honor. As Obama delivered a toast to the queen, he didn't miss a beat when the band assumed that a pause in his remarks meant he had concluded and launched into a rendition of "God Save the Queen." Obama kept talking over the music until the band quieted down. The couples saw each other again in 2016 when Obama visited the queen at Windsor Castle a day after her 90th birthday during another swing through Europe. GEORGE W. BUSH Bush detested stuffy, formal affairs, but he donned a white tie-and-tails tuxedo after the queen pulled out all the stops for a state dinner in his honor at Buckingham Palace in November 2003. A few years later, Bush's slip of the tongue generated ripples of laughter at a White House welcoming ceremony for the queen, who was touring the U.S. in May 2007. Stumbling on a line in his speech, Bush said the queen had dined with several of his predecessors and had helped the United States "celebrate its bicentennial in 17- ..." Bush caught himself and corrected the date to 1976, and paused to see if she had taken offense. "She gave me a look that only a mother could give a child," Bush said with a smile. The queen later turned the tables on Bush with her toast at a dinner she hosted for the president at the British Embassy in Washington. "I wondered whether I should start this toast by saying, 'When I was here in 1776,'" she said to laughter. BILL CLINTON The queen hosted Clinton and his wife, Hillary, aboard her royal yacht, Britannia, in June 1994. The ship, 412 feet long and 55 feet wide, was docked at the Portsmouth Naval Base and was home base for the Clintons as they attended the queen's dinner at Guildhall for leaders of Allied nations whose troops participated in the D-Day invasion of Normandy 50 years earlier. The Clintons spent one night aboard the boat. The next day, the Britannia ferried Clinton to the USS George Washington aircraft carrier as it prepared to sail across the English Channel, from Portsmouth to Normandy, for D-Day anniversary celebrations. GEORGE H.W. BUSH One of the more memorable images from the monarch's third state visit to the U.S. came in 1991 when only her white-striped purple hat could be seen above the microphones when she spoke at an arrival ceremony on the White House grounds. Someone forgot to adjust the lectern after the much taller Bush spoke. The queen stayed strong and carried on, later making light of the incident as she opened an address to a joint meeting of Congress. "I do hope you can see me today from where you are," she deadpanned. Bush later apologized and said he felt badly for not pulling out a step for her to stand on. RONALD REAGAN Reagan and the queen bonded over a mutual love of horseback riding. They rode side by side on an 8-mile, hourlong tour on the grounds of Windsor Castle when Reagan visited her there in June 1982. Reagan was the first president to sleep over at the British royal family's historic home, an 11th-century estate overlook the River Thames. While in the U.S. in 1983, the monarch and Philip stayed with the president and first lady Nancy Reagan at their ranch in Santa Barbara, California. She wanted to ride horses again, but a rainstorm wouldn't allow it. The Reagans served a lunch of regional staples, including enchiladas, chiles rellenos, refried beans, tacos, rice and guacamole. They also hosted a state dinner for the queen in San Francisco at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum. JIMMY CARTER The queen hosted Carter in May 1977 on his first overseas trip at a dinner for NATO leaders at Buckingham Palace. At one point, as Carter stood with the queen and other guests, he noticed the arrival of the queen mother. Ever the Southern gentleman, Carter broke away, took her by the hand and escorted her to the assembled line of guests. The no-frills Georgia peanut farmer-turned-president ate chicken mousse off a gold plate and seemed excited by his dinner seating between the queen and her sister, Princess Margaret, and across from her son, Prince Charles, Prince Philip and the queen mother. GERALD FORD Ford threw a gala state dinner for the Brits in 1976 to mark the bicentennial of the American Revolution. The queen was resplendent in a diamond-studded tiara that sparkled for a crowd that included diplomats, star athletes and celebrities such as Cary Grant and Julie Harris. The mood evaporated when Ford led the queen to the dance floor while the song "The Lady Is a Tramp" echoed throughout the State Dining Room. Associated Press writers Danica Kirka in London and Nancy Benac in Washington and AP news researcher Jennifer Farrar in New York contributed to this report. The U.S. sanctioned four firms the government says are connected to Irans military drone program, including a transportation company accused of helping fly drones to Russia. That company, Tehran-based Safiran Airport Services, coordinated Russian military flights between Iran and Russia to transport aerial drones and personnel to use in the war against Ukraine, a Treasury Department statement said. The United States is committed to strictly enforcing our sanctions against both Russia and Iran, and holding accountable Iran and those supporting Russias war of aggression against Ukraine, Brian E. Nelson, undersecretary of the treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in the statement Thursday. U.S. spy agencies said transport planes departing Iran on Aug. 19 delivered at least two types of unmanned aerial vehicles to Russia capable of carrying munitions for attacks on radars, artillery and other military targets, The Washington Post reported last week. Tehran has denied supplying Russia with drones for use in the war in Ukraine, which saw Kyiv launch a counteroffensive in the southern Kherson region last week. Irans drone program, among the worlds most technologically advanced, could provide a boost to Russias historically underfunded force, analysts told Stars and Stripes in July. Smaller suicide drones like those provided by Iran to its proxy groups in Yemen, Iraq and Syria have had an outsized impact on those conflicts, Samuel Bendett, a research analyst at the Washington, D.C.-based think tank CNA, said in July. The other three companies sanctioned are said by the Treasury Department to be closely linked with the Iranian governments drone production, including the Paravar Pars Company, which the U.S. says reverse-engineered Israeli and U.S. drone technology. The Design and Manufacturing of Aircraft Engines company and the Baharestan Kish Company also were sanctioned. WASHINGTON (Tribune News Service) The Biden administration released its finalized immigration policy Thursday on the so-called "public charge" criteria for green card applicants, part of a yearslong legal battle to undo efforts in the prior administration to limit eligibility for permanent residency. Under the new 455-page rule, set to take effect Dec. 23, green card applicants will not be penalized for their usage of non-cash public assistance programs, including Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Medicaid or housing benefits. Instead, immigration officers will look at "the receipt of public cash assistance for income maintenance or long-term institutionalization at government expense" to evaluate if any individual is likely to become a "public charge" who is ineligible to become a permanent resident, according to the rule. "Consistent with America's bedrock values, we will not penalize individuals for choosing to access the health benefits and other supplemental government services available to them," Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a news release. The policy marks the latest effort by the Biden administration to undo the Trump administration's immigration agenda. The Biden administration has also sought to unwind various Trump-era asylum restrictions and to streamline visa processing. The policy formally codifies longstanding guidance used by immigration officials to determine if a visa seeker is, as phrased in the federal immigration statute, "likely at any time to become a public charge." Since 1999, immigration officers had interpreted this phrase as referencing applicants who are likely to be primarily dependent on the federal government. But the Trump administration issued a new policy revising and widening that interpretation to include immigrants who have used various other government assistance programs, including housing and health care subsidies. Critics argued the Trump administration's interpretation of the immigration rule would discourage people from taking advantage of needed benefits for which they qualify out of fear of immigration consequences. It was met with fast litigation from immigrant advocates and local governments, and the case ultimately went up the Supreme Court. But after President Joe Biden took office, and before the justices handed down a ruling, the Biden administration opted to settle those disputes, withdrawing the Trump-era rule in the process. The Biden administration then reverted to the 1999 field guidance on how the "public charge" criteria should be implemented while beginning the rulemaking process to formalize it. Immigrant advocates and policy analysts praised the administration's decision to finalize the narrower interpretation of the eligibility criteria on Thursday. Marielena Hincapie, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, said in a news release that the Biden administration's public charge rule "aligns with longstanding principles in immigration law and provides helpful clarifications to pre-existing guidance." "This policy is an important step in advancing the Biden administration's priority of addressing socioeconomic and racial inequities that have been exacerbated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic," she said. Jeremy McKinney, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, added in a news release that the Trump policy caused "confusion and fear" in immigrant communities, and this new version "to simplify and de-mystify the rule will truly change lives across our nation." 2022 CQ-Roll Call, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Visit cqrollcall.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. FORT BRAGG, N.C. Pfc. Austin Robertson was conflicted when he learned last month that he would have to leave his barracks room for another on the other side of the Army base because senior leaders had elected to condemn his and 16 other buildings housing mostly junior soldiers. The 18-year-old is just five months into his tenure at the sprawling post his first duty station since finishing initial military training. Robertson said he felt packing, moving and unpacking would be an unnecessary hassle. But he added he knew he was moving to a nicer barracks that was not known to have the issues plaguing his 1970s-era quarters at the now condemned Smoke Bomb Hill complex relentless mold and an outdated central heating and air condition system that hardly worked at all. My [air conditioning] when it would even work, would barely push out any air, Robertson said Thursday of his room at Smoke Bomb Hill Fort Braggs oldest barracks from which the Army is now working to move nearly 1,200 soldiers. I saw the new barracks and all, and I know the air conditioning works. And, really, I dont have that much stuff anyway. Its all just going in a couple duffle bags. Army leaders said Thursday that they would spend some $145 million in the next 12 to 18 months to demolish 12 of Smoke Bomb Hills 17 buildings and refurbish five others, which were deemed salvageable. Maj. Gen. Brian Mennes, the deputy commander of the 18th Airborne Corps who has led Fort Braggs efforts to address the dilapidated barracks, said the post had already secured the funding needed to address those projects, including an unplanned $115 million that was reallotted within the Army budget. Further planned projects to build some 12 new barracks buildings by 2028 to replace those being demolished will require the consent of Congress. Post officials did not say Thursday how much those projects could ultimately cost. Speeding up new barracks The Army had been planning to replace the Smoke Bomb Hill barracks before a late July inspection by the services top enlisted soldier, Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Grinston, kick-started the installations efforts to shutter the buildings, officials said. The primary issue was an antiquated and inefficient heating, ventilation and air conditioning system, which was going offline regularly and proving too costly to repair, according to Col. John Wilcox, Fort Braggs garrison commander. The systems are designed to pull water out of the air. But because they were not functioning properly, soldiers were forced to live in hot rooms and mold grew in the barracks. Army leaders did not plan to demolish or replace most of those barracks for several more years. We got to where it was the height of summer, its superhot, were seeing more mold growth than usual, more HVAC technical problems than usual with the [system] going down, Wilcox said. The question became not just can you [refurbish] this [HVAC system], can you refurb it using old technology that we were beholden to in this location, and the assessment was done, and it became OK. Were moving these soldiers out. A walk through one of the condemned Smoke Bomb Hill barracks buildings on Thursday showed mold in bathrooms, and on refrigerators and air condition ducts. The rooms also had other problems including missing floor tiles, beat up cabinets and small holes in at least one wall. Five of the buildings were deemed decent enough to be refurbished, Mennes said. Two of those buildings had already been designated for renovation, said Lt. Col. Jon Klink, the 18th Airborne Corps senior engineer. Those renovations, estimated to cost about $30 million, were included in the Armys fiscal 2022 budget and are scheduled to be contracted by the end of the year and then completed in 18 to 24 months, he said. After Grinstons inspection, Fort Bragg leaders also determined the other three barracks were in good enough shape to be renovated, but officials tagged them as needing a rapid renovation, Klink said. The Army intends to spend some $75 million rebuilding those barracks within 12 months once contracts are filled by the end of September. The remaining $40 million will pay for the other buildings demolition, Klink said. That process is not as simple as just knocking the buildings down, the lieutenant colonel noted. A lot of people think that there's going to be wrecking ball, and it's not that way, Klink said. You actually tear it down from the inside out. Theres a lot of stuff that gets salvaged, stuff put in storage, and you have to build all of that into the cost for the demolition contract. Moving soldiers Suddenly shuttering 17 of Fort Braggs 129 barracks is not simple, Mennes said. The post had already been crunched for space for single soldiers without the housing cushion that it had for many years as units regularly deployed overseas. Now it is asking soldiers to move across the installation and share buildings with other units. It is real difficult, the general said. But we are going to make sure every soldier has a place to live, and that its a place to live that gives them a good quality of life. For example, Robertsons unit Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion of the 18th Airborne Corps is moving into space in the barracks for the 82nd Airborne Divisions Combat Aviation Brigade. The quarters are somewhat larger and slightly newer, having been built in the 1980s. Robertson said the air conditioning worked well in the room that he expects to move into Friday. On a media tour Thursday of Robertsons new barracks, Fort Bragg leaders noted the quarters were not perfect. Several rooms had signs posted for needed fixes, for example. The rooms all contain dehumidifiers, as one effort to combat potential mold problems. So far, the Army has moved more than 320 soldiers out of the Smoke Bomb Hill barracks and into new quarters elsewhere on post. Mennes said the pace of movement was accelerating, and he still anticipated moving some 700 soldiers to new barracks by the end of this month. Almost 500 soldiers are expected to move to private housing either on or off the installation, the general said. It will likely take longer to find adequate housing for those soldiers, Mennes said, noting he hoped to have them moved by October. Our hope is not to rush anybody out to a place that they're not comfortable with, he said. Lt. Col. Teresa Pearce, Fort Braggs public health director, said despite the condemned buildings myriad problems, the health of the soldiers remaining in the old barracks is not likely at risk. Pearce, a medical doctor, said no soldiers from Smoke Bomb Hill had made any official reports of health problems related to the mold, which can cause allergic reactions in some people. The Army is paying for soldiers to move out of the barracks, providing housing allowance for those who move off post, and granting stipends to help them pay any fees associated with setting up a new house, such as utility fees or security deposits, Mennes said. Fort Bragg soldiers with the most seniority are allowed the first opportunities to move off the post, he added. Most of those who will move are sergeants, though Wilcox noted a small number of specialists or corporals were also granted the opportunity. We really wanted to make sure we weren't going to disadvantage soldiers by moving them off post, Wilcox said. A young [private first class] is not going to make enough money to be able to live in good housing off post, so we dont want to unintentionally harm a soldier by doing that. A senior sergeant, though, is probably in a better position financially and experience-wise to live safely off post. WASHINGTON (Tribune News Service) Nearly 650 geographic features will be renamed to remove a slur after the Board on Geographic Names voted on final replacements, the Interior Department announced on Thursday. The valleys, streams, reservoirs and other geographic features will receive new names, effective immediately, that do not contain the word "squaw," which the Interior Department said "has historically been used as an offensive ethnic, racial and sexist slur, particularly for Indigenous women." "I feel a deep obligation to use my platform to ensure that our public lands and waters are accessible and welcoming," Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement. "That starts with removing racist and derogatory names that have graced federal locations for far too long." The word that has been removed from the geographic features comes from an Algonquian word for a young woman, and while the original word was not offensive, its meaning and intent shifted over time. Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna and the first Native American to serve as a Cabinet secretary, signed a secretarial order last November to establish a Derogatory Geographic Names Task Force. Native American leaders have pushed for the change for decades and the movement has gained steam in recent years. While still a Democratic congresswoman from New Mexico, Haaland introduced legislation to require the federal government to address these site names. Both the order and the task force only concerned the one slur, but the Interior Department will consider additional derogatory terms through a federal advisory committee established by a separate secretarial order. Typically geographic place name changes are considered on a case-by-case basis, although the Interior Department has also mandated that slurs for Black and Japanese people be removed from place names in 1962 and 1974, respectively. The Interior Department said that during the process it received more than 1,000 recommendations for name changes and that it consulted with nearly 70 tribal governments. A majority of the sites are in the Western U.S. Some will receive nondescript names such as Castle Mesa and East Cedar Lake. Others will be given names in tribal languages such as Bavahope Naokwaide for a stream in Bonneville County, Utah, and Mat Puy Nah Achhuukaayp for a summit in San Diego County, California. Squaw Valley in California, which hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics, has been formally renamed Olympic Valley. The resort of the same name was renamed Palisades Tahoe last year after consultation with the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California, the original inhabitants of the land. 2022 CQ-Roll Call, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Visit cqrollcall.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. WASHINGTON - Aileen M. Cannon was not yet 40 years old when the federal prosecutor won decisive bipartisan support in a bitterly divided U.S. Senate to claim her seat on the district court in South Florida, in what would be President Donald Trump's final push to fill the federal bench with young conservative lawyers before leaving the White House. Her profile soared this week after she intervened in the Justice Department investigation into Trump's possible mishandling of classified information and agreed to grant his request for an independent review of the material that FBI agents have seized. Trump sought the appointment of what's known as a special master to assess whether the government took anything from his Florida residence that may be protected by attorney-client privilege or his status as a former president. Cannon's controversial ruling, which she called necessary to "ensure at least the appearance of fairness and integrity under the extraordinary circumstances," temporarily bars investigators from using the documents removed last month from his Mar-a-Lago residence. The order has been criticized by legal experts for seeming to extend special treatment to Trump and for disrupting the probe before anyone has been charged with a crime. On Thursday, the government said it would appeal Cannon's decision. With less than two years on the bench, she does not have an extensive record to review. The Trump dispute has put a spotlight on her while presenting untested questions about the extent to which assertions of executive privilege - usually invoked by sitting presidents to shield sensitive communications from disclosure - may be applied to past occupants of the White House in conflict with their successors. Cannon did not respond to a request for comment. Former senator Russ Feingold - who leads the liberal American Constitution Society, which closely tracks judicial nominations - said Trump and his Republican allies in the Senate sought out judicial nominees like Cannon, showing an "overwhelming preference" for individuals often lacking the experience "previously considered necessary to sit on the bench." "We're now seeing the impact of this, with an alarming disregard of the rule of law by some," he said in a statement. Sen. Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican whose office asked Cannon to apply for the position in 2019, rejected any suggestion that her decision in the classified-documents case was politically motivated and noted the support Cannon received from Senate Democrats. Twelve voted in favor of her confirmation. "Judge Cannon is a great judge who I am very proud to have enthusiastically supported," Rubio said in a statement. "The attacks against her are just the latest example of hypocrisy from leftists and their media enablers who believe the only time it is acceptable to attack a judge is if that judge rules against what they want." Cannon's confirmation hearing took place six months into the coronavirus pandemic, in July 2020, and she appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee by Zoom. She had the backing of the Cuban American Bar Association, which praised her "temperament and academic credentials" and pointed to her "legal mind and demeanor." By choosing Cannon, the group told lawmakers, "you enhance the diversity on the bench and help appoint a great candidate for the position." In follow-up questions, Democrats pressed Cannon about her record as a prosecutor, her judicial philosophy and her membership in the Federalist Society, the conservative organization that played a major role in advising Trump on his judicial picks. In response to Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., Cannon said she considers herself an "originalist" and a "textualist," referring to methods of legal interpretation that look to the general understanding of the Constitution at the time it was written, an approach most often associated with the late conservative Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia. Cannon quoted Elena Kagan, the liberal justice who quipped at her confirmation hearing, "We are all originalists." Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., asked Cannon specifically whether she had any discussions during the nomination process about "loyalty to President Trump." "No," Cannon responded in writing. She was one of 14 nominees confirmed after the November 2020 election, amid the tumultuous aftermath of Trump's defeat, an appointment that will now stand as a notable part of his legacy. Over four years in the White House, he installed more than 200 federal judges, including three Supreme Court justices. Until last week, one of Cannon's most high-profile cases in 20 months on the bench involved sentencing a man who pleaded guilty to making death threats against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. In a separate case in April, one of Cannon's new judicial colleagues accused Trump of judge-shopping for Cannon by filing a lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and former FBI agents in the court's Fort Pierce division, where Cannon is the only federal judge. Trump's lawsuit instead landed with a judge who is a nominee of Bill Clinton. He rejected Trump's move to disqualify him from the case, pointing out in a footnote that when Trump is in court "before a judge that he himself appointed, he does not tend to advance these same sorts of bias concerns." Cannon, now 41, was born in Colombia, the daughter of a Cuban immigrant mother, and grew up in Miami. She spoke at her confirmation hearing about the lasting influence of her mother, who at age 7 "had to flee the repressive Castro regime in search of freedom and security." "Thank you for teaching me about the blessings of this country and the importance of security and the rule of law for generations to come," Cannon said. As an undergraduate at Duke University, she worked one summer for the Spanish-language newspaper Nuevo Herald, writing on diverse topics including Flamenco and prenatal yoga. At the University of Michigan Law School, she joined the Federalist Society, because, as she explained in response to Senate questions, she appreciated the "diversity of legal viewpoints" and discussion of the "limited role of the judiciary to say what the law is - not to make the law." Before joining the bench, Cannon spent much of her career in the courtroom as a litigator. She was a law clerk for appeals court judge Steven M. Colloton, who was on Trump's list of potential Supreme Court picks, and an associate for three years in D.C. at the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. In 2013, as a new prosecutor in the U.S. attorney's office in South Florida, Cannon handled major crimes, including drug, firearm, and immigration cases. Soon after she moved to the appellate division, Cannon was assigned to defend the government's conviction in a large-scale, complex fraud case. She was up against an experienced appellate lawyer and appearing before a three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. Richard Klugh, the veteran lawyer on the other side, was impressed. "She was coming in against an old hand with a tremendously complicated record in an important case, but she seemed to handle it with ease," Klugh said in an interview. "She's quick, talented and bright. There's no getting around it. She's very effective." Cannon prevailed, sustaining the conviction of a Florida lawyer in the life insurance scheme that affected thousands of investors. Howard Srebnick, an attorney in Miami who attended the same high school as the judge, also was on the opposing side during Cannon's tenure as a prosecutor and now has a case pending before her. In court, Cannon is polite and process-oriented, he said, asking a lot of questions while making sure litigants can fully air their views. Srebnick submitted a letter to the Senate in support of Cannon's nomination, signed by more than a dozen alumni of the private Ransom Everglades High School who also are attorneys. She has "strength of character," the letter said, characterizing Cannon as "personable and trustworthy, a genuinely caring person who treats others as she would want to be treated herself." In June, Cannon ruled against Srebnick's client, upholding the government's decision to freeze the defendant's bank account in a Medicare fraud case. "She clearly spent considerable time and thought in deciding the question presented," Srebnick said. "We just disagree." Srebnick, however, said that he agrees with Cannon's decision to appoint a special master in the Trump case even though the Justice Department has claimed to have already set aside potentially privileged records. "She is spot-on correct that a special master, not a government-led filter team, should be handling those materials," Srebnick said. "No one from the government should be looking at a client's communications with counsel." Cannon's ruling may not be the final word. The Justice Department on Thursday asked the judge to reconsider and temporarily suspend part of her order before it formally asks the appeals court to step in. The Washington Post's Magda Jean-Louis contributed to this report. WASHINGTON The Justice Department is seeking details about the formation and operation of Donald Trump's post-presidential political operation, according to three people familiar with the probe, sending a raft of subpoenas in a significant expansion of the criminal investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. A federal grand jury sent subpoenas on Wednesday to a wide range of former campaign and White House staffers asking for information about the Save America PAC, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing probe. They described the subpoenas as broad, seeking all documents and communications about opening the PAC and every dollar raised and spent. At least one of the subpoenas also demanded information about the plan to submit slates of phony electors claiming Trump won pivotal states, including all communications with several key lawyers and advisers involved in the effort, one of the people said. They include Rudy Giuliani, Boris Epshteyn, Bruce Marks, Victoria Toensing and Joseph DiGenova, this person said. Another one of the three people, who has direct knowledge of one of the subpoenas, said the document was "wide ranging" and included multiple other categories of information, but this person declined to describe them. FBI agents served at least some of the subpoenas in person on Wednesday, one of the people with knowledge said. Spokesmen for Trump and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Some of the details of the subpoenas were reported by ABC and the New York Times. Epshteyn declined to comment. So did Toensing, who is married to DiGenova. Giuliani did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Marks said he was out of the country and wasn't aware of a subpoena. He defended the effort to submit alternate electors but distanced himself from the pressure campaign on former vice president Mike Pence to unilaterally reject some states' votes for Biden. "I thought the vice president did the right thing," Marks said. "We're not all crazy in MAGA world." Trump's post-presidential fundraising has already been a source of suspicion for investigators with the House Jan. 6 committee, as well as griping from some Republicans who want Trump to dip into his reserves to boost the party's Senate campaigns amid signs their candidates are behind in polls and fundraising. This week's subpoenas were also the latest sign that the Justice Department has intensified its own parallel probe into Jan. 6. Prosecutors already charged hundreds of people involved in the Capitol riot with low-level offenses such as trespassing and attacking police, as well as accusing leaders of the violent extremist groups the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers of coordinating the attack. More recently, prosecutors began examining planning for the rally before the riot and Republican efforts to send Trump slates to the electoral college. As part of the probe, prosecutors have sought phone records and other information from Trump's inner circle and questioned close advisers to Pence before a federal grand jury. The Washington Post reported in July that the investigation included Trump's possible role in the phony elector efforts and his pressure of federal and state officials to challenge the election results. Some of those activities are also under scrutiny from Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D), an elected prosecutor in the Atlanta area. Willis has said she expects a special-purpose grand jury there to deliver a report including charging recommendations by the end of the year. The Justice Department and House panel investigations are separate from the criminal probe into handling of government secrets after Trump left office, which led to a search warrant at his Florida resort in August. On Thursday, the Justice Department appealed a federal judge's decision to appoint a special master to screen the documents seized in the search. The government soon faces the 60-day period before an election when the Justice Department customarily avoids taking investigative steps that could be perceived as influencing voters. The House committee investigating Jan. 6 has also shown interest in the finances of Trump's PAC, alleging that the group used false and inflammatory claims about the election to solicit donations, and asking whether parties involved had reason to believe violence could result or were motivated to continue their appeals because the millions raised. At a June hearing, a committee investigator said the Trump campaign raised hundreds of millions by sending as many as 25 emails a day asking for donations to an "Official Election Defense Fund" that did not actually exist. The panel has focused on whether federal wire fraud laws could have been violated if people sought money using claims they knew were false, The Post has reported. Trump has raised more than $100 million for the PAC with thousands of appeals to his supporters, many of them containing misleading or false statements about the election. He has largely hoarded the money, giving limited amounts to other candidates he supports and paying some of his staff and lawyers. The Washington Post's Devlin Barrett and Spencer S. Hsu contributed to this report. Self-described Hawaii Proud Boys founder Nicholas R. Ochs and associate Nicholas J. DeCarlo pleaded guilty Friday in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol after admitting they defaced its Memorial Door with the words "MURDER THE MEDIA," the name of their social media channel. The felony pleas are the latest by accused leaders of the right-wing extremist group Proud Boys, five others of whom face the historically rare charge of seditious conspiracy for allegedly plotting to use violence to oppose federal authority and the presidential transition. Those leaders are alleged to have mustered and coordinated the movements of as many as 300 people around the Capitol that day, including some accused of fomenting and spearheading the hours-long riot that forced the evacuation of Congress. Ochs, 36, a Marine Corps veteran and unsuccessful 2020 Republican-backed candidate for a state House seat in Honolulu, and DeCarlo, 32, of Fort Worth, Tex., pleaded guilty to one felony count of attempting to impede or obstruct Congress as it met to confirm President Biden's 2020 election victory. The charge is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. But each man faces a possible range of 41 to 51 months at sentencing Dec. 9 before Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl H. Howell under federal guidelines in plea deals with prosecutors. Ochs, a designated Proud Boys "elder," and DeCarlo said they encountered at least two other accused Proud Boys leaders - Ethan Nordean and William Chrestman - inside the Capitol, but details disclosed in the plea did not explicitly allege coordination, and Ochs and DeCarlo did not admit to a conspiracy charge. Separately Friday morning in Washington, an attorney for a second far-right group whose leaders face Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy charges pleaded not guilty to a four-count indictment after her arrest last week in Texas. Prosecutors charged Oath Keepers general counsel Kellye SoRelle with conspiracy, obstruction of a federal proceeding on Jan. 6, 2021, tampering with documents and misdemeanor trespassing. Prosecutors, however, said they did not plan to add her to existing indictments against other Oath Keepers leaders, although her case would overlap significantly with theirs including founder Stewart Rhodes, set to face trial later this month. In Ochs and DeCarlo's hour-long plea hearing, the men admitted posting images and video of the incursion in real-time, stealing a pair of zip-tie handcuffs from a police duffel bag, and to damaging federal property. The men said Ochs watched as DeCarlo scrawled the name of their social media video collective with a permanent marker on a door honoring two police officers fatally shot in 1988 while defending the Capitol from an armed intruder. "The steal is in fact right here, and we are going to stop it!," Ochs admitted shouting on video as the men marched from a rally that morning for President Donald Trump near the White House to the Capitol. Ochs said he traveled to Washington after he heard Trump invite supporters to attend a "wild" rally. Ochs and DeCarlo said they recorded themselves breaching the Capitol grounds and agreeing they were "all felons" now. They also admitted to throwing a smoke bomb each at police, although DeCarlo said he forgot to pull the pin. The men entered the Senate Wing Doors minutes after it was broken into at 2:13 p.m., they admitted. Inside, DeCarlo shouted, "Where's Nancy?" and both men shouted "Nancy's office!" while pointing from the Capitol Rotunda toward an office for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). While approaching the Rotunda and inside it, they said they encountered and had a group hug with Nordean - accused of being a key leader in assembling Proud Boys to Washington who breached police lines and another member they said they did not know previously. Ochs and DeCarlo said they also were among individuals who prevented police from sealing off access to a lower level of the Capitol by wedging open automated descending doors. DeCarlo also said that Chrestman was among the group, although Ochs and DeCarlo said they had never met and did not know him. Nordean and Chrestman have pleaded not guilty. After leaving the Capitol, Ochs said in a video posted on an encrypted messaging application, "We came here to 'stop the steal,' " to which DeCarlo responded, "We did it!" Ochs said he added in an encrypted Proud Boys 'elders' chat, "Sorry we couldn't go live when we stormed the . . . Capitol and made Congress flee." Ochs demurred when Howell asked whether he held a senior Proud Boys leadership role as an "elder," replying after consulting with his attorney, "This isn't some concrete mafia group. . . . It's just a term of respect." Unlike with most Jan. 6 defendants, the pair's plea agreements did not include a requirement that they submit their digital devices and social media to the FBI or participate in an interview. Asked why by Howell, Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexis Loeb said prosecutors were satisfied with an FBI interview with Ochs before his plea, search warrant returns, and discussions with DeCarlo's attorney. Prosecutors dropped five counts, including conspiracy and destruction of federal property, and misdemeanor charges of theft and trespassing and disorderly conduct on restricted building or grounds. (Tribune News Service) Republicans have largely rallied to former President Donald Trump's defense after last month's search-and-seizure operation by the FBI at the former president's Palm Beach estate. But perhaps no party leader has done so as regularly or forcefully as Marco Rubio. The Florida Republican has emerged over the last month as one of the GOP's foremost critics of the Justice Department investigation, arguing that it is nothing more than political payback from Democrats, dismissing concerns about the reported sensitivity of the documents sought by the FBI at Mar-a-Lago and denouncing media leaks he says come from the Justice Department. Even as some lawmakers, including Republicans, express reluctance to talk about the ongoing investigation, the senator has charged ahead. Some of Rubio's unyielding criticism risks backfiring as more information becomes public amid an investigation in which much may still be unknown. He initially expressed doubts, for instance, about whether the FBI was even looking for classified materials or just searching for whatever its agents could find though law enforcement officials later cataloged the documents seized. The effort from Rubio, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has caught the attention of fellow Republicans. On Wednesday, when asked about the search and whether the senators with access to classified information should be briefed on it, Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell demurred before suggesting reporters talk to Rubio instead. "I think Senator Rubio has addressed that issue, so maybe you ought to ask him," McConnell said. Rubio's defense of Trump is an extension of his long-standing support of the former president, whom he has consistently advocated for since losing to him in the 2016 GOP presidential primary. And it comes just months before the senator's own reelection race, where he faces Democratic opponent Val Demings. In a statement, Rubio said President Joe Biden's administration "took unprecedented action against a former president under the pretense of some threat to national security." "Instead of briefing members of the Intelligence Committee, it is leaking information to the press," he said. "The Administration owes answers to bipartisan requests for information and the leakers should be prosecuted." The case The Justice Department is investigating whether Trump broke several federal criminal laws by knowingly possessing government records at Mar-a-Lago after leaving office, and by possibly destroying and concealing some of those records from law enforcement after being asked to return them. U.S. officials from the National Archives and Justice Department asked Trump and his team to return all government documents over the course of a year. But Justice Department leadership ordered a search of his home on Aug. 8 after learning that highly sensitive national security documents remained on the property, and concluding that the former president couldn't be trusted to turn them over willfully. "The department does not take such a decision lightly," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a rare public statement after the search. "Where possible, it is standard practice to seek less intrusive means as an alternative to a search, and to narrowly scope any search that is undertaken." Trump's legal team has been in a legal battle with Justice Department lawyers ever since over whether the documents that were seized need to be reviewed by an independent body, known as a "special master," before the criminal probe can proceed. A federal judge appointed by Trump has sided with the former president in recent days, directing the appointment of a special master. But the Justice Department appealed that decision on Thursday, citing an urgent national security need for the FBI to work with other agencies in the intelligence community to review the documents. In court documents filed by the Justice Department since the search took place, government officials have revealed that 33 boxes were seized from the former president's home, including over 100 documents marked as classified. Some of those documents were marked with the most sensitive classification markings in the U.S. government. The intelligence community is conducting a review of the documents in conjunction with the FBI to assess the potential national security damage of such sensitive documents being stored in Trump's Palm Beach estate for over a year. The property has hosted parties, weddings and other private events since Trump left office, which would have taken place feet away from the offices and storage rooms where the documents were being kept until the FBI search. The former president's legal team has used a range of arguments in court, as well as in public, to defend him some of which have contradicted one another. His lawyers have argued on the one hand that the president was not responsible for the transport of the documents to Mar-a-Lago, and had not reviewed them, while also claiming he had ordered them declassified as president. They also say that the search was unnecessary since the president was cooperating with the probe something the Justice Department disputes in its charge of obstruction of justice. Some of Trump's personal items, such as his passports, were found among the classified documents, providing U.S. prosecutors with evidence that the president was personally handling the material. Rubio's response Rubio's response to the FBI's search has included some bipartisan efforts: In August, he sent a letter with Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, chairman of the Intelligence Committee, to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and to Garland requesting more information about the search and the classified documents that were seized. A Rubio official says they have yet to receive any additional information, even though the letter was sent more than three weeks ago. The apparent presence of classified information in Trump's home, however, has not deterred the senator, who in the last week alone has continued to blast the investigation as unnecessary. "This is really, at its core, a storage argument that they're making, right?" Rubio told NBC 6 in an interview published Sunday. "They're arguing there are documents there. They don't deny that he should have access to those documents. What they deny is that they were not properly stored. I don't think a fight over storage of documents is worthy of what they've done, which is a full-scale raid." During a Wednesday interview with Fox News, the senator also decried what he said were a series of leaks about the investigation. "These people, every single day, are strategically leaking information that can't be rebutted by the way, or in any way analyzed, for a reason, and that's politics, to influence the narrative," Rubio said. "So I'm first of all very skeptical of that." The senator has reiterated a similar message while campaigning in South Florida. 2022 McClatchy Washington Bureau. Visit at mcclatchydc.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. A federal judge in Florida dismissed a lawsuit filed by former president Donald Trump that blamed Hillary Clinton and others for conspiring to malign his character. Trump's suit accused more than two dozen defendants of orchestrating "a malicious conspiracy to disseminate patently false and injurious information about Donald J. Trump and his campaign, all in the hopes of destroying his life, his political career and rigging the 2016 Presidential Election in favor of Hillary Clinton." It was filed in March under the civil version of a racketeering law normally used against organized crime. The suit was amended in June to include new details from Special Counsel John Durham's failed prosecution of longtime Democratic lawyer Michael Sussmann, who was accused of lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation while providing a Trump-Russia tip just before the 2016 election. "At its core, the problem with plaintiff's amended complaint is that plaintiff is not attempting to seek redress for any legal harm; instead, he is seeking to flaunt a two-hundred-page political manifesto outlining his grievances against those that have opposed him, and this court is not the appropriate forum," US District Judge Donald Middlebrooks, appointed to the bench by Bill Clinton, said in a 65-page order dated Thursday. Alina Habba, a lawyer for Trump, said he would appeal the ruling. "We vehemently disagree with the opinion issued by the court today," Habba said in an emailed statement. "Not only is it rife with erroneous applications of the law, it disregards the numerous independent governmental investigations which substantiate our claim that the defendants conspired to falsely implicate our client and undermine the 2016 Presidential election." The ruling comes as Trump is engaged in other legal battles in the state. Another judge in the Southern District of Florida is due to receive a filing Friday from the Justice Department and Trump lawyers proposing options for a special master to review materials seized by the FBI during its Aug. 8 search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago home. The ruling by Middlebrooks, who in April rejected Trump's request that he disqualify himself from the case, takes several shots at the lawsuit, noting that the theory of the case was "difficult to summarize in a concise and cohesive manner. It was certainly not presented that way." He said many of the "characterizations of events are implausible because they lack any specific allegations which might provide factual support for the conclusions reached." The case is Trump v. Clinton, 22-cv-14102, US District Court, Southern District of Florida. A DRIVER who gave his fathers name when he was stopped by gardai wrongly thought he was being asked to provide details of the holder of the insurance policy, a court has heard. Illann Power (30) had his passport returned to him so he can travel to work in a new position in an American firm. Entrepreneur Illann Power (30) had his passport returned to him so he can travel to work in a new position in an American firm while his case is before the Irish courts. Judge Bryan Smyth granted his application for a variation of bail terms at Dublin District Court. Mr Power, from Co Carlow, is previously a founder of the spirits company Incubrands, which was acquired by Bacardi in 2015. He also co-created Illann Power Companies, an investment firm and Nohovation, a start-up venture fund. He is facing three charges contrary to Section 876 of the Companies Act, for allegedly providing false information. It relates to an allegation of knowingly or recklessly furnishing false information to an electronic filing agent that is subsequently transmitted in a return made on the person's behalf. The charges followed an investigation by the CEA into Dublin Distillers & Co Teoranta relating to the filing of allegedly false B1 Annual Returns with the Companies Registration Office. The accused first appeared in court on the charges in July and was remanded on bail to a date in October. Under conditions, he was to surrender his passport, not leave the state and sign on at a garda station. Today, his solicitor Peter Connolly applied for the return of his passport because Mr Power had "a job offer he's very anxious to take up in the States." It was a "very well paid job" with a $250,000 salary, the court heard. The accused would come back to Ireland for his case, Mr Connolly said. The DPP had directed summary trial of the charges at district court level, subject to a judge considering jurisdiction. The Corporate Enforcement Authority objected to the application, arguing that Mr Power's ties to the state were "loose." Mr Connolly said the accused was an Irish citizen and had a child here. Some 11,500 was in a relative's credit union account to be offered as an independent surety. Judge Smyth said on balance he would allow the return of the accused's passport. The court heard the conditions to sign on at a garda station and remain in the state would also fall. The judge revoked existing bail and granted new bail, in the accused's own bond of 100 and the independent surety. Under new conditions, Mr Power is to reside at an address in the US, with full details to be furnished to Detective Garda Nevan Hartley, along with any American mobile phone number. Mr Power has not yet entered pleas to the charges. Aoife McDonnell had nine prior convictions, mostly for public order offences. Criminal Courts of Justice. File photo A woman has been jailed for five months for kicking and punching another woman in the face in Dublin city centre following a difference of opinion. The three suspects were arrested at a lock-up in the Seville Terrace area of the north city in which the drugs and vehicles were also seized. The arrests of three men and the seizure of 681,000 worth of drugs as well as 15 scrambler bikes, three electronic scooters and a fishing boat and speed boat was the culmination of a six month garda investigation, the Sunday World can reveal. Officers from the Community Policing Unit based at Store Street Garda Station began the probe earlier this year after local residents in the north inner city expressed deep concerns about anti-social behaviour linked to the men who were arrested in the operation on Wednesday. The three suspects aged between 23 and 25 were arrested at a lock-up in the Seville Terrace area of the north city in which the drugs and vehicles were also seized. The arrests and seizure were part of Operation Canter, an ongoing garda investigation into street level dealing in the capital. All the suspects would be known for street dealing and have no particular links to wider criminal organisations such as the Hutch or Kinahan organised crime groupings, a senior source said. But they have been causing a lot of disquiet in the community particularly by their driving habits they have been rallying around the place on mopeds and scramblers in a very dangerous fashion. Operation Canter is a quality of life policing plan and there can be no doubt that the activities of these individuals effected the quality of life of decent people living in the north inner city. Once members of the community raised their concerns about this type of behaviour, an overt and covert investigation was put in place that has been ongoing for six months and which led to the search of the lock-up on Wednesday afternoon. A lot of work went into this, the source explained. The three arrested are all from the north inner city and are well known to gardai. However none have serious criminal convictions. Gardai are today trying to establish if the seized boats, scooters and scrambler bikes are stolen, are the proceeds of crime or are legitimately owned. The development comes, as senior sources say, that there has been a decrease in knife crime and assaults in recent months in the north inner city. The work of the community policing unit in this investigation cannot be over emphasised this investigation is a direct result of their interactions with local people, the source added. Operation Canter has been ongoing for almost three years but this weeks seizure is one of most significant since the policing plan was put in place. Gardai announced details of the raid on Wednesday night. Gardai have seized approximately 681,000 worth of suspected drugs and a number of vehicles during a search operation in Dublin 1 today, Wednesday 7th September 2022, a spokeswoman said. At approximately 3.30pm on Wednesday, Gardai attached to the Community Policing Unit in Store Street Garda Station, with assistance from the Dublin Metropolitan Region North Central Divisional Drugs Unit, carried out a search at a property in Dublin 1. The search was conducted as part of a planned operation which targets the sale and supply of drugs, as well as anti-social behaviour, in the Dublin 1 area. During the course of the search Gardai seized cannabis herb with an estimated value of 652,000, cannabis resin with an estimated value of 25,000 and cocaine with an estimated value of 4,000. The combined estimated value of drugs seized is 681,000; the drugs will now be sent for analysis. Gardai also seized 12 scrambler motorcycles, 3 electric scooters and 2 speed boats during the search operation. Three men, aged in their 20s, were arrested at the scene and taken to Store Street Garda Station where they are currently detained under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act, 1996, she added. The notorious leader of a European drug gang that has been involved in deadly feud that has claimed the lives of more than 40 people was shot dead in Turkey, it has been reported. Jovan Vukotic, the alleged head of the notorious Skaljari drug gang, was killed by an assassin on a motorcycle while he was sitting in a car with his wife and daughter. Vukotic (42) is listed in Montenegro police records and security documents as one of the leaders of the drug gang based in the town of Kotor. The Skaljari gang has been involved in a six-year war with the rival Kavac gang, also from Kotor that has led to the deaths of at least 40 people in Montenegro, Serbia, Austria and Greece. Both gangs take their names from neighbourhoods of Kotor, a medieval town of some 20,000 inhabitants in Montenegros Boka Bay. The conflict started in 2015, after 300 kilos of cocaine vanished from an apartment in Valencia, Spain, in 2014. One of the victims of the six-year drug gang war was Vukotics own father, Veselin, who was killed in Kotor in March 2019. In 2018, Vukotic was arrested in Turkey and extradited to Serbia, where the High Court in Belgrade sentenced him to 15 months in prison for using a forged Macedonian passport. In February 2020, he was extradited to Montenegro, where he was charged with the attempted murder of Kavac gang members. The media reported that rival gang members tried to kill Vukotic while he was in prison in Montenegro, following extradition from Serbia. But in July that year the Higher Court in Podgorica dropped the charges and he was released. In December 2020, the Special State Prosecution charged Vukotic with creating a criminal organisation and with preparing the murder of three members of the rival Kavac drug gang. According to the prosecution, Vukotic planned to kill Slobodan Kascelan, alleged kingpin of the Kavac gang, and Veljko Belivuk and Marko Miljkovic, heads of a notorious other gang from Serbia. Vukotic was charged as a result of evidence obtained from Sky ECC communications, obtained and passed on by French and Dutch police, about crimes involving drug trafficking, murder and kidnapping. Local media reported on Thursday that Vukotic had been killed but Montenegrin police warned that Vukotics death has not been officially confirmed. Montenegrin services are trying to get information and confirmation from colleagues in Turkey. However, the procedure is slow, the Police Directorate told radio Antena M. Vukotic was on the run after Montenegrin judicial authorities in September last year issued a warrant for his arrest. Organised crime has deep roots in Montenegro, a former Yugoslav republic of some 630,000 people that for years has served as a transit point for illicit cigarettes and drugs. Broken tiaras, her TWO birthdays, a posh apartment in NYC, her mad alarm call each morning, a clever trick with a handbag, pet sloths and dolphins and her utterly bizarre nickname File photo dated 28/02/197Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh in Parliament House PA She has received some VERY exotic animals as gifts. She has received everything including horses, cows, elephants, kangaroos, swans, crocodiles, sloths and jaguars. She often donates the animals to the London Zoo. Her purse is used to signal her staff. The Queen is never spotted without her handbag, and it's not just to store her belongings. Her Majesty uses her purse as a way to signal her staff. It is said that if she places her bag on the table, it means that she wants to leave within five minutes. If she puts her bag on the floor, it shows shes not enjoying the conversation and wants to be rescued. She wakes up to a bagpiper every morning. She is woken up each morning by a bagpiper, who plays outside of her window for 15 minutes every morning at 9 am. The player is known as "Piper to the Sovereign." I wonder does she get the 9-minute snooze option like an iPhone? Her nicknames include "Lilibet" and "Cabbage" She got the nickname Lilibet when she was young and couldnt pronounce her name. King George VI used to talk about his daughters, saying "Lilibet is my pride. Margaret is my joy." It was also reported that Prince Philip used to lovingly referred to his wife as "Cabbage." She studied constitutional History and Law Okay, so she was tutored at home by Britains best tutors but if reports are to believed she was very intelligent. In preparation for her future role, she even took lessons in religion from the Archbishop of Canterbury. As you do. She served in WWII Elizabeth joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service in 1945, where she trained to be a mechanic. She was the first female member of the Royal Family to join the Armed Services as a full-time active member. Take that Harry. She met Prince Philip when she was only 8 years old Although they attended many of the same events as young children, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip met officially in 1934 at the wedding of Princess Marina of Greece and Prince George, Duke of Kent. She has owned over 30 Corgis. The Queen has famously loved Welsh Corgis ever since she was young. She has owned over 30 of the dogs and even bred them herself. It is believed her beloved dogs will be buried with her. She has a personal poet The Queen has an official Poet Laureate, which is an honorary position appointed by the monarch of the United Kingdom. She speaks fluent French. Queen Elizabeth II learned to speak French at a young age from French and Belgian governesses. She often speaks in the country's language when visiting, and even shocked many when she delivered an address at the State Banquet in 2014 speaking entirely in French. Tres bien She doesn't need a driver's license, a license plate, or a passport. Since all British passports are issued in the queens name, she herself doesnt need or have one. She also doesnt require a drivers license to drive, or a license plate on her car for that matter. She receives around 70,000 letters a year. The Queen receives about 200-300 letters a day. She chooses a few to read herself, and then has members of her staff respond. The official Royal website says that The Queen is shown almost all of her correspondence on a daily basis by one of her Private Secretaries, and she takes a keen interest in the letters she receives. They would say that though. She celebrates two birthdays. Although she was born on April 21, 1926, Queen Elizabeth II has two recognised birthdays. The first is the actual anniversary of the day she was born (what a novel idea) and a separate day that is labelled her official birthday, when the weather is better, for the Trooping the Colour parade. The tradition was started in 1748 with King George II. Her crown snapped on her wedding day. Too many Jagerbombs? Nope. On the day of her wedding, as a hairdresser was securing the veil with the tiara, the antique metal frame snapped. Prince Philip is her third cousin Elizabeth and Philip are third cousins through Queen Victoria of Britain, as she was both of their great-great-grandmother. Prince Philip is related to Victoria through his maternal side, and Queen Elizabeth through her paternal side. She owns all of the swans and dolphins in the U.K. waters. As if her Corgis weren't enough, all of the swans and dolphins in the U.K. waters technically belong to the Queen. As early as the twelfth century, the Crown claimed ownership of all mute swans in the country because the birds were highly valued as a delicacy at banquets and feasts," says Reader's Digest. She wears Essie 'Ballet Slippers' nail polish. The Queen reportedly exclusively wears Essie famous pale pink shade 'Ballet Slippers.' She owns an apartment in the Big Apple Her Majesty purchased an $8 million, 3,000-square-foot modern penthouse apartment in United Nations Plaza in New York City just seven years ago. She has 30 Godchildren. Queen Elizabeth II has a grand total of 30 godchildren. Her long list of godchildren include Guy Nevill, the son of Lord Rupert Nevill and Lady Camilla Wallop, Princess Theodora of Greece, daughter of Constantine II and Princess Anne Marie of Denmark, and James Ogilvy, son of Right Honourable Sir Angus Ogilvy and HRH Princess Alexandra of Great Britain. She has a glass of champagne each night. Her cousin, Margaret Rhodes, told The Independent about her drinking habits. She takes a gin and Dubonnet before lunch, with a slice of lemon and a lot of ice. She will take wine with lunch and a dry Martini and a glass of champagne in the evening. Im guessing its not the 20 stuff from Aldi either. I had a bath, I played some music. I didnt even need stitches. You just couldnt compare the experience of giving birth in hospital and at home. A mum-of-four has slammed possible home-birth restrictions and said she would rather give birth on the side of the road then endure labouring in hospital. Ruth Shiels Byrne (29), who lives in Hacketstown, Co Carlow, with her young family, is advocating for womens birthing rights following the HSEs recommendation to limit home births to those living within 30 minutes of a maternity hospital. If implemented, one-fifth of pregnant women will be denied the option of a home birth. The devoted mum, who suffered PTSD after the delivery of her first child, said the move will cause untold mental trauma and unnecessary anguish for many women. Giving birth is one of the most vulnerable moments of your life; it is something you want to feel safe in and you also want to be in a space you feel comfortable in. For some people that is hospital and for other people it is anything but hospital. Ruth, who gave birth to her fourth child 10 weeks ago, revealed she was terrified the recommendations would come into effect during her pregnancy and make her ineligible for midwifery supports. I live 55 minutes from Kilkenny Hospital so when news of the restriction began trickling through the grapevine while I was still pregnant with Reuben I was sick at the thought of going to hospital. Ruth with her children Eire, Eilah, Saoirse and Reuben Having had two successful home births, Ruth is among the growing number of women turning to the service. The number of women opting for home births increased by 53pc last year when compared to 2019, with nearly 650 mothers giving birth at home across public and private services. Speaking of her decision to opt out of hospital care, Ruth explained the harrowing experience she endured during the birth of her first child. I would rather give birth on the side of the road than go to hospital because of my experience. I was 20 years old and a single mam I was brought in and told I was going to be induced the next morning. I ended up responding very strongly to one of the gels they gave me to prepare me for induction. I remember being in excruciating pain and I asked the midwife to check me and at that point I wasnt even one centimetre dilated and she told me to go asleep 40 minutes later I was holding my daughter. I laboured on that ward alone. Niall with baby Reuben, who was born at home I am not trying to be dramatic but I left that hospital a shell. I remember I kept saying, they tried to kill me in there. I just didnt in any way feel supported. It was through no fault of the midwives there but I reacted to that gel whereas the majority of women react normally, but the hospital deals in the majority. It was only when Ruth became pregnant for a second time when she met her husband, Niall, that she learned of the HSE home-birth service. Describing the moment she welcomed her second child into the world as empowering and liberating Ruth said: My midwife gave me such confidence about giving birth, I couldnt wait to experience it at home on my own terms. It was so gentle. It was all about following my body. My second birth experience was just indescribable. I was in the sitting room and I was on my knees leaning against our couch and I had this huge sense of calm. It was this wonderful one-on-one experience. Ruth was calm during home birth Aware of the negativity that can exist around the increasingly popular birthing plan, the mum said: Women say, youre mad, thats my worst nightmare. What will your kids think and will they be around? They cant wrap their heads around it. On Reuben I woke up and I was having pains and I pottered around the house, we were even laughing through contractions. My family came over and it was a full house. I had a bath, I played some music. I didnt even need stitches. You just couldnt compare the experience of giving birth in hospital and at home. Ruth says without the service many women may take the risk of birthing alone, with free-birthing now reportedly on the increase. I would really encourage the Government and HSE to look beyond the paperwork and sit down with women who have experienced home births. I would ask them to consider what they are forcing women to do as an alternative. You have women like me who are so afraid to go back to hospital. If I did find out I was pregnant again I would strongly look into free -birthing. I would never want that but I do know women and thats their preference. Beyond that, it would make me consider not having any more children. The recommendation by the HSEs National Women and Infants Health Programme that stated all women accessing the HSE home-birth service would reside 30 minutes or less in blue light distance from the nearest maternity service, comes after the death of a mother in Co Limerick. Home birth services were suspended in the mid-west region following the death of Laura Liston, who was in her 30s. The young mother died due to complications after giving birth to her first child on June 5. Eire, Eilah and Saoirse with their new arrival Reuben Home births remain suspended pending a HSE review of the circumstances that led to the tragedy. Community midwife Aine Hennessy, who is a member of the Community Midwives Association, said the move towards restrictions is a violation of womens basic rights. The vote we took in relation to the 8th Amendment has been forgotten, with that came the choice for women to terminate a pregnancy at the very beginning. To give that option at the beginning of the pregnancy and to not give women the option about how they can birth is an injustice, she said. Speaking of how women in rural areas will be unjustly impacted, Aine added: It is a postcode lottery, women who are living rurally cannot access this service. One in five women will not be able to access home birth and that is a huge number. We are not ignoring hospitals and we are not ignoring it as a choice because some women do feel safer giving birth in a hospital, but it is about choice. Our service has proved that it is safe. The woman was flown from the scene by air ambulance to a Dublin hospital for treatment for serious injuries Two children have died and a woman badly injured in a car fire in Multyfarnham, Co Westmeath today. Gardai in Mullingar are investigating all the circumstances surrounding the deaths, a spokesman has said. A woman is also in hospital with serious injuries sustained in the blaze which occurred close to Multyfarnham, Co Westmeath. Shortly before 4pm, the alarm was raised after a car with three occupants was discovered on fire on a rural road at Lackan near Multyfarnham. An infant boy was removed from the scene by ambulance to Midland Regional Hospital, Mullingar where he was pronounced dead. The remains of a juvenile female were also discovered inside the car at the scene. Her remains have been removed from the scene to Midland Regional Hospital, Tullamore. A woman was treated at the scene for burn injuries. She was taken by air ambulance to a Dublin Hospital. Gardai said her injuries are understood to be serious but not thought to be life threatening. The scene has been examined tonight by the Garda Technical Bureau and remains preserved overnight. The car has been removed from the scene and will be further forensically examined tomorrow. The scene has also been examined by the State Pathologist, Dr. Sally Ann Collis. Dr. Collis will carry out post mortems on both deceased in the Midland Regional Hospital, Tullamore tomorrow. The Coroner has been notified. The results of the Post Mortems and the Forensic examinations will determine the course of the investigation. An incident room has been established at Mullingar Garda Station and Senior Investigating Officer (SIO) has been appointed to lead the investigation. A Garda family liaison officer has been appointed and An Garda Siochana will continue to support the family involved in conjunction with other state agencies. An Garda Siochana is appealing to any person with any information in relation to this fatal incident to contact investigating Gardai at Mullingar at 044 9384000, the Garda Confidential Line 1800 666 11 or any Garda Station. Gardai at Mullingar are investigating all of the circumstances surrounding the deaths. Sinn Fein TD for Westmeath-Longford, Sorca Clarke, described the incident as desperately sad. Desperately sad news from Multyfarnham. Thoughts and deepest sympathies with the family, friends and loved ones. Thoughts also with the emergency services and all who came to their aid, Deputy Clarke said. Brian Crum, Fianna Fail representative for Multyfarnham, said the thoughts and heartfelt sympathies of everyone in the area are with the family involved. You hear of tragedies like this happening in other countries or in other counties, but you never expect something like this to happen where youre from, or know what it feels like until it comes from your own area - especially when you have children of your own. Multyfarnham is a very tight knit community, everyone sticks together and helps each other out. This tragedy will be felt right across the community, Mr Crum told Independent.ie. Mr Varadkar launched a fresh attack on Mary Lou McDonalds party at the start of the Fine Gael think-in in Kilkenny on Friday IRELAND would be out of the tent and its influence over EU decision-making would be diminished Sinn Fein are in government after the next election, Tanaiste Leo Varadkar has said. Mr Varadkar launched a fresh attack on Mary Lou McDonalds party at the start of the Fine Gael think-in in Kilkenny on Friday. He sought to align Sinn Fein with the far-right government of Viktor Orban in Hungary and a potential far-right government in Italy. He said this would lead to Irelands influence in the EU being diminished in the coming years. Ahead of the resumption of the Dail next week, Mr Varadkar again insisted that Fine Gael would not facilitate Ms McDonalds party in government after the next election. We will not form a coalition with SInn Fein, full stop, he told reporters. He said that the Sinn Fein-led government would amount to a far-left eurosceptic party representing Ireland in Europe. Bear in mind if Mary Lou became Taoiseach there would only be three potential prime ministers who will be out of the tent of the normal mainstream parties: Viktor Orban in Hungary, potentially Mary Lou McDonald in Ireland, and if it happens the new far-right party prime minister in Italy, he said. It is that serious. Instead of being at the heart of the Europe with a pro-European government, a government that gets invited to the pre-meetings, to the post meetings, is in the tents there when decisions are made, we would have a Eurosceptic government and our influence would be diminished. Mr Orbans Fidesz party were previously members of the European Peoples Party, the European grouping of which Fine Gael is a member, but quit last year ahead of its likely expulsion brought about by years of tensions over Hungarys backsliding on EU democratic and rule of law principles. Mr Varadkar has also previously had to defend meeting Mr Orban who also took a hardline position on the EU migrant crisis. Speaking on Friday, Mr Varadkar said that far-right, far-left or populist politics brings misery everywhere in the world and that if Sinn Fein came to power it would wreck our economy, the cake will be smaller for everyone, wealth, jobs and investment would leave the country and Ireland would no longer be at the heart of the European Union. Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald. Picture: PA Meanwhile, the Fine Gael leader declined to be drawn on recent comments to a private gathering of party members in Cork where he suggested Fianna Fail could go into government with Sinn Fein. I think they might, I think they might not, based on the Taoiseachs comments, but I cant speak for him and I wont speak for him, its up to him and other people in Fianna Fail to answer that question, he said. He expressed confidence that Fine Gael could benefit from transfers from Fianna Fail and the Greens at the next general election to increase its overall number of Dail seats. What generally happens is that when you're in coalition with other parties, when that government ends provided it doesn't end badly you do better transfers from your coalition partner. He added: I would hope that the next election comes - transfer pact or not that Green voters and Fianna Fail voters will be more likely to transfer to Fine Gael than to Sinn Fein or the far left and vice versa. Micheal Martin said King Charles will continue to underpin the peace and good relations between Ireland and the UK. The Taoiseach has said King Charles is always welcome in Ireland but declined to confirm if hell travel to London for Queen Elizabeths funeral. Mr Martin said King Charles is very familiar with Ireland and has a keen interest in Irish affairs, having previously met him and his wife Queen Consort Camilla several times on his visits to Ireland. When asked if he would invite him to visit Ireland, Mr Martin said issuing the invitation would be a matter for the President. He is always welcome to Ireland, he said. Ive no doubt that he will continue that interest in Ireland, particularly his interest in climate change, diversity, wildlife and i do foresee opportunities to dovetail, if you like, that interest that he has in terms of some of the initiatives that we are taking in terms of preserving biodiversity into the future. He said King Charles will continue to underpin the peace and good relations between Ireland and the UK. However, Mr Martin declined to confirm if he will travel to London for Queen Elizabeths funeral. The funeral arrangements will be a matter for the authorities in the United Kingdom. Suffice to say that we as a Government would be pretty clear in terms of our expressions of sympathies to the British people. The Taoiseach said her most enduring legacy will be her visit to Ireland in 2011, where she famously made a speech in Dublin Castle and spoke Irish. Its a visit that will never be forgotten and I think in the context of all that has gone on between Britain and Ireland over centuries, it definitely closed one chapter and opened up another. The head of State of the UK coming to Ireland, it represented the crowning moment, if you like, all that had gone on in terms of peace building and building a new political order, he said. He said she ruled for 70 years through an extraordinary sweep of history which showed the importance of the fundamentals of service, duty, consistency of approach. In the context of the British people, we sympathise with them, we understand the enormous change it represents, in terms of her passing and the impact she has had on their lives over such a long, long period of time, he said. Mr Martin was speaking at the launch of 31 social houses in Bray, Co Wicklow. Siblings travel to Balmoral to be by queens side but Meghan Markle stays away amid rancour He flew to Scotland separately from the rest of the royal family and without his wife, Meghan Markle, despite sources close to the couple saying they both planned to make the journey to Royal Deeside earlier in the day. As news broke of the 96-year-old monarchs deteriorating health, it was announced at around 2pm that the US-based couple would travel together to the queens home in the Scottish Highlands. But at the last minute it emerged that Meghan would not be accompanying her husband. He finally arrived at Balmoral Castle just before 8pm 90 minutes after the statement dropped at 6.30pm. The last-minute decision for Meghan not to accompany Prince Harry follows ongoing tensions between the couple and Harrys brother Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton. This acrimony developed after Harry and Meghan gave an interview to US chat show host Oprah Winfrey in March last year accusing an unnamed member of the royal family of making a racist remark about their son, Archie, three. It was only 10 days ago that Meghan (41) once again hit the headlines over her relationship with her in-laws after she gave a 6,500-word interview to The Cutmagazine, an offshoot of New Yorkmagazine in which she claimed that just by existing she and Prince Harry were upsetting the dynamic of the hierarchy as well as suggesting her husband had lost his father in the Megxit process. She also spoke of her relief at being able to tell (my) own story before issuing what some interpreted as a message to the royals, warning she is free to say anything, and saying it is taking a lot of effort to forgive them and her estranged family. Revealing she was still healing from her experiences, she said: Ive really made an active effort, especially knowing that I can say anything. Ive never had to sign anything that restricts me from talking. I can talk about my whole experience and make a choice not to. The comments were greeted with a combination of anger and dismay within Buckingham Palace, where aides were already growing increasingly concerned about Prince Harrys forthcoming autobiography, due to be published by Penguin in the coming months. Harry and Meghan, who arrived in the UK from the US on Saturday for two engagements in the UK and one in Germany, had initially declined an offer to see the queen in Scotland for security reasons, amid a continuing row over their police protection. But after Buckingham Palace announced that the queen was under medical supervision following doctors concerns, a source close to the couple confirmed at around 2pm that they would be travelling up to Scotland to be at her bedside. They later said the couple would be making the journey separately to the rest of the family, but that plans had been coordinated with the other royal households. But then at 4.40pm, the source clarified that Meghan would not, in fact, be travelling today. The decision came after William (40) landed at Aberdeen airport in one of the Dassault Falcon 900LX jets that convened Boris Johnson and Liz Truss to Balmoral on Tuesday for the prime ministerial handover. William was accompanied by the queens sons, Princes Andrew and Edward. Prince Charles, who will become king, arrived at Balmoral by helicopter from Dumfries House at around noon, closely followed by Princess Anne, who travelled by car from nearby Blairgowrie, where she had been carrying out an engagement for the Riding for the Disabled Association, of which she is president. Kate Middleton (40) remained at hers and Williams new home, Adelaide Cottage, in Windsor to collect their children Prince George, nine, Princess Charlotte, seven and four-year-old Prince Louis after their first day at their new school, Lambrook Prep in Berkshire. Despite staying just a stones throw from Adelaide Cottage at Frogmore Cottage, their Windsor home, Harry and Meghan were said to have no plans to see William and Kate this week. Sources have previously told the Daily Telegraphthat William and Kate believe Prince Harry and Meghan crossed a line with their comments on Oprah and are not just waiting for an apology from the couple but an acknowledgement of the hurt it caused. News of Harrys forthcoming autobiography has also caused mounting alarm not least as it is thought Buckingham Palace will not have advanced sight of the book before it is published in the coming months. The manuscript for the definitive account of Harrys experiences, adventures, losses, and life lessons has reportedly been completed and signed off by lawyers after being submitted by its ghostwriter, JR Moehringer, this summer. Harrys book was due to hit bookshelves in the autumn but has been delayed until later this year, landing in time for the Thanksgiving and Christmas gift market. Whether the publication will still go ahead as scheduled remains to be seen. Harry (37), who will donate the proceeds to charity, said in a statement that the book would be a first-hand account of my life thats accurate and wholly truthful. He added: Ive worn many hats over the years, both literally and figuratively, and my hope is that in telling my story the highs and lows, the mistakes, the lessons learned I can help show that no matter where we come from, we have more in common than we think. Relations between Harry and William reached rock bottom following the Oprah interview, in which Meghan accused Kate of making her cry during a bridesmaids dress fitting, and Prince Harry claimed his father and brother felt trapped in the monarchy. Although the royal brothers were reunited a month later for Prince Philips funeral and again in July last year for the unveiling of the statue of their late mother, Princess Diana, there was no interaction between the two sets of couples during the queens Platinum Jubilee weekend in June. There is a perception within the House of Windsor that Prince Harry and Meghans revelations caused unnecessary upset to the queen when Prince Philip was ill, and a general suspicion around the couples attempts to maintain a relationship with her but not the rest of the family. Despite all that has been said and done since Harry and Meghan, a former actress, stepped down from public duties in March 2020, the queen always insisted both publicly and privately that Prince Harry and Meghan remain much loved members of the family. Nothing would have made her happier than to see her warring grandsons finally putting their differences aside. ( Telegraph Media Group Ltd 2022) Ricky told a NYPD detective that he was using the drone solely to take photos and that the battery unexpectedly ran out A love of photography has led to a popular Irishman facing deportation from the US after authorities became aware of his undocumented status. Riccardo Ricky Pellecchia, of Co Louth, had been living in NYC for more than a decade, having overstayed admission on a 90-day visa waiver. The photography buff is now in the Orange County Correctional Facility of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Goshen, New York for the past two weeks, awaiting his fate. His hobby involved flying a drone to capture images of the Manhattan skyline and sunsets but one day in July, its battery went dead and it landed on property operated by electrical utility Con Edison. When he went to retrieve the drone, members of the New York Police Department who had been contacted by Con Ed personnel about the sudden landing approached him. He told a NYPD detective that he was using the drone solely to take photos and that the battery unexpectedly ran out, which appeared to satisfy the officer. However, he was later contacted by the FBIs Joint Terrorism Task Force who questioned him and they too were convinced the drone was being used purely for recreational purposes. It was not long after that when ICE contacted Pellecchia to set up an interview. When Pellecchia left his home on the morning of his appointment, there were four ICE cars waiting for him outside. He was taken to the Manhattan field office at 26 Federal Plaza before being sent to Goshen where he remains. His attorney obtained a temporary stay of deportation, but because Pellecchia entered the US under the visa waiver program, he is not entitled to post bond or plead his case before a US immigration judge. Ricky doesnt have so much as a traffic ticket to his name here or in Ireland, Pellecchias attorney Michael Nappo told the Irish Voice, sister publication to Irish Central. With catch and release in New York and bail reform, courts are letting violent criminals back on the street. But Ricky has to stay in a correctional facility and his friends and family think its very unfair, especially when busloads of people who illegally crossed the southern border are being sent to New York and given housing. Pellecchias friends have organised a petition calling for his release on MoveOn.org that has garnered more than 1,000 signatures. They say Pellecchia is a selfless, productive member of the Queens Irish American community who happily lends a helping hand to anyone in need. Employed by an Irish bar in Queens, Pellecchia is very upset about the sudden turn his life has taken, Nappo said. Its been very difficult for him. He has not been mistreated, but not being able to get in front of an immigration judge, or even to post bond, is very frustrating. Pellecchias friends have sent a letter to local politicians seeking an intervention in his case. They outlined his many contributions to the community, and how his deportation would be a significant loss. Ricky has become a social pillar of the community. His mild temperament and straight-talking nature have seen him become a truly great friend to many. He is a sounding board for problems, a friendly ear for advice, and a shoulder to cry on when called on, the letter said. It is in his nature to want to help any and every one if he can, going above and beyond in most cases while asking nothing in return. "He has provided a sense of community for many in the bar, both Irish and American, particularly for those who find themselves alone in this country. It is no exaggeration to say he has become like a son to many patrons of the bar. The letter continues, Not satisfied with helping only those he comes into direct contact with, Ricky has always been willing to use his network to benefit charities. This work has seen him directly contribute to raising significant sums of money over the past 12 years, where the monies raised have benefitted both members of the American community over here and his native Ireland. "This is not a man who sat back for 12 years and took from this country, the reality is he contributed all he could without thinking about it and asked little if nothing in return. To summarize, Ricky, Riccardo Pellecchia, is not a criminal. He is an individual who finds himself in a bad situation. He is a son, a brother, a friend, a partner. He is a man who possesses the kind of moral fortitude that anyone would be proud of. An Taoiseach conveyed his deepest sympathy to King Charles, the Royal Family, the UK Government and the British people on the loss of their beloved monarch, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. Members of the Irish Defence Forces military police lower the Irish flag to half mast outside Government Buildings in Dublin after the announcement of the death of Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II and President Mary McAleese lay a wreaths at the Garden of Remembrance on May 17, 2011 in Dublin, Ireland. The Duke and Queen's visit is the first by a monarch since 1911. Getty Images The Queen died at her residence in Balmoral this afternoon and her son, Charles, is now the King. An Taoiseach conveyed his deepest sympathy to King Charles, the Royal Family, the UK Government and the British people on the loss of their beloved monarch, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. The Queens reign was one of historic duration, immense consequence and a focus of respect and admiration around the world. Her dedication to duty and public service were self-evident and her wisdom and experience truly unique, he said. The Queens passing is indeed the end of an era. Her State Visit to Ireland in 2011 marked a crucial step in the normalisation of relations with our nearest neighbour. That visit was a great success, largely because of the many gracious gestures and warm remarks made by the Queen during her time in Ireland. Her popularity with the Irish people was also very evident and clearly made a very positive impact on the Queen. In particular, I recall the warmth of the welcome she received from the public in Cork during her walkabout at the English Market. Members of the Irish Defence Forces military police lower the Irish flag to half mast outside Government Buildings in Dublin after the announcement of the death of Queen Elizabeth II President Higgins said Queen Elizabeth served the British people with exceptional dignity. It is with profound regret and a deep personal sadness that I have learnt of the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, President Higgins said. On behalf of the people of Ireland, may I express my heartfelt sympathy to His Majesty King Charles and to the Royal Family on their very great personal loss. May I offer my deepest condolences to the British people and to the members of the Commonwealth on the loss of a unique, committed and deeply respected Head of State. Her Majesty served the British people with exceptional dignity. Her personal commitment to her role and extraordinary sense of duty were the hallmarks of her period as Queen, which will hold a unique place in British history. Her reign of 70 years encompassed periods of enormous change, during which she represented a remarkable source of reassurance to the British people. As we know, the Queen often spoke of how much she enjoyed her own historic State Visit to Ireland in 2011, the first such Visit by a British monarch since Irish independence, and during which she did so much through eloquent word and generous gesture to improve relations between our two islands. Queen Elizabeths Visit was pivotal in laying a firm basis for an authentic and ethical understanding between our countries. During those memorable few days eleven years ago, the Queen did not shy away from the shadows of the past. Her moving words and gestures of respect were deeply appreciated and admired by the people of Ireland and set out a new, forward looking relationship between our nations one of respect, close partnership and sincere friendship. Tanaiste Leo Varadkar said Queen Elizabeth helped usher in a new era of hope and reconciliation between our two countries, opening a new chapter in relations between Ireland and the UK. Her life was devoted to public service, and her dedication to her work, to her people and to her country, over seven decades of extraordinary and sometimes difficult change, won respect and admiration all around the world. From our perspective, she will always be remembered as the first British monarch to visit an independent Ireland, a visit which was a watershed moment on the long road to reconciliation. Symbolism matters, and the visit showed that it is possible to move beyond a painful history, and use our shared experiences to build a new future in a spirit of hope and forgiveness, the Tanaiste said. US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden said the Queen was more than a monarch and that she defined an era. A White House statement said: In a world of constant change, she was a steadying presence and a source of comfort and pride for generations of Britons, including many who have never known their country without her. An enduring admiration for Queen Elizabeth II united people across the Commonwealth. The seven decades of her history-making reign bore witness to an age of unprecedented human advancement and the forward march of human dignity. She was the first British monarch to whom people all around the world could feel a personal and immediate connection whether they heard her on the radio as a young princess speaking to the children of the United Kingdom, or gathered around their televisions for her coronation, or watched her final Christmas speech or her platinum jubilee on their phones. She, in turn, dedicated her whole life to their service. Former President of Ireland Mary McAleese has said Queen Elizabeth gave such faithful and dignified service for many decades. The people of Ireland will fondly remember her historic visit in 2011 when her presence and her words did so much to cement a culture of reconciliation and partnership between these islands. The warm welcome she received underlined the great desire of the Irish people, a desire strongly reciprocated by Her Majesty, The Queen, for good neighbourly relationships to flourish between us. Let us hope that legacy, in which she invested so much, will be honoured and realised, Prof McAleese said. Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald extended her sympathies to the British Royal Family on the death of Queen Elizabeth II and saluted her contribution to change, peace and reconciliation in Ireland. "I wish to extend deepest sympathy to the British Royal Family on the death of Queen Elizabeth II. "Her passing marks the end of an era. Relationships between our two countries for so long marked by conflict and suffering have been recast and reimagined through the Good Friday Agreement. "The Queen proved a powerful advocate and ally of those who believe in peace and reconciliation. I salute her contribution to the huge change that has evolved in recent years. "Her death is a moment of heartbreak and pride for the British people. To them, and especially to Irish unionists, I extend on behalf of Sinn Fein and Irish Republicans sincere condolences. "Ar dheis De go raibh a hanam dilis, Ms McDonald said. British Prime Minister Liz Truss, dressed in black, addressed the nation outside No 10. She said: We are all devastated by the news that we have just heard from Balmoral. The death of Her Majesty the Queen is a huge shock to the nation and to the world. Sir Elton John described the Queen as an inspiring presence and said he would miss her dearly. The musical megastar said the Queen had been a huge part of his life from childhood to this day in his own online tribute. Along with the rest of the nation, I am deeply saddened to hear the news of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeths passing, Sir Elton wrote. She was an inspiring presence to be around, and lead the country through some of our greatest, and darkest, moments with grace, decency and a genuine caring warmth. Queen Elizabeth has been a huge part of my life from childhood to this day, and I will miss her dearly. European Parliament President Roberta Metsola tweeted: Few have shaped global history like Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Her unbreakable commitment to duty and service was an example to all. The world mourns with her people in the United Kingdom and beyond. She was truly Queen Elizabeth the Great. May she rest in peace. Canadas Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted: It was with the heaviest of hearts that we learned of the passing of Canadas longest-reigning Sovereign, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. She was a constant presence in our lives and her service to Canadians will forever remain an important part of our countrys history. He added: As we look back at her life and her reign that spanned so many decades, Canadians will always remember and cherish Her Majestys wisdom, compassion, and warmth. Our thoughts are with the members of the Royal Family during this most difficult time. Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted: It is with deep sadness that we learned of the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. On behalf of the people, we extend sincere condolences to the @RoyalFamily, the entire United Kingdom and the Commonwealth over this irreparable loss. Our thoughts and prayers are with you. Sinn Fein vice president Michelle ONeill said she had learnt of the death of the Queen with deep regret. She tweeted: The British people will miss the leadership she gave as monarch. I would like to offer my sincere sympathies and condolences to her children, and wider family as they come to terms with their grief. I wish to especially acknowledge the profound sorrow of our neighbours from within the unionist community who will feel her loss deeply. Personally, I am grateful for Queen Elizabeths significant contribution and determined efforts to advancing peace and reconciliation. The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, tweeted: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will be remembered as a stalwart of our times. She provided inspiring leadership to her nation and people. She personified dignity and decency in public life. Pained by her demise. My thoughts are with her family and people of UK in this sad hour. Scotlands First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: The death of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth is a profoundly sad moment for the UK, the Commonwealth and the world. Her life was one of extraordinary dedication and service. On behalf of the people of Scotland, I convey my deepest condolences to The King and the Royal Family. DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said the Queen had been a "steadfast and unshakeable head of state". Mr Donaldson said: "Her gracious approach has been a constant throughout our lives. "Today we mourn Her Majesty's death, but we do so with tremendous honour for one who served God and her people faithfully. "Her Majesty led by example in Northern Ireland and reached out the hand of friendship to help with the reconciliation process. "We are duty-bound to build on that foundation." The DUP leader added: "The royal visit to the Republic of Ireland was ground-breaking and the warmth with which Her Majesty was received demonstrated that she was revered and respected far beyond the United Kingdom. "Her visits to my constituency in Royal Hillsborough invoke precious memories for the residents and for all of us, and I know her death will be felt acutely in that village." The cross-community Alliance Party leader Naomi Long said her thoughts and prayers were with the royal family. "They are mourning a much-loved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother," she said. "But while they have lost a matriarch, the entire country and indeed Commonwealth has lost a person who has been a figurehead and leader for 70 years. Her loss will be keenly felt by many." Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie said it was one of the saddest days the UK had ever known. He said: "Without realising it, we have lived through a second Elizabethan Age, a reign which has encompassed massive political, social and economic change, the decline of empire, moon landings, Cold War, the decline of the old heavy industries and the growth of the internet and 15 prime ministers. "Through it all she remained a constant and reassuring presence in the lives of the people of the United Kingdom providing both stability and continuity, and the sense of loss today is profound." SDLP Leader Colum Eastwood said: "My thoughts and the thoughts of all those in the SDLP are with Queen Elizabeth's family at an extraordinarily difficult time. "The blessing of a long life does not make the burden of saying goodbye any lighter. "I also want to extend my deep condolences to all those, across the world, but particularly in Northern Ireland for whom the Queen held a cherished place in their lives and their hearts." TUV leader Jim Allister said: "To the nation and almost everyone alive she has been an intrinsic part of our lives. "Her steady leadership and devotion to duty have hallmarked a reign of unparalleled success. "Adjusting to life without Her Majesty will be a major national challenge. The 35-year-old social media star, who tied the knot in a lavish ceremony in Italy today, stunned fans with a detailed lace creation with a deep plunging neckline. The 34-year-old social media star, who tied the knot in a lavish ceremony in Italy today, stunned fans with a detailed lace creation with a deep plunging neckline. She wore her hair slicked back and clutched a huge white bouquet. Posing alongside her new husband, Robert Barr, the newlywed couldnt contain her joy. Taking to Instagram, Lynn posted a photo of herself and Robert, captioning the picture Mr & Mrs Barr. Lynn Kelly Fans and friends of the Dublin model were quick to congratulate the couple. Model Holly Carpenter gushed: "Oh my God, wow. Congratulations." While Suzanne Jackson wrote: "Absolutely breath-taking." The model, influencer and all-around beauty queen was beset with bad luck with one mishap after the other for the perpetually upbeat Dubliner. While she scrambled to get her now too-big dress altered, her fiance, Robert Barr, broke his foot just days earlier. But she vowed nothing will stop her and Robert from declaring their love for each other in front of their loved ones. Lynn Kelly and Robert Barr She told sundayworld.com: I went over to pick up my dress and my flight was delayed. It doesnt fit, which was a little bit worrying but I was straight into the alterations. With an illustrious modelling career that has seen the Jervis Street native grace the catwalk in every wedding dress imaginable, it was almost a case of wedding dress fatigue for Lynn. People are asking what my dress is like and I am not going to tell people until the day, she revealed. But I have honestly worn thousands of dresses I used to do a lot of bridal modelling and Ive worn the most incredible couture gowns and never really found anything I saw that was that special. I was worried I wouldnt find anything I liked. Then I found one dress on Pinterest and tracked it down to a shop in London that was the first dress I tried on and I said yes. Then I found another dress and I fell in love with it too. I never thought I would have two dresses. I thought it would feel like putting on just another dress, but I am just so excited to wear them now. They are so beautiful. Speaking to RTE News in Galway this morning, the President said he would particularly remember her attention to detail over the course of his interactions with her In light of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, a change to the shows schedule will see President Higgins speak about the importance of her state visit here, her legacy and his return visit to the UK. Speaking to RTE News in Galway this morning, the President said he would particularly remember her attention to detail over the course of his interactions with her. President Higgins met the queen at Belfast's Lyric Theatre in 2012, which was followed by his state visit to Britain two years later. He said the queen had been enormously well informed about the contribution of the Irish community in Britain and wanted to ensure that was reflected over the course of the four-day visit to the UK in 2014. He said the monarch had been able to bridge formal and informal roles with ease, and was able "to do what had to be done but also in a way that made just about everybody comfortable". He said Queen Elizabeth had "never been stuck in a rut of history in a particular period". She was very conscious how Britain, Ireland and Northern Ireland had changed over the years, he said, and was keen to emphasise the possibility of improved economic, social and cultural relations. The President said the queen had the necessary distances between the "day to day acrimonies of politics" and had a longer view as a result of the length of her reign. Also speaking on RTE's Morning Ireland, President Higgins recalled both the queen's visit to Ireland in 2011 and his visit to the UK in 2014. He said she was "at pains to point out the contribution that the Irish had made in relation to building England" and paid tribute to the "hundreds of thousands of families" who worked in the English health services and built roads. He said that during her visit to Ireland in 2011, she made "that extraordinary statement that if things would have been done again, they would be done differently or perhaps not at all". "I found during those four days, very much not just a great deal of warmth, but an exceptional regard that Ireland and Britain were in a new place," he said, adding that her knowledge of history was fascinating. "People mightn't know, but she was very conscious that the use of the Irish language in 2011 was not accidental," he said. When asked how he would remember the queen, President Higgins said: "I think, above all else, it is the extraordinary achievement she had of giving such a long service in very, very significant conditions of change, being incredibly well informed, but also maybe I think the exceptional part of it all was combining this sense of formality in duty with a great capacity for connection with the people." He said this was "very much evident" to both he and Sabina when they visited the queen in 2014. "There was that capacity to bridge the formal and the informal," he said. "I do think as well, maybe her sense of detail was very interesting, because the preparations that she was involved in between 2011 and 2014 were complex. They required some subtlety and very good diplomacy." Meanwhile, Hollywood stars George Clooney and Julia Roberts are among the guests who will join Ryan Tubridy this evening. On Fridays show, which is the second programme of the new season, Tubridy will chat with the pair, who are in London, as they promote their new romantic comedy Ticket to Paradise. The host will also speak to them about Clooneys Irish ancestry and Roberts memories of filming Michael Collins here in Ireland. Irish actress and writer Amy Huberman will be on the show to talk about her new children's book and her upcoming acting work. And TikTok star Tadhg Fleming, Mrs Brown's Boys actress Fiona O'Carroll, and former Miss Ireland Pamela Uba will join Tubridy on the couch to speak about why they wanted to face their fears in signing up to be part of this year's Ultimate Hell Week: The Professionals. Ahead of the first ever Dublin Brick Con in Ireland, there will be a few very special Lego recreations of famous Irish landmarks in-studio. Plus, there will be a very special musical performance with Megan ONeill singing Lay your Head Down. The Late Late Show will air on RTE One on Friday, September 9 at 9.35pm. Post-Study Work Visa changes signalled as part of the Immigration Rebalance are now in place. The government has confirmed settings for post-study work rights for students studying towards a non-degree level 7 or below. International students who complete a degree or post-graduate qualification eill continue to have access to open post-study work rights at the end of their study, says Immigration Minister Michael Wood. These changes were signalled as part of the Immigration Rebalance announced in May and ensure migrants know early on the realistic pathways to further work and residence post-study in New Zealand, says Wood. Changes to post-study work rights settings for students who complete a non-degree level 7 or below course have now been confirmed. They will qualify if their qualification is on the Qualifications Eligible for a Post-Study Work Visa list, which is based on Green List occupations. As signalled in May, changes to post-study work rights settings for students who complete a non-degree level 7 or below course have also been confirmed. They will qualify if their qualification is on the Qualifications Eligible for a Post-Study Work Visa list, which is based on Green List occupations. Aligning post-study work rights for non-degree study with Green List occupations will help to fill New Zealands skills needs and address some unsustainable post-study working trends seen pre-Covid. Students who complete a degree or post-graduate qualification will continue to have access to open post-study work rights at the end of their study. The duration of post-study work visas will now directly align with the expected duration of a students qualification in New Zealand. Any additional time a student takes to complete the course will not be considered. This change applies to all qualifications eligible for a post-study work visa, with the exception of Masters and Doctoral degrees. International students who study a second degree will not be able to apply for a second post-study visa, however, they may be eligible for a longer visa if they have completed two consecutive qualifications that are Bachelors degrees or higher. Partners of students will be eligible for an open work visa where the student is studying a Masters degree or Doctoral degree qualification or a level 7 or 8 qualification that is specified in either the Green List or the Qualifications Eligible for a Post-Study Work Visa list. New Zealand continues to welcome students who select New Zealand because of the quality of the education, lifestyle and overall international experience. Some of these students will go on to make New Zealand their home and contribute to our economy in the longer-term, says Wood. Overall, the changes ensure students who choose to stay in New Zealand after their studies bring value to New Zealand by filling skill shortages. It also supports the Governments plans for a higher-productivity, higher-wage economy, while making it easier to attract and hire highly skilled migrants to fill genuine gaps in roles that are in global shortage. The changes to visa requirements came into effect from September 7. Full details of the changes including a list of eligible qualifications for Post-Study Work Visas is available on the Immigration New Zealand website. People are being warned to expect delays around the city as large scale events make their return. Following the successful return of the AIMS Games, the Bay of Plenty region continues to see events taking place over the next fortnight. Saturday, September 17, sees the return of the Rotorua Marathon, before the Tauranga Marathon and Bay of Plenty vs Southland Bunnings NPC match both take place in Tauranga on Sunday, September 18. As large-scale events return to our cities, residents and visitors should expect some delays, says Roger Brady, Bay of Plenty System Manager at Waka Kotahi. Both local Councils and Waka Kotahi have a number of significant projects that are taking place across the road network within the city, and road users are encouraged to use the Journey Planner (www.journeys.nzta.govt.nz) to check for real-time updates online ahead of leaving for their destination. If drivers, especially those who may not have travelled inter-regionally in a while, know what is happening on the roads, they can better prepare for the trip ahead and allow extra time to get to their destination safely. For those driving to and from Rotorua or Tauranga, the Journey Planner will also help with route planning. The effects of recent weather events are still being felt throughout the wider Bay of Plenty region and further afield. There are sections of the state highway network that are down to one lane with traffic management in place to manage traffic through site. Please allow extra time while travelling as there will be an increase in traffic before and after events take place. Bay of Plenty Tauranga Tauranga Marathon: The Tauranga Marathon takes place on Sunday 18 September. With the third Bunnings NPC game being played on the same day at Tauranga Domain, the city centre is likely to be busier than usual and drivers should expect some delays. As part of the marathon traffic management, the SH2 Chapel Street off-ramp will be closed from 7.30am 2pm with a signposted detour in place. The Tauranga Marathon takes place on Sunday 18 September. With the third Bunnings NPC game being played on the same day at Tauranga Domain, the city centre is likely to be busier than usual and drivers should expect some delays. As part of the marathon traffic management, the SH2 Chapel Street off-ramp will be closed from 7.30am 2pm with a signposted detour in place. More information Takitimu North Link Stage One: A range of construction activities are taking place between Te Puna and Bethlehem. This includes stop/go traffic management in place at Wairoa Road, and a number of shoulder closures and temporary speed limits. A range of construction activities are taking place between Te Puna and Bethlehem. This includes stop/go traffic management in place at Wairoa Road, and a number of shoulder closures and temporary speed limits. More information SH2 Tauranga Bridge: Bridge joint repairs will be undertaken between Tauranga Marina and Chapel Street, between 8pm and 4am overnight Sunday 11 September. During this time the westbound off-ramp at Chapel Street will be closed, with a detour via the Dive Crescent off-ramp and Marsh Street. SH2 Hewletts Road: As part of the Tauranga City Council Totara Street cycleway project, work at the intersection of SH2 Hewletts Road and Totara Street is scheduled to begin on Monday 19 September, and will be completed in November. Construction works will include signalising the existing slip lane and upgrading the island to provide a fully signalised crossing for shared path users. These works will take place between Tasman Quay and Totara Street each night between 8pm and 5am. Eastbound traffic along Hewletts Road will be reduced to one lane during this time. Minimal delays are expected. As part of the Tauranga City Council Totara Street cycleway project, work at the intersection of SH2 Hewletts Road and Totara Street is scheduled to begin on Monday 19 September, and will be completed in November. Construction works will include signalising the existing slip lane and upgrading the island to provide a fully signalised crossing for shared path users. These works will take place between Tasman Quay and Totara Street each night between 8pm and 5am. Eastbound traffic along Hewletts Road will be reduced to one lane during this time. Minimal delays are expected. More information SH2 Bay Link: Drivers are reminded of the new layout at the Bayfair roundabout. For people approaching the roundabout from Matapihi, the left lane is now a left turn only and the right lane is for traffic going straight through and turning right. Drivers are reminded of the new layout at the Bayfair roundabout. For people approaching the roundabout from Matapihi, the left lane is now a left turn only and the right lane is for traffic going straight through and turning right. More information SH29 Takitimu Drive Toll Road: A section of the Kopurererua Valley cycleway is temporarily closed while services are relocated alongside SH29 Takitimu Drive Toll Road. While this work is underway there is a reduced speed limit of 80km/h in place. As part of the Powerco service relocation works there will be drilling work to install cables under SH29 / Takitimu Drive Toll Road on Tuesday 13 September. A reduced speed limit of 30km/h will be in place and a Stop/Stop while drilling is in progress. Stop time will be for approximately one minute and then the traffic will be allowed to travel through the area again. This will take place between 9am and 3pmThis work is expected to be completed in September. A section of the Kopurererua Valley cycleway is temporarily closed while services are relocated alongside SH29 Takitimu Drive Toll Road. While this work is underway there is a reduced speed limit of 80km/h in place. As part of the Powerco service relocation works there will be drilling work to install cables under SH29 / Takitimu Drive Toll Road on Tuesday 13 September. A reduced speed limit of 30km/h will be in place and a Stop/Stop while drilling is in progress. Stop time will be for approximately one minute and then the traffic will be allowed to travel through the area again. This will take place between 9am and 3pmThis work is expected to be completed in September. More information SH36 Pyes Pa: Tauranga City Council is undertaking watermain and wastewater pipe installations; work is expected to be complete in mid-October. During this time northbound traffic from the SH36/Pyes Pa roundabout will be detoured via Pyes Pa Road through to the SH29A Barkes Corner roundabout. Delays of up to 15 minutes during peak times are expected. Tauranga City Council is undertaking watermain and wastewater pipe installations; work is expected to be complete in mid-October. During this time northbound traffic from the SH36/Pyes Pa roundabout will be detoured via Pyes Pa Road through to the SH29A Barkes Corner roundabout. Delays of up to 15 minutes during peak times are expected. More information SH2 Tauranga Eastern Link Toll Road (TELTR): For the Tauranga City Council led Papamoa East Interchange project, traffic on the Tauranga Eastern Link Toll Road, just north of the Kaituna River Bridge continues to be down to one lane in either direction until Monday 3 October. This is to allow the installation of a culvert across the TELTR, which will enable earthworks in preparation for construction. Speed is reduced to 50km/h through the work site. Under normal circumstances, we anticipate any delays to be less than two minutes. For the Tauranga City Council led Papamoa East Interchange project, traffic on the Tauranga Eastern Link Toll Road, just north of the Kaituna River Bridge continues to be down to one lane in either direction until Monday 3 October. This is to allow the installation of a culvert across the TELTR, which will enable earthworks in preparation for construction. Speed is reduced to 50km/h through the work site. Under normal circumstances, we anticipate any delays to be less than two minutes. More information Western Bay of Plenty SH2 Waihi to Omokoroa: Safety improvement works continue at five active sites: between Athenree Road and Tanners Point Road, Tanners Point Road to Tuapiro Road, Rea Road / Tetley Road intersection, Morton Road intersection and Apata Station Road to Esdaile Road. Minor delays are expected. Retaining walls are being constructed between Apata Station Road and Esdaile Road. Stop/go traffic management will be in place outside of morning and evening peak traffic, from 9am-4pm. Light vehicles under ten tonnes can take an alternative route via Wainui South and Esdaile Road There are currently no right turns to Tetley Road and limited right turn options to Rea Road. Detours routes are available, please follow the signs and directions of the traffic management team. Safety improvement works continue at five active sites: between Athenree Road and Tanners Point Road, Tanners Point Road to Tuapiro Road, Rea Road / Tetley Road intersection, Morton Road intersection and Apata Station Road to Esdaile Road. Minor delays are expected. Retaining walls are being constructed between Apata Station Road and Esdaile Road. Stop/go traffic management will be in place outside of morning and evening peak traffic, from 9am-4pm. Light vehicles under ten tonnes can take an alternative route via Wainui South and Esdaile Road There are currently no right turns to Tetley Road and limited right turn options to Rea Road. Detours routes are available, please follow the signs and directions of the traffic management team. More information SH2 Athenree to Pahoia: Road surface repairs will take place in multiple locations; work will be undertaken between 7pm and 6am each night, from Monday 12 to Thursday 15 September. Stop/go traffic management and a temporary speed limit will be in place. Rotorua Rotorua Marathon: The Rotorua Marathon takes place on Saturday 17 September. Traffic management will be in place on roads around Lake Rotorua, including the state highway network. The Rotorua Marathon takes place on Saturday 17 September. Traffic management will be in place on roads around Lake Rotorua, including the state highway network. More information SH30 Eastern Corridor Stage Two: Multiple worksites are active between Iles Road and Puketawhero Park to excavate the shared service trench for the relocation of underground services and installation of the new watermain. A new road layout is in place on SH30/Te Ngae Road between Basley Road and Iles Road. Temporary traffic barriers have been relocated from the lakeside to the westbound side of SH30/Te Ngae Road and a new temporary pedestrian crossing has been installed adjacent to Lynmore Rise Village. A full road closure of Basley Road at the intersection with SH30/Te Ngae Road will be in place on Monday 12 and Tuesday 13 September between 7am and 6pm, while contractors underground services and install the new stormwater system across Basley Road. Detours will be in place and minor delays are expected. Multiple worksites are active between Iles Road and Puketawhero Park to excavate the shared service trench for the relocation of underground services and installation of the new watermain. A new road layout is in place on SH30/Te Ngae Road between Basley Road and Iles Road. Temporary traffic barriers have been relocated from the lakeside to the westbound side of SH30/Te Ngae Road and a new temporary pedestrian crossing has been installed adjacent to Lynmore Rise Village. A full road closure of Basley Road at the intersection with SH30/Te Ngae Road will be in place on Monday 12 and Tuesday 13 September between 7am and 6pm, while contractors underground services and install the new stormwater system across Basley Road. Detours will be in place and minor delays are expected. More information SH30/SH33 Te Ngae Junction: Intersection safety improvement work are ongoing. Starting at 4.30pm on Sunday 18 September to Friday 23 September, the contractor will be working 24 hours, while the existing road surface is removed. While this work is underway two lanes of traffic will remain open, with a reduced speed limit of 30km/h through the site. Traffic will be maintained in both directions however the works may cause minor traffic delays and people are asked to take extra care while traveling through the site. Intersection safety improvement work are ongoing. Starting at 4.30pm on Sunday 18 September to Friday 23 September, the contractor will be working 24 hours, while the existing road surface is removed. While this work is underway two lanes of traffic will remain open, with a reduced speed limit of 30km/h through the site. Traffic will be maintained in both directions however the works may cause minor traffic delays and people are asked to take extra care while traveling through the site. More information SH33 Te Ngae Junction to Paengaroa: Safety improvement upgrade work continues near Pareteiro - Sun Valley Curves passing lane. During the day and when the crew are on site, either two lanes will be open or stop/go will be in place depending on the works. A temporary speed limit of 30km/h applies. Outside of work hours and when the site is unattended, the worksite will have a shoulder closure and a temporary speed limit of 50km/h. There are also ongoing shared path works between Mourea Bridge and Okere Falls. Traffic management will be a combination of shoulder closures and stop/go as required to carry out the works safely. Allow extra time. Safety improvement upgrade work continues near Pareteiro - Sun Valley Curves passing lane. During the day and when the crew are on site, either two lanes will be open or stop/go will be in place depending on the works. A temporary speed limit of 30km/h applies. Outside of work hours and when the site is unattended, the worksite will have a shoulder closure and a temporary speed limit of 50km/h. There are also ongoing shared path works between Mourea Bridge and Okere Falls. Traffic management will be a combination of shoulder closures and stop/go as required to carry out the works safely. Allow extra time. More information Eastern Bay of Plenty Officials from Tauranga have paid warm tributes to Queen Elizabeth II following the announcement of her death in the early hours of Friday morning. With the New Zealand flag on Takitimu drive flying at half-mast until further notice, books of condolences will be available for the community to sign from Saturday, September 10, at libraries across the city. Her Majesty left her mark on the city following a visit on February 9, 1963. The Royal party, which included her husband Prince Phillip, arrived on the royal yacht Britannia which berthed at Coronation Pier in Mount Maunganui. With the pier covered with flowers in the shape of her personal standard, and the Town Hall decorated with lights and topped with a crown, the official welcome was held at the citys Memorial Park in the Sound Shell. The Queen walked through the park to be greeted by girls dressed as Grecian maidens, who cast red and white petals at her feet. Following the formalities, the party was treated to a Surf Carnival on Mount Main Beach. Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh on a launch in Tauranga Harbour. Photo: Tauranga City Libraries. Tauranga MP Sam Uffindell says the Queen had lived her life with distinguished grace and humility, and praised her dedication to the crown. As sovereign, she gave 70 years of selfless service and dedication to the Commonwealth and ensured stability and consistency during some incredibly turbulent times, he says. My thoughts are with her family as they come together to mourn and celebrate her incredible life and reign. Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller called Queen Elizabeth a profoundly remarkable woman, and admitted to being deeply affected by the news. She led a life infused by privilege, yet lived day-by-day for over 70 years in selfless service of us all, says Muller. Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh boarding the Royal Barge on the visit of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 1963. Photo: Tauranga City Libraries. Hers is a life-long demonstration of values that resonate even more distinctly today than in 1952. I have been deeply affected sadder than I expected to be reflecting on her constant and sure presence in our lives. Her passing makes us reflect on those of her generation of our own families who have left us. Tauranga City Council commissioner Shadrach Rolleston called Her Majesty a constant source of strength and stability through her 70-year reign. Queen Elizabeth II lived a life of service with dignity and grace he says. Her Majesty guided the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth through many turbulent times, and was a symbol of strength and unity for millions. Commissioner Shadrach Rolleston. Photo: John Borren/SunLive. For many in our community the Queen has been a constant presence, and people will no doubt want to express their deepest condolences to the royal family. A council spokesperson says floral tributes can be placed near the large tree behind the Queen Elizabeth II Youth Centre at Memorial Park, and at Coronation Park on the corner of Maunganui Road and Nikau Crescent. - Dan Sheridan/Stuff. 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. The Taos News delivered to your Taos County address every week for a full year! We offer our lowest mail rates to zip codes in the county. Click Here to See if you Qualify. Plan includes unlimited website access and e-edition print replica online. Your auto pay plan will be conveniently renewed at the end of the subscription period. You may cancel at anytime. chaudh2s BHPian Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Gurgaon Posts: 370 Thanked: 756 Times Re: Why don't we as Indians prioritize safety? Quote: GTO Originally Posted by Awareness is the main reason. Things are improving due to the public GNCAP results, Tata / Mahindra's track record with 5-star safety cars, an increasing number of articles & discussions around safety, government initiatives etc. But overall awareness levels are still low and the general apathy toward safety sucks. Hence, it is the government's job to push safety. Similar to how they pushed for ABS + Airbags + parking sensors + speed warning chimes, now the government needs to make ESP mandatory (as it is in many countries worldwide), and concurrently, cars with safe structures. Only the government can force this change. Car manufacturers will be happy to sell unsafe cars as long as they can, and take advantage of this situation. Going the pre-worshipped route is the only way to get a safe car for 5 lakhs. Example, a used VW Polo. And these star ratings are all relative, as you have seen now, NCAP is passe, Latin NCAP is the new king on the block, they fail even NCAP rated cars. Also, these ratings bring a sense of false confidence in the mind of an unsafe driver that he is invincible and ends up getting killed in his 5 star vehicle doing crazy speeds, maneuvers. In the end, am not against safe cars, rather than pushing for a blanket 5 star ratings, there should be variants which elites can buy and are fully safety complaint to the laws of the land. My suggestion to BHpians would be to get some logic into their minds, rather than ridiculing manufacturers, put your energies where they would make a difference. Get above your caste, religion, region and focus your energies to make our country the most developed in the world. The covid crisis and Ukraine war has given India such a great opportunity/head start to achieve this in a very short time, don't waste this opportunity, it might not come again ever. If Maruti vehicles are selling like hot cakes even without star ratings what is our problem, why do we want them to build 5 star cars, you can buy from 10 other manufacturers too. Why create a disillusioned storm over Maruti and try to bring them down. Poorly engineered components in our 5 star Tata, Mahindras can be so unreliable that their airbag/ESP might not even work when a crash happens. What to do with that kind of safety, that's only on paper. We should not hail mediocracy. Here is Europe, its not just 5 star cars, there are older 0 star cars also which are running without anybody getting killed in them. That's because, the roads are F-L-A-T, the driving license exams include practical courses where they make you experience a 360 deg skid while making a turn/braking in wet conditions, the road infrastructure is super and you don't find 1 person, yes, 1 person, driving dangerously on highways. That's the class and training levels of people here. Try to achieve that, not just 5 star cars. This is an elitist way of thinking. Everybody wants to protect oneself and his family the best possible way they can. But, you cannot force that safety upon others. By enforcing these 5 star rated cars, we have deprived that scooter rider from getting more safe. The car which was already a stretch for him, has gone out of reach for him, he might probably die tomorrow on that 5 star rated scooter. just because of many disillusioned people amongst us. And yes, why just 5 star cars, why not 5 star 2 wheelers, why don't we create a storm that all 2 wheelers should be banned as they are unsafe. Why dont we stage a dharna outside toll operators office. Am sure you would have seen poorly designed roads, the dips and crests at flyover/bridges joints, which can lead to a car loosing grip and crashing. Because we are keyboard warriors! For that matter, how safe are people' houses where you spend more than 50% of your time, do you have smoke/fire detectors, a fire extinguisher, fire rated doors, have you audited that builder and his subcontractor who did the calculations for earthquake protection, or if the building materials and the way rebars need to be tied for them to be effective in an earthquake. Did you got them audited? Am sure nobody did, and even if an auditer was hired, he would have just put his stamp on the building plans as soon as he got his commission. So, my point is why this brouhaha just with cars. Am sure you would have seen those ghastly youtube videos of children getting electrocuted in their own building apartment complex while playing? What with safer electricity/electric appliance laws?And these star ratings are all relative, as you have seen now, NCAP is passe, Latin NCAP is the new king on the block, they fail even NCAP rated cars. Also, these ratings bring a sense of false confidence in the mind of an unsafe driver that he is invincible and ends up getting killed in his 5 star vehicle doing crazy speeds, maneuvers. In the end, am not against safe cars, rather than pushing for a blanket 5 star ratings, there should be variants which elites can buy and are fully safety complaint to the laws of the land. My suggestion to BHpians would be to get some logic into their minds, rather than ridiculing manufacturers, put your energies where they would make a difference. Get above your caste, religion, region and focus your energies to make our country the most developed in the world. The covid crisis and Ukraine war has given India such a great opportunity/head start to achieve this in a very short time, don't waste this opportunity, it might not come again ever. If Maruti vehicles are selling like hot cakes even without star ratings what is our problem, why do we want them to build 5 star cars, you can buy from 10 other manufacturers too. Why create a disillusioned storm over Maruti and try to bring them down. Poorly engineered components in our 5 star Tata, Mahindras can be so unreliable that their airbag/ESP might not even work when a crash happens. What to do with that kind of safety, that's only on paper. We should not hail mediocracy.Here is Europe, its not just 5 star cars, there are older 0 star cars also which are running without anybody getting killed in them. That's because, the roads are F-L-A-T, the driving license exams include practical courses where they make you experience a 360 deg skid while making a turn/braking in wet conditions, the road infrastructure is super and you don't find 1 person, yes, 1 person, driving dangerously on highways. That's the class and training levels of people here. Try to achieve that, not just 5 star cars. Why it matters: The X280 is a new RISC-V CPU being developed to survive the harsh conditions of outer space and let NASA scientists accomplish their next missions. Expectations are high: at least a 100x increase in computing power, while keeping the same energy consumption. NASA will soon perform a significant upgrade to the systems employed in its spaceflight computers, adopting the RISC-V architecture developed and provided under open-source licenses. NASA selected SiFive to provide the CPU cores, a fitting choice as the company headquartered in San Mateo, California was founded 7 years ago to develop RISC-V based hardware (where "V" indicates this is the fifth generation RISC instruction set) and put compatible processors on the market. SiFive is a fabless chip company, so actual production of the chips will be in the hands of Microchip Technology, a company based in Chandler, Arizona specialized in manufacturing microcontrollers, EEPROM chips, and other IC products. NASA awarded a $50 million contract to the two companies, expecting the final delivery of the new X280 CPU in a 3-year timeframe. X280 will be the computational foundation of the High Performance Spaceflight Computing (HPSC) project, NASA's initiative to design and develop new spaceflight technology capable of providing "at least" 100 times the computational capability of currently employed systems, while using the same amount of energy. X280 will replace the RAD750 processor, an aging PowerPC-based CPU manufactured by BAE Systems and employed in several NASA missions since 2005. The Mars Perseverance rover and the recently launched James Webb telescope are two of the most celebrated space endeavours made possible by the RAD750 CPU. The X280 CPU currently in development for the HPSC system will utilize 8 SiFive Intelligence RISC-V vector cores with 4 additional cores, which will provide the computational capability jump NASA is projecting before retiring today's space computers. According to SiFive, the massive increase in performance will help usher in new possibilities for autonomous rovers, vision processing, space flight, guidance systems, communication, and other mission elements in space exploration. Another paramount feature of the X280 will be its tolerance to radiation: HPSC will be specially designed to survive the harsh and hostile space environment, controlling many space activities with no possible aid from Earth and ensuring its ability to operate and provide reliable results for most critical operations. In brief: Team Red has announced a new naming convention for its mobile processors in 2023 and beyond. The new AMD naming system is meant to clarify the processor's capabilities and should be easier to decode for enthusiasts and average users. It will now be possible to know the Zen architecture of an AMD mobile processor just by looking at the name. Robert Hallock, AMD's Director of Technical Marketing, explained that the company's new naming scheme is technical yet straightforward. An enthusiast should be able to decode the number, while the average user can see that "a higher number simply connotes higher CPU performance." It's more descriptive than AMD's previous naming convention, as each digit means something. The first digit represents the processor's launch year, with AMD's Ryzen 7000 series assigned to 2023. Therefore, the 8000 series will arrive in 2024, and so forth. The second digit denotes the market segment and reveals if it's a Ryzen 3, 5, 7, or 9 (or Athlon Silver/Gold). We do see some doubling up here as an AMD Ryzen 73xx and 74xx are both Ryzen 3s, but naturally, the Ryzen 74xx would be a more powerful model. The third digit usefully reveals the CPU's Zen architecture. For example, an AMD Ryzen 7x2x is a Zen 2, whereas an AMD Ryzen 7x4x implements Zen 4. So even though we have two 7000 series processors, they are based on different Zen architectures and could substantially differ in performance. Average users could think both 7000 series CPUs are based on the new Zen 4 architecture if they overlook that third digit, so be watchful. The changes come ahead of AMD's "Mendocino" launch, expected to arrive in Q4. The 7020 series Mendocino chips are older Zen 2 architecture aimed at everyday computing. The highly anticipated Zen 4 "Dragon Range" chips will launch in 2023. Team Red's mobile lineup for 2023 includes five different SoCs with new designs and refreshed 2022 systems. The new naming scheme applies from the low-end Mendocino series through the high-end Dragon Range. We can see the third digit denoting the Zen architecture, with Phoenix and Dragon Range using the 7x4x naming convention, as both chips are based on Zen 4. In early 2022, AMD boasted an impressive growth of 49% in notebook shipments with Ryzen processors. It will be interesting to see if they can keep increasing their market share in the notebook space. (Photo : Seanbatty from Pixabay) The concept of artificial intelligence has been at the forefront of technological advancements for quite some time now, with the potential and developments in applications evolving almost every year. Despite the popularity and inception of a host of software and tech, interest in AI hasn't wavered and continues to be a hot topic for the future of working in the modern world. AI in practice Right now, AI is an integral part of our everyday lives, although many of us don't realise it. Every time you browse the web, use social media and even interact with a range of services, this type of software is being used to streamline functions, collect and analyse data, and improve the user experience. The most outstanding statistic we've come across is that AI use has grown by a staggering 270% across a myriad of sectors in the last four years. While this increase is a positive one, there are growing concerns about the future of the modern workforce, the security of personal data and much more. Tech Times explains how the EU's artificial intelligence act is moving towards countering the risks and dangers of AI. The good news is that the potential of extensive AI adoption is constructive; the focus is on the support and improvement of human work functions, consumer experience and business productivity. Current and future applications of AI The term AI is used for any advancements in the computing and tech niches that are designed to better-perform tasks and solve problems using human-like reasoning. These functions can prove beneficial for more industries than just tech, so let's take a look at the applications you can expect to see, both now and in the future. Healthcare There are so many sectors within the healthcare field that can benefit from AI incorporation. From analysing data trends and intelligent cloud storage solutions, to diagnostics and a faster, more interactive user experience for patients, AI is already being implemented and customised to meet the demands of medical environments. If you'd like to read more, this article about AI in healthcare from Tech Times can be a worthwhile read. Transportation AI is already being featured in transportation via autonomous navigation systems, with applications for cars, trains, aeroplanes and more becoming ever more prevalent. Autonomous vehicles are also being developed as we speak. Education With a focus on student's needs, there's so much potential for AI in schools and other learning facilities. AI is currently being used more and more for diagnostic testing and developing custom models, to work alongside traditional curriculum for a more worthwhile learning experience. Design There are numerous applications in the design industry that support artists, but AI can even be used to remove traditional designers from the equation altogether. As AI software is designed with human processes in mind, it can already intuitively edit photos, create logo designs and stunning works of art for personal and commercial use. Science The applications for AI in science are extremely varied, from detecting factors contributing to climate change to developing precision agriculture the list is almost endless. Can AI actually replace humans? AI is currently taking over a host of roles in the working environment, but the good news is that these are typically small, menial and require minimal creative thinking to accomplish. What AI actually does is take repetitive tasks that cost time and cause headaches, and complete them faster and with less room for error. What AI can't do is offer human interaction and the creative processes necessary for true innovation. In fact, studies of the world economic forum suggest that around 97 million new jobs are likely to be created over the next 5 years due to AI - and this is something you simply can't overlook. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. ByteDance, a Chinese company that owns TikTok, withdrew its support for its e-commerce app only nine months after its launch. The company continues to shut down struggling business units amid a slowing economy and strict regulatory environment in China. ByteDance Shuts Down Douyin Box According to SCMP, ByteDance launched Douyin Box in December 2021. On Thursday, Sept. 8, ByteDance decided to no longer update the platform, and the Douyin Box employees will be given a chance to transfer internally within the company. Before shutting down the platform, ByteDance updated the platform every nine days. The last activity of Douyin Box was on Aug. 31 when it posed on its account on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, and when it posted on Weibo on June 24. The platform is still available for download as of Thursday, Sept. 8, according to Techmeme. Also Read: TikTok Music? ByteDance Trademark Hints New Spotify, Apple Music Rival What is Douyin Box Douyin Box has an interface that is similar to Douyin. It was designed to be an extension of the video app, allowing users to watch videos and live streams from Douyin that promote merchandise, most of them targeted at young shoppers, like apparel, handbags, and cosmetics. ByteDance created Douyin Box in hopes of capturing new traffic and attracting more shoppers to its site. However, Douyin already has an online shopping feature that allows users to place orders and make payments. Since Douyin already serves as a one-stop shop, Douyin Box was deemed unnecessary. Influencers who promote their products on Douyin and Douyin Box get more traffic from the former than the latter, so most of them do not post on their Douyin Box account anymore. According to SCMP, one influencer posted a top and pair of dark blue jeans on her Douyin account, and it got 110,000 likes. Meanwhile, she posted the same thing on Douyin Box, but it got zero response. China's Worsening Economy ByteDance has been retreating from unprofitable businesses as tightened regulations, and economic downturn weigh on the Chinese internet industry. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said in early September that the country's businesses were facing more difficulties compared to 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic began. The Washington Post reported that ByteDance was downsizing its video gaming unit. It resulted in mass layoffs and the transfer of hundreds of employees. In early September, ByteDance chief executive Liang Rubo told the employees that many of the company's businesses failed to meet expectations and that ByteDance planned to reduce input into noncore businesses. ByteDance was once called the app factory of China, and it is known for its fast pace in creating and launching new apps, as well as discontinuing underperforming ones. The company had shut down Dmonstudio, a fashion shopping app, and Kesong, a social media app, just months after its launch due to underperformance. Despite the discontinuation of Douyin Box, ByteDance has doubled down on its e-commerce business elsewhere, including in Southeast Asia, where TikTok dipped into online shopping promotional campaigns. In China, ByteDance is expected to reach $143 billion in 2022. That includes the company's gross merchandise volume and measure of sales in its businesses. Related Article: ByteDance's Douyin is Currently Working on a Food Delivery Service to Rival Alibaba and Meituan This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Sophie Webster 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Tesla is getting ready to introduce a Supercharger Voting Poll Platform that will let users choose the sites of future Supercharger locations, as reported first by Teslarati. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that the manufacturer chooses the locations for its upcoming Supercharger stations based on where it believes there is the greatest need during the 2022 Shareholder Meeting, often known as the Cyber Roundup. The procedure, however, was not universally praised by the audience, who believed that the owners believed that they should have greater influence over which areas get the next Supercharger sites. Fortunately for them, the automaker heeded their requests. (Photo : Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) FREMONT, CA - AUGUST 16: Frank Chou prepares to plug the Tesla Supercharger into his Tesla Model S sedan outside of the Tesla Factory on August 16, 2013 in Fremont, California. A Poll for Supercharger Locations It is worth noting that Musk once suggested the possibility of opening a poll for the Supercharger location. He said, "Maybe we should do an online poll for where should we put Superchargers? Yeah, let's do that." Tesla owners are being urged to submit places on Twitter as the company gets ready to launch the Supercharger Poll platform. The final poll will include the places that have received the most upvotes. Supercharger Voting coming soon. Reply with location suggestions replies with the most likes will be included in the poll. pic.twitter.com/LxNVnBtvCV Tesla Charging (@TeslaCharging) September 8, 2022 Read Also: Tesla Model Y Earns Top Safety Rating From ANCAP, NCAP Is the Poll Open? Tesla has tried a number of innovative things to get its customers more active and informed about what's going on with the firm. The new Supercharger Poll platform will be one of them. Tesla debuted the "Engage" platform in March 2021 after redesigning its forums. This would provide owners with a digital base of operations for all of their activities and make it simpler for members of the Tesla community to discover what's on their minds, "take meaningful action, and stay in the loop." The company introduced the Shareholder Platform in late July, enabling investors to ask questions during earnings calls and receive notifications of SEC filings and other significant documents. Currently, Tesla runs more than 35,000 Superchargers throughout the world. However, more Supercharger stalls are required because of the surge in the use of electric vehicles, with Tesla mostly leading the way. The positioning of charging stalls will surely be improved by Tesla's new Supercharger Voting Poll platform in order to reduce congestion and boost overall availability. (Photo : Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) FREMONT, CA - AUGUST 16: Jinyao Desandies (R) and Dandre Desandies (L) plug the Tesla Supercharger into their Tesla Model S sedan outside of the Tesla Factory on August 16, 2013 in Fremont, California. Tesla Motors opened a new Supercharger station with four stalls for public use at their factory in Fremont, California. The Superchargers allow owners of the Tesla Model S to charge their vehicles in 20 to 30 minutes for free. There are now 18 charging stations in the U.S. with plans to open more in the near future. Related Article: Tesla Model 3, Model X, Model Y Holds 5-Star Euro NCAP Safety Rating Says Elon Musk, Others Earn Zero or Fail This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Joaquin Victor Tacla 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Motorola's flagship smartphone unveils to the world, and it is the global launch variant of its top-of-the-line device which saw an earlier release in China with the most powerful camera up to date. The Motorola Edge 30 brings the world's first 200-megapixel camera for the portable handheld device, also featuring the 'fastest' Snapdragon chip in the present. Motorola Edge 30: First 200MP Camera Sees Global Launch (Photo : Motorola via Twitter) The US multinational smartphone company, Motorola, set its stage in Milan, Italy for the global launch of its flagship device on Thursday, September 8 for the release of its three new phones in the world. The Motorola Edge 30 is one of the most anticipated smartphones from the brand, and it brings the first 200MP camera for all. The smartphone features a noteworthy camera system that boasts of a 200-megapixel lens for its rear camera, completing a three-camera setup that features telephoto, macro, and micro shooting capabilities. Its camera is an industry-leading resolution for all smartphone cameras available now, also featuring a claim on the "fastest" Snapdragon chip available in the market. The device features a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 said to be Qualcomm's top-tier chip to date. Read Also: Could Motorola Beat Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4? Company Drops New Teaser For RAZR 3 Ahead of August Launch Motorola Edge 30: Is It Available in the US? The Edge 30 features a curved body design coming in three variants, with a standard Motorola Edge Fusion (599), Motorola Edge Ultra (899), and the compact Motorola Edge Neo with the Pantone color of the year 2022. Motorola said that it is available for its global launch after its first release in China last August with the X30, available in Argentina, Brazil, and Europe now. It is coming later on for Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia. However, it did not mention anything regarding its release in the US or plans to have it available in the country. Motorola's Smartphones Motorola has been around for quite some time already and it is a massive American multinational company that brought significant smartphone releases in the world, with early fame throughout the 2000s era. It rivaled top brands before like Nokia, Samsung, Blackberry, LG, and other brands which commercialized cellular phone use. However, one of its most famous releases was the Motorola Razr, a folding cellphone that saw the 2019 revamp of the beloved line, now seeing a touchscreen foldable device. The company brought other standard touchscreen smartphones which provided top-tier specs and performance for the world, now featuring Android, different from its previous operating system. The company's G-variant smartphone lineup, as well as the flagship Edge models, gave the world new options for modern devices. Its latest release of the Motorola Edge 30 is a significant one for the company as it saw remarkable specifications and features that truly claim the flagship brand that represents the tech company. However, its only catch now is that it is not available in the United States, with no mentions or claims regarding its sale in the country. Related Article: Leaked Motorola Edge 30 Ultra Promo Video Says it Will Have the 'Fastest' Snapdragon Chip to Date This article is owned by TechTimes Written by Isaiah Richard 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A new report claims that five of the largest fossil fuel companies in the world may not be living up to their green promises, as per Gizmodo. The report claims that Shell, BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and TotalEnergies all spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year to appear more environmentally responsible while simultaneously investing a small amount of funds for carbon or renewable energy operations. (Photo : Omar Marques/Getty Images) JAWORZNO, POLAND - SEPTEMBER 08: Steam raises of the cooling towers of the Coal powered Jaworzno power plant on September 08, 2022 in Jaworzno, Poland. Despite being the second-largest coal producer in Europe, Poland imported 12 million tons of coal last year, two-thirds of which came from Russia and was used by households and small heating plants. The embargo on Russian coal, imposed earlier this year after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, has caused coal shortages and price rises in Poland. $750 Million for Climate Marketing According to an analysis by the UK-based climate think tank InfluenceMap, the five corporations' 2021 public communications on average contained at least one "green" claim. Some of those claims include the switching from polluting fuels to energy or that the company supports lowering emissions. However, the report finds that less than 25% of communication materials made direct mention of oil and gas. According to the report, these businesses collectively spend nearly $750 million a year on their climate marketing. The authors also note that because it excludes the employment of any outside firms for PR, marketing, or advertising, it should be seen as a conservative estimate of the total resources allotted to climate-related PR and marketing. In her interview with CNN, program manager for InfluenceMap Faye Holder said that communications spending is a part of a systematic push for these companies to present themselves as "pro-climate to the public." Read Also: [GADGET] Solar Water Heater: Why This Green Device is In-Demand? Whereabouts and Other Details Non-coordination with Paris Agreement Several businesses want to expand oil and gas output between 2021 and 2026, but the report said that none of the supermajors' projected oil production looks to be in accordance with the International Energy Agency's Net Zero Emissions by 2050 (as of Q4 2021). InfluenceMap said that none of the companies have coordinated their efforts to engage in climate policy with the Paris Agreement's objectives, and they all maintain extensive global networks of business associations that actively oppose the Paris Agreement's climate policy goals. The authors of the paper examined 3,421 pieces of public communication content from 2021, encompassing marketing, public relations, and policy engagement efforts, before drawing their results. To assess the cost of all that communication, they also examined corporate workforce data. The biggest contradiction between what firms say and what they actually do was found at Shell, which spent barely 10% of its capital budget on "low carbon" projects despite making "green claims" in 70% of its public communications. ExxonMobil is in second place, and InfluenceMap claimed to be spending only 8% on its green initiatives while making climate-friendly claims in 65% of its communications. The French-owned TotalEnergies, which will invest a quarter of its capital expenditures in "low carbon" investments in 2022, is expected to spend most of the five companies on its energy transition. InfluenceMap discovered that all four businesses, excluding TotalEnergies, were advocating for the expansion of existing fossil fuel infrastructure and extraction. Related Article: 'Wave Energy:' This Floating Spine-Like Device Generates Sea Waves Into Electricity! This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Joaquin Victor Tacla 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The world is devastated by the recent loss of United Kingdom's Queen Elizabeth II, and many renowned companies are joining in the wake of her death, with Apple remembering the life and times of the British royalty. The Cupertino giant updated its website's homepage image that centers on the historical queen who served the longest position amongst all British monarchs. Apple's Website Changes Homepage Image (Photo : Apple via Screenshot) Going to Apple's official website now will see a majestic image of Queen Elizabeth II during her early age, with the company joining the world in their mourning on the loss of Great Britain's Royal leader. Instead of seeing the latest release of the company from its recent showcase of the iPhone 14, it changed its design to showcase the memorial for the past Queen. Apple also included a short message on its website that states "In Memoriam. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. 1926 - 2022." The colorful website of Apple which previously showed the new iPhone 14 is now showing a black and white photo of the Queen on a black background on the website, something which it does not normally do for other renowned personalities who passed away. Read Also: Rumored' Nintendo Direct September Event Delay: Insiders Struggle to Get Involved After Queen's Death Commemorating the Life of Queen Elizabeth II The now-King Charles III released a statement on the death of her mother via the Royal Family's Twitter page, stating that the country and the entire family are in mourning due to this unfortunate event. Many entities in the world are joining together with Buckingham Palace and the United Kingdom to pay respects and tribute to the Queen on this day of great sadness. Queen Elizabeth II passed away at the age of 96 on September 8, 2022. The World Mourns with the UK on Queen Elizabeth II's Death The Queen of the United Kingdom is the highest seating position in the British monarchy, and Queen Elizabeth II's reign brought a significant influence on the entire world. The world is mourning with the Royal Family and the entire United Kingdom due to the loss of their leader, commemorating her life and times for what she brought to the country. Boris Johnson, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, claimed that September 8 is the "country's saddest day," the day of the Queen's death. Nevertheless, different entities and figures paid their respects to the British Royalty in the wake of her death, including Apple and other known companies in the world. Queen Elizabeth II put massive importance on technology as well, especially during her long life when she was witness to different technological advancements in the world. It is known that the Queen first made her tweet in 2014, and embraced the use of social media to address her constituents and the world. Queen Elizabeth II's passing earlier is massive news for all, particularly as it ends her almost 71-year reign over the United Kingdom, the longest time for any British monarch. Her life's work is a significant one for the UK, especially as she led the country and faced tough times, with renowned tech companies like Apple joining the country in the wake of her passing. Related Article: RIP Queen Elizabeth II: Here's How the Internet Reacted to the Queen's Death This article is owned by TechTimes Written by Isaiah Richard 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. On the initiative of the Standing Council for Gender Equality of the Parliament of Georgia and the Human Rights Protection and Civil Integration Committee, a systematic investigation into femicide is being launched.According to the report of the Parliament, a working group will be created for this purpose, which will study the issues of detection, prevention, and prevention of femicide cases, including the existing challenges and opportunities for improving the system of prevention of femicide cases.According to their reports, within the work of the working group, attention will be focused on identifying and analyzing the factors that influence the number of femicide cases. In particular, the work of state institutions and existing gaps in this direction, the standards of coverage of cases of femicide by the media, as well as the level of public awareness and its impact on the crime of femicide will be analyzed.The Gender Equality Council and Committee invite all parties interested in the protection of women's rights to participate in the work of the working group."We call for special involvement of women members of parliament. The idea of protecting women's rights has always united us to a large extent, and we believe that joint efforts will bring tangible results in this process as well," the Permanent Council for Gender Equality and the Committee for Human Rights Protection and Civil Integration said in a joint statement.Under the title "Taking away windows of opportunity to eliminate kleptocracy", the US Agency for International Development (USAID) publishes a document that includes instructions on how to eliminate kleptocracy in different countries.The document is a guide for US aid programs, for the embassy in Georgia, for donors working in "countries trapped by severe corruption".The document published by the anti-corruption working group talks about corruption in the country after "Georgian Dream" came to power, and it is noted that "after 2012, the window of opportunity against corruption and kleptocracy was closed."We read in the document that the issue should become "the basis for the implementation of specific political levers by the United States, which implies, for example, the freezing of assets of corrupt government members and the impeachment of high-ranking officials involved in corrupt schemes."Based on the evaluation of Transparency International - Georgia, the document mentions that "in Georgia, there is a state capture by an oligarch, secret business deals in Russia and impunity of corrupt officials, which is a syndrome of the Georgian government". Loan apps will soon be controlled by India's government. This decision was announced after the Finance Ministry officials met on Sept. 8. (Photo : Photo by PAU BARRENA/AFP via Getty Images) A man uses a smartphone on the first day of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) on February 26, 2018 in Barcelona. - The Mobile World Congress, the world's biggest mobile fair, is held in Barcelona from February 26 to March 1. (Photo by Pau Barrena / AFP) For the past months, Indian authorities have been trying to prevent loans and other lending applications from implementing unethical payment collection methods and exorbitant fees. The Reserve Bank of India, the country's central bank, also said it would launch new guidelines for digital lending. These new policies are expected to force loan apps to provide better transparency and disclosure, which will certainly benefit consumers. Loan Apps to be Controlled by India! According to TechCrunch's latest report, India's central bank will create a new whitelist for all legal lending applications. (Photo : Photo by George Frey/Getty Images) A person scans and downloads an app to start the process of converting their physical driver license to an official digital version to be stored on a mobile phone at a Harmons Grocery store on August 4, 2021 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Utah is the first state in the nation to start to convert and offer digital driver licenses on mobile devices. Also Read: Android 13 Updates Work Profiles, Improved Customization and Data Encryption On the other hand, the country's IT ministry said that they would ensure that the whitelisted applications are the only digital lending services that will be hosted on all app stores, such as Google Play Store and Apple App Store. "The Finance Minister expressed concern on increasing instances of Illegal Loan Apps offering loans/micro credits," said the Ministry of Finance via their official document. Meanwhile, the central bank said it would monitor "mule" accounts if they are found guilty of money laundering. Involved non-banking financial institutions will also be reviewed. If they are proven to take part in money laundering activities, their licenses can be canceled. The Rise of Lending Apps in India For the past few years, the popularity of lending applications in India has increased rapidly. This is because many of them allow customers to borrow money without needing a credit score. However, everything comes at a price. Commonly, these loan apps will use unethical means to collect borrowed money from their consumers. Because of this, India's law enforcement agencies conducted hundreds of arrests after people complained that these lending apps harassed and abused them to collect money. In other stories, Shenzhen is expected to become China's AI hub. On the other hand, rumors claimed Instagram's Shopping page was being removed. For more news updates about lending and other applications, keep your tabs open here at TechTimes. Related Article: Nextdoor Rolls Out New Features That Will Remind Users to Prevent Heated Political Discourse This article is owned by TechTimes Written by Griffin Davis 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. USPS (U.S. Postal Service) announced its new stamp featuring the popular NASA James Webb Space Telescope. The independent announced its new product on Sept. 8. (Photo : Photo credit should read JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images) A woman stands near a model of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland on April 2, 2015. AFP PHOTO/ JIM WATSON The stamp's First Day of Issue ceremony was held at the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum, in Washington, D.C. USPS Board of Governors Vice Chairman Anton Hajjar served as the dedicated official during the event, as reported by Space.Com. Check This New USPS NASA James Webb Stamp! According to USPS's official website, the new stamp was launched to celebrate the continued effort of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. (Photo : Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) A postal vehicles sits in front of a United State Postal Service facility on August 13, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois. President Donald Trump said today that he opposes additional funding for the Postal Service because the lack of additional funding would make it more difficult to deliver mail-in ballots. Also Read: NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Sets Historic Milestone With First-Ever Image of an Exoplanet "The James Webb Space Telescope orbits the sun about a million miles away from our planet. Now it will travel the United States mail system, with the launch of this new Forever stamp," said Hajjar. He added that JWST is still sending astounding images of space. The official further shared that the giant space telescope is an engineering marvel decades in the making. During the First Day of Issue ceremony, many NASA officials were also present. These include NASA Associate Administrator Robert D. Cabana, NASA Webb Telescope Deputy Observatory Project Scientist Erin Smith, and NASA Webb Optical Telescope Element Manager Lee Feinberg. Actual Look, Where To Buy, and More USPS provides the exact image for its new JWST stamp. In the picture, the large mirror panels are seen. But, instead of showing the yellow color of the mirrors, the USPS stamp's version reflects the stars and other bright space objects that the space telescope sees. On the other hand, there's also the text "USA/FOREVER" at the left corner of the stamp. At the bottom right corner, you will see the text "Webb Space Telescope." If you are interested in buying one, you can visit USPS's official online store. Once you are there, you will see that the price for this new stamp is $12. You can visit this link to see further details about the new USPS JWST stamp. Previously, hackers allegedly used a JWST image to spread malware. Just recently, NASA James Webb captured a perfect shot of an "Einstein Ring." For more news updates about the new USPS JWST stamp and other new postal stickers, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes. Related Article: USPS' E-Cargo Bikes Are Currently Being Tested After Gas-Guzzler Mail Truck Fallout This article is owned by TechTimes Written by Griffin Davis 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. On Thursday, Sept. 8, US authorities and blockchain analyst Chainalysis recovered $30 million in cryptocurrency stolen from the online video game Axie Infinity in March. The recovered funds are just a fraction of the $625 million lost by Axie Infinity to Lazarus Group. This North Korean hacking entity has been behind several crypto thefts in the past few years. Recovered Stolen Crypto According to a blog post by Erin Plante, senior director of investigations at Chainalysis, this is the first time that crypto stolen by the Lazarus Group has been recovered. The North Korean-linked group used Tornado Cash to launder the proceeds of Axie Infinity. After the incident, the US Treasury Department sanctioned Tornado Cash for facilitating money laundering, forcing them to employ alternative techniques. Tornado Cash now uses blockchain bridges to easily change between different types of digital coins to help obscure the source of their funds, and analysts have the tools to trace the cross-chain movements. Also Read: Hacker Gang Lazarus Targets Web3 Developers on Mac Devices: Fake Coinbase Job Offer According to Engadget, the US authorities and Chainalysis only retrieved $30 million of stolen crypto funds, and most of the stolen funds remain in the blockchain. Bleeping Computer also reported that the news about the fund retrieval was announced at the AxieCon event. The recovered fund will be moved into Axie infinity's treasury and back to its player community. Who is the Lazarus Group? According to NCC Group, Lazarus Group has operated for more than ten years. It is behind several cyber incidents like the hack on Sony Pictures in 2014 and the spread of the WannaCry ransomware in 2017. The Lazarus Group is financially motivated and is helping boost the North Korean economy. Since the hackers have the government's support, they do not face any risk of prosecution in North Korea. In June, North Korean hackers were behind the $100 million Harmony crypto heist. According to Fortune, the attack drained the Harmony Bridge device, which enables crypto assets to be traded between the Harmony blockchain and other blockchains. The Lazarus Group converted the stolen assets to 85,837 ETH following the hack and, on June 27, began sending some of the cryptos through Tornado Cash. Around 41% of the stolen funds were sent to Tornado Cash. On Thursday, Sept. 8, threat intelligence company Cisco Talos said that Lazarus Group targeted unnamed energy providers in the US, Canada, and Japan between February and July. According to TechCrunch, the hackers used a vulnerability in Log4j, or Log4Shell, to compromise internet-exposed VMware Horizon servers to establish a foothold onto its victim's enterprise network. Once the VMware Horizon was compromised, the hackers deployed bespoke malware known as VSingle and YamaBot to establish persistent access. Cisco Talos also revealed that an unknown remote access trojan named MagicRAT attributed to Lazarus Group, which the hackers use for stealing credentials. Cisco Talos said that the main goal of the Lazarus Group is to establish long-term access into its victim's networks to conduct espionage operations in support of North Korean government objectives. Related Article: Lazarus Group and APT38 Hackers Confirmed to be Behind $620 Million Ethereum Crypto Heist This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Sophie Webster 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. North Korea's new defense law has been confirmed. This was announced by the NoKor Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un. (Photo : Photo by Anthony Kwan/Getty Images) An impersonator of North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un makes a gesture during a protest at the International Finance Center shopping mall on April 28, 2020 in Hong Kong, China. The new law arrived while rumors regarding North Korea's alleged nuclear test preparations. Many observers claimed that the country is planning to resume its nuke testings for the first time since 2017. These claims started appearing when former U.S. President Donald Trump failed to persuade the North Korean leader to remove their nuclear defense weapons. North Korea's New Defense Law to Maintain Country's Nuclear Tech According to The Strait Times' latest report, the Supreme People's Assembly of North Korea passed the new law on Thursday, Sept. 8. (Photo : Photo by JUNG YEON-JE/AFP via Getty Images) People watch a television news screen showing file footage of a North Korean missile launch, at a railway station in Seoul on October 2, 2019. - North Korea fired two missiles into the sea on October 2, a day after Washington and Pyongyang announced they would resume stalled nuclear talks later this week. Also Read: US Navy's E-2D Advanced Hawkeye Will Serve as a Game-Changing 'Digital Quarterback' Aircraft for Military Missions "The utmost significance of legislating nuclear weapons policy is to draw an irretrievable line so that there can be no bargaining over our nuclear weapon," said Kim Jong Un. Before the new rule was approved, the North Korean government already considered itself a nuclear weapons country. However, the latest policy aims to expand the use of nuclear technologies. This new law outlines when can an Asian country activate its nukes, such as to prevent an invasion or as a response to the attacks of other countries. Based on these details, the new law will serve as a powerful legal guarantee that North Korea will remain a nuclear weapons state. No More Nuclear Weapon Sharing? CNN Edition reported that the new nuclear policy would also ban sharing nuclear technologies with other nations. Since the law is quite serious, the Russian Foreign Ministry said it would closely monitor the military activities of the Asian country. On the other hand, U.S. President Joe Biden said that he could talk with Kim Jong Un at any time at any place. You can view this link for further details about North Korea's new nuclear law. In other news, the new space weapons of Russia and China prompted the U.S. Pentagon to conduct a confidential meeting. Meanwhile, the U.S. intelligence assessment alleged Russia of purchasing rockets from North Korea. For more news updates about North Korea's nuclear techs and other similar defense topics, keep your tabs open here at TechTimes. Related Article: South Korea's US THAAD Missiles to Remain At Bay, China Urges for No Additional Defense Systems This article is owned by TechTimes Written by Griffin Davis 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. (Photo : Unsplash/ Jeremy Bezanger) covid-19 vaccine A 27-year-old Chinese national named Yang Fei was sentenced on Friday, Sept. 9, to four weeks in jail after he pleaded guilty to a charge of cheating by personation. Fei was accused of stealing his co-worker's TraceTogether token to gain access to malls in Singapore. Although he was vaccinated against COVID-19, his token did not reflect his status since he was vaccinated in China. He did not update his vaccination status at the National Immunization Registry. Man Sentenced for Stealing TraceTogether Token According to The Straits Times, Fei tried to bribe his co-worker with $100 in cash and a pack of cigarettes when his co-worker reported him to the police. He also tried to persuade his co-worker to flee to Malaysia. Fei flew to Singapore in 2021 and worked at Fuxiang Technology, a semiconductor supplier. He received the Sinovac vaccine before he traveled, but his TraceTogether token did not reflect his vaccination status. Since he failed to update his vaccination records, he was not allowed to enter any establishments where vaccination-differentiated safe management measures were in place. Also Read: Apple and Google's Contract COVID-19 Tracing Apps Cannot Be Mandatory, Silicon Valley Claims How Fei Stole the TraceTogether Token In December 2021, Fei met his 19-year-old co-worker Wan Meng. They went to Marina Bay Sands, where Wan let Fei use his TraceTogether token. Fei then continued using Wan's token multiple times, like going to the mall to eat. When Fei stopped returning Wan's calls, the 19-year-old filed a police report saying that Fei stole his token. The police interviewed Fei, who was told he was being investigated for cheating by personation. After he was released, Fei met up with Wan and bribed him with $100 in cash and a pack of cigarettes, according to Today Online. Fei tried to persuade Wan to escape to Malaysia since the police investigation won't push through if one of them was not present. The 27-year-old man revealed that he could have escaped to Malaysia himself, but the police impounded his passport. Fei did not realize that Wan had recorded their entire conversation on his phone, and he immediately went to the police station to report the incident. In January, District Judge Lim Sze Haw sentenced Fei to four weeks in jail after he pleaded guilty to cheating by personation. The judge said that the reason why the harm intended by Fei did not materializes was not because he withdrew his offer but because Wan refused to accept it. Wan will also face sentencing later as he is accused of obstructing the course of justice. If proven guilty, he can be jailed for up to seven years and fined. What is TraceTogether? TraceTogether is a digital system implemented by the government of Singapore to make contact tracing easier and faster. The system was launched in 2020, during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The main goal of the system is to identify the people who may have come into close contact with those who tested positive for COVID-19. According to CNA, the Singaporean government allowed its citizens to deactivate the system in early 2022 when COVID-19 cases decreased. Related Article: Is Coronavirus App Safe? How Australia's COVIDSafe App Certifies Safety on Users' Personal Data This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Sophie Webster 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Forgot that there are other people: corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences - about the life of non-contact tribes National Childrens Commissioner Anne Hollonds has called for smacking to be made illegal as data shows children who have seen and experienced physical abuse are more than nine times more likely to use violence in the home. Her comments came in response to new research that showed children who are smacked are more likely to use violence against their family, mainly their siblings and mothers, in adolescence. Other recent research has shown smacked children face increased risk of mental health conditions or self-harm. One in five of 5021 young people (aged 16 to 20) surveyed by the national womens safety research body, ANROWS, said they had used violence against a family member. Of those, 89 per cent had experienced abuse, including smacking. Australias Childrens Commissioner has called for laws permitting the smacking of children to be repealed. In March, Wales became the 64th country to ban smacking or slapping children, repealing Victorian-era laws permitting reasonable punishment, after a two decades-long anti-smacking campaign. A former senior staffer to National Australia Bank chief executives has told a court she became dependent on a Sydney businesswoman who gave her a string of luxury gifts while allegedly defrauding the bank of millions. Rosemary Rogers, a former NAB employee who rose in the ranks from a teller in 1995 to chief of staff to the CEO from 2009 to 2017, continued giving evidence on Friday in the NSW District Court trial of businesswoman Helen Rosamond. Helen Rosamond outside the Downing Centre District Court in Sydney on Friday. Credit:Oscar Colman Rogers has told the court she approved fraudulent and inflated invoices from Rosamonds event management company, Human Group, which organised conferences and leadership retreats among other events for the bank. Those invoices allegedly covered Rosamonds personal expenses, including $228,747 for an interior designer to furnish her Potts Point home, as well as gifts for Rogers. The former NAB staffer has said she received a house deposit, a BMW, a boat, overseas holidays and trips to the luxury Wolgan Valley resort in NSW, among other gifts. Barnett fondly remembers the Queens humour at the state reception for her at Government House. I presented the Queen with a beautiful book with botanical drawings by Philippa Nikulinsky, and she was quite taken with that, he said. But when I was announcing it, I sort of fumbled on the name. Prince Philip said, there she is she was right down in front and someone yelled out, Nikulinsky! Then I sat down and I was sitting next to the Queen while the rest of the ceremony was going on, and about three minutes later, she just leant across right into my face and said, one of those difficult names wasnt it. Malcolm McCusker, who was governor during the CHOGM visit, told Radio 6PR he had first seen the Queen in person when he was just a schoolboy, watching on as she proceeded in a cavalcade down Stirling Highway. He said he never had the faintest idea he would sit down for lunch with her and the Duke. When she and the Duke arrived and proceeded to Government House, the streets were lined with people cheering and clapping, he said. We met her at the steps, thats my wife, Tanya, and my 3-year-old daughter Mary, who presented her with a bouquet, and she was very charming. We were honoured to have lunch, just the four of us on one occasion, with her and the Duke and during that lunch, she spoke in a very friendly and disarming way. There was nothing pompous about either her or the Duke. She spoke about the fondness that shed had for Western Australia. McCusker said the Queen had been interested in learning about the medical research which WA was conducting at the time. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh are farewelled by Governor of Western Australia Malcolm McCusker. Credit:Getty Images When she returned to England, she sent me a beautiful, handwritten one-page letter thanking us. Thats not just me and my wife, but Western Australia, for the time that she had here, the wonderful welcome shed received from Perth, he said. While Queen Elizabeths visits to WA are etched into the memory of many West Australians, a physical presence remains. Elizabeth Quay was named in her honour as the site of the Great Aussie BBQ and a redgum tree she planted during her visit in March 1954 stands tall in Kings Park. West Australians offered the chance to say goodbye Public wishing to offer their condolences to the Royal Family have been given the opportunity to lay a floral wreath at Government House and sign a state condolence book. Governor Chris Dawson, who was only sworn into the role as the Queens representative in two months ago, said he was notified of her death just after midnight. For Western Australians, this news has been received with a heavy heart. Her Majesty the Queen had a great love and affection for the people of Western Australia and visited seven times, he said. Premier Mark McGowan said on behalf of the people of Western Australia, he extended deepest sympathies to the Royal Family as they grieved the loss. WA Premier Mark McGowan pays tribute to Queen Elizabeth II by laying a wreath at Government House. Credit:Hamish Hastie The Late Majesty has been a tower of strength ever since she became Queen at the age of 25 after her father passed away in 1952, he said. During her 70-year reign she has been a constant presence during an era of great change in her kingdom and around the world. Most Western Australians have never known another monarch ... she led the Commonwealth through some of the darkest days and will forever be an inspiration to the world and Western Australia. As we mourn her passing, more information will be released shortly on how Western Australians can pay tribute. May she rest in peace. Loading Shadow defence minister and WA MP Andrew Hastie said the Queen was a woman of strength, humility and duty. Like many Australians, I grew up conscious of her quiet presence, he said. As a boy, I studied her dignity and grace. At the dinner table, my mother would urge us to eat as if Her Majesty was seated with us. Its a strange thing to feel true grief about the death of someone you do not know but I born in the Republic of Italy, raised in Australia and republican in spirit felt viscerally the moment of the Queens demise. On Thursday afternoon, as the full, ominous import of the Palaces doctors are concerned statement sank in and the BBC suspended normal programming, the entire nation seemed to be holding its breath in a mix of disbelief and raw sadness. The Queen was impressed by the corgi-in-a-crown outfit worn by Kathy Lette during a royal reception for Australians living in the UK in 2011. Credit:PA/Getty Tiny, fragile, and yet smiling and seemingly in good spirits, the Queen had been seen on the countrys TV screens just 48 hours earlier as she invited Liz Truss, the 15th prime minister of her reign, to form a government. At 6.30pm, when the unfathomable and yet inevitable announcement had to be made formally to the nation, the BBCs unflappable Huw Edwards breathed deeply and paused, as if in doubt, before swallowing the lump in his throat. Like electrons orbiting protons, playwrights seem to have an innate attraction to physics. In recent years we've seen Nick Payne's Constellations (about the multiverse), Simon Stephens's Heisenberg (inspired by that physicist's "uncertainty principle"), and now Carol Bugge's Strings Attached, which is playing at Theatre Row under the banner of Pulse Theatre. What is the source of this obsession? I think I'm ready to propose a theory but first, the play. It's about cosmologist June (Robyne Parrish), who is married to cosmologist George (Paul Schoeffler), but who is also sleeping with particle physicist Rory (Brian Richardson). The three share an incredibly spacious (yet uncomfortably tense) train compartment from Cambridge to London to see the West End production of Michael Frayn's Copenhagen (a play about a meeting between physicists Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberghim again). During the one-hour ride secrets are revealed, painful memories exhumed, and the theory of the ekpyrotic universe is devised. Bugge was inspired by the actual train ride shared by Burt Ovrut, Paul Steinhardt, and Neil Turok, who really did come up with the radical merger of String Theory and M Theory that completely upended the concept of the Big Bang although I'm not sure their out-of-the-lab relationship was ever quite as sexy as depicted here. Paul Schoeffler plays George, Jonathan Hadley plays Isaac Newton, Russell Saylor plays Max Planck, and Bonnie Black plays Marie Curie in Carol Bugge's Strings Attached, directed by Alexa Kelly, for Pulse Theatre at Theatre Row. ( John Quilty) Over the course of the play, our randy scientists are visited by the ghosts of physics past: Isaac Newton (Jonathan Hadley), Marie Curie (Bonnie Black), and Max Planck (Russell Saylor). The personal fuses with the professional across space and time as the physics metaphors fly at us with the intensity of the Large Hadron Collider. "Maybe I'd be an electron being shared by a couple of big, strong atoms," June coos when asked what particle she would be. It's an answer that seems a little too obvious for a woman trying to keep her affair on the down-low; but then again, it's a question I'm not sure any of these published scientists would ever ask one another. Bugge has a capacious imagination verging on the hyperactive: You're just processing a bad physics joke when a character launches into a monologue about subatomic membranes. Flip charts are used to explain the "double slit" experiment and Schrodinger's cat (that macabre metaphor that refuses to dieor maybe it's already dead). It might all make for a thrillingly cerebral evening of theater if it built up to something rather than bouncing between soap opera and physics lecture, like a channel-surfing shut-in. Paul Schoeffler plays George, and Russell Saylor plays Ukrainian Man in Carol Bugge's Strings Attached, directed by Alexa Kelly, for Pulse Theatre at Theatre Row. ( John Quilty) An earlier version of the play, simply called Strings, seems to have suffered from similar problems. Bugge's addition of comic relief in the form of an absurd Ukrainian couple and an equally absurd American couple (both played by Black and Saylor) has only complicated an already very busy script. The performers do their best to convey complex scientific concepts in ways that are dramatically engaging (Parrish is particularly good at this). Unfortunately, most of the male actors have adopted distractingly plummy English accents that seem to place their characters somewhere between Leicester and Lannisport. Director Alexa Kelly drives the play at breakneck speed, narrowly averting derailment. Jessica Parks's train carriage set gets the job done and is greatly enhanced by the whiz of a train passing in the other direction, as ominously created by Joyce Liao (lights) and Louis Lopardi (sound). Elena Vannoni's realistic costumes (rumpled jackets, mismatched pants) temporarily lull us into believing these people could actually be academics but, of course, they always resume talking. Robyne Parrish plays June, and Brian Richardson plays Rory in Carol Bugge's Strings Attached, directed by Alexa Kelly, for Pulse Theatre at Theatre Row. ( John Quilty) You know that we're heading nowhere good when the actors line up along the edge of the stage to shout evocative imagery and platitudes. "Socialized medicineThe return of liberalismMultiple orgasmsThe outlawing of junk mail," our physicists begin listing their deepest desires, like heavily medicated participants in an Upper West Side community board meeting. "I believe in the scientific method," June pledges sincerely. Of course, the thing about the scientific method is that it doesn't require you to believe. It asks for proof. That may be what is so seductive to dramatists about physics, the branch of science that brushes most intimately against the big questions. It seems to hold out the promise of conclusive proof of the wonderous, to distill existence in an equation and foresee fate in a theorem religion without the squishiness of faith. Actual physicists make no such claims, despite the grand pronouncements of their imitators on the stage. And as Strings Attached demonstrates, trying to force physics into the role of religion leaves us with pithy cliches better suited to a greeting card than scripture much less a scientific journal. 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. Children's books are pictured during a news conference after five people were arrested on suspicion of conspiring to publish "seditious material" with the intent of inciting public hatred towards the authorities among children in Hong Kong on July 22, 2021. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters) 5 in Hong Kong Found Guilty of Sedition Over Childrens Books Five Hong Kong speech therapists were found guilty on Wednesday of a conspiracy to publish seditious childrens books, a decision denounced by rights campaigners as a blow to free speech in the city. The five were accused of publishing three picture books, featuring cartoons of sheep and wolves, which government prosecutors alleged had spread separatism and stirred up hatred and opposition to the authorities. Lorie Lai, Melody Yeung, Sidney Ng, Samuel Chan, and Marco Fong, aged between 25 and 28, had pleaded not guilty and chose not to testify nor summon any witnesses. They will be sentenced on Saturday. All were members of the General Union of Hong Kong Speech Therapists. The picture books referenced actual events, including the citys mass pro-democracy 2019 protests, as well as 12 pro-democracy protesters who fled Hong Kong by speedboat in 2020 and were captured by the Chinese Coastguard. In one book, wolves want to occupy a village and eat the sheep, who in turn start to fight back. Childrens books are pictured during a news conference after five people were arrested on suspicion of conspiring to publish seditious material with the intent of inciting public hatred towards the authorities among children, in Hong Kong, on July 22, 2021. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters) It is the first time that a seditious publications case has gone to trial since the 2019 protests and the imposition of a national security law on Hong Kong by Beijing in 2020. In a written summary, District Court judge Kwok Wai Kin said all three books were seditious, not merely from the words but from the words with the proscribed effects intended in the mind of the children. They will be told that in fact, they are the sheep, and the wolves who are trying to harm them are the PRC Government and the Hong Kong Government, wrote Kwok, who is on a panel of national security judges selected by the citys leader. The books were available for free at several local bookstores and digital versions circulated online. Government prosecutor Laura Ng said the books had elements which might incite hatred against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Defense lawyers had argued that the sheep and wolves in the books were fictional and the sedition allegation is too broad and cause a chilling effect on freedoms. Anson Wong, a defense lawyer for Sidney Ng, cited a report by the United Nations Human Rights Committee, which had urged authorities to repeal the security law and avoid its use in sedition cases as there was an overly broad interpretation and an arbitrary application of the law. Another defense lawyer, Robert Pang, told the court that if people were barred from presenting different narratives of an event, then truth would be hidden. Everyone is entitled to have their own opinions and how the particular set of facts is interpreted. There are many different views of how historical events are to be seen. Critics say that authorities have used the British colonial-era sedition offenses as a tool to silence legitimate criticism of the authorities, and to stifle free speech. In a statement after the conviction, human rights group Amnesty International called for the immediate release of the five, saying the use of archaic sedition laws was a brazen act of repression. Writing books for children is not a crime, and attempting to educate children about recent events in Hong Kongs history does not constitute an attempt to incite rebellion, it said. The Hong Kong government did not immediately respond to Reuters questions for comment. This video is brought to you by Sekur: https://ept.ms/3yW0Wul In this episode, Roman sat down with Papa John Schnatter, founder of Papa Johns Pizza, to discuss why it seems like most public companies eventually turn progressive if they remain in business long enough. Schnatter attributes this phenomenon to a lack of courage on the part of business leaders who are more concerned with negative PR than with supporting their values. Schnatter believes that progressives make up a vocal minority set on ruining Americas foundational traditions along with the minds of its children in a sinister plot to degrade the country to the point where Americans will be forced to turn toward supporting a globalist economy. The conversation turned toward Schnatters thoughts on the potential for coming food shortages and price spikes while providing his recommendations for how we as Americans can reclaim our food autonomy from the handful of corporations that currently dominate the processed food industry. BUY Jan 6 DVD: https://www.epochtv.shop/product-page/dvd-the-real-story-of-january-6, Promo Code Roman for 20% off. Stay tuned for our newsletter so you wont miss out on our exclusive videos and private events. Listen to Podcasts: iTunes Podcast: https://ept.ms/FactsMatterApplePodcast Spotify Podcast: https://ept.ms/FactsMatterSpotifyPodcast Google Podcast: https://ept.ms/FactsMatterGooglePodcast Follow Facts Matter on social media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/FactsMatterRB Truth Social: https://truthsocial.com/@FactsMatterRoman Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/factsmatterrb Gab: https://gab.com/factsmatterroman Telegram: https://t.me/FactsMatter_Roman Instagram: @epoch.times.roman Click the Save button below the video to access it later on My List. Queen Elizabeth II passed away at the age of 96. Her son Charles will succeed her on the throne. We look back at the queens reign, and what the future holds for the British monarchy. Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon pleaded not guilty to new state charges on Sept. 8. He says the indictment is politically motivated. Michigans high court has put the abortion question on the November ballot. Voters will determine whether to place legal access to abortion in the Michigan Constitution. Topics in this episode include: 1. Queen Elizabeth II Dies, Ending Longest British Reign 2. Queen Met With 14 Presidents 3. Prince Charles to Become King 4. Whats Next for the British Monarchy? 5. Bannon Pleads Not Guilty in New Indictment 6. Michigan High Court Puts Abortion on Ballot 7. Hurricane Kay Weakens to Tropical Storm 8. Air Force Master Sergeant Remembers 9/11 9. North Korea Issues New Nuclear Force Law 10. UK Plans Energy Price Cap 11. Floating LNG Gas Terminal Opens in the Netherlands 12. College Student Adopts Abandoned Baby 13. National Teddy Bear Day 14. Police Evict Cake-Eating Bear From Kitchen * 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 Arabs to Biden: Do Not Sign the Iran Deal, It Will Start a War Originally published by Gatestone Institute Commentary The talk about an imminent revival of the nuclear deal between Iran and the Biden administration and other Western countries has raised serious concerns among many Arabs. They state that they are especially worried about the billions of dollars that Irans mullahs will receive once the deal is done. The Arabs say they have no doubt that the money would be used by the mullahs to promote more terrorism and violence and expand Tehrans terrorist proxies in the Middle East, including Hezbollah, the Houthis, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and various militias in Iraq. The Arabs will be shocked when the details of the new nuclear deal are published, wrote Sayed Zahra, deputy editor of Bahrains Akhbar Al-Khaleej. He noted that before the state of shock engulfs the Arabs, they need to take in mind a number of facts that are related to the impending nuclear deal. First, the agreement was made primarily at the insistence of the Biden administration, which has been desperate to reach it, Zahra wrote. The Biden administration thinks that it is in dire need of the agreement today to present it as one of its great accomplishments. Second, it was the US, not Iran, that initiated the concessions to facilitate reaching the agreement. A few days ago, US officials announced that it was Iran, not America, that had given up core demands. They lie. Iran has not given up on anything essential. On the contrary, Iran has obtained the essential demands it wants. Third, the most dangerous concession made by the US was to waive the inclusion of Irans expansionist terrorist role in the region, its threats to the security and stability of Arab countries, the terrorist subversive role that Irans proxy militias play in the Arab countries, and the issue of the Iranian missile program. Fourth, the agreement will provide huge financial resources to the Iranian regime as a result of the lifting of sanctions and the rush of Western countries to deal with it. Zahra said that the Arabs also need to take into consideration that, with a green light from the Biden administration, the agreement would give a very big impetus for the Iranian regime to escalate its terrorist aggression against the Arab countries and to redouble its funding to the militias affiliated with it to advance its agenda of undermining the security and stability of these countries. He also warned that the agreement would mark the beginning of a new era of complete American disregard for the interests of the Arab countries. These are the basic facts that we must be aware of before we are shocked, Zahra added. Based on these facts, the Arab countries are supposed to decide what they will do and how they will deal with the coming danger. Earlier, echoing the sentiments of many other Arab political analysts and columnists, he wrote that Biden has decided to bow to Iran. Why did he do this even though he is fully aware of Arab fears and demands, which he heard directly, firmly and clearly during his recent visit to Saudi Arabia from all Arab leaders? It is understood that Biden wants to get the nuclear deal signed in light of his and his administrations declining popularity and the upcoming mid-term elections to Congress that the Democrats fear losing. In other words, he wants to present the new nuclear deal as a diplomatic victory achieved by his administration. Zahra pointed out that Biden was basically following in the footsteps of former President Barack Obama, who struck the 2015 deal with the mullahs. The truth is that this is an American strategic choice, and it was not born today, Zahra argued. Rather, it was decided years ago, specifically since former US President Obama was in power. Biden is following his path and is fully convinced of this option. Obama is the one who decided that Americas strategic interest is to be in collusion with Iran and in total disregard of the Arabs fears and demands. He [Obama] did not hide his hatred of Arabs and his admiration for Iran. What Biden is doing today is following the same path, with full conviction on his part. Syrian author Ibrahim Allush commented on the news about an imminent deal by expressing fear that his country would pay a heavy price. Allush pointed out that the Syrians have been hit harder by the Iranians than anyone else. Referring to the presence of Iranian security officials and Iranian-backed militiamen in his country, Allush wrote: The Syrians are today hungry and displaced. Syria has been taken hostage by a regime that is affiliated with the Iranians and Russians. The Iranians and their allies are spreading the illusion of liberation and resistance, while in fact they spread terrorism. The Iranian regime, with its practices, does not differ from the Taliban regime or from Islamic State (ISIS). Terrorism, destabilization, and domination of people are almost the only goals of such regimes. Allush warned that a return to the nuclear deal would mean refinancing the mullahs regime and its militias with billions of dollars annually. The signing of the Iranian nuclear agreement may be a partial solution to the oil and gas crises caused by Russian President Vladimir Putins war against the Ukrainian people. But it will not be a solution that brings peace to Syria. Iran, which incites terrorism in the region, will be happy with the return of its generous funding, and we Syrians will suffer. We oppose this agreement, despite all our difficult circumstances, because it will bring more money to the Assad regime and its intelligence system, as well as to the Iranian militias that participate with it in committing crimes against the Syrians. Lebanese journalist Abdul Wahab Badrakhan suggested that instead of paying attention to the mullahs policies and actions in the region, the Biden administration chose to appease Iran so that it could bargain with it on the nuclear issue. America aspired to some partnership with Tehran in confronting China, knowing that it would not happen . It bet on Tehrans neutrality in the Ukraine war, only to be surprised by the drone deals with Russia. The US ignored the concerns of the Gulf states and other Arab countries. Washington has been very late in holding Iran accountable, or at least trying to hold it accountable for the systematic sabotage that it has practiced and is practicing in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Gaza. This is the largest international sabotage operation that the Security Council has not been able to consider. None of the Security Council resolutions related to the regions crises mentions Iran, even though its role is essential in tampering with the four countries and destroying their institutions. Saudi political analyst Abdullah Bin Bijad Al-Otaibi wrote that the fears of the Arab countries regarding the nuclear agreement are completely valid. These fears, Al-Otaibi noted, are not limited to Irans nuclear weapon, but also to interference in the internal affairs of Arab countries and the spread of fundamentalist and terrorist militias and organizations. The Arabs also worried about the mullahs efforts to export their terrorism to other countries. Once the bad nuclear agreement is signed, Iran will get billions of dollars and the region will witness renewed chaos, instability and terrorism . The Iranian threat will not only be directed towards the countries of the region, but will move to all countries of the world, including Western ones. Many peoples will suffer the consequences of this. Including the Western peoples, without a doubt. Egyptian author Emil Amin also expressed concern that the mullahs would use the billions of dollars they are about to receive under the new deal to support their terrorist militias and proxies. Iran will not give up its dream of acquiring nuclear weapons, Amin wrote. It has come a long way and is close to the finish line. President Bidens administration is trying to create an image in the eyes of the Americans that Irans return to the nuclear agreement will bring it under control. Washington appears to be in a weak and precarious position, especially in light of the absence of an armed option. In any event, Iranian intentions remain unchanged with or without an agreement, and the countries of the region must evaluate the situation in a way that suits their combined national security capabilities. Saudi commentator Mashar Al-Thaydi wrote that the Gulf states and other Arab countries, including Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, are directly concerned about the future once a deal is reached with Iran. Noting that the mullahs have long been playing a negative role in the internal affairs of these Arab countries, Al-Thaydi asked: For how long will we be watching this absurd play between the West and Iran, while we, Irans neighbors, are concerned with what will happen with this [Iranian] regime? Obama gave this regime money and legitimacy in exchange for so-called guarantees to slow down, but not prevent, the non-peaceful nuclear program. Today, Biden, and more correctly, the former Obama team, are trying to reassure those who are supposed to be Washingtons allies in the region. But if these billions flow into the coffers of the Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Quds Force, how will Washington guarantee the security of these countries? Lebanese columnist Rafik Khoury warned that the Biden administration is repeating non-stop self-deception as the mullahs themselves continue to practice deception. The administration of President Joe Biden is repeating the failed experiment that was also already tested by the administration of Barack Obama It is acting on the basis that returning to the nuclear agreement achieves three goals: [supposedly] to prevent Iran from becoming a military nuclear power, to transform the [Iranian] regime to moderation by engaging with it, and the perception that the improvement of the economic situation in Iran strengthens the reformists. According to Khoury, as long as the return to the agreement is confined to the nuclear file and nothing else, the scenario as drawn by the mullahs and their agents in the region is worrying . Tehran gets everything it wants, and completes everything it does. There will be no restriction on Irans ballistic missile program, no limit to Iranian influence in the region, no halt to its destabilizing behavior, no exit from Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, and no retreat from arming the Houthis in Yemen and providing them with more missiles and drones that are being launched at civilian targets in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Will Washington abandon the vital American interests as well as the interests of its allies and friends? The difficult test for America and its commitments to its allies and friends in the Middle East begins immediately after the signing of the nuclear agreement. The Arab countries, whose confidence in the Americans has declined, will face another test: confronting Iranian expansion, regardless of what America does. The closer that the Biden administration moves towards the mullahs in Tehran, the more the United States loses credibility in the Arab world. The Arabs seem to have lost confidence in the Biden administration, which is why they are now talking about the need to take matters into their own hands and try to stop Iran from endangering their security and stability. The Arabs also appear convinced that that pouring billions of dollars on the mullahs will eventually bring terrorism and violence to the U.S. and the other Western powers involved in the new deal, if not a major war. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Mururoa, FRENCH POLYNESIA: (Files) This picture taken in 1970 shows a French nuclear test at Mururoa, French Polynesia. Researchers have established a link between France's nuclear tests over the Pacific ocean in the late 1960s and the high incidence of thyroid cancer in Polynesia. France carried out some 40 atmospheric atomic tests in Polynesia from 1966 to 1974. After that its tests were carried out underground. AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read -/AFP/Getty Images) Australia, US Need to Prepare for Possible Nuclear Attack: Report The Australian government should prepare for the prospect of a nuclear attack from Russia or China a new report says. The report, called The Geopolitical Implications of Russias Invasion of Ukraine says northern Australia is at greater risk now due to the collapse of the European strategic order, which he says could escalate into a wider major war in Europe involving China. The risk of nuclear war is now higher than at any time since the Cold War, said Prof. Paul Dibb of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. At the height of that ideological stand-off, there were much more rigorous arms control agreements between the U.S. and the USSR, as well as a web of other formal and informal modes of communication and signalling, which dont exist in the same way now as a deterrent to the threat of the use of nuclear weapons. Russian authorities have made it clear that Pine Gap is a priority target. We need to understand what the implications would be for Alice Springs, which is a town of 32,000 people only 18 kilometres from the base, he wrote. Pine Gap is a joint military facility in the Northern Territory. It is a critical communication hub for Western allies and is vital to the United States and the United Kingdom. World Solar Challenge a 3000 km solar-powered vehicle race between Darwin and Adelaide. (Mark Evans/Getty Images for SATC) Dibb called on the federal government to begin serious discussions with the U.S. on how democratic allies could deter a nuclear attack. We need to plan on the basis that Pine Gap continues to be a nuclear target, and not only for Russia. If China attacks Taiwan, Pine Gap is likely to be heavily involved. We need to remember that Pine Gap is a fundamentally important element in U.S. war fighting and deterrence of conflict. NATO Essential to Asia-Pacific Security Dibb also called for the federal government to become more involved in NATO as Europe and Australia now basically agree about Chinas attempts at global dominance. This comes after NATO declared in April it would engage the Asia-Pacific region to counteract Beijings growing influence and economic coercion. Read More NATO to Engage in Asia-Pacific to Counter China Following a meeting of NATO foreign affairs ministers on April 7, the pacts Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the global implications of the Ukrainian conflict pushed the organisation to step up its engagement with Asia-Pacific for the first time. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg gestures during a news conference at the alliances headquarters in Brussels on July 5, 2022. (Yves Herman/Reuters) We have seen that China is unwilling to condemn Russias aggression. And Beijing has joined Moscow in questioning the right of nations to choose their own path, Stoltenberg said. This is a serious challenge to us all. And it makes it even more important that we stand together to protect our values. Dibbs said that the change in stance from NATO was welcome as it reinforces Australias view of our own strategic environment and identifies China as our major strategic challenge, now combined with the threat from the de facto alliance of Russia and China. The defence expert also warned that the U.S. could find itself facing a two-front nuclear war and recommended that Australia engage more closely with NATO to share strategic analysis, including defence contingencies, for security in the Indo-Pacific. Senior Americans, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledge that, if push comes to shove, Washington will for the first time face the threat of a two-front contingency of nuclear war, Dibbs wrote. If the ChinaRussia military partnership continues its upward trend, that will inevitably affect the international security order, including by challenging the system of U.S.-centred alliances in the AsiaPacific and Europe. A Pharmacy in southside of Brisbane is seen on May 14, 2015 in Brisbane, Australia. (Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images) Australian Federal Government Poised to Reduce Prescription Costs The Albanese government has tabled a bill to cut the maximum cost of medical prescriptions by more than A$10 (US$6.82) The scheme aims to make medicines cheaper by cutting prescriptions covered by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) by 30 percent, with the maximum general co-payment dropping from $42.50 to $30. The federal government estimated the new plan would help Australians taking one medication a month save up to $150 every year, or $300-$450 a year for two or three medications a month. The bill, if passed, would come into effect from Jan. 1, 2023. National President of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, Prof. Trent Twoney, said on Sep. 7 that patients continue to tell community pharmacies of the increasing pressures of having to choose between food on the table and medicine for the family. Twoney believed the move would help reduce medicine non-adherence which directly contributes to higher healthcare costs, including preventable hospital admissions and readmission. Most Significant Change to Health System in 75 Years He added that the bill was the single most significant change to the cost of, and access to, medicines since the PBS was introduced 75 years ago. The PBS safety net, under which the prescriptions would be cut, supports Australians who need medicines. According to the Department of Health and Aged Care website, if the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) approves a drug for supply in Australia, its sponsor or supplier can apply for it to be subsidised under the PBS. If subsidised, the patient pays a lower price for the medicine, and the government pays the rest. Minister for Health and Aged care Mark Butler said the change would put close to A$200 million back in the pockets of Australians each year. The ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) advises that the high costs of medications meant close to 1 million Australians delayed or didnt fill their medications in 2019-20. We must do better than this, and we will. Opposition Welcomes the Implementation of a Coalition Policy While the Opposition welcomed the move but said the Albanese government is implementing a Coalition policy that was announced during the election campaign which they matched. I welcome the fact that they are implementing Coalition policy. What weve yet to see from them is any sort of comprehensive plan about their own approach to tackling the cost of living, Liberal frontbencher Simon Birmingham said. Meanwhile, the President of Chronic Pain Australia, Fiona Hodson, believed the reduction in the co-payment would be welcome news to the one in five Australians living with chronic pain. Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang inspect honor guards during a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Oct. 9, 2019. (Wang Zhao/AFP via Getty Images) Beijing-Friendly Solomons PM Delays Election, Extends Term Until 2024 The Solomon Islands government has successfully delayed the countrys national elections, effectively extending the term of Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare who has moved quickly to leverage deepening ties with Beijing to solidify his power. The vote passed with 37 out of the Parliaments 50 MPs in support. This comes after a report last year revealed 39 Solomon MPs received funds from a Beijing-backed slush fund. The constitutional amendment will delay the dissolution of the 11th Solomons Parliament from May 2023 until Dec. 31, 2023 with the election to be held in April 2024. Prime Minister Sogavare claimed the government could not afford to run the election at the same time as the Pacific Games due in late 2023. We cannot afford to present a country that is politically unstable, the prime minister told Parliament, according to Reuters. In response, opposition leader Matthew Wale called it a power grab. There was never any need to choose between holding the elections and hosting the Pacific Games, he told Parliament. There is no worthy reason but a power grab by the prime minister. While fellow opposition MP, Alfred Efona, said the Pacific Games was no reason for the country to adopt any communist ideas, behaviours and approaches hostile to the way we treat our democratic practices including the voice of the people. Australias Offer to Fund Election Called an Assault on Democracy In response to Sogavares claims that the government could not afford the vote, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said her government was happy to fund the election. Prime Minister Sogavare responded by calling the offer foreign interference while claiming it was an assault on the Solomons democracy. The timing of the public media announcement by the Australian government is in effect a strategy to influence how members of Parliament will vote on this Bill, he said. Yet, Sogavare said he would accept Australias offer anyway. Now theyve offered, so get ready, brother, to fund the costs. Its a big cost, Mr. Speaker, the Electoral Commission needs a lot of money, he said. Then you offer, you should prepare to give the money you said you wanted to give us. Wongs move was criticised from some corners, with Blake Johnson, an analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, telling The Examiner that it gave Sogavare ammunition to distract from the countrys internal issues. Sogavare is dealing with an increasingly unhappy populace, culminating in riots last year in the capital Honiara that saw the Chinatown District razed. The decision by Australian, New Zealand, and Fijian forces to step in was seen by some experts as alleviating pressure on Sogavare and giving him breathing space to placate his Cabinet and deepen ties with Beijing. Sogavares Power Play Moving Ahead South Pacific expert Cleo Paskal has repeatedly warned that Sogavares intention is to do whatever possible to stay in power. His earlier decision to allow the U.S. Navys hospital ship, the Mercy, into the country while blocking U.S. Coast Guard vessel, the Oliver Henry, was his latest power play. The Mercy is very popular with the electorate. So for those number of MPswho Sogavare needs to change the Constitutionif the Mercy had been blocked, it would have been bad for them electorally, Paskal previously told The Epoch Times. He is supervising and preparing to trigger a situation where theres civil dissent, either a false flag event or real demonstration against his attempt to change to the Constitution, she said, adding that Sogavare does not want any foreign vessels floating around in his waters except maybe the Chinese. Earlier this year, Sogavare signed a security pact with Beijing to allow Chinese Communist Party troops, weapons, and naval ships to be stationed in the Solomonslocated near Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S. territory of Guam. Paskal also said Beijing was working to capitaliseand facilitatethe weakening of democracies across the region so it can insert its own influence. Over the last few months, several Pacific governments have presided over increasingly unstable democratic systems, including the Marshall Islands, Vanuatu, and Kiribati. A sign of U.S LNG company Cheniere at the registration counter at the International Conference & Exhibition on Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG2019) in Shanghai on April 1, 2019. (Stringer/Reuters) Biden Administration Denies Chenieres Request to Sidestep LNG Pollution Rule WASHINGTONThe Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Tuesday it has denied a request from leading liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter Cheniere Energy Inc. to exempt turbines at its two U.S. Gulf Coast terminals from a hazardous pollution rule. The rejection raises questions about whether the Texas-based company will have to reduce exports of the supercooled fuel to install new pollution control equipment at its facilities at a time that Europe is depending on increased shipments of LNG from the United States to offset cuts from Russia. Europe is facing its worst-ever gas supply crisis, with energy prices soaring and German importers discussing possible rationing in the European Unions biggest economy after Russia reduced gas flows westward. Moscow has cited a pipeline fault for the halt, but Europe sees it as apparent retribution for Western sanctions imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. Though EPA is denying Chenieres request for a special subcategory to comply with the turbines rule, the Agency will continue to work with them and with other companies as needed to assure they meet Clean Air Act obligations, EPA spokesperson Tim Carroll said in an email. Owners and operators of gas turbines had a Sept. 5 deadline to comply with the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP), which the administration of President Joe Biden put into effect after an 18-year stay. The rule imposes curbs on emissions of known carcinogens like formaldehyde and benzene from stationary combustion turbines, like those used by LNG facilities. Cheniere had asked the Biden administration to exempt a specific kind of turbine that it installed at its LNG terminals from the NESHAP limits, arguing they would reduce shipments from the top U.S. exporter for an extended period and endanger the countrys efforts to ramp up supplies to Europe. Cheniere was the only company to request such an exemption, according to the EPA. The company claimed the model of turbine it uses at its Texas and Louisiana facilities is the best technology for withstanding the types of storms that often strike the Gulf Coast, but that the equipment is also exceptionally hard to retrofit, and that engineering and installation of pollution controls could take years. Cheniere spokesperson Eben Burnham-Snyder said that while the company strongly disagrees with the EPAs decision, we will work with our state and federal regulators to develop solutions that ensure compliance. He said the decision may result in unwarranted expenditures but added that coming into full compliance will not result in a material financial or operational impact and will not affect its ability to supply LNG to customers and countries around the world. Gas-powered turbines emit formaldehyde and other dangerous pollutants through a chemical transformation that occurs when methane, the main ingredient in natural gas, is superheated. Around 250 U.S. gas turbines are subject to the new rule, according to an EPA list, nearly a quarter of them Chenieres. The Houston-based company accounts for around 50 percent of U.S. shipments of LNG abroad. Reuters reported last month that the EPA had questioned Chenieres selection of gas turbines without adding pollution controls in 2011 and again in 2013. Business Formations Rising New business formation offers some good economic news Commentary In todays great debate over whether the economy is in recession or not, the pace of new business formation would say not yet. At least it seems to say that on the surface. Put into context, recent data may not carry quite that powerful positive message. The underlying consideration is the lingering effect of all the opportunities opened by the pandemic-induced lockdowns and quarantines. Entrepreneurs rushed in to fill the gap left by this raft of business failures and, accordingly, have kept applications for new businesses at historically high levels. They will likely continue to do so for a while yet, until all those opportunities are exhausted, even in the face of an economic weakness that would otherwise cause a more pronounced pullback in new business formations. The most recent report from the Department of Commerce tells the story well. On the surface, things looked positive. In July, monthly applications to start a new business averaged 426,000 nationally. That figure was 3.7 percent above the June rate. What the department calls high-propensity applications, meaning businesses likely to hire staff, rose 3.9 percent from June. Those that planned to pay wages rose 4.6 percent, and corporate applications rose 4.1 percent. The South and Midwest Gain Enhancing the positive picture was the broad regional diversification of the gains. The strongest growth was in the Midwest. Julys overall measure rose 5.4 percent from June. The greatest relative weakness occurred in the West. There, overall new business applications gained only 2.2 percent. No doubt this relatively poor showing reflects Californias difficult business climate, to which that states losses to places such as Texas and Florida testify. The South led the nation with the greatest number of new business applications, at 198,000 overall. That was more than twice the number recorded for the much more populous Northeast, a pattern that prevailed in every sort of business, from the smallest to corporate applications, and especially in the so-called high-propensity businesses. As indicated, however, these monthly figures are only part of the story. Before running too far and too fast with this upbeat information, its important to note that Julys bounce came off relative lows hit in June. The fact is that the prevailing trend in new business formation has been on a gradual downward slope for well over a year. Highs for business formation came immediately after the lifting of the worst lockdowns and quarantines in the summer of 2020. Those strictures had forced a precipitous drop in business formationby some 30 percent, in fact, in a matter of weeks in April and May of that year. Businesses then werent forming; they were collapsing. But as soon as the lockdowns and quarantines began to lift, even just partially, entrepreneurs rushed to take advantage of the gap left by the lockdown-induced failures and closures. Accordingly, applications to start new businesses soared in July and August 2020, reaching a peak of close to 550,000 a month. When later in 2020, the Omicron variant threatened new lockdowns, the pace of new business formation quickly dropped back from these highs, to some 350,000 a month. But by early 2021, as the Omicron threat began to dissipate, new business applications rose quickly, approaching 500,000 a month. In normal circumstances, one would have expected new business applications to continue rising as the general economic recovery gained momentum in 2021, but instead, they began to tail off. It was not that prospective businesspeople failed to believe the then-positive economic news, but rather the gradual decline in applications reflected how the earlier surge in business formation had taken up most obvious openings left by the damage done during the lockdowns and quarantines. Enough opportunities remained, however, so that the slide in applications proceeded only gradually into 2022. The continued presence of such opportunities is why, even in the face of more recent economic weakness, indeed recession fears, these applications remain higher than in the strong, pre-pandemic economy. It would seem from this analysis that the July bounce will likely reverse soon and that the pace of new business formation will resume the gradual slide that has typified it through much of 2021 and 2022. More pronounced weakness in the overall economy will accelerate that trend. A more precipitous decline will likely wait until all the opportunities opened by past pandemic-related business failures are exhausted. That point is impossible to determine, but a sharp downward adjustment is all but assured as that point approaches. Then, especially if the economy remains weak, the pace of new business formation will almost surely fall below the 300,000 averaged in the strong economy of 2018 and 2019. In the meantime, these business formation indicators will overstate the economys underlying strength. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Cartoon Politics Commentary Few can doubt that if a Republican presidentany Republican presidenthad delivered a speech like the one President Joe Biden gave in Philadelphia last week, talk of invoking the 25th Amendment to remove such a dangerously paranoid lunatic from office would have swiftly followed. And it would not have been limited to members of the opposition party. Yet even the Republicans response to Biden has been mostly pretty subdued. Theyre so used to being called a threat to democracy that, bar the shoutier voices in the right-wing media ghetto, even Bidens escalation of the threat to our personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country hardly registers with them anymore. I expect it will hardly register with voters either, unless in a negative way. But to those who hope that Americans sense of decency and fair play will create a backlash in November, I would say: dont count on it. For people are now so used not only to the portrayal of Republicans as cartoon supervillains but to the whole fantastical and cartoonified context in which our public and political life is now lived that they can hardly be bothered to object to it anymore. As Gregg Opelka wrote in the Wall Street Journal, the Biden speech resembled nothing so much as an episode of Get Smart, the 1960s television spy spoof in which Don Adams played Maxwell Smart, the bumbling secret agent with the shoe-telephone. You can see the parallel, wrote Opelka: Donald Trump is Mr. Big, MAGA Republicans are KAOS, and Mr. Biden is in CONTROL. The Chief warns: Max, this is a big one. The fate of our entire nation may depend on it. Ha ha. The only difference is that, back in the 60s, people laughed at such stuff. Nowadays, after 40 years of a cartoonified popular culture, we can only manage a weary smile when that culture expands its empire to take over real-life politics too. Except that theres no such thing as real-life politics anymore. All politics takes place in the realm of the spin-doctors fantasies. Just as, Chief Justice John Roberts to the contrary notwithstanding, there are no just plain judges anymore, but only Republican and Democratic judgesplus a few, like the Chief Justice himself, who cant make up their minds which they areso theres no reality anymore but only Republican and Democratic realities. This is the logical outcome of what Alan S. Rome in the Australian online journal Quillette calls the infantilization of culture and history. Nowadays, he points out, even the cartoons of a few years agolike Disneys Jungle Book or Aladdinare deemed too dangerous for children to watch, lest they encounter some outdated racial or sexual stereotype and get their little imaginations corrupted by it. And just as Toon Town must be continually purified of wrong-think, and continually updated to reflect the latest version of the lefts utopian fantasy, so must the political life formerly known as real be re-cast as a perpetual cartoon struggle between good and evil. The media ensure that it isnt even an option for Republicans to refuse to play this game, as Donald Trump once seemed to have realized by embracing his role as pantomime villain or pro-wrestling heel, and won by doing so. It was when he went back to trying to be a good guy that he ran into trouble. Likewise, Alison Somin at the Law & Liberty website writes of the tendency of congresspersons to hand off responsibility for the harder and more controversial matters under their purview to executive branch regulators as infantilizing Congresspresumably because they believe that voters will only elect those they see as cartoon heroes without spot or the (ideological) blemish that comes from compromising with the evil ones. None of this would be possible, however, without the prior infantilization of the media and the culture which it serves. Without this, Biden is just a less funny version of Maxwell Smart. With it, even he can imagine that hes a kind of superhero, pitted against the supervillain of Mar-a-Lago. Joe Bidens Big Month, writes John Cassidy of The New Yorker in what turns out not to be a misprint for Joe Bidens Big Mouth. His sub-head elaborates: The President is getting things done and reaffirming that his historic role is to defeat Trump and Trumpism. Biden as a man of destiny? Does anybody outside the fever swamp believe this? But the media keep trying to craft a heroic narrative for their corrupt favorites, even if it means acknowledging that theyre outside the rule of law. Thus, David Graham of The Atlantic writes a propos of the FBI raid on the Trump compound at Mar-a-Lago as follows: As the great American philosophers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Omar Little each expressed in their own ways, if you go after the king, you cant make a mistake. The Department of Justice now finds itself in just such a cant-miss scenario in its legal battle with Donald Trump over documents he took with him to Mar-a-Lago. The reference to Omar Little from The Wire makes it even more obvious than it would otherwise be that Graham takes it for granted that the rule of law and the Constitution, which he claims are both at stake in the hopeful Trump prosecution, mean the equivalent of gang warfare. The Department of Justice to him is indistinguishable from the Department of Street Justice, and its business is not to enforce the law but to go after the king. I suspect he isnt alone in this assumption. Ironically, such people typically justify their anti-Trump vendetta by repeating the Watergate-era mantra that no one is above the law. LOL, as the cartoon-fancying youngsters have taught us to writein lieu, that is, of laughing out loud. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. The Chinese research vessel and icebreaker Xuelong, which will depart for the Arctic, arrives in Xiamen, south China's Fujian Province, on June 27, 2010. The Arctic is much coveted by energy-hungry Beijing for its oil and natural gas. (STR/AFP via Getty Images) China Moving to Project Power Into the Arctic: Experts China aims to project power through new economic and military projects in the Arctic, according to experts. By securing new trade routes and military access in the Arctic, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) seeks to expand its capacity for global power projection, according to Rick Fisher, a senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center. For China, the Arctic offers a strategic and tactical opportunity, Fisher said during an interview with NTD, a sister media outlet of The Epoch Times, airing on Sept. 15. A lot of ice is melting and, as a consequence, new polar sea routes are opening up that will allow Russia and China to exploit Russian hydrocarbon reserves that have not yet been tapped. They are so large, and the economics of maritime transport are such, that its become very attractive. The Arctic holds vast reserves of natural resources, including oil, natural gas, rare earth metals, diamonds, and pristine fishing grounds. As such, the formerly uncontested region will likely play an increasingly important role in global geopolitics in the coming years as access increases, and the global resource crunch continues. The CCP declared China a near-arctic state in 2012, hoping to fabricate some semblance of legitimacy for its efforts to push into the region. Among those efforts is the so-called Polar Silk Road, a proposed route that would link Asia and Europe by traversing the opening waterways of the Arctic. To gain more access to the Arctics bounty and to secure such trade routes, however, the CCP will need to appease the most powerful player in the region: Russia. The icebreaker Tor at the port of Sabetta in the Kara Sea shoreline on the Yamal Peninsula in the Arctic circle, some 2,450 km of Moscow, on April 16, 2015. The Yamal LNG (liquefied natural gas) project aiming to extract and liquefy gas from the Yuzhno-Tambeyskoye gas field is scheduled to start production in 2017. Russias Novatek holds a 60 percent stake in the venture. Frances Total and Chinas CNPC hold 20 percent each. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images) A successful Polar Silk Road would entail massive Chinese investments largely into Russia, Fisher said. With that, there would be an increase in Chinese flagships, icebreakers, petroleum transport ships, [cooperation] with the Russian navy, and it would also justify China sending its naval forces into the Arctic region. To that end, Fisher said that China continues to grow its navyalready the largest in the worldto prepare for an increased presence in the Arctic. Chinas navy is growing, Fisher said. It will have more ships to spare for operations in the Arctic. The Stakes Are Huge Bruce Jones, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said in a separate interview with NTD that China and the United States are entering a protracted period of naval competition and increased risk of conflict. The Arctic, he said, would be a key focal point for both nations in that competition. Its become one of the hottest zones of competition there is, Jones said. The biggest issue is that climate change is rapidly changing the ability to sail across the Arctic sea year-round. Jones said it is currently only possible to traverse the Arctic for five to six months a year without heavy icebreaker ships. Due to the melting of the polar ice caps, however, year-round travel through the Arctic could be possible in 10 to 15 years. That shift would have profound implications for global trade, commerce, and strategy, Jones said, as it would effectively halve the distance between the East and the West. If you think about it from a trade perspective, the difference in distance between Shanghai and New York, if you can sail the Arctic route, is about half the distance if you have to go through the Suez Canal across the Mediterranean and then across the Atlantic Ocean, Jones said. Its similar in nature to what the Suez Canal did to trade between Asia and Europe when it was first established. It has the potential to be a major change in global commercial routes. For Jones, the explosion of Arctic maritime traffic that appears to be on the horizon also bears great riskswhere trade goes, so, too, do militaries. This is where Russia now has the largest concentration of its naval power, Jones said. The United States has begun to return nuclear submarines to the Arctic for the first time since the end of the Cold War. China is deploying repeated scientific missions, which are frequently dual use. So this is really becoming a zone of tense military buildup. Jones said that the risks and rewards of achieving Arctic dominance would be immense for any nation pursuing such a goal. There are huge commercial stakes. There are huge energy stakes. There are huge fishing stakes, Jones said. And, of course, there are strategic stakes. Andrew Thornebrooke Reporter Follow Andrew Thornebrooke is a reporter for The Epoch Times covering China-related issues with a focus on defense, military affairs, and national security. He holds a master's in military history from Norwich University. Court Throws Out Trump Lawsuit Against Clinton, Comey A judge on Sept. 8 tossed a lawsuit brought by former President Donald Trump against Hillary Clinton and a slew of others. Trump sued Clinton, former British spy Christopher Steele, and several dozen others in March over Russian collusion allegations, alleging violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). In an amended complaint several months later, he expanded on the accusations of a conspiracy. But U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks, a Bill Clinton appointee, said that the lengthy complaint does not establish that Plaintiff is entitled to any relief and that the claims presented in it are not warranted under existing law. I highlight here just two glaring problems with the Amended Complaint. There are many others. But these are emblematic of the audacity of Plaintiffs legal theories and the manner in which they clearly contravene binding case law. First, the Amended Complaints answer to the Defendants Motion to Dismiss the original Complaint, wherein Defendants noted the lack of predicate RICO offenses, was to add another predicate offensewire fraud, Middlebrooks, who refused to recuse from the case, wrote in a 65-page order. Trump also fails to account for the Supreme Courts requirement that to obstruct justice there must be a nexus to a judicial or grand jury proceeding, he added later. The judge said that the way many events were characterized in the amended complaint are implausible because they lack any specific allegations which might provide factual support for the conclusions reached, including the characterization that former FBI Director James Comey and other government officials overzealously targeted Trump. Trump and his campaign were investigated by the FBI for years over the dossier compiled by Steele, which was paid for by Clinton and other Democrats. The dossier contained many claims that have remained unsubstantiated to this day. The FBI operation was called Crossfire Hurricane. Investigators made serious errors and omissions in its probe, the Department of Justice watchdog has found, including manipulating an email. While the amended complaint correctly referenced the watchdog report, it failed to acknowledge the conclusion that we did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivations influenced his decisionwe found that Crossfire Hurricane was opened for an authorized investigative purpose and with sufficient factual predicate, Middlebrooks said. He dismissed the complaint without prejudice, which means Trump can refile in the future. We vehemently disagree with the opinion issued by the Court today. Not only is it rife with erroneous applications of the law, it disregards the numerous independent governmental investigations which substantiate our claim that the defendants conspired to falsely implicate our client and undermine the 2016 Presidential election. We will immediately move to appeal this decision, Alina Habba, a lawyer for Trump, told The Epoch Times in an email. Despite More Spending, Homelessness Continues to Rise in Los Angeles The number of homeless individuals in Los Angeles County rose 4.1 percent since 2020, counting over 69,000 homeless countywide and 42,000 in the City of Los Angeles, according to the latest point-in-time tally released Sept. 8 by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA). The homeless count, which took place from Feb. 2224, determines how much funding the agency will receive from federal resources to combat homelessness. The counts results were originally supposed to be released in July, but were postponed due to the COVID-19 surge. This years count was the countys first since 2020, as last years was canceled when LAHSA determined it was not safe to gather 8,000 volunteers amid stay-at-home orders and curfews due to COVID-19. Homeless individuals live out of cars and RVs in Los Angeles on Jan. 20, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) Officials said this years count revealed that 39.5 percent of the homeless suffer from serious mental illness and substance abuse. Despite this number, the city and county do not require housing services to have mandatory rehabilitation programs once a homeless person receives temporary shelter or housing. That also means that 6.5 percent of our unhoused neighbors have a serious mental illness or substance abuse reported, Kristina Dixon, co-executive director of LAHSA, said Thursday during a presentation announcing the count. COVID exacerbated mental illness and substance use among the housed and unhoused alike. However, Dixon said that overdoses affected the homeless even more. Homeless people are 35 times more likely to overdose than someone in housing, according to the report, with overdoses among L.A.s unhoused increasing by 80 percent in 2021 driven by the rise in fentanyl and economic dislocation. As Los Angeles city councilors barred encampments in public spaces this year, the LAHSA report also found there was a 17 percent increase in tents, vehicles, and makeshift shelters, but only a 1-percent increase in street homelessness. This is because the COVID-19 pandemic made homelessness more visible as people sheltered in place inside tents in public spaces According to the 2020 count, the countys homeless population increased by 12.7 percent over the previous year, while the City of Los Angeles homeless population increased by 14.2 percent. In January 2019, Los Angeles County had nearly 59,000 homeless, but by January 2020, the number rose to about 66,000. The City of Los Angeles counted over 36,000 in 2019 and 41,000 in 2020. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner reported in preliminary data that as many as four homeless people died every day in 2020. L.A.s Homeless Spending In 2016, voters opted for Proposition HHHa $1.2 billion bond to create 10,000 permanent supportive housing units. Since the proposition passed, the city has created only1,142 unitsor 14 percent of what was promised. While more than half of projects are currently under construction, nearly a third are still in pre-development stages, and projects are taking between 3 to 6 years to complete, according to L.A. city controller Ron Galperins February 2022 report. Galperin said in a statement Thursday the latest homeless count results are deeply frustrating. Taxpayers have opted to invest billions of dollars to address the homelessness crisis, only to be disappointed as benchmarks for progress continue to go unmet. Despite historic public spending to address the issue, the number of people who are unhoused in our region continues to increase, while housing and services remain out of reach for thousands on our streets, Galperin said. The city controller said there needs to be more temporary housing solutions to faster place the homeless into shelter as housing continues to be constructed. A sign enforcing the encampment ban was seen in Los Angeles on Nov. 8, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) The city has tried several different methods to tackle the issue and house more homeless. During the pandemic, emergency interim program Project Roomkey was established to place homeless individuals into contracted hotels and motels where they were given a private room and the opportunity to take advantage of other resources that would connect them to permanent housing. Now, the program has evolved into Project Homekey, which state officials plan to incorporate permanently, as Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a $694 million grant into 2,500 new homeless housing projects statewide late last month. LA was the largest recipient of Newsoms grant, with 10 new projects funded, amounting to $277.3 million for 960 units. The Los Angeles region has received $948 million for 62 Homekey projects since 2020. Earlier this year, the city was reportedly spending $837,000 per person on a single homeless housing unit. Newsom also raised the states homelessness budget from $12 billion last year to $14 billion this year. Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher said Project Homekey is akin to putting a bandaid on a severed limb. Simply providing shelter to someone struggling with a severe mental health illness or drug addiction is nothing to celebrate, Gallagher said in a statement. Californias approach to reducing homelessness needs to be holistic with more emphasis on accountability and treatment for mental health illnesses and drug addiction. City News Service contributed to this report. Former President Donald Trump walks to a vehicle outside of Trump Tower in New York on Aug. 10, 2022. (Stringer/AFP via Getty Images) DOJ Alleges More Classified Records May Be at Mar-a-Lago Prosecutors with the Department of Justice (DOJ) claimed former President Donald Trumps team may still be holding onto allegedly classified records following last months raid on his Mar-a-Lago property. They made the allegation in a court filing Thursday in arguing against the appointment of a special master, or an independent third party, to review the documents that were taken during the unprecedented search of Trumps Mar-a-Lago residence last month. Earlier this week, a federal judge sided with Trumps team in granting their request for a special master. The injunction against using classified records in the criminal investigation could impede efforts to identify the existence of any additional classified records that are not being properly storedwhich itself presents the potential for ongoing risk to national security, they wrote in the latest filing. And without a stay of the injunction, the government and the public will also suffer irreparable harm from the undue delay to the criminal investigation, DOJ prosecutors wrote. The federal agency did not provide specific evidence or details as to why it believes more classified records are being kept at Mar-a-Lago. They argued that some allegedly classified records that were taken from Trumps home should be in the possession of the DOJ and FBI for review as the two agencies continue their investigation. The former president, according to a warrant released last month, is under investigation for possible obstruction of justice charges and Espionage Act violations. Trump said the raid targeting his home was politically motivated and designed to harm his chances if he runs for president in 2024. At the same time, the former commander-in-chef has said he had a standing declassification order while he was president, and he pointed to an executive order issued in mid-January 2021. More Details This motion is limited to the seized classified records because those aspects of the order will cause the most immediate and serious harms to the government and the public, the DOJ also said in its court filing. An aerial view of former U.S. President Donald Trumps Mar-a-Lago home after FBI agents raided it, in Palm Beach, Fla., on Aug. 15, 2022. (Marco Bello/Reuters) The judge, an appointee of Trump, said the special master will review documents not just covered by attorney-client privilege, but any records possibly covered by executive privilege as well. Executive privilege is a legal doctrine that can shield some presidential records from disclosure. The Justice Department has challenged the logic of using executive privilege because Trump does not own the records and is no longer president. But Cannon wrote Monday that she agreed with Trumps concerns about leaks to the media about the case, adding that such alleged actions will harm the former president. Also in the Monday order, she allowed U.S. intelligence officials to review all of the seized materials as part of their ongoing national security damage assessment. The DOJ, however, stated that the FBI is part of the 17-agency Intelligence Community and said the ongoing Intelligence Community classification review and assessment are closely interconnected withand cannot be readily separated fromareas of inquiry of DOJs and the FBIs ongoing criminal investigation. Prosecutors asked Judge Aileen Cannon for a ruling by Sept. 15. If she denies their request, they intend to file an appeal to the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where six of the 11 active judges are Trump appointees. In an order on Thursday evening, Cannon gave Trumps lawyers until Monday morning to respond to the governments request. The Epoch Times has contacted a Trump spokesperson for comment. Reuters contributed to this report. Dr. Simone Gold speaking at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and peering through her window at the federal prison in Miami on Sept. 8, 2022. (John Strand/Lisa Andrzejewski) Dr. Simone Gold Being Released Early From 60-Day Jail Sentence for Trespassing at Capitol on Jan. 6 Dr. Simone Gold, the founder of Americas Frontline Doctors who was jailed for 60 days for giving a speech on COVID-19 and medical freedom at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, is being released from federal detention two weeks early. Gold will be released from the Miami Federal Detention Center just in time for an 11 a.m. EDT news conference on Sept. 9, the 45th day of her incarceration. She will meet with reporters to discuss her experience behind bars and her plans for Americas Frontline Doctors (AFLDS). It feels like its Christmas Eve right now, Lisa Andrzejewski, executive director of Americas Frontline Doctors, told The Epoch Times. We cannot wait to see her tomorrow. Were thoroughly ecstatic. We cant wait. Weve missed her greatly. Andrzejewski said Gold was given credit for teaching and taking classes while incarcerated. Along with credit for time served when she was arrested in January 2021, Sept. 9 became the release date, about two weeks before the 60 days would expire. Gold kept a positive attitude during her incarceration, working on a book and other projects, Andrzejewski said. Strong Like a Lion She is strong like a lion, Andrzejewski said. Shes going to come out fighting like a lion. You can hear it in her voice today. She is ready. She is very enthusiastic about it. She cant wait to get back to work. Dr. Simone Gold promoted early-treatment protocols for COVID-19 instead of relying on vaccines. Shown here in an interview with NTD in December 2020. (NTD/Screenshot via The Epoch Times) Goldan emergency medicine specialist from Los Angeleswas sentenced on June 16 under a plea deal on one count of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, a federal misdemeanor. The sentence, meted out by U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, included 60 days in jail, one year of supervised release, a $9,500 fine, and $500 of restitution. Golds case was unusual because Cooper had asked her on a date when they were students at Stanford Law School in the early 1990s. She turned him down, something she said influenced the judges sentencing decision in her Jan. 6 case. The fact that I went to law school with this person and the fact that he didnt recuse himself and then [what] he revealed during sentencing I felt was such incredible bias, Gold told The Epoch Times just before reporting for her jail sentence in late July. At the sentencing hearing, Cooper read from a series of support letters that defended Gold for speaking her mind at the Capitol. She is only guilty of having compassion and humanity, Cooper quoted from one letter. All of that may be true, all right, but thats not why were here, all right, and your organization is leading people to the misimpression that this is a political prosecution or is about free speech. It aint about free speech. Not About First Amendment Jan. 6 was about a lot of things, but it wasnt about the First Amendment or COVID vaccinations, Cooper said. The only reason you are here is where and when and how you chose to express your view. Gold was quarantined for eight days when reporting to the prison because she would not take the COVID-19 vaccine. She described the quarantine as solitary confinement. In an email from the prison in August, Gold described the quarantine as a punishing and inhumane experience. Dr. Simone Gold speaks at a July 2020 Americas Frontline Doctors press conference on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court. (Lisa Andrzejewski) The COVID jab is the only so-called vaccine in the world that has proven not to be able to stop transmission or infection, suggesting the vaccine is a complete fraud perpetuated on the American people as well as medical and global communities, Americas Frontline Doctors said in a Sept. 8 news release. As the medical establishment was pushing vaccines as the answer to COVID-19 in July 2020, Gold and a group of doctors held a press conference on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court. They said successful early treatment medications such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin made the COVID vaccines unnecessary. The video from the event was viewed by more than 24 million people, according to AFLDS, despite being censored and removed from social media platforms as so-called medical misinformation. Gold and the other Frontline Doctors were attacked in media outlets and by Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Andrzejewski said the timing of Golds release is perfect, as news continues to break about the dangers of the COVID vaccines and the efficacy of early treatment protocols like those AFLDS promoted two years ago. Publicity surrounding Golds jail sentence and release will give her a bigger platform from which to promote medical freedom, Andrzejewski said. Its giving her more of an advantage to do so, especially with everything thats coming out now, how she basically was right, Andrzejewski said. We knew she was right, but they kept discrediting her. Everythings coming out now and shes ready for the fight. Nanette Holt, Meiling Lee, Enrico Trigoso, and Joshua Philipp contributed to this report Portobello mushrooms stand in for meat patties in this recipe for veggie burgers with all the fixings. (Greg Dupree/TNS) Dutch City Moves to Ban Meat Ads in Public Spaces out of Climate Fears Ads for fossil fuels, fossil fuel-powered cars, and holiday flights would also be banned Just west of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, another line has been breached in the global war on meat. For fear of its impact on the climate, the city of Haarlem has moved to outlaw at least some advertisements for meat in public areas. The resolution, which refers to bioproducts rather than meat, came from Ziggy Klazes, a Haarlem city councilor who represents the GroenLinks (GreenLeft) party. She called it her raised middle finger to the meat industry in a Sept. 3 column. The law would take effect in 2024 to honor existing contracts with advertisers. It would also ban ads for fossil fuels, fossil fuel-powered cars, and vacation flights from those same public spaces, which include bus stations and advertising columns. The Bigger Picture Haarlems proposed ban comes as many environmentalists redouble their efforts to limit or even eliminate animal agriculture, particularly in the Netherlands. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) attributes over 14 percent of greenhouse gas emissions to livestock, due in part to methane from their burps and farts. Ninety-five percent of Dutch adults eat meat, though 75 percent do not eat it every day, according to the countrys national statistics agency, CBS. As it happens, the Netherlands is a significant center of animal agriculture. That may soon change. In June, after decades of ever-tougher laws that target the ecological effects of farming, the Dutch government trumpeted one of its most aggressive moves yet. It proposed massive, area-specific cuts to nitrogen emissions, ones large enough to shutter about a third of the nations farms by 2030. The announcement sparked intense protests by farmers, truckers, and others in and beyond the Netherlandsthe latest since a similar round in 2019, after members of the liberal D66 party proposed slashing the countrys livestock numbers in half. The country is also home to a Food Innovation Hub launched by the World Economic Forum and partners that range from MasterCard and PepsiCo to the UNs FAO. A World Economic Forum white paper says such hubs can help countries accelerate their food systems transformation. So, what exactly does that transformation look like? The very same white paper applauds work on alternative foods and proteinsin other words, soy-based fake beef, lab-grown meat substitutes, ground-up insects, and other options meant to replace conventional meat. One Dutch trucker who protested over the summer thinks Haarlems resolution is part of that bigger picture. It is not going well here in my country, Mark de Jong told The Epoch Times in an Aug. 9 message. Its Starting in Haarlem Wybren van Haga, a member of the Dutch parliament and leader of the Belang van Nederland political party, described the ban as an attack on free enterprise and bad for the economy. The Centrale Organisatie voor de Vleessector, which represents the meat industry, expressed similar worries about overreach, as reported by the Trouw newspaper and other Dutch sources. Tom Russcher, press officer for the populist Forum for Democracy party, isnt sure if the ban will stand up to a serious legal challenge. He told The Epoch Times on Sept. 9 that its part of a much larger trend: The government deciding what people have to do. His country already has restrictive policies on cigarette advertising. Could images of meat soon be treated the same way? If so, Russcher said, Its starting in Haarlem. In an article for WATTPoultry.com, a publication aimed at the ag industry, American Roy Graber suggested that the precedent appears to have been set for similar bans elsewhere, even in the United States. Meat Ads and Meatposting Fill Some with Disgust Meanwhile, many environmental groups are celebrating. The meat and dairy industry is responsible for 19 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. So this is good news for the climate, Greenpeace UK wrote in a Tweet. This is a great step towards reduced meat consumption and the promotion of more sustainable food systems, Eurogroup for Animals wrote on Twitter. While not all environmentalists are anti-meat, some eco-activists dont shy away from sharing their distaste at the very sight of animal flesh. One 2021 article from the climate Substack Heated criticizes the common practice of meatpostingthat is, sharing savory pictures of beef, pork, chicken, lamb, and other comestibles for carnivores on Facebook, Instagram, or other social media. They argue that meatposting props up an industry they see as harmful to the planet. GreenLeft initially responded to an email from The Epoch Times, but did not answer questions by press time. (L-R) Timor-Leste Minister for Defence, Filomeno Paixao de Jesus, President of Timor-Leste Jose Ramos-Horta, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles pose for photographs at the end of a signing ceremony at Parliament House in Canberra, Wednesday, September 7, 2022. Mr Ramos-Horta is in Australia on a 5 day official visit. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch) East Timor Will Not Support a Chinese Military Base, President Says East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta has said that he would not allow a hostile or potentially hostile country to set up a military base in East Timor, having affirmed that his countrys close ties with Beijing pose no security threat to Australia. This follows the signing of a Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA) between the countrys defence ministers on Sept. 7 that will see Australia and East Timor increase defence and security cooperation, especially maritime. The agreement also aims at increasing the cooperation of the countries armed forces on exercises, training, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. We have a responsibility to our neighbours, to Australia, to Indonesia, to other southeast Asian countries not to allow Timor-Leste (East Timor) to be a base for any hostile power or power that is perceived by our neighbours to be potentially hostile, Ramos-Horta told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). A prosperous, stable Timor-Leste is in Australias best interests because Timor-Leste should sit in the geography of Australias greater strategic interests. Speaking on the agreement, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that the two countries share a special relationship as neighbours with a shared history and deep ties. We have been working towards a DCA for over a decade and todays signing is a significant step forward in our partnership, Albanese said in a statement. Ramos-Horta arrived in Australia as an official guest on Sept. 6 for a five-day visit for talks with political and community leaders as his country seeks to develop its economy and play a role in regional stability. Concerns About Beijings Influence Beijings growing influence in the pacific has been concerning for Australia, given a recent security deal made between the Solomon Islands and the communist regime. Previously in August, Ramos-Horta told The Guardian that his country would consider a partnership with Chinese investors if the Australian government refused to have a gas pipeline constructed from the Timor Sea to the countrys southern coast. This prompted a visit to Dili on Sept. 1 by Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who called on her counterparts to engage in quiet diplomacy. The resource-heavy Timor Sea and the associated gas pipeline have been an ongoing point of contention between the two countries since 2004. We all have an interest in a stable, prosperous order where sovereignty is respected, and where disputes are resolved by norms, Wong said. Ramos-Horta told the ABC that developing the Greater Sunrise fields, which are located 450 kilometres northwest of Darwin and 150 kilometres south of Timor-Leste, was like any other business investment. It is just a pipeline, and the Chinese would be an investor like Australia would be, like South Korea would be, and it wouldnt be entirely a Chinese option. We have Indonesia. Indonesia is a serious potential partner in the development of Greater Sunrise, he said. Australia is a strategic partner of Timor-Leste, but having close ties with China, particularly in enabling the development of Greater Sunrise, is not a security threat to Australia, is not Chinese maritime naval base in Timor-Leste. He added that East Timor is one of the few countries in the world that has no loan from Beijing. We dont have a single cent of debt to China, but we do have an excellent relationship with China. Many Chinese business in Timor-Leste, particularly trade, and that has been tremendously helpful to our economy because construction material, building material and consumer itemsclothing, shoes, bicyclesall become so much cheaper and affordable to our people. On June 3, East Timor signed series of agreements with Beijing in the areas of the economy, capacity building, infrastructure, agriculture, health, and the media. Ramos-Horta Calls for Urgent Resolution While East Timor controls 57 percent of the field and is entitled to at least 70 percent of the royaltieswith Australian energy company Woodside controlling 33 percent, and Japans Osaka Gas 10 percentRamos-Horta said his country would run out of money in a decade if the project did not proceed. It could be catastrophic, he told the ABC. Wed need to have Greater Sunrise operational commercially, maximum within the next seven, eight years. So we have to make a decision by the end of this year. Woodsides preferred option is the already established hub in Darwin, but East Timor wants the gas piped to a new site on its southern coast. We have a neighbour, Australia, that can make this miracle happen, Ramos-Horta told the National Press Club in Canberra on Sept. 7. This way, it contributes to a very dynamic Timor-Leste economy you will see Timor-Leste as another Dubai or another Singapore. When asked whether the Greater Sunrise gas project would affect climate outcomes, Ramos-Horta said if developed countries gave his country $100 billion, he would then give up on the Greater Sunrise development. Other than that, please dont lecture me, he told the SBS reporter on Sept. 7. During a meeting with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, the two leaders discussed security, economic cooperation, labour mobility and skills and East Timors ASEAN membership bid. Victoria Kelly-Clark and AAP contributed to this report. A general view of the stickers on an EV Automotive E3 Glory crossover SUV is seen ahead of the Electric Vehicle Show 2019 at Sydney Olympic Park in Sydney, Australia, on Oct. 25, 2019. (Mark Kolbe/Getty Images) Electric Cars Unable to Go the Distance: Regional MPs Australian MPs representing rural and suburban seats are arguing against the Labor governments plan to introduce tax incentives to spur electric vehicle (EV) sales in the country. Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce said for many voters in his electorate of New England, a vast expanse of northern New South Wales, EVs were too expensive and impractical for long distances. He pointed to the Tesla Model S that has a range of under 500 kilometres saying it was beyond the price range of families living in weatherboard-and-iron homes. When you dont have electric fast-charging stationsand even with 117 fast-charging stations, Australias a big place, the size of Western Europe What happens if you need to get to the hospital? What happens if your kid gets an asthma attack? he told Parliament. If I go to the areas around me and the hills around where I live I will not find a new car in that village. I will not find a new car in many of those areas They dont have $60,000 to buy an electric vehicle. They work within a budget of around $10,000 to $20,000, he added. Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce speaks to the media during a visit to Rockhampton, in Queensland, Australia, on March 23, 2022. (AAP Image/Phat Nguyen) The Treasury Laws Amendment (Electric Car Discount) Bill 2022 proposes to remove fringe benefit tax obligations for EV cars, and allow workers to pay less tax when leasing EVs in salary sacrifice arrangements. Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers has estimated employers can save around $9,000 a year if they provide a $50,000 EV to a worker. While an individual can save $4,700. The move forms part of the Labor governments embrace of net-zero including the recent passing of the Climate Change Bill to enshrine a 43 percent emissions reduction target by 2030, up from the previous target of 26-28 percent. Not Suitable for the Outback Independent MP Dai Le, who represents the working class electorate of Fowler in Western Sydney, said the governments EV plan did not consider all issues linked with rapid electrification of the road network. Whilst the government proposes to invest A$39.3 million for 117 fast-charging stations, there is a lack of detail around the time line of this rollout and, more importantly, whether it will match or, preferably, precede a greater uptake in EVs, she said, suggesting a higher take-up of hybrid vehicles that will not put as much pressure on the energy grid. While Colin Boyce, the Liberal National MP for the regional seat of Flynn in central Queensland, said EVs were not suitable for blue-collar work. The Ford Ranger, the Toyota HiLux, the Nissan Navara and Isuzu D-Max are among the most popular cars sold in Australia today. They are in many cases the working-mans car, and are not currently available in an electric or hybrid version. I ask: will there ever be an electric version? he said. The 2019 Ford Ranger Lariat SuperCab. (Courtesy of Ford) The MP also said pointed to research from Professor Miranda Steward, director of the Tax Group at the University of Melbourne Law School, who said tax incentives would ultimately benefit high-income earners who could afford EVs. Once again, we see pious virtue signalling and arguments of transition given by the wealthy, who take into no account the ramifications inflicted on those who live in the practical, real world, he said. Boyce also outlined research from salary packaging group, McMillan Shakespeare Group, that found one hour of charging for an EV would result in 10 kilometres of travel. I find that revelation quite astounding, he said, adding that since May he had travelled around 12,000 kilometres across his electorate. If I were driving an electric car, I would require 1,200 hours of charging in order to travel this distance. There are 24 hours in a day, and 1,200 divided by 24 equals 50 full days of charging time or 100 12-hour days of charging time. Labor Treasurer Chalmers finalised debate on the Bill saying it was disappointing, but not especially surprising to hear opposing MPs not supporting tax cuts for EVs. He said the move would bring down the cost of living and also incentivise the types of cars we increasingly want to see on our roads. This is a government that understands the opportunities of acting on climate change and of cleaner and cheaper energy and low emission cars. We intend to grab those opportunities for the benefit of the Australian people. Undated photo showing some cash in Sterling with a mobile photo displaying the words "your latest energy bill." (Jacob King/PA Media) Energy Bill Freeze Will Go Ahead Despite Queens Mourning Period, Downing Street Says Downing Street on Friday gave assurance that the freeze of energy bills will be delivered as planned despite parliamentary businesses being suspended in the period of mourning for Queen Elizabeth II. In her first major policy intervention, Prime Minister Liz Truss on Thursday announced a two-year Energy Price Guarantee scheme that will cap a typical households energy bill at 2,500 per year, around 1,000 less than what the price was set to rise to from Oct. 1. Similar support will be given to businesses to help them with high energy costs. But hours after the multi-billion scheme was announced, the UKs 96-year-old Queen passed away in Scotland, sending the country into a period of national mourning. Politics as normal pauses for around 10 days while the House of Commons will be suspended until the state funeral. Officials are working in the background on more details of the package, including a strategy to support businesses and a plan for Northern Ireland. Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng will also need to find a date to reveal his emergency financial package when parliament resumes business. Prime Minister Liz Truss reads a statement outside 10 Downing Street, London, following the announcement of the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Sept. 8, 2022. (Ian West/PA Media) Trusss offical spokesman sought to reassure the public on Friday, saying Downing Street doesnt believe the package will be affected. The public should be reassured that the energy price guarantee will be in place for households from Oct. 1, as planned, the spokesman said. Were implementing that guarantee initially through private contracts with suppliers rather than through legislation so this mourning period doesnt impact that introduction. He said officials are currently working urgently on the wider aspects of the policy to ensure it can be delivered. As it stands we do not believe the mourning period would impact on delivery of the policy, neither do we think it requires any sort of legislative moments during the mourning period, the spokesman said, adding the government will work with House of Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle to introduce necessary legislation as soon as possible after the mourning period concludes. Other parts of Trusss plan, such as lifting the moratorium on fracking, will likely be delayed. The moratorium was imposed in 2019 after minor earthquakes were attributed to fracking in Lancashirethe only active site in the UK. In April, the government said it had ordered a review of the latest scientific evidence on whether fracking for shale gas is now safe and sustainable. Truss told Parliament on Thursday that the moratorium will be lifted. The Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy on Thursday told The Epoch Times that the review was to be published imminently, but Downing Street on Friday said it will now be published as soon as that period has concluded. PA Media contributed to this report. Ethics Board Releases Documents From South Dakota Governor Nepotism Complaint A South Dakota ethics board on Sept. 9 released documents from a complaint lodged against Gov. Kristi Noem over how her daughters appraisal licensing was handled. Noems daughter Kassidy Peters attended a 2020 meeting with the governor and top officials, including state Labor Secretary Marcia Hultman, triggering a complaint from former South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg. Both Noem and Ransborg, who was later impeached over killing a man in a car crash, are Republicans. Ravnsborg alleged that Noem violated state laws on malfeasance, using public money, and conflicts of interest, in a complaint made public for the first time on Friday. His only proof was an article from the Associated Press, which claimed that South Dakota officials were preparing to deny Peterss appraiser application before the meeting. Noem has denied the allegations while a South Dakota legislative committee said in May that Peters received preferential treatment. Hultman, an appointee of former Gov. Dennis Daugaard, later told a state Senate committee that the Department of Labor has not issued any denials, and that the goal is to set a path forward if an applicant fails an initial exam. After Peters failed the first exam, officials arranged such a path for her, Hultman testified. That plan had been determined prior to the meeting, Hultman said. Sherry Bren, a labor worker who later filed an age discrimination complaint against the department and was also at the meeting, also said that an agreement was hammered out before the meeting, though she also said that the details were changed afterward. An agreement between Peters and the state previously released by Peters under pressure from state lawmakers says that Peters had to complete two classroom courses and re-submit three appraisals in order to obtain a license. Bren has said the meeting was provoked by proposed findings of facts and conclusions of law mailed to Peters in July 2020. That document has not been released. Bren, said she was intimidated during the meeting but that it was ultimately up to Hultman to make decisions on potential appraisers. Bren eventually reached a $200,000 settlement with the South Dakota government. Peters has since left the appraising field, saying the investigation caused her reputation too much harm. In a motion to dismiss released Friday, Noem said that the complaint was driven by political animus because she supported Ravnsborgs impeachment and that the allegations were shown to be faulty in the testimony from Hultman and Bren. While the Complaint could be dismissed on that basis alone, there are several other legal deficiencies that require this Board to dismiss the Complaint outright before even addressing the merits, she said. The states Constitution not allowing the board to adjudicate allegations of misconduct against the governor is one of them, she said. Noems office did not respond to a request for comment on Friday. Ian Fury, a spokesman for Noems campaign, said in a statement that the actions taken by the board did not follow state law or precedent and that the board has yet to point to one single statute the Governor has violated in either of these complaints. Noem was also subject to a complaint for allegedly misusing a state airplane. That complaint is still being considered. It is unfortunate the board chose not to bring this charade to an end today. Kassidy Peters did not receive any special treatment, and Governor Noem followed the law, period! Fury added. The ethics board (GAB) told The Epoch Times via email that it has acted in accordance with [state law] Chapter 324 to resolve this complaint and released the information allowed under the laws governing the GAB. The board said in August that Noem may have engaged in misconduct relating to the appraisal license but said that the complaint was partially dismissed and partially closed. Former Judge Gene Kean, one of the members, told The Epoch Times that Noem is being given a chance to have a hearing to defend herself. If she doesnt want one, the complaint will probably end up [fully] closed, he said. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci testifies before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee about the ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington on Nov. 4, 2021. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Fauci: We Dont Have Time to Run Clinical Trials for Updated Boosters Doctor responds to the claim Dr. Anthony Fauci is claiming that there wasnt enough time to wait for clinical trial data before clearing updated COVID-19 booster shots. We dont have time to do a clinical trial because we need to get the vaccine out now, Fauci said on the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. last week, pointing to how about 400 Americans are dying per day with COVID-19 and thousands of others are hospitalized with the disease. The updated boosters, made by Pfizer and Moderna, were authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Aug. 31 and subsequently recommended for virtually all Americans 12 and older by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Both shots contain elements of the Wuhan, BA.4, and BA.5 virus variants. No human data was or is available for the formulations. Pfizer and Moderna presented data on preclinical testing, done on mice. They also referenced human data for a different formulation, combinations of the Wuhan and BA.1 strains. Since BA.5 is the dominant variant in the United States, you have every reason to believe that [the updated formulation] is going to be better than having a vaccine that isnt highly specific to the circulating strain, Fauci said. That hasnt been proven in a clinical trial. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the White Houses chief medical adviser, isnt part of the U.S. regulatory or recommendation process on vaccines but his comments are followed closely by millions of Americans. The institute he heads runs clinical trials and does other work. Fauci was echoing other top U.S. officials, including CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky. Walensky said on Conversations on Health Care during a segment broadcast on Aug. 29 that waiting for human data would leave the boosters outdated. If we wait for those data to emerge in human data, not just mice data, we will be using what I would consider to be a potentially outdated vaccine, she said. Officials have been hedging, though, on how well they think the boosters will work. The idea here is not just to increase the antibodies right now, but also to hopefully give us a longer duration of protection because the hope here is not to have to give lots of vaccines each year, Dr. Peter Marks, a top FDA vaccine official, told reporters in a call after the agency authorized the boosters. Dr. Harvey Risch, professor emeritus of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health, in New York on July 7, 2022. (Bao Qiu/The Epoch Times) Doctor Responds Dr. Harvey Risch, a professor emeritus of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health, said that Faucis comments were hypocritical because randomized, controlled trials (RCTs) were required for the original vaccines, when the mortality of the virus was much higher. That is, he demanded RCTs when viral mortality was high, i.e., big emergency need, but didnt require RCTs when [there was] little emergency need, Risch told The Epoch Times in an email. He also criticized Walenskys remarks, pointing to how the CDCs variant monitoring shows that BA.4.6, which isnt part of the updated boosters, is growing in proportion in recent weeks. By the time that a supposed new winter wave of infections would occur in late November or December, it will likely be BA.4.6 and the new booster will be outdated anyway, Risch said. Even if BA.5 were still dominant in the future, the duration of benefit will likely not be much better than the current booster, which only provides an increase in protection for several weeks, Risch added, referencing a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Data presented by the CDC during a recent meeting also showed that vaccine effectiveness is down significantly against Omicron and its subvariants, which include BA.4.6 and BA.5, including against severe disease. While some experts have said they support how the United States authorized the new boosters with a dearth of data, others have said that the decision wasnt warranted. Basically, were playing in a sandbox of unknown benefits and unknown risks, because they dont have clinical trials, Dr. Vinay Prasad, an epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, said in a video. The United States should have required randomized, controlled trials before clearing the boosters, he added. A cancer patient holding hands with his wife in New York City, on March 16, 2016. (John Moore/Getty Images) Final Proposal to Legalise Euthanasia Is Lodged at Scottish Parliament Opponents of Scotlands proposed law to allow adults who are terminally ill to end their life are arguing that it could open the door to euthanizing people for other criteria, such as mental health conditions. On Thursday, Liam McArthur, a Liberal Democrat member of the Scottish Parliament, lodged the final proposal for Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland). Organisations opposed to assisted dying legislation argue that it could normalise suicide. Serious Questions Need to Be Asked The MSPs assisted suicide Bill proposes that anyone aged 16 or over who is deemed terminally ill and has been resident in Scotland for 12 months can get help to end their lives. When you start factoring in, which really hasnt been considered in any of this consultation, is the very significant body of evidence that is emerging, showing a link between legalising assisted suicide and/or euthanasia and normalising suicide in the general population. Serious questions need to be asked about that, Alistair Thompson, spokesman for Care Not Killing Alliance, told The Epoch Times. The Care Not Killing Alliance promotes more and better palliative care and wants to ensure that existing laws against euthanasia and assisted suicide are not weakened or repealed. McArthur told BBC Radios Good Morning Scotland programme on Thursday that he was hopeful that his members bill would receive cross-party support and lead to a change in the law next year. A Members Bill is legislation that is introduced by an MSP who is not a Scottish government minister. The Western Australian Parliament will begin debating the highly controversial Voluntary Euthanasia Bill on Tuesday. Under the bill, a request for the administration of euthanasia would only apply to a person who has a terminal illness that will cause death within two years and is experiencing debilitating pain. (Jorge Dirkx/AFP/Getty Images) Though on the same programme, disability campaigner Dr. Jim Elder-Woodward said that no disabled peoples organisations supported assisted dying and that he feared for the future of disabled people if the law was introduced. The assisted dying bill might open a real disaster for disabled people in the future, Elder-Woodward said. Nobody can guarantee the safeguards of the present bill [will] be retained in the future. Not one disabled peoples organisation is in favour of assisted dying. The English Assisted Dying Bill is moving through the UK parliament, though euthanasia is illegal in England and Wales and could be prosecuted as murder or manslaughter. At present, this also risks charges for a number of possible offences in Scottish criminal law. Because of this, at least 20 Scottish citizens have traveled and died at Swiss facilities such as Dignitas, according to a report by McArthur (pdf). Results of Public Consultation Disputed At Holyrood on Thursday, McArthur said he had been particularly struck by many harrowing accounts from those who witnessed their loved ones endure a bad death. They sent a powerful message that, even with excellent palliative care, the option of an assisted death would have made such a difference in terms of reducing unnecessary suffering. A safe and compassionate assisted dying law is a law thats time has come, he added. The consultation received the highest number of responses from the public for a proposed Members Bill in the Scottish Parliament. McArthur produced a summary report (pdf) noting that at 14,038 responses were received. The report said that 10,687 or 76 percent were fully supportive of the proposal. Right to Lifea pro-life organisation that opposes assisted suicidedisputes the rate of those fully supportive of the bill. They have called upon the Scottish government to urgently undertake an independent review. Right to Life received an email from McArthurs office on Jan. 18, 2022, that said, I can confirm that we have received 3,532 submissions from info@righttolife.org.uk. Right to Life provided the email to The Epoch Times. The report noted that 3,352 responses had been received from Right to Life but they are not counted in the data presented in the summary. The reason given is that they were received from the same email on the same day. The Epoch Times asked McArthur for comment, and sought clarification on the discrepancy in the number of Right to Life responses in the report (3,352) and in the email to Right to Life (3,532) but has not had a response by the time of publishing. Extension in Other Countries Thompson said Scotland was inspired by the U.S. state of Oregon, which has had an assisted dying law in place for over 20 years. But he noted that a peer-reviewed medical journal in 2015 found that legalising physician-assisted suicide (PAS) was associated with a 6.3 percent increase in total suicides (including assisted suicides). He argued that any change in the law to allow assisted suicide or euthanasia would place pressure on vulnerable people to end their lives for fear of being a financial, emotional or care burden upon others, affecting people who are disabled, elderly, sick or even depressed. So the first country to start euthanizing people for mental health conditions was the Netherlands and then Belgium followed suit very quickly. Conditions included anorexia, and also a sort of combination of pathologies linked to sexual abuse, which was probably the most chilling, he said. Subsequently, Canada has gone down this route as well, he said. Canadas broadening medical assistance in dying (MAiD), a procedure first made legal by the federal Liberal government in 2016, has been called the most permissive euthanasia and assisted-suicide legislation in the world. But he added that theres been an incremental extension in Canada, which has extended to people who are not suffering from mental illness. In its 2021 report the Canadian government cited that out of 9,950 MAiD deaths, 17.3 percent cited isolation or loneliness as a reason. That represents a 250 percent increase from the 2,838 MAiD deaths in 2017 the first full year assisted suicide was legal in Canada. These bills look very, very innocuous. People start looking and saying, well, it doesnt seem that bad, he said. I hope MSPs will see sense when they start looking at the details, said Thompson. A previous attempt to legalize assisted suicide in Scotland was defeated in the Scottish Parliament in 2015. PA media contributed to this report. A lab technician holds a bacteria culture that shows a positive infection of enterohemorrhagic E. coli, also known as the EHEC bacteria, from a patient at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Hamburg, Germany, on June 2, 2011. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images) Gambia Probes Link Between Child Deaths and a Paracetamol Syrup BANJULGambias government is investigating whether the deaths of dozens of young children from kidney failure in recent months are linked to a paracetamol syrup, the head of the countrys health service said on Thursday. A spike in cases of acute kidney injury among children under the age of five was detected in late July. As cases mounted, doctors began to suspect medicines could be involved. Gambias director of health services, Mustapha Bittaye, told Reuters that a number of patients began to fall ill with kidney problems three to five days after taking a paracetamol syrup sold locally. It was not yet clear if any particular brand of paracetamol was under investigation. E. coli bacteria was also a possible cause, Bittaye said. Symptoms suffered by the children included an inability to pass urine and a fever that can within hours end in kidney failure. By early August, 28 children had died, according to health ministry figures, for a fatality rate of nearly 90 percent. The number of fatalities is now much higher, said Bittaye. An official updated tally is expected in the coming days. Dozens of children have died in the last three months, Bittaye told Reuters by phone. Autopsies suggest the possibility of paracetamol. In a statement last week, health authorities said that this kind of illness often has more than one cause. E. coli bacteria could also be a possible cause as heavy rains have caused flooding in Gambia, and across much of West Africa, in recent weeks. The unpaved streets of the capital Banjul and surrounding towns have been overwhelmed. The use of open pit latrines and open drinking wells in urban centers can lead to the contamination of drinking water and contribute to a spread in waterborne illnesses like E. coli, health workers said. By Edward McAllister and Pap Saine Gov. Gen. Mary Simon speaks about Queen Elizabeth II during an address at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Sept. 8, 2022. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press) Gov. Gen. Mary Simon Delivers Speech in Memory of Queen Elizabeth Gov. Gen. Mary Simon has delivered a speech mourning Queen Elizabeth IIs death, offering condolences to the royal family. Buckingham Palace announced that Queen Elizabeth passed away at the age of 96 on Sept. 8, making her the longest-serving monarch in British history with a reign of 70 years and 214 days. Simon, who was named the monarchs representative in Canada last summer, said the Queen remained engaged and committed to her country until her final days. On behalf of all Canadians, I offer deepest condolences to the members of the royal family, who grieve the loss of a loving mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, Simon said at a press conference on Sept. 8. Her reign encompassed the mandates of 12 Canadian prime ministers and 13 governors general. On 22 occasions, she undertook official visits to Canada, where she professed her love for our country again and again. She was a steadfast presence during some of the most tumultuous times of our lives, and most recently gave comfort to so many during the pandemic. For many of us, we have only ever known one Queen. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also released a statement on the passing of the Queen earlier in the day. For most Canadians, we have known no other Sovereign. Queen Elizabeth II was a constant presence in our lives. Time and again, Her Majesty marked Canadas modern history. Over the course of 70 years and twenty-three Royal Tours, Queen Elizabeth II saw this country from coast to coast to coast and was there for our major, historical milestones, he said, The coming days will be a period of mourning for Canadians, as it will be for all Commonwealth citizens, ending with a national day of mourning when a commemorative service will be held to mark the passing of our Sovereign. Protocol calls for 10 days of mourning following the Queens death. A funeral date is expected to be announced soon, which governors general and Commonwealth prime ministers are expected to attend in London, England. Succession from the queen to her eldest son, now known as King Charles III, is automatic. There will be some formalities subsequent to the transition, including a proclamation from the governor general. The Canadian Press contributed to this report. Khloe Robins, 3, gets a COVID-19 vaccination shot at a clinic in the Victoria Square Mall in Regina on July 22, 2022. (Michael Bell/The Canadian Press) Health Canada Approves Pfizer Vaccine for Children 6 Months and Older Health Canada approved on Sept. 9 the use of Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine in children aged 6 months to less than 5 years old, making it the second vaccine approved for the youngest cohorts of children in Canada. The federal agency said on its website that the dosage it has approved for children in this age group is a three-dose primary series of 3 micrograms each of PfizerBioNTechs Comirnaty vaccine. The dosage for children aged 5 and older is a 2-dose primary series, 30 micrograms each for children aged 12 and older, or 10 micrograms each for those aged 5 to 11. To approve a vaccine, Health Canada said it has to complete an independent drug review process and ensure that the benefits must also outweigh any risks. The Pfizer vaccine is the second approved for use in children as young as 6 months old, after Health Canada gave the green light to Modernas Spikevax shot in July. The vaccine was authorized for use in children aged 6 months to 5 years old, according to a Health Canada statement issued on July 14. After a thorough and independent scientific review of the evidence, Health Canada has determined that the benefits of this vaccine for children between 6 months and 5 years of age outweigh the potential risks, the statement reads. Health Canada has placed terms and conditions on the authorization requiring Moderna to continue providing information to Health Canada on the safety and efficacy of the vaccine in this younger age group. In mid-June, U.S. public health officials authorized and recommended the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for all children aged 6 months to 5 years, allowing the roughly 19.5 million children to begin receiving the vaccines on June 20. However, uptake of the vaccine among children peaked in just a little over two weeks on July 1, according to an analysis of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data by the Kaiser Family Foundation. As of July 20, approximately 544,000 children under the age of 5 had received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose. This represents 2.8 percent of the approximately 19 million children in this age group, the study said. In Canada, there were close to 1.9 million children aged 4 and younger, according to 2021 data from Statistics Canada. Earlier this month, Health Canada also approved a new COVID-19 vaccine from Moderna that targets both the original strain of the novel coronavirus and the Omicron variant. Ottawa has already purchased 12 million doses of Modernas Omicron vaccine, and some existing orders for the original Moderna vaccine will be converted so that the newly adapted version will be delivered instead. Isaac Teo, Zachary Stieber, and The Canadian Press contributed to this report. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at the Unite and Win Rally at the Wyndham Hotel in Pittsburgh, Pa., on Aug. 19, 2022. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images) Heritage Foundation Ranks Florida No. 1 in Education Freedom PUNTA GORDA, Fla.The Heritage Foundation released its first-ever Freedom Report Card on Sept. 9, ranking Florida as the No. 1 state for empowering parents in their childrens education and supporting education freedom. Gov. Ron DeSantis was on hand at the Heritage Foundations conference in Orlando, where the announcement was made. DeSantis credits his administrations policies and fighting to keep kids in the classroom during the pandemic for the states national recognition. When other states were locking people down and keeping their kids out of school, we made sure kids were in school because we put their well-being before politics, DeSantis said. While states like California, New York, and Illinois that denied in-person education to their children are now suffering from plummeting educational outcomes, Floridas schoolchildren are thriving because we invest in our students, and we empower parents to decide what learning environment is best for their kids. Thank you to The Heritage Foundation for recognizing our success and ranking Florida No. 1 in the nation for education freedom. Florida was followed by Arizona and Idaho as the top states for educational freedom in the country. At the other end of the spectrum, New York, Washington, and New Jersey ranked in the bottom three and scored the lowest in transparency, high spending per pupil despite low student outcomes, less regulatory freedom, and few education choice opportunities. Kevin Roberts, president of The Heritage Foundation praised Florida state lawmakers for advancing priorities that offer parents more educational options and provide them with more autonomy and academic transparency. As a fifth-generation educator, I know firsthand the importance of giving parents more choice in their childrens education, and how much of an advantage a quality education gives to those fortunate enough to receive it. Lawmakers in every state capitaland here in D.C.should be focused on empowering families and making sure that every child in this country has access to the highest-quality education, one that works best for them, said Roberts in a released statement. Florida has led the way in expanding education choice, cutting red tape, and holding schools accountable to parents with academic transparency. The Heritage Foundations first annual education report card came after the U.S. Department of Education announced significant declines in both reading and math scores among students across the nation. The National Center for Education Statistics released data showing the largest score drop in reading among 9-year-old students since 1990, and the first-ever score drop in mathematics in the same age group. The Heritage Foundation said improvements could be attained by continuing to make progress in math and reading achievement, limiting growth in non-teaching staff, and lowering its unfunded teacher pension liabilities. The Heritage Foundation said lawmakers in the Sunshine State set a high standard for academic transparency and approved a proposal requiring it. However, one item the state could study more is its spending, ranking seventh overall in return on investment (ROI). DeSantis said the Parents Bill of Rights and standing up to woke corporations like Disney helped propel the state to its No. 1 status. At the end of the day when youre the governor, you know you take an oath; youre taking an oath to support and defend the people that you represent, DeSantis told the conference attendees. Youre not taking an oath to subcontract out leadership to a woke corporation based in Burbank. DeSantis went on to say that he disagreed with Disneys stand against the Parental Rights in Educationor so-called Dont Say Gay billbut he understood they had a right to do it. Now youre saying youre gonna continue to wage a kind of woke jihad against the parents of our state and our kids? he continued. You have the right to do it. You dont have the right to force us in Florida to subsidize your activism. DeSantis concluded his remarks by thanking The Heritage Foundation for the honor. Here in Florida, were standing up for education freedom, because its partially in our classrooms that the protected perspectives of future generations are formed, and where teachers and educators in whom we put our trust as parents can help provide our kids with a strong foundation for them to exercise the duties of citizenship and a republic, he said. The Heritage Foundation intends to make these report cards annual, with the goal of both letting parents and policymakers know where their states are doing well and cluing them in to where changes can be made. Ronson Chan speaks to the media after he was released on bail in Hong Kong, on Sept. 7, 2022. (Big Mack/The Epoch Times) Hong Kong Journalists Association Chairman Arrested for Obstructing Police Work and Misconduct in Public Hong Kong authorities have targeted Ronson Chan since the 2019 anti-extradition protests On Sep 7, Chairperson of Hong Kong Journalist Association, and former Stand News Reporter, Ronson Chan Long-sing was arrested for obstructing polices work, and misconduct in public places while being on duty. Chan was released on bail of HKD500 (approximately US$64) later at night but has to report back to the police station on Sep 21. This is not the first time Ronson Chan was harassed by the Hong Kong Police. While the media were live streaming during the Hong Kong protests, a police officer asked for Chans Identity card and showed it on camera to the public without permission. Stand News was often a target of the authorities during the anti-extradition movement. After Stand News was shut down by the Security Bureau for violating the National Security Law, Chan became a reporter at Channel C, an online media company as a vice-reporting director. On Dec. 29, 2021, at dawn, the National Security Bureau entered Chans residence and searched his apartment on suspicion of conspiracy to publish inciting materials under the national security law. Chan was taken to the police station for an investigation. Multiple executives of Stand News were also arrested on the same day. According to Channel C, Chan together with a photographer went to an owners meeting of Long Ping Estate, Yuen Long, held at the McPherson Stadium in Mongkok on Sep 7. Police officers stopped both of them at the venue entrance. The police demanded to see their identity cards. While the photographer was let go after being checked and questioned, Chan was arrested. Multiple pro-government news outlets reported that Chan was acting hysterically during the stop and search. They also claimed that Chan refused to show his identity card. According to the police statement, at about 11 a.m., on-duty police stopped two suspicious looking men at the junction of Yim Po Fong street and Nelson Street in Mongkok. They stopped the two men for identity verification. One of the two males refused to cooperate with the police when asked to show his identity card. The police claimed that after several warnings, the 41-year-old male named Chan was arrested for obstructing police work while on duty and misconduct in public places. The case is now being followed by the Mongkok District Criminal Investigation Unit. Current affairs commentator Lin Kuang Zheng questioned the polices action on his program, How exactly are two reporters acting suspicious while doing their job? Lin pointed out that while police have to maintain order at the scene, they should cooperate with reporters. He suspected that the police intended to cause Chan trouble. Lin thought it was the polices way of threatening reporters to obey. Police Infringed Chans Privacy on Several Occasions This is not the first time Hong Kong Police have targeted a journalist or Chan Chan had been targeted and treated violently by the HKPF on multiple occasions while performing his duty as a journalist since 2019 during the anti-extradition protests. On Dec. 26, 2019, during a live broadcast for the now-dissolved Stand News, a police officer displayed Chans identity card to the camera to thousands of viewers for about a minute. Although Chan reminded the police officer that he was breaching the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance, the police officer continued. Chan later filed a complaint to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data of Hong Kong (PCPD). The PCPD published an investigation report the following year. It was adjudicated that the involved police officer had violated the Ordinance. In the report, PCPD also stated that the policemans behaviors contradicted his search duties and were against the principle of protecting personal information. HKJA at the time demanded the police formally apologize to the affected journalist. HKJA also stated that the police have been obstructing journalism, and violating the law and regulations since the 2019 Hong Kong Protests. Police Said Journalists Were Acting Suspiciously When the HKJA chairman left Mongkok Police Station on bail last night, he explained to the waiting press, I was, as usual, trying to obtain information from the police officer during the stop and search. I was not doing anything dangerous but was treated with exaggeration. Upon learning that the casually clothed police officer was a part of PPRB, Police Public Relations Branch, Chan was ready to present his identity card. Then all of a sudden, someone asked him to stand back. Chan thought it was a random middle-aged male civilian asking for his ID card. So Chan demanded to see his warrant card to prove he was an officer. As soon as the police officer confirmed his unit, a police chief handcuffed Chan. Chan stated, When I arrived at the police station, I was asked by the very same police chief when I am going to die. He also said the HKJA is a piece of trash. Because of his previous experience, Chan is very nervous about his ID, I did not think it was unreasonable to ask the police to identify themselves. The General Police Regulations also stipulate that any police officer should indicate their identity and work unit when the situation permits. Chan believed that he was only fulfilling his civil rights. Hong Kong Journalists and Freedom of the Press Police regularly clashed with journalists during the protests. Riot police shot Ronson Chan on the foot with a pepper spray bullet during the sieges at Polytechnic University in 2019. At a 7.21 commemoration event, police pepper sprayed Chan in the eyes without prior warning. In 2021, Chan was appointed as the president of HKJA as the authorities and regime tightened their grip on journalism. As a result of police action and political pressure, several media companies have ceased operating in the last two years. Chris Tang Ping-keung, Secretary for Security accused HKJA of being funded by foreign political organizations with certain political leaning, implying pro-democratic bias. Chan is set to head to Oxford University in the UK this fall for a Reuters research fellowship for six months. Chan expressed that he is not too concerned about whether his plan will be affected, and emphasized, Come what may. Nie Law and Ying Cheung contributed to this article. As the National Security Law fogged Hong Kong in recent years, many Hongkongers have emigrated to the UK through British National (Overseas) (BNO) visas and lifeboat schemes to start a new life. But some people who are ineligible for BNO visas, had to apply for asylum based on their involvement in the 2019 Hong Kong Protests. One year later, they are still waiting for approval. (The Epoch Times) Hongkongers Seeking Asylum in UK Feeling Hopeless After No Approval Update for Over a Year Ex-HK District Councilor: UK Gov has sunk us financially and mentally. As of June 30, the UK government (UK Gov) has approved over 130,000 BNO visa applications. However, it is reported that more than 100 Hongkongers, who were ineligible for BNO visas, have been waiting for asylum approvals for over a year. Recently, two visa applicants, including a former Hong Kong district councilor, shared their journeys in an interview with The Epoch Times. Due to the long wait and with no updates from UK immigration, one person is ready to leave for Canada. According to the Home Office, from the second quarter of 2019 to the second quarter of 2022, a total of 249 Hongkongers have sought political asylum in the UK. So far, 18 cases have been approved, 35 rejected, 52 withdrawn, and the 144 others are still pending approval. Thomas (pseudonym), a social activist, revealed that he participated in the anti-extradition movement and other political activities in 2019. Under the national security law, Thomas felt that the longer he stayed in Hong Kong, the greater the risk of being arrested. Thomas left Hong Kong by himself in 2021 and sought refuge in the UK. Thomas said, There is no telling when the regime will move the red line. I cant tell when I will be arrested. Look at Au Ka-lun. He was arrested for a few spoken words. Allan Au Ka-lun, a former long-time RTHK (the public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong) host and journalist, a researcher of constitutive censorship, and new media autonomy in Hong Kong. On Apr 11, the Hong Kong National Security Bureau arrested Au for conspiracy to publish and/or copy incitement publications. Thomas recalled, After I landed in 2021, I didnt look for legal aid. Instead, I sent an application for asylum approval to the Home Office based on my online research. Not long after, Thomas attended his first application interview. He was asked to briefly introduce himself and describe how he had been persecuted. Thomas also had to explain his visit to the UK. Thomas said, A few days later, I received two forms asking for my personal information and evidence of why I could no longer return to Hong Kong. He filled out the forms and sent the information to the Home Office. And he waited for a reply. It has been over a year. He has received no news or updates. He said his application fell into a black hole Another interviewee, John (Pseudonym), a former district councilor in Hong Kong, left the city because he was prosecuted for his participation in social movements. In July 2021, John, like Thomas, also left the only home he knew and headed to the UK seeking asylum. John pointed out, that there are a few procedures involved when someone applies for asylum in the UK. It starts with an initial interview, followed by form filling. Then applicants have wait to hear from the Home Office for a second interview. After that, they will be notified of their application outcome. John said that if someone is granted refugee status, they can officially live in the UK for five years before applying for naturalization. However, John has been waiting for over a year now. The refugee-to-be said, I think my application fell into a black hole. I dont know who my case manager is; I dont know when the second interview will be. Meanwhile, I cant work. I cant leave the country. I cant learn to drive. John described his life in the UK so far as being abnormal. He pointed out that a refugee policy is based on humanitarianism. It is for applicants to live in a safe haven and have a normal daily life as soon as possible. John stated, that the Home Office has a clear policy that stipulates after the first round of interviews, the decision of granting refugee asylum will be made within six months. If an application is delayed for over one year, asylum applicants can apply for a temporary work permit. However, at present, most Hong Kong applicants have waited for more than one year. As for the temporary work permit as a compensatory measure, John felt it is only for show. Both Thomas and John stated that over the past year, the Home Office has only contacted them once by mail. The Office notified them that the UK government has yet been able to approve their applications within the 6-month timeline. The Home Office, asked them in the letter, whether they would consider withdrawing their application and returning to Hong Kong. The Home Office also noted that if they insisted on the application being processed, all they can do is wait. Neither Thomas nor John was able to contact a person in charge of their cases. They have not been able to get an update on their applications. Whenever they emailed the Office, both of them said they got the same canned responses, that their cases will be handled as soon as possible. A community organization called Hongkongers In Britain, and some members of Parliament, also had zero success in checking their status with the Home Office. Currently, both Thomas and John, feel stranded, as they cannot work even with the temporary work permit. One said, The work permit is limited to positions that require specific high-tech or advanced qualifications, such as engineers, technology experts, or scientists. Thomas and John have had little income for over a year while languishing in the UK. They mentioned that although the UKGov provides 40 ($46) a week to those with financial difficulties, it is not enough. They have been using their savings to survive and have been mostly couch-surfing since they arrived in the UK. They mentioned the difficulty of getting financial aid, Most Hongkongers dont fit the requirement of getting a living allowance. We can count the successful cases on one hand. Because he has been waiting for over a year, Thomas suspects he will be waiting endlessly for approval. So he plans to leave the UK and seek sanctuary in Canada. Both Hongkongers who requested asylum status expressed, that they dont expect the UKGov to guarantee refuge, but they do wish that the UKGov would follow their own asylum approval policy. John added, Over the past year, we have been waiting aimlessly. Most of us are tired, anxious, angry, and helpless. The long wait and uncertainty have been mental torture for Hong Kong applicants. House GOPs Gravely Concerned About Military Appearance in Bidens Campaign Speech A group of House Republicans sent a letter questioning the Department of Defense (DoD) over President Joe Biden using Marines as political props during his recent campaign-style speech. We are gravely concerned that throughout the entirety of this partisan, politically charged, and divisive address to the nation, two United States Marines were visibly present flanking the President in the background, GOP lawmakers wrote in a joint letter (pdf) sent to U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Wednesday. The Presidents use of active duty Marines as political props undermines the apolitical nature of our servicemembers and erodes trust in our military, they continued. The letter references Bidens speech outside the Independence Hall in Philadelphia on Sept. 1in front of deep red backlighting flanked by two Marinesthat cast Trump-aligned Republicans as a threat to America. The Marines saluted Biden at the end of the speech as the president left the stage and walked inside the building behind the first lady. The lawmakers asked Austin whether the Pentagon knew the contents of Bidens speech before his appearance in Philadelphia, and whether it had known that the two active-duty service members would be presented on TV. Joe Biden inappropriately and illegally jeopardized Marines compliance with DoD regulations while he was denigrating & demonizing tens of millions of Americans, House Republican Conference Chairwoman Rep. Elise Stefanik (N.Y.) posted on Twitter, urging an end to what she called politicization of the military. Stefanik signed the letter along with House Armed Services Committee ranking member Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) and House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense ranking member Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calf.). The appearance has drawn intense fire from political rivals and mainstream media commentators, who said it is historically unusual for a president to denigrate his political opponents while using U.S. military members as political props. White House Response The White House later said the president was in a bid to honor the military and its role in defending democracy. The presence of the Marines at the speech was intended to demonstrate the deep and abiding respect the president has for these service members, to these ideals and the unique role our independent military plays in defending our democracy, no matter which party is in power, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a briefing last Friday. It is not abnormal. It is actually normal for presidents from either side of the aisle to give speeches in front of members of the military, she added. It is not an unusual sight or is not an unusual event to have happen. A Pentagon spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Workers are making solar photovoltaic modules used for small solar panels at a factory in Haian in China's eastern Jiangsu Province on Jan. 7, 2022. (STR/AFP via Getty Images) House Republicans Demand Investigation Over DHS Money Being Used to Buy Chinese Solar Panels Made With Forced Labor Eighteen Republicans on the House Oversight Committee are demanding that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) conduct an immediate investigation into possible federal law violations of using taxpayer money to purchase Chinese-made solar panels. We are concerned with federal taxpayer dollars Congress has allocated to FEMA for supplemental disaster relief since 2017 and how they may be used, the GOP lawmakers wrote in a letter dated Sept. 7 to DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari. Particularly, their concern is that the DHS funds could be used to enrich China, an adversary with a record of human rights abuses and slave labor, the letter reads. FEMA is short for Federal Emergency Management Agency, a DHS agency. At the heart of the concerns is how the U.S. Virgin Islands may have used disaster relief funding from the department. According to the letter, the federal government provided the territory with $8 billion following two hurricanes in 2017, with $5 billion of the money coming from FEMA. The lawmakers are concerned that the U.S. Virgin Islands may have spent the DHS money on Chinese solar panels, as the territory has been transitioning to solar power. According to the letter, the territory was awarded $4.4 million from FEMA for a new 28-megawatt solar microgrid project on the island of St. Croix in 2021. In March, Albert Bryan, governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands, announced plans to make St. Croix 100 percent solar-powered. In the letter, the lawmakers warn that Chinese solar panels are likely built with forced labor, given that much of the worlds supply of polysilicon is processed in Chinas Xinjiang autonomous regionwhere the U.S. government has designated Chinas persecution of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities as genocide and crimes against humanity. Almost 40 percent of the global production of polysilicon, a key component in solar panels, comes from the Xinjiang region, and nearly 85 percent of the worlds solar components are produced in China, the letter says, before adding that the U.S. Virgin Islands transition to solar power will potentially serve to massively enrich China. 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 letters authors were led by Reps. Bob Gibbs (R-Ohio) and James Comer (R-Ky.), ranking member of the committee. Using parts made by slave labor isnt only illegal, it helps finance a major geopolitical rival, Gibbs wrote on Twitter. We need to make sure these solar projects do not enrich Chinese companies profiting off slave labor. Rep. Jake LaTurner (R-Kan.) said he joined in the letter to Cuffari to ensure American taxpayer dollars are not being used to fund genocide and abuse in Chinas Xinjiang region. Its illegal for DHS to import solar panels from Communist China that have been made using Uyghur slave labor, LaTurner wrote on Twitter. The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), which President Joe Biden signed into law in December 2021 and which went into effect in June, bans imports from Xinjiang unless companies can prove that the products werent produced using forced labor. The legislation enjoyed bipartisan supportit was passed in the House by a 4281 vote and by the Senate unanimously. In December, just before the act was signed into law, several rights groups issued statements applauding congressional lawmakers for the passage of the bill. The passage of this legislation is a gigantic step forward in the fight to end forced labor in the Uyghur Region, Joanna Ewart-James, executive director of Freedom United, said in a statement. And it is the most consequential piece of legislation Congress has passed in years to hold U.S. corporations accountable for profiting from labor rights abuses abroad that I hope to see built upon. The GOP lawmakers want the DHS investigation to answer some questions. Have there been or are there plans to use FEMA funds to purchase solar panels or components that have been manufactured by Chinese companies in violation of the UFLPA? the letter says. Has the U.S government identified any imported solar panels that violate the now-actionable UFLPA? Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas) speaks at a press conference, alongside members of the Second Amendment Caucus, outside the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, on March 8, 2022. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) House Republicans Working on New Bill to Combat Chinas Espionage House Republicans announced this week that they are working on new legislation that would increase punitive economic measures against China for its continued espionage efforts in the United States. Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas) said that the new Chinese espionage bill is intended to shore up what Republicans saw as weaknesses in the Biden administrations China policies. It doesnt take rocket science to figure it out that the Chinese are not our friends, Weber said during a Sept. 8 interview with NTD, a sister media outlet of The Epoch Times. China has been stealing stuff from us for so long [and] Biden will do nothing toward trying to rein them in. Weber noted that, despite the tough rhetoric on China, it is not the Chinese people who are attempting to undermine the United States, but the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which currently rules China as a single-party state. China has always been a bad actor since the Communist Party took control, Weber said. We [the GOP] dont have any gripe with the Chinese people. Weve got a lot of good Chinese folks living over here. Its the Chinese Communist Party that we have the gripe with. The remarks echoed similar comments by Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) on Sept. 8 at a press conference, which aimed to outline the GOPs China platform should the party regain a congressional majority after Novembers midterm elections. [Biden] shut down the China Initiative that the Trump administration started, McCaul said. Guess what? Espionage hasnt gone away. The China Initiative was a Department of Justice (DOJ) anti-espionage program that sought to counter CCP efforts to steal research and technology. The Biden administration terminated the program in February, citing concerns about racial discrimination against Chinese people. An internal DOJ investigation found no evidence of discrimination, but the department still ended the program to avoid what it termed a harmful perception of bias. Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) also spoke to NTD about the GOPs latest legislative efforts to counter the CCP. Chinese companies are stealing our intellectual properties, Norman said. What this bill does is put new sanctions on China [as punishment for that theft]. Norman said that he became more involved with the issue of Chinese espionage some years ago after investigating the Confucius Institutes. A human rights group urges Tufts University to close its Confucius Institute in Somerville, Mass., on March 13, 2021. (Learner Liu/The Epoch Times) The Confucius Institutes, now named Centers for Language Exchange and Cooperation, are CCP-funded cultural outreach programs described by Beijing as an important part of Chinas overseas propaganda set-up and are also believed to double as espionage centers for the regime abroad. Though some 40 of the centers have been shut down across the United States, many still operate at American universities, and some universities replaced the institute with a differently named, but still CCP-funded, program. I got involved three or four years ago on the Confucius Institute, pointing out that this was just another way for China to steal our intellectual properties and do it on the dime of the American taxpayer, Norman said. [This bill] prohibits universities from receiving grant money from the NSF, the National Science Foundation, that works with China. And [it] prevents companies from using our federal dollars to expand businesses in China. The details of the GOPs proposed legislation to counter the CCP are still being worked out. Still, Norman said he is confident in the ability of the party to deliver and that the policies should have been brought forward long ago. [The CCP is] no friend of the United States, Norman said. This should have happened long ago. Andrew Thornebrooke Reporter Follow Andrew Thornebrooke is a reporter for The Epoch Times covering China-related issues with a focus on defense, military affairs, and national security. He holds a master's in military history from Norwich University. Hunter Biden attends a Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony honoring 17 recipients, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, on July 7, 2022. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images) Hunter Biden Said Hed Be Happy to Introduce Business Partners to Top Chinese Official: Emails Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, said he would be happy to introduce business partners to a senior Chinese official who allegedly sat next to him during a dinner in Beijing, a leaked 2014 email shows. On July 22, 2014, James Bulger, the nephew of Boston mobster James Whitey Bulger, wrote an email to Hunter Biden, requesting him to make an introduction of two business partners to a Chinese official called Mr Tung, likely referring to Tung Chee-hwa. Tung, the first chief executive of Hong Kong, served as the vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in 2014. The CPPCC is a political advisory body of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Former Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa attends a closing session in Beijing, on March 20, 2018. (Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images) Jonathan has asked me to please ask you to make an introduction to Mr. Tung, read the email, first released by Fox News on Sept. 8. J and Andy are very keen to meet Mr Tung and discuss BHR investment targets as well [as] fundraising. Both of our guys over there believe Mr Tung can be helpful right now, Bulger wrote. BHR is a Chinese private equity firm backed by major state financial institutions such as the Bank of China and the China Development Bank Capital. The firms chief executive is Jonathan Li, a Chinese banker. Related Coverage A Look Back at the Biden Familys China Business Ties Hunter Biden was an unpaid board member of BHR until April 2020, according to his lawyer. He held a 10 percent stake in the firm as of last May, according to company records. One of BHRs shareholders is Thornton Group, a Boston-based investment advisory firm co-founded by Bulger. Dinner in Beijing In the 2014 email, Bulger claimed Hunter Biden was sitting next to Tung at a reception for his father, who served as vice president at that time. It is my understanding that during the trip to Beijing that you made with your father, President Xi hosted a welcome dinner, at that dinner, you were seated right next to Mr Tung, Bulger wrote. J and Andy believe it would be very helpful if you could please send a brief email to Mr Tung laying out that you are a partner and Board Member of BHR and that You would be grateful to Mr Tung if he could meet your local partners to discuss the Fund, he continued. Please let me know if you can introduce these two to Mr Tung by email it is very important to our BHR intiative [sic] at this moment. In a reply on the same day, Biden said he was happy to satisfy the request, though he cant remember the name of the two gentlemen sitting next to him at that time. Happy to do this, he wrote, but I have no email address for Mr. Tung and he very well may have sat next to me but I dont recall the two gentlemens names to my left and right. Regardless, I would suggest the team draft an email in Mandarin and English for my approval ASAP. Bulger replied later he would reach out to the BHS executives and return ASAP. Its unclear, however, if any such introduction took place. Tung Chee-hwa The reception appears to be referring to an event that took place during Bidens official visit to China in December 2013. The younger Biden joined his father on the trip. Then Vice President Joe Biden waves as he walks out of Air Force Two with his granddaughter, Finnegan Biden (C), and son Hunter Biden (R) upon their arrival in Beijing on Dec. 4, 2013. (Ng Han Guan/AFP via Getty Images) Biden attended a welcoming ceremony before sitting down with then-vice chairman Li Yuanchao on Dec. 4, 2013, according to Chinas official news agency Xinhua. Tung, who served as CPPCC vice chair at that time, also joined the welcoming event, the report said. The CPPCC was identified as the highest-ranking entity overseeing the United Front system, according to a U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission report published in 2018. The United Front strategy uses a range of methods to influence overseas Chinese communities, foreign governments, and other actors to take actions or adopt positions supportive of Beijings preferred policies, read the report. Tung, a Chinese billionaire, was a founder of the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF), a Hong Kong-based non-profit organization that has been registered as a foreign principal under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). FARA filings have revealed that CUSEF organized trips to China for more than 120 journalists from almost 50 U.S. media outlets since 2009, as part of the groups broader efforts to sway media coverage and shape public opinion in the United States. In the groups 2014 annual report, CUSEF published a photo showing Tung shaking hands with Biden, though the location and the date of the photo were not immediately known. Hunter Bidens attorney Chris Clark didnt immediately respond to a request for comment. Eva Fu contributed to the report. Huntington Beach to Provide Rental Assistance to Senior Mobile Home Residents Elderly residents of mobile home parks in Huntington Beach may be eligible for temporary monthly relief from housing payments soon, after city councilors unanimously approved a rental assistance program Sept. 6. I know this isnt a panacea to the rental increases that our mobile home folks have been seeking, but it does potentially buy us some time for those that are in extreme need, Councilman Dan Kalmick said at the council meeting. Although the city already has other governmental programs offering rental assistance, this one will specifically target struggling senior mobile home residents over the age of 62. The program will be able to help 30 households per year with about $390,000 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Mobile homes in Huntington Beach Calif., on June 10, 2022. (Julianne Foster/The Epoch Times) Mobile homeowners will still have to pay their space rentthe cost to rent a plot of land on which a mobile home sitsand will be reimbursed partially for up to 2 years through this program. After the first year, recipients eligibility will be re-evaluated to determine if they should receive assistance for another year. The average space rent in the city is $1,839 monthly. Eligible residents will be able to receive up to $1,100 each month for rent payments. To be eligible for the program, a mobile homeowner has to meet the following requirements. Living in a mobile home for most of the year. Renting a space for at least one year before applying for the program. Earning a household income of $47,450 or less, without receiving any other governmental rent assistance. Veterans and low-income residents making $28,500 or less or paying over half of their income for space rent are given preference. While voting yes for the program, Councilwoman Kim Carr raised concerns about the rigidness of its eligibility requirements. To live in Huntington Beach, its incredibly expensive. The guidelines [to receive funds through the program] are so restrictive, she said during the meeting. Representatives from the Huntington Beach Mobile Home Residents Coalition speak at a Huntington Beach City Council meeting in Huntington Beach, Calif., on July 19, 2022. (Julianne Foster/The Epoch Times) Carol Rhor, president of the Huntington Beach Mobile Home Residents Coalition, told The Epoch Times the program is a good first step in dealing with the injustices we face from predatory park owners, but it is not enough to offset the spiking rent for more people. There are many residents who may not qualify for this assistance program but who are still at risk [of missing payments], she said. For several months, some residents have been pushing the city for a rent stabilization ordinance to put a limit on how much mobile home park owners can raise the space rent. They said the more expensive the rent, the more their mobile homes devalue. Ada Hand, a member of the coalition, told The Epoch Times she supports the program because it will help a few people, but it is not as helpful as rent stabilizing measures. All across the state [rent stabilization ordinances] are being approved by communities who care for their citizens, she said. Huntington Beach is not one of them. An advertisement for "Drag Kids" event at Boise Pride Festival, scheduled to take place from Sept. 9 to 11, 2022. (Boise Pride) Idaho Pride Festival Postpones Drag Kids Show, Citing Safety Concerns The organizers of an LGBT pride event in downtown Boise, Idaho said they have paused the plan to host a drag show featuring young children because of safety concerns. The Boise Pride Festival, an annual event that has been held for more than three decades, drew intense backlash this year over its inclusion of a Drag kids show that features children as young as 11 years old. You have watched the Queens and Kings and now it is time to see the Kids, an ad for the event read. A drag show like none other the Drag Kids range from ages 11-18 and are ready to bring it all to the Boise Pride Festival stage! Come and cheer them on as they bring drag to the younger generation! Zions Bank, Idaho Power, and the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (IDHW) were sponsors of the festival but ended their support in the wake of popular outrage against the inclusion of children in inherently sexual performances. In a letter sent to Boise Pride, IDHW Director Dave Jeppesen said the sponsorship was causing confusion about the departments stance on the issue. DHWs sponsorship of Boise Pride 2022 has led to some confusion about whether DHW endorses specific event activities involving minors during this event, Jeppesen wrote, noting that the withdrawal of sponsorship was meant to avoid any confusion regarding DHWs support of such activities. In response, Boise Pride said they decided to postpone the Drag Kids show originally scheduled for this Sunday. While the vast majority of our sponsors and supporters have voiced their support for the Boise Pride Festival and the Drag Kids program, we have made the very difficult decision to postpone this performance due to increased safety concerns, the organization said. The health and well-being of the kids, their parents, and the attendees of the Festival are our priority. We support the kids 1000% and their choice to be themselves, stand in their truth, and express themselves. They are brave, beautiful and deserve their chance to be in the spotlight, and we want to give that to them at a later date. Boise Pride didnt specify exactly what caused their safety concerns, although some opponents of Drag Kids have been discussing on social media about potentially showing up and staging a protest. Haley Williams, a spokesperson for the Boise Police Department, didnt indicate any specific threats related to the festival, but said the agency works with event organizers to create security plans and carefully assess concerns, just as it does with any other special event. Republicans Condemn Sexualization of Our Children Idaho Republican Party chair Dorothy Moon condemned the event, calling it an attack on Idahos children. Out-of-state companies promise to bring investment and jobs to Idaho. Instead, they are financing the sexualization of our children and the perverse idea that children should engage in sexual performances with adult entertainers, Moon wrote in a statement released Wednesday. Instead of sponsoring the Boise Pride Festival, Moon said, individuals and businesses that wish to take advantage of Idahos tax benefits and subsidies should take their sponsoring dollars to the Boise Rescue Mission, a Christian charity that operates a network of womens and childrens shelters. Children should be given the chance to live out a childhood free from violence, hunger, and the sexual appetites of adults, she added. Democrats Support Diversity and Inclusion Boise Mayor Lauren McLean, a Democrat, released a statement late Thursday in support of the festival. I appreciate the actions the Boise Pride Festival is taking to protect everyone who will join in their celebration this weekend, McLean said. The inflammatory rhetoric of the past few days has put a spotlight on the critical need for our community to have a conversation about standing together in times like these to encourage, embrace, and support the diversity and dignity of all people. Idaho Democratic Party also affirmed its support of the event, accusing the Republicans of promoting hateful rhetoric. In the face of hateful rhetoric, bullying and extremism, Idaho Democrats are not intimidated, we are resolute, it said. We support the Boise Pride Festival and its celebration of diversity and inclusion. Idaho Democrats will continue to fight for the right of every Idahoan to be proud, love openly and live authentically. In Pennsylvania Senate Race, Oz Says Fetterman Must Debate Now So Voters Know Who Their Candidates Are Pennsylvanias Republican Senate candidate Mehmet Oz has challenged Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, his Democratic opponent, to a debate in September, but Fetterman has said he needs more time to recover from the stroke he suffered in May and said any debate must be pushed to October. Oz has said he will not agree to debate in mid-October unless Fetterman also agrees to debate in September. The Republican candidate wants to debate Fetterman before voters begin submitting early mail-in ballots. The first debate has to be in September so we can allow voters to know who their candidates are right now, Oz told Axios. Pick one of the debates in the next two, three weeks. So we can get this ball rolling. Ozs comments came a day after Fetterman told Politico that he would agree to one debate with his GOP opponent and that hes intended to debate him from the start. Fetterman is looking to have the debate sometime in the middle to end of October. It was just simply only ever been about addressing some of the lingering issues of the stroke, the auditory processing, and were going to be able to work that out, he said. Fetterman suffered a stroke on May 13 a few hours before he was set to attend a campaign event at Millersville University in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He only returned to the campaign trail in mid-August. In multiple interviews, the Democrat has mentioned that the stroke has affected his speaking and auditory processing, which could end up hurting his debate performance. Fettermans campaign is considering using a closed caption monitor for the potential debate to ensure he doesnt miss any words. In his interview with Politico, Fetterman confirmed that some of his hearing has been affected from the stroke. However, the situation is getting better daily, he stated. Questioning Fettermans Health Oz has questioned his opponents decision to delay the debate. John Fetterman is either healthy and hes dodging the debates because he does not want to answer for his radical left positions, or hes too sick to participate in the debate, Oz said at a recent press conference. After returning to public life in August, Fetterman has only given a few speeches lasting about 10 minutes each as of Sept. 1. Many Republicans have raised concerns about Fettermans ability to serve in the Senate. An Indian woman dries paddy after harvesting in Burha Mayong Village, near Gauhati, India, on Monday. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath) India Bans Broken Rice Exports to Ensure Domestic Supplies India, the worlds largest rice exporter, has banned the export of broken rice with immediate effect to tackle rising domestic prices and meet local demands as the monsoon season has curtailed planting. The Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Thursday issued a notification prohibiting the export of broken rice, which was published by the local media ANI. It stated that exports will still be permitted until Sept. 15 if the loading of broken rice has already begun ahead of the ban, the shipping bill has been filed, vessels have berthed, or the consignment has been sent to customs for clearance. The export ban comes after India imposed a 20 percent levy on exports of rice in the husk (paddy or rough), husked brown rice, and semi-milled or wholly-milled rice. Parboiled rice and basmati rice are exempt from export duties. India exports rice to more than 150 countries, and any reduction in its shipments would increase upward pressure on food prices, which are already rising because of drought, heat waves, and Russias invasion of Ukraine. B.V. Krishna Rao, president of the All India Rice Exporters Association, said the move will render Indian rice exports uncompetitive on the global market as buyers shift to Thailand and Vietnam. Indias rice exports reached a record 21.5 million tons last year, surpassing the combined shipments of the worlds next four largest rice exporters, including Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan, and the United States. The country has also banned wheat exports and restricted sugar exports to 10 million tons to maintain domestic availability and price stability. India is the worlds second-largest exporter of sugar and wheat. The Indian government stated that wheat exports to food-deficit countries will still be permitted. Thailand Aims Higher Rice Exports Meanwhile, Thailands government projected that rice exports will exceed 7.5 million tons this year as the countrys rice exports surged 51.4 percent from January to August, with 4.92 million tons of rice exported. Pitak Udomwichaiwat, director-general of the Foreign Trade Department, said that rice export prices have become competitive as revenue increased to $2.54 billion between January to August. The Commerce Ministry is thus more confident that the exports may outpace a target of 7.5 million tons set by the ministry, Pitak was quoted as saying by Bangkok Post. Thailand exported 6.11 million tons of rice for 118 billion baht ($3.2 billion) last year. Reuters contributed to this report. Continuing their father's legacy, Carlos and Victor Pedro are carrying the 40-year-old restaurant into the future with an elevated menu, luxe surrounds, and a new cafebut the same family spirit Carlos and Victor Pedro grew up in Ipanemanot the famed Rio de Janeiro beach, but their fathers Brazilian-Portuguese restaurant, named after those sun-drenched shores, in the heart of New Yorks Little Brazil. The lively spot had been a neighborhood staple since 1979, when Alfredo Pedro, who immigrated from Portugal when he was 13, quit his job as an IBM engineer to buy the restaurant. In running the place, I always had a philosophy of being a family, Alfredo said. That applied to his own, of course, but also his staffhe had the same chef and manager for 30 yearsand customerswe saw a lot of kids who would get married and bring their own kids, he said. The pandemic lockdown brought Ipanemas 40-plus-year run to an end. Then, the next generation stepped up to revive it. Carlos and Victor took over the business, briefly relocating it to South Norwalk, Connecticut, close to Victors home, before bringing it home to Manhattan. In May 2022, the resurrected restaurant openedjust 10 blocks from the original. The modernized interiors draw from Brazils love for natural materials in design and decor. (Melissa Hom) A Fresh Look While the original Ipanema was more of a casual homestyle, no frills place, as most Brazilian or Portuguese spots in the city still are, Carlos said, he and Victor wanted to update it, while keeping its spirit: This should be elevated and put on a pedestal and respected. They brought on Brazilian-born executive chef Giancarlo Junyent and chef de cuisine Andre Lev Pavlik, who previously worked together under Tom Colicchio; and pastry chef Alejandra Nicolon, from Per Se and Eleven Madison Park. Ipanemas updated menu features sophisticated takes on Brazilian and Portuguese classics. (Melissa Hom) In designing the menu, we wanted to show where our culture can go, Junyent said. The classics are still there, but refined, such as the bitoque, a Portuguese-style strip steak with an egg, steak Diane sauce, and potato gratin in place of the usual rice and fries; and arroz de pato, a duck fried rice with house-cured duck prosciutto, shredded duck confit, and duck jus. The feijoada, Brazils famed black bean and pork stew, stays true to tradition, but a handmade black ceramic serving vessel adds sophistication. Everything is made in-house, from the bacalhau to the acerola sorbet. The restaurant interior exudes glamour and warmthall softly lit wood, lush greenery, white marble, velvet banquettes. It has an 80-seat main dining room, a private area where family heirlooms are displayed on bookshelves, and an upstairs cocktail lounge where Brazilian mixologist Marcio Silva updates classic drinks with house-distilled and infused spirits. Connected to the restaurant is a sunny, blue-and-white-tiled all-day cafe, Bica, serving coffee and fresh juices; uncommonly flavorful lunch bowls and salads; and pastries such as pao de queijo (Brazilian cheese bread) and pasteis de nata (Portuguese egg tartswhich Nicolon said took months to perfect). Passing the Torch With the new kitchen crew, the Pedros have simply expanded their family. Case in point: Barely after meeting, they sent the team to stay in their family home in Portugal for a research trip, with Alfredo as their personal guide. Alfredo, who now lives most of the year in Portugal, where he runs his own hotel and restaurant, never expected his sons to take over Ipanema. Im very proud of them, he said. Its a very exhausting, demanding business. For the brothers, though, the choice was obvious. Its like part of the family, said Carlos. Its been so central, almost like the nucleus that we all just want to nurture it and keep it going. Its far from smooth sailing, but thats where family comes in, Victor added. Even when tensions run high or disaster strikes, we pick each other up, were always there for each other. If You Go Location: 3 West 36th Street, New York, N.Y. Hours: Ipanema is open Tuesday to Saturday, 5:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.; Bica is open Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and Saturday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Contact: 212-730-5848, Ipanema.co The Defense Ministry plans to deploy new fighter jets in 2035 to replace its current F-2s. (Courtesy of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force) Japan Plans to Resume Air Defense Drills, Upgrade Missiles, and Fighter Jets Amid Growing Regional Threats Amid growing threats from China and North Korea, Japan is reportedly planning to resume anti-missile evacuation drills, a program that has been suspended for four years. Meanwhile, the government announced independent research and development (R&D) and mass production of new missiles. It also accelerated the upgrade of the self-defense force to better respond to security threats in the countrys surrounding areas. Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) reported on Sept. 3 that the move to resume evacuation drills was primarily triggered by North Koreas frequent ballistic missile launches this year. The drills are expected to be held in ten municipalities in eight prefecturesincluding Hokkaido, Niigata, Kagawa, and Okinawafrom late September to late January of next year, enacting under the assumption that a ballistic missile powerful enough to reach Japan had been fired. Information regarding the drills will be communicated through public wireless systems and other methods aimed at allowing the public to quickly evacuate to sturdy buildings and underground shelters. According to the report, the Japanese government suspended the drills after June 2018, following the U.S.-North Korea summit between then U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the border village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone, South Korea, on June 30, 2019. (Susan Walsh/file/AP Photo) Due to Trumps foreign policy intervention, North Korea did not conduct any missile or nuclear tests in 2018. The vastly improved regional security during the Trump era had led the Japanese government to suspend the anti-missile drills. However, North Korea has ramped up its missile test launches since Biden took office. Threats From the CCP In addition to threats from North Korea, Japan is also taking measures to build up its strength as the Taiwan conflict flare-up. According to a policy roadmap released on June 7, Japan will double its defense spending in the next five years, citing the need to increase defense capabilities and maintain peace in the Taiwan Strait, where Beijing has increased its military presence. The Japanese Cabinet approved the annual fiscal and economic policy roadmap, the first such policy guidelines released under Prime Minister Fumio Kishidas administration. On Aug. 4, five ballistic missiles launched by China landed in the waters of Japans exclusive economic zone, following U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosis high-profile visit to Taiwan in early August. Beijings move has prompted an international outcry against the communist regime. The Rocket Force under the Eastern Theatre Command of Chinas Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) fires live missiles into the waters near Taiwan from an undisclosed location in China on Aug. 4, 2022. (Eastern Theatre Command/Handout via Reuters) The missiles were launched as part of the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) retaliatory military exercises against Taiwan, which had cut off several international air and sea paths to the island in a blockade. Following the incident, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, on Aug. 5, called for the immediate suspension of Chinese military drills around Taiwan. Kishida strongly condemned Beijings move and reaffirmed Japans willingness to work closely with the United States to maintain stability in the Taiwan Strait. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a news conference at the prime ministers official residence in Tokyo, Japan, on Aug. 10, 2022. (Rodrigo Reyes Marin/Pool via Reuters) Development of Longer-Range Missiles to Counter China On Aug 31, Japan said it would develop and mass produce a cruise missile and a high-velocity ballistic missile with the ability to strike more distant targets as part of a military expansion aimed at meeting threats from China and Russia. The procurement plan unveiled in the Ministry of Defenses annual budget request represents a clear departure from a decades-long range limit imposed on Japans constitutionally constrained Self Defense Forces, which meant they could only field missiles with ranges of a few hundred kilometers. A visitor looks at Kongsbergs joint strike missile model during Japan Aerospace 2016 air show in Tokyo on Oct. 12, 2016. (Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters) China continues to threaten to use force to unilaterally change the status quo and is deepening its alliance with Russia, the ministry said in its budget request. It is also applying pressure around Taiwan with supposed military exercises and has not renounced the use of military force as a way to unite Taiwan with the rest of China, it said. Alarm about the Chinese regimes regional ambitions grew last month after it fired five ballistic missiles into waters less than 160 kilometers (100 miles) from Japan in a show of force after Pelosis visited Taiwan. The budget request is for funding to mass produce ground-launched cruise missiles, an extended range version of the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries designed Type 12 missile already in use to strike ships, and a new, high-velocity glide ballistic missiles capable of hitting ground targets. The ministry is also seeking money to develop other projectiles, including hypersonic warheads, which the ministry said would likely be able to reach targets in mainland China if deployed along Japans nearby southwest Okinawa island chain. Japan has already ordered air-launched missiles, including the Joint Strike Missile (JSM) made by Norways Kongsberg and Lockheed Martin Corp.s Joint Air-to-Surface Stand-Off Missile (JASSM) with a range of up to 1,000 km (620 miles). In addition to increasing its stockpile of missiles and other munitions, Japans military wants to develop its cyber defenses, electromagnetic warfare capabilities, and space presence. Members of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) bring down the Japanese national flag in the early evening at the JGSDF Miyako camp on Miyako Island, Okinawa prefecture, Japan, on April 20, 2022. (Issei Kato/Reuters) Record Expansion of Japans Military Budget In December last year, Japans Cabinet approved a record 5.4 trillion yen ($47 billion) defense budget for fiscal 2022 that included funding for research and development of a new fighter jet and other game-changing weapons. The move was aimed to bolster the countrys defense capabilities against Chinas growing military and aggression toward Taiwan. The budget included a record high 291 billion yen ($2.55 billion) for defense research and development, up 38 percent from 2021. Of that, 100 billion yen ($870 million) is for developing the F-X fighter jet to replace Japans aging fleet of F-2 aircraft around 2035. It would be Japans first domestically developed fighter jet in 40 years. Late last year, Japan and Britain announced the joint development of a future demonstration fighter jet engine and agreed to explore further combat air technologies and subsystems. The project includes Mitsubishi and IHI in Japan and Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems in the UK. As Chinas military buildup extends to cyberspace and outer space, Japans Defense Ministry is also pushing for research into artificial intelligence-operated autonomous vehicles for aerial and undersea use, supersonic flight, and other game-changing technologies. The budget allocates 128 billion yen ($1.1 billion) for the purchase of a dozen F-35 stealth fighters from Lockheed Martin Corp., including four with short takeoff and vertical landing capabilities for use on two helicopter carriers being converted into aircraft carriers, the key to Japans joint operations with the United States in defense of the IndoPacific region. Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said at a forum last year that a Taiwan emergency is a Japanese emergency, and therefore an emergency for the JapanU.S. alliance. Japans Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on May 25, 2020. (Kim Kyung-hoon/Pool Photo via AP) Abe, Japans longest-serving leader, was shot and killed on July 8 during a campaign speech in the western city of Nara, Japan. Police immediately arrested a 41-year-old man wielding a homemade gun at the scene. He was known for his hawkish stance on China, following his revitalizing of the Quad forum and nationalizing the uninhabited Senkaku Islands that China claims as part of its territory and calls the Diaoyu Islands. Abe, who stepped down as prime minister in 2020, said an armed invasion of Taiwan would pose a serious threat to Japan, given that the Senkaku Islands, Sakishima Islands, and Yonaguni Island are only 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the Chinese-claimed island. Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Special Representative for North Korea Sung Kim (L), Japan Director-General for Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Takehiro Funakoshi (C), and South Korea Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Kim Gunn pose for photographers prior to hold trilateral meeting on North Korea at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan in Tokyo on Sept. 7, 2022. (Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo) Japan, US, South Korea Reaffirm Joint Response to North Korea Threat TOKYODiplomats from the United States, Japan and South Korea reaffirmed their commitment on Wednesday to working together in response to any threat from North Korea, including a possible new nuclear test. The three senior diplomats in charge of North Korean affairs also underscored their efforts to strengthen their security partnership. Japan and South Korea acknowledge their need to improve bilateral and trilateral cooperation. Relations between Japan and South Korea have been badly damaged by historical disputes over Japans colonization of the Korean Peninsula. Takehiro Funakoshi, director-general of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau of Japans Foreign Ministry, said the focus of the trilateral cooperation is North Korea and its accelerating nuclear and missile development. Funakoshi said he and his U.S. and South Korean counterparts, Sung Kim and Kim Gunn, were to discuss their countries responses to North Korea as they work together to enhance regional deterrence amid a looming possibility of further provocations including another nuclear test. North Korea last conducted a nuclear test, its sixth, in 2017, and experts have noted signs of preparations for another test. Special Representative for North Korea Sung Kim (L), Japan Director-General for Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Takehiro Funakoshi (C), and South Korea Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Kim Gunn pose for media prior to their trilateral meeting on North Korea at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan in Tokyo on Sept. 7, 2022. (Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo) Funakoshi also welcomed missile defense exercises held by the three countries off the coast of Hawaii last month. Sung Kim, the U.S. special envoy for North Korea, said the three countries are prepared for all contingencies in responding to (North Koreas) provocations and to protect allies in the region. Their goal of the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula has not changed, Sung Kim said. We remain committed to seeking dialogue with (North Korea) and are prepared to meet without preconditions, he said. Kim Gunn, South Koreas special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, called for further efforts to ensure full implementation of sanctions against North Korea under United Nations Security Council resolutions. By Mari Yamaguchi Julie Ponesse: Letter to University Students: COVID Coercion Will Stop as Soon as You Say No Commentary Dear Canadas university students, Over the last year, our countrys universities have dismissed your concerns and refused to answer your questions. They made you unconfident in your beliefs, afraid to ask questions, and reticent to speak out. They undermined everything they were supposed to be nurturing in you. You complied with the mandatesyou got doubly vaccinated, you masked, you distanced, and you stayed at home and tried to adjust to online learning. You followed the universities directives in good faith, you believed they had your best interests at heart, and that what you were doing was necessary for your education and essential to protect others. COVID spread through your campus anyway, all the while undermining your confidence in your right to make choices for yourself, and creating a deep culture of silence, censorship, and division. The universities positions so far have been trust us, everything done is to keep the community safe. Maybe there was some rationale for that position last year, when more was unknown. But now the data is in. We keep hearing that this is about the science. But informed consent isnt about making the right decision from objective point of view. Its about your right not to have to choose between your education and bodily autonomy, to make a decision that reflects who you are and the risks you are willing to take in your life. To penalize someone for not making a particular choice is not consentit is coercion. No one knows you like you do, cares about you like you care about you. And no one else will be the primary bearer of the consequences of the choices you make. Science no longer supports the mandates, this is true, but focusing solely on that fact misses the larger point: Your personhood belongs to you, not to the university. For better or worse, your health is your concern. Full stop. Sometimes we dont know if it is better to stay silent or speak up. And sometimes we remain silent because we dont want to risk losing what we care most about. But remaining silent often contributes to the very thing we want to avoid. In this case, without open and honest debate, there is no possibility of the rich, enriching free culture you go to university to receive. As Martin Luther King Jr.. said, Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. What can you do as an individual against a multi-million dollar institution full of important people with doctorates? What if you get cancelled? What if you lose everything you have worked for? These are important considerations. But remember this, 21st-century universities are commercial enterprises and you are their customers. They dont exist without you. You have been sidelined, ignored, and oppressed, but you are not the ones who will remain silent. When students unite and push back, they have immense power and influence to create change. Your small voice is what mattersthe only thing that matters. Making the choices you want to make right now might not feel like winning and it might not keep you in school. But it will be good practice for life. It will show you who you are and what you are made of, and what you are capable of resisting and creating. And it will give you inestimable confidence and courage for the future. Standing up to your university, making and protecting the choices you want to make, will be a far greater education than anything you will learn in a university classroom or from a textbook. One final word of encouragement. This will go on for exactly as long as you stay silent. It will stop as soon as you say no. Respectfully and with the greatest support, Julie Ponesse, Ph.D. Ethics Scholar, The Democracy Fund Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. King Charles III delivers his address to the nation and the Commonwealth from Buckingham Palace, London on Sept. 9, 2022, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Sept. 8. (Yui Mok/Pool via Reuters) King Charles III Delivers First Speech as Monarch Following Queens Death King Charles III on Friday delivered his first address as monarch following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. In the speech, Charles called Elizabeth, who died at age 96 on Thursday, an inspiration and an example for him. Queen Elizabeth was a life well lived; a promise with destiny kept and she is mourned most deeply in her passing. That promise of lifelong service I renew to you all today, he added. The king, 73, added that he would uphold the constitutional principles at the heart of our nation and promised to serve the commonwealth with loyalty, respect, and love as I have throughout my life. Wherever you may live in the United Kingdom, or in the Realms and territories across the world, and whatever may be your background or beliefs, I shall endeavor to serve you with loyalty, respect, and love, as I have throughout my life, Charles said. That was more than a promise: it was a profound personal commitment which defined her whole life. She made sacrifices for duty. Her dedication and devotion as sovereign never waivered, through times of change and progress, through times of joy and celebration, and through times of sadness and loss. He gave his son William the title of Prince of Wales during the address. Kate Middleton, Williams wife, will now hold the title of Princess of Wales. Today, I am proud to create him Prince of Wales, Tywysog Cymru, the country whose title I have been so greatly privileged to bear during so much of my life and duty, he stated. With Catherine beside him, our new Prince and Princess of Wales will, I know, continue to inspire and lead our national conversations, helping to bring the marginal to the center ground where vital help can be given. The king, who delivered the address from Buckingham Palace, also gave his love to his son Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle as they build their lives overseas. Charles also referred to his wife, Camilla, as queen consort. Charles married Camilla in 2005 years after the death of Princess Diana, his first wife. Earlier on Friday, Charles arrived back in London after flying from the Balmoral estate and met with UK Prime Minister Liz Truss. As he arrived, he was met with chants of God Save the King as he shook hands with and chatted with mourners. Historians say Charles will be officially proclaimed king in the near future. An event affirming his status is to take place at St Jamess Palace in London in front of a ceremonial body called the Accession Council. His coronation ceremony likely wont occur for months. Lawmakers Ask for Probe of Airlines Use of COVID-19 Funds Lawmakers in Congress are asking for a probe into the ways that airlines used COVID-19 relief funding amid an industry-wide pilot shortage. Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, airlines received around $54 billion in funds from Congress to help continue to pay their employees at a time when travelers were scarce. The payments continued for 18 months, ending in September 2021, and required several conditions from airlines, including a prohibition on firing or furloughing employees, limits on compensation to executives, and a ban on stock buybacks and dividends. Now, lawmakers are requesting a Treasury Department probe into whether the funding was used to fund early retirements and to buy out pilots contracts, and how such buyouts fueled current pilot shortages. Even though airlines now have more pilots and run fewer flights than they did at the start of the pandemic, the industry has faced higher absentee rates due to pilots infected with COVID-19 being unable to work. We are concerned that some airlines have used federal funds obtained during the pandemic to provide buyouts and early retirement packages for pilots, which may be exacerbating a shortage of commercial pilots, House Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Coronavirus Crisis Committee Chairman James Clyburn (D-S.C.) wrote in a Sept. 8 letter to the Treasury Departments inspector general (pdf). As a result of pilot shortages, thousands of flights have been delayed or canceled, wreaking havoc on travel plans for millions of American taxpayers. The Treasury Department allocated more than $60 billion of taxpayer funds to commercial airlines through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) of 2020 and the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Under the CARES Act Payroll Support Program, Congress intended the funding allocated to airlines to preserve aviation jobs and compensate air carrier industry workers. As a condition of accepting federal funding, air carriers were prohibited from conducting involuntary furloughs or reducing pay rates and employee benefits. After receiving the funds, Maloney and Clyburn said, many airlines used them to incentivize early retirements contrary to the intent of the CARES Act and American Rescue Plan Act. Pilot Shortage These early retirement programs exacerbated an existing pilot shortage within the airline industry, since by law pilots must retire at age 65. This figure is a concerning one, Maloney and Clyburn said, in view of the advanced age of many pilots. The two cited statistics that say that 13 percent of pilots will turn 65 in the next five years, as well as a prediction from a research firm that 42 percent of current pilots will retire by 2026. Exacerbating these concerns, they said, is the rigorous, expensive training required for pilots to receive their license. This training can cost between $80,000 and $100,000, which is often paid out of pocket by the training pilot themself. In addition, pilots are required to log 1,500 hours of flight time as a precursor to receiving their license. The letter continued: Millions of travelers have been impacted by widespread flight delays and cancellations, with the pilot shortage being a major contributing factor. According to FlightAware, on September 5, 2022, there were 4,075 delays and 108 cancellations of flights within, into, or out of the United States. Some airlines have even dropped certain cities from their travel routes due to the pilot shortage. Delays and cancellations have forced travelers to miss weddings, funerals, family gatherings, and other events. While travelers are suffering the consequences of the pilot shortage, airline companies have benefitted from record high revenues. Airline stocks rose to nearly 200 percent above pandemic levels this spring and have maintained an upward trajectory. In 2021, airline companies enjoyed revenue growth of 8 percent to 12 percent, while passengers were forced to pay record-high prices for flights. American taxpayers supported the airline industry during its darkest days at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, when nearly 75 percent of commercial flights were grounded, Maloney and Clyburn said. Americans deserve transparency into how airlines have used the federal funds they have received. The lawmakers moved on to request that the Treasury inspector general complete a thorough review of the federal funding Treasury has disbursed to airlines to sustain their operations during the coronavirus pandemic, including an accounting for how the funds were disbursed and used by each airline recipient, and whether any funds were used for buyouts or staff reductions, with a preliminary briefing on findings by Sept. 22. Greens leader Adam Bandt at a press conference with newly sworn in Greens senators and members at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia on July 26, 2022. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas) Left-Wing Greens Party Calls for Republic Hours After Queens Passing Members of the left-wing Australian Greens party have called for the country to move forward and embrace becoming a Republicto sever Australias links with the Crownjust hours after news of the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Greens leader Adam Bandt wrote on Twitter, Rest In Peace Queen Elizabeth II. Our thoughts are with her family and all who loved her. Now Australia must move forward. We need Treaty with First Nations people, and we need to become a Republic. It is unclear what a Treaty with First Nations would entail. Fellow Greens MP David Shoebridge wrote a lengthier statement on Facebook saying the death of the monarch was a tragedy that echoes well beyond the grief of one family. But he also said her passing marked the last echoes of an exploitative imperialism, which has caused and still causes grief for millions around the world. The transition of power we are watching unfold, through someones genetic inheritance, is beyond strange and seriously out of place in a democracy in 2022, he said. This is a moment we need to move towards Treaty and Republic. Two calls for Sovereignty that are deeply connected. Indigenous leader Warren Mundine has criticised left-leaning political figures and commentators for propagating the colonialism narrative. Weve been able to produce [Indigenous] surgeons, doctors, lawyers, accountants, academics, and engineers. And getting Aboriginals through school and all that, and also very focused on improving the life expectancy and economic prosperity for Aboriginal people, he previously told The Epoch Times. When you have negative things all the time, you get this victimhood. And thats what a lot of this stuff does, and we need to move away from that. Monarchists Hail the Late Queens Influence Meanwhile, the Australians for Constitutional Monarchy said it was a moment of great sadness for the people of the Commonwealth. She set the theme of her long reign in her address to the Commonwealth broadcast from South Africa on her 21st year when she declared that she would dedicate her whole life, whether it be long or short, to the service of the great imperial family to which we all belong, the ACM wrote on Facebook. Fellow supporters of maintaining the Crown as Australias head of state, the Australian Monarchist League, said the Queens passing marked the close of the second Elizabethan era and heralds a new chapter in world history. Australians can take comfort in the knowledge that their new King will unequivocally continue the longstanding traditions, dutiful service, and vital constitutional role which epitomised our late Queen. The campaign for a Republic has been an ongoing attempt to change Australias political system from a constitutional monarchy, where the head of state is a member of the British Royal Family, to a Republic where the head of state is a president. The last referendum on the issue in 1999 failed to win enough support, with 45.13 percent of voters in favour and 54.87 percent against. One criticism was the Republic model presented saw the president selected by sitting members of Parliament and not the general public. Current Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has promised to revisit the issue. Undated handout photos of Samantha Drummonds (far left); her grandmother Dolet Hill and Hill's partner Denton Burke, who were killed in Bermondsey, London in April 2022. (Metropolitan Police) Man Admits Killing Four People Who Were Stabbed to Death in London House A man has admitted to stabbing his girlfriend, her mother, grandmother, and her grandmothers partner at a house in Bermondsey, south London earlier this year. Joshua Jacques, 28, appeared at the Old Bailey in London on Friday and denied murdering NHS worker Dolet Hill, 64, her partner Denton Burke, 58, their daughter Tanysha Ofori-Akuffo, 45, and granddaughter Samantha Drummonds, 27, but admitted manslaughter due to diminished responsibility. All four were found stabbed to death at a house in Bermondsey, south London, on Apr. 25, 2022. Police, who were alerted by neighbours, forced entry to the property and found Burkes body at the foot of the stairs and the three women in the kitchen. An earlier court hearing heard that Jacques was found naked in an upstairs bathroom. He was Tasered before being taken into custody. Jacques was charged with four counts of murder but on Friday he appeared before Judge Richard Marks KC and admitted manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility, a plea used in cases where a defendant is claiming to have been suffering from a mental disorder at the time of the offence. Prosecutor Oliver Glasgow KC said Jacques pleas were not accepted by the Crown, which will be instructing its own psychiatric experts, and the case would have to go to trial next year. Murder Trial Might Not Take Place Until December 2023 When he said the trial might not take place until December 2023, Judge Marks said, Its an awful long time away. Glasgow agreed and said it was hoped the trial would take place earlier, but probably not before August 2023. Judge Marks remanded Jacqueswho wore a grey tracksuit and appeared by video-link from Belmarsh prisoninto custody until December 19, when a trial date is likely to be set. He extended the custody time limitswhich were due to expire on October 27until Jan. 27, 2023. Hill had been married to Burke, a council worker, for 15 years and Ofori-Akuffo, a nurse, supported her mother in a number of charity ventures. Several members of the victims family were in court for the hearing, which was one of the first to take place since the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Senior barristersincluding the prosecutor, and defence counsel Paul Raudnitzwent from being Queens Counsel (QC) to Kings Counsel and, as tradition demands, wore mourning bands in place of their usual collars and weeperswhite cuffs donned as an expression of sorrow at the death of the monarch. An Irish Republican Army (IRA) sniper warning sign overlooking the Bogside area of Derry in Northern Ireland on April 20, 2019. (Paul Faith/AFP via Getty Images) Man Arrested Over 1996 Bombing of Manchester by Provisional IRA Greater Manchester Police have arrested a man in connection with the bombing of the city centre in 1996, which was claimed at the time by the Provisional IRA. He was arrested at Birmingham Airport on Thursday night on suspicion of terrorist offences. On June 15, 1996, two men parked a lorry near Manchesters Arndale shopping centre, before calling in a coded warning. The city centre was in the midst of being evacuated when the 3,300-pound device went off and 200 people were injured by flying glass. It was the largest bomb ever detonated by the IRA and the biggest explosion since the Second World War. The man who was arrested is being interviewed by detectives from Counter Terrorism Policing for the North West. Many People Left With Life-Changing Injuries Greater Manchester Polices head of investigations, Detective Superintendent Andrew Meeks, said: Although thankfully no one was killed during the 1996 Manchester bombing by the IRA, hundreds of people were left with injuriesmany of which were life-changingand many more across Greater Manchester and the North West were affected by what happened on that day. He added: We have always been committed to holding those responsible for the attack to account and bringing them to justice and have been reinvestigating for several years, with a team of dedicated detectives re-examining the original case files and pursuing new lines of inquiry. Meeks said they knew the arrest would bring back memories of that terrible day for those who had been injured and he said they had tried to contact as many people as possible to warn them before the news became public. The Manchester bombing occurred at a crucial point during what is known as The Troubles, a 30-year period during which more than 3,000 people were killed as the Provisional IRA sought to force a united Ireland by means of a terrorist campaign. In August 1994, the IRA called a ceasefire and representatives of their political wing, Sinn Fein, sat down for talks with the British government in December of that year. But the talks got bogged down and in February 1996 the IRA suddenly declared an end to the ceasefire and set off a bomb in Londons Canary Wharf, which killed two people and caused millions of pounds worth of damage. After the Manchester bombing there was a lull of activity but in February 1997 an IRA sniper killed a British soldier at a barracks in County Armagh. After Tony Blairs Labour Party won a landslide election in May 1997 the IRA declared a second ceasefire and began the talks which would end with the Good Friday Agreement. PA Media contributed to this report. The U.S. Capitol building in Washington on the evening of Aug. 6, 2022. (Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images) Man Charged With Threatening to Kill Member of Congress BALTIMOREA Maryland man has been charged with making an online threat to kill a member of Congress from Texas, according to a court filing unsealed Wednesday. Justin Kuchta, 39, of Annapolis, is charged with one count of interstate communication containing a threat to injure, a felony punishable by a maximum of five years in prison. Kuchta was expected to make his initial court appearance Wednesday in Baltimore after surrendering to authorities earlier in the day. You have the right to your own opinions, but not the right to threaten a federal officials life, U.S. Attorney Erek Barron said in a statement. A court filing does not name the member of Congress whom Kuchta is accused of threatening in a message that said the lawmaker will be the first on the gallows. A staff member from the members district office in Texas reported the threat to police in July. The Internet Protocol address used to send the message was registered to a private, high-speed network operated by the state of Maryland, according to a U.S. Capitol Police special agents affidavit. When agents interviewed Kuchta at his Annapolis workplace, he admitted to sending the threatening message while he was working from home on his government-issued computer, the affidavit says. The court filing does not identify Kuchtas government employer. David Fischer, an attorney for Kuchta, declined to comment. Republican gubernatorial candidate Geoff Diehl speaks to reporters outside the Statehouse, in Boston on March 21, 2022. (Steven Senne, File/AP Photo) Massachusetts Republican Gubernatorial Winner Geoff Diehl Vows to Beat Contender In celebrating his victory as a common sense conservative in his bid for the Republican nomination for Massachusetts governor, Geoff Diehl wasted no time in laying out his priorities to beat Democratic contender Maura Healey. His list of things to do includes implementing a plan that would allow parents to use the tax support they pay to go to a local public school of their choice or credit for homeschooling. Diehl also vowed he would rehire state workersincluding 75 state police officers fired for refusing to comply with COVID vaccine mandatesand restore the constitutional rights of health care workers who were also fired for rejecting the vaccine. That is something that surely resonates with his running mate Leah Allen, a registered nurse who was fired when she opted against taking the vaccine while pregnant. Allen also won her primary for lieutenant governor. Nobody should have to choose between their livelihoods versus their health care choices, Diehl said at a press conference he held at the Elk Lodge in West Roxbury on Sept. 7. On hand was Massachusetts Republican Party chairman Jim Lyons who hailed Diehls win over moderate Republican Chris Doughty as a testament to what the grassroots the Republican party has become. He honed on the successful referendum efforts, both he and Diehl were involved in, to put a new law passed by Massachusetts Democrats granting drivers licenses to illegal aliens, to the vote of the people in the general election. While the organizers only needed 40,000 to get on the ballot, they collected 100,000 signatures, Lyons announced. Can you imagine what Beacon Hill would be like with one-party rule, said Lyons in implying outgoing Gov. Charlie Bakers status as a Republican. We already have a radical out-of-control legislature now. While most conservatives lobbied for a Diehl win over Doughty, many Republicans considered allies of Diehls, denounced the Trump-supported candidate as too conservative or too extreme and threw their support behind Doughty. If Geoff Diehl wins, I think it will be an easy win for Maura Healey, Boston political TV analyst Alison King said following Healeys victory speech on election night. The New York Times was quick to run an editorial following Diehls win criticizing Massachusetts Republicans for picking a candidate that cant beat Healey. It was the same charge popular ultra-conservative radio talk show host Howie Carr made in his 11th-hour endorsement of Doughty, who he rarely misses an opportunity to trash on his show. Healey, who currently serves as Massachusetts attorney general and is openly gay, has called for more drag queen events in schools and has been vocally in support of abortion rights. As he consistently did throughout his campaign, Diehl continued to take more aim at Healey for her liberal views. In his victory speech following his primary win, the former state Senator ridiculed Healey for her catering to the alphabet soup of a radical LGBT agenda instead of the ABCs and 123s of school academics. Maura Healey believes in a different educationW-O-K-E, said Diehl. Diehl also reminded Massachusetts voters of Healeys comment during the riots and violence that broke out across America following the death of George Floyd. Yes, America is burning. But thats how forests grow, she said. While Diehl said Healey regretted making the comment, Diehl said she never apologized for it. Should Healey beat Diehl in the general election, she would be the first elected female governor in Massachusetts. Republican Jane Swift served as interim governor from 2001 to 2003. She was lieutenant governor when she assumed the top job after Gov. Paul Cellucci left the post to serve as U.S. ambassador to Canada. The states last Democratic governor was Duval Patrick, who served from 2007 to 2015. Patrick opted against running for a third term. He was replaced by current Republican Gov. Charlie Baker who narrowly defeated Democratic nominee Martha Coakley. In 2018, he trounced Democrat Jay Gonzalez by a 21 margin. Like Patrick, Baker decided not to seek a third term. Then-vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden attend an NCAA basketball game between Georgetown University and Duke University in Washington on Jan. 30, 2010. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) Media Misconduct Inspired the Making of My Son Hunter: Film Director The story surrounding the Hunter Biden laptop recently regained the spotlight after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted that the social platform reduced the reach of related posts in the leadup to the 2020 presidential election, following advice from the FBI. The laptop of President Joe Bidens son, Hunter Biden, became the subject of multiple media reports in October 2020 after the New York Post first broke the story. According to the reports, content found on the laptop showed Joe Bidens as well as his brother Jamess and son Hunters involvement in various overseas business ventures in countries such as Ukraine, Russia, China, and other countriesincluding during the time Joe Biden was vice president during the Obama administrationand showed payments received in connection with their involvement. The laptop also contains other pornographic and illicit data. The reporting was heavily suppressed by corporate media and Big Tech. The media misconduct prompted the production of the film My Son Hunter, according to its director Robert Davi. The American people, and myself included, are watching now this unfolding of the laptop story of Hunter Biden. And the deliberate squelching or squashing of that story by the media [and] now we find out law enforcement that frustration of not telling the story was brewing inside me, Davi said in an interview with the Capitol Report program on NTD News, The Epoch Times sister media. This film came along to me from the Unreported Story Society and I wanted to tell the story, he added. As the film marks Breitbart Newss first major venture into the film distribution area, its editor-in-chief, Alex Marlow listed a number of reasons why they chose to go with this work. Truthful Marlow said Davi is a rare case of someone who has been [an] open conservative for decades and has still had a big career in Hollywood. Marlow said Davis talent brought the film to a professional level. This is glossy, this is Hollywood, and this is the type of stuff that people come to associate with going to the movies, Marlow said in the same interview. He added that the historical context of the film features is meaningful. [It] details Hunters life, Joe Bidens life, the Biden family, the highlights or lowlights of their apparent corruption, he added. Its very much rooted in the truth. The artistic liberties that are taken really do enhance the story, they make it come to life as the exact type of historical fiction that you would want to see on screen, Marlow said. Its a perfect use of the medium. And thats why we think that we want to get the biggest audience possible, he added. Hilarious The film is also very entertaining to watch, Marlow opined. It was also laugh-out-loud hilarious, it was uproariously funny, he said. The literal quotes, the things that have happened in Hunter Bidens life are truly stranger than fiction. And that comes out so clearly in the film. Davi chimed in, quoting Andrew Breitbart, the late founder of Breitbart News, Politics is downstream from culture. For the most part, conservative filmmaking tends to be an echo chamber and misses something culturally, David said. So I wanted to be able to tell this story, and direct it its about a relationship with a father and son, he added. Hannah Ng Reporter Follow Hannah Ng is a reporter covering U.S. and China news. She holds a master's degree in international and development economics from the University of Applied Science Berlin. Pro-abortion activists outside the Michigan State Capitol during a "Restore Roe" rally in Lansing, on Sept. 7, 2022. (Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images) Michigan Supreme Court Rules Abortion Issue Will Be on November Ballot The Michigan Supreme Court ruled on Sept. 8 that voters can decide in the November general election ballot whether abortion should be legal in the state. The seven justices on the states high court voted 52 to have a proposed state constitutional amendment regarding abortion on the ballot on the November ballot. It will be up to the Michigan Board of State Canvassers to decide in a final vote on Sept. 9 on whether to place the measure before voters. The state Supreme Court ruling comes after the Michigan Board of State Canvassers on Aug. 31 deadlocked 22 on whether to put the amendment on the ballot: two Republicans had voted against, while two Democrats voted in support. The proposed amendment was put forth by Reproductive Freedom for All, a group that believes abortion is a right. The group presented more than 730,000 petition signatures in support of the proposal. The figure surpassed the 425,000 signatures required. Following the deadlock on Aug. 31, Reproductive Freedom for All appealed the vote to the Michigan Supreme Court. In mid-August, a group called Citizens to Support MI Women and Children had asked officials on the states canvassing board to reject the proposal, citing 43 serious errors in the proposed amendment that was included in the petition circulated for signatures. According to The Detroit News, most of the errors cited were a lack of spaces between words in the main language of the petition that the group said resulted in a string of gibberish that would confuse voters. The group also said that the version of the proposed amendment circulated to voters was different from what the Michigan Board of State Canvassers approved earlier this year. As of Sept. 8, abortion is legal in Michigan. 1931 Law The state had a law enacted in 1931 (MCL 750.14) that bans abortions in the state except to save the life of the mother; the measure has no exception for rape and incest. It was enforced up until 1973, when the U.S. Supreme Court issued its Roe v. Wade ruling that overturned state laws and made abortions up until 24 weeks legal throughout the country. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe on June 24, which meant that the Michigan abortion law became enforceable again. But the law faced legal challenges, and a judge in late August issued a preliminary injunction that prevented its enforcement. Another judge struck down the law late on Sept. 7, saying that the measure violated the states constitution and could not be enforced. If the amendment is approved by the Michigan Board of State Canvassers, the state will join other states such as California and Vermont in asking voters in November whether to amend their state constitution to protect abortion access. Kentucky also has a statewide referendum on abortion in November. Voters will decide whether to back a measure that says nothing in the states constitution creates a right to abortion. Separately, voters in Kansas on Aug. 2 rejected a proposal to amend the states constitution to say that nothing in the state constitution creates a right to abortion or requires government funding for abortion and that the state legislature has the authority to pass laws regarding abortion. A survey from Pflugerville Independent School District asks children if teachers should hide preferred gender pronouns from parents. Screenshot posted on Twitter on Sept. 6, 2022 (Courtesy of Mass Resistance Texas) Moms for Liberty Shares Tips for Fighting Transgender Curriculum For Pflugerville Independent School District in Texas, it wasnt enough to just ask children for preferred gender pronouns. The school also asked if teachers should hide preferred pronouns from parents. If I ever have contact with your parent/guardians, may I use your preferred name and pronouns from above? (If not YES, please clarify in the Other line), an online survey distributed by teachers reads. Through incidents like these, an increasing number of parents have learned that public school campaigns to promote child transgenderism rely on secrecy. Parents have the power to fight back against policies like these, according to Tina Descovich, the cofounder of parent rights group Moms for Liberty. Parental rights are natural rights, she said. And that means that we as parents have the complete authority to direct the upbringing, education, medical, moral, and religious upbringing of our children. Ask And You Shall Receive Although news stories tend to focus on dramatic confrontations with school boards, lawsuits, and elections, the first step in stopping radical curriculum is talking with teachers, Descovich said. If its an individual lesson, the first thing you should do is reach out to your childs teacher and have a discussion and see what the concerns are, she said. Talking with teachers about their lessons also creates change most effectively, Descovich added. Tina Descovich, the cofounder of Moms for Liberty, a pro-parental rights organization. (Photo courtesy of Moms for Liberty) If teachers dont listen, parents can talk with the principal. If the principal wont listen, parents can go to the school board, Descovich continued. Fighting radical curriculum also doesnt have to be a reactive process, she said. Parents can look into full sets of school curricula as the school year starts. Most school districts put them up for approval at school board meetings at the start of the year. If parents join one of Moms for Libertys over 200 nationwide chapters, they can collaborate to research how their school educates, she said. Theres a lot of time for parents to come in and review curriculums, and they need to use their groups or Moms for Liberty chapters so that they can divide up the workload and make sure that everything thats going to be taught has been approved and has the parents stamp of approval on it, Descovich said. Attentive Academics Keeping informed on curriculum as school starts is only the beginning, said Descovich. Throughout the year, parents should take an interest in their childs work. It starts there, and it goes all the way down to being an engaged, responsible parent that is opening that backpack and looking at the assignments your children are bringing home, she said. At some point, schools send schoolwork home. When they do, parents have a chance to see firsthand what schools teach, Descovich said. Thats where you find stuff, she said. You open the backpack, and you see it in there, and you are shocked. Responsible parents give their children a good education, Descovich said. If parents dont guide their children in learning, someone else will. Radical gender ideologies enter schools when parents dont, she said. Thats how this stuff gets in there, because parents stop paying attention, Descovich said. The biggest misconception that parents have is that they are powerless, Descovich said. When parents pay attention, they can often take action, Descovich added. Parents have the right to opt their children out when they have concerning issues. And most teachers, most schools will give them alternate assignments, she said. But they have to start by having that conversation. Sometimes, success is as easy as asking, she said. A local Moms for Liberty chapter in Descovichs home county of Brevard, Florida, found that schools had copies of Gender Queer, a radical gender ideology book with sexually explicit illustrations. Once people were made aware that it was in the library and what was in it, the school district decided to remove it, she said. It was as simple as that. North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper speaks during a press conference announcing that the NASCAR All-Star Race will be held at North Wilkesboro Speedway in May 2023, on the steps of the N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh, N.C., on Sept. 8, 2022. (Ethan Hyman/The News & Observer via AP) NASCAR Returning to North Wilkesboro With 2023 All-Star Race RALEIGH, N.C.NASCAR is returning to one of its original venues that it left more than a quarter-century agoNorth Wilkesboro Speedway. Gov. Roy Cooper and North Carolina native Dale Earnhardt Jr. joined the stock car body and the tracks owner on Thursday to announce that the track will host the NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Race next yearNASCARs 75th anniversary season. Itll be something that people want to come from all over the country and enjoyNASCAR All-Star week at North Wilkesboro Speedwayto enjoy the culture, the festivities, the history, Marcus Smith, CEO of Speedway Motorsports, which owns the track, said at a news conference outside the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh. Were excited to revive it. The .625-mile asphalt oval, located almost 70 miles northwest of Charlotte, hosted the year-ending race in 1949 for what became the Cup Series. It became an annual stop on the schedule, hosting two races a year starting in 1951, and was a throwback to the days when moonshine runners in the regionNASCAR legend Junior Johnson among themdrove fast cars to escape authorities. North Wilkesboro hosted more than 90 Cup races before it closed in 1996, a result of NASCARs dramatic growth during that time and arguments that it wasnt large or fancy enough as the sport tapped into new markets. The tracks races went to New Hampshire and Texas. The oval went into disrepair, and non-NASCAR racing at the legendary track in the early 2010s fizzled. But former drivers like Earnhardt Jr., local boosters, and state officials wouldnt give up on the venue, which has a direct connection to NASCARs birth. A recent effort to renovate the speedway took off, buoyed by $18 million in federal American Rescue Plan funds earmarked by the North Carolina state legislature last year for infrastructure improvements. The legislature has agreed in principle to provide another $4 million next year for additional improvements to host the race next May 21 and for future events over the next several years, said Greg Walter, general manager at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Speedway Motorsports flagship venue. The All-Star Race originally began in 1985 as The Winston and was usually held in May the week before the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Its been held the past two years at Texas Motor Speedway, most recently won by Ryan Blaney. While the North Wilkesboro decision was months in the making, Smith and NASCAR Chief Operating Officer Steve ODonnell said the concept was confirmed just in recent weeks. Thats when standing-room-only crowds attended a Racetrack Revival series at the reopened track, spearheaded by Speedway Motorsports, Earnhardt Jr., and the widow of the late Benny Parsons. Ryan Newman won the first race, while Earnhardt Jr. was third in a race last week. I felt something at a race track that I hadnt felt in a long, long time. And it was the true joy and the love that you just have for being there, whether youre a competitor or a fan, said Earnhardt, a television analyst and NASCAR team owner. Its just got a special place in our history. And Im so excited to see what can happen beyond this. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (L) laughs with Speedway Motorsports President and CEO Marcus Smith as they record a video after a press conference announcing that the NASCAR All-Star Race will be held at North Wilkesboro Speedway in May 2023, on the steps of the N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh, N.C., on Sept. 8, 2022. (Ethan Hyman/The News & Observer via AP) ODonnell said later it was too early to tell whether a successful All-Star Race could lead to annual race dates at the track, but we wouldnt be going back to North Wilkesboro if we didnt think it would be successful and a place that we want to look to more than one year. ODonnell acknowledged holding more races outside NASCARs strongholds in recent years to grow the sport has led to weighing choices. The 2023 season also will feature a new NASCAR street race in Chicago. As weve looked at evolving the schedule in the future, its certainly a nod to maybe new markets that we want to be in, but also balancing that with markets where people have been supporting us forever, ODonnell said. You look at our 75th anniversary and the schedule that were putting together and its a perfect balance. Richard Petty won a record 15 NASCAR races at North Wilkesboro, which is known for its downhill slope on the front stretch and uphill back stretch. Darrell Waltrip won 10 races, followed by Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Cale Yarborough with five each. Cooper, sporting a North Wilkesboro Speedway jacket, was The Winstons grand marshal in 2000, when the younger Earnhardt beat his dad and Dale Jarrett to the finish. The governor said the track, which he visited in May, is almost like a cathedral. This is a great day for North Carolina. Whether you care about racing or not, this means economic revival and more money in the pockets of everyday North Carolinians, he said. We are the birthplace of NASCAR. By Gary D. Robertson Efforts are underway in to clean an oil spill in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Oct. 5, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) Oil Company Pleads Guilty to Misdemeanor Negligence in 2021 Southern California Spill SANTA ANA, Calif.The company behind last years oil spill off the coast of Southern California pleaded guilty Sept. 8 to negligently discharging about 25,000 gallons of crude when its underwater pipeline ruptured, causing a temporary closure of beaches and fisheries. In a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, Amplify Energy and two of its subsidiariesBeta Operating Co. and San Pedro Bay Pipeline Co.pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter sentenced the company to pay a $7.1 million fine and $5.8 million to reimburse the Coast Guard for expenses from the oil spill. The companies will also spend four years on probation and will be required to make a series of operational changes, including improved training, installation of a new leak-detection system, and meeting notification requirements, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office. California Attorney General Rob Bonta speaks about last years Huntington Beach oilsill investigation At the district attorney building in Santa Ana, Calif., on Sept. 8, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) This is a historic and believed to be the largest state misdemeanor criminal file in Orange County history, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said at a press conference Wednesday. Bonta and Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer filed a misdemeanor criminal complaint against Amplify Energy on Wednesday. The complaint accuses Amplify of water pollution and killing birds. Amplify is expected to plead no contest on that case on Friday and pay a $4.9 million fine to the state and county. I want to make something very, very clear about the facts of this case; Amplify unequivocally hit the snooze button, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said to the media. They knew they had a leak [and] the system detected a leak and they shut down the pipeline and started up again. There were seven more instances where the alarm notified them that there was a leak, he said. They kept ignoring it. That is criminal. Photographic evidence of last years oilspill sits on display at the district attorney building in Santa Ana, Calif., on Sept. 8, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoc Times) In addition to the fines and fees, companies behind the spill would also spend four years on probation and would be required to make a series of operational changes, including improved training, installation of a new leak-detection system and meeting notification requirements, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office. In a statement, Amplify President/CEO Martyn Willsher said the company has ensured from the start that it was working cooperatively with the various agencies investigating this incident. We believe this resolution, which is subject to court review and approval, reflects the commitments we made immediately following the incident to impacted parties and is in the best interest of Amplify and its stakeholders, he said. We are committed to safely operating in a way that ensures the protection of the environment and the surrounding communities. CDC director Rochelle Walensky is one of a number of officials named in a Grand Jury Petition over matters related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo taken in Wilmington, Del., in Dec. 2020. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images) Oregon Senators Sue to Investigate Federal COVID Response With a ruling expected on Sept. 12, three plaintiffs continue pressing for a Special Federal Grand Jury Investigation into how federal agencies handled the COVID-19 pandemic. The 64-page Grand Jury Petition specifically names as defendants CDC director Rochelle Walensky, Health and Human Services secretary Xavier Becerra, National Vital Statistics system director Brian Moyer, former HHS secretary Alex Azar, and former CDC director Robert Redfield. Our goal is to prove criminal data fraud so that these agencies are thoroughly investigated and held to account, plaintiff Dr Henry Ealy III told The Epoch Times. Filed on March 7, 2022, by Ealyalong with Oregon state senators Kim Thatcher and Dennis Linthicum, both Republicansthe petition alleges that the CDC hyperinflated COVID-19 numbers by as much as 94 percent by changing how deaths were reported during the pandemic. Plaintiffs claim that on March 24, 2020, the CDC violated at least three federal laws when it changed death certificate reporting exclusively for COVID, ensuring that high-risk Americans (over 65, with multiple pre-existing conditions) who died would be counted as COVID deaths rather than having their pre-existing condition correctly listed as the cause of death. When they changed the reporting, they broke the law, Ealy claimed. Before making such a change, they are required to notify the Federal Register for public comment and Executive Branch oversight. We allege that CDC violated the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), and Information Quality Act (IQA) in doing so, he explained. On March 26, 2020, plaintiffs claim that HHS began to coerce hospital and medical professional compliance by financially incentivizing COVID diagnosis in excess of normal reimbursement for similar infectious disease. These deliberate acts led to the misappropriation of over $3.5 trillion of American taxpayer funds and widespread devastation for countless individuals and families across our great nation, the petition states. On April 6, 2020, it adds that Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) published case definitions for COVID that enabled a doctor to diagnose a patient with COVID based upon a single cough. The CSTE is a non-profit organization, heavily financed by the pharmaceutical industry, with no governmental authority, the petition explains. The CDC director, Robert Redfield supplied four subject matter experts from the CDC to help develop case definitions. The CDC officially adopted these case definitions on April 14, 2020, without notifying the Federal Register, according to the plaintiffs. This is another violation of the APA, PRA, and IQA. You dont get to play games with this stuff, said Linthicum in an online forum hosted by Stand for Health Freedom. Its a violation of the law. Additionally, plaintiffs claim that defendants Walensky and Becerra covered up failures of the experimental COVID inoculations by terminating all publication of vaccine breakthrough on Oct. 30, 2021. In place of real numbers of confirmed vaccine breakthrough cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, defendants Walensky and Becerra have promoted a new fraudulent metric termed vaccine efficacy that groups partially vaccinated individuals with unvaccinated individuals and refers to the group collectively and misleadingly as unvaccinated, which again constitutes data fraud, the petition says. After filing two Motions to Postpone, the defendants filed a Motion to Dismiss on Aug. 28, claiming that plaintiffs do not have legal standing in this matter, among other assertions. We finally have a response, said Ealy. Now we have an opportunity to demonstrate to the court the significant public interest in seeing this through. To do so, plaintiffs are working to gather 1 million signatures on the Stand For Health Freedom website by Sept. 12. Queen Elizabeth ll smiles amongst Australian flags being waved by the crowd after the Commonwealth Day Service in Sydney, Australia, on March 13, 2006. (Rob Griffith-Pool/Getty Images) PM Leads Australia in Mourning For Queen Elizabeth II Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has suspended Parliament as the country mourns the death of the wise and enduring Queen Elizabeth II. In a televised statement on Sept. 9, the prime minister said it was a day of sadness for the world, for the Commonwealth and all Australians. This is a loss we feel deeply in Australia, Albanese said. Queen Elizabeth II was a wise and enduring presence in our national life. He said the Queen showed an abiding interest and deep affection for Australia, visiting the country 16 times throughout her 70-year reign. She was the only British monarch to visit Australia, where she took the time to visit every state and territory. As she said at the Sydney Opera House in the year 2000, Since I stepped ashore here, I have felt part of this rugged, honest, creative land, and I have shared in the joys and sorrows, the challenges and the changes that have shaped this countrys history,' the prime minister quoted. Queen Elizabeth II during an audience with President of Switzerland Ignazio Cassis at Windsor Castle in UK on April 28, 2022. (Dominic Lipinski/WPA Pool via Getty Images) He said that Australians, in particular, recall the sympathy and personal kindness that the Queen extended to the country during periods of tragedy and disaster. Her words and presence were a source of comfort, hope, and solace for millions of Australians, he said. This time of mourning will pass, but the deep respect and warmth regarding which Australians have always held for Her Majesty will never fade. The prime ministers comments come as he prepares to travel with Governor-General David Hurley to London to attend the funeral service and meet with Australias new head of state, King Charles III. World Has Yet to See A More Dutiful Leader Meanwhile, as flags fly at half-mast around the country, opposition leader Peter Dutton said the world had yet to see a more dutiful leader than the Queen. The last page has been inked on an exceptional reign a monarch who ruled with an absolutely huge heart and wisdom both innate and gained from almost a century of life and experience, he said. Her Majesty was gentle, kind, and much loved. In a statement, former prime minister and monarchist, Tony Abbott, said the Commonwealth had lost an exemplar of duty, honour and faithfulness. Although I served the Australian people as prime minister, I was always conscious of a duty to her as sovereign, he said. I thought the crown always lent a touch of dignity to our robust public life. It is so typical of this remarkable woman that she was discharging her duty till her last day on this earth. Meanwhile, former Liberal Senator Eric Abetz, chair of the Australian Monarchist League, said the Queen had taken seriously the vows she made at her coronation ceremony. On this day, we reflect on a life well lived, a life well served. And indeed, in the coronation ceremony, she devoted herself to being the servant Queen and there is no doubt in anybodys mind that that is exactly what she did. A police car in St. Paul, Minn., in June 2019. (Google Maps/Screenshot via The Epoch Times) Police: Man Arrested in Minnesota Shooting That Left 3 Dead ST. PAUL, Minn.A man has been arrested in a weekend shooting in Minnesotas capital city that left three people dead and two others wounded, officials say. Police and the FBI arrested the 41-year-old Minneapolis man in Chicago on Wednesday in the shooting in St. Paul, authorities said. Officers on Sunday found Angelica Gonzales, 33, Cory Freeman, 42, and Maisha Spaulding, 44, dead inside a home and a man and woman wounded outside. Police said they continue to investigate and cant yet release further details, including the circumstances of the shootings and whether they are looking for other suspects. We know this arrest does not erase tragedy, Assistant Police Chief Stacy Murphy said. However, it allows us to start the slow healing process together. The Ramsey County attorneys office is reviewing the case for potential charges. At the time of the shootings, the man taken into custody was under the supervision of the Hennepin County Department of Community Corrections and Rehabilitation after being released from prison for a drug case, according to state Department of Corrections records. He was charged in 2017 with third-degree sale of cocaine and fifth-degree possession of cocaine in Minneapolis. A jury found him guilty and he was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported. Minnesota court records show he was also convicted in 2014 of assault causing substantial bodily harm and misdemeanor domestic assault, along with burglary of an occupied dwelling in 2012, both in Dakota County. He was convicted three times of violating orders for protection or domestic assault no-contact orders stemming from two cases in 2013 and one in 2014, records show. Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo speaks at a news conference on the arrest of Clark County Public Administrator Robert "Rob" Telles, in Las Vegas on Sept. 8, 2022. (John Locher/AP Photo) Prosecutor: Officials DNA Found in Slain Reporters Fingernails LAS VEGASThe DNA of a jailed elected official who was angered by past and upcoming newspaper stories was found on the hands of a Las Vegas investigative reporter who fought for his life while being stabbed to death outside his home, authorities said Thursday. County Public Administrator Robert Telles stood handcuffed in court with bandages on his wrists and police officers at his elbows while a prosecutor told a judge that Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff Germans death was a planned attack by an assailant who left his own cellphone at home and waited in a vehicle outside Germans home. The published articles regarding a public figure, the public administrators office, ruined his political career, likely his marriage, and this was him lashing out at the cause, Chief Deputy Clark County District Attorney Richard Scow said of Telles. Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles (R) talks to Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German in his Las Vegas office on May 11, 2022. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP) Scow said German was stabbed seven times. His body was found Saturday. Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Elana Lee Graham called a police report detailing the attack chilling, including the discovery of wounds on Germans arms and DNA believed to be from Telles in Germans fingernails. He was fighting for his life, the judge said of the 69-year-old longtime journalist. It appears from this report that Mr. Telles was waiting and called [German] over to the side of his own home. Graham ordered Telles, 45, jailed without bail pending arraignment next Tuesday on a murder charge. Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson called Germans death brutal and meaningless and the case against Telles important for the community. Wolfson said a decision about whether to seek the death penalty will be made in coming months. Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles in his Las Vegas office on May 11, 2022. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP) Earlier Thursday, police officials described Telles arrest late Wednesday after a brief police standoff at his home. Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said Telles was hospitalized for what the sheriff called self-inflicted wounds, hours after investigators served a search warrant and confiscated vehicles in the criminal probe of Germans killing. Telles had been a focus of Germans reporting about turmoil, including complaints of administrative bullying, favoritism, and Telles relationship with a subordinate staffer in the county office that handles property of people who die without a will or family contacts. Telles, a Democrat, went on to lose his bid for reelection in the June primary. This has been an unusual case from the beginning, Lombardo told reporters at a news conference, the murder of an investigative journalist, and the main suspect an elected official here in Clark County. Lombardo is the elected head of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and is running as a Republican for governor. He said Telles was quickly identified as a suspect with the help of media, including the Review-Journal. Every murder is tragic. But the killing of a journalist is particularly troublesome, Lombardo said. Telles was identified early in the investigation as a person upset about articles that were being written by German, as an investigative journalist, that exposed potential wrongdoing, Las Vegas Police Capt. Dori Koren said. Telles had publicly expressed his issues with that reporting, Koren said. We found out later there was additional reporting that was pending. In addition to Telles suspected DNA at the crime scene, Koren said investigators serving a search warrant at Telles home found shoes and a distinctive wide straw hat. Koren said the items matched those worn by a person captured on security camera video wearing a blaze orange shirt and walking toward Germans home. He showed photos of the shoes and the hat and said they had been been cut up. A murder weapon has not been found, but Lombardo said police have distorted video that shows the attack. He said investigators were attempting to enhance it. Investigators said a distinctive maroon GMC Yukon Denali SUV was seen driving around Germans neighborhood Sept. 2, the morning of the killing, stopping several times. That vehicle, registered to Telles wife, departed Telles home around 9 a.m. and returned around noon, Koren said. Police believe German was attacked about 11:15 a.m., and his garage door was open. Telles was questioned by police Wednesday and then returned home, where he ignored reporters questions as he entered and did not respond to officers at his door until SWAT units and an ambulance arrived in the evening. Metro Officers depart the home of Robert Telles in Las Vegas on Sept. 7, 2022. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP) German joined the Review-Journal in 2010 after more than two decades at the Las Vegas Sun, where he was a columnist and reporter who covered courts, politics, labor, government and organized crime. In a statement, Germans family called him a loving and loyal brother, uncle and friend who devoted his life to his work exposing wrongdoing in Las Vegas and beyond. Were shocked, saddened and angry about his death, the statement said. Jeff was committed to seeking justice for others and would appreciate the hard work by local police and journalists in pursuing his killer. We look forward to seeing justice done in this case. Investigative reporter Jeff German poses for a portrait at the Las Vegas Review-Journal photos studio in Las Vegas on Jan. 19, 2017. (Elizabeth Brumley/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP) Glenn Cook, executive editor of the Review-Journal, said the newsroom had mixed emotions following Telles arrest. We are relieved Robert Telles is in custody and outraged that a colleague appears to have been killed for reporting on an elected official, the statement said. Journalists cant do the important work our communities require if they are afraid a presentation of facts could lead to violent retribution. Hopefully, the Review-Journal, the German family, and Jeffs many friends can begin the process of mourning and honoring a great man and a brave reporter, it said. Telles, a lawyer who practiced probate and estate law, won his elected position in 2018, replacing a three-term public administrator. He lost his June party primary to Assistant Public Administrator Rita Reid, who faces a Republican challenger in November. Telles term expires Dec. 31. Clark County officials said Thursday that Telles was suspended and banned from county offices or property pending a review of his position as an elected official. County employees of the administrators office are currently working from home, and the office will remain closed until a determination is made about when it can reopen, the statement said. In the weeks before the June 14 primary, German bylined reports about an office mired in turmoil and internal dissension between longtime employees and new hires under Telles leadership. Telles blamed old-timers for exaggerating the extent of his relationship with a female staffer and falsely claiming that he mistreated them. Telles later posted Twitter complaints about German, the Review-Journal reported, including claims in June that German was a bully who was obsessed with him. German, widely known and respected for his tenacity, was working on follow-up reports, the newspaper said Wednesday. He recently filed public records requests for emails and text messages between Telles and three other county officials, including Reid and consultant Michael Murphy. Murphy, the former Clark County coroner hired to address complaints about leadership in the public administrators office, did not immediately respond to a telephone message. By Ken Ritter The RCMP logo is seen outside Royal Canadian Mounted Police "E" Division Headquarters, in Surrey, B.C., on April 13, 2018. (The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck) Quebec Police Watchdog to Investigate Civilian Death During RCMP Raid This Week Quebecs police watchdog is investigating the death earlier this week of a 42-year-old man during a police operation involving the RCMP. The Bureau des enquetes independantes says it was asked by the RCMP to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death in Terrebonne, Que., north of Montreal. The watchdog says members of the RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency went to a home on Foucault Street after 2 p.m. It says the RCMPs tactical unit participated in the operation, during which the body of a 42-year-old man was found inside the home, with his death pronounced shortly afterward. The RCMP hasnt provided much information about the police operation or the man who died, but some reports say the man was sought for alleged crimes committed abroad. The watchdog says five investigators have been assigned to the investigation. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 20, 2021. (Melina Mara/Pool/Getty Images) Report on Findings in Supreme Court Leak Investigation Coming: Gorsuch A report on the leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion is coming, Justice Neil Gorsuch said on Sept. 8. The chief justice appointed an internal committee to oversee the investigation, Gorsuch said, the Wall Street Journal reported. That committee has been busy and were looking forward to their report, I hope soon. The justice was speaking during a judicial conference in Colorado Springs. Gorsuch, a Trump appointee, did not provide other details, such as whether the report will be made available to the public, according to the paper. Conference organizers prevented reporters from questioning him or other judges. The draft opinion on Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization was published on May 2 by Politico. It was the first draft opinion to be made public while deliberations were still going on in the same case. Politico said it received a copy from a person familiar with the courts proceedings in the Mississippi case along with other details supporting the authenticity of the document. The document was authored by Justice Samuel Alito, a George W. Bush appointee. Alito said he found the courts 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which concluded that access to abortion was a constitutional right, was wrongly decided. The opening of the majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Chief Justice John Roberts, another George W. Bush appointee, soon confirmed the authenticity of the document while criticizing what he described as a betrayal of the confidences of the Court. Roberts directed the courts marshal to investigate the source of the leak. Virtually no updates have been given since then, outside of reports based on anonymous sources. The final decision in Dobbs was to strike down Roe v. Wade, with Alito penning the majority opinion. A number of justices have commented on the leak, saying it has fundamentally changed how the court operates. When you lose that trust, especially in the institution that Im in, it changes the institution fundamentally, Justice Clarence Thomas, a George H.W. Bush appointee who is the courts most senior member, said during a conference in May. You begin to look over your shoulder. Its like kind of an infidelity that you can explain it, but you cant undo it. Gorsuch echoed that line of thinking at Thursdays event. Improper efforts to influence judicial decision making, from whatever side, are a threat to the judicial process, Gorsuch said, the Journal reported. They inhibit our capacity to communicate with one another, reducing the candor between jurists of different persuasions that improves our final products. I very much hope we get to the bottom of this sooner or later, he added. Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia speaks during a meeting, in the United Nations Security Council, on Sept. 7, 2022. (Yuki Iwamura/AP Photo) Russia and US Clash Over Western Weapons for Ukraine UNITED NATIONSRussia dismissed claims that modern Western weapons supplied to Ukraine can lead it to victory as empty fantasies, insisting Thursday that the Russian army is destroying Ukraines old and new weapons and will finish the war as President Vladimir Putin vowed. The United States accused Russia of having the gall to blame other countries for refusing to step aside as it seeks to destroy another U.N. member state. The Biden administration said it is committed to supporting the Ukrainian people as they defend their lives, their liberty, and their democracy. The clash came at the U.N. Security Councils third consecutive meeting on Ukraine. On Tuesday, the council held a meeting at Russias request to hear about the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southeastern Ukraine where Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of shelling the facility and threatening a possible nuclear catastrophe. On Wednesday, at the request of the U.S. and Albania, the council discussed what the U.S. said is the forcible deportation of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians to Russia. Russias U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, called Thursdays meeting to discuss threats to peace caused by foreign governments supplying arms and military goods to Ukraine. He told the council that the consequences of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his entourage saying that Western weapons and so-called wonder warfare will change the course of the six-month conflict and bring Ukraine victory is very lamentable for Ukraine. We are very far still from the end of this destructive process, Nebenzia said. Let me say immediately, however, that Western weaponry is not playing a decisive role on the battlefield regardless of what the Ukrainians and their vassals are saying. The Russian army consistently, with minimal risk for its soldiers and civilians, is destroying not only the old weaponry of Soviet models, which the Eastern European countries are discharging, but also the modern NATO weapons, he said. Nebenzia conceded that several minor villages were taken recently, leading to Western media claims of a Ukrainian counteroffensive, but he said most military experts agree that new weapons will not change the balance of forces and will only extend the agony of the Zelenskyy regime. U.N. disarmament chief Izumi Nakamitsu, who briefed the council, said there have been widespread and independently verified reports of the transfer of major conventional weapon systems to local armed groups in Ukraine, including artillery rocket systems. She did not say where they came from, only raising general concerns about diversion. Nebenzia claimed a significant proportion of Western weapons find their way into the hands of smugglers, and could end up in the hands of terrorists in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. U.S. deputy ambassador Richard Mills called Thursdays meeting a transparent attempt by Russia to distract from Wednesdays meeting on the forced displacement of Ukrainians. He noted the U.N. assistant secretary-general for human rights said her office had reports of torture in conjunction with Russias abhorrent use of `filtration camps. By Edith M. Lederer The aftermath of a 6.6-magnitude earthquake in Hailuogou in China's southwestern Sichuan Province on Sept. 5, 2022. (STR/AFP via Getty Images) Sichuan Earthquake Victims Say Casualties Are Heavy and Rescue Is Slow A 6.8 magnitude quake struck Chinas southwestern Sichuan Province on Sept. 5 with casualties still being evaluated so far 86 deaths and 35 people missing, as of Sept. 8. The epicenter is in Hailuogou Glacier Forest Park, which is a mountainous national reserve in Luding county, near Mount Gongga. The quake shook the provincial capital Chengdu, 125 miles northeast of the epicenter. No casualties have been reported in the city. Locals of Luding told the Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times that their homes have been badly hit by the earthquake. Houses have cracked or collapsed. Roads are blocked by rocks falling down the mountainside. There are power blackouts, and communication is on and off from time to time due to signal disruptions. They very much need rescue and help from the outside. However, local authorities at Garze prefecture, which oversees Luding county, issued a notice on Monday, imposing more stringent lockdown measures immediately after the quake, confining victims of the earthquake to their homes and rejecting civilian rescue teams. According to an online notice allegedly issued by Garze prefectures pandemic and emergency response command, people and vehicles are only allowed to exit; civilian rescue teams are not accepted; rescue teams approved by the local authorities must have negative PCR test results within 24 hours; residents and rescue teams must take PCR tests on a daily basis. The actual casualties may be much higher than the official data, as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) habitually alters data and information about disasters. Heavy Casualties in Moxi Town Moxi town is situated at the entry of the Hailuogou glacier scenic area. Many houses in the town have collapsed, and many people are killed in the quake. Very sad, Luo Na (pseudonym), a resident of Hailuogou, told the Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times on Sept. 5. She added that many people were still buried in the ruins, but rescue was slow due to the upgraded lockdown measures and poor road conditions. Fallen rocks on a road near Lengqi Town in Luding County of southwest Chinas Sichuan Province on Sept. 5, 2022. (Xinhua agent via AP) The local government only allows officially approved rescue teams to come in, and no civilian rescue personnel are allowed in, Luo said. According to Luo, the casualties in the neighboring Shimian county were more severe, but she didnt give an exact number of injuries and deaths. She said that people were unprepared because the government did not issue any warning before the earthquake. There has been no internet service since the quake, and people stuck in the epicenter have no idea what is going on. A netizen asked for help online, saying that his sister was traveling in Hailuogou on Sept. 5 and that he lost contact with her on Sept. 6, hoping someone could provide him with information about his sister. The Mountain Seems to Split Apart Luding county resident Lin Lei (pseudonym) told the publication on Sept. 6 that two hotels in Hailuogou scenic area fell down, with people buried in the ruins. Luding county is roughly 50 miles to the northeast of Hailuogou. Lin said that residents heard an extremely loud noise when the earthquake occurred and that everyone immediately ran to an outdoor open space. We are more alert after the Wenchuan earthquake, Lin Lei said. On May 12, 2008, an earthquake of 8.0 magnitude hit Wenchuan City, Sichuan Province, and caused serious damage, with a death toll of over 22,000. Lin said that the weather was abnormal before the recent earthquake. It normally snows after October. But this year, it had already snowed. It snowed and rained, and then it became sunny again, which is rather rare, Lin said. I saw the collapse of the mountain with my own eyes. I saw the mountain cracking and the smoke rolling around, and it was quite scary. The mountain seemed about to split apart, Lin said that she still feels a lingering fear. She said that rescue was very slow due to the lockdown measures. If not for the pandemic control, there would have been many rescue personnel and vehicles from other places, she said. But now the rescue is slow, and the golden period [of 72 hours] is likely to be missed, she said. Medical workers and patients at Renmin Hospital of Shimian County in Yaan City, in the aftermath of an earthquake in southwestern Chinas Sichuan Province, on Sept. 5, 2022. (Xinhua via AP) As the epicenter is a mountainous area, the quake has caused landslides, swallowing villages down the slopes. Lin said that there were people buried under the mud and rock. With the golden period lapsing, more people would have died, she added. She felt that Chinese people are having a very difficult time this year. Now on top of the pandemic, we have this earthquake. Shops are all closed; we dont know when our life will be back to normal, Lin said. But anyhow, it is good as long as we stay alive. CCP Rejecting Rescuers Is Waste of Life Current affairs commentator Tang Jingyuan said that the communist regimes refusal to have civilian rescue reveals that the regime doesnt care about the life of the Chinese people at all. When speaking with the publication on Sept. 6, Tang said that the regimes PCR test requirement of official rescue personnel is a political requirement, an effort to toe the party line of zero-COVID policies. In China, it takes at least four to six hours, sometimes more than twelve hours, before PCR test results come out, Tang said, The requirement is a waste of time and waste of life as the rescue golden period is only 72 hours. Tang said that the local government doesnt allow civilian rescue teams to go into the epicenter because the authorities dont want people to know the true situation in the area. In 2008, after the Wenchuan earthquake, civilian rescue personnel exposed inferior building quality of schools, or tofu waste construction, which led to the collapse of school buildings, causing the deaths of many young students Tang said. In fact, it is very likely that the Luding governments refusing civilian rescue is an effort to prevent possible exposure of similar scandals by civilian rescuers. I dont know how many people who would have had a chance to be saved have lost their lives because of the regimes covering up of facts, Tang added. Zhao Fenghua and Hong Ning contributed to the article. A health worker takes a swab sample from a man to be tested for COVID-19 in Chengdu, Sichuan Province on Sept. 1, 2022. ( -/AFP via Getty Images) Extreme Weather, Strict COVID-19 Controls Batter Chinas Sichuan Province Sichuan, a landlocked, southwestern province in China, has turned into a disaster-stricken area in the past month. On top of the natural disasters such as record high temperatures, historic drought, rampant wildfires, and floods, to the latest earthquake, Sichuan is also dealing with the Chinese regimes strict pandemic prevention measures. Local residents air their vexations online, most complain about the suffering the COVID-19 controls has caused. Extreme Weather In July and August, Sichuan and Chongqing experienced extreme heat waves that lasted more than 70 days, which goes on record as the worst heat wave in China since 1961. On Aug. 18, Chongqing Municipality registered a record high of 45 C (113 F). The high temperatures, coupled with a dearth of rain, brought a severe drought that led to cracked dry mud in many farmlands, and even sections of the Yangtze River dried up, which affected the production of hydroelectricity in the province. Sichuan, Chinas biggest hydropower producer, saw its hydroelectric capacity drop by 50 percent in August. As a supplier of 30 percent of the nations total hydroelectric generation, the drought poses a major risk of power shortage to the entire nation. Not only the farmers are suffering, the manufacturing sector was forced to stop the processing lines, household power was off, and electric car stations were closed. Farmers inspect a field parched by drought in Neijiang, Sichuan Province, China, on Aug. 26, 2022. (VCG/Getty Images) Wildfires broke out in multiple regions, affecting numerous residential communities, and burning down multiple homes. Between Aug. 17 and 25, at least 14 extensive forest fires broke out, covering 10 districts and counties of Chongqing. While the heat wave and drought were peaking, torrential rains started in the evening of Aug. 27. The overflowing rivers and mountain floods devastated parts of both Chongqing and Sichuan. Tightening Controls The upcoming national meeting of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has the entire country further tightening its zero-COVID policy. On Sept. 1, Chengdu City put 21 million residents under lockdown, and ordered mass nucleic acid testing when the authorities extended the lockdown three days later. On Sept. 4, a video showing a Chengdu mother mourning the loss of her son over the week-long went viral. The forced isolation meant the boy missed a critical treatment for his heart disease. On Sept. 5, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck Luding County, causing local water and power outages. The Chinese admitted 74 were killed and 253 injured. While major cities, such as, Chengdu and Chongqing, also felt the quake, despite the aftershocks that continued to rattle the area and severe damage to houses and roads, the authorities insisted on enforcing the zero-COVID policyresidents were locked inside their homes, and people still queued for PCR testing. Netizens revealed that during the earthquake, residents remained confined to their apartments or residential complexes. They could not escape because the lobby doors were locked. Many were simply ordered to go back upstairs by the pandemic prevention workers at the residential complexes. The aftermath of the earthquake in Hailuogou in Chinas southwestern Sichuan Province on Sept. 5, 2022. (STR/AFP via Getty Images) Locals Sadness Online videos showed residents trying to break the locked doors, or arguing with the community staff in hopes of leaving the epicenter, but the community staff allegedly responded, Has the building collapsed? Many local residents expressed their sadness online while enduring the catastrophe. Netizen, The boundary-less Internet Zhao, wrote: Numbed. Is Chengdu cursed or what? It was so hot that people turned on the air conditioners. But, the power shortage made everyone go out to cool down by splashing [in] water. Then the flash flood pushed everyone back to the indoor swimming pool. Suddenly, the flare-ups of the pandemic forced Chengdu under silent management. When everyone was forced to stay at home, the earth quaked. Is this an extinction? Its a pity that Im still alive. Some netizen responses to the COVID curbs on top of the natural disasters best describe the irony of the policy. One netizen wrote, Please follow the strict measures: Only one person per family can leave, with a 2-hour limit each time. Another said, Dont run when theres an earthquake, the body temperature will get too high when you run; and youll not be able to get back in the apartment with a high body temperature! A netizen stated, When the earthquake struck, my first reaction was not to run or hide, but to protect my cell phone subconsciously. Maybe I was afraid that the house would collapse and I would be buried alive; and when the rescue workers came, they would refuse to dig me out because I could not show them my green QR code and PCR test result. Zhang Ting contributed to this report. Situation Remains Precarious: Jasper Struggles With Power Outages as Wildfire Rages On The wildfire on Chetamon Mountain in Jasper National Park, Alberta, continues to burn through the forested area 15 kilometres north of the Jasper townsite. Parks Canada says there is presently no threat of the fire harming the townsite itself, but restoring power to the municipality and the damage caused to the transmission line is a deepening concern. All campsites in Jasper National Park have been closed and visitors are advised not to return until regular power has been restored. ATCO, the electric company responsible for providing power in the community, estimated it would take weeks to repair the main power grid. On Sept. 8, ATCO announced that two-thirds of power had been restored to the Jasper townsite, but another outage occurred at 9:45 a.m. due to technical difficulties. Mayor Richard Ireland said at a press conference that after power was restored to a very large extent of the community, it was lost across the entire townsite on the morning of Sept. 9 due to the technical complexities of the system. He said it appears power outages will continue for an indefinite period. Now is not the time to visit Jasper, Ireland emphasized at the press conference. We are far from over this emergency. He said it would be unkind to force visitors to leave the community, especially if they had travelled a long way and had plans like hotel bookings, but the municipality would continue to try and get the message out that visitors should avoid the area due to the struggle to conserve power. Focus and priority is to keep critical infrastructure running, so we can continue to provide water, wastewater and emergency services to the community. Without these services in place, we could not allow residents to remain in their homes, the Municipality of Jasper said on its website on Sept. 8. The municipality said its second priority they stated was restoring residents power. Agriculture, forestry and rural economic development air tankers dropping on Chetamon wildfire at 10:30 a.m. on September 8, 2022 (Parks Canada) The town of Jasper continues to face the challenge of the total loss of transmitted grid power to the entire community, the municipality said in a Facebook post on Sept. 9. The situation remains precarious. We anticipate that there will be intermittent outages over the next few weeks. These outages have impacted essential services including food supply and food service, and gas stations, which will continue to be limited as the power remains unstable. The municipality also warned that the fire could destroy more power lines or threaten the town in the absence of favourable weather. As of Sept. 7, there were 18 structures damaged along the power transmission line. The Jasper Activity Centre in the townsite was opened for residents to get the latest information from ATCO, Parks Canada, and the municipality, charge up their devices, access microwave ovens, and have a hot shower. On Sept. 6, Parks Canada announced that its latest assessment estimated the fire size to be 5,500 hectares, a reduction from its earlier estimate of 6,150 hectares. Anne-Claude Pepin, the plans section chief on the Chetamon wildfire for Parks Canada, said at a press conference on Sept. 9 that the fire could increase in intensity with the weather conditions over the weekend but was confident that the proper strategies were in place to protect it from spreading to residential areas. She said 25 new firefighters joined the team to ramp up progress. Parks Canada continues to issue warnings about drone activity in the area, saying it is dangerous for wildfire response teams. There is a $25,000 fine for anyone caught flying a drone in the region. A pro-life activist holds a plastic fetus in a protest in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, on June 23, 2022. (Nathan Howard/Getty Images) South Carolina Senate Passes Fetal Heartbeat Abortion Ban After Rejecting Near-Total Abortion Ban The South Carolina Senate on Sept. 8 passed legislation to ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detectedat roughly around six weeks gestationafter the chamber failed to pass a near-total abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest. In a special session called in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, senators voted 2716 late on Sept. 8 on a bill HB 5399 that would effectively amend a current fetal heartbeat abortion ban, also known as the Fetal Heartbeat Protection From Abortion Act, or Senate Bill 1. SB 1, which bans abortions after a fetal heartbeat has been detectedat roughly around six weeks of gestationwas signed into law by Republican Gov. Henry McMaster in February 2021 but was later temporarily suspended by the states Supreme Court on Aug. 17 (pdf) following a challenge by abortion providers. The court is currently reviewing whether the law violates privacy rights. In the meantime, a 2016 law is in effect which bans abortions 20 weeks after conception, except when the procedure is deemed necessary to protect the life of the mother, or if there is a fetal anomaly. The bill HB 5399 passed in the state Senate on Sept. 8 would effectively tighten the abortion restrictions set out in the currently-blocked fetal heartbeat abortion ban. In addition to banning abortions after a fetal heartbeat has been detected, HB 5399 would also reduce the time that victims of rape and incest who become pregnant can seek an abortion: from 20 weeks in the existing law, to about 12 weeks. Like the states current fetal heartbeat abortion ban, HB 5399 would allow an abortion if the unborn child receives a diagnosis of a fetal anomaly, but it would require diagnoses from two doctors, not one, as the blocked SB1 requires. HB 5399 also requires that a DNA sample from the remains of the aborted unborn child be collected for police. The bill now goes back to the South Carolina House, where lawmakers will consider whether to adopt the changes by the Senate. Near-Total Abortion Ban Failed to Pass The South Carolina House on Aug. 30 passed HB 5399 as an abortion ban from conception, with exceptions for rape and incest. House lawmakers had initially rejected a previous version of the bill without the exceptions. The South Carolina Senate Medical Affairs Committee on Sept. 6 voted 98 to remove the exceptions for rape and incest from the billturning HB 5399 back to a near-total abortion banbefore sending it to the full chamber. Senators in the special session failed to pass HB 5399 as a near-total abortion ban after five Republicans refused to support it. They were state Sens. Tom Davis, Greg Hembree, Katrina Shealy, Penry Gustafson, and Sandy Senn. Davis had threatened to filibuster the bill, while the three women each said they couldnt support the bill unless there were rape or incest exceptions. The five Republicans were joined by all Democrats in the Senate in opposing the near-total abortion ban. Republicans control both the state House and Senate, but they are a few seats short of a two-thirds majority that would enable them to overcome any filibuster. Without the votes to end a filibuster launched by Davis, the South Carolina Senates Republican leader, Shane Massey, conceded that the near-total abortion ban would not be able to pass. We were never going to pass a total abortion ban, he said. We never had the votes to pass even what the House passed, he added, referring to how the states Senate didnt have enough support for a ban at conception. McMasters spokesperson, Brian Symmes, said, It is the governors hope that the House and Senate will soon come to an agreement and send a bill to his desk for signature. McMaster previously issued statements that support restricting abortion. He said in a statement on Twitter in January 2020, South Carolina is a proudly pro-life state, and any pro-life legislation that makes it to my desk will be signed immediately. He also said on Twitter in January 2018, I believe that human life begins at conception. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Neil Gorsuch during a hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington on March 22, 2017. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images) Supreme Court Wont Halt Enforcement of $155 Million Award Against Sunoco Unit The Supreme Court refused a request on Sept. 8 by a Sunoco business unit to halt enforcement of a $155 million class-action judgment for unpaid interest on late payments for crude oil while it decides whether it should hear the companys appeal of the verdict. The justices are scheduled to consider the appeal on Sept. 28. The denial was issued by Justice Neil Gorsuch, who oversees emergency applications from Oklahoma and five other states within the 10th Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals. Gorsuch provided no reasons for his decision in the case known as Sunoco Partners Marketing and Terminals L.P. v. Cline, court file 22A188. The Sunoco unit asked (pdf) for the special relief Aug. 29, pleading that it had no realistic prospect that it could recover the funds after they were distributed to the more than 53,000 class members. The company also said it needed the stay because there wasnt any prospect that the Tenth Circuit will address the merits of this nine-figure damages award before execution proceeds. The lawsuit began in 2017 when farmer Perry Cline sued for himself and other well owners from whom the Sunoco unit bought crude oil. U.S. District Judge John Gibney ruled in 2020 that the company ran afoul of the Oklahoma Production Revenue Standards Act by not paying interest on more than 1.5 million late royalty payments to well owners in the state. Gibney found the company knew it owed interest on the tardy payments and withheld them until a well owner demanded it, a policy that allowed the company to escape millions of dollars in payments each year. Sunoco simply keeps the money for its own use, knowing two things: that most owners will not request interest, and that eventually the owners potential claims will die at the hands of the statute of limitations, the judge held. Gibney awarded the well owners $80 million in compensatory damages and $75 million in punitive damages. Gibney issued a plan of allocation to divvy up and distribute the damages. The 10th Circuit dismissed the companys appeal on Nov. 1, 2021, because Sunoco did not meet its burden to establish appellate jurisdiction. The company argues that if the Supreme Court fails to intervene, the money could go out to well owners before it can challenge the decision to dismiss the appeal for lack of jurisdiction. The company also argues that the other side is trying to enforce the judgment aggressively and in the most disruptive manner possible. The plaintiffs declined Sunocos offers of full financial assurance in favor of sweeping asset discovery and apparently intend to inflict unnecessary costs, impose liens, frustrate business operations, and perhaps even seize physical property, the business unit stated in the emergency application. The Epoch Times reached out to Sunoco attorney Paul D. Clement and Cline attorney Russell S. Post for comments but did not immediately receive replies. A facility believed to be a reeducation camp where mostly Muslim ethnic minorities are detained, in Artux, north of Kashgar in China's western Xinjiang region, on June 2, 2019. (Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images) Switzerland Presses Human Rights Concerns With China ZURICHSwitzerland called a meeting with Chinas ambassador to express its concern about the human rights situation in the western region of Xinjiang, the foreign ministry in Bern said on Thursday, correcting its earlier comment that it had summoned the envoy. Switzerland is convinced that the best way to safeguard its interests and the respect of fundamental rights is to conduct a critical and constructive dialogue with Beijing, the ministry said, confirming a report by the SDA news agency. The ministry cited a report last week by the United Nations human rights commissioner that the Chinese communist regimes arbitrary and discriminatory detention of Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang may constitute crimes against humanity. The Chinese embassy took issue with the original Swiss account that it had summoned the ambassador. The Chinese Ambassador to Switzerland, H.E. Wang Shihting, met with FDFA officials on the morning of September 8, but it was just a regular working meeting, not a convocation, it said, accusing media of deliberately distorting the situation. Chinas foreign ministry has denied the allegations about the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang. Switzerland has walked a diplomatic tightrope with Beijing, playing down prospects for embracing Western sanctions against China over its human rights record as Bern pursues a special path with a major trade partner. In unveiling a new strategy on China last year, Bern announced few concrete policy changes and stressed the importance of bilateral ties. But it spoke more openly about its disapproval of the Chinese regimes human rights record than it has tended to do in the past. People who are part of standout protest organized by the American Federation of Teachers chant, hold signs, and raise their fists outside of the Massachusetts State House in Boston, Mass., on Aug. 19, 2020. (Scott Eisen/Getty Images) Teachers Union Accused of Not Paying Taxes, Misrepresenting Funds Used For Political Purposes The American Federation of Teachers (AFT), one of the largest teacher labor unions in the country, is being accused of using its funds for political activities while not paying taxes on such spending. Michael ONeill, Assistant General Counsel at Landmark legal foundation, asked the IRS to audit the AFT over the alleged misrepresentation of funds. In an interview with NTD, ONeill pointed out that AFT leadership and personnel mobilize in electioneering activities every election season. They host rallies, bus tours, and use their membership to advocate for candidates like Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Hillary Clinton, which is something unions are allowed to do. However, if unions use general treasury fundsin other words, funds derived from collection of teachers duesto finance those sorts of activities, that is subject to reporting on the unions tax return, ONeill stated. He pointed to the National Education Association and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)both of which engage in such political activity while acknowledging it in their tax returns. The AFT claims that it doesnt engage in such political activity in its tax filing yet clearly does so, ONeill said. When AFT President Randi Weingarten went door-to-door campaigning in support of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election, the funds for the activity came from the organizations general treasury, he said. The AFTs disclosure reports do not provide information on the money spent on rallies and bus tours conducted on behalf of the candidates they support. Only the IRS can answer such questions, ONeill stated while adding that spending on such political activity is to be taxed at the corporate income tax rate. The Epoch Times reached out to AFT for comment. School Shutdowns The AFT is also facing backlash for the role it played in shutting down schools during the COVID-19 pandemic. A Sept. 1 article in The Wall Street Journal specifically pointed fingers at AFT chief Weingarten for keeping schools closed as long as possible before parents pushed back. You flunked the pandemic, Randi, and set back Americas children for years, the WSJs editorial board said. It detailed the results of the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores, which showed that average nine-year-old scores across America fell the most on record in math and in reading. Two decades of progress have been erased in two years, it stated. In a letter responding to the WSJ, Weingarten blamed President Donald Trump and his education secretary, Betsy DeVos, for school closures while praising Biden and his administration for reopening schools. However, Trump was at the forefront of the counter-movement to keep schools open during the pandemic. In the October 2020 presidential debate, Trump strongly argued for keeping schools open. Democrats, meanwhile, were criticizing Trump for his stance. In a July 28 video uploaded on the Democratic National Committees official YouTube channel, Trump was described as being desperate to reopen schools because he thinks it will save his reelection. When teachers push woke ideology in their classrooms, they are indoctrinating students rather than educating them. (LStockStudio/Shutterstock) Michael Zwaagstra: The Problem With Pushing Woke Ideology in Schools Commentary If youve been around for a while, you probably remember the phrase politically correct. Being called politically correct was not a compliment. Rather, it meant that you had an unhealthy obsession with not offending anyone, even if you had to say some rather silly things in the process. For example, instead of saying husband or wife, youd say partner so you didnt imply that being married is better than living together common law. Or you might avoid phrases such as ladies and gentlemen so that you dont offend the non-binary people in the room. Political correctness also meant tossing out classic books and authors that used unacceptable terminology by modern-day standards. The stifling nature of political correctness was bad enough. Unfortunately, today we face an even greater threat to healthy intellectual discoursewoke ideology. Wokeness has become the new politically correct, except its for more demanding than political correctness ever was. Woke ideology places such a strong emphasis on personal identity that it sees everything through the lens of race, gender, and sexual orientation. This ideology makes it possible to call others privileged without knowing anything about them. Hence, we hear terms such as white privilege or cisgender privilege. Obviously, people are free to hold whatever woke beliefs they want. The problem arises when we try to make everyone else conform to our assumptions about identity. When woke ideology takes over our schools, it moves from being merely annoying to downright toxic. In addition, woke ideology tends to twist normal words and phrases into something completely different. For example, being anti-racist used to mean that you were opposed to all forms of discrimination based on skin colour. Now, anti-racism has turned into an ideology that sees all people through a racial prism. Thus, when anti-racist consultants conduct workshops, one of the first things they do is divide participants up according to their race. They want everyone to be acutely aware of the widespread prevalence of white supremacy, even if no one in the room has ever said or done anything racist. When anyone objects to being stereotyped in this way, the presenter accuses them of exhibiting white fragility, another common woke phrase. The irony is that woke ideology is supposed to be about inclusion. However, in many cases it drives people apart. When a teacher sends the message that some students benefit from white privilege while others are ongoing victims of systemic racism, its hard to see how this makes for a productive learning environment. The same is true of classrooms where teachers focus on gender identity by having all students declare their personal pronouns on a regular basis. Its important to remember that while schools play an important role in society, parents remain the primary educators of their children. If parents feel that teachers do not respect their values or are constantly pushing woke ideology on their children, they will quickly lose trust in the school system. This is one of the fastest ways to undermine the public education system in Canada. There is nothing wrong with teachers making sure that all students feel safe in the classroom. It makes sense to stamp out racist comments and to educate students on the importance of respecting their classmates, including those who have a different gender identity. Bullying has no place in the school system and should never be tolerated by teachers or principals. All students have the right to a safe learning environment. However, pushing woke ideology on students is not an effective way to combat bullying. There is no need for all students to think the same way or to all hold the same beliefs. All that is necessary is a willingness to treat other people with respect. Good teachers have always been kind, yet firm, when it comes to upholding the basic rules of decorum. Students should never feel pressured to conform to any teachers political ideology or worldview. When teachers push woke ideology in their classrooms, they are indoctrinating students rather than educating them. Everyone knows that there is a huge difference between teaching students how to think and teaching them what to think. Woke ideology doesnt belong in schools. All students deserve a learning environment that is free of political indoctrination. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, on the balcony of Buckingham Palace during the Platinum Jubilee Pageant in London, England, on June 5, 2022. (Chris Jackson/Getty Images) The Queen Is Dead. Long Live the King! Commentary For most people throughout the whole world, the death of Queen Elizabeth II comes as a profound shock. Not unexpected, of course, after so long a reign, but cataclysmic in its emotional and social impact. Few people in the Commonwealth have lived their lives under the reign of any other sovereign. I am one of the few who remember my own very tearful reaction at the age of seven when King George died. Her life has been inspirational. As a Christian woman, she made a promise on her accession to serve her people. She kept her word faithfully to the very end. It is extraordinary to recall that Elizabeth saw service during the Second World War. Throughout all these years that followed, amidst unprecedented social and political changes, she did her duty with energy and style and now lays her crown at the feet of her Redeemer. Australian readers will be aware that a newly-elected senator this year demurred over the taking of the oath of allegiance, altering the wording with the phrase this colonising Queen. Nothing could have been more absurd. Queen Elizabeth reigned over and personally celebrated the liberation from colonial bonds of hundreds of millions of people in many nations, all of which freely became members of the Commonwealth of nations, friends and equals of their partner nations. Nothing of this sort has ever previously happened in the history of the world. Britains Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip arrive by horse-drawn carriage in the parade ring on the third day, traditionally known as Ladies Day, of the Royal Ascot horse race meeting at Ascot, England, on June 16, 2011. (Alastair Grant/AP Photo) So popular is this free association of peoples that South Africa, once expelled for its policy of apartheid, sought under Mandelas administration to rejoin it and was warmly welcomed back. Another nation, Mozambique, never previously connected with the old British Empire, applied for and was granted membership. Lets hope that the shock of her final departure from this life might somehow bring about a kind of reset in our thinking. A Sovereigns Duty and Service When Franz Josef, the last Emperor of Austria, died in 1916, his funeral procession was taken to the crypt of the Capuchin Church in Vienna. The chamberlain hammered on the iron door, demanding admission for His Royal and Imperial Majesty. The reply from within was, we do not know him, and the door remained firmly closed. The same demand was repeated and again refused. Then the chamberlain knocked for the third time. Who is there? came the question from within. This time the chamberlain simply replied, Franz, a poor servant of God and a sinner, begs admission. Then, and only then, the door was flung open, and Franz Josef was welcomed in to sleep in the company of his fathers. That lovely story reminds us that human kingship is all about duty and service, that all men and women are equal in the grave, and that a sovereigns chief purpose is to do justice and play his or her part in bringing the people to redemption. Charles is now Head of the Commonwealth and King of Australia. Whether he remains so is a matter for the Australian people, but in the meantime, he is our sovereign and deserves the goodwill and prayers of his people everywhere. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. A "For Rent" sign posted in front of an apartment building in San Francisco, Calif., on June 2, 2021. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) These US Cities Are Seeing Largest Increase in Rent Prices While New York, California, and Boston continue to be the most expensive rental markets in the country, some unexpected locales have actually experienced the largest increases in one-bedroom apartment prices year-over-year. Greensboro, North Carolina, sits atop the list with rent increases of 74.2 percent, followed by Newport News, Virginia, at 60.7 percent, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, at 59.8 percent, according to Rent.coms August report. Jon Leckie, a researcher with Rent.com, told The Epoch Times that such increases arent unusual, given the amount of people who have been flocking to these areas. Were seeing a pattern where the markets around the larger metro areas are attracting more people because theyre less expensive, but still within an hours commute to a city, he said. People want to get out of the crowded, expensive core metros, and the trend toward more remote working means they may not have to commute every day. With one-bedroom apartment monthly rentals averaging $1,289, Greensboros rental market falls far below the national average of $1,770. Currently, Charlotte [North Carolina] has the most outbound migration than any other city in the county, Leckie said. People are leaving the bigger cities, and weve found that much of inbound traffic to Greensboro and the other smaller markets is from New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Raleigh, Atlanta, Nashville, and [Washington] D.C. Little Rock, Arkansas; Oklahoma City; Lexington, Kentucky; Rochester, New York; and other communities with populations below 300,000 people are also experiencing rental booms. On the other hand, St. Louis; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; and Baltimore are the top three locations that have seen the biggest decrease in one-bedroom apartment rents. St. Louis leads with a 39.4 percent decline, followed by Fort Lauderdale at 34.9 percent and Baltimore at 26.9 percent. Miami, Cleveland, and Reno, Nevada, also made the list of rent reductions. St. Louis saw a huge decline, especially when downtown prices are so high for small spaces, Leckie said. The general trends we see, as the big coastal cities continue blowing up with high prices, are that renters will seek out cheaper areas in the Midwest and South. The Northeast and the West are still losing people. Not surprisingly, the report lists New York as the most expensive rental area, with the average one-bedroom rental at $5,760 per month. In the cities of Glendale and Oakland, California, monthly rents average $4,014 and $3,916, respectively. Boston apartment renters pay an average of $3,080, while San Franciscos average is $3,701 per month. Some of the nations most affordable one-bedroom rentals can be found in Oklahoma City, at an average of $945; Wichita, Kansas, at $840; and Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with the lowest average of just $796. For two-bedroom rentals, the report lists Seattle, Little Rock, and Durham, North Carolina, as the top three cities experiencing the biggest rent increases. Seattles rent is up by almost 60 percent, followed by 54.7 percent for Little Rock and 54.2 percent for Durham. Conversely, the largest two-bedroom rental decreases were found in Fort Lauderdale, down by almost 43 percent, and St. Louis and Des Moines, Iowa, down by 28.2 percent and 20.6 percent, respectively. As with one-bedroom apartments, New York leads the way with the priciest options; the average two-bedroom apartment in the city rents for $8,346 per month. Boston, at $5,795 per month, is the second-most expensive two-bedroom rental market, followed by Oakland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. On the more affordable end, two-bedroom apartments in Lubbock, Texas, are averaging $922 per month, compared to Shreveport, Louisiana, where rentals are at $1,106, and Lincoln, Nebraska, at $1,295. The once red-hot rental market of Boise, Idaho, has since cooled, with more than 61 percent of listings experiencing recent price cuts. The report also notes that homebuilders who couldnt keep up with the demand last year are now cutting back on construction in the area. Boise has since earned its reputation as the most overvalued housing market in the United States, according to researchers at Florida Atlantic University and Florida International. They blame continued high prices there for negatively affecting the region, making it harder now to attract new residents. A recent report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition found that a worker would need to earn at least $25.82 per hour to afford a small two-bedroom rental home. For a one-bedroom, the wage dips slightly, to $21.25 per hour. Nearly 60 percent of wage earners cannot afford a modest two-bedroom rental home working one full-time job, the report states. A rocket launches from missile system as part of a ground-based intercontinental ballistic missile test launched from the Plesetsk facility in northwestern Russia on Dec. 9, 2020. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP) Top General Doesnt Rule Out Limited Nuclear War in Ukraine Ukraines top military general warned that Russia could use nuclear weapons if it becomes desperate and said a limited nuclear conflict cannot be ruled out. Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Gen. Valery Zaluzhny said that there is a direct threat of the use, under certain circumstances, of tactical nuclear weapons by the Russian armed forces, according to an opinion article that was published in state-run Ukrinform. It is also impossible to completely rule out the possibility of the direct involvement of the worlds leading countries in a limited nuclear conflict, in which the prospect of World War III is already directly visible, Zaluzhny said in the article, published Wednesday, as reported by The Washington Post. The possibility of nuclear weapons being used was raised in late February, coming days after the start of the Ukraine-Russia conflict, when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his militarys nuclear readiness forces to be placed on high alert. Since then, officials around the world have signaled that more nuclear preparedness is needed. For example, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) in May called on NATO to prepare for a possible Russian nuclear strike, while U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned in early August that the world is one step away from nuclear annihilation. No Need In mid-August, Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu said Moscow has no need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine From a military point of view, there is no need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine to achieve the set goals. The main purpose of Russian nuclear weapons is to deter a nuclear attack, he said during a speech in Moscow. While criticizing media speculation regarding the alleged use of Russian tactical nuclear weapons or chemical weapons, Shoigu described the nuclear reports and claims as informational attacks and lies. A view shows the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict outside the Russian-controlled city of Enerhodar in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, on Aug. 30, 2022. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters) Two weeks before that speech, on Aug. 2, Putin remarked that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought while addressing the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. But on Wednesday, Zaluzhnythe Ukrainian generalwrote that Russias capture of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine suggests Moscow has a disregard for nuclear safeguards After being driven back from Ukraines capital, Kyiv, during the start of the conflict, Russia has focused on taking Ukrainian areas around the south and eastfrom the eastern Donbas region to the southern Crimean Peninsula. Ukraine, at the same, has recently launched a counteroffensive in Kherson and Kharkiv, located near the Russian border. As long as the current situation persists, Zaluzhny wrote, this war can last for years. Since the start of the conflict, the United States has doled out well over $50 billion in aid to Ukraine, including around $10 billion in military assistance. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the country this week and pledged another $2.8 billion in additional military aid, according to the State Department. Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas on Aug. 6, 2022. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images) Trump Pans DOJ for Appealing Special Master Ruling in FBI Raid Document Case Former President Donald Trump on Thursday again slammed the ongoing investigation on records that federal agents seized from his Mar-a-Lago home last month, calling the search and seizure a hoax. This came after the Department of Justice (DOJ) on the same day said that it would appeal a Trump-appointed District Judge Aileen Cannons ruling, which authorizes an independent mediator to review the classified materials, including some marked top secret, recovered from the former presidents Florida residence. So now the FBI and Biden Department of Justice leakers are going to spend Millions of Dollars, & vast amounts of Time and Energy, to appeal the order on the Raid of Mar-a-Lago document hoax, instead of fighting the record setting corruption and crime that is taking place right before their very eyes, he wrote via social media app Truth Social on Sept. 8, praising his appointee as a brilliant and courageous Judge. The former president further weighed in on the Justice Department and former FBI officials including ex-Director James Comey and ex-Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. They leak, lie, plant fake evidence, allow the spying on my campaign, deceive the FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance] Court, RAID, and Break-Into my home, lose documents, and then they ask me, as the 45th President of the United States, to trust them, Trump said in the following post. An aerial view of Donald Trumps Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. (Steve Helber/AP Photo) Cannons 24-Page Mar-a-Lago Order The FBI searched former President Donald Trumps Mar-a-Lago estate on Aug. 8, recovering more than 11,000 government documents and photographs, with 103 documents marked classified. Trump has asked on Aug. 31 a U.S. federal court to block the FBI from reviewing the materials pending the appointment of a special master. Cannons 24-page Mar-a-Lago order granted Trumps motion on Sept. 5 for a special master to determine what seized materials are protected by attorney-client and executive privilege. She also blocked the government from further reviewing the seized records for investigative purposes. The judge is in the middle of choosing a mediator to assess the seized documents, while the department and Trumps lawyers have until Friday to submit a list of possible candidates. The DOJ lawyers had opposed that request, saying the order is problematic because the assessment cannot be readily segregated from the DOJ and FBI efforts in connection with the ongoing criminal probe. President Donald Trump is seen before the start of a Fox News virtual town hall meeting from the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, on March 24, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images) Trump Vows to Sue Fox News Over Attack Ad Former President Donald Trump suggested he would sue Fox News and the Lincoln Project after the network aired the groups attack ad against the former president. The Lowlifes of the Lincoln Project are back on, where else, Fox News, Trump wrote on social media. I thought they ran away to the asylum after their last catastrophic campaign, with charges made against them that were big time sleaze, and me getting many millions more votes in 2020 than I got in 2016. Trump accused Fox News and top executive Paul Ryan, a former House speaker, of only having high standards for Trump ads, but not for anyone else. He added, The Perverts should not be allowed to false advertise, and Fox News should not allow it to happen. See you all in Court!!! The Epoch Times has contacted Fox News and the Lincoln Project for comment. Rick Wilson, the controversial co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, dismissed Trumps remarks on Twitter. In a profanity-laced video, Wilson told Trump to go for it come at me. I cant wait. Were delighted by the thought you would try to sue us, Donald. Youre not going to sue anybody, he wrote, adding, If you want to try and sue us, Donald, go for it. Media Reports The Lincoln Project drew criticism last year after several former employees sought to be freed from a nondisclosure agreement with the organization in order to speak about alleged sexual harassment and misconduct. It came after the New York Times published a report in which 21 men accused Lincoln Project operative John Weaver, who formerly advised Sen. John McCain and John Kasich, of sexual harassment. The anonymous individuals in February 2021 demanded that the organization release them in order to speak openly about alleged harassment perpetuated by Weaver that we have experienced or witnessed and other claims. Weaver co-founded the Lincoln Project super PAC, which is explicitly opposed to Trump, in 2019. He took a leave of absence from the group in 2020 and hasnt returned. In an interview with Axios, he acknowledged some of the messages he sent that led to the controversy. Later in 2021, the Lincoln Project again drew fire when it confirmed that it was responsible for sending five men dressed in white and holding tiki torches to a campaign stop to back then-Virginia gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin. Youngkin, a Republican, eventually won the governors seat, defeating former Democrat Gov. Terry McAuliffe. Todays demonstration was our way of reminding Virginians what happened in Charlottesville four years ago, the Republican Partys embrace of those values, and Glenn Youngkins failure to condemn it, the project said in a statement late last year. Meanwhile, Trump has been critical of Fox News for what he says is a drift towards leftism. The former president has often targeted on-air personalities, namely former anchor Chris Wallace, who left the network for CNN. United Australia Party Voluntarily Deregistered Australian mining magnate Clive Palmer has voluntarily deregistered his United Australia Party despite having a senator in parliament. The Australian Electoral Commission, which is responsible for the countrys electoral system, published a notice on Friday saying the right-wing party was deregistered on Sep. 8, 2022. Victorian Senator Ralph Babet said he will continue sitting in parliament under UAP banner, saying the deregistration was due to administrative reasons. He also told Nine networks that the party would be registered before the next election. This has actually happened before. We do it in between the elections to save on the administration, the party is not going anywhere. Its staying right where it is. The UAP is here forever, he said on Friday. Of course, myself being a parliamentary leader of (the) United Australia Party, we own the trademark, we will be immediately re-registered next time. The UAP was registered on Dec. 12, 2018 following the deregistration of the former Palmer United Party. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the party called for the removal of the lockdowns, domestic vaccine passports and vaccine mandates. On the UAPs website, the party outlines policies that focuses on cutting tax and maximising revenue from Australias mineral resources. The partys founder, Palmer, owns large mining businesses such as Mineralogy, Waratah Coal, Queensland Nickel and has a net worth of up to $13.01 billion in 2021. However, the party failed to secure a seat during the 2019 federal election despite the multi-million dollar advertising campaign before successfully winning a seat in the 2022 election. According to his profile on UPAs website, the partys sole parliamentary member, Babet, is described as a strong supporter of our constitutional rights and freedoms. As a former business owner, Ralph understands at the grass-roots level what is required for economic prosperity in this country, Palmer said of Babet. He will take the fight to the mainstream parties to deliver a better economic future for all Australian families. UAPs deregistration comes two months after the Liberal Democratic Party was deregistered. AAP contributed to this article. A federal lawsuit in Washington alleges the University of Oregon is imposing an ideological litmus test for hiring and promotions. File photo taken on June 26, 2022. (Nathan Howard/Getty Images) University of Oregon Accused By Advocacy Groups of Undermining Free Speech The University of Oregon (UO) is under fire from two free speech advocacy groups, who claim it is infringing on freedom of speech and expression. The universitys Division of Equity and Inclusion is being sued for blocking a critic on Twitter, even as the institution is being pressured to stop imposing an ideological litmus test for hiring and promotions. With support from the Washington-based Institute for Free Speech, Portland State University professor of political science Bruce Gilley filed a federal lawsuit on Aug. 11 against Tova Stabin, an officer in the University of Oregons Division of Equity and Inclusion, for blocking him from the divisions official Twitter account. Gilley had posted a message from @UOEquity promoting a Racism Interrupter and added his own comment that all men are created equal. That earned a block from the accounts manager. Nothing could better illustrate the problems with diversity ideology than a state university that bans a member of the public for quoting our Declaration of Independence. This lawsuit is necessary to defend our freedom of speech and the rule of law, Professor Gilley stated through counsel. Gilley is an outspoken critic of Critical Race Theory and what he sees as the ideological indoctrination of students. Stabin blocked him from the Equity Divisions Twitter account, because he promotes a colorblind viewpoint with which she, and her employer, disagree, the lawsuit reads. In its five-year strategic framework, released in May 2021, the University of Oregon listed DEI as one of its top five priorities. We are committed to the principles of equity, inclusion, and diversity in everything we do, the framework stated. Apparently, the states flagship university has a concept of inclusion that does not include tolerance for differing viewpoints, wrote Del Kolde, senior attorney at the Institute for Free Speech. That Professor Gilley was silenced and censored by the universitys so-called Division of Equity and Inclusion for simply quoting the founding document of our nation makes it pretty clear that the university is no longer committed to the inclusion or diversity of viewpoints, said D. Angus Lee of Angus Lee Law Firm. The First Amendment does not allow the government or its actors to ban individuals from public forums just because they disagree with the views those individuals express, he adds. The lawsuit asks the judge to order @UOEquity to unblock Prof. Gilley and to issue a permanent injunction preventing the accounts manager and agents from discriminating on the basis of viewpoint when blocking users in the future. A spokesperson said the university does not comment on active litigation. Meanwhile, the university is taking heat for requiring current and prospective faculty members to submit statements discussing their contributions to DEI to be eligible for hiring, promotion, and tenure, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). On Aug. 11, 2022, FIRE wrote to UO president Michael Schill asserting that these requirements threaten academic freedom by interfering with faculty members scholarly autonomy and compelling them to endorse views they may not actually hold, in violation of the First Amendment and UOs own policies. These policiesincluding the guidelines and rubrics used to evaluate the DEI statementsrequire faculty to affirm UOs views on DEI and to promote these views in their respective classrooms, research initiatives, and service activities, to avoid being disadvantaged in hiring or evaluation, wrote FIREs campus rights advocate Aaron Terr. The university asks faculty search committees to use a rubric to guide its evaluation of an applicants DEI statements. A candidate who only mentions activities that are already expected of faculty, such as I always invite students of all backgrounds to participate in my research lab, would receive a low score according to the rubric. High scores would accrue to a candidate who discusses DEI as core values that every faculty member should actively contribute to advancing and intends to be a strong advocate for DEI in their field. But the First Amendment prohibits the university from requiring faculty to demonstrate a commitment to prescribed ideological views, according to FIRE. UOs DEI statement policies impose an ideological litmus test discriminating against faculty who fail to demonstrate sufficient commitment to ordained views on contested questions of politics and morality. These mandates implicate faculty members most essential freedoms of expression, the letter states. UO should judge faculty based on the quality of their economic work, not their degree of conformity to certain ideological tenets. FIRE called on the university to eliminate or revise these requirements. The University of Oregon did not respond to multiple requests for comment from either FIRE or The Epoch Times. Last year, FIRE ranked University of Oregon 59th out of 159 universities and colleges nationwide in a review of free speech on campus. When Big Money Serves Woke Government Commentary One of the biggest laughs in the 1977 Tony-winning Broadway musical Annie was when the President and Mrs. Roosevelt accept tycoon Daddy Warbuckss invitation to Christmas Eve dinner, and Warbucks, having not thought they would, barks, Call Al Smith and find out what Democrats eat. While its true that during the Great Depression the likes of the Rockefellers and the Vanderbilts would not have known what to serve then-New York Gov. Al Smith, or anyone else from the Lower East Side, Annie got it wrong: the patrician FDR was partial to filet mignon, lobster, and caviar before arriving in the White House and making a show of preferring working-class fare slathered with ketchup. Today, sadly, too many of the rich are all too familiar with the tastes of todays Democrats, and theyre happy to feed and fund and further the agenda of the far left. Too many are far more interested in equity than in entrepreneurshipthe latter the key to providing our societys have-nots with opportunities to attain productive, lasting jobs, or even join the ranks of the rich by offering good jobs to others. And all too often these ultra-rich are doing it not with their own but with taxpayers money. During the pandemic, for example, when the U.S. Federal Reserve invested heavily in corporate debt in unprecedented fashion, from whom in the private sector do you think our central bank turned to for advice? The largest asset manager in the world and perhaps the most powerful woke entity in the global financial firmament: BlackRock. Panicky investors kept a keen eye on which exchange-traded funds and other debt-heavy instruments the Fed favored during the crisis, and they found BlackRocks own funds high on the list. And so, naturally, they grabbed onto the central banks coattails and invested in them themselves. BlackRock got even bigger as a result, pulling in tens of billions of dollars more to oversee than in the previous year. The firm now has more than $10 trillion in assets under managementmore than twice Germanys annual gross domestic product (GDP). Its not that complicated, really. The Fed says, Were buying this. OK, then, Im going to buy it too, Michael Rosen, chief investment officer of the $38 billion-strong New York-based Angeles Investments, told The Wall Street Journal a few months after the Feds actions began in 2020. No wonder BlackRock largely waived its consulting fees for its services to the Fed. One might imagine that such oceans of cash would satisfy anyone. Hardly. Not that the world has not known saintly tycoons, and as George Gilder eloquently reminded us 40 years ago in his masterful Wealth and Poverty, Capitalism begins with giving. Not through greed, avarice, or even self-love can one expect the rewards of commerce but from a spirit closely akin to altruism, a regard for the needs of others Not taking and consuming but giving, risking, and creating are the characteristic roles of the capitalist. In the case of BlackRock, however, greed became so drowned by lucre it sought other satiation on new shores, like manipulating others, especially the fellow rich, those who employ the non-rich. In a chillingly oligarchic remark in 2017, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said, Behaviors are gonna have to change You have to force behaviors, and at BlackRock we are forcing behaviors. BlackRock Bullies for the Woke Agenda Money doesnt just talk, as the saying goes, it coaxes and seduces, and in BlackRocks case, it bullies and blackmails. Fink, in 2019, joined the board of the Davos World Economic Forum, and as strategic risk consultant F. William Engdahl of the Center for Research on Globalization warns, BlackRock has, since 2018, targeted companies for either investment or shunning based on their ESG (environmental, social, and governance) credentials. In other words, the Democratic Partys woke agenda. Companies and equity investment funds seeking capital from big investor entities are supposed to be worried about balance sheets, profits, and overall financial performance; now they have to worry if theyre politically correct enough on race and climate. Engdahl points out that BlackRock awards a firm positive ratings for the seriousness of its hiring gender-diverse management and employees or when it embraces green energy. And the criteria can include anything from corporate donations to Black Lives Matter to supporting UN agencies such as the World Health Organization. He quips, Even Carl Icahn, a ruthless Wall Street asset stripper, once called BlackRock an extremely dangerous company I used to say, you know, the Mafia has a better code of ethics than you guys. The firm invests in Chinese military companies and helps Beijing sustain its totalitarian power over the Chinese people. It influences who informs you and who governs you; BlackRock for years has held one of the largest shares of ownership in The New York Times. Brian Deese, director of President Joe Bidens National Economic Council, was brought into the administration straight from BlackRock, where, as Global Head of Sustainable Investing, his salary and perks were in the millions. Nigerian-born Adewale Wally Adeyemo, the current deputy secretary of the Treasury, was chief of staff to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink from 2017 to 2019. Michael Pyle, senior economic adviser to Vice President Kamala Harris, was global chief investment strategist at BlackRock. The Heartland Institutes David Hoyt warns that BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street Capital are the top three shareholders in a startlingly large number of the worlds largest and most influential companies. They all sing from the same dark hymnal on governance, which is how they have cartelized private global enterprise to promote their left-wing agenda. And yet conservative Republicans are shy to recognize and combat this unholy alliance of private money and public power. What the radical Left could not achieve by force with the typical levers of government power, it is now poised to accomplish with nominally publicprivate enterprise partnerships. This new strategy has confused the conservative and libertarian response, Hoyt believes. People who know how to make massive amounts of money can go for cheeseburgers or Chateaubriand. They can be driven by a regard for the needs of others, as Gilder describes, or by a lust for political and social power. Success as a capitalist should not shield anyone who promotes the Democratic Partys agenda of insanity and assault on freedom. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Who Is Driving the Pandemic Express? Commentary Skeptics of the growing pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response (PPR) agenda celebrated recently, heralding a perceived defeat of the World Health Organizations (WHO) controversial amendments to the International Health Regulations. Although the proposed amendments would have undoubtedly expanded the WHOs powers, this focus on the WHO reflects a narrow view of global health and the pandemic industry. The WHO is almost a bit player in a much larger game of public-private partnerships and financial incentives that are driving the pandemic gravy train forward. While the WHO works in the spotlight, the pandemic industry has been growing for more than a decade, and its expansion accelerates unabated. Other major players such as the World Bank, the coalitions of wealthy nations at the G-7 and G-20, and their corporate partners work in a world less subject to transparencya world where the rules are more relaxed, and a conflict of interest receives less scrutiny. If the global health community is to preserve public health, it must urgently understand the wider process thats underway and take action to stop it. The pandemic express must be halted by the weight of evidence and basic principles of public health. Funding a Global Pandemic Bureaucracy The FIF [Financial Intermediary Fund] could be a cornerstone in the construction of a truly global PPR system in the context of the International Treaty on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response, sponsored by the World Health Assembly. (WHO, April 19, 2022) The world is being told to fear pandemics. Ballooning socioeconomic costs of the COVID-19 crisis are touted as justification for increased focus on PPR funding. Calls for urgent collective action to avert the next pandemic are predicated on systemic weaknesses supposedly exposed by COVID-19. As the WHO steamed ahead with its push for a new pandemic treaty in 2021, G-20 members agreed to establish a Joint Finance and Health Task Force (JFHTF) to enhance the collaboration and global cooperation on issues relating to pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. A World BankWHO report (pdf) prepared for the G-20 joint task force estimates that $31.1 billion will be required annually for future PPR, including $10.5 billion per year in new international financing to support perceived funding gaps in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Surveillance-related activities comprise almost half of this, with $4.1 billion in new funding required to address perceived gaps in the system. In public health terms, the funding proposed to expand the global PPR infrastructure is enormous. By contrast, the WHOs approved biennium program budget for 20222023 averages $3.4 billion per year. The Global Fund, the main international funder of malaria, tuberculosis, and AIDSwhich have a combined annual mortality of more than 2.5 millioncurrently dispenses just $4 billion annually for the three diseases combined. Unlike COVID-19, these diseases cause significant mortality in lower-income countries and in younger age groups, year in and year out. In April 2022, the G-20 agreed to establish a new financial intermediary fund (FIF) housed at the World Bank, to address the $10.5 billion PPR financing gap. The FIF is intended to build upon existing pandemic funding to strengthen health systems and PPR capacities in low-income and middle-income countries and regions. The WHO is predicted to be the technical lead, landing them with an assured role, irrespective of the outcome of current treaty discussions. The establishment of the fund has proceeded with breathtaking speed, and it was approved on June 30 by the World Banks board of executive directors. A short period of consultation precedes an expected launch in September. To date, donations totaling $1.3 billion have been pledged by governments, the European Commission, and various private and nongovernmental interests, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Wellcome Trust. The initial areas for the fund are somewhat all-encompassing, including country-level disease surveillance; laboratory systems; emergency communication, coordination and management; critical health workforce capacities; and community engagement. In scope, the fund has the appearance of a new World Health Organization for pandemicsto add to the existing (and ever-expanding) network of global health organizations such as the WHO, Gavi, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), and the Global Fund. But is this increased expenditure on PPR justified? Are the escalating socioeconomic costs of COVID-19 due to a failure to act by the global health community, as is widely claimed; or are they due to negligent acts of failure by the WHO and global governments, when they discarded previous evidenced-based pandemic guidelines? COVID-19: Failure to Act or Acts of Failure? In the debate surrounding the growing pandemic industry, much attention is being directed toward the central role of the WHO. This attention is understandable given the WHOs position as the agency responsible for global public health and its push for a new international pandemic agreement. However, the WHOs handling of the response to COVID-19 creates serious doubts about the competency of its leadership and raises questions about whose needs the organization is serving. The WHOs failure to follow its own preexisting pandemic guidelines (pdf) by supporting lockdowns, mass-testing, border closures, and the multibillion-dollar COVAX mass-vaccination program, has generated vast revenue for vaccine manufacturers and the biotech industry, whose corporations and investors are major contributors to the WHO. This approach has crippled economies, damaged existing health programs, and further entrenched poverty in low-income countries. Decades of progress in childrens health are likely to be undone, together with the destruction of the long-term prospects of tens of millions of children, through loss of education, forced child marriage, and malnutrition. In abandoning its principles of equality and community-driven (pdf) health care, the WHO appears to have become a mere pawn in the PPR game, beholden to those with the real powerthe entities who are providing its income and who control the resources now being directed to this area. Corporatizing Global Public Health Recently established health agencies devoted to vaccination and pandemics, such as Gavi and CEPI, appear to have been highly influential from the beginning. CEPI is the brainchild of Bill Gates, Jeremy Farrar (director of the Wellcome Trust), and others at the pro-lockdown World Economic Forum. Launched at Davos, Switzerland, in 2017, CEPI was created to help drive the market for epidemic vaccines. Its no secret that Gates has major private financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry, in addition to those of his foundation. This clearly places a question mark over the philanthropic nature of his investments. CEPI appears to be a forerunner of what the WHO is increasingly becomingan instrument where individuals and corporations can exert influence and improve returns by hijacking key areas of public health. CEPIs business model (pdf), which involves taxpayers taking most of the financial risk for vaccine research and development, while Big Pharma gets all the profits, is notably replicated in the World BankWHO report. Gavi, itself a significant WHO donor that exists solely to increase access to vaccination, is also under the direct influence of Gates via the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Gavis involvement (alongside CEPI) with the WHOs COVAX program, which diverted vast resources into COVID-19 mass vaccination in countries where COVID-19 was a relatively small disease burden, suggests the organization is tied more strongly to vaccine sales than to genuine public health outcomes. Pandemic FundingIgnoring the Big Picture? At first glance, increased PPR funding to LMICs may seem a public good. The World BankWHO report claims that the frequency and impact of pandemic-prone pathogens are increasing. However, this is belied by reality, as the WHO lists only five pandemics in the past 120 years, with the highest mortality occurring in the 19181919 H1N1 (Spanish) influenza pandemic, before antibiotics and modern medicine. Apart from COVID-19, the swine flu outbreak in 20092010, which killed (pdf) fewer people than a normal flu year, is the only pandemic in the past 50 years. Such a myopic focus on pandemic risk will do little to address the most serious causes of illness and death, and it can be expected to make matters worse for people experiencing the most extreme forms of socioeconomic disadvantage. Governments of low-income countries will be incentivized (pdf) to divert resources to PPR-related programs, further increasing the growing debt crisis. A more centralized, top-down public health system will lack the flexibility to meet local and regional needs. Transferring support from higher burden diseases, and drivers of economic growth, has a direct impact on mortality in these countries, particularly for children. The World BankWHO report states that the pillars of the global PPR architecture must be built on the foundational principles of equity, inclusion and solidarity. As severe pandemics occur less than once per generation, increased spending on PPR in LMICs clearly violates these basic principles, as it diverts scarce resources away from areas of regional need, to address the perceived health priorities of wealthier populations. As demonstrated by the damage caused by the COVID-19 response, in both high- and low-income countries, the overall harm of resource diversion from areas of greater need is likely to be universal. In failing to address such opportunity costs, recommendations by the WHO, the World Bank, and other PPR partners cant be validly based in public health; nor are they a basis for overall societal benefit. One thing is certain: Those who will gain from this expanding pandemic gravy train will be those who gained from the response to COVID-19. The Pandemic Gravy TrainFollowing the Money The new World Bank fund risks compounding existing problems in the global public health system and further compromising the WHOs autonomy; although its stated that the WHO will have a central strategic role, funds will be channeled through the World Bank. In essence, it financially sidesteps the accountability measures at the WHO, where questions of relative worth can be raised more easily. The proposed structure of the FIF will pave the way for organizations with strong ties to pharmaceutical and other biotech industries, such as CEPI and Gavi, to gain even greater influence over global PPR, particularly if they are appointed implementing entitiesthe operational arms that will carry out the FIFs work program at the country, regional, and global levels. Although the initial implementing entities for the FIF will be U.N. agencies, multilateral development banks, and the IMF, plans are already underway to accredit these other international health entities. Investments are likely to be heavily skewed toward biotechnological solutions, such as disease surveillance and vaccine development, at the cost of other, more pressing, public health interventions. Protecting Public Health Rather Than Private Wealth If the world truly wants to address the systemic weakness exposed by COVID-19, it must first understand that this pandemic gravy train isnt new: The foundations for the destruction of community- and country-based global public health began long before COVID-19. Its unarguable that COVID-19 has proved to be a lucrative cash cow for vaccine manufacturers and the biotech industry. The public-private partnership model that now dominates global health enabled vast resources to be channeled into the pockets of corporate giants, through programs they directly influence, or even run. CEPIs 100 Days Mission to make safe and effective vaccines against viral threats within 100 daysto give the world a fighting chance of containing a future outbreak before it spreads to become a global pandemicis a permit for pharmaceutical companies to appropriate public money on an unprecedented scale, based on their own assessments of risk. The self-fulfillment of the increasing frequency of pandemic prophecy will be ensured by the push for increased disease surveillancea priority area for the FIF. To quote the World BankWHO report: COVID-19 highlighted the need [to] connect surveillance and alert systems into a regional and global network to detect zoonotic transmission events, raise the alarm early to enable a swift public health response, and accelerate the development of medical countermeasures. Like many claims being made about COVID-19, this claim has no evidence basethe origins of COVID-19 remain highly controversial, and the WHOs data demonstrate that pandemics are uncommon, whatever their origin. None of the countermeasures have been shown to significantly reduce the spread of COVID-19, which is now globally endemic. Increased surveillance will naturally identify more potentially dangerous pathogens, as variants of viruses arise constantly in nature. Consequently, the world faces a never-ending game of seek and ye shall find, with never-ending profits for industry. Formerly once per generation, this industry will make pandemics a routine part of life, where rapid-fire vaccines are mandated for every new disease or variant that arrives. Ultimately, this new pandemic fund will help to hook low- and middle-income countries into the growing global pandemic bureaucracy. Greater centralization of public health will do little to address the genuine health needs of people in these countries. If the pandemic gravy train is allowed to keep growing, the poor will get poorer, and people will die in increasing numbers from more prevalent, preventable diseases. The rich will continue to profit, while fueling the main driver of ill health in lower-income countriespoverty. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. David Bell Follow David Bell, senior scholar at the Brownstone Institute, is a U.S.-based public health physician. After working in internal medicine and public health in Australia and the UK, he worked in the World Health Organization as program head for malaria and febrile diseases at the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics in Geneva, and as director of global health technologies at Intellectual Ventures Global Good Fund in Bellevue, Wash. He consults on biotech and global health. The Metro Area Professional Organization (MAPO) has created another event to expand its fundraising efforts. MAPO is hosting the Fall Benefit Concert at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 15 at St. Lukes United Methodist Church, 6325 W. Main St. in Maryville. This is a new addition to the calendar for MAPO, a not-for-profit organization which supports several other organizations in the Metro East. Its mission is to share and care for the homeless and hungry, networking with shelters that are in need of supplies and offering scholarships to local youth. The Fall Benefit Concert will feature the Gospel Swing Band under the direction of Butch Mestemacher, who is MAPOs vice president and event coordinator. Butch has been a part of MAPO since its inception 13 years ago and has always been willing in helping the organization to move forward, said Dr. Dorothy Owens, who is the founder of MAPO along with her husband, Rev. Dr. John Q. Owens. He has given us service annually through our Honors Dinner (which was held in May at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and will be held next year on June 10) and whatever we ask him to do, he does it willingly. The idea for the benefit concert came to me and I shared it with Butch. All of the funds raised will go toward the centers that we support. There are no tickets and were just asking people to make a donation to MAPO, whatever amount that might be. St. Lukes United Methodist Church was a logical location for the concert since both Owens and Mestemacher are members of the church. Its a really nice church and we think its a great setting for the benefit concert, Owens said. Mestemacher, likewise, is looking forward to hosting the concert at St. Lukes. The swing band fits perfectly up there in the chancellery. Its not a huge venue, but its medium-sized and we hope to get a couple hundred people in there, Mestemacher said. Its an opportunity to serve God and present the Gospel through music, and MAPO serves the people of the community who are in need. Its a great way to combine the two things. Mestemacher directs the Granite City Municipal Band and the Granite City Swing Band, which performed at the inaugural MAPO Honors Dinner in 2011. About eight years ago, he started the Gospel Swing Band, which plays mostly sacred selections arranged in a swing gospel style. We played three or four times a year at local churches and were not for profit, so we werent getting paid anything for doing that, Mestemacher said. Then COVID hit and shut everything down, so Im trying to get the Gospel Swing Band going again. The MAPO benefit concert will be only our second performance since the pandemic started. For Mestemacher, events such as the MAPO Benefit Concert are ideal vehicles for spreading the word of God. I also include scripture and Bible verses to explain more of what the songs are intended to convey and try to make it more of a spiritual thing rather than just a performance, said Mestemacher, who added that the Gospel Swing Band returned to action two months ago with a benefit for local food pantries at St. Lukes United Methodist. Its a worship-type service and people may feel like God has touched them in some way. Music is a gift from God, and I think its a tool that can bring people to God, and this concert will be an hour to an hour and 15 minutes. We have a 17-piece swing band including five saxophones, four trumpets, four trombones, piano, bass and drums, and well have a couple of guest vocalists come in to sing with us. The 67-year-old Mestemacher, who describes himself as semi-retired, works during the day as a volunteer at the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Center in East St. Louis and for Lansdowne Up, a non-profit organization that recently donated property to the Illinois State Police to build the new ISP Metro East Regional Headquarters in East St. Louis. Lansdowne Up also purchased about 300 abandoned properties around the JJK Center through tax auctions and we cleaned them up and keep them clean, Mestemacher said. Right now, theyre building about 20 brand-new homes on some lots they were able to purchase. They also purchased a school that was abandoned down here, and they were able to refurbish it, hopefully to be used for vocational classes. There has been so much decay in East St. Louis and its only by the power of God that this city is going to be able to come back. I volunteer down here during the day and play music at night, so it works out pretty well. MAPO is following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID-19 guidelines for community mask wearing and masks will be required for the Oct. 15 concert. Masks will be available for people who dont have them. MAPO is also preparing for the annual Holiday Shoutout Drive-By Giveaway, scheduled for 11 am. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 3 at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville. We have thousands of winter apparel items, including coats, blankets, socks, hats and scarves, to those who are in need, and everything is free, Owens said. We helped over 300 families last year. For more information about the Fall Benefit Concert, call Owens at 618-799-8020, Mestemacher at 618-972-2160 or MAPP vice president Henrietta Young at 618-589-6078 or go to https://www.metro-mapo.org/. Businesses such as H.E.R.O. Performance, which operates an exercise gym at 4114 North Fwy., figures to be impacted by the I-45 expansion project proposed by the Texas Department of Transportation. (Staff file photo) A controversial former presidential aspirant, Mr Adamu Garba, has asked the Nigerian Government to rename University of Nigeria, Nsukka after the Queen Elizabeth lI. The APC chieftain made this statement on Thursday night following the the passage of Queen Elizabeth lI. The Nigerian Voice had reported that the Queen whose seven decades on the throne of the United Kingdom was the second longest reign in British monarch died on Thursday afternoon at Balmoral Castle, her estate in the Scottish Highlands. Pained by her Majesty's death, Adamu Garba in a series of tweets on his verified Twitter page, said Nigerians should immortalise the demised Queen of England in order to honour her. His tweets read, If Im the President of Nigeria today, Ill declare 3 days of National Mourning for the death of The Queen Elizabeth II of England. In order to immortalized(sic) Queen Elizabeth, we should rename the University of Nigeria, Nsukka to Queen Elizabeth University of Nigeria since it is the first University in Nigeria(sic). Immortalizing Queen Elizabeth by renaming the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in her honor would've been an easier deal if I were communicating with our grandparents. Fortunately, they knew her worth. Age is a grace, & 7 decades on the Throne can only be the work of God and Grace. The Nigeria secret Police otherwise known as The Department of State Services (DSS) confirmed on Thursday night that operatives had carried out search on Tukur Mamus home and offices in Kaduna with many discoveries. The DSS in a statement by its Spokesman, Dr. Peter Afunanya, said that among the materials found during the search by appropriate security agencies were incriminating materials including Military accoutrements. The security agency also announced that large cash in various foreign currencies were also recovered from the home and offices of the kidnap victims negotiator. Afunanya said, So far, appropriate security agencies have executed valid search warrants on Mamus residence and office. During the processes, incriminating materials including military accoutrements were recovered. Other items include large amounts in different currencies and denominations as well as financial transaction instruments. While further investigations continue, Mamu will, sure, have a day in court, the DSS Spokesman said but did not give an idea as to when the suspect would appear in court . It will be recalled that Mamu, who is the publisher ot Desert Herald, and self-appointed negotiator for the victims of the ill-fated Abuja-Kaduna train attack on March 17 this year, was picked up in Cairo, Egypt on September 6 and promptly transferred to Nigeria on September 7,2022. He was immediately taken from the Aminu Kano International Airport to Abuja and handed over to the DSS for custody. Mamu is likely to he charged for terrorism and being accessory to kidnapping having been suspected to have collected huge ransom amounting to N2 billion from families of the train victims taken captives by terrorists. He is likely to be charged to court to account for his roles in the collection and sharing of ransom with terrorists and how he got to know about the terrorists and their locations. As Christians, there is no denying the fact that there is a spiritual war being waged in the hearts and minds of Nigerians, particularly those that are qualified to vote and be voted for. This war is unpatriotically been sponsored by those that are in support of a government that is clueless by using partisan newspapers, television, radio, and all other types of media, particularly social media to propagate lies against the person and candidacy of Mr. Peter Obi, the presidential flag bearer of the Labour Party (LP) ahead of the 2023 general elections. While Nigerians continue to pray to God for him to raise a messiah for Nigeria, and which has been found in Obi, Satan is unarguably using any method to try and win, and further throw Nigerians into another round of hardships that have been biting hard on them since 2015 when the ruling party, All Progressives Congress (APC) fortuitously displaced the People Democratic Power (PDP) from being the ruling party. Contained amongst the many tactics used by the Obis traducers is the tool of propaganda. While people can engage in propaganda either knowingly or unknowingly, it is important that we are able to identify it, so that we will not be deceived! This warning becomes indispensable as propaganda is been used by some politicians and their rowdy followers against Obi to perpetuate their already tried and tested party to power again to the detriment of Nigerians as a people and Nigeria as a country. Without any iota of exaggeration, this is what some politicians and their supporters are doing ahead of the upcoming general election to deny Peter Obi the opportunity of revamping Nigerias economy. In 3 John: 9-10 there is a blueprint that evil men have used throughout the ages to obtain and hold on to power. Its a two-step method and it goes like this: They attempt to discredit their closest political opponent and control the political environment of the people over whom they wish to gain power. They become this mischievous to separate and isolate those that do not belong to their political camp, especially those who pose as threat. Against the foregoing backdrop, there is no denying the fact that Mr. Peter Obi, former governor of Abambra State, who emerged as the 2023 presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP) after winning the partys presidential primary election held at the Orchid Hotel in Asaba, Delta State, has become the target of propagandists that are affiliated to the other 17 registered political parties ahead of the 2023 general elections. Particularly of note in this movement of campaign of calumny against Obi are propagandist affiliated to the People Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC). In as much as propaganda is allowed in the field of political communication for promoting a particular agenda or point of view, there is no gainsaying the fact that Obis traducers are mischievously using it to mislead Nigerians to the detriment of a new Nigeria which everyone is hoping to witness come 2023 and therefrom. As bad as the countrys economy coupled with the unprecedented level of insecurity across the country is, not few Nigerians in the Christendom are praying with the word of God that is inherent in Nahum 1:9 that says, What do ye imagine against the LORD? He will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time. Without any iota of exaggeration, Nigerians have been groaning under the weight of affliction since 2015 when the APC became Nigerias ruling political party. Without resorting to misinformation in this context, Obis traducers have been convincing not few gullible Nigerians that Obi does not have what it takes to lead Nigerians to the Promised Land they have been yearning for. They have mischievously chosen to be propagating outright lies and falsehoods, and thus encouraging them to see him as unfit to become Nigerias president. To buttress the foregoing view, it is expedient in this context to make reference to one Mr. Sam Omatseye who in his column in the Nations newspaper depicted Obi as a shelter for miscreants, saying, Obi has turned out to be an excuse for even closet Biafrans to betray open emotions about Biafra without being accused of it. This includes intellectuals who did not show mercy to him while he reigned in Anambra as a pharisaic chief executive. It is like wearing a colour beneath another colour. Obi has become a shelter for both miscreants and activists of the crowd. In fact, prior to the publication of the much-criticized and condemned article, the partisan writer who is also a poet, novelist, and playwright that is hiding under the cloak of Journalism profession, has been holding sway as a propagandist. To Obis traducers, propaganda techniques are very effective as it gives them a wide leverage to drag their target in the mud, and by that diminish his chances in the political market space. Against the foregoing backdrop, they are wont to resort to the use of Ad hominem which simply means If you cant win the argument, attack the person. In this context, If you dont have a people-oriented issue to campaign with, attack your closest political opponent. Another propaganda technique is Ad nauseum which simply means Put out the message over and over again until you want to vomit! It entails drilling it into peoples heads until it becomes a second nature to them. They are optimistic that once it is hard-wired into a persons brain, they will act accordingly, even if it is complete balderdash! After all, Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda is reputedly credited with the saying "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. In fact, since Obi threw his hat into the ring, ahead of the 2023 general election, he has seemingly not had the respite to put his political traducers through as it appears they have literarily been blinded by partisan politics to lend their ears to him on how he planned to turn the economy of our great nation. Thank God, he was widely criticized that he lacks a winning political structure, and has been able to talk sense into their heads. In his reply to those that were taunting him by trumpeting that he has no political structure, he was sincere in a statement where he told them that he will prove his doubters wrong. The statement from Peter Obi reads: Whenever I hear of NO STRUCTURE, my answer to it is simple; the 100 million Nigerians that live in poverty will be the structure. The 35 million Nigerians who dont know where their next meal will come from will be the structure. The elderly, our mothers, fathers, and the old ones dying or being owed gratuity/pension will be the structure. ASUU; the lecturers that are being owed, and the students who are not in school will be the structure. We will create the structure, and they will see what the structure is all about. The structure is about human beings. Be that as it may, to this writer, it is expedient of those that are bent on soiling the reputation of Peter Obi to always tell their calculated propaganda against Peter Obis presidential candidacy to the Marines. Book of Condolences available in Phuket PHUKET: A book of condolences to mark the passing of Queen Elizabeth II has been made available at the Australian Consulate-General in Phuket. By The Phuket News Friday 9 September 2022, 01:29PM A book of condolences to mark the passing of Queen Elizabeth II has been made available at the Australian Consulate-General in Phuket. Photo: Supplied A book of condolences to mark the passing of Queen Elizabeth II has been made available at the Australian Consulate-General in Phuket. Photo: Supplied A book of condolences to mark the passing of Queen Elizabeth II has been made available at the Australian Consulate-General in Phuket. Photo: Supplied Several people have already arrived at the Consulate-General, located on the bypass road (see map here), after it was made available this morning. Many people have expressed interest in coming to mark in writing their condolences to the British Royal Family, The Phuket News was told. The condolences signed into the book will be collated and handed over to Buckingham Palace. Condolence books will be open for the general public to sign at the British Embassy on South Sathorn Rd in Bangkok from 9am to 12 noon on Saturday (Sept 10), Monday (Sept 12), Wednesday (Sept 14) and Friday (Sept 16). Those outside of Bangkok may sign the virtual condolence book at https://www.royal.uk/ Mark Gooding, British Ambassador to Thailand, announced in Thai and English early this morning, With profound sorrow, I learnt this morning of the passing of Her Majesty The Queen. She gave 70 years of dedicated service and was an inspiration to me and many people around the world. My thoughts and condolences are with her family. Charles III, who became King on the passing of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, announced through a statement: The death of my beloved Mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family. We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much-loved Mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world. During this period of mourning and change, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which The Queen was so widely held. Thailand sends condolences, sorrow on passing of Queen Elizabeth BANGKOK: Thailand has expressed its deepest sorrow at the death of Queen Elizabeth II and government offices will fly the national flag at half-mast for three working days as a mark of respect. By Bangkok Post Friday 9 September 2022, 06:04PM Photo: NNT "The government feels deep sorrow at the death of Queen Elizabeth II who has been a highly respected figure of the international community," Anucha Burapachaisri, deputy secretary-general to the prime minister and acting government spokesman, said on Friday (Sept 9), reports the Bangkok Post. He said that caretaker Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon had ordered all government agencies and state enterprises lower the national flag to half-mast for three working days on Friday, Monday and Tuesday. Gen Prawit would visit the British embassy in Bangkok to sign his name in a condolence book, Mr Anucha said. Gen Prawit later sent this condolence message to British Prime Minister Liz Truss: I have learned with profound sadness of the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizbeth II. On behalf of the Royal Thai Government and the people of the Kingdom of Thailand I would like to extend our deepest condolences to you in this time of sorrow. Her Majestys tireless compassion and dedication to the United Kingdom and the global community throughout 70 years of Her Majestys reign has been praised and admired all over and will always be remembered. Her Majestys trips to Thailand in 1972 and 1996 will be cherished and remain in our hearts. During this moment of bereavement, our thoughts and prayers are with you, the Government of the United Kingdom and the British people. The Foreign Ministry this morning released the following statement: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the people of the Kingdom of Thailand wish to express our deepest sorrow at the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Throughout Her Majestys life, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II devoted her life and performed her duties for the benefit of the British people, the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth and the close ties between the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Thailand. We share with the British people and the international community in mourning this great and irreparable loss. MOURNING TIMETABLE The death of Queen Elizabeth II sets in motion a finely choreographed plan honed and planned to the last detail over decades. Full details are yet to be confirmed but here AFP reports what is known so far about how the coming days will unfold. Friday, Sept 9 The new King and Queen Consort Charles and Camilla return to London. The queens coffin draped in the Royal Standard flag is expected to remain at her Scottish estate, Balmoral, where she died, for a few days. King Charles III is scheduled to make his inaugural address to the nation as king on television on Friday around 6pm (midnight Thailand time). Gun salutes will be fired in Hyde Park and at the Tower of London at 1pm (7pm Thailand time). The new monarch will hold his first audience with Prime Minister Liz Truss. Church bells will toll across the country, with churches, chapels and cathedrals encouraged by the Church of England to open for prayers or a special service for mourners. The prime minister and senior ministers will attend a public service of remembrance at St Pauls Cathedral. An online book of condolence has been opened for members of the public to leave messages. Saturday, Sept 10 Day 1: The 10-day plan for the days after the queens death begins with the Accession Council convening for Charles to be formally proclaimed king. Three trumpeters announce the proclamation with a fanfare. The proclamation is read out from a balcony at St Jamess Palace in London, then across the country. Charles will hold audiences, and the media will be briefed by the Earl Marshal, a high-ranking royal official in charge of the accession and the queens state funeral, in the coming days. Sunday, Sept 11 Day 2: The queens coffin is expected to be transported from Balmoral to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, her official Scottish residence in Edinburgh. The journey by road will pass through many small towns and villages, giving members of the public their first chance to pay their respects. Preparations for the queens death in Scotland are codenamed Operation Unicorn after the countrys national animal. Monday, Sept 12 Day 3: Charles is expected to begin a tour of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the four nations of the United Kingdom in an operation codenamed Spring Tide. The queens coffin is expected to be taken in a procession up Edinburghs Royal Mile from Holyrood to St Giles Cathedral, where there will be a service and a vigil attended by royal family members. Tuesday, Sept 13 Day 4: The coffin is expected to be flown to the capital and transported by road to Buckingham Palace in London. Members of the public will likely line the route. Wednesday, Sept 14 Day 5: A ceremonial procession of the coffin through London is expected followed by a lying in state in parliaments Westminster Hall, codenamed Operation Feather. Senior members of the royal family are expected to stand guard around the coffin in a tradition known as the Vigil of the Princes. Sept 15-17 Days 6, 7 and 8: Lying in state. The public can pay their respects, filing past the coffin on its catafalque. Sunday, Sept 18 Day 9: A reception to be held for visiting dignitaries and heads of state who have arrived for the funeral. Monday, Sept 19 Day 10: The state funeral is expected to take place in Westminster Abbey with huge crowds gathering in central London. Senior members of the royal family are likely to walk behind the coffin as it is taken on a gun carriage to the abbey with a two-minute silence observed. Afterwards, the queens coffin will be taken to Windsor Castle for a televised committal service at St Georges Chapel. She will then be interred privately at the King George VI memorial chapel, alongside her husband, Prince Philip, the ashes of her sister Princess Margaret, their mother, also called Elizabeth, and father George VI. Tourism Minister on Bangla receives huge support over 4am closing PHUKET: Minister of Tourism and Sports Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn visited Bangla Rd, Patong, last night (Sept 8), to be greeted by overwhelming support for extending the closing time for nightlife venues to 4am. tourismpatong By Eakkapop Thongtub Friday 9 September 2022, 04:56PM Mr Phiphats visit was one of many stops on his inspection tour of nightlife areas popular with foreign tourists. He has already visited Khao San Rd in Bangkok as well as Koh Samui and Koh Pha-ngan. Research conducted by Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Phuket Rajabhat University and the NIDA Institute had confirmed strong support to extend nightlife trading hours, Mr Phiphat said. The results of the research conducted by all three institutions were the same. People, including tourists, will spend the most from 1am to 3am. That is the peak period. After 3am the spending starts to slow, he said. The results of the studies will be presented to the CCSA and the Prime Minister, and to the Ministry of Public Health and the Ministry of Interior, to discuss changes to the law so special zones can be set up in each tourist province, Mr Phiphat said. During his visits to popular nightlife areas, he has found strong support for extending the closing time, he added. More than 60-70% of foreigners agree that we should open such areas as special zones, he said. Business operators also agreed, with a positive effect on the economy, he noted. By staying open two hours later, there will be an increase in economic effect, or value, by 23-24%, he added. His visit to Bangla Rd last night was no different. Mr Phiphat said he had spoken with many tourists mostly from India, the Middle East, Africa, Egypt, Australia and Malaysia and the response was quite good. More than 70% of tourists want to extend the hours of the nightlife establishments at night until 4am. They all agree to extend the closing time from 2am because its still a fun time, he said. But this is not only in Phuket, but also Khao San Rd, Koh Pha-ngan and Samui they all have the same problem, Mr Phiphat added. Mr Phiphat pointed out that he will visit the popular Walking Street in Pattaya before the end of the month. We will go to survey, discuss and ask tourists there, he said. Mr Phiphat highlighted the possibility of different closing times being allowed at different popular tourist areas. It depends on the tourists who visit in each place. It may not be the same for other provinces, he said. Each location must also hold a public hearing first to see if the local residents in that area agree or not. If you dont agree, we wont support it, he said. Mr Phiphat called on nightlife business owners to make sure the safety of their patrons is made a top priority. When opening late at night, safety must be taken care of, especially of tourists. Along Bangla Rd each venue has their own security staff. One establishment may have two to three security guards [sic] when the whole venue employs nearly 200 people, he said. We have police volunteers, Tourist Police and Provincial Police to support the safety of tourists, but when tourists are concentrated in one area, the security guards might not be enough, he said. Montreal, CA (H4T1V6) Today Cloudy with periods of rain. Low around 65F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%.. Tonight Cloudy with periods of rain. Low around 65F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. FILE - Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra, speaks from the South Court Auditorium on the White House complex in Washington, April 11, 2022, about medical debt during an event with Vice President Kamala Harris. Nursing homes and debt collectors are flouting a law that prohibits them from requiring friends and family of care home residents to shoulder the costs of the facilities, according to a federal report issued Thursday. Kenneth Porter, a frequent contributor to Voice of the Public, took this photo a while back during one of his walks through South Attleboro. The city council again rejected a proposal to ban the plastic nip bottles. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate ALTON Firefighters in Alton had one of their busiest nights in over a year late Thursday and into Friday morning as they battled two suspicious house fires about a block apart. Shortly before 11 p.m. Thursday firefighters recieved a report of a house on fire in the 2600 block of Amelia Street. Firefighters arrived to find the vacant house engulfed in flames and the structure compromised, with flames having already consumed most of the roof. A mutual aid box alarm was struck, bringing East Alton firefighters to the scene. As Alton's ladder truck set up to attack the flames, firefighters used a deck gun mounted on the truck to hit the flames. The structure was a total loss. Firefighters spent more than two hours extinguishing the flames. There was no power to the house; the cause of the fire is considered suspicious, fire officials said. There were no injuries. At about 4:30 a.m. Friday, Alton firefighters were called to a structure fire in the 2100 block of Seminary Street, about a block from the earlier fire on Amelia Street. There, firefighters discovered a large attached garage fully engulfed in flames. Three occupants of that house reportedly escaped without injuries. Several loud explosions were heard coming from the structure, which contained cars and other materials. When the fire reached a dead tree it erupted in flames, shooting 60 feet into the air. Once again East Alton firefighters were called to assist at the scene. The fire had spread into the house through an attic window. Firefighters entered the structure and found their way to the second floor, but as the flames above their heads in the ceiling grew larger Alton Deputy Fire Chief Matt Fischer ordered them to withdraw from the house. The aerial ladder and deck gun, as well as several hoses, pumped thousands of gallons of water on the fire. At about 5:17 a.m. firefighters were told there was a fire on the porch of the previous fire on Amelia Street. Godfrey firefighters were called to extinguish the re-kindled fire. By 5:21 a.m. Friday, flames in the attic had broken through the roof of the house on Seminary Street and continued to burn away the roof. An elderly man, who was reportedly living in a camper in or near the woods on Seminary Street, was located and checked out by Alton Memorial Ambulance paramedics but was apparently not taken to the hospital. Police were interviewing that man Friday morning. Seminary Street was reopened to traffic around 8 a.m. Fischer said the Seminary Street fire was also suspicious, and that the Illinois State Fire Marshal's Office had been called to assist with an investigation of both fires. State Sen. Kris Tharp, D-Bethalto, is partnering with the Illinois Treasurers office to bring I-Cash searches to Royal Banks of Granite City 1-4 p.m. Sept.13 and the Roxana Public Library 2-4 p.m. Sept. 22. Tharp also will host his first "Coffee with Kris" 6-8 a.m. Friday, Sept. 16, at Wood River Donut & More, 102 W. Edwardsville Road, in Wood River. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate BELA-BELA, South Africa (AP) South Africa is flying cheetahs to India and Mozambique as part of ambitious efforts to reintroduce the distinctively spotted cats in regions where their population has dwindled. Four cheetahs captured at reserves in South Africa have been flown to Mozambique this week after being held in quarantine for about a month and cleared for travel. Conservationists are preparing to fly 12 more cheetahs, reputed to be the world's fastest land mammals, to India in October. Speaking to The Associated Press shortly after those going to Mozambique were tranquilized and placed into crates, wildlife veterinarian Andy Frasier said the relocations are tough for the animals. "Its a very stressful process for the cats to be in a boma (livestock enclosure) environment because they have nowhere to go whilst we are darting them," said Frasier of shooting the cats with darts of tranquilizers. We need to use our drug doses very carefully and make sure that we give them enough drugs to anesthetize them safely," he said. "They have woken up nicely in their crates and they are all relaxed enough that we are happy for them to leave in their transport, he said. Frasier said the team is preparing for the larger and more challenging relocation of cheetahs to India which will require the cats to travel a much longer distance with stops in commercial airports. Those cheetahs would be treated with a tranquilizer that lasts for three to five days during their travel, he said. There are two subspecies of cheetahs. Those that once roamed in Asia were declared extinct in India in 1952 and are now found only in Iran. Since then there have been efforts to reintroduce these cats to India's savannahs. Initially the plan was to bring in cheetahs from Iran but now they are being moved from southern African countries. In this restocking effort, Namibia is contributing eight cheetahs which will be flown to India this month, according to Vincent van der Merwe, manager of the Cheetah Metapopulation Initiative. South Africa will send an additional 12 cheetahs to India in October, he said. For a genetically viable population in India in the long-term you need at least 500 individuals, so every year we will send eight to 12 animals, to top them up, to increase numbers, to bring in new genetics until they have a viable population, said van der Merwe. Indian officials say the move will aid global cheetah conservation efforts since their range in Africa is limited. The plan is for the cats to be kept in large enclosures in central Indian forests, protected from other predators like leopards or bears, to give them time to get used to their new home. The enclosures have prey like deer and antelope which scientists hope the cheetahs will hunt. After a few months of close monitoring, the cheetahs will be radio-collared and released. The southern African countries of South Africa, Zambia, Namibia and Zimbabwe still have significant cheetah populations and are expected to play a significant role in their reintroduction in India following the first shipments this year. South Africas cheetah population is expanding at a rate of about 8% annually, allowing the country to move about 30 of the cats to other game reserves within South Africa and to export some to other countries, van der Merwe said. Conservationists say Mozambique's Zambezi River delta had a significant cheetah population which was drastically reduced by rampant poaching and because lions and leopards preyed upon the smaller cats. In this week's operation the two male and two female adult cheetahs were tranquilized in South Africas northern Limpopo province and then were flown to Mozambiques Marromeu National Reserve in the Zambezi delta region. ___ Magome contributed from Johannesburg. AP journalist Aniruddha Ghosal in New DeIhi, India, contributed. I'm proud of my abolitionist heritage. Had I been born in pre-Civil War America, I would have embraced abolitionism and participated in the Underground Railroad. The struggle to rid the United States of the curse of slavery was surely our nation's noblest movement. I once found it difficult to believe that anyone who took part in the Underground Railroad would ever repudiate abolitionism. I also thought it impossible that anyone who had helped fugitive slaves achieve freedom would fight for the Confederacy. I recently discovered, however, that such a person resided in Miles Station in Macoupin County from 1875 until his death five years later. He was buried in the cemetery of Miles Station Methodist Church and there he remained until 1975 when his body was disinterred and sent to Nashville for reburial in the cemetery where his wife rests. Bushrod Rust Johnson was born into a family of Ohio Quakers on Oct. 7, 1817. Quakers were opposed to slavery on principle, but the Johnsons actively expressed their opposition to the Peculiar Institution by participation in the Underground Railroad. In "Yankee Quaker Confederate General," his 1971 biography of Johnson, Charles M. Cummings wrote that Nathan Johnson, Bushrod's brother who was born in 1794, "was to assume leadership of the family. He taught school, learned to be a physician and took an active part in abolition agitation and in the Underground Railroad's aid to fugitive slaves." The age difference between the two brothers meant that Nathan was "a second father" to Bushrod and "always his counselor and help in time of trouble." Cummings wrote that young Bushrod attended Quaker meetings where "he heard exhortations against the evils of holding slaves." Nathan's home served as an Underground Railroad station. "Negroes were brought in at night, hidden in the cellar, attic or barn until the following night. Then provided with food, they were taken to the next 'station.' " Nathan's sons assisted him "and doubtless Bushrod." Bushrod obtained an appointment to West Point in 1836. Choosing an army career violated the central tenets of his Quaker faith. A bit of research, however, revealed a few other Quakers who have served in the military. Paul Douglas, who represented Illinois in the U. S. Senate from 1949 to 1967, converted to the Quaker faith as an adult. However, at age 50 he joined the Marines and fought in World War II. Richard Nixon was born into a Quaker family but sought and received a commission in the Navy during World War II. Following graduation from West Point, Johnson was stationed in Florida during the Seminole War. He saw extensive combat during the Mexican-American War. His obituary, published in the Sept. 16, 1880 edition of the Alton Telegraph, informed readers that at the end of the war "he resigned and located in Nashville as a professor of a military institute." The truth is more complex and less laudatory. Before the war had even ended, Johnson resigned from the army after disgracing himself by attempting to sell government property for personal profit. Johnson reinvented himself and taught at the Western Military Institute in Kentucky and the University of Nashville. When the Civil War broke out, Johnson chose to fight for the South and rose to the rank of major general. Cummings suggested that his decision was motivated by financial considerations. By 1860 this ex-Quaker owned $5,000 in Nashville real estate and $12,000 in personal property. He owned almost three times as much property in the South as he owned in the North. "The South had made Bushrod the wealthiest of the Johnson clan," Cummings observed. The Telegraph obituary noted that Johnson fought in "many of the most important battles" and returned to teaching after the war. A widower with a disabled son, he abandoned Tennessee for St. Louis in 1874, where he entered what Cummings called "a commission business." A letter written by Charlotte Roady, published in The Telegraph's August 15, 1975 edition, detailed how Johnson came to Miles Station. Union Civil War veteran Jonathan Miles "went to St. Louis for supplies" where he met Johnson and invited him to move to Miles Station. Johnson and his son soon relocated. Roady wrote that Johnson "made his living cutting hedge posts" and "was loved by the people in the community and always willing to help raise a barn and even helped to build our little church which stood in the center of the cemetery." Roady's grandfather told her that Johnson "was a highly cultured man and had brought his library of books, which he would lend to anyone who wanted to read them." I wonder whether this ex-Confederate general ever talked with area residents about his role in helping fugitives flee the shackles of slavery. Queen Elizabeth, Britains longest-reigning monarch, the nations figurehead and a towering presence on the world stage for seven decades, died peacefully at her home in Scotland on Thursday aged 96. The death of my beloved Mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family, the new king, her eldest son Charles, said. We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much-loved mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world, the 73-year-old said in a statement. News that the queens health was deteriorating emerged shortly after midday on Thursday when her doctors said she was under medical supervision, prompting her family to rush to Scotland to be by her side. Thousands gathered outside Buckingham Palace, in central London, and there was a stunned silence when the flag was lowered to half-mast. The crowd surged to the gates as the notice announcing the death of the only monarch most Britons have ever known was attached to the black iron gates. On the grand Mall boulevard leading to the palace, black London taxis lined up in tribute. Buckingham Palace said King Charles III and his wife Camilla, the Queen Consort, would remain at Balmoral Castle, where the queen died, before returning to London on Friday, when he is expected to address the nation. On Elizabeths death, Charles automatically becomes monarch of the United Kingdom and the head of state of 14 other realms including Australia, Canada and New Zealand. HUGE SHOCK TO THE NATION The queen had been suffering from what Buckingham Palace had called episodic mobility problems since the end of last year, forcing her to withdraw from nearly all her public engagements. Her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, died in 2021. Her last public duty came only on Tuesday, when she appointed Liz Truss prime minister the 15th of her reign. The death of Her Majesty the Queen is a huge shock to the nation and to the world, Truss said outside her Downing Street office where the flag, like those at royal palaces and government buildings across Britain, were lowered. Through thick and thin, Queen Elizabeth II provided us with the stability and the strength that we needed. She was the very spirit of Great Britain and that spirit will endure. The news stunned not only people in Britain, with condolences pouring in from leaders around the world. In Paris, the mayor announced the lights of the Eiffel Tower would be turned off in honour of her passing. Her legacy will loom large in the pages of British history, and in the story of our world, U.S. President Joe Biden and his wife Jill said in a statement. Queen Elizabeth II, who was also the worlds oldest and longest-serving head of state, came to the throne following the death of her father King George VI on Feb. 6, 1952, when she was just 25. CROWNED She was crowned in June the following year. The first televised coronation was a foretaste of a new world in which the lives of the royals were to become increasingly scrutinised by the media. I have in sincerity pledged myself to your service, as so many of you are pledged to mine. Throughout all my life and with all my heart I shall strive to be worthy of your trust, she said in a speech to her subjects on her coronation day. Elizabeth became monarch at a time when Britain still retained much of its old empire. It was emerging from the ravages of World War Two, with food rationing still in force and class and privilege still dominant in society. Winston Churchill was Britains prime minister at the time, Josef Stalin led the Soviet Union and the Korean War was raging. In the decades that followed, Elizabeth witnessed massive political change and social upheaval at home and abroad. Her own familys tribulations, most notably the divorce of Charles and his late first wife Diana, were played out in full public glare. While remaining an enduring symbol of stability and continuity for Britons at a time of relative national economic decline, Elizabeth also tried to adapt the ancient institution of monarchy to the demands of the modern era. She has managed to modernise and evolve the monarchy like no other, her grandson Prince William, who is now heir to the throne, said in a 2012 documentary. RECORDS Elizabeth was the 40th monarch in a royal line that followed Norman King William the Conqueror, who claimed the English throne in 1066 after defeating Anglo-Saxon ruler Harold II at the Battle of Hastings. Her long reign meant she repeatedly broke records for British rulers. When she surpassed the more than 63 years her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria spent on the throne, she said it was not a landmark to which she had ever aspired. Inevitably a long life can pass by many milestones my own is no exception, she said. Her marriage to Prince Philip lasted 73 years, until his death in April 2021, and they had four children, Charles, Anne, Andrew and Edward. She never gave a media interview and critics said she came across as distant and aloof. But for the vast majority of her subjects, for whom she was the only monarch they have known, she was a figure who commanded respect and admiration. Her death marks the end of an era. In her public duties she was selfless and wise, with a wonderful generosity of spirit. That is how she lived and how she led, former Prime Minister John Major said. For millions of people across the Commonwealth and the wider world she embodied the heart and soul of our nation, and was admired and respected around the globe. Opinion polls have suggested that Charles does not enjoy anywhere near the same level of support and there is speculation that the loss of Elizabeth may see a rise in republican sentiment, particularly in the other realms. We know that, in losing our beloved queen, we have lost the person whose steadfast loyalty, service and humility has helped us make sense of who we are through decades of extraordinary change in our world, nation and society, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said. At her death the queen was head of state of not only the United Kingdom but also of Australia, the Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Tuvalu, the Solomon Islands, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Antigua and Barbuda. SOURCE: REUTERS One of the great indulgences of a late summer vacation is not only reading books, but flipping through the September fashion magazines. Except I couldnt find any in Maine, despite searching two grocery stores and three pharmacies for the Vogue featuring Serena Williams on the cover. Thanks to my friend, Annie, I got a bonus vacation for just us moms when she invited me for a long weekend only a week after my family and I left Vacationland. For years, as our kids played in the sand, we would leaf through the magazines: Vogue, InStyle, Elle, Harpers Bazaar. Now, many have pivoted to digital with some putting out occasional special print versions. Magazine racks at stores have shrunk or disappeared. I love magazines. When I was a kid, Id go with my mother to the grocery store and head to the magazine rack, the best kind of baby sitter. There I would read Mad, Seventeen and TigerBeat while she shopped. (One of my favorite things now is to go to Barnes and Noble in the Colonie Center mall and spend some time in the vast magazine section. I usually pick up Dwell, Domino and the always gorgeous Upstate Diary.) As I got older, I subscribed to Seventeen and tried to style my new school clothes like the models. I hoped to write for Mademoiselle, but that magazine disappeared before I started freelancing. During the pandemic lockdown, I subscribed once again to magazines. My eyes hurt after hours on the computer with virtual meetings, so I rested my eyes by feasting on fashion. I missed clothes and dressing up. I stored the pile of Vogues I accumulated during the pandemic in my older daughters room/guest room and she enjoyed looking at them when she came home for a visit. Magazines are being replaced by Instagram and digital newsletters. Social media and reels come at us fast. Its hard to process or remember. I save many images online, but rarely go back. A magazine slows you down. Back in Maine, all was not lost despite the dearth of magazines. We read our books on the porch and on the beach. On a stormy afternoon, we checked out the excellent Katherine Bradford exhibit at the Portland Art Museum (free on Fridays). We then hit Shermans Maine Coast Book Shop. I highly recommend having a bibliophile friend like Annie. We kept showing each other titles that we read and pointing out books we want to read. We were on an Elizabeth Strout kick, fitting since shes from Maine and many of her books are set there. Annie had picked up Oh William! on our earlier summer trip to New York City, which made me buy it at home. Then I found Anything is Possible. She looked for Olive Kitteridge, but they were out. When our kids were little, we read another Maine author on the beach: the late Anita Shreve, who lived not too far from where we vacation. I found Olive Kitteridge for her at our tiny grocery store in Maine, where they sell books, along with sandwiches, sunblock and their famous cinnamon buns. The Vogue thing still bothered me. Later, when I got home, I found the magazine at my local CVS. Annie also tracked one down. I then got a birthday surprise. Annie texted me to say a gift was on its way and she was going to call in as well. When I checked my email, there was a ticket to Strouts Sept. 20 Zoom talk about her new book, Lucy by the Sea. Like I said, I highly recommend a friend like Annie. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Underscoring determined U.S. support, Secretary of State Antony Blinken paid an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Thursday and the Biden administration ramped up military aid by more than $2.8 billion to Ukraine and other European countries threatened by Russia. The new assistance came as the U.S. sought to boost momentum in Ukraines counteroffensive against Russia and amid fears that public support is waning as the war drags on. President Joe Biden, Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin all participated in meetings aimed at showing U.S. resolve to stand behind Ukraine. In Kyiv, Blinken said the administration would provide $2.2 billion in long-term military financing to Ukraine and 18 of its neighbors potentially at risk of future Russian aggression. Thats on top of a $675 million package of heavy weaponry, ammunition and armored vehicles for Ukraine alone, announced by Austin and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, earlier in the day. I thought it was particularly meaningful (to visit) at this time as Ukraine is starting this counteroffensive in the south, also in the east, Blinken told reporters in Kyiv before boarding a train for Poland after meeting Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy and his top aides. "Its early days, but were seeing real effectiveness on the ground, and were proud of the fact that our support, the support of so many other countries, is helping to enable what the Ukrainians are doing and working to liberate territory seized by Russia in this aggression, Blinken said. He told Zelenskyy when they met, We know this is a pivotal moment, more than six months into Russias war of aggression against Ukraine, as your counteroffensive is now underway and proving effective." Zelenskyy replied, We are grateful for the signal, for this enormous support that youre providing on a day-to-day basis." The new funding and military weapons are designed to provide enduring training and support for what Gen. Milley called a very deliberate counteroffensive that Ukrainian troops have launched. Meeting virtually, Biden and the leaders of major U.S. allies all emphasized their countries' strong support for Ukraine as it defends itself from Russian aggression, according to a White House readout. Russias weaponization of energy and what to do about it a major concern for this winter in Europe was also discussed, said press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. Those on the call included the leaders of Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Poland, Romania, NATO, Canada and Japan and representatives from France and the European Union. Austin and Milley announced the package of heavy weaponry, ammunition and armored vehicles for Ukraine alone at a conference in Ramstein, Germany. We are seeing real and measurable gains from Ukraine in the use of these systems, said Milley. He said Russia is suffering significant equipment and troop losses. But, he added, The war is not over. Russia is a big country. They have very serious ambitions with respect to Ukraine. So sustainment of Ukraine to continue their fight for their survival will be necessary. The $2.2 billion in so-called Foreign Military Financing has already been appropriated by Congress, but lawmakers, some of whom have expressed concerns about the massive amounts of money going to Ukraine, must still approve the actual allotments. Just two weeks ago, the administration had announced a $3 billion package of support for Ukraine. About $1 billion of the total will go to Ukraine and the rest will be divided among Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, the State Department said. It will help those countries deter and defend against emergent threats to their sovereignty and territorial integrity" by enhancing their military integration with NATO and countering Russian influence and aggression," the department said. Asked about continued congressional support for the massive aid packages, Austin said the administration will provide its rationale to lawmakers, and I fully expect that it will continue to receive broad bipartisan support because our leaders recognize how important this is. Foreign Military Financing allows recipients to purchase U.S.-made equipment, often depending on their specific needs. The package for Ukraine includes howitzers, artillery munitions, Humvees, armored ambulances, anti-tank systems and more to assist the country with its shorter-term needs as it presses its counteroffensive. The capabilities we are delivering are carefully calibrated to make the most difference on the battlefield, Blinken said. He will visit NATO headquarters in Brussels on Friday to further emphasize coordinated support. And Austin announced the U.S. will convene a meeting of international senior leaders to discuss how their defense industrial bases can best equip Ukraines forces into the future. The war is at another key moment, Austin said. "Now were seeing the demonstrable success of our common efforts on the battlefield, he said at a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which was attended by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and Ukraines defense minister as well as officials from allied countries. Germany and the Netherlands will provide training in de-mining to Ukrainian soldiers as well as de-mining equipment, the countries defense ministers said on the sidelines of the meeting with Austin. The training will be carried out in Germany. The two countries previously joined forces to send howitzers. Thursday's contributions bring total U.S. aid to Ukraine to $15.2 billion since Biden took office. Fighting between Ukraine and Russia has intensified in recent days, with Ukrainian forces mounting a counteroffensive to retake Russian-held areas. Ukrainian forces in the northeastern Kharkiv region have retaken portions of Russian-held territory as efforts in the south have drained some of Moscows resources in the area, according to a report from the Washington-based think tank Institute for the Study of War. Meanwhile, shelling continued near Ukraines Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, with the warring sides again trading blame amid dire warnings from the U.N. atomic watchdog, which has urged the creation of a safe zone to prevent a catastrophe. Separately, on Wednesday, the U.S. accused Moscow of interrogating, detaining and forcibly deporting hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians to Russia. Russian officials rejected the claim as fantasy." Before leaving Ukraine, Blinken visited the devastated city of Irpin outside Kyiv where he toured damage caused by Russian forces during their 25-day occupation. He was told there that Ukrainian investigators have 30,000 open cases related to war crimes. There has to be accountability for those who committed atrocities he said. Before meeting Zelenskyy and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, Blinken made a short stop at the U.S. Embassy and then the National Specialized Childrens Hospital Ohmatdyt, where he saw boys and girls injured during Russian bombardments, including Maryna, a 6-year-old from the city of Kherson who lost a leg after a rocket struck her house. In the hospital lobby, Blinken also met Patron, a Jack Russell terrier that has helped Ukraines military find more than 200 mines laid by Russian forces. Blinken knelt down, petted the dog and presented him with treats, saying he was world famous. In one ward, Blinken brought a basket of stuffed animals, which the children quickly dangled in front of Patron to get his attention. Blinken told parents that the spirit of your children sends a very strong message around the world. ___ AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee reported from Rzeszow, Poland. Lolita C. Baldor contributed from Washington. Tasked with two international moves and a family to raise, Bika Carter describes her transition away from the workplace as being an organic step. Seven years later, when the dust settled and she decided to make a return to the workforce, she faced challenges she didnt expect as a qualified professional like being questioned about her work gap or feeling less confident in her abilities. When you talk to people coming back after theyve been out for a while, whether its two or 20 years, there are things like how do you manipulate your resume so its not focused on the break but rather on your capability and your skill set? Carter said. Now a GlobalFoundries senior manager and deputy director for research and development, Carter created the Malta-based companys Global Journey Re-Entry Program that launched earlier this year, helping others to make a smoother transition back to the workforce while feeling supported by their employer. The initiative was made possible through GlobalFoundries' partnership with the STEM Reentry Task Force co-led by the Society of Women Engineers and iRelaunch, a career re-entry consulting company that focuses on bringing professionals back to work after extended leave. It is one of many return to work programs that have popped up since the pandemic. While the concept isnt new, its been made more prevalent as people stepped away from work at historic rates during what's been called the Great Resignation. While households were forced to convert to classrooms and day care centers, many employees predominately women stepped away from work indefinitely to take on these responsibilities. The result: a menacing work gap that has historically served as a challenge to career progression. Given the upended state of the world, those who left work, primarily to manage a household, have asked how being penalized for the time off is justifiable? In hearing these frustrations, several companies including GlobalFoundries, JPMorgan, Amazon and Goldman Sachs have launched programs aimed at helping professionals return to the workforce without having to start back at the bottom. Carter said GlobalFoundries relaunchers are returning from a diverse set of experiences, from raising a family and taking on caretaking responsibilities to military service, volunteerism, entrepreneurship and teaching. When youre out on a break, you develop skills and you dont even recognize that these are strong, valuable and transferable skills that companies can leverage and benefit from, she said. Theres a lot of diversity of thought that comes from these breaks. Eligible participants for the program must have a voluntary career break of more than two years and a minimum of five years experience prior to the gap. The direct-to-hire model puts emphasis on development and work/life balance, as well as networking opportunities to promote upward career mobility. Last year, Goldman Sachs also reinvented its returnship with a COVID Career Relaunch Initiative, offering support to professionals looking to restart their careers after the pandemic displaced them from the workplace. The term resembles internship for a reason; its often comprised of mentorship and training and doesnt offer a guarantee of employment at the end. A Goldman Sachs spokesperson said the six-month-long program which has a secondary goal of attracting women who left work due to caregiving responsibilities includes leadership development opportunities that would likely not be offered in returning to previous positions after a gap. We also know re-entering the workforce can be challenging, which is why were committed to providing returnees with the training and tools they need to succeed, said Megan Hogan, Goldman Sachs chief diversity officer, in a statement. The emergence of return-to-work programs are an example of the growing effort on the part of employers to innovate in order to attract and advance diverse workers. Carter said shes excited to see these programs gain traction and inspire individuals to feel confident about their qualifications and earn the positions that they deserve. These kinds of programs allow that path to happen for both the relaunchers, the candidates, as well as the company and the managers. It gives us this kind of entry point, this ramp, to be able to bring this demographic back into the workforce, she added. For more on the GlobalFoundries Re-Entry Program, visit the companys website. It appeared earlier this week that about 30 Orange County lawmakers were in lockstep. A letter addressed to the Orange County Industrial Development Agency with their names attached called on the agency to reform how it considers tax breaks for developers an often controversial way the agency attracts new business or helps current businesses expand. On Tuesday afternoon, the letter was released to reporters by state Sen. James Skoufis' office. Over the course of the next few days, things got a bit messy and confusing. Some of the lawmakers whose names appeared on the letter said they never saw it beforehand, never gave their consent to be added and do not support what it says. One author of the letter has claimed the message has been misunderstood. In the letter, lawmakers called for the IDA to change its function to be more like the Rockland County IDA, where taxing jurisdictions are given more control over the nature of a prospective tax break and can even refuse to give one altogether. Currently, the Orange County IDA grants payments-in-lieu-of-taxes, or PILOTs, based on its Uniform Tax Exemption Policy. The policy has a template for what types of projects are eligible for PILOTs and the schedule PILOTs must abide by. The IDA hosts public hearings in the localities of a proposed project, where local officials can weigh in. But the final decision lies with the IDA board. The Rockland County IDA can approve a PILOT. The taxing jurisdictions, such as school districts and local governments, negotiate the terms of the deal. "This cooperative approach has not stymied economic development in Rockland County all the while ensuring local leaders have a direct say in what is happening in their community," the letter to the Orange County IDA reads. The Orange County IDA has long been scrutinized over its decisions to grant financial incentives to developers, especially PILOTs. Most recently, it has faced criticism for granting a multimillion dollar tax break to a winemaker that wants to open a warehouse in Goshen. Though that deal for Royal Wine Corp. was not the motivating factor for all the organizers behind the letter Goshen Town Supervisor Joe Betro said he actually liked the deal Betro, Skoufis and state Sen. Mike Martucci asked local leaders, including Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus, to band together and demand a seat at the table when the IDA considers PILOT applications. A representative from Skoufis' office said Betro, Skoufis and Martucci divvied up a list of the top elected officials in Orange County and talked to them about the letter and their demands to the IDA. It was up to each of them to independently verify the support of the people they talked to, the representative said. The end of the letter reads: "In order for the Orange County IDA to maintain the confidence of its local leaders, it must adopt the same approach as is employed in Rockland. We and the taxpayers we represent deserve a formal seat at the table." Who's to blame? Aside from the three authors, the names at the bottom included Neuhaus and a host of mayors and town supervisors. But Town of Warwick Supervisor Michael Sweeton, Town of Montgomery Supervisor Brian Maher and Town of Monroe Supervisor Tony Cardone told the Times Union they did not agree to sign this letter. They also said they did not know the letter would be shared with the press and thought it would only be sent to the IDA. "I did not sign on to that," Cardone said in a phone call on Wednesday. "I was not privy to seeing anything beforehand. The only conversation I had via email with some other municipal leaders was that we should meet and have a discussion on it." Cardone and Sweeton said they had been approached about the matter by Betro. Sweeton said he reached out to Betro when he learned his name was on this letter which Sweeton also said he did not see before it was released to ask about what happened. "What his explanation to me was, he had my name on the list of people he had spoken to and he inadvertently put my name on it," Sweeton said. "I know there are others on that list who didn't sign it as well." A representative from Skoufis' office confirmed that Maher, Sweeton and Cardone were added to the letter by Betro. Sweeton and Cardone said they did like the idea of having more of a say in how PILOTs were administered. "I am a big proponent of local home rule," Sweeton said. "Ive fought hard for it whenever its attacked, so do I think the local town or village or city should have a say in what the PILOT is, absolutely. The IDA's argument is we do because they have a public hearing, but you dont really have a say, per se. You dont really have anything with teeth in it." Betro tries to clear the air During a phone call on Thursday, Betro told the Times Union he believes the letter's intent has been misunderstood. "From my perspective and the reason it was written, the letter was a vehicle by which we could address the IDA so that we could get a presence at the meetings when they're deciding on what PILOTs are being given to everybody's associate town," Betro said. "That's what the letter is. It doesn't say the goal here is to adopt Rockland County's that is not the intent. I used Rockland County as an example of what certain counties were doing." He said he sent information to all of the people he contacted so that they could see how Rockland's IDA operates. "But never did I say: This is what we want," he said. Asked about a line in the letter that begins, "Moving forward, we insist on being treated the same way as the Rockland County," Betro conceded that "maybe that is a confusing sentence." Betro himself doesn't agree with some of the ways the Rockland IDA operates, he said. For one, he doesn't like the idea of taxing jurisdictions having the authority to veto PILOTs. "Maybe there's a misinterpretation in how you read things," Betro said. "And maybe it could've been explained a little better in the letter, I'll attest to that." Betro and Sweeton individually confirmed that Betro apologized to the Warwick supervisor over the incident. Beyond any potential missteps by Betro, Cardone thinks Skoufis' office should bear some responsibility for issuing the letter from the senator's office without verifying the signers. "The bottom line is when you give something to the press and you havent verified those on it whose names appear, thats a lack of integrity," Cardone said. Skoufis responded to his comments in a statement saying, in part: "I'm proud of the bipartisan effort behind this letter: Supervisor Betro, Senator Martucci, and I all worked to secure sign-ons in a show of unity and integrity on behalf of taxpayers. I never communicated with Supervisor Cardone directly but understand he gave his approval to Supervisor Betro." IDA leader calls letter a political device The Orange County IDA is an independent county agency with board members appointed by the county Legislature. Standard operating procedures are controlled by the state. Local elected officials cant force the board to adopt changes to how it considers PILOTs. And Bill Fioravanti, the IDA's CEO, does not believe this letter will go very far in influencing the board to change how it conducts business. Fioravanti called the letter a "political ploy," and said changing its approach to PILOTs to be more like Rockland would not make its process more efficient or effective. "In our current environment, our climate in Orange County, I think that kind of change would be catastrophic," Fioravanti said, noting how difficult it is to get every taxing jurisdiction on the same page with these kinds of deals. "We would be rendered completely impotent as an agency." Fioravanti said the day after the letter went out, he was flooded with calls from officials who claimed they did not sign on to the letter. "It's dubious the way they've gone about this," Fioravanti said. "I didn't expect that. I was a little surprised, certainly, at some of the names who signed on to this letter, but I didn't reach out to them. They reached out to me." Controversy over recent PILOT for wine company Last month, the IDA approved $32 million in financial incentives, including $24 million in tax breaks, to Royal Wine Corp., a Bayonne, New Jersey company that produces, imports and distributes specialty wines, spirits and liqueurs. It is looking to build a new warehouse in Goshen. Over the course of its 15-year PILOT agreement, the company would pay $26.5 million in property taxes on its 82-acre, currently vacant site off Route 17M. PILOT agreements grant tax abatements on improvements made to the property in question; the developer still pays the current, full real property tax rate which, in this case, is about $50,000 in taxes on vacant land until the agreement expires. Fioravanti told the IDA board during a meeting in August that after the PILOT is over, Royal Wine's property taxes will be an estimated $4.2 million. Skoufis blasted the deal in a news release issued on Aug. 18, the day after the PILOT was approved. He called it "perhaps the most egregious tax break ever handed out in Orange County." "The Orange County IDA is out of control," Skoufis said in the release. "They have demonstrated they do not have one iota of respect for the taxpayers theyre supposed to look out for." Skoufis has expressed frustration with IDA deals for some time. In 2019, he filed a package of bills in the state Legislature to reform local boards, including IDAs. Since filing the bills, some have been combined, but none have advanced out of committee. One of the bills would recall financial assistance if a project has "material shortfalls" or violations, and prevent giving assistance to projects already in development. It is stalled in the state Senate's Local Government Committee. Skoufis said Wednesday the recent PILOT agreement with Royal Wine Corp. "reinforces the need for this bill to pass." He said the bill stalled because the state Economic Development Council "successfully lobbied against the bill because they are unreasonably opposed to any constraints on IDAs, no matter how common sense they are." He plans to reintroduce in the next Legislative session. ALBANY - The youth carried signs saying "Hussain is my hero," some grownups marched in procession, others made speeches and recited verses from the Quran to mark the third Annual Hussain Day Procession in Albany on Aug. 28 to commemorate the martyrdom of Hussain. Maulana Muhammad Yaqoob Shahid Akhondi, resident Islamic scholar of Al-Fatemah Islamic Center, provided some historical background. He said Husssain was from a family of leaders: his grandfather was Prophet Muhammad, his father Ali was a caliph and his older brother Hasan had been a caliph. All of them valued justice, he said. Likewise, Hussain was a pious and just man and took a stand for moral justice. Mu'awiya I was the founder and first caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate, ruling from 661 for 19 years. "His reign was reasonable and things were okay," said Akhondi. But after Mu'awiya's death in 680 CE, his son Yazid took over and demanded allegiance from Hussain. Hussain refused to submit to the authority of an unjust ruler, an oppressor and a despot. "Yazid was a tyrant, was openly not following Islamic values, oppressing his people and denying justice. He was trying to build his empire according to his own desires. He was drinking alcohol. His military beat men and raped women in Medina. He disrespected the Grand Mosque in Medina by using it as a stable for his troop's horses. The following year, he destroyed the Ka'aba with burning cannon balls," said the scholar, who is originally from Pakistan and has held the position at Al-Fatemah since 18 months. The people of Kufa had written to Hussain in Medina asking for him to be their leader, said Akhondi. He headed there with a small army. Before he could reach Kufa, Yazid's army stopped them at Karbala, about 50 miles northwest of Kufa in modern Iraq. The battle took place on Oct. 10, 680 (according to Wikipedia), which was the 10th of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar in the Islamic year 61. Hussain, his companions and family members were killed by Yazids soldiers. The heads of 72 men, including Hussain's, were presented on platters to Yazid. The women were paraded through cities and brought to Yazid, who jailed them for a year. Hussain and his companions are widely regarded as martyrs and the Battle of Karbala as a historical tragedy by both Sunni and Shi'a Muslims. His suffering and death became a symbol of sacrifice in the struggle for right against wrong, and for justice and truth against injustice and falsehood. Muslim communities around the world congregate during Muharram, in particular during the first 10 nights, where leaders narrate these events and attendees mourn. Shi'a Muslims hold gatherings to lament, including nauhas, (religious poetry in Urdu) and have public processions. "The Battle of Karbala was a battle for humanity against injustice," said Akhondi. FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) A former Florida state prison guard has been sentenced to three years and five months in federal prison for participating in a scheme to smuggle drugs into a facility. Troy Alexander Cole, 28, Fort Myers, was sentenced Tuesday in Fort Myers federal court, according to court records. He pleaded guilty in April to attempted distribution of methamphetamine and MDMA. LEWISTON, Maine (AP) A Democratic candidate is poised to become the first Somali American to serve in the Maine Legislature after her challenger dropped out of the race. Republican Fred Sanborn-Silvers' withdrawal last month cleared the path for Democrat Mana Abdi in her bid for Maine House District 95. Another Somali American, South Portland Mayor Deqa Dhalac, is also running for a different House seat. If either wins, they would make history in the state. Maine is home to thousands of immigrants from African nations, including many from Somalia who settled in Portland and Lewiston-Auburn. Several have held elected municipal positions, but none have been elected to the Legislature. In House District 95, Sanborn-Silvers' late departure prevented the GOP from coming up with a new candidate to run against Abdi. Sanborn-Silvers indicated on social media that hes no longer a candidate due to legal reasons. He didnt return an email from The Associated Press seeking comment. Sanborn-Silvers drew attention two years when he said on social media that Muslims should not be allowed to hold public office. He told Maine Public that it was misstatement, and that legal citizens should be able to run for office. Abdi, 26, of Lewiston, said shes not taking anything for granted. Im knocking on doors. Not much has changed. My priority is getting to know my constituents, and really earning their votes, she said. Abdi was born in a Kenyan refugee camp after her family fled war in Somalia. She attended Lewiston public schools, graduated from University of Maine at Farmington, and works at Bates College in the Office of Intercultural Education. Dhalac, the South Portland mayor, also fled Somalia in the early 1990s as war broke out and settled in South Portland, where she served on the City Council. Shes running against Republican Michael Dougherty in House District 120. ALBANY Private schools will have to teach in English, and tackle religiously sensitive topics like science, under sweeping new regulations the state Board of Regents is set to vote on Monday. In the Capital Region, few schools are likely to be affected by the rules, which will enforce a long-standing requirement for private schools to provide an education that is substantially equivalent to that offered in public schools. But members of the Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish communities have objected strenuously, saying the rules would destroy their schools. Among the sticking points: In high school at yeshivas, boys study only the Talmud, a collection of thousands of analytical pieces about the Torah. Boys learn critical thinking as they evaluate the works in the sacred text but they do not study math, science, history and English as their public school counterparts do throughout high school. Other areas of concern: They object to teaching many science topics that conflict with their religious beliefs, and unmarried people are not supposed to learn about procreation, the anatomy of the opposite gender, and similar topics. Children should simply learn the three Rs: reading, writing and arithmetic, said Rabbi Abraham Klein, an ultra-Orthodox community leader from Orange County. TO WATCH The meetings begin at 9 a.m. Monday, Sept. 12, in the Seminar Room 5th Floor. A link to view the meeting will be available 30 minutes prior to start time at https://www.regents.nysed.gov/meetings See More Collapse He is organizing a rally outside the state Education Department in Albany before Monday's Regents meeting. He wants his communitys schools to be judged by how the students do after graduation, not by whether they are taught math in high school. We have a very nice, good, finished product, he said. ... What the government wants and what normal people want is for people to be brought up in a (mannerly) way: no killing, no stealing. Work, put up a family, be part of society. That, he said, the yeshivas accomplish. Its similar to what the Amish have been allowed to do for many years. Their schools end at eighth grade, after which young people generally learn on the job in their community. They, too, will be subject to the new rules, the state said, though officials did not immediately explain what they might require, if anything, of the Amish communities. Schools could prove they are substantially equivalent by having students take state tests, getting accredited, offering a government-approved curriculum like the international baccalaureate program, or being reviewed by the local school district. Those that cannot prove it will be given time to improve. Eventually, if no improvement is made, the state could stop recognizing the school, at which point students would be required to attend some other school through age 16. If parents sent their children to an unrecognized school, violating the compulsory education law, they could be fined or even jailed. But state officials stressed in a briefing Friday that they did not intend to punish parents. They said they expected to work in a collaborative and collegial way with schools to make sure they could meet the states requirements while still providing religious education or whatever other focus they prefer. However, yeshiva officials might not be so willing. We are Yiddish-speaking community and were going to stay a Yiddish-speaking community, said Klein, who added science is against our" beliefs. "So many subjects are against our religion," he said. "They are pushing through our throat something thats not going to happen. Come pick me up and throw me in jail. While State Education Department officials stressed that the regulations would be equally enforced on every private school, most of the comments received on the proposed regulation focused on yeshivas. Some said there were many yeshiva graduates who struggled in society because they did not have an adequate education on basic subjects like reading in English. Others said the yeshivas provided a superior education, with students wrestling with line-by-line analysis of great works of writing that went far beyond anything offered at a public school. The New York State Catholic Conference said Catholic school officials were pleased with the rules, especially since schools can prove their worth without going through a review with the local school district, which they often view as competition. "Every child in New York State deserves a quality education, and our Catholic schools have always been more than happy to demonstrate that we are substantially equivalent to and often exceed public schools in the education we provide," said Dennis Poust, executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference, in a statement. "Were confident that all of the Catholic schools in the state will be deemed substantially equivalent under the new guidelines. Our tuition-paying families have already deemed us so for generations. The state said private schools do not have to teach sex education, hygiene and other related health topics, can integrate the core curriculum into religious studies, and do not have to cover everything that is covered in public school. Local school districts are left to decide whats acceptable. The draft regulations were first posted in 2019. The issue began in 2015 with a court case in which a yeshiva graduate said he had been given an inadequate education. State officials began inspecting yeshivas, but school officials went to court, and a judge ruled that the Board of Regents had to post official regulations, collect comments, and vote on them before they could be enforced. In the four years since a stretch Ford Excursion hurtled down a long hill in Schoharie County, crashed through a parking lot and augered into a ditch, the chain of events leading to the deaths of 20 people has become one of the most tragic and consequential stories to emerge from the greater Capital Region and remains one of the deadliest U.S. transportation disasters of recent decades. As the prosecution of the limos operator Nauman Hussain appears to be headed back to trial following the scuttling of his year-old guilty plea, here are the basic facts as much as are known and a look at the debates to come. What happened that day? A group of friends booked the limousine on Oct. 6, 2018, with a company called Prestige Limousine of Wilton after another rental was canceled at the last minute. On the way to Cooperstown for a Saturday-afternoon birthday celebration, something went wrong when the limo came down the long hill on Route 30 above the village of Schoharie. NTSB As the limo descended, it picked up frightening speed and had to swerve to avoid a car at the intersection with Route 30A. It crossed that road and hurtled through the parking lot of the Apple Barrel Country Store & Cafe, striking a parked SUV that caromed into two pedestrians, killing them. When the limo finally crashed into a ditch on the far side of the lot, the impact was enough to kill the driver and all 17 passengers. The loss of life was a bomb of grief that erupted over an entire region, leaving children orphaned, parents and relatives bereft, and friends and neighbors left to wonder what would have turned a joyful outing into a mass-casualty event in the space of a few minutes. What went wrong aboard the limo? A National Transportation Safety Board report, completed almost two years after the disaster, agreed with the New York State Polices findings that concluded the limo suffered catastrophic brake failure. Except for the driver, no one was wearing seatbelts. But NTSB investigators discovered that the passengers likely had no choice: The seatbelts were found tucked behind the seat cushions, making them inaccessible. The Excursion, which is considered a bus by the state Department of Transportation because of its size, was neither certified nor properly inspected by the DOT, which had ordered the limo off the road twice in the months before the crash. The NTSB report faulted Prestige but also the state DOT and the Department of Motor Vehicles for poor oversight that allowed Hussain to easily manipulate the DMVs registration system and inspection program. The investigation, as well as reporting by the Times Union and others, exposed other gaps in the states enforcement efforts, as well as questions surrounding the service performed or not performed on the Excursions brakes at a Mavis Discount Tire outlet in Saratoga Springs. An additional factor: Prestiges driver that day lacked the proper commercial license and had not been drug-tested as required under state law. A post-crash autopsy found THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, in his system. Who is Nauman Hussain? The only person to face criminal charges stemming from the crash is the 32-year-old son of Prestige owner Shahed Hussain. Shahed Hussain, who hasnt set foot in the United States since the disaster, came to the attention of federal law enforcement after taking part in a DMV fraud scheme two decades ago. In the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks, he was deployed by the FBI as an undercover informant and took part in multiple controversial sting operations, including one that ended in the arrest of two Albany men who were members of a local mosque. Shahed Hussain played the role of a rich businessman, brandishing what he said was a rocket launcher to be used in terror attacks. Shahed Hussain traveled out of the country after undergoing heart surgery in the months before the crash. The FBI has refused to answer detailed questions about its interaction with the elder Hussain, although pressure from regional members of Congress led earlier this year to the bureaus announcement that its internal inspection division would review the matter. Nauman Hussain, who was operating Prestige in his fathers absence, was charged with 20 counts of criminally negligent homicide and 20 counts of manslaughter. In September 2021, he pleaded guilty to the first set of charges in exchange for what he thought would be a sentence of five years probation and 1,000 hours of community service. On Aug. 31, 2022, state Supreme Court Justice Peter Lynch stunned the defendant, his legal team and the rest of the courtroom gathered for Hussains formal sentencing when he tossed out the terms of the agreement and gave him the choice of taking a prison term of between 16 months and four years, or rescinding his year-old plea. Hussain opted for the latter. Who is being sued? The crash resulted in numerous lawsuits most of them still pending even as the criminal case against Hussain has proceeded. Families of the victims have filed suits naming as defendants Hussain and his father, state regulators and the Mavis store that has been blamed by Hussains attorneys for the state of the vehicles brakes. Hussains 2021 guilty plea cleared the way for him to begin offering testimony in those civil cases, though to date he has been questioned only about the ancillary question of whether his wealthy uncle, Pakistani real estate magnate Malik Riaz Hussain, was involved in Prestige. In March, a judge dropped Malik Riaz Hussain from the suits. Hans Pennink/Associated Press So far, victims families have received relatively little compensation about $25,000 each from the insurance policy that Prestige had on the vehicle. A lawsuit filed against the Apple Barrel Country Store by the families of the two pedestrians was settled for $500,000 in June 2022. What reforms have been implemented? After the crash, which gained international headlines, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state Legislature passed a number of new laws to strengthen the DOTs enforcement capabilities and close loopholes in the state DMV registration system. Seatbelts are now required to be worn in all vehicles in New York, and a stretch limousine passenger safety task force was created to evaluate the effectiveness of the new laws and look at other safety improvements that could be made. Lori Van Buren The families of the crash victims also helped get new federal limo safety regulations passed that were signed into law by President Joe Biden last fall. But the story of the crash and all the heartbreak it has brought to the victims families has probably had the most significant impact on limo safety. Stretch limos like the Excursion that were made in chop shops decades ago are no longer in vogue as consumers instead opt for party buses, which are considered safer and less ostentatious. Crackdowns by the DOT and higher insurance premiums have forced many small limo operators out of business. Its difficult to even rent a stretch limo in upstate New York these days because of that, although there always remains the chance that someone will once again try and rent out an illegal or unsafe vehicle like the deadly Excursion. A statement in the wake of Queen Elizabeth II's death published by the most senior Catholic representative in Ireland has spoken of the affection people "of all backgrounds and faiths" held for her. The Archbishop of Armagh, Eamon Martin, released the statement yesterday evening (Thursday September 8) after the announcement of the monarch's death. According to Archbishop Martin, people's admiration for her came from "her quiet dignity and calm nature despite living through very difficult times with much political, economic, social and family upheaval". He said, "Like so many people here on the island of Ireland and around the world, I was saddened to hear of the death today of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. I express my sympathies to the new King, to the members of the Royal family and to all those who will grieve the loss of this much-loved and deeply respected monarch. "Since the Queens coronation in 1953, she has shown immense commitment, not only to her royal duties and responsibilities, but also to the wider common good. What stands out for me is her dedication to faith, to family, and to peace and reconciliation." The archbishop spoke of his own meeting with the queen a decade prior and said, "I remember meeting Queen Elizabeth in Enniskillen in 2012, before I was ordained as bishop, when she took the courageous and historic step of visiting Saint Michaels Catholic Church. She came across as friendly and good humoured and took time to put everyone at their ease. "I am grateful for Queen Elizabeths commitment to promoting better understanding and relationships between the Anglican Church and the Catholic Church. During her reign, she met with five popes, including Saint Pope John Paul II in 2000 at the Vatican. In Edinburgh, in 2010, Queen Elizabeth extended a wholehearted welcome to Pope Benedict XVIs memorable visit to the United Kingdom. We also recall her warm meeting with Pope Francis in the Vatican in 2014." The Archbishop concluded by reminding people of the importance of remembering the queen as a person "of deep faith". He said, "In the coming days much will be remembered and commented upon, but it is important for us to keep in mind that above all, Queen Elizabeth was a person of deep faith and love for Jesus Christ. I pray that her faith in the Risen Lord will be of comfort to many people, and especially to her grieving family at this sad time." May she rest in peace. A former Utah city mayor and bishop with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been arrested on accusations he sexually abused at least three children decades ago Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Forces are beginning to collide in California as wildfires threaten communities, an epic heat wave stresses the electrical grid and moisture from a Pacific tropical storm is expected to bring threats of thunderstorms and floods For our late night lurkers, insomniacs or early birds . . . Here's a quick local glimpse at the nicer side of our discourse for those who need a bit of a break form our regularly scheduled doomscroll. This overnight post hopes to inspire or blog community to remember that, all things considered, this cowtown is actually a pretty nice place. Check TKC news gathering . . . Weekend Possibilities | Ameri'kana Music & Arts, Chiefs Tailgate and Prairie Village Jazz Can't wait for Sunday? Check out Crane Brewing Co.'s Chiefs tailgate party on Friday, pick a music festival for Saturday and kickoff will be here before you know it. Can't wait for Sunday? Check out Crane Brewing Co.'s Chiefs tailgate party on Friday, pick a music festival for Saturday and kickoff will be here before you know it. 'It's given so many people a place to grieve': KCAC hosts suicide prevention awareness event KANSAS CITY, Mo. - September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. In hopes to bring light to the issue, the Kansas City Artists Coalition is hosting an event called "Words Save Lives." Words Save Lives is a Kansas-wide event founded in 2013 by Marcia Epstein, that serves as a platform for artists who have been impacted by suicide. With flag that's traveled across US, group honors KC veteran who died by suicide KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Flags of Honor ride made its way to Terrace Park Cemetery in Kansas City, raising awareness about veteran suicide along the way. The nonprofit "Ride for 22" honored a local family Tuesday. Ride for 22 shines a light on the average number of veterans who die by suicide. KSHB, Harvesters' Fill the Fridge drive to provide 58,500 meals KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A recent collaboration between KSHB 41 and the Harvesters Community Food Network will provide nearly 58,500 meals to Kansas City families in need. Last week, KSHB 41 and Harvesters launched the 2022 Fill the Fridge campaign, with members of the community and KSHB 41 News viewers pitching in to make online donations. Explore new dishes and deals during Kansas City Black Restaurant Week From seafood to barbecue to vegan eats, you can score deals on all of it this week. KMBC 9 stopped by two restaurants taking part in Kansas City Black Restaurant Week to find out how you can save while supporting local businesses."Our most popular is the shrimp and chicken pasta," said Kiraameen Khalifah, the owner of District Fish and Pasta House. Hummus and Pita Mediterranean restaurant opens in Overland Park New Mediterranean restaurant Hummus and Pita has officially opened in downtown Overland Park. Where exactly? Located at 8039 Santa Fe Drive, the restaurant celebrated its grand opening this summer in the space that had been previously occupied by Snack Shack. Snack Shack moved to downtown Missio ... Grandview receives funding for Blue Ridge Boulevard By Kathy Feist Grandview will receive $4.6 million in federal funding to expand Blue Ridge Boulevard. from Grandview Road to Prospect, or the city limits. The funding was announced by U.S. House Rep. Emanuel Cleaver during a special August 24 meeting at Grandview's City Hall. 15 and the Mahomies summer program records 12,844 volunteer hours Nearly 550 youth ages 11-18 took the 'Volunteer for 15' pledge to volunteer 15 hours this summer in communities across Kansas City and the entire United states. In total, Patrick Mahomes's charity foundation says that the program produced 12,844 volunteer hours between June 1 and Aug. Meet the race team at UMKC Hide Transcript Show Transcript COMPETES AGAINST OTHER UNIVERSITIES KAREN KORNACKI TAKES US INSIDE THEIR WORKSHOP. MAKE THE RACE TEAM AT UMKC MOST OF THEM STUDY MECHANICAL ENGINEERING AND TOGETHER. THEY'VE BUILT A BAJA BUGGY TO COMPETE WITH THE OTHER COLLEGE TEAMS AROUND THE WORLD. Kansas City Jazz had a Devoted Champion in Riff Artist Stanley Crouch - KC STUDIO Stanley Crouch, 1992 (photo by Martine Bisagni) The late cultural critic Stanley Crouch was an irascible provocateur known as much for his intellectual jousting and contrariness as for the elegance and verbal horsepower of his written voice. Shirley Helzberg Pursues New Plan for Film Row in the Crossroads Work could begin this year on philanthropist and developer Shirley Helzberg's plan to renovate two historic Film Row buildings into office space and create a "leafy oasis" on what's now a parking lot at 18th Street and Baltimore Avenue. KCPD officer hopes to bridge gap between Hispanic community, police KANSAS CITY, Mo. - One man is leading the charge to change the conversation surrounding the narrative of the east side of Kansas City, Missouri. After a goal, over a cup of coffee, or during a car repair, KCPD Ofc. Edwin Gordillo wants to chat with the east side of KCMO. Hopefully, well have more for the morning update . . . STAY TUNED!!! This this quick compilation we want to share deets on police action, cold cases and just a bit of good news. Check TKC news gathering . . . KCKPD officer faces domestic violence-related charges in both Wyandotte and Jackson counties Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree charged a Kansas City, Kansas, police officer with domestic violence-related charges, less than a week after the same officer was charged in Jackson County in a separate domestic assault case involving the same victim. Kansas City home where 2 killed owned by company from Problem Solvers investigation KANSAS CITY, Mo. - We're learning more about the owners of an alleged problem home in Southeast Kansas City, Missouri. On Labor Day, two people were killed and four people were injured during a pool party. It happened at a home near E. 70th Terrace and Manchester Avenue. Friends mourn loss of mother of 5 allegedly killed by husband in Excelsior Springs EXCELSIOR SPRINGS, Mo. - Excelsior Springs Chief of Police Greggory Dull will tell anyone a homicide in the city is a rare occurrence, with the last happening in 2014. But Tuesday night, Dull reports Theresa Bass was killed outside her home by her estranged partner. "A number of times," Dull said. Man in serious condition after Independence shooting, suspect arrested INDEPENDENCE, Mo. - The Independence Police Department says a victim is in serious condition following a Wednesday evening shooting. Officers were called to the 15200 block of East 40th Street at about 7:30 p.m. and found a man suffering from multiple gunshot wounds at the scene. Shooters fired upon large crowd at Kansas City party house where two died: court records The quadruple shooting where two people died late Monday night in south Kansas City's Park Farms neighborhood was believed to have been carried out by at least two armed people who fired over a tall fence into a crowded back yard in the middle of a large Labor Day gathering, according to court records. Shawnee County deputies arrest 13-year-old for alleged Kansas Capitol bomb threat KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A 13-year-old from Shawnee County, Kansas, was arrested for allegedly threatening to bomb the Kansas Capitol in Topeka. The Shawnee County Sheriff's Office said it received reports about the threat made on social media. The threat prompted law enforcement to evacuate the Capitol and search the building with bomb-detection K-9s. Audit reveals Kansas paid out about $450 million in fraudulent unemployment benefits We're getting a look at just how bad the fraud was inside the Kansas Department of Labor. Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars were wasted. "We wasted a lot of federal taxpayer dollars," said state Rep. St. Louis' private police forces make security a luxury of the rich Hours after a burglary at a designer jeans store in St. Louis' upscale Central West End neighborhood, at least 16 city police officers received an email alert with surveillance photos of the car believed to belong to the suspects - and an offer of a reward of at least $1,000 for any officer able to locate it. Cold case of missing woman solved, search for her killer continues KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - A grieving daughter, who was a toddler when her mother disappeared, now knows what happened to her mom after a Kansas City Police Department detective and crime analyst recently solved a 39-year-old cold case. The daughter filed a missing person report this summer, and Intelligence Analyst Darin Lee and Detective Nathan Kinate uncovered the truth. KCPD officers buy breakfast, groceries for family in need while responding to call KANSAS CITY, MO - A pair of Kansas City, Missouri, police officers went above and beyond to care for small children after responding to a serious call. "Let me ask you this, have you guys had breakfast yet?," KCPD Ofc. Dwon Littlejohn asked the children. This one question led to the kindness of Ofc. Animal shelter provides tragic update on stolen dogs A Raytown, Missouri, animal shelter provided a tragic update on three dogs that were stolen Saturday morning.Midwest Animal ResQ says that one of the three dogs was found dead in Leavenworth County Wednesday night. The shelter said their building was broken into around 5:30 a.m. Police locate Jasper's stolen cannoli van KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A van stolen from last weekend from Jasper's Ristorante in Kansas City has been located. Jasper Mirabile said Thursday that the restaurant's "cannoli van" had been located by Kansas City, Missouri, police. Mirabile said the recovered van is missing the battery and has damage to the bumper. Developing . . . A recent report about a lawsuit against an upcoming election is important because there's a great deal of online disinformation and sketchy lobbying. We wanted to clip the basics of the arguments from both sides a quick glimpse at the upcoming ruling: Marc Ellinger, a Legal Missouri 2022 attorney, said the proposal only deals with one subject because all of the provisions, though sweeping, deal with marijuana. Ellinger and the Secretary of State's attorney asked the judge to toss the case completely, arguing that the case is meritless and that Sweeney does not have the right to sue because she's not a Missouri resident. Plaintiff Joy Sweeney said she has a home in Jefferson City and is registered to vote in Missouri, although she also has a home in Alexandria, Virginia and testified remotely from there Thursday. Cole County Circuit Judge Cotton Walker said he plans to rule on whether the proposal will be on the Nov. 8 ballot shortly after attorneys file a final set of briefs Friday. Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com links . . . Lawsuit on recreational pot in Missouri nears end JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Lawyers for a Missouri woman suing to block a recreational marijuana ballot measure panned the top state election official's involvement and claimed the proposal is unconstitutionally broad during Thursday court arguments. At issue is a proposal to allow those age 21 and older to buy and grow marijuana for personal consumption and automatically erase records of some past marijuana-related crimes. Advocates push to legalize recreational marijuana in Missouri Supporters of recreational marijuana are campaigning for voters to support a ballot measure that would legalize it in Missouri in the November election. However, some people have questions and concerns, including Missouri's governor. Meanwhile, the measure is being challenged in court.Volunteers spent a Thursday afternoon advocating for Amendment 3, which would legalize recreational marijuana in Missouri. Developing . . . A longtime TKC reader reminds of a landmark case in Kansas City history that sparked a culture shift for people of faith and, hopefully, The Church. Here's the word . . . "It was 10 yrs ago this month that then-Bishop Robert Finn became the first US Catholic prelate to be criminally convicted for refusing to report suspected child sex crimes to police." Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com links . . . Bishop Found Guilty in 1 of 2 Charges KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Kansas City-St. Joseph Catholic Diocese Bishop Robert Finn was found guilty of one misdemeanor charge and not guilty of another in a Jackson County Circuit Court on Thursday. Related: Follow the Bishop Finn Trial Live Finn was found guilty of failure to report suspected child abuse and not guilty on another [...] Pope accepts resignation of Robert Finn, years after U.S. bishop's conviction | CNN Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop Robert Finn, who remained on the job for years after becoming the highest-ranking U.S. Catholic official convicted in connection with the church's long-running sex abuse scandal, the Vatican announced Tuesday. Finn, who led the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Bishop Robert Finn: the rest of the story The Vatican's sterile announcement of Bishop Robert Finn's resignation was a typical but unsuccessful attempt by the Holy See to sanitize the harsh reality of a failed bishop. It was a removal disguised as a resignation. The absolute need for accountability of bishops would have been far better served had Finn been publicly removed rather than offered the thin camouflage of resignation. You decide . . . Two people are shot, and one is in a trauma centre after a shooting in Mississauga Monday afternoon, Sept. 12. Police are looking to the public to help identify this woman, who was found dead near downtown Toronto. - Toronto Police Service photo While school bus drivers in Toronto are not expected to face the shortage seen throughout the province in past years this school season, a local transportation union representative warns that parents should expect learning pains and delays in the first couple of weeks of school. I dont feel too positive about this: U.K. writer Ian McEwan reflects on our current historical moment In "Lessons," McEwans main character Roland becomes an avatar for a regular person buffeted by the winds of history, of events beyond his control. David Abdulah is counting on Stuart Young to keep good his predecessor's promise and make public the Niquan report. He says serious questions surrounding the safety of the plant remain unanswered. The liberation of Ukraines territories, which is now taking place in Kharkiv and Kherson regions, is the best proof of the effectiveness of joint efforts by Ukraine and its allies. Thats according to Sergiy Kyslytsya, the countrys Permanent Representative to the United Nations, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. The only thing that putin can do to save the lives of his soldiers is to order their immediate withdrawal, Kyslytsya told the UN Security Council meeting. He also compared fighting Vladimir Putin today to the worlds common fight against Hitler during the Second World war. Read also: Ukraine army takes control of Balakliya It was due to this global unity, due to lend-lease, due to the assistance of the American people and other Allies, that we succeeded in defeating Hitler. The evil of putin as that of hitler before him requires a global response. This was the case during the Second World war. This is the case right now and Ukraine and its allies are doing their best to ensure such a response. The liberation of Ukrainian territories that is well underway in the Kharkiv and Kherson regions serves as the best proof of the effectiveness of our efforts, the diplomat said. International law guards the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. International law explicitly confers on us the inherent right to self-defense, enshrined in particular in Article 51 of the UN Charter, said Kyslytsya. It is solely Russias presence in the permanent seat of the Soviet Union that has immobilized the Security Council in relation to ensuring the peace and security of Ukraine, the permanent representative stressed. According to the envoy, Russias delegation to the UN suffers from hallucinations and an endless list of other negative symptoms. It is a difficult condition, Kyslytsya noted, adding that these symptoms should be studied and treated not in this Chamber and not by diplomats. They require a different type of qualification, and different offices, he said, hinting at a number of clinics located less than a mile from the UN HQ on the First Avenue. As Ukrinform reported earlier, on Thursday, the UNSC held a meeting, initiated by Russia, on western arms supplies to Ukraine. Over the past day, Ukrainian defenders have eliminated 59 invaders, also destroying a significant amount of military equipment, as well as a ferry crossing and two ammunition depots in the southern direction. Thats according to Operational Command South, Ukrinform reports. "The situation in the southern operational zone remains difficult but controlled by our Defense Forces. The enemy continues to focus its efforts on maintaining gained positions, actively conducting aerial reconnaissance using unmanned aerial vehicles. But the precision strikes by our units left two unmanned spies with no prospects for further use, destroying all photo and video data that had been gathered," the statement reads. According to the Ukrainian military, the enemy is trying to find ways to improve their supplies by organizing pontoon crossings across the Dnipro and Inhulets. At the same time, the Russians inflict missile, artillery, and air strikes on the positions of Ukrainian troops and peaceful settlements. Throughout the day, the aggressors delivered 30 air strikes and a missile attack on the positions of Ukraines Armed Forces, also launching four R-27 missiles at our planes that were engaging the enemy. "Our aircraft inflicted six strikes, while our missile and artillery units 265, in particular on MLR systems, weapons and equipment clusters, and pontoon crossings in the area of Nova Kakhovka. The bridges remain under our tight fire control without the possibility of their repair and use," emphasized OC South. Enemy losses over the past day include: 59 soldiers, three Uragan MLR systems along with a transport charger, two Pion self-propelled artillery guns, a Msta-S self-propelled howitzer, three self-propelled artillery and mortar units, a T-72 main battle tank, and six armored combat vehicles. Two ammunition depots in Beryslav district and a ferry crossing in Nova Kakhovka were also destroyed. "The enemy group of forces in the Black Sea currently consists of 19 warships and cutters, including three surface-to-surface missile carriers equipped with 24 Kalibr missiles." Therefore, the threat of a missile strike prevails, remaining quite likely," added the Command. As reported, the Armed Forces of Ukraine eliminated nearly 51,250 Russian invaders from February 24 to September 8. Photo: Ukraines defense intelligence Russian troops have already killed 383 children in Ukraine and injured 743 others since the invasion started on February 24. According to Ukrinform, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office said this in a Telegram post. "As of the morning of September 9, 2022, Russia's full-scale armed aggression has affected more than 1,126 children in Ukraine. According to official information from juvenile prosecutors, 383 children have been killed and more than 743 have sustained injuries of various degrees of severity," the statement said. These figures are not final, as work is ongoing to verify data coming from areas of active hostilities, temporarily occupied and liberated territories. Most children were affected in Donetsk region - 389, Kharkiv region - 206, Kyiv region - 116, Mykolaiv region - 72, Chernihiv region - 68, Luhansk region - 61, Kherson region - 55, Zaporizhia region 46, Dnipropetrovsk region - 26. On September 6, a two-year-old boy was injured after Russian soldiers shelled the village of Andriivka, Balakliia district, Kharkiv region. Some 2,472 educational institutions in Ukraine have been damaged by Russian bombardment and shelling, and 289 of them have been completely destroyed. The Ukrainian army remains one of those with the largest number of women serving in its ranks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this in a Telegram post, Ukrinform reports. "Ukrainian women, on an equal footing with men, defend their native land and perform the most difficult tasks. Our army was and is one of those having the biggest number of women in its ranks," Zelensky said. In his opinion, when it is about protecting freedom, it doesn't matter whether you are a man or a woman. "And the Ukrainians and our struggle proved it," Zelensky wrote. The head of state released a new video titled "Fight for Freedom" by United24 Media, dedicated to Ukrainian women defenders, their professionalism and decision to go to war. On February 24, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine's defense forces are fiercely resisting the Russian invaders. Ukraine's air defense system is unique and it does not exist anywhere in the world. Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said this in an interview with the RBC-Ukraine news outlet, Ukrinform reports. "We have actually created a unique air defense system that does not exist anywhere in the world. We fight with old Soviet systems, using various tactical techniques. We have developed a warning system. We counter missiles thanks to air defense systems, fighter jets and MANPADS - people with man-portable air defense systems are stationed all over the country and they also have to react and intercept missiles. There are visual observation posts," he said. He added that Ukraine's air defense needs to be strengthened with modern weapons. In the near future, Ukraine will receive heavy systems from Western partners, but this is still not enough, Ihnat said. "What should be done? We should strengthen our air defense system with new modern means that are in our service. These are, in particular, NASAMS and IRIS-T. Unfortunately, what is to be transferred to us will not be enough. However, this will be the first step when the partners hand over heavy air defense systems of the Western model to us," Ihnat said. Head of the President's Office Andriy Yermak has stated that the sanctions plan against the Russian Federation is 70% implemented, the pressure on the aggressor should increase, and Russia should be labeled as a state sponsor of terrorism. As the press service of the President's Office informs, another meeting of the International Expert Group on Sanctions against Russia chaired by Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak and Former US National Security Adviser, Ambassador Michael McFaul was held via video link. Yermak thanked the group members for the productive work that has been ongoing for five months already and congratulated them on achieving a significant result - 70% implementation of the Action Plan presented in April this year. "Thank you very much for all the efforts you have made since the beginning of our work in March. This is simply incredible, and is highly appreciated by our President and the entire Ukrainian people. I am sure that you can all be proud of the results of the work of our sanctions group," he emphasized. The Head of the Presidents Office offered the members of the Yermak-McFaul group new ideas for discussion. First of all, a document on designating Russia a state sponsor of terrorism. He emphasized that this is not an easy process, but it should not be stopped, because Russia is a terrorist state, and the Ukrainian people demand this. Another important issue, as noted by Yermak, is the visa ban for Russian citizens. He noted that the European Commission has already proposed to suspend the visa facilitation agreement with the Russian Federation, but it is necessary to achieve more and prepare appropriate proposals. "Russians, these savages, have no right to be among the civilized people of the West at all. Can you imagine that Russian women were calling their husbands and telling them to kill and rape Ukrainians? These are real conversations intercepted by our intelligence. And then the same Russian women simply come to Europe to have a rest on the beaches and go to museums. This is absolutely inappropriate," the Head of the President's Office is convinced. Yermak drew attention to the fact that Ukraine is actively carrying out internal work on sanctions against the Russian Federation. In particular, these days, sanctions were applied to more than 600 people who belong to the ruling elite of Russia. An Inter-Agency Working Group on the Implementation of the State Sanctions Policy was established. The Head of the President's Office also suggested continuing the successful practice of communication between the members of the International Expert Group on Sanctions against Russia and the parliamentarians of various countries. The group members noted the progress in the work with documents and emphasized that the sanction pressure on Russia should only increase. They discussed the need to introduce sanctions in the field of nuclear energy, to refuse to import uranium from Russia. The parties also touched upon the systematic, step-by-step implementation of the price cap on Russian oil, which will significantly reduce budget revenues of the Russian Federation and affect its oil production industry. As reported, the international working group on sanctions against Russia was created at the initiative of President Zelensky. In April, the group presented the Sanctions Action Plan, which includes recommendations for the international democratic community regarding a set of further economic measures aimed at forcing the Russian leadership to end the war in Ukraine as soon as possible and maximizing the price of aggression for Russia. Photo: Presidents Office ol The international community should contribute to Ukraines efforts in post-war reconstruction so that millions of refugees could return home. Thats according to Norways Permanent Representative to the United Nations Mona Juul, who spoke at the UN Security Council meeting, Ukrinforms own correspondent reports. Russias warfare in urban and populated areas, and the use of heavy explosive weapons, is destroying homes, schools, and hospitals. It is important that we support Ukraines reconstruction efforts so that the many millions of forcibly displaced persons one day can return to their homes in Ukraine, the diplomat said. Humanitarian and development actors must be engaged in this important work, Juul emphasized. She added that Norway was deeply worried about the reports of forcible transfer of civilians to Russia and occupied territories, as well as the reports of filtration facilities run by Russian forces. Humanitarian actors must be given unhindered access to all places of detention in accordance with international humanitarian law, the permanent representative said. As Ukrinform reported earlier, the UN Security Council is holding a meeting on the threats to international peace and security, dedicated to the latest developments in Ukraine. Photo: Xinhua/Xie E Ukraines Parliamentarian Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets says it was only the current composition of the UN fact-finding mission set to probe a deadly explosion in the Olenivka penal colony that could satisfy Russia. The official raised his concerns over the issue in a Facebook posting on Friday, Ukrinform reports. "Obviously, only such a composition of the mission could satisfy Russia, and today we saw the statement of Russias Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Andrei Rudenko, on discussion of details of the trip, its routes and the missions composition," the ombudsperson wrote. The official noted that the well-known "principle of neutrality" of international organizations is reflected in the name of the mission: "But are its participants as neutral as their missions name?" he added. The official informed that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had appointed Brazils Lieutenant General (retired) Alberto dos Santos Cruz as head of the mission tasked with investigating the explosion in the Olenivka prison, which is reported to have killed 53 Ukrainian prisoners of war. Read also: Families of Azovstal defenders commemorate those killed in Olenivka "And although the UN release reports on the lieutenant general's participation in peacekeeping missions in the Congo and Haiti, modestly stating that he held numerous leadership positions in Brazil, it is important to note that one of these positions is that of Minister-Secretary in the Government of the Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro," the ombudsman clarified. Lubinets added that Cruz had actively supported the far-right leader of Brazil both during his election campaign and after he was elected. He recalled that Bolsonaro came to Moscow on February 16, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, expressing "solidarity" with Russia, without specifying the circumstances of talks. "And within a few days, he suspended his vice president, Hamilton Murao, for comparing Russian aggression with Hitler's invasion of Europe in the 1930s. Bolsonaro said that he is the only one to speak on this topic. Without once condemning Russia's aggressive actions towards Ukraine, he said that "we want peace, Lubinets noted. He added that another participant in the fact-finding mission is the OSCE ODIHRs ex-chief Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir of Iceland. Read also: Woman in ninth month of pregnancy among Azovstal defenders held by Russia The Human Rights Commissioner informed that the Permanent Representation of Ukraine to international organizations in Vienna had repeatedly appealed to Gisladottir with a request to react to systematic violations of human rights in the occupied Crimea and Donbas, as well as to ensure constant monitoring. "The U.S. Mission to the OSCE also drew attention to Gisladottirs showing move to ignore the issue of Russian aggression in annual reports. However, most revealing is Gisladottir's statement, in which she condemns the 2019 decision of the Ukrainian parliament to limit the possibility for Russian observers to be part of election monitoring missions on the eve of the presidential race, also noting that the observers from Russia represent not their country, but the OSCE," emphasized Lubinets. The Ukrainian ombudsman noted that currently there is less information on the third member of the mission, Mr. Issoufa Yakub of Niger, who has experience in UN policing missions, including in Mali. At the same time, Lubinets noted that, although Yakub himself did not speak much publicly, "it is worth noting that the Russian Federation had massive influence and vested interests in Mali." "Regarding the situation in Mali, there were many statements by Western powers about the spread of the practice of involving PMC Wagner and the strengthening of Russian influence, which ultimately led to the withdrawal of the French contingent from the country and the completion of the mission," he clarified. The Human Rights Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine said he would not be surprised if the mission to Olenivka could be similar to that of IAEA, where Kremlin propagandists will have access to the site rather than international media, while mission members will be escorted along the pre-planned route. "It seems that they are prepared for this," he said. As reported, at a meeting of the UN Security Council, Rosemary Dicarlo, Deputy chief for political affairs, said that in the coming days a mission would be deployed to establish the facts related to the terrorist attack in Olenivska prison, as a result of which 53 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed. (@Abdulla99267510) The Finance Minister has formed a committee, comprising representatives from Finance and Power Divisions and CPEC, to hold meetings with Chinese IPPs on regular basis to address and resolve their concerns. ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News-Sept 9th, 2022) Finance Minister Miftah Ismail has reiterated the government's commitment to provide all kind of facilities to Chinese investors in the country. He was presiding over a meeting in Islamabad on Friday, in which issues of outstanding payments to Chinese Independent Power Producers and other hurdles faced by them in the country were discussed. The Finance Minister also formed a committee, comprising representatives from Finance and Power Divisions and CPEC, to hold meetings with Chinese IPPs on regular basis to address and resolve their concerns. The CEOs of the Chinese IPPs expressed their satisfaction over addressing and resolving their issues. CHISINAU (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th September, 2022) Romania supports the proposal to limit the price of gas imported from Russia, the Energy Ministry said on Friday. Earlier on Friday, EU energy ministers held a meeting to discuss the introduction of a price cap on gas but failed to do it. According to Italian Minister for Ecological Transition Roberto Cingolani, the ministers have asked the European Commission to continue searching for ways to combat the ongoing economic crisis. "Limiting the price of natural gas at the EU level, including gas imported from Russia, is supported by several member states, including Romania, and could significantly help reduce European market volatility," the ministry said in a statement. The ministry added that it is necessary to analyze a possible measure to reduce gas consumption. Romania supports voluntary measures to reduce consumption in accordance with national capabilities, as well as with the development of the energy market, the statement said. Official proposals from the European Commission on new energy measures are expected next week amid high gas and electricity prices. On September 2, G7 finance ministers confirmed their intention to impose price caps on Russian oil as part of expanded sanctions campaign against the country due to its special operation in Ukraine. The price cap will take effect on December 5 for crude oil and on February 5, 2023, for refined products coming from Russia. Moscow, in turn, pledged to stop exporting Russian oil to the states that would apply the limits. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Sep, 2022 ) :Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has urged the international community to make protection and promotion of the rights of victims of terrorism a basic tenant of global efforts to promote peace and security. In his address at the High-Level Segment of the first United Nations Global Congress of Victims of Terrorism, the foreign minister also called on the international community to develop a victim centric approach while addressing the challenges faced in conflict zones. The foreign minister expressed solidarity with the victims of terrorism all over the world. He paid special homage to the oppressed people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and Palestine and emphasized the need to counter state terrorism, especially in cases of foreign occupation. Highlighting the sacrifices made by Pakistan in the fight against terrorism, the foreign minister underscored that Pakistan was one of the worst victims of terrorism with over 80,000 causalities and economic losses exceeding $150 billion. The foreign minister said that Pakistan condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations including Islamophobic, racially, ethnically motivated and state sponsored terrorism. He stressed the need for developing a consensus definition of terrorism by taking into account new and emerging threats. He emphasized that terrorism could only be eradicated by addressing its root causes and urged the international community to look beyond their narrow political interests and geopolitical agenda to completely eradicate this menace. Criticizing the selective approach adopted by some countries, the foreign minister underscored that tolerance for terrorism must not be a function of countries' foreign or domestic politics. This, he stressed, was the biggest injustice to the victims of terrorism. The foreign minister also noted the urgent need for continuing international cooperation to fight this global problem without any prejudice or preconceived notions against any particular religion, race, civilization or country. The Global Congress is a two-day high-level event that is being organized by the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT). The objective of the Congress is to raise awareness about the rights and needs of victims of terrorism and promote dialogue on this issue. The event was also attended by a number of countries at the ministerial level. (@FahadShabbir) Tokyo, Sept 9 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Sep, 2022 ) :The death of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II is a "great loss" for the entire world, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Friday, expressing his "deep sorrow." "The death of the queen, who led Britain through turbulent times in the world, is a great loss not only for the British people but also the international community," he told reporters. Kishida praised the queen's "extremely important role in world peace and stability," saying she "contributed greatly to the strengthening of Japan-UK relations". News of her death, he added, left him "feeling deep sorrow". "The Japanese government offers sincere condolences to the British monarchy, the British government and the British people." Dakar, Sept 9 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Sep, 2022 ) :Senegal will break new ground Monday as West Africa's largest-ever proportion of women MPs take their seats in a newly elected legislature, stirring hopes of change in a country where patriarchal laws and attitudes are entrenched. More than 44 percent of seats in Senegal's next National Assembly will be held by women -- the biggest share of any country in the region. But hopes for dramatic progress on issues ranging from reproductive rights to domestic violence also have to be balanced with political reality. Aminata Toure, a former prime minister and incoming MP for President Macky Sall's APR party, cautioned that in politics, female pioneers always encounter resistance and suspicion. "You're much more scrutinised... they don't forgive you for any mistakes", she told AFP. "I think all women in power would tell you the same." Seventy-three out of 165 parliamentary seats will be held by women following elections in July across Senegal, widely viewed as a beacon of democracy and stability in a region marked by conflict and military rule. The country ranks fourth in Africa and 18th in the world for gender parity in parliament, ahead of Switzerland, France, Britain and the US, according to the Geneva-based organisation the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Outside of Senegal, only 15 of 111 elected or appointed parliamentary or ministerial positions that opened in West Africa and the Sahel between December and June were filled by women, a UN report has said. Senegal's high share is explained by a 2010 law requiring "absolute gender parity" in all elective institutions, with candidate lists alternating between men and women. The latest tally of legislators is two more than previously, and the highest ever under the parity rules. The law "allows women to have a say on the national budget, express the concerns and needs of women in parliament and show society that women are equally qualified," said Toure. Women "can bring another culture of governing". Candidate lists are often topped by men and, when they are odd-numbered, tend to have one more man than woman, which explains why female representation remains below 50 percent, a National Assembly spokeswoman said. - Incremental change - Activists point to a mountain of tasks in a country that ranks a lowly 130th out of 189 states on a UN gender equality index. But efforts to fix them under the new assembly are likely to be incremental. Rape was only criminalised in 2020, and national laws have yet to fully implement the Maputo Protocol, an African Union initiative to widen abortion access that Senegal ratified in 2005. It obliges state parties to allow abortion in cases of rape and incest, among others. But in Senegal, abortion is only permitted to save a pregnant woman's life, said Aissatou Ywa of Task Force, an alliance of civil society and medical associations campaigning for rape and incest to be included. In 2020, one quarter of the female prison population had been jailed for abortion-related crimes, according to the NGO Africa Check, quoting data provided by Senegal's penitentiary administrators. Other campaign groups are pushing for legal changes that would raise the age of marriage for girls to 18 from 16. The legal age of marriage is already 18 for men. "It should be raised to 18 for girls to enable them to continue school and be on the same footing, in terms of rights, as boys", said Maimouna Yade, head of the women's organisation JGEN. Campaigners are also pushing to allow mothers to have the same parental authority under law as fathers. "There are so many things to do," said Mame Diarra Fam, an incoming MP for the opposition Senegalese Democratic Party. She highlighted violence against women, education for girls and access to health, following a string of headline-making tragedies in maternity clinics over the last 18 months. - Test ahead - Advocates and MPs credit the parity law for several success stories. In 2013, parliament enacted a law allowing Senegalese women married to foreigners to pass their nationality onto their children, a right that was already permitted for Senegalese men. Toure had introduced the bill as justice minister. Another breakthrough was legislation criminalising rape -- a law "largely pushed" by female MPs, said Yade. Whether women's rising numbers in parliament translates into executive clout will soon face a key test. Sall will be scrutinised to see if he Names a woman to the role of prime minister, a position that he had abolished in 2019 under the country's presidential system. Senegal's first woman prime minister was Mame Madior Boye, who served from 2001 to 2002. She was followed by Toure, in office from 2013 to 2014. Another issue is how many women Sall will name to ministerial jobs. Toure is among those wanting parity to be extended to the cabinet and even to the private sector. Civil society groups meanwhile are campaigning hard for a female speaker of the assembly, a role never held by a woman. "We really want a woman leading the 2022-2027 parliament", said Coumba Gueye, executive secretary of the Association of Senegalese Women Lawyers. "If we have a woman, a lot of things can be changed." (@FahadShabbir) ISLAMABAD, Sep 9 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Sep, 2022 ) :Acting Head of United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General (DSRSG) for Afghanistan Markup Potzel called on Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar here on Thursday and discussed matters of mutual interest. During the meeting, the Minister of State underscored that sustained engagement of the international community, including UNAMA, with the Interim Afghan Government was imperative for lasting peace and stability in Afghanistan. She stressed the importance of addressing the most pressing challenges facing Afghanistan in the humanitarian and socio-economic domains. She also highlighted Pakistan's efforts for a peaceful, stable, prosperous, connected and economically sustainable Afghanistan. The Minister of State apprised the Acting Head of UNAMA of Pakistan's continued efforts for enhancing bilateral trade and economic cooperation with Afghanistan. The Acting Head of UNAMA was deeply appreciative of Pakistan's role in evacuation of workers of foreign embassies, international organizations and others. He also shared his perspective on the evolving situation in Afghanistan. During his visit, the Acting Head of UNAMA also called on Foreign Secretary Sohail Mahmood. The Foreign Secretary underscored the importance Pakistan attached to a peaceful and stable Afghanistan and the well-being and prosperity of the Afghan people. He added that a pragmatic approach and constructive engagement were imperative for promoting the shared objectives of Afghanistan and the international community. The Acting Head of UNAMA briefed the Foreign Secretary about initiatives being taken by UNAMA under its mandate. Both sides reiterated their commitment to promoting sustainable peace and security in Afghanistan as well as addressing the humanitarian and long-term economic needs of the Afghan people. ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Sep, 2022 ) :Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday, stressing the spirit of 'climate justice', said Pakistan merited support from the world, especially the industrialized countries, to respond to the current climate calamity. The prime minister, in a meeting with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said Pakistan needed support from the international community to help it recover and rebuild with enhanced resilience. Secretary-General Guterres is on a two-day solidarity visit to Pakistan in the wake of unprecedented rains and floods in the country. The prime minister highlighted that Pakistan was facing floods of epic proportions, which were a dreadful manifestation of climate-induced natural disaster. He outlined the extensive rescue and relief efforts being undertaken by the government, in collaboration with the UN agencies, international community and humanitarian organizations, to reach out to the deeply affected over 33 million people across the country. He highlighted that Secretary-General Guterres's visit to Pakistan demonstrated strong solidarity with the people of Pakistan at the critical time. The prime minister appreciated the secretary-general's strong support and advocacy for mobilizing international assistance, including for the $ 160 million UN Flash Appeal to fund Pakistan's Flood Response Plan. He also lauded the secretary-general's forceful messaging highlighting the linkage of the floods with the impacts of climate change. The prime minister added that the secretary-general's leadership and timely intervention had helped put the global spotlight on the serious challenges posed by the catastrophic floods. He recalled that with less than one percent of global carbon emissions, Pakistan was among those least responsible for global warming. However, he said, it was among the top ten countries most severely impacted by climate change. The two leaders also discussed Pakistan's plans for the phase of rehabilitation of the affected population and reconstruction of areas devastated by the floods. The prime minister emphasized Pakistan's resolve to build resilience against future climate shocks, including through various projects on adaptation and mitigation with adequate support from the UN system and other international partners. Recalling his long association with Pakistan, the secretary-general conveyed his enormous appreciation for the people of Pakistan. He said he was witness to the resilience of the Pakistani people as well as their generosity in helping their compatriots and in hosting millions of Afghan refugees for decades. He added that he was also deeply moved by devastation and the humanitarian consequences of the massive floods. He assured full support and commitment to Pakistan, including for mobilizing international assistance. The secretary-general emphasized that it was not merely about solidarity but a question of justice. Apart from the massive support required for rehabilitation and reconstruction, the whole issue of climate change needed to be addressed with the kind of urgency, seriousness and responsibilities that it deserved, he added. The prime minister and the secretary-general subsequently attended a briefing at the National Flood Response and Coordination Centre (NFRCC). The secretary-general will also be travelling to areas most impacted by the floods as part of his visit. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Samantha Power called on Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif here on Friday and discussed the issues pertaining to relief assistance in the flood hit areas of Pakistan ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Sep, 2022 ) :Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Samantha Power called on Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif here on Friday and discussed the issues pertaining to relief assistance in the flood hit areas of Pakistan. Power is visiting Pakistan from September 8-9 to assess the scale of the flood related disaster. The prime minister thanked Power for the humanitarian relief assistance extended by the US in the wake of floods. He said her visit at the time, when Pakistan was battling the immediate effects of devastation by super floods was an expression of the US government's solidarity with its people. He apprised her of the scale of destruction Pakistan had suffered; death toll of more than 1,300; over 33 million people displaced; four million acres of crops destroyed; 800,000 livestock perished, entire villages and livelihoods swept away and infrastructure losses. The government was using all resources available for rescue and immediate relief operations, however, food insecurity and rehabilitation would be major challenges that would follow, he added. The prime minister stressed that owing to the sheer magnitude and intensity of the crisis, Pakistan was unable to meet the short-term or long-term challenges on its own. He emphasized that continued international support, solidarity, and assistance would be required and sought the US support in mobilizing the international community. The prime minister said Pakistan intended to pursue reconstruction in a climate resilient manner. To achieve that end, it needed international expertise, technical assistance, funding and predictable climate financing. He said climate change was the common challenge of humanity, highlighting the need for collective effort in that regard. USAID Administrator Samantha Power expressed her condolences for those who had lost their loved ones in the flood victims. She informed the prime minister that the USAID had enhanced the financial assistance by another $20 million, thus taking it to a total of $51 million. Samantha Power vowed that the U.S. Administration would remain engaged and continue to support Pakistan in the difficult circumstances. The prime minister thanked the US government for increase in funds for the flood victims. He further said after the rescue and relief phase would be over, the reconstruction of the damaged infrastructure presented a daunting challenge, for which Pakistan looked forward to international aid mobilization. Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Friday stressed that the challenge of floods exceeded Pakistan's resources and capacities, therefore, support of the international community was crucial to help the country respond effectively to the catastrophe ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Sep, 2022 ) :Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Friday stressed that the challenge of floods exceeded Pakistan's resources and capacities, therefore, support of the international community was crucial to help the country respond effectively to the catastrophe. The minister made the remarks during his meeting here with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar and Foreign Secretary Sohail Mahmood also joined the meeting. The minister appreciated the Secretary-General's timely visit to demonstrate solidarity with the people and Government of Pakistan in the wake of the catastrophic floods in the country. He expressed gratitude for the Secretary-General's strong push to mobilize international assistance for the people of Pakistan, including through the UN "Flash Appeal" to complement the Government's ongoing response. Bilawal noted that unprecedented rains had triggered the worst natural disaster in Pakistan's history, submerging one-third of the country and affecting over 33 million people, with colossal damages to critical infrastructure and livelihoods. Giving an overview of the steps being undertaken by the Government to respond to the calamity, the foreign minister stressed that the challenge exceeded Pakistan's resources and capacities; therefore, the support of the international community was crucial to help the country respond effectively to this climate catastrophe, and to recover and rebuild, in a sustainable manner. The Secretary-General reaffirmed full support and cooperation of the UN, both for ongoing humanitarian relief work as well as for long-term recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction. He stressed that it was not only a matter of generosity or solidarity of the international community, but of justice. The Secretary General discussed various ideas for mobilizing international finance and for enhancing fiscal space for Pakistan's efforts to rehabilitate and reconstruct. Both sides exchanged views on how to reinforce climate action, with special emphasis on supporting the adaptation efforts of developing countries including through debt swaps. Secretary-General Guterres is on a two-day solidarity visit to Pakistan. In addition to his meetings with the leadership in Islamabad, the Secretary General will also travel to areas most affected by floods to interact with the displaced people and witness first hand relief efforts. Administrator United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Samantha Power called on Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa here at the General Headquarters (GHQ) and expressed grief over the devastation caused by ongoing floods in Pakistan RAWALPINDI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th Sep, 2022 ) :Administrator United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Samantha Power called on Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa here at the General Headquarters (GHQ) and expressed grief over the devastation caused by ongoing floods in Pakistan. The USAID Administrator also offered sincere condolence to the families of the flood victims, the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) media release here received on Friday said. The Administrator offered full support to the people of Pakistan and also appreciated Pakistan Army's efforts for assisting civil administration and flood affected population in rescue and relief efforts in areas hit by recent floods. During the meeting, matters of mutual interest, collaboration and partnership in humanitarian measures were discussed. The COAS thanked for USA's support and reiterated that assistance from the country's global partners would be vital in rescue and rehabilitation of the victims. WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th September, 2022) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed issues including further security and humanitarian aid to Ukraine and challenges involving Iran during a virtual meeting with European counterparts, State Department spokesman Ned price said on Friday. Blinken met with UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Price said in a statement. "Secretary Blinken also briefed them on his visit to Ukraine, including his discussions with President Zelenskyy and Foreign Minister Kuleba, and our announcement of more than $2. 8 billion in additional US military assistance to Ukraine and its neighbors," the statement said. The participants emphasized the importance of continued military and humanitarian aid to Kiev and reaffirmed their support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, according to the statement. The officials also discussed challenges posed by Iran and the shared commitment to cooperatively addressing them, the statement added. The US, Iran and European mediators are currently negotiating a return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran nuclear deal. VLADIVOSTOK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th September, 2022) The Dominican Republic is determined to develop relations with Russia, and be a good friend in both good and bad times, Dominican Ambassador to Russia Hans Dannenberg Castellanos told Sputnik on Friday. "We are here just to be present, let our self be known and remind Russians that we are friends in good and bad times. And that Dominican Republic wants Russians to continue vising our country and for Russians to continue enjoying our rum, our cigars, our coffee, our avocado and our mangoes," Castellanos told Sputnik on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok. The ambassador noted that he hopes that the countries will continue their fruitful relations, established almost 80 years ago, regardless of sanctions. "We definitely want to continue the long-lasting friendship that we've had as countries and the bonds that we have created through people that came to study here and the people that continue studying in the Russian Federation universities. This time of difficulties only brings opportunities," he said, adding that "we hope that our trade and commerce and friendship will continue for many years to come." The authorities of the Dominican Republic are working on creating additional connecting flights so that Russians can still fly to the republic on vacations, the ambassador said, adding that "unfortunately because of the sanctions, not sanctions from our side, but because of the no overfly of Europe the flight becomes too long to operate. " "We are trying to continue to receive Russian tourists through Turkey, Almaty and Yerevan. Russian tourists are familiar with the country since 2000 when visas were eliminated... We are working on new connectivity so that people to people contacts will remain... Right now there are new flights starting to Cuba and Venezuela. We are working in having those flights scheduled in a way that they connect to flight to Dominican Republic," Castellanos said. The ambassador also said that the Dominican Republic is looking into new opportunities of doing business with Russia, including the production of rum and gold mining industry cooperation. He also stated that there are several current projects with the Russian far eastern regions. The 7th EEF was held from September 5-8 in Vladivostok, on the Far Eastern Federal University campus. The Sputnik news agency was an information partner of the forum. (@ChaudhryMAli88) MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th September, 2022) There are no plans for a bilateral meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the sidelines of the G20 summit on Bali yet, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko said on Friday. "So far, we have no agenda to talk about. If Ukraine had reacted differently to the draft document, which was handed over to the Ukrainian delegation on April 15, which contained the key elements of a possible agreement, then perhaps such a meeting would make sense. But now, there is simply no such thing and we have no corresponding plans (to arrange a bilateral meeting," Rudenko told reporters. (@FahadShabbir) CHISINAU (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th September, 2022) A Romanian military ship collided with a drifting mine near the port of Constanta due to bad weather conditions, the country's naval forces said. "The 'Lieutenant Dimitrie Nicolescu' ship (DM-29) arrived at about 17:45 local time (14:45 GMT) on Thursday, September 8, in the area of a drifting sea mine... to neutralise it. Although security measures were taken at nightfall, due to adverse weather conditions, the warship was hit by a naval mine, which was carried adrift by the storm," the Romanian naval forces said in a statement on Thursday evening. The ship arrived at the area where the mine was drifting, carrying divers on board, but could not approach the target due to strong winds, according to the statement. The navy specified that the collision formed a hole near the ship's waterline in the stern. No one died or was injured as a result of the explosion, 75 crew members are not in danger, the ship's buoyancy is not disturbed and there is no major damage on board. Immediately after the explosion, the ship's crew blocked the water hole and limited the impact of sea water entering the aft compartment. The authorities initiated a rescue operation. This was the third operation of the Romanian navy to destroy drifting mines since the start of hostilities in Ukraine. According to the Romanian authorities, 28 naval mines were destroyed in the western part of the Black Sea from March to September. (@ChaudhryMAli88) VIENNA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th September, 2022) Russia remains a part of the European culture and the idea of introducing a total ban on the issuance of visas to Russians is a mistake, Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said on Friday. "It is important ... to follow a sense of proportion and not go too far. It would be a complete stop of entry for all 144 million Russians," Schallenberg said in an interview with the Wiener Zeitung newspaper. Austria with its history is well acquainted with Russian realities, the minister said, adding that "the geography does not change, Russia remains part of the history and European culture." MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th September, 2022) The Turkish intelligence had been following one of the leaders of the Islamic State terrorist organization (IS, banned in Russia), captured on Thursday, and his connections in Syria and Istanbul for a long time, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday. IS terrorist Bashar Khattab Ghazal al-Sumaidai, also known as Abu Zeid, was captured in a successful operation by the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT) and Istanbul police, Turkish news agency Anadolu reported on Thursday, citing Erdogan. The terrorist's connections in Syria and Istanbul had been followed for a long time and, according to intelligence information, Zeid planned to enter Turkey illegally, the president told reporters upon his return from a three-day Balkan tour. The Istanbul security units determined that the terrorist used a faked identity. Erdogan noted that the terrorist was one of the senior executives of IS, Anadolu said. Zeid was transferred to the judicial authorities on the order of the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, after being questioned by the National Intelligence Organization and the Istanbul police. The detained terrorist was listed as the head of a terrorist organization in the 30th regular report of the UN Security Council, published on July 11. MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th September, 2022) The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN Refugee Agency called on Friday for providing a $68-million assistance to at least 96,000 refugees who fled the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and South Sudan to Uganda for security reasons. "Amid surging humanitarian needs for 96,000 refugees who have fled to Uganda so far this year, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and partners urgently require US$68 million for life-saving assistance and services," UNHCR Representative in Uganda Matthew Crentsil said in a statement. The UNHCR received only 38% of the 2022 funding it had requested in the amount of $343. 4 million to address the needs of refugees heading to Uganda, the statement read. "UNHCR and its partners need urgent financial contributions to meet the urgent needs of new refugee arrivals in Uganda, to upgrade the reception capacity and basic infrastructure of refugee settlements and prioritize the relocation of refugees to more suitable facilities," it said. The unstable security situation in the eastern DRC has led to a large number of refugees seeking asylum in neighboring Uganda, with nearly 100,000 people arriving since January 2022. The United States has congratulated Angola's President-elect Joao Lourenco on the election victory, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in a statement on Friday WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th September, 2022) The United States has congratulated Angola's President-elect Joao Lourenco on the election victory, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in a statement on Friday. "We congratulate President-elect Joao Lourenco on his election as Angola's next president," Blinken said. "We look forward to working with him to strengthen the vital relationship between Angola and the United States." In addition, the United States will continue to collaborate closely with the Angolan government and people to promote the shared goals while working together to advance a more sustainable, secure, inclusive and prosperous future, Blinken said. Angola held general elections at the the end of August. The Election Commission announced the preliminary results after processing 97% of the ballots, according to which the ruling People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) party won, securing 51.07% of the votes. In accordance with Angolan law, the leader of the winning party, Joao Lourenco, keeps the top office. Residents of the US capital are bringing flowers and postcards to the UK Embassy in the United States to honor the late Queen Elizabeth II, who died earthier on Thursday WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th September, 2022) Residents of the US capital are bringing flowers and postcards to the UK Embassy in the United States to honor the late Queen Elizabeth II, who died earthier on Thursday. The royal family issued a statement earlier in the day that the queen died peacefully at Balmoral castle at the age of 96. The queen, the United Kingdom's longest-reigning monarch, was placed under medical supervision after her health condition deteriorated. The British flag flying on the embassy's main building has been lowered half-staff and embassy representatives are wearing black clothes. Dozens of international media representatives have already gathered outside the diplomatic mission and more are arriving. Earlier on Thursday, US President Joe Biden said the late Queen Elizabeth II was a stateswoman of unmatched dignity who strengthened the relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States. Biden emphasized that Elizabeth II was more than a monarch, but "defined an era." Biden added that the United States looks forward to continuing the close friendship with the United Kingdoms' King and Queen Consort in the years ahead. USM School of Media and Communication Faculty Members Named to Mississippi Association of Broadcasters Fellowship Program Fri, 09/09/2022 - 13:08pm | By: David Tisdale From left to right: Chuck Cook, Dr. Lindsey Conlin Maxwell, Jonathan McGowan The Mississippi Association of Broadcasters (MAB) recently named seven faculty/staff members from four of the states universities to its 2022 Fellowship Program, with three from The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) School of Media and Communication - Dr. Lindsey Conlin Maxwell, Chuck Cook, and Jonathan McGowan. The purpose of the MAB Faculty/Staff Fellowship Program is to educate selected faculty/staff from Mississippis universities about todays broadcast media environment to help them better prepare their students for careers in broadcasting. As part of this initiative, Dr. Maxwell and Cook partnered with WDAM-TV in Hattiesburg, and McGowan with WLOX-TV in Biloxi. "Selection for a program like that offered by MAB is more evidence of our faculty remaining close to the industries our students serve, said Dr. Ed Simpson, director of the School of Media and Communication. In the last couple of years, we have had more demand for our broadcast students than we have had graduates. The high job placement for our graduates is testament to the strength of the program put together by Dr. Maxwell and our Student Media Center leaders, Profs. Cook and McGowan." For information about The USM School of Media and Communication, visit https://www.usm.edu/media-communication/index.php. Mississippi INBRE Hosts Inaugural Mississippi IDeA/EPSCoR Conference 2022 Fri, 09/09/2022 - 14:09pm | By: Danny Holland The Mississippi IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE), in conjunction with the Mississippi Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), hosted the inaugural Mississippi IDeA/EPSCoR Conference 2022 this summer at the Lake Terrace Convention Center in Hattiesburg. The conference featured more than 400 attendees and 171 presentations in both oral and poster format, including many from University of Southern Mississippi (USM) faculty and students. The annual meeting focused on public health, polymer science and engineering, as well as biomedical research. Collaboration amongst these varied groups is rare and made for a day full of scientific breakthroughs and discovery. Highlights included opening session by Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney, State of the State, as well as the closing session hosted by Dr. Nelson Atehortua De la Pena, director of the Office of Health Data and Research for the MSDH. Owing to the conferences success was its unique structure. Bringing students, researchers, and public health professionals together, the meeting featured both a STEM track and the second annual Mississippi Health Disparities 2022 (MHD2022), as well as undergraduate poster competitions. Mississippi INBRE was proud to organize a venue for students and scientists from across the state to present their work. This was the first time multiple programs participated, leading to an event with over 400 attendees, said Dr. Alex Flynt, Program Director of Mississippi INBRE and Associate Professor in USMs Center for Molecular and Cellular Biosciences. With the scale of the meeting, researchers from a breadth of disciplines were attracted from chemists to cell biologists, to those involved in public health. Seeing this success, we hope to plan a similar conference next year. Mississippi INBRE is also pleased to have offered the opportunity for students to gain presentation experience. Not only were undergraduate poster sessions hosted on both the STEM and MHD2022 tracks, but nearly every session on the STEM track featured graduate student speakers. Of the seven students who placed in the undergraduate poster competitions, three attend USM and five are former Mississippi INBRE Student Scholars. Poster competition information is as follows: Overall Best Research Poster: Dakota Kilcrease, William Carey University, Mississippi INBRE Outreach Scholar STEM Laboratory Poster Competition: 1st place- Brian Ridenour, Arizona State University 2nd place- Rachel Worden, Georgia Institute of Technology 3rd place- Lola Smith, The University of Southern Mississippi, Mississippi INBRE Research Scholar Community-Based Poster Competition: 1st place- Jaylen Sandifer, Jackson State University, Mississippi INBRE Service Scholar 2nd place- Tylan Hunt, The University of Southern Mississippi, Mississippi INBRE Outreach Scholar 3rd place- Maria Matory, The University of Southern Mississippi, Mississippi INBRE Outreach Scholar For more information about Mississippi INBRE, visit msinbre.org. USMs Patino Earns Top Honor from Sorority Fri, 09/09/2022 - 14:03pm | By: David Tisdale Ana Patino says she never thought about her own potential to be a student leader when she enrolled at The University of Southern Mississippi (USM). But shes proven to be a natural at it, earning the notice of those at the national level of her sorority, Kappa Delta, who recently bestowed upon her the Corre Anding Stegall Collegiate Leadership Award, its highest individual collegiate honor. Named in honor of former Kappa Delta National President Corre Anding Stegall, the Stegall Collegiate Leadership Award was created by Kappa Deltas national council in 1989 to recognize collegians demonstrating high academic performance and exemplary leadership within their chapter, on campus, and in the community. A senior business administration major from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, Patino currently serves as president of the sororitys Beta Sigma chapter at USM, which was founded in 1949 and affiliated with its College Panhellenic Council. She was chosen from among more than 23,000 collegiate Kappa Delta members in 186 chapters across the nation for the award, which comes with a $3,000 leadership scholarship for the 2022-23 academic year. In addition to her work as leader of her sorority, Patino is also a member of Eagle Connection, and Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society, among other organizations on campus. She is also a volunteer at Kids Hub, a child advocacy center in Hattiesburg, and works with local Girl Scouts. After graduation, Patino says shes considering a career with a non-profit organization. Im honored, and extremely grateful, Patino said. When I first came to USM, I never considered myself a leader, but USM and Kappa Delta helped me become this person. Stegall praised Patino upon her being named recipient of the award, saying You richly deserve this honor; your dedication, work ethic, and loyalty to Kappa Delta are truly inspirational. Im proud of you and humbled to have my name associated with the incredibly accomplished women who received this award. Patino expressed gratitude for the support of USM administration and staff members, including Hannah Scott Black, USM College Panhellenic Council director; Laura Laughlin, director of USM Fraternity and Sorority Life director; Lauren Bridges of the Kappa Delta Beta Sigma Chapter Advisory Board; and Nicole Ruhnke, advisor to the USM Student Alumni Association; Bonnie Purvis Warren, a USM Kappa Delta alumna and former national president for the sorority; and her professors, fellow students and members of her family. "When I found out that Ana had received this prestigious award, which didn't surprise me at all, I was thrilled, said Hannah Scott Black, coordinator for USMs Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life and advisor to the College Panhellenic Council. Working with her this past year has been an absolute joy. You could have a five-minute conversation with Ana and immediately know she genuinely wants the best for not only her own chapter, but for the Panhellenic and the Southern Miss communities as well. She truly embodies the qualities of servant-leadership, confidence, and sisterhood, and is a student I will always be proud to know." More than a place to attend college, USM has become a second home to Patino. Im a military kid, so Ive lived all over the United States, and now claim Ocean Springs as my hometown, Patino said. But my four years here at Southern Miss will actually be the longest period of time Ive been at one school my entire life. And the people here at USM, they care about you, every one of them faculty, staff, administrators, fellow students - they want to see you succeed. #AHORA | El presidente de la Republica @PedroCastilloTe inspecciona las instalaciones del CITEtextil Camelidos Cusco. Tambien se reunira con dirigentes alpaqueros de la region. pic.twitter.com/7YfgLa7HIt A terrorist attack Tuesday night at Mozambiques Catholic Mission of Chipene, Nampula Province, Diocese of Nacala, killed an Italian religious sister. Dulce Araujo - Vatican News. Sister Maria De Coppi, an Italian Comboni Missionary, was 83 years old. Terrorists shot her in the head at Chipene Mission, and she died instantly - said the Archbishop of Nampula, Inacio Saure. A climate of uncertainty and fear In Nampula Province, the atmosphere is one of great sorrow, fear and uncertainty since terrorists last week also attacked the nearby town of Odinepa. They killed villagers, burnt houses and caused the displacement of hundreds of residents. On Tuesday night, the gunmen descended on the Catholic Mission of Chipene, killing Sister Maria De Coppi. They may strike other places in the Archdiocese, said Archbishop Inacio Saure in a telephone interview with Sheila Pires from Johannesburg. No security to protect the people Missionary personnel and ordinary people have no protection in these areas, explained the Archbishop in response to a question about what the countrys security forces were doing to protect the people. According to the Archbishop, people need protection and pray that authorities will move quickly to nip this evil in its root so that what has happened in the Province of Cabo Delgado does not repeat itself in Nampula. Archbishop Inacio Saures assessment suggests that the terrorists are widening their reach. They have spread from Cabo Delgado to Niassa and were now in Nampula Province. The prelate also appealed to the international community to support the suffering people of Mozambique and help find effective solutions to the unfolding tragedy. Archbishop Inacio Saure said the Bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Nampula would give more details about what had happened there. Sr Maria to be buried Thursday Meanwhile, the Comboni Sisters, in a statement signed by Sister Laura Malnati, Provincial Superior in Mozambique, announced that the funeral of Sister Maria De Coppi would be held on 9 September. The funeral service will be held at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish of Carapira, better known as Carapira Mission, at 9.30 a.m. Funeral ceremonies will be presided over by Bishop Alberto Vera of Nacala. Sister Maria De Coppi was 83 years old and had lived in Mozambique for the last 59 years, where she first arrived in 1963. During her long sojourn, she passed through several missions: Anchilo, Meconta, Alua, Balama and Chipene, where she worked in the pastoral ministry. Later, she distinguished herself as a religious formator for young women who wished to join the Comboni Missionary Sisters. A migrant, a religious, a sister among sisters, and the first saint from Uruguay, St. Francesa Rubatto lived her life in openness to God's call, and she showed her love for Jesus in her service to the poor and to those most in need. By Sebastian Sanson Ferrari Be the sisters of the people, wrote the first saint of Uruguay, Francesca Rubatto (baptized Anna Maria), to the Congregation of Capuchin Sisters. Born on 14 February 1844 in Carmagnola, Italy, she was canonized by Pope Francis on Sunday, 15 May 2022. This spirit [of service] inspired her life and apostolate in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, where she chose to live from 1892 until her death in 1904. In fact, in her final will and testament, she expressed her wish to be buried in the midst of her dear poor ones. A feminine version of modern Franciscanism The website of the congregation she founded affirms that she gave Franciscanism a modern feminine version, and that she is one of the greatest figures of todays female Franciscanism. Precisely like Saint Francis of Assisi, Mother Frances encountered Christ in the poor and suffering, and had an authentic experience of Lady Poverty, the website adds. She was a sister among the Sisters, more than a founding mother, and she lived such a profound missionary zeal and a desire for martyrdom, that accompanied her until the end of her life, consumed by charity and love for Jesus and for the poor. Image of St. Francesca Rubatto Founded on 23 January 1885, the Congregation is present today in Italy, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya and Malawi, with schools and parishes where the sisters provide assistance to people most in need. Close to the poor Once she had arrived in Uruguay, Saint Frances chose the region of La Teja, Belvedere, Paso de la Arena and Barra de Santa Lucia, which, at the time, was barren land. She would interact with locals, even with workers on their way to the slaughterhouse on Sunday mornings, and catch the train with them at dawn, at 4 a.m. Among other things, she was able to identify peoples needs for clothing and food, and, with a profound vision, she decided to have a group of her sisters live in the Belvedere neighbourhood, home of the shrine where her remains are kept today. Participants at the Thanksgiving Mass for the Canonization of St. Rubatto Mother Rubatto, also accomplished a commendable work of formation and evangelization: she made sure that young girls learned a profession so that they could make a living without having to depend on their families. She taught them to read, write, cook, sew and embroider, but she also offered them religious formation. The workshops Frances started later became large institutes, like San Jose de la Providencia de Montevideo high school and Saint Francis of Assisi schools in Rosario and Buenos Aires, Argentina. Openness to God's call One of Saint Frances distinctive traits was her openness to accept Gods call amid the challenges reality presented to her, and to respond to them, Fr Carlo Calloni, Postulator for the Cause of Canonization, told Vatican Radio-Vatican News. For instance, when she was 40 years old, they proposed that she lead a project in Loano, in the Diocese of Genoa. It was an unusual invitation according to the human mindset: A stone fell from some scaffolding, and she helped the construction worker who had been injured, and at the same time, she received the call from a Capuchin, Fr Angelico da Sestri Ponente, who offered her the position of director, the postulator recalls. After examining the proposal with her spiritual director, Mother Rubatto decided to accept. Saint Frances and Saint Don Bosco A less known aspect of Saint Frances was her closeness to Don Bosco. The Salesian family in Uruguay explained the decisive influence on Saint Frances that the Father and Teacher of the youth had. According to a publication by the Salesians in Uruguay, the new saints life reveals a strong and decisive relationship with Don Bosco. She had arrived in Turin in 1862 after losing almost all of her family. She settled in the home of her older sister, who was married, and then went to work for a wealthy countess. It was at the time that Don Bosco was working with his oratories and she decided to work with him with that discretion, prudence, kindness and tenderness that always characterized her, they add. Don Boscos prophecies regarding Saint Frances mission, the Salesians say, fully came true, and Anna Maria incorporated in her mission various elements of the Preventive System, such as the desire to help abandoned young people, to educate and promote them to give dignity to their lives. The tomb of St. Rubatto in the sanctuary dedicated to her The first Uruguayan saint Mother Rubattos moniker as the first saint of Uruguay is inspired by Pope John Paul II, who during her beatification ceremony on 10 October 1993, said: Today we greet you as the first blessed of Uruguay. In his homily, St. John Paul II added: The Church salutes you, Sister Maria Francesca of Jesus, Foundress of the Third Order of Loano, who made your life a constant service to the lowliest, witnessing to Gods special love for the lowly and the humble. Faithfully following in the footprints of Francis, the lover of evangelical poverty, you learned not only to serve the poor, but to make yourself poor, and you showed your spiritual daughters this special way of evangelization. With the growth of the institute, this initial insight became a deep missionary impulse that brought you and your work to Latin America, where several of your spiritual daughters sealed, with the sacrifice of their lives, that service to the poor which constitutes the charism entrusted to your congregation, for the benefit of the entire Church. In an interview with Vatican News, Archbishop Tomasz Peta, the head of Kazakhstan's largest and only Archdiocese - Astana - calls Pope Francis' trip to the Central Asian nation next week 'a great blessing' for Catholics and entire country, saying the interreligious Congress he will attend "can be a sign which points to God as to the source of peace." By Deborah Castellano Lubov Archbishop Tomasz Peta of Astana spoke to Vatican News ahead of Pope Francis' upcoming Apostolic Journey to Kazakhstan, which takes place on 13-15 September. In a wide-ranging interview, Archbishop Peta reflected on the Pope's visit and the reality for practicing Catholics in Kazakhstan. Pope Francis makes his 38th Apostolic Visit abroad to Kazakhstan's capital of Nur-Sultan to participate in the 7th Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, and to express his closeness to the Central Asian nation's small Catholic community. Catholics make up around 1 percent of the country's population of 19 million, which is about 70 percent Muslim and 25 percent Christian, primarily Russian Orthodox. Listen to Archbishop Tomasz Peta of Astana, Kazakhstan: In addition, Polish-born Archbishop Peta, who was ordained a priest by the late Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, and then Bishop by Pope St. John Paul II, also shares a personal anecdote. Q: What is the importance of Pope Francis' visit to Kazakhstan from your point of view? A visit of Pope Francis is always a historical event, even more in a country, where the Catholics are a small flock. This fact confirmed the visit of Pope John Paul II in 2001, which indicated to the presence of the Catholic Church in the country of the Great Steppe, strengthening her in the faith. I am, therefore, convinced that the visit of Pope Francis is a great blessing for us Catholics and for the entire Kazakhstan. Taking into consideration the dramatic international situation, the current visit bears the hope for peace and reconciliation on a global scale. We are very grateful, that the Holy Father will bless in the Cathedral of Nur-Sultan the new icon the triptych of the Mother of the Great Steppe. This icon is destined for our National Shrine of the Queen of Peace in Ozyornoye. It will remind us of the Papal visit. In this manner we will pray in Ozyornoye in the spiritual union with the Pope for peace and in the intentions of the Pope. Q: What is the importance of this interfaith Congress and the Pope's presence and participation within it? The Congress of the Leaders of World and Traditional Religions (already the seventh in the capital of Kazakhstan) is not a platform of theological discussions. In my opinion, it can be a sign which points to God as to the source of peace. Although the efforts of the politicians are necessary, they are insufficient. An intense prayer of the believers for peace is required. The participation of the Holy Father Francis in the Congress raises the level of this event and points to the care of the Church for peace and the welfare of all humankind. Q: How is Pope Francis seen in Kazakhstan? For the Catholics of Kazakhstan, Pope Francis is the Head of the Church the Successor of Peter. With joy and hope we expect the Pope. It is notable that for the Kazakh authorities the Holy Father represents an authority. This is shown in the assiduous manner with which the Government is preparing the visit of the Pope. Q: From when you arrived in Kazakhstan, what has struck you most? Can you share with us what you have seen? I arrived in Kazakhstan in 1990, still in the time of the Soviet Union. At that time there were no ecclesiastical structures. On the territory of five Republics of the Soviet Union there ministered around 15 local priests, citizens of the Soviet Union. In many cities and villages there existed communities of the faithful. Where in the time of the Communism people prayed in a special manner the Rosary, the faith and the feeling of belonging to the Church were preserved. This bore then its fruits in the conditions of the freedom of religion and conscience after Kazakhstan gained independence (in the year 1991). Quickly were established parishes and built churches and chapels. Q: What is it like to be a practicing Catholic in Kazakhstan? In Kazakhstan, we enjoy religious freedom. Nevertheless, it is not easy to be a Catholic in our country. Why? Catholics are less than one percent. The 19 million citizens of Kazakhstan are a mosaic of 130 nationalities / 70% are native population Kazakhs / and belonging to 18 officially registered religions. To be a Catholic signifies to make a mature choice. During the years of the independence of our country several millions of its citizens went to their historical homelands. Among them were several thousand Catholics. In this time the Catholic Community became more international. The Catholics of Kazakhstan belong to ten different nationalities, including also representatives of the Kazakh nation. One can no longer call us, as before, German or Polish Church. Q: In Central Asia, how have you seen the Pope's appeals for peace regarding the war in Ukraine? The war in Ukraine is a great tragedy. One can say that it is a wound on the body of all humankind. We believe, that the visit of the Holy Father Francis will strongly contribute to an end of the war in Ukraine and to the obtainment of the long-awaited peace. Q: You are Polish and were ordained by the famous-Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, a dear friend of Pope St. John Paul II, Karol Wojtyla...Please tell us more about this and his impact on your vocation and work? I am happy that I was ordained by holy bishops: as priest by Cardinal Wyszynski [in the year 1976] and as bishop by Pope John Paul II [in the year 2001]. It is a great grace to have had the possibility of communicating in ones life, with good holy persons. I am thinking in that moment for instance of my grandmother Viktoria and of my mother Helena. Cardinal Wyszynski was always a profound, but at the same time, a simple and joyful person. He was able to listen. He was very attentive and respectful towards other persons. One small example. The seminarians who served at the Mass of the Cardinal in his residence, afterwards took part in the common breakfast. Often there participated bishops and invited guests. The conversations were very serious and important and we seminarians were allowed to be present. This was for us a sign of a great respect towards us on the part of the Cardinal. Once, after Holy Mass, the Cardinal came personally to us, two seminarians, as if apologizing that today we will not take breakfast together. There arrived Archbishop Luigi Poggi, and we have to prepare ourselves for the meeting with the authorities. But you will eat in another room. The Cardinal didnt send us after Holy Mass to the Seminary, but personally took care, about the breakfast for us, and additionally assigned another person to join us. As Pope Francis prepares to fly to Kazakhstan on Tuesday, the Holy See Press Office shares details of his 38th Apostolic Journey abroad, which will see him participate in the 7th Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions in Nur-Sultan, while showing his closeness to the country's small but fervent Catholic community. By Deborah Castellano Lubov Pope Francis upcoming Apostolic Visit to Kazakhstan on 13-15 September will be the Holy Father's latest gesture to promote peace in the world with the help of religious leaders, suggests the Director of the Holy See Press Office. Matteo Bruni noted that this is yet another gesture in a papacy full of interreligious efforts. During a briefing at the Holy See Press Office on Friday, Mr. Bruni presented the Popes 38th Apostolic Visit abroad. The Central Asian nation will be the 57th country the Holy Father has visited. With his visit next week, Pope Francis follows in the footsteps of his predecessor, St. John Paul II who travelled to Kazakhstan shortly after the September 11 attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon in the United States. During his visit, St. John Paul II applauded the peaceful coexistence of religions and ethnicities, such as Kazakh, Russian, Ukrainian, and many others, within the country. Kazakhstan gained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. In the footsteps of John Paul II Pope St. John Paul II is the only previous Pope to have visited Kazakhstan. Mr. Bruni recalled the context of that visit, and the Pope's message that "religions cannot be places of conflict and called for peace to reign." Mr. Bruni recalled that John Paul II's visit was to a newly-independent nation that had never received a visit of a Pope, and to a local Church that had undergone a long history of persecution under the Communist regime. Kazakhstan is just south of Russia, and borders other former Soviet republics, as well as China and the Caspian Sea. It is the world's ninth-largest country in terms of landmass, and the world's largest landlocked nation. It also has Central Asia's largest economy and is home to its only Catholic seminary, located in Karaganda. Seventh Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions The Pope is headed to Kazakhstan specifically to attend the 7th Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, welcoming the invitations he received from civil authorities and Church in Kazakhstan. During the 13-15 September visit, the Pope will stay in the capital, Nur-Sultan (formerly known as Astana). The highlights of the journey will include the Pope's participation at the Congress, where he will give a discourse, pray in silence, and engage in private discussions with religious leaders, including the Grand Imam of Al Azhar, Al Tayyeb. The religious leaders are expected to issue a declaration. The Congress dates back to 2003 and takes place every three years in the Kazakh capital. The last to take place was in 2018, however, due to the pandemic. Small but fervent Catholic community On Friday, the Director of the Holy See Press Office indicated that Pope Francis' addresses will be delivered in Italian, and translations will be available. Another touching moment will be Pope Francis' celebration of Mass for the country's Catholics, a moment of encouragement for the small but fervent Catholic community, which makes up about one percent of the nation's 19 million Kazakhs. The population of Kazakhstan is 70 percent Sunni Muslim, and 26 percent Christian, primarily Russian Orthodox. On the Journey, the Pope will be joined by his usual papal entourage, which will include the Roman Curias Cardinal-Prefects of the Dicasteries for Interreligious Dialogue, Promoting Christian Unity, Evangelization, and Oriental Churches. The Holy Father is expected to greet journalists on the outgoing flight to Kazakhstan and to hold his usual press conference on the return flight to Rome, as he did for his last Apostolic Journey to Canada in July. More than seventy journalists are expected to accompany the Pope aboard the papal flight. The Holy Father will return to Rome after 8 pm local time at Fiumicino International Airport. Cardinal Konrad Krajewski prepares for his fourth visit to war-torn Ukraine since the Russian invasion over six months ago. By Francesca Merlo In a statement released by the Holy See on Wednesday, the Vatican announced that Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, Prefect of the new Dicastery for the Service of Charity, will visit Ukraine for the fourth time on behalf of the Holy Father. Read also 18/04/2022 Cardinal Krajewski brings Popes blessings to Ukraine for Easter Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the Papal Almoner, concelebrates Mass on Easter Sunday in the Catholic cathedral in Kyiv, and reminds Ukrainians that Christ has conquered death and so ... During this visit, marking his fourth to the war torn-nation since the Russian invasion over six months ago, he will travel to Odessa, Zytomyr, Kharkiv and other places in eastern Ukraine. He goes to bring closeness and support to various communities of faithful, priests and religious, and their bishops, who for more than 200 days continue to remain in the places of their ministry despite the dangers of war. The statement describes the cardinal's as "a silent and evangelical journey, to be with the people who are suffering, to pray and comfort each one of them" to show that they are not alone in this situation. With Brazils presidential election less than a month away, campaigning in South Americas largest country is heating up with President Jair Bolsonaro hoping to fend off a challenge by former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. By James Blears Brazils presidential election is set for 2 October. President Jair Bolsonaro, who started his campaign on 24 July, is trailing former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the polls, and is determined to regain lost ground with the voters. Bicentennial Day, which just occurred, did not stop Bolsonaro from holding campaign rallies in the Capital Brasilia, where he attended a military parade before moving on to Rio de Janeiro, where he gave a speech on Copacabana Beach. President Bolsonaro, who is a former Army Captain and a former legislator, told the crowds, We know we are facing a battle of good vs evil. The people are on our side...the side of good. Bolsanaro is also accusing Lula of being a gangster, and questioning Brazil's electronic voting system which has been in place since 1996. Lula who was president between 2003 and 2010, has responded by insisting that he never used Independence Day as a tool to extract political advantage and that he stands by his record. More than one hundred and fifty million people are eligible to vote in the upcoming presidential election for the leadership of the largest country, population, and economy in Latin America. It is a battle between the right of Bolsonaro and the left of Lula, with everything to gain and a lot to lose, so the rhetoric is becoming piquant, personal, and acidic. With so little time remaining in the run-up to election day, winning is the paramount aim. #AHORA | El presidente de la Republica @PedroCastilloTe recibe calido saludo de los pobladores del distrito de Ancahuasi en la region #Cusco. En breve inaugura el proyecto de mejoramiento del servicio de agua para riego, junto a los titulares de @viviendaperu y @MINPRODUCCION. pic.twitter.com/R4GKF43Hse Condolence messages on the death of Queen Elizabeth have been pouring in from Africa, where the queen made many visits during her 70-year rule. Elizabeth became queen while in Kenya in 1952, and her first overseas tour as monarch was in South Africa. She later helped steer Britain through the end of its colonial rule in Africa, while promoting good ties with the continent's new countries. The presidents of Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa are among the African leaders who sent messages mourning the death of Britain's Queen Elizabeth, who died Thursday at the age of 96. The queen's early years on the throne saw Britain lose its colonial empire in Africa. The United Kingdom at one time controlled at least 17 countries in Africa, and British rule is still associated with conflicts, forceful extraction of natural resources and land grabs. Ikemesit Effiong, a geopolitical analyst based in Lagos, Nigeria, said the queen mended her country's post-colonial relationship with many African countries. "In particular, the United Kingdom have built and maintained extensive economic, political and cultural ties with much of the rest of the continent. Even though there has been more of an ambivalent attitude on the path of many African governments and for many Africans towards Europe in general since the turn of 21st century, a lot of those longstanding ties still persist," Effiong said. Kenya is one of the countries that Britain colonized, and then-Princess Elizabeth became queen during a visit to Kenya in 1952, when her father died while she was on safari. Macharia Munene, an international relations lecturer at the United States International University Africa in Kenya, said the queen's ascension helped to accelerate self-rule in the country. "Then that's the time when the country was boiling," he said. "The Mau Mau was about to break out and the fighters kept following the events in Britain and that's part of the reaction when the war broke out. They burned down the tree tops, hitting back at the British and then when she was being coroneted, [Kenyans] coroneted their own young girl and called her the Mau Mau Queen." Effiong said Queen Elizabeth took a different path than previous British leaders in dealing with Africa. "Queen Elizabeth was very much different in that she was the first British monarch in almost two centuries that represented disengagement," he said, adding that she invested in a lot of monarchies' legitimacy, such as in the Commonwealth nations associated with the cultural institutions. The Commonwealth of Nations has 56 members, most but not all of which are former British colonies. The member states meet to strengthen relations and tackle global problems together. The queen visited more than 20 African countries during her rule, starting with South Africa. Munene said the queen made sure she changed the image of British rule. "She is the last monarch who has any connection with colonialism. As long as people talk about colonialism in Africa, there is no choice but to see her in that context as the last monarch," he said. "She had direct colonial experience and she saw the transition from colonialism to independence, she welcomed it. She nurtured it such that the hostility that could have been there was reduced to a point where it became now embracing each other and people feeling good about the Commonwealth." Speaking at the Commonwealth Summit in Rwanda this June, then-Prince Charles said he treasured the friendship Britain had built with Africa in the last 70 years, and was looking forward to deepening the relations in the years ahead. Charles, 73, takes the throne from his late mother and becomes King Charles the Third. The new king will be the head of state for the United Kingdom and 14 other countries. The U.N. General Assembly on Thursday approved the appointment of Austria's Volker Turk as the next U.N. high commissioner for human rights. Reuters reported earlier on Thursday that U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had proposed that Turk succeed Chile's Michelle Bachelet, whose term ended on August 31. Turk currently works in Guterres' office as undersecretary-general for policy. Turk's most immediate challenge will be grappling with the follow-up to a report on China's Xinjiang region published by his predecessor minutes before her departure. The report found that China's "arbitrary and discriminatory detention" of Uyghurs and other Muslims in its Xinjiang region may constitute crimes against humanity. China vigorously denies any abuses in Xinjiang. "It is China's hope that Mr. Turk will lead the office in strictly abiding by the principles of objectivity, impartiality ... and non-politicization," China's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Dai Bing told the General Assembly. Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Lisa Carty said Turk "must serve as an independent, impartial and unwavering voice for human rights issues around the world." "The high commissioner must be willing to call out human rights violations and abuses wherever they occur," she said. The high commissioner plays a critical role in speaking out against the backsliding of freedoms at a time when autocracies are gaining influence at the expense of democracy. Other candidates for the job included career diplomat Federico Villegas from Argentina and Senegal's Adama Dieng, who previously advised Guterres on genocide prevention. Phil Lynch, executive director of the International Service for Human Rights, said Turk's selection had lacked transparency and consultation with independent civil society. "The secretary-general missed a key opportunity to build the legitimacy and authority of the next high commissioner," Lynch said. With Ukraine dependent on Western military aid following Russia's invasion and Moscow burning through stocks and under sanctions, both sides fear exhausting their shells, bombs and missiles, experts say. Moscow's economic exclusion means it is "having to buy artillery rounds from North Korea," U.S. National Security Council coordinator John Kirby told reporters recently, pointing to deals for "millions of rounds, rockets and artillery shells." Meanwhile, Britain's Ministry of Defense said this week it "is likely that Russia is struggling to maintain stocks" of drones. Sanctions make it difficult for Moscow to obtain the vital components needed to replace drones destroyed in combat. The Kremlin is reportedly buying drones from Iran. Both Western governments and Kyiv say Russia is suffering from serious logistical difficulties. Outdated arms Precision strikes with high-tech Western weapons are undermining Russia's ability to fight, and Moscow is turning to outdated arms as its stocks of more modern gear run down. "It's a mystery what the Russians have left," said Pierre Grasser, a researcher associated with Paris' Sorbonne University. "They had enough supplies for their original plan, he said. "But the fact is that the war is lasting longer than expected and the destruction of their reserves by U.S.-made HIMARS rockets is reshuffling the deck." "Moscow doesn't have many allies that can supply it or come to the aid of its manufacturers, he added. And China still refuses to get involved beyond the diplomatic field." As for the isolated communist regime of North Korea, "there's likely to be a limit to what Pyongyang can give just enough to refill the stocks for a few weeks," he said. Last week, French researcher Bruno Tertrais of the Foundation for Strategic Research said, "The chances of Russian military fatigue are much higher than Ukrainian military fatigue." But Kyiv continues to request weapons and ammunition from the West, which itself may be reaching the limits of its capacity. On Thursday, the United States said it would supply another $675 million in military equipment. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made the announcement in Germany, where Ukraine's allies were meeting to discuss coordinating their deliveries. Washington has also said it will provide $2 billion more in loans and grants for Ukraine and its neighbors to buy U.S. military gear. This is on top of the $4 billion it authorized in the fiscal year that ended in June. Social media accounts that specialize in identifying weapons have spotted Pakistani and Iranian shells being fired by Ukrainian artillery, suggesting that Kyiv has built multiple supply chains for its troops. But the Germany-based Institute for the World Economy (IFW) said last month that "the flow of new international support for Ukraine ... dried up in July," with no new pledges from major European Union countries like Germany, France or Italy. On the other hand, the IFW noted that more countries were finally coming through with their promises of aid for Kyiv. NATO supplies NATO countries have supplied almost half a million shells for the roughly 240 155-millimeter guns they have sent Ukraine to replace Soviet weapons whose ammunition has been used up, Grasser said. "Since July, they're being used up at a rate of 3,000 shells per day. Technically, Ukraine can keep going until the start of winter," he added. "However, beyond that there are some questions about how much NATO can supply." Given the relative strengths and losses of the two sides, Western aid to Ukraine is well short of what is needed to win the war and replace destroyed equipment, said Andrei Illarionov, a former economic adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Illarionov, who now works for the U.S.-based Center for Security Policy, said that during World War II, the Allies only really began turning back the Axis in 1943, once their spending outweighed that of their opponents. "The military aid delivered to Ukraine is not more than $3 billion per month. Overall expenditure [by] Ukraine plus the coalition looks like $7 billion a month," he said last week at a Bucharest event organized by the New Strategy Center think tank. As for Russia, "different estimates have been given recently between $500 million and $900 million a day which means $15 billion to $27 billion a month," he added. "In the war of attrition, the crucial underlying factor [for] who might win the long war is the ratio in military expenditure," Illarionov said. "In military terms," Grasser said, "the two sides are evenly matched. The Ukrainians have fewer weapons than the Russians but they're now much more accurate." But, he noted, "in its favor, Moscow has access to vital raw materials for the war effort." "We're entering a period of unstable equilibrium. Whoever launches one counteroffensive too many is likely to lose the battle of attrition," Grasser concluded. Britains King Charles III paid tribute to his late mother Queen Elizabeth II, calling her "darling Mama" during his first address as head of state. Charles, who is 73 and the oldest monarch to ascend the throne, said he would serve with "loyalty, respect and love" as his mother had done for more than seven decades until her death Thursday at age 96. "That promise of lifelong service I renew to you all today," Charles said Friday in his televised address from Buckingham Palace to a nation in mourning. Photo Gallery: Photos: Britons Mourn Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II, Britains longest-reigning monarch who sat on the throne for 70 years, died Thursday at 96. Admired for her dedication to her job, Queen Elizabeth was seen by many Britons as a pillar of strength for the country at a time when the nation was navigating its diminishing world power. Britons flocked to British landmarks to remember their queen, the only monarch that most in Britain have ever known. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email to a Friend He said Queen Elizabeths death brought a "sense of loss, beyond measure" and paid tribute to his mother. To my darling Mama: As you begin your last great journey to join my dear late Papa, I want simply to say this: Thank you. Thank you for your love and devotion to our family and to the family of nations you have served so diligently all these years. May 'flights of angels sing thee to thy rest, Charles said. The new king said he would follow the example of his mother. As the queen herself did with such unswerving devotion, I too now solemnly pledge myself, throughout the remaining time God grants me, to uphold the constitutional principles at the heart of our nation, he said. Charles was greeted by well-wishers as he arrived at the palace Friday alongside Camilla, the queen consort, from Balmoral Castle in Scotland where Queen Elizabeth died. The king also held his first audience Friday with Prime Minister Liz Truss at Buckingham Palace in only her third day in the job. Elizabeth appointed Truss to her new position as prime minister Tuesday. Parliament held a special midday session Friday to pay its respects to the queen, Britains longest-reigning monarch. "She was the rock on which modern Britain was built," Truss told lawmakers. Around 2,000 people attended a service of remembrance for the queen at St. Pauls Cathedral Friday, including Truss and other government officials. Elizabeths funeral will be held in the coming days at Londons Westminster Abbey, and that day will be designated as a National Day of Mourning, which is a public holiday. Growing mountains of flowers and tributes to the queen are gathering not only at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, but also at British embassies and cathedrals around the world. Some information in this report came from Reuters and The Associated Press. Britains Queen Elizabeth II has died at the age of 96 at her Balmoral residence in Scotland. She was Britains longest-serving monarch and this year celebrated 70 years on the throne. Elizabeth was the only monarch most living Britons have ever known: a symbol of her nation, its empire and its Commonwealth. Early life Her teenage years were overshadowed by World War II, which she and her sister largely spent in the relative safety of Windsor Castle, west of London. She personified British strength and character long before she even knew she would be queen. In 1947, on her 21st birthday then seen as the beginning of adulthood she gave a now-famous televised address on her first official overseas tour in South Africa. I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and to the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong, she said. That same year she married the Greek-born Prince Philip. He was a distant cousin, the son of Prince Andrew of Greece and the great-great-grandson of Britain's Queen Victoria. Coronation In February 1952, Princess Elizabeth and her husband were in Kenya when news broke of the death of her father, King George XI. She returned to London as Queen Elizabeth II. Her coronation, at the age of 27, took place in Westminster Abbey on June 2, 1953. She saw a thorough transformation of society and technology during her reign of more than seven decades, a time in which she warned about the dangers of throwing away ageless ideals while embracing the advantages of new inventions. She sent out her first tweet in 2014. Record-breaking There are few royal records she did not break: she was Britain's most traveled, oldest, longest-reigning monarch. As head of the Commonwealth, the queen has links with the past. Sometimes it's a past that's difficult to come to terms with because you think of empire, you think of colonial exploitation for example, royal author and broadcaster Richard Fitzwilliams told VOA. But so far as the queen is concerned, you think of her dedication to the organization. As head of state, Queen Elizabeth II represented Britain in friendships with those who held in common the British values of freedom, equality and democracy and with dignity she faced those who did not. She traveled to more than 100 countries and met countless prime ministers, presidents, kings and queens hosting many of them in lavish state visits to London. State visits Among the dozens of world leaders to visit Buckingham Palace during her reign were Ethiopian Emperor Haile Salassie; French President Charles de Gaulle; Emperor Hirohito of Japan; President Nelson Mandela of South Africa; President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe; Russian President Vladimir Putin; U.S. Presidents George Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump; and Xi Jinping of China. The queen was not immune to criticism in her own country. Some targeted her as a symbol of an institution out of step with a postmodern, neo-liberal and democratic world and a burden on the British taxpayer. Diana The death of the popular Princess Diana in 1997 was an opportunity for critics who accused her of being coldly slow to react. When she did address the nation, it was heartfelt. What I say to you now, as your queen and as a grandmother, I say from my heart. First, I want to pay tribute to Diana myself. She was an exceptional and gifted human being, Elizabeth said. Photo Gallery: Photos: Britons Mourn Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II, Britains longest-reigning monarch who sat on the throne for 70 years, died Thursday at 96. Admired for her dedication to her job, Queen Elizabeth was seen by many Britons as a pillar of strength for the country at a time when the nation was navigating its diminishing world power. Britons flocked to British landmarks to remember their queen, the only monarch that most in Britain have ever known. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email to a Friend The marriage of her grandson Prince William to Kate Middleton in 2011 brought youthful glamour to the ancient institution. When Prince Harry married American actor Meghan Markle seven years later, Queen Elizabeth II was at the head of a family that appeared to be moving with the times: popular, diverse and global. Family troubles But there were painful times ahead. Her second son, Prince Andrew, was investigated for links to convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Harry and Meghan fell out with the royal family amid accusations of racism. The passing of Elizabeths husband, Prince Philip, in 2021 left an enduring image: a queen mourning alone as the coronavirus pandemic swept across her nation. In June 2022, Britain celebrated the Queens Platinum Jubilee, marking her 70th year on the throne. On Sept. 6, just two days before her death, she appointed Liz Truss the 15th prime minister of her reign. It would be her last major public duty. Legacy Queen Elizabeth remains a giant in the history of one of the planet's most influential nations; a bridge between Britain's colonial past and its future as a global player in a world vastly different from the one in which she was born. Visiting Germany in 2015, addressing President Joachim Gauck, she spoke of the vast changes she had witnessed. In our lives, Mr. President, we have seen the worst but also the best of our continent. We have witnessed how quickly things can change for the better, but we know that we must work hard to maintain the benefits of the post-war world, she said. Elizabeth will be remembered for her dedication, says royal biographer Matthew Dennison. I think the importance of the length of her reign is simply that throughout that period she went on doggedly doing the job to the very best of her ability with total conviction and I think with love, Dennison told Reuters. Britain's royal tradition, of which Elizabeth was a steward, is now in the hands of her heirs, as her first son, King Charles III, ascends the throne. The Britain they inherit is a drastically different one in terms of demographics, culture and economics. In a globalized, pluralistic world, their job of projecting an image of greatness is no less complicated. For the Baltic states in northeastern Europe, the dream of increased prosperity through trade and investment from China has run its course, analysts tell VOA. This was the debate that happened in Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania around 2016, that we should get some investment from China, we should attract this One Belt, One Road initiative, as well as railway cargo from China, but those voices have gone down, said Martins Hirss, a political scientist teaching at the University of Latvia, in a phone interview from Riga. Latvia and Estonias recent exit from a Beijing-led grouping known informally as the 16+1, comprising 16 European countries plus China at its inception in 2016, is a tell-tale sign that that debate is over as far as the Baltic countries are concerned, Hirss said. Since 2019, 2020, the whole discussion about China has changed, he said. While Chinese authorities conduct towards citizens in Hong Kong and the Muslim population in Xinjiang have raised eyebrows, Beijings conduct overseas, including in the Baltic nations, also aroused concerns. The Latvia state security service published a report in 2020 essentially saying that Chinese activities in Latvia are very similar to Russian intelligence activities, Hirss said. By then, Chinese investments no longer stood for unlimited economic opportunities, he added. Quite the contrary. Hirss said Chinas image in the region took a further blow last year when Beijing imposed stiff punitive measures against Latvias Baltic neighbor Lithuania, after that country became the first to leave the China-Central and Eastern European Cooperation (China-CEEC) forum and later expanded trade ties with Taiwan. "If our southern neighbor has been targeted by China, political leaders and also regular people took notice, Hirss said. Countries in this part of the world, weve had our experiences with the Soviet Union, with this entity that dictated how to live, what to think; and if someone behaves similarly as the Soviet Union did, then it immediately triggers people from this region, you can say. The Latvian government maintained a diplomatic approach when announcing the countrys exit from the China-CEEC forum last month, saying it was still quite interested in maintaining ties with China. But a statement issued by Latvias foreign ministry made clear that membership in the Beijing-led group fell far short of expectations, starting with the economics. The format since its inception, as well as Latvias subsequent participation, was introduced as a means of strengthening economic cooperation with China, read a statement provided to VOA by the Latvian Embassy in Washington. Latvia viewed it as an opportunity to increase and diversify its exports to China, attract direct Chinese investments and be integrated into Europe-Asia connectivity chains. Latvia embraced the chance to get closer to Beijing and hosted the 16+1 summit in Riga in 2016. However, six years later, Latvias exports to China constituted only 4.4% of the countrys total exports in 2021 On top of that, Latvia is running a significant trade deficit with China and has not been able to shift the structure of exports towards higher value-added products and services, the official statement said. Hirss, the political scientist at the University of Latvia, noted that Latvia also had to wrestle with China on maintaining EU standards for investments in the country. China offered to build a high-speed rail in the Baltics but backed out after the Latvian government insisted that it go through a competitive bidding process. There were a couple of occasions similar to this, he told VOA. A Romania-based analyst thinks Latvia and Estonias exit from the Beijing-led China-CEEC forum, a year after Lithuania departed the group, signals an end to what he calls Chinas global charm offensive. Going forward, I think China will work in a more 'targeted' way, enhancing its profile where it already exists in a positive manner, for example, Hungary, Serbia, said Horia Ciurtin, an expert with the Bucharest-based New Strategy Center and an independent consultant on political risk and international investment law, in a written interview. Beijing, he says, will try to create a success story in countries like Hungary and Serbia, stirring up some dilemmas to the reluctant players, such as Romania or Poland. I do not think China is any longer on an all-across-the-globe charm offensive. He added that some countries such as the Baltics have made it clear that the charm offensive wasnt bought. Ukraine and the IAEA say theyve learned of a serious development at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The challenges facing the European Union as ministers meet to discuss what to do about soaring energy prices. How everyday Ukrainians are crowdfunding significant military purchases. He remarked that the OECD is a prestige for democracy, for defense, for the growth of the country and the planet. Likewise, Knudsen pointed out that the OECD has different missions that are aimed at improving countries and cities. Moreover, he underlined that said process is a unique opportunity for Peru to have a reform agenda. His remarks were made on Tuesday at the event "Peru's process of accession to the OECD: Challenges and opportunities" organized by the School of Public Management at Lima-based Universidad del Pacifico. The OECD official noted that the accession process is not an evaluation of Peru, but should be considered as a dialogue process to implement reforms that will allow the country to have more effective public policies. Furthermore, he argued that such process will not be easy and that Peru must undertake it with commitment and humility, noting that the process itself generates great benefits for the country because it allows the implementation of reforms that are important to improve the quality of its public policies. Ulrik Knudsen gave a conference entitled "The accession process as a benefit for the country" within the framework of the official mission to launch Peru's process of accession to the OECD. At the conference, he stressed the importance of coordination among the Government, academia, and civil society in order to achieve long-term reforms. (END) NDP/RMB/MVB The process of accession to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an opportunity for Peru to have a reform agenda, OECD Deputy Secretary General Ulrik Vestergaard Knudsen affirmed.Publicado: 7/9/2022 Officials in Uvalde, Texas, say two people were wounded Thursday when gunfire erupted in a suspected gang-related incident in the towns Memorial Park. In May, Uvalde was the scene of a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School that left 19 children and two teachers dead. Uvalde police said in a statement on Facebook that two juveniles were taken to city of San Antonio hospitals Thursday for treatment of their injuries and their conditions were unknown. The police said in a statement that four suspects are in custody and are being questioned. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said in a statement posted on Twitter that he was outraged to learn that gang violence has endangered the Uvalde community and innocent Texans this evening. He said he has ordered an additional six DPS [Department of Public Safety] trooper units to work around the clock and begin coordinating an anti-gang effort with the city. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Thursday vowed his country will never give up its nuclear weapons or use them as a bargaining chip in negotiations, the latest sign of Kims hardened stance toward the United States and its allies. The Supreme Peoples Assembly, North Koreas top legislative body, earlier this week passed a law further enshrining the countrys nuclear weapons status, the official Korean Central News Agency reported Friday. North Korea will "never give up nuclear weapons and there is absolutely no denuclearization, no negotiation, and no bargaining chip to trade in the process," Kim said in a Thursday speech, according to KCNA. Kim accused the United States of trying to bring down his government by pressuring it to surrender its nuclear weapons but said that policy was doomed to fail. North Korea walked away from nuclear talks with the United States in 2019. It has since resumed missile tests, conducting a record number of launches this year. U.S. officials say the North has also prepared to conduct its seventh nuclear explosion. According to the new law passed Monday, North Korea will retaliate with an immediate nuclear strike if the country is attacked by hostile forces. The law also outlines several other scenarios in which North Korea would use its nukes, including an attack on state leadership or strategic nuclear forces, or to protect the existence of the state. While the law says usage of nuclear weapons is a last resort, it described the weapons as essential to North Koreas sovereignty and territorial integrity. That kind of language is broadly in line with how North Korea has long described its nuclear arsenal, though at times Pyongyang has given mixed signals. When asked in 2019, during a meeting with former U.S. President Donald Trump, if he was ready to denuclearize, Kim responded: If Im not willing to do that, I wont be here right now. At their first meeting in June 2018, Trump and Kim signed a brief statement agreeing to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Later, North Korean officials speaking in state-controlled media clarified that this agreement meant the United States should also remove nuclear threats from the region surrounding Korea. The United States has about 28,000 troops in South Korea a remnant of the 1950s Korean War, which ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty. There are also about 55,000 U.S. service members in nearby Japan. In his Thursday speech, Kim said North Korea would only adjust its nuclear posture in response to the political and military conditions of the Korean Peninsula, as well as the global situation. North Korea may have produced enough fissile material to build 45-55 nuclear weapons and might have assembled 20-30 warheads for delivery, according to the latest estimate published Thursday by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a nonprofit organization focused on global security. A bipartisan U.S. congressional delegation led by Representative Stephanie Murphy, a Democrat from Florida, concluded a trip Taiwan on Friday, the latest in a string of high-profile trips by U.S. officials in recent weeks. Murphy and her delegation, including Democratic House member Kai Kahele, and Republican House members Scott Franklin, Joe Wilson, Andy Barr, Darrell Issa, Claudia Tenney, and Kat Cammack, met with senior Taiwanese leaders, including President Tsai Ing-wen on Thursday, when both sides expressed commitment to deepening political and economic ties. During the meeting, Tsai thanked the United States for demonstrating rock-solid support for Taiwan just over a month after China carried out large-scale military exercises in the Taiwan Strait to protest a visit by the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi. I want to take this opportunity to tell our friends that Taiwan will not bow to pressure or coercion. We will defend our democratic institutions and way of life. Taiwan will not back down, Tsai said, according to an official transcript of the meeting. In her remarks, Murphy said Thursday Congress can deepen the economic relationship with Taiwan by pursuing what she called a high-quality free-trade agreement with Taipei. In June, the two sides launched the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade, aimed at deepening economic and trade relationships and advancing mutual trade priorities. Murphy also urged the U.S. Congress to push for greater Taiwanese participation in international organizations as it has shown itself to be a responsible member of the international community. Despite its status as one of Asias most successful democracies, Taiwan has gradually been pushed out of international bodies from the World Health Assembly the decision-making body of the World Health Organization - to the International Civil Aviation Organization at the behest of China, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as a province. Murphy, the vice chair of House Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations, is also a notable supporter of the Taiwan Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act, a bill introduced in July to expedite military aid to Taiwan. Visits by U.S. delegations are widely seen as a show of support for Taipei and an important signal to China, which has long pledged to take control of Taiwan and its outlying islands in a conflict dating back to 1949. My sense is, people felt comforted. US congressional visits along with visits by other friends from various different countries assured them that China does not dominate Taiwans international engagement, said Norah Huang, Director for International Studies and Associate Research Fellow, Prospect Foundation, a Taiwan-based research firm, said by email. While obviously China has been portraying the picture that Taiwan can only thrive in the international stage with Chinas permission. In the meantime, people does worry the risks and challenges imposed by Chinas bellicose reaction. Recent trips have also been followed by major developments in Taiwans defense policy. In the weeks after Pelosis visit, Tsai announced that Taiwan would raise its defense budget nearly 14% year-on-year while U.S. President Joe Bidens administration recently approved $1.1 billion in arms sales. For decades, Beijing has called for unification by force or by peaceful means, but analysts worry an invasion or blockade could be in store in the coming years as China completes a massive modernization campaign to rejuvenate its military. Some in Taiwan worry that in such a tense environment, U.S. visits could backfire and provoke Beijing rather than serve as a deterrent to further military action by signaling that Taiwan does not stand alone despite lacking formal diplomatic allies. The people of Taiwan welcome and appreciate the support from US congressional members; however, we are also concerned the escalation of aggression and conflict inflicted by China to retaliate, which may lead to security risks across the Taiwan Strait, Jason Hsu, a senior research fellow at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School, said in response to written questions. Despite drawing Beijings ongoing ire, five groups of U.S. officials visited Taiwan in August including Pelosi. Other delegations were led by Democratic Senator Edward Markey, Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn Arizona Republican Governor Doug Ducey and Indiana Republican Governor Eric Holcomb. Pelosis trip was met with widespread enthusiasm from Taiwanese and drew large crowds at the airport to watch her land, but other recent U.S. trips have drawn less attention. Lev Nachman, a political scientist at National Chengchi University in Taiwan, said such a large number of trips in a short time may begin to have diminishing returns while taking up Taiwanese government resources. I dont think people are lining up with the same enthusiasm they did with the Pelosi visit, he told VOA. I think the visits are certainly welcome but I dont think they are grabbing as much attention domestically. New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a disaster emergency Friday in a bid to accelerate efforts to vaccinate residents against polio after the virus was detected in wastewater samples taken in four counties. Hochul's executive order followed the discovery of the virus last month in samples from Long Island's Nassau County, bordering the New York City borough of Queens. Earlier this year the virus was found in samples from Rockland, Orange and Sullivan counties, all north of the city. In July, the first confirmed case of polio in the United States in nearly a decade turned up in an adult in Rockland County, according to the state health department. "On polio, we simply cannot roll the dice," State Health Commissioner Mary Bassett said in a statement. "If you or your child are unvaccinated or not up to date with vaccinations, the risk of paralytic disease is real." Polio can cause irreversible paralysis in some cases, but it can be prevented by a vaccine first made available in 1955. While there is no known cure, three injections of the vaccine provide nearly 100% immunity. People of all ages are under threat, though the virus primarily affects children age 3 and younger. Officials urged inoculations for unvaccinated adults and children as young as 2 months, and they advised that vaccinated people receive a lifetime booster dose. Hochul's declaration authorizes paramedics, midwives and pharmacists to administer polio vaccinations, among other steps, to accelerate inoculation rates. The order also directs health care providers to update the state with data on immunizations. The state of emergency will stay in effect until October 9. Health officials set a goal of getting 90% of residents vaccinated. The state health department warned that people in New York City and Rockland, Orange, Sullivan and Nassau counties are at the highest risk. Orange County has the lowest vaccination rate of the counties of concern with less than 59% being immunized, according to the state health department. Nigeria's military says it has killed more than 250 Islamist militants with the Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) groups in attacks over the past two weeks. A military spokesman said Nigerian troops also rescued three abducted Chibok schoolgirls, who the militants had held captive since 2014. Nigeria's defense ministry authorities made the announcement Thursday during a security update in the capital of Abuja. Defense spokesperson Musa Danmadami said military forces carried out highly successful air bombardments and ground clearance operations in Operation Hadarin Kai between August 25 and September 8. He said in the early stages of the operation, troops attacked insurgents in isolated villages in northeast Borno and Yobe states and killed 52 terrorists. He said troops arrested 14 other fighters and rescued 22 hostages, including three Chibok girls who were kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014. Danmadami said troops even scored more success during operations in the Bama district of Borno state on September 3, when air and land attacks wiped out Boko Haram and Islamic State hideouts. "Feedback from various sources reveal that over 200 terrorists were neutralized including five high profile commanders. Their enclaves were bombarded, the airstrikes resulted in the neutralization of a large number of insurgents, while the land components mopped up the fleeing terrorists. Danmadami said a total of 556 people surrendered to the military, including 15 adult males, 189 females and 252 children. The defense spokesperson said troops also recovered grenades, AK-47 rifles, grenade launchers and many rounds of ammunition. Nigeria has been battling an Islamist insurgency in the northeast which started in 2009. Years of fighting has killed tens of thousands of people. Nigerian authorities have been intensifying assault against the Islamist groups in the country's northeast. But authorities are also contending with kidnap-for-ransom gangs active mainly in the country's northwest and central states. Beacon security analyst Kabiru Adamu says security forces are making an impact. "The last few months we've seen an increase in both the clearance and interdictions operations by the Nigerian security operatives, creating huge blows in the capacity and efficiency of the non-state actors to carry out attacks. There has been progress in that regard. Another security expert, Patrick Agbambu, says authorities must sustain the pressure. "It's cheering news, we give kudos to the security agencies, but I'll want to urge them to continue because while you're recording success, the criminals are trying to devise other means." Nigerian authorities have been widely criticized for failing to maintain security. But on Thursday, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari urged citizens to believe in the capacity of the security forces to restore lasting peace and stability. On July 9, 1976, Queen Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburgh, visited New York City as part of the national bicentennial celebrations. The day before her visit there was a picture of her on the front page of the New York Times. She was wearing her uniform of dress, pearls and hat. At the time, I was a little girl and my mother showed me the picture. She said, "This is the Queen of England." "She's the queen?" I asked. "Where is her crown?" "She doesn't always wear it," my mother explained. "Only on special occasions. When she goes out she wears a hat instead." I was unimpressed and told my mother so. So she said she would take me the next day to see Her Majesty, and perhaps I would change my mind. So the next day, off we went from our home in Brooklyn, taking the subway to Wall Street, where a multitude of people packed the flag-and-bunting draped streets. People were waving American and British flags, and the mood was quite festive. I was patriotically attired in a white cotton dress that had a blue and red checked sailboat applique on the front. I wore a white, first-mate's hat, which I had gotten during a class trip to the amusement park. My name was emblazoned on it in true 1970s style -- in green glitter glue. The Queen and Prince Philip made their way up Wall Street working the crowd on what is known as a "walkabout". Suddenly, Prince Philip, tall and striking, was in front of me. "Hello there Margaret!" he said, reading my hat. I don't recall what, or if, I replied. A moment later, the queen was before us, smiling and looking elegant in a pale suit and straw hat. "Come along, Philip" she said. And just like that they were gone into the throng, leaving one very excited little girl in their wake. When Queen Elizabeth II acceded to the throne in 1952, the British Empire had recently lost the proverbial "Jewel in the Crown," India, and the subcontinent was still reeling from the bloodshed of the partition that had led to the creation of Pakistan in 1947. Despite the bitter history of colonialism in South Asia, Ayesha Jalal, professor of history at Tufts University, told VOA, it's "remarkable" that the queen "was not a controversial figure in the otherwise fairly dense annals of South Asian anti-colonial nationalism." Jalal credits "good PR [public relations]." Salima Hashmi, a Pakistani artist and art historian, remembers as a schoolgirl waving at the queen's motorcade in Lahore when the British monarch visited the young country for the first time in 1961. Hashmi recalled to VOA that years later, as the principal of the National College of Arts in Lahore, she hosted Queen Elizabeth during her second and final visit to Pakistan. Hashmi said she was impressed by the queen's "great ease with every kind of person, and her ability to make other people feel comfortable." Analyzing the queen's legacy in South Asia, Hashmi told VOA that "as someone who had inherited the idea of the empire," Queen Elizabeth "tried very hard to make the Commonwealth viable," but the concept faded over time. Queen Elizabeth ruled during a period of waning British influence in South Asia. Jalal said that despite America emerging as the powerbroker, the royals "have been able to keep a rather balanced view of South Asia. They've kept their cultural presence, if not their political presence, to the same extent." The queen visited India three times and Pakistan twice during her 70-year reign. While Britain could have done more to address the differences between the rival nations, Jalal said the queen was "an icon, who was seen as able to do good or to try and do good in the world." By the time of her death, Hashmi said, the queen was a "fading imprint" for South Asia, and people would be "intrigued to know how the Prince of Wales [now King Charles III] sees his role ahead, and whether he will have that kind of ceremonial clout." Editors note: VOAs Sonya Laurence Green happened to be in London during a historic week: Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigned, Liz Truss became the new prime minister, and Queen Elizabeth II died after a 70-year reign. Here is her account. I was sitting in a pub in London, on a weeklong visit to the United Kingdom, when the head barman rang a bell and shouted: "The queen is dead! Long live the king!" Everyone stood up. All eyes turned to live coverage on the large TV screen. The mood was grave and respectful and hushed for several minutes. The whole country had been on what was being called "queen health watch," and now Queen Elizabeth II had passed away at the age of 96. The queen's death was not unexpected, but somehow it still came as a shock. What a week to be in London. Boris Johnson delivered his farewell speech as outgoing prime minister, Liz Truss became the new prime minister and formed a new government, and the queen passed away after a historic reign. There we were, a group of former foreign correspondents, once colleagues, now scattered around the globe, but reunited briefly in London for the memorial of a colleague. And now, a few days later, we were chatting in a pub when this news broke. Not on duty. But still. At our table, we got to work. Not official work, but as journalists, if there is news happening, it's instinctual to reach for more details: call, text, share memes, ask, "Have you seen this?" "Did you know that?" "What have you heard?" Photo Gallery: Photos: Britons Mourn Queen Elizabeth II Queen Elizabeth II, Britains longest-reigning monarch who sat on the throne for 70 years, died Thursday at 96. Admired for her dedication to her job, Queen Elizabeth was seen by many Britons as a pillar of strength for the country at a time when the nation was navigating its diminishing world power. Britons flocked to British landmarks to remember their queen, the only monarch that most in Britain have ever known. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email to a Friend I read aloud the accession protocols, which I found on an email from my news agency, and we marveled at the incredibly specific and arcane rituals of the British monarchy, while admiring their consistency in applying those customs for 900 years. After getting all the facts straight, we turned to more personal reactions and talk. Nina sent video, sharing the atmosphere at the pub on her social media. Josh leaned over to ask if we had seen this tweet from @TheTweetOfGod, which said: "I can only save the Queen for so long." Jane, who was awarded an MBE by the queen at Buckingham Palace for her services to broadcasting, sent a WhatsApp message speculating that the visits by outgoing Prime Minister Johnson and incoming Prime Minister Truss this week may have added undue stress to "Betty," as she called the queen. I decided to walk back to my hotel to monitor the ongoing coverage. In the rainy streets of central London, people were gathered in clusters, some sharing their thoughts about what happened. Flags were being lowered; plans were being made for ceremonies to come. A swell of pedestrians headed toward Buckingham palace with flowers, in a heartfelt urge by some to express their condolences and convene with others to share this historic moment. A double rainbow had appeared over Buckingham Palace, drawing media attention and wishful talk of it being a sign that Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth were bidding a final farewell. I took a moment to breathe in the damp London air and reflect on the life of a woman who had served her country as queen during unprecedented change in Great Britain and the world to reflect on those who loved or hated or were indifferent to her and all she stood for and to know that whatever comes next, she was released from this world now, her legacy complete. Zambian rights groups are calling on the government to make good on a vow to repeal a defamation law they say is being used to silence critics of President Hakainde Hichilema. The call comes after Zambian police arrested an opposition leader this month under the colonial-era law for insulting the president. Zambian court Tuesday charged the leader of the opposition Patriots for Economic Progress party, Sean Tembo, with hate speech, which carries a punishment of a fine of up to $6,000 and two years in prison if he is found guilty. The charge followed Tembos September 1 arrest after he posted online criticism of President Hakainde Hichilemas monthly fuel price hikes, comparing them to menstruation. While the charge was reduced, Zambian rights groups note the arrest was the latest carried out under a harsh, colonial-era law against defaming the president. The 1965 law carries a punishment of up to three years in prison for insults against the president and has been used by past governments to silence critics. Campaigning for president in last years election, which he won, Hichilema promised to revoke the law. In the past year, though, rights groups say Zambian police arrested 12 people under the law, including members of opposition political parties. Two were released, six were jailed, and four, including Tembo, are awaiting trial. Chama Pilato Fumba is a popular musician and director of the group Peoples Action for Accountability and Good Governance in Zambia. He himself has been arrested several times for insulting Zambias president. He says the defamation of the president as a law is very backwards and very unnecessary in a democratic country like ours. "This law should be scrapped off our constitution as it does not represent our interests and our aspirations as a country. It is a bad law that even good presidents can become bad presidents. Hichilemas spokesman was quoted in Zambian media saying the president had nothing to do with opposition leader Tembos arrest. Cornelius Mweetwa is a lawyer and spokesman for the ruling United Party for National Development. He says Zambias opposition is being petty in complaining about the law. It has nothing to do with restriction of the freedom of speech because this is not a law promulgated and enacted under the new dawn administration. It is a law that has always been in force but one where now the opposition wants to take advantage of to be insulting the president when they are arrested so that they can say no change has occasioned in Zambia. Deep down their hearts they know that this is a different Zambia. This is Zambia that the people wanted and voted for. Mweetwa would not say whether the government plans to amend the controversial law. Macdonald Chipenzi is director of Zambian rights group Governance, Elections, Advocacy, and Research Services. He says the government will continue to abuse the defamation law if there are no campaigns to end it. So, the only thing that is required now is to call for the immediate review or reform of this law so that it is not infringing on the freedom of the people and also try to bring in the aspect of civic education on the responsibilities of citizens as they express themselves as they enjoy this freedom. Amnesty Internationals Secretary General Agnes Callamard met with Hichilema in Zambia in March and repeated their position that the law should be repealed, citing its past use against critics, opposition, and journalists. The president said his government was committed to upholding human rights, liberties, and freedoms but would maintain strict adherence to the rule of law. The Zambian court has not yet set a date for Tembos trial. In four decades of writing about the Las Vegas underworld and government corruption, investigative reporter Jeff German took on plenty of powerful and dangerous people. He was once punched by an organized crime associate and received veiled threats from mobsters. But nothing seemed to faze him as he doggedly went about his work. So, German characteristically didn't express concern when Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles, a virtually unknown politician in charge of an obscure government office, took to Twitter last spring to angrily denounce the reporter. German, who worked for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, had written about bullying and favoritism in the public administrator's office and an inappropriate relationship by Telles with a female subordinate. Authorities say German's initial investigation and follow-up stories were the motivation for Telles to fatally stab German last week at the reporter's home. DNA at the scene linked Telles to the killing as did shoes and a distinctive straw hat found at his home that matched those worn by a suspect caught on video, investigators said Thursday. Police arrested Telles on Wednesday after a brief standoff at his home. Telles was hospitalized for what Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo described as non-life-threatening, self-inflicted wounds. Reporter wasn't worried Glenn Cook, executive editor of the Review-Journal, said there was talk within the newspaper about Telles being "unhinged," but he never made any physical threats against German and the reporter never said he was worried. The thought this was the story that would put German's safety at risk seemed implausible, he said. "He cut his teeth covering the mob," Cook said. "Jeff spent over 40 years covering the worst of the worst of Las Vegas. This was a guy who ran down mobsters, wiseguys and killers." Killings of journalists in the U.S. in retaliation for their work are extremely rare. Until German's death, eight journalists had been killed in the U.S. since 1992, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The deadliest attack came in 2018 when a shooting at the Capital Gazette in Maryland left five dead. "Jeff's death is a sobering reminder of the inherent risks of investigative journalism," said Diana Fuentes, executive director of the organization Investigative Reporters & Editors. "Journalists do their jobs every day, digging deep to find information the public needs to know and has a right to see." German joined the Review-Journal in 2010 after more than two decades at the Las Vegas Sun, where he was a columnist and reporter who covered courts, politics, labor, government and crime. He was 69, but never talked with his boss about retirement, Cook said. Former co-workers along with attorneys and government officials German counted on as sources called him a hard-nosed, tenacious journalist who could be gruff at times, especially if someone didn't know him or was holding back information. "He was not someone who was easily intimidated," said Geoff Schumacher, who worked with German at the Sun until the late 1990s. "Getting to the truth, that was more important to him than his own well-being or being popular." The pair recently worked together on a podcast called "Mobbed Up." Threats in '80s German talked about receiving veiled threats from mobsters in the early 1980s at a time when people were disappearing as law enforcement cracked down on organized crime. The warnings definitely got German's attention, but he never went to police, said Schumacher, who now works at The Mob Museum in Las Vegas Alan Feldman, a former executive with MGM Resorts International, said getting a call from German was like hearing from the CBS news show 60 Minutes. He didn't talk tough or threaten anyone, Feldman said, but he never backed down. And he always followed the story even if it didn't go in the direction he expected, he said. "The last thing I would say about Jeff is that anything scared him or that he was afraid," Feldman said. "He was prepared to go after anyone who was doing something not in the public interest." Telles, a Democrat who apparently had never served in public office until he was elected in 2018, oversaw fewer than 10 people and was paid about $120,000 a year to run an office that deals with estates and the property of people after they die. Before that he was a lawyer practicing probate and estate law. In the weeks before the June primary, German bylined reports about an office "mired in turmoil and internal dissension" between longtime employees and new hires under Telles' leadership. Following the stories, county officials hired a consultant to help oversee the office. Telles blamed "old-timers" for exaggerating the extent of his relationship with a female staffer and falsely claiming that he mistreated them. He posted complaints on Twitter about German, saying he was a bully who was "obsessed" with him. Telles ended up finishing last in the three-way primary and was serving out the remainder of his term at the time of the killing. The articles "ruined his political career, likely his marriage, and this was him lashing out at the cause," Chief Deputy District Attorney for Clark County Richard Scow said Thursday. German's family called him "a loving and loyal brother, uncle and friend who devoted his life to his work exposing wrongdoing in Las Vegas and beyond." "We're shocked, saddened and angry about his death," they said in a statement. "Jeff was committed to seeking justice for others and would appreciate the hard work by local police and journalists in pursuing his killer. We look forward to seeing justice done in this case." ?? El Ministerio de Salud informa que 1276 personas han sido dadas de alta por #ViruelaDelMono y se han detectado 48 casos nuevos. Todos vienen recibiendo asistencia medica y se viene realizando seguimiento a sus contactos. pic.twitter.com/oydr6Y3Ssx Unlike his predecessor, who almost terminated opium production in Afghanistan in the last year of Taliban rule with one decree in 2000, the current supreme leader of the Taliban appears to be unsuccessful in implementing his ban on opium production. In April, shortly after Afghan famers harvested opium from their 2021 poppy cultivation, Hibatullah Akhundzada issued a decree outlawing poppy cultivation and the production, sale and use of all other drugs. As this year's poppy cultivation season approaches, the Taliban have presented a modest scorecard for their counternarcotics achievements. Over the past year, less than 100 hectares of poppy fields were destroyed, about 2,000 drug dealers and traffickers were arrested, and 4,270 kilograms of opium were seized, according to figures from the Taliban's Interior Ministry. These figures put the Taliban regime far behind the previous Afghan government, which presided over two decades of soaring drug production in Afghanistan, in counternarcotics performance. In 2020, the Afghan government made more than 3,100 drug-related arrests, seized about 80,000 kilograms of opium and eradicated almost 1,000 hectares of poppy fields, according to the U.N. and Afghan officials. "There is serious doubt on the intentions of the current rulers whether they really want to eradicate poppy," said Javid Qaem, a former deputy minister for counternarcotics in Afghanistan and now a researcher at Arizona State University. "At the time of the Republic, security was a big challenge. Police could not go to the areas where poppy was cultivated. Taliban claim that they have all the areas under their control. They should be able to do it easily," he told VOA. The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has yet to release its annual assessment of the Afghan opium production for 2022 but says the trend appears unchanged. "Although the peace process in Colombia and the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan have essentially ended insurgencies, both countries have to date retained prominent roles in illicit drug cultivation and production," the UNODC reported in June. Economic considerations? Income from opium production, estimated between $1.8 billion to $2.7 billion, made up about 12% to 14% of Afghanistan's GDP in 2021. With the Taliban's return to power, Afghanistan has plunged deep into an economic crisis that has pushed nearly all Afghans into poverty. The U.N. says more than half of the Afghan population is in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. "Drugs have been a critical source of economic revenue in this impoverished country," Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told VOA, adding that the drug money was also going to members of the Taliban. Taking serious action against the powerful drug trade, particularly under current economic conditions, will worsen the poverty in Afghanistan and could result in local opposition to the Taliban, experts say. The Taliban reportedly pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars from Afghanistan's illicit drug trade. Between 2018 and 2019, the group earned more than $400 million from the trade, according to U.N. and U.S. officials. The Taliban, however, deny involvement in the drug trade. The Taliban's war against drugs may also be slow because of internal frictions, Qaem said. "Certain groups of Taliban are involved in this trade. It will be difficult for them to control their own ranks and files. It could lead to internal rifts, and I do not think the Taliban leadership will take this risk at this time," he said. Not only a Taliban job The U.S. has spent more than $8.82 billion on counternarcotics projects in Afghanistan over the past two decades, according to the Special Inspector General for the Reconstruction of Afghanistan (SIGAR). Because Afghanistan produces more than 80% of the heroin consumed globally, other donors such as the U.N., the World Bank and the European Union also aided counter-narcotics efforts in Afghanistan. The former Afghan government even created a Ministry of Counternarcotics to deal with the problem, but despite all the efforts made and money spent, Afghanistan remained the world's No. 1 opium producer. Foreign donors have ceased development assistance to Afghanistan, including funding counternarcotics programs, since the Taliban seized power last year. "The State Department's current policy prohibits direct assistance to the Taliban. While some counternarcotic programs remain active indirectly administered through implementing partners and NGOs other programs have been terminated or paused following the Taliban takeover in August 2021," a spokesperson for SIGAR told VOA. Isolated and pressed under economic sanctions, Taliban officials say they need foreign assistance, mostly in creating alternative sources of livelihood for poppy farmers and employment opportunities for poppy field laborers, in order for them to effectively rid the country of its illicit drug economy. "It is impossible to do effective counternarcotics only through eradication of poppy fields," Felbab-Brown said, "and if you do not rely on the use of force, there have to be economic tools to apply, which also appear unfeasible under the current financial sanctions." Ukraine is bracing for a new wave of Russian cyberattacks likely aimed at freezing its citizens in coming months and crippling its spending power. The attacks, according to an assessment shared Friday by a top Ukrainian cyber official, are expected to include precision cyber strikes, combining virtual efforts against key systems with physical action targeting critical infrastructure as winter approaches. "We saw this scenario before, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation Georgii Dubynskyi told reporters on the sidelines of a cybersecurity conference in Washington. They [Russia] are trying to find a way how to undermine, how to defeat our energy system and how to make circumstances even more severe for Ukrainians, he said. We are preparing. Dubynskyi is not the first Ukrainian official to sound alarms about Russias efforts in cyberspace. A number of Ukraine officials have described the war with Russia as the worlds first cyber war. And in August, Victor Zhora, the deputy head of Ukraine's State Special Communications Service, told an online conference that the pace of the Kremlin cyberattacks was relentless. "We continue registering new cyber incidents almost every day," said Zhora at the time, estimating there have been at least 1,600 major incidents since the start of the year. Moscow has consistently denied involvement in offensive cyberattacks, including some that targeted Ukraine on the eve of the Russian invasion. A report issued Thursday by the U.S.-based cybersecurity firm Check Point Software found that since February, cyberattacks on Ukrainian government and military websites "more than doubled, increasing by a staggering 112%." It also found that corporate networks in Ukraine are being hit by more than 1,500 attacks each week, an increase of 25% since the war began. Check Points researchers believe there is more reason to worry. "For the first time, weve also seen coordination between cyberattacks and kinetic, military assaults," the report said, citing a March 1, 2022, Russian missile attack on a television transmission tower in Kyiv that was accompanied by a cyberattack designed to knock out all of the citys broadcasting capabilities. Dubynskyi on Friday warned that Russia is actively developing various types of malware that he described as cyberweapons, for use in Ukraine and maybe even beyond. "We cannot compare it with nuclear weapons, but the effectiveness of that is enough," he said. Making matters worse, Dubynskyi alleged Russia has help on the inside. "They are developing classical operations, using not only cyber, not only software, also using some human resources," he said. "Using some traitors." Ukrainian officials say they are working to root out any spies and are focused on integrating cybersecurity officials trained on what to do in the case of a severe cyberattack into regional and local governments. They also say they are getting considerable help from the U.S. and other Western allies, though there are ongoing requests for more aid and more training. Despite the concern expressed by some Ukrainian officials, not all experts see Russias cyber exploits during the war as insurmountable. Some of the things theyve done was impactful, said Dmitri Alperovitch, the founder of the Silverado Policy Accelerator and the former chief technology officer of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, at the Billington CyberSecurity Summit on Friday. But they have tried a lot of stuff and clearly much of it is not working because of the resilience and the preparation that was taking place [in Ukraine], he said. And Ukraine believes the Kremlins efforts to recruit and use cyber gangs or hackers for hire may also be suffering because of Russias military setbacks on the battlefield. We believe that many of them are scared and that many of them are scared [of] what is going on in Russia," Dubynskyi said, citing Russian President Vladimir Putins propensity to rule with an increasingly iron fist. For hackers and IT experts, freedom is one of the dimensions of their existence," he said. This atmosphere also is not productive, neither for IT experts nor even for hackers. The U.N. Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has raised concerns about the treatment of people with disabilities in China and Ukraine. The two countries are among nine whose records came under review by the 18-member monitoring group during its latest session. The committee said it is deeply concerned about the reported detention of people with disabilities from Uyghur and other Muslim minorities in so-called vocational education and training centers in China. It said their special needs are not being met and urges China to release them and meet all their disability-related needs while in detention. The United Nations, human rights groups and many governments have sharply criticized Chinas forcible internment of more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslim groups in Xinjiang province, accusations China vigorously denies. Committee member Risnawati Utami said a Chinese government delegation did not agree with the committees observations and conclusions. There is denial of some recommendations, Utami said. But, again, we work on the consensus with our committee based on the reporting that we have. So, basically, we are trying to state what we have in the concluding observations and hope that the Chinese government will accept our concluding observations without any reservations. The committee held a special session about people with disabilities in Ukraine. Vice chair of the committee Jonas Ruskus said the panel heard testimony that people trapped in conflict zones had been denied evacuation and access to basic services. He said at least 12 disabled people reportedly had died in residential institutions. We received information that persons with disabilities, they are in institutions in territories under control of Russian Federation, Ruskus said. They have been kept in inhuman conditions, subjected to ill treatment and used as human shields by Russian Federation armed forces. Ruskus said the committee also has received reports about persons with disabilities who have been forcibly transferred to the Russian Federation or to territories under Russian control. The committee is urging both Ukraine and Russia to immediately evacuate people with disabilities who are institutionalized in conflict zones in Ukrainian territory under their respective control. Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch. IAEA chief briefs Security Council on Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi said Friday that the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plants power infrastructure had been destroyed in shelling, leading to a complete blackout in the surrounding town of Enerhodar. The IAEA said the plants Ukrainian operator is considering shutting down the plants only remaining working reactor. Earlier in the week, Grossi briefed the Security Council on his mission to the plant. IAEA Chief: Attacks on Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant 'Playing With Fire' UN concerned by Russia's 'filtration' of Ukrainian civilians The U.N. assistant secretary-general for human rights said Wednesday that her office has verified that Russian soldiers and affiliated groups subject Ukrainian civilians to an invasive process called filtration, and she called for access to those being detained by Russia. UN Concerned by Russias 'Filtration' of Ukrainian Civilians UN chief in Pakistan to see flood damage Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrived in Islamabad on Friday to meet with Pakistan government officials and visit flood-impacted areas. One-third of the country is under water after deadly and destructive monsoon rains. The U.N. has appealed for an emergency $160 million to assist 5.2 million people. UN Chief: Flood-Ravaged Pakistan Wrongly Attacked by 'Blind' Nature Pandemic, other crises hurt human development The U.N. Development Program said in a new report this week that the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, economic uncertainty and other crises have halted progress in human development and reversed gains made over the past three decades. Data from 191 countries show 90% failed to achieve a better, healthier, more secure life for their people in 2020 and 2021. Crises Halt Progress in Human Development: UN Report UN official: Sahel must not be forgotten amid other crises A senior U.N. official for Africa warned this week that the Sahel region risks becoming a forgotten crisis because of the many competing emergencies around the world. Charles Bernimolin told VOA that the world must not ignore the 18.6 million people there who face acute hunger, with many on the brink of starvation. He said 7.7 million children under the age of 5 are malnourished, including nearly 2 million who are severely malnourished and risk dying without prompt treatment. Sahel Risks Becoming a Forgotten Crisis, UN Official Says In brief Guterres appointed Volker Turk the next U.N. high commissioner for human rights on Thursday, following approval by the General Assembly. Turk, a native of Austria, has held a number of positions in the United Nations system. He succeeds Michelle Bachelet of Chile whose term ended on August 31. The General Assembly on Thursday approved a new U.N. Office for Youth Affairs. It will support governments in responding to the worlds 1.2 billion young people and their priorities namely, education, jobs and peace. The World Meteorological Organization said this week in a new report that African communities, economies and ecosystems are being hit hard by water stress and events including drought and severe floods. The State of the Climate in Africa 2021 says high water stress affects about 250 million people in Africa and could displace up to 700 million people by 2030. In addition, four out of five African countries are unlikely to have sustainably managed water resources by 2030. Good news Some 23,000 metric tons of Ukrainian wheat arrived in Djibouti by ship late last month. This week, trucks delivered a portion of that wheat to the World Food Program's main warehouse in Ethiopia. The food-assistance branch of the U.N. said the 23,000 tons of grain is enough to feed 1.5 million people on full rations for one month. Next week On September 13, the 77th session of the General Assembly will open. President-elect Csaba Korosi of Hungary will take his place at the dais. The following week, world leaders will convene at headquarters for their first completely in-person annual debate since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020. In memoriam Britains Queen Elizabeth II died on Thursday after a more than 70-year reign. She was respected and admired by millions around the world. Although holding only constitutional powers, she wielded great soft power and was widely regarded as a fine diplomat in her own right. Nothing seduced world leaders like the honor of a state banquet at Windsor Castle or Buckingham Palace presided over by Her Majesty. Guterres on Thursday called her a good friend of the United Nations. During her reign, she addressed the General Assembly twice in 1957 and 2010. Read our report about her 2010 visit here: Queen Elizabeth Addresses UN General Assembly View U.N. video clips from both her visits here. As a new school year begins in the United States, institutions of higher education are voicing optimism that international student numbers are bouncing back given an increase in applications for the 2022-2023 school year. The Institute of International Education (IIE), in a report published in June, said U.S. colleges saw an increase in applications for admission after seeing significantly fewer new international student enrollments in 2020 and 2021. Does it mean international students are returning in numbers to the U.S.? I definitely say that is true. Absolutely, IIE Co-President Jason Czyz told VOA. He said IIE found the biggest factor in renewed interest in the United States for higher education is the waning of the pandemic. Is it entirely done? No. But people around the world are learning to live with it. And as a result of two years, where there was very limited international mobility for students, we're seeing that there's definitely this pent-up demand for international exchange and the U.S., of course, is one of the main markets for that, he said. The IIEs June report cites data from 559 institutions and shows that 65% of them saw an increase in their international student applications for the 2022-2023 academic year across all institutional types, up from 43% one year ago. An increase in applications, however, does not necessarily mean growth in foreign student enrollment in U.S. higher education institutions. It can take some time to obtain a visa to study in the United States, Czyz said. But typically, there is some relationship or proportionality between applications and enrollment. And so, we do expect to see international student enrollment take off. Prospective international students can only apply for a visa after they have been accepted to an U.S. institution that is approved by ICEs Student Exchange and Visitor Program. And it takes a minimum of 120 days to for a U.S. consulate to issue a visa to the students. ICE is U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. According to the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP), in 2021, there were 1,236,748 international students with F-1 and M-1 visas enrolled in the U.S. In 2020, the year the pandemic began, the number was 1,251,569, a decline of 17.86% from 2019. SEVP is part of ICE. An F-1 visa is for those attending an academic program or seeking a full-time degree at an U.S. institution, while the M-1 visa covers those enrolled in vocational studies, such as language programs, cosmetology schools, and mechanical studies, among others. Boundless Immigration, a Seattle-based firm that helps people navigate the U.S. immigration system, released a study September 1 showing that even before the pandemic, international student enrollment had dropped, and that the top reasons for the decline were visa delays and denials, competition from colleges in other countries, and restrictive immigration policies under the Trump administration. The transition to the Biden administration during the COVID-19 pandemic makes it hard to delineate pandemic-related effects on international student enrollment from the larger political rhetoric and context in the country, according to Boundless. Reports from Boundless and IIE show that visa concerns were among the top reasons for enrollment declines in fall 2019, which was aggravated by U.S. embassies and consulates closing in 2020 because of the pandemic. Their researchers also said colleges and universities reported students enrolling in other countries, such as the United Kingdom, which had eased its process for applicants to access student and work visas and therefore attracted more international students. International students are important to universities for the economic impact they bring to the U.S. According to Boundless, international students contributed $28.4 billion to the economy and supported 306,308 jobs during the 2020-2021 academic year. The states with the most international students are California, Florida, New York, Massachusetts and Texas. We're still seeing a steep decline, especially from China, which represents more than one-third of international students, Lynn Pasquerella, president of the American Association of Colleges and Universities, told VOA. According to the U.S. State Department, it granted 64,261 F-1 visas to Chinese students in the first six months of 2019. In the first six months of 2022, that number was 31,055. Canada, Singapore, and the U.K. have seen an increase in Chinese student enrollment over the past several years, thanks to several factors including logistical challenges to come to the U.S. An IIE Open Door report showed that Chinese nationals accounted for 35% of foreigners studying in the U.S. and contributed $15.9 billion in the 2019-2020 academic year before the pandemic drove study abroad numbers down. F-1 and M-1 students come from more than 224 countries and territories. The top 10 places with the largest number of international students in the United States are Brazil, Canada, China, India, Japan, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Given the overreliance that many American institutions have had on international students to meet the bottom line, that's of concern or should be of concern, Pasquerella said. Czyz says IIE expects U.S. institutions to be on track for increased numbers of international students. IIE expects to release a new report on international students' applications and enrollments in November. We have over 4,000 institutions of higher education in the United States, and the most diverse higher education industry in the world in terms of all different sizes, all different disciplines. The choices in the United States are fantastic, and it's the more diverse higher education community than anywhere else in the world, he said. Albania said it suffered another cyberattack on the day the U.S. announced sanctions against Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) for an attack launched against Tirana's government computer systems in July. "The national police's computer systems were hit Friday by a cyberattack which, according to initial information, was committed by the same actors who in July attacked the country's public and government service systems," the ministry said in a statement Saturday, according to Agence France-Presse. To neutralize the cyberattack, Albanian authorities shut down computer control systems at seaports, airports and border posts, according to the statement. In a tweet Saturday, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama denounced "another cyberattack (committed by) the same aggressors already condemned by Albania's friendly countries and allies." On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced sanctions against Irans MOIS. In July 2022, cyber attackers determined to be sponsored by the Government of Iran and its MOIS disrupted Albanian government computer systems, forcing the government to suspend public services for its citizens," Blinken said in a statement. In a separate statement, the U.S. Treasury Department said in addition to conducting malicious cyber activity against Albanian government websites, the MOIS, led by Minister of Intelligence Esmail Khatib, also committed cyberespionage and ransomware attacks in support of Irans political goals. Iran rejected the accusation it was behind the cyberattack, calling the claim "baseless." "Iran as one of the target countries of cyberattacks on its critical infrastructure rejects and condemns any use of cyber space as a tool to attack the critical infrastructure of other countries," its foreign ministry said, according to AFP. The U.S. Treasury statement said Iran also is behind the leaking of documents purported to be from the Albanian government and personal information associated with Albanian residents. Under the sanctions, the Treasury Department said all property and interests in property belonging to the MOIS and, specifically, Khatib, subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them. Iran on Saturday strongly condemned the U.S. sanctions. "America's immediate support for the false accusation of the Albanian government...shows that the designer of this scenario is not the latter, but the American government," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said in a statement. Since at least 2007, Irans MOIS and its cyberattacking proxies have conducted malicious cyber operations targeting a range of government and private-sector organizations across various critical infrastructure sectors, Blinken said in his statement on Friday. He said Irans cyberattacks can cause grave damage to these governments abilities to provide services to civilians and disregard the norms of responsible peacetime state behavior in cyberspace. Blinken added, The United States will continue to use all appropriate tools to counter cyberattacks against the United States and our allies. Last week, Albania ordered Iranian officials out of the country and severed diplomatic relations with Tehran following an investigation into the July cyberattack. Tirana described "irrefutable" evidence that Tehran had backed "the act of serious cyberattack against the digital infrastructure of the government of the Republic of Albania." The Iranian Foreign Ministry denied Tehran was behind any cyberattack on Albanian government websites. It called the decision to sever diplomatic relations "ill-considered and hasty and said it was based on unfounded insinuations." Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect new developments. RFE/RL contributed to this article. Some information for this article came from Agence France-Presse. The U.S. Treasury Department announced Thursday that it is levying sanctions against four Iranian companies that it says were involved in sending drones to Russia last month for use in Moscow's war against Ukraine. Tehran-based Safiran Airport Services, Paravar Pars Company, Design and Manufacturing of Aircraft Engines, and Baharestan Kish Company were all hit with the new sanctions. "Russia is making increasingly desperate choices to continue its unprovoked war against Ukraine, particularly in the face of our unprecedented sanctions and export controls," said Brian Nelson, undersecretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence. "The United States is committed to strictly enforcing our sanctions against both Russia and Iran and holding accountable Iran and those supporting Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine." Safiran coordinates Russian military flights between Iran and Russia, including those that U.S. intelligence officials say transported Iranian unmanned aerial vehicles, personnel, and related equipment from Iran to Russia, over several days last month. Paravar Pars Company is closely associated with Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps-controlled Imam Hossein University, and has been involved in the research, development, and production of the Iranian Shahed-171 UAV. Design and Manufacturing of Aircraft Engines is an Iranian company involved in the research, development, and production of the Iranian Shahed-171 UAV. Baharestan Kish Company oversees various defense-related projects in Iran, including the manufacturing of UAVs. The Biden administration said last week that Russia has faced technical problems with Iranian-made drones that were acquired from Tehran in August. The White House says Russian officials picked up Mohajer-6 and Shahed-series unmanned aerial vehicles over several days last month. The Biden administration says U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russia is looking to acquire hundreds of Iranian UAVs for use in Ukraine. Earlier this week, the Pentagon confirmed that the U.S. intelligence community has determined that Russia is also in the process of purchasing rockets and artillery shells from North Korea for its ongoing fight in Ukraine. The U.S. has frequently downgraded and made public intelligence findings over the course of the grinding war in Ukraine to highlight Moscow's difficulties in prosecuting the war. Ukraine's smaller military has put up a stiff resistance against the militarily superior Russian forces. Here is a look at immigration-related news around the U.S. this week. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com. US Education Institutions Report a Rise in International Student Applications As a new school year begins in the United States, institutions of higher education are voicing optimism that international student numbers are bouncing back, given an increase in applications for the 2022-23 school year. But an increase in applications does not necessarily mean growth in foreign student enrollment in U.S. higher education institutions. Biden Administration to Remove 'Public Charge' Immigration Hurdles The Biden administration finalized a rule Friday to remove hurdles to immigration to anyone deemed likely to become dependent on public benefits while trying to obtain a visa or become a U.S. permanent resident. The rule is scheduled to take effect December 23. No Longer Young, 'Dreamers' in US Uneasily Watch a Legal Challenge "Dreamers, long a symbol of immigrant youth, are increasingly easing into middle age as eligibility requirements have been frozen since 2012, when the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was introduced. The oldest recipients were in their early 30s when DACA began and are in their early 40s today. At the same time, fewer people turning 16 can meet a requirement to have been in the United States continuously since June 2007. 3 Green Card Holders Rescued From Afghanistan Arrive in US Three U.S. green card holders rescued from Afghanistan by a Tampa, Florida-based nonprofit landed at JFK International Airport in New York earlier this week. The organization, Project Dynamo, said that the three Afghans had been hiding in Kabul for a year before being rescued during a dangerous operation codenamed: SLINGSHOT 8, the organization said via press release on Tuesday. Washington Mayor Declares Public Emergency Over Migrant Arrivals From Texas, Arizona Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser on Thursday declared a public emergency over buses of migrants sent by Republican governors from the U.S.-Mexico border states of Texas and Arizona. Migration around the world UN Refugee Agency Rushes Aid to Pakistan Amid Raging Floods The U.N. refugee agency rushed in more desperately needed aid Monday to flood-stricken Pakistan as the nation's prime minister traveled to the south where rising waters of Lake Manchar pose a new threat. Huge Relief Operation for Pakistani Flood Survivors Gathers Steam The United Nations is rapidly scaling up its relief operation in Pakistan amid fears the situation could further deteriorate as more rains are predicted in the coming month. Torrential monsoon rains and floods in Pakistan have killed more than 1,200 people and affected upward of 33 million, rendering millions homeless and causing widespread destruction and damage to homes and infrastructure. Climate Change, Conflict Forcing More People in Africa to Flee The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, is warning that the displacement crisis in the Horn of Africa and Sahel is getting worse as the impacts of climate change and conflict are forcing more people to flee in search of safety and humanitarian assistance. Canadian Parties Agree: Immigrants Are Welcome Here At a time when many developed countries are facing backlashes against immigration, Canada is experiencing a broad consensus in support of throwing open its doors to more new residents from abroad. Immigration Minister Sean Fraser boasted at a press conference last month that Canada is on track to exceed its immigration goal of granting permanent residency to more than 430,000 people in 2022. That will easily exceed the admission of 401,000 immigrants in 2021, more than in any previous year. News in Brief U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services posted an overview of some of the temporary and permanent pathways for noncitizens to work in the United States in STEM fields. Ukraine announced major advancements in a strategic military counteroffensive against Russian forces, retaking vital territory and cutting off a main supply line to thousands of Russian soldiers in northeastern Ukraine. Ukrainian forces reported Saturday they had entered the town of Kupiansk and Izium and pushed Russian soldiers across the Oskil River in retreat. Ukrainian special forces published images on social media, which they said showed their officers, with the caption in Kupiansk, which was and will always be Ukrainian. A regional official separately posted an image of Ukrainian soldiers in the town of about 27,000 people. The regions key rail and road links have been used for several months to supply Russian forces stationed in the nearby city of Izium, which is near the border between the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions. Military analysts say Russia is believed to be sending reinforcements to the area, where it plans to launch new attacks against Ukrainian-controlled sections of Donetsk. Russias Defense Ministry disputed Ukraines announcement, claiming its forces were holding their positions and returning heavy arms fire against the Ukrainians. Later in the day, however, the Ministry confirmed it had pulled its forces out of Izium. A pro-Russia separatist leader also was quoted as saying that there was fierce fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk region. Denis Pushilin said the situation in the town of Lyman was very difficult and that there was also fighting in a number of other localities, particularly in the northern part of the region. Meanwhile, Moscow announced it was regrouping its forces in the eastern Kharkiv region of Ukraine. To achieve the goals of the special military operation to liberate Donbas, a decision was made to regroup Russian troops stationed in the Balakliya and Izyum regions, to bolster efforts along the Donetsk front, Russia's defense ministry said in a statement. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address Friday that Ukrainian forces had retaken more than 30 settlements in the Kharkiv region. We are gradually taking control over more settlements, returning the Ukrainian flag and protection for our people, Zelenskyy said. The Ukrainian breakthrough near Kharkiv was the fastest advance reported by either side for months, and it is one of the biggest gains in the war since Russian forces abandoned a disastrous assault on the capital, Kyiv, in March. Western military analysts say the advance puts the Ukrainians within striking distance of the main railway that Moscow has relied on to sustain its force in eastern Ukraine and could leave thousands of Russian troops at risk of being cut off. In other developments, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock made a surprise visit to Kyiv Saturday pledging Berlin's unwavering support for Ukraine in its battle against Russia. I have traveled to Kyiv today to show that they can continue to rely on us. That we will continue to stand by Ukraine for as long as necessary with deliveries of weapons, and with humanitarian and financial support, Baerbock said in a statement. Its her second trip to Ukraine and comes a week after Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhals trip to Berlin where he had repeated Kyiv's call for weapons. Over the last weeks, Germany has sent howitzers, rocket launchers and anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine. Heavier weapons like anti-aircraft systems, rocket launchers mounted on pick-ups and anti-drone equipment are also due in a further military aid package worth over $500 million. In Prague, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told a news conference Friday with his Czech counterpart, "We see success in Kherson now, we see some success in Kharkiv, and so that is very, very encouraging. The British Defense Ministry said in its intelligence report, With Ukrainian operations also continuing in Kherson, the Russian defensive front is under pressure on both its northern and southern flanks. Nuclear fears Meanwhile, shelling destroyed the power infrastructure at the Ukrainian city of Enerhodar where staff operating the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant live, posing a growing threat to the plant, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Friday. The plant's off-site power supplies, vital lines of defense against a potential nuclear meltdown, have already been cut. And the shelling at Enerhodar has caused a lasting blackout there. That has prompted Ukraine to say it may have to shut down the last operating reactor supplying power to Zaporizhzhia, including the cooling systems for the plant's nuclear fuel. Zaporizhzhia's operator is not confident that off-site power can be restored and that is prompting it to consider shutting down the last operating reactor, International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said in a statement. "The entire power plant would then be fully reliant on emergency diesel generators for ensuring vital nuclear safety and security functions. And as a consequence, the operator would not be able to restart the reactors unless off-site power was reliably reestablished," he added. "This is an unsustainable situation and is becoming increasingly precarious. Enerhodar has gone dark. The power plant has no off-site power. And we have seen that once infrastructure is repaired, it is damaged once again," Grossi said. Ukraine and Russia have blamed each other for shelling near Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine and within the perimeter of Europe's biggest nuclear power plant, which has six reactors. "This is completely unacceptable. It cannot stand," Grossi said. "I therefore urgently call for the immediate cessation of all shelling in the entire area. Only this will ensure the safety and security of operating staff and allow the durable restoration of power to Enerhodar and to the power plant." Grossi this week called for the creation of a "nuclear safety and security protection zone" around Zaporizhzhia, repeating his call Friday. Military aid The United States said Thursday that it planned to send $2.2 billion in long-term military aid to Ukraine and 18 other European countries threatened by Russian aggression, and another $675 million directly to the Kyiv government in a new munitions package to fight Moscow's invasion. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who met with Zelenskyy in Kyiv Thursday, said the $2.2 billion would "bolster the security of Ukraine and 18 of its neighbors, including many of our NATO allies, as well as other regional security partners potentially at risk of future Russian aggression." European Union finance ministers Friday backed a $5 billion loan for Ukraine to help it keep schools, hospitals and other state operations running as it fights against Russia's invasion, the Czech Finance Ministry said. The loan, to be backed by guarantees of EU member states, is part of an overall $9 billion package announced in May. The first $1 billion was sent in early August. Czech Finance Minister Zbynek Stanjura, who was hosting EU finance ministers Friday in Prague, said in a statement that upcoming meetings would decide how the remaining $3 billion in the package could be split into loans or grants. Some information for this report came from Reuters and The Associated Press. LONDON From the moment Buckingham Palace gave the world the word of Queen Elizabeth's passing, tributes from heads of state have been pouring in. Her son, now Charles III, said "We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much-loved mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world." Britain's new Prime Minister, Liz Truss, who went to Balmoral to see the Queen on Tuesday, said "We are all devastated by the news we have just heard from Balmoral. The death of Her Majesty the Queen is a huge shock to the nation and to the world." Truss framed the moment with "Queen Elizabeth II was the rock on which modern Britain was built." US President Joe Biden praised Queen Elizabeth as a a stateswoman of unmatched dignity and constancy who deepened the bedrock alliance between the United Kingdom and the United States. She helped make our relationship special." he said. "Her commitment to German-British reconciliation after the horrors of World War II will remain unforgotten," said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Separately, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the queen's state visit in 1965 to post-war Germany was an "invaluably important signal of reconciliation after two devastating world wars." President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday hailed Queen Elizabeth II as "a friend of France... who has left her mark on her country and her century forever", following the announcement of her death. "Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II embodied the British nation's continuity and unity for over 70 years. "I remember her as a friend of France, a kind-hearted queen who has left her mark on her country and her century forever," Macron stated. African Union chief Macky Sall described Queen Elizabeth II as "illustrious." Sall, who is also Senegal's president, praised her "exceptional career", hailing "the memory of the illustrious deceased" in a message on Twitter. "I offer my heartfelt condolences to the British government and people," he said. South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday expressed his "profound and sincere condolences" over the death of Queen Elizabeth II, in a statement addressed to the new king, Charles III. "Her Majesty was an extraordinary and world-renowned public figure who lived a remarkable life. Her life and legacy will be fondly remembered by many around the world," Ramaphosa said. "The Queen's commitment and dedication during her 70 years on the throne remains a noble and virtuous example". Tributes poured forth from the Commonwealth. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau paid tribute Thursday to Queen Elizabeth II, saying "She was a constant presence in our lives -- and her service to Canadians will forever remain an important part of our country's history," he said, adding that she will be remembered for her "wisdom, compassion and warmth." Australia's prime minster Anthony Albanese -- an avowed republican -- on Friday paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth II's "timeless decency" and said her death marked the "end of an era." New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called her life "extraordinary," saying "The Queen was a much respected constant through unprecedented global change." Leaders in other nations also praised the monarch. Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi offered his condolences, saying "She guaranteed stability in moments of crisis and kept alive the value of tradition in a society in constant and profound evolution." India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Thursday he was "pained" by the death of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, hailing the monarch of his country's former colonial ruler as a paragon of "dignity and decency." NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday said he was "deeply saddened by the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Over more than 70 years, she exemplified selfless leadership and public service." Queen Elizabeth II reigned during the era that the British Empire dissolved, which saw the independence of numerous African states. Tributes from more African leaders are also expected to mark her passing. This report was compiled with information provided by Agence France-Presse and Reuters. Britains King Charles III is returning to London on Friday from Balmoral Castle in Scotland where his mother, Queen Elizabeth, died Thursday. Charles, who is 73 and the oldest monarch to ascend the throne, is scheduled to deliver a televised address to a nation in mourning Friday, his first address as head of state. The king is also set Friday to hold his first audience with Prime Minister Liz Truss at Buckingham Palace. Elizabeth appointed Truss to her new position as prime minister on Tuesday, just two days before Britains longest-reigning monarch died. Parliament is holding a special midday session Friday to pay respect to the queen. Truss and other ministers are also set to attend a remembrance service Friday for the queen at St. Pauls Cathedral. Later, gun salutes are scheduled to be held at Hyde Park and other locations. Elizabeths funeral will be held in the coming days at Londons Westminster Abbey and that day will be designated as a National Day of Mourning, a public holiday. Growing mountains of flowers and tributes to the queen are gathering not only at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, but also at British embassies and cathedrals around the world. LONDON Buckingham Palace said there would a period of mourning to be observed by members of the family and the royal household until a week after the funeral, the date of which has not yet been confirmed but is expected in about 10 days time. Church bells tolled across the UK on Friday as King Charles III readied to address his mourning subjects on the first full day of his new reign following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. Here is how the events are scheduled to be held: King Charles III will make a national speech at 1700 GMT, House of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle said Friday following the new monarch's ascent. The royal couple moved from Balmoral Castle in Scotland on Friday the place where his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, died on Thursday afternoon. Her remains will stay there for a short while before being moved to London. Hoyle said a special session of the House, called to pay tribute to Elizabeth II, would be suspended at 6:00 pm "while his Majesty the King makes his broadcast to the nation". - Saturday, September 10 - Day 1: The 10-day plan for the days after the queen's death begins with the Accession Council convening for Charles to be formally proclaimed king. Three trumpeters announce the proclamation with a fanfare. The proclamation is read out from a balcony at St James's Palace in London, then across the country. Charles will hold audiences, and the media will be briefed by the Earl Marshal, a high-ranking royal official in charge of the accession and the queen's state funeral, in the coming days. - Sunday, September 11- Day 2: The queen's coffin is expected to be transported from Balmoral to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, her official Scottish residence in Edinburgh. The journey by road will pass through many small towns and villages, giving members of the public their first chance to pay their respects. Preparations for the queen's death in Scotland are codenamed "Operation Unicorn" after the country's national animal. - Monday, September 12 - Day 3: Charles is expected to begin a tour of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the four nations of the United Kingdom in an operation codenamed "Spring Tide". The queen's coffin is expected to be taken in a procession up Edinburgh's Royal Mile from Holyrood to St Giles' Cathedral, where there will be a service and a vigil attended by royal family members. - Tuesday, September 13 - Day 4: The coffin is expected to be flown to the capital and transported by road to Buckingham Palace in London. Members of the public will likely line the route. - Wednesday, September 14 - Day 5: A ceremonial procession of the coffin through London is expected followed by a lying in state in parliament's Westminster Hall, codenamed "Operation Feather". Senior members of the royal family are expected to stand guard around the coffin in a tradition known as the Vigil of the Princes. - September 15-17 - Days 6,7 and 8: Lying in state. Public can pay their respects, filing past the coffin on its catafalque. - Sunday, September 18 - Day 9: A reception to be held for visiting dignitaries and heads of state who have arrived for the funeral. - Monday, September 19 - Day 10: The state funeral is expected to take place in Westminster Abbey with huge crowds gathering in central London. Senior members of the royal family are likely to walk behind coffin as it is taken on a gun carriage to the abbey with a two-minute silence observed. Afterwards, the queen's coffin will be taken to Windsor Castle for a televised committal service at St George's Chapel. She will then be interred privately at the King George VI memorial chapel, alongside her husband, Prince Philip, the ashes of her sister Princess Margaret, their mother, also called Elizabeth, and father George VI. - Saturday, September 10 - Day 1: The 10-day plan for the days after the queen's death begins with the Accession Council convening for Charles to be formally proclaimed king. Three trumpeters announce the proclamation with a fanfare. The proclamation is read out from a balcony at St James's Palace in London, then across the country. Charles will hold audiences, and the media will be briefed by the Earl Marshal, a high-ranking royal official in charge of the accession and the queen's state funeral, in the coming days. - Sunday, September 11- Day 2: The queen's coffin is expected to be transported from Balmoral to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, her official Scottish residence in Edinburgh. The journey by road will pass through many small towns and villages, giving members of the public their first chance to pay their respects. Preparations for the queen's death in Scotland are codenamed "Operation Unicorn" after the country's national animal. - Monday, September 12 - Day 3: Charles is expected to begin a tour of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the four nations of the United Kingdom in an operation codenamed "Spring Tide". The queen's coffin is expected to be taken in a procession up Edinburgh's Royal Mile from Holyrood to St Giles' Cathedral, where there will be a service and a vigil attended by royal family members. - Tuesday, September 13 - Day 4: The coffin is expected to be flown to the capital and transported by road to Buckingham Palace in London. Members of the public will likely line the route. - Wednesday, September 14 - Day 5: A ceremonial procession of the coffin through London is expected followed by a lying in state in parliament's Westminster Hall, codenamed "Operation Feather". Senior members of the royal family are expected to stand guard around the coffin in a tradition known as the Vigil of the Princes. - September 15-17 - Days 6,7 and 8: Lying in state. Public can pay their respects, filing past the coffin on its catafalque. - Sunday, September 18 - Day 9: A reception to be held for visiting dignitaries and heads of state who have arrived for the funeral. - Monday, September 19 - Day 10: The state funeral is expected to take place in Westminster Abbey with huge crowds gathering in central London. Senior members of the royal family are likely to walk behind coffin as it is taken on a gun carriage to the abbey with a two-minute silence observed. Afterwards, the queen's coffin will be taken to Windsor Castle for a televised committal service at St George's Chapel. She will then be interred privately at the King George VI memorial chapel, alongside her husband, Prince Philip, the ashes of her sister Princess Margaret, their mother, also called Elizabeth, and father George VI. This report was prepared using information from Reuters and Agence France-Presse 16:04 | Cusco (Cusco region), Sep. 9. Mr. Castillo spoke with some reporters at the Archaeological Site of Quillarumiyoc in Cusco region. At the site, the Head of State recalled the previous experience when he was denied permission to travel to Colombia to attend Gustavo Petro's presidential inauguration ceremony something that Latin America and the rest of the world "did not welcome." "I expect it (Congress) to do so (grant me permission) because we have a plan; we (will) have meetings with sister countries and businesspeople, even some commitments with ministers that we are going to deliver, such as those of education, trade, among other sectors, because there is an entire delegation; not doing so would be unfortunate," he expressed. In this sense, the top official specified that he has work and family ties to Peru, adding that he is in the Government "to work for the country." Likewise, Mr. Castillo affirmed that a Binational Cabinet with Chile is pending, intended not only to boost common border development, but also friendship and brotherhood bonds. Democracy Moreover, Mr. Castillo said Congress of the Republic must understand that his administration "has not come (to power) to harm the country" in response to the possibility of the presentation of a new impeachment motion against him. "I would opt for us to continue being respectful of democracy, and I expect sanity and maturity from Congress, because the population is above all else," he affirmed. In this regard, Mr. Castillo called for horizontal spaces to be opened at parliamentary work commissions with each State minister. Row comes ahead of Italy's upcoming general election. The popular children's cartoon series Peppa Pig is at the centre of a political row in Italy over the show's inclusion of two co-parenting lesbian polar bears. The episode, entitled Families, sees Penny announce: "I live with my mummy and my other mummy. One mummy is a doctor and one mummy cooks spaghetti". The far-right Fratelli d'Italia (FdI) party of Giorgia Meloni, widely tipped to be Italy's next prime minister after elections later this month, has appealed to state broadcaster not to air the episode with the two mothers. Federico Mollicone, culture spokesman of the conservative nationalist party, said it would be "unacceptable" for RAI to broadcast the episode, saying: "We cannot accept gender indoctrination", reports Italian newspaper La Stampa. "Once again political correctness strikes again, and our children are the ones who pay the price", Mollicone said, adding: "Can't children just be children?" Enrico Letta, leader of the centre-left Partito Democratico (PD), took aim at Meloni on Twitter, asking if she thought Peppa Pig "should be censored while the video of a woman raped in Piacenza should be shared without limits?" PD politician and gay rights activist Alessandro Zan, whose bill aimed at fighting homophobia was blocked by right-wing senators last year, took a mocking tone on Twitter: "Fratelli d'Italia raises the alarm, a new enemy is besieging the nation: Peppa Pig." This is the first time in its 18-year history that the hit television show, created by British animators Mark Baker and Neville Astley, has featured a same-sex couple. The episode was aired in the UK on Tuesday, two years after an online petition demanded a "same-sex parent family on Peppa Pig". Open day on Rome public transport network on 17 September. Rome's public transport network, including buses, metro and trams, will be completely free to commuters on Saturday 17 September. The initiative, announced by the capital's mayor Roberto Gualtieri, is part of the 2022 edition of European Mobility Week which is scheduled from 16-22 September. For the duration of the open day on 17 September, commuters in Rome will be able to access the entire ATAC public transport system without having to buy tickets. The mayor said the initiative is designed to "promote the use of local public transport and spread the culture of sustainable mobility" and that the city is working "to achieve a real mobility revolution, reconnecting our neighbourhoods and making Rome a more sustainable and liveable city." The city's transport councillor Eugenio Patane said the open day is aimed primarily at those who do not usually travel by bus, metro or tram, describing it as an important step in encouraging the use of local public transport. The announcement drew scepticism on social media however, with commentators suggesting that for many of Rome's commuters "every day is an open day", amid claims of a perceived widespread practice of fare dodging. Earlier this summer the mayor raised the prospect of "free or almost free" public transport in the capital, saying it would be of "concrete help" to low-income workers and pensioners as well as "making a contribution to the fight against climate change". On 1 September Italy launched a 60 public transport bonus for students, workers and pensioners with an income of less than 35,000. More than half a million vouchers were issued in the first week of the scheme, according to Italian news reports. Photo credit: Massimo Todaro / Shutterstock.com. Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share Its time: Congressional Democrats need to get the ball rolling on ending the risk of defaulting on the nations debt. If they dont tackle this before the current term ends, we run the risk that a Republican House majority will be irresponsible enough to allow a default to happen. Thats why the Democrats should seize the opportunity during the lame-duck period after the Nov. 8 midterms to eliminate the borrowing cap entirely. The reason this is so pressing is that the US has a law limiting the amount of debt the government can borrow. Since the federal government almost always runs a deficit, the total amount of debt is almost always increasing, which means that periodically the limit must be raised as well. But because the government sets the limit, and the government also decides how much to borrow, the law is entirely superfluous; its as if credit card limits were set by the cardholder and not the card issuer.(1) The problem is that raising the limit takes an act of Congress, and many in Congress fear that voters will punish them based on a mistaken belief that its a vote to increase the deficit (even though theres no evidence that voters would do such a thing). But if Congress fails to increase the limit, the US would default, leaving the government unable to pay its bills or fund crucial programs. Advertisement Which brings us to the threat: the possibility of a Republican House majority driven by the most extreme members of the party. We dont know exactly what would happen if Republicans win a majority in November. But it does seem clear that the percentage of radicals those who oppose compromise on principle and increasingly reject democratic norms and values keeps growing within the House Republican conference and that those who are radicals are becoming more extreme. How this will play out will depend on the size of the Republican majority (assuming there is one, which appears highly likely but not quite as certain as it did a few months ago) and how GOP leaders manage things. Its possible that they will be surprisingly disciplined, focused on damaging President Joe Biden ahead of the 2024 election but avoiding actions that could make them look bad. Its also possible they will turn on each other, perhaps even failing to elect a speaker and organize the House for some time, or splintering so badly that they wind up losing their majority to some sort of coalition of Democrats and dissident Republicans.(2)The majority in the Senate will matter, too, although radicals appear to have less influence there than in the House. And when it comes to must-pass items such as the debt limit it only takes one chamber to cause a problem. Greg Sargent, writing in the Washington Posts Plum Line blog, has a good rundown on some of the parade of horrors a radical Republican House could unleash, from bogus impeachments to government shutdowns. Some of these would likely be terribly unpopular (I cant imagine very many voters would welcome a government shutdown aimed at stopping the Department of Justice from investigating former President Donald Trump). Other steps Republicans could take range from nuisances to huge distractions. Seeking impeachments of Biden or other administration officials wouldnt produce convictions and might even be immediately dismissed by the Senate but they would certainly tie up the administrations time. Advertisement Yet the move that would do the most damage to the nation, and to Democratic chances in 2024, is also the one that Democrats could solve right now. A debt limit crisis could be put off for a year, for two years, or permanently if Congress acts before the year ends. In fact, as the New York Times reported Thursday, at least some Republicans would prefer that the debt limit be raised now so that their party wouldnt have to deal with it if they have majorities in both the House and the Senate. After all, plenty of radical Republicans have pledged to never vote for a debt limit increase, regardless of the consequences. That means the Republican leadership could wind up needing to strike a cross-party alliance that would give Democrats a fair amount of leverage. Unfortunately, Senate Republicans who want to see the debt limit jettisoned are surely in the vote no, hope yes camp. They not only wouldnt vote for a debt limit increase due to political considerations but would also join a filibuster to block a vote to raise the limit. That means either another convoluted procedural compromise like the one that yielded only a short-term fix last year, or that Democrats will have to use reconciliation, the budget procedure that allows them to act with only a simple majority in the Senate. They should choose the latter. And this time, they should permanently put an end to the threat of default by eliminating the debt limit for good.(3) For weekend reading, here are some of the best recent items from political scientists: Advertisement Natalie Jackson has an excellent primer on reading midterm polls. David A. Hopkins at Bloomberg Opinion on Dr. Fauci and partisanship. Jack Santucci on the Alaska system. Mallory E. SoRelle and Serena Laws at the Monkey Cage on the details of Bidens student loan plan. Matt Glassman on student loans and working around Congress. Robert Farley on Bidens speech defending democracy. Josh Putnam on changes to the Democratic presidential nomination rules. (1) Using personal finance analogies to government debt is generally a mistake, but its helpful in this particular case. (2) The latter should be highly unlikely given the successful purge of moderate conservatives and most Republicans who objected to Donald Trumps attempt to overturn the 2020 election, but there will still be at least some Republicans in the next Congress who are uncomfortable with the most extreme radicals in the conference. Advertisement (3) Technically, the rules of reconciliation would prevent a full repeal of the debt limit law. However, Senate experts believe that setting the limit at a preposterously large number would be acceptable. I still support raising the limit to 1787 to the 1787th power, a very large number indeed that wont be reached for many centuries, and calling it the Constitutional Option. 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 Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share A tsunami of oil and gas from the technique called fracking has made the US the worlds biggest producer of both, giving the country the energy independence its leaders have sought for decades and upending the geopolitics of the world energy trade. Now, with the world crying out for more oil and gas, American frackers are theoretically in a position to provide it. Instead, they are riding the brakes, having changed their business models to focus on generating profits for investors rather than increasing production. 1. What is fracking? Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, was first used commercially in 1949 in the oil- and gas-rich US state of Oklahoma. The technique involves forcing water mixed with sand and chemicals into a well to create fissures in underground rocks known as shale so that oil or gas trapped inside can be captured. Advances in another technique, horizontal drilling, came in the early 1980s and opened up access to thin layers of shale deep underground. The subsequent exploitation of the Barnett Shale formation in Texas proved large-scale fracking was economically viable. Advertisement 2. How has fracking changed the energy trade? US oil and gas output has more than doubled in two decades, largely thanks to shale-rich areas such as the Permian Basin, which stretches from Texas to New Mexico and alone pumps more oil than most OPEC nations. Thats enabled the worlds largest economy to export fossil fuels at a pace unthinkable only a few years ago. Americas new dominance undercuts OPECs ability to control the oil market. OPEC tried to drive North American frackers out of business starting in 2014 by flooding the market with crude, provoking a price crash. Although some frackers went bust, overall they proved nimble, innovating to reduce production costs and stay alive. The abundance of shale gas has helped the US cut its use of coal, the most polluting fossil fuel, nearly in half since 2008. Whats more, American gas is now available on world markets, thanks to a process that enables it to be super-cooled into liquefied natural gas and transported via ship. 3. Why are US frackers holding back now? Advertisement Recent oil busts, exacerbated by the pandemic, drove many producers to bankruptcy. Coming out of the wreckage, investors demanded that publicly traded producers show more austerity and return profits to shareholders rather than plow it all back into drilling. Some of the biggest producers in the US are generally keeping annual production growth to 5% or less. The service providers who are hired to do the actual fracking are also embracing the chance to reward their shareholders with greater returns. They are holding off on ordering more gear to avoid being stuck with excess equipment as they were when previous booms ended. 4. Where else is fracking done? Canada was the first country to thoroughly embrace shale extraction outside the US. Its also spreading to Argentina, Australia, China and Saudi Arabia. In other places, the practice is controversial, and some countries have banned it outright. In the UK, the government overturned a moratorium on new fracking permits in September amid an energy crisis caused by Russia throttling its gas exports. Advertisement 5. What are the objections? Opposition to fracking within communities often focuses on water concerns. The copious amount of water needed for fracking -- as much as 16 million gallons per well in the US -- can threaten local supplies, and concerns have been raised that shale operations may contaminate water sources. Fracking and, more commonly, the pumping of wastewater into wells, have been connected to earthquakes. Theyve been mostly small, but temblors in Chinas shale hub in Sichuan province killed two people and damaged 11,000 homes in early 2019. More broadly, critics of fracking say that by making oil and gas more plentiful, it has reduced incentives to invest in a switch to renewable energy, even as climate scientists call for speeding the change. 6. What do defenders say? They note that a growing number of companies are reusing the water employed to frack a well multiple times and are reducing emissions from their operations by utilizing electric-powered vehicles instead of the diesel-powered fleets typical in the oil and gas industry. They point to the jobs created by fracking and the cleaner air natural gas produces where it replaces coal. Their larger argument is that, compared with coal, gas emits half as much carbon dioxide, the most important greenhouse gas. Theres a robust debate as to how much the carbon savings are offset by leaks throughout the natural gas supply chain of methane, a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Supporters tout natural gas as a bridge fuel that will ease the transition to renewables, supplying power when wind and solar sources dont, until sufficient storage capacity is built. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share The US Congress appears close to approving legislation codifying the federal governments embrace of same-sex marriage. The right to such unions is the law of the land throughout the US today but only because of a 2015 Supreme Court decision. And civil rights advocates fear that ruling is in danger of being reversed by todays more conservative panel of justices. Should that happen, the proposed new law in Congress would maintain some of the rights of same-sex couples but would fall short of preserving the status quo. 1. Whats motivating this push? When the conservative-leaning Supreme Court in June overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision establishing a constitutional right to an abortion, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in a concurring opinion that the court should reconsider other due process precedents. He was referring to decisions in which the court has ruled that the Constitutions Fourteenth Amendment guarantee that no one shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law also protects rights that arent spelled out in the document, such as a right to privacy in sexual relations. Thomas specifically mentioned the 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which found that the Fourteenth Amendment requires states to license same-sex marriages and recognize such unions performed in other states. While there is no indication that the Supreme Court intends to follow Thomass suggestion, Democrats who lead both chambers of Congress vowed to pursue legislation protecting same-sex marriages. Advertisement 2. What would the legislation do? The legislation would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, which Congress passed in 1996. Under DOMA, as the act is called, states werent required to recognize same-sex marriages conducted in other states, and marriage was defined, under federal law, as a union between one man and one woman. For a time, the second provision denied same-sex spouses certain federal benefits, many of them related to taxes and Social Security payments. However, the Supreme Court struck down that provision in a 2013 case, United States v. Windsor, and DOMA became dormant after the Obergefell decision. Still, the law remains on the books. The new legislation would repeal it, affirmatively recognize same-sex marriages at the federal level, and prohibit states from denying the validity of same-sex unions legitimately conducted in other states. 3. What wouldnt it do? Advertisement It wouldnt require states to themselves license same-sex marriages, as the 2015 Supreme Court ruling does. If the Supreme Court were to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, constitutional amendments or bans on same-sex marriages would become enforceable again in at least 29 of the 50 states, according to a report by the Movement Advancement Project, an advocacy group that champions LGBTQ rights. 4. Where is public opinion on this issue? When DOMA was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996, just 27% of Americans said same-sex marriages should be recognized as valid under the law, according to Gallup poll data. That figure has steadily increased, with Gallup now finding that 71% of Americans say same-sex couples should be allowed to marry. 5. Whats the status of the bill? The House of Representatives in mid-July easily passed the legislation on a 267-157 vote, with 47 Republicans voting with every Democrat in support. In the Senate, which is split 50-50 between the two political parties, every Democrat backs it, but it will need 10 Republican votes to prevent the bills opponents from killing it using the filibuster, a prerogative to demand never-ending debate on legislation. Two Republicans -- Susan Collins of Maine and Rob Portman of Ohio -- are cosponsoring the bill in the Senate, and bipartisan talks are underway on an amendment that could bring more Republicans on board. The language under discussion would seek to clarify that the legislation does not take away religious liberty or conscience protections that individuals and organizations currently have. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com 2022 Bloomberg L.P. GiftOutline Gift Article Julian Assange is the editor of WikiLeaks. On his last night in office, President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered a powerful farewell speech to the nation words so important that hed spent a year and a half preparing them. Ike famously warned the nation to guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. Much of Eisenhowers speech could form part of the mission statement of WikiLeaks today. We publish truths regarding overreaches and abuses conducted in secret by the powerful. Our most recent disclosures describe the CIAs multibillion-dollar cyberwarfare program, in which the agency created dangerous cyberweapons, targeted private companies consumer products and then lost control of its cyber-arsenal. Our source(s) said they hoped to initiate a principled public debate about the security, creation, use, proliferation and democratic control of cyberweapons. The truths we publish are inconvenient for those who seek to avoid one of the magnificent hallmarks of American life public debate. Governments assert that WikiLeaks reporting harms security. Some claim that publishing facts about military and national security malfeasance is a greater problem than the malfeasance itself. Yet, as Eisenhower emphasized, Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together. Quite simply, our motive is identical to that claimed by the New York Times and The Post to publish newsworthy content. Consistent with the U.S. Constitution, we publish material that we can confirm to be true irrespective of whether sources came by that truth legally or have the right to release it to the media. And we strive to mitigate legitimate concerns, for example by using redaction to protect the identities of at-risk intelligence agents. Dean Baquet, executive editor of the New York Times, defended publication of our stolen material last year: I get the argument that the standards should be different if the stuff is stolen and that should influence the decision. But in the end, I think that we have an obligation to report what we can about important people and important events. David Lauter, Washington bureau chief of the Los Angeles Times, made a similar argument: My default position is democracy works best when voters have as much information as possible . . . And that information often comes from rival campaigns, from old enemies, from all sorts of people who have motives that you might look at and say, thats unsavory. The media has a long history of speaking truth to power with purloined or leaked material Jack Andersons reporting on the CIAs enlistment of the Mafia to kill Fidel Castro; the Providence Journal-Bulletins release of President Richard Nixons stolen tax returns; the New York Times publication of the stolen Pentagon Papers; and The Posts tenacious reporting of Watergate leaks, to name a few. I hope historians place WikiLeaks publications in this pantheon. Yet there are widespread calls to prosecute me. President Thomas Jefferson had a modest proposal to improve the press: Perhaps an editor might begin a reformation in some such way as this. Divide his paper into 4 chapters, heading the 1st, Truths. 2nd, Probabilities. 3rd, Possibilities. 4th, Lies. The first chapter would be very short, as it would contain little more than authentic papers, and information. Jeffersons concept of publishing truths using authentic papers presaged WikiLeaks. People who dont like the tune often blame the piano player. Large public segments are agitated by the result of the U.S. presidential election, by public dissemination of the CIAs dangerous incompetence or by evidence of dirty tricks undertaken by senior officials in a political party. But as Jefferson foresaw, the agitation [a free press] produces must be submitted to. It is necessary, to keep the waters pure. Vested interests deflect from the facts that WikiLeaks publishes by demonizing its brave staff and me. We are mischaracterized as America-hating servants to hostile foreign powers. But in fact I harbor an overwhelming admiration for both America and the idea of America. WikiLeaks sole interest is expressing constitutionally protected truths, which I remain convinced is the cornerstone of the United States remarkable liberty, success and greatness. I have given up years of my own liberty for the risks we have taken at WikiLeaks to bring truth to the public. I take some solace in this: Joseph Pulitzer, namesake of journalisms award for excellence, was indicted in 1909 for publishing allegedly libelous information about President Theodore Roosevelt and the financier J.P. Morgan in the Panama Canal corruption scandal. It was the truth that set him free. Erdogan identified the captured operative as Bashar Hattab Ghazal Al Sumaidai and said he was known by his code name Abu Zeyd. We're following changes at the palace after the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. Get the Post Elizabeth newsletter for updates. We're following changes at the palace after the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. Get the Post Elizabeth newsletter for updates. The militant was seized in a joint operation carried out by police and the Turkish intelligence agency who were monitoring his connections in Syria and Istanbul and had received intelligence that he would enter Turkey illegally, Erdogan said. Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share BRUSSELS European Union nations struggled to find full consensus Friday on ways to shield the population from dramatically increasing energy prices that threaten to plunge millions into cold and poverty over the winter as Russia chokes off natural gas supplies. We're following changes at the palace after the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. Get the Post Elizabeth newsletter for updates. ArrowRight As tensions with Moscow mount over the war in Ukraine, the energy ministers of the EUs 27 nations could not paper over differences on whether and how to impose a price cap on Russian natural gas, with ever-recalcitrant Hungary refusing to agree, saying it would go against its supply interests. Other countries differed on whether a price cap should apply only to Russia or to other producers, too. That shows that this is a difficult issue and that the (European) Commission had a different goal, said Agata Loskot-Strachota, senior fellow for energy policy at the Center for Eastern Studies in Warsaw. While EU members are most interested in lowering prices and getting enough gas, the commission aimed at limiting Russias revenues and, I think, taking back control of the situation on the European gas market. Advertisement An immediate solution on all proposals to bring natural gas and electricity prices back to affordability had not been anticipated, but energy ministers gave general recommendations to the European Commission, the EUs executive branch, on options like instituting windfall levies on some energy companies whose profits have risen along with skyrocketing prices. Moscows gas restrictions and threat of a full cutoff has dominated the political agenda of a rich bloc of nations struggling to ensure basic services like heat and light. Russia has cut back supplies of natural gas that power factories, generate electricity and heat homes, driving up prices and fueling inflation that is poised to tip Europe into recession later this year. Russia has used its gas supplies as a weapon to foster an energy crisis next winter but also to weaken our economies and divide politically the European Union, EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson said. We have to ensure that their efforts will fail. Advertisement Czech Industry Minister Jozef Sikela, chair of the emergency meeting, exhorted his colleagues: We cannot be blackmailed. Sikela and others said that outside the gas cap, a wide degree of convergence was found other potential measures. Besides windfall levies, they include solidarity contributions from fossil fuel producers and cash increases for businesses to keep operating as they struggle with volatile energy markets. Irish Minister Eamon Ryan insisted that action must be taken within weeks, not months. This coming fall, when were really going to see the high prices having effect, thats when we need the support, thats when we need to get some of that money, he told reporters in Brussels. There is no time to wait, and we have to be swift and united, Sikela said. Despite the urgency, with several northern nations feeling the first chill in the morning air announcing the onset of autumn, the ministers gave only guidelines to the EU commission, which will present a proposal for the member states next week. Advertisement At that point, the EU nations will reassess again, and the hope is that a decision can be made by the end of this month. German Economy and Energy Minister Robert Habeck said the commission has a clear mandate to work out a viable proposal or even better, viable proposals to bring down prices. Fridays meeting reflected different situations among EU members, but everyone was determined to bring about relief for European citizens, so no agreement is not an option, Habeck said. While hoping for quick progress, Germany is keeping open the option of imposing a levy on high energy profits whose proceeds would be passed to consumers if it takes too long, he said. We cant take this card off the table because the other, better way namely bringing down prices could certainly be complicated, Habeck said. Were doing something that affects the heart of European energy supply were intervening in the markets. Advertisement The energy crisis is not only threatening households but also industry, with energy-intensive factories being forced to close. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Russia is blackmailing the EU with its threat to turn off the gas to the bloc. Moscow has already cut supplies partially or entirely to 13 EU countries, blaming alleged technical issues and sanctions. Russian pipeline gas accounted for 40% of all gas Europe imported before President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February, but now it only accounts for 9%. The commission believes the EU is prepared for the winter, with joint gas storage levels at 82% well ahead of the 80% target that had been set for the end of October. ___ Associated Press writers Lorne Cook and Samuel Petrequin in Brussels; David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany; and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed. GiftOutline Gift Article Comment on this story Comment Gift Article Share KYIV, Ukraine Ukrainian forces on Friday claimed new success in their counteroffensive against Russian forces in the countrys east, taking control of a sizeable village and pushing toward an important transport junction. The United States top diplomat and the head of NATO noted the advances, but cautioned that the war is likely to drag on for months. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy commended the military for its gains in the east, saying in a nightly video address that Ukrainian troops have reclaimed more than 30 settlements in the Kharkiv region since the start of the counteroffensive there this week. We are gradually taking control over more settlements, returning the Ukrainian flag and protection for our people. Zelenskyy said. Ukraines military said it also launched new attacks on Russian pontoon bridges used to bring supplies across the Dnieper River to Kherson, one of the largest Russian-occupied cities, and the adjacent region. Ukrainian artillery and rocket strikes have left all regular bridges across the river unusable, the militarys southern command said. Advertisement Anxiety increased about Europes largest nuclear power plant, which was operating in emergency mode Friday for the fifth straight day due to the war. That prompted the head of the U.N. atomic watchdog to call for the establishment of an immediate safety zone around the plant to prevent a nuclear accident. The six-reactor Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant came under the control of Russian forces early in the war but is being operated by Ukrainian staff. The plant and surrounding areas have been repeatedly hit by shelling that Russia and Ukraine blame on each other. The last power line connecting the plant to the Ukrainian electricity grid was cut Monday, leaving the plant without an outside source of electricity. It is receiving power for its own safety systems from the only reactor out of six total that remains operational. In other advances, the Ukrainian military said it took control of the village of Volokhiv Yar in the Kharkiv region and aimed to advance toward strategically valuable town of Kupiansk, which would cut off Russian forces from key supply routes. Advertisement Pro-Russian authorities in the Kupiansk district announced that civilians were being evacuated toward the Russian-held region of Luhansk. The initial signs are positive and we see Ukraine making real, demonstrable progress in a deliberate way, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Brussels, a day after visiting Kyiv. But this is likely to go on for some significant period of time, he said. There are a huge number of Russian forces in Ukraine and unfortunately, tragically, horrifically, President (Vladimir) Putin has demonstrated that he will throw a lot of people into this at huge cost to Russia. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who met with Blinken, said the war is entering a critical phase. The gains are modest and only the first successes of the counteroffensive of the Ukrainian army, but they are important both in terms of seizing the military initiative and raising the spirit of Ukrainian soldiers, Mykola Sunhurovskyi, a military analyst at the Razumkov Center in Kyiv, told The Associated Press. Advertisement Energoatom, Ukraines state nuclear operator, said Friday that repairs to outside electric lines at the Zaporizhzhia plant are impossible because of the shelling and that operating the plant in what is called an island status carries the risk of violating radiation and fire safety standards. Only the withdrawal of the Russians from the plant and the creation of a security zone around it can normalize the situation at the Zaporizhzhia NPP. Only then will the world be able to exhale, Petro Kotin, the head of Energoatom, told Ukrainian TV. Earlier, Kotin told The Associated Press the plants only operating reactor can be stopped completely at any moment and as a consequence, the only power source would be a diesel generator. There are 20 generators on site and enough diesel fuel for 10 days. After that, about 200 tons of diesel fuel would be needed daily for the generators, which he said is impossible to get while the plant is occupied by Russian forces. Advertisement Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Friday that there was little likelihood of reestablishing reliable offsite power lines to the plant. This is an unsustainable situation and is becoming increasingly precarious, Grossi said, calling for an immediate cessation of all shelling in the entire area and the establishment of a nuclear safety and security protection zone. This is the only way to ensure that we do not face a nuclear accident, he said. Fighting continued Friday elsewhere in Ukraine. Russian planes bombed the hospital in the town of Velika Pysarivka, on the border with Russia, said Dmytro Zhyvytskyi, governor of the Sumy region. He said the building was destroyed and there were an unknown number of casualties. In the Donetsk region in the east one of two that Russia declared to be sovereign states at the outset of the war eight people were killed in the city of Bakhmut over the past day and the city is without water and electricity for the fourth straight day, said governor Pavlo Kyrylenko. Advertisement Four people were killed in shelling in the Kharkiv region, two of them in the city of Kharkiv, Ukraines second-largest, according to governor Oleh Syniehubov. The shelling of the city continued Friday afternoon, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said, wounding 10 people, including three children. Ukraine this week claimed to have regained control of more than 20 settlements in the Kharkiv region, including the small city of Balakliya. Social media posts showed weeping, smiling Balakliya residents embracing Ukrainian soldiers. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday refused to comment on the alleged retaking of Balakliya, redirecting all such questions to the Russian Defense Ministry. But Vitaly Ganchev, the Russian-installed official in the Kharkiv region, confirmed Friday that Balakliya, in effect, is not under our control. Ganchev said tough battles were continuing in the city. Advertisement Helicopters and fighter jets streaked over the rolling plains of the Donetsk region, with the jets heading toward Izium, near where Ukrainian forces have been carrying out a counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region. The jets fired flares and black smoke billowed in the distance. Associated Press writer Elena Becatoros in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report. ___ Follow all AP stories on the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine. GiftOutline Gift Article A un ano de establecer relaciones diplomaticas con la Republica Arabe Saharaui Democratica, nos reafirmamos en persistir la defensa de su autodeterminacion soberana. A chairman or board publicly pronouncing support for a beleaguered chief executive is often the the kiss of death. But Qantas chairman Richard Goyder has ignored that lore and become a human shield for the airlines publicly maligned chief executive, Alan Joyce. Goyder has aggressively described Joyce as the best CEO in Australia by a length of a straight. In a personal defence of the Qantas boss, Goyder declared that, believe it or not, Alan has a heart. Qantas chairman Richard Goyder stands by his man. The mild-mannered Goyder could have opted for a less effusive description of Joyce like talented or one of the best or even a strong performer. Nonetheless, there exists a vast chasm between the views of the airlines customers and its chairman over the merits of Joyce remaining at the helm of the flying kangaroo. The brains behind Darling Squares most popular izakaya have waved off concerns about the challenges facing the hospitality sector and formed a new Japanese dining group with ambitious plans to open venues across Sydney and Melbourne. Nakano Darlings Tin Jung Shea has teamed up with childhood friend Mitomo Somehara and longtime customer Chris Wu to form Hatena Group, which will open a new Japanese sake bar in Sydneys Darlinghurst in late September. The name hatena means question mark in Japanese and is a nod to the groups lofty ambitions. We want to dream and want to achieve the unknown, said Shea. Wu likens Shea to Merivales pub baron and jokes he is the Justin Hemmes of Japanese dining. The dream for our group was always to provide authentic Japanese dining experience. Left to right: Hatena Group co-owners Chris Wu, Tin Jung Shea, and Mitomo Somehara. The trio are opening a fourth venue in Darlinghurst. Credit:Rhett Wyman/SMH Shea saw the Sydney dining scene shift last year as lockdowns forced the closure of some peers in Chinatown and beyond. For her 1953 silver and gold coronation dress, the Queen called on Hartnell to employ his over-the-top approach again. I despise simplicity; it is the negation of all that is beautiful, he told British Vogue, designing the gown with maximum motifs. The Queen in her wedding dress by Norman Hartnell, with fabric paid for using war ration coupons; a sketch of the Coronation gown; and Cecil Beatons portrait of Queen Elizabeth II in the Coronation gown. Credit:AP - Bettman Archive The pedantic Hartnell researched the symbols of the Empire for eight months before submitting nine designs. The Queen selected the eighth, with a sweetheart neckline and billowing skirt. Symbols abounded with an embroidered leek for Wales, a Tudor rose, Scottish thistle, silver fern for New Zealand, a maple leaf for Canada and wattle for Australia. The Queen was so fond of the dress, which took 12 people 3500 hours to create, that she wore it again to the opening of the Australian Parliament in Canberra in 1954. In the swinging 60s, psychedelic 70s and decadent 80s, the Queen was often referred to as a dowdy figure, summed up by her penchant for tweed skirts, silk scarves, cardigans and sensible shoes, when not raiding the royal jewellery collection for official state events. But looking back, there were moments of individuality: a headscarf and printed skirt suit worthy of Prada at Balmoral in 1972; and a brilliant yellow polka dot dress paired with a turban on a 1975 trip to Mexico. A colour-coordinated Queen: Elizabeth ll at Balmoral in 1972 and in Mexico wearing a turban in 1975. Credit:Getty There was an evolution towards her signature style over the past three decades, with the majority of her predominantly block-coloured outfits enabling her to stand out in crowds without the aid of a tiara. The impression has always been that the Queen dressed for her people, rather than herself. Since the tragic death of Princess Diana in 1997, the Queen slowly became an object of fashion praise rather than derision with her senior style, refined by her dresser, Kelly. Nobody does the job better than [the Queen] does. She is never ridiculous; she is flawless, the notoriously opinionated Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld said on French television in 2012. For this job, in our day, she is perfect. Shes not supposed to be a fashion icon who is changing fashion. The Duchess of Cambridge can do that. Kelly fine-tuned the Queens public style of matching hats, coats and dresses, with a black patent leather Launer handbag, and has been accused of taking the same approach to symbolism employed by Hartnell. The blue and yellow ensemble worn by the Queen to the opening of British parliament after the Brexit referendum in 2016 was interpreted as a sign of disapproval by mirroring the EU flag and its yellow stars. In an interview with the UKs Telegraph, Kelly dismissed suggestions of covert costume plotting. We are two typical women. We discuss clothes, makeup, jewellery. We say, Would this piece of jewellery look nice with that outfit? But even the use of jewellery has been open to interpretation, with the Queens choice of brooches analysed by observers at significant events. Queen Elizabeth II received then-prime minister Scott Morrison at Windsor Castle in 2021. Credit:Getty The brooches are not just sparkling signs of disapproval, such as when the Queen wore a gift from the Obamas on former US president Donald Trumps visit to the UK in 2018. In June, a brooch resembling a wattle given by then-prime minister Robert Menzies in 1954 was displayed prominently when former prime minister Scott Morrison visited Windsor Castle. A few days after the funeral of Prince Philip, she wore a diamond Cartier brooch, a removable part of a tiara given to the Queen on her wedding day by the Nizam of Hyderabad. Loading What she cannot overtly say with language, she secretly says with clothes, Sali Hughes wrote in Our Rainbow Queen. The moment most revealing of the Queens style took place on her first visit to London Fashion Week in 2018. Alongside US Vogue editor Anna Wintour, her majesty watched the exuberant floral work of emerging designer Richard Quinn in a pale blue suit with black gloves from the front row. Queen Elizabeth sits next to Vogues Anna Wintour as they view Richard Quinns runway show before presenting him with the inaugural Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design in 2018. Credit:AP Wintour was immediately recognisable with her signature bob and sunglasses but more familiar, more comforting and more captivating was the Queen, somehow a part of fashion and at the same time apart from it. Crowns new boss says he hopes occurrences like the Wayne Carey powdered substance incident will happen far less frequently thanks to changes in incident response policies introduced this week. Carey was asked to leave the Crowns Perth casino gaming floor last Thursday after a packet of powdered substance fell onto a gaming table. Crown CEO Ciaran Carruthers says police will be called straight away after incidents at the casino following the Wayne Carey (left) saga. Credit:AAP; Philip Gostelow; Simon Schluter Security escorted him from the casino and later from his hotel room, but police were not called until after the incident made headlines this week. Carey maintains the powdered substance was anti-inflammatory medicine he took for pain. Crown policies state casino staff can eject someone if they believe they are engaged in inappropriate or illicit behaviour but until this week they were not required to contact police. Australias new navy chief has swatted away a warning from a senior US Navy officer that Australia has little chance of securing nuclear submarines off American production lines, dismissing the highly publicised remarks as mere noise. Vice Admiral Mark Hammond, who took over as Chief of Navy in July, also spoke bluntly about Chinas highly unusual behaviour of shadowing Australian naval vessels as they pass through the South China Sea. Chief of Navy Vice Admiral Mark Hammond; American Virginia Class submarine. Credit: Rear Admiral Scott Pappano, the senior officer in charge of the US Navys nuclear submarine program, recently said helping Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines directly from the US under the AUKUS agreement would likely be too much to ask of the countrys overburdened shipyards. If you are asking my opinion, if we were going to add additional submarine construction to our industrial base, that would be detrimental to us right now, without significant investment to provide additional capacity, capability, to go do that, Pappano told the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. Australia will mark the death of Queen Elizabeth with a 14-day observance that includes the suspension of parliament until after her funeral and the proclamation of King Charles as the new sovereign. Governor-General David Hurley and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese are expected to fly to London on Thursday to attend her funeral and the two weeks of observance will continue until they return. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signs the Book of Condolences at Parliament House in Canberra. Credit:James Brickwood The final stage in the official plan will be a national day of mourning including one minutes silence to mark the Queens passing and her 70 years on the throne. A gun salute will begin at dusk about 5pm on Friday, with cannons firing one round every 10 seconds for each of the 96 years of the Queens life. Thuan An, Vietnam: A fire at a karaoke bar in Vietnam has killed at least 33 people, becoming the deadliest fire in the Southeast Asian country in over 20 years and prompting nationwide debate over fire safety standards and code enforcement. People were seen jumping from the balcony of the three-storey building on Tuesday night as plumes of smoke rose into the sky, giving off the smell of burned plastic. At least 13 people died from suffocation, officials said. Fire department trucks line outside a karaoke club following a fire in Thuan An city, southern Vietnam. Credit:AP Bich Ngoc, 30, worked as a receptionist at the karaoke bar. She was on the ground floor when she heard shouts of a fire and scrambled up to try to put it out but was forced back by the smoke, she said. She suffered a mild burn on her arms. I feel lucky, she said wearily from An Phu hospital where the majority of the injured were brought after the fire. I survived. YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 8, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Defense of Armenia Suren Papikyan had a meeting with the United States Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl on September 8 in the Pentagon, the Ministry of Defense said in a press release. The Armenian Ambassador to the United States Lilit Makunts also participated in the meeting. During the meeting the entire agenda of the Armenian-American defense cooperation was discussed, agreements were reached on deepening partnership in peacekeeping mission, military education, military medicine and other areas. At the request of the American side, the Defense Minister presented the military-political situation around Armenia, including the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. The sides attached importance to efforts aimed at reaching lasting regional peace and stability. Issues of international security of mutual interest were also addressed. YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian Ministry of Defense is denying as disinformation the latest statement from Azerbaijan falsely accusing the Armenian military in shooting at Azerbaijani positions overnight September 8-9 in the eastern part of the border. The Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense released disinformation. The detachments of the Armenian Armed Forces did not open fire overnight September 8-9 in the direction of Azerbaijani positions deployed in the eastern part of the Armenian-Azerbaijani borderline. The situation on the border is relatively stable and is under the full control of the Armenian Armed Forces, the Armenian Ministry of Defense said. YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. President Vahagn Khachaturyan attended the concert dedicated to the 100th anniversary of birth of the late composer Ohan Duryan. The concert was conducted by Eduard Topchyan at the Aram Khachaturyan concert hall on September 8 as part of Yerevan 14th International Music Festival. In a touching tribute, President Khachaturyan bestowed Duryans Order of Mesrop Mashtots and the Movses Khorenatsi Medal which the composer had renounced in protest of the then-authorities to his widow. Today I must fulfill my last duty to maestro Ohan Duryan. He had been wrongfully deprived of leading his orchestra, and in those days, in 2001, he rebelliously protested and renounced his awards which he had received in 1996-1997. Two high awards the Saint Mesrop Mashtots Order and the Movses Khorenatsi Medal, the president said, adding that back then he was in attendance of the awarding ceremony as a public official. It is a great honor for me today to have the chance to return these awards as President of Armenia to Mrs. Alice, the president said. YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan sent a condolence telegram to the Prime Minister of United Kingdom Liz Truss on the death of Queen Elizabeth II. On behalf of the Armenian Government and the Armenian people, I am extending my deepest condolences to you, the Government of the United Kingdom, the Royal Family and the friendly British people on the death of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. The Queens death is a great pain and loss not only for the British, the peoples of the Commonwealth of Nations, but for the entire global community. During her 70-year reign and years full of challenges, with her wisdom and benevolence, Her Majesty had an invaluable contribution in the development of the United Kingdom, as well as an indelible trace in world history. Even the calamities of history were unable to disrupt the unbreakable will of Elizabeth II. Her luminous image always symbolized the harmonious combination of a strong stateswoman, at the same time motherhood, femininity and traditions. The Queen embodying virtually an entire era of history will always remain bright in our memory. At this difficult moment, the Armenian people join the British people in prayer and share the pain and sorrow, the Armenian Prime Minister said. YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. Fly One Armenia airline transported 200,000 passengers to various destinations during its first year in the market. We believe that 200,000 is indeed a milestone for such a short period of time, Fly One Armenia Chairman of the Board Aram Ananyan said at a press conference. Today we can say that our airline is transporting over 2000 passengers every day, Ananyan said, adding that Fly One Armenia now has the largest flight destinations among all Armenian airlines. The frequency of flights to Moscow will be increased soon. Fly One also offers flights to Sochi and St. Petersburg. Soon new Russian destinations will be launched to Yekaterinburg and Mineralnie Vody. Other current destinations include Georgia, France, Moldova, Turkey and others. The airline is also considering European destinations and details will be released next week. Fly One Armenia plans to expand its fleet as it currently operates three aircraft. Ananyan said they are making serious investments in developing human capital. Fly One Armenia is a rapidly developing company and will continue raising its bar. This one year stood out with consistent work aimed at improving service quality and strengthening passenger trust, Ananyan said. As to several problems such as cancellations of certain flights and delays in refunds, Ananyan said their entire team worked to resolve the issues. We are professional risk managers; it is what we do. The wellbeing of our participants and trip leaders is our priority. Just like navigating avalanche hazard or rockfall, COVID-19 has become a player in our guidelines and procedures, and it informs our risk management process. We can do our best to plan and prepare, but we need your help! As a valued member of our adventure party, we expect you to participate in our guidelines in the discussion of risk management. Check out what we can all do: Before We Meet Help us minimize as much risk as possible before meeting in person. We encourage you to follow CDC, federal and state guidelines of social distancing, in the weeks preceding your trip. We have adjusted our participant cancellation and employee sick leave policies to allow more flexibility, to account for potential exposure to COVID-19. If you cannot participate in your scheduled adventure, due to COVID related circumstances, youll have the option to receive a credit for any future adventure with the OP or obtain a full refund. Our trip leaders are trained to recognize and monitor COVID-19 signs, symptoms, and methods of transmission. During Our Adventure For day trips, participants must travel separately to and from the trailhead. We will discourage carpooling for individuals outside of the same household. Upon meeting, all trip leaders and participants will make their best effort to maintain at least six feet of physical distancing. We recognize this may not be possible in every circumstance. When operating within six feet of others, trip leaders will wear masks. Participants are encouraged to bring a face covering such as a cloth face-mask or buff when distancing is not possible. As long as you have proper social distance, individuals can temporarily remove their face covering when actively participating in certain activities such as climbing. When appropriate, trip leaders and participants may choose to wear gloves. We recommend our participants bring their own gear if you already own appropriate equipment. In some cases, we may need to share gear such as a rope or a participant may need to borrow gear from the OP (organized ahead of time). All gear provided by the OP will undergo cleaning procedures before each outing. Participants are required to bring some form of hand sanitizer and we will be practicing responsible hygiene throughout the day. The above list provides examples of our updated policies and procedures but is certainly not an exhaustive list. For overnight trips, for example, cooking, cleaning, sleep systems, etc have all been considered in updated trip guidelines. Risk management will be an interactive discussion preceding, throughout and following your adventure. If participants neglect to follow our risk management guidelines, we will be forced to end the experience prematurely. We thank you ahead of time for being a responsible and thoughtful group member. Code Purple app goes live September 8, 2022 OGDEN, Utah Weber State University is proud to present the new Code Purple app, which launched Sept. 2 and is available for free on app stores everywhere. The WSU community can use the app to stay informed when theres an emergency on campus. Code Purple also offers features to keep users safe, including texting with a dispatcher, reporting tips straight to campus police and campus emergency plans. Students, faculty and staff will still receive Code Purple text messages, phone calls and email alerts without the app, but using the app unlocks helpful safety features, such as Friend Walk, which allows a trusted friend to track a users walk home. The Virtual Walk Home feature enables campus police to track app users via GPS until they arrive safely at their destination. The Code Purple app is an easy and convenient way to learn whats happening at any WSU campus location. Download it and stay in the know today. Download for Apple Download for Android The 15th annual Bonneville Chamber Music Festival returns to Weber State Sept. 8, 2022 OGDEN, Utah The Bonneville Chamber Music Festival hosted at Weber State University will bring international musical talent to Ogden Sept. 14-17. Kicking off the festival Sept. 14, the acclaimed Fry Street Quartet will perform 20th century and modern classical music featuring violin, viola, cello and piano. On Sept. 16, the second night will offer a screening of Buster Keatons silent movie College alongside Stephen Prutsmans original soundtrack performed live by internationally renowned musicians, including a piano quintet. On Sept. 17, the last event of the festival joins all special guests together in a grand finale celebration. All performances begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Val A. Browning Centers Austad Auditorium on the Ogden campus, 3848 Harrison Blvd. Ticket prices vary by package and age. More information and purchasing options can be found at this link. WSU offers discount on smart thermostats September 9, 2022 OGDEN, Utah Weber State Universitys Empower Northern Utah program is offering Davis and Weber county residents free or discounted thermostats to increase energy efficiency and cut their utility costs. Weber State Sustainability is teaming up with Utah Clean Air Partnership, also known as UCAIR, along with the H.E.A.T Program, the Dee Foundation, Utah Clean Energy and other organizations to offer the Nest Thermostat E for $67, a savings of nearly $100. Low-to-moderate income households are eligible for a free thermostat. This event is important because smart thermostat technology reduces energy usage and helps protect our environment, said Bonnie Christiansen, sustainability programs and engagement manager. The reason we do this work is to care for our environment now and create a climate that is liveable for the future. Registration to receive a Nest Thermostat E is required and opens Sept. 13 at 6 p.m. at weber.edu/empower. Information on how to qualify for a free thermostat is also available. Registrants will receive a link to schedule a time for pickup Oct. 1 from 911 a.m. at the Weber State University Davis Campus in Layton. Those interested in purchasing a thermostat are encouraged to make sure their homes heating and cooling systems are compatible with the Nest E at this link. Thermostats are available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Empower Northern Utah is a community engagement effort on behalf of Weber State helping residents take action to measurably reduce pollution on a community-wide scale. For the last seven years, WSU Sustainability has offered sustainability-focused community programs helping residents save money, energy and improve the environment. Past programs include the Susie Hulet Community Solar, Drive Electric, Mow Electric and Empower Northern Utah. These programs have collectively served thousands of households and community members. The smart thermostat discount is made possible through a grant from UCAIR. For more information about the Empower Northern Utah program, visit weber.edu/empower. Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan received Philip Reeker, the new US Senior Adviser for Caucasus Negotiations and new Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group for the US, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia informs. September 9, 2022, 16:25 Ararat Mirzoyan, Philip Reeker discuss matters related to Nagorno-Karabakh issue STEPANAKERT, SEPTEMBER 9, ARTSAKHPRESS: Welcoming the guest, Mirzoyan wished him success in this responsible position. The parties addressed several issues pertaining to regional security and stability and exchanged views on the normalization of Armenia-Azerbaijan relations. A broad range of issues related to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict was discussed during the meeting. The role of the United States as an OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair country in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement process was emphasized. The Armenian Foreign Minister underscored the importance of utilizing the potential and experience of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship institution in context of a lasting and comprehensive resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. FM Mirzoyan reflected on the humanitarian issues caused by the 44-day Artsakh war in the fall of 2020, pointingin this contextto the need for the immediate return of Armenian prisoners of war and other detainees from Azerbaijan, as well as the need to preserve the Armenian cultural and religious heritage in the territories that have passed under Azerbaijani control. Allentown, PA (18103) Today Mostly cloudy and muggy with scattered showers and thunderstorm early, then just a stray shower possible late. . Tonight Mostly cloudy and muggy with scattered showers and thunderstorm early, then just a stray shower possible late. KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Ukraine is ready to supply Poland with electricity and help reduce the use of coal for power generation in light of an anticipated energy crisis, the Polish prime minister said Friday. Polands premier Mateusz Morawiecki and Latvia's President Egils Levits, were in Kyiv for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about military and energy security amid the region's efforts to roll back its dependence on Russian energy sources. Morawiecki thanked Zelenskyy for his "understanding" and readiness to provide needed assistance in a short time. Today, because of the embargo on Russian coal, we are bringing in coal from around the world," Morawiecki said during a joint news conference. If we are not to burn it in Polish power plants, we could use some energy from Ukraine, if possible. I was told by the president that yes, it will be possible, shortly, Morawiecki said. Zelenskyy spoke of steps to overcome a potential, future energy crisis. The leaders also discussed ways of urgently easing traffic flow at border crossings amid a backlog of trucks waiting to cross from both sides, but mainly to enter Poland. Morawiecki referred to gains gains by Ukraine's army against Russian forces in the region of Kharkiv. But he suggested that the European Commission has yet to provide Ukraine with billions of euro of financial support promised in the summer. Zelenskyy thanked the two leaders for their efforts for the EU to release 5 billion euros in long-term assistance. WASHINGTON (AP) The federal agency that investigates chemical accidents is hindered by a lack of staffing, leadership disputes and a backlog of investigations that threaten its ability to protect people and the environment, according to a new report by a federal watchdog. The report by the Environmental Protection Agencys inspector general says the U.S. Chemical Safety Board is challenged by vacancies in mission-critical positions and an inability to fully use the resources Congress allocated'' to it. Leadership disputes, shoddy internal reviews and reporting backlogs are impeding the boards ability to accomplish its mission,'' Inspector General Sean ODonnell said in a letter to the board's acting head. O'Donnell's report, released this week, comes after the board's former chairwoman resigned this summer amid criticism about extravagant spending, ongoing disputes with other board members and a backlog of investigations. The board completed one investigation in 2020, three in 2021 and three so far this year, the report said. At least 17 investigations are currently waiting to be closed. Katherine Lemos, the agency's former chair, left in July, saying in a resignation letter that disputes with fellow board members have eroded my confidence in our ability to focus on the independent agency's mission. Lemos was appointed by former President Donald Trump and led the agency for two years. Her departure left the five-member panel with two Senate-confirmed members, both nominated by President Joe Biden. A third Biden nominee is pending before the Senate. With a $13 million annual budget, the board is the only federal agency charged with investigating the causes of chemical accidents, including factory explosions, refinery fires and other industrial disasters. The agency had a dozen investigators as of last month, down from more than 20 investigators in the past decade, the inspector general said. Overall, the agency has 27 staffers out of 44 approved positions. Trump proposed eliminating the safety board in each of his annual budgets, arguing that its focus on regulation had frustrated both regulators and industry. Congress funded the agency throughout Trump's term, although staffing levels dwindled and Lemos served as the board's sole member for nearly two years. The Chemical Safety Board barely survived the Trump war of attrition against it,'' said Jeff Ruch, a top official at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a watchdog group of current and former public employees. The watchdog group had sharply criticized Lemos and repeatedly called for her ouster. The inspector general's report underlines that it is difficult for a federal agency, especially a small agency, to function when it is saddled with leadership that is inimical to its mission,'' Ruch said in an email. The current leadership, including interim executive Steve Owens, appears intent to rebuild the agency, Ruch said, although problems remain. The board is "increasingly important because our industrial infrastructure, like our public infrastructure of roads and bridges, has been aging and is becoming more vulnerable to refinery explosions and other chemical disasters,'' he said. The 17-page report by the inspector general recommends that the board quickly fill investigator and senior staff positions, ensure there are plans to hand off duties when staff members leave and update internal procedures on how reports are written and reviewed. In a statement, Owens and board member Sylvia Johnson said the board "appreciates the inspector general's report, and we agree that there is much work to be done to get this agency back on track.'' The agency is taking steps to hire more investigators and other mission-critical staff and has streamlined the review process for investigative reports, Owens and Johnson said. "We look forward to an ongoing relationship with the inspector general as we tackle the many challenges facing the agency,'' they said. Owens has been nominated to chair the safety board, but the Senate has not yet acted. Senators also have not voted on Catherine Sandoval's nomination to serve as the third board member. DISTRICT TWP., Pa. A school bus driver is no longer behind the wheel after her arrest on suspicion of DUI. Pennsylvania State Police troopers said they were dispatched around 8 a.m. Thursday to the 100 block of Forgedale Road in District Township for the report of a school bus driver possibly experiencing a medical episode. Four children on the bus were being transported to school at the time, the police said. Troopers said they arrived to find the 33-year-old bus driver displaying signs of impairment. She was taken into custody for suspicion of DUI. They did not say what charges she is facing. No children were injured. They were returned to the custody of the Brandywine Heights Area School District, officials said. The district's superintendent, Andrew Potteiger, told 69 News that the driver is an employee of an independent contractor that the district partners with for transportation services. KUTZTOWN, Pa. A petition circulating online is creating conversation in Kutztown about the future of the popular Strand Theatre. No movies have shown at the small hometown cinema since the end of June, and it has people wondering why. "I live two steps away," said Jake Lackey, a junior at Kutztown University. "It does kind of stink that there are no $5 movies anymore." Robby Wilding, also a junior at K.U., agrees. "Cheap ticket prices. Cheap food," he said. "Everything was very well priced out for a cheap college student, just like me, of course." The Strand's doors have been locked since the death of Paul Angstadt, a former Reading mayor and the theater's longtime owner, on June 20. Lee Thompson created an online petition asking that information about plans for the theater be shared with a curious and vocal audience. In just six days, 500 people signed the petition. "The Strand is by no means something to ignore," Thompson said. "We want them to know that if they are doing something for the community, to have us be a part of it. Don't have private meetings." Kutztown Community Partnership said it's working with Angstadt's estate on future plans for the theater, including the possibility of adding performing arts, pending a potential sale agreement. Organizers declined to provide any further comment. "We have some people that are going to buy it," Thompson said, "but we still don't know what's going to happen to it." As for residents and university students, they just want the now-empty hometown staple to come back to life. "I'd be fine with anything happening that's not this," Lackey said. Kutztown Community Partnership is asking for anyone interested in helping with the future of the Strand to visit its website. BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Horses used by the Bethlehem Police Department will get to strut their stuff this weekend. Saturday is the fifth annual Bridles and Badges event at the Quandrant Private Wealth Stable Facility off East Langhorne Avenue. Crews are getting the horses and grounds ready for the festivities. Folks will get to watch a mounted patrol demonstration. Organizers say there will also be barn tours, pony rides, food, games and live music. The event will run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. NATO does not want to pose a threat to Russia, but as a defensive alliance will defend every inch of its territory against it, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said after a meeting with Czech Minister Jana Cernochova, news.am informs. September 9, 2022, 17:37 Pentagon chief says that NATO is not seeking confrontation with Moscow STEPANAKERT, SEPTEMBER 9, ARTSAKHPRESS: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is strengthening its defense capabilities by creating new battle groups on its eastern flank. The Czech Republic is playing a leading role in this strengthening, Austin said. Cernochova said the Czech Republic needs a well-armed army to fulfill that role, and the United States is a key partner in that regard. HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) Hundreds of striking nurses have paused picketing as their union reached a tentative contract agreement with 13 of 14 nursing homes across Pennsylvania. SEUI Healthcare Pennsylvania announced Friday that bargainers have come to terms with nursing home operator Priority Healthcare, one day after a deal was reached with another operator, Comprehensive Healthcare. Contract details were not released pending ratification votes. A total of about 700 unionized workers at 14 nursing homes statewide, including some in Berks, Northampton, and Schuylkill counties, went on strike Sept. 2 in a dispute over pay, benefits and staffing levels. Striking workers at independently owned Shenandoah Heights nursing home in Schuylkill County have yet to settle their contract. HARRISBURG, Pa. A program in Pennsylvania will provide free breakfasts to students across the state. Gov. Tom Wolf announced Friday his $21.5 million plan to provide universal free school breakfast for 1.7 million students this school year. The Universal Free Breakfast Program will go into effect on October 1, 2022 and run through the end of the 2022-23 school year. More than 1.7 million Pennsylvania children enrolled in public schools, intermediate units, charter schools, career and technology schools, and child care institutions that participate in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs will benefit from the state-funded program, according to a news release from the governor's office. The $21.5 million program is funded with prior year funding from the School Food Services General Fund appropriation. Interested schools that do not currently participate in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs can find information for applying on the Department of Educations website. It is completely unacceptable for a child to start the day hungry, said Gov. Wolf. Im taking hunger off the table for Pennsylvania kids by creating the Universal Free Breakfast Program. Regardless of whether or not they qualify for free or reduced meals normally, every student enrolled in public or private schools will have the opportunity to feed their belly before they feed their mind this school year. From March 2020 through the 2021-22 school year, students were afforded free meals from school as a result of waivers approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. For two years, nearly 1 million students have eaten for free each year, the governor's office said. Comparing the 2018-19 school year, when free breakfast was not universal, to 2021-22, when school was fully in-person and breakfast was universally free, breakfast consumption increased by nearly 16%, according to the news release. SOUDERTON, Pa. - Outside Tilly Mint's Tea Room, the message is mournful. Who is having English breakfast today? said owner Trish Stubbs to customers. However, inside the Souderton, Montgomery County British business the mood is more upbeat, even if served with a side of sadness for English native Sue Dicker. She is the only queen I've ever known and she has been in reign since 52 when I was born, she said. She remembers seeing the queen drive by at Windsor Castle. Says the right things, does the right things, she's going to be missed by a lot of people, she said. For owner Stubbs, who's celebrated Royal weddings, the Queen's Platinum Jubilee in June and once stood next to her as a 9 year old, she is getting support from customers. I'm really touched by the number of people that have reached out and left phone messages, Facebook messages and emails, Stubbs told a customer at checkout, who asked about marking an end of a comforting era. I think she seems such a constant force and a source of comfort even in sad and awful times when things went wrong in Britain, Stubbs said. From selling tea to hosting a tea party, Jamaican native Prealane Friday, who once worked as a midwife in England and nursed the Queen's Lady in Waiting, Elizabeth's death strikes a personal chord. Admired her for who she was, she was faithful in her service, faithful to her husband, to her country and to her family, she said. As for the monarchy moving forward those we spoke to said theyll take a wait and see approach of how now King Charles does and then Prince William. BOGOTA, Colombia Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela offered condolences to the United Kingdom on Friday following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest reigning British monarch. Queen Elizabeth IIs death was headline news in several Latin American countries. British Ambassador to Ecuador Chris Campbell said, there are not just the British people missing her today, not just the British people are remembering her life and her legacy, but also people all over the world. A book of condolences is available for those who wish to offer their sympathies in a message to the Royal Family. British embassies expressed their gratitude for all the expressions of affection and condolences to the Queen and opened the so-called book of condolences for those who wish to express their condolences and send a message to the Royal Family. In Chile, flowers and cards were left on the British residence walls as a show of solidarity with the British people. KEY DEVELOPMENTS: Prince Charles became king upon his mother's death Will Charles be loved by his subjects, like his mother was? Queen Elizabeth II, a monarch bound by duty, dies at 96 Elizabeth has been the only monarch most people in Britain know A constant in my life: World mourns Queen Elizabeth II Biden is 13th and final US president to meet Queen Elizabeth II Find more AP coverage here: https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii OTHER DEVELOPMENTS: LONDON Britains King Charles III told Prime Minister Liz Truss that losing his mother was the day he had been dreading and that he must try and keep everything going. Their meeting happened Friday in Buckingham Palace after the king flew from Scotland to London. Queen Elizabeth II had appointed Truss to the role just two days before her death. And Truss praised the queen during the start of a special session of Parliament, calling her the nations greatest diplomat and said her devotion to duty was an example to everyone. Normal business in Parliament has been suspended and lawmakers will spend two days offering their memories and reflections on the queen. Senior lawmakers will also take an oath to King Charles III, the new monarch. WASHINGTON U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters on Friday that he planned to attend the funeral for Queen Elizabeth II. Biden was the 13th and final U.S. president to meet the woman whose reign spanned seven decades. The queen had met every American president since Dwight Eisenhower, with the exception of Lyndon Johnson. Thats because Johnson did not visit Britain during his presidency. Biden and first lady Jill Biden said the queens legacy will loom large in the pages of British history, and in the story of our world. Every living former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump joined Biden in mourning her passing and sending condolences to her family. ATHENS, Greece Greeces former King Constantine has described Queen Elizabeth II as a beacon of dignity and humility for the whole world. Constantine lived in London for years after the Greek monarchy was abolished and is close to the British royal family. We have been through so much together and I will never forget the love and support she showed me and my family, he said in a statement Friday. To King Charles III, I wholeheartedly wish an equally successful service to his country. LONDON King Charles III has expressed his love for his son, Prince Harry, and his wife, Meghan, in his first speech to the nation since taking the throne. Charles, who became king upon the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, wishes the couple well as they build their life overseas. Meghan, 41, and Harry, 37, have been in a tense relationship with Britains royal family since they stepped away from royal duties and left the U.K. in early 2020, citing what they said were the unbearable intrusions and racist attitudes of the British media. The comment came during a recorded speech before a memorial service honoring the late monarch, who died Thursday. LONDON King Charles III says he feels profound sorrow at the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II, and has vowed to carry on her lifelong service to the nation. Charles is making his first address to Britain and the Commonwealth as monarch. He became king on Thursday after the queens death. That promise of lifelong service I renew to all today, he said. His speech was broadcast on television and streamed at St. Pauls Cathedral, where some 2,000 people were attending a service of remembrance for the queen. Mourners at the service included Prime Minister Liz Truss and members of her government. Flags were flying at half-staff on landmarks in Australia on Friday as people expressed sadness at the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. Australian Governor-General David Hurley and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed condolence books in Canberra. There is comfort to be found in Her Majestys own words: Grief is the price we pay for love. said the Australian prime minister. New Zealanders also mourned the passing of Queen Elizabeth II with tributes around the country on Friday. At the Auckland War Memorial, a group of young people performed the Haka, a ceremonial dance in Maori culture. Flags flew at half-staff around the country. Under New Zealands constitutional arrangements, the queen was also New Zealands monarch and head of state. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said New Zealand had moved into a period of official mourning, and would hold a state memorial service after the official funeral in Britain. ABUJA, Nigeria The death of the British monarch Queen Elizabeth II was frontpage news in Nigeria, Africas most populous country, biggest economy and former British colony. Nigerias President Mohammodu Buhari offered his condolences and expressed sadness on hearing of the queens passing, according to his spokesman. That sentiment was echoed by one man, Musa Adamu, at a news stand in the capital Abuja. The civil servant urged the British people to exercise patience and endure the pain, noting that God will bless you all of you now. The flag flew at half-staff outside the British High Commission. On a daily morning TV talk show, presenter Mohammed Jinadu and pundit Linda Claudia discussed the role Queen Elizabeth II played in holding the United Kingdom together. GIBRALTAR Gibraltarians were mourning the death of Queen Elizabeth II with several dozen queueing from the early hours of Friday to sign a book of condolences and lay flowers. Gibraltar has lowered the flags of official buildings, entered a period of national mourning and cancelled celebrations on Saturday of its National Day. On Friday morning the governor and Chief Minister also signed the condolences book that the residents had been writing in. Fabian Picardo, the Chief Minister of Gibraltar, a British overseas territory bordering southern Spain, said May Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Second rest in eternal peace. Long live the King. In a statement sent to media and posted online, Picardo also added: The People of Gibraltar will mourn Her Majesty as a monarch who has reigned wisely and with incomparable dedication throughout the period of our post-war emergence as a part of the British family of nations. BELFAST, EDINBURGH A series of special gun salutes across the United Kingdom fired 96 shots on Friday, one for each year Queen Elizabeth II lived, a near century-long life. Bells also tolled across the nation in honor of Queen Elizabeth II as the nation started 10 days of mourning for its longest-serving monarch. King Charles III, who spent much of his 73 years preparing for the role, planned to meet with the prime minister and address a nation grieving the only British monarch most of the world had known. He takes the throne in an era of uncertainty for both his country and the monarchy itself. ABERDEENSHIRE, Scotland People paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at the gates of her Balmoral residence where she died. Despite the rain on Friday, mourners from all walks of life came to lay down flowers or simply say goodbye to the British monarch they loved and respected. I just wanted to say thank you to the Queen, said Christy Asalor. She has been a symbol of strength and stability, she has been so selfless and shes given herself, literally sacrificed her whole life serving us until two days before she passed and the least we could do is just say thank you. Other people said they were feeling a lot of sadness at the passing of the only queen they ever knew. Queen Elizabeth II was the longest reigning British monarch, at 70 years of service. LONDON U.S. climate envoy and former U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, has paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth, describing her as the calm in the storm and a great stateswoman. In brief comments to The Associated Press in London, Kerry said his thoughts were with the royal family and noted the sense of loss that people were feeling around the world. Kerry also praised what he described as the queens great sense of direction. Never any any vitriol, never any political commentary, always on values, always on the bigger picture, he said. LONDON -- The Crown, Netflixs acclaimed series about Queen Elizabeth II and her family, has paused production due to the monarchs death. A spokesperson for the series said production was paused on Friday as a mark of respect and will also be suspended on the day of the queens funeral. The show is in production on its sixth season. Its first two seasons starred Claire Foy as the young Princess Elizabeth ascending to the throne and gradually growing into her role as monarch, and seasons three and four featured Olivia Colman as a more mature queen. The show, which has won 22 Emmy Awards so far, has gradually moved closer to current events. Netflix recently revealed casting of the actors who are playing Prince William and his wife Kate in the sixth season. Its fifth season, with Imelda Staunton playing the queen, will premiere in November. NICOSIA, Cyprus - In ethnically divided Cyprus, President Nicos Anastasiades offered condolences for the Queens passing, posting on his official Twitter account, our thoughts are with the Royal Family and the people of the United Kingdom. But for many Greek Cypriots, those thoughts hark back to a bloody, four-year guerrilla campaign that was waged in the late 1950s against British colonial rule and a perceived indifference the Queen demonstrated over the plight of nine individuals whom British authorities executed by hanging, despite appeals for their death sentences to be commuted. Yiannis Spanos, president of Association of National Organization of Cypriot Fighters (EOKA) told the Associated Press that we respect the dead even if in life they proved to be our enemies. Spanos said the Queen was held by many as bearing responsibility for the islands tragedies, particularly for not granting pardons, even for some of the condemned for whom there was no definitive evidence to merit a death sentence even under colonial law. LONDON King Charles III has arrived at Buckingham Palace for the first time as Britains monarch. The king flew to London from Scotland on Friday and was driven to the royal residence in an official Bentley. A large crowd cheered as the car arrived at the palace gates. He got out of the car to greet well-wishers and look at some of the huge pile of floral tributes left to honor his mother Queen Elizabeth II. Some called Thank you Charles and Well done, Charlie! as he shook hands with the crowd. Several shouted God save the King! A few broke into a rendition of Britains national anthem, which is now titled God Save the King. LONDON British prime ministers who served during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II are sharing personal tributes to the late monarch. There were 15 prime ministers during the queens reign, from Winston Churchill to Liz Truss, who was appointed just this week. The leaders held weekly private meetings with the monarch. Trusss predecessor, Boris Johnson, said in the House of Commons that when he saw the queen on Tuesday to offer his resignation, she was as radiant and as knowledgeable and as fascinated by politics as ever I can remember, and as wise in her advice as anyone I know, if not wiser. Johnson called the queen the keystone in the vast arch of the British state and said we are coming to understand in her death the full magnitude of what she did for us all. Former Prime Minister Theresa May said the queen was the most remarkable person I have ever met as well as the most impressive. I doubt we will ever see her like again, May said. May she rest in peace and rise in glory. BRUSSELS NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, speaking at a joint news conference in Brussels with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, noted that all 30 NATO member flags are flying at half-staff to honor Queen Elizabeth. She was a strong supporter of the transatlantic alliance, of our armed forces and our values, Stoltenberg said, adding that she knew and worked with every one of his predecessors since NATO was founded. I will always remember her wisdom, her warmth, and her strong personal interest in transatlantic unity. Blinken, meanwhile, paid homage to the truly extraordinary life of Her Majesty Elizabeth II. He said she had personified a sense of stability and continuity during turbulent times and among unprecedented challenges faced by both Britain and the world. She was a source of comfort and resilience to people from all walks of life. PARIS French President Emmanuel Macron expressed deep sadness and a sense of emptiness after the passing of the monarch and praised her great affection for France. Macron said in a video message that the queen mastered our language, loved our culture and touched our hearts. Macron described her as a great head of state, and said that with her, Britain and France share a warm, sincere and loyal partnership. Speaking in English, the French president said: To you, she was your Queen. To us, she was THE Queen. Although Prince Harry is in the UK, he missed seeing Queen Elizabeth II one last time before she died. He rushed to Balmoral in Scotland to see his grandmother, but was one of the last royals to arrive. Prince Harry rushed to Balmoral in Scotland to say goodbye to the Queen. Photo: Getty Queen Elizabeth II died peacefully at age 96 on Thursday, after struggling with health issues all year. On the Today show, royal commentator Dickie Arbiter said it was extraordinary that Harry didnt travel earlier with other members of the family, including his brother Prince William. King Charles III and Queen Camilla are really just down the road at Birchall, which is his Scottish home, Dickie said. [Charles] would have rushed there pretty quickly as the Queen went under medical supervision. RELATED: William arrived with Prince Andrew, Prince Edward and Sophie, Countess of Wessex, after taking a flight to Aberdeen airport. The royal commentator added that it was very sad that Harry allegedly arrived after the death of Her Majesty. Prince William travelled to Balmoral earlier with his uncles and aunt. Photo: Getty Photos of Harry arriving at Balmoral shows how distraught the royal was during the tough time. While the Duke and Duchess spokesperson originally stated that Meghan Markle would accompany Harry to Scotland, she ended up staying behind. ITVs Royal Editor Chris Ship shared his thoughts on Harrys late arrival, tweeting: Very sad for Prince Harry that despite being in the UK he didnt get to see his grandmother, The Queen, before she passed away. They were very close and he spoke to her often despite his decision to leave the royal family. Its unlikely that Harry could have arrived early enough to say goodbye, as it appears that his brother, uncles and aunt also didnt make it in time. Never miss a thing. Sign up to Yahoo Lifestyles daily newsletter. Or if you have a story idea, email us at lifestyle.tips@yahooinc.com. When artist Nikolay Mikushkin emigrated from Kazakhstan to the United States with his wife in October 1996, they chose a location they thought would have four seasons: New York City. In November, we waited for the snow to start, Mikushkin said. But there is no seasonal snow. So in 2003, they moved from their New York City apartment to central New York, where living is more affordable and, more importantly, there are four distinct seasons with plenty of snow. What this area can offer to an artist, especially a plein air artist, is incredible, said Olga Mikushkina, Nikolays wife. Mikushkin is a plein air artist, a French phrase that translates to open air. He goes outdoors to create his paintings, battling against the ever-changing light to capture a moment in time and space. In Conversations with Nature, his solo exhibit at the Schweinfurth Art Center that runs through Oct. 16, comprises 21 of his plein air landscapes. The landscapes depict familiar scenes: trees, meadows, farms and, yes, even snow. Many of the paintings are scenes from Williamstown, a rural town on the eastern edge of Oswego County that lies on the western side of the Tug Hill Plateau. Why there? Because in 2019, the couple purchased six acres of land so Mikushkin could have an uninterrupted location to paint. Before my immigration, I had a summer house and I would go there to paint, he said. And in that area of Russia, near the Ural Mountains, we have no limit of where we could go to paint, no restrictions on travel. When I got here, I had culture shock. I wanted to go somewhere, but its private land and I cant go there. Not everywhere is a beautiful view, he continued. But where it is beautiful, it is not always available to paint. His land offers many different vistas: a swamp, a pond, a meadow, and plenty of wooded areas. A prolific painter, Mikushkin often works on three pieces simultaneously. I start in the morning and paint from 9 until 1, and then stop to have lunch, he said. Then I paint in the afternoon for three hours, then have dinner and a break before going out in the evening. Since his oil paintings are so large, 40 by 52 inches, it takes several three-hour sessions to complete one piece. He keeps track by painting the dates he worked on the back of each piece. For instance, the back of Evening in Bowdoin Park lists four dates: May 21 and 30 and June 4 and 5, 2019. We are not photographers, Mikushkin said. So small differences in shadows as the day continues, I dont care. But if I paint on a sunny day, from 11 to 3, there is a lot of change and I dont like it. Thats why he returns to same spot at the same time on different days with similar weather so he can finish a piece. His work has won several awards at plein air competitions, in which artists create works over several days that are judged at the end of the week. At Plein Air Easton, Maryland, one of the largest festivals in the United States that Mikushkin calls the Olympics of plein air competitions, he was awarded Best New Artist in 2014, Vanishing Landscape Award in 2015, and Best Use of Light in 2019. He has participated in competitions around the country, including Cape Canaveral, Florida; Olmsted Linear Park in Atlanta; and the Cumberland Mountains in Vermont. After painting for 40 years, Mikushkin is planning to begin sharing the secrets he learned studying plein air painting at the College of Fine Art in central Russia and the St. Petersburg Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture by offering plein air lessons on his land in Williamstown. His wife said they are hoping to recreate the atmosphere of the Academic Dacha in Russia, which launched the Russian plein air movement in 1884. The dacha closed in 1917 after the Bolshevik revolution, and reopened in 1948. Rich people invited students to come and paint on the land, Mikushkina said. We are planning to open our land maybe in the spring season. Mikushkin has an important reason for wanting to share his talents with other artists: to capture the current landscape before it disappears because of climate change. I have to show people, to remind them how beautiful (nature) is, what color is the sky, he said. Sometimes people dont remember how beautiful is the sky. All of us, artists, musicians, have to remind people to keep the planet, to not make a mess. If you go WHAT: In Conversations with Nature, a solo exhibit by Syracuse artist Nikolay Mikushkin WHERE: Schweinfurth Art Center, 205 Genesee St., Auburn WHEN: Aug. 27 to Oct. 16 COST: Admission to the Schweinfurth is $10 per person or $15 per person to tour the Schweinfurth and Cayuga Museum of History & Art located next door. Schweinfurth members, participating artists and children 12 and under are always free. Visit myartcenter.org or call (315) 255-1553 for more information. Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon stopped in Winona last week as part of a tour of counties in the area. Simon took time to meet with the Advocacy Center of Winona Sept. 1 to discuss the Safe at Home program, which enables residents in Minnesota who fear for their safety to have a confidential address. According to the secretary of states website, many people who participate in the program have survived domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking. Simon takes the time regularly to check with the programs partners like Advocacy Center of Winona. He shared that he had the chance to connect with the centers director Crystal Hegge while visiting Winona. Simon said they had a good chat just about past, present and the future particularly with the pandemic. He continued, There were a lot of national reports about an uptick in domestic violence because people were in close quarters. It was a difficult challenging situation for everybody. And there were unfortunately reports of that. So I wanted to find out from her as I have with other partners about whether that was their experience and what other trends and needs theyve seen in the last couple of years. Simon said that he learned Winona has seen this uptick locally. He said that he was told the severity of cases in the area have also increased in recent years. Simon also noted that some trends have been seen in recent years too, like an increase in harassing and abusing people through the use of technology. Other topics discussed with Hegge included transportation, housing and legal representation for survivors. Simon said the information gathered from the programs partners enables the programs administrators to further improve the program and make it fit the needs of the states residents. For more information about Minnesotas Safe at Home program, visit www.sos.state.mn.us/safe-at-home. Sauk County Circuit Court Judge Michael Screnock issued an arrest warrant Wednesday for a man accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old in the city of Baraboo. John M. Garrett. Jr., 24, of Reedsburg, faces 25 years in prison and 15 years of extended supervision if convicted of the felony charge of second-degree sexual assault of a child. According to a criminal complaint: Garrett had given the child a ride home from a local restaurant Aug. 20. When adults arrived at the residence, they found Garrett assaulting the child in a room of the residence. When initially discovered, Garrett placed his hand over the childs mouth and told the child not to say anything because the child wouldnt want to get in trouble. When confronted by more than one adult, he said he would turn himself in to the police. He threatened to use his car to die by suicide. The adults who reported the assault told police they believed Garrett would harm himself if he found out he had been reported to authorities. A Reedsburg woman was found guilty Wednesday of drunken driving with a child in her vehicle. Sara L. Gordon, 43, had initially been charged with a felony count of a third-offense operating while intoxicated with a child in the car, but the Sauk County District Attorneys Office amended her charges. Prosecutors filed a new criminal complaint May 13 reducing the charge to a first offense. Misdemeanor counts of driving with a prohibited alcohol content with a passenger under 16 and resisting an officer were dismissed, but read in, which means they were considered by Sauk County Circuit Court Judge Michael Screnock during sentencing. According to the criminal complaint, someone who suspected Gordon of driving drunk with a child in her Ford Edge SUV called police to report her in August 2021. When Gordon was pulled over by Reedsburg police officers in the parking lot of Oakwood Terrace Apartments, 2109 Viking Drive, she told an officer she had not been drinking since the night before and offered to engage in sobriety tests. An adult came to the car and took the 5-year-old child away. The officer conducted a breath test on Gordon and found a 0.147% result. Gordon had been driving to drop off the child when she was called by the adult who reported her. The adult suspected Gordon of drinking and said so, prompting Gordon to turn around toward her home. Gordon told police she had sipped a glass of wine over two hours, to which the officer replied that it wasnt possible for her to be at that high of an alcohol level after drinking a glass of wine. Okay, she replied and again told police she drank a single full glass of wine. Gordon was arrested after failing sobriety tests. According to court records, Gordon was convicted of drunken driving in May 2000 in the state of New Jersey. She was also arrested for drunken driving in December 2010 in Oregon, which was dismissed after she fulfilled a diversion agreement allowed under Oregon state statute. Screnock sentenced Gordon to 20 days in Sauk County Jail to begin on or before Nov. 4. The jail time includes Huber release privileges. She was ordered to install an ignition interlock device in her vehicle for 15 months immediately upon regaining her drivers license, which will also be revoked for 15 months. Screnock also ordered Gordon to undergo an alcohol and other drug assessment and provide a DNA sample. A suspect in the Beagles Bar and Grill explosion in Lyndon Station last week is currently awaiting charges while receiving treatment for burns. According to an updated release from Lyndon Station Police Chief Jeremy Bonikowske, the adult male suspect is being detained by the Juneau County Sheriff's Office during his recovery. Upon his release from medical care, formal charges against the suspect will be referred to the Juneau County District Attorney's Office. The suspect's name will be released to the public upon the referral of those charges. The tavern is closed indefinitely following the explosion during the early morning hours of Sept. 1. According to the initial release from Bonikowske, who is also the county's Emergency Management Director, the Lyndon Station Fire Department was dispatched to a report of the fire and explosion at the village bar. Following control of the blaze, the scene was secured for investigation due to the suspicious nature of the explosion. The adult male individual was taken into custody as a result of the ongoing investigation. The Lyndon Station Police Department is being assisted with this investigation by the Juneau County Sheriffs Office, DCI, federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Wisconsin State Patrols Technical Reconstruction Unit. No additional information is available at this time. Hong Kong: CE mourns Queen Elizabeth II Chief Executive John Lee today expressed his profound sadness over the passing of Queen Elizabeth II of the UK. Mr Lee said: On behalf of the people and the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, it is with great sadness that I express our profound condolences on the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. Having reigned for 70 years, she was the longest reigning monarch of the United Kingdom. She was greatly respected, admired and praised by the British people. The Chief Executive also offered sympathy on behalf of the Hong Kong SAR Government and its people. We send our deepest condolences to the people of the United Kingdom during this time of national mourning and reflection. This story has been published on: 2022-09-09. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Sept. 9, 2007 A former governor of New York would have been proud of the sense of community on display Sunday at the second annual Throopfest. Held at the pavilion and grounds adjacent to the fire hall on Beech Tree Road, hundreds of people from Throop and surrounding area gathered for a relaxing afternoon. Town Supervisor Bill Tarby was hard at work as he grilled hot dogs and sausages. Tarby was very pleased with the turnout despite uncertain skies and a number of other similar options such as the TomatoFest at Emerson Park and the Irish Fest in Syracuse. We're very pleased. Every year we hope to get a little bigger, put a little more money into, and give more to the community, Tarby said. We try to do the best we can with what we have. We don't have a town tax, so we depend a lot on people's donations and putting in their time. The Town of Throop was formed in 1859 from parts of Aurelius, Mentz and Sennett. Enos Throop (pronounced troop, the h' is silent) was governor of the Empire State from 1829-1833. A protege of future President Martin Van Buren, Throop was also a congressman and Cayuga County clerk in 1811, just five years after graduating from Albany Law School. Tom Weed, Throop's zoning officer and long-time Auburn police officer, had his tongs at the ready as he helped Tarby and others with the steady demand for food. This is a great town, a great town, said Weed, a sentiment that was widely echoed by his friends around him. Eddy Ruwet donated the bright-yellow sweet corn for Throopfest. His farm is near the intersection of North Division and School streets. Best corn in the county, said Weed. Margaret Morgenthaler has been the town's recreation director for the past three years. She and her husband, Matt, have three children ranging in age from 4 to 10. Sometimes the youngest Morgenthalers give their mom a youngster's perspective on how to address rec issues. There's a lot of young families in the town, moms and kids. They'll say, Let's try this,' said Morgenthaler. I love it. It's just a lot of fun, thinking of new and different things for the kids. Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Great Wall Motor (GWM) announced this week its monthly auto sales reached 88,226 units in August 2022, growing 18.81% from the previous year, while falling 13.44% from the previous month. For the first eight months of this year, GWM sold 708,671 vehicles, representing a 9.61% year-on-year decline. Of the new vehicles sold in the Jan.-Aug. period, 14.41% were priced above 200,000 yuan ($28,810). Among GWM's brands, only WEY and ORA failed to see a year-on-year upward movement in August sales. HAVAL still topped others with a sales volume of 50,400 units, while TANK was the fastest-growing one. GWM Pickup scored a 41.25% leap compared to the year-ago period in its Aug. sales. Notably, the sales of the Great Wall POER series rocketed 113.25% year over year to 10,673 units last month. TANK 300; photo credit: GWM TANK brand's monthly sales zoomed up 66.58% from the previous year to 10,008 units in August. At the Chengdu Motor Show 2022, the automaker unveiled the TANK 300 HEV and the TANK 500 PHEV, which are built on TANKs super off-road hybrid EV architecture launched at the same time. Global presale of the two new models will kick off this year.Last month, GWM's export volume and sales of overseas markets totaled 15,374 vehicles, jumping 23.99% over a year earlier. Undated file photo shows Kathrin von Rechenberg standing at a drying field for fragrant cloud organza in Shunde District of Foshan, south China's Guangdong Province. [Xinhua] BEIJING, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) Wearing a beautiful fragrant cloud gauze costume designed by herself, Kathrin von Rechenberg chatted with neighbors in a "hutong," or traditional alley, in the Qianmen area of central Beijing. Born in Munich, Germany, Rechenberg was so captivated by this delicate, classic Chinese silk at first sight and touch that in 1999 she came to China in search of it. Finding this fabric was, however, more difficult than she had anticipated. About a year later, she met her husband Zhang Xiangyun. The couple found some fragrant cloud organza weaved in the 1960s and dyed in the 1980s at a time-honored store in the Qianmen neighborhood, where she later set up a clothing studio. Rechenberg was born into an artistic family and was greatly influenced by both her grandfather and father, who were engaged in the field of art. After initially studying tailoring in Germany, she went on to pursue costume design in France. She worked with a number of famous brands such as Chanel and Christian Dior after graduation. "The fragrant cloud organza, also known as gambiered gauze, is a handwoven, plant-dyed fabric with a long and profound history in south China's Guangdong Province. As its production involves significant time and unique techniques, the organza is rare and precious," Rechenberg said. In order to learn more about this silk and seek design inspiration, she paid multiple visits to a dyeing plant in Guangdong's Shunde. "The dyestuff is extracted from the dioscorea cirrhosa, in which the tannic acid generates a variety of colors such as maroon, tawny and coffee through chemical reactions," she said. Zhang noted that the production of fragrant cloud organza involves more than 30 times of dyeing and natural drying at each interval, while the last step is to cover the fabrics with mud so that the latter's rich iron elements can react with the tannic acid and silk fiber to change the colors. "After the dyeing, the organza needs to stand for years before the entire process is completed and it can be used, making the silk even more valuable," Rechenberg said, adding that such fabrics nourished by the natural soil, water and sunshine have a unique vitality and becomes a fabric that can "breathe." The natural dyeing process is a prominent feature of fragrant cloud organza, and Rechenberg has always insisted on sticking to originality in her designs. She draws inspiration from geometric lines and architectural shapes and reduces unnecessary tailorings to preserve the original art design as much as possible. "Western costume designers are used to presenting beauty through complex design and tailorings, but I just follow the lines and fabric colors," Rechenberg said. The dyeing technique of fragrant cloud organza was inscribed on China's national intangible cultural heritage list in 2008, bringing the fabric to the attention of more people. Rechenberg was awarded the title of friendship ambassador of China's textile intangible cultural heritage in 2020. Meanwhile, her own brand, Rechenberg Art Couture, has become increasingly popular. "I have gained a better understanding of the traditional Chinese culture over the past two decades in China and learned to pursue harmony with nature. I will continue to study Chinese culture and history and show my three children that making handicrafts can also be a good way of life," she said. Undated file photo shows Kathrin von Rechenberg checking fragrant cloud organza products at a factory in Shunde District of Foshan, south China's Guangdong Province. [Xinhua] (Source: Xinhua) 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. SVOLT to build another factory in Germany Chinese battery manufacturer SVOLT on Friday announced the plan to build a new cell factory in Germany to supply electric vehicles, picking Lauchhammer, the state of Brandenburg as a location. This is the second factory SVOLT will build outside China, following the module and pack factory at Heusweiler. Photo credit: SVOLT Tesla hits milestone of 9,000 Superchargers deployment on Chinese mainland Tesla has deployed the 9,000th Supercharger on Chinese mainland, the U.S. EV manufacturer announced today via its WeChat account. HAOMO.AI, NavInfo forge partnership Chinese autonomous driving tech developer HAOMO.AI and the navigation map supplier NavInfo signed an agreement earlier this week under which both parties will co-explore such areas as intelligent driving, map service, and data closed-loop. Besides, they will co-build an innovation lab for product and tech R&D. XPeng G9 to hit market on September 21 XPeng is about to put the all-new SUV model, G9, onto the market on Sept. 21, the automaker said via its WeChat account. Leapmotor exports T03s to Israel The first batch of Leapmotor T03s has departed for Israel, Leapmotor announced on Sept. 8, marking the commencement of the startups overseas business deployment. China adds about 1.698 million charging piles in Jan.-Aug. 2022, up 300.5% YoY For the first eight months of 2022, around 1.698 million charging piles (+300.5% YoY) were newly built in China, including 476,000 public piles (+232.9% YoY) and 1.221 million private ones (+540.5% YoY). China's power battery installed capacity zooms up 121% YoY in Aug. 2022 Data by the CAPBIIA show that the country's power battery installed capacity amounted to 27.8GWh in August, zooming up 121% from the previous year, while also rising 14.7% from the previous month. CATL to supply BMW Group with cylindrical batteries from 2025 CATL and BMW Group today entered into a multi-year agreement under which the Chinese battery giant will supply its cylindrical battery cells to the German carmaker's NEUE KLASSE-based all-electric vehicle models starting from 2025, according to a post on CATL's WeChat account. China auto output, sales both rise YoY in first 8 months of 2022 China's auto output and sales reached 2.395 million and 2.383 million units in August 2022, jumping 38.3% and 32.1% year on year, respectively, according to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers ("CAAM"). Great Wall Motor boasts 18.81% YoY jump in Aug. 2022 auto sales Great Wall Motor (GWM) announced this week its monthly auto sales reached 88,226 units in August 2022, growing 18.81% from the previous year, while falling 13.44% from the previous month. NANJING, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for efforts to promote enterprise innovation and foster more small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are specialized and innovative. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks in a congratulatory letter to a conference regarding these enterprises' development, which opened Thursday in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province. Calling SMEs a vital force for promoting innovation, creating jobs and improving people's livelihoods, Xi expressed his hope that the specialized and innovative firms can focus on their main business and put effort into cultivating their speciality, so as to make greater contributions to stabilizing industrial and supply chains as well as boosting social and economic development. Governments at all levels should create a favorable environment and increase support for SMEs, consolidate enterprises' confidence in development, encourage enterprises to be innovative, and strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights, Xi said. Xi's letter was read out by Liu He, Chinese vice premier and a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, who attended the opening ceremony of the conference via video link. Related: Full text of Xi Jinping's Congratulatory Letter to the 2022 National Conference on Development of Specialized and Sophisticated SMEs (Source: Xinhua) Yimeng Mountains, in East China's Shandong Province, witnessed the heroic deeds of its residents during wartime before the founding of the People's Republic of China. Women in the region bore the responsibilities of taking care of their families and supporting the revolution. They selflessly devoted their youth and even their lives to the revolution, and for their efforts they were hailed as Yimeng hongsao (women supporting revolution). Yimeng Hongsao Memorial Hall, in Changshanzhuang, a village, in Linyi, a city in Shandong, is where Party members and officials receive an education in revolutionary traditions, and where they improve their Party consciousness. It is also a national patriotism education base for women. Jin Jing, deputy head of the memorial hall, became a tour guide in the venue in 2011. Since then, she has inspired herself with the spirit of Yimeng hongsao. She has offered guide-related services to nearly 100,000 people in the memorial hall. Of the hall's guides, she has always been selected to provide guide-related services to important visitors, and she has won many honors for her excellent performance. Making Each Sentence Convincing As a guide in the patriotic education base for women, Jin fully understands her responsibilities, and she knows what professional skills she must have. "We must seriously study the history of the Party, the country, and the revolutionary history of Shandong and Yimeng region. We must research the Yimeng spirit and deepen our understanding of the stories of hongsao, based on the background of the wars. We should study every detail of the story of each hongsao, and we should often consult experts and visit heroes and other 'red-education' bases. We should ensure each sentence we say is convincing to the visitors," Jin says. She often gets to know some information, such as age and profession, about the visitors before she provides services. This can help her prepare for her work. While guiding the visitors, Jin carefully selects her words, and adjusts her tone and posture, based on the visitors' reactions. Elderly visitors often have special feelings about some of the exhibits, so she chats with them during the tour. Sometimes she learns useful historical knowledge during her talks with the elderly visitors. Jin has prepared 12 guide scripts, each of which targets a different group of visitors. In 2013, Jin led her team in collecting materials about Yimeng hongsao. They conducted interviews with heroes and role models, some through telephone calls and others in person, including during trips to other cities. The team compiled teaching materials, based on the Party's history and stories of some hongsao, and they produced a video, based on their interviews with hongsao. They also helped compile a book about hongsao. To share the stories of hongsao, Jin designed an online audio-guide system for the memorial hall. Jin and her team have organized public lectures in schools, communities, military camps and tourist sites to promote the revolutionary spirit. Although being a tour guide requires much repetition, Jin is never bored. "I try to make my service richer and more inspiring each time I hope visitors will be touched, and they will feel nurtured by noble virtues and the wisdom contained in history after they listen to my (comments). "More importantly, I try to integrate the spirit of the latest instructions of the CPC Central Committee into my services. To set the stage for the 20th CPC National Congress, which will be held this year, we have decided to update the contents on the display boards in the hall," says Jin. Spreading Stories of Hongsao During wartime, women in the Yimeng region didn't hide from the conflict; in fact, they bravely walked out of their houses to support the revolution, and they helped transfer provisions and ammunition, made shoes for soldiers and cared for the wounded. They sent their children to join the army, and they raised unattended children left behind by the soldiers. Their deeds reflected a great love for humanity, and their actions have continued to inspire Chinese women. Jin and her colleagues have been deeply touched by the heroic deeds of Yimeng hongsao. "We notice women visitors are more easily moved than men by the stories of hongsao. I believe that is because of the empathy between women," Jin says. But she does not believe that is enough to affect visitors; instead, she believes the guides should use powerful language to tell the stories of Party members and heroines, so visitors will be impressed by the stories, and the strength of truth and ideals. Chinese President Xi Jinping has stressed the importance of passing down the "red gene," and he has called for continuous efforts to carry forward the revolutionary tradition of Yimeng, based on the situations of the new era. To become a qualified promoter of the revolutionary spirit, and the stories of hongsao, all of the guides have spared no effort in studying the Party's history, and they have made active efforts to improve their all-round ability. "Regardless of where you come from, we can tell some stories about the Party's history that are relevant to your hometown. Ma Qianqian, one of our guides, talked with the visitors in fluent English when a delegation of the South African Communist Party visited the hall. My colleague Wei Jingwen danced with the ballerinas when members of the National Ballet of China paid a visit. Each guide is unique, but in the education base, we share a common goal, and we make progress together," Jin says, with pride. The memorial hall's staff is happy the hall has become a vigorous spiritual home. Jin says she and her colleagues will work harder as they prepare for the convening of the 20th CPC National Congress, so they can help visitors better understand the Party's history of uniting and leading the Chinese people in its endeavors for a better future. They will keep telling stories about the Chinese revolution and hongsao. Jin says they hope their work will help make the revolutionary spirit radiate, with a new glow in the new era. Photos Supplied by Guangzhou Women's Federation, Interviewees and VCG (Women of China English Monthly August 2022 issue) Shanghai (Gasgoo)- By the end of August 2022, there had been 4.315 million charging piles deployed across China, up 105% compared to the cumulative volume reached by the same period of last year, according to the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance (EVCIPA). For the first eight months of 2022, around 1.698 million charging piles (+300.5% YoY) were newly built in the country, including 476,000 public piles (+232.9% YoY) and 1.221 million private ones (+540.5% YoY). Photo credit: Star Charge Last month, around 48,000 public charging piles were newly deployed in China, representing a 64.8% year-on-year leap. As of Aug. 2022, the volume of public charging piles in China had added up to 1.623 million units, including 702,000 DC piles, 921,000 AC piles, and 224 DC-AC integrated charging piles, the EVCIPA reported after summarizing the data provided by members of the alliance. There were around 53,000 public charging piles built per month on average within a year ended Aug. 2022. In terms of the charging station volume by Aug. 2022, the top 10 provinces or direct-administered municipalities remained the same as that of the previous month. Guangdong held a significant lead by building 18,681 stations across the province, while both Jiangsu and Zhejiang have over 7,000 charging stations constructed. Regarding the amount of charging stations by Aug. 2022, the top three operators were still TELD, State Grid, and Star Charge. Compared to the rankings of the previous month, YKC moved up one spot to the fourth, while EV Power dropped to the fifth. As of Aug. 2022, China had owned a total of 1,685 battery swap stations, 60 of which were newly built last month. Regarding the volume of battery swap stations as of August, the top five provinces or direct-administered municipalities in China accounted for 56% of the country's total volume. More detail on City of Culture grant spend requested as scene setting agreed for 2029 bid The Chair of a Wrexham Scrutiny committee reminded Officers and a Lead Member that her committee was there to ask questions around accountability this week. The comments were made during a meeting on Wednesday about plans to launch a fresh attempt to become City of Culture in 2029. Wrexham narrowly missed out to Bradford to host the 2025 event. However it is hoped the county can build on the momentum of the previous bid and succeed in hosting City of Culture in seven years time. There are also plans for the local authority to create a Culture and Community Trust to take forward the work. The details are provided within a report considered by members of the councils employment, business and investment scrutiny committee. During a meeting of the committee on Wednesday (7 September) Lead Member Cllr Hugh Jones, and a senior council officer were reminded that the Scrutiny Committee need to ask difficult questions, so that we know that these things and these plans have been put into place, and then when you come back next time, hopefully youll have the answers for us. The polite but firm reminder came as councillors examined the scene setting report into a future City of Culture bid, where information on a new Board was discussed and a clarity on funding given. Councillors on the committee attempted to look back at the recent 2025 bid, with Cllr John McCusker noting he was aware of the big red bus event coming to Overton evening before and just two people turned up as a result. Cllr McCusker also queried the funding referred to in the report, and if the 125k grant from UK Government was a one off or due every year to help with the bid. The officer noted it was clumsy wording, and the 125k was a one off sum, and there is expectation there will be additional funding from sources to deliver the new bid over the coming years. Cllr Hugh Jones added that part of the role of the trust will be to generate income from a broad cross section of the community. Cllrs Dana Davies and Andy Gallanders both pointed to a vast range of previous grant awards, something we have previously published the 43k list of small 500 and 1000 grants and other sums, in what has likely been the largest such exercise in Wrexhams history. Cllr Davies asked if there had been an lessons learned exercises off the awards, with a new round of grants is due to start shortly so such information could help inform the right criteria. An officer told Cllr Davies: With that money in the 54 different events / activities that happened, what we have done is weve received feedback reports from everybody who received the grant up to 1000. That details things such as how the money was spent, what the positive impacts were for the county and for the town centre in terms of footfall statistics, and positive wellbeing statistics as well. So thats the only kind of data we have specifically on those grants. The meeting was told surveys at events took place, site visits to different events to gather information and feedback. Cllr Gallanders said he was a bit taken aback and disappointed to hear there was such a range of data however it had not been circulated to councillors for the meeting. He added: If the work has been done, can we please see it? The officer replied explaining the feedback and evaluation reports were done and submitted by those who had grant awards to demonstrate value money and to demonstrate how they spent their grants. The officer indicated sharing of that data to councillors would likely be possible, but probably not made public. Cllr Gallanders referred to the earlier comment when Cllr Davies was told everybody who was awarded grants had provided such an accountability feedback form,:Have you had feedback from all of the grants? Because I know a few who had the grants and I didnt see anything particularly happen with them. That would be my worry, that theyve had the money and we havent actually seen whats happened with it all. The officer said they would need to check with the officer that was responsible for gathering the feedback before they could comment further. The meeting was told there will be an imminent announcement (including via local media partners) on the opening of the grant application process that will see several thousand pound wodges given out, alongside smaller pots of money for community groups and grassroots groups. The committee discovered that they were not specifically looking to give a verdict on a make up or structure of the Board of the proposed Trust. Cllr Stella Matthews was keen that a Scrutiny representative was a Board member, with others concerned about oversight, and if the council itself should have a seat on the Trust. Cllr Hugh Jones explained: What we got to remember is that this is right at the very beginning of the next stage of the process, that its really important that we get it right. Weve just had some very good questions that have been asked by members but in terms of establishing a trust, we need to take time, we need to make sure we get it right. Were not asking anybody to float the shape of the trust, the principle of the trust is established by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. They say that there has to be a Cultural Trust in order to deliver (the bid) rather than a council to deliver. So were following the rules. Cllr Hugh Jones explained to the meeting the processes needed to identify board members and skillsets needed: So were not coming to scrutiny today saying that this is the decision making process or a discussion around a trust or shape of the trust. This is the principle of establishing a trust that we reporting to the committee, which is a criteria from the DCMS and thats all were doing. Cllr Gary Brown spoke of his delight over play in Wrexham, describing it as one of the biggest assets, but noted it had a historic association with preventative services. Cllr Brown added: Play doesnt have a historical association with culture. I think that changed this year, and that change is magnificent. So whilst I completely endorse Cllr Dana Davies striving for a broader cultural strategy, I think we should absolutely capitalise and really go headlong for UK Capital of Play. Cllr Jeremy Kent offered a more practical point telling the meeting he had noticed a range of City of Culture 2025 stuff still up around the city centre, and queried if that was on purpose to celebrate the bid or just that it had not been taken down yet. The meeting was told it was a mix, that the digital advertising was switched off immediately however other elements remain to celebrate what we have achieved so far. The committee formed up a range of recommendations including agreeing to welcome a formation of a trust with recognition there would be council representation on it, but also requested consideration that someone from the committee also be on it. A further report will be given on the Trust progress and accountability structures, as and when things progress. The committee also requested an information report into the learning exercise and associated data that has taken place but was not circulated. Tesco shoppers in Wales can round up their shop to the nearest 1 to support life-saving fundraising campaign Tesco shoppers in Wrexham can choose to round up their shop to the nearest 1 at self-service tills to help support an in-store fundraising campaign for three of the UKs leading health charities. Last year Tescos Helping you to live healthier campaign raised more than 1 million that will help Cancer Research UK, the British Heart Foundation and Diabetes UK to continue their vital work to improve and save lives. This years scheme will take place between 12 September to 2 October. In addition to the funds being raised, the campaign aims to increase awareness about the importance of making sustainable lifestyle changes that can help people to lower the impact of cancer, heart and circulatory diseases, and diabetes. Oonagh Turnbull, Head of Health Campaigns at Tesco, thanked Tesco shoppers for their support, which will make a significant difference to many peoples lives. She added: The funds raised will continue to support the health of UK communities at such a critical time. Our health charity partners rely on donations to continue their awareness, prevention and research work. The campaign is part of the Health Charity Partnership between Tesco, Cancer Research UK, the British Heart Foundation and Diabetes UK. It is an ongoing initiative aimed at inspiring and supporting Tesco colleagues, customers and their families to make healthier food choices and live healthier lives. On behalf of the Health Charity Partnership, Michelle Mitchell, chief executive at Cancer Research UK, said: Wed like to thank everyone who supports the important work we all do through this campaign, and were grateful for the generosity of shoppers up and down the country. Campaigns like Helping you to live healthier are a great way to raise money, and to encourage people to make healthier choices that lead to healthier lifestyles. Every penny raised matters, and we dont take a single donation for granted. Wrexham pays its respects to Queen Elizabeth II with floral tributes and Book of Condolences People across Wrexham have started paying their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II by laying floral tributes in the city centre. Queen Elizabeth II passed away peacefully at Balmoral Castle, in Scotland, yesterday at the age of 96. Locally have residents have started paying their respects to the United Kingdoms longest reigning monarch by laying floral tributes and messages. An area has been designated for those who want to lay flowers in memory of Her Royal Highness on Queens Square. A book of condolences has been opened in the citys Guildhall reception and inside St Giles Church. Wrexham councillors who visited the city this morning to pay tribute to Her Majesty the Queen wore black clothing, black ties and also black rosettes, which are pictured below. Many shops across the city centre have paid tributes by displaying her image in the windows or on digital advertising boards. Others, including The Entertainer, have closed. There will be a Remembrance Service at St Pauls Cathedral today at 6pm. Further details will emerge from UK Government on the period of national mourning with Proclamation Day tomorrow. King Charles III is expected to make his first televised address to the nation later today. Anger is building in the small town of Nutter Fort, West Virginia, a suburb of Clarksburg located in poverty-stricken Harrison County, following the police murder of 37-year-old Jason Owens on August 24. Owens was gunned down by US Marshals as he was serving as a pallbearer at the funeral of his father, Junior Owens. The elder Owens had died unexpectedly four days prior. In the over two weeks since the killing of Jason Owens, the US Marshals have released a lone lying statement, which falsely claimed that, according to witnesses, Owens pulled a gun on the Marshals at they attempted to arrest him. Photo of father and son, Junior and Jason Owens No police body camera footage or photos have been produced since the killing to corroborate police claims that Owens pointed a weapon at police or attempted to resist arrest. In several interviews, including some conducted outside the Harrison County Courthouse during an August 29 protest, family and friends of Owens have disputed virtually the entire narrative proffered by the police apparatus. Speaking to the Associated Press, family friend and witness to Owens killing, Cassandra Whitecotton, said, There was no warning whatsoever, before US Marshals shot Owens. She told AP that she was mere feet away from Owens as he was hugging his aunt, Evelyn ODell, when US Marshals opened fired on him. They yelled Jasons name. They just said Jason and then started firing, Whitecotton said. There was no identifications they were US Marshalsanything. They did not render this man any aid at all. Never once they touched him to render any aid whatsoever. The one statement released by the US Marshals following the shooting said, US Marshals-led Mountain State Fugitive Task Force and other law enforcement agencies were involved in an officer-involved shooting during a fugitive investigation ... The statement claimed that the subject produced a firearm prompting them to fire, after which they claimed that police immediately rendered first aid. Speaking to WV News, ODell, Owens aunt, disputed the Marshals statement. She said the police shot him at his dads funeral. He just took his dad out; he was a pallbearer. He had just laid his dad in the back of a hearse, and he was walking around, and I was hugging him. Next thing I know, somebody yelled Jason. I still had my hand on my shoulder, my one hand from hugging him, when the first bullet hit him. He never pulled a gun or nothing, and were trying to get justice for him because they cold-blooded killed him. He never pulled a gun. She reiterated, He did not pull a gun. In an interview with CBS5 WDTV, Denzil Pratt, a family friend and witness to the murder, said that police never rendered aid to Owens. The bad part, said Pratt, was he was still alive when he hit the ground. He was breathing, and nobody tried to save himnobody, not a cop, not one of them. They covered him up with a sheet. Ashley Carrol, another friend and witness, corroborated Pratts account to CBS5: They didnt even try to revive him. They just ripped his shirt off, seen all of the bullet holes and they were done, said Carroll. ODell also recounted the brutality and indifference to human life the Marshals displayed to her nephew, telling CBS5: Hes laying there. Im sitting there watching him take his last breath. Hes trying to put his arm up like this, theyre taking their foot and kicking his hands down. In an attempt to cover up Owens murder and contain anger within the community, the West Virginia State Police has launched an investigation into the shooting of Owens, which will inevitably exonerate the Marshals murderous actions. According to MappingPoliceViolence.us, from 2013 to 2022, 98.1 percent of police killings have not resulted in the officer being charged with a crime. Fewer than one percent are convicted. WV News reported on Wednesday that the West Virginia State Police responded to a records request from the agency for body camera video with a statement claiming that they were not in possession of any records of your request. Despite the billions wasted on police departments every year by Democratic and Republican politicians alike, WV News wrote in a recent article: Follow-up calls Wednesday and Thursday to Acting US Marshal Terry Moore, Harrison Sheriff Robert Matheny and Bridgeport Police Chief Mark Rogers indicated there was no body camera footage of the shooting The federal police have claimed that Owens was a wanted fugitive due to an alleged parole violation. However, they have yet to specify exactly what this violation was. Owens had been previously sentenced to prison after a 2018 fight with an officer following a vehicle pursuit. Owens was sentenced to 3-13 years in prison for briefly strangling the officer during the fight. During his sentencing hearing, Owens told an indifferent judge that he was suffering a mental breakdown at the time of the incident and using drugs. According to US Census figures, roughly 65,000 people, overwhelmingly white like Owens, live in Harrison County. As with the rest of Appalachia, Harrison County used to employ thousands of miners. However, as of 2021, the US Census recorded a poverty rate of 13.6 percent in the county, or over 9,000 people. Nutter Fort, where the shooting occurred, is a suburb of Clarksburg, West Virginia. During the Civil War, the B&O railroad line made Clarksburg a key supply base for the Union army. At one point, over 7,000 Union soldiers were stationed in the city. While over 10 percent of residents in Harrison County do not have access to the internet, according to Wikipedia, Clarksburg was the first city in West Virginia to have phone lines installed in the 1880s. Fueled by the labor of local coal miners who toiled in the mines, the population of Clarksburg peaked at 35,000 just prior to the 1929 Stock Market crash. Within 10 years, however, only 30,000 remained and by 2020 that figure has been just about halved to 16,000. Owens killing explodes the racialist narrative advanced by the Democratic Party and their fake socialist appendages in the pseudo-left, who claim that daily police killings in the United States are a function of racism or white supremacy that is ingrained in the DNA of either the institutions themselves, the founding of the country, or in white people more generally. This false presentation of police violence serves to obfuscate the class role of the police and divide the working class. While local, state and federal police departments are riddled with fascists and racists, they exist to uphold the capitalist system, protect the financial oligarchy and defend the rights of private property owners, not to enforce a racial caste system. For nearly a decade the police in the US have killed over 1,000 people a year, every year. MappingPoliceViolence.us has recorded 783 killings by police as of August 31, exceeding last years record pace, with 15 more killed this year, compared to this same time last year. While Native and African Americans are killed at a disproportionate rate compared to their relative size in the population, the majority of those killed by police every year are white men under 50, like Owens. Although Owens was laid to rest on Friday, his funeral has not dampened anger throughout the community and the broader working class over his unjustified killing. A local Facebook group called Justice for Jason Owens, formed on August 25, already claims a membership of nearly 900, more than half the population of Nutter Fort. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg made high-profile visits to Canada at the end of last month. Scholz was principally interested in securing German imperialism greater access to Canadas abundant energy and mineral resources. Speaking to a business audience in Toronto, Scholz observed that Germanywhich is playing a leading role in NATOs proxy war against Russia over Ukraineis moving away from Russian energy at warp speed. He then proclaimed, Canada is our partner of choice. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (third from left) and NATO Secretary General (third from right) touring NORAD facilities in Nunavut (Photo credit: NATO) Stoltenbergs focus was on the Arctic and the Arctic Ocean, which he stressed at every opportunity are major arenas in the imperialist powers strategic conflict with both Russia and China. Accompanied by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Stoltenberg visited Canadas far north, as well as the Canadian Armed Forces air base in Cold Lake, Alberta, a key installation for NORADthe joint Canada-US North American aerospace and maritime defence command. In his capacity as NATO Secretary General, Stoltenberg has frequently travelled to Canada. Nevertheless, this was the first time that he or any of his predecessors had visited the Canadian Arctic. Both Scholz and Stoltenberg lauded Canada and the trade-union and NDP-supported Trudeau Liberal government for their provocative and belligerent role in the war on Russia. This has included helping instigate the war, joining Britain in spearheading the push for crippling economic sanctions, funnelling hundreds of millions of dollars worth of weapons to Ukraine, and deploying Special Forces to Ukraine, where they are providing its military with intelligence and tactical and strategic direction. Taken together, Scholz and Stoltenbergs visits underscore not only that Canadian big business is eager to profit from a war that is roiling the world economy and could rapidly escalate into a catastrophic nuclear conflict. Canadian imperialism is assuming an ever more significant role in the US-led military-strategic offensives against both Russia and China, and is itself a protagonist in the imperialist repartition of the world that the Ukraine war has initiated. Scholzs visit to Canada was far from a standard diplomatic jaunt. Lasting three days, it was far and away the longest state visit to date of his nine-month long chancellorship. He was accompanied by Robert Habeck, the Vice-Chancellor and Economic Affairs and Climate Change Minister, as well as the CEOs of several of Germanys largest transnational corporations including Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and Siemens. Moreover, as the German press noted, previous to Scholzs visit it was unheard of for the head of Germanys government to visit North America without visiting Washington. Berlins sudden interest in Canada is motivated by German imperialisms need to secure alternate sources of energy and other strategic resources as it wages war against Russia, prepares for confrontation with Chinawhich NATO now characterizes as a strategic challenge to its interests and securityand seeks to position itself to act independently of, and if need be, against Washington. German capitalism needs these resources both to fuel commercial warincluding for dominance in electric vehicle manufacture and other green industriesand to pursue German rearmament. Much as the Ukraine war has dislocated Germanys economy, the ruling class has enthusiastically welcomed and prosecuted it, seizing on the fighting as the opportunity to implement their longstanding plans to make Germany Europes largest military power and pursue their strategic goal of dominating Europe, as a first step to vying for global dominance. Within days of the war's outbreak, Scholz announced a tripling of the military budget, to thunderous applause from the German parliament. Talks between Trudeau and Scholz centered on Germanys access to Canadian sources of liquefied natural gas, hydrogen fuel, and the minerals and rare earths that are needed for high-technology goods, including battery production. To Scholzs chagrin, Trudeau was reticent about pledging Canadian natural gas to Germany. He would only commit Ottawa to supporting development of Liquid Natural Gas capacity on Canadas east coast in so far as it was commercially justifiable. The building of oil and gas pipelines and the role of natural gas in Canadas transition to a low-carbon economy have long been the subject of bitter conflicts between rival sections of Canadas capitalist elite. Trudeau was much more forthcoming on the question of working with Germany to develop a hydrogen fuel export industry. Scholz and Trudeau signed a five-page declaration of intent establishing a Canadian-German hydrogen alliance, and set a goal of 2025 for the start of regular Canadian exports of liquefied hydrogen fuel to Germany. Scholz and Trudeau traveled to Newfoundland, where the provincial government recently lifted a moratorium on wind farms, with a view to using wind power to fuel the production of hydrogen fuel. More than a dozen hydrogen fuel export projects have been proposed to Canadian governmental authorities, with various big business interests competing to make use of Atlantic Canadas deep-water ports as conduits to Europe. Nova Scotia billionaire John Risley, who is involved with World Energy GH2, a US-based biodiesel company that has plans to build a plant in Stephenville, Newfoundland, told the Globe and Mail that this is a global opportunity. The wind blows in a whole bunch of other places around the world, and we are in a race with those jurisdictions. Trudeau told reporters the Canadian government will ease regulations so liquid hydrogen projects can gain environmental and other regulatory approval more rapidly. During the Toronto leg of Scholzs Canada visit, the heads of Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with Ottawa to secure access to minerals crucial for battery production, such as cobalt, lithium and nickel, and participate in Canadas fledgling electric vehicle supply chain. The MoUs have not been made public. A Volkswagen board member told the German business newspaper Handelsblatt, We are not opening any mines of our own, but we want to take stakes in Canadian mines and mine operators. The day after Scholz departed, NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg began his own three-day visit to Canada. In a Globe and Mail op-ed, published the day he arrived and titled In the face of Russian aggression, NATO is beefing up Arctic security, Stoltenberg stressed the regions importance for Euro-Atlantic security. He made the by now well-known point that due to the effects of climate change, which will soon make the Arctic Ocean largely if not completely ice-free, global competition for strategic trade routes and access to the energy and mineral wealth of the region, including that under the ocean-floor, is rapidly intensifying. Singling out Russia and China as NATOs competitors in the region, Stoltenberg said their increasingly close strategic partnership constituted a challenge to the rules-based orderthat is to say, the imperialist world order led by Washington, which makes and breaks the rules to suit its own imperialist ambitions. He subsequently crowed that once Finland and Sweden join the NATO alliance, seven of the eight Arctic nationsthat is all but Russiawill be NATO members. Finland and Swedens membership, he declared, will significantly enhance our posture in the High North and our ability to reinforce our Baltic Allies. As Stoltenbergs remarks suggest, NATO views the Arctic as critical to its plans to strategically encircle, threaten and subjugate Russia, with the region constituting the northern flank of an unbroken front stretching from the far north and Scandinavia through the Baltic Sea and all of Eastern Europe to the Black Sea, Ukraine and the Caucasus. On August 25, Stoltenberg, Trudeau, Foreign Minister Melanie Joly, Defence Minister Anita Anand, and the head of the Canadian Armed Forces, General Wayne Eyre, travelled to Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, site of one of NORADs Northern Warning System radar stations. While there, Stoltenberg and Trudeau observed Operation NANOOK, which began in 2007 as an annual military exercise, but since 2017 has consisted of four separate exercises across Canadas three northern territories and Labrador. The Nunavut portion of this years exercise included soldiers from Denmark, France and the United States. The following day Stoltenberg and Trudeau visited the Cold Lake, Alberta, air base. During his visit, Stoltenberg repeatedly praised Canadas plans to spend some C$40 billion over the next twenty years on modernizing NORAD. As part of his emphasis on the strategic importance of the Arctic, he noted that the shortest route for Russian missiles and bombers to reach North America is over the North Pole. At the same time, the NATO Secretary General pressed the Trudeau governmentwhich dramatically raised military spending since 2016 and is in the process of procuring new fleets of warplanes and warshipsto rapidly meet the alliances minimum military spending target of 2 percent of GDP. This would mean boosting Canadas annual defence budget to almost C$55 billion per year from the current $36 billion. Trudeau balked at making such a commitment. But in the run-up to this years budget, Defence Minister Anand presented the cabinet with spending scenarios that conformed with the NATO target. Moreover the government, even after announcing billions in military spending hikes in the 2022-23 budget, promised further spending announcements after a defence policy review is completed. Trudeau also made clear that while Ottawa uses NATO to project Canadian imperialist power and influence in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, it doesnt acknowledge a European role in the defence of the North American Arctic. That it considers to be an exclusively bilateral Canada-US matter, anchored by NORAD and the three-quarters of a century old Canada-US military security alliance. We will continue to lead on the defence of North America, declared Trudeau. But as NATO members, it is, of course, perfectly germane to invite the secretary-general (to Canada) and to highlight the work that were doing as NATO members in protecting this region. The Canadian press has said very little about NORAD modernization. This is consistent with the ongoing efforts of the entire political establishment and capitalist elite to cover up the extent to which Canadian imperialism is fully integrated into Washingtons plans for World War III. In so far as NORAD modernization is mentioned, it is generally presented as a much-needed technical upgrade of the now decades-old early warning radar system. In fact of the almost $40 billion in new money Canada is investing in NORAD, less than a quarter, $6.9 billion, is budgeted for upgrading and developing new radar capabilities. As for the remainder, vaguely-worded government documents allot $6.38 billion to new, advanced air-to-air missiles; $4.13 billion to updating and integrating command and control systems; $15.68 billion for improved military infrastructure, including upgrading four CAF bases, and new air-to-air refueling aircraft; and $4.23 billion for developing new weapons systems. Washington has welcomed the Liberal governments new NORAD commitments, even while signaling that they view them as only an initial down payment. It is well known that both the Biden administration and the Canadian military-security establishment are anxious for the Trudeau government to formally join the US anti-ballistic missile shieldwhich, its name notwithstanding, is aimed at giving US imperialism the capacity to wage a winnable first-strike, nuclear war. In the past weeks, the US and Israel have carried out a series of strikes on Iranian targets in Syria and elsewhere, setting the stage for a dangerous escalation of conflict in the Middle East. On Tuesday, Israel launched its 24th reported strike on Syria this year, hitting Aleppos international airport, damaging the runway and putting the airport out of action. Warehouses belonging to Iran-linked militias and other compounds were also hit. Syrian state media said that air defences had intercepted Israeli missiles, downing several. This was the second attack within a week on civilian airports. On September 1, Israel struck Damascus airport, months after a previous attack, as well as Aleppos runway forcing an Iranian plane attempting to land to turn away. This photo released Sunday June 12, 2022 by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows a bulldozer work at a damaged runway of the Damascus International Airport, which was hit by an Israeli airstrike on Friday, in Damascus, Syria. Syria's Transportation Ministry said the Israeli airstrike caused "significant" damage to infrastructure and rendered the main runway unserviceable until further notice. [Photo: SANA via AP/WSWS] State media also reported Israeli air strikes from the west, near the coastal city of Latakia, that according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights damaged an arms depot storing Iranian-made ground-to-ground missiles in Masyaf and whose production was overseen by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Masyaf has been the target of previous strikes, one of which injured 14 civilians. Other strikes on Damascus and Tartous killed three Syrian soldiers, according to reports. Israels strikes generally go unimpeded by Russias air defence system in Syria, although occasionally provoking protests from Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The New York Times reported that last year Syrian President Bashar al-Assad prohibited Iranian forces attacking Israel from Syrian soil, a ban that has been in effect for three years, to limit tensions between the two countries. Israels strikes are aimed at disrupting Irans ability to fly in weapons to its allies in Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon, with the US providing intelligence and military support for Israel. The attacks on Masyaf come after Russias removal of its S-300 anti-aircraft missiles from Syria to a Russian port near Crimea, according to Israeli satellite images, to bolster air defences against Ukraine. The more advanced S-400 battery remains in Syria. On Wednesday, Ram Ben Barak, the chair of the Knessets Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, threatened regarding the hit on Aleppo international airport, The attack meant that certain planes would not be able to land, and that a message was relayed to Assad: If planes whose purpose is to encourage terrorism land, Syrias transport capacity will be harmed. Syrias Foreign Ministry said that Israels repeated airstrikes on civilian infrastructure constituted war crimes for which Israel should be held to account. The latest airstrikes come amid three days of US airstrikes, authorised by President Joe Biden, on the Ayyash depot in the eastern province of Deir el-Zor on August 24. While the US claimed there were no casualties, a local website reported that IRGC-backed Afghan Fatimeyoun Brigades control the Ayyash complex and that 10 militia members were killed and at least three others wounded. The US said that the strikes were in response to rocket and drone attacks on three US-led coalition bases in Syria launched by groups linked to the IRGC in Iraq: the attack on the al-Tanf garrison on Syrias southern border with Iraq and Jordan launched from Iraq, the second on the Mission Support Green Village, east of the Euphrates River in rural Deir el-Zor, which provides protection for its Kurdish allies, and the third on the Mission Support Site Conoco in northeast Syria on August 15. These strikes follow the US bombing in June of facilities in Iraq and Syria Washington claimed were being used by Iranian-backed militias to attack the US and its proxies in Syria. The US has since early 2016 stationed troops at al-Tanf, situated close to the strategically important main Baghdad-Damascus highway, and the Green Village, supposedly to counter the threat from Islamic state. This is defiance of Syria which views the base as a gross infringement of its sovereignty. Some 900 US troops are stationed in Syria, as well as US contractors. The US and its regional allies have set up a network of unmanned drones aimed at gathering intelligence information and curtailing Irans activities in Middle Eastern waters. The US Navys Task Force 59 has been operating 23-foot Saildrone Explorer drones in the Red Sea with cameras that can take 360-degree photos, while Task Force 153 patrols the Gulf of Aden, as the Pentagon diverts some of its forces to the Far East. The Pentagon aims to have 100 naval drones in operation by next summer with additional countries joining the taskforce, possibly including Kuwait and Israel. This has led to two incidents in the last two weeks, where the US claimed that Iranian forces had attempted to seize drones. The uptick in US and Israeli attacks on Iranian targets comes as Washington declared that Irans latest proposed changes to the text aimed at restoring the 2015 nuclear deal, unilaterally abandoned by the Trump administration in 2018, were not constructive. Tehran, desperate to get rid of the ever-tightening sanctions that have wrecked its economy, had largely withdrawn its preconditions for a deal, including that the US withdraw its designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organisation. The US and its European allies are using their tried and tested ally, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to criticise and bully Iran over its nuclear programme, pushing through a resolution in June censuring Iran over its supposed lack of cooperation with the IAEA. Director Rafael Grossi said that if this didnt change over the next three or four weeks, this would be a fatal blow to reviving the nuclear deal, which the Europeans had backed but now appears to have been ditched by the Biden administration and the European Union (EU) under pressure from Washington. Irans President Ebrahim Raisi has warned that any attempt to restore the nuclear deal would require UN inspectors to end their investigations, stating that, Without resolving safeguards issues, talking about an agreement would be meaningless. Irans clergy-led bourgeois nationalist regime has always maintained that its nuclear programme is solely for civilian purposes. The major powers, the IAEA and the CIA, have all admitted that there has been no evidence of Iran having any type of nuclear weapons programme since 2003, as the current CIA Director and former deputy Secretary of State William Burns acknowledged in his autobiography. The nuclear issue has long been a smokescreen. For more than 25 years, former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, aligned with the most anti-Iran political factions in Washington, has claimed that Tehran was just a year away from producing a nuclear bomb. The Biden administration had initially hoped to use the renewal of the 2015 nuclear deal as a means of detaching Iran from Russia and China and opening up additional energy supplies to Europe. In the event, under Raisi, who hails from Irans conservative faction opposed to the 2015 deal, Tehran has sought to take advantage of the Russia-Ukraine war and western sanctions on Russia to stress Irans importance as a transport hub connecting China and Central Asia with Europe and Russia with India, in a bid to make it independent of the fate of the talks in Vienna, while keeping all options open. It has signed an agreement with Baghdad to build a railway line between Shalamcheh and Basra, a vital link in its efforts to create a trade and transport corridor from the Gulf to Syria, Lebanon and the Mediterranean via Iraq. China is considering transport projects linking Syrias Mediterranean port of Tartus in the north with Iraq and a North-South highway and the establishment of a Free Trade Zone in Latakia, 100 km north of Russias naval base in Tartus. Beijing is also investing heavily in Iraq where Tehran wields considerable political and economic influence, financing $10.5 billion worth of energy and infrastructure projects, while working as a primary or subcontractors at 15 oilfields in southern Iraq. Iran is trying to secure Chinas support via its Belt and Road Initiatives (BRI) flagship project of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor to develop its Makran coast close to Pakistans new Gwadar port and build ports and an oil export terminal in the Gulf of Oman, outside the Persian Gulf and the narrow Strait of Hormuz. The US role in policing the Gulf threatens not only Tehran but also Beijings vital energy supplies. A heat dome, a strong high-pressure area, has been parked over western United States for more than a week, trapping warm and humid air from the Pacific and from Baja California, Mexico. The dome blocks cooler weather from moving in from northern regions (the jet stream) and impedes rainfall. A tree is burned as a wildfire burns Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022, near Hemet, Calif. [AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu] Beginning last weekend top daily temperatures across the state exceeded 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 Celsius) and reached 116 degrees F (47 C). The heat wave, which is expected to dissipate this weekend, had a devastating impact on people without housing or access to air conditioning. A similar heat wave last year in Phoenix, Arizona resulted in at least 130 deaths, according to ABC News. An extreme heat dome over British Columbia in Canada last July resulted in 486 deaths over a span of five days. Such a dome is the cause of the extreme heat wave that has been affecting the US state of California, aggravating an ongoing water shortage and endangering the electric power grid, putting the lives of tens of thousands of vulnerable people at risk. Under this dome, wildfires spread, become more intense, life threatening and harder to extinguish. As of this writing, major fires are covering the entire region, from the Pacific Ocean to Nevada and from Southern Oregon to Northern Mexico. Presently, the wild-fires now raging include the Fairview Fire in Southern Californias Riverside County, which has consumed 20,000 acres. In southern Hill County the Eagle Creek Fire has now burned over 8,500 acres. Further north the Mosquito Fire is burning in very steep and inaccessible terrain in Placer County, west of Lake Tahoe. The Mill Fire destroyed an entire neighborhood in the city of Weed. Five casualties and two deaths have been reported so far. As with the COVID-19 pandemic this disastrous heat wave exposes the class and income divide in one of the worlds wealthiest and most unequal regions. These nine days of heat are sure to result in the death of hundreds of poor and working people. In all these eventsthe pandemic, water shortage, and extreme heatscientifically based remedies and preventive measures are available except for the fact that they conflict with the profit motives of Silicon Valley, private utilities, Hollywood and the financial sector. The wealthy residents of upscale neighborhoods are insulated from the scorching heat, since they enjoy air-conditioned homes, generally in areas covered by trees, and with plenty of available water and parks nearby (by some estimates, these islands of prosperity use over three times as much water per person as the rest of the states residents). Making things worse is the urban heat island effectheat absorbed from the sun during the day by large cities with minimal tree cover and caused by engines and generators blocks night time cooling and increases air pollution. The heat island effect puts pressure on the health of children, pregnant women, elderly, people with underlying health conditions, and workers who labor under the sun, such as in construction or agriculture. Also affected are educators and students forced into super-heated classrooms across the state. A roofer in Paramount, California described being forced to work on Labor Day under the hot sun: If its 104 outside, its 140 on the roof; we wear wet hats and wet towels on our heads, but the heat drains all our energy. The way things are in this area, everything is concrete and asphalt, declared Eric Huerta of the East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, speaking to Al Jazeera and describing conditions in the industrial city of Commerce, southwest of the crowded East Los Angeles neighborhood. You get no reprieve from the heat, and it takes a real toll on your mental health. California pushed to the limit by a relentless heat wave that broke the mold, read the Los Angeles Times headline on September 7. The reality is that the mold is being broken across the planet. Heatwaves and extreme climate events driven by capitalist-induced climate change have now become normal for the world. The California nine-day record heatwave follows record extreme heat episodes across the northern hemisphere this year, including in Europe and China. Since 2006, successive heat waves have hit California. The hottest decade up until now, 2010-2019 resulted in officially 390 heat-related deaths, a gross undercount since Los Angeles Times researchers estimated that the actual death toll was six times greater. A Los Angeles Times article from October 2021 reported that Extreme heat is the deadliest type of weather event killing more Americans than hurricanes, floods and wildfires. But doesnt usually appear on death certificates, making it hard to track and harder to get policymakers and the public to take seriously. As is increasingly the case with the current COVID-19 pandemic, most deaths caused by heat, or in which heat is a major contributor, go unreported across California and the United States. Climate scientists in California had been predicting this development for nearly two decades, to no avail. While severe weather shelters and cooling centers have been made available in public libraries, homes for the elderly and community centers across the state, their number and capacities are insufficient to meet the needs of the very poor, elderly and homeless. In most cases, they close for the evening. Getting to them is often a big problem for those in need. In many schools across the state, learning has become very difficult due to overheated classrooms, gyms and playgrounds. At a protest rally in front of Lorena Elementary School in East Los Angeles on September 7, organized by Reclaim Our Schools LA, parents denounced the conditions at Lorena and many other schools, declaring that the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is totally unprepared to protect students. If you think about what it feels like to be in a parking lot on a hot day, this is what kids all over Los Angeles experience every day, declared coalition member Aleigh Lewis, co-founder of Angelenos for Green Schools and a parent of two elementary school students, according to CBS News. LAUSD doesnt expect to start installing the new AC units at the campus until early next year. While the LAUSD policy is that all schools (but not all classrooms) should be air-conditioned, the systems are outdated and in need of a repair. A recent survey published in the LAist.com news page found that, With excessive heat warnings in effect to begin September, Reseda Charter Highs kitchen topped 95 degrees before 10 a.m. At Strathern Elementary, 115 degrees. Gompers Middle, 117 degrees. North Hollywood High, 121.7 degrees. LAUSDs facilities division is currently in emergency mode. On Wednesday, September 7, this division was handling more than 2,900 calls for air conditioning service affecting around 1,900 classrooms. The lack of cool air is a health threat, even a potential death sentence: many students and educators report moments of heat exhaustion during the day. When the heat is combined with high humidity and high levels of air pollution, younger students are affected by heat illness, and even death, particularly children who suffer from respiratory conditions, such as asthma. Conditions in California factories are no different. Workers at garment sweatshops describe working under temperatures that approach 132 degrees F, with windows closed and minimal ventilation, and with little water provided by supervisors and managers. Even Hollywood has not been spared. Saalika Khan, a production assistant, collapsed after working all day in Sylmar, California, preparing for a scene. According to a report published by the Los Angeles Times, Khan, 32, dropped some stage material, started gagging and her vision got blurry after working on hot asphalt all morning. The asphalt was so hot that she burned her hand falling on it. This was the second heat stroke incident on the set, after a truck driver required medical attention. The California heat emergency requires science-driven measures that must include shutting down schools and factories that do not have adequate air conditioning and ventilation, identifying, tracking and assisting vulnerable individuals such as pregnant women, children and the elderly, providing enough air conditioned 24/hour cooling centers for workers, poor and homeless individuals, and ensuring adequate cooling in homes. In addition, everyone must be provided with clean water, sanitation and emergency care. As with the COVID pandemic, such basic measures interfere with profit motives and can only be carried out with the working class in control of society. Thousands of early childhood (EC) educators attended rallies in 19 locations across Australia on Wednesday. They are some of the lowest-paid workers in the country, with a base rate of less than $22 per hour, barely above minimum wage. Despite this, parents are forced to pay exorbitant fees to the highly profitable private companies that dominate the childcare sector. A section of the Melbourne rally [Photo: WSWS] The large attendance reflected the hostility of workers to these conditions. Hundreds of parents also attended, supporting the EC educators, and denouncing the unbearable childcare costs. Speeches were held at the different locations and in Sydney, workers marched to 1 Bligh Street, which houses the Sydney offices of the federal government. The United Workers Union (UWU) sought to limit the extent of the action. Although the protests were billed as a strike, childcare centres were not closed, instead appeals were made to parents not to send their children in. Nevertheless, workers joined the rallies in large groups, taking unpaid leave to attend or coming at the end of their shift. Educators who spoke to World Socialist Web Site called for pay increases, improved conditions, more staffing, time off for required professional development and protection from COVID-19. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, EC educators were labelled essential workers and forced to remain on the job. Workloads dramatically increased as staff had to take on the additional role of cleaners, while shifts were cut to shore up the profits of childcare centre owners. The poverty-level conditions faced by EC educators are the product of the privatisation of childcare services, implemented and overseen by both Labor and Liberal-National governments over decades. Australia has one of the highest rates of childcare privatisation in the world, with 77 percent of the industry controlled by private corporations, which turn over $14 billion in revenue annually. Each year, these companies receive $10 billion in government subsidies, paid directly to employers. Early childhood educators protesting in Martin Place, Sydney on September 7, 2022 There are big profits to be made and numbers of investment and equity firms have bought into the childcare business. G8 Education, Australias largest for-profit early childhood education company, reported a net profit of $46 million last year. This privatisation has rapidly driven up the cost to parents, with the national average price of childcare reaching $120.70 a day before subsidies. However, many working families pay hundreds of dollars more than that each day. A report published last year by the Mitchell Institute at Victoria University found that EC education and care is unaffordable for 39 percent of all families who use the childcare system, according to an international benchmark that no more than 7 percent of household disposable income should be spent on childcare. The study also found that 83.3 percent of families spend less on clothing than childcare, 83.1 percent spent less on household utilities, 69.9 percent spend less on transport and 30.6 percent spend less on groceries than on childcare. Union speakers at Wednesdays rallies did not put forward a single concrete demand on pay, conditions or any other issue. Instead, the UWU delivered a series of vague slogans, the most prominent being give us a reason to stay and pay us what we are worth. The strike was used by the UWU to promote illusions that workers can advance their demands for improved pay and conditions through appeals to the recently elected federal Labor government. The rallies came less than a week after Labors Jobs and Skills Summit. Falsely touted as a meeting to boost wages, the summit brought together representatives from business, government and the unions to plan a deepening offensive against the working class. A critical component of the summit was a memorandum of understanding signed between the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) in support of multi-employer bargaining. The purpose of this is to expand the reach of the enterprise bargaining system, which has been used by business and the unions for decades to slash wages and conditions. ACTU Secretary Sally McManus addressing protesting early childhood educators in Sydney on September 7, 2022 [Photo: WSWS] This would potentially include many EC educators. Of the 7,300 childcare employers across the country, only 2 percent currently have enterprise agreements. The UWU and ACTU are seeking to bring all these workers under multi-employer bargaining. This is not only to increase union membership, but also to head off an eruption of workers in opposition to conditions in the childcare sector. At Sydneys rally, ACTU Secretary Sally McManus told the crowd you deserve the same rights to be able to bargain as other workers. At the Brisbane, Queensland rally, one of the main speakers quoted former Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who he claimed backed the unions first Big Steps campaign in 2008 and the call for higher wages for childcare educators. The speaker did have to concede, however, that no pay rise had eventuated. This did not deter Queensland Minister for Energy and Renewables Mick de Brenni, who claimed to seriously support what he vaguely called a living wage for childcare educators, again offering nothing concrete. This is in line with the agenda of the Anthony Albanese Labor government. Since coming to office in May, the Labor government has made clear it is a right-wing pro-business government, warning of massive budget cuts and that sacrifices will be needed from workers. While offering zero for EC educators, Labor has promised to grant $5.4 billion in federal childcare subsidies, falsely claiming this will help families with childcare costs. These subsidies, to be paid directly to childcare employers, will have minimal impact on the cost of childcare and do nothing to increases wages in the sector, while delivering increased profits for private childcare operators. The cost of childcare has been steadily increasing since the early 1990s. The Keating Labor government began the rapid privatisation of childcare, abolishing limits on private not-for-profit operators and vastly expanding federal funding into the corporate sector. This was continued and deepened by successive governments, Labor and Liberal-National alike. The Socialist Equality Party intervened into the rallies, to expose the rotten history of the UWU and their record of selling out one industrial dispute after another. The SEP highlighted the role of Labor and advanced a perspective for the formation of independent organs of struggle. The UWU sought to block this perspective from reaching workers by intimidatory and anti-democratic methods . In Brisbane, officials surrounded campaigners in an attempt to shut down discussion with workers. In Sydney, they intervened to drag workers away from being interviewed. For EC educators to advance their interests they must build their own organisations of struggle, rank-and-file committees, completely independent of the pro-business Labor party and trade unions. The rampant privatisation of childcare services must be reversed. This requires a fight for a socialist perspective, which would place essential social services, including childcare and schools, under public ownership and democratic workers control, to meet the needs of children, parents, staff and the working class as a whole. 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Contact your preferred Pipedream Sales Representative or email [email protected] for more information or to place an order. The following statement was issued by Will Lehman, a rank-and-file Mack Trucks workers running for UAW president. The WSWS has endorsed Lehmans campaign. For more information, visit WillforUAWPresident.org. On Sunday, September 11, at 2 p.m. Eastern, Lehman will be hosting a live Q&A on Zoom. Learn more and register here. Will Lehman video statement: Oppose UAW sabotage of CNH strike! Below is the text of the statement. Dear brothers and sisters, As candidate for president of the United Auto Workers union, I strongly denounce the UAW executives for isolating the strike by 1,000 CNH workers in Wisconsin and Iowa. I call for the mobilization of the UAW membership in defense of the strike, and full strike pay for the strikers. CNH workers have been fighting against the company for four months, striking for higher wages, cost-of-living adjustments, an elimination of tiers, and other just demands. They are not just fighting for themselves, they are fighting for the entire working class. The company is using scabs, and cut off workers health insurance to protect its massive profits as they enrich their shareholders. But the UAW is sabotaging the strike and is hoping to push through terms favorable to the corporation. The UAW has hardly lifted a finger to help the strikers or to inform the rest of the membership about their struggle. There is no mention of the CNH strike on the front page of its website, and I havent received any information or emails about their struggle from the International or from my local. The UAW is stringing workers out on just $400 a week in strike pay. The UAW has over $1 billion in assets, and its leadership just voted to give themselves raises at the UAW convention in Detroit. The same officials who have forced us to work under sellout contracts are deliberately trying to starve out CNH workers on the picket line in order to wear down their resistance. This is how the UAW has functioned for decades, and it must end now! I call for strike pay to be raised to workers full income. The strike fund was created with our hard-earned dues, and that money must be used to support our struggles. The strike fund is supposed to protect us, not the other way around. The only ones opposed to raising strike pay are the UAW bureaucrats who live like parasites off our labor. I am running as a candidate for UAW International president to put an end to the UAWs strategy of defeat. We must build a mass movement of rank-and-file workers to sweep away this unaccountable bureaucracy and place power back in the hands of the workers, where it belongs. I urge workers at CNH to join and build rank-and-file committees, send delegations to other UAW workplaces, and fight to expand and win this strike. To learn more about getting involved in this fight, email me or visit WillforUAWPresident.org. This Sundays general election in Sweden could result in a far-right party with roots in the neo-Nazi movement emerging as the countrys second largest in parliament and even joining the government. The Sweden Democrats, which are polling around 20 percent support ahead of the election to Swedens 349-seat national parliament (Riksdag), have been systematically integrated by the established parties into official politics over recent years as Swedens ruling elite has swung sharply to the right. Sweden's Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, left, is welcomed by European Commission President Ursula van der Leyen at the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium, Friday, Dec. 10, 2021. [AP Photo/Johanna Geron/Pool Photo via AP] The current Social Democrat minority government led by Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, which depends on support from the Green Party, ex-Stalinist Left Party, and the Centre Party for a majority in parliament, is currently polling just under 30 percent. To remain in power, Andersson will require the four parties that currently tolerate her government to secure 175 seats. The right-wing opposition, traditionally led by the conservative Moderates, includes the Liberals, Christian Democrats, and Sweden Democrats. However, if current polls prove correct, the far-right Sweden Democrats will emerge as the largest party in the right-wing alliance, allowing it to play a decisive role either as the largest party in government or opposition. The two blocs are currently running neck-and-neck in the polls, making it difficult to predict the outcome. The Sweden Democrats emerged out of efforts to popularize the neo-Nazi movement in Sweden in the late 1980s. Despite ongoing efforts by the Sweden Democrats to sanitize their public image and disassociate themselves from their past, a recent study by the research group Acta Publica found that an overwhelming majority of the 289 right-wing extremists running in the 2022 election are on the Sweden Democrat ticket. Many of these Sweden Democrat extremists are members of the Nordic Resistance Movement, the Scandinavian neo-Nazi organization which fights to establish a totalitarian, racially and culturally pure Nordic state. Jimmie Akesson, leader of the Sweden Democrats since 2005, has described Swedens Muslim minority as our biggest foreign threat since World War II. He decries the unholy alliance between liberals and Marxists united in a common disdain for national identity. In this photo taken May 24, 2010, Sweden Democrats party leader Jimmie Akesson speaks during an interview in a basement in Stockholm, Sweden. [AP Photo/Niklas Larsson] Over the last 20 years, the Sweden Democrats have gone from receiving 1.4 percent of the electorates votes (2002) to 5.7 percent (2010) to 12.9 percent (2014) and then 17.5 percent (2018). Whatever the final outcome of Sundays vote, the fact that an avowedly far-right party can largely determine the future course of political life poses the urgent need for workers in Sweden and internationally to draw the political lessons of this development. The deliberate promotion of far-right political forces by the ruling elite is a global phenomenon, driven by the needs of the bourgeoisie in every country to intensify the exploitation of working people at home and join military conflicts involving the major powers abroad. In Sweden, this process has been facilitated by the Social Democrats and their allies on the left, above all the Left Party and trade unions, which have blocked the working class from intervening independently into political affairs over the past three decades. In what amounted to a massive self-indictment, Andersson remarked on the campaign trail earlier this week, There are right-wing populist parties in many European countries, but the Sweden Democrats have deep roots in the Swedish neo-Nazis and other racist organisations in Sweden just last week, one employee at their central headquarters invited the other employees to celebrate the Nazis invasion of Poland during the second world war. I mean, its not like other parties. It is thanks to the entire political establishment, Anderssons party included, that the Sweden Democrats have become an integral part of official political life. When Social Democrat Prime Minister Stefan Lofven came to power in 2014 after eight years of Moderate Party-led governments, he insisted that it was necessary to keep the Sweden Democrats out of power by breaking with the traditional left and right divide in Swedish politics. Since his traditional Left Party and Green partners could not secure him a parliamentary majority, Lofven struck a deal with the right-wing four-party Alliance, consisting of the Moderates, Centre, Liberals, and Christian Democrats, to stay in office. The deal involved Lofven agreeing to enforce strict budget discipline based on the Alliances spending plans and anti-immigrant measures. When this predictably resulted in the Sweden Democrats gaining further ground in the 2018 election, Lofven moved further to the right and formalised his ties with Centre and the Liberals in a deal that became known as the January agreement. It was on this basis that Sweden was governed when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and Stockholm emerged as one of the leading proponents of the homicidal herd immunity strategy in the world. The past eight years of Social Democrat-led governments have also been characterised by a massive military build-up, with Sweden sharply increasing defence spending, reintroducing military service, and sending weapons to support the US-NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine. The Social Democrats junked their traditional opposition to the NATO military alliance and led the charge for Sweden to join, helping transform Scandinavia into yet another front in the imperialist powers drive to subjugate Russia to the status of a semi-colony. Swedish Social Democrats also played a leading role in the persecution of whistleblower Julian Assange, whose work exposed the war crimes of US imperialism and its allies. From left to right background: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Finland's President Sauli Niinisto, Sweden's Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, and Sweden's Foreign Minister Ann Linde sign a memorandum in which Turkey agrees to Finland and Sweden's membership of the defense alliance in Madrid, Spain on Tuesday, June 28, 2022. [AP Photo/Bernat Armangue] After enforcing such a reactionary agenda, the Social Democrats grip on power became increasingly tenuous. After a government crisis last year, the party only managed to hang onto power by agreeing to implement a budget drafted by the Moderates and Sweden Democrats, the first time that a Swedish budget had been co-drafted by the far-right party. Special mention must be made of the duplicitous role of the Left Party, which repeatedly justified its alliance with the pro-austerity, pro-war Social Democrats with the need to stop the far-right. While the Left Party feigns a defense of the disintegrating Swedish welfare system, it has backed Social Democratic governments for three decades as they carried out privatizations, business deregulation, and attacks on workers and vital social programs. During the pandemic, the Left Party acted as cheerleaders for the Swedish Social Democratic government and state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell, as their herd immunity policy led to the death of thousands of people. This opened space for the Sweden Democrats to pose as opponents of the Social Democrats disastrous policies, particularly in nursing homes, where sick and elderly people were involuntarily euthanized. As Keith Begg, a leading Swedish-Irish COVID activist previously expressed to the World Socialist Web Site, I would vote left as well, the Vansterpartiet. But since the pandemic began, there is so little ideological differences between the left and the extreme right. Begg recently told the WSWS, The complete white washing and lobotomizing of the governments reckless handling of the pandemic has not surfaced during the countless tv and media debates. It has been largely forgotten and buried by the dualling parties. He continued, The fact that children under 12 are still not eligible for vaccinations, that thousands of elderly were involuntarily euthanized with a shot of morphine, and that masks were demonized throughout the pandemic does not seem to matter in these elections. The bridge between the pseudo-left and the far-right on COVID was expressed in the US when the DSA-backed Jacobin magazine gave a platform to Swedish herd-immunity advocate Martin Kulldorff; a few weeks later he met with then President Trump. While formally opposing NATO membership, the Left Party voted to support the war in Ukraine and provided political cover to the Social Democrats as Sweden applied to join NATO. In a nationalist outburst in March, Left Party leader Nooshi Dadgostar stated, My position is that we are safter in Sweden if we are outside of any military alliance. But it is important that we have broad agreement. That we do this together as one people and one nation. I dont often agree with Carl Bildt [a former conservative prime minister and long-standing advocate of NATO membership], but on this question I do. Theres the left-wing and theres the right-wing, but the Swedish military is all Swedes together. From the Left Party onwards, the Swedish political establishment has pivoted towards the anti-immigrant, law and order positions of the Sweden Democrats, with the current election campaign obsessively focused on immigration and gang violence. No mention has been made in the election campaign of the crimes the Swedish ruling class has committed in recent years, including its support for the savage bombardment of Libya, its pandemic policy, and support for war with Russia. There has been no serious discussion of the staggering class divisions in Sweden, which has the highest number of billionaires per head of population of any major European Union country. The Moderates, trying to compete with the Sweden Democrats over which is more right-wing, have based their campaign on restoring law and order. Their proposals include measures aimed at restricting immigrant access to the welfare system and punishing them for not adequately assimilating into Swedish society. This includes deporting foreigners suspected of being gang members even if they are not found guilty of a crime, allowing raids on the houses of welfare beneficiaries to find malpractices, and withdrawing social benefits from non-Swedes who fail to meet cultural and language goals set by the state. Having imposed many of the far-rights demands over the past eight years, the Social Democrats have made large chunks of the Sweden Democrats program their own, especially on immigration. Their campaign is focused on new anti-immigrant, law and order measures, such as longer prison sentences and limiting work permits. Andersson recently stated in an interview with Dagens Nyheter that she does not want Chinatowns in Sweden, we do not want Somalitowns or Little Italy. The degree of xenophobic rhetoric by the major parties is shocking, said one foreign-born worker to the Local news site. I feel deeply unwelcome when I see that parties representing four-fifths of the electorate are proudly repeating anti-immigrant rhetoric. Another told the site that the parties were using fear to [point] directly at the migrant population as the causes of social issues unemployment, insecurity, inequity. Another added, Foreigners seem to be presented as the source of all Swedens problems. Opposing the growth of the far-right requires the independent political mobilization of the working class. The role of the ex-Stalinist Left Party in subordinating political opposition to the Social Democrats must be understood. Like their pseudo-left allies around the world, it works to prevent a genuine movement of workers by accepting and supporting the narrow, nationalist, and pro-capitalist framework of official politics. The World Socialist Web Site calls on those who agree with this perspective in Sweden, and Scandinavia more broadly, to contact us to help build a section of the International Committee of the Fourth International. There is no national solution to the crisis of capitalism in any country. Swedish workers must unite with their brothers and sisters in Europe, and across the world, in political struggle against imperialist war and social inequality, and for the socialist reconstruction of society. A research letter published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Pediatrics Tuesday estimates that 10.5 million children worldwide have lost parents or other caregivers to the COVID-19 pandemic. Children ages 5 to 11 wait in line with their parents to receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at a pediatric vaccine clinic set up at Willard Intermediate School in Santa Ana, Calif., Nov. 9, 2021. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File) According to the letter by a group of seven doctors from Britain and several African countries, Consequences for children can be devastating, including institutionalization, abuse, traumatic grief, mental health problems, adolescent pregnancy, poor educational outcomes, and chronic and infectious diseases. These findings are derived from new figures on excess deaths published by many countries and collected by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Economist magazine, and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington in Seattle. According to the WHO figures, described as the most conservative, the hardest-hit country is India, with an estimated 3.5 million children having lost one or more caregivers. Other Asian countries with large totals include Indonesia (660,000) and Pakistan (410,000). Some of the most populous countries in Africa also were severely affected, including Egypt (450,000) and Nigeria (430,000). In the Western Hemisphere, the worst affected countries were Mexico, the United States and Brazil, which also have the largest number of total deaths for the region. According to the summary of the report, little is being done to care for children left behind, and no actual tabulation of orphaned or bereaved children is carried out by any national government. One of the researchers, Juliette Unwin of Imperial College, London, explained the groups findings in a commentary published in Scientific American on Wednesday: As an epidemiologist, I am used to studying waves of infection and measuring the rise and fall of deaths. While the deaths of parents and grandparents from COVID crash and recede, the pattern of children affected by orphanhood resulting from the death of a caregiver is entirely different. In every country, the number of children affected inexorably rises, month after month. The death of a mother, father, caregiving grandparent or other relative is permanent and enduring. A child whose parent died at the start of the pandemic is still a child without that parent now. Unwin noted that two out of three children whose parents died were between the ages of 10 and 17, and that three out of four children who lost a parent had lost their father rather than their mother. She continued: Regardless of gender, however, in families where the primary breadwinner dies, death can be linked to sudden and lasting family economic hardship, whereas the loss of a primary socioemotional caregiver can decrease social connectedness. These numbers provide an additional dimension for understanding the colossal impact that the coronavirus pandemic continues to have on the worlds population. As Unwin says, the millions of children who have lost parents will always have lost their parents. The loss will be a permanent feature of their lives, inflicting emotional and psychological damage. And the number will continue to grow as the death toll from COVID-19 rises. And this does not include the millions more children whose parents have contracted Long COVID, which may make it impossible for them to carry out the critical tasks required of a primary caregiver. In the face of these harrowing numbers, the Biden administration in the United States has said and done nothing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a report in late 2021 which placed the number of US COVID-19 orphans at 140,000. Since then, the number of orphans has skyrocketed, but the CDC has published nothing on the subject throughout 2022. Instead, the same day that the report on orphans was published by JAMA, the White House held a COVID-19 briefing, featuring all its leading public health figures engaged in happy talk about the great progress supposedly being made under Biden in dealing with the pandemic. The teleconference included Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House COVID-19 coordinator; Dr. Anthony Fauci, Bidens principal adviser on COVID-19; Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC; and Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra. None of them addressed the devastating impact of the pandemic, either on orphaned children or on the population as a whole. All were silent about the fact that more people have died of COVID-19 during Bidens tenure in the White House than during the administration of Donald Trump (650,000 compared to 400,000), even though vaccines have been available throughout Bidens presidency. Nor were they asked by the complacent press corps, which adheres religiously to the false propaganda that the pandemic is over, or at least reaching the end game. Dr. Jha, who never misses an opportunity to spread complacency about a virus that has already killed more than a million people in the United States and more than 20 million worldwide, claimed that the upcoming cold weather, which drives people indoors, would not be the occasion for the surges in COVID-19 that took place during the fall and winter of 2020 and 2021. We know how to manage fluctuations in COVID-19 and do so safely, he said. If people step up and do what is necessary, we can get through this winter with far less suffering, far less death, far less disruption. The language is revealing: In the event of another massive surge in hospitalizations and deaths, the White House will blame it on the failure of the American people to step up. Fauci and Jha emphasized that COVID-19 had become a permanent feature of American life and that the population would need COVID-19 vaccines newly formulated each year to take into account mutations. Barring any new variant curveball, said Dr. Jha, for a large majority of Americans, we are moving to a point where a single annual COVID shot should provide a high degree of protection all year. Dr. Fauci chimed in: It is becoming increasingly clear that, looking forward with the COVID-19 pandemic, in the absence of a dramatically different variant, we likely are moving towards a path with a vaccination cadence similar to that of the annual influenza vaccine, with annual, updated COVID-19 shots matched to the currently circulating strains for most of the population. This argument entirely distorts the nature of the pandemic threat. COVID-19 is far more lethal than the flu and has the ability to transform into increasingly infectious and vaccine-evading variants. What Dr. Jha dismisses as a curveball is actually an absolute certainty: SARS-CoV-2 is constantly driven by evolutionary pressures to develop new variants which evade vaccines and prophylactic drugs. The environment that fosters these mutations is provided by the policy of living with the virus or declaring COVID-19 endemic or permanent, because with billions of people being infected, the virus has ample opportunity to mutate. The only genuine protection against the pandemic is the elimination and eradication of SARS-CoV-2, which requires a systematic public health effort comprised of vaccinations, testing, isolation and quarantines and temporary lockdowns to deprive the virus of the hosts it needs. On Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration gave final approval to new vaccines formulated against a combination of BA.1, the original Omicron variant, and BA.5, the variant which is currently dominating. Biden scheduled a press statement for Thursday afternoon to hail that action and make another appeal for additional congressional funding for COVID-19 vaccine development and distribution, although it was cancelled after the death of Queen Elizabeth II in Britain. Are you a nurse or health care worker at Michigan Medicine? Build the Michigan Medicine Rank-and-File Committee! Sign up to join the fight for nurses to take immediate strike action and to mobilize the rank and file behind their demands for safe nurse-to-patient ratios. What are the main issues you face at your workplace? What do you think needs to be done? If you would like to tell us your story, contact the WSWS Health Care Workers Newsletter using the form at the end of this article. All submissions will be kept anonymous. The 96 percent vote last week to authorize strike action by 6,200 nurses at Michigan Medicine revealed the determination of the entire hospital staff to reverse the intolerable working conditions at the health care facilities run by the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The conditions at Michigan Medicine are just one example of the decrepit state of the nations health care system, which is the root cause of a mass exodus of nurses who are leaving the profession. The Michigan Medicine nurses contract fight is part of a widening movement of health care workers and university employees. On September 12, 15,000 nurses in Minnesota will go on strike for three days; 2,000 mental health workers in Northern California have been on strike for more than three weeks at Kaiser Permanente, and 500 faculty members at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan, went on strike on Wednesday. Across the industry, financial motivations are leading to deliberate understaffing, threatening patient care as well as the health and safety of nurses. At Michigan Medicine, the hospital policy of mandatory overtime and extended on-call hours, which has worsened throughout the coronavirus pandemic, is compromising the health and safety of both nurses and patients. Nurses must be warned that their near-unanimous strike authorization vote and fight for safe staffing are being undermined. They are facing the intransigent refusal of management to even discuss nurse-to-patient ratios, with Michigan Medicines chief negotiator, Michelle Sullivan, stating repeatedly that any mandatory staffing requirements put forward by nurses are illegal subjects of bargaining. Rather than immediately setting a strike date after the massive vote for a walkout, the MNA-UMPNC posted the following notice on the union website: The bargaining team now has an important bargaining tool to hold the University accountable to the law. Remember, this is not an announcement of a ULP [unfair labor practice] work stoppage. In other words, now that nurses have authorized a strike, the MNA-UMPNC is doing everything it can to delay the fight and, if possible, prevent a strike from ever taking place. This betrayal of the nurses interests and democratic will to fight by the MNA-UMPNC is not an isolated case, but rather one example of the overall policy of the corporatist unions, which work with the health care giants to impose sellout contracts on nurses and workers more generally. Instead of preparing a walkout, the MNA-UMPNC is telling nurses to take part in another fruitless protest at the Board of Regents meeting more than two weeks from now. Nurses are well aware that the management of Michigan Medicine and the University of Michigan Board of Regents have done nothing to address their demands. These are the very people responsible for creating the horrendous working conditions at the hospital in the first place. The very fact that the MNA-UMPNC is encouraging nurses to appeal to the highly compensated and enormously wealthy individuals, who benefit from the short staffing that fuels the profits of the $5 billion corporation, should clarify for the nurses why they must begin organizing independently. Meanwhile, after the results of the strike vote were reported on Friday, hospital President David C. Miller, who makes $490,000 per year, told Crains Detroit Business that Michigan Medicine is prepared for a strike and has contracts lined up with replacement nurses to be used as strikebreakers in the event of a walkout by nurses. Instead of responding to the hospitals strikebreaking plans by moving urgently to shut down the hospital and broaden the struggle to link up with autoworkers, logistics workers, striking EMU professors and hospital workers on strike or preparing to strike in Northern California, Minnesota and internationallyand demanding a general strike by Michigan labor against any attempt to break a strike by Michigan Medicine nursesthe MNA-UMPNC is going back to the bargaining table with the hospital negotiators. Meanwhile, Michigan Medicine spokeswoman Mary Masson has said that the nurses union and the University are close to a resolution. There are unmistakable signs that a rotten agreement is being prepared behind the backs of the nurses. The union has announced a series of meetings beginning today that may lay out the basis for a tentative agreement that meets none of the nurses demands. Working closely with Democratic Party politicians like Representative Debbie Dingell and union bureaucrats like Michigan AFL-CIO President Ron Bieber, the union is doing everything it can to avoid a strike that would expose the anti-working class role of the Democratic Party, which politically dominates the Board of Regents. These individuals are part of the ruling establishment that views health care not as a critical public service but as a money-making enterprise for the wealthy. Michigan Medicine nurses must draw the lessons of the previous betrayals of pending strikes shut down in the eleventh hour by union officials, in order to impose contracts that maintain understaffing and cut real wages. Most important are the lessons of the 2021 Kaiser struggle, which must be studied by all nurses who are determined to fight and win vital staffing demands. In reality, the nurses are in a fight on two fronts: against Michigan Medicine and against Michigan Medicines enforcer in the form of the union bureaucracy, which has collaborated with hospital management for decades and politically disenfranchised the working class through its alliance with the big business Democratic Party. This is why nurses must take the conduct of the struggle out of the hands of the union apparatus. Nurses must join up with their brothers and sisters in the Michigan Medicine Rank-and-File Committee, founded to lead the struggle for safe staffing and decent working conditions at Michigan Medicine independently of the pro-corporate unions. Help build the Michigan Medicine Rank-and-File Committee to link up with health care workers and nurses across the US and internationally! In recent days, 15,000 Minnesota nurses have voted overwhelmingly for strike action against the same intolerable conditions faced by Michigan Medicine nurses. In Northern California, mental health providers at Kaiser are in their fourth week of an opened-ended strike. The union representing the mental health providers is refusing to pay them any strike pay in an attempt to starve them out on the picket line. In New South Wales, Australia, nurses have embarked on their fourth statewide strike. The struggles of nurses and health care workers will be united internationally through the building of the Michigan Medicine Rank-and-File Committee as part of the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC). On Thursday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin traveled to Ukraine to pledge to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian, cheering on an offensive that US forces quietly warn will lead to massive casualties. More than six months into the war, Blinken boasted, your counteroffensive is now underway and proving effective. Blinken was referring to a US-instigated offensive to retake portions of Russian-occupied territory, which has already resulted in a horrendous bloodbath. Ukrainian forces have claimed that hundreds of Russians are being killed each day, while Russian military spokesman Igor Konashenkov said: During two days of unsuccessful attacks on the Nikolaevo-Krivoy Rog and other directions, Ukrainian troops lost ... more than 1.7 thousand Ukrainian servicemen. FILE - Ukrainian servicemen load bodies of Russian soldiers in to a railway refrigerator carriage in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, May 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File) Speaking on condition of anonymity, one of the Americans on the ground coordinating the Ukraine war effort as part of the Mozart group paramilitary force told Newsweek that Ukraines planned offensive will be very bloody. Theres a lot of casualties, it doesnt matter how well trained you are, he said. No matter how well prepared your people are and your troops are, nobodys ever prepared for the massive number of casualties. In fact, the Pentagon and their underlings in Kiev are indifferent to the loss of Ukrainian lives. The much publicized counter-offensive involves assaults on well-fortified Russian defensive positions. The Ukrainian soldiers are exposed to massive bombardment from Russian artillery and aircraft. Even before this offensive, the war in Ukraine has been a disaster for the populations of both Ukraine and Russia. Many thousands of soldiers have been killed on both sides. Some 6.6 million people have been displaced, while over 5,500 Ukrainian civilians have been killed, according to the United Nations. Human life means nothing to the Washington warmongers or their stooges in Kiev. The same people warming their hands over the fires of Ukraine have presided over a COVID-19 policy that has killed over 1 million Americans and plunged US life expectancy by nearly three years. The lives of Ukraines youth, many of them conscripted, are being squandered, mere cannon fodder, or to use the phrase favored by Leo Tolstoy, cannon meat. The recklessness of the US in escalating the war was summed up earlier this month by The Hill in an article titled Why the US is becoming more brazen with its Ukraine support. It concluded: The Biden administration is arming Ukraine with weapons that can do serious damage to Russian forces, and, unlike early in the war, US officials dont appear worried about Moscows reaction. In July, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov openly declared that the country should be viewed as a testing ground for US defense contractors. We are inviting arms manufacturers to test new products here, he said. Indeed, US defense contractors are not only testing their products in Ukraine, they are raking in money hand over fist. Despite the eight percent decline in the US stock market over the past year, shares of Lockheed Martin, the largest defense contractor, are up by 20 percent over the same period, as are the share prices of General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman. US arms manufacturers are not only cashing in directly on the thousands of missiles, drones and other weapons being sent to Ukraine, but also on the massive rearmament of the NATO allies, who have all vowed to expand their military spending to record levels. And they are not the only American companies enjoying record profits. As Russia has dramatically curtailed its gas deliveries to Europe as a result of the war, US natural gas exports to Europe have tripled, while the prices paid by European consumers have surged ten-fold over the past year. US energy companies posted their largest profits ever last month, with ExxonMobil posting a record $17.85 billion in quarterly profits and Chevron a record $11.62 billion. Throughout the US economy, corporate profits have surged to 15.5 percent, the highest figure reported since 1950 and double what they were 10 years ago, amid rampant corporate price-gouging and a collapse in workers living standards. American companies are benefiting from a war that was deliberately provoked by Washington and a pro-NATO Ukrainian government that emerged from a US-orchestrated 2014 coup in Kiev. For all the winged phrases of democracy and national sovereignty, the real meaning of Ukraine to US imperialist strategists was spelled out bluntly by US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, who called the country a battleground for great-power competition. Speaking at Ramstein Air Force base in Germany, US officials pledged to put the Russians back on their heels. US Defense Secretary Austin boasted of the range of weapons systems provided by the US to Ukraine. Over the past three months, Austin said, the US has sent over 126 M77 howitzers, adding, Weve increased the number of howitzer systems for Ukraines defenders by more than 18-fold. He added that 25 long-range missile launchers have been sent to Ukraine, including the HIMARS. Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, bragged that the Ukrainians have struck over 400 targets with the HIMARS. Critically, as this meeting was taking place, Ukrainian officials admitted that the series of attacks on Crimea last month were successful missile strikes, leaving open the possibility that the US-supplied HIMARS were used. Austin said the mission of the US is changing, making it clear that the aim of the US is to draw the war out for as long as possible. He pledged to upgrade our defense industrial bases for the long haula phrase he repeated five times. In this he echoed the words of NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who wrote earlier this week that NATO was making the most fundamental shift in NATOs deterrence and defense since the Cold War, but that this would come at the cost of soaring energy prices and costs of living, and the threat of energy cuts, disruptions and perhaps even civil unrest. The war unleashed by the US and NATO powers is at one and the same time a war against the working class: of Ukraine and Russia, of Europe and of the United States. In the name of the war against Putin, the imperialist powers are waging a war against the worlds workers, declaring that they must accept energy rationing, plunging pay and even starvation. But the working class will have its own say in the matter. The crisis created by the collapse in living standards has led to a global surge of the class struggle, from the UK to France, the United States, Sri Lanka and Africa. As they enter into struggle, workers all over the world must raise the demand for an end to the war. To the ruling classs policy of world war, workers must counterpose the strategy of class war and the struggle for the socialist transformation of society. On August 28, the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) and Alton and Glenugie estate workers action committees held a powerful demonstration and march. It demanded the reinstatement of 38 workers sacked by Alton Estate management and the withdrawal of frameup charges against 22 workers. Workers marching towards Upcot, Maskeliya for picket on 28 August 2022 [Photo: WSWS] When Alton Estate workers went on strike to demand higher wages in February and March 2021, the police arrested 22 workers and two youth on trumped-up charges. They were accused of physically harassing the estate manager and damaging his residence during a protest near the premises on February 17. A case has been filed against these workers in the Hatton magistrates court. The Horana Plantations Company, which manages Alton Estate, summarily sacked 38 workers over the strike action, later reinstating just four of them, but without back pay. The Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) actively supported these victimisations. The other plantation unionsthe National Union of Workers, the Democratic Workers Front and the Up-country Peoples Frontsilently approved the witch hunt. SEP members campaigned among Alton, Glenugie and Fairlawn estate workers in the lead up to last months demonstration distributing hundreds of WSWS articles on the victimised Alton workers as well as an SEP statement calling for a Democratic and Socialist Congress of Workers and the Rural Masses. SEP campaign at Alton estate for the picket on 28 August 2022 [Photo: WSWS] Demonstrators, who marched almost two kilometres from Alton Estate to Upcot town, were greeted by workers from their line rooms and those working in the fields. Following the march, protesters were addressed by Glenugie Estate action committee secretary and SEP political committee member K. Kandeepan, along with M. Thevarajah, who is also on the SEP political committee. Their speeches were livestreamed on the SEPs Facebook page and have been viewed so far by over 1,000. Kandeepan contrasted the trade unions' treacherous support for the victimisations with the immediate and determined action of the SEP to defend Alton Estate workers. By not defending these victimised workers, the trade unions have once again shown that they are acting as tools and policemen of the state and the plantation companies. Out of this experience several workers came forward to form an action committee to not only defend their victimised colleagues but to fight for the rights of the working class as a whole, including in the estates, he said. Kandeepan explained the SEPs call for a Democratic and Socialist of Congress of Workers and the Rural Masses attended by delegates democratically elected from action committees. This is of great importance. The government and the capitalist class, with the support of the trade unions, have unleashed attacks on the rights of workers and the poor. Workers need to fight for socialist policies and for a workers and farmers government, he said. Thevarajah speaking during the picket at Upcot, Maskeliya on 28 August 2022 [Photo: WSWS] Thevarajah explained that President Ranil Wickremesinghes government is implementing the IMFs brutal austerity measures. His regime is planning to destroy hundreds of thousands of public sector jobs, slash wages and other rights won by workers in past struggles. Workers cannot tolerate these attacks. Thevarajah referred to the mass support for the general strikes on April 28 and May 6 against the previous government of then President Gotabhaya Rajapakse. While Rajapakse was forced to flee the country, the betrayals of the trade unions and pseudo-left parties meant that Wickremesinghe, a stooge of the banks and of American imperialism, was able to come to power and is now intensifying the attacks on social and democratic rights. All over the world workers are facing the same situation, from advanced countries like the US and Great Britain to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Everywhere, workers are fighting to defend their rights. In the US, Will Lehman is fighting for the United Auto Workers international presidency, exposing the corrupt and reactionary bureaucracy. He campaign, supported by the US SEP, is fighting not to reform this tool of the corporations but to smash it and build independent workers power through the building of rank-and-file committees. The speaker called for workers to reject Wickremesinghes maneuvers to establish an all-party government and to build action committees at every estate, independent of the trade unions and the capitalist parties. Workers and youth must decide to join the SEP to lead this struggle, Thevarajah said. After the meeting, Rajah, a local leader of the CWC branch at Suriyakanda Estate, attempted to initiate a provocation against SEP members. He claimed that a Tamil version of a WSWS article, which sharply criticised CWC general Jeevan Thondaman, had contained lies but was unable to substantiate this claim. Thondaman was a former state minister in Gotabhaya Rajapakses government. CWC area leaders provocation against the SEP after the picket on 28 August 2022 [Photo: WSWS] The article, Eighteen months after being accused, still no trial for framed-up Sri Lankan plantation workers, explained the role played by the CWC and other unions in the frameup of Alton Estate workers. It also referred to Thondamans support for the revenue-sharing system, which he claimed would improve the life conditions of the people. The local CWC leader was unable to win any support and retreated when the SEP members outlined the unions record. Speaking with the WSWS, a victimised worker said: We are facing severe difficulties without jobs. The current skyrocketing cost of living means that it is very difficult to live. We go to other estates looking for casual work, which pays only a very meagre wage. We go early in the morning and return at night. This is the only way we can provide for our children. Workers must support us to win back our jobs and for the withdrawal of the legal cases. The husband of another sacked worker spoke to the WSWS after he saw the CWC local leader arguing with SEP members. He said: I know this person very well. I told him, They [the SEP] are the people who, from the very first week, came to our estate and campaigned for the reinstatement of the sacked workers. You should do everything to defend the workers, but you did nothing. One of your CWC leaders Barath Arulsamy directly supported the Alton Estate manager. I warned him not to disturb SEP members and told him we defend them. A private bus worker holding a placard in support of the workers at Upcot, Maskeliya on 28 August 2022 [Photo: WSWS] R. Gophiraj, from Fairlawn Estate, said: I saw your protest in support of the Alton workers through Facebook and I shared it with several of my friends. The trade unions are doing nothing to defend the Alton victims or any other plantation workers. Your party is doing a great job. Gophiraj had seen the WSWS and had read the SEP statement calling for a Democratic and Socialist Congress of Workers and Rural masses. The plantation workers are leaderless, he said, adding: The CWC, the NUW and all the trade unions support estate management and the plantation companies. They do not fight for workers rights. I previously thought workers needed to establish honest trade unions to work for workers, but after discussion with you, I understand how the trade unions have been transformed into direct tools of management, he said, before pledging to help form an action committee. Shamima Begum, groomed online into Islamic State (IS) while a schoolgirl, was helped into Syria by a Canadian state asset. The revelation underscores the way her vilification has been used to legitimise attacks on democratic rights while covering up western imperialist intrigues in the Middle East. Stripped of UK citizenship, denied legal aid and prevented from returning to Britain to lodge an appeal, Begum, now 23, is held in a detention camp in northern Syria. She renews her case at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission in November. Begum was 15 when she left London in 2015 to join IS with Amira Abase, also 15, and 16-year-old Kadiza Sultana. In Istanbul they met Mohammed Al Rasheed, who organised their journey into Syria through an IS people-smuggling network based in Raqqa. This Monday February 23, 2015 file handout image of a three image combo of stills taken from CCTV issued by the Metropolitan Police shows Kadiza Sultana, left, Shamima Begum, center, and Amira Abase going through security at Gatwick airport, south England, before catching their flight to Turkey. [AP Photo/Metropolitan Police via AP] Al Rasheed was providing information on the people he smuggled into Syria to the Canadian Security Intelligence Services (CSIS) via the embassy in Jordan. In 2013 he had applied for asylum at the embassy: They told me they were going to grant me my Canadian citizenship if I collect information about the activities of ISIS. This is reported in a new book by journalist Richard Kerbaj, a former security correspondent for the Sunday Times specialising in intelligence and counter-terrorism. The Secret History of the Five Eyes, on the intelligence-sharing agreement between the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, is based on interviews with political leaders and intelligence officials. Canada played a major role in the imperialist intervention in Syria and Iraq justified in the name of combatting IS, sending fighter jets and hundreds of special forces for a train and assist mission alongside Kurdish forces in northern Iraq. It is prominent in the Five Eyes alliance. An intelligence officer working for a Five Eyes agency confirmed to the BBC Kerbajs claim that Al Rasheed was passing information to CSIS about people he was transporting. He was arrested in Turkey shortly after Begum reached Syria. Turkish government sources accused Canadian intelligence of helping the girls get to Syria, although this story was quickly suppressed. Canadian authorities admitted involvement privately, fearing further public exposure, and successfully sought British assistance in covering it up. At a March 2015 meeting with then Metropolitan Police head of counter-terrorism Richard Walton, CSIS officials hoped their agency would not become the focus of investigation. Walton told Kerbaj, If you are running agents you are acquiescing in what they are doing. The Met were still nominally searching for Begum. They knew Begum was being groomed and a letter saying they wanted to interview her was found in her bag after she left. All evidence suggests that state agencies of more than one imperialist power had a much clearer idea of what Shamima Begum was doing than she did herself. She has now told a BBC podcast that Al Rasheed organised the entire trip I dont think anyone would have been able to make it to Syria without the help of smugglers. We were just doing everything he was telling us to do because he knew everything, we didnt know anything. Both British and Canadian intelligence remain tight-lipped. A CSIS spokesperson told the BBC he could not publicly comment on or confirm or deny the specifics of CSIS investigations, operational interests, methodologies or activities. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded by saying his government would follow up the allegations but insisted intelligence agencies must be flexible and creative in their approaches to fighting terrorism. This is a defence of the virtually unrestricted powers they have enjoyed since his government came to power in 2015. Bill C-51 legislation allows spy agencies to break almost any law when combatting alleged terrorist threats. The Trudeau government has left dozens of Canadians, most of them children, rotting in Syrian prisons because of alleged ties to IS. British intelligence said, It is our long-standing policy that we do not comment on operational intelligence or security matters. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, one of the few cabinet members to remain in post following Liz Trusss reshuffle, said he could not comment on intelligence matters but did not recognise whats being reported. Former Home Secretary Sajid Javid, who revoked Begums citizenship in 2019, told Good Morning Britain in September last year, Im not going into details if you did know what I knew, because you are sensible, responsible people you would have made the exact same decision. This undated photo released by the Metropolitan Police of London, shows Shamima Begum, a young British woman who went to Syria to join the Islamic State group and now wants to return to Britain. [AP Photo/Metropolitan Police of London via AP, File] That decision was to systematically deprive Begum of legal rights in challenging the removal of her citizenship. Begum was told Javid had declared her stateless by a British journalist. Access to her was controlled by Kurdish authorities. Author Azadeh Moaveni, who has written on IS brides, was not allowed to see her, but there were no obstacles for Daily Mail journalists, even though she was not permitted access to her lawyer. Moaveni said the camp authorities appeared to be acting on orders from western commanders in the global coalition against IS. Begums lawyer Tasnime Akunjee is arguing Begum was the victim of trafficking in his latest appeal. Javid dismissed that claim during previous considerations of her case, but the Al Rasheed revelations show how aware the government was of the situation. Akunjee is also calling for an inquiry into what information the police and intelligence services held. He commented, Britain has lauded its efforts to stop ISIS and the grooming of our children by spending millions of pounds on the Prevent programme and online monitoring, he said. However, at the very same time we have been cooperating with a Western ally, trading sensitive intelligence with them whilst they have been effectively nabbing British children and trafficking them across the Syrian border for delivery to ISIS, all in the name of intelligence gathering. Legal protections are further threatened. The Times reported Jonathan Hall QC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, arguing that definitions and applications of modern slavery laws are over broad. Hall complained that a child recruited to a terrorist organisation might automatically be seen as a victim even if they had joined entirely of their own free will. The repulsive logic here is that it the fault of a child for having been groomed. The British government is trying to cover its own filthy tracks. It and its close allies, especially the United States, have repeatedly used and tolerated Islamist groups for their own ends. British nationals and residents joined Islamist groups in the NATO-led operation against Libyas Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. These included Khairi Saadallah, who later killed three people in a terrorist attack in Reading in 2020, and Salman and Hashem Abedi, responsible for the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing. The Abedis travelled freely to and from Libya and were evacuated from the country on a British Navy ship in 2014. Many Islamist militias were then moved to Syria to join the US-sponsored regime change operation against President Bashar al-Assad, alongside offshoots of Al Qaeda. The British government and security forces worked closely with these terrorist outfits in Libya and Syria. As the police knew Begum was being groomed online, it is entirely possible that their silence was to protect the intelligence services. She and the other girls she travelled with are part of the collateral damage of their operations. In Akunjees words, The calculation here is that the lives of British children, and the risk of their death, is part of the algorithm of acceptable risk our Western allies have taken. Abase, committed to IS, was reportedly killed in fighting in 2018/2019. Disillusioned, Sultana reportedly believed she had made a mistake and was planning to leave Raqqa. She was killed when her residential building was destroyed in an airstrike in 2016. Begum married Dutch Islamist Yago Riedijk, 12 years her senior, shortly after her arrival. She had two children, who both died as a result of sickness and malnutrition in the appalling conditions of a refugee camp. She gave birth to her third child in al-Hawl detention camp in 2019, just as Javid was revoking her citizenship. The baby died of pneumonia, aged three weeks. The Socialist Equality Party calls for Shamima Begums UK citizenship to be immediately restored. On Thursday, September 8, United States government prosecutors filed formal notice that they are appealing the decision issued on the Labor Day holiday by Judge Aileen Cannon of the Southern District of Florida that would delay an ongoing criminal investigation of Donald Trump. Cannon ordered the appointment of a special master to sort through 27 boxes containing 11,000 pages of documents and 1,800 other items seized during the August 8 search at Trumps Mar-a-Lago Resort in Palm Beach, Florida. Attorneys for Trump and for the US Department of Justice (DOJ) were due to submit an agreed list of possible special masters to the judge on Friday. The 24-page decision ordering a special master is a legal travesty, a clumsy, result-driven provocation by a political operative installed to carry out tasks for the extreme right-wing faction lining up behind Trumps authoritarian assault on what remains of bourgeois democracy in the United States. Cannon no doubt sees it as a downpayment on her elevation to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals or even the Supreme Court when the Republican Party returns to power. From the standpoint of historical precedents, the legal issues are not close, and Cannons attempt to bridge the chasm by walking on water should meet with the usual results. The world can see that Trump violated multiple laws after he left office on January 20, 2021, with boxes of presidential papers, including over 300 bearing various levels of national security classifications. The post-Watergate Presidential Records Act makes all such papers the property of the United States; they do not belong to the outgoing president. Trumps absconding to Mar-a-Lago with presidential papers at the end of his term was more than just stuffing his suitcases with towels after a hotel stay, because the documents included secret and top secret reports, many of which bear special restrictions limiting access to a select few, to be reviewed only in highly secure locations. Such documents contain US imperialisms most guarded information, including the identities of covert agents and methods used for intercepting sensitive foreign communications. Separate laws, including the Espionage Act of 1917, criminalize the unauthorized possession or mishandling of state secrets. The boxes stashed at Mar-a-Lago, Trumps 38-bedroom private country club, could have been pilfered by anyone with access to the grounds, including guests or housekeeping and security staff. Given the opportunities created by Trumps habitual behavior, the files were vulnerable and may have already been breached. The question that remains unanswered is Trumps motive. Convicted former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who understands his former clients mobster-like thinking, says categorically that Trump intended to use state secrets as blackmail to prevent his own criminal prosecution. There were probably multiple other reasons, including extracting favors from foreign governments, all centered around Trumps authoritarian conception that he is a government in exile, and letat cest moi. The president as a law unto himself Cannons ruling embraces Trumps authoritarianism. As a function of Plaintiffs former position as President of the United States, the stigma associated with the subject seizure is in a league of its own, Cannon wrote, adding, A future indictment, based to any degree on property that ought to be returned, would result in reputational harm of a decidedly different order of magnitude. Cannons choice of language flouts the jurisprudential maxim: All are equal before the law. Cannon instead put Trump in a league of his own throughout the decision. She wrote, the investigation and treatment of a former president is of unique interest to the general public, and the country is served best by an orderly process that promotes the interest and perception of fairness. The processes to which Trump has been subjected to date have been the same, or less intense, as those that would apply to anyone investigated for criminal conduct. The events leading up to the search are documented in court filings. Realizing that Trump was storing boxes of presidential papers at Mar-a-Lago, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) began negotiating their recovery in May 2021. Trump stalled until January 2022, when he turned over 15 boxes, supposedly his entire stash. When cataloging the contents, NARA found 184 classified documents, including 25 marked top secret, jumbled in with miscellaneous papers and mementoes. NARA referred its findings to the Department of Justice (DOJ), which, as a matter of course, assigned the investigation to the FBI. Police stand outside an entrance to former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, Monday, August 8, 2022, in Palm Beach, Florida. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File) After encountering runarounds and stonewalling, the FBI served a grand jury subpoena on May 11 requiring the production of all classified documents still at Mar-a-Lago. After more stalling and saber rattling, on June 3 Trumps representatives met with three FBI agents and a DOJ lawyer at Mar-a-Lago, where Trumps people turned over 38 classified documents, 17 marked top secret, in a sealed redweld file folder. They then allowed the FBI to inspect a storage room containing boxes, but denied the agents request to examine the contents. Trumps lawyers provided the DOJ with certifications under penalty of perjury that there were no further confidential documents at Mar-a-Lago to be turned over as required by the subpoena. Apparently, the FBI obtained contrary information from its informants in the Trump orbit as well as from Mar-a-Lago surveillance video showing boxes being moved in and out of the storage room despite Trumps pledge to maintain its security. In any event, Trumps brazen lies were irrefutably exposed by the August 8 execution of the search warrant, a crucial fact Cannon ignored. During the search, FBI agents opened boxes in the storage room as well as some that were located in Trumps personal office, finding another 100 restricted documents. Many had extremely high security classifications, and, according to a recent leak published by the Washington Post, at least one contained highly sensitive nuclear weapons secrets pertaining to a foreign country. There were also dozens of empty classification folders, leaving unanswered questions about the contents. The now famous FBI photograph taken during the search, submitted in a court filing, displays a few of the confidential documents and folders found in Trumps office. Having ample probable cause to suspect criminal activity at Mar-a-Lago, there was nothing unusual about law enforcement serving a warrant and seizing the evidence. Any stigma was the result of Trumps own illegal possession of the documents, his subsequent lies, and ultimately his defiance of the subpoena. All of these facts are left out of Cannons analysis. For anyone familiar with law enforcement execution of search warrants, what stands out about August 8 is the deference FBI agents gave Trump. They arrived during daytime, while the club was closed for the summer, and negotiated arrangements with Trumps lawyers, who stood by while the search took place. In violation of FBI protocol, Trump and family members were allowed to watch the agents inside Mar-a-Lago on the clubs surveillance system. No media were summoned, and the search only became widely known after Trump announced it. Issues regarding the return of property improperly seized during a search are normally addressed by the bench officer who issued the warrant, in this case, United States Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart. (Magistrate judges assist district judges and have judicial authority over assigned matters such as search warrants.) In fact, motions were filed, resulting in Reinharts release of the heavily redacted affidavit of probable cause. Bypassing the magistrate in favor of Judge Cannon To make an end run around Reinhart, who was obviously not buying Trumps positions, Trump filed a new lawsuit weeks after the search to appoint a special master to review the materials seized. The case was assigned randomly to 41-year-old Aileen Mercedes Cannon, among the last of Trumps 245 judicial appointments. She was confirmed on November 9, 2020, during the last days of the Republican-controlled Senate, as Trumps electoral defeat became obvious. Born in Cali, Colombia to a Cuban-exile mother, Mercedes Cubas, and an American father, Michael Cannon, she grew up privileged near Miami. After graduating from Duke University in North Carolina, Cannon spent two years as a paralegal in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice during the George W. Bush administration, when Clinton-era reforms were being dismantled. In 2005 she enrolled at the University of Michigan Law School, where she immediately joined the Federalist Society, the well-funded right-wing pipeline to the federal judiciary. After graduation, Cannon clerked for Iowa-based Eighth Circuit Judge Steven Colloton, a judicial reactionary who made Trumps shortlist for the Supreme Court, which had been drawn up by the Federalist Society. She next spent three years as a junior associate at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, an international firm of 1,600 attorneys tightly connected to the Republican Party establishment. Cannon took a major step down when she left, spending the next seven years as an assistant United States attorney writing briefs in opposition to appeals by criminal defendants, often arguing in favor of governmental seizures and against the suppression of evidence. Cannon has no significant publications and very limited trial experience. She was a legal cipher when Florida Senator Marco Rubio invited her to apply for a federal court opening. The only testimony noted in the media during her May 2020 confirmation hearing was her praise for her loving mother who, at the age of 7, had to flee the repressive Castro regime in search of freedom and security. Cannon continued: Thank you for teaching me about the blessing that is this country and the importance of securing the rule of law for generations to come. For Cannon, the rule of law includes manipulating facts and doctrine to throw a monkey wrench into a DOJ investigation that appears to be closing in around Trump. Instead of transferring the motion for a special master to Magistrate Judge Reinhart, where it belonged, or dismissing the case outright as legally frivolous, Cannon ordered Trumps lawyers to file proper papers, as the first set were incompetent. The day after receiving them, without giving the government an opportunity to respond, Cannon issued an extraordinary Preliminary Order announcing her intent to appoint a special master. After the government filed a lengthy response shredding the legal and factual basis for Trumps request, Cannon issued her order, which has been widely derided for its sophomoric analysis. The following is just a sampling. Laurence Tribe, professor emeritus of constitutional law at Harvard University, tweeted that Cannons decision was utterly lawless and disgraced her position. The New York Times quoted Samuel W. Buell, a Duke University law professor, saying that the decision was laughably bad and the written justification even flimsier, and Peter M. Shane, a legal scholar and specialist in the separation of powers, wrote: Even if there is some hypothetical situation in which a former president could shield his or her communications from the current executive branch, they would not be able to do so in the context of a criminal investigationand certainly not after the material has been seized pursuant to a lawful search warrant. Former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal, who has represented the United States in dozens of cases before the Supreme Court, called Cannons reference to reputational harm insane, because every criminal defendant has reputational harm. He asked: Are we now going to have special masters in every crime investigation? Trumps own attorney general, Bill Barr, told Fox News, The opinion, I think, was wrong, and I think the government should appeal it. Its deeply flawed in a number of ways. The governments appeal goes to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, where six of the 11 active judges were appointed by Trump. Jayne resided in Flagstaff Arizona for 29 years with her husband Richard (Bud) MacCracken. In this time, she cultivated many friendships as well as maintaining lifelong friendships with college and work friends. She enjoyed traveling and visiting with her 5 children (James, Joan, Molley, Myra (deceased 2002) and Sara), 12 grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren. She enjoyed camping and traveling with her family when the kids were young. They also spent time at the beach when the family lived in California. The children remember these times fondly. Jayne was always up for an adventure. She loved cruises as they got older and traveled to Europe and Hawaii. Ronnie Doyal Watkins was born in St. Claire Shores in 1948. His family were devout Nazarenes and Ronnie was raised as such during the post-war period the Church called, The Crusade For Souls. After High School Ronnie attended the Nazarene Seminary, but rather than become a Nazarene Pastor, Ronnie followed other crusades. He enlisted in first the Army, then the Air Force, during the time of the Vietnam Conflict and a changing America. Ronnie fondly reminisced about his years in the USAF at Wright-Patterson AFB as a Weather Observer. He was honorably discharged from both branches, and always held the highest respect for Service Members throughout his life. Ronnie joined Detroit Local 1102 and worked as a Millwright for more than 30 years. His deep love of mathematics and precision afforded him the mastery of many skills throughout his career. Ronnie spent his last 15 years working as the Technical Engineer for Hotel Monte Vista, where he was fiercely loyal to its Owner and Staff. Ronnie's other passions included Physics, Astronomy, Music, Photography, Cooking and enjoying time with his many Friends. A culmination of these fine passions and one of Ronnie's most treasured adventures was during the summer of 2017 and the Great American Eclipse, where alongside Dear Friends and prominent members of the Astronomy Community, Ronnie stood in awe and wonder at totality on the central-line, near Shoshone, Wyoming. His "Diamond Ring" photo of totality is among the best of its kind. Ronnie's heart was true, his loyalty was immense, and his grip was iron. A Last Shot Memorial will be held for Ronnie at the Monte Vista Cocktail Lounge, on Sunday, September 11th, at 4:00 pm. All who knew or loved Ronnie are welcome to attend. Nearly all federal geographic features using the derogatory word sq*** have formally been renamed, after the U.S. Department of the Interior on Thursday released new names for 643 locations across the United States, including 66 in Arizona. The name change is the final step in the historic effort launched nearly a year ago by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland after she declared sq*** a derogatory term because of its historical use as an offensive ethnic, racial and sexist slur for Indigenous women. I feel a deep obligation to use my platform to ensure that our public lands and waters are accessible and welcoming, Haaland said. That starts with removing racist and derogatory names that have graced federal locations for far too long. In Arizona, 66 of the 67 geographic locations were renamed. The one site retained its name because it is listed as a historical site by the Board on Geographic Names. The Board on Geographic Names has two definitions for a historical feature, according to U.S. Geological Survey Public Affairs Specialist Alex Demas. In most cases, it refers to a feature that no longer exists or no longer serves its original function, Demas said in an email response to the Arizona Mirror. Examples include a manmade feature like a dam or a natural feature like a lake. The second use of historical refers to places that still exist but the name has fallen out of local use, he said. If we are informed by the community that no one in the area knows or uses the name, we will consider making it historical. As for the one site in Arizona, Demas said that it appears that the physical geographic feature no longer exists and there was no evidence that the name is used locally. That led it to be considered historical, and not needing to be renamed. Many of the geographic features renamed in Arizona included reservoirs and summits. Some of the name changes used the local Indigenous language to describe the area, but many were derived from nearby geographic features. For instance, two streams in Yavapai county are now named Che Yagoodiguhn Creek and Iiya Draw. The Yavapai Apache Nation and Yavapai-Prescott Indian Tribe are located within Yavapai County, and the new names are derived from their traditional languages. Two Democratic state lawmakers, Rep. Jennifer Jermaine and Sen. Victoria Steele, introduced a similar measure during this years legislative session, but their bill never received a hearing. Changing the names is important to our Native community, Jermaine wrote in a text message to the Mirror. It is important to all women to ensure geographic sites do not include defamatory terms meant to degrade and harm women in their names. Jermaine praised the work that Haaland has been able to do in renaming the geographic sites on federal land, and she believes that states should be working to do the same thing. The name changes come after a lengthy process carried out by the Board on Geographic Names and the Derogatory Geographic Names Task Force, which was established via secretarial order and included tribal and federal representatives. I am grateful to the members of the Derogatory Geographic Names Task Force and the Board on Geographic Names for their efforts to prioritize this important work, Haaland said. Together, we are showing why representation matters and charting a path for an inclusive America. The Derogatory Geographic Names Task Force received more than 1,000 recommendations for name changes during the public comment period, according to the Department of Interior. The task force worked with nearly 70 tribal governments in nation-to-nation consultations, which resulted in several hundred more recommendations. After the public comment and tribal consultation periods closed on April 25, the task force reviewed all the information and developed a list of final recommendations, and submitted it to the Board on Geographic Names on July 22. The board then approved the names during a meeting on Sept. 8. Once the names were decided upon by the board, they are immediately official for federal use, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. A full list of the names can be found on the U.S. Geological Survey website. SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST. DONATE 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 Panama City, Fla. The advisories for the Laguna Beach (SP 2) location at 19440 Front Beach Road, Panama City Beach, and the Panama City Beach City Pier (SP 3) location at 16101 Front Beach Road, Panama City Beach are rescinded. There is an advisory in effect for Carl Gray Park (SP 9) location on Collegiate Drive in Panama City. The Bay County Health Department, Bay CHD, conducts saltwater beach water quality monitoring in accordance with the Healthy Beaches Monitoring Program. Water samples are collected twice a month between March and October. The samples are checked for enteric bacteria that normally inhabit the intestinal tract of humans and animals. The presence of enteric bacteria can be an indication of fecal pollution, which may come from storm water runoff, pets and wildlife, and human sewage. Poor results are posted as an Advisory at the affected beaches. Healthy Beaches advisories are issued to protect swimmers from increased risk of gastrointestinal illnesses. At a lower occurring level, there may also be increased risks of upper respiratory infections, skin rashes, and ear infections. Healthy Beach advisories are not related to Necrotizing fasciitis, a rare complication. Sampling is usually done on Mondays with results on Tuesday, with exception of holidays. Results are shared at Bay.FloridaHealth.gov, through media releases, and real-time on the Florida Healthy Beaches page at FloridaHealth.gov and search for Healthy Beaches. Florida Healthy Beaches Program Categories are; Good = 0-35 Enterococci per 100 milliliters of marine water, Moderate = 36-70 Enterococci per 100 milliliters of marine water, and Poor = 71 or greater Enterococci per 100 milliliters of marine water. If levels are above 70, Bay CHD notifies the local Florida Department of Environmental Protection for further investigation. If you have any questions, please contact the Bay County Health Department at 850-481-4806 or visit the Department of Healths Internet Beach Water Quality website at http://www.floridahealth.gov/healthy-environments/beach-water-quality/index.html. #### About the Florida Department of Health The department, nationally accredited by the Public Health Accreditation Board, works to protect, promote, and improve the health of all people in Florida through integrated state, county, and community efforts. Follow us on Twitter at @HealthyFla and on Facebook. For more information about the Florida Department of Health please visit www.FloridaHealth.gov. CCTV: President Xi Jinping exchanged congratulatory messages today with the rotating Chairperson of the African Union and Senegalese President Macky Sall on the 20th anniversary of the AUs founding and the establishment of China-AU diplomatic relations. How does the foreign ministry view this special day and special year? Mao Ning: As you said, this is a special day. Today is the African Union Day. President Xi Jinping exchanged congratulatory messages today with the rotating Chairperson of the African Union (AU) and Senegalese President Macky Sall on the 20th anniversary of the AUs founding and the establishment of China-AU diplomatic relations. This is the first time the two sides have done so in the history of China-Africa relations. It demonstrates China and Africas long-standing and time-tested friendship, solidarity and cooperation that is growing ever stronger, and firm determination to build a China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the founding of the AU and the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the AU. Over the past two decades, the AU has led African countries in seeking strength through unity and pursuing development, revitalization and integration. Africa has shown its strength in fighting COVID-19, upholding multilateralism and safeguarding the common interests of developing countries. China congratulates and commends Africa for what it has achieved. Over the past two decades, China-AU relations have stood the test of changing international circumstances and engaged in fruitful cooperation. Our ties play a guiding role in carrying forward China-Africa friendship, deepening South-South cooperation and building a community with a shared future for mankind. This is truly gratifying and encouraging. China attaches great importance to developing relations with the AU, and takes the AU as an important partner for promoting China-Africa friendship and cooperation as well as solidarity and cooperation among developing countries. We firmly support the AU in playing a bigger role in African and international affairs. China is ready to work with the AU rotating Chairperson and Senegalese President Macky Sall, Chairperson of the AU Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat and other AU leaders to further strengthen communication and coordination, deepen political mutual trust, expand practical cooperation, and firmly support each other on issues concerning each others core interests and major concerns, so as to jointly bring China-AU and China-Africa relations to a higher level. TASS: British Queen Elizabeth II died Thursday in her summer residence in Scotland at age 96. Do you have any comment about this? Mao Ning: We deeply mourn the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. President Xi Jinping has sent a message of condolences to King Charles III. Premier Li Keqiang has sent a message of condolences to Prime Minister Liz Truss. Throughout her seven-decade reign, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II devoted herself to advancing national development and the UKs friendly exchanges with the rest of the world. She was the first British sovereign to visit China. She received multiple Chinese leaders on their visits to the UK and made important contribution to enhancing our two peoples mutual understanding and expanding our two countries friendly exchanges. We will continue to work with the British Royal Family and various sectors of the UK to advance our bilateral relations. Asahi Shimbun: The DPRK has promulgated a new legislation on its nuclear arms. China has always been committed to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. What is China's comment on this latest move of the DPRK? Mao Ning: Weve noted this development. Chinas position on the Korean Peninsula issue remains unchanged. We will bear in mind the larger interest of upholding peace and stability on the Peninsula and continue to play a positive role in promoting the political settlement of the Peninsula issue. China News Service: On September 8, Angolas Constitutional Court dismissed a complaint filed by the opposition and verified the election results released by the National Electoral Commission, according to reports. The Peoples Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the ruling party, won the election with 51.17% of the votes, and Joao Lourenco was reelected as the President. What is Chinas comment? Mao Ning: We commend the smooth running of the general elections in Angola and express our congratulations to President Lourenco on his reelection. In recent years, China and Angola have strengthened strategic partnership and advanced practical cooperation. China highly values the development of China-Angola relations, and stands ready to continue to work with Angola for more productive friendly cooperation. The Hindu: India and Chinas defense ministries, in a joint statement, have said theyve begun the process of disengagement in the area of Jianan Daban, which is another step toward resolving the standoff in eastern Ladakh. Can you share details? And also what does this agreement mean for the rest of the disengagement process on the line of actual control? Mao Ning: According to the consensus reached in the 16th Round of China-India Corps Commander Level Meeting, the Chinese and Indian troops in the area of Jianan Daban began to disengage on September 8. This is the outcome of multiple rounds of talks over a period of time between the two sides diplomatic and military establishments at various levels. It is conducive to peace and tranquility in the border areas. If you would like to know more details, let me refer you to the readout released by Chinas Ministry of National Defense after the 16th Round of China-India Corps Commander Level Meeting. As to the early resolution of the remaining issues at the earliest, the two sides had a candid and in-depth exchange of views at the 16th round of meeting. Both sides reiterated that resolving the remaining issues will help restore peace and tranquility along the LAC in the Western Sector and promote the development of bilateral relations. Xinhua News Agency: The 158th meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the League of Arab States (LAS) on September 6 and 7 adopted a resolution on Arab-China relations which reiterated the Arab states support for the one-China principle, their readiness to strengthen cooperation with China in various fields under the Belt and Road Initiative, and their appreciation of Chinas diplomatic effort in supporting the Arab cause, advancing the peaceful settlement of regional crisis, and promoting international and regional peace and security. What is your comment? Mao Ning: China highly appreciates the annual adoption of the resolution on strengthening relations with China by the Council of Foreign Ministers of the League of Arab States (LAS) for years running. This fully demonstrates the firm determination of Arab states to develop relations with China and reflects the profound traditional friendship and solid strategic partnership between China and Arab states. China and Arab states are future-oriented strategic partners of comprehensive cooperation and common development. We have always firmly supported each other on issues concerning each others core interests and major concerns. After US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made the provocative visit to Chinas Taiwan region in August, the LAS Secretariat immediately issued a statement stressing its firm commitment to the one-China principle. Our two sides enjoy fruitful cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative. China has been the largest trading partner of Arab states for many years. Our practical cooperation in various fields has continued to deepen and become a fine example of South-South cooperation. The two sides have maintained close coordination on hotspot issues in the Middle East and jointly contributed to regional peace and development. China will continue to firmly support Arab states in addressing regional security issues through solidarity and coordination, and support people in Arab states in independently exploring their development paths. We will continue to strengthen solidarity and cooperation with Arab states, actively conduct Belt and Road cooperation, implement the Global Development Initiative and Global Security Initiative, and jointly build a community with a shared future for China and Arab states in the new era. Macau Monthly: The third China-Arab Reform and Development Forum was held yesterday. Could you share more information on it? Mao Ning: Thank you for your interest in this event. Yesterday, Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs held the third China-Arab Reform and Development Forum in virtual format with the help of the China-Arab Research Center on Reform and Development. Zhai Jun, Special Envoy of the Chinese Government for the Middle East, attended the opening ceremony of the forum. Experts and academics from China and a dozen Arab countries including Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia attended the event. This is the third gathering of the forum. The previous two gatherings were held in 2018 and 2019 respectively. This forum focuses on the Global Development Initiative (GDI). Participants held in-depth exchanges and discussions on building greater synergy between development strategies and jointly advancing the GDI and realizing robust, green and sound development through innovation, and explored ideas for promoting shared development. Throughout the forum, we could feel that the Arab countries identify with and support the GDI and they have responded warmly to it. Arab experts said at the forum that the GDI could help send the issue of development back to the top of the international agenda. It is in line with Arab countries pressing need for development, peace and reform and the shared aspiration of China and Arab countries to deepen cooperation in pursuit of common development. Arab experts welcome the 32 concrete measures China announced at the High-level Dialogue on Global Development, which, they believe, demonstrate Chinas sense of responsibility as a major country in implementing the GDI with real actions and promoting post-COVID economic recovery, and will provide fresh impetus for China-Arab development cooperation. To advance the implementation of the GDI in the Arab world, Arab experts put forward many suggestions. For example, they proposed that China and Arab countries seek greater synergy between development strategies and promote practical cooperation in such fields as scientific and technological innovation, food security, desert control, seawater desalination, climate change, vaccine R&D, digital economy and poverty alleviation. We stand ready to work together with Arab countries to accelerate implementation of the GDI, build consensus and pool strength from both sides, and jointly contribute to forging a China-Arab community with a shared future. Prasar Bharati: Yesterdays joint statement mentioned that the disengagement process has started. Once this is completed, will China proceed with India towards complete disengagement, de-escalation and de-induction at the LAC at Ladakh border? Mao Ning: China has consistently carried out normal activities in the border areas in accordance with the relevant agreements signed between China and India. We have been asking the Indian side to also follow relevant agreements. Prasar Bharati: Do you think after this particular disengagement, will it be a status quo restoration of April 2020? Mao Ning: Id like to state that the status quo of April 2020 you mentioned was created by Indias illegal crossing of the LAC. China will by no means accept that. Prasar Bharati: As you said, it was illegal trespassing of India. So do you mean to say that China has accepted that illegal trespassing by India and now its saying that we should move bilateral relations forward without resolving the border standoff? Mao Ning: The fact that China and India agreed to begin disengagement in the area of Jianan Daban is a positive development that is conducive to peace and tranquility along the border. China is committed to properly handling relevant issues through communication and dialogue. We dont accept the so-called status quo created by Indias illegal crossing of the LAC, but that doesnt mean we dont attach importance to peace and tranquility along the border. The two sides have all along maintained communication over this through diplomatic and military channels. Reuters: A question about a report our news agency put out yesterday night. So sources told Reuters that Germanys economy ministry is considering a series of measures to make business with China less attractive. These measures could include reducing or even scrapping investment and export guarantees for China and no longer promoting trade fairs and manager training in China, our sources told us. Does the foreign ministry have any comment on this report and whether it is concerned about Germany-China economic cooperation? Mao Ning: Im not aware of what you mentioned. If what was reported is true, then I have to say the measures to be taken by Germany are simply illogical and make no sense. They would not bring any good to Germanys own economy or practical cooperation with China. Over the past 50 years, China and Germany have advanced economic and trade cooperation in accordance with the principle of mutual benefit. Bilateral trade and investment continued to grow in the first seven months this year against the odds. Such close economic links came into shape as a result of both the law of the market and the choices of businesses. They also epitomize economic globalization. What I want to tell you is that no matter how the international landscape may evolve, China will not change its determination to pursue high-level opening-up, share development opportunities with the world, and contribute to an economic globalization that is more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial for all. I also believe that China will become an even more attractive market for foreign investment. We hope that Germany will adopt a rational and practical policy toward China and support greater two-way opening-up to inject positive energy into the high-level mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries and help build an open world economy, instead of shooting itself in the foot. PTI: You said India violated the status quo in April 2020. Can you please tell us how, because India was not having troops of that magnitude in that area at the particular time? Mao Ning: First of all, this is not the first time China has stated its position on this issue. Secondly, China and India hold different positions on the border issues. But what is most important now is for both sides to keep up communication and dialogue, make the disengagement a first step and ensure peace and tranquility along the border. PTI: So this particular new agreement between the two countries on disengagement from this particular point. Do you think that this will now restore normalcy between the two countries or at least the two countries can proceed ahead with normalization of relations? Mao Ning: As I just said, the beginning of disengagement is a positive development. We hope this will help facilitate the sound and steady development of bilateral relations. Reuters: Just to follow up on my previous question, one of our sources told us that the German government is considering submitting a complaint to the WTO about what it views as unfair Chinese trade practices along with the G7 group. We were wondering if the foreign ministry had a comment on this specific potential measure. Mao Ning: China always acts in accordance with WTO rules. If Germany lodges the so-called complaint, China will defend its lawful rights and interests under the WTO framework. **************************************************************************************************** In observance of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the MFA regular press conference will be adjourned on September 12 (Monday), and resumed on September 13 (Tuesday). During the recess, you can reach the Spokespersons Office by fax, email or WeChat. Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! Sometimes there isn't a term sufficiently strong enough to accurately portray a depth of feeling. That is the case in English, where no term is strong enough to show the sense of anguish that the West is feeling with the incredibly rapid rise of China. There is a need to borrow from German the word "angst", a word far stronger than the English equivalent "anxiety". The West has become used to be that part of the world that, as the top dog sets the world's agenda, and to which the rest of the world looks in awe. It views that as the natural order of things, as though divinely ordained, forgetting that such state has only been true for the past two centuries. Throughout most of history, China, along with India, has been by far the dominant powers dwarfing all others. All aberrations eventually come to a natural end, but that these nations are rising to their usual place after a short interregnum still vexes and astonishes the West. Of course, both China and India were subject to the rapacious West, which through gunboat and "diplomacy" and other means, was able strip enormous wealth from each. That followed earlier Western colonial endeavors in South America and Asia, while being concurrent with the massive bleeding of wealth from Africa. The world's two largest financial analysts PricewaterhouseCoopers and Standard and Poors project that China will soon surpass the United States to become the world's largest economy, with the US falling to third place behind India. Another non-Western Asian nation, Indonesia will rise to the fourth place. Though financial analysts know this, denial or ignorance is still common in the West. Already the economies of the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) outstrip those of the G7, the grouping of the largest Western nations, along with Japan. The gap between the two is projected to widen quickly in the next decades. When such news breaks through the denial of much of the West the fear is palpable. That certainly is the case in Australia where the rise of China particularly has caused consternation often bordering on hysterical. Even an idea as fantastical as China about to invade Australia finds traction, twice as many Australians believe that Chinese forces will soon be at their door. The West still likes to project itself as a bastion of righteousness, marked by "democracy" and "human rights", against what it calls an "authoritarianism" denying "liberty". In so doing it ignores its own failures in maintaining human rights for its own populace, along with those cases where it has aided or abetted the violation of human rights of others. "Human rights" has been defined by the West in a manner to suit itself, built around individual freedom and "liberty of conscience" without reference to communal rights such as the right to sustenance, housing, and security. The concept of freedom, however, must come hand in hand with the concept of responsibility and equality. That has been often missing in the West is most clearly seen by the assertion of individual rights at the expense of communal responsibility during the COVID-19 crisis. Even in terms of individual liberty, the populace of the West's leading nation, the United States suffers from massive deprivation. The US has 0.655 percent (or 2.12 million) imprisoned, mostly from the poorer sectors of the society with a strong racial bias. The West also likes to cast China as aggressor, while turning a blind eye to its own aggression, from the earliest colonial times through to a litany of invasions and coups of recent decades. The Tufts University "Military Interventions Project", analyzing US military aggression lists over 500 military actions since that nation's founding in 1776, with 60 percent of them occurring between 1950 and 2017. One third of these interventions took place after 1999. That China is perceived as an aggressive threat must stand as a classic case of "projection". Despite this many in the West speak blithely of "the international rules-based order", equating it with the Western way of doing things, while perceiving China to be a dangerous destabilizing threat to this order. At the end of the Cold War, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, many Western intellectuals, led by Francis Fukuyama, spoke of the "end of history" with the implicit assumption that the way of the "liberal West" had triumphed, no other system being conceivable. The astounding success of "socialism with Chinese characteristics" has clearly shown the hollow nature of such claims. Thrown from their comforting assumptions, many, including the intelligentsia, of the West have been left non-plussed. Further, the confidence of the West has been dented by growing evidence of its failures. Those failures range from military losses in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, to diminishing trust by its populations in government institutions, and the alienation increasingly felt by many with rising economic inequality, along with societal breakdown. Rather than being the "end of history" we are in Asia's rise experiencing the "return of history". Stripped of the final success, it was sure it had grasped, the West is suffering a deep angst, often projecting its own failures onto China. Such response is hardly productive nor healthy. Ana de Armas It turns out not only gentlemen prefer blondesthe Venice Film Festival does as well. At the Venice premiere of Andrew Dominiks Marilyn Monroe biographical drama Blonde, star Ana de Armas was tearful during the films 14-plus minute standing ovation, a festival record so far. Co-star Adrien Brody, who plays playwright Arthur Miller, also became misty, Variety reports. Before Blonde came down the barrel, Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleesons black comedy The Banshees of Inisherin held the festivals applause record. The black comedy drama received 13 minutes of applause following its Tuesday premiere. Read more Blonde found itself in Venice with a lot to prove and more than a few hitches. Not a straightforward biopic exactly, the film takes its basis from Joyce Carol Oates novel of the same name, a dramatization of Monroes life. Blonde garnered Netflixs first NC-17 rating (a decision Armas has publicly questioned), leading some fans to express concern about just how sensationalized and invasive this new telling of one of Hollywoods most tragic tales. Theres also been some public outcry around Armas casting in the leadArmas grew up in Cuba and did not watch Monroes films growing up. One of Armas most stalwart defenders has been Brad Pitt, who has called her performance phenomenal and previously asserted Armas was the entire reason Blonde made it off the ground. It was 10 years in the making, Pitt said. It wasnt until we found Ana that we could get it across the finish line. During Blondes Venice press junket, Armas asserted that although Monroe hadnt been a part of her life for long, she felt exceedingly close to the Some Like It Hot star (and possibly, her eternal spirit) during filming. I truly believe that [Monroe] was very close to us, she was with us, Armas says. She was all I thought about, she was all I dreamed about, she was all I could talk about. She was with me and it was beautiful. I think she was happy Being in the same places that she was, filming in her house, it was a very strong sensation there was something in the air and I think she was approving of what we were doing. Blonde debuts on September 28 on Netflix. Nicolas Cage looms large over the National Treasure franchise, even now, close to 15 years after the release of the second movie in 2007. Lisette Olivera felt that shadow when the actress of We Need to Do Something landed the lead role in the Disney+ spin-off series, Edge of History. "After my casting announcement had been made and the whole world knew it was me that was gonna be at the forefront of the franchise, there were some people that were disappointed, but there were a lot of people that were very supportive," Olivera tells EW over Zoom in August. But Olivera, an optimistic person by default, wasn't dragged down by the discourse. National Treasure: Edge of History Disney + 'National Treasure: Edge of History' poster "It's a scary thought to have to follow someone's performance like Nic Cage," the actress admits. "It was daunting, but I kept trying to reframe and focus as if it was just a challenge. I really loved the movies, and no part of me wanted to stray away from what they had already created. It was the same voices behind the movies the same producers, same writers, Trevor Rabin, who is the composer for the films, came back to also do our show so I knew I was in safe hands. They were guiding me, especially when I had my own doubts of what I was capable of." Olivera's Jess Valenzuela is only like Cage's Ben Gates in the sense that both become entangled in familial mysteries involving treasure and both are puzzle box history nerds. Beyond that, it's a brand new face for the franchise for reasons that remain close to the creators' own family histories. "The story of telling the history of America is so interesting because it depends on the point of view," notes Marianne Wibberley, who returns with her co-writer husband from the original films, Cormac Wibberley, to run Edge of History. "We haven't really covered that in any of the movies." Cormac's father, the late The Mouse That Roared author Leonard Wibberley, was an Irish immigrant living in the United States with a green card but was never granted citizenship. According to Cormac, Leonard first learned Irish history in Ireland through the fourth grade and was taught to see the English as the bad guys. Then his family moved to England where schools made the Irish seem like the villains. Then he moved again to America and found another alternate telling of events: the English were the bad guys and Americans were now the good guys. Story continues "He just kept getting different histories as he was growing up, so that's what really made him obsessed with it," Cormac says. NATIONAL TREASURE: EDGE OF HISTORY Disney/Brian Roedel Jess (Lisette Olivera_ embarks on a journey to find a lost treasure in 'National Treasure: Edge of History.' Marianne's own family tree goes back to Mexico. Her great-great-grandmother was among one of the first Mexican families to settle in Arizona. It was this shared immigrant experience that became the first kernel for Edge of History. "One day we were trying to think of the show and Cormac was like, 'Let's do it from the point of view of a person that's trying to get citizenship and that's why they know American history,'" she recalls. "Cormac was like, 'I like the idea of someone who's trying to become a citizen, reading an American history book, trying because they love our history.' That's when we spun it into this story that was not a Ben Gates story." Viewers meet Jess in season 1 of National Treasure: Edge of History (premiering on Disney+ this December) as a Mexican-American and a Dreamer who's grieving the death of her mother. She doesn't know her father, who died when she was young, but had always been told by her single parent that he was a reckless, good-for-nothing thief. That is, until she's set on a course to find a lost treasure with ties to her own family history. "She starts to go, 'Wait! Maybe I don't know everything,'" says Marianne. As a Mexican-American, "Her heart feels like she's a part of both worlds but belongs to neither," explains Olivera, who also has Mexican roots. "I relate to that very heavily. I'm always trying to figure out where my place is. So I was really able to learn more about my culture through the show and really appreciate it more because I was able to understand the perspective that she has through my own body, in a way." NATIONAL TREASURE: EDGE OF HISTORY Disney/Brian Roedel Harvey Keitel returns as F.B.I. Special Agent Sadusky in 'National Treasure: Edge of History.' The reprisal of Harvey Keitel's F.B.I. Special Agent Peter Sadusky from the first two National Treasure movies was a crucial part of the new series. He's in Edge of History "a lot," Marianne confirms. "His presence plays through the whole thing." Part of that is the fact that Olivera's castmate Jake Austin Walker plays Sadusky's grandson, Liam. Also among the new generation of treasure-seekers is Zuri Reed as Tasha, Jess' best friend and roommate. "If you took [Justin Bartha's] Riley Poole and split him into two people, she's the tech person," Marianne notes. "She's really tech savvy and socially conscious." Tasha's boyfriend, Oren, played by Antonio Cipriano, embodies the other half of Riley, the conspiracy nut side who spends chunks of his days falling down rabbit holes on Reddit. "[Jess] honors the amount of love that she receives from her friends, because she doesn't wanna put them in danger," says Olivera. It's especially dangerous for Jess as a Dreamer living in America. "But it just goes to show how important this treasure is to her and her bloodline," the actress continues. "She's willing to risk it all to go after that. She just makes the decision within herself that she wants to find a place to call home when she had been told her whole life that she belonged nowhere." NATIONAL TREASURE: EDGE OF HISTORY Disney/Brian Roedel Zuri Reed stars as tech-savvy Tasha in 'National Treasure: Edge of History.' Ethan (Jordan Rodrigues), who Marianne dubs "the lawyer and the skeptic," is the other member of this group. "He's the voice of reason, but he gets drawn into the treasure hunt, too," she says. "I guess he's kind of like Jon Voight in a way." Voight doesn't make a return appearance to National Treasure with Edge of History. Neither does Cage or Diane Kruger. (The Wibbs mention "there was lots of talk of trying to get Diane and Jon at certain points" for the show, but "it didn't work out.") Should Cage, however, make an appearance in a future season of National Treasure: Edge of History, the creatives have a plan. Cormac describes this hypothetical meeting between Ben and Jess as "Tony Stark gets to visit Peter Parker." "That's basically how we saw the relationship if Ben Gates ever showed up," he adds. "She's basically Peter Parker to him and would be like, 'Oh my God, it's Ben Gates! What do I do?' That's how our universe is. We would love to bring any of the other veterans if we get another season. We have roles for all of them." Someone who does appear in season 1, however, is Bartha's Riley, now a superstar along with Sadusky in the world of National Treasure. Riley, the author of The Templar Treasure and Other Myths that are True, has a popular podcast and landed a juicy Netflix deal in the context of this new story. Marianne remembers Olivera sharing scenes with Keitel and Bartha for the first time over the five-month shoot in Baton Rouge. Olivera has "a whole episode" with Bartha, the showrunner says. "She was like one of them right from the beginning. It was all so natural." NATIONAL TREASURE: EDGE OF HISTORY Disney/Brian Roedel Justin Bartha reprises Riley Poole alongside Lisette Olivera's Jess in 'National Treasure: Edge of History.' It's this positive reinforcement that Olivera clung to when facing the pressures stemming from the National Treasure fandom and the biggest role of her career thus far. "I had a lot of support from my family and friends, and from everyone that I was able to work with," she says. "Just reminding me that it was my creative input that won me this role. It was my heart that I put into this. I didn't wanna forget that. It's really easy to listen to the voices that wanna tear you down. But I also know and this is something I relate to Jess about, how stubborn we are that's not gonna stop us. It's not gonna stop me. It was just being really clear on my intention. I wanted to make sure that I told this story to the fullest of my ability, and it really allowed me to forget about the rest of it." Olivera didn't want to disappoint herself, either. The role of Jess meant so much to her, beyond the National Treasure of it all. "We don't really get to see Dreamers being portrayed on TV in such a positive light," she mentions. "I wanted to make them proud." "We always said it's like a person who's come here who feels like they belong here, but they never knew what their roots were. We felt like everyone could relate to that," Cormac says. "A lot of people don't even know their great-grandparents' names. They just don't go back that far in history, but we're doing 23andMe for our character. We felt like everyone watching can go, 'Oh yeah, I came from somewhere, too.'" Correction: An earlier version of this story mentioned Cormac Wibberley's father was an undocumented Irish immigrant. While he never became an American citizen, he did have a green card. Make sure to check out EW's Fall TV Preview cover story as well as all of our 2022 Fall TV Preview content, releasing over 22 days through Sept. 29. Related content: LAS CRUCES A mother and son face charges after Hatch police accused the duo of illegally collecting parking fees last weekend at the Hatch Chile Festival. Celeste Zimmerman, 68, is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit fraud and one count of accessory to fraud. Her son, 30-year-old Raymond Willian Swingle, stands charged with one count of fraud. Police believe the duo defrauded about $4,000 from festival goers. The Hatch Chile Festival, the village's largest annual event, celebrated its 50th anniversary this year. It attracts people from all over the country to the small community over Labor Day weekend. According to an affidavit by Hatch detective Travis Jones, Hatch police discovered Swingle collecting fees from festival goers as they tried to park. Jones said that Hatch police officers told Swingle to stop, but Swingle continued. Jones wrote in the affidavit that at some points Swingle would prevent cars from passing him until they forked up $10. Later, Hatch police detained Swingle. When asked why he was collecting fees, Swingle said his mom told him to do it. According to the affidavit, the Hatch Chile Festival Committee President Lisa Neal told police that Zimmerman is the festival committees treasurer. Before Swingles arrest, Zimmerman sparred with other committee members about charging fees. Specifically, Zimmerman wanted to charge people parking in the Hatch Valley High School lot $10. Jones said that the schools superintendent clarified to the committee that charging fees would not be acceptable. Zimmerman also wanted to charge people parking along East Herrera Street, a public roadway. That too was unacceptable to the committee, Jones wrote, recounting Neals statement. Zimmerman repeatedly told Mrs. Neals assistant, Alice Soto, she was going to charge people for parking anyways damn the consequences,' Jones wrote in the affidavit. Neal also told Jones that Zimmerman set up a website without the committees approval. The website said parking in and around HVHS would come with a $10 fee. Story continues Both Zimmerman and Swingle have been released from jail since their arrests. In a Facebook post, Hatch police asked anyone with knowledge of the parking scheme to contact them. The police department can be reached at 575-267-3021. Others are reading: Justin Garcia is a public saftey reporter for the Las Cruces Sun-News. He can be reached at JEGarcia@LCsun-news.com This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Mother, son accused of swindling $4,000 in parking fees from Hatch Chile Festival goers Among Queen Elizabeth IIs many talents was an ability to turn the most powerful man on the planet into an overexcited fanboy. The Queen met 13 presidents during her 70-year reign: Every commander-in-chief from Harry Truman to Joe Biden, with the exception of LBJ. As the tributes of living former presidents have made clear, she stood apart from the many world leaders and foreign dignitaries that a president meets. Having tea with Her Majesty and her Corgis is among our fondest memories of the presidency, read a statement from George W. Bush. What a grand and beautiful lady she was there was nobody like her, enthused Donald Trump. Even the usually cool-headed Barack Obama, in an interview released on the Queens Platinum Jubilee in June, acknowledged it was difficult to maintain his composure when youre visiting Her Majesty. A dive into history finds multiple protocol breaches by nervous American leaders, none more awkward than Jimmy Carter kissing the Queens mother on the lips. It reveals Ronald Reagan preparing for an important 1983 swing through Europe by, yes, gearing up for the high-stakes diplomacy, but also worrying about whether he had the correct gear to go horseback riding with the Queen. It turns up a 1951 trip to America during which Harry Truman remarked on meeting the heir to the throne, When I was a little boy, I read about a fairy princess and there she is. Then-Prime Minister Harold Macmillan would describe her next trip to the United States, in 1957, as such a success that it buried George III for good and all. What set the Queen apart in this way? It wasnt the pageantry, lavish banquets or her arguably unparalleled fame. Part of the explanation lies in the fact that presidents were not only meeting the embodiment of Americas closest ally and its past, but also, later in her reign, someone who knew their predecessors better than they did or ever would, and could therefore see them in correct historical scale. Story continues Her ability to charm and even strike up friendships with U.S. presidents was a not-so-secret weapon that helped make and keep the special relationship special. President Joe Biden was clear about that political significance in his tribute, describing the Queen as a stateswoman of unmatched dignity and constancy who deepened the bedrock Alliance between the United Kingdom and the United States. It helped that the woman who was closely followed and supported by American Anglophiles appears to have been something of an Americanophile. Just as the special relationship is about more than the ties between two heads of state or heads of government, the Queens bond with America went beyond its leaders. Like many Britons of her generation and like the modern Britain over which she reigned the Second World War was a formative experience in which Americas contribution was decisive and unforgettable. On a more personal note, she only took a handful of foreign vacations during her reign, but five of them were to America, often and perhaps a little improbably to Kentucky horse country. The great-great-great-great granddaughter of the king who lost America acknowledged a further debt to Britains former colony beyond the wartime alliance. In 1973, the UK government was sounded out on the idea of Elizabeth II attending celebrations three years later to mark Americas bicentennial. One of the prime ministers advisors wrote a snooty note to Buckingham Palace: One would wish to consider whether it was right for the Queen to be associated with the celebration of a rebellion from the British Crown. The Queen would go on to make the trip, though she arrived on July 6, because, as one Embassy official told the New York Times, July 4th was really pushing it. Forgiveness can only go so far. In a speech marking the occasion, the Queen herself would be more gracious. It seems to me that Independence Day should be celebrated as much in Britain as in America, she said to a crowd in Philadelphia. Not in rejoicing at the separation of the American colonies from the British Crown but in sincere gratitude to the Founding Fathers of this great Republic for having taught Britain a very valuable lesson We learnt to respect the right of others to govern themselves in their own ways. Without that great act in the cause of liberty, performed in Independence Hall two hundred years ago, we could never have transformed an Empire into a Commonwealth. Given this fondness for America, the Queens death doesnt just mean that Britain has lost a diplomatic and soft-power trump card, but also the guardian angel of the special relationship. Will her son, King Charles III, be able to fill that gap? For British officials eager for him to step into his mothers diplomatic role, Charles poses a number of problems. The first is that, through no fault of his own, he simply cannot provide the semi-mystical link to the past that his mother came to represent to the whole world. Another, which threatens to make things particularly difficult in the United States, is that Charles is a far more political figure than his mother. Whereas she stuck unstintingly to the narrowly defined role of constitutional monarch someone above the fray who intervenes only when strictly necessary he has been far more active in society during his long wait for the throne. The princes political activity has focused on climate change and the environment, hardly uncontroversial issues on this side of the pond, though more contentious stateside. As prince, Charles insisted that the rules are different for monarchs and heirs to the throne, promising to engage in the political sphere far less often once he became king. But its nonetheless easy to see how he might become a more politicized figure than his mother here in America. If you think a countrys standing and sway in the world is determined by more than its wealth or military might, then its hard not to see the death of Queen Elizabeth II as anything other than a grave diplomatic loss for the United Kingdom. The departure of the last living embodiment of a kind of British greatness that is easily understood on the world stage and in America will only add to anxiety about Britains place in the world and its relationship with its closest ally. But that one-sided anxiousness has been a feature of the special relationship since the term was coined by Winston Churchill in a 1946 speech in Fulton, Missouri. For all the ways in which the Queen helped make the special relationship what it is, her link with America is also a reminder that the UK-U.S. ties cannot be reduced to one or two individuals. They represent something far deeper, rooted in history, values, culture, commerce and defense. Elizabeth II knew that. And if her American counterparts doubted it when they were sworn in, they usually saw sense once theyd had tea with the Queen. Sarah Krivanek Sarah Krivanek Facebook In a letter written from a Russian prison, American citizen Sarah Krivanek says "the road has been very hard" since she first landed in legal trouble in Nov. 2021. "My health has grown worse. There are no vitamins here and no good medical care," Krivanek writes from a penal colony in Skopin, Russia. Krivanek is serving a one-year, three-month sentence in connection with assault charges that stemmed from a Nov. 2021 domestic dispute involving a Russian man named Mikhail Karavaev. After indicating in court that she was defending herself in the incident, Krivanek was released on bail. But while trying to flee Russia on Dec. 15, 2021, Krivanek was arrested at a Moscow airport before she was able to board her U.S.-bound plane. RELATED: 'Forgotten' American Woman Jailed in Russia with Brittney Griner Tried to Flee with U.S. Help Before Arrest "I have absolutely nothing!" Krivanek writes in the letter, which was exclusively obtained by PEOPLE. The silence-breaking correspondence was received Thursday morning by a Russian contact who had reached out on behalf of a family friend. Krivanek was provided with three blank pieces of paper to handwrite a reply to the Russian contact. She chose to only write on one piece of paper, saving the other two so that she could write additional letters down the road. Sarah Krivanek Sarah Krivanek Facebook Sarah Krivanek A Russian lawyer who represented Krivanek in her 2021 assault case tells PEOPLE that her client "desperately needs" financial help to get by for the remainder of her time behind bars. "Conditions there are awful, and the inmates rely on people to send them supplies," attorney Svetlana Gorbacheva says. "With no money she's in a worse situation than any of the inmates. And now it's winter; it's already cold and she won't have any warm clothes." "Please order fruit, vegetables, sour milk products, sugar, coffee, tea, shampoo, conditioner, juice, washing powder, meat, eggs and cigarettes," which are used for currency in prisons, Krivanek writes. Story continues PEOPLE shared Krivanek's letter with her close friend, who is spreading the word to loved ones. RELATED: How Sarah Krivanek Differs from Brittney Griner and What It Means to Be 'Wrongfully Detained' in Russia Gorbacheva said she's spoken by phone with her client twice in the past three weeks. Krivanek sobbed on one of the calls, the lawyer says. "Her health is bad," the attorney tells PEOPLE. "She's in pain with her kidneys." (A relative claims that Krivanek suffers from kidney failure that is life-threatening if not properly treated.) Sarah Krivanek Sarah Krivanek Facebook Gorbacheva believes that Krivanek's sentence is "unjust" and that she'll be deported from Russia upon her release, which will come in November, Krivanek believes, according to her letter. "I want to come home to you all. And when I get home, I will tell you everything. I can't do that in a letter," she writes. RELATED: Sarah Krivanek Was 'Desperate' to Leave Russia Before She Was Arrested, Says Family Member When she was arrested in December, Krivanek carried with her a document that showed she received a $200 repatriation loan from the U.S. government to cover expenses on her journey to the U.S. She also reportedly had a diplomatic escort to the airport. A U.S. State Department official confirmed the December arrest of an American citizen in Moscow and told PEOPLE in early August, "We take our role in assisting U.S. citizens abroad seriously and are monitoring the situation." Anita Martinez, an American friend of Krivanek who wrote to President Joe Biden begging for help, said last month that a U.S. official told her the State Department is "very concerned" and "doing everything they can to ensure her well-being." RELATED: Sarah Krivanek's Friend Writes to President Biden Begging for Him to Help the American Woman Jailed in Russia But Krivanek's letter indicates she's not heard from anyone representing the U.S. government, whose relations with Russia have been increasingly strained since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine in February. "I trust in God that someone from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow will come out to see me," Krivanek now writes. According to Gorbacheva, Krivanek has not been contacted by any U.S. officials since her airport arrest. "They abandoned her," the attorney says. "I don't know why." Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer. Sarah Krivanek Sarah Krivanek Facebook Responding to a request for comment on Martinez's account of her communications about Krivanek, a State Department official told PEOPLE in late August they were monitoring the situation. RELATED: State Department Officials Are 'Very Concerned' About American Woman Jailed in Russia, Her Friend Says "We continue to urge that Russian authorities allow consistent, timely consular access to all U.S. citizen detainees in Russia in line with its legal obligations and allow us to provide consular services for U.S. citizens detained in Russia," a State Department spokesperson told PEOPLE Friday. "Our requests for access are consistently delayed or denied. We also continue to press for fair and transparent treatment for all U.S. citizen detainees in Russia." Citing privacy considerations, the spokesperson declined to share anything further about Krivanek's circumstances or any efforts to assist her. "Tell everyone that I am always with them, and I never stop thinking about you all. You are in my heart," Krivanek writes toward the end of her note. "With God's help I shall soon be home! I send you all hugs and kisses!" When it was first established back in 1982, there weren't many places like Buffalo Wild Wings. But apparently, there was a national appetite for wings, as today not only are there 1,212 Buffalo Wild Wings locations across the United States, according to ScrapeHero, but there are also plenty more copycat restaurants, like Wingstop, Miller's Ale House, Hurricane Grill&Wings, and so on. The chain was started by a pair of buddies who found themselves living in Ohio and missing the chicken wings they were familiar with from their native Buffalo, New York. Known as B-Dubs by its massive customer fanbase, the chain now has locations in every state in America (Texas alone has more than 100) and a number of overseas units as well. But as popular as the chain has grown and as many diehard customers as it has, there are still a number of things to learn about the company that are less tasty than its famed wings. Here are 10 secrets Buffalo Wild Wings doesn't want you to know. (Plus, if you're looking for some local wings, check out The Best Chicken Wings in Every State.) 1 Customer opinion of the chain is sliding. Customers BWW In recent months, customers seem to have soured on Buffalo Wild Wings, with many people taking to social media platforms like Twitter and Reddit to express discontent with the company. Common complaints include slower service, higher prices, and inferior quality of the food itself. Eat this, not that Sign up for our newsletter! RELATED: 11 Secrets Texas Roadhouse Doesn't Want You to Know 2 The name used to be different. Buffalo Wild Wings When B-Dubs was first opened, the restaurant was called Buffalo Wild Wings&Weck, the "Weck" referring to a roast beef sandwich served on a kummelweck roll that is also popular in Buffalo, according to Delish. But the sandwich did not sell well while the wings didso the owners soon dropped the weck from the menu and the name, sticking with the rubric we know today. And yes, the weck is why the place is often called BW3. Story continues RELATED: Every State's Signature DishesRanked 3 The most popular menu item is not a chicken wing. Boneless wings BWW Buffalo Wild Wings sells a lot of chicken wings to be sure, but chicken wings are not the top-selling food on the company's menu. That honor goes to the boneless wings, which have outsold traditional wings for more than half a decade now, according to Mashed. RELATED: The Best&Worst Hot SaucesRanked! 4 As we said, the boneless "wings" are not actually wings. BWW wings Remember how we talked about that best-selling product at Buffalo Wild Wings being the so-called "boneless wings?" Well, those aren't chicken wings at all. According to The Counter, those are simply pieces of chicken breast meat cut into strips, coated, and deep-fried. It's misleading to call them wings when in fact they are simply chicken nuggets or, at best, chicken strips. RELATED: 10 Secrets Chili's Doesn't Want You to Know 5 The same company that owns Arby's owns Buffalo Wild Wings. Buffalo wild wings outside According to Restaurant Business Online, in the year 2017, facing serious financial troubles, Buffalo Wild Wings began to look for someone to buy it. And that someone, who snapped the company up in early 2018, was Roark Capital, also the owner of the fast-food company Arby's, which has been pegged as one of the least respected fast-food chains, via Slate. (Though to be fair, Arby's reputation has been improving.) RELATED: 11 Secrets Arby's Doesn't Want You to Know 6 The company has been accused of racism multiple times. BWW sauces Many former Buffalo Wild Wings employees have complained of being treated unfairly due to their skin color, according to Mashed. And what's perhaps even worse, even customers have reported discrimination issues, such as a group of black diners who were apparently moved to not sit near some white regulars at one location, and a customer who was apparently sprayed by a guard with pepper spray when he entered a restaurant to pick up an order. RELATED: 11 Secrets KFC Doesn't Want You to Know 7 Employees usually have to pay for their uniforms. uniforms BWW Buffalo Wild Wings only gives their employees one branded uniform shirt, the shirt servers are required to wear, says Mashed. That means either doing daily laundry when someone has back-to-back days on the books or else means the waiters and waitresses have to lay out their own money to buy a second and third shirt. Because showing up dirty is also not allowed. RELATED: 10 Secrets Hooters Doesn't Want You To Know 8 Almost none of the food is healthy. BWW foods It's, of course, no surprise that fried wings slathered in sauce and dipped in creamy dressingor fried pickles, fried mozzarella sticks, greasy burgers, and so onare hardly health foods, but the extent of the unhealthiness of Buffalo Wild Wings' food is still impressive in the pejorative sense. For example, according to HealthLine, a large order of the traditional wings with a spicy garlic sauce packs in a staggering 1,460 calories, 86 grams of fat, and 3,450 milligrams of sodium. A large boneless wings with Thai curry sauce? That nets you 2,040 calories, 133 grams of fat, and a sadistic 7,050 milligrams of sodium. RELATED: The 10 Worst Menu Items At Buffalo Wild Wings 9 Very little food is cooked fresh at Buffalo Wild Wings. eat food BWW According to numerous employees who reported in on the kitchens at Buffalo Wild Wings restaurants, most of the "cooking" that takes place there consists of deep frying and microwaving foods, many of which are stored frozen for extended periods of time, via Mashed. And often prepared foods sit under warming lamps for long stretches of time before they are served. A previous version of this article was originally published on December 10, 2021. Walker Hayes Corn Maze Honeysuckle Hill Farm; Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images A family farm in Middle Tennessee is home to the fanciest corn maze in the country. Forget date night at Applebee's this fall. Instead, head 30 minutes north of Nashville to Springfield and get lost in Honeysuckle Hill Farm's Walker Hayes corn maze. That's right, the 200-acre farm has a corn maze in the shape of the "Fancy Like" crooner's mug. Etched in the cornfield is "Nashville <3's Walker Hayes," along with the logo for 103.3 WKDF-FM, the local radio station that partnered with the farm on this year's design. Each year, Honeysuckle Hill Farm designs a country music-themed maze, and this yearfor their 20th anniversaryit was Hayes who earned the corny honor. Last year's design was dedicated to country legend Loretta Lynn. As for Hayes, the father of six seems flattered. He shared photos of the maze and the viral "corn kid" Tariq on Twitter Tuesday, writing: "Someone say corn?" along with a laughing face emoji. In addition to their famous corn maze, Honeysuckle Hill Farm offers a variety of activities for visitors of all ages like hay rides, zip lining, pumpkin picking, a petting farm, and more. Admission starts at $19.95 per person and includes the corn maze. Visit honeysucklehillfarm.com for tickets and more information. Former president Donald Trump speaks to supporters at a rally to support local candidates at the Mohegan Sun Arena on September 03, 2022 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Spencer Platt/Getty Images Donald Trump has again claimed the FBI planted evidence at Mar-a-Lago. It's a claim his lawyers have not made in court appearances. Trump has offered shifting defences in response to the August 8 raid. Donald Trump has made fresh claims that the FBI planted evidence in the August 8 search of his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida an argument notably absent in legal filings by his attorneys. The former US president repeated the claim in a posting on his Truth Social network Thursday, after the Justice Department demanded that a federal judge reinstate access to hundreds on classified documents the FBI retrieved in its recent search of his Palm Beach residence. The judge, Aileen Cannon, had on Monday suspended access to the documents until an independent official had reviewed them. "They leak, lie, plant fake evidence, allow the spying on my campaign, deceive the FISA Court, RAID and Break-Into my home, lose documents, and then they ask me, as the 45th President of the United States, to trust them," wrote Trump. He also referenced his longstanding, and unfounded, claim that hostile FBI officials had conspired to smear him over his ties to Russia during his presidency. In an earlier message he praised Cannon, whom he appointed, as "brilliant and courageous." Trump has previously claimed the FBI planted evidence in the immediate aftermath of the raid, though has not specified what they planted or offered evidence to back his claim. He has repeatedly suggested the FBI is part of a political plot against him, describing the agency as "monsters" at a rally last Saturday. But in response to a recent picture released by the DOJ taken during the raid, showing piles of folders with classified markings in Mar-a-Lago, Trump did not deny the folders were in his possession but said the photo had been set up to make him look bad. The 45th president's defences are different to those his attorneys are offering in court, where false claims of law enforcement misconduct can attract penalties. His lawyers have focussed on claims that many of the documents taken by the FBI are protected under privilege rules, and were successful in arguing for an independent official to review them on this basis. Story continues They have also argued that many of the documents were declassified by Trump before leaving office, but no evidence has emerged to substantiate that claim. The DOJ has requested that Abbott grant it access to the classified documents by September 15, or it will file an appeal. Read the original article on Business Insider Photo credit: Max Mumby/Indigo - Getty Images After the very sad announcement of Her Majesty's death on 8 September, many of us are taking a moment to pause and reflect on the incredible impact that Queen Elizabeth II had on the world and on levelling the playing field for women everywhere. During her 70 years as reigning monarch, Her Royal Highness was widely thought of as being the epitome of dedication to her work and serving others, as well as a loving mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. But she also pushed the boat when it felt appropriate, marking herself out as a woman not to be underestimated. Here, we take a look back at some of her most stand-out feminist moments... Queen Elizabeth II's most feminist moments Fixing cars during World War II As well as sending an inspirational message to other children in 1940, at the age of 14, via the radio, the Queen later trained as a driver and mechanic with the rank of Second Subaltern. She evidently took to it rather well, as six months on she was promoted to Junior Commander (the equivalent of Captain). Taking the King of Saudi Arabia for a drive Back in 2003, when Abdullah, the-then Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia (a country where, at the time, women where not permitted to drive) visited her in Balmoral, Her Majesty hopped behind the wheel and insisted on driving him in her Land Rover. It's said that her foreign visitor was incredibly nervous about all this, likely having never been driven by a woman before, and via his interpreter begged to "slow down and concentrate on the road". Photo credit: Max Mumby/Indigo - Getty Images Overseeing a change to succession laws Up until 2011, the laws of primogeniture in the UK dictated that the heir to the throne was always the first-born son of the monarch. This meant that daughters of the sovereign could be overlooked in favour of their male siblings. But, being the feminist icon that she was, the Queen oversaw a major adjustment to succession laws (in agreement with leaders of the 16 Commonwealth countries) allowing both sons and daughters of any future British monarch to have have equal rights to the throne under the Succession To The Crown Act. Story continues Giving *that* Women's Institute speech Being the most famous woman in the world, it was only fitting that Her Majesty opened the 100th annual meeting of the Womens Institute (WI) at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 2015. The WI, for those who don't know, is a female-led group based on the idea of bringing women together, advancing the education of women and girls for the public benefit, promoting sustainable development for the public benefit and advancing health for the public benefit. Her Majesty, who had been a member of the Sandringham WI since 1943, addressed more than 5,000 WI members with an inspiring speech to mark the anniversary. "There has been significant economic and social change since 1915," Her Majesty said. "Women have been granted the vote, British women have climbed Everest for the first time and the country has elected its first female prime minister." Photo credit: Chris Jackson - Getty Images The Queen went on: "In the modern world, the opportunities for women to give something of value to society are greater than ever, because, through their own efforts, they now play a much greater part in all areas of public life. "In 2015 it continues to demonstrate that it can make a real difference to the lives of women of all ages and cultural backgrounds, in a spirit of friendship, cooperation and support." Her Majesty refused to give up her surname Upon marrying her husband in 1947, the then-Princess Elizabeth declared that she would not be taking his surname, meaning that her family name Windsor would continue as that of the royal household. At the time, Prince Philip famously said: "I am the only man in the country not allowed to give his name to his own children." Since then, some royals including Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's children have been given the hyphenated surname of Mountbatten-Windsor, as a sign of respect. Photo credit: Keystone - Getty Images The Queen transformed education for royal women who came after her As was tradition at the time, Her Majesty was largely homeschooled as a child alongside her sister, Princess Margaret but made it her mission to improve the education of fellow royals once she became Queen. Despite the Queen Mother's protests, the monarch had her children educated outside of the palace a tradition which has continued up to the modern day, as we have seen with Her Majesty's great-grandchildren, including Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. The monarch championed the women's fashion industry In 2018, Queen Elizabeth II became the first ever monarch to attend a London Fashion Week show, sitting side-by-side with Anna Wintour (iconic!) at Richard Quinn's show. Photo credit: WPA Pool - Getty Images Her surprise appearance made headlines across the world and proved that Her Majesty well and truly championed women's fashion as a serious pursuit! You Might Also Like More than 40 Wyoming places now have new names, after a federal effort to remove a slur aimed at Indigenous women from federal landmarks. The term squaw has historically been used, often derogatorily, as an ethnic and sexist slur. The Department of the Interior, under the leadership of Laguna Pueblo member Secretary Deb Haaland, issued an order last year calling for more than 650 public places in the United States that use the term to be renamed. The department also replaced the term with sq___ in official communications. I feel a deep obligation to use my platform to ensure that our public lands and waters are accessible and welcoming. That starts with removing racist and derogatory names that have graced federal locations for far too long, Haaland said in a statement Thursday. Haaland is the first Indigenous person to serve in a cabinet position in the U.S. Forty-one places in Wyoming now have new names. About a third of those are creeks, including the waterway west of Casper that has now been dubbed Platte Creek, for the river it empties into. A Carbon County canyon with the offensive name is now known as Continental Divide Canyon. The site known as Sq___ Teats outside Meeteetse is now Crow Woman Buttes. Several new site names in Wyoming also borrow terms from Indigenous languages, such as Kuchuntekaa Toyavi for a peak in Park County, Pannaite Naokwaide for a well-traveled creek in the Bridger-Teton National Forest and Tuka Naaiya PoI Hunuu for a canyon in Teton County. The new names will go into effect immediately, according to a statement from the department Thursday. Haalands order created a task force that included representatives from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and other federal agencies. Local naming boards were able to make recommendations, but most of the renaming happened on the federal level. Tribal governments of nearly 70 tribes also participated in nation-to-nation consultations, resulting in several hundred recommendations for new names, Thursdays statement said. Many of the new names come from nearby landmarks, including mountains, streams or springs. A full list of names changed under this order, as well as a map with each location, is available on the U.S. Geographical Survey website. Before the Interiors order, just one federal place with the derogatory term in its name a lake in Yellowstone National Park had been changed in Wyoming, to Indian Pond in 1981. In June, a Yellowstone peak named after an Army lieutenant who led a massacre of Native Americans was renamed to First Peoples Mountain, after a unanimous vote by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. Names that still use derogatory terms are an embarrassing legacy of this countrys colonialist and racist past, said John Echohawk, executive director of the Native American Rights Fund, in a statement following Haalands announcement. It is well-past time for us, as a nation, to move forward, beyond these derogatory terms, and show Native people and all people equal respect. Meet Peter Neal, the 28-year-old lawyer marrying Joe Biden's granddaughter Naomi at the White House this fall President Joe Biden's granddaughter Naomi Biden is engaged to Peter Neal. They're getting married on the South Lawn of the White House this fall. Neal is a law school graduate who interned for the Obama White House and Hillary Clinton. Naomi Biden and her fiance Peter Neal are getting married at the White House this fall. Naomi Biden and Peter Neal at the Paramount White House Correspondents' Dinner after party in April 2022. Eman Mohammed/CBS via Getty Images Their wedding will be held November 19 on the South Lawn of the White House. It will be the 19th White House wedding in history. "Peter and I are endlessly grateful to my Nana and Pop for the opportunity to celebrate our wedding at the White House," Biden tweeted on April 4. "We can't wait to make our commitment to one another official and for what lies ahead." Neal grew up in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Naomi Biden and fiance Peter Neal. Mary Kouw/CBS via Getty Images Neal's mother Mary Neal is an orthopedic spine surgeon and the author of two books, "To Heaven and Back: A Doctor's Extraordinary Account of Her Death, Heaven, Angels, and Life Again" and "7 Lessons from Heaven: How Dying Taught Me to Live a Joy-Filled Life," based on her near-death experience in a kayaking accident. She appeared in the Netflix docuseries "Surviving Death." Neal's family also runs a small business in Wyoming. He has three siblings: Eliot, Betsy, and Willie, who died at age 19 when he was hit by a car in 2009. In his memory, the Neal family established the Willie Neal Environmental Awareness Fund which aims to promote "responsible choices through education, community involvement, and environmental initiatives." He met Naomi in June 2018 on a date set up by a mutual friend. Naomi Biden and Peter Neal ride bikes in Nantucket, Massachusetts, in November 2021. MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images In a post on Instagram in June, Neal commemorated their four-year anniversary with a throwback picture from the day after they met. Neal proposed to Naomi near his childhood home in Jackson Hole in September 2021. They live in Washington, DC, with their dog Charlie. Naomi Biden and her boyfriend Peter Neal with their dog Charlie after a trip to Camp David in February 2021. Erin Scott/Reuters Charlie has accompanied the couple on trips to Camp David with the Bidens. Naomi, who is an associate attorney at the DC law firm Arnold & Porter, told TODAY's Jenna Bush Hager before Biden's inauguration that she was looking forward to having her grandparents so close to home. Story continues "I'm really excited that they'll be just a few miles away from my apartment, so I can go steal some free food from the kitchen," she said. Like Naomi, Neal is also a lawyer. Peter Neal and Naomi Biden attend the Ralph Lauren Fall 2022 Fashion Show in New York City in March 2022. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images Neal majored in political communications with a minor in journalism and mass communication at George Washington University, and graduated from law school at the University of Pennsylvania in May. During his law studies, he completed externships at the National Security Division of the Department of Justice and the US House General Counsel's Office and was an associate editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. As an undergraduate, he interned at the White House under President Obama and worked on Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. Naomi Biden and Peter Neal walk from Air Force One as they travel with President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden in September 2022. Evan Vucci/AP After Clinton lost the 2016 election, Neal posted a photo on Instagram of a sign on her desk that said "Never, never, never give up." "This is the epitome of public service," he wrote. "Nothing comes easy, and no one understands that better than Hillary Clinton. I noticed this sitting on her desk today, and the message could not be more apt, or more fitting for the woman whose desk it sits on. She has set the bar for what it means to be a public servant, and it's time for all of us to take notes, buckle down, and follow suit. That this is what she is reminding herself of daily should give us all hope and inspiration." In 2020, he and Naomi worked together to create an online quiz helping people and small businesses determine their eligibility for COVID-19-related government aid. From left to right: first lady Dr. Jill Biden, President Joe Biden, Naomi Biden and Peter Neal walk to the White House from Marine One. Pete Marovich/Getty Images While quarantining together and completing their law school coursework online, Biden and Neal created the My CARES Act Benefits quiz. The website broke down the 335-page Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act into a series of questions that people could answer to see if they qualified for any aid from the $2.2 trillion stimulus package. "There had to be a better way for the programs and the eligibility to be communicated with people," Neal told MTV News in 2020. "It was either that or watch 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' for the third time in a row," Biden joked. He often appears alongside Naomi at White House events and Biden family vacations. Naomi Biden and Peter Neal greet Governor Gavin Newsom as President Joe Biden arrives in Los Angeles to attend the 9th Summit of the Americas in June 2022. JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images Neal attended Biden's inauguration and has joined Naomi's family for Thanksgiving in Nantucket and a trip to Camp David. In June, he spent Father's Day with the Bidens in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and traveled to California as Biden attended the 9th Summit of the Americas. Read the original article on Insider FILE PHOTO: Banners displaying the NATO logo are placed at the entrance of new NATO headquarters during the move to the new building BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg urged allies on Friday to supply Kyiv with winter gear such as clothing, tents and generators to enable Ukrainian troops to keep on fighting Russia's invasion in the cold season. Average winter temperatures are below freezing for much of the country and it is not unusual for temperatures to drop to minus 15 degrees Celsius. "The winter is coming, it's going to be hard, and therefore we need both to continue to supply weapons and ammunition but also winter clothing, tents, generators and all the specific equipment which is needed for the winter," Stoltenberg told reporters after meeting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Brussels. "Partly because the size of the Ukrainian army has just increased so much, they need more of this kind of winter equipment, and NATO is particularly focused on how we can provide tens of thousands of, for instance, winter uniforms," Stoltenberg added. On Friday, swiftly advancing Ukrainian troops were approaching the main railway supplying Russian forces in the east of the country, after the collapse of a section of Russia's front line caused the most dramatic shift in the war's momentum since its early weeks. It was the first lightning advance of its kind reported by either side for months, in a war mainly characterised by grinding frontline battles since Russia abandoned its ill-fated assault on the capital Kyiv in March. Stoltenberg called on NATO allies to ramp up defence production, as well to stock up their own inventories so they could deliver more weapons to Kyiv. "We are now in close contact with the defence industry, with capitals ... to ensure that we are now ramping up production, that we are replenishing the stocks," he said. "This is also about ensuring that we have the weapons, the ammunitions, the capabilities in place for our own deterrence and defence," he underlined. (Reporting by Sabine Siebold; Editing by Tomasz Janowski) By Stephanie Kelly NEW YORK (Reuters) -Oil prices rose about 4% on Friday, supported by real and threatened cuts to supply, although futures posted a second weekly decline as aggressive interest rate hikes and China's COVID-19 curbs weighed on the demand outlook. Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to halt oil and gas exports to Europe if price caps are imposed and a small cut to OPEC+ oil output plans announced this week also supported prices. Brent crude rose $3.69, or 4.1%, to settle at $92.84 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose $3.25, or 3.9% to settle at $86.79 a barrel. "Over the coming months, the West will have to contend with the risk of losing Russian energy supplies and oil prices soaring," said Stephen Brennock of oil broker PVM. Pressured by worries about a recession and demand, Brent is down sharply from a surge in March close to its all-time high of $147 after Russia invaded Ukraine. The Group of Seven is trying to find ways to limit Russia's lucrative oil export revenue in the wake of the invasion. A price cap that G7 countries want to impose on Russian oil to punish Moscow should be set at a fair market value minus any risk premium resulting from its invasion of Ukraine, a U.S. Treasury Department official told reporters on Friday. Despite Friday's bounce, both crude benchmarks were headed for a weekly drop, with Brent down about 0.2% on the week after at one point hitting its lowest since January. WTI posted a weekly decline of 0.1%. If the U.S. Federal Reserve is able to keep the unemployment rate below 5%, it can be aggressive on bringing down inflation but after that tradeoffs will appear, Fed Governor Christopher Waller said on Friday. The Fed should be aggressive with rate hikes while the economy "can take a punch," he said. A U.S. Department Of Energy official said the White House was not considering new releases from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) at this time beyond the 180 million barrels that President Joe Biden announced months ago. Earlier, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told Reuters the administration was weighing the need for further SPR releases. Story continues "The White House is backing off another release from the SPR," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Price Futures Group. "Looks like a lot of the fears the market had previously have gone away." U.S. oil rigs fell five to 591 this week, their lowest since mid June, energy services firm Baker Hughes Co said, as the growth in the rig count and production has slowed despite relatively high energy prices. Meanwhile, European Central Bank's unprecedented rate hike of 75 basis points this week and more COVID-19 lockdowns in China have weighed on prices. The city of Chengdu extended a lockdown for most of its more than 21 million residents on Thursday while millions more in other parts of China were told to shun travel during upcoming holidays. Money managers cut their net long U.S. crude futures and options positions by 3,274 contracts to 165,158 in the week to Sept. 6, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said on Friday. (Reporting by Stephanie Kelly in New York; additional reporting by Alex Lawler in London, Sonali Paul in Melbourne and Jeslyn Lerh in Singapore; editing by David Gregorio and Alistair Bell) New York City Mayor Eric Adams kicked off New York Fashion week Thursday night at a cocktail party at Gracie Mansion. Michael Kors, Tommy Hilfiger, Vera Wang, Diane von Furstenberg, Thom Browne, Tory Burch, Willy Chavarria, Wes Gordon, Maria Cornejo, Cynthia Rowley, Yeohlee Teng, Dee Ocleppo, Frederick Anderson, Jeffrey Banks, Batsheva Haart, Bach Mai, Sally LaPointe, Carly Cushnie, Jackson Wierhoeft and Jacques Agbobly were among the dozens of designers in the standing-room only crowd. The CFDAs Steven Kolb and Anna Wintour led the welcoming committee and there was much merriment all the way around. More from WWD Other fashion forces, like the Metropolitan Museum of Arts Andrew Bolton, Instagrams Eva Chen, YouTubes Derek Blasberg, Moda Operandis Lauren Saint Somingo, Carolina Herreras Emilie Rubinfeld and Linda Fargo were also in the mix. Adams boomed, You are the exclamation point of New York. They say if you look good, you feel good so we know we feel good tonight, because you all look so good. Gordon introduced the mayor by sharing his own made in New York story, recalling how a young man had once asked for advice about a necktie purchase, and he then he gifted the stranger three more ties through a salesperson. Adams told his designer guests that their business was much more than fashion. Wedding dresses, neckties for job interviews, wardrobe refreshers for domestic violence victims and children in homeless shelters all can lead to life-defining moments, he said. Noting how a designer relayed the mayors message of wanting to end gun violence, Adams said, You are the signatures of who we are as a city. I cant thank you enough. You grace Gracie Mansion with your presence. Adams singled out one of the evenings cohosts, Conde Nasts Anna Wintour, as the angel who wears Prada, citing her remarkable love for the city. Story continues All of a sudden the mayor comes in and says hes a nightlife mayor, and he knows and appreciates style, Adams said. New York is back. We are alive. Were going to bring that artistic energy that we are known for and the diversity of this city. This fashion week we are going to move about and know that you are a $600 million juggernaut just in this week alone. That is twice the amount if we were to have a Super Bowl here. You bring [a stronger] economy to the city 100,000 employees, $100 million in tax revenue. Without a doubt, New York has always been a center for creativity and for commerce, and fashion qualifies on both fronts as well as providing a significant employment, according to Kors. Having the mayor rally the troops to remind everyone of the strength of New York and American fashion makes Adams a great flag waver, Kors said. In the wake of the past two years, the pandemic shutdown and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, such a vote of confidence carries more weight. For a lot of people the world can feel very negative on a daily basis. I always joke that some people think Im Pollyanna always running around like everythings hunky dory. I think the world needs positivity. Its important and its actually New York, Kors said. Despite that, a lot of people got down on the city or left, but Kors said he is excited to see the amount of young people moving back or moving here for the first time. That reminds me of when I first came here. Theyre juiced. Theyre excited and entrepreneurial all of the good things. Wearing identical ivory-colored suits, Tanner Fletchers Tanner Richie and Fletcher Kassel fit that bill. Surprised to hear about the fashion industrys financial might from the mayor, Kassel said the chance to be in the same room as Gordon, Wintour and Santo Domingo was extremely beneficial from a business perspective. Richie noted what an integral part of the city the garment district is with more brands relying on it especially during the pandemic, when overseas production was no longer an option for many. I feel that we need to get a lot of the manufacturing back to New York to support the city and also for sustainability. Theres talent here so why arent we using it? Hilfiger summed up the scene as, Everyone is honored to be part of this event. And Rowley seconded that, noting how Adams opened up Gracie Mansion in the name of fashion in the midst of the United Nations General Assembly, multiple art fairs and the U.S. Open. All the togetherness after 18 months of much at-home time took some getting used to for some. Wearing a few necklaces including one with a sparkly Im in charge pendant, Von Furstenberg mentioned in conversation outdoors on a patio that she was no longer greeting people with kisses. She wasnt the only COVID-19-adverse person in the rotation. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder indoors, one guest surmised the collective denial. As the elder statesman of the industry, whose fashion career started in the 50s, Stan Herman wasnt just impressed by Adams astrological sign of a Virgo. Theyre workers, Theyre diligent, they love being out front, but they know how to do things in the back room as well. There was a poetry part to what was said.]. The mayor has a lot of expectations. He talks about the future. He doesnt talk about the past. Its a very positive attitude. I feel good about the industry right now. Walking around the city today I suddenly saw a light again. Its beginning to happen. Cornejo is also seeing glimmers with online sales strengthening and more walk-in shoppers in her downtown store more than any time in the past two and a half years. The citys back. There are a lot of tourists and everyones here for the art fairs from Europe. The thing about America and New York is it is optimistic. We keep going. And Europe is looking quite bleak [financially.] There are a lot of Europeans showing here this season. In recent seasons, there has been a steady return to live shows and events, Kolb said. It speaks to creative expression and human nature to want to be out and about. That is reflective of CFDA members, young designers, established designers, international designers we have three this season. Also, 20 percent of the brands are led by designers of color. Wiederhoft needed no convincing about the importance of Thursdays major meet-up. Having started his company three years ago, the opportunity to be invited to Gracie Mansion was not something he was about to miss even though his first runway show is Wednesday. My mother and my grandmother are both New Yorkers and Italian Americans. Like most designers, its not just [about] dresses and fancy sparkled things. This is an industry. We support each other. We support local garment makers. We support set designers and lighting people. To be part of that community that brings not only beauty but also a true economical force is really cool, he said. Black Boy Knits founder Agbobly agreed, as he knows a lot of people in the industry but had yet to be in the same room with some of them. This is important to start strengthening the community of designers, who are new to fashion. By meeting people face-to-face for the first time, you can start to build a relationship. Adams is on board with hosting more meet-and-greet events at Gracie Mansion, assuring the guests in his closing remarks that the event would be an annual one for as long as he is mayor. With that, he worked the packed room, shaking hands, posing for selfies and making the rounds with the designers. So much so, that one member of his security team seemed to lose sight of him but only momentarily. We got him, he said confidently. Launch Gallery: CFDA Kicks Off NYFW With Mayor Adams Sign up for WWD's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. RSVP for "A Matter of Style", a Fairchild Archive exhibition September 9-10 in New York City. Click here to read the full article. NEW YORK Fox News veteran Geraldo Rivera tweeted that hes bummed out by election-deniers and done with his old pal Donald Trump, who keeps egging them on. The 79-year-old Brooklyn natives declaration was met with disdain by those who remain faithful to the former president and his 2020 election claims. Election Deniers depress me, Rivera tweeted Wednesday. I blame President Trump for his shameful campaign to slander and undermine American faith in our elections. Rivera noted there were things the 45th president did while in office that he supports, but added, I could never support him again. Rivera, a Brooklyn Law School alumni, concluded in his tweet that without fealty to the Constitution, America becomes a second-rate nation. Even after Trump lost his 2020 bid for reelection by 7 million votes, Rivera stood by his fellow former New Yorker and assured the public via social media that Trump would come to his senses. In November, Rivera said after a heartfelt phone call with his friend Donald Trump, that the defeated president assured him he is a realist wholl do whats right. He also suggested to Trump on Twitter that the time had come to move in with grace and dignity. Trump, however, went another direction and doubled down on his insistence that the election had been stolen from him in ways hes failed to explain by perpetrators who remain unclear. Nevertheless, Trump loyalists attacked Rivera on Twitter Thursday in support of the former presidents conspiracy theories. In addition to expressing confusion over how, in some states, Trump was leading the election at one point, then fell behind as more ballots were counted, those followers attacked Rivera personally. Geraldo is 2nd rate...maybe 3rd, tweeted one MAGA supporter. Rivera frequently finds himself at odds with far right-wing Republicans, including his colleagues at Fox News, who sometimes take issue with his relatively moderate positions. Last month, he offered a backhanded defense of GOP supporters who believe Trump was robbed in 2020. Story continues That doesnt make them ignorant or racist, It makes them disappointing, he said. Theyre drunk on Trump Koolaid, and either dont believe he lost, or worse, dont care. A Fox News poll taken shortly after the 2020 ballots were counted found that 68% of Republicans believe Trump was denied an election win. That same survey claimed 56% of respondents believed Trumps challenge of the election outcome was weakening American Democracy. An Arizona man died during a hike in blazing hot weather over the Labor Day weekend. Evan Dishion, 32 years old, was hiking with a group of friends outside of Phoenix on Monday when the group ran out of water and got lost. Temperatures in the Phoenix area reached up to 109 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius) on Monday. Dr Dishion was a first-year resident at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix. He had recently become a new father to a daughter, Chloe, according to ABC 15 News. Five other hikers in the group were also rescued but did not require hospitalization. Captain Dave Folio with the Scottsdale fire department said that their cell phones had died, and they needed to borrow someone elses to call 911, according to Arizonas Family. I think it was 109 outside, so it was extreme heat. They should have been off the trail three or four hours ago, Mr Folio said, according to the local news channel. Mr Dishion was taken to the hospital and later died of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Extreme heat like that can quickly lead to serious health issues such as heat stroke, where the body is unable to cool itself down. High temperatures can be especially dangerous for people who may be more vulnerable, like the elderly or those with pre-existing health conditions, but they can affect anyone. A statement from the Barrow Neurological Institute provided to Arizonas Family said called Dr Dishion a kind and generous person who made it his mission and passion to improve the lives of others. His wife Amy told ABC 15 News that Dr Dishion was really thoughtful and self-reflective and intelligent, and he just wanted to help people. Much of the Phoenix area remains under an excessive heat warning as extreme heat sweeps through the western US. High temperatures today are expected to reach up to 108F (42C). California experienced record-high temperatures on Monday and Tuesday this week, courtesy of an intense heat dome that has stagnated over the western edge of North America. Another hiker in the Grand Canyon, in northern Arizona, also died over the weekend after becoming disoriented in triple-digit heat, according to the Associated Press. Arizona has always been hot but extreme temperatures and heatwaves are likely to get a lot more common as the climate crisis grows. Phoenix now sees more than 20 days per year with temperatures over 110F (43C), compared to about 15 days per year in 1970, according to the non-profit Climate Central. Democratic congressional leaders are facing a progressive revolt -- that could potentially risk a government shutdown -- in the wake of the closed-door deal between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin that won the latter's crucial support for the Inflation Reduction Act. After repeatedly slamming that "disastrous side deal" that would streamline the permitting process for energy projects across the U.S. -- which Schumer agreed to include with a must-pass spending bill to fund the federal government -- Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., promptly announced Thursday that he intends to oppose the funding resolution as a result. "If the United States Congress goes on record and says, 'Yes we are going to support more fossil fuel reduction, more carbon emissions,' the signal we are sending to our own people and the planet is a terrible, terrible signal," Sanders said in a floor speech. He did not mince words with reporters afterward. Asked if he would vote no on funding the government if the Schumer-Manchin permitting deal is attached, he replied: "Yes. You're talking about the future for the planet." MORE: Calculate how much Biden's Inflation Reduction Act may save you Sanders' opposition adds to the growing progressive pressure in the House, where some left-wing lawmakers have likewise threatened to block the government funding bill if it includes Manchin's desired changes to energy permitting. Sanders on Thursday read from a soon-to-be-released letter -- obtained by ABC News Wednesday -- that he said had been signed by "at least 59" House progressives opposing the Schumer-Manchin agreement. That deal, Sanders said, quoting from the letter, "would silence the voices of environmental communities by insulating them from scrutiny. This would cause members to choose between protecting environmental justice communities from further pollution or funding the government. We urge you to ensure these provisions are kept out of a continuing resolution or any other must-pass legislation this year." Story continues PHOTO: Sen. Joe Manchin looks to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer after U.S. President Joe Biden signs The Inflation Reduction Act in the State Dining Room of the White House August 16, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Manchin has argued that permitting reform will also help speed projects related to wind, solar and other environmentally friendly sources of energy. He's adamant that permitting reform must stay in the funding bill and, so far, he seems to have Schumer's backing. Despite the progressive rhetorical thunder, it is possible that the bill to fund the government -- which will also include popular aid for Ukraine and disaster relief -- will garner enough GOP support to render the threatened liberal blockade moot. "It was a rank political deal," Sen. Richard Shelby, the top Republican on the appropriations committee, told reporters Thursday of Manchin and Schumer's agreement. But he stopped short of saying it would put government funding in jeopardy. MORE: Joe Manchin is 'intentionally sabotaging the president's agenda': Bernie Sanders Still, some other Republicans are vowing to oppose the funding resolution because they oppose Schumer and Manchin's dealmaking. Many conservatives have said they took umbrage at the last-minute nature of the deal among Democrats on the sweeping climate and health care reform legislation known as the IRA. It passed without a single GOP vote -- not long after some Republicans had voted with Democrats on computer chip funding, thinking that the Democrats' social spending bill was dead. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told ABC that "I would vote against it," referring to government funding, and he said he was urging his Republican colleagues to do the same. It's not yet clear whether Republicans will unite behind Graham's effort, but most GOP aides familiar with the matter say they do not expect that. ABC News' Mariam Khan contributed to this report. Sanders leads progressive revolt over Manchin-backed 'side deal' for government funding bill originally appeared on abcnews.go.com Washington, D.C., mayor Muriel Bowser declared a public emergency on Thursday in response to the arrival of thousands of migrants in the district on buses from Texas and Arizona. The declaration allocates funding to create an Office of Migrant Services, which will provide migrants with temporary accommodations and transportation, as well as meet their urgent medical needs. Were putting in place a framework that would allow us to have a coordinated response with our partners, the mayor said. This will include a program to meet all buses, and given that most people will move on, our primary focus is to make sure we have a humane, efficient, welcome process that will allow people to move on to their final destination. Regardless of the federal response which I think has been lacking in some respects that the District of Columbia would continue to work with partners to advance what we need and ensure our systems in D.C. are not broken by a crisis that is certainly not of our making, Bowser added. The declaration comes after Texas governor Greg Abbott said the Lone Star state is filling gaps left in Bidens absence at our border, in part by busing illegal immigrants to sanctuary cities. Abbott noted late last month that Texas has made over 19,000 arrests, seized over 335.5M lethal fentanyl doses, & sent over 7,400 migrants on buses to DC and over 1,500 to NYC. Abbott previously said he decided to send busloads of migrants to Washington, D.C., and New York City because of President Bidens continued refusal to acknowledge the crisis caused by his open border policies, saying that the State of Texas has had to take unprecedented action to keep our communities safe. In addition to Washington, D.C., New York City is the ideal destination for these migrants, who can receive the abundance of city services and housing that Mayor Eric Adams has boasted about within the sanctuary city, he said when the first busload arrived in New York this summer. Story continues Last month the Pentagon rejected a second request by Bowser to deploy the National Guard to help prevent a prolonged humanitarian crisis in our nations capital resulting from the daily arrival of migrants. She requested 150 personnel to help transport migrants to the D.C. Armory where the mission would help the illegal immigrants on their eventual movement to their final destinations, Bowser wrote. The Pentagon rejected the mayors first request on August 4. Defense Department executive secretary Kelly Bulliner Holly then sent a second rejection letter to Bowser on August 22 explaining that the D.C. National Guard is not trained to assist migrants, according to a copy of the letter obtained by several media outlets. The DCNG has no specific experience in or training for this kind of mission or unique skills for providing facility management, feeding, sanitation or ground support, the letter read. Approval of this request would also result in a substantial readiness impact to the DCNG, Holly said. Devoting the personnel or the facility for such an extended mission would force the cancellation or disruption of military training. The letter noted that several non-government organizations and civilian groups are assisting with the arrival of migrants. More from National Review Where is the data for charter school effectiveness? A recent Tennessean opinion column, that supported Governor Lees radical statewide Hillsdale College 50 charter school intervention, fell flat when it came to data support. And there is no data in the public domain that supports charter school effectiveness. In fact, the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) shows, in reading, charter schools slightly lagging public schools. This rebuttal is not about opposing the existence of charter schools but more about opposing a wholesale statewide charter school intervention. It has become routine in the Tennessee educational discourse to, without context, suggest a crisis- situation, as was done in this Tennessean column, using the Tennessee English Language Arts proficiency rate of just 36%. Without context, this can leave readers believing Tennessee is performing at only 36% proficiency, while the rest of the country soars at 100%. This could not be further from the truth. Hear more Tennessee Voices: Get the weekly opinion newsletter for insightful and thought provoking columns. Data shows no crisis A national context to the data suggests that while there is room for improving above average, there is no crisis-situation in Tennessee. After slowly improving over the years, the national 2019 proficiency rate in reading, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), resides around 35%. Given the former reality and without data support, the column goes on to support the objectionable statewide introduction of Hillsdale Charter Schools. But for a moment, forget about the recently scorned Hillsdale, and just consider the following. Would it be needless and objectionable, in any state, for a Governor to advocate for 50 out of state single operator charter schools, to be inserted statewide, into the public education system? Thats not to mention, a charter school network spawned from a religious college. Story continues The former gubernatorial initiative suggests, in Tennessee anyway, that some 75,000 Tennessee educators lack the acumen to operate schools and improve the educational trajectory of the state. The fact is, that while healthy reform is needed, such a radical charter school intervention is unneeded in Tennessee and likely any state in the country. More concerning on the data front, is that as the General Assembly was considering the educational funding overhaul last session, historic Tennessee report card data, was not publicly accessible. Nor was the State of Tennessee educational P-20 longitudinal data system, housed by the Governor Lee Administration, publicly unavailable. Why and what are the hiding? Hear from Tennessee's Black voices: Get the weekly newsletter for powerful and critical thinking columns. Given the former and with the backdrop question, does it concern anyone that the Bill First chaired State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE), and known leading Tennessee educational policy driver is a complete failure? The facts are clear on SCORE. Since around SCOREs establishment in 2010 and though pre-COVID 2019 and with the help of $500M in Federal Race to the Top funds - based on compiled data from the National Center on Educational Statistics - Tennessee is next to last in percentage post-secondary education completion increases, in the Southeastern United States, and only ahead of Louisiana. SCOREs K-12 results have introduced grossly deficient Tennessee post-secondary outcomes all while charter schools have increased statewide and particularly in Tennessees largest Shelby County, where proficiency outcomes have continued to falter vs the Tennessee average. Increased competition by charters has not worked to increase academic outcomes in Shelby County. And this Shelby County faltering occurred while all three Shelby County SCORE Board members stood by and watched. All that to say, while charter schools may have a place in the educational system, there is no data to support accelerating charters into the public educational system. Besides, significant academic competition exists between local public schools and districts across the state. And while there is room for improvement, there is certainly no data to suggest an educational crisis exists in Tennessee. That is a crisis to warrant, inserting 50 single operator charter schools throughout Tennessees educational system. Joe B. Kent is a Tennessee taxpayer, justice and career pathways advocate. This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Opinion: Tennessee and Hillsdale charter school partnership is unneeded Eagle Eye demos AI innovations at Stand 5C22 ESSEN, Germany, September 09, 2022--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Eagle Eye Networks, the global leader in cloud video surveillance, today announced it will showcase its flagship Eagle Eye Cloud VMS (video management system), with its new AI-powered Smart Video Search as well as its ability to easily integrate access control, alarm management systems and other technologies for a customized end-to-end solutionat the Security Essen show, which is taking place at the Convention Centre here Sept. 20-23, 2022. "With the rapid adoption of cloud and the advent of AI innovations like Smart Video Search, 2022 is turning out to be a seminal year for the security industry," said Dean Drako, Founder and CEO of Eagle Eye Networks. "Designed to protect data and privacy, our cybersecure cloud video surveillance solutions with AI and analytics can help German businesses comply with privacy regulations, improve security, optimize business operations, and deliver better customer service." Attendees are invited to book a meeting in advance here, and to visit Stand 5C22 for demos and discussions: Eagle Eye Smart Video Search: Search video the same way you search the web. Simply type in "person with backpack", "red Audi car", "person with green shirt" and find the exact video across all cameras in all sites. Free; no additional hardware or subscriptions required. Open Platform: Eagle Eye offers Infinite scalability, flexible pricing, advanced analytics, and an open API platform for unlimited customization. Partnerships and Integrations: Eagle Eye has a vast technology partner network, and is pleased to exhibit with Brivo and Sitasys. Featured solutions include: Brivo Access, for smart powerful building security; and evalink, the fully managed, automated, and integrated alarm management platform by Sitasys. ABOUT EAGLE EYE NETWORKS Eagle Eye Networks is the global leader in cloud video surveillance, delivering cyber-secure cloud-based video with artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics to make businesses more efficient and the world a safer place. The Eagle Eye Cloud VMS (video management system) is the only platform robust and flexible enough to power the future of video surveillance and intelligence. Eagle Eye is based in Austin, Texas with offices in Amsterdam, Bangalore, and Tokyo. Learn more at een.com. Story continues View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220908006086/en/ Contacts EAGLE EYE PRESS CONTACT GLOBAL HQ Martha Entwistle mentwistle@een.com EMEA Nova Ewers newers@een.com The Utah company that bought Meadowlark Community mobile home park in 2020 is shopping the property around after a bumpy two years. Last winter, Meadowlark residents turned on their taps and found brown and black water pouring out. Montana Department of Environmental Quality investigated and discovered the minerals iron and manganese in the water generally considered safe but unpalatable, according to DEQ. The park has spent the last year trying to fix it. Havenpark has acknowledged that Meadowlark has had ongoing water issues, but maintains the water was always safe to drink, despite the color. "The water is still really dirty," resident Katelyn Anton said on Friday. With the news that Utah-based Havenpark Communities might sell Meadowlark, Anton's hope is that residents there now might get the chance to buy the mobile home park themselves. Three miles north on South Billings Boulevard, residents at C&C Community Mobile Home Park did just that in 2018 with the help of NeighborWorks Montana, a nonprofit organization working to create and protect affordable housing across the state. In 2018, the residents of C&C began the process of buying the park from its owner, Chuck Barrett, and incorporating themselves into a cooperative nonprofit. The sale was finalized a year later, and over the last three years, C&C Community has made significant infrastructure improvements and bonded as a neighborhood. "It's totally changed," said Wendy Herman, president of the C&C Community board and park resident for more than 25 years. "We were a community; now we're friends." On Friday morning, she walked around the mobile home park with her friend Mary Lou Affleck, pointing out the changes and improvements. In 2018 Affleck was working for NeighborWorks and first contacted Barrett, pitching him on selling the park to its residents. She's since retired and now works part-time for Rebuilding Together Yellowstone County, a nonprofit that provides free home repairs for low-income homeowners. "It's night and day," Affleck said of how the park has changed since 2018. "They made the dream come true in my opinion." As a newly formed cooperative nonprofit, C&C Community was eligible for a number of grants and programs to update infrastructure and help residents improve their homes. One of the biggest was a community development block grant through the city of Billings for $385,000. Additional infrastructure grant funding pushed the total to just over $500,000, with which the park was able to repave its roads, install street lights, improve its signage and fencing, install storm drains and a fire hydrant, and rebuild the park's pump house and utility shed. "No one person can solve everything," Affleck said. "But through partnerships you can improve things 10 fold." It's something Anton at Meadowlark would like to see happen. Residents there have dreamed about owning their park for years, she said. NeighborWorks has expressed interest in helping purchase Meadowlark and is pursuing its options with Havenpark. Owners who sell to a nonprofit receive a tax break. For decades, Meadowlark was Blains Mobile Home Court, situated between the Yellowstone River and the Billings Regional Landfill just off South Billings Boulevard. In 2020, Blains sold to Havenpark Communities, which christened it Meadowlark. A spokesman for Havenpark said the company has yet to decide if it will sell Meadowlark. "We have recently received several offers from interested parties to purchase Meadowlark," he said in an email on Friday. "While we are evaluating those offers, we have not determined at this time whether we will sell," he said. "We are very happy with our purchase of Meadowlark and our efforts to enhance and grow a stronger community." Owning the parks in which they live help empower those residents and it gives them a sense of housing security and pride in their communities, Herman said. Mobile home park residents often own the homes in which they live but not the property on which the homes sit. That land belongs to the park owner, and residents rent the space. It leaves residents vulnerable to rent hikes and other fees, or to losing their homes altogether should the owner sell the park to an entity interested in developing the land, Affleck said. NeighborWorks Montana has helped residents from over a dozen mobile home parks across Montana buy their communities. C&C was the first in Billings. Back at Meadowlark, Anton received notice that her rent will increase again in January, a jump of $40. Between rent and other fees, she'll now be paying over $740 dollars to live in Meadowlark, up from $325 three years ago. She described Havenpark's decision to shop around the mobile home park as "cowardly and callous." But she praised Meadowlark's office manager, who's been responsive to residents and worked hard to bring the community together. She also praised the park's maintenance man, who's always available and ready to help. "It's the only thing holding this place together," Anton said. We sure hope someone gives this sweet girl a forever home! An animal shelter in Fort Lauderdale, Florida is seeking the Internet's help so a black cat can find a forever home. The video that the shelter posted to their TikTok account @humanebroward has completely broken our hearts. But hopefully, if enough people see it, there will be a happy ending for this fur baby. This 8-year-old cat named Lily is losing hope of ever getting adopted. Unfortunately, she was brought to the shelter after her owner fell very ill. Since then, she's been waiting to find a new owner and home. It's been 2.5 months. We sure hope someone will adopt this precious angel. You'll be crying once you read her "losing hope" letter. View the original article to see embedded media. Ugh, we can't handle this. If we were closer to Florida, we'd pick her up immediately. But hopefully, TikTok can work its magic and someone will save her. "Lily is beautiful please someone save her ," commented @kim_memaw86. She's so purrfect and sweet. @Michelle Jameson added, "Lily, I hope you get the loving home that you deserve ." Us too! It was probably hard enough leaving her owner. We can't imagine how sad she is in the shelter. We're praying for the right person to come along. Another TikTok user, @KelseyMoutardier, said, "8 is not old! Shell probably live 10+ more years given proper care. I guarantee shell still play and be fun too. Perfect age!" Right?! She has so much life left to live. We do love that TikTokers are commenting on how they'd adopt her in a heartbeat if they lived closer. Someone even offered to foster her. AW! So amazing to see the community coming together and wanting to help. Let's hope we see an update soon of someone coming to rescue Lily! Queen Elizabeth II, who died Thursday at 96 years old, had an elegant flair for the English language throughout her 70-year reign. The queen, born Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor, died at Balmoral Castle. The monarch had been under medical supervision Thursday as doctors were "concerned for Her Majestys health." "The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon," Buckingham Palace tweeted. "The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow." Here are some of her most powerful words: On the balcony of Buckingham Palace on the last day of the Platinum Jubilee "When it comes to how to mark seventy years as your queen, there is no guidebook to follow. It really is a first. ... I remain committed to serving you to the best of my ability, supported by my family." On her 21st birthday, in 1947, broadcasting to the world from South Africa: "I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service." The world mourns: King Charles expresses 'greatest sadness' over mother Queen Elizabeth II's death, more react On her coronation day, in 1953: "I have in sincerity pledged myself to your service, as so many of you are pledged to mine. Throughout all my life and with all my heart I shall strive to be worthy of your trust." Stay in the know with the latest on the royals, succession and what comes next for the House of Windsor. Subscribe to the Keep Calm and Carry On newsletter. On her first televised Christmas broadcast, in 1957: "I cannot lead you into battle. I do not give you laws or administer justice but I can do something else I can give my heart and my devotion to these old islands and to all the peoples of our brotherhood of nations." On family, in 1989: "Like all the best families, we have our share of eccentricities, of impetuous and wayward youngsters and of family disagreements." Story continues Queen Elizabeth II's funeral plans: What we know about Operation Unicorn Queen Elizabeth II on Sept. 5, 1997, when she spoke from Buckingham Palace to pay tribute to the late Diana, Princess of Wales. On Princess Diana's death, in 1997: "Since last Sunday's dreadful news we have seen, throughout Britain and around the world, an overwhelming expression of sadness at Diana's death. We have all been trying in our different ways to cope. It is not easy to express a sense of loss, since the initial shock is often succeeded by a mixture of other feelings: disbelief, incomprehension, anger - and concern for those who remain. We have all felt those emotions in these last few days. So what I say to you now, as your Queen and as a grandmother, I say from my heart. First, I want to pay tribute to Diana myself. She was an exceptional and gifted human being. In good times and bad, she never lost her capacity to smile and laugh, nor to inspire others with her warmth and kindness. I admired and respected her for her energy and commitment to others, and especially for her devotion to her two boys." Hollywood's takes on Diana: Hollywood's obsession with Princess Diana will never end, but it's getting ridiculous Reflecting on her marriage to Prince Philip, in 1997: "My husband has quite simply been my strength and stay all these years, and I owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim." Look back: A timeline of Queen Elizabeth II's life, royal reign On the Sept. 11 attacks, in 2001: "Grief is the price we pay for love." On peace, reflecting on WWII, in 2004: "In remembering the appalling suffering of war on both sides, we recognize how precious is the peace we have built in Europe since 1945." 'Never give up, never despair': Queen Elizabeth II's speech recalls royal father, WWII victory in 1945 On leadership, in a speech before the U.N., in 2010: "I know of no single formula for success. But over the years I have observed that some attributes of leadership are universal and are often about finding ways of encouraging people to combine their efforts, their talents, their insights, their enthusiasm and their inspiration to work together." The Queen Elizabeth had the historic distinction of being christened by its namesake, Queen Elizabeth II, in a gala ceremony at Southampton, England. on Oct. 11, 2010. This is the official portrait of the queen displayed on the ship. Who succeeds Queen Elizabeth II?: More questions answered after her death On past British-Irish conflict, during her historic visit to Ireland in 2011: "To all those who have suffered as a consequence of our troubled past I extend my sincere thoughts and deep sympathy. With the benefit of historical hindsight we can all see things which we would wish had been done differently or not at all." Her first tweet, in 2014: "It is a pleasure to open the Information Age exhibition today at the @ScienceMuseum and I hope people will enjoy visiting. Elizabeth R." What's next: What happens to the other royals under King Charles III and his new slimmed-down monarchy? On the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020: "I want to thank everyone on the NHS front line, as well as care workers and those carrying out essential roles, who selflessly continue their day-to-day duties outside the home in support of us all. I am sure the nation will join me in assuring you that what you do is appreciated and every hour of your hard work brings us closer to a return to more normal times. I also want to thank those of you who are staying at home, thereby helping to protect the vulnerable and sparing many families the pain already felt by those who have lost loved ones. Together we are tackling this disease, and I want to reassure you that if we remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it." On her 95th birthday, her first after Prince Philip died, in 2021: "I have, on the occasion of my 95th birthday today, received many messages of good wishes, which I very much appreciate. While as a family we are in a period of great sadness, it has been a comfort to us all to see and to hear the tributes paid to my husband, from those within the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth and around the world." Remembering Philip: Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, husband of Queen Elizabeth II, dies at 99 This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Queen Elizabeth II quotes: Her most moving words on service, love By Yousef Saba and Hadeel Al Sayegh DUBAI, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's $620 billion sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), is expected to tap international debt markets for a debut green bonds issue as soon as next week, five sources familiar with the matter said. The fund is at the centre of Saudi Arabia's ambitious reform plans being spearheaded by de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to wean the economy off oil. The crown prince said in December that it would invest about $40 billion in the local economy this year, after spending about $22 billion last year. Reuters reported in July last year that PIF was setting up a financing framework that would allow it to raise green bonds. PIF in February announced a green finance framework that showed net proceeds from a debt sale would go towards eligible projects, including in renewable energy, clean transport and green buildings. PIF has been monitoring the market for months to find a window to issue, three sources said, amid enduring volatility that has rattled markets for much of this year as central banks use aggressive tightening to try to tame decades-high inflation. That window could come as soon as next week, depending on market conditions, or possibly in October, two of the sources said. PIF declined to comment. The deal is expected to raise billions of dollars, sources have said. Fitch Ratings and Moody's in February assigned PIF an 'A' and 'A1' credit rating, respectively. The banks on the deal are expected to be ones that have lent to PIF, two sources said. PIF started raising bank debt in 2018 with an $11 billion facility, followed in 2019 by a $10 billion loan which it then repaid in 2020. Those loans were provided by what PIF has called its core banking group comprising Bank of America, BNP Paribas , Citi, Credit Agricole, HSBC, JPMorgan, Mizuho, MUFG, Standard Chartered and SMBC. In March last year, the wealth fund raised $15 billion from 17 banks comprising most of the core banking group as well as Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank, Goldman Sachs, Intesa Sanpaolo , Morgan Stanley, Natixis and Societe Generale . (Reporting by Yousef Saba and Hadeel Al Sayegh. Editing by Jane Merriman) Dylan Wiederholt, 38, allegedly broke into the Lions Den Tattoo Company in Prescott, Arizona, in the early hours of 6 September (PPD) A would-be tattoo artist caused $100,000worth of damage to a shop in Arizona while trying to show off his skills. Dylan Wiederholt, 38, allegedly broke into the Lions Den Tattoo Company in Prescott, Arizona, in the early hours of 6 September, said the Prescott Police Department in a statement. Officials say that several items in the tattoo shop were broken, ink was sprayed over the walls, floors, ceiling, and furniture and non reusable tattoo supplies were also damaged. Through the course of the investigation officers learned that at approximately 1.4am a male subject gained access into the business. Once inside, the male suspect proceeded to ransack the business by purposely breaking several items, spraying tattoo ink throughout the inside walls, floors, ceiling, and furniture, and destroying non reusable tattoo supplies, read the statement. Police officers found Mr Wiederholt several blocks away from the scene still covered in tattoo ink and he was arrested after he allegedly admitted vandalising the shop. Wiederholt does not have any known ties to the business, however advised arresting officers that he wished to be an apprentice and wanted to show his artistic abilities, PPD continued. He told officers that he had been hitchhiking through the state after getting kicked off a Greyhound bus from California, and had been in Prescott for two weeks. Mr Wiederholt was booked into Yavapai County Jail and is facing felony charges of burglary and criminal damage. If you are sending a Letter To the Editor, please be sure to follow these rules: Letters have a firm 200-word limit and will be edited for grammar, clarity and accuracy. The person who signs the letter must be the author. Anonymous letters will not be considered. Letters must address the editor, not a third party. We will not print form letters, libelous letters, business promotions or personal disputes, poetry, open letters, letters espousing religious views without reference to a current issue, or letters considered in poor taste. Letters reflect the opinion of the writer. The Yakima Herald-Republic cannot verify the accuracy of all statements made in letters. Writers are limited to one published letter per calendar month. One of two Butte men accused in the shooting death of a man during a botched bounty hunt now faces additional felony charges of tampering with evidence and has bench warrants for his arrest. Prosecutors in late June filed two counts of tampering with evidence and two counts of attempted tampering against bondsman Jay Steven Hubber and as of Thursday morning, he had not been arrested. Hubber posted a $250,000 bond and was released shortly after he and Nicholas Jaeger were jailed and charged with deliberate homicide and aggravated burglary in the Dec. 19 death of 42-year-old William Harris. Jaeger has remained behind bars since that arrest. Hubber and Jaeger, both 32, allegedly barged into Harris house on South Main Street while trying to nab David Sandoval for jumping bail. Sandoval was tased and as he was wrestling with Hubber, Jaeger allegedly grabbed a gun from Hubber and fatally shot Harris. A bench warrant for Hubber was issued after the new tampering charges were filed and because of them, prosecutors want to revoke his release in the homicide case and have a new $250,000 bond set. A warrant has also been issued for that. The Montana Standard left a message Wednesday morning at the office of Hubbers attorney, Palmer Hoovestal, seeking comment on the new charges and Hubbers whereabouts. It was not returned as of Thursday afternoon. Although prosecutors leveled the new charges in late June, they have not filed affidavits providing context and specific details of what they believed happened. Those are filed when the case is transferred to District Court, and that has not yet occurred. But in the initial complaints, prosecutors say Hubber committed two counts of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence by having someone alter bond documentation and presenting it to the Montana Auditors Office between Dec. 21, 2021 and this past Feb. 28. The auditors office began investigating Hubbers bondsman insurance license after the shooting incident and in February suspended that license. The two attempted tampering charges appear to be connected to investigations of the shooting incident given similar time frames. One says Hubber asked someone to hit him in the head with a pipe so as to implicate another in order to mislead investigators. The other says Hubber asked someone to place scissors in an alley behind the house were Harris was shot. Each of the tampering charges carries a maximum 10-year prison term and fine up to $50,000. Deliberate homicide in this case carries a maximum of life in prison or up to 100 years, while aggravated burglary has a 40-year maximum. All of the cases are still pending. Our directory features more than 18 million business listings from across the entire US. However, if we're missing your business, add your business by clicking on Add Your Business. North Dakotas top law enforcement officer on Wednesday offered a glimpse of his plan to curtail a continuing increase in the number of violent crimes in the state, pointing at more law enforcement staffing and stricter sentencing legislation that more closely follows federal guidelines. Attorney General Drew Wrigley released the 2021 crime statistics, which highlighted increases in the crimes against persons category and several crimes within it. Its a trend that presents clear and very real and present danger to the communities of North Dakota, Wrigley said. He plans in coming weeks to release a violent crimes legislation package, which he plans to present to the 2023 Legislature should he win election in November. Gov. Doug Burgum appointed Wrigley to the post after then-Attorney General Wayne's Stenehjem's Jan. 28 death due to cardiac arrest. Wrigley must win election over Democrat Tim Lamb in November to keep his job. Wrigley's plan will include proposals for increased staffing at the Attorney Generals Office and its Bureau of Criminal Investigation, and a push to conduct more missions on the states American Indian reservations. We are going to need more people. Its that simple, he said. Wrigley said he will push for legislation that adds greater mandatory minimum sentences for certain crimes, and a consecutive sentence if a firearm was used in a crime. Some 500 guns are stolen in the state annually, he said, and many of the guns used in crimes are obtained illegally. Its extremely infrequent, he said, that someone who is arrested for armed robbery still has the receipt for a recently purchased gun they later used to commit an armed robbery. Thats not how this works, he said. Statutory changes are needed so its certain that violent criminals not only serve time but also sentences of the proper length, Wrigley believes. It needs to be enhanced. Were going to make that case, he said. His plan doesnt rule out rehabilitation or treatment programs, but he said punishment and public safety are legitimate and central, important features of the criminal justice system." We can do both of these things, he said. Lamb said he disagreed with the approach Wrigley outlined because it takes jurisdiction away from communities and local authorities. The attorney general should instead focus on assisting local jurisdictions if they need additional resources, he believes. "The Attorney General's Office is not the U.S. Attorney's Office," he said. "If you run it like the U.S. Attorney's Office it will fail." Wrigley is a former U.S. attorney for North Dakota. Judges in the state don't want mandated sentences, Lamb said, adding that they already can impose proper penalties based on a person's criminal history. "To try to usurp that at the state level is counterproductive," he said. Lamb said nothing in the 2021 report jumped out to him as being a big problem. By the numbers The 2021 crime report showed homicides in North Dakota fell from 32 in 2020 to 17 last year. Thirteen of those were committed with firearms. Overall crimes against persons as reported by national standards increased by more than 10%. When robbery is added in, crimes against persons rose 11.5%, from 10,960 in 2020 to 12,246 in 2021. Wrigley includes robbery in his stats on crimes against persons, which differs from the FBIs standard method of reporting robbery as a property crime. When you talk to robbery victims, theyre not talking about the fact that they lost property, he said. Theyre talking about the fact that somebody put a gun to their head and demanded property. Of the 51,784 crimes reported in 2021, 23% were considered crimes against persons, the report showed. Another 27% were crimes against society and the remainder, 50%, were crimes against property. Assaults in the state are a continuing upward trend, moving to 8,225 in 2021 from 7,551 in 2020. DUI arrests fell from 4,175 in 2020 to 4,040 in 2021. Its a trend Wrigley called positive but said its still too high. That is a completely avoidable crime, he said. The full report, which includes breakdowns of city and county law enforcement activity, can be seen at https://bit.ly/3exsEZ9. Today Clear to partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 77F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Tonight Clear to partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 77F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Tomorrow Sunny skies. High 96F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. "On June 9, the District Prosecutor's Office in Sosnowiec charged Mr. Jamro with art. 18, sec. 2 of the Criminal Code in connection with art. 231, sec. 2 and art. 266, sec. 2. Article 18 deals with the crime of incitement, defining it as wanting another person to commit a criminal act and inducing that person to do so reports the "Kronika Beskidzka" weekly. The journalist was questioned as a suspect. The journalist is facing multiple charges The prosecutorial investigation addresses two issues. The first case concerns local police officers who allegedly overstepped their authority by refusing to follow an unlawful order by their superior and did not impose a traffic ticket. Four policemen and the commander of one of the local police stations heard charges. The second case concerns "disclosure to an unauthorized person of information constituting a legally protected secret, which the officers obtained in connection with the performance of their official duties". - "Mirosaw J. was presented with two charges in this case. They concern incitement of police officers of the Bielsko-Biaa Municipal Police Station to commit crimes of exceeding their powers, i.e. disclosing to an unauthorized person, i.e. Mirosaw J., the information constituting a legally protected secret, which the police officers obtained in connection with the performance of their official duties, and which was then published in the press" says Waldemar ubniewski, spokesman for the District Prosecutor's Office in Sosnowiec. Mirosaw Jamro himself is not allowed to comment on either the charges or the investigation. Last September, Mr. Jamro left his job at the Beskidzka Press Publishing House. There were several reasons for that, but the main one concerned the problem of getting hold of reasonably truthful information. Police officers increasingly referred him to a spokesman, who was not always available. "It sends a very dangerous signal to all independent media" What do other journalists think of these allegations? "Kronika Beskidzka" asked representatives of some of the largest media outlets in Poland for their opinion. REKLAMA - In my entire career as a journalist, I have never heard of another case like this one. Ive never heard of a journalist being charged for inciting a crime in such a context, that is, soliciting information from the authorities. (...) The prosecutors decision poses a particular danger to investigative journalists, who investigate the pathologies of public life, and to interventionist journalists, who obtain information on a regular basis, establishing the course of action taken up by the authorities, the police, at the scene of various events, including accidents, as is the case here. I think that such activity on the side of the prosecutor's office is aimed at intimidating editors and sends a very dangerous signal to all independent media. If such a practice were to be perpetuated, in fact, most journalists would not be able to obtain any information, because they would risk criminal charges- stated Ewa Ivanova, a journalist writing for Gazeta Wyborcza. The Polish Society of Journalists also commented on the issue. - A journalist cannot be criminally prosecuted for fulfilling his professional duties and honestly doing his job. Gathering information - from official and unofficial sources - is part of the essence of the work of any interventionist reporter, investigative or political journalist. Asking questions, and inquiring into the course of events, including traffic accidents, is the essence of the media's work we read in the organizations statement. The Local Newspaper Association, on the other hand, sees the case as an attack on local media. REKLAMA *** 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. 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. REKLAMA The access to information should be equal for all. Whether youre a high school student looking to enroll after graduation or a nontraditional (adult) student returning to college, selecting the right school takes time and research. To help cement your decision, visit the campus youre considering. Southeast Community College, with campuses in Beatrice, Lincoln and Milford, Nebraska, offers prospective students multiple options to visit, including group and individual tours, Career Days and Discovery Days. Prospective students can visit with family, a friend or alone, said Emily Heathcock, admissions outreach specialist. Its whatever works best for them. Matching students interests and support needs Southeast Community College staff set up individualized tours based on a prospects area of interest. We actually get a faculty member to have a meeting specifically about the program, Heathcock said. Prospective students can ask questions about what it is like to be a student in that program, how much they do in class versus in the lab, things like that. A student ambassador takes the visitor on a campus tour. The neat part is theyre also seeing the student support Southeast Community College offers them, so they know once they get here, theyre going to be taken care of, Heathcock said. An advisor helps prospective students determine their course load. Additional support for students includes testing services, free tutoring, free mental health counseling and a wellness area for working out. Student housing is available on the Beatrice and Milford campuses. A new residence hall will open on the Lincoln Campus in January 2024. After their tour, visitors meet with an admissions counselor one-on-one for help with next steps, including how to apply for financial aid. That is super helpful because youre not just getting the general information you find on the website, youre getting what you might need to know specifically if youre going to be a student here, said Heathcock. Discover college life Discovery Days, offered four times a year on each campus, are opportunities to experience Southeast Community College firsthand. Prospective students learn about SCC programs, how to pay for college, support services, housing, and campus activities. In addition to a campus tour, lunch is provided. They also get to hear from faculty and student panels where they can ask questions, Heathcock said. Hands-on career experience At SCC Career Days, students can learn more about careers in manufacturing, construction, agriculture, transportation, and healthcare. Heathcock called Career Days probably my favorite because participants get to do hands-on, interactive activities. Visitors might do some electrical wiring or operate the arm of an excavator to get a tangible look at a potential career. Consider all your options Prospective students may want to visit more than once, and check out other campuses, Heathcock advised. You want to make sure you feel like this is where you belong, and the campus has things you want so you have a really good college experience, said Heathcock. Heathcock noted that Southeast Community College is an option for students who may ultimately complete their education elsewhere. Students should still consider picking up affordable credits here through academic transfer to save money on the overall cost of school, Heathcock said. For more information or to schedule a tour, visit southeast.edu. 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. YORK Jacob Phillips, 30, of McCool Junction has accepted a plea agreement in a case that initially started with six counts of possessing a firearm while being a prohibited person as well as one count of felony child abuse. This past week, he pleaded no contest to two felonies and the rest of the counts were dismissed. According to court documents, Phillips has a criminal history that includes a burglary conviction in Fillmore County and a burglary conviction in Cloud County, Kansas. Because of these convictions, he is not allowed to possess firearms, including the ones he is accused of having (according to court documents): a Russian Izhkez rifle, a Marlin XT-22, a J.C. Higgins 20 gauge shotgun, a Westernfield 12 gauge shotgun, a J.C. Higgins 12 gauge shotgun, and a Stevens Model .22. The case began on a report of possible child abuse and during that investigation it was brought to the attention of sheriffs deputies that there were guns in Phillips residence which would be against the law due to his prior convictions. The guns were handed over to the sheriffs department by someone who lived in the residence, according to court documents. The child abuse charge stemmed from his striking a child and leaving a mark, according to court documents. This week, Phillips pleaded no contest to committing child abuse intentionally, a Class 3A felony, which carries a possible maximum sentence of three years in prison with 18 months of post-release supervision. He also pleaded no contest to attempt of a Class 1D felony (attempted possession of a firearm by a prohibited person), which is a Class 2 felony that carries a possible maximum sentence of 50 years in prison. Sentencing has been set for Nov. 28 in the York County District Court. New Delhi: After much anticipation and excitement, the teaser for Samantha Ruth Prabhu's first Hindi theatrical film unveils the plight of a pregnant woman battling the odds in the action thriller, juxtaposing the do's and don'ts of pregnancy. Turning into the nation's sensation with the blockbuster success of 'Oo Antava' from Allu Arjun's Pushpa and the remarkable response to the much-acclaimed show 'The Family Man', Samantha has attained the position of the top female actor of India. There has been immense excitement and interest amongst the audience nationwide to witness Samantha's Bollywood debut. While the actor is yet to step into Bollywood, her upcoming film Yashoda marks her first Hindi release, as the film hits the theaters in five languages, including Hindi. The makers of Yashoda unveiled the teaser of the film today offering the first glimpse into the twisted yet intriguing world of Yashoda. Featuring a pregnant lady at the gynaecologist's clinic, the teaser unfolds Samantha challenging the do's and don'ts of pregnancy while packing a punch, being chased by someone in the action thriller. Building just the right amount of interest without revealing much, the teaser promises to create anticipation for the edge-of-the-set action thriller. Set against an intriguing premise, Yashoda produced by Sivalenka Krishna Prasad is mounted on large scale, and releasing in five languages including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. Co-starring Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, Unni Mukundan along with Samantha, the film unravels yet another aspect of the actor's versatility. Backed by a strong technical crew, Yashoda onboarded a talented team of Mani Sharma for music, M Sukumar for cinematography and Marthand K Venkatesh as the editor. Directed by Hari and Harish, Yashoda is produced by Sivalenka Krishna Prasad under the banner of Sridevi Movies and is set to release this year. Stutsman County authorities have filed a negligent homicide charge against the driver of a combine who they say was under the influence of alcohol when the machine struck and killed a South African farmhand. Ryan Storbeck, 41, of Gackle, also is charged with misdemeanor DUI and false reports to law enforcement in connection with the Tuesday incident, according to an affidavit. Johannes Steenberg, 57, who according to the affidavit is from South Africa but has a temporary residence in rural Gackle, died at the scene. A deputy Stutsman County sheriff who responded about 5:40 p.m. to the scene northeast of Gackle found evidence that Steenbergs head had been crushed between the header of the combine and the wheel of a grain cart, the document states. Storbeck unloaded the combine into the grain cart and went back to the field. He later called another man to check on Steenberg because he didnt see him in the tractor. The man found Steenberg near the right tire of the grain cart, according to the affidavit. Storbeck initially told officials he hadnt been drinking but later allegedly admitted to drinking a six-pack or 12-pack of beer. He allegedly told authorities they usually start with a 30-pack and today they ran out before they started combining, the document states. His blood alcohol content at 8:30 p.m. was 0.11%, and at 9:18 it was 0.09%, according to the affidavit. The legal limit is 0.08%. Storbeck is to enter pleas at an Oct. 5 preliminary hearing. His defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Negligent homicide carries a maximum punishment of five years in prison. New Delhi: Lido Learning, a Ronnie Screwvala-backed ed-tech startup, has filed for insolvency and bankruptcy with the National Company Law Tribunal's Mumbai bench, six months after asking over 1,200 employees to resign due to a cash crunch. According to the company's regulatory filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Lido Learning's board of directors has passed a special resolution to file an application under Section 10 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016. (MCA). Lido has failed to repay debts and has fallen behind on payments to former employees. Interim Corporate Resolution Professional Anil Drolia has been proposed. Entrackr was the first to report the news. Employees received a full and final (F&F) settlement letter from Lido and verbal assurances from HR that their salaries would be paid by the end of June. However, the majority of employees have yet to receive even a single rupee. Lido, founded in 2019 by former Byju's vice president Sahil Sheth, asked more than 1,200 employees to resign during a video call town hall conference in the first week of February, citing a funding shortage. Sheth also stated that all employees would be paid within three months and that the company was looking to sell assets in order to fund employee salaries. Lido Learning's bankruptcy filing comes at a time when startups in India are increasingly showing signs of distress, with funding to the ecosystem slowing. ShopX, which is backed by Nandan Nilekani, recently declared bankruptcy as well. New Delhi: Yes Bank suffered a major setback on Thursday when the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) dismissed insolvency proceedings against Mack Star Marketing. The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) Mumbai initiated insolvency proceedings against the firm in October 2021. The tribunal in its order observed that the term-loan provided by Yes Bank to Mack Star was an 'eye-wash' and 'collusive in nature'. A two-member bench quashed the proceedings, stating that such collusive transactions do not fall within the definition of Financial Debt as defined under Section 5(8) of the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code, and thus Suraksha Asset Reconstruction cannot be referred to as a Financial Creditor. The NCLAT found that more than 99 percent of the sanctioned amount Rs 147.6 crore by Yes Bank in Mack Star's name was returned to the bank on the same day or within a short period of time. The funds will be used to renovate 'Kaledonia,' a two-year-old building constructed at a cost of Rs 100 crore. "The chequered history of the loan transactions and collusive arrangements indulged by Yes Bank demonstrates that the Term Loans disbursed in the name of Mack Star is an 'eye-wash' and Yes Bank has disbursed these loans with an ulterior motive," said the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT). It also overturned the orders of the NCLT's Mumbai bench, which had directed on October 27, 2021, to initiate insolvency proceedings against Mack Star Marketing in response to a petition from Suraksha Asset Reconstruction, the assignee of the loans given by Yes Bank. "We allow this Appeal and set aside the Impugned Order passed by the Learned Adjudicating Authority (NCLT, Mumbai Bench, Court III), on 20.09.2021," said the NCLAT. The appellate tribunal said that orders passed by the NCLT appointing an interim resolution professional, declaring a moratorium, freezing accounts, and all other orders passed in response to the impugned order are effectively set aside. "The proceedings will now be closed by the Adjudicating Authority. With immediate effect, the "Corporate Debtor" is free of all legal obligations and is permitted to operate independently through its Board of Directors "it was added The appellate tribunal decision followed a petition filed by Ocean Deity Investment Holdings, which owns 82.17 percent of Mack Star, challenging the NCLT order. However, Ocean Deity Investment Holdings argued before the NCLAT that the CBI had filed a FIR on September 23, 2020, against Yes Bank officials, Housing Development Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL), its Promoters, Wadhawans, and other individuals, who were collectively accused of defrauding Mack Star and the appellant through these collusive transactions. The NCLT issued the order on September 20, 2021, after the Enforcement Directorate arrested Rana Kapoor, the Promoter of Yes Bank, for conspiring with HDIL Promoter to defraud Mack Star. Suraksha's Section 7 application under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, claiming defaults in payment of four Term Loans out of six Term Loan transactions executed between Mack Star and Yes Bank totaling Rs 159.67 crore, was admitted by the NCLT. "Both CBI and ED have independently concluded that there was a criminal conspiracy, pursuant to which act, there was three steps circular flow of funds from Yes Bank, whereby Rs 147 crores have fraudulently been disbursed in the name of Mack Star; the amount was disbursed to Yes Bank accounts of HDIL Group Companies," it said. These loan amounts of Rs 146 crore from HDIL Group Companies' Yes Bank accounts were used to repay earlier loans obtained from Yes Bank by the financially stressed HDIL Group Companies. "These findings were completely ignored by the Adjudicating Authority while passing the Impugned Order," the holding company stated in its application to the NCLAT. Yes Bank sanctioned Rs 140 crore- of these Rs 147.6 crore term loans in Mack Star's name for the purpose of renovating and refurbishing 'Kaledonia,' a brand new building that was barely two years old and was constructed at a total cost of Rs 140 crore. Furthermore, Rs 100 crore was disbursed by Yes Bank to Mack Star prior to the signing of any Related Loan Agreements, and a term loan of Rs 40 crore disbursed by Yes Bank in Mack Star's name was credited directly to HDIL's Yes Bank account rather than Mack Star's account, according to the holding company. Yes Bank continued to make these term loans in Mack Star's name despite being notified in writing by the appellant that their HDIL affiliate company was not authorised to make loans on Mack Star's behalf. Suraksha Asset Reconstruction also filed a petition to initiate insolvency proceedings against Mack Star on April 22, a month after Ocean filed a criminal complaint with the Economic Offences Department of Mumbai Police against Yes Bank, Suraksha, and HDIL Promoters in relation to the illegal term loans on March 5, 2019. However, counsel for Suraksha argued that Ocean Deity was fully aware of the borrowings and authorised the Board of Directors to carry them out at the Mack Star Annual General Meeting on May 29, 2014. New Delhi: Zerodha founder and CEO Nithin Kamath has recently said that disasters in big cities are bound to happen again and again as Indian big cities werent built to handle as much people as they are living now. He might be hinting at recent Bengaluru flood that have wreaked havoc across the city. According to him, the only real solution is to create smaller cities with having sustainable economies of their own. (ALSO READ: GOVT chalks out steps to stop operations of 'ILLEGAL LOAN APPS'; Check details) Nithin Kamath posted a series of tweet in which he was suggesting different way to smooth down overcrowding problem in big cities which becomes a major factor for many city problems including water logging, pollution, etc. Most large Indian cities weren't built in a way to handle as many people living in them today. Disasters are bound to continue. The only real solution is to have many smaller cities with their own economies. Over 50% of our team now live there; a silver lining from Covid. 1/5 September 9, 2022 (ALSO READ: iOS 16: Top 5 features to watch out for) He said, If companies can afford to have teams work remotely or through small satellite offices, I think they should nudge teams to work out of small towns & cities. This way, the company can play a part in problem-solving. Moving to another large city will only be a temporary fix. It not only decreases the pressure from the big cities, but employees quality of life will increase significantly with more money, more savings, lesser time in traffic, better work-life balance, & more. Moreover he added that the best part was if these people consume locally, it can also help in terms of climate change issues & creation of livelihood, probably the two biggest problems we are facing as a nation. Otherwise, money keeps circulating in the large cities, attracting everyone to migrate. Zerodhas initative Rainmatter Foundation is working on to helping smaller towns and villages to be self-sustainable, creating livelihood and more. His tweet received good likes and retweets with users commenting in praise and appreciation. As we celebrate World EV Day, Jeep had its own celebration in the form of 4XE day where the American car brand took the veils off a new compact SUV - Jeep Avenger. The Jeep Avenger will be sold with two powertrain choices - hybrid and fully electric, in the North American and European markets. Well, the Jeep Avengers marks the brands entry into the electric vehicle space with its first-ever fully-electric SUV. Also, the brand is exercising to transform more than 50 per cent of its sales in the US to BEVs by 2030. Similarly, the brand is eyeing having a BEV-only lineup for the European market by 2030. Talking of the Jeep Avenger, it will have 95 bhp motors. There will either be a two-motor or four-motor configuration. Alongside, Jeep plans to offer it in 2WD and 4WD layouts. In terms of styling, the entry-level SUV dons the conventional 7-slat grille, which of course is closed here. On either side of the grille are two slim LED headlamps. Over to the sides, the silhouette looks neat with bulky wheel arches and a rear spoiler. Some Compass elements are clearly visible on this one. Sadly, not much has been revealed about its interior. We can tell the Jeep Avenger will be as big as the Hyundai Creta and Kia Seltos. The new vehicles include the Jeep Recon, a four-wheel-drive mid-size SUV about the size of the Jeep Wrangler and rival Ford's gas-powered Bronco Sport. It will be produced at an undisclosed North American factory starting in 2024. No range, performance figures or prices were released. Also read - World EV Day 2022: Top 5 electric cars to buy in India under Rs 25 lakh - Tata Nexon EV, MG ZS EV & more Jeep also will start making an all-electric Wagoneer S mid-size luxury SUV in 2024 that also can go off-road. The electric extension of the Wagoneer sub-brand is expected to go 400 miles (650 kilometres) on a single charge, have 600 horsepower, and be able to travel from zero to 60 miles per hour (100 kilometres per hour) in about 3.5 seconds. The Wagoneer S also will be built in North America at a yet-to-be-disclosed factory. No prices were released on this SUV either. Heading for Europe next year will be the Jeep Avenger compact SUV, the brand's first fully electric vehicle. Jeep says the small Avenger, with 250 miles (400 kilometres) of range per charge, won't be coming to the US. It's better suited for Europe, where there's a strong market for smaller vehicles, executives said. The Avenger will be officially unveiled on October 17 at the Paris Motor Show. It will arrive in showrooms early next year. Jeep also plans to introduce four all-electric SUVs in North America and Europe by the end of 2025, the executives said. The Recon, though, will not replace the Jeep Wrangler small SUV, said Christian Meunier, the brand CEO. "The Wrangler is the icon," he said, without saying there would be an electric Wrangler. Jeep, he said, is on a path to becoming the leading zero-emission SUV brand across the globe. With inputs from PTI September 9 is celebrated as World EV Day, and we hope the celebration pushes new car buyers to make move and inch closer to electric vehicles. A slew of them are already on sale in the Indian market and are also proving their mettle with their build quality, safety standards, features on offer, affordable pricing, and most importantly practical range. The new-age EVs work on high voltage architecture that also helps them with better performance and efficiency, and they are available from prices as low as Rs 11 lakh itself. Hence, heres a list of the top 5 affordable electric cars to buy in India this year. Tata Nexon EV Max The newest one from Tata Motors in its electric vehicle lineup is the Tata Nexon EV Max. While it looks much like the ICE Nexon, Teal Blue highlights are all the difference to its looks. Under the bonnet is a DC motor that develops 143 PS against 250 Nm to post a 0-100 kmph timing of under 9 seconds. The 40.5 kWh battery pack on the Tata Nexon EV Max aids this Indian electric SUV with a range of 437 km. Talking of prices, the Nexon EV Max starts from Rs 18.34 lakh, ex-showroom. Tata Tigor EV With a starting price of just a shade over Rs 10 lakh, the Tata Tigor EV is the most-affordable electric car in the homegrown brands stable. Equipped with the Ziptron technology, it offers a claimed range of 312 km. Styling-wise, it follows the same transition process as the Nexon to Nexon EV. You get Teal Blue accents at places, accentuating the EV factor. MG ZS EV Keep the badge MG aside, and the MG ZS EV electric SUV will leave you impressed with a lot of things. The styling of this SUV is polarising, but the feature list and range make up for that. Now on sale in its facelifted avatar, prices for the MG ZS EV start from Rs 21.99 lakh, and it is offered with a 44.5 kWh battery pack that packs a claimed range of 419 km. As of now, there are two variants on offer - Excite & Exclusive. The motor on the MG ZS EV is a 143 bhp unit, which belts out 350 Nm of peak torque, and hence the 0-100 kmph run takes 8.5 seconds. Hyundai Kona Electric Yes, Hyundai IONIQ 5 is ready to enter the Indian market. For now, the Hyundai Kona Electric remains the companys only electric offering in the Indian market with a starting price of Rs 23.79 lakh. For specifications, you get a 39.2 kWh battery pack underneath the Kona Electrics floor, which supplies a claimed range of 452 kilometres. Tata Nexon EV The first-ever high-voltage Indian electric vehicle has to have a special mention on the list, and it is the Tata Nexon EV. Currently, it is sold as Tata Nexon EV Prime. Also, it is the countrys highest-selling electric vehicle, and it retails at a starting price of 14.99 lakh, which goes up to Rs 17.50 lakh. The Nexon EV Prime is fitted with a 30.2 kWh battery pack that sends juice to a permanent magnet synchronous motor generating 129 PS and 245 Nm of peak output. Resultantly, the Nexon EV Prime has a range of 312 km and 0-100 kmph timing of under 10 seconds. AP ECET Counselling 2022: Andhra Pradesh Engineering Entrance Test, AP ECET Counselling 2022 is currently underway and is being conducted by the Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education, APSCHE. Candidates can now pay the online processing fee and finish their registrations on the official website - cets.apsche.ap.gov.in. To give AP ECET results 2022 students a chance at admissions, AP ECET Counselling 2022 registrations are being held. Candidates should be aware that the web choices facility will be open to everyone starting tomorrow, September 10, 2022, after registrations have ended today. Everyone is reminded that completing the AP ECET web choices is crucial since it will enable them to enrol in the institute and course of their choice. Candidates must be careful to fill out choices in the correct order. ALSO READ: NBE FMGE 2022 exam schedule RELEASED, Apply for December exam from TODAY AP ECET Counselling 2022: Heres how to apply - Candidates must visit the official website of Andhra Pradesh Engineering Common Entrance Test- cets.apsche.ap.gov.in. - On the homepage, click on the Online Registrations and Fee Payment link. - A new page would open where you have to register yourself, pay the fees and then log in using the credentials generated. - Fill out the AP ECET application form for counselling by giving all details. - Upload the documents, cross-check the information and click on submit. - After submitting, download and print a copy of the AP ECET counselling form for future reference. Please take note that candidates will no longer be able to submit applications for the AP ECET Counseling 2022 after today. They will be limited to finishing the admissions procedure. The dates for the admissions procedure will also be announced later, along with the results of the AP ECET Counselling Seat Allotment. Tamil Nadu: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who has embarked on a 3,570 km from Kanyakumari to Kashmir to unite the country and erect a front against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the 2024 General Elections, on Friday said he is trying to become wiser through thi arduous journey and understand himself and the country better. The Congress leader, who is likely to be a contestant in the Party presidential election, held a conference in Tamil Nadu. I will get some understanding about myself and this beautiful country from Yatra, and in these 2-3 months, I will be wiser, Rahul Gandhi told the media. Talking about their political foes Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Gandhi said, BJP has taken control of all the institutions of this country and pressurise through them...we're not fighting anymore a political party. It's now between the structure of the Indian state and opposition. #WATCH | BJP has taken control of all the institutions of this country & pressurise through them...we're not fighting anymore a political party. It's now between the structure of the Indian state & opposition: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi in Tamil Nadu during 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' pic.twitter.com/c2sXkFmvgs September 9, 2022 On being asked if he wants to say anything to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi said that he does not have a message for PM Modi and is focusing on his Bharat Jodo Yatra. Will Rahul Gandhi become Congress President? On the question about his candidature for the Congress President election, which is scheduled to be held in October this year, Rahul Gandhi told the media, Whether I become president (of Congress) or not will become clear when the elections for the president post take place...I have very clearly decided what I will do, there is no confusion in my mind. Congresss Bharat Jodo Yatra The Bharat Jodo march would cover 12 states and two Union Territories in about five months. The march is moving in two batches from 7 am to 10:30 am and from 3:30 pm to 6:30 pm. While the morning session includes fewer participants, the evening session sees mass mobilisation. The participants plan to walk around 22-23 km daily. About 30 per cent of 'Bharat Yatris' are women. The average age of Bharat Yatris is 38. About 50,000 citizens have also registered to participate in the Yatra. After reaching Kerala on September 11, the Yatra will traverse through the state for the next 19 days, reaching Karnataka on October 1. It will be in Karnataka for 21 days before moving north. It will pass through Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Nilambur, Mysuru, Bellary, Raichur, Vikarabad, Nanded, Jalgaon, Indore, Kota, Dausa, Alwar, Bulandshahr, Delhi, Ambala, Pathankot, Jammu, and end in Srinagar. The Supreme Court has granted the bail plea of Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan, who has been in the custody of the Uttar Pradesh police for almost two years. A Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice UU Lalit on Friday granted his bail plea. The UP government had registered a case against him under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). The Supreme Court has directed that Kappan be produced before the trial court within three days and be released on bail. Siddique Kappan: The Case On October 5, 2020, Kappan, a journalist from a Malayalam newspaper in Delhi, was going to meet the family of the dalit girl who was raped and killed in Hathras. On the way, he was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police in Mathura. A case was registered against him under the UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act). Yogi Adityanath's government had alleged that Kappan had 'connections' with the extremist group Popular Front of India (PFI), which has an anti-national agenda. The UP government alleged that Siddiqui Kappan was part of a larger conspiracy to spread religious discord and terror in the country. 5000 Page Charge Sheet Yogi Adityanath's police submitted a 5,000-page charge sheet against journalist Kappan in the Mathura court last October. There, Kappan was charged with abetting terrorism. It is said that Kappan was in touch with the banned organization SIMI (Student Islamic Movement of India). The charge sheet even cited 36 reports written by Kappan in a Malayalam newspaper as 'proof' of Kappan's contacts with separatist groups. After that, the case moved from one court to another. Kappan approached the Allahabad High Court as his bail plea was rejected by the Mathura court. As the application was rejected there also, Kappan moved to the Supreme Court. Earlier in February last year, the Supreme Court had granted Kappan a five-day bail to visit his ailing mother. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Gujarat government to file the entire record of the proceedings in the Bilkis Bano case, including the remission order given to the 11 convicts who had gang-raped Bano and murdered her family members during the 2002 Godhra riots. A bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and BV Nagarathna granted two weeks to the Gujarat government to produce all relevant records in the case. The bench also issued notice to the Gujarat government and convicts on a plea filed by TMC MP Mahua Moitra against the release of the convicts. Earlier, the apex court had issued notice to the Gujarat government on the plea filed by CPI(M) member Subhashini Ali, journalist Revati Laul, and social activist and professor Roop Rekha Verma. It asked the petitioner to impede convicts in the petition. The plea has sought setting aside of order granting remission to 11 convicts and directing their immediate re-arrest. "It is submitted that it would appear that the constitution of members of the competent authority of the Gujarat government also bore allegiance to a political party and sitting MLAs. As such, it would appear that the competent authority was not entirely independent, and one that could independently apply its mind to the facts at hand," the plea stated. The plea filed by the three women said they had challenged the order of competent authority of the government of Gujarat by way of which 11 persons who were accused in a set of heinous offences committed in Gujarat were allowed to walk free on August 15, 2022 under remission by Gujarat government. "The 11 persons were sentenced to life imprisonment for commission of the offences of, among other things, gang-rape and murder of multiple people during the large-scale communal riots in Gujarat in 2002 on January 18, 2008, passed by the Sessions Court in Greater Mumbai and the conviction was upheld by way of Judgment dated May 4, 2017, passed by High Court of Mumbai," the petition stated. Also Read: Bilkis Bano Case: 'Rectify the horrendously wrong decision', 134 former top bureaucrats to CJI The remission in this heinous case would be entirely against public interest and would shock the collective public conscience, as also be entirely against the interests of the victim (whose family has publicly made statements worrying for her safety), the plea stated. The Gujarat government released the 11 convicts, who were sentenced to life imprisonment, on August 15. In March 2002 during the post-Godhra riots, Bano was allegedly gang-raped and left to die with 14 members of her family, including her three-year-old daughter. She was five months pregnant when rioters attacked her family in Vadodara. A Bismarck man charged Tuesday with a half-dozen felonies was arrested again Thursday when local authorities learned of an outstanding warrant against him in Nevada. Nevada authorities seek to revoke the probation of Timothy Colton, 32. He is wanted there for a probation violation on a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm, Burleigh County States Attorney Julie Lawyer said. Colton on Tuesday was charged in Burleigh County with felony terrorizing, contact with law enforcement by bodily fluids, criminal trespass, preventing arrest, and unlawful possession of a firearm by a violent felon. He also faces misdemeanor charges of domestic violence and simple assault. The charges stem from Sept. 2 incidents on North 17th Street and North 19th Street in Bismarck. A man told officers he saw Colton hit a woman as the two drove past his home on 17th Street. The man confronted Colton when he pulled over, and Colton allegedly pulled a handgun from a backpack, pointed it at the man, and then drove away, according to an affidavit. Officers later were called to a domestic incident on 19th Street and found a woman with a bloody nose outside the residence. The woman handed police the backpack and gun, and they arrested Colton inside. He struggled with officers, allegedly kicking at and spitting at them after he was in a patrol car. Colton was released from custody after posting 10% of a $20,000 bond. Verification of his Nevada warrant wasnt provided to North Dakota authorities until after Colton was released. Bismarck police arrested him Thursday after Nevada authorities agreed to extradite him from North Dakota. Colton could waive extradition and Nevada officials would have 10 days to pick him up to face the revocation charge. If he doesnt waive, authorities in the two states will arrange for a governors warrant, which authorizes interstate transportation of a fugitive. That process could take more than a month. Either way, Colton must face the North Dakota charges, Lawyer said. If hes released on bond in Nevada, he could come back to North Dakota for court hearings or appear by electronic means. If hes sent to prison in Nevada, hell have to answer the charges here after hes served that time. Burleigh County court records show Colton is scheduled for an Oct. 10 preliminary hearing. If the case moves toward trial hell enter pleas at an arraignment after the preliminary hearing. Colton was found guilty of domestic battery in Las Vegas Municipal Court in 2012, police say. He was charged with attempted murder, arson and burglary in a 2017 incident in Las Vegas, according to the affidavit. His defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Vikram Batra 48th Birth Anniversary: September 9, marks the 48th birth anniversary of Indian army Captain Vikram Batra who was a leader/hero that inspired many at a very young age. There are several stories of how Captain Vikram Batra met his end on the Kargil battlefield, but ever since his biopic 'Shershaah' was released, fans haven't stopped talking about him. Tears are shed as one remembers Captain Vikram Batra's is an outstanding tribute paid to Captain Batra in recognition of his bravery and brilliant character. Capt. Vikram Batra was enlisted in the Manekshaw Battalion at the Indian Military Academy (IMA) in 1996, where he successfully completed his 19-month intensive training. He joined the Indian Army as a lieutenant after earning his degree from IMA in 1997 and was soon commissioned into the 13th battalion of the J&K Rifles (13 JAK Rif). Following a successful commissioning, Batra was sent to Madhya Pradesh for a month of regimental training from December 1997 to January 1998. During his assignment in J&K, Capt. Batra had numerous challenges, and he overcame each one heroically. He received the Param Vir Chakra, India's highest military honour, for his duty in the 1999 Kargil conflict, during which he gave his life. Remembering Late Captain Vikram Batra on his 48th birth anniversary. Here are some lesser-known facts about him- 1. Vikram Batra called his mother while he was on the Kargil War field and said "Yaha bomb gole chal rahe hai. Bohot maza aa raha hai." 2. It is believed that during the rescue attempt, he pushed aside the injured officer saying, "You have children, step aside." 3. As his signal to communicate the success of his missions, Captain Batra was also well known for using the slogan "Yeh Dil Maange More!". 4. In his remembrance, Captain Batra's name is used by the Indian Army for various constructions and cantonments. 5. On June 19, 1999, under the leadership of Captain Vikram Batra, the Indian army snatched point 5140 from right under the enemy's nose. 6. Vikram was also a green belt holder in Karate. He always kept himself in first line and among the toppers in all the different fields. Shahjahanpur: Local authorities sealed a private hospital in Uttar Pradesh's Shahjahanpur after its owner allegedly handed over a woman's newborn child to another couple, triggering a protest by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. The hospital was sealed as it was not registered, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr RK Gautam told PTI. Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Sanjay Kumar on Friday said Sangita, a resident of Tralokpur village under Nigohi police station area, got admitted to a private hospital in Shahjahanpur following labour pain on Wednesday night. The woman delivered a baby girl here. The hospital owner identified as Dr Ashok Rathore told Sangita that since she already has five daughters, she will neither be able to look after the sixth nor will be able to pay the hospital fees, he said, adding that he then handed over the baby girl to a Muslim couple. After coming to know about the matter, the Hindu right-wing outfit leader Rajesh Awasthi reached Nigohi police station on Thursday evening and burnt an effigy of the owner. As the matter started escalating, the Muslim couple handed back the child to the hospital owner. Also Read: Yogi Adityanath's BIG move - UP govt hospitals to have SIGNBOARDS in URDU too CMO Gautam said as soon as he came to know about the incident, he had sent a team under Additional CMO Dr Rohtas to the private hospital in Nigohi, but by then the owner of the hospital had fled. The hospital was sealed after it was found to be unregistered. Additionally, a team has been formed to probe the matter, he added. A case has been registered against the hospital owner on Thursday, police said, adding that efforts are on to nab him. Jaunpur (UP): Addressing a large gathering at an inauguration and foundation stone laying ceremony in Uttar Pradesh's Jaunpur on Friday, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said corruption was in the genes of the parties that ruled the state before 2017 and warned the corrupt would meet the same fate as those involved in riots. Taking a dig at the previous governments, CM Yogi said, "The 'daam' (price) of every 'kaam' (work) was already fixed. The racket operating during the previous governments had made the entire system hollow, by acting like a weevil. The results of this were known to everyone, and people of UP had to pay the price for it." CM Yogi Adityanath inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of 116 public-welfare projects costing Rs 258 crores in Uttar Pradesh's Jaunpur. "Corruption was in the genes of governments before 2017. Earlier, the government schemes were made to benefit one's contractor and aides," Aditynanath said. "The people have accepted the UP model. There is no place for crime and criminals in the state. Uttar Pradesh is now a riot-free state," Adityanath added. He also said the law and order in the state is becoming an "example" in the country, and better law and order is taking forward the possibilities of investment and employment. "UP is the first state which has taught a lesson to the rioters that if they indulge in rioting, they will be deprived of the property made by their earlier generations. And, we are going to take this fight to corrupt people. We want that the property made by the corrupt should be used for the public, and there is a need to take forward a big campaign in this regard," he said. Also Read: Yogi Adityanath's BIG move - UP govt hospitals to have SIGNBOARDS in URDU too "Today, when a resident of UP goes outside (the state), he is seen with respect. However, the situation was not so five years ago, as the youths who had to go out, had to face problems of identity and credibility. The people from the state were forced to hide their identity at that time," Adityanath said. He asserted that the Uttar Pradesh government has worked with the policy of having zero tolerance towards crime and criminals, and has "infused a new confidence in the country". (With agency inputs) By- Idris Ul Mehraj Srinagar: In the border village of North Kashmir's Gurez sector, close to the Line of Control, the Indian army has set up a skill development centre for the women of the area. The Indian army has chosen the best location for the Skill development centre in Gurez Valley. Overlooking the Habba Khatoon Peak, these women are being trained in various skills to make them independent. Habba Khatoon known as 'The Nightingale of Kashmir' was a poet from the 16th century and holds great respect in the Kashmiri Story. And there could have been no better inspiration for these women. These women are taught various skills including computers, stitching and many other skills. The main motive of the Indian army is to make them Independent so that they can start a business of their own. The women who are attending these classes are thankful to the Indian army for opening such a skill development institute in Gurez valley. (Image Source: Idris Ul Mehraj) ''This is a great opportunity for us and benefits all of us. Skill development is very important in a world where everything is digital. We are coming out of depression because of this institute, most of us had completed our studies and didn't have a job; now, we can spend our time with each other and learn a skill. We are not wasting our time any more and also becoming independent. It's a great platform provided by the Indian army, and they always have played a great role for the people living in far-flung areas. We are highly thankful for the Indian army, '' said Saima, A student. The bordering villages of North Kashmir have faced a lot of violence due to continuous ceasefire violations from across the border for decades. There were hundreds of people killed and injured during these violations. Many houses and properties were damaged too. The women of these areas have suffered a lot due to the volatile situation. And now, after the last year's ceasefire agreement between India and Pakistan, these people are living normal lives. This centre will give these women wings to fly. The area generally gets cut off after the first snowfall in April and people living in these areas, especially women, do have not much to do. This skill development institute has also helped them to interact with each other. ''I want to thank the Indian army for opening this centre. It gave us a great opportunity, we were sitting at home and not doing anything. But now we are learning various skills. Earlier, we used to sit idle at home during winters as well. Now we have a skill and an institute to come and learn and earn from.'' said Roshni, a student. The Indian army has been working hard to open such kinds of initiatives for the women living in these bordering areas. Many such centres have been opened in various sectors close to the Line of Control. Kanyakumari: The Congress on Friday said its 'Bharat Yatris' were staying in containers which have very "basic and minimal" facilities and claimed that the BJP was trying to "defame" its 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' as it was rattled by it. The Opposition party alleged that the BJP IT cell was spreading falsehoods about the facilities at its Yatra campsites and in containers. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh also took a dig at the BJP, saying this is not like the 1990 Rath Yatra a Toyota Yatra or an Innova Yatra- ours is a Padyatra. The attack by the Opposition party came after it gave access to the media to its campsite in Nagercoil where the 60 containers were parked. About 230 people, including 119 Bharat Yatris who will walk the full 3,570 km from Kanyakumari to Kashmir will spend their nights in 60 containers mounted on trucks that will be moved daily from one place to another. Congress leaders' containers Rahul Gandhi is staying in a one-bed container that has a small sofa, an air conditioner, a small refrigerator and an attached toilet. A pictorial representation of one of Mahatma Gandhi's marches with his quote, "Be the change that you wish to see in the world", is also put up in the former Congress chief's container. Leaders such as Congress general secretaries K C Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh and Digvijaya Singh are staying in two-bed containers. There are also four-bed, six-bed, eight-bed and 12-bed containers. While some have attached toilets, others do not. Also Read: Congress broke India, BJP unifying it: Manipur CM N Biren Singh slams Bharat Jodo Yatra Mobile toilets and showers, mounted on trucks, are also parked at the campsites. The site visited by the media was Scott Christian College, Nagercoil, where the Yatris spent Thursday night. "We have 60 containers here. These containers move from one site to another. There is a one-bed container that Mr Rahul Gandhi uses. There is a two-bed container which Mr Digvijaya Singh, Mr K C Venugopal and I use, there is a four-bed, six-bed, eight-bed and 12-bed containers," Ramesh told reporters. He said his container has two bunks and is like a second AC train compartment. There is an area for having meals at the campsite and a conference room container which can accommodate 10 people, Ramesh said. Hitting out at the BJP, Ramesh said they only have "propaganda" to peddle. 'BJP threatened by Yatra' "The allegations that have been made by the BJP IT cell with the encouragement of the prime minister (Narendra Modi) to defame the Bharat Jodo Yatra show that the BJP is rattled," Ramesh said. The BJP is making these allegations in its nervousness, he claimed. "They should come and see what the reality is. We are not hiding anything, there is complete transparency. Look at the way we are staying, it would take about 160 days (to complete the Yatra)," he said. This is "very basic" and "very minimal", Ramesh said. Also read: Bharat Jodo Yatra: Rahul Gandhi meets family of NEET suicide victim "I wish both Amit Shah and Amit Malviya see these containers and then they will know what it is to live in a container. This is not like the Rath Yatra. It is not a Toyota Yatra or an Innova Yatra. Ours is a Padyatra," Ramesh said. The containers are not Made in China, he added. The facilities are very basic. He said it is like what you would expect while travelling in a second AC rail compartment. "By 8 AM these containers move to the next locations. We need two acres to accommodate these containers. We end up setting up camps in schools and colleges," he said. He said the campsites are mostly for the 119 'Bharat Yatris', support staff and people managing the camps. Ramesh said the food for the Yatris is being managed by the party's state units. On the second day of the actual Padyatra, which was launched at a rally on Wednesday, Gandhi along with other Bharat Yatris and party leaders began walking from the Nagercoil school after a flag hoisting ceremony which the party has said would be a daily routine. Also Read: Congress will not be 'taken for granted' after Bharat Jodo Yatra, says Jairam Ramesh "Day 2 of the padayatra started with flag hoisting at 7 am in Nagercoil. Bharat Yatris were joined by 89-year-old freedom fighter Kodikal Sheikh Abdullah. He inspired everyone by highlighting the need to stand up, unite and fight for the soul of our nation," Ramesh said in a tweet. Rahul Gandhi, along with several of his party colleagues, embarked on the 3,570-km "Bharat Jodo Yatra" from here on Thursday. Amid sounds of drum beats, a sea of tricolour and slogans of "Bharat Jodo", the march began from Vivekananda College Road, Agasteeswaram here on Thursday. Walking briskly, Gandhi, along with several top Congress leaders, covered 13 km in the morning session of the yatra on Thursday. He walked about seven km in the evening when there was mass mobilisation and thousands walked along with the former Congress chief. The march would cover 12 states and two Union Territories in about five months. The march is moving in two batches from 7 am to 10:30 am and from 3:30 pm to 6:30 pm. While the morning session includes fewer participants, the evening session sees mass mobilisation. The participants plan to walk around 22-23 km daily. About 30 per cent of 'Bharat Yatris' are women. The average age of Bharat Yatris is 38. About 50,000 citizens have also registered to participate in the Yatra. After reaching Kerala on September 11, the Yatra will traverse through the state for the next 19 days, reaching Karnataka on October 1. It will be in Karnataka for 21 days before moving north. It will pass through Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Nilambur, Mysuru, Bellary, Raichur, Vikarabad, Nanded, Jalgaon, Indore, Kota, Dausa, Alwar, Bulandshahr, Delhi, Ambala, Pathankot, Jammu, and end in Srinagar. Mumbai: It was not easy for two Marathi-speaking dabbawalas to converse with Queen Elizabeth, but they managed to overcome the language barrier, courtesy of another royal, this one from India. Mumbai's famed dabbawalas, who operate a globally renowned lunchbox delivery and return system that supplies hot lunches from homes and restaurants to people at work, are mourning the demise of the queen, who marked 70 years on the throne this year, and was the oldest and longest-reigning monarch in British history. Raghunath Medge, an office bearer of the Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association, told PTI that he spoke to the Queen and had breakfast with her twice when he and Sopan Mare, another dabbawala from Mumbai, were special guests at the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles in April 2005. Medge said they undertook an eight-day visit to London for the royal wedding. We had breakfast twice with Queen Elizabeth and other members of the royal family. She was very humble, he said. Although there was this language barrier, Padmini Devi, who hails from a royal family in Rajasthan, and was also an invitee for the wedding, helped in translation during our conversation with the queen, he said. Our first breakfast with the Queen was at Birmingham Palace, while the second breakfast was at Windsor Castle, which was the venue for the royal wedding. We reached there by bus, Medge said. Medge said he, Mare and Maharani Padmini Devi were the only invitees from India for the royal wedding. He said Padmini Devi introduced them to Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles and other members of the royal family. Medge said that during their brief interaction, the Queen was curious to know about their tiffin service and asked them how they operate it. She asked us how many people work as dabbawalas and how many of our generations were in the tiffin service business. She wanted to know how educated the dabbawalas were and for how long we had been working. We told her that we have been delivering tiffins from the time the British ruled India, Medge said. Dabbawalas were unknown to the world but became famous due to Queen Elizabeth and the royal family, Medge said. Medge said Queen Elizabeth had also enquired about them when Mumbai was attacked by Pakistani terrorists in November 2008. In 2016, dabbawalas of Mumbai went out shopping to buy special gifts for Prince William and Kate Middleton, who were in the city on a short visit. "When we attended the royal wedding in 2005, the British royals treated us like a family. Eleven years later, when Prince William and his wife came to India, we treated them as our son and daughter-in-law, he said. Over a dozen dabbawalas, accompanied by their wives, had gone shopping in the Dadar area to buy an expensive Paithani sari, considered an auspicious gift for a Maharashtrian bride, a headgear for Prince William, and a statuette of the Lord Vitthal, the presiding deity of the dabbawalas. Asked about missing Prince Willam's wedding in 2011, Medge said, We did not get the opportunity to attend that wedding but witnessed the live TV coverage. Both William and Kate looked beautiful. The association had then sent a special hand-made greeting card to the couple to congratulate them. The dabbawalas had their first brush with British royalty in November 2003, when Prince Charles met them at Churchgate station in south Mumbai and was highly impressed by their work culture. The prince was mesmerised learning about the way we work and heard us with rapt attention, he recalled. On hearing of Prince Charles' wedding announcement in 2005, the association sent a nine-yard sari for Camilla and a Maharashtrian turban for him, he said. "Prince Charles accepted the gift and extended a special invitation to the association to attend his wedding. He even made airfare arrangements for two people and took care of other expenses as well," Medge said. Watching Prince William's wedding ceremony on television, we reminisced about our experience. Prince William's father is a big-hearted man who did not forget us and even took care of our stay in London, said Medge. We saw the London Eye and the river Thames. But it was an expensive country where we couldn't afford anything, he said. Thiruvananthapuram: Soon after the Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to Kerala journalist Sidhique Kappan, who along with others were arrested on October 5, 2020 by the Uttar Pradesh Police under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), his wife Raihanath said the court has found him innocent. "The court has found out that Kappan is innocent and hence the bail was given. It`s been two years and it was very tough for us and we faced it with deep emotions and sufferings," said Raihanath. Kappan and others were on their way to Hathras after the rape and murder of a Dalit girl when the arrest took place. The top court directed Kappan to remain in Delhi for six weeks and thereafter he can shift to Kerala. A bench headed by Chief Justice U.U. Lalit observed that every person has a right to freedom of expression. The bench said, "Every person has a right to free expression...he is trying to show that the victim needs justice... Will this be a crime in the eyes of law?" Senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, representing the UP government, said on October 5, they had decided to go to Hathras to incite riots. Also Read: Big RELIEF for Siddique Kappan, SC grants BAIL to Kerala journalist jailed for 2 years in Yogi Adityanath's State The bench further added that there were protests at India Gate in 2011 also for Nirbhaya. The bench, also comprising Justices S. Ravindra Bhat and P.S. Narasimha, said, "Sometimes protests are needed to bring a change. You know after that there was a change in laws. these are protests..." The state government, in a written response, said, "The investigation has revealed that the petitioner (Kappan) is part of the larger conspiracy with the co-accused (including the financial launderer of CFI, Rauf Sharif) to foment religious discord and spread terror in the country, especially in the wake of anti CAA protests and violence, the Babri Masjid decision of this Hon`ble Court and the Hathras incident." It further claimed that the documents recovered from Kappan`s laptop and from his rented house in Delhi established how the current PFI leadership basically comprised former SIMI (Students Islamic Movement of India - banned as a terrorist organisation) members. The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court had rejected Kappan`s plea for bail. He moved the top court challenging the high court order. ICAI CA Foundation Exam 2022: The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, ICAI has released the CA Foundation exam dates for the December 2022 session. The CA Foundation exams will be conducted from December 14, 2022 in pen-paper mode. Candidates will be able to apply for the CA December session exam from September 14, 2022 on the Self Service Portal (SSP) of ICAI. ICAI will conduct the CA foundation exam on December 14, 16, 18 and December 20, 2022. The ICAI CA Foundation exams will conducted at over 290 exam centres in India and eight overseas centres. Candidates will given choice to answer the question paper in English and Hindi medium ICAI CA Foundation Exam: Important Dates Commencement of submission of online examination application: September 14, 2022 Last date for submission of online examination application forms (without late fees): October 4, 2022 Last date for submission of online examination application forms: October 9, 2022 CA Foundation examination fee The ICAI CA Foundation registration fee for Indian test centres is Rs. 1,500. Candidates opting for overseas exam centres other than Bhutan and Kathmandu are required to pay USD 325. Candidates appearing for the examination from Bhutan and Kathmandu have to pay Rs. 2,220 in online mode. ICAI CA Foundation Exam Official Notice ICAR AIEEA UG 2022: Indian Council of Agricultural Research, ICAR AIEEA UG Admit Card 2022 is likely to be released today, on September 9, 2022, by the National Testing Agency, NTA. Candidates can access their AIEEA UG admit card after it has been announced by visiting the official website at icar.nta.nic.in. Updates can be found below. For the AIEEA UG test, which will start on September 13, 2022, the ICAR AIEEA UG Admit Card 2022 is expected today. Candidates are reminded that these AIEEA UG tests will be held for three days, ending on September 15, 2022, per the ICAR entrance exams schedule. The ICAR AIEEA UG exam city slips have also been made available online by NTA. These slips, which listed the exam city and location, were made available yesterday, on September 8, 2022. These admit cards are expected to release along with these slips very soon. ALSO READ: CUET Result 2022 to be RELEASED on September 15 at cuet.samarth.ac.in, says UGC Chairman- Details here ICAR AIEEA UG 2022: Heres how to download the admit card Visit the official site of NTA ICAR on icar.nta.ac.in. Click on "ICAR Admit Card (AIEEA-PG-2022)" link available on the home page. Enter the login details and click on submit. Download the admit card and save it for future reference. Candidates should be aware that the exam city slip is completely distinct from the ICAR AIEEA UG admit card and is not the same document. The former is only made public to provide everyone with a general understanding of their exam locations so they can make the necessary preparations. The most crucial document for everyone is the ICAR AIEEA UG admit card, which is anticipated after its publication. Candidates will be prohibited from taking the exam without this hall ticket. KOLKATA: In yet another instance of widening rift between TMC MP Mahua Moitra and party president Mamata Banerjee, the West Bengal Chief Minister on Friday once again rebuked her publicly and told her to concentrate on her own Lok Sabha constituency. Cautioning Mahua Moitra not to "unnecessary interfere'' in other party leaders' work, the TMC supremo asked her to help the party by sticking to her own area. While addressing a booth-level workers meet in Calcutta, the TMC chief told Moitra to leave party issues in Nadias Karimpur to Murshidabad MP Abu Taher. "Mahua, who gives post and who does not give is not important. It is for the party to think about that. Karimpur is not your area, it's Abu Taher's and he will see. You only concentrate on your Lok Sabha constituency," Banerjee reportedly said during the party organisational booth meeting. It may be noted that Mahua Moitra was elected as a Trinamul MLA from Karimpur in 2016. In 2019, she became an MP from the Krishnanagar seat. A portion of the Karimpur Assembly constituency falls under Krishnanagar limits. As Nadia district president, Moitra used to look after the entire area at one point in time. However, after the 2021 assembly polls, Moitra was removed from the post of district president. Though she no longer holds the district presidents post but enjoys considerable clout in Karimpur where she has her ancestral property also. According to TMC sources, Mahua has managed to build huge support in Karimpur but battles friction with local leaders, which the partys central leadership thinks can cause huge damage to the party. It is said that the local Karimpur MLA has complained to Mamata Banerjee about Mahuas growing interference in the partys day-to-day affairs in his area after which the TMC boss slammed the Krishnanagar MP. After Mamatas piece of advice' to her, Mahua, in a Facebook post on Friday evening, reiterated her association with Karimpur. "You all know that in 2016, with the blessing of Mamata Banerjee and your love, I became MLA Karimpur. From 2016 to 2019, I tried to implement the developmental work of the Mamata Banerjee government in this region. During this time, I got work done worth Rs 149 crore here. Karimpur ITI and other colleges came up. In 2019, I became MP from Krishnanagar. I have worked for each assembly constituency in my area and also have worked for Karimpur as the people of Karimpur love me," she said. "As a voter of Karimpur and also as a former MLA, my bonding with Karimpur was and will be there. Today, the party high command has asked me to give more time to my Lok Sabha constituency. Therefore, I will not be able to give more time (to Karimpur). My request to you all from now is that for developmental work, please get in touch with the MP of this region, Abu Taher Khan." This is not the first time Moitra has been criticised by the TMC leaders. Her recent remarks about Hindu goddess Kali put the TMC on the back foot, leading to the party distancing itself from the comments. A woman accused of fatally stabbing her roommate 15 years ago in North Dakota pleaded not guilty Thursday after a judge determined there was sufficient evidence to send her to trial on felony murder. Thirty-four-year-old Nichole Rice appeared in Ward County District Court in connection with the 2007 death of 18-year-old Anita Knutson. The Minot State University student was found face down in her bed and had two stab wounds to the chest, according to court documents. Minot Police Chief John Klug has said Rice was always a person of interest, but until this year there had not been enough evidence to arrest her. New Delhi: Extending support to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma`s demolition of three madrasas in the state, Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Thursday said that the BJP is not against the legal madrasas but only the illegal ones. Singh said that he would have taken the same action if he had been the chief minister of Assam. Speaking to ANI, he said, "What the Chief Minister is doing in Assam in connection with the madrassa is right. Those who have to approach the courts can do it, it is a democracy. But he is doing the right thing. If I had been at Himanta Biswa Sarma`s place as a chief minister, I would have taken the same action." Standing in support of Sarma who was criticised by Congress for his action against the madrasas which the Assam CM alleged were the offices of Al-Qaeda, Singh said that Sarma understands the political demography of the state and is working accordingly. "Sarma is an experienced politician who is connected to the grassroots. He understands the political demography there. He is working according to that only. We have instructed earlier to the madrassas in Manipur to impart a general education," he said. The Manipur CM said that there is a need to crack down on those indulging in "unconstitutional activities". "Unrecognized and unauthorized Madrasas need to be recognized. An undue advantage of India`s democracy was taken. The BJP governments are not against the legal madrassas but are against the illegal ones. There is a need to crackdown on those who do unconstitutional activities," he said. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday said all demolished madrasas were not madrasas but Al-Qaeda offices. Speaking to mediapersons here, Sarma said, "All demolished madrasas were not madrasas but Al Qaeda offices. We demolished 2-3 and now the public is coming to demolish others. The Muslim community is coming to demolish, saying that they do not want a madrasa where the work of Al-Qaeda is done. That changes madrasa`s character." The Chief Minister`s statement came after local residents of Pakhuria Char in Assam`s Goalpara district demolished a madrasa on Tuesday after a cleric associated with it was held for alleged anti-national activities. "Locals took the initiative to demolish a madrassa. The government was not involved in it. They were surprised that the jihadi who was arrested was a teacher in the madrassa. People have given a strong message that they do not support jihadi activities," Goalpara Superintendent of Police VV Rakesh Reddy told ANI. "Today, the locals of Darogar Alga, Pakhiura Char in Goalpara district voluntarily demolished the madrassa & the residence adjacent to the madrassa which was previously used by two suspected Bangladeshi nationals as a strong resentment towards the Jihadi activities," said the Assam Police CPRO. In the last few weeks, four madrasas have been demolished, with the first three being pulled down by government authorities. Earlier on August 4, the government authorities demolished Madrasa Jamiul Huda Madrasa at Moirabari in Morigaon district. Notably, on 30 August, the Uttar Pradesh government had asked the DMs of all the districts to conduct a survey of unrecognized madrassas and inform the government about it. MHT CET Answer Key 2022: Maharashtra Common Entrance Test, MHT CET Result 2022 is expected to be released soon by State Common Entrance Test Cell. Important notification regarding the MHT CET Answer Key 2022 has been made by the exam's organizing organization prior to the declaration of the MHT CET Result. Additionally, there are additional facts on the official website, mahacet.org. The planned changes one can expect in the MHT CET final answer key are mentioned in the important notice on MHT CET Answer Key 2022. This shows that after applicants filed their objections, the organization in charge of administering the exam considered them and made some adjustments. Based on these, now, a final MHT CET answer key is being prepared for everyone which would ultimately come in handy while preparing the MHT CET Result 2022. The notice also mentions that nearly 500 objections were received on this preliminary answer key, for both PCM and PCB groups. MHT CET Answer Key 2022- Here's how to download Visit the official website mhtcet2022.mahacet.org. Click on the link 'Anser Key (PCM & PCB)' 'RESPONSE PROCESSING SYSTEM' Key in your Candidate ID and date of birth and submit. The MHT CET answer key along with the response sheet and question paper will appear on the screen. Candidates are reminded that the MHT CET Result 2022 announced announcement is anticipated to be issued by September 15, 2022, per the official notice and even the most recent changes. Even if the exact outcome time is still unknown, it will probably be revealed at least a day, if not more, beforehand. New Delhi: External Affairs Minister, Dr S Jaishankar will be paying an official visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from September 10-12 to discuss the entire bilateral relationship between India and Saudi Arabia and also to co-chair the inaugural Ministerial meeting of the Committee on Political, Security, Social and Cultural Cooperation (PSSC), Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) officially announced on Friday. External Affairs Minister, Dr S Jaishankar, will pay an official visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from 10-12 September. This will be his first visit to the Kingdom as External Affairs Minister of India, MEA said in a statement. External Affairs Minister, Dr S Jaishankar, will pay an official visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from 10-12 September. This will be his first visit to the Kingdom as External Affairs Minister of India: MEA pic.twitter.com/D1XiTJwuRc September 9, 2022 The meeting will be established under the framework of the India-Saudi Arabia Strategic Partnership Council, with the Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia, HH Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud. The ministers will review the entire bilateral relationship and discuss the progress under the four Joint Working Groups of the PSSC Committee- Political & Consular, Legal & Security, Social & Cultural, and Joint Committee on Defence Cooperation. In his first visit to the Kingdom as the Minister of External Affairs of India, S Jaishankar will be interacting with the Indian community of Saudi Arabia and understanding their livelihood in the country. It is also mentioned that he will meet other Saudi dignitaries as well as the Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), H.E. Dr Nayef Falah Mubarak Al-Hajraf. Both sides will review the bilateral relations and discuss ways to enhance them. Over the past few years, India and Saudi Arabia have considerably strengthened their ties in several aspects including in political, security, energy, trade, investment, health, food security, cultural and defence fields. The top leadership of both countries remained in close touch even during the Covid pandemic. Mumbai: Dabbawalas from Mumbai on Friday expressed grief over the demise of Queen Elizabeth II. The dabbawalas operate a globally renowned lunchbox delivery and return system that supplies hot lunches from homes and restaurants to people at work. Raghunath Medge, an office bearer of the Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association, said, "On behalf of all the dabbawalas of Mumbai, I pay my heartfelt condolences to the royal family," adding that Dabbawalas were unknown to the world but became famous due to Queen Elizabeth and the royal family. Notably, Raghunath Medge and another association office-bearer Sopan Mare attended the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles in April 2005. Recalling his eight-day visit to London for the royal wedding, Medge told PTI that they had breakfast with Queen Elizabeth and other members of the royal family at Windsor Castle. "We had breakfast twice at Windsor Castle with the royal family and the Queen was present," PTI quoted Medge, who added that they did not get an opportunity to interact with her due to language barrier, but she treated them very humbly. He said that Queen Elizabeth had enquired about them when Mumbai was attacked by Pakistani terrorists in November 2008. Also read: Camilla becomes Queen, but without the sovereign's powers - Heres why Condolences poured in from around the world. Leaders and politicians took to Twitter to mourn the death of the British Queen.After the demise of Queen Elizabeth II, her eldest son Charles, who took the regnal name of Charles III, has become the new monarch. Also read: Operation Unicorn sets in with Queen Elizabeth II's death, what happens now Earlier on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled the death of Queen Elizabeth II and hailed her "inspiring leadership". Taking to Twitter, the Prime Minister recalled his memorable meetings with the Queen during his UK visits in 2015 and 2018 and said, "I will never forget her warmth and kindness. During one of the meetings, she showed me the handkerchief Mahatma Gandhi gifted her on her wedding. I will always cherish that gesture." The Prime Minister said Queen Elizabeth II will be remembered as a stalwart of our times. He further tweeted, "She provided inspiring leadership to her nation and people. She personified dignity and decency in public life. Pained by her demise. My thoughts are with her family and people of the UK in this sad hour." The longest-serving monarch of the UK, Queen Elizabeth II, took her last breath at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on Thursday at the age of 96, according to Buckingham Palace statement that announced her demise on September 8. The statement referred to the Queen`s eldest son, Prince of Wales, Charles as the new King ascending over the queen who reigned for 70 years and 7 months, adding "The death of my beloved Mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family. We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much loved Mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world." Born on April 21, 1926, at 17 Bruton Street in Mayfair, London as Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, Queen was the oldest child of the Duke and Duchess of York - who later became King George VI - and Queen Elizabeth. Notably, a 10-day mourning was declared over the death of Elizabeth II, who was a formal head of state in 15 countries. (With PTI/ANI Inputs) London: With the death of Queen Elizabeth II in Balmoral, Scotland, on September 8, the British government`s "Operation Unicorn" is underway. The UK authorities had devised Operation London Bridge to manage events during the first 10 days between the Queen`s death and the funeral. They had thought of Operation Unicorn in case the queen died in Scotland. "The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow," the Royal Family said in a statement on Thursday. As per one official memo, the code for conveying the message of the Queen`s death is "London bridge is down." Shortly before the Palace announced the Queen`s death, BBC presenters changed into black attire, black suits and ties, as part of `Operation London Bridge`. As per the documents seen by The Politico, Thursday will be declared as "D-Day" and each following day leading up to the funeral will be referred to as "D+1," "D+2" till the tenth of her death. According to documents seen by Politico, the Royal family will next announce plans for the Queen`s funeral. Ten days after Queen`s death, the newly appointed UK Prime Minister Liz Truss will be the first member of the government to make a statement. Aside from the statement from the PM and other members of the government, gun salutes will be arranged at all saluting stations. Also read: President Murmu, PM Modi, other leaders express condolences on passing away of Queen Elizabeth II PM Liz Truss will hold an audience with the new king, and King Charles will deliver a broadcast to the nation. The state funeral will be held at Westminster Abbey and there will be a committal service in St. George`s Chapel at Windsor Castle. Thereafter, Queen Elizabeth II will be buried in the castle`s King George VI Memorial Chapel. Death of Queen Elizabeth II paves way for Prince Charles to become the King After the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest reigning British monarch (70 years), her first-born Prince Charles will become the King and a long-planned "Operation London Bridge" goes underway in the British Isles. The national anthem immediately shifted back to "God Save the King". The death of Queen Elizabeth II, exactly a year after her husband Prince Phillip, the duke of Edenborough, passed, has set in motion a meticulously choreographed and coordinated procedure for which the Palace, the government, the news media, the local authorities and the Queen herself had long planned. Amid the public mourning, the national grief and the lowering of flags will come a transition of power and national memorialising, known as Operation London Bridge, which will overtake the country`s agenda for days and play out potentially for months before the coronation of a new monarch. "From the moment the queen became monarch, Whitehall started the planning process about what would happen when she died," IANS quoted Philip Murphy, a professor of British and Commonwealth history at the University of London. The national anthem will again shift back to "God Save the King". "I think it`s going to be an extraordinary psychological dislocation for British people," Professor Murphy said. "By now you`ve pretty much got to be in your late 70s or 80s to remember a time when Queen Elizabeth wasn`t on the throne." Also read: Queen Elizabeth II: A young girl who did not expect to be Queen became an icon According to The New York Times, much of it has been planned down to the minute, and some things have already fallen into place. By the time the world knew about the queen`s death, her son Charles had already become king. Under common law, the moment of the sovereign`s death marks the moment the heir becomes the monarch. London Bridge is down- one coded phrase message Many of the granular details of the Palace`s planning for the Queen`s death were laid out in a 2017 investigation by The Guardian, providing a blueprint for the hours and days ahead. That planning has been discussed in meetings between government and Palace officials, the police, the army and broadcasters two to three times a year since the turn of the century, and occasionally reported on. According to the blueprint, the Queen`s death would be communicated with one coded phrase - "London Bridge is down." The Queen`s private secretary, Edward Young, was tasked with delivering the message to the Prime Minister. Then the Foreign Office was responsible for relaying the message to Commonwealth leaders, a loose organization largely composed of former colonies of the British Empire, which includes 15 countries where the Monarch is also the head of state. Charles, as the new king, automatically became the head of state for the realms once ruled by his mother. "It will just be an automatic transition, whatever popular sentiment is about it," Professor Murphy said, adding "Whoever succeeds her becomes king of Canada, king of Australia, king of Tuvalu." Based on earlier blueprints, news outlets across the country, and around the world, would learn of the Queen`s death in tandem. However, the news first appeared in a post on the Royal Family`s Twitter account, and on their website, before being sent to news organisations around the world by the British Press Association. The BBC played the national anthem shortly after the announcement and showed a photo of the Queen, followed by an image of the royal crest on a black screen and the words "Queen Elizabeth II". The flag at Buckingham Palace was soon lowered to half-mast. In the tradition of decades of royal announcements, a notice was placed on a sign at the gates of the monarch`s official residence, Buckingham Palace. Television newsrooms have been well prepared, with the mourning attire and coverage reflecting on the queen`s life at the ready. The country now enters an official period of mourning that continues until after the queen`s funeral, which is expected to take place 10 days after her death and be a public holiday. While the sovereign`s political power is largely symbolic, the monarchy plays a constitutional role, so there will be formalities conducted with the expected royal flair. According to protocol, within 24 hours of the queen`s death, lawmakers in Parliament will take oaths of allegiance to the new king, the New York Times said. Official proclaimation of the new sovereign The Accession Council, a ceremonial body, will be summoned to St. James`s Palace, a Tudor royal residence near Buckingham Palace, to officially proclaim the new sovereign. And the first Privy Council of Charles`s reign will be held. Charles will make four traditional public statements as he enters his new role. At the first meeting of the Privy Council, he will give a personal and political inaugural declaration. In the past, this happened in a closed ceremony and the text was published after the fact in the London Gazette - the official government records. But the planning document suggests this could be televised. Then come more formalities, most of which date to a narrow period of British history that has become enshrined in law and nods to the foundations of the modern British state. Charles will make a statutory oath to uphold the Church of Scotland during the first Privy Council and confirm the timing of the queen`s funeral. He will later make the accession declaration oath, a vow to maintain the established Protestant line of succession, usually made at the next state opening of Parliament. And lastly, he will make the Coronation Oath, which includes a promise to uphold the rights and privileges of the Church of England. At 11 a.m. on the day after the Queen`s death, a proclamation will be read that officially declares the reign of the new king, which is then passed across the country, first by heralds who will arrive on horseback wearing official uniforms that have roots in the clothing from the Middle Ages to read the news in Trafalgar Square and then the Royal Exchange in London. According to the plan, two days after the Queen`s death, the proclamation will be read out in ceremonial fashion in capitals across the United Kingdom - Edinburgh; Cardiff, Wales; and Belfast, Northern Ireland - and later, high sheriffs in traditional garb will declare the news in towns and villages across the country. Plans have also been underway on the local level for years, with the National Association of Civic Officers issuing a framework for local officials that maps out every detail from when bells should be rung (fully or half-muffled on the day of the announcement, according to guidance from the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers) To the clothes worn by local officials to the paper to be used in books of condolences. Flags across the country are to be lowered to half-staff and stay that way until the morning after the queen`s funeral, with one exception. On Proclamation Day, flags will be raised until the next afternoon, and then revert to half-staff. After the proclamation of the new king, attention will once again turn to the funeral of Britain`s longest-serving monarch. The procedure and pomp around royal deaths and funerals is not unfamiliar in Britain, with the deaths of Princess Diana, Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother very much a part of a national collective memory. The death of Elizabeth`s husband, Prince Philip, in 2021, was likened by many to a dress rehearsal for the inevitable main event. However, the death of a sovereign is a far more consequential loss, and one that has not been felt in 70 years, since the death of Elizabeth`s father, King George VI. While the process around his funeral offers some guidance as to how the coming days will unfurl, looking back may offer only a partial sense of what the events may look like. The Queen`s coffin is expected to rest in the Throne Room at Buckingham Palace for four days after her death, before being moved in a formal parade to Westminster Hall, where it will lie in state until the funeral. The coffin will be placed on a raised platform draped in regal purple, and tradition dictates that each corner of the platform be guarded around the clock. After the funeral ceremony, the Queen`s coffin is expected to be placed on the same green gun carriage that carried her forefathers` coffins, in a final procession down the mall, which runs between Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square. It will then be driven to Windsor Castle, about 23 miles away, to the resting place of nearly all British sovereigns since George III. Elizabeth will be buried alongside her royal predecessors at St. George`s Chapel. The Queen`s husband, Prince Philip, was buried there in April 2021 after a muted funeral ceremony because of restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic. Her father, mother and sister are also interred there. The Queen was born on April 21, 1926 at 17 Bruton Street in Mayfair, London. She was the first child of The Duke and Duchess of York - who later became King George VI - and Queen Elizabeth. (With ANI / IANS Inputs) New Delhi: BJP National President JP Nadda attacked Congress in Chhattisgarh capital Raipur on Friday by calling it a party of brothers and sisters. He also took a dig at the national party for their Bharat Jodo Yatra campaign and said that they need to first align their own party. Congress is a party of brothers & sisters. These days, CM Bhagel is going to 'Bharat Jodo' rallies, they need to first align their own party. Our fight is against family politics: BJP National President JP Nadda. Chhattisgarh | Congress is a party of brothers & sisters. These days, CM Bhagel is going to 'Bharat Jodo' rallies, they need to first align their own party. Our fight is against family politics: BJP National President JP Nadda pic.twitter.com/D33ad3JJEN ANI (@ANI) September 9, 2022 Nadda also attacked Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel for turning a blind eye to tribal killings in the state by being with Rahul Gandhi in Kerala. He also accused Baghel of being anti-development who only wants to fill the treasures of Congress. He also claimed that BJP is against family politics. PM Modi has changed traditional politics. People like CM Bhupesh Baghel are against development, and only want to fill the treasures of Congress. Our tribal brothers were killed here & CM Baghel was with Rahul Gandhi in Kerala: BJP National President JP Nadda. Raipur, Chhattisgarh | PM Modi has changed traditional politics. People like CM Bhupesh Baghel are against development, only want to fill treasures of Congress. Our tribal brothers were killed here & CM Baghel was with Rahul Gandhi in Kerala: BJP National President JP Nadda pic.twitter.com/4gpyzI4wwm ANI (@ANI) September 9, 2022 Notably, JP Nadda arrived in Raipur on Friday for a four-day visit, during which he will take part in the events of the partys state unit and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). It is Nadda's first visit to the Congress-ruled state after assuming charge as the BJP's national president, which is being described as crucial to boosting the morale of party workers ahead of the next year's Assembly polls in the state. Also Read: Congress broke India, BJP unifying it: Manipur CM N Biren Singh slams Bharat Jodo Yatra Tribal folk artists attired in colourful dresses accorded grand welcome to Nadda at the Swami Vivekananda Airport Raipur with beats of 'dhol' and 'nagada' (drums) and traditional dance upon his arrival. BJP leaders and workers were present at the airport to welcome Nadda, who arrived here shortly before noon, a BJP functionary here said. State BJP chief Arun Sao, former chief minister Raman Singh, BJP's state in-charge D Purandeswari, BJP MPs and MLAs were among those who received Nadda at the airport, he said. A small stage was erected adjacent to the arrival gate of the airport where Nadda was welcomed with a large garland by state BJP leaders. From the airport, Nadda headed for Deendayal Chowk Telibandha escorted by convoy of vehicles of party leaders and a motorcycle rally organised by the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM). Also Read: Bharat Jodo Yatra will make me wiser: Rahul Gandhi says no message for PM Modi At Deendayal Chowk, the BJP chief offered flowers at the statue of Pt Deendayal Upadhyay and following which a mega roadshow was taken out from there. Nadda, accompanied by Arun Sao, Raman Singh and other state leaders were seen on a vehicle that was decked up with flowers. Arrangements have been made by the party to welcome the roadshow at various places. The roadshow will cover a distance of around six kilometers before concluding at Ekatma Parisar, the party's Raipur district office. Nadda will then address a convention of party workers here at Science College ground. Subsequently, he will chair meetings of the state BJP's core group, MLAs, MPs etc at Kushabhau Thakre Parisar, the state BJP office. (With agency inputs) New Delhi: Condolences poured in from the political fraternity after Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-serving monarch of the UK, died on Thursday (September 8, 2022) at 96. The Royal Family, in a statement, said, "The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow." Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday condoled the death of Queen Elizabeth II as he hailed her "inspiring leadership". Taking to Twitter, the Prime Minister recalled his memorable meetings with the Queen during his UK visits in 2015 and 2018. "I will never forget her warmth and kindness. During one of the meetings, she showed me the handkerchief Mahatma Gandhi gifted her on her wedding. I will always cherish that gesture," PM Modi tweeted. I had memorable meetings with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II during my UK visits in 2015 and 2018. I will never forget her warmth and kindness. During one of the meetings she showed me the handkerchief Mahatma Gandhi gifted her on her wedding. I will always cherish that gesture. pic.twitter.com/3aACbxhLgC Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 8, 2022 President Droupadi Murmu also offered condolences on the solemn occasion. "In the demise of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of UK, the world has lost a great personality. An era has passed since she steered her country and people for over 7 decades. I share the grief of people of UK and convey my heartfelt condolence to the family," the President tweeted. In the demise of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of UK, the world has lost a great personality. An era has passed since she steered her country and people for over 7 decades. I share the grief of people of UK and convey my heartfelt condolence to the family. President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) September 8, 2022 ALSO READ | Queen Elizabeth II: A young girl who did not expect to be Queen became an iconic figure US President Joe Biden and the First Lady drove down to the British Embassy in Washington to sign the condolence book and pay their respect after the death of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. We mourn for all of you. She was a great lady, I'm so delighted I got to meet her, Biden said on Thursday as he walked over to the embassy staff. Other Indian political leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin also offered condolences on the Queen`s passing away. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi expressed his condolences to the people of the United Kingdom and the Royal Family and said that she had served her country with utmost dignity. "My condolences to the people of UK and the Royal Family on the passing away of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. She had a long and glorious reign, serving her country with utmost commitment and dignity," Gandhi tweeted. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin also offered condolences on the Queen`s passing away and in a tweet said "Deeply pained by the demise of HM Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-reigning monarch of the United Kingdom. After a reign spanning seven decades, 15 Prime Ministers and several major turning points in modern history, the second Elizabethan era has come to an end. "Queen Elizabeth II will be long remembered for her dignity, decency in public life and her unwavering commitment. My sincere condolences to @RoyalFamily, the people of UK and everyone around the world mourning the demise of one of the greatest monarchs of all time," he added in his tweet. Expressing her condolences, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that an era came to an end as the Queen who was the longest reigning British monarch passed away. "I express my condolences to the British Royal family and the people of the United Kingdom on the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. An era comes to an end as the longest reigning British monarch leaves for her heavenly abode," Banerjee tweeted. The Queen was born on 21 April 1926 at 17 Bruton Street in Mayfair, London. She was the first child of The Duke and Duchess of York - who later became King George VI - and Queen Elizabeth. Her death brings to an end the longest reign in the history of the United Kingdom, and one of the longest reigns by any head of state. Buckingham Palace earlier reported that doctors were concerned about the health of Elizabeth II, and recommended that she remain under medical supervision .If reports are to be believed the British government have a plan Codenamed Operation LONDON BRIDGE, in the event of her death. (With agency inputs) Kolkata: Trinamool Congress 'muscleman' Anubrata Mondal and 13 others were acquitted in a case of violence at Mangalkot in Birbhum district in 2010 by an MP/MLA court here on Friday. After his acquittal, Mondal claimed that he had been framed in the case. The judge of the MP/MLA court at Bidhannagar acquitted Mondal, the TMC leader from Birbhum, and the 13 other accused for lack of evidence. The court held that the prosecution could not prove from the testimonies of witnesses that the accused were present at the scene of violence. Mondal and the 13 others were accused of the political violence which took place in March 2010 in which some people were injured. The erstwhile CPI(M)-led Left Front was in power in West Bengal at the time. It was alleged that a few activists of the then ruling CPI-M were injured in the clash with TMC supporters in Mangalkot and one of them lost a hand in a country bomb blast. The TMC leader is at present in judicial custody following his arrest on August 11 by CBI in connection with the cattle smuggling case. Earlier in the day, Mondal, who is the Birbhum district president of TMC, told reporters that he is happy to have 'Didi' (Mamata Banerjee) on his side during the crisis. Answering questions by journalists while being taken out of Asansol correctional home on way to Bidhannagar MP/MLA court in the city, Mondal said "None spends his/her entire life in jail. An undertrial has to be released at one point in time. "I am not demoralised. It is enough for me that our leader, our respected Didi, is on my side," he asserted before being whisked away in a car. Launching a scathing attack on the BJP, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said the acquittal of Mondal in the Mangalkot case again proves the opposition's designs to malign the ruling party in West Bengal after failing to combat it in the electoral battle in the state in 2021. Ghosh said that his party has full faith in the judiciary and is sure that truth will prevail in cases in which its leaders have been made accused to malign the party. CPI(M) central committee member Sujan Chakraborty questioned the state government's sincerity in pursuing the case as the accused belongs to the ruling TMC. Unlike in the case of former minister and TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee, who was shown the door by the party following his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a school recruitment scam, Banerjee has stood by Mondal. Banerjee had said on Thursday said, "Anubrata will come out of jail one day and you will accord him a hero's welcome when he does so." (With Agency Inputs) Kolkata: Trinamool Congress strongman Anubrata Mondal, who has been arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with its probe into the alleged cattle smuggling to Bangladesh from West Bengal, is confident of his early release from jail. Talking to reporters when he was being taken out from Asansol jail to produce before Bidhannagar civil court in connection with the 2010 Mangalkote blast case, Mondal said, None spends entire life in jail. An undertrial has to be released at one point in time. Mondal has been named in the 2010 Mangalkote blast case chargesheet. The TMC strongman also told reporters that he is "happy to have Mamata 'didi' on his side during the crisis." I am not demoralised. It is enough for me that our leader, respected didi, is on my side," Mondal said before being whisked away in a car. His reaction came a day after TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee urged party workers to accord Anubrata Mondal a hero's welcome when he comes out of jail. Mondal was arrested by the CBI on August 11 in connection with its probe into the alleged cattle smuggling to Bangladesh from West Bengal. He was remanded to 14-day custody twice by a special CBI court in Asansol. Unlike the case of Partha Chatterjee, who was shown the door by the party following his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a school recruitment scam, Banerjee has stood by Mondal. Addressing TMC workers in a meeting, Banerjee on Thursday said, "Anubrata will come out of jail one day and you will accord him a hero's welcome when he comes out of jail. He is unwell, and before every election, his movements are restricted. New Delhi: As the India Gate circle, also known as C-Hexagon, went out of bounds for vehicular and general pedestrian movement between 6 pm and 9 pm for the opening ceremony of Central Vista Avenue on Thursday (September 8, 2022), traffic snarls were witnessed on some arterial roads in central Delhi. Traffic congestions were witnessed in and around the areas of India Gate and other parts of Central Delhi due to the closure of roads in the evening hours. The Delhi Police had made proper arrangements beforehand and has issued an advisory asking the commuters to plan their journey in advance or take alternate routes to avoid road closures and congestion due to traffic restrictions. Many areas in parts of Lutyens Delhi, including ITO, IP Flyover, and other roads, witnessed traffic jams due to the roads closure. Traffic movement could only be eased after 9 pm around when the ceremony was over. The Delhi Traffic Control Room buzzed with calls complaining of snarls in several areas, beginning at 6 pm, especially around India Gate. According to police, over 450 traffic personnel were deployed to maintain traffic and ensure all roads near the India Gate were empty. Additionally, the Delhi Police also coordinated with Delhi Fire Services and called in cranes to monitor the restricted area and to remove any unwanted vehicles. "Most of the calls we received of heavy congestion were from Tilak Marg, C-hexagon, Purana Quila Road, Shershah Road, Dr Zakir Hussain Marg, Pandara Road, and Shahjahan Road. But as per the congestions reported, necessary diversions were also made," a traffic officer said. The traffic was diverted through W point, Mathura Road, Ashoka Road, Q-point, Prithviraj Road, Akbar Road and Subramania Bharati Marg, the officer added. The inauguration time being around the peak evening hours, traffic near Central Secretariat, Patel Chowk and Pragati Maidan was especially affected. Special arrangements were made to ensure that no inconvenience was caused to commuters and pedestrians, police said, adding traffic was diverted from specific roads from 6 pm to 9 pm. Other areas which witnessed traffic jams in the national capital were Moti Bagh crossing, Bhikaji Cama road, south foot of Lodhi flyover, Moolchand, and Vikas Marg, said the traffic police officials. The traffic for these routes were diverted from Bhairon Road, Rajghat, Connaught Place, and JLN stadium among others, they said. Traffic movement was also diverted on K G Marg (from C-hexagon to Madhav Rao Scindia Marg Crossing) and Copernicus Marg (from C-hexagon to Madhav Rao Scindia Marg Crossing). According to the advisory issued, commuters using two-wheelers, three-wheelers, and four-wheelers were requested to plan their journey in advance and avoid roads such as W-Point, Mathura Road, Ashoka Road, Q-Point, Prithvi Raj Road, Akbar Road, Subramania Bharati Marg, APJ Abdul Kalam Road, and Rajesh Pilot Marg. The roundabouts near Windsor Place and Claridges Hotel, Man Singh Road, the MLNP roundabout, Janpath, Firoz Shah Road, the Mandi House roundabout and Sikandra Road also witnessed congestion. (With agency inputs) North Dakota voters this fall will decide whether their two-term congressman or the first North Dakotan to win the Miss America title will hold the state's only seat in the U.S. House. Cara Mund, of Bismarck, qualified Friday for the ballot as an independent for the race. The recent Harvard Law School graduate will face U.S. Rep. Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D., who has held the seat since 2019. Democratic-NPL nominee Mark Haugen suspended his campaign Sunday, citing pressure from party leaders related to Mund's bid. Armstrong and Haugen oppose abortion; Mund has cited abortion rights as one reason she is running. Armstrong and Mund debated Wednesday on Forum News Service columnist Rob Port's Plain Talk podcast. People seeking to make the November general election ballot as an independent candidate had to submit petition signatures by this past Tuesday, and have them verified. State Rep. Rick Becker, R-Bismarck, has qualified as an independent for the U.S. Senate race. He is challenging two-term Republican incumbent John Hoeven. Democrat Katrina Christiansen, a University of Jamestown engineering professor, also is challenging Hoeven. Frequent ballot measure petition circulator and past statewide candidate Charles Tuttle, of Minot, has qualified for the secretary of state race. He will face Republican nominee and state Rep. Michael Howe, of West Fargo, and Democrat Jeffrey Powell, of Grand Forks. Longtime incumbent Al Jaeger is not running. The state crime bureau last month took 15 time cards from Tuttle's home as part of a warranted search in connection with an investigation into alleged pay-per-signature bonuses given to petition circulators for a term limits ballot measure. State law bans pay-per-signature. Tuttle denies paying bonuses. State Elections Specialist Lee Ann Oliver said each candidate submitted at least 1,000 valid signatures from voters to make the ballot. Republicans control North Dakota's Legislature and hold all the state elected offices and congressional seats. Absentee voting begins Sept. 29. Hyderabad: A man tried to confront Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday by dismantling the mic installed on the stage at a rally in Hyderabad. However, the people on the stage quickly overpowered the man. Vyas was then taken into preventive custody by Hyderabad Police. Nand Kishore Vyas, who tried to confront Sarma at a Ganeshotsav programme in Hyderabad said that no derogatory remarks against Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao will be tolerated. "He can have Ganesh darshan and give a speech but when he used derogatory language for the Chief Minister, we could not tolerate it. If someone says something wrong about our Chief Minister, it will not be tolerated," he told media persons. #WATCH | Telangana: A man tried to confront Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma by dismantling the mike on a stage at a rally in Hyderabad pic.twitter.com/HFX0RqVEd8 ANI (@ANI) September 9, 2022 Sarma is on a visit to Hyderabad to participate in various programmes including Ganesh immersion Shobhayatra. Following the incident, the Deputy Speaker of Assam Assembly Numal Momin demanded a probe over the matter. He also sought Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao`s apology over the matter. "Today`s event is a complete failure of the Telangana government. I demand fair inquiry into it. Telangana Chief Minister KCR should apologize to the people of Assam for this incident," Momin told ANI. Also Read: Telangana CM, TRS taking instructions from: BJP attacks KCR over 'National Integration Day' Blaming TRS for the ruckus, Telangana BJP leader NV Subhash said the party was disturbed by the growing popularity of the BJP in the state. "A TRS activist grabbed the mike so CM Himanta Biswa Sarma will not be able to address the gathering. This shows how the TRS party is becoming intolerant by the growing popularity of the BJP in their state," NV Subhash told ANI. Earlier on Friday, the Assam CM paid a visit to the Mahalaxmi temple in the city. Meanwhile, Sarma hit out at Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao and said the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief has only been involved in dynasty politics. Darogar Alga: In what may spark controversy, villagers of Darogar Alga char in Assam's Goalpara district alleged that they tore down a madrassa on the instruction given indirectly by the police, a charge which the superintendent of police dismissed as baseless. The locals asserted that the communication was sent to a fellow villager having connections in the force and it was he who asked people to pull down the structure. The police, however, denied the charge saying they were only investigating a case of alleged terror links of two persons, now absconding, who were teaching at the seminary. Also Read: Assam madrassa demolished by locals, police say, 'govt was not involved' According to the police, the Darogar Alga madrassa and a reed house on its premises were demolished on Tuesday by the villagers themselves after the emergence of "suspected jihadi links" with its two teachers, who were reportedly Bangladeshis. "I was among those who pulled down the two structures. I was working in my jute field on the riverside when Shukur Ali (a villager) called me to the madrassa compound. He asked me and five-six others to help him demolish them," Rahim Badshah, a local, told PTI here. Ali is a self-proclaimed BJP worker in the sandbank. His motorcycle carries a lotus (BJP party symbol) sticker. Several such stickers are also visible on the walls of his residence. "When I asked Ali why we should demolish the madrassa, he said that SP (superintendent of police) and DSP (deputy superintendent of police) sirs have asked us to do so. When I reached the madrassa compound, the media were already there," Badshah claimed. Several other villagers corroborated Badshah's assertion. When asked, Ali accepted that the media was invited beforehand to cover the demolition and the structures were pulled down in front of them. However, he was silent on the police asking him to demolish the madrassa. When approached for his comment, Goalpara Superintendent of Police V V Rakesh Reddy said the force had "absolutely no role" in bringing down the seminary and the adjacent temporary one-room house. "From our side, there was no communication for the villagers saying that they proceed with it (demolition). Had it been planned, the district administration would have taken the steps accordingly," Reddy told PTI over the phone. Reddy said that the villagers never thought the madrassa teachers who had left suddenly had links with terror outfits. "That the teachers were Al-Qaeda jihadis was a piece of shocking news for them. We are only investigating that case. We visited the place many times before to collect statements of the villagers," he said. On Monday evening, Ali had reportedly called a few village elders at the madrassa compound and claimed that the DSP of Goalpara had sought the demolition of the two structures. One of the villagers, who attended the gathering, claimed to have recorded the entire conversation on his mobile phone. PTI is in possession of the purported audio clip, where a voice allegedly of Ali's is heard telling the people to bring down the madrassa. "Ali had told us that the DSP and the local police station in charge were on the way to meet us on Monday night. He was continuously on the phone and after some time said they were not coming," the villager told PTI on condition of anonymity. The SP, when asked, said he was not aware of the meeting and so he "cannot comment on speculations". "I think whatever is happening in other districts might have acted as a trigger, but we are not sure," the SP said. Demolishing the madrassa by the Darogar Alga villagers was in contrast with the three cases of Morigaon, Barpeta and Bongaigaon where the respective district administrations pulled down the seminaries following arrests of teachers for their alleged links with terror groups. Another villager Soinuddin Sheikh said, "On Tuesday morning, Ali told me that a police officer will come after some time and we should demolish the madrassa before his arrival. I had cut some knots of the reed walls of the house and left for my work. I was not present when the madrassa was brought down." Somesh Ali of Darogar Alga confessed that the structures were demolished because the villagers got scared of Ali's alleged message from the police and did not want the force to enter their char with heavy equipment like bulldozers. "The madrassa was built with public money. If we break it, the materials can be used again for other purposes. That is why we decided to pull it down before police arrived," he added. He stated that around six men demolished the structures within half an hour at around 9:30 am on Tuesday and a crowd of around 25-30 people, mostly women, were present, as the men folk had left for work. Somesh Ali and Badshah alleged that Ali took away all the materials of the reed house, where the two alleged Bangladeshi nationals lived, to construct a clubhouse as per the "instructions of the DSP sir". Loose sheets of tin and reed walls were seen lying at Ali's house, about 200 meters from the madrassa compound. Ali, when asked, did not respond to the allegations. New Delhi: Siddhant Chaturvedi is undoubtedly one young star who has made his mark in the glamour world with his dedicated and stunning performances. As an outsider, he has an unbeatable charm who holds all the grace to win hearts. He recently made an appearance on the popular chat show, Koffee With Karan, and his appearance has been winning the audience's hearts. Netizens are lauding him for his witty and charming approach at the Koffee couch which is rarely ever seen. Here are various instances that prove that the actor brought his A-Game to the Koffee couch and won the audience's hearts over. 1. When he taught Karan Johan the 'Vibe hai' step It is the moment when Siddhant entered the Koffee couch and very cooly taught Karan Johar the 'Vibe hai Vibe hai' step, channeling his inner MC Sher. 2. When he smartly addressed Nepotism Then Siddhant very smartly clarified that his intention was never to cause harm or hurt anybodys sentiments and stated that everyone in the industry has their own struggle and he was just speaking his truth and journey that is harder but he embraces it. When probed about his feeling on the debate in current times, Siddhant clarified that his intention was never to cause harm or hurt anybodys sentiments. The Gully Boy actor asserted that he spoke his truth and his own observation surrounding the topic. His comment has been making rounds on the internet and being lauded all across. 3. We love Paneer Chilly Here Siddhant compared himself to Paneer Chilly speaking about Vijay Deverakonda's cheese flatter remark after which a lot of fan comments started coming in about how they are wanting and craving Paneer chilly. 4. The flirt Siddhant On the couch, Ishaan revealed that Siddhant had his flirt game on for the first three days on the sets of Phone Bhoot for Katrina but Katrina didn't pay any attention to him. In the rapid-fire round, Siddhant was also asked if he uses his poetry to pick up girls for which he said yes but also said that it never worked with him. Talking about his future lineups, Siddhant will be next seen in 'Phone Bhoot' with Katrina Kaif and Ishaan Khatter and Yudhra' where he takes on a heavy dose of action. New Delhi: Actor Riteish Deshmukh, on Friday, dropped a video where he and his sons, Riaan and Rahyl have created a gorgeous, eco-friendly Ganesha idol to celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi this year on social media. The `Double Dhamaal` actor took to his Instagram handle and posted a video of the whole process. It shows Riaan, Riahyl and their friends crumpling newspapers into balls, cutting the cardboard and making a Ganesha shape out of them. They took a little help from dad and mom and played around with Ganesha`s trunk made from paper. They painted the idol in yellow colour. The boys also do aarti with their parents also screamed "Ganpati bappa moraya". Sharing the post, he wrote, "Every year I make an Eco friendly Ganesha Idol from recycled paper, cardboard or clay with Riaan & Rahyl. Finest bonding time a father can spend with their children. With each passing year they are getting more curious & with their creative juices over flowing @geneliad and I have to be on top of our toes. This year was surely a more collaborative effort with me taking the back seat. Vansh & Diviyaana joining in made this experience even better. Genelia encourages me to do this every year. I can`t thank her enough- love you Baiko. Bappa you bring so much joy and peace to every family. You are going today, all I want to say is-ganpati bappa morya, pudavarchi lavkarya!" Arjun Rampal appreciated the Ganesha idol they made. "Wow, that`s the best Ganesha I have seen. #ganpatibappamorya," he wrote in the comment section. Meanwhile, on the work front, Riteish will be seen in an upcoming romantic comedy `Plan A Plan B` alongside Tamannaah Bhatia. Apart from this, he has `Kakuda` alongside Sonakshi Sinha and Saqib Saleem, `Mr Mummy` alongside Genelia Deshmukh and `100%` alongside John Abraham, Nora Fatehi and Shehnaaz Gill in his kitty. New Delhi: The Toronto Film Festival, on Thursday, halted to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II`s death just before its 47th edition. As per The Hollywood Reporter, TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey, said in a statement on the festival`s Twitter account "We extend our sincerest condolences to the family and loved ones of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on the day of her passing." "As we prepare to welcome Canadians and international guests to the festival, we know that many will be deeply affected by her death. We keep her legacy in our memory," Bailey added. The first day of the International film festival was just about to begin, complete with red carpets and Hollywood celebs who came to attend the festival. Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, paid tribute to the death of Queen Elizabeth II and stated that the country would hold a national day of mourning with commemorative service for the British Sovereign."On behalf of the Government of Canada, I express our heartfelt condolences to members of the Royal Family during this most difficult time," Trudeau said in a statement, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The 47th Toronto International Film Festival began on September 8 and will premiere many artistic films for a span of 10 days. Queen Elizabeth II, died peacefully at Balmoral castle aged 96, the royal family said in a statement. The UK`s longest-reigning monarch was placed under medical supervision earlier on Thursday after her condition deteriorated. Buckingham Palace issued a statement while referring to the Prince of Wales, Charles as the King." The death of my beloved Mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family. We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much loved Mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world," the statement said. New Delhi: Everyone uses banking service. These facilities are available both online and offline. Be it SMS of transactions, IMPS fund transfer, check clearance or ATM withdrawal facility, no facility is completely free. For all the services, the bank definitely takes some charge from its customers. Let us tell you about those 7 services for which money is collected from your pocket. (ALSO READ: GOVT chalks out steps to stop operations of 'ILLEGAL LOAN APPS'; Check details) Cash transaction Every bank provides the facility of cash transactions, but this transaction can be done only up to a certain limit. If you do cash transactions more than that fixed limit, then you have to pay a charge for this. This charge varies for each bank according to its rules. Usually in a government bank it ranges from 20 to 100 rupees. Minimum Balance The balance in the bank account has to be maintained up to a certain limit. If you have less than that amount in your account, then you have to pay a minimum balance charge. For example, it is necessary to have a minimum balance of 10000 in the account in HDFC Bank, if the amount is less than this, then you will be charged for it. The limit of minimum balance in all banks and the limit of charge for not maintaining it is different. IMPS Charges All banks have made NEFT and RTGS transactions free for customers, but most banks still charge for IMPS transactions. This charge can range from Rs 1 to Rs 25. Check If your check is up to Rs 1 lakh, then you do not have to pay any charge to the bank, but more than this, you have to pay a clearance charge. This charge is 150 rupees. On the other hand, if we talk about checks, only 10 checks are provided free of cost by SBI for savings account, for more checks you have to pay a price. ATM Transaction The facility of withdrawing cash from ATM is also available for free only for a specified time. The bank levies a charge on the number of transactions exceeding the specified number. The amount charged by each bank is different. Most of the banks charge up to Rs 20-50 for this. SMS The bank sends you an alert message when money is credited or debited in your account. Banks also charge you for this. But most people do not know about it because this charge is very small. It is around Rs 5 per month in Axis Bank and Rs 15 for every quarter in ICICI. Thus the charge is different for different banks. Card replacement If you have lost your debit card, then you have to pay a charge to get another card. This charge can range from Rs 50 to Rs 500. Different charges have been prescribed by each bank. New Delhi: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued an alert list on Wednesday, September 7 that included entities not allowed to deal in forex trading. Besides, these entities havent been allowed to operate electronic trading platform for forex transactions. The Alert list that RBI has come up provides the name and website links of the entities not authorised to deal in forex and to operate electronic trading platforms for forex transactions under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA). This list is not exhaustive and is based on what was known to RBI at the time of publication. An entity not appearing in the list should not be assumed to be authorised by the RBI. The authorisation status of any person / ETP can be ascertained from the list of authorised persons and authorised ETPs. RBI said in the circular. Here is the full Alert list. Check if youre not using one of them in ignorance. Alpari AnyFX Ava Trade Binomo eToro Exness Expert Option FBS FinFxPro Forex.com Forex4money Foxorex FTMO FVP Trade FXPrimus FXStreet FXCM FxNice FXTM HotForex ibell Markets IC Markets iFOREX IG Markets IQ Option NTS Forex Trading OctaFX Olymp Trade TD Ameritrade TP Global FX Trade Sight FX Urban Forex XM XTB RBI said in the circular that forex transactions electronically is allowed; however, they should be taken by authorised electronic trading platforms (ETPs) only on recognised stock exchanges such as National Stock Exchange of India, BSE ltd. And Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India ltd. RBI once again asked public to caution against not authorised ETPs. People should avoid remit/deposit money to them. New Delhi: The iOS 16 release date was confirmed by Apple during its Far Out event. It is September 12. The software's initial free upgrade announcement was made at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference in June, and the beta version was released in July. Now, starting on September 12, the stable version will be accessible. The new iPhone 14 models from Apple will ship with iOS 16, while other handsets will get the OS update the following week. The upgraded lock screen, iCloud Shared Photo Library, messaging, and other modifications are just a few of the new features that come with the new operating system. Here are the changes iPhone users will experience. (Also Read: Samsung pokes fun at Apple iPhone 14 but also says THIS) Lockscreen With the ability to change the font, colour, and positioning of objects on it, the new OS update will provide a more personalised lock screen. The ability to customise the appearance of the date and time data on the lock screen, selecting the collection of widgets that would appear on the lock screen, or accessing Live Activities directly from the lock screen are some of the other notable additions to the lock screen. The user can swipe to try out various looks. (Also Read: Twitter to launch tweet edit feature, here's why Indians can't use it) Focus Mode With iOS15, Apple debuted the Focus Mode. In the upcoming OS version, it will receive a significant update of Focus filters that will allow users to establish restrictions for each Focus enabled within Apple apps like Calendar, Mail, Messages, and Safari. The user can change both the appearance and functionality of his or her iPhone simultaneously by connecting lock screen to Focus. Messages The most recent Apple software will allow users to edit or unsend messages for the first time ever. In the event of typos or if they unintentionally send an incomplete message, users have the option to modify or recall sent messages. Additionally, users can designate messages and threads as unread on iOS 16. Additionally, the user has up to 30 days to recover deleted messages. Parental Control Quick Start, a feature of the new software, makes it simple to set up a new iOS device for your child with all the necessary parental controls already enabled. A new family checklist is available that offers advice and recommendations on the child's account. Privacy In order to swiftly reset the access that has been allowed to others in cases of domestic or intimate partner violence, there is a new Safety Check section in Privacy. It aids the user in controlling whom and which applications they have granted access to. New Delhi: Samsung and its rival Apple have launched their high-end models within the course of months. The design of the Apple iPhone 14 received mixed reviews, in contrast to the praise accorded to Samsung's foldable series for its avant-garde innovation. Samsung has requested people to alert them when Apple releases a foldable phone by criticising Apple in a new video commercial for lacking flexible phones in its lineup. The tweet was a direct jab at Apple's lack of design creativity. The official Twitter account of Samsung US poked fun at the Apple iPhone 14 by tweeting, "Let us know when it folds," and then afterward defended Apple's boxy design. Nice. Boxy, yes, but pleasant. We ourselves favour a rounded form. Apple has remained respectfully silent despite Samsung's frequent jabs against its designs. (Also Read: Twitter to launch tweet edit feature, here's why Indians can't use it) Although Apple does not currently offer a foldable phone. According to industry insiders, Apple is working on a foldable tablet that might make its debut around 2023. (Also Read: Apple iPhone 14 launch: Steve Jobs' daughter brutally trolls iPhone 14 on Instagram) The iPhone 14 has received harsh criticism for being too similar to the iPhone 13 whereas the iPhone 14 Pro and the iPhone 14 Pro Max have been well received. In addition to having a similar appearance to the iPhone 13, the iPhone 14 also shares the same A15 Bionic chipset, albeit with different core GPUs. Additionally, the iPhone 14 now comes in new hues like icey blue. The price of the iPhone 14 is the same as the price of the iPhone 13, which has officially been reduced by roughly Rs 10,000. The starting price for the iPhone 14 Plus is Rs 89,900. The largest iPhone display is seen on the iPhone 14 Plus. Pre-orders for the iPhone 14 will begin on September 9, according to Apple. Starting on September 16, the iPhone 14 will be on sale, and on October 7, the iPhone 14 Plus will be. New Delhi: Tweet editing may soon become a reality in the future. In a blog post, Twitter acknowledged that it is testing this feature in order to make it available to users. According to the microblogging platform, the function is already being tested on a small number of users and will soon be released. The edit function won't be accessible to limited users for now. While this appears to be sufficient for correcting typos, uploading media files, or adding some tags, the company may have implemented it to prevent people from abusing the feature by changing the content of the tweet on the spur of the moment. (Also Read: Twitter to allow Android users to share tweets on Snapchat, Instagram Stories) Tweets will soon be edited, but there will be a time frame, according to Twitter. Once a tweet is published, users will only have 30 minutes to edit it. The site will only allow five edits per tweet, and you must make them within the allotted period. (Also Read: Apple iPhone 14 launch: Steve Jobs' daughter brutally trolls iPhone 14 on Instagram) Your tweet edit history will be public. According to Twitter, each "Edited Tweet" will include a label, timestamp, and icon. "Readers can therefore easily see that the original Tweet has been changed. According to the firm, tapping the label will direct readers to the Tweet's Edit History, which contains previous iterations of the Tweet. The feature, however, will not be available to everyone. Twitter has confirmed that the feature will be available first to those with a Twitter Blue subscription. There is currently no word on when this will be available to non-Blue subscribers. The company does plan to expand the edit button feature to more regions as they learn more about how people are using it. As a result, everyone will most likely get it in the near future. It is important to note that the Blue membership feature is not available in India. Only a few nations, including the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, offer the feature. The Twitter Blue subscription is essentially a paid membership that offers special access to premium features to enhance your use of this social media site. In many ways, this is identical to how Telegram operates. A subscription-based service with some premium features, like support for uploading larger files and speedier downloads, was just introduced by the messaging platform a few months ago. She was the epitome of humility and service, and sustained through much turmoil by faith. The longest reign of any British monarch came to an end on the afternoon of Thursday, September 8, 2022. Queen Elizabeth II died peacefully at Balmoral Castle, her favorite residence, in the northeast of Scotland. She occupied a unique place in the hearts of the British people and countless millions beyond the shores of the United Kingdom. We give thanks to God for her life and faith. May she rest in peace and rise in glory. The implications of Her Majestys passing, for both the nation and the Church of England, are enormous. The Queen was a person of deep, personal, and genuine faith that expressed itself in numerous ways during the course of her reign. We will never see the like of her again. Her humility, not least in times of adversity, her cheerfulness as she carried out decades of public and charitable duties, and her absolute dedication to the service of the nation made her a focus of national unity and identity. We mourn her loss. She was deeply loved. Quite simply it is impossible to overestimate the impact of Queen Elizabeths life and reign. The future Queen was born in London on April 21, 1926. No one at that time could imagine that the Princess Elizabeth would go on to reign longer than any other British monarch, more than 70 years. Longer than the great Victoria (nearly 64 years), George III (just under 60 years), not to mention her namesake, Elizabeth I (a mere 44 years). The British monarchy has never been devoid of complexity and trouble. When she was born, both her uncle and her father were in line for the throne before her, and any son born to her parents would also have taken precedence. It was never expected that she would succeed to the Crown. In 1936, upon the death of her grandfather, George V, her uncle Edward VIII was crowned king, only to abdicate to marry Wallis Simpson. The Church of England, of which Edward was titular head, would not allow the King to marry a divorced woman. And so Elizabeths father succeeded as George VI, and Elizabeth became heir presumptive. The deep-rooted sense of service in Princess Elizabeths heart, her humility and sense of duty, was perhaps first broadcast more widely in her radio address on her 21st birthday in 1947. I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong. But I shall not have strength to carry out this resolution alone unless you join with me, as I now invite you to do: I know that your support will be unfailingly given, God help me to make good my vow, and God bless all of you who are willing to share in it. This really is a quite extraordinary statement of intent from someone so young. The themes of her future reign are clearly here for all to see: devotion, resolution, service, faith. A few months later, on November 20, 1947, Elizabeth married Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later known as Philip Mountbatten, taking his mothers name, and created Duke of Edinburgh on his marriage to the future Queen Elizabeth. They were married for 73 years, until his death on April 9, 2021. The image of Her Majesty alone at prayer in St. Georges Chapel, Windsor, at his funeral, dressed in black in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, became a defining image in the British political discourse of Boris Johnsons premiership. Elizabeth became Queen on February 6, 1952, at the age of 25, on the sudden death of her father. The King had been ill, treated for a malignant tumour. Elizabeth and Philip had set off on a tour to Australia, traveling via Kenya. The King was found dead in his bed in the early morning in his Norfolk residence at Sandringham, at the age of 56, after a coronary thrombosis. When he died, Elizabeth was asleep in the famous Treetops Hotel in Kenya. The news was conveyed to Prince Philip, who told Elizabeth when she awoke. They returned to London that same day, the Princess now Queen Elizabeth II, head of state and head of the commonwealth of nations. Without her consent, Parliament could not be summoned, no prime minister, other minister of the crown, judge, bishop, ambassador, or officer of the armed services appointed. Six months before her coronation, Princess Elizabeth had stated: Pray that God may give me wisdom and strength to carry out the solemn promises I shall be making, and that I may faithfully serve Him and you, all the days of my life. The formal coronation took place on June 2, 1953. The Coronation Oath included the following faith commitment: I will to the utmost of my power maintain the Laws of God and the true profession of the Gospel. To that she remained faithful. In 1955 the great evangelist Billy Graham visited London for one of his evangelistic crusades. Thousands were converted. The Queen met with the Southern Baptist preacher. The meeting was memorialized in the extraordinary, popular Netflix series The Crown, which proved an exceptionally engaging presentation of her life and reign. In actual fact, we do not know what the Queen and Billy Graham discussed; both had the maturity and discretion never to reveal the conversation. They almost certainly discussed forgiveness. Forty years later, on Easter Sunday 1995, Billy Graham preached in the Queens private chapel. The Queen appointed 15 prime ministersthe last one, Liz Truss, just two days before her death. I list them to illustrate the mere passing terms of office of the political leaders compared to the constancy of Her Majesty; Winston Churchill (195155), Sir Anthony Eden (195557), Harold Macmillan (195763), Sir Alec Douglas-Home (196364), Harold Wilson (196470 and 197476), Edward Heath (197074), James Callaghan (197679), Margaret Thatcher (197990), John Major (199097), Tony Blair (19972007), Gordon Brown (200710), David Cameron (201016), Theresa May (201619), Boris Johnson (201922), and Liz Truss (2022present). The longest of these was Margaret Thatcher, 11 years. The Queen reigned for 70. Similarly, she met personally 12 U.S. presidents. Quite extraordinary. Her own family presented many challenges. The failures of the marriages of three of her four children and the tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales, caused her great pain and distress. Anne divorced in 1992, Charles and Andrew separated from their wives in that same year, which also saw a major fire at her beloved Windsor Castle. She described that year as her annus horribilis. Prince Andrew and Prince Harry have provided further challenges in more recent times. Through it all, Elizabeths character was shaped by the Bible and her relationship with Jesus Christ, whose own life of sacrifice, service, and compassion formed the model and inspiration for her own. Throughout her life, the Queen consistently proclaimed the Christian gospel, which gave her strength, comfort, and peace. We saw this in so many ways, not least in her annual Christmas messages to the nation. Indeed, as time went on in the 2000s onward, she became ever more explicit in her faith. In 2002, she stated simply, I draw strength from the message of hope in the Christian gospel. A fine example of her Christian witness is what she said in her 2011 broadcast: God sent into the world a unique personneither a philosopher nor a general, important though they are, but a Saviour, with the power to forgive. And the following year: This is the time of year when we remember that God sent his only Son to serve, not to be served. He restored love and service to the centre of our lives in the person of Jesus Christ. You will read and hear numerous reflections on her reign. Her faith will be mentioned but not dwelt upon. I wanted to share with Acton readers the deeper expressions of her faith. I did not meet the Queen personally but saw her in the flesh on several occasions; at the services to open, and addresses to, the General Synod of the Church of England (on which I served for 10 years) and at the national Millennium Service in the year 2000. She was steadfast, dutiful, devoted, prayerful. Shortly after the announcement of Her Majestys death, a rainbow, which promise of Gods faithfulness, appeared in the sky over Windsor Castle, the Queens main residence near London, followed by a double rainbow over Buckingham Palace. I am a sufficient believer in divine providence to assert this as a sign of God and an act of God. What next? Many have dreaded this day. This is a moment of national sadness. This was a reign like no other. Many challenges lie ahead. Charles III is now King. He will, in due course, take the Coronation Oaths. He will become Defender of the Faith. There was much discussion in earlier years that Charles wished to become Defender of Faith or even Faiths. Subtle distinctions go deep. The monarch is the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, a church that in its foundation documents makes clear is built on scripture and prayer. Charles faith is rather less explicit than that of the Queen. He is also divorced and remarried. The Church itself may wobble, no longer presided over by such a steadfast Christian as Queen Elizabeth, a Supreme Governor more faithful to Christ than any archbishop. We can only pray that Charles will come to know the Lord Jesus in the same way as did Her Majesty. There is also the politics. The Queen masterfully remained above the political fray; Charles has displayed a somewhat worrying tendency to meddle and, usually, in a progressive direction. Pray for restraint. If there is one passage of Scripture that comes to mind upon reflecting on this momentous occasion, it is this: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. (2 Tim. 4:78) May I offer this prayer? Gracious God, we give you thanks and praise for the life of your servant Queen Elizabeth, for her faith and her dedication to duty, to service and to nation. Bless us, our Father, as we mourn her death, and may her example continue to inspire us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. God save the Queen. God save the King. Kolkata: West Bengal BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari on Friday said that a majority of Trinamool Congress leaders are thieves and looters and urged his party's rank and file to wage a united war to dislodge the corrupt and scam-tainted TMC government led by Mamata Banerjee. Adhikari, who is also the Leader of the Opposition in West Bengal Assembly, called upon the people of Alipurduar district in north Bengal to join the saffron party's September 13 'Nabanna Abhijan' (march to the secretariat) in large numbers. "The TMC government is steeped in corruption. All its leaders are thieves and looters. Besides the school recruitment scam, they have looted everything from coal to sand, Adhikari told a rally. "One TMC leader has been arrested by the CBI in connection with the smuggling of cattle, and another minister is being probed for smuggling coal," he said without naming anyone. The Bengal BJP leader also claimed that the 'Nabanna Abhijan' will ring in the fall of the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal. The people of Bengal will wage a united war to topple this corrupt dispensation. The Nabanna Abhijan' will be a precursor to that," Adhikari asserted. Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs John Barla, who was also present at the event, said one after another TMC heavyweight is being arrested by central probe agencies in connection with misappropriation of public money and smuggling. "It is time to wage an all-out war against this undemocratic, corrupt government, he added. Reacting to his statement, TMC state spokesperson Kunal Ghosh hit back, alleging that Adhikari had joined the BJP to avoid being hounded by central investigation agencies. Ghosh also said Adhikari was making false allegations to malign the ruling party. "Law will take its own course and we have full faith in the judiciary," he added. Beijing: The Chinese military on Friday confirmed that the troops of China and India have begun the process of disengagement from the Patrolling Point 15 in the Gogra-Hot springs area of eastern Ladakh in a coordinated and planned way. Marking a significant forward movement to end the standoff in eastern Ladakh that has lasted for over two years, the Indian and Chinese armies on Thursday announced that they have begun to disengage from the Patrolling Point 15 in the Gogra-Hot springs area. India has been consistently maintaining that peace and tranquillity along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) were important for the overall development of bilateral ties. The two militaries held 16 rounds of Corps Commander-level talks to resolve the standoff. Also Read: Won't abandon our nukes: Kim Jong-un's BIG warning to US amid rising tensions On 8th September 2022, according to the consensus reached in the 16th Round of China-India Corps Commander Level Meeting, the Chinese and Indian troops in the area of Jianan Daban have begun to disengage in a coordinated and planned way, which is conducive to the peace and tranquillity in the border areas a Chinese defense ministry press release issued here on Friday said. Indian officials here confirmed that the Jianan Daban area referred to by China's military press release is the same as Patrolling Point 15 in the Gogra-Hot springs area referred to by the Indian press release issued on Thursday. Though it is a Joint Statement, the two sides referred to the area with different names. The joint statement released by the Press Information Bureau, (PIB) in Delhi on Thursday night said On 8th September 2022, according to the consensus reached in the 16th round of India China Corps Commander Level Meeting, the Indian and Chinese troops in the area of Gogra-Hotsprings (PP-15) have begun to disengage in a coordinated and planned way, which is conducive to the peace and tranquility in the border areas. The announcement came around a week ahead of the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Uzbekistan which is expected to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping among other leaders of the grouping. There is speculation about a possible meeting between Modi and Xi on the sidelines of the summit though there is no official word on it from either side. The beginning of the disengagement process in the Gogra-Hotsprings area is an outcome of the 16th round of high-level military talks in July, the two armies said in a statement. Official sources told PTI in Delhi that the withdrawal of troops from Patrolling Point 15 (PP-15) began on Thursday morning and the local commanders from both sides are working out the modalities for the subsequent measures. Following the 16th round of Corps Commander-level talks, ground commanders of both sides held a series of negotiations on the nitty-gritty of the disengagement process. The sources said India will keep pressing for the resolution of pending issues in the remaining friction points of Depsang and Demchok. As a result of a series of military and diplomatic talks, the two sides completed the disengagement process last year on the north and south banks of the Pangong lake and in the Gogra area. The disengagement in the Pangong Lake area had taken place in February last year while the withdrawal of troops and equipment in Patrolling Point 17 (A) in Gogra took place in August last year. The 16th round of military talks was held 10 days after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Bali, Indonesia. The eastern Ladakh border standoff 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. Each side currently has around 50,000 to 60,000 troops along the LAC in the sensitive sector. Washington: Queen Elizabeth II, who died on Thursday at her summer residence in Scotland at age of 96, had the rare distinction of meeting 13 US Presidents during her reign spanning more than seven decades. Joe Biden, the incumbent US President, has the distinction of being the 13th and final US President to meet the late British Monarch. According to reports, the late Queen had met every American president since Dwight Eisenhower, with the exception of Lyndon Johnson, who did not visit Britain during his presidency. She was still a princess when she met President Harry Truman in Washington. Every living former US President - Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump - joined Biden in mourning her passing and sending condolences to her family. Biden and first lady Jill Biden said the Queen's legacy will loom large in the pages of British history, and in the story of our world. Obama and his wife, Michelle, recalled the queen welcoming them, America's first Black president and first lady, to the world stage with open arms and extraordinary generosity. Biden first met the queen in 1982 as a US Senator travelling in the UK with a delegation from Congress. He last saw her in 2021, several months after he became president, when he attended a world leaders' summit in southwestern England. She mingled with Group of Seven leaders at a reception that she and other royals hosted at an indoor rainforest. After the summit, the Bidens travelled to Windsor Castle, near London, at the queen's invitation for a private audience. The queen was a 25-year-old princess when she came to Washington in 1951 and stayed with Truman and his family. She met Herbert Hoover in 1957, more than 20 years after he left office. Here are highlights of some of her meetings, on both sides of the pond, with past American presidents:- JOE BIDEN Biden and his trademark aviator sunglasses met the queen at Windsor Castle on a sweltering afternoon in June 2021. Biden emerged from a black car wearing his shades, stepped onto a covered dais where the queen waited, and, with his wife, posed with the queen as the two countries' national anthems played. After walking around the courtyard to inspect the honour guard, he entered the castle for tea. Back at the airport, Biden told journalists that the queen was very gracious and had asked him about the leaders of China and Russia. While it's generally frowned upon to discuss one's private talks with the queen, Biden continued. I don't think she'll be insulted, but she reminded me of my mother, he said. Biden said he also had invited the Queen to visit the White House. DONALD TRUMP Trump and the queen met in July 2018 at the castle during a visit to Britain that drew large anti-Trump protests to downtown London, including the hoisting of a balloon depicting Trump in a diaper. He was criticized for breaking protocol by briefly walking in front of the Queen, instead of alongside her, and turning his back on her as they reviewed an honour guard. Trump later said he thought of his late mother, Mary Anne, who was born in Scotland and who loved the royal family, when he and his wife, Melania, sipped tea with the queen. Trump's subsequent comment that the Queen told him that Brexit, Britain's break from the European Union, was complex also created a stir. Most heads of state don't reveal their private conversations with the queen. She also doesn't discuss political matters. The Trumps and the royals met again during the D-Day commemoration in 2019. BARACK OBAMA Obama and the queen had their first of three meetings in April 2009 at a reception for world leaders attending the Group of 20 nations summit in London. It was there that first lady Michelle Obama broke protocol by briefly putting an arm around the queen's back as they commiserated about their achy feet. It's generally a no-no to touch the queen, but she returned Mrs Obama's gesture. The queen invited the Obamas for a state visit in 2011 that included a two-night stay at Buckingham Palace and a lavish banquet in the president's honour. As Obama delivered a toast to the queen, he didn't miss a beat when the band assumed that a pause in his remarks meant he had concluded and launched into a rendition of God Save the Queen. Obama kept talking over the music until the band quieted down. The couples saw each other again in 2016 when Obama visited the queen at Windsor Castle a day after her 90th birthday during another swing through Europe. GEORGE W. BUSH Bush detested stuffy, formal affairs, but he donned a white tie-and-tails tuxedo after the queen pulled out all the stops for a state dinner in his honour at Buckingham Palace in November 2003. A few years later, Bush's slip of the tongue generated ripples of laughter at a White House welcoming ceremony for the queen, who was touring the U.S. In May 2007. Stumbling on a line in his speech, Bush said the queen had dined with several of his predecessors and had helped the United States celebrate its bicentennial in 17- ... Bush caught himself and corrected the date to 1976 and paused to see if she had taken offense. She gave me a look that only a mother could give a child, Bush said with a smile. The queen later turned the tables on Bush with her toast at a dinner she hosted for the president at the British Embassy in Washington. I wondered whether I should start this toast by saying, When I was here in 1776,'" she said to laughter. BILL CLINTON The Queen hosted Clinton and his wife, Hillary, aboard her royal yacht, Britannia, in June 1994. The ship, 412 feet (125 meters) long and 55 feet (17 meters) wide, was docked at the Portsmouth Naval Base and was home base for the Clintons as they attended the queen's dinner at Guildhall for leaders of Allied nations whose troops participated in the D-Day invasion of Normandy 50 years earlier. The Clintons spent one night aboard the boat. The next day, the Britannia ferried Clinton to the USS George Washington aircraft carrier as it prepared to sail across the English Channel, from Portsmouth to Normandy, for D-Day anniversary celebrations. GEORGE H.W. BUSH One of the more memorable images from the monarch's third state visit to the US came in 1991 when only her white-striped purple hat could be seen above the microphones when she spoke at an arrival ceremony on the White House grounds. Someone forgot to adjust the lectern after the much taller Bush spoke. The queen stayed strong and carried on, later making light of the incident as she opened an address to a joint meeting of Congress. I do hope you can see me today from where you are, she deadpanned. Bush later apologized and said he felt badly for not pulling out a step for her to stand on. RONALD REAGAN Reagan and the queen bonded over a mutual love of horseback riding. They rode side by side on an 8-mile (13-kilometers), hourlong tour on the grounds of Windsor Castle when Reagan visited her there in June 1982. Reagan was the first president to sleep over at the British royal family's historic home, an 11th-century estate overlook the River Thames. While in the US In 1983, the monarch and Philip stayed with the president and first lady Nancy Reagan at their ranch in Santa Barbara, California. She wanted to ride horses again, but a rainstorm wouldn't allow it. The Reagans served a lunch of regional staples, including enchiladas, chiles rellenos, refried beans, tacos, rice and guacamole. They also hosted a state dinner for the queen in San Francisco at the M.H. De Young Memorial Museum. JIMMY CARTER The queen hosted Carter in May 1977 on his first overseas trip at a dinner for NATO leaders at Buckingham Palace. At one point, as Carter stood with the queen and other guests, he noticed the arrival of the Queen mother. Ever the Southern gentleman, Carter broke away, took her by the hand and escorted her to the assembled line of guests. The no-frills Georgia peanut farmer-turned-president ate chicken mousse off a gold plate and seemed excited by his dinner seating between the queen and her sister, Princess Margaret, and across from her son, Prince Charles, Prince Philip and the queen's mother. GERALD FORD Ford threw a gala state dinner for the Brits in 1976 to mark the bicentennial of the American Revolution. The queen was resplendent in a diamond-studded tiara that sparkled for a crowd that included diplomats, star athletes and celebrities such as Cary Grant and Julie Harris. The mood evaporated when Ford led the queen to the dance floor while the song The Lady Is a Tramp echoed throughout the State Dining Room. LONDON: Queen Elizabeth II, who passed away at the age of 96, was known to be possessing several valuable gems and pieces of jewellery in her collection, including the 105-carat diamond Kohinoor, but not many know that she was also a proud owner of an iconic platinum necklace set studded with approximately 300 diamonds. Yes, the extremely expensive necklace set was gifted to the late Queen by the then Nizam of Hyderabad in 1947, as a wedding present. According to an Instagram post on July 21 by the official account of The Royal Family, the necklace was given to then Princess Elizabeth as a wedding present in 1947 from the then Nizam of Hyderabad. The Nizam had given clear instructions to the famous French luxury brand, Cartier in London that Princess Elizabeth should select a wedding gift herself. Finally, this platinum necklace set with approximately 300 diamonds was chosen. On several occasions, the late British Monarch was photographed adorning the platinum necklace throughout her reign. She later loaned it out to the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, who wore it at the National Portrait Gallery in 2014 and a Diplomatic Corps reception in 2019. Instagram post by the official account of The Royal Family wrote: "Just days after Her Majestys Accession to the throne in February 1952, photographs of the new Queen were taken by the society photographer Dorothy Wilding. These now iconic images were used as the basis of The Queens image on stamps, as well as providing the official portrait that was sent to Embassies and Regiments all over the world." "Her Majesty wears a Norman Hartnell satin evening dress with the insignia of the Order of the Garter, the George IV Diamond Diadem and a diamond bracelet that was a wedding gift from The Duke of Edinburgh. The necklace was given to then Princess Elizabeth as a wedding present in 1947 from the Nizam (ruler) of Hyderabad. The Nizam left instructions with the firm of Cartier in London that Princess Elizabeth should select a wedding gift herself, and this platinum necklace set with approximately 300 diamonds was chosen. Her Majesty has continued to wear the necklace throughout her reign and has also loaned it to The Duchess of Cambridge. Queen Elizabeth II, who died on Thursday at her summer residence in Scotland at age of 96, had the rare distinction of meeting 13 US Presidents during her reign spanning more than seven decades. With her passing away, the UK is observing a 10-day mourning period from Friday, with bells tolling around Britain and 96-gun salutes planned in London, one for each year of the queen's long life. People around the globe gathered at British embassies to pay homage to the queen, who died Thursday in Balmoral Castle in Scotland. Hundreds of people arrived through the night to leave flowers outside the gates of Buckingham Palace, the monarch's London home, or simply to pause and reflect. London: The longest-serving monarch of the UK, Queen Elizabeth-II, took her last breath at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on Thursday. Born on April 21, 1926, at 17 Bruton Street in Mayfair, London as Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, Queen was the oldest child of the Duke and Duchess of York - who later became King George VI - and Queen Elizabeth. At that time Princess Elizabeth and her family did not expect that she would one day become the monarch. Then Princess Elizabeth and her only sibling, Princess Margaret, born in 1930 were educated at home under the supervision of their mother and their governess, Marion Crawford. Since childhood, Elizabeth showed a sense of responsibility and orderliness. She loved horses and dogs. The Queen`s cousin Margaret Rhodes described her as "a jolly little girl, but fundamentally sensible and well-behaved" for her attitude. Her Royal Highness was expected to live a relatively normal, if privileged, life with her close-knit and loving family. She was having a perfect life, but everything changed in December 1936 when her uncle - King Edward VIII - abdicated, leaving her father as King, and her as the next in line to the throne. Later, Elizabeth ascended the throne on February 6, 1952, when her father, King George VI died. In 1939, when Britain entered World War II, Elizabeth chose to stay in England and joined the Army rather than sailing away to Canada. She served in the Auxiliary Territorial Service during her training as a driver and mechanic when she was still a teenager. ALSO READ | President Droupadi Murmu, PM Narendra Modi, other leaders express condolences on passing away of UK's Queen Elizabeth II The 14-year-old Elizabeth, in 1940, addressed other children who had been evacuated from the cities. "We are trying to do all we can to help our gallant sailors, soldiers, and airmen, and we are trying, too, to bear our own share of the danger and sadness of war. We know, every one of us, that in the end, all will be well," she said. While still a teenager, Elizabeth fell in love with Prince Philip Mountbatten of Greece and Denmark, whom she had met in 1939. In November 1947, the 21 years old, Elizabeth married Prince Philip, who was serving as a young officer in the Royal Navy. The wedding took place at Westminster Abbey in London, United Kingdom. The couple then had four children, Prince Charles, who was born in 1948, Princess Anne (1950), Prince Andrew (1960) and Prince Edward (1964). Elizabeth`s normal life suddenly changed when in 1952, her father, King George VI died of cancer and consequently Elizabeth ascended to the throne with immediate effect. Her coronation took place in 1953, after which served as the head of the Commonwealth for seven decades. On her twenty-first birthday, in a speech broadcast on the radio from Cape Town, The Queen (then Princess Elizabeth) dedicated her life to the service of the Commonwealth. I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service,` she said. Queen, then, made hundreds of overseas visits during her reign and became the most widely travelled head of multiple independent states. In 1953, the Queen and her husband embarked on a seven-month round-the-world tour. The couple visited 13 countries and covered more than 40,000 miles by land, sea and air. She became the first reigning monarch of Australia and New Zealand to visit those nations. She visited the United States in 1957, where she addressed the United Nations General Assembly on behalf of the Commonwealth. In 1961, she toured Cyprus, India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Iran. In 1961 she made the first royal British tour of the Indian subcontinent in 50 years. The queen visited Cyprus, India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Iran, and became the first reigning British monarch to visit South America (in 1968) and the Persian Gulf countries (in 1979). The reign of the Queen saw the greatest changes in many spheres, including technological and industrial development, and economic and social life across the world. In 1977, Elizabeth marked the Silver Jubilee of her accession. In 2002, she marked her Golden Jubilee, the 50th anniversary of her accession. In 2012, Queen completed 60 years of her accession to the throne, and celebrations were held throughout her reign. Last year, in April 2021, Prince Philip died, after 73 years of their marriage, making Elizabeth the first British monarch to reign as a widow or widower since Queen Victoria. Elizabeth became the longest-lived British monarch in December 2007, and the longest-reigning British monarch and longest-reigning queen regnant and female head of state in the world in 9 September 2015. In 2017, she became the first British monarch to commemorate a Sapphire Jubilee. She was the Queen of the United Kingdom from 6 February 1952 until her death on Thursday. This year, the celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II`s Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years of service to the people of the United Kingdom, Realms and the Commonwealth were held. The four-day-long royal celebrations, while the queen turned 96, were attended by millions of participants. Her Majesty`s extraordinary life and reign, from a young girl who did not expect to be Queen, to an iconic and celebrated figure who has ruled for more than 70 years came to an end on Thursday. Elizabeth II, died peacefully at Balmoral castle aged 96, the royal family said in a statement. The UK`s longest-reigning monarch was placed under medical supervision earlier on Thursday after her condition deteriorated. Buckingham Palace issued a statement while referring to the Prince of Wales, Charles as the King. "The death of my beloved Mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family. We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much loved Mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world," the statement said. London: Queen Elizabeth was a life well-lived, said her son and successor Charles in his maiden televised address as King to the grieving nation on Friday evening. He thanked his "darling mama" for the "love, affection, guidance and example" she showed, as he thanked her and spoke of the "profound grief" that had gripped the royal family and the nation with her passing away. The 73-year-old King also used the address to pledge to serve the United Kingdom, its realms, and the Commonwealth with loyalty and dedication. Also Read: King Charles Address To UK LIVE UPDATES: Britain's new monarch vows to continue Queen's 'lifelong service' "Queen Elizabeth was a life well lived; a promise with destiny kept and she is mourned most deeply in her passing. That promise of lifelong service I renew to you all today," said Charles. "I pay tribute to my mother's memory, and I honour her life of service. I know that her death brings sadness to so many, and I share that sense of loss beyond measure with you all," he said. Charles also used his address to create his son and heir, Prince William, the Prince of Wales and also Duke of Cornwall - the titles he formerly held. The broadcast, which followed a minute's silence at St. Paul's Cathedral, was recorded in the Blue Drawing Room of Buckingham Palace this afternoon, King Charles III and his wife, Queen Consort Camilla, greeted large crowds gathered outside Buckingham Palace in London before holding his first audience with Prime Minister Liz Truss. The monarch who ascended to the throne on the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, on Thursday returned from Balmoral Castle in Scotland and was met by emotional crowds to express their condolences. Amid applause and cheers, and even a hug and kiss from a member of the public, the royal couple made their way into their new home at Buckingham Palace. Charles will be formally proclaimed as King at the Accession Council at 10 am local time on Saturday in the State Apartments of St. James's Palace, Buckingham Palace has said. It will mark the first time in history that the ceremony will be televised. However, he has begun his royal duties already and would have discussed the plans for the Queen's funeral with Prime Minister Truss during their first audience address. London: Queen Elizabeth II, the UK's longest-serving monarch, died on Thursday at Balmoral Castle in Scotland after reigning for 70 years. She was 96. She is survived by her four children, eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren, along with her beloved cohort of furry companions. The Queen is known for her love of dogs, especially Corgis. At the time of death, Queen Elizabeth II owned two Corgis, Muick and Sandy, one Dorgi, named Candy, and a Cocker Spaniel. A mix between a Corgi and a daschund is called a Dorgi. After her death, questions arise as to what will happen with her beloved dogs. Throughout the seven decades of her reign, the Queen owned more than 30 Corgis. The queen's love of Corgis started from the age of 7. At 18 she was given her first Corgi, Susan, who Her Majesty loved so much that she even smuggled the dog beneath a rug in the royal carriage for her honeymoon in 1947, The New York Post added. The Queen's current Cocker Spaniel puppy was given by her son Prince Andrew, on what would have been the Queen's husband's Philip's 100th birthday. While it is not totally known to the public where the dogs will be rehomed, royal correspondent Victoria Arbiter told The Independent newspaper that no stone is left unturned with the Queen - and that there is no doubt a plan for their lives after Her Majesty's death. "We can only speculate on plans for the corgis - nothing is left to chance with the royal family," she said. "The royal family is a family of dog lovers, though none are particularly fond of corgis. The Queen was definitely the lord and master and had a wonderful way with them. They were known to nip the ankles of the royal family." If forced to guess, Arbiter said the dogs would likely go to a member of the fold. "All of the Queen's children would welcome them with open arms," she said. If not a family member, Arbiter said, it would likely be a trusted staff member. "She was surrounded by dog lovers," Arbiter added. Sam Cader - who can see the castle from his bedroom window- is among those who have come to pay their respects. He was there with his three corgis. He says corgis bring a smile to any face, especially because of the royal connection, Sky News reported. Cader says he will be sad that he can't say that anymore. Also follow: LIVE Updates on Queen Elizabeth's death and funeral preps (With PTI inputs) London: British Prime Minister Liz Truss on Friday expressed grief over the passing away of Queen Elizabeth II. Truss, who was appointed as the Prime Minister only a few days ago, said Queen Elizabeth II was the rock on which modern Britain was built. The United Kingdom has grown and flourished under her reign, she added. "In the difficult days ahead, we will come together with our friends across the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth and the world to celebrate her extraordinary life of service. It is a day of great loss, but Queen Elizabeth II leaves a great legacy. God save the King," Truss said in a statment. Elizabeth II, 96, died peacefully at Balmoral castle, the royal family said in a statement. The UK`s longest-reigning monarch was placed under medical supervision earlier on Thursday after her condition deteriorated. Today the crown passes, as it has done for over 1000 years to a new monarch, a new head of State, King Charles III. In the difficult days ahead we'll come together with our friends across UK, the Commonwealth & the world. Queen Elizabeth II leaves a great legacy: UK PM Liz Truss pic.twitter.com/3f2Ubb5Zo0 September 8, 2022 Buckingham Palace issued a statement while referring to the Prince of Wales, Charles as the King. "The death of my beloved Mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family. We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much loved Mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world," the statement said. "During this period of mourning and change, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which The Queen was so widely held," it added. Queen Elizabeth II is the longest-serving monarch of the UK. The Queen was born on 21 April 1926 at 17 Bruton Street in Mayfair, London. She was the first child of The Duke and Duchess of York - who later became King George VI - and Queen Elizabeth. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said his country, known for its aggressive display of nuclear weapons, will never abandon its nuclear arsenal that it needs to counter a world power like the United States. The authoritarian ruler also added that the US is trying to weaken the Northern force and destabilize his rule in the country, reported Associated Press quoting local media. According to AP, Kim made the statements during a speech at North Koreas rubber-stamp parliament on Thursday where members also passed a law that authorized North Koreas military to automatically execute nuclear strikes against enemy forces if its leadership comes under attack. Kim Jong-uns comments came amid rising regional tensions primarily due to the US unfettered support to the South and as Kim claims, due to the hostility of the western nation against his government. US-North Korea relations Primarily due to US support for the South and its defence system, Kim has issued seemingly provocative threats of nuclear conflict toward the United States and its allies in Asia in recent months, also warning that the North would proactively use its nuclear weapons when threatened. Diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang has derailed since 2019 over disagreements in exchanging the release of crippling sanctions against the North and the Norths denuclearization steps. By Azernews By Ayya Lmahamad European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) President Odile Renaud-Basso will visit Azerbaijan on September 12, Azernews reports per foreign media. The EBRD president will visit the South Caucasus nations from September 12-16, starting her visit with Azerbaijan, then going to Georgia, and concluding her trip to Armenia. I am very much looking forward to visiting the Caucasus, where the Bank has achieved some remarkable results during its 30 years of operation. During my visit, I will reiterate our unwavering support for the Caucasus and its green transition agenda, but also the enhancement of transport connectivity, sustainable infrastructure, and policy dialogue, she said. It is planned that in Baku, Odile Renaud-Basso will hold a number of meetings with representatives of the countrys state structures, will sign an agreement on the banks second green city project in Azerbaijan, and inaugurate a joint project with AZPROMO aimed at boosting the countrys telecommunications, media and technology sectors. This is going to be the bank president's first in-person visit to the region since assuming office in late 2020. Established in 1991, EBRD invests in projects that contribute to the transition to an open market economy, as well as the development of private and business activities. The bank is a leading investor in Azerbaijan. To date, the EBRD has invested over 3 billion ($3.5bn) in 181 projects in Azerbaijans economy. The country has been cooperating with EBRD since 1992 to achieve further economic development. One of the main priorities of EBRD in Azerbaijan is to support the local corporate sector with direct financing. EBRD continues to pursue investments in energy projects, especially where there is a gap to improve efficiency and energy security. Azerbaijan is the largest recipient of the EBRD funds in the Caucasus, as well as one of the largest recipients of this organizations funds in the CIS and Eastern Europe. One of the most epic advertising campaigns of all time, "Gorilla" rescued Cadbury Schweppes in 2007 after a "leaking pipe at Cadbury's Marlbrook plant, near Leominster, Herefordshire and this was discovered in January with samples sent to an independent laboratory where a rare strain of salmonella was identified" leading to a recall of over a million chocolate bars, and 37 affected people in the UK. The genesis story of Gorilla starts with a group of people talking about the raw animalistic energy that Phil Collins channels into his drums: Cabral's original idea wasn't actually intended to for an ad; it began as a heated discussion between colleagues. "We were discussing who did the best drum solo of all time, someone said, 'it's this one', another said, 'no, it's this one' and then I said, 'no, no it's definitely Phil Collins'. "I started to tell them why. I said 'He's animalistic, he's like a gorilla drumming' and as soon as I said it that image of a gorilla stuck with me." That night Cabral went home with a "burning desire" to write what he imagined would be a short film script. A week later Cadbury came to Fallon. Rumbol had joined Cadbury a year earlier, tasked with restoring the nation's love for Cadbury's chocolate. The confectionery giant had been caught up in a salmonella scare in 2006 leading it to recall more than a million bars of chocolate so consumers were understandably a little wary. "The brief was to get the love back to that lost generation and reconnect with the brand emotionally. I told the agency I wanted an ad that was as enjoyable to consume as a bar of Cadbury's chocolate," Rumbol explains. Why Cadbury's 'Gorilla' ad nearly didn't get made | Marketing Week A lot of back and forth ensued, and through the persistence of Phil Rumbol, the Ad campaign gets the green light to shoot: The director went on the hunt for an animatronic gorilla costume that would be realistic enough to give the "documentary" feel for which he was looking. The advert was written very seriously, he says: "Watching it, you know it's a joke, but there's 60 seconds where nothing happens just a gorilla and Phil Collins." A lot of the gorillas they saw were terrible and with computer-generated imagery (CGI) still in its relative infancy, there wasn't much margin for error when it came to the costume itself. The director finally found what he was looking for at Stan Winston Studio in Hollywood, a company with success on films including Predator, Jurassic Park and Aliens. There was a very promising gorilla costume knocking around that had appeared in the 1995 film Congo. It was female, but they beefed up the chest to get the look they wanted and added distinctive details such as the gold tooth you see when the gorilla grimaces at the camera for getting too close. The next question was: who goes inside it? "You don't see anything with those suits, so you have to just learn the scene," says Cabral. They hired Garon Michael, an actor with experience in costume work, but not drumming. He practised the Phil Collins solo endlessly to get the right sense of a creature that as Cabral describes "has been waiting for this moment all its life". How we made Cadbury's Gorilla Ad | The Guardian Gorilla would go on to win an impressive series of awards, and catapult Phil Collins' In the Air Tonight back onto the charts, peaking at the Number 1 position for 2 weeks on the New Zealand 2008 Top 40 Singles Chart. The campaign was a success. The ad went viral. On launch night the video was also released on YouTube with 100,000 hits the following day. The ad was such a huge hit that Wonderbra decided to create a spoof which also went viral but was taken down after few days due to copyright infringement. ( I think that ad would have created a massive uproar if it got released now Cadbury's stopped the decline in sales and market share and sales. In the months after the transmission it regained and exceeded the lost 5% in the previous 12 months. Fallon and the advertisement won a clutch of awards, including the top prize at Cannes Lions, the advertising industry's biggest celebration, in 2008. A Case Study on Cadbury's Award Winning Gorilla Ad Campaign | Medium Seeing Amy from Congo get recast in one of the greatest advertisements of all time is akin to seeing video of Butcher and Homelander when they were one degree of Zena the Warrior Princess close. The well-known snake-oil salesman from New Jersey, Dr. Mehmet Oz, leaned into anti-malarial hydroxychloroquine as a COVID treatment before any studies proved it was not helpful. Oz and his wife own stakes in several companies involved in the manufacture and distribution of the drug, however, these companies all make lots of drugs, which may just be coincidental as Oz seemingly enjoys promoting things that do not work. CNBC: Oz's financial ties to a producer and distributor of the drug, and his promotion of it as a potential Covid treatment, raise questions about what he stood to gain from its wider use during the pandemic. If he wins the Senate election, he could also face conflicts of interest as Congress grapples with a still evolving coronavirus pandemic. In a statement responding to CNBC questions about Oz's relationships with companies that make or distribute hydroxychloroquine, including when he and his wife bought the Thermo Fisher Scientific stock, Oz campaign spokeswoman Brittany Yanick did not address the candidate's financial holdings. "At the outset of the pandemic, Dr. Mehmet Oz spoke with health experts worldwide who were seeing hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as viable treatment options for desperately ill COVID patients. He offered to fund the clinical trial at Columbia University," she said. The FDA has approved hydroxychloroquine to fight malaria, but warned it has "not been shown to be safe and effective for treating or preventing COVID-19." Even with its three women Senators refusing to toe the party line, Republicans in the South Carolina Senate had the votes to pass a total ban on abortion. But it could not stop a filibuster threatened by another Republican, Sen. Tom Davis, and the ban failed. Bear in mind that there is already a near-total 6-week banand that rape victims and children must now get an abortion within 12 weeks. "We were never going to pass a total abortion ban," Massey said. "We never had the votes to pass even what the House passed." Senators did pass a few changes to the six-week ban, including cutting the time that victims of rape and incest who become pregnant can seek an abortion from 20 weeks to about 12 weeks and requiring that DNA from the aborted fetus be collected for police. The bill goes back to the House, which passed a ban with exceptions for rape or incest. It's unfortunate that the nightmare at hand (e.g. abortion bans with no exception for raped children) encourages "centrist" or "moderate" thought leaders to gravitate toward less severe bans as a sensible compromise. A 6/12 week ban emerging as the pundit-approved compromise is a hill we'll all die on tomorrow, so perhaps they should die on it today instead. Last week, I helped Mary Ann, a 70-year-old newlywed, solve a vexing problem in a home she and her husband bought. In just 15 minutes, using my transcribed phone call service, I saved them perhaps $5,000. I shared a time-tested way they could match the stain on a wood-paneled room. Their problem was sun damage to the walls of a wood-paneled room. Framed pictures, diplomas and certificates had shielded some areas of the paneling from the sun, which were revealed once the original owner moved out. Some wood species cherry, for example are photo reactive. Some clear wood finishes, especially oil-based ones, also change color in response to sunlight or even artificial light. Sunlight is the most destructive, as some of the invisible ultraviolet (UV) rays contain destructive photons that crash into furniture, carpets, wood paneling, etc., wreaking havoc on a microscopic level. This is why the original copies of the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence are in a dimly lit hall in the National Archives Building in Washington D.C. No doubt the protective glass that covers them also has some sort of special coating to prevent photons from reaching the ink and paper. Now, back to the newlyweds' wood paneling problem. Fortunately, I had firsthand experience making light-colored areas on woodwork disappear. Many years ago, while completing a very difficult remodeling job for my only customer-from-hell, my painters hadnt perfectly matched the new wood trim in a giant room addition I had built. The trim was missing a slight amount of red pigment, and the owner insisted I strip all the trim and solid-wood doors and start over. Knowing there had to be another way, I slept on it. In the middle of the night, a voice in a dream said: Silly, all you have to do is add some red pigment to the clear urethane. Its no different from putting a transparent piece of colored film in front of a camera lens to change the color of what the eye is seeing. I woke up, went to the paint store and had a quart of urethane tinted with a small amount of red pigment. My guardian angel must have been helping the employee while he squirted in the few drops of colored liquid because it turned out to be the perfect amount. What luck to get it right the first time! When I put a coat of this colored urethane on the woodwork, as well as a scrap we had stained, it was a perfect match. Heres what I shared with Mary Ann. Step one is to carefully clean the existing wood paneling. I recommended using a mild liquid dish soap and water. Its mission-critical that the sponge is just damp and that no water runs down the paneling to get behind any pieces of wood trim. The excess water can cause swelling and irreparable damage to the paneling. Once the paneling is clean, I then suggested that she very lightly sand the light areas on the paneling with extra- or super-fine sandpaper to just scuff up the existing clear coating. This would allow the new tinted urethane to get a better grip on the surface. Mary Ann has a huge advantage that I didnt have all those years ago. She can take a high-resolution photo of the wall with her phone and show it to the paint store manager. I told her to only deal with the manager, as she/he would have the best chance of getting a match the first time. Since Mary Ann doesnt have a scrap of trim like I had to experiment with, I told her that she should just put a single drop of the tinted urethane on the wall. See how close the color is. If its way off, take a photo to show the paint store employee so the next matching attempt will hopefully get it right. Once the photo is taken, then wipe off the tinted urethane. In the event the paint store is unable to get a perfect match, I told Mary Ann she could solve the problem by bringing in a pro. She lives in a suburb of Tulsa, Oklahoma, fortunately. This means theres at least one high-end furniture store that sells the finest furniture one can buy. These stores employ expert wood-repair craftsmen. If not employees, these talented people are individual jobbers. They routinely repair scratched, gouged or damaged furniture. Ive had to use these talented people to make repairs on custom wood built-in cabinets in the past. They possess powerful skills as well as a magic toolkit that allows them to fill in scratches and match stain colors and wood grain to restore finishes to like-new condition. It would be childs play for an expert like this to match the lighter areas on the wall paneling. Once again, you find these people when you visit the furniture store and chat up the manager or owner. Bring photos that show what needs to be fixed. Id also like to see your before and after photos. Be sure to send them to me via the "Ask Tim" page at AsktheBuilder.com! (Subscribe to Tims FREE newsletter at AsktheBuilder.com. Tim now does livestreaming video M-F at 4 PM Eastern Time at youtube.com/askthebuilder.) The dozens of developers, architects and potential tenants who recently walked through the Central Terminal came away with a better sense of one element that will be needed to redevelop the East Side art deco landmark: teamwork. Like many present, architect Marc Mondor looks to have a role with others to tackle the 17-story, 523,000-square-foot site. "I'd like to think we could make a good team member to somebody here," said Mondor, co-founder of evolveEA, a green building and sustainability design firm based in Pittsburgh. "It seems to really be living up to the hype," Mondor said. "As we say, it has good bones and is visually striking, with the potential to be a regional if not a national destination if done properly." Mondor and 64 others toured the arch-roofed passenger concourse and made stops outside the four-story Mail and Baggage Building, including down into the 300-space underground parking garage and onto the sprawling lawn. Central Terminal officials organized the tour to provide a sense of the scale of the colossal-sized property and stimulate ideas for reuse. Those in attendance were responding to an "expression of interest" solicitation from the Central Terminal Restoration Corp. and the City of Buffalo in late July, with responses due Sept. 30. "The gravity of it is immense," said Neil Meyer, an architect at Foit-Albert Associates, after seeing parts of the complex that had been off-limits before. Meyer said his firm was there "to see what it was all about," but he said it was too early to say if they might seek a role in the Central Terminal's redevelopment. "I'd just really like something to happen because it is just a magnificent in the true sense of the word building," he said. Tye Pope, vice president of housing at Best Self Behavioral Health, is interested in possibly teaming up with a developer to provide supportive or affordable housing in the Baggage Building. Tom Mancuso of the Mancuso Business Development Group, based in Batavia, also sees great potential in that space. "I think the Baggage Building is underappreciated," Mancuso said. "It seems like a natural place for artisanal manufacturing and small local businesses. You could also do like in the old days, where the shopkeeper lived over the shop." Mancuso, whose company helps companies adaptively reuse buildings for businesses, said an "integrated, holistic plan" will be needed for the Central Terminal's redevelopment to be successful. He felt the Central Terminal Restoration Corp. recognizes that. Monica Simmons, a structural engineer, said her company, Simpson, Gumpertz and Heger, is teaming with an architectural firm. She called the prospect of renovating the 93-year-old Central Terminal and bringing it back to life "a structural engineer's dream." "It's a historic system we work with pretty frequently, and it can be done," Simmons said. There has been considerable momentum with the Central Terminal, which opened in 1929, four months before the Great Depression started. The station, located almost three miles from downtown, was designed by Alfred Fellheimer and Steward Wagner and equipped to handle 200 trains daily. It closed in 1979 after 50 years of operation. Gov. Kathy Hochul in the spring announced $61 million for improvements $54 million from the state, plus $7 million from philanthropies and the City of Buffalo. It was the first financial commitment of that magnitude to secure the Central Terminal's future since trains stopped running there. The cost to restore the Central Terminal was estimated in a master plan completed last year at between $276.5 million and $296.5 million. But the state's commitment is seen as a catalyst and invitation to developers to jump in. A $10 million state grant was also awarded this year for the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood, with some funds going to the Central Terminal. "It's a pretty complex project, for sure," said Dan Buchanan, an architect with Carmina Wood Design, as he looked around a space where a long wraparound restaurant counter once stood. "But look at the amount of people here today. It shows that there is huge interest in this building, and in this community." Among the 13 developers present on the tour last week were firms from Madison, Wisc., and Richmond, Va. The turnout and responses pleased Monica Pellegrino Faix, executive director of the Central Terminal Restoration Corp. "We thought it was a giant success," Faix said. "There was great energy and enthusiasm, and the biggest key that it went well is that people didn't want to leave." The walk-through wasn't mandatory, and some local developers who were noticeable in their absence have toured the site in the past. But requirements imposed for projects that use public money can also be seen by some developers as too stringent and could have dampened the interest of some. The Central Terminal Restoration Corp. acquired the abandoned property in 1997 for $1, and it is offering a long-term lease or joint partnership while retaining ownership. Finalists will be chosen in November to submit a formal request for proposals, which is expected to lead to the selection of a developer by mid-2023, Faix said. Lisa Hicks, the city's director of development, told those assembled that the redevelopment of the Central Terminal is seen as a linchpin in a larger strategy of investing in Broadway-Fillmore to create new housing, businesses and workforce opportunities, and equitable wealth-building. The area is marked by poverty but has seen an influx of immigrants, particularly Bangladeshis, who have renovated houses and opened businesses. The city has committed to fixing Paderewski Drive, where the road through a roundabout meets the Central Terminal, and Curtiss Street, which runs through the property. The city is looking to sell its 16 acres on the grounds, including the three-story U.S. Terminal Railway Post Office Building and two-story Railway Express Agency Building, which has 36 bays with load-in platforms. Both buildings have potential for workforce training and light manufacturing, Faix said. The downtown Brisbane Building and two other Buffalo buildings are among the 27 properties in New York State that have been recommended for the State and National Registers of Historic Places. Gov. Kathy Hochul made the announcement Friday. "New York is defined by its diverse culture and history, and we will continue efforts to keep our state's inspiring story alive," Hochul said. "Adding these 27 sites to the State and National Registers will provide support and resources to preserve their rich heritage and help ensure future generations of New Yorkers can continue to be inspired." Being listed on the registers makes buildings eligible for various public preservation programs and services, such as matching state grants and state and federal historic rehabilitation tax credits. The sites in Buffalo are: Brisbane Building: Celebrated as "an ornament of the city" when it opened in 1895, this Italian Renaissance Revival-style commercial building has been a hub of business activity for generations. Tenants have included a combination of large anchor retail stores, such as Kleinhans and F. W. Woolworth's Five and Dime; small family businesses; and professional firms. Boasting a high degree of architectural integrity and original ornamentation, the Brisbane Building marks an important transition in commercial building design from masonry office buildings of the 1880s to towering steel-framed skyscrapers at the end of the 1890s. Buffalo Public School No. 75: Built in 1925 at 57 Howard St. to serve the predominantly African American Emslie neighborhood, School 75 reflects citywide efforts by the Buffalo School District in the 1920s to expand its building inventory in the city with new construction that embodied modern ideas of school design. Community growth and New York's adoption of expanded curriculum requirements, including courses in manual, domestic and physical education, required new spaces in public school buildings: laboratories, workshops, kitchens, auditoriums, cafeterias and gymnasiums. School 75 is a strong example of Buffalo-based school architect Ernest Crimi's standardized approach to building schools, which incorporated specific health and safety components as well as the new curriculum-based spaces and were known for their repeatable design elements and quick construction timelines. J.W. Ruger & Deck Bros. Building: Built in 1868, this building at 220-222 Chicago St., near the Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino, is one of the oldest remaining small-scale industrial buildings within a historically significant manufacturing neighborhood in Buffalo. Home to two nationally and internationally known innovative patent developers and machine producers for the baking, engine and finishing industries, the site offered an advantageous location near canals and railroad lines, as well as other similar manufacturers. Some of the other recommended properties in other parts of the state include an Adirondack cure cottage that served tuberculosis patients, a sheltered workshop in Binghamton that promoted the general welfare of people with differing abilities, a newly established historic district in West Harlem with strong ties to prominent Black leaders in New York City and a farmhouse near Lake Ontario that was later used by leaders in the region's prolific fruit industry. Once recommendations are approved by the commissioner of the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, who serves as the state historic preservation officer, the properties are listed on the New York State Register of Historic Places and then nominated to the National Register of Historic Places, where they are reviewed and, if approved, entered on the National Register. Brandy Gerace was watching a livestream of the Town of Hamburg Planning Board meeting from home Wednesday night when the board turned down a proposed Dollar General store across the road from her house. "I was kind of stunned," she said. "You want to step outside and set off fireworks." "We're very pleased with the decision," said Kim Jablonski, whose property is right next to the vacant land where the store was proposed in the community of Lake View. The decision was two years in the making. Developer Broadway Group proposed building a Dollar General store at the corner of Heltz Road and Southwestern Boulevard (Route 20) in 2020. The Planning Board determined in January 2021 a lengthy environmental review was required. The board formally accepted the final environmental impact statement July 22, and on Wednesday, the board decided that the 9,000-square-foot building would have an adverse impact on the environment. A number of potential impacts were studied, and the Broadway Group came up with ways to mitigate them. But Planning Board members decided the measures did not do enough to minimize the impacts to the character of the community, zoning overlay district and traffic and pedestrian safety. "It would have literally changed our street. It would change the way that we live," Gerace said. "Impacts to the residential character of Heltz Road was a primary concern of the residents and the Planning Board," the board said in its finding statement. The town wanted the entrance to the store to be moved from Heltz Road to Southwestern, but confirmed with the state Department of Transportation that on corner lots, the state prefers the driveway to be on the side street. Just as concerning to the board was traffic and pedestrian safety. Southwestern Boulevard near Heltz Road has an average daily traffic volume of 12,103 vehicles, according to the study. The speed limit is 55 mph. There are no sidewalks or bicycle infrastructure along Southwestern or Heltz Road, a rural road that often serves as a cut-through from Lakeview Road to Southwestern. The Planning Board said the store would likely attract pedestrians and bicyclists from the subdivision on the other side of Southwestern, which has the potential to create a dangerous situation. "We worry that it's going to be dangerous for pedestrians. There was nothing that could make it safe for pedestrians," Chairman William Clark said. When asked what the company's next step is and if it will pursue a store at that location, Dollar General issued this statement: "During our due diligence process to determine the feasibility of a new store in Hamburg, we decided to evaluate alternative locations in Erie County and we continue to evaluate opportunities to add new locations and extend our mission of serving others." Neighbors, who have been researching and garnering signatures on an online petition, attending and speaking out at Planning Board meetings for two years, did not know if they would be successful. "I was not sure how it would go," Jablonski said. "One week I would feel hopeful and the next week it would feel like it was a losing battle." And they felt like underdogs going against a large business with many resources. "We were fighting from the heart," Gerace said. "Honestly, it was just praying that they (Planning Board members) were actually listening to us and understanding that we know our area best." And while they are happy about the decision, they are waiting to see if Dollar General appeals it. "We still cant believe it. I just feel like we're not done," said Heltz Road resident Debbie Kubisty. "Time will tell." A soldier in the U.S. Army wrote on Instagram that he joined the military for combat experience so Im more proficient in killing Black people, investigators say. Killian Mackeithan Ryan also had five Instagram accounts that were in contact with others "associated with racially motivated extremism, according to court records. Ryan's alleged social media activity is documented in a case filed late last month in U.S. District Court in North Carolina that accuses him of providing false information on a security clearance form to serve at Fort Bragg. The case was first reported by Rolling Stone and comes at a time when the U.S. military is trying to purge its ranks of extremists and white supremacists. For example, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin directed commanding officers last year to institute a one-day stand-down to address extremism. The military also updated its social media policy where liking and reposting certain content could result in disciplinary action. And just this week, the names of more than 100 current military members appeared on the leaked membership rolls of a far-right extremist group thats accused of playing a key role in last years insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Ryan is accused of claiming on the security clearance form that he wasn't in contact with his biological father for more than 10 years, according to court records. He also said that his biological father wasn't listed on his birth certificate. Ryan's biological father is a convicted felon with a criminal history in Washington state and California for drug violations and auto theft, according to court records. Ryan was investigated by a police officer in Fayetteville, North Carolina, who works as part of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force. Ryan served in the regular Army at Fort Bragg until his arrest by the FBI on Aug. 26 and was separated for serious misconduct," U.S. Army officials said in a statement. The statement did not elaborate on what the misconduct was. Ryan was also charged with driving under the influence at Fort Bragg in July, according to court documents. The Army said the FBI informed it earlier this year that Ryan was under investigation. The U.S. Army does not tolerate racism, extremism or hatred in our ranks, its statement said. Ryan served as a fire support specialist, which is someone who gathers intelligence on enemy targets for artillery forces. The Army said he had no deployments. For one of his Instagram accounts, Ryan used an email that contained the name naziace1488, according to court records. According to the Anti-Defamation League, 1488 is a combination of numeric symbols that are popular among white supremacists. The first is the number 14, which is shorthand for a 14-word slogan about the "future for white children, the ADL said. The second is 88, which stands for Heil Hitler because H is the 8th letter of the alphabet, the ADL said. Ryan was in touch with his biological father through Instagram, court records stated. His father also posted a photo of the two at Ryan's high school graduation in 2019. Legal experts say that Ryan could have jeopardized his security clearance if he listed recent contact with his biological father. Theyre looking at the potential for you to be compromised in any way because of your personal situation, said Colby Vokey, a military criminal defense lawyer. Ryan would have needed clearance to work with intelligence on enemy positions as well as information about U.S. weapons systems, Vokey added. Phillip Stackhouse, another military criminal defense lawyer, said prosecuting someone for providing false information on a security clearance form is not routine in his experience. Many people often just have their clearance revoked without being charged. Maybe theyre going to make an example of him, Stackhouse said of Ryan. Maybe its to apply pressure on him to cooperate in some other investigation. Ryan's federal public defender, James E. Todd , Jr., did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment. LANSING, Mich. (AP) Voters will determine whether to place abortion rights in the Michigan Constitution, the state Supreme Court declared Thursday, settling the issue a day before the fall ballot must be completed. Abortion rights would be guaranteed if the amendment passes on Nov. 8. A 1931 state law makes it a crime to perform most abortions, but the law was suspended in May and a judge this week followed up by striking it down as unconstitutional. Though appeals of that decision are likely, the law would be trumped if voters approve the amendment in the fall election. There are political implications beyond the ballot question. Democrats say the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is mobilizing voters and will help Democratic candidates this fall, when top races including governor, secretary of state and attorney general are on the Michigan ballot. They point to conservative Kansas, where voters overwhelmingly defeated a measure that would have allowed the Republican-controlled Legislature to tighten restrictions or ban the procedure outright. In Michigan, a state elections board on Aug. 31 deadlocked along party lines on whether the abortion initiative should appear on the ballot, with Republicans voting no and Democrats voting yes. The 2-2 tie meant the measure wasnt certified for the ballot. Supporters submitted more than 700,000 signatures, easily clearing the minimum threshold. But Republicans and abortion opponents argued the petitions had improper or no spacing between certain words and were confusing to voters. What a sad marker of the times, Chief Justice Bridget McCormack said in a brief statement that accompanied the Supreme Court's 5-2 order. McCormack said there is no dispute that every word was legible and in the correct order. Republican members of the Board of State Canvassers would disenfranchise millions of Michiganders not because they believe the many thousands of Michiganders who signed the proposal were confused by it, but because they think they have identified a technicality that allows them to do so, a game of gotcha gone very bad, McCormack said. The majority was made up of McCormack, three other Democratic justices and a Republican justice. Two Republicans dissented. The court directed state canvassers, who meet again Friday, to sign off on the ballot question. Tony Daunt, a Republican who had voted against the proposal, last week said that the board would obey a court order. Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat who supports abortion rights, hailed the decision. Our state Constitution provides the people with direct access to the democratic process and that access should not be limited by appointed individuals acting beyond the scope of their duty, Nessel said. A group called Citizens to Support MI Women and Children said it will campaign against the amendment. Right to Life of Michigan also will be a major opponent. Current events continue showing us that any nation that sees the next generation as an existential threat rather than an existential necessity has no future, Right to Life said on Facebook. There was no immediate comment from Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who is in favor of the ballot question and is seeking reelection. Her Republican opponent, Tudor Dixon, opposes abortion rights except to save the life of the mother. Results of a poll published this week by The Detroit News and WDIV-TV showed abortion and womens rights was the top issue motivating Michigan residents to vote in November, ahead of inflation and cost of living, education, and the economy and jobs. The poll also showed a majority of likely voters support a proposed constitutional amendment guaranteeing abortion rights. In a dissent, Justice Brian Zahra said supporters of the abortion question did not have a clear legal right to the ballot. Words separated by spaces cease being words or become new words when the spaces between them are removed, Zahra said. Burnett reported from Chicago and White reported from Detroit. Joey Cappelletti is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Its not like we didnt see it coming. There has been a severe school bus driver shortage nationwide for at least two years, and it was building even before the pandemic. But now its a full-blown crisis everywhere, not just in Western New York. Mansfield, Ohio, simply canceled classes on Tuesday, giving students an extra day off, and released middle and high school students early the rest of the week. In Kersey, Colo., school bus driver Jeremy Burmeister wears a tie on his route. Thats because hes also the school superintendent. Other replacement drivers in Kersey include a school principal, a maintenance director and grounds crew workers. Were not suggesting that Buffalo Public Schools Superintendent Tonja M. Williams or any of her colleagues in other area districts moonlight as bus drivers and we assume it wouldnt be allowed. But it is somewhat comforting to know that school districts across the U.S. are in the same worrying boat, and its interesting to see how theyre addressing their respective shortages. Pay raises, signing bonuses, intensive recruitment, scheduled delays and staggered start times are all on the table, according to reports from other states. In Buffalo, after the idea of reimbursing parents for driving their children failed to receive much buy-in less than 5% of parents responded positively the district has turned to the staggered start time concept. According to Nathaniel Kuzma, general counsel for Buffalo Public Schools, staggered start times would essentially solve the driver shortage by allowing existing drivers to take on more routes. However, the three start times 7:30, 8:30 and 9:30 a.m. must first be approved by the teachers union, Buffalo Teachers Federation, which would have to modify its contract language that calls for start times no earlier than 7:50 a.m. and no later than 4:05 p.m. The modified language would change the end times to no later than 4:30 p.m. Thus far, the memorandum of understanding that could create this change has not been signed by the union. Concerns include child care arrangements and objections to vague language in the memorandum. Unless another quick workaround for the driver shortage can be found, we hope that the union and the district can hash this out. Changing start times does not solve the problem, which cant be expected; much more brainstorming over a longer period of time is necessary for that. In the meantime, a short-term solution has to be found. Buffalo schoolchildren are already waiting as long as an hour on corners, sometimes for buses that never arrive. All parties need to work together to find an acceptable fix fast. Whats your opinion? Send it to us at lettertoeditor@buffnews.com. Letters should be a maximum of 300 words and must convey an opinion. The column does not print poetry, announcements of community events or thank you letters. A writer or household may appear only once every 30 days. All letters are subject to fact-checking and editing. By Azernews By Ayya Lmahamad EU has been working tirelessly to diversify away from Russia towards other reliable suppliers, like for example, the United States or Norway, Azerbaijan, Algeria, and others, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said, Azernews reports. We are facing an extraordinary situation, not only because Russia is an unreliable supplier, as we have witnessed over the last days, weeks, and months, but also because Russia is actively manipulating the gas market. I am deeply convinced that with our unity, our determination, and our solidarity, we will prevail. And we have, over the last six months, during this war, very much increased our preparedness and we have weakened the grip that Russia had on our economy and our continent. We have done three things, as you recall, she said. In this regard she noted that the first one was demand reduction, so saving gas in order to save it in the storage. We have created joint storage, and this is really a success story because now we are already at 82 percent with the joint storage in Europe. As you know, our goal was to reach 80 percent at the end of October. So we overshoot it, and that is good, she said. Furthermore, she stated that the second step that the EU has taken was the diversification of Russian fossil fuels. She recalled that the EU has stopped the import of Russian coal. We are winding down the Russian oil. And we have been working very hard to diversify away from Russia towards other reliable suppliers, like for example the United States or Norway, Azerbaijan, Algeria, and others. Actually today, Norway is delivering more gas to the European Union than Russia. And we were able if you look at the cuts that Russia has done in gas, to completely compensate so far the gas imports through other reliable suppliers, she said. Speaking about the third step, Ursula von der Leyen noted that this is a massive investment in renewables. We have REPowerEU on the table. The renewables are cheap, they are home-grown, and they make us independent. We will deploy renewables this year that is equivalent to around about 8 billion cubic meters. So the renewables are really our energy insurance for the future, she said. With the completion of the TAP (Trans-Adriatic Pipeline) construction on December 31, 2020, Azerbaijan began commercial gas supplies to Europe via the Southern Gas Corridor. The SGC is an initiative of the European Commission for a natural gas supply route from the Caspian and Middle Eastern regions to Europe. The route from Azerbaijan to Europe consists of the South Caucasus Pipeline, TANAP, and TAP. Last year, TAP transported 8.1 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe. By late 2022, Azerbaijan plans to increase gas supplies to Europe to 9.1 billion cubic meters, and in 2023, the volume of gas supplies is expected to reach 11 billion cubic meters. The EU and Azerbaijan are in active dialogue on increasing gas supplies amid the energy crisis. The EU-Azerbaijan energy cooperation has reached a new level and is still ongoing within the framework of the Southern Gas Corridor. The EU places a high value on energy supply diversification, and the Southern Gas Corridor is particularly important in this regard. On July 18, Azerbaijan and the European Commission signed a memorandum of understanding on strategic cooperation in the energy sector. The document was signed by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Sunday-Sept. 25 Early nuisance Canada goose season continues through Sept. 25 in all upstate areas. Daily limit is 15 birds per person (except Lake Champlain). Sunday-Sept. 18 Special September Antlerless Hunt continues in specific Deer Management Units. For Region 9, units will be 9A and 9F. In Region 8, the units are 8A, 8F, 8G, 8J and 8N. Sept. 11 WNY Environmental Federation quarterly meeting at Hoaks Restaurant, Route 5, Hamburg, starting at 1 p.m. Sept. 11 Fall Trap League continues at Boston Valley Conservation Society, 9624 Zimmerman Road, Boston. This will be a 10-week, 300-target league. Shooting sign up times will be 9 a.m. to noon Sundays and 6 to 8 p.m. Thursdays. Targets may be ATA registered. Call Ernie at 335-4111 for more info. Final day is Oct. 20. Sept. 11 Fifth Annual All Deer Shoot at Allied Sportsmen, 12846 Clinton St., Alden, from 8 a.m. to noon. There will be 15 targets place in various hunting scenarios. Cost is $15. There will also be a flea market archery/hunting/outdoor equipment. For more info contact John Floriano at 725-5822 or Kevin Ulrich at 430-1059. Sept. 11 Final day, Singles 12-week trap league continues at the Tonawanda Sportsmans Club, 5657 Killian Road, Pendleton, from 6-9 p.m. Shooting will also take place Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more info call Jim Cagney at 481-6615. Sept. 13 Allied Sportsmen Outdoor 3D Archery League continues. Shooting on Tuesdays and Wednesdays starting at 5:30 p.m. Walk-ons welcome. It is a 15-target course for 17 weeks. Sept. 13 Erie County Trappers Association monthly meeting at Hamburg Rod and Gun Club, 3434 Hickox Road, Hamburg, starting at 7:30 p.m. Meeting will focus on land trapping and fastening. Call 337-2556 for more info. No meeting in October. Sept. 14 Doubles Trap League continues at the Tonawanda Sportsmans Club, 5657 Killian Road, Pendleton, from 6-9 p.m. Shooting will also take place Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more info call Jim Cagney at 481-6615. Sept. 14 15 Target 3D Archery Shoot at the Evans Rod and Gun Club, 864 Cain Road, Angola, will be shooting every Wednesday for nine weeks from 4 p.m. until dark through Sept. 28. Kids 12 and under shoot free. For more info contact Jerry Gorski at 698-3008. Sept. 14 Next Step Rifle program at Springville Field and Stream, 8900 Chaise Road, Springville, from 4-8 p.m. To register for this course visit https://www.register-ed.com/events/view/184838 Sept. 15 Final Day to apply for Waterfowl Permits for Tonawanda/Oak Orchard WMAs for random lottery for opening weekend Oct. 15-16. Apply at https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/e403433904494ef19f6ba09a3475f8eb. Sept. 16 - Ten X Shooting Club Junior Shooting Program begins for ages 9 to 20. Club is located at 853 Ransom Road, Lancaster. First time shooters arrive at 6 p.m. for instruction. Shooting at 6:30 p.m. Air rifles for 9 and up; .22lr for ages 12-20. Everything is provided by the club. Cost is $5 per night, which includes ammo. Membership not required. For more info visit tenxshootingclub.com. Next session is set for Oct. 7. Sept. 16 NYS Conservation Council Fall Convention at OneGroup, 706 N Clinton St., Syracuse, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information contact https://nyscc.com/. Sept. 17 Sunlife Marina Bass Open Jackpot Tourney from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. $70 per boat. Sept. 17 22nd Annual Fall Festival at Reinstein Woods Nature Preserve, 93 Honorine Drive, Depew, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. No registration is required. Free. reinsteinwoods.org. Sept. 17-18 Double T Harvest Shoot at Double T Archery, 1120 North French Road, Amherst. Registration is from 8 a.m. to noon both days. 30 targets at various yardages. Cost is $15 a day or $20 for both. Member price is $10 and $15. Contact 688-0438 for more info. There will be a Coon Shoot at dusk Saturday for $5. Sept. 19 Niagara County Fisheries Development Board monthly meeting at 6 p.m. Call Frank Campbell at 523-0013 for more info. Sept. 20 Erie County Fisheries Advisory Board meeting at Bison City Rod and Gun Club, 511 Ohio St. starting at 7 p.m. Sept. 24 Annual Bob Osborn Youth Day, to be held at 1171 Alley Road, Alden. You must reserve a spot in advance. Only 25 participants will be allowed. For ages 12 to 17. No license or hunter education certificate is needed. Register 7:45 to 8:30 a.m. A safety review will follow. This includes a live two-bird hunt. Call Tim Snyder at 585-409-9821 or Tom Kelsey at 585-993-6120 for additional information. Sept. 24 National Hunting and Fishing Day celebrations across the country. Sept. 24 NHF Day activities hosted by the Erie County Federation of Sportsmens Club and Elma Conservation Club at 600 Creek Road, Elma, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Free admission. Sept. 24-25 NYPA Wildlife Festival from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, 5777 Lewiston Road, Lewiston, on the grounds of the Power Vista. Free admission. Numerous displays. Sept. 25 Greater Niagara Fish Odyssey Derby Awards Ceremony at 3 p.m. at the NYPA Wildlife Festival, 5777 Lewiston Road, Lewiston, in the Primate Sanctuary Tent. Call Frank Campbell at 523-0013 for more information. Sept. 25 First Annual Fall .22 Rimfire Silhouette Match starting at 10 a.m. at the Evans Rod and Gun Club, 864 Cain Road, Angola. Early registration is encouraged. The match will consist of three 40-round sessions. Entry fee is $25. For more info call Rob Wooliver at 392-2710 or John Ciciera at 864-5812. Submit calendar items to billhiltsjr@gmail.com at least three weeks in advance. Pheasants Forever Youth Day Sept. 24 The local chapter of Pheasants Forever once again will host its popular Bob Osborn Youth Day on Sept. 24 in Alden. Space is limited. The day will feature a live two bird pheasant hunt along with lunch and other outdoor activities. Only 25 youngsters will be allowed to participate, focusing on youth ages 12 to 17. No license or hunter education certificate is needed. All participants need to have a guardian accompany them for the day. The PF Youth Day will be held at 1171 Alley Road, Alden. You must reserve a spot in advance. Registration is from 7:45 to 8:30 a.m. A safety review and firearms handling instruction will follow. Call Tim Snyder at 585-409-9821 or Tom Kelsey at 585-993-6120 for additional information. Sept. 15 deadline for waterfowl permits Waterfowl hunters looking to hunt either Tonawanda or Oak Orchard Wildlife Management Areas for the opening weekend of the duck season have until Sept. 15 to apply for the special random lottery drawing. A special permit will allow for hunting on the first Saturday and first Sunday of the Western Zone duck season, set for Oct. 15 and 16. The WMAs are primarily in Genesee and Niagara counties, with a small portion in Orleans and Erie counties. For each of the two days, DEC typically issues 100 permits for Tonawanda WMA and 50 permits for Oak Orchard WMA, but this year, due to the dry conditions, DEC might reduce the number of permits issued. Permits are issued for these two days only because they are the heaviest use days. It helps to promote hunter safety, reduce hunter conflicts, and increase the quality of the hunt. Fill in the form here: https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/e403433904494ef19f6ba09a3475f8eb. This is the only entry form, and you may only submit one per person. For more information contact the DEC Iroquois Wildlife Field Office at 585-948-5182. Happy Ending wins final Big Boys contest It was a Happy Ending for a team of the same name as the Big Boys Tournament Series ended for 2022 during Labor Day weekend out of Point Breeze in Orleans County. What was scheduled to be a two-day contest turned into a one-day battle as a small craft advisory forced cancellation of the final day. The Happy Ending team of Bryan Insley of Bolivar; Jeff Gordon, of Wellsville; Eric Potter, of Genesee, Pa.; and Patrick Lehman, of Genesee, Pa., won with a six-fish tournament limit weighing 96 pounds and a total score of 156 points (based on 10 points per fish and a point per pound). Fishing out of its Sportcraft 252 between Johnson Creek and the Oak in Lake Ontario, the team started out hot with a triple header on salmon and boated all three by 6:30 a.m. The group picked away in the same spot, and they finally boated their sixth salmon at 12:45 p.m. Second place was Legacy, led by Capt. Rob Westcott, of Hamlin, with five fish scoring 127.69 points. Third place was the Rehab team with six fish scoring 127.43 points. The West End Cup winner for the best totals from three contests was the Tomahawk Team, led by Capt. Jonathan Ross, of Hamlin. First Fall .22 Rimfire Silhouette Match set Evans Rod and Gun Club, 864 Cain Road, Angola, will host its inaugural Fall .22 Rimfire Silhouette Match on Sept. 25. The match will consist of three 40-round sessions. Each shooter will shoot 10 rounds at each of four silhouette animals at four different distances, including 40, 60, 80, and 100 yards. All shooting will be from the off-hand position. There will be two divisions one for rifles with scopes or red dot sights, and another for iron or peep sights. Any .22 rimfire cartridge may be used (short, long, or long rifle). Entry fee is $25. Early registration is encouraged. Cash prizes will be awarded. The range will be open at 8:30 a.m. the day of the shoot for practice. For more information call Rob Wooliver at 392-2710 or John Ciciera at 864-5812. Share your opinion on this topic by sending a letter to the editor to tctvoice@madison.com. Include your full name, hometown and phone number. Your name and town will be published. The phone number is for verification purposes only. Please keep your letter to 250 words or less. MENOMONIE Corn stalks towered over Ashley Jacque and a group of first-year agronomy students at Chippewa Valley Technical College as they parted their way 40 yards into the cornfield to assess growing cobs. Jacque, 23, a second-year agronomy management student from Thorp, was in their shoes last year. Now she leads new students as they learn how to determine yields during the programs two-day Tour de Crops. Brent Christianson, instructor of the course, modeled CVTCs Tour de Crops activity after the multi-state Pro Farmer Crop Tour. Before participating in the crop tour, CVTC students learned about crop tallying in the classroom. The tour is a way to get students in the field, Christianson said Thursday while standing in CVTCs Right Choice Acres field. What theyre learning is one of the competencies of the class. The unique part about this experience is the extra stuff that we cant see at Right Choice Acres. On Wednesday, the first day of the tour, two groups of students traveled more than 400 miles throughout west-central Wisconsin to check on farmers crops at other farms. Both groups saw below-average yields at most farms they visited. Christianson blames a late growing season, a wet start and a very dry end of summer. As they determined the crops yield, they also took note of any insect infestations or overgrowth of weeds. If either were present, students would mention it to the farmer so something different could be done to ward against it for the next growing season. Jacque said insects and weeds could take a toll on a crop something she learned more about during her summer internship at Blacks Valley Ag in Durand, a family-owned agriculture retailer founded in 1990. Jacque credited the internship, coupled with her classes and the Tour de Crops activity, having connected the dots for her. It clicks a lot more now, she said. I still remember being a first-year student coming out (in the field). I was really confused about what to measure and how to do the calculations and equations. I was so lost. But now I get it, and Im helping the first-year students and letting them know if they have questions they can ask. Christianson said his favorite part of the tour is watching students understand the process and being surprised by one cool thing on the tour. This year it was witnessing a crop duster flying over cover crops. You cant plan this kind of thing, he said. The farmer is one weve worked with in the past, and his farm is organic, which is cool. So, he took the students out to the field and showed them what it looked like. Then the plane landed and was back in the air in four minutes. It was so cool. RACINE Harry Wait, a longtime local watchdog who takes pride in being a thorn in the side of local government, is getting the limelight he has long wanted. And he might go to prison for it. Wait, 68, believes he was acting in the spirit of '76 similar to the Founding Fathers rebelling against the tyrannical actions of the British Crown when he requested two absentee ballots using other peoples names in an attempt to prove it is possible to commit election fraud. In court During a tense initial appearance in Racine County Circuit Court Thursday afternoon, Wait was given a $2,500 signature bond in the high-profile case in which the state has charged him with election fraud. Prosecuting attorney David William Maas, of the state Attorney Generals Office, was in court for the State of Wisconsin. Wait represented himself. Presiding was Judge Robert Repischak, a no-nonsense judge who early in the hearing ordered two people wearing Free Harry T-shirts out of the courtroom. This is not a political event, Repischak told them. Repischak set Waits signature bond at $2,500 with a list of conditions including a gag order. When Wait objected to the gag order, Repischak responded, Overruled. In reference to his bond, Wait said, Obviously Im not a criminal. Im not a threat to the public, Repischak also barred Wait from contacting Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Mayor Cory Mason, the two individuals whose ballots Wait ordered without permission. Wait objected, stating Vos and Mason were public figures. Repischak was undeterred. Wait was summoned to the hearing and not arrested; therefore, he is required to be fingerprinted and have a photo taken by the Racine County Sheriffs Office before close of business Friday. Wait makes the court wait When Harry Wait entered the courthouse for his initial court appearance, he was told to go across the street to the Racine County Law Enforcement Center, where most criminal proceedings are held in Racine County. Wait initially refused to cross the street. Wait said his summons demanded he go to the courthouse, not the Law Enforcement Center, and so he initially refused to comply; the two buildings are essentially treated as one and the same, as an umbrella for the 10 branches that make up the Racine County Circuit Court. Judge Repischak had a Racine County Sheriffs Office court deputy locate and escort Wait to the hearing while the court sat and waited for 20 minutes. Also in attendance at the hearing was state Rep. Tim Ramthun, a conservative who like Wait baselessly believes the 2020 election was fraudulent. Ramthun received 6% of the vote in the Aug. 9 primary election for Wisconsin governor, falling far behind mainstream candidates Tim Michels and Rebecca Kleefisch, who received 47% and 42% of the vote, respectively. A patriotic mirror In a speech on the steps of the Racine County Courthouse before his appearance in the courtroom, Wait spoke in grandiose, patriotic terms about himself. Patriots of that day were called criminals, and the same will be true until the end of time. Today, the state calls me a criminal just as Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, Thomas Jefferson and the list goes on and on and on. Wait is charged with two misdemeanor counts of election fraud and two felony counts of unauthorized use of an individuals personal identifying information. He admitted to illegally using MyVote.Wis.gov to request absentee ballots using the names of Vos and Mason a Republican and a Democrat who Wait has made his enemies. The combined maximum sentence for those four crimes would be 13 years in prison and a fine of up to $22,000. If convicted, he could also be labeled a felon and then lose his own legal ability to vote. Wait said that, when he requested the ballots July 26, he knew what he was doing was illegal. But now, he and his supporters are now claiming he has done nothing criminal, and what he did was in spirit of the rule of law. Gag order When a press conference broke out in the courtroom after the hearing, Judge Robert Repischak went back on the record and issued a gag order as a condition of the bond, effectively barring Harry Wait from legally speaking to the press about the case as he has repeatedly over the past six weeks. Wait argued repeatedly a gag order violated his First Amendment rights. I object, he said. I dont care, Repischak responded. Pro se Whenever Wait or anyone else with the group he is president of HOT (Honest, Open, Transparent) Government ends up in a legal dispute, court staffers and judges tend to be in for a headache. In several cases over the past decade, HOT Government members have inundated public employees with records requests and often represent themselves pro se in court like Wait is now doing. By not working with attorneys, there are often miscommunications that lead to cases being drawn out as the innately procedural court system struggles to communicate with HOT Government members untrained in the law who often are often quick to blame conspiracies working against them. These tactics are intentional. Amid swirling conspiracy theories surrounding the 2020 presidential election, right-wing activists have circulated boilerplate affidavits and other requests to submit to officials throughout the country some were disseminated by HOT Government members outside the courthouse before the hearing. These filings have bogged down elections officials and courts nationwide amid the still-fruitless searches for a smoking gun that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, for which there has yet been no evidence uncovered. As The Brennan Center for Justice, a nonprofit at the New York University School of Law, reported in July, there is now a nationwide right-wing network has published materials and hosted summits across the country with the aim of coordinating a nationwide effort to staff election offices, recruit poll watchers and poll workers and build teams of local citizens to challenge voter rolls, question postal workers, be ever-present in local election offices, and inundate election officials with document requests. The effort is an extraordinary investment in sustaining and bolstering the false narrative of widespread voter fraud. A number of the complaints currently creating a backlog with the Wisconsin Elections Commission were filed by Jay Stone, vice president of HOT Government. HOT Governments official email sent a message to supporters Wednesday evening calling on HOT and the Patriots of Wisconsin to pack the courtrooms and depose commissioners and administrators surrounding Wait's case. Before being officially charged, Wait told a reporter he wanted to be criminally charged. That way, he said he could take advantage of the discovery process and get documents he believes state and local officials have been hiding. Wait was not specific about what he believes he can get through discovery, as opposed to requesting documents through typical avenues that he has used previously in disputes with the City of Racine and the State of Wisconsin. Wait vs. WEC Wait made clear he believes he is a patriot aiming to overthrow illegal governance that he believes is being carried out specifically by the Wisconsin Elections Commission. WEC was founded by the Republican-controlled state Legislature in 2016. There is a chance Republicans may dismantle the commission next year if Democratic Gov. Tony Evers is voted out. In the name of making it easier to vote, WEC has also made it easier to cheat, Wait said. There is no evidence that there has been widespread cheating in the 2020 election or any recent election before it in Wisconsin. While Wait demonstrated it is possible to request any registered voters mail-in ballot online and request it be delivered to any address, he did not try to cast anyones ballot. The safeguards within Wisconsins election systems are designed to trigger if a person tries to vote and an absentee ballot has been ordered in their name. The Wisconsin Elections Commission has argued that MyVote is as secure, if not more secure, than on-paper and in-person methods for requesting absentee ballots. To request a ballot on MyVote, the registered voter must have previously voted by mail and also provide their birthdate. To vote in person, Voter ID is required to be shown. To request a mail-in ballot directly via email or in-person, providing a birthdate is not required. WEC officials have repeatedly noted that MyVote does not explicitly process absentee ballot requests. Rather, MyVote creates an email that is sent to a local clerks office to process each voters request, a sort-of one-stop shop rather than having each of the states 1,800-plus local elections clerks having their own system. The Republican-controlled state Legislature passed a series of bills last year that would have required Voter ID be shown every time an absentee ballot is requested online, but Evers vetoed those proposals. Evers has vowed to veto any bill that might make it more difficult to vote, angering conservatives who have aimed to codify self-described election integrity bills nationwide following the 2020 election. Michels, the Republican nominee running against Evers in the gubernatorial election, says he would sign such bills if they are passed again should he be elected Prayers for Wait During a prayer circle outside the Racine County Courthouse Thursday afternoon, the woman leading the prayer who refused to tell a reporter her name said of Harry Wait: He is a streetfighter. He knows how to fight this. And we ask for his strength so that he not be incarcerated and he can continue our fight. We thank you for his spirit. We thank you for his courage. Later, HOT Government Vice President Jay Stone, who unsuccessfully ran against Republican state Sen. Van Wanggaard in the Aug. 9 primary, said This is a false prosecution. Stone filed a complaint with WEC late last month in which he claimed that MyVote is not authorized under state law and thus Waits ballot requests using MyVote cannot be illegal since the use of MyVote for any request should be illegal. WEC rejected the complaint the day after it was filed. Wait concluded a speech by paraphrasing from the Old Testament Book of Isaiah, but replacing a Biblical reference to "an obstinate people" with "the Wisconsin Elections Commission." Wait has repeatedly asserted he is not a Republican or a Democrat, but he does align as a conservative and is a core supporter of Adam Steen, the Trump-endorsed conservative who believes the 2020 election was fraudulent and is running a write-in campaign against Vos. On Thursday, Wait called President Joe Biden a senile and incompetent resident at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington D.C. Dee Holzel and Alex Rodriguez of The Journal Times contributed reporting to this report. A new coalition of conservatives, policy groups and advocacy organizations has begun developing a package of education goals for the coming legislative session with expanded school choice as a top priority that could play a considerable role in the upcoming race for governor this November. Officials with the Wisconsin Coalition for Education Freedom say the goal is to give parents and students more options. But the proposals also stand in stark contrast to priorities laid out by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers setting up an education policy battle in the Nov. 8 election, in which Evers, a former educator and state superintendent who has opposed expanded private school vouchers, faces businessman Tim Michels, a Republican who has pledged to expand school choice offerings across Wisconsin. The election is critically important, said Susan Mitchell, a longtime advocate for school vouchers and founder of School Choice Wisconsin. Gov. Evers, both as (Department of Public Instruction) superintendent and as governor, has repeatedly opposed the expansion of these programs. Tim Michels has made public a completely opposite sort of perspective, so it matters a lot in terms of getting things done. The coalition, launched Thursday, includes conservative groups Americans for Prosperity, Badger Institute and law firm Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, as well as education stakeholders such as American Federation for Children, virtual education company K12/Stride, School Choice Wisconsin and Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the states largest business lobbying organization. The group did not provide specific legislative proposals, but officials told the Wisconsin State Journal the two biggest priorities will be school choice for all families and legislation seeking to establish a Parental Bill of Rights, letting parents sue a school district or school official if they dont allow parents to determine the names and pronouns used for the child while at school, review instructional materials and outlines used by the childs school and access any education-related information regarding the child, among other measures. Evers vetoed a GOP-authored bill last session that would have extended those powers to parents, stating in an April 15 veto message he opposed it because I object to sowing division in our schools, which only hurts our kids and learning in our classrooms. He also vetoed a measure that would have vastly expanded private school vouchers by eliminating the income limits in the statewide, Milwaukee County and Racine County private school voucher programs, as well as create a temporary education expense reimbursement program for public school students. A fiscal report estimated the bill could raise property taxes as much as $577 million. School vouchers Wisconsin operates four programs that provide taxpayer-funded vouchers for income-eligible families to send their children to private schools. The Milwaukee voucher program started in 1990-91 under former Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson and is the oldest modern voucher program in the country. In the first year, the program enrolled 337 students. Enrollment has grown almost every year, with 28,770 students attending 129 private schools on vouchers in Milwaukee as of last October. Another voucher program in Racine started in the 2011-12 school year, followed by a statewide program in 2013-14, and a fourth for students with disabilities in 2016. More than 47,000 students were enrolled in private schools using a voucher in the Milwaukee, Racine and statewide programs last fall, according to data compiled by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. Mitchell said vouchers are even more popular following disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A School Choice Wisconsin Action poll published last month found that likely voters favor Wisconsins school choice programs by a 51-23 margin. Everybody has a story where one way or another, whether youre a parent, a friend, a grandparent, whatever, you know somebody where things werent working for a family, and their child would have been better off would there have been a different situation open, Mitchell said. Scott Manley, executive vice president of government relations with Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, said the states chamber of commerce joined the coalition with a focus on the states ongoing labor force challenges, which he said have been further exacerbated by a talent pool that lacks proficiency in reading and math. We believe that giving more families options in terms of how to educate their children will improve those numbers and be a disruptive force that essentially forces our K-12 schools to do a better job, because if theyre not doing a good job educating our children and theyre not making progress in terms of improving our reading and math proficiencies, parents are going to pull their kids out of public schools, Manley said. We think introducing additional options and competition into the marketplace will lead to improvement, and employers believe that improvement is desperately needed right now. Differing proposals While proponents of school voucher programs say the matter shouldnt be partisan, Wisconsinites have remained largely divided on the topic, with Democrats arguing voucher programs bleed money from public schools and force communities to turn to referendums for operating funds. Republicans have touted vouchers as providing options for students struggling in public schools and for families who might not otherwise be able to afford private school tuition. In his first budget proposal as governor, Evers attempted to freeze voucher enrollment, but the proposal was quickly rejected by the GOP-controlled Legislature. Evers has long called for more state funding for schools and on Tuesday unveiled plans to spend nearly $2 billion more on public schools in the states 2023-25 biennial budget, with a focus on areas like literacy, staffing and mental health services. The governors plan would also increase school district revenue limits by $350 per pupil in the 2023-24 school year and another $650 per pupil in the following year. Per-pupil aid would also increase under Evers plan, by $24 per student in the 2023-24 school year and $45 in the following year. In addition, Evers said his proposal to direct about $800 million in new state aid to schools would ensure that per-pupil aid increases do not raise property taxes. Such a proposal may face an uphill battle in next years budget deliberations, however, as it will need approval from the GOP-led Legislature. Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, who co-chairs the Legislatures budget committee, said the committee will consider Evers proposal if it becomes a part of the executive budget request next year. Lacking from this proposal is a plan to protect parents rights to have more choices and involvement in their childs education, which is critical to supporting families in our state, Born said in a statement. Michels has proposed expanding school choice options to all Wisconsinites and has said he would sign the Parental Bill of Rights if elected governor. Michels spokesperson Anna Kelly said in an email Michels supports school choice for all families so that Wisconsin parents are empowered with information and options to make decisions that best meet the needs of their kids. Under Michels, Kelly added, all schools will improve and Wisconsin families will have access to a school that meets their needs, regardless of their income or ZIP code. Several studies on the effectiveness of voucher programs around the country have found a positive effect on voucher student test scores, though a few have found no effect or a negative effect, according to a review by University of Arkansas professor Patrick Wolf. Wolfs 2012 study of the Milwaukee program comparing public and voucher students found a mixed bag on test scores, but higher graduation rates and higher likelihood of enrolling in college. A follow-up study, however, found rates of college degree attainment were similar. Former state Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly will again be seeking a seat on the states high court next year, marking the first conservative-backed candidate to formally declare candidacy in the upcoming election. Kelly, who was appointed to the court by former Gov. Scott Walker in 2016 but lost his election bid in April 2020, announced on Thursday his plans to run for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court in a statement first reported by WisPolitics.com. I am incredibly grateful to those all over the state who have encouraged me to run, Kelly said. They know the importance of electing a justice with a track record of protecting our Constitution, faithfully applying the law as written, and respecting the people of Wisconsin as his bosses. Conservatives currently hold a 4-3 majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, though Justice Brian Hagedorn has served as a swing vote at times on the seven-member court. Conservative Justice Patience Roggensack will not seek another term in April, meaning the courts power dynamic could shift next year. If an activist were to win next April, Wisconsins public policy would be imposed by four lawyers sitting in Madison instead of being adopted through our constitutional processes, Kelly said. I wont let that happen on my watch. While state Supreme Court races are nominally nonpartisan, they are run in an intensely partisan fashion, with political parties and outside groups spending large sums to back their preferred candidates. Two liberal-backed candidates, Dane County Circuit Judge Everett Mitchell and Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Janet Protasiewicz, are also running for the seat. Dan Kelly is a reckless and failed Trump-Walker politician who would use the Court for conservative activism, ignoring the will of Wisconsin voters to turn back the clock on our state, Mitchells campaign manager Sean Elliott said in a statement. Protasieqiczs campaign manager Alejandro Verdin issued a statement welcoming Kelly to the race. He described Kelly as a right-wing extremist with views about the law far out of the mainstream, and he is running to serve a partisan political agenda rather than provide equal justice under the law. Mitchell presides over Dane Countys High Risk Drug Court program, which provides support to adults with drug addictions and criminal charges through connections to treatment and mental health services, while Protasiewicz has served as a circuit court judge since 2014 and currently presides in the family court. She previously worked for 26 years as an assistant Milwaukee County district attorney. Kelly served about four years on the state Supreme Court before he lost to former Dane County judge and current state Supreme Court Justice Jill Karofsky in April 2020 in an election that garnered national attention. A local entrepreneur is reinventing a crafting tool from the 1800s with the goal of helping others find a creative outlet, just as she did. Lincoln's Shawna Fosket is the owner of North Shore Crafts, which has been her home business for four years, providing fabric and craft supplies to the community. "I love crafting and designing and creating, and this is a way for me to combine that with my work," she said. Fosket heard about punch needling from a friend, who posted about it on Instagram. It's a crafting technique that found its way to the U.S. in the late 1800s. The craft takes yarn that is threaded through a hollow needle and then, as the name suggests, punches it through canvas or fabric to create a loop. She quickly realized that she could improve on the design of the tool used to punch needle. "When I first got into punch needle, there were tools out there, but the best was expensive, and it only had one loop length," she said. "I wanted to explore more loop lengths, and I didn't like spending $40 every time I wanted a new loop length." The Super Punch was Fosket's response to this issue. The Super Punch, she said, combined the quality of previous tools with more options to change loop lengths. She had previous experience in sourcing and manufacturing from selling leather journals on Amazon, so she decided she wanted to create the tool herself. But that was harder than expected. She tried a 3D-printed design, reached out to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's College of Engineering and attempted to hire an engineer through an online contracting platform. All of those attempts fell short. Two years later, she hired a design team to help with the process, and now the final prototype isn't far from production. A Kickstarter campaign has raised almost $6,000, and those who donate can pre-order the Super Punch. She hopes to raise $35,000 by the middle of September. The Super Punch is "the very first large ergonomic handle, open slotted, adjustable loop length punch needle tool," according to the product website. Fosket benefited from COVID-19 stimulus funds to pay for the design team. "I ran into some issues with manufacturers, so the stimulus came at just the right time that I could put it toward hiring, and helping alleviate the costs of my business," she said. The pandemic also created high demand for crafting and activities that could be done at home, which proved beneficial for self-starters like Fosket. "In the beginning, it was good for my business, people were at home, trying to find ways to fulfill themselves," she said. "The punch needle saw a rise, so the first year of the pandemic my sales were the highest they had ever been." For Fosket, creating a product from scratch has been a journey of self-realization. Being able to manage a business while homeschooling her three children fulfills her, she says. "When I worked 40 hours a week, that was my life and this was just survival," she said. "Now that it's at home, it's more, 'How do we get to be the best family that we are?'" What started as a journey to create a business to support her family has turned into a passion to help other women be creative, she said. "A lot of women forget about themselves when they become mothers, or they work full time," Fosket said. "This has turned into a way to inspire women to create and feel good about a project." Editor's note: We have detected a technical issue that is preventing some users from being able to log in to comment. We are working to have the issue resolved shortly. Thank you for your patience. Roughly a month after the announcement of two child care facilities closing in Columbus, a newly-formed nonprofit hopes to have a new facility running as soon as early October. The two facility closures last month equaled to a loss of 155 child care spots for children of various ages. Columbus Area Childcare, the nonprofit, is planning to purchase and operate a child care center out of the previous Little Messengers Inc. building, 3105 25th St. Up to 110 kids between the ages of 6 weeks to 3-years-old would be accepted at this new center. The Columbus City Council approved a resolution at its Sept. 6 meeting to give a $225,000 economic development loan to Columbus Area Childcare for the venture. The loan would last 15 years and have 1% interest. The formation of the nonprofit was announced by the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce earlier this week, as its supported by the chamber. A publicly available memo from the city states that additional funds have been pledged by the chamber; local banks have shown interested in funding the remaining amount through a loan or line of credit. The building is currently owned by 4-C Investments, LLC, and Columbus Area Childcare is securing contracts to purchase the facility. Chamber President Dawson Brunswick explained at the city council meeting that both entities have separate boards and a separate tax status. Columbus Area Childcare is a public and private partnership, Brunswick said. According to the chambers business to business newsletter, the nonprofit hopes to reopen the facility as soon as Oct. 3 under the leadership of Barb Braun, who will serve as center director. Third Ward Council Member Rich Jablonski expressed concern over the nonprofit being able to find employees. He added that with a new casino coming to Columbus, the communitys workforce is going to be depleted. We received over $70,000 a year in commitments from private industry to help subsidize and pay child care employees in that $14 and $15 an hour range, Brunswick said. The idea is that people who are leaving child care right now because of a low wages, that we can retain them. Jablonski asked if low wages were specifically the cause of the previous facility closing, to which Brunswick responded hes knowledgeable it was. Some of the day care providers that I visited with this, they just can't find the kind of help you need to have to run a day care, Jablonski said. I don't know if you're paying $30 an hour you're going to have anything better. That would be my bigger concern in trying to keep the thing afloat. Brunswick agreed that that is an issue, adding there are 2,300 open positions across industries in Columbus currently. At a minimum, he added, one child care employee keeps four people employed. Brunswick was also asked about the impact the Kramer Education Center will have once it opens. Columbus Public Schools has been remodeling the former Kramer High School into a facility that will have a child care center and preschool, as well as eventually administration offices. Brunswick said that Kramer will put a nice dent into the child care need and, while CPS is looking into other potential solutions, the Columbus Area Childcare project is intended to stop the bleeding right here, right now. As we're making great strides on housing, you build a 100 houses but you don't have child care, you're only bringing 100 employees to town, not 200, Brunswick said. First Ward Council Member Beth Augustine-Schulte commented that the matter is definitely an issue and noted a teacher she knows who had to stop working for a period of time because their family could not find child care. The chambers announcement of Columbus Area Childcare was made Tuesday afternoon and Brunswick noted that in two hours, a dozen people had already contacted them to request to be put on the waiting list for child care. The chambers newsletter noted it has helped Columbus Area Childcare secure commitments from Becton, Dickinson and Company; Behlen Mfg. Co; Archer Daniels Midland and Pillen Family Farms to ensure the feasibility of the project. The nonprofit will continue to secure additional investments from private industry, similar to the chambers Drive for Five program. With unemployment at 2.1% in Columbus and Platte County, it is important that we have a competitive and wholesome work environment to draw professionals into. Every child care employment opening we fill allows us to keep up to 15 parents in the workforce, furthering the chambers workforce efforts, said Sarah Ehlers, the chambers director of talent and workforce development. We cannot sit back and wait for the cavalry to come. We must think outside the box so the high quality of life in Columbus will continue to attract new families to our growing community. Columbus Area Childcare will be the beginning of a long-term strategic plan to bring more quality child care to the future of Columbus. By Azernews By Ayya Lmahamad A forum Azerbaijan - Investment and Trade Opportunities was held in Beijing, China, within the framework of the China International Fair of Trade Services, Azernews reports. The forum was organized with the support of Azerbaijans Economy Ministry, the Trade Representation of Azerbaijan in China, and the China International Economic Cooperation Association. Business people and representatives of relevant government agencies took part in the event. Advisor to the Economy Minister Asgar Alakbarov, Alat Free Economic Zone Board Chairman Valeh Alaskarov, Export and Investment Promotion Agency Head Yusif Abdullayev, Economic Zones Development Agency Board Chairman Elshan Nuriyev, Center for Analysis and Coordination of the Fourth Industrial Revolution Executive Director Tamerlan Taghiyev and Azerbaijani Trade Representative in China Teymur Nadiroglu spoke at the forum. They presented information on economic relations between Azerbaijan and China, a favorable investment climate in the country, opportunities to expand the export of Azerbaijani products to China, as well as exchanged views on the implementation of joint projects. Speaking at the forum, an official from Chinas Commerce Ministry Wu Penghiu, China Association for International Economic Cooperation President Gao Yuanyuan, Eurasian Research Institute of China Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation Director Liu Huanching, China Overseas Industry Development Association Deputy Secretary-General Zhang Hong, Azerbaijan Winery Promotion Center in China Director Huang Yuyton and representative of Azerbaijan Tourism Bureau in China Eko Cao stressed the interest of Chinese companies for further expansion of cooperation with their Azerbaijani partners. They also briefed the opposite side on the opportunities for the development of ties. During the forum, presentations were made on quality and competitive food and beverages, branded "Made in Azerbaijan" and the tourism potential of Azerbaijan. They were on opposite sides of the courtroom. The plaintiff, Omaha Police Capt. Kathy Belcastro-Gonzalez, sat closest to the jury that will decide whether Omahas police chief was retaliating against her when he bypassed her for deputy police chief, though she scored as the highest candidate in 2018. The defendant, Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer, sat next to a deputy city attorney who said Schmaderer had eight reasons why he didnt hire Belcastro-Gonzalez to be one of his top advisers. Heres a reason Schmaderer never contemplated, deputy city attorney Michelle Peters told jurors: Retaliating against Belcastro-Gonzalez for being one of two women higher-ups to formally complain about Kerry Neumann, who retired in 2020 as a deputy chief. In fact, Peters urged the jury in the civil trial to not follow Belcastro-Gonzalezs attorney, Tom White, down rabbit holes of issues that have little to do with her claims of retaliation. Whether the issues raised Tuesday by Belcastro-Gonzalez are rabbit holes or land mines will be up to the jury to decide. Day One of the weeklong civil trial had the city and Schmaderer on the defensive. White got two former commanders of the Omaha police internal affairs unit to admit on the stand to very unusual irregularities in the handling of Belcastro-Gonzalezs and a female lieutenants complaints about Neumann. Among Tuesdays revelations: Belcastro-Gonzalez and Lt. Staci Witkowski filed separate complaints in 2010, alleging that Neumann treated them with contempt and was far more hostile to them than he was to their male counterparts. Witkowski alleged Neumann was dismissive and degrading of her in front of subordinates. Belcastro-Gonzalez, who served as precinct captain for southeast Omaha, complained that Neumann (who was a gang-unit lieutenant at the time) was insubordinate, refusing to cooperate with her requests to help monitor gang members during Cinco de Mayo events. Once, during a spike in shootings in southeast Omaha, Belcastro-Gonzalez asked Neumann if he could send northeast precinct gang-unit officers to help with the surge. He laughed at her, she said. Belcastro-Gonzalez said Neumann told one of his sergeants that the only reason she got promoted to captain was her gender. Neumann has declined to comment on the lawsuit in the past, though he has vehemently denied disparate treatment at one point filing his own grievance and threatening a lawsuit over the handling of the internal affairs probe into him. Neumann was never disciplined. Then-Police Chief Alex Hayes ordered Lt. Patrick Rowland, now retired but then head of the internal affairs unit, to not interview Belcastro-Gonzalez after she filed her internal affairs complaint. Definitely a deviation from the normal process, Rowland testified. A sergeant confirmed Witkowskis version of Neumann berating her in front of him, Rowland said. However, no transcript of the sergeants interview was in the internal affairs case file which Rowland said was unusual. Further, Hayes told Rowland not to interview Neumann, the subject of the complaint. That led Neumann to file a grievance, noting that the union contract requires investigators to at least offer an interview of the target of an internal probe. Hayes retired on March 30, 2012. Schmaderer was appointed chief in August 2012 and this mess ended up in his lap, though he had nothing to do with the original probe, Peters said. At the time, she said, Neumann was contemplating a lawsuit over the internal affairs investigation. Schmaderer then went into the Witkowski case file and ordered redactions, according to Tom Shaffer, a deputy chief who once headed internal affairs. Schmaderer attached a Post-it note, saying the complaint was dismissed without pred (prejudice). Take out all other notations of findings, the chief ordered. Such a move isnt typical. Schmaderer is expected to testify later in the trial. Lost in all of this, White told jurors, were the two women who complained. Hayes ruled both complaints against Neumann were not substantiated but assured that he would talk to Neumann, Rowland said. Fast forward to 2017. Several people applied to fill a deputy chief spot. Two of them: Neumann and Belcastro-Gonzalez. Witkowski, then a lieutenant in internal affairs, talked to her boss, Shaffer, and was quite adamant that Neumann had no chance to be promoted. She assured Shaffer that Neumann had been reprimanded for his interactions with Belcastro-Gonzalez. Shaffer, who had been in the process of computerizing all internal affairs cases, went back and reviewed Neumanns files again. No such reprimand existed. Shaffer told Belcastro-Gonzalezs husband, then-Deputy Chief Greg Gonzalez, that he was concerned it appeared shortcuts had been taken in both internal affairs investigations. Hearing that, Belcastro-Gonzalez sent a letter to Mayor Jean Stotherts office about the probes. Meanwhile, Schmaderer had deputy chief spots to fill. During detailed testing for the spot in 2017, Neumann scored first and Belcastro-Gonzalez fifth. Schmaderer appointed Neumann. Two more deputy chief spots came up the next year, 2018. This time, Schmaderer appointed Ken Kanger and Michelle Bang, who were numbers 2 and 5 on the list, respectively. The No. 1 candidate on the list? Belcastro-Gonzalez. White told jurors that city officials were so upset that she was first that they sent the testing back to a committee to be rescored. The re-tabulation didnt change the outcome. Still, Schmaderer bypassed her. White suggested it was because Belcastro-Gonzalez had gone over his head to Stotherts office. Peters countered that Schmaderers bypass of Belcastro-Gonzalez was only the third time he had selected a deputy chief, hardly a deep history. He since has bypassed others who scored first. Peters urged jurors to avoid those rabbit holes, saying discrimination or retaliation had nothing to do with Schmaderers decision. One rabbit hole jurors wont hear about: Peters herself has complained about city hiring practices, formally complaining that Stothert didnt follow proper procedures when the mayor filled the city attorneys spot in 2021. The mayor named one of Peters male colleagues instead of Peters. As for Belcastro-Gonzalezs snub, Peters rattled off eight reasons Schmaderer gave for not hiring her. At the top of the list: Schmaderer wrote in his notes from his 2017 interview with Belcastro-Gonzalez that he thought she had a huge chip on her shoulder. White said the reasons the chief gave were pretextual slights the chief came up with so he could retaliate against Belcastro-Gonzalez. The evidence will show those reasons were flat-out false, White said. She didnt sit quietly. She was a troublemaker. She stood up for women in the workplace. Bitcoin-powered Darkweb Drug Dealers Handed Jail Time in South Korea Source: Adobe Stock Drug traders who exchanged narcotics for bitcoin (BTC) using darkweb portals have been handed jail time and suspended sentences as South Korean courts following scores of arrests made earlier this month. Two separate crackdowns one in the capital Seoul and the second in North Gyeongsang Province have seen over 200 people arrested for buying or selling drugs such as ketamine, cannabis, and MDMA (ecstasy) using the Telegram messenger app, bitcoin wallets, and darkweb portals that charged users for using their services. Newsis reported that four people all aged between 34 and 36 but unnamed for legal reasons were sentenced at a branch of the Seoul Northern District Court. The presiding judge handed out jail sentences of between 10 months to one year in prison (suspended), as well as two years of probation. The four were handed fines of up to USD 18,000 and ordered to attend 40 hours of drug therapy classes. The court heard evidence that the four used dead drop methods to trade drugs with customers paying for their purchases beforehand. Dealers would then visit pre-agreed locations in public spaces to drop off bags of drugs. Buyers would then be instructed to visit these locations and pick up their purchases once dealers had left the scene. Search Ongoing for Bitcoin-keen Darkweb Operators The court saw evidence of bitcoin transactions made between the individuals and were presented with data extracted from a number of BTC wallets. Prosecutors claimed the individuals had been trading drugs using the platform since at least 2018. Police have claimed they have new crypto transaction-tracing technology at their disposal and have pledged to stamp out bitcoin and altcoin-powered crime using these solutions. Their search for the operators of the darkweb portals, however, is still ongoing with the operators thus far proving elusive. Officers believe the operators are linked to the Seoul nightclub scene and that they have a particular preference for BTC, which they have allegedly adopted as an unofficial currency. More arrests are expected in the coming weeks as officers in other parts of the country continue their investigations. Ethlot.me Ethereum Mining Scam Mastermind Flees South Korea for the Philippines Source: Ethlot.me/Instagram The alleged leader of what police believe to be a ethereum (ETH) mining scam masquerading as a bona fide pool has fled abroad. Per Yonhap, officers said that a man, aged 44 but not identified for legal reasons, had left the country in late June around the time that the police began to investigate the pool. Named Ethlot.me, the pool claimed to allow investors the chance to buy ethereum and bitcoin (BTC) mining rigs, which a firm named Ethlot would operate on their behalf in overseas mining centers. These centers, they claimed, were mainly located in Kazakhstan and Russia. The pool published numerous videos and pictures of these mining centers in operation. The company, which has a brick-and-mortar office in Seouls Seocho District, has failed to respond to multiple Cryptonews.com contact requests. The telephone numbers associated with the company also appear to be unmanned. Ethlot.mes operators promised investors a guaranteed income on a sliding scale the more they invested, they were told, the better-quality machines they would be able to buy. Public buses in Seoul, South Korea bearing Ethlot.me advertising, with an Instagram post claiming that investors can expect massive gains. Source: Ethlot.me/Instagram Anyone stumping up USD 6,225 could expect to make almost USD 120 per day, the pools marketing material detailed. Smaller-scale investors could expect to make USD 32 a day from a one-off USD 2,333 investment, the company claimed. But when these guaranteed gains failed to materialized, angry investors attempted to recoup their funds only for the company to abruptly pull the plug on its website and most of its social media channels. Ethereum Mining Scam Worth Millions of Dollars, Say Lawyers The Ethlot.me Instagram and YouTube pages are still online although neither have been updated in the past few months. The pools marketing efforts were well-funded and aggressive and included advertisements displayed on South Korean buses, in subway station, and on digital displays in busy public squares. Source: Ethlot.me/Instagram On June 27, Cryptonews.com reported that the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agencys Financial Crimes Investigation Unit had launched a probe into both Ethlot.me and Ethlot, and was working with local forces throughout South Korea. The police have already made several arrests and have even taken the Ethlot CEO into custody. However, lawyers representing a group of victims have claimed that the 44-year-old who fled to the Philippines is the true operator of the apparent scam and police officers appear inclined to agree. The alleged linchpin was given a travel ban when police began their investigation, but appears to have evaded capture on his escape in June. Yonhap reported that the Financial Crimes Investigation Unit is considering asking Interpol to intervene. Lawyers claim the scam has claimed some 2,000 victims and amassed millions of dollars worth of investment. The morning dew still clung to the grass as Dickinson College students, staff and community members gathered at the flag pole outside the Old West building Friday. It was there the college held a Patriot Day observance to honor those who died in the 9/11 attacks 21 years ago. The event was organized by Dickinsons Reserve Officers Training Corps, whose color guard raised Old Glory and stood for a moment of silence. The ceremony included the playing of taps, and featured music major Nora Wadsworth, who sang Amazing Grace. Dickinson President John Jones III and his wife, Beth Jones, laid a wreath at the flag pole, and Col. Edward Franklin, Carlisle Barracks installation chaplain, closed the event with a prayer. Lt. Col. Kevin Krupski, a professor of military science at Dickinson, said this was the third ceremony hes participated in, and that while the setup remained the same, this years observance saw increased participation as the campus emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic. He said thats valuable because the event goes beyond remembrance to focus on uniting us all together. I would say as the years go on, the memories tend to fade and so to keep that memory alive is really important as we think about the current Dickinson students, the current cadets here at Dickinson ... this is the first generation that was born after 9/11, he said. They may have parents [or] grandparents that can tell them that story, but to keep that memory alive and what that means for our country, and what it means for them as citizens of this republic is extremely important. Luke Sternick, cadet battalion commander for the Blue Mountain Battalion, another name for the ROTC program, grew up near Shanksville, close to where hijacked Flight 93 crashed on Sept. 11, 2001. He said that throughout school he recalls taking field trips to that site, and reiterated the importance Krupskis message. From one generation to another, its important that we never forget those who we lost, Sternick said. As the rise in housing and rental prices alarms homeless advocates in Cumberland County, some help is available for those trying to find or keep shelter. Chris Kapp, Coordinated Entry Systems regional manager, said calling 211 is basically calling 911 for housing assistance. The 211 hotline helps people get connected with anything from prevention services to referrals to need assessment. You dont have to call 16 different places, she said. Im like an old-fashioned operator lady, connecting clients to services and services to each other. For those who are not yet homeless, 211 can provide information on prevention services and veterans services. The hotline, however, is also vital for those who become homeless. When people lose their home, they can call 211 and get placed on the Coordinated Entry System waitlist, which organizes individuals based on need. Kapp said someone with the highest level of need, no matter when they were added to the list, will get help with housing. Factors often include whether there are children involved and whether someone is unsheltered with no help from family or friends. The assessment looks at household size, mental health, physical health, legal challenges, debt, wages and other barriers, including domestic violence. Its purely based on the level of need, she said. We look at the whole person. While the Coordinated Entry System helps those with the highest barriers first, it also organizes more creative use of resources for those who are determined to not have a high need. In addition to 211, there are access sites across the state where residents can go and get an assessment in person. In Cumberland County, the access site is Community CARES at 50 W. Penn St., in Carlisle, which also provides emergency shelter and resources for the homeless. In Perry County, the access site is Perry Housing Partnership at 42 W. Main St., in New Bloomfield. Beth Kempf, executive director of Community CARES, said that given the number of people seeking help, there may be a two to three-hour wait to get through the 211 process, and she said her staff works nonstop as the physical access site to help get people the services and assessment they need. With the help of the hotline and the Coordinate Entry System, the homeless will get connected with all of the services that are available, whether connecting with the Cumberland County Housing and Redevelopment Authoritys special needs housing and Housing Voucher Program or finding shelter through Community CARES or Safe Harbour in Carlisle. Financial aid There are also groups that provide very localized financial assistance to those facing hardship. In addition to places like New Hope Ministries that helps with utility costs as well as food assistance, there are groups like Samaritan Fellowship in Carlisle that can provide emergency help. Were short-term emergency help organization. We try to get people over their hump, said Kevin Lyttle, current chairman of Samaritan Fellowship. Our biggest objective is to keep people housed one way or another. Samaritan Fellowship has provided emergency financial assistance in the Carlisle community since 1958. The group meets every Saturday morning at Carlisle United Methodist Church to hear requests, and they are diligent about that schedule, meeting in inclement weather and even on Christmas Day and New Years Day if they fall on a Saturday. We might see 18 to 25 people every Saturday morning, he said. They basically show up, but we can get referrals from other community organizations. Its mostly people who learn about us and show up. Samaritan Fellowship posts updates on its website, samaritanfellowship.org, about how much help it is able to provide every week, and thats ranged from $2,000 to $6,000 in assistance. We typically provide financial help for someone in some kind of emergency situation, Lyttle said. That can mean car repairs, rent is due or bills are due. Occasionally there are emergency food and gas, but other organizations are better able to help out. The group may offer referrals instead of assistance if it knows of other Carlisle organizations better equipped to help, including Maranatha for those in need of budget planning, and the Todd Baird Lindsey Devlin Foundation, which helps elderly people live independently. Lyttle said rent has become a major focus recently, though those handling those requests can get a little bit more involved. Instead of solving the concern that Saturday, it could take longer for the board to work out an arrangement with the tenants landlord. We talk to the landlord about the familys situation and if theyre willing to work with the family, he said. If we pay a month, but they owe three months rent, will they work with the family? We have a pretty good reputation because weve been doing this so long. The group is usually able to work out an agreement with the landlord to keep a tenant housed. For a group that has been offering community support for decades, however, there is a limit to what it can provide. Lyttle said Samaritan Fellowship was able to get some grants during the pandemic to offer help, but its main funds come from individual, church and business donations, as well as from a trust set up for the groups specific purpose. Now were seeing an increase in demand but a plateau in funds available, he said. Were being a little bit more conscious of how much were giving. We may not be giving as much as we did in the past, in order to help as many people as we can. The Cumberland County Housing and Redevelopment Authority also offers the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, which contains federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). According to Executive Director Mary Kuna, the authority has spent a little more than half of the $2.39 million the county has received of the $5.97 million it was awarded this year. The authority as of September still has a balance of about $960,000, and renters can apply for assistance by visiting cchra.com, emailing rentrelief@cchra.com or calling 717-249-0789. A Fredericktown woman and a Centerville man were killed in a crash on Highway 49 near Annapolis Thursday morning. According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, at 8:25 a.m. Scott Schlosser, 34, of Centerville was driving southbound in a 2001 Honda Accord while Carrie Greer, 34, of Fredericktown was driving northbound in a 2020 Chevrolet Malibu. The crash occurred as the Honda crossed the centerline and struck the Chevrolet head-on. The report states the Chevrolet ran off the roadway and overturned. Both drivers were pronounced dead at the scene. A passenger in the Honda, Ashley Schlosser, 33, of Centerville, was airlifted to Mercy South for serious injuries. A St. Louis man was seriously injured in a crash on Route P at Rosaray Road in Washington County Thursday morning. The report states Neville McNaughton, 68, was operating a 2005 Yamaha FJR 1300 southbound when it crossed the centerline, overcorrected, overturned and traveled off the road. A St. Francois County jury found a man guilty of felony endangering a corrections employee last week after a one-day trial. Paul Bolton, 31, of St. Louis, stood trial last week and was found guilty of endangering a correction employee by knowingly causing the officer to come into contact with bodily fluids. The case against Bolton was filed on Dec. 22, 2019. After deliberating for approximately an hour, the jury returned with the guilty verdict. St. Francois County Assistant Prosecuting Attorneys Linda Freeman and Shane Porter tried the case on behalf of the state. Bolton was represented by Assistant Public Defender Sabrina Lampley and District Defender Sarah Jackson. The case was presided over by Circuit Judge Wendy Wexler Horn. Judge Horn ordered a Sentencing Assessment Report to be completed before Bolton is formally sentenced on Nov. 18 at 8 a.m. Until he is formally sentenced, Bolton remains free on a $25,000 surety bond posted on June 27. Following the trial, the St. Francois County Prosecuting Attorney's Office recognized the efforts of the assistant prosecutors in securing a guilty verdict as well as the dangers that corrections officers face. "Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Linda Freeman presented the evidence and case for the prosecution and fought hard to obtain this conviction," the prosecutor's office said in a statement. "Department of Corrections employees are often subjected to being assaulted and spit on." An area man is in custody without bond and facing multiple felony charges after allegedly breaking into a woman's home and assaulting her with a knife, a taser, and his fists while her children tried to escape. Timothy James Wilson, 58, of Park Hills, was charged Wednesday in St. Francois County with first-degree domestic assault, armed criminal action, first-degree burglary, two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, first-degree stalking, and violating a protection order for an adult. According to a probable cause statement from the Park Hills Police Department, an officer was dispatched, on Tuesday, to an address on Simmons Avenue in Park Hills after central dispatch received a text stating, "help me." The report states the officer arrived at the home and first made contact with a frantic woman bleeding from her right hand. The woman reportedly told the officer that "he" was in the house. The man was later identified as Wilson, according to police. When the officer entered the house, the report states the woman's two children ran outside screaming. The officer reportedly located Wilson in the kitchen, bleeding from a wound to his head and seen with a green-handled knife tucked into his belt. Wilson allegedly began making threats toward the woman, saying she should "remember who I am associated with." The man was then taken into custody. After Wilson was detained, the report states the officer spoke with the woman and learned she had an active order of protection against the man that prohibited him from entering her home. According to the woman's statements to police, when she arrived home with her children, one of them went upstairs, and the woman heard the child scream. The child reportedly came down the stairs, and Wilson followed her down. The woman attempted to shield the children as the man forced them upstairs, reportedly tasing her several times and threatening her with a knife. While on the stairs, Wilson allegedly beat the woman with his fists and cut her hand with a knife. The children, trapped in the corner, started throwing things at Wilson in an attempt to escape. Still, the man did not leave them until police arrived and knocked on the door, according to the report. Wilson was booked at the St. Francois County Detention Center, where he is currently being held without bond. The man appeared in court on Thursday, where he waived arraignment and applied for a public defender. A confined docket hearing in the case is scheduled for Sept. 15, and a counsel status hearing is set for Sept. 22. A search of Wilson's criminal history showed the man is a registered sex offender, a status he acquired after being convicted in Oklahoma of second-degree rape involving a 16-year-old girl in 1984. Records indicate he received a 10-year prison sentence for the rape conviction. Additional convictions on record for Wilson include felony possession of a controlled substance and passing a bad check. Cole County Circuit Court Judge Cotton Walker listens to arguments during a Sept. 8, 2022, hearing in a lawsuit over an initiative petition to legalize recreational marijuana (pool photo courtesy of Emily Manley/Nexstar Media Group). The unprecedented steps Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft took to verify signatures to place a marijuana legalization initiative petition on the ballot were outside the scope of his authority, attorneys for an anti-drug activist argued Thursday. Cole County Judge Cotton Walker faces a Sept. 13 deadline to decide whether an initiative petition to legalize marijuana for those 21 and older should appear on the November ballot. On Thursday, Walker heard arguments in a lawsuit filed last month by Joy Sweeney, deputy director of training, technical assistance and community outreach for Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, a group of community coalitions that aim to prevent substance use and abuse. During testimony Thursday, Ashcrofts director of elections said the process used to certify signatures for the marijuana proposal was different than any previous initiative petition, and that local election authorities were not notified that the secretary of state was overruling their work. Sweeneys attorneys alleged that if the secretary of states office hadnt taken these unprecedented steps the petition would not have met the minimum number of signatures needed to make the ballot. They also alleged the petition is unconstitutional because it changes multiple sections of Missouris constitution. Whenever the local election authorities are the ones doing the verification, the secretary retains the authority to discount and to remove signatures that he thinks are forged or fraudulent, said Josh Christensen, an attorney representing Sweeney, but lacks the authority to reinstate and verify signatures that those local election authorities did not find to be valid. Attorneys for Ashcroft and Legal Missouri, the campaign backing the initiative petition to legalize marijuana, countered that the secretary of states office was well within its right to ensure an accurate count of signatures. Their view is that the secretary is compelled to knowingly certify inaccurate registrations, and to snub legal, registered Missourians who decided to make their voice heard on an initiative petition signature page, Jason Lewis, the attorney general offices chief counsel for governmental affairs who is defending the secretary of states office, said of the opposing sides arguments. Those are legal voters. They are registered voters. Their (signatures) should count and case law supports that. Whats more, attorneys for Ashcroft and Legal Missouri argued no evidence had been provided showing a single invalid signature from a registered voter had been improperly counted. Sweeneys attorneys said thats because they were unable to conduct a line-by-line signature comparison since unredacted copies of voter registration records were not provided by the secretary of state until 6:43 p.m. the night before Thursdays hearing. In an interview Wednesday with The Independent, Ashcroft said the initiative petition process is a constitutional right of the people, and that his office wanted to ensure it got the process right. The proof is in the pudding. And by that I mean, anybody who wants can look at those signature sheets, Ashcroft said. And I think, in the end analysis, Im certain that what our office said when they said that they met the requirements and they had sufficient signatures, was correct. Walker questioned during Thursdays hearing whether there was an issue with Ashcrofts office modifying how it certifies signatures as long as its within the bounds of state law. Theres nothing in statute or really the Constitution that says having a novel approach towards trying something new is inappropriate or unconstitutional, Walker said. While the Secretary of States office has the flexibility to assist local election officials with resources and training, Sweeneys attorneys argued Ashcrofts role isnt to change their results. This has never happened, Christensen said of the process Ashcrofts office employed this year. Much of the three-hour hearing was centered on questioning Chrissy Peters, who oversaw the certification process and has worked in the Secretary of States office since 2008, where she has served as the director of elections since 2017. Peters testified Thursday the process the Secretary of States office utilized was novel, since it was the first time the office had been presented with errors by an initiative petition campaign in local election officials signature counts. This would be the first time that we would have reviewed wrong signatures, Peters said, and/or a situation where it was brought to our attention that there were errors that the counties had made. The Independent previously reported that the Legal Missouri campaign employed a unique tactic and circumvented the court process outlined in state law by turning to Ashcrofts office for assistance when it felt signatures had been erroneously invalidated that would leave the petition short of the minimum necessary to make the ballot. In an Aug. 1 letter, Marc Ellinger, an attorney for the Legal Missouri campaign, identified over 4,800 signatures across Congressional Districts 6 and 7 that the campaign believed had been denied in error. Ellinger urged Ashcrofts office to conduct an independent review, which Ashcrofts office did. Peters testified that the Secretary of States office initially only focused on reviewing signatures in Congressional Districts 6 and 7 because, all the other congressional districts were well below the threshold, and or they were well above threshold, and in fact, it was Marc Ellinger who presented that these are the congressional districts in which were were finding errors. Later in Thursdays hearing, Taylor White, an attorney for Sweeney asked Peters: Did you look at signatures that had been marked valid to see if in fact, they should have been marked invalid? Peters said they did not, as no one would have brought that to our attention. In Ellingers Aug. 1 letter, he referenced discussing the signature verification issues with Ashcrofts office during a July 25 phone call. Peters testified that the Legal Missouri campaign first reached out to Ashcrofts office even earlier. She was made aware of a July 21 call Jesus Osete, the Secretary of States general counsel, had with Ellinger. In that call, Ellinger raised the possibility of multiple errors in Clay County, where people had been allegedly marked as not being registered voters. Peters testified she requested a sampling of the alleged errors when she learned of the call on July 22, and that day received 17 pages of signatures. Peters said she conducted an analysis by comparing the signatures on the petition with the one listed in the voter registration database for each voter. And most of those individuals were in fact registered voters, Peters said. Peters said it was during the July 25 phone call with Ellinger where it was requested he provide additional information he had on any errors that Legal Missouri had identified. It was a week later on Aug. 1, that the Legal Missouri campaign delivered its letter outlining the errors and three boxes of 4,690 pages of signatures it believed had been invalidated in error across Congressional Districts 6 and 7. From there, Peters said the Secretary of States office immediately initiated a review of the signatures, which was conducted by seven staff members and three non-elections staffers. This year local election officials were able to use a new electronic system developed in-house by Ashcrofts office, which was first used by his office in 2020 when it certified an initiative petition to expand Medicaid coverage through random sampling. The system allows signatures from the initiative petition page to be reviewed electronically side-by-side with the signatures and information in the Missouri Centralized Voter Registration System. The electronic portal can pull up to three of a voters most recent signatures from which the signature on the petition page could be compared to. However, when Peters and her staff reviewed the signatures submitted by Legal Missouri, they compared the physical pages the campaign provided with printed out pages of voters records from the Missouri Centralized Voter Registration System, which only displayed the voters most recent signature. And if it matched it went into a registered pile. If it did not match it went into a not registered pile, Peters said. And the not registered pile went through a second review where we went back into the voter registration system to look at other signatures on file to see if there was another one that would have had similarities or would have been a better way to analyze or to review the signature. During questioning, White pressed Peters on a Microsoft Word document created July 29 three days after the deadline for local election authorities to submit verification totals that was provided to Secretary of State office staff with instructions on how to verify signatures. A different set of instructions had been previously provided to local election officials in May. Peters said the different instructions given to the Secretary of States Office staff were prepared in anticipation of reviewing the signatures the Legal Missouri campaign had promised to provide. Ashcroft said Wednesday that digitizing the process and allowing for signatures to be reviewed electronically rather than shipping paper petition pages made the difference. My takeaway from this, Ashcroft said, is we have changed the process by digitizing and by using technology to, I think, allow us to do a far more accurate and do a far better job than was ever able to be done before. In an ongoing investigation, the University of Virginia Police Department (UPD) is searching for the person who hung a noose on the statue of Homer on central UVa Grounds early Thursday morning. A UPD safety alert ruled the incident a hate crime. According to the statement released by UPD, UVa Security reported vandalism on the statue at 4:20 a.m. on Thursday during a routine patrol of central Grounds. The department issued a safety alert to students via email at 7:05 a.m. Once notified, UPD launched an investigation, during which officials began reviewing security footage from surveillance cameras between Old Cabell Hall and the Lawn, says Deputy Chief Bryant Hall. The footage shows someone climbing the Homer statue, placing the noose around its neck, and walking away from the area at 11:15 p.m. on Wednesday night, according to the security alert. According to the UPD report, the suspect appears to be a male wearing a dark-colored jacket, jeans and dark-colored shoes. Students at UVa late Thursday afternoon said they felt sadness, shock and fear. Its really sad and so disrespectful, said Bella Holloman, a third-year from McLean. It makes me feel for what people of color experience on this campus, said Niyathi Shah, a second-year student from northern Virginia. A noose being hung anywhere is shocking, said Peyton Hamlett, a fourth-year from Richmond. But a noose on campus is especially difficult for a Black student to process, said Hamlett, who is Black. Hamlett said he is turning to his circle of support to process the event. A noose is widely recognized as a symbol of white supremacy and racist intimidation as a weapon commonly used to lynch Black people throughout American history. Some wondered why in the world the noose was hung on Homer. We didnt understand why it was hung on Homer and not Jefferson, said fourth-year Lara Arif. Virginia Code makes the public placement of a noose intending to intimidate a low-grade felony. Virginia law also deems it illegal to display a noose in public at all. Because the suspect has not been identified yet, UVa officials have not yet determined how the suspect will be disciplined once they are caught, UVa spokesperson Brian Coy said. Virginia Code defines a hate crime as a criminal act, illegal act or any other incident directed against people or property and intended to intimidate or harass any individual or group because of their membership in a protected category. Such categories include race, religion, gender, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation or ethnic or national origin. The University may also have internal rules for students banning acts of intimidation, but officials still do not know whether the perpetrator is a student. "The facts available indicate that this was an act intended to intimidate members of this community," UVA President Jim Ryan said in a mass email Thursday afternoon. "We will undertake every measure to find out who did this and to hold them accountable." Meanwhile, the Office of African-American Affairs sent an email on to the Black members of UVas student body on Thursday to address the vandalism at Dawsons Row on August 19, a previous separate act. Last month, an individual used two rocks to break two window panes of the Luther Porter Jackson Black Cultural Center in the Dawsons Row area of Charlottesville, according to a UPD community alert. According to the correspondence, UPD ruled out a racially motivated crime. Once identified, UPD arrested and charged the person on Sept. 3. UPD is awaiting approval from the University to share an image of the suspect with the public to identify them quickly. What a sick way to start the semester, tweeted UVa religion professor and community activist Jalane Schmidt. By Azernews By Ayya Lmahamad Azerbaijan and Switzerland have discussed the development of the relations between the two countries, Azernews reports. The remarks were made by Azerbaijan's Economy Minister Mikayil Jabbarov and Swiss Ambassador Muriel Peneveyre at the event dedicated to the Swiss National Day. They noted that the expansion of ties, based on friendship and mutual trust, creates confidence in the further strengthening of cooperation. "At the event dedicated to the #SwissNationalDay, we exchanged views on the development of the relations between our countries. The expansion of ties, based on friendship and mutual trust, gives satisfaction and creates confidence in the further strengthening of our cooperation," Mikayil Jabbarov wrote on his official Twitter page. Diplomatic relations between the two countries were established on January 21, 1992. Azerbaijan and Switzerland cooperate in various economic sectors. There is mutually beneficial cooperation between Baku and Bern in the non-oil sector. In addition, Baku will host a meeting of the Commission on Trade and Economic relations between Switzerland and Azerbaijan in 2022. The trade turnover between the two countries amounted to $457.2 million in 2021, with exports accounting for $272.5 million and imports for $184.7 million. Editors Note: When Queen Elizabeth II visited Virginias Jamestown Island in May 2007, reprising her 1957 visit to Jamestown with Prince Philip, Culpeper Star-Exponent staff writer Allison Brophy Champion was there. On Thursday, she recalls: Seeing the queen at the setting of the nations earliest English colony forever imprinted the magnitude of grace and decorum exhibited by the royal lady. She disregarded the dust and natural elements to seek out small connections with the throngs who came to see her. A smile here, a wave there, all in hose and high heels, never a cross look or a bead of sweat on her head. It was a thrill to almost be able to reach out and touch the queen as she passed on her way to the next stop, all business, ever focused on the duty at hand, a return to her friends in America. Here is Champions original story: WILLIAMSBURGHundreds of adoring spectators stood for more than three hours Friday morning to catch a glimpse of Queen Elizabeth II as she walked a path near the original English settlement at Jamestown, established 400 years ago May 14. The queen arrived, bright-eyed and smiling, before the attentive crowd at 10:24 a.m., wearing a turquoise skirt suit and hat and black pumps. She walked at a medium pace alongside Vice President Dick Cheney and stopped several times to accept flowers from children, of which there many in the smaller-than-expected crowd. The queens visit Friday to Jamestown marked the 50th anniversary of her last visit, when she was 31 and just five years on the throne. Ruth Sheffield, 60, of nearby Surry remembered it well. What I remember is how excited my mother was, course I was too, she said. She and Prince Philip were in an open carriage and we stood in line forever just like my granddaughter and I did yesterday. On Thursday, the queen and Prince Philip rode through Williamsburg like they did in 1957, and Sheffield was there both times. This time, however, she brought her 10-year-old granddaughter, Megan Seymour, whos the same age as her grandmother was during that first carriage ride. For both, the moment together was significant, once in a lifetime, and worth the wait. We stood for six hours, said Megan, a fourth-grader at Surry Elementary School. But the queens really pretty. She was wearing a pink hat with a ribbon around it and a pink skirt with a jacket to go with it. She was wearing a flower right here, she went on, motioning toward her chest, and white gloves. She waved like this, said Megan, rotating her hand in a cupped position. Sheffield, who works for a credit union, had no qualms about taking her granddaughter out of school two days so she could see the queen. Shes regal, Sheffield said. Shes an icon. Theres no way on earth I wouldnt be here. Many onlookers felt the same, and viewed the experience as something worth bragging about. It aint very often you get to say you saw the queen, said Gary Stuart of Suffolk, who took the day off work for a glance at royalty. His wife, Terry Stuart, a Coca-Cola employee, put her request in for the day off well in advance. She had toshe had to see the queen. I doubt well ever get to England, so shes coming over here and its just a once-in-a-lifetime thing, she said. It also was an educational thing for a group of students and teachers from Rivermont School in Hampton. Coming here today is a cultural experience, said Jenny James, 26, a middle-school teacher. You cross over. You learn about England and Virginia and all of Europe that you never get to see. Its coming here. Student Edwin Lovett was more focused on the queen now than the history. Shes a big role model for me and that she would come to the United States and see us means a lot, said the 13-year-old seventh-grader at Rivermont. Lovett added, turning silly, I always wanted to be a king so I could wear big hats. Jackie Bell, a mental-health counselor from Hampton, looked beyond the fashion. I was real impressed to see that she was going to realize one of her lifetime dreams. Shes going to Kentucky Derby, she said of the queens visit to the races Saturday. Shes fulfilling her dream too. In a way, we are all fulfilling a dream right now. It was the dream of those first 103 English settlers to establish a free government in the new world. At the same time, the days official ceremony acknowledged the other two cultures that came together at JamestownNative Americans and Africans. A voice through the woods told of slave labor that made my fields lush with fruit, and how all my people created a new culture of self-reliance and self-government. They demanded liberty, or at least for some. Later, Sandra Day OConnor, retired Supreme Court Justice, recalled a more recent incident of inequality, though saying things have changed in the U.S. since the queens last visit to Jamestown. In 1957, it was also the year that the governor of the state of Arkansas attempted to prevent African American students from attending a public high school in Little Rock, she said. Fortunately, that incident was a catalyst for change, OConnor said. The queen, who did not speak at the ceremony, ended her visit to Jamestown with another walk amidst the cordoned-off crowd with Gov. Tim Kaine by her side. She accepted more flowers before heading toward the James River. Four cannon blasts went off around 11 a.m., and though a ceremonial act, it was deafening and managed to startle the crowd. Security was intense at Jamestown Friday and it came in many formsSecret Service, state police, local police, sharp shooters, and colonial guard holding spears. More than anything, Friday at Jamestown was about catching that glimpse of royalty. Curiosity, I guess, said Bob Hunt, 73, of Williamsburg. She just seems like a gracious lady. Student Affairs at the University of Virginia shared its first-ever hazing misconduct report with the public last month, which found five organizations responsible for hazing since the beginning of this year. The report is a new requirement under the Virginia Code also known as Adams Law, which went into effect at the start of the 2022-23 academic year. Virginias legislature passed the law in January after VCU freshman Adam Oakes died from alcohol poisoning while pledging Delta Chi fraternity. The code requires all state higher education institutions to maintain a public record of investigations that found organizations guilty of violating the code of conduct or Virginia hazing laws. The public record must include the name of the organization, the dates of the misconduct, the initial report and the beginning of the universitys investigation. Student Affairs, which also houses Fraternity and Sorority Life, compiled the report and will maintain future updates of the misconduct report. According to the report, Kappa Alpha and Phi Gamma Delta were both removed from university Grounds earlier this year. KAs removal from UVa is the most recent update from Student Affairs. The UVa chapter of Theta Tau is awaiting a disciplinary trial because a university investigation found the fraternity guilty of punishing new members with derogatory nicknames and futile tasks if they failed to perform favors like swiping existing members into the dining hall. The organization will go to the University Judiciary Committee this fall. By making parents and students aware of past hazing behavior in specific organizations, they can be better informed about the risks associated with those organizations, a Student Affairs administrator said. Publishing the information may also serve as a deterrent for organizations who wish to avoid reputational harm. UVa has a new place on its website for the Hazing Misconduct Report in compliance with the new law, but the university has been updating a record of chapter misconduct history on the Student Affairs website since 2017. The chapter conduct history includes information about the semester of the reported misconduct, the responsible organization and its associated sorority or fraternity, a summary of the issue and the universitys disciplinary action. The page has not been updated since spring 2021. In addition to requiring detailed hazing misconduct reports, Adams Law also requires higher education institutions to conduct in-person hazing prevention training and education for all current, new, and pledging members of all fraternities and sororities. This training is a powerful tool in creating awareness and helping students be more active in both preventing and reporting hazing behavior, the Student Affairs administrator said. The university has long conducted hazing prevention training and required it of all fraternities and sororities on an annual basis. The law also requires institutions to include a policy that prevents potential, new or current members from disciplinary action should they violate the schools code of conduct while being hazed. Students who are victims of hazing may only be spared from disciplinary consequences if they report it to local authorities before or during the incident. To make way for the new what's billed as the mid-Willamette Valley's first fully inclusive, accessible play structure first comes the out-with-the-old part, aka demo, or at least repurposing. On Thursday afternoon, Sept. 8, the Mid-Willamette Family YMCAs atmosphere thrummed with excited energy as a group of volunteers dismantled a large childrens play structure. Children cheered while workers carried playground parts and rolled tires out of the courtyard. Nearby, Albany Mayor Alex Johnson II smiled at the scene. The event, phase one of a larger revitalization project, set the stage for the all-adaptive, fully accessible playground. There are thousands of kids that come to the YMCA with physical challenges, Tino Barreras, YMCA chief communications officer, said. We want to make sure there are no limitations and no barriers for them to learn, grow and play with everyone. The idea for the new playground sparked 1 1/2 years ago but did not gain momentum until May, when the project caught the attention of the Republic Services Charitable Foundation, Barreras said. Recognizing the value in the facilitys efforts, Republic Services awarded the YMCA $250,000 as part of its National Neighborhood Promise program. Republic's Municipal Manager Julie Jackson said that the playground project just seemed like the perfect fit for the highly selective grant because of its emphasis on inclusivity for all kids, regardless of ability. We are just so thrilled to be giving them the money, and so proud of the work that theyre doing, Jackson said. Modular in design, the new 7,200-square-foot playground will include slides that kids can strap into, multiple swing sets and wheelchair ramps. It will also stand on a special kind of turf that absorbs sound and friction, ensuring that even the ground accommodates kids with sensory and physical impairments. Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to the Albany Democrat-Herald. Every piece of this has been engineered for any kind of special need, while at the same time being fun for anyone who wants to play on a playground, Jackson said. Kids of all abilities will be able to participate in this new playground, which is really exciting, Barreras said. We want to make sure that no one feels left out. Meanwhile, the deconstructed playground is set to be reassembled at Mighty Explorer Preschool, 325 Pacific Blvd., for continued usage. Even with the grant, the YMCA is short funds, by $500,000, Barreras said. To learn more about the project or make a donation, visit www.ymcaalbany.org. The new structure is set to be fully completed in the fall of 2023. Excavations to make way for the turf begin next week. This is going to be a safe, friendly place for kids who have disabilities or conditions that dont let them play on traditional playgrounds, Jackson said. I just hope that it becomes a destination for families of all kinds of kids. Chick-fil-A is a step closer to opening a Corvallis location after passing a City Hall planning review. The Georgia-based restaurant chain aims to put its first mid-Willamette Valley establishment at 350 NE Circle Blvd., a location left vacant when McGraths Fish House closed in Corvallis in 2019. The next closest Chick-fil-A, according to the chain's website, is in Keizer. Initial news about Chick-fil-A working on the new location sparked a heated conversation online, with community members and outsiders debating the perceived merits and drawbacks of the outwardly conservative company coming to town. City staff reviewed the plans for compatibility with the area, finding the prospective dining establishment meets the necessary criteria, according to a city document. The approval is subject to a 12-day appeal period that ends at 5 p.m. Sept. 20. Appeals cost $250 to file. Conditions that must be met include providing covered bicycle parking, infrastructure improvements at the site, and other building and design requirements, the document shows. Among the conditions, the existing turn lane into the site must be removed, and a new planting strip, curb and gutter must be installed, according to the document. The chain is known for attracting long drive-thru queues, and this one plans for two drive-thru lanes. The developer must also reconstruct the sidewalk. The city requires existing street trees along the sites frontage be preserved throughout the redevelopment process, the document states. Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to the Corvallis Gazette-Times. To accommodate dual drive-thrus, the property owner took a nugget of a nearby property, adding 10,743 square feet from 400 NE Circle Blvd., better known as the old Kmart property, which brought the site from .76 to 1.02 acres, and reduced the adjacent site from 9.05 to 8.79 acres. The property is situated on a busy intersection with 99W. In July, the city's Public Works Department asked for a traffic review. The drive-thru lanes would begin along the east side of the lot and run up to the window on the west side of the new building, according to city documents. Vehicle access to the site is currently provided from right-in-only access from Circle Boulevard and a shared right-in/right-out access immediately east of the property. Travis Bradley Development of Springfield bought the property in 2019 for $850,000. The assessed value was $1.31 million, Benton County records show. In 2019, McGrath's Fish House founder John McGrath told Mid-Valley Media that "the building had urgent, major repairs." An expensive estimate to repair the roof contributed to his decision to close the Corvallis restaurant. The next step in the planning process is a building permit plan review and inspections. Corvallis police officers have arrested a Corvallis man who allegedly assaulted someone with a metal cane. Officers arrested Trevor Joel Brown, 33, on suspicion of assault and robbery charges Wednesday, Sept. 7. Court documents allege Brown used a metal cane to cause physical injury to a victim. He is also accused of assaulting a different victim and robbing them. All alleged crimes stem from Sept. 7 incidents. Brown was arraigned in Benton County Circuit Court on Thursday, Sept. 8 on charges of second-degree assault, unlawful use of a weapon, third-degree robbery and fourth-degree assault. According to Oregons online court database, during Thursdays arraignment, Judge Locke Williams appointed Dan Armstrong as Browns defense attorney. Williams set bail at $50,000. Brown has three additional open cases in Benton County. Alleged charges for these cases include theft, criminal mischief, disorderly conduct and criminal trespass. The next court hearing for all cases is Sept. 15. Corvallis officials appointed a new city councilor to represent Ward 2 until voters elect a candidate in the Nov. 8 General Election. Mayor Biff Traber cast the tie-breaking vote for Christina Jancila, who won 5-4 over Briae Lewis. Both are currently seeking election in Ward 2. The term of appointment ends Dec. 31. Former Councilor Charles Maughan vacated the Ward 2 seat as of Sept. 1, prompting the council to make an appointment. Maughan, who endorsed Lewis to replace him, is running for mayor against Council Vice President Andrew Struthers and former Councilor Roen Hogg. Jancila owns Corvallis dispensary and pizzeria Marie Janes Cannabis Connection, among other properties. Lewis works for a childrens residential care services provider. Both have been involved with the joint city-county effort addressing homelessness, known as Home, Opportunity, Planning and Equity (H.O.P.E.). A Corvallis resident since 2016, Jancila is new to public office, though she has served on H.O.P.E.s executive committee. She said she's not a single-issue representative she believes each voter has different concerns and all are worth equal consideration. Comparing running a business with serving on the council, Jancila said her experience with handling customers, budgeting and accounting, and researching to prepare for meetings are qualities she can apply to the position. She said her motivation is the same as the current council members. You want to give back to the community, you have a call to serve, you want to make a change, and you deeply care about the future of Corvallis, Jancila said. Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to the Corvallis Gazette-Times. A number of community members came forward to endorse the potential nominees, including Maughan, who spoke in favor of Lewis. He said she shares his values, and highlighted city goals around diversity, equity and inclusion, saying appointing Lewis would affirm those priorities. We currently have someone whos applied to be appointed who is young, Black, gay and a woman. If thats not diversity, I dont what it is, Maughan said. I dont generally believe in identity politics, but when you have a choice, and you have an option to have that representation, that is the way you should go. A Maryland transplant, Lewis moved to Corvallis in 2019. She hasnt held elective office before but she is a precinct committee person and co-chairs H.O.P.E.s executive committee. Having had a brush with homelessness, she puts a high priority on that topic. Shes also strongly supports public transit systems. An openly lesbian African American woman, Lewis said standing up for under-represented communities is one of her goals if shes elected. Living in Maryland, she was interested in public service but was intimidated by the proximity to the Capitol. Her desire to serve has grown since arriving to Corvallis. Although Lewis was disappointed she didnt clinch the nomination, she cited the close vote count and said she doesnt regret the outcome. Shell be pumping up her campaign efforts to combat the edge Jancila will build as short-term incumbent. Lewis complimented her opponent and said the council didnt make a terrible choice, but they didnt make the best choice for community representation. Jancilas appointment is a first for Corvallis. In the past, a special election would have been held, but amendments to the city charter in the last election cycle created a council appointment process. Councilors Jan Napack, Laurie Chaplen, Tracey Yee, and Struthers supported Jancila for the position. Councilors Gabe Shepherd, Charlyn Ellis, Paul Shaffer and Council President Hyatt Lytle preferred Lewis. Jancila reacted to the appointment with excitement and gratitude, saying shes been preparing since July for the opportunity. In her campaign to keep the seat, she plans on emphasizing the damage to Ward 2 from the COVID-19 pandemic and calling out declining leadership in the downtown ward. Im frustrated with issues that are not solved, even more frustrated with those who were supposed to be working towards a solution, Jancila said. The officially nonpartisan race for commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Industries known by its acronym as "the BOLI" has split along partisan lines. Former Rep. Cheri Helt, R-Bend, was endorsed this week by two candidates for governor. Former House Minority Leader Christine Drazan, R-Canby, the Republican nominee, announced she was backing Helt. Helt was also endorsed by former state Sen. Betsy Johnson, the Columbia County Democrat who resigned from the party and the Legislature to run as a nonaffiliated candidate for governor. The other candidate on the November ballot seeking the BOLI job is Portland attorney Christina Stephenson. She's won the endorsement of former House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, the Democratic nominee for governor. Helt said the endorsement by the Republican and nonaffiliated candidates for governor underlined her desire to make the office less of a labor-vs.-business battleground. We cannot get our state back on track without working with Oregonians of all political parties, or no party at all," Helt said in a statement. "Oregons working families and small businesses simply cannot afford more of the same failed policies out of BOLI, or any other state agency, Helt said. Stephenson has promised to retain the office sometimes referred to as just "labor commissioner" as a place where workers can raise issues about unfair or illegal practices by their employers. The long official title of the job and its broad but at times obscure role in state government often makes it a backburner campaign that is perennially in the shadow of bigger races. The BOLI election every four years is timed to coincide with the vote for governor. The labor commissioner is one of the five statewide elected offices. The governor, secretary of state and treasurer are barred in the Oregon Constitution from running for a third consecutive term. The attorney general's office has no term limits because it was originally an appointed office. The labor commissioner office wasn't created until 1903. The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries enforces civil rights laws, including allegations of discrimination in jobs, housing and services. It both educates and enforces employers about compliance with worker protections. It ensures compliance with laws on hourly wages. The office is in charge of state-registered apprenticeships, meant to pivot with changes in demand for new workers in Oregon. Stephenson was the top vote-getter in the May primary that included all candidates for the office, regardless of party affiliation. Stephenson is a former Democratic candidate for the Legislature. But Stephenson's 46.2% of the vote fell just short of crossing the 50% mark needed to avoid a runoff. Helt was second with 19.3% of the vote. The pair advanced to the Nov. 8 general election. Stephenson has raised $776,425 for her campaign, paced by large donations from political action committees of labor unions. Local 48 Electricians PAC has given $100,000, while the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union has given $80,000. Stephenson has spent $642,110 through Sept. 8 and currently has $162,009 in the bank. Helt has raised $365,075 and spent $324,276, with $53,247 left in the bank. Helt, who co-owns two restaurants in Bend with her husband, has received support from business groups and service industry organizations. Contributions have included $40,000 from the Oregon Realtors Political Action Committee and $30,000 from Lyons-based Freres Lumber Co. The winner of the race will succeed Val Hoyle, the former House majority leader who was elected labor commissioner in 2018 and had launched a re-election bid last year. Hoyle switched to run for the 4th Congressional District seat that is open because of the planned retirement of U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Springfield. Hoyle won the Democratic primary in May and will face Alek Skarlatos of Roseburg, the Republican who narrowly lost to DeFazio in 2022. The Bureau of Labor and Industries is best known by many in Oregon for a 2015 action involving the question of whether refusing to bake a wedding cake was a violation of state anti-discrimination laws. Then-Commissioner Brad Avakian levied a fine of $135,000 against Sweet Cakes by Melissa, a Gresham bakery, that refused in 2013 to make a cake for a lesbian wedding. Avakian, a Democrat, ran for secretary of state in 2016, beating Hoyle, and Sen. Richard Devlin, D-Tualatin. But the Sweet Cakes by Melissa fine was the centerpiece of the campaign of Republican Dennis Richardson, who held it up as a symbol of government overreach. Richardson's victory gave the GOP the BOLI office for the first time in three decades. The Sweet Cakes case has led to years of litigation. Bakery owner Melissa Klein and her husband Aaron asked the U.S. Supreme Court this week to reconsider their objections to the state's public accommodations law that Avakian said they violated when refusing the bake a cake because their religious beliefs objected to same-sex couples. The U.S. Supreme Court had sent the case back to Oregon courts in 2018, but the Kleins are seeking a chance to have their case argued again. The Benton County Health Department continues to offer coronavirus vaccination events and is now making the updated booster available throughout the county. The new, updated booster, designed to target the omicron strains of the virus, will be available while supplies last. As with other new vaccines, supplies will be limited the first few weeks it is available. Supplies of the updated vaccine are expected to continue to arrive in Benton County over the coming weeks. On Sept. 2, the Oregon Health Authority authorized the updated COVID-19 boosters produced by Pfizer and Moderna for use in Oregon. This is a bivalent mRNA vaccine, which means it teaches your immune system how to target not only the original strain of COVID-19 but also the omicron strain. For most Oregonians, this means the public is now eligible for another booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. If you are 12 years or over and it has been at least two months since you completed your primary series of a COVID-19 vaccine or received your last booster (no matter which brand you received or how many boosters youve received), you are eligible to receive an updated booster dose. Here is the schedule and details for upcoming vaccination events. No appointment is needed at any of these events; drop-ins are welcome. Corvallis: Noon to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 10 and 11; and 4:30 to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, Sept. 12 through 16, Benton County Event Center & Fairgrounds, 110 SW 53rd St. Drive-thru and pedestrian event. Noon to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, Sept. 12 through 16, Room 62, Memorial Union, 2501 SW Jefferson Way, Oregon State University. 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 25, Boys & Girls Club of Corvallis, 1112 NW Circle Blvd. Philomath: 4 to 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 23, cafeteria, Clemens Primary School, 535 S. 19th St. Monroe: 1 to 5 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 24, commons, Monroe High School, 365 N. Fifth St. Free COVID-19 test kits will be available to take home. All events are fully accessible. To request additional accommodations, call 541-766-6120. For more information, visit https://bit.ly/BentonCoGov-VaccinationEvents. By Azernews By Laman Ismayilova Hilal Baydarov's film Sermon to the Fish will be demonstrated at Busan International Film Festival, Azernews reports. The film will be screened under A Window on Asian Cinema selection. Sermon to the Fish tells about a soldier who returns from war and finds everyone in his village has rotten due to a mysterious illness. The only survivor, his sister, is also slowly rotting, with only a dog to keep her company. The film was co-produced by Azerbaijan, Mexico, Switzerland, and Turkiye. The scriptwriters of the film are Hilal Baydarov and Aisu Akjan. The cast includes Rana Askarova, Orkhan Iskandarli, and Huseyn Nasirov. In mid-August, Sermon to the Fish was premiered at Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland. The film received the Pardo Verde WWF Special Mention prize as well as an environmental award by the junior jury. The Busan International Film Festival is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia. The main focus of the BIFF is to introduce new films and first-time directors, especially those from Asian countries. This year the festival will take place on October 5-14. There was a time, not too far back, when metro Denver residents couldnt avoid Rockys Autos television commercials starring the Shagman and his crew, or the ubiquitous red Rockys Auto ballcaps that seemed to be everywhere. But as the internet changed how used car dealers market their lots, the commercials went away. Now Rockys Autos has gone away, closing its doors at 6350 N. Federal Blvd. Owner David Rothrock could not be reached for comment, but the longtime companys website was taken down earlier this week and replaced with Rocky's Autos is no longer in business as of September 6, 2022. Thank you. Then actor Ron Vigil, who played Shagman for the better part of 25 years, posted Tuesday on his Facebook page: After 40 years of being a family business in an ever-aggressive industry, Im proudly walking away with my head held higher than I thought I would. It was an honor and distinct privilege to work for an independent corporation with creative standards truly outside the norm. The fictional crew also included trophy girl Audra Borden and Odell Stroud, who played Officer Odell. Its really sad, like an old friend has gone away, said Stroud. It was tough to hear it was closing. My kids were babies when I first started doing the commercials. Stroud, 64, and the other actors were on contract with Rockys Autos to play the characters. The spots were goofy, funny and many times satirical poking fun at other car dealers like a Dealing Duck character skewering Dealing Doug, or an Elroys character for fake John Elways dealerships. Dave just watched other people and found a way to make something funny, Stroud said. He had unique sales ideas and just a lot of fun to be around. The wheels were always turning and he would always come up with great ideas. Ideas like free hot dog Saturdays. Or Red Tag sales where the first people to scramble onto the lot and stand next to red-tagged car got it for hundreds instead of thousands. Or offering free doughnuts to police officers who came to shop. Next thing you know, there were cops and security guards all over the lot, Stroud said. Stroud remembers fondly after Officer Odell first hit the air, people thought he was a real police officer. One of the local television stations did an investigation as to why a Denver police officer would be moonlighting as a used car pitchman and grilled then-Mayor Wellington Webb. Or the time Rothrock brought the Harlem Globetrotters to town at the old McNichols Arena. Or the time they signed autographs at the National Western Stock Show at the KYGO booth, but got mobbed and prevented the live-remote broadcasts. It slowly became iconic, Stroud said. There was a few years there where neither one of us could go to King Soopers and shop. Im not joking. Sometimes my family would just leave me, as I signed autographs. A shagman, by the way, is the person who cleans and preps the used cars for sales. And the ads always advertised, the dealership featured the cleanest cars in Colorado. Dave built that character, but Shagman was a little twisted and unnatural in how much this guy loved cars, he said. Ron is an amazing actor. He was classically trained and has been acting locally for years. Vigil played a slew of characters, like Shagmans fictional mother and others. The ads worked. Rockys Autos would move up to 700 cars a month at the height of its popularity. Buying cars online took the wind out of the sails, literally, he said. Rockys was an in-person business. That was the magic. The showroom had arcade games for the kids so the parents could shop in peace. There was a picnic table there, too. He made it into a relaxing environment, he said. There were no high-pressure sales. Dozens of positive Google reviews showed Rothrock always tried to make it right if a customer was unhappy. There was never a time Dave didnt take care of people. Thats just who he is. Rothrock always gave back to the community as well, he said, remembering the blocks-long lines for the annual turkey giveaways. He didnt just sell cars. He supported the news stations with all that advertising and supported so many other businesses (like those who produced the red hats) in the Denver community, said Stroud. The fact its ultimately closing is tragic for Denver in a lot of ways. He really was an icon. Shagman is part of Colorado lore. The invasion of Ukraine will forever go down as one of the most infamous moments of this era. It is a conflict that caught the world off guard as all nations began recovering from the pandemic. The invasion has had ramifications in the telecoms sector as the industrys two largest vendors Ericsson and Nokia announced plans to pull their operations from Russia and cease supply to operators in the country. In separate recent updates, Ericsson announced that it had indefinitely suspended its business in Russia in April. It noted Russia and Ukraine combined accounted for less than 2% of annual turnover. Around 400 staff will be departing between September and the end of this year. Nokia said in its statement: The vast majority of our employees in Russia will have moved on from Nokia, and we have vacated all of our offices. We will retain a formal presence in the country until the legal closure is completed. According to analyst firm DellOro Group, Russia makes up between 1.5% to 2% of the global RAN market, and around 10% to 15% in Europe. The analyst company estimates Ericsson and Nokia hold between 20% to 30% each of the Russian RAN market but noted to Developing Telecoms an exact picture of the landscape isnt clear. According to Counterpoint Research, the operators that are most reliant on Ericsson and Nokia are MTS, Tele2, Veon and MegaFon. All will have to turn to Chinese vendors and domestic outfit Rostec. Geopolitical situations affecting telecoms are nothing new, especially not since Huawei and other Chinese technology companies faced bans from western governments, citing security concerns. However, the situation in Russia leaves an opportunity for the likes of Huawei and ZTE, to fill in the vacuum left by the Nordic technology giants. Filling the gaps Strand Consult CEO John Strand believes Huawei and ZTE will scoop up market share, as their compatriots have in other sectors in the Russian market. Chinese companies have stayed in Russia and are often filling gaps left by Western businesses. On the IT side HP and Dell pulled out but Lenovo and other Chinese vendors are still there. This means that Russia will probably be mainly Chinese vendors moving forward, said Strand. Counterpoint Research associate research director Gareth Owen pointed out that neither Ericsson nor Nokia are market leaders in the Russian RAN market, which is worth around US$1 billion annually. Huawei and ZTE are the major suppliers right now with Ericsson and Nokia responsible for around 35-40% of the market. I dont think it is a big hit for Ericsson or Nokia, as neither of which are dominant suppliers", noted Owen. "Despite the Russian market being smaller compared to its global counterparts it presents many opportunities for Chinese companies. It is an opportunity not only for RAN equipment but also for other 5G infrastructure such as transport networks, 5G cores, cloud, etc. and also for handsets as well. Sales of Huawei handsets have surged in the past few months as have those of other Chinese handset vendors Oppo and Vivo, but Chinese vendors have to work out how to supply Russia without falling foul of US sanctions and that may be difficult for quite a while. Owen pointed out how ZTE almost went bankrupt after the US government ruled the firm had been illegally supplying equipment to Iran, then banning US companies from selling vital components to ZTE. Huawei and ZTE are both still reliant on US semiconductors made by TSMC, Intel and Samsung, noted Owen. With less choice of vendors, operators could potentially see higher prices for infrastructure gears to carry out coverage expansion and 5G deployment. Owen said: I think this will hit the Russian telecoms market quite hard, delaying the mainstream launch of 5G. If things stay as they are, it will take them quite a while to overcome this and develop alternative solutions. They might also have problems expanding and maintaining their 4G networks. The problem is that this is not just about Ericsson and Nokia, it also impacts Chinese vendors as well, who risk falling foul of US sanctions. Strand however disagreed, believing Russian operators such as Beeline, MegaFon, MTS and Rostelecom will not be missing out on much as 5G does not have a lot on offer in its current release state, hence customers will not be left behind. This will not be a society game changer for Russia. Yes, 5G is rolling out big time across Europe and US. But the 5G that was just released in release 15 and in release 16, basically has less functionality than the latest versions of 4G, said Strand. 4G right now is more advanced than the 5G solutions we see right now. For 5G to surpass 4G capabilities we had to go up to releases 17, 18, and 19. Right now 5G is just a cheaper and faster way to deploy more network capacity. A long-running dispute over unused spectrum in and around the 3500MHz band in Costa Rica appears to be at an end after an agreement this week between the government and the state utility that owned the spectrum. The widely reported agreement, between Costa Rican president Rodrigo Chaves Robles and Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (Grupo ICE), the Costa Rican government-run electricity and telecommunications services provider, will see frequencies in the 3400MHz-3500MHz and 3600MHz-3625MHz bands returned to the state. News website BNamericas says the aim is now for the frequencies to be put out to tender so that private operators can deploy 5G services in the country. Indeed, a tender for 5G frequencies is expected within 18 months. In addition to 125GHz in the 3.5GHz band, Costa Rica has available frequencies in the 700MHz band and other portions in higher bands that could also be included in the bidding process. As we reported at the time, in May this year the president decreed that ICE had to hand over 5G spectrum that the Ministry of Science, Innovation, Technology and Telecommunications (MICITT) had awarded to its subsidiary Radiografica Costarricense SA within six months. This weeks agreement comes two months before the deadline. MICITT has apparently confirmed that efforts will continue to recover unused or underused spectrum in other frequency bands. This is an important point. While the returned spectrum is undoubtedly suitable for some 5G uses, its seems that ICE still has the whole of the 2600MHz band to itself. This, some analysts suggest, is unlikely to make 5G spectrum bidding look quite so attractive for operators Claro and Liberty Latin America, let alone attract new entrants. Cuba: Is Castroism Finally Falling Apart? The current situation is worse and different from any of the previous flare-ups during the ongoing crisis that Cuba has been enduring since 1959. Even the dubious official statistics paint a chilling picture. A feeling is spreading among Cubans, as both those off the island and those surviving on it sense that something is about to happen. Those in exile are already openly talking about it, while those in Cuba, cowed into silence, are more reticent, perhaps to avoid raising false expectations; they barely point to it, despite testifying to the country's extreme exhaustion and intuiting that the regime's current crisis is different from previous ones. Even the dubious official statistics paint a chilling picture. Between 1990 - the year of the "31 y pa'lante" (31 and Onwards) propaganda campaign and today, Cuban industry has declined by half. The biggest debacle occurred in the manufacture of intermediate goods and equipment, which fell by 80% and 94%, respectively, almost disappearing, when they are the most technologically decisive and value-adding industrial sectors. Agriculture has fared even worse. Compared to 2013, less food, vegetables, rice, corn, beans and fruits are being produced... some lines have fallen from 70 - 80%. Over the past six years, rice production has dropped 60%; pork, 70%; beef, 22%; and wheat flour, by 32%. Today's total agricultural supply is half that of 2018. There is hunger in Cuba. Logically, this dramatic reduction in agricultural and industrial production is reflected in the value of retail trade, which, measured as a percentage of GDP, has gone from 38.4% in 2010 to 22.7% in 2021 (even with a much lower GDP), in a steady decline in which each year has been worse than the previous one. To compensate for the nation's lack of productivity, in 2021 the Government committed the country's trade balance to a deficit of 1.3 billion dollars. The relative weight of the domestic production of food and industrial goods has dropped compared to what is imported, so external debt is rising. Cubans are scared of falling ill. While in 2018 150 drugs on the National Health System's basic list not being available was considered a dire situation, now 324 are missing ? almost 40%. These include anesthetics, antibiotics and some of the main drugs to control the epidemic of cardiovascular and psychiatric disorders. People are suffering and dying. It was not Covid-19 but the collapse of the health system that caused 167,645 Cubans to die in 2021, exceeding the historical average by more than 50%, in a kind of genocide that the state media has ignored. And neither Covid-19 nor the "blockade" explain why, when more production is needed, the wages of agricultural and industrial workers who before the "Ordering Task" were paid over the national average, by 34 and 35%, respectively are now earning less than it, while wages for those in public administration (bureaucracy) and defense (repression) are now above it. Neither Covid-19 nor the "blockade" explain why Cuban has gone from producing six to eight million tons of sugar per year to less than half a million, which, translated into current prices, means more than 3.5 billion dollars in lost revenue. And neither Covid-19 nor the "blockade" explain the blackouts, which, yes, are related to a 50% reduction in investments in electricity, gas and water supplies over the last six years, at the same time that investment in tourism grew by 15%, accounting for almost half of national investment. The more hotels, the more blackouts. The hotel building craze has driven up GDP, but this macroeconomic figure does not address the sustainability of growth, such that Cuba, even "growing," suffers from a greater opportunity cost due to the decapitalization of vital sectors that have a direct impact on the population, such as agriculture and industry. But even inflating the GDP by overinvesting in hotels (without making complementary investments that make it sustainable), the Economist Intelligence Unit, in its series covering until 2026, estimates for Cuba growth of less than 5%, considered an essential minimum for people to notice some improvement. There will be no such improvement in the short or medium terms. Between poor investments and limited revenues, a chronically negative gross capital formation has condemned the country to its current state of disinvestment, decapitalization, deindustrialization and the disconnection of international value chains, which set this crisis apart from previous ones. Now, in addition to the economy's inefficient centralized management, there is its unproductive, corroded and obsolete physical capital. And this is not only material that is old and unproductive. Almost one in five Cubans is over 60 years old, which is hardly surprising when in 2021 34,000 fewer children were born than a decade prior. Since 2016 the country has lost 126,009 inhabitants; of these, more than half disappeared in 2020, a record that, due to emigration, will be surpassed this year, confirming that the current situation is worse and different from any of the previous flare-ups of the perennial crisis that the nation has been suffering since 1959. The extreme economic and demographic urgency is aggravated by an anthropological degradation, the fallout from a system of indoctrination that begins after birth and is culminated with an increasingly insignificant university diploma. The nation's civic soul is markedly corrupt, remarkably crude, and characterized by an aggressive lack of solidarity. The clay of the Revolution turned out to be a stinking mud that just a few nostalgic diehards still believe in. Cuba today is a land of disbelief and hopelessness, but also of a yearning for change. Even in the midst of this perfect storm from which it is difficult to see a way out, Castroism retains its political structure intact. Its monopoly on information, indoctrination and propaganda obscures any small freedom that may slip through via social media; its surveillance and repressive instruments are well honed and, most importantly for its sustainability, Cuban civil society remains atomized by a totalitarian system that has been grinding away for 62 years. It does not seem that the absolute economic and moral failure of the Cuban Revolution will suffice for Castroism to surrender. For the feeling that the end is nigh to become the harbinger of a new reality, a sustained popular uprising, or a fracture among the upper echelons of those in power, is necessary. For now, both scenarios seem doubtful, though it is true that there are signs that winds of change are blowing: more and more people are standing up to the regime, and the tension between the different factions of Castroisms mafia-like leadership is increasingly palpable. But what is "near," in political and historical terms, may still be distant from individuals' perspectives. There is a grave risk of succumbing to despair after this tempered euphoria felt today, and it would be even worse if impatience were to lead to mutual finger-pointing. There is only one culprit here! From Dionysius of Syracuse, down to today, every tyranny has fallen. All of them. Castroism has been crumbling since day one. Most Cubans stopped believing in it a long time ago, but this does not mean that it is going to finally collapse, or that it is going to do so on its own. The Revolution survived the 1960s because Khrushchev appeared, it survived the Special Period because Chavez appeared, and there is no guarantee that another international benefactor, or a coalition of small stakeholders (China, Russia, Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico) will not now emerge that can collaborate - formally or informally - to prop up the regime. Nor can it be ruled out that foreign investments may result in a little more oil, chicken and detergent, and a decrease in blackouts, causing people to resign themselves to the misfortune they have always known, which may seem less threatening than a freedom they never have. It is true that Castroism is weaker today than ever, but the people are not strong yet. They are a sleeping giant; whether they awaken depends as much on material exhaustion as on learning to dream of freedom and prosperity. You, the ones who managed to escape, can control these two levers. Don't stop doing so, don't leave us alone... even if sometimes we deserve it. National Australia Bank (NAB), Australia's largest business bank, has expanded its innovation capacity in Vietnam by opening an office in Hanoi alongside its center in Ho Chi Minh City. Steve Day, NAB Chief Technology Officer - Enterprise Technology, said the teams working across locations in both Hanoi and HCMC are providing vital support in technology projects that are delivering improved customer experiences. Steve Day, NAB Chief Technology Officer - Enterprise Technology, at the opening event. Photo by NAB "Talented technologists are in high demand across the world, especially in Australia. Vietnam has great depth in technology talent and we want great people to come and join us to help create best-in-class, high performing teams focused on development, alignment and a one-way same-way approach. We want to invest in the development of our people and contribute to the growth of the local technology sector in Vietnam," Day said. In 2019, NAB launched its innovation center in HCMC to tap into Vietnam's rich pool of technology talent to help it better serve its eight million customers. The innovation center has been playing an important role in delivering critical projects that are improving experiences for NAB customers. NAB Innovation Center Vietnam expands with a new office in Hanoi. Photo by NAB NAB has provided education and training to more than 7,000 employees in cloud technology skills, which has delivered more than 2,700 industry recognized certifications, including team members in Vietnam. "Our colleagues get access to a wide variety of projects and opportunities, world-class training through programs like our NAB Cloud Guild and work alongside global partners such as AWS and Microsoft," Day said. He assessed Vietnam as an emerging IT market for digital-related, new generation technology, with a fast-growing digital economy. It is ranked among the top 10 countries for the most engineering graduates; has major government investment in STEM degrees; came sixth for top coders in the IT global rankings; and as of 2019, had over 400,000 IT engineers. While offering both operational capabilities and technical skillsets to its workforce, the NAB innovation center provides a promising career destination for hundreds of software developers, data scientists, digital designers, software engineers and data analysts in Vietnam. The innovation center has also kicked off a series of diverse programs to empower and develop student career directions, promote gender diversity, and assist career switchers to enter the IT industry. "We are committed to providing our trainees with not only hands-on software development courses but also English and soft skills training to get them ready for the next step in their careers," the NAB CTO said. Market authorities examine inventory at a fuel station in An Giang Province on September 7, 2022. Photo by VnExpress/Nguyen Khanh Dozens of gasoline stations have downed shutters in the southern provinces of An Giang and Dong Thap with owners saying there is a supply shortage. Market authorities in An Giang found 21 stations closed Wednesday, with 19 saying theyd no diesel left and two others reporting the same thing about gasoline. Another three shut down without citing any reason, and local officials have asked them to return their business permits if they do not plan to continue operations. Around 20 station owners have said that they have ceased operations due to low commissions, loss or sickness. In Dong Thap, some stations have shut down because supply is too low. Some owners have said they are too old to operate the facility. Hong Phong, chairman of Petrolimex An Giang which has 26% of the provinces fuel market said at a recent meeting that when fuel prices drop, distributors often dump most of their inventory to reduce loss. Then, when prices surge suddenly, as has happened globally recently, the distributors do not have enough inventory to sell, which causes a partial shortage in the market. Another concern for gasoline station operators is low or zero commission, which is given by importers to retailers. When the importers buy at higher global prices but sell at the government mandated lower price in Vietnam, the cut back on the commissions given. Nguyen Ngoc Thoi, a fuel distributor, said stations have been getting zero commission recently because of surging global fuel prices and the lack of a corresponding rise in local prices. "We sell for no profit and still have to pay transportation costs. If this continues, we wont be able to make up for the losses weve suffered." By Azernews By Vugar Khalilov Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and his Spanish counterpart Jose Manuel Albares Bueno have discussed multifaceted cooperation between the two countries, Azernews reports, citing the ministry. In an expanded meeting on September 7 as part of Bayramov's official visit to Spain, the ministers emphasized the importance of strengthening the Azerbaijani-Spanish cooperation in a variety of areas, including economy, trade, high technologies, energy, science and education, tourism, culture, and others. In commemoration of the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations, the parties stressed the importance of bilateral high-level visits and political involvement in the development of ties. Bayramov briefed his colleague on the region's post-conflict status, reconstruction activities in the liberated regions, mine clearance, as well as work done to ensure the safe return of IDPs to their homes, and Azerbaijan's efforts to promote regional peace. The minister stressed that substantial work has been done on the liberated territories in the sectors of tourism, alternative energy, agriculture, and mining industry and broad prospects exist for cooperation with Spanish companies. Moreover, he pointed out that investments in the Alat Free Economic Zone will benefit bilateral relations. Bueno, for his part, highlighted the Spanish companies interests in investing in Azerbaijan, adding that there are broad opportunities for collaboration in tourism, commerce, and economic spheres. Opinions were exchanged on Azerbaijan's partnership with the European Union, as well as problems of energy and transit cooperation. It was emphasized that Spain actively supports the development of relations between Azerbaijan and the European Union, and the country will play a more active role in this process during its presidency of the organization in 2023. The Spanish minister emphasized that the memorandum of understanding signed between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and the European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on July 18 opened new cooperation perspectives for Spain. The Spanish corporation Enagas' 16 percent share in the Southern Gas Corridor was fondly remembered. Bueno stressed that the European Union supports mediation efforts in the region, and is ready to contribute to ensuring peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia. The parties also discussed issues of mutually beneficial cooperation within the framework of international organizations and multilateral formats. The ministers signed a Memorandum between ADA University and the Diplomatic School of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union, and Cooperation of the Kingdom of Spain during the meeting. The sides underlined that this document would contribute to the growth of links between the diplomatic academies and the expansion of educational exchanges. Following the meeting, the foreign ministers held a news conference to discuss the outcomes. Anh Quan started cutting hyacinths on the Vam Co Tay River from the age of 10 to earn money to support his entire family. The grade 8 student started this job five years ago when his brother was diagnosed with bone cancer and had to drop out of school. Since the incident, the boy has had to support his family along with his mother. He has been wearing a cap to cut hyacinths with his mother in the afternoon for the past five years while attending school in the morning. Despite the challenges of life, Quan never loses hope and consistently strives to earn the distinction of a good student. "My dream is to be a doctor, so I can take care of my father and brother," Quan said. During a visit to Anh Quan's home, Jason Turnbull, deputy managing director of Masterise Homes, followed the boy to pick hyacinths from a tiny boat. Turnbull, always struggling, only cut a few flowers, whereas Anh Quan filled about half the boat. Anh Quan demonstrates how to cut hyacinths to a Masterise Group representative during the "Pair of Loving Leaves" program in Long An Province. Photo by VTV Touched by Quan's filial piety and spirit of overcoming difficulties, Masterise Group offered him a scholarship worth VND20 million. "We admire Quan's story, which would motivate other children," Turnbull said. "I wish him much luck in the future, in the way of studying and supporting his family." Members of the "Pair of Loving Leaves" program visit Anh Quan's family. Photo by VTV The Huong River was also a part of Nguyen Ly Ly's childhood in Hue, where she spent her leisure time reading comic books. Every day at 5 a.m., her father must sail to Sinh Junction to fish and return at 1:00 p.m. to deliver the fish to Ly and her mother so that they can sell it at the market. The four-person family lives in a land boat, where "if two people walk inside, the other two will have to go out due to lack of space," according to Ly. On hot days, Ly would study in an old basket while her father sits on the side of the boat fixing his net. The little girl always tries to study, as one of the two top students in her class this past semester. When talking about her parents, Ly expressed her appreciation for them because "they try their best to allow me to go to school despite them being illiterate." She is happy because her family is always beside her. "When I start working and get my first salary, I will buy a lot of food for my parents," Ly expressed. The donors were touched by Ly's story. Masterise Group offered her a scholarship worth VND 20 million and comic books. Starting in July 2022, Masterise Group is cooperating with the "Pair of Loving Leaves" program to provide scholarships to studious students across Vietnam. This is an educational and voluntary endeavor under the group's sustainable community program - "Build a Better Future." Britain's Queen Elizabeth views the interior of the refurbished East Wing of Somerset House at King's College in London February 29, 2012. The Queen is celebrating her sixtieth anniversary as Regent in 2012. Photo by Reuters/Eddie Mulholland The British Embassy in Hanoi and the British Consulate-General in HCMC opened their condolence books following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday. In an announcement on its Facebook page on Friday, the U.K. Embassy in Vietnam said condolence books at the Embassy in Hanoi and the Consulate-General in Ho Chi Minh City would be open until 4 p.m. on Friday and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. from next Monday to Friday for people who wish to send personal messages of condolence. An online Book of Condolence is also available on the Royal website, it added. Queen Elizabeth, Britain's longest-reigning monarch and the nation's figurehead, died peacefully at her home in Scotland on Thursday aged 96, Reuters reported. "The death of my beloved Mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family," her eldest son Charles, the new king, said. He and his wife Camilla, the Queen Consort, would remain at the Balmoral Castle before returning to London on Friday. Thousands gathered outside Buckingham Palace in central London to pay respect to the late monarch. Details of the funeral have not been confirmed. Da Nang expects to welcome 540,000 foreign tourists in next six months Da Nang, Vietnam's central tourism hub, expects to welcome 540,000 international visitors from now until March next year as tourism shows signs of recovery. There would have 3,900 international flights from Singapore, Thailand, South Korea and India to Da Nang during the period, according to flight schedule data from Da Nang International Terminal Investment and Operation Joint Stock Company, the government news portal reported. Cao Tri Dung, chairman of Da Nang Tourism Association, said the number of foreign visitors to Da Nang has been witnessing positive signs and the city would launch new flights to potential tourism markets like the Philippines, Australia and India. "From now until the end of this year, Da Nang can expect an increasing number of tourists from Japan, South Korea and Taiwan after these markets eased Covid entry restrictions and reopened tourism," Dung said as cited by the government portal. Since tourism reopening in March this year, the number of international visitors to Da Nang has so far reached over 200,000, exceeding this year's target of 180,000. Da Nang is the busiest tourist city in central Vietnam, and is used as a springboard to access three worldwide famous heritage sites Hue Imperial Capital, My Son Sanctuary and Hoi An Town. Lots of online scams have surfaced recently, including love traps targeting single women and single moms that seek to take advantage of their loneliness and, arguably, greed. On Aug. 17 police in Ninh Binh Province arrested a person with the Facebook username Chang Kho (rough translation: Mr. Fool) for allegedly making acquaintance with single women in Hanoi and Nam Dinh and Hai Duong provinces and scamming them out of hundreds of millions of dong (VND100 million= $4,246). A few days earlier, according to police in Binh Phuoc Province, an Stieng ethnic woman was similarly duped. In both cases the men approached single women on social media and pretended to be successful businessmen. They then tried to create sympathy for themselves by saying they had unhappy marriages and divorced their wives. Claiming to live abroad, they promised the women they would come to Vietnam to build a new life with them. After ostensibly building trust over a period of time, the scammers said they wanted to send some expensive gifts to the women to show how serious they were about the relationships. They then sprung the trap. Hoa of Ho Chi Minh City, who is separated from her husband, was one of the victims. She says: "At first that person sent me a friend request on Facebook. His account did not seem like a fake account. He had family photos on it. So I accepted his friend request without any precaution. "Then he texted me. He claimed to be a Japanese living in the Netherlands, working in real estate and very successful. It was his bait." The man told her he had a daughter. After a few months, when his daughter's birthday was coming close, he claimed to have bought gifts for both his daughter and Hoa. "I said I would not take it. Then he took a picture of the gifts and sent it to me, and persuaded me to accept them. Moments later, the man said he also put US$100,000 in cash in the package, and the money would be lost if I didn't accept it. I was afraid he would lose such a large amount of money, and thought it was impolite to refuse. "So I sent him my phone number and address." Hai An, a divorced woman in Hanoi, fell prey to exactly the similar trick, but in her case the "value" of the money was VND7 billion. She says: "He said he was 35 years old and living abroad. He claimed to be a successful businessman with a son. He had divorced his wife and was single, and so wanted to get to know me. "He said he wanted to send me birthday presents of an iphone, jewelry, a handbag, and a large amount of money." He tried to convince her to accept his "sincere love," she says. "He said he put $300,000 in cash in that gift package. He was afraid that if I did not accept it, he would lose the money and expensive gifts. "That night he kept texting me, making me so worried that I couldnt sleep." A few days after the victims provided their personal information including names, dates of birth, phone numbers, delivery addresses, people claiming to be airline employees or customs officers contacted them and demanded payment of shipping fees. After the victims paid the fees, the scammer groups continued to force them to pay more, citing a variety of reasons. Some of the fake customs officers said they had to pay fines for sending cash by air. Since she trusted the man, Hoa claims, she simply followed the instructions of the fake officials and transferred nearly VND500 million. "A woman pretending to be an airline employee asked me to pay a shipping fee of VND18 million. I sent it to her without a twinge of suspicion. "Then she said I had to pay VND130 million more in fines for sending cash by air. I continued to believe her and transferred the money. At that time I did not realize I had been tricked." Her "lover" then convinced her to pay another VND300 million to the customs officers. "I did as he said. I don't understand why I trusted him." Explaining the tricks used by these scammers, Chris Connell, global cybersecurity company Kasperskys CEO for the Asia - Pacific region, says as people get older, they have savings but feel lonely. Cybercriminals understand and take advantage of this fact as well as peoples desire to be loved, he says. They are good at using technology to deceive their victims, he adds. According to Kaspersky, of more than 1,000 social media users in Southeast Asia who participated in a survey, 45% had lost money in online romance scams. Seniors suffer the most, with nearly a quarter of old respondents losing $5,000-10,000. Hoa says: "He said his wife had an affair and abandoned him. I felt sad for him and so I replied to his messages. Most importantly, he made video calls to me, showing me his daughter. But now I think he created the videos by using technology. "I felt sympathy for him because he said he was a single father raising his daughter alone. I am a single mother and I know raising a kid is not easy. He said he would come to Vietnam to buy real estate, open a real estate company here and have a new life with me." When she realized she had fallen into a trap and reported it to the police, she was upset to learn there were many victims like her. "Nobody got their money back. The police told me that they have scam rings abroad. The police are investigating the bank account that I transferred my money to. But it is possible that they have already withdrawn all of the money." Speaking about the cases, the police said they followed a pattern of people claiming to be foreigners or living abroad and befriending single women on social media. The accounts into which the women paid money were all personal accounts in banks in Vietnam. Because the criminals are anonymous and operate transnationally, it is difficult for the police to find them. The police warn citizens not to put out personal information on social media, and not reveal the OTP code to anyone for any reason when using a bank account. Many stories of growing up in Butte have been told, are the first words of Frank Gardners memoir, Deep Enough, which was published in June 2022. Gardners Butte story is unique because over the course of four decades, until the early 2000s, he was intimately involved in the mining industry in Butte, becoming the general manager of the Anaconda Companys mining operations and later the president of Montana Resources. The work he did and the decisions he made shaped the course of the City of Butte and its mining industry. He was involved in the decisions to stop mining the Berkeley Pit and to shut off the pumps, allowing groundwater to flow into the tunnels and the pit. Later, he was involved in helping to convince Dennis Washington to restart mining in Butte in the Continental Pit. In the story of Butte, Gardner wrote, some might see me as a villain, the person who closed the mine, resulting in the End of an Era as the news reporters liked to claim. I hope that more would say I am a hero. I suppose I didnt see myself as either. I was there to do a job as I saw it. Not very many people would believe it, but it was me who said we needed to close the mine when we did. I could see that we needed to adapt, to change our relationship with labor, to become more efficient, and to plan for long-term management of environmental impacts. Gardner and his parents never planned for him to go into mining. He went to college in Texas and was going to go into some other industry, but when his miner father became ill, he returned to Butte. He ended up going to the School of Mines, which Butte people called Harvard on the Hill, and then he went into mining. One theme throughout Gardners memoir are his views of unions and the labor movement in Butte. In Butte, unionism was strong. In fact, history has named Butte the Gibraltar of Unionism because of the long and bitter story of labor fighting for representation. The culture of unionism in Butte was built upon the ethic that workers supported workers, even when the strikes were long and families were going hungry. However, even at a young age, Gardner had problems with some of the actions associated with the unions. He tells about going through town with his parents looking at the chaos during the strike of 1946. They came to a home owned by a mining engineer. We walked around to the backyard and I noticed that someone had killed the familys pet duck. I stood looking at that duck thinking, Why would they do that? What does the duck have to do with the strike? Later in the traumatic day he thought, It wasnt fair that people were being killed and homes were destroyed because of what? Because the adults couldnt figure out how to negotiate a fair contract? I thought to myself that there had to be a better way. Twenty-one years later, when Gardner was working for the Anaconda Company, the strike of 1967 lasted for 280 days. The company did not produce a single ounce of copper during that time. Once the strike was settled, the company laid off 1,500 employees, Gardner wrote. The strike of 1967 certainly helped set up the first of several dominoes that would eventually take the company to its demise. Reading the memoir provides insights on a lot of questions that might arise as you learn some of the history of Butte, such as why did ARCO buy the Anaconda Company, and what went wrong during ARCOs ownership? The oil companies were highly successful and they were concerned that they would be targeted by hostile takeovers, Gardner wrote. A natural venture was mining. Most of the companies lived to regret the decision. Metal mining and oil extraction were very dissimilar. Once located, mines required years of permitting, large amounts of capital, and a large number of employees. Developing an oil field did not require this long haul, nor the investment of resources on the front-end. Over the many years of interactions between the mining industry and the residents of Butte, there were a lot of opportunities for tensions to develop. Many people were upset as the Berkeley Pit ate through historic neighborhoods, and people had to move their homes. The Anaconda Company owned most of the land. The community did not view the pits placement in the middle of town as a positive, Gardner wrote. The expansion of the Continental Pit had controversies, too, but Gardner said the expansion was a good decision which helped cut the companys losses. Still, in the early 1980s, Gardner wrote, a suspension seemed logical as I thought we could wait out the copper prices, find better power and fuel contracts, negotiate with local leaders on our taxes, and work with labor to ensure work flow and a healthy contract for both parties. The work stoppages, wildcat strikes, and disagreements over jurisdiction were onerous to say the least. ARCO hired a moderator to work with the 14 unions represented on site. Gardner wrote that after the announcement in 1983 that the mine would close for a year, I was resolute in my choices, knowing that I was likely the least popular guy in Butte that day and would be so for quite some time. Popularity wasnt my concern, viability was. A couple of years later Gardners conversations with Dennis Washington helped convince Washington to buy the Continental Pit and restart mining. Gardner liked Washingtons management style. One day Gardner went to Washingtons office in Missoula and presented his thoughts on a business plan for reopening the mine. The new operating plan included what some considered shocking changes, Gardner wrote. First, we reduced manpower from 700 to 340 employees. One of the obvious advantages that we had was the ability to select the most qualified and positive workers out of that pool of 700. Secondly, wages were reduced 40% for all employees, management and the president included. Profit sharing was set at 10% actual experience, which proved higher than the wage reduction in the long term for individual workers. Denny turned to me and said, Lets go. I was shocked. If that had been Anaconda or ARCO, wed have been sitting there discussing the price of copper for five years before they decided and theyd always be wrong. I knew that our efforts to re-open as a union free workplace were fruitful when we held our celebration picnic that July, inviting everyone, Gardner wrote. In the old Anaconda Company days, it was said that you could never have a party where both management and labor were invited. There were always separate parties in those days as once the drinks started to flow, the party would turn into a big battle between management and the workers. At the party for the reopened mine, however, There were no battles, only toasts to celebrate our success as one company, one team all working together to make our mine profitable. That first year, 1986-87, we were able to give a 10% profit share to the miners, which helped sell everyone including the community of Butte that this new era of mining was a good one, that we were here to stay, and that finally the people who worked the mine would reap its profits too. We subscribed to a publication called Mining in the West, which published the wages workers in various operations were making. Montana Resources was in the top two employers that first year, and we maintained our top five position for many years to come. In 2000, due to a perfect storm of very low copper prices and high power prices, the mine closed again for a few years. When it reopened in 2003, Gardner came out of retirement to temporarily serve again as president of Montana Resources. It felt surreal to have the wind in our sails for a second time, Gardner wrote. Somehow, people were congratulating me, as if I had pulled off another miracle. However, I knew the truth. I knew that our mining city was meant to last, that the mine could be a valuable producer for many years into the future, the many dedicated workers at the mine would accept the challenge, and that the people of Butte would rally to the cause. If you go back over 100 years to the early days of underground mining in a tough town like Butte, Montana, youll find the hard-rock miners living hard lives in the tunnels deep under the ground, and then doing some hard living in the town after hours. But one thing youll also find as part of those miners lives of long ago that you probably dont hear much in the mines of today is a lot of singing singing in the tunnels as they worked, singing in the bars where everyone gathered because they couldnt go home to watch television, singing songs celebrating what may be their short life as a miner, and singing songs about the hardships of mining and rebelling against injustices and the inequalities between the mine workers and the mine bosses. A lot of those songs are gone to the mists of time, maybe still faintly echoing through some empty tunnels under Butte, but some of the songs or at least the lyrics have survived, and a few are being given new life through a project called New Songs for the Butte Mining Camp. The idea for the song project was sparked after Cari Coe, the program director for the Clark Chateau in Butte, ran across an article called Songs of the Butte Miners which was published in Western Folklore magazine in January 1950. She also found a July 1967 Western Folklore article called Protest Songs from the Butte Mines which told about a small booklet of 25 songs named New Songs for the Butte Mining Camp which was published by the Industrial Workers of the World, known as the Wobblies, probably in 1917 or 1918. Coe was able to find a rare copy of the IWW song booklet in the archives in Butte. Coe had not really been aware of the towns mining songs before reading those stories. Talking with people in town, she found that some of the old-timers knew about the songs of the miners, but the songs were becoming a lost part of history. That gave Coe an idea for a project. I thought it would be really cool to commission Montana musicians and local musicians to take those songs and kind of bring them to back to life but in a contemporary context, in their own musical styles, keeping the original lyrics but also adding lyrics perhaps to address whatever is relevant today, Coe said. She wrote two grants, one to the Montana Cultural Trust and one to the National Endowment for the Arts. First she received funding from the Montana Cultural Trust to commission four musicians or groups to work on mining songs. The musicians selected for the project go to Butte two times. The first time they spend a few days in Butte, staying at an old Victorian house that was the home of Buttes first mayor. They spend time going through the archives of mining songs and historical materials, and they can visit whatever historical sites they are interested in, such as the World Museum of Mining. They kind of just feel the vibes of Butte, Coe said. During this visit they also go on Coes community radio show and talk about what they have been doing and learning in Butte. A couple of months later they return to Butte to perform the mining song or songs they have worked on. They do a brown bag lunch talk and an evening performance, they appear on Coes radio show again, and they record the song. After receiving that initial grant, Coe received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to fund visits from ten more musicians or groups, so the project will go on for about two years. Im really excited about that, Coe said. By the end of summer six musicians or groups had completed and recorded their mining songs, and two more were scheduled to perform their songs in Butte in September and October. You can listen to the songs which have been released so far on the Clark Chateau website. When all of the songs are completed, there will be plenty of music to put together into a compilation album of the mining songs. Digging into Butte history The musicians who have participated in the project have expressed their appreciation for the opportunity to spend some time in Butte digging into the history. This was a very inspiring time for me, Jessica Catron of the group Missincinatti said during her brown bag lunch performance. When I came in November, staying for five days, and having all the access to these things and anything else one could imagine to find here, it was justI felt like I was in school again I learned so much. Today Butte is a city of about 34,000 nestled in the mountains under the landmark of a huge open pit, with a reputation of being a unique town in Montana because of its mining and labor history. But when you delve deeper into the history you find so many stories packed with drama, and you see that Butte and its hard-working miners had a huge impact on the entire country and the world. For anyone interested in learning more about the history of Butte, there are plenty of resources available. There are podcasts and lots of books, many of them focusing on one particular aspect of Buttes history and finding how that part of history ties in with all the colorful history of the town and mining and labor, and how all of this history affected the wider world. The Death in the West podcast focuses on the unsolved 1917 murder of IWW labor organizer Frank Little. In June, the podcast received an Award of Excellence from the American Association for State and Local History. In books, Fire and Brimstone by Michael Punke tells the story of the 1917 Speculator/Granite Mountain mine disaster. The Gibraltar by Jerry Calvert covers socialism and labor in Butte from 1895 to 1920. Ivan Doigs Work Song is a novel set in Butte in 1919. Hell with the Lid Off: Butte, Montana is a memoir of the Wildest Town in the West by 1890s police reporter Herbert Smith. And there are plenty more books and other resources available on Butte history, including the hour-long 2009 PBS documentary Butte, America. The first real gold mining in Butte was in 1864, and by 1867 there were about 5,000 miners in town. The living conditions were rough. One estimate is that each winter about 10 percent of the people died, but more people kept pouring in. By 1870, though, as the gold ran out and miners got into the more difficult job of digging shafts to mine silver, the population of Butte was down to around 240. Marcus Daly was one of the Buttes three copper kings, and they were all colorful characters. Daly, who was born in Ireland in 1941, started out life in the United States as a destitute immigrant. From 1862 to 1868 Daly made a name for himself at the Comstock Lode at Virginia City, Nevada, said to be the greatest silver mine in history. In 1876 Daly was sent to Butte to scout out the mining there. The silver mining wasnt going that well, but the story goes that in late 1882 Daly stood with a chunk of ore in his hand and excitedly declared, Weve got it. He had discovered the largest copper deposit in the world. The timing was right. Two years earlier Thomas Edison had received the patent for the incandescent lamp. Soon a huge amount of copper was needed to wire the world to provide people with all the benefits of electricity, and Dalys miners went to work producing the copper to meet the demand. The massive volume of copper produced by the miners made possible the electrification of the country. Its not an exaggeration to say that Dalys empire at Butte would help transform how humans live on earth, the Death in the West podcast said. It is estimated that from 1905 to 1917 about one-fourth to one-third of all the copper produced in the world came from Butte. By the late 19th century, Punke said in Fire and Brimstone, a remarkable three-quarters of Montana wage earners drew their checks from some part of Dalys Anaconda enterprises. Of course, Daly became very wealthy. And in 1899 Daly sold his Anaconda empire to Standard Oils William Rockefeller and Henry Rogers for $39 million, which the New York Times called the biggest financial deal of the age. The other two copper kings, Fritz Heinze and William A. Clark, sold their Butte area holdings to Standard Oils Amalgamated Copper Company in 1906 and 1915. The lives and songs of the miners What was life like for the Butte miners through this time? They spent a lot of their time living their rough and rowdy lives, sometimes accompanied by boisterous singing. The Songs of the Butte Miners article which inspired Coe to start the mining song project laments that On the face of things it seems that the folk-song tradition of the hard-rock miner is not, and has never been, so hardy as the traditions of the sailor, the lumberjack, and the cowboyto take the most obvious examplesnor so rich and flourishing as the minstrelsy of the coal miner in the eastern and central parts of the United States. But the article says that most likely there only seems to be a lack of hard rocker mining songs because the people who went to the mining areas of the West to document the mining songs arrived about 10 or 20 years too late. Changes in mining and the use of power equipment and resistance from the bosses cut down the singing in the mines over the years. According to the testimony of old-timers, singing on any large scale does not date beyond the early years of the century, when the real old-time hard-rock men wuz a-singin all the time, the article says. A self-styled genuine tramp miner who worked in the mines of Butte off and on most of his life said that miners sang whenever they could get out from under the ear of the boss. He remembers, particularly, one shifter who used to come through the drift saying, Get to work! This aint no singin school. The Songs of the Butte Miners article says, Miners sang these songs not only in the mines, but in the saloons, on the streets, and wherever else they gathered. James J. Gleason, a man who has shown keen interest in local history and popular antiquities for almost a half century, and who possesses vast sheaves of newspaper clippings, magazine articles, poems, and various other memorabilia, tells of festive song in the saloons of Butte, when on payday night kegs of beer would be placed on sawbucks in the center of the saloons, and the men would sing and dance around as they came back for refills. There were a lot of refills. The Atlantic Bar, which claimed to be the largest in the world, was a block long and served up 12,000 glasses of beer on a typical Saturday night, Punke writes in Fire and Brimstone. Heres the chorus of the Irish Miners Song So fill the glass up to the top; Let the toast go merrily round. Heres a health to every miner that works beneath the ground. But the miners lives were not all singing and partying. There was plenty of hardship and unrest and plenty of reasons for labor discontent. Labor songs The Songs of the Butte Mining Camp booklet which was published by the IWW in 1917 or 1918 has 25 labor songs which could be sung to popular tunes of the day. The IWW produced the songbook apparently hoping that miners in Butte would sing the songs and become radicalized and inspired to become active in the labor movement. However, the booklet arrived after the era when miners often broke out in song while working, and there is no evidence that the IWW songs ever caught on. Still, the sentiments in the songs probably rang true with many miners in Butte, where there was a strong labor union tradition. For years Butte was strongly unionized, but by the pivotal year of 1917, there was no recognized union in town. There were several reasons that the union movement became disorganized for a while. There was infighting between union factions and conflicts between the many different ethnic groups working at the mines. Also, the mines fought to get rid of the unions, developing a rustling card system which identified union sympathizers so they could not get hired. Many of the Butte labor songs expressed a discontent with the disparities between the working class miners and the powerful bosses and the wealthy copper kings. Its a sentiment which many Butte miners probably felt years ago, and which still rang true with some of todays musicians who worked on the songs for the New Songs for the Butte Mining Camp project. One of the songs which the band Missincinatti performed for the New Songs project was Solidarity Forever, which is sung to the melody of The Battle Hymn of the Republic. One of the verses says: They have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn, But without our brain and muscle not a single wheel can turn, We can break their haughty power and gain freedom when we learn, That the union makes us strong. People at the performance agreed its sad that the message still applies to many workers worldwide today. Nothing has changed, said guitarist Jeremy Drake. Before his performance of the song Aint You a Wobbly, Aaron Parrett said that in some ways the situation today is actually worse than in was 100 years ago. We live in an age right now a gilded age of capitalist consolidation which is actually way worse than it was in the 1870s to 1920s, Parrett said. One percent of all the population in this country owns 40% of the wealth, and about 40 people control almost all of that one percent. Working conditions However, looking back through history, its also true that working conditions, at least for miners in the U.S. and many other parts of the world, are much better than they were 100 years ago. The mine tunnels far under the surface of Butte could be very uncomfortable places to work. It could be hot sometimes over 100 degrees and extremely humid. Miners talked about pulling off their boots to pour out the sweat. The song Solidarity Forever has the line, It is we who work in hot box till the sweat runs out our shoe. And safety back then seems like it was kind of an afterthought, partly because the technology they had meant that mining was intrinsically dangerous, and partly because sometimes even simple steps werent taken to make the workers safer. One of the tools of the trade back then were buzzies, giant drills powered by compressed air that filled the air with dust thick with silica. Lots of miners breathed in that dust and got silicosis. In 1921, the Bureau of Mines published the results of an investigation of lung disease among Butte miners in the years 1916 to 1919, Punke wrote in Fire and Brimstone. A staggering 43 percent had silicosis, and six percent had tuberculosis. According to another study, 675 Butte miners died of respiratory disease in the years between 1907 and 1913. One analysis looked at miners casualty rates not including lung disease. It concluded that if a miner spent ten years in the mines, he stood a one in three chance of being seriously injured and a one in eight chance of being killed. In the decade before the North Butte disaster, mining accidents in Butte killed an average of one man a week. The old mining ballad Only a Miner begins with, Only a miner, killed in the ground; only a miner, and one more is gone. With our hearts full of sadness, well bid him farewell; his mining is over, poor miner, farewell. The song Dont Go Down in the Mine, Dad, begins, Dont go down in the mine, Dad; Dreams very often come true. Daddy, my dear, it would break my heart, if anything happened to you. The miners who left work drenched in sweat and coated in dust, after risking their life to earn what might be a few dollars a day, could then walk by the copper kings mansions in Butte. The copper kings may not have been as wealthy as Jeff Bezos, but they still did quite well. William Clark not only had his Butte mansion, but he also had a Fifth avenue mansion in New York with 121 rooms and 31 bathrooms, plus homes in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. The song Cornelius Kelly, which the group Cash for Junkers performed for the New Songs for the Butte Mining Camp project, reflects the feelings which some of the miners probably felt for the people who ran the mines. Kelly was the vice president of the Anaconda Copper Company. The song includes the lines, This old gents name is Cornelius Kelly, Was meant to crawl upon his belly, But listen, boys, hes good and true, The Companys interest to pull thru, But when it comes to working men, Hed rather see them in the pen, Or burning in eternal hell His nostrils would enjoy the smell. A powder-keg year There is a lot of instability in the world today, but look back 105 years at 1917 and youll see a powder keg of a year, especially in Butte. The year started out with lots of news of World War I, and the U.S. entered the war in April. The demand for copper went even higher and the price of copper spiked. On the morning of June 8, 1917, a miner in the Granite Mountain shaft under Butte accidently ignited a fallen electrical cable with his carbide lantern. The fire quickly spread through the tunnels. It was a horrific tragedy that killed 163 miners, most of them from carbon monoxide poisoning. The Speculator Mine Disaster is the worst hard-rock mining disaster in U.S. history. It was only after the fire, according to one survivor, that they placed signs around to tell men which way to go, Punke wrote. The disaster triggered the formation of a new union and a strike at the mines. By July the mines were all but shut down, host Zach Dundas said in the Death in the West podcast. The strike threatened not only the war effort, but the immense profits of the Anaconda Company. The atmosphere in Butte was chaotic and sinister. Copper company detectives spied on labor leaders. Nationalists hassled opponents of the war. Meanwhile, ethnic and political rivalries divided the union movement. At the height of this crisis, Frank Little showed up, and delivered a series of hell raising speeches at labor rallies. Little was a labor organizer with the IWW, an organization with a goal of bringing together all unions and all workers to hopefully lead to a better, socialist world. It was a message that probably held an appeal for many who were living through horrible working conditions every day. On the morning of Aug. 1, after Little had been in Butte for 13 days, a group of masked men broke into his room. They gagged him, tied him to the back of their car, dragged him through the streets of Butte so that his kneecaps were almost completely torn off, and hung him from a railroad trestle. They put a note on his body which said, Others take notice. First and last warning. The six men involved in the murder were never identified. The Butte Miner newspaper reported that at the funeral, 2,514 people participated in a procession through town in demonstration against the lynching. It was the biggest funeral in Butte history. Littles death was on the front page of newspapers around the country. In his introduction to his song for the New Songs project, Parrett said as part of his research he reread Jerry Calverts book The Gibraltar, a history of unionism in Butte. Parret said for many years Butte was known as the Gibraltar of unionism, meaning that it is where the ships of industry burst their prow. Only Jerry Calvert points out that this never really happened, that unions almost won nothing in Butte and the companies always came out on top, pretty much, Parrett said. Theres no doubt that the early miners of Butte, a tough bunch working hard in the heat far underground, and singing their work songs, raucous party songs, protest and labor songs, and their laments, had a huge impact as they produced the copper that wired the country. How much impact they had as they engaged in labor struggles over the years is a lot harder to measure, but probably over time the experiences, the tragedies, the protests and the labor organizing of the Butte miners did help contribute to better working conditions that so many enjoy today. This past summer four students selected for the 360 Internship Program got to spend 10 weeks learning a lot about mining as they spent time working alongside miners and also as they spent time working with people involved in the regulatory side of the industry. The 10-week paid summer internship is made possible through a partnership between the Nevada Mining Association and the Bureau of Land Management. The internship program is intended to provide students with a 360-degree view of Nevadas modern mining industry. The interns spend three weeks learning from regulatory professionals at a Bureau of Land Management office in Nevada before shifting to work alongside professional miners at an active mine site for the remainder of the program. We love this program because it provides interns with a complete look at Nevadas mining industry, helping further their education and bolster STEM skills through real-world experience, said the NVMA President Tyre Gray. Together with BLM Nevada and participating mines were able to support the next generation of miners, regulators and STEM professionals in their pursuit of industry knowledge and experience. The internship program is now in its third year. It was born really as a brainchild of Greg Gibson, who is our incoming chair, and myself sitting back and collaborating, Gray said. In 2020 a lot of Nevada was shut down due to Covid, but the mining industry was still going strong, and Gray said the NVMA saw this as a good time to start a new internship program to give students the opportunity to learn more about the mining industry. Gray said the internship program is not only for students who are seriously considering going into the mining industry, but is also for students who may be in a field such as engineering and who are interested in learning more about mining. We would love for them to eventually matriculate into mining. Gray said. But even if they dont, what weve done is weve now educated a professional who is going to go into their career in the engineering space, to know a little bit about mining, so that they will continue to spread the good word of what we do here in Nevada when it comes to mining. He said they also like to bring in some interns from other states to introduce them to mining in Nevada. Introducing students to the regulatory side of the mining industry by having them spend time at a Bureau of Land Management office is also an important part of the program, Gray said. This is a unique opportunity to help recruit to the mining industry, but not just the industry itself but also the regulatory side, Gray said. We know that BLM is critically understaffed and anything that we can do to help out with BLM staffing is a positive. And really, anything we can do to help develop the skill set of those who will be in BLM staffing as well is a good thing. Because the industry just does better when you have good regulators. The BLM values this program because it allows us to partner with one of our stakeholders while simultaneously providing us the opportunity to engage and educate youth about a highly visible, but not always well understood, industry on public lands and the role BLM plays on the landscape, said Lacy Trapp, BLM Nevada branch chief of solid minerals. Multi-use is the heart of the BLM mission and the chance to develop the next generation of public land users is an amazing opportunity. The time spent with BLM and the mining companies will also inspire this next generation to continue their pursuit of a STEM career in industry or regulation. In 2020 when the 360 Internship got started there was only one intern. This year there were 16 applicants, and four students were selected for the program. Gray said they hope the internship program will continue to grow in the years ahead, with more mining companies joining program and with perhaps some of the mining companies accepting more than one intern. Were hoping to be able to increase the number of slots so that we can accommodate the interest that we have and continue to grow the interest so that we can continue to recruit top talent here to Nevada to participate within the mining industry, Gray said. The students chosen to participate in this years 360 Internship Program are: Audrey Topp is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Geology from the University of Nevada, Reno. Her internship was at the Humboldt BLM Office and Coeur Rochester mine. Zoey Plonka, who is pursuing a masters degree in science and geoscience from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, completed her internship at the Caliente BLM Office and Kinross Round Mountain mine. Carlos Narcisco is pursuing a bachelors in science and geology from UNLV. He completed his internship at the Winnemucca BLM Office and SSRs Marigold Mine. Anthony Vascones, who is pursuing a Master of Science in Mining Engineering and Earth Systems from the Colorado School of Mines, completed his internship at the Ely BLM Office and the KGHM Robinson mine. Meet 360 intern Audrey Topp Topp is going into her senior year at UNR this fall. For years she was interested in hydrology, but after a couple classes at her local community college, she decided to go into geology instead. Geology interests me the most because of being able to get outside and look at the formations and the structures that come from the earth. And its just fascinating to me that these things are millions and millions of years old and we can still gather data from them and create a story, and this can be used for industries like mining. She started out her internship with three weeks at the BLM Humboldt Field Office. They took me all around Humboldt County and they showed me active mine sites, inactive mine sites, abandoned mine sites. The office side was very paperwork intensive, I would say, but the field portion of it was awesome, and they showed me a lot of cool places around northern Nevada. They even took me out to Rochester, so I came here before I even started my time here, so that was cool to see. At Rochester, Topp said, I am a production geology intern and I work directly with the geologists for ore control. I do field work in the pit relating to drill holes. We log the material type that comes out of each drill hole for blasting patterns, and we put that into our database, and we can make models off of that. I have also gotten offered to be with the exploration geology team. And they show me drill rigs, and they show me how to log core, and what the exploration side is like, too. Working directly in the pit is awesome, because you get to see all the equipment work around you. Obviously you have to be very careful about that, but its a neat experience. I love it. Topp said the internship was absolutely a valuable experience. Its definitely geared me towards a career in this industry, and has made me take the time to think about a future career in this field. I was actually unsure about mining before I started the internship because I had heard mixed things from people at school. And I decided to give it a go, and so far its been awesome. Ive been really lucky to have a site that has awesome people who encouraged my learning experience. If theres anybody unsure about going into the mining industry, I would tell them to definitely apply for this internship because its an awesome eye-opener to what mining really is. Topp plans to pursue a masters degree as she continues to consider her career options in geology. Meet 360 intern Zoey Plonka Plonka got her undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan. I was drawn to geology early on. I loved being outside. I really love field work. Back east, especially in Michigan, theres not a huge emphasis on mining or economic geology in the program that I was a part of. But then she took a class called Natural Resources and the Economy taught by a professor who used to teach and do research at UNR. He was the first person to say, hey, we need mining. Look at all the things youre using, look at the computer youre typing on, the phone that you use every single day, the car that you drive in. All of that is directly brought to you by the minerals and mining industry. I think before that most of my classes had a very big emphasis on the environment. And now I know that theyre also very interconnected. We need to have good environmental sanctions, but also to keep mining. So it was really that class that got me to first switch to, hey, not only is it really cool science, because economic geology and core deposits are really fascinating, but its super important. And its helped me think about future career aspirations, and thinking of somewhere where I can put in some time to work in the field but also have some kind of social impact. And so far, Ive found for me and my personal interests, the mining industry to be the best place to kind of hit both of those points. Even though she is not studying to be an economic geologist but is doing research in stratigraphy and sedimentology, her interest in mining helped lead her to choose UNLV for her masters degree. I was drawn to the rich history that Nevada has in terms of mining. Plonka said her internship at the BLM Caliente Field Office was a great experience. I got to work with a really experienced geologist. She was a great mentor. Partially because shes working at the BLM now, so I got to get a taste of what it would be like to be a geologist working for the government. But she also had a long history of careers in exploration and mining. So she was able to give me a taste of both aspects. The biggest takeaway was just getting an idea of what you would do as a geologist at the BLM. And it was really cool. They got me in the field pretty much every single day for the three weeks I was there, because they knew how important it was to me. We got to inspect active and inactive sites, as well as historic exploration projects. They also got me out with other specialists in the field. I got to go out with the range specialist to check on fire scars and revegetation. I got to go out with the archeologist to see how important it is that we have a good idea of if there are any artifacts in the area before opening it up for public land use. I got to see how interconnected that office was, how they work together to achieve the goal of this multi-use model of getting the most out of the public lands. The internship at Kinross Round Mountain was also a great experience, Plonka said. They placed me with the environmental team. That was another area where they were really able to tailor to my interest in field work. They get me out plenty of days. Touching on environmental inspection Making sure everything looks environmentally sound. They also allowed me to connect with geologists. I have an interest in environmental work, and its great, but at my core Im a geologist. So they allowed me to connect with a geoscientist working there as well. I think the biggest thing of working at Kinross Round Mountain was really just to give me the experience of working on a mine site. At UNLV, she said, Most of us have never set foot on a mine site. So I think that was a huge experience, just learning about all the training that you have to do to be a miner. The emphasis on safety has been really huge, learning how to work under MSHA guidelines. All of that has been a good experience and I think will shape my career path. I dont know that I totally have it figured out in terms of what Im going to do. I graduate in December, so Im getting close, but I still have a lot of work till I get there. The reason I was really drawn to this internship program rather than trying to apply either directly to a mine or directly to a government agency was the whole idea of getting to do both in one summer. These are the two things that Ive thought the most of doing in my life, so this was just a really great opportunity. I will say, Im probably a little bit more drawn to the mining right now, just because its a lot of hard, actually science happening. But I could also see myself, especially later in life, ending up working for the BLM or some governmental association, because I see how important the work they do is. Im definitely interested in staying in Nevada. Ive thought a lot about Elko. I know theres a lot of mining up there, and it seems like a lot of people from our program down at UNLV end up at mines up in Elko. And they all seem to be having a good time and doing really cool work and enjoying the area. But just the Southwest or the West in general, anywhere where theres active mining, I think Ill be drawn to. The next step is getting accepted somewhere, so well see what that availability is like. Plonka said she will be recommending the 360 Internship Program to others. Im really grateful to the Nevada Mining Association as well as the participating BLM offices and Kinross Round Mountain. Because theyve all been really kind, and really tailored the experience to my interests and my career aspirations. Im definitely going to urge anyone I know, geoscientists, to look into this program, because as I said, a 10-week program where you get to experience both the government and private sector I think is very neat, maybe a little bit rare. Im glad that they developed this. I just think its a great program. In a town where mining has been going on as long as in Butte, Montana, there is sure to be a multitude of stories and almost all of them are related to mining. Butte has a history of tough people working tough jobs, who helped to build and shape America. Butte has been called the Richest Hill on Earth, the Gibraltar of Unionism, the town that plumbed and electrified America, and the Pittsburgh of the West. The city is the site of the worst hard-rock mining disaster in U.S. history, the Speculator Mine Disaster of 1917. It is also the home of a Superfund Site which the EPA said is the largest body of contaminated water in the United States. There have been plenty of tragic stories throughout Buttes history. Its estimated that in the early 1900s an average of one man a week died in Butte mining accidents. Butte is a lot different today. The Montana Resources mine in Butte went almost 13 years without a single lost-time accident. And a lot is being done to clean up what has been left behind by the mining of the past. But the aura of Buttes mining history is still always there when youre in town. Ive seen a comment that everyone who lives in Butte is at least a bit of a historian. And everyone probably knows different stories and has different viewpoints on the towns history. Ive heard people in Montana comment that theyve thought of living in Butte for a while to just feel the vibes of Butte, to use a phrase from one of the stories in this issue. This summer I spent a couple of days in Butte, felt some of the vibes, and gathered some stories to share in this issue. Jushelle M. Bauer, 47, of Elko was arrested Sept. 5, 2022, at Hot Springs Road and Idaho Street for violation of probation or condition of suspended sentence. Willow M. Books, 18, of Spring Creek was arrested Sept. 4, 2022, at 341 Gypsum Place for lewdness committed by person over 18 with child younger than 16, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor or neglect of a minor. Bail: $251,140 Hailey E. Johnson, 27, of Spring Creek was arrested Sept. 3, 2022, at Elko Motor Company for felony possession of a controlled substance. Bail: $5,000 Kori H. Johnson, 38, of Spring Creek was arrested Sept. 4, 2022, at 331 Oakmont Drive for two felony counts of child abuse or neglect. Bail: $200,000 Trina L. Long, 42, of Elko was arrested Sept. 2, 2022, at Indian View Heights Drive and Feather Way for felony possession of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance by a prisoner, driving under the influence, open container of alcohol in vehicle, and failure to obey stop sign. Bail: $5,000 Jessica A. Rattazzi, 33, of Elko was arrested Sept. 2, 2022, at 171 Bullion Road for attempted burglary of a motor vehicle and attempt to make a false statement to obstruct a public officer. Bail: $1,000 Ramon Rivera Jr., 45, of Winnemucca was arrested Sept. 3, 2022, at 12th and River streets for felony possession of a controlled substance. Bail: $1,000 Wesley A. Spring, 37, of Elko was arrested Sept. 4, 2022, at 651 Bullion Road for felony child abuse or neglect. Bail: $1,000 Tyler E. Vance, 35, of Elko was arrested Sept. 5, 2022, at 2130 Sierra Drive for sexual assault against a child younger than 16, and open or gross lewdness. Bail: $505,000. Vance was also booked Sept. 6 for battery on a protected person resulting in substantial bodily harm, gross misdemeanor battery on a protected person, and two counts of resisting a public officer. Bail: $42,280 Douglas W. Winberg, 37, of Elko was arrested Sept. 5, 2022, at Hot Springs Road and Idaho Street for failure to appear after bail on a felony crime. Bail: $2,000 Gregory P. Boyle, 32, of Elko was arrested Sept. 6, 2022, on Indian View Drive for felony possession of a controlled substance, four counts of drug paraphernalia, petit larceny, and apprehending, detaining or importing an animal or fowl. Bail: $8,815 Joseph A. Morris, 32, of Spokane, Washington was arrested Sept. 6, 2022, in Spokane on a felony warrant for possessing ID for false status, occupation or license; three counts of obtaining a credit or debit card without the cardholders consent; and grand larceny of a motor vehicle. Bail: $30,000 Kristopher D. Bennett, 35, of Elko was arrested Sept. 7, 2022, on Last Chance Road on a warrant for felony possession of a controlled substance. Bail: $5,000 John W. Huber, 27, of Battle Mountain was arrested Sept. 7, 2022, in the 100 block of Idaho Street for felony possession of a controlled substance and for violation of probation or condition of suspended sentence. Kaylah S. Harris, 27, of Henderson was arrested Sept. 8, 2022, at White Pine County Jail for violation of probation or condition of suspended sentence. Jennifer P. Hyde, 29, of Elko was arrested Sept. 9, 2022, at 1111 Idaho St. for failure to appear after bail on a felony crime and violation of probation or condition of suspended sentence. Matthew L. Moultrie, 32, of Elko was arrested in the 400 block of South Fifth Street for possessing, receiving or transferring a stolen vehicle. Bail: $10,000 ELKO Elko County has agreed to sell 5.81 acre-feet of water to Devils Gate Ranch for $37,500 for a proposed meat packing plant rather than lease the rights for $3,750 a year, but the agreement will include a reversion clause so that the water rights return to the county if the plant isnt developed. The staff recommendation is to go ahead and sell these water rights, said Curtis Moore, director of natural resources and assistant county manager, who recommended the reversion clause in case the plant isnt constructed within five years. He said a sale rather than a lease makes it a little cleaner and easier to administer, and that is the way other water rights from the Northeastern Nevada Regional Railport have been handled. And he said a negotiated sale agreement will come back to commissioners for final approval. A sale also gives us money up front, Moore said, reporting that after the sale, the county will still have 200 acre-feet of water rights available at the railport east of Elko, as well as decreed surface water rights there. Chairman Delmo Andreozzi told fellow commissioners on Sept. 7 that any motion they make should include specific findings that include the water rights defaulting back to the county if the proposed plant isnt developed. I am actually a big fan of this project, he said, thanking the developers for proposing the packing plant that would move secure food closer to county residents and benefit the agricultural and ranching communities. The motion for the sale and reversion clause passed unanimously. The sale figure for the groundwater rights at the railport is the appraised amount, which John S. Wright & Associates stated equates to $645.44 per acre-feet per year, if the ranch leased the water rights for 10 years. Elko County can sell or lease water rights without first offering them to the public if the water is being sold or leased for economic development, according to the county, which cited state statutes. Back in early June, Ken Bowler, owner of the Devils Gate Ranch, asked commissioners for the water rights for a planned $1.2 million meatpacking plant that he said would begin with a 7,500-square-foot building and the ability to process 100 cattle per week. The meat would be frozen on site. We feel this would be the perfect location, and it will help ranchers, hopefully, increase their profit margin, he said at the time, acknowledging that the steps of U.S. Department of Agriculture certification could be difficult but he was willing to try. Jon Griggs, president of the Nevada Cattlemens Association, said in early June that it is traditionally a struggle to get a USDA inspector to a fairly small operation or into a market like Elko but the Nevada Department of Agriculture is getting set up so state inspectors do the same job as federal inspectors. By Azernews By Vugar Khalilov Azerbaijan has handed over five servicemen to Armenia, Azernews reports, citing the State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons. On September 8, guided by principles of humanism, Baku set free and sent back to Armenia five servicemen via the Azerbaijani-Armenian state border. A relevant agreement was reached at the 31 August meeting between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Brussels. The European Union (EU) has welcomed Azerbaijan's transfer of five Armenian soldiers to Armenia, Azernews reports, citing EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus Toivo Klaar. "Welcome news today regarding the release of five Armenian detainees by Azerbaijan following the meeting of the leaders in Brussels on 31/8. Important humanitarian gesture and likewise noteworthy that the handover took place without intermediaries," Klaar tweeted. Similarly, the US State Department hailed Azerbaijan's transfer of five Armenian servicemen to Armenia, State Department spokesperson Ned Price wrote on his Twitter page. "We welcome reports of Armenian detainees returned home, a positive development for Armenia and Azerbaijan peace process. We hope all remaining detainees return home soon and Azerbaijan and Armenia continue taking steps to build trust and resolve outstanding differences," the spokesman said. Likewise, European Union Council President Charles Michel has applauded Azerbaijan's release of five Armenian military personnel. Welcome release by Baku of five more Armenian detainees, following 31/8 discussions in Brussels. That handover is taking place bilaterally is a first - and to both Azerbaijan and Armenia credit. Addressing all outstanding humanitarian issues is a key priority, Michel stressed. To recap, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met for the fourth time in Brussels on August 31 under the auspices of EU Council President Charles Michel to look into ways of expediting preparations for drafting a peace deal. Along with other critical issues, the parties also thoroughly discussed humanitarian matters like demining, detainees, and the fate of missing people. ELKO A wildfire west of Tuscarora has burned more than 450 acres. The Rock Creek Fire was reported Wednesday night. A Type 3 fire management team responded, and the rancher liaison is Jesse Braatz of Squaw Valley Ranch. This is the fifth wildfire reported in September. There were 16 fires in August, the largest of which burned 59 acres south of Bull Run Reservoir. A fire in mid-July burned 21,429 acres east of Charleston Reservoir at the edge of the Humboldt National Forest. Most current wildfires in the U.S. are burning to the north and west of Elko. Some smoke has drifted into the county after a cold front brought relief from record-breaking heat. Elkos forecast calls for smoky skies but cooler temperatures as highs climb into the mid to upper 80s through the weekend. Next week, a moist air mass from the south is anticipated to move north into northern and central Nevada, helping to set off showers and thunderstorms, reported the National Weather Service. The Elko area could receive a quarter to half an inch of precipitation next week. Higher elevations could see up to an inch of rain. Photos provided by LVMPD of Robert Telles, arrested for the murder of reporter Jeff German; a cut up hat found in his home during a search; and a photo of the suspect wearing a similar hat. Policy, politics and progressive commentary Robert Telles, the elected Clark County official suspected of killing longtime Las Vegas journalist Jeff German, left behind a trail of evidence that led police to his door, according to Metro Police, and landed Telles in the Clark County Detention Center where he faces a charge of open murder with a deadly weapon. German, an investigative reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and former reporter for the Las Vegas Sun, was discovered dead with stab wounds on Saturday morning outside of his home. His reporting on allegations of inappropriate behavior and favoritism in the Public Administrators office may have led to Telles losing his bid for re-election to that post in the June primary. He subsequently disparaged Germans reporting on social media. Police say they quickly received photos and video, including of the suspect, dressed in an orange shirt with reflective tape and wearing a straw hat, walking westbound approaching Germans home on Friday, September 2, the day prior to us being notified, Homicide Captain Dori Koren told reporters. He approached Mr. Germans home and went to the side of the house shortly after German came outside of the garage door and then went to the side of the house and ultimately an altercation took place between the suspect and the victim. Police believe the attack occurred at 11:18 a.m. on Friday. Video obtained by police showed Telles returning to his home around noon that day in a Denali vehicle matching the description of the suspects vehicle observed near Germans home. We executed search warrants early yesterday morning that involved searching Telles, his home, his vehicles, and then also searching his body to collect the DNA sample to compare it to DNA recovered, Koren said. Police say they found Telless DNA at the crime scene and blood on his shoes during a search of his home Wednesday. They also found cut up remnants of a hat matching the one seen on the suspect in a photo released this week by police, and cut up shoes also matching those seen in the photo. Police also played a video of the suspect walking toward the crime scene, and disclosed they have video of the attack. We have some distorted video associated with the attack and we are in the process of clarifying that video as we speak, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said during a rare appearance at a homicide news conference. This has been an unusual case from the beginning the murder of an investigative journalist and the main suspect, an elected official here in Clark County, Lombardo said. This is a terrible and jarring homicide one that has deeply impacted Las Vegas. Lombardo, a Republican who is running for governor and was in Winnemucca on Saturday, according to social media, said he enacted major case protocols upon learning of Germans slaying. Major case protocol was first utilized in 2018, Lombardo said, commending Metro for moving rapidly to identify and arrest the suspect. The goal is to bring together resources to maximize an investigative effort and ensure timely clear and consistent communication during a high profile investigation. Lombardo said while every murder is tragic, the killing of a journalist is particularly troublesome but he declined to denounce former Pres. Donald Trumps normalization of violence against reporters. Trump has endorsed Lombardo for governor. I think this is probably an inappropriate venue to speculate or opine on that, Lombardo said. I think it needs to be stated and noted that it is troublesome because it is a journalist and we expect journalism to be open and transparent and a watchdog for government and when people take it upon themselves to create harm associated with that profession, I think its very important that we put all eyes on and address the case appropriately such as we did in this case, with the expediency associated with it. Telles was arrested at his home Wednesday evening with non-life threatening self-inflicted wounds. He was taken to University Medical Center for treatment but is now at the Clark County Detention Center. He is not available for media interviews, according to police. The Thai Oil Plc (Photo: ogj.com) TOP expects bright prospects from business expansion into these countries. According to The Bangkok Post, the Thai firm has facilities such as warehouses in the northern and southern regions of Vietnam. Wirat Uanarumit, president and chief executive of TOP, said high rates of economic growth and large numbers of young people among the populations of the three countries mean these nations offer the best potential for investments in Asia. TOP is expanding its business abroad to meet the growing demand for energy and petrochemical products./. Welcoming his guest in Hanoi, the host leader said despite the serious impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and disrupted regional and global supply chains, economic and trade ties between Vietnam and the EU are growing well thank to the EU - Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA). Meanwhile, though the EU - Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) has been ratified by just 12 EU members and yet to come into force, businesses and investors from the EU are showing interest in the Vietnamese market. NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue thanked INTA, the European Parliament, and Lange for their considerable contributions to the EVFTA negotiations, ratification, and implementation. Chairman of the National Assembly Vuong Dinh Hue (R) receives Chairman of the European Parliaments Committee on International Trade (INTA) Bernd Lange (Photo: VNA) Meanwhile, the INTA Chairman noted the EVFTA provides a solid foundation for new strides in Vietnam - EU relations, and that statistics recorded in the two years since the agreements implementation show its positive economic effects, especially boosting post-pandemic growth. Regarding the EVIPA, he said the ratification of this deal has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. EU member states are now readier to promote the ratification, especially in the current context when they want stability and trustworthy partners. NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue affirmed that Vietnam wishes to intensify cooperation with the EU and each of the blocs members. He called on the EU to support Vietnams candidacy for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council for 2023 - 2025, continue enhancing ties with ASEAN, step up partnerships in energy and climate change to help the country realise its commitments made at COP26, and cooperate with Vietnam in digital transformation. He also recommended the two sides continue frequent information exchanges to deal with problems arising in bilateral trade, especially the export of Vietnams agro-forestry-fishery products to the EU. Talking about Vietnams efforts to eradicate illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, the NA Chairman expressed his hope that the EU will continue sending delegations to directly assess the countrys implementation of relevant recommendations and soon remove the yellow card warning issued by the European Commission. Vietnam, including its parliament, is pushing ahead with realising international commitments in this regard, he stressed, adding this process also needs support from international partners, including the EU. NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue also asked for increased discussion about international issues of common concern, particularly the consolidation of global supply chains and the direct supply chain between Vietnam and the EU to help with post-pandemic economic recovery, ensure food security, and stabilise energy prices. As important partners with mutual trust and respect, they can discuss differences openly via dialogue and cooperation mechanisms, the top legislator noted. Affirming Vietnam is always a trustworthy partner of the EU, Lange said the country holds an important role in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and that the EU is ready to advocate Vietnams role at other international organisations. In terms of CO2 emission reduction, he said he believes that with the same commitment of achieving net zero emissions by 2050, the two sides will have numerous opportunities to cooperate in this field. He also suggested the two sides increase collaboration in digital transformation both bilaterally and within international cooperation frameworks like the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The INTA leader went on to say that the EU recognises Vietnams efforts to carry out recommendations against IUU fishing and hopes that the yellow card warning will be lifted soon./. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that the supply of agricultural products from Ukraine guarantees global food security. Just today, four ships with agricultural products for Asian countries left our ports. At these hours, more than 65,000 tonnes of wheat enter the port of Sudan for unloading. Yesterday, a bulker with wheat departed for Kenya - more than 50,000 tonnes. Vessels for Lebanon and Libya are now being loaded in Odesa. In the Pivdennyi Port, a ship bound for India is waiting to be loaded... That is, the geography of Ukrainian agricultural exports by sea is very broad, Zelensky said in his traditional video address on Thursday evening. Literally every working day of the grain export initiative refutes Russian lies about it. Ukraine supplies agricultural products to consumers from different continents. And it is our supply that guarantees food security at the global level, he stressed. The German system operator 50 Hertz provided NPC Ukrenergo with 14 generators and 50 modern lighting devices that will soon operate at the company's energy facilities, in particular during repair and restoration work. "50 Hertz provided generators and illuminators as part of the Expert Support project of the Government of Ukraine in the implementation of the Just Transformation project under a grant agreement between the GoLocal Public Organization, working in the field of regional development of Ukraine, and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ)," Ukrenergo reported on its Telegram channel on Thursday. At the same time, it is specified that Charge d'Affaires of the German Embassy Bertram von Moltke and the German Embassy's adviser on energy issues and the representative of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate came to inspect the delivered equipment. "They noted that the German side is ready to engage in dialogue on further partnership and assistance to Ukrenergo," the company said. Ukrenergo added that 50 Hertz, in particular, finances the manufacture of new equipment for substations, helps implement projects to deepen the integration of the Ukrainian power system into the European ENTSO-E grid. They noted that Ukrenergo had resumed operation of main power grids in the de-occupied territories and continued scheduled repairs throughout Ukraine, as well as the construction and reconstruction of facilities in those regions where this was possible. "This allows us to maintain the reliability of our grids even in times of war. The help of European friends greatly facilitates this work for us and gives us confidence that we will successfully get through the winter. Therefore, we are grateful to partners from 50 Hertz and other European system operators who support us today," Oleh Pavlenko, Investment Director of Ukrenergo, said during a meeting with German partners. The Government of Ukraine, the European Commission, and the World Bank, in cooperation with partners, estimate that the current cost of reconstruction and recovery in Ukraine amounts to $349 billion. "Ukraine is fighting for democracy and our common values. The EU cannot match the sacrifice Ukraine is enduring but we are mobilising all our instruments to address the most immediate needs, including for housing for internally displaced populations and to repair critical infrastructure. Since the start of Russia's brutal and illegal war of aggression against Ukraine, the EU has mobilised 10 billion euro in financing, humanitarian, emergency and military assistance for Ukraine and another 5 billion euros in financing are in the pipeline. The EU will walk every step of the way with Ukraine to rebuild a democratic, independent and prosperous country on its path to the EU," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a press release on the Commission's website on Friday. This figure is expected to grow in the coming months as the war continues. The Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (RDNA) presents the first comprehensive evaluation of war impacts across twenty different sectors following the Russian invasion. It also lays out the financing needs for a resilient, inclusive, and sustainable recovery and reconstruction and provides a roadmap for planning. "With joint efforts, we have already started reconstruction in the de-occupied Ukrainian territories, but reconstruction requires a comprehensive approach and the mobilization of joint resources of the Ukrainian government and international partners. The assessment of the destruction and the identification of reconstruction needs creates a solid basis for the national Reconstruction Plan and is a prerequisite for effective financing. After all, only for the first stage, rapid recovery, $17 billion is needed, of which Ukraine needs $3.4 billion already this year," Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal said. The assessment covers the impacts of the war sustained between February 24 and June 1, 2022, and found that physical damage from the war reached over $97 billion (EUR 97 billion). It was particularly high in the housing, transport, commerce and industry sectors. The destruction was concentrated in Chernihiv, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Kyiv and Zaporizhia regions. The report found that recovery and reconstruction needs across social, productive, and infrastructure sectors total $349 billion (EUR 349 billion), which is more than 1.5 times the 2021 GDP of Ukraine. Over the next 36 months the RDNA assesses that $105 billion (EUR 105 billion) is needed to address urgent needs such as restoring education and health systems and infrastructure, preparing for the upcoming winter through restoration of heating and energy to homes, support to agriculture, and repair of vital transport routes. The safe management of debris and explosives, including landmines, also pose a substantial cost. By Azernews By Vugar Khalilov Azerbaijani Defense Minister Col-Gen Zakir Hasanov has received the outgoing chief of the Turkish contingent, Lt-Gen Abdullah Katirci, in the Turkish-Russian Joint Monitoring Center, Azernews reports via the ministry. At a meeting, the sides stressed that Azerbaijan-Turkiye ties, including military cooperation, are founded on brotherhood and goodwill. Furthermore, Hasanov wished Katirci well in his future activities. After Katirci, Maj-Gen Fatih Akpinar will lead the Turkish contingent of the Turkish-Russian Joint Monitoring Center in Aghdam. The memorandum on the establishment of a joint ceasefire control center in Azerbaijan was signed between Turkiye and Russia on November 11, 2020. Following Azerbaijan's liberation of its lands from Armenian occupation, an agreement was reached to establish a monitoring center in the liberated lands. The monitoring is being carried out by Turkish and Russian military representatives. The protection of the Turkish-Russian Joint Monitoring Center is carried out by the Azerbaijani army. Meanwhile, a NATO training course is being held in Baku, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said in an unrelated report on September 9. As part of the NATO Science for Peace and Security (SPS) Programme, the Intermediate and Advanced Course on Post Quantum Cryptography is being conducted for the Defense Ministry, as well as other government agency representatives. The participants are given briefings on numerous issues during the course, as well as detailed discussions are being held on topics. Participants also engage in hands-on group projects, the ministry said. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky expressed condolences on the death of Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain. It is with deep sadness that we learned of the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. On behalf of the Ukrainian people, we extend sincere condolences to the Royal Family, the entire United Kingdom and the Commonwealth over this irreparable loss. Our thoughts and prayers are with you, Zelensky said on Twitter. Since September 1 of this year, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have liberated more than a thousand square kilometers of Ukraine from the Russian occupation, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said. In total, more than a thousand square kilometers of our territory have been liberated since September 1. I am grateful to all Ukrainian warriors, to all those who fight for freedom for our people - both in the south and in the east, those participating in the battles at the front and those who contribute to our victory with respective operations in the rear of the enemy. The liberation of our land is the merit of everyone who clearly and timely fulfills the general defense plan, Zelensky said in his traditional video address on Thursday evening. In particular, today the president thanked the fighters of the 115th separate territorial defense brigade of the Operational Command Pivnich (North), and also the fighters of the 117th separate territorial defense brigade operating in the direction of Sudzha - Sumy, and the 1st tank brigade, which is firmly holding its position in the direction of Gomel - Horodnya. At the same time, Zelensky once again called on everyone who informs society and comments on the military situation to analyze the full picture of military events. Ukraine's Permanent Rep to UN: The only right way for Russia is to surrender and withdraw The salvation of Ukrainians and Russians of the Russian Federation has the only right way - "to surrender and withdraw," said permanent representative of Ukraine to the UN Serhiy Kysliytsia. There's only one truly right avenue for Russia to save the lives of thousands of Ukrainian and in fact russian citizens. That is to surrender and withdraw! he wrote on Facebook during the meeting of the Security Council. Kyslytsia noted that by launching its aggression against Ukraine in 2014, by invading Ukraine in February 2022 Russia has violated the norms and principles of practically all fundamental international documents, including bilateral and multilateral agreements, the Helsinki Final Act and, first and foremost, the UN Charter. Not a single state present in this Chamber, besides Russia, is responsible for the Councils inability to effectively perform its functions under the UN Charter. It is solely the presence of russia in the permanent seat of the Soviet Union that has immobilized the Security Council in relation to ensuring the peace and security of Ukraine, he noted. The representative of Ukraine in the UN stressed that Ukraine is defending itself, Europe, the world and the UN Charter, and will keep on fighting until the last inch of the sovereign territory of Ukraine, including Crimea, is liberated. I emphasize, in strict accordance with the provisions of Article 51 of the UN Charter that we all have committed to uphold, he specified. We will fight against the occupiers until all the russian soldiers who entered Ukraine to kill its people are defeated. The only thing that putin can do to save the lives of his soldiers is to order their immediate withdrawal, Kyslytsia wrote, noting that it was due to this global unity, due to lend-lease, due to the assistance of the American people and other Allies, that we succeeded in defeating Hitler. The evil of putin as that of hitler before him requires a global response. This was the case during the Second World war. This is the case right now and Ukraine and its allies are doing their best to ensure such a response, he said. Kyslytsia cited the liberation of Ukrainian territories, which is actively continuing in Kharkiv and Kherson regions. The russian federation has already abused the Security Council on many occasions, including this week. We call on russia to learn to respect this body. It is apparent, however, that the russian delegation has lot of delusions - false beliefs that are not based in reality. Hallucinations seeing or hearing things that don't exist, Kyslytsia noted. In Donetsk region, the Russian occupiers killed nine civilians, wounded 23 people, said head of the Regional Military Administration Pavlo Kyrylenko. "On September 8, the Russians killed nine civilians in Donbas: five in Bakhmut, two in Zaitsevw, one in New York and one in Fedorivka. Another 23 people were injured," Kyrylenko wrote on the Telegram channel. Another meeting of the International Expert Group on Sanctions against Russia chaired by Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak and Former U.S. National Security Adviser, Ambassador Michael McFaul was held, traditionally in the format of a video conference. They [the meeting participants] discussed the need to introduce sanctions in the field of nuclear energy, to refuse to import uranium from Russia. The parties also touched upon the systematic, step-by-step implementation of the price cap on Russian oil, which will significantly reduce budget revenues of the Russian Federation and affect its oil production industry, the presidential website says. Yermak thanked the group members for their work and congratulated them on the 70% implementation of the Action Plan presented in April this year. The Head of the Office of the President offered the members of the Yermak-McFaul group new ideas for discussion. First of all, a document on designating Russia a state sponsor of terrorism. He emphasized that this is not an easy process, but it should not be stopped, because Russia is a terrorist state, and the Ukrainian people demand this, the message says. Another important issue, as noted by Yermak, is the ban on obtaining visas for Russian citizens. He noted that the European Commission has already proposed to suspend the visa facilitation agreement with the Russian Federation, but it is necessary to achieve more and prepare appropriate proposals. Yermak drew attention to the fact that Ukraine is actively carrying out internal work on sanctions against the Russian Federation. In particular, these days, sanctions were applied to more than 600 people who belong to the ruling elite of Russia. An Inter-Agency Working Group on the Implementation of the State Sanctions Policy was established. The Head of the President's Office also offered to continue the successful practice of communication between the members of the International Expert Group on Sanctions against Russia and the parliamentarians of various countries. Russians carry out an airstrike on hospital of Velykopysarivska merged community with victims reported Sumy Military Administration The Russian occupiers on Friday, September 9, in the morning carried out an airstrike on the hospital of Velykopysarivska merged territorial community, premises were destroyed, people were injured, head of Sumy Regional Military Administration Dmytro Zhyvytsky said. "The Russians continue to cynically shell the civilian infrastructure of Sumy region: today, after 09:00, Russian enemy aircraft, without crossing the border of Ukraine, fired at the hospital. The premises are destroyed, there are victims among the people," he wrote on the Telegram channel. The head of the Regional Military Administration added that he would report on the details later. The Ukrainian military is likely to liberate Kupyansk (Kharkiv region) within the next 72 hours, which will seriously worsen, but not completely cut Russian land lines of communication with Izium, according to the website of the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). The analysts says that Ukrainian successes on the Kharkiv City-Izium line are creating fissures within the Russian information space and eroding confidence in Russian command to a degree not seen since a failed Russian river crossing near Belohorivka (Luhansk region) in mid-May. Ukrainian forces in the Kharkiv Oblast counteroffensives advanced to within 20 kilometers of Russias key logistical node in Kupyansk on September 8. So, according to the ISW forecast, Ukrainian forces will likely capture Kupyansk in the next 72 hours, severely degrading but not completely severing Russian ground lines of communication (GLOCs) to Izium. Ukrainian forces have likely advanced to positions within 15km of Kupyansk and will shell the town overnight. In addition, analysts added that the AFU probably captured Shevchenkove or bypassed the settlement and advanced to Hrushivka. A Russian source said that Ukrainian troops captured Savintsi, Rakivka and Dovhalivka. It is noted that the loss of Kupyansk and other rear areas on critical ground communication lines will hinder the efforts of the Russian Federation to support offensive and defensive operations. The ISW confirms that the AFU regained control of Balakliya (Kharkiv region) on September 8, while the Russian Defense Ministry said that Russian troops destroyed a Ukrainian ammunition depot in Balakliya, "inadvertently confirming that Russian forces no longer control the city." Also, Ukrainian forces continue to strike at Russian ground communication lines, command posts and ammunition depots in Kherson region. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will inform NATO allies and partners in Brussels about the results of his visit to Kyiv. He told reporters about this on his way to Brussels, according to the text of the message distributed by the State Department on Friday. According to Blinken, his visit to Ukraine in many ways was meaningful because it took place coincident with the beginnings of this counteroffensive that Ukraine is engaged in to liberate the land that has been seized by Russian forces as a result of Russias aggression against Ukraine. We had a chance yesterday to hear directly from President Zelensky and his team about the state of their efforts in this counteroffensive, and I had an opportunity to share with him and his team additional significant assistance that the United States is providing both in the near term and longer term on the security side an additional $2.8 billion. This assistance combined with the extraordinary courage and resilience of Ukrainian forces and the Ukrainian people has been the recipe for success thus far in the Ukrainians pushing the Russians back, and now engaging in this counteroffensive, the State Secretary told the journalists. In addition, he told President Zelensky on behalf of President Biden and the American people that we have been with Ukraine. Were with Ukraine today. We will be with Ukraine tomorrow and for however long it takes to deal with Russias aggression. And I come away, again, very confident in Ukraines future because the Ukrainians are fighting for their homeland. Its their homeland, not Russias, Blinken stressed. Speaking about the upcoming visit to Brussels, the Secretary of State noted that he will have an opportunity in Brussels to debrief NATO Allies, other partners, on what I learned in Ukraine and to work with them on a number of issues that are of concern to everyone, starting with the situation in and around Zaporizhia, where Russia has seized as part of its aggression a nuclear facility, and thats of real concern to many of us; making sure that food which needs to get out of Ukraine after its been blocked by Russia make sure the agreement that was reached continues; support for Ukraine, not just security support but economic support and humanitarian support; thinking about longer-term reconstruction needs all of this is going to be part of the agenda in Brussels, Blinken said. But finally, the most important reason I think were in Brussels is because what has worked so well for us thus far has been our unity unity of purpose, unity of action. When it comes to helping Ukraine defend itself, when it comes to making sure that theres significant pressure on Russia to end this aggression, when it comes to making sure our own Alliance is as strong and resolute as it can be to deter any additional Russian aggression, I think youll see that unity in action, once again. And Im confident that based on every conversation Ive had, every engagement Ive had, its going to continue, the U.S. Secretary of State added. Over the past day, the Ukrainian military shot down six enemy operational-tactical UAVs in different directions, and a Russian Ka-52 Alligator attack helicopter was destroyed in Donetsk region, according to the command of the AFU Air Forces. "During September 8, six enemy operational-tactical UAVs were shot down by anti-aircraft missile units of the Air Forces in different directions. In addition, at about 13:30, in Donetsk region, a Russian Ka-52 Alligator attack helicopter was destroyed by an anti-aircraft missile unit of the Air Forces," the General Staff wrote on the Telegram channel. Fighter, assault and bomber aircraft of the Air Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine continue to strike enemy positions, equipment and logistics of the occupiers with various types of weapons, including AGM-88 HARM anti-radar missiles. Russian occupation troops are shelling Kharkiv from multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS). There is information about impacts in Shevchenko district, said Mayor Ihor Terekhov. "Kharkiv is being heavily shelled from MLRS. It is known for sure about hits in Shevchenko district so far. According to preliminary information, a kindergarten has been damaged and there is a fire at a gas station. Information about the victims is being clarified," Terekhov wrote on his Telegram channel. South Africa: Improved coordination needed to finalise housing projects The Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements has called for better planning and coordination between national, provincial and local government in order to finish stalled human settlements projects. The committee made the call during a meeting where the members received progress reports from KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Mpumalanga on blocked projects, and the eradication of asbestos roofs and mud houses. Committee Chairperson, Machwene Semenya, said the committee is concerned that in all areas under consideration, there is a clear lack of coordination and cooperation between the three spheres of government, which is causing project delays. The lack of coordination will inadvertently delay projects, which undermines the good intentions of the projects. We are hopeful that the adoption and operationalisation of the District Development Model (DDM) can assist in aligning plans and budgets of sister departments to ensure that a greater impact is made, Semenya said. Poor alignment of plans and budget Semenya said the lack of coordination in KwaZulu-Natal, which has contributed to the lack of bulk infrastructure and stalled projects, reflects substandard planning, and poor alignment of plans and budget to ensure the provision of quality services. She said it is unacceptable that a project like the Mzingazi Project, with an estimated 1 000 units in the King Cetshwayo District, can remain blocked due to lack of bulk infrastructure. The policy decision to move from housing to human settlements was intended to ensure that all services are provided. It remains concerning that the silo mentality remains prevalent within government departments, depriving 1 000 beneficiaries from getting quality housing, Semenya said. While acknowledging efforts to interact with water service authorities to ensure the provision of bulk infrastructure services, the committee has called for urgency and decisiveness to ensure that these projects are implemented. Regarding the eradication of asbestos roofs, the committee raised its concerns on the lack of credible information to quantify the number of asbestos roofs in the province. While the committee welcomed the commencement of an assessment programme to quantify the need, Semenya said the lack of information is a worry and impedes speedy development. The committee commended the plan to eradicate 2 224 mud houses in the province at a budgeted cost of R397 705 000. The need for the eradication of mud houses is even more pressing, with the increased dangers caused by unpredictable weather patterns caused by global warming. We urge the department to implement the plans as presented, Semenya said. Structural integrity assessments on blocked projects The committee also welcomed the announcement that the Ministerial War Room intervention on blocked projects has resulted in a backlog reduction from 478 projects to 161. However, the committee has called for long-term solutions to challenges, including non-performance by contractors, contract lapses and terminations. These solutions should protect the State from payment of services when contractors have not met service level agreements. The committee has urged that structural integrity assessments on blocked projects older than five years are completed to ensure that the stakeholders plan adequately to unblock those projects, Semenya said. Like in KwaZulu-Natal, the committee expressed its disappointment on the lack of data on houses with asbestos roofs, as this delays the implementation of the eradication programme. The committee emphasised the need to conclude the assessment project so that the project can proceed. The committee also expressed its disappointment in the Limpopo Provincial Government after hearing that no serviced sites were delivered by the end of August 2022, despite a target of 6 055. It urged the department to resolve this and move with speed to implement the programme. R20m set aside to eradicate asbestos in Mpumalanga The committee welcomed the announcement that the Mpumalanga Provincial Government has set aside a budget of R20 million to implement the asbestos eradication programme. However, it said it was concerned that the allocation is insufficient, considering the 10 000 roofs on the list already presented by municipalities. The committee said the asbestos backlog will be greater when nine more municipalities submit their list, as a bigger budget allocation is required. The committee called for planning for the outer years of the medium-term economic framework to ensure that funding is set aside to complete the project. Regarding the eradication of mud houses, the committee said it was concerned that Mpumalanga has not quantified the challenge in the province or commenced with a programme to quantify mud houses in the province. Despite the admission that due to the province being a rural one, there is a prevalence of these structures there. The unavailability of this data impacts on the ability of the province to plan and budget effectively, Semenya said. The committee further raised its concerns about the challenge presented by the business forum in the Govan Mbeki Municipality regarding blocked projects. The committee noted that there is no approved beneficiary list linked to the blocked projects, and warned that this creates immitigable risk for future projects. The committee called on the stakeholders to redouble efforts to ensure the projects completion. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2022-09-09. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. By Azernews By Vugar Khalilov Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov has said that the inter-parliamentary contacts will boost the Azerbaijani-Spanish bilateral relations, Azernews reports, per the ministry. Bayramov delivered the remarks at a meeting with Ander Gil Garcia, Spanish Senate Chairman, as part of his official visit to the country on September 8. The minister emphasized that during the past 30 years, diplomatic relations between Azerbaijan and Spain have been established on the basis of friendship and respect for the norms and principles of international law, adding that there are broad prospects for cooperation in the fields of economy, trade, energy, humanitarian, education, tourism, and high technologies. He pointed out that inter-parliamentary relations will make a huge contribution to bilateral relations. Bayramov briefed the opposite side on Azerbaijan's post-conflict aspirations and efforts to ensure regional peace, security, and prosperity, as well as the country's repair and rebuilding activities and the restoration of transport and communication links. In reply, Garcia stated that the foreign minister's visit and the signing of the pact between the diplomatic academies are critical to the growth of bilateral ties. The bilateral sessions held during the visit were regarded as crucial for increasing cooperation in the political, economic, commercial, and humanitarian spheres. He underlined that Spain has a chance to contribute to the execution of the European Union-Azerbaijan energy cooperation agreement in terms of creating alternative energy resources. Referring to the Azerbaijani Parliament Speakers visit to Spain in 2021, he said that the decision to establish the Non-Aligned Movement's parliamentary network was taken in Madrid. Later, the sides exchanged views on issues on the bilateral agenda and the regional situation. In the same vein, Bayramov met with President of the Congress of Deputies of Spain Meritxell Batet, Azernews reports, citing the Azerbaijani ministry's official Twitter post. Productive discussion was held between Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and the President of the Congress of Deputies of Spain Meritxell Batet on a wide range of issues of the Azerbaijani-Spanish bilateral relations and regional situation, the ministry tweeted. Rebellious moods reign within the Russian military units participating in the war against Ukraine, the Russian military massively write refusals to participate in further hostilities in Ukraine, Head of the joint press center of the Defense Forces of Pivden (South) task force Natalia Humeniuk said. "The replenishment of the exchange fund continues quite intensively compared to previous days, but still, the main characteristic, the main mood they have now is mutinies, rebellious moods within the units, where they rise against their command, where they massively write refusals to participate in further 'special operations,' refusal to participate in hostilities. Information about these reports is distributed in intercepts, including in social networks they post their reports, confirming that they are ready to refuse to continue actions," Humeniuk said on the air of the national telethon on Friday. She said the Russian military always has a simple way out, namely to lay down their arms, wait for the Armed Forces of Ukraine and go under the jurisdiction of international humanitarian law, that is, replenish the exchange fund. Humeniuk said the Armed Forces of Ukraine went deep into the enemy positions at a distance of two to several tens of kilometers in accordance with certain areas. Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valeriy Zaluzhny has thanked the residents of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine for helping the Ukrainian defenders to repel the Russian invaders. "More than 1,000 square kilometers [of occupied Ukrainian territory] have been liberated from the occupiers in a few recent days. This is very difficult, but we are moving forward. I am grateful to the fellow citizens who help and wait for us," he said on the Telegram channel on Friday. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has said the Polish side will address the issue of reducing queues on the Ukraine-Poland border. "As per facilitation of the procedure for queues on the border, we have reached an agreement with the Polish party. Here, I think, it depends more on Poland. We have agreed that the Polish party will focus on helping all of us to resolve this problem in order to avoid queues," the head of state said at a press conference with the Polish Prime Minister and Latvian President in Kyiv on Friday. According to him, this agreement is also related to humanitarian aid transportation and operation of border sanitary control services. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky called the decision of the Council of the European Union to suspend visa facilitation for Russian citizens absolutely correct and said the circle of countries in the world restricting entry to Russian citizens should expand. "Today we discussed this important aspect of visa restrictions for tourists from Russia to what they say is unfriendly Europe. I think this is an absolutely fair decision," Zelensky said at a press conference following talks with the Prime Minister of Poland and the President of Latvia in Kyiv on Friday. He also said Ukraine received strong support from Latvia and Poland for the sanctions policy against Russia and its aggression. "Today we also discussed that we should unite. And the circle of such countries should expand so that Russia feels the cost of its war," he said. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks of contacts with representatives of the defense industry in order to increase the production of weapons and ammunition to further support Ukraine in the war with Russia and to replenish its own stocks, which are depleted due to the sending of aid to Kyiv. He announced this at a press conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Friday after a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, answering a question from journalists. Stoltenberg recalled that the allies have provided "unprecedented support to Ukraine, with weapons, with ammunition and other capabilities. And of course, they have done that mostly by reducing existing stocks." "Some Allies are now raising the issue of whether these stocks are depleted too much. My answer to that is actually twofold. One is to realise that the weapons, the munitions that we are providing to Ukraine are used to stop the aggressive actions of Russia against an independent sovereign nation in Europe, which is a close partner of NATO. And if President Putin wins in Ukraine, it's not only bad for Ukrainians, but it is also dangerous for all of us. So actually, by ensuring that Russia, that President Putin, does not win in Ukraine, we are also increasing our own security and strengthening the Alliance by proving that we don't allow that kind of behaviour close to our own borders. So the use of these stocks actually helps to increase our own security and reduce the risk of any aggressive actions by Russia against the NATO Allied countries," the NATO Secretary General said. According to him, more than 80% of Russian ground troops are now involved in the war in Ukraine. "What happens there matters for the total capacity of Russia to pose any threat to any NATO Allied countries. So my first thing, my first message, to Allies is that we welcome the unprecedented support, we are calling for even more support, and we urge them to dig deeper into the inventories, to the stocks, to continue to provide the supplies that Ukraine needs immediately," Stoltenberg said. The Secretary General believes this assistance "is making a huge difference on the ground. Because as Secretary Blinken, Tony, just referred to, we see progress on the ground in Ukraine. But make no mistakes, we have to be prepared for the long haul. The second answer to the concern about the level of stocks is of course to produce more. And therefore we are now in close contact with the defence industry, with capitals. We have established structures here at NATO on defence planning, on capabilities, to ensure that we are now ramping up production, that we are replenishing the stocks, both to be able to continue to provide support to Ukraine, but this is not only about supporting Ukraine it is also about ensuring that we have the weapons, the ammunitions, the capabilities in place for our own deterrence and defence," he said. On Monday, September 12, at 14.00, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host a press conference entitled Psychological state of Ukraines population amid full-scale war." Participants include Head of the Center for Psychological Support of the Units of the Operational Rescue Service of the Department for the Provision of the Operational Rescue Service of Civil Protection of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine Anatoliy Sychevsky; Deputy Director of the Institute of Social and Political Psychology of the National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine, PhD in Psychological sciences Svitlana Chunikhina; co-founder of the Charitable Foundation MINDY Taras Yermakov; Director General of the Directorate of Medical Services of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine Oleksandra Mashkevych; founder of the Charitable Foundation UAF Coin Daryna Tsepkova; a representative of the Ministry of Veterans Affairs (8/5a Reitarska Street). The broadcast will be available on the YouTube channel of Interfax-Ukraine. Admission of journalists requires registration on the spot. Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi will travel to Doha for the first time on Tuesday to meet Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, the official Qatari Amiri Diwan, the office of the Emir, said on Monday. Egypt is set to see a slight drop of 1-2 degrees Celsius nationwide as of Thursday, with one more week to go before the advent of autumn. President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi presented his condolences to the British Royal Family, the British government, and the people of the United Kingdom in the death of Queen Elizabeth II. I present my extreme condolence on my behalf and behalf of the Egyptian People to the Royal Family, the British government and the people of the United Kingdom in the death of Queen Elizabeth II who ruled her country for long decades with a great wisdom El-Sisi said in a short statement issued on his social media accounts Thursday evening following Buckingham Palaces announcement of the death of its late queen. I assert that we are ready to work with King Charles to boost the relations between our two friendly countries and people, he said. . / Abdelfattah Elsisi (@AlsisiOfficial) September 8, 2022 The Egyptian president presented his condolences to the British nation for this great loss, expressing his complete confidence in King Charless ability to fill the gap left by Queen Elizabeth II. Queen Elizabeth II, the United Kingdoms longest serving monarch passed away Thursday afternoon at the age of 96 at Scotlands Balmoral Castle after reigning for 70 years, according to Buckingham Palace. Her eldest son, the 73-year-old former Prince of Wales Charles, was immediately declared King Charles III by newly appointed British Prime Minister Liz Truss. In November 2021, the then-prince visited Egypt along with his wife Camilla Parker and met with President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi in a two day visit to the country that was the first since 2006. Search Keywords: Short link: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that Turkey may turn to countries such as Russia if the US fails to follow through on a pledge to deliver F-16 fighter jets. Turkey was kicked out of a programme to replace a wide range of fighter, strike and ground attack aircraft for NATO allies after it acquired an advanced Russian missile defence system in 2019. But with US-Turkish relations warming in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, US President Joe Biden told Erdogan in June that he would support the sale of less advanced F-16 jets. This has failed to gain traction in Congress, whose support of military sales is required, because of concern among leading US lawmakers about Turkey's tough rhetoric against its traditional foe Greece. "The US is not the only one selling warplanes in the world. The UK, France and Russia sell them as well," Erdogan told reporters after Friday prayers. "It's possible to procure them from other places, and others are sending us signals," Erdogan said. Erdogan has made a string of positive comments about Russia ahead of a scheduled meeting with President Vladimir Putin at a regional summit in Uzbekistan next week. He accused the West of staging "provocations" against Russia by supplying Ukraine with weapons and blamed European sanctions for the continent's energy crisis. Erdogan also revealed that he had asked Putin to offer Turkey a discount for the natural gas it imports from Russia. Ankara's strategic ties with Washington have been strained for years by issues ranging from Turkey's deteriorating human rights record to US cooperation with a Kurdish militia in Syria Erdogan views as "terrorists". Erdogan said he will raise US military support for the Kurdish militia if he has a chance to meet Biden on the margins of an annual UN General Assembly meeting starting on September 13. Search Keywords: Short link: By Trend The members of international community should not focus its attention only on certain countries, they are obliged to help everyone who is facing a mine problem, including Azerbaijan, Bulgarian travel blogger Anna Pelova said in an interview with Trend. Pelova arrived in Azerbaijan as part of a group of foreign travelers, who are visiting Azerbaijan's liberated territories. "Azerbaijan pleasantly surprised me. This is the 79th country I have visited. For me, this is a very interesting tour. These places are filled with history, some of which is heartbreaking, but there are also some very positive moments," Pelova said. "People have done a lot of restoration work here. As we see, mosques, houses are being restored, hotels are being built. I am sure that this region has great potential for tourism. The first tourists here will be tourists like us who love extreme sports. We are not interested in flying to Spain, Portugal, France. We love places that can tell a good story that leaves an emotional mark on us. Because in the end we won't be indifferent," she explained. "In addition, Azerbaijan has very beautiful nature, good-natured and friendly people. When the Azerbaijanis complete the restoration work, there will be opportunity to attract a huge number of not only tourists, but also representatives of international organizations, the press, which will help spread the facts that Azerbaijan is a magnificent and safe country," the traveler said. Speaking about Armenian vandalism the mine problem, Pelova stressed that the world should not tolerate this. "I am glad that Azerbaijan managed to liberate its lands. Now there will be no vandalism here, because you really think about this land. We all live on the same planet and must prevent any manifestation of acts of destruction and vandalism in order to maintain long-term peace," she noted. The blogger called on international organizations and UNESCO not to engage in selective assistance, but to provide support to all countries, including Azerbaijan. "Mines are a huge problem all over the world. Mine clearance is very costly and time consuming for countries. It is important to understand that people returning to these parts will be in danger. An adult is well aware of how dangerous mines are, but try to explain this to a child who, for example, wants to run around the field. Sooner or later he will step on it. And it happens all over the world," she said. "The international community should not focus its attention only on certain countries, they are obliged to help everyone who is faced with a mine problem. Need to provide financial assistance and allocate human resources for demining", Pelova said. The traveler stressed that with the coronavirus pandemic, it became obvious that, if desired, humanity can rally around one problem to solve it, because assistance was provided to literally every country where it was needed, and not selectively. On October 8, the trip of famous travelers from more than 20 countries to Karabakh and East Zangezur began. The team leader is Charles Veley, the founder of the American MTP (Most Traveled People) club, which is one of the 4 largest travel clubs in the world. Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi discussed on Thursday in a phone call with his Somali counterpart President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud the latest developments and steps taken to restore stability and security in Somalia, the Egyptian presidency announced. In the phone call, El-Sisi discussed the different challenges facing the Horn of Africa country, chief among which is terrorism, the presidency said. According to the presidency, President Mohamud expressed how his country is keen to boost consultation and coordination with Egypt on different regional issues of common interest. He also expressed interest in boosting bilateral cooperation on different levels, praising the historical relations between the two countrys as well as Egypts historical support to Somalia. From his side, El-Sisi expressed Egypts appreciation for its historical relations with Somalia, as well as his keenness for a strong and stable unified Somalia that would best serve the interests of its people. El-Sisi also expressed a desire to support Somalia face different challenges, especially radicalism and terrorism. The Egyptian president stated during the phone call that Egypt is ready to continue supporting Somalias efforts to build and sustain its state institutions. Egypt is also ready to boost bilateral cooperation, especially on the commercial and economic level, as well as to train Somalia technical cadres, El-Sisi added. In July, the Somali president visited Cairo and met with El-Sisi, where they agreed to work together to enforce security and stability in the region, especially in the Red Sea, as well as to boost economic relations between the two countries. Search Keywords: Short link: On the 70th anniversary of National Farmers Day in Egypt, Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi hailed Egyptian farmers' dedication to achieving food security for the country and stressed the governments commitment to ensuring a decent life for them and their families. "The Egyptian farmer has always been exerting effort and breaking sweat with dedication and sincerity to achieve food security for the country," El-Sisi said in a statement on Friday. "My sincere appreciation and respect to the farmers of Egypts countrywide, on their day, in which they regained their dignity and pride," the president added. National Farmers' Day is celebrated on 9 September each year, marking the issuance of the Agrarian Reform Law in 1952. On this date, the Free Officers Movement who had taken power in the 23 July 1952 Revolution issued a decree to redistribute agricultural lands to poor farmers in a bid to achieve social justice. The president assured them that he will continue to direct the government to exert all possible efforts to support farmers, ensure a decent life for them and their families, enhance their incomes, and provide additional financial incentives to encourage them to supply their crops to the government. Amid the global disruptions in wheat supplies triggered by the Russia-Ukraine war, Egypt has introduced new price guidelines to incentivise farmers to sell more wheat to the government, raising the price of an ardeb of wheat to EGP 880 in May and again to EGP 1,000 starting October. The incentives led farmers to supply the government with 4.2 million tons of wheat by the end of the harvest season at the end of August, up from 3.5 million tons procured in 2021. According to recent estimates, Egyptian who live in rural areas comprise 58 percent of the 104 million population and farmers constitute 25 percent of the labour force. The state had been ramping up efforts in recent years to improve the standards of living, infrastructure, and services for citizens who live in rural areas through the Decent Life initiative. Launched by the president in 2019, the Decent Life initiative (Hayah Karima in Arabic) targets improving the lives of people who live in 4,658 villages, with an estimated budget of EGP 700 billion (around $44.6 billion). The first of three stages of the project will be completed in December, according to a recent announcement by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly. Search Keywords: Short link: Egyptian authorities ordered on Friday the release of 33 pre-trial detainees in various cases, announced Mohamed Abdel-Aziz, a member of the Presidential Pardon Committee. The releases came as per decisions by the Public Prosecution, Abdel-Aziz , who is also deputy chairman of the Human Rights Committee in the House of Representatives, wrote on his Facebook page. The authorities have recently released tens of pretrial detainees as the government and various political forces prepare for an extensive National Political Dialogue that will discuss pressing political, economic and social issues. Since the launching of preparations for the national political dialogue in May and the re-activation of the Presidential Pardon Committee in April, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has pardoned a number of high-profile political activists who had received final sentences such as Hossam Mones, Yahia Abdel-Hady, Hisham Fouad and others. The re-activated pardon committee, which was first formed in 2016, is receiving the names of prisoners for presidential pardon consideration from: various parties and political forces, the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR), the Human Rights Committee of the House of Representatives and families, as well as directly through its own official website. The scope of the work of the re-activated committee has been expanded to include imprisoned male and female debtors. The pardon committee includes MP Tarek El-Kholy, human rights lawyer Tarek El-Awady, and Egypt's former manpower minister Kamal Abu Eita. Search Keywords: Short link: Egypt is intensifying efforts for climate action in the run-up to the UN COP27 Climate Conference, notably at meetings in Indonesia and Chile last week. Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad, the ministerial envoy and coordinator of the UN COP27 Climate Conference to be held in Sharm El-Sheikh in November, participated in the Joint Environment and Climate Ministers Meeting (JECMM) of the G20 group of countries in Bali, Indonesia, last week, on behalf of the foreign minister, the designated president of the conference. The participants discussed regional and global environmental and climate-related challenges and their impacts on developing nations and tried to reach consensus on measures to address them. The meeting was an opportunity to generate momentum towards the implementation of bold and urgent actions to address the interconnected global challenges of climate change, biodiversity attrition, pollution, desertification and land degradation, unsustainable modes of consumption and production, and the transition to clean energy, Fouad said. Three major topics topped the agenda: the sustainable recovery, enhancing land and marine environmental protection measures, and strengthening cooperation in the mobilisation of resources to accelerate environmental and climate action. Fouad said that nature-based solutions were discussed because they are fundamental to international efforts to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to address the major social, economic, and environmental challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation, as well as food and water security, natural disaster response, human health, and ecosystem services. She underscored how important it is to bear in mind the human dimension of climate and environmental action and, above all, the needs of local communities and vulnerable groups such as women and children. Fouad said that Egypt was fully prepared to host the participants at the COP27, underscoring Egypts determination to help accelerate the pace of climate action and achieve progress on all negotiating tracks. Egypt would encourage discussions to reach effective agreements on mechanisms to ensure progress in reaching global climate-adaptation goals, in meeting the new climate-action financing goals, and in compensating for damage caused by climate change by activating the Santiago Network, a network of developing countries, in a fair and effective manner. Fouad urged the G20 members to fulfil the pledges they made at the 2015 Climate Conference in Paris to commit $100 billion a year in climate funding to the developing nations. Much more funding for climate adaptation was needed, she said, and she called on the G20 countries to develop new funding plans to help developing nations with climate-adaptation and mitigation efforts. She reminded the participants that more than 80 per cent of harmful emissions come from the G20 nations themselves. On the sidelines of the JECMM meeting, Fouad met with John Kerry, the US presidential envoy on climate affairs, to discuss prospects for cooperation between Egypt and the US in the context of Egypts preparations to host the COP27. Fouad said that the meeting had dealt with ways to support Egypt through the national investment platform for green projects and climate action, known as the Nexus of Water, Food, and Energy (NWFE). This is a national programme for carrying out domestically identified projects, most notably one aiming to replace 17 gas-powered power stations with solar or wind-powered ones with capacities of up to 10 Gigawatts (GW). The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and several donor agencies are currently studying the project, expected to cost around $10 billion, part of which would be funded by a grant and the rest by facilitated loans and private-sector investments. The minister said that the US-Egyptian agreement and funding from the EU and international donors would be announced at the Sharm El-Sheikh conference. She spoke of how renewable energy projects and agriculture, food, and water complement each other. A project for a solar-powered water desalinisation plant could be an opportunity to encourage private-sector investment in crops capable of adapting to the effects of climate change, for example. The meeting with Kerry also dealt with the possibility of a US role in supporting the agricultural initiative that Egypt will launch during the conference, as well as its anticipated outputs, especially those pertaining to the climate-mitigation programme that will be the subject of a resolution adopted in Sharm El-Sheikh. Mitigating the damage resulting from climate change will be high on the conference agenda, and clear results are of the essence. Kerry welcomed the Egyptian initiatives and preparations for the Conference, affirming his support for Egypts efforts to make it a success. Egypt is among the nations taking the right path to the green transition that means more green jobs, he said, adding that he hoped the world would unite to take on the global challenges of climate change. He expressed his interest in Egypts solar-powered project and the possibility of US assistance and funding for the Egyptian agricultural initiative that will be unveiled at the conference. The NWFE was designed through close collaboration between the relevant ministries and technical agencies and in conformity with Egypts National Strategy for Climate Change 2050 and Nationally Determined Contributions Plan 2030. The result is a package of programmes and projects that will support the linkage between energy, water, and food. Meanwhile, in a speech via video linkup to the closing session of the Regional Forum for Latin America and the Caribbean on Financing Climate Action and the Energy Transition, Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Climate Change high-level champion for Egypt, stressed the need to bring climate action policies into harmony with the SDGs. The event was hosted by Chile and attended by Ambassador Wael Abul-Magd in his capacity as special representative of the Egyptian president for the COP27. In his speech at the Regional Forum, Mohieldin urged closer adherence to the Paris Climate Agreement and the Sustainable Development Plan for 2030 to make national budgets more conducive to the climate action agenda. He praised the discussions taking place during the Latin American Forum, which he described as an effective step towards fruitful partnerships in developing and carrying out viable climate action policies and projects that engage the input of many diverse experts. These efforts would help the conference in Sharm El-Sheikh succeed, he said, noting that regional forums in Africa and Asia have proposed 39 promising projects. On the participation of international financial institutions in funding climate action, Mohieldin stressed the need to focus on funding efficacy and the speed with which it reaches it intended recipients. He cautioned against a continued reliance on loans as a funding instrument, saying that the history of Latin America and many Third World economies testified to the problems that could arise due to loans, as has also been amply illustrated by the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine. He said there were many promising opportunities for investment in climate action, a subject that will be discussed at greater length in the coming weeks during the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. The Latin American Forum was convened in the framework of a pioneering initiative to mobilise investments for climate action. It is one of five major regional meetings, the first of which was African and took place at the headquarters of the UN Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa on 2 to 4 August. The second forum was held in Bangkok at the headquarters of the UN Economic and Social Commission for the Asia-Pacific region on 25 August. Beirut will host the fourth forum for the Arab countries on 15 September at the headquarters of the UN Economic and Social Commission for West Asia, and the fifth will be held in Geneva in October at the headquarters of the Economic Commission for Europe. *A version of this article appears in print in the 8 September, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly. Search Keywords: Short link: We only have one thing to say to Greece: Dont forget Izmir. So said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on 3 September, after the radar of a Greek S-300 defence system locked onto Turkish F-16 fighter jets on a mission over the Aegean. Hey Greece, take a look at history. If you go any further youll pay a heavy price, he added at a rally days after his country celebrated Victory Day, commemorating the decisive Turkish defeat of Greek forces at the battle of Dumlupinar in 1922. Athens charged that the jets had violated Greek airspace over Greek islands near Turkey in the Aegean. The Treaty of Lausanne of 1923 and the Treaty of Paris of 1947 grant Greece sovereignty over these islands, located six to eight kilometres from the Turkish coast, but on condition that Greece should not arm them. Turkey claims that Greece has breached this condition. Although tensions between Ankara and Athens have abated somewhat in the past year or so, they continue to periodically trade accusations of territorial violations. The Aegean islands remain a thorn in Ankaras side as it continues to lay claim to some of them and feels wrong-done by the above mentioned treaties. In July, tempers flared when the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis demanded that President Erdogan should give an explanation for a map produced by one of his political allies showing large uninhabited Greek islands as Turkish and clarify whether that map reflected official Turkish policy. Tensions had already spiked more dangerously against the backdrop of Turkeys gas exploration and drilling activities in the Eastern Mediterranean in Greek territorial waters or areas that Greece claims as part of its exclusive economic zone. Athens has repeatedly and vehemently condemned what it describes as Turkeys aggressive behaviour in that area and worked to forge extensive regional alliances to counter it. An example is the Friendship Forum which held its first meeting on 11 February 2021 and was attended by the foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Cyprus, Greece and France. Their aim was to form a united front against Turkeys hydrocarbon designs in the Eastern Mediterranean, as well as against its interventionist policies and activities in the Arab region. Divided Cyprus is another source of recurrent spats between Turkey and Greece. Turkey, which is the only country to recognise the Republic of Northern Cyprus, insists on a so called two state solution to the Cypriot question while Greece insists that Turkey should end its occupation of northern Cyprus which Turkish forces invaded and took control of in 1975. On 10 February this year, the two sides traded accusations over this matter and Erdogan snapped at Mitsotakis, saying, know your limits and stop defying us. If you dont, this means that you are evading negotiations. Turkeys desire to tap the underwater energy resources in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean is a central thread that connects all three of the above mentioned areas of dispute. According to some reports, Ankara plans to invest some $10 billion in drilling for oil and gas in the Aegean and Black Sea. Turkey has begun drilling activities in the Aegean and it discovered a large natural gas reserve in the Black Sea, known as the Sakarya field, in 2020. In fact, in January this year, the Turkish oil company TPAO successfully completed the natural gas flow test in the Turkali-1 well of the Sakarya field and a month before this, Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Fatih Donmez announced that the Fatih drilling vessel would start a new gas exploration operation in the Turkali-7 well. Given Turkeys ambitions and territorial sensitivities, it is not difficult to imagine its reaction, over a year ago, when Greece announced that it would extend its maritime boundaries in the Ionian Sea from six to twelve kilometres and hinted it would do the same in the Aegean. Turkey would consider this an act of war. Were Greece to similarly extend the maritime borders of its mainland coast and islands in the Aegean, Turkey would find itself hemmed in from that side, to the extent that it would probably have to ask Athens permission for Turkish military and civilian vessels to exit from the Sea of Marmara and pass through the Aegean to the Mediterranean. In light of the foregoing considerations, Turkish-Greek tensions could easily escalate in the near future. The S-300 radars locking onto Turkish warplanes could be a sign of things to come, especially in light of the failure of recent exploratory talks and positive gestures to build a calmer and more mutually trusting climate. Greece has recently asserted a right to arm the disputed islands in the Aegean, citing the right to self defence enshrined in Article 51 of the UN Charter. Ankara also finds it provocative that the US established a military base in Alexandroupolis, about 40 km from Turkeys northern border, and deployed troops on Aegean islands. In recent years, Greece has significantly strengthened military relations with France and the US, both countries with which Erdogan has locked horns over many issues. In September last year, Athens purchased a number of French frigates, which Ankara saw as a Greek attempt to start an arms race that would jeopardise regional security and militarise the Mediterranean. In October 2021, Athens signed an additional military agreement with Washington to expand the realm of bilateral defence cooperation. The agreement gives US forces more extensive use of Greek military bases and allows US forces to train and operate in an extended capacity at four additional bases in Greece. Prior to this, the two sides signed a military cooperation protocol in October 2019, in accordance with which the US committed to help Greece upgrade its military bases, most notably the Souda base on Crete. Nevertheless, though there are several areas of dispute that could set Greece and Turkey on a collision course, the US and other Western powers would quickly step in to prevent the situation from spiralling, especially at present when the Ukrainian crisis is foremost in mind. At the same time, Ankara knows that conflict with Greece at this time would hamper its efforts to mend fences with countries in the Arab region and wreak further attrition on the already strained and deteriorating Turkish economy. *A version of this article appears in print in the 8 September, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly. Search Keywords: Short link: On Sunday, the Israeli media reported that American B-52 bombers had entered Israeli airspace on their way to the Gulf. This was seen as a new warning to Iran amid regional military escalations. American bombers had been here only a few months before, but this time they arrived only a day after negotiations to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between Iran and the US began to falter. The deal, first signed in 2015, was repealed by former US president Donald Trump in 2018. A year and a half after negotiations to revive it started in Vienna, all parties had been expecting an agreement to be concluded within days when news of military escalation in the Gulf dampened the general spirit. After the draft agreement presented to both parties by the EU on 8 August, US sources had boasted of Iran making positive concessions. Despite Tehran denying this, sources told Al-Ahram Weekly that the Iranians were dropping the demand to remove all sanctions (as opposed to JCPOA-related ones) and to knock the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) off the US list of terrorist organisations as long as the US turned a blind eye to IRGC-affiliated businesses. But this Friday a State Department spokesperson announced that the latest Iranian response to the agreement was not constructive. It seems the issue is the Iranian demand for future guarantees. The Americans said they could not guarantee that the next president would not withdraw from the deal, committing only to the two years remaining in President Joe Bidens term, though they also said that sanctions lifted or other provisions could be in place for five years. Another point of contention is the Iranian demand that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should drop its investigations of previous Iranian nuclear activities. The Americans were clear on that: IAEA issues are not part of the original JCPOA agreement, and the point is that Tehran should stop its nuclear activities in return for the lifting of the relevant sanctions. Meanwhile Israel has been frantically trying to dissuade the American side from signing the deal, though American officials assured their Israeli allies that signing would not help the Iranians acquire a nuclear weapon. Israeli officials raised the issue of the advanced centrifuges Iran recently deployed, which raised the level of uranium purity close enough to produce nuclear bomb material. Russia, which along with China is part of the Vienna negotiations, offered to have these centrifuges along with enriched uranium transferred to Moscow, though the EU parties have no problem with the centrifuges remaining in Iran under constant IAEA supervision. No party has conceded that the talks failed, but the Europeans see their draft agreement as the last chance to revive the nuclear deal. Suzanne DiMaggio, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told National Public Radio (NPR) this week that the US and European sides believe the room for compromise has been exhausted, insisting that what is on the table is the farthest they can go, while the latest Iranian response continued to push the envelope. The Israeli daily Haaretz quoted an Israeli official with knowledge of the talks as saying that despite Israeli efforts, even though the agreement seems to be dying, the announcement of its death is still far away. There are too many parties interested in this deal, and they will try to revive it in the upcoming period. Yet the prospect is gloomy in contrast to the optimism of a few days ago. The recent incident in the Gulf waters involving an Iranian destroyer and self-steered American boats was followed by Iran stepping up its defence preparations, an indication of rising tensions with the US and Israel. The Iranian media reported that the country has equipped 51 of its cities with civil defence systems and boosted readiness at air defences to thwart any possible foreign attack. Irans Deputy Defence Minister Brigadier General Mehdi Farahisaid said the civil defence equipment will enable Iran to identify and monitor threats by using round-the-clock software according to the type of the threat and risk. The Iranian Mehr news agency quoted Brigadier General Qader Rahimzadeh, commander of Irans air defence headquarters, as saying that readiness was at its highest among his forces: The countrys airspace today is at its safest for licensed flights and its most insecure for would-be aggressors. Yet the possibility of full-scale war in the Gulf looks less likely even if the Vienna talks fail. A semi-official source from the Arab Gulf told the Weekly that nobody wants war in the region even if the Israelis are worried about Irans nuclear capabilities. The Americans traditionally will not open more than one front at a time, he added, referring to the current war in Ukraine in which they are indirectly involved. *A version of this article appears in print in the 8 September, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly. Search Keywords: Short link: On 2 September, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres appointed the Senegalese diplomat Abdoulaye Bathily the special envoy to Libya and head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), which had been leaderless for nine months. Bathily is the eighth envoy to Libya since 2011 and has a tall task ahead, helping Libyans resolve the current political crisis and reach a genuine settlement that has been awaited for over a decade. Bathilys appointment was approved without any objections by members of the UN Security Council, who had in the past opposed several candidates replacing the Slovak Jan Kubis, who resigned in December 2021 due to differences over the feasibility of the process facilitated by the UN among Libyans. Led by the US, Western powers are pushing for holding the elections delayed since 24 December last year, while Russia strongly opposes the UN process. Over the past eight months, Guterres was unable to appoint his Special Adviser on Libya Stephanie Williams to the position, although he had sent her to Libya to save the UN plan from collapsing after elections were cancelled. Russia and China adamantly blocked her appointment. Bathilys appointment is a response to pressure by Russia and China, which supported an African demand over the past several months that the head of UNSMIL should be from the continent. Before Bathily, five Western diplomats and three Arab figures served as UNSMIL chief. Guterres waited over three weeks before announcing Bathilys appointment after his name was nominated to the 15-member Security Council, and no objections were submitted until Friday evening. This was the third deadline given by Guterres to the Security Council, before he announced the new appointment, Guterres office said in an earlier statement. Two weeks before the announcement, Libyas UN Representative Ambassador Taher Al-Sunni submitted the objections of the Government of National Unity (GNU) led by Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah to Bathilys appointment, declaring him unqualified for the job. Later, Dbeibah welcomed the appointment and committed to giving his full support to make Bathilys mission in Libya a success. Despite the welcome tone, the appointment of Bathily, who in recent months was in charge of revising UNSMILs strategy, was met with little enthusiasm on the Libyan scene. The new UNSMIL boss was warmly received on the global stage by diplomats from countries concerned with the Libyan issue. They promised to support his mission to reach a viable political solution in Libya, though they disagreed on the details. The US and Western powers insist on crowning the process with elections, but that is unlikely to take place any time soon. Bathily will need to strike a balance between the ambitions of world powers and local actors, since the disparity between these two sides on a political settlement is stark and will require great efforts to bridge the views of actors inside and outside Libya. Another obstacle facing Bathily is how to function in a turbulent security and political environment, especially since Russia and China insist on launching an alternative political process in place of the one in which Western powers, led by the US and UK, are currently invested. It is unclear whether Bathily will be able to launch his own plan, which may contradict the approach of Western powers. Bathily, who will be located in the capital Tripoli, arrives at a time when the political crisis is escalating and governing divisions have resurfaced. In February, the parliament appointed a new government headed by Fathi Bashagha to succeed the incumbent GNU led by Dbeibah. The latter refused to cede power until elections are held, a position that has curried favour with Western powers that view the move by parliament as an attempt to evade its commitments to the electoral process. This also explains why the new government has not yet received any recognition from Western powers. The US defined the envoys mission as working on helping Libyan parties reach agreement on the constitutional framework and a timeline for elections, and enable Libyans to choose their own representatives through elections. This is a necessary step to legitimise and ensure accountability for the new government. Washington also encouraged Bathily to prioritise efforts to ensure transparency and accountability of the institutions of the Libyan state. Also, for UNSMIL to oversee the ceasefire which would help the Libyan Joint Military Committee 5+5 supervise the immediate withdrawal of all foreign forces, fighters, and mercenaries, according to a US State Department statement. Interestingly, Guterres statement about Bathilys appointment did not include any details of his mission, and only mentioned his biography and experience at international organisations that began two decades ago. Meanwhile, France, Russia and China have not commented on Bathilys appointment, although none of them raised objections to it. Inside Libya, the Presidential Council, the NUG, the government appointed by parliament, and High Council of State (HCS) dutifully welcomed the appointment, vowing to support Bathily in his new mission. On the other hand, neither the parliament in Tobruk nor Parliament Speaker Aguila Saleh commented. Those who welcome Bathily in Libya are not united on how he should end the political stalemate because they disagree on the path to a resolution. Chairman of the Presidential Council Mohamed Al-Menfi and Dbeibah agree there should be elections, while the HCS and parliament assert a new government needs to be appointed before holding elections. These demands cast a long shadow over Bathilys role in Libya due to the intransigence of influential actors on how to resolve the political impasse. It will remain contingent on the positions of world powers that are also divided over a comprehensive settlement process, especially the major powers. This means that addressing the crisis of political power will further delay elections, which are already a source of deep division among Libyans. One camp believes priority should be given to the constitutional foundation, while another counters that electoral laws are more important. Whether presidential and parliamentary elections should be held consecutively or simultaneously, which would be difficult in Libya due to current conditions there and the absence of a serious political process to resolve the crisis, is another question. The world will have to wait and see what Bathily will tell the Security Council at the end of September, when top level meetings on Libya among representatives of major powers are held in New York and Berlin. Discussions will focus on the next steps to be taken by these countries, or in coordination with the UN which is in charge of implementing the global agenda for a comprehensive settlement, based on the Berlin process and relevant Security Council resolutions. The new UN envoy will first need to wait for approval on restructuring UNSMIL, which major powers tethered to consensus on the new boss even though the overhaul was approved on 22 September 2021, including relocating UNSMIL offices to Tripoli instead of Geneva, where Kubis was stationed since his appointment in February 2021. *A version of this article appears in print in the 8 September, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly. Search Keywords: Short link: UN investigators said Friday they had documented more than 400 arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances by Russian forces in Ukraine, and dozens by Kyiv's troops. Matilda Bogner, head of the UN Rights Monitoring Mission present in Ukraine since 2014, decried a dramatic rise in rights abuses since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February. Speaking to journalists from Odessa, she detailed thousands of civilian deaths, hundreds of arbitrary detentions and documented torture and ill-treatment of prisoners of war. If proven in a court of law "that a prisoner of war has been tortured and ill-treated while in custody, this would be a war crime," she said. She said her team had verified that Russian forces and affiliated groups had arbitrarily detained or disappeared 416 people in areas they occupy or control. "Of those, 16 were found dead and 166 released," she said. They had also documented 51 cases of arbitrary arrests and 30 more that could amount to enforced disappearance carried out by Ukrainian law enforcement bodies, Bogner added. The mission had "unimpeded access" to places of detention in areas controlled by Ukraine, she said, but Russia had not provided access to prisoners of war held in its territory or areas it controls. "This is all the more worrying since we have documented that prisoners of war in the power of the Russian Federation ... have suffered torture and ill-treatment, and in some places of detention lack adequate food, water, healthcare and sanitation," she said. She described a "welcoming process", in which new detainees were forced to walk down a corridor with armed guards lined on either side, beating them severely as they went. Bogner voiced deep concern about the health situation in the Olenivka penal colony, where she said PoWs were reportedly suffering from infectious diseases, including hepatitis A and tuberculosis. The team had also documented some cases of torture and ill-treatment of Russian PoWs held by Ukrainians, typically at the time of capture and during transport to prison camps. Search Keywords: Short link: Earning the distinction of Britain's longest reigning monarch on September 9, 2015, she characteristically went about her daily duties, which included opening a new railway in Scotland, barely mentioning the distinction. "Inevitably, a long life can pass by many milestones; my own is no exception," she said at the ceremony. She helped lead her country through the aftermath of World War II, the Cold War, economic booms and busts, strife in Northern Ireland, the creation of the European Union and Brexit. Admired for her dedication to her job, Queen Elizabeth was seen by many Britons as a pillar of strength for the country at a time when the nation was navigating its diminishing world power. Working with 15 British prime ministers throughout her reign, beginning with Winston Churchill, the queen served as head of state for both Labour and Conservative governments, following the modern royal tradition of remaining neutral on political matters. The royal who wasn't supposed to become queen at all, sat on the throne for 70 years following the death in 1952 of her father, George VI, who himself assumed the throne only because of the abdication by his brother, King Edward VIII in 1936. Ascending the Throne As a young royal, Princess Elizabeth was placed directly in line for the throne when her uncle, Edward VIII, abdicated in 1936 in order to marry an American divorcee. Her father, George VI, inherited the role of head of state, and led the monarchy from 1936 to his death in 1952. Princess Elizabeth was on a tour in Kenya when she learned of her father's death. She was just 25 years old at the time and only four years into her marriage to navy Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, a Greek prince, whom she wed at age 21. The couple would later have four children, Charles, born in 1948, Anne, born in 1950, Andrew in 1960 and Edward in 1964. A year after her father's death, Elizabeth's Coronation took place in 1953 at a ceremony at London's Westminster Abbey, the first to be televised live to the world. An estimated 20 million Britons watched on television with millions more watching from abroad, according to the BBC, which broadcasted the event. Successes Supporters of the queen say she was instrumental in helping the monarchy to survive in Britain when the institution had been abandoned in many countries around the world. Known for her pragmatism and unshowy dedication to the job, the queen came to personify Britain in the eyes of many. Through her steadfast presence at countless events representing her country, she earned the respect of large majorities in Britain as well as popularity abroad, becoming one of the world's most recognizable figures. Britain's Express newspaper reported in 2020 that the Queen had traveled more than a million miles, calling her "the most traveled head of state of all time." The report said she had visited 110 countries, with her longest trip a 44,000-mile tour of the Commonwealth in 1953. In 2002, the Queen traveled more than 40,000 miles to celebrate her Golden Jubilee -- 50 years on throne -- including visits to the Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand and Canada as well as 70 towns and cities in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Some of her travels were diplomatic milestones for Britain, including her visit to West Germany in 1965, the first official visit by a British royal to Germany since 1913. The trip marked the 20th anniversary of the end of WWII. In 1986, the queen became the first visit British monarch to visit the Chinese mainland, and 25 years later she became the first British monarch in 100 years to travel to the Republic of Ireland. She earned praise for her speech in Ireland in 2011, saying that her visit "reminds us of the complexity of our history, its many layers and traditions, but also the importance of forbearance and conciliation. Of being able to bow to the past, but not be bound by it." The queen was a patron of more than 500 charities in Britain. Research from the Charities Aid Foundation released in 2012, when the monarch celebrated 60 years on the throne, showed that Queen Elizabeth had helped organizations raise nearly $2 billion. Difficulties The subject of scores of books, movies, and television shows, Queen Elizabeth remains enigmatic. She was intensely private and tight-lipped. While she was known to love horse racing, brightly colored clothing, and her Welsh corgis, her personal opinions were not something that she shared with the public. The queen had perhaps been most exposed to the public's intense scrutiny during times of difficulties during her reign, many of which related to troubles in her own royal family. She said in 1992 during a speech to mark the 40th anniversary of her succession that the year "has turned out be an 'Annus Horribilis' -- Latin for "a horrible year," after three of her four children announced a decision to separate or divorce -- Prince Charles, Prince Andrew and Princess Anne. Prince Charles' troubled marriage with Princess Diana was long a source of tension for the royal family with public sympathies often favoring the princess. After Princess Diana was killed in a car crash in 1997, the queen came under criticism for not immediately addressing the public or returning to Buckingham Palace from her vacation in Balmoral. Five days after the princess' death, the queen bowed to public pressure and returned to the palace to deliver a live address paying tribute to Diana. "She was an exceptional and gifted human being. In good times and bad, she never lost her capacity to smile and laugh, nor to inspire others with her warmth and kindness," the queen said. In 2019, the queen's second son, Prince Andrew, left his royal duties over his links to U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in a New York prison in 2019. Prince Andrew was accused by an American woman of sexual abuse at the home of Epstein, accusations the prince denied. Also quitting royal duties was the queen's grandson, Harry and his wife, Meghan, over tensions on how they would carry out their royal roles. The couple moved to the United States and in a televised interview in 2021 accused unnamed members in the royal family -- but not the queen -- of racism toward Meghan, who is biracial. The queen responded in a statement saying the accusations "are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately." Sympathies for the queen poured in after the death of her husband, Prince Philip, in April 2021, just a few weeks before his 100th birthday. Married for 73 years, the prince was often by the queen's side, or the two paces behind at official events that is required by royal protocol. The Queen hailed Prince Philip after his death as her "strength and stay" throughout their marriage and her reign. Overall, the new U.S. assistance would bring its Ukraine-related aid total to $15.2 billion since Biden took office in January last year. The $675 million in military assistance includes heavy weaponry, ammunition and armored vehicles. Blinken said the $2.2 billion in long-term aid would "bolster the security of Ukraine and 18 of its neighbors, including many of our NATO allies, as well as other regional security partners potentially at risk of future Russian aggression." Zelenskyy greeted Blinken in English, moments later awarding him the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise for his contributions to Ukraine. "I'm deeply honored," Blinken said. Zelenskyy expressed his gratitude for the "enormous support" the United States has sent Ukraine, praising Biden and the U.S. Congress for helping Ukraine "return our territory and lands." "I reiterated this message to President Zelenskyy and his team today in Kyiv, which remainsand will remainthe capital of a sovereign, independent Ukraine," Blinken said. Blinken entered Ukraine's fortified presidential administration building through a series of dark hallways with sandbags stacked over windows that eventually led to a white room with gold trim and crystal chandeliers. "Ukraine's extraordinary front-line defenders continue to courageously fight for their country's freedom," Blinken said in a statement after meeting with Zelenskyy. The top U.S. diplomat reaffirmed President Joe Biden's commitment to support Ukraine "for as long as it takes." Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a previously unannounced visit to Kyiv to announce the assistance and confer with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about the war against Russia, now in its seventh month. The U.S. said Thursday it plans to send $2.2 billion in long-term military aid to Ukraine and 18 other European countries threatened by Russian aggression and another $675 million directly to the Kyiv government in a new munitions package to fight Moscow's invasion. In a separate statement, the State Department said the aid would help those countries "deter and defend against emergent threats to their sovereignty and territorial integrity" by bolstering their military integration with NATO, the U.S.-dominated Western military alliance. Pending expected congressional approval, about $1 billion of $2.2 billion would go to Ukraine and the rest will be divided among Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, the State Department said. In Kyiv, before meeting with Zelenskyy and other Ukrainian officials, Blinken visited the U.S. embassy and then the National Specialized Children's Hospital Ohmatdyt, where he saw boys and girls injured during Russian bombardments, including Maryna, a 6-year-old girl from the city of Kherson who lost a leg after a rocket struck her house. In the hospital lobby, Blinken also met Patron, a Jack Russell terrier that has helped Ukraine's military find more than 200 mines laid by Russian forces. Blinken kneeled down, petted the dog and fed it treats, saying the canine was "world famous." Blinken took a basket of stuffed animals to one hospital ward, which the children quickly dangled in front of Patron to get his attention. Blinken told parents that "the spirit of your children sends a very strong message around the world." Since Feb. 24, when the Russian invasion began, an average of five children have been killed or injured in Ukraine every day, according to a humanitarian aid organization "Save the Children" that cited verified United Nations data. UNSC Meeting In New York, Russia called a UN Security Council meeting to criticize the West for sending military support to Ukraine in what its envoy said has become a proxy war. "NATO basically manually directs Kyiv in the theater of war," Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said. He characterized the notion that Western weapons would bring the Ukrainians victory on the battlefield as "empty fantasies." "New weapons will not change the balance of forces and will only extend agony of the Zelenskyy regime," he said. Washington's envoy said Moscow had nerve to suggest countries should step aside as it seeks to destroy another U.N. member state. "The United States is committed to supporting the people of Ukraine as they defend their lives, their liberty and their democracy. We are not hiding this support," Ambassador Richard Mills said. "Ukraine and all UN member states have every right to defend themselves, and we won't stop our support to Ukraine just because Russia is frustrated that its attempt at regime change has not gone to plan." Earlier, at a meeting of Western officials in Germany coordinating support for Ukraine, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said, "The war is at another key moment," with Ukrainian forces in the midst of a counteroffensive to try to reclaim lost territory in the south of the country. He said, "Now we're seeing the demonstrable success of our common efforts on the battlefield." No 'Viable Map' for Negotiation Even so, U.S. officials indicated diplomatic talks between Ukraine and Russia do not appear to be a top priority for Ukraine. "Right now, the Ukrainians do not have a viable map from which to negotiate," one senior State Department official said. "Twenty percent of their territory has gone, something like 30 percent of their industrial and agricultural potential is gone. That's why they're launching this counteroffensive." Defense ministers from Germany and the Netherlands said on the sidelines of the meeting with Austin that their countries would provide new training for Ukrainian forces on how to deactivate Russian mines and send demining equipment to the Kyiv government. In addition to fighting in the southern reaches of Ukraine and the eastern industrialized Donbas region, shelling continued near Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest. Each side has blamed the other for the attacks, even as the United Nations atomic energy watchdog agency has called for the creation of a safe zone around the facility to prevent a catastrophe akin to the nuclear plant disaster at Chernobyl in 1986. By Trend A traveler from Canada Francisco Reyes talked about the necessity to urge UNESCO to send its a mission to Karabakh, Trend reports. "The first task is to create conditions for the security of tourists. Unfortunately, the scale of mined territories of Karabakh region hinders the speedy development," he said. According to him, UNESCO and other international organizations have to visit these territories to directly assess the destruction, assist in the mine clearance process and convey the truth to the world community. "I'm visiting Karabakh for the first time and I think that Azerbaijan sees a lot of opportunities for economic development in this region. There are all premises for the successful development of tourism. A good foundation has already been laid, and excellent roads and an international airport have been built. I was also impressed by the houses already built and the plans for the construction and restoration of villages. I am sure that thanks to everyone's efforts, this region will turn into one of the key tourist destinations," the traveler added. Trips of famous travelers from more than 20 countries to Karabakh and East Zangazur continue. By William Hollingworth, KYODO NEWS - Sep 9, 2022 - 10:34 | All, World Britain's Queen Elizabeth II will be remembered for offering the nation a sense of "calm" during turbulent times as well as being a first-rate conciliator, according to a royal biographer. Royal writer Hugo Vickers said the queen, who died Thursday at age 96, fulfilled her role with "dignity" and showed immense "steadfastness" throughout her long reign. He thinks her death will leave the nation in a "state of shock" as, for many people, she has always been on the throne. The queen was one of the world's longest-serving monarchs and was sovereign in 15 of the 56 Commonwealth countries, including Britain, Australia and Canada. Related coverage: Queen Elizabeth, one of world's longest-reigning monarchs, dies at 96 In an interview with Kyodo News, Vickers said, "She established an atmosphere of calm in a very changing world. Whatever the situation, it was always very reassuring to know the queen would remain in place. "When Diana, Princess of Wales died, she went on TV and appeared very matriarchal and calm and told everyone to pull themselves together." The expert believes one of her main assets was to act as a "conciliator" and heal the wounds of the past. He said, "On many occasions, she had to visit countries where we had had big troubles in the past, such as Japan. Many were angry at these visits but, in the case of Japan, she was establishing better diplomatic relations. "The same can be said for her relations with Russia, China, Germany and Ireland. Whatever she thought privately, she always put the country first." Indeed, Vickers argues the queen was an excellent "ambassador" who never put a foot wrong even when she had to deal with some of the world's most unsavory leaders. Her quiet diplomacy was perhaps best exemplified by managing to keep the Commonwealth together during some rocky times. One of the queen's greatest qualities was to show immense dignity and steadfastness when the royal family was hit in the 1990s by various scandals and claims that it lacked compassion and was out of touch with ordinary people. Vickers said, "I hope there will be a sense of gratitude and respect from the public for her steadfastness and vision as queen. "There were times when some members of the royal family -- not so much the queen -- were described as dysfunctional. That must have been distressing, but she never lost her nerve and kept on going." "I think she was very happy in her last few years. She had three heirs, everything was calm, and the word dysfunctional was no longer used to describe the royal family." As to the future, the biographer believes King Charles will try and "slim down" the number of royal family members performing official duties and possibly make it a more informal organization. It is likely the new king will become head of the Commonwealth following his mother's death, but any decision is subject to the member states. Vickers "hopes" the nation will welcome the new King Charles, although, even now, many people still blame him for the breakdown of his marriage to Diana, Princess of Wales, in the early 1990s. Originally, the plan had been to name Charles's second wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, princess consort rather than queen consort, as many people felt she was also responsible for the breakup of the prince's first marriage. However, following their wedding in 2005, the couple's popularity grew, and in 2022 Queen Elizabeth said she wanted Camilla to be titled queen consort upon her son's accession to the throne. Over the next few days, there will be a flurry of behind-the-scenes activities as royal officials prepare for a new monarch and make arrangements for the queen's state funeral. Upon the queen's death, Charles immediately became king. Usually, within 24 hours of the announcement, an Accession Council -- a group of senior politicians and officials -- is convened, normally at St. James's Palace. The council proclaims the new king. The text is called the Accession Proclamation, and it is later read out from a palace balcony. The king then joins the council, and he will make a personal declaration relating to the queen's death. He will also make an oath to maintain the security of the Church of Scotland. The new king will later be expected to make another declaration -- which is essentially a commitment to being faithful to the Protestant religion -- at the next state opening of parliament or at his coronation, whichever is first. The queen's state funeral is likely to be one of the most-watched televised events in history. Leaders from across the Commonwealth and the world are expected to descend upon London in the coming days. The last state funeral in Britain was in 1965 for former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The queen's coffin is likely to be taken in a military procession to Westminster Hall, where it will lie in state for a few days. The coffin will be taken from there on a gun carriage drawn by Royal Navy soldiers to the funeral ceremony, which will either be at St. Paul's Cathedral or Westminster Abbey. There will be a 21-gun salute as the coffin is taken through the streets of the capital. The queen is likely to be buried at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. The royal family will then enter an official period of mourning, probably for several months. It is unclear when the new king's coronation will take place, but precedent shows it could be over a year from now. KYODO NEWS - Sep 9, 2022 - 14:33 | Others, All, Japan Japan is "extremely concerned" about China's continued activities around a group of Japan-controlled, China-claimed islands in the East China Sea, the top government spokesman said Friday, ahead of the 10th anniversary of Tokyo putting most of the islets under state control. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters the situation has remained "unpredictable" with Chinese coast guard vessels repeatedly entering Japan's territorial waters near the Senkaku Islands since September 2012. The Senkakus, which China calls Diaoyu, have been a thorny issue in bilateral ties since the Japanese government purchased three of islets, including the biggest island Uotsuri, from a Japanese individual, a decade ago. Related coverage: PM Kishida eyes attending event on Japan-China ties' 50th anniversary 110 tril. yen sought for Japan FY 2023 budget, defense costs to rise U.S. warships transit Taiwan Strait, 1st since Pelosi visit Matsuno maintained the government's position that there is no issue of territorial sovereignty to be resolved concerning the uninhabited islands. "There is no doubt that the Senkaku Islands are clearly an inherent part of the territory of Japan, in light of historical facts and based on international law," said the top government spokesman. "Indeed, they are under the valid control of Japan." Japan will continue to ramp up its maritime and aerial surveillance activities around the Senkakus, he added. KYODO NEWS - Sep 9, 2022 - 21:50 | All, Japan, World Japan's imperial family, politicians and public mourned Britain's Queen Elizabeth II on Friday, a day after she died at the age of 96, with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida lauding how she "contributed significantly" to strengthening bilateral relations, including through her 1975 visit to the country. A statement from Emperor Naruhito conveyed by the Imperial Household Agency exalted the queen's life of service, saying, "I express my heartfelt sorrow and deep sadness. From my heart, I declare my gratitude and esteem for her many achievements and contributions." His message also reflected on warm meetings he enjoyed with the monarch when studying at Oxford and on visits to Britain, and conveyed his and Empress Masako's deep gratitude to the British royal family for being the first to extend an invitation for a state visit following his accession to the Chrysanthemum Throne in May 2019. File photo taken in May 2001 shows Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip explaining to Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito about items related to the Japanese imperial family at the Royal Library at Windsor Castle. Prince Philip has died at the age of 99, Buckingham Palace said on April 9, 2021. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo The planned visit has been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The emperor also sent condolences from him and the empress to the queen's son, who immediately became King Charles III upon her passing. In remarks to reporters at his office, Kishida said the queen "contributed significantly to the strengthening of Japan-United Kingdom relations in particular." He said her passing "is a great loss not only to the people of the United Kingdom but also to the international community." A state funeral is expected to be held for the late queen, whose reign spanning over 70 years made her Britain's longest-serving monarch. She was also one of the world's longest-reigning monarchs. The government's top spokesman, Hirokazu Matsuno, told a press conference Japan will consider steps to take, including dispatching a special envoy, "based on announcements from the British government." Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi also hailed the impact of the two nations' monarchies on bilateral ties, telling a news conference, "Japan-U.K. relations have developed with the support provided by the traditional friendship between the imperial and royal families." Elizabeth II made the first visit to Japan by a British monarch in May 1975 and met Emperor Hirohito, posthumously known as Emperor Showa. Among the locations she traveled to on the state visit was Ise Jingu, a shrine in central Japan's Mie Prefecture dedicated to the Shinto sun goddess Amaterasu. The Shinto shrine's records say the queen took a keen interest in its construction, history and ceremonies and asked numerous questions. She also went to Mikimoto Pearl Island, also in Mie, to witness the work of its famed female "ama" divers who swim the depths without scuba gear or tanks, hunting for pearls. Kiyoo Matsuzuki, the now 70-year-old curator of the island's pearl museum who was among the party that greeted the queen, described feeling an "immense sadness over her death." The water was cold on the day Elizabeth II visited, Matsuzuki said, adding that the queen became so concerned about the around 40 divers she was watching that she started urging them to come back up sooner. The queen, a noted horseracing enthusiast, enjoyed deep ties with the Japan Racing Association, which has since 1976 held the annual Queen Elizabeth II Cup to commemorate her 1975 visit. The 2022 event set for Nov. 13 will no longer be named the "Platinum Jubilee" race commemorating her 70 years on the throne, the association said. In a statement, JRA President and CEO Masayuki Goto said, "All of us who are involved in horseracing are immensely proud of the contribution and passion her majesty gave to horseracing, and the race that bears her name was loved the world over. We deeply mourn her passing." At the British Embassy in Tokyo, the flag was flown at half-staff, and later Friday evening Kishida visited to pay his respects and sign a book of condolences. People were also seen laying flowers outside the embassy. Among them was Kiyomi Fujii, a 55-year-old resident of Nagoya in central Japan, who happened to be in Tokyo visiting a British-themed fair at a local department store when she heard the news. "She was a wonderful person who brought comfort to the people and never lost her sense of humor. I'll always remember the way that video at the London Olympics opening ceremony made it look like she was skydiving," a tearful Fujii said after offering flowers. Related coverage: Queen Elizabeth, one of world's longest-reigning monarchs, dies at 96 Asian leaders send condolences over Queen Elizabeth's death FOCUS: Royal expert pays tribute to Queen Elizabeth's "steadfastness" By Magali Beuchat, KYODO NEWS - Sep 10, 2022 - 00:05 | All, World, Japan A U.N. panel dealing with the rights of people with disabilities urged Japan on Friday to end special education that segregates children with disabilities from those without, as part of its recommendations for the country over its policies for the disabled. The U.N. Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities expressed concerns over how an increasing number of disabled children cannot attend regular schools and called on the Japanese government to adopt a national action plan on quality inclusive education. The committee, composed of 18 independent experts working with the U.N. human rights office, also called on Japan to ensure that all students with disabilities be provided with individualized support at all levels of education. The review was conducted in late August through an in-person format with the Japanese government. It was Japan's first time to be subjected to a review since it ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2014. While highlighting the progress made by Japan in its policies for disabled people, Jonas Ruskus, vice-chair of the committee and co-rapporteur for the country, said at a press briefing that Japan must reverse its "negative trend of (segregated) special education." Japan was one of the nine state parties to the convention reviewed by the U.N. panel, along with China, Indonesia, and South Korea, among others. While the recommendations for policy improvement measures are not legally binding, the committee's calls are expected to press the Japanese government to take action toward improving the lives and societal participation of people with disabilities. The committee also expressed concerns over the adverse impact on disabled people placed in residential institutions and psychiatric hospitals for extended periods, depriving them of their life with family and community. It asked Japan to "end institutionalization" by reallocating its financial resources from residential institutions to supporting disabled people to live independently in the community. The committee also urged Japan to "abolish all legal provisions, legitimating forced treatment" of persons with disabilities, describing their "involuntary hospitalization" as "discrimination on the grounds of impairment." In particular, the U.N. panel cited the 2016 mass murder of 19 mentally impaired people at Tsukui Yamayuri En facility, a care home in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, near Tokyo. It recommended that Japan review the incident and fight against "eugenic and ableist attitudes" in Japanese society that triggered the incident. In an unusually large number compared with other countries, around 100 people, including those with disabilities, their families and representatives of civic groups, headed to Geneva for the review to voice their concerns to the committee. Nongovernmental advocacy groups, such as the Japan Disability Forum and the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, have also participated in the review process. Ruskus said Japanese civil society has been "exceptionally active" and "very much involved." Japan must submit reports on measures to implement the committee's recommendations in February 2028. The country submitted in 2016 its first report on its implementation of the convention. BRAZZAVILLE, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- A total of 524 confirmed cases of monkeypox, including 12 deaths, have been reported across 11 African countries since 2022, announced World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti Thursday. The majority of the confirmed cases are in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Ghana, said Moeti at an online press briefing, adding that out of the 12 deaths, 6 were reported in Nigeria, 4 in Ghana, and 2 in the Central African Republic. Although no single monkeypox vaccine has been administered to any high-risk group in any of the African countries reporting cases, WHO has provided 39,000 test kits to countries, enabling improved testing rates, said Moeti. Monkeypox spreads through close, often skin-to-skin contact, including direct contact with rashes, scabs, or bodily fluids from a person with monkeypox, touching surfaces that have been contaminated with the virus, or contact with respiratory secretions from someone with the virus. Regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, the African continent has seen a six-week decline in cases, with levels now down to the levels that were reported in the very early days of the pandemic nearly three years ago, said Moeti. BEIJING, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- The 2022 national conference on the development of specialized and sophisticated small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that produce novel and unique products opened in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province on the morning of September 8. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, president of the People's Republic of China and chairman of the Central Military Commission, sent a letter to extend warm congratulations. In his congratulatory letter, Xi pointed out that SMEs are important to each household and have been a vital force to advance innovation, facilitate employment and improve people's livelihood. He hoped the specialized and sophisticated SMEs that produce novel and unique products could focus on and refine their main business so as to play an even more important role in stabilizing the industrial and supply chains and promoting economic and social development. Xi also urged Party committees and governments at all levels to resolutely implement the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and create a favorable environment for the development of SMEs. He required more efforts to support SMEs' growth and boost their confidence. Solid steps should be taken to advance enterprises' innovation, strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights and nurture more specialized and sophisticated SMEs that could produce novel and unique products. Vice Premier Liu He, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, attended the opening ceremony via video link, and read aloud the congratulatory message. The conference, with the theme "strengthen the foundation and consolidate the chain," is co-hosted by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and Jiangsu Provincial People's Government. Leading officials of relevant departments of the central government and leading officials of Jiangsu provincial government, officials in charge of SMEs affairs from provincial-level bureaus, and representatives of specialized and sophisticated SMEs attended the meeting. BEIJING, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- China's anti-graft chief has called on discipline inspection and supervision organs to improve duty performance to advance full and rigorous Party governance, improve Party conduct, ensure clean government, and step up the fight against corruption to greet the convocation of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) later this year. Zhao Leji, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, made the remarks while addressing a commendation conference for the country's disciplinary inspection commissions and supervision agencies. Hailing the new progress in improving conduct, strengthening discipline, and combating corruption, Zhao called for efforts to encourage discipline inspection and supervision officials to learn from their model counterparts, thus promoting the high-quality development of discipline inspection and supervision in the new era. Zhao also stressed strengthening self-improvement and advancing self-reform of discipline inspection and supervision organs to build a team of discipline inspection and supervision officials who are loyal, responsible, amiable, credible, and honorable. Three Chinese astronauts talked from space with youths from eight African countries on Tuesday via video link, sharing their experience in the Shenzhou-14 mission. The taikonauts Chen Dong, Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe are on a six-month stay in orbit. The main venue of the event, "Talk with Taikonauts," was held at the headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa. The rare opportunity to talk with astronauts in orbit has reinvigorated African youths' space dreams. Produced by Xinhua Global Service COLOMBO, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe has instructed officials to organize celebrations of the country's 75th Independence Day next year in a cost-effective manner, the President's Media Division (PMD) said on Thursday. The instructions were given during the first meeting of the 75th Independence Day Commemoration Committee held at the President's Office, the PMD said in a statement. According to Wickremesinghe's instructions, Sri Lanka's official celebration of the 75th Independence Day on Feb. 4, 2023 will be held in the evening at Galle Face in the captial Colombo. Apart from parades and ceremonies involving the armed forces and the police, the president said that cultural elements that showcase Sri Lanka's national pride and youth-friendly elements should be included. Wickremesinghe also said these events need to be organized in a way that the public can participate and enjoy them, according to the PMD statement. It was also decided to invite foreign ministers of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries as special guests in the celebration, said the statement. The SAARC, established in 1985, groups Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. ISLAMABAD, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan's government on Thursday approved 3 billion rupees (13.36 million U.S. dollars) in funds for providing assistance to flood-affected people in the South Asian country. The finance ministry said that at a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet, it was decided that the government will provide the money to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) for relief supplies, rescue operations, and rehabilitation of the flood-affected people. The Pakistani government will also provide 540 million rupees to utility stores in the flood-hit areas to ensure a smooth supply of essential commodities to the affected people. The country's state news agency Associated Press of Pakistan reported that the utility stores have taken an active part in the relief operations of supplying essential food items in flood-affected areas in collaboration with provincial governments. Due to the emergency situation and based on the preliminary need assessment, 113,700 ration bags amounting to 540 million rupees will be disbursed to the flood-affected families, the report said. (1 U.S. dollar equals 224.56 Pakistani rupees) By Azernews By Vugar Khalilov The TurAz Falcon-2022 (TurAz Qartali) joint flight-tactical drills, which involve Azerbaijani and Turkish pilots, are underway in Azerbaijan, Azernews reports, citing the Defense Ministry. Under the drills plan, military pilots flying from base airfields on predetermined itineraries fulfilled the given tasks in various episodes. The required duties are successfully completed by personnel during the joint flight-tactical exercises, the ministry said. Azerbaijan and Turkiye periodically hold joint drills to improve interaction and communication between their army units. The two nations conducted a series of joint drills such as Indestructible Brotherhood, TurAz Falcon, and Three Brothers in previous years. The military personnel of the Azerbaijani armys land, air, naval and special forces joined a number of military exercises and seminars in Turkiye. Military cooperation between Azerbaijan and Turkiye first emerged in 1992, with an agreement signed between the Azerbaijani and Turkish governments on military education and weapon equipment and deals to help strengthen the bond between the two nations. On June 15, the two countries signed a memorandum on the alliance that cemented the existing military, political and economic cooperation. DHAKA, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- At least nine people were killed on Thursday by a massive lightning strike in Bangladesh's Sirajganj district, 134 km northwest of the national capital Dhaka, a local police official said. Md Noor Alam Siddiqui, additional police chief of the Sirajganj district, told Xinhua over mobile phone: "Nine people, including five of the same family, were killed in lightning in Sirajganj's Ullapara sub-district." Two others were injured in the accident, he added. He said all the victims were working at a paddy field when the lightning strike hit them at around 3:30 p.m. local time. The thunderbolt struck them abruptly, leaving five people dead on the spot and six others injured critically. Four of the injured died later in a hospital, he added. Deaths due to lightning strikes are common in Bangladesh during this time of the year. However, the South Asian country has seen a surge in deaths due to lightning strike over recent years, and some of the country's experts have blamed the situation directly on climate change. BEIJING, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Friday that China expresses deep condolences over the death of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, adding the Queen made important contributions to expanding friendly exchanges between the two countries. Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's longest-reigning monarch in history, has died aged 96, according to Buckingham Palace on Thursday. Mao said that Chinese President Xi Jinping had sent condolences to British King Charles III over the death of Queen Elizabeth II, and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang sent condolences to British Prime Minister Liz Truss. During her 70 years on the throne, Queen Elizabeth II devoted herself to promoting national development and friendly exchanges between Britain and other countries, Mao stressed. Noting that Queen Elizabeth II was the first British monarch to visit China and had also received a number of Chinese leaders to visit Britain, Mao said that the Queen made significant contributions to enhancing understanding between the Chinese and British people and expanding friendly exchanges between the two countries. "China stands ready to continue to work with the British royal family and all sectors to promote the continuous development of bilateral relations," Mao noted. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban delivers his speech at an inauguration ceremony for Hungary's first border hunter regiment in Budapest, Hungary on Sept. 9, 2022. The first border hunter regiment was inaugurated here on Friday. (Photo by Attila Volgyi/Xinhua) BUDAPEST, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- The first border hunter regiment was inaugurated here on Friday. "Security begins at our borders, and Hungary's security begins with the border hunters," Prime Minister Viktor Orban declared at the ceremony of the establishment of the regiment. In his speech, Orban said that millions arrived illegally from Africa and the Middle East to Europe, "flouting borders and laws." He stressed that a country without borders is like "an egg without shell," and assured that the Hungarian border protection system was working. "It resists even the highest waves of illegal migration." More than 162,000 border violators have already been apprehended at the Hungarian border, compared to around 60,000 in the same period last year, and the number of people-smugglers doubled compared to the same period of the previous year, according to official data. Migrants are trying to enter Hungary more and more violently and regularly, which leads to the setting of border hunting units. The government on Tuesday extended the crisis situation caused by mass immigration until March 7, 2023. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (front, L) inspects the members of Hungary's first border hunter regiment at the inauguration ceremony in Budapest, Hungary on Sept. 9, 2022. The first border hunter regiment was inaugurated here on Friday. (Photo by Attila Volgyi/Xinhua) Members of Hungary's first border hunter regiment march after they take their oath of office at an inauguration ceremony in Budapest, Hungary on Sept. 9, 2022. The first border hunter regiment was inaugurated here on Friday. (Photo by Attila Volgyi/Xinhua) Members of Hungary's first border hunter regiment attend the inauguration ceremony in Budapest, Hungary on Sept. 9, 2022. The first border hunter regiment was inaugurated here on Friday. (Photo by Attila Volgyi/Xinhua) File photo taken on May 8, 2005 shows Britain's Prince Charles attending a celebration for the 60th anniversary of the victory of WWII in Europe, held in London, Britain. (Xinhua/Wang Jianhua) LONDON, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- With the death of Queen Elizabeth II, her son Charles has become Britain's new King, according to Buckingham Palace. "The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow," Buckingham Palace said in a statement on Thursday. Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's longest-reigning monarch in history, died aged 96. Earlier in the day, Buckingham Palace said the monarch was under medical supervision due to doctors' concerns over her health. The royal family members soon rushed to Scotland to be at her side following the announcement. As part of Britain's constitutional monarchy system, the crown is passed on to her eldest son Charles. It is not immediately known when the official coronation ceremony will take place. "The death of my beloved Mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family," King Charles said in a statement. "We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much-loved Mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world," it added. File photo taken on Nov. 11, 2018 shows Britain's Prince Charles attending the annual remembrance ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, in London, Britain. (Xinhua/Han Yan) Britain's King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla leave Buckingham Palace in London, Britain, Sept. 9, 2022. With the death of Queen Elizabeth II, her son Charles has become Britain's new king, according to Buckingham Palace. (Photo by Stephen Chung/Xinhua) HAMBURG, Germany, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- The 10,000th fully loaded China-Europe freight train in 2022 arrived here from Xi'an International Port in Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, on Friday. At the Eurogate train terminal in Hamburg, the welcome ceremony was attended by Wang Wei, deputy consul general of the People's Republic of China in Hamburg, and Axel Mattern, chief executive officer of Port of Hamburg Marketing. "This is an important milestone for China's cooperation with Hamburg, Germany and Europe," Wang said. "The high-capacity connections of the China-Europe goods trains have greatly helped foreign trade in reducing costs and increasing efficiency, and effectively promoted economic development along the route," she added. Mattern told Xinhua that China is a very important partner of Hamburg and that the China-Europe freight train plays a crucial role in stabilizing the security of supply chain. "Especially during this difficult time and due to the congestion of the sea route, the China-Europe freight train still functions effectively," Mattern said, adding that he is looking forward to welcoming more trains from China. The number of China-Europe freight train trips in 2022 reached 10,000 on Aug. 21, 10 days earlier than last year, the China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. said. With 82 routes, the trains now reach 200 cities in 24 European countries, forming a transport network covering the whole of Europe. The trains transport more than 50,000 types of goods across 53 categories, such as automobiles and parts, clothing and accessories, and grain and timber. China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations Geng Shuang (R, front), speaks at the Security Council briefing on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, at the UN headquarters in New York, Sept. 6, 2022. (Xinhua/Xie E) "China has always maintained that dialogue and negotiation is the most realistic and feasible way to resolve the crisis. Only by seeking common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable security can there be long-term stability and security in Europe and the rest of the world," a Chinese envoy said. UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy warned on Thursday that supplying weapons to Ukraine will not bring peace. More than six months after the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis, fierce fighting is still raging on and more weapons and ammunition are flowing to the battlefield, giving rise to a worrying prospect of a prolonged and expanded conflict, said Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations. Since the beginning of the crisis, China has consistently emphasized that supplying weapons will not bring peace and that adding fuel to fire will only complicate the problem. The harsh reality and humanitarian consequences of the past six months have fully demonstrated this, he told a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine. Equally worrying is the scenario that a large number of weapons and ammunition falling into the wrong hands, causing endless trouble, and creating security risks in Ukraine and in the wider region. Relevant negative impact has already begun to emerge, he said. "China has always maintained that dialogue and negotiation is the most realistic and feasible way to resolve the crisis. Only by seeking common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable security can there be long-term stability and security in Europe and the rest of the world," he said. A Ukrainian soldier covers an armored vehicle with branches in Donbass on April 12, 2022. (Photo by Diego Herrera/Xinhua) The Ukrainian crisis has once again proved in a brutal way that pursuing power politics, seeking absolute security, being obsessed with military power, and creating division and confrontation cannot bring peace and stability, nor reconciliation and tranquility. All parties concerned should remain in contact and communication, and leave room for diplomatic negotiations, so as to create conditions for a political settlement and achieve the cessation of hostilities at an early date, he added. On the issue of Ukraine, China has always believed that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states should be respected, the purposes and principles of the UN Charter should be followed, the legitimate security concerns of all countries should be taken seriously, and every effort conducive to the peaceful resolution of the crisis should be supported. China will continue to stand on the side of peace, the side of dialogue, and the side of humanity, and will play a constructive role in the proper settlement of the Ukraine crisis, said Geng. UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Thursday that he was saddened by the death of British Queen Elizabeth II. "I am deeply saddened at the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland," said Guterres in a statement. He extended his condolences to the queen's family, the government and people of Britain, and the wider Commonwealth of Nations. "As the United Kingdom's longest-lived and longest-reigning head of state, Queen Elizabeth II was widely admired for her grace, dignity, and dedication around the world. She was a reassuring presence throughout decades of sweeping change, including the decolonization of Africa and Asia and the evolution of the Commonwealth," said the statement. The queen was a good friend of the United Nations, and visited its New York Headquarters twice, more than 50 years apart. She was deeply committed to many charitable and environmental causes and spoke movingly to delegates at the UN climate change conference in Glasgow last November, said the statement. "I would like to pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth II for her unwavering, life-long dedication to serving her people. The world will long remember her devotion and leadership," it said. Queen Elizabeth II died on Thursday at the age of 96. She began her reign in 1952. BEIJING, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- China's Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) has announced its decision to arrest Liu Yanping, a former senior discipline inspector, for suspected bribe-taking. The National Commission of Supervision has completed an investigation into Liu's case and transferred it to procuratorial authorities for prosecution, the SPP said in a statement on Friday. Liu was formerly head of the discipline inspection and supervision team sent by the Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Commission of Supervision to the Ministry of National Security. The handling of the case is underway. BEIJING, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a message of condolences on Friday to British King Charles III over the death of Queen Elizabeth II. On behalf of the Chinese government and people and in his own name, Xi expressed deep condolences over the death of Queen Elizabeth II and extended sincere sympathy to the British royal family, government and people. In his message, Xi said that Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-reigning monarch in British history, has won wide acclaim, noting that Queen Elizabeth II was the first British monarch to visit China and that her death is a great loss to the British people. Xi stressed that he attaches great importance to the development of China-Britain relations and stands ready to work with King Charles III to take the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries at the ambassadorial level as an opportunity to promote the healthy and stable development of bilateral relations for the benefit of the two countries and their people. TEHRAN, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- A top Iranian military commander said on Friday the country will carry out the final test of its upgraded homegrown missile defense system, dubbed Bavar (Belief) 373, in the coming days, according to the semi-official Fars news agency. Alireza Sabahi-Fard, commander of the Iranian Army's Air Defense Force, said in a televised interview that the system has successfully completed all its initial tests. He stressed that all Iranian air defense systems have been equipped with cutting-edge technologies, with Bavar 373 being the army's flagship. Bavar 373, which was unveiled in August 2019, is a mobile missile defense system designed to intercept and destroy incoming hostile targets. Employing missiles that have a maximum range of 300 kilometers, the system is capable of detecting and targeting the enemies' aircraft beyond the Iranian borders, as well as simultaneously detecting up to 300 targets, tracking 60 targets and engaging six targets. Bavar 373 has two search and intercept radars, which can resist electronic warfare and electromagnetic bombs. In addition, the radars are capable of detecting anti-radiation missiles that are used to confront air defenses. By Azernews By Vugar Khalilov Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov has said that Azerbaijan hails Spains growing interest in the Southern Gas Corridor project, Azernews reports. Bayramov made the remarks in an interview with EFE Comunicacion, Spains leading information agency as part of his official visit to the country. Azerbaijan has been a long-time, reliable partner for Europe as an oil and oil products supplier, and Spain is among the top ten countries buying crude oil from Azerbaijan, the minister said. He emphasized that Azerbaijan's role as a trustworthy energy partner to Europe has grown with the completion of the 3,500-km-long Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) in early 2021. The minister underlined that Azerbaijan considers Spain a good partner in the SGC project, underlining the participation of the Spanish Enagas energy company in the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) with a 16 percent stake. Referring to the Memorandum of Understanding, signed between Azerbaijan and the EU on the strategic energy partnership on July 18 in Baku, Bayramov stressed that the agreement will double Azerbaijans gas export to Europe. This agreement has several important elements, one of which is the increase in Azerbaijan's gas supplies to the European market over the next five years that will double and grow from 10 to 20 billion cubic meters of gas, he said. Furthermore, the top diplomat said that Azerbaijan and Spain are holding extensive discussions on expanding their renewable energy cooperation. Azerbaijan has the potential in supplying green electricity to the EU. Our countries can establish very specific and tangible cooperation in this sector. Spain is well known for its green technologies, Bayramov stressed. The minister underlined that one of the key topics of discussion during his visit to Spain was the engagement of Spanish firms in renewable energy projects in Azerbaijan. He also commented on the two nations' cooperation opportunities in the energy sector, as well as Spain's interest in and commitment to the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC). Azerbaijan has been a long-time, reliable partner for Europe as an oil and oil products supplier, and Spain is among the top ten countries buying crude oil from Azerbaijan, the minister said. Speaking on the post-conflict normalization process in the region following the second Karabakh war in 2020, Bayramov highlighted that the situation remains complicated. We hope that Armenia will respect its obligations and we believe that there is no other possibility to turn the page, normalize relations and make them good-neighborly, of course, but for this, one must fulfill the obligations and at the same time, respect international law, Bayramov emphasized. BEIJING, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a message of condolences on Friday to British King Charles III over the death of Queen Elizabeth II. On behalf of the Chinese government and people and in his own name, Xi expressed deep condolences over the death of Queen Elizabeth II and extended sincere sympathy to the British royal family, government and people. In his message, Xi said that Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-reigning monarch in British history, has won wide acclaim, noting that Queen Elizabeth II was the first British monarch to visit China and that her death is a great loss to the British people. Xi stressed that he attaches great importance to the development of China-Britain relations and stands ready to work with King Charles III to take the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries at the ambassadorial level as an opportunity to promote the healthy and stable development of bilateral relations for the benefit of the two countries and their people. On the same day, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang sent a message of condolences to British Prime Minister Liz Truss, expressing condolences over the death of Queen Elizabeth II and extending sympathy to her relatives and the British government. Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, meets with representatives of outstanding teachers and normal school students at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 9, 2022. Sun conveyed congratulations and greetings from the CPC Central Committee and the State Council to teachers and educators across the country. (Xinhua/Gao Jie) BEIJING, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan has stressed comprehensive and redoubled efforts to foster a contingent of high-caliber teachers in the run-up to China's 38th teachers' day, which falls on Saturday. Sun, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, met with representatives of outstanding teachers and normal school students in Beijing. She conveyed congratulations and greetings from the CPC Central Committee and the State Council to teachers and educators across the country. Sun noted the historic achievements made in nurturing educational talent since the 18th National Congress of the CPC in 2012. She called on the vast number of teachers nationwide to promote the high-quality development of education and fulfill their duty to foster capable students who will contribute to and carry forward the mission of national rejuvenation. Sun urged teachers to cultivate themselves morally and professionally. She said they should live up to the expectations of the Party and the people and provide a suitable education for every child in the interest of their comprehensive development. Sun also called on Party committees and governments at all levels to prioritize cultivating high-caliber teachers, raise the quality of normal schools, and implement relevant policies to attract more teaching talents. TEHRAN, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Army's Air Force commander said on Thursday that the Islamic republic had become self-sufficient in the production of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones, and aimed to make further progress in the field, Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) reported. Making the remarks in the northwestern city of Tabriz, Hamid Vahedi said the Air Force had made good progress in UAV production and had created the Kaman 12 and Kaman 22, two strategic and valuable UAVs, in addition to other drones developed by the Defense Ministry. Iran is among the region's top UAV manufacturers and its capability in UAV manufacturing is growing day by day, he added. According to the commander, recent tests have shown that Iran's UAVs are not only capable of carrying out reconnaissance missions, but also hitting targets with precision weapons. During a two-day drill last month, the Iranian Army tested a variety of homemade UAVs by using them to hit mock targets with precision weapons. PRAGUE, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- The Council of the European Union (EU) on Friday adopted a decision on the full suspension of a visa facilitation agreement with Russia. The decision "will result in an increase in the visa application fee from 35 euros to 80 euros, the need to present additional documentary evidence, increased visa processing time, and more restrictive rules for the issuance of multiple-entry visas," the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU said. The decision entered into force on Friday and will apply as of Sept. 12, the statement said. The 2007 EU-Russia visa facilitation agreement aimed to facilitate the issuance of short-stay visas on the basis of reciprocity. Following the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in late February this year, the EU partially suspended the visa facilitation agreement for Russian officials and business people. At their informal meeting last month in Prague, the foreign ministers of the EU member states reached a political agreement to move forward with the full suspension of the agreement. The full suspension "affects all categories of travelers coming to the EU for a short stay," the statement said, adding that the European Commission will present additional guidelines to ensure that the suspension "does not negatively impact certain people traveling to the EU for essential purposes." Russia said on Sunday that it would take serious retaliatory measures if the EU formally introduces visa restrictions on Russian citizens. The Czech Republic is currently holding the rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU for the second half of this year. Photo taken on Sept. 8, 2022 shows a booth of the e-CNY (digital yuan) experience zone at the China (Beijing) Digital Finance Forum 2022 in Beijing, capital of China. The China (Beijing) Digital Finance Forum 2022 themed "Innovate Together: Governance and Openness" was held in Lize Financial Business District of Fengtai District in Beijing on Thursday. (Xinhua/Li Xin) Photo taken on Sept. 8, 2022 shows the e-CNY (digital yuan) experience zone at the China (Beijing) Digital Finance Forum 2022 in Beijing, capital of China. The China (Beijing) Digital Finance Forum 2022 themed "Innovate Together: Governance and Openness" was held in Lize Financial Business District of Fengtai District in Beijing on Thursday. (Xinhua/Li Xin) Photo taken on Sept. 8, 2022 shows the China (Beijing) Digital Finance Forum 2022 held in Beijing, capital of China. The China (Beijing) Digital Finance Forum 2022 themed "Innovate Together: Governance and Openness" was held in Lize Financial Business District of Fengtai District in Beijing on Thursday. (Xinhua/Li Xin) NEW YORK, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- Steve Bannon, who served as chief strategist for former U.S. President Donald Trump, was charged on Thursday with money laundering, conspiracy and scheme to defraud after turning himself in to New York State prosecutors, according to local authorities. New York prosecutors announced the indictment of Bannon, 68, and We Build the Wall, Inc., a Florida-based not-for-profit corporation, for a year-long fundraising scheme that netted over 15 million U.S. dollars from thousands of donors, and for laundering the proceeds of that scheme in order to advance and conceal the fraud. Both Bannon and We Build the Wall, Inc. were charged with two counts of money laundering, three counts of conspiracy and one count of scheme to defraud by a New York State Supreme Court grand jury indictment, according to a release from Manhattan District Attorney's Office on Thursday. "It is a crime to turn a profit by lying to donors, and in New York, you will be held accountable," said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. "As alleged, Stephen Bannon acted as the architect of a multi-million dollar scheme to defraud thousands of donors across the country -- including hundreds of Manhattan residents," Bragg said. "Mr. Bannon took advantage of his donors' political views to secure millions of dollars which he then misappropriated. Mr. Bannon lied to his donors to enrich himself and his friends," added New York Attorney General Letitia James. Bannon was arraigned before a State Supreme Court judge in Manhattan in the afternoon and he pleaded not guilty, said a report by ABC News. "This is nothing more than a partisan political weaponization of the criminal justice system," said Bannon in a statement on Tuesday referring to the indictment. Bannon together with three others were indicted by the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York for crimes related to We Build the Wall's fundraising scheme in August 2020 and he was pardoned by Trump on Jan. 20, 2021. Moreover, Bannon was convicted of contempt of Congress in July and is scheduled to be sentenced later this year. AMMAN, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- Jordan's Health Ministry on Thursday confirmed the first monkeypox case in the kingdom, the state-run Petra news agency reported. The patient was a Jordanian citizen in his 30s who had recently traveled to several European countries and returned to Jordan on Aug. 20, according to the ministry. The patient, who is currently in good condition and recovering at his home in isolation, started to develop symptoms on Aug. 25, including a fever, sore throat, muscle soreness and swollen lymph nodes, it added. The ministry said it was tracking down people who had contact with the patient to inquire about their health conditions. WINDHOEK, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- Namibia celebrated Thursday the annual Cultural Festival in Windhoek, the country's capital, after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the opening ceremony, Namibia's Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila praised the organizers for the event which she said will bring unity among not only Namibians but fellow brothers and sisters from all over. "Unity can thrive in diversity," she said. The opening ceremony was held at the University of Namibia (UNAM), the largest university in the country. "For all my two years I have been at UNAM, I had longed to be part of such a festivity. We had just heard stories of the much-hyped cultural festival," said Jasmine Gaoses, a student. The cultural festival is open to the public and aims to promote and celebrate Namibia's rich culture and create a platform for entrepreneurs, as various stalls are available where different food and products are up for sale, creating an entrepreneurial culture. "My friends and I will also have a stall where we will be selling traditional food and drinks to the visitors," Gaoses said. Cleopas Shipepe, also a student at UNAM, said that the COVID-19 pandemic had disrupted an activity that he believes is a highlight for both students and visitors. "I am glad it is back and as usual we will learn and embrace different cultures and traditions we will come across," he added. With just a population of over 2.5 million, Namibia is full of rich culture as ten tribes and ethnic groups are spread across the country. UNAM spokesperson John Haufiku told Xinhua that "with the event, they celebrate all the diversity that Namibia has in the form of our students from various regions as well as our international students." "The whole point of the event is to celebrate culture, learn from it as well as see how we can improve it for future generations," he said. UNAM's Vice-Chancellor, Professor Kenneth Matengu said that the event promotes multiculturalism. It brings about unity through diversity and a level of understanding which helps each other to facilitate collaboration and cooperation. Currently, UNAM has students from over 40 different countries and staff members from over 69 different countries. This is a clear example that cultural diversity is present, he said. The festival will run until Saturday, with other activities like Miss and Mr Cultural Festival and musical performances. UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday called for efforts to help victims of terrorism. In a message to the UN Global Congress of Victims of Terrorism, he called for progress on three fronts: recognition of victims and solidarity with them, accountability and victims' access to justice, and a victim-centered approach to counter-terrorism. The unique needs of victims must be acknowledged through the granting of legal status. Their needs should be supported through comprehensive, gender-sensitive services, Guterres said in the message delivered by Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed. Guterres is in Pakistan for a solidarity visit after last week's horrendous flooding. Accountability is key to healing and rehabilitation. This includes the recognition of the specific needs of women and girl victims, who may face challenges accessing justice due to underlying gender stereotypes, said the UN chief in the message. "I urge all parties to respond to victims' calls for transparency and information-sharing during the investigation of terrorist attacks," he said. This congress is a clarion call to keep victims front and center in all counter-terrorism work, he said, encouraging member states to use this opportunity to recommit to promoting victims' rights and supporting their needs -- financial, legal, medical, and psychosocial. "I call for a particular focus on the provision of mental health and psychosocial support services to victims and their communities, for as long as necessary," he said. Guterres noted that terrorism exacerbates poverty, political and economic instability, and climate change. It affects people of all ages and genders and from all cultures, religions, and nationalities. It is a direct threat to international peace and security. It also impedes sustainable development and undermines human rights and the rule of law. Terrorism is frequently marked by sexual and gender-based violence and deepens gender inequality. And terrorism combines with other global crises, from climate change to the COVID-19 pandemic, to further marginalize vulnerable groups, he added. For all these reasons, the United Nations is stepping up efforts to combat terrorism in all its forms, he said, adding "this congress is a reaffirmation of our commitment to action. And together, we can and will defeat terrorism." The aerial photo taken on Aug. 6, 2019 shows the Sahiwal Coal Power plant in Sahiwal, Punjab Province, Pakistan. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal) "Pakistan was massively short of energy as there were 18 hours of blackouts across the country back in 2014. China has come to our support to overcome the energy crisis by adding clean and green energy to the national grid," a Pakistani minister said. ISLAMABAD, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan's Minister for Power Khurram Dastgir Khan said on Thursday that power projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) helped Pakistan in alleviating severe energy shortages while promoting renewable energy goals. "Pakistan was massively short of energy as there were 18 hours of blackouts across the country back in 2014. China has come to our support to overcome the energy crisis by adding clean and green energy to the national grid," the minister said while addressing a seminar on CPEC power projects here. The photo taken on Aug. 6, 2019 shows the Sahiwal Coal Power plant in Sahiwal, Punjab Province, Pakistan. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal) A few years back when Pakistan was going through tough times and no country was willing to believe in the country, China brought investment under the framework of the CPEC, overhauling Pakistan's infrastructure and solving the energy crisis, Khan said He said that the power sector has become the most significant sector for the country's financial viability, highlighting the need for modernization of the sector with Chinese technology for economic growth. The minister said that Pakistan's future energy landscape will be based on the utilization of indigenous renewable sources including hydro, solar, wind, coal and nuclear, adding that China is the most crucial and valuable partner for the country in tapping indigenous clean energy potential. People work in the control room of the Sahiwal Coal Power plant in Sahiwal, Punjab Province, Pakistan, on Aug. 6, 2019. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal) Speaking on the occasion, Mushahid Hussain Syed, chairman of the Pakistani Senate's standing committee on foreign affairs, said that the recent devastating flood in Pakistan is a huge catastrophe caused by climate change and a polluted environment, affecting more than 33 million people while killing over 1,300 and injuring over 12,000 people. "Although Pakistan contributes less than 1 percent to global net emissions, we are facing the consequences ... So I think that the need for clean and renewable energy is extremely important," he said. Chinese companies including the China Three Gorges Corporation are playing a critical role in Pakistan's transition towards clean and green energy through environment-friendly power projects, he added. By Trend Nothing can be an obstacle to visiting Azerbaijans Karabakh by missions of international organizations such as UNESCO in the nearest possible future, Croatian traveler Luka Renic told Trend. "This is my first trip to Karabakh and Azerbaijan in general. It's really nice and educational. This whole experience is very interesting, and it's hard to convey all the emotions that we feel after talking about life here. I hope that long-term peace will come and the conflict wont repeat again in the future," Renic said. The visit of famous foreigners from over 20 countries to Karabakh and Eastern Zangazur continues. The team leader is Charles Veley, founder and CEO of the 'Most Traveled People' (MTP) club, which is one of the four largest travel clubs worldwide. UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- The UN General Assembly on Thursday adopted a resolution to establish the United Nations Youth Office. The resolution, which was adopted without a vote, decides that the Youth Office will lead engagement and advocacy for the advancement of youth issues across the United Nations, in the areas of peace and security, sustainable development and human rights; and promote meaningful, inclusive and effective engagement of youth and youth-led and youth-focused organizations in the work of the world body. The Youth Office is also tasked to encourage greater UN system-wide collaboration, coordination and accountability on the advancement of youth issues, including UN support to member states in promoting the effective and meaningful engagement, participation and empowerment of youth. Passengers are seen at Nairobi station of Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) in Nairobi, capital of Kenya, Nov. 17, 2021. (Xinhua/Dong Jianghui) TOKYO, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Japan's years of assistance to various African countries has not left much of an impression, even at the recent end of a Japan-led international conference on African development, the Japan News has reported. According to the newspaper, China's reputation has been rising as the country aids Africa's development with substantial infrastructure investments. Citing a public opinion survey of 34 African countries released in 2021 by Ghana-based research organization Afrobarometer, the newspaper said 63 percent of Africans gave upbeat assessments of "the economic and political influence of China in their country." The figure was the highest among all choices, with the United States at 60 percent and the UN at 57 percent. The newspaper noted that Japan was not on the list of options for the question. The Eighth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 8) was held in Tunisia on Aug. 27 and 28. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida attended remotely due to a COVID-19 infection. TICAD is a Japanese-led aid conference for the development of Africa. According to the newspaper, the country launched the TICAD framework in 1993 to fully support Africa's development ahead of other countries. TUNIS, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- At least eight illegal immigrants died and 15 others went missing after an Italy-bound boat sank off the Tunisian coast on Thursday, State Monastir Radio reported. The Maritime Guard rescued 14 people on the boat, which capsized off the coast of Chebba town in the eastern Mahdia Province, the radio quoted a security source as saying. Bordering the Mediterranean Sea, Tunisia is one of the most popular transit points for illegal immigrants who want to reach European shores. Although Tunisian authorities have adopted rigorous measures to tackle the problem, the number of illegal immigrants who depart Tunisia for Italy has increased. LUSAKA, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Zambian government on Thursday announced that it was lifting most of the COVID-19 restrictions due to reduced cases of the pandemic. The country has lifted restrictions on the mandatory wearing of face masks, public gatherings and physical distancing, Minister of Health Sylvia Masebo said during a press briefing in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. She said a review of the COVID-19 situation in recent weeks has shown reduced incidences, with less number of cases, less hospitalization, and related deaths. The positivity rate has remained below five percent in the last month, indicating that the pandemic was under control, she added. However, she said the wearing of face masks will be restricted to high-risk areas such as health facilities. She added that testing will be restricted to those with symptoms and those admitted to facilities, as well as those traveling to countries that require a certificate to prove negativity. "Zambia has done well in its response to the COVID-19 through an aggressive multi-sectoral strategy," she noted. While acknowledging the social and economic challenges brought by the restrictions imposed, the minister said the restrictions were necessitated by the prevailing burden of the disease and threats of escalation if left unchecked. Since the outbreak of the first case in March 2020, Zambia has experienced four waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. The country has recorded a cumulative 333,180 cases, 328,810 recoveries, and 4,017 deaths. KIEV, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday met with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss U.S. assistance for Ukraine, the presidential press service said. During the talks in Kiev, the parties talked about U.S. financial, economic and military aid for Ukraine, in particular, the security assistance of 675 million U.S. dollars announced by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin earlier in the day. Zelensky thanked the U.S. government for the recent decision to provide Ukraine with 6 billion dollars in grant aid, which includes 3 billion dollars in security assistance and 3 billion dollars in financial support earmarked through the World Bank. Speaking about military assistance from the United States, Zelensky said that American weapons, especially the HIMARS multiple-launch rocket systems, have strengthened Ukraine's positions in the conflict with Russia. Zelensky and Blinken also discussed the prospects of increasing defense support for Ukraine and the launch of the Lend-Lease program. Blinken arrived in Kiev earlier in the day for his second visit since the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in February this year. Tents housing the homeless line the sidewalk of a street in downtown Los Angeles, California, the United States, on Sept. 8, 2022. An estimated 69,144 people are experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles, the most populous county in the United States, according to the results of the 2022 Homeless Count released by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) on Thursday.(Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua). LOS ANGELES, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- An estimated 69,144 people are experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles, the most populous county in the United States, according to the results of the 2022 Homeless Count released by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) on Thursday. The number marks a 4.1 percent rise from the last count in 2020, said the authority, adding that a count was not conducted in 2021 in the county, home to around 10 million residents, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of the point-in-time count, conducted over three nights in February, also showed 41,980 people were experiencing homelessness in the City of Los Angeles, up 1.7 percent from 2020. The City of Los Angeles is the seat of Los Angeles County and also the biggest city in the county. LAHSA said in a news release that this year's homeless count results offer a stark contrast to the results between 2018 and 2020, when Los Angeles County saw a 25.9 percent increase and the City of Los Angeles experienced a 32 percent increase. The authority noted that "Angelenos need more affordable homes and economic help to prevent future increases in homelessness." LAHSA said the agency and its partners have made 84,000 permanent housing placements over the past five years. Thanks to a 62 percent increase in shelter beds since 2019, more people are in shelter than ever before, said the agency, adding that "shelter is a necessary and vital part of our system because bringing people inside protects them from the destructive effects on their health and safety that comes from experiencing unsheltered homelessness." Los Angeles has one of the highest rates of unemployment and homelessness in the United States, according to usabynumbers.com. The website reported in June that the total number of homeless people in the United States is over 553,000, and that's 170 out of every 100,000 people experiencing homeless in the country right now. Tents housing the homeless line the sidewalk of a street in downtown Los Angeles, California, the United States, on Sept. 8, 2022. An estimated 69,144 people are experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles, the most populous county in the United States, according to the results of the 2022 Homeless Count released by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) on Thursday. (Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua). Tents housing the homeless line the sidewalk of a street in downtown Los Angeles, California, the United States, on Sept. 8, 2022. An estimated 69,144 people are experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles, the most populous county in the United States, according to the results of the 2022 Homeless Count released by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) on Thursday. (Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua). UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- The first humanitarian shipment of grain from Ukraine by the World Food Programme (WFP) had arrived in Ethiopia, a UN spokesman said on Thursday. The WFP said the grain, delivered under the Black Sea Grain Initiative, brokered by Turkiye and the United Nations, will support one month of assistance for over 1.5 million people who have been displaced by drought and conflict, Stephane Dujarric, the chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told a regular briefing. The grain is currently being unloaded in the WFP's main warehouse in the city of Adama and will be distributed in the coming weeks, he said. Conflict, drought and rising costs drive food insecurity across Ethiopia. With 20 million people needing food aid in Ethiopia, the WFP said supply chain stability is critical to its work, according to the spokesman. "We're being told by our humanitarian colleagues that fighting in the north of the country continues to impact vulnerable people and the delivery of aid," he said. "In parts of Tigray, Amhara, and Afar regions, tens of thousands of people are reportedly being displaced by fighting and insecurity." He said there had been no humanitarian convoy movements into Tigray for two weeks, preventing the delivery of supplies, including additional fertilizer for the upcoming planting season. The twice-weekly UN Humanitarian Air Service flights between Addis Ababa and Tigray's regional capital of Mekelle also were suspended. In eastern and southern Ethiopia, the drought continues, with more than 16 million people targeted for humanitarian assistance. Across Ethiopia, more than 8 million people impacted by drought had received food aid this year, he said. BEIJING, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- China's central bank has called for efforts to facilitate interconnectivity between the digital yuan system and traditional e-payment tools to make it more convenient for customers to use digital currency. To realize this goal, more efforts should be made to expand the scenarios and environment for the use of the digital yuan, Fan Yifei, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, said at a recent forum on digital finance in Beijing. Specifically, regulations and standards in areas such as digital identities, Bluetooth, and QR codes should be unified to improve the interconnectivity of various types of payment tools, according to Fan. The deputy governor also underscored improving the security of digital yuan use via upgrading relevant technologies to avoid user-information leakage and eliminate data security risks. Rwandan Health Minister Daniel Ngamije (R) and Chinese Ambassador to Rwanda Wang Xuekun shake hands after signing a memorandum of understanding in Kigali, Rwanda, Sept. 7, 2022. The Rwandan Ministry of Health and the Chinese Embassy in Kigali on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding to facilitate the dispatching of Chinese medical personnel to Rwanda. (Photo by Placide Ngirinshuti/Xinhua) KIGALI, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Rwandan Ministry of Health and the Chinese Embassy in Kigali signed here a Memorandum of Understanding to facilitate the dispatching of Chinese medical personnel to Rwanda. "We are expecting doctors from some fields where we have some gaps in terms of specialists. We appreciate this partnership. After 40 years of medical cooperation between the Rwandan government and China, today we are expanding this agreement for another five years because we appreciate the services of those doctors so far in the country," Daniel Ngamije, Rwandan health minister, said at the signing ceremony on Wednesday. The doctors will be working in Masaka Hospital in Kigali and Kibungo Hospital in eastern Rwanda. Chinese Ambassador to Rwanda Wang Xuekun said China and Rwanda enjoy a long-lasting friendship, and cooperation in the fields of medical and health care demonstrates the two countries' deep traditional friendship of sharing weal and woe, through thick and thin. "The Chinese government sent the first Chinese medical team to Rwanda in 1982. Over the last 40 years, 22 medical teams and more than 270 Chinese doctors received up to hundreds of thousands of patients and performed more than 10,000 surgical operations in Rwanda," Wang said. He added China is willing to join hands and work together with Rwanda, to further deepen cooperation on medical and health care matters and lift their ties to a new height in the post-pandemic era. BEIJING, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Reform and opening up was a crucial move in making China what it is today. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2012, the central Party leadership has consistently promoted broader and deeper reform across the board. Steady progress has been made in reform in all areas, including economic structural reform, reform of the political system, structural reform of the cultural sector, social structural reform, reform of the system for developing an ecological civilization, institutional reforms related to Party building, reform of the discipline inspection system, and reform of national defense and the armed forces. CRACKING HARD NUTS As reform enters uncharted waters fraught with tough challenges, the CPC remains determined to face problems and risks squarely. The first certificates that separate the ownership rights, contract rights and management rights for rural contracted land were awarded in Deqing County, east China's Zhejiang Province in June 2018. Farmers, homestay operators, and ownership representatives of collective land from four local villages signed a trilateral contract on land-use rights transfers. Including Deqing, 33 regions are running a trial program for rural land system reform in China. Rural land reform of the present era focuses on idle land resources and potential stimulation, and explores a series of institutional changes in terms of land requisition, market-based transfer of use rights to collective land designated for business-related construction, the use of land designated for housing, and, of course, the separation of the ownership rights, contract rights, and management rights for contracted land, as has happened in Deqing. These measures have galvanized immense endogenous strength for the revitalization of China's rural areas. For the CPC, bottlenecks always point to the direction of reform. China introduced judge quota system reforms at courts across the country in 2017. This has enhanced judicial accountability and ensured those who hear cases pass judgment and accept accountability for the cases they have adjudicated. Similar explorations also took place in ecological conservation, scientific and technological innovation, and the reform of Party and government institutions. The CPC is committed to opening up just as much as it is committed to reform. Over the past decade, China has enforced a foreign investment law and canceled the case-by-case approval system for inbound investments. It has worked to build more trade events such as the China International Import Expo and the China International Fair for Trade in Services. With deepened opening up, China is injecting impetus into the global economy via its own growth. BENEFITING THE PEOPLE The ultimate purpose of deepening reform on all fronts is to enhance social fairness and justice and make the results of development benefit all the people in a fairer way. A social assistance system has been put in place, providing access to basic living support to nearly 50 million people in need every year. The housing system has been reformed and improved, with more than 80 million units of affordable housing built and housing compensation provided to families after the rebuilding of rundown urban areas. Local governments across the country abrogated 21,000 types of administrative certifications amid efforts to deliver convenient government services to the people. These moves have bound people together as they have solved the most pressing difficulties and problems that were of great concern to the people, observers noted. Priorities of reform vary according to changes in reality. Currently high on the agenda of reform are policy support for building globally leading businesses, high-quality development of inclusive financial services, and the building of digital government, among others. China is not slowing down its pace of reform and is dedicated to drawing strength from reform to boost development and create a better life for the people. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed a decree "On some measures related to the continuation of work on the reconstruction of roads in Xatai District of Baku city". According to the decree, in accordance with paragraph 32 of Article 109 of the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan, it was decided: 1. For proceeding with the reconstruction of roads in the capital's Khatai district in accordance with subparagraph 1.26.18 "Allocating funds envisaged for state capital investments in the state budget of the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2022 to allocate the State Agency of Azerbaijan Automobile Roads 4.27 million manat ($2.51 million). 2. Ministry of Finance of Azerbaijan to provide financing in the amount specified in part 1 of this decree 3. Cabinet of Ministers of Azerbaijan to resolve the issues arising from the corresponding decree. PORT LOUIS, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- A clearing center for the Chinese currency renminbi (RMB), or the yuan, in Mauritius, will facilitate trade transactions between Mauritius and China, and help strengthen economic ties between Africa and China, a business leader told Xinhua in a recent interview. Mauritian Finance Minister Renganaden Padayachy, during his presentation of the 2022-2023 budget in June, said that a regional renminbi clearing center was expected to be set up in Mauritius by the end of the year. Kwang Poon, chairman of the Economic Council for Africa Europe Asia (CECOAFREA), an association bringing together businessmen and promoting trade, said the center will allow import and export invoices to be paid using the currencies of the two countries directly. "Today, if you import from China, the invoices are usually denominated in USD and not in RMB. Similarly, if you export to China, you invoice in USD or EUR, but not in Mauritian Rupees (MUR). With the RMB Settlement Center coming into operation, these cross-border transfers could be done without using an intermediate currency," said Kwang Poon. To achieve this, the two countries must first sign a Currency Exchange Agreement based on the volume involved. Then a pilot project can be launched to implement the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System, also known as the China International Payments System, he said. Kwang Poon believed that for Mauritius, which is positioning itself as the International Financial Center in the African region, the RMB Settlement Center is a step toward consolidating and diversifying the financial services offered by streamlining cross-border transfers which will become faster and cheaper. The expert pointed out that apart from facilitating Mauritius-China business transactions, the center will also make a positive impact on economic relations between Africa and China, which saw bilateral trade exceed 254 billion U.S. dollars in 2021, up 35.3 percent year on year. Therefore, the RMB Settlement Center will really deliver on its promise if it has a regional reach by extending to the African continent, he said. Mauritius is well placed for the role of intermediary between Africa and China, Kwang Poon said, because following the 22nd meeting of the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group, which ended on Sept. 1, Mauritius is now recognized as one of the few international financial centers that are compliant or largely compliant with all the Financial Action Task Force's 40 recommendations. "If we look further and incorporate fintech and cryptocurrency on this platform in the future, it will make trading even easier," he said. "With the rise of China, as of 2016, the Chinese yuan joined the U.S. dollar, the European Union euro, the Japanese yen, the British pound in the basket of currencies making up the International Monetary Fund's Special Drawing Rights." "This underlines the importance of China's place in international trade. This trend will continue to grow and China intends to promote the internationalization of its currency, the RMB," he said. BUJUMBURA, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye has reshuffled the government with five new faces entering the new cabinet, a press release said on Thursday evening. The press release, read on Burundi state-run radio and television by the president's spokesman, said five new ministers would enter the cabinet made up of 15 ministers. Sanctus Niragira, chancellor of the University of Burundi, replaces Deo Guide Rurema as the minister for environment, agriculture and livestock. Dieudonne Dukundane is replacing Deogratias Nsanganiyumwami as the infrastructure, equipment and social housing minister. Martin Niteretse, permanent secretary in the ministry of interior, community development and public security, replaces Gervais Ndirakobuca as the new minister of the ministry. Ndirakobuca was appointed by the president on Wednesday as the new prime minister to replace Alain Guillaume Bunyoni, who was accused of undermining activities of the government. Audace Niyonzima is replacing Domitien Ndihokubwayo as the new finance, budget and economic planning minister, and Deogratias Rusengwamihigo is replacing Thaddee Ndikumana as the public service, labor and employment minister. MAPUTO, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- At least four people have died and three others were missing after a boat carrying 23 people capsized in Mozambique's Nacala Porto district in the northern province of Nampula on Thursday. According to the information released Friday by the maritime administration of Nacala Porto district, the bodies of the four victims are yet to be identified. Survivors were taken to the local hospital and rescuers are still searching for the three missing people, said the maritime administrator Adam Rachide. Authorities assumed that the sinking was caused by bad weather. The victims were reportedly traveling for a traditional ceremony. ISLAMABAD, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has urged the international community to look beyond the narrow political interests and geopolitical agenda to completely eradicate the menace of terrorism. In his virtual address here during the United Nations Global Congress of Victims of Terrorism held at the UN headquarters in New York, Zardari urged on Thursday the international community to make protection and promotion of the rights of victims of terrorism a basic tenet of global efforts to promote peace and security, the Pakistani foreign ministry said in a statement. Zardari emphasized that terrorism could only be eradicated by addressing its root causes and stressed the need to develop a consensus definition of terrorism by taking into account new and emerging threats. Highlighting the contribution made by Pakistan in the fight against terrorism, the foreign minister said that Pakistan was one of the worst-hit victims of terrorism with over 80,000 causalities and economic losses exceeding 150 billion U.S. dollars. He called on the international community to develop a victim-centric approach while addressing the challenges faced in conflict zones. The foreign minister also noted the urgent need for continuing international cooperation to fight this global problem without any prejudice or preconceived notions against any particular religion, race, civilization or country. BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Brunei saw its foreign trade hit 2.85 billion Brunei dollars (2.03 billion U.S. dollars) in May, marking a 48.7 percent increase year-on-year, official data showed on Friday. The latest data of international merchandise trade released by the Department of Economic Planning and Statistics under the Ministry of Finance and Economy showed that Brunei's exports increased by 51.9 percent year-on-year to 1.75 billion Brunei dollars in May mainly due to rising mineral fuel exports. Mineral fuels accounted for 77.9 percent of Brunei's total exports in May, with a value of 1.36 billion Brunei dollars. The biggest market in May for Brunei's exports was Australia with a share of 19.8 percent, followed by China and Singapore, according to the official data. Brunei's imports increased by 43.9 percent year-on-year to 1.10 billion Brunei dollars in May. The highest share of imports was from Malaysia with 30.4 percent, followed by Kazakhstan with 14.7 percent and Saudi Arabia with 13.3 percent. (1 Brunei dollar equals about 0.71 U.S. dollar) ISLAMABAD, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres here on Friday appealed to the international community for massive support for Pakistan to respond to the ongoing climate catastrophe devastating the lives of millions. "Pakistan needs massive international support. It is not just a message of solidarity but an international obligation and responsibility. Pakistan is at the front line of the impact of climate change," the secretary-general said. The secretary-general addressed a joint press conference along with Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif in the capital Islamabad, saying his voice is entirely at the service of the government and people of Pakistan, who are grappling with difficult situations amid floods. Before the press talk, Guterres received a briefing from the officials of the National Flood Response Coordination Center about the massive havoc caused by the recent flood and ongoing relief activities across the country. "We waged war on nature, and nature is now striking back," Guterres said. "We need to stop increased emissions and mobilize much more resources to countries like Pakistan to resist these devastating disasters caused by climate change." According to the latest figures from the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) of Pakistan, over 33 million people had been affected, 1,355 died, and 12,722 were injured in this season's monsoon rains and floods since mid-June. Additionally, over 1.7 million houses have been destroyed, and an estimated 753,187 livestock has perished, said the NDMA, adding that 81 districts of Pakistan had been affected by floods and 634,749 people are currently living in camps. BERLIN, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Fifty-four percent of Germans would support keeping the country's remaining nuclear power plants running due to the worsening energy crisis, according to a survey published by public broadcaster ZDF on Friday. Against the backdrop of soaring prices for gas and electricity, Minister for Economic Affairs Robert Habeck aims to keep two of Germany's three nuclear power plants on standby as an emergency option until April 2023. Germany's nuclear phase-out would not be reversed, Habeck said. "Nuclear power is and will remain a high-risk technology, and the highly radioactive waste will burden tens of generations to come." The survey showed 12 percent public support for the completion of the phase-out as planned by the end of this year. Economic experts are also questioning the decision to keep the plants on standby. "Every effort must be made to mobilize generation capacities that can be made available at short notice," Veronika Grimm of the German Council of Economic Experts told Funke Mediengruppe. Environmental organizations have warned against reversing Germany's nuclear phase-out. The lifetime of the country's remaining nuclear power plants should not be extended due to unresolved safety issues, a recent study published by Friends of the Earth Germany (BUND) found. Keeping nuclear power plants on standby until next year is "unacceptable and prevents the necessary energy transition," Martin Kaiser, executive director of Greenpeace Germany, said. The continued operation of the old nuclear power plants is a "significant safety risk." MOSCOW, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko said Friday that Moscow is currently considering retaliatory measures in response to Kiev's decision to impose a visa regime for Russian citizens. "We are currently discussing this issue within various departments ... we will take into account a wide range of aspects, including humanitarian ones," Rudenko was cited by local media as saying. "We do not want to complicate the lives of those Ukrainian citizens, who wish to leave the country and go to Russia. Obtaining visas would become difficult for them," he said. Rudenko said that a final decision has not yet been made, and that the response would not have to be symmetrical. In an earlier statement on Tuesday, Rudenko said Ukrainian citizens could still enter Russia without a visa until Jan. 1, 2023. On July 1, Ukraine introduced a visa regime for Russian citizens following a decision by its government. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in June that the country had decided to end visa-free travel for Russian citizens due to the "unprecedented threats to the national security, sovereignty and territorial integrity" of Ukraine. LOS ANGELES, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- Two people were killed Thursday after a small plane crashed at Santa Monica Airport in the western U.S. state of California, authorities said. The Santa Monica Fire Department said in a news release that it responded to the crash at 4:25 p.m. local time (2325 GMT). "Firefighters encountered a single engine aircraft that crashed in the infield and was engulfed in flames," said the fire department, adding that the aircraft was inbound to the airport when it touched down and made an abrupt upward maneuver before crashing in the infield. Officials confirmed that both people aboard died. The aircraft was a Piper Sport two-seat single engine aircraft, operated by a local flight school, said the fire department. The two victims -- a flight instructor and a student -- were killed in an introductory flight, reported City News Service, a regional wire service covering Southern California. The instructor reportedly worked at the Santa Monica-based flight school Santa Monica Flyers, said the report. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the accident. * This content was produced in Russia, where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine. (Recast with comments from Kharkiv Russian official, added context) MOSCOW, Sept 9 (Reuters) - A Russian-installed official in the Russian-controlled part of Ukraine's Kharkiv region said on Friday that Ukrainian forces had registered a "substantial victory" by breaking through Russian defences in the region. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday that Ukrainian troops had "liberated dozens of settlements" and reclaimed more than 1,000 sq km (400 sq miles) of territory from Russian forces in the east and south in the past week. Speaking to Russian state television on Friday, Vitaly Ganchev said: "The very fact of a breach of our defences is already a substantial victory for the Ukrainian armed forces." Russia's defence ministry posted video footage of what it said were Russian troops being sent to the Kharkiv region. Parts of Ukraine east of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city, have been under Russian control since shortly after the Kremlin ordered its armed forces into Ukraine on Feb. 24, although Russia has been unable to take the city itself. Zelenskiy had posted a video in which Ukrainian soldiers said they had captured the town of Balakliia, which lies along part of the frontline south of Kharkiv. It was the first rapid advance of its kind reported by either side for months. The Kremlin declined to comment on reports of a Ukrainian advance in the Kharkiv region, referring questions to the Russian Defence Ministry. (Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Kevin Liffey) President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev approved the Agreement between the government of Azerbaijan and Russia on cooperation in the field of international security. According to the decree, the 'Agreement between the government of Azerbaijan and Russia on cooperation in the field of international security,' signed in Baku on June 24, 2022, has been approved. After the agreement enters into force, the Cabinet of Ministers of Azerbaijan was instructed to ensure the implementation of its points. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry will send a notification to the Russian government on the implementation of internal procedures necessary for the agreement to enter force. Silberstein, Awad, and Miklos, P.C. (ASK4SAM) has recently sponsored a toll free hotline number for New York residents who have been affected by the Camp Lejeune Toxic Water Contamination and who want to speak with an attorney at no cost about their potential claim. New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - September 8, 2022) - The top-rated New York Medical Malpractice Injury Law Firm Silberstein, Awad, & Miklos, P.C. (ASK4SAM) has launched a Camp Lejeune Toxic Water Injury Claims Hotline to help residents of New York State seek compensation for themselves or their loved ones if they stationed at Camp Lejeune and were harmed by the toxic water that plagued the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, NC, which is in Eastern North Carolina during the qualified span of time discussed below. ASK4SAM Launches New York Camp Lejeune Toxic Water Legal Injury Claims Hotline To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8814/136362_ff2f24bbe4da1a13_001full.jpg That hotline number is 888-6-LEJEUNE (888-653-5386). Residents of New York State can call this number and speak to an attorney about whether they have a claim in the recently decided Camp Lejeune contaminated water supply case. Residents of New York State who spent 30 consecutive days or more at Camp Lejeune between 1953 and 1987 and who subsequently have developed health issues may have grounds for a significant monetary claim due to exposure to various toxic chemicals that were in the well water that was consumed at the camp. Hazardous waste leaked from waste disposal sites (underground storage tanks) near the base, making their way into the water sources which were consumed by nearly 1 million individuals over the roughly 35-year span of time. This applies to active duty soldiers who were stationed there, as well as their families, but also anybody who happened to work there for a period of at least 30 consecutive days between '53 and '87, and who consumed the contaminated drinking water supply at Camp Lejeune and experienced toxic exposure to the known cancer-causing chemicals, including civilian workers and family members. Story continues Dangerous chemicals lead to water contamination that water treatment plants were unable to remedy, and this lead to health conditions that were often debilitating or fatal, and medical records and medical evidence lead to legal action, which can cover medical expenses of those affected, as well as care for loss of quality of life, income, suffering, and more. The Veterans Administration released a list of presumptive conditions for those who spent at least 30 consecutive days at Camp Lejeune during that 35-year span of time. According to the Camp Lejeune Justice Act and the Press Release from the Veterans Administration, anyone who spent that amount of time at Camp Lejeune, and who was exposed to the water contamination, and is subsequently showing any of the following presumptive symptoms - whether veterans who were active duty or inactive duty, the family members of military staff, non-military staff, civilian contractors and civilian staff, in utero children, and the families of deceased victims may be eligible to file claims. Those presumptive conditions for the Camp Lejeune Water Contamination Lawsuit include: Adult Leukemia, Aplastic Anemia or Other Myelodysplastic Syndromes, ALS ( that is, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), Bladder Cancer, Kidney Cancer, Liver Cancer, Multiple Myeloma, Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, Parkinson's Disease, various types of cancer, including Esophageal Cancer, Breast Cancer, Brain Cancer, Prostate Cancer, Lung Cancer, Renal Toxicity, Scleroderma, (that is, Systemic Sclerosis), Hepatic Steatosis (or Fatty Liver Disease), Miscarriage, Cardiac defect or (Heart Related) Birth Defect (in utero ONLY), Birth Defect / Birth Injury (In Utero ONLY), Female Infertility, Childhood Leukemia, Childhood Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, Neurobehavioral Effects, and Other Serious Medical Conditions. For New York Residents or their loved ones who were stationed at Camp Lejeune for a period of 30 days or longer are elligible to call the New York State Camp Lejeune Toxic Water Injury Claims Hotline, by calling 888-6-LEJEUNE, or by visiting ask4sam.net and clicking on the Camp Lejeune Claims option on the main page, or clicking the link in the description below to learn more about this civil claim about the contaminated drinking water on the base. The Camp Lejeune Justice Act (CLJA) was designed to help water contamination victims to file lawsuits, make a legal claim for compensation to recover damages, Health care benefits, and reimbursement for health care expenses, as well as streamline other disability claims, and included additional benefits via the Veterans Administration. Silberstein, Awad, & Miklos is a New York City-based Personal Injury firm that has gained a reputation for their care for their clients, winning record-setting awards for the clients they represent. They have multiple office locations across New York City, and they set up the Camp Lejeune Toxic Water Injury Claim Hotline to help further streamline the fair compensation and disability benefits for those exposed to toxic materials on the military base. Because of the water contamination exposure of thousands of families on the U.S. Marine Corps base, and the presumption of exposure for anyone who lived there during the time periods, anyone who thinks they have a legitimate claim should call 888-6-LEJEUNE and speak to a New York City Personal Injury Attorney at Silberstein, Awad, & Miklos. The Camp Lejeune Hotline is operated at no cost by Silberstein, Awad, & Miklos, and there is no fee to speak to an attorney who can help individuals learn their rights and start their claims. However, most people will opt to work with the attorneys who can streamline the process further and ensure maximum compensation for exposure to the toxic chemicals in the drinking water supply at Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Those stationed at the Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) New River a few miles away were also affected, and should also speak to the attorneys about filing their claim. Contact Info: Name: Joe Miklos Email: sam@ask4sam.net Organization: Silberstein, Awad & Miklos, P.C. Address: 1850 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY 10031, United States Phone: +1-866-219-7997 Website: https://ask4sam.net To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/136362 The new eleven-person firm was created by two former Merrill Lynch teams in order to create a superior advisory experience for clients at any asset level INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Sanctuary Wealth, home to the next generation of elite advisors, welcomes its latest partner firm, Auric Capital Partners. The new firm was formed by the melding of two former Merrill Lynch teams Mittman & Associates, a Private Wealth Management Group team led by Michael J. Mittman, CEPA, CFA, CPWA in Denver as well as McKelvy Schellenberg & Associates, a traditional wealth management advisory team led by Luke R. McKelvy, CIMA and William A. Schellenberg and has offices in Orange County, California and Denver, CO. "We've been working hard over the past couple of years to enhance our ultra-high net worth solutions for Sanctuary partner firms and their clients," said Jim Dickson, CEO and Founder of Sanctuary Wealth. "Auric's decision to launch their new firm with Sanctuary is a testament to the breadth and depth of resources and capabilities that we've added on this front." "As an independent firm, we will now sit on the same side of the table with our clients and have the ability to provide truly objective advice, as our only goal is adding value to each client's financial future," said Michael Mittman, CEPA, CFA, CPWA, Partner, Managing Director, Advisory, Auric Capital Partners. "With Auric Capital Partners, we have assembled a team that has the scalability and expertise through the wealth management spectrum. Our firm has the ability to serve clients whether they have several hundred thousand dollars or several hundred million." Michael Mittman has 24 years of investment management experience, the last 14 with Merrill Private Wealth Management, where he worked with a small number of ultra-high-net-worth families, institutions, and private foundations. He has earned the Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA), Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Personal Investment Advisor, and Certified Private Wealth Advisor (CPWA) designations and has a degree in economics from Duke University. Story continues Prior to the launch of Auric Capital Partners, Luke McKelvy, and William A. Schellenberg each spent 25 years with Merrill Lynch Wealth Management and held the title of Wealth Management Advisor, Senior Vice President. McKelvy has earned the Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA) designation and is a graduate of Chapman University, while Schellenberg did his undergraduate work at University of Texas. Together they have worked to strategically align both sides of their clients' balance sheets in order to better position them for sustainable growth. "We made the decision to partner with Sanctuary Wealth rather than set up our own RIA because after decades in the wirehouse environment, we had a tremendous experience in serving clients, but did not want to have to take on the responsibility of things like compliance and technology that were outside of our comfort zones," said Luke McKelvy, CIMA, Partner, Managing Director, Operations, Auric Capital Partners. "Sanctuary offered us the type of support we were used to getting, but with the freedom to manage our business as we saw fit. We can own the client relationship and their information, and yet we have a strong partner to assist us on the aspects of the business that never touch the client. It's really the best of both worlds." Also joining Auric Capital as Partners are Jeffrey A. Dewees, Managing Director, Investments; Arman Melikian, Managing Director, Investments; and Jay Tamkoc Managing Director, Advisory. Additionally, the 11-person teams includes: Anna T. Walters, Vice President, Operations; Kristen Freeman, Vice President, Client Service; Meghan Ide, Senior Associate, Client Service; John Kincannon, Associate, Client Service; and Francine England, Associate, Client Service. "Auric Capital Partners serves as a great example of the flexibility that Sanctuary Wealth has to offer advisors seeking independence," said Vince Fertitta, President, Sanctuary Wealth. "The synergy that the union of these two great teams makes possible is not only a positive development for the advisors, but most importantly, it brings a lot more to their clients. Now that they are independent, they'll be able to have a truly bespoke relationship with their clients on their terms, without the distractions often found when employed by a large institution." "When we met with the team at Sanctuary, we were instantly comfortable with their culture and how they have constructed their business model," added William Schellenberg, Partner, Managing Director, Advisory, Auric Capital Partners. "It was a refreshing change from what we had experienced in the past and definitely got us excited." To learn more about Auric Capital Partners, please visit: www.auriccapital.com About Sanctuary Wealth Sanctuary Wealth (sanctuarywealth.com/) is the advanced platform for the next generation of elite advisors, who have the entrepreneurial spirit to build and own their own practices and desire the freedom to deliver the tailored service their clients deserve. Sanctuary Wealth's ecosystem of partnered independence provides a complete technology and operations platform, as well as support from a community of like-minded advisors and the resources of invaluable affiliated businesses. Currently, the Sanctuary Wealth network includes partner firms in 27 states across the country with approximately $25 billion in assets under advisement. Sanctuary Wealth includes the fully owned subsidiaries; Sanctuary Advisors LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser, Sanctuary Securities, Inc. a FINRA member broker-dealer as well as Sanctuary Alternative Holdings, Sanctuary Asset Management, Sanctuary Insurance Solutions, Sanctuary Global, and Sanctuary Global Family Office. CONTACT: Michaela Morales JConnelly 973 224 7152 mmorales@jconnelly.com Cision View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/auric-capital-partners-is-the-latest-1-billion-team-to-choose-partnered-independence-with-sanctuary-wealth-301621351.html SOURCE Sanctuary Wealth Experience Denver's festivals highlighting art, film, food and more this Fall DENVER, Sept. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- One way to explore and understand the heart of a city is through its events and festivals. The next few months are the perfect opportunity to get to know Denver as its exceptional dining and craft beer scenes will be celebrated, as well as its reputation as the arts and culture hub of the Rocky Mountain region. Models walk the runway at Denver Fashion Week. (Visit Denver) The festivities begin with Denver Food + Wine running through Sept. 10. Around the city there will be tasting events, seminars and more benefitting the Colorado Restaurant Foundation's efforts to support worker education, training and mental health/wellness resources. The event culminates with the signature Grand Tasting with more than 40 top restaurants and 700 drink options from Southern Glaziers Wine & Spirits collection. VIP tickets to the Grand Tasting include access to bites from some of Denver's top restaurants including Apple Blossom, The Bindery, Mizuna, Shanahan's and Ultreia. Also underway and running through Sept. 11 is Art RiNo. The festivities will bring local, national and international artists together to create six new murals in the River North Art District, while Camp RiNo is an opportunity for children to explore their creative side. Plus, the Westword Music Showcase is part of the festival Sept. 9-10 at various locations throughout the district. Next up is Denver Walls Sept. 22-26. Bringing fresh murals to the streets of the Globeville neighborhood and RiNo, Denver Walls aims to cultivate community pride, celebrate diversity and individuality, and, of course, beautify the city by bringing art to public places. The new murals painted during Art RiNo and Denver Walls will only add to Denver's reputation as the "Street Art Capital of the Country" as AFAR called The Mile High City. From art adorning the sides of buildings to buildings that are art in and of themselves: Doors Open Denver returns Sept. 26-Oct. 16 to showcase historic and contemporary buildings in The Mile High City. The Denver Architecture Foundation will run multiple "Insider Tours" of the Denver Zoo, Denver Performing Arts Complex and buildings on the Auraria and University of Denver campuses. Story continues Denver Beer Week kicks off Sept. 30 with nine days to celebrate all things beer. There will be more than 100 beer-related events including tap takeovers, rare beer tappings, meet-the-brewer events and beer and food pairings. And, of course, as America's No. 1 beer city, Denver is once again hosting the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) at the Colorado Convention Center Oct. 6-8. GABF is the largest ticketed beer festival in the country in terms of attendees, breweries and beers served, and 2022 marks the 40th anniversary of the festival. Tickets remain for the Thursday evening session only as 40,000 attendees are expected downtown to sample more than 2,000 different beers from 500 breweries throughout the festival. Also celebrating a milestone this year is the Denver Film Festival which returns for its 45th anniversary. The largest film festival in the Rocky Mountain region runs Nov. 2-13 and includes red carpet events, screenings across the city and more. Denver Arts Week is Nov. 4-12 and multiple First Friday Art Walks around the city kick off the festivities. The following evening, many of Denver's top cultural institutions will offer free admission from 5-10 p.m. for Night at the Museums on Nov. 5. There also are free shuttle routes connecting many of the museums, allowing everyone to make the most out of this engaging evening. Other events during the week will include theatrical performances, tours and access to artist studios. Finally, the spotlight will shine on the runway for Denver Fashion Week Nov. 12-20. Collections from local, national and international designers will feature everything from streetwear to kids clothing and even sustainability in high fashion. About VISIT DENVER, The Convention & Visitors Bureau Celebrating 113 years of promoting The Mile High City, VISIT DENVER is a nonprofit trade association that contracts with the City of Denver to market Denver as a convention and leisure destination, increasing economic development in the city, creating jobs and generating taxes. Denver welcomed more than 31.7 million visitors in 2021, generating $6.6 billion in spending, while supporting tens of thousands of jobs and making Tourism one of the city's largest industries. Learn more about Denver on the VISIT DENVER website or at Tourism Pays Denver. Denver International Airport (DEN) is the No. 3 busiest airport in the world connecting The Mile High City to more than 200 destinations globally. Follow Denver's social media channels for up-to-the-minute updates on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn. With press or photo inquiries, please contact: Jesse Davis: (303) 571-9450 or jdavis@visitdenver.com Jen Osieczanek: (303) 571-9451 or josieczanek@visitdenver.com (PRNewsfoto/VISIT DENVER, The Convention & Visitors Bureau) Cision View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/autumn-events-showcase-denver-as-the-cultural-epicenter-of-the-rocky-mountain-region-301621255.html SOURCE VISIT DENVER, The Convention & Visitors Bureau By Eduardo Baptista and Sarah Marsh BEIJING/BERLIN, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Beijing denounced plans Germany is reported to be considering to curb business with China as "extremely absurd", while German business groups warned of the potential hit to an economy already on the brink of recession. Reuters reported on Thursday that Germany's economy ministry was considering a raft of measures to make business with China less attractive as it aimed to reduce the dependency of Europe's largest economy on Asia's rising superpower. The measures could include reducing or even scrapping investment and export guarantees for China and no longer promoting trade fairs and manager training there, sources familiar with the matter said. Asked about the report at a news conference, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said that if it proved correct, the measures made "no sense" as they would harm Germany's own economic interests. "We hope that Germany will adopt a rational and practical policy toward China and support greater two-way opening-up to inject positive energy into the high-level mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries and help build an open world economy, instead of shooting itself in the foot," Mao said. On Thursday, Reuters also reported that Berlin was possibly considering submitting a complaint to the World Trade Organization about what it views as unfair Chinese trade practices, together with the Group of Seven wealthy democracies. "If Germany lodges the so-called complaint, China will defend its lawful rights and interests under the WTO framework," Mao said. Separately, German business organisations expressed their concerns that such measures would hit companies already struggling with soaring energy prices, labour shortages and supply chain woes. "At this time, a strategically-driven departure from our biggest trade partner would be a further bitter blow to our exports-driven economy," Volker Treier, trade expert for the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), said. The Chinese market was of paramount importance to many German companies who could not afford to stop investing, said Jens Hildebrandt, Executive Director & Board Member of the German Chamber of Commerce in China -North China. "Therefore, the loss of such measures would add to companies risk exposure in an increasingly volatile environment," he said. "German companies would be hung out to dry." (Reporting by Eduardo Baptista in Beijing; Sarah Marsh and Andreas Rinke in Berlin; Editing by Louise Heavens) (Bloomberg) -- Chip delivery times shrank again in August, a sign the global shortage is easing further, but some types of semiconductors remain hard to find. Most Read from Bloomberg Lead times -- the gap between when a chip is ordered and when it is delivered -- averaged 26.8 weeks in August, according to research by Susquehanna Financial Group. That was a day shorter than they were in the prior month. The shorter wait times reflect slowing demand for some kinds of technology -- namely, phones and personal computers -- according to Susquehanna analyst Chris Rolland. But parts of the market remain overheated, with orders coming in faster than chipmakers can fill them. We believe over-ordering trends and inventory builds have yet to work through the system, he said in a research note. In the personal computer market, the supply chain has largely returned to normal operations, Dell Technologies Inc. Chief Financial Officer Tom Sweet said Thursday. Many component costs are getting cheaper as availability has improved and demand has weakened, though Dell is working on clearing its inventories before being able to take advantage of more favorable component prices, Sweet said. The chip industry often struggles to match supply with demand, partly because the components take months to manufacture. Semiconductor makers also are serving a much larger swath of the economy these days, with chips going into cars, factory equipment and appliances. In the past, investors have viewed extended lead times as a sign that the industry was building up too much inventory -- a precursor to a slump. But the supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic created unprecedented shortages. Getting back down to 10- to 14-week wait times would be healthy, Rolland said. Story continues The wait for some power management, microcontroller and optoelectronic devices remains extended, Rolland said. Companies such as Microchip Technology Inc. and Infineon Technologies AG are still scrambling to fill those kinds of orders. Other chipmakers, though, are already suffering from a drop-off in demand. That includes Nvidia Corp. and Intel Corp., which rely heavily on the PC market. Chip investors have already been bracing for a steep downturn. The Philadelphia Stock Market Semiconductor Index has fallen 33% this year. (Updates with Dell CFO comments in fifth paragraph) Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2022 Bloomberg L.P. The late Dr. Saeed Ul Hassan's proposal for innovation in science communications using AI wins the 2022 award LONDON, Sept. 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Clarivate Plc (NYSE: CLVT), a global leader in providing trusted information and insights to accelerate the pace of innovation, has today awarded the Eugene Garfield Award for Innovation in Citation Analysis to the late Dr. Saeed Ul Hassan, senior lecturer in AI/Data Science at Manchester Metropolitan University. The award was announced at the 26th International Conference on Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators (STI 2022) by Dr. Gali Halevi, Director of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) at Clarivate. Dr. Ul Hassan's winning proposal was to develop an automated, freely available online tool that would both simplify and summarize text from scientific literature, creating concise and easy-to-read abstracts. The judges felt that the proposal, titled Sustainable & Effective Science Communication: Making Science Accessible for the Public by Generating Simplified Summaries of Scientific Publications, presented an important topic that touches on the real-world challenge of making scientific papers approachable and accessible to the public. Sadly, Dr. Ul Hassan passed away suddenly before he could be informed of his success. Dr. Gali Halevi, Director at the Institute for Scientific Information, Clarivate said: "Dr. Ul Hassan's research and planned online tool could ensure a significant reduction in scientific misinformation especially in times of global challenges such as pandemic, climate change, sustainability and more. This is exactly the kind of innovation we look to recognise with this award, and the judges felt that it was a great example of the kind of work the ISI has pioneered. "We were shocked and saddened to hear that Dr. Ul Hassan, a rising star in the bibliometrics community, had passed away, and our thoughts are very much with his family, friends, colleagues and students. We know he was passionate about mentoring his students, and we hope that this award will be a small part of continuing his legacy." Story continues Prior to joining Manchester Metropolitan University, Dr. Ul Hassan spent six years at Information Technology University in Pakistan, where he was the Director of AI Lab and a faculty member. The $25,000 prize fund is being donated to ITU in recognition of his work there. Dr. Ul Hassan published more than 50 papers in reputed international journals and conference proceedings, and was a lifetime volunteer of Pakistan Hemophilia Patient's Welfare Society and technical lead of the National Patient Registry of people with a bleeding disorder in Pakistan. Launched in 2017, the Eugene Garfield Award for Innovation in Citation Analysis recognizes early-career scientists developing innovative approaches to citation analysis that improve how the impact of scientific research is measured. This field of study, also known as scientometrics, was pioneered by Dr. Eugene Garfield, founder of the Institute for Scientific Information. The ISI focuses on the development of existing and new scientometric approaches. Scientometrics shapes the future of scientific discovery by helping governments, funding bodies and universities assess the impact of their work and investments, enabling them to allocate funding accordingly. It can also provide researchers with insights regarding the impact of their research, and the wider field. Notes to editors You can find more information about the Eugene Garfield Award for Innovation in Citation Analysis here. About Clarivate Clarivate is a global leader in providing solutions to accelerate the pace of innovation. Our bold mission is to help customers solve some of the world's most complex problems by providing actionable information and insights that reduce the time from new ideas to life-changing inventions in the areas of Academia & Government, Life Sciences & Healthcare, Professional Services and Consumer Goods, Manufacturing & Technology. We help customers discover, protect and commercialize their inventions using our trusted subscription and technology-based solutions coupled with deep domain expertise. For more information, please visit clarivate.com. Cision View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/clarivate-announces-winner-of-the-2022-eugene-garfield-award-for-innovation-in-citation-analysis-301619543.html SOURCE Clarivate Plc Industrial Nanotech Inc BROOMFIELD, Colo., Sept. 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via InvestorWire -- Industrial Nanotech, Inc (Pink Sheets: INTK), a global nanoscience solutions and research leader, today announced that the Company is finalizing the terms and conditions of a public/private cooperative agreement with established business partners and government officials in Dubai. We began working in June of this year on this major initiative to establish ourselves as both business and research partners in this region, states Stuart Burchill, CEO/CTO of Industrial Nanotech, Inc. It was extremely important to position ourselves as more than just another company trying to sell products to a wealthy region of the world. Our process was strategic and detailed. The Company took the time to learn about the pressing needs of the region. Through multiple meetings in Dubai with business leaders and government officials, the Company created a plan acceptable to all participants to work together and establish the application protocols and certifications for the Companys existing products and cement the Companys position as a thought leader in the region for sustainable solutions. The Company agreed to collaborate and provide Mr. Burchills expertise in nanotechnology and to work as research partners with their government laboratories to create new and innovative solutions uniquely suited to their environment. The UAE building industry remains strong and motivated to utilize effective thermal insulation products in this extreme temperature environment. https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/uae-construction-market https://www.bayut.com/mybayut/real-estate-developers-dubai/ https://www.propertyfinder.ae/blog/new-projects-in-dubai/ https://u.ae/en/information-and-services/environment-and-energy/climate-change/theuaesresponsetoclimatechange In November of 2022, Mr. Burchill will travel again to Dubai for a signing ceremony and the official opening of the Companys offices and laboratory. The event will be live streamed for shareholders to participate and see the new facilities. Story continues Industrial Nanotech, Inc. is a global nanoscience solutions and product development leader. See the following links for more information: www.industrial-nanotech.com www.syneffex.com www.talkingpaint.com Safe Harbor Statement Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This release includes forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, the impact of competitive products, the ability to meet customer demand, the ability to manage growth, acquisitions of technology, equipment, or human resources, the effect of economic and business conditions, and the ability to attract and retain skilled personnel. The Company is not obligated to revise/update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this release. Investor Contact: Rodd Leeds rodd.leeds@industrial-nanotech.com Wire Service Contact InvestorWire (IW) Los Angeles, California www.InvestorWire.com 212.418.1217 Office Editor@InvestorWire.com Queen Elizabeth II wasnt the only symbol that died this week. So did the internet as the next form of capitalism. It was reborn as something not capitalist at all, but rather something neo-medieval, something feudal. Powerful businesses, executives, and world leaders were notably deferential in paying their respects to the queen, while the online hordes erupted with sarcasm and anger marked by an anti-colonialist and anti-royal sentiment. It came as Britains colonial past is coming under renewed scrutiny across the Commonwealth the queen was so keen to preserve, with Jamaica and Barbados taking steps to remove the British monarch as head of state, and calls for reparations punctuating William and Kates Platinum Jubilee tour of the Caribbean. Bill Gates and Barack Obama both chose to use the queens honorific Her Majesty. Jeff Bezos tweeted that he can think of no one who better personified duty. Every brand seemed to bow lower and lower to the royal family, even Hamilton, a Broadway/West End musical whose main subject is the American rebellion against royal authority. Some corporations seemed to realize their misstep, deleting their tweets as social media users jeered. https://twitter.com/HamiltonWestEnd/status/1567944847599755273?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1567944847599755273%7Ctwgr%5Ef51d196eae82950e64b326e6ace14858bf4fb961%7Ctwcon%5Es1_u0026ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmetro.co.uk%2F2022%2F09%2F09%2Fqueen-dead-les-miserables-hamilton-called-out-for-ironic-tributes-17338069%2F It reminded me of what Ive read in history books about the late Middle Ages: a mercantile class seeking permission from the nobility to even exist, as a restive peasantry simmers with discontent beneath them. This is not what the internet was supposed to be for, was it? As Choire Sicha, a writer who over the past two decades has had a huge influence on the voice of the internet, wrote for New York, it was a historically wild day on the internet as calls for decency were mocked while brands tweeted and then deleted. Story continues A Twitter post by Les Miserables may have stuck out as the most prominent deletion, with commenters noting the paradox of a show about the tragic transition out of aristocracy stooping to pay its respects to the queen. https://twitter.com/musicallaneous/status/1567954679216177154?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1567954679216177154%7Ctwgr%5Ef51d196eae82950e64b326e6ace14858bf4fb961%7Ctwcon%5Es1_u0026ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmetro.co.uk%2F2022%2F09%2F09%2Fqueen-dead-les-miserables-hamilton-called-out-for-ironic-tributes-17338069%2F To be sure, the queen is genuinely popular, and the royals have been a big business for decades now. The success of Netflixs The Crown is testament to that, and even the tragic demise of Princess Diana in the late 1990s was an outgrowth of the royals as a brand, given how relentlessly she was pursued by paparazzi. As a geriatric millennial who was in adolescence in 1997, its hard for me to explain to younger people just what a big deal Elton Johns rewrite of his own Candle in the Wind was that summer. This feels different, though. The world is still coming out of a plague and an associated labor shortage, and being riven by a cost-of-living crisis, and the deference to aristocratic power by the most economically powerful feels like a violation of the 90s-era promise of the information superhighway. Last year, I discovered the works of one of the U.K.s hipster historians and leading medievalists, Dan Jones, including his recent release Powers and Thrones and his older tract, Summer of Blood. As Insiders economy editor at the time, I assigned and edited a piece about the disastrous results of a king denying to try a post-plague labor shortage was real. In short, Jones argues that King Richard IIs attempt to suppress wages was just too much for a post-plague populace to countenance, and the massive uprising that was ultimately named after its leader, the Wat Tyler rebellion, nearly ended the monarchy 600-plus years ago. The king barely survived the clash with the commoners who were reevaluating their economic status, but not before London was ransacked and hundreds of people died, including several minor lords. Ultimately, Jones argues in his books, the victory of Richard II over the rebels was pyrrhic: The road to capitalism was irreversible amid the post-pandemic labor shortage. Richard II was ultimately deposed, by the wayjust by a collection of rebellious dukes, not the masses. Capitalism is constantly mutating into something else, and a growing number of scholars think the online age could be giving way to a sort of neo-feudalism. Jodi Dean, a professor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, wrote about a decade-long trend in this direction for the Los Angeles Review of Books in 2020. Dean herself has developed a theory called communicative capitalismthe online synthesis of democracy and capitalism into something that subverts the democratic impulses of the masses by valuing emotional expression over that of logic. Sound familiar? I personally offer the royal family my own condolences but I dont understand why the corporate sector has chosen to merge its celebration of aristocracy at this moment into a near-religious performance on social media, unless it cynically believes that its just good for business. The problem is that the commoners are noticing. This story was originally featured on Fortune.com BALI, Indonesia , Sept. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In order to tackle the issues of food waste and food security in Bali and Indonesia, SOS Indonesia start the year 2022 with a number of collaborations with universities and organizations such as Bali Institute, Rip Curl School of Surf and IN2FOOD. SOS Indonesia builds on partnerships and collaborations to address the problem of global food waste while also giving millions of people the necessary nutrients. We put a lot of emphasis on educating and bringing awareness to the younger generations. (PRNewsfoto/Scholars of Sustenance) SOS Indonesia works with the Bali Institute to educate the next generation, including college and high school students from foreign institutions like Northern Oklahoma University, California State University, and Global Leadership Adventures. We discuss issues like hunger, food waste, and climate action at the workshops, and we introduce the SOS mission to address these challenges. We cook meals at our Rescue Kitchen together and discuss the process during the sessions. Following the lesson, we discuss some of Bali's "non-grammable parts," including areas with impoverished communities and landfill disposal. We all than went together to deliver the cooked meals to those areas. SOS Indonesia provides an educational program with an environmental focus in honor of the International Day for Conservation of Mangrove Ecosystem in collaboration with Rip Curl School of Surf. With students from California State University, we talked about the problem of food waste's harmful impacts on the environment and how it relates to the health of the marine ecosystem. University students visit the mangroves to clean them up after learning about their significance. This year, SOS Indonesia celebrated the 77th anniversary of Indonesia's independence alongside children from the Klungkung Semara Putra and LKSA K400 Baith EL orphanages in partnership with IN2FOOD Project. Students from eight local and international universities, including Tampere University, Ghent University, Universitas Pembangunan Jaya, Universitas Katolik Parahyangan, Universitas Prasetya Mulya, Universitas Ma Chung, and Hotelschool The Hauge, join us in Klungkung to celebrate the Independence Day with a variety of entertaining traditional games, such as cracker eating. To liven up the celebration, the Semara Putra orphanage children perform a lovely song, and everyone can have fun with some face painting. University students gathered to cook at the SOS Office in Sanur before delivering the meals to the event at Semara Putra orphanage. The IN2FOOD initiative, an inter-disciplinary approach to fostering cooperative innovation in food waste management, aims to improve the capacity of Indonesian universities to address the country's food waste problems through research and education. Story continues Cision View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/scholars-of-sustenance-indonesia-collaborations-301620886.html SOURCE SOS NC, Indonesia (Bali) and Thailand (Bangkok) By Trend Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a message of condolences on the death of Britains Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday, Trend reports citing Daily Sabah. In a message he shared on Twitter, Erdogan said he extends his condolences to the friendly people of the United Kingdom and the allied government upon the death of the queen, which he said he learned with "great sadness." Britains longest-reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth died at the age of 96 on Thursday. Buckingham Palace said she died at Balmoral Castle, her summer residence in Scotland, where members of the royal family had rushed to be by her side. The BBC played the national anthem over a portrait of the queen in full regalia. (Shows Al Khattiya is docked; changes expected arrival date for BW Brussels; removes Barcelona Knutsen after it changes destination; removes Seri Balqis after it leaves port; removes Hoegh Gannet after it changes destination; adds Al Sheehaniya and Maria Energy) Sept 9 (Reuters) - The following liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers are expected to arrive in Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands in the coming weeks. Estimated arrival dates, often revised by port authorities and AIS Live ship-tracking data on Refinitiv Eikon, are updated below. Some tankers heading for Belgium and Britain may be loading at the terminal. Those expected to load are indicated with an (L). Those likely to perform ship-to-ship transfers are indicated with (STS). Tankers that have docked are indicated with (A). For the Reuters LNG guide, click here: LNG TANKER CAPACITY in EXPECTED ARRIVAL FROM PORT cubic metres BRITAIN Dorado LNG 156,000 Sept. 8 (A) United States Isle of Grain Al Khattiya 206,000 Sept. 8 (A) Qatar South Hook BW Brussels 159,000 Sept. 9^ United States Isle of Grain Maran Gas Ithaca 170,000 Sept. 11 United States South Hook Maran Gas Delphi 157,000 Sept. 13 United States Dragon Al Mafyar 261,000 Sept. 23^ Qatar South Hook BW Pavilionaranthera 171,000 Sept. 30 United States Isle of Grain Golar Glacier 162,000 Oct. 10 United States South Hook BELGIUM Al Mafyar 261,000 Sept. 20^ Qatar Zeebrugge Simaisma 143,000 Sept. 25 Qatar Zeebrugge Al Sheehaniya 206,000 Sept. 30 Qatar Zeebrugge NETHERLANDS Arctic Discoverer 140,000 Sept. 6 (A) Norway Gate BW Lilac 172,000 Sept. 9 United States Gate Yamal Spirit 174,000 Sept. 10 Russia Gate Flex Ranger 174,000 Sept. 11 Egypt Gate Elisa Larus 174,000 Sept. 16 United States Gate SK Resolute 180,000 Sept. 21 United States Gate British Listener 174,000 Sept. 23 United States Gate Maria Energy 174,000 Sept. 23 United States Gate Sources: Ports, AIS Live ship tracking, Refinitiv Eikon data. (^) Partial unload (*) Arrival date estimated based on flows data (Reporting by Marwa Rashad) From left, Cheo Ming Shen, Jazz Li and and Jahan Loh at Void Deck at 425 Race Course Road, Singapore. (PHOTO: Void Deck) SINGAPORE What do you get when a successful Singaporean contemporary artist and two serial entrepreneurs with a passion for art collaborate? You get Void Deck, an art and culture space dedicated to making art fun, casual and more inclusive and affordable. Before Void Deck, there wasnt any space where you can comfortably interact with fine art or have a cultural experience, and not feel like you have to spend money, explained co-founder Jazz Li. According to the cultural entrepreneur, there is a gap in the market for spaces like this in Singapore and that is what Void Deck aims to fill. He also believes that being a cultural platform where people can integrate and experience cultural elevation and be exposed to all kinds of art is just the beginning as this can branch out to other opportunities in the field. When Void Deck opened its doors in December 2021, they also wanted to dispel the misconception that art is formal, intimidating and only for the rich. We travel a lot and we all feel theres a certain disconnect between art and life in Singapore. We are trying to bridge and connect different tribes through art, said Jahan Loh, one of the co-founders. And he should know Loh is one of Singapores most iconic contemporary artists who is also widely known across Asia. One of his most recognised works is Pork Luncheon, his pop art rendition of the Ma Ling luncheon meat can. Having exhibited his works both locally and internationally, he is someone who knows the ins and outs of the art scene. Li and Loh are joined by serial entrepreneur Cheo Ming Shen who brings his expertise in business, investment and strategy into the fold. Cheo has had his fair share of pursuits having pioneered the social media influencer marketing scene way back in 2006 and dabbling in various businesses in different sectors as an investor. Story continues Li shared that they invested a low six figures into the business with majority of it going into renovation and inventory in the initial stages. And when they partner with top artists from around the world, a significant portion of the revenue is split between the brand and creative agency or the artist they work with. Making art more accessible The trio is serious about making Void Deck a welcoming space for all, above everything else. Part of their strategy in making art more accessible to a wider audience is through art merchandise like art prints and collectibles, instead of originals. Our margins range from five to 50 per cent. We have chosen to offer certain collectibles and artworks at comfortable, accessible pricing. This comes at the expense of us not earning much from these items but we think that it is important to foster a relationship with our target audience, Li explained. Cheo, who is also an avid contemporary art collector, concurred, Passion is what drives this project forward. The fundamentals of the business are there as well, but it is my personal interest in the space that motivates me. The partners share more insight into Void Decks journey with Yahoo Finance Singapore. Why the name 'Void Deck'? Li: When non-Singaporeans think of void', they might think of a wide-open space where theres freedom to do anything. When they think of deck, they think of a kind of platform. Void Deck is just that, an open to people and ideas, and it brings people together. It is also close to home. Cheo: Singaporeans are familiar with it its a space where they can congregate for events big and small. What were the biggest difficulties and challenges since the launch? Li: Manpower and time-training have been challenging. We cant foresee the returns yet but we hope that the investments we put in the human capital will flourish in the long run and we will grow more talent. Cheo: The biggest difficulty is managing our time. All three of us are engaged in multiple projects. On top of that, Void Deck exhibitions can be high intensity. What makes Void Deck stand out from the other art spaces in Singapore? Li: We do programmes with the biggest names in the world who only work with the top international art dealers or institutions. We want to present these exhibitions in a casual and inviting manner. Cheo: I think its the genre of contemporary art, we feel it is more relatable to a wider base of people. What do you hope to achieve with Void Deck? Li: We hope that well be able to get regular people who have never thought of buying art into art and make art a part of their lives. We want to make them feel that art is not alienating but is for everybody. Who or what are you most inspired by? Li: James Turrell, Olafur Eliasson, and Andy Warhol. Their oeuvre has transformed social consciousness and elevated how people think about their lives and the world around them. Loh: I think my art reflects life. I am inspired by real-life, TV, animation, people, and places. But the artist who inspired me to create art is Osamu Tezuka, more specifically, his Astro Boy manga. I always wanted to be a cyborg with a human soul. Cheo: My business partner, artist Jahan inspires me. As a local artist, I think he has the chops to go global. I love the aesthetics of his art pieces, and my favourite is a Genesis maquette by him, which started my foray into the space. Whats in the pipeline? Cheo: We might want to mix it up a little after three art shows. You will have to wait and see. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter. VGP NV Press Release Regulated Information 9 September 2022, 07:00 CET, Antwerp, Belgium: The Rating Agency Fitch Ratings (Fitch) has affirmed the credit rating for VGP NV (VGP or the Group), a European provider of high-quality logistics and semi-industrial real estate, with its Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) and senior unsecured rating affirmed at 'BBB-'. The Outlook on the rating is Stable. For further details please refer to the Fitch corresponding press release on the rating agency website: https://www.fitchratings.com/. In addition, Global Property Research (GPR) announced the inclusion of VGP shares in the GPR 250 Index Series following its latest quarterly review. The change will be effective start of trading Monday, 19 September 2022. The GPR 250 Index Series is a free float weighted index that tracks the performance of the 250 most liquid property companies worldwide. Companies are selected on US dollar trade volume of the share in the past 12 months. For further details please refer to www.globalpropertyresearch.com. CONTACT DETAILS FOR INVESTORS AND MEDIA ENQUIRIES Investor Relations Tel: +32 (0)3 289 1433 investor.relations@vgpparks.eu Karen Huybrechts (Head of Marketing) Tel: +32 (0)3 289 1432 ABOUT VGP VGP is a pan-European developer, manager and owner of high-quality logistics and semi-industrial real estate. VGP operates a fully integrated business model with capabilities and longstanding expertise across the value chain. The company has a development land bank (owned or committed) of 11.31 million m2 and the strategic focus is on the development of business parks. Founded in 1998 as a Belgian family-owned real estate developer in the Czech Republic, VGP with a staff of circa 380 FTEs today and operates in 19 European countries directly and through several 50:50 joint ventures. As of June 2022, the Gross Asset Value of VGP, including the joint ventures at 100%, amounted to 6.53 billion and the company had a Net Asset Value (EPRA NTA) of 2.34 billion. VGP is listed on Euronext Brussels. (ISIN: BE0003878957). Story continues For more information, please visit: http://www.vgpparks.eu Attachment Next Match: Florida Gulf Coast University 9/9/2022 | 7:30 PM Next Match Full Schedule Sep. 09 (Fri) / 7:30 PM Florida Gulf Coast University The early morning start did not faze the Gators as the team jumped out to the early 5-1 lead in the first set. Florida continued to build on its advantage, pulling ahead seven after a 4-0 run to force Georgia Southern to use its first timeout at the 10-3 mark. Out of that timeout, the Gators continued to roll, pulling ahead by as many as nine before back-to-back aces from Elli McKissock secured the 25-15 victory. Florida hit .476 in the first frame, while keeping the Eagles to a .188 clip. Victoria and Markova each registered a team-high four kills the first set, followed by two from Kelley. secured the 25-15 victory. The second set was a tighter contest between the two teams to start, but the Gators were able to create some distance, grabbing the five-point advantage at 10-5. Georgia Southern cut the deficit to three at 10-7, but Florida kept the Eagles at arm's length heading into the media timeout holding the 15-10 lead. Out of that timeout, Georgia Southern would not bow out, cutting Florida's lead to just two at 17-15 to force a UF timeout. Florida strung together a 5-0 run out of that break, taking the 22-15 lead and closed out the set with a 25-18 win to go up 2-0 in the match. The Gators held Georgia Southern to a -.031 clip in the second set. Stucky and Markova each registered three kills in the second set, while Kelley and Victoria pitched in two apiece. After Georgia Southern took the 2-0 lead to start the third set, the Gators answered with a 5-0 run to take the lead at 5-2. The Eagles dug themselves out of the hole, knotting the frame at 8-8, but once again, the Gators were able to string together a run, this time pulling ahead four at 12-8 to force a Georgia Southern timeout. The Eagles cut the lead to two at 13-11, but a 7-0 Florida run behind the serves of Canaan gave the Gators all of the momentum and allowed them to cruise to a 25-13 victory. Victoria ended the final frame with five kills, while Markova and Okammor each added two. The last time Florida held an opponent to a negative hitting efficiency was Dec. 2, 2021 against FAMU (-.026) Birdie Hendrickson tied her career-high with four digs tied her career-high with four digs Sofia Victoria tied her career-best with three blocks tied her career-best with three blocks Alexis Stucky tied her career-high with three kills tied her career-high with three kills Emily Canaan tied her career-high with six digs tied her career-high with six digs Florida improves to 4-0 in the all-time series against the Eagles The Gators are now 4-0 in three-set matches against Georgia Southern UF is now 4-0 against the Eagles in Gainesville, Fla. Florida is 2-0 in three-set matches during the 2022 campaign The Gators face Florida Gulf Coast at 7:30 p.m. Friday night, before closing out the Invitational against VCU on Saturday at 4 p.m. Both matches can be streamed on SEC Network + This is the third meeting between the Gators and the Eagles Florida leads 2-0 (2-0 under Mary Wise ) ) 3-set: 3-0 | 4-set: 0-0 | 5-set: 0-0 Home: 1-0 | Away: 0-0 | Neutral: 1-0 Last Time Out: Nov. 30, 2018 | Orlando, Fla. | W, 3-0 (25-17, 25-13, 25-17) First series meeting Reserved (Sections 01, 03, 05, 07, 09, 11, 13, 15) $75 [ages 13 & up] (Sections 01, 03, 05, 07, 09, 11, 13, 15) [ages 13 & up] Kids Reserved (Sections 01, 03, 05, 07, 09, 11, 13, 15) - $35 [ages 12 & under] (Sections 01, 03, 05, 07, 09, 11, 13, 15) - [ages 12 & under] General Admission (All other lower bowl areas) $50 [ages 13 and up] (All other lower bowl areas) [ages 13 and up] Kids General Admission (All other lower bowl areas) $25 [ages 12 & under] (All other lower bowl areas) [ages 12 & under] Courtside Season Pass (subject to availability) $150 [all ages] [all ages] Loge Seating (subject to availability) [in front of the Sideline Club] $100 [all ages] GAINESVILLE, Fla. The 16th-ranked Florida volleyball team kicked off the Sunshine Invitational with a sweep over the Georgia Southern Eagles on Friday morning.The Gators took the first set in decisive fashion, winning 25-15 over the Eagles to start the day. UF then followed with a 25-18 victory in the second frame and secured the sweep with a 25-13 win in the third.Florida was led on the offensive front by, who posted a 12-kill performance on Friday morning.followed with nine kills of her own, whilepitched in five kills and a .625 clip in the match.In her first start at Florida,recorded four kills, whileandeach tallied three in the victory.Stucky led the Gators to a .271 clip in the three-setter, dishing out 25 assists in the process.Florida held the Eagles to a -.010 hitting efficiency on the morning, tallying 11.0 blocks in the three-setter. The last time the Gators held an opponent to a negative hitting percentage was Dec. 2, 2021 against Florida A&M (-.026).Kelley led the defensive effort at the net with a team-high four blocks, while five different Gators notched three of their own: Victoria, Markova, Robinson, Okammor and Stucky.paced the backcourt defense, finishing with a team-high 12 digs.added 10 of her own in the three-set match, just one off her career-high, while Stucky andposted seven and six, respectively.McKissock also led the Gators behind the service line, posting three service aces, one shy of her career-high.The Gators are right back in action tonight at 7:30 p.m. to take on the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles in Exactech Arena. The match will be streamed on SEC Network +. Florida will then close out the tournament against VCU on Saturday at 4 p.m.No. 16 Florida (4-2)Georgia Southern (5-2)Sept. 9 | 7:30 p.m.Eagles | 2022 season synopsis: 4-2. 0-0 ASUNSept. 10 | 4 p.m.Rams | 2022 season synopsis: 3-3, 0-0 A10352-375-4683 x6800 (Open M-F, 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m.)Season Ticket Prices: Mary Wise Coach on Twitter | Coach Mary Wise on Instagram WHILE THE EYES of journalists, Congress, and the public are on the Department of Justice investigation of the classified documents that former President Donald Trump removed from the White House, a recent report about a different critical issue of government secrecy has gone unnoticed. This report was given to the Biden administration on July 26 and warns of a dire need to reform the current system of classification and declassificationcautioning that secrecy itself is out of control. Government officials are classifying so much that it is becoming impossible to prioritize and protect truly sensitive information, much less review classified records so they can eventually be released to the public. We can no longer keep our heads above the tsunami, wrote Mark Bradley in his letter introducing the Information Security Oversight Offices annual report. The security classification system is designed to control information according to its level of sensitivity, ranging from confidential to top secret. Anyone seeking a security clearance to handle these materials must undergo rigorous background checks and training. But being approved for a level of clearance does not automatically give one access to classified information. Only those who already have access to a specific programs information can grant others with clearance permission to see it, and only if the requestor has an explicit reason for their need to know. The system creates the impression that only a select few are permitted to handle carefully defined categories of truly dangerous information. But these rules do not describe what is actually happening. In 2017 alone, officials told the ISOO that they had stamped something with confidential, secret or top secret more than 49 million times. At the time, this seemed like an improvement. In 2012, similar self-reported data added up to more than 95 million classifications, or three new state secrets per second. Bradley now says that a lot of the data in these earlier reports was neither accurate nor reliable, but cannot offer better estimates. And so many Special Access Programswhich may require additional security measures and bear the designation Sensitive Compartmented Informationhave proliferated across the government that Bradley could not create a complete list. The ISOO report warns that excessive secrecy and underinvestment in declassification is contributing to a lack of trust in government, which recent polls show is nearing historic lows. The number of people who currently have some level of government security clearance to access classified information totals nearly 3 million. Trump has claimed that he had a standing order to declassify the records that ended up in Mar-a-Lagobut there is no evidence of such an order and numerous officials have called this claim ludicrous. The fact is, the declassification of even one document involves a page-by-page inspection, and often requires sign-off by multiple departments and agencies. Yet the government employs fewer than 2,000 people to review, redact and determine which of these records can eventually be released. Some officials admit overclassification is endemic but insist that what they give presidents is always sensitive. But even former presidents have said this isnt the case. George W. Bush started receiving briefings from the CIA at his Texas ranch while the outcome of the 2000 election was still in doubt. After almost a month, Bush suspected the CIA was holding out on him. Im sure that when I become president, youll start giving me the good stuff, he said. But the briefer knew the president-elect would be disappointedWeve already been giving him the good stuff, the briefer thought. Harry Truman estimated that 95% of American military secrets were actually revealed in the media. Richard Nixon complained, The CIA tells me nothing I dont read three days earlier in the New York Times. Howard Baker, the long-serving senator and Ronald Reagans chief of staff, said that, during his entire career, he only learned one secret that remained so. Some classified information is truly sensitive. But if so much is treated as secret, the public cannot know what government officials are doing in our name. When historians look back at this time, they should read the ISOO report to comprehend the scale of classified information that they likely wont be able to see. Bradley predicts that so much has been hidden most of it will never be reviewed for declassification. It is our history that is being shrouded in secrecy. The Rev. Dan Cole hopes the public will attend an event designed to help people become spiritually renewed. Cole is lead pastor of Fremont Nazarene Church, which has hosted a variety of events throughout its 40-year history in Fremont. Now, the church will host Fremont Nazarenes Spiritual Renewal Weekend, Sept. 30-Oct. 2. The weekend will consist of four services, each about 45 minutes to an hour long, in the church at 960 Johnson Road. Services are at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 30; 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 1; and 10:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 2. Cole said the weekend event is a series of services intended to help people worship, pray and be renewed, focused and revived in their relationship with God. The Rev. Scott Sherwood of Lenexa, Kansas, a longtime pastor, now president of Nazarene Bible College, will speak. Besides Sherwoods messages, there will be time where people can come to the church altar and pray. The churchs worship team will provide music. The services are meant to help people enter into a deeper relationship with the Lord, said the Rev. Mickey Boell, pastor of worship arts, restoration ministry and community outreach. Boell said people will hear a Sunday morning sermon, which theyll try to apply during the rest of the week, but still have that seven-day period in between sermons. This is a retreat that helps you take what God is trying to tell us and spread it out in shorter segments so it can become part of you, she said. Boell said the event is open to anyone, not just pastors or spiritual leaders. Attendees can be longtime believers, those new to the faith, or those who are simply curious about it. Even if attendees cant go to all the services, theyre encouraged to attend whichever ones they can. As a community, the more focused we can be on God, together, the more were going to reach others with the word, Boell said. If we all come together as believers, we then are a strong community that can go out and spread the word even more. Boell tells why this is important. The world is a dark place right now and we want as many people to know that Jesus loves them, Jesus has forgiven them and theres no one too lost that God cant redeem, she said, adding, Thats the message that as Christians we need to spread across the entire community, county, state and world. Christians also need to be renewed. We have to take those times and dwell within the word and be fed so were better equipped to go out and spread that message, Boell said. The retreat offers time for attendees to worship through music, prayer and through listening. Sometimes people think they know what God wants them to do. A lot of times, I can get so caught up in what I think that I dont take the time to pause and slow down and listen for what God is telling me to do, she said. Boell invites people to come as they are, no matter what their walk is in life or whats going on in their lives. Thats what God intended the church to be anyway, she said. Boell looks forward to the retreat. Im excited to see what God has in store, because you know hes already been in the planning of this, Boell said. He laid it on Pastor Dans heart a while ago and so I know God has been in all of the planning of it. Cole noted that people in the church have prayed about the event. Our church is praying that God will renew, refresh and equip us to be disciples of Jesus, Cole said. Boell notes the possibilities that lie ahead. We serve a big God and he can do very big thingseven with the smallest of acts, she said, adding, There is nothing too small when youre talking about the kingdom of God. When it comes to education, Linda Garcia shares a phrase her grandmother used: You can always tell who the very educated people are, because they are the ones willing to share their knowledge. Now, the Omaha woman and her husband, Jose, are bringing their knowledge of the Mexican traditions of Day of the Dead and memory tables to the Fremont Area Art Association. The Garcias plan to install the show called, Day of the Dead (Dia de Muertos), on Sept. 25. The show will feature a variety of artists works including sculptures, paintings, collages and the Garcias memory tables. On Oct. 7, the public is invited to an opening reception for the exhibit from 5-7 p.m., in the Barbara Tellatin Gallery of the FAAA building, 92 W. Sixth St. Gallery admission is free and the exhibit scheduled to run through Nov. 2. Beforehand, the public is invited to bring print copies of photos of deceased loved ones and/or pets to the FAAA for a community memory table as part of the show. Participants need to put the deceased persons name, along with their own name on the back of each photo. The Garcias said The Day of the Dead is a time to remember and celebrate the lives of ancestors, loved ones and even celebrities with dignity. Its to remember their lives and the things they did, not their deaths. Its to remember their tributes and their importance in your family or your city, she said. The theme of the FAAA show is Ofrendas de Corazon (Memories of the Heart). They describe Ofrendas as memory tables, a presentation built in a home and more recently in public places, which includes flowers, photos and favorite items of the deceased person. If that person was a child, it might include toys. If it was a woman, it might feature one of her favorite dresses or jewelry. It also includes items representing earth, wind, fire and water. Fruit, vegetables and flowers represent the earth; delicate paper that moves like a banner symbolizes wind; candles represent fire and a cup of water symbolizes the last element. Explaining the tradition, Jose said a memory table is laid out to have the soul being remembered feel comfortable, wanted and invited. The memory table is like a magnet that entices the spirit to feel at home among their own people, Jose said. Like Day of the Dead, the memory tables are a celebration of the persons life, not their death. Jose said before the Spaniards came to Mexico, the days of remembering the dead lasted for 20 days. When the Spaniards came, it turned into Nov. 1 and 2, Jose said. Nov. 1 is All Saints Day and Nov. 2 is All Souls Day. In the United States, Garcia said the Day of the Dead is almost like a civic celebration. Linda cites a Mexican proverb that states there are three deaths: When a person dies; when their body is no longer seen (theyre buried or cremated); and the worst when the persons name is no longer said and theyre no longer remembered. The whole principle of this is to keep the memory of your friends and ancestors alive, Jose said. Linda compares a memory table to a little display someone might have in their home, where they have a photo of a deceased grandpa, along with his pipe and hat. People have Ofrendas in their homes and dont even realize it, Linda said. Self-Help & Art in California, which started in the 1970s, brought the Day of the Dead to the United States using images popularized by political cartoonist and printmaker Jose Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913). Posada used skulls as a source of satire. One of the satirical things he did was to make fun of the rich, Jose said. Posadas iconic image of a skeleton woman with a hat, called La Catrina, has become a common image in Day of the Death celebrations. Linda said Posadas message was that whether poor or rich everyone is going to die. Day of the Dead depictions include skeletons and skulls, but not blood and gore. Theyre not meant to produce terror or fright. Linda also said Monarch butterflies, another important symbol, travel from Mexico to Canada and back again. They always return from their flight about the time of the Day of the Dead, she said. Legend has it that a persons spirit and memories are being brought back to Mexico, too. It also represents migration for people who have moved from Mexico, its a reminder of their home, she said. Jose believes Day of the Dead allows people to let go of the grief and turn it into a nourishing memory. The Garcias hope the public will come to the exhibit. Its a way to learn more about another culture, Jose said. Besides the exhibit, area residents will have another educational opportunity when the Garcias and guest artist David Manzarnes share their knowledge of Day of the Dead during the Third Thursday Luncheon. This event starts at 11:30 a.m. Oct. 20 in Gallery 92 West, (the FAAA building). Cost is $15 for the lunch with reservations requested by Oct. 17. Linda also plans to host classes involving this art form. Those interested are encouraged to watch the art associations website for more information. For more than 35 years, Linda an artist, art instructor and storyteller has been creating, teaching and exhibiting Latino arts, culture and stories throughout the state. She has assisted numerous schools with displays for Cinco de Mayo, National Hispanic Heritage Month and other events. She and Jose are on the speakers bureau for the Nebraska Humanities Council. Jose, a Vietnam veteran, is a lecturer, freelance photographer and writer. He is a former director of the Chicano Awareness Center, retired officer of the Union Pacific Railroad and longtime community leader. The Garcias are co-founders of the Mexican American Historical Society of the Midlands. FAAA gallery hours are 1-4 p.m., Tuesdays-Sundays. More information about the art association is available at: 92west.org A 20-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the slaying of a 22-year-old man last month in Omaha. Wuanya Smith has been arrested in connection with the homicide of Anthony Collins III. Collins was fatally wounded near 49th and Hamilton around 12:10 a.m. Aug. 12. Police were called to Methodist Hospital after Collins arrived there in a private vehicle after he was shot. He died later in the day. Police said Wednesday that Smith was found in Benton, Arkansas, and taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Service Eastern Arkansas-Little Rock Task Force. Smith had been wanted on suspicion of second-degree murder, use of a weapon to commit a felony and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. An anonymous tip through Omaha Crime Stoppers led to his arrest, police said. Editor's note: We have detected a technical issue that is preventing some users from being able to log in to comment. We are working to have the issue resolved shortly. Thank you for your patience. In little more than a year, the Protect Nebraska Children Coalition has grown from a handful of worried parents and grandparents to a conservative political player in Nebraska with a Facebook page with more than 22,000 followers. The coalition notched a victory when its relentless opposition joined by Gov. Pete Ricketts and others spurred the Nebraska State Board of Education to indefinitely postpone the adoption of optional school health education standards that critics said advanced a politically progressive view of gender identity and sexual orientation. Another big win came in May when four conservative candidates for the state board, endorsed by the PNC political action committee, sailed comfortably through the primary. That sets up a general election showdown with four candidates endorsed by the Nebraska state teachers union. The Nebraska groups rapid rise reflects two realities that have unfolded across the country. First, many parents have become more involved in education since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Second, the role of cultural topics in the classroom, including LGBTQ issues and gender identity, has emerged as an energizing political force for candidates and voters. As Nebraskas general election approaches, the rhetoric is mounting here. Terms such as hate group, Christofascists and right-wing extremists have been used against the PNC Coalition and the candidates it supports. Meanwhile, opposing candidates are being called pedophiles and Marxists. And public school teachers are being accused of grooming students to rob them of their innocence and steer them into unhealthy behaviors. Nebraskas debate resembles similar, often partisan battles across the nation over what material is appropriate for school-age children. In some cases, such as the Virginia governors race, those fights may have been significant factors in elections. But the founders of the PNC Coalition say they didnt expect they would be playing a key role in Nebraskas 2022 elections. Nor did they dream their group would get so big. The bottom line is this is the definition of grassroots, said Nic Norton, a Kearney lawyer who joined the coalition in early 2021 when it had only six members. None of us are professionals. None of us have done anything like this before. And weve had an amazing run as a group because were united about the notion of keeping our public schools and our private schools our children safe. The first time the public heard of the coalition was in May 2021 when one of its founders, Katie McClemens, announced at a state board meeting that the group had formed to protect the health and innocence of children and the fundamental rights of parents to direct the education, health care and upbringing of their children. The seeds for the groups creation were planted months earlier, even before the Nebraska Department of Education released the controversial first draft of the health standards. On Feb. 11 last year, Nebraskans for Founders Values, a conservative group that advocates for religious freedom, parental rights and for restoring a culture based on Christian principles, held a public workshop at the Harmon Park Activity Center in Kearney. Five people who eventually would found the PNC coalition were there. Mark Bonkiewicz, a leader of Nebraskans for Founders Values, told attendees about a major storm cloud coming to Nebraska. Years earlier, Bonkiewicz had fought against efforts to introduce elements of comprehensive sexuality education into the Omaha Public Schools. Now, he said, family members and friends on the East and West Coasts were warning about the public school curricula in those places called comprehensive sexuality education and critical race theory. By the time the Education Department released the first draft of the voluntary health education standards on March 10, some Kearney locals already were on alert. The draft called for teaching children as young as first grade about gender identity and gender stereotypes. Kindergartners would be taught about different kinds of family structures, including cohabitating and same-gender families. Fourth graders would be taught the difference between sex assigned at birth and gender identity. Advocates billed the standards as inclusive and potentially lifesaving for fostering understanding and acceptance of LGBTQ youths. They said the standards would help curb bullying and suicide. But the Kearney parents and grandparents were disturbed by what they saw and decided to fight the standards. They joined with a father from outside Kearney who had created a Facebook group, and they dubbed it Protect Nebraska Children; later, it became the name of their coalition. We had no idea that within a month we would have 400 people at a State Board of Education meeting and we would have over 11,000 people on a Facebook group, said Sue Greenwald, a retired pediatrician from Kearney who helped found the coalition. That was not even on our radar. Things grew because the message resonated. As the group raced to get organized before the state education boards May meeting, members surfed the internet for information from like-minded groups. One member found the website Stop CSE, which is run by the Arizona-based Family Watch International. It featured samples of comprehensive sexuality education, saving the Nebraska group from having to create its own literature. The Protect Nebraska Children founders also learned that they could set up a webpage through the Stop CSE website that allowed them to collect donations for their coalition. As of July 13, just under $6,800 had been donated to the coalition through the website, said Sharon Slater, president of Family Watch International. Despite the early help from Family Watch International, the Nebraska coalition says their success didnt stem from outside influence. The groups founders say its their message of supporting parental rights, opposing comprehensive sexuality education and keeping political agendas out of public schools that resonates with the public. Still, PNCs early connection with Family Watch International has been targeted by the groups opponents. The Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled Family Watch International as a hate group, citing its promotion of anti-LGBT laws and anti-choice stances. The center has not labeled PNC a hate group. But that distinction hasnt kept Nebraska critics of the local group from making a more sweeping claim. Deborah Neary, who is running for reelection to the state board, texted colleagues the day after the May primary and suggested outside interests had influenced the election. There is, she wrote, a direct link from PNC to Family Watch International a well-known national hate group that is now influencing Nebraskas school board races. I think Nebraskans would be alarmed to know these outside interests are influencing our elections. In an interview with The World-Herald, she elaborated on the claim. They were founded by a hate group, and theres evidence of that, and they have endorsed four candidates who perpetuate hate language, anti-LGBTQ and racist language and ideas, Neary said. Nearys criticisms have been echoed by progressives posting on social media. The founders of the PNC Coalition say the hate group label is an effort to stifle the organizations views with a false accusation. Greenwald said the claim is ridiculous. I feel I could write a book of Jeff Foxworthy jokes, she said. If you have the word family or children in your title, you might be a hate group. If youre anti-indoctrination, you might be a hate group. If you dont want porn in your schools, you might be a hate group. While the Nebraska group shares a common goal of protecting children with Family Watch International, it doesnt receive a dime from that organization or any other national groups, said Norton, the coalitions attorney. And Slater said while Family Watch International has provided some strategic advice and technical support to the Nebraska group, they are very competent and run their own program. In its critique of FWI, the Southern Poverty Law Center accuses the organization of dehumanizing and portraying LGBTQ people as a predatory threat. Slater said her group is not anti-LGBT and opposes harassment and violence against all persons, including LGBT individuals. Family Watch says it works to preserve and promote traditional marriage, safeguard parental rights, defend human life, uphold religious liberty and protect the health and innocence of children. It also says that the unique contributions made by mothers and fathers cannot be replaced by two parents of the same sex and that children will suffer if society sanctions marriages that make it impossible for children to be raised by either their mother or father. As for the Nebraska coalition, Greenwald said the group is not anti-LGBT, either. Nor does it oppose sex education in schools. Of course not, Greenwald said. Sex ed has been taught in the schools for generations. But in the past, she said, we didnt teach it to second graders, and we didnt have standards that require such an in-depth focus on different aspects of sexuality. The hate accusation is showing up in local school board races, founders say, causing some candidates to decline the PNCs endorsement for fear of putting a target on their own backs. Last March, Melissa McClanahan ran for the school board in the Nebraska City Public Schools with a PNC-PAC endorsement. Some critics attacked her for the connection, and McClanahan lost. At the same time, the state teachers union and others, including Neary, have their own complaints about the PNC coalitions efforts. They say the candidates endorsed by the PNC political action committee are fearmongering and spreading hate and extreme disinformation by encouraging people to watch a documentary film called The Mind Polluters. The movie was produced by Mark and Amber Archer, a Christian husband and wife filmmaking team from Indiana. It is being screened in Nebraska and across the country. The coalition leaders endorse the movie. The moviemakers assert that activist teachers in the nations public schools are using sex education classes and social-emotional learning lessons to encourage young children to accept progressive views of sex and sexuality without parents knowing or consenting. The moviemakers claim that this robs children of their innocence, breaks down their natural resistance to engaging in sexual activity and steers kids into unhealthy behaviors. Some teachers resent the moviemakers use of the term grooming to describe this activism. In recent years, the term has been associated with how pedophiles break down childrens defenses to take advantage of them. Jenni Benson, president of the Nebraska State Education Association, called the movie propaganda-based. But the movie, which was released in November 2021, expresses many of the same views that factored into the fight against Nebraskas proposed health education standards. In that battle, opponents outnumbered supporters about 2-to-1 at the first public meeting in 2021. The raucous crowd triggered decorum warnings from the board president and the commissioner of education. The opposition movement found an ally in Ricketts, who criticized the standards as political and nonscientific, and started hosting town hall meetings to oppose them. The first such meeting in Grand Island on July 1 drew a largely receptive crowd of about 150 people, according to reporting by the Grand Island Independent. A second watered-down draft released last July was met with opposition, too. The board last September indefinitely postponed development of the standards. The coalition leaders say they realized that political action would be needed to keep proposals such as the standards from coming forward again. They formed a separate entity for political activity, the PNC-PAC, for supporting candidates. It is an independent committee subject to state campaign disclosure laws. As of the most recent reporting date, PNC-PAC reported cash contributions and receipts for the election cycle totaling just over $31,000. PNC-backed candidates are running in all four state education board races on the November ballot. Marni Hodgen, who is endorsed by the PNC-PAC, is running against Neary in board district 8 in central Douglas County. She takes issue with Nearys criticism of the group. Just because I want to protect kids from a hypersexualized and explicit curriculum about all sexual behavior doesnt mean Im against the LGBTQ+ community, Hodgen said. To say that is incredulous. Lets let the kids be kids and focus on teaching them what we should be: reading, writing, arithmetic, history and science. The health education standards and Nearys role in developing them has been a campaign issue. According to texts and emails released through a public records request, Neary had urged the Nebraska Department of Education to use a former Planned Parenthood educator, employed by the Womens Fund of Omaha, as an adviser in developing the standards. Neary says the adviser was an expert on sex education. She also says her actions were appropriate for a board member. Robin Stevens, another incumbent board member who trailed his general election challenger Elizabeth Tegtmeier by nearly a 3-1 margin in the primary, said the PNC Coalition deserves the hate group label though he said defining hate is problematic. If its simply to be telling untruths to try to bring a person down or an organization down, you know, so out-and-out lies, out-and-out falsehoods, well, yeah, then I would consider PNC a hate group, he said. Stevens, who describes himself as a conservative, said the group has wrongly painted him as a liberal. He said he has been falsely called a groomer, a pedophile and a Marxist. Opponents of the standards have criticized him for not speaking out against the standards and for voting against a motion earlier this year to permanently scrap them. Stevens said its hard for him to agree with the Southern Poverty Law Centers reasons for labeling Family Watch International a hate group, but as for Family Watch itself, its hard for me to buy into what theyre selling, too. If youre going to attack LGBTQ people, come on, thats just totally wrong. It isnt that I agree with LGBTQ. Its just they are people, and, you know, were told to love all people. Tegtmeier, his opponent, said the PNC-PAC endorsement is just one of many endorsements she has received. My campaign is not defined by one endorsement, she said. I have been endorsed by many groups, including the Nebraska Republican Party and the Nebraska Federation of Republican Women as well as many elected Nebraska officials. Tegtmeier also has received $20,000 from Ricketts. She said her campaign is focused on issues: the teacher shortage, local control and concern over the states academic assessments. In the other two education board races, the PNC committee endorsed Kirk Penner, a Ricketts appointee who faces Helen Raikes, and Sherry Jones, who faces Danielle Helzer. As the election approaches, the sharp disagreements and harsh words show the fundamental differences in how the two sides view issues such as gender identity. Both accuse the other of pushing an extreme agenda; both see their own views as being the right way to do things. To critics, for example, the PNC groups opposition to teaching about gender identity amounts to an agenda that would marginalize LGBTQ children. The PNC coalition leaders, in contrast, say the comprehensive sexuality education side is the one that is pushing an agenda. Said Norton, the coalition lawyer: Were advocating that agendas be left at the door when kids walk into the classroom. Editor's note: We have detected a technical issue that is preventing some users from being able to log in to comment. We are working to have the issue resolved shortly. Thank you for your patience. Kansas-based Saint Frances Ministries. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector) LINCOLN State officials say the transition of child welfare case management from troubled Saint Francis Ministries to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services has gone well over the past six months, while emphasizing there is more work to do. Right now its like a 6-month-old baby were doing a well check o,n and were right where we need to be, Dannette Smith, the CEO of DHHS, told a town hall meeting Wednesday evening in Omaha. Meanwhile, a leading critic of the Saint Francis contract said Thursday that shes reserving judgment on the transition, which began in December. Senator reserves judgment State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha said shes hearing fewer complaints from child welfare workers now that theyre employees of the state. She said she appreciated that DHHS was trying to improve transparency. But the senator, who attended Wednesdays town hall, said she remains concerned that caseloads are still not within compliance of the statutory limit of 17 cases per manager. This is a monumental thing to undertake, Cavanaugh said. I know its not going to be easy or quick. But I am rooting for (the state) to succeed. About 25 people attended the town hall Wednesday night at the Goodwill/Apex Training Center. Successful completion of transition The event was billed as marking the successful completion of the transition from Saint Francis to DHHS, which began in December, when the state canceled its contract with the Kansas provider after continual problems meeting caseload requirements. But with fewer than a handful of attendees providing comment, the one-hour town hall consisted mainly of DHHS officials detailing what had been accomplished over the past six months. The last cases were turned over to the state in May. Some of the information shared at the meeting: 94% of Saint Francis employees agreed to transfer to DHHS after the state abruptly canceled the Kansas agencys contract in December to oversee state wards in Omaha and eastern Nebraska. That, officials said, meant that many families got to keep the same caseworker. Since March, DHHS has hired 104 new employees to handle cases of the states abused and neglected youth in the eastern service area. Stephanie Beasley, director of DHHSs Division of Children and Family Services, said the agency is now focused on becoming one of the best child welfare systems in the country and on doing to more prevent children from entering the system. A consultant hired by DHHS is scheduled to issue a report in December on improving the child welfare system. Smith said a strategic visioning group has been at work for the past 20 months on possible reforms. We are looking at best practices across the country, Smith said. She mentioning the states of Connecticut, Ohio, Kentucky and Michigan as doing great things to help families in crisis earlier, to keep them out of the child welfare system. Fewer concerns Jennifer Carter, the states inspector general for child welfare, said Thursday that her office continues to keep a close eye on the transition. Carter said her office has not been overwhelmed with concerns about the transition but still fields some complaints about some cases that had been handled by Saint Francis. The Ricketts administration had contracted with Saint Francis Ministries in 2019 to take over case management of abused and neglected children who became state wards in Omaha and eastern Nebraska. But Saint Francis officials later admitted they had severely underbid the contract, and by January 2021, the state had to provide an emergency allocation of $150 million to keep the Nebraska operation afloat. Experiment with privatization ended The cancellation of the contract with Saint Francis ended Nebraskas experiment with privatizing case management. The eastern Nebraska cases were gradually transferred to DHHS, which was already managing cases elsewhere in the state. At any given time, about 3,300 children are state wards, including about 1,500 in the Omaha area. Smith, the DHHS CEO, told those at the town hall Wednesday night that the agency was committed to continuing to communicate with families and agencies involved in child welfare. She added that DHHS wants to hear from families and former and current wards of the state on what works and doesnt work. If you want children and families to be healthy, go to the community, she said. We should be the last resort. By Trend UK Prime Minister Liz Truss called upon the nation to unite in support of King Charles III in her speech following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Trend reports citing TASS. "With the Kings family, we mourn the loss of his mother," she said. "And as we mourn, we must come together as a people to support him. To help him bear the awesome responsibility that he now carries for us all." "We offer him our loyalty and devotion just as his mother devoted so much to so many for so long," Truss added. The premier described Elizabeth II as "the very spirit of Great Britain - and that spirit will endure." "She has been our longest-ever reigning monarch. It is an extraordinary achievement to have presided with such dignity and grace for 70 years," Truss continued. "The death of Her Majesty the Queen is a huge shock to the nation and to the world". The U.S. Postal Service held a ceremony Friday in Omaha to formally rename the Benson branch post pffice for World War II Navy veteran Charles Jackson French. A photo of French is shown outside the building at 63rd and Maple Streets. (Aaron Sanderford/Nebraska Examiner) OMAHA The brick post office in Benson now bears the name of a Navy man with Omaha ties: World War II hero Charles Jackson French. Members of the French family and elected leaders attended a ceremony Friday celebrating naming the building for him. If his parents and his siblings were living, they would be very proud, said Chester French, one of Charles nephews. Another nephew, Roscoe Harris, thanked the group of more than 50 attendees for honoring their uncles sacrifice. Both nephews live in Omaha. Eighty years ago this month, Japanese forces sank the ship on which French served, the USS Gregory, near Guadalcanal Island. Petty Officer 1st Class French, a Black man who lived in Omaha before entering the Navy, saved the lives of 15 injured white sailors. French tied a rope to his waist, jumped into the ocean and swam for six to eight hours, pulling a raft with the injured men. At that point, the Navy was segregated and limited service members of color to jobs in the ships galley. After French and the sailors were rescued, a crew tried separating him from the others. Sailors vouched for him. Chester French said his family have heard from the daughters of one sailor who hung off the side of the raft and helped Charles navigate. They also have heard from family members of others on the raft. Navy Cmdr. Ben Selph, who flew in for the ceremony, said Frenchs selfless example is one that American sailors aspire to match. Petty Officer French, Charles Jackson French, knew before so many in our country did that what matters is the content of a mans character over the color of his skin, said Selph, who is based in San Diego. U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., and U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., led an effort that was joined by the rest of the Nebraska congressional delegation to rename the post office for French. Bacon, a retired Air Force brigadier general, said at the ceremony that people who have served in the military recognize gallantry, courage, never leaving your buddy behind. They see a brother in French, he said. He changed hearts of 15 sailors who were there that day, Bacon said. It has taken thousands of Petty Officer Frenches to change hearts and minds. Fischer called Friday a joyous occasion that was a long time coming. She said the country needed to honor French for his service and sacrifice. Its important for future generations that they can be inspired by this story of one man and his remarkable actions to save his colleagues, she said. It is our duty to keep those stories alive. The Canadian government has agreed to take in around 1,000 Afghans who have been living for almost a year in a refugee center in the United Arab Emirates after fleeing their country following the Taliban's takeover in August 2021. Quoting seven sources, the Reuters news agency said Ottawa agreed to take the refugees, who were waiting to be resettled in the United States, and are now reviewing cases to identify those who meet Canadian resettlement criteria in what is the first known instance of Afghans moving from the center to a country where they have no direct ties. Canada's criteria for resettlement of those from the facility include religious minorities, single women, civil servants, social activists, and journalists, the sources told Reuters. The resettlement is expected to begin next month and could also include another 500 refugees at the center who have ties to Canada, the sources said. Asked about the arrangement, the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi shared an immigration department statement saying Ottawa's priority was to support vulnerable Afghans getting to Canada. Based on reporting by Reuters UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that the world owes Pakistan "massive" help recovering from devastating floods that have killed more than 1,300 people and left around one-third of the impoverished country under water. Guterres said in Islamabad on September 9 that Pakistan accounted for less than 1 percent of global emissions, and that countries that "are more responsible for climate change...should have faced this challenge." "Pakistan has not contributed in a meaningful way to climate change, the level of emissions in this country is relatively low," he said while seated next to Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on the first day of his two-day visit. "But Pakistan is one of the most dramatically impacted countries by climate change." Saying that humanity had "waged war on nature," he said that the environment was striking back. "Today in Pakistan, tomorrow in any of your countries," he warned. The floods, caused by two months of record monsoon rains, have killed at least 1,391 people and affected 33 million more. Guterres said that by some estimates, Pakistan needs about $30 billion to recover. The UN last week launched an emergency global appeal to raise $161 million to fund the immediate response to the catastrophe. After his meeting with Sharif, Guterres was expected to head to the worse-hit province of Sindh, where many cities and town were still inundated as crews battle to bolster dykes and erect other makeshift measures to ease the situation. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned the widespread risk of disease due to the disruption of Pakistan's health system from the flooding. Pakistan's Finance Ministry has estimated damage from the floods to the country's economy, which was already struggling in the face of high fiscal and current account deficits, totals at least $12 billion. With reporting by AFP Several events across the Pikes Peak region and Denver area this weekend will commemorate the 21st anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and pay homage to the nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives. "We remember the moment in history that forever changed our country and the world as we knew it. We mourn the innocent lives and all the brave first responders who we lost on that day and all those who sacrificed their lives to protect freedom since," Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said in a written statement issued Friday. "We reflect how 21 years ago, in the face of challenge, Americans came together stronger than ever before and showed the world that freedom will not be taken and the American people will not be broken. Instead, in the face of violence, Americans became stronger and more united to fight terrorism," he said. "Today, as we remember the 21st anniversary of 9/11, let us honor and thank all the first responders who responded that day, and the military members who have bravely sacrificed to serve to combat terrorism to protect our freedom." On Thursday, Polis joined Denver Mayor Michael Hancock at the University of Denver to host Colorado Remembers 9/11. The event featured a remembrance ceremony to honor those killed in the attacks. Former CIA Director John Brennan and former National Security Adviser and U.N. Ambassador John Bolton also participated in an educational forum discussing current issues affecting U.S. security and foreign policy. On Sunday, the Manitou Incline will close from 6 to 9 a.m. for the seventh annual Firefighter Incline Climb to remember first responders who died in the attacks. A 9/11 Commemoration Ceremony will take place from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. at the Pikes Peak Region Peace Officers' Memorial in Colorado Springs' Memorial Park. Mayor John Suthers, Colorado Springs Chief of Police Adrian Vasquez, Colorado Springs Fire Chief Randy Royal and police chaplain Gene Steinkirchner will attend. At 9 a.m. Sunday in Woodland Park, American Legion Post 1980 and VFW Post 6051 will join the Teller County Sheriff's Office, Woodland Park Police Department and the Northeast Teller County Fire Department at Lions Park for a public 9/11 memorial ceremony. Lions Park is at the intersection of U.S. 24 and Colorado 67. Also on Sunday, the 2022 Colorado 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb will take place at Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway in Morrison. This ceremony also remembers the first responders who died in the attacks. Opening ceremonies begin at 8:46 a.m., with the climb scheduled to begin at 9:02 a.m. To register, visit 911stairclimb.com. The 9/11 Heroes Run kicks off at 9 a.m. Sunday in Denver's Great Lawn Park, 101 Yosemite St. Runners, walkers and "ruckers" are welcome. Register online at travismanion.org/events/911-heroes-run/2022-denver-co. Not enough auto thieves are facing serious consequences from the justice system. Which of course is a part and parcel of the broader breakdown of law and order ushered in by Colorado policy makers in their fit of justice reform. WOODLAND PARK Construction on apartments for Charis Bible College students started Thursday on the nearly 500-acre Andrew Wommack Ministries campus in Woodland Park, the same day the organization presented a goodwill donation of $250,000 to the city following a heated community dispute over the student-housing project. Each 40-bed complex will cost an estimated $6.5 million to build, said Andrew Wertz, senior vice president for Andrew Wommack Ministries and Charis Bible College. That amount is $1 million more per unit from November 2021, when Andrew Wommack, founder of the evangelical Christian organization and vocational Bible-training college, announced at a campus open house that the next building phase was about to begin. The first four units still are expected to open in time for the 2023 fall semester, Wertz said. Wommack said last year he wants to erect as many as eight apartment buildings for students, depending on funding. Construction has been delayed by five months, over terms city leaders placed on the idea a decade ago, when Wommack decided to develop a mega-campus in Woodland Park and relocate his college and organization headquarters from Colorado Springs to the small mountain town to the west. A clause added after the ministry presented an original planned-unit development, known as a PUD, and received approval from City Council was at the center of the controversy. The city had later inserted a requirement into the approved ordinance that the ministry privatize future student housing, which subjected intended dorm development to property taxes. Andrew Wommack Ministries didnt know that, CEO Billy Epperhart said in an interview on Thursday. The organization has emails from 2012 regarding the PUD before the clause was added, he said, and subsequent objections later in 2012 and again in 2015, when leaders notified the city that the organization didnt know the condition about taxes had been inserted and objected to it. The PUD just referenced a meeting that was held late at night with the mayor, Epperhart said. It didnt say anything about student housing. The matter constituted an error on the part of City Council a decade ago, Wertz said. The present-day council agreed on Aug. 4, approving in a 5-2 vote a request from Andrew Wommack Ministries to amend the PUD and remove the condition. The organizations lawyer argued that because the ministries and Charis Bible College are nonprofit religious entities, they are tax-exempt and cannot by law be taxed. The amount of the one-time, nonbinding donation to the citys utilities department was an internal decision that organization leaders arrived at after studying the city's needs, Wertz said. Some wondered at last months City Council meeting why fire or ambulance districts werent also beneficiaries. Those entities arent under the city jurisdiction, said City Manager Michael Lawson, adding that discussions about the citys tax structure are ongoing. Residents who objected to the proposed change to the PUD claimed the college, which enrolls about 1,050 students on site this semester and hosts numerous seminars with thousands of attendees, strains city infrastructure and services. Since opening at the Woodland Park location in 2014, Charis has donated more than $800,000 in money, services and goods to local efforts such as food pantries, the fire district and the Teller County Sheriffs Office, said Mike Pickett, a Bible college vice president. The sheriff's office has received a horse trailer, stun guns and body armor, he said. Lawson said the organization's charitable contribution to the city coffers is nice because its taking a step forward from a difficult political issue. Some residents have complained that the college has adversely affected traffic, housing affordability and availability, and the overall nature of the community. The city's housing shortage long predates the college's arrival, said Debbie Miller, president of the Greater Woodland Park Chamber of Commerce, during a presentation to first-year students on Thursday. Miller said the lack of housing was a problem when she moved to the area in 2005, as she encouraged students to become a benefit to the community. The city plans to spend the Charis donation on securing additional water rights, Lawson said, because without water, you cant grow. City leaders are eyeing Twin Lakes Reservoir as a potential source for long-term supplies, he said. Between 7,950 and 8,200 residents live in the city limits, according to varying counts by the U.S. Census Bureau and the State Demography Office, the Chambers Miller said. Woodland Parks growth has slowed in recent years and is limited by available water taps for new construction, Lawson said. The city this year has sold 29 water taps and has 51 remaining to sell, Miller said. Building new student apartments is expected to alleviate concerns about the college contributing to the areas housing crunch, officials have said. It has always been our desire to be a good neighbor, and I believe this donation is just one of many ways in which we can help assist Woodland Park during this time of continuous growth, Epperhart said Thursday, in presenting the city manager with a ceremonial check. Your morning rundown of the latest news from Colorado Springs and around the country Sign Up View all of our newsletters. FILE PHOTO: Britain's Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles stand on a balcony during the Platinum Jubilee Pageant, marking the end of the celebrations for the Platinum Jubilee of Britain's Queen Elizabeth, in London, Britain, June 5, 2022. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/Pool/ Hong Kong: Pre-departure quarantine forum held Chief Secretary Chan Kwok-ki and Shenzhen Mayor Qin Weizhong held a meeting of the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Working Group on the plan of pre-departure quarantine via video conferencing today. Others who participated in the meeting included Secretary for Constitutional & Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang, Secretary for Security Tang Ping-keung and Secretary for Health Prof Lo Chung-mau. During the forum, both sides formally commenced the Hong Kong-Shenzhen liaison mechanism between the Chief Secretary and the Shenzhen mayor. They discussed the idea about the plan of pre-departure quarantine, under which Mainland-bound travellers from Hong Kong would undergo quarantine in Hong Kong first before entering Shenzhen in a closed-loop mode to meet the Mainlands 7+3 quarantine requirement. They also assigned the Health Bureau and the Shenzhen Municipal Health Commission to take the lead in working out the detailed requirements to ensure the plan could be comprehensively formulated. Furthermore, the Hong Kong and Shenzhen sides agreed that a site visit to the relevant facilities at the Lok Ma Chau Loop should be arranged for the officials concerned as soon as possible, so that the feasibility of using the facilities as the designated quarantine location under the plan of pre-departure quarantine could be thoroughly examined. This story has been published on: 2022-09-09. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. By Azernews By Vugar Khalilov Azerbaijani Deputy Defense Minister, Chief of the General Staff Col-Gen Karim Valiyev has inspected the armys Land Forces, Azernews reports, citing the ministry. Karimov assessed the work done in the Land Forces and delivered the responsibilities allocated to the army by the high command during a meeting with the command staff. He conveyed to the appropriate officials of the defense minister's directions on strengthening the combat readiness and professionalism of military troops, adapting drills to real combat circumstances, and using technological advancements to successfully utilize newly-adopted weapons and military equipment. Following the meeting, Karimov inspected the Combat Control Center (CDC). He was reported that the necessary infrastructure had been created for the organization of command management in interoperability with other types of troops, relying on modern battle methods. Then, Valiyev, along with Deputy Defense Minister Lt-Gen Anvar Afandiyev, National Defense University Rector Lt-Gen Heydar Piriyev, and other high-ranking officers visited the Land Forces' Combined-Arms Training Center and met with young lieutenants enrolled in the first Officers Commando Initial Courses. Karimov was informed that the exercises were undertaken to strengthen servicemen's tactical-special readiness taking into account the techniques of conducting modern battles. It was underlined that involving young commanders in commando training as part of attempts to bring the Azerbaijan army to the Turkish armed forces standards will have a positive impact on personnels professional skills. Then, training episodes on fulfilling the combat tasks in human settlements and clearing settlements from an imaginary enemy were observed The Chief of the General Staff recommended the young officers master military sciences, grow as competent and disciplined leaders via physical fitness, and set an example for subordinate military personnel. In the end Valiyev inquired about the personnels concerns and had lunch with them. Meanwhile, the next training flights were conducted as part of the TurAz Falcon-2022 (TurAz Qartali) joint flight-tactical drills hosted in Azerbaijan, the ministry said in a separate report. Military pilots successfully completed objectives such as dodging the fictitious enemy's air defense measures, inflicting airstrikes on land-based targets, and other missions, according to the scenario, it added. Joint flight-tactical drills are still ongoing. FILE PHOTO: U.S. power chip maker Wolfspeeds silicon carbide 200mm wafer is seen on display at Wolfspeeds Mohawk Valley Fab in Marcy, New York, U.S., April 2022. Silicon carbide power chips have been gaining traction with electric car makers as they can handle high voltages and are more power efficient. Courtesy of Wolfspeed/Handout via REUTERS FILE PHOTO: The logo of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is seen at the IAEA headquarters, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Vienna, Austria May 24, 2021. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner The British flag is seen flying at half mast, following the passing of Queen Elizabeth, at the British High Commission headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria September 9, 2022. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde FILE PHOTO: A North Korean flag flutters at the propaganda village of Gijungdong in North Korea, in this picture taken near the truce village of Panmunjom inside the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas, South Korea, July 19, 2022. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/Pool Flags of the Union Jack, Gibraltar and the Commonwealth wave at half mast in front of the Rock of Gibraltar following the death of Britain's Queen Elizabeth, in Gibraltar, September 9, 2022. REUTERS/Marcelo del Pozo A landmark gas sales agreement between Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) and Dubai Supply Authority (DUSUP) was signed on Friday. UAE President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, witnessed the signing of the agreement. The agreement will see Adnoc supply DUSUP with natural gas, which will be used instead of clean coal for electricity generation at Dubai Electricity and Water Authority's (DEWA) IPP (Independent Power Producer) Hassyan Power Complex, further reducing carbon emissions from the power generation process. This supports the UAE Net Zero by 2050 Strategic Initiative and its plans to generate electricity from cleaner energy sources, a Wam news agency report said. The agreement was signed at Qasr Al Watan by Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy and Director-General of DUSUP, and Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Adnoc Managing Director and Group CEO. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed said: "This agreement supports the vision and directives of the wise leadership to turn Dubai into a carbon-neutral economy and provide 100% of Dubais total power generation capacity from clean energy sources by 2050. This agreement further strengthens energy cooperation between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, building on the foundations originally laid in 1998 and reinforced over the years, to expand the breadth and depth of our energy relations. "While many countries around the world are returning to coal as a result of geopolitical uncertainty and energy price volatility, the UAE is delivering on its commitment to decarbonize its power sector." Dr Al Jaber stated that in line with the directives of the UAEs wise leadership, ADNOC is advancing its efforts to harness Abu Dhabis vast natural gas resources to meet the worlds growing demand for this important transition fuel and enable a responsible energy transition. This landmark agreement will significantly reduce power generation emissions at the Hassyan Power Complex, directly supporting the UAE Net Zero by 2050 Strategic Initiative. "Working in close collaboration with our customers and partners, ADNOC will continue to expand our natural gas capacity to deliver against our strategic objectives of decarbonizing our energy and power systems, ensuring UAE gas self-sufficiency and driving long-term and sustainable growth for the UAE," he added. Adnocs integrated gas masterplan links every part of the gas value chain to ensure a sustainable and economic supply of natural gas to meet the growing requirements of the UAE and international markets. The plan includes the application of new approaches and technologies to enable increased and competitive gas recovery from existing fields as well as developing untapped resources and leveraging innovation to continually drive emissions reduction. Domestically produced natural gas is more commercially competitive compared to imported coal or gas and it will support economic growth while lowering emissions when used as a subsitute for coal in power generation. Adnoc is a responsible provider of reliable, lower-carbon energy. In addition to the expansion of its gas operations, Adnoc is growing its new energies business to capitalize on opportunities in hydrogen and renewables, while decarbonizing its operations as it embraces the energy transition and continues to help meet global energy demand. The Hassyan Power Complex was initially built as a dual-fuel plant with the ability to operate full-time at full load on both natural gas or clean coal but has been transformed to run only on natural gas. Present net electricity generation capacity of Hassyan Power Complex is 1,200 megawatts (MW). A further 600 MW (net) is scheduled to be added in Q4 of 2022 and an additional 600 MW (net) will be added by Q3 of 2023. The complex is an important addition to DEWAs power generation projects, including Jebel Ali Power and Desalination Complex, Al Aweer Power Station Complex, the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, the largest single-site solar park in the world with a planned capacity of 5,000 MW by 2030, green hydrogen, and hydroelectric power plant in Hatta. FILE PHOTO: U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin attends a media statement after a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at the American military's Ramstein Air Base, near Ramstein-Miesenbach, Germany, September 8, 2022. REUTERS/Thilo Schmuelgen FILE PHOTO: The Virginia State Capitol, the seat of state government of the Commonwealth of Virginia, is pictured in Richmond, Virginia, U.S, February 8, 2019. REUTERS/Jay Paul/File Photo By David Shepardson and Nandita Bose WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The White House on Thursday outlined six principles to reform Big Tech platforms and said it was encouraged to see bipartisan interest in Congress to rein in major U.S. tech companies. The six principles, entitled "Enhancing Competition and Tech Platform Accountability," were released after Biden administration officials earlier in the day met with experts to discuss "the harms that tech platforms cause and the need for greater accountability." The White House said the United States needs "clear rules of the road to ensure small and mid-size businesses and entrepreneurs can compete on a level playing field." "These principles are the culmination of months of work by the administration and engagement with numerous stakeholders," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters. "We're looking forward to hearing any feedback from the tech companies." A group of bipartisan lawmakers has introduced antitrust legislation aimed at reining in the four tech giants -- Meta Platform's Facebook, Apple, Alphabet's Google and Amazon.com -- that would bar the companies from favoring their own businesses in search results and other ways. The lawmakers have said they believe they have the 60 Senate votes needed to move forward, but no vote has yet been scheduled. Among issues discussed at Thursday's meeting, which included numerous senior White House officials, District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine and technology experts, were antitrust, privacy, algorithmic discrimination and other tech policy areas, the White House said. The six principles include promoting technology sector competition; adopting robust federal privacy protections, and tougher privacy and online protections for children; rescinding special legal protections for large tech platforms; increasing transparency about platforms' algorithms and content moderation decisions; and ending discriminatory algorithmic decision-making. "The rise of tech platforms has introduced new and difficult challenges," the White House said, "from the tragic acts of violence linked to toxic online cultures, to deteriorating mental health and wellbeing, to basic rights of Americans and communities worldwide suffering from the rise of tech platforms big and small." (Reporting by Diane Bartz, Nandita Bose and David Shepardson; Editing by Leslie Adler) Denver leads the nation in auto thefts for the first half of 2022, a title it also claimed in 2021. Colorado's leaders are mourning the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Britains longest-reigning monarch who died Thursday at age 96, calling her a "rock" for Great Britain and a "beacon of stability" through the decades. The queen died after 70 years on the throne. "Colorado celebrates and honors the life and memory of Her Royal Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II," Gov. Jared Polis said on Twitter. "She brought compassion, kindness, and dedication to her job every day, and is mourned not only by her subjects but by people across the world." Colorado celebrates and honors the life and memory of Her Royal Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, who passed today at the age of 96. She brought compassion, kindness, and dedication to her job every day, and is mourned not only by her subjects but by people across the world pic.twitter.com/1n0p8xGkG9 Governor Jared Polis (@GovofCO) September 8, 2022 "God bless Queen Elizabeth," Heidi Ganahl, a member of the University of Colorado Board of Regents who is running for governor, said, also on social media. "May she rest in peace after serving as a beacon of stability for 70 years." "For 70 years, Queen Elizabeth served as a symbol of strength to the British people as she fostered a strong alliance with America," U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper tweeted. "We join the world in mourning her death and celebrate her incredible life." U.S. Sen. Micheal Bennet reacted on Twitter: "Queen Elizabeth II was a resilient and devoted leader who strengthened the special relationship between our two countries. I share my condolences with all mourning her loss." Tributes and remembrances poured in as news of the queen's death spread. "This is a sad day for the world," said U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette. "Queen Elizabeth II was a rock for Great Britain through decades of change. Our hearts go out to her family and all the people of the United Kingdom during this difficult time. U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse said his thoughts were with the people of the United Kingdom as they mourn the monarch's passing. "An extraordinary person, and a true friend to the United States, her historic legacy will be remembered for generations to come," Neguse tweeted. Alongside a World War II-era photo of the young Queen Elizabeth and one of the field ambulances she drove during the war, U.S. Rep. Ken Buck said on social media: "The world mourns the death of HM Queen Elizabeth II, a woman who came to embody the concept of dignity for residents of the Commonwealth as well as people everywhere. She was among the great few of leaders in recorded history who never did one inch less than her duty." The palace announced Elizabeth died at Balmoral Castle, her summer residence in Scotland, where members of the royal family had rushed to her side after her health took a turn for the worse. A link to the almost-vanished generation that fought World War II, she was the only monarch most Britons have ever known. Her 73-year-old son Prince Charles automatically becomes king, though the coronation might not take place for months. It was not immediately known whether he will call himself King Charles III or some other name. Adam Frisch, the Democrat challenging U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, posted a photo of a downcast corgi, the iconic dog breed kept for decades by the British royal family. "The Queen was a great leader through many turbulent times," Frisch tweeted. "She will be missed." The BBC played the national anthem, God Save the Queen, over a portrait of her in full regalia as her death was announced, and the flag over Buckingham Palace was lowered to half-staff as the second Elizabethan age came to a close. The impact of her loss will be huge and unpredictable, both for the nation and for the monarchy, an institution she helped stabilize and modernize across decades of huge social change and family scandals. The queens life was indelibly marked by the war. As Princess Elizabeth, she made her first public broadcast in 1940 when she was 14, sending a wartime message to children evacuated to the countryside or overseas. We children at home are full of cheerfulness and courage, she said with a blend of stoicism and hope that would echo throughout her reign. We are trying to do all we can to help out gallant soldiers, sailors and airmen. And we are trying, too, to bear our own share of the danger and sadness of war. We know, every one of us, that in the end all will be well. Since Feb. 6, 1952, Elizabeth reigned over a Britain that rebuilt from war and lost its empire; joined the European Union and then left it; and transformed from industrial powerhouse to uncertain 21st century society. She endured through 15 prime ministers, from Winston Churchill to Liz Truss, becoming an institution and an icon -- a fixed point and a reassuring presence even for those who ignored or loathed the monarchy. She became less visible in her final years as age and frailty curtailed many public appearances. But she remained firmly in control of the monarchy and at the center of national life as Britain celebrated her Platinum Jubilee with days of parties and pageants in June 2022. The same month she became the second longest-reigning monarch in history, behind 17th-century French King Louis XIV, who took the throne at age 4. On Sept. 6, 2022, she presided at a ceremony at Balmoral Castle to accept the resignation of Boris Johnson as prime minister and appoint Truss as his successor. When Elizabeth was 21, almost five years before she became queen, she promised the people of Britain and the Commonwealth that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service. It was a promise she kept across more than seven decades. Despite Britains complex and often fraught ties with its former colonies, Elizabeth was widely respected and remained head of state of more than a dozen countries, from Canada to Tuvalu. She headed the 54-nation Commonwealth, built around Britain and its former colonies. Married for more than 73 years to Prince Philip, who died in 2021 at age 99, Elizabeth was matriarch to a royal family whose troubles were a subject of global fascination -- amplified by fictionalized accounts such as TV series The Crown. She is survived by four children, eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. Through countless public events, she probably met more people than anyone in history. Her image, which adorned stamps, coins and banknotes, was among the most reproduced in the world. But her inner life and opinions remained mostly an enigma. Of her personality, the public saw relatively little. A horse owner, she rarely seemed happier than during the Royal Ascot racing week. She never tired of the companionship of her beloved Welsh corgi dogs. Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was born in London on April 21, 1926, the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York. She was not born to be queen -- her fathers elder brother, Prince Edward, was destined for the crown, to be followed by any children he had. But in 1936, when she was 10, Edward VIII abdicated to marry twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson, and Elizabeths father became King George VI. Princess Margaret recalled asking her sister whether this meant that Elizabeth would one day be queen. Yes, I suppose it does, Margaret quoted Elizabeth as saying. She didnt mention it again. Elizabeth was barely in her teens when Britain went to war with Germany in 1939. While the king and queen stayed at Buckingham Palace during the Blitz and toured the bombed-out neighborhoods of London, Elizabeth and Margaret spent most of the war at Windsor Castle, west of the capital. Even there, 300 bombs fell in an adjacent park, and the princesses spent many nights in an underground shelter. In 1945, after months of campaigning for her parents permission to do something for the war effort, the heir to the throne became Second Subaltern Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. She enthusiastically learned to drive and service heavy vehicles. On the night the war ended in Europe, May 8, 1945, she and Margaret managed to mingle, unrecognized, with celebrating crowds in London swept along on a tide of happiness and relief, as she told the BBC decades later, describing it as one of the most memorable nights of my life. At Westminster Abbey in November 1947 she married Royal Navy officer Philip Mountbatten, a prince of Greece and Denmark whom she had first met in 1939 when she was 13 and he 18. Postwar Britain was experiencing austerity and rationing, and so street decorations were limited and no public holiday was declared. But the bride was allowed 100 extra ration coupons for her trousseau. The couple lived for a time in Malta, where Philip was stationed, and Elizabeth enjoyed an almost-normal life as a navy wife. The first of their four children, Prince Charles, was born on Nov. 14, 1948. He was followed by Princess Anne on Aug. 15, 1950, Prince Andrew on Feb. 19, 1960, and Prince Edward on March 10, 1964. In February 1952, George VI died in his sleep at age 56 after years of ill health. Elizabeth, on a visit to Kenya, was told that she was now queen. Her private secretary, Martin Charteris, later recalled finding the new monarch at her desk, sitting erect, no tears, color up a little, fully accepting her destiny. In a way, I didnt have an apprenticeship, Elizabeth reflected in a BBC documentary in 1992 that opened a rare view into her emotions. My father died much too young, and so it was all a very sudden kind of taking on, and making the best job you can. Her coronation took place more than a year later, a grand spectacle at Westminster Abbey viewed by millions through the still-new medium of television. Prime Minister Winston Churchills first reaction to the kings death was to complain that the new queen was only a child, but he was won over within days and eventually became an ardent admirer. In Britains constitutional monarchy, the queen is head of state but has little direct power; in her official actions she does what the government orders. However, she was not without influence. She once reportedly commented that there was nothing she could do legally to block the appointment of a bishop, but I can always say that I should like more information. That is an indication that the prime minister will not miss. The extent of the monarchs political influence occasionally sparked speculation -- but not much criticism while Elizabeth was alive. The views of Charles, who has expressed strong opinions on everything from architecture to the environment, might prove more contentious. She was obliged to meet weekly with the prime minister, and they generally found her well-informed, inquisitive and up to date. The one possible exception was Margaret Thatcher, with whom her relations were said to be cool, if not frosty, though neither woman ever commented. The queens views in those private meetings became a subject of intense speculation and fertile ground for dramatists like Peter Morgan, author of the play The Audience and the hit TV series The Crown. Those semi-fictionalized accounts were the product of an era of declining deference and rising celebrity, when the royal familys troubles became public property. And there were plenty of troubles within the family, an institution known as The Firm. In Elizabeths first years on the throne, Princess Margaret provoked a national controversy through her romance with a divorced man. In what the queen called the annus horribilis of 1992, her daughter, Princess Anne, was divorced, Prince Charles and Princess Diana separated, and so did Prince Andrew and his wife, Sarah. That was also the year Windsor Castle, a residence she far preferred to Buckingham Palace, was seriously damaged by fire. The public split of Charles and Diana -- There were three of us in that marriage, Diana said of her husbands relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles -- was followed by the shock of Dianas death in a Paris car crash in 1997. For once, the queen appeared out of step with her people. Amid unprecedented public mourning, Elizabeths failure to make a public show of grief appeared to many to be unfeeling. After several days, she finally made a televised address to the nation. The dent in her popularity was brief. She was by now a sort of national grandmother, with a stern gaze and a twinkling smile. Despite being one of the worlds wealthiest people, Elizabeth had a reputation for frugality and common sense. She was known as a monarch who turned off lights in empty rooms, a country woman who didnt flinch from strangling pheasants. A newspaper reporter who went undercover to work as a palace footman reinforced that down-to-earth image, capturing pictures of the royal Tupperware on the breakfast table and a rubber duck in the bath. Her sangfroid was not dented when a young man aimed a pistol at her and fired six blanks as she rode by on a horse in 1981, nor when she discovered a disturbed intruder sitting on her bed in Buckingham Palace in 1982. The image of the queen as an exemplar of ordinary British decency was satirized by the magazine Private Eye, which called her Brenda. Anti-monarchists dubbed her Mrs. Windsor. But the republican cause gained limited traction while the queen was alive. On her Golden Jubilee in 2002, she said the country could look back with measured pride on the history of the last 50 years. It has been a pretty remarkable 50 years by any standards, she said in a speech. There have been ups and downs, but anyone who can remember what things were like after those six long years of war appreciates what immense changes have been achieved since then. A reassuring presence at home, she was also an emblem of Britain abroad a form of soft power, consistently respected whatever the vagaries of the countrys political leaders on the world stage. It felt only fitting that she attended the opening of the 2012 London Olympics alongside another icon, James Bond. Through some movie magic, she appeared to parachute into the Olympic Stadium. In 2015, she overtook her great-great-grandmother Queen Victorias reign of 63 years, seven months and two days to become the longest-serving monarch in British history. She kept working into her 10th decade, though Prince Charles and his elder son, Prince William, increasingly took over the visits, ribbon-cuttings and investitures that form the bulk of royal duties. The loss of Philip in 2021 was a heavy blow, as she poignantly sat alone at his funeral in the chapel at Windsor Castle because of coronavirus restrictions. And the family troubles continued. Her son Prince Andrew was entangled in the sordid tale of sex offender businessman Jeffrey Epstein, an American businessman who had been a friend. Andrew denied accusations that he had sex with one of the women who said she was trafficked by Epstein. The queens grandson Prince Harry walked away from Britain and his royal duties after marrying American actress Meghan Markle in 2018. He alleged in an interview that some in the family - but pointedly not the queen - had been less than welcoming to his wife. She enjoyed robust health well into her 90s, although she used a cane in an appearance after Philips death. In October 2021, she spent a night in a London hospital for tests after canceling a trip to Northern Ireland. A few months later, she told guests at a reception as you can see, I cant move. The palace, tight-lipped about details, said the queen was experiencing episodic mobility issues. She held virtual meetings with diplomats and politicians from Windsor Castle, but public appearances grew rarer. The queen withdrew from fixtures of the royal calendar, including Remembrance Sunday and Commonwealth Day ceremonies, though she attended a memorial service last March for Philip at Westminster Abbey. Meanwhile, she took steps to prepare for the transition to come. In February, the queen announced that she wanted Charles wife Camilla to be known as Queen Consort when in the fullness of time her son became king. It removed a question mark over the role of the woman some blamed for the breakup of Charles marriage to Princess Diana in the 1990s. May brought another symbolic moment, when she asked Charles to stand in for her and read the Queens Speech at the State Opening of Parliament, one of the monarchs most central constitutional duties. Seven decades after World War II, Elizabeth was again at the center of the national mood amid the uncertainty and loss of COVID 19 -- a disease she came through herself in February. In April 2020 -- with the country in lockdown and Prime Minister Boris Johnson hospitalized with the virus -- she made a rare video address, urging people to stick together. She summoned the spirit of World War II, that vital time in her life, and the nations, by echoing Vera Lynns wartime anthem Well Meet Again. We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return. We will be with our friends again. We will be with our families again. We will meet again, she said. _______ Editor's note: This developing story will be updated. The Chief Justice of India, UU Lalit, questioned the evidence against Kappan and said he has been in jail for two years. TCN Staff Reporter Support TwoCircles NEW DELHI Siddique Kappan, a journalist from Kerala jailed in Uttar Pradesh for nearly two years in Hathras conspiracy case, was granted bail today by the Supreme Court, which said Every person has freedom of expression, NDTV reported. Siddique Kappan was arrested in October 2020 on his way to Uttar Pradeshs Hathras, where he said he was going to report on a 19-year-olds gang-rape and murder. He was charged under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for alleged terror funding. The person (Kappan) has been in custody for two years, the Chief Justice of India, UU Lalit, noted. The court said the journalist has to report to the police in Delhi for the next six weeks and in Kerala after that, the report said. He will be produced before a trial court in three days and he has to submit his passport, it added. A reporter for Malayalam news portal Azhimukham, Siddique Kappan was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police on the charge of trying to disturb law and order in Hathras. The police accused Kappan of having links with the Popular Front of India (PFI). Kappan has denied these charges and claimed that he was framed. In court today, the Uttar Pradesh government argued that Kappan was paid to incite riots and that he is not even an accredited journalist, NDTV reported. He was trying to create a riot situation and use explosives. He belongs to the PFI and that is a terrorist organization, said Mahesh Jethmalani, the lawyer for the UP government, adding that he had incriminating literature. The Supreme Court questioned the evidence against Kappan. What was found with Kappan? No explosives were found, the material was not found with him but in the car and they werent used for propagating, Chief Justice Lalit said. Kappans lawyer Kapil Sibal asked the prosecution to read what was in that literature. What material was dangerous? Is there any literature which shows anything damaging, the Chief Justice asked. Uttar Pradesh government argued that it was a toolkit, a word used by many to describe a guide to stirring an agitation or terror. The judges said, What you have shown in terms of literature doesnt show anything. The UP governments arguments in the Supreme Court mirror its 5,000-page charge sheet filed in 2021. During the previous hearing, the UP government had told the court that Kappan is part of a larger conspiracy to incite religious discord and spread terror. The Hathras case drew massive outrage and protests over allegations that the state administration and the police were involved in a cover-up. The young woman died days after she was gang-raped. Later, the UP police cremated her in the dead of night, in the absence of her family. Recently, a video of Kappans nine-year-old daughter, talking about the freedom and rights of ordinary citizens at a school function, went viral on social media. I have the firm belief that my husband is innocent, and the 705 days have been extremely painful for the family, said Raihana Kappan, Kappans wife. Kappan is also facing a money-laundering case filed by the Enforcement Directorate. The Supreme Court said he could apply for bail in that case too. Iowa politicians joined leaders from around the world to offer condolences and pay tribute to Britain's revered and longest-reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, who died Thursday at the age of 96. "Queen Elizabeth II was a strong and graceful leader for the better part of a century," 88-year-old U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a statement. "As queen, she was a tremendous source of stability and clearly loved the people she served. She'll forever be a symbol of decency and humanity for the whole world. Queen Elizabeth II leaves a remarkable legacy of duty, honor and service." Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, in a statement, called Queen Elizabeth "a remarkable and steadfast woman who fought side by side with the United States through some of the Free World's most trying times." "I'll always admire her fortitude, love of freedom, and tenacity that has inspired other women in leadership," Reynolds said. "Kevin and I join with Iowans in sharing our condolences to the Royal Family." U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, paid tribute to the queen as a "global stalwart and a resolute leader" of the United Kingdom for seven decades. "Queen Elizabeth II was the steady foundation of the flourishing special relationship between our two nations, promoting freedom and peace alongside American leaders throughout history," Ernst said in a statement. "While we grieve her death, Queen Elizabeth II leaves behind an incredible, well-revered legacy. May she rest in peace." U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Ottumwa, in a statement, said the queen "set the standard for leaders around the globe, and her service will be remembered for generations to come." "Queen Elizabeth II devoted her life to serving her beloved nation with grace and humility for over 70 years," Miller-Meeks said. "Through her tenure, the United Kingdom faced many triumphs and hardships, yet the Queen never wavered. My heart goes out to her family during this difficult time." U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said he believes Republicans have good Senate candidates and will win enough seats to control the chamber in the November elections, as a dust-up between party leadership prompted questions over their chances in the midterms. I think we've got good candidates all over, Grassley told reporters Wednesday. And I believe that we're going to take control of the United States Senate. The Republican, whos seeking his eighth term in the Senate, would be president pro tempore of the Senate and likely chair the judiciary Committee if he wins and Republicans take back the chamber, putting him in a powerful position over President Joe Bidens court nominees. Disagreements between Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Rick Scott around the partys candidates and tactics have swelled as the Senate returns for its pre-election session. Speaking to reporters last month, McConnell said he thought Republicans had a better chance of winning the House than the Senate, pointing to quality of candidates as one apparent weakness, according to NBC News. I think theres probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate. Senate races are just different they're statewide, candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome, he said. McConnell didnt refer to any candidates by name, but candidates like Herschel Walker in Georgia and Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania have faltered some in polling after starting the summer in a more competitive spot. The sentiment prompted blowback from Scott, who leads the GOP's Senate campaign arm. Last week, he wrote in an op-ed that Republicans trash-talking their partys candidates was treasonous, and went after what he called the D.C. crowd for doubting Republican voters. However, he told multiple media outlets this week the remarks were not directed at McConnell. Grassley said cohesion in the Republican Party was necessary to win the chamber in the November election. Republicans, in order to win the United States Senate, all 50 of us have to work in a teamwork fashion, he said Wednesday. Perception of Republicans chances to win control of the Senate has waned in recent months, as a string of legislative victories from Democrats and reaction to the overturning of Roe v. Wade has pushed support for Democrats up. Elections news website FiveThirtyEight predicts Democrats have a 70 in 100 chance of holding onto control of the chamber, up from 50 in July. Republicans are favored to win the House. Grassley faces Democratic challenger Mike Franken, a retired U.S. Navy admiral. The seat is rated as Solid Republican by election rating agency Cook Political Report. In the most recent Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll in July, Grassley had an eight-point advantage over Franken, with 47% of support to 39% for Franken. It was Grassleys narrowest margin in the poll since winning his first Senate election in 1980. A local author and president of the Pittsylvania Historical Society was vacationing in London when he and the rest of the world learned of the death of Queen Elizabeth II and now finds himself on the front lines witnessing the mourning of a beloved monarch. Bill Guerrant, who wrote the historical novel Jim Wrenn set in the Danville/Pittsylvania County area, had visited Buckingham Palace the official residence of British monarchs and St. Pauls Cathedral on Thursday. In fact, Guerrant wrote on Facebook he was likely in the palace when the queen died. The Queens death was announced just as we returned to our hotel last evening, Guerrant wrote in a Friday morning message to the Register & Bee. He described the news as shocking and sad. Guerrant and his wife, Cherie, began the trek to London on Tuesday. Now they are in the midst of seeing first-hand an unfolding historical moment. A large crowd has gathered at Buckingham Palace, he told the Register & Bee on Friday. Many tributes and memorials have gone up. Guerrant said the mood there was somber. We had planned to visit Westminster Abbey today but it is closed as the period of national mourning begins, he explained Friday morning. He shared a photo of a notice outside the National Gallery announcing its closure following the queens death and noted many other places were shuttered. We were at Westminster Abbey for the tolling of the bells at noon and at Hyde Park for the 96 gun salute an hour later, he said. What a time to be here. In addition to leading history preservation efforts in the county, Guerrant also wrote a historical fiction novel inspired from an eye-catching headline of the past. While pursuing microfilm of the Jan. 4, 1918, edition of the Danville Register, this caught his attention: BOY AND GIRL TO ADOPT Mother, Weary of Hopeless Struggle of Providing For Them. Wishes to Find Them Homes. While his original vision was to write a 100-year history of Danville over the winter season, the book took a different path. I was driving to pick up a piece of equipment from the shop before I decided to write this novel, and the first scene of the book came into my head, Guerrant, also an organic farmer, told the Register & Bee in 2011. I took the phone out of my pocket and I hit the voice memo and I dictated. While Queen Elizabeth II visited Virginia three times, theres no known local connection to the royal family. However, Danville was the birthplace of a legendary British politician. A Danville native, Nancy Langhorne Astor became the first woman to serve in the British Parliament in 1919. Known as The Langhorne House, her childhood home in Danville, now serves as museum and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Born in 1879, she married Waldorf Astor, of the prominent Astor family, in 1906. In 2011, Lord William Waldorf Astor, the grandson of Nancy Langhorne Astor, visited the The Langhorne House in Danville home with his family. RALEIGH A North Carolina-based semiconductor company announced Friday it will build a $5 billion manufacturing plant in its home state to produce silicon carbide wafers, which is emerging as a favored part for renewable energy products. Wolfspeed Inc. said it plans to create 1,800 new jobs by the end of 2030 at a location in Chatham County, about 45 miles southwest of its Durham headquarters. Wolfspeed could receive $775 million in cash incentives, infrastructure improvements and other sweeteners from North Carolina and local governments to build on the outskirts of Siler City. The lions share would be in the form of local property tax rebates. A state committee voted earlier Friday to award Wolfspeed up to $77 million over 20 years if it met investment and job-creation goals. The company is also likely to benefit financially from legislation signed by President Joe Biden last month that encourages semiconductor research and production. The company, formerly known as Cree, already employs over 3,000 jobs in the state. The former LED light pioneer has turned to the production of silicon carbide chips, which are known to be more efficient and solid than traditional silicon chips. Its a game-changing technology for electric vehicles, renewable energy storage, rail systems, appliances ... and countless other electric applications, Wolfspeed CEO Gregg Lowe said at the announcement outside the Executive Mansion in Raleigh. Lowe said the company already operates the worlds largest silicon carbide materials factory in Durham. Output at the new plant, which Lowe said could begin production in about two years, would be more than 10 times what the Durham plant produces. The materials produced at the new plant will help supply the companys new chip fabrication facility in upstate New York, Lowe said. This East Coast Silicon Carbide corridor will dramatically improve the way the world consumes energy, Lowe said. Average annual salaries for the new jobs, which would be generated starting in 2026, are projected at $77,753, well above the county average of $41,638, according to state officials. Gov. Roy Cooper said Wolfspeeds news was a historic capital investment and called Friday an amazing day for high-paying jobs, and an important day for putting money in the pockets of everyday working families in our state. Lowe likened an electric vehicle with silicon chips to a car with a combustion engine whose gas tank is poked full of holes. Meanwhile, he said, a silicon carbide chip within an inverter that converts electricity to turn the vehicles motor results in super-fast recharging, he said 20 minutes to add another 300 miles to his vehicles range, for example. The jobs announcement marked another big economic win for central North Carolina during the past 17 months. Apple announced plans in April 2021 to build its first East Coast campus in Research Triangle Park between Raleigh and Durham. Toyota revealed in December it would build a battery plant in Randolph County, followed the next month by Boom Supersonic picking Greensboro for its first full-scale manufacturing facility for next-generation supersonic passenger jets. Chatham County also got the brass ring in March when Vietnamese automaker VinFast said it would build its first North American plant there to make electric vehicles. The investment, which could generate 7,500 jobs, would follow several near-misses by the state to attract a carmaker. Wolfspeed had considered the expansion in Marcy, New York, where its new production facility is located and it had additional space for expansion, according to a state Commerce Department document. Lowe said after the announcement that the company looked at several states, and New York put together a real strong package. But the winning sites proximity to Wolfspeeds current operations in Durham, along with the companys relationship with N.C. A&T, a historically Black college, gave it a little bit of a tipping edge, he said. Wolfspeed on Friday also announced expanded initiatives to attract the schools engineering students to the semiconductor field. Graduate students at N.C. State University in Raleigh helped start what is now Wolfspeed in 1987. Mississippi State softball will play eight exhibition games this fall, all in the state of Mississippi, with the first set for Friday, Sept. 30. The fall slate concludes with a doubleheader at Ole Miss on Oct. 29.With construction of State's new indoor facility taking place adjacent to Nusz Park, the Bulldogs will play just one game in Starkville. That contest, the fall opener against Bevill State Community College will be played across town at Starkville Academy at 6 p.m. CT on Sept. 30."This fall's schedule looks a little different for us with the construction of the new fieldhouse going on Nusz Park," Ricketts said. "We are excited to visit some different parts of Mississippi though, and we get to play at the former homes ofwhen we go to Jones and managerwith our trip to EMCC."The Bulldogs will then take a weekend off from competition before packing three games into two days on Oct. 14-15. MSU will play at Mississippi College on Friday night at 6 p.m. before heading to Ellisville for a doubleheader on Saturday. State plays a true road game at Jones College at 1 p.m. before meeting Northwest Florida State at 3 p.m. on the Jones campus.Saturday, Oct. 21 features another doubleheader, this time in Scooba. The Bulldogs will play Northwest Shoals Community College at 4 p.m. before meeting host East Mississippi Community College at 6 p.m.To close the fall, the Bulldogs head to Oxford for a pair of games against their SEC rival. State and Ole Miss will play at 3:30 and 6 p.m. on Oct. 29."Finishing up our fall tour in Oxford will be a great chance to see how the team stacks up against another SEC opponent, and we are looking forward to some good games at all our stops this fall," Ricketts added.For more information on the Bulldog softball program, follow on Twitter Facebook and Instagram by searching "HailStateSB." The heads of Helenas two colleges told a grassroots group of their plans for the coming year, touting programs, praising students, and, when asked, responded to a question from a lawmaker as to how the state could help colleges. Sandra Bauman, dean and executive officer of Helena College and John Cech, president of Carroll College, spoke Thursday to Hometown Helena, offering details about their campuses. Helena College, a two-year school, is part of the University of Montana system and offers degree and non-degree options and 25 academic programs, Bauman said, adding it has two campuses -- one on Roberts Street and the other that adjoins the Helena Regional Airport. The college has 1,500 students taking academic courses and another 900 taking community education courses, she said, adding preliminary numbers say enrollment is up 3%, but could change. Helena College also has 80 permanent and 80 temporary employees. She said the college recently launched a banking fundamentals program in cooperation with Opportunity Bank because of a shortage of bank employees in Helena. She said the new cosmetology program is one of the bigger initiatives for the college and officials hope to put construction projects associated with the class out for bid in a few months. It will be the first public cosmetology program in the state. She said enrollment in the aviation programs is way up. Bauman said programs are doing well because of strong partnerships with some businesses in which students come to the college for half a day and then go to the job site. She also mentioned the 1-2-Free program in which high school students who want to take college classes get six credits for free and then pay $50 for each credit after. The $50 fee is half price. Bauman said the college also takes steps to make sure the students are not taking a class just for the sake of college credit. We want meaningful value for them, she said. Cech said Carroll continues to work on its strategic initiative plan in which it outlines five goals focusing on enhancing lives and outcomes of students. He said more than 80% of Carroll students who apply for medical school get accepted, compared to 41% nationwide. Cech said Helena is a magical place for students and staff. He said there are 375 employees at Carroll who are dedicated to the private Catholic schools hometown. He said there are officially 2,899 alumni living in Helena, but he believes there are many more than that. The college is planning a $3.5 million makeover to the coffee shop, C-Store and dining room. Carroll now has 950 people living on campus, which is roughly the population of White Sulphur Springs. That represents a 20% increase of students living at Carroll. He said a number of their parents have purchased real estate in Helena as well. Cech said the freshman class represents 29 states and 20 countries. It brings a great melting pot here to Helena, he said. Cech said many of those who graduate remain in the Treasure State and 72% of graduates five years after graduating are working in Montana. He also said Carroll has a fantastic relationship with Helena College, noting 62 students came to Carroll this year from Helena College to pursue a bachelors degree. Rep. Mary Ann Dunwell, D-Helena, asked Bauman and Cech what the state Legislature could do to help their colleges. The thing you are all expecting me to say is money, and that is true, Bauman said. Bauman said it is hard to start new programs at the college because of costs. Cech said Montana is one of the few states that does not offer a great deal of scholarships to students. He said hed like to see the state increase that support and "humbly asked that it would include students who attend private colleges as well. Cech also said the state pays for every junior who takes the ACT test. But students have to opt in on allowing their names to go to colleges. He said it would help, perhaps through legislative action, to take that option away so that colleges could reach out and let students know what is available. The Helena Regional Airport Authority concluded its two-day Montana Airline Rendezvous that brought representatives of six airlines to the local airport in an effort to secure new flights. The authority has raised more than $200,000 in financial and in-kind donations in support of its effort to recruit new air service, including a recent $20,000 pledge from Lewis and Clark County. In a report on its air service development incentive program given to the Helena City Commission on Tuesday evening, the authority said it is actively courting American Airlines in hopes of securing a direct flight to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport with its more than 230 daily connections for Helena travelers. It plans to use the money raised to offer revenue guarantees to American Airlines, something airport funds cannot legally be spent on. The airport will also utilize a portion of its more than $1 million U.S. Department of Transportation Small Community Air Service Development Grant awarded in 2021 to waive up to $360,000 in airport fees for the airline company over two years. Of the 78 applicants for those grant dollars last cycle, only 22 were chosen. Of those 22, Helena's airport received the largest amount, and it represents the largest award any Montana airport has received in the history of the grant program. Airport Director Jeff Wadekamper said in an interview Thursday that representatives of Delta, United and Alaska airlines, all of which currently service Helena, as well as Southwest, Allegiant and Southern, a small commuter airline, attended the rendezvous. Wadekamper said the event afforded his team more face time with the airlines than a simple visit to a headquarters or national convention would. "We had great discussions and got to show off our community," he said. "I think it opened a lot of eyes to all that's happening in Helena." Though American Airlines was not in attendance, Wadekamper said the DFW deal is far from dead. He said the Department of Transportation must approve the spending of the grant money already awarded to the airport authority. Almost two years ago when this initiative began, the authority's sights were set on a flight to Phoenix, but Wadekamper said through continued discussions with American Airlines, it was determined Dallas would be a better starting point. As such, the authority amended its plan and is seeking approval. Wadekamper said that approval should come soon, at which time the authority can begin working with American Airlines again. Community businesses and organizations have contributed just shy of $106,000 to the effort. St. Peter's Health contributed $15,000. The Helena Tourism Alliance contributed $12,000. The Helena Area Chamber of Commerce and Opportunity Bank ponied up $10,000 each. Lewis and Clark County also allocated $20,000 to the effort to bring the DFW direct flight to Helena. Lewis and Clark County Chief Administrative Officer Roger Baltz said the pledge is tied to the DFW flight, but that the county is open to further discussions if the airport authority should pivot to attracting a different flight. Baltz said the county commission understands the importance of air travel for "quality of life and economic vitality." Baltz also noted the county has contributed $20,000 to the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority. The county has not joined the rail authority, which wants to restore passenger rail service across southern Montana, but Baltz said the money pledged to that effort will help pay for research needed. The city of Helena has provided a letter of support to the airport for its air service development, but no financial contribution as of yet. "I let (Airport Director Jeff) Wadekamper know that we're at the end of our budget process, that it may be an eligible request under some community request for (American Rescue Plan Act) funding and so I just left it at that, that the door's not closed. The commission could further consider it," interim City Manager Tim Burton told the city commissioners during Wednesday's administrative meeting. The city is currently developing a process for the public to request any ARPA money left over after it plugs holes in its departments' capital improvement budgets. In-kind donations for marketing support from the community have totaled $107,000 to date, including a $25,000 pledge from the Independent Record. Helena Mayor Wilmot Collins advocated for the city at the Montana Airline Rendezvous, which concluded Thursday. Wadekamper said many if not all airlines, still grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic, are dealing with personnel shortages and attempting to scale back up to pre-pandemic levels of service. "None of the airlines are really in a growth mode yet," he said. But many are planning for growth in the near future, and Wadekamper said, as they begin to "re-establish their networks, Helena will hopefully be at the front of their minds." Senator Jon Tester has once again shown to Montana that he only cares for the special interest groups and not for Montana. Oh yes, he can spin his tales anyway he wants to make it look like he cares, but the truth is he does not. His latest example is in East Montana and the deal given to the American Prairie Reserve, a group backed by out of state money and out of country money, and now by the Bureau of Land Management and its director. Even before the deal was made to take the land out of production, the fencing was coming down. Did they know ahead of time that the ruling was in their favor? Sure they did. In taking the fencing down the BLM changed how the land use is done now, claiming that fencing it off was not good for the land. Before, the ranchers moved cattle around to allow the grass and land to recover and not to overgraze. Now the buffalo can overgraze all they want. Montana ranchers can no longer use the public land for cattle, which takes the land out of production, hurting the rancher and the counties and towns around the land. Where was Senator Tester in opposition to this move? Well, he was in the wrong corner. But the Governor of Montana and the AG stood up for the rancher and not the big special interest and big dirty money Senator Tester also backs the 30 X 30 plan that will remove more farmers and ranchers from the land. Now with the world population reaching 8 billion people, is this the time to take farmers and ranchers off the land? No, it is not, yet Senator Tester believes it is. Again the Governor of Montana and the Attorney General do not, and are fighting to stop these actions that will harm Montanans and take their land and livelihood. Senator Tester, just who will you support Montanans or the rich elite special interest? Charlie P. Hull Jr., East Helena New Braunfels Mayor Rusty Brockman speaks at the Main Plaza during the Remembering 9/11 20th Anniversary Ceremony on Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021 in New Braunfels. On Thursday 61 Virginia Democrats - more than a third of the General Assembly - signed onto a letter addressed to the states Air Pollution Control Board opposing Gov. Glenn Youngkins proposed regulatory route to remove Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. On Aug. 31, Travis Voyles, the acting secretary of natural and historic resources, outlined the administrations plans to remove Virginia from RGGI through the Administrative Process Act which entails a period of public comment and eventually a vote by the air board. But the 61 legislators who have signed onto the letter say thats improper and illegal and that it's a decision for the General Assembly. RGGI is a carbon market composed of 11 states where energy producers trade emission reductions for credits, or buy credits to emit carbon dioxide past a capped amount. Proponents of the initiative say that it can incentivize producers to use less fossil fuel over time and the funding generated through quarterly auctions is used for environmental projects. In 2021, Virginia raked in $228 million in funding for flood protection and energy efficiency programs. The letter comes amid debates surrounding whose authority it is to pull Virginia out of RGGI. Environmental advocates, legal groups and now many Democrats in the General Assembly say that its the legislative bodys purview to remove Virginia from RGGI - that lawmakers put Virginia into the initiative. We write to articulate the reality that Virginias participation in RGGI is mandated by law, the letter reads. Therefore ultimately only a change in the law that passes both chambers of the General Assembly and is signed into law by the governor can remove Virginias participation. It seems that the attorney general office might share that view. At an air board meeting this spring, member Hope Cupit said that she received correspondence from the office reiterating the point. Environmental advocacy group Appalachian Voices has a pending lawsuit in which it seeks to obtain a copy of the correspondence after it unsuccessfully requested the document under the Freedom of Information Act. The letter, spearheaded by Sen. Lynwood Lewis, D-Accomack, added that the air board is limited in its abilities because it was created by the General Assembly. You only have the powers that the General Assembly grants you, the letter said. The Democrats' letter also notes the law that enables participation in RGGI the Clean Energy and Community Flood Preparedness Act adding, it is clear our intent for Virginia to participate in RGGI. With Youngkins proposed regulatory route, his goal is for Virginia to withdraw from the initiative by the end of 2023. The air board is composed of gubernatorial appointees on staggered terms. With new appointees that could vote in Youngkins favor, legal groups argue that this may trigger legal challenges. Some members of the legislature have worked on a withdrawal, but efforts failed in the 2022 session. House Majority Leader Terry Kilgore, R-Scott, and Sen. Richard Stuart, R-Stafford, carried bills that would have repealed the Clean Energy and Community Flood Preparedness Act All General Assembly seats are up for election in 2023. Should the legislative body change its mind about RGGI, lawmakers would present such measures during the 2024 session. NEWTON Hickory Tavern Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution, along with Newton Mayor Eddie Haupt and Conover Mayor Kyle Hayman, ask everyone to join in celebrating United States Constitution Week Sept. 17-23. Sept. 17 marks the 235th anniversary of the drafting of the Constitution of the United States by the Constitution Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The national, state and local Society Daughters of the American Revolution urges all Americans to reflect on and honor the United States Constitution during this months annual observance the week of Sept. 17-23. This annual observance has been in place since 1955. Constitution Week is an annual commemoration of the living document that upholds and protects the freedoms central to the American way of life and should be appreciated and recognized as a foundation of United States democracy and freedom, DAR representatives said. The celebrations goals are threefold: Encourage the study of the historical events that led to the framing of the Constitution in September 1787; Remind the public that the Constitution is the basis of Americas great heritage and the foundation for its way of life Emphasize U.S. citizens responsibility to protect, defend and preserve the U.S. Constitution. For additional information about national DAR and its relevant mission, visit www.dar.org . On Tuesday, August 9, 2022, the Texas Tech University School of Veterinary Medicine held a new student orientation for the Class of 2026 in Amarillo. Spearman's Mattie Been was on hand at the vet school event that welcomed 88 new students to the Class of 2026. Gruver's Kaitlyn Stedje will be in this class Perryton's Trey Butler will be in this class Spearman's Payton Harrell Priest Associate Director of Development at the School of Veterinary Medicine Amarillo Mayor and Spearman Alum Ginger Nelson Mattie Been Assistant Vice President of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Congratulations to the students and distinguished alumni that make us so proud! #wreckem "The future of veterinary medicine has arrived. Our purpose as a School is simple. We support the veterinary educational and service needs of rural and regional communities and provide access to affordable education."Hansford and Ochiltree Counties are doing their part in not only promoting the new TTU Vet school, but also in attending as students!On Thursday, Amarillo Mayor Ginger Pearson Nelson will speak to the Class of 2026. Ginger is a graduate of Spearman High School."As a Panhandle native it was exciting to see so many local kids in this class. I am looking forward to watching these students grow into great veterinarians that serve the rural communities in our area," said Been. A health advisory has been issued for Ben T Davis Beach due to high bacteria levels. This should be considered a potential risk to the bathing public and swimming is not recommended. Samples taken were above threshold for enterococci bacteria. The beach will be re-sampled in a week. When re-sampling indicates that the water is within the satisfactory range, the bacteriological health advisory will be lifted. About Health Advisory for High Bacteria Levels An advisory is issued when the beach action value is 70.5 or higher. This is set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Florida Department of Health in Hillsborough County has been conducting coastal beach water quality monitoring at nine sites once every two weeks since August 2000, and weekly since August 5, 2002 through the Healthy Beaches Monitoring Program.The water samples are being analyzed for enteric bacteria (enterococci) that normally inhabit the intestinal tract of humans and animals, which may cause human disease, infections, or rashes. The presence of enteric bacteria is an indication of fecal pollution, which may come from storm water runoff, pets and wildlife, and human sewage. The purpose of the Healthy Beaches Monitoring Program is to determine whether Florida has significant coastal beach water quality problems.Please visit the Florida Department of Health's Beach Water Quality website . To review the beach water sampling results for reporting counties, click on a county name. ### About the Florida Department of Health The department, nationally accredited by the Public Health Accreditation Board, works to protect, promote, and improve the health of all people in Florida through integrated state, county and community efforts. Follow us on Twitter at @HealthyFla and on Facebook. For more information about the Florida Department of Health, please visit www.FloridaHealth.gov. " " Britain's Queen Elizabeth II smiles radiantly in the salon at Sandringham House, while her pet corgi looks up at her, 1970. Bettmann/Getty Images Britain's longest-serving monarch, Queen Elizabeth, died Sept. 8, 2022, at Balmoral Castle at 96. The queen was known for many things her duty to country, her grace under pressure and her colorful family. But she was also well-known for love of corgis. So much so, that at the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Olympic Games, tens of thousands of spectators in London Stadium plus millions watching at home were treated to a clever video skit starring the actor Daniel Craig as James Bond, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and of course, the Queen's pet corgis. She owned purebred corgis for more than eight decades, and for stretches in the 1980s she collected packs of up to 13 corgis at a time, most of them bred on the premises at Windsor Castle. Advertisement The Queen's Constant Companions The small, ruddy-haired corgi breed known as Welsh Pembroke are so closely associated with the Queen that many people think it's an official royal line that goes back centuries. "That's a question we're asked a lot," said Ciara Farrell, librarian and collections manager at the UK Kennel Club, when we spoke to her in 2019. "Is the corgi a royal dog? Do they have a long association with the royal family? The answer is no. The Queen got one when she was a young girl and has been devoted to them ever since." " " Princess Elizabeth at age 10, with her two corgis. Lisa Sheridan/Studio Lisa/Getty Images The Queen's very first corgi was bought in 1933 by her father, King George VI, when he was still the Duke of York. Elizabeth, then 7 years old, and her younger sister Margaret named the deep-chestnut puppy Dookie and fell for him instantly. Dookie was soon joined by a second corgi named Jane. According to an in-depth history of the Queen and her corgis in Vanity Fair magazine, the royal family capitalized on those first cuddly corgis to deflect attention from a royal scandal. A photo book titled "Our Princesses and Their Dogs" was released Dec. 11, 1936, just days before King Edward VIII abdicated the throne to marry the American divorcee Wallace Simpson. The photo book assured the British subjects that their new king, Elizabeth's father, wasn't a lout like his brother because he had adorable daughters with dogs. Dookie and Jane were the princesses' close companions growing up until Jane was tragically struck by a car and killed in 1944. That same year, for her 18th birthday, young Elizabeth received the dog that would launch her lifelong fascination with corgis and corgi breeding. Her name was Susan. In breeding terminology, Susan became what's known as the "foundation bitch." Generations of the Queen's corgis have come from Susan's line, with the Queen often hand-picking the studs. Elizabeth and Susan were inseparable from the start. When Elizabeth married Prince Philip in 1947, she snuck Susan with her on their honeymoon. And Susan remained by Elizabeth's side when her father died in 1952 and Elizabeth became Queen at the age of 25. In press photos from the 1950s, the young Queen is shown with her beloved corgi almost more than her husband. " " Elizabeth II at Balmoral Castle with her corgi Susan in 1952, the year she was became queen. UPI color slide/Getty Images Advertisement They Sure Can Bark Susan's prominence as the Queen's corgi did wonders for the breed's popularity. "It did spark a huge interest in what up to then had been a niche breed," said Farrell, noting that Kennel Club registrations of purebred Pembroke Welsh corgis peaked in 1960 with 9,000. "Today, corgi registrations are down to about 500 a year. That's a big drop from its heyday." As a breed, corgis are known for being lively, hardy and highly intelligent. They were originally bred in Wales as "drovers" or cattle dogs, where their compact, low-to-the-ground build enabled them to nip at the cattle's heels to keep them in line. The corgi's sharp, loud bark also helps it seem bigger and more authoritative than it appears. There are two breeds of corgi: the Pembroke and the Cardigan. The Cardigan is larger and longer than the Pembroke, with more rounded ears. Both breeds usually live around 12 years. "Corgi" is a Welsh word for "dwarf dog." Of course, not everybody is keen on small, energetic dogs with yippy barks that nip at your heels. That's why when somebody comes into the Kennel Club looking for a new pet, Farrell advises them to do some research about what the dog did historically. "What was their job? Are those traits going to suit your lifestyle? Can you give them the exercise that they need and the space that they need?" said Farrell. "If it's not the dog for you, there's lots of other dogs to choose from." The Queen didn't mind the rowdy energy of her corgis. In fact, she bred for it specifically, along with a preference for red coats. Her cousin Lady Margaret Rhodes told Vanity Fair that the Queen loved taking her rollicking pack of corgis for long walks in the Scottish countryside near Balmoral Castle, where she would encourage them to chase after rabbits. "The Queen gets excited with the dogs chasing the rabbits, egging them on," said the 90-year-old Rhodes. "Telling them to keep going 'Keep on going!'" While the rest of the royal family are certainly "doggy" by nature (Farrell's term), they're not all huge fans of the Queen's corgis. "I've spent the last 33 years being barked at," Prince Harry told the BBC in 2017. His older brother William said as much in a 2012 interview. "They're barking all the time. I don't know how she copes with it." " " The New Zealand Rugby League team waits to meet the Queen, but the corgis beat her to it inside the Bow Room at Buckingham Palace, 2007. Pool Photograph/Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images Advertisement How "The Crown" Helped the Corgi Breed The breed's barkiness and its association with a bygone era likely contributed to the steep drop in the corgi's popularity over time. In 2014, the situation became dire enough that the Kennel Club put the Pembroke Welsh corgi on its vulnerable native breeds list, which calls attention to breeds with fewer than 300 registrations a year. But then Netflix released its hit TV series "The Crown" in 2016, which dramatizes the life of young Elizabeth as she marries and becomes Queen, including lots of scenes with her corgis. Farrell said that corgi registrations increased by 16 percent in 2017, and then jumped by 47 percent in 2018. "'The Crown' has a lot to do with this," said Farrell. "While the numbers are still relatively low, there has been a clear increase in registrations and I think we can attribute that to the depiction of the Queen and her corgis in popular culture." In the U.S., the breed continues to be very popular; the American Kennel Club currently ranks the Pembroke Welsh corgi at No. 13 out of 193 breeds in terms of popularity. In 2002, the Queen made the difficult decision, following the deaths of both her sister and the Queen Mum that she would stop breeding corgis so that none of them would outlive her and be forced to grieve her loss. However in 2021, after the death of her husband Prince Phillip, her son Prince Andrew gifted her with a new corgi to keep her other corgi Muick company. She also had a dorgi (a cross between a corgi and a dachshund) and a cocker spaniel. Monty Roberts, who served as a horse and dog-breeding adviser to the queen, told Vanity Fair how devastated the Queen was after a previous corgi, Monty, died in 2012. At the time, he asked the Queen about breeding a replacement for Monty. "I have no right to try to force her into continuing to bring on young puppies if she doesn't want to. That isn't my right. But it still concerns me," Roberts said. "Because I want her to believe in her existence until she's no longer here, because she's just too important to the world to contemplate checking out. For me, the Queen can't die." Sadly, she has. Now That's Sweet Farrell said that a lot of older pet owners are forced to make the same difficult choice not to take in a young dog. For working dogs that are bred to have a close relationship with a particular shepherd, the separation can be hard on the animal. "Corgis like their person," said Farrell. "And the Queen is their person." Advertisement Originally Published: Sep 9, 2019 Sunlight Batteries USA, a maker of lithium-ion and lead-acid batteries, is expanding to the town of Mebane with a commitment to create 133 jobs and invest $40 million in a new 134,000 square-foot facility. On Wednesday, the North Carolina Economic Investment Committee awarded Sunlight a job development investment grant, or JDIG, worth up to $1.2 million over the next dozen years. The incentives, to be realized through payroll tax rebates, are contingent on Sunlight hitting annual job creation and investment targets. Sunlight must invest $40 million by the end of next year and has until the end of 2026 to generate the jobs. The average salary for these positions is anticipated to be $67,589. The average salary in the county is $46,999, according to a news release from Gov. Roy Coopers office. Sunlight Batteries is a subsidiary of the Sunlight Group, which is headquartered in Athens, Greece. The company already has an operating battery facility in Greensboro and looks to use the Mebane plant to assemble lithium-ion batteries. What it means to Mebane Cooper heralded the news as another win for the states green energy sector. Demand is growing for clean energy components like batteries, and North Carolina is at the forefront of this industry of the future, Cooper said in a press release. Companies like Sunlight Batteries are bringing new jobs and new investment to Alamance County, thanks to North Carolinas commitment to clean energy and innovation. Most electric vehicles use lithium-ion batteries, and in the past year, North Carolina has used JDIG incentives to lure several other alternative energy projects to the state, including a multi-billion-dollar Toyota electric car battery plant in Randolph County. Mebane, located about 30 miles east of Greensboro, has become a popular community for those who work in the Triangle and the Triad. But local officials like Mebane Council Member Katie Burkholder said landing the battery plant shows the growing town can both support its own industries while also serving as a commuter community for the nearby cities. We are very fortunate in our geographical location between the Triangle and the Triad, Burkholder said. And were also so excited to see more job opportunities coming in locally. include_once "/home/jwreview/public_html/$theme/includes/sidebar.php"; ?> President Joe Biden's disastrous speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia last Thursday made headlines, not only for the backdrop of blood-red lighting (which made the building's decorative molding behind Biden look eerily reminiscent of the stiff-winged eagle used by the Social Democratic Party of Nazi Germany), but even more for the deceitful and inflammatory accusations Biden leveled at half the country. The Democrats have been trying to paint former President Donald Trump as a "threat to our democracy" since he first announced his candidacy in 2015, throughout his first term in the White House and even after Biden took office. But Biden and his cronies have ramped up the attacks of late, going after not only Trump and politicians who share his "America First" agenda, but the Americans who voted for Trump (or wish they had) as well. Biden accused tens of millions of Americans of being supporters of "semi-fascism," "full of anger, violence, hate and division"; of not believing in the rule of law or supporting our Constitution and of being a "clear and present danger" to the country. Like his other ham-fisted attempts at political showboating, this has backfired badly. Some are treating this as yet another Biden-esque gaffe, like his grumpy "you ain't Black" or "lying dog-faced pony soldier" outbursts tiresome and inappropriate coming from the president of the United States, perhaps, but typical of "Uncle Joe," now in his dotage and struggling with senility. But this was no mere speechwriting misfire; the panic-pimping is deliberate. And dangerous. include_once "/home/jwreview/public_html/templates/double_ads.asp"; ?> In the most extreme cases, governments which have pitted swaths of the people against each other have laid the groundwork for civil unrest, war and even genocide. Germany and the Balkan states are not the only examples. In 1994, horrific violence broke out across Rwanda, as Rwandans of ethnic Hutu tribal background took to the streets to slaughter their countrymen who were part of the Tutsi tribal minority. In just over three months, a million Rwandans were butchered with machetes, burned to death in their homes or otherwise slaughtered. This was the culmination of deliberate incitement; for decades, Hutus in government and media had called Tutsis "vermin," "cockroaches" and "snakes." Eventually, people responded as the inciters must have known they would. America's Democratic Party has reasons other than fomenting violence or even keeping Trump out of the White House for the recent drumbeat of hysteria. The purpose of their outrageous and fabricated accusations is to persuade half the country that the other half poses an unprecedented threat that will justify the extraordinary power Democrats have every intention of grabbing if given the chance. And in typical fashion, they accuse patriotic Americans of doing things they themselves intend to do first and foremost, attacking the United States Constitution and the limits on government power that the drafters deliberately placed there. This isn't speculation; we've watched them do it. Exhibit A: Congress would not give former President Barack Obama the immigration "amnesty" he wanted, so he simply decided not to enforce existing immigration law. Biden has made this situation even worse, allowing almost 5 million foreigners to cross the Southern border illegally in the past 16 months, according to an analysis by the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Biden has usurped the legislative power of Congress with his own executive orders most recently, his federal student loan forgiveness, which some believe will raise taxes on Americans by hundreds of billions of dollars. Democrats want to eliminate the Electoral College and change the composition of the United States Senate, both of which were constituted to prevent raw majoritarian democracy, and give rural, less populated states a meaningful voice in governance. And if the Supreme Court will not hand down the decisions Democrats want, then they'll have a Democrat president pack the court with enough new members to create a new "progressive" majority. Exhibit B: Democrats' template is evident in their treatment of Trump and his administration. They accuse Trump of something he has not done, and then use the accusation as a justification for doing things that are as bad or worse: lying to a federal court; using false and fabricated evidence to get warrants to spy on the president of the United States and other American citizens; entrapping Americans and then charging them with crimes; using social media companies to censor truthful information and otherwise engaging in unlawful activity to affect elections. If one aging real estate developer is such a threat, how much more "urgent," then, will Democrats' cries for more power become when the "threat" is (insert hysterical tone here) 75 or 80 million Americans whose beliefs and political opinions pose a threat to our very way of life? Exhibit C: We've already experienced the way those in power create a crisis and then use it to suspend our civil liberties, interfere with our lives, damage our economy, compromise our children's education and threaten our health. The COVID-19 pandemic, with its lockdowns, closed schools, shuttered businesses, forced vaccinations and widespread censorship was unprecedented. But it was just the beginning. Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here. Today's class of political leaders are vampires with an insatiable lust for power. They swing from manufactured crisis to manufactured crisis, gobbling up more of our lives with each go-around. Fresh on the heels of COVID-19, they've moved into climate change panic, pushing to eliminate the use of all fossil fuels, artificial fertilizers and nuclear power. Meanwhile, we watch as California's electric grid fails in a heat wave, organic farming in Sri Lanka results in economic failure and political collapse and Europe braces for a winter with insufficient heat without Russia's natural gas. When the policies of the power vampires result in catastrophe, they demand more power to address the crises their policies caused. It is Biden and the far-left Democrats who pose the real threat to the American system and our way of life. It is not enough to criticize Biden for his false and vicious attacks on Americans. He and his political cronies must be punished by removing them from positions of power for good. (COMMENT, BELOW) Laura Hirschfeld Hollis is on the faculty at the University of Notre Dame, where she teaches courses in business law and entrepreneurship. She has received numerous awards for her teaching, research, community service and contributions to entrepreneurship education. URBANA When confronted with lawn weeds, typically we think of dandelion, creeping Charlie, and violet. These plants and many others are classified as broadleaved weeds, or dicots, and are easily distinguished from grasses which are monocots. Scientists have engineered herbicides that target broadleaved plants, while the chemical does not affect desirable turfgrass. But what happens when you have a grassy weed appear in your lawn? Selective lawn herbicides containing 2, 4-D or dicamba, are useful in controlling broadleaves, but will not work on grasses, says Chris Enroth, University of Illinois Extension horticulture educator. Annual grasses, such as crabgrass, are best controlled with a preemergent herbicide applied before the offending weeds germinate. Once the seed has germinated a homeowner should practice good lawn care culture that can make a lawn more competitive with the weeds. Perennial grassy weeds like quackgrass or nimblewill are becoming more common in home lawns. They are difficult to control because they are perennial, meaning they come back year after year, Enroth says. And since cool-season grassy weeds, like tall fescue, match the lifecycle of our desirable cool-season turfgrass species, this makes it difficult to find a targeted timeframe or chemical that will kill the offending plant, but leave the desirable turfgrass. Often, homeowners must resort to spraying a non-selective herbicide, such as glyphosate, rake out the dead patch, and reseed with their desired species of turf. Enroth says lawn herbicides containing mesotrione have shown to be effective at controlling some troublesome grassy weeds like nimblewill. Other products are a bit pricey and best left to professional lawn care companies, and most can only legally be used by licensed applicators. I do not spray herbicides on my lawn, Enroth says. I practice good lawn culture which gets me about 80% of the way to a perfect lawn. The other 20% is easy to live with. With this approach, Enroth look for established vegetation. He defines a successful lawn as a groundcover that wont erode and send sediment into the streams and rivers, plus, the plants must tolerate family activities. The benefit of weeds is that they are still green. The added benefit of weedy grasses is that at least they blend in, more or less, with the turf. Proper lawn care practices Mow high Set the blade to almost the highest setting (3 inches). Cool season grasses, like turf-type tall fescue, prefer this height. Sharpen blades Getting a mowers blades sharpened can make a world of difference and will cut your lawn instead of beating up the lawn with a dull blade. Avoid high amounts of nitrogen in the early spring. The grass grows fast enough at that time of year. If you will only fertilize once, opt for the late summer to early fall for cool-season lawns. Overseed...from late summer to early fall. Keep it clean Pick up after pets. Stay on top of mowing Avoid removing more the 1/3 of the leaf blade to not stress the lawn. CHARLESTON The Eastern Illinois University took its contract bargaining frustrations public to the steps of the Doudna Fine Arts Center on Thursday. There, the EIU chapter of University Professionals of Illinois held a Teach Out demonstration in the middle of the class day that drew a large crowd of faculty and students to the Mellin Steps overlooking the Booth Library quad. During this event, union leaders also expressed an interest in speaking out during the EIU Board of Trustees meeting that is scheduled for 1 p.m. Friday, Sept. 9, at the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union. Betsy Jewell, an academic advisor and student publications advisor who is on the union's contract negotiation team, was among more than half a dozen speakers at the Teach Out. Jewell said the team started regularly meeting in August 2021 in preparation for contract bargaining with EIU's administration that started in March. She said the team presented 26 proposals on workload, parental leave, pay and other issues at the outset of eight meeting so far with the administration. "While some issues have been agreed on, the meetings have been disappointing at best and insulting at worst," Jewell said. EIU spokesperson Josh Reinhart said on Thursday after the Teach Out demonstration that, as a policy, the university does not comment on active negotiations. Jewell said the union's contract negotiation team is trying to ensure that faculty-to-student ratios remain low, that advisor and counselor workloads allow enough time to adequately address student needs, and that faculty workload allows enough time to work one on one with students. Regarding counselors, she said many students have waited weeks or months to see a mental health professional and some have never gotten an appointment. "I am an employee, but I am also the parent to two current EIU students, and the lack of support we have for students here on campus is outrageous," Jewell said. "This is all due to critical staffing shortages in these areas. The mental health and well being of our students should not the thing that is sacrificed on the altar of financial savings." The faculty union has reported that Eastern's administration is proposing a 17% increase in workload, but a 1% increase in pay for faculty. Jewell said the administration has offered an "insulting level" of compensation that will make it nearly impossible to retain and recruit high quality professors. "To expect a faculty member to work for just above the minimum wage is a punch in the gut to our faculty and students," Jewell said. "EIU students deserve the highest quality faculty members and advisors, and the current pay structure just does not cut it. The bottom line is the current financial package offered by the administration is shockingly dismissive to the students and their decision to attend EIU." Skrimp Shack, a fast-casual seafood restaurant at 1103 Silas Creek Parkway in Parkway Plaza, has permanently closed. A sign on the door for the past few weeks and still posted as of Sept. 8 said that the restaurant closed Aug. 6 for construction. A workman at Parkway Plaza said he was told the restaurant had a broken pipe. But the location is no longer listed on the companys website, and the Skrimp Shack corporate office said in an email that the restaurant would not reopen. "After much discussion among the location's ownership, they have decided to permanently close," the company said. "We cant thank you enough for the amount of support you and the Winston-Salem community showed us while trying to operate a restaurant during a pandemic that caught us all off guard, and we will never forget this place that will always be special to us." The company gave no specific reasons for the closing other than alluding to challenges that arose during the pandemic. Skrimp Shack is a franchise chain started in 2011 by Mitch and Stacey Hartman in Newport News, Va. Brian Leybold was the franchise operator for the Winston-Salem location, and he also worked for the company as a franchise director, but his LinkedIn account states that his association with the brand ended March 22. Skrimp Shack opened in Winston-Salem in August 2019, specializing in fried shrimp and fish sandwiches, baskets and dinners. The company website lists 28 current locations, mostly in Virginia. Remaining locations listed in North Carolina are in Cary, Charlotte (two), Raleigh and Holly Springs. Looking for a little luxury? This Spirit of Ecstasy figure replicates the hood ornament from Rolls-Royce cars. In 1909, car enthusiast John Douglas-Scott-Montagu commissioned sculptor Charles Sykes to create a mascot for his Rolls-Royce. Sykes made a sculpture of a woman bent at the waist, leaning forward so her robe flows behind her like wings. The model was Eleanor Thornton, Montagus secretary and, secretly, lover. By 1911, Sykess sculpture was made the official Rolls-Royce hood ornament. Spirit of Ecstasy is its official name, but it is also known as the Flying Lady or the Silver Lady. The hood ornament was originally silver plated, but has since been made in other silver tone metals like chrome or stainless steel. This brass version is a reproduction. It sold for $210 at Morphy Auctions a very low price when compared to an actual Rolls-Royce car. Q: I have an antique oil lamp that I keep as a decoration, but Im wondering about using it in case I lose power in a storm. Is that safe? Or, will it damage the antique or create a fire hazard? A: If you want to use an antique oil lamp, make sure it is clean and none of its parts are missing or damaged. Choose your fuel carefully; each type of oil lamp is made for a specific type of fuel. What is sold as lamp oil is purified kerosene, so it is safe for kerosene lamps. You can find commercial lamp oils with colors or fragrances added, but we do not recommend them. They can damage your lamp or leave stains. Keep the lamp and its fuel out of reach of children or pets. Use a wick that is long enough to keep the flame from reaching the oil. Treat the lamp like a lit candle or any other open flame. Do not use it in an area where you have detected gas. Use it in a well-ventilated room and keep it on a firm surface where it will not be bumped or knocked over. There are several clubs for antique lamp collectors and businesses that repair and restore oil lamps or sell replacement parts. Many are listed in the Kovels.com business directory. They often have detailed instructions and safety precautions for using oil lamps. Q: I have a signed letter by Paul Franke and Dr. Reinhold Heidecke, the founders of the company that produced Rollei and Rolleiflex cameras. It congratulates the buyer of the TLR camera. The letter is in German and has no date. Can you tell me when this letter may have been written? I do not want to sell it but I am curious if it has any value. A: The optical instrument company Rollei was founded in 1920 by Paul Franke and Dr. Reinhold Heidecke in Braunschweig, Germany. The camera had two separate lenses: one for the view and one for taking the photo. Their Rolleiflex TLR (twin-lens reflex) camera was sold in 1929. Paul Franke died in 1950. The letter would have to have been written between 1929 and 1950. Letters signed by famous people are collectible and valuable. The letter could be of interest to camera collectors and camera historians if it is an authentic letter and not an advertising piece. An authentic letter probably would have a date. You may have to take it to an autograph expert to determine the value. Q: My grandmother loved Precious Moments figurines. She gave me the Precious Moments figurine of a bride called Someday My Love when I got married 20 years ago. Is it worth anything? A: Precious Moments, like Beanie Babies, were wildly popular and people collected them assuming they would increase in value. Most have not. Artist and illustrator Samuel Butcher began drawing pictures of stylized, cute children in the 1970s. He and a friend began a company to make and sell greeting cards and posters that featured his Precious Moments artwork. In 1978, Enesco Corp. developed a line of porcelain Precious Moments figurines. Demand was high. Sales kept growing, too many different figurines were made and the market crashed. Many buyers still love them, but they sell for very low prices. Your Someday My Love figurine was made in 1988. It sells for anywhere from $14 to $25. Q: I have a whole set of blue Currier & Ives dishes, platters, bowls and serving pieces. I am now drawn to the pink Currier & Ives sets. What can you tell me about them? A: During the 1950s, the Currier & Ives pattern by Royal China was given away as premiums through the A&P stores and Winn-Dixie. They are now found in virtually every antique mall and thrift store. Their prices are starting to creep up, so buying a whole set is becoming pricey at least $10 a dish, and as much for bowls and serving pieces. Currier & Ives pieces were produced up until the Royal China Company closed in 1986. Most of the Currier & Ives sets are blue, as you mentioned. In addition to the rarer pink, you can also find green and brown-on-white sets. The rarer colors are more expensive. Current prices Current prices are recorded from antiques shows, flea markets, sales and auctions throughout the United States. Prices vary in different locations because of local economic conditions. Toy, puppet, penguin, gray beak and feet, wears red jacket, black and white checked shirt, articulated, Dee Segula, 20th century, 9-by-5 inches, $60. Silver, candy bowl, Arts and Crafts, hinged handle, pierced, four angular scrolls around rim, hand hammered, R. Wallace & Sons, 19th century, 5 inches, diameter, $75. Limoges porcelain bowl, white flowers, gilded rim, short collar, shoulders, 8-by-12 inches, $190. Lamp, oil, chinoiserie, opaque glass, white, double gourd shape, painted leafy and fruiting branches, mounted as table lamp, 22-by-6 inches, pair, $255. Brass, wall sculpture, musical notation, G clef, curved staff, black metal, Modernist, signed, C. Jere, 1988, 24-by-60 inches, $280. Furniture, desk, neoclassical, Hollywood Regency, oak, black lacquer, cream leather writing surface, three over two drawers, knee hole, tapered legs, Baker Furniture Co., 29-by-46-by-23 inches, $310. Advertising, display, Crayola Crayons, box, open, rounded top, eight crayons inside, yellow and green exterior, painted, wood, 78-by-42 inches, $510. Hutschenreuther figurine, tiger, front paw extended, head raised, tail lowered, porcelain, 10-by-22 inches, $810. Book, An Historical Atlas, Edward Quin, 21 maps, folding, aquatint, engraved, hand colored, R.B. Seeley & W. Burnside, London, 1836, $1,170. Blanket, wearing, Navajo, womans, red field, seven black and yellow wave bands, red and white triangle border, 1900s, 80-by-51 inches, $3,445. A Forsyth County judge ruled that a Pennsylvania man accused of firing an assault rifle into a convenience store in Winston-Salem more than four years ago and seriously injuring two people inside was not guilty by reason of insanity, according to court documents. Sari M. Rajjob, 36, of Kingston, Pa., was charged with two counts of attempted first-degree murder; two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, inflicting serious injury; and three counts of discharging a firearm into occupied property. Judge Todd Burke of Forsyth Superior Court issued a written order Wednesday dismissing the charges after holding a hearing on Tuesday on a motion filed by Rajjobs attorney, Stuart Brooks. Assistant District Attorney Belinda Foster prosecuted the case. According to the order, Michael McNally, a senior psychologist at Central Regional Hospital, testified that at the time of the shooting, Rajjob was suffering from a disease or defect in his mind and his mental capacity was so impaired that he did not know the nature and quality of his act and did not know that it was wrong. McNally submitted a report based on interviews with Rajjob and his review of other information, including a summary of the events leading up to the shooting on Oct. 29, 2017 and what is alleged to have happened on the day of the shooting. McNally said in the report that Rajjob had worked as a project management engineer at Emory Hospital in Atlanta. Rajjob told McNally that he had experienced stress at home, in his mosque and at work. In late October 2017, he was accused of sexual harassment. Around that time, he also began to believe that he had a great idea that would revolutionize health care, according to the report. McNally said in the report that Rajjob believed that people at Emory were trying to kill him and that they were tracking his movements. He sent an email and left after getting messages from his supervisor about wanting to meet with him. He was told that a car would be sent for him, which Rajjob interpreted as meaning his employer wanted to harm me and take my methodology. He drove to Tampa, Florida, then left with plans to go to Pennsylvania to tell his family he was the Messiah, court records say. He stopped in Atlanta again, and then soon after midnight on Oct. 29, arrived in North Carolina. According to the report, Spivey and Galloway were inside the Speedway convenience store at 3600 S. Main St., arguing with a store clerk over the price of cigarettes. Around 2:30 a.m., Rajjob parked his silver Nissan Xterra at the gas pump and entered the store, where he paid $25 for gas and left. He walked back to the store, stopped and then returned to his vehicle, where he retrieved an assault rifle from the front-passenger seat. The report indicated that Rajjob might have been upset that the gas pump was not working. Then he fired into the convenience store multiple times. Spivey and Galloway later alleged in a federal lawsuit that Spivey was shot in the pelvis and that Galloway was struck on the side and in the back. The lawsuit alleged that Rajjob stopped firing and then moved closer to the store and started firing the gun again. At some point, he briefly entered the store and yelled, the report said. He got into his car and drove away. He crashed his car in South Carolina. When law-enforcement officers encountered him, he was speaking strangely, and that led him to being involuntarily committed for about two weeks, Foster said at a previous hearing in May 2021. After he was released, he went to California and later to Texas. He was finally taken into custody in July 2019 and extradited to Forsyth County the next month. In June 2019, a sample of Rajjobs DNA was entered into a California database and matched DNA taken from water bottles Rajjob had thrown away at the Speedway. McNally concluded that Rajjobs understanding of his actions was significantly distorted, and he believed his actions were justified in order to prevent impending harm and/or death. Burke ordered that Rajjob be involuntarily committed to Central Regional Hospital. No matter how many times he speaks to a new group or how unrelated the topic Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker knows that some members of the audience will be curious. Theyll have questions even if theyre too polite to ask them aloud. And how could they not? Cytron-Walker, you may recall, was presiding in January over a Sabbath service in Texas when a gunman held the congregation hostage for more than 10 hours. The incident, which ended with a dramatic rescue led by the FBI, captured the nations attention albeit fleetingly as what initially appeared to be another in a long, sad line of hateful violence. So when Cytron-Walker takes his turn to speak Sunday afternoon at an Interfaith Winston-Salem gathering at the Clemmons Islamic Center, hell be prepared for those wondering. I think itll play a small role, the experience that I had on Jan. 15, said Cytron-Walker, the new rabbi at Temple Emanuel. Its part of my story. Coming together The meeting Sunday in Clemmons represents a sort of public introduction to Winston-Salem for a man who refers to himself as Rabbi Charlie. Interfaith Winston-Salem, an organization of local faith communities designed to promote understanding and common ground, scheduled the gathering on 9/11 for a couple of reasons. Obviously, the anniversary of one of the darkest days in the nations history played a role. The symbolism involved with the introduction of the new rabbi at an interfaith gathering in a mosque is plain enough. The symbolism, for us, is there, said Truman Dunn, a Moravian minister involved with Interfaith Winston-Salem since its inception. Its a good story, too, of Jews, Muslims and Christians being able to get together on 9/11 and share our faith journeys. Equally important, but less obvious, is the reintroduction of public events for Interfaith Winston-Salem following a long period of separation forced by the pandemic. COVID brought everything to a screeching halt, said Aladin Ebrheem, the president of the Islamic Center. Were looking forward to revitalizing our efforts. And having a new rabbi joining Temple Emanuel, it seemed like a good opportunity to welcome him to the area. And part of that introduction will naturally involve some discussion of Rabbi Charlies past in particular that long Saturday in Colleyville, Texas. In the event youd like to meet Cytron-Walker but didnt want to ask, the short version goes like this: A handful of the faithful had come in person to Congregation Beth Israel for the shabbat service rather than watch on a live-stream set up during COVID. A man knocked at the door before it started, and Rabbi Charlie welcomed him inside. The man was cold, so Cytron-Walker offered him a cup of tea. Not long after the service started, the man produced a handgun and took four hostages, including the rabbi. More than 10 hours later, a hostage rescue team ended the standoff by safely evacuating the hostages from the building. The gunman, whod demanded the release of a Pakistani scientist convicted of trying to kill U.S. Army officers in Afghanistan, was killed. What comes after An initial fear that anti-Semitism motivated the attack proved not quite accurate. The hostage taker, the FBI said later, had no broad plan other than demanding the scientists release, and his issue was not directly connected to the Jewish community. Whatever the motivation, the incident nevertheless was traumatic. Cytron-Walker said hell touch on that during his talk but only as a part of his overall message. More than the experience, but the response people had to it, Cytron-Walker said. I and my congregation felt such love and support. That is part of the message I want to share, that we all need love and support. Everybody whos ever wondered whether they belong or if theyll be accepted in our society, thats a message they should hear. Beyond a basic welcome and introduction, Cytron-Walker is looking forward to what happens afterward. He said part of his reason for choosing Winston-Salem was Temple Emanuels history of being involved actively with the larger community. Building relationships, in other words. He understands, too, the significance of speaking in a mosque on 9/11. Having people from different backgrounds come together to commemorate that day and focus on our spiritual journeys, as well as what unites us, is a positive, Cytron-Walker said. A North Carolina police chief says one person was killed and two were injured in an apparent stabbing at a high school. Jacksonville Police Chief Mike Yaniero said Thursday that two minors were taken to the hospital with injuries and that one later died after the attack at Northside High School in Jacksonville. He said that the attack appeared to be a stabbing but that the investigation was ongoing. He said that a teacher was also injured but not stabbed. He said that a student suspect was arrested shortly after the attack that occurred around 7 a.m. He declined to release names. LONDON (AP) King Charles III says he feels profound sorrow over the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, and is vowing to carry on her lifelong service to the nation. Charles is making his first address to the nation as monarch Friday. He became king on Thursday after the queens death. That promise of lifelong service I renew to all today, he said. He delivered the address with a framed photo on the queen on a desk. His speech was broadcast on television and streamed at St. Pauls Cathedral, where some 2,000 people were attending a service of remembrance for the queen. Mourners at the service included Prime Minister Liz Truss and members of her government. Live coverage here: *** ABOUT KING CHARLES III Dave Shively, the longest-serving Lancaster County election commissioner in the history of the office, said Friday he will retire in January. The governor elected in November will be responsible for appointing Shivelys successor. Shively has served as the county's top election official since Aug. 18, 1999, when he was first appointed by former Gov. Mike Johanns. Shively has since been reappointed by Johanns, former Gov. Dave Heineman and Gov. Pete Ricketts to five additional terms. Shively has served longer than any other Lancaster County election commissioner since the office was established in 1947. Shively said he turned 62 a few weeks ago. "Sometimes you just feel when the time is right, and I just feel the time is right. I know there is still time to do some other things," he said in a phone interview, although he said he doesn't have any specific plans. He said the timing gets him through post-election duties and allows the new governor to appoint someone they choose. By state law, election commissioners in counties with populations of more than 100,000 are appointed by the governor. In Nebraska those counties are Douglas, Sarpy and Lancaster. In some other larger counties, county boards appoint election commissioners, but in most of Nebraska's 93 counties, commissioners are elected as office holders also performing other duties. Before he was appointed election commissioner, Shively worked eight years in former 1st District Congressman Doug Bereuter's office, including on his campaigns. Shively said he looks forward to conducting the general election in November. I cant say thank you enough to my permanent staff and to the large number of seasonal staff that have worked with us to make democracy work here in Lancaster County. Nothing that I have accomplished during my tenure in office would be possible without their commitment and hard work, he said in a news release. Shively also expressed his gratitude to the thousands of poll workers who have served during the last 23 years. We have outstanding poll workers here in Lancaster County and are very fortunate to have so many volunteer their time and talents each election day, Shively said. When Shively leaves office Jan. 20 he will be retiring with approximately eight months remaining in his current term, which is scheduled to end Sept. 6, 2023. When the news broke, the customers came to Chippy's in droves. The phone, too, seemed to ring endlessly at the British import store with locations in Lincoln and Omaha British expats and Americans alike offering their condolences following the announcement that Queen Elizabeth II had died on Thursday at 96. "It's been quite touching," said Chippy's owner Glenn Greet, who moved to the U.S. 22 years ago from his native England. For expats like himself living in Nebraska, Thursday was a day of mourning and reflection following the death of England's longest reigning monarch, who ruled for seven decades. "It is a great loss," he said. "As a British person, she is the British institution. She is the crown. She is everything that epitomizes the British." Greet, who served as a police officer in a town northeast of London before moving to the U.S., remembers performing for the queen as a horn player for the Essex Police Band. "She made you feel lightweight," said Greet. "What a gracious lady. She always said, 'Thank you.'" For the 43-year-old, Elizabeth was the only monarch he knew. "It's not like a president where you come and go every four or eight years," he said. Sophie Wilson of Omaha called her mother back home in England when the news came that the royal family had rushed to the queen's side at Balmoral Castle, her summer retreat in Scotland. Then came the bulletin in the background from her mother's TV. "Even though I wasn't physically in the room with my mum, I felt like I stood in the room with her," said Wilson, who moved to the U.S. about 2 years ago. "I feel like it was one of our family members that has passed away." For Wilson, the queen was a stoic and stable leader over the past 70 years and a model for women everywhere. Some of her fondest memories include the queen with her famous corgis. "Even though she was this incredible woman, deep down she was a person like everyone else," Wilson said. Laura McLaughlin, Chippy's director of operations, started working at the store after shopping there and meeting Greet. Thursday was a particularly emotional day for her. "I just initially thought we would have more time to process that we would lose her," McLaughlin said from the Chippy's location at 14th Street and Pine Lake Road. "Our hearts are broken for sure." A rush of customers showed up to both locations on Thursday, mainly looking for commemorative items, like Union Jack flags. "I had about 20 in stock this morning and they're all sold out," McLaughlin said. John Hanley brought his children to the store on Thursday for a snack. An Australian expat, Hanley still remembers the time the queen visited a county fair Down Under when he was growing up. While he has a more nuanced take on Elizabeth's legacy, Hanley noted the vast amount of time she reigned from the twilight of the British Empire to Brexit and the personal tragedies she had to endure in between. "She was still a human," he said. "She's really not different than the rest of us." Now a new era begins, one that Greet is optimistic about, despite the fact that it will be hard to replace a British institution. "It's like a bit of Britain died today." The 1979 Trans Am rolled out of a Michigan barn and into Dave Halls muscle car shop north of Lincoln last year. He and his crew cleaned it, polished it, detailed it inside and out. They changed the fluids, tuned it up, made sure it starts and runs. But they didnt drive it. When Hall bought it last fall, the odometer showed just 35 miles. It still does. You can find cars that are restored, Hall said. But its not easy to find cars with low miles that have never been touched, that are survivors. Its a time capsule of a Trans Am. And it spent most of its four-plus decades about 80 miles north of Detroit, covered in dust. In 1979, an excavating company owner bought five new Trans Ams as investments, but had sold at least one. That car ended up in the hands, and barn, of a retired General Motors executive, who sold it to a neighbor last year. That neighbor sold it to Hall, a Firebird expert who estimated he and his shop, Restore A Muscle Car, has bought and sold roughly 2,000 Trans Ams. On its own, and with its options package, the 79 Trans Am isnt particularly rare, Hall said, though the black exterior-red interior wasnt a common color combination. But the double-digit mileage is the wild card that could drive its price. After he bought it, Hall was contacted by museums and would-be private buyers, who wanted to know how much they had to pay to make it their own. He didnt know, but he knew how to find out. I told them it's just probably going to go to auction and sell to the highest bidder, because it was a car that was really hard to throw a value on. He thought about selling it through an online auction, like Bring-A-Trailer or eBay, but decided it would likely sell better in person. So on Saturday, it will roll across the stage and the broadcast feed of MotorTrend TV at the Mecum Auction in Dallas. Hall doesnt know what to expect, though last year he said it could be a six-figure car if the right buyer was interested. But he knows it would get to Texas safely. Im putting it in my trailer and Ill be taking it down there personally myself to deliver it, because I dont really trust anyone else. Editor's note: We have detected a technical issue that is preventing some users from being able to log in to comment. We are working to have the issue resolved shortly. Thank you for your patience. RACINE A Racine man has been accused of stealing a car out of South Carolina. Kenneth James Williams, 23, of the 1000 block of Geneva Street, was charged with felony counts of drive or operate a vehicle without owner's consent and receiving stolen property greater than $10,000, four misdemeanor counts of bail jumping and misdemeanor counts of possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. According to a criminal complaint: On Thursday, an officer initiated a traffic stop on a Kia with a South Carolina license plate on Edgewood Drive near Yout Street. The officer made contact with the vehicle and identified the driver was Williams. While speaking to Williams, the officer noticed a baggie with marijuana tucked in the door handle. The officer removed Williams and the other occupants to search the vehicle and noticed cigarillo wraps on the floor. The ignition switch was removed and there was no key, but instead a computer flash drive (a.k.a. a jump drive or USB memory stick) with an Allen wrench duct-taped and zip-tied to it. Williams first said the car belonged to his girlfriend, but a records check showed it was stolen out of South Carolina. Williams then said his brother stole the vehicle and drove it up from South Carolina. He was with his brother at Dunkin' Donuts in Sturtevant when his brother saw another Kia and decided to steal it. Williams said his brother was driving that vehicle back to South Carolina. Sturtevant PD confirmed a vehicle was stolen from Dunkin' Donuts. Williams was given a $5,000 cash bond in Racine County Circuit Court on Thursday. A preliminary hearing is on Sept. 15 at the Racine County Law Enforcement Center, online court records show. Major changes are coming for Froedtert Kenosha Hospital. Froedtert South, 6308 Eighth Ave., is moving forward with plans to convert the sites emergency department into a 24/7 urgent care clinic. The hospitals inpatient services and emergency department services will be transitioned to Froedtert Pleasant Prairie Hospital, 9555 76th St., in a continuation of repositioning efforts to centralize the surgical and interventional services at Froedtert Pleasant Prairie Hospital that began in 2019. The transitions are expected to be complete by Oct. 1. Other plans for the Downtown hospital include converting underutilized spaces into inpatient and outpatient mental health and inpatient rehabilitation services, among other projects. Froedtert South indicated its repositioning efforts were put on hold with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, when the hospital expanded capacity to focus on providing essential care to patients suffering from the coronavirus. With COVID-19 admissions declining, Froedtert South leaders said they are confident that the time is right to convert underutilized space to host much-needed services for the community. Were exceptionally proud of the role Froedtert Kenosha Hospital has played for our community as we weathered the COVID-19 pandemic, said Froedtert South President and CEO Ric Schmidt. Our pivot to treat COVID patients demonstrated our commitment to meeting the needs of our community. And now, with our plans to continue repositioning, we look forward to the next chapter in how well continue providing the care that members of our communities need most. In addition to providing inpatient mental health and inpatient rehabilitation services, Schmidt said transition of the emergency department to urgent care will bring much-needed, cost-effective care for minor, non-life-threatening illness and injuries. Our commitment to the people of Kenosha and to Kenosha County as a whole is strong, Schmidt said. We look forward to continuing to find ways to provide exceptional and compassionate care while we promote the well-being of those we serve. CEO: No layoffs Schmidt said no emergency department staff will be laid off or furloughed because of the transition to urgent care. He said some emergency department staff will be rotated between urgent care Downtown and emergency department care at Froedtert Pleasant Prairie Hospital. You can work emergency full-time and occasionally go do urgent care, but you cant work urgent care full-time and occasionally go to emergency because you have to have the skill sets, he said. So we will rotate between the two hospitals. We havent got the exact ratio down but Id say its 3 to 1. That would be three weeks of emergency care (in Pleasant Prairie) and one week of urgent care (Downtown). There will be a handful of people who say I only want to do emergency care and theyll be (in Pleasant Prairie) and there will be handful of people who say I only want to do urgent care and theyll be (Downtown). Theyll be able to say what they want to do. The flexibility of being (in Pleasant Prairie) is you can lead a very complex environment of emergency care and easily go work in urgent care. Schmidt said the current Downtown emergency department treats about 60 people each day but that only a handful of them need emergency care. Ten percent of our patients are emergency patients and 90 percent of our patients, about 54, are urgent care or walk-in type patients, he said. Schmidt said the emergency department is comprised of about 50 staff members, most of whom are registered nurses or emergency room technicians. Schmidt said emergency department physicians and surgeons have long called for the changes. They said This isnt working, this isnt the right way to do it. We need to consolidate services for emergency care at one place and urgent care at another, Schmidt said. Because the Downtown hospital will expand to other areas of service, Schmidt said additional hiring will be needed. He said the rehab facilities could be operational by the end of the year. Were going to need more people, he said. Mayor, senator respond Kenosha Mayor John Antaramian said he has some concerns about the changes but believes the city will be able to ensure the health and safety of the public when the Downtown emergency department closes. Were not pleased about the ER closing and our preference would be for the ER to stay open, he said. I understand its a business decision they are making, but it will potentially create some issues that the city will have to deal with in the future depending on how transport actually works through this process. ... We will react accordingly and try to make sure public safety is kept up for the City of Kenosha. Antaramian said anyone in the city who calls 911 after Sept. 30 in need of care in an emergency department will be transported by city ambulances to either Froedtert Pleasant Prairie Hospital or Aurora Medical Center, 10400 75th St. Both are located in the Village of Pleasant Prairie and are about eight miles from Downtown Kenosha. We wouldnt be taking them to (Froedtert Kenosha Hospital) because theyre not an emergency room, he said. There is a cost here (with transport) and there is an issue that is one that we are going to look at and see what options we have. But for the present time, our concern is always going to be the safety and the health of the community. That will be our first concern in what were dealing with. ... There is a concern on how this is going to function and that as we get a little more into this we will continually look at what we can do to make modifications that are necessary to provide the best safety for the public. Antaramian also said he would have preferred some more time to plan for the emergency departments closure with an earlier announcement from the hospital system. Still, Antaramian said he believes the mental health facility be a benefit to many area residents in need of such care. The mental health facility is a positive aspect of whats going on because theres been a need for a facility down here for a very long time, he said. That part of the plan is actually something that will be beneficial to the community. State Sen. Bob Wirch, D-Kenosha, said he strongly supports efforts to help address mental health needs. I am pleased that Froedtert Kenosha Hospital is taking action to address mental health issues at home in our community, he said. Those struggling with mental health concerns should be able to find their treatment at home without traveling across the state to receive the care they need. Establishing a place to seek care locally is good for people who need care, their families, and taxpayers. In addition, Wirch said 24/7 urgent care within walking distance of many neighborhoods is a meaningful step towards assuring our neighbors that their community and city are here to help. Fire chief responds Kenosha Fire Chief Christopher Bigley said he has some deep concerns about the closure of the Downtown emergency department. "The first and foremost concern I have are the transport times, especially for Med 1 because instead of going to the Kenosha hospital they will be going out to the west end," Bigley said late Friday. "I'd be foolish to think that it's not going to have an impact on our services at all. I'm very concerned. I'm not going to speak for the hospital, but I don't think the closing of this (emergency department) is in the best interests of the citizens of Kenosha. That's my opinion." Bigley said other medical units may have to respond to areas served by Med 1 if Med 1 personnel are already busy transporting a patient out west to Pleasant Prairie. "I'm preparing that we're going to have to take some action but I'm going to wait until I have some good information on how it truly is effecting us," he said. Madison City Council leaders are condemning a fellow members association with a right-wing extremist group accused of playing a key role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Council President Keith Furman and Vice President Jael Currie said they were disgusted to learn that Ald. Gary Halverson had belonged to the Oath Keepers, an antigovernment group that recruits current and former military, police and first responders. The Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism identified Halverson Wednesday as one of six elected officials from Wisconsin whose names appeared on leaked Oath Keepers membership lists. Halverson, who represents District 17 on the citys East Side, responded by saying he joined without vetting the organization and is no longer a member. I thought I joined an organization that welcomed veterans who cared about our democracy, Halverson wrote in an email Wednesday. I was misled and I terminated the membership two months later in Aug 2020. Furman and Currie rejected that notion in a statement saying the groups extremist positions have been well known since its founding over a decade ago. Mere seconds of online research reveal the Oath Keepers as a far-right antigovernment group, not a group for veterans or the preservation of democracy, they said. While the nation was reacting to the murder of George Floyd, this group promoted its membership using anti Black Lives Matter statements. Halverson, who was elected to the council in 2021 after running unopposed, issued an additional statement Thursday saying he quit four months before the 2020 presidential election and was further disgusted by the abhorrent attack on our democracy on Jan. 6. I have many friends across all political spectrums because I believe relationships are what builds a strong community, Halverson wrote. I have supported many different candidates including our current Democrat nominees for Senate, Congress and Governor. Furman and Currie stopped short of calling on Halverson to step down, saying voters will decide in April whether he should serve a second term. Its up to him to decide if he can continue as Alder with this secret now being public, they said. Having this information certainly calls into question the motivation behind his votes. Ultimately, my heart is to serve my community, which I do every day to the best of my ability, Halverson said. My constituents in District 17 know this, my friends know this and my colleagues on the council know this. Using a database compiled by the transparency collective Distributed Denial of Secrets, the Anti-Defamation League scoured more than 38,000 names to identify hundreds of law enforcement officers, including police chiefs and sheriffs, as well as members of the military. The group found more than 80 people, including six in Wisconsin, running for or serving in public office. Founded in 2009 by Stewart Rhodes, the Oath Keepers is a loosely organized conspiracy theory-fueled group that asks its members to vow to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, promotes the belief that the federal government is out to strip citizens of their civil liberties and paints its followers as defenders against tyranny. More than two dozen people associated with the Oath Keepers including Rhodes have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack. Rhodes and four other Oath Keeper members or associates are heading to trial this month on seditious conspiracy charges for what prosecutors have described as a weekslong plot to keep then-President Donald Trump in power. Rhodes and the other Oath Keepers say that they are innocent and that there was no plan to attack the Capitol. The Associated Press contributed to this report. UW-Madison administrators are calling for civility and kindness after anti-Semitic messages were written on campus sidewalks as students began the fall semester Wednesday. According to a statement posted to the universitys website Thursday, the anonymous chalk messages targeted Jewish student groups, labeling them as racist, genocidal, and having blood on their hands. Vice Chancellor Lori Reesor and Deputy Vice Chancellor LaVar Charleston, the universitys chief diversity officer, said while such statements arent against the law or campus policy, they do violate our norms and actively work against the culture of belonging for which we are striving. To those Jewish students and others affected, we are sorry for the impact this had on your first day of class at UW, the statement read. We truly strive to create a campus where every student feels they belong, and this kind of messaging harms that goal and aspiration. The administrators said the messages represent free speech, which the university supports even if it can be difficult and uncomfortable at times. Just because something isnt prohibited doesnt make it a good idea, they wrote. We hope you hear our calls for civility and kindness while at the same time, embracing vigorous, honest debate. Greg Steinberger, president of the UW Hillel Foundation, an independent organization supporting the roughly 4,000 Jewish students on campus, said the messages in seven locations were a frightening and painful way to start the year. They were targeted for their interests and they were singled out by an intentional and hateful act designed to cause harm, Steinberger said. Steinberger said he hopes the administration will investigate the targeting of Jewish students and organizations and consult with the community to understand how this was hurtful and harmful. University administrators spoke out in March after three anti-Semitic incidents on campus, including a swastika etched on a dorm bathroom stall, slurs yelled at a student and someone who said they were harassed for looking Jewish. Antisemitism is wrong and it will not be tolerated at UWMadison, Reesor and Charleston said in response to those incidents. When Queen Elizabeth II visited Chicago in 1959 just six years into her 70-year reign she had a secret. She was pregnant with her third child, Prince Andrew, though that wouldnt be revealed until later. This didnt slow down her only visit to Chicago on July 6, 1959 the first visit of a reigning British monarch to the Windy City. It was also the only stop in the United States for Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, during a 15,000-mile, 45-day tour of all the Canadian provinces and four of the Great Lakes. As part of the journey, the queen and President Dwight Eisenhower officially christened the St. Lawrence Seaway, which opened Great Lakes shipping channels to the Atlantic Ocean, on June 26, 1959. On Sept. 9, 2015, Queen Elizabeth II became the longest reigning monarch in Britains history. She was in her 70th year as head of the Commonwealth, a voluntary association of 54 independent countries, when she died Thursday. The Chicago stop was an eventful 14 hours, beginning with a lakefront arrival. Heres a look back at the royals day in Chicago more than 63 years ago. 10 a.m.: Queens Landing When the royal couple take a small boat from their yacht Britannia to a special jetty east of Buckingham Fountain named Queens Landing, the Tribunes fashion reporter, Marylou Luther, notes the queen is overdressed by Chicago standards. Luther also calls the queens white, medium-height white pumps a bit stocky by the current stiletto standards. 11:19 a.m.: Navy Pier The royals enter Navy Pier to tour Chicagos International Trade Fair, which has the theme world peace thru world trade. They ride aboard electric carts during their 31-minute tour of the exhibition halls. The royals toss an American quarter into a wishing well, as scheduled, at the Chicago pavilion. 1:03 p.m.: Ambassador West The queen arrives three minutes late for a luncheon hosted by Gov. William Stratton at the Ambassador West hotel, 1300 N. State Pkwy., which closed in 2002. She and 400 guests dine on lamb and duck served by waiters wearing coats in hunting pink, with black knee breeches, according to the Tribune. The flatware at the queens table is made of solid gold and a white satin pillow trimmed in gold is placed beneath her chair for her feet to rest upon. 3 p.m.: Drive to and tour of the Museum of Science and Industry The royal couple caravan down Lake Shore Drive and then past the buildings on the University of Chicago campus in a Lincoln lent to them by President Eisenhower for the trip. While at the Museum of Science and Industry, the queen visits a chick hatchery and sees herself on a color television for the first time in the museums RCA exhibit. Despite a called-in bomb threat, the 45-minute tour continues as scheduled. 4:35 p.m.: The Art Institute of Chicago The queen tours the Art Institute of Chicago 25 minutes behind schedule with William McCormick Blair, president of the Art Institute and a descendant of the McCormick family of reaper fame. Queen Elizabeth is impressed with the El Greco painting The Assumption of the Virgin. 6:15 p.m.: The Drake Seven governors, 24 mayors, members of Chicagos City Council and labor union leaders arrive at The Drake hotel to meet the queen, who, herself, has arrived with 17 pieces of luggage in tow. Six of Mayor Daleys children are present at a reception and they take photos with the royal couple. Queen Elizabeth departs five minutes earlier than scheduled to have an emergency filling placed in a back tooth to replace one that fell out. 9 p.m.: Conrad Hilton Hotel Mayor Richard J. Daley commits a minor faux pas by sitting to the queens left instead of her right. The queen herself corrects the issue. Still, the mayor tells the gathering, Your majesty, and your royal highness, Prince Philip, come back and see us again, and bring the children. Before midnight: Buckingham Fountain In a lakefront ceremony near Buckingham Fountain (which, by the way, is named in honor of Clarence Buckingham and not for Buckingham Palace), the queen is presented with a box of recordings by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra before boarding a boat back to the Britannia. 12:10 a.m., July 7, 1959: Aboard the Britannia The queen was seen standing on the second deck by reporters whose boat followed the royal barge to the yacht. Prince Philip stood beside her, his arm around her shoulder, the Tribune reported about the royals departure. A riddle, wrapped in an enigma, inside a mystery. That is how Winston Churchill, the great wartime leader of Great Britain, described the difficulty of dealing with Russia. He spoke the words in 1939, shortly after the outbreak of World War II in Europe. The passing of Mikhail Gorbachev on August 30, at the age of 91, provides an incentive to examine not only his legacy and life, but also the nation he led during a time of historic transition. As General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991, and President of that nation during 1990-1991, he spurred fundamental reform efforts. Perestroika and glasnost were the twin priorities of the Gorbachev years. The first term referred to restructuring an economy that had become moribund, with nil real production for many years. The second term referred to efforts to open the society to relatively more freedom for people. The iron fist of Soviet totalitarianism, institutionalized by Joseph Stalin, from 1922 until his death in 1953, had also become the dead hand of secrecy and sloth that dragged down the nations economy. Gorbachev not only drove but also personified change. He was a relatively young 54 when he took control, succeeding the gerontocracy of long-time President Leonid Brezhnev, then the brief tenures of already-old Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko. He and his wife, Raisa, were cosmopolitan and sophisticated, open and welcoming. Especially together, they seemed to personify positive changes that generated great optimism at home and abroad. I had the opportunity to witness their impact very close-up when they visited Chicago in 1992. The Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, where I worked, organized a public lecture that attracted an exceptionally large audience of several thousand. There was also a reception for business and other leaders from the community. These events were crucial for us. We always balanced our budget and achieved significant long-term growth, despite stagflation. Events for business executives were usually rather formal, even stuffy. Not this time. Captains of capitalist industry were animated; some of them and their wives seemed almost like kids, anxious to get close, say hi, and shake hands with the Russian celebrities. Raisa and Mikhail were comfortable, friendly, and informal. They took everything in stride, seemingly at home among Americans, contrasting with traditional Soviet stiffness and suspicion. In 1959, Nikita and Nina Khrushchev visited the United States, a first for a Russian or Soviet leader in power. There were some lively moments, especially when the couple visited Hollywood. Nevertheless, American crowds that lined the routes of the Soviet leaders motorcades were silent and unsmiling. This was the height of the Cold War, with nuclear Armageddon just one wrong national move away. Three decades later, Gorbachev fought expansionist foreign policy hardliners while successfully forcing economic reforms. In reaction, in August 1991 there was an attempted coup. Newly elected Russia President Boris Yeltsin successfully orchestrated popular opposition to the coup, but also sidelined Gorbachev. Gorbachev improved relations with the United States. A summit with President Ronald Reagan led to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. He and President George H.W. Bush successfully reassured Europe as Germany reunited, and achieved the Strategic Arms Reduction (START 1) Treaty. Mikhail Gorbachev was an extraordinary leader. He and Raisa supported international humanitarian efforts. That dimension could help renew cooperation with todays Russia. Churchill emphasized national interest should be paramount in dealing with Russia. That remains good advice. 1. Yes. COVID isnt over. Killeen and Cove ISD had 851 cases combined in August alone. 2. Yes. Parents should always be able to track cases in the schools on a daily basis. 3. No. The state isnt requiring school districts to post the numbers; it isnt necessary. 4. No. COVID isnt surging, but if it does, the website dashboards could be reinstated. 5. Unsure. Its hard to say whether the information is needed with the low threat level. Vote View Results BELA-BELA, South Africa South Africa is flying cheetahs to India and Mozambique as part of ambitious efforts to reintroduce the distinctively spotted cats in regions where their population has dwindled. Four cheetahs captured at reserves in South Africa have been flown to Mozambique this week after being held in quarantine for about a month and cleared for travel. Conservationists are preparing to fly 12 more cheetahs, reputed to be the world's fastest land mammals, to India in October. Speaking to The Associated Press shortly after those going to Mozambique were tranquilized and placed into crates, wildlife veterinarian Andy Frasier said the relocations are tough for the animals. "It's a very stressful process for the cats to be in a boma (livestock enclosure) environment because they have nowhere to go whilst we are darting them," Frasier said of shooting the cats with darts of tranquilizers. "We need to use our drug doses very carefully and make sure that we give them enough drugs to anesthetize them safely," he said. "They have woken up nicely in their crates and they are all relaxed enough that we are happy for them to leave in their transport," he said. Frasier said the team is preparing for the larger and more challenging relocation of cheetahs to India, which will require the cats to travel a much longer distance with stops in commercial airports. Those cheetahs would be treated with a tranquilizer that lasts for three to five days during their travel, he said. There are two subspecies of cheetahs. Those that once roamed in Asia were declared extinct in India in 1952 and are now found only in Iran. Since then, there have been efforts to reintroduce these cats to India's savannahs. Initially the plan was to bring in cheetahs from Iran but now they are being moved from southern African countries. In this restocking effort, Namibia is contributing eight cheetahs, which will be flown to India this month, according to Vincent van der Merwe, manager of the Cheetah Metapopulation Initiative. South Africa will send an additional 12 cheetahs to India in October, he said. "For a genetically viable population in India in the long-term you need at least 500 individuals, so every year we will send eight to 12 animals, to top them up, to increase numbers, to bring in new genetics until they have a viable population," van der Merwe said. Indian officials say the move will aid global cheetah conservation efforts since their range in Africa is limited. The plan is for the cats to be kept in large enclosures in central Indian forests, protected from other predators like leopards or bears, to give them time to get used to their new home. The enclosures have prey like deer and antelope which scientists hope the cheetahs will hunt. After a few months of close monitoring, the cheetahs will be radio-collared and released. The southern African countries of South Africa, Zambia, Namibia and Zimbabwe still have significant cheetah populations and are expected to play a significant role in the cats' reintroduction in India following the first shipments this year. South Africa's cheetah population is expanding at a rate of about 8% annually, allowing the country to move about 30 of the cats to other game reserves within South Africa and to export some to other countries, van der Merwe said. Conservationists say Mozambique's Zambezi River delta had a significant cheetah population that was drastically reduced by rampant poaching and because lions and leopards preyed upon the smaller cats. In this week's operation, the two male and two female adult cheetahs were tranquilized in South Africa's northern Limpopo province and then flown to Mozambique's Marromeu National Reserve in the Zambezi delta region. CAPE TOWN, South Africa Across the globe, the death of Queen Elizabeth II has prompted reflections on the historic sweep of her reign and how she succeeded in presiding over the end of Britain's colonial empire and embracing the independence of her former dominions. Tributes to the queen's life have poured in, from world leaders to rock stars to ordinary people along with some criticism of the monarchy. It was in Cape Town, marking her 21st birthday in 1947, that the then Princess Elizabeth pledged that her "whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong." The British empire soon crumbled, but Elizabeth managed to maintain a regal if ceremonial position as the head of the Commonwealth, the 54 nations of mostly previous British colonies. "The Queen lived a long and consequential life, fulfilling her pledge to serve until her very last breath at the age of 96," Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, said in a statement Friday. "She was an exemplary leader of the kind seldom seen in the modern era." As queen, Elizabeth was seen as endorsing the birth of democracies in former colonies in Africa where Black citizens previously had been denied basic rights, including the vote. When in glittering tiaras she danced with new African leaders in the 1960s and visited their capital cities, she burnished the new institutions. When white-minority rule finally fell in South Africa in 1994, Elizabeth welcomed Nelson Mandela as a world leader. Her openly warm friendship with Mandela was enjoyed by him, and it gave her a new relevance. "In the years after his release from prison, (Mandela) cultivated a close relationship with the queen. He hosted her in South Africa and visited her in England, taking particular delight in exploring Buckingham Palace. They also talked on the phone frequently, using their first names with each other as a sign of mutual respect as well as affection," the Nelson Mandela Foundation said in a statement Friday. "For Madiba (Mandela's clan name) it was important that the former colonial power in southern Africa should be drawn into cordial and productive relations with the newly democratic republic of South Africa. For the same reason, South Africa becoming a full member of the Commonwealth again after its long apartheid-era absence had a special significance." Fellow radical anti-apartheid fighter, Anglican archbishop of Cape Town Desmond Tutu, also enjoyed good relations with the queen, and his foundation paid tribute to her. "Although ensconced in the pomp, ceremony and lifestyle of royalty and empire, in a world of profound inequality, she was a servant queen," Tutu's foundation and trust said Friday. In contrast, a scathing view of the queen's rule was issued by South Africa's populist party, the Economic Freedom Fighters. The queen was "head of an institution built up, sustained, and living off a brutal legacy of dehumanization of millions of people across the world," said the statement. The widespread tributes that followed her death came not only from U.S. President Joe Biden but also from Russian President Vladimir Putin. She was a "stateswoman of unmatched dignity and constancy who deepened the bedrock alliance between the United Kingdom and the United States," Biden and first lady Jill Biden said in a statement, adding that she "defined an era." Putin sent a telegram to King Charles III Elizabeth's son who automatically became Britain's new monarch. "For many decades, Elizabeth II rightfully enjoyed the love and respect of her subjects, as well as authority on the world stage. I wish you courage and perseverance in the face of this heavy, irreparable loss," Putin wrote. Elizabeth was mourned across Europe. In France, Britain's historic rival and contemporary ally, officials ordered flags at the presidential palace and public buildings be lowered to half-staff on Friday. French President Emmanuel Macron released a video message Friday in English expressing a sense of "emptiness" after her passing. Addressing the British public, the French president said: "To you, she was your Queen. To us, she was THE Queen, to all of us." Even in places where the relationship with British monarchy is complicated, the tributes flowed. In India, once a British colony, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Elizabeth "a stalwart of our times." The queen's death came as a growing number of British territories in the Caribbean are seeking to replace the monarch with their own heads of state amid demands that Britain apologize for its colonial-era abuses and award its former colonies slavery reparations. Still, Caribbean leaders mourned her. Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness said that for many years Elizabeth visited the island every decade. "Undoubtedly, she formed a special bond with the people of Jamaica," he said. "We are saddened that we will not see her light again, but we will remember her historic reign." It was not only Britain that lost its queen. Elizabeth was also sovereign to 14 other countries including Jamaica, Canada, Australia, the Solomon Islands and New Zealand. "Here is a woman who gave her life, utterly, to the service of others. And regardless of what anyone thinks of the role of monarchies around the world, there is undeniably, I think here, a display of someone who gave everything on behalf of her people," New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was having trouble believing he'd had his last sit-down chat with Elizabeth. Elizabeth had visited Canada 22 times as monarch. "For most Canadians, we have known no other sovereign," Trudeau said. He said she was a "constant presence in our lives and her service to Canadians will forever remain an important part of our country's history." KEARNEY A neighbor alerted three adults and five children about an early Friday morning fire at their house in east Kearney. At 2:09 a.m. the Kearney Volunteer Fire Department was called to the fire at East Lawn Mobile Home Estates No. 338. When firefighters arrived, they found heavy fire on the wood porch and inside the house, and they extinguished the flames, said a KVFD news release. Three adults and five children safely fled the house before firefighters arrived. The Nebraska Fire Marshal determined the fire was started from the careless handling of smoking materials, the news release said. No injuries were reported. The family is being assisted by the American Red Cross. Smoke detectors were installed in the house and working, the release said. The house is owned by Bob Spencer of Kearney. Three engines, one tanker truck, two utility vehicles and 30 firefighters responded. Damage to the house and its contents was estimated at $20,000. Educational issues have gained great attention locally and nationally. We at Protect Nebraska Children Coalition believe attention is typically good; however, attention to an issue without accurate information, true perspective and broad experience can lead to wrong conclusions. The direction of education in Nebraska depends upon citizens whose understanding of the issues is deeper than slogans or headlines. For busy moms and dads, this can be a challenge. Protect Nebraska Children Coalition (PNCC) was created to keep Nebraskans informed on educational issues. Because truth matters, we at PNCC want to address some of the misconceptions and misrepresentations that have confused many Nebraskans. First, regarding last years proposed health standards, we thank the hundreds of citizens who gave feedback to the Nebraska Department of Education and the state board of education. Parents became focused anew on their childrens educational experience even if those in favor of the standards did not like what they had to say. Stakeholders who advocated for their children were well-researched and articulate. They quickly understood that replacing the states current health framework with standards (which are not required by our Legislature and failed twice in the Unicameral previously), might impact their district and student. They understood curriculum must follow adopted standards. If readers watch replays of the May and June 2021 State Ed Board meetings, they will hear parents using actual examples from Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) curriculum, citing pages and lesson numbers. A popular CSE curriculum, Rights, Respect and Responsibility is readily available through the source website, which is advocatesforyouth.org. This curriculum, currently used in Omaha schools, is produced by Planned Parenthood and offered free to schools. Bravo to informed, passionate stakeholders, who continue to persist in the face of slander and ridicule from those in favor of the agenda represented by the proposed health standards of last year. We at PNCC understand the standard development process well, as we have studied NDE policy documents, spoken with NDE staff and talked with teachers involved in standards creation at the state level. We also understand, thanks to public records, that the process was blatantly abused and manipulated last year through the efforts of certain NDE staff and at least one state school board member with the assistance of a Planned Parenthood board member and CSE instructor, who added to the proposed standards after teachers had written them. In the human development section, the revisions by this CSE activist were so extensive that one of the original authors, a Nebraska teacher, emailed the NDE and described the final version of the proposed standards as very different from the version she and other writing team teachers had written. Its important to note: Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) is NOT sex education. Sex education teaches biological names and functions, human development and the reproductive cycle. However, the newly proposed standards sought to replace the states current health framework (which is very good) with standards copied directly from SIECUS.org, whose stated mission is Sex Ed for Social Change. SIECUS emphasizes sexual rights and gender fluidity as well as social and reproductive justice, including abortion on demand and sexually explicit materials for students. Smart stakeholders and experts from around the state sounded the alarm that early sexualization of our children is not best practice and would not result in high academics, much less physical or emotional health. Nebraskans further rejected the promotion of political ideologies focused on dividing our students. Classroom time must be focused on academic excellence, not misplaced activism. We at PNCC will keep working because we care about Nebraskas children and families. And we care about our states teachers who are preparing for another year with hard work, hope and expectations for good. Parents must be active in their childrens education and upbringing. Students are best served when schools and parents work together. Divisive, politically charged social ideologies have no place in our classrooms where time is best spent honing academic skills and character development to create lifelong learners and healthy, productive citizens. Will this be met with vitriolic responses calling us haters? Probably. Will accusations of misinformation be slung our way? No doubt. But PNCC will continue doing what we do best keeping moms and dads informed and involved for the betterment of our schools and communities. For Beth Dolder-Zieke, 88, retiring from her post as Viterbo Universitys career services director was a bit like a pregnancy. It was going to hurt like heck for a while, but when the pain is over, theres this whole new life, full of promise. Theres a huge hole in my life because Im leaving, but I feel called to leave because I know other things are waiting for me, Dolder-Zieke said in an interview in her third-floor Murphy Center office. It was two days before her last day, and the quirky oddities that made her office so much fun to visit have been mostly packed up, some to take with her, some to give away as prizes at her retirement reception. Growing up in a small town in central Wisconsin, Dolder-Zieke didnt think shed ever attend college, much less spend most of her adult life working at one. Neither of her parents attended college. When she was nearing high school graduation, she recalled, her guidance counselor told her not to bother taking a college entrance exam. The die, it seemed to her, had been cast, and it was not her path to go to college. After high school graduation, her path brought her to La Crosse (there was this guy she was sweet on). She got an entry-level job at Dairyland Power, working in the mail room. After a few years, she said: People my age started coming into the company with degrees and getting nice jobs while Im stuck in the mailroom. Im like, Youre my age, and youre no smarter than me. As luck would have it, Dairyland Power had a tuition reimbursement benefit for employees who wanted to go to college. Dolder-Zieke started taking University of Wisconsin-La Crosse business classes at night. It seemed like the thing to do at the time, but then she took a sociology class and the lightbulb went on: Studying people would be a lot more interesting and fulfilling than studying business. Around that time, Steve Zieke, the man she would marry, suggested she look at Viterbo. He knew art faculty members Tim and Diane Crane, and it seemed like Viterbo would be a good fit for her. Was he ever right! And were they ever wrong at her high school. My guidance counselor was wrong, and I think what that did to me is instilled an enduring faith in reinventing yourself and not letting other people define you, she said. When she came to Viterbo as a student, Dolder-Zieke had settled on majoring in psychology, and she recalled one psychology class convening at 4 p.m. at the Recovery Room, followed by a few pitchers of beer and some very deep discussions, finally concluding around 8 oclock. On Fridays, people would gather in room 574 in Murphy Center for happy hours. It was known as the pillow room, and people would bring a few beers or whatever they wanted to drink, maybe some snacks, and hang out, relaxing at the end of a long week. It was such a great way to get to know people, Dolder-Zieke said. I honestly dont remember anybody abusing it or getting out of hand. Dolder-Zieke felt so at home that after she graduated summa cum laude with her psychology degree in 1988, she stayed on at Viterbo, working in the career services department. In 1995, when she decided to take time off for child-rearing, she was assistant director of career services. After a decade at home with her children, Margaret and Charlie, Dolder-Zieke went back to school, earning a masters degree in mental health counseling from Winona State University. They hadnt forgotten Dolder-Zieke at Viterbo, and one day in 2005 she got a call from the university, asking her to come work for career services again. I so wanted to come back, she said. I loved Viterbo. For the past 15 years, Dolder-Zieke has served as career services director, and she has relished all the time she has spent with students, not only advising them on career matters but getting a chance to teach classes in career planning, career counseling and psychology. College has become so much more career-oriented and vocational since Dolder-Zieke was a student, she said, and todays students are under a lot more pressure to have their lives and careers figured out by the time they graduate. That makes what they do in career services even more important than it was when she first started. I have loved being in this position of being able to work with students who are discouraged and confused and help them find out who they really are. Theyre like, Im all over the place, I dont know what I want. You just tell them something about themselves that they already knew but they hadnt thought about it, Dolder-Zieke said. We all have gifts. I believe we all have unique gifts, and we dont always know what they are. Connectivity between students today also is a lot different from when Dolder-Zieke was a student and then working in career services the first time around. When she came back in 2005, a big thing had happened: the internet. She soon noticed that instead of students coming out of class deep in discussion with each other, they came out of class looking at their phones. Viterbo used to be such a tight community, she said. Back then, if somebodys mother died, everybody knew about it. We dont know each other as much anymore. For all thats changed, Dolder-Zieke still harbors immense affection for Viterbo, and the university community reciprocates. Just weeks before her retirement, she was honored with the Employee of the Year Award. That was really validating. To be recognized by your peers is the greatest honor ever, she said. Dolder-Zieke isnt sure what retirement will hold for her. Her immediate plan, she said, is to clean out the linen closet of her home in Caledonia, Minnesota, and win the prize for growing the biggest tomato at the Houston County Fair this summer. She has retained her mental health counseling licensure and might put that to use, but for now shes happy to relax a little and reflect on her journey so far. Ive achieved more than I ever thought I would have, she said. I feel like Ive been successful. Ive had a very happy, fulfilling career, and I got to work with amazing people. That, to me, is success. The La Crosse Common Council has passed a ban on conversion therapy for a second time, after redrafting the original in hopes to protect it against legal challenges that are almost certain to come. This ban prohibits medical professionals from performing conversion therapy on anyone under the age of 18 in the city of La Crosse. Conversion therapy is a widely discredited practice that attempts to forcibly change a persons sexual orientation or gender identity, and has been found to be particularly harmful to LGBTQ+ youth. After meeting in closed session for about half an hour, the city council passed the ban on an 8-4 vote with one abstention. I do not want us to be scared away because we might be sued because we are looking out for the best interests of the people that live in this city, said council member Mac Kiel who has sponsored the legislation. A crowd once again filled city hall on Thursday to watch the vote. The ban has gained a lot of attention in the community, and has featured dozens of voices both in support of the ban who say conversion therapy is harmful, and those in opposition who say it violates constitutional rights. Some at the meeting wore an array of rainbow colored shirts that read: Conversion therapy dropout. One person held up a small sign in support of the First Amendment, while another person was wrapped in the pride flag. The city council originally passed the ban back in June. But on the advice of the citys attorney, the resolution was reconsidered which officially put the ban on pause so that it could be rewritten to be legally stronger. The original ban was broad and banned anyone in the city from performing conversion therapy on minors, and placed all enforcement in the hands of local police. But the new ban is much narrower, and only prohibits medical and psychological professionals who are licensed or practicing under someone who is licensed from performing conversion therapy, which notably leaves out religious leaders. The new ban also leaves enforcement up to the state, and any allegations of violations to the ban will be referred to the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services. Council president Barb Janssen, and council members Chris Woodard, Doug Happel, Scott Neumeister voted against the ban. Neumeister originally signaled support for the ban back in June, though he was not at the final council meeting to vote. Council member Andrea Richmond abstained from the vote on Thursday after voting against it in June, but voted in favor of the revised ban last week in committee. Many of the council members in opposition have expressed concerns that the city doesnt have the authority to regulate conversion therapy, stating that it should instead be in the hands of the state or county. We have an obligation to keep focus on things that we really have control over, Janssen said. She said she does not support conversion therapy, but compared the ban to regulating businesses or hospitals. Happel said his vote was not against any segment of the community, but was a technical issue, with similar concerns that the city was banning a medical practice. I doubt very much if we would ban kidney surgery. Sometimes there are things the city council should probably stay out of, Happel said. Council member Neumeister, who has expressed his opposition to conversion therapy, described the ban as a slippery slope. And as much as this pulls at our heart strings, he said, its just not our role. Kiel noted that she reached out to La Crosse County to see if they would pass a ban themselves, but was told that it could only cover communities that dont have an independent police department and would not cover the city of La Crosse. A large group of our community asked for help, because something in our city wasnt working for them and was hurting them, and we have the opportunity to do something about that, council member Rebecca Schwarz said in support of the ban. She said that health and human safety is within the city councils purview. La Crosses ban is expected to face legal challenges after the conservative law group Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL), sent multiple warnings to the city council in recent weeks saying a lawsuit was imminent if the ban passed. If this does pass tonight, the city of La Crosse will be sued. Its been made clear by WILL that this is going to happen, said council member Woodard, who is also running for state Assembly. And I want to apologize to La Crosse taxpayers that if this passes, were going to be funding such a hopeless crusade. Although La Crosse is the 14th city to pass a ban on conversion therapy in the state, none have faced the same level of legal threat. Earlier this week, a U.S. federal appeals court upheld Washington states ban on conversion therapy for minors, ruling against a therapist who claimed it violated his freedom of speech and targeted him for his religion, which are similar arguments that those in opposition to La Crosses ban have made. Despite the likely challenges, Kiel did not waiver in her support for the ban, which she originally introduced with the help of area students. I want to be intentional, and [I] understand the consequences that might come forward if this is passed, she said. Woodard, similarly to Junes meeting, attempted to open a public hearing to for community members who were present at the meeting, but it failed without a second. Since the resolution was reconsidered, its been through two rounds of committees and their respective public hearings. Richmond also motioned to postpone the resolution indefinitely, and it lost on a vote of 8-5. As of Thursday, there were nearly 200 letters submitted to the city regarding the legislation, ranging in voices of opposition to support. Its unclear to what extent conversion therapy is practiced in the medical and psychological field in La Crosse, but in recent months since the ban was first introduced, area religious leaders have revealed they use conversion therapy in some capacity. Wisconsin will receive part of at $438.5 million settlement between the U.S. and JUUL labs, following a two-year investigation into the vape manufacturer. JUUL, a popular e-cigarette brand, has been under scrutiny for both its advertising and its cartridge flavors, such as fruit and candy, which draw in the child and teen market. Wisconsin, one of 34 states and territories to receive a portion of the settlement, will receive $14.4 million. Targeting youth for e-cigarette sales is appalling, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul said in a release. This agreement brings accountability for JUULs conduct and prohibits JUUL from engaging in the types of marketing practices it had been using to promote vaping among young people. States will begin receiving their portion of the settlement in the coming weeks, with funds to be paid over a period of six to 10 years. The amounts will increase if JUUL stretches out the payments until the full 10 years. The total owed could reach $476.6 million. The issue is a JUUL intentionally marketed these products to (youth) through social media and they actually manipulated the nicotine to make it less harsh, says Dr. Todd Mahr, immunologist at Gundersen Health System. I think having this settlement is fantastic. Its holding JUUL responsible for targeting the youth through these devices that they think are safe. In addition to the payment, JUUL must follow stipulations including restrictions on marketing to people under age 35, limits on store displays and online and retail sales and a retail compliance check protocol. For too long, middle and high schoolers have been the target of manipulative and harmful marketing practices for products like e-cigarettes, Department of Health Services Secretary-designee Karen Timberlake said in a release. E-cigarettes have since 2014 been the most popular tobacco product among U.S. youth, though usage has been on the decline over the past four years. Teens cannot legally purchase the devices, as a federal law in 2019 raised legal age from 18 to 21. In an additional effort to curb vaping among young persons, the FDA in early 2020 announced a ban of most flavor cartridges for e-cigarettes. However, the damage was already done for some with higher levels of nicotine than regular cigarettes, many users were hooked. We want to celebrate our wins, but we need to understand in the time period that it was really heavily being marketed we had a number of youths get addicted, Mahr says. And according to the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, 106,000 kids alive today in Wisconsin will have premature death from smoking. JUUL says it had already begun a company wide reset in fall 2019, according to a release from DHS, calling the settlement a significant part of our ongoing commitment to resolve issues from the past...We remain focused on the future as we work to fulfill our mission to transition adult smokers away from cigarettes the number one cause of preventable death while combating underage use. In June, the FDA announced a ban on sales of JUUL products; however, the company pushed back, and the FDA in July stayed the order, stating, The agency has determined that there are scientific issues unique to the JUUL application that warrant additional review. This administrative stay temporarily suspends the marketing denial order during the additional review but does not rescind it. JUUL in a statement this summer said, We believe that once the FDA does a complete review of all of the science and evidence presented, as required by law, and without political interference, we should receive marketing authorization. As we go through the FDAs administrative appeals process, we continue to offer our products to adult smokers throughout the U.S. While the settlement with JUUL, and potential complete ban on sales of its products, is a positive, Mahr says the brand was already falling out of favor after the many restrictions the FDA enacted. This doesnt mean that its going to go away, Mahr says vaping. As they pulled out of the market, other makers came forward. Unless its taking on all vaping products and cigarettes, its not going to help much, since this is not what the kids are using now. Puff Bar, Mahr says, Is a very popular (vape) right now and its not regulated. The single use device, which has fruity and dessert flavors, contains synthetic nicotine, a loophole of sorts which removes it from FDA oversight. Mahr commends the government officials who helped facilitate the settlement We need to acknowledge the fact that its the result of two years of bipartisan investigation, so thats reassuring to me that Republicans, Democrats, can work together on this but he has concerns about the use of funds. We need to make sure we take that $14.4 million and call on the Wisconsin legislature to use the money to take on prevention and education, Mahr says.If this money just goes into the general coffers and they dont give us more money to do what needs to be done, then its a loss. I want to celebrate (but) history tells us from our tobacco settlement once legislators get their hands on money they dont do what theyre supposed to do. In 1998 settlement, state governments received $246 billion to go towards restricting cigarette sales and marketing targeted at youth and for prevention and cessation programs. A 2018 assessment found just 3% of the funds were used for programs to prevent youth from smoking and to help smokers quit. Even if the $14.4 million is spent as intended, far more funds are needed to combat the problem. People need to know in the past biennium Wisconsin legislature allocated $5.3 million for statewide tobacco control efforts and the tobacco industry is spending a $157 million dollars on tobacco marketing, Mahr says. So were a drop in the bucket. We need more resources. To Democrats, Republican-sponsored laws aimed at improving election integrity are really just veiled attempts at voter suppression. To Republicans, Democratic-backed efforts to make voting easier are an invitation to fraud. But in 22 years of changes to Wisconsin voting laws, theres little evidence to suggest either that stricter voting laws have dampened turnout or that making voting easier has led to more people cheating at the ballot box. Take, for example, the decision by Wisconsin lawmakers in 1999 to eliminate the requirement that voters have an excuse to vote absentee. Until then, the vast majority of voters were required to show up on one particular day and cast a ballot in person. Now, anyone can get an absentee ballot through the mail or go to their local clerks office on one of many days leading up to Election Day and vote there. The expanded access to voting was not followed by any major uptick in turnout in the 2000 presidential election. In fact, turnout that year was lower than in six of the 13 presidential elections that preceded it, according to data from the Wisconsin Elections Commission. Or take the controversial and long-litigated decision by Republicans to enact a photo ID requirement for voting. Because of court challenges following the laws 2011 enactment, it wasnt in effect for a major election until 2016. Turnout in that years presidential election was lower statewide than four years before, but by less than 3 percentage points and in a contest that pitted two candidates who had worse favorability ratings heading into the election than any two presidential candidates since Gallup started asking about that in 1956. Voter ID was expected to have its biggest impact in those areas of Wisconsin, such as Madison and Milwaukee, with higher proportions of nonwhite and poor voters, who are less likely to have valid photo IDs or easy ways to get them. But post-2016 turnout numbers cast doubt on that assertion. The city of Milwaukee, for example, saw voters turn out for gubernatorial and presidential elections in numbers that were comparable to and, in some cases higher than, pre-2016 elections, according to figures from the Milwaukee Election Commission. Madison saw more voters cast ballots in the 2018 gubernatorial and 2020 presidential elections than for any prior respective election since at least 2000, according to the Madison City Clerks Office. (Turnout is always higher in presidential election years.) A 2021 working paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that voter ID laws have no negative effect on registration or turnout, overall or for any group defined by race, gender, age or party affiliation. Fraud vanishingly small Available reports of suspected voter fraud or other election irregularities in Wisconsin similarly show no noticeable decline in the already minuscule amount of voter fraud after the passage of Republican-backed election integrity laws. Local election clerks have been required to submit cases of suspected voter fraud or other election irregularities to the state since at least 2007, when the former Government Accountability Board was created. Reports detailing those cases were only available from the Elections Commission going back to June 2016, but they show a total of 158 cases since then, with no clear increase or decrease in cases over time. There were five, for example, in a yearlong span between February 2017 and February 2018, and then 23 over the same time frame a year later. The most, or 73, came in an eight-month period that included the 2016 presidential election, but 43 of them concerned 17-year-olds voting amid confusion about whether people that age could vote in the primary that year if they would be 18 by the time of the general election, as well as some false and misleading information ... on social media websites which spread inaccurate information to students who then believed they were eligible to vote, the Elections Commission said at the time. Detectable fraud cases in prior years ranged from zero to the single digits, according to an election fraud database maintained by the conservative Heritage Foundation, with the exception of 2013, when there were 10. In a 2014 study, UW-Madison political science professor Ken Mayer and two other researchers not only found no evidence of widespread voter impersonation, but also that the level of such fraud which was vanishingly small to begin with was the same whether or not states had strict voter ID laws or allowed for Election Day registration. Voter ID laws have no effect on the incidence of voter fraud, Mayer said, and the incidence of fraud is so low that it is unarguable that these laws prevent more eligible voters from casting ballots than the number of potentially fraudulent votes prevented, by orders of magnitude. The same 2021 working paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research that found no noticeable impact on turnout by voter ID laws also found that strict ID requirements have no effect on fraud actual or perceived. Individual voters affected That major changes in turnout have not followed changes to election law does not mean that such laws have no effect, researchers point out, although that effect tends to be minuscule compared to the other things that motivate people to vote. A 2019 study co-authored by Mayer, for example, found that the top reason for not voting among people who sat out the 2016 presidential election was that they were unhappy with the choice of candidates or not motivated by the issues. Nearly 51% of survey respondents said that was at least part of the reason they didnt vote, while 33% said it was their main reason. Not having an adequate ID was part of the reason for 6.5% of respondents, and 1.7% said it was the main reason. Still, the study found the photo ID requirement likely reduced turnout in Democratic-heavy Dane and Milwaukee counties by up to 1 percentage point, meaning that between 7,000 and 7,900 otherwise eligible voters would have been prevented from voting and between 12,300 to 13,900 would have been deterred from voting, according to the authors statistical analysis. For the sake of comparison, Donald Trumps razor-thin margin of victory in Wisconsin in 2016 was 22,748 votes. Joe Bidens win in 2020 was by 20,682. Looking at aggregate turnout will miss the effects on individual voters those whose access to the voting booth is blocked or impeded by these laws, Mayer said. Surprisingly, research on early voting which gives people many more opportunities to vote is not consistently correlated with an increase in turnout. A 2020 study that looked at the practice in Ohio found substantial positive impacts of early voting on turnout equal to 0.22 percentage points of additional turnout per additional early voting day and that women, Democrats, independents and those of child-bearing and working age were most likely to benefit from early voting. At the same time, an analysis by the data-crunching site FiveThirtyEight found no correlation between the increasing popularity of early voting and turnout nationwide, while Mayer and three colleagues found in 2013 that early voting ... is actually associated with lower turnout when it is implemented by itself. We propose that early voting has created negative unanticipated consequences by reducing the civic significance of elections for individuals and altering the incentives for political campaigns to invest in mobilization, the authors said. Unexpected effects Teasing out the effects of voting law changes on turnout over the last 22 years is complicated, Mayer said, and the data show that changes often have unexpected effects. Allowing people to register to vote on Election Day increased GOP vote share, for example, he said, and there is a forthcoming study that shows automatic re-registration also benefits Republicans. At the same time, the evidence shows that many of these laws disproportionately affect already-disadvantaged voters, he said, meaning, in general, nonwhite and poorer voters. Virtually all of the restrictive laws have been passed by GOP legislatures and governors, and thats not an accident. The president of the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, which lists election integrity as one of its policy areas of interest, was not aware of research that attempts to measure the effect of more restrictive voting laws on voter fraud. I dont know how you go about measuring that since ... I think that fraud is a very, very difficult thing to uncover, Rick Esenberg said. But he said he also didnt think reasonable voting safeguards depress turnout or that widespread fraud of the type that could change the outcome of a state or national election is likely to occur. I think both sides overemphasize the issue, he said. The stakes are not as existential as the rhetoric would sometimes lead you to think that they are. The Heritage Foundation did not respond to requests for information on any research that might show a link between more restrictive voting laws and a reduction in voter fraud. Using fear to motivate Asked why there appears to be little effect on turnout from tighter voting rules, Sam Roecker, a spokesperson for Democratic Gov. Tony Evers campaign, instead pointed to Republican-sponsored voting bills vetoed by the governor over the last year. Make no mistake: Democracy is on the ballot this year, he said, and our state would be much less free without Governor Evers to stop legislation undermining the right to vote. Republican state party spokesperson Chad Doran said common sense laws like voter ID are supported by 80% of Americans because voters want to have confidence in the electoral process when they go to the ballot box, but he did not respond to a question about whether theres any evidence showing that enacting stricter voting rules was followed by a drop in fraud cases. UW-Madison political science professor Barry Burden said party officials might not be aware of the research showing that voting changes have little effect on turnout. At the same time, even if the effects are small, elections are sometimes decided by thin margins, especially in Wisconsin, he said, and an election practice that affects turnout of one sides voters by just 1 percentage point could easily change the outcome. And then theres the need to motivate voters. By threatening that voting rights are being denied or fraud is being committed, Burden said, the parties might be able to use fear to motivate supporters to vote, donate money or volunteer their time. Bells rang across Britain on Friday and mourners gathered in London and other places to honor Queen Elizabeth II. She died Thursday at the age of 96, after 70 years as the countrys ruler. Around the world, her exceptional reign is being remembered, celebrated, and debated. Many are also considering what the future will look like with the new king, Charles III. The British monarchys rules state that a new sovereign succeeds to the throne as soon as his or her predecessor dies. So, as Elizabeths first son, Charles became king immediately upon her death. Charles has spent much of his 73 years preparing to be king. On his first full day of duties, the King met in London with Prime Minister Liz Truss. Queen Elizabeth had officially appointed Truss earlier in the week. Charles arrived at Buckingham Palace, the monarch's London home, to cheers from crowds nearby. His wife Camilla, now queen consort, was by his side. Shouts of Well done, Charlie! were heard. The crowd began singing the national song, God Save the King. One woman gave Charles a kiss on the cheek. Later Friday, Charles gave his first speech to the nation as king. He said he feels profound sorrow over the death of his mother and promised to carry on her lifelong service to the nation. His speech was broadcast on television and streamed at St. Pauls Cathedral, where some 2,000 people were attending a service of remembrance for the queen. Mourners at the service included Truss and members of her government. The new king is expected to travel around the country in the coming days. The queen's body will be brought to London, to lie in state before a funeral at Westminster Abbey, expected around September 19. As prince, Charles lost some public support when he and the late Princess Diana ended their marriage. Some also say he stretched the rules that bar the monarchy from intervening in public affairs. He entered into public debate on issues such as environmental protection and preservation of historic buildings. He now finds himself in, if you like, the autumn of his life, having to think carefully about how he projects his image as a public figure, said historian Ed Owens. Hes nowhere near as popular as his mother, Owens said. Charles' rise to the throne is likely to fuel debate about the future of Britains monarchy. Some see the monarchy as a sign of national unity and others as an outdated system that should end. Charles, who will be the head of state for Britain and 14 other countries, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, has defended his past actions. He has said his interest and involvement in public issues was aimed at motivating people, or moving them to take action. Charles also said, however, that as king he would not be able to interfere in politics because a sovereigns duties are different from those of the Prince of Wales. He has said he plans to reduce costs for the monarchy and better represent modern Britain. His mother was Britains longest-ruling monarch. She represented dependability during many crises that affected her, the monarchy and the country. Whether Charles will be as loved by his subjects as was Queen Elizabeth II remains to be seen. For now, Britain will continue to mourn her passing. Im Caty Weaver. Caty Weaver adapted this story from reports by The Associated Press. _____________________________________________ Words in This Story reign n. the rule of a king, queen or emperor over a country sovereign n. a king or queen monarch n. a person who rules a kingdom or an empire sorrow n. a feeling of sadness or grief figure n. a person who has some kind of position are is considered in a certain way We want to hear from you. We have a new comment system. Here is how it works: Write your comment in the box. Under the box, you can see four images for social media accounts. They are for Disqus, Facebook, Twitter and Google. 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. News reports and everyday discussions increasingly involve the term attention, as in the attention economy - the idea that human attention is a limited resource. If you wanted to talk about attention, how would you do so? What terms and structures would you use? In todays report, we will explore the noun, attention, and some terms that connect to it. You will learn about the most common ways Americans talk about attention. History The Online Etymology Dictionary describes the history and meaning of many words. It suggests that the noun attention dates to the late 1300s, with the meaning of active direction of the mind upon some object or topic. The Online Etymology Dictionary also suggests that the term is used with a remarkable diversity of verbs. Pay attention (or pay attention to...) One of the most commonly used verbs with the noun attention is pay. You might link the verb pay with money. You pay money for something. For example, you could say I paid $100 for this phone. But in modern times, the most common kind of paying, Googles Ngram suggests, is with attention. The most common way this structure appears is as this: pay attention to. Googles Ngram shows pay attention to becoming more common during the 1980s. That growth has continued up to the present (or at least up to 2019, the latest year included in the data). This change suggests an increasing concern about attention. Here are a few ways you might hear Americans use pay attention to... A daily reader of news or social media might say: I pay attention to the news. Or I pay attention to trends on social media. In the negative form, a person might use the auxiliary verb do, as in: I don't pay attention to social media. In the case of regret, a person might use the modal should, as in: I should have paid attention to my parents. Draw attention (or draw attention to) But we do not only pay attention. We can also draw attention, meaning to cause attention to be given to someone or something. Googles Ngram suggests that the structure draw attention has become more common in recent years. And while English speakers might use the verb draw with other nouns, the most common use of the verb draw is with attention. For example, a teacher might say I would like to draw your attention to the image on page 37. Sometimes Americans use modifiers before the noun attention. For example, a person might say, That social media post drew a lot of attention. In this case, a lot of appears in between the main verb, draw, and the noun, attention. Other verbs We also use attention with several other verbs - attract, receive, deserve, get and give. There are differences in the way these terms are used. Receive attention describes a fact. For example, a person might say that an event received a lot of attention." Or, a person might say that the event received very little attention. Other structures make a claim about value. The structure deserves attention, for example, could suggest that something has not been the subject of attention - but it should be. For example, a person might say: This problem deserves attention. Or: This issue deserves more attention. Focus An important idea related to attention is the verb (and noun) focus. The verb form of focus means to direct your attention or effort at something. As with other structures that use the noun attention, focus has become more common over the past thirty years, Googles Ngram suggests. Pay attention to and focus have very similar meanings. But in everyday situations, we sometimes use them in slightly different ways. Still, if you use one in place of the other, your meaning will probably be understood. Putting it all together The idea of this report was to draw your attention to the term attention - and some related ideas, such as focus. In the future, consider how debates about attention play out in the news or everyday discussions. For example, you might read a news story about companies trying to attract attention to their social media services by using advertising. You might hear a person suggest that too many people are paying too much attention to social media. Or, critics of the attention economy might draw attention to problems that it creates. They might say people cannot focus on what matters, for example. Lets end this report with a chance to use the ideas described today. Write a short response to one of the following questions: 1. What do you pay attention to? Why do you pay attention to it? 2. What should people pay attention to? Why should people pay attention it? Write us in the comments section of our website, learningenglish.voanews.com, or write us an email at learningenglish@voanews.com. I'm John Russell. John Russell wrote this lesson for VOA Learning English. _________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story remarkable adj. unusual or surprising : likely to be noticed modifier n. a word (such as an adjective or adverb) or phrase that describes another word or group of words LEXINGTON Local residents raised several questions about a proposed homeless shelter and transitional assistance location in Lexington during the Planning Commission meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 7. Developmental Service Director Bill Brecks said the conditional use permit concerned the structure at 907 W. 8th St. The building used to be the former Love in Action site, and then was approved to be a child care center, but that plan never came to fruition. The application was submitted by Crossroads Mission Avenue; Executive Director Daniel Buller was present and gave a brief rundown on their operations. Crossroads Mission Avenue was started in 1983 to serve the hungry and those in need as they sought assistance. They started out as a soup kitchen, serving one meal per day but now has evolved over the years and now operate facilities in Hastings, Kearney and Grand Island. In 2021, 947 individuals stayed at a Crossroads facility, 127,845 meals were served, there were an average number of 130 guests per day and 42,615 nights of stay were provided, per Crossroads website. Buller said they offer a four phase program to those who stay with them to prepare and equip them after their time at Crossroads. The first phase is the Personal Resilience Program, which focuses on life skill classes, community service, attending counseling, if applicable and weekly evaluations with a case manager. The second phase is the Employment Phase, which includes starting a job search, working with employment agencies to find work, stay with an employer for 30 days, start paying off debt and keep attending any needed counseling. Employment and Finance Program, is the third phase that focuses on maintaining employment, continuing to pay off debt, begin a savings account and continuing with counseling. The last phase is, Leadership, which includes continuing to save money, attending leadership skills classes, acquire a leadership duty at Crossroads and pass the phase four monthly evaluations. Buller said Crossroads does not simply, warehouse people, by just offering a bed for the night, their program is designed to help individuals get their lives back on track. Buller said their interest in opening a facility in Lexington started with Crossroads board president, Brian Levander, who recently just opened a Levanders Body Shop in Lexington. Levander noted that homelessness and food insecurity were issues in Lexington and Buller said they see a number of Dawson County residents stay at their Kearney facility. He also noted they are often overcapacity in their three current locations. Buller said they have made a conditional offer at the property at 907 W. 8th, pending approval from the City of Lexington to move forward. Their plan for the building is to include 11 efficiency apartments that would be open as a long-term living service for people who need the help. The facility would be open and staffed, 24 hours per day, every day of the year. Buller said the homelessness issue has been growing and they have seen their average time of stay increase from 30 days in the past to 65-70 days in 2018. He noted there is no time limit on an individuals stay time. Crossroads funding comes from a number of sources, including capital campaigns, grants and a large donor base across Nebraska, Buller said they work with around a $2 million operating budget. When asked by the Planning Commission if they transfer people, Buller said they do, and in fact, people from Lexington have been transferred to their Kearney facility in the past, one as recent as last week. He said over the years they have been able to see where the needs are in surrounding counties. For instance when they opened in Hastings, they were seeing Hall County residents, when they opened in Grand Island, they aided Buffalo County residents and now their Kearney facility, opened in 2012, has been aiding Dawson County residents. There were several Lexington residents who attended the meeting, many who raised questions about the homeless shelter plan and its location. One of the questions asked of Buller was how many veterans they serve; he estimated out of 1,000 people, 60 to 70 might be veterans. He noted they do work with Veterans Affairs if the situation calls for it. When asked what made their services special or different from other homeless shelters, Buller said churches, state agencies, county jails, nursing homes and police departments have all brought individuals to Crossroads in the past. He said he was not aware of another homeless shelter in the area that offered their type of services. Buller was asked if they have violence issues with people who have stayed, he said that the people staying at their facilities will have their issues, but they have not had violence issues. Buller said they have a set of rules people must follow if they are to stay in their facilities. Richard Woehrle, who owns the property at 920 W. 8th St., appeared and said his business is located near the proposed Crossroads site. Woehrles concern was people out running the streets, and asked who would be monitoring the people staying at the site, Buller said the facility would be staffed continually and there are curfews in place. Ninety nine percent of the people who stay with us dont want to live in the cold, dont want to live in the heat and so they will abide by rules, abide by structure. We do have rules in place, we have security in place. Next to speak was Joe Staroska, who owns Weathercraft Roofing at 906 w. 8th St., just across the street from the proposed Crossroads site. Staroska noted for the record that they operate large vehicles out of the facility that start up early in the day, around 6:30 p.m. He was concerned about the lights and noise affecting the shelter and did not want to have to alter how he runs his business if Crossroads locates there. I admire what this project does and I understand the need, Staroska said, However, what we do is not going to change and I dont know that will be a positive effect for folks living that close. Staroska concluded by asking if this was the best spot for Crossroads. Jeff Walker appeared next, stating he owns the property at 912 W. 8th, just down the street from the site. He had concerns about the people who would be staying at Crossroads. Homeless people are not known to be law-abiding people, Walker said. Walker said he was concerned about possible drug use and break-ins at his facility. Im more worried about my property than anything, he concluded. JoAnn Woehrle also spoke and asked if there would be an increased police presence in the area if the Crossroads facility is approved. City Manager Joe Pepplitsch said there would not be any specialized patrols in the area. I am not against homeless people, she said, I just dont think that is the place for them. Pam Trampe, BHA Real Estate realtor, spoke and she was working with Buller on acquiring the property. She said there is not a week that goes by at BHA that people call that have a desperate need for housing. Lexington has a huge homeless problem, Trampe said, I see the need, terrible. Buller addressed the concerns brought up and said the questions and concerns were not different from those brought up when they opened in Hastings, Grand Island and Kearney. He said homeless shelters do not draw homeless people, the homelessness issue is already present in the communities. He said with the recent issues in the world, the issue is not getting smaller, its growing. People who are desperate are more dangerous than people who are provided for, Buller said, We are providing them a safe place to be, with structure. As for their choice of location, Buller said it has to be affordable for Crossroads as well. Buller concluded by saying they stand by their track record, saying they have experts in homelessness and homeless restoration. That is what I have to stand on. The decision then went to the Planning Commission, City Attorney Brian Copley said their three options in this case were that they could approve the measure, deny it, or send it to the City Council with no recommendation. The Planning Commission voted to approve the measure, the city council will have final decision on the permit at a future meeting. Planning Commission member Cameron Smith abstained during the vote, citing that H.O. Smith will receive the title work and wanted to avoid a conflict of interest. The next item on the agenda also concerned the proposed Crossroads application. Brecks said the property would need to be rezoned from R-1 Single Family Residential to R-3 High Density Residential to accommodate a shelter. When asked by the Clipper-Herald, Brecks said the site did not need to be rezoned in 2019 to accommodate the child care facility plan. The Planning Commission also voted to approve the rezone application, Smith abstained during this vote also, citing the same concerns. The commission tabled a subdivision application by Stewart Properties, LLC , a rezone application for the proposed W.A.S. Second Subdivision and a subdivision application from the Community Development Agency, as not all required paperwork had been finished in time. Out with the old, in with the new. Such was the theme Wednesday as airmen from Offutt Air Force Bases 55th Wing gathered to say goodbye to the oldest WC-135 nuke-sniffer jet in its fleet and welcome a (slightly) newer one. The two planes stood nearly nose to nose in front of the Lincoln Airport hangar that has been their temporary home while Offutts runway is rebuilt. And they provided a backdrop as those who have flown the radiation-monitoring mission, called Constant Phoenix, paid tribute to an old workhorse jet that has served the Air Force for 60 years. This is a joyous occasion, said Col. James Finlayson, commander of the Air Force Technical Applications Center, who oversees the mission. But for some of us its a little bit sad, because its the end of an era. The retiring jet, tail number 61-2667, was manufactured by Boeing and delivered to the Air Force on April 20, 1962, as a C-135B transport. It was one of 10 converted in the mid-1960s into WC-135 weather-reconnaissance planes, but specially configured with radiation-monitoring gear to check international compliance of the 1963 Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. In the decades since, 61-2667 also served for long stretches as a training aircraft. Since 1994, it has served continuously with Offutts 45th Reconnaissance Squadron in the Constant Phoenix mission. She spent a lot of her time as a bounce bird, said Col. Derek Rachel, commander of the Offutt-based 55th Operations Group, referring to the planes history as a trainer. You know shes had a long, hard life. In total, 61-2667 has racked up 36,577 flight hours and 8,767 landings. Its historic assignments included monitoring fallout after nuclear disasters at Chernobyl in 1986 and Fukushima in 2011, as well as numerous Russian, Chinese and North Korean nuclear tests. In the late 1990s, the WC-135 fleet dwindled to two jets as the others were scrapped or converted to other missions. The other jet, tail number 62-3582, was notorious for the frequent breakdowns that earned it the nickname Lucifers Chariot from the squadron chaplain. That plane was retired in November 2020. Six-Six-Seven is a lot more loved than Five-Eight-Two, said Lt. Col. Chris Crouch, commander of the 45th Reconnaissance Squadron. No. 61-2667 continued its workhorse ways right into 2022. Plane and crew traveled to RAF Mildenhall in England in January for what seemed like a routine deployment. That deployment stretched to 5 months the longest Constant Phoenix deployment in recent memory after Russia invaded Ukraine, ratcheting up nuclear tensions in the region. In April, they moved operations to Japan after North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un launched a series of missile tests. We got through it with just one jet, Crouch said. Still, age has taken its toll on the jet. It was the last 55th Wing aircraft with old-fashioned analog instruments and first-generation TF-33 jet engines, which are noisier, smokier and less fuel efficient than their modern counterparts. Last year the plane had a mission capable rate of 48%, according to Air Force data published by the Air Force Times, meaning it was capable of carrying out scheduled missions less than half the time. And it had a break rate of 47%, meaning it returned from almost half of its missions needing significant repairs. The parts were Eisenhower vintage, said Lt. Col. Sean Orme, Detachment 1 commander of the 21st Surveillance Squadron and a 10-year Constant Phoenix veteran. As we commonly see, they start to wear. All the more reason Crouch and Orme welcomed the arrival of a new WC-135R Constant Phoenix jet in July, tail number 64-14836. Although the plane is just two years younger than the one it replaces, the former New Hampshire National Guard refueling tanker has been refurbished with fly-by-wire avionics and quiet, fuel-efficient engines. Its a whole new jet, Crouch said. Its not incrementally better, but revolutionarily better. Now the aircraft controls on all of the 55th Wings Offutt-based fleet are the same, he said. And the motors use 40% less jet fuel, meaning air crews can fly farther without tanker support. Theres no place in the world isolated from this jet, Crouch said. It shrinks the globe. Capt. Jacob Schuster, a WC-135 navigator who has flown both the old plane and the new one, said the new flight controls ease the crews workload. The automation everything has been completely updated, he said. It helps on a long-duration mission. It feels a lot easier, even if its a 10-hour sortie. The best news is yet two come. Two more refurbished WC-135Rs are slated for delivery within the next year. And theyll be landing on a brand-new runway at Offutt. The 18-month reconstruction is nearly complete, and the planes are slated to return Sept. 30. I have a lot of excited air crew, Crouch said. Hong Kong: Air crew quarantine adjusted The Government today announced adjustments to the quarantine arrangements for locally based air crew performing duties on passenger flights to or from overseas places or Taiwan. From tomorrow, air crew may leave Hong Kong International Airport after obtaining a negative nucleic acid test result upon their arrival. They are subject to regular testing after their return to the local community, so as to keep their health condition under continued monitoring. These arrangements are consistent with the prevailing arrangements applicable to locally based cargo crew. The Government noted all locally based air crew members shall continue to comply with the closed-loop arrangements during their layover at outports in overseas places or Taiwan to avoid contact with the community in those places. In addition, when returning from overseas places or Taiwan, they will be subject to medical surveillance, including the requirements to avoid mask-off activities in public places, refrain from going to crowded places and mass gatherings, and keep a log of their activities until the third day following their arrival. The Government has requested airlines to put in place robust mechanisms to ensure their air crew's compliance with the medical surveillance requirements. Airlines will be held responsible for monitoring and checking the activity logs of their air crew. In the event that airlines are found not to be exercising due diligence in compliance monitoring, or in case of non-compliance, the eligibility of the relevant air crew for the designated quarantine arrangements will be revoked. The Government pointed out that the number and proportion of positive cases involving arrival air crew were minimal, far lower than that of the relevant numbers of general inbound travellers. The adjustments should not bring significant additional risks to the local community. It believes the adjustments will effectively help airlines to enhance flight services between Hong Kong and other parts of the world, and enable Hong Kong to play its role as an international aviation hub and facilitate recovery of normal economic and social activities. Separately, in view of the gradual removal of COVID-19 prevention and control requirements in overseas places, the Government announced today outbound passengers and transit passengers departing for overseas places or Taiwan will no longer be required to go through temperature screening starting tomorrow. For inbound passengers entering Hong Kong as well as departing passengers bound for the Mainland or Macau, the temperature screening arrangements remain in place. This story has been published on: 2022-09-09. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. GREEN BAY The government has renamed more than two dozen lakes and other sites on federal land in Wisconsin to remove a racist term for a Native American woman. The changes announced Thursday capped a nearly yearlong process that began when Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, an American Indian, took office in 2021 and worked to remove the offensive word "squaw" from the names of nearly 650 peaks, lakes, streams and other places nationwide. "I feel a deep obligation to use my platform to ensure that our public lands and waters are accessible and welcoming. That starts with removing racist and derogatory names that have graced federal locations for far too long," said Haaland, from Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico. In Wisconsin, 28 places have been renamed, including Squaw Island in Door County, now named Keyes Island. Chairman of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, Ron Corn Sr., tells WLUK-TV he had hoped the names would be removed sooner, but it is gratifying that it's finally happening. "That helps mitigate a piece of the past that we just assumed would not perpetuate," said Corn Sr. "So I think as a society we're coming to terms with how we treat one another respectfully." The public can weigh in on the new names until April 25. Haaland meanwhile created a panel that will take suggestions from the public on changing other place names include derogatory terms. Wisconsins top utility regulator is pushing back against a legislative watchdog report that faulted the Public Service Commissions handling of millions of taxpayer dollars given to internet providers, but as the agency prepares to distribute up to $1 billion in federal funds, Republicans want more accountability. Since 2020, the Public Service Commission has awarded more than $105 million in federally-funded grants to help expand access to high-speed internet service. A new report by the Legislative Audit Bureau found the commission had inadequate policies for awarding and tracking the money from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and American Rescue Plan Act. According to the report, the PSC did not establish written guidelines for selecting projects awarded $5.4 million in CARES funds and provided inconsistent guidance for the roughly $100 million in Rescue Plan funds. The audit did not document any errors or mishandling of funds but found the PSC failed to properly document its scoring process or efforts to verify that providers had built what they said they would. The agency also relied on invoices rather than receipts when refunding expenses, according to the report. The report includes eight recommendations for better record keeping. PSC should improve its administration of broadband expansion grant programs, including by establishing comprehensive written program policies and improving how it reviews and awards grants, reimburses telecommunication providers, and oversees the programs, wrote state auditor Joe Chrisman. The Republican chairs of the Legislatures audit committee called for increased accountability and transparency to ensure the funds are being put to their highest and best use. The findings have eroded much of my confidence concerning PSCs ability to award future broadband expansion grants, said Sen. Rob Cowles, R-Green Bay. Cowles called on the PSC to tighten this program up immediately before an expected influx of additional federal broadband funding. PSC Chair Rebecca Valcq, appointed by Gov. Tony Evers, called the audit a political potshot intended to generate misleading headlines ahead of a hotly-contested election. The actual findings dont support the conclusions, Valcq said. We do exactly whats recommended in that audit report. Its just not in the same format theyre looking for. Valcq said the PSC followed federal guidelines in awarding the grants and has robust internal controls including random spot checks to ensure the projects are built as promised but agreed the commission could do a better job of documenting its work. Are there a couple of things in the report we agree with? Absolutely, Valcq said. The federal grants augmented a nine-year effort to connect some of the roughly 650,000 Wisconsin residents who cant get, or afford, high-speed internet service, a task the PSC has estimated could cost up to $1.4 billion. Broadband experts say the market has served most of the densely populated areas where theres a good return on investment. But in many rural areas there arent enough customers to cover the cost of installing cable or building wireless towers. Valcq said grants awarded in the past three years have brought new or improved internet service to more than 387,000 homes and businesses, changing peoples lives. City council president 'disgusted' by council member's Oath Keepers membership Council President Keith Furman and Vice President Jael Currie said they were disgusted to learn that Adler Gary Halverson had belonged to the antigovernment group in 2020. Including the federal funds, the state has awarded more than $346 million to date, and Valcq expects Wisconsin will receive another $700 million to $1 billion more in the coming years from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The finish line is in sight, Valcq said. Well get there, but we cant be distracted by people trying to score political points. It doesnt help. But Commissioner Ellen Nowak, the lone commissions lone Republican, said the program needs to evolve with the changing landscape as more public funding is funneled to providers. My question is how are they doing? Are they delivering the speeds they said they would? Nowak said. Theres going to be so much money coming in. How do I know Im truly giving it to those most in need? Madison City Council leaders are condemning a fellow members association with a right-wing extremist group accused of playing a key role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Council President Keith Furman and Vice President Jael Currie said they were disgusted to learn that Ald. Gary Halverson had belonged to the Oath Keepers, an antigovernment group that recruits current and former military, police and first responders. The Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism identified Halverson Wednesday as one of six elected officials from Wisconsin whose names appeared on leaked Oath Keepers membership lists. Halverson, who represents District 17 on the citys East Side, responded by saying he joined without vetting the organization and is no longer a member. I thought I joined an organization that welcomed veterans who cared about our democracy, Halverson wrote in an email Wednesday. I was misled and I terminated the membership two months later in Aug 2020. Furman and Currie rejected that notion in a statement saying the groups extremist positions have been well known since its founding over a decade ago. Mere seconds of online research reveal the Oath Keepers as a far-right antigovernment group, not a group for veterans or the preservation of democracy, they said. While the nation was reacting to the murder of George Floyd, this group promoted its membership using anti Black Lives Matter statements. Halverson, who was elected to the council in 2021 after running unopposed, issued an additional statement Thursday saying he quit four months before the 2020 presidential election and was further disgusted by the abhorrent attack on our democracy on Jan. 6. I have many friends across all political spectrums because I believe relationships are what builds a strong community, Halverson wrote. I have supported many different candidates including our current Democrat nominees for Senate, Congress and Governor. Furman and Currie stopped short of calling on Halverson to step down, saying voters will decide in April whether he should serve a second term. Its up to him to decide if he can continue as Alder with this secret now being public, they said. Having this information certainly calls into question the motivation behind his votes. Hot potato: PFAS contamination lingers at burn pits as city, county, National Guard contest responsibility The sites both drain into Starkweather Creek, which flows into Lake Monona, where health officials have warned anglers to limit consumption of fish. Ultimately, my heart is to serve my community, which I do every day to the best of my ability, Halverson said. My constituents in District 17 know this, my friends know this and my colleagues on the council know this. Using a database compiled by the transparency collective Distributed Denial of Secrets, the Anti-Defamation League scoured more than 38,000 names to identify hundreds of law enforcement officers, including police chiefs and sheriffs, as well as members of the military. The group found more than 80 people, including six in Wisconsin, running for or serving in public office. Founded in 2009 by Stewart Rhodes, the Oath Keepers is a loosely organized conspiracy theory-fueled group that asks its members to vow to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, promotes the belief that the federal government is out to strip citizens of their civil liberties and paints its followers as defenders against tyranny. More than two dozen people associated with the Oath Keepers including Rhodes have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack. Rhodes and four other Oath Keeper members or associates are heading to trial this month on seditious conspiracy charges for what prosecutors have described as a weekslong plot to keep then-President Donald Trump in power. Rhodes and the other Oath Keepers say that they are innocent and that there was no plan to attack the Capitol. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Dane County Executive Joe Parisi announced on Thursday that his 2023 budget will include $740,000 in funding for programs to combat opioid overdose deaths. Some of the new funding, about $465,000, will go toward outreach campaigns, giving community groups medical lock boxes, Narcan and fentanyl testing strips as well as supporting school curriculums in the roll out of new education initiatives, Parisi said in a statement. In the past five years in Dane County, opioid overdose deaths have increased by 30% and fentanyl overdose deaths have risen by 70%, Parisis office said. Last year, more than three-quarters of the countys overdose deaths were caused by fentanyl. In early August, Public Health Madison and Dane County issued an overdose spike alert after seven people overdosed on drugs over the span of two days. We as a community have a responsibility to act, Parisi said. These investments in my 2023 budget build upon past successes and explore new opportunities to make a potentially lifesaving difference for the individuals and families who call Dane County home. Some of the initiatives dollars, $225,000, create two new positions that will work to decrease overdose deaths. One of those is a prevention coordinator at the OutReach LGBTQ+ Community Center. That person will be a liaison with communities most impacted by drug overdoses to raise awareness and support prevention services. The other position will be with the county Department of Emergency Management overseeing development of a Narcan leave behind program that leaves the drug overdose medicine at the site of overdoses. The remainder of the funding will go toward the Narcan leave behind program and educational programs. At their Thursday meeting, board members also voted overwhelmingly to back Public Health Madison and Dane Countys efforts to start distributing fentanyl testing strips. Parisi will release his full budget for 2023 on Oct. 3. The County Board will have to approve next years budget. Parisis announcement comes as the state Legislature approved on Thursday how a $31 million settlement Wisconsin received in a multi-state opioid lawsuit will be spent. Five millions dollars of the settlement will go toward the distribution of Narcan and fentanyl testing strips. Police say a man was killed by Milwaukee officers after he led them on a chase into a busy downtown bar district, then got out of his vehicle and opened fire on them. One bystander, a 22-year-old Hudson woman, was hit by gunfire in the Friday night shootout. Authorities said they did not know if she was shot by police or by the man. Police say her injuries are not life-threatening. Police say the 47-year-old Milwaukee man was wanted in a homicide, and police were trying to arrest him when he fled and led them downtown. A video circulating on social media shows at least five police cars following a truck before multiple shots ring out. How do you explain rioters tearing down the statue of a Civil War hero on one end of the Capitol Square in Madison and the Miss Forward statue on the opposite end, undeterred? Lawbreakers two years ago that June night smashed the windows of the state Capitol at will all because law enforcement was told to stand down. And stand down they did while the mob beat a state legislator who attempted to record the rioters. Hobbled by woke political ideology, our police agencies couldnt even protect their headquarters at the City-County Building from fire bombing. It was utterly shameful. I wont back down if elected Dane County sheriff in the Nov. 8 election. Period. As an elected constitutional office, the sheriff of Dane County answers only to the people of Dane County not to a woke mayor. Madison City Council members (if theyre foolish enough) can ban tear gas a safe, nonlethal tool to deter mob violence but I wont kowtow to their virtue signaling. I also wont apologize for putting your safety first. I wont tolerate dirty cops, and I wont play politics with policing. The people we put in jail are inmates not residents, as the politically appointed incumbent suggests. Dane County deserves a sheriff whos driven a beat, guarded the lockup and investigated crime not a low-experience politician such as the incumbent. Ive been a deputy with the Dane County Sheriffs Office for 14 years. Ive worked in jail diversion, patrolled the 200 square miles west of Middleton, trained patrol officers and jailers. I was a SWAT assistant team leader in the most elite and highly trained group of formal and informal leaders in my agency. For the last three years, Ive worked as a detective investigating some of the most high-profile homicides in the county. My opponent spent two years being trained and working as a jailer, and several years patrolling Sun Prairie. Hes a political appointee. Years of failed crime-fighting fads have led to dramatic increases in crime rates. Does anyone really believe the fentanyl dealers surrendered their weapons in Sheriff Kalvin Barretts recent gun buyback stunt? In the city of Madison, your chance of being a victim of property crime is one in 36 nearly double that of the rest of the state, according to data on Neighborhood Scout. Crimegrade.org gives Dane County a grade of D- for overall crime. Auto thefts have nearly doubled in Madison in the last five years. Its more than joyriding. Many of these car thieves deal dangerous drugs and engage in human trafficking. Theyre shooting each other across playgrounds and parks yet our appointed sheriff is focused on placating extremists. To make his hiring numbers conform to identity politics, hes bypassing otherwise qualified applicants. The result is that the Sheriffs Office is down dozens of deputies from authorized strength, and dozens more are eligible to retire at a moments notice. This means fewer cops on the street keeping you safe. I am no elitist. I did not grow up with privilege. From the age of 6, I was raised by a Black woman whose grandfather emigrated from a slave colony in Africa. My oldest child is gay. Im the third generation in my family to be a member of a labor union, and the first person to graduate from college. I know from my own familys experiences how racial disparities, bigotry, lack of education, drug and alcohol abuse, and the cycle of poverty and crime are related. I know how to break that cycle. Im like everyone else. I want my community to be safe. Ill work to protect you like youre part of my own family. Students across Wisconsin are heading back to the classroom amid debate on contentious issues impacting education. School safety, curriculums, pandemic learning loss and failures in large metropolitan school districts are among them. The result has created unprecedented momentum for alternatives to traditional education models, upending school systems from Arizona to West Virginia. Opportunities to narrow gaps in education exist here in Wisconsin, too. After nearly 40 years of supporting education in Milwaukee and beyond, our grantees at The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation have taught us a great deal about how to do just that. Sharing lessons learned can help inform the dialogue on how to improve the education landscape for all families. First and foremost, parents have primary responsibility for their childs education. Everything from instilling strong values to choosing the right school, to making sure kids are on time, to overseeing homework, starts with parents. They are ultimately accountable for guiding their children in the right direction. Schools that embrace this approach and treat parents as partners rather than patrons create an environment in which kids can flourish. Teachers, staff and parents working together are more able to quickly identify problems and develop plans that meet the unique needs of each child. Critics of this view believe the inverse is true that schools should control a childs education because some parents are irresponsible or incapable of knowing whats best. We are clear-eyed that serious problems hinder and prevent parental engagement, especially in urban areas. Violence, crime, drug addiction and poverty are deterrents to stable family life, resulting in many kids falling through the cracks. This is where civil society plays a vital role with friends, neighbors, churches and voluntary associations serving as societys most effective safety net. The Bradley Foundation has supported hundreds of remarkable organizations that are animated by passionate, driven leaders who have an insatiable quest to tackle local challenges. Whether its preparing homeless mothers with histories of trauma to live independently and develop strong, nurturing families or providing housing and healing to young men whose lives have been profoundly affected by toxic environments, these leaders are helping people become responsible fathers, mothers and fellow citizens. Whatever their circumstances may be, parents cant do it alone, which leads to another lesson. Teachers are essential to student success. Educators at the schools we support treat each student as a whole by nurturing social, emotional and often spiritual development. One local school leader says that for his students to learn how to succeed in life, they also need to learn how to trust, fail and serve. This is not to say that academic performance is an afterthought. But students with strong foundational skills are better prepared to handle challenges and build lives of purpose, whether that path includes a college degree, vocational training, entrepreneurship or something else. Finally, the lessons learned work best when families can choose the educational option that fits their childs needs. Whether the choice is a private, charter or public school, homeschooling or hybrid option, kids have the very best shot at success when more options are available. Parents agree, as we have witnessed over time. What started out as a pilot program in Milwaukee that Bradley helped get off the ground in 1990 has become an established part of the citys and countrys vibrant ecosystem of educational options. Today, about 45% of Milwaukee students who receive publicly funded education dollars attend a school outside the traditional school district. If enrollment trends continue, that number is likely to climb to more than half in a few years, adding Milwaukee to a short list of cities that share the same status. Its easy to understand why when you consider the broader impact of choice. According to one study, exposure to the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program in the eighth or ninth grade was associated with a 53% reduction in drug convictions, an 86% reduction in property damage convictions, and a 38% reduction in paternity suits by the ages of 25 to 28. Sharing these lessons may not solve all the challenges confronting todays complex K-12 environment, but they can inform efforts to open educational opportunity to all Wisconsin families at a time when so many are desperate for it. A federal judge in Texas has ruled that required coverage of an HIV prevention drug under the Affordable Care Act violates a Texas employers religious beliefs and undercut the broader system that determines which preventive drugs are covered in the U.S. The ruling was handed down Wednesday by Fort Worth-based U.S. District Judge Reed OConnor, who ruled in 2018 that the entire ACA is invalid. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately overturned that decision. OConnors latest ruling targets a mandate under the law that requires employers to cover the HIV prevention treatment known as PrEP, which is a pill taken daily to prevent infection. The ruling's impact beyond the plaintiffs wasn't immediately clear. The Biden administration is likely to appeal. TWIN FALLS Mayor Ruth Pierce will recommend Alexandra Caval on Monday to replace Shawn Barigar on the city council. Caval was selected from a pool of 26 qualified applicants to fill the seat that was vacated by Barigar, who stepped down in July to apply for the position of economic development director. Caval will serve the balance of Barigars term and is eligible to run for election in November 2023. An attorney and board member of the Twin Falls Urban Renewal Agency, Caval has run her bankruptcy law practice here for 12 years. She has chaired the commercial law and bankruptcy section of the Idaho State Bar and serves as lawyer representative for the District of Idaho to the 9th Circuit. During her presentation to the council on Aug. 29, Caval described her familys arrival in Twin Falls. Like 10% of the population of Twin Falls, I am foreign born, Caval said. My family and I came to the U.S. when I was 5 years old to escape a communist country in pursuit of freedom. Caval graduated from Twin Falls High School before receiving bachelors degrees in political science and economics from the University of Idaho. As a board member for the URA, Caval told the council that good growth management is one of her priorities. Today, young professionals moving into this town cannot afford to purchase a home on a single income like I did 12 years ago because of the growth that we have experienced in this town, Caval said. I hope to manage that growth so that we can retain some of the things that make our city great, like our strong sense of community, our rich agricultural roots, and our unique geographical features. The city received a total of 26 qualified candidates for the open seat and most of the candidates made a brief presentation to the City Council on Aug. 29. Building a prosperous community: Shawn Barigar reflects on 14 years on the Twin Falls City Council "I think back on some of the people Ive served with on the council in the past who have served longer and in my mind done greater things for our community," Barigar said. "But Im honored to have served. It was incredible to see the passion and interest in our city from all of the candidates who made presentations, Pierce said. It was a very difficult decision, however, I have decided to select Alexandra Caval for the strengths she will bring to city council. I encourage all the applicants to continue to stay involved with their city, and I thank them for their interest in public service. Under Idaho code, the mayor may make an appointment to fill vacancies on the council, but the appointment is subject to a vote of approval from the council. The Gem State had an open primary system prior to 2012. When the primary election rolled around, voters would just request a ballot for the party of their choice Republican, Democrat, whatever and then vote among the candidates on that ballot. It worked well, but not to the satisfaction of radical right-wing Republicans who wanted to tip the balance in favor of ultra-conservative candidates. The GOP managed to close its primary to all but declared Republicans in 2012 for the sole purpose of purging more moderate, pragmatic candidates from its ranks and that is exactly what has happened. Since Idaho is one of the reddest states in the country, the winner of the Republican primary is usually the person who will prevail in the general election. Extremists just have to marshal their forces in the primary to elect those who represent their distorted views. We need to understand that the success of their plan depended on strictly limiting the number of Idahoans who are permitted to choose who represents them in government. Idahos experience under the closed primary system is similar to that disclosed by the daughter-in-law of Fox News mogul, Rupert Murdoch. Kathryn Murdoch, an advocate for allowing more voters into the candidate selection process, points out that in 2020, just 10% of Americans effectively elected 83% of the U.S. House of Representatives. The newly-elected leadership of the Idaho GOP wants to further restrict the selection of public officials in Idaho to a select group of extremist Republican functionaries, excluding the great majority of Idaho voters from the process. Idaho has suffered woeful results from the closed GOP primary. In the 2018 primary, when 5 candidates were competing for the office of Lt. Governor, Janice McGeachin won with just 28.9% of the primary vote. She was the most extreme of the candidates and has been a disaster in the office. Just this year, 3 candidates announced for that same office. It soon became apparent that the most extreme candidate might win the primary if reasonable voters split their vote between the two responsible candidates. To his great credit, Luke Malek, a strong candidate, stepped out of the race to prevent a wretched candidate from winning. It was a loss for the voters. In Legislative District 1 this year, Scott Herndon, a candidate further right than Attila the Hun, beat Sen. Jim Woodward in the primary election with a scorched earth campaign. Woodward has been one of our very best GOP legislators. Unless Herndon loses to a write-in candidate in November, he will be pushing his abortion-is-murder-from-fertilization crusade in the next legislative session. The State of Alaska has just demonstrated how Idahoans can achieve sensible reform of our electoral system. In 2020, Alaska voters approved an initiative establishing a ranked-choice voting system. It provides for all candidates, regardless of party, to participate on a single primary ballot. The top 4 vote-getters move to the general election ballot for ranked-choice selection. The voters merely rate the candidates as their first, second, third and fourth choice. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the first-choice votes, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated and voters who put that candidate at the top of their list have their votes reallocated to their second-choice candidate, and so on, until one candidate gets more than 50% of the vote. The results of the first election completed under the system were announced on August 31. Sarah Palin, who lost the election, claimed the system was convoluted and difficult to understand. The voters disagreed, 85% of them reporting in exit polling that it was simple. Palin lost because she entered the race with high negatives, ran a poor campaign and, being generally disliked, got few votes below first choice. Ranked choice voting has been used in Australia for over a century and is used in Maine as well as some city elections in Utah. The Utah cities that have used the system report greater civility in campaigns and more robust debate of issues because candidates have to appeal to a broader spectrum of voters. In a survey conducted of two cities in Utah County, more than 80% of respondents said the system was easy to use and they wanted it to be used in future elections. Several non-partisan groups have expressed interest in pursuing an initiative in Idaho to establish a ranked choice system like Alaskas. It would be just the right tonic to cure the extreme partisanship that has taken root in Idaho during the last decade. It would allow candidates to focus on real problems confronting the Gem State, rather than the manufactured cultural issues that are designed to tear us apart solely to achieve political power in the closed GOP primary. It would bring more voters into the primary election and give them a better idea of where the candidates stand on the real issues. A growing effort in the newly empowered anti-abortion-rights movement is one that should drive home just how dangerous that movement has become to women. Attempts are underway to write personhood statutes into state or federal law, effectively declaring that a newly fertilized egg has all the same constitutional and human rights as any person including the woman carrying it. Under such a statutory scheme, abortion at any point, for any reason, would by legal definition be murder. Abortion bans would no longer allow exceptions to preserve the life of the woman, since both she and the zygote she carries would have identical legal standing. This extremist agenda isnt some alarmist fantasy of the left but a stated goal of the anti-choice movement that, with the recent overturn of Roe v. Wade, is now being pursued by Republican politicians in legislatures and Congress. Immediately after the Supreme Court scuttled Roes longstanding protections in June, Republican-controlled states began passing or activating abortion bans of varying severity. Missouris is one of the strictest, banning the procedure from conception, even in cases of rape or incest, unless its necessary to save the life of the pregnant woman. That one exception is, so far, common to all the new state abortion restrictions but theres nothing in the Supreme Courts ruling requiring it. As such, it was virtually inevitable that some in the anti-choice movement would soon begin agitating to remove exceptions that elevate the importance of the womans life over that of what they consider to be another person. As The New York Times reports, conservative lawmakers in Georgia and Indiana want to make their already-strict abortion bans absolute by removing any exceptions. Georgia already has a law on the books giving tax exemptions and child-support status to fetuses. At least one similar proposal is pending in Congress. Its a notion with obvious symbolic aims, if largely unworkable in the real world. (Are state officials charged with child-support and tax collection going to be expected to parse pregnancy test results?) But the dangers of this mindset go far beyond bureaucratic complexity. Women with health conditions that make pregnancy inherently life-threatening which could even include very young teenagers not physically developed enough to safely give birth would be condemned by a legal structure that gives her no more right to live than the clump of cells in her body. Routinely used birth-control methods that prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the womb could be criminalized. Even a lifesaving procedure like chemotherapy could be defined as murder if it interrupts a pregnancy. Solid majorities of Americans support reasonable abortion rights, but that only matters if it translates into votes in the midterms. Only the electoral rejection of this extremism will keep women safe from an agenda that views their basic rights and their very lives as virtually irrelevant. Tonight, TheatreWorks Community Players opens a show that features a panel of jurors from different backgrounds trying to make the difficult decision of declaring whether or not a man is innocent or guilty. 12 Angry Jurors will debut at 7 p.m. at the Black Box Theatre, 44 Franklin Street, and run through Sept. 15. It begins with all 12 jurors going into recess to make a final decision. The different backgrounds of the jurors affect their decisions and turn what may at first seem like an obvious decision into a greater debate. 12 Angry Jurors originally was produced by Reginald Rose after it was adapted by Sherman L. Sergel from the play 12 Angry Men, which was produced by Reginald Rose. The director of the TheatreWorks show is Joanie McPeak, stage director is Roslyn Simmons, and tech and sound are by Tom Berry and Mike Greco. Scott Harmon plays Juror #5, a character with a similar background to that of the defendant, who had grown up in a slum. This is Harmons first TheatreWorks play, but not his first time on stage. He has been in several Patriot Players musicals, including Little Shop of Horrors, The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. A difference between the two types of shows, musical and play, is that with a musical you have choreography and music in addition to your lines and your blocking, he said. With a play, on the other hand, he can focus more on his character and getting everything right. Another difference he encountered was playing a serious character who gets in arguments, when he usually plays the loud, comedic character. Im not usually asked to get mad often, he added. I like that he [Juror #5] can bring life experience to the conversation, Harmon said. Thats something that I dont think a lot of the other jurors have. Harmon said his favorite part about performing with TheatreWorks is working with these people. Theres such amazing talent here, and Ive seen a lot of them in shows here, so its been fun to get to know them and be on the other side of it. Recently retired Henry County administrator Tim Hall, who last week joined Uptown Partnership as interim executive director, plays Juror #11, an immigrant, adding a unique perspective. This is the first show Hall has ever acted in, but he has attended most of the TheatreWorks shows over the years. He said that he never had the time to commit to being in a show and never thought he would be good at it, but now that he has retired, he has some time freed up. Ive always loved this movie, I love this message I asked my wife what she thought, and she did not laugh out loud, so I took that as a yes. My character is very much devoted to doing things the right way. Hes a recent addition to the country. He came here for the purpose of having the freedom to do what he thinks is right, and hes very adamant that things should be done correctly, Hall said. Halls impression of being a part of a cast was that he was naive at how incredibly hardworking these folks are, countless hours, countless weeks of practice I was welcomed very warmly. Valerie Bowling plays Juror #10, a character with a grating xenophobic personality. Bowling has been six shows since 2017, but normally enjoys playing comedic characters over more serious ones. She said that she had to sit with this role for a bit and try to like her [Juror #10] and understand who she was. What she found to like in her character was that she would speak her mind and stick with what she thinks is right. Bowling said she missed performing during the pandemic, saying she had decided that she didnt care what the first show was, she would be there for it. Jackie Scaffidi plays Juror #4, a wealthy woman with strong opinions. Scaffidi has been in five shows with TheatreWorks, including Mama Wont Fly and The Odd Couple. She said that a challenge of this show was that the whole cast is on a small stage for the majority of the show. She had to drop out of her last production suddenly when she discovered she had breast cancer, but is back and ready to perform on the stage again. Her character, she said, is this rich, high society person. She thinks she knows everything, and Im none of that. But I enjoy playing it I just try to think of people that I think are rich and try to be like them and act like them. Juror #1, the foreman, is played by Lanetta Byrd, Juror #2 by Landon George, Juror #3 by Steve McPeak, Juror #6 by Chris Walker, Juror #7 by Ethan Goins, Juror #8 by Mike Hatfield, Juror #9 by Don Grayson, Juror #12 by Jo Grayson, Voice of Judge by Fran Gale and Guard by Tom Berry and Scott Guebert. The show will run Thursday through Saturday at 7 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m. and Sept. 15-17 at 7 p.m. and tickets cost $15.60 at www.twcp.net. Queen Elizabeth IIs death on Thursday left a mark not only on her own country but many others as well. Martinsville has one major connection historically with the Queen of England, but it took place in 1957 at then-Governor Thomas B. Stanleys mansion in Richmond, Bassett Historical Center Director Fran Snead said. The queen had come for the celebration of the 350th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown. Though the queen never made it to Martinsville, a sized-down set of Stanley furniture in the tan bark pattern was sent back to England for Princess Anne. Only six sets of that miniature furniture were made. Apart from the set for the queen, three went to the governors children, one to the superintendent of Stanley Furniture and the last to the plant manager. A couple of pieces are on display at the Bassett Historical Center. John Parkinson, CEO of Drake Extrusion which is based in Martinsville, is from the United Kingdom, which includes England. He said that after hearing the new he is saddened and shocked. Its sometimes hard to gather your thoughts together in situations like this For me personally and for a lot of the people in the UK, theyve never known anyone else other than Queen Elizabeth as the Head of State, he said. Its really something you think about but never ever think will happen, Parkinson said. Because of the length of time that she was queen, weve see so many changes. But 70 years as head of state, shes carried out that role with such grace and dignity. I dont believe well ever see a leader like that again anywhere in time. He remembers attending the Diamond Jubilee when he was younger and that everyone was so excited to see the queen walking down the street maybe 20, 30 yards in front of you. With the death of the queen, you dont always understand how patriotic you are about your nation until something happens like this, he said. Janet Ashby, a native of England who now lives just outside Martinsville, wrote by email that though she hasnt lived there since 1982, she is still very much a royalist. The queen has been on the throne all my life I will always remember her having tea with Paddington Bear, she said. She added that one of her close friends has a lot of contact with the royal family said that Charles and Camilla are really nice people, so she is fully confident that our royal heritage will carry on. She doesnt think that the queens son, Charles, will step down for his son William to be king because like the queen, he puts duty first. The queen is dead. Long live the king, Ashby added. Byron Corcoran was in a joint band with the United States Army Band and Chorus with the great military musical organizations of the United Kingdom in 1976, he said. Corcoran said that the queen was present at one of the performances in Fairfax County and he, and the rest of the chorus, lined up and were able to meet her. Corcoran said that when he woke up to the news of the queen being overseen by the doctor, he knew that it was serious. Susan Fleenor wrote in response to a Bulletin inquiry over Facebook that she is saddened by the news and that Queen Elizabeth was a force of nature. She added that she had nothing by admiration for her and cant imagine England without a queen. Truman Adkins responded that he will always go back to the declaration she made when she was 21 that her whole life, be it long or short, would be to their [Englands] service. He said that though she had privilege, she rose to the occasion and steadfastly moved forward, decade upon decade, and gave us continuity. Nothing is permanent, but continuity is the world is a blessing, Adkins added. Rhonda Mills commented on the Bulletins Facebook inquiry that she cant imagine a king now and that she feels proud that a female ruled for 70 years during her lifetime. Linda Crabtree commented that Elizabeths time as queen was truly a testament for her love of her country and the British people and that she truly dedicated her life to the service of her country beginning as an ambulance driver during the war and ending 70 years later as the longest serving monarch in history. Kris Landrum, who lived in England from 1968 to 1974, commented that while she was only a teenager at the time, she recalls noticing how the queen and her family were part of the very fabric of the lives of everyone in England, from commoners to royalty. She has been the public image of that country for so very long. Its going to be a very interesting ride for Britons, Landrum also said. KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Underscoring determined U.S. support, Secretary of State Antony Blinken paid an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Thursday and the Biden administration ramped up military aid by more than $2.8 billion to Ukraine and other European countries threatened by Russia. The new assistance came as the U.S. sought to boost momentum in Ukraines counteroffensive against Russia and amid fears that public support is waning as the war drags on. President Joe Biden, Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin all participated in meetings aimed at showing U.S. resolve to stand behind Ukraine. In Kyiv, Blinken said the administration would provide $2.2 billion in long-term military financing to Ukraine and 18 of its neighbors potentially at risk of future Russian aggression. Thats on top of a $675 million package of heavy weaponry, ammunition and armored vehicles for Ukraine alone, announced by Austin and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, earlier in the day. I thought it was particularly meaningful (to visit) at this time as Ukraine is starting this counteroffensive in the south, also in the east, Blinken told reporters in Kyiv before boarding a train for Poland after meeting Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy and his top aides. "Its early days, but were seeing real effectiveness on the ground, and were proud of the fact that our support, the support of so many other countries, is helping to enable what the Ukrainians are doing and working to liberate territory seized by Russia in this aggression, Blinken said. He told Zelenskyy when they met, We know this is a pivotal moment, more than six months into Russias war of aggression against Ukraine, as your counteroffensive is now underway and proving effective." Zelenskyy replied, We are grateful for the signal, for this enormous support that youre providing on a day-to-day basis." The new funding and military weapons are designed to provide enduring training and support for what Gen. Milley called a very deliberate counteroffensive that Ukrainian troops have launched. Meeting virtually, Biden and the leaders of major U.S. allies all emphasized their countries' strong support for Ukraine as it defends itself from Russian aggression, according to a White House readout. Russias weaponization of energy and what to do about it a major concern for this winter in Europe was also discussed, said press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. Those on the call included the leaders of Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Poland, Romania, NATO, Canada and Japan and representatives from France and the European Union. Austin and Milley announced the package of heavy weaponry, ammunition and armored vehicles for Ukraine alone at a conference in Ramstein, Germany. We are seeing real and measurable gains from Ukraine in the use of these systems, said Milley. He said Russia is suffering significant equipment and troop losses. But, he added, The war is not over. Russia is a big country. They have very serious ambitions with respect to Ukraine. So sustainment of Ukraine to continue their fight for their survival will be necessary. The $2.2 billion in so-called Foreign Military Financing has already been appropriated by Congress, but lawmakers, some of whom have expressed concerns about the massive amounts of money going to Ukraine, must still approve the actual allotments. Just two weeks ago, the administration had announced a $3 billion package of support for Ukraine. About $1 billion of the total will go to Ukraine and the rest will be divided among Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, the State Department said. It will help those countries deter and defend against emergent threats to their sovereignty and territorial integrity" by enhancing their military integration with NATO and countering Russian influence and aggression," the department said. Asked about continued congressional support for the massive aid packages, Austin said the administration will provide its rationale to lawmakers, and I fully expect that it will continue to receive broad bipartisan support because our leaders recognize how important this is. Foreign Military Financing allows recipients to purchase U.S.-made equipment, often depending on their specific needs. The package for Ukraine includes howitzers, artillery munitions, Humvees, armored ambulances, anti-tank systems and more to assist the country with its shorter-term needs as it presses its counteroffensive. The capabilities we are delivering are carefully calibrated to make the most difference on the battlefield, Blinken said. He will visit NATO headquarters in Brussels on Friday to further emphasize coordinated support. And Austin announced the U.S. will convene a meeting of international senior leaders to discuss how their defense industrial bases can best equip Ukraines forces into the future. The war is at another key moment, Austin said. "Now were seeing the demonstrable success of our common efforts on the battlefield, he said at a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which was attended by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and Ukraines defense minister as well as officials from allied countries. Germany and the Netherlands will provide training in de-mining to Ukrainian soldiers as well as de-mining equipment, the countries defense ministers said on the sidelines of the meeting with Austin. The training will be carried out in Germany. The two countries previously joined forces to send howitzers. Thursday's contributions bring total U.S. aid to Ukraine to $15.2 billion since Biden took office. Fighting between Ukraine and Russia has intensified in recent days, with Ukrainian forces mounting a counteroffensive to retake Russian-held areas. Ukrainian forces in the northeastern Kharkiv region have retaken portions of Russian-held territory as efforts in the south have drained some of Moscows resources in the area, according to a report from the Washington-based think tank Institute for the Study of War. Meanwhile, shelling continued near Ukraines Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, with the warring sides again trading blame amid dire warnings from the U.N. atomic watchdog, which has urged the creation of a safe zone to prevent a catastrophe. Separately, on Wednesday, the U.S. accused Moscow of interrogating, detaining and forcibly deporting hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians to Russia. Russian officials rejected the claim as fantasy." Before leaving Ukraine, Blinken visited the devastated city of Irpin outside Kyiv where he toured damage caused by Russian forces during their 25-day occupation. He was told there that Ukrainian investigators have 30,000 open cases related to war crimes. There has to be accountability for those who committed atrocities he said. Before meeting Zelenskyy and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, Blinken made a short stop at the U.S. Embassy and then the National Specialized Childrens Hospital Ohmatdyt, where he saw boys and girls injured during Russian bombardments, including Maryna, a 6-year-old from the city of Kherson who lost a leg after a rocket struck her house. In the hospital lobby, Blinken also met Patron, a Jack Russell terrier that has helped Ukraines military find more than 200 mines laid by Russian forces. Blinken knelt down, petted the dog and presented him with treats, saying he was world famous. In one ward, Blinken brought a basket of stuffed animals, which the children quickly dangled in front of Patron to get his attention. Blinken told parents that the spirit of your children sends a very strong message around the world. This story originally appeared in the Journal in 2007. In 1972, a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II painted by a Winston-Salem artist created quite a stir when it was unveiled in London. The nearly 7-foot by 7-foot painting of the queen in an informal setting shows a woman in a fashionable, flowing dress. The late Winston-Salem artist Joseph Wallace King was emphasizing her beauty, he wrote. But critics said she looked more like a starlet than the head of the royal family. At that time, he was the only American granted a sitting, said John Coffey, a curator at the N.C. Museum of Art in Raleigh, which owns the painting. Its sexy for a Royal portrait, Coffey said. Then, King was not your typical painter of Royal portraits. A mostly self-taught artist, he was known to be flamboyant. He loved life an awful lot, Coffey said. When King died at 84 in 1996, a Winston-Salem Journal article described him as a prankster and eccentric. Several years before his death, he drew national attention by hiring a woman to wear a flesh-colored bodysuit and re-enact Lady Godivas ride to protest rising property taxes in Winston-Salem. By all accounts, King was a lot of fun, Coffey said. His portrait of the queen comes with a good story, the late Pete Ballard, an artist and former N.C. School of the Arts instructor, said in 2007. The portrait was commissioned in 1971 by the Wellcome Foundation of London to mark the opening of its U.S. subsidiary, Burroughs Wellcome Co. in the Research Triangle Park, according to the N.C. Museum of Art. Appointments were made for sittings with the queen, Ballard said. King painted the queens body ahead of time. His wife, sculptor Earline Heath King, posed for him in a white wool dress from a Parisian flea market. The queen never wore the dress, nor the cape in the painting. It belonged to King. He painted the queens face during the sittings, Ballard said. There is no crown and few other similarities to other Royal portraits. Most of them look like a lady wrestler. A stiff neck, all the regal stuff, Ballard said. This one is the most beautiful. He did not flatter her. He painted her exactly as she is. She is a beautiful woman, just gentle and gracious. Although the initial showing of the portrait in London drew crowds, according to museum officials in Raleigh, the painting led a quiet life after being given to the state of North Carolina in 1972. It was on display a while in 1973 in Winston-Salem. It hung inside a state government building for a few months and once was loaned to a bank in New Bern for a week, Coffey said. That was in 1995. The painting spent much of its time in storage. Its actually fairly standard, almost you could say a cliche portrait of a genteel lady. Theres a long tradition in that, Coffey said. We find the painting very amusing. In 2007, the portrait was exhibited in Mount Airys historic Gertrude Smith House. Ballard wrote a letter to Queen Elizabeth about plans to display the portrait in Mount Airy, to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown settlement. Her lady-in-waiting sent a letter back saying that the queen was interested to hear about the exhibit but that it was not possible for Her Majesty to send a message to the director of the exhibition. European Union diplomatic chief Josep Borrell on Thursday reaffirmed the EUs support for Mozambique by announcing new military aid to help the country deal with terrorism after several bloody attacks attributed to jihadists in the north. Arriving from South Africa for a two-day visit to Mozambique, Mr Borrell met in the capital Maputo with President Filipe Nyusi and his Foreign Minister Veronica Macamo, where he told a press conference he expressed the EUs commitment and solidarity with Mozambique in its fight against terrorism. He added that the EU had approved on Thursday an additional 15 million in military aid to support Mozambique in the volatile northern province of Cabo Delgado, which is regularly bloodied by attacks attributed to jihadists. The funds will provide Maputo with equipment and vehicles, among other things, and are in addition to the 89 million already earmarked to support the Mozambican armed forces, the EU said in a statement. Macamo described the EU-Mozambique relationship as excellent, and Nyusi welcomed the EUs support, which includes the creation of a military training base for Mozambican forces, which Borrell is due to visit on Friday. Borrells visit comes a day after an Italian nun was killed in an attack on the headquarters of her congregation in the northeastern province of Nampula, claimed by the Islamic State group. This attack is a dark reminder that the fight against terrorism is not over, and that unfortunately it extends beyond the Cabo Delgado region, Mr Borrell stressed. Gobeze Sisay, an Ethiopian journalist, has been re-arrested by police at his home in Addis Ababa, less than five months after he was detained for nine days and released without charge, a relative said. A former journalist with a pro-government TV chanel, Gobeze Sisay now hosts the Voice of Amhara YouTube channel, which promotes the cause of the Amhara, Ethiopias second largest ethno-linguistic population. I was informed of Gobezes arrest in the morning by his wife and landlord, the relative said, indicating that a dozen members of the security forces, some dressed in federal police uniforms, others in civilian clothes, arrived at his home at 7.30am. They did not have a judicial warrant and searched and ransacked the house for an hour () before taking him into custody at the federal police headquarters in Addis Ababa, according to what they told his wife, he said. According to this relative, recent anti-government comments made by the journalist while he was on the frontline and which he posted on an online forum, would have displeased activists in Prime Minister Abiy Ahmeds Prosperity Party, who would have called for his arrest. After a five-month truce, fighting resumed on 24 August in northern Ethiopia between rebel forces in the Tigray region and pro-government troops, particularly in parts of the Amhara region bordering Tigray. Illustration of bacteria in the human gut. Credit: Darryl Leja, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health Preterm and low birth-weight babies are routinely given antibiotics to preventnot just treatinfections, which they have a high risk of developing. A new study published in The Journal of Physiology has found that early life exposure to antibiotics in neonatal mice has long-lasting effects on their microbiota, enteric nervous system, and gut function. This could mean that babies given antibiotics may grow up to experience gastrointestinal issues. This discovery by the research team from the Department of Anatomy and Physiology at the University of Melbourne is the first to show that antibiotics given to neonatal mice yields these long-lasting effects that result in disturbed gastrointestinal function, including the speed of motility through the gut and diarrhea-like symptoms in adulthood. The research team gave mice an oral dose of vancomycin every day for the first ten days of their lives. They were then reared normally until they were young adults, and their gut tissue was looked at to measure its structure, function, microbiota, and nervous system. The investigators found that changes were also dependent on the sex of the mice. The females had long whole gut transit and the males had lower fecal weight than the control group. Both males and females had greater fecal water content, which is a diarrhea-like symptom. Mice have many similarities to humans, but they are born with more immature guts than humans and have accelerated growth due to their shorter life spans. Their gut microbiota and nervous systems are less complex than those of humans, so the findings cannot yet be directly correlated to human children and infants. The researchers will be doing further studies on the mechanisms of antibiotics on the gut and the causes of the sex specific actions, and on whether early-life antibiotic use has effects on metabolism and brain function. Lead physiologist Dr. Jaime Foong said, "We are very excited about the findings of our study which show that antibiotics given after birth could have prolonged effects on the enteric nervous system. This provides further evidence of the importance of microbiota on gut health and could introduce new targets to advance antibiotic treatment to very young children." Explore further Antibiotics in early life slows digestive nerve function, alters microbiome More information: Neonatal antibiotics have long-term sex-dependent effects on the enteric nervous system, The Journal of Physiology (2022). Journal information: Journal of Physiology Neonatal antibiotics have long-term sex-dependent effects on the enteric nervous system,(2022). DOI: 10.1113/JP282939 Credit: CC0 Public Domain Last week, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fettermanthe Democratic nominee in one of the country's most-watched U.S. Senate racesexplained that his stroke nearly four months ago has left him with some speech and communication issues. Communication challenges are common in stroke survivors, experts say. Here's a primer on what patients can experience: What language challenges might someone experience after a stroke? Communication can be affected when the stroke has affected the left hemisphere of the brain, which handles most language functions, said Sarah Lantz, a speech language pathologist at Magee Rehabilitation Hospital, part of Jefferson Health in Philadelphia. Patients may have trouble with spoken communication, or processing language through hearing, reading, or writing. "Sometimes [a stroke] can affect all four [language functions]speaking, reading, writing, and understanding," she said. She said the potential constellation of symptoms can include difficulties with word retrieval. For example, individuals might find themselves pausing to recall the right phrase to express their thoughts. Others may struggle to keep up with the flow of conversation. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association notes that auditory processing issues aren't limited to stroke patients. They can also arise as a result of other neurological injuries, prenatal or neonatal issues like premature birth, or because of genetic predispositions. Does an auditory processing issue affect hearing or cognition? Although the term auditory is associated with hearing, auditory processing issues relate to how the brain interprets language. "[Language is] really just a sequence of sounds, and it's our brains' job to process that sequence of sounds in a way that we understand them," Lantz said. It's also not a cognitive issue: "It's a disorder of language, not of intellect," she said. How quickly can a patient recover from these communication challenges? Generally, patients make their biggest strides in recovery in the first six months to a year post-stroke, but some patients continue to make recoveries past three years, Lantz said. The months after a stroke are the best time to receive intense speech therapy for a communication issue, she said. What treatments are available for stroke-related language challenges? Lantz says speech therapists will work to address the "specific deficit area." This can involve working on specific exercises to help patients retrieve the word they'd like to say. The goal is to help patients make new pathways in the brain. Speech therapists also work to help patients compensate, such as developing strategies to work around damage from the strokewhether that's improving their attention or making changes to the environment around them to make it easier to process language. Since communication issues can be so varied, she said, each course of speech therapy is unique to the person it's designed for. Severity of these issues can vary, and that also affects the therapy process. Lantz said a patient with a severe impairment may need to work on processing single words, while someone with mild issues could be working through conversational "blips." What can you do if your loved one is dealing with a communication issue after a stroke? The American Stroke Association responded to a request by The Inquirer for information on auditory processing issues by sharing its information on common effects of a stroke. That includes a list of recommendations helping a loved one deal with aphasia, a common communication disorder that can arise after a stroke. The association said it does not comment on specific cases, such as Fetterman's health issues. His campaign has not used the term aphasia. Rather, it has said Fetterman is experiencing issues with auditory processing. For patients with aphasia, the association suggests that friends and relatives can help by asking yes/no questions to make sure they're understanding a conversation. It can also be helpful to establish a daily routine to practice language therapy and to rest. Other tips include speaking in shorter sentences and in a place where the person with aphasia can see you. The association has more resources for stroke survivors at stroke.org or 1-888-4-STROKE. Explore further Q and A: Speech therapy often can help those whose speech is affected by stroke 2022 The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Bar plot of urinary incontinence one year after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy for individual surgeon according to the primary definition of urinary leakage. Incontinence based on the question "How much urine leakage do you experience?" The alternatives "Not at all," "A little" defined continence and the alternatives "Moderately," "Much/Very much" defined incontinence. Each surgeon is represented by a bar. Credit: Scandinavian Journal of Urology (2022). DOI: 10.1080/21681805.2022.2119270 In men who have had prostate cancer surgery, urinary incontinence is a common side effect. Its frequency varies from one surgeon to the next. In a major University of Gothenburg study, the number of surgeries performed by the urology surgeon made no difference to the patients' incontinence risk. This surprised researchers. Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer in men, with some 10,000 new cases detected annually in Sweden. If the tumor has not spread, the prostate gland is often operated on, usually with a robot-assisted, laparoscopic technique. Immediately after the procedure, almost all men are incontinent, because of disturbed activity in the sphincter (surrounding the upper part of the urethra) caused by the operation. This circular muscle is located just below the prostate. This urinary incontinence usually disappears after a few months, but there is a risk of it persisting. High volume has no effect In the study, researchers wanted to find out whether men operated on by surgeons performing many radical prostatectomies per year had a lower risk of becoming incontinent. Rebecka Arnsrud Godtman, associate professor (docent) of urology at the University and specialist physician in the Prostate Cancer Center at Sahlgrenska University Hospital, is the study's first author. "For other surgeries, patients of surgeons who perform the operations frequently are known to have fewer complications. It's a plausible association, since 'practice makes perfect.' But to our surprise, we couldn't see that link. In the men operated on by high-volume surgeons, the risk of postoperative urinary incontinence was no lower than in those whose surgeons were less experienced. This underlines the importance of feed-back to surgeons by use patient-reported outcome measures (PROM) in order to improve surgical technique to obtain better results," Godtman says. Register-based study The study uses data from the National Prostate Cancer Register (NPCR) of Sweden on men who, between 2017 and 2019, underwent robot-assisted radical prostatectomy. One year after the operation, the men were sent a questionnaire. Just over half (4,668) of them responded. The questionnaire included questions about urinary incontinence. The study analyzed whether there was an association between the average number of procedures a surgeon performed in three years and their patients' incontinence risk. Since experienced surgeons may conceivably take on serious cases more often, the researchers adjusted for tumor severity, size, and the man's overall health and age. One year after surgery, 14% of the men had urinary incontinence. The operations in the study were performed by 83 surgeons. For 15 of them, the patients had a lower incidence of incontinence than expected, while for six of the surgeons, the incidence among their patients was higher, regardless of how many procedures the surgeons performed during the study period. Dare to ask your surgeon NPCR statistics on patient-reported outcome measures including urinary incontinence risk, which are available to the surgeon and clinic, are a vital tool in the task of improving health care quality. "Surgeons can access the Register, see their own results, and compare with others. As a patient, you can always ask your surgeon how good their operation outcomes are, compared with colleagues. I think the surgeon should be able to answer that," Godtman says. The patients' were an average 66 years old when they had the surgery. The study confirmed results from previous research, which showed that both higher age and comorbidity spell an increased risk of urinary incontinence after surgery. The study was conducted in collaboration with researchers at six different hospitals in Sweden. The results are published in the Scandinavian Journal of Urology. Explore further 3D virtual reality models improve 'trifecta' outcomes of prostate cancer surgery More information: Rebecka Arnsrud Godtman et al, Surgeon volume and patient-reported urinary incontinence after radical prostatectomy. Population-based register study in Sweden, Scandinavian Journal of Urology (2022). Rebecka Arnsrud Godtman et al, Surgeon volume and patient-reported urinary incontinence after radical prostatectomy. Population-based register study in Sweden,(2022). DOI: 10.1080/21681805.2022.2119270 Credit: Alex Dolce Cross Country Healthcare, Inc., a tech-enabled workforce solutions platform and advisory firm, announced its annual national survey of nursing professionals and students. Overall, the study revealed that nurses remain passionate about patient care, citing helping people through meaningful work (66%) but highlighted areas of dissatisfaction and ongoing industry challenges, including pay rates/compensation (86%), staff shortages (53%), stress (39%) and burnout (35%) as the top career dissatisfiers facing the profession. The survey, conducted in collaboration with Florida Atlantic University's Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing, provides meaningful and actionable insights to equip health care facility leaders, academia, nursing students and professionals with the most pertinent issues challenging this occupation. "Nursing is one of the most trusted professions in the world. A nurse is with you at all life stagesfrom birth to death and everything in between. They make life-changing decisions daily," said Hank Drummond, Ph.D., senior vice president and chief clinical officer. "This study allows us to check the pulse on today's challenges facing the profession and address them head-on by hearing their concerns and taking action." Among other key findings: Student nurses reported they are most concerned about stress (45%), not enough staff to meet demand (35%) and feeling overworked (27%). Nearly one-third (28%) of nurses indicated their desire to leave the profession had increased dramatically since the pandemic, while those who said their desire to stay had increased since the pandemic dropped from 24% last year to 4% this year. Doing meaningful work, income and lifestyle are the main drivers for staying in the field. However, almost half (48%) of currently employed nurses said they would not become nurses again if they could talk to their former selves or did not know if they would. Thirty percent of nurses said they plan to work in the profession for the foreseeable future, although 23% plan to look for a new career in one to two years and 13% plan to retire in one to five years. "The results of our survey of nearly 2,000 employed and student nurses point to ongoing challenges that the profession faces, providing us with a roadmap to address their concerns with innovative strategies that meet the needs of the nurse and the health care system," said Safiya George, Ph.D., dean and professor at FAU's Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing. Cross Country Healthcare is deploying strategies to transform the nursing profession, including an ongoing examination of pay rates and retention practices, identifying new pathways for education, licensing, and talent development, focusing on flexibility and growth opportunities and investments toward innovation to strengthen the nursing workforce. "Nurses are passionate but exhausted, and there is room for meaningful changes. The demand for patient care is increasing exponentially," said Michael Skovira, chief medical officer at Cross Country Healthcare. "We must change how we educate, train, hire, manage and treat our nurses. We have all the tools to start now, but we cannot implement these practices if we continue to blame the pandemic for a situation that has been growing for years. We need to come together as an industry and start now." This national survey, titled "The Future of Nursing: A Profession in Crisis," was conducted with 1,780 nursing professionals and students at healthcare and hospital facilities. The online survey was conducted between May 11 and June 24, in partnership with Florida Atlantic University's Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing. Explore further New survey unveils significant impact of COVID-19 on the future of nursing Credit: Shutterstock Scientists from the University of Amsterdam and Durham University have designed a tool to measure the psychological distance to science and predict science rejection in a number of very diverse domains. Using a large-scale survey, they demonstrated that distrust in science increases when people experience science as more distant, regardless of their ideological or religious beliefs or knowledge of science. The results of this study have now been published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Various studies worldwide, including in the Netherlands, show that a relatively high percentage of people (around 90%) have confidence in science in general. What is worrying, however, is that 40% claim to be skeptical about science that is not in line with their personal views at the same time. We see this reflected in science rejection on themes such as climate change and the coronavirus pandemic. This is a worrying development, as the global impact of this rejection is very high. How can we explain this phenomenon? So far, researchers have focused mainly on ideological and religious views and knowledge of science as explanations for distrust regarding specific themes. For example, ideological reasons appear to play a role in distrust regarding climate science, while knowledge of science plays a role in distrust regarding the genetic modification of food. Psychologists from the University of Amsterdam and Durham University looked for a psychological explanation for distrust in science regarding various themes. By doing so, they hoped to gain a better understanding of science rejection and provide tools to help increase confidence in science. A tool to measure psychological distance The psychologists developed a tool, PSYDISC, that makes it possible to relate "psychological distance" to distrust in science. Psychological distance is about how far removed or close something feels to yourself and your time and place. What people experience as further removed is often kept at a distance, whereas what feels closer to home has a much greater impact on our behavior. For many people, science can feel distant and like an obscure process, the usefulness of which they cannot quite grasp. The scientists tested this tool among a group of 1,630 people in the U.S. and the U.K. To what extent do these people regard scientists as similar to them? Are they experiencing the results of science in the here and now? Do they think those results are applicable in their everyday life? These data were subsequently linked to information about a person's ideological or religious views, their knowledge of science, confidence in science and actual behavior. Specifically, the scientists looked at the themes of climate change, vaccinations, evolution, the genetic modification of food and genetic editing in humans. A greater distance leads to greater distrust The psychologists discovered that distrust in science is greater on all themes when people experience science as more distantregardless of their ideology, knowledge and views. Their tool was also able to predict actual behavior, such as coronavirus vaccination refusal. "We posit and show that perceiving science as distant, that is, as evaluating science as a hypothetical undertaking happening in faraway places, directed toward the future and conducted by dissimilar and unapproachable people, directly relates to negative evaluations of science," the scientists say. These findings also relate to the Dutch education minister's worry about the increasing distance between science and society. In a lecture in Leiden, the minister stated that part of society is unreceptive to science, "even in matters of life and death." He feels that this gap must be narrowed, which he considers a task for both science and politics. In conclusion, this study provides an innovative tool that can predict distrust in science and help us to gain a better understanding of this phenomenon. "It is very difficult to find a common denominator for skepticism between domains, which makes efforts to reduce it more challenging. Our findings point to potential general principles in science communication that could be usable across fieldsfor example making salient the impacts of science in the here and now, and portray scientists as approachable people," state the researchers. More information: Bojana Veckalov et al, Psychological Distance to Science as a Predictor of Science Skepticism Across Domains, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (2022). Journal information: Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin Bojana Veckalov et al, Psychological Distance to Science as a Predictor of Science Skepticism Across Domains,(2022). DOI: 10.1177/01461672221118184 Buckingham Palace says Queen Elizabeth II, Britains longest-reigning monarch, has died. She was 96. Elizabeth spent more than seven decades on the throne as the U.K. rebuilt from war, lost an empire, transformed its economy and both entered and left the European Union. She was a constant presence, the only monarch most Britons have ever known, and she guided the institution of the monarchy through choppy waters. She likely met more people than anyone in history, and her image, which adorned stamps, coins and bank notes, was among the most reproduced in the world. But her inner life and opinions remained largely an enigma. The impact of her loss will be huge, and unpredictable. Here's some business news in the Missoula area: Soft Landing Missoula, a nonprofit that works with the local refugee and immigrant community to provide support, opportunities and programs to families once they arrive, is bringing back its evening supper clubs. They are part of its larger United We Eat program, where refugees and immigrants share their recipes with the community. "We're so pleased to gather around a shared table again," explained Beth Baker, United We Eat's program manager. They've partnered with local restaurant Masala to have a supper club on Sunday, Sept. 18. Chef Sahar AlZaidi will share her Iraqi cuisine consisting of items like grilled halal lamb and beef kebabs on a bed of seasoned rice with fava beans and served with a minty cucumber yogurt sauce. The meal will consist of many other items, including an appetizer, a salad and a dessert. AlZaidi arrived from Baghdad in 2017 with her husband and two sons. Her mother taught her everything in the kitchen, and she now wants to share her culture, hospitality and food with Missoulians. A full menu and details can be found online at unitedweeatmt.org/pages/supper-clubs. To reserve a seat call Masala at 406-926-6444. The Historical Museum at Fort Missoula will celebrate autumn by bringing back its Fall Harvest Festival. The event will take place on Sunday, Sept. 25 from 11 .m. until 3 p.m.. Stacy Carr-Poole, the museum's development and communications director, said the family-friendly event has something for everyone, from apple cider pressing to fall crafts and games to live animals. A visitor will be able to: Try your hand at cider making with our old-fashioned apple press Visit the Hayes Homestead Cabin to learn how early settlers prepared for winter Tour historic buildings, including the Sliderock Lookout and the Grant Creek Schoolhouse Enjoy lunch at a local food truck The event is free, but they ask that everyone bring a non-perishable food item to donate to the Missoula Food Bank. For more information visit online at FortMissoulaMuseum.org. The Montana Law Review at the University of Montanas Alexander Blewett III School of Law will host a symposium celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Montana Constitution. Named after UM alum and former U.S. Court of Appeals judge for the Ninth Circuit, The Honorable James R. Browning Symposium will take place Sept. 15-16, on the UM campus. The Montana Law Review could not be more excited to welcome an incredible lineup of academics, judges, practitioners and citizens to the law school for a celebration of Montanas constitution, said Blake Koemans a UM law student and member of the Montana Law Review. What our fellow citizens crafted for us all in 1972 stands as first among equals and is a model for the nation and the world in protecting individual rights, freedoms and dignities." All Montanans should know, understand, and engage with this document because it is the legal underpinning of the values we should hope to protect for this and future generations in Montana, he continued. On Sept. 15, the symposium will kick off with a panel that includes delegate to the 1972 Montana Constitutional Convention Mae Nan Ellingson, Montana political journalist Chuck Johnson, Constitutional Convention researcher Rick Applegate and retired Justice of the Montana Supreme Court Jim Nelson. President Seth Bodnar and Acting Dean of the Law School Elaine Gagliardi will give opening remarks. Keynote speakers for the following day are former Montana Gov. Marc Racicot and Chief Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Jeffrey Sutton. Panel members for the events also include distinguished faculty members from across the country, as well as members of the Montana legal community. Experts in voting rights, election law, reproductive rights, liberty interests, substantive due process, environmental law and many other topics will discuss Montanas unique constitutional culture and how the law will change over the next 50 years. The symposium is open to the public. Interested attorneys can register for CLE credit for the event. Those who are interested in attending can register online. A full schedule of symposium events also is available online at bit.ly/3D1oGCt. The Montana Law Review is a legal periodical published twice a year. Established in 1940 and composed of second- and third-year law students, the Montana Law Review serves as a primary resource of legal scholarship in the State of Montana. Two separate Flathead cases involving money fraud passed through federal court in Missoula on Wednesday. One woman from Kalispell pleaded guilty to allegations that she operated a money mule business, while a couple, also from Kalispell, was sentenced in a 2020 stolen mail case. Theresa Anne Chabot, 57, pleaded guilty to unlicensed money transmitting businesses, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorneys Office. Chabot faces a maximum of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release. U.S. Magistrate Judge Kathleen L. DeSoto presided. A money mule is someone who moves illegally obtained money on behalf of someone else, according to the FBI's website. Typically, mules get commissions for their services. Through her business, Avalanche Creek, LLC, Chabot collected money via various wire fraud schemes around the nation, court documents allege. This happened from May 2017 to February 2021. Chabot operated as a money transmitting business, and the Department of Treasury required her to register Avalanche Creek. Chabot reportedly opened over 50 bank accounts, some of which were subsequently closed after banks flagged fraudulent activity and violations of bank policy, the press release stated. She kept opening new accounts. Chabot received fees from sums of money deposited into her accounts. She forwarded the remaining money overseas, according to court documents. Sentencing is set for Jan. 5. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan G. Weldon is prosecuting the case, which was investigated by the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation. The press release stated a plea agreement in the case recommends Chabot pay about $5.2 million in restitution and forfeit a 2021 Chevrolet Tahoe. Also on Wednesday, a Kalispell couple was sentenced for scheming to steal hundreds of mail pieces in rural western Montana towns, according to a second press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office. Michael Thomas Kullberg, 34, was sentenced to 31 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. He pleaded guilty in May to theft of mail, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. His wife, Jennifer Don Smith, 38, was sentenced to 32 months in prison. Her sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release. Smith pleaded guilty in May to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy presided. Kullberg stole mail and packages from the mailboxes of at least 300 residents in the Eureka, Libby, Kila and Marion areas, the press release stated. He also took two credit cards from the mail and used them at businesses in Kalispell and Eureka. Smith conspired with her husband to use the stolen cards. Officials determined the stolen mail was dumped along roadways, ditches and in other public areas, according to the press release. Both Smith and Kullberg were ordered to pay $2,302 in restitution to cover reimbursement for the stolen mail and the fraudulent charges. Assistant U.S. Attorney Karla E. Painter prosecuted the case, which was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Lincoln County Sheriffs Office, Eureka Police Department and Montana Probation and Parole. The Department of Interior announced Thursday it has renamed nearly 650 geographic features in the U.S., including two in Montana, replacing the word sq---, which is an offensive ethnic, racial and sexist slur, particularly for Native women. Sq--- Meadows Creek, a stream in Flathead County, has been renamed Lefthand Creek. And Sq--- Meadows, a prairie also located in Flathead County, is now named Lefthand Meadow. Vernon Finley, Kootenai Culture Committee director, said both areas that were renamed are located in Kootenai aboriginal territory. Lefthand, he said, is a prominent name in the Kootenai community, and the new names specifically refer to Alec Lefthand, a cultural leader. Finley, who has been working to remove derogatory terms from place names for years, said he hopes the new names will promote respect. I think this will help bring awareness that were not mascots; were not just a sideshow, Finley said. Were living, breathing cultures. Americas claim is that rights are for all. Yet, they fail to see that the original people of this continent are disrespected and ignored and treated as if we dont exist. This will bring awareness that we arent gone; we arent anti-American. Were human beings. Lauren Monroe Jr., vice-chair of the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council, is the only representative from Montana to serve on Interior Secretary Deb Haalands Advisory Committee on Reconciliation in Place Names. The group helps identify and recommend changes to derogatory terms. Monroe told Lee Montana newspapers in August that "this work is about inclusion." "Our people have given up so much for the creation of this country, and derogatory names are an insult to us," he said at the time. "These (name changes) are victories that celebrate our existence. Haaland, who is Laguna Pueblo and the first Native American to serve as a cabinet secretary, said she felt a deep obligation to use my platform to ensure that our public lands and waters are accessible and welcoming. That starts with removing racist and derogatory names that have graced federal locations for far too long, she said, adding that she is grateful for the Derogatory Geographic Names Task Force and the Board on Geographic Names. Together, we are showing why representation matters and charting a path for an inclusive America. The Task Force received more than 1,000 recommendations for name changes, and nearly 70 tribal governments participated in the process, which prompted another several hundred recommendations, according to a news release. The names announced are effective immediately for federal use, but members of the public may propose name changes for any features at usgs.gov. Montana had more than 70 place names with the s-word, but thanks to work from Indigenous leaders, like state Sen. Carol Juneau, many have already been renamed. Juneau, who represented Browning as a Democrat, sponsored a 1999 law to remove the s-word from place names in Montana. The Selis, Qlispe Culture Committee for decades has documented more than 1,500 place names across aboriginal territories. After names were identified with the s-word in Montana, culture committee leaders held meetings with tribal elders and community members to propose new names, 17 of which were approved by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. Other tribes have made similar efforts. Sadie Peone-Stops, acting director of the Selis-Qlispe Culture Committee, said she was thankful for the work of Haaland, Juneau and Tony Incashola, longtime culture committee director. Thanks to their efforts, she said, "these places bear names that no longer disrespect Indigenous women, and instead honor our culture, history and language." Sq--- Peak west of Missoula, for example, has been renamed Ch-paa-qn (Sleeping Woman) Peak. A creek outside of Bozeman was renamed Storm Castle Creek. In Glacier National Park, mountains previously named with the derogatory word are now called Dancing Lady Mountain and Stands Alone Woman Peak. Editors note: In keeping with AP style and Native American Journalist Association recommendations, Lee Montana newspapers intentionally do not spell out derogatory words. Last week, a Clinton man was sentenced to six years and four months in prison for trafficking methamphetamine in Missoula and Flathead counties. Michael Scott Naron, 34, pleaded guilty in April to conspiracy to distribute meth, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorneys Office. Naron was sentenced on Sept. 2 in front of U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy. His time in federal prison will be followed by five years of supervised release. Court documents allege Naron sold meth from January 2020 to October 2020 across western Montana. A May 2020 burglary investigation led to a search on Narons home. The search recovered cocaine, heroin, fentanyl, cash and various stolen items including two firearms. Months later, law enforcement did a traffic stop on Naron in October. They found meth, heroin, firearms and drug paraphernalia. Additionally, authorities learned through an informant that they provided Naron with large quantities of meth, the press release stated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tara J. Elliott prosecuted the case, which was investigated by the FBIs Montana Regional Violent Crime Task Force, the Missoula County Sheriffs Office, the Missoula Police Department and Montana Highway Patrol. Sanders County Sheriff Tom Rummel confirmed he previously held a membership with the Oath Keepers organization following a report from the Anti-Defamation League that identified hundreds of law enforcement officials who might have an affiliation with the group. "I have not been a member for many years and have not been involved with the organization," Rummel said in an email to the Missoulian on Thursday. Rummel confirmed he was an Oath Keeper member when the group first started. The sheriff didnt provide an exact year when he left the group, and didnt return a request for comment on why or when he left the group. Rummel is not seeking re-election this year. He was first elected in 2010. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Oath Keepers hold anti-government beliefs and laud themselves as defenders of the Constitution. The organization was founded in 2009. Right now, Oath Keeper founder Stewart Rhodes faces charges of seditious conspiracy involving the Jan. 6 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. He has pleaded not guilty. Published on Tuesday, the ADL report found that there were almost 500 members of law enforcement, military and first responders on the membership list, though some people on the list may have disavowed the group since. There were also more than 80 people who were running for or served in public office. While there is no evidence that individuals on the list planned to infiltrate law enforcement, elected office or the military, the ADL report says Oath Keepers ability to recruit these individuals means their extremist ideology has a foothold in mainstream seats of power. A data leak revealed the information of 38,000 people who had paid for membership at some point, the report stated. The database included peoples full names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers and membership type. The ADL report warns that an individuals inclusion in the database is not proof that they were or still are an Oath Keeper, that they hold or held all or some of Oath Keeper ideology or viewpoints, or that they ever actively participated in Oath Keeper activities. The report added that there is a possibility that the individual misunderstood the nature of the Oath Keepers. Some of these individuals even felt comfortable enough to identify themselves as elected officials in the membership list, the report stated. It lists Rummel as one of the elected officials who identified himself as the Sanders County sheriff in Montana. Previous anti-government affiliations Travis McAdam from the Montana Human Rights Network said the group started looking into the situation in 2011 when they heard reports of John Trochmann, the founder of the Militia of Montana, talking about Rummel. A Montana Human Rights Network report from 2012 details a relationship between Rummel and Trochmann. In the early 2000s, Trochmann urged the Sanders County commissioners to create a natural resource committee, according to the report. He said the committee could gain a position of equal status alongside federal agencies for policy concerning federal lands in the area. In 2006, the Sanders Natural Resource Council came together. On an anti-government radio show in 2011, Trochmann discussed that the resource council, militia and supremacy of the county sheriff flowed together, the report stated. The report links to a YouTube recording of the show, from an account titled "GlobalFreedomReport1." Trochmann indicated he wasnt organizing under the militia label any longer. He decided instead to shift to a sheriffs posse, and said his goals would be easier to attain under the so-called sheriffs posse structure. Trochmann also noted organizing his group with Rummel was the safe way to go about it, the report read, and said he trusted the sheriff with (his) life. Rummel and Trochmann reportedly worked on paperwork together with the aim to stop the U.S. Forest Service from closing roads. In a statement to the Missoulian on Wednesday, McAdam said Sanders County residents should be questioning how Rummel can uphold the law as sheriff when his allegiances seem to be with groups wanting to overthrow the government. McAdam noted the 2012 report and the praise Rummel received from the Militia of Montana founder. Sadly, it would almost be more surprising if Sheriff Rummel wasn't supportive of Oath Keepers, McAdam said. He has long advocated sheriff supremacy, an antigovernment doctrine supported by the Oath Keepers that claims sheriffs can decide which laws they will and won't enforce. Sanders County has a population of about 13,000 people. The county overlaps with about a third of the Flathead Indian Reservation. Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Chairman Tom McDonald said Rummels alleged affiliation with the Oath Keepers is concerning. The concerning thing about having anyone who is an elected official or in law enforcement identify with the Oath Keepers is the potential for a conflict of interest, McDonald said. If he is an active member, theres a need for him not to be biased and to protect all citizens in Sanders County. We want him to do his job to uphold the law and protect all citizens. Criminal jurisdiction among state, tribal and federal law enforcement entities varies depending on the severity and location of the crime and whether the victim and perpetrator are Native or non-Native. In Montana, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes have adopted Public Law 280, which essentially replaces federal jurisdiction with state jurisdiction. So, for some major crimes involving Native people on the Flathead Reservation, state and tribal law enforcement may share jurisdiction. Other times, the state may have sole jurisdiction. LOS ANGELES (AP) Forces were beginning to collide in California on Thursday as wildfires threatened communities, an epic heat wave stressed the electrical grid and as moisture from a tropical storm was expected to bring thunderstorms and floods along with cooling. Firefighters struggled to control major wildfires in Southern California and the Sierra Nevada that have grown explosively, forced extensive evacuations and produced smoke that could interfere with solar power production. The Fairview Fire in Southern California covered about 37 square miles (95 square kilometers) of Riverside County and was just 5% contained. Two people died while fleeing flames on Monday and at least 11 structures have been destroyed. More than 18,000 homes were threatened by the fire fed by shifting winds, officials said. In the Sierra, the Mosquito Fire burned out of control, scorching at least 11 square miles (28 square kilometers), forcing evacuations for some 2,500 residents in Placer and El Dorado counties, while blanketing the region in smoke. Flames jumped the American River, burning structures in the mountain hamlet of Volcanoville and moving closer to the town of Foresthill, home to about 1,500 people. Fire spokesperson Chris Vestal called the fast-moving blaze an extreme and critical fire threat. The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection warned the Reno area that air quality could be very unhealthy to hazardous due to smoke from the Mosquito Fire 100 miles (160 kilometer) away. The fire's cause remained under investigation. Pacific Gas & Electric notified the state Public Utilities Commission that the U.S. Forest Service placed caution tape around the base of a PG&E transmission pole but that no damage could be seen. PG&E said unspecified electrical activity occurred close in time to the report of the fire on Sept. 6. Another dangerous blaze burned in stands of timber near the Big Bear Lake resort region in the San Bernardino Mountains east of Los Angeles. It was just 2% contained after scorching nearly 2 square miles (5 square kilometers). A surge of clouds and showers associated with Tropical Storm Kay off Mexicos Baja California peninsula knocked the edge off temperatures in Southern California at times but also were a potential problem for solar generation. The storm was downgraded from a hurricane Thursday evening. Despite the initial impacts of Kay, forecasters warned that the heat was not yet done. The seemingly endless heat wave that has been plaguing California will finally becoming to an end across at least Southern California, but not before two more very hot days and very warm nights, the Los Angeles-area weather office wrote. Operators of Californias power grid issued another Flex Alert call for voluntary cuts in use of electricity and expanded the period by two hours, 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Wildfire smoke and the cloud cover created uncertainty about solar power production in afternoon hours when temperatures rise toward their peaks, said Elliot Mainzer, president and CEO of the California Independent System Operator. There was also uncertainty about wind power at the back end of the period. Cal-ISO has issued Flex Alerts since last week and has avoided ordering rolling power outages, although a miscommunication with one Northern California provider led to blackouts. With record demand on power supplies across the West, California snapped its record energy use around 5 p.m. Tuesday with 52,061 megawatts, far above the previous high of 50,270 megawatts set July 24, 2006. An emergency appeal for conservation that was sent to Californians cellphones was credited with an immediate drop in demand on the electrical grid that evening. Electrical demand hit 50,184 megawatts on Wednesday but it ended up being a relatively quiet operation on the system, Mainzer told a briefing. The electrical load forecast for Thursday afternoon and evening was higher, however, and the uncertainty involving the renewable energy sources made the situation a bit more complex, he said. We certainly think were close to turning the corner, but we still have challenges ahead of us this evening, Mainzer said. Storm and wind conditions associated with the approaching hurricane were likely to create a new set of risks for power shortages in Southern California, he noted. Tropical Storm Kay was expected to reach northern Baja California on Friday, the National Weather Service said. Despite losing hurricane strength, Kay was expected to send a surge of moisture into Southern California. Strong winds, heavy rain and flash floods were likely Friday evening through Saturday. Tropical storm warnings were posted for mariners. Up the West Coast, forecasters predicted strong, gusting winds and low humidity across western Oregon beginning Friday' and authorities warned of heightened wildfire danger after an unseasonably hot and dry late summer. An Oregon utility said it will cut power to about 12,500 customers to the south and west of Portland just after midnight Friday in anticipation of strong, dry winds that pose a severe wildfire danger in the region. Another utility says about 30,000 additional customers could see their power cut as well in a bid to prevent fire from sagging or broken power lines. Towns and cities across western Oregon and southwest Washington also imposed fire bans, including in the town of Seaside, where even beach bonfires were prohibited. Forecasters warned of a chance of rapid fire spread but said winds were not expected to be as intense as those that hit on Labor Day weekend in 2020, fanning wildfires that burned more than 1 million acres, destroyed 4,000 homes and killed at least 11 people. Associated Press writers Stefanie Dazio and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles, Gillian Flaccus in Portland, Oregon, and Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada, contributed to this report. NEW ORLEANS (AP) A Louisiana man imprisoned for nearly four decades until conviction in a 1979 rape was thrown out in 2018 is now fighting for compensation for being wrongfully convicted. The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate reports that attorneys for Malcolm Alexander took his argument for compensation to a state appeals court on Thursday. Alexander, 62, was freed after attorneys successfully argued that he had ineffective trial lawyers. The defense also showed that DNA from evidence collected at the rape scene matched neither the victim nor Alexander. Although Alexander was freed with agreement from prosecutors, a state judge later ruled that Alexander wasnt eligible for money from the state innocence compensation fund. The judge said the evidence that resulted in his conviction being thrown out didnt reach the level of proof needed to establish factual innocence. A ruling in Alexanders favor from the Louisiana 5th Circuit Court of Appeal would entitle him to $400,000 $40,000 for each year of wrongful imprisonment, capped at 10 years, according to Alexanders attorney, Zachary Crawford of the Innocence Project New Orleans. Alexander was freed and prosecutors agreed not to pursue the case in 2018 after defense lawyers argued that Alexanders lawyer at his 1980 trial failed to point out that the victim had been doubtful when she identified Alexander as her attacker in 1979. DNA evidence consisted of pubic hairs gathered from the crime scene, a bathroom in the victims retail business. DNA testing later showed the hairs matched each other but did not belong to the victim or Alexander. Crawford said Louisiana has granted every wrongful conviction compensation claim that has been based, in part, on DNA evidence. I just need people to realize that Im innocent, Alexander said. Receiving the compensation will cap it off in saying, All right, we apologize fully. BRUSSELS (AP) European Union nations struggled to find full consensus Friday on ways to shield the population from dramatically increasing energy prices that threaten to plunge millions into cold and poverty over the winter as Russia chokes off natural gas supplies. As tensions with Moscow mount over the war in Ukraine, the energy ministers of the EU's 27 nations could not paper over differences on whether and how to impose a price cap on Russian natural gas, with ever-recalcitrant Hungary refusing to agree, saying it would go against its supply interests. Other countries differed on whether a price cap should apply only to Russia or to other producers, too. That shows that this is a difficult issue and that the (European) Commission had a different goal, said Agata Loskot-Strachota, senior fellow for energy policy at the Center for Eastern Studies in Warsaw. While EU members are most interested in lowering prices and getting enough gas, the commission aimed at limiting Russias revenues and, I think, taking back control of the situation on the European gas market. An immediate solution on all proposals to bring natural gas and electricity prices back to affordability had not been anticipated, but energy ministers gave general recommendations to the European Commission, the EUs executive branch, on options like instituting windfall levies on some energy companies whose profits have risen along with skyrocketing prices. Moscow's gas restrictions and threat of a full cutoff has dominated the political agenda of a rich bloc of nations struggling to ensure basic services like heat and light. Russia has cut back supplies of natural gas that power factories, generate electricity and heat homes, driving up prices and fueling inflation that is poised to tip Europe into recession later this year. Russia has used its gas supplies as a weapon to foster an energy crisis next winter but also to weaken our economies and divide politically the European Union," EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson said. We have to ensure that their efforts will fail. Czech Industry Minister Jozef Sikela, chair of the emergency meeting, exhorted his colleagues: We cannot be blackmailed. Sikela and others said that outside the gas cap, a wide degree of convergence was found other potential measures. Besides windfall levies, they include solidarity contributions from fossil fuel producers and cash increases for businesses to keep operating as they struggle with volatile energy markets. Irish Minister Eamon Ryan insisted that action must be taken within weeks, not months. This coming fall, when were really going to see the high prices having effect, thats when we need the support, thats when we need to get some of that money, he told reporters in Brussels. There is no time to wait, and we have to be swift and united, Sikela said. Despite the urgency, with several northern nations feeling the first chill in the morning air announcing the onset of autumn, the ministers gave only guidelines to the EU commission, which will present a proposal for the member states next week. At that point, the EU nations will reassess again, and the hope is that a decision can be made by the end of this month. German Economy and Energy Minister Robert Habeck said the commission has a clear mandate to work out a viable proposal or even better, viable proposals to bring down prices. Fridays meeting reflected different situations among EU members, but everyone was determined to bring about relief for European citizens, so no agreement is not an option, Habeck said. While hoping for quick progress, Germany is keeping open the option of imposing a levy on high energy profits whose proceeds would be passed to consumers if it takes too long, he said. We cant take this card off the table because the other, better way namely bringing down prices could certainly be complicated, Habeck said. Were doing something that affects the heart of European energy supply were intervening in the markets. The energy crisis is not only threatening households but also industry, with energy-intensive factories being forced to close. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Russia is blackmailing the EU with its threat to turn off the gas to the bloc. Moscow has already cut supplies partially or entirely to 13 EU countries, blaming alleged technical issues and sanctions. Russian pipeline gas accounted for 40% of all gas Europe imported before President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February, but now it only accounts for 9%. The commission believes the EU is prepared for the winter, with joint gas storage levels at 82% well ahead of the 80% target that had been set for the end of October. Associated Press writers Lorne Cook and Samuel Petrequin in Brussels; David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany; and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed. Luella Brien initially wanted to be a school teacher, but never thought she'd be one after taking a different career path. Shortly after graduating high school, she pivoted from education to pursue journalism. Now those paths have converged in her new position as the journalism teacher at Lodge Grass High School. No one was more surprised by the career change than Brien, who was offered the job weeks before the new school year by her predecessor Ben Cloud during a summer audio reporting workshop with students. Towards the end of the camp he just sort of says to me, By the way, Im retiring. Do you want to teach next year? she said with a laugh. Juggling time between working as the tour manager for the Crow Tribe and editor for the online news company Four Point Media, she was initially hesitant to take the position. But, she ultimately accepted it, realizing the opportunity to expand local journalism with her students. In addition to her career as a Montana journalist, Brien also worked as an instructor at Little Big Horn College and a media consultant for the Crow Tribe and Apsaalooke Legislature. Despite not seeking the job, she feels uniquely qualified for it. Its always been news, she said. I was either covering news or I was teaching others about news, so its always been a part of my work. Journalistic pursuits Briens interest in reporting started while growing up in Hardin. Skimming her father's daily newspapers once he was finished with them. What started out as skipping to the comics led to finding her name in the scholastic achievers list and eventually to learning about current events through local articles. As she grew older, she noticed the lack of news focusing on the Crow Indian Reservation. She said it was her curiosity about a family member who went missing that spurred how her own journalistic pursuits. She pestered family members who were reluctant to discuss it and neighbors to find out what everyone knew about the disappearance. She learned that people went missing from her community, often without much of a follow-up investigation, more often than she thought. As I got to talking with more and more people, I found out that a lot of families have similar stories to mine, she said. So I wanted to tell the stories of our community that no one tells. Brien graduated from Hardin High School in 1999 and earned a liberal arts degree from Little Bighorn College in 2004. The lack of interesting job opportunities and her enjoyment of journalism courses led her to earn a bachelor's degree in journalism at the University of Montana in 2006. This would land her reporting jobs with the Ravalli Republic, Billings Gazette and, most recently, the Big Horn County News. It was back in her home county where she finally realized her goal of highlighting Crow Reservation news in a way it hadnt previously. Her position as the papers editor and general manager led to the papers coverage of tribal affairs to increase significantly. She believes the rapport she developed with the community over the years also gave her the chance to tell their stories, which other reporters may not have gotten to. I dont speak Crow, but the people there know me, she said. It didnt matter if I had moved away for a few years or not. They remember me and they trust me. 'Dead Indians or feathered Indians' Brien said tribal communities like those in Big Horn County had grown disillusioned by most news outlets' coverage of their lives and communities due to its limitations and depictions. Specifically, she said, most of these stories reported on either crime or tribal events highlighting their history and culture. Were either dead Indians or feathered Indians, she said. Too often these news outlets will fly in or drive in to town, get what they want or need and go on to tell the story they want to tell. This trend of misrepresentation and sensationalizing extends to nationally published papers like the New York Times, who reported on the disappearances of Crow women Kaysera Stops Pretty Places and Selena Not Afraid. Brien said reporters were quick to speak with Stops Pretty Places family shortly after she went missing but didnt report it until after Not Afraid went missing the following January. So, Kayseras story is just sitting there for months, nothings getting done, and then Selena goes missing and theyre back immediately to talk with her family, she said. Then the story comes out and Kaysera is only mentioned towards the end. How much longer was that story going to sit there before they decided to run it? Coverage like this and previous stories led Native communities to avoid talking to news reporters and rely more on local sources like Big Horn County News. Her shift toward more reservation coverage wasn't welcomed by everyone. Almost daily conflicts between the broader community and the paper prompted Brien to leave the paper in 2021 and launch Four Points Media. The online news outlet focuses solely on the Crow Reservation in Big Horn County and to date has been funded through various grants. It was quickly met with positive results with over 3,000 readers visiting its website in the first month. Funding inconsistency and Brien being its only contributor lead to initial hiccups, however. The companys website Four Points Press is due to re-launch this month while a recently hired reporter an additional board member will help sustain operations going forward. The need is there Four Points Media is far from the only local news outlet struggling to find its financial footing. Sam Sandoval is the editor of Char-Koosta News, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes' official newspaper, and says they could cover more news throughout their community with additional staff and resources. The paper has reached out to the University of Montana's journalism program about potential tribal reporters, but travel distances, lack of familiarity with the community and its small population has made it a less-attractive option for reporters. Sandoval has also reached out to nearby high school newspapers in Pablo, Ronan and Polson for potential contributors, but said declining student interest has resulted in inconsistency in recent years. The popular thought these days is that journalism is dying, newspapers are shutting downbut the need is there, he said. Its just not stable enough and theres not enough people committed enough to do the work. Journalism-publications teacher at C.M. Russell High School in Great Falls Beth Britton says shes noticed a steady decline in student interest in her journalism course over the past 10 years. This will be the first year since 1965, when the school was founded, where there wont be a paper, Britton said. Thats more than upsetting. Also president of the Montana Journalism Education Association, Britton said shes heard similar cases from other schools that competing new electives, high teacher turnover and students preference for social media apps over news have led to multiple school papers either becoming web-based only or getting phased out entirely. They dont get the paper. A few students said they read some magazines, but only one or two said their parents read the paper, Britton said of her students today. They have no role model of a newspaper." The Lodge Grass Gazette At Lodge Grass High School, Brien is addressing these gaps in both tribal reporting and student reporting through her classwork. This year, the school is offering journalism, photojournalism, audio/visual production and yearbook classes that will use contemporary storytelling approaches. For their first journalism assignment, students were asked to introduce and describe themselves through a TikTok video. Throughout the school year, students will also learn the fundamentals of multimedia journalism and write their own print articles, design the school's yearbook, produce podcasts and short films. They will also get hands-on experience contributing original reports to both Briens Four Point Press and the school newspaper, the Lodge Grass Gazette. Senior student Angelina Toineeta decided this year to pursue a career in journalism after writing a piece on the Little Bighorn FFA program for last springs photojournalism class. It was a cool feeling, getting to see what I had written on the page, Toineeta said. Id like to continue to write about my experiences and the things going on in my community. Brien hopes to continue teaching at Lodge Grass High School and increasing this interest for years to come. I want them to be excited about this class, Brien said. I want this to be the elective that students tell other students they have to take. Get It Made used Bureau of Labor Statistics data to find the median hourly wage of manufacturing workers in every state across the U.S. The annual Anaconda Wildlife Art Expo is set for Friday through Sunday, Sept. 16-18, in historic Anaconda. The fine art show will display the original works of more than 40 artists from around the United States and Canada as well as that of local artists. The weekend schedule also includes a mix of outdoor activities and vendors plus two evening socials. Hosted by the Copper Village Museum and Art Center (CVMAC), the Art Expo is a three-day, city-wide event, highlighting the juried art of professional wildlife and landscape artists, photographers, and sculptors. Admission is free to the artist displays at eight different venues in the heart of Anaconda and to the various outdoor wildlife demonstrations at the corner of Park and Main. In addition, CVMAC has planned a reception to meet the artists on Friday evening and a wild-game feed and auction on Saturday evening. The event is the brainchild of Anaconda artist and renowned wildlife sculptor Fred Boyer. Wildlife and landscape art come in many creative shapes and fashions, Boyer said, but it is founded in the artists keen awareness and deep appreciation of the outdoors and its inhabitants. I believe Anaconda is a perfect place to show these works of art given the communitys focus on outdoor recreation and its access to resources including the Pintler Wilderness area, blue-ribbon fishing, big-game hunting, and trail heads that lead to high-mountain lakes and streams as well as the Continental Divide Trail. This year, the Art Expo has three featured artists Trevor V. Swanson, Carly Jo Moodry, and Susan Malee. The Art Expo also is honoring the memory of Marilynn Dwyer Mason, who died in January. Swanson, who lives in Phoenix, Arizona, is an avid outdoorsman and is considered one of the most gifted and promising wildlife artists in the world today. Coming from a long line of talented artists, Swanson began his professional career at 20, and he was recognized quickly for his unique style. His paintings hang in some of the world's most prestigious art shows, museums and private collections. Moodry, from Anaconda, uses wildlife and landscape photography as part of her therapy in overcoming a debilitating traumatic brain injury in 2007 that left her unable to walk, speak, read, write, and perform basic daily tasks like eating, drinking and taking care of herself as a 19-year-old. With continuous therapy for 14 years, she is relearning these life skills. About two years ago, she rekindled her high-school passion for photography. Since then, she has captured thousands of photos recording the artistic beauty that she sees in birds, animals, and scenery in and around her hometown. The process and its creative results, she explained, help her find joy and fulfillment as she deals with the awareness of the lasting impact of her tragic auto accident. Malee, a local watercolor artist, specializes in landscape paintings. After decades of working as a writer, editor and photographer, she has made watercolor landscapes her second career. A self-taught artist, Susan has lived in Anaconda for 40 years and from here she enjoys the mountains, lakes, and vistas of the area and transforms her vision into detailed paintings. Mason began drawing at a very early age, and built a highly successful professional career. The breadth of her talent shows through in her ability to create beautiful fine art portraits, western landscapes, illustrated furniture and her beloved bears. As an accomplished artist and illustrator, she was a master in pastel, watercolor, acrylic, oil and pen & ink. Mason's work has been exhibited throughout the United States and is represented in hundreds of private collections. Her paintings of outdoor adventures depict the nostalgia of the first half of the twentieth century. Marilynns paintings evoke an atmosphere that colorfully captures the beauty of the American West and its rich sporting heritage. CVMAC, which is coordinating this weekend of art and festivities, is a year-around venue for gallery shows featuring traditional and heritage arts, world arts, and Montana contemporary artists. In addition, it offers art classes to children and adults and provides scholarship opportunities for high school students interested in pursuing a career in the arts. The center also is responsible for curating, storing, and displaying the historic artifacts and documents from the communitys colorful and robust past, and it coordinates a summer arts and music festival. All of this is supported through grants, volunteerism, and events such as the Anaconda Wildlife Expo. For a complete schedule of the Art Expo, visit cvmac.org. Butte police reports Vehicles damaged It was discovered Thursday morning that eight vehicles were broken into at Micks Auto Repair, 300 Holland St., and an additional three more at Headframe Auto Repair, 910 S. Montana St. Several of the vehicles, not all, were locked. The thief or thieves busted the windows on at least six of the 11 damaged vehicles. Yelling, crying At around 5:30 a.m. Thursday, a 911 call came into dispatch from a residence in the 1100 block of West Woolman Street. The dispatcher could hear a man yelling while a woman was crying. En route, officers were advised that the man, Justin Arthur Rogers, 37, of Butte had a machete, but when they arrived he did not. Reportedly, he had picked one up, but then put it back down. The woman had a laceration on her back, which she told officers occurred when Rogers pushed her down, with her landing on top of broken glass. She also told police she had been struck in the face. Rogers was booked into the jail for felony assault with a weapon and misdemeanor partner or family member assault. Not wanted Late Wednesday afternoon Ashley Arlene Wine, 31, of Butte was arrested for misdemeanor criminal trespass to property. Apparently Wine had been told repeatedly that she was not welcome at the Butte Rescue Mission, 610 E. Platinum Street, but went there anyway. Next stop was the Butte jail. Thriftway break-in Early Friday morning, a Great Falls man allegedly broke into the Thriftway at 4701 Harrison Ave., taking cigarettes and lighters from the convenience store. When police arrived, the front door was broken and there was blood inside the store. After looking at video surveillance, they went looking for their man. Samuel James Long, 35, was not too far away as he was found around 4 a.m. Friday at the Town Pump, 3700 Harrison Ave., with blood all over his hands from the broken glass. He was also driving a car that had been reported stolen from the Butte Rescue Mission. He was jailed for felony burglary and felony motor vehicle theft. Back in jail Randy William Van Kirk, 25, of Anaconda was booked into the jail Thursday afternoon for felony revocation of sentence. Parole violation Adult Probation & Parole brought Jeffrey Neil Freund, 47, of Butte to the jail Thursday afternoon for felony parole violation. No-bond warrant At around 8 a.m. Thursday, Larry Jason White, 51, of Butte was reportedly just hanging out in the 100 block of West Platinum Street when officers arrived to investigate a suspicious man in the area. White had a no-bond warrant out for his arrest out of Judge Robert Whelans court and was taken to jail. Out on patrol At about 7:30 a.m. Thursday, an officer out on patrol on Continental and Walnut witnessed a vehicle pulling a trailer with a Harley on it. The officer noticed the passenger was Joshua Robert Bennett, 43, of Butte. Bennett had a felony out-of-jurisdiction warrant out for his arrest, along with misdemeanor warrants for driving without a valid drivers license, failure to wear a seat belt, failure to show proof of insurance, and two criminal contempt counts. Off to jail he went. Miscellaneous crimes Someone drove their vehicle through the creek bed at a trailer park in the 200 block of Hobson Avenue, damaging the grass. A burglar in the 800 block of Placer Street entered a residence via the basement door and stole some tools. A pair of shoes and five pairs of socks were stolen from Millers Boots, 301 S. Arizona St. A bicycle was taken from a building on West LaPlatte Street. A proposed committee bill setting up an advisory council to help guide the development of nuclear power in Montana imploded Wednesday, and was replaced by a proposal that critics said added partisanship, was rushed and omitted ratemaking provisions that would protect the public. Advocates of the new bill, which would have to be approved by the 2023 Legislature, said the failed proposal was a nuclear plan killer that would hamper efforts to bring clean, efficient nuclear power to Montana. The study of nuclear power was the result of Senate Joint Resolution 3, passed in the 2021 legislative session. Carried by Sen. Terry Gauthier, R-Helena, SJ-3 notes the closure of coal-fired power plants will result in negative impacts on the Colstrip community and coal-fired boilers could be replaced by a small nuclear reactor that would provide clean, well-paying jobs. He said it can then use the existing infrastructure to produce and distribute clean, affordable electricity safely and without carbon emissions. The Energy and Telecommunications Interim Committee met for what was supposed to be its last meeting of the interim to hammer out a proposal that would be considered by the 2023 Legislature for a nuclear advisory council to help guide nuclear development in Montana. The council will be attached to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality for administrative purposes. However, a new proposal, known as PD0008, was introduced Wednesday and approved by five Republicans and one Democrat, forcing the committee to meet again Sept. 16 to allow public comment and a vote by the panel. The proposal first considered by the interim committee was known as PD0007. Under this proposal, the advisory council would have a total of four legislators, with an equal number from each political party and at least one from each chamber to be picked by party leadership. Others on the committee would be picked by the council and include experts in the field of nuclear science, public health and power. PD0008 would have leadership pick two members from different parties, and the governor would appoint four members from the majority party and three from the minority. It also has experts. Both committees call for nine members. In both cases, the committees would not be formed until there is a company wanting to invest in a project with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality A. The company would pay the entire costs of the committee. Gauthier said he did not expect any action to occur for at least three or four years. PD0007 had a section regarding nuclear power and ratemaking standards that Gauthier said was a nuclear plan killer and not necessary. Gauthier said he had major issues with the bill draft that he would not be able to support, such as giving the committee duties that the Public Service Commission already performs. Rep. Steve Galloway, R-Great Falls, said state regulations are just a redundancy of laws already under the purview of the Nuclear Regulatory Agency. Most states have found its just best to stay out of a lot of it, because you dont override them anyway, he said. They are the ones who regulate it from start to finish. Gauthier asked for a couple of minutes to caucus. Upon returning to the meeting, Galloway asked to introduce a substitute draft. What was proposed is now known as PD0008. Chair Sen. Mary McNally, D-Billings, said the idea for a committee bill came late in the interim, in the committees last meeting. It was just an idea, she said, adding it had two parts: an advisory panel and ratepayer protections. She said the initial draft did not get out to everyone and this committee does not usually do bills. At the last minute we are taking a run at something here I think is pretty complicated, McNally said. I feel like this is the 11th hour and we dont have anything that all of us are comfortable with, she said. McNally said work to do it right could be done during the next legislative session. She said if the advisory council proposal is moving forward, it needs to have good framework, it needs to have consumer protection, and she wanted her thoughts to be part of the record. Galloway said PD0008 was a simpler version that doesnt get into the weeds. Sen. Janet Ellis, D-Helena, said PD0008 was not sufficiently noticed. McNally agreed. I dont feel any of this is ready for prime time, she said. The committee decided to post the new bill online to gather public comment and meet via Zoom Sept. 16. Rep. Andrea Olsen, D-Missoula, said PD0008 sidestepped issues regarding cost. She asked who will make sure Montana ratepayers are not held hostage to the cost. Gauthier responded to comments that Montana ratepayers would be stuck with the bill, saying it was too early to know how much a small nuclear reactor facility would cost. But he said ratepayers would not bear the whole costs of a reactor, adding there will be investors. He also said the Public Service Commission would have some oversight of the rates, like it does for other utilities. He asked that artist renderings of a small nuclear reactor facility be included in SJ-3. He said after the meeting the facility will likely be on about 35 acres and no bigger than a Home Depot. Rep. Katie Sullivan, D-Missoula, was the lone Democrat on the panel who supported PD0008, but added she would have voted for PD0007 as well. She said both plans were backup plans to help the state, and as nuclear power possibly develops she would like to see the ratepayer protection portion return on Sept. 16. She said she would like to see the bill move forward. If approved by the state Legislature, the bill would have to go through committees in the next session and be approved by the state House, Senate and governor. Dropping words like "equity" and "ethics" from proposed teacher preparation programs drew objections at a recent Montana Board of Public Education hearing. The Office of Public Instruction's proposed rule changes came after months of meetings with a specified task force to revise the rules, as well as many breakout sessions with students, teachers and administrators. Educational stakeholders at the hearing objected to omitting language related to social-emotional learning throughout the proposed revisions. Dennis Parman, executive director of the Montana Rural Education Association, said at the public hearing in late August that he was troubled by the removal of three terms throughout Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzens recommendations. By his count, the word ethics was removed 24 times, ethical was axed 54 times and equity was omitted 15 times. I think were all probably aware of the political debate and discussion around the terms of equity and equality, Parman said. Conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation claim that "equity" is the opposite of equality and believes the language serves as a mask for Critical Race Theory, which has been a highly polarizing debate in school districts across the country. However, in Montana those words are commonly used throughout public education, Parman said. Ethics is a set of moral principles that governs a persons behavior, moral principles of right and wrong, Parman said. Equity recognizes that each person has different circumstances and resources are allocated to them or opportunities that are needed for each of those to reach a common goal. Jenny Murnane Butcher, who was recently an elementary school teacher in East Helena, spoke of her concerns with eliminating terminology for trauma-informed classroom management, social-emotional and behavioral development, adverse childhood experiences and self regulation. It has been imperative that I understand how to create a trauma-informed classroom,' Murnane Butcher said. My students have come to school every day having experienced traumas at home both big and small. Shes seen first-hand some of those traumas manifest into poor classroom behavior ranging from inattentiveness during class to violence and profanities. I needed training in how to respond to these trauma-caused behaviors and how to prevent them in the future, she said. "I assure you that aspiring educators will need these skills as well." Multiple people spoke of their concerns regarding coursework and training standards for principals and superintendents, including Rob Watson, the executive director of School Administrators of Montana. He noted that the current standards for teacher preparation programs were last revised in 2008 and do not address concepts such as curriculum development or the use of data in decision making. Since that time, the programs standards and the expectations for school leaders have changed and improved, Watson said. We would hope that Montana standards would also change and be aligned with national standards based on best practice and current research. University of Montanas Educational Leadership chair John Matt shared similar concerns with the revisions. As a result, he and a group of colleagues from teacher preparation programs across Montana crafted their own language for the Board of Public Education to consider. The proposal includes the National Education Leadership Preparation standards with some suggestions specific to the state. The Montana-specific language includes instruction for future administrators in special education law, Montana school law, collective bargaining law, employment, as well as focuses on equity, inclusiveness and cultural responsiveness. These standards are important, theyre important for all school districts," Matt said. "We have a high standard of leadership in the state, its imperative we continue that standard and assure that all residents in Montana know that we are setting a high bar for our leaders." Multiple chapters of the Administrative Rules of Montana have been under review in the last few years. The Board of Public Education recently wrapped up the revision process for teacher licensing rules and a public hearing for school accreditation standards is expected to be held later this fall. Almost every seat was filled Thursday as educators, members of law enforcement, government officials, medical professionals, addiction counselors, community members and more showed up to the first meeting of an action team designed to combat the worsening fentanyl crisis in Butte. Butte-Silver Bow has a decades-long history of coming together in times of struggle and reducing the impacts of problems facing the community. Most recently, a community action team formed in late 2013 and early 2014 to focus on reducing teen suicides in Butte, after three teens took their lives over a six-week period. Tom Billteen, Butte School District Board trustee, said at the meeting that hes been to a number of community action meetings in the past about teen drinking and driving, crack cocaine, meth and teen suicide. And here we are again, dealing with the new devil, he said. He added that the problem with the action teams is that after it gets the problem under control, it gets comfortable and drifts, and that this time needs to be different. Tina Randall, Community Health Division director at the Butte-Silver Bow Health Department, said that its syringe services program had 407 different people visit the departments weekly clinic between July 2021 and June 2022, and those people visited about 2,150 times, which averages to 41 people a week. In addition to a needle exchange program, the syringe services program works with participants on harm reduction techniques and referrals to substance abuse treatment, among other things. She said the program has distributed a little more than 35,000 sterile syringes and disposed of just under 40,030 dirty syringes. The program has also given out 2,800 doses of Narcan and 87 of their participants reported using it. Randall also said program participants reported that there were 25 overdoses that went unreported to law enforcement. Folks are three times more likely to enter treatment if they utilize these syringe programs, Randall said. As the meeting progressed, two themes emerged: the importance of educating youth about the dangers of fentanyl and other drugs, and not turning away from adults struggling with addiction now. Butte-Silver Bow Chief Executive J.P. Gallagher likened drug education in children to seat belt use. He said that while he still struggles to remember to wear a seat belt every time he gets in the car because it wasnt ingrained in him as a child, his children would never not wear a seat belt. That seat belt saved my daughters life because it was ingrained, Gallagher said. And we can do the same thing when we start talking about drugs. He also emphasized several times that this would be an action team, one that didnt just talk about solutions, but acted to implement them into the community. Butte Cares is currently working on multiple evidence-based programs in Butte Schools, according to a few different representatives who attended the meeting. Programs that are already implemented include the Pax Tool Kit, which is a set of strategies used both in the classroom and out to help students learn to regulate their behaviors, Youth Mental Health First Aid, Youth Aware Mental Health and Media Detective, which helps to educate young kids on ads they see and encourages conversations about drugs and alcohol. Butte Cares is also working on implementing Prevention Plus Wellness, a program that has existed for a while, but is new to Butte, and Communities That Care, a framework that works by pulling all different sectors of the community together, said prevention specialist Brittany Masters. Masters said that in terms of substance abuse prevention, its best to swim upstream, and try to stop people from falling into the river rather than pulling them out. We want to fix the bridge. We want to build signs, she said. We want to inform people before they fall into the river that there are resources, avenues and ways to be healthy. Masters said that use of Communities That Care shows reduction rates two to five years after implementation, so while it isnt an immediate change it has proved to be effective in other places in the country. She, among many others at the meeting, emphasized that for change to be made in the community regarding the fentanyl problem, the whole community must come together as part of a team effort. Butte Cares has partnered with business in the community that have sponsored opioid awareness banners. Jim ONeill, Butte School District curriculum director, said the school district has trained about 1,000 community members in Youth Mental Health First Aid and recently brought in a DEA agent from Billings who trained teachers on current drug trends in Montana. He also said the district is considering bringing her back for more trainings, including a parent training. The district also retained case managers in the schools who were brought on after the district received the five-year Support, Outreach and Access for the Resiliency of Students grant from Montanas Office of Public Instruction in 2014. Our kids are hurting, ONeill said. And theyre hurting even more coming out of COVID. He added that the schools staff and administrators will bend over backwards to help our kids. Many people at the meeting brought up how adults and the public need to be educated as well, both about fentanyl, and to combat the stigma around addiction and recovery. One attendee suggested that adults who have recovered should be invited to share their stories with kids and the public to help all community members learn how to support those in recovery. Traci McArthur of Action Inc. said that its important to remember those struggling with homelessness, addiction and in recovery are people too. Theyre people. Theyre people's fathers, grandparents, children so not only do we have to talk about our children and prevention, but we also need to not turn our backs on our community and our people. For people already struggling, a couple of attendees said that more out-patient options are needed both in Butte and statewide for people in recovery who need a higher level of care. Stephanie Rowling, licensed addiction counselor at Southwest Montana Addiction, Recovery and Treatment program, asked the action team about utilizing medication-assisted treatment at the Butte-Silver Bow Detention Center. She said she has 34 clients who are incarcerated, and of them 30 are opioid dependent. Butte-Silver Bow Sheriff Ed Lester told her that she needed to bring the idea to the Butte-Silver Bow Council of Commissioners before the county can administer medication to inmates at the detention center. The British monarchy has been prepared for Queen Elizabeth II's death. Known as Operation London Bridge, a 10-day protocol has been in place since the 1960s, planned to the minute of how to handle the queen's death, including the official announcement and funeral plans. Here are the highlights, obtained by Politico last year. Days are marked as "D-Day" for the day of her death, then D-Day+1, 2, etc. for each subsequent day. D-Day Immediately upon the queen's death, the prime minister, the Cabinet secretary and several of the most senior ministers and officials will be informed. The Privy Council Office will also be one of the first calls. As news spreads, flags in the area will be lowered to half-staff, parliament will be adjourned and the royal websites will be updated with a black banner. Prime Minister Liz Truss, appointed just two days ago, will make the first public address, then meet with King Charles, who will address the nation. Senior officials will also attend a service of remembrance at St. Paul's Cathedral that will be meant to look " spontaneous." D-Day+1 King Charles, Elizabeth's 73-year-old son, will be confirmed as king and will meet with the prime minister and the Cabinet. D-Day+2 The queen will be returned to London, likely by train. D-Day+3 King Charles visits Westminster Hall, then embarks on a tour through the U.K., including early stops to the Scottish parliament and a service at St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh. D-Day+4 King Charles continues his tour into Northern Ireland. A funeral rehearsal practices the transfer of the queen's coffin from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster. D-Day+5 The coffin will make its way to Westminster along a ceremonial route. D-Day+6 to D-Day+9 The queen will lie in state for three days at Westminster, raised above the masses. The hall will be open for 23 hours a day for the public to visit. King Charles continues his tour. Various state departments have plans to deal with the massive influx of visitors to London, including transportation and security. D-Day+10 The state funeral will be held at Westminster Abbey, with a national moment of silence. The queen will be buried at the King George VI Memorial Chapel at Windsor Castle. ___ A closer look at U.K. accession rules The British monarchy's rules state that "a new sovereign succeeds to the throne as soon as his or her predecessor dies." That means Queen Elizabeth II's eldest son, Charles, became king immediately upon her death. However, it may be months or even longer before Charles' formal coronation. In Elizabeth's case, her coronation came on June 2, 1953 16 months after her accession on Feb. 6, 1952, when her father, King George VI, died. A look at the formalities that take place after Charles accedes to the throne: Within 24 hours of a monarch's death, a new sovereign is proclaimed formally as soon as possible at St. James's Palace in London by the "Accession Council." This is made up of officials from the Privy Council, which includes senior Cabinet ministers, judges and leaders of the Church of England, who are summoned to the palace for the meeting. Parliament is then recalled for lawmakers to take their oaths of allegiance to the new monarch. The new monarch will swear an oath before the Privy Council in St. James's Palace to maintain the Church of Scotland, according to the Act of Union of 1707. The proclamation of the new sovereign is then publicly read out at St. James's Palace, as well as in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast the capital cities of the four nations that make up the United Kingdom. Charles must declare to Parliament on the first day of its session following the accession, or at the coronation, whichever is first, that he is a faithful Protestant. The oath is mandated by the Accession Declaration Act of 1910. He must also take a coronation oath as prescribed by the Coronation Oath Act of 1689, the Act of Settlement of 1701 and the Accession Declaration Act. He must be in communion with the Church of England, a flexible rule which allowed King George I and King George II to reign even though they were Lutherans. By SYLVIA HUI, Associated Press ___ The cheapest flights from Johannesburgs OR International Airport to Durban and Bloemfontein are all offered by FlySafair. In contrast, Lift provides the lowest price for flights to Cape Town, a MyBroadband analysis has revealed. We compared the pricing of flights from five airlines to determine which was cheaper when flying from Johannesburg to Durban, Cape Town, and Bloemfontein. For a return flight from Johannesburg to Durban, FlySafairs cheapest option is R2,062.00, with the next cheapest being CemAir at R2,220.92. Airlink was the most expensive charging R2,879.92 for a round trip. FlySafair was also the cheapest for return flights from Johannesburg to Bloemfontein at R2,262.00. However, it should be noted that FlySafair only flies to and from Bloemfonteins Bram Fischer International Airport on Fridays and Saturdays. On the other hand, the only other two airlines flying between the destinations offer a broader selection. Lift offers the cheapest return flights between Johannesburg and Cape Town at R3,260, while SAA was the most expensive at R4,149.92. Regarding flights between Johannesburg and Bloemfontein, CemAir was the most expensive at R3,060.42. For our comparison, the prices are based on flights leaving on 12 September and returning on 16 September 2022. However, to keep the comparison fair, we adjusted the dates to 16 September to 23 September 2022 for flights between Johannesburg and Bloemfontein. This is because FlySafair only flies between the destinations on Fridays and Saturdays, as it recently added the route. We considered the cheapest available rates from each airline for the above routes, with a check-in allowance of one piece of luggage. Comair enters liquidation South Africas aviation industry has been shaken up significantly this year, with British Airways and Kululas operator in South Africa, Comair, shutting down altogether. Comair handled around 40% of the countrys domestic flight volume on its operated routes. However, the South African Civil Aviation Authority suspended its Air Operator Certificate in March 2022, citing recent safety incidents regarding its flight operations in the country. The issue was soon resolved, with Kulula and British Airways flights resuming less than a week later. However, on 1 June 2022, Comair grounded flights again due to a lack of funding. On 9 June, the company revealed it could not accumulate the funding needed to resume its operations. Regrettably, the requisite funding could not be raised in order for the company to continue with its operations, the company said in a statement. Accordingly, the companys joint business rescue practitioners give notice herewith that they no longer believe that there is a reasonable prospect that the company can be rescued. Comair applied for liquidation on Thursday, 16 June 2022. The table below summarises the cheapest rates of each airline on the three routes we compared. Record-breaking temperatures drove most Napa residents inside this past week, where air conditioning has generally been available despite continued pressure on Californias power grid. 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. But Napans experiencing homelessness have had to find other ways to handle the weather. Several residents of Napas Kennedy Park said Thursday theyve been staying in the shade, drinking lots of water and taking dips in the Napa River to survive the sweltering weather. Theyve also supported one another by sharing supplies, and have been supported in turn by outreach workers from Abode Services Napa Countys homeless services provider as well as the city of Napas own outreach efforts. Michelle Garcia, an 11-year resident of the Kennedy Park encampment which is Napas largest and oldest encampment, and contains roughly 40 people said she and most of the other residents have been keeping to the shady areas near the river during the day. She noted that the mutual support between those at the encampment is vital under the current weather conditions, especially because the encampment tends to be older than the people at encampments elsewhere in Napa, with the average age likely landing somewhere in the 40s or 50s. Grand jury says greater coordination is needed to help solve Napa County homelessness crisis The Napa County Grand Jury says better coordination between more than 30 homeless service providers could help make the system more effective. Brandon Gardner, longtime homeless outreach specialist for the Napa Police Department, said that many of the encampment residents have been living there for a long time, and qualify as chronically homeless. Several of them are also in the process of receiving permanent housing. Molly Rattigan, the city of Napas point person on homelessness, said an email that the outreach teams have been regularly going out to the encampments to provide cold water to residents during the heat wave. The teams have also been sharing information about The South Napa Day Center which offers connection to the overnight shelter there, as well as showers, laundry, lunch, social services, mail delivery, housing navigation support, medical and social services staying open through Labor Day Weekend, and closing at 5 p.m. instead of 4 p.m. this week, according to Rattigan. The Napa Abode Services outreach team generally goes out to encampments three to five times a week, according to Kara Carnahan, Abode's vice president of programs for Alameda, Napa, and San Francisco counties. Theyve historically provided items like water, food, tents, sleeping bags and other survival necessities, Carnahan added, while also linking the population to other resources such as housing and medical services. Formerly homeless Napans get permanent housing These two Napans were homeless for years. Now they have their own studio apartments. With the heat this week, Carnahan noted, the outreach team has been focused on distributing water. Abode also partnered with the Providence Queen of the Valley Medical Centers CARE Network to distribute food, water, sunscreen, Pedialyte, and to assess heat-related medical needs for homeless residents. Gardner was present at the Kennedy Park encampment Thursday morning to hand out bottled water to the residents there. Gardner has been on the job in some capacity for almost two decades; he said the greatest joy of his job is when he runs into formerly homeless residents in Napa whove found housing. Gardner noted that recreational vehicle dwellers can have a tougher time in the heat than those living in tents in the heat, given that most of them dont have access to air conditioning. RVs can therefore serve as something of a greenhouse, Gardner said, with internal temperatures rising well above the temperature outside. Allen Foschae, who lives in a RV at Kennedy Park, noted that his RV doesnt have the electrical hookup needed to power an air conditioning unit. Hes said hes personally been drinking lots of water, and went tubing in the Napa River to cool down. Theres help, just not enough help, said Foschae. PG&E Corp. said Thursday that fire investigators placed caution tape around a company transmission pole near the spot where the Mosquito Fire started two days earlier near a reservoir in Placer County. The utility, which was driven into bankruptcy in 2019 by a series of massive wildfires, said it hadnt observed damage or abnormal conditions at the transmission pole or other nearby facilities. Nevertheless, it filed a report about the pole with the Public Utilities Commission, as required by law, out of an abundance of caution. The fire started Tuesday near Oxbow Reservoir and prompted the evacuation of about 1,500 residents of Foresthill. By Wednesday morning it had burned through 6,870 acres and had 0% containment, according to Cal Fire. PG&E was blamed for some of the worst wildfires in recent California history, including the 2018 Camp Fire in Butte County, which destroyed 12,000 homes and killed 85 people. The utility pleaded guilty to felony manslaughter charges and paid millions of fines. The flurry of fires sent the company into Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. It emerged a year later with new leadership and a vow to improve its safety record. But it continues to struggle with wildfire safety, and was blamed by investigators for last years Dixie Fire, which burned more than 1 million acres in several Northern California counties. Earlier this year, it agreed to pay tens of millions of dollars in fines to avoid criminal prosecution in the Dixie Fire and 2019s Kincade Fire in Sonoma County. Its facing criminal charges in the 2020 Zogg Fire in Shasta County, which killed four people. In its report Wednesday, the company said the Forest Service has placed caution tape around the base of a PG&E transmission pole (60Kv).Thus far, PG&E has observed no damage or abnormal conditions to the pole or our facilities near OxBow Reservoir, has not observed down conductor in the area or any vegetation related issues. Our information reflects electrical activity occurred close in time to the report time of the fire. The investigation is ongoing. This information is preliminary. Most people know Black Stallion is one of the valleys premier wineries, but fewer may know it belongs to the fourth largest wine company in the U.S. and that family company is headquartered in Napa. By Wine Businesss annual survey published in February, Delicato Family Wines sales last year of 17 million cases made it the fourth largest wine company in the U.S. 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. It wasnt far behind St. Helena-based Trinchero, the third-largest U.S. wine company with sales of 20 million cases. Gallo (Modesto) is number one with 100 million cases and The Wine Group (Livermore) is second with 51 million. Why Napa? With its founding in Manteca and major wineries and vineyards properties in Lodi, the Central Valley and the Central Coast, you might wonder why Delicato is headquartered in Napa. Yet theyve been in Napa since 1999 and have 120 employees here, including CEO and President Chris Indelicato, who lives in Coombsville with his wife Mache and family. When industry visits, they start in Napa, noted Indelicato. We see more visitors than we would in Manteca press, distributors, retailers. You have to be here to take part in the dialog. People love to visit here, added his brother and Chief Operating Officer Jay Indelicato. Chris Indelicato continued. Napa does a very good job of marketing. Linda Reiff (head of Napa Valley Vintners) does a great job. Expanding its presence in Napa, Delicato also bought Black Stallion Winery in 2010 and has a permit to build an even more luxurious winery next to it. Some prominent Napa residents are on the Delicato board, too, Michael Mondavi and Francis Ford Coppola serve along with Bruce Chizen, former CEO of Adobe Software, and Clarice Turner, former president of Joseph Phelps Vineyards plus three Indelicato family members. A familiar story of immigrants The Indelicatos story is little known here since they started in Manteca but its a familiar tale of many other Italian immigrants in the wine business. (They dropped the in in naming their company as it had an undesirable connotation in English). Sicilian immigrant Gaspare Indelicato planted the first Delicato vineyard in 1924 in Manteca, an area that reminded him of his homeland. He went on to establish a winery with his brother-in-law, Sebastiano (Sam) Luppino. They opened a winery with his three sons in 1935 after Prohibition ended, building a solid reputation for making quality wines but also sold grapes. The business really took off in the late 60s when Delicato began making wines for Almaden (ironically, it bought a major former Almaden winery in 2017), then Glen Ellen, two very popular wines at the time. They also acquired some choice vineyards. The San Bernabe Vineyard in Salinas Valley they bought in 1988 once grew 8,500 acres of vines on the 13,000-acre property. Though theyve since sold off parts of the vast property, Delicato still grows grapes on 2,800 acres of 7,800 total. In addition to San Bernabe, Delicato owns the 1,300-acre Clay Station Vineyard in Lodi, 243-acre Santa Lucia Highlands in Monterey and vineyards in Napa Valley. They own wineries in Manteca, Monterey Winery on San Bernabe and the historic Almaden Winery in Paicines south of Hollister, which they acquired from Treasury in 2017 and renamed Alba Coast Winery. The Wine Press: Napa Valley Vintners donate $25,000 for firefighting efforts; Chuck McMinn retires Napa Valley Vintners announced that it has donated $25,000 for technology county fire officials said will accelerate their response in the most critical moments. A change in strategy During the 70s through 90s, they were primarily a bulk wine producer for other companies, including from their extensive vineyards. As the older generation started retiring, the company shifted toward branded products and really took off. Still, Delicato was little known outside the wine business until it leaped ahead with its Bota Box wine in 2003. Adopting the 3-liter format rather than the 5-liter size used for infamous Franzia wines, Delicato promoted an environmentally sensitive package while delivering better wines than people expected for the prices (typically around $20, equivalent to $5 per bottle). The environmental benefits start with the low weight of the package and the recyclability of its cardboard box, which is made from unbleached recycled cardboard, uses vegetable inks and cornstarch pastes. Theyve continued that innovation with Bota wines aimed to appeal to different but trendy audiences, too, including richer Nighthawk, better for you low-alcohol Bota Box Breeze and wine-based-cocktails Bota Ritas. As a result, Bota box is the best-selling wine in this format, and is one-third bigger than Black Box, which Constellation recently sold to Gallo. Bota Box also represents more about two-thirds of Delicatos volume, though it has a number of wines packaged in conventional glass bottles and is growing that segment. They no longer sell grapes and dont supply any high volume bulk wines. What Coppola brings to Delicato Last year, Delicato bought the Francis Coppola Winery in Sonoma County, adding a very successful brand in a higher price than most of Delicatos wines and with desirable winery and visitor attractions north of Healdsburg. Coppola made about 1.1 million cases of wine last year. Its two wineries have 3 million case annual capacity which Delicato can use to vintify grapes in Sonoma it was already buying but had to ship elsewhere to process. Coppolas portfolio includes the Diamond Collection, with wines in the hot category over $20, plus the ability to produce canned wines, a fast-growing format, and sparkling wine, another booming category that Delicato hasnt addressed except in imports. Francis Coppola, a savvy marketer, also joined Delicatos board and acquired equity in Delicato in the deal. Coppola kept the Inglenook winery in Rutherford, however, as well as Domaine de Broglie, a Pinot Noir specialist in Oregon he bought in 2018. As a bonus, Coppolas respected winemaker Corey Beck joined Delicato's as executive vice president of production and chief winemaker. Family owned and managed Four generations of the Indelicato family have been involved with the company, with the fourth generation now represented by Steven Matthew, enologist and winemaker at Black Stallion, and eight more younger possibilities are behind him. Six third-generation family members work in the business starting with president and CEO Chris Indelicato and his brother, COO Jay Indelicato. Chris Indelicato leads the third generation of family management at Delicato Family Wines. He grew up working at the winery alongside his father and uncles, then earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Southern California and became a Certified Public Accountant. His time in the financial field provided valuable experience but he wanted to return to the family business and he became president and CEO in 2004. Marie Indelicato Mathews is director of hospitality and rerail, Frank Indelicato is transportation lead, Cheryl Indelicato is the family ambassador and spokesperson, and Mike Indelicato is involved in customer service. Though all grew up in the business, they had to work somewhere else for five years after college. Whats next for Delicato in Napa and elsewhere? Delicato owns 36 acres of vineyards around Black Stallion, and to honor founders Gaspare (Jasper) Indelicato and his brother-in-law Sebastiano (Sam) Luppino, Delicato will be releasing Sam Jasper Winery named after their initial winery, on the companys 100th anniversary. Chris Indelicato said that he would be happy to buy more vineyards here at the right price. Its a business for them, not tied up in someones ego. Land values cycle, he noted, suggesting the opportunity may yet arise. Theyre also interested in acquiring complementary brands or companies, typically those that sell wines for more than $20, the fasting-growing category in America, and a sparkling wine line, but thats tough in the United States as there arent many and most are part of bigger companies. Delicato also imports wines from around the world including a sizeable German portfolio, but ironically, none from Italy yet. Europe is entering the most treacherous territory in its quest to move away from Russian energy, and the U.S. can provide only limited help, at least for now, Axios writes. The West's reaction to the war in Ukraine has fundamentally reshaped global energy trade at a pace and scale not seen in decades. The stakes for Europe could not be higher. Consumers are facing rising costs, and Europe's energy-intensive industries are already in distress and cutting production. President Joe Biden has pledged that the U.S. will send more natural gas to the EU to help Western allies cut supplies from Russia. But the two regions face physical constraints that limit the potential for further short-term supply growth. The U.S. largely uses all of its available natural gas liquefaction capacity, a process necessary to transport gas overseas, while Europe has limited infrastructure to actually accept imports. Before the war, Russia provided about 40 percent of the EU's gas supply. Volumes have already fallen dramatically, and tight markets and geopolitical risks have caused prices to skyrocket. Earlier this year, the U.S. and the EU announced an agreement on additional supplies this year and significant increases through 2030. The near-term goal seems fairly easy to achieve - in no small part because the U.S. has shifted most of its Asian exports to European buyers. But, but, but: It may not work this year. Anna Mikulska, an expert on gas markets and geopolitics, told Axios that while U.S. companies have increased their liquefied natural gas supplies to Europe, competition for those supplies could intensify. And anyway, this is still only a small fraction of European needs. Replacing all of the gas Europe received from Russia last year is a more difficult task, and it won't come from any one country. The U.S. gas industry is eager to continue building up supplies overseas, and additional export infrastructure is already scheduled to open in the coming years. The industry is also demanding action, including faster approvals for export projects, pipelines to bring gas to the coast for liquefaction, and other measures. However, these industry goals may conflict with climate policy on both sides of the Atlantic. President Biden is under pressure from environmentalists to limit fossil fuel development. EU countries are already attempting a rapid and permanent phase-out of Russian coal, gas and oil, not only by diversifying suppliers, but also by accelerating the abandonment of these sources. This means a complex dynamic when it comes to the development of new import infrastructure and pipelines in Europe. Projects are often based on long-term contracts, but officials keep promises to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years and decades, even though countries now need more gas. EU energy ministers will meet Friday to discuss emergency measures to protect people and industry from exorbitant electricity and gas prices. The crisis has already prompted European countries to unveil major aid packages to support consumers, including Germany's $65 billion plan announced over the weekend. Armenian PM briefs Russian President on border situation Armenian Emergency Situations Ministry: Rescuers put on high alert due to escalation on border Armenian Goris Security Council Coordinator: Sounds of gunfire can be heard Armenian Defense Ministry: Intense exchange of fire on Armenian-Azerbaijani border continues Analyst: Azerbaijan does all this because its sure it can impose corridor and peace deal on Armenia Situation on Artsakh contact line is relatively stable Armenian ex-human rights chief: Azerbaijani attacks are open aggression against Armenia Armenian defense ministry calls on not to share footage of ongoing shootings near borders Armenian Jermuk town hears Azerbaijan opening fire Armenian community head: UAV sounds, artillery shots can be heard now Defense ministry: Azerbaijan opens intense fire at Armenian positions near Goris, Sotk, Jermuk Azerbaijan striking in different directions near Armenian borders Greece says Turkey invaded its airspace 52 times in 24 hours Politico: Reign of Charles III may ruin British Commonwealth of Nations Peter Stano says Brussels is closely monitoring situation on Armenian-Azerbaijani border RBC: Russian budget revenues down 11% in August after 26% drop in July UN: Global retail food prices remain high despite grain deal Turkey breaks record for highest priced iPhone 14 models Germany is considering direct intervention in the energy market Baku to host meeting of Chiefs of Staff Committee of CIS member states Ifo: German economy to shrink next year Modern slavery increases as crises fuel poverty Vigil at coffin of Elizabeth II in Edinburgh Cathedral ARF representatives hold meeting with Russian ambassador President receives Vice President of World Bank in Europe and Central Asia Crown of Scotland to be placed in coffin of Queen Elizabeth II while she rests in Edinburgh Artsakh Investigative Committee considers case on shelling of Krasny Bazar village by Azerbaijani Armed Forces Damascus: Syria is ready to restore relations with Ankara, but Turkey must be ready to withdraw from Syrian lands Armenia plans to ratify agreement against international tax evasion David Barnea: New nuclear agreement will not provide Tehran with immunity from Mossad operations Aliyev-controlled media hints at special operation in Artsakh Radio frequency permit granted to Karabakh Telecom is extended In Azerbaijan, another participant in 44-day aggression against Artsakh attempts self-immolation Former Ambassador of Armenia to Netherlands on peace treaty with Baku: It won't be peace, but slavery Armenia to ratify EEU agreement on oversight of distribution of revenues from customs duties France to cut industrial production tax at slower pace Dollar, euro still gaining value in Armenia Irakli Garibashvili, Philip Reeker discuss situation in South Caucasus Armenia plans to register products with national geographical indication Germany imports goods from Russia for EUR 2.9 billion in July Armenia ombudsperson: Facts of Azerbaijan targeting Karabakh civilian population are extremely worrying Civil Contract: Armenian citizens should be granted right to own weapons Armenia justice ministry: Additional protection to be provided to corruption whistleblowers This time in Lori: Residents of Tumanyan community block road Speaker: Matter of stripping Armenia opposition of parliament mandates to be submitted to legislature by years end US ambassador holds reception for Armenia law enforcement representatives, prosecutors (PHOTOS) Indonesian President considers the possibility of buying Russian oil together with India, China Armenian legislature speaker: We are always waiting that there may be any provocation by Azerbaijan Armenia ex-defense minister: PM Pashinyan has agreed to virtually all demands of Turkey, Azerbaijan Janet Yellen: Gasoline prices could jump again this winter Armenia legislature speaker: Matter of return of captives has been, will be in all our international meetings Karabakh ombudsman: 2 houses damaged after Azerbaijan fired at Karmir Shuka, Taghavard villages (PHOTOS) Xi Jinping to visit Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan Armenia opposition MP: Im not in hurry to call road now connecting Artsakh to Armenia a corridor Armenia ambassador-at-large: Azerbaijan once again started provocation preparation process Armenia manufacturers to be allowed to write off damaged products without additional tax payments Greece PM does not believe in possibility of war with Turkey Armenia to get 26.5M loan from International Bank for Reconstruction and Development MOD: Artsakh army units did fire at Azerbaijan positions MOD: Armenia army did not fire at Azerbaijan positions Yerevan shopping market merchants stage protest outside Armenia government building Catholicos of All Armenians: Queen Elizabeth became symbol of strength, determination in most difficult times Antigua and Barbuda to vote on whether to remove UK monarch as head of state Artsakh official: I have met with Ruben Vardanyan twice in recent days Armenia parliament kicks off fall sessions Ex-president Hamid Karzai expresses support for girls protesting against closure of Afghanistan secondary schools US allocates $2M for demining in Karabakh conflict zone Czech government plans to limit electricity prices for industrial sector Apple CEO Tim Cook says what he argued most with Steve Jobs about The Street: Elon Musk's gloomy prognosis for the economy US will give Sri Lanka a $60 million aid package Red Cross visits Armenian captives in Azerbaijan Putin and Macron discuss Zaporizhzhya NPP by phone Financial Times: U.S. lawmakers warn Apple not to buy memory chips from Chinese manufacturer Variety: Musk keeps finding new reasons to refuse to buy Twitter Mitsotakis: Greece will try to keep channels of communication with Ankara open despite Erdogan's unacceptable statements Bulgaria and Azerbaijan agree on exchange of electricity for gas Queen Elizabeth's final journey through Scotland kicks off Mayor: 14 families displaced from Berdzor given aid certificates worth AMD 10 million Greece expects record high revenues in tourism this year Britain's new King Charles the Third will be formally proclaimed monarch at the historic Council of Succession on Saturday, September 10, according to The Telegraph. Prince Charles automatically became king after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. The Council of Succession usually convenes at St. James's Palace in London within 24 hours of the sovereign's death. This time it will be later because the announcement of the queen's death was made Thursday evening, meaning that there was not enough time to put plans in motion for Friday morning. Historically, the entire Privy Council convenes at the Council of Thrones to oversee the official proclamation of a new monarch. But with the number of Privy Councillors, who are lifetime members and mostly former and current politicians, now at over 700, restrictions have been imposed - only 200 will be summoned. The Council of Succession must take place before Parliament meets, which must convene as soon as possible after the death of the sovereign. It is divided into two parts and is headed by the Lord President of the Council, who has ministerial responsibility for the office of the Privy Council. Penny Mordaunt was appointed Lord President of the Council and head of the House of Commons on September 6 in the new Liz Truss cabinet to replace Mark Spencer, and the Queen has formally approved the appointment. Elected Privy Councillors--without the king--will gather at St. James's Palace to proclaim the new sovereign, joined by state officials, the Lord Mayor, the kingdom's high commissioners, and some high-ranking civil servants. If any of the invited counselors are unable to attend on short notice, the Council may still take place. Camilla - the new Queen - and the Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge are already Privy Councillors, so will be present. When the meeting begins, the Lord President announces the death of the sovereign and calls upon the Secretary of the Council to read aloud the text of the Proclamation of Succession. The latter includes the king's name. Charles has already chosen his name, Charles Charles III. Then Camilla and Prince William, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor, the Archbishop of York, the Prime Minister, the Lord Keeper of the Seals, the Lord Hofmeister, the Earl Marshal and the Lord President sign the Proclamation. The Lord President then calls for silence and reads out the remaining questions concerning the distribution of the Proclamation and the various orders giving instructions for the firing of arms in Hyde Park and the Tower of London. The king then enters and holds his first council, at which only secret advisers are present. First he will make a personal declaration of the queen's death. One of his next acts will be to take an oath to preserve the Church of Scotland because there is a separation of powers between Church and State in Scotland. He will read it aloud and sign two identical documents recording the taking of the oath, his signature witnessed by Camilla and William as well as others, including the Secretary of State for Scotland and the First Minister of Scotland. The other oath, the Declaration of Accession, to preserve Protestant succession, is usually administered a few months later at the state opening of Parliament. Other matters will be considered, including the use of the Seals to "promote the continuity of government." Privy Counselors will sign the Proclamation. The official minutes of the meeting will be published in a special supplement to the London Gazette. After the Council of Accession, the first public proclamation of the new sovereign will be read outdoors from the balcony of the Monastery Court by the Heraldmistress of the Garter at St. James's Palace in the presence of the Earl Marshal and two sergeants-in-arms of the sovereign. The Proclamation will then be read at the Royal Exchange in the City of London. It will also be publicly read in other cities, including Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, and usually in Windsor and York, where the mayor traditionally drinks to the health of the new sovereign from a golden cup. Coronation The symbolic pinnacle of the succession process will be the coronation ceremony, when Charles formally receives the crown. Because it requires proper preparation, it is unlikely to take place soon after Charles ascends the throne. Queen Elizabeth II became monarch in February 1952, but she was crowned only in June 1953, according to the BBC. During the last 900 years the coronation took place in Westminster Abbey. The first British monarch to be crowned there was William the Conqueror and Charles would be the fortieth. The ceremony is an Anglican church service conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury. At the end of the coronation, he will place on Charles's head the crown of St. Edward, made of pure gold in 1661. It is the main object among the British crowns kept in the Tower of London, which the monarch wears only at the moment of coronation (not least because it weighs as much as 2.23 kg). Unlike royal weddings, the coronation is a state event, and the government pays for its organization - and it also draws up the guest list. During the coronation, there will be music, excerpts from various texts, and a ritual anointing of the new monarch using various oils, including orange, rose, cinnamon, musk, and amber. The new king will take his coronation oath in front of the world. In an elaborate ceremony, he will receive an orb and sceptre as symbols of his new role, and the Archbishop of Canterbury will place a golden crown on his head. Head of the Commonwealth of Nations Charles becomes head of the Commonwealth of Nations, an association of 56 independent countries with 2.4 billion people. In addition to Great Britain, he will be the head of 14 nations. Among them: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea, Saint Christopher and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, New Zealand, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu. European energy fiasco reaches its climax. Gazprom announced the closure of Nord Stream for an indefinite period. Later, Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened that the tap would be closed as long as the West maintains its sanctions, Forbes reported. After this news, energy prices skyrocketed again. European gas (Dutch TTF) has risen 35%, back to near historic highs, 6 times higher in perspective than two years ago. Even before the last increase, electricity bills in Europe had doubled since last year. And Britons, who pay the most, are seeing their energy bills triple from last year. Meanwhile, European leaders are trying to take emergency measures, one of which is a massive $375 billion financial package to curb energy prices. The U.K. alone plans to spend a whopping $150 billion over the next 18 months. This prospectively amounts to a $1 trillion package relative to the size of the U.S. economy. Europe is totally dependent on Russia, producing more than two-thirds of its energy from natural gas, 40 percent of which comes from, you guessed it, Nord Stream. For some countries, including the Czech Republic and Hungary, this is the only source of gas. Now the Kremlin is playing on Europe's energy impotence to blackmail the West and get sanctions lifted. In June, Nord Stream cut gas supplies to 40 percent of its capacity. Then, during another maintenance run in mid-summer, the flow came to a complete halt for ten days. Finally, on July 21, it was restarted, but only at 40% of its pre-maintenance level. And last Friday, Gazprom shut off gas flows "indefinitely." Why can't Europe get gas from other sources? It can, but it can't be done in the short term because the alternative is to deliver liquefied gas through LNG terminals, which requires a completely different infrastructure. Besides, there's not enough LNG on the market to replace all the Russian gas that Europe just lost. And replacing it, again, will take time. The shutdown of Nord Stream did not come as a big surprise to European leaders, who have been preparing for this worst-case scenario for months. Since the beginning of the summer, Europe has been implementing voluntary rationing programs and pumping as much gas as possible into its reserves in anticipation of the cold season. Unfortunately, however, this is not enough. Germany, for example, currently has 85 percent of its national gas reserves. But Klaus Muller, president of the German energy regulator, has warned that even 95% is only enough for two months of average demand. So there is a good chance that Europe will have to move from voluntary to mandatory rationing. In fact, Goldman Sachs calculates that in a worst-case scenario, Germany would have no other options, and that could mean a 65 percent reduction in industry in Germany if flows were to stop completely. In other words, this energy fiasco could bring some of the industry in Europe to its knees. And worst of all, even the $375 billion budget package Europe has put together may not save it, because you can't buy gas that isn't there, can you? A final procedural act has been drawn up in a proceeding launched in Armenia on the grounds of high treason, and the criminal proceedings against the respective person in custody have been handed over to the courtand with an indictment. The press center of the National Security Service (NSS) of Armenia informs Armenian News-NEWS.am that it was found that an Armenian citizen who was recruited by foreign special services, had transferred military information to them, after which he had written a letter of commitment regarding cooperation with these foreign special services, received a corresponding code name, and a promise of a reward of $500 for each month's collaboration. After that, this person, being involved in the implementation of combat operations during the 44-day Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) war in the fall of 2020, had gone over to the side of the adversary, deliberately fired non-targeted fire from the combat jet system he commanded, and had not hit the adversary's firing targets. Also, this person had provided additional military information to foreign special services. Furthermore, this person had promised to provide other military information considered state secret to the aforesaid foreign special servicesand in exchange for a reward of $4,000, but could not complete this activity because he was exposed by the officers of the National Security Service of Armenia. The international FINTECH360 conference will be held on November 2-5 in Yerevan, during which experts from different countries will discuss innovative technologies and topical issues on the transformation of financial sectors. The event will bring together heads of leading banks and financial institutions, payment systems, telecommunications, and IT companies, specialized associations, startups, and regulators on one platform. The conference will be held with the support of Unibank OJSC and Unistream Money Transfers. During the FINTECH360 issues related to the development of mobile services and contactless payments, marketplaces and banking ecosystems, digital currencies, interbank cross-border payments in the changing world realities, cryptocurrency settlements, neobanks, Open Banking, and green fintech will be under discussion. The experts will share their experience in effective compliance risk management, personal data protection, cybersecurity enhancement, and implementation of AI and Big Data. The fintech industry is evolving extremely intensively, therefore it is important for us to keep up with the main trends and work effectively in a rapidly changing environment. By offering innovative products to the consumers of financial services, we improve not only the level of service but also the quality of people's lives. That is the reason why we are so interested in the FINTECH360 conference, which traditionally brings a wide range of representatives of the expert and business community together, allowing us to update knowledge about innovative financial technologies, exchange experiences, and build up a useful network in the business environment. We are glad to invite our partners to take part in the conference in Yerevan- it is going to be informative and useful, comments Mesrop Hakobyan, CEO of Unibank. World statistics clearly show the dynamic development of financial technologies. According to KPMG analytics, if $121.5 billion was invested in fintech startups in 2020, then in 2021 investors put in a total of $210 billion in financial technology developers. As specified by Ernst & Young, the penetration rate of fintech services has increased from 16% in 2015 to 64% in 2019. 96% of consumers are aware of at least one fintech service that allows them to transfer money and make payments. We are pleased that the FINTECH360 conference, postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, will be held this year in Yerevan. The world has changed- telecommuting has affected the behavioral patterns of consumers, including labor migrants, contactless forms of payment have become widespread, and money transfers have become faster and more convenient. We have accumulated a lot of relevant topics for discussion with colleagues and partners in fintech. Come, it will be interesting! says Kairzhan Kudyarov, CEO of Unistream. The conference will be held in the hall of the Holiday Inn Yerevan Republic Square hotel, which is located in the very center of Yerevan, next to Republic Square. A rich business program, including panel discussions and thematic round tables, will be supplemented with memorable cultural events and interesting excursions. The participants will visit the Khor Virap Monastery, located at the foothill of Mount Ararat, the pagan temple and fortress of Garni of the 1st century AD, as well as the rock monastery of Geghard, which is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. For further details about the conference and registration visit the site. Nationalizations. Subsidies. Cash handouts. Price controls. Profit taxes. Europe is reverting to 20th-century economics, the New York Times reported. Governments are resorting to old-fashioned solutions that have long been considered bad policy, allocating huge sums of money to the energy crisis gripping the region in an attempt to avert a political, social and economic crisis. Confrontation with Russia over Ukraine is rapidly overturning European economic orthodoxy, barely a dissenting voice at European Union headquarters in Brussels, a bastion of neoliberalism that not so long ago imposed austerity on its members, most notably Greece, even after it became clear that it was harmful. But today, EU leaders have little choice. Russia has cut natural gas supplies to most of the European Union to a minimum, and the cost of fuel - and thus electricity - has reached an all-time high and continues to rise. In response, EU governments have already allocated more than $350 billion to subsidize consumers, industry and utilities. Ministers are scheduled to meet Friday to complete direct EU intervention in markets to make super profits, cap electricity prices and subsidize utilities. Government intervention is back in vogue in a very broad sense, said Mujtaba Rahman, director for Europe at consulting firm Eurasia. It's really about gaining public support through an incredibly difficult winter and 2023, in terms of deterring Russian aggression, a liberal international order, to bring the conflict to an end, he said. Huge government spending adds to the nearly trillion-dollar stimulus package enacted over the past year to deal with the economic consequences of the pandemic, largely through borrowing. Bloating the debt load would normally cause a storm of resentment in a bloc where fiscal conservatism has dominated politics and policy for years. The lack of opposition is a result of how much politicians fear European consumers and businesses will be unhappy with astronomical energy costs, leading to social unrest and political chaos as well as recession. European leaders certainly hope so, because spending levels will be hard to maintain. The German government on Sunday announced a $65 billion support package, the third and largest so far, that includes direct cash payments to the most vulnerable consumers and tax breaks for energy-intensive businesses. The Belgian government handed out $100 to every family regardless of income. The Greek government, which faces elections next year, has allocated nearly $7 billion, or about 4 percent of its annual output, over the past three months to subsidize all of the country's energy bills. To fund much of this spending, the country has already imposed a tax on excess revenues for energy companies that use sources other than natural gas. And, in addition to monetary donations and subsidies, more direct market intervention is taking place. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has revealed proposals to solve the energy crisis. The proposals will be discussed by energy ministers on Friday, and the bloc may adopt a series of interventionist policies as early as this month, before the weather gets colder and the crisis becomes even more severe. The European Union's fiscal restrictions are usually aimed at punishing countries whose deficits exceed 3 percent of annual output and whose debt burden exceeds 60 percent of output. But they were suspended at the start of the pandemic to provide a massive stimulus package to support economies that have been hamstrung by blockages and supply chain failures. YEREVAN. Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan met with representatives of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Ministry of Economy of Armenia informs Armenian News-NEWS.am. At the beginning of the talk, the participants discussed the possibilities of mutually beneficial cooperation in the field of economy. Armenia's new economic strategy is based on knowledge, and the ADB has already incorporated knowledge and innovation into their programs. In this context, the needs of Armenia that need assistance were discussed. The ADB representatives were interested also in sustainable development projects in Armenia; in particular, in solar power plants and other innovative projects. During the conversation, the minister of economy added that Armenia strives to become a country that not only uses, but also creates technology. Economic growth has not significantly affected the standard of living of the ordinary citizens of Armenia. Economist Suren Parsyan noted this in an interview with Armenian News-NEWS.am. The growth in the service sector of Armenia is mainly due to the growth in the banking as well as in the gambling sectors. "The logic of the growth of the banking sector comes from the fact that a large amount of financial means began to be transferred to Armenia. At the same time, the banking system serves these very means," said Parsyan. He recalled that the banking system of Armenia allocates a lot of money to the mortgage market. In other words, according to the economist, the growth in the banking sector of Armenia is obviously speculative. Russian and Turkish presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Erdogan will discuss a grain deal, including Russian food supplies. Their talk will take place on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Samarkand, said Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, RIA Novosti reported. "A talk between Putin and Erdogan is possible and necessary and is already being prepared, which we expect to take place in Samarkand. We see that the Istanbul agreements are being implemented on grain. We see that this realization does not bring any benefits to the poor countries, because only two vessels with the cargo of food arrived in these poor countries," he told reporters. Peskov noted that "this is the first topic that, of course, needs to be discussed." "And of course, this is the topic of getting Russian food into international markets," Peskov added. The SCO summit will be held in Samarkand on September 15-16. YEREVAN. Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan of Armenia on Friday received Philip Reeker, the new US Senior Adviser for Caucasus Negotiations and new Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group for the US, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia informs Armenian News-NEWS.am. Welcoming the guest, Mirzoyan wished him success in this responsible position. The interlocutors touched upon a number of matters related to regional security and stability, and exchanged views on the avenues for the normalization of Armenia-Azerbaijan relations. During the meeting, a broad range of matters related to the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) issue were discussed, too. The role of the US as a co-chair country of the OSCE Minsk Group in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was emphasized. Also, the Armenian FM stressed the importance of using the potential and experience of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship institute in the context of achieving a lasting and comprehensive settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Also, FM Mirzoyan reflected on the humanitarian issues caused by the 44-day Artsakh war in the fall of 2020, pointingin this contextto the need for the immediate return of Armenian prisoners of war and other detainees from Azerbaijan, as well as the need to preserve the Armenian cultural and religious heritage in the territories that have passed under Azerbaijani control. Political analyst Karen Igityan said at the presentation of the report "Negotiation Process on Nagorno-Karabakh" that Artsakh's independence in itself is already a concession on the Armenian side, because from the very beginning Artsakh and Armenia made a legal decision to join each other. This is also mentioned in the Declaration of Independence of Armenia. According to him, the conflict started about 1000 years ago when the first Turks arrived and started to conquer the region. He believes that there was no separate Artsakh conflict, Kars conflict, Nakhchivan problem and so on, this is a single Armenian-Turkish problem. The Turk who came sat on the Armenian land and little by little appropriated it for himself. "Armenian-Turkish clashes took place not only in Artsakh, they took place from Yerevan to Baku. In all those places where Armenians and people, who later became Azerbaijanis, lived side by side, there were clashes in all those places. Given that Azerbaijan was created by Turkey, Azerbaijan perceived itself as a strong party, because Turkey stood behind Azerbaijan. Based on this, Azerbaijan negotiated uncompromisingly, while the Armenian authorities under the first president adopted a concessionary approach. The current Armenian authorities do the same. The first president of Armenia, having strengthened his power, immediately abandoned this idea, went to Zheleznovodsk and signed a communique there, where Artsakh was perceived as an internal affair of Azerbaijan. We see that in most cases everything depended on the position of Armenia itself," Igityan stressed. Arsen Torosyan, a deputy from the Civil Contract party, asserting that there is and has never been any chance for Artsakh's independence recognition, according to his assessment, is completely untrue. "After the change of power in 1998, the logic of the negotiations changed completely and there was a proposal from the OSCE mediators that Artsakh should not have vertical relations with Azerbaijan, which Baku rejected. The second was the Key West process by which Artsakh was supposed to join Armenia, which was also rejected. The international community was ready not only to talk about Artsakh's independence but also to recognize Artsakh as a part of Armenia. Not to mention that the further negotiations were conducted according to the logic that Artsakh should get a status, and then a referendum should be held, which would decide the final status. Naturally, it was a question of independence," the political analyst explained. According to Igityan's assessment, the approaches of Azerbaijan and Turkey towards Armenians are very similar to the approaches of German fascists towards Jews. When she got a message last spring about a new class focused on climate resilience, University of Miami senior Sophie Walenta was itching to sign up. The more the marine affairs and ecosystems science and policy major read about the course, which is interdisciplinary, problem-driven, and discussion-based, the more intrigued she grew. Id never heard of a class so upfront and modern, she said. Its an urgent class, where the instructors are using an interesting way to go about problem-solving that is so relevant for our generation. To engage students as much as possible, the class is utilizing a flipped learning method, where the content is taught through a series of high-definition, cinematically choreographed lectures filmed across South Floridas landscape with some of the Universitys key climate faculty members sharing their niche of research. During a break in class, students get a chance to travel to places like Antarctica, Greenland, and others through a short 360-degree documentary presented on virtual reality headsets. Photo by Ali Habashi/University of Miami. Walenta is one of just 36 students enrolled in the first offering of the course, which is taught by 13 experts from across the University. Instructors include some of the Universitys most renowned researchers in climate modeling, extreme weather, coral reefs and coastal protection, sustainable building, resilient cities, climate driven migration and disaster management, climate justice and environmental law, as well as geographic information systems, data modeling, and visualization. The course was conceptualized as part of the Universitys Climate Resilience Academy that launched last spring, and faculty members hope to offer the class again every semester, adding new instructors and new modules as the course evolves. We are fortunate to have world-class faculty at the University who are eager to share their expertise with our students through this class and to guide them toward finding viable, sustainable ideas to help our nation tackle the many unforeseen issues that we will face in a changing climate, said Jeffrey Duerk, executive vice president for academic affairs and provost. Students watch the film segments and tackle their assigned readings before the in-person discussion-based class. Then, at the start of each weekly three-hour class, they have a virtual field trip with an industry expert. For the first class, Amy Clement, climate scientist and professor of atmospheric sciences, introduced the students to University alumna Stacy Aguilera-Peterson on Zoom about her role as an ocean policy specialist for the National Science Foundation and previously, in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. For the remainder of the course, students work in a group to help answer a climate-related question using a design thinking approach. This critical thinking processstreamlined through a shared online platformhelps students collaborate to narrow the problem, and then winnow down a list of ideas into the most impactful interventions, considering various stakeholders and even some unintended consequences. Climate and Resilience issues are often complex and involve a great deal of uncertainty, said Ali Habashi, assistant professor of cinematic arts, award-winning filmmaker, and one of the principal creators of the course. We are working to teach our students a way to embrace that uncertainty and have a solid workflow that would allow them to move forward with small, careful but meaningful stepsto develop evidence-based habits, while also understanding the importance of teamwork and collaboration for problem solving." Habashi and a team of current and former students cinematically produced the educational content for the class this summer. For example, Clement distills some of the major developments in climate change science while riding her bike up the Rickenbacker Causeway to the Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science. How do we build a resilient community? We dont have all the solutions yet. We have to build them and thats whats so exciting about this class, said Clement, who has been teaching and doing climate modeling and research for more than 20 years. You are going to be part of thinking about solutions and designing them for the future. In another segment, architecture professor Sonia Chao talks about resilient urban and building design practices while walking around the Perez Art Museum Miami, which was constructed using some of these methods. Later, she chats with Jim Murley, chief resilience officer for Miami-Dade County about climate policies and adaptations already in motion locally. Marine biology professor Andrew Baker takes students on a tour of the local coral reefs and explains the biology as well as the existential threats to this species in warming oceans. Tropical meteorologist, co-chair of the Climate Resilience Academy, and professor of atmospheric sciences Sharanya Majumdar speaks with a senior forecaster at the National Hurricane Center about how tropical storms and hurricanes will change as the climate warms. Anthropology professor Louis Herns Marcelin takes a car ride through Miamis Little Haiti neighborhood, while chatting about gentrification and climate migration with a community leader. And Katharine Mach, professor of environmental science and policy, interviews Jane Gilbert, the nations first chief heat officer for Miami-Dade County, to discuss the challenges ahead. As part of the class, students will also learn to sift through climate data and glean meaningful insights from it. Data scientists and geographic information systems experts Chris Mader and librarian associate professor Timothy Norris, along with associate professor of journalism Alberto Cairo, an expert in data visualization, will lead three different data literacy classes and guide students through a capstone project where they use the Universitys Coral Gables Campus as a living laboratory to understand, evaluate, and assess the relationship between trees and heat. Through the project, students will utilize these new skills to create a visualization and to make recommendations to University administrators that could help increase the resilience of the Coral Gables Campus. Toward the end of each class, students present potential climate-informed interventions for Miami that could be implemented today. In the first class, while one group thought sustainable public transportation would be a way to mitigate global warming trends, other groups proposed adding urban forests throughout the downtown area. Sophomore Hannah Heath, who is studying marine science and geology, said she was invigorated by the chance to brainstorm strategies to moderate the impacts of climate change. I am glad that UM is including students in this conversation because a lot of our lawmakers are older, and we have a lot of innovative ideas. So, it feels good to have our opinion heard, she said. Sophomore Bailey Byers is also motivated by the course. Byers, who is studying architecture, wants to make sustainable and resilient design a focus of his time at the University. Its time in history to do this, Byers said, referring to the creation of the class. Learning more about climate resilience is one of my passions, so its exciting to see the University implement it in a course. Chao designed the course along with Habashi and other members of the Climate Resilience Academys education committee, including Norris, engineering professor and associate dean of student affairs Derin Ural, and Matt Acevedo, the Universitys director of learning innovation and faculty engagement and executive director of information technology. Chao said she is excited to work with undergraduate students of all disciplines and envisions the class as part of the first-year experience at the University. In the same way that English and math are fundamental to a students higher learning experience, this course can teach them to become more resilient to climate realities, be it as individuals or as part of their community, said Chao, who is also associate dean of research in the School of Architecture, co-director of the Master of Professional Science in Urban Sustainability and Resilience, and co-founder of the Universitys Center for Urban and Community Design. We hope that this class will make for great climate leaders. But at the very least, these students will be climate savvy and through the course they can see how they can contribute to developing solutions and driving needed change. This is chapter one of the Climate Resilience Academy, with many more to come. Learn more about the course. Vedant Patel, the Principal Deputy Spokesperson for the US Department of State, has scripted history by becoming the first Indian-American to hold the daily State Department press briefing As the first Indian-American to lead the daily State Department press briefing, Vedant Patel, the Principal Deputy Spokesperson for the US Department of State, has written history. 33-year-old Patel from California came to the briefing room at the State Department's Foggy Bottom headquarters to speak on behalf of the nation to the media while Ned Price, the State Department spokesperson, was away on vacation. Patel spoke about various subjects during his briefing, including negotiations over Iran's nuclear program, Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, and Liz Truss' election as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He will next be seen for a face-to-face briefing. Patel was praised for making his podium debut. Vedant handled the enormous burden of representing the United States on the international stage with the highest professionalism and transparency. Former Deputy Director of Communications for the White House Pili Tobar expressed his support for Vedant at the podium. Gujarat-born Vedant Patel is a University of California Riverside graduate. Previously, he worked for President Joe Biden in the White House as an assistant press secretary and a spokesperson. Prior to that, he worked as a spokesperson for the Biden-Harris Transition and the Presidential Inaugural Committee. He worked in communications for the Biden campaign in primary and general elections. Before this, Patel served as the communications director for both Congressman Mike Honda and Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal. Jen Psaki, the previous White House press secretary, called Patel "very talented." New Delhi [India], September 9 (ANI/BusinessWire India): TECNO Mobile, the global premium smartphone brand announces the launch of 'The Ultimate Style Hunt' contest - a month-long activity. With this nationwide contest, the brand embarks on the third phase of its three-month-long campaign #AStylishAffair. The contest is a platform for young fashion enthusiasts --above 18 years -- to showcase their sartorial prowess to the esteemed jury members and the online audiences of both TECNO and Cosmopolitan India. The contest continues to be in partnership with Cosmopolitan India, the world's most-read fashion and lifestyle magazine. TECNO x Cosmo's The Ultimate Style Hunt is a two-pronged contest that will be activated both online and offline. With this announcement, TECNO and Cosmo will be calling for entries through Instagram, where participants are required to create a stylish, colour-blocked look--which is the theme of the contest!--and post it on their handle, tagging both Cosmo and TECNO. Only 10 entries will make it to the Grand Finale, and the same will be shortlisted by Cosmo and TECNO teams at their discretion. (T&C apply) The Grand Finale is set to be another stylish, on-ground affair, organised in the Delhi capital region, leveraging the tech prowess of TECNO's CAMON series launched through this campaign. The jury members of the contest include experts from TECNO, Cosmopolitan and renowned names from the Indian fashion industry. Alongside the jury, the photos of the 10 finalists will also be shared live from the on-ground event on Instagram Stories to engage their respective followers. The pictures for the same will be captured on the newly-launched CAMON 19 series. The final winners will be decided as per the jury panel. The contest comprises two rounds--the first round will see innovative and creative ways of styling every girl's favourite little black dress; the second will have an all-white styling theme. The contest will announce the top three winners, basis these two rounds. Three winners stand a chance to win a cash prize worth more than INR 10 lakh, and the remaining participants would win CAMON 19 handsets. (T&C apply) Commenting on the strategy behind this contest, Arijeet Talapatra, TECNO India CEO said, "The mid-to-high segment in the smartphone market is the fastest growing segment, with young lifestyle and fashion enthusiasts creating maximum demand. Through the first two phases of our campaign, we launched and familiarised our audiences with TECNO's latest CAMON 19 series. And with this last phase, the intent is to get our real audiences to interact with the brand and experience a futuristic event that strikes a fine balance between technology, fashion and lifestyle." Adding insights about the contest, Nandini Bhalla, Editor, Cosmopolitan India, said, "This is the final phase of our three-month-long campaign with TECNO, and we are truly excited to conclude it with a bang. A Stylish Affair has been a one-of-a-kind association that drew attention to how tech plays a significant role in the fashion space, given that social media is a key space for new launches, emerging trends, content creation, and more. And The Ultimate Style Hunt makes for the perfect platform for content creators and aspiring fashion enthusiasts to showcase their personal style." 'A Stylish Affair' is an exclusive experiential fashion collaboration that unifies fashion and technology, and fittingly draws parallels with the CAMON series having technology and style at the core of its innovation. It is a three-month-long affair that featured a digital cover, and an experiential fashion event, and will culminate with The Ultimate Style Hunt. The digital cover of Cosmopolitan India featuring actor Mrunal Thakur, shot on CAMON 19, was the first phase of this collaboration. The second phase covers the experiential fashion event, designed to highlight the avant-garde low-lighting imaging experience of the CAMON series and the elegant mobile handsets becoming the accessory du jour among millennials and Gen-Z. The last phase of the campaign is The Ultimate Style Hunt contest, which offers a unique platform for upcoming fashionistas to showcase their style game, featuring a distinguished jury panel. This story is provided by BusinessWire India. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/BusinessWire India) Shares of companies dealing in rice such as KRBL, Chaman Lal Setia and LT Foods slumped on Friday after India banned the export of broken rice and curbed shipments of some varieties. At the time of writing this report, the shares of these three companies fell in the range of 2-5 per cent. The Centre on Thursday imposed a 20 per cent export duty on non-Basmati rice, except for parboiled rice, to boost domestic supplies amid a fall in area under the paddy crop in the current Kharif season. The export duty will come into force from today. According to a notification by the revenue department, an export duty of 20 per cent has been imposed on 'rice in the husk (paddy or rough)' and 'husked (brown) rice'. The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs further said the export of 'semi-milled or wholly-milled rice, whether or not polished or glazed (other than Parboiled rice and Basmati rice)' will also attract a customs duty of 20 per cent. Further, India banned the export of broken rice with immediate effect. The export policy has been revised from "free" to "prohibited". The ban on exports assumes significance as it appears that the overall sown area under paddy this Kharif season could be lower than that of last year. This can have an impact on both crop prospects as well as prices going forward. This Kharif season, the area under paddy cultivation is around 6 per cent lower than the previous season at 383.99 lakh hectares. Farmers in India have sown less paddy this Kharif season. Kharif crops are mostly sown during monsoon -June and July, and the produce is harvested during October and November. The primary reason for the decline in the sown area could be attributed to the slow advancement of the monsoon in the month of June and its uneven spread in July in some key growing regions in the country. Many in India were worried that less area under paddy under cultivation so far this Kharif may lead to low production of the foodgrain. (ANI) Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], September 9 (ANI/BusinessWire India): Homely Yours, India's leading proptech startup has announced a dedicated service for the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) Golden Visa category starting from September 2022. Owing to the overwhelming demand for Golden Visa by Indians, Homely Yours has set up a hotline number specifically for those that have enquiries pertaining to golden visa. Golden Visa is granted to investors, exceptional talents, outstanding students and graduates and many more under various categories. Investing in property has been a most preferred modality for availing golden visa as properties in Dubai are expected to yield high along with an easy grant of Golden Visa. In addition to this, the recent move to reduce the minimum investment required in real estate to AED 2 million has made it more affordable to Indians who want to take the real estate route for Golden Visa. The surge in the number of Indians interested in investing in properties in Dubai, has given rise to the need for an end to end support in finding a property that suits the budget but also offers a better ROI for investors. Homely Yours, plans to address this by engaging Indian investors with an end to end support for not only finding investment worthy properties but also assists them in getting proper financial support too. With its overseas office at Dubai, Homely Yours will be offering Golden Visa aspirants with all necessary assistance for cross border real estate investment and financial assistance. The startup also offers premium assistance for UHNIs, actors and athletes who aspire to get a Golden Visa in UAE. Alok Priyadarshi, Founder of Homely Yours said, "Dubai has positioned itself as a global hotspot and is a dream home for many. Indians have always been among top investors in Dubai owing to its safety, political stability, world-class infrastructure and growing economy. The recent amendments to the Golden Visa rules now offer simplified requirements and many additional benefits and this opportunity is not just limited to affluent classes anymore. People from different socioeconomic levels too are seen being a part of the coveted honorary." Explaining further on the current surge in Indians taking real estate route for Golden visa Alok said, "High ROI that Dubai's real estate market is expected to offer to the property owners is an icing on the cake. Indians not only get an easy way to avail Golden Visa in UAE but also will be able to reap a big deal out of their investments. Hence the real estate route offers a double win opportunity for Indians who are aspiring to take Golden Visa." Hotline details Phone: +971 56 611 9241, +971 52 913 4841 Email: dubai@homelyyours.com This story is provided by BusinessWire India. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/BusinessWire India) New Delhi [India], September 9 (ANI/GPRC): Every now and then, we all need a little pampering. Whether it's because you just had a long day at work or because you've been stressing about something for a while, a little pampering is an ideal way to let go and unwind. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to pamper yourself without even leaving your home. Whether you're looking to relax in your own surroundings or give your current space that final finishing touch, these tips will help you bring the luxury of a hotel room to your bedroom. Pick your bedsheets with care The first step in creating a luxurious bedroom environment is getting the right bedsheets. We highly recommend 100 per cent cotton bedsheets for a few reasons. The first is that they are made from organic materials and get softer after every wash. Other than this, they are highly breathable, have a wonderful sheen and dry faster than other fabrics. If you want to mimic the 'Hotel Look' completely, then you can buy white bed sheets. Otherwise, explore a variety of colours and patterns that match the aesthetic vibe of your bedroom. Invest in a good mattress Responsible sleep is an important part of your daily routine and is crucial for your health and well-being. Sleep is when your body repairs itself, recharges, and rebuilds strength. A good mattress can make all the difference when it comes to getting a good night's sleep. A new mattress can be a great investment for your health. And in today's date, you can find luxury mattresses that mimic the comfort of hotel room mattresses with ease. This is fantastic news because it implies that your comfort levels and sleeping habits will probably be comparable to those of upscale 5-star hotel customers. Additionally, companies like SPACES offer some of the best luxury mattresses that are thicker than typical, constructed of better materials, and feature an additional Euro Top layer for added comfort. If you suffer from physical pain, the Euro Top is a great option for you because it is covered with a soft quilted fabric of the highest quality that resists sagging and pile. Don't forget the essentials: comfortable clothes and towels Getting out of the shower and into pajamas can feel so decadent, but a pair of cotton pajamas and a set of towels is all you really need to feel comfortable in your home. Pajamas that you can move around in and towels that don't feel uncomfortable against your skin are two essentials you should never forget about. Other than these, there is one more thing you need to complete the hotel experience - Bathrobes! Bathrobes are the soft, comfortable bed and bath accessory that everyone gravitates towards in a hotel room. When you're getting ready for bed, there's no need to rush. Instead, take the time to relax and unwind. There are many benefits to relaxing before bed, from helping you fall asleep faster to keeping you from having nighttime stress. Show off your style with curtains When it comes to adding a little flare to your space, nothing beats a pair of curtains. Curtains are a great way to draw the attention of your eyes towards your space and can add a whole new element to your decor. Curtains can also be great for privacy, depending on your needs. If you need to get work done, but don't want to be disturbed, curtains can also be a great way to ensure you have privacy. Perhaps you're looking to add a little pizazz to your space and curtains are right up your alley. Curtains aren't just for decoration either. They can also be great for blocking out the sun, keeping privacy while you're in the bedroom or keeping your room illuminated at night. There are so many different ways to use curtains in your home and they can be used for so many different things. Conclusion The best part about decorating your bedroom is that you can turn it into your very own sanctuary. You can choose decor that reflects your interests and personality, or you can even choose to decorate your bedroom in a theme that reflects your favourite movie or book. However, be sure to choose items that are both aesthetically pleasing and comfortable to live with. Whether you want to add a little bit of luxury to your bedroom, or you want to make your bedroom more functional, these tips will help you achieve your bedroom goals. To transform your room into the pinnacle of hotel luxury, head to the SPACES website, where you can find a diverse range of luxury mattresses, bed and bath linen that will suit every mood. This story has been provided by GPRC. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content in this article. (ANI/GPRC) While the audience has been eagerly waiting for Allu Arjun's 'Pushpa: The Rule', the fever of its Pushparaj doesn't seem to settle down yet. Being a hub of Ganesh Utsav, the state of Maharashtra is celebrating its biggest festival of Ganesh Chaturthi, where everyone is in full swing to enjoy and seek the blessings of Lord Ganesha in a different way and interestingly, many people have chosen to celebrate the festival in a filmy way. The kind of rage that 'Pushpa: The Rise' has created among the masses is on a different level and is constantly rising in anticipation of its second part. The people of Maharashtra are celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi in wholly new and fresh ways. A video of one of the Ganesh Pandals in Khetwadi, Mumbai was seen using a Pushpa theme in a very creative way and went viral. A video was posted by Allu Arjun's fan page on Twitter. https://twitter.com/TeamTAFC/status/1567865533780971523 The organizer have dedicated one pandal to decorate it with a Pushpa theme among the 12 pandals. Among the 12 pandals, one of them was decorated with a Pushpa theme. And an interesting entry of Bappa in a Pushpa style could be seen in a video. Themed over the topic of Dahi Handi, the skit consists of an act that introduces different characters of the film who talks about Dahi Handi in their ways and it ends up with Pushpa Raj entering in his swag from the above and then the curtain opens for the devotees to see the Ganesh Idol. So in this way, they have created the theme around making it a 'Maharastracha Pushpa'. Recently, Allu Arjun's look from 'Pushpa: The Rise' inspired Lord Ganesha statues went viral, where the deity can be seen sitting in a white kurta-pyjama similar to how Arjun wore in the film. 'Pushpa: The Rise is a Telugu film directed by Sukumar, which was released in December 2021. The film, which also starred Rashmika Mandanna, emerged out as a blockbuster. The film's sequel is currently in pipeline. (ANI) A woman's mercury level during pregnancy is unlikely to have an adverse effect on the development of the child provided that the mother eats fish, according to a new study. Importantly, the researchers also found that it does not appear to matter which types of fish are eaten because the essential nutrients in the fish could be protective against the mercury content of the fish. The more important factor was whether the woman ate fish or not. This contrasts with current advice warning pregnant women not to eat certain types of fish that have relatively high levels of mercury. Although there are several studies that have considered this question, this research has looked at two contrasting studies of populations with mercury levels measured during pregnancy where the children were followed up at frequent intervals during their childhood. The first is a study focused on a population in the Seychelles, where almost all pregnant women are fish eaters. The second study considered analyses of data from the University of Bristol's Children of the 90s study (also known as the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC)), based in a relatively industrialised area in south-west England where fish are consumed far less frequently. No summary of the findings from this study has been published before. Although it has been known for some time that the children of women who eat fish in pregnancy are likely to benefit in various ways in regard to their eyesight and intellectual abilities, official advice has included the warning not to eat certain types of fish that have relatively high levels of mercury. As a result, there is the possibility that some women will stop eating any fish 'to be on the safe side'. Dr Caroline Taylor, Senior Research Fellow and co-author of the study, said: "We found that the mother's mercury level during pregnancy is likely to have no adverse effect on the development of the child provided that the mother eats fish. If she did not eat fish, then there was some evidence that her mercury level could have a harmful effect on the child. This could be because of the benefits from the mix of essential nutrients that fish provides, including long-chain fatty acids, iodine, vitamin D and selenium." Professor Jean Golding, co-author and Emeritus Professor of Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology at the University of Bristol, said: "It is important that advisories from health professionals revise their advice warning against eating certain species of fish. There is no evidence of harm from these fish, but there is evidence from different countries that such advice can cause confusion in pregnant women. The guidance for pregnancy should highlight 'Eat at least two portions of fish a week, one of which should be oily' -- and omit all warnings that certain fish should not be eaten." (ANI) Earlier on Wednesday, a couple from Rajahmundry in the East Godavari district died by suicide due to harassment by agents of a loan app. Reddy directed East Godavari district collector Madhavi Latha to hand over financial assistance of Rs 5 lakhs each to the children of the victim. "Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS jagan Mohan Reddy directed officials to take stringent action against online money lending apps for the harassment and blackmailing at the hands of online money lending apps which are the cause of deaths," said the Chief Minister's Office on Thursday. It was reported that the couple, Durgarao and Ramya Lakshmi, had taken loans from different loan apps. As they could not repay the amount, the loan agents started threatening them by saying that they would share their inappropriate photos on social media. (ANI) Although Jain had been granted bail two days ago, but his release was delayed due to verification of documents. His wife Kanta Jain and son Priyansh Jain submitted bonds of Rs 10 lakhs each after which he was released. The team of Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) Ahmedabad had raided the residence of perfume trader Piyush Jain in Kanpur and his firm in Kannauj on 23 December 2021. In the raids that lasted for four days, more than Rs 196 crore was recovered from both the places. Also 23 kg of foreign stamped gold and 600 litres of sandalwood oil were recovered. Two cases were registered against Piyush and he was sent to jail on December 27. --IANS amita/uk ( 177 Words) 2022-09-08-20:04:01 (IANS) RTHK: Sinn Fein looks forward to working with King Charles The leader of the Sinn Fein party in Northern Ireland looks forward to working with Britain's King Charles and urged fellow Irish nationalists to be respectful as their unionist neighbours mourn the death of Queen Elizabeth, she said on Friday. Michelle O'Neill was among the first people to sign a book of condolence at Belfast City Hall after she and other senior members of the former political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) offered words of sympathy on the Queen's death. The IRA, which ended its 30-year armed campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland after a 1998 peace deal, killed Charles' great uncle, Louis Mountbatten, in a 1979 bomb attack. The King described his great-uncle as "the grandfather I never had" and felt the loss deeply. "We have bridges to mend and I look forward to working with King Charles. I'm sure that he will carry on the legacy of building relationships between our two islands," O'Neill, dressed in black, told reporters. Charles has long been a figure of hate among some supporters of a united Ireland because he was head of the British Army's Parachute Regiment, members of which killed 13 Roman Catholic civil rights marchers in the 1972 Bloody Sunday shootings. While Sinn Fein has stepped up its campaign for a referendum on splitting from the United Kingdom in recent years, it has also sought to build a better relationship with Britain, not least when former IRA guerrilla commander Martin McGuinness shook hands with the Queen in Belfast in 2012. Sinn Fein has since become the largest party in Northern Ireland and is by far the most popular ahead of 2025 elections. "That played a very significant role in helping us all step forward and step outside of our comfort zone, I think it's really, really important that we all stretch ourselves," O'Neill said, praising what she described as the Queen's legacy of reaching out the hand of friendship. Asked if she was disgusted by some Irish social media users celebrating the Queen's death online, O'Neill responded "yes." Fireworks were heard in parts of Belfast on Thursday night and O'Neill said it was time for everybody to be respectful. Scores of people arrived with bouquets of flowers on Friday and scribbled messages of condolences at a mural of the Queen nearby at Belfast's Protestant Shankill Road. "At the end of the day she may have been the Queen of England, but she's also a mother, a grandmother. This is a time for refection and to be respectful of all people and how they feel right now," she said. (Reuters) This story has been published on: 2022-09-09. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. After Mukul Wasnik was relieved from the post of Madhya Pradesh general secretary in-charge on Thursday, speculation is rife that Wasnik may be the Plan B for the Gandhis in case Ashok Gehlot is reluctant to contest. Another possibility is he may be made general secretary (organisation), a post currently held by KC Venugopal who is close to Rahul Gandhi. Wasnik has long experience in the organisation as he started with the NSUI, the student wing of the Congress. He has been the longest serving general secretary and is from the Scheduled Caste community which could go in his favour. Wasnik was one of the persons in the G-23 who wrote the letter to interim Congress president Sonia Gandhi for reforms in the party in 2019. When Rahul Gandhi resigned as party president he was the favourite of some leaders but the CWC decided on Sonia as interim president. Thursday's significant development came a few weeks ahead of the Congress president's election. Shashi Tharoor and Prithviraj Chavan, former Maharashtra chief minister, could be candidates but sources said there is no clarity on it. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has emerged as the front runner for the Congress president's post, being seen as the choice of interim chief Sonia Gandhi, even as some want the return of Rahul Gandhi - with Gehlot too proposing his name. The G-23, which was understood to have made up its mind to field a candidate if no Gandhi stood, is now less likely to do so as it it is uncertain that Sonia Gandhi's choice will be challenged. The last time the election was conducted for the Congress president's post was in 2000 when Jitendra Prasada challenged Sonia Gandhi but lost. While some G-23 leaders have left the party and some even joined the BJP while some others had distanced themselves, Ghulam Nabi Azad had said that he has been forced to leave and Manish Tewari has reiterated that he is not a tenant but a shareholder in the party. However, the G-23, after the exit of Azad, seems to have become rather leaderless. Meanwhile, Congress general secretary, organisation, K.C. Venugopal said that the schedule for the party chief's election has already been announced, and those who want to contest for the post should file the nomination before September 30. A section of Congress leaders say that Rahul Gandhi should again take over as president, with Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge saying that this is his personal opinion. Salman Khurshid has also expressed support for him. Rahul Gandhi has indicated that he is not willing and instead, wants a non-Gandhi to be the party president. --IANS miz/bg ( 460 Words) 2022-09-08-20:58:02 (IANS) Sardinha was reacting to an incident of killing of sand extraction worker from Jharkhand in a firing on August 31 at Curchorem in South Goa. On August 31, one sand extraction worker from Jharkhand was killed while another critically injured in a firing incident at Curchorem in South Goa. Yusuf Alam, 23, and Mohammed Sahu, 33, were brought to a health centre after the incident. Alam was declared dead, while Sahu was shifted to Goa Medical College for treatment as he was in a critical condition. "It was shocking that a sand extraction worker was killed in Curchorem. Time and again I have requested the government to earmark places for sand extraction. Four or five times I requested, but the government turned Nelson's eye on my demand," he said. Congress senior leader Sardinha said that traditional sand extraction should take place in the state. "Only thing is that sand should not be extracted near bridges," Sardinha said. "Sand is required for new constructions of houses and buildings. Sand extraction is happening, though it is banned. This illegal practice increases the price of sand and it never decreases later," he said. "I want to ask the government, when this sand (illegally) is extracted, stored and transported, why action is not taken against them," he questioned. "Hence I demand to legalise the sand extraction and earmark the places," He said. --IANS sbk/pgh ( 260 Words) 2022-09-08-22:26:03 (IANS) The Supreme Court said on Thursday that corruption by a public servant is an offence against the state and the society at large. The top court made the observation while restoring a criminal complaint against V. Senthil Balaji, who is currently the Electricity Minister in the DMK-led Tamil Nadu government. A bench comprising justices S.A. Nazeer and V. Ramasubramanian said: "It is needless to point out that corruption by a public servant is an offence against the state and the society at large. The court cannot deal with cases involving abuse of official position and adoption of corrupt practices, like suits for specific performance, where the refund of the money paid may also satisfy the agreement holder. Therefore, we hold that the high court was completely in error in quashing the criminal complaint." The top court set aside a Madras High Court order and allowed an appeal challenging the high court order, which quashed the proceedings against Balaji and others in connection with the allegations of a cash-for-job scam. Balaji was then the Transport Minister between 2011 and 2015. Restored the criminal complaint filed against Balaji, the top court said, "We do not know how the high court could have stayed prosecution of persons under the Prevention of Corruption Act, especially in matters of this nature. As a matter of fact, the state ought to have undertaken a comprehensive investigation into the entire scam, without allowing the accused to fish out one case as if it was a private money dispute." The apex court's judgment came on a plea against the high court order, which quashed the proceedings against Balaji and others on the grounds that the alleged victims of the recruitment scam had arrived at a settlement. It was claimed before the high court that the victims have been repaid the money and they want to quash the case. The top court said: "We are constrained to say that even a novice in criminal law would not have left the offences under the PC Act out of the final report. The attempt of the investigating officer appears to be of one 'willing to strike but afraid to wound' (the opposite of what Alexander Pope wrote in 'Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot')." In 2018, a complaint was filed against Balaji and others for taking bribes from job aspirants on the false promise of appointment to the Metro Transport Corporation (MTC) in various posts. The top court said: "The impugned order of the high court is wholly unsustainable. Therefore, the appeals are allowed and the impugned order of the high court is set aside. The criminal complaint is restored to file." --IANS ss/arm ( 456 Words) 2022-09-08-22:44:02 (IANS) The role of Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA), has come under scanner following the breakdown of infrastructure leading to flood situation, water-logging in Bengaluru city, popularly known as "Silicon Valley of India". BMRDA, the agency is created for the purposes of planning, coordinating and supervising the proper and orderly development of the area within the Bangalore Metropolitan Region and allied matters. The agency is headed by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai. One of the primary function of BMRDA is to coordinate the activities of the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), the Karnataka Slum Clearance Board (KSCB), the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited (KPTCL), the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB), the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) and such other bodies as are connected with developmental activities in the Bangalore Metropolitan Region. However, the crisis followed by rains, forcing the software professionals, CEOs to use boats and tractors as mode of transport to commute to office, challenging the reputation of Bengaluru as a global IT city, has come as an egg on the face of BMRDA. Katyayini Chamaraj, Executive Trustee, Civic Bengaluru, voluntary citizens' initiative talking to IANS stated: "BMRDA does structure planning for Bengaluru Metropolitan Region. Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA) has to come out with a plan with adherence to the structural plan of BMRDA. "But, BDA is developing its own master plan which is remaining only on paper. The government proudly announces it will regularize illegal constructions and mobilise Rs 1,000 crore revenues. What does it indicate?" "BMRDA should monitor whether there is conformity by the different agencies to its structural plan. In another development, the system is not allowing the Metropolitan Planning Committee to take shape. The politicians and bureaucrats do not recognize what is development. For them building roads is only the development after destroying Bengaluru's ecology," she said. Kavitha Reddy, Alumni B.CLIP leader, environmentalist and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) General Secretary stated that along with BMRDA, the role of BMRCL (metro), BWSSB, Pollution Control Board (PCB) and the Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, who is the current minister for Bengaluru, should be discussed at this phase of crisis. Every year, BBMP, the civic agency for Bengaluru would call a meeting of experts and activists before the arrival of monsoon. This year, however, no meeting was called, she said. Reddy further said that for 15 years, the most affected zones are represented by BJP MLAs. Mahadevapura is represented by Arvind Limbavali and Bommanahalli is represented by Satish Reddy. "They are three-time MLAs, where is the planning and what they were doing?" she questioned. The Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA) was established under the Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority Act, 1985 (Karnataka Act No. 39 of 1985), for the purposes of planning, coordinating and supervising the proper and orderly development of the area within the Bangalore Metropolitan Region and allied matters. The BMRDA Act declares that the Authority shall be a body corporate with power to acquire, hold and dispose of property and to enter contracts etc. The Bangalore Metropolitan Region (BMR) is one of the largest among the Metropolitan Regions in the country covering the entire Bangalore Urban, Bangalore Rural and Ramanagara Districts measuring 8,005 sq. km. --IANS mka/pgh ( 558 Words) 2022-09-08-23:12:01 (IANS) Mumbai Dabbawala Association mourned the demise of the longest-serving monarch of the UK, Queen Elizabeth II. Subhash Talekar, the Chairman of the Association said that Mumbai Dabbawala has had a very close relationship with British Royal Family ever since Prince Charles visited India. "Mumbai Dabbawala Association has had a very close relationship with British Royal Family ever since Prince Charles visited India. We are very sad to hear about the death of Queen Elizabeth II and all Dabbawalas pray that her soul rests in peace," said Subhash Talekar. Earlier on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled the death of Queen Elizabeth II as he hailed her "inspiring leadership". Taking to Twitter, the Prime Minister recalled his memorable meetings with the Queen during his UK visits in 2015 and 2018. "I will never forget her warmth and kindness. During one of the meetings, she showed me the handkerchief Mahatma Gandhi gifted her on her wedding. I will always cherish that gesture," PM Modi tweeted. The Prime Minister said Queen Elizabeth II will be remembered as a stalwart of our times. "She provided inspiring leadership to her nation and people. She personified dignity and decency in public life. Pained by her demise. My thoughts are with her family and people of the UK in this sad hour," he said in a subsequent tweet. Meanwhile, the longest-serving monarch of the UK, Queen Elizabeth II took her last breath at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on Thursday at the age of 96. Buckingham Palace issued a statement announcing the demise of the Queen on September 8. The statement referred to the Queen's eldest son, Prince of Wales, Charles as the new King ascending over the queen who reigned for 70 years and 7 months. "The death of my beloved Mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family. We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much loved Mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world," the statement said. Born on April 21, 1926, at 17 Bruton Street in Mayfair, London as Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, Queen was the oldest child of the Duke and Duchess of York - who later became King George VI - and Queen Elizabeth. Condolences poured in from around the world. Leaders and politicians took to Twitter to mourn the death of the British Queen. After the demise of Queen Elizabeth II, her eldest son Charles, who took the regnal name of Charles III, has become the new monarch. 10-day mourning was declared over the death of Elizabeth II, who was a formal head of state in 15 countries. (ANI) Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday chaired a meeting with officials regarding complaints of irregularities in urea distribution in the Jabalpur division and ordered to take strict action against those responsible. The Chief Minister chaired the meeting at his residence in Bhopal. Principal Secretary Agriculture, Principal Secretary Cooperative, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, MD of MarkFed along with Jabalpur Division Commissioner, Inspector General of Police and Collector attended the meeting. The officers of Jabalpur joined the meeting virtually. The meeting was held after complaints were received over irregularities in urea distribution in the Jabalpur division. There was a detailed review of urea distribution in the meeting. According to Chief Minister's office, after reviewing the distribution of urea, Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan gave necessary guidelines to the concerned officers. It is worth mentioning that about 800 tonnes of urea came out from Jabalpur for many districts but it did not reach them. "Immediately file an FIR and take strict action against those responsible," said the chief minister. He also directed the officers to arrest them and take strict action. Earlier on Thursday, the chief minister held a review meeting with officials over Prime Minister Narendra Modi to launch the 'Cheetah Reintroduction Project' at Kuno National Park in Sheopur. On his birthday on September 17, Prime Minister will inaugurate the 'Cheetah Reintroduction Project' at the Kuno National Park in the Sheopur district of Madhya Pradesh. On the very same day, Cheetahs from South Africa will be brought to the park. Madhya Pradesh Forest Minister Kunwar Vijay Shah said, "It was our wish to celebrate the birthday of the Prime Minister in a historic and unique form and our wish has been fulfilled. The Prime Minister will come to Madhya Pradesh on his birthday and has permission to release cheetahs brought from Africa into our state's forests. This time the birthday of the Prime Minister will prove to be a milestone in the history of the Forest Department of Madhya Pradesh." The forest minister also highlighted that the team of experts from South Africa, Namibia and the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department conducted all the inspections and found a favourable environment for cheetahs. He said Gandhi Sagar and Noora Dahi have been finalised for the second and third phases. "Recently I returned from a tour of South Africa. The MOU with South Africa is yet to be signed. Now eight cheetahs have been finalized to be brought from Namibia. If the second MoU is done before 17, there is a possibility of about 20 cheetahs coming from Namibia simultaneously," he added. On the preparations for the arrival of the Prime Minister, the forest minister said, "Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and a Union Minister and I will stay in Palpur Kuno on September 10-11. Not just to dedicate the cheetahs but we would also like to have a big public meeting with our Prime Minister. We are preparing for a big public meeting in Karhal," he added. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will celebrate Prime Minister Narendra Modi's birthday on September 17 for a period of 16 days as Seva Pakhwara (service fortnight). (ANI) The Army's Western Command (WC) and the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) signed a long-term Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) on Thursday, under which it will draw 25 Megawatts of solar power directly from the National Solar Grid of the country. "In a de-novo approach, the WC has signed a long-term PPA with NTPC (RE) to draw 25MW solar power directly from the National Solar Grid of the country for the next 27 years," said an Indian Army official. According to the official, it took at least five months for the NTPC officials and WC to discuss to come to a conclusion before inking the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). "The MoU was inked, after discussions and approvals spanning over five months, between NTPC officials and WC at Chandimandir on September 8. This initiative by WC will allow it to draw solar power directly from the National Solar Grid," the official said. The official further said that apart from accruing a substantial saving to the exchequer, it will decarbonize upto 38 per cent of the energy portfolio of WC. "Being hailed as a visionary step, this initiative of WC aligns it to the National Solar Mission of the Government of India, as also weans it away from the archaic coal-based thermal energy being provisioned so far, that too at a higher tariff rate," the official added. The solar energy, being provided to the Western Command, will be sourced from Sholapur in Maharashtra by making the concept itself location agnostic, another first spearheaded by the WC. (ANI) A bench headed by Chief Justice of India UU Lalit has sought a response from the Uttar Pradesh government's health department on the plea and asked its Registry to communicate the court's order to State's standing counsel and Health Secretary, Lucknow. According to the plea, the boy's father is in critical condition and needed his liver transplanted, for which he sought permission from the top court. The apex court in its order has asked the state's health department to remain present before it on Monday, September 12. It has also asked to conduct preliminary tests of the minor to see if the donation can be done. The Indian law allows for living organ donation by minors in India under exceptional circumstances only. The Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Rules 2014 states that living organ or tissue donation by minors shall not be permitted apart from 'exceptional grounds' to be recorded in detail with justifications and prior approval of the appropriate authority and the State government concerned. (ANI) Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) President and former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala on Friday met Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury at his party office in the national capital and invited him for a rally to be held in Fatehabad district on September 25 on the birth anniversary of late Chaudhary Devi Lal. After meeting with Yechury, Chautala addressed the media and said, "September 25 is the birth Anniversary of my beloved father Chaudhary Devi Lal, which we celebrate as 'Samman Diwas'. Sitaram Yechury ji and Devi Lal had a very old relationship and I have come here to invite him. he will attend the rally and there is expected to be a huge gathering." Speaking on Opposition Unity before the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the INLD President said thattoday every citizen of this country is sad and upset because of the present government, which has divided the country in the name of religion and caste. "They (BJP government) do not love our country. They are concerned with money and engaged in looting the country, so today every citizen of the country is upset," he said. "Surely the circumstances will be favourable and all the people of the Opposition party will join and there will be a change in power in 2024," Chautala added. In a joint press briefing, Yechury said, "Thanks to Chautala ji for who himself came here and invited me. Chaudhary Devi Lal ji was a great leader of the country and we learned a lot from him. Chautala ji will celebrate his birth Anniversary as 'Samman Diwas' and he has invited the leaders of all Opposition parties. "The question is that every citizen of the Country is worried and we want how to give relief to them. This responsibility is on all the Opposition parties and how we will fulfil it, we will discuss about it" Yechury said on Opposition unity. Nitish Kumar, Tejashwi Yadav, Farooq Abdullah, Sharad Pawar and Mamata Banerjee are expected to attend the honour day rally to be held in Fatehabad on September 25 organized by INLD. (ANI) The Supreme Court on Friday posted for hearing, before a three-judge bench, the pleas challenging the Constitutional validity of certain sections of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act 1991. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India UU Lalit also asked the Centre to file its response to the pleas within two weeks. It noted that the Central government has not yet filed any response to the pleas in which the notice was issued last year. It also allowed applicants to intervene in the main pleas challenging the Places of Worship Act and can file written submissions for not more than five pages. It also issued notice to the Centre on some pleas and intervention applications filed on the matter. Posting the matter for hearing on October 11, it said that in the meantime all parties are directed to complete pleadings. Earlier, the apex court had granted liberty to petitioners, challenging the Act, to file an intervention application in already pending pleas on the same issue. The plea challenged the Places of Worship Act saying that the Act takes away the rights of Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs to restore their 'places of worship and pilgrimages' destroyed by the invaders. The daughter of Kashi Royal Family, Maharaja Kumari Krishna Priya; BJP leader Subramanian Swamy; Chintamani Malviya, former Member of Parliament; Anil Kabotra, a retired army officer; advocate Chandra Shekhar; Rudra Vikram Singh, resident of Varanasi; Swami Jeetendranand Saraswati, a religious leader; Devkinandan Thakur, resident of Mathura and a religious guru among others have filed the pleas in the apex court against the 1991 Act. The apex court had issued notices to the Centre on the plea of advocate Ashwini Upadhyay and one other plea challenging the Act. Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind also filed a plea in the top court challenging the petitions filed by a Hindu petitioner saying that entertaining the pleas against the Act will open floodgates of the litigations against countless mosques across India. One of the pleas stated, "The Act excludes the birthplace of Lord Rama but includes the birthplace of Lord Krishna, though both are the incarnation of Lord Vishnu, the creator and equally worshipped all over the world." The pleas further stated that the Act blatantly offends the right of Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs to restore, manage, maintain and administer the places of worship and pilgrimage guaranteed under Article 26 of the Indian Constitution. The pleas filed have challenged the constitutional validity of Sections 2, 3, and 4 of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act 1991, which it said offends Articles 14, 15, 21, 25, 26, 29 and violates the principles of secularism and the rule of law, which is an integral part of the Preamble and the basic structure of the Constitution. The pleas said that the Act violates the principles of secularism and Sections 2, 3, and 4 of the Act and has taken away the Right To Approach the Court and thus Right To Judicial Remedy has been closed. Section 3 of the Act bars the conversion of places of worship. It states, "No person shall convert any place of worship of any religious denomination or any section thereof into a place of worship of a different section of the same religious denomination or of a different religious denomination or any section thereof." Section 4 bars filing any suit or initiating any other legal proceeding for a conversion of the religious character of any place of worship, as existing on August 15, 1947. The Places of Worship Act 1991 is void and unconstitutional for many reasons, the plea said, adding that it offends the right of Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs to pray, profess, practice and prorogate religion (Article 25), the petitions said. The Act infringes on the rights of Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs to manage maintain and administer the places of worship and pilgrimage (Article 26), the pleas added. The Act deprives Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs of owning religious properties belonging to the deity (misappropriated by other communities). It also takes away the right of judicial remedy of Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs to take back their places of worship and pilgrimage and the property which belonged to deity, stated the pleas. The Act further deprives Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs to take back their places of worship and pilgrimage connected with cultural heritage (Article 29) and it also restricts them to restore the possession of places of worship and pilgrimage but allows Muslims to claim under Section 107, Waqf Act, the pleas added. "The Act legalizes the barbarian acts of invaders. It violates the doctrine of Hindu law that the 'Temple property is never lost even if enjoyed by strangers for years' and even the king cannot take away property as the deity is the embodiment of God and is juristic person, represents 'Infinite the timeless' and cannot be confined by the shackles of time," one of the petitions stated. "It is respectfully submitted that the Central Government by making impugned provision (Places of Worship Act 1991) in the year of 1991 has created arbitrary irrational retrospective cutoff date, declared that character of places of worship and pilgrimage shall be maintained as it was on August 15, 1947, and no suit or proceeding shall lie in the court in respect of the dispute against encroachment done by barbaric fundamentalist invaders and such proceeding shall stand abated," the PILs stated. (ANI) The Central-Vista avenue after months of delay was ultimately made available for the public on Thursday night. The Union Minister of Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has turned dreams into reality with the Central Vista Project. "PM Modi has fulfilled the dreams of Mahatma Gandhi, Subhash Chandra Bose, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, and even Jawaharlal Nehru for that matter, which the Congress could not accomplish during their tenure", said Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. He continued by saying that Central-Vista Avenue is something in which all Indians take tremendous pride and that the Congress party continues to have issues. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 'Kartavya Path' at India Gate on Thursday. He said 'Kartavya Path' symbolises a shift from erstwhile Rajpath being an icon of power, to Kartavya Path being an example of public ownership and empowerment. He also unveiled the statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose at the India Gate occasion. Addressing the gathering, the Prime Minister said that in the time of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav the nation felt a new inspiration and energy today. "Today, we are filling the picture of tomorrow with new colours, leaving behind the past. Today this new aura is visible everywhere, it is the aura of confidence of New India", he said. He continued "Kingsway (Rajpath), the symbol of slavery, has become a matter of history from today and has been erased forever. Today a new history has been created in the form of the 'Kartavya Path'. I congratulate all the countrymen for their freedom from yet another identity of slavery, in this Amrit Kaal of independence." The Prime Minister emphasized that the Kartavya Path is not just a road of bricks and stones but a living example of India's democratic past and all-time ideals. The Prime Minister highlighted that on the contrary, the Rajpath was for the British Raj who considered the people of India as slaves. He stressed that the emotion and structure of the Rajpath were a symbol of slavery, but today with the change in architecture, its spirit is also transformed. This Kartavya Path stretching from the National War Memorial to Rashtrapati Bhawan will be vibrant with a sense of duty, he added. The Prime Minister said that India of today is working on cultural infrastructure along with physical, digital, and transport infrastructure. For Social infrastructure, he gave examples of new AIIMS and medical colleges, IITs, water connections, and Amrit Sarovar. He said rural roads and the record number of modern expressways, railways and metro networks, and new airports are expanding transport infrastructure in an unprecedented manner. Optical fiber to panchayats and records of digital payments have made India's digital infrastructure a topic of global appreciation. Talking about cultural infrastructure, PM Modi said that it does not mean just the infrastructure associated with the places of faith but also includes infrastructure related to our history, our national heroes, and our national heritage. He said that the development of such sites is also taking place with equal urgency. "Be it Sardar Patel's Statue of Unity or a museum dedicated to tribal freedom fighters, PM Museum or Babasaheb Ambedkar Memorial, National War Memorial or National Police Memorial, these are examples of cultural infrastructure", the Prime Minister said. PM Modi stressed that an aspirational India can make rapid progress only by giving impetus to social infrastructure, transport infrastructure, digital infrastructure, and cultural infrastructure as a whole. "I am happy that today, the country is getting another great example of cultural infrastructure in the form of Kartavya Path", the Prime Minister added. (ANI) The students at Banglore University are on a protest against the construction of the temple within the university campus area. Protesters alleged that the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is unauthorisedly constructing the temple by encroaching the university land and it would affect the academic environment at the university. Speaking to ANI, the student said, "the authorities were constructing the temple illegally and we do not need the temple in our campus". On the other hand, after the intervention, the university administration stopped the work and assured the students that it would consult them before deciding on the matter. Member of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly Priyank Kharge said, "Bangalore University is unitedly saying that they need better infrastructure, a state art library for the university and they don't want any religious activities to happen in the university. In spite of that, the govt has taken unilateral decisions without due consultation and processes followed by the board". Students are very clear and saying that please do not divide us into religious lines and we are here to study, added Kharge. In the last 3 years, the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) government has not done anything. "In the last 3 years, the BJP govt has not done anything. CM Basavaraj Bommai is admitting that he is completely failed in tackling the issues of Bengaluru. CM stills blame the Congress for what is happening in Bengaluru", Priyank Kharge added. Taking a dig at BJP Kharge also added, "We thought that PM Modi will be a game changer but unfortunately, he is becoming the name changer. What has happened in Kartavya's path? It is just renovation and they have just beautified it PM Modi is just trying to retro himself with all these projects". Meanwhile, the construction work of the Ganesha temple is going on with the security of the police, on the other side, the students are thinking of starting a legal battle against the authorities. (ANI) The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Gujarat government to file the entire record of the proceedings in the Bilkis Bano case, including the remission order given to the 11 convicts who had gang-raped Bano and murdered her family members during the 2002 Godhra riots. A bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and BV Nagarathna granted two weeks to the Gujarat government to produce all relevant records in the case. The bench also issued notice to the Gujarat government and convicts on a plea filed by TMC MP Mahua Moitra against the release of the convicts. Earlier, the apex court had issued notice to the Gujarat government on the plea filed by Communist Party of India (Marxist) member Subhashini Ali, journalist Revati Laul, and social activist and professor Roop Rekha Verma. It asked the petitioner to impede convicts in the petition. The plea has sought setting aside of order granting remission to 11 convicts and directing their immediate re-arrest. "It is submitted that it would appear that the constitution of members of the competent authority of the Gujarat government also bore allegiance to a political party and sitting MLAs. As such, it would appear that the competent authority was not an authority that was entirely independent, and one that could independently apply its mind to the facts at hand," the plea stated. The plea filed by the three women said they had challenged the order of competent authority of the government of Gujarat by way of which 11 persons who were accused in a set of heinous offences committed in Gujarat were allowed to walk free on August 15, 2022, pursuant to remission being extended to them. "The 11 persons were sentenced to life imprisonment for commission of the offences of, among other things, gang-rape and murder of multiple people during the large-scale communal riots in Gujarat in 2002 on January 18, 2008, passed by the Sessions Court in Greater Mumbai and the conviction was upheld by way of Judgment dated May 4, 2017, passed by High Court of Mumbai," the petition stated. The petition said the case which led to the conviction of the 11 convicts was investigated by the CBI, accordingly, the grant of remission solely by the Gujarat government without any consultation with the Central government is impermissible in terms of the mandate of Section 435 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. The remission in this heinous case would be entirely against public interest and would shock the collective public conscience, as also be entirely against the interests of the victim (whose family has publicly made statements worrying for her safety), the plea stated. "It is submitted that on such facts (facts of the case), no right thinking authority applying any test under any extant policy would consider it fit to grant remission to persons who are found to have been involved in the commission of such gruesome acts," said the plea. The Gujarat government released the 11 convicts, who were sentenced to life imprisonment, on August 15. All the 11 life-term convicts in the case were released as per the remission policy prevalent in Gujarat at the time of their conviction in 2008. In March 2002 during the post-Godhra riots, Bano was allegedly gang-raped and left to die with 14 members of her family, including her three-year-old daughter. She was five months pregnant when rioters attacked her family in Vadodara. (ANI) The Supreme Court on Friday rejected the plea seeking directions to set up a Special Investigation Team to enquire about the violent protest that erupted against the "Agnipath" scheme. A bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud said that matters are being heard by Delhi High Court and so do not re-agitate issues now. The petitioner said that his petition is on the destruction of public property. The court noted that the petitioner seeks to challenge the validity of the scheme and the issue is pending before the Delhi High Court. The court dismissed the petition filed by petitioner-in-person and advocate Vishal Tiwari. Advocate Tiwari has moved in the Supreme Court seeking directions to set up a Special Investigation Team to enquire about the violent protest that erupted against the "Agnipath" scheme launched by the Central Government and to enquire about the damage caused to public property including Railways. The petition also sought directions to set up an expert committee under the Chairmanship of a retired Supreme Court judge to examine the Scheme "Agnipath" and its impact on National security and the Army of our nation. The petition has been moved by advocate Vishal Tiwari, who said that it would like to bring the Court's attention to the devastating condition of the country resulting from the Agnipath Scheme launched by the Centre through its Ministry of Defence. "The consequence has been far-reaching for the citizens of this country resulting in intensified vandalism and protest leading to severe destruction of public property and goods. This Writ Petition filed under Article 32 of the Constitution of India is in the interest of the public at large and to enforce the fundamental rights of right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution, " the petition said. The petitioner has cited various incidents of violence that took place in different parts of the country. "Such arbitrary and experimental scheme has created havoc in the country with no response from the Respondents, such reluctance and non-action from the concerned governments have led to widespread damage of public good and properties which have been ultimately raised through public money," the petition said. "The Rule of Law is at stake and there has been a severe violation of the fundamental right to life of people against the mala fide and arbitrary scheme of the government resulting in such havoc. This situation requires immediate judicial intervention, " the petition said. Henceforth the petition has urged the top court to issue various directions including appropriate directions to the States Government to Appoint a Claim Commissioner under the Guidelines of the Judgement dated 16-4-2009 passed by the Supreme court. It also sought an appropriate direction to Setup a Special Investigation Team to enquire about the Violent protest that emerged against the Proposed scheme "Agnipath" launched by the Government and to enquire about the damage caused to public property including Railways; to submit a Status Report on the Violent protest emerged against the Proposed scheme "Agnipath" launched by the Government and directions to Setup An expert committee under the Chairmanship of Retired Supreme Court judge to examine the Scheme "Agnipath" its an impact on the National security and the Army of our nation. (ANI) According to BSF, the apprehended man was identified as Khalid Hasan Hridaya (27), a resident of Karghati village of Gopalganj district in Bangladesh. He was nabbed by BSF troops of Border Out Post Ranghat, 68 Battalion under South Bengal Frontier. During interrogation, Khalid told BSF that he lost his hand in a bus accident. He was coming to India for treatment and an artificial limb by illegally crossing the International Border. However, Khalid was later handed over to the Border Guard Bangladesh out of humanity and goodwill. Yoginder Agrawal, Commanding Officer of 68 Battalion stated that BSF is taking strict measures to prevent infiltration along Indo-Bangladesh Border due to which some people are being apprehended. Considering the seriousness of the crime of the apprehended people and due to the mutual cooperation and goodwill of the Border Guarding Forces of the two countries, some of them are handed over to each other, he added. (ANI) Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday met with Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena for the first time after the Central Investigation Bureau (CBI) raids on Deputy CM Manish Sisodia. "Our weekly meeting happened in a very good environment. I was not there in Delhi, so we couldn't meet. We discussed various topics in this meeting," Kejriwal said. Notably, the last meeting between Delhi CM and LG took place on August 12, but they didn't meet on August 19, the day the CBI raided Mr Sisodia's house over an alleged scam in the liquor policy and the next Friday, the AAP leadership was in Gujarat for poll campaigning. The meeting today had routine administrative matters to be discussed. CBI raided Manish Sisodia's house on the recommendation of VK Saxena and claimed that Sisodia also extended financial favours to the liquor licenses much after the tenders had been awarded and thus caused huge losses to the exchequer. The excise policy was passed in chief minister Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi Cabinet in the middle of the deadly Delta Covid-19 pandemic in 2021.However, the Delhi government's version is that the policy was formulated to ensure the generation of optimum revenue, and eradicate the sale of spurious liquor or non-duty paid liquor in Delhi, besides improving user experience. Kejriwal further said that he urged him to strengthen the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and work for cleanliness, also asked to work against the mountains of garbage "I assured him that the Delhi government is always ready to co-operate in everything. We are getting complaints about the lack of sanitization. We had a discussion on two issues- how to fix the mountains of garbage and how to fix the sanitation system," Delhi CM said. "There has been a very tense atmosphere between AAP and LG in the last few days. It is unfortunate whatever happened. I hope the situation improves," he added. (ANI) A Bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and JK Maheshwari suggested to let who feed street dogs could be made responsible for vaccinating them and bearing costs if somebody is attacked by the animal. He suggested putting chips to track the stray dogs. Justice Khanna said, "Most of us are dog lovers. I also feed dogs... Have to find a rational way out. I also walk dogs. Some are ferocious. Have to segregate those." Senior advocate V Giri, appearing for the Kerala government, argued that the situation was very grave and requested allowing the destruction of dangerous dogs as per the Municipal and Panchayat laws. The top court was hearing a petition filed by the Animal Welfare Board of India, challenging a 2006 judgment of the Kerala High Court which empowered local self-government institutions to kill stray dogs. The petition was filed in the apex court after the Kerala government in 2015 had decided to eliminate stray dogs after a spate of dog attacks on people. (ANI) A two-day event will be held at Vigyan Bhawan to showcase the life of one of the great warriors of eastern India who defeated the formidable Mughals in the great Battle of Saraighat, the Assam government said. The Government aims to bring to the national limelight the great warrior hitherto not known in other parts of the country, added the Assam government. To make the programme a resounding success in the national capital on November 23 and 24, a series of programmes have been lined up to project the great Ahom General in proper perspectives. At the direction of Chief Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Minister for Information and Public Relations, Printing and Stationary, etc, Pijush Hazarika arrived in Delhi on Friday to hold preliminary discussion with organisations and groups of Delhi and NCR and media persons of Assam, based in Delhi, for the concluding function of 400th birth anniversary celebrations of the Ahom General. Pijush Hazarika said a committee headed by the Chief Minister would be formed shortly to organise the event in a smooth manner. He disclosed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah would attend the two-day event. "The chief minister is taking special interest in glorifying the illustrious life of Veer Lachit Barphukan on the international stage and giving the great warrior the right place in the annals of history," said Hazarika Former President of India, Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated the year-long celebrations of Lachit Barphukan at Srimanta Sankardev Kalakshetra in Guwahati on February 25 this year. (ANI) Amid the ongoing disengagement process between India and China in the Gogra-Hot Springs area on the Line of Actual Control (LAC), Indian Army Chief General Manoj Pande will be visiting Ladakh tomorrow. India and China have agreed to dismantle and verify the temporary structures and other allied infrastructure created in the Gogra-Hot Springs (PP-15) area of the LAC in Ladakh, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Friday. This comes a day after Indian and Chinese troops in the Gogra-Hot Springs area started to disengage in a coordinated and planned way. In response to a media query, MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said the disengagement process in the area will be completed by September 12. This disengagement process follows the sixteenth round of talks between the Corps Commanders of India and China that was held at Chushul Moldo Meeting Point on July 17, 2022. Since then, the two sides had maintained regular contact to build on the progress achieved during the talks to resolve the relevant issues along the LAC (Line of Actual Control) in the Western Sector of the India-China border areas. "As a result, both sides have now agreed on disengagement in the area of Gogra-Hot Springs (PP-15). As per the agreement, the disengagement process in this area started on September 8 at 0830 hrs and will be completed by 12 September 2022," Bagchi said. The MEA spokesperson continued that the two sides have agreed to cease forward deployments in this area in a phased, coordinated and verified manner, resulting in the return of the troops of both sides to their respective areas."It has been agreed that all temporary structures and other allied infrastructure created in the area by both sides will be dismantled and mutually verified," Bagchi said and added that "the landforms in the area will be restored to the pre-stand-off period by both sides." The agreement ensures that the LAC in this area will be strictly observed and respected by both sides and that there will be no unilateral change in status quo. "With the resolution of the stand-off at PP-15, both sides mutually agreed to take the talks forward and resolve the remaining issues along LAC and restore peace and tranquillity in India-China border areas," he said. Last month, the Indian and Chinese armies held a Division Commander-level meeting where they discussed matters pertaining to maintaining peace and tranquillity along the Line of Actual Control in the Ladakh sector. Earlier, India and China held talks in the Chushul sector to address the air space violations by the Chinese Air Force where India warned the Chinese against any misadventure. (ANI) Containers loaded with clothes, electronic devices, fruits and other items that are being imported to Nepal for the Dashain festival have been stopped in the Tibet region by Chinese authorities, media reports said. Nepali businesses are facing the brunt of barring of entry of goods by the Chinese authorities. Chairperson of Sindhupalchowk Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Raj Kumar Basnet said, that as a result of these restrictions fruits have started decaying, reported Nepal's local media outlet Khabar Hub. The businessmen are incurring losses due to this. The ban on entry is attributed by the Chinese government to the ongoing lockdown in Tibet in view of the new COVID outbreak. Reasoning to this the Chinese government has ordered to stop the goods-carrying vehicles entering Lhasa from the China mainland for the time being. Chairperson Basnet shared that more than 200 containers were stopped at Keyrong and around 100 containers at Khasa. Chief of Tatopani Dry Port Custom Office, Narad Gautam, also mentioned that the import of goods was prohibited, as per Khabar Hub. Notably, the lockdown was imposed on August 8 in different cities of Tibet due to coronavirus infection. A Nepali businessperson Subas Timilsina complained that Nepali businesspersons bringing different goods from the northern border of China have been facing problems due to this. According to separate media reports, the sudden COVID outbreak in Tibet has stirred the Communist Party of China which has taken strict measures in the region, including some very suspicious ones as well, which has resulted in adversely affecting the lives of the Tibetans. This comes as the Chinese autonomous region of Tibet, which barely reported COVID patients for more than two years is now said to be facing a spate of new infections. China is hell-bent on imposing the Zero-COVID-like policies in the affected regions causing a lot of concern and impacting the lives of the people through various means, media reports said. According to Tibet Press citing people speaking with Radio Free Asia, said that some residents living in Lhasa shared that due to the severe curbs in the region they are finding it hard to even purchase grocery items including vegetables. Chinese authorities have imposed restrictions on movement on the movement of Tibetans however the reports do not disclose whether there will be any sort of punishment if the Tibetans violated the rules. No one talks about the severity of the punishment. Reports and news regarding the situation have been coming out but the true matter taking place inside Tibet is not fully known. Because of the severe restrictions put in place, not only tourists but Tibetan students who attend schools in China are not able to make it back to school on time. The situation is severe in the regions, as per the media portal. China is said to be the first country to have experienced the severity of the outbreak and to have imposed drastic measures including lockdowns and face mask mandates in response to the criticality. Now Beijing is trying to play the same cards in Tibet by subjecting the people of the region to the same kind of stern curbs. It has become a well-known phenomenon in the world of how the initial Wuhan COVID- 19 outbreak took place with lasting impacts. The communist party's response to that has been criticized as well. Information censorship is another aspect which has agitated the people. In January 2020, Tibet reported only one infection with confirmed symptoms. No cases were reported after that in the 900 days that followed. The regional capital of Lhasa however reported one symptomatic patient and seventeen asymptomatic patients at the beginning of August. The city then reportedly sealed a few buildings. People who were listed in the 18 cases had entered Lhasa from the city of Shigatse, Tibet's second biggest city with a population of about 800,000. The city later imposed a three-day curb during which travel was restricted and various events were suspended. The Potala Palace in Lhasa has been closed and the authorities are now hosting mass testing after the sudden outbreak. The deputy director of the Tibetan Region's Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Pengcuo Ciren stated that the first rounds of mass testing in Lhasa and Shigatse have started while the second rounds will follow suit. Major tourist sites in Lhasa, the Potala Palace, Lop Noringa and the Tibet Museum have all been closed without further notice. The world has somewhat come to terms with the virus and found ways to live with it by minimizing the risks and severity, China is still struggling with it by following means of strict isolation, quarantine, mandatory nuclei tests and contract-tracing regimen to cot the cause from its root and to maintain their strict zero-COVID policy. (ANI) US President Joe Biden on Friday mourned the death of the longest-serving monarch of the UK, Queen Elizabeth II, saying that "the thoughts and prayers of people all across the United States are with the people of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth in their grief." "Today, the thoughts and prayers of people all across the United States are with the people of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth in their grief. We send our deepest condolences to the Royal Family, who are not only mourning their Queen, but their dear mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. Her legacy will loom large in the pages of British history, and in the story of our world," a statement from President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden stated. "Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was more than a monarch. She defined an era," the statement added. Biden said that in a world of constant change, Queen was a steadying presence and a source of comfort and pride for generations of Britons, including many who have never known their country without her. "An enduring admiration for Queen Elizabeth II united people across the Commonwealth. The seven decades of her history-making reign bore witness to an age of unprecedented human advancement and the forward march of human dignity," he added. "She was the first British monarch to whom people all around the world could feel a personal and immediate connection--whether they heard her on the radio as a young princess speaking to the children of the United Kingdom, or gathered around their televisions for her coronation, or watched her final Christmas speech or her Platinum Jubilee on their phones. And she, in turn, dedicated her whole life to their service," the statement said. US President and First lady further said that Queen Elizabeth II led always with grace, an unwavering commitment to duty, and the incomparable power of her example, supported by her beloved Prince Philip for 73 years. She endured the dangers and deprivations of a world war alongside the British people and rallied them during the devastation of a global pandemic to look to better days ahead, they wrote. "Through her dedication to her patronages and charities, she supported causes that uplifted people and expanded opportunity. By showing friendship and respect to newly independent nations around the world, she elevated the cause of liberty and fostered enduring bonds that helped strengthen the Commonwealth, which she loved so deeply, into a community to promote peace and shared values," they added. Biden called Elizabeth II a "stateswoman of unmatched dignity and constancy" who deepened the bedrock Alliance between the United Kingdom and the United States. He said that Queen helped make the relationship between the countries special. "We first met the Queen in 1982, travelling to the UK as part of a Senate delegation. And we were honoured that she extended her hospitality to us in June 2021 during our first overseas trip as President and First Lady, where she charmed us with her wit, moved us with her kindness, and generously shared with us her wisdom. All told, she met 14 American presidents," they wrote. "She helped Americans commemorate both the anniversary of the founding of Jamestown and the bicentennial of our independence. And she stood in solidarity with the United States during our darkest days after 9/11, when she poignantly reminded us that "Grief is the price we pay for love," the statement further added. Biden and the First lady said that in the years ahead, they look forward to continuing a close friendship with The King and The Queen Consort. Born on 21 April 1926 at 17 Bruton Street in Mayfair, London, Queen Elizabeth II was the longest-serving monarch of the UK. She was the first child of The Duke and Duchess of York - who later became King George VI - and Queen Elizabeth. Queen Elizabeth II, died peacefully at Balmoral castle aged 96, the royal family said in a statement. The UK's longest-reigning monarch was placed under medical supervision earlier on Thursday after her condition deteriorated. Buckingham Palace issued a statement while referring to the Prince of Wales, Charles as the King. "The death of my beloved Mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family. We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much loved Mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world," the statement said. (ANI) Her family gathered at her Scottish estate after concerns grew about her health earlier on Thursday. The Queen came to the throne in 1952 and witnessed enormous social change. With her death, her eldest son Charles, the former Prince of Wales, will lead the country in mourning as the new King and head of state for 14 Commonwealth realms, BBC reported. In a statement, Buckingham Palace said: "The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. "The King and the Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow." All the Queen's children travelled to Balmoral, near Aberdeen, after doctors placed the Queen under medical supervision. Her grandson, Prince William, is also there, with his brother, Prince Harry, on his way. Queen Elizabeth II's tenure as head of state spanned post-war austerity, the transition from empire to Commonwealth, the end of the Cold War and the UK's entry into - and withdrawal from - the European Union. Her reign spanned 15 prime ministers starting with Winston Churchill, born in 1874, and including Liz Truss, born 101 years later in 1975, and appointed by the Queen earlier this week, BBC reported. She held weekly audiences with her prime minister throughout her reign. The Queen was born Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor, in Mayfair, London, on 21 April 1926. --IANS san/pgh ( 256 Words) 2022-09-08-23:22:04 (IANS) Prince Charles, 73, who had been heir to the crown for 70 years -- the longest in the country''s history -- has ascended the British throne. The development followed immediately upon his mother Queen Elizabeth II, 96, passed away after being monarch since 1952 - which surpassed Queen Victoria''s 63-year reign. Victoria ruled up to 1901. Elizabeth was also Queen of Canada, Australia and New Zealand, among other territories. "The Queen is dead. Long live the King." This has been the British tradition for centuries, though there is still the matter of an official coronation to consummate the ascension. Elizabeth breathed her last at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, one of her four ''royal'' residences and possibly her favourite. Her family from near and afar had gathered there to be at her side in her final moments. Apart from Charles, his elder son William, now next in succession, Charles'' sister Anne, brothers Andrew and Edward and his wife Camilla were present. William''s younger brother Harry, who now lives in the United States, was to attend a function in London, but cancelled his appearance to join the rest of the family at Balmoral. It was unclear whether his wife Meghan accompanied him. The couple have been estranged from their relatives for some time. Elizabeth was extraordinarily popular among her people and therefore widely accepted and respected by them. This rendered the British monarchy conceptually popular as well as opposed to republicanism. The same cannot arguably be said of Charles, although he will now have an opportunity to prove himself and gain greater confidence of British citizens. A YouGov poll put Charles'' popularity with the British people at 42 per cent, with 24 per cent disliking him and 30 per cent being neutral. He has been a tireless campaigner for the environment for decades, from much before it became fashionable to talk about it. He also values organic food and classical architecture. A question would arise as to whether Charles should automatically become head of the Commonwealth. But this was effectively decided by leaders of the 53-nation organisation, including India''s endorsement of this move. He has in fact been officiating on Elizabeth''s behalf at Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings, including the summit held earlier this year in Rwanda. When Elizabeth''s father George VI died in 1952, it was by no means cast in stone that she would step into her father''s role in the Commonwealth sphere. The appointment of George as head of the Commonwealth was for his lifetime only. However, a remarkable telegram from India''s then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had settled the matter. In congratulating Elizabeth on succeeding her father, he also congratulated her on succeeding him as head of the Commonwealth. Such was Nehru''s stature in the world, all member states of the Commonwealth fell in line with his sentiment. --IANS ashis/arm ( 484 Words) 2022-09-08-23:26:02 (IANS) US President Joe Biden with First Lady Jill Biden on Friday visited the British Embassy in Washington to sign a condolence book after the death of British Queen Elizabeth II. Upon reaching the Embassy, Biden and the First Lady were greeted by the British ambassador and her husband, as per a tweet by the British Embassy in Washington. He walked over to the condolence book and asked if he could write a message, taking a card with notes out of his jacket's pocket. The ambassador said, "if you would like to Sir." Biden wrote for a few minutes, while the First Lady watched over and the ambassador stood to the side, behind him. The First Lady then sat down in the chair and appeared to sign her name. "We mourn for all of you. She was a great lady, I'm so delighted I got to meet her," Biden said and he walked over to embassy staff. "Our hearts are with you," the First Lady said. Biden thanked the staff and said, "As my mother would say, God, loves you." He then walked out of the room, holding hands with the First Lady. The longest-serving monarch of the UK, Queen Elizabeth II took her last breath at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on Thursday at the age of 96. Buckingham Palace issued a statement announcing the demise of the Queen on September 8. The statement referred to the Queen's eldest son, Prince of Wales, Charles as the new King ascending over the queen who reigned for 70 years and 7 months. Condolences poured in from around the world. Leaders and politicians took to Twitter to mourn the death of the British Queen. Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences over the demise of Queen Elizabeth II, noting her authority in the international arena, as well as her love and respect for her subjects, the Kremlin press office, said Thursday. "The most important events of the newest history of the United Kingdom are inseparably connected to Her Majesty's name. For many decades, Elizabeth II rightly enjoyed the love and respect of her subjects, as well as authority on the international arena," Putin said in his condolences to King Charles III. Putin wished Charles III "courage and fortitude before the face of this great and irreplaceable loss." "Please relay my honest condolences and words of support to the members of the Royal Family and all people of the United Kingdom," Putin said in an official statement on Telegram. Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson called it the country's saddest day. "In the hearts of every one of us there is an ache at the passing of our Queen, a deep and personal sense of loss - far more intense, perhaps, than we expected," he said. "In these first grim moments since the news, I know that millions and millions of people have been pausing whatever they have been doing, to think about Queen Elizabeth, about the bright and shining light that has finally gone out. She seemed so timeless and so wonderful that I am afraid we had come to believe, like children, that she would just go on and on," Boris Johnson wrote. "We think of her deep wisdom, and historic understanding, and her seemingly inexhaustible but understated sense of duty, Relentless though her diary must have felt, she never once let it show, and to tens of thousands of events - great and small - she brought her smile and her warmth and her gentle humour and for an unrivalled 70 years she spread that magic around her Kingdom," he wrote. "This is our country's saddest day because she had a unique and simple power to make us happy. That is why we loved her. That is why we grieve for Elizabeth the Great, the longest serving and in many ways the finest monarch in our history," former PM added. After the demise of Queen Elizabeth II, her eldest son Charles, who took the regnal name of Charles III, has become the new monarch. 10-day mourning was declared over the death of Elizabeth II, who was a formal head of state in 15 countries. (ANI) "External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar, will pay an official visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on 10-12 September 2022. This will be his first visit to the Kingdom as External Affairs Minister of India," MEA said in a statement. During the visit, the external affairs minister will co-chair the inaugural Ministerial Meeting of the Committee on Political, Security, Social and Cultural Cooperation (PSSC), established under the framework of the India-Saudi Arabia Strategic Partnership Council, with his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud. "The two Ministers will undertake a comprehensive review of the entire bilateral relationship and will discuss the progress under the four Joint Working Groups of the PSSC Committee, namely Political & Consular; Legal and Security; Social and Cultural and Joint Committee on Defence Cooperation," the MEA said. The meetings of these Groups and Senior Officials (at the Secretary level) have been held over the past few months, the release added. "Both sides will also discuss regional and international issues of mutual interest including their cooperation at the United Nations, Group of Twenty (G20) and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)," the MEA said. During the visit, Jaishankar will also meet other Saudi dignitaries as well as the Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Dr Nayef Falah Mubarak Al-Hajraf. Both sides will review the bilateral relations and discuss ways to enhance them. The minister will also interact with the Indian community in Saudi Arabia. India-Saudi Arabia relations have strengthened considerably over the past few years including in political, security, energy, trade, investment, health, food security, cultural and defence fields. The top leadership of both countries remained in close touch even during the Covid-19 pandemic. (ANI) Former Foreign Minister Natwar Singh on Friday said Queen Elizabeth II in her interactions was very professional and humble and asserted that respect for monarchy would never be the same again as it used to be in the last 70 years. "This has never ever happened in British history that someone ruled for 70 years. It is a constitutional monarchy, She earned a good name in the last 70 years. Whenever I spoke to her, she spoke with dignity and was very professional," Singh told ANI. Talking about the legacy of Elizabeth II, Singh said, "Her son Prince Charles now is King Charles and he must have seen his mother closely. Still, I believe the respect for monarchy which was there during Elizabeth's term will not be that as it used to be." Queen Elizabeth II marked seventy years on the throne this year and is the oldest and longest-reigning monarch in British history. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday also condoled the death of the British Queen as he hailed her inspiring leadership. Taking to Twitter, the Prime Minister recalled his memorable meetings with the Queen during his UK visits in 2015 and 2018. Buckingham Palace issued a statement announcing the demise of the Queen on September 8. The statement referred to the Queen's eldest son, Prince of Wales, Charles as the new King ascending over the queen who reigned for 70 years and 7 months. Born on April 21, 1926, at 17 Bruton Street in Mayfair, London as Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, Queen was the oldest child of the Duke and Duchess of York - who later became King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Condolences poured in from around the world. Leaders and politicians took to Twitter to mourn the death of the British Queen. After the demise of Queen Elizabeth II, her eldest son Charles, who took the regnal name of Charles III, has become the new monarch. 10-day mourning was declared over the death of Elizabeth II, who was a formal head of state in 15 countries. As per the documents seen by The Politico, Thursday was declared as "D-Day" and each following day leading up to the funeral will be referred to as "D+1," "D+2" till the tenth of her death. The code for conveying the message of the Queen's death is "London bridge is down." What will follow is a vast security operation to manage crowds and travel chaos, the report said. According to documents seen by Politico, the Royal family will next announce plans for the Queen's funeral. Ten days after Queen's death, the newly appointed UK Prime Minister Liz Truss will be the first member of the government to make a statement. Aside from the statement from the PM and other members of the government, gun salutes will be arranged at all saluting stations. The state funeral will be held at Westminster Abbey and there will be a committal service in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. Thereafter, Queen Elizabeth will be buried in the castle's King George VI Memorial Chapel. (ANI) Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is set to convene its 20th Party Congress next month in Beijing, the country's top decision-making body announced last month. During the Party Congress that is held every 5 years, Chinese President Xi Jinping is likely to secure a third term in office as President while a new top leadership line-up will also be unveiled. Ahead of the national congress, Xi Jinping is already calling for cadres in leading positions to remain loyal to the spirit of the party. If reports are to be believed, the need for the maintaining spirit has arisen for growing discontent over Xi Jinping's policies. Writing for InsideOver, Federico Giuliani contended that all is not smooth in China. "The infighting within the party is going on and the fight between Xi Jinping, General Secretary, and the faction of Jiang Zemin, former CCP head; and another one is the fight between Xi and Li Keqiang, China's Premier," he argues. Since the Chinese chairman assumed power, he has centralized power and made CCP and government less flexible. He has transformed it into a top-down institution led by a single dominant leader. "The congress is an event held once every five years at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing to set major policies and select top leaders - including the roughly 370-strong Central Committee and 25-member Politburo," said Giuliani. Even Xi's call for persistence and his overarching goal to prevent social unrest and political doubts is intensely debated among China watchers. Experts believe that it may take longer for economic activity to fully recover from the impact of stringent lockdowns and the harsh Zero Covid-19 strategy. Despite a rise in the party membership of the CCP, President Xi has expressed concern over the loyalty of party members towards him as he continues to bid for the third presidential term. The party members often have two types of loyalty. The first includes loyalty to the party and the second to Xi himself. However, it is crucial to note that most government job positions in the country require the individual have a party membership. Giuliani said the battle for the 20th Congress is not over. "While Xi's securing of a third term is virtually guaranteed, the success of those he will seek to promote is less so i.e. he will not get up around him all the folks that he wants," he concludes. (ANI) Italian Ambassador to India, Vincenzo De Luca on Friday paid tribute to the longest living monarch Queen Elizabeth who passed away on Thursday. "Condolences of the Italian government on the passing away of Queen Elizabeth. She had been a very important person in the last 70 years. She made a great contribution to world affairs respecting various institutions, democracy in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth," said Vincenzo De Luca. Speaking about her legacy, he said, "She was important not only for the UK but for the world, for Europe and the entire world." Queen Elizabeth II, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, passed away Thursday. Queen Elizabeth II breathed her last in Scotland. Condolences poured in from around the world following the demise of the 96-year-old monarch. India on Friday declared one-day mourning on September 11 on the passing away of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. Prime Minister Narendra Modi remembered her as a "stalwart of our times", saying she "provided inspiring leadership to her nation and people" and "personified dignity and decency in public life". The Queen was not keeping well of late and was under medical supervision as doctors were "concerned for Her Majesty's health". Buckingham palace announced she died at Balmoral Castle where members of the royal family had rushed to her side after her health turned for the worse. The Queen had been suffering from what Buckingham Palace called "episodic mobility problems" since the end of last year. After her coffin is brought back to London, the Queen will lie in state in Westminster Hall for about four days before her funeral. Elizabeth II died peacefully at Balmoral castle aged 96, the royal family said in a statement on Thursday. The UK's longest-reigning monarch was placed under medical supervision on Thursday after her condition deteriorated. Her eldest son, Charles III, will officially become the King on Friday. The UK lawmakers are expected to swear an oath of loyalty to King Charles III on Saturday, UK newspaper The Independent reported, citing the UK House of Commons authorities. On Thursday, UK media reported that Charles III was expected to be officially named the king of the United Kingdom on Friday.All UK lawmakers will have an opportunity to take the oath after the 10-day mourning period, but it is "not a formal requirement," according to the report. (ANI) Nepal's Foreign Secretary Bharat Raj Paudyal will be visiting India from September 13-14 at the invitation of his Indian counterpart Vinay Mohan Kwatra. On 13 September 2022, the Foreign Secretaries will hold discussions on bilateral issues covering the entire range of multifaceted cooperation between India and Nepal, read the Ministry of External Affairs press release. They will be reviewing the progress on the various initiatives/ announcements made during the recent high-level visit of Prime Minister of Nepal, Sher Bahadur Deuba to India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Nepal, in April and May 2022, respectively. Recently, the Indian Prime Minister visited Lumbini, Nepal, the birthplace of Buddha, where he laid a foundation stone along with the Nepalese Prime Minister for a Buddhist Vihara, which was being built with Indian assistance. The Prime Minister of Nepal also made his first bilateral visit abroad to India since taking his oath in July 2021. The visit was a success in launching connectivity projects and signing Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs). Nepal is an important neighbour of India and occupies a special significance in its foreign policy because of its geographic, historical, cultural and economic linkages/ties span centuries. India and Nepal share similar ties in terms of Hinduism and Buddhism with Buddha's birthplace Lumbini located in present-day Nepal. The two countries not only share an open border and unhindered movement of people, but they also have close bonds through marriages and familial ties, popularly known as Roti-Beti ka Rishta. The India-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1950 forms the bedrock of the special relations that exist between India and Nepal. Indian Army Chief General Manoj Pande is on a five-day official visit to Nepal, on the invitation of General Prabhu Ram Sharma, Chief of Army Staff of Nepal Army. This was followed by a meeting with his counterpart General Prabhu Ram Sharma, during which both delegations discussed strengthening longstanding army-to-army relations. He was also given a comprehensive briefing by senior officers of the Nepal Army. On behalf of the Indian government, the Indian Army Chief presented training equipment to the Nepal Army along with Light Vehicles which would augment the capabilities of Nepal Army personnel. (ANI) Solar power is a renewable source of energy where the sun's energy is converted into electricity via the usage of solar panels. A number of solar power generation companies are present in Japan. All the firms are coming up with a new variety of products for solar panel installation and management. Ryoji Matsuda, VERTEC, said, "Our company's theme is contributing to the environment from the rooftop. The rooftop is our working area. We thought about the contribution to the environment and developed waterproof products and a base for solar energy." These solar panel move according to the direction of the sun, so it can store sunlight more efficiently. "The position of the sun can be defined by the calculation of the latitude and longitude of its site. It is calculated by the computer built into the base and moves the angle to follow the sun. Japan is promoting energy conservation and carbon neutrality according to national policy. An increasing number of companies are installing solar panels for self-consumption, aiming to contribute to environmental protection. It can reduce electricity fees and promote companies that are taking care of the environment, and I think the demand for solar panels is increasing," said Akiba Noriyuki, LC-JAPAN. Managing and cleaning panel is a major task for large-scale facilities like "mega-solar". Install the rail and brush on the solar panel and clean them under computer control. This clean product is used in the snow area in winter. Kim JeongYun, Reset, Robotics Startup, said, "In large solar panel power plants, some plants use small cleaning robots to clean panels. If the plant is large, working with human power is often wasting time. I believed that developing robots that can move autonomously without human intervention would make maintenance significantly easier." Technological advancements to operate renewable energy more efficiently play an important role in achieving the goal of carbon neutrality worldwide. (ANI) US and India announced a new initiative to increase tree coverage outside of forest lands in India in a bid to support global climate change mitigation and adaptation goals. "The Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change, the Government of India and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), on September 8, 2022, announced the launch of a new program, "Trees Outside Forests in India," US Embassy in India said. The move will enhance carbon sequestration, support local communities, and strengthen the climate resilience of agriculture. The new USD 25 million programmes will bring together farmers, companies, and private institutions in India to rapidly expand tree coverage outside of traditional forests by 28 lakh hectares. Through agroforestry, or integrating trees into farming systems, the program will improve the resilience of farming systems while increasing the income of farmers. The program will also use innovative financing models and leverage India's private sector to promote tree-based enterprises, helping to create sustainable markets and improve rural economies and livelihoods, with the potential to benefit more than 13 million people. Implemented by a consortium led by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and World Agroforestry (ICRAF), the program will be implemented in seven states including Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Haryana, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh. Announcing the launch, the Secretary for Environment, Forest, and Climate Change, Leena Nandan, said, "India and the U.S. are firmly committed to working closely in many areas including the forestry sector. At the global level, India is playing a prominent role in forming and shaping affirmative responses to the challenges faced by the forest and environment sector. India has undertaken rapid economic growth while successfully conserving and enhancing its forest resources and would continue to do so through strategic planning and focused implementation." Highlighting the US-India cooperation on climate change and forestry, the US Charge d'Affaires Patricia A. Lacina, said, "As one of the world's largest economies and a global leader in science and innovation, India plays a critical role in helping solve the climate crisis. This new program builds on the enduring U.S.-India partnership to tackle the climate crisis by enhancing carbon sequestration and bolstering resilience in the face of climate threats. India's achievements on these issues can provide models for the world." USAID's forestry activities in India support important priorities of the US and Indian governments, contributing to the Forestry Pillar of the Climate Action and Finance Mobilization Dialogue in support of the US-India Climate and Clean Energy Agenda 2030 Partnership. This new program builds on the enduring US-India partnership to tackle the climate crisis and bolster resilience in the face of climate threats and extreme weather events, as per the US Embassy here. In addition to safeguarding India's forests and other critical ecosystems, USAID is working with India to implement its ambitious emissions reduction measures by transitioning to renewable energy and adapting ongoing activities, such as health and disaster risk reduction, to the reality of today's climate crisis. (ANI) King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla arrived at Buckingham Palace in London on Friday (local time) and are meeting mourners, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Buckingham Palace is swarmed with waves of mourners held back by barriers as King Charles III met the crowds. King Charles III received a warm reception as he passed the crowds gathered outside Buckingham Palace. He is expected to address the nation at 18:00 BST and hold his first audience with Prime Minister Liz Truss as king. The King was offered bouquets of flowers and even a kiss on the cheek as he shook hands with those who had gathered to see him arrive. People have been leaving flowers and tributes outside palaces and churches as the UK marks the death of Queen Elizabeth II. The King's plane landed at RAF Northolt in west London just after 13:30 BST, reported UK-based media. The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral Castle on Thursday afternoon at the age of 96. Bells rang out at Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral and in Windsor at noon in tribute to the Queen, followed by gun salutes. The Queen steered the monarchy through turbulent times, as Britain's Empire ended and its place in the world fundamentally changed. She was head of state of the UK and 14 other countries, including Australia, Canada and Jamaica. After the passing away of Queen Elizabeth on Thursday, King Charles will be officially proclaimed as Britain's new monarch at a meeting of the Accession Council at St James's Palace on Saturday. King Charles III acceded to the throne immediately following the death of Elizabeth II on Thursday. He described losing his mother as "a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family". During this period of mourning, he said he and his family would be "comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which the Queen was so widely held". He has been preparing to be King for his entire life and has chosen to use his Christian name for his title as monarch, just like his late beloved mother, Queen Elizabeth II. The formal process of proclaiming him King will be carried out by the Accession Council - a group made up of Privy Counsellors, Great Officers of State, the Lord Mayor of London, Realm High Commissioners and senior civil servants. It is split into two parts. The first approves various consequential orders including the arrangements, without the King present. The second involves the King holding his first Privy Council, making his declaration and reading and signing an oath to uphold the security of the Church in Scotland (as unlike in England, Church and State are separate there) and approve orders which facilitate continuity of government. (ANI) A period of royal mourning, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, will be observed from now until seven days after the Queen's funeral, the date of which will be confirmed by the Royal Family in due course. Royal mourning will be observed by members of the Royal Family, Royal Household staff and representatives of the Royal Household on official duties, together with troops committed to ceremonial duties, the Royal Family said in a statement. Flags at royal residences were half-masted on Thursday and will remain half-masted until 0800 hrs on the morning after the final day of royal mourning. The half-masting of flags at royal residences does not apply to the Royal Standard and the Royal Standard in Scotland when the King is in residence, as they are always flown at full mast. Guidance on flags at other public buildings has been issued by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Royal Salutes have been fired in London today at 1300 hrs BST in Hyde Park by the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery and at the Tower of London by the Honourable Artillery Company. One round will be fired for each year of the Queen's life. Royal residences will close until after the Queen's Funeral. This includes -- The Queen's Gallery and the Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace, and The Queen's Gallery in Edinburgh. Balmoral Castle and Sandringham House, the Queen's private estates, will also close for this period. In addition, Hillsborough Castle, the sovereign's official residence in Northern Ireland, will be closed. Following the death of Her Majesty The Queen, guidance has been given to members of the public who wish to leave floral tributes at royal residences. At Buckingham Palace, members of the public will be guided to lay floral tributes at dedicated sites in The Green Park or Hyde Park. As the longest-serving monarch of the UK, Queen Elizabeth II died on Thursday her seven-decade-long reign came to an end. It has triggered questions regarding further proceedings and the transition of powers. According to a professor of British and Commonwealth history at the University of London, Philip Murphy, the Whitehall started the planning process about what would happen when the Queen dies from the time she became one, New York Times reported. "Much of it has been planned down to the minute, and some things have already fallen into place," he said, adding that the transition of power will be automatic as the throne cannot be left vacant and whoever succeeds her becomes king of Canada, king of Australia, king of Tuvalu.Upon her death, Prince Charles becomes King Charles III, as per media reports. Moreover, the national anthem of Britain will now again shift back to "God Save the King" as the British Queen breathed her last on Thursday at Balmoral castle in Scotland, according to NYT.According to protocol, Charles will make four traditional public statements taking up the new role and will give a personal and political inaugural declaration at the first meeting of the Privy Council. Moreover, Charles will also make a statutory oath to uphold the Church of Scotland during the meeting of the council and confirm the timing of the queen's funeral. The day of the funeral has not been confirmed yet by the Royal family. Lastly, Charles will take the Coronation Oath following which a proclamation will be read, declaring the reign of the new king, the New York Times reported. The UK authorities had devised Operation London Bridge to manage events during the first 10 days between the Queen's death and the funeral. They had thought of Operation Unicorn in case the queen died in Scotland. As per the documents seen by The Politico, Thursday was declared as "D-Day" and each following day leading up to the funeral will now be referred to as "D+1," "D+2" till the tenth of the Queen's death. As per one official memo, the code for conveying the message of the Queen's death is "London bridge is down," following which a vast security operation to manage crowds and travel chaos is planned to be carried out. Ten days after the Queen's death, newly-appointed UK Prime Minister Liz Truss will be the first member of the government to make a statement. The state funeral will be held at Westminster Abbey and there will be a committal service in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. Thereafter, Queen Elizabeth II will be buried in the castle's King George VI Memorial Chapel. The Queen was born on April 21, 1926, at 17 Bruton Street in Mayfair, London. She was the first child of The Duke and Duchess of York - who later became King George VI - and Queen Elizabeth. (ANI) Former Prime Minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan was issued a notice by Islamabad Police for failing to appear before the Joint Investigation Team in the terrorism case. The former PM is currently on bail till September 12. He was booked in a terrorism case on the complaint of Islamabad Saddar Magistrate Ali Javed for threatening a female judge of the federal capital, during the rally held on August 20. The authorities had asked the former prime minister to appear before the investigators at 3 pm Friday, reported Samaa TV. Imran Khan has issued a notice asking him to appear before the JIT and submit his clarification. Imran Khan had obtained bail from an anti-terrorism court in the case, the notice read. Despite the court order, the former PM neither appeared before the investigators nor submitted his reply, reported Samaa TV. The former prime minister had been booked in a case with terror clauses after he had stated in a public rally that they would not spare the judge who had approved the remand of Imran Khan's chief of staff, Shahbaz Gill. The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has ordered PTI Chief Imran Khan to join the police investigation in a terrorism case registered against him for allegedly threatening a female judge and top officials of Islamabad police. While extending the interim bail till September 12, the court directed the Khan to submit PKR 100,000 as surety, ARY News reported. During the hearing, the court was told that four new sections - 186, 504, 506, and 188 - had been added to the First Information Report (FIR) against Imran Khan. Notably, a terrorism case was registered against Imran Khan in Margalla police station for allegedly using derogatory language and threatening Additional Session Judge Zeba Chaudhry in his speech in Islamabad on August 20. Khan was booked under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA). The PTI chair had staged a rally in the federal capital on August 20 to express solidarity with his chief of staff Shahbaz Gill after claims of torture in custody. He warned the Islamabad and deputy inspector-general that he would "not spare" them, vowing to file cases against them for subjecting Gill to inhumane torture. (ANI) Chinese President Xi Jinping's 'zero-Covid' policy is under fire for endangering lives in the Chengdu earthquake. When the powerful earthquake hit the Chinese city of Chengdu on September 5, residents were not allowed by the authorities to step outside their homes. The reason was the strict lockdown imposed by the Xi government, reported The HK Post. The weird and inhuman conditions of the lockdown, which put the lives of thousands at risk, made people in China angry, who then took to social media to vent their emotions against Xi's zero-Covid policy. The 6.6 magnitude earthquake left at least 74 dead. Chinese-born human rights activist and author Jennifer Zeng said the people were locked inside their buildings, preventing them from seeking safety in open space, reported The HK Post. Zeng also said the Communist Party officials did not provide Chengdu residents with any relief but rather forced them to line up for Covid testing amid earthquake-destructed areas. Viral videos on social media showed how people panicked, clashed with security personnel and tried to break iron grills to escape after the earthquake struck, causing structures to fall off, reported The HK Post. Chengdu is the capital of the Chinese province of Sichuan. Despite the earthquake, authorities have not relaxed lockdown conditions. Rather they have been made stricter, causing residents distress as they tend to lose their employment and livelihoods. Residents like Ma Guoming and Zhang Yan said they felt helpless since they did not know when the lockdown would be relaxed, reported The HK Post. When residents demanded they be allowed to leave their buildings, Chinese authorities refused and ridiculed them by asking "has the building collapsed yet?" A Weibo user said "At that moment, I do not know whether to blame them (security personnel) or feel sorry for them, (as it is) out of their own hands, but I cannot praise such 'pandemic policy'," a resident said on social media platform Weibo. A coffee shop owner George Li is scared in case a more powerful earthquake occurs in the near future. "Imagine it was a bigger earthquake, like the Wenchuan (in 2008) and everyone needs to stay at home. No one knows what's going to happen," he said. People are questioning the Xi government why they were forcefully locked down when they could have died in the earthquake. "Which one is more important? The lockdown or the earthquake?" said Lu Siwei, Chengdu-based lawyer. Another disgruntled resident wrote on Weibo "I guess it's fine if I die inside the building, at least I didn't get infected." Xi Jinping has been receiving flak for his 'Zero Covid' policy as it has put free public movement to an end, and led to job loss and economic slowdown. Zhou Weifa, a lawyer from Chengdu, remarked people's lives must get priority over any rule or policy. "From the legal point of view, the right to life of a person is greater than any other rights and interests of any nature," Zhou said. A popular Chinese science writer Fang Zhouzi has expressed concerns over deaths that may have occurred in the earthquake as people were not allowed to leave their homes, reported The HK Post. Human rights activist and former executive director of Human Rights Watch Kenneth Roth expressed concerns over the plight of Chengdu residents and slammed Xi for his 'zero Covid' policy. "How to guarantee bad policy, Xi Jinping "has given his personal imprimatur to 'zero Covid,' casting it as proof of the party's strength--and by extension, his own leadership. Any local official seen as weakening that claim could face serious consequences," he said. (ANI) International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi, on Friday, said that after shelling at Enerhodar city of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the city saw a complete power blackout. "The power infrastructure feeding the city of Enerhodar, home to the NPP's operators and their families, has been destroyed by shelling of the switchyard at the city's thermal power plant, leading to a complete power blackout in Enerhodar: no running water, no power, no sewage," Grossi said as quoted by the official statement from IAEA. He further said that as the shelling continues, there is little likelihood of re-establishing reliable offsite power to the ZNPP, especially as the shelling continually and repeatedly damages the power infrastructure. Grossi said that the IAEA understands that the operator, who has no confidence in the restoration of power, is considering shutting down the remaining operating reactor. "The entire power plant would then be entirely reliant on emergency diesel generators for ensuring vital nuclear safety and security functions. And as a consequence, the operator would not be able to restart the reactors unless offsite power was reliably re-established," IAEA Chief said. "Furthermore, there are indications that, with the increasingly dire circumstances that the people of Energodar are facing, there is a significant risk of an impact on the availability of essential staff on site to continue to safely and securely operate ZNPP," he added. Calling the situation unsustainable, Grossi said that Enerhodar has gone dark and the power plant has no offsite power. "And we have seen that once the infrastructure is repaired, it is again damaged," he added. Grossi called the situation unacceptable and said that he cannot stand it. He called for the immediate cessation of all shelling in the entire area. "Only this will ensure the safety and security of operating staff and allow the durable restoration of power to Enerhodar and to the power plant. This dramatic development demonstrates the absolute imperative to establish a nuclear safety and security protection zone now. This is the only way to ensure that we do not face a nuclear accident," the IAEA chief added. Last week, Europe's largest nuclear plant, Zaporizhzhia once again went off in the early hours of the day amid the shelling that destroyed a key power line. These claims came a day after a team of inspections from the UN nuclear agency arrived at the plant to inspect the damage, Al Jazeera reported citing local Russian-backed authorities. On August 31, the 14-member team of the IAEA arrived in Ukraine and now the team is back. (ANI) Chinese top official Li Zhanshu's visit to Nepal is drawing speculations about Beijing seeking to encourage unity among the country's communist forces, media reports said. This comes as Li Zhanshu, the chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China, is arriving on a three-day official visit to Kathmandu on Monday. He will be leading an eight dozen-strong delegation of ministers, deputy ministers, officials and leaders of the Chinese Communist Party. Li, who is Chinese President Xi Jinping's close aide, is the third-ranking member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, the top decision-making body of China, after President Xi and Premier Li Keqiang, reported Kathmandu Post. The visit is happening ahead of the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in October, which will likely give another term extension to Chinese President Xi. It also comes ahead of the general and provincial elections scheduled to be held in Nepal on November 20. During his visit, Li will also meet CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli as well as CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal. Following the split in the strong Nepal Communist Party in March 2021, the visit from the Chinese appears to be with a laced agenda of trying to consolidate the communist forces in the country. Earlier, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Foreign Department chief of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Liu Jianchao during their visits to Kathmandu encouraged UML and Maoist leaders to ally but pushed no particular strategic agenda. Now, whether Li will also push for communist unity this time, as per Kathmandu Post. Those who are closely following and understand the Chinese attitude on left unity in Nepal are divided on whether Li will make such attempts during his meetings with Oli, Dahal and others. "The Chinese interest is in strengthening interactions between parliamentarians," said Rupak Sapkota, a China watcher, reported to Kathmandu Post. He added that the focus is on strengthening parliamentary relations and discussing China's growing international stature. "Not to push for unity between communist forces." The visit is also taking place as the major political parties in Nepal are seeking to gain support ahead of the elections in November. Traditionally, the Chinese leadership has encouraged Nepali communist leaders, particularly those from the CPN-UML and the CPN (Maoist Centre), to forge an electoral alliance. Sundar Nath Bhattarai, chairman of the China Study Center, said the visit preceding the all-important CPC plenum is highly meaningful. The plenum will solidify Xi's leadership and clarify to neighbouring and friendly countries what course Chinese leadership will pursue in the next decade under Xi. "We will also know about how China intends to resolve the ongoing crisis in Taiwan and other priority issues," Bhattarai said. Unlike Sapkota, Bhattarai believes the Chinese delegation will once again push for left unity. The Chinese have a soft corner for Nepal's communist parties and they have been encouraging them to come together and forge an alliance, he said. "While the Chinese will this time certainly engage with the Nepali Congress, they will continue to push for unity or working cooperation among the major communist forces in Nepal," said Bhattarai, media reports said. (ANI) Human rights groups called on the United Nations for stronger accountability in Afghanistan. In an open letter to the UN, they called for the establishment of a dedicated accountability mechanism by the Human Rights Council (HRC), alongside the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, reported Tolo News. "The signatory organizations call your attention to the deplorable state of human rights in Afghanistan and in particular the absolute lack of accountability for gross and systematic human rights violations and abuses, including crimes under international law, occurring in Afghanistan, especially against women and girls, ethnic and religious minorities, journalists, and human rights defenders," the letter read. Richard Bennett is the current UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, and the renewal of his post was called for in the open letter, reported Tolo News. "The Western countries will call for the renewal of Richard Bennett. China and Russia will also accept it but the report of Richard Bennett is made from outside Afghanistan. For better transparency, it is better than Richard Bennett to stay in Kabul and write the report from Kabul," said Torek Farhadi, a political analyst. This comes as the Taliban has repeatedly denied the reports of the violations of human rights, and called them baseless, reported Tolo News. The Taliban stressed that it is committed to human rights and women's rights based on Islamic values. Since the Taliban seized power in Kabul last year, the human rights situation has been exacerbated by a nationwide economic, financial and humanitarian crisis of unprecedented scale. The Taliban dismantled the system to respond to gender-based violence, created new barriers to women accessing health care, blocked women's aid workers from doing their jobs, and attacked women's rights protesters. With the US troops' withdrawal from the country, large-scale violence has been unleashed creating political uncertainty in different parts of the country. At least 59 per cent of the population is now in need of humanitarian assistance - an increase of 6 million people compared with the beginning of 2021, according to UNAMA. (ANI) A top official on Friday said that India stands for its independent trade policy and added that before going ahead with joining the trade pillar of IPEF New Delhi will observe the pros and cons of the binding commitments. Commenting on India not joining the IPEF trade pillar, a top official told ANI, "There are some binding commitments that have been laid out by the United States and India is being cautious" the official added, "India stands on its own feet, we have our own independent policy," the official asserted. "We will be observing the pros and cons of the binding commitments and then take a call when the details of binding commitments are shared with us in the months ahead." Earlier today, at the framework's first in-person ministerial summit in Los Angeles, US trade representative Katherine Tai confirmed that India will not be joining the trade pillar, one of the four pillars of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF). "India is not now in the trade pillar of IPEF, Union Minister for Commerce Piyush Goyal and I have been talking a lot. We have our bilateral structure the Trade Policy Forum, which should be meeting by the end of this year again and we covered the same issues in that bilateral channel and minister we are very close touch," Tai said. Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Friday said that a robust Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) is being proposed to be presented soon in Parliament, and India will take its decisions on different aspects based on the national interest. Goyal said that India is a big provider of technology services to US companies and a robust framework is being proposed to be presented to Parliament soon. "India is looking to have contemporary and modern laws in the digital world while maintaining high levels of data privacy," he added. He said that within the framework, "we can begin engaging among member countries on different areas of mutual interest. India will take its decisions on different aspects of the IPEF framework based on our national interest." "We had a useful engagement among member countries of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity. Officials have worked to prepare the ground for useful interactions between ministers. By tomorrow we hope to create a robust framework," Goyal said. Union Minister Piyush Goyal is on a six-day visit to San Francisco and Los Angeles to attend the first Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) ministerial meeting. Goyal met US Trade Representative Katherine Tai ahead of the meeting. "I've also had the opportunity to have bilateral discussions with USTR Ambassador Tai and US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. Both were very excited about the good work happening between India and US," Goyal said. "They were extremely favourable to expanding ties in trade and investments including hi-tech areas. They were also wishing to further resilient supply chains between India and US," he added. US Trade Representative Katherine Tai on Thursday said that Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) presented an opportunity to deepen the partnerships with member countries and will also address the challenges collectively. She said that the IPEF also allows working together to build a platform to address future challenges and bring sustainable and equitable growth to the Indo-Pacific region. The Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) was launched jointly by the USA and other partner countries of the Indo-Pacific region on May 23, 2022, in Tokyo. India joined the IPEF and Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the launch event along with US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio and other leaders from partner countries. Previously, virtual Ministerial Meetings were held immediately after the launch on May 23 and thereafter from July 26-27, 2022. India is committed to a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific Region and would work towards deepening economic cooperation among partners for the growth and prosperity of the region. The framework is inclusive and allows flexibility to partner countries to associate with pillars based on their respective priorities, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in a statement. IPEF, a group of 13 countries, is a multilateral economic framework. In recent times, India is seen as focusing on bilateral free trade agreements instead of multilateral ones. (ANI) Queen Elizabeth II has the rare distinction of having received all but one of the 14 US Presidents during her 70 year reign, Lyndon Johnson being the exception. Johnson was never an elected president, he succeeded John F. Kennedy after his assassination. All five of the former US presidents still living paid homage issuing statements praising her reign and her persona. Queen Elizabeth II died on Thursday at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, her summer retreat, at 96. During her seven-decade reign, the Queen met 13 of the last 14 US presidents. This includes all five of the former presidents who are still alive: Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump. When Queen Elizabeth was still a princess in 1951, she travelled to Washington, DC for the first time to meet President Harry Truman, and the two complimented each other's nations. "Free men everywhere look towards the US with affection and with hope," she told Truman. In the wake of her death, the former presidents have offered their condolences and reflected on their interactions with the late monarch. "Her dignity, graciousness, and sense of duty have been an inspiration, and we join the millions around the world in mourning a remarkable leader," Carter said in a statement. Clinton in a statement said that he and his wife, Hillary Clinton, "mourn the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and we join with people across the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, and all around the world, in giving thanks for her extraordinary life." Clinton said they "will always be grateful for the kindness she showed us through the years, particularly during our visits to Buckingham Palace in 1995 and 2000, and for all she did to deepen the Special Relationship." Describing her 70-year reign as "remarkable," Clinton said Queen Elizabeth "led Britain through great transformations with unfailing grace, dignity, and genuine care for the welfare of all its people." "In sunshine or storm, she was a source of stability, serenity, and strength," he added. Bush said he and former first lady Laura Bush regarded the queen as a woman of "great intellect, charm, and wit." In a statement, Bush said she "ably led England through dark moments with her confidence in her people and her vision for a brighter tomorrow." "Spending time at Buckingham Palace, and having tea with Her Majesty -- and her Corgis -- is among our fondest memories of the presidency," Bush said. Barack Obama said that he and former first lady Michelle Obama were "lucky enough to come to know Her Majesty, and she meant a great deal to us." "Back when we were just beginning to navigate life as President and First Lady, she welcomed us to the world stage with open arms and extraordinary generosity. "Time and again, we were struck by her warmth, the way she put people at ease, and how she brought her considerable humour and charm to moments of great pomp and circumstance," Obama added. In a post to Truth Social, Trump said he and former first lady Melania Trump "will always cherish our time together with the Queen." "What a grand and beautiful lady she was -- there was nobody like her!" Trump wrote, said the Business Insider. --IANS ash/pgh ( 556 Words) 2022-09-09-20:28:03 (IANS) NextShark Details from a video reviewed by authorities revealed Jin Shin, a business owner from Dallas, Texas, who was killed following a minor car crash last month, was surrounded by a group of eight people before the shooting. The incident occurred on South University Drive in Fort Worth, Texas, on Aug. 15, when Shin, who was described by his friends and family as a pillar of the Asian community in Dallas, was shot following a car incident involving his Jeep and a sedan driven by a woman with two female passengers. The two parties exited their vehicles to discuss what had happened, according to the arrest warrant obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Friday marks five years since Hurricane Irma began impacting the state of Florida. First Alert Chief Meteorologist Mike Buresh warned Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia to get to their safe spaces by 8 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 10, 2017. The storm brought flooding up and down the St. Johns River, especially to downtown Jacksonville and Riverside. One woman had to be rescued from the flood waters, which Action News Jax was there to document. Locally, Irma spawned six local tornadoes, one of which touched down in Crescent Beach. [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter] Sky Action News Jax flew along the coastline of Vilano Beach, showing extensive damage to the homes there. After the storm, Buresh was in Atlantic Beach and talked with Denise, whose home was damaged by a tree falling on it. To get a complete recap of Hurricane Irma, from its status as a violent Category 5 hurricane to record flooding, read this entry of the Buresh Blog. PHOTOS: Flooding in Northeast Florida, Southeast Georgia after Irma in 2017 Cars were flooded near the river close to Highway 17 in Clay County. House immersed in water by Doctor's Lake in Clay County Black Creek Black Creek Riverside Jacksonville Flooded car behind Red Lobster restaurant off of Blanding Boulevard. Oceanway Oceanway Charlton County house immersed in water after Irma. Charlton County house immersed in water after Irma. Charlton County house immersed in water after Irma. Camden County Camden County Camden County PHOTOS: Hurricane Irma in Jacksonville in 2017 As Hurricane Irma bore down on Florida, the ActionNewsJax team has worked hard to make sure everyone in the community has the news they need to stay safe." height="720" width="1280"/> Nobody said reporting during a hurricane -- even during its early ours -- would be easy. Crews at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay take precautions for the animals before Hurricane Irma hit the west coast of Florida. A viewer sent Danielle Avitable this picture via Twitter of a tree down on Pirates Wood in Yulee. " height="720" width="1280"/> Ashley Hollander retweeted this photo, noting that only several weeks ago Houston was hit by Hurricane Harvey. Now the people of Houston are standing with Florida as Hurricane Irma bears down. " height="720" width="897"/> Cole Health notes that reporting from the beach during a spate of seafoam, sand and high winds can be a messy business. " height="720" width="526"/> Erica Bennett finds comfort in knowing that come high winds or high water, the Waffle House in Jacksonville Beach will remain open. " height="720" width="1280"/> Story continues Bridges along the coast were closed as soon as sustained winds reach 40 mph. Lorena Inclan provided this shot of impassible roads in St. Augustine. " height="720" width="1280"/> Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live. A day before it was required to disclose officer body-worn camera video of the Sept. 3 police shooting of an armed teen, Akron announced Friday it had no video to share. Two police officers responding to the sounds of gunshots last Saturday did not immediately turn on their body-worn cameras before one of them shot a 16-year-old in the hand, Akron police said in a statement Friday. While the incident is being investigated by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the department will conduct an internal review of the shooting and cameras not being activated. The city of Akron did release a 2-minute video from one of the officer's body-worn cameras capturing the scene immediately following the incident. The first 30 seconds of the video has no sound, and the face of the juvenile suspect is edited out. The video shows a police officer handcuffing the teenager who was shot. The youth is lying with his belly on the ground and blood can be seen on his right hand as the officer struggles to get the handcuffs on his wrists. At one point, the teen asks the officer why he shot him. The officer ordered him to sit on the ground and pointed to a gun lying several feet away on the ground. "What's that right there?" the officer can be heard saying. The teen then stands up and the officer yells at him to sit back down on the ground. "Because I saw a gun in your hand," the officer points at a gun lying on the ground about 15 feet away, then in another direction. "There's a gun right here and there's a third gun over here." The video also shows photographs of four handguns it says were confiscated at the scene by BCI. Jayland Walker shooting:New Akron police videos show car windows down, gun inside vehicle Gunshots heard by officers The two officers reported hearing multiple gunshots around 6:24 p.m. in the area of Manchester Road and Longview Avenue, a brick-paved residential street just north of Interstate 76 in Sherbondy Hill. Story continues The officers immediately drove to an area in the 700 block of Longview, exited their cruiser and rushed toward the sound of gunfire, police said. The officers approached the rear of the home and found "at least three males" including a 16-year-old who was armed with a handgun and was shot in the pinky finger by one of the two officers. Akron police Lt. Michael Miller said details of the incident are not completely available as the officers are sequestered pending the BWC investigation. The 16-year-old was taken to Akron Childrens Hospital for treatment and released to the care of his parents. Miller said charges against him are pending, and others who were at the scene could also face charges. Police confiscated "multiple handguns" at the scene. The officer that discharged their weapon is on paid administrative leave, pending the outcome of the BWC investigation. Akron has not identified the officers involved, a policy it implemented following the first of what has now been five shootings by officers since Dec. 23. Jayland Walker shooting:How should residents police the police in Akron? Akron law requires video release A fairly new Akron law requires police to release of footage of deadly force incidents within seven days. The Akron Police Departments Office of Professional Standards and Accountability is conducting a separate internal investigation per departmental procedure. Miller said the internal investigation will thoroughly examine the facts and circumstances surrounding the incident, including the delay in activating the cameras. Miller said there are circumstances, outlined in department policy that do not require immediate activation of body worn cameras. "It is important to note that there are circumstances during a citizen contact that permit an officer to not immediately activate his/her BWC," Miller said, referencing Article IV A. 2 of the department policy. Police Chief Steve Mylett issued a statement on the subject. The members of the APD highly value their relationship with the Akron community. With this in mind, I understand that there may be some concern from the community regarding the lack of BWC footage in this case," he said. "Transparency and accountability remain the cornerstones of public trust, and the Akron Police Department remains committed to building upon those principles in all we do. "As with every officer-involved shooting, I would ask members of the public to reserve their judgment until the BCI and internal investigations are complete." Eric Marotta can be reached at emarotta@gannett.com. This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron police did not activate body cameras when teen shot on Longview WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A group of some 20 pro-privacy and worker organizations, including Public Citizen and Fight for the Future, urged U.S. antitrust enforcers Friday to stop Amazon.com from buying iRobot Corp, maker of the robotic vacuum cleaner Roomba. In their letter, the groups argued that the deal would strengthen Amazon.com's already powerful position in the smart home devices. "By selling the Roomba brand at or near a loss via the Prime subscription, the company can access more personal consumer data to buttress its anti-competitive advantages online," the groups said in the letter. This would hurt people concerned about privacy, as well as competitors who do not have access to the information, they argued. The $1.7 billion deal, which was announced in August, was the latest push by Amazon, which already owns Alexa and Ring, into the smart home devices. It is being reviewed by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which has a separate antitrust probe underway of Amazon. Amazon.com did not immediately reply to a request for comment. The groups said that non-whites could be hurt particularly hard by any loss of privacy related to the deal. "Civil rights groups have been sounding the alarm on the dangers that Amazons network of smart home surveillance devices pose to Black and brown communities, specifically those stemming from the mass of data collected by these devices," they wrote. Other signatories included International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Main Street Alliance, Demand Progress Education Fund, Institute for Local Self-Reliance and Open Markets Institute. (Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Alistair Bell) An Apple reseller in Russia in 2021. Dimitar Dilkoff/AF/Getty Images Russian mobile network MTS has started taking preorders for the new iPhone 14. This is even though Apple exited Russia and halted product sales following the invasion of Ukraine. Russia's trade minister said consumers would still be able to buy iPhone 14 via parallel imports. Apple pulled out of the Russian market a week after Russia invaded Ukraine but people in Russia will still be able to buy the new iPhone 14 through parallel imports, said a Kremlin official. "Why not? If consumers want to purchase these phones, yes. There will be such an opportunity," trade and industry minister Denis Manturov said on September 8, as reported by RIA Novosti, a state-owned media outlet. Manturov was responding to a question about whether the new iPhone would be imported into Russia under a parallel imports program. Russia legalized parallel imports in May, months after companies pulled out of Russia en masse over the invasion of Ukraine. The system allows retailers to ship products into the country without permission from the trademark owner. By August, such gray market sales reached nearly $6.5 billion, Manturov said on August 15, as reported by Interfax. Even though Apple halted sales of its products in Russia in March, some retailers in the country are still selling down remaining stock, per Reuters. Some have also managed to get their hands on newer models through the parallel imports program. On Thursday, Russian mobile network MTS started taking preorders for the newly launched iPhone 14 on its website. Prices start from 84,990 rubles ($1,382.) The telco said it could take up to 120 days to deliver the device. Apple announced the iPhone 14 on September 7. The phone comes with a free, two-year subscription to a satellite service that lets users make emergency calls even when they don't have internet or cell service. Among the phone's other new features are an always-on screen and a force sensor that can detect if the user has been in a car crash. Preorders start on September 9 and are available as of September 16. Apple did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment that was sent outside regular business hours. Read the original article on Business Insider An Atlanta woman has gone viral with over 6.6 million views after exposing Popeyes employees for not allowing her to purchase food for a man experiencing homelessness named Jazz. Jo Ortega, a student at Georgia State University, was picking up an order for DoorDash last month when she saw a man who seemed hungry. Ortega decided to order Jazz chicken after being told that her order was not ready for pickup. While waiting, Ortega decided to go back outside and ask him if he wanted anything to eat but before asking Jazz for his order, she told the Popeyes workers what her intended plan was, the NY Post reports. The employees at the store near Ponce de Leon Ave would not allow the transaction. No maam, you cant do it, one employee told Ortega. Why? Hes asking for food? Ortega told the employee. Maam, you cant do it. I could care less about you recording me, baby, another team member replied before shutting the drive-thru window on Ortega. Popeyes workers then called the police on Ortega for refusing to leave. They called the cops on me, everything, bro. I cant order anything for this homeless man right here, he asked for food, he didnt ask for no money. And they being so rude, Ortega said. At that moment I was terrified, I thought I was gonna get arrested. Maybe I should just call my family, and I might not be coming home tonight, Ortega said. The Atlanta Police Departments Public Information Officer, Benjamin Hopson, said the Popeyes employee was not on the scene when they arrived. Units arrived on the scene, and the caller was already gone. The call was cleared with no arrest/no report, Hopson said. Story continues The general manager of the Ponce location felt terrible after learning from police about how her staff handled the incident and allowed Ortega and Jazz to order whatever they wanted from the menu for free. Ortega explained she was applauded by a responding officer who thanked her for attempting to buy food for Jazz. The officer pulled me to the side and said, I really thank you for doing that, thank you for buying him food. I appreciate that, Ortega said. In a statement, Popeyes said as a company it is committed to treating everyone with dignity and respect. We have ensured all employees at this restaurant have been provided with retraining to help navigate a range of guest interactions, such as the situation highlighted in the video. Ortegas new venture is starting a fundraiser to assist in finding permanent housing for Jazz. I want to help get him off the streets and buy him a new tent and socks etc. All of the proceeds will go toward him and Im currently looking for any programs in Atlanta Georgia that could help him out in his situation, she said. Also, please contact me if you have any resources that could help! Ortega is working on a separate GoFundMe to support other unsheltered families that have reached out to her since finding her viral video. SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australians on Friday mourned the death of Queen Elizabeth, but republicans also revived a longstanding debate on ending the country's association with the 1,000-year-old monarchy. The British monarch is the head of state in Australia, among 14 realms outside the United Kingdom, although the role is largely ceremonial. Australia has long debated the need to keep a distant monarch. A 1999 referendum in Australia on becoming a republic lost with 55% of voters opposed. "Our thoughts are with her family and all who loved her. Now Australia must move forward," said Australian Greens Party leader Adam Bandt, a prominent republican. "We need Treaty with First Nations people, and we need to become a Republic," he wrote on Twitter. Bandt was accused, even by some fellow republicans, of being disrespectful by bringing up the issue just hours after the queen's death. "Not the right time to call for a republic irrespective of where you sit on the monarchy/ republic spectrum. Not respectful after her long life of service," one of Bandt's followers said in response to the tweet. Bandt's office did not immediate respond to an email seeking comment. The Australian Republic Movement also offered condolences while noting that the queen had backed Australia's right to become a fully independent nation during the 1999 referendum, saying she had affirmed it was "an issue for the Australian people and them alone to decide." Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has spoken in support of moving toward a republic. But on Friday he said: "Today's a day for one issue and one issue only, which is to pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth II." Similar debates are occurring in the Caribbean, where Jamaica has signalled it may soon follow Barbados in ditching royal rule. (The story corrects spelling of name Bandt in fourth paragraph) (Reporting by Praveen Menon; Editing by William Mallard) With costs rising and tax revenues dwindling, Bucyrus leaders have been exploring options for bringing more revenue into city coffers. "It's all still in discussion," City Auditor Joyce Schifer said. "We're looking at various ways to raise money and there's been no decision made on anything yet. And whatever we do really won't help us until 2024." The city has lost two major employers in a little more than a year. A change in state law resulted in an unusually high amount of tax refunds this spring. At the same time, Bucyrus City Council has dealt with price increases across the board. And Schifer, after 23 years as city auditor (and eight years as treasurer before that), has announced she plans to retire at the end of the year. "We're kind of between a rock and a hard place to be able to move forward and function. And the last thing I want is for me to retire and then the city just went into fiscal emergency," she said, laughing. "Not that I'm keeping it from happening. It's just there's too many factors when we're trying to satisfy three unions with raises and benefits and that kind of thing and we're juggling health insurance costs, which have jumped about $600,000 a year since 2016 and that's just the city's share of insurance. We pay 85% of the insurance premium. It goes back to history again. When I first started as auditor, the city spent $500,000 a year in health insurance premiums. Now, our new projection for 2023 is $1.9 million." What else is causing the Bucyrus budget crunch? Budgets are tight everywhere. But for Bucyrus, the economic pressures faced by all cities and citizens alike come just as it's facing some major hits to city revenue. "There are a lot of moving parts, and people just don't understand that," Schifer said. "They think it's just cut and dried and you can just give them an answer. That's not the case." In March, GE Lighting, a Savant Company, informed employees at its Bucyrus lighting plant, 1250 S. Walnut St., that it intends to shutter the site this fall. The plant is expected to close at the end of September, eliminating more than 170 jobs. Bucyrus Precision Tech Inc. closed in the summer of 2021, eliminating more than 100 jobs. GE Lighting, a Savant Company, has announced it will close its Bucyrus lamp plant at the end of this month, eliminating about 174 jobs. Story continues "We lost BPT. We're losing GE. We're looking ahead," Schifer said. "Just our tax withholdings from GE we never got corporate taxes per se but the withholding for the employees out there means a loss of about $300,000. We don't have anywhere to pick that up from." For the 2021 tax year, the state revised its rules on how income earned by people working from home is taxed. Previously, those stay-at-home workers continued to pay taxes to the municipality where their jobs were based. Now, they don't have to. For Bucyrus, that change resulted in more than $250,000 in tax refunds, Schifer said. That's a hit of $125,000 to the city's general fund and $50,000 to the safety forces levy. "It's significant." "It's only the right thing to do," said Kelly Schimpf, assistant income tax administrator for the city. "City taxes are based on you pay where you work first, so if they're not technically working in the city, then really they shouldn't be paying the city. We understood the state's decision to do that. It was painful, though, writing all those refunds." Labor negotiations with the city's three unions have "dragged on since the first of the year, because they want more money," Schifer said. "Cops are losing people to other places that can afford to pay them more. We just don't have the tax base that we used to have." Some city employees are participating in a Deferred Retirement Option Plan, or DROP. According to Investopedia.com, DROP plans allow employees eligible for retirement to keep working. Rather than having the additional years of service factored into retirement benefit calculations, "the employer places a lump sum of money into a separate account for each year the employee remains on the job," according to the website. The employee is paid that lump sum, plus interest, upon retirement. In Bucyrus, police officers and firefighters who are eligible to retire can participate in a DROP for up to five years, Schifer explained. "And we've got officers down there that are either in it or thinking about getting in it, and with society today and all the violence and everything going on, police are jumping out of the force everywhere," she said. "And many times, they can make more working security for a private company than they can working as a police officer and don't have near the danger." At a special meeting of the Bucyrus City Council Finance Committee on Aug. 9, Mayor Jeff Reser said city officials have been able to negotiate lower DROP payouts, but workers who already had enrolled in the program were grandfathered in at the old rates, according to meeting minutes. In all, Reser told committee members, tax revenue for 2022 is expected to be about $200,000 less than 2021. Schifer said as of the end of August, revenue is down 4% year to date from 2021. "It's been staying pretty flat," she said. "We are going to be down it might just be 3%, if we're lucky, 2% at the end of the year. But it will be down from last year." Auditor: 'Temporary money' no solution for Bucyrus Federal and state grant money the city has received in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic has helped, but it can be used only in specified ways. It's no solution to the problems facing the city, Schifer explained. "There's more pressure on the federal funds that they give us because it only can be used for certain ways, so we can't necessarily just fix it with this temporary money. Like I say, it's not sustainable down the road," she said. "And it looks like, 'Oh yeah, we have all this money.' People don't understand that just because the bottom line of all our funds says we have $13 million, an awful lot of that is in enterprise funds that have to sustain themselves and pay for expanded water lines and sewer lines and garbage trucks and all that stuff. And that can't be used for raises in police and fire, things like that. So our general fund is the big issue." For example, the Bucyrus Police Department was awarded $445,947.10 through the Ohio Violent Crime Reduction Grant Program for retention bonuses to aid in retaining current staffing levels for 20 officers, according to recent reports. "Yes, we're getting grants for this and that, but that's all short-term stuff," Schifer said. "You might be able to put a Band-Aid on something now, do retention bonuses, or do this or that, but how do you sustain that down the road? And that's what we're trying to do." What solutions are Bucyrus leaders considering? At a March meeting, Dan Wirebaugh, finance committee chairman, said he supported annexation as a way of bringing more money into city coffers. There are several businesses on the outskirts of town, particularly on East Mansfield Street, that have never been annexed into the city. "They want services, but they dont want to annex," Schifer said. "But there's hoops to jump through on that and that's going to take some time," she said, adding it would "help a little bit with revenue." Bringing in new businesses to expand the tax base is always a goal. "Now we've got some things in the works, but it's not another GE," Schifer said. The income tax credit One solution would be reducing or eliminating the city's income tax credit for residents who work in other communities. Reser first suggested the possibility during his State of the City speech in March. Currently, Bucyrus gives 100% credit for residents who pay income tax of up to 2% in another community where they work. Not all communities are so generous, he said, noting many surrounding communities forgive only a portion of those taxes. After residents angered by the proposal spoke out at several council meetings, council members dropped the idea. Schimpf said she believes residents mistakenly thought Reser intended to eliminate the entire credit. "And he can't even do that," she said. "Council would need to approve any reduction in the tax credit. I think they were afraid that he was requesting that the whole credit be erased. And that would scare me. There was never a mention on the percentage reduction, whether it be a quarter or a half." "People just panicked," Schifer agreed. "I think he was trying to get across that it was up to council to make the decision. He was just bringing it up to try to get people to think about it, start the conversation, and it just backfired. I think once he said something about the reduction, no one heard the rest of what he said. They just panicked." At recent meetings, council members have revived the discussion. "To be fully transparent, for lack of a better word, yes we are discussing the tax credit again," Wirebaugh said at an August meeting. "We are discussing it because the mayor, he had a very valid point; everybody knows things are costing more." How much would a credit reduction generate? One difficulty in deciding whether to reduce the income tax credit and by how much is that there's no simple way to calculate how much a reduction would generate, Schifer said. "We can't give an exact number because almost every return is unique," she said. Some couples both work in town. In some cases, one spouse works out of town but the other works in the city. Or sometimes one works out of town, but doesn't pay income tax to another city, and therefore pays Bucyrus. "That's not going to change how much they're paying now; it will be the same. But every return is a little different, and without going through 6,000 returns, you can't put a number to it. It's guesstimates." Schimpf said she'd be willing to take on the task. "It's not just a computer-generated thing. ... You'd have to take a look at each and every individual return because it's all different," she said. On top of that, things shift from year to year as taxpayers' workplaces change. "I mean, we have people who come in with six or seven W-2s. All these different places, different cities, with different tax rates. Which is why you have to look at every return," Schifer said. Even deciding which year's returns to review presents a challenge. People who filed an extension for the 2021 tax year may not have filed yet, and the pandemic of 2020 affected many households' income. Ontario, in Richland County, instituted a credit reduction after its GM plant closed its plant in 2010, Schifer said although that community still had a big retail tax base. "But that's why cities do it, because people don't want to pass a levy, and you just get to a point where you have to do something," she said. Going to voters is another option being discussed by city council members. "We have just been throwing around ideas on that and I just want to be, like I said, transparent, and let everyone know that we are looking for ways to increase our revenue, but we may all have to bite the bullet a little bit here," Wirebaugh said at an August meeting. "They havent made any determination on anything," Schifer said. "Theyre trying to look at all options ... Theyve talked about putting on a property tax levy for safety forces, because thats where a majority of the money goes." Roughly 84% of the city's general fund money goes to safety forces, she said. What happens when Schifer retires? Schifer said if council approves of the plan, she would like to hire someone as an assistant before the end of the year to give them time to learn the ropes before she retires. Anyone interested should pick up an application at the mayor's office. It will be up to the Republican Central Committee to select an official replacement after she retires. Finding someone to step into her role has been more of a challenge than she expected, Schifer admitted. She said there were a few people she thought would be interested in the post, but they all told her they had changed their minds. "I may have to appoint one of the girls to be a deputy to be able to sign; I don't know. ... I've never retired before," she said. But she wants to see the city on a solid footing before she leaves. "We'll probably make it through this year OK," Schifer said. "And if they do the credit reduction, it will be effective for tax year '23, which we won't see any benefit of until '24. So we're trying to look out to the future so the city doesn't end up in fiscal emergency." ggoble@gannett.com 419-559-7263 This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: Bucyrus officials consider ways to raise revenue as costs increase During a speech on Thursday, President Joe Biden called the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill a "once-in-a-generation investment." Alex Wong/Getty Images President Joe Biden made fun of GOP lawmakers who took credit for a bill they initially rejected. He gave a brief impersonation of them while also speaking out against "MAGA Republicans." The president has recently stepped up criticism of die-hard Trump supporters and far-right voters. President Joe Biden on Thursday made fun of Republican lawmakers who he said have tried to take credit for an infrastructure bill they didn't vote for. While speaking at a Democratic National Committee meeting about the White House's Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, Biden briefly impersonated these GOP members. "We got a little help from Republicans, not a lot but enough to get it passed," he said. "But the truth is, there are a lot more Republicans taking credit for that bill than who actually voted for it." As the audience laughed, Biden deepened his voice. "I see them out there: Now we're going to build this new bridge here," he said. "We're all for it. And by the way, this new road, we're going to have an internet that's gonna be all over." At the end of his impersonation, he quipped: "I love it, man. They ain't got no shame." During his Thursday speech, Biden called the infrastructure bill a "once-in-a-generation investment" in roads, highways, airports, and high-speed internet, as he listed several achievements under his administration. He also slammed "MAGA Republicans," continuing his recent criticism of former President Donald Trump's most diehard supporters. "I want to be very clear up front, not every Republican is a 'MAGA Republican.' Not every Republican raises extreme ideology," Biden said. "I know because I've worked with them and the mainstream Republicans, and there are still a few of them left." Accusing the "extreme set of MAGA Republicans" of working toward "anger, violence, hate, and division," Biden called for Democrats, independents, and "mainstream Republicans" to "choose a different path" together. Story continues Biden's comments on Thursday came just a week after he made some of his strongest statements about the GOP during a prime-time speech in which he warned of "MAGA forces" that are "determined to take this country backwards." He also described the upcoming November midterms as a "battle for the soul of the nation." In response, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel turned Biden's comments around, accusing him of making "wretched attacks" on Americans that "pitted neighbors against each other" and fueled division. The RNC has also accused Biden of hypocrisy for speaking out against MAGA Republicans, claiming it contradicted his earlier calls for unity in the US. Read the original article on Business Insider Reuters Videos STORY: Billionaire Daniel Loeb backed off from pushing Walt Disney Co to spin off ESPN, saying he has a "better understanding" of the sports television network's potential for growth.This comes after Disney Chief Executive Bob Chapek reaffirmed the value of ESPN to the media company."We believe that ESPN is an asset that is well placed within the Walt Disney Company," Chapek told Reuters. BERLIN (Reuters) -BMW will power its new class of electric vehicles to be released in 2025 with cylindrical battery cells made in six factories by partners including China's CATL and EVE Energy as the carmaker looks to speed up charging and extend driving range. The German carmaker has already placed multibillion-euro orders with CATL and EVE to produce battery cells at four factories in China and Europe, it said on Friday, adding it was seeking partners able to build two more factories in the United States and Mexico. BMW said it would sign contracts for up to 20 gigawatt hours of capacity at each of the six plants. CATL said in a separate statement on Friday that it would have two of its plants supply BMW with batteries that have the same diameter as Tesla's 4680 cells. The German automaker didn't say how many batteries it plans to procure from EVE and CATL. By adopting cylindrical cells, BMW is breaking from the prismatic cells it has so far used in its batteries, following the path chosen by Tesla with its 4680 cylindrical battery. BMW's new generation of batteries will use more nickel and silicon and less cobalt, leading to a 20% increase in energy density, 30% faster charging and a 30% longer range than previous generations. A spokesperson for CATL, which has supplied BMW for a decade and is looking at potential battery factory sites in the United States, told Reuters in May it would begin supplying cylindrical cells to BMW from 2025, but the carmaker declined to comment at the time. The news also confirmed a Reuters report in August that EVE, which supplies BMW in China, had signed a contract for cylindrical cells with the German carmaker. The shift by BMW underscores growing momentum for larger-format cylindrical batteries. Prismatic batteries, which are rectangular in shape, have become the most common form of auto battery in the past two years as they can be more densely packed, saving on costs. But proponents of cylindrical batteries argue the newer larger format cells have become more cost-effective due to improvements in energy density. (Reporting by Victoria Waldersee; Editing by Mark Potter and Christopher Cushing) Last month was National Black Business Month. If February (Black History Month) is an invitation to take a macro view of our accomplishments and the progress made since our countrys founding, August is an opportunity to zoom in on a specific dimension of our contribution to this nation and scrutinize its status with a critical, yet optimistic eye. Many focused their conversations last month on individual Black businesses, but the intention of John William Templeton and Frederick E. Jordan Sr., when they created the initiative in 2004, was to highlight our Black business community to drive policy focused on the needs of Black-owned businesses. Black businesses are crucial to our nations economy. There are 3.1 million Black-owned businesses in the United States, generating $206 billion in annual revenue and supporting 3.6 million jobs. Small business ownership and entrepreneurship are particularly important to communities of color as a source for wealth-building. From a historical perspective, BLACK ENTERPRISE has supplied much-needed capital, in-kind resources, and other forms of support to advance the Black community during some of our countrys most significant socio-political movements. Healthy Black-owned businesses are also vital strategic tools for addressing the racial wealth gapthe gap between the incomes of white and Black households is estimated to cost the economy $1 to $1.5 trillion annually by 2028. (Image: iStock / FG Trade) There are many important ways to support the growth of Black-owned businesses. We can continue to push for greater access to capital, expand the aperture of creditworthiness, and connect young entrepreneurs with mentors. There are two additional strategies that, if embraced and scaled, will generate many more Black business owners. The first is to preserve Black-owned businesses through succession planning. Approximately 64% of business owners over 50 have no formal business succession plan, putting their most significant asset and familys wealth and security at risk. The second is to help legacy businessesowned by folks who arent Black with significant Black employee bases transition to employee ownership. Over half of business owners in the U.S. are age 55 or older. This means the Silver Tsunami of retiring workers is bringing a wave of businesses for sale. Employee ownership is commonly used to help attract and retain employees and build long-term wealth. It also supports an engaged work culture, empowering employees to think and act like owners. Different forms of employee ownership exist, including employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), employee ownership trusts (EOTs), and worker cooperatives. (Image: iStock / SouthWorks) ESOPs are qualified retirement plans used to transfer company shares into a trust, administered on behalf of the employees. Employees earn their shares as a retirement benefit. ESOPs come with very significant tax benefits. This, coupled with regulation and higher costs, makes them more attractive to companies with more than 40 employees. EOTs, sometimes called Perpetual Employee Trusts, preserve the business for the benefit of the employees. Employees dont pay for their ownership benefits and receive a share of the companys annual profits. EOTs have lower set-up costs. Worker cooperatives are 100% employee-owned and are governed by the people who work there. Employees pay a small equity buy-in, and the board of directors is mostly made up of employee-owners elected by the full membership. Profit-sharing is built into the model and is based on hours worked. Worker cooperatives have lower set-up costs. Regardless of type, employee ownership is good for business owners, workers, and communities. If the Black business community were to embrace it, employee ownership could become a dynamic strategy to build economic resilience and community wealth and chip away at the racial wealth gap. This kind of cooperative economics is not a new idea for our community, just an underutilized one. National Black Business Month is a radical opportunity for us to re-envision the archetype of Black business ownership. In turn, our imagination might yield a new portrait of our Black business community. (Image: iStock / vgajic) There are 41.1 million Black Americans living in the U.S. Black workers account for 15 million, or 12%, of the 125 million U.S. private-sector workers. Nearly 60% of our Black workforce lives in Southern states. Additionally, 50% of Black workers are concentrated in three U.S. industries: healthcare, retail and accommodation, and food service. The 20,000 Silver Tsunami businesses in Miami account for $70 billion in revenues. Imagine transitioning them into employee-owned companies. This would result in over 242,000 workers becoming owners. Imagine transitioning the 30,000 Silver Tsunami businesses in Atlanta, which account for $163 billion in revenues, into employee-owned companies. This would result in over 430,000 workers becoming owners. The potential spillover effects on the Black community are enormous. What if we took lessons from Tulsas Black Wall Street, Atlantas Auburn Avenue, and Marylands Prince Georges county? Starting with our historic Black business districts, we have the chance to re-hardwire our business community with cooperative economics and employee ownership. Central to one of Project Equitys initial hypotheses is the idea that a place-based approach increases the likelihood of employee ownership taking root in a local ecosystem. In 2021, understanding the incredible impact potential of focusing on the Black workforce, Project Equity launched its Black Employee Ownership Initiative (BEOI). The BEOI engages stakeholders in key U.S. regions to raise awareness about employee ownership, connect with business owners who might be interested in employee ownership, and elevate employee ownership to local and national agendas. (Image: iStock / fizkes) We ought to utilize every August to talk seriously about cooperative economics and employee ownership in the Black community. Doing so will enable us to update a bold vision for our commercial future, issuing a call of action to all stakeholders: financial institutions, business owners, business associations and connectors, academics, policy, and political leaders. Lets all answer the charge set forth by Mr. Templeton and Mr. Jordan Sr. and undertake this sensitive, seismic change management project for our country. (Image: iStock / Delmaine Donson) Today, you can ask a small business owner whether or not theyre familiar with employee ownership. All of us know, or are proximate to, a small business owner. About 99% of our countrys businesses are small businesses. Almost half of all U.S. workers are employed by them. The more Black business owners, business owners with large workforces of color, and owners looking to exit their businesses know about employee ownership, the greater the groundswell of transitions to employee ownership. If Project Equity can commit to our BEOI work for the long haul, and you can agree to lead these conversations in your community, our leaders will follow suit. Together, lets commit to taking stock of our progress every August during National Black Business Month. About the author Terron Ferguson is an initiative builder and advocate from Miami, Fla. He has practiced law at the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Ala., advocating against death sentences, children detained in adult prisons and facilitating parole hearings. At Project Equity, Terron advances the Black Employee Ownership Initiative, which centers Black employee ownership in all of our strategic initiatives. Boris Johnson gives his tribute in a packed House of Commons (UK Parliament) Boris Johnson has said he was "moved to tears" during an interview about the Queen and had to ask a film crew to leave. Speaking in the House of Commons the former prime minister paid tribute the Elizabeth II and recounted what he described as a personal confession. "A few months ago the BBC came to see me to talk about Her Majesty the Queen. And we sat down and the cameras started rolling. And they requested that I should talk about her in the past tense," he said. "And I'm afraid I simply choked up and I couldn't go on. I'm really not easily moved to tears, but I was so overcome with sadness, that I had to ask them to go away." Mr Johnson, who went to see the Queen at Balmoral to resign just three days ago, added: I know that today there are countless people in this country and around the world, who have experienced the same sudden access of unexpected emotion. He was speaking at a packed houses of parliament on Friday as MP after MP stood up to pay tribute the monarch with dedications expected to continue into the evening and on Saturday. In an earlier statement Mr Johnson branded the Queen Elizabeth the Great, on account of her being the longest serving and in many ways the finest monarch in our history. More follows... RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the leftist former president who leads polls ahead of Brazil's Oct. 2 election, said on Friday he does not expect to win in the first round, as recent polls show far-right President Jair Bolsonaro chipping away at his lead. "Every candidate thinks of winning in the first round. I've never been lucky to win the first round, but I like two rounds," he told reporters in Rio de Janeiro. Lula added he liked run-offs as they provide the opportunity for a "tete-a-tete debate." "If there's a second round, we'll win and I'll keep working until the 1st (October) at midnight to try to convince voters to vote and solve this problem soon," he said. Although Lula has led most polls this year, his margin has been narrowing in the last couple of months. The latest poll by Genial/Quaest showed his lead had narrowed to 10 points from 12 points in a first round. (Reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier, Writing by Carolina Pulice, editing by Deepa Babington) It's been nearly a year since it was revealed a government ethics board would be investigating Gov. Kristi Noem for her alleged malfeasance in helping her daughter receive a state real estate appraiser license. On Friday, the state's Government Accountability Board released dozens of documents unveiling how its investigation into the allegations unfolded. As we learn more, here's a quick look at how we got here: July 27, 2020: Gov. Kristi Noem summons Sherry Bren, head of the real estate appraiser agency, to the Governor's Mansion to discuss a plan for Kassidy Peters to obtain her state real estate appraiser license. Nov. 25, 2020: Peters is approved for the state real estate appraisers license. Dec. 1, 2020: Bren is asked to retire by the Secretary of Labor. Late December 2020: Bren files an age discrimination complaint. March 2021: Bren receives a $200,000 settlement agreement to withdraw the age discrimination complaint and leaves her job. Sept. 27, 2021: The Associated Press publishes a story alleging Noem summoned the head of the state real estate appraiser agency to the Governor's Mansion to intervene on Peters' behalf. Oct. 6, 2021: The Attorney General's Office refers the Noem complaint to the Government Accountability Board for investigation into misconduct. Nov. 1, 2021: Government Accountability Board votes to send complaint about Noem back to the complainant for more details. More: Lawmakers want to know when South Dakota cuts settlement checks to disgruntled employees Dec. 15, 2021: Government Accountability Board votes to give Noem time to respond to complaints against her. Feb. 3, 2022: Government Accountability Board votes to give Noem until April 15 to respond to the complaints against her. More: Lawmakers say Gov. Kristi Noem's closed-door meeting with daughter violated public trust April 15: Deadline passes for Noem to respond to complaints against her. Noem's attorneys file to dismiss the complaint. Story continues May 2: Government Accountability Board votes to bring in an independent attorney to help investigate complaints against Noem. Aug. 3: Government Accountability Board requests 60 days to continue investigating complaints. Aug. 22: Government Accountability Board votes to partially close and dismiss complaint against Noem that she misused her office to help her daughter receive a state real estate license. Second complaint concerning Noem's use of the state airplane is referred to the Attorney General's office. More: Ethics board investigating complaints against Gov. Kristi Noem extends probe another 60 days Follow Annie Todd on Twitter @AnnieTodd96. Reach out to her with tips, questions and other community news at atodd@argusleader.com or give her a call at 605-215-3757. This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Timeline of ethics board investigation of Kristi Noem, Kassidy Peters California Attorney General Rob Bonta's office will now look into the death of the Navy veteran who died in police custody in 2020 after lawyers called the Contra Costa County District Attorney Office's decision not to charge the officers involved an "abuse of discretion." John Burris, the familys lawyer, and his office sent an email addressed to Bontas office on Wednesday requesting to have the attorney general review the report on the death of Angelo Quinto, 30, of Antioch, California, in 2020. The decision to send the letter came after Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton said last week that they would not file charges against the responding officers on the day Quinto died. The manner in which the Antioch officers engaged with Quinto was both lawful and objectively reasonable under the circumstances, the DAs final report noted. Following the review of all available evidence and relevant law, the Office of the District Attorney has determined that the officers utilized reasonable force during the contact with Quinto. More from NextShark: 2 Men Found Guilty of Killing 39 Vietnamese Migrants Trafficked into the UK Although a spokesperson from the state AGs office confirmed to KTVU that they would review the report, neither Bonta nor Becton released further comments on the matter. Becton said last week that the decision not to charge the officers came down to the autopsy report, which detailed that there was no damage to Quintos larynx or trachea. Two independent medical examiners hired by Burris team ruled the mans death as restraint asphyxia. A coroner's inquest jury ruled Quinto's death was likely caused by "excited delirium due to drug intoxication, psychiatric conditions, physical exertion and cardiac arrest." More from NextShark: NO G**KS: San Leandro man arrested for vandalizing neighbors home with anti-Asian graffiti "The charging decision was outrageous," Ben Nisenbaum, Burris legal partner, told KTVU. They're looking at the trachea. But George Floyd's trachea was never broken. The biggest strawman is that you need to see damage to the throat or neck to have an asphyxiation case. But that's just now [sic] how it works. Any competent investigator knows this." Story continues The Quinto family held a press conference in Oakland on Wednesday in response to the DAs report. The family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Antioch PD and the officers who responded to the call in their family home on Dec. 23, 2020, last year. The officers were later identified as Nicholas Shipilov, Arturo Becerra, Daniel Hopwood and James Perkinson. More from NextShark: Legendary CNN Journalist May Lee Launches New Podcast With NextShark -- SNEAK PEEK After a struggle ensued, officers alleged at the time that Quinto was high on methamphetamine; however, Burris' letter alleged that an independent autopsy found that the fentanyl in his system was administered after his death. Reports also claimed that the officers kneeled on Quintos shoulder and held his face down when trying to handcuff him. The man reportedly lost and never regained consciousness. He died three days later in the hospital. Burris and his partners took offense at the Contra Costa County Coroner's findings, which stated that Quinto had fentanyl and other drugs in his system. Initial screenings in the hospital found no drugs in the man's system, and Burris' firm also contended that medical records showed he was given Keppra and fentanyl after he died. More from NextShark: Chinese Actress Faces Backlash After Allegedly Hiring 2 Women to Have Her Babies Then Abandoning Them The District Attorney's report falsely claims that Mr. Quinto had fentanyl in his system that contributed to his death," Nisenbaum said. The report's claim that fentanyl intoxication compounded 'the original finding of drug intoxication and further exacerbated the complications from Quinto's physical exertion before and after law enforcement arrived at the residence is a blatant lie." Nisenbaum accused the DAs report of misrepresenting the facts of what happened and for omitting the deposition testimony of the pathologist who initially claimed at the Coroners Inquest that only excited delirium killed Mr. Quinto. In our deposition, that pathologist testified that Mr. Quintos breathing was compromised by weight on his back during the restraint, which was a factor in his death, Nisenbaum said. The pathologist also admitted that pictures from the second autopsy of Mr. Quinto showed numerous petechial hemorrhages in his eyes. Featured Image via KRON4 The search for missing hiker Tim Sgrignoli has ended four days after he disappeared while searching for water during a hike with his girlfriend near Santa Barbara, California. The 29-year-old, of Ventura, was hiking with his girlfriend in the Gaviota Park area on Sunday in 110F (43C) when the Santa Barbara County Fire Department said he went missing. As NBC News reported, Sgrignoli was believed to have vanished while looking for water in extreme temperatures, which were the result of a hot air dome over California over the weekend. His girlfriend, who was showing signs of heat exhaustion, was rescued on Sunday but Mr Sgrignoli remained missing for four days. A search ensued and in an update on Thursday, the Santa Barbara County Sheriffs Office said the body of the missing 29-year-old hiker had been located. The sheriffs office said his body was found near Highway 101, about 28 miles west of Santa Barbara in the Gaviota Peak area, and that heat was a likely contributing factor in his death. The search for missing hiker, 29-year-old Tim Sgrignoli of Ventura ended at 9.29am today when he was found deceased between Trespass Trail and Hwy 10, said the sheriffs office. The statement continued: Cause and manner of death are pending. No foul play is suspected, heat is likely a contributing factor. At least 60 law enforcement personnel and multiple search dogs were assigned to the search, as were helicopters and drones deployed by the Ventura County and Santa Barbara Sheriffs Offices. The couple had been walking the Tresspass Trail, a 6.5mile loop which includes the 2,458-foot Gaviota peak, with views over the Pacific Ocean. Then-Atty. Gen. William Barr in 2019. (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) For the record: 9:47 a.m. Sept. 10, 2022: An earlier version of this piece said Donald Ayer was then-Atty. Gen. William Barrs deputy at the Justice Department during George H.W. Bushs administration. The two worked together at the department, and Ayer was deputy attorney general, but Barr was not yet the attorney general. Former Atty. Gen. William Barr has been on a tear lately. Hes calling out his ex-boss for potential criminality and obstruction amid the evidence that Donald Trump absconded from the White House with boxfuls of government documents, including the most highly classified kind. Barrs truth-telling is welcome, especially since much of it is happening on Fox News, whose audience typically doesnt get much of that about Trump. Yet the straight-talk would have been more welcome when Barr was in power, when it would have mattered more. At times, the Fox hosts seem barely able to conceal their shock, as Barr puts the lie to every Trump complaint against the Justice Department in the wake of the FBIs court-approved search of Mar-a-Lago. People say this was unprecedented. Well, its also unprecedented for a president to take all this classified information and put them in a country club, OK?, Barr told Fox viewers last Friday. Then and since, hes said Trump repeatedly deceived and jerked around the government as it tried for more than a year to retrieve its property. He cant think of a legitimate reason why Trump took the documents. He mocks Trumps claim to have declassified everything, conjuring a wizard waving a wand over the boxed secrets. As for whether a special master should review the material before the feds proceed with their investigation as Trump got a Trump-appointed judge to order Barr told the New York Times, Its a crock of s. He said the Justice Department should appeal as it did Thursday and predicted it would win. There is no scenario legally under which the president gets to keep the government documents, whether its classified or unclassified, Barr said Wednesday, again on Fox News. Story continues This is all to the good. But the damage he wrought as attorney general remains. During most of Trumps final two years in office, Barr turned the Justice Department into the presidents personal law firm. Had Barr not deceived the nation in 2019 about the findings of the investigation of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into Russias pro-Trump interference in the 2016 election in particular about the many ways Trump allegedly sought to obstruct the investigators Trump might have been held liable for his abuse of power by now, and humbled rather than emboldened. Three years later, Barrs talk of Trumps culpability just smacks of a way to salvage his legacy (and sell his book). Good luck with that. Donald Ayer, who served with Barr at the Justice Department during President George H.W. Bushs administration when Ayer was the deputy attorney general, wrote a scathing takedown of his former colleague in 2020: Barr had been a major threat to our legal system and to public trust in it. He does not believe in the central tenet of our system that no person is above the law. Ayer and other conservative lawyers joined liberals in slamming Barr for numerous sins. Among them: Undermining Congress oversight and appropriations powers. Dispatching law enforcement officers nationwide after Trump called for a crackdown on racial justice protests. Overseeing the forcible eviction of peaceful protesters near the White House to allow a Bible-toting Trump to stage a photo-op. Echoing Trumps preelection claims of vote-rigging. Reducing a recommended prison sentence for Trump flunky Roger Stone, over prosecutors objections. Dismissing the case against former Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn, who twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in the Russia investigation. Launching a criminal investigation into the Russia investigation, which, owing to Barrs machinations, outlived the Trump administration but has all but flopped. And only now Barr sees Trump as a threat to the rule of law? Thanks to Barr, the damning Mueller report has been mostly forgotten except as what Trump regularly dismisses as the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. Flowing from that, the fantasy that the deep state is out to get Trump ensures that every other allegation against him that he extorted a foreign leader to investigate his political rival or incited an insurrection is instantly disbelieved by more than a third of Americans. Its worth briefly recalling just what Mueller actually concluded. Yes, his investigation found that Trump and his campaign did not conspire with Russia to interfere on his behalf in the 2016 election, though the Trump campaign actively welcomed the help. Barr, in his four-page distortion of Muellers 448-page report, omitted that last part. Mueller also outlined nearly a dozen ways in which Trump might be culpable for obstruction of justice in his efforts to impede the investigation. They included Trumps pressuring of his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, to protect him; his firing of the FBI director; his effort to get his White House counsel to fire Mueller, and then to deny that to investigators; and his dangling of pardons before witnesses, presumably to secure friendly testimony. Given a Justice Department policy against indicting a sitting president, Mueller said it was up to the department and Congress to consider further action. For more than three weeks after Mueller delivered the report, Barr didnt allow Americans to see it only Barrs summary that allowed Trump to falsely declare he was fully exonerated. Barr did not contradict him, although he knew Mueller had written this: While this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him. Now Barr wants to lead the charge against Trump? Better late than never. But Barrs legacy remains the same, and its not the one he wants. @jackiekcalmes This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. As the job market continues on its rollercoaster of available positions to job seekers, having a solid resume with relevant and verifiable work experience remains an integral part of landing the perfect job. From summarizing your work history to showcasing your soft skills, writing or updating a resume can feel like a daunting task, especially in todays ever-changing career climate. While resumes have been a staple of the hiring process since the 1930s, history suggests the concept has been around for much longer. There is no data to concretely point to the person who invented resumes. The idea of putting forth an experience summary traces back to 1482 when Leonardo da Vinci wrote a letter documenting his skills in an effort to receive support from the Duke of Milan. Modern resumes look a lot different, but one thing remains having a summary of your skills is relevant to remaining competitive in the job market. Since September is International Update Your Resume Month, Blavity sat down with Career and Corporate Consultant Tiara Swain of Swain Solutions Services. Swain, whose experience includes increasing revenue, reducing expenses and developing brand strategies for Fortune 500 companies, shared tips for optimizing your resume for the best results. Lead with your achievements All too often people attempt to use their resumes as an all-encompassing document of their work lives, but Swain told Blavity that without results, your day-to-day tasks have no place on your resume. Lead with your achievements, she said. Swain pointed to an example of a resume where a client wrote about various logo designs for the dance and art departments. She changed that sentence to conceptualize 18-plus logos and graphic designs, leveraging Adobe Creative Suite for dance in art departments to elevate Richmond High Schools brand equity. This method is called X, Y, Z, Swain said. So well say you achieved X that resulted in Y with a Z impact. So the Y would be, what tools did you use? Did you do research? What did you do to get to that goal? And the Z is the impact. So, she didnt create these logos. Whats happening is that she was able to help student engagement and retention by actually having better-looking graphics because it enticed students to go to the events. Story continues Recruiters scan resumes quickly, so using the correct language in your resume is essential to landing a job. Dont forget to leverage the systems and tools because thats also going to open up doors for you when recruiters are quickly scanning, Swain said. So because she knows Adobe, she may know SEO, things like that. Thats gonna work in her favor for these recruiters. She just said she created various logos. She didnt have a number. She didnt talk about the tools, so thats a huge difference. Quantify if you want to qualify While leading with your skills, you also want to use numbers whenever possible. I like to say quantify if you wanna qualify I need to coin that, Swain said. But basically, numbers talk, so numbers are going to help you to stand out because a lot of times people dont have it. She said that you should include three different types of numbers teams, percentages and money. Maybe you work with three other teams three cross-functional teams. Another one could be a percentage maybe you were able to improve efficiency by 22%. And then another one because money talks maybe you were able to reduce expenses and produce sales. What recruiters are looking at is if youve had this impact at this company, will you have it at our potential organization? Consider your nontraditional work experience If youre new to the job market, you can still draft a one-pager based on your nontraditional experiences. College students or recent graduates should be highlighting projects and extracurricular activities to show that leadership impact if they dont have that information in terms of actual work experience, Swain said. You can call out class projects. If you have to work on a group together, maybe if youre volunteering at your social organization, if youre a part of a sorority or fraternity, things like that, theres so much that you could do. Tailor your resume to the job You should be utilizing your desired job descriptions to make your resume a better fit for the role. The more relevant words you have on your resume, the better, Swain said. She advises job seekers to use job scans to see how much their resumes match the positions. Just copy and paste the resume and job description to see what the match is, she said. Your resume should have an 80% match to the job description. Swain also encourages the use of soft skills. You should have relevant technical skills and transferable soft skills on your resume, she said. I cannot stress that enough soft skills honestly open up so many doors because were in a market where a lot of people want to pivot to different types of industries. So having time management, adaptability, writing, presenting, critical thinking and creativity, all of that will take you so much further for sure. Keep your resume applicant-tracking-system-friendly Swain cautions against putting your full address on your resume as only city and state are needed in the digital age. She also said that a LinkedIn account and a professional email address are necessary. Resumes have changed a lot from what they were in the past, for sure, Swain said. Young professionals should have one-page resumes while more seasoned professionals may have two. Older professionals should focus on no more than 10-15 years of work experience and drop off items as they age, including irrelevant education and respective dates. In terms of design, not too much has changed, Swain said. You should stay away from boxes, photos and unnecessary items that take up a lot of space. The one thing I will say is you have a lot of platforms like Canva, for instance, where they look nice, but thats actually a big no-no. People should still honestly honor those traditional resumes because its more applicant-tracking-system-friendly, she said. Believe in yourself While the market is tough, Swain wants job seekers to remain steadfast and hopeful. When you show up as your best self, thats all that matters, she said. So, dont be afraid to present your best self, dont be afraid to put the time in to make sure youre mitigating all those errors and adding those numbers to stand out because you should be proud when you submit your resume. Central Florida providers have begun administering new Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 bivalent boosters that target the currently-dominant omicron BA.5 subvariant, the BA.4 subvariant, and the original virus. Modernas formula is authorized for use as a single booster dose in people 18 years and up. Pfizers is for people 12 years and up. The shots approved by the Food and Drug Administration in August and then recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Sept. 1 are advised for almost all fully vaccinated people 12 and up as long as it has been at least two months after their last shot or COVID-19 infection. People who are immunocompromised should talk with their doctor. This booster, as with the other COVID-19 vaccines, will continue to be offered free regardless of insurance status. Sanford resident Seth Jestus, 35, booked an appointment as soon as he heard the news because his fiancee has type 1 diabetes, a condition that puts people at increased risk of getting severely ill from COVID-19. I try my best to take her health extremely seriously and will do whatever it takes to make her feel at ease and comfortable with the situation that shes been dealt as a diabetic, Jestus said. After getting the shot on Tuesday, he said his symptoms were similar to the ones he had after getting his first three Pfizer shots: headache, fever and vomiting. They cleared up after 24 hours. Ryan Stotler, who lives in a Tampa suburb, also plans to boost himself and his son to protect both of them against the possibility of severe disease. For the last 3 months Florida has been number 1 in the nation for Covid deaths, he wrote. Much like Ive gotten a flu shot every year, this is just another way to mitigate risk. Jill Roberts, an associate professor at the University of South Florida College of Public Health, reiterated that almost everyone over 12 who is fully vaccinated should get this shot, even Floridians who have already been infected or double-boosted. Story continues This COVID-19 shot and the annual flu shot can even be scheduled for the same time, one in each arm. A vaccine is essentially free immunity. And I say that because its free from the side effects of the disease itself, Roberts said. Theres individuals already who are trying to figure out how they can get disability and things like that for long COVID, and the more we can limit that, the better. The CDC estimates one in five Americans who catch COVID-19 have long COVID-19, new chronic symptoms that linger for months or even years after they stop being contagious. Until now, vaccines have targeted the original strain of COVID-19, even as delta then omicron emerged and became dominant, said Dr. Ashish Jha, White House COVID-19 Response coordinator, at a Tuesday news conference. For the first time since December of 2020, these vaccines our vaccines have caught up with the virus, Jha said. The news comes as BA.5 continues to dominate Central Florida wastewater. On Aug. 29, the omicron BA.5 subvariant mutation was detected in about 90% of SARS-CoV-2 variant genomes, shed by infected people when they go to the bathroom, according to data provided by Frank Martz, city manager of Altamonte Springs. The Altamonte sewer service area covers parts of Orange and Seminole counties. Orange County on Thursday reported an 18.5% positivity rate. Florida Department of health data indicated the county has over 3,000 new cases over the last two weeks, though the popularity of at-home tests means many results go unreported; 167 in Orange are hospitalized, according to Department of Health and Human Services data. Making of the booster Updates to the original vaccines were recommended amid concerns that their effectiveness to prevent infection waned over time and was very low against new omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, even as the protection they offered against severe disease seemed to hold up. We fully expect that the updated bivalent vaccines ... will offer better protection against currently circulating strains than the original vaccines, although it is difficult to predict at this point how much better that protection will be, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, White House coronavirus response coordinator, this week. The new vaccine appears to be safe and effective, though human clinical trials are still ongoing. Pfizer and Moderna originally designed this updated booster to target BA.1, the initial version of omicron that caused last winters record-breaking COVID-19 surge. When BA.4 and BA.5 developed to be even more infectious than the original version of omicron, the FDA told the drugmakers to change course. Though there wasnt enough time to complete clinical trials for this new version before the fall rollout, evidence of the safety and efficacy of the original and BA.1 boosters indicates this booster will also be safe and effective. The new vaccines use the same mRNA technology as the old ones. These vaccines are manufactured using the same process, an FDA news release says. Clinical trial data from the BA.1 iteration suggests the booster incites mild side effects similar to the shots that came before it, such as arm soreness, fatigue and body aches. Rarer side effects such as myocarditis may occur after vaccination, however, a CDC analysis of electronic health records from 40 U.S. health systems indicated myocarditis is more common after COVID-19 than it is after vaccination. Fauci added this shot will potentially usher in a new era of annual COVID-19 shots tweaked based on the subvariant expected to circulate that year because the virus likely wont evolve very far from BA.5. Youve got to put the wildcard of a way-out, out-of-left field variant coming in. If that happens, all bets are off, Fauci said. But if we continue to have an evolution of what we used to call and still do call an influenza adrift not a major change, but just sort of drifting along the BA.5 sublineage I believe that ... well be able to cover what is out there. Roberts agreed that drastically different variants will always be a concern for Florida, but are unlikely. Whats going to happen is most mutations are going to deviate very, very little from the original, she said. And so if thats the case, the vaccines are still going to have enough activity that it wont matter. A list of nearby sites that offer bivalent Moderna and Pfizer vaccines can be found at vaccines.gov. For now, heres how and where to get a free appointment as of Friday: Walgreens Some local Walgreens have appointments available for both the Pfizer and Moderna boosters, which can be made at the same time as a flu shot appointment. Schedule an appointment at Walgreens.com/ScheduleVaccine or through the Walgreens app. CVS CVS has appointments available for the updated Pfizer booster at cvs.com/vaccine or through the CVS Pharmacy app. The store allows customers to make an appointment for a flu vaccine and COVID-19 booster in one appointment. Publix Some Central Florida Publix pharmacies are currently offering both the updated Pfizer and Moderna boosters, which can be booked at the same time as a flu vaccine. Check availability and make an appointment at https://www.publix.com/covid-vaccine. Costco Some local Costcos offer the Moderna bivalent booster, which is only available to people 18 and over. Check availability and make an appointment at costco.com/covid-vaccine. ccatherman@orlandosentinel.com; @CECatherman Twitter Chandler police Chandler police arrested a man on Thursday who is suspected of having led a 7-year-old boy away from his bus stop and sexually assaulted him in July at an apartment complex. The boy told police a man driving a golf cart approached him at his apartment complex near Warner and McQueen roads. The man reportedly took the boy to a different location of the complex and sexually assaulted him. According to Chandler police, officers went to the apartment complex in August to canvass the neighborhood and gave residents a letter regarding the case information. Arrest documents state that the boy told police that he arrived at a bus stop too early so no other children were around and asked a man on a golf cart who had three letters on his shirt for help. The boy's mother was dropping another child off at a different bus stop but returned after realizing her son had forgotten his backpack, according to court documents. The mother was surprised to find her son wasn't at the stop and asked where he had been after he ran back to the station when he told her about the assault, documents state. The child's parents told police they confronted some of the apartment complex's staff and noted that one of them, Jesus Delcampo, who worked as a maintenance worker, appeared scared. The boy did not identify Delcampo as the man who had assaulted him, though the boy's father said his son wasn't sure about Delcampo, documents state. Documents say police served orders to various members of the apartment's male staff members, including Delcampo, to provide their DNA. Delcampo initially agreed to meet with police but then stopped responding to calls until Aug. 5, when his stepfather called and said Delcampo was very busy and couldn't meet for two weeks but would send a written statement, documents state. Delcampo ultimately submitted to a DNA buccal swab the same day after being told about the court order. After the swab, Delcampo told investigators that he had arrived at the complex at 7 a.m. and asked a temporary worker if he needed anything as he walked to the main office. However, documents say the temporary worker told police he hadn't seen Delcampo that morning. Story continues Video surveillance footage also didn't show Delcampo arriving to the main office until around 7:44 a.m. Documents state results from the DNA test came back on Wednesday with Delcampo's DNA matching DNA evidence collected from the boy. Sgt. Jason McClimans, a department spokesperson, said Chandler police arrested Delcampo in Peoria on Thursday on two counts of child molestation and one count of kidnapping. Documents state Delcampo maintained his innocence after being arrested and that it was impossible for his DNA to have been found on the boy's body and that he arrived at the complex's main office around 7:05 a.m. despite what the surveillance footage showed. Republic reporter Jodicee Harrison contributed to this article. Reach the reporter Perry Vandell at 602-444-2474 or perry.vandell@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @PerryVandell. Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Chandler police arrest man suspected of sexually assaulting boy Clive Myrie has responded to comments on social media. (Getty) BBC News' Clive Myrie has set the record straight after he was accused of "belittling" the energy crisis as it emerged that doctors were concerned for the Queen's health. The journalist, 58, was presenting the news on Thursday (8 September) and viewers thought he referred to the crisis as "insignificant" amid reports of the monarch's ill health. However, he has now clarified that he was referring to the speech from Prime Minister Liz Truss - and not the content of the speech - and admitted that it was "a poor choice of word perhaps". Read more: Clive Myrie shares frustration at fake news about Ukraine crisis While he was presenting (prior to the Queen's death being announced) Myrie had turned to colleague Damian Grammaticas, who was at Buckingham Palace. Clive Myrie has clarified his remark. (Richard Gray/EMPICS Entertainment) He said: "Damian, the news a little bit earlier on today that the doctors in Scotland were concerned about the Queens health, coming as Liz Truss was making a rather important statement concerning the future of energy bills. "That of course, insignificant now given the gravity of the situation we seem to be experiencing with Her Majesty." Some viewers were unimpressed, suggesting that Myrie was making light of the energy situation. One said he was "belittling" the crisis and another said it was "appalling misjudgment". Let me clear something up, particularly for those who seemed to relish the suggestion that I would be INSENSITIVE enough to belittle the struggles of millions with their bills. I was referring to the speech Liz Truss was giving, not the CONTENTS of that speech. 1/ https://t.co/YOm45dKlOJ Clive Myrie (@CliveMyrieBBC) September 9, 2022 But the star has now tweeted: "Let me clear something up, particularly for those who seemed to relish the suggestion that I would be INSENSITIVE enough to belittle the struggles of millions with their bills. Story continues "I was referring to the speech Liz Truss was giving, not the CONTENTS of that speech." He said in another post: "It was a poor choice of word perhaps but thats live broadcasting. Clive Myrie was reporting on the Queen's health when he made the comment. (PA) "But the vitriolic pile on hasnt been particularly edifying either. "But thats Twitter for you! "Cheers." Read more: Viewers moved as Clive Myrie appears to 'shed tear' while reporting on Ukraine crisis The Queen's death was announced on Thursday evening (8 September), with Buckingham Palace announcing that she "died peacefully at Balmoral". Watch: Prince Charles hails BBC's 'impartiality' on visit The colleagues of murdered Las Vegas journalist Jeff German have spoken out to reveal how they used the newsrooms investigative skills to help track down his alleged killer. Mr German, a 69-year-old reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, was found dead from multiple stab wounds outside his home near Vegas Drive and Tenaya Way on Saturday morning. He had been dead for several hours. On Wednesday, Clark County Public Administrator Rob Telles was arrested and charged with Mr Germans murder following a brief SWAT standoff at his home. At a press conference on Thursday, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) Captain Dori Koren praised the efforts of Mr Germans colleagues at the Review-Journal for providing invaluable assistance to the murder investigation. The five-person team has now revealed the extent of their involvement in the case where they zeroed in on Mr Telles aggressive tweets towards the journalist, captured the suspect vehicle on Google Maps outside the officials home and staked out his property to confirm their suspicions. Reporters at the local paper told The Daily Beast that they were just doing what their colleague would want us to do using the skills that they learned on the job with Mr German to unmask his killer. Were just acting on instinct right now, aggressively trying to find out what happened, said investigative reporter Briana Erickson. Ms Erickson said that she was celebrating her birthday with a Labor Day weekend to Utah when she first received the devastating news of Mr Germans death. The paper broke the news of his murder late on Saturday night after editor Rhonda Prast connected the information about his passing with a police press release about a murder in the area. At first, the team had only been told that Mr German was found dead outside of his home that morning. But Ms Prast noticed that an address on an unnamed homicide case matched the address for their colleagues home. Story continues Jeff German and Rob Telles pictured together (Las Vegas Review-Journal) Ms Erickson said she drove back to Las Vegas to join her team in helping uncover what had happened. While the newsroom was in disbelief, they began to think about the possibility that Mr Germans murder was connected to his work. The highly-respected journalist had an illustrious career exposing organised crime and corruption in Sin City. The journalists quickly dismissed the idea it was tied to this work uncovering organised crime. You know, the mob stuff was from decades ago, and that just wasnt really plausible, said Ms Erickson. Soon, some of the team began looking more closely at Mr Telles. In the months leading up to Mr Germans murder, he had been investigating allegations of bullying and workplace hostility in the county officials office. Mr German also exposed the married father-of-threes alleged affair with a staffer, releasing footage of what appeared to show the pair having sex in a parked car. Following the investigative journalists reporting, Mr Telles fired off several angry tweets towards the journalist. Then he lost his reelection bid. Jeff German had been investigating allegations of bullying and workplace hostility in the county officials office (AP) *Wife hears rustling in the trash* Her: Honey, is there a wild animal in the trash? Me: No, dear. Looks like its @JGermanRJ going through our trash for his 4th story on me. Oh, Jeff, he tweeted on 18 June, days before the election, with a laughing- crying emoji. Oh shoot. I left a pizza box and sushi containers in the trash. In the next article, Im going to have mob and yakuza ties. The Twitter storm continued as Mr Telles accused Mr German of being a typical bully who couldnt take his own medicine. Looking forward to lying smear piece #4 by @JGermanRJ. #onetrickpony I think hes mad that I havent crawled into a hole and died, he tweeted days later. On Monday, investigators released photos of the suspect in Mr Germans murder dressed in an orange, long-sleeved construction shirt and a big, wide-brimmed straw sun hat, which largely hid the individuals face. The suspect was also wearing blue jeans, white sneakers and dark gloves and appeared to be carrying a dark-coloured duffle-style bag on a strap over their shoulder. Police said the bizarrely-dressed suspect appeared to be stalking the area prior to the brutal slaying and said they believed the perpetrator and victim had been involved in an altercation outside Mr Germans home on Friday morning. Investigators said they were looking for a 2007 to 2014 red or maroon GMC Yukon Denali vehicle in connection with the killing (LVMPD) Surveillance footage of the suspects vehicle a 2007 to 2017 red or maroon GMC Yukon Denali with chrome handles and a sunroof was also released on Tuesday. Now suspicious about Mr Telles, Ms Erickson explained that the news team searched the elected officials address on Google Maps in a hunt for clues. There, they found a photo of a vehicle matching the description of the suspect vehicle parked in Mr Telles driveway and passed the information to police. Reporters then began staking out the Democrats house to try to catch a glimpse of the vehicle, the Daily Beast reported. They spotted and photographed Mr Telles washing the maroon car on his driveway that day. On Wednesday, LVMPD executed a search warrant on the suspects home and seized the vehicle. Mr Telles was taken in for questioning but was later released. Robert Telles just arrived at his house. Reporters asked him if he had any comment. I asked why police towed his vehicle. He had no comment. Story: https://t.co/3CSa7B4XeS pic.twitter.com/tgQ7JuI9BX Brett Clarkson (@BrettClarkson_) September 7, 2022 When he returned to his home a few hours later, reporters from the Las Vegas Review-Journal were waiting for him and questioned him about whether he had killed their colleague. Did you do this? they asked in a video posted online. Mr Telles gave no response. Breaking news reporter Brett Clarkson and photographer Kevin Cannon continued to stake out the suspects home and captured the moment law enforcement returned to arrest Mr Telles for murder on Wednesday night. Mr Telles refused to exit the property and a standoff ensued. Ms Erickson told the Daily Beast she feared they wouldnt get justice for their colleague at that moment. I just was thinking, Is this person going to harm themselves, and are we not going to have justice for Jeff? she said. Rob Telles in court on Thursday on murder charges (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.) Of course, hes innocent until proven guilty. But, you know, the behaviours just very alarming. SWAT teams then entered the home to find Mr Telles suffering from self-inflicted injuries. He was taken to hospital for treatment before being charged with Mr Germans murder. Police said that DNA recovered from the murder scene belongs to Mr Telles and that a pair of bloodied sneakers and a straw hat matching those in the surveillance footage were found at the suspects home. The shoes and the hat had been cut up in an attempt to destroy evidence, police said. Journalist Michael Scott Davidson said that the team was just doing the job that their colleague did so well. Were here to break news, get it right, because thats what Jeff would want us to do, he told the Daily Beast. Jeff was so good at what he did, but he came in here every day like he was still trying to earn his stripes. Law enforcement on the scene of the home of Rob Telles on Wednesday (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.) Now, with Mr Telles behind bars, his colleagues can finally start the grieving process. Weve finally been able to breathe, Ms Erickson told the Daily Beast. It has also raised greater awareness among them about the threats they face uncovering the truth through their work. Any one of us would have reported this story. Any one of us could have, meaning any story that you pursue could potentially lead to circumstances that are completely unforeseen while youre reporting it, said Ms Erickson. So I guess its just kind of puts me on alert, puts all of us on alert here that this is a possibility, which truthfully has never really crossed my mind before. Four of the 65 living Congressional Medal of Honor recipients spoke at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge on Wednesday about what it means to receive the nation's highest military honor. Basically, they said, it's not about them. Each spoke not of their efforts, but of representing and honoring those in the past and present who served or serve in the military, those who came back from wars and conflicts and those who didn't. Their panel discussion at Y-12's New Hope Center was the focus of the Medal of Honor Valor Outreach Program. It was held in conjunction with the annual Congressional Medal of Honor Society Convention, which is underway in Knoxville. Robert Martin Patterson spoke Wednesday at the 2022 Medal of Honor Celebration at Y-12s New Hope Center in Oak Ridge. Patterson received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his service in the Vietnam War. PHOTOS, VIDEO: Knoxville 2022 Medal of Honor Celebration lifts off with Black Hawk helicopters True valor: World War I vet John Calvin Ward came home with the Medal of Honor, but never left the war Three of the panelists served in the Vietnam War: Harvey Curtiss "Barney" Barnum Jr., 82; Harold Arnold Fritz, 78; and Robert Martin Patterson, 74; while William D. Swenson, 43, who jokingly described himself as the "resident whippersnapper," served in the war on terrorism in Afghanistan. "I wear it (the medal) for those I served with, and I wear it for those who serve," Swenson said. "It is truly representative of our total (armed) service." Recalling the day when his Army superior told him he was being recommended for the Medal of Honor, he said he thought, "Please don't do that." Swenson had just lost five soldiers and 10 Afghans working with them. "It was a rough day," he said. Medal of Honor recipient Army Capt. William D. Swenson addresses the audience during the 2022 Medal of Honor Celebration at Y-12s New Hope Center. "It's about those Marines, sailors, corpsmen. ... We came together as a team that day," Barnum said of receiving the medal because of the actions of Dec. 18, 1965. Serving in Vietnam, information from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society website verbally illustrates, young Marine Capt. Barnum found the rifle company commander mortally wounded and the radio operator dead outside the village of Ky Phu in the Quang Tin province of Vietnam. He gave aid to the commander and strapped on the radio, taking command of the rifle company and leading them into heavy fire and an attack on the enemy. Story continues He was the fourth Marine to receive the medal for actions during Vietnam and received his medal from Secretary of the Navy Paul Nitze in the Marine Barracks in Washington, D.C., because, as he described it, President Lyndon B. Johnson didn't want such publicity because the war wasn't going well. Barnum, a retired colonel, later served as deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for reserve affairs and acting assistant secretary of the Navy (manpower and reserve affairs). He said whenever he would make a decision in those roles, he'd consider what the men he served with would say was the right decision, rather than what was politically the best decision. He joked that this resulted in him being dropped from a lot of Christmas card lists in Washington, D.C., but "I could not let them (his comrades) down." Army Lt. Harold Arthur Fritz during the 2022 Medal of Honor Celebration at Y-12s New Hope Center. Patterson was the only enlisted man on the panel. He was an Army specialist fourth class at the time of his heroic effort near La Chu in Vietnam. Patterson single handedly destroyed five enemy bunkers, killed eight enemy soldiers and captured seven weapons while armed only with a rifle and all the "grenades I could carry," he said in a video shown prior to the panel discussion and supported by information on the Congressional Medals Society website. "I honestly cannot remember a single thing," he said in the video about that incident in 1968. Patterson said when his sergeant told him later that he was going to Washington, D.C., he replied, "I ain't got no damn reason to go to D.C." But he did, receiving his medal from President Richard Nixon in 1969. Of life after receiving the medal, Patterson said, "You put it on and it changes everything you do." He said he didn't want to embarrass those he served with, particularly those who didn't return from Vietnam. USMC Lt. Harvey Curtiss Barney Barnum Jr. speaks Wednesday during the 2022 Medal of Honor Celebration at Y-12s New Hope Center. "It changes your language quite a bit," he joked. "You're simply the messenger," said Fritz. He said being a Medal of Honor recipient means you are a representative of all who sacrificed and served in the military. "You weren't killed because there were additional missions for you to do," he said. Although seriously wounded in the initial attack during warfare in Vietnam, Fritz, then an Army first lieutenant, jumped on top of his burning vehicle and directed the positions of the remaining vehicles and men. He then went from vehicle to vehicle helping others, distributing ammunition and manning a machine gun himself. Medal of Honor recipient Army Capt. William D. Swenson addresses the audience during the 2022 Medal of Honor Celebration at Y-12s New Hope Center on Wed., Sept. 7, 2022, in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Swenson received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his service during the War on Terrorism in the Kunar Province, Afghanistan. Also pictured from left are Medal of Honor recipients, from left, USMC Lt. Harvey Curtiss Barney Barnum, Jr., Army Lt. Harold Arthur Fritz and CSM Robert Martin Patterson. "Each of you did something to go against our instinct to run away from danger," said Teresa Robbins, National Nuclear Security Administration production office manager, who gave the opening remarks for the program. "You're courageous, you're humble," she said. The panel discussion was attended by other Y-12, NNSA and Oak Ridge National Laboratory officials and employees, along with Oak Ridge Mayor Warren Gooch, Roane County Executive Wade Creswell and state Rep. John Ragan, R-Oak Ridge. The Oak Ridger's News Editor Donna Smith can be contacted at (865) 220-5514 or by email at dsmith@oakridger.com. Follow her on Twitter @ridgernewsed. This article originally appeared on Oakridger: Medal of Honor recipients visit Y-12 in Oak Ridge during celebration Mourners were left flabbergasted as King Charles III left his official car to greet well-wishers outside Buckingham Palace. The new monarch arrived in London from Balmoral following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. He later met with the prime minister and made his first address as King. James Walmsley, from Liverpool, saw King Charles as he greeted the crowd at Buckingham Palace. If you said 24 hours ago youre going to see the king youd never believe it but now were here, the trainee teacher told The Independent. Seeing him made us all feel a lot more positive, the 23-year-old added. My biggest concern was is the King going to be someone you dont see very often just due to age? Its been a shame not seeing the Queen as much in the last 10 years as in years before, so it was nice seeing him get out of the car and walk around a bit, being active its a nice sign. Ebbie Stout was one of thousands of well-wishers who lined Buckingham Palace as King Charles arrived (Supplied) Civil servant Alastair from London said he only saw the back of King Charless head and his foot but relished the moment as a piece of history. Being here and seeing him was very monumental even though I just saw the back of his head. I feel very privileged to be here, the 54-year-old said. It was jubilant when he arrived, everyone was respectful and nice. Theres been a sombre feeling but you feel the change with the new monarchy here and now we have a king Ive never had a king in my lifetime, he added. James Walmsley was in disbelief when he saw King Charles (Supplied) Student Ash Moad said he was flabbergasted greeting the new King. I could hear the crowd screaming when his car arrived, King Charles was in a car with Camilla herself, the 20-year-old said. It was crazy seeing him in person. Although he had a big smile on his face, everyone could feel he was very sad and low but he was still shaking hands and smiling. I didnt really get to see Camilla because the spotlight was on him [King Charles]. Before he came everyone seemed a bit sad and low but the mood changed when he arrived. Alastair was only able to see the back of King Charless head but said it was worth it (Supplied) Ash added that he feels optimistic about King Charles as the new monarch but said hell take time to settle into the role as he grieves his mother and father who died last year. Story continues Virgin Active manager Ebbie Stout brought her three-month-old daughter, Vallie, to Buckingham Palace to allow her to be part of history. She said she could only see the tops of cars because of the size of the crowds rushing to take pictures of King Charles. A well-wisher kisses the hand of King Charles III during the walkabout (PA Wire) When the Kings state Rolls-Royce was first spotted by the crowds as it neared the palace, a cheer when up from well-wishers who had gathered in their thousands outside the gates of the royal residence. One of the first to offer words of support to the new King was Laura Ohmona. After shaking hands with Charles, she said: I said to him, sorry for your loss and he said, thank you. Charles smiled at the words of praise he received from the public and at several moments threw up his hands as if to say thank you when condolences were shouted out. Josephine Bennett, 53, from London, exchanged a few words with the grieving King and said afterwards: I said, we love you Charles and he said, thank you very much. This is all very surreal, but Im so happy hes here, I wanted to see him. COVID-19 Booster Shot A nurse prepares to administers a Pfizer COVID-19 booster shot at UCI Medical Center in Orange, CA, on Thursday, August 19, 2021. Credit - Jeff Gritchen/MediaNews Group/Orange County RegisterGetty Images As new Omicron-specific boosters become available in the U.S., a study published today in JAMA Internal Medicine emphasizes the importance and success of boosters in keeping people infected with COVID-19 out of the hospital. The researchers analyzed data from more than 192,000 adults in 13 U.S. states who had been hospitalized with COVID-19 between January and April 2022 when the original Omicron variant was at its peak. During this time, unvaccinated people were 10.5 times more likely to be hospitalized than people who had been fully vaccinated and boosted (with the original version of the booster). People who were vaccinated but not boosted were 2.5 times more likely to end up in the hospital than those who had received a booster. This underscores the importance of boosters in preventing hospitalizations, serious illness, and death, the study authors write. The researchers call on clinicians and public-health practitioners to continue to promote vaccination with all recommended doses for eligible persons. Only about 48% of eligible people in the U.S. have received a first booster shot, according to the latest data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). And while 80% of people in the U.S. have received at least one dose of the vaccine, this isnt enough to provide adequate protection against severe infection. Studies from researchers and COVID-19 vaccine makers suggest that the protection provided by the vaccines wanes over time. As the findings from one Moderna study suggest, vaccine-induced immunity is likely strongest soon after people get their recommended two doses of the vaccine, and starts to weaken after that. Read More: You Can Still Get Long COVID If Youre Vaccinated and Boosted In the new study, those who were hospitalized and fully vaccinated were predominantly people over 58 years old. They were also more likely to have at least three underlying medical conditions and to be residents in long-term care facilitiessuggesting that people with weaker immune systems do not gain the same amount of protection against COVID-19 as healthy people from vaccines and past infections. They also are more vulnerable to severe infection. Getting a booster helped improve protection for all age groups, including this one. Story continues The study gives further support for adults ages 65 years and older to stay up to date with their COVID-19 vaccination, says the studys lead author and CDC medical officer Fiona Havers. Other measures are also important to help protect against hospitalization of older or other vulnerable individuals, such as early access to antiviral medications if eligible, improving ventilation, getting tested, and wearing a mask, she says. The researchers also found that Black and Hispanic patients were less likely to be vaccinated than white patients. Given the racial and ethnic disparities seen throughout the pandemic, the association between race and ethnicity and vaccination status among hospitalized cases should be monitored closely, the researchers write. On Sept. 1, the CDC authorized new Omicron-specific shots developed by Moderna (available to adults 18 years and older) and Pfizer-BioNTech (for people ages 12 and up). Though data in humans have not yet been published, public-health experts believe the new boosterwhich replaces the old onewill be an important way to confer continued protection. If you are eligible, said CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky in a recent statement, there is no bad time to get your COVID-19 booster and I strongly encourage you to receive it. Dayton Mayor Jeffrey Mims will be helping the Dayton Community Blood Center (CBC) launch a blood drive in honor of Sickle Cell Awareness Month. >> Montgomery County drops to medium COVID community level The five day blood drive will kickoff on September 12 at 10 a.m. and last through September 17 at the Dayton Community Blood Center on S. Main St. in Dayton. The CBC is a non-profit organization that provides blood products to partner hospitals and health centers within its service area of western Ohio and Eastern Indiana, according to a release from a CBC spokesperson. Through this drive the blood center wants to spread awareness of this disease as well as the critical need for a diverse blood supply, the release said. More than 100,000 Americans are impacted by sickle cell as it is the most common inherited blood disorder in the country. Patients with sickle cell benefit most from blood transfusions when the blood comes from someone of the same race or similar ethnicity, but only five percent of blood donors are of African ancestry, according to the release. >> WATCH: Cruiser cam captures moment chase through 3 counties ends in arrest The requirements for blood donation include: Provide a photo ID, past donors are asked to bring their CBC donor ID card Must be at least 17 years old, or 16 years old with parental consent. You can find the consent form here . Must weigh a minimum of 110 pounds, depending on your height. Must be in good physical health >> Dayton National Cemetery honors fallen 9/11 first responders Mayor Mims will be joined by Dayton Children Hospitals Sickle Cell Ambassador, William McCoy lll, a 13-year-old sickle cell patient. McCoy is a seventh grader at Pathway School of Discovery and would describe himself as a trooper, as stated in the release. You can make an appointment to donate blood online at www.donortime.com , or call (937) 461-3220, or download the new Donor Time app. People with questions regarding eligibility can email canidonate@cbccts.org or call (937) 461-3220. The impact of the death of Queen Elizabeth II is being felt widely outside Britain. Many global broadcasters tore up their usual programming schedules within minutes of the news, in order to pay tribute to a beloved monarchs legacy. Whenever something of this massive scale happens, whether its a death, a natural disaster, a declaration of war or an attack, news takes priority over all programming, said Aline Pivot, head of news at TF1, Frances leading commercial TV channel. More from Variety Pivot said her news department began to get ready its dedicated coverage from Thursday morning when the BBC first reported that the Queen had been placed under medical surveillance. We immediately sent correspondents to Balmoral [in the Scottish Highlands, where the Queen died], Pivot continued. TF1s programming was entirely dedicated to the Queens death on Thursday evening, with a special magazine show hosted by a pair of star journalists from around 7:30 p.m. local time to 10:30pm, and again Friday morning from 8:20 a.m. We dont know when well revert to our usual programming, Pivot said, adding that more special programming will be slotted in during the next two weeks. Theres always been a friendship uniting France and the Queen Elizabeth II. She spoke French fluently and knew all our presidents! There was a real attachment, not only due to the proximity of our countries, but because the history of the Royal Family touches us, said Pivot, who also mentioned that France had been deeply marked by the death of Princess Diana in Paris. Frances public broadcaster France Televisions also rolled out a rich programming to pay tribute to the Queen Elizabeth II, with a pair of premium documentaries Un jour un Destin The Queen, and Elizabeth II, Histoire dun Couronnement, along with live news magazines. Story continues Antoine Boilley, co-director of marketing and communication at France Televisions, said the broadcaster held an emergency meeting at 4 p.m. with the head of programming, head of channels and news heads for each channel to put together a slate of shows with renown journalists and experts on the Royal Family, notably Stephane Bern. Queen Elizabeth II was an extraordinary symbol who was at the heart of the world for nearly 100 years. People of all ages have been fascinated by her across multiple generations, which is why we saw huge audiences when we covered the Jubilee celebration, said Boilley, pointing out that the primetime live news show on the Queen was watched by more than 4 million viewers, while more than 1.3 million people tuned into the documentary Elizabeth II, Histoire dun Couronnement, despite the fact that it aired at 10.30pm. The Queens death also shook programming schedules in Italy, where public broadcaster RAI replaced its planned early evening prime-time content on flagship station RAI-1 with a special program. Mediaset, meanwhile, pulled its prime-time movie and also aired a special. That was followed by locally produced documentary The Queen La Favola, which translates and The QueenThe Fairy Tale. PayTV group Sky Italia is airing a slew of Queen Elizabeth-related movies, documentaries and TV series including Roger Michells Elizabeth: a Portrait in Parts, British vintage TV series The Royals with Elizabeth Hurley, and the The Queen by Stephen Frears. In Germany, SAT.1, a leading channel which is part of the Seven.One Group, reported live from London in a special two-hour broadcast, starting at 8:15 pm. Afterwards, the station showed a documentary about Queen Elizabeth II. Today (Friday), the news program SAT.1-Fruhstucksfernsehen is two hours longer than usual and will last until noon local time. In addition to short newsflashes, there will be another two-hour special program, SAT.1 SPEZIAL [starting at 6:00 p.m], said a spokesman. Many of our viewers are big fans of the British royal family and are very interested in the coverage, so in the next few days, ProSieben and SAT.1 will continue to inform viewers in detail in their magazines. SAT.1 will also broadcast the funeral service live from Westminster Abbey, said Michael Ulich, VP of news, sports, factual and fiction at Seven.One. Another major German outlet, RTL News, also jumped on the news. Gerhard Kohlenbach, editor-in-Chief at RTL News, said the groups RTL and ntv channels canceled regular programming to broadcast several special programmes late in the night. Currently we are providing background information in extended editions of our news formats and several short-term specials, added Kohlenbach. In India, the death of Queen Elizabeth II is just one of the many big stories in a vast country that has no dearth of urgent, breaking news. Rajdeep Sardesai, consulting editor at the respected India Today broadcast news organization and one of Indias best-known media personalities told Variety: It was breaking news last night at 11 oclock. And I think we went well past midnight. Weve got a full-time person in London, whos tracking the story for us. It is a big news story. But, in India, there is so much else also happening that while its a big story, its one of the big stories. Its not the only story that were tracking. When the funeral actually takes place, that will be the big live event [Thursday] was much more just immediate reactions to what had happened. The first speech of King Charles III will also be covered. Well cut live to that, Sardesai said. Frankly, there is an entire Indian generation, which now has no real connect to the Raj or indeed to the Queen. But there is a tiny elite which went to English speaking schools, particularly convent, Jesuit schools, and for this tiny metropolitan elite, I think the Raj and Queen Elizabeth were enduring figures. India, now 75 years independent from the British Raj, is making some cosmetic efforts to erase its colonial past, especially under the current Hindu nationalist government. Post-independence, Kingsway, a central boulevard in the countrys capital New Delhi, was renamed Rajpath (path of kings). On Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi renamed it Kartavyapath, or path of duty. India, which remains part of the British commonwealth like Australia, has declared Sunday as a day of mourning for Queen Elizabeth II. The fact is, we are a member of the Commonwealth, I dont think India has ever debated in recent times, to withdraw from the Commonwealth. While we need to introspect and look at the way in which the British Raj, in a way pauperized India and how India lost out in those years, the truth is that I think 75 years on we are more self-confident nation, and therefore can easily deal with the Raj without getting caught up in decolonization debates, said Sardesai. In Australia, public radio and TV broadcaster Australian Broadcasting Corporation newsreaders dressed in black and programming has switched to reflect the Queens life and seven decades of reign. A gun salute will be held at the Parliament House at dusk Friday, with one round fired for every year of the Queens life. A national day of mourning was also declared to mark the Queens death. Parliament will be suspended for 15 days. Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong chief executive, John Lee, released a statement on Friday saying the monarch was greatly respected, admired and praised by the British people. In spite of tensions between China and the U.K., Chinese President Xi Jinping also sent a message of condolence to British King Charles III, stressing the importance of China-Britain relations, according to the Chinese press agency Xinhua. Patrick Frater, Leo Barraclough and Nick Vivarelli contributed to this report. Best of Variety Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. and Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman successfully pushed for the early release of a man convicted of murdering a Pittsburgh man. Fetterman, who oversees the states Board of Pardons, voted in August 2019 to grant a public hearing for Raymond Johnson, who was sentenced to life in prison after he was convicted of first-degree and second-degree murder in a 1973 York County slaying. Johnson was accused of luring his victim to a womans house, shooting the man with a sawed-off shotgun before stabbing him to death, robbing him of his belongings and disposing the body alongside accomplice Kenneth Wayne Smith, who was also convicted of first-degree murder in the killing. On Sept. 13, 2019, Fetterman's Board of Pardons voted unanimously to commute Johnsons sentence, and Gov. Tom Wolf granted the request that December, releasing Johnson from prison. Johnson was required to spend a year in a halfway house and comply with parole for life. FETTERMAN APPOINTEE TO PA. BOARD OF PARDONS SOUGHT TO ABOLISH MANDATORY LIFE SENTENCES FOR MURDERS Fetterman said at the time that he supported Johnsons commutation, despite opposition from the York County district attorneys office, in part because Johnson had served 36 years without committing an infraction, PennLive.com reported. "Why have this mechanism if were unwilling to extend it to someone who has demonstrated 36 years of impeccable behavior," Fetterman told the outlet at the time. Johnson is only one of several individuals convicted of first-degree murder that Fetterman has recommended for commutation. The Washington Free Beacon reported last month that the lieutenant governor was the only member of the Board of Pardons to vote to commute the sentence of Wayne Covington, who was sentenced to life in prison for the killing of an 18-year-old. Fettermans record on crime has come under scrutiny as his race heats up against Republican opponent, Mehmet Oz. Story continues PENNSYLVANIA LT. GOV. FETTERMAN, SENATE CANDIDATE, SAID SANCTUARY CITIES MAKE EVERYBODY SAFER Fetterman says he wants to eliminate mandatory life sentences for those convicted of second-degree murder, but he has not said that applies to first-degree murder. The lieutenant governor has also expressed support for reducing Pennsylvanias prison population by one-third. Fetterman's campaign responded to Fox News Digital's request for comment by attacking Oz for being out of touch with Pennsylvanians after having "just moved" to the state. "Dr. Oz lives in a mansion on a hill, what does he know about confronting crime? John Fetterman has actually done it, and done it successfully," campaign spokesman Joe Calvello said. "So hes not going to be taking pointers from a guy who just moved here and has absolutely no understanding of the problems facing Pennsylvania." Oz's campaign has previously hit back against claims that he's a Pennsylvania outsider, saying he currently resides in state, votes in the state, went to college in the state and has his medical license there. Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman addresses supporters during a rally on August 12, 2022 in Erie, Pennsylvania. DUSTIN FRANZ/AFP via Getty Images Rising crime rates nationwide have become a hot-button topic ahead of the midterm elections. A 19-year-old repeat offender who was released early went on a shooting spree in Memphis on Wednesday, killing four and wounding at least three others. The suspect, Ezekiel Kelly, had been sentenced to three years in prison for aggravated assault but was released in March after serving just 11 months of his sentence. Wednesday's rampage came less than six months after his release. "If Mr. Kelly served his full three-year sentence, he would still be in prison today and four of our fellow citizens would still be alive," Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said during a press conference. Ohio Republican Senate nominee JD Vance, left, and Democratic Rep. and Senate nominee Tim Ryan. AP Photo/Paul Vernon, File; Drew Angerer/Getty Images Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan is locked in a close race with Republican JD Vance for Ohio's open Senate seat. Ahead of President Joe Biden's visit to Ohio, Ryan said it's time for "generational change" in leadership. Ryan isn't the first Democratic member of Congress to suggest Biden should step aside. Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan, on the eve of President Joe Biden's visit to Ohio, said it is time for "generational change" in leadership when asked if he thinks Biden should run for re-election in 2024. Ryan, who is locked in a close race with GOP author and venture capital executive JD Vance for Ohio's open Senate seat, is appearing with Biden in Licking County, Ohio on Friday when the president attends the groundbreaking of a new Intel semiconductor manufacturing facility, a project that Ryan has called "transformational." Biden is using the appearance to promote a new law to bolster the US semiconductor manufacturing industry that is considered a win for his administration. But when asked directly if Biden should run in 2024, Ryan said in a television interview on Youngstown's WFMJ that his "hunch" is that a "generational move" in leadership is needed "across the board" for Democrats and Republicans. "I think the environment politically across the country is poisonous," he said. "People, I think want some change. And, you know, it's important for us to, I think on both parties like these leaders who have been around for a while I think it's time for some generational change, which of course I've been trying to do for a while now." Ryan, who ran against Biden in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, isn't the first Democrat to suggest Biden shouldn't run for re-election. Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota in July called for a "new generation" of leaders and Rep. Angie Craig, also of Minnesota, said she agreed with Phillips. Former President Donald Trump won Ohio in both the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. Ryan, who is campaigning for the seat held by retiring GOP Sen. Rob Portman, skipped Biden's Biden's July 6 visit to Cleveland. Story continues During his television interview, Ryan said he is campaigning "as an independent" and has agreed with Trump on certain trade and defense issues. He said he isn't asking anyone to campaign for him, including Biden. He said he agrees with Biden on semiconductor chips and infrastructure but he doesn't think he's being tough enough on China, doing enough with natural gas, or being firm enough on border issues. "When I agree with him, I'll agree with him. When I disagree. I'll disagree, but I will be the messenger of this campaign," he said. Here's the interview clip: Read the original article on Business Insider The Democratic National Committee on Saturday voted unanimously to pass a resolution urging President Joe Biden to release activist Leonard Peltier from prison a sign of the growing momentum to remedy what many consider a decadeslong stain on the nations criminal justice system. DNC members passed the measure on a voice vote, calling on Biden to grant clemency to Peltier. The measure was part of a package of resolutions that sailed through during a DNC general session. Peltier, an Indigenous rights activist, has been in prison for 46 years following the 1975 murder of two FBI agents during a shoot-out on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. This is despite no evidence he committed a crime, a trial riddled with misconduct and a parole process so problematic that United Nations legal experts recently called on Biden to release him immediately. The DNC resolution states that Peltier, now 77, is an ideal candidate for leniency given the overwhelming support for clemency, the constitutional due process issues underlying Mr. Peltiers prosecution, his status as an elderly inmate, and that he is an American Indian, who suffer from greater rates of health disparities and severe underlying health conditions. It concludes: It is highly appropriate that consideration of clemency for Mr. Peltier be prioritized and expedited, so that Mr. Peltier can return to his family and live his final years among his people. Heres a full copy of the text: North Dakota state Rep. Ruth Anna Buffalo (D), a member of the DNC Executive Committee and one of the people behind the resolution, said she feels nothing but gratitude to see it pass with unanimous support. We thank the Democratic Party for standing with justice, she told HuffPost. My 19-year-old daughter continues to encourage me to push harder and to work harder for our elder Leonard Peltiers release, who is a survivor of Federal Indian Boarding School, Buffalo said. Our next generation is watching and sees this injustice. We cannot give up on releasing Peltier, a political prisoner. Story continues A White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on whether Biden is aware of the DNC resolution, or whether he is considering granting clemency for the activist. Leonard Peltier's prolonged imprisonment is arbitrary Leonard Peltier's prolonged imprisonment is arbitrary" and the U.S. government should release him immediately, United Nations legal experts recently wrote in a damning opinion. (Photo: Associated Press) Peltier is considered by many to be Americas longest-serving political prisoner. Advocates for his release have raised several problems with his trial, citing blatant 1970s-era racism against Indigenous people, his co-defendants acquittal on grounds of self-defense, and details that suggest the FBI bore at least partial responsibility for the shoot-out that took place that day. A former U.S. prosecutor who helped put Peltier in jail has since described his trial as flawed and last year pleaded with Biden to grant him clemency. Members of Congress have similarly requested that he be set free, and in recent months, four U.S. senators separately called on the president to release Peltier: Sens. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii). Peltiers case has long sparked outcry from the Indigenous community, celebrities and international human rights leaders, including Pope Francis, the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Coretta Scott King and Amnesty International USA. His supporters feel a renewed sense of hope with Biden in the White House, given that he has already demonstrated a willingness to address past injustices against Native Americans. Among other things, Biden has made it a priority to examine the governments ugly history of Indian boarding schools, to protect sacred Indigenous sites and cultural resources, and to address the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women. Biden also chose Deb Haaland to lead his Interior Department, making her the nations first-ever Indigenous cabinet secretary. Haaland strongly advocated for Peltiers release from prison in her former role as a congresswoman. The new DNC resolution comes after leaders of the DNCs Native American Caucus, including Buffalo, issued a statement earlier this year calling Peltiers imprisonment one of the great miscarriages of justice in modern history. This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. Related... As the Queen of the United Kingdom and its 15 commonwealth realms, its no question that Her Majesty was one wealthy woman. But what was Queen Elizabeths net worth before her death and who will inherit her money? Royal well wishers may be surprised to learn that she wasnt among the richest royals in the world, though shes certainly did well for herself either way. Queen Elizabeth II is the first child of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. She became Queen of the United Kingdom as well as the other Commonwealth countries in February 1952 after the death of her father. She was 25 years old at the time. She was married to Philip Mountbatten, a former prince of Greece and Denmark, from November 1947 until Prince Philips death in April 2021. The two had four children together: Charles, Prince of Wales; Anne, Princess Royal; Prince Andrew, Duke of York; and Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex. More from StyleCaster Buy: Elizabeth the Queen by Sally Bedell Smith $7.95+ After more than 70 years on the throne, Queen Elizabeth II died on September 8, 2022. She was 96 years old. Buckingham Palace confirmed her death in a statement. The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon, Buckingham Palaces statement read. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow. In a 1957 Christmas Broadcast, the Queen promised the United Kingdom she would give her heart and devotion to the Commonwealth. I cannot lead you into battle, she said at the time. I do not give you laws or administer justice, but I can do something else: I can give my heart and my devotion to these old islands and to all the peoples of our brotherhood of nations. Story continues Click here to read the full article. But what was Queen Elizabeths net worth before her death and who will inherit her money? Read on for what we know about Queen Elizabeths net worth, how she made her money, what she earned each year and how the death of her late husband, Prince Philip, may have impacted her finances. How did Queen Elizabeth II make money? Image: Samir Hussein/WireImage. The Queen had multiple streams of income coming from portfolios comprised of lands, properties and other assets acquired throughout the years. Her primary source of income comes from an account called the Sovereign Grant, which sets aside a reported 25 percent of income produced by a collection of lands and holdings called the Crown Estate. Though the Queen does not privately own the Crown Estate, this portion of the public sovereign entity pays for the Queen and her familys expenses each year. In recent years, the Queens yearly income amassed from this estate has amounted to roughly $18 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. The Sovereign Grant is a taxpayer fund paid annually to the British royal family. The grant originated from an agreement made by King George III, who agreed to surrender his income from the Parliament to receive a set annual payment for himself and other royal family members. The agreement was originally known as the Civil List before it was reworked as the Sovereign Grant in 2012. In total, the grant amount was set around 86 million pounds in 2021 an 2022, according to Fortune. Funds from the grant are spent toward official travel, property maintenance and the operating and maintenance cost of Buckingham Palace, the Queens household. Her Majesty also earned a yearly income from a collection of land, property and assets called the Duchy of Lancaster, a private portfolio held in trust for the reigning sovereign. In 2020, the Queens annual income from the Duchy of Lancaster was an estimated 23 million, or $31 million, according to Express and Star. Along with her sovereign portfolios, the Queen also owns a collection of personal assets that she shared with her late husband, Prince Philip. These include the familys Sandringham Estate, which is worth a reported $65 million, and their vacation home of Balmoral Castle, valued at an estimated $140 million. What was Queen Elizabeth IIs salary? Image: Ben Stansall WPA Pool/Getty Images. Taking her many streams of income into account, the Queen earned a generous salary each year until her death According to the Evening Standard, this looked like an estimated $97.2 million in yearly income for Her Majesty in 2020. The Queen is also a senior member of The Firm, also known as the Monarchy PLC, according to Fortune. The firm is made up of the public faces of the House of Windsor and the royal family members the Queen was the head of. According to Fortune, The firm operates and a multi-million-pound business empire that boosts the United Kingdom economy through televised events and tourism. The Queen was the head of The Firm. The other seven members are: King Charles; his wife Camilla, Princess Consort; Prince William; his wife Kate, Duchess of Cambridge; Princess Anne; Prince Edward; and his wife Sophie, Countess of Essex. According to Forbes, the British royal family holds almost $28 billion in real estate as of 2021 that cannot be sold. Heres how it breaks down: The Crown Estate: $19.5 billion Buckingham Palace: $4.9 billion The Duchy of Cornwall: $1.3 billion The Duchy of Lancaster: $748 million Kensington Palace: $630 million The Crown Estate of Scotland: $592 million What was Queen Elizabeth IIs net worth before her death? Queen Elizabeths net worth was estimated between $480 million to $500 million in 2021, according to multiple net worth calculators. Following the death of her husband, Prince Philip, that amount may have changed as she likely acquired any of his wealth not left to their four children: King Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward. MEGA. Who will inherit Queen Elizabeths money? Who will inherit Queen Elizabeths money? According to Fortune, King Charles, Queen Elizabeth IIs eldest son with Prince Philip who ascended to the throne after her death, will inherit most of her $500 million in personal assets after her death. Those assets include her investments, art collection, jewelry and real estate holdings, which include Sandringham House in Norfolk, England, and the Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, where the Queen died. Queen Elizabeth also inherited almost $70 million in assets after the Queen Mothers death in 2002. Those assets a stamp collection, fine china, jewels, horses, and even a valuable Faberge egg collection and paintings from artists like Monet, Nash and Carl Faberge. According to Fortune, there is a legal clause that exempted the Queen from paying an inheritance tax on the estate left by her Queen Mother, which will apply to Charles too. Under an agreement with former Prime Minster John Major in 1993, inheritance from sovereign to sovereign is exempt from the United Kingdoms 40-percent inheritance tax. The agreement was create to avoid the erosion of the British royal familys wealth. However, Charles wont the British royal familys whole $28 billion empire, which include the estate of the estate of Scotland, the Crown Estate, the Duchy of Lancaster, the Duchy of Cornwall, Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace. According to Fortune, he will only inherit the personal assets designated to him by his mother. How did Queen Elizabeth die? MEGA. How did the Queen die? Queen Elizabeth II died peacefully at her home at Balmoral Castle in Scotland in the afternoon of September 8, 2022. She was 96. Buckingham Palace confirmed her death in a statement. She will be succeeded by her son, Charles, Prince of Wales, who will now become King Charles III. Charles wife, Camila, Duchess of Cornwall, will now become The Queen Sonsort. The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon, Buckingham Palaces statement read. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow. The Queens death came hours after after Buckingham Palace announced that she had been placed under medical supervision due to concerns from her doctors. Following further evaluation this morning, The Queens doctors are concerned for Her Majestys health and have recommended she remain under medical supervision, the Buckingham Palace said at the time. The Queen remains comfortable and at Balmoral. The statement continued, Their Royal Highnesses The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall have traveled to Balmoral. After the Queen passed away, Charlesthe heir apparent to the British royal throne and the Queens eldest son with her late husband, Prince Philiphonored his mother in a statement on the official Royal Family Twitter. The death of my beloved Mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family, the statement read. We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished sovereign, and much-loved mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world. During this period of mourning and change, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection on which The Queen was so widely held. The Queen was surrounded by British royal family members at the time of her death. Along with Charles and Camila, the Queens second and third sons with PhilipPrince Andrew and Prince Edwardwere seen arriving at Aberdeen Airport in Scotland shortly before her death. Prince Edwards wife, Sophie, Countess of Wessex, was also seen arriving at the airport, as well as the Queens eldest grandson, Prince William. The Queens second eldest grandson, Prince Harry, wasnt seen at Balmoral Castle until hours after her death. He traveled from Germany, where he and his wife, Meghan Markle, were promoting the Invictus Games, to Scotland. Meghan, for her part, didnt join Harry at Balmoral Castle and remained in Germany at the time of the Queens death. Williams wife, Kate Middleton, also wasnt present at Balmoral Castle and stayed in Windsor, England, as September 8 was the first day of school for her and Williams children: Prince George, 9, Princess Charlotte, 7, and Prince Louis, 4. What was Queen Elizabeths cause of death? Mirrorpix / MEGA. What was the Queens cause of death? Queen Elizabeth IIs cause of death wasnt announced at the time of her passing. However, her death came hours after after Buckingham Palace announced that she had been placed under medical supervision due to concerns from her doctors. Following further evaluation this morning, The Queens doctors are concerned for Her Majestys health and have recommended she remain under medical supervision, the Buckingham Palace said at the time. The Queen remains comfortable and at Balmoral. The statement continued, Their Royal Highnesses The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall have traveled to Balmoral. The statement also came a day after the Queen cancelled a scheduled Privy Council meeting so he could rest. After a full day yesterday, Her Majesty has this afternoon accepted doctors advice to rest, Buckingham Palace said in a statement on September 7, 2022. This means that the Privy Council meeting that had been due to take place this evening will be rearranged. Before her death, the Queen had been seen regularly using a cane since October 2021. That month, she cancelled a scheduled trip to Northern Ireland under the advice of her doctors and spent a night in the hospital. The Queen has reluctantly accepted medical advice to rest for the next few days, Buckingham Palace said in a statement at the time. Her Majesty is in good spirits and is disappointed that she will no longer be able to visit Northern Ireland, where she had been due to undertake a series of engagements today and tomorrow. After her hospitalization, Buckingham Palace confirmed in a statement at the time that the Queen remains in good spirits following her overnight stay, where she underwent preliminary investigations. Following medical advice to rest for a few days, the Queen attended hospital on Wednesday afternoon for some preliminary investigations, returning to Windsor Castle at lunchtime today and remains in good spirits, the statement read. The Queens death also came a year after she tested positive for COVID-19 following close contact with Charles, who contracted the virus earlier that month. At the time, celebrity gossip website Hollywood Unlocked, falsely reported that the Queen had died at the age of 95 from COVID-19. The site falsely reported at the time that the Queen was found dead after she was set to attend a wedding. It is with our deepest regret to inform you that Britains Queen Elizabeth has died, Hollywood Unlockeds report read at the time. Sources close to the Royal Kingdom notified us exclusively that Queen Elizabeth has passed away. She was scheduled to attend the wedding of British Vogue editor Edward Enninful, but was found dead. While the site didnt credit any official royal sources, Hollywood Unlocked CEO and founder Jason Lee took to his Twitter at the time to back up the outlets report. We dont post lies and I always stand by my sources, he wrote at the time. Waiting for an official statement from the palace. Lee later reiterated his stance on Instagram, writing, Ive never lied; Ive never been wrong; I trust my sources; and I have yet to see an official statement from the palace saying otherwise, in a numbered list. Despite Lees statement, however, the news of the Queens death at the time was false. After the Queen tested positive for COVID-19 in February 2022, a source told Us Weekly at the time the monarch had been recovering without any fuss despite Hollywood Unlockeds report of her death. Of course, she has a team of doctors to lean on whenever needed and a support staff thats second to none, the insider told the magazine. But thus far Her Majesty has been handling this without any fuss or need to involve too many others in her recovery. After reports the Queen was still alive, Hollywood Unlocked issued a statement on social media apologizing for the incorrect story and blaming the report on an intern journalist who published the draft post by mistake. The site added, Our deepest apologies goes out to the #RoyalFamily and all involved in this embarrassing situation. It was an accident and were working hard to make sure that this mistake never happens again. Image: Courtesy of Random House. Buy: Elizabeth the Queen by Sally Bedell Smith $7.95+ For more about the British royal family, check out Sally Bedell Smiths 2012 biography, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch. The New York Times bestseller, which includes the real story behind several storylines featured in Netflixs The Crown, follows Queen Elizabeth IIs life from her childhood as the heiress presumptive to her father, King George VI; to the moment he et her husband, Prince Philip, when she was 13 years old; to her ascension to the throne at 25 years old in 1952. Elizabeth the Queen, which also includes interviews with Buckingham Palace sources and never-before-revealed documents, provides a deep dive into the Queens legacy as one of the most famous monarchs in recent history. Our mission at STYLECASTER is to bring style to the people, and we only feature products we think youll love as much as we do. Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission of the sale. "Watch This Space" - Amazon Prime Video Best of StyleCaster United States Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks during a press conference announcing a significant firearms trafficking enforcement action and ongoing efforts to protect communities from violent crime and gun violence at the Department of Justice in Washington, U.S., June 13, 2022. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo A judge ruled on Monday that a special master can be appointed to review the records seized from Mar-a-Lago. The DOJ filed an appeal on Thursday, arguing that the order interrupts a criminal investigation. The Justice Department also reiterated that the documents belong to the government anyway. The Justice Department on Thursday reiterated a key point that has been made by federal investigators and the National Archives since the records agency opened an inquiry last year with Donald Trump about missing White House files: The documents that were seized from Mar-a-Lago "indisputably" belong to the government. In its appeal to a federal judge's Monday ruling, which granted Trump's request for a special master to review thousands of documents taken from the Florida resort, the Justice Department requested a partial stay that could allow for an independent party to review some of the records without further impeding a criminal investigation. Specifically, the agency hopes to continue sifting through a "discrete set of just over 100 documents" that have classified markings. The DOJ wrote that "those aspects of the Order will cause the most immediate and serious harms to the government and the public." Prosecutors further stated: "A stay would simply allow the government to continue to review and use the same records which, again, indisputably belong to the government, not Plaintiff in its ongoing criminal investigation as well." Trump and his attorneys have argued that a special master is necessary because some of the documents may contain personal items or documents that could fall under executive privilege. (Legal experts have raised doubts on the ability of a former president to claim such a privilege.) The DOJ stated in its appeal that the partial stay "would impose no cognizable harm" to Trump and "not disturb the special master's review of any other records, including any personal materials or records potentially subject to attorney-client privilege." With the ruling, handed by US District Judge Aileen M. Cannon, the Justice Department said that the order has already interrupted an ongoing criminal probe and prevented a review by the intelligence community of potential national security risks. Read the original article on Business Insider CANTON Canton police are searching for a group of thieves targeting Kia automobiles in the community. Wednesday alone, four Kias were stolen without keys. Three of the vehicles were stolen from the city's southwest side from Clarendon, Arlington and Dartmouth Avenues. Authorities around the country have reported a spike in thefts of Kia and Hyundai vehicles as part of a TikTok challenge and a design flaw in some newer model cars made by Kia and Hyundai that make them easier to steal. Canton police had no comment regarding the social media challenge. Don't be a victim:Stark Sheriff's Office: How to avoid having your vehicle stolen Tanner Kramer, 21, of Canton, was among the four Kia owners whose vehicles were taken Wednesday. At least two more Kia vehicles were stolen and recovered since Sept. 3, police records show. He was notified by police Wednesday afternoon that his vehicle was located with damage to the ignition and rear passenger side. "My car is still in the impound lot, and I don't where they found it," Kramer said, adding he's borrowing a relative's car until his vehicle is released by police. More on car thefts:Police warn of rise in car thefts in Kia, Hyundai models caused by possible design flaw Four Kia Optimas, one Kia Sportage, and one Kia Forte were reported stolen this month. Only one of the vehicles, a rental that was taken and later located, had the actual keys inside. In most cases, the vehicle's ignition was reported damaged. Kramer has recently heard that vehicles were being stolen by use of USB chords. Canton police have reported a 16% increase in vehicle thefts since last year. Reach Cassandra cnist@gannett.com; Follow on Twitter @Cassienist This article originally appeared on The Repository: Thieves targeting Kia automobiles in Canton Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin has joined a growing chorus of state Democrats who are criticizing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for sending buses of undocumented migrants to Chicago and other major American cities, calling the act "cruel and inhumane." Durbin made the remarks Friday after visiting a Salvation Army shelter in the Windy City, where he says "140 or more individuals have been sent from the state of Texas and other places to Chicago." "This idea of dumping these helpless people on buses and trucking them off to New York and Washington and Chicago is cruel and it's inhumane," Durbin told reporters. "It does not represent who we are as Americans," he also said, adding that "I'm sorry that the governors of these states have done this without thinking of what the consequences are to these individuals, but we need to make the best of the situation." CHICAGO MAYOR LORI LIGHTFOOT RIPS TEXAS GOV. ABBOTT AFTER MIGRANT BUSES ARRIVE Three buses carrying migrants are reported to have arrived in Chicago in recent weeks. Arizona, which, like Texas, shares a border with Mexico, also has sent migrants on buses to Washington, D.C. "I want to say a great thank you to the Salvation Army what an amazing group of women and men who really do dedicate their lives to the less fortunate," Durbin said Friday. "They are providing emergency care here for these people in a way we can be proud of." Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot previously has lashed out at Abbott for the transportation of migrants, calling it "unacceptable" at a press conference this week. CHICAGO-AREA REPUBLICAN MAYOR REACTS TO MIGRANT BUS ARRIVALS Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot also has criticized Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for sending buses of migrants to her city. Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images "My frustration comes from the actions of the governor of Texas," the Chicago mayor said. "There could be a level of coordination and cooperation, but he chooses to do none of those things. Instead, he chooses to send human beings across the country to an uncertain destination." "He is manufacturing a human crisis, and it makes no sense to me," Lightfoot added. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker made similar comments, accusing Abbott of treating migrants "like cattle." Story continues But Abbott has shot back at Lightfoot's comments, accusing her of deflecting the blame to him instead of President Biden. "[Biden's] inaction at our border is putting the lives of Texans at risk & is overwhelming our communities," the Texas governor said in a tweet. "Texas is doing Biden's job to secure the border." Fox News Andrea Vacchiano contributed to this report. When Queen Elizabeth II was born, she was third in line to the throne and considered highly unlikely to wear the crown. Elizabeth was born Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor on April 21, 1926, to then-Prince Albert, Duke of York, and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. Albert, who later became King George VI, was the second-oldest son of King George V, meaning the heir-apparent was his older brother, the then-Prince Edward. Edward did rise to the throne following the death of his father in 1936, using the title King Edward VIII. But Edward shocked the world when he abdicated the throne less than a year later so he could marry American socialite Wallis Simpson, who, controversially, was twice-divorced. The Queen and Princess Elizabeth after the Coronation of George VI, 1937 (Daily Herald Archive / SSPL via Getty Images) Edward's abdication turned his younger brother into King George VI and suddenly made Elizabeth into heir presumptive at age 10.As King George VI weathered the storm of World War II in Buckingham Palace, Elizabeth and her sister, Margaret, spent several years at Windsor Castle. Elizabeth convinced her parents to let her join the women's branch of the British Army in 1945, making her the first woman of the royal family to be an active duty member of the British Armed Forces. Elizabeth learned how to drive and service heavy vehicles during her time in the army, and later recalled the night the war ended as one of the most memorable nights of my life. On her 21st birthday, Elizabeth proclaimed on the radio to Britain and the Commonwealth nations that my whole life, whether it be short or long, will be devoted to your service. Later that year, she married Royal Navy officer Philip Mountbatten, a prince of Greece and Denmark, in a ceremony at Westminster Abbey. The couple had two children, Charles and Anne, prior to Elizabeth becoming queen. King George VI died in 1952 at age 56 after years of poor health, and Elizabeth was told she was queen while on a trip in Kenya. In a way, I didnt have an apprenticeship, Elizabeth told a BBC documentary in 1992. My father died much too young, and so it was all a very sudden kind of taking on and making the best job you can. Story continues Queen Elizabeth II (AFP - Getty Images) Elizabeth's coronation ceremony took place in 1953 at Westminster Abbey, more than a year after her father's death. She also had two more children, Andrew and Edward, in 1960 and 1964. Over Elizabeth's 70-year reign, she served as a symbol of stability through the changes of the 20th and 21st century. She met with 13 U.S. presidents and 15 British prime ministers, and was the longest-serving British monarch in history. The queen celebrated her Platinum Jubilee in June, commemorating 70 years on the throne, though she canceled appearances at some events due to her health. Elizabeth died on Thursday afternoon at age 96 at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, and her oldest son, Charles, immediately became king. A spokesperson for Clarence House confirmed to NBC News Charles has chosen the title of King Charles III. This article was originally published on TODAY.com Dearborn police arrested an Eastern Michigan University official this week on charges that he exposed himself while operating a vehicle. Police say Michael Tew, 62, was seen driving naked while touching himself on Sept. 2, according to a police news release. A "concerned driver" recorded it on his cellphone and sent it to police. This sort of conduct is illegal and will not be tolerated in Dearborn. Id like to commend the concerned citizen for documenting the incident and bringing it to our attention, said Dearborn Police Chief Issa Shahin. Tew, EMU's associate provost and associate vice president for academic programming and strategy, was arrested Wednesday at his Dearborn home. EMU suspended Tew indefinitely after learning about the incident, pending the results of the investigation and legal proceedings, according to spokesperson Walter Kraft. While suspended, Tew is not permitted to go to EMU's campus. "We are troubled and concerned about this reported incident," Kraft said. "The individual involved has been a faculty member and administrator at the University since 1989. ... We are not aware of any inappropriate conduct or actions of this nature related to their work on campus." The Wayne County Prosecutors Office charged Tew with one misdemeanor count of aggravated indecent exposure and one felony count of indecent exposure with sexually delinquent person notice. More:Michigan library, defunded over LGBTQ books, gets $50K donation from author Nora Roberts More:Michigan elections panel places abortion, voting rights proposals on ballot A probable cause conference is scheduled for Sept. 23, with a preliminary examination set for Sept. 30. Contact Emma Stein: estein@freepress.com and follow her on Twitter @_emmastein. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: EMU official accused of touching himself, driving naked in Dearborn A man found guilty of murdering his stepson and attempting to murder his stepson's girlfriend on Packwood Drive in 2020 was given two life sentences Thursday. James Isiae Blackmon Jr. will spend his life behind bars after he was found guilty by a jury of murdering Christopher Roan and attempting to murder Samantha Noble in December 2020. Blackmon shot Roan during a physical confrontation inside a home, then followed Noble outside and fired multiple shots into a trailer where she was hiding. He testified during his trial that he shot Roan in self-defense. Assistant State Attorney Matt Gordon, the prosecutor in Blackmon's case, told the News Journal that Judge John Simon sentenced Blackmon to life in prison with a 25-year mandatory minimum for the murder, followed by a consecutive life sentence with a mandatory 20-year minimum for the attempted murder charge. James Blackmon, left, talks with his defense attorney during his trial at the Escambia County Courthouse in Pensacola on July 21. On Thursday, Blackmon was sentenced to life in prison for killing his adult stepson and attempting to kill his stepson's girlfriend. Guilty: 'I shot him until I didn't have any bullets left ... ': Man convicted of stepson's murder Background: Pensacola man accused of gunning down his stepson during an argument begins trial The jury heard the case over a day and a half in July, and returned a guilty verdict after just two hours of deliberation July 22. Escambia County Sheriff's Office deputies arrested the 56-year-old on Dec. 18, 2020, and charged him with first-degree premeditated murder for killing Roan, attempted premeditated murder of Noble and a weapons offense of firing shots into a dwelling. However, Blackmon's first-degree murder charge was later downgraded to second-degree murder, the charge on which he was found guilty. At trial, Blackmon testified that on the day of the shooting he heard his ex-wife, Linda Blackmon, and Roan arguing about Noble while he was showering. "I yelled from the bathroom, 'Y'all cut that out,'" Blackmon said on the stand. "And it didn't stop, so I put my towel on around me and I came out." Blackmon said he had a handgun in the bathroom and brought it out with him. Roan and Blackmon then had an altercation where Roan knocked the gun out of Blackmon's hand, took the gun and walked to the backyard. Blackmon retrieved a second firearm and the shooting happened when Roan came back into the house. Story continues James Blackmon, left, and his defense attorney stand as the jury enters the courtroom during his trial at the Escambia County Courthouse in Pensacola on July 21. On Thursday, Blackmon was sentenced to life in prison for killing his adult stepson and attempting to kill his stepson's girlfriend. "He was coming down the hallway to try and get me, so I pulled my gun up and I shot him," Blackmon testified. "I shot him until I didn't have any bullets left because I knew if he had life left in him he would shoot me. He had a gun, he was armed." Roan was shot roughly 11 times in the torso and once in the forehead, according to District 1 Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Deanna Oleske. After Blackmon shot Roan, Linda Blackmon yelled out to Noble that Blackmon was "coming to kill" her, and Noble ran outside and hid in a camper. Blackmon entered the backyard and fired approximately seven shots into the camper Noble was hiding in. She was not injured. Benjamin Johnson can be reached at bjohnson@pnj.com or 850-435-8578 This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Gonzalez man sentenced to life in prison for murdering stepson It might be of some concern to shareholders to see the Oppenheimer Holdings Inc. (NYSE:OPY) share price down 18% in the last month. But that doesn't change the fact that the returns over the last five years have been pleasing. After all, the share price is up a market-beating 98% in that time. Unfortunately not all shareholders will have held it for the long term, so spare a thought for those caught in the 30% decline over the last twelve months. In light of the stock dropping 14% in the past week, we want to investigate the longer term story, and see if fundamentals have been the driver of the company's positive five-year return. Check out our latest analysis for Oppenheimer Holdings There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect underlying business performance. One imperfect but simple way to consider how the market perception of a company has shifted is to compare the change in the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price movement. During the five years of share price growth, Oppenheimer Holdings moved from a loss to profitability. That's generally thought to be a genuine positive, so we would expect to see an increasing share price. Given that the company made a profit three years ago, but not five years ago, it is worth looking at the share price returns over the last three years, too. Indeed, the Oppenheimer Holdings share price has gained 1.0% in three years. In the same period, EPS is up 44% per year. This EPS growth is higher than the 0.3% average annual increase in the share price over the same three years. So you might conclude the market is a little more cautious about the stock, these days. This unenthusiastic sentiment is reflected in the stock's reasonably modest P/E ratio of 3.73. You can see below how EPS has changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image). It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on Oppenheimer Holdings' earnings, revenue and cash flow. Story continues What About Dividends? It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. The TSR is a return calculation that accounts for the value of cash dividends (assuming that any dividend received was reinvested) and the calculated value of any discounted capital raisings and spin-offs. Arguably, the TSR gives a more comprehensive picture of the return generated by a stock. We note that for Oppenheimer Holdings the TSR over the last 5 years was 126%, which is better than the share price return mentioned above. This is largely a result of its dividend payments! A Different Perspective While the broader market lost about 16% in the twelve months, Oppenheimer Holdings shareholders did even worse, losing 27% (even including dividends). Having said that, it's inevitable that some stocks will be oversold in a falling market. The key is to keep your eyes on the fundamental developments. On the bright side, long term shareholders have made money, with a gain of 18% per year over half a decade. If the fundamental data continues to indicate long term sustainable growth, the current sell-off could be an opportunity worth considering. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. To that end, you should learn about the 3 warning signs we've spotted with Oppenheimer Holdings (including 1 which can't be ignored) . For those who like to find winning investments this free list of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket. Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on US exchanges. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Join A Paid User Research Session Youll receive a US$30 Amazon Gift card for 1 hour of your time while helping us build better investing tools for the individual investors like yourself. Sign up here By Linda So, Jason Szep and Peter Eisler ATLANTA (Reuters) - Georgia election worker Ruby Freeman didnt recognize the man who banged on her door. Terrified, she called 911. She had reason to fear. By the morning of Dec. 15, 2020, when she saw the stranger's red sedan parked in her driveway, she had received hundreds of threats from supporters of former U.S. President Donald Trump. Two weeks earlier, Trumps campaign had falsely accused Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea Shaye Moss, of pulling fake ballots from suitcases at Atlanta's State Farm Arena to rig the 2020 election for Democrat Joe Biden. The man had already passed a message to Freeman through a neighbor: Freeman's time was running out, he said, and he could help her and her daughter. When a police officer responded and questioned the man outside Freemans home, he introduced himself as Steve Lee, a police chaplain from Illinois. Now Lee is under scrutiny in a criminal investigation into alleged election interference by Trump and his allies in Georgia, according to a source with direct knowledge of the probe. Lee played a central role in a failed effort to pressure Freeman to admit to an election fraud that never occurred, according to a Reuters examination of police body camera footage and court documents, as well as interviews with key participants. After being rebuffed by Freeman, Lee contacted Harrison Floyd, who had run outreach to black voters for Trumps 2020 campaign. Floyd arranged another visit to Freeman on Jan. 4, 2021, this time from Chicago publicist Trevian Kutti, who threatened Freeman with jail unless she provided information on election fraud, Reuters reported last December. Lees identity has not been previously reported. The investigation by the Fulton County District Attorneys office is examining Lees coordination with Floyd and Kutti as Trumps campaign was desperately seeking evidence of vote-rigging to justify overturning his election loss. On Jan. 6, two days after Kuttis visit to Freeman, Congress certified Bidens victory, despite the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol that day by Trump supporters trying to halt the proceedings. Story continues Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said in a Sept. 2 court filing that she was seeking testimony from Floyd, who detailed his involvement in pursuing Freeman in a lengthy interview with Reuters last December. The prosecutors filing noted that Floyd told Reuters he had arranged Kuttis meeting with Freeman at the request of an unidentified man, whom Floyd described as a chaplain with federal law enforcement connections. Reuters identified that chaplain as Lee through previously unreported police records and body camera footage showing police speaking with Lee outside Freemans home. Lee formerly worked as a policeman in California and later served as a chaplain comforting officers and others after the Sept. 11 attacks in New York. A New York City Police Department spokesperson confirmed Lees work with its officers. As Reuters reported on Dec. 10, Freeman told police that Kutti tried to get her to falsely implicate herself in voting fraud. Shedding new light on the incident, the district attorneys court filing last week said Kutti warned Freeman that an armed squad of federal officers would approach her and her family within 48 hours and that Kutti had access to very high-profile people that can make particular things happen in order to defend yourself and your family. A source with direct knowledge of the Georgia investigation said Lee, Kutti and Floyd are all subjects of interest of the criminal probe. Willis has previously sought testimony from Kutti. No charges have been filed in the case. A spokesperson for Willis office did not respond to a request for comment. Lee, in a brief interview at his home in Montgomery, Illinois, did not dispute that he visited Freeman but declined to discuss why or whether someone had sent him. Floyd and Kutti did not respond to requests for comment. They have previously denied they tried to pressure Freeman to falsely confess to election fraud, saying they were trying to help her. IM NOT INTERESTED Freeman was so shaken by Lees attempts to contact her that she called 911 three times on Dec. 15, 2020, the morning he parked in her driveway. Two Cobb County Police officers responded, one of whom interviewed Lee outside her home. Lee said he wanted to speak with Freeman and produced his Illinois drivers license, according to previously unreported body camera footage obtained through a public-records request. I'm a pastor, and I'm also working with some folks who are trying to help Ruby out, Lee told the officer, without identifying the people. And also get to some truth of what's going on. He described himself as prior law enforcement and a sergeant out in California. He said he had some pro bono service for her if she's interested. She wasnt. I'm not interested, she told the officer in a separate interview captured on bodycam, saying she had done nothing wrong. I have a pastor. The same man had shown up at her house the night before, Freeman reported. She wasnt home. Lee spoke with a neighbor, and thats when Lee passed the message saying he could help Freeman. She told police Lee had said he knew it was going to get worse. And he wanted to help me before it got too late. Freeman, who describes herself as a devout Christian, said she didn't recognize the man and wanted to report him for harassment. The officer replied that he would inform Lee she didnt want to speak with him. The chaplain then turned to Floyd for help. In the December interview, Floyd did not identify the chaplain by name but said his visit was captured on police bodycam video, which Reuters reviewed. The clergyman was sent to talk to her, Floyd added. He declined to say who sent him, but said the chaplain had been contacted by connections that he had in law enforcement. The chaplain reached out to Floyd because he believed Freeman would not trust a white stranger, Floyd said. Freeman and Floyd are both Black. Floyd also said people involved with the Trump campaign contacted him and said they had heard Freeman wanted immunity. Freeman has repeatedly said she is innocent and therefore never sought any immunity deal. Prosecutors never considered offering her immunity because they had no reason to believe she was involved in fraud, according to a former Department of Justice official with direct knowledge of the matter. Nevertheless, Floyd said he received calls from attorneys in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan who said a confession from Freeman would help their litigation efforts. At the time, Trump and his allies went to court in those states seeking to overturn his election loss. Floyd and Lee joined several phone calls with attorneys who were interested in offering immunity, Floyd said. He declined to identify the lawyers. Floyd said he agreed to arrange the meeting with Freeman after speaking with Lee multiple times at length and reviewing the chaplains law enforcement credentials. Georgia election officials quickly debunked the baseless accusations against Freeman. The oft-repeated false claims started with the Trump campaign telling Georgia lawmakers at a Dec. 3, 2020 hearing that a surveillance video of Freeman and her daughter handling ballots at State Farm Arena amounted to shocking evidence of fraud. In fact, state officials said, the video showed normal ballot processing. GROUND ZERO CHAPLAIN Lee had a long career in law enforcement before he starting focusing on his ministry as a chaplain. He was a sergeant in the Mendocino County Sheriffs Office, where he worked from 1980 to 1987. According to his online biography, he also served as a special agent for the U.S. Navys law-enforcement arm, now known as the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. In 1996, he founded Peace Officer Ministries Inc, a Christian organization that serves officers and their families, and served as its executive director until January 2010, according to archived pages of the organizations website. From 2016 to 2018, Lee led a Quick Response Team, sponsored by an Illinois Lutheran church, that provided chaplaincy support to law enforcement in crisis situations. On the teams Twitter account, he posted a field report in February 2017 that included a photograph of himself outside Trump Tower. He said he briefed a Trump transition team advisor on a volunteer federal law enforcement chaplaincy proposal. He said Trump had issued a clarion call to make America great again and drain the swamp, urging support for these noble goals. In February 2018, his response team scaled down operations because of an opportunity he had found to work more directly with the federal government during the Trump administration, Lee wrote in a post to the organizations supporters. Reuters could not confirm what work, if any, Lee did for the Trump administration. In an October 2021 speech, Lee endorsed James Marter, a pro-Trump Republican candidate for U.S. Congress from Illinois. In supporting Marter, who later lost the Republican primary, Lee said he had always avoided politics but felt compelled to get involved because "we're facing the extinction of America." Billed by Marters campaign as the Ground Zero chaplain, Lee told the audience he provided religious support to New York City police and other emergency responders for about a month after the Sept. 11 attacks. At the time, Bernard Kerik was New York City police commissioner and Rudy Giuliani was mayor. Both were deeply involved at the Ground Zero site, where the twin towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed. And both men emerged after the 2020 election as prominent figures pushing Trumps baseless claims of voter fraud in Fulton County. Giuliani did not respond to a request for comment, and Reuters could not independently verify whether he knew Lee or knew of his work after the Sept. 11 attacks. Kerik said he did not recall meeting Lee, either after the attacks or since the 2020 election. "Never met him to my knowledge," he said. "I don't recall a Lee related to Georgia's elections." At a December hearing with Georgia lawmakers, Giuliani falsely accused Freeman and Moss of stealing votes and engaging in surreptitious illegal activity. Last month, Willis office notified Giuliani that he was a target of her investigation. After the election, Giuliani headed a legal team working on Trumps behalf to overturn the election results. Kerik worked as the team's lead investigator, according to his personal website. A Strategic Communications Plan, developed by the team to build public support for Trumps election challenges, called for drawing public attention to the baseless charges against Freeman and her daughter. Kerik later turned over the document to the congressional committee probing the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot. SAVE OUR REPUBLIC After speaking with the chaplain, Floyd said he enlisted the help of Kutti, a former publicist for hip-hop and R&B singers. Kutti had been in Georgia in 2020 to help with Republican campaign efforts, including briefly managing the unsuccessful congressional campaign of a Trump ally. On Dec. 29, a few days before meeting Freeman, Kutti urged Trump in a social media post to unleash every military and Executive power you have to save our Republic. She ended the post with the hashtag #byanymeansnecessary. The stakes were high. An admission of fraud by Freeman, an election worker in the states biggest county, could have cast doubt over Trumps loss in Georgia and given Trump ammunition to halt Congress from certifying Bidens win on Jan. 6. If Freeman had committed fraud and wanted immunity, Floyd told Reuters, that's really important to get to the right people before an election is certified. Trump himself singled out Freeman, by name, 18 times in a now-infamous call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Jan. 2, 2021, in which he pressed Georgia officials to alter the states results based on his bogus fraud claims. He falsely attacked the 62-year-old temp worker as a professional vote scammer, a hustler and a known political operative who stuffed the ballot boxes. Floyd said Kutti agreed to visit Freeman. On the evening of Jan. 4, Kutti showed up at Freemans home with another man, a Georgia representative of the campaign coalition Black Voices for Trump. Freeman has said she didnt know the visitors supported Trump when they came to her door. As Reuters previously reported, Freeman was wary but agreed to talk to Kutti at the police station. Kutti tried to get Freeman to falsely implicate herself in voter fraud that night, Freeman told police. A Cobb County Police report identified Kutti as an alleged Trump supporter who attempted to get Ms. Freeman to make false claims about the ballot counting. When the two met at the police station, Kutti told Freeman: You are a loose end for a party that needs to tidy up, police body camera footage shows. Kutti said Floyd had authoritative powers to get Freeman protection, according to the footage. She then dialed in Floyd, and the conversation continued for about an hour. At one point, Floyd asked Freeman whether she had handled honest ballots on election night. During the discussion, Freeman was pressured to reveal information under the threat of incarceration if she did not comply, Willis said in her Sept. 2 court filing. Freeman said in an interview that she was offended by Kuttis offer of protection and rejected it. Before meeting with Freeman, Kutti told a police officer that the election worker "was in danger and had 48 hours to speak with her so that she could get ahead of the issue and that unknown subjects were going to be at Freemans residence, according to a police report. On Jan. 5, the day after Kutti met with Freeman, a group of pro-Trump protesters descended on Freemans home in a quiet residential neighborhood, according to a 911 call reporting the gathering and interviews with two neighbors. Five or six vehicles carrying Trump supporters, some with signs and flags, came to Freemans house, saying they were there because they were upset with Ruby Freeman, according to a neighbor who reported the incident to Cobb County police. Neighbors said they confronted the protestors, who agreed to move down the street. Freeman had left her home by the time of the afternoon protest. She fled after being warned of potential danger by an agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and remained in hiding for two months afterwards, Freeman said in an interview. Willis court filing said Floyd is a necessary and material witness to her investigation. The witness possesses unique knowledge of Kuttis conversations with Freeman, Willis wrote, and of the communications involved in setting up the meeting - including those with the Trump campaign and others involved in the multi-state, coordinated efforts to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia. In December 2021, Reuters first reported the details of the ordeal Moss and Freeman endured after the 2020 election. The women described threats of lynching, racial slurs and alarming visits by strangers. Freeman had been a temporary election worker in Fulton County; daughter Moss was full-time. Both ultimately quit because of the threats. In June, Freeman testified before the congressional committee investigating the U.S. Capitol riot. She said she remained rattled by the campaign of intimidation. There is nowhere I feel safe, she said. Nowhere. (Reporting by Linda So and Jason Szep in Atlanta; reporting by Peter Eisler in Montgomery, Illinois; additional reporting by Joseph Tanfani; editing by Brian Thevenot) Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton and Lexington-Fayette Urban County Councilman David Kloiber got into a heated exchange over gun violence and strategies to curb shootings and murders during a Thursday council meeting. Kloiber, who faces Gorton in the November general election, referenced a Wednesday night shooting near the University of Kentucky that injured 11 people and has resulted in three arrests. None of the injured people have life-threatening injuries. Kloiber and Gortons exchange came on the same day that Lexington police dealt with multiple additional gun violence incidents. Later Thursday night, there was a homicide on Devonia Avenue, where one man was shot. Lexington police also killed a suspect who allegedly shot an officer at the Extended Stay America on Tates Creek Road. That shooting happened around 10:43 p.m. Thursday. We have a real public safety crisis, Kloiber said. Continuing to throw more money and hire more police officers is not the only answer, he said. What we are currently seeing is the policy we have in place is just not working with the resources we currently have and that means we need to adapt, he said. The city needs to look at group violence intervention, a program that has been pushed for years by BUILD, as a way to stem gun violence, Kloiber said. Group violence intervention targets areas and groups that are involved in crime and provides additional resources. Gorton shot back that several cities that used group violence intervention have seen homicides increase. Memphis, Tenn., has used group violence intervention and its homicide rates have continued to climb. There was no way our police could have prevented what happened, Gorton said, referring to Wednesday nights shooting on University Avenue. Gorton further addressed the issue Friday morning during a news conference, which took place after a suspect was killed and an officer was injured in a shooting Thursday night. Gorton repeated her plea toward the community to speak up about gun violence, encouraging anyone with any information to come forward to police. Story continues We wont give up on this, Gorton said. The community has to be a part of the solution. When people know things about crime or about who has illegal guns or whatever it is, they need to call Crime Stoppers. During Thursdays dispute with Kloiber, Gorton said Kloiber needed to talk to police and do more research. I go by facts, Gorton said. Kloiber countered that group violence intervention studies have shown reduction in homicides. Those studies are peer-reviewed, he said. Gorton asked that if that was true, why are many cities moving away from group violence intervention after previously using it. GVI is not working, Gorton said. Kloiber said he recently attended a meeting in Gainesway off of Centre Parkway sponsored by Councilman Fred Brown where people talked about their concerns about rising crime rates. Gorton should listen to what people are saying, Kloiber said. You werent there, Kloiber said. Gorton shot back that Devine Carama, the director of One Lexington, the citys violence intervention programs, attended the Gainesway meeting. Carama is trying to put in place more intervention models to address shootings and violence, particularly with teens. Not all of these things can be solved by the police, Kloiber said. Your unwillingness to deal with this other than a reactionary police measure is frustrating to the people who are experiencing this everyday. In a campaign email sent later Thursday night, Kloiber called Gorton out of touch and continues pushing unproven and ineffective policies when it comes to crime. Gorton continues to spend more on police but shootings continue to spike, Kloiber said in the email. Meanwhile, police vacancies continue to climb and weve experienced year-over-year increases in the numbers of homicides and violent crime. Back to the bargaining table On Tuesday, the council asked Gorton to take the unusual step of asking the citys police union if it could open up a recently-approved contract to increase officer pay again. Gorton told the council during Thursday nights meeting the union has agreed to talk to city officials about pay through a memorandum of agreement, which acts as an addendum to the police contract. That means the entire contract will not have to be renegotiated. But Gorton cautioned the citys other bargaining units corrections and fire will also likely want to have their pay adjusted. That means the council will have to make cuts or increase taxes to pay for those salary bumps, she said. Gorton said they would return to the council to approve those memorandum of agreements once they are negotiated. The city approved a four-year police contract with the union in 2021 that upped starting pay and increased salaries for current employees. It was estimated at the time that the contract will cost the city an additional $21.4 million over the four years of the contract. In addition, the city has funded additional one-time bonus payments for public safety officers to help with recruitment and retention. Gortons administration said there are currently 83 vacancies in the police department with 29 officers in training. The Fraternal Order of Police Bluegrass Lodge 4, which represents police officers, says the number of vacancies is close to 115. Former president Donald Trump filed a lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and others last March. Spencer Platt/Getty Images A federal judge dismissed Trump's lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and ex-FBI officials. Trump originally filed the lawsuit against Clinton and others last March. Trump's attorney says they will move to immediately appeal the ruling. A federal judge in Florida dismissed former President Donald Trump's lawsuit against 2016 Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and former FBI officials, rejecting Trump's allegations that Democrats rigged the election and conspired to undermine his presidential campaign by linking him to Russia. US District Judge Donald Middlebrooks said in his ruling on Thursday that Trump's lawsuit had "glaring structural deficiencies." "Plaintiff cannot state a malicious prosecution claim without a judicial proceeding, but he unsuccessfully attempts to misconstrue, misstate and misapply the law to do so anyway," Middlebrooks said in the ruling. The ruling comes after Trump filed a lawsuit in March against 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, her top campaign advisers and others, alleging that they conspired "to commit injurious falsehood" against him. Defendants in the lawsuit also included former FBI Director James Comey, Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California, who led one of the impeachment trials against Trump, and other FBI officials that investigated whether Trump's campaign coordinated with Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential elections. In the Thursday ruling, Middlebrooks wrote that Trump is not seeking "redress for any legal harm" but instead is "seeking to flaunt a two-hundred-page political manifesto outlining his grievances against those that have opposed him." Alina Habba, an attorney for Trump, said that Trump will "immediately move to appeal this decision." "We vehemently disagree with the opinion issued by the Court today. Not only is it rife with erroneous applications of the law, it disregards the numerous independent governmental investigations which substantiate our claim that the defendants conspired to falsely implicate our client and undermine the 2016 Presidential election," she said in a statement. Clinton's legal counsel in April asked the judge to dismiss the case, arguing that the lawsuit had no merit. David Kendall, a attorney representing Clinton, applauded the ruling, saying "the court's opinion meticulously and comprehensively devastates Trump's allegations." Read the original article on Business Insider Two adults and three children died in what police are calling a murder-suicide at a home in Maryland. The Cecil County Sheriffs Office says that deputies went to a home at a cul-de-sac in Elk Mills after a man called 911 and said he had shot his wife and three children. In a news release shared by the office over the weekend, autopsies confirmed that all five died from gunshot wounds. Marcus Edward Milligan, 39, and Tara Devina Ricker Milligan, 37, were identified as the parents while their two daughters and son were identified as Teresa Milligan, 14; Nora Milligan, 11; and Finn Milligan, 8. When deputies arrived at the home on Friday morning they discovered five bodies, with a semiautomatic handgun next to the mans body. The man was situated in a detached garage, while the woman and three children were found in various locations inside the house. The three children were in the 5th, 7th and 8th grades at school. This is a tragic and terrible day for our county and our community, Cecil County Sheriff Scott Adams told reporters on Friday afternoon. LIVE: Cecil County sheriff updates shooting investigation after 5 found dead - https://t.co/m94qiAsfcg https://t.co/uE15kLOEXt WBAL-TV 11 Baltimore (@wbaltv11) September 9, 2022 The sheriffs department says that it has no record of any previous call-outs to the home, which is situated near the states border with Delaware. We do have multiple deaths, Lt. Micheal Holmes, CCSO spokesman earlier told the Cecil Whig newspaper. We got a call indicating multiple people were shot. Officials say that they were called to the scene at around 9am and that there is no threat to the public. Police remain here on the scene. Its a residential home in a cul de sac where police found the 5 bodies https://t.co/BNSqlW1yET pic.twitter.com/pwYT8iSrY2 Mike Hellgren (@HellgrenWJZ) September 9, 2022 Cecil County Sheriffs Office deputies and investigators are currently on scene in the area of Hebron Court near Elk Mills Road. There may be traffic delays in the area throughout the day. There is no current threat to the public. Additional information related to the incident will be released at a later time, the department stated on Facebook. Animal Services were later seen removing a dog from the home, reported WJZ. A Florida man who had been accused of rape and kidnapping, but was acquitted, is headed to jail anyway. >>> STREAM CHANNEL 9 EYEWITNESS NEWS LIVE <<< Police in Ormond Beach arrested 46-year-old Jason Minton back in 2020 after they say he was seen on video dragging an unconscious woman out of a bar and into his pickup truck. READ: Mascotte police: Man tried to lure 2 children into vehicle that had extremely dark tinted windows A jury acquitted Minton on the Ormond Beach charges late last month and he was allowed to walk out of jail. However, at the time he was released, Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood noted that Minton was a registered sex offender who would have to remain in strict compliance with the law to avoid going back. READ: Mother of Winter Garden girl who man allegedly tried to lure into car speaks out That was exactly the case Thursday as the sheriffs office announced Minton was arrested again on three counts of failure to properly register as a sex offender. CASE UPDATE: Jason Minton, who was recently acquitted of kidnapping and sexual battery charges in an @OrmondBeachPD case, was arrested today by Volusia Sheriff detectives on 3 counts of failure to properly register as a sex offender. pic.twitter.com/CYTXgEq6km Volusia Sheriff (@VolusiaSheriff) September 8, 2022 According to the sheriffs office, Minton was using two different e-mail addresses and a phone number that he never reported to authorities as required by his sex offender status. READ: A heinous crime: 16-year-old boy accused of stabbing grandmother to death in Rockledge Mintons sex offender status stems from a 1998 Volusia County case in which he was convicted on a charge of performing lewd and lascivious acts on a minor under the age of 16. Story continues Minton was booked into the Volusia County Jail Thursday afternoon where he remains on no bond. Click here to download the free WFTV news and weather apps, click here to download the WFTV Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live. Brian Crowder, a 40-year-old former high school dean, has been formally charged with sexually abusing an underage student. Crowder was working at the Greater Lawndale High School for Social Justice in Chicago when he allegedly initiated an unlawful sexual relationship with a student, who was only 15 at the time. The former dean allegedly initiated the situation by sending the teen messages through Snapchat, with one message reading, I want you, according to WTTW. Crowder is accused of then bringing the student to his home on multiple occasions during the summer of 2013, where he allegedly supplied her with alcohol before engaging in statutory rape. The alleged sexual abuse continued for about 2 years. Notably, the alleged victim says that Crowder wound up getting her pregnant in 2014, and he supposedly pretended to be her stepfather in order to get her an abortion. She also alleges that this happened on another occasion in 2015. Crowder and the student ultimately cut ties later that year, which was her senior year of high school. Its also worth adding that the student says she informed a teacher of what was going on, though the employee did not report the matter. However, this wasnt the end of Crowders alleged antics, as hes accused of reaching out to her in 2019, and he even supposedly called her at her job. Ultimately, the alleged victims decided to file a report against Crowder last year, and she says that Crowder texted her Goodbye forever shortly after she did so. Crowder was then arrested earlier this year, though he wasnt charged with sexual abuse until medical records from the alleged victims abortions recently revealed that he was listed as the emergency contact, WTTW reports. He was ordered to be held on $75,000 earlier this week, and hes due back in court on Sept. 20 for a hearing. Brian Crowder began messaging the girl in 2013, sending her I want you. https://t.co/vPb8LAEZY1 The Western Journal (@WestJournalism) September 2, 2022 As a result of this controversy, the Greater Lawndale High School for Social Justice released a statement in an attempt to distance itself from Crowder. Brian Crowder has not worked at Social Justice since September of 2021 and was terminated by the district in November of 2021, Omar Chilous, the schools principal, said in a letter to families, WTTW reports. I know this is difficult news for our entire community, and our counselors, social workers, and psychologists are available for students who need support, he added. WASHINGTON A U.S.-led meeting of armaments directors from around the world will take place in Brussels on Sept. 28, the Pentagons acquisitions chief said Friday. The meeting, coordinated with NATO, will be under the auspices of the 50-nation Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which is dedicated to arming Ukraine in its ongoing fight against Russias invasion. The U.S. invited the armaments directors of the member nations to the upcoming huddle, Bill LaPlante told reporters. In looking beyond arming Ukraine for its current fight, the U.S. is taking a lead role in establishing a longer-term weapons pipeline to allies and partners. Beyond this months meeting, top U.S. officials unveiled a $2.2 billion Foreign Military Financing package to be split in half between Ukraine and 18 of it Eastern European neighbors. In Brussels, officials will compare notes on how to ramp up production of key capabilities, as well as discuss the state of supply chains for microelectronics, solid rocket motors and other components, LaPlante said. They will also talk about ways to increase interoperability between our systems [and] what I would call increased interchangeability, he added. We have a lot to learn from each other, LaPlante said, adding that many American and European firms have offices, factories and collaborations in each others countries. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin offered few details when he first announced the plans on Thursday during the Ukraine Defense Contact Groups latest meeting at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. Just as efforts to send billions of dollars worth of arms to Ukraine has forced conversations in the U.S. about the strengths and weaknesses of the American defense-industrial base, top U.S. officials are expanding that conversation to other partners in the fight and theyre hoping for candor. People are sort of in the same position we are, but I should remind everybody the scale of the United States defense enterprise is just something very different than what our partners and allies have, LaPlante said. I think thats one of the topic areas: to compare notes and see where people are. Hopefully people will be able to have some [things] revealed because part of this is revealing your own situation. Meanwhile, the U.S. is seeing demand in Europe for the kinds of weapons Ukraine is using against Russian forces, like the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System made by Lockheed Martin. Pentagon officials say that will likely fuel future requests for U.S. arms transfers, possibly through the recently announced Foreign Military Financing package. I dont think we know yet exactly what each of these countries might be asking for, said Sasha Baker, the U.S. deputy undersecretary of defense for policy This is sort of the starting gun for that process. But I think certainly theyre looking to learn lessons from what theyre seeing in Ukraine and then apply them for their own security. Dogsmost of the time they serve as our lovable companions, but they can misbehave from time to time. Though perhaps not as badly as this pooch who wielded a knife at his dog walker. Today in health, a disaster was declared in New York due to the detection of polio in the states wastewater, bolstering ongoing vaccination efforts. Welcome to Overnight Health Care, where were following the latest moves on policy and news affecting your health. For The Hill, were Nathaniel Weixel and Joseph Choi. Someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here. Hochul declares polio emergency in NY New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) declared a disaster in the state on Friday due to the spread of polio through wastewater. The emergency declaration allows a larger group of medical personnel to administer polio vaccines and requires providers to send immunization data to the New York State Department of Health. On polio, we simply cannot roll the dice, State Health Commissioner Mary T. Bassett said in response to Hochuls order. She continued: If you or your child are unvaccinated or not up to date with vaccinations, the risk of paralytic disease is real. Polio immunization is safe and effective protecting nearly all people against disease who receive the recommended doses. Vaccine boost: The states polio immunization drive will be bolstered by the New York State Immunization Information System, which will collect data on which communities need access to vaccines the most. The vaccination rate against polio among 2-year-old children in New York is 79 percent and significantly less than that in several counties and zip codes, according to the governors office. Polio vaccines will now be able to be distributed by first responders, midwives and pharmacists. Read more here. NIH launches trial testing efficacy of monkeypox drug The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is launching a Phase 3 clinical trial to determine the efficacy of tecovirimat the smallpox antiviral better known as TPOXX for use in treating monkeypox, as current data on its effectiveness against the virus is limited. Story continues The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is sponsoring the trial, which is being led by the organizations AIDS Clinical Trials Group. The study is currently enrolling adults and children who have been infected with monkeypox in the U.S. Off-label use: TPOXX was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2018 to treat smallpox. It was authorized for use in treating monkeypox in August based on studies treating orthopoxviruses, the family of viruses that both monkeypox and smallpox fall under. TPOXX has not been approved for use in monkeypox but has been designated as an investigational drug so that it can be used to treat monkeypox. Monkeypox can be an extremely painful infection that lasts for weeks, NIAID Director Anthony Fauci said in a statement. We currently lack efficacy data that would help us understand how well this drug may mitigate painful monkeypox symptoms and prevent serious outcomes, said Fauci. This clinical trial was designed to answer those important questions. Whos been treated: According to federal data, nearly 2,000 patients diagnosed with monkeypox have been treated with TPOXX so far, nearly all of them men. Only 24 women have been confirmed to have received TPOXX to treat monkeypox infections. Read more here. SOUTH CAROLINA SENATE REJECTS NEAR-TOTAL ABORTION BAN The South Carolina Senate failed to pass a ban on abortions earlier than six weeks into pregnancy on Thursday. The controversial bill was altered over two days of debate on the floor, moving it closer to the current South Carolina abortion ban that is tied up in court. This is not where I wanted to be. I was hoping wed be more aggressive, but its clear to me the votes are not there in the Senate for an abortion ban before six weeks, said state Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey (R) in response to the two days of debate over the initial proposal. The altered law, passed by a 27-16 vote, joins the states current abortion law in banning abortion after six weeks, at which point fetal cardiac activity can be detected by ultrasound. The law will require doctors to collect DNA samples from aborted fetuses to aid law enforcement in prosecuting rapists. The fetal heartbeat law was passed last year but only took effect after the Supreme Courts decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade. The law was suspended by the South Carolina Supreme Court this summer for potentially violating the state constitution. Read more here. WOMEN ARE UNDERREPRESENTED IN AUTISM RESEARCH Women tend to be excluded from studies on autism and this disparity can hinder accurate diagnoses and the development of useful interventions for both women and girls. Thats according to researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who carried out an investigation on a commonly used screening test, the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS). Researchers found that in a sample of 145 adults who already had a preexisting community diagnosis of autism received from a general medical practitioner, neuropsychologist, and/or a mental health provider the tool excluded autistic females at a rate more than 2.5 times higher than that of autistic males. Although males are four times as likely as females to be diagnosed with the condition, recently experts have called for more female representation in studies which in the past have included small female sample sizes or excluded the patients altogether. Because of this, female diagnoses could be missed altogether and an already small pool of study subjects is further reduced. Read more here. FDA issues safety alert for breast implant patients The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning for doctors and patients on Thursday after it received reports of people with breast implants being diagnosed with multiple types of cancer. Binita Ashar, the director of the Office of Surgical and Infection Control Devices in the agencys Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said in a release that the FDA received reports of squamous cell carcinoma and various lymphomas in the capsule or scar tissue near the implants. Ashar said the FDA reviewed the reports and determined that such occurrences are rare, but the agency wanted to provide clear and understandable information to the public as soon as possible. Our collective understanding has advanced significantly because of the efforts to study, communicate and act when needed, she said. As the agency moves further into adopting modernized approaches to our regulatory responsibilities to promote faster science-based decision-making, accurate data is crucial. She said these reports are separate from breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma, which the FDA started warning about more than 10 years ago. Ashar said the agency does not have enough information to conclude if the implants cause certain cancers or if some implants pose a higher risk than others. Any instances of squamous cell carcinoma, lymphoma or any cancer near the scar tissue around breast implants should be reported to the FDA as a result. Read more here. EVENT INVITE Unlocking Access to Oral Health, Tuesday, Sept. 20 at 8 a.m. ET A healthy mouth is essential for a healthy body. Yet, access to adult oral health care is inconsistent or inaccessible for millions of low-income adults enrolled in Medicaid across the country. Is there a connection between oral health benefits in public programs like Medicaid and health equity? Join The Hill for a discussion on what more can be done to improve oral health nationwide. RSVP today to attend in-person or receive the livestream link. WHAT WERE READING FDA funding negotiations heat up ahead of September deadline (Stat) US records milestone 1 millionth organ transplant (ABC News) Lawmakers seek U.S. probe on airline handling of COVID funds (Reuters) STATE BY STATE Many preventive medical services cost patients nothing. Will a Texas court decision change that? (Kaiser Health News) L.A. County investigating death of resident diagnosed with monkeypox (Los Angeles Times) In Michigan, rallies, a court ruling and voters newly fired up over abortion (The 19th News) THE HILL OP-EDS Lighter click: The Hills Photos of the Week Thats it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hills Health Care page for the latest news and coverage. See you next week. VIEW FULL VERSION HERE For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. The front pages from the Daily Mirror and The Times for Friday, Sept. 9. (Photo: Daily Mirror/The Times) The front pages from the Daily Mirror and The Times for Friday, Sept. 9. (Photo: Daily Mirror/The Times) The death of Queen Elizabeth II leads every national newspaper in the U.K. on Friday morning. The queen, who was the U.K.s longest-serving monarch, is being remembered for her steadfast commitment to her role and her lifetime dedication to the crown. Heres a look at those historic front pages. The Times is one of the outlets which uses a famous photo by Cecil Beaton that marked the monarchs coronation back in 1953 aged 27 to honor her passing, alongside a caption: A life in service. A Life in Service Queen Elizabeth II: April 21 1926 - September 8 2022 Read the full Times obituary here: https://t.co/22lRgce0sCpic.twitter.com/KyraQY4EHS The Times and The Sunday Times (@thetimes) September 8, 2022 The Daily Star uses the same image, with the headline: You did your duty, maam. The Independent and The Guardian splash with that famous photo too, although neither paper includes a quote, simply the date of the queens birth and death 1926 to 2022. The Guardian front page, Friday 9 September 2022; Queen Elizabeth II 1926-2022 pic.twitter.com/5ROqSmVqE1 The Guardian (@guardian) September 8, 2022 The i also goes for the same photograph, but has a more informative front page with a breakdown of the four key details from the day. It explains that the monarch died in Balmoral in the afternoon, and that the country is likely to enter 10 days of mourning. The queens successor, King Charles III, will be making an address on Friday too. Story continues Friday's special edition marks the death of Queen Elizabeth II at the age of 96. pic.twitter.com/XbFCKuJWRn i newspaper (@theipaper) September 8, 2022 The Daily Mail opts for an image of the queen from 1952, when she was still Princess Elizabeth, first in line to the throne. Shes pictured without the crown jewels, but with a smaller crown and ornate decorative jewellery. Its front page carries a quote from its columnist Sarah Vine: Our hearts are broken. Our hearts are broken: It just seems unimaginable. That wisest and most steadfast of women, our guiding light in the darkest of nights, has gone.https://t.co/A6XLugMvCvpic.twitter.com/EmSjFuB8cC Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) September 8, 2022 The Metros front page includes another photo from the same occasion, except in this one the queen is slightly smiling while looking over her shoulder. It carries the dates of her life, 1926 to 2022. The Financial Times used a more candid image than its competitors, opting for a photo of the queen in her finery while leaning out of a carriage, smiling, with her full title in its headline Queen Elizabeth II, 1926-2022. Just published: front page of the Financial Times international edition Friday September 9 https://t.co/zBvV16DeRtpic.twitter.com/bRdv2ZQdjr Financial Times (@FinancialTimes) September 8, 2022 The Sun uses a more modern, but still formal, portrait of the queen for its front page, displayed in black and white, with a purple masthead, while choosing another image of the late monarch in her youth for its back page. On the front, it goes with the headline: We loved you Maam. Below, it has a caption remembering her as Britains longest-serving monarch, and concluding: We are proud you were our Queen. The Daily Express uses the same photo of the queen from the modern era, accompanying the caption: Our beloved Queen is dead. The Daily Record chooses an image of the monarch in profile, in her finery during a special occasion, while smiling. It foregoes a headline altogether, just writing: Queen Elizabeth II: 1926 - 2022. The Mirror also uses an image of the queen in profile, but this time she has a more somber expression. This picture is just accompanied by the headline: Thank you. The Daily Telegraph opts for the same black and white image of the queen that the royal family released to announce her death. The paper attaches a quote from a speech the monarch shared when sending her condolences to the U.S. over 9/11: Grief is the price we pay for love. The front page of tomorrow's Daily Telegraph: 'Grief is the price we pay for love' - HM Queen Elizabeth IIhttps://t.co/GvXEEFpNkRpic.twitter.com/QdFt2H9pHe The Telegraph (@Telegraph) September 8, 2022 Regional newspapers across the country also acknowledged the historic occasion too, although some used less formal images to mark her death. Scottish newspaper The Herald, however, did choose a formal image showing the queen in her finery while standing in the Highlands. Tomorrow's front page as we pay tribute to the Queen pic.twitter.com/9ct0IZH8ST The Herald (@heraldscotland) September 8, 2022 Tomorrow's @ChronicleLive front page as the North East mourns the passing of a beloved Queen #TomorrowsPapersTodaypic.twitter.com/aHhMmYNBSQ The Chronicle (@ChronicleLive) September 8, 2022 Our condolences go out for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Royal Family. Today's front page. pic.twitter.com/bSiVbN7uj6 Brighton Argus (@brightonargus) September 9, 2022 Front page of Friday's Liverpool ECHO as the nation mourns the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 1926-2022 pic.twitter.com/XvVop1VStQ Liverpool Echo (@LivEchonews) September 9, 2022 Thank you for your years of service, Your Majesty Our front page will be just one among many worldwide, but we hope its done our Queen justice #TomorrowsPapersTodaypic.twitter.com/LgweMz2kZW Jim Scott (@jimscottjourno) September 8, 2022 Our front page: My beloved mother. King Charles III and family mourn death of Queen Elizabeth II at Balmoral.#tomorrowspaperstodaypic.twitter.com/xwv7hYRDwM Evening Express (@EveningExpress) September 8, 2022 Today's front page: Queen Elizabeth II 1926-2022 pic.twitter.com/jyJl5mkNVu Manchester News MEN (@MENnewsdesk) September 9, 2022 Away from the British press, newspapers all over the world honored the late monarch. The New York Times, the New Yorker and TIME magazine all gave their front pages to the queen. Italian Corriere della Sera honoured the queen too, as did the French newspapers Liberation and Le Temps, alongside German newspaper Bild. Addio alla regina Elisabetta: la sovrana britannica si e spenta oggi a 96 anni. "Ha regnato su due secoli: e ha impresso il suo sigillo su entrambi", scrive il nostro corrispondente da Londra. L'articolo completo https://t.co/LvRCEMtGl9pic.twitter.com/D7ZsDckJi7 Corriere della Sera (@Corriere) September 8, 2022 Front page of @LeTemps: "She was the Queen" pic.twitter.com/VtZOfsOoqL The French Dispatch (@FrenchDispatch) September 8, 2022 This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. King Charles III is reportedly planning a "slimmed down" version of the British monarchy. Kensington Palace King Charles III is reportedly trying to "slim down" the monarchy to a team of just seven. If the reports are true, the key members include his wife, Camilla, and Prince William and Kate. He could follow Sweden's King, who stripped almost all his grandchildren of HRH titles. King Charles III has reportedly considered restructuring the British monarchy for quite some time. Charles, 73, was Queen Elizabeth II's eldest son, and following her death on Thursday, he immediately became the King of England. Although the Queen remained monarch until her death, the King had begun taking on additional responsibilities in recent years as the 96-year-old monarch slowed down, The Mirror reported. One of his responsibilities may have included "slimming down" the monarchy, The Telegraph and Tatler previously reported. The line of succession on the royal family's website shows the 22 highest-ranking members of the royal family. The King plans to reduce the monarchy to a team of just seven key members, all senior working royals, according to the publications. There could be several reasons for this, including the royal family's reputation, according to The Times. The publication reported that the various royal press offices "are left to operate in their 'own silos,' regardless of the impact on the institution," making it more difficult to effectively deal with PR scandals. Another possible reason could be financial. Reducing the number of royals who undertake official duties would also mean reducing who is funded by the sovereign grant, the public funds used to support them, The Times reports. The royal family could face an estimated $44.5 million shortfall due to the impact of the pandemic, Forbes reported in September 2020. However, the royals have "no intention of asking for extra funding," the Queen's financial officer Sir Michael Stevens said in a statement at the time. Plans are yet to be officially confirmed. If the reports are true, the British monarchy wouldn't be the first to restructure in this way. Story continues The original lineup reportedly included Prince Harry and Prince Philip Royal commentator Kinsey Schofield told Insider that the original lineup included the late Prince Philip before his retirement in 2017 and Prince Harry before his resignation in 2020. "We saw our first glimpse of the new firm over the Christmas holiday 2020," Schofield told Insider. The "New Firm" gathered at Windsor Castle to thank volunteers on December 8, 2020. Samir Hussein/WireImage/Getty Images As Insider previously reported, "the firm" is a common term used to describe the institution as a family business. According to Schofield, the new, slimmed-down firm could include King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla; Prince Edward and Sophie, Countess of Wessex; The Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge; and Anne, Princess Royal. "While these are all individuals that will be out in the future representing the crown, I think Charles will try to draw attention to himself, Camilla, and the Cambridge family as the future of the monarchy," Schofield said. King Charles could be taking inspiration from the King of Sweden One thing the King will have to consider is the next generation of royals, and which members should be included in the "new firm." Prince William, the heir to the throne, and Kate Middleton's children are high in rank, despite their young ages. Prince George, 9, is second in line to the throne and Britain's future king. Princess Charlotte, 7 "the spare" is third in line and Prince Louis, 4, is fourth in line to the throne. The Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge with Prince George and Princess Charlotte. AP Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's son, Archie Harrison, 3, is sixth in line to the throne, and their daughter, Lilibet Diana, 1, is seventh. However, they do not currently have HRH status, though that could change in light of the Queen's death. Charles could follow in the footsteps of Sweden's King Carl Gustaf, who in 2019 stripped almost all of his grandchildren of their HRH titles, with the exception of the future "heir and spare" to the throne. The King of Sweden's eldest child Crown Princess Victoria has two children: Princess Estelle, age 10, and Prince Oscar, age 6. Estelle and Oscar will grow up to be working members of the royal family with titles, unlike their cousins, who will likely have to get jobs outside of the monarchy. An ancient decree written in 1917 by Queen Elizabeth II's grandfather, George V, states that only the children and great-grandchildren on the direct male line of the British monarch will gain official royal titles. This means that Archie and Lilibet could be eligible to receive titles now that the King has taken the throne but he could choose not to do this in keeping with the "slimmed down" version of the monarchy. Buckingham Palace and Clarence House did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. Read the original article on Insider The Daily Beast CHRIS JACKSON/POOL/AFP via Getty ImagesRoyalist is The Daily Beasts newsletter for all things royal and Royal Family. Subscribe here to get it in your inbox every Sunday.If Donald Trump thought that his hagiography of Queen Elizabeth published on his Truth Social website and the Daily Mail in the days after her death would secure him an invite to her funeral, he will be disappointed.For it has been revealed that Trump, who is believed to have been angling for an invite, will not after all recei CORRECTION: A previous version of this newsletter listed an incorrect name for the head of the Center for Democracy and Technology. The Senate Judiciary Committee debated a proposal Thursday morning that aims to give news outlets the ability to collectively negotiate with tech platforms but the vote on the bill was held after Democrats pushed back on an approved amendment. Well also break down the White House announcement on core principles for reform aimed at enhancing competition and tech accountability. This is Hillicon Valley, detailing all you need to know about tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. Send tips to The Hills Rebecca Klar and Ines Kagubare. Someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here. Klobuchar: Agreement blown up by amendment Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) asked to pull a committee vote on a bill aimed at giving news outlets the ability to negotiate collectively with tech platforms after she said an adopted amendment offered by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) impeded the bipartisan agreement senators reached ahead of the Thursday meeting. Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee were slated to vote on a revised version of the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, but Klobuchar asked to hold it after Cruzs amendment was adopted by a one-vote margin by the Republicans on the committee. I think the agreement that we had has been blown up, Klobuchar said. In a statement, she said she fully plans to move forward with the bill. This bill is about protecting local journalism by leveling the playing field and allowing local news outlets to band together to negotiate for fair compensation from tech platforms. I am committed to targeted, bipartisan legislation to achieve this goal, she said in the statement. The amendment passed in a 11-10 vote. Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), who is isolating in India after testing positive for COVID-19, was not present and did not provide a proxy vote either way on the amendment giving the GOP senators an upper hand. Story continues The underlying bill would grant newsrooms that employ fewer than 1,500 full-time employees a cap essentially aimed at excluding the countrys three largest newspapers and national broadcasters the ability to collectively negotiate with dominant tech platforms, like Google and Facebook, to be compensated for distributing their content. Read more about the markup. The pre-markup debate on the bill The debate around the proposal that aims to give news outlets the power to negotiate with tech giants to distribute their content was heating up ahead of the Thursday a Senate markup. Bipartisan sponsors of the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act in the House and Senate released a revised version of the bill in August, which kicked off campaigns from advocacy groups for and against the legislation. Chamber of Progress, Public Knowledge and 19 other advocacy groups sent a letter on Friday to top senators of the Judiciary Committee against the bill, arguing the revised version would force tech platforms to carry digital content regardless of how extreme it is. But the News Media Alliance, a trade association that represents newspapers across the U.S., dismissed the arguments made against the legislation and said it would help even the playing field after years of tech platforms decimating local news. This is expected opposition based on the organizations asserting these claims, Danielle Coffey, executive vice president and general counsel for the News Media Alliance, told The Hill. Read more here. THE WHITE HOUSE TECH AGENDA The White House released a set of core principles for reform aimed at enhancing competition and tech accountability Thursday after a round table session convening experts, including officials from advocacy groups, private companies and the government. Attendees included Washington, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine (D), Sonos CEO Patrick Spence, President and CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology Alexandra Reeve Givens and Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law head Damon Hewitt, among others. The White House identified six broad principles for reform, including promoting competition in the technology sector, providing robust federal protections for privacy, protecting kids safety online, increasing transparency about algorithms, and stopping discriminatory algorithmic decision-making. The other core principle the White House identified was reforming special legal protections for large tech platforms, referring to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The controversial provision provides a liability shield for tech companies over content posted by third parties on their platforms. In the announcement, the White House said President Biden has long called for fundamental reforms to Section 230. On the presidential campaign trail, Biden said Section 230 should be revoked but the president has yet to expand on what that reform under his administration may look like. BITS & PIECES An op-ed to chew on: No car loans from Bank Australia, unless its an EV and the US may do the same Notable links from around the web: When Teens Find Misinformation, These Teachers Are Ready (The New York Times / Tiffany Hsu) The Facebook button is disappearing from websites as consumers demand better privacy (CNBC/ Jonathan Vanian) Lighter click: The next American Idol? One more thing: DOJ appeals special master ruling The Justice Department on Thursday filed a notice of intent to appeal a ruling granting former President Trumps request for a special master, asking the judge stay a ruling blocking their investigation. Without a stay, the government and public also will suffer irreparable harm from the undue delay to the criminal investigation, DOJ writes in its filing. Any delay poses significant concerns in the context of an investigation into the mishandling of classified records. Read more here. Thats it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hills Technology and Cybersecurity pages for the latest news and coverage. Well see you tomorrow. Updated: Sept. 9 at 11:49 a.m. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. The Vietnamese noodle vendor dubbed Onion Leaf Bae was gagged by the police during his arrest on Wednesday, according to his wife. Bui Tuan Lam was arrested over a viral video that was widely viewed as mocking a senior government official in Vietnam. Lam is a 38-year-old former activist who runs a beef noodle stall in the city of Da Nang in the Hai Chau district. He was accused of anti-state propaganda for his online content, including a video of himself imitating celebrity chef Nusret Gokce, also known as Salt Bae, who served an expensive steak to a Vietnamese government official. He was apprehended in his family home, where hundreds of officers reportedly surrounded the area prior to his arrest, according to his wife Le Than Lam. More from NextShark: Actor Li Yifeng dropped by Prada, other companies after prostitution charges It happened at about 7 p.m. when all of our family members were at home. At first, they pulled at the door trying to gain entry. We said that they had to show us a search warrant, Le Than Lam told Radio Free Asia. They said they would carry out a search first and provide us with the warrant later, but we refused to let them in. They assaulted Lams younger brothers, Minh and Tuan, grabbing their necks, arms and legs, then arrested them both and escorted them to the police station, Le added. The police officers allegedly destroyed three security cameras and confiscated three T-shirts with the phrase Human rights should be respected in Vietnam printed on them, according to Le. More from NextShark: Asian Man Allegedly Harassed on Train By Man Demanding He Move As Lam verbally protested his arrest, officers allegedly covered his mouth with their hands to silence him. Le claimed that officers forced Lam into a police vehicle and gagged him with a dirty towel used to wipe noodle tables. They did not allow him to talk with others. They took him inside but he shouted loudly Freedom for Vietnam! and sang songs [in protest], she said. Story continues According to the Vietnamese government, Lam violated Article 117 of the countrys Penal Code, which prohibits creating, storing, and disseminating materials and items against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. More from NextShark: Toronto Launches Campaign on How to Fight Racism Against East Asians Lam is also a member of many civil society organizations, which are in fact anti-state groups, the police previously said in a statement. Phil Robertson, Deputy Asia Director of Human Rights Watch, called Vietnam one of the most thin-skinned governments when it comes to public criticism. Mockery is a legitimate form of expression that should not be considered a crime. A noodle seller mocking the Ministers ridiculously expensive steak on a government trip is funny, not criminal, he tweeted on Thursday. Vietnam should abolish rights-abusing article 117 of the penal code, and immediately free Bui Tuan Lam and others locked up for simply expressing views the communist party dislikes. More from NextShark: Protesters urge Mayor Adams to stop looming construction of 30-story mega jail in Manhattans Chinatown By Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An Illinois man on Friday pleaded guilty to assaulting a Reuters journalist and a police officer during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump. Shane Jason Woods, 44, of Auburn, pleaded guilty in a federal court hearing in Washington to one felony count of assaulting, resisting or impeding police and one misdemeanor count of striking, beating and wounding within U.S. territory. Although the two counts combined carry a statutory maximum sentence of nine years in prison, under U.S. sentencing guidelines, Woods would face between 33 to 41 months in prison, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta said. Last year, Woods became the first defendant to be charged for assaulting a member of the news media during the riot. A total of 11 people have been charged with assaulting journalists that day, while about 269 have been charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding police officers, according to a Justice Department tally. In all, more than 870 people have been charged with crimes related to the Capitol attack. Thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol following a fiery speech in which the then-president falsely claimed his defeat in the November 2020 election was the result of widespread fraud. In court filings, investigators said Woods was recorded on video wearing a Trump baseball cap and Trump face mask while walking in a restricted area at the Capitol during the riot. On the recording, he could be seen assaulting a U.S. Capitol Police officer, causing her to trip and fall to the ground. She was surrounded by protesters until another officer came to her rescue. He was also recorded targeting a Reuters journalist filming the riots, using what federal prosecutors described as a "blindside shoulder-tackle" to knock the journalist to the ground. "The manner of attack on the cameraman was very similar to the attack" against the officer, an FBI agent wrote in the initial charging documents. Story continues Woods, who participated in Friday's hearing by remote connection, admitted to knocking down both the police officer and the Reuters journalist. His sentencing was set for Jan. 13 at 1 p.m. ET. (Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Scott Malone and Daniel Wallis)